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'98f2adcbcfacefd5de0d4287cc5d521d863c343c'|'US STOCKS-Wall Street hit by ABC report on Flynn'|'* ABC reports Flynn to say Trump told him to talk to Russians* Shares trim losses as McConnell says has votes for tax bill* Dow, S&P, down 0.5-0.7 percent, Nasdaq off 1 percent (Adds details from White House, more analyst comment)By Sruthi ShankarDec 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Friday after ABC News reported former national security adviser Michael Flynn was prepared to tell investigators that Donald Trump directed him to make contact with Russians during last year’s presidential elections.Wall Street’s main indexes all fell by more than 1 percent after the report, which cited an unnamed Flynn confident and added to concerns about President Trump’s exposure to a probe into Russian meddling in last year’s campaign.But investors quickly took back some of those losses, buoyed by a promise by Senate leader Mitch McConnell that he had enough votes to pass the Republicans signature tax bill, which includes major incentives for corporate America.By 12.17 p.m. ET (1717 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 0.5 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, on the day.“We have to point to something that is new and that would be the Flynn announcement,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist with Wunderlich Securities in New York.“The problem is we don’t know exactly what he’s going to say. That’s the unknown and the market doesn’t like to try to price unknowns. We have an information vacuum.”U.S. stocks have been rising all year, helped by hopes that Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress would pass business-friendly measures to free up more growth and investment in an economy already growing solidly.A fall back in major tech stocks on Wednesday, however, added to hints that a long-awaited halt to the market’s eight-year long rally could also be in the offing.The S&P 500 has posted a 1-percent daily loss only four times in 2017.All the major S&P sectors barring energy were down. The CBOE Volatility index, Wall Street’s fear gauge, jumped to its highest in more than three months.“They (investors) read those headlines and immediately you got massive activity coming through - it’s not low volume, it’s high volume,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in New Jersey.“You are seeing gold markets react the other way, you are seeing the safety bets come on.”Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,815 to 1,057. On the Nasdaq, 2,150 issues fell and 727 advanced.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 136.01 points, or 0.56 percent, at 24,136.34 and the S&P 500 19.06 points, or 0.72 percent, at 2,628.52.The Nasdaq Composite fell 74.00 points, or 1.08 percent, at 6,799.97. (Reporting by U.S. stocks team; editing by Patrick Graham and Bernard Orr) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-wall-street-hit-by-abc-report-on-flynn-idINL3N1O14LC'|'2017-12-01T14:45:00.000+02:00'
'd5d83513f3eab29e9edcf49a57a1c989509a47aa'|'China’s largest online publisher enchants investors and readers alike - Bibliofiled'|'WHENEVER Xu Jie goes to the cinema to watch mystery and detective films, she leaves disappointed: to help stamp out superstition, China’s censors excise ghosts and zombies from the screens. So for her fill of phantoms, she turns to the flourishing online-literature scene. There, authors are allowed to take liberties from which most of China’s state-owned publishing houses would recoil. Homophones stand in for forbidden words. Danmei , a new online class of homoerotic story, is especially popular among young women. Readers can choose from over 200 established genres such as xianxia , a fantasy world of deities and martial arts.The corporate prince of this virtual realm is China Literature, a spin-off from Tencent, a gaming and social-media giant. The four-year-old online publisher listed on Hong Kong’s stock exchange on November 8th, raising just over $1bn. The offering was a huge success; at the end of its first day of trading, China Literature reached almost $12bn in market capitalisation, nearly 2,700 times its earnings of $4.5m in 2016 (it lost money in 2015).  Investors are spellbound chiefly by its link to Tencent, which on November 20th became Asia’s first firm to be valued at over $500bn and which still owns just over 50% of China Literature. Retail investors—particularly those who missed out on the giant’s own IPO in 2004—may be hoping China Literature is the next Tencent. As the latter expands its entertainment empire into films and TV dramas, China Literature’s library offers a trove of intellectual property; local analysts have nicknamed it “Tencent’s natural son”.China’s book market (fiction and nonfiction) is the biggest in the world by number of new publications. Of total written fictional output, online storytelling, which is mainly read on smartphones, is thought to make up 11%. Within the next three years that share is expected to double. To capture more bookworms, Tencent combines tentacular reach—over 960m monthly users alone on WeChat, its mobile-messaging app—with a host of algorithms that push appealing content to customers. China Literature’s dominance has helped it to attract 6m authors to its platform, representing 88% of all those writing online books, according to a study by Frost & Sullivan, a consultancy. Hit writers are among them. Of the country’s ten bestselling authors in 2016, six were online-literature writers.Many of the authors are amateurs, though two-fifths write full-time, and they are young, with an average age of 28. China Literature’s repository—close to 10m works in genres from fantasy to sci-fi, mystery to romance—attracts close to 200m readers a month across its web and mobile platforms, and half of China’s total daily online-literature fans. China Literature is home to 72% of all original online works; Alibaba Literature and Baidu Literature, owned by China’s two other tech giants, came later to the field and have just 5% of the virtual library between them.About four-fifths of China Literature’s revenues come from charging, on some books, a small fee to read on after sample chapters (proceeds are shared with authors). Most are serialised. Readers are enticed to pay per 1,000 Chinese characters or subscribe for 18 yuan ($2.70) a month. For now, only 5% of its customers are paying readers. But Morgan Stanley, a bank, expects that share to grow to 8% within the next two years. As their incomes rise, young Chinese are spending more on higher-quality entertainment. There is room for growth: Ms Xu says she is still spending far less on online books than on mobile games, for example. Mobile wallets, including WeChat Pay, which is owned by Tencent, have made paying a cinch.The remaining share of the company’s revenue is from owning the rights to stories that are adapted for film, television, games and so on, and from licensing them to other producers. Investors expect that this income stream will grow quickly, says Nelson Cheung of Formula Growth, a Canadian investment firm that owns shares in China Literature.Wu Wenhui, one of China Literature’s bosses, says he aspires to be “China’s version of Marvel Comics”, the American creator of Spider-Man and the X-Men, and corporate sibling to Marvel Studios. Tencent is the “perfect incubator” for those ambitions, says Wang Chen of TF Securities, a brokerage: China Literature is already co-operating with Tencent Penguin Pictures, a newish film-making arm, and Tencent Games, the largest gaming company in the world by revenue. In 2016, 15 of the 20 most popular TV dramas and video games adapted from online works were licensed from China Literature.Twists are possible. Copyright protections are weak. China Literature reported in its filing document that pirated online content led to a loss in revenue of 11bn yuan for the market in 2016. Tighter regulation or new censorship rules could upset the narrative. Drafts are reviewed before publication by editors at China Literature, but the firm knows the value of the relative creative freedom that its online realm allows. Its own story is testament to that.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Bibliofiled"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21731860-tencents-china-literature-should-profit-millions-chinese-smartphone-bookworms-chinas?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-30T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'b62969fe9e044e24b6ccfd5582fbb782fdc828c7'|'Netflix drops Danny Masterson from ''The Ranch'' comedy'|'LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Danny Masterson has been written out of the Netflix comedy series “The Ranch”, the streaming company said on Tuesday.Actor Danny Masterson arrives at Warner Bros. Pictures'' "Gangster Squad" premiere at Grauman''s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, January 7, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn Netflix did not give a reason for Masterson’s exit but Los Angeles police said in March that the actor, best known from “That 70s Show,” was being investigated for alleged sexual assault of three women in the early 2000s.“As a result of ongoing discussions, Netflix and the producers have written Danny Masterson out of ‘The Ranch,''” Netflix said in an emailed statement. “Yesterday was his last day on the show, and production will resume in early 2018 without him.”Netflix did not elaborate.Reuters could not independently confirm the allegations and the Los Angeles Police Department had no further information on Tuesday.Masterson, 41, again denied the accusations and said on Tuesday he looked forward to clearing his name.“I am obviously very disappointed in Netflix’s decision to write my character off of ‘The Ranch.’ From day one, I have denied the outrageous allegations against me,” Masterson said in an emailed statement. “I have never been charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one. In this country, you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, in the current climate, it seems as if you are presumed guilty the moment you are accused.”Masterson lost his job as several other U.S. entertainment or media personalities have recently been fired over sexual misconduct allegations.Netflix confirmed on Monday that its flagship drama series “House of Cards” would resume production in 2018 without star Kevin Spacey following multiple allegations against him.. Spacey has apologized to one of his accusers, actor Anthony Rapp, and according to his representatives is seeking unspecified treatment.Masterson started his career as a child model and actor and got his break-out role in the 1998-2006 Fox television comedy series “That 70s Show,” in which he played rebel adolescent Steven Hyde.In “The Ranch,” which premiered in 2016, Masterson plays the older brother of his “That 70s Show” co-star Ashton Kutcher in a comedy about a dysfunctional family living in Colorado.Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Alden Bentley '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-danny-masterson/netflix-drops-danny-masterson-from-the-ranch-comedy-idUSKBN1DZ2HK'|'2017-12-05T19:10:00.000+02:00'
'3e929f93a4925c59ca4549ccf6c943e2ce5e7f9c'|'French retailers Carrefour and Fnac Darty form purchasing partnership'|'PARIS (Reuters) - French retailers Carrefour ( CARR.PA ) and Fnac Darty ( FNAC.PA ) will team up for purchases of domestic appliances and consumer electronics in France as Carrefour seeks to cut costs and boost earnings, the companies said on Tuesday.The purchasing agreement will take effect for supplier negotiations in 2018 but Carrefour and Fnac Darty stressed they would maintain independent commercial policies.Supermarket operator Carrefour, the world’s largest retailer after Wal-Mart ( WMT.N ), hired Chief Executive Alexandre Bompard in July from Fnac Darty, France’s largest electronics retailer.The tie-up follows a similar partnership sealed last year between domestic rival Casino ( CASP.PA ) and furniture chain Conforama.French retailers are intensely aware of the threat posed by Amazon ( AMZN.O ), whose acquisition of U.S. food retail chain Whole Foods has triggered speculation the online giant is looking to crack the European market next.Casino last week agreed to use British online retailer Ocado’s platform to expand its e-commerce grocery business in a deal that analysts say will allow Casino to outpace domestic rivals.CARREFOUR‘S COST CUTSFnac Darty shares initially rose to a record high of 94.51 euros, before settling back to trade up 0.6 percent at 91.50 euros by 0925 GMT. Shares in Carrefour, which issued a profit warning in August, were flat.“This partnership will allow both companies to achieve cost savings, while the tie-up is also complementary as Fnac shops are mainly in town centers while Carrefour outlets tend to be in the suburbs,” said Roche Brune Asset Management fund manager Gregoire Laverne, whose firm owns shares in both companies.Bompard is expected to back a far-reaching restructuring that some analysts estimate could involve a billion euros ($1.2 billion) of cost cutting. Carrefour is due to unveil its strategic plan on Jan. 23.Investors want Bompard to boost the performance of the group’s France-based hypermarkets, a goal that has eluded several predecessors amid competition online and price discounting from rivals such as unlisted Leclerc.They also want him to catch up as more shoppers go online for their goods.Bernstein analysts estimated the deal with Fnac Darty would generate 90 million euros of savings for Carrefour or 25 basis points of French margin, which would give it “additional firepower to be invested in the French business”.On Monday Fnac Darty said it was banking on merger synergies and its ability to deliver sales growth above that of its markets in order to nearly double its operating margin mid-term.Fnac shares are up around 40 percent since the start of 2017, while Carrefour shares are down around 20 percent.($1 = 0.8429 euros)Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Dominique Vidalon and Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fnac-carrefour/french-retailers-carrefour-and-fnac-darty-form-purchasing-partnership-idINKBN1DZ0LW'|'2017-12-05T04:01:00.000+02:00'
'bfb5e299c1e9443a043c4d787e2f7379c28c205a'|'Lighting maker Zumtobel reports second-quarter loss, weak UK business weighs'|'December 5, 2017 / 7:57 AM / Updated 43 minutes ago Lighting maker Zumtobel reports second-quarter loss, weak UK business weighs Reuters Staff 2 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian lighting maker Zumtobel ( ZUMV.VI ) reported a second-quarter loss on Tuesday due to increased pricing pressure, a weak UK performance and higher warranty provisions. The logo of Austrian lighting group Zumtobel is pictured at the door of an office in Vienna, Austria, February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader It fell to a net loss of 2 million euros ($2.37 million) for the three months through October from a profit of 15 million a year earlier. Revenue fell 10.1 percent to 307.3 million euros, hurt partly by a stronger euro versus the British pound and the Swiss franc, the group said. Revenue in northern Europe, which includes Zumtobel’s largest single market Britain, fell 26.2 percent. Its British lighting unit saw revenue fall by nearly 35 percent, Zumtobel said. The group, whose business lines range from electronic components to large lighting installations, operates three sites in Britain: a lighting plant and a components facility in Spennymoor in northeast England and a production site close to Manchester. Zumtobel confirmed its recently lowered forecast and still expects adjusted earnings before interest and tax to reach 50-60 million euros and revenue to fall about 5 percent in its 2017/18 financial year. Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-zumtobel-group-results/lighting-maker-zumtobel-reports-second-quarter-loss-weak-uk-business-weighs-idUKKBN1DZ0QW'|'2017-12-05T09:56:00.000+02:00'
'f1bfd5b25eb6fc0248b3978f03e5c0bf31a00a7e'|'Nigerian lawmakers vote to investigate suspension of SEC boss'|'ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria’s lower house of parliament passed a motion on Tuesday to investigate the suspension of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s chief by the finance minister.Lawmakers in the House of Representatives plan to investigate the suspension and report their findings to parliament within two weeks, a motion paper seen by Reuters stated.Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Alexis Akwagyiram/Mark Heinrich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-sec-investigation/nigerian-lawmakers-vote-to-investigate-suspension-of-sec-boss-idUSKBN1DZ2KJ'|'2017-12-05T19:34:00.000+02:00'
'2a64cb7aeba1b0d94d25993c887005d11f8e47aa'|'Commentary: Goldilocks markets show 2017 was no year to be a bear'|'LONDON (Reuters) - A year ago, the consensus view of the world economy and markets coming into 2017 was for a Goldilocks mix of strong growth, decent corporate profits, low volatility, a gradual drift higher in bond yields, and a continued “melt up” in stocks.Traders work in front of the German share price index, DAX board, at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, September 1, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote If anything, 2017 has proved even more resilient than many had hoped for. World stocks rose 20 percent, global growth was its strongest since 2010, market volatility fell to its lowest on record and “junk” bond yields hit all-time lows.It didn’t pay to be a contrarian in 2017.Just ask Scottish hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry, who closed his fund Eclectica Asset Management after losing 9.4 percent in the first eight months of 2017 and 4 percent loss in 2016. He had sold Italian government bonds as part of a wider bet on the break-up of the European Union.Equity hedge funds with a short-selling bias have been the worst-performing hedge funds this year, down 9.22 percent January-October, according to data from industry tracker Hedge Fund Research. The wider equity hedge fund total index is up around 11 percent and the S&P 500 is up 18 percent.At the start of the year, “secular stagnation”, “political risk” and “weak recovery” were the Cassandras’ popular tropes, but they quietly faded from the wider market discourse as, frankly, global growth and markets boomed.Continued central bank largesse and a surprisingly rosy economic backdrop, particularly in Europe, anchored market volatility, which provided the springboard for the global and cross-asset rally.A year ago, Reuters outlined some of the most contrarian market predictions for the year ahead, covering specific trades and broader political and economic risks that could throw markets a curve ball.Unsurprisingly, most of them failed to materialize. But a few did come up trumps.One was the UBS call for the euro to rise. At the time, the politics didn’t auger well - Europe’s electoral calendar was loaded, populism was on the rise and there was widespread concern that anti-euro parties such as France’s Front National would gain power.The euro opened the year only a few cents above parity with the dollar and the consensus was that it would struggle to rebound much, if at all.Swiss bank UBS predicted a rise to $1.20, a level that was breached in August. Right now, the euro is up 13 percent on the dollar this year, well on course for its best year since 2003.DOLLAR THE NEW VIX Another was HSBC rate strategist Steven Major’s prediction that 10-year U.S. bond yields would rise to 2.5 percent in the first quarter, then fall as low as 1.35 percent. Well, sort of.The yield rose to what turned out to be a high for the year of 2.6 percent in March then came close to breaking below 2 percent in September.The following chart from Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Slok shows how consistently wrong analysts have got their U.S. bond yield forecasts down the years. Major’s 1.35 percent call (which would have been a new low) proved a stretch, but he got closer than most.Tighter Fed policy was expected to deliver a stronger dollar and higher U.S. bond yields, an unpalatable cocktail for emerging markets. Unsurprisingly, most analysts were bearish on emerging markets at the start of the year.That’s not how it played out. With the dollar on track for its worst year since 2003 and the U.S. yield curve its flattest in a decade, emerging markets have boomed.Emerging-market stocks are up 30 percent and on course for their best year since 2009, local currency debt is up 13 percent and dollar-denominated EM bonds are up 9 percent.The Bank for International Settlements has been a leading voice arguing that the dollar has replaced the VIX index of implied volatility on Wall Street as the best barometer of global investor risk appetite and financial market leverage.“When the dollar is strong, risk appetite is weak. Given the dollar’s role as barometer of global appetite for leverage, there may be no winners from a stronger dollar,” said Hyun Song Shin, head of research at the BIS, in a speech last November.Luckily for emerging markets and world markets more broadly, the dollar is down 9 percent so far this year.One indicator of how much of a consensus year 2017 has been is the surge of inflows at passive investment vehicles exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which track the ups and downs of major equity indices.Assets under ETF management are expected to have grown by more than a quarter this year to $4.4 trillion from $3.5 trillion last year, according to a recent report by Ernst & Young Global.Reporting by Jamie McGeever, editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-2017review/commentary-goldilocks-markets-show-2017-was-no-year-to-be-a-bear-idINKBN1DZ1OH'|'2017-12-05T09:26:00.000+02:00'
'36f5b22631d46d7580a17f93562301c2ab46883b'|'Singapore''s Pavilion Energy hires Gazprom executive as CEO'|'SINGAPORE, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Singapore’s Pavilion Energy has appointed Gazprom executive Frederic Barnaud as its new chief executive, effective from February next year, the company said on Tuesday.Barnaud, a French national, is currently the chief commercial officer of liquefied natural gas, oil and shipping for the Gazprom Marketing and Trading Group based in London.He will replace Seah Moon Ming as chief executive of Pavilion Energy and its subsidiary Pavilion Gas.Earlier this year, Seah was appointed chairman of Singapore’s SMRT Corp.Pavilion Energy was set up in April 2013 by Temasek Holdings , Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and is focused on LNG investment. (Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pavilionenergy-ceo/singapores-pavilion-energy-hires-gazprom-executive-as-ceo-idINL3N1O536E'|'2017-12-05T06:51:00.000+02:00'
'3384a2cf2552493625e1914fdddb7c4186e6bf5b'|'Nissan, DeNA schedule public tests of self-driving car service in Japan next year'|'December 5, 2017 / 3:45 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Nissan, DeNA schedule public tests of self-driving car service in Japan next year Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co ( 7201.T ) and Japanese gaming software maker DeNA Co ( 2432.T ) said on Tuesday they would begin public tests of their self-driving ride-sharing service in Japan next year. FILE PHOTO: A man walks under the logo of Nissan Motor Co at the company''s showroom in Yokohama, south of Tokyo February 8, 2013. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The two companies join a growing number of global car makers and tech firms leveraging automated driving technology into new mobility services. Nissan and DeNA said they would hold public tests over a two-week period in Yokohama in March, under which riders can use an app developed by DeNA to summon self-driving versions of Nissan’s Leaf electric cars to travel to pre-mapped destinations and pay fares. The duo, which have been conducting field tests of their “Easy Ride” system since joining hands earlier this year, said the tests were the first step towards their goal of launching a full-service, self-driving ride-sharing service in the country in the early 2020s. Global automakers are looking beyond making and selling cars to survive an industry which is being quickly transformed by new services, and a growing number including General Motors Co ( GM.N ) are applying their expertise in automated driving functions for mass-market cars to develop mobility services. The fast-growing “pay-per-ride” market is becoming a battleground between automakers, tech firms such as Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ) and Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and a barrage of start-ups as ride-sharing services threaten to hit demand for car ownership. While companies continue to pursue development of safe self-driving functions which can ferry riders to their destination of choice, they also face regulatory hurdles, as most global jurisdictions do not expressly authorise vehicles to operate on regular roads without a driver. In Japan, Nissan and DeNA will face competition from Japanese robotics maker ZMP Inc, which is working with a Tokyo taxi operator to develop a self-driving taxi service it hopes to have up and running during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. DeNA has been trialling self-driving services across the country, including shuttle buses for elderly residents in rural communities which are struggling with fewer bus and taxi services as the country’s population ages and shrinks. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nissan-dena-robotaxi/nissan-dena-schedule-public-tests-of-self-driving-car-service-in-japan-next-year-idUKKBN1DZ09D'|'2017-12-05T05:44:00.000+02:00'
'2d8134813f9edebca60549b615008d2c623aa094'|'''No evidence'' to justify extraditing Mallya to India, UK court hears'|'LONDON (Reuters) - The Indian government’s fraud case against tycoon Vijay Mallya is baseless and politically motivated, his defense lawyer told a London court on Tuesday as she battled to prevent his extradition to his home country.Vijay Mallya arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Mallya, who lives in Britain, stands accused in India of fraudulently palming off losses from his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines onto banks by taking out loans he had no intention of repaying.His defense team argue that he is being used as a scapegoat by Indian politicians of all stripes to deflect public anger at the accumulation of bad debts by state-owned banks.The 61-year-old, nicknamed “the King of Good Times” after the slogan on bottles of one of his premium beers and his hard partying lifestyle, had business interests ranging from aviation to liquor.He is also the co-owner of Formula One motor racing team Force India.The case against him centers on a series of loans Kingfisher obtained from Indian banks, especially state-owned lender IDBI. The banks want to recover a total of about $1.4 billion that the state says the defunct airline owes.Mallya’s British defense lawyer, Clare Montgomery, told Westminster Magistrates Court that India had made a series of serious allegations against him and others that did not have “a shred of evidence” to back them up.She also said that the Indian government’s case revealed a “shocking” lack of appreciation of how companies function and of basic realities such as the effects of incorporation and the rights of shareholders.“Economically and legally, it is impossible to palm off losses onto banks by borrowing to pass on the cost of failure,” she said.Vijay Mallya arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Montgomery said she would call witnesses later in the two-week hearing to give evidence on what she called the “political ramifications” of the case.She accused several Indian parties including the ruling BJP of “making political capital from the Mallya case on the assumption there was a fraud”.Montgomery said India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, which is prosecuting the case, had a “long and inglorious history of being politically motivated in the cases it brings”.She also criticized prison conditions in India, saying that they were worse than in Russia, a country to which British courts have on several occasions refused to extradite suspects for that reason.Montgomery said there were competing narratives, fraud versus business failure, and that no reasonable jury would be able to reach a safe conclusion that there had been a deliberate intent to defraud.Mallya, the focus of intense media interest in India, arrived wearing a dark suit and yellow tie and was mobbed by cameramen as he walked into the building.Inside the courtroom he spoke only to confirm his name and age, before sitting quietly in the glass-walled dock as Montgomery spoke.She said that the government’s allegation that Mallya had deliberately misled banks by overstating Kingfisher’s projected profits was “a false premise”.That was because airlines were subject to many unpredictable factors beyond their control, such as fuel cost fluctuations and the global economic climate, so to make entirely accurate projections several years in advance was unrealistic.The judge, England’s Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, will have to decide whether there is a prima facie case against Mallya and whether the alleged crimes would be offences in Britain as well as India.Editing by Stephen Addison '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-mallya-britain/no-evidence-to-justify-extraditing-mallya-to-india-uk-court-hears-idUSKBN1DZ1J3'|'2017-12-05T13:41:00.000+02:00'
'3213def1b13a84794f9a9714c56633264c233b1c'|'Samsung to chase big M&A deals on three fronts, says strategy chief'|'HELSINKI (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics’ $8 billion purchase of automotive and audio electronics company Harman has given the technology conglomerate confidence to chase more big deals, its strategy chief said on Friday.Samsung Electronics Chief Strategy Officer Young Sohn poses for a picture at Slush startup event in Helsinki, Finland December 1, 2017.REUTERS/Tuomas Forsell Young Sohn, the South Korean company’s Silicon Valley-based president and chief strategy officer, said he was keen for world’s top maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions to expand in automotive markets, digital health and industrial automation.Samsung, which this year surpassed Intel to become the world’s biggest semiconductors manufacturer, has signaled its appetite for dealmaking over the past year, saying it was seeking businesses to build software and services to further differentiate its products.However, it has provided few details on sectors it is targeting in its push for mergers and acquisitions.“We are committed to using M&A as our tool, (and) I think the Harmon acquisition helped us to have more confidence,” Sohn told Reuters on the sidelines of the Slush tech start-up festival in Helsinki.“I believe we can do lot more going forward.”FILE PHOTO - Young Sohn, president and chief strategy office of device solutions for Samsung Electronics, speaks during a news conference for the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center in Menlo Park, California, February 4, 2013. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach Sohn appeared to dismiss the potential for Samsung to take part in further consolidation in semiconductors or the smartphone markets, where it is also a leading player, suggesting the company is focused on organic growth strategies in these areas.In September Sohn said Samsung aimed to become a major player in autonomous driving, building on its acquisition of auto parts supplier Harman and its pole position in mobile communications markets.Asked to spell out Samsung’s potential dealmaking priorities for 2018, he said the company would continue to invest in expanding its automotive business.Another category he singled out as “an area of opportunity” was digital health, specifically preventive health and related technologies.Finally, in business software, he said Samsung is looking at companies in the areas of industrial internet, automation, networking, data transmission and security.“We are a very careful and conservative company, so we will do it where it makes sense,” Sohn said, adding that it would also look for smaller bolt-on technology deals.Reporting by Tuomas Forsell and Eric Auchard; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-elec-strategy-m-a/samsung-to-chase-big-ma-deals-on-three-fronts-says-strategy-chief-idINKBN1DV5UZ'|'2017-12-01T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'ebeccda095b40dfe88c1849f68b00761e0ae1e51'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Brazilian, Chilean equities slip as political concerns weigh'|'SAO PAULO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Brazil''s benchmark equities index and currency lost ground on Thursday as markets remained jittery about the uneven progress of a pension reform bill seen as key to shoring up the nation''s fiscal health. Worldwide, emerging markets came under heavy selling pressure even as U.S. equity markets rallied, with the MSCI International EM price index posting a 1.8 percent loss for its steepest drop in six months. Brazilian President Michel Temer is looking to gain solid support for the pension bill from the centrist Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB). In order to get the 308 votes needed for passage in Brazil''s lower chamber, he will also need to win the support of a number of smaller parties. "The only chance now is a definitive understanding between (the PSDB and Temer''s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party) to pressure smaller actors into entering the accord with the risk of losing more if they remain outside," analysts at Lerosa Investimentos wrote in a note to clients. The Bovespa fell 1.0 percent, while the real slid 0.56 percent. Among the poor performers on the Bovespa was energy holding company CPFL Energia SA, which plummeted more than 9 percent. Chile''s blue-chip IPSA index also lost ground, falling 0.58 percent, as investors remained wary about a tight Dec. 19 presidential election. Mexico''s stocks and currency weakened as investors hesitated ahead of the U.S. Senate''s vote on Republicans'' tax proposal. Analysts said a tax cut could ultimately drive investments from Mexico to the United States. Mexico''s stock index fell 1.11 percent, with telecommunications firm America Movil and retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico falling 2.50 percent and 4.13 percent, respectively. The Mexican peso weakened 0.37 percent to the dollar. ($1 = 3.26 reais) Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1956 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1120.24 -1.85 32.37 MSCI LatAm 2716.17 -2.33 18.81 Brazil Bovespa 71573.24 -1.55 18.84 Mexico IPC 47167.38 -0.96 3.34 Chile IPSA 5005.27 -0.15 20.57 Chile IGPA 25177.22 -0.16 21.43 Argentina MerVal 26864.71 -0.14 58.79 Colombia IGBC 10827.12 -0.2 6.90 Venezuela IBC 1319.87 13.08 -95.84 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.2681 0.08 -0.58 Mexico peso 18.6340 -0.37 11.32 Chile peso 647 -0.45 3.66 Colombia peso 3015.9 -0.43 -0.48 Peru sol 3.233 0.03 5.60 Argentina peso 17.3000 0.78 -8.24 (interbank) Argentina peso 17.91 1.17 -6.09 (parallel) (Reporting by Gram Slattery and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Dan Grebler) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-brazilian-chilean-equities-slip-as-political-concerns-weigh-idINL1N1O025H'|'2017-11-30T20:49:00.000+02:00'
'92e76491684432db2fa5fb997787344e606c3cce'|'Fiat Chrysler CEO says in talks with Hyundai on tech partnership'|'December 2, 2017 / 3:55 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Fiat Chrysler CEO says in talks with Hyundai on tech partnership Agnieszka Flak 3 Min Read ARESE, Italy (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles ( FCHA.MI ) ( FCAU.N ) is in talks with South Korea’s Hyundai ( 005380.KS ) about a technical partnership, but there are no merger talks between the two, FCA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Saturday. FILE PHOTO: FCA group CEO Sergio Marchionne speaks during the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team presentation in Arese, near Milan, Italy December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo FCA is often the subject of merger speculation, especially after its unsuccessful 2015 attempt to tie up with larger U.S. rival GM ( GM.N ). Its share price jumped to record highs in August after reports of interest from China and Hyundai. “We already buy components from (Hyundai) .... let’s see if we can agree on other points, especially for the development of transmissions and hydrogen,” Marchionne told journalists, adding there was “nothing to announce for the moment”. Asked whether this collaboration could turn into a merger, Marchionne said: “I don’t believe so”. The 65-year-old chief executive, whose mandate ends in April 2019, is working on a new business plan to 2022, which he said should be presented in the second quarter of next year. As part of that strategy and to simplify its portfolio, FCA is working on separating two of its three components businesses. Marchionne said the spin-offs of Magneti Marelli - which makes components for lighting, engines, electronics, suspension and exhausts - and robotics maker Comau would be separate operations, “especially given Comau’s potential development in artificial intelligence or robotics”. “Whether it happens as a spin-off or a distribution to shareholders, or whether we will raise some money in the process -- all things to be discussed with the board, we haven’t made up our mind,” he said. These discussions include a potential listing for either company as happened with other units FCA spun off in the past, such as tractor maker CNH Industrial ( CNHI.MI ) ( CNHI.N ) or luxury sportscar group Ferrari ( RACE.MI ) ( RACE.N ), which are quoted in Milan and New York. Marchionne added that he would like to complete the separations by the end of 2018. The transaction could help boost FCA’s finances at a time when it is aiming to become cash-positive by the end of next year. A separation of castings firm Teksid, the smallest of FCA’s parts makers, was not on the table, Marchionne said, adding that any spin-off of the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands would not happen “for many years”. Asked about possible fines over diesel emissions, Marchionne said he did not believe there was any legal base in recent allegations raised by French authorities. He added that separate discussions with U.S. authorities were ongoing and he expects “there will be a cost but it will be something manageable”. Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fiatchrysler-spinoffs/fiat-chrysler-ceo-says-in-talks-with-hyundai-on-tech-partnership-idUKKBN1DW0JQ'|'2017-12-02T17:52:00.000+02:00'
'aab4ebd8a33b13bbdaea19824055ae6463db6b0d'|'Apple''s Tim Cook says developers have earned $17 billion from China App Store'|'December 3, 2017 / 4:41 AM / in 12 hours Apple''s Tim Cook says developers have earned $17 billion from China App Store Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WUZHEN, China (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s chief executive Tim Cook said developers using its platform in China number 1.8 million and have earned a total 112 billion yuan ($16.93 billion), representing roughly a quarter of total global App Store earnings. Apple CEO Tim Cook arrives before the fourth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Cook shared the data on Sunday during a speech at China’s top public cyber policy forum, organized by the Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC), which oversees internet regulation including censorship. Earlier this year, Apple said that developers had earned roughly $70 billion in total revenue through the store. Apple is facing criticism from local users and rights groups for bowing to pressure from Beijing cyber regulators after it decided to remove hundreds of apps from its Chinese store this year, including messaging apps and virtual private network (VPN) services, which help users subvert China’s Great Firewall. FILE PHOTO: A attendee uses a new iPhone X during a presentation for the media in Beijing, China October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo Apple counts China as its third-largest region by sales but it has lost market share in recent years as high-end handsets from local rivals continue to gain traction. The firm is hoping to regain momentum following the release of its iPhone 8 and iPhone X models which shipped in November. The U.S. tech giant said earlier it had moved its Chinese cloud data onto the servers of a local partner in the Chinese province of Guizhou. Cook has come to China several times this year, including an October visit where he was among executives that met with President Xi Jinping, who also had prepared remarks read at the conference on Sunday. Cook’s attendance is conspicuous at the conference, marking the first high-level executive to attend in the event’s four-year history. Others included Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, who is also attending the conference for the first time. Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-china/apples-tim-cook-says-developers-have-earned-17-billion-from-china-app-store-idUKKBN1DX04J'|'2017-12-03T06:34:00.000+02:00'
'3cad88e117c7619301eb4dd369f09f0b9e7ad413'|'U.S. judge rejects delay of foreign entrepreneur immigration rule'|'WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to rescind its delay of a rule that allows some foreign entrepreneurs to stay in the United States to grow their companies, court documents show.Judge James Boasberg of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by a U.S. venture capitalist group in September challenging a delay by DHS of the International Entrepreneur Rule. (file:///C:/Users/U8007446/Downloads/IER-SJ-opinion.pdf)In the lawsuit, the National Venture Capital Association argued that the Trump administration bypassed proper procedures when it delayed the International Entrepreneur Rule, which had been due to go into effect in July 2017.The trade group was later joined by several tech start-ups active in the United States that were founded by foreign entrepreneurs who wanted to stay in the country and work with their businesses through the entrepreneur rule but are now unable to.The rule, proposed by the administration of President Barack Obama, would allow some foreign start-up founders to stay in the United States for up to five years to develop their businesses.Instead, in July the administration of President Donald Trump pushed back implementation to March 2018, and said it was “highly likely” to ultimately rescind the rule.Boasberg, in his ruling issued on Friday, agreed with the lawsuit’s claim that the government’s actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires advance notice of new rules.“This decision is an important reminder that this administration must comply with the law and allow the public to have a voice during the agency rule-making process,” Leslie Dellon, an attorney at the American Immigration Council, said in a statement. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Leslie Adler)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-immigration-entrepreneurs/u-s-judge-rejects-delay-of-foreign-entrepreneur-immigration-rule-idINL1N1O202J'|'2017-12-01T23:00:00.000+02:00'
'eb00038e4a84022c30f86053f593f12f457105e3'|'Fiat Chrysler CEO says in talks with Hyundai on tech partnership'|'December 2, 2017 / 3:53 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Fiat Chrysler CEO says in talks with Hyundai on tech partnership Agnieszka Flak 3 Min Read ARESE, Italy (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is in talks with South Korea’s Hyundai about a technical partnership, but there are no merger talks between the two, FCA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Saturday. FCA group CEO Sergio Marchionne gestures as he talks next to an Alfa Romeo Stelvio at the Alfa Romeo museum in Arese, near Milan, Italy December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo FCA is often the subject of merger speculation, especially after its unsuccessful 2015 attempt to tie up with larger U.S. rival GM. Its share price jumped to record highs in August after reports of interest from China and Hyundai. “We already buy components from (Hyundai) .... let’s see if we can agree on other points, especially for the development of transmissions and hydrogen,” Marchionne told journalists, adding there was “nothing to announce for the moment”. Asked whether this collaboration could turn into a merger, Marchionne said: “I don’t believe so”. The 65-year-old chief executive, whose mandate ends in April 2019, is working on a new business plan to 2022, which he said should be presented in the second quarter of next year. As part of that strategy and to simplify its portfolio, FCA is working on separating two of its three components businesses. Marchionne said the spin-offs of Magneti Marelli - which makes components for lighting, engines, electronics, suspension and exhausts - and robotics maker Comau would be separate operations, “especially given Comau’s potential development in artificial intelligence or robotics”. “Whether it happens as a spin-off or a distribution to shareholders, or whether we will raise some money in the process -- all things to be discussed with the board, we haven’t made up our mind,” he said. These discussions include a potential listing for either company as happened with other units FCA spun off in the past, such as tractor maker CNH Industrial or luxury sportscar group Ferrari, which are quoted in Milan and New York. Marchionne added that he would like to complete the separations by the end of 2018. The transaction could help boost FCA’s finances at a time when it is aiming to become cash-positive by the end of next year. A separation of castings firm Teksid, the smallest of FCA’s parts makers, was not on the table, Marchionne said, adding that any spin-off of the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands would not happen “for many years”. Asked about possible fines over diesel emissions, Marchionne said he did not believe there was any legal base in recent allegations raised by French authorities. He added that separate discussions with U.S. authorities were ongoing and he expects “there will be a cost but it will be something manageable”. Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fiatchrysler-spinoffs/fiat-chrysler-ceo-says-in-talks-with-hyundai-on-tech-partnership-idUKKBN1DW0JS'|'2017-12-02T17:52:00.000+02:00'
'eded8691e77e1e01ea060ad54c6653febb012a9d'|'UPDATE 1-Russia''s November oil output edges up'|'* Output 10.94 mln bpd vs 10.93 mln bpd in Oct * Moscow complying with global deal (Adds detail) MOSCOW, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Russian oil output rose to 10.94 million barrels per day (bpd) in November from 10.93 million bpd in October, energy ministry data showed on Saturday. In tonnes, oil output fell to 44.782 million versus 46.23 million in October, and Russia remains in compliance with a global deal to curb production aimed at reducing inventories and supporting oil prices. The latest figures show Russia cut its oil output by around 307,000 bpd from the 11.247 million bpd in produced in October 2016, the baseline for the global agreement to reduce output. Russia agreed to reduce its oil output by 300,000 bpd from that level as part of a pact led by producers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to jointly cut output by 1.8 million bpd. OPEC and non-OPEC producers agreed on Thursday to extend their output cuts until the end of 2018. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said that Russian oil production would remain flat at 547 million tonnes in 2018 if output cuts were maintained for the whole of the year. Russian oil pipeline exports fell to 4.347 million bpd in November from 4.627 million bpd in October. Output at projects run by foreign majors under production sharing agreements (PSA) rose by 8.3 percent in November from October. Output at Rosneft , Russia''s largest oil producer, fell by 0.3 percent in November while output at No.2 oil company Lukoil rose by 0.1 percent. Gas production in November fell to 60.56 billion cubic metres (bcm), or 2.02 bcm per day, from 62.67 bcm in October. (Reporting by Polina Devitt and Natalia Chumakova; editing by Jason Neely) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-energy-production/update-1-russias-november-oil-output-edges-up-idINL8N1O2070'|'2017-12-02T06:56:00.000+02:00'
'a7590a0d7792321548bd1a96436a1add789e6d9f'|'India''s Infosys appoints outsider Parekh as CEO'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - Infosys, India’s No.2 IT services company, named Salil S Parekh as chief executive on Saturday, picking an outsider for the job a second time and handing him the twin challenges of reviving growth and making peace between its founders and board.FILE PHOT: The Infosys logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Parekh, who will join from consultancy firm Capgemini where he is currently an executive, has been given a 5-year term effective Jan.2, an Infosys filing to exchanges showed.U.B. Pravin Rao who was serving as the interim CEO has been re-designated as chief operating officer from Jan. 2, Infosys said.“After a comprehensive global search effort, we are pleased to appoint Salil as the CEO & MD,” said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson of the nomination & remuneration committee at Infosys.“He was the top choice from a pool of highly qualified candidates. With his strong track record and extensive experience, we believe, we have the right person to lead Infosys.”Former CEO Vishal Sikka announced a sudden exit in August after a protracted public spat with the company’s founding executives, led by Narayana Murthy, over strategy and alleged corporate governance lapses.Sikka, who joined from German software maker SAP SE in 2014, was the first outsider to be appointed CEO of the Bengaluru-headquartered company.His exit and the prolonged public row led to a reshuffling of the Infosys’ board with Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder and former CEO, returning as non-executive chairman.Nilekani, credited with four-fold growth in Infosys’ revenue to $2 billion during his tenure as CEO, had said at the time that cultural fit would be an important criteria for the top job, making internal candidates “very strong contenders”.Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury and Sankalp Phartiyal; editing by Rafael Nam and Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-infosys-ceo/indias-infosys-names-outsider-parekh-as-chief-executive-statement-idINKBN1DW0A7'|'2017-12-02T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'546f464db91eeca6bd31cc679727dd52e562e42e'|'Shareholder in Brazil''s Oi requests Aurelius be barred from debt restructuring'|'BRASILIA (Reuters) - Societe Mondiale, a shareholder in Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ) affiliated with Brazilian investor Nelson Tanure, filed a complaint with the nation’s telecoms regulator on Friday seeking to limit the actions of a key bondholder.In the complaint, seen by Reuters, Societe Mondiale asks the competition unit of telecoms regulator Anatel to prohibit the company from signing any contract or engaging in negotiations that “may give legal substance to a deal implying transfer of control to any fund” related to Aurelius Capital Management LP.The move represents the first attempt by Oi’s board to regain power after a judge on Wednesday effectively removed it from ongoing negotiations to restructure the carrier’s debt.Representatives for Anatel and Aurelius did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Oi, which filed for bankruptcy protection a year and a half ago, is riven by divisions between creditors, the board, and management.Aurelius is spearheading a group of creditors known as the International Bondholders Committee, which is in turn part of an alliance of funds and banks holding about 22 billion reais ($6.75 billion) on Oi’s debt.Those bondholders have been working for several weeks with Oi’s management to bang out a restructuring accord that would take the carrier out of bankruptcy protection.However, the board of the company - over which Tanure holds sway - has held firm against bondholder proposals, and has promoted a plan that would be more favorable to equity holders.In the complaint, Societe Mondiale says that under the restructuring proposal pushed by bondholders, Aurelius would become a co-controller of Oi. The complaint also says that Aurelius holds almost 17 percent of competing telecoms operator Nextel Communications Inc through intermediaries.According to the complaint, Aurelius - due to its indirect stake in Nextel - would break Brazilian anti-trust rules if its debt restructuring proposal for Oi were to go into effect.On Wednesday, the judge overseeing the Oi bankruptcy case gave Chief Executive Eurico Teles power to draft the restructuring plan and submit it to the bankruptcy court without board approval, effectively removing power from the Tanure-led body.Reporting by Leonardo Goy; additional reporting by Gram Slattery in Sao Paulo; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oi-sa-restructuring/shareholder-in-brazils-oi-requests-aurelius-be-barred-from-debt-restructuring-idINKBN1DV5YX'|'2017-12-01T18:15:00.000+02:00'
'4adf3f297e1422730d01f0617cfa9f87ec032081'|'Major automakers post mixed November U.S. sales results'|'December 1, 2017 / 3:09 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago November mixed for U.S. sales as automakers hike discounts Nick Carey 5 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - Major automakers posted mixed U.S. November new vehicle sales on Friday and predicted a competitive December as they rush to sell vehicles and boost their 2017 numbers before the year comes to an end. FILE PHOTO - Cars are seen in a parking lot in Palm Springs, California, U.S. on April 13, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Automakers are trying to sell down 2017 model year vehicles, offering high discounts to consumers as the year-end nears. In 2016, the industry reported record annual sales of 17.55 million units. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of U.S. car and light truck sales in November fell to 17.48 million vehicles, down from 17.71 million vehicles a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp, which tracks industry sales. This was roughly in line with the 17.5 million predicted by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. According to consultancies J.D. Power and LMC, discounts have been above 10 percent of the average transaction price for 16 of the last 17 months, a level experts say is unhealthy and unsustainable. The November sales results come as the National Automobile Dealers Association said on Friday it expects new vehicle sales to decline to 16.7 million units in 2018, after dropping to 17.1 million for the full year in 2017. If that forecast comes true, the race to move new vehicles off dealers’ lots will only intensify next year. Brandon Mason, a director at PwC’s automotive practice, said a worrying trend for the industry was a rising number of subprime loans. He said subprime levels are at just over 20 percent of originations, against more than 30 percent prior to the Great Recession, but recent increases remain a concern. “That’s a bit of a red flag,” Mason said. “It’s something to keep an eye on as we move into 2018.” No. 1 U.S. automaker General Motors Co ( GM.N ) said its sales fell 2.9 percent in November, with sales to consumers flat against the same month in 2016. Much of the decrease was driven by lower fleet sales to rental agencies, businesses and government agencies. GM said strong SUV and crossover sales pushed its average transaction price for the month above $37,000 for the first time. The company’s level of unsold cars, which has been a concern for analysts and the industry, rose slightly to 83 days supply, from 80 days at the end of October. “More vehicles are sold in December than any other month and we are very well positioned because we have momentum in so many segments, but especially in crossovers,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of sales operations. FILE PHOTO: The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Warren Transmission Operations Plant in Warren, Michigan October 26, 2015. Photo taken October 26. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook Fleet sales are a low-margin business for automakers. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) ( FCHA.MI ) in particular has targeted a significant reduction in this type of sale in 2017. The automaker posted a 4 percent overall decrease in sales for November, but said fleet sales were down 25 percent while sales to consumers were up 2 percent on the year. FILE PHOTO: An airplane flies above a Ford logo in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo No. 2 U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) reported a 6.7 percent increase in sales in November, with fleet sales up nearly 26 percent and retail sales 1.3 percent higher than in November 2016. Ford said SUV sales rose 13.3 percent in November, while its pickup truck sales were up 4.1 percent. “November and December over the last few years has become a very big merchandising window for the industry,” Ford’s U.S. sales chief Mark LaNeve told reporters on a conference call. He said price competition between automakers should continue into 2018, but it “should not be too disruptive.” Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) said its sales were down 3 percent, while Honda Motor Co Ltd ( 7267.T ) sales rose 8.3 percent. Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) said its sales were down 1.6 percent. Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) said in a statement a systems outage meant it would not post official November results until Dec. 4, but estimated its U.S. sales rose 14 percent versus November 2016. GM shares closed down 30 cents at $42.79, FCA was off a penny at $17.09 and Ford ended up 8 cents at $12.58. Reporting by Nick Carey; editing by Phil Berlowitz and Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-autos-sales/major-automakers-post-mixed-november-u-s-sales-results-idUSKBN1DV54J'|'2017-12-01T17:08:00.000+02:00'
'6549309ffa0f5c18fc289a8bdf93a3aa2772a20e'|'Brexit buys bruised London Stock Exchange time'|'December 1, 2017 / 6:14 PM / in 3 hours Brexit buys bruised London Stock Exchange time Huw Jones , Ben Martin 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bruised by the collapse of its merger with Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ) and battered by the abrupt departure of its CEO, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) ( LSE.L ) may find Brexit buys it time get its house in order. FILE PHOTO: Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the annual CBI conference in central London, November 4, 2013. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo The turbulence at the top of the 300-year-old City of London institution has triggered another round of speculation that large U.S. rivals such as ICE ( ICE.N ) or CME ( CME.O ) could become predators. While London is Europe’s biggest financial market, Britain is due to leave the European Union in just over a year’s time and it is far from clear what trading relations it will have with the bloc when it comes to cross-border financial services. “I see (a bid from a U.S. rival) as doubtful as ICE especially, in my eyes, wants to see more substance on Brexit negotiations before pulling their cheque book out,” said a top-20 LSE shareholder, who declined to be named. What’s more, while the London exchange’s LCH division dominates the clearing of financial contracts in euros now, some EU policymakers insist the business should move within the currency bloc once Britain quits the EU. “For anyone stepping in and thinking about acquiring the LSE, the big risk for them is Brexit,” said an analyst at an investment bank, who added that LSE shares looked expensive given the uncertain outlook. “ICE and CME would be foolish not to look at LSE as this is one where you want to strike when the iron’s hot. But because of Brexit, it just seems that 22 times next year’s earnings in this environment is a risk,” the analyst said. ICE declined to comment. CME had no immediate comment. VINEYARD CALLING? Before quitting this week after more then eight years at the helm, CEO Xavier Rolet turned the LSE into a diversified exchange group by expanding its activities in stock indexes and buying a controlling stake in LCH Group. Under the former investment banker, the LSE’s share price increased fivefold and a successful merger with Deutsche Boerse would have added a significant futures business to its portfolio to catch up with U.S. rivals. But the deal to create Europe’s biggest stock exchange started to unravel after the Brexit vote as politicians bickered over whether the seat of power should be in London or Frankfurt. EU regulators killed the deal off in May. In October, the LSE announced that Rolet would step down at the end of 2018 but days later, activist investor TCI Fund Management said the Frenchman was being forced out and it should be LSE Chairman Donald Brydon going instead. According to a person close to TCI, the hedge fund started to have misgivings about Rolet’s departure when it spoke to him the day after the 2018 succession plan was announced. Asked whether he planned to spend more time at his family’s vineyard in France, Rolet said he’d barely been to the winery in a decade and didn’t care about it, according to the person, who said it was clear Rolet wanted to stay. “When people answer questions in a certain way, it gives away their true feelings and thought processes,” the person said, adding that Rolet declined to say why he was leaving. A month of messy public wrangling followed, exposing a deep rift between the chairman and the CEO and dragging in the Bank of England. Rolet quit on Wednesday and TCI again called for Brydon to go. On Thursday, the LSE said it would hold a shareholder meeting on Dec. 19 to decide if Brydon should be removed as demanded by TCI, the fourth-biggest LSE shareholder with a 5 percent holding. SENDING MESSAGE An adviser to the LSE said he was confident the vote would go against TCI. The hedge fund believes there is enough shareholder support to back its resolution. Another hedge fund investor who plans to back TCI, accepted it was unclear if it would be successful. “I still think it’s important to send a message even if the vote is lost,” the hedge fund investor said. But even though Brydon’s fate hangs in the balance and the row has shone a light on the breakdown in relations at the top of the LSE, its share price has held firm, meaning there is no quick bargain for a deep-pocketed predator. Coupled with the uncertainty over Brexit and the risk that any merger might run into antitrust difficulties, the London exchange should have time to get back on its feet before any large rival swoops. “We’ve still got a board, we’ve still got the executive team. They may launch a bid but the board is never going to recommend something unless it represents proper fundamental value and I think in the current regulatory environment I don’t know if something will get through,” said the adviser to the LSE. Additional reporting by Maiya Keidan, Simon Jessop and Noor Zainab Hussain; editing by David Clarke'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-ceo/brexit-buys-bruised-london-stock-exchange-time-idUKKBN1DV5OS'|'2017-12-01T20:15:00.000+02:00'
'1da784647afc610bf45a88705c9053ab154494de'|'Alaska Air investigating sexual harassment claim by Randi Zuckerberg'|'NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Alaska Airlines is investigating a sexual harassment claim by Randi Zuckerberg, a Silicon Valley executive and sister of Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.Zuckerberg wrote on social media late on Wednesday that she boarded the first-class cabin on a flight from Los Angeles to Mazatlan, Mexico, when a passenger in a seat near her began making lewd and explicit sexual remarks to her.“Feeling furious, disgusted and degraded,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post detailing her experience. She said her complaints were dismissed by flight attendants.“The safety and well-being of our guests on Alaska Airlines is our number one priority,” Alaska said. “We’re fully investigating this situation and will take appropriate steps, as needed.”The incident comes after a string of high-profile men in film, media and politics have been accused of sexual harassment or assault. (Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Bill Rigby) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/alaska-airlines-zuckerberg/alaska-air-investigating-sexual-harassment-claim-by-randi-zuckerberg-idINL1N1O02QU'|'2017-11-30T20:14:00.000+02:00'
'26811b407ab605ad5aae07d154f9b294e4f82497'|'Beauty contest: China make-up brands rein in South Korea rivals'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:01 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Beauty contest: China make-up brands rein in South Korea rivals Reuters Staff * Chinese cosmetics close gap on Korean rivals * China brands lure skilled S.Korean talent - sources * S.Korean firms suffered during THAAD anti-missile dispute By Hyunjoo Jin and Adam Jourdan SEOUL/SHANGHAI, Dec 1(Reuters) - As a diplomatic spat between Beijing and Seoul raged this year, many South Koreans felt decidedly unwelcome in China. South Korean businesses were shunned, K-pop concerts were canceled and tourist trade dried up. But one group of South Koreans have been very much in demand: the executives and employees of South Korea’s cosmetics companies, who are being lured by Chinese rivals as a battle for China’s huge beauty market heats up. Chinese make-up brands including Jala, Proya and Suhu - which have long trailed Korean rivals in terms of quality - are hiring South Korean executives as well as spending up on research and buying overseas firms, industry executives and headhunters say. The moves seem to be helping. Chinese brands, which compete with Korea names from top-rated Amorepacific to nimble budget makers such as Clio, are gaining market share in the mid-range and premium cosmetics sector where South Korea has traditionally had strength in China. While Chinese companies have been gaining ground for some time, the trend appears to have accelerated this year after Seoul’s decision to install a U.S. anti-missile system against Beijing’s wishes sparked a backlash against Korean companies. At stake is a bigger chunk of China’s $50.2 billion beauty and personal care market, which research firm Euromonitor projects will grow to $61.9 billion by 2020. Jason Yu, Shanghai-based General Manager of market research firm Kantar Worldpanel, said mid-tier or “masstige” Korean brands were most exposed to Chinese brands improving their offering. High-end brands from France’s L‘Oreal and Japan’s Shiseido tended to attract wealthier buyers. “In terms of the price position, they will be more in direct competition with the emerging Chinese brands who are moving up the price ladder,” said Yu, adding Chinese firms were “catching up very fast”. HIRING SPREE There are signs that recent diplomatic tensions have played into the hands of local Chinese brands in their battle with Korean rivals. Amorepacific’s sales fell 8 percent in the January to September period from a year earlier, while operating profit skidded 30 percent. Smaller, budget makers were hit harder, with Clio’s operating profit falling nearly 70 percent. While some Chinese make-up brands use South Korean stars or highlight Korean links, others are playing up Chinese elements such as using traditional medicine ingredients or use slogans about suiting Chinese skin. Zoe Zhuang, 24, an engineer in Nanjing, said she used to use cushion foundations and eye pencils from South Korea’s Etude brand. She now uses more Chinese to “support local brands”, she said, without referring to the dispute over the THAAD missile system. “I actually don’t think Chinese makeup is that good yet, there is plenty of room for improvement,” she said. Chinese cosmetics firms have been trying to close the quality gap by aggressively targeting South Korean executives. “(Chinese cosmetics brands) are recruiting Koreans in almost all areas, including brand managers, packaging design, store interiors, purchasing and marketing,” Choi Sun-hee, head of South Korean recruiting firm HR Biz Korea, told Reuters. Some Chinese brands are willing to offer 50 percent higher wages, help with rents and flights home to woo Korean workers, Choi added. Guangzhou-based Suhu plans to double the number of its South Korean employees to 40, Choi said. It recently hired an executive from Korea’s Nature Republic to oversee the recent launch of its Rojank brand, he added. Suhu declined to comment. Chinese brand Proya, which owns the Uzero and Cats & Roses brands, hired South Korean Kim Hoi-joon from Clio in 2014 to launch its Hapsode brand, Kim told Reuters. Another former Amorepacific official said Kim had lured him to Proya last year with a salary hike of about 50 percent. He said he was one of over 10 Korean employees hired by Proya. Proya declined to comment. Meanwhile, Jala, one of China’s leading cosmetics firms, hired a Korean executive earlier this year to revamp its mainstay Chando brand, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Jala also hired the former head of Amorepacific’s Etude brand, Kim Dong-young, they added. Kim, reached by phone, confirmed he had been working at Jala for about a year, but declined to comment further. Jala’s press office was not available for comment. The approach is not limited to cosmetics. Chinese firms from carmakers to flatscreen producers to smartphone vendors have recently opened up more to hiring foreign talent to help them gain a competitive edge, often taking market share from South Korean rivals as they move up the value chain and their industries mature. But Korean brands aren’t going down without a fight. Amorepacific said it was working with experts in seven Chinese cities to study local skin characteristics and develop products for the local market. “It is not that we are not worried about Chinese competition,” Rho Jee-hye, an Amorepacific senior vice president told Reuters. “As there is Estee Lauder in the United States, L‘Oreal in France and Amorepacific in Korea, an innovative Chinese company could emerge.” (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee in SEOUL, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/southkorea-china-companies/beauty-contest-china-make-up-brands-rein-in-south-korea-rivals-idUSL3N1NT2RX'|'2017-12-01T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'9a93f7096c59b064dab9c985599e93e349bba233'|'Fed officials fret over yield curve, warn on pace of hikes'|'December 2, 2017 / 2:18 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Fed officials fret over yield curve, warn on pace of hikes Howard Schneider , Ann Saphir 4 Min Read LITTLE ROCK, Ark./MCALLEN, Texas (Reuters) - Two Federal Reserve policymakers urged caution in raising interest rates on Friday, saying that the flattening of the yield curve was a signal that the central bank should proceed slowly. Flags fly over the Federal Reserve Headquarters on a windy day in Washington, U.S., May 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque The Fed is likely to raise interest rates when it meets in December and the current economic projections of rate setters indicate that it will hike three times in 2018. New projections will come from Fed officials at their December 12-13 meeting, which could indicate whether concerns over the yield curve and a related debate over weak inflation have started to shake confidence in the 2018 projections. The shallow slope of the yield curve - the spread between 2- and 10-year notes is currently 58 basis points, near the flattest in a decade - and whether it could invert, a signal of a possible economic recession, have triggered doubts in financial markets over the Fed’s rate rise plans. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard warned on Friday of a key “bearish signal” emerging for the economy if the Fed continues raising interest rates as fast as policymakers currently intend, and called on his colleagues to move more cautiously in the drive to more normal monetary policy. If investors believe the Fed’s actions will cause the economy to slow, and yields to fall, they may buy more longer-dated paper to lock in current yields, rather than take the risk of continually rolling over shorter-dated debt where the yields they earn are declining. Higher demand for the longer-dated paper pushes prices up and yields, which move in the opposite direction, down, causing the curve to flatten. A flattening curve can have a pernicious effect by making it less profitable for banks, which typically borrow short and lend long, to make loans. Modern-day recessions in the United States have always been preceded by an inversion in the yield curve, but not every inversion has been followed by a recession, though it does generally signal economic risk. FILE PHOTO - St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard speaks at a public lecture on "Slow Normalization or No Normalization" in Singapore May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan also voiced his concerns over the flattening curve, saying that it showed any removal of monetary accommodation “is going to have to be done patiently and gradually.” Bullard said that as it stands, within a year, short-term interest rates, pushed higher by Fed action, may move above long-term interest rates - an “inversion” of the yield curve. CAUTION AROUND THE CURVES FILE PHOTO - Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan walks after the True Economic Talks event in Mexico City, Mexico, July 14, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido It is unlikely that long-term rates will move higher on their own to keep pace with the Fed’s moves on short-term rates, he said, which he felt should make the Fed slow down. The Fed has little influence over longer-term rates. “The simplest way to avoid yield curve inversion in the near term is for policymakers to be cautious in raising the policy rate,” Bullard said in a presentation to the Arkansas Economic Development Institute. “There is a material risk...if the (Federal Open Market Committee) continues on its present course,” Bullard said. Inversion “is a naturally bearish signal...This deserves market and policymaker attention.” Weak inflation has led to division among policymakers over whether they should slow the pace of rate hikes until it is clear that prices are going to recover. Expected inflation is a key component of long-term bond prices since investors would want securities to hold value on an inflation-adjusted or “real” basis over time. That inflation weakness is another reason the yield curve may flip from its normal slope, which compensates investors for the risk of holding longer-term securities with higher interest rates. The yield curve is “not infallible” as a predictor of the economy, Bullard said, and some researchers have argued that it is losing its usefulness as an economic signal given the global decline in interest rates. But Bullard said policymakers and investors “need to take the possibility of a yield curve inversion seriously.” Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed/fed-officials-fret-over-yield-curve-warn-on-pace-of-hikes-idUKKBN1DW02M'|'2017-12-02T04:18:00.000+02:00'
'95bba9b3842180b671176a800865a725d8001b9a'|'Greece, lenders reach deal on reforms under bailout review'|'December 2, 2017 / 7:57 PM / in 17 minutes Greece, lenders reach deal on reforms under bailout review Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece and official creditors on Saturday concluded talks on the review of its bailout progress, reaching agreement on fiscal issues, energy and labour market reforms, bad loans and privatisations, the country’s finance minister said. FILE PHOTO - Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos gestures during a news conference with Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem (not pictured) at the Finance ministry in Athens, Greece September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Costas Baltas A deal between Greek officials and European Union and International Monetary Fund representatives on the country’s compliance with reforms and future commitments must be approved by euro zone finance ministers, scheduled to meet on Dec. 4. “The institutions’ visit is completed, we closed the staff level agreement,” Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos told reporters. “We will present the agreement to Monday’s Eurogroup meeting.” Once concluded, the review will release about five billion euros in loans from Greece’s 86 billion euro bailout programme, its third since 2010. Athens and its lenders had been exchanging drafts on agreed and proposed reforms for days. After seven years of austerity and rescue loans amounting to about 270 billion euros 238.3 billion pounds), Greece hopes its third bailout will be its last. The government has been keen to swiftly conclude the review, which started in October, to begin talks on debt relief and the terms of the country’s exit from the bailout programme which ends in August next year. On Friday Greece’s energy minister finalised a deal with creditors on the coal-fired plants the country will sell to comply with an EU court ruling. Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Stephen Powell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-review/greece-lenders-reach-deal-on-reforms-under-bailout-review-idUKKBN1DW0P3'|'2017-12-02T21:57:00.000+02:00'
'636cc2ae56412df8ca5d266f1079cf044b1d7d53'|'European stocks dip as financials wilt on U.S. tax bill disappointment'|'December 1, 2017 / 8:47 AM / Updated an hour ago European stocks dip as financials wilt on U.S. tax bill disappointment Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Europe’s financial stocks wilted after a delayed vote on tax reform in the U.S. deflated a rally in the sector, driving regional benchmarks to start December with a dip. Euro zone stocks fell 0.6 percent while Britain’s FTSE, which has suffered from a strong sterling this week, slid 0.1 percent. Financials were the biggest weight after the U.S. Senate delayed a vote on a tax reform bill that investors anticipate will be beneficial for banks. Lloyds, Barclays, and BNP Paribas led the index down. Oil and gas stocks stayed buoyant, with Shell, Total and BP leading sector gains as OPEC’s extension of supply cuts continued to boost crude prices. Healthcare stocks outperformed thanks to a Morgan Stanley upgrade boosting UCB by 3.3 percent while Novo Nordisk , flagged as one of the strategists’ favourites in the pharma space, gained 2.8 percent. British pharma company Indivior also shot up 11.7 percent after its opioid addiction drug got approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Struggling French telecom company Altice - whose shares sank 59 percent in November after disappointing results - rose 4.6 percent after the company said it would sell data centre and Swiss telecoms businesses in a bid to reduce its 50 billion euro debt pile. Meanwhile shares in Dialog Semiconductor, hammered on Thursday by a press report Apple would in-source its power chip design, removing a crucial supplier relationship for the German firm, recovered to trade up 4 percent. Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-stocks-dip-as-financials-wilt-on-u-s-tax-bill-disappointment-idUSL8N1O116F'|'2017-12-01T10:47:00.000+02:00'
'8d7675f60d8ff3b798de35fda4bcb659a0cd11e7'|'Digital news outlets are in for a reckoning - Buzz killed'|'GREAT expectations attended digital journalism outfits. Firms such as BuzzFeed and Mashable were the hip kids destined to conquer the internet with their younger, advertiser-friendly audience, smart manipulation of social media and affinity for technology. They seemed able to generate massive web traffic and, with it, ad revenues. They saw the promise of video, predicting that advertising dollars spent on television would migrate online. Their investors, including Comcast, Disney and General Atlantic, an investment firm, saw the same, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars each into Vice Media, BuzzFeed and Vox (giving them valuations of $5.7bn, $1.7bn and over $1bn, respectively).They have had successes. Some became ninjas in “SEO” long before most print journalists knew it stood for “search engine optimisation”. They introduced “clickbait” to the lexicon. Some, like BuzzFeed and Vice, worked out that fortunes were to be made in brand-supported viral hits—or “native advertising” that looks similar to the sites’ own snazzy editorial content. They gave the internet “listicles” like BuzzFeed’s “19 Mindblowing Historical Doppelgangers” (sponsored by Virgin Mobile) and uplifting stories, like those from Upworthy, where “you won’t believe what happened next”.  14   16   But a brutal winter is setting in. BuzzFeed will probably miss its revenue target, of $350m this year, by 15-20%, and is to lay off 100 of its 1,700 staff. Vice is also expected to fall short of its revenue target, of $800m. Mashable, a once-trendy site valued in 2016 at $250m, in November agreed to be sold for $50m to Ziff Davis, a print-turned-digital publisher. Other news sites are up for sale, cutting their staff or closing shop, sending ink-free scribes in search of work. Digital media are, in other words, enduring similar woes to their print peers. “There was this hype bubble that convinced everybody that these digitally native companies are different but they are not,” says an executive at one such previously overvalued firm. “People need to readjust their expectations.”The natives have run into much the same problem as print newspapers have encountered: the duopoly of Alphabet (owner of Google and YouTube) and Facebook. The tech giants rule digital advertising in two ways. First, by dominating the business of selling and servicing ads, they take a healthy cut of those sold by publishers themselves. Second, they get advertisers to bypass publishers and spend directly on their platforms. Such is the demand that AdStage reckons ad prices on Facebook nearly tripled in only eight months this year, to $11.17 per 1,000 impressions. That is still a lot cheaper than native advertising—the bespoke ads made by firms such as BuzzFeed and Vice. Google’s and Facebook’s tools for targeting users strike advertisers as a more efficient, scalable way to reach specific audiences.The duopoly are expected to get a majority of digital ad sales in America this year, and almost all of the growth. The media firms that supply Google and Facebook’s users with content are mere “vassals”, including digital news sites, says one executive. Digital publishers often act as such, attuning their strategies to the platforms in the chase for clicks. After Facebook prioritised video content last year, so many sites made a “pivot to video” that it became an industry joke. It has not worked out well, as short videos are difficult to make and monetise at volume.Publishers would be wiser to get users to stay on their own sites, so that they can profit from the relationship. Some are trying to do so with their journalism. Gizmodo Media Group, a group of tech and culture sites, has an investigative team. Vox makes in-depth explainer videos on current events. BuzzFeed regularly breaks big stories. The site holds its audience: the “bounce rate” of BuzzFeed’s visitors—the share that leave after visiting one page—is 34%, which compares pretty well with 54% for the New York Times (the numbers come from SimilarWeb, an analytics firm).Advertising still provides the bulk of revenue. But publishers are also selling things to visitors, both their own merchandise and other companies’ products, on which they take a cut. The Gizmodo sites (owned by Univision) get about one-quarter of their revenue from e-commerce; BuzzFeed has started doing the same. Membership fees may be another option.Smaller digital operations are also using a variety of strategies. The Ringer, a sports and culture site in Los Angeles, has established a niche in podcasts, on which it generates millions in sponsorship. The Information, in San Francisco, has more than 10,000 subscribers paying $399 a year for its technology news. At VTDigger, a non-profit site started by a laid-off journalist, dogged coverage of politics and corruption in Vermont has attracted strong readership and a mix of donations, grants and sponsorships from local businesses. There are several clear paths to long-term survival, but not to billion-dollar valuations. Expectations have indeed been readjusted.  Business   "Buzz kill"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21731875-sites-vox-buzzfeed-and-mashable-once-seemed-poised-overtake-their-peers-print-no?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-30T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'cf04ab1056a1684e124e7ba98ab6a565a9593e2b'|'Asian manufacturing expands further, but China remains a risk'|'LONDON (Reuters) - In 2014, a few days after she took over as chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen admitted that she could not fathom the “very worrisome” trend of weak wage growth for American workers.Pedestrians pass a sign advertising a sale and a job opening at a shop on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/Files Now, as she nears the end of her four-year term, the problem remains a mystery, and not only in the United States.In many countries, more people are in work than before the global financial crisis as the world economy racks up its strongest growth since 2010.But pay, which would normally rise more quickly as employers compete for staff, is rising painfully slowly for many.The living standards hit has big implications, fuelling the frustration of many voters who have dealt stinging rebukes to establishment candidates in elections around the world, most notably the victory of U.S. President Donald Trump last year.And if the pattern doesn’t change soon, it’s likely to take its toll on many of the world’s advanced economies in 2019 just as they finally emerge from the hangover of the financial crisis, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says.U.S. data due on Friday is expected to show another solid month for job creation in November but more attention is likely to be on workers’ earnings which showed the weakest rise in a year-and-a-half in October, up by an annual 2.4 percent.That’s an improvement from growth of less than 2 percent as recently 2015 but before the financial crisis, American wages were growing by as much as 3.6 percent a year.The weak wage numbers raise big questions about how fast inflation is likely to pick up - it has undershot the Fed’s target for more than five years - and how many more interest rate hikes the U.S. central bank is likely to make in response.The Fed is widely expected to raise rates for the third time in 2017 on Dec. 13 and investors are more on edge about what message it will send about its plans 2018.If wage growth is weak in the United States, the picture is bleaker for workers in many other countries.In Britain, workers are facing the prospect of nearly two lost decades for earnings growth, taking inflation into account, according to new official forecasts.For OECD economies overall, real wage growth is projected to remain moderate, barely picking up speed over the next couple of years, the Paris-based organization says.Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Aberdeen Standard Investments in Edinburgh, said there were signs that some U.S. employers were starting to raise their pay.U.S. retailer Target Corp said in September it would increase its minimum hourly wage this year by a dollar to $11 and to $15 an hour by the end of 2020.“But the uptrend is very gentle,” Milligan said.Economists think the cause of the global earnings slowdown, at least in part, has to do with escalating competition in the world economy, and the rise of giant online corporations such as Amazon and Uber, which is squeezing many employers.Yellen has said she thinks America’s tight labour markets will ultimately lead to rising prices. But her successor Jerome Powell, who replaces her in February, has yet to show how convinced he is.While the Fed is likely to have to wait longer than its meeting in December for signs of a sustained pickup in pay growth, it will have a good sense of the fate of President Trump’s plans to cut corporate and individual taxes which have the potential to speed up growth and inflation more quickly.Politics are key to the economic outlook in Europe too, especially with the Brexit negotiations entering a key phase.British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Brussels on Monday.After long-awaited signs of progress on key issues such as the size of Britain’s Brexit divorce bill, sterling has risen in recent days, hitting a two-month high against the U.S. dollar.If Monday’s meeting is deemed by Brussels to have produced sufficient progress, then EU leaders could give a green light to trade talks at a summit on Dec. 14-15, reducing the risk of a chaotic British departure from the bloc.Britain’s economy is growing more slowly than most of its European peers and investors are watching for signs that the euro zone recovery can keep up its recovery.Hetal Mehta, an economist at Legal & General Investment Management, said German factory orders data on Wednesday would give a forward-looking signal of whether exporters are continuing to cope with the rise in the euro currency.Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Toby Chopra '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-economy/asian-manufacturing-expands-further-but-china-remains-a-risk-idINKBN1DV3OE'|'2017-12-01T06:51:00.000+02:00'
'f6fdd11472d3abb3441b56fe9e015f70b2ea08c3'|'Aetna''s board set to approve $68 sale to CVS Health: sources'|'(Reuters) - Aetna Inc’s ( AET.N ) board of directors approved on Sunday the U.S. health insurer’s sale to drugstore chain operator CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) for approximately $207 per share in cash and stock, according to people familiar with the matter.People walk by a CVS Pharmacy store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton The $69 billion deal will be this year’s largest corporate acquisition. It will combine one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide.According to the agreed terms, Aetna shareholders stand to receive $145 per share in cash and 0.8378 CVS Health shares for each Aetna share, the sources said. The companies will announce the deal later on Sunday, the four sources added.Aetna shareholders will own about 22 percent of the combined company, while CVS shareholders will own the remainder, the sources said. Three Aetna directors, including Aetna’s Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini, will join CVS’s board of directors, the sources added.The sources requested not to be identified because the deal has not yet been announced. CVS and Aetna did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The deal comes as healthcare payers and pharmacies are responding to factors including the Affordable Care Act, rising drug prices and the threat of competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ).CVS plans to use its low-cost clinics to eventually save more than $1 billion per year on health care costs for Aetna’s roughly 23 million medical members, sources have said.A combined insurer and PBM will also likely be better placed to negotiate lower drug prices, and the arrangement could boost sales for CVS’s front-of-store retail business.The company expects to invest billions of dollars in the coming years to add clinics and services, largely financed by diverting funds away from other planned investments.That could eventually cut costs substantially, with the clinics serving as an alternative to more expensive hospital emergency room visits.Meanwhile, deeper collaboration between Aetna’s insurance business and CVS’s PBM division could drive down drug costs by adding clients and boosting the PBM’s leverage with drugmakers.Independent PBMs have long been criticized for potential conflicts of interest with insurance company clients, because they could potentially keep cost savings from drug negotiations rather than passing them on to patients.FILE PHOTO: Mark Bertolini, Chairman and CEO of Aetna, participates in a panel discussion at the 2015 Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco, California November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo Aetna patient visits to CVS stores for health care and prescriptions could also boost front-of-store sales, which like those at many retailers have fallen in recent quarters amid competition from online sellers.Health insurers meanwhile have sought to cut costs amid steep prescription drug price rises and requirements to care for even the sickest patients under the Affordable Care Act.Aetna last year tried to buy rival Humana Inc ( HUM.N ) to gain leverage to control costs, but U.S. antitrust regulators shot down that transaction and a proposed merger between Anthem Inc ( ANTM.N ) and Cigna Corp ( CI.N ).Analysts have said the CVS-Aetna deal could prompt other healthcare sector mega-mergers, as rivals scramble to emulate the strategy.It could spur a merger between Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc ( WBA.O ) and Humana Inc ( HUM.N ), or between Humana and Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ), Ana Gupte, analyst at Leerink Partners, said recently.VERTICAL MERGER Although CVS and Aetna’s planned merger does not directly consolidate the health insurance or pharmaceutical industries, the U.S. Department of Justice has been taking a closer look at so-called vertical mergers, where the companies are not direct competitors.Last month, the Justice Department sued to block AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) planned $85.4 billion merger with Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), saying the integration of a content producer with a distributor could reduce consumer choice.The CVS-Aetna deal could attract similar scrutiny if regulators feared it could block Aetna customers from frequenting other pharmacies or contracting with other PBMs, several investors said, asking not to be named because they were not authorized to talk to the press.But four antitrust experts said there is little doubt the deal will be approved, although it might need to meet conditions to convince antitrust enforcers to sign off.It is unclear whether it would be evaluated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or the Justice Department but that decision might be made based on which agency is less busy, said Matthew Cantor of law firm Constantine Cannon.“(The companies) want the FTC to get it. The reason that the FTC is better at this point is that the Justice Department has just broken with decades of precedent of how to deal with vertical mergers,” said Cantor, referring to the decision to refuse conduct remedies and file a lawsuit to stop AT&T from buying Time Warner.Reporting by Carl O''Donnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aetna-m-a-cvs-health/aetnas-board-set-to-approve-68-billion-sale-to-cvs-health-sources-idINKBN1DX0NC'|'2017-12-03T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'ac0f8e3bb4012652fdde7e4bf7c68b9181117040'|'Aetna''s board set to approve $68 billion sale to CVS Health - sources'|'December 3, 2017 / 4:31 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago CVS Health to acquire Aetna for $69 billion in year''s largest acquisition Carl O''Donnell , Caroline Humer 7 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. drugstore chain operator CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire U.S. health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) for $69 billion (51.36 billion pounds), seeking to tackle soaring healthcare spending through lower-cost medical services in pharmacies. FILE PHOTO: People walk by a CVS Pharmacy store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo This year’s largest corporate acquisition will combine one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers, whose national business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans. The deal comes after Aetna’s $37 billion plan to acquire smaller U.S. health insurance peer Humana Inc ( HUM.N ) was blocked in January by a U.S. federal judge over antitrust concerns. A proposed combination of peers Anthem Inc ( ANTM.N ) and Cigna Corp ( CI.N ) was also shot down. Aetna shareholders stand to receive $207 per share in the deal with CVS, the companies said. The consideration comprises $145 per share in cash and 0.8378 CVS shares for each Aetna share. Reuters first reported the terms of the deal earlier on Sunday. Aetna shareholders will own about 22 percent of the combined company, while CVS shareholders will own the remainder. The companies said that cost synergies in the second full year after the transaction closes -- 2020 if the deal closes in the second half of 2018 as they expect -- would amount to $750 million. They foresee it adding to adjusted earnings per share by the low- to mid-single digit percentage points. Their vision expands beyond capitalizing on CVS’ existing MinuteClinic structure, which largely offers preventative services like flu shots, the companies’ chief executives said in an interview. “When you walk into CVS there’s the pharmacy. What if there’s a vision and audiology centre, and perhaps a nutritionist, and some sort of care manager?” CVS CEO Larry Merlo said. Aetna will be operated as a separate unit and Aetna’s existing leadership is expected to run the Aetna businesses, Merlo said. Aetna will have two of its directors, in addition to Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini join the board of CVS. The deal comes as healthcare payers and pharmacies are responding to a shifting landscape, including changes in the Affordable Care Act, rising drug prices and the threat of competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ). CVS plans to use its low-cost clinics to provide medical services to Aetna’s roughly 23 million medical members. In addition to health clinics and medical equipment, CVS could provide assistance with vision, hearing and nutrition. A combined insurer and PBM will also likely be better placed to negotiate lower drug prices, and the arrangement could boost sales for CVS’s front-of-store retail business. The company expects to invest billions of dollars in the coming years to add clinics and services, largely financed by diverting funds away from other planned investments. That could eventually cut costs substantially, with the clinics serving as an alternative to more expensive hospital emergency room visits. A trader points up at a display on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange August 20, 2012. Health insurer Aetna Inc said on Monday that it would buy rival Coventry Health Care Inc for $5.6 billion to increase its share of the fast-growing, U.S. government-backed Medicare and Medicaid programs. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Meanwhile, deeper collaboration between Aetna’s insurance business and CVS’s PBM division could drive down drug costs by adding clients and boosting the PBM’s leverage with drugmakers. Independent PBMs have long been criticized for potential conflicts of interest with insurance company clients, because they could potentially keep cost savings from drug negotiations rather than passing them on to patients. Health insurers meanwhile have sought to cut costs amid steep prescription drug price rises and requirements to care for even the sickest patients under the Affordable Care Act. Large corporate customers of Aetna are taking a wait-and-see attitude regarding the impact on costs, benefits experts have said. Analysts have said the CVS-Aetna deal could prompt other healthcare sector mega-mergers, as rivals scramble to emulate the strategy. FILE PHOTO: Mark Bertolini, Chairman and CEO of Aetna, participates in a panel discussion at the 2015 Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco, California November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo It could spur a merger between Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc ( WBA.O ) and Humana Inc ( HUM.N ), or between Humana and Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ), Ana Gupte, analyst at Leerink Partners, said recently. VERTICAL MERGER Although CVS and Aetna’s planned merger does not directly consolidate the health insurance or pharmaceutical industries, the U.S. Department of Justice has been taking a closer look at so-called vertical mergers, where the companies are not direct competitors. Last month, the Justice Department sued to block AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) planned $85.4 billion merger with Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), saying the integration of a content producer with a distributor could reduce consumer choice. The CVS-Aetna deal could attract similar scrutiny if regulators feared it could block Aetna customers from frequenting other pharmacies or contracting with other PBMs, several investors said, asking not to be named because they were not authorized to talk to the press. But four antitrust experts said there is little doubt the deal will be approved, although it might need to meet conditions to convince antitrust enforcers to sign off. It is unclear whether it would be evaluated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or the Justice Department but that decision might be made based on which agency is less busy, said Matthew Cantor of law firm Constantine Cannon. “(The companies) want the FTC to get it. The reason that the FTC is better at this point is that the Justice Department has just broken with decades of precedent of how to deal with vertical mergers,” said Cantor, referring to the decision to refuse conduct remedies and file a lawsuit to stop AT&T Inc ( T.N ) from buying Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ). Barclays and Goldman Sachs served as financial advisers to CVS, and Centerview Partners also provided financial advice to CVS’s board. Shearman & Sterling LLP, Dechert LLP, and McDermott Will & Emery LLP were legal advisers to CVS. Lazard Ltd and Allen & Company LLC were financial advisers to Aetna and Evercore served as independent financial adviser to Aetna’s board. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP was Aetna’s legal adviser. Reporting by Carl O''Donnell and Carl Humer in New York; Additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aetna-m-a-cvs-health/aetnas-board-set-to-approve-68-billion-sale-to-cvs-health-sources-idUKKBN1DX0NM'|'2017-12-03T18:31:00.000+02:00'
'477f674cb859712d95a195682eb1c234337a4b7a'|'As bitcoin’s price passes $10,000, its rise seems unstoppable - A lot of zeros'|'MOST money these days is electronic—a series of ones and zeros on a computer. So it is rather neat that bitcoin, a privately created electronic currency, has lurched from $1,000 to above $10,000 this year (see chart), an epic journey to add an extra zero.  13   15   On the way, the currency has been controversial. Jamie Dimon, the boss of JPMorgan Chase, has called it a fraud. Nouriel Roubini, an economist, plumped for “gigantic speculative bubble”. Ordinary investors are being tempted into bitcoin by its rapid rise—a phenomenon dubbed FOMO (fear of missing out). Both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, America’s largest futures market, and the NASDAQ stock exchange have seemingly added their imprimaturs by planning to offer bitcoin-futures contracts.It is easy to muddle two separate issues. One is whether the “blockchain” technology that underpins bitcoin becomes more widely adopted. Blockchains, distributed ledgers that record transactions securely, may prove very useful in some areas of finance, and beyond. The second is whether bitcoin will become a widely adopted currency in everyday life. Here the evidence is weak.Bitcoin can be used to buy a few things. But a currency has three main functions: store of value; means of exchange; and unit of account. Bitcoin’s volatility, seen when it fell 20% within minutes on November 29th before rebounding, makes it both a nerve-racking store of value and a poor means of exchange. Imagine buying an iPhone X with bitcoin in January. You would by now be cursing as the same coin could buy ten phones—Christmas gifts for the whole family.A currency is also a unit of account for debt. Paul Mortimer-Lee of BNP Paribas, a French bank, tartly remarks: “Imagine if you had financed your house with a bitcoin mortgage.” This year your debt would have risen tenfold. Your salary, paid in dollars, euros or whatever, would not have kept pace. Put another way, had bitcoin been widely used, the last year might have been massively deflationary.Such issues will be of minor concern to those who managed to buy bitcoin earlier in the year. They will just be delighted with the profits. But why has the price risen so fast? One justification for the existence of bitcoin is that central banks, via quantitative easing (QE), are debasing fiat money and laying the path to hyperinflation. But this seems a very odd moment for that view to gain adherents. Inflation remains low and the Federal Reserve is pushing up interest rates and unwinding QE.A more likely explanation is that as new and easier ways to trade in bitcoin become available, more investors are willing to take the plunge. As the supply of bitcoin is limited by design, that drives up the price.But it is worth remembering that the cost of using bitcoin is going up. Each transaction has to be verified by “miners” who need a lot of computing power to do so, and a lot of energy: 275kWh for every transaction, according to Digiconomist, a website. In total, bitcoin uses as much electricity a year as Morocco, or enough to power 2.8m American households. All this costs much than processing credit-card transactions via Visa or MasterCard.The miners are rewarded for their efforts by being paid in bitcoin; they are delighted by the rise in the currency’s price. But some are finding ingenious ways to cut back on their energy costs; one even put computers in his Tesla car so he could mine bitcoins using its free charging stations. Much mining is done in parts of China where electricity is cheap.There are two ways of thinking about this. One is that the eventual price of bitcoin will equal the marginal cost of mining, which may be rising but is well below the current price. The second is that institutions will not want to use the technology if it relies on such a “Wild West” process; banks are already looking at cheaper forms of blockchain technology.Whether the investors driving the price higher are pondering all this is open to doubt. It looks like a re-run of the dotcom craze. Adverts for trading digital currencies are appearing on the London tube and celebrities have piled onto the bandwagon. As seen many times before, when lots of investors buy an illiquid asset, the price can rise exponentially.The top is hard to call. At some point, the urge to turn all those digital zeros into cars and iPhones will prove too great. Getting out of an illiquid asset—as this week, when exchanges struggled to cope with trading volumes—can be harder than getting into it. Some remember Nathan Rothschild’s remark about the secret of his wealth: “I always sold too soon.”  Finance and economics   "A lot of zeros"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21731827-getting-out-such-illiquid-asset-can-be-harder-getting-bitcoins?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-02T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'4286585c15bdee02b53e23acd03c383b3f8efac8'|'Nikkei slips as tech shares follow U.S. counterparts down'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:27 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Nikkei slips as tech shares follow U.S. counterparts down Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped on Tuesday with semiconductor equipment manufacturers’ stocks hit by weakness in U.S. tech shares overnight, undercutting gains for banks and brokerages. The Nikkei ended 0.4 percent lower at 22,622.38, but the broader Topix added 0.2 percent to 1,790.97. . Manufacturers of chip-manufacturing equipment lost ground, with Tokyo Electron sliding 2.8 percent and Advantest Corp shedding 1.8 percent. Silicon wafer maker Sumco Corp tumbled 4.1 percent. Banks and brokers, like their U.S. counterparts overnight, gained. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group advanced 1.0 percent and Nomura Holdings climbed 1.6 percent. Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-slips-as-tech-shares-follow-u-s-counterparts-down-idUSL3N1O52BU'|'2017-12-05T08:27:00.000+02:00'
'9c79fc12889ffbbbe7c3e73ca6115021659c7791'|'Singapore''s Pavilion Energy hires Gazprom executive as CEO'|'SINGAPORE, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Singapore’s Pavilion Energy has appointed Gazprom executive Frederic Barnaud as its new chief executive, effective from February next year, the company said on Tuesday.Barnaud, a French national, is currently the chief commercial officer of liquefied natural gas, oil and shipping for the Gazprom Marketing and Trading Group based in London.He will replace Seah Moon Ming as chief executive of Pavilion Energy and its subsidiary Pavilion Gas.Earlier this year, Seah was appointed chairman of Singapore’s SMRT Corp.Pavilion Energy was set up in April 2013 by Temasek Holdings , Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and is focused on LNG investment. (Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/pavilionenergy-ceo/singapores-pavilion-energy-hires-gazprom-executive-as-ceo-idUSL3N1O536E'|'2017-12-05T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'eb39a151fd9cae8ffa6e98b8dca5e17d8cadf0a2'|'British outsourcer Mitie takes property management unit off the market'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:58 AM / in 27 minutes British outsourcer Mitie takes property management unit off the market Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British outsourcing company Mitie Group said it would not sell its property management unit, as it saw “greater shareholder and strategic value in keeping the business”. “Mitie’s Board considered all indicative offers received for this profitable business, and concluded that none were at a sufficient level with which to proceed,” the company said on Tuesday. The provider of pest control, cleaning, security and healthcare services is restructuring after a string of profit warnings, which it has blamed on rising costs and uncertainty surrounding Britain’s planned exit from the European Union. Britain’s Financial Reporting Council is also examining how Mitie’s 2015-16 financial statements were prepared and approved. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mitie-group-restructuring/british-outsourcer-mitie-takes-property-management-unit-off-the-market-idUKKBN1DZ1D6'|'2017-12-05T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'26d881ddf3d4e2508ee11ff38dec0906fed697ff'|'Thyssenkrupp chairman rejects investor call for breakup - Handelsblatt'|'December 5, 2017 / 7:24 AM / in 10 minutes Thyssenkrupp chairman rejects investor call for breakup - Handelsblatt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) Chairman Ulrich Lehner has rejected investor calls to break up the industrial group and backed top management’s plan to transform the firm into a technology group, Germany’s Handelsblatt reported, citing an interview. ThyssenKrupp supervisory board chairman Ulrich Lehner addresses the company''s annual shareholders meeting in Bochum, Germany, January 27, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen “Breaking up the group is not at all an issue,” Lehner was quoted as saying by the business daily in an interview published on Tuesday. Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger, who has run the group since 2011, is steering the firm away from the volatile steel sector and aims to transform it into a technology group focused on car parts and elevators. It has struck a deal to combine its European steel businesses with that of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) next year and is facing pressure over the planned merger from its labour unions. Cevian Capital, which holds around 18 percent in Thyssenkrupp, has criticized the management’s transformation course for failing to boost profitability and called for structural changes to the group to help it become more agile. “If an investor positions itself publicly in such a way, then this hurts the company,” Lehner said. The head of Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board gave his backing to Hiesinger ahead of a meeting with the CEO and Cevian founder Lars Foerberg on Tuesday, according to Handelsblatt. “The team around Heinrich Hiesinger is doing an excellent job,” Lehner said. “It has the full support of the supervisory board and I appreciate the cooperation very much.” “A breakup is not an optional issue that one can deal with carelessly,” Lehner said. “If there was need to take action on that front, then this would also be addressed and discussed within the supervisory board.” Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-chairman/thyssenkrupp-chairman-rejects-investor-call-for-breakup-handelsblatt-idUKKBN1DZ0NY'|'2017-12-05T09:23:00.000+02:00'
'c0ccc7caf572a57c4aa7b5c74553305d10cc834c'|'ECB to supervise Barclays'' German branch after jump in assets'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:11 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago ECB to supervise Barclays'' German branch after jump in assets Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The German branch of UK bank Barclays will come under European Central Bank’s supervision from next year due to an increase in bank’s size, the ECB said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: A Barclays logo is pictured outside the Barclays towers in Johannesburg, South Africa, December 16, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo Barclays already has banks that are directly supervised by the ECB in France and Italy, as well units overseen by local regulators in Ireland, Spain and The Netherlands. SEB AG and Raiffeisen-Holding Niederösterreich-Wien were meanwhile no longer deemed significant banks so the ECB will hand direct supervision over to local authorities, the ECB said. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-barclays-ecb/ecb-to-supervise-barclays-german-branch-after-jump-in-assets-idUKKBN1DZ15I'|'2017-12-05T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'7691831f105cfcce575a12ec97c763bfb3065499'|'India says debt rollover risk in next five years low'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Indian government’s debt rollover risk in the next five years is low given the amount of domestic debt that needs to be repaid every year is an average of 5.3 percent of its outstanding stock, it said in a report on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: An India Rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The rollover risks will get further mitigated through buyback or switching of short-end bonds with longer tenure papers by the government in the market, it said in its quarterly debt management report.“The implementation of budgeted buyback/switches in coming period is expected to reduce rollover risk further,” the finance ministry said.India bought back 170.16 billion rupees worth of bonds maturing in 2017/18 and sold in its place 2024/25 and 2029/30 papers to a bank in June under one of its switches, it said in the report.The government also bought back 277.67 billion rupees of short-dated securities last week as a part of its debt management operation to reduce risks of bulk payouts next year.Meanwhile, banks’ holding of government debt as of end-March eased to 40.5 percent of outstanding stock from 41.8 percent a year ago, while insurers increased their holdings to 22.9 percent from 22.2 percent in March 2016.The central bank’s holding of sovereign debt also went up to 14.7 percent of the total stock as of March 2017 from 13.5 percent a year ago.Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-govt-debt/india-says-debt-rollover-risk-in-next-5-years-low-idINKBN1DZ117'|'2017-12-05T11:32:00.000+02:00'
'322fe2aa7f334ab6473cd34ff7c7990d5e471076'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips as miners, banks weigh'|'* TSX down 40.69 points, or 0.25 percent, at 15,928.34* Six of the TSX’s 10 main groups move higherTORONTO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index edged lower on Tuesday, as mining stocks weighed with lower commodity prices and banks pulled back at the end of their earnings season while consumer, technology and telecom shares ticked up.* At 10:01 a.m. ET (1501 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 40.69 points, or 0.25 percent, at 15,928.34. Six of its 10 main groups were higher while decliners were outnumbering advancers by more than 2-to-1.* Licensed marijuana producer Aphria Inc surged 19.5 percent to C$13.88 after saying it had reached a deal to supply medical cannabis to Loblaw Cos Ltd’s pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart.* Bombardier Inc rose 1 percent to C$3.17 after two sources said Aeromexico has held preliminary talks to take some of its CSeries jets orders from Delta Air Lines Inc, which owns a stake in the Mexican carrier, to avoid possible U.S. trade duties levied on the planes.* The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 0.5 percent as miners of copper, nickel, zinc and other base metals were hit hard by falling commodity prices.* First Quantum Mineral Ltd fell 3.9 percent to C$14.64 and Lundin Mining Corp lost 2.6 percent to C$6.875 as copper prices declined 3.5 percent to $6,588 a tonne, the lowest level in nearly two months.* The heavyweight energy group was little changed, while Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd fell 1.1 percent to C$16.87 after saying late on Monday that the start-up of its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion could be delayed past September 2020.* The financials group slipped 0.3 percent as bank earnings season wrapped up, with Bank of Montreal slipping 0.7 percent to C$98.88 despite reporting adjusted profit that beat analysts’ estimates and Bank of Nova Scotia down 0.9 percent to C$80.91 after its bid for a majority stake in BBVA Chile was formally accepted. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-slips-as-miners-banks-weigh-idUSL1N1O511L'|'2017-12-05T23:13:00.000+02:00'
'ee9621b2e01690a20c5863dc5cdfa268c46f8435'|'Maduro''s cryptocurrency to fare no better than Venezuela itself'|'December 5, 2017 / 8:38 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Maduro''s cryptocurrency to fare no better than Venezuela itself Brian Ellsworth 4 Min Read CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s plan to create an oil-backed cryptocurrency faces the same credibility problems that dog the ruling Socialist Party in financial markets and is unlikely to fare any better than the struggling OPEC member itself, investors and technical experts say. FILE PHOTO - Venezuela''s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during his weekly radio and TV broadcast "Los Domingos con Maduro" (The Sundays with Maduro) in Caracas, Venezuela November 12, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday floated a plan to create the “petro” that would be backed by the world’s largest crude reserves, amid a crippling economic crisis worsened by U.S. sanctions that limit Venezuela’s capacity to borrow money. Cryptocurrencies rely on confidence in clear rules and equal treatment of all involved, three experts said, adding that Venezuela is widely seen as flouting basic property rights and mismanaging its existing bolivar currency. Without such confidence, the “petro” would neither help Venezuela raise funds nor help it avoid sanctions levied by the government of U.S. President Donald Trump. “If any government is willing to set up a fair set of rules for a cryptocurrency, it would be a great thing,” said Sean Walsh of Redwood City Ventures, a bitcoin and blockchain-focused investment firm. “But if an administration has a history of unfair treatment of the population, then tacking on a buzzword like ‘cryptocurrency’ isn’t going to change that behaviour.” The Information Ministry did not respond to   Bitcoin, the world''s most popular cryptocurrency, has soared in recent weeks to nearly $12,000 BTC=BTSP in what detractors call evidence of a bubble but supporters insist is the start of a new monetary system not dependent on central banks. Venezuela’s inflation is expected to top 1,000 percent this year, driven by unchecked expansion of the money supply and a currency control system that critics say provides favourable treatment to well-connected officials and businessmen at the expense of everyday citizens. ‘DO WE TRUST VENEZUELA?’ Under the 15-year-old foreign exchange regime, state agencies receive dollars to import food and medicine at a rate of 10 bolivars while private citizens now pay more than 108,000 per greenback on the black market. The black market rate has depreciated more than 99 percent under Maduro. Basic food and medical items are increasingly out of reach for most citizens, fuelling malnutrition and preventable diseases. Maduro says the country is victim of an “economic war” led by political adversaries with the support of Washington. Maduro has not outlined the rules that would govern the proposed currency, including what rights its holders would have over Venezuela’s oil reserves. “The fact that the bolivar’s value has plummeted shows that people have very little faith in Venezuela,” said Yazan Barghuthi of Jibrel Network, a blockchain development firm. “A tokenised asset will still have the same problem: Do we trust the institution that is backing this to fulfil the promises that this token represents?” U.S. sanctions, in response to accusations of human rights violations and undermining of democracy, have effectively blocked the country from issuing new debt and have made global banks increasingly wary of working with Venezuela. But Venezuela is unlikely to find foreign companies willing to accept payment for food or medicine in newly minted petros and has little chance of convincing creditors to accept them in lieu of dollars when making payments on its distressed bonds, the experts said. “Given that there is no stable judicial system in Venezuela, no one will trust anything that the government claims is backed by assets of any kind,” wrote Marshall Swatt, founder of bitcoin exchange Coinsetter, in an email. “Even if the technology were proper and prevented government meddling (impossible to imagine), it is dead on arrival.” Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-venezuela-economy/maduros-cryptocurrency-to-fare-no-better-than-venezuela-itself-idUKKBN1DZ2XY'|'2017-12-05T22:37:00.000+02:00'
'21ef39d428e6257511edacdcbaf4a710899cd2e4'|'China''s Sinochem seeking to sell logistics unit for $530 million'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Sinochem International Corp ( 600500.SS ) said it has put up its logistics unit for sale by public auction, aiming to raise about 3.5 billion yuan ($530 million) - part of the Sinochem conglomerate’s efforts to respond to Beijing’s push for a slimmer state sector.A logo of Sinochem is seen outside an office building of Sinochem in Beijing, China, February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj Bidders for Sinochem International Logistics - also China’s largest liquid chemicals vessel owner with nearly 80 tankers - include a consortium comprised of Ordos City Junzheng Energy & Chemical Co Ltd and two other firms, the logistics firm’s parent company said in a filing late on Monday.The auction was launched in early November.Some Chinese private equity firms are also interested in the logistics unit, sources with knowledge of the talks said, adding that a deal is likely to be finalised before the end of the year.Sinochem is leaning towards picking the consortium over other suitors, said one source with direct knowledge of the matter. The other two firms in the consortium are Beijing Chunguang Land Real Estate Development Co Ltd and Beijing Huatai Xingnong Agriculture Science & Technology Co Ltd.Sinochem Group did not respond to a request for comment. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media.Beijing is keen to improve the efficiency of the state sector by injecting private capital and has launched so-called mixed-ownership reforms.Sinochem aims to abandon what its chairman, Frank Ning, recently described as “scattered resource allocation” and transform itself into a conglomerate with a strong foundation in petrochemicals but with growth driven by its material science and life science businesses.Sinochem is also reviewing its struggling oil exploration and other less key businesses in what would amount to a major transformation for the oil and chemicals behemoth, sources have said previously.China’s State-Owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission is pressuring all state-owned firms to concentrate on where they are most competitive, said one of the sources with knowledge of the talks.“The diversified conglomerates will probably start to shrink closer to their core businesses,” said the source.Reuters reported in October that Sinochem had tapped three banks including Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) to work on a possible Hong Kong listing of its best oil assets.Sinochem International Logistics logged 4 billion yuan in revenue last year while net profit jumped 10 percent to 435 million yuan, its parent firm said in a filing last month.Established in 2010, the logistics unit is responsible for storing and transporting fuel and chemical goods including potentially flammable and dangerous ones.($1 = 6.6115 Chinese yuan)Reporting by Julie Zhu and Kane Wu; Additional reporting by Matt Miller and Chen Aizhu in Beijing; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sinochem-logistics/chinas-sinochem-seeking-to-sell-logistics-unit-for-530-million-idINKBN1DZ0NW'|'2017-12-05T04:26:00.000+02:00'
'f9ef7d7e07d3d85aa0c5a296200efa365bebd13b'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX flat as miner losses offset by energy, bank gains'|'December 1, 2017 / 1:13 PM / Updated 35 minutes ago TSX slips as miners weigh; energy stocks and CIBC shine Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada’s benchmark stock index ended lower on Friday, weighed by losses among gold miners and other materials stocks while shares in energy companies rose with higher crude oil and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ( CM.TO ) extended gains after earnings. The Toronto Stock Exchange sign is seen in Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The Toronto Stock Exchange''s S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE unofficially closed down 28.51 points, or 0.18 percent, at 16,038.97. It lost 0.4 percent over the course of the week. Reporting by Alastair Sharp'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-stocks/canada-stock-futures-little-changed-ahead-of-economic-data-idUSKBN1DV4VJ'|'2017-12-01T16:43:00.000+02:00'
'e5fe907022e3c00b4b96ad9cc2db5429f790eba5'|'Exclusive - More Chinese lenders plan to pursue Reliance Communications in insolvency court: sources'|'HONG KONG/MUMBAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Two major Chinese lenders plan to support a move by China Development Bank to put Indian wireless carrier Reliance Communications (RCom) into insolvency court as they seek to recover about $2 billion in debt, said three people with knowledge of the matter.A man opens the shutter of a shop painted with an advertisement of Reliance Communications in Mumbai, November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files Last month, CDB began insolvency proceedings against RCom, which has been trying for months to restructure its debt via a debt-for-equity swap. Now, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country’s biggest-listed lender by assets, and Export-Import Bank of China, plan to back CDB, the sources said.The combined effort would be a rare tilt against an Indian conglomerate by a group of Chinese lenders, keen to boost their presence in India.And it would also further jeopardize Anil Ambani-controlled RCom’s efforts to restructure out of court. RCom last week said the majority of its creditors will oppose CDB’s insolvency bid.With total debt of 457.33 billion rupees ($7.1 billion) as of end March, RCom is the most-leveraged of all listed telecoms carriers in India. The company has not reported its debt level since then.The CDB petition seeking insolvency proceeding against RCom is not on behalf of all three Chinese banks, but the banks are “on the same page”, said one of the people with knowledge of the development.If needed, the other two banks will file their own petitions at India’s National Company Law Tribunal, which hears bankruptcy cases in the country, the person said.Two other people with knowledge of the Chinese banks’ plans also confirmed that ICBC and Export-Import Bank would seek to join the insolvency bid unless the parties reach an out-of-court settlement.The people spoke to Reuters on condition they not be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.RCom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.ICBC declined to comment, while the other two Chinese banks and the mobile carrier’s top Indian lender, State Bank of India, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.DEBT RESTRUCTURING There has not been any consensus yet on whether Indian banks would oppose the CDB petition as the Joint Lenders’ Forum, that comprises all banks that have lent to RCom, is yet to meet following the filing of the insolvency plea, according to two sources.The sources also said that there is no concrete mechanism for other lenders to block insolvency proceedings initiated against a creditor by one of their peers.An out-of-the-court settlement between RCom and the Chinese lenders would be “very difficult” from the Chinese banks’ perspective as they were frustrated that RCom had not kept promises it made previously on debt repayment, one of the people said.In June, RCom’s group of largely domestic lenders agreed to restructure its debt under the Indian central bank’s Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) rule that allows banks to own a majority stake in a company by swapping part of their loans for equity.That plan hinged on two deals that RCom hoped would cut its debt load by 60 percent, but both deals fell apart after months of talks.Since then, RCom has pledged to do a new asset sales programme to repay debt. Bankers have also held off on the debt-equity swap with RCom’s stock falling to less than half of the agreed swap price.RCom said last week the lenders who planned to oppose the CDB insolvency bid had appointed Indian law firm J. Sagar Associates to represent them.But Dina Wadia, joint managing partner at the law firm, told Reuters that her firm’s mandate, as of Saturday, was only to act for the group of lenders in the SDR process.RCom did not respond to Wadia’s statement.Reporting by Julie Zhu, Devidutta Tripathy, Shu Zhang; Editing by Euan Rocha and Martin Howell '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rcom-debt-banks/exclusive-more-chinese-lenders-plan-to-pursue-reliance-communications-in-insolvency-court-sources-idINKBN1DZ1T0'|'2017-12-05T15:13:00.000+02:00'
'de79a99d84672e05e06d50baeb16c6fee2492490'|'London Stock Exchange Group appoints Val Rahmani to male-majority board'|'December 5, 2017 / 3:56 PM / Updated 2 hours ago London Stock Exchange Group appoints Val Rahmani to male-majority board Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange Group said on Tuesday Val Rahmani would join the company as an independent non-executive director on Dec. 20. A woman walks past the London Stock Exchange building in the City of London, Britain, January 16 , 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Rahmani has previously been a non-executive director of Aberdeen Asset Management and is currently a non-executive director of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd and Computer Task Group Inc. Rahmani has held various positions at IBM, and LSE said in a statement her “considerable technology knowledge and expertise” was a significant benefit. Rahmani’s appointment will take place a day after LSE shareholders are scheduled to meet to decide if chairman Donald Brydon should be removed, as demanded by activist hedge fund TCI. Women directors are still relatively few in Britain despite government efforts to encourage companies to appoint more. During 2016, LSE signed Britain’s Women in Finance Charter, looking to ensure equality in the workplace. Currently, LSE’s ten-member board seats only one female. Last year, Virgin Money’s CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia oversaw the drawing up of the Charter, which had 162 signatories as of November, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Carolyn Cohn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-director/london-stock-exchange-group-appoints-val-rahmani-to-male-majority-board-idUKKBN1DZ2AP'|'2017-12-05T18:07:00.000+02:00'
'9c366eca36c648600ab7ae0b24d748a9497e982a'|'UPDATE 2-Icahn steps up attack on SandRidge, seeks executive pay records'|'(Recasts; adds comment by SandRidge)By Gary McWilliamsHOUSTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn has stepped up his attack on SandRidge Energy Inc’s proposal to buy a rival oil-and-gas producer, taking aim at the company’s top executives and calling for a release of records on the deal and executive pay, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.The document request came a day after Icahn called the company’s $746 million offer for Bonanza Creek Energy Inc “value-destroying,” and said he may solicit other holders to help overturn the company’s board of directors.Icahn wants to investigate the compensation of SandRidge''s senior management, including Chief Executive James Bennett, the deliberations involving its proposed acquisition of Bonanza Creek, and the recent poison pill plan laid out by SandRidge, according to the filing. ( bit.ly/2zIYusA )“These requests are common in these types of situations and we will address it in due course,” Oklahoma City-based SandRidge said in a statement on Friday.In a letter to SandRidge''s board on Thursday, Icahn said the shareholder rights plan adopted earlier this week was designed to prevent large shareholders from campaigning against the deal. ( bit.ly/2nllDjs )Icahn has accused the company’s management of reneging on a pledge not to “overpay for assets, overleverage itself or overcompensate its managers” and said a better use for its cash would be to buy back its own shares.The largest shareholder of SandRidge with an about 13.5 percent stake, Icahn had said he was prepared to begin litigation against the company.Several other SandRidge holders including Fir Tree Partners, which holds an about 8.3 percent stake, and Susquehanna Advisors Group with about 4 percent, have come out against the purchase.SandRidge has said its cash-and-stock offer for Bonanza Creek would expand its presence in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado, “adding a deep inventory of drill-ready locations” in an area where it already has substantial assets.SandRidge’s shares were up 1.2 percent at $18.83 in trading late on Friday, while Bonanza Creek was up 0.7 percent at $27.96. (Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Gary McWilliams in Houston; editing by Martina D‘Couto and Tom Brown) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sandridge-carl-icahn/update-1-icahn-wants-to-probe-sandridge-books-records-idINL3N1O14NE'|'2017-12-01T14:30:00.000+02:00'
'8f26bae5126ce1ba204e9b454d7830401295ad14'|'JGBs slip following retreat by U.S. Treasuries'|'TOKYO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Japanese government bond prices slipped on Friday with the market tracking an overnight retreat by U.S. Treasuries.The benchmark 10-year yield rose half a basis point to 0.035 percent and the 30-year yield was 1 basis point higher at 0.830 percent.JGB losses were limited as Tokyo’s Nikkei pared all its gains after rising as much as 1.1 percent early in the session.The Bank of Japan also offered to buy 960 billion yen ($8.53 billion) of 1- to 10-year JGBs at its regular debt-purchasing operation, helping to limit market losses.U.S. Treasury prices fell sharply on Thursday on news that Senator John McCain had endorsed the U.S. Senate tax bill, potentially easing challenges to its eventual passage in Congress.$1 = 112.5300 yen Reporting by the Tokyo markets team; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-bonds/jgbs-slip-following-retreat-by-u-s-treasuries-idINL3N1O11QY'|'2017-12-01T00:09:00.000+02:00'
'fff7312cec1a562ddc6613a6fc86115472f5b8cc'|'Venezuela bondholders meeting ended without pact on strategy -sources'|'Dec 1 (Reuters) - A meeting of Venezuelan bondholders on Thursday to discuss how to handle the government’s request to restructure $60 billion in outstanding bonds has yielded no clear strategy, sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told Reuters on Friday.The meeting in London, organized by UK-based hedge fund MacroSynergy Partners, was attended by about 60 creditors in person and 40 who listened in over the phone, the sources said.The group represents an estimated 75 to 80 percent of the institutions that hold debt from cash-strapped Venezuela and its state-run oil company, PDVSA.Attendees said the consensus was that it was too early to form an official committee since the country has continued paying its debt, even while missing some deadlines.“There are a bunch of guys who prefer to be behind the scenes, but there are people who believe that we should start to have a dialogue with the Venezuelans,” said one bondholder who was at the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.Among those in attendance were lawyers from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, including Lee Buchheit, a partner who specializes in sovereign debt restructurings, sources said.Rothschild, the Paris-based global advisory firm, also participated, two sources familiar with the meeting said, a sign that top financial firms are interested in advising on what could be one of the world’s most complex sovereign debt solutions ever negotiated.Another source, who listened to the meeting via telephone and also requested anonymity, said more meetings are expected before any kind of consensus is reached.“Bondholders have no clear strategy,” the source said. “Usually it takes three to five meetings for something to come together.”The creditors are seeking to overcome the dual problems of U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela and a lack of any concrete economic program from the government. Venezuela owes a substantial amount of debt to the Chinese and Russian governments, inhibiting their ability to free up cash for creditors.Venezuelan bonds were trading mostly in negative territory, with its 2019 $2.5 billion sovereign bond down more than 3 percent in price to 24.25. The PDVSA 2022 bond fell 2.7 percent to 27.30, with a yield of 79.2 percent. (Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Additional reporting by Sujata Rao in London and Paul Kilby in New York; editing by Grant McCool) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-debt/venezuela-bondholders-meeting-ended-without-pact-on-strategy-sources-idINL1N1O11OD'|'2017-12-01T16:30:00.000+02:00'
'13984c10081826e79d5697204c6f131c425b2657'|'Altice to sell Swiss telecom solutions, data centre businesses'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Altice ( ATCA.AS ) has agreed to sell its Swiss telecommunications solutions business and Data Center operations, the telecoms and cable company said on Friday, as it seeks to reduce its 50 billion euro ($59.6 billion) debt burden.The deal to sell Green.ch AG and Green Datacenter AG to InfraVia Capital Partners valued the business at around 214 million Swiss francs ($217.5 million), or 9.9 times long-term adjusted EBITDA, and is expected to close in early 2018, it said in a statement.Altice’s share price has halved since it reported disappointing quarterly results in France last month.Patrick Drahi, its billionaire founder and majority owner, fired CEO Michel Combes and pledged last month that Altice would shift away from acquisitions and focus on cutting its debt.Altice had said it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers.($1 = 0.8391 euros)($1 = 0.9838 Swiss francs)Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-altice-divestiture/altice-to-sell-swiss-telecom-solutions-data-centre-businesses-idUSKBN1DV422'|'2017-12-01T15:56:00.000+02:00'
'32b5ebe1f788f44a6fd83f5aba02afe8052f00af'|'Italy''s Prysmian lines up binding bid for General Cable: sources'|'LONDON/MILAN (Reuters) - European cable firm Prysmian ( PRY.MI ) is finalizing an all-cash binding bid for General Cable ( BGC.N ) which could be worth more than $1.1 billion, sources familiar with the matter said.The Milan-based firm is hoping to beat rival bidders and enter exclusive talks to buy Kentucky-based General Cable by mid December, the sources told Reuters.Prysmian is widely seen as a frontrunner, ahead of France’s Nexans ( NEXS.PA ), Denmark’s NKT ( NKT.CO ) and potential Chinese bidders, with binding bids due in the coming days, the sources added.Italy’s Prysmian and Nexans declined to comment, while General Cable and NKT were not immediately available to comment. General Cable has a market capitalization of around $1 billion and specializes in aluminum, copper and fiber optic wire and cable products.It hired JPMorgan in July to kick off a strategic review and identify a possible merger partner to boost growth and maximize shareholder value.One of the sources said Prysmian is willing to stretch its balance sheet for the right deal as it sees mergers and acquisitions as critical to its growth.Shares in General Cable rose as much as 4.4 percent on the news while Prysmian climbed 2 percent. Prysmian, which has a market value of 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion), is also working on a parallel bid to buy Nokia’s Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), two of the sources said.The division, valued at about 800 million euros, is one of the top suppliers of undersea cable networks and was bought by the telecom equipment maker last year as part its 15.6 billion euro purchase of French rival Alcatel.Nokia declined to comment on the sale.Prysmian has the financial muscle to take control of both General Cable and Alcatel Submarine Networks, but is expected to prioritize General Cable as it sees North America as a strategic market for growth, the sources said.Prysmian is working flat out to get the General Cable deal done and will then shift its attention to ASN, depending on the outcome of the auction, they added.Prysmian had revenues of 7.5 billion euros in 2016 and does not need to raise cash to finance these deals, the sources said.One of the sources said Prysmian is a natural buyer for General Cable, but there is only a certain price its boss Valerio Battista is willing to pay.Battista said in July that the possible sale of General Cable could accelerate sector consolidation and Prysmian was hoping to be part of this.It bought Dutch rival Draka in 2011 and since then has focused on purchasing small and medium-sized companies in a bid to gain scale in a fragmented market.Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Alexander Smith and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-general-cable-m-a-prysmian/italys-prysmian-lines-up-binding-bid-for-general-cable-sources-idINKBN1DV5AC'|'2017-12-01T12:55:00.000+02:00'
'7c285d24daa04c9de2ac141e3032b995779c9004'|'Cambodian garment makers seek continued support after EU trade access threat'|'December 1, 2017 / 6:55 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Cambodian garment makers seek continued support after EU trade access threat Prak Chan Thul 3 Min Read PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian garment makers on Friday urged international buyers not to turn away from the country amid concerns that its access to vital EU trade preferences could be under threat after the main opposition party was dissolved last month. FILE PHOTO: Men work in the W & D Cambodia Co. Limited garment factory in Phnom Penh July 12, 2010. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea/File Photo The United States stopped election support for Cambodia and the European Union threatened trade preferences after the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party was dissolved at the request of the government of authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Nov. 16. Garment and textile exports generate $6 billion annually and are the country’s biggest export by far, fuelling years of growth. EU countries accounted for around 40 percent of Cambodia’s exports in 2016 while the United States accounted for a further 20 percent. China took little over 6 percent. Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), a representative of 600 factories that employ around 700,000 workers, appealed to foreign buyers to continue supporting Cambodian factories. “GMAC appeals to all of our international buyers to continue their support (for) Cambodia and our member factories to materialise our economic goal which is the improved wellbeing of all the Cambodian people,” GMAC said in a statement. GMAC said that factory work had “lifted millions of people out of poverty” in the Southeast Asian nation. Hun Sen, who has been courting garment workers in the leadup to the 2018 general election, has said that workers would be the ones to suffer if the EU withdraws preferential trade terms. China, a longtime supporter of Hun Sen, has poured money into infrastructure and other investments in Cambodia that has emboldened Hun Sen to brush off criticism from Western donors. But the importance of the European Union and United States for Cambodia’s exports ultimately gives them major leverage. Global brands have also come under greater scrutiny over their supply chains. “We are concerned about the recent developments in the country,” Iñigo Sáenz Maestre, press officer of Sweden’s H&M group, one of the biggest buyers from Cambodia, told Reuters last month. Kaing Monika, deputy secretary general of the GMAC, said he was unaware of any buyers turning away from Cambodia and factories said they were not concerned about any possible withdrawal of trade preferences. “We just got new orders for next year,” said an executive at the Malaysian-owned 8 Star Sportswear Ltd factory who declined to be identified. The factory produces garments for Gap Inc ( GPS.N ), among other customers. But workers told Reuters that they were worried about job security. “Only workers will be affected,” said Dork Sovann, 35, a Phnom Penh factory worker. “The risk is high for us.” Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre in BANGKOK; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Nick Macfie'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cambodia-garments/cambodian-garment-makers-seek-continued-support-after-eu-trade-access-threat-idUKKBN1DV3WH'|'2017-12-01T08:54:00.000+02:00'
'dc18de91d45cbde5bd65d713d434ee1c19777b5b'|'Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:26 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead Reuters Staff 9 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote 1/ PUT UP OR SHUT UP It is not only Donald Trump’s tax cut plans, various White House scandals and non-farm payrolls that will keep markets focused on the United States next week. On Friday there is also the small matter of an expiring deadline on funding needed to keep the government open. Congress can either approve a huge bill which would see Washington though until Sept. 30, 2018, pass a shorter extension of current funding, or do nothing at all and risk a partial shutdown. The U.S. Treasury also hits its limit on borrowing and although it is likely to take steps to postpone the immediate need for Congress to take action, it all points to yet more U.S. debt. These rows can also do serious damage. The United States lost its prized triple-A credit rating in 2011 in the aftermath of one such showdown and history shows the uncertainty they cause can have an impact, albeit short-term, on consumer confidence and the jobs numbers. Graphic - U.S. debt ceiling strains 2/ MUSCLES FROM BRUSSELS There’s one thing and one thing only that’s driving sterling these days: Brexit. Look at its gyrations this week. it chalked up its biggest rise in over seven months on Wednesday after EU diplomats said Britain had moved “close” to EU demands over Brexit. It hit a two-month high above $1.35 the following day. On Friday though, it had its biggest fall in three weeks on concerns about the Irish border and media reports that London’s Brexit negotiator David Davis could resign over an internal party issue. Next week, the Brexit negotiations enter a key phase. Prime Minister Theresa May is due to meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Brussels for lunch on Monday. If that meeting is deemed by Brussels to have produced sufficient progress, EU leaders could give a green light to trade talks at a summit on Dec. 14-15, reducing the risk of a “hard Brexit”. Watch the pound. Brexit minister Davis in threat to quit over Damian Green storm -Evening Standard bit.ly/2j5fEuk 3/ WE HAVE LIFT-OFF South Korea became the first major Asian central bank since 2014 to hike interest rates this week. It is a sign the ‘great unwinding’ of crisis-era low interest rates is spreading and resurgent growth in Europe and the United States is benefiting Asia too. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about tax reform legislation during a visit to St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque So who is next? Further south, Australia is expected to keep rates on hold next week but there will be focus on whether there is any hint of a possible hike next year. Malaysia and the Philippines could well nudge rates up next year too, as their booming economies see higher inflation which is pushing ‘real’ interest rates further into the dirt. There is also China trade data which will provide the latest pulse reading for Asia’s industrial powerhouse. Asian manufacturing expands further, but China remains a risk 4/ BUBBLES BREWING? Skittishness on tech stocks as bubble fears gain more traction and high expectations for a U.S. tax reform bill have sparked a rotation from the ubiquitously popular tech sector into banks which stand to gain from lower tax rates. Inflows to U.S. financials stocks hit a 21-week high, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, while global tech funds, which have drawn some of the biggest flows this year, saw their first outflows in eight weeks after hovering up $6 billion (£4.44 billion) in the past six weeks. Tech stocks have a fairly low tax rate already, so they’re among the sectors seen as benefiting the least from any tax cuts that eventually materialise. Tech is also being impacted by fears that valuations, which have reached dizzying heights this year, are floating into bubble territory. And it is not only stocks. Bitcoin is the other big imponderable. The cryptocurrency smashed through $10,000 and then $11,000 this week, before promptly plunging 20 percent. Who knows what will happen if this particular bubble bursts. 5/ TALKING TURKEY Turkey will be in the spotlight again next week as investors await fresh revelations from a U.S. trial involving a Turkish-Iranian gold trader. Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors in the criminal trial of a Turkish Halkbank executive accused of helping to launder money for Iran, has already implicated President Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has dismissed the accusations of sanctions-busting as politically-motivated, with the aim of “cornering” Turkey and its economy. The trial is threatening funding for Turkey’s dollar-dependent banks, with investors fretting about potential fines or even sanctions from U.S. regulators. Markets will also be watching Turkey’s November inflation print, due on Monday. After a battering for the lira it could easily breach 12 percent and that would crank up the pressure for action from the country’s central bank.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUKKBN1DV5JS'|'2017-12-01T19:27:00.000+02:00'
'0cf25b1335ef2f1e1c4d4ed5d464b53283b34474'|'China’s largest online publisher enchants investors and readers alike - Bibliofiled'|'WHENEVER Xu Jie goes to the cinema to watch mystery and detective films, she leaves disappointed: to help stamp out superstition, China’s censors excise ghosts and zombies from the screens. So for her fill of phantoms, she turns to the flourishing online-literature scene. There, authors are allowed to take liberties from which most of China’s state-owned publishing houses would recoil. Homophones stand in for forbidden words. Danmei , a new online class of homoerotic story, is especially popular among young women. Readers can choose from over 200 established genres such as xianxia , a fantasy world of deities and martial arts.The corporate prince of this virtual realm is China Literature, a spin-off from Tencent, a gaming and social-media giant. The four-year-old online publisher listed on Hong Kong’s stock exchange on November 8th, raising just over $1bn. The offering was a huge success; at the end of its first day of trading, China Literature reached almost $12bn in market capitalisation, nearly 2,700 times its earnings of $4.5m in 2016 (it lost money in 2015).  14   16   Investors are spellbound chiefly by its link to Tencent, which on November 20th became Asia’s first firm to be valued at over $500bn and which still owns just over 50% of China Literature. Retail investors—particularly those who missed out on the giant’s own IPO in 2004—may be hoping China Literature is the next Tencent. As the latter expands its entertainment empire into films and TV dramas, China Literature’s library offers a trove of intellectual property; local analysts have nicknamed it “Tencent’s natural son”.China’s book market (fiction and nonfiction) is the biggest in the world by number of new publications. Of total written fictional output, online storytelling, which is mainly read on smartphones, is thought to make up 11%. Within the next three years that share is expected to double. To capture more bookworms, Tencent combines tentacular reach—over 960m monthly users alone on WeChat, its mobile-messaging app—with a host of algorithms that push appealing content to customers. China Literature’s dominance has helped it to attract 6m authors to its platform, representing 88% of all those writing online books, according to a study by Frost & Sullivan, a consultancy. Hit writers are among them. Of the country’s ten bestselling authors in 2016, six were online-literature writers.Many of the authors are amateurs, though two-fifths write full-time, and they are young, with an average age of 28. China Literature’s repository—close to 10m works in genres from fantasy to sci-fi, mystery to romance—attracts close to 200m readers a month across its web and mobile platforms, and half of China’s total daily online-literature fans. China Literature is home to 72% of all original online works; Alibaba Literature and Baidu Literature, owned by China’s two other tech giants, came later to the field and have just 5% of the virtual library between them.About four-fifths of China Literature’s revenues come from charging, on some books, a small fee to read on after sample chapters (proceeds are shared with authors). Most are serialised. Readers are enticed to pay per 1,000 Chinese characters or subscribe for 18 yuan ($2.70) a month. For now, only 5% of its customers are paying readers. But Morgan Stanley, a bank, expects that share to grow to 8% within the next two years. As their incomes rise, young Chinese are spending more on higher-quality entertainment. There is room for growth: Ms Xu says she is still spending far less on online books than on mobile games, for example. Mobile wallets, including WeChat Pay, which is owned by Tencent, have made paying a cinch.The remaining share of the company’s revenue is from owning the rights to stories that are adapted for film, television, games and so on, and from licensing them to other producers. Investors expect that this income stream will grow quickly, says Nelson Cheung of Formula Growth, a Canadian investment firm that owns shares in China Literature.Wu Wenhui, one of China Literature’s bosses, says he aspires to be “China’s version of Marvel Comics”, the American creator of Spider-Man and the X-Men, and corporate sibling to Marvel Studios. Tencent is the “perfect incubator” for those ambitions, says Wang Chen of TF Securities, a brokerage: China Literature is already co-operating with Tencent Penguin Pictures, a newish film-making arm, and Tencent Games, the largest gaming company in the world by revenue. In 2016, 15 of the 20 most popular TV dramas and video games adapted from online works were licensed from China Literature.Twists are possible. Copyright protections are weak. China Literature reported in its filing document that pirated online content led to a loss in revenue of 11bn yuan for the market in 2016. Tighter regulation or new censorship rules could upset the narrative. Drafts are reviewed before publication by editors at China Literature, but the firm knows the value of the relative creative freedom that its online realm allows. Its own story is testament to that.  Business   "Bibliofiled"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21731860-tencents-china-literature-should-profit-millions-chinese-smartphone-bookworms-chinas?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-30T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'25215b54a36fbbf009e9634d3c103994759a58f5'|'Adidas expects big boost from soccer World Cup'|'December 2, 2017 / 12:11 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Adidas expects big boost from soccer World Cup Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Adidas ( ADSGn.DE ) expects a big increase in sales of soccer jerseys from the 2018 World Cup in Russia helped by its sponsorship of three of the top teams, the German sportswear maker’s chief executive was quoted as saying on Saturday. The logo of Adidas is seen on an outlet store in Metzingen, Germany, June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle “In football, we are the clear market leader worldwide and are sponsoring 11 teams at the World Cup next year,” Kasper Rorsted told the Rheinische Post newspaper in an interview. “Overall, I expect a big increase in Adidas jersey sales in 2018 because of the World Cup. I hope that our teams go as far as possible. After all, we are kitting out three of the favourites with Germany, Spain and Argentina.” Adidas is the official sponsor of the World Cup and has long been the top supplier of soccer shirts, shoes and balls. But at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, arch rival Nike ( NKE.N ) sponsored more teams for the first time, including the hosts, and signed more of the most marketable players. Adidas has since enjoyed a big comeback, taking market share from Nike in the United States, and revamping its soccer business. It is back in the lead with the most teams sponsored at the World Cup, including hosts Russia. Nike’s top teams at the World Cup include France and Brazil, which is joint favourite with Germany to win, while sportswear firm Puma ( PUMG.DE ) has only two sides in the tournament - Uruguay and Switzerland, down from eight in 2014. Rorsted said Adidas should not focus too much on Nike. “This is not a tennis match with two players, where only one can be victorious. We are focusing on our own business and always improving. It makes no sense to declare our main goal as beating Nike,” he said. Reporting by Emma Thomasson; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-worldcup-adidas/adidas-expects-big-boost-from-soccer-world-cup-idUKKBN1DW0D5'|'2017-12-02T14:10:00.000+02:00'
'eea83b5dec5438efae4551862f0a7be070d34abd'|'U.S. tax bill delivers shot in the arm for European shares'|'December 4, 2017 / 8:53 AM / in 14 minutes U.S. tax bill delivers shot in the arm for European shares Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European stocks rallied strongly on Monday after the U.S. Senate passed a tax package delivering significant fiscal stimulus, which investors have been anticipating would give extra legs to the bull run in equity markets. Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The tax overhaul delivered some relief in early European trading after benchmarks hit multi-week lows on Friday. Strong gains in the U.S. dollar helped Germany''s dollar-exposed DAX .GDAXI shoot up from a two-month low, last up 1.1 percent. The euro''s strengthening has weighed on earnings expectations for stocks across the euro zone this quarter. Bank stocks .SX7P, seen as the biggest beneficiaries of tax cuts, led gains, up 0.9 percent on the day. The pan-European STOXX 600 gained 0.7 percent while euro zone blue chips .STOXX50E jumped 0.8 percent, set for their best gains in five weeks. Autos stocks .SXAP, which also have large exposures to the U.S., shot higher with Fiat Chrysler ( FCHA.MI ) leading Italy’s FTSE MIB, up 3.2 percent. Elsewhere dealmaking moved some stocks. Denmark’s largest insurer Tryg ( TRYG.CO ) jumped 3.9 percent after agreeing to buy unlisted competitor Alka Forsikring. Italian cable maker Prysmian ( PRY.MI ) meanwhile fell 2.9 percent after agreeing a $30 per share all-cash deal to buy Kentucky-based rival General Cable ( BGC.N ). Chipmaker ams ( AMS.S ) led European gains, up 4 percent after Barclays raised the stock to ‘overweight’. Peer Dialog Semiconductor ( DLGS.DE ) however slipped 4.1 percent after the iPhone supplier said top customer Apple could be working on building its own power-management chips rather than procuring them from the German microchip maker. (For graphic on Euro weighs on earnings expectations, click reut.rs/2zZtWXL ) Reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Kit Rees'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/u-s-tax-bill-delivers-shot-in-the-arm-for-european-shares-idUKKBN1DY0T4'|'2017-12-04T10:52:00.000+02:00'
'5271036f3d81788be0c961909c4ba59fc5c4a188'|'GM venture to recall nearly a million vehicles in China - quality watchdog'|'December 1, 2017 / 4:55 AM / Updated an hour ago GM venture to recall nearly a million vehicles in China - quality watchdog Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - One of General Motors Co’s ( GM.N ) China ventures will recall nearly a million vehicles due to fuel tank problems, the country’s quality watchdog said on Friday, the latest in a spate of major auto recalls in China over the last few months. SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co Ltd is a three-way tie-up between SAIC Motor Corp Ltd ( 600104.SS ), General Motors and Guangxi Automobile Group, formerly known as Wuling Motors. The recall of the 938,686 vehicles involves two models of the venture’s popular Baojun cars, a high-volume, entry-level brand for the Chinese market, which sold more than 2 million vehicles last year. GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This year has seen a number of major car recalls in China, the world’s biggest auto market. China’s quality watchdog said in September GM and its China ventures would recall over 2.5 million vehicles over airbag issues. That followed a similar 4.86 million vehicle recall by Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) and its Chinese joint ventures. GM produces vehicles in China through a joint venture with SAIC, the country’s largest automaker, as well as the three-way venture that is now working on an electric battery car called the Baojun E100 to help meet strict new-energy vehicle quotas. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-autos-recall/gm-venture-to-recall-nearly-a-million-vehicles-in-china-quality-watchdog-idUKKBN1DV3OT'|'2017-12-01T06:55:00.000+02:00'
'b780c5244c5cd46a6b50f68e7abd710b57667d4d'|'Altice to sell Swiss telecom solutions, data centre businesses'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Altice ( ATCA.AS ) has agreed to sell its Swiss telecommunications solutions business and Data Center operations, the telecoms and cable company said on Friday, as it seeks to reduce its 50 billion euro ($59.6 billion) debt burden.The deal to sell Green.ch AG and Green Datacenter AG to InfraVia Capital Partners valued the business at around 214 million Swiss francs ($217.5 million), or 9.9 times long-term adjusted EBITDA, and is expected to close in early 2018, it said in a statement.Altice’s share price has halved since it reported disappointing quarterly results in France last month.Patrick Drahi, its billionaire founder and majority owner, fired CEO Michel Combes and pledged last month that Altice would shift away from acquisitions and focus on cutting its debt.Altice had said it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers.($1 = 0.8391 euros)($1 = 0.9838 Swiss francs)Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-altice-divestiture/altice-to-sell-swiss-telecom-solutions-data-centre-businesses-idINKBN1DV422'|'2017-12-01T04:54:00.000+02:00'
'647b9cc3a01045bd8e24743a6175e385ec48859c'|'U.S. factory activity cools, with employment index edging lower'|'December 1, 2017 / 4:10 PM / Updated 4 hours ago U.S. factory activity cools, with employment index edging lower Jason Lange 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A measure of U.S. factory activity fell more than expected in November as a gauge of employment cooled, but the index continued to point to strengthening manufacturing conditions. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on Friday said its index of national factory activity slipped to a reading of 58.2 last month from 58.7 in October. Even with the decline, the index pointed to growth ahead and was only marginally below a September reading that was the highest since May 2004. But the ISM’s employment index slipped unexpectedly to 59.7 from 59.8, which could point to less strength in manufacturing hiring this month than analysts had expected. “(The ISM reading is) consistent with robust growth in output, exports, capital spending and employment,” said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. U.S. Treasuries yields edged down from session highs after the data, while the dollar and stocks were trading slightly higher. Even with cooler growth in factory activity, strength in the sector as well as in the broader labor market appear likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to increase interest rates later this month. A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates growth in manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the index to slip to 58.4 last month, edging lower from a surge posted after hurricanes disrupted supply chains earlier in the year. The ISM’s new orders index rose to 64 in November from 63.4 a month earlier. Other data on Friday showed U.S. construction spending rising more quickly than expected in October as public construction outlays surged and investment in private projects increased for the first time in four months. The Commerce Department said that construction spending increased 1.4 percent to a record high $1.24 trillion, the swiftest advance in five months. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast construction spending to increase 0.5 percent. Construction spending increased 2.9 percent on a year-on-year basis. Outlays on public construction projects jumped 3.9 percent, the largest gain since 2014. Spending on state and local government construction projects climbed 3.3 percent. Federal government construction spending soared 11.1 percent. Construction spending outlays were revised higher for both August and September, which could affect the government’s estimate for third-quarter gross domestic product growth. On Wednesday, the government said in its second estimate of the economy’s July-September performance that GDP advanced 3.3 percent. Investment in both residential and non-residential structures subtracted from GDP in the quarter. Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy/u-s-factory-activity-cools-with-employment-index-edging-lower-idINKBN1DV5AU'|'2017-12-01T18:07:00.000+02:00'
'f4d9e827996814a90c576860c4e03c329644240b'|'Airbus''s Bregier sees 2017 aircraft deliveries topping 700'|'December 3, 2017 / 9:06 PM / in 8 minutes Airbus''s Bregier sees 2017 aircraft deliveries topping 700 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) planemaking chief Fabrice Bregier said the company still expects to deliver more than 700 aircraft to customers in 2017, a production record, despite delays in deliveries of engines from suppliers, according to an interview in Monday’s Les Echos newspaper. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Airbus Group is seen on the company''s headquarters building in Toulouse, Southwestern France, April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Bregier said slightly fewer than 600 aircraft had been delivered by the end of November. “That will require a repeat of the effort made in December 2016, but we’re prepared for that,” he said. “The technical problems on the new A320 engines are now solved. So we’re hopeful production will ramp up as expected in 2018.” Asked about rumours of the departure of Airbus CEO Tom Enders, who has faced pressure over the conduct of an internal investigation into inaccuracies in filings with U.S. regulators over arms technology sales, Bregier said: “Let’s leave the board to take decisions.” Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-deliveries/airbuss-bregier-sees-2017-aircraft-deliveries-topping-700-idUKKBN1DX0U2'|'2017-12-03T23:09:00.000+02:00'
'3b6839dcda7b69143d1a338ebda97198ad6ae799'|'Aluminium producer seeks Q1 premium of $110/T from Japan buyers -sources'|'TOKYO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A global aluminium producer has offered Japanese buyers a premium of $110 per tonne for primary metal shipments during the January to March period, as much as 17 percent above the current quarter, three sources directly involved in pricing talks said on Friday.Japan is Asia’s biggest aluminium importer and the premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to pay each quarter over the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price set the benchmark for the region.For the October-December quarter, Japanese buyers agreed to pay a premium of $94-$95 per tonne PREM-ALUM-JP, down as much as 21 percent from the prior quarter to reflect a slide in local spot premiums. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; editing by Richard Pullin) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-aluminium-premiums/aluminium-producer-seeks-q1-premium-of-110-t-from-japan-buyers-sources-idINL3N1O11IX'|'2017-11-30T23:19:00.000+02:00'
'565c037fa6126942455f5bbf574eab5fe9d28a18'|'Rio Tinto appoints Simon Thompson as new chairman'|'December 3, 2017 / 9:46 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Rio Tinto appoints Simon Thompson as new chairman Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Rio Tinto Ltd ( RIO.AX ) said on Monday it has appointed Simon Thompson as its next chairman, succeeding Jan du Plessis, who will step down after serving almost nine years as chair. FILE PHOTO - A sign adorns the building where mining company Rio Tinto has their office in Perth, Western Australia, November 19, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Thompson, who is the present chairman of the company’s remuneration committee, will become Rio Tinto’s chairman on March 5, 2018, the Anglo-American mining company said in a statement. Reporting By Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rio-tinto-chairman/rio-tinto-appoints-simon-thompson-as-new-chairman-idUSKBN1DX0VA'|'2017-12-03T23:44:00.000+02:00'
'aa978f64eae45ca93ba6d349665a8e39f744e6f8'|'Asian shares muted as tech blues offset U.S. tax cut optimism'|'December 5, 2017 / 12:45 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Asian shares muted as tech blues offset U.S. tax cut optimism Hideyuki Sano 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares were subdued on Tuesday as investors’ rotation out of technology shares took a toll on some of the region’s tech heavyweights although hopes of a major tax cut in the United States underpinned risk sentiment. FILE PHOTO - A woman walks in strong wind caused by Typhoon Lan, past an electronic board showing the graphs of the recent movements of Japan''s Nikkei average outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS were little changed, with a fall in semi-conductor shares offset by gains in telecom and financial shares. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 fell 0.5 percent, led by declines in high-flying technology shares. “I would say the market is hitting a speed bump after a strong rally so far this year,” said Yukino Yamada, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities. MSCI’s ex-Japan Asia-Pacific index is up almost 30 percent so far this year, and is on course to mark its best year since 2010. On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX finished lower on Monday after setting a record intraday high earlier as the technology sector .SPLRCT, which has led Wall Street''s record-setting rally this year, tumbled 1.9 percent. The tech index hit a five-week low and was down 4.3 percent from its record peak hit a week ago although it still remained the best performer of the year with year-to-date gains of 33 percent. Investors switched to banks and retailers, which are seen benefitting from the expected corporate tax cuts. President Donald Trump’s goal of slashing taxes on businesses cleared an important hurdle at the weekend when the U.S. Senate narrowly approved the Republican’s tax overhaul plan. The S&P 500 banks index .SPXBK surged 2.3 percent while battered department store shares also jumped. “Some high-tech shares’ valuations are getting stretched. For the entire market to keep rallying, we needed a sector rotation,” said Nobuyuki Kashihara, head of research at Asset Management One. “On the whole, the world’s shares are supported by a synchronised growth in the global economy,” he added. FILE PHOTO - A U.S. Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo U.S. tax cut optimism supported the dollar in the currency market, particularly against the yen. Yet, concerns about the ongoing investigation into contacts between Trump’s election campaign and Russia sapped some of the market’s enthusiasm. The dollar fetched 112.48 yen JPY= , little changed in Asia after a brief foray to 113.09 on Monday, which was its highest level in more than two weeks. The euro EUR= was steadier at $1.1875, sitting comfortably in its familiar trading range between $1.1810-1.1960, as the common currency was helped by hopes the two major German parties will form a grand coalition. The British pound GBP=D4 stood at $1.3475, off last week''s two-month high of $1.3550, after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and British Prime Minister Theresa May failed to reach an agreement on a divorce deal. The Australian dollar gained 0.6 percent to $0.7637 AUD=D4 following better-than-expected domestic retail sales for October. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP ticked down 1.3 percent to $11,470, still hovering near its record high of $11,800 set on Sunday. Oil gained slightly after falling more than 1 percent on Monday, buoyed by expectations of a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles and after last week’s deal between OPEC and other crude producers to extend output curbs U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 traded at $57.55 per barrel, up 0.1 percent for the day. International benchmark Brent futures LCOc1 inched up 0.1 percent to $62.52 a barrel. Some market players fear the killing of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh on Monday may destabilise the impoverished, and worn-torn country even further, threatening the safety of a major shipping route through the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb straight on the Red Sea off the Yemeni coasts. Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-shares-subdued-as-tech-blues-offset-u-s-tax-cut-hopes-idUKKBN1DZ02D'|'2017-12-05T05:31:00.000+02:00'
'7381e1e0d528091299d9e8be0419c8b8bf1f2cfc'|'Toys R Us UK to close stores in restructuring'|'Reuters TV United States December 4, 2017 / 11:04 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Toys R Us UK to close stores in restructuring Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Toys R Us UK is to seek creditor approval for a restructuring plan involving closing at least 26 of its 105 stores in Britain in 2018, it said on Monday. A Toys "R" Us store is seen, in Hayes, Britain December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The British arm of Toys R Us Inc ( IPO-TOYS.N ) of the United States which filed for bankruptcy in September, said it had submitted a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) plan to its creditors and would seek their approval in the next 17 days. Toys R Us UK said that if approved by the creditors the CVA plan would substantially reduce its rental obligations and allow the business to move to a new, viable business model. The firm said it anticipated redundancies among its workforce of 3,200 but did not give a specific number. Toys R Us UK said all its stores would remain open as normal through Christmas and into the new year. Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toys-r-us-uk-restructuring/toys-r-us-uk-to-close-stores-in-restructuring-idUKKBN1DY16C'|'2017-12-04T12:53:00.000+02:00'
'19f6ee392f730d2405796833ec6b380261805785'|'Fine art to topple fine wine in 2017 luxury investment league - Business'|'Art is expected to overtake wine as the best-performing luxury investment asset this year as a growing number of millionaires snap up contemporary masterpieces for their mansions.Rich people, hit by a collapse in art pricesafter the 2007-2008 financial crisis, have returned to the market, according to high end estate agent Knight Frank. Art sold at auction increased in value by 16% over the 12 months to the end of September, slightly behind fine wines which rose by 17%, its luxury investment index revealed. “We are predicting that art will comfortably overtake wine as the best-performing asset class this year,” Andrew Shirley, a partner at Knight Frank and author of the luxury index. “Prior to the global financial crisis, art was one of the top performing assets in the index, but growth slowed considerably over the past five or so years. However, confidence seems to have returned to the art market in 2017, highlighted spectacularly by the recent record-breaking sale of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi for $450m [£333m]. Contemporary artists like Basquiat are also seeing higher and higher prices paid for their works.”Shirley said the record sum paid for Salvator Mundi was a spectacular one-off “but there are plenty selling for $50m, $100m, $200m – the confidence is definitely back”. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi painting, a real steal at $450m Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Rich art buyers are most interested in modern contemporary art, according to Knight Frank, with works by Andy Warhol and Lucian Freud attracting considerable attention. Shirley said most buyers are from North America or Europe, but wealthy Chinese are increasingly interested in western art. “As the developing world becomes more mature, and people send their children to school in the UK they start to become more exposed to art and become wine connoisseurs,” he said.Shirley said the vast majority of rich people insist they are buying art for pleasure, “but they have the investment in the back of their minds”. He added: “Art is a lot more tangible than stocks and shares; you can’t hang them on your wall. There is also the status element. They like to show off to their friends and say: ‘I bought the most expensive painting.’”Other assets in Knight Frank’s luxury index include cars (up 7% so far this year), watches (up 5%), coins (up 4%). The poorest performing luxury asset class was Chinese ceramics, which fell by 7% in value. Over the past 10 years, collectable cars have risen in value by 363%, but Shirley said the market for classic cars had fallen away recently. Fine wine values increased by more than 200% over the past decade, with coins not far behind at 182%.Topics Investing The art market Investments Art Painting Luxury goods sector news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/04/art-set-to-become-best-performing-luxury-investment-asset-of-2017'|'2017-12-05T01:01:00.000+02:00'
'7ac7ab6106df85b8498a2407efc0fb7276bbf60a'|'Exclusive: Trade union sets deadline in talks over Thyssen-Tata venture'|'DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - German labor union IG Metall has given Thyssenkrupp until Dec. 22 to agree guarantees on jobs, plants and investment if the company is to get the union’s backing for its deal with Tata Steel to merge their European steel operations.A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen The deadline puts further pressure on Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger, who has said he wants the approval of shop stewards for the plan to merge the group’s European steel business with that of India’s Tata Steel.Hiesinger, in the job since 2011, is trying to transform Thyssenkrupp into a technology group focused on car parts and elevators and workers say the company is shirking its responsibilities towards them by hiving off the steel business.“We are putting an end to this process of playing for time. We will negotiate until Dec. 22 and that will be the end,” labor representative Detlef Wetzel, who is also deputy supervisory board chairman of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, told Reuters on Monday.“If there is an outcome to negotiations by then we will let IG Metall members vote on it.”Thyssenkrupp has said the steel business needs an external partner to cope with continued pressure from cheap Chinese imports and has warned that dropping the Tata Steel deal would result in even bigger cutbacks.In contrast, demand for Thyssen’s new generation of elevators and car components helped take new orders in the year ended Sept. 30 to the highest level in five years.Hiesinger hopes to reach a final deal with Tata Steel in early 2018 but that depends on whether he can get it passed by Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, where workers’ representatives have called for jobs and plants to be secure for 10 years.Labour leaders hold half of the 20 seats on Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, and while a deal can still be pushed through without their consent, their approval could significantly smooth the transaction.Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Ludwig Burger, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-workers-exclu/exclusive-trade-union-sets-deadline-in-talks-over-thyssen-tata-venture-idINKBN1DY1QB'|'2017-12-04T11:10:00.000+02:00'
'82b0a1cf6a4cebcb6d24c76090348be925a8e0b2'|'BlackBerry, Qualcomm expand partnership to connected automotive'|'Dec 7 (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd said on Thursday it would partner with Qualcomm Inc to use the chipmaker’s hardware platform to expand in the fast-growing connected automotive industry.BlackBerry said it would use Qualcomm’s hardware platform in areas such as virtual cockpit controllers, telematics, electronic control gateways and infotainment systems.The automotive industry is one of the fastest-growing segments of the technology market, as automakers race to add more autonomous features and ultimately seek to build self-driving cars.The companies have a relationship for over a decade. (Reporting by Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/blackberry-autos-qualcomm/blackberry-qualcomm-expand-partnership-to-connected-automotive-idINL3N1O7493'|'2017-12-07T10:57:00.000+02:00'
'a474b9546b1a62b107b3309b2df452e96b8cd068'|'GRAPHIC-Foreigners pare holdings in Asian equities in November'|'Dec 6 (Reuters) - Foreigners trimmed their holdings in most Asian stocks markets in November as investors started to book profits after this year’s solid rally.November data from seven Asian exchanges showed foreign investment for the month totalled about $400 million, down 90 percent compared to flows in October.Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ, said some profit taking in Asian equities caused inflows to slow down last month.“While we expect portfolio flows into the region to stay positive, the amount will likely moderate from this year’s levels,” said Goh.In November, India led the region with over $3 billion of inflows, driven by a sovereign rating upgrade by Moody‘s, a $32 billion funding plan for state-owned banks, and a strong rupee.Taiwan and Indonesian equities saw over $1 billion of outflows each, while South Korea and Vietnam had inflows of about $400 million and $500 million, respectively.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan reached a decade high last month, however it has fallen nearly 4 percent in the last two weeks. The price-to-earnings ratio of MSCI Asia-ex-Japan stood at 13.4, still less than MSCI United States’ 18.7 and MSCI World’s 16.3.Robust foreign flows in the first half of the year started to slow in the second half as U.S. Treasury yields rose sharply, reducing the appeal of Asian shares.The two-year Treasury yield hovered near a nine-year high on Thursday, driven by the Fed’s monetary tightening plans and hopes tax reform will boost the economy.Recent Reuters polls showed a majority of economists expect another three Fed rate hikes next year and the ECB to shut the door on its monthly asset purchases by the end of next year.“Global liquidity is set to ease next year, driven by a decline in major central bank balance sheets, wider credit spreads and an expected pick-up in volatility,” said ANZ’s Goh.“We expect more volatile capital flows into the region(in 2018).”Reporting By Patturaja Murugaboopathy; Editing by Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-stocks/graphic-foreigners-pare-holdings-in-asian-equities-in-november-idINL3N1O64OZ'|'2017-12-07T04:51:00.000+02:00'
'9b8d7d53cad7ee0c06273692fba190240b1527b8'|'BOJ chief says current policy framework is ''sustainable'''|'Reuters TV United States December 7, 2017 / 3:49 AM / in a few seconds BOJ chief says current policy framework is ''sustainable'' Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday the central bank’s yield curve control was a “sustainable” framework that can push down long-term interest rates efficiently, brushing aside criticism that its huge bond buying was nearing a limit. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda makes a speech at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Kuroda said the BOJ’s massive stimulus program has ended deflation and boosted the economy and that he expects firms will start to increase wages and help inflation accelerate to the central bank’s 2 percent target. He said he was aware of concerns among some market players that the BOJ’s huge bond buying could dry up market liquidity and make it difficult for the BOJ to control long-term rates. “In this respect, the BOJ’s bond buying has been conducted in a smooth manner so far. The risk of us facing problems in terms of buying bonds will be small for the time being,” he said in a speech at a seminar on Thursday. Kuroda reiterated that the BOJ will continue to “persistently pursue powerful monetary easing” to achieve a well-balanced economic recovery accompanied by stable prices. Reporting by Stanley White and Leika Kihara; Editing by Minami Funakoshi and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj/boj-chief-says-current-policy-framework-is-sustainable-idUKKBN1E10CG'|'2017-12-07T05:41:00.000+02:00'
'6087108a5d6e8165495905fd1928871fd0ff7773'|'Nippon Life to buy 25 percent of U.S. asset manager TCW from Carlyle'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Nippon Life Insurance Co has reached a deal to acquire 24.75 percent of U.S. investment firm TCW Group Inc from U.S. asset manager Carlyle Group LP ( CG.O ), the companies said on Friday.A man walks past a logo of Japanese life insurer Nippon Life at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo April 21, 2011. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao While terms were not disclosed, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said the company, Japan’s biggest private-sector life insurer, would pay about 55 billion yen ($488.37 million). Nippon Life and Carlyle declined to comment on the price.Nippon Life, which will have two seats on TCW’s board, said the transaction should close this month, pending regulatory approval.The insurer is the latest Japanese company to increase its presence in asset management, which is seen as a promising way to accelerate growth amid low interest rates and stricter capital regulations at home.Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc ( 8306.T ) has said it is ready to spend up to 1 trillion yen ($8.88 billion) in acquisitions.Yet many officials at Japanese companies acknowledge difficulties in asset management deals, with retention of fund managers the biggest challenge.”It’s risky to buy asset management companies outright,“ said a president of a major banking group who requested anonymity. ”What happens if fund managers leave after acquiring control?“We’d be best starting with a minority stake and building it up after we gain the trust of key staff,” the executive said.Los Angeles-based TCW provides products in fixed income, equities, emerging markets and alternative investments. It had $191.6 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2016, with slightly more than 80 percent in U.S. bonds.After Nippon Life’s investment, staff will hold 44.1 percent of TCW.Carlyle will retain a 31.2 percent stake through Carlyle Global Partners, a $3.6 billion private equity long-duration fund that invests beyond the industry’s traditional 10-year time frame.U.S. rival Blackstone Group LP ( BX.N ) and European peer CVC Capital Partners Ltd are among the major private equity firms that are also opting to hold assets for a longer period.Such moves are gaining traction because keeping portfolio companies longer can boost returns by eliminating the recycling of capital, as one asset gets sold and another is acquired. By avoiding such periods when investors’ capital sits idle, private equity firms can promise lucrative and steady profits.Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Additional reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tcw-group-m-a-nippon-life-ins/nippon-life-says-it-will-buy-25-percent-stake-in-u-s-asset-manager-tcw-idUSKBN1DV424'|'2017-12-01T15:57:00.000+02:00'
'fb307df749a4a24ba0fd3717248646315162e90b'|'Sale of the century? $300-billion Saudi state sell-off moves slowly'|'DUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s $300-billion privatization program was billed as the sale of the century when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled his plan to great fanfare. Nineteen months later, it is moving at a snail’s pace, bankers, investors and analysts familiar with the process say.Saudi Arabia''s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud attends the 28th Ordinary Summit of the Arab League at the Dead Sea, Jordan March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Hamed The main problems they cite are heavy bureaucracy, an inadequate legal framework, frequent changes of priority in government departments and fatigue among investors. (Graphic - Saudi economy: tmsnrt.rs/2AspssP )Some also blame a wait-and-see approach among many investors due to uncertainty about the fallout from an anti-corruption campaign in which dozens of royal family members, ministers and senior officials were rounded up in early November.The centerpiece listing of state oil company Saudi Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] - expected alone to raise up to $100 billion - is on track to go ahead next year, Prince Mohammed told Reuters in October. However, Riyadh has yet to select any exchange abroad that will handle - along with the Saudi market - what would be the biggest share flotation in history.Sectors where the privatization process has been slow include grains, the postal service and healthcare.“It’s going to take longer (than many expected),” a Saudi banker who has worked on transactions told Reuters. “There are headwinds from the shifting of priorities in government and at a micro-level as these are old institutions that have often never kept books and are not up to the rigors of privatization.”The sell-off is a cornerstone of Prince Mohammed’s Vision 2030 plan to bring in fresh revenue and diversify the economy - which is recession and blighted by high unemployment - away from energy exports in an era of low oil prices.But the bankers, investors and analysts are expressing concerns including over the lack of a regulatory framework to assure would-be shareholders about how much control foreign companies could gain as a result of the stake sales, including the right to lay off staff.Vice Minister for Economy and Planning Mohammed al-Tuwaijri told Reuters in April that, excluding Aramco, the government aimed to make $200 billion by putting large parts of the Saudi economy in private hands.The Ministry of Economy and Planning did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.FACTBOX - Saudi Arabia’s privatization plansPATCHY PROGRESS The selloff, including five percent of Aramco, is intended to improve state finances. The government posted a $79 billion deficit last year.However, the record is patchy in the four sectors that Tuwaijri had highlighted as priorities for this year: grain silos, sports, electricity generation and water provision.Banks recently submitted bids to advise on the privatization of Saline Water Conversion Corporation’s $7.2 billion Ras Al Khair desalination and power plant. But there has been less progress in the other three sectors.Saudi Arabia’s deputy electricity minister said in October he aimed for progress in privations the power sector in 2018, after “some developments required us to wait”.FILE PHOTO: A view shows Saudi Aramco''s Abqaiq oil facility in eastern Saudi Arabia in this undated handout photo. Courtesy Saudi Aramco/Handout via REUTERS Prospective bidders for the kingdom’s state-owned grain mills have complained of an unwieldy sale process and onerous ownership rules.Elsewhere, the Ministry of Health has put on hold its tender seeking financial advisers for the privatization of 55 primary healthcare units in Riyadh, after receiving their bids in April, a financial source familiar with the matter said.It then issued a new tender to seek a technical adviser on the expected costs and demand linked to the privatization, the source said.The Ministry of Health did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.“Compared with many of its neighbors, Saudi Arabia has only limited experience in terms of privatizations, and still lacks an adequate regulatory framework,” said Raphaele Auberty, a BMI Research risk analyst for the Middle East and Africa.Shortcomings include the absence of a framework for large-scale public-private partnership projects and a bankruptcy law, said Karen Young, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.Saudi Post Corp’s privatization, which had at one stage been earmarked to begin early this year, has been shelved for the time being.Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, told Reuters last month that Saudi Post would enter a five-year “corporatisation phase”. This would turn it into a state-run company with a profit and loss responsibility before a sale to the private sector.“It makes sense to focus more on putting that corporate DNA, leadership and resources, then think about a complete privatization,” said Alswaha.Uncertainty has surrounded a plan to privatize soccer clubs. Earlier this year Jadwa Investment was appointed to advise on the sale of up to five soccer clubs in the Saudi Professional League, sources told Reuters in February.The General Sports Authority did not immediately reply to a request for comment.“At one stage it was looking like the bidding process could start as early as 2018 but recent indications perhaps suggest 2019-20 is more likely,” said Steven Bainbridge, head of sports law and events management at Al Tamimi & Company, who has been fielding interest from potential clients on the process.Confusion has been created about an airport privatization process after some local media reported that the government intended to privatize 27 of them by the middle of 2018, a target analysts said was unrealistic.But in an emailed reply to questions from Reuters, Faisal Hamad al-Sugair, Chairman of Saudi Civil Aviation Holding Company, said the goal was for the airports to be “corporatised”, or turned into private companies, by that date. Privatization would follow later.“Various challenges have arisen and have been resolved. The deadline of mid-2018 is reachable,” he said.(This version of the story was refiled to fix garble in the third paragraph)Additional reporting by Reem Shamseddine in Khobar and Alex Cornwell in Dubai; editing by Timothy Heritage and David Stamp '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-privatisation/sale-of-the-century-300-billion-saudi-state-sell-off-moves-slowly-idINKBN1DV45J'|'2017-12-01T05:45:00.000+02:00'
'88ee47acf1b9ec409ca5927542ec2ad8d4fb68f4'|'UPDATE 2-Hedge fund Hutchin Hill shuts down after three bad years'|'(Adds details from letter, background on firm and founder)By Svea Herbst-BaylissBOSTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Hedge fund manager Neil Chriss said on Thursday he is closing his $2.2 billion firm Hutchin Hill Capital LP after three years of poor performance.Chriss, whose firm is made up of teams that trade different strategies, wrote to clients that the best way forward is to “proactively return capital as expeditiously as possible.”“We fought hard, but did not deliver the performance that you expected from us,” Chriss wrote in the letter dated Nov. 30 and seen by Reuters on Thursday.Hutchin Hill, founded in 2007, is the latest high-profile casualty in the ravaged hedge fund industry. One-time stars Eric Mindich and Richard Perry made headlines when they shuttered their once-prominent firms earlier this year and in 2016, respectively.“This decision is not about one year of performance, which has been disappointing,” Chriss wrote. “We have not delivered on our performance goals for three years in a row.”The firm lost roughly 5.5 percent in the January-November period after having been up 4.7 percent in 2016. At one point, the firm managed more than $5 billion in assets.Chriss had for some time tried to salvage the firm by cutting costs and refocusing resources.Earlier this year, he began shuttering the firm’s credit portfolio and shifted resources to trading stocks. He also focused more on macroeconomic and quantitative investing. A year ago, Chriss shut the firm’s Hong Kong office.Despite the efforts, Chriss wrote that it does not make sense to continue with a smaller team and less money under management. He said he expects all investors to get their money back by the end of the first quarter of 2018.Chriss, who earned a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Chicago, previously worked for Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and legendary trader Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital, where he headed SAC’s quantitative strategies division.In the letter he discussed Hutchin Hill’s legacy and said he was “extremely proud” of the 83.2 percent net cumulative return his firm returned and its 6.6 percent annual returns.Hutchin Hill is shutting down just as the hedge fund industry breathes a cautious sigh of relief as many managers are performing better and taking in new money after years of lagging behind stock market gains and taking criticism for high fees.The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index, which tracks hedge fund performance, has gained 7.2 percent in the first 10 months of 2017, marking its best return since 2013, data from Hedge Fund Research show. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Andrew Hay and Bill Rigby) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hedgefunds-hutchinhill/update-1-hedge-fund-hutchin-hill-shutting-down-letter-idINL1N1O02IT'|'2017-11-30T18:39:00.000+02:00'
'aa63ce3b56cea5951fc9c66916e46f7cbea4f717'|'Australia''s GetSwift shares surge after deals with Amazon.com, Yum Brands'|'(Reuters) - An Australian software startup said it signed global deals with Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) and Yum! Brands Inc ( YUM.N ), sending its shares soaring and enriching its ex-footballer founders amid hopes the firm would benefit from its clients’ vast reach.GetSwift Ltd ( GSW.AX ), based in Melbourne city, where Amazon located its first Australian distribution warehouse, said in a short statement on Friday that it “signed a global agreement with Amazon” without offering more details.In a separate statement, it said it signed a multi-year partnership with the operator of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut fast food restaurants, allowing them to use its software in 20 countries in the Middle East and Asia Pacific.The deals, and the market’s reaction to them, mark a stratospheric rise for a logistics software company which listed less than a year earlier, formed from the bones of a liquor delivery service started by three recently retired footballers.Shares of GetSwift leapt 84 percent to be trading at A$3.60 by mid-session, compared to a 20 cent issue price before listing in December 2016. The broader Australian market was up 0.4 percent.Its A$282 million market capitalization on Friday compared to a value of about A$25 million upon listing, and suggested a windfall for one-quarter shareholder and managing director Joel Macdonald, 33, who retired from Australian Rules football in 2013.Macdonald was not immediately available for comment.“There’s really been no modern I.T. brought to bear in last-mile logistics, and these guys are doing it,” said Neil Carter, head of active equities at pension fund investor IFM Investors, which owns 5.3 percent of GetSwift.Last mile refers to the supply chain step between a package arriving at the post office or warehouse and the recipient’s address.GetSwift Executive Chairman Bane Hunter said in the Yum! Brands statement the company was “extremely pleased to be partnering with one of what is indisputably a global icon”.The Australian company said it expected the Yum! deal would result in more than 250 million deliveries a year being made through its platform. Yum could not be immediately reached for comment.It said it signed the Amazon deal just as the global retailer continued an order-taking trial ahead of opening for business in Australia. An Amazon spokesman was not immediately available for comment.Ben McCallum, portfolio manager of Regal Funds Management Pty Ltd - GetSwift’s second-biggest shareholder with 9.8 percent - said GetSwift stands to be a significant beneficiary of e-commerce growth.“They will ultimately become one of the great Australian technology stories,” he said.($1 = 1.3217 Australian dollars)Reporting by Byron Kaye; Additional reporting by Shashwat Pradhan; Editing by Richard Pullin and Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-australia-amazon-com-getswift/australias-getswift-shares-surge-after-deals-with-amazon-com-yum-brands-idINKBN1DV3BG'|'2017-11-30T21:29:00.000+02:00'
'd2d872352b9fac21a3985e903eefcebe65426324'|'US STOCKS-Deficit doubts on tax bill cool Wall Street rally'|'* Futures down: Dow 82 pts, S&P 12.5 pts, Nasdaq 48 ptsBy Sruthi ShankarDec 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures pointed to a reversal of some of this week’s gains for Wall Street on Friday as a delay in voting on a Republican tax overhaul kept investors on edge about its passage.* Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures pointed to falls of between a third and three-quarters of a percent.* The U.S. Senate debated the bill late into Thursday and adjourned as fiscal conservatives were unsettled about the effect on the deficit of the bill. It was unclear if a decisive vote on the bill would occur then.* A surprise endorsement by Republican Senator John McCain had added momentum to the bill on Thursday, pushing the S&P 500 to close at a record high and the Dow Jones index to break above the 24,000 mark for the first time.* New York Fed President William Dudley said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that it was probably not the best time to apply fiscal stimulus when the economy was already close to full employment.* Among early movers, Ulta Beauty fell 6.12 percent in premarket trading after the cosmetic retailer’s profit and sales forecast fell below estimates, prompting at least three brokers to cut price targets on the stock.* Blue Apron rose 3 percent after the meal-kit delivery company said its co-founder and chief executive Matt Salzberg would give up the role to be replaced by its chief financial officer.* Oil prices edged higher, a day after OPEC and other major producers agreed to extend output curbs until the end of 2018.* Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, St. Louis chief James Bullard and Philadelphia counterpart Patrick Harker are all expected to speak at events later in the day.* The Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity is expected to have dropped slightly to a reading of 58.4 in November from 58.7 the last month. The report is due at 10:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT)Futures snapshot at 6:56 a.m. ET:* Dow e-minis were down 82 points, or 0.34 percent, with 43,981 contracts changing hands.* S&P 500 e-minis were down 12.5 points, or 0.47 percent, with 258,339 contracts traded.* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 48 points, or 0.75 percent, on volume of 49,408 contracts. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-deficit-doubts-on-tax-bill-cool-wall-street-rally-idINL3N1O13XH'|'2017-12-01T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'7357d7ef2cc6d3422fb124bef49cf5c0fb132d01'|'Airbus''s Bregier sees 2017 aircraft deliveries topping 700'|'December 3, 2017 / 9:07 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Airbus''s Bregier sees 2017 aircraft deliveries topping 700 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) planemaking chief Fabrice Bregier said the company still expects to deliver more than 700 aircraft to customers in 2017, a production record, despite delays in deliveries of engines from suppliers, according to an interview in Monday’s Les Echos newspaper. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Bregier said slightly fewer than 600 aircraft had been delivered by the end of November. “That will require a repeat of the effort made in December 2016, but we’re prepared for that,” he said. “The technical problems on the new A320 engines are now solved. So we’re hopeful production will ramp up as expected in 2018.” Asked about rumors of the departure of Airbus CEO Tom Enders, who has faced pressure over the conduct of an internal investigation into inaccuracies in filings with U.S. regulators over arms technology sales, Bregier said: “Let’s leave the board to take decisions.” Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-deliveries/airbuss-bregier-sees-2017-aircraft-deliveries-topping-700-idUSKBN1DX0U4'|'2017-12-03T23:06:00.000+02:00'
'4b632d9e6b67accf4d5dc3802401d303998b9cce'|'Qatar riyal stabilising in offshore market after c.bank pledge on dollar supply'|'December 3, 2017 / 11:40 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Qatar riyal stabilising in offshore market after c.bank pledge on dollar supply Hadeel Al Sayegh 3 Min Read DOHA, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Qatar’s riyal is stabilising in offshore trade, recovering from several weeks of increasing volatility, after the central bank pledged to ensure liquidity in the foreign exchange market, commercial bankers said on Sunday. Some currency traders said they believed the central bank had sold U.S. dollars offshore in significant amounts during recent days, but this could not be confirmed. Until late November, the riyal swung widely between its peg of 3.64 to the U.S. dollar, widely used onshore, and much weaker offshore rates. On Nov. 21, it traded as low as 3.8950 on the Reuters conversational dealing platform. Commercial bankers blamed the volatility on poor market liquidity in the wake of a decision by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states to cut diplomatic and trade ties with Doha in June. After the diplomatic rift, Qatar’s central bank and big state-owned Qatari banks became reluctant to supply dollars to the market when they believed the supply might be used for speculation against the riyal. One foreign banker said there was “rationing” of dollars by the central bank. On Nov. 22, equity index compiler MSCI cited poor currency market liquidity when it said it might shift to using offshore exchange rates to value Qatar’s equities market - a move that could potentially lead to cuts in the weighting of Qatari stocks in MSCI’s emerging market index. In an effort to avoid this, the central bank responded by saying it was committed to providing all the currency requirements of investors, including local and foreign individuals and institutions, at onshore exchange rates. Since then, the riyal has gradually become less volatile, commercial bankers said. Most recently, it has been trading on the Reuters conversational dealing platform between 3.6404 and and 3.6950, a much smaller range than previously. Some commercial bankers doing business in Qatar said the central bank appeared to have increased its supplies of dollars to the market after making its pledge. Others said it was not clear that supplies had actually increased, but agreed the pledge was having an impact. The bankers also said that if the central bank did not ultimately follow through on its pledge to improve liquidity, the offshore market could soon resume testing the riyal’s lows. MSCI said it would take feedback from the investment community on the proposed currency shift until Dec. 1, and would announce its final decision by Dec. 5. Qatar’s stock market dropped last week because of worries about the MSCI decision but rebounded modestly on Sunday, climbing 0.6 percent. (Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar; Writing by Andrew Torchia)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/gulf-qatar-riyal/qatar-riyal-stabilising-in-offshore-market-after-c-bank-pledge-on-dollar-supply-idUSL8N1O30AS'|'2017-12-03T13:35:00.000+02:00'
'25d9a2793d096a414b0929384fac540400cacb67'|'Polish bourse targets retiring business owners to boost listings'|'December 3, 2017 / 7:07 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Polish bourse targets retiring business owners to boost listings Agnieszka Barteczko , Anna Koper 2 Min Read WARSAW (Reuters) - The Warsaw Stock Exchange GPW.WA will try to persuade dozens of retiring business owners to sell their companies via the bourse as it strives to attract new listings, its chief executive said. FILE PHOTO - A man passes in front of the WSE logo at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Poland, March 6, 2012. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo The state-controlled bourse has seen a decline in new listings in recent years, in part because low interest rates have allowed companies to raise money cheaply without the regulatory obligations that come with a stock market listing. “We identified around 50 private companies, which in our view should be listed on the WSE,” Marek Dietl told Reuters in an interview approved for publication on Sunday. Dietl, approved as CEO at the end of September, said the bourse would argue a listing - as opposed to a sale to another private investor - would allow retiring business owners to sell down their stakes gradually and would guarantee a market price. “We would like to convince at least some of these companies’ owners to list them on the WSE,” said Dietl, the WSE’s fifth CEO since 2013 and the third since the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) won elections in 2015. A generation of entrepreneurs who founded businesses in the 1990s after the collapse of communism are nearing retirement in Poland and other eastern European countries, with their children often not interested in taking on their work. The WSE, which is working on a strategy update, also wants to launch its products and technologies abroad, but rules out takeovers due to the cost of buying rivals, Dietl said. The WSE made an unsuccessful attempt in 2014 to merge with the Vienna bourse and some analysts have been wondering whether a similar project could be revived given the WSE’s cash pile. Dietl said the WSE was sticking to its policy of paying out at least 60 percent of annual net profit in dividends, as well as its targets for core earnings of 288 million zlotys (60.2 million pounds) in 2020 and average annual revenue growth of 7 percent in 2014-2020. Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Anna Koper; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-poland-bourse/polish-bourse-targets-retiring-business-owners-to-boost-listings-idUKKBN1DX0S7'|'2017-12-03T21:06:00.000+02:00'
'4db80fc581146200bb682b6af9dad36f952742f0'|'Aetna''s board set to approve $68 billion sale to CVS Health: sources'|'(Reuters) - Aetna Inc’s board of directors was meeting on Sunday to approve the U.S. health insurer’s sale to U.S. drugstore chain operator CVS Health Corp for approximately $207 per share in cash and stock, according to people familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO: People walk by a CVS Pharmacy store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo The $68 billion deal will be this year’s largest corporate acquisition. It will combine one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide.CVS plans to pay for the deal mostly with cash, but it will also use its own stock to pay for around 30 percent of the purchase price, the sources said. The announcement of the deal could come as early as Sunday, the sources added.The sources requested not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. CVS and Aetna did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The deal comes as healthcare payers and pharmacies are responding to factors including the Affordable Care Act, rising drug prices and the threat of competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc.CVS plans to use its low-cost clinics to eventually save more than $1 billion per year on health care costs for Aetna’s roughly 23 million medical members, sources have said.A combined insurer and PBM will also likely be better placed to negotiate lower drug prices, and the arrangement could boost sales for CVS’s front-of-store retail business.The company expects to invest billions of dollars in the coming years to add clinics and services, largely financed by diverting funds away from other planned investments.That could eventually cut costs substantially, with the clinics serving as an alternative to more expensive hospital emergency room visits.Meanwhile, deeper collaboration between Aetna’s insurance business and CVS’s PBM division could drive down drug costs by adding clients and boosting the PBM’s leverage with drugmakers.Independent PBMs have long been criticized for potential conflicts of interest with insurance company clients, because they could potentially keep cost savings from drug negotiations rather than passing them on to patients.Aetna patient visits to CVS stores for health care and prescriptions could also boost front-of-store sales, which like those at many retailers have fallen in recent quarters amid competition from online sellers.Health insurers meanwhile have sought to cut costs amid steep prescription drug price rises and requirements to care for even the sickest patients under the Affordable Care Act.Aetna last year tried to buy rival Humana Inc to gain leverage to control costs, but U.S. antitrust regulators shot down that transaction and a proposed merger between Anthem Inc and Cigna Corp.Analysts have said the CVS-Aetna deal could prompt other healthcare sector mega-mergers, as rivals scramble to emulate the strategy.It could spur a merger between Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and Humana Inc, or between Humana and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Ana Gupte, analyst at Leerink Partners, said recently.VERTICAL MERGER Although CVS and Aetna’s planned merger does not directly consolidate the health insurance or pharmaceutical industries, the U.S. Department of Justice has been taking a closer look at so-called vertical mergers, where the companies are not direct competitors.Last month, the Justice Department sued to block AT&T Inc’s planned $85.4 billion merger with Time Warner Inc, saying the integration of a content producer with a distributor could reduce consumer choice.The CVS-Aetna deal could attract similar scrutiny if regulators feared it could block Aetna customers from frequenting other pharmacies or contracting with other PBMs, several investors said, asking not to be named because they were not authorized to talk to the press.But four antitrust experts said there is little doubt the deal will be approved, although it might need to meet conditions to convince antitrust enforcers to sign off.It is unclear whether it would be evaluated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or the Justice Department but that decision might be made based on which agency is less busy, said Matthew Cantor of law firm Constantine Cannon.“(The companies) want the FTC to get it. The reason that the FTC is better at this point is that the Justice Department has just broken with decades of precedent of how to deal with vertical mergers,” said Cantor, referring to the decision to refuse conduct remedies and file a lawsuit to stop AT&T from buying Time Warner.Reporting by Carl O''Donnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aetna-m-a-cvs-health/aetnas-board-set-to-approve-68-billion-sale-to-cvs-health-sources-idINKBN1DX0RL'|'2017-12-03T20:31:00.000+02:00'
'd324eab10ceece02bc1063dcaa2e8e73444fb7d4'|'Danish insurer Tryg in talks to buy peer Alka'|' 52 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Danish insurer Tryg in talks to buy peer Alka Reuters Staff 1 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark’s largest insurance company Tryg ( TRYG.CO ) said on Saturday it was in talks about a possible acquisition of its unlisted competitor Alka. “Tryg is in a dialogue concerning a potential acquisition of Alka,” the company said in a short statement following a report in Danish newspaper Berlingske. The deal could be worth around 6 billion Danish crowns ($960 million), according to the newspaper. Tryg did not comment on the size of the deal. Reporting by Teis Jensen; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tryg-m-a/danish-insurer-tryg-in-talks-to-buy-peer-alka-idUKKBN1DW0J0'|'2017-12-02T16:55:00.000+02:00'
'47aa289142e045e645444c8bb79594e114234ba0'|'Irish manufacturing growth surges to 18-year high - PMI'|'December 1, 2017 / 6:10 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Irish manufacturing growth surges to 18-year high - PMI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Growth in Ireland’s manufacturing sector surged to an 18-year high in November, a survey showed on Friday, with strong new orders at home and abroad defying fears Brexit would trigger a slowdown in Britain’s closest neighbour. Ireland is widely seen as the European Union country most exposed to Britain’s decision to leave the bloc, but after the muted initial impact of the Brexit vote, Dublin this year raised its economic growth forecasts for 2017 and 2018. The Investec Purchasing Managers’ index indicated strong growth is likely to continue, climbing to 58.1 in November, its highest level since December 1999, from 54.4 in October. It has remained above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction for over four years. “Irish manufacturing businesses remain very upbeat about the prospects for the sector, with only one in 16 panelists expecting to see a reduction in production over the coming 12 months,” said Investec Ireland chief economist Philip O‘Sullivan. “We believe that manufacturers here are right to feel confident,”he said, citing the country’s open economy and the International Monetary Fund’s forecast for global economic growth to hit a seven year high of 3.7 percent next year. The expansion in the new business subindex was the fastest since the end of 1999 and one of the steepest in the survey’s history, the survey’s authors said. Those questioned linked higher output to new order growth in both domestic and export markets. New export orders have now risen in each of the past 15 months. Employment has risen in each of the past 14 months, with growth strongest in consumer and investment goods. Detailed PMI data are only available under licence from Markit and customers need to apply to Markit for a licence. To subscribe to the full data, click on the link below: www.markit.com/Contact-Us For further information, please phone Markit on +44 20 7260 2454 or email economics@markit.com Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Toby Chopra; conor.humphries@thomsonreuters.com; +35315001518; Reuters; Messaging: conor.humphries.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-economy-pmi/irish-manufacturing-growth-surges-to-18-year-high-pmi-idUKKBN1DV3TB'|'2017-12-01T08:10:00.000+02:00'
'88471fce924033e82afd1372132d81882baeb8c6'|'Nestle, Stada prepare rival bids for Germany''s Merck consumer health - sources'|'December 1, 2017 / 7:15 PM / in 7 minutes Nestle, Stada prepare rival bids for Germany''s Merck consumer health - sources Pamela Barbaglia , Ludwig Burger , Patricia Weiss 4 Min Read LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Swiss food giant Nestle ( NESN.S ) and the private equity owners of German drug firm Stada ( STAGn.DE ) are both preparing tentative bids for Merck KgaA’s ( MRCG.DE ) consumer health unit, several sources told Reuters. FILE PHOTO - A Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Merck’s financial adviser JPMorgan has invited bids for the business, which is valued at about 4 billion euros (£3.5 billion), ahead of a Dec. 15 deadline, the sources said. Nestle is widely seen as a natural buyer for the maker of Seven Seas vitamins and Bion nutritional supplements, after previous talks to set up a consumer joint venture with Merck fell through over the summer. Bain and Cinven, who earlier this year took control of Germany’s Stada, are hoping to use the Merck unit as a buy-and-build platform for Stada, which makes generic drugs and consumer care products and had annual revenues of more than 2 billion euros in 2016, the sources said. The private equity firms are making an opportunistic move on Merck consumer health as they want to have options to build on the business they have with Stada, one of the sources said. Other buyout funds which do not have a presence in the consumer and healthcare industries and would not be able to use existing portfolio companies as an acquisition vehicle have been advised against entering the process, they said. Merck, which declined to comment, has seen enough interest from industry buyers, they said, pointing to takeover appetite from emerging markets. Nestle, Stada, Cinven and Bain all declined to comment. Merck’s vitamins and nutritional supplements would fit Nestle’s ambition to expand in consumer healthcare, a fast-growing area CEO Mark Schneider has made a priority. Nestle has also been offered the $20 billion (£14.83 billion) consumer health business that U.S. drug giant Pfizer ( PFE.N ) is selling, the sources said. But Merck’s portfolio is smaller and less diversified than Pfizer’s and would keep Nestle closer to its core strength in packaged food, the sources said. Nestle, which wants to become a “nutrition, health and wellness company,” promised shareholders in September that moving into consumer health would not be “a carte blanche for reckless diversification.” Consumer health is a fragmented sector ranging from over-the-counter medicines and vitamins to sports nutrition products and condoms. It has proved fertile ground for deals in recent years, as ageing populations and health-conscious consumers drive demand. Stada’s owners are also mulling bids for the generic drug business being sold by Sanofi ( SASY.PA ), the sources said, and might favour this combination over Merck as generic drugs are typically valued at a cheaper multiple. Merck said in September that it would consider selling the $1 billion-a-year consumer health unit to help fund more research into prescription drugs. Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze, Ben Hirschler, Dasha Afanasieva and Ben Martin; writing by Martinne Geller; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-merck-m-a-nestle/nestle-stada-prepare-rival-bids-for-germanys-merck-consumer-health-sources-idUKKBN1DV5RK'|'2017-12-01T21:13:00.000+02:00'
'83691ea41d0dcf0718d35bb4b15132dc811c26bb'|'UK new car sales on course for first annual drop since 2011'|'LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - British new car registrations dropped 5 percent in the year to date, putting them on track for the first annual fall since 2011, hit by weaker consumer confidence and uncertainty over the future of diesel, an industry body said on Tuesday.Sales slumped 11.2 percent in November to 163,541 cars, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), with demand falling among business, fleet and individual buyers.Diesel has been particularly hit this year, with registrations declining 16.1 percent between January and November, while petrol rose 3.1 percent in the same period.“An eighth month of decline in the new car market is a major concern, with falling business and consumer confidence exacerbated by ongoing anti-diesel messages from government,” said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes.Britain will increase the tax paid by those driving new diesel cars that do not meet the latest emissions standards from next year, finance minister Philip Hammond said last month, in the latest blow to the segment.Since the 2015 Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal, a number of major cities including Madrid, Paris and Athens have announced plans particularly focused on cutting diesel emissions including bans, fines and restrictions. (Reporting by Costas Pitas, editing by Andy Bruce) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-economy-autos/uk-new-car-sales-on-course-for-first-annual-drop-since-2011-idINL9N1M1024'|'2017-12-05T06:16:00.000+02:00'
'9322c0d9a19d3f3407e393e7e70b5a7d4b353bc7'|'Four Seasons owner asks bondholders to take over care homes group'|'December 4, 2017 / 10:28 AM / in 33 minutes Four Seasons owner asks bondholders to take over care homes group Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The owner of British care homes operator Four Seasons has offered to hand over the business to its bondholders for a nominal sum, days before an interest payment deadline that could push Four Seasons into administration. Private equity group Terra Firma said on Monday it had offered to transfer its interest in the company that runs 343 care homes with immediate effect. The offer comes ahead of a Dec. 15 deadline for Four Seasons to make an interest payment on bonds, which the board of the company has said it might not be able to meet. U.S. investor H/2 Capital Partners owns the majority of the bonds, having bought into the debt at a discounted price since 2015. It was not immediately available to comment. Terra Firma, founded by financier Guy Hands, is locked in a legal dispute with H/2, with court hearings scheduled for 2018, about the future of 24 care homes that sit outside Four Seasons. Terra Firma said on Monday its offer related to Four Seasons was subject to assurances from bondholders that these 24 homes would be protected. H/2 Capital Partners is an institutional investment manager focussed on credit, real estate and related markets, with approximately $14 billion (£10.42 billion) in assets under management. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Simon Jessop and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-four-seasons-bondholders/four-seasons-owner-asks-bondholders-to-take-over-care-homes-group-idUKKBN1DY127'|'2017-12-04T12:28:00.000+02:00'
'13b6ee0d3989d8dc6d6ab701bd3433b69067f4ba'|'Insurer Hartford to sell life, annuity unit in $2.05 billion deal'|'(Reuters) - Insurer Hartford Financial Services Group ( HIG.N ) said on Monday it would sell its Talcott Resolution unit in a deal valued at $2.05 billion, completing its exit from the life and annuity business.Hartford decided to offload annuities in 2012 after the business took a massive hit during the financial crisis, a major reason for the company''s $3.4 billion government bailout. reut.rs/2BxzK7h“...(The sale of Talcott) is the final step in our journey begun in March 2012, to exit the life insurance and annuity market,” Chief Executive Christopher Swift said.The sale is expected to improve future return on capital, the company said.Talcott is a low-ROE business compared with the company’s other businesses and an exit is likely a favorable outcome, Barclays’ analyst Jay Gelb wrote in a note.An investor group including Cornell Capital and Atlas Merchant Capital will buy Talcott and operate it as a standalone company, Hartford said.The deal consists of $1.44 billion in cash, a pre-closing cash dividend from Talcott, the unit’s debt and a 9.7 percent ownership in the new company, Hartford said.The company estimates a GAAP after-tax net loss of about $3.2 billion from the sale that will be recorded in the fourth quarter.The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2018, the company said.J.P. Morgan Securities and Goldman Sachs were financial advisers to Hartford, while Sidley Austin LLP provided legal counsel.BofA Merrill Lynch is the financial adviser to the investor group.Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hartford-fin-ser-divestiture-talcott/hartford-to-sell-talcott-resolution-in-deal-valued-at-2-05-billion-idINKBN1DY18V'|'2017-12-04T08:40:00.000+02:00'
'4db447e2b5d4217623d49665c81721c4ebc3ad66'|'LPC-Altice loans drop further as concerns grow'|'LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - French telecom group Altice’s recently refinanced leveraged loans dropped further in the secondary loan market on Monday, as shares in the group fell below €6.50, before rebounding slightly.The Patrick Drahi-controlled business’s €300m term loan was Quote: d at 98.25% of face value on Monday, a 62.5bp drop on last Monday’s price and a drop of more than 200bp in the last month, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data.Shares in the group fell to €6.87 on Monday afternoon, from €17.40 in mid-October, following a profit warning issued in early November and mounting concerns about the group’s €51bn debt pile.The group announced a deal to sell Swiss businesses green.ch and Green Datacenter for €183.5m on Monday, having previously said it plans to divest certain non-core businesses.“It’s a massive structure and I think it makes sense to divest some assets,” a senior investor said.Pricing on Altice’s majority owned telecoms company SFR Group’s term loan B11 and B12 term loans also fell notably on Monday to 98% of face value each, losing around 75bp since the end of last week, Thomson Reuters LPC data shows.The senior investor said it was to be expected the loans would fall in secondary, given the pressure on Altice’s share price.While debt investors hold some concerns as most of Altice’s senior debt is held in its two operating companies, leverage feels manageable at around 4.0x Ebitda and they are unlikely to experience big losses, the investor said.“There’s unlikely to be any material value loss to debt investors. It’s mainly an equity issue from our point of view.”Altice said on November 2 that it lost about 75,000 broadband customers in France, its biggest market, in the third quarter, with some lured by heavy promotions on offer at rivals.CEO Michel Combes resigned from the firm shortly after, prompting Drahi to re-instate himself to everyday handling of the business as president.Altice finalised its cross-border loan refinancing in October to lower the cost of its borrowings and extend maturities. The €300m tranche and US$900m, 8.25-year tranches closed to pay 275bp over Euribor/Libor, with a 0% floor, 25bp tighter than initial guidance of 300bp over Euribor/Libor.Editing by Claire Ruckin '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/altice-leveraged-loans/lpc-altice-loans-drop-further-as-concerns-grow-idINL8N1O45FP'|'2017-12-04T14:50:00.000+02:00'
'f5e0cc8ae3fe71cef31b597a08fc6b979c991cdc'|'BNDES participations arm to announce divestment plan in 2018'|'December 6, 2017 / 5:52 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago BNDES participations arm to announce divestment plan in 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The participations arm of Brazil’s development bank BNDES will announce early in 2018 a plan to sell some of the shares it owns in several companies, the bank’s president said on Wednesday. BNDES Participações SA, as the unit is known, has yet to decide on the total amount of shares to be sold, BNDES President Paulo Rabello de Castro said. (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Writing by Bruno Federowski Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/bndes-divestiture/bndes-participations-arm-to-announce-divestment-plan-in-2018-idUSE6N1NE000'|'2017-12-06T19:50:00.000+02:00'
'949a7cc42141455f2f4b4712b2d4fde6c64a783f'|'Thyssenkrupp chairman rejects investor call for breakup - Handelsblatt'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp Chairman Ulrich Lehner has rejected investor calls to break up the industrial group and backed top management’s plan to transform the firm into a technology group, Germany’s Handelsblatt reported, citing an interview.ThyssenKrupp supervisory board chairman Ulrich Lehner addresses the company''s annual shareholders meeting in Bochum, Germany, January 27, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen “Breaking up the group is not at all an issue,” Lehner was Quote: d as saying by the business daily in an interview published on Tuesday.Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger, who has run the group since 2011, is steering the firm away from the volatile steel sector and aims to transform it into a technology group focused on car parts and elevators.It has struck a deal to combine its European steel businesses with that of India’s Tata Steel next year and is facing pressure over the planned merger from its labour unions.Cevian Capital, which holds around 18 percent in Thyssenkrupp, has criticized the management’s transformation course for failing to boost profitability and called for structural changes to the group to help it become more agile.“If an investor positions itself publicly in such a way, then this hurts the company,” Lehner said.The head of Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board gave his backing to Hiesinger ahead of a meeting with the CEO and Cevian founder Lars Foerberg on Tuesday, according to Handelsblatt.“The team around Heinrich Hiesinger is doing an excellent job,” Lehner said. “It has the full support of the supervisory board and I appreciate the cooperation very much.”“A breakup is not an optional issue that one can deal with carelessly,” Lehner said. “If there was need to take action on that front, then this would also be addressed and discussed within the supervisory board.”Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/thyssenkrupp-chairman/thyssenkrupp-chairman-rejects-investor-call-for-breakup-handelsblatt-idINKBN1DZ0NK'|'2017-12-05T09:21:00.000+02:00'
'301c4e5ee00707119552d749c45d194a099d8ec1'|'EU to decide on tax haven blacklist, assess U.S. tax reform'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers adopted a blacklist of 17 jurisdictions deemed as tax havens on Tuesday, in an unprecedented step to counter worldwide tax avoidance, although they did not agree on financial levies for the listed countries.FILE PHOTO: European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici presents the EU executive''s autumn economic forecasts during a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman To discourage the use of shell structures abroad - which in many cases are legal but may hide illicit activities - the EU in February began screening 92 jurisdictions seen as possible tax havens. The move came in the wake of numerous disclosures of offshore tax avoidance schemes used by companies and wealthy individuals.EU finance ministers approved a common blacklist on Tuesday made up of American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates (UAE).South Korea, which has a comprehensive free trade deal with the EU, was listed because it has “harmful preferential tax regimes,” while the UAE does not apply minimum global standards against tax avoidance, the EU said in a document.“This list represents substantial progress. Its very existence is an important step forward. But because it is the first EU list, it remains an insufficient response to the scale of tax evasion worldwide,” EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici said after the meeting.A second public “gray” list, or “watchlist”, of 47 jurisdictions that have committed to changing their tax rules to abide by EU standards on transparency and cooperation was also adopted. It includes Switzerland, Turkey and Hong Kong.Morocco and Cape Verde were moved from the blacklist to the watchlist at a late hour after making last-minute commitments to tax reforms, officials said.The lists will be updated regularly.Blacklisted countries may no longer be used by EU institutions for international financial operations, and transactions involving them could be subject to closer scrutiny.These penalties may have little effect in persuading the wealthiest tax havens to change course, however.“Stronger countermeasures would have been preferable,” EU Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference after the meeting. Some states, like Luxembourg and Malta, opposed stricter sanctions, officials said.The ministers ruled out imposing a common withholding tax on transactions to tax havens as well as other coordinated financial sanctions, but could do so at national level.Britain had shown reticence over the process, EU officials said. No British overseas territories such as the Cayman Islands or Bermuda, nor the Channel Islands were put on the blacklist, in what was seen as a diplomatic victory for London. They were put on the gray list instead.Bermuda was at the center of the most recent large disclosure of offshore financial documents, the Paradise Papers.Eight Caribbean islands recently hit by hurricanes, including Anguilla and the Bahamas, were given until March to comply with EU standards before a decision is made on their listing.EU states have not been screened and will not be on the list. The commission said none of the 28 members of the bloc can be classified as a tax haven, as all have agreed to respect EU tax standards.But anti-poverty and fair tax groups said that if screened against EU criteria, countries like Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Ireland would all be on the EU list.“The list cannot just comprise third countries but must also contain EU jurisdictions,” the German conservative vice-chair of the European Parliament’s economic affairs committee, Markus Ferber, said in a statement on Tuesday.TECH FIRMS, U.S. REFORM EU ministers also adopted a common position on taxation of tech corporations like Amazon ( AMZN.O ) or Facebook ( FB.O ), which have been accused of paying too little tax in the EU. Such firms reroute the booking of their profits to low-tax nations where they have headquarters, like Luxembourg and Ireland.The common text, watered down after pressure from some countries, calls for considering a new corporate taxation system based on the “virtual” presence of a firm in a country. The system would allow for the taxation of online business where the companies have activities and not only where they are headquartered.The commission is expected to present proposals in the coming months, which could include “temporary measures” like targeted taxes on transactions carried out by digital firms.Temporary levies could be adopted before a global deal on taxing the digital economy. The EU would prefer tax reforms were coordinated with international partners.The ministers also agreed on new rules forcing online shopping firms such as Amazon, Google ( GOOGL.O ) and Alibaba ( BABA.N ) to collect the value-added tax (VAT) on sales on their platforms, to counter possible tax fraud by firms using such platforms.At the meeting, finance ministers also assessed the impact of reform in the United States that will slash corporate tax from 35 percent to 20 percent.France, Germany, Italy, Britain and Sweden raised concerns about the U.S. move, an official who attended the meeting said. Ministers discussed whether some of the measures introduced in the overhaul were in line with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and treaties to avoid corporate double taxation.EU states agreed to continue studying the measures and to decide “weather to react,” the official said, without detailing which measures could be adopted.Dombrovskis said EU ministers wanted to look into the “potential effect on trade” of the planned overhaul, echoing concerns raised on Monday by EU officials.Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Additional reporting by Julia Fioretti and Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-ecofin-tax/eu-to-decide-on-tax-haven-blacklist-assess-u-s-tax-reform-idUSKBN1DZ172'|'2017-12-05T18:14:00.000+02:00'
'd0ab25b1bcc86016b559ef5985c4e480152e3bb8'|'Decade in the making - post-crisis banking rules finally signed'|'December 7, 2017 / 5:39 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Decade in the making - post-crisis banking rules finally signed Balazs Koranyi , Francesco Canepa 5 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Financial regulators reached a long-sought deal on Thursday to harmonize global banking rules, capping a decade of effort to make banks more resilient even if they fell short of their own initial hopes. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi attends a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Facing fierce opposition from the banking industry and calls from the U.S. administration to backtrack on some measures, policymakers struck a compromise agreement on rules forcing banks to hold more capital and cash to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crash. Conceived in the aftermath of the global financial crisis when taxpayers had to rescue some of the world’s biggest lenders, the rules, known as Basel III, aim to shield governments by having private investors suffer losses first. “The focus of the reforms was to reduce regulatory uncertainty,” European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, the chairman of Basel’s oversight body, said. “Now it’s time is for implementation and not further design,” Draghi told a news conference. The final step in the deal will be for legislators around the globe to ratify the agreement, another potentially time consuming exercise, especially after some U.S. lawmakers have argued for relaxing financial regulation. Thursday’s compromise focused on when banks would have to increase capital on their trading books and on the way large lenders self-assess the risks they take - two issues that divided countries on either side of the Atlantic. U.S. banks have resisted the trading book proposal and as a compromise, regulators agree that the new rules would take effect in 2022, later than previous expectations for 2019, in part after the U.S. Treasury asked for a delay. With regards to risk assessment, European banks complained that the compromise proposal would put them at a disadvantage to their U.S. rivals by requiring bigger capital buffers against mortgages. The Americans argued that they have done more to repair their balance sheets after the crisis so they are not weighed down by poor legacy assets like the Europeans. French banks in particular resisted and Paris finally relented only when a long phase-in period was proposed, putting the rules into full force only by the start of 2027. In addition, local supervisors will have the power to mitigate the impact of these new measures during the phase-in period. The European Banking Authority said that the total capital shortfall created by these reforms would amount to 39.7 billion euros ($46.82 billion) for the biggest banks in the region. “This deal will make corporate financing in Europe more expensive and this is bad news for the real economy,” Markus Ferber, a German and a conservative member of the European Parliament, said SHORTCOMINGS The reforms do have their shortcomings, however. The ‘bailing in’ of private investors has not worked as intended so far, a reduction in banks’ heavy exposure to government debt has not been tackled and loosely regulated investment funds are turning into “shadow banks” by slowly taking business away from regular lenders. The Basel reforms have been a particular boost for shadow banking - financial intermediaries ranging from hedge funds to special purpose vehicles - because financial firms are facing easier regulation and lower liquidity requirements just as their banking rivals adjust to costly new rules. Shadow banks have outpaced regular lenders in international credit growth for most of the past decade. In the European Union alone they have assets of more than 40 trillion euros, the European Systemic Risk Board said earlier. “It’s high time to extend some of this regulation to the shadow banking sector,” Draghi said. Bail-ins, where bond- and shareholders and possibly depositors take losses before governments, have also been a problem, particularly in the failure of two Italian banks earlier this year, when a loophole in euro zone rules was utilized to channel state funds to them. The state support raised questions about the viability of bail-in and whether governments could in the worst case hit large depositors. Another issue not tackled is the so-called “doom loop” between banks and governments. In need of safe assets, banks often hold lots of government debt, which is generally deemed risk free. But if a sovereign were to fail, such a tight-knit relationship would inevitably bring down banks as well, exacerbating any crisis. Draghi said many if not most countries on the committee opposed introducing risk weights on government bonds. Timing has also been an issue. Many of the Basel rules are implemented with big lags and will not take effect for years to come, well over a decade after the start of the original crisis.($1 = 0.8479 euros) Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-basel-banks/decade-in-the-making-post-crisis-banking-rules-finally-signed-idUKKBN1E12JZ'|'2017-12-07T19:38:00.000+02:00'
'cced93e0104b3d73e437028e77b7d41c31dc1750'|'Iraq says Russian energy minister did not discuss operations in Kurdistan with Iraqi officials'|'December 7, 2017 / 11:31 AM / in 7 minutes Iraq says Russian energy minister did not discuss operations in Kurdistan with Iraqi officials Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak did not discuss operations by Russian oil companies in Iraq’s Kurdistan region with the Iraqi prime minister or oil minister during his trip to Iraq, the Iraqi oil ministry said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Alexander Dyukov, head of Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft walk during tour at the Badra oilfield in Kut province, Iraq December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani “At a time when the oil ministry welcomes all international oil companies to invest and work in Iraq, it also affirms that oil is a sovereign resource, and therefore all contracts ... should be signed with the federal government and the oil ministry,” it said in a statement. “Anything contrary to that means these entities are liable for all the consequences, legal and financial responsibilities, and damages resulting from that.” Novak had tweeted on Wednesday that the government of Iraq had no objections regarding operations by Russian oil companies in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-oil-iraq-kurdistan/iraq-says-russian-energy-minister-did-not-discuss-operations-in-kurdistan-with-iraqi-officials-idUKKBN1E11G6'|'2017-12-07T13:31:00.000+02:00'
'c48a3771040b5c8193064295cc73aa452b38d331'|'Qatar flexes financial muscle with 12 billion euros of French deals'|'December 7, 2017 / 12:10 PM / a minute ago Qatar flexes financial muscle with 12 billion euros of French deals Hadeel Al Sayegh 3 Min Read DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar will buy fighter jets and armored vehicles as part of 12 billion euros worth of commercial contracts it agreed with France on Thursday, bolstering its military capability and its international ties as it faces a boycott by other Arab states. The latest contracts underscored how Doha can use the wealth it has accumulated as the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas to defy some of the largest and wealthiest Arab countries. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade relations with the emirate almost six months ago. They accuse the Qataris of backing terrorism, which Qatar denies. “Our position on this blockade was very clear. Qatar’s position was very clear - to resolve this problem, if we saw problems between us and our neighbors - we should be at a table and speak honestly,” Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said at a news conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron, who has tried to play a mediation role between the sides, was in Doha to discuss how to combat the financing of terrorism at a time when the Middle East is locked in a regional power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi‘ite Iran. “Restoring stability to the Gulf is a priority for us because we have a lot of friends here,” Macron said. “Our wish is that we find a quick resolution to today’s situation.” French President Emmanuel Macron with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani leave after they have finished their news conference in Doha, Qatar December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon Paris has strong commercial and political ties with Qatar. It has promoted deeper business interests in the country and encouraged Qatari investment in France, where the Gulf state already has assets of about $10 billion. Macron said some 12 billion euros ($14.13 billion) worth of deals were agreed on Thursday. They included Qatar’s taking up an option from 2015 to buy 12 more Dassault Aviation-made Rafale fighters, and saying it could purchase a further 36. It has already bought 24 planes for about 6 billion euros, including missiles. Slideshow (4 Images) It also committed to buying 490 armored vehicles from defense firm Nexter. Doha has repeatedly called for dialogue with its neighbors, although it has strengthened its military as relations with them have deteriorated. It has secured this year alone military equipment deals with the United States, Russia and Britain. “In total, it amounts to nearly 12 billion euros which was signed today and which underlines the closeness of our economic cooperation,” Macron said. Among other deals signed, Suez SEVI.PA will dredge and clean Qatar’s lagoon and a rail consortium of RATP and SNCF will build and operate a metro system in the Qatari capital. Qatar Airways also placed a new order for Airbus A321neo civilian aircraft to replace an earlier A320neo order. The new deal for larger planes is worth an extra $930 million at current list prices for Airbus and involves a switch of engine supplier to a French-American venture co-owned by Safran ( SAF.PA )< and General Electric ( GE.N ). Additional reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey and Tim Hepher, writing by John Irish, editing by Richard Lough, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-france-contracts/qatar-flexes-financial-muscle-with-12-billion-euros-of-french-deals-idUKKBN1E1162'|'2017-12-07T15:45:00.000+02:00'
'bc520fecf5779baf033f01b0cd25d27798b2fff7'|'Alibaba must face renewed lawsuit over IPO: U.S. appeals court'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit accusing Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) of defrauding shareholders by concealing a regulatory warning about counterfeiters that the Chinese online retailer had received shortly before going public.FILE PHOTO: A sign of Alibaba Group is seen during the fourth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, December 3, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled 3-0 that a lower court judge erred in dismissing claims by holders of Alibaba’s American Depositary Shares and ADS call options against Alibaba, Executive Chairman Jack Ma and others.Alibaba said it was disappointed by the decision but that the ruling did not determine that Alibaba had violated U.S. securities law.“We believe our behavior was entirely appropriate, and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously as this litigation progresses,” it said in a statement.The appeals court in the Tuesday opinion said the plaintiffs adequately alleged that Alibaba intended to defraud them but did not rule on the merits of the case.Alibaba has long faced accusations that its websites are a haven for counterfeiters, including of luxury goods.Shareholders accused Alibaba of concealing a meeting on July 16, 2014, two months before its $25 billion initial public offering, in which China’s powerful State Administration for Industry and Commerce threatened huge fines if Alibaba failed to suppress counterfeiting.The price of Alibaba’s ADS fell 12.8 percent on Jan. 28 and 29, 2015 after the SAIC revealed its concerns about products that were banned, fake or substandard, or infringed trademarks.In June 2016, Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan dismissed the nationwide lawsuit, saying Alibaba had flagged the regulatory risks in its IPO materials.The appeals court called the SAIC threat “highly material” to investors because it “required Alibaba to choose between giving up an important source of its revenue or risking enormous fines,” either of which could hurt results or the IPO’s success.“Given the eventual market reaction to revelation of the information that was concealed at the time of the IPO, its revelation would likely have had a multi-billion dollar negative effect,” the appeals court said.The lawsuit was returned to McMahon for further proceedings.Robert Kry, a partner at MoloLamken representing the plaintiffs, said: “We’re pleased with the decision, and look forward to proving our claims.”The case is Christine Asia Co et al v Ma et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-2519.Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Additional reporting by Peter Henderson in San Francisco.; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-decision/alibaba-must-face-renewed-lawsuit-over-ipo-u-s-appeals-court-idINKBN1DZ24E'|'2017-12-05T12:07:00.000+02:00'
'ba0a2f28338e5024e687bca1d09a02481e1d1061'|'BASF agrees oil unit merger with Fridman''s DEA to spur expansion'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:15 PM / in a few seconds BASF agrees oil unit merger with Fridman''s DEA to spur expansion Dmitry Zhdannikov , Ron Bousso , Ludwig Burger 3 Min Read FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Chemical giant BASF agreed to merge its oil and gas unit Wintershall with DEA, a vehicle of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, to create one of the largest independent oil and gas firms in Europe, the companies said. FILE PHOTO - Flags of the German chemical company BASF are pictured in Monheim, Germany April 20, 2012. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo Fridman and his partners in the LetterOne investment vehicle made billions by selling their Russian oil empire in 2013 but have since struggled to expand in the United States and Britain due to sanctions imposed on Moscow despite not being under sanctions themselves. By folding DEA into Wintershall and creating Germany’s first oil champion, cash-rich Fridman could create new opportunities for growth in large Western markets. For BASF it represents a second chance to diversify outside Russia where it is heavily present via ventures with gas monopoly Gazprom. BASF already tried to buy DEA in 2014 from German utility RWE but lost the race to Fridman. “Wintershall DEA will be one of Europe’s largest independent exploration and production companies, with the scale needed to generate sustainable growth long into the future,” said Lord John Browne, the executive chairman of LetterOne Energy. “Wintershall DEA, will be a German and European energy champion which can compete with those in France, Italy, and Spain. Very rarely do you have the opportunity to create a company of this type,” Browne, a former chief of BP, said in a statement. The new company will produce around 590,000 barrels per day from fields mainly in the North Sea, Africa and Russia and have combined proven reserves of 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. BASF will control 67 percent of the new firm while Fridman’s LetterOne will own the remaining 33 percent. BASF could increase its stake in the company at a later stage by folding into it its pipeline business, which was left outside the initial merger. The new group would consider an initial public share offering (IPO) upon completion of the merger, which is expected in the second half of 2018. In May, Kurt Bock, BASF chief executive, said profit contributions from its oil and gas unit were diminishing further amid weak oil prices. As a result, the group would focus on boosting profitability at its chemicals and crop protection businesses. The drop in profits came amid a slump in oil prices and turmoil in Libya, one of Wintershall’s key sources of oil, following the fall of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi. DEA became a growth platform for Fridman and his partner BP sold Russian oil venture TNK-BP for $55 billion in 2013 to state-controlled oil major Rosneft. DEA’s expansion in Britain and the United States has been hampered by Western sanctions on Russia with DEA unable to close a deal to buy gas fields in Britain’s North Sea as well as shale oil and gas companies in Texas. German daily Handelsblatt had earlier reported a deal was imminent. Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-basf-letterone-oil-report/basf-agrees-oil-unit-merger-with-fridmans-dea-to-spur-expansion-idUKKBN1E12SU'|'2017-12-07T21:03:00.000+02:00'
'7b64eeda91d408ae4191b2282df12cabacfb2db3'|'China''s Fosun International plans $500 million IPO of tourism business: IFR'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate Fosun International ( 0656.HK ) is in talks with banks to list its tourism business, which includes French resort chain Club Med, to raise at least $500 million, IFR reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation.A company logo of Fosun International is seen at the Fosun Fair held alongside the annual general meeting of the Chinese conglomerate in Hong Kong, China May 28, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Fosun Tourism & Culture Group includes a Chinese joint venture with tour operator Thomas Cook Group and a luxury hotel in Hainan province as well as Club Med, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication.Shanghai-based Fosun is considering spinning off the unit as early as next year and is likely to pick Hong Kong as the listing venue, according to the people. Two sources said the deal would raise at least $500 million, according to IFR.Fosun declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.Fosun, co-founded by Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, was in the vanguard of China’s global dealmaking spree over the past few years, snapping up assets including a Portuguese insurer, and stakes in Greek jewelry retailer Folli Follie and Cirque du Soleil. It bought Club Med for $1 billion in 2015 after a protracted bid battle.The float of Fosun’s tourism unit is one of several expected from China’s largest dealmakers as they rationalize portfolios and seek to boost their finances. Last week, fellow conglomerate HNA said it was considering listing Gategroup, the Swiss airline caterer, in Zurich next year and signaled it was looking at other asset sales.Fosun itself announced plans last year to list Ironshore, its reinsurance unit, but was stalled by a U.S. review of its two-stage acquisition of the Bermuda-based group. It sold the company to U.S. insurer Liberty Mutual for $3 billion last December.In September, it listed Israeli subsidiary Sisram Medical in Hong Kong through a HK$ 977 million ($125.06 million) IPO. Sisram is a producer of medical aesthetics devices.Fosun divides its businesses into “Health”, or pharmaceutical and medical-related, “Wealth” for its financial operations, and “Happiness” for its tourism, leisure and consumer units. In the first half of this year, the Happiness unit reported profits of 516 million yuan ($78.01 million) from sales of 6.53 billion yuan.Fosun shares were trading at HK$15.78 on Thursday afternoon, giving the company a market capitalization of HK$135 billion.($1 = 6.6148 Chinese yuan renminbi)($1 = 7.8124 Hong Kong dollars)Reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fosun-tourism-ipo/chinas-fosun-international-plans-500-million-ipo-of-tourism-business-ifr-idINKBN1E10PY'|'2017-12-07T04:31:00.000+02:00'
'69e8e262e61baab872997e3b5d7ef5f56d9b87fc'|'US STOCKS-Whipsawed by Washington, Wall St ends modestly lower'|'* Former adviser Flynn reportedly ready to testify against Trump* U.S. Senate Republicans claim votes to pass tax bill* Oil price gains underpin strength in energy shares* Indexes down: Dow 0.17 pct, S&P 0.20 pct, Nasdaq 0.38 pct (Updates with close with latest volume, adds dateline)By Lewis Krauskopf and April JoynerNEW YORK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street fell on Friday, whipsawed by developments with a probe into Russia’s alleged involvement in the U.S. election as well as with progress on a tax bill in Congress.Major indexes ended lower after an ABC News report that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was prepared to testify that before taking office President Donald Trump had directed him to make contact with Russians.The benchmark S&P 500 was down as much as 1.6 percent following the report. Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russia’s ambassador.But stocks recouped the bulk of their initial losses, after U.S. Senate Republicans said they had enough support to pass a sweeping tax overhaul.The Senate news was the latest sign of progress for a tax bill being closely watched by investors, with hopes that significant corporate tax cuts will further fuel Wall Street’s record-setting rally.“This Flynn thing threw everything for a loop. We had that still against the backdrop of tax reform,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.“We are at all-time highs so sometimes when you do get news that’s of a nature where people want to sell, it gets a little bit overdone,” Kinahan said.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 40.76 points, or 0.17 percent, to 24,231.59, the S&P 500 lost 5.36 points, or 0.20 percent, to 2,642.22 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 26.39 points, or 0.38 percent, to 6,847.59.Steep sell-offs have been a rarity on Wall Street this year. The S&P 500 has closed down by at least 1 percent only four times in 2017.Progress with the tax legislation in the Senate had helped buoy stocks this week, as well as drive a rotation into those areas that seem poised to benefit from lower corporate taxes.“We’ve kind of had a slow-growth economy in the last 18 to 24 months. The market piled into the faster-growing companies out there,” said Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager at Hodges Capital in Dallas.“Now we have an economy that’s accelerated in growth...A lot of the stocks that have been ignored in the last couple of years could become bargains,” Bradshaw said.The S&P has rallied 18 percent this year, boosted by solid global economic data and strong U.S. corporate earnings. But with investors optimistic about some aspects of Trump’s domestic agenda, especially tax cuts, news involving his administration has periodically rattled markets.“We’ve kind of gotten used to the drama in the White House,” said Rob Stein, CEO of Astor Investment Management in Chicago. “Whether or not they prove that there are Russian relationship ties, that doesn’t have a long-term effect on the value of the stock market.”Indeed, the initial abrupt selloff prompted Wall Street’s favorite reaction in recent months: “Buy the dip.”Energy was the best-performing sector, rising 0.8 percent. Oil prices settled up slightly, the day after OPEC and other crude producers agreed to extend output cuts until the end of 2018 to tighten global supplies and support prices.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.02-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.54-to-1 ratio favored decliners.About 8.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, well above the 6.6 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data. (Additional reporting by April Joyner in New York and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; editing by Bernard Orr and Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-whipsawed-by-washington-wall-st-ends-modestly-lower-idINL1N1O12CZ'|'2017-12-01T19:20:00.000+02:00'
'3de83beb547bbff786254b39a0ef02695499486c'|'EU could give the nod next week to trade talks with Britain'|'December 1, 2017 / 9:49 PM / in 9 hours EU could give the nod next week to trade talks with Britain Gabriela Baczynska , Jan Strupczewski 5 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union expects to offer a first signal next week that enough progress has been made in Brexit talks to warrant opening new negotiations with London in December on future trade relations, diplomats said. Anti-Brexit protesters wave EU and Union flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The sources saw that happening even though no detailed agreements are likely to have been made by then on the post-Brexit Irish border, a key outstanding issue after what diplomats in Brussels describe as a breakthrough on the divorce bill London will pay the EU as it leaves. Instead, a document the EU and Britain are due to sign after British Prime Minister Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the bloc’s executive Commission, meet in Brussels on Monday will spell out both sides’ commitment to sorting out the Irish border conundrum, as well as some rules to follow on that. “We are all optimistic. The signals we are getting are that we are getting there. There will be more contacts over the weekend,” a senior EU diplomat said. “Sometimes you think you have it and then things go wrong at the last minute but right now it seems we are almost there. Everyone wants to make it happen now, both we and the Brits.” Another EU diplomat also said the 27 remaining EU states were willing to give Britain what it had been asking for a long time -- a start to negotiations on a future trade pact -- after the makings emerged of a deal on the “divorce bill”. The EU and Britain this week agreed on a financial settlement under which London would pay a set share of the bloc’s budgets after it has left. “Everyone knows we have to honour politically what the Brits have accepted on money,” a second senior EU diplomat said. “So on Monday they will sign this document.” “And then on Wednesday (27 EU envoys) will say it’s good enough and start working towards ‘sufficient progress’ at the December summit and short guidelines for trade talks.” The guidelines is a term the 27 EU states use to describe their unified stance on Brexit matters, which they prepare between themselves in advance before engaging with London. Diplomats have described intense behind-the-scenes talks in recent days, although nothing is yet set in stone. The other potential spoiler for the Monday document is agreeing on the exact wording on the role of the EU’s top court, the European Court of Justice, whose jurisdiction Britain wants to escape while the bloc insists it is essential. “It’s not unknown in European Union business for deadlines to slip a bit. Clearly there would be great anxiety on the part of all involved if the situation wasn’t clear by (the end of) next week,” said a fourth EU diplomat. “But there’s a keen enthusiasm to get it all sorted.” IRISH BORDER If things go according to the plan, 27 EU leaders will officially open trade talks with Britain at their final meeting this year in Brussels on Dec. 15. In a series of steps leading up to that decision, Juncker’s European Commission is also due to give its own view next Wednesday on whether “sufficient progress” has been made in Brexit talks, which started last June. After that and the Wednesday talks among EU ambassadors in Brussels, the sherpas -- the EU negotiators of the 27 bloc’s leaders -- will also meet to discuss the topic on Dec. 11. The EU has made covering enough ground on the divorce a precondition to discussing future trade arrangements. Another EU diplomat on Friday stressed the vague concept of “sufficient progress” did not stipulate a comprehensive or exhaustive deal. Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney signalled separately on Friday there was still some time to iron out details on what will become the new EU’s external border before December’s top-level summit. The chairman of EU leaders meetings, Donald Tusk, visited Dublin on Friday to reassure Ireland of its right to veto any deal it finds unacceptable. The history of violence on the island of Ireland makes the future border arrangements particularly sensitive. Both sides’ desire to avoid putting physical border infrastructure on the island is complicated by the fact that Britain will be leaving the EU’s single market and customs zone. For its part, Britain says the border deal cannot erect new divisions within the country. May’s government also depends on the backing of Northern Ireland’s pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party, which has hinted at limits to concessions to Dublin. One of the sources stressed the “basic concept of no regulatory divergence” between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland was crucial for the bloc to have in the Monday document, while another said it would have to be quite specific on what sort of money London will pay on leaving. Additional reporting by Padraic Halpin; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-progress/eu-could-give-the-nod-next-week-to-trade-talks-with-britain-idUKKBN1DV60P'|'2017-12-01T23:49:00.000+02:00'
'b8d6b417744517c53da507f2531d1a721671ccc1'|'Three Uber security managers resign after CEO criticises practices'|'December 1, 2017 / 7:29 PM / Updated an hour ago Three Uber security managers resign after CEO criticises practices Joseph Menn , Dustin Volz 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three senior managers in Uber Technologies Inc’s security unit resigned on Friday, an Uber spokesperson said, days after the company’s new chief executive officer disclosed a massive data breach and criticised past practices. FILE PHOTO - Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, who was installed in the top job in August, disclosed the data breach last month after learning of it himself, saying that “none of this should have happened.” Uber’s security practices are also under fire in a high-stakes legal battle with rival self-driving car company Waymo, an Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ) subsidiary. Uber last week said it fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, over his role in the 2016 data breach, which compromised data belonging to 57 million customers. The three managers who resigned were Pooja Ashok, chief of staff for Sullivan; Prithvi Rai, a senior security engineer; and Jeff Jones, who handled physical security, the Uber spokesperson said. Ashok and Jones will remain at the company until January to assist in transition, the spokesperson said. A fourth individual, Uber’s head of Global Threat Operations, Mat Henley, began a three-month medical leave, said a separate source familiar with the situation. None immediately responded to requests for comment. Emails in connection with the departures, described by the separate source, complained of emotional and physical strain from the past year. Sullivan in August told Reuters that his security team totalled around 500 employees. Leadership in the unit has been in turmoil since the termination last week of Sullivan and a deputy, as well as Uber’s admission that it paid $100,000 to hackers to keep secret the 2016 data breach while failing to warn customers that their phone numbers and other data had been exposed. Multiple countries have launched investigations into the delayed disclosure. In the Waymo case, testimony at a pretrial hearing this week focussed on a former employee’s claims that Uber had a special unit within its security team that tried to obtain programming code and other trade secrets from rivals. Additional reporting by Heather Somerville and Dan Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-executives/uber-security-executives-depart-after-ceo-criticises-practices-idUKKBN1DV5SH'|'2017-12-01T22:39:00.000+02:00'
'9fa2ff1a0491595813c82f4b90a371f583325086'|'UK ship insurer Britannia to set up EU subsidiary in Luxembourg due to Brexit'|'December 1, 2017 / 3:29 PM / Updated 2 hours ago UK ship insurer Britannia to set up EU subsidiary in Luxembourg due to Brexit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Specialist British ship insurer Britannia plans to set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg in the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, it said on Friday. “With the advice of third-party consultants and having engaged with various EU regulators, Britannia’s board has now instructed the managers, Tindall Riley (Britannia) Ltd, to focus on Luxembourg as the preferred option,” it said in a statement. Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-britannia/uk-ship-insurer-britannia-to-set-up-eu-subsidiary-in-luxembourg-due-to-brexit-idUKKBN1DV57O'|'2017-12-01T17:28:00.000+02:00'
'31372b8512385281aaf4de4591361c9245de5167'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Dec 4'|'Dec 4 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.Headlines* CVS Health to buy Aetna for $68 bln on.ft.com/2jbGEbL* UK government to bolster support for nuclear power on.ft.com/2jcPiGJ* Australia launches inquiry into market power of Facebook, Google on.ft.com/2jbp6fC* Rio Tinto appoints Simon Thompson as new chairman on.ft.com/2jaYR9iOverview- America’s biggest drugstore chain CVS Health agreed to acquire the insurer Aetna for about $68 bln. Aetna Inc will be offered about $207 a share, comprising $145 in cash and $62 in stock.- This week, UK ministers will renew their support for nuclear power with measures to strengthen the industry’s supply chain and develop a new generation of small-scale reactors.- A formal inquiry into the market power of Facebook, Google and other digital platforms has been initiated by Australia’s competition regulator to determine if it is negatively affecting the media and advertising industries.- Simon Thompson was appointed as Rio Tinto’s new chairman ending a nine-month search. Thompson will take up the position in March, when Jan du Plessis steps down. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-dec-4-idUSL3N1O40IB'|'2017-12-04T03:02:00.000+02:00'
'd41cfc03060f8d1163ce638b5c44473431438ce0'|'Swiss review Saudi bank account information, no action so far'|'December 4, 2017 / 12:51 PM / Updated an hour ago Swiss review Saudi bank account information, no action so far Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Swiss authorities are reviewing information submitted by banks about potentially suspicious transactions linked to Saudi accounts but have not frozen funds or launched criminal investigations, federal prosecutors said on Monday. They were responding to a report by the Financial Times that cited unnamed sources saying banks had begun reporting suspicious account activity among some Saudi clients amid a corruption crackdown in the oil-rich kingdom. The report highlights Swiss private banks’ sensitivity to their handling of vast wealth for clients from Saudi Arabia, an important market for them. “Information coming in is being reviewed, as is standard practice. At this stage assets have not been frozen nor criminal investigations opened in this regard,” a spokeswoman for the Office of the Attorney General said in an emailed statement. She said the information included data that banks had submitted to the national money-laundering reporting centre as part of their standard due diligence obligations. Separately, the Federal Office for Justice said Saudi Arabia had not asked it for legal assistance in investigating 19 leading figures linked to the corruption allegations. Dozens of royal family members, high-ranking officials and senior businessmen were rounded up last month in a crackdown on graft that has strengthened the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Swiss scrutiny of Saudi accounts comes as parliament reviews whether to approve the automatic exchange of banking data with Saudi Arabia, one of 41 additional countries supposed to start receiving such information from Switzerland from 2019. The lower house of parliament in September narrowly opposed sharing data with the Saudis, the only country other than New Zealand among the 41 that did not win approval. The upper house is due to consider the Saudi matter this week. (Reporting by Angelika Gruber and Brenna Hughes Michael Shields; editing by Mark Heinrich)'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/swiss-saudi/swiss-review-saudi-bank-account-information-no-action-so-far-idUSL8N1O42JF'|'2017-12-04T20:51:00.000+02:00'
'284678a73431fb9f8126376d823e6ce9fc83d65c'|'CME Group to launch bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 18'|'December 1, 2017 / 1:25 PM / in 4 hours CME Group to launch bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 18 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - CME Group Inc ( CME.O ) on Friday said it will launch its bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 18 to provide a regulated trading platform for the cryptocurrency futures market. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo The bitcoin futures, available for trading on the CME Globex electronic trading platform, will be cash-settled, CME said. reut.rs/2BqxD59 CME and Cboe Global Markets Inc ( CBOE.O ) received approval from the U.S. derivatives regulator to list bitcoin futures earlier in the day, after the rival bourses were able to show their proposed contracts and trading arrangements met the necessary regulatory requirements. Nasdaq Inc ( NDAQ.O ) also plans to launch a futures contract based on bitcoin in 2018, according to a Reuters report. Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cme-bitcoin/cme-group-to-launch-bitcoin-futures-contract-on-dec-18-idUSKBN1DV4WC'|'2017-12-01T15:24:00.000+02:00'
'3c2ea70bb890b6f500c62d17ae48b135c199c901'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Yemen helps Saudi rise for eighth day, Qatar rebounds on FX'|'* Former Yemen president Saleh offers hope for peace* Saudi market also buoyed by easing concern about graft probe* Index rises above 200-day average* Cement shares lead market up* Qatar market hopes for positive MSCI decisionBy Andrew TorchiaDUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s stock market rose for an eighth straight day in active trade on Sunday, climbing above technical resistance, as sentiment was helped by hopes for an end to the conflict in Yemen. A stabilising currency helped Qatar rebound.Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he was ready for a “new page” in ties with the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen if it stopped attacks on his country, in a move that could pave the way to end nearly three years of war.The Saudi stock index gained 1.2 percent to 7,089 points. It rose above resistance around 7,000 points, which has capped the market since mid-October and roughly coincides with the 200-day average, now at 7,014 points.A clean break of the resistance - two straight daily closes - would point up to around 7,250 points, according to the height of the former downtrend channel dating back to mid-October.“Recently the main force affecting the market has been geopolitics - it’s not surprising that the market rises when the outlook appears to improve,” said Hisham Tuffaha, vice-president for asset management at Mulkia Investment in Riyadh.Rising stocks outnumbered losers by 173 to nine. Four of the 10 biggest percentage gainers were cement stocks, long beaten down by the slump in the Saudi construction industry; they could benefit if Yemen starts to rebuild, fuelling demand for cement.The Saudi market has also been buoyed in recent days by easing worries about the impact of authorities’ crackdown on corruption, as some detained suspects reach settlements with the government and the number of frozen bank accounts falls after exceeding 2,000 at one stage.A monthly Reuters poll of leading Middle East fund managers, published on Thursday, showed them on balance positive towards Saudi Arabia; 46 percent now expect to raise allocations to Saudi stocks in the next three months and none to cut them, the most bullish bias since July.Meanwhile, Qatar’s index rose 0.6 percent with drilling rig provider Gulf International Services jumping 4.7 percent.Real estate firm Ezdan Holding, which has plunged this year and is rated junk by credit rating agency Standard & Poor‘s, continued a rebound that began in late November, surging 6.3 percent.The stock market dropped last week after equity index compiler MSCI said that because of poor liquidity in the foreign exchange market, it might shift to using offshore exchange rates to value Qatari equities - which could potentially lead to cuts in weightings of Qatari stocks in MSCI’s emerging market index.MSCI said it would take feedback from the investment community on the proposed currency shift until Dec. 1, and would announce its final decision by Dec. 5.Qatar’s central bank responded by saying it was committed to providing all the currency requirements of investors at onshore rates, and in recent days the riyal has begun to stabilise offshore, raising hopes that the central bank has done enough to prevent MSCI from making the change.Egypt’s index gained 0.9 percent as real estate firm Talaat Mopstafa surged 2.8 percent to 10.25 Egyptian pounds. The company said it expected sales of 13 billion pounds ($735 million) this year and record sales in 2018; Naeem Brokerage kept a “buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 11.40 pounds.United Arab Emirates and Omani markets were closed for public holidays.HIGHLIGHTS SAUDI ARABIA * The index climbed 1.2 percent to 7,089 points.QATAR * The index rose 0.6 percent to 7,757 points.EGYPT * The index gained 0.9 percent to 14,714 points.KUWAIT * The index gained 0.3 percent to 6,214 points.BAHRAIN * The index fell 0.3 percent to 1,280 points. '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-yemen-helps-saudi-rise-for-eighth-day-qatar-rebounds-on-fx-idINL8N1O30D3'|'2017-12-03T09:43:00.000+02:00'
'f59847191d59ba5b4f6a24ed2b42efcc2f140878'|'South Korea''s AJ Networks considers rental car company stake sale'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s AJ Networks Co ( 095570.KS ) said on Friday it was considering the sale of its stake in rental car company AJ Rent A Car ( 068400.KS ) and other options to beef up its competitiveness.AJ Networks owns a 39.80 percent stake in AJ Rent A Car, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.South Korea’s Maeil Broadcasting Network said on Friday Hyundai Motor ( 005380.KS ) has early this week entered detailed talks with AJ Networks to buy the rental car firm, citing unidentified investment banking and company officials.A Hyundai Motor spokeswoman said the company does not comment on market speculation.Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aj-rent-a-car-sale/south-koreas-aj-networks-considers-rental-car-company-stake-sale-idUSKBN1DV44U'|'2017-12-01T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'2fffc609c42c8dc03fc18147b780361b39b5dd0e'|'Macau casino revenue rises 23 percent on year in November'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:13 AM / Updated 42 minutes ago Macau casino revenue rises 23 percent on year in November Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Casinos in the world’s biggest gambling hub of Macau posted a 22.6 percent revenue jump in November from a year earlier, marking the sixteenth consecutive month of growth, government data showed on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Casinos of Wynn and SJM Holdings are seen in a general view of Macau, China October 8, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Revenue reached 23 billion patacas (£2.12 billion), data from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau showed, the second highest monthly tally this year and compared with analysts’ growth estimates of 16 to 22 percent. The result reflects continued recovery for casinos in the only Chinese territory where casino gambling is legal. Revenue dropped to five-year lows during a central government campaign from 2014 against shows of wealth among public officials, at a time when China’s economic growth was also slowing. While revenue is recovering, it is still below the all-time highs hit in the run-up to the government campaign, hovering around 2011 levels, showed data from Thomson Reuters Datastream. Analysts estimate full-year revenue growth of 18 to 20 percent for 2017, at $33 billion to $34 billion, mainly due to the lucrative but highly volatile, big-spending VIP segment. That would mark the first annual growth in three years. Revenue growth has been stronger for operators of casinos on Macau’s Cotai Strip, such as Sands China Ltd ( 1928.HK ), Wynn Macau Ltd ( 1128.HK ), Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd ( 0027.HK ) and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd ( MLCO.O ). On the other hand, SJM Holdings Ltd ( 0880.HK ) and MGM China Holdings Ltd ( 2282.HK ) have seen their market share erode while their Cotai Strip resorts have been under development. MGM’s venue is due to open in January while SJM’s is not likely to open until closer to 2019, analysts said. Revenue this year has been boosted by the return of so-called whales who wager around 1 million yuan ($151,308) per bet. But sustainability of the VIP segment’s strength is uncertain, analysts said, citing macro-economic factors such as a slowdown in money supply growth and real estate pricing. Meanwhile, pressure on casino operators to develop non-gaming attractions - favoured by a government keen to diversify Macau’s economy - is increasing as authorities start to determine what will happen to the six operating casino licenses once they start to expire in 2020. The government is yet to disclose the nature or timing of any bidding process. Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui has said mid-2018 would be a suitable time to provide more details. Tighter regulation is also likely to create uncertainty for casino operators, said analysts, as the government streamlines and strengthens the gaming industry. Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Sunil Nair and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-macau-gambling-revenues/macau-casino-revenue-rises-22-6-percent-on-year-in-november-idUKKBN1DV3PW'|'2017-12-01T07:25:00.000+02:00'
'31e3c55770265db38fb04155b5b19f1b1d4f2f72'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. regulator to allow CME, CBOE to list bitcoin futures'|'(Adds bitcoin price move, new comment, background)By Michelle Price and John McCrankWASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. derivatives regulator said on Friday it would allow CME Group Inc and CBOE Global Markets Inc to list bitcoin futures, after the rival bourses showed their proposed contracts and trading arrangements met necessary requirements.The announcement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission paves the way for CME and CBOE to become the first traditional U.S. regulated exchanges where bitcoin-related financial contracts can trade, a move that will lead to increased regulatory scrutiny of the biggest and best-known digital currency.CME said on Friday it would list its bitcoin futures contract, which like CBOE’s will be priced against and settled in the cash bitcoin market, on Dec. 18. CBOE has not yet set a launch date but has said it plans its listing by year-end.Bitcoin soared above $11,000 for the first time this week, up tenfold year-to-date and prompting multiple warnings of a bubble.To guard against volatility, CME and CBOE will enact stricter-than-usual risk-management safeguards, including initial margin requirements of between 35 percent and 40 percent.“This is a tacit approval for the industry as a whole; digital assets are now mainstream,” said Charles Hayter, chief executive officer of interactive cryptocurrency platform CryptoCompare. “This opens up the doors to exchange traded funds and institutional money.”The virtual currency, which had been trading at around $10,150 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange before the news, jumped to as high as $10,513 in the 20 minutes that followed, leaving it up more than 5 percent on the day. It was last up 6.6 percent at $10,600.CME and CBOE have also agreed to enter into information-sharing agreements and to send the CFTC data on the settlement process so the regulator can conduct its own surveillance.CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo warned investors, however, that the nascent underlying bitcoin cash markets remained largely unregulated and mostly beyond the commission’s purview.The futures exchanges must coordinate to help spot market manipulation, flash rallies, trading outages and other problems on the unregulated exchanges where bitcoin is traded, as they could affect futures prices, he said in a statement.”Nevertheless,“ Giancarlo added, ”investors should be aware of the potentially high level of volatility and risk in trading these contracts.”Under CFTC regulations, designated contract exchanges such as CME and CBOE’s CFE do not need prior approval from the commission to list products for trading. Instead, they only have to file a written self-certification with the regulator.Under the self-certification process, which is a quirk of the futures market, an exchange confirms that the product complies with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, including a key provision that requires the contract is not susceptible to manipulation.CME has been vying with CBOE to introduce the first bitcoin-related financial product.Nasdaq Inc also plans to list a futures contract based on bitcoin in 2018, Reuters reported earlier this week. (Reporting by Michelle Price and John McCrank; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lisa Von Ahn) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-bitcoin/update-1-u-s-regulator-to-allow-cme-cboe-to-list-bitcoin-futures-idINL1N1O10UO'|'2017-12-01T12:35:00.000+02:00'
'468e0223b9dc332a260b1d27ae84b5e534d1b72c'|'GM: Sure, the auto industry is transforming. But we''ve got this'|'Cruisin'' in a new Cadillac...no hands! General Motors just told all those damned kids to get the hell off its lawn. Everyone knows the auto industry is changing. In the future, cars will run on electricity and they will drive themselves. Instead of owning cars, most people will just ride in them when they need to. Since all of this change is creating a ton of opportunity, lots of companies are pouring into the field. Companies like the ride-sharing firm Uber, electric car maker Tesla ( TSLA ) and Google''s Waymo ( GOOG ) , which is working on self-driving cars, all want a piece of the action. But on Thursday, GM announced plans to take the whole enchilada for itself: The automaker said it will make the cars, write the code and sell the rides. But can a 110-year-old automaker move fast enough to pull this off? In terms of electric cars, Tesla gets the bulk of the attention. But GM handily beat Tesla''s "affordable" Model 3 to market with its own Chevrolet Bolt EV . Over 20,000 Bolt EV''s have been sold so far this year. Tesla has a lot of orders but, at last count, has produced only a few hundred Model 3''s while it struggles with production issues. GM has also been working with its subsidiary, Cruise Automation, to make self driving versions of the Bolt EV, which are being tested in California, Michigan, Arizona and, soon, New York. By some time in 2019, those driverless cars will start giving rides to passengers. That may seem awfully soon, but start-ups like Lyft and Waymo could be doing the same thing by then, too. General Motors has already started building automous cars in an assembly line to better learn the intracacies involved. GM''s biggest advantage is that it well understands one of the biggest challenges: how to develop and manufacture cars with complex technology in huge numbers, said Sam Abuelsamid, a transportation analyst with Navigant Research. Besides the autonomous Bolts, GM already has Cadillac cars on the market that can drive hands-free on highways. Without drivers to pay or expensive gasoline to put in the tank, autonomous taxi rides will become much cheaper than today''s taxi rides. That will make ride-sharing a much more compelling idea for consumers. GM''s Cadillac Super Cruise has given the company vital experience with producing semi-autonomous driving systems for customer use. But these cars won''t just be giving rides. They will also be gathering data. Driverless cars are, in fact, voracious data gathering machines. They have radar, lasers, cameras and all sorts of sensors that can gather information that can be sent to server farms that never forget anything. And that data is valuable. One potential customer base, GM said Thursday, will be insurance companies. GM''s cars will witness lots of fender benders and will be able to share that video with insurers to quickly settle claims. Other companies will buy the map data these cars produce and pay to place ads and offer services and games for bored passengers. The potential ways to make money are almost limitless, Abuelsamid said. Soon, just riding in a car becomes far cheaper and more convenient than owning one. This may seem like corporate suicide for a company that makes its money selling cars. But, according to GM, it''s not. That''s because under this new business model, instead of selling each car once, every vehicle it makes will generate a continuous stream of revenue.'|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/01/technology/gm-ride-sharing-business/index.html'|'2017-12-02T01:00:00.000+02:00'
'2d422187e6665d45aa8317e9bf79228ead328bc0'|'Danish insurer Tryg to buy Alka for $1.3 billion'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:27 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Denmark''s Tryg''s $1.3 billion Alka deal to boost market share Thyagaraju Adinarayan 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Denmark’s largest insurance company Tryg ( TRYG.CO ) said on Monday it agreed to buy unlisted competitor Alka Forsikring for 8.2 billion Danish crowns ($1.31 billion) strengthen its presence in the property and casualty (P&C) insurance markets. Alka, founded in 1944, is the eighth largest P&C insurer in Denmark. Two analysts said the deal could boost Tryg’s market share to about 22 percent from 18 percent now, cementing its place as market leader. Topdanmark ( TOP.CO ) is second with 17 percent. Shares in Tryg rose as much as 4.9 percent, reaching levels last seen in April 2015. By 0928 GMT, they were up 3.7 percent. KBW analyst Michele Ballatore, who has a “market perform” rating on the stock, said the deal would mean Tryg could apply its “superior cost efficiency” skills to Alka, adding that she had a positive long-term view of the deal. Tryg said it has identified 300 million crowns per annum in merger benefits to be delivered by 2021. It said it expected the deal to add to earnings from 2019 with a high single-digit contribution to earnings by 2021. Ballatore said Alka’s ties with Danish trade unions would help Tryg, which said it expected to benefit from Alka’s partnerships with unions to open up “significant opportunities to expand the business.” Alka is owned by Danish trade union movement, companies affiliated with the unions, Folksam and its employees. RBC Capital and UBS analysts said the price of the deal was justified by Alka’s strong capital levels. Excess capital that comes as part of the deal could be used to help finance the transaction, RBC Capital analysts said in a note. The total deal value includes excess capital of 2.5 billion crowns, valuing Alka’s operations at 5.7 billion crowns, Tryg said. Tryg also plans an equity placement of up to 10 percent of its outstanding shares to fund the deal. Tryg’s majority owner TryghedsGruppen will subscribe to 60 percent of the shares. Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan; Editing by Stephen Coates and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alka-m-a-tryg/danish-insurer-tryg-to-buy-alka-for-1-3-billion-idUKKBN1DY0GS'|'2017-12-04T08:22:00.000+02:00'
'04a63ea57fe15fec83ba2533bb6b93c7c2de0f24'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX rises as financial and industrial shares rally'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:18 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago TSX near flat as oil drop offsets U.S. tax bill boost Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index dipped on Monday as energy and mining shares tracked commodity prices lower, offsetting gains for financial and industrial shares after the U.S. Senate’s approval of a tax overhaul bill boosted investor sentiment. FILE PHOTO: A sign board displaying Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) stock information is seen in Toronto June 23, 2014. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo Energy shares declined 0.9 percent as oil fell. U.S. crude CLc1 prices were down 1.3 percent at $57.61 after U.S. shale drillers added more rigs last week, though prices remained in sight of recent two-year highs. Suncor Energy Inc ( SU.TO ) fell 1.5 percent to C$43.87. Still, the largest percentage gainer on the TSX was uranium producer Cameco Corp ( CCO.TO ), which surged 15.8 percent to C$13.94. Analysts said plans by Kazakhstan’s state-run uranium mining company to cut production could boost the price of the metal. The largest percentage decliner on the index was Shopify Inc ( SHOP.TO ), down 6.1 percent. The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 0.7 percent. Gold futures GCc1 fell 0.4 percent to $1,273.8 an ounce and copper prices CMCU3 declined 0.4 percent to $6,803.5 a tonne. [MET/L][GOL/] At 10:57 a.m. ET (1557 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange''s S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE fell 9.44 points, or 0.06 percent, to 16,029.53. Seven of the index’s 10 main groups were lower. The financials group, which accounts for 35 percent of the index’s weight, gained 0.3 percent. Some of Canada’s major banks have operations in the United States and could benefit if U.S. tax cuts boost economic growth. Industrials rose 0.98 percent, led by a 1.4 percent gain for Canadian National Railway Co ( CNR.TO ) to C$101.26. The TSX posted 9 new 52-week highs and one new low. Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-stocks/canada-stock-futures-indicate-higher-start-for-tsx-idUSKBN1DY1K2'|'2017-12-04T16:54:00.000+02:00'
'4e6b4241819d040975aa8854e7ff515ff088fb1e'|'Saga says tour business hurt by Monarch Airlines collapse'|'Reuters TV United States December 6, 2017 / 7:33 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago UK''s Saga shares plunge after cuts profit forecasts   (Reuters) - Britain’s Saga Plc ( SAGAG.L ) said it expected its underlying pretax profit to grow by just 1-2 percent in the current year and fall five percent next year, sending its shares 20 percent lower. Monarch airplanes are parked on the runway after the airline went into administration at Newquay airport, Newquay, Britain, October 26, 2017, REUTERS/Toby Melville In an unscheduled trading update, the provider of travel and insurance services for people aged 50 and over said more challenging trading in insurance broking and the collapse of Monarch Airlines would limit profit growth in the year to the end of January 2018. An investment of 10 million pounds ($13.4 million) to take on more customers, a fall in earned profit and lower reserve releases would push underlying pretax profit 5 percent lower in the the year to January 2019. Saga shares tumbled 20 percent to 144.1 pence by 0825 GMT, taking them to the bottom of the FTSE Midcap Index .FYMC. They were priced at 185 pence when the company listed in 2014. Saga said its tour business would see one-off cost of about 2 million pounds ($2.7 million) hurt by Monarch going into administration. Saga also said it had completed a review of its operating structure and would see about 10 million pounds of annualized savings next year. The company said written profit for its retail broking business in the year ending Jan. 1 was expected to be ahead of a year earlier, but added that strong performance in motor insurance was partially offset by a challenging trading in home and travel insurance. The average price of motor insurance in Britain has been rising, partly in response to new rules for personal injury claims. The drop in the pound since the Brexit vote has hit many British consumers’ spending power, but Saga said its travel segment is expected to perform strongly ahead of a year earlier. Saga said in September that older Britons are still going on holiday despite a squeeze in incomes but some are opting for shorter or lower-star vacations. ($1 = 0.7462 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-saga-outlook/saga-says-tour-business-hurt-by-monarch-airlines-collapse-idUKKBN1E00NU'|'2017-12-06T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'b2b2e7fe6542cc830e881bbc4a02f428055cfb65'|'Whitbread shares jump after activist investor declares stake'|'December 6, 2017 / 4:16 PM / Updated an hour ago Whitbread jumps after hedge fund Sachem Head declares stake Martinne Geller 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Whitbread shares jumped more than 7 percent on Wednesday after U.S.-based hedge fund Sachem Head Capital Management said it owns a 3.4 percent stake in the hotel and coffee chain operator. Whitbread, owner of Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, has been the subject of break-up speculation in the past. Before Wednesday’s jump, Whitbread shares were down nearly 2 percent this year, having risen in part on hopes that Premier Inn’s domestic hotels would benefit from foreign visitors cashing in on the weak pound. They fell back when those benefits turned out to be smaller than expected. The company warned in April of a tougher consumer environment, as rising inflation and muted wage growth forced consumers to rein in spending. The shares closed about 7.5 percent higher at 3,990 pence. Sachem Head, with about $4 billion (£3 billion) in assets under management, was founded in 2013 by Scott Ferguson, one of a number for former partners at Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management who have launched their own funds. The New York-based firm has been very popular with investors, both because of its steady run of positive returns and the fact Ferguson largely stays out of the headlines. While Ferguson shies away from being called an activist investor, the firm has taken activist positions and pushed for change at some companies it has invested in. Ferguson took a board seat at software maker Autodesk, and has held sizeable stakes in CDK Global and Zoetis. Its current UK holdings include Worldpay Group and Shire. A spokeswoman for Whitbread was not immediately available for a comment. A spokesman for Sachem Head declined to comment beyond Wednesday’s regulatory filing, which declared contracts for difference over 6.2 million shares expiring July 2020. Additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Editing by Mark Potter and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-whitbread-stake/whitbread-shares-jump-after-activist-investor-declares-stake-idUKKBN1E0294'|'2017-12-06T18:15:00.000+02:00'
'4cbbd38a6960648e4e2fe260b5efd72e94f0078a'|'Bitcoin extends gains, rises above $12,000 to record high'|'December 6, 2017 / 3:29 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Bitcoin zooms above $13,000 to record high on relentless demand Shinichi Saoshiro , Saqib Iqbal Ahmed 3 Min Read TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin extended its rally on Wednesday, breaking above $13,000 to a record high despite questions about the cryptocurrency’s real value and worries about a dangerous bubble. Bitcoin received a boost after Friday’s announcement by the main U.S. derivatives regulator that it would allow CME Group Inc and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures contracts. The move opens the door to added regulation but also more mainstream adoption, as bitcoin futures and other derivatives would make it easier to trade the new asset class. “Simply the perception in households around the world that the CME and the CBOE are providing legitimacy to bitcoin is really what is driving the massive rally here,” said Karl Schamotta, director of global product and market strategy at Cambridge Global Payments in Toronto. Bitcoin’s ascent of over 10-fold from below $1,000 at the start of the year has drawn regulatory scrutiny around the world. Some high profile individuals such as Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz have said the cryptocurrency should be outlawed. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo “It took a long time to establish the methodology and the way bitcoin was traded. The original appeal came from the fact they were unregulated. However it’s clearly moved out of those shadows and into center stage,” said Mick McCarthy, CMC Markets’ chief market strategist in Sydney. “We are in the throes of a bubble market, and one of the characteristics of a bubble market is that there is no way to know when the bubble will burst.” The current craze for bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, have been likened by some to the 17th century Dutch tulip mania and more recently the dotcom bubble. “If you look at this sort of pattern it has repeated itself many, many times. The only way it ends is when sentiment shifts and that’s a deeply unpredictable thing,” Cambridge Global Payments’ Schamotta said. Bitcoin was up 12.42 percent at $13,127.01 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP after surging to the record peak of $13,127.01. “There is a lot of money flowing into bitcoin right now, mostly motivated by ”fear of missing out“ and greed,” said Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Additional reporting by Michelle Chen in Hong Kong; Editing by Sam Holmes, Shri Navaratnam and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-extends-gains-rises-above-12000-to-record-high-idUSKBN1E0094'|'2017-12-06T11:29:00.000+02:00'
'2067b2dfb50a687ddcb8d9489e7a813eae718ffe'|'U.S. unit labor costs decline for two straight quarters'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. unit labor costs were much weaker than initially thought, declining both in the second and third quarters of this year, pointing to very benign inflation pressures in the near term even as the labor market is close to full employment.FILE PHOTO: Workers build the roof of a single axel towable Pioneer traditional recreational vehicle at the Thor Industries Heartland RV Assembly Plant in Elkhart, Indiana, U.S. on June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo Other data on Wednesday showed private-sector employment increasing at a solid clip in November, with the manufacturing sector adding the most jobs in at least 15 years.The signs of soft wage growth and tightening labor market conditions could further intensify inflation debate at the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week. Economists, however, believe that wage growth is being understated.“The weakness in unit labor costs will undoubtedly be cited by many as evidence that worries about the economy overheating due to a tightening labor market are misplaced,” said Jim O‘Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.“But we believe that the official wage income data being used for calculations have been distorted recently by income reporting being delayed in anticipation of tax cuts, and Commerce Department analysts may be misinterpreting information from quarterly tax records.”The Labor Department said unit labor costs, the price of labor per single unit of output, dropped at a 0.2 percent annualized rate in the last quarter instead of rising at a 0.5 percent pace as reported last month.That followed a 1.2 percent rate of decline in the second quarter, which was previously reported as a 0.3 percent pace of increase. It was the first time since 2014 that unit labor costs recorded two straight quarterly declines.The downward revisions would suggest that inflation could struggle to rise toward the Fed’s 2 percent target. The U.S. central bank’s preferred inflation measure is currently at 1.4 percent and has been below the Fed’s target for nearly 5-1/2 years.COMPENSATION REVISED DOWN Prices for U.S. Treasuries were trading higher and the dollar rose marginally against a basket of currencies. Stocks on Wall Street were little changed in volatile trade.“Low unit labor cost growth keeps a lid on consumer inflation, but should be a boon for corporate profitability,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco.Compared to the third quarter of 2016, unit labor costs declined at a 0.7 percent rate. The increase in average hourly compensation was revised to down to a 2.7 percent rate from the previously reported 3.5 percent rate in the third quarter.Separately, the ADP National Employment Report showed private employers added 190,000 jobs last month, though this was down from 235,000 jobs in October. The report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics.Services-sector employment gains led the advance, with the largest increase coming in education and health services at 54,000, followed by professional and business services at 47,000. Manufacturing payrolls increased by 40,000 jobs, the most in the ADP series history dating back more than 15 years, while construction shed 4,000.“The job market is red hot, with broad-based job gains across industries and company sizes. The only soft spots are in industries being disrupted by technology, brick-and-mortar retailing being the best example,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said in a statement. “There is a mounting threat that the job market will overheat next year.”The ADP figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public- and private-sector employment.Economists polled by Reuters expect the government report to show U.S. private payroll employment grew by 190,000 jobs in November, down from 252,000 the month before. Total non-farm employment is forecast to have risen by 200,000.Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Additional reporting by Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-productivity/u-s-third-quarter-unit-labor-costs-revised-sharply-down-idUSKBN1E01T1'|'2017-12-06T16:54:00.000+02:00'
'0ce5aa2f52302af7aa403f916cb4537043a2d965'|'Hong Kong''s premium office space ranked world''s most expensive'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s premium office space has topped the charts as the world’s most expensive for the second consecutive year, outpacing prices in No. 2 Midtown New York by 66 percent, according to property consultancy JLL. FILE PHOTO: Office buildings are seen at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Offices at the top end of the Hong Kong market command an average of US$323 per square foot (psf) per year in occupancy costs, which include rent, service charges and government taxes, according to the report released on Wednesday. In Midtown New York, the costs are $194 psf, while London’s West End is $193 psf. A separate report published by property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield last week also ranked Hong Kong in the No. 1 spot for the world’s most expensive prime office space, with an occupancy cost per desk space of $27,432, followed by London’s West End at $22,665. “For the same cost of accommodating 100 staff in a Hong Kong office, 300 can be accommodated in Toronto, 500 in Madrid and 900 in Mumbai,” the report said. Supply shortages and high demand from mainland Chinese firms help fuel Hong Kong’s premium office rents, but the city also has the world’s steepest rental discounts in non-core business districts, according to JLL. “Yes, Central is the most expensive, but if you look a bit further out of the CBD in Hong Kong, it’s 64 percent cheaper,” said JLL Hong Kong’s head of research, Denis Ma, referring to the prime Central district. “It is still very competitive.” Office rents in Central rose 5.2 percent in the first 11 months of this year, Ma said, while the rents on the opposite end of Hong Kong Island edged up 2.6 percent. The city’s commercial property and land market has seen a series of record-breaking deals so far this year. Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset Holdings Ltd ( 1113.HK ) in November announced the city’s biggest real estate deal when it said it would sell its majority stake in a 73-storey office tower for a record-breaking HK$40.2 billion ($5.14 billion). In May, another major developer Henderson Land Development ( 0012.HK ) shattered previous records for commercial land sales in terms of price per square foot when it agreed to pay about HK$50,000 ($6,397.71) per square foot for a rare commercial site in the heart of Central. ($1 = 7.8147 Hong Kong dollars) Reporting by Venus Wu; Editing by Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-property-office/hong-kongs-premium-office-space-ranked-worlds-most-expensive-idUSKBN1E010G'|'2017-12-06T11:33:00.000+02:00'
'3b10c63bba769ad3f66ac77999b9d05755021b67'|'The euro zone’s boom masks problems that will return to haunt it - Free exchange'|'“WHAT does not kill me makes me stronger,” wrote Nietzsche in “Götzen-Dämmerung”, or “Twilight of the Idols”. Alternatively, it leaves the body dangerously weakened, as did the illnesses that plagued the German philosopher all his life. The euro area survived a hellish decade, and is now enjoying an unlikely boom. The OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, reckons that the euro zone will have grown faster in 2017 than America, Britain or Japan. But, sadly, although the currency bloc has undoubtedly proven more resilient than many economists expected, it is only a little better equipped to survive its next recession than it was the previous one.Europe’s crisis was brutal. Euro-area GDP is roughly €1.4trn ($1.7trn)—an Italy, give or take—below the level it would have reached had it grown at 2% per year since 2007. Parts of the periphery have yet to regain the output levels they enjoyed a decade ago (see chart). The damage was exacerbated by deep flaws within Europe’s monetary union. Three shortcomings loomed particularly large. First, the union centralised money-creation but left national governments responsible for their own fiscal solvency. So markets came to understand that governments could no longer bail themselves out by printing money to pay off creditors. The risk of default made markets panic in response to bad news, pushing up government borrowing costs and adding to financial strains. In 2012 the European Central Bank (ECB) stepped in, declaring that to keep control of its monetary policy it was willing, as a last resort, to buy government bonds. Panic subsided, bond yields dropped and the most acute phase of the crisis ended.  13   15   But the euro-area economy continued to languish in or near recession through 2014 because of the second flaw. During serious economic downturns, central banks usually cut interest rates to encourage new borrowing and investing, and governments swing into action by running larger budget deficits to make up for falls in private spending. When the financial crisis first hit, the ECB, like other rich-world central banks, cut its rates to near zero; governments cut taxes and spent freely. Yet the euro area was to face unique difficulties. The ECB was constrained by its mandate—a 2% inflation ceiling (as opposed to the 2% target common elsewhere)—and the influence of the inflation-averse German Bundesbank. Not until deflation threatened could the ECB begin stimulative asset purchases, long after other central banks.Governments were unable to compensate for this monetary-policy inertia. The ECB’s promise to buy government bonds threatened to liberate euro-area economies from the discipline imposed by markets. European leaders, and Germany in particular, sought to enforce sobriety through other means. The emergency-lending programmes negotiated with the most beleaguered economies exacted hefty budget cuts as the price. All members were bound by a “fiscal compact” that euro-zone leaders signed up to in 2012. It urged member states to keep deficits within set limits, balance budgets over the long run, and adopt plans to reduce government debt to no more than 60% of GDP. Adherence has been incomplete, but the short-term impact was that public borrowing fell sharply across the euro area between 2012 and 2016, prolonging the pain of the crisis.European leaders still argue over how to meet the currency zone’s macroeconomic needs. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, favours reforms that would allow for a euro-area budget large enough to cushion the economy against shocks, and a finance minister to oversee it. Realistically, such mechanisms are years away from agreement, let alone implementation.Euro-DämmerungHappily, Europe’s recovery did not wait for such reforms, but that makes them no less essential. The euro-area rebound, in its early years, relied on exports. Crisis and austerity gutted domestic spending, and led to wage-depressing levels of unemployment. So troubled euro-area economies began selling much more abroad than they were buying; foreign consumers, in effect, threw the desperate periphery a lifeline. Strong global growth still helps European exporters, but other factors add to economic momentum. The severest budget-cutting is over. And falling unemployment is buoying consumer spending—particularly in Germany, where the boom has been longest and strongest.Growth works wonders. A bigger tax take makes deficit-reduction easier; hiring and consumer spending feed on each other. So long as moderate oil prices and strong global growth continue, Europe’s economic health will improve. Unfortunately, such tailwinds cannot last forever. The third and gravest threat to the long-run survival of the euro area endures: the mismatch between the scope of its economic institutions and its political ones.No European institution enjoys the democratic legitimacy of a national government. Crisis drove European institutional reform in areas such as bank supervision, but also concentrated power in unelected institutions like the ECB—even though the fiscal compact was negotiated by heads of government. Without new political institutions (which, in fairness, he also wants in the form of a euro-zone parliament), Mr Macron’s euro-area budget and finance ministry would seem like more of the same.The euro area is in a political bind. Among the legacies of its crisis are nationalist parties across the continent, rooted in anger at pain seemingly inflicted by unaccountable European politicians. Any move towards greater European integration lends credence to their warnings of lost sovereignty. But failure to agree on such measures raises the odds that the next downturn will be a bad one, which would also play into nationalists’ hands.A decade of pain cost Europe its ability to sell integration as a force for prosperity. If it does not use its current good fortune to remodel itself, the interlude will come to be seen in retrospect not as a moment of triumph, but as a last, missed opportunity to build a euro zone that can survive.  Finance and economics   "The second chance"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21731822-mismatch-between-its-economic-and-political-institutions-persists-euro?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-02T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'e5e75b7756cbfb64be4c71df84d5e1fd14c7c766'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 6'|'December 6, 2017 / 5:36 AM / in 21 minutes PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 6 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - The Walt Disney Co is in advanced discussions to buy significant parts of Twenty-first Century Fox Inc, the media company run by the Murdoch family, people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday. ( nyti.ms/2AbZlX7 ) - Britain''s Cineworld Group Plc said on Tuesday that it had agreed to acquire Regal Entertainment Group, one of the biggest cinema operators in the United States, for $3.6 billion. ( nyti.ms/2BM8Rxq ) - The Russian government declared the broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty "foreign agents" on Tuesday, in retaliation for a similar action against Russian state-run news outlets in the United States. ( nyti.ms/2Aw0gRp ) - Netflix Inc has fired actor Danny Masterson from the show "The Ranch", amid investigations of alleged sexual assault of three women in the early 2000s. ( nyti.ms/2B2CZHB ) - Amazon.com Inc quietly began operations in Australia on Tuesday, the start of what could be a shake-up of the country''s retail market, which is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. ( nyti.ms/2knCbGh ) Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-6-idUSL3N1O6260'|'2017-12-06T07:36:00.000+02:00'
'efa8c582a992ae8a3a3b39e041067dd86f2b2e44'|'Deutsche Boerse chairman considering early departure: Handelsblatt'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ) Chairman Joachim Faber is considering quitting as head of the exchange operator’s supervisory board as early as in 2019, Handelsblatt reported, citing sources in the finance industry.FILE PHOTO - Joachim Faber, chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Boerse AG is recorded by a TV camera as he holds a speech at the New Year reception of the German stock market in Eschborn near Frankfurt, Germany, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Faber, who has chaired the company’s 12-member controlling panel since May 2012, used a meeting with investors in London to discuss the possibility of an early departure, the German business daily reported late on Wednesday.Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse declined to comment.Faber has been criticized by investors for the failed merger with the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) and a compensation program awarded to Carsten Kengeter who resigned as chief executive in late October, Handelsblatt said, adding several large investors were refusing to re-elect him at the annual shareholders’ meeting next May.No decisions have been taken yet and Faber plans further talks with investors in January, the newspaper said, citing the unidentified finance industry sources.Reporting by Andreas Framke Writing by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-boerse-chairman/deutsche-boerse-chairman-considering-early-departure-handelsblatt-idUSKBN1E02M7'|'2017-12-06T20:34:00.000+02:00'
'c886b1952d08a9559069d801c3ab9db14e665b82'|'Volkswagen executive faces sentencing in U.S. emissions fraud case'|'December 6, 2017 / 2:13 PM / in 8 minutes Volkswagen executive sentenced to seven years for U.S. emissions fraud Nick Carey 4 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - A U.S.-based Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) executive who oversaw emissions issues was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $400,000 by a judge on Wednesday for his role in a diesel emissions scandal that has cost the German automaker as much as $30 billion. FILE PHOTO: A U.S. flag flutters in the wind above a Volkswagen dealership in Carlsbad, California, U.S. on May 2, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The prison sentence and fine for the executive, Oliver Schmidt, were the maximum possible under a plea deal in August the German national made with prosecutors after admitting to charges of conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violate clean-air laws. “It is my opinion that you are a key conspirator in this scheme to defraud the United States,” U.S. District Judge Sean Cox of Detroit told Schmidt in court. “You saw this as your opportunity to shine ... and climb the corporate ladder at VW.” Schmidt read a written statement in court acknowledging his guilt and broke down when discussing his family’s sacrifices on his behalf since his arrest in January. “I made bad decisions and for that I am sorry,” he said. U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Benjamin Singer argued in court that Schmidt was “part of the decision making process” at VW to hide a scheme to fake vehicle emissions results and had opportunities tell regulators the truth. “Every time he chose to lie,” Singer said. In March, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three felony counts under a plea agreement to resolve U.S. charges that it installed secret software in vehicles in order to elude emissions tests. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt, charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States over the company''s diesel emissions scandal is shown in this booking photo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., provided January 9, 2017. Courtesy of Broward County Sheriff''s Office/Handout via REUTERS U.S. prosecutors have charged eight current and former Volkswagen executives. Five of those remain at large. Volkswagen rebounded from the scandal during the past year. Chief Executive Matthias Mueller last month predicted record deliveries of vehicles for the company this year, and the Volkswagen car brand has said it expects record deliveries for 2017, and raised its midterm profitability outlook. At the Los Angeles auto show last week, the head of Volkswagen’s U.S. operations declared, “we’re back,” citing improved U.S. vehicle sales. Schmidt was charged with 11 felony counts and federal prosecutors said he could have faced a maximum of up to 169 years in prison. As part of his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop most of the counts and Schmidt consented to be deported at the end of his prison sentence. Schmidt was in charge of the company’s environmental and engineering office in Auburn Hills, Michigan, until February 2015, where he oversaw emissions issues. He returned to Germany the same month where he was told about the existence of the software. According to Schmidt’s guilty plea, later that year he conspired with other executives to avoid disclosing “intentional cheating” by the automaker in a bid to seek regulatory approval for its model 2016 VW 2 liter diesels. The auto industry is still feeling the repercussions of Volkswagen’s diesel cheating. Regulators in the United States and Europe are investigating other automakers for potential violations of diesel emissions rules. On Wednesday, German prosecutors said they had begun an initial inquiry into accusations by an environmental group that BMW AG is selling a vehicle that emits up to seven times the allowed levels of smog-forming nitrogen oxides. Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Peter Cooney and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions/volkswagen-executive-faces-sentencing-in-u-s-emissions-fraud-case-idUSKBN1E01W1'|'2017-12-06T16:12:00.000+02:00'
'f015e4ee4457d509542dab28dccb7fe3f39beca2'|'Oil falls as U.S. fuel stock build signals easing demand'|'December 6, 2017 / 2:07 AM / in 21 minutes Oil falls as U.S. fuel stock build signals easing demand David Gaffen 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil fell 2 percent on Wednesday after a sharp rise in U.S. inventories of refined fuel suggested demand may be flagging, while U.S. crude production hit another weekly record. A worker prepares to label barrels of lubricant oil at the state oil company Pertamina''s lubricant production facility in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia November 6, 2017 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Picture taken November 6, 2017. Antara Foto/Rosa Panggabean/ via REUTERS Government data showed that U.S. crude stocks fell 5.6 million barrels, more than expected, though that was partially the result of the closure of the Keystone pipeline after a leak in South Dakota in mid-November, which cut flows to Cushing, Oklahoma. That line reopened Tuesday. However, gasoline stocks rose by 6.8 million barrels and distillate inventories were up 1.7 million barrels, both exceeding expectations in a Reuters poll. That hit prices of both crude and products in a market which is already heavily tilted bullish and thus potentially vulnerable to a selloff, analysts said. Gasoline stocks tend to build in December, but at 221 million barrels of inventory, stocks are slightly above the five-year average for this time of year. U.S. crude production rose to 9.7 million barrels per day, another weekly record, though short of all-time records reached in the 1970s. That increase may undermine efforts by global producers to cut supply. Supply cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers that were extended at a meeting last week for the whole of 2018 have helped lift Brent prices by more than 40 percent since June. Prices have slipped from November’s peak, which represented two-year highs. “The sentiment-driven support to crude oil prices has somewhat dissipated as market participants look beyond last week’s OPEC meeting,” said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy’s Global Gas Analytics in London. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down $1.23, or 2 percent, at $61.63 a barrel by 11:21 a.m. EST (1621 GMT), after reaching a session high of $62.93, while U.S. crude futures CLc1 dropped $1.29, or 2.3 percent, to $56.33. Russian Oil Minister Alexander Novak said it was too early to talk about exiting the OPEC agreement, and that the process would be gradual. Analysts such as Goldman Sachs have said that the expected rise in demand in 2018 would mostly be offset by U.S. and Canadian supply growth. U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has climbed by 15 percent since mid-2016 to 9.7 million bpd, close to levels of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. “With U.S. production, we’re still in the throes of seeing that go ever higher. There’s only going to be more production coming which is very problematic for OPEC non-OPEC deal adherence,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York. Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino and Julia Simon in New York; Henning Gloystein and Keith Wallis in Singapore; Editing by David Evans and Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-dips-on-rising-u-s-fuel-stocks-but-opecs-supply-cuts-offer-support-idUKKBN1E005Q'|'2017-12-06T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'6823de00e8506576d4951622ff857cd74a47bba5'|'EU executive to propose deeper euro zone integration to unite EU on Wednesday'|'December 5, 2017 / 11:06 PM / in 12 minutes EU executives propose deeper euro zone integration to unite EU Jan Strupczewski , Francesco Guarascio 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday ideas for deeper euro zone integration in an effort to help unite the broader European Union, as eurosceptic sentiment grows across the EU and Britain prepares to leave the EU in 2019. European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The Commission, the EU’s executive arm, presented a package of proposals aimed at giving the 19 countries sharing the euro better protection against future financial crises. But plans to tighten cooperation among the 19 euro countries have sparked concern among the eight non-euro countries that they will become second-class members of the EU, with less say - and less funds - in the future. To alleviate those fears, the Commission proposals stressed that all their proposals were open to all EU members, even though that clashes with the thinking of some euro zone leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron has called for creating a euro zone budget of several hundred billion euros, a euro zone finance minister and a euro zone parliament. But instead, the Commission proposed creating cash incentives for countries that embark on structural reforms. It also proposed helping financially the economies of non-euro countries, all of which - except Denmark - are obligated to adopt the single currency at some point. The Commission also backed the idea of setting up what it calls a euro zone “stabilisation function”, because the monetary policy of the European Central Bank cannot deal with economic crises that hit only one or a few countries in the euro zone. That proposal calls for a pool of money to protect investment in the event of shocks to a few euro zone countries. The Commission did not say how big the fund should be. Instead of a euro zone finance minister, the Commission called for naming a pan-European Minister of Economy and Finance, who would also be a senior member of the European Commission and chair meetings of euro zone finance ministers. The job might be created when the next European Commission starts work in November 2019, the Commission said. Under the current arrangement, the chair of the euro zone finance ministers, the closest thing the bloc now has to a single finance minister, often testifies before the parliament’s economic committee, but it has no power over him or her. Euro zone finance ministers have little enthusiasm for allowing the Commission, which is only an observer at their monthly meetings, to chair the talks. Other euro zone integration ideas, floated by Germany, include transforming the euro zone’s government-owned and run bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund. The Commission backed that idea, but said the EMF should become an EU institution, which would be overseen by the European Parliament -- an idea officials have said would not fly with governments. The EMF would also provide a 60 billion-euro backstop for the bank-funded Single Resolution Fund. The Commission did not address the proposal of Germany and backed by Slovakia and the Netherlands to create a sovereign insolvency mechanism that would put pressure on governments to conduct prudent fiscal policy. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-integration-commission/eu-executive-to-propose-deeper-euro-zone-integration-to-unite-eu-on-wednesday-idUKKBN1DZ38O'|'2017-12-06T01:05:00.000+02:00'
'80c04a7ad2ec50891cc07b880ade015e8521e965'|'Nippon Life to buy 25 percent of U.S. asset manager TCW from Carlyle'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Nippon Life Insurance Co has reached a deal to acquire 24.75 percent of U.S. investment firm TCW Group Inc from U.S. asset manager Carlyle Group LP, the companies said on Friday.A man walks past a logo of Japanese life insurer Nippon Life at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo April 21, 2011. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File Photo While terms were not disclosed, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said the company, Japan’s biggest private-sector life insurer, would pay about 55 billion yen ($488.37 million). Nippon Life and Carlyle declined to comment on the price.Nippon Life, which will have two seats on TCW’s board, said the transaction should close this month, pending regulatory approval.The insurer is the latest Japanese company to increase its presence in asset management, which is seen as a promising way to accelerate growth amid low interest rates and stricter capital regulations at home.Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc has said it is ready to spend up to 1 trillion yen ($8.88 billion) in acquisitions.Yet many officials at Japanese companies acknowledge difficulties in asset management deals, with retention of fund managers the biggest challenge.”It’s risky to buy asset management companies outright,“ said a president of a major banking group who requested anonymity. ”What happens if fund managers leave after acquiring control?“We’d be best starting with a minority stake and building it up after we gain the trust of key staff,” the executive said.Los Angeles-based TCW provides products in fixed income, equities, emerging markets and alternative investments. It had $191.6 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2016, with slightly more than 80 percent in U.S. bonds.After Nippon Life’s investment, staff will hold 44.1 percent of TCW.Carlyle will retain a 31.2 percent stake through Carlyle Global Partners, a $3.6 billion private equity long-duration fund that invests beyond the industry’s traditional 10-year time frame.U.S. rival Blackstone Group LP and European peer CVC Capital Partners Ltd are among the major private equity firms that are also opting to hold assets for a longer period.Such moves are gaining traction because keeping portfolio companies longer can boost returns by eliminating the recycling of capital, as one asset gets sold and another is acquired. By avoiding such periods when investors’ capital sits idle, private equity firms can promise lucrative and steady profits.($1 = 112.6200 yen)Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Additional reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tcw-group-m-a-nippon-life-ins/nippon-life-to-buy-25-percent-of-u-s-asset-manager-tcw-from-carlyle-idINKBN1DV5KS'|'2017-12-01T14:55:00.000+02:00'
'28981d93ada4df0eb146f6628f6230915d61eec3'|'For security agencies, blockchain goes from suspect to potential solution'|'December 3, 2017 / 3:02 AM / Updated 14 hours ago For security agencies, blockchain goes from suspect to potential solution Jeremy Wagstaff , Byron Kaye 6 Min Read (Reuters) - Police and security agencies have so far only taken an interest in blockchain - the distributed ledger technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin - for tracking criminals hiding illegal money from banks. Adrian Kemp of HoustonKemp Economists speaks to Reuters in their office in Singapore November 24, 2017. Picture taken November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su But that’s changing as some civilian, police and military agencies see blockchain as a potential solution to problems they have wrestled with for years: how to secure data, but also be able to share it in a way that lets the owner keep control. Australia, for example, has recently hired HoustonKemp, a Singapore-based consultancy, to build a blockchain-based system to record intelligence created by investigators and others, and improve the way important information is shared. “They’ve been trying for years to come up with a centralized platform, but people are reluctant to share information,” said Adrian Kemp, who runs the consultancy, which was awarded a A$1 million ($757,500) grant by AUSTRAC, Australia’s financial intelligence agency, and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Blockchain’s appeal for data sharing is threefold. Its ledger, or database, is not controlled by any single party and is spread across multiple computers, making it hard to break. Once entered, any information cannot be altered or tampered with. And, by using so-called smart contracts, the owner of information can easily tweak who has access to what. It’s a sign of how far blockchain technology has come within a decade since the publication of a pseudonymous paper describing bitcoin and the blockchain ledger that would record transactions in it. Bitcoin has since become the preferred currency not only of libertarians and speculators, but also of criminal hackers. The bitcoin price is volatile, and hit record peaks late last month. Governments are already exploring ways to store some data, such as land records, contracts and assets, in blockchains, and the financial industry, too, has experimented with blockchain technologies to streamline transactions and back-office systems, though with limited success. SECURING SHARED DATA The closest most law enforcement agencies have come to the blockchain has been working with start-up firms to analyze it for evidence of criminal deals. But in the past year or so that attitude has begun to change. The United States Air Force (USAF) has funded research into how blockchain could ensure its data isn’t changed. In May, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded a grant to the company behind an encrypted chat program to make a secure messaging service based on the blockchain. Amendments to a recent U.S. Senate defense bill require the government to report back on “the potential offensive and defensive cyber applications of blockchain technology and other distributed database technologies” and how foreign governments, extremists and criminals might be using them. Adrian Kemp of HoustonKemp Economists poses for a picture in Singapore November 24, 2017. Picture taken November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su Britain, too, is exploring several uses of the blockchain, say consultants and companies working for several departments. Cambridge Consultants, a UK-based consultancy, said it had worked with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, a UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) agency, on using a blockchain to improve the trustworthiness of a network of sensors on, for example, security cameras. The UK’s justice ministry is looking at proving that evidence - video, emails, documents - hasn’t been tampered with by registering it all on a blockchain, according to a blog post on its website. Marcus Ralphs, a former soldier and now CEO of ByzGen Ltd, which makes blockchains for the security sector, said he was working on projects with the MoD using blockchain to track the status and level of individuals’ security clearance. Other work included helping the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) improve the way work permits are issued and records stored. “PASSING THE BUCK” Adrian Kemp of HoustonKemp Economists speaks to Reuters in their office in Singapore November 24, 2017. Picture taken November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su These are early days. Kemp says there’s no guarantee his project will be deployed more widely. And some who have worked with AUSTRAC are skeptical, saying such projects have more to do with agencies turning to the private sector because they’re running low on resources and ideas. “The government is just looking to pass the buck on to private industry,” said Simon Smith, a cyber private investigator who has worked on cases involving AUSTRAC. Many police forces and armies aren’t ready for the technological and mental leap necessary. The Police Foundation, a UK think-tank focusing on policing and crime, is pushing British police to explore the blockchain, but its director, Rick Muir, said “we are still at the stage of ‘what is blockchain?''.” Neil Barnas, a USAF major who last year wrote a thesis on the potential of blockchain in defense, said U.S. military and security agencies were slowly waking up. The problem, he says, is that military minds are more inclined towards centralized systems than the decentralized ones that blockchain’s distributed ledger embraces. That said, blockchain’s association with the criminal underworld has not dented its appeal to those who see its potential, said ByzGen’s Ralphs. “The negative narrative around it has not at all watered down or diluted interest of the people we’ve been engaging with,” he said. ($1 = 1.3201 Australian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tech-blockchain-security/for-security-agencies-blockchain-goes-from-suspect-to-potential-solution-idUKKBN1DX01A'|'2017-12-03T04:05:00.000+02:00'
'6852c16e983457d40b914afaee7a9b5867df4d90'|'Asian shares edge up with U.S. tax bill in focus'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks, the dollar and Treasury yields sank on Friday after an ABC report said former national security adviser Michael Flynn was prepared to testify that Donald Trump instructed him to make contact with Russians during the presidential campaign.Traders watch, as a television displays the news about former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn, at the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The sharp moves partially reversed after U.S. Senate Republicans said they had enough support to pass a tax overhaul bill later in the day.The S&P 500 closed at a record high on Thursday partly on hopes of passage of the Senate bill, expected to cut corporate taxes.“It looks like (the moves in markets are) a reaction to news that Flynn is prepared to testify against Trump,” said William Delwiche, investment strategist at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.“You step back and look over the move we have had over the last week and a half, you could argue we are due for some sort of pull back or consolidation.”Reuters could not immediately verify the ABC News report on Flynn’s testimony, which would put the Republican president in an uncomfortable spot after he has denied any collusion between his campaign team and Moscow.Flynn also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contact with Russian officials. His reported decision to cooperate with the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller marked a major escalation in a probe into Russia’s alleged attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.If the Russia probe derails the tax legislation, it could hurt the chances of Republicans retaining their majorities in the House and Senate as voters go to the polls next year.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 79.9 points, or 0.33 percent, to 24,192.45, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 10.36 points, or 0.39 percent, to 2,637.22 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 43.26 points, or 0.63 percent, to 6,830.71.The S&P earlier fell as much as 1.6 percent.Demonstrators gather outside the U.S. Capitol to protest the Republican tax plan as it works through the Senate in Washington November 30, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.74 percent and MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.38 percent.Emerging market stocks lost 0.34 percent. MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 0.08 percent lower, while Japan''s Nikkei .N225 rose 0.41 percent.The dollar index .DXY fell 0.15 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.1 percent to $1.189.“To the extent that this (Flynn) headline further ensnares this administration into this investigation or suggests a widening of the Special Counsel’s probe I think that it is certainly a key concern for global investors and that’s why we are seeing the dollar come off,” said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.The Japanese yen strengthened 0.40 percent versus the greenback at 112.10 per dollar, while sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.347, down 0.41 percent on the day.Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 15/32 in price to yield 2.3615 percent, from 2.415 percent late on Thursday.The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last rose 49/32 in price to yield 2.7546 percent, from 2.831 percent late on Thursday.Crude futures rose a day after OPEC and other major producers agreed to continue reining in output until the end of 2018 to try to reduce a global oil glut and boost prices.U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 1.52 percent to $58.27 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was at $63.63, up 1.6 percent on the day.Spot gold XAU= added 0.6 percent to $1,281.91 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 gained 0.63 percent to $1,284.80 an ounce.Copper CMCU3 rose 0.81 percent to $6,816.50 a tonne.Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by April Joyner, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Sinead Carew, Scott DiSavino, Chuck Mikolajczak, Caroline Valetkevitch and Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asian-shares-edge-up-with-u-s-tax-bill-in-focus-idINKBN1DV3E9'|'2017-12-01T02:58:00.000+02:00'
'b034028320bfaa65fb372dffec19825db3cfb877'|'Unilever CEO defends balance between growth, margin'|'(Reuters) - Unilever ( ULVR.L ) ( UNc.AS ) Chief Executive Paul Polman on Thursday defended his balancing of growth and margin, weighing in passionately after a weak third quarter on a debate sparked by this year’s unwanted approach from Kraft-Heinz ( KHC.O ).FILE PHOTO - Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever delivers a speech during the Concordia Summit in in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon Under pressure to show he could speed up returns as a standalone company after rebuffing a $143 billion bid, the maker of Dove soap and Magnum ice cream in April pledged to lift its operating margin to 20 percent by 2020. Investors applauded the goal, but some analysts worried that marketing would be cut, which could hurt longer term sales growth.A surprise slowdown in the third quarter fanned those fears.On Thursday evening, at the end of a two-day investor conference in New Jersey, Polman stressed that Unilever was not doing anything that would hurt volume growth, and that margin benefits were the result of prior investments.Polman said reductions in absolute marketing spending were due to efficiencies and criticized shareholders for pushing for margins but then changing their tune.“Here you are all saying ‘I want shareholder value, I want you to drive it,’ and you’re pissing it away by not even asking us to give it,” Polman said. “To me that’s incomprehensible.”Unilever’s shares remain 24 percent higher than before the Kraft approach, but are down more than 8 percent since last month’s results.“The fiery finish might have been an expression of frustration with the perceived fickleness of investor appetite towards growth vs. margin, a debate which has been imbued with additional urgency following the slow Q3,” said Jefferies analyst Martin Deboo, who has a Buy rating on the stock.Polman, in the top job for nearly nine years, also acknowledged the eventual end of his tenure on Thursday, a week after Britain’s Sky News reported that Unilever had hired an executive search firm to help find a successor.When asked what characteristics his successor should have, Polman said the main skill was “being able to see and drive change and certainly feel very comfortable in a digital environment”.He said Unilever’s next chief must also have a vision to evolve the company’s commitments around sustainability, which Polman has put at the heart of the Anglo-Dutch company.“I have my opinions as long as I‘m here, but the next person would definitely have to bring that to the next level, as I would have to do if I would stay for the next ten years, which I‘m not,” Polman said.The company’s presentations at the investor event were largely about Unilever’s plans to grow its business by reinvigorating its core brands and buying and creating new ones, expanding its distribution to new channels like drug stores and online, and making itself leaner and more agile.Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-nv-strategy/unilever-ceo-defends-balance-between-growth-margin-idUSKBN1DU37P'|'2017-12-01T01:32:00.000+02:00'
'7e5bc4aa4d2b318c0fb80f403e41f591f87e366d'|'Denmark''s Tryg''s $1.3 billion Alka deal to boost market share'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:23 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Denmark''s Tryg''s $1.3 billion Alka deal to boost market share Thyagaraju Adinarayan 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Denmark’s largest insurance company Tryg ( TRYG.CO ) said on Monday it agreed to buy unlisted competitor Alka Forsikring for 8.2 billion Danish crowns (975.05 million pounds) strengthen its presence in the property and casualty (P&C) insurance markets. Alka, founded in 1944, is the eighth largest P&C insurer in Denmark. Two analysts said the deal could boost Tryg’s market share to about 22 percent from 18 percent now, cementing its place as market leader. Topdanmark ( TOP.CO ) is second with 17 percent. Shares in Tryg rose as much as 4.9 percent, reaching levels last seen in April 2015. By 0928 GMT, they were up 3.7 percent. KBW analyst Michele Ballatore, who has a “market perform” rating on the stock, said the deal would mean Tryg could apply its “superior cost efficiency” skills to Alka, adding that she had a positive long-term view of the deal. Tryg said it has identified 300 million crowns per annum in merger benefits to be delivered by 2021. It said it expected the deal to add to earnings from 2019 with a high single-digit contribution to earnings by 2021. Ballatore said Alka’s ties with Danish trade unions would help Tryg, which said it expected to benefit from Alka’s partnerships with unions to open up “significant opportunities to expand the business.” Alka is owned by Danish trade union movement, companies affiliated with the unions, Folksam and its employees. RBC Capital and UBS analysts said the price of the deal was justified by Alka’s strong capital levels. Excess capital that comes as part of the deal could be used to help finance the transaction, RBC Capital analysts said in a note. The total deal value includes excess capital of 2.5 billion crowns, valuing Alka’s operations at 5.7 billion crowns, Tryg said. Tryg also plans an equity placement of up to 10 percent of its outstanding shares to fund the deal. Tryg’s majority owner TryghedsGruppen will subscribe to 60 percent of the shares. Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan; Editing by Stephen Coates and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alka-m-a-tryg/danish-insurer-tryg-to-buy-alka-for-1-3-billion-idUKKBN1DY0GM'|'2017-12-04T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'cb3f0385fe007d0a6f194187fb9849e2f6506b2f'|'Rio Tinto changes its designated driver'|'C ongratulations, Simon Thompson, current non-executive director of Rio Tinto , you are deemed sufficiently safe to step up to the chairmanship. The world’s second biggest mining company didn’t describe the appointment in this way, of course – but nor did it refer to the extraordinary behind-the-scenes lobbying that killed the hopes of the board’s original preferred candidate, Sir Mick Davis.It was already known that the process had been hijacked by big shareholders, who had written to Rio to say they weren’t keen on Davis, the former boss of Xstrata and the current chairman of the Conservative party. But the blistering tone of the now-leaked letter is worth noting. It is hard to recall a similar instance of a board of a large FTSE 100 company being read the riot act over the appointment of a chairman.Here’s an extract: Andy Griffiths, executive director of the Investor Forum, which represents big fund management groups, said he was relating the views of 13 shareholders representing 20% of the London investor base and wrote on 21 November: “While these long-term shareholders are supportive of the company and its operational strategy, given the challenges facing the organisation, they are of the strong opinion that the individual currently being identified in the media as a potential chairman is not an acceptable candidate.“The clear position of these shareholders would suggest that the company should expect a very hostile audience should it choose to pursue this course of action.”Davis’s business career has always divided opinion. Some fund managers applaud the deal-making that built Xstrata into a $50bn company at the moment he was taken over by Glencore. Others can’t stomach the personal rewards for Xstrata’s top brass, including the £140m retention package that executives were offered to stay after the takeover. But, remember, Davis had been interviewed and picked by the board of Rio as the frontrunner. A U-turn in these circumstances is unusual.A welcome victory for shareholder power? Up to a point. Almost everybody is in favour of big investors engaging actively with companies and, in this case, there’s a fair argument that Rio doesn’t need a swashbuckling, deal-making chairman at a moment when it is preaching a gospel of disciplined capital allocation. That, as it happens, was this column’s view a few weeks ago.But, in Davis’s shoes, you would also want to know why the Investor Forum mentioned “high personal integrity” as one of three “key investor considerations for this appointment”. That could be read as a general comment. But, in the context of the letter, it could also be taken as personal, nasty and below the belt. Davis, a well-known philanthropist, is entitled to an explanation.Stock market highs are just a sugar rush Another day, another record for Wall Street , and another chance for Donald Trump to spin the shallow idea that his presidency must be successful because stock prices are rising.The notion is shallow because cutting corporate taxes – and thereby delivering an instant boost to companies’ earnings – was always likely to push the stock market higher. The process is almost mechanical, especially for big US-focused companies such as banks and energy companies.But, once the sugar rush fades, expect investors question the long-term economic benefits of cutting corporate taxes. If investors truly believed that the US economy was now set on a course towards higher growth, you would expect a reaction in the market for US government debt. Investors might start to predict higher inflation, for example.But that is not happening. Instead, short-dated and long-dated US Treasury stocks are trading at very similar yields, which traditionally signals economic trouble ahead. Funnily enough, Trump never tweets about that.Topics Rio Tinto Nils Pratley on finance Mining US economy Donald Trump Trump administration Stock markets comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2017/dec/04/rio-tinto-changes-designated-driver-sir-mick-davis'|'2017-12-05T01:47:00.000+02:00'
'687e37ce081613451d1303a6e8c4658953d6ee0f'|'Carvana raises cash without scrutiny'|'Dec 4 (IFR) - Fast-growing used car retailer Carvana raised US$100m through the private sale of convertible preferred securities on Monday, a deal that allowed the listed company to avert public scrutiny.The sale - which clearly cheered the markets, sending Carvana’s shares up nearly 11% to US$19.84 - came after the company went public in April with 15m shares at US$15 each.Some 10.3m of the shares floated on the IPO are on loan to short-sellers, however. A regular follow-on offering would have required an SEC filing and a two-day viewing period.“No stock-borrow - it would have been hard to do a regular-way public (convertible bond),” said one banker close to the situation.“It’s one of those things that makes sense in a private context.”The convertible bond was sold under section 4(a)(2) exemption of registration requirements, similar to Rule 144 but placing more responsibility on buyers.Dundon Capital Partners, the private-equity firm headed by former Santander Consumer USA chief executive Tom Dundon, was the sole purchaser.Citigroup and Wells Fargo advised Carvana.The convertible preferred carries a 5.5% dividend and is convertible at a 10% premium, the minimum threshold required to make it distinct from the underlying common shares.The CB is eligible to convert at US$19.69 – expensive, given a break-even period of just 1.8 years, but highlighting the benefit of eliminating market risks.Carvana can force conversion after one year, but only if its shares are trading above US$29.54, a 150% premium to the base conversion price.THE HIGH ROAD Carvana has repeatedly defied the market’s expectations since going public.Growth has been faster than planned - it recently opened its 40th location.That expansion is causing operating losses to mount, and Carvana is now guiding toward negative adjusted Ebitda this year of 16.4%–17%, from 14%–16% ahead of the Q3 earnings November 7.In the third quarter, it reported negative US$35.8m of adjusted Ebitda on revenue of US$225.4m, a minus 15.9% margin and up from negative US$33.4m and US$209.4m, respectively, in the second quarter.“This is effectively an equity raise at a much more attractive level than feared by some, and well above the company’s $15 IPO price earlier this year,” said Wedbush analyst Seth Basham in a note to clients, noting that the raise “likely is leading to short covering”.“The fresh capital removes a key growth constraint but does not likely give the company a pass in the minds of investors to show much less progress on the path to profitability,” said Basham, who increased his price target from $14 to $19 but maintained a neutral rating.The sizable cash burn has drawn the ire of short-sellers – on Basham’s estimates (and consensus), Carvana is not expected to post break-even Ebitda until the first quarter of 2019.Carvana finished the third quarter with US$103.5m of unrestricted cash, down from US$144.4m at the end of the second quarter.Since then, however, it inked an increase to its auto finance receivables facility by US$1.4bn to US$2bn and entered into a sale-leaseback on auto vending machines of up to US$75m.“From my perspective they are more likely to break even with this (financing) and the other forms of financing they have in place,” Basham told IFR.“They are creating a frictionless environment for consumers to purchase cars. They offer a lot of the same elements as CarMax but without salespeople.”Carvana allows customers to buy cars online, finance the purchase online and receive delivery or pickup from vending machine-like towers. (Reporting by Stephen Lacey; Editing by Marc Carnegie) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/carvana-raises-cash-without-scrutiny/carvana-raises-cash-without-scrutiny-idINL1N1O41JN'|'2017-12-04T17:00:00.000+02:00'
'6facddc3a97718d12ceb14b38ae14292130ab8fa'|'Exclusive - VW in talks to buy stake in Russia''s GAZ: sources'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:00 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Exclusive - Volkswagen in talks to buy stake in Russian light vehicle maker GAZ: sources Gleb Stolyarov , Tatiana Voronova 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - German carmaker Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) is in talks to buy a stake in GAZ ( GAZA.MM ), a Russian manufacturer of light commercial vehicles, sources familiar with the talks said. A Volkswagen Golf GTE is being charged during a workshop prior to Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip GAZ is part of the Basic Element group that holds the assets of Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska and already has a partnership with Volkswagen. It was not immediately clear how big a stake VW was talking about taking, or the value of the potential deal and a decision on size has yet to be made, one of the sources said. Both GAZ and Basic Element declined to comment, while a spokesman said VW does not comment on market speculation. “There are talks, they are trying to reach an agreement. Deripaska has long been looking for a partner and VW does not have a Russian partner,” one car industry source said. A source close to VW also confirmed that talks were in progress, but said the possibility of the carmaker taking a stake in GAZ is not the only matter under consideration. The stake deal, if it goes ahead, would show that major Western companies are forging ahead with investments in Russia despite political tensions over Ukraine and allegations, denied by Moscow, of Russian meddling in foreign elections. Other global automakers have already taken stakes in major Russian vehicle manufacturers. Russia’s biggest carmaker, Avtovaz ( AVAZ.MM ) is controlled by the Renault-Nissan ( 7201.T )( RENA.PA ) alliance, while Russian truck maker Kamaz is part-owned by Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ). Sollers, a Russian firm which manufactures light commercial vans, has no global automaker as a shareholder, though it has a joint venture with Ford ( F.N ) Russian car sales, which shrank from 2015 as the economy slowed sharply, have recovered this year and new car sales rose 17.3 percent year-on-year in October to 148,597 units, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) lobby group said this month. It was the eighth consecutive month of sales growth. VW is already a major investor in Russia, having sunk 1.75 billion Euros (1.5 billion pounds) into its operations. It has a vehicle plant and an engine plant in Kaluga, 150 km south of Moscow. Under its existing partnership with GAZ, the Russian firm assembles VW brand and Skoda cars, while VW supplies 2.0 litre diesel engines for light commercial vehicles made by GAZ. Addional reporting by Katya Golubkova, Polina Devitt and Jack Stubbs in Moscow and Andreas Cremer in Berlin; Editing by David Goodman and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-russia-gaz-exclusive/exclusive-vw-in-talks-to-buy-stake-in-russias-gaz-sources-idUKKBN1DV5H5'|'2017-12-01T19:00:00.000+02:00'
'1368cbefbb8359c1f1ee4f0874c8636305f5419a'|'LPC: Loan market turns to term trust structure as investors search for yield'|'NEW YORK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - US credit managers are looking at new shorter-dated term trust structures as investors continue to target leveraged loans as a hedge against further interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve.Leveraged loans, which typically finance private equity buyouts, offer some protection against rising interest rates as interest payments float over the benchmark Libor rate, which rises as rates increase.Investment firms First Trust Advisors and Eaton Vance have raised term trust funds in the last 12 months to invest in the US$939bn US leveraged loan market, according to deal documents.Octagon Credit Investors teamed up with XA Investments for a term trust fund that may invest in first- and second-lien loans, and hold as much as 50% of its portfolio in the debt and equity of Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) funds.Term trusts have a set maturity unlike closed-end funds that remain outstanding in perpetuity. This mitigates investors’ concerns about typical closed-end funds, such as the possibility for large swings between discounts and premiums, according to William Housey, a senior portfolio manager at First Trust.“The transactional closed-end term trust seems like the next evolution and I do believe it’s a very viable structure for a number of asset classes,” he said.Open-end mutual funds, which allow holders to make daily redemptions, are common investments in retirement accounts and college saving plans. Open-end loan funds had US$156.5bn in assets in October, a small part of the overall US$18.9trn of assets held in 2016 by US mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, according to data from Thomson Reuters LPC and the Investment Company Institute.Term trusts have a set maturity date to repay shareholders, unlike perpetual closed-end funds.PREMIUM TRADES Term trusts have traded well in the secondary market to date, whereas closed-end funds have historically traded at a discount to net asset value, a measure of mutual funds’ price per share.Funds will trade better if investors know that they can be repaid at up to 100 cents on the dollar on a specific date, which eliminates the concern of being stuck in a fund indefinitely, said Nathan Greene, head of law firm Shearman & Sterling’s registered funds and investment adviser regulatory group.“When a new structure comes out and performance to-date has been pretty good, that is usually a precondition for that type of product development to continue,” said Alex Reiss, a closed-end fund analyst at Stifel. “Nothing succeeds like success.”US closed-end loan funds were trading at an average discount of 6.9 percent on November 24, according to the trade group Closed-End Fund Center citing Lipper data. The average discount in December 2016 was as high as 5.3 percent and the average discount at the end of 2015 was 9.5 percent. The XAI Octagon Floating Rate & Alternative Income Term Trust was trading at a premium of US$10.026 November 28.“It’s hard to bring new-issue closed-end funds [to market] when discounts are so wide in the secondary market,” said Jeff Margolin, a closed-end fund analyst at First Trust.Target term trusts “trade at smaller discounts and the likelihood of a return at a specific price does have an appeal to investors,” he added.Investors are increasingly seeking protection from rising rates via leveraged loans and CLO investments where yields increase as rates rise, according to Kimberly Flynn, a managing director at XA Investments. The Fed has increased rates four times in the last two years and JP Morgan forecasts four additional hikes in 2018.Term trusts also offer investors exposure to leveraged loans without the worry of new open-end mutual fund regulations that require compliance by next year.As interest rates rise, interest in the funds continues to grow and more loan term trusts are expected in the future.“I think term trusts have shown some staying power it solves for a number of key problems,” said Christopher Remington, an institutional portfolio manager at Eaton Vance. (Reporting by Kristen Haunss; Editing by Tessa Walsh) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/termtrust-loans/lpc-loan-market-turns-to-term-trust-structure-as-investors-search-for-yield-idINL1N1O10SU'|'2017-12-01T12:25:00.000+02:00'
'c016a9d56c208bacafc268dc0946e236801b88db'|'Bitcoin rebounds to $10,500 after U.S. regulator approves futures'|'December 1, 2017 / 1:36 PM / in 30 minutes Bitcoin rebounds to $10,500 after U.S. regulator approves futures Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin rebounded on Friday to hit the day’s highs above $10,500, recovering from an earlier dip below $9,500, after the U.S. derivatives regulator said it would allow CME Group and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures. A Bitcoin logo is displayed at the Bitcoin Center New York City in New York''s financial district, U.S. on July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The announcement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) paves the way for CME and CBOE to become the first traditional U.S. regulated exchanges to launch trading in bitcoin-related financial contracts, a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency that could lead to greater regulatory scrutiny. Bitcoin, which had been trading at around $10,150 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange before the news, jumped to as high as $10,513 in the 20 minutes that followed, leaving it up more than 5 percent on the day. It has been a volatile week for the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, bitcoin smashed through $10,000 before rocketing past $11,000 less than 12 hours later to an all time-high of $11,395, and then plunging around 20 percent in the hours that followed. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee and Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-rebounds-to-10500-after-u-s-regulator-approves-futures-idUKKBN1DV4XI'|'2017-12-01T15:38:00.000+02:00'
'b45883e037d39806b7b726f0c6f8f3215558ecb6'|'Brazil''s Oi hopes to advance in talks to settle regulatory debts'|'RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ), the Brazilian telephone carrier operating under bankruptcy court protection, hopes to advance in talks with the country’s solicitor general (AGU) on an agreement to repay the company’s regulatory debts, chief executive Eurico Teles Neto said on Thursday.The logo of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA is pictured on a payphone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes The company is proposing to pay 1.7 billion reais ($518.9 million) in cash to settle debts with regulator Anatel, and an additional 6.8 billion reais in 239 installments, the executive told reporters in a press conference.($1 = 3.2761 reais)Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Writing by Ana ManoEditing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oi-restructuring-regulator/brazils-oi-hopes-to-advance-in-talks-to-settle-regulatory-debts-idUSKBN1DU2NW'|'2017-12-01T02:50:00.000+02:00'
'89e31b6b9cbc406aed0bbc5a2ad052ec3e839d11'|'U.S. regulator says it will allow CME Group, CBOE to list bitcoin futures'|'WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. derivatives regulator said on Friday it would allow CME Group Inc. and CBOE Global Markets Inc. to list bitcoin futures, after the rival bourses were able to show their proposed contracts and trading arrangements met the necessary regulatory requirements.The announcement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) paves the way for CME and CBOE to become the first traditional U.S. regulated exchanges to launch trading in bitcoin-related financial contracts, in a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency that should lead to greater regulatory scrutiny.Trading in the CME and CBOE bitcoin futures contracts, which will be priced against and settled in the cash bitcoin market, should begin by year end, a CFTC official said.Bitcoin soared above $11,000 for the first time this week, up 10-fold year-to-date and prompting multiple warnings of a bubble.To guard against volatility, CME and CBOE will put in place stricter than usual risk-management safeguards, including initial margin requirements of between 35 percent and 40 percent.The exchanges have also agreed to enter into information sharing agreements and to send the CFTC data on the settlement process so the regulator can conduct its own surveillance.CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo warned investors, however, that the nascent underlying bitcoin cash markets remain largely unregulated and mostly beyond the CFTC’s purview.“We expect that the futures exchanges, through information sharing agreements, will be monitoring the trading activity on the relevant cash platforms for potential impacts on the futures contracts’ price discovery process, including potential market manipulation and market dislocations due to flash rallies and crashes, and trading outages,” he said in a statement.”Nevertheless, investors should be aware of the potentially high level of volatility and risk in trading these contracts.”CFTC regulations allow designated contract exchanges such as CME to list products for trading without prior CFTC approval by filing a written self-certification with the regulator.Under the self-certification process, which is a quirk of the futures market, the exchanges file a submission to the CFTC confirming the product complies with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations - including a key provision that requires the contract is not susceptible to manipulation.The CFTC has the power to block the contract but will not do so in this instance.CME has been vying with CBOE to launch the first bitcoin-related financial product. Nasdaq OMX Group is also eyeing a contract launch before year end, Reuters reported this week. (Reporting by Michelle Price and John McCrank; Editing by Leslie Adler) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-bitcoin/u-s-regulator-says-it-will-allow-cme-group-cboe-to-list-bitcoin-futures-idINL3N1O066D'|'2017-12-01T10:00:00.000+02:00'
'3ef08f544140b2ad871c44933d5467fe6f8c346c'|'In the Trump era, big business is becoming more political - America Inc gets woke'|'AT THE start of Donald Trump’s presidency bosses rushed onto his business councils, hoping to influence policies in their favour. Their ardour has cooled. When Mr Trump banned travel from Muslim-majority countries, withdrew from the Paris agreement on climate change and equivocated on racist protesters in Charlottesville, to name but a few occasions, chief executives roared their protest.“Un-American,” declared Reed Hastings, Netflix’s chief executive, of the immigration ban. Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, told a reporter, “I am here because I am a refugee” as he joined protesters against the ban at San Francisco’s airport. “I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,” wrote Kenneth Frazier, boss of Merck, a pharma giant, after Charlottesville. “Isolate those who try to separate us,” added Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. Other executives have joined lawsuits to overturn Mr Trump’s policies and condemned his actions in memos to staff.  14   16   Firms have been sucked into social and political debates before. Anti-apartheid campaigners mounted boycotts against firms that did business with the South African regime, for example. But it is happening more and more often. In 2015 came the news that Indiana was considering a “religious freedom” bill that would allow companies and non-profit organisations to discriminate against gay and transgender individuals. Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, a technology firm, criticised the law even though Apple itself has little presence in the state. Salesforce.com, another tech firm, applied sterner pressure, threatening to withdraw jobs. State bills discriminating against transgender and gay people have attracted strong opposition from firms headquartered across America, not just in left-leaning California—from Bank of America (North Carolina) to Dow Chemical (Michigan) and ExxonMobil (Texas).Come halo or high waterThe Trump era has made it even harder for executives to stay above the political fray. More than 1,400 companies and investors have signed a pledge to uphold the Paris climate agreement, in defiance of Mr Trump. Visa, a credit-card giant, and 3M, a manufacturing firm, are among those to have cut advertising from Breitbart News, a right-wing news site founded by Stephen Bannon, Mr Trump’s former adviser. One serial investor and director of a tech giant says that fired-up employees have made it extremely difficult to be seen to co-operate with the administration in any way at all.That is a big shift. In the past companies did their best to remain apolitical. The commercial rationale for caution was best expressed by Michael Jordan, a basketball star, when he quipped that “Republicans buy sneakers too”. Companies believed that their main purpose was to maximise returns for shareholders, not to meddle in politics. “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” wrote Milton Friedman, an economist, in 1970. Lobbyists became increasingly adept at pushing policymakers towards lower taxes and fewer regulations; they said little or nothing about social issues.No longer. The reactions to Mr Trump are reinforcing a longer-term trend for business to become more outspoken. Multinational companies in particular are more likely to combine their support for globalisation with the espousal of wider societal goals such as protecting the environment, ethnic diversity and gay rights. A small but rising number of firms have committed to a new corporate purpose altogether, declaring their objectives to be broader than mere profits. The past decade has seen the launch of “benefit corporations” which work to meet specific goals for society as well as for their investors; there are more than 2,300 of these around the world, with the greatest number in America.Such trends are not confined to America. Companies in Europe have long had an expansive view of their social responsibilities; now worries about inequality and the resulting populism are strengthening that stance. Unilever, a giant Anglo-Dutch seller of consumer goods, for example, prides itself on treating staff well and supporting environmental sustainability. But the phenomenon is particularly marked in America, due to the number of giant firms headquartered there and because Mr Trump is so uniquely hard to ignore.The controversies of Mr Trump’s presidency aside, there are two big structural reasons for firms’ newfound sense of purpose. First, many bosses feel they have little choice but to respond to their staff, who are increasingly vocal on political and on cultural issues. Second, companies’ main shareholders—institutions such as pension funds and asset managers—are themselves paying more attention to social objectives.Start with the staff. According to a report from Weber Shandwick, a public-relations firm, “CEO Activism in 2017: High Noon in the C-Suite”, 44% of millennial American employees say they would be more loyal to their company if their boss took a public position on a societal issue, compared with 19% who would be less loyal. Weber Shandwick found that, globally, 63% of executives of prominent firms feel the need to have a position on issues such as immigration and climate change.The real office politicsThat position usually, but not always, breaks to the left. Large companies still tend to line up with the Republican party on policies that have a direct impact on their business—a specific regulation, for instance, or a tax provision. But many of America’s biggest companies have their headquarters (and most of their senior staff) in states and in metropolitan areas that voted for Hillary Clinton. Employees of large firms examined by The Economist usually gave more to Democratic candidates than to Republican ones (see chart for selected examples).So it should come as little surprise that companies increasingly support causes that are traditionally associated with Democrats, including gay rights and environmental sustainability. More than 80% of the firms that opposed Mr Trump’s ban on travel from Muslim countries are based in states that voted for Mrs Clinton, as are the majority of the firms and investors that signed the pledge to uphold the Paris climate agreement. Staying neutral is especially hard for firms in Silicon Valley, where staff are often liberal.“Heartland” companies, far from the liberal coasts, also face pressure to react to specific political events or to advance a wider agenda. On November 21st Doug McMillon, the boss of Walmart, a ubiquitous retailer, described the expanding expectations from various quarters for his company, such as advancing education. In 2015 Walmart moved to oppose a “religious freedom” bill like that in Indiana in its home state of Arkansas, stopped selling products carrying the Confederate flag after a mass shooting at Charleston and also stopped selling assault-style rifles.Some firms are wholeheartedly conservative in their views. Charles Koch of Koch Industries, the second-largest private firm in America, for example, has spent hundreds of millions backing right-wing causes. And smaller conservative-leaning businesses have not held back from fighting cultural battles. In 2014 the Supreme Court ruled that “closely-held businesses” such as Hobby Lobby, a chain of crafts stores, could have religious beliefs and thus be exempt from laws that flouted them. As a Christian firm, it had objected to having to pay for insurance coverage for emergency contraception under the Affordable Care Act. Another case now before the Supreme Court—that of a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple—might end up exempting businesses from anti-discrimination laws if they violate owners’ spiritual beliefs.Institutional investors add to the pressure on firms to get involved in political and social issues. In 2006 the United Nations issued principles for responsible investing, urging shareholders to consider environmental, social and governance factors. By 2015, institutions managing about $59trn had endorsed these principles. As pension-fund trustees and mutual-fund investors take social objectives more seriously, asset managers such as BlackRock and Vanguard have tried to woo them by launching new funds and indices focused on well-behaving firms. The assets managed under such criteria jumped to $22.9trn last year, from $13.3trn in 2012.What does this all mean for companies? One danger lies in doing too little. Hollow posturing about corporate social responsibility is easy enough to expose. Employees and shareholders can hold companies to account using data or by consulting independent monitors such as the Human Rights Campaign, which scrutinises how firms treat gay and transgender employees, or the World Wildlife Fund, which tracks firms’ environmental work.A second danger lies in alienating people on the other side of an issue, the president among them. Companies that have opposed Mr Trump risk being singled out by him. In August a single tweet from Mr Trump complaining about Amazon’s impact on conventional retailers (and jobs) wiped out $6bn of its market value.Firms may also displease customers, who can more easily complain about companies and organise boycotts using social media. In 2015 Starbucks, a coffee chain, urged staff to begin conversations about race with customers; the attempt was widely ridiculed. More recently Keurig Green Mountain, a coffee-machine maker, withdrew advertising from a show on Fox News after its host failed to condemn Roy Moore, a Senate candidate accused of dating and assaulting teenagers. Mr Moore’s supporters then posted online videos of themselves smashing their devices.Rage against the Keurig machineThese risks are not always as extreme as they might seem, however. Despite the occasional misstep Starbucks has thrived; its chairman, Howard Schultz, champions the idea that firms should serve both their shareholders and a broader set of interests, including staff and civil society. Angering Mr Trump, ostensibly the world’s most powerful man, may not have lasting effects, either. Amazon’s stock has more than recovered since his tweet in the summer. When Mr Trump criticised Nordstrom, a department store, its share price rose.It seems unlikely that companies’ new activism will fade. Ignoring the issues that helped propel Mr Trump into office in the first place is becoming a less plausible option for many bosses. After the global financial crisis it was bankers who attracted most populist ire. Chief executives are still more trusted than politicians, according to a recent survey by Edelman, a public-relations firm—but that trust is eroding quickly.Big multinationals such as Apple are under increasing pressure to eschew complex manoeuvres that reduce their tax bills. Sky-high executive pay is another focus of populist discontent. Firms are also having to grapple, often unconvincingly, with the question of how to help workers threatened by the spread of technology. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, is among those to have suggested the idea of a “universal basic income”—an unconditional payment to all citizens—to deal with stagnating wages and automation; critics say that could further disenfranchise the less-skilled.As companies make their voices heard on social issues, they may start to do so in different ways. Corporate bosses have long given to candidates—Cornelius Vanderbilt, a 19th-century tycoon, for example, showered Ulysses Grant with cash. Firms themselves can now take a more active part in politics, thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission that businesses can spend unlimited amounts in elections (as long as they do not donate directly to a candidate).They could also change how they lobby. Apple, Google and Amazon, some of the most politically vocal companies of the past year, have each more than quadrupled their annual lobbying spending since 2007. But most of the cash has gone on narrow business issues such as net neutrality, intellectual property and privacy. Aaron Chatterji of Duke University thinks there will be rising pressure, from staff and consumers, for firms in many industries to match their rhetoric with lobbying on specific societal issues in Washington, DC.Mr Zuckerberg has taken a more direct approach. He has just concluded a tour of 30 states to try and connect with Americans of all backgrounds. Alexis de Tocqueville, in his own journey through America in the 19th century, observed what he called the country’s “self-interest, properly understood”—the idea that an individual’s attention to the common good served himself as well. Companies keen to protect their interests are increasingly taking that observation to heart.  Business   "America Inc gets woke"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21731855-left-leaning-employees-leave-many-bosses-little-choice-mount-barricades?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-30T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'7a578902ce7d1174e98b64ec2bca70957bd05ceb'|'In a push upmarket, Wells Fargo gives top brokers raises in 2018'|'NEW YORK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co is giving its top brokers and advisory teams as much as a $40,000 raise next year in a broad strategy to go after wealthier clients, company executives said Friday.The changes to Wells Fargo Advisors’ 2018 compensation plan, which were sent to the firm’s 14,500 brokers on Friday, also mean that the firm will pay more brokers a top tier salary than ever before because teams can also qualify for the benefits.“This is a big thing for us culturally to encourage people to continue to evolve their practices as we march toward the next stage of the advice business,” Rich Getzoff, head of Wells Fargo Advisors’ east coast business, said by phone.Wells Fargo’s bank and retail brokerage have traditionally served Main Street customers. But as regulatory costs, increased competition and changing customer preference have weighed on firms’ profits, brokers have had to seek wealthier clients whom they say benefit more from their advice.“Clients who have more wealth have more complicated needs,” said John Alexander, Wells Fargo Advisors. “But we’re not just a high net worth firm.”Some top banks, such as Morgan Stanley and Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch, require new clients to have at least $250,000.Wells Fargo Advisors has no such minimum. But brokers are encouraged to refer clients with less than $200,000 to brokers at bank branches or call centers, or Wells Fargo’s robo-advisor platform, Intuitive Investor, which accepts clients with at least $10,000.The new compensation plan rewards top advisers by paying them half of the revenue they generate for the brokerage if, in 2017, they made at least $2 million in revenue, and if more than three-quarters of their clients have over $750,000 with them. The broker must also be part of an internal coaching program called DELTA.The brokerage will extend the same offer - a 50 percent pay out rate - to teams of brokers if they generated $2 million in combined revenue, and if each broker managed at least $800,000 in assets.Brokerages traditionally pay employees a percentage of the annual revenues they make.Wells Fargo has historically paid all its brokers based on two percentage rates of revenue that combined make up their monthly salary. The new plan makes both of those rates 50 percent for top brokers.Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/wells-fargo-wealth-compensation/in-a-push-upmarket-wells-fargo-gives-top-brokers-raises-in-2018-idINL1N1O10WB'|'2017-12-01T14:25:00.000+02:00'
'00bc7a839b7bb9b2cd61e7e134c0a1a3fe74a51c'|'UPDATE 1-Macau casino revenue rises 23 pct on year in November'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:22 AM / Updated an hour ago UPDATE 1-Macau casino revenue rises 23 pct on year in November Reuters Staff (Adds full-year estimate, industry context) * Revenue rise second biggest this year * Analysts had estimated growth of 16-20 pct * Analysts expect first full-year growth in 3 years Dec 1 - Casinos in the world’s biggest gambling hub of Macau posted a 22.6 percent revenue jump in November from a year earlier, marking the sixteenth consecutive month of growth, government data showed on Friday. Revenue reached 23 billion patacas ($2.87 billion), data from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau showed, the second highest monthly tally this year and compared with analysts’ growth estimates of 16 to 22 percent. The result reflects continued recovery for casinos in the only Chinese territory where casino gambling is legal. Revenue dropped to five-year lows during a central government campaign from 2014 against shows of wealth among public officials, at a time when China’s economic growth was also slowing. While revenue is recovering, it is still below the all-time highs hit in the run-up to the government campaign, hovering around 2011 levels, showed data from Thomson Reuters Datastream. Analysts estimate full-year revenue growth of 18 to 20 percent for 2017, at $33 billion to $34 billion, mainly due to the lucrative but highly volatile, big-spending VIP segment. That would mark the first annual growth in three years. Revenue growth has been stronger for operators of casinos on Macau’s Cotai Strip, such as Sands China Ltd, Wynn Macau Ltd, Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd. On the other hand, SJM Holdings Ltd and MGM China Holdings Ltd have seen their market share erode while their Cotai Strip resorts have been under development. MGM’s venue is due to open in January while SJM’s is not likely to open until closer to 2019, analysts said. Revenue this year has been boosted by the return of so-called whales who wager around 1 million yuan ($151,308) per bet. But sustainability of the VIP segment’s strength is uncertain, analysts said, citing macro-economic factors such as a slowdown in money supply growth and real estate pricing. Meanwhile, pressure on casino operators to develop non-gaming attractions - favoured by a government keen to diversify Macau’s economy - is increasing as authorities start to determine what will happen to the six operating casino licenses once they start to expire in 2020. The government is yet to disclose the nature or timing of any bidding process. Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui has said mid-2018 would be a suitable time to provide more details. Tighter regulation is also likely to create uncertainty for casino operators, said analysts, as the government streamlines and strengthens the gaming industry. $1 = 8.0260 patacas Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Sunil Nair and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/macau-gambling-revenues/update-1-macau-casino-revenue-rises-23-pct-on-year-in-november-idUSL3N1O129N'|'2017-12-01T07:21:00.000+02:00'
'1f9a5d5f1a1442be86b8dc44ae7590c7ddae041c'|'Big U.S. banks in last-ditch push on regulatory relief bill'|'November 30, 2017 / 10:37 PM / in 4 minutes Big U.S. banks in last-ditch push on regulatory relief bill Pete Schroeder , Michelle Price , Olivia Oran 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street banks and big regional lenders are scrambling to secure changes to a U.S. Senate bill easing rules on smaller banks ahead of a key lawmaker meeting next week, several bank lobbyists told Reuters. People pass the JP Morgan Chase & Co. Corporate headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City, May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar The effort underscores how a year into the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, who pledged to slash financial red tape, the largest U.S. banks are still struggling to secure the regulatory relief they had hoped for. The bill offers little relief for many bigger lenders but lifts a significant burden for smaller banks and custodians. Large lenders are pushing for tweaks to help narrow that gap, multiple people with knowledge of their strategies said. Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee this month reached a tentative deal that would more than halve the number of banks labelled systemically risky, freeing them from stricter oversight from the Federal Reserve. The bipartisan bill would mark the first major easing of financial regulations introduced following the 2007-2009 financial crisis. But it has disappointed many of the largest U.S. banks, which under the bill are still big enough to be lumbered with the costly systemically risky label, and for which the bill currently offers few other compensations. That group includes JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM )N>, Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) and Citigroup Inc ( C.N ), which are global banks, as well as U.S. Bancorp ( USB.N ), PNC Financial Services Group Inc ( PNC.N ) and Capital One Financial Corp ( COF.N ), which are domestic. Senate Republicans spent months winning support of at least eight Democrats needed to pass the bill, resulting in a compromise that raises the threshold at which lenders are deemed systemically risky to $250 billion from $50 billion. That would put the so-called super-regional banks like U.S. Bancorp, Capital One and PNC, which are above the new threshold but not global, at a disadvantage to their smaller regional competitors freed from the extra regulatory burden. “We are disappointed. We would rather see no bill than this bill,” said one super-regional bank lobbyist, adding that regardless his institution would not oppose the bill. “Plan B ... is to fix it on the margins.” Senators will formally discuss any potential changes to the bill next week. A trader works inside the Goldman Sachs stall on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange July 16, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid While there is little prospect of shifting the asset threshold, the super-regionals hope to win tweaks to other areas of the bill that would reduce the operational burden associated with some capital calculations and give the Federal Reserve more freedom when applying the systemically risky rules, three people with knowledge of the strategy said. The bill also makes life much easier for custody banks like BNY Mellon ( BK.N ) and State Street Corp ( STT.N ) by exempting the customer deposits they place with central banks from a stringent capital calculation requirement. The rest of the global U.S. banks are hoping to persuade lawmakers to put them on an equal footing with the custodians, three other people with knowledge of the discussions said. FILE PHOTO - The Citigroup Inc (Citi) logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Any of those changes will likely be a tough sell. Senator Mark Warner, one of bill’s Democratic co-sponsors, said the bill had struck a delicate balance between Democrat and Republican priorities. “Both sides are at their breaking point,” he said. But lobbyists believe they will have another opportunity to push for changes when the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives considers the Senate bill once it passes. Some lobbyists believe they can garner enough support from House Republicans to have their changes incorporated into a final compromise package. Tom Quaadman, an executive vice president with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said it was “disappointing” Congress simply raised the threshold. But the business group broadly supports the bill as a step towards easing rules it says are suffocating small business lending. “We think that Congress in the end is going to have to do more to get to a solution,” Quaadman added. Reporting by Pete Schroeder and Michelle Price in Washington and Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-banks-lobbyists/big-u-s-banks-in-last-ditch-push-on-regulatory-relief-bill-idUKKBN1DU34B'|'2017-12-01T00:36:00.000+02:00'
'f588466b36cfe8bd6b02718b9a3e57c70fcb354c'|'BlackBerry to pay Nokia $137 mln in payment dispute'|'HELSINKI/TORONTO (Reuters) - An arbitration court ordered smartphone pioneer BlackBerry Ltd to pay $137 million to Nokia to settle a payment dispute and the Canadian company said it would pursue a separate patent infringement case against the Finnish firm.FILE PHOTO - A banner for BlackBerry Ltd hangs to celebrate the company''s transfer trading to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 16, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The International Court of Arbitration ruled earlier this week that BlackBerry had failed to make certain payments to Nokia under a patent licence contract, BlackBerry said on Friday.The ruling, in a previously undisclosed disagreement over a smartphone technology licensing deal signed in 2012, highlights the financial risks technology companies face from disputes over intellectual property, which are sometimes resolved through confidential arbitration processes unknown to investors.BlackBerry won a $940 million payout from chipmaker Qualcomm Inc earlier this year in a similar case of disputed payments.BlackBerry has previously said it is looking to generate more revenue from its portfolio of some 40,000 patents by licensing them to other technology companies, and in November said that U.S.-based Marconi Group would help it license out a broad range of its patents.It is often difficult for investors to value a company’s patent portfolio given the opaque nature of licensing deals and disputes.FILE PHOTO - A Nokia logo is seen at the company''s headquarters in Espoo, Finland, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins “Patent issues are going to come up from time to time and as one-offs,” said Todd Coupland, an analyst at CIBC World Markets. “Getting in front of them, unless there is some detail, is going to be tough.”BlackBerry shares were down 1.9 percent in midday Toronto trading, Nokia closed 2 percent lower in Helsinki.BlackBerry disclosed in February that it had filed separate patent infringement complaints against Nokia, alleging that several of the Finnish network equipment maker’s base stations and related software infringed on 11 of its patents.Nokia, which sells these products to telecom operators, said in a statement on Friday that it believes those infringement claims “are without merit.”BlackBerry said it would take a GAAP charge on its results, but did not say when the ruling would hit its financials.Nokia said a significant portion of the amount awarded had already been recognised in its financials.Nokia sold its once-dominant phone business in 2014, sticking to its network equipment business and broad patent portfolio. It has licensed technology to smartphone makers Samsung Electronics, Apple, Xiaomi Technology and LG Electronics.Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto and Jussi Rosendahl in Helsinki; Additional reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Jim Finkle and Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackberry-nokia-patents/blackberry-to-pay-nokia-137-million-in-payment-dispute-idUSKBN1DV517'|'2017-12-01T16:26:00.000+02:00'
'120b06ffd509003f96f8938c0f68b3148876ca04'|'At North Korean hub in China, uncertainty looms for Pyongyang-backed businesses'|'December 1, 2017 / 6:50 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago At North Korean hub in China, uncertainty looms for Pyongyang-backed businesses Sue-Lin Wong 6 Min Read SHENYANG, China (Reuters) - North Korean-owned businesses such as the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, the biggest city in northeastern China, face an uncertain future as United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang-owned overseas businesses loom. People walk past the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China November 1, 2017. REUTERS/ Sue-Lin Wong For now, the hotel is a slice of North Korea: it is mostly staffed by North Koreans, some of whom perform songs and dances catering to their mostly Chinese customers, often in private rooms at the hotel restaurant. Perched at a main intersection in Shenyang, a hub for North Korean businesses in China, the hotel is North Korea’s largest overseas investment, according to Lu Chao, an expert in China-North Korea relations at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, a Chinese government think-tank in Shenyang. The hotel rooms feel much like typical Chinese business hotels except that guests can watch North Korean television and anyone flying to North Korea on Air Koryo - the country’s national airline - can pick up their tickets at the airline’s office in the lobby. The building is clad in both Chinese and Korean name signs. Shenyang, just over an hour by fast train from the North Korean border, is home to Xita, a district known as “Korea Town”, dotted with North Korean restaurants, hotels, shops and art galleries. At Xita’s North Korean Department Store, North Koreans wander in small groups looking at clothes, toys and linen, mostly from South Korea, according to vendors and labels on products for sale. On the top floor, Li Xinwei runs a nail salon where one third of her customers who have loyalty cards are big-spending North Koreans. “Most of my Chinese customers chose the 100 yuan ($15) nail package but my North Korean customers often spend about 300 yuan to get their nails done,” said Li. “Most North Koreans come to this department store to shop, the store owners get their clothes from South Korea. But they have to cut the labels off the clothes before they bring them back to North Korea,” she said, chuckling. However, the number of North Korean shoppers has been declining, said Li, and local Chinese businessmen say the number of Pyongyang-owned businesses has shrunk in recent years as tensions between China and North Korea have grown. “A lot of Chinese-North Korean trading companies have already closed shop,” said one Chinese businessman in Shenyang who used to trade North Korean coal until it was sanctioned by the United Nations. “Now we’re extremely restricted by the types of trade we can do with North Korea. I’ve just purchased an order of cobblestones because they haven’t been sanctioned,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. The Mudan Restaurant is pictured in Shenyang''s Xita District, Liaoning province, China November 4, 2017. REUTERS/ Sue-Lin Wong Two North Korean restaurants in Xita - Pyongyang Restaurant and Mudan Restaurant - serve North Korean cuisine and host nightly performances by North Koreans who sing mostly popular Chinese classics and double as waitresses. But come early January, North Korean firms or joint ventures in China will be shut down in accordance with UN Security Council sanctions passed on Sept. 12, according to China’s commerce ministry. A woman who answered the phone at the North Korean consulate in Shenyang said she didn’t know what would happen to North Korean businesses and joint ventures in China once UN sanctions kicked in. Everyone at the consulate who was in a position to know was away on business trips, she added, declining to give her name. At the Pyongyang Restaurant, one North Korean waitress who had just finished performing and was helping pack up takeaway said she was just over one year into a three year internship, after graduating from university. Slideshow (10 Images) “We aren’t going back (to North Korea), business here is good,” she replied, when asked about whether they would leave soon because of UN sanctions. Staff at the reception desk at the Chilbosan, who confirmed the hotel was North Korean-owned, said they had no plans to close because of the sanctions. According to official Chinese company records, the hotel is 70 percent owned by North Korea’s Liujing Economic Exchange and 30 percent owned by Hongxiang, a Chinese industrial machinery company sanctioned by the U.S. last year for channelling U.S. dollars to North Korea for its nuclear weapons programme. Liujing Economic Exchange and Hongxiang could not be reached for comment. One option for North Korean partners of joint ventures in China is to sell out ahead of when sanctions take effect in January. “The problem is that January isn’t that far away so it doesn’t give the North Korean partners much time to sell off their portion of the company,” said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea specialist at Beijing’s Renmin University. Recent sanctions are squeezing North Korean businesses overseas which have to send some of their profits back to the state, according to Cheng. If the businesses don’t achieve their targets, the head of the business in China gets sent back to North Korea and a new person is sent to replace them, Cheng said. “The North Korean government has been upping the target payments because they have fewer ways to earn hard currency now,” said Cheng. Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Additional reporting by Se Yong Lee and the Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-missiles-china-shenyang/at-north-korean-hub-in-china-uncertainty-looms-for-pyongyang-backed-businesses-idUKKBN1DV3S4'|'2017-12-01T08:49:00.000+02:00'
'0e4a3bf41fe249879d6486f1fa30efb5c271cf96'|'RBS axes further 259 British branches as expands e-banking'|'December 1, 2017 / 7:00 AM / Updated 7 hours ago RBS to close a quarter of its UK branches, drawing criticism Emma Rumney 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said on Friday it will close around a quarter of its branches and cut 680 jobs as it cuts costs and encourages customers to use digital services, drawing criticism from lawmakers. The latest round of 259 branch closures by the Edinburgh-based bank follow 180 announced in March, putting 1,000 jobs at risk, and a similar move by Lloyds Banking Group which said on Wednesday it would close 49 branches. The RBS cuts mean British banks are set to close more than 1,000 branches this year, a record according to a Reuters analysis of previous announcements and academic studies. Britain’s largest banks are disproportionately closing branches in the lowest-income areas while expanding in wealthier ones, taking bricks-and-mortar services away from communities where they are arguably needed most, Reuters reported in June last year. British opposition lawmakers took to Twitter to rebuke RBS for the move, which they said would leave some areas without any branches. “Bailed out by the taxpayer and they repay our communities by withdrawing from them,” tweeted Ian Blackford, a lawmaker from the Scottish National Party. “This has to be stopped.” Jane Howard, RBS’s managing director of branch banking, told Reuters by telephone that customers are increasingly using mobile and online channels rather than bricks-and-mortar branches, and RBS had to react to that. “There will be some customers that will be really disappointed we are closing branches ... and I understand why. But it’s important that we do respond.” RBS is investing in its remaining branches and its digital offering, Howard said, adding: “Given what we know, we’ve got the right shape of network.” People walk past a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Unite, a labour union that represents staff at RBS, said the bank was “decimating” its branch network. “This announcement will forever change the face of banking in this country resulting in over a thousand staff losing their jobs and hundreds of high streets without any banking facilities,” Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said. The latest closures will affect the bank’s RBS and Natwest brands in England, Wales and Scotland, leaving it with around 744 branches - down from 2,278 in 2007. It did not say how much it expects to save thanks to the latest closures. Slideshow (11 Images) The Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) National Chairman Mike Cherry said cash and face-to-face support is still critical for many local businesses, and owners need to be provided with sustainable alternatives. “What we can’t have is banks shutting branches on a whim,” he said. Low interest rates and increasing competition from start-up banks have eaten into profits at many of Britain’s banks, prompting them to cut costs and RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan has cut thousands of jobs. The bank reported a stronger-than-expected operating profit for the third quarter of this year after keeping expenses under control and avoiding any misconduct charges, which, along with restructuring costs, have dogged the bank’s return to profitability since the financial crisis. RBS hopes to post its first annual profit since 2007 in 2018, but that depends on when it reaches a multi-billion pound settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the mis-selling of toxic mortgage backed securities in the United States. It finalised the closure of its “bad bank”, set up to sell unwanted assets nearly a decade after it was rescued in a 45-billion pound bailout, on Thursday and this month the British government said it plans to start selling 15 billion pounds of shares in RBS next year. additional reporting by Lawrence White, Editing by Alexander Smith and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rbs-branch-closures/rbs-axes-further-259-british-branches-as-expands-e-banking-idUKKBN1DV3XO'|'2017-12-01T09:00:00.000+02:00'
'e60b46d965b3aa09e289dbdd79bfaa6740624b57'|'Oil prices steady after OPEC extension of production cut'|'December 1, 2017 / 1:05 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Oil prices steady after OPEC extension of production cut Aaron Sheldrick 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. oil held steady on Friday after OPEC and other major producers agreed to extend production curbs in a widely expected move aimed at ending a persistent glut in global supplies. FILE PHOTO - The Odebrecht Oil and Gas drillship is seen in the Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly The Organization of the Petroleum Exporters (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers led by Russia on Thursday agreed to maintain the output cut until the end of 2018, while also signalling a possible early exit from the deal if the market overheats. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 2 cents at $57.38 by 0120 GMT. On Thursday they rose 10 cents or 0.2 percent to $57.40 a barrel. The contract gained about 5.6 percent in November, the third month of gains. Brent February crude futures LCOc1 rose six cents to $62.69. In the previous session, the most active Brent contract settled up 46 cents or 0.7 percent. Brent rose for a third consecutive month in November, gaining about 3.6 percent. Analysts said the nine-month extension was already priced in. The current deal cuts 1.8 million barrels from the market in an attempt to tackle the oversupply and bolster prices. Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said it was premature to talk about exiting the cuts at least for a couple of quarters as the world was entering a season of low winter demand. He added OPEC would examine progress at its next regular meeting in June. OPEC and Russia together produce over 40 percent of global oil. Moscow’s first real cooperation with OPEC, put together with the help of President Vladimir Putin, has been crucial in roughly halving an excess of global oil stocks since January. OPEC is showing “a strong commitment to normalizing inventories and also to remain data dependent, which reduces the risk of both unexpected supply surprises and excess stock draws,” Goldman Sachs said in a note. Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/u-s-oil-steady-after-opec-extension-of-production-cut-idUKKBN1DV3ED'|'2017-12-01T03:34:00.000+02:00'
'f61502ad980fd60a316e4d1bda4971c59e81b136'|'Qualcomm files new patent infringement complaints against Apple'|'December 1, 2017 / 3:56 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Qualcomm files new patent infringement complaints against Apple Stephen Nellis , Ankit Ajmera 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) said on Thursday it filed three new patent infringement complaints against Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), saying there were 16 more of its patents that Apple was using in its iPhones. FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is pictured at one of its many campus buildings in San Diego, California, U.S. April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The new complaints represent the latest development in a long-standing dispute and follows Apple’s countersuit on Wednesday against Qualcomm, which alleged that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile phone chips infringed on Apple patents. Apple declined to comment on the new cases, referring to its earlier claims in its Wednesday filing that the company has developed its own technology and patents to power its iPhones. Qualcomm in July accused Apple of infringing several patents related to helping mobile phones get better battery life. That case accompanied a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission seeking to ban the import of Apple iPhones that use competing Intel Corp ( INTC.O ) chips because of the alleged patent violations. The three cases filed Thursday were all filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego. One of the cases is a companion civil lawsuit to a new complaint also filed Thursday with the ITC that seeks the same remedy of banning iPhones with Intel chips. The other two cases are civil patent infringement lawsuits. The dispute between Apple and Qualcomm over patents is part of a wide-ranging legal war between the two companies. In January, Apple sued Qualcomm for nearly $1 billion (£740.25 million) in patent royalty rebates that Qualcomm allegedly withheld from Apple. In a related suit, Qualcomm sued the contract manufacturers that make Apple’s phones, but Apple joined in to defend them. Qualcomm in November sued Apple over an alleged breach of a software agreement between the two companies. Apple emailed Qualcomm to request “highly confidential” information about how its chips work on an unidentified wireless carrier’s network, Qualcomm alleged, but Apple had copied an Intel engineer in the email for information. Separately, Qualcomm is facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over many of the same pricing practices Apple names in its complaints. Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Chris Reese'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-qualcomm/qualcomm-files-new-patent-infringement-complaints-against-apple-idUKKBN1DU35Z'|'2017-12-01T05:55:00.000+02:00'
'dd07e8a44ae1ca7c7560bc91fadbfdcd101b5ddd'|'Ryanair seeks aircraft slots at Berlin-Tegel airport'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:06 PM / Updated 39 minutes ago Ryanair seeks aircraft slots at Berlin-Tegel airport Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Ryanair has applied for slots to base nine aircraft at Berlin-Tegel airport to cement its position in the German capital and compete with rival easyJet which has taken over parts of Air Berlin’s business. Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau - Ryanair’s Chief Executive Michael O‘Leary has criticised as a “stitch-up” the way that Air Berlin was carved up after it filed for insolvency, with Lufthansa buying the bulk of its operations and easyJet getting some business at Tegel. An investment by Ryanair at Tegel “would allow Berlin’s residents and visitors to avoid higher fares expected from a duopoly of Lufthansa and easyJet,” Chief Commercial Officer David O‘Brien said in Friday’s statement. Unlike Lufthansa’s deal, easyJet’s purchase of some Air Berlin business has so far not raised notable competition concerns in Germany or by the European Commission. “EasyJet looks forward to providing passengers with low fares to a wide range of destinations to and from Tegel,” a spokeswoman for the British carrier said in response to Ryanair’s statement. Ryanair said the slots at Tegel would allow it to make up for around 30 percent of capacity lost when Air Berlin ceased operations in October. The carrier already has nine aircraft at Berlin’s other airport, Schoenefeld. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Additional reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Andrea Shalal and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-hldgs-germany/ryanair-seeks-aircraft-slots-at-berlin-tegel-airport-idUKKBN1DV5I4'|'2017-12-01T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'68745535a695984684b98f7274b2f717b83206bc'|'Markets watchdog investigates D. Boerse''s handling of new CEO hire'|'December 1, 2017 / 10:02 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Markets watchdog investigates D. Boerse''s handling of new CEO hire Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Germany’s financial markets watchdog BaFin is questioning Deutsche Boerse over how it communicated the appointment of Theodor Weimer as chief executive, the regulator said on Friday. The stock exchange last month named UniCredit banker Weimer as CEO-designate. BaFin has asked Deutsche Boerse for information on the timing of the disclosure, a spokeswoman for the regulator said, confirming a report by weekly Wirtschaftswoche. The appointment was previously reported by several media outlets, including Reuters. A fine for delayed disclosure could be up to 2 percent of annual sales, or 48 million euros ($57.16 million), Wirtschaftswoche said. The watchdog said it was also looking into Deutsche Boerse potentially misleading the public on an investigation by prosecutors into the allegations of insider trading by outgoing Chief Executive Carsten Kengeter. Deutsche Boerse in July flagged a deal with Frankfurt prosecutors under which Kengeter would be cleared of personal wrongdoing and Deutsche Boerse would be fined 10.5 million euros ($12 million). But within days, it emerged that Kengeter had not yet been exonerated. Kengeter has denied any wrongdoing. Deutsche Boerse declined to comment. ($1 = 0.8397 euros) (Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Andreas Framke. Editing by Jane Merriman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deutsche-boerse-ceo-bafin/markets-watchdog-investigates-d-boerses-handling-of-new-ceo-hire-idUSL8N1O11SZ'|'2017-12-01T12:01:00.000+02:00'
'1cccebea8193736f7e7189ffe91f3ac6bd9df9dd'|'Shell, PetroChina jv to go ahead with big gas development in Australia'|'December 1, 2017 / 12:34 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Shell, PetroChina jv paves way towards big gas development in Australia Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) and PetroChina ( 601857.SS ) have taken a big step towards a long awaited gas development in Australia, signing a 27-year deal to supply Shell’s Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas project. FILE PHOTO - The Shell logo is seen on a pump at a Shell petrol station in London January 30, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett The deal would bring to market about 5 trillion cubic feet of gas held by Shell and PetroChina’s Arrow Energy in the state of Queensland, Arrow said. “Collaboration will accelerate first gas production to approximately 2020, bringing an additional 240 petajoules per year ... of gas to the Queensland market at peak production,” Arrow Energy CEO Qian Mingyang said in a statement. (This version of the story corrects paragraphs one and two to clarify that final decision yet to be made) Reporting by Sonali Paul; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-australia-gas/shell-petrochina-jv-to-go-ahead-with-big-gas-development-in-australia-idUKKBN1DV3BR'|'2017-12-01T02:33:00.000+02:00'
'aa9944709c5252033cc65d72763a250d69ea8076'|'This week in sports: Tiger Woods’ triumphant return - Reuters'|'Listen to this week’s Keeping Score podcast:A wrap-up of the week in sports news:Tiger comes roaring back: Tiger Woods performed well in his much-anticipated return from injury in the Hero World Challenge, where he mixed five birdies with two bogeys for a three-under-par 69.Cup runneth over: The 2018 World Cup draw placed 32 countries into their first-stage groups. Check out Reuters graphic of the draw for 2018 and from past tournaments.Manning down: Giants quarterback Eli Manning was benched this week in favor of former Jets quarterback Geno Smith. Social media briefly lost its mind over the decision.Atlanta Hawks guard Kent Bazemore is striped of the ball by Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love and guard JR Smith. Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports View more of Reuters best sports photographyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-weekinsports-1dec2017/this-week-in-sports-tiger-woods-triumphant-return-idUSKBN1DV5R6'|'2017-12-02T03:03:00.000+02:00'
'bbdb5c67f6e6abd9f127f1dd0be25b10abf0253a'|'China, France pledge fair trade, reciprocal benefits'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China and France agreed on Friday to support free and fair trade, and for the first time pledged “reciprocal” treatment in their trade relations, they said after ministerial economic talks.French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire and Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai speak during a meeting at the High Level Economic and Financial Dialogue at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said progress had been made in the food, aerospace, nuclear and finance sectors, while China recognised that government subsidies can lead to overcapacity in the steel sector.“We discussed (reciprocity) for a long time, and I think we managed to make China see the importance of this notion and its importance in commercial ties”, Le Maire told a news conference in Beijing, adding that it was the first time the term was included in a statement after the meetings.The two sides said they “reiterate their support for free and fair trade, based on principles of reciprocal and mutual benefits and non-discrimination”, according to the joint statement after the China-France High-Level Economic and Financial Dialogue in Beijing.China this year has pledged to further open its economy to foreign firms as it looks to kickstart new growth areas and amid complaints from foreign businesses about market access, with the idea of reciprocity of benefits becoming a focus of trade discussions.“Protectionism develops when there is no fair trade and no rules of reciprocity. That’s why France insists on global commerce being based on rules of reciprocity,” Le Maire said.Chinese vice finance minister Shi Yaobin said reciprocity was a relative concept, not an absolute.“Different countries have different levels of development, so in the process of opening up, achieving absolute reciprocity ... can’t be achieved. In the whole world it doesn’t exist,” Shi told reporters.Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai shakes hand of French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire at the High Level Economic and Financial Dialogue at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool Chinese vice premier Ma Kai made similar comments in opening remarks, noting that the Chinese economy was developing in a stable way but developed and emerging economies had differences.He also said that protectionism and terrorism were uncertainties for the recovery of the global economy.Slideshow (3 Images) The two sides said they would work to eliminate trade distortions, increase communication on trade barriers, and increase trade in the tech-tech sector, according to the statement.China, the world’s top consumer of pork, is set to approve more imports of French pork, processed meat and infant formula after passing inspections, Le Maire said.“In the sectors of infant formula, pork, and charcuterie products, the publication of audit results that we were waiting for will allow us to export more easily these products as well as beef,” Le Maire said.The two sides will encourage Chinese and French firms to issue yuan bonds in both countries, while China agreed to increase France’s Renminbi Foreign Institutional Investor quota at an appropriate time, they said in their joint statement.China recently pledged wider access to its massive financial services sector by raising the limit on foreign ownership in banks, securities and insurance firms, though some of the changes will not take effect for several years.“We would always like things to go faster, but the key thing is the direction, and the direction that came out of this dialogue is the right one,” said Le Maire.Reporting by Dominique Patton; Writing by Elias Glenn; Editing by Robert Birsel '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-france-trade/china-france-pledge-fair-trade-reciprocal-benefits-idINKBN1DV4L4'|'2017-12-01T08:15:00.000+02:00'
'd1e3ba99c16616c5ef227c7046a734cae60abff3'|'Lufthansa offers EU concessions over Air Berlin asset buy'|'December 1, 2017 / 8:12 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Lufthansa offers EU concessions over Air Berlin asset buy Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - German airline Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has offered concessions to allay competition concerns about its plan to buy Air Berlin assets, EU antitrust regulators said on Friday. Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt The European Commission, which is concerned about Lufthansa’s dominance as a result of the deal, extended its deadline for a decision on the deal to Dec. 21 from Dec. 7. It did not provide details of Lufthansa’s concessions. The airline is willing to cede slots belonging to Air Berlin businesses Niki and LG Walter, a source has told Reuters. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Alastair Macdonald and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airberlin-m-a-lufthansa-eu/lufthansa-offers-eu-concessions-over-air-berlin-asset-buy-idUKKBN1DV439'|'2017-12-01T10:09:00.000+02:00'
'df157b714f0e022519adb5cce0bef236b2bd4834'|'Exclusive: China''s Xiaomi seeks bank pitches for 2018 IPO - sources'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has asked banks to pitch next Friday for an initial public offering in 2018, people familiar with the plan told Reuters.Xiaomi was valued at $46 billion in a 2014 funding round completed before its sales stagnated. More recently it has seen expectations of its value pick up following strong results this year.Its float could be the world’s “largest technology IPO” next year, according to one of the people.“It is huge,” said another source, adding that a valuation of $100 billion would “not be a crazy number”.The world’s most valuable startup for a brief period in 2014 was worth about $55 billion at the end of June, according to one person close to the company.But two other people familiar with the company’s discussions said it should be worth much more based on its expected earnings.Xiaomi declined to comment.The maker of budget smartphones saw sales stall in 2016 as it attempted to expand internationally while battling intense competition from Chinese rivals Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], Vivo and Oppo.FILE PHOTO: Attendants are silhouetted in front of Xiaomi''s logo at a venue for the launch ceremony of Xiaomi''s new smart phone Mi Max in Beijing, May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo At the time it pulled back from several overseas markets including Brazil and Indonesia, but this year it has launched and re-launched sales in dozens of countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine.It has overtaken Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) to become China’s fourth-largest smartphone vendor by sales, driven in part by a focus on offline stores, according to research firm Canalys.Slideshow (2 Images) MORE TO COME The smartphone group’s listing plan comes on the heels of a slew of successful Chinese tech and fintech IPOs in recent months.Already a strong pipeline is building for 2018, with public floats expected from Meituan-Dianping, an online local services group valued at $30 billion, and Lufax, a wealth management platform worth $18.5 billion as of its last funding round.Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, had said the company would not go public until 2025, but a bull run in the stock market and its promising financial numbers have sped up the IPO plan, according to the people.Xiaomi was expected to choose either Hong Kong or the United States as its listing venue, according to the people, who declined to be named as the discussions are confidential.In early November, Xiaomi launched in Spain - its first foray into Western Europe as it revives a stalled global push into other developed markets around Europe and the United States.Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-xiaomi-ipo/exclusive-chinas-xiaomi-seeks-bank-pitches-for-2018-ipo-sources-idINKBN1E00IK'|'2017-12-06T03:28:00.000+02:00'
'3cdfe2d1a28b3f68cb3f0d95e14f9d08434c03d6'|'U.S. shale eases into detente with OPEC as supply cut extended'|' 26 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago U.S. shale eases into detente with OPEC as supply cut extended Ernest Scheyder 5 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - U.S. shale oil producers and OPEC appear to have called a truce of sorts even though there is no sign the U.S. industry will do anything to help reduce the global oil supply glut. FILE PHOTO: Dead sunflowers stand in a field near dormant oil drilling rigs which have been stacked in Dickinson, North Dakota January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen/File Photo U.S. producers applauded Thursday’s decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers led by Russia to extend output cuts until the end of 2018. Texas and North Dakota - the two largest U.S. shale-producing states - described it as a boon for their producers. Their appreciation was in contrast to a more combative style in recent years, when shale states seemed to relish openly bashing the group. “Now that it seems prices are looking to stabilise with this OPEC deal around $60 (per barrel), I think that’s going to be a very nice price environment for folks around the state,” Ryan Sitton, one of three commissioners on the Texas Railroad Commission, said in a phone interview from Austin. The commission regulates the Texas oil industry, which pumps over 3 million barrels per day, more than some OPEC members. Sitton forecast output would grow by an additional 2 million barrels per day within a decade. Unlike the last OPEC meeting in May, when frustration with shale producers boiled over into public view more than once, members in Vienna this week took a more conciliatory tone. “Shale is an important parameter, and complementing to the production of the world,” United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroui told reporters on the sidelines of the talks. “We cannot ignore it, but we need to apply the right weight for that contributor without exaggerating the effect if it.” Tommy Nusz, chief executive of North Dakota shale producer Oasis Petroleum Inc, told Reuters OPEC members “have demonstrated that they have a difficult time understanding the U.S. shale plays, but I suspect that is improving.” One reason for the change in OPEC’s tone may be a greater confidence that U.S. shale producers will never be able to match its clout especially with the global appetite currently growing by some 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd). OPEC supplies roughly a third of the world’s crude. U.S. antitrust law prevents U.S. producers from joining the group. “There was a lot of fear-mongering about shale before 2017. The contribution by shale in 2017 (to global oil supply) will be manageable and quite moderate” and should be the same in 2018, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in Vienna. Some members noted that optimistic output forecasts have rarely been met. U.S. shale production had been expected to grow roughly 1 million barrels per day last year, but managed only to rise by about half that, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouq said. “They have a limited quantity that they can grow in,” he said. PRODUCTION LEAPS Even data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday showing oil production rose 3 percent in September to nearly 9.5 million bpd, for a rise of more than 25 percent so far this year, failed to dampen the mood. The jump surprised markets and highlighted how quickly shale producers have responded to rising prices with higher production, following a pattern that has dogged the oil industry throughout its history. Nearly all of the increases in U.S. oil production in recent years have come from shale, which in total accounts for nearly two-thirds of the nation’s existing output. Scott Sheffield, executive chairman of Pioneer Natural Resources Co, one of the largest producers in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the largest U.S. oilfield, said extra cash from higher prices should go to shareholders, not fresh drilling. “If producers in the U.S. increase their rig count over the next few months due to higher prices then I expect another price collapse by the end of 2018,” he said. “I hope that all U.S. shale companies will maintain their current rig counts and use all excess cash flow to increase dividends back to their shareholders,” he said. Ann-Louise Hittle, an oil market analyst for Wood Mackenzie who attended the Vienna meeting, said Sheffield was trying to send a clear signal to the industry. “He’s emphasizing value over volume, which is reassuring and shows that he’s trying to influence other shale producers,” she said. Nigerian Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said he’s far more worried about his costs than U.S. shale producers, and has been pushing Halliburton Co, Schlumberger NV and other service providers not to hike their rates. “Those guys (shale producers) will be emboldened by any deal we make,” he said. “I worry less about shale than my costs.” If the shale industry focuses more on profits, it could help its members thrive for the long term in the relationship with OPEC, analysts have told Reuters. Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, Rania El Gamal, Shadia Nasralla, Alex Lawler and Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-meeting-shale/u-s-shale-eases-into-detente-with-opec-as-supply-cut-extended-idUKKBN1DV57A'|'2017-12-01T17:41:00.000+02:00'
'699f704b6c79f05f188306e6c502e9157fe885d0'|'Icahn seeks to inspect SandRidge Energy books, records'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:14 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Icahn steps up attack on SandRidge, seeks executive pay records Gary McWilliams 3 Min Read HOUSTON (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn has stepped up his attack on SandRidge Energy Inc’s proposal to buy a rival oil-and-gas producer, taking aim at the company’s top executives and calling for a release of records on the deal and executive pay, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Billionaire activist-investor Carl Icahn gives an interview on FOX Business Network''s Neil Cavuto show in New York, U.S., February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The document request came a day after Icahn called the company’s $746 million offer for Bonanza Creek Energy Inc “value-destroying,” and said he may solicit other holders to help overturn the company’s board of directors. Icahn wants to investigate the compensation of SandRidge''s senior management, including Chief Executive James Bennett, the deliberations involving its proposed acquisition of Bonanza Creek, and the recent poison pill plan laid out by SandRidge, according to the filing. ( bit.ly/2zIYusA ) “These requests are common in these types of situations and we will address it in due course,” Oklahoma City-based SandRidge said in a statement on Friday. In a letter to SandRidge''s board on Thursday, Icahn said the shareholder rights plan adopted earlier this week was designed to prevent large shareholders from campaigning against the deal. ( bit.ly/2nllDjs ) Icahn has accused the company’s management of reneging on a pledge not to “overpay for assets, overleverage itself or overcompensate its managers” and said a better use for its cash would be to buy back its own shares. The largest shareholder of SandRidge with an about 13.5 percent stake, Icahn had said he was prepared to begin litigation against the company. Several other SandRidge holders including Fir Tree Partners, which holds an about 8.3 percent stake, and Susquehanna Advisors Group with about 4 percent, have come out against the purchase. SandRidge has said its cash-and-stock offer for Bonanza Creek would expand its presence in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado, “adding a deep inventory of drill-ready locations” in an area where it already has substantial assets. SandRidge’s shares were up 1.2 percent at $18.83 in trading late on Friday, while Bonanza Creek was up 0.7 percent at $27.96. Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Gary McWilliams in Houston; editing by Martina D''Couto and Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sandridge-carl-icahn/icahn-seeks-to-inspect-sandridge-energy-books-records-idUSKBN1DV5IM'|'2017-12-01T19:14:00.000+02:00'
'048268cb84e698839a3d293d48d856527d31c43f'|'China''s debt crackdown hits cash loan firms'|'December 1, 2017 / 2:23 AM / Updated 38 minutes ago China''s debt crackdown hits cash loan firms Shu Zhang , Elias Glenn 7 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Executives from Chinese companies specialising in offering consumers small, easy-to-get loans became something of a fixture on Wall Street this year. The Qudian app logo is seen on a smartphone in an illustration photo taken in Beijing, China December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Illustration Led by companies like Qudian Inc ( QD.N ) and PPDAI Group Inc ( PPDF.N ), the Chinese micro-lenders raised $1.2 billion with splashy U.S. listings, cashing in on a boom in borrowing by consumers in China with little access to traditional banks. However, the fortunes – and share prices – of the micro-lenders have slumped in the past week as Beijing clamped down on risks in the financial system, zeroing in on the fast-growing and loosely-regulated market for unsecured “cash loans”. A notice last week announcing the suspension of approvals for new micro-lenders and restrictions on business across regions highlighted the growing risks Beijing sees in the industry, estimated to be worth 1 trillion yuan (£111.95 billion), according to state media. China has long been known as a nation of savers, but consumers are rapidly embracing debt from non-bank online platforms. And the numbers of those taking out cash loans from the lenders is growing at an unprecedented rate, according to the companies and the government. For borrowers, the easy loans can be a risky proposition – especially if they fall behind on payments. The loans are usually in the range of 1,000 yuan; interest is typically about 36 percent annually, and penalty charges and compound interest can quickly add up, according to borrowers. The number of repeat borrowers is rising, which could signal financial stress on borrowers, analysts say. The companies, however, say the repeat lending is just a sign of the attractiveness of their platforms. Sources close to the central bank say more unspecified measures aimed at restricting the industry are on the way. The People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission did not respond to faxed requests for comment. Angel Xiao, 23, who lives in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen and does not own a credit card, said she borrowed 10,000 yuan last year from two online lenders, PPDAI and Flower Wallet, to attend a jewellery design class. But after she lost her job as a tutor, she found herself unable to pay back the initial loans. With interest piling up, Xiao eventually took out a series of new loans, with an average maturity of 14 days, from more than 30 other lenders. “I didn’t have money to repay loans coming due,” she said in an exchange on WeChat, a messaging service. “So I took out more loans. Every time when I didn’t have money, I used new loans to repay old loans. That’s how I got trapped deeper and deeper.” China Rapid Finance Ltd ( XRF.N ), an online micro-lender that raised $60 million in an April listing on the New York Stock Exchange, defended its cash loan business. The Qudian application is shown on a smartphone in an illustration photo taken in Beijing, China December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Illustration In a statement, it said that its target customers have little or no history with China’s credit bureau, but that they “are prime and near-prime borrowers”, and that the rates the company charges are affordable. BOOMING MARKET Online consumer lending in China, of which cash loans are a significant portion, dwarfs similar activity in the rest of the world combined, accounting for over 85 percent of all such activity globally last year, according to a recent report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. The boom in micro-lending comes as lenders seek to cash in on rising incomes in a country where credit card penetration remains at about one-third of the population, according to data from the central bank, which says about half a billion consumers don’t have a credit score. And the online cash loan sector is projected to reach 2.3 trillion yuan by 2020, according to the research firm iResearch. China Rapid Finance in November reported a 514 percent year-on-year increase in short-term consumer lending in the third quarter to $908 million. PPDAI‘S “handy cash loans”, with maturities of one to six weeks, increased more than 10 fold year-on-year to 1.98 billion yuan in the second quarter, it said. Qudian recorded a 695 percent increase in net income for the first six months this year, it said in its listing prospectus. Qudian and PPDAI declined to comment. In addition to the companies that have already listed on U.S. markets, another Chinese lender, LexinFintech Holdings Ltd ( LX.O ), filed for a Nasdaq listing in mid-November hoping to raise $500 million. LexinFintech did not respond to an emailed request for comment. LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS The explosion in online lending to those without access to traditional banks has raised concerns about the risks of default. Outstanding household debt in China equalled 45.5 percent of gross domestic product at the end of the first quarter, according to the Bank of International Settlements, compared to 27.9 percent five years ago. ( tmsnrt.rs/2iuXWTT ) But that total doesn’t include most online consumer lending, analysts say. “It is entirely fair to say household debt is much higher than is understood,” Professor Christopher Balding at the Peking University HSBC School of Business in Shenzhen said. He estimated that household debt could be over 100 percent of household income in China. And nearly 40 percent of Chinese households lack savings, higher than even the U.S. rate, meaning their cash buffer to pay off debt is limited, said Lu Xiaomeng, a researcher at the Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. The cash loan industry is largely “supply-driven”, said Johnson Zhang, chief financial officer at the Chinese peer-to-peer lender Hexindai Inc ( HX.O ). “Whether there is real demand and whether borrowers will be able to pay them back are questionable,” he said, emphasizing that his company only accepted borrowers with credit cards. Reporting by Shu Zhang and Elias Glenn;   Beijing newsroom; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-loans/chinas-debt-crackdown-hits-cash-loan-firms-idUKKBN1DV3HI'|'2017-12-01T04:22:00.000+02:00'
'e872ea88dd49e07afe7c0d12722784d770611d48'|'Plant-based “meat” is so tasty that Europe’s meat industry has to bite back - I can’t believe it’s not meat'|'THE “kapsalon” is a healthy mix of chips, melted Gouda cheese, shawarma, lettuce and garlic sauce and is a tried and tested hangover cure in the Netherlands. So naturally, a butcher’s shop on the Spui, in The Hague, put it on its takeaway menu, alongside burgers and sausage rolls. As two young women walk out, tucking into their steaming kapsalons, an elderly gentleman asks how to prepare the steak he has just bought. The scene would have most carnivores fooled. For this butcher deals only in meatless “meat”.“We want to become the biggest butcher in the world without ever slaughtering an animal,” says Jaap Korteweg, a ninth-generation farmer and founder of The Vegetarian Butcher. Since opening its first shop in The Hague in 2010 the company has been developing plant-based products that look, smell and taste like meat. “This shouldn’t just taste like real chorizo, it should leave the same red stains on your fingers,” says Maarten Kleizen, an employee, as he serves a slice.  13   15   The firm sells a variety of foods, ranging from minced meat to prawns, through 3,500 sales points in 15 countries (the bulk of them are in Dutch supermarkets) and has annual revenues of €12m ($14.2m). One in five sausage rolls sold in Albert Heijn, the Netherlands’ largest supermarket chain, comes from the veggie butcher. Mr Korteweg says he wants to make factory farming obsolete by “seducing meat-lovers” without inflicting suffering on animals and damage to the environment by feeding livestock.Not everyone welcomes this vision. Earlier this year two Dutch politicians from the Liberal VVD party called for a ban on meat names for products that contained no animal protein. In October the country’s food authority asked The Vegetarian Butcher to rename misleading products, such as its “speck” (very similar to “spek”, the Dutch for bacon) because it might confuse consumers. The topic trended on Twitter for days; sales soared.Dutch media termed the episode “Schnitzelgate” after a similar situation in Germany, whose minister for agriculture said that “meaty names” such as “schnitzel” and “wurst” should only be legal for animal-based products. That was seen as the meat lobby reacting to a country rapidly going veggie; a tenth of Germans are now vegetarians, up from 0.6% in 1983. In Brussels lobbyists want meat to get the same protection as milk did this summer (when the European Court of Justice ruled that soy-drink producers, for example, could not call their products milk). In October New Zealand’s Poultry Industry Association said packaging by Sunfed Meats, a meat-substitute firm, was misleading because its “chicken-free chicken” pictures a chicken and the phrase “wild meaty chunks”.Mr Korteweg says that while his firm threatens chicken and pig farmers, meat companies and butchers are customers and partners. He co-operates with a Unilever sausage and soup brand, Unox; conventional butchers sell his products alongside animal-sourced meat. The arguments are likely to intensify as the market for alternative meat takes root.  Business   "I can’t believe it’s not meat"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21731869-dutch-vegetarian-butcher-latest-come-under-attack-its-labelling-plant-based-meat?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-30T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'100b8daea703a726325112b9c363462cfcc867c1'|'Hammerson snaps up shopping mall rival to become UK''s top property firm - Business'|'The owner of Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre has agreed to buy the company behind Manchester’s Trafford centre in a deal that will create Britain’s biggest property company worth £21bn.Hammerson , which also owns the Brent Cross shopping centre in London, is acquiring smaller rival Intu in a £3.4bn deal that highlights the increasingly tough retail environment.The trend for online shopping is prompting many retailers to close stores and focus their property portfolio on the top tier of the most popular malls. Rents in the premium shopping centres are holding up or rising, while less popular malls and some high streets are struggling to survive. Marks & Spencer , Debenhams and Toys R Us have all announced plans to close stores this year while the collapse of BHS last year has also left shops empty.The cost of living squeeze caused by inflation outpacing wage growth has forced companies such as Hammerson and Intu into action, according to Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group.“Online shopping means shopping centres and high street shopping are in a long-term malaise,” he said. “Shareholders will want to see assets sold down in the merged company to help fund the deal and to reflect the lower demand for bricks and mortar stores.”The merged Intu and Hammerson group plans to sell at least £2bn of assets to strengthen its balance sheet and allow it to reinvest in other, higher return opportunities. Analysts said the merged company was likely to focus efforts on its supermalls, where shoppers and retailers most want to be. The new group will own 12 of the country’s 20 supermalls, including Birmingham’s Bullring and Manchester’s Arndale centre, according to retail analyst GlobalData.“As clothing and footwear retailers focus on supermalls to create large-scale, experience-led stores, physical retail spend will move away from town centres towards destination shopping centres, ensuring supermall space is hot property,” said Sofie Willmott, senior retail analyst at GlobalData.“The proposed deal will net the group a stake in almost 60% of all UK supermall space, making it a force in the retail landscape, well placed to benefit from retail spend shifting across locations.”Hammerson, which also owns Bicester Village, will pay 253.9p a share in a deal that values Intu at £3.4bn.It will hand Hammerson Intu’s porfolio of shopping centres in the UK and Spain, including Lakeside in Essex and the Metrocentre in Gateshead. Hammerson also owns property in Ireland and France.John Strachan, chairman of Intu, said the deal between the two companies would “present a highly attractive proposition for retailers and shoppers in Europe’s leading cities”.He added: “A combination of both Intu and Hammerson will create a more resilient, diversified and stronger group.”The combined group will retain the Hammerson name and be led by the firm’s chief executive, David Atkins. He said the deal would strengthen its portfolio and opportunities for growth, including in Spain and Ireland, two of Europe’s fastest growing economies .“The acquisition creates a leading pan-European platform of desirable retail and leisure destinations which are better positioned to serve the needs of our retailers, excite our customers and support our partners and communities,” Atkins said.Shares in Hammerson closed down more than 6% at 501.5p, while Intu shares were up nearly 14% at 226p. On Tuesday, the day before the deal was announced, Intu shares had fallen 27% since the beginning of the year. Hammerson said it expected the deal to generate £25m of annual pre-tax savings by the end of the second year, as a result of lower office costs and by combining support functions such as IT and digital operations. The company expects a one-off cost of about £40m as the two businesses are integrated.The deal would result in Hammerson shareholders owning about 55% of the enlarged company, with the remaining 45% owned by Intu shareholders.Hammerson, a FTSE 100 company, has received backing from investors who hold 50.6% of Intu shares – including from Peel, the property firm founded by John Whittaker, currently deputy chairman of Intu. Whittaker will retain the same role in the combined company.David Tyler, chairman of Hammerson, will become chairman of the new company.Topics Hammerson Intu Properties Mergers and acquisitions Real estate Retail industry news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/06/hammerson-snaps-up-shopping-mall-rival-to-become-uks-top-property-firm'|'2017-12-06T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'14c102d410289ae0ad79b7fa11b1ec4ca7b9a64e'|'Volkswagen executive faces sentencing in U.S. emissions fraud case'|'December 6, 2017 / 3:11 PM / Updated 40 minutes ago Volkswagen executive faces sentencing in U.S. emissions fraud case Nick Carey 3 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG executive Oliver Schmidt will be sentenced in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday for his part in a diesel emissions scandal that has cost the German automaker as much as $30 billion (£22.5 billion). FILE PHOTO: A U.S. flag flutters in the wind above a Volkswagen dealership in Carlsbad, California, U.S. on May 2, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Under a plea agreement, Schmidt, a German national, will face up to seven years in prison and a fine between $40,000 and $400,000 after admitting to conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violating clean-air laws. He pleaded guilty to those charges in August. In a sentencing memorandum submitted to U.S. District Judge Sean Cox, U.S. prosecutors argued Schmidt should be sentenced to the full seven years in prison. “The defendant had a leadership role within VW, and as a consequence of that role, was literally ‘in the room’ for important decisions during the height of the criminal scheme, including when decisions were made to continue to hide the fraud from U.S. regulators and the U.S. public,” prosecutors argued. Schmidt’s attorney, David DuMouchel, asked that the judge impose a sentence of no more than 40 months and a $100,000 fine in line with his client’s “limited role” in the scheme. “Mr. Schmidt is substantially less culpable than... the numerous senior-level VW executives (most of whom will never appear in a U.S. courthouse) who initiated, designed, implemented, and refined the defeat device over nine years before Mr. Schmidt became involved,” DuMouchel wrote. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt, charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States over the company''s diesel emissions scandal is shown in this booking photo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., provided January 9, 2017. Courtesy of Broward County Sheriff''s Office/Handout via REUTERS In March, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three felony counts under a plea agreement to resolve U.S. charges that it installed secret software in vehicles in order to elude emissions tests. U.S. prosecutors have charged eight current and former Volkswagen executives so far. Earlier this year, Schmidt was charged with 11 felony counts and federal prosecutors said he could have faced a maximum of up to 169 years in prison. As part of his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop most of the counts and Schmidt consented to be deported at the end of his prison sentence. Schmidt was in charge of the company’s environmental and engineering office in Auburn Hills, Michigan, until February 2015, where he oversaw emissions issues. After being informed of the existence of the emissions software in the summer of 2015, according to his guilty plea, Schmidt conspired with other executives to avoid disclosing “intentional cheating” by the automaker in a bid to seek regulatory approval for its model 2016 VW 2 litre diesels. In a letter to Cox originally published by Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper on the weekend, Schmidt said he had agreed to follow a script, or talking points, agreed on by VW management and a high-ranking lawyer at a meeting with a California Air Resources Board executive. “I must say that I feel misused by my own company in the diesel scandal or ‘Dieselgate,''” Schmidt wrote. Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-emissions/volkswagen-executive-faces-sentencing-in-u-s-emissions-fraud-case-idUKKBN1E0226'|'2017-12-06T17:11:00.000+02:00'
'20baf0725fc53e3faaffa59ab27ba7fb581c8563'|'Tanzania-Zambia railway halts copper transportation after strike'|'LUSAKA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) has suspended all train services, including the transportation of copper following a strike by workers in Africa’s No. 2 producer of the metal, the company’s spokesman said on Wednesday.The line is an important route for copper exports from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s top copper producer, but the firm transporting the metal struggles to pay its workers, prompting strikes.TAZARA spokesman Conrad Simuchile said train services between Zambia and Tanzania were suspended indefinitely after unionized employees in Zambia went on strike, demanding payment of their unpaid salaries for October and November 2017. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by James Macharia) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/zambia-mining-strike/tanzania-zambia-railway-halts-copper-transportation-after-strike-idINL8N1O628B'|'2017-12-06T07:04:00.000+02:00'
'3c9633a62162900d937da82cb60b3aee8e21c94b'|'Britain pushes back date for provisional findings on Sky-Fox deal'|'December 6, 2017 / 11:23 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Britain pushes back date for provisional findings on Sky-Fox deal Kate Holton 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s competition watchdog will give its initial verdict on Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Sky ( SKYB.L ) next month, later than expected, due to the vast number of responses it has received on the deal. FILE PHOTO: The Sky logo is seen outside of an entrance to offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Murdoch’s $15 billion bid to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not already own is being watched closely in the United States where Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) is in the lead to acquire much of his Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) media empire, including Sky. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has been inundated with submissions from interested parties over the high profile takeover, said on Wednesday it would make its provisional findings public in January rather than the week of Dec. 18. “It is not unusual for us to update our timetables,” a spokeswoman said. “In this case, we have received a large body of evidence – including numerous face-to-face hearings and more than 12,000 submissions - so it is vital that we spend the time to reach an informed and considered provisional view.” The regulator is still due to give its final findings in March, 15 months after Murdoch’s Fox agreed in December 2016 to buy the European pay-TV group, reigniting a row over whether the media mogul has too much influence in Britain. Murdoch failed in a 2011 attempt to buy Sky when a phone-hacking scandal at his News of the World forced him to drop a previous attempt. Since then he has split his companies into two to separate the newspapers from the TV businesses. Fox said when it agreed the deal it did not foresee any regulatory difficulties but the government has taken a strong line against the takeover. The media minister, Karen Bradley, asked the regulator in September to examine whether Murdoch had a genuine commitment to broadcasting standards following concerns about the running of his U.S. Fox News network. Bradley also asked the regulator to scrutinize whether the deal would give him too much influence at the heart of the British media. Fox anticipates that its deal to buy the remaining shares in Sky will be approved in the first half of 2018. Any deal for Fox would include the remaining stake in Sky, sources have told Reuters. Analysts and competition lawyers have told Reuters they expect the CMA to continue reviewing the Fox-Sky deal even if a third party makes a bid for Fox. Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Costas Pitas and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sky-m-a-fox/britain-pushes-back-date-for-provisional-findings-in-sky-fox-deal-idUKKBN1E01CN'|'2017-12-06T18:59:00.000+02:00'
'6711a4137120736d14ea4c7768c19fe9c5bb86be'|'''Swiss-made'' label lacks precision for watch industry'|'December 6, 2017 / 2:44 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago ''Swiss-made'' label lacks precision for watch industry Silke Koltrowitz 6 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - If you buy a “Swiss-made” watch thinking it’s almost entirely produced in Switzerland, you might be mistaken. FILE PHOTO: Women work at their desk in a workshop of independent dial supplier Singer, overlooking the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, April 7, 2016. The sites of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage for their watchmaking town-planning. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo The manufacture of components including dials, sapphire glass and cases is flourishing in China, Thailand and Mauritius and many of these end up in watches designated as “Swiss-made”. Stricter rules came into force this year for watches bearing the coveted label on their dial and for which consumers are prepared to pay a premium. The key requirement is that 60 percent of the manufacturing costs occur in Switzerland, up from a previous 50 percent threshold that applied only to the movement -- the core mechanism. The new rules were meant to make the label more credible in the eyes of consumers and to shield the industry from Asian competition. But the change has made it difficult for the makers of cheaper Swiss watches to cut costs and weather a harsh industry downturn. And at the same time it has left the makers of more expensive brands enough leeway to shift a chunk of component supplies to Asia to protect their profit margins. “Since the Swiss-made rules were tightened, we have fewer orders, not more,” said Alain Marietta of dialmaker Metalem, based in Swiss watchmaking hub Le Locle. “Some customers ask us to produce half of the components in China so we can be cheaper.” He said he was concerned about losing customers but had stuck to his principles. “We want to offer a real Swiss made in Switzerland, otherwise for the people working in the watch industry here, it’ll mean slow death.” COST PRESSURES Affordable brands struggle to make money in Switzerland, where labour costs are high, margins are low and intense foreign competition, including from smartwatches, means they can’t raise prices. Citychamp’s Rotary brand, which had used the label for decades, offers no “Swiss-made” pieces in its latest collections, saying the new rules made it hard to deliver value and quality. Swatch Group, whose watches span all price points and which has extensive production facilities in Switzerland, said it was benefiting from the new rules it advocated. Chief Executive Nick Hayek said in a recent newspaper interview the group might soon be without competition in affordable “Swiss-made” watches. Mondaine Group’s Ronnie Bernheim said the group’s brands, which include popular Swiss railways watch Mondaine, had also abandoned some models that would not have met the new criteria. National Watch Federation (FH) statistics show the value of exported watches with a retail price of up to 600 Swiss francs (£453.3), fell by more than 11 percent in the first 10 months of 2017, versus an overall rise of 2.4 percent for all price tags. FILE PHOTO: Oscillating weights made by independent watch industry supplier Horlyne are pictured in a display in Le Locle, Switzerland, April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo Watches account for roughly 10 percent of overall Swiss exports and almost 57,000 people work in the industry. Specialist companies have sprung up that offer brands the optimum product mix that will qualify for the “Swiss-made” tag. EOS Watch Development, for example, promises on its website to deliver “Swiss-made” products that will help customers save money by combining Swiss and Far East suppliers. TOUGH AT THE TOP At the top end of the market where timepieces sell for thousands of francs, a severe downturn in demand translated into sharply lower profits in recent years. Slideshow (2 Images) Profitability at luxury group Richemont and more diversified Swatch Group is recovering now, helped by improving sales, but a tight focus on costs remains vital. “Some brands in the high end would up to now never have considered buying components abroad for ethical reasons, but also because their excessive retail prices and resulting margin levels allowed it,” said a Swiss dialmaker who asked to remain anonymous. “The slowing demand forced almost all brands to reposition their products and they benefit from the new law, which is very explicit, to improve their margins by partly sourcing abroad.” He said his own dial company was mainly producing in Mauritius, where salaries are much lower, but a technical bureau performing some operations in Switzerland meant the dials qualified as “Swiss made”. Several sources said almost all watch case makers now imported sapphire glass from Asia. Luxury watchmakers generally keep their suppliers secret, but recently there have been some initiatives denouncing this lack of transparency. Francois Aubry, a supplier turned watchmaker, recently launched a timepiece with “99.99 percent Swiss production”, publishing the list of all its suppliers, while the Swiss CODE41 watch project raised 543,000 francs on crowdfunding platform kickstarter with a concept of total transparency on the mostly Chinese origin of its components. Industry body FH said it was its task to intervene if “Swiss-made” rules were not respected. It has decided to set up a task force to make sure everybody plays by the new rules, especially once a transition period expires at the end of 2018. However, some watchmakers have already lost patience with the system. High-end brand H.Moser & Cie this year dumped the “Swiss made” label while declaring its own watches over 95 percent Swiss. It denounced the official rules as “too lenient, providing no guarantee, creating confusion and encouraging abuses.” Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-watches/swiss-made-label-lacks-precision-for-watch-industry-idUKKBN1E01ZB'|'2017-12-06T16:43:00.000+02:00'
'b3880673f68191d3804cabfed0313970a4589ce8'|'U.S. urges judge to reject AT&T/Time Warner court date proposal'|'December 6, 2017 / 4:02 AM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. urges judge to reject AT&T/Time Warner court date proposal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Tuesday urged a federal judge to reject the February court date sought by AT&T ( T.N ) and Time Warner ( TWX.N ) in a dispute over the firms’ proposed merger, arguing the companies are rushing to meet an April 22 closing deadline for their $85.4 billion deal. FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. on October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The U.S. Justice Department last month sued to block AT&T’s planned acquisition of Time Warner, saying the combination could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had called the companies’ requested court date of Feb. 20 a “reasonable ask.” The government had requested that proceedings start on May 7. AT&T will have to pay Time Warner $500 million if the merger is not consummated by April 22. Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-urges-judge-to-reject-att-time-warner-court-date-proposal-idUKKBN1E00A2'|'2017-12-06T05:59:00.000+02:00'
'dce6397ed477656618a923226654c54a0f1cf2e8'|'Two more illustrious Japanese firms admit to falsifying quality data - Kaizen crisis'|'AKIO MORITA, co-founder of Sony, liked to recall his first trip to Germany in 1953, when a waiter stuck a small paper parasol in his ice-cream and sneered: “This is from your country.” Like many of his post-war compatriots, Mr Morita was ashamed that Japan was known for shoddy goods. The fierce drive to reverse that reputation resulted in the Deming Prize, a quality-control award named after an American business guru so revered in Japan that he received a medal from the emperor for contributing to its industrial rebirth. All that hard work is under threat.Toray Industries, a textiles and chemicals giant, is the latest pillar of corporate Japan to admit to quality problems. This week a subsidiary said it had faked inspections on reinforcement cords used to strengthen car tyres. Sadayuki Sakakibara, a former president of Toray, said he was “ashamed” and apologised on behalf of Keidanren, the powerful business lobby he now heads. On November 23rd, Mitsubishi Materials sheepishly confessed (during a public holiday) that its subsidiaries had falsified data, on aluminium and other products used in aircraft and cars, given to customers in Japan, America, China and Taiwan. Those customers include Japan’s air force, earning a rebuke from Itsunori Onodera, the defence minister.  14   16   Kobe Steel, which was founded in 1905, recently revealed that it had sold “non-conforming products” to Boeing, Ford, Toyota and other household names. The firm had faked data on the tensile strength—the ability to withstand loads without breaking—of aluminium sheets, copper products and other items shipped to over 500 companies. Nissan and Subaru, both car firms, have admitted to similar fakery.The welter of revelations is bad for Japanese business as a whole. Its main defence against low-cost competitors from China, Taiwan and South Korea is its reputation for quality, says Takeshi Miyao, a consultant to the local car industry. Hiroshige Seko, the economy minister, said the falsifications had “shaken the foundations of fair trade” and demanded to know why it had taken Mitsubishi over six months to admit misconduct. That is timely compared with Nissan. Its use of uncertified technicians on final vehicle checks goes back 40 years. The technicians reportedly borrowed hanko — Japan’s all-important signature seals—from qualified inspectors.Ironically, a corporate-governance code introduced in 2015 to rev up competitiveness may explain why such facts are coming to light. The code, which includes a whistleblowing clause, has encouraged employees to speak out, says Toshiaki Oguchi of Governance for Owners Japan, a governance lobby group (Toray disclosed its cheating only after an anonymous online post). Privately, people at car firms complain that the problems in their industry relate to excessively stringent government standards introduced in the early 1950s. Some workers consider them primitive and unnecessary.It is also possible that manufacturers set standards too high. Many have stayed ahead of competitors by promising to deliver products that go far beyond minimum standards of quality or performance, says Alberto Moel, a specialist in industrial robotics. Conflict occurs when pressure flows down to the factory floor to meet those promises, he says. “Then you get corner-cutting, misrepresentations and sometimes unethical or even criminal behaviour.” Nissan’s woes have been blamed by some on Carlos Ghosn, its former chairman (nicknamed “Le Cost Cutter”), who sacked thousands of workers.It is too early to predict permanent damage to Japanese manufacturing, says Koji Endo of SBI Securities in Tokyo. Most of the recent cases relate to paperwork rather than actual quality standards, he argues. They have thus far resulted in no foreign product recalls. True, Takata, a maker of defective airbags, was forced out of business this year by a blizzard of lawsuits linked to at least 18 fatalities, but other firms have rebounded. Toyota is again the world’s top carmaker, despite a recall of 9m vehicles with faulty accelerator pedals.That followed years of restructuring. Most Japanese companies now have at least two independent directors on their boards; until recently, they usually had none. The result is closer scrutiny of wrongdoing, along with greater pressure to perform well financially. The battle between quality and cost-cutting will surely intensify, says Mr Oguchi. “The key is getting the balance right.”  Business   "Kaizen crisis"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21731854-ministers-economy-and-defence-and-head-main-business-lobby-have?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-30T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'bb7992f3a95df5d9bc91c912f1d6feed3afb070e'|'Intel cuts stake in ASML to below 5 pct'|'AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Chipmaker Intel ( INTC.O ) has cut its stake in Dutch semiconductor equipment supplier ASML ( ASML.AS ) to 4.96 percent, according to a filing published by the Dutch Financial Markets Authority on Friday.The Intel logo is shown at the E3 2017 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 13, 2017. REUTERS/ Mike Blake Intel took a 15 percent stake in ASML in 2012 as part of a program to help the company invest in new technology needed to build the next generation of smaller, faster chips. With ASML’s new machines now beginning to enter commercial production, that investment program is winding down.In its most recent previous report in June, ASML had reported a 9.96 percent stake in ASML.Samsung ( 005930.KS ) and TSMC 233O.TW, which also took stakes in ASML in 2012 have also been gradually selling down their shares.Reporting by Toby Sterling. Editing by Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-asml-holding-intel-stake/intel-cuts-stake-in-asml-to-below-5-pct-idINKBN1DV42G'|'2017-12-01T05:04:00.000+02:00'
'9b14c046f00def1c0d1b15e0c018afc18fa097da'|'BRIEF-India''s TVS Motor Co Nov Total Sales Up 12 Pct'|'Dec 1 (Reuters) - TVS Motor Company Ltd:* SAYS NOV TOTAL SALES OF 251,965 VEHICLES VERSUS 224,971 VEHICLES LAST YEAR* SAYS NOV TWO-WHEELER SALES OF 243,323 VEHICLES VERSUS 219,088 VEHICLES LAST YEAR* SAYS NOV EXPORT SALES OF 47,207 VEHICLES VERSUS 32,829 VEHICLES LAST YEAR* SAYS NOV THREE-WHEELER SALES OF 8,642 VEHICLES VERSUS 5,883 VEHICLES LAST YEAR Source text - bit.ly/2BDzWmj '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-indias-tvs-motor-co-nov-total-sale/brief-indias-tvs-motor-co-nov-total-sales-up-12-pct-idINFWN1O10FK'|'2017-12-01T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'effaa60042862d398ea85bcf74464c1fe5139a54'|'Tencent Music, Spotify in talks to swap stakes: WSJ'|'(Reuters) - The music group of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd and Sweden’s Spotify AB are in talks to swap stakes up to 10 percent in each other’s businesses ahead of their expected public listings next year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.Earphones are seen on a tablet screen with a Spotify logo on it, in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 20, 2014. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo - S1BETDCCQSAB The deal would align the two services in future licensing negotiations with major music labels, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter. ( on.wsj.com/2kf7uTG )Sources told Reuters in September that Spotify was aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators in order to list in the first half of 2018.Spotify and Tencent declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.Reporting by Bhanu Pratap and Ishita Chigilli Palli in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-tencent-holdings-stake-swap/tencent-music-spotify-in-talks-to-swap-stakes-wsj-idINKBN1DV4HH'|'2017-12-01T07:43:00.000+02:00'
'b1449e8db87e15d723cdd8cf8a581962e9720e16'|'Factbox: Saudi Arabia''s privatization plans'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has said it aims to raise around $200 billion in the next several years through privatization programs in 16 sectors ranging from oil to healthcare, education, airports and grain milling. It separately wants to raise another $100 billion through the sale of a five percent stake in Saudi Aramco.Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed Following is a list of major privatization plans underway.SAUDI ARAMCO. The government has said it plans to sell close to 5 percent of the national oil giant next year through an initial public offering. Initially, officials said the shares would be listed in Riyadh and at least one foreign exchange, but in recent weeks some officials have suggested Riyadh might be the only venue. Officials have said the sale will value Aramco at $2 trillion or more, though many private analysts estimate a lower range.SAUDI POSTAL CORP. In February, Riyadh invited banks to pitch for an advisory role in the sale of the government-owned postal service, sources said. But since then it is unclear whether any banks have been mandated and Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, told Reuters last month that Saudi Post would enter a five-year “corporatisation phase”, which would turn it into a state-run company before a private sector sale.SAUDI GRAINS ORGANIZATION. State-owned Saudi Grains Organization, which handles the kingdom’s grains purchases, is preparing to sell off its milling operations by placing them in four specially-formed corporate entities while retaining other functions. The sale had attracted interest from agribusiness giants U.S. Archer Daniels Midland Co ( ADM.N ) and Bunge ( BG.N ). But prospective investors have fretted about the ownership limits and structure of the sale process, sources have told Reuters.SPORTS. Saudi Arabian investment bank Jadwa Investment was appointed to advise on the privatization of as many as five soccer clubs in the Saudi Professional League, sources told Reuters in February.AIRPORTS. Faisal Hamad al-Sugair, Chairman of Saudi Civil Aviation Holding Company, told Reuters it was on track to “corporatize”, or turn into private companies, 27 airports by the middle of 2018. Goldman Sachs was hired to manage the sale of a minority stake in Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, the first major privatization of an airport in the kingdom, Reuters reported in July. In April, Singapore’s Changi Airport Group was awarded in April a contract to operate the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah for up to 20 years.SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES. The airline has started the sale of its medical services business in Jeddah, valued at around $500 million, sources said in May. The sale is on hold or has seen little progress, people familiar with the matter said.HEALTHCARE. One of the first assets to be privatized is one of Saudi Arabia’s top hospitals, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, an official said previously. The process was in a “very advanced stage”, Vice Minister for Economy and Planning Mohammed al-Tuwaijri told Reuters last in April. Also, the Ministry of Health received at least six bids to act as financial adviser for the privatization of 55 primary healthcare centers in Riyadh, sources said earlier this year.EDUCATION. Saudi Arabia hired HSBC as financial adviser to privative construction and management of school buildings, the chief executive of Tatweer Buildings Co, a state firm affiliated with the Ministry of Education, said in January.SAUDI ELECTRICITY CO. Riyadh plans to split state-controlled utility Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) 5110.SE into separate companies that would be offered either to local citizens through IPOs or to local or international corporate partners. Riyadh-based ACWA Power chief executive Paddy Padmanathan told Reuters in March he expects the first of four power generation companies owned by Saudi Electricity will be offered by the year-end. But a source familiar with the process has since told Reuters they were not aware of SEC yet posting requests for qualifications for the process.SALINE WATER CONVERSION CORP. Officials last year outlined plans to privative Saline Water Conversion Corp, which desalinates water and produces electricity. It would be transformed into a joint-stock holding company served by local production units; investment partners for the units would then be sought, followed by an IPO for the holding company. Banks recently submitted bids to advise on the privatization of the company’s $7.2 billion Ras Al Khair desalination and power plant.Reporting by Tom Arnold and Saeed Azhar; editing by David Stamp '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-privatisation/factbox-saudi-arabias-privatization-plans-idINKBN1DV45V'|'2017-12-01T05:45:00.000+02:00'
'458f9231b48c40cb3d82bb5e407b27a08393f743'|'What if the unwashed masses got to vote on companies’ strategies? - Schumpeter'|'ANGLO-SAXON capitalism has had a bad decade. It is accused of stoking inequality and financial instability. A relentless pursuit of shareholder value has led big firms to act in ways that often seem to make the world a worse place. Aeroplane seats get smaller, energy firms pollute the air, multinationals outsource jobs and Silicon Valley firms avoid tax. Some people think that governments should exert more control over private enterprise. But what if the answer to a deficit of corporate legitimacy was to give shareholders even more—not less—power?That is the intriguing possibility raised by a new paper by Oliver Hart of Harvard University and Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago. Their argument has two parts. First, the concept of shareholder capitalism should be expanded, so that firms seek to maximise shareholders’ welfare, not just their wealth. Second, technology might allow firms to make a deeper effort to discover what their true owners want. Over 100m Americans invest in the stockmarket, either directly or through funds. It is their money at stake, but their views and values are often ignored.  14   16   Not long ago mass participation in the stockmarket was held to be an essential part of a healthy market economy—for ordinary people to back capitalism, the argument went, lots of them had to have a direct stake. In the 1960s, individuals directly owned over 80% of American shares and over 50% of British ones. Margaret Thatcher privatised British firms in the 1980s and used TV campaigns to sell shares to the public. Her aim was to bring “ownership, capital and independence” to millions of workers.Somewhere along the way this dream has been lost. Most peoples’ investments are now funnelled through investment managers (individuals directly own only about two-fifths of all shares in America and less than a fifth in Britain). A few giant money managers have a dominant voice. America Inc still has “proxy” votes, where crazy proposals can be made—but these resemble a Potemkin shareholder democracy which is really controlled by technocrats. Asset managers have defined their mission as maximising the market value of their clients’ portfolios, and in turn demand that firms maximise profits.Ever since companies were granted the privilege of limited liability in the 1850s a debate has raged about their obligations to society. In an article published in 1970, Milton Friedman, an economist, made the case that a firm’s only duty is to its bottom line. That is not as callous as it sounds. Most shareholders have a mix of financial goals and ethical beliefs. The profit-hungry firm can be part of a system that satisfies both their desires. The company creates profits which can then pay for the “ethical” objectives that a shareholder has: for example, charity donations to help the poor, or taxes to pay for a government-provided safety net.Unfortunately, as Messrs Hart and Zingales point out, this division of responsibilities does not always work. If a supermarket profits from selling machine guns to the mentally unhinged, for example, there is no action that shareholders can undertake with those profits that can mitigate the ensuing deaths. And if the government is too dysfunctional to produce coherent policies, there may be no way to offset the externalities—massive job cuts in one town, say—that profit-seeking firms create.So sometimes the only way to maximise shareholders’ overall welfare may be for the firm to look beyond profits. The authors argue that some interpretations of American law give boards of directors more room for manoeuvre here than is commonly understood. The next stage is to find out what shareholders want. Technology could help, allowing individuals to vote the shares held on their behalf by pension trustees and investment funds.The authors envision shareholders guiding the broad direction of company strategy. They do not elaborate on the details, but imagine 100m Americans pressing a “shareholder democracy” app on their phones. Grannies from Grand Rapids and cowboys from Colorado might vote for Delta Air Lines to provide more legroom, Exxon to assume a higher carbon price when it drills for oil, IBM to move some jobs from Delhi to Detroit and Apple to pay a higher tax rate than its current 18%. It would be a plebiscitary shareholder democracy, more in tune with what many Americans think, but more dangerous, too.There are two big risks. One is that the combined voice of tens of millions of shareholders becomes a meaningless cacophony that no board can deal with. As Andrew Carnegie, the 19th-century Scottish-American tycoon, put it: “Where stock is held by a great number, what is anybody’s business is nobody’s business.” The other pitfall is that shareholders manage to produce a clear enough voice, but that this voice is stupid, fickle or sinister. This is clearly possible, too. Most individuals have little idea about the technicalities of running big companies. In the investment world retail shareholders are often known as “dumb money” because of their tendency to buy high and sell low.Shareholders’ valuesJust as political democracy only works with checks and balances, the same is true for shareholder democracy. Messrs Hart and Zingales suggest that for a proposal to be put to a digital vote by all shareholders, it would need the support of at least 5% to start with. Another safety mechanism would be to make the votes of ordinary shareholders non-binding. Boards would have to note them, but would not need to obey. Or people could invest through single-issue funds, which are identical to normal funds except that they guarantee to pursue a well-defined goal—for firms to pay higher wages, for instance, or to cut pollution levels.Plebiscitary capitalism may seem far-fetched. But the company has evolved continually to deal with pressures that boil up from society over time. More participation by ordinary, individual shareholders might be exactly what capitalism now needs to restore its reputation.  Business   "Capitalism for the people"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'http://www.economist.com/news/business/21731848-digital-technology-makes-true-shareholder-democracy-more-feasible-what-if-unwashed-masses?fsrc=rss'|'2017-11-30T22:55:00.000+02:00'
'312346d8ddc3da8a392f7f1a7a27a820b55849f4'|'U.S. drillers add oil rigs for 2nd week in a row -Baker Hughes'|'(Reuters) - U.S. energy companies this week added oil rigs for a second week in a row as crude prices traded near their highest levels since the summer of 2015 as major oil producing countries extended a global deal to limit supply.Drillers added two oil rigs in the week to Dec. 1, bringing the total count up to 749, the highest since September, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday.U.S. producers applauded Thursday’s decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers led by Russia to extend oil output cuts of about 1.8 million barrels per day beyond March until the end of 2018 as they try to finish clearing a global glut of crude.Rising U.S. production, however, has been a thorn in OPEC’s side, undermining the impact of its output curbs.U.S. production rose to 9.5 million bpd in September, its highest monthly output since reaching 9.6 million bpd in April 2015, according to federal energy data going back to 2005. On an annual basis, U.S. output peaked at 9.6 million bpd in 1970.The U.S. rig count, an early indicator of future output, is still much higher than a year ago when only 477 rigs were active after energy companies boosted spending plans for 2017 as crude started recovering from a two-year price crash around the same time OPEC agreed to production cuts a year ago.The increase in U.S. drilling lasted 14 months before stalling in August, September and October as some producers started trimming their 2017 spending plans after prices turned softer over the summer. Energy firms started adding rigs again in November as crude prices rose.U.S. crude futures rose 5.5 percent in November amid talk of extending the OPEC-led deal to cut global supply, and so far in 2017 since the agreement kicked in, have averaged over $50 a barrel, easily topping last year’s $43.47 average.This week, futures climbed over $58 a barrel, near their highest since June 2015.Looking ahead, futures were trading near $57 for calendar 2018 and $54 for calendar 2019.In anticipation of higher prices than in 2016, exploration and production (E&P) companies increased their spending on U.S. drilling and completions in 2017 by about 53 percent over 2016, according to U.S. financial services firm Cowen & Co.In addition, Cowen said 14 of the 64 E&Ps they track have already provided capital expenditure guidance for 2018 indicating a 9 percent increase in planned spending over 2017.Cowen, which has its own U.S. rig count, said it expects a gradual decline in rigs in the fourth quarter of 2017 and in2018. There were 929 oil and natural gas rigs active on Dec. 1. The average number of rigs in service so far in 2017 was 872. That compares with 509 in 2016 and 978 in 2015. Most rigs produce both oil and gas.Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Marguerita Choy '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-rigs-baker-hughes/u-s-drillers-add-oil-rigs-for-second-week-in-a-row-baker-hughes-idUSKBN1DV5PF'|'2017-12-01T20:05:00.000+02:00'
'f7b1921192d07531d15eb9d5fa5d52e9516b1b5d'|'Macau casino revenue rises 22.6 pct on year in November'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:06 AM / Updated an hour ago Macau casino revenue rises 22.6 pct on year in November Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 1 - Casinos in the world’s biggest gambling hub of Macau posted a 22.6 percent revenue jump in November from a year earlier, marking the sixteenth consecutive month of growth, government data showed on Friday. Revenue reached 23 billion patacas ($2.87 billion), data from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau showed. That compared with analyst growth estimates of 16 to 22 percent. ($1 = 8.0260 patacas) (Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Sunil Nair)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/macau-gambling-revenues/macau-casino-revenue-rises-22-6-pct-on-year-in-november-idUSENNHBO0S6'|'2017-12-01T07:04:00.000+02:00'
'465cda07a1919e45beb2ebe87fc7fd56454368a5'|'Exclusive: Mednax fielding takeover interest from buyout firms - sources'|'(Reuters) - Mednax Inc, a U.S. healthcare network operator targeted by activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, is fielding acquisition interest from several private equity firms, according to people familiar with the matter.Elliott disclosed a 7 percent stake in Mednax last month and said it would discuss several options to boost value for shareholders, including a sale of the company.Mednax is working with Bank of America Corp to handle the approaches by Carlyle Group LP and other private equity firms, the sources said this week.Mednax has not yet started the process of selling itself, and there is no certainty any deal will occur, the sources added, requesting anonymity because the discussions are confidential.“We have not hired an adviser with regards to approaches by private equity firms,” a Mednax spokesman said. He would not say whether such overtures had occurred or whether the company had retained Bank of America in any capacity. He also declined to elaborate on the company’s plans.Bank of America and Carlyle declined to comment.Mednax shares rose as much at 5 percent on the news but were up only 1.2 percent at $50.40 by the afternoon. At that price, the company’s market capitalization was around $4.66 billion.A deal for Mednax would be the latest in a string of acquisitions of physician networks, a business that has struggled in recent years to adapt to changes in how U.S. health insurers reimburse providers.Federal reimbursement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, for example, have been trying to shift to a “value-based” payment model, where providers sometimes receive fixed payments to encourage them to control costs.Last week, Reuters reported that kidney care provider DaVita Inc was exploring a potential sale of its own physician network business, DaVita Medical Group, for up to $4 billion.Earlier in November, another physician services provider, Envision Healthcare Corp, announced plans to explore strategic alternatives. Previously, it had attracted investments from activist hedge funds Starboard Value and Corvex Management.Last year, Blackstone Group LP acquired hospital staffing provider Team Health Holdings Inc for $6.1 billion.Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Mednax provides neonatal and radiology services through a network of more than 4,075 physicians in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Its nine-month earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization have declined to $431 million at the end of September from $493 million a year earlier.In response, Mednax has announced a series of efforts to boost profits, including a new focus on radiology and a long-term goal to slash general and administrative expenses by around 10 percent.Reporting by Carl O''Donnell and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay and Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-mednax-m-a-exclusive/exclusive-mednax-fielding-takeover-interest-from-buyout-firms-sources-idINKBN1DV5HF'|'2017-12-01T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'4f48b131750c53d35b586a80eaa3be08cb1eb436'|'Bitcoin pauses below record peak; gained 55 percent in November'|'December 1, 2017 / 3:03 AM / in 2 minutes Bitcoin pauses below record peak; gained 55 percent in November Swati Pandey 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Bitcoin hovered around $9,600 in volatile trade on Friday, after tumbling about 15 percent from an all-time high hit this week as some money managers warned ominously of a bubble and further falls in the stratospheric cryptocurrency. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo Bitcoin was last down around 3.4 percent at $9,612.60 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, from a record peak of $11,395 set on Wednesday. On Thursday, it went as low as $9,000. BTC=BTSP . The latest slide has tempered an astronomical rise in recent months: Bitcoin had jumped almost 1,100 percent year-to-date on Wednesday. As of 0200 GMT, it was still up around 915 percent. One wealth manager said technical chart analysis was predicting deeper falls. “A correction could bring bitcoin back to its previous level of chart support of around $7,500. That’s over a 20 percent drop from its current price,” said Shane Chanel, equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth. “Without everyday utility, pure speculation is driving prices at the moment. Traders are forced to use technical indicators to make buy and sell decisions.” Despite its massive fall this week, bitcoin still ended November 54.6 percent higher, its best monthly performance since a near 66 percent gain in August. The cryptocurrency has posted monthly losses only three times in 2017. Bitcoin’s rise has been fueled by signs that the digital currency is slowly gaining traction in the mainstream investment world, as well as by increasing public awareness. Several large market exchanges including Nasdaq, CBOEHoldings and CME Group -- the world’s largest derivativesexchange -- have said they are planning to provide futurescontracts based on bitcoin. Bitcoin’s rapid ascent has prompted warnings from a streamof prominent investors that it had reached bubble territory. The deputy governor of the Bank of England on Wednesday said investors should “do their homework” before investing in the digital currency. Bitcoin investments are seen as mere speculation because demand has skyrocketed without fundamentals backing the cryptocurrency, said Jin Yong-jae, a Seoul-based economist at HI Investment & Securities. That has made the price of bitcoin “very much volatile,” Jin added. “There are people who invest in bitcoin for its future value, but most seem to be just jumping on the bandwagon, without being fully aware of the structure or how it will replace actual currencies in the future.” Others are unfazed by talks of a bubble, though, predicting still further gains. “The number of bitcoins that can be mined is limited to 21 million, of which 16.5 million bitcoins are already in circulation,” said Siddharth Agarwal, lead financial analyst at research firm GlobalData. “As bitcoin mining becomes increasingly difficult, this could further drive bitcoin prices upwards.” Reporting by Swati Pandey; Additional reporting by Dahee Kim in SEOUL and Abhinav Ramnarayan in LONDON; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-pauses-below-record-peak-gained-55-percent-in-november-idUKKBN1DV3J5'|'2017-12-01T04:57:00.000+02:00'
'46fbd2b36aeadd9267fa77edab520df466832e2d'|'Exclusive: Nissan sues India over outstanding dues; seeks over $770 million'|'NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Nissan Motor ( 7201.T ) has begun international arbitration against India to seek more than $770 million in a dispute over unpaid state incentives, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by Reuters.In a legal notice sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, Nissan sought payment of incentives due from the Tamil Nadu government as part of a 2008 agreement to set up a car manufacturing plant in the southern state.According to the notice, Nissan said repeated requests to state officials for the payment, due in 2015, were overlooked and even a plea by the company’s chairman, Carlos Ghosn, to Modi in March of last year seeking federal assistance did not yield any results.The notice, sent by Nissan’s lawyers in July 2016, was followed by more than a dozen meetings between federal and state officials and Nissan executives, said the person familiar with the matter, who did not want to be named as it is not public.The federal officials, from several ministries, assured Nissan the payment would be made, and it should not bring a legal case. But, in August, Nissan gave India an ultimatum to appoint an arbitrator, the person said, adding the first arbitration hearing will be in mid-December.A Nissan spokesman said the company was “committed to working with the government of India toward a resolution,” but did not elaborate.A senior Tamil Nadu state official said the government hoped to resolve the dispute without having to go to international arbitration. “There is no discrepancy with regard to the amount due, and we are trying hard to resolve the issue,” the official told Reuters.Modi’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment.The case, brought against India for alleged violations of its Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan, is the latest in a string of international arbitration proceedings against the country by investors concerned about issues ranging from retrospective taxation to payments disputes.There are over 20 cases pending against India, among the highest against any single nation.FILE PHOTO: A company logo is seen on the newly-unveiled Nissan "Terrano" compact sport utility vehicle during a news conference in Mumbai, India August 20, 2013. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo The dispute between Nissan and the Tamil Nadu government also shows the challenges companies face in India and how local disputes could undermine the Modi government’s efforts to attract foreign investment and create new jobs.GROWING LOSSES Several automakers, including Ford ( F.N ) and Hyundai Motor ( 005380.KS ), have set up production hubs in Tamil Nadu, giving state capital Chennai the nickname; the ‘Detroit of South Asia’.In 2008, when Nissan and its global alliance partner, French carmaker Renault ( RENA.PA ), agreed to invest in setting up a car plant in Chennai, the state government promised several incentives including some tax refunds.Over seven years, Nissan and Renault invested 61 billion rupees ($946 million) and set up a plant with annual production capacity of 480,000 vehicles, which entitled them to receive the incentives in 2015, according to the legal notice.In that notice, Nissan’s lawyers said the state government’s decision to not pay was “arbitrary”, and Nissan has “incurred significant and increasing losses”.Nissan did not specify the business impact in the 8-page notice, but said in 2008 that state incentives were critical to the project’s viability and sustainability.The carmaker, in its notice, is claiming 29 billion rupees in unpaid incentives and 21 billion rupees in damages, plus interest and other costs.Nissan, which has less than a 2 percent share of India’s passenger car market, builds and sells the Micra hatchback, Sunny sedan and Terrano sport-utility vehicle. It also sells low-cost cars under its Datsun brand.The company spokesman said Nissan has created more than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs in India.($1 = 64.5100 Indian rupees)Reporting by Aditi Shah, with additional reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Euan Rocha and Ian Geoghegan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-india-arbitration-exclusive/exclusive-nissan-sues-india-over-outstanding-dues-seeks-over-770-million-idUSKBN1DV3MP'|'2017-12-01T06:12:00.000+02:00'
'd0117740ab9fbbe25ec20207f650ed2a2373911f'|'Asian manufacturing expands further, but China remains a risk'|'December 1, 2017 / 4:51 AM / a minute ago Global manufacturing buoyed as focus shifts to rate hikes Jonathan Cable , Marius Zaharia 5 Min Read LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Global manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in years last month and the second-best in two decades in the euro zone, driven by robust demand and bolstering the case for central banks to shift to tighter monetary policy. A raft of mostly strong factory activity surveys released on Friday comes after the European Central Bank announced in October it would cut monthly bond purchases starting in January. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise rates again this month and the Bank of England raised them in November. On Thursday, the Bank of Korea became Asia’s first major central bank to raise interest rates in three years, a potential turning point for the region. Malaysia and the Philippines are among those that may raise rates next year. “Almost across the board, the PMIs were pretty good. The strength of the economies is going to give them (central banks) sufficient confidence to go ahead with their planned policy tightening,” said Andrew Kenningham, chief global economist at Capital Economics. Euro zone factories had their busiest month for over 17 years in November. Forward-looking indicators suggest the momentum will continue to the end of 2017, capping off what is expected to be the best year for euro zone economic growth in a decade [EUR/PMIM]. HIS Markit’s final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for the bloc climbed to 60.1 last month from October’s 58.5. That was the second-highest in the survey’s 20-year history. Anything above 50 indicates growth. Meanwhile, British factories enjoyed their best month in more than four years in November, suggesting manufacturing will boost the country’s sluggish economy going into 2018 [GB/PMIM]. It added to signs manufacturing could be a bright spot next year, when the overall economy is likely to slow further as Britain approaches its departure from the European Union in March 2019. “The manufacturing sector is a clear bright spot in the UK economy at the moment. But the larger service sector is still flagging and is why we don’t expect a sharp pick-up in growth next year,” said James Smith, an economist at ING. Signs of progress in Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU mean chances of a disorderly Brexit declined in the past month, a Reuters poll found, but growth will lag its peers next year. [ECILT/GB] A U.S. manufacturing survey later on Friday is expected to show faster growth. ASIAN DIVIDE The expansion in factory activity, seen in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, has not been uniform, however. Beijing’s war on pollution was curbing growth in Chinese manufacturing in October. A employee walks along a battery storage in battery factory at Daimler subsidiary ACCUMOTIVE in Kamenz, Germany May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Matthias Rietschel “We’re seeing the strong momentum in the third quarter carrying over in the fourth,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ. “The improving global backdrop ... suggests that central banks in this region will start policy normalisation. It’s important to note this is not the start of an outright tightening cycle, this is the removal of very accommodative policies.” Elsewhere in Asia, India saw economic growth rebound in the three months to September, in a sign businesses are recovering from disruptions caused by the introduction of a national sales tax and a ban on high-value banknotes. India’s factory activity quickened in November at the fastest pace since just before the government’s surprise cash clampdown late last year. China, however, remains one of the biggest risks to global growth, analysts say. The world’s second-biggest economy has defied market expectations with economic growth of 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, supported by a construction boom and robust exports. But Beijing’s efforts to reduce air pollution have curtailed factory activity in recent months and the Caixin/Markit Manufacturing PMI dipped to a five-month low of 50.8. An official manufacturing survey on Thursday showed activity unexpectedly picking up. But the Caixin/Markit print tends to focus more on small and mid-sized companies and is seen as a better gauge of private sector activity. For now, the economic data suggests Asia’s electronics producers remain in good shape. South Korea’s factory activity expanded at the strongest pace in 55 months in November. Japanese manufacturing grew at the fastest pace in more than 3 1/2 years. Taiwan’s PMI came at its best in 6 1/2 years. “Even as the smartphone-related boost starts to fade, the outlook for 2018 remains bright amidst the global recovery,” HSBC Greater China economist Julia Wang said. Japanese companies increased spending on factories and equipment in the third quarter by 4.2 percent from the same period last year, suggesting the quarter’s GDP growth could be revised higher. Japan’s jobless rate held steady at 2.8 percent in October and the availability of jobs reached the highest in almost 44 years. Editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-economy/asian-manufacturing-expands-further-but-china-remains-a-risk-idUKKBN1DV3OA'|'2017-12-01T06:50:00.000+02:00'
'bf6fbad9edcf9cc1484b37db7903aa1e87f4c340'|'Australia competition watchdog decides not to oppose Tabcorp-Tatts merger'|'(Reuters) - The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Friday said it has decided not to oppose the Australian Competition Tribunal’s decision to allow Tabcorp Holdings Ltd’s ( TAH.AX ) $4.7 billion takeover offer for Tatts Group Ltd ( TTS.AX ).FILE PHOTO - An official holds a list of the Melbourne Cup horses and jockeys as people place bets at an outdoor betting tent organised by Australian gambling company Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (TAB) in central Sydney, Australia, November 5, 2013. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo “Unlike the original decision of the Tribunal we do not consider there is any error of law that needs to be corrected. For this reason the ACCC will not be seeking further review” Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tatts-group-m-a-tabcorp/australia-competition-watchdog-decides-not-to-oppose-tabcorp-tatts-merger-idINKBN1DU33J'|'2017-11-30T19:19:00.000+02:00'
'ed84e5e15ed703e5875e777042caa7b44a06680b'|'Booming orders help UK factories to best month since 2013'|'December 1, 2017 / 9:41 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Booming orders help UK factories to best month since 2013 Andy Bruce 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British factories enjoyed their best month in more than four years in November, suggesting manufacturing will give a boost to the country’s otherwise sluggish economy going into 2018, a survey showed on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Workers assemble cars at the plant for the Mini range of cars in Cowley, near Oxford, Britain June 20, 2016. REUTERS/Leon Neal/Pool/File Photo The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumped to 58.2 from an upwardly revised 56.6 in October, hitting its highest level since August 2013 and topping all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. Sterling rose briefly against the dollar after the PMI showed surging orders at home and from Europe’s recovering economy. Overall, the survey added to signs that manufacturing could be a bright spot next year, when the slowdown in the overall economy is likely to deepen as Britain approaches its departure from the EU in March 2019. Still, the British PMI was not as strong as the euro zone’s and export orders grew faster in other major European economies - suggesting the pound’s fall since last year’s Brexit vote has yet to give British factories a big advantage. Higher inflation - largely due to the fall in the pound - has pushed up costs for households and businesses this year, contributing to Britain’s lagging economic performance compared with European peers. A broadening of price pressures represented a downside in the latest PMI, with factories facing extra costs from supply chain bottlenecks, overtaking sterling’s weakness as the main driver of price increases. HSBC economist Chris Hare said the solid growth among factories and the price pressures might appear to bolster the case for a further tightening in monetary policy by the Bank of England which raised interest rates for the first time in a decade last month. “But manufacturing only makes up 10 percent of the economy, and the more domestically-focused service sector - worth around 80 percent of GDP - is probably more exposed to Brexit-related uncertainty and the inflation squeeze on household income,” Hare said. A PMI survey of the services sector is due to be published on Tuesday. The European Commission’s gauge of British factory orders hit a 29-year high last month - but this was not enough to prevent a drop in wider economic sentiment caused by a slowdown among services firms. Manufacturing association EEF highlighted the strong growth in the European and global economies as positives for British manufacturers. “On its current course, manufacturing production is rising at a quarterly rate approaching 2 percent, providing a real boost to the pace of broader economic expansion,” Rob Dobson, director at survey compiler IHS Markit, said. Official figures on British manufacturing, which painted a gloomier view than the PMI surveys for much of this year, have also now started to show improvement. Producers of capital goods such as machinery had a strong month, a good omen for Bank of England officials who think business investment will accelerate next year. Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-pmi/booming-orders-help-uk-factories-to-best-month-since-2013-pmi-idUKKBN1DV4C7'|'2017-12-01T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'd08c83dae49978fb8cec69e406fd9cdeba2df5a5'|'Israel may adjust corporate tax after U.S. slash - finance minister'|'December 2, 2017 / 6:36 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Israel may adjust corporate tax after U.S. slash - finance minister Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel may have to make adjustments to its corporate tax rate, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said on Saturday in response to a tax slash approved by the U.S. Senate. Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon gestures as he speaks at an event in Ofakim, southern Israel May 29, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. tax overhaul could cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent once the Senate and House of Representatives reconcile their respective versions of the legislation. The corporate tax rate in Israel is to be reduced this month from 24 to 23 percent. But a lower, more attractive, rate in the United States could lead Israeli companies to consider moving there. “We will receive all the details from our companies abroad about the tax reform and we must address it,” Kahlon told Channel 10’s weekly politics show Hamateh. “What the danger is of companies here packing up and moving there? There are many implications. We will have to make adjustments.” Many Israeli high-tech companies have operations in the United States but research and development centers in Israel. Israel’s technology industry is one of the world’s largest behind Silicon Valley, accounting for about 14 percent of the country’s economic output, 50 percent of industrial exports and about 10 percent of its workforce. Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Stephen Powell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-economy-tax/israel-may-adjust-corporate-tax-after-u-s-slash-finance-minister-idUSKBN1DW0NO'|'2017-12-02T20:35:00.000+02:00'
'59195ef56b40f7a947cc9e38b73e51dcd24d2dcd'|'Lufthansa offers to sacrifice routes to save Air Berlin deal: source'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) is willing to sacrifice the right to fly some routes to save its deal to acquire assets of Air Berlin, the low-cost airline that collapsed recently, a source familiar with the company’s thinking said on Thursday.A Lufthansa airliner parks next to the Air Berlin aircraft at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke The German carrier will submit its proposed concessions to the European Commission before a midnight deadline, including giving up so-called ‘slots’ belonging to Air Berlin businesses Niki and LG Walter, the source said.Lufthansa last month signed a 210 million euro ($249 million) deal to take over Niki and LG Walter, plus some short-haul planes, to cement its position in Germany and expand its Eurowings budget brand.But the deal has drawn fire from competitors and consumer advocates who fear Lufthansa would dominate German domestic routes and Austria where Niki, founded by retired Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda, is based.Lufthansa already owns flag carrier Austrian Airlines.The German government, which offered a bridging loan to keep Air Berlin flying until a deal could be done to sell its viable operations, held crisis talks with Lufthansa representatives on Thursday afternoon to discuss concessions to offer to Brussels.A spokesman for the Economy Ministry declined to confirm or deny whether the meeting took place, as reported earlier by the Bild am Sonntag tabloid. Lufthansa and the European Commission declined to comment.Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr met EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday in Brussels, where sources said the Commission is leaning towards blocking Lufthansa’s takeover of Niki.The Danish commissioner has gone on the record to express concern that Lufthansa’s market position would become dominant on some routes as a result of the deal.GOVERNMENT ALARM Bild am Sonntag, citing its own sources, said the German government was alarmed that the deal may be blocked and had urged Lufthansa to make further concessions.The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters the government might lose the 150 million euros it lent to Air Berlin because the bridging loan was secured against the proceeds of the proposed sale.Air Berlin, which struggled to turn a profit over the last decade, filed for insolvency in August, leaving the future of thousands of workers in the balance.Under EU rules, a decision should be made on whether to approve the deal on Dec. 7 although the Commission has the power to extend its review period by two weeks.In complex cases, the Commission can take up to 90 working days to reach a decision. If such an extension is made, Lufthansa would likely halt its financial support to Niki, forcing it to cease operations, the source familiar with the company’s thinking said.“Niki is on a knife-edge,” the person said.It remained unclear whether the entire Air Berlin deal would collapse if Lufthansa does not win control of Niki - or whether the German airline would pull out and then seek separate EU approval just to buy LG Walter.Scenting a fresh opportunity, earlier bidders for Niki have restated their interest - including British Airways which, according to Bild am Sonntag, has asked to see its accounts.Air Berlin and British Airways parent IAG ( ICAG.L ) both declined to comment.Niki Lauda said on Wednesday he would, together with travel company Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ), like to buy back the airline he founded. “My offer, together with Thomas Cook, still stands,” he told the Handelsblatt financial daily.Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-lufthansa/lufthansa-offers-to-sacrifice-routes-to-save-air-berlin-deal-source-idUSKBN1DU2SI'|'2017-12-01T03:50:00.000+02:00'
'ca342cab62a423abe5154b7441463444e17b4a6f'|'Nissan''s Japan car sales slide for second month after compliance scandal'|' 13 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Nissan''s Japan car sales slide for second month after compliance scandal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co’s ( 7201.T ) sales of domestic passenger cars fell by almost half in November - its second straight month of slides in the wake of a compliance scandal and its first since it resumed production of cars for the home market. A man walks in the Nissan showroom at the carmaker''s headquarters in Yokohama, Japan May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Revelations that Nissan failed to follow proper final inspection procedures for its domestic market cars have resulted in a recall of 1.2 million cars and a halt to production of vehicles it makes for the Japanese market over three weeks to early November. Japan’s second-biggest automaker has previously said it would take a month or so until production returns to regular levels. Its sales of passenger cars, excluding minivehicles, tumbled 46.8 percent in November from a year earlier to 16,888 vehicles, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said on Friday. That follows a slide of around 53 percent in October. Nissan said in October that uncertified inspectors had for decades signed off on vehicle checks required by the transport ministry for cars sold in the country. It has blamed staffing shortages and said it would increase the number of trained staff to prevent a recurrence of the issue. The checks are not required for exported vehicles. The scandal at Nissan has come amidst a raft of scandals at Japanese manufacturers that have raised questions about compliance and quality control, including a data falsification scandal at Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ). Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) has also admitted it had not been following proper inspection issues going back around 30 years. Last month, sales of its passenger cars fell 13 percent from a year ago. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nissan-scandal-sales/nissans-japan-car-sales-slide-for-second-month-after-compliance-scandal-idUKKBN1DV3Z2'|'2017-12-01T09:12:00.000+02:00'
'dcbc96f219f20fc0bb1a810a70060f5c4c7a2c55'|'Venezuela PDVSA boss says oil contracts to be reviewed in graft probe'|'December 3, 2017 / 9:40 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Venezuela PDVSA boss says oil contracts to be reviewed in graft probe Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CARACAS (Reuters) - The new president of Venezuelan state oil company, Major General Manuel Quevedo, said on Sunday that oil service contracts would be reviewed as part of an alleged crackdown on graft sweeping the OPEC member’s energy industry. Venezuela''s Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo talks to journalists at the beginning of an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Deisy BuitragoEditing by Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil/venezuela-pdvsa-boss-says-oil-contracts-to-be-reviewed-in-graft-probe-idUSKBN1DX0V8'|'2017-12-03T23:39:00.000+02:00'
'b08aca4f637de35ae355827cbe478d4be0dbc80b'|'EU spokesman warns against speculation on planned euro zone proposals'|' 34 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago EU spokesman warns against speculation on planned euro zone proposals Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission cautioned against speculation on Eurozone proposals before it unveils plans Wednesday for deeper economic integration of the 19 countries that share the euro. European Commission Chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas is seen during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman “The mere fact that the German press on Friday was writing that we are going to water down the stability and growth pact, while the French press today is saying that we are preaching austerity only shows one thing: that no one knows what they are talking about,” the Commission’s chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas told journalists on Monday. Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-esm/eu-spokesman-warns-against-speculation-on-planned-euro-zone-proposals-idUKKBN1DY18B'|'2017-12-04T13:33:00.000+02:00'
'c885348dc54561ded8625a0d3871877c3b3cef1e'|'UPDATE 1-Cboe beats CME to bitcoin futures launch with Dec. 10 start'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:43 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago CBOE beats CME to bitcoin futures launch with December 10 start Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Cboe Global Markets Inc will launch its bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 10, just over a week ahead of rival CME Group Inc, as the exchange operator takes the next step toward launching an exchange-traded fund based on the digital currency. Copies of bitcoins standing on PC motherboard are seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Bitcoin’s price has soared tenfold this year, prompting many market participants to warn of a bubble as it topped $11,000 for the first time last week. Bitcoin futures and other derivatives would make it easier for more investors and speculators to trade the new asset class. Cboe''s bitcoin futures contract will trade under the ticker symbol ''XBT'' and will be cash-settled based on the auction price from cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, Cboe said on Monday. ( reut.rs/2BvXvwu ) CME’s bitcoin futures contract launches Dec. 18, available for trading on the CME Globex electronic trading platform, the world’s biggest derivatives exchange said on Friday. Cboe and CME were given approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to list bitcoin futures on Friday after the rival bourses were able to show that their proposals met the necessary regulatory requirements. The exchanges also had to agree to work together to monitor for manipulation, flash rallies, trading outages and other structural problems in the largely unregulated bitcoin cash market. Once liquidity builds in the Cboe bitcoin futures contract and the exchanges are able to show how their oversight of the underlying market works, Cboe plans to reapply with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a bitcoin ETF, Chief Executive Officer Ed Tilly said in an interview on Friday. So far, the SEC has not allowed bitcoin-based ETFs on the CBOE or elsewhere, partly because of concerns around the unregulated aspect of bitcoin. To help guard against excessive volatility, both Cboe and CME plan to have intraday price limits and initial margin rates of 30 and 35 percent respectively. Nasdaq Inc also plans to list a futures contract based on bitcoin in 2018, Reuters reported last week. The cryptocurrency was last up 0.4 percent at $11,290. Reporting by John McCrank in New York and Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-cboe-bitcoin/cboe-beats-cme-to-bitcoin-futures-launch-with-december-10-start-idUSKBN1DY1SV'|'2017-12-04T16:39:00.000+02:00'
'332786e0f5b14cf845c786975e7ed4c03f3112e2'|'REFILE-Gold trader says he never liked Turkish banker facing trial'|'(Refiles to add dropped text in final two paragraphs.) By Brendan Pierson NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - A Turkish gold trader testifying for U.S. prosecutors in the trial of an executive at Turkey''s state-owned Halkbank, who is charged with helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, said Tuesday that he and the banker never liked each other. Reza Zarrab, who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors in the case, also said he had complained about Halkbank deputy general manager Mehmet Hakan Atilla to Atilla''s former superior on multiple occasions. The testimony came as Zarrab was cross-examined by one of Atilla''s lawyers, Cathy Fleming. Prosecutors have charged nine people in the case, but only Zarrab, 34, and Atilla, 47, have been arrested by U.S. authorities. Zarrab previously testified under questioning by a prosecutor that he worked with Halkbank from 2012 to 2016 to help Iran spend its oil and gas revenue abroad using fraudulent gold and food transactions. He said Atilla helped structure those transactions. Halkbank said last week that it had not taken part in any illegal transactions. Under questioning by Fleming, Zarrab said he attended meetings with Atilla a "handful" of times during that period. He said he had a "close relationship" with Suleyman Aslan, who was Halkbank''s general manager and Atilla''s superior until 2013. Zarrab said he sometimes complained about Atilla to Aslan. Zarrab had testified earlier in the case that he complained to Aslan when Atilla refused to sign off on a transaction related to a sham sale of food to Iran. Zarrab said he paid bribes to Aslan, repeating his testimony in direct examination, but never to Atilla. Reuters was not immediately able to reach Aslan for comment. Fleming then asked about Zarrab''s efforts to get out of U.S. jail after his March 2016 arrest. In his opening statement last week, Victor Rocco, another lawyer for Atilla, told jurors that Zarrab was motivated to lie in order to get out of jail. Zarrab said that after he pleaded guilty in October, he was released from MDC Brooklyn, a jail in New York. Zarrab also recounted hiring former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to negotiate his release through diplomacy between the United States and Turkey. "You are furious with people in Turkey that it did not work, isn''t that true?" Fleming asked. "I don''t have any anger toward anybody, ma''am," Zarrab said. Zarrab has accused Turkish politicians, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Erdogan on Sunday dismissed the case as a politically motivated attack on Turkey. CNN Turk on Thursday said Erdogan had said Turkey did not violate U.S. sanctions. (Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-turkey-zarrab/gold-trader-says-he-never-liked-turkish-banker-facing-trial-idINL1N1O51R3'|'2017-12-05T18:17:00.000+02:00'
'7fa73ccdcafe4b6e1c053e12344fd4f10d351fd1'|'UPDATE 1-Emerging market fund flows turn sharply negative in late November -IIF'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:11 AM / Updated an hour ago UPDATE 1-Emerging market fund flows turn sharply negative in late November -IIF Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details about timing, asset classes and countries affected) NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Investor fund flows to emerging markets, which have been enjoying a boom for most of this year, turned sharply negative in late November, with equities particularly hard hit, a bank lobbying institution that tabulates flows data said on Tuesday. The Institute of International Finance said that expectations that the U.S. Senate would approve a proposed Republican tax reform bill played into the reversal, as did some degree of profit taking. The spike in outflows, totaling nearly $2 billion since November 30, was concentrated in the very final days of the month, the IIF said. The vast majority of the negative capital movement came in the equities sphere, with the remainder, $400 million, flowing out from EM bonds. Among emerging market countries, South Africa and South Korea saw particularly high levels of outflows, of nearly $1 billion and around $500 million respectively. The IIF had reported earlier in the month that the pace of fund flows to emerging markets had stalled in the fourth quarter. (Reporting By Christian Plumb; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-flows/update-1-emerging-market-fund-flows-turn-sharply-negative-in-late-november-iif-idUSL1N1O52J8'|'2017-12-06T02:10:00.000+02:00'
'f8cfd2904b157a68a5295cc3b55660c766f92607'|'Asia stocks pressured by Wall Street losses, dollar sags'|'* MSCI Asia-Pacific index down 0.2 pct, Nikkei shed 0.5 pct* Wall Street extends losses on sagging technology shares* Long-term US yields slip as curve flattening continues, USD dips (Adds report of failed plot to assassinate UK PM)By Shinichi SaoshiroTOKYO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Asian stocks slipped on Wednesday, pressured by losses on Wall Street as the technology sector stuttered yet again after a brief rebound, while the dollar sagged on lower long-term U.S. yields.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched down 0.2 percent.Australian stocks and South Korea’s KOSPI were down 0.2 percent, respectively. Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.5 percent.The S&P 500 information technology index barely rose overnight as it gave up much of the 1.4 percent intraday gains. The year’s top-performing sector was still down nearly 4 percent over the past week, with investors shifting money to banks, retailers and other stocks seen as likely to benefit the most from tax cuts promised by U.S. President Donald Trump.As a result the S&P 500 fell for the third straight session overnight. The Dow and Nasdaq also retreated.“The retreat in U.S. shares coincides with profit taking by investors before they close their books for the year-end. A lot of such year-end window dressing already appears to have taken place in emerging market equities,” said Kota Hirayama, senior emerging markets economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.“The main focal point for emerging market equities is how U.S. yields move towards the year end. The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy stance for next year bears close watching due to its impact on U.S. yields, and in turn the various equity markets.”Fed funds futures prices showed that investors see a rate increase at Federal Reserve’s Dec. 12-13 meeting as a done deal and much of the focus is on the outlook for rates in 2018 and beyond.The two-year Treasury yield reached a nine-year high overnight as the market increasingly expected the U.S. Congress to pass tax reform legislation and the Fed to tighten policy.But the 10-year Treasury yield fell overnight, flattening the yield curve further. The curve has flattened as investors see limited room for long-term U.S. inflation.The dollar dipped, weighed by sagging long-term U.S. yields. The dollar index against six major currencies slipped 0.05 percent to 93.337.The greenback dipped 0.1 percent to 112.470 yen and the euro was little changed at $1.1824 after shedding 0.35 percent the previous day.The pound extended overnight losses and last stood at $1.3412 for a loss of 0.2 percent. It came under pressure after Sky News said that a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Theresa May has been foiled.Sterling had fallen to as low as $1.3370 on Tuesday on disappointment after May failed to clinch a deal to open talks on post-Brexit free trade with the European Union.In commodities, U.S. crude oil futures were down 0.3 percent at $57.44 per barrel after American Petroleum Institute data showed that U.S. gasoline stocks and distillate inventories rose more than expected last week. (Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asia-stocks-pressured-by-wall-street-losses-dollar-sags-idINL3N1O6073'|'2017-12-05T21:57:00.000+02:00'
'0a0abd1395789e622200e368be25a8ec7f828b28'|'China''s Ping An takes 5 percent stake in HSBC via Stock Connect'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China has built up a 5 percent stake in HSBC ( HSBA.L ), it said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, making it a ‘significant investor’ in Europe’s biggest bank.FILE PHOTO - A woman rides a bicycle carrying her child past a car bearing the company logo of Ping An Insurance, in Hefei, Anhui province January 11, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Ping An said the investment is a financial one based on the bank’s strong performance and track record of paying dividends.The investment represents a reversal in the historical relationship between the two financial firms. HSBC in 2012 sold its $9.38 billion stake in Ping An to a conglomerate controlled by Thailand’s then-richest man Dhanin Chearavanont.Ping An said it build up its 5 percent stake in HSBC by buying its Hong Kong-listed shares via the Stock Connect program which allows mainland Chinese companies to buy Hong Kong shares, and vice versa.Reporting by Lawrence White; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ping-an-ins-hsbc/chinas-ping-an-takes-5-percent-stake-in-hsbc-via-stock-connect-idUSKBN1E01X0'|'2017-12-06T22:23:00.000+02:00'
'946ee98901ded81745e43c2e6bdcbcc02e40f768'|'Britain pushes back date for provisional findings in Sky-Fox deal'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s competition watchdog will give its initial verdict on Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Sky ( SKYB.L ) next month, later than expected, due to the vast number of responses it has received on the deal.FILE PHOTO: The Sky logo is seen outside of an entrance to offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Murdoch’s $15 billion bid to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not already own is being watched closely in the United States where Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) is in the lead to acquire much of his Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) media empire, including Sky.Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has been inundated with submissions from interested parties over the high profile takeover, said on Wednesday it would make its provisional findings public in January rather than the week of Dec. 18.“It is not unusual for us to update our timetables,” a spokeswoman said. “In this case, we have received a large body of evidence – including numerous face-to-face hearings and more than 12,000 submissions - so it is vital that we spend the time to reach an informed and considered provisional view.”The regulator is still due to give its final findings in March, 15 months after Murdoch’s Fox agreed in December 2016 to buy the European pay-TV group, reigniting a row over whether the media mogul has too much influence in Britain.Murdoch failed in a 2011 attempt to buy Sky when a phone-hacking scandal at his News of the World forced him to drop a previous attempt.Since then he has split his companies into two to separate the newspapers from the TV businesses. Fox said when it agreed the deal it did not foresee any regulatory difficulties but the government has taken a strong line against the takeover.The media minister, Karen Bradley, asked the regulator in September to examine whether Murdoch had a genuine commitment to broadcasting standards following concerns about the running of his U.S. Fox News network.Bradley also asked the regulator to scrutinize whether the deal would give him too much influence at the heart of the British media.Fox anticipates that its deal to buy the remaining shares in Sky will be approved in the first half of 2018. Any deal for Fox would include the remaining stake in Sky, sources have told Reuters.Analysts and competition lawyers have told Reuters they expect the CMA to continue reviewing the Fox-Sky deal even if a third party makes a bid for Fox.Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Costas Pitas and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sky-m-a-fox/britain-pushes-back-date-for-provisional-findings-in-sky-fox-deal-idINKBN1E01CN'|'2017-12-06T08:24:00.000+02:00'
'6d62595b63c3c2669ffdd706c3bea07d42a58bd9'|'Munich prosecutors start initial inquiry into BMW emissions allegations'|'December 6, 2017 / 3:13 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago German prosecutors begin initial inquiry into BMW diesel emission allegations Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - Munich prosecutors have opened a preliminary inquiry into allegations made this week by Germany’s main environmental lobby group that a BMW diesel model is fitted with engine software capable of cheating on emissions tests. A BMW logo is seen on a car at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero BMW’s 3-Series 320d car, designed to comply with the latest Euro 6 emission standards, was found to have breached permitted nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission levels by up to seven times the legal limit in a series of road tests while emissions remained below the limit in a set of static roller-bed tests, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) alleged on Tuesday. Munich prosecutors on Wednesday said they had initiated a “preliminary examination”, without being more specific, after the German Transport Ministry had said on Tuesday that the KBA motor vehicle regulator would look into the accusations. A BMW spokesman said the company had taken note of the move by Munich prosecutors but remained convinced that the vehicle in question complied with all emission requirements. The company was considering its options with regard to the accusations, the spokesman added. The DUH had said that in the roller-bed tests, which like its road tests were not independently verified, the BMW 320d’s NOx emissions remained significantly below the 80 milligrammes per kilometre limit at normal speeds and also when the speed was increased by 10 percent. Volkswagen’s emissions test-cheating scandal two years ago has since spilled over to the wider German vehicle industry with its luxury division Audi and Daimler the subjects of criminal investigations. Reporting by Irene Preisinger; Writing by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bmw-emissions-prosecutors/munich-prosecutors-start-initial-inquiry-into-bmw-emissions-allegations-idUKKBN1E022U'|'2017-12-06T17:12:00.000+02:00'
'f7f188803f67e83b31c14fb30002751cdfc78ac7'|'Japan''s Nikkei posts biggest fall since late March'|'TOKYO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average fell 2 percent on Wednesday, its biggest percentage drop since late March, with selling accelerating after a break of a key technical support level from its 25-day moving average.Market players said investors rushed to take profits from gains in recent months, with materials and other cyclical shares leading the losses following a tumble in copper prices.Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-plunge/japans-nikkei-posts-biggest-fall-since-late-march-idUSL3N1O62B6'|'2017-12-06T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'1fa63b4847e4dd2dc226b1218fdf0aa743f69d73'|'Tesla switches on giant battery to shore up Australia''s grid'|' 39 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Tesla switches on giant battery to shore up Australia''s grid David B Gray 3 Min Read HORNSDALE, Australia (Reuters) - Tesla Inc TLSA.O switched on the world’s biggest lithium ion battery on Friday in time to feed Australia’s shaky power grid for the first day of summer, meeting a promise by Elon Musk to build it in 100 days or give it free. Warning signs adorn the fence surrounding the compound housing the Hornsdale Power Reserve, featuring the world''s largest lithium ion battery made by Tesla, during the official launch near the South Australian town of Jamestown, in Australia, December 1, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray “South Australia is now leading the world in dispatchable renewable energy,” state Premier Jay Weatherill said at the official launch at the Hornsdale wind farm, owned by private French firm Neoen. Tesla won a bid in July to build the 129-megawatt hour battery for South Australia, which expanded in wind power far quicker than the rest of the country, but has suffered a string of blackouts over the past 18 months. In a politically charged debate, opponents of the state’s renewables push have argued that the battery is a “Hollywood solution” in a country that still relies on fossil fuels, mainly coal, for two-thirds of its electricity. Supporters, however, say it will help stabilise the grid in a state that now gets more than 40 percent of its electricity from wind energy, but needs help when the wind dies down. South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill speaks as he stands next to a plaque during the official launch of the Hornsdale Power Reserve, featuring the world''s largest lithium ion battery made by Tesla, near the South Australian town of Jamestown, in Australia, December 1, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray “Storage can respond within a fraction of a second. It can address those stability issues very quickly without needing to resort to using large power plants,” said Praveen Kathpal, vice president of AES Energy ( AES.N ), a losing bidder to build the battery. Highlighting industry hopes for the take-up of battery storage, Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited the site some 225 kms (141 miles) north of the state capital Adelaide in July, hailing the battery as “just the beginning”. Slideshow (8 Images) The state has yet to reveal how much it is paying Tesla. Weatherill came under fire last year after the entire state went black following a major storm, and raced to shore up the state’s grid with a A$510 million (£284.6 million) plan, including ordering the big battery and installing diesel-fuelled turbines. AES’s Kathpal, who is also chairman of the U.S. Energy Storage Association, said South Australia’s commitment to turn to energy storage was an important step for the rest of the industry. “We think that’s what’s really going to accelerate the uptake of energy storage in Australia,” he said. Writing by Sonali Paul; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-power-tesla/tesla-switches-on-giant-battery-to-shore-up-australias-grid-idUKKBN1DV3VO'|'2017-12-01T08:38:00.000+02:00'
'6a304f22af0de64fb326ce815e259053338257cd'|'Mitsubishi Material''s unit head quits over data falsification scandal'|'December 1, 2017 / 8:17 AM / Updated 12 hours ago Mitsubishi Cable head quits over data falsification scandal Sam Nussey 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The head of Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd has stepped down following the firm’s admission last week that it had manipulated inspection data of rubber sealing products. A monitor showing the logo of Mitsubishi Materials Corp is seen in Tokyo, Japan, November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The company is one of three Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) units to have disclosed that data had been fabricated, the latest in a spate of falsification and compliance scandals at Japanese manufacturers this year. Hiroaki Murata has resigned as president, although he will still keep his place on the board, Mitsubishi Cable said. It is one of the few resignations by senior executives announced in the wake of the scandals. The data fabrication at Mitsubishi Cable took place for two and half years with products potentially sent to hundreds of customers at home and abroad. Mitsubishi Materials has said that it has not found any safety or legal problems relating to the data falsification. Other Japanese firms to have hit by compliance scandals include Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), Toray Industries Inc ( 3402.T ), Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) and rival automaker Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ). Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mitsubishi-ma-scandal/mitsubishi-materials-unit-head-quits-over-data-falsification-scandal-idUSKBN1DV43W'|'2017-12-01T10:17:00.000+02:00'
'e6740fc9f208cf09da0a2dcdfc0a33e5ae35e7cd'|'U.S. oil steady after OPEC extension of production cut'|'November 29, 2017 / 5:00 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Oil settles up but off highs as Flynn news spooks Wall Street Scott DiSavino 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices settled up slightly on Friday, but came off session highs as financial markets reeled from an ABC News report that added to concerns about President Donald Trump’s exposure to a probe into Russian meddling in last year’s campaign. Brent crude rose as high as $64.32 a barrel, the day after OPEC and other crude producers agreed to extend output cuts until the end of 2018 to tighten global supplies and support prices. But oil pared gains as Wall Street stocks slid following an ABC report that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was prepared to tell investigators that prior to taking office, Trump directed him to make contact with Russians. [.N] Reuters has not verified the ABC News report, which cited a Flynn confidant. Flynn also pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI. “Oil prices have pared earlier gains in tandem with losses seen in the equity market partly because (of) news regarding Michael Flynn,” said Abhishek Kumar, Senior Energy Analyst at Interfax Energy’s Global Gas Analytics in London. Brent futures settled at $63.73 a barrel, putting the new front month February contract up 16 cents from where January expired on Thursday. The February futures contract was up about 1.8 percent from where it closed in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 96 cents, or 1.7 percent, to settle at $58.36 per barrel. WTI’s January contract does not expire till Dec. 19. A oil pump is seen at sunset outside Scheibenhard, near Strasbourg, France, October 6, 2017 . REUTERS/Christian Hartmann Both benchmarks declined for the week, with Brent down less than 1 percent and U.S. down about 1 percent. Before the Flynn news spooked Wall Street, crude prices were approaching their highest levels since the summer of 2015. On Thurdsay, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and some non-OPEC producers led by Russia agreed to extend the output cuts. The output cuts were due to expire next March. Producers have reduced output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd). The latest agreement allows for producers to exit the deal early if the market overheats. Russian officials had expressed concern that extending the output cuts might encourage rival U.S. shale firms to pump more crude. “It leaves a question mark about the second half (of 2018) and about the commitment of Russian oil companies, which will be price dependent,” Petromatrix strategist Olivier Jakob said. The chief executive of Russia’s top private producer Lukoil told Reuters he would like to see the price of oil stable at current levels, trading in the $60-65 per barrel range. Rising U.S. production has been a thorn in OPEC’s side. On Friday, U.S. rig count data increased for a second straight week. [RIG/U] U.S. production rose to 9.5 million bpd in September, its highest monthly output since 9.6 million bpd in April 2015, according to federal energy data going back to 2005. On an annual basis, U.S. output peaked at 9.6 million bpd in 1970. Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in London and Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-falls-on-doubts-over-extending-output-cuts-surprise-rise-in-u-s-crude-stocks-idUKKBN1DT0IW'|'2017-12-01T03:04:00.000+02:00'
'ade17903a66efb615b6f06642ec64bdcaf4c3061'|'Beauty contest: China make-up brands rein in South Korea rivals'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:24 AM / Updated 12 hours ago Beauty contest: China make-up brands rein in South Korea rivals Hyunjoo Jin , Adam Jourdan 6 Min Read SEOUL/SHANGHAI(Reuters) - As a diplomatic spat between Beijing and Seoul raged this year, many South Koreans felt decidedly unwelcome in China. South Korean businesses were shunned, K-pop concerts were canceled and tourist trade dried up. But one group of South Koreans have been very much in demand: the executives and employees of South Korea’s cosmetics companies, who are being lured by Chinese rivals as a battle for China’s huge beauty market heats up. Chinese make-up brands including Jala, Proya and Suhu - which have long trailed Korean rivals in terms of quality - are hiring South Korean executives as well as spending up on research and buying overseas firms, industry executives and headhunters say. The moves seem to be helping. Chinese brands, which compete with Korea names from top-rated Amorepacific to nimble budget makers such as Clio, are gaining market share in the mid-range and premium cosmetics sector where South Korea has traditionally had strength in China. While Chinese companies have been gaining ground for some time, the trend appears to have accelerated this year after Seoul’s decision to install a U.S. anti-missile system against Beijing’s wishes sparked a backlash against Korean companies. At stake is a bigger chunk of China’s $50.2 billion beauty and personal care market, which research firm Euromonitor projects will grow to $61.9 billion by 2020. Jason Yu, Shanghai-based General Manager of market research firm Kantar Worldpanel, said mid-tier or “masstige” Korean brands were most exposed to Chinese brands improving their offering. High-end brands from France’s L‘Oreal and Japan’s Shiseido tended to attract wealthier buyers. “In terms of the price position, they will be more in direct competition with the emerging Chinese brands who are moving up the price ladder,” said Yu, adding Chinese firms were “catching up very fast”. HIRING SPREE There are signs that recent diplomatic tensions have played into the hands of local Chinese brands in their battle with Korean rivals. Amorepacific’s sales fell 8 percent in the January to September period from a year earlier, while operating profit skidded 30 percent. Smaller, budget makers were hit harder, with Clio’s operating profit falling nearly 70 percent. While some Chinese make-up brands use South Korean stars or highlight Korean links, others are playing up Chinese elements such as using traditional medicine ingredients or use slogans about suiting Chinese skin. Zoe Zhuang, 24, an engineer in Nanjing, said she used to use cushion foundations and eye pencils from South Korea’s Etude brand. She now uses more Chinese to “support local brands”, she said, without referring to the dispute over the THAAD missile system. “I actually don’t think Chinese makeup is that good yet, there is plenty of room for improvement,” she said. Chinese cosmetics firms have been trying to close the quality gap by aggressively targeting South Korean executives. “(Chinese cosmetics brands) are recruiting Koreans in almost all areas, including brand managers, packaging design, store interiors, purchasing and marketing,” Choi Sun-hee, head of South Korean recruiting firm HR Biz Korea, told Reuters. Some Chinese brands are willing to offer 50 percent higher wages, help with rents and flights home to woo Korean workers, Choi added. Guangzhou-based Suhu plans to double the number of its South Korean employees to 40, Choi said. It recently hired an executive from Korea’s Nature Republic to oversee the recent launch of its Rojank brand, he added. Suhu declined to comment. Chinese brand Proya, which owns the Uzero and Cats & Roses brands, hired South Korean Kim Hoi-joon from Clio in 2014 to launch its Hapsode brand, Kim told Reuters. Another former Amorepacific official said Kim had lured him to Proya last year with a salary hike of about 50 percent. He said he was one of over 10 Korean employees hired by Proya. Proya declined to comment. Meanwhile, Jala, one of China’s leading cosmetics firms, hired a Korean executive earlier this year to revamp its mainstay Chando brand, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Jala also hired the former head of Amorepacific’s Etude brand, Kim Dong-young, they added. Kim, reached by phone, confirmed he had been working at Jala for about a year, but declined to comment further. Jala’s press office was not available for comment. The approach is not limited to cosmetics. Chinese firms from carmakers to flatscreen producers to smartphone vendors have recently opened up more to hiring foreign talent to help them gain a competitive edge, often taking market share from South Korean rivals as they move up the value chain and their industries mature. But Korean brands aren’t going down without a fight. Amorepacific said it was working with experts in seven Chinese cities to study local skin characteristics and develop products for the local market. “It is not that we are not worried about Chinese competition,” Rho Jee-hye, an Amorepacific senior vice president told Reuters. “As there is Estee Lauder in the United States, L‘Oreal in France and Amorepacific in Korea, an innovative Chinese company could emerge.” Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee in SEOUL, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/southkorea-china-companies/beauty-contest-china-make-up-brands-rein-in-south-korea-rivals-idINKBN1DV3Q4'|'2017-12-01T07:23:00.000+02:00'
'3fe3e72e62b10e0276df1ad7eb5c8a9e61ca4f2c'|'Former British Telecom''s Italy boss wins 1.8 million euros for wrongful dismissal - sources'|' 28 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Former British Telecom''s Italy boss wins 1.8 million euros for wrongful dismissal - sources Emilio Parodi 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - A manager at the centre of investigations into an accounting scandal at British Telecom’s ( BT.L ) Italian business has been awarded almost 1.8 million euros (1.6 million pounds) in damages for wrongful dismissal, three legal sources said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The logo for the British Telecom group is seen outside of offices in the City of London, Britain, January 16 , 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Gianluca Cimini was fired for disciplinary reasons last year, months before the phone company filed a criminal complaint accusing him of grave violations of corporate governance. The accusations arose from its investigation of alleged accounting fraud that cost the firm 530 million pounds. An Italian labour tribunal ruled that the manager’s dismissal was both “illegitimate” and “unfounded”, one source said, quoting the judge’s summary of his decision. Full reasons for the ruling will be issued within 15 days. “We’re extremely disappointed with this decision,” a BT spokesman said in an email, adding that the firm would not comment further until the full judgement was available. Cimini, formerly BT Italy CEO, and several other former top managers remain under investigation by Italian prosecutors on allegations of alleged fraud. The civil case involving Cimini is separate from the criminal investigation. All the accused have always denied any wrongdoing. Cimini’s lawyer, Angelo Zambelli, confirmed the wrongful dismissal ruling. “That’s a courageous sentence which leaves us fully satisfied and which I believe will reinstate Mr Cimini’s reputation and professional decorum that was taken away from him a year ago,” Zambelli said. The accounting scandal surfaced late last year when BT Group said it had discovered financial irregularities at its Italy unit. In January, it characterised it as improper accounting and took a write-down of around 530 million pounds. BT first suspended and later fired Cimini and some other managers late last year after an internal inquiry into bullying. In the criminal complaint filed in March, BT accused several former Italy executives, including Cimini, and other employees of breaking company rules and unlawful conduct. In Cimini’s case, BT alleges he was responsible for breaking corporate governance rules in relation to contracts and suppliers, and for using intimidatory behaviour when dealing with staff. Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Mark Bendeich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bt-italy-dismissal/former-british-telecoms-italy-boss-wins-1-8-million-euros-for-wrongful-dismissal-sources-idUKKBN1E02SJ'|'2017-12-06T21:28:00.000+02:00'
'21f878b0e753c6b1c6966ecfe18b68426c8b2e8e'|'Genel Energy seeks to cut bond debt to $300 million'|'December 6, 2017 / 8:15 AM / in 5 minutes Genel Energy seeks to cut bond debt to $300 million Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan-focused oil producer Genel Energy plc said on Wednesday it is seeking to reduce its bond debt to $300 million (223.4 million pounds) from the currently outstanding $421.8 million. The company proposed refinancing some of its bonds through a partial early redemption and reducing its debt by replacing the existing bond agreement with a new $300 million deal. Genel, one of a handful of foreign oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan, is also looking to extend maturity through amending and restating terms to a new 5 year bond with a coupon of 10 percent per annum. The company said a bondholders meeting will be held on Dec. 20 and that bondholders holding a significant proportion of the bonds have confirmed they will vote in favour of the proposal. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-genel-energy-debtrenegotiation/genel-energy-seeks-to-cut-bond-debt-to-300-million-idUKKBN1E00SU'|'2017-12-06T10:14:00.000+02:00'
'f7c36afd814f443ca5523fd3de0460ccd4f41b4d'|'China banking regulator issues draft rules on liquidity risk management'|'December 6, 2017 / 9:03 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago China banking regulator issues draft rules on liquidity risk management Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s banking regulator on Wednesday issued draft rules on commercial banks’ liability risk management with an aim to improve lenders’ risk assessment framework and safeguard the banking system in the new market environment. The draft rules introduced three new quantitative measures on banks’ liquidity risks, of different scales, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in an online statement. Among the measures, the net stable funding ratio, which gauges lenders’ ability to use long-term stable funding to support business development, will apply to commercial banks with more than 200 billion yuan (22.5 billion pounds) in assets. The high-quality liquid assets adequacy ratio, which measures whether banks have sufficient high-quality assets to cover short-term liquidity gaps under stress scenarios, will apply to commercial lender with less than 200 billion yuan in assets. The liquidity matching ratio will apply to all commercial banks, the regulator said. The ratio will assess banks’ main asset-liability duration structures. The rules come as Beijing seeks to fend off risks in the country’s massive financial sector and catch up with the latest developments in financial markets. “As interest rate liberalization and financial innovation continue to deepen ... the interconnectedness of financial institutions has increased, making it easier for liquidity risk to spread and transfer in the banking system,” the CBRC said in its statement. The rules will “effectively push commercial banks to improve their ability to manage liquidity risk”, it added. The rules will take effect on March 1, 2018, the CBRC said. Reporting By Shu Zhang and Beijing Monitoring Desk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-regulation-banks/china-banking-regulator-issues-draft-rules-on-liquidity-risk-management-idUKKBN1E00X3'|'2017-12-06T11:02:00.000+02:00'
'601d75cdd2e3c9636a50c988c468acb0dcc9c527'|'Rogers considering sale of Blue Jays, Cogeco stake - Bloomberg'|'(Reuters) - Canadian telecom company Rogers Communications Inc is looking to sell assets including the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team and a stake in media company Cogeco Inc, Rogers Chief Financial Officer Tony Staffieri said on Wednesday.A sign is pictured outside a Rogers Communications retail store in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Wattie Though no deal is imminent, a sale will free up capital for other investments, Staffieri said at the UBS Global Media and Communications conference in New York.Rogers still wants sports programming rights, Staffieri said, adding the company does not need to own a team for that reason.Shares of Rogers rose 1 percent to C$66.07 in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee and Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rci-divestiture/rogers-considering-sale-of-blue-jays-cogeco-stake-bloomberg-idUSKBN1E00D0'|'2017-12-06T07:14:00.000+02:00'
'0b1a865f21affd031b6a0cf68215dde45dbce7d3'|'Roche to seize leap-frog opportunity in lung cancer'|'December 6, 2017 / 6:26 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Roche to seize leap-frog opportunity in lung cancer Ben Hirschler 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - After lagging rivals in cancer immunotherapies, Swiss drugmaker Roche ( ROG.S ) hopes to leap-frog into the lead in the biggest market, tackling previously untreated lung cancer. CEO Severin Schwan of Swiss drugmaker Roche addresses the annual news conference at the company''s headquarters in Base, Switzerland January 28, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo “We have a real chance to be at the forefront here,” Chief Executive Severin Schwan said on Wednesday. “Our ambition is to become a clear leader in the field of cancer immunotherapies.” At the same time he warned many investors would lose money across the industry as a large proportion of the hundreds of cancer trials now underway failed, leaving just a few winners. His optimism for Roche has been buoyed by study results showing its immune-boosting medicine Tecentriq given with chemotherapy and the older drug Avastin significantly cut the risk of lung cancer worsening. Researchers will detail the scale of that benefit, versus chemotherapy and Avastin alone, in a keenly awaited presentation at a medical meeting in Geneva on Thursday. “We have the potential to get into the lead in first-line lung cancer,” Schwan said. “In all likelihood we have a medicine here that will potentially change the standard of care ... but we will also have to see how it compares with other therapies.” Overall survival (OS) data will also be crucial in determining the ultimate winner in lung cancer - by far the biggest oncology market - since one of the main benefits of using immunotherapy is its long-lasting effects. Roche does not yet have that OS data but initial observations are “encouraging” and it expects results in the first half of 2018, well ahead of OS findings with a competing drug combination including chemotherapy from Merck & Co ( MRK.N ). Roche and Merck have led the way in pioneering so-called “chemo-combo” treatment, while AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ) and Bristol-Myers ( BMY.N ) are betting mainly on mixing two immunotherapies, although AstraZeneca failed to show any initial benefit with this approach in a high-profile trial in July. Currently, Tecentriq’s sales - expected to total around $500 million this year - are well behind the $3.7 billion and $4.8 billion expected respectively in 2017 for Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol’s Opdivo, the current market leaders. But analysts at Jefferies believe Tecentriq could sell $6.2 billion by 2021, bolstered by its promise in drug cocktails. Tecentriq is one of several new drugs Roche is relying on to be a success to help replace revenue from older biological cancer drugs whose patents have expired or will shortly, exposing them to cheaper so-called biosimilar competition. “On the pipeline side, we’re even more de-risked than a year ago ... but there is no doubt that the impact from biosimilars will be significant,” Schwan told Reuters. “On balance, I‘m now very confident that we should be able to compensate for this erosion.” Cancer research is today the hottest area of drug research, with dozens of companies conducting hundreds of clinical trials, many of which Schwan said would fail. “There will be an enormous drop-out from all these clinical trials, which means a lot of people that invested into these trials will lose money.” Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Alexander Smith and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-roche-ceo/roche-to-seize-leap-frog-opportunity-in-lung-cancer-idUKKBN1E02LB'|'2017-12-06T20:38:00.000+02:00'
'eecf0b7e4726886b93c82f0a037cd16104c11dff'|'BUZZ-HSBC starts coverage of India''s IndiGo, SpiceJet with buy; rates Jet at hold'|'** HSBC Global Research initiates coverage on three Indian airline stocks** Initiates coverage of IndiGo, owned by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, at “buy” and 1,500 rupees price target; cites strong balance sheet, lowest unit cost and one of best on-time performance** SpiceJet Ltd rated “buy” with PT of 180 rupees; cites “impressive turnaround story”, adding airline will be in net cash position by FY19** Jet Airways (India) Ltd rated “hold” with PT of 600 rupees; cites high financing costs and weaker Gulf demand** Overall, HSBC optimistic on airline sector, saying industry is “at the cusp of a strong recovery”** Cites favourable government policies and consolidation in the market as positives** Adds FX, more fuel efficient fleets will offset impact of rising fuel prices '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/buzz-hsbc-starts-coverage-of-indias-indi/buzz-hsbc-starts-coverage-of-indias-indigo-spicejet-with-buy-rates-jet-at-hold-idINL3N1O52BQ'|'2017-12-05T03:40:00.000+02:00'
'482e71b6e96cb4080af8f9190adea749742b02ba'|'Delivery Hero to place $810 million worth of shares'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Delivery Hero ( DHER.DE ), the world’s largest online takeaway food delivery group, said on Tuesday it would offer shares worth 686 million euros ($810 million) to investors, raking in cash to expand its business through takeovers.FILE PHOTO - The Delivery Hero headquarters is pictured in Berlin, Germany, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch “Delivery Hero continues to see an increased level of attractive M&A opportunities and, in line with its strategy, looks to further consolidate its market leadership positions and pursue value accretive M&A,” it said in a statement.It said it would place a total of 18.3 million shares, worth 686 million euros based on Tuesday’s closing price, of which 10.5 million will be issued via a capital increase.Separately, a group of minority shareholders, which the company did not identify, will place 7.8 million shares.It was unclear whether German investor Rocket Internet ( RKET.DE ), which in September had halved its stake in Delivery Hero to 13 percent, is among them.Operating in more than 40 countries in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and Asia, Delivery Hero was one of several online food delivery firms to go public in recent years. Others include U.S.-based GrubHub ( GRUB.N ), Britain’s Just Eat ( JE.L ) and Takeaway.com ( TKWY.AS ).Delivery Hero’s shares closed down 3.2 percent on Tuesday at 37.5 euros, but up about 40 percent since the company’s initial public offering in late June.($1 = 0.8473 euros)Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-delivery-hero-shareissue/delivery-hero-to-place-810-million-worth-of-shares-idUSKBN1DZ2R7'|'2017-12-06T02:54:00.000+02:00'
'b95e633c3901d3a61bb23f54247bd961d46f3d32'|'Russian tycoons, fearing new sanctions, float new bond idea - sources'|'December 5, 2017 / 8:25 AM / in 10 minutes Russian tycoons, fearing new sanctions, float new bond idea - sources Darya Korsunskaya , Oksana Kobzeva , Polina Devitt 6 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Wealthy Russians facing the prospect of targeted U.S. sanctions next year have floated the idea of a special treasury bond to facilitate favourable terms for bringing their cash home, three sources familiar with the scheme said. A cashier holds new 200 and 2,000 rouble banknotes in a bank in Moscow, Russia November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov The bond, denominated in foreign exchange, would be offered at a higher yield than bank rates and be more liquid than Eurobonds, the sources said. Crucially, unlike with bank accounts, holders would be able to remain anonymous. “There is information that a number of people want to bring their foreign cash assets back here,” said an executive from a major Russian state company, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. “The idea they came up with is that you open some sort of account, with that you buy special bonds which the finance ministry will issue.” There was no indication that the Russian government was seriously considering such a move, and the finance ministry declined to comment. Two sources close to the ministry said they did not look favourably on the idea. A senior executive in a Russian state bank said it would accelerate a move that has already started. The banker said wealthy people in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle were putting modest amounts of foreign currency into Russian bank deposits. “But the interest rates on foreign currency deposits are low, whereas investing in finance ministry forex instruments can secure them good returns,” he said. “They can make money on that.” A source in the Russian financial markets said he had also heard from wealth managers about new cashflows from abroad. “They are moving their money to Russia,” he said. Special forex bonds have been issued in the past and even have a nickname, “Vebovki”, after state development bank VEB which issued them, according to a person with close ties to the Kremlin and to leading oligarchs. “Now the sanctions could be an additional argument,” for issuing such an instrument, he said. He added they would provide an alternative vehicle for the state to raise debt in case expanded U.S. sanctions bar foreign investors from buying Russian sovereign debt. UNPATRIOTIC Putin has been trying to persuade wealthy Russians to bring their money back to Russia, pointing out that many ordinary Russians view the business community as “unpatriotic” because of their assets offshore. A 2014 “de-offshorisation” law had limited success and for some tycoons even had a deleterious effect by encouraging them to become non-residents. But that was before the U.S. Congress passed sanctions this year over Russia’s annexation of Crimea that include a list of individuals with close links to Putin expected to be submitted at the end of January. The list will not automatically lead to people on it being hit by personal sanctions, which could include freezing foreign assets and bans on travel or access to foreign bank accounts, but many Russian business people have said they believe it will. That has many wealthy Russians in a bind over whether to leave their assets abroad and possibly get caught up in the sanctions net, or bring the assets home to be exposed to other risks, including being prosecuted for tax evasion or getting caught up in an economic crash. Reuters was not able to establish which individuals were involved in the lobbying effort, what approaches they had made, or who in the government they were talking to. “The idea is out there, but for now there is no decision,” the state bank executive said. The Russian authorities have shown little sympathy for the foreign asset problems of wealthy business people in the past. “It’s nonsense,” one of the two sources close to the finance ministry said of the idea of issuing special bonds. OPTIONS AT HOME There is no reliable data on how much money Russians have abroad. According to a rough estimate by Gabriel Zucman, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, Russians had about $200 billion worth of financial assets in offshore tax havens as of 2014, equivalent to 10 percent of Russia’s GDP that year. Several of the wealthiest have told Reuters they keep their assets abroad because of the volatility of the economy, the secrecy afforded by offshore havens and uncertainty about Russia’s future political stability. The options at home have all sorts of pitfalls. Although interest rates for rouble deposits in Russian banks are relatively high, at around 7-8 percent, wealthy Russians are wary of the risk of a rouble crash and prefer to keep deposits in foreign currency where rates are much lower, usually ranging between just above zero to 2 percent. Yields on Eurobonds are higher - a benchmark Eurobond issued this year for 30 years RU000A0JXU14= is trading at 5 percent yield - but the market lacks liquidity, as new bond issues are rare, and holders of existing bonds do not tend to sell. In addition, the compliance departments of Russian banks are required to ask lots of questions if a wealthy individual deposits a large amount with them, especially if that person is under U.S. sanctions. Russian banks may also pass information about big depositors to the Russian tax authorities, which some businessman have said they don’t want because they want to protect commercially sensitive information and safeguard their privacy. Additional reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya and Yelena Orekhova; Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-sanctions-oligarchs-funds/russian-tycoons-fearing-new-sanctions-float-new-bond-idea-sources-idUKKBN1DZ0TC'|'2017-12-05T10:24:00.000+02:00'
'05e8f1f381aea54f3dd62e6b42356729c5bc0f20'|'EU supervision at issue in final talks on new car rules'|'December 5, 2017 / 5:25 PM / in 26 minutes EU supervision at issue in final talks on new car rules Alissa de Carbonnel 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Giving Brussels more supervision over national car regulators is a hurdle in talks this week to agree new EU rules after the Volkswagen scandal, with Germany and Italy opposed, according to EU documents and sources. A VW logo is seen in front of the main building of the Volkswagen brand at the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer The EU executive proposed rules giving it more powers, including to fine manufacturers directly, following the 2015 Dieselgate scandal when German carmaker Volkswagen admitted to cheating on U.S. diesel emissions tests. EU sources say the bloc’s three legislators - the European Parliament, EU member governments and the European Commission - are close to reaching a compromise on the draft law when they meet on Thursday, but remain divided over how much market surveillance power to give Brussels. “We need more quality and independence in the system, more checks of cars already in circulation, and European oversight,” the European Union’s Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska told Reuters. “I‘m optimistic that an agreement is now finally within reach.” EU documents seen by Reuters show EU lawmakers want the Commission to be able to carry out regular audits of national car approval authorities. Some member states, including France, support two days of verification every five years. Germany, however, opposes inspections by the Commission, arguing “any kind of audit means extra bureaucracy without being beneficial,” in a position paper dated Nov. 30, seen by Reuters. Italy and seven other nations are asking for conditions that would weaken the Commission’s oversight power, the sources said. “It boils down to: do we want the Commission to put its nose in the affairs of the national type-approval authorities?” one diplomat said. “After Dieselgate, it’s hard to say no.” Another point of contention is the number of on-road emissions tests a country is obliged to carry out - after such checks in the United States helped uncover the VW scandal. A draft compromise text seen by Reuters proposes that member states carry out checks on at least one in every 40,000 new vehicles registered there, and 20 percent of those checks must include emissions tests. The number is less than the European Parliament asked for. It also means far fewer checks than in the United States, climate campaigners say. “Regular controls of national authorities is key to changing the culture,” said Julia Poliscanova, an expert with Brussels-based campaign group Transport and Environment. “Many member states continue to act as if Dieselgate didn’t happen.” EU negotiators early on abandoned the Commission’s plan to break cosy relations between carmakers and the laboratories they hire to test vehicles by introducing a system whereby carmakers do not pay laboratories directly for such tests. But many other changes intended to avoid a repeat of the scandal, such as allowing EU-wide recalls of vehicles, are set to become law. Under current rules, national bodies, such as Germany’s KBA authority, approve new cars and alone have the power to revoke those licenses. Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-autos-emissions/eu-supervision-at-issue-in-final-talks-on-new-car-rules-idUKKBN1DZ2JC'|'2017-12-05T19:24:00.000+02:00'
'3ae76754eb478514e8095b353368cf39e2dfbdf6'|'Statoil to present $5.9 billion Castberg oilfield development plan Tuesday'|'OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s Statoil ( STL.OL ) presented long-awaited investment plans on Tuesday for its Arctic Johan Castberg oil discovery, which is expected to cost 49 billion Norwegian crowns ($5.89 billion) to develop ahead of a 2022 production start-up.Norwegian oil company''s Statoil logo is seen at their headquarters in Fornebu, Norway, June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins Statoil initially estimated a cost of more than 100 billion crowns for Castberg, making the field unprofitable at current oil prices, but had vowed to work with suppliers to reduce the investment.In June, Statoil said revised Castberg plans would be presented by the end of the year.“This makes the Johan Castberg project the biggest offshore oil and gas development to be given the go-ahead in 2017,” the company said, adding that it would be the sixth field to come on stream off the coast of northern Norway.Partners in Castberg, which is believed to hold between 450 million and 650 million barrels of oil equivalents, are Statoil with 50 percent, Italy’s Eni ( ENI.MI ) with 30 percent and Norway’s state-owned Petoro with 20 percent.As part of the announcement, engineering company Aker Solutions ( AKSOL.OL ) won a contract worth 4 billion Norwegian crowns to build subsea systems and provide design and procurement services.“The field is essential for continuous production growth on the Norwegian continental shelf for Statoil from 2022 onwards,” Danske Bank analyst Anders Holte said.“The field is one of the few remaining large developments offshore Norway and as such it’s important for the long term outlook for Statoil’s liquids production.”($1 = 8.3126 Norwegian crowns)Reporting by Joachim Dagenborg and Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Terje Solsvik and Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-statoil-norway/statoil-to-present-5-9-billion-castberg-oilfield-development-plan-tuesday-idINKBN1DZ0JJ'|'2017-12-05T03:36:00.000+02:00'
'2b6db603be8aca50efc7f26e8ec3304c3d2a1537'|'FDA approves heart protection claims for Amgen cholesterol drug'|'December 1, 2017 / 9:57 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago FDA approves heart protection claims for Amgen cholesterol drug Bill Berkrot 3 Min Read Dec 1 (Reuters) - Amgen Inc can now promote the ability of its potent but expensive cholesterol drug to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, after U.S. health regulators approved adding those benefits to the medicine’s prescribing label, the company said on Friday. Amgen has long seen this development as critical to clearing onerous hurdles to patient access and unlocking the value of the drug, Repatha, which has had anemic sales since its August 2015 approval despite its billion-dollar potential. The injected biotech drug was approved on the basis of its ability to dramatically lower bad LDL cholesterol. But health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers have made it extremely difficult for patients to get the medicine, even those whose dangerously high cholesterol met criteria for use in the original label approved by the Food and Drug Administration. As many as 75 percent of patients prescribed the medicine have been denied coverage despite numerous appeals, severely holding back sales. Repatha sales, while gradually improving, were just $89 million in the third quarter. A study released in March of more than 27,500 patients showed that Repatha cut the risk of heart attacks by 27 percent and stroke by 21 percent compared with a placebo in high-risk patients already on high doses of cholesterol-lowering statins such as Pfizer Inc’s Lipitor. In the second year of the study, the benefits were more pronounced, with a combined heart attack and stroke risk reduction of 33 percent. But Amgen by law was unable to promote those benefits until the FDA approved adding those claims. The company has repeatedly said having the heart benefits added to the official label was necessary to get insurers to loosen their purse strings. “With this approval, it’s now more important than ever that appropriate patients obtain access to Repatha in order to avoid preventable heart attacks and strokes,” Tony Hooper, Amgen’s head of global commercial operations, said in a statement. “We will continue to work with payers to help ensure the patients who need Repatha the most are able to get this innovative medicine,” Hooper said. (Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by David Gregorio)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/amgen-cholesterol/fda-approves-heart-protection-claims-for-amgen-cholesterol-drug-idUSL1N1O129Q'|'2017-12-01T23:57:00.000+02:00'
'936141fe57acc42e09e0b8874c9bc02f0dcf7221'|'Toshiba, Western Digital to settle dispute - Bloomberg'|'Reuters TV United States December 1, 2017 / 3:23 AM / Updated an hour ago Toshiba, Western Digital nearing deal over chip unit sale dispute: media Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) and Western Digital Corp ( WDC.O ) are close to settling a legal dispute that has threatened to become a major stumbling block in the embattled Japanese conglomerate’s plans to sell its $18 billion semiconductor unit, media reported. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen as window cleaners work on the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, February 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Toshiba agreed in September to sell the unit, the world’s second biggest producer of NAND chips, to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP and including South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix ( 000660.KS ). But Western Digital, Toshiba’s chip joint venture partner and jilted suitor in the auction of the unit, argues that no deal can proceed without its consent and is seeking an injunction and a ruling from the International Court of Arbitration. Jiji news agency reported that while Toshiba and Western Digital have agreed to work towards a settlement, the amount of influence that SK Hynix will exert over the chip unit remains a sticking point between Bain and Western Digital. Bloomberg news reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the two sides were close to an agreement and that the U.S. firm would drop its efforts to block the deal in exchange for an extension of their joint venture agreements. Toshiba is always open to a settlement with Western Digital although nothing concrete has been decided, a spokeswoman for the company said. A representative for Western Digital was not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours. Toshiba’s shares were up 2 percent in early afternoon trade on Friday. Toshiba, which needs to sell the unit to cover billions of dollars in liabilities at its bankrupt U.S. nuclear reactor maker Westinghouse, gained more negotiating power in its talks with Western Digital after arranging a $5.4 billion new share issue to more than 30 overseas investors. Reporting by Sam Nussey in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-chips-western-digital/toshiba-western-digital-to-settle-dispute-bloomberg-idUKKBN1DV3KD'|'2017-12-01T05:35:00.000+02:00'
'cadfcb7c704fbe3ad7636901c303a434a804b7fc'|'Thomas Cook to close 50 UK stores as sales move online'|'December 1, 2017 / 12:40 PM / Updated an hour ago Thomas Cook to close 50 UK stores as sales move online Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Travel firm Thomas Cook said on Friday it would close 50 stores in Britain as part of an ongoing review into its shop network, as more and more sales move online. A spokesman for Thomas Cook said that 400 staff would be affected by the closures, although many employees were likely to be redeployed to other shops across its network. While Thomas Cook has been a staple of the UK high street, traditional package holidays sold in stores are now less vital to its strategy as online sales - which grew 27 percent in the UK in 2017 - take off. The plan is to shut branches that are close to other stores or have seen dwindling profits due to fewer customers. Thomas Cook UK’s Director of Retail and Customer Experience Kathryn Darbandi said that the company had to offer different sales channels to succeed. “We continually review our network of stores across the UK to make sure we’re offering customers the best of Thomas Cook,” she said in a statement. “We will offer them a world-class service whichever channel they chose to book, be that retail or online.” Thomas Cook said the closures would happen by March 2018. The travel firm said in its full-year results last week that it had cut its retail network in the UK by 45 percent in the last five years, ending September with 692 stores. However, 47 percent of Thomas Cook holidays are still booked instore. Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thomas-cook-grp-jobs/thomas-cook-to-close-50-uk-stores-as-sales-move-online-idUKKBN1DV4ST'|'2017-12-01T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'3ab3669fb78de8cc7c19d05823fd46d45eea5232'|'GMB union seeks talks with AA over debt pile'|'December 1, 2017 / 12:21 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago GMB union seeks talks with AA over debt pile   GMB, a union representing staff at British motoring group AA, said it was seeking talks with the company’s new management over AA’s 2.7 billion pound debt. The AA, which listed in London in 2014, has a stock market value of 914 million pounds. It refinanced its debt earlier this year, extending the average maturity as well as cutting annual interest cots. The cost of its annual debt interest has been reduced by 90 million pounds since its listing. “GMB members working for the AA are seriously worried about the scale of debts and the cost of financing them and how this is impacting on their day to day lives,” GMB Regional Organiser Paul Grafton said on Friday. The AA said this week it was selling its home emergency services policy book to Homeserve for an undisclosed sum. GMB said its members were concerned that the debt pile could lead to further divestments. The company appointed Simon Breakwell as acting chief executive in September following the sudden dismissal in August of Bob Mackenzie for gross misconduct. The GMB is not the recognised union for AA employees, an AA spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. Another union, the IDU, is the AA’s recognised union, she added. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Jason Neely and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aa-debt-gmb/gmb-union-seeks-talks-with-aa-on-debt-pile-idUKKBN1DV4RH'|'2017-12-01T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'd5fe6e63c9d1dfcb314ab489f1e345b4b306dcd9'|'China has basically exited from outbound investment curbs-regulator'|'BEIJING, Dec 4 (Reuters) - China has “basically exited” from its curbs on irrational outbound investment deals, Pan Gongsheng, the head of the foreign exchange regulator, was Quote: d by media on Monday as saying.“At the end of last year, several departments took phased measures to control irrational outbound direct investment, and so far they have basically exited (from such measures),” Chinese financial news outlet Yicai Quote: d Pan, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), as saying.Pan did not elaborate.China’s non-financial outbound direct investment in January- October slumped 40.9 percent year-on-year to $86.31 billion as authorities bear down on what they say are speculative foreign ventures.The decline in outbound investment reflected the government’s restrictive measures and “a gradual maturity and return to rationality of external investment by market players”, Pan said.China says it continues to encourage genuine overseas deals but has vowed to limit overseas investment in property, hotels, entertainment, sports clubs and film industries which it suspects is more speculative.China also says it encourages overseas investment by qualified companies as they integrate into the global industrial and value chain and support investment by firms involved in “Belt and Road” projects, while taking steps to curb investment risks.In November, China’s state planner issued draft guidelines for its companies investing overseas, streamlining approval processes for deals while raising oversight for projects in sensitive sectors and countries. (Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Kim Coghill) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-overseas-investment/china-has-basically-exited-from-outbound-investment-curbs-regulator-idINL3N1O41VQ'|'2017-12-04T04:19:00.000+02:00'
'44c58afd93853de33966db2b443783f5c7195e7e'|'Dollar, stock futures gain on U.S. tax cut progress'|'December 3, 2017 / 11:52 PM / Updated 35 minutes ago Dollar gains on U.S. tax cut progress; Brexit deal eyed Swati Pandey 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar bounced to a two-week top on Monday and S&P futures jumped as traders marked the passage of a Senate tax bill over the weekend, a move that raises the risk of more aggressive rate hikes in the world’s largest economy. An investor uses his phone as he sits in front of a board displaying stock prices at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in Sydney, Australia, June 21, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray Pointing to a firm start for European shares, FTSE futures FFIc1 were up 0.7 percent. Traders will be focusing their attention on a meeting scheduled for British Prime Minister Theresa May and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to work on a Brexit deal. The euro EUR= slipped 0.15 percent, while the British pound GBP= was steady amid media reports that an agreement was near on the terms of the Brexit divorce. Asian shares started the week with a whimper. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS hovered near more than one-month lows on fears U.S. policy tightening could suck liquidity from emerging markets and derail global growth. The greenback jumped 0.7 percent JPY= to as far as 112.98 yen, the highest since Nov. 17 on expectations of faster U.S. rate hikes as fiscal policy was set to be eased even while the U.S. economy was running at or near full employment. A U.S. tax cut could also boost corporate profits and lead to a slew of share buy-backs. U.S. stock markets have already rallied for months on hopes that Washington would provide significant tax cuts for corporations. Indeed, EMini S&P stock futures ESc1 jumped 0.6 percent on Monday. U.S. healthcare shares are also set to rally after drugstore chain operator CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire U.S. health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) for $69 billion. China''s SSE Composite .SSEC slipped 0.2 percent, while Australian shares eased 0.1 percent and Japan''s Nikkei .N225 fell 0.5 percent. Among gainers were Hong Kong''s Hang Seng index .HSI and South Korea''s KOSPI .KS11 . “If you do see a U.S. fiscal stimulus in 2018 all its likely to do is accelerate the need for further U.S. policy tightening which indirectly could be negative for emerging markets,” said Chris Weston, Melbourne-based chief market strategist at IG. “If real yields trend higher and the U.S. dollar rises further that would put emerging markets and Asia on the back burner,” Weston added. (For graphic on Equities and bonds total return index, click reut.rs/2AShSHQ ) Yields on two-year notes US2YT=RR rose to 1.806 percent, while those on the 10-year bond climbed to 2.4026 percent. The dollar index .DXY added 0.3 percent against major currencies. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP hovered close to an all-time high of $11,800 set on Sunday after the U.S. derivatives regulator allowed CME Group ( CME.O ) and CBOE Global Markets ( CBOE.O ) to list bitcoin futures. The cryptocurrency was last trading around $11,375 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. In commodity markets, U.S. crude CLc1 was off 40 cents at $57.96. Brent crude LCOc1 slipped 31 cents to $63.42, drifting away from a near 2-1/2 year peak of $64.65 touched last month. Spot gold XAU= was off 0.45 percent to $1,274.4 an ounce. Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Eric Meijer and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/dollar-stock-futures-gain-on-u-s-tax-cut-progress-idUKKBN1DX0XX'|'2017-12-04T01:52:00.000+02:00'
'03ee25ac09f32c9373506d4de558b0f99de2fd66'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 4'|' 36 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 4 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 4 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - CVS Health Corp said it had agreed to buy Aetna Inc for about $69 billion in a deal that would combine the drugstore giant with one of the biggest health insurers in the United States and has the potential to reshape the nation''s health care industry. nyti.ms/2BvLS8J - Wang Huning, the professor-turned-Communist theoretician who has been a major adviser to three Chinese leaders, called for security and order on the internet as part of five proposals he made to guide the future of cyberspace. He also emphasized China''s technological prowess, and said more should be done by the government to guide the development of new industries like artificial intelligence and quantum computing. nyti.ms/2ArCfbP - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is going to Washington for oral arguments before the Supreme Court in a case that could legalize sports betting in New Jersey, and the governor made clear last week that the stakes give this trip special, personal meaning. nyti.ms/2nppPyp (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-4-idUSL3N1O426F'|'2017-12-04T07:33:00.000+02:00'
'2c4b9d994ea36dd15811808a89b5a5e3b596b0b9'|'At North Korean hub in China, uncertainty looms for Pyongyang-backed businesses'|'December 1, 2017 / 6:43 AM / Updated 4 hours ago At North Korean hub in China, uncertainty looms for Pyongyang-backed businesses Sue-Lin Wong 6 Min Read SHENYANG, China (Reuters) - North Korean-owned businesses such as the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, the biggest city in northeastern China, face an uncertain future as United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang-owned overseas businesses loom. The Chilbosan Hotel is pictured in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China November 4, 2017. Picture taken November 4, 2017. REUTERS/ Sue-Lin Wong For now, the hotel is a slice of North Korea: it is mostly staffed by North Koreans, some of whom perform songs and dances catering to their mostly Chinese customers, often in private rooms at the hotel restaurant. Perched at a main intersection in Shenyang, a hub for North Korean businesses in China, the hotel is North Korea’s largest overseas investment, according to Lu Chao, an expert in China-North Korea relations at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, a Chinese government think-tank in Shenyang. The hotel rooms feel much like typical Chinese business hotels except that guests can watch North Korean television and anyone flying to North Korea on Air Koryo - the country’s national airline - can pick up their tickets at the airline’s office in the lobby. The building is clad in both Chinese and Korean name signs. Shenyang, just over an hour by fast train from the North Korean border, is home to Xita, a district known as “Korea Town”, dotted with North Korean restaurants, hotels, shops and art galleries. At Xita’s North Korean Department Store, North Koreans wander in small groups looking at clothes, toys and linen, mostly from South Korea, according to vendors and labels on products for sale. On the top floor, Li Xinwei runs a nail salon where one third of her customers who have loyalty cards are big-spending North Koreans. “Most of my Chinese customers chose the 100 yuan ($15) nail package but my North Korean customers often spend about 300 yuan to get their nails done,” said Li. “Most North Koreans come to this department store to shop, the store owners get their clothes from South Korea. But they have to cut the labels off the clothes before they bring them back to North Korea,” she said, chuckling. However, the number of North Korean shoppers has been declining, said Li, and local Chinese businessmen say the number of Pyongyang-owned businesses has shrunk in recent years as tensions between China and North Korea have grown. “A lot of Chinese-North Korean trading companies have already closed shop,” said one Chinese businessman in Shenyang who used to trade North Korean coal until it was sanctioned by the United Nations. “Now we’re extremely restricted by the types of trade we can do with North Korea. I’ve just purchased an order of cobblestones because they haven’t been sanctioned,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Dried walleye pollocks from North Korea are displayed for sale at a market in Shenyang''s Xita District, Liaoning province, China November 1, 2017. Picture taken November 1, 2017. REUTERS/ Sue-Lin Wong Two North Korean restaurants in Xita - Pyongyang Restaurant and Mudan Restaurant - serve North Korean cuisine and host nightly performances by North Koreans who sing mostly popular Chinese classics and double as waitresses. But come early January, North Korean firms or joint ventures in China will be shut down in accordance with UN Security Council sanctions passed on Sept. 12, according to China’s commerce ministry. A woman who answered the phone at the North Korean consulate in Shenyang said she didn’t know what would happen to North Korean businesses and joint ventures in China once UN sanctions kicked in. Everyone at the consulate who was in a position to know was away on business trips, she added, declining to give her name. At the Pyongyang Restaurant, one North Korean waitress who had just finished performing and was helping pack up takeaway said she was just over one year into a three year internship, after graduating from university. North Koreans perform at the Pyongyang Restaurant in Shenyang''s Xita District, Liaoning province, China October 31, 2017. Picture taken October 31, 2017. REUTERS/ Sue-Lin Wong “We aren’t going back (to North Korea), business here is good,” she replied, when asked about whether they would leave soon because of UN sanctions. Staff at the reception desk at the Chilbosan, who confirmed the hotel was North Korean-owned, said they had no plans to close because of the sanctions. According to official Chinese company records, the hotel is 70 percent owned by North Korea’s Liujing Economic Exchange and 30 percent owned by Hongxiang, a Chinese industrial machinery company sanctioned by the U.S. last year for channeling U.S. dollars to North Korea for its nuclear weapons programme. Liujing Economic Exchange and Hongxiang could not be reached for comment. One option for North Korean partners of joint ventures in China is to sell out ahead of when sanctions take effect in January. “The problem is that January isn’t that far away so it doesn’t give the North Korean partners much time to sell off their portion of the company,” said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea specialist at Beijing’s Renmin University. Recent sanctions are squeezing North Korean businesses overseas which have to send some of their profits back to the state, according to Cheng. If the businesses don’t achieve their targets, the head of the business in China gets sent back to North Korea and a new person is sent to replace them, Cheng said. “The North Korean government has been upping the target payments because they have fewer ways to earn hard currency now,” said Cheng. Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Additional reporting by Se Yong Lee and the Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-china-shenyang/at-north-korean-hub-in-china-uncertainty-looms-for-pyongyang-backed-businesses-idUSKBN1DV3RK'|'2017-12-01T08:42:00.000+02:00'
'6ee76533a5d1126605c40404a19123a83ed15caf'|'FTSE dips as financials fall'|'December 1, 2017 / 9:56 AM / in 4 hours FTSE falls in broad risk-off move as Trump worries resurface Danilo Masoni 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE fell on Friday at the end of a choppy session that saw Britain’s top-share index accelerate losses and join a global risk-off move following reports in the United States that raised new worries over the stability of Donald Trump’s administration. Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The FTSE fell 0.4 percent, having earlier gained as much as 0.4 percent thanks to a pull back in the pound that helped it recover from the losses seen in morning trade. ABC News reported that former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn was prepared to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with Russians when he was a presidential candidate. Reuters could not immediately verify the ABC report, which sent Wall Street and other bourses sharply lower. “The question is now how much damage this can do to Trump and just what else will Flynn testify when under oath,” said James Hughes, Chief Market Analyst at AxiTrader. While most stocks ended in negative territory as a result of the newsflow from the United States, energy shares managed to end in positive territory after OPEC and other major producers agreed to extend output cuts, sending the oil price higher. [O/R] Shares in heavyweights Royal Dutch Shell and BP rose 0.6 and 0.3 percent respectively. Financials were the biggest weight on the FTSE. The banking index fell 1.2 percent, having earlier been hit by disappointment over a delay to voting on the U.S. Senate’s tax bill. Among British mid caps, which fell 0.5 percent, drugmaker Indivior was the standout mover. Its shares rose as much as 13 percent after its drug to fight opioid addiction was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “We believe this decision is key for Indivior’s investment case and the company was highly sensitive to the outcome,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note. “A decent label and price should also, in our view, help support near-term sentiment and a re-rating of the shares,” Jefferies added. The stock pared gains to end up 3 percent Additional Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-dips-as-financials-fall-idUKKBN1DV4DI'|'2017-12-01T11:56:00.000+02:00'
'a159a2743bb9a54d2b49d5efc56458baa786d2d2'|'Asian shares edge up with U.S. tax bill in focus'|'December 1, 2017 / 12:58 AM / Updated an hour ago Asian shares pare gains as vote on U.S. tax bill delayed Lisa Twaronite 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares and the dollar pared their modest gains on Friday, with risk appetites supported by advances on Wall Street but capped by concern as investors awaited the U.S. Senate’s vote on U.S. tax reform legislation. FILE PHOTO - People walk past an electronic board showing the exchange rates between the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was nearly flat on the day, after brushing a two-week low. For the week, it was 2.6 percent lower. Japan''s Nikkei stock index .N225 was up 0.1 percent, on track to gain 0.9 percent for the week. “The market’s main focus is now whether the tax bill will pass or not,” said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo. Late on Thursday, the Senate delayed voting on the bill as legislators wrestled with problems on an amendment sought by fiscal hawks to address a large expansion of the federal budget deficit projected to result from the measure. The Senate adjourned, putting off any votes until Friday morning. It was still unclear whether a decisive vote on the bill would occur then. On Wall Street overnight, major indexes marked gains, with sentiment lifted by apparent progress towards passage of the tax legislation. The S&P 500 SPX hit a record closing high and the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI topped the 24,000 mark for the first time. [.N] EMini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 were down 0.3 percent, edging lower after the Senate vote was delayed. On Thursday, chances of passage of a Senate tax bill had been seen as rising, when influential Senator John McCain gave the bill his endorsement. The House had approved its own tax bill on Nov. 16. News of McCain’s nod had pushed up U.S. Treasury yields to five-week highs, which underpinned the recently beleaguered dollar. Yields also got a lift boost from U.S. data showing a rise in inflation and a decline in jobless claims, reinforcing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates later this month, and several times in 2018. But the greenback gave up some of those gains on Friday as yields edged lower after the tax vote’s postponement. The 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR stood at 2.409 percent in early Asian trade, below its U.S. close on Thursday. [U/S] “We had good U.S. data overnight that added to rate increase expectations, but until there is an outcome on the tax reform vote, markets cannot move much,” said Harumi Taguchi, principal economist at IHS Markit in Tokyo. The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals, edged 0.1 percent lower to 92.959 .DXY, though it was still up 0.2 percent for the week. The dollar was steady on the day 112.53 yen JPY= after touching 112.690 earlier, its highest since Nov. 21, moving away from a 10-week low of 110.85 yen hit on Monday. The euro was slightly up on the day at $1.1912 EUR= , though below its two-month peak of $1.1961 scaled on Monday. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP was down 2.4 percent at $9,707, holding above the previous session''s low of $9,000, but well shy of this week''s record high of $11,395. The cryptocurrency gained 55 percent in November. Crude oil futures built upon their gains made on Thursday after OPEC and non-OPEC producers led by Russia agreed to extend output cuts until the end of 2018, while also signalling a possible early exit from the deal if the market overheats. [O/R] U.S. crude futures CLc1 were up 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $57.59 a barrel. For November, U.S. crude added 5.5 percent. Brent crude futures LCOc1 added 29 cents or 0.5 percent to $62.92 a barrel. Brent rose for a third consecutive month in November, gaining about 3.6 percent. Gold prices edged higher after marking a 3-1/2 week low in the previous session. Spot gold XAU= was up 0.1 percent at $1,275.02 an ounce [GOL/] Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Sam Holmes and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-shares-edge-up-with-u-s-tax-bill-in-focus-idUKKBN1DV3E5'|'2017-12-01T02:58:00.000+02:00'
'fb1deefa61bcdd42097a7b696a4a14533e8c1b51'|'South Korea''s AJ Networks considers rental car company stake sale'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s AJ Networks Co ( 095570.KS ) said on Friday it was considering the sale of its stake in rental car company AJ Rent A Car ( 068400.KS ) and other options to beef up its competitiveness.AJ Networks owns a 39.80 percent stake in AJ Rent A Car, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.South Korea’s Maeil Broadcasting Network said on Friday Hyundai Motor ( 005380.KS ) has early this week entered detailed talks with AJ Networks to buy the rental car firm, citing unidentified investment banking and company officials.A Hyundai Motor spokeswoman said the company does not comment on market speculation.Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aj-rent-a-car-sale/south-koreas-aj-networks-considers-rental-car-company-stake-sale-idINKBN1DV44U'|'2017-12-01T05:29:00.000+02:00'
'f1bdf54ab9546266f9b208fa83970a0ce091f3f2'|'Discovery increases stake in Oprah Winfrey Network'|'December 4, 2017 / 7:18 PM / Updated an hour ago Discovery raises stake in Oprah Winfrey Network Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Discovery Communications Inc said on Monday it had raised its stake in its joint venture with TV mogul Oprah Winfrey to more than 70 percent. FILE PHOTO: The Discovery Communications headquarters building is seen in Silver Spring, Maryland December 3, 2009. REUTERS/Jim Bourg/File Photo Discovery paid $70 million to acquire an additional 24.5 percent stake in the Oprah Winfrey Network from Harpo Inc, founded by Winfrey. Winfrey, who will retain a minority interest and continue in her role as chief executive of OWN, has extended her commitment to the network through 2025, Discovery said. OWN, launched in 2011 as a joint venture between Discovery and Harpo, focuses on African-American viewers, mostly women, and includes hit series such as “Queen Sugar” and “Greenleaf”. Discovery was advised by Allen & Co LLC and Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, while Harpo was advised by Moelis & Co LLC and Loeb & Loeb LLP. Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-discovery-equity/discovery-increases-stake-in-oprah-winfrey-network-idUSKBN1DY2HL'|'2017-12-04T21:09:00.000+02:00'
'c6174a332eaf2cc98c7f41b9896f585553aa1b55'|'CEE MARKETS-Budapest bucks European stocks rally on Richter plunge'|'* Richter falls as EMA starts review of its Esmya drug * PKN Orlen rebound reverses Warsaw stock index decline * Zloty firms, Polish rate-setters may voice worry over CPI * Romanian 10-year bond sale draws solid demand after yield rise (Adds Romanian government bond auction, rebound of Warsaw stocks) By Sandor Peto and Radu-Sorin Marinas BUDAPEST/Bucharest, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Budapest stocks eased on Monday, dragged down by a sell-off in drugmaker Richter , now under investigation over an anti-tumour drug. Germany''s dollar-exposed equities index and other indices in the Western wing of the European Union rose after the U.S. Senate passed a tax package that is expected to buoy equities markets globally. In Central Europe, Warsaw''s bluechip index reversed an initial fall, driven by a rebound in the shares of oil group PKN Orlen. The stock rose 2.6 percent by 1409 GMT, drifting off 4-month lows reached amid worries that PKN''s margins are deteriorating. Budapest''s main index shed 0.6 percent, pushed down by a 5 percent fall in Richter. Richter shares touched 8-and-1/2-month lows after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) began a review of the company''s Esmya medicine used to treat non-cancerous tumours of the womb. "This follows four reports of serious liver injury, three of which ended in liver transplantation, in patients treated with the medicine," EMA said on its website. Richter''s stock did not recover even though the company said clinical data indicated that Esmya had no demonstrable link with liver damage. The forint and the zloty, firmed, indicating that they were not hurt by outflows into the dollar, which in recent months often weakened them in periods when the greenback strengthened. The zloty gained 0.4 percent, trading on the firm side of the 4.2 line against the euro. The forint firmed 0.2 percent. Regional currencies are buoyed by robust economic growth, except for the leu which trades near record lows due to worry that Romania''s economy is overheating. Romania''s government sold more 10-year bonds than planned at an auction on Monday, indicating that a 60 basis points surge in the yield since September had made the paper attractive. "Demand seems to be backed by a couple of investment funds who wanted our paper in the final weeks of this year," a Bucharest-based trader said. "Given that Poland is at some 3 percent (yield) and Hungary at about 2 percent yields, Romania''s 4.5 looks fair." Poland''s annual inflation jumped to a 5-year high of 2.5 percent in November, but analysts expect the Polish central bank to keep interest rates on hold at its meeting on Tuesday. But its statement will be closely watched as some rate setters may become increasingly worried that inflation may rise above 3.5 percent, the upper limit of the bank''s target range. "If such a comment were to be presented, then the zloty has a chance to strengthen further in relation to core currencies," Citi Handlowy analysts said in a note. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1510 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.585 25.585 +0.00 5.56% 0 5 % Hungary 313.35 313.94 +0.19 -1.45% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.1987 4.2150 +0.39 4.89% % Romanian leu 4.6300 4.6308 +0.02 -2.05% % Croatian 7.5545 7.5547 +0.00 0.01% kuna % Serbian 119.23 119.17 -0.05% 3.46% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1067.5 1063.9 +0.33 +15.8 3 8 % 3% Budapest 37971. 38188. -0.57% +18.6 21 81 5% Warsaw 2410.1 2389.9 +0.85 +23.7 6 2 % 3% Bucharest 7801.9 7796.2 +0.07 +10.1 3 1 % 2% Ljubljana 790.02 784.90 +0.65 +10.0 % 9% Zagreb 1869.5 1861.5 +0.43 -6.28% 0 7 % Belgrade 744.43 744.59 -0.02% +3.77 % Sofia 670.27 667.02 +0.49 +14.3 % 0% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.044 0.039 +075b +3bps ps 5-year 0.766 0.027 +110b +0bps ps 10-year 1.493 -0.052 +116b -9bps ps Poland 2-year 1.682 0.031 +239b +3bps ps 5-year 2.707 0.015 +304b -1bps ps 10-year 3.322 -0.013 +299b -5bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.99 1.18 1.3 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.07 0.11 0.14 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.775 1.85 1.925 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-budapest-bucks-european-stocks-rally-on-richter-plunge-idINL8N1O43YS'|'2017-12-04T11:40:00.000+02:00'
'ac052d7db4445dd911cc3dde83a9d8f760c606e6'|'Peugeot teams up with Nidec to produce electric vehicle motors in France'|'December 4, 2017 / 11:25 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Peugeot teams up with Nidec to produce electric vehicle motors in France Gilles Guillaume 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot carmaker PSA Group is to bring the development and production of its electric motors back to France after creating a joint venture with Japan’s Nidec Corp that will initially invest 200 million euros (£175.77 million). Chairman of the Managing Board of PSA Group Carlos Tavares attends a news conference in Ruesselsheim, Germany November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The France-based tie-up with the Japanese maker of electric motors will equip all new Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall electric cars from 2022, taking over from Germany’s Continental and the Valeo-Siemens Automotive joint venture which will equip the first electric and hybrid-power cars the group launches in 2019. PSA is following Renault, which repatriated its electric motor production several years ago. “Through this partnership, the goal is to move to a strategic phase that gives us more control,” Patrice Lucas, PSA’s executive vice president for strategy, said in a presentation. The PSA-Nidec venture is expected to have a production capacity of 900,000 motors per year from 2022, he said. The market for electric vehicle motors is expected to double to 45 billion euros ($53 billion) over the next two decades, the companies said in a statement, as the industry undergoes profound change, with consumers increasingly demanding alternatives to combustion engines. Nidec will operate the joint venture through Nidec Leroy-Somer, the French electric motor company it acquired in February this year for $1.2 billion. Tetsuo Onishi, executive vice president for Nidec, said that the capital structure of the joint venture would remain split 50-50 once production began but that Nidec would take control of sales. PSA will be the main customer, he said, but production will be open to other carmakers as well. Nidec manufactures motors for products ranging from hard disk drives to elevators and automobiles, and owns the U.S. Motors brand. And as global competition heats up to develop electric cars and automated driving functions, the highly acquisitive Japanese company has said it wants to become a global auto parts supplier rivalling Germany’s Robert Bosch and its compatriot Denso Corp. It announced last week it had bought driveXpert GmbH, which makes electronic control units for automobiles and earlier this year it acquired the motor and electric power generation businesses of Emerson Electric. The PSA deal remains subject to antitrust clearance and consultations with employee representatives. The joint venture’s headquarters will be in Carrieres-sous-Poissy near Paris with production to be based at PSA’s huge diesel engine plant in Tremery. Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Potter, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-psa-nidec/psa-group-and-nidec-to-set-up-electric-motor-venture-idUKKBN1DY17M'|'2017-12-04T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'e6d92bd7ce51bad26dd8a29533f33c406af95b33'|'RPT-Brexit buys bruised London Stock Exchange time'|'(Repeats story from late on Friday)* CEO quit on Wednesday after management row* Shareholders to vote on chairman on Dec. 19* Brexit uncertainty clouds bid prospectsBy Huw Jones and Ben MartinLONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Bruised by the collapse of its merger with Deutsche Boerse and battered by the abrupt departure of its CEO, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) may find Brexit buys it time get its house in order.The turbulence at the top of the 300-year-old City of London institution has triggered another round of speculation that large U.S. rivals such as ICE or CME could become predators.While London is Europe’s biggest financial market, Britain is due to leave the European Union in just over a year’s time and it is far from clear what trading relations it will have with the bloc when it comes to cross-border financial services.“I see (a bid from a U.S. rival) as doubtful as ICE especially, in my eyes, wants to see more substance on Brexit negotiations before pulling their cheque book out,” said a top-20 LSE shareholder, who declined to be named.What’s more, while the London exchange’s LCH division dominates the clearing of financial contracts in euros now, some EU policymakers insist the business should move within the currency bloc once Britain quits the EU.“For anyone stepping in and thinking about acquiring the LSE, the big risk for them is Brexit,” said an analyst at an investment bank, who added that LSE shares looked expensive given the uncertain outlook.“ICE and CME would be foolish not to look at LSE as this is one where you want to strike when the iron’s hot. But because of Brexit, it just seems that 22 times next year’s earnings in this environment is a risk,” the analyst said.ICE declined to comment. CME had no immediate comment.VINEYARD CALLING? Before quitting this week after more then eight years at the helm, CEO Xavier Rolet turned the LSE into a diversified exchange group by expanding its activities in stock indexes and buying a controlling stake in LCH Group.Under the former investment banker, the LSE’s share price increased fivefold and a successful merger with Deutsche Boerse would have added a significant futures business to its portfolio to catch up with U.S. rivals.But the deal to create Europe’s biggest stock exchange started to unravel after the Brexit vote as politicians bickered over whether the seat of power should be in London or Frankfurt. EU regulators killed the deal off in May.In October, the LSE announced that Rolet would step down at the end of 2018 but days later, activist investor TCI Fund Management said the Frenchman was being forced out and it should be LSE Chairman Donald Brydon going instead.According to a person close to TCI, the hedge fund started to have misgivings about Rolet’s departure when it spoke to him the day after the 2018 succession plan was announced.Asked whether he planned to spend more time at his family’s vineyard in France, Rolet said he’d barely been to the winery in a decade and didn’t care about it, according to the person, who said it was clear Rolet wanted to stay.“When people answer questions in a certain way, it gives away their true feelings and thought processes,” the person said, adding that Rolet declined to say why he was leaving.A month of messy public wrangling followed, exposing a deep rift between the chairman and the CEO and dragging in the Bank of England. Rolet quit on Wednesday and TCI again called for Brydon to go.On Thursday, the LSE said it would hold a shareholder meeting on Dec. 19 to decide if Brydon should be removed as demanded by TCI, the fourth-biggest LSE shareholder with a 5 percent holding.SENDING MESSAGE An adviser to the LSE said he was confident the vote would go against TCI. The hedge fund believes there is enough shareholder support to back its resolution.Another hedge fund investor who plans to back TCI, accepted it was unclear if it would be successful.“I still think it’s important to send a message even if the vote is lost,” the hedge fund investor said.But even though Brydon’s fate hangs in the balance and the row has shone a light on the breakdown in relations at the top of the LSE, its share price has held firm, meaning there is no quick bargain for a deep-pocketed predator.Coupled with the uncertainty over Brexit and the risk that any merger might run into antitrust difficulties, the London exchange should have time to get back on its feet before any large rival swoops.“We’ve still got a board, we’ve still got the executive team. They may launch a bid but the board is never going to recommend something unless it represents proper fundamental value and I think in the current regulatory environment I don’t know if something will get through,” said the adviser to the LSE. (Additional reporting by Maiya Keidan, Simon Jessop and Noor Zainab Hussain; editing by David Clarke) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/lse-ceo/rpt-brexit-buys-bruised-london-stock-exchange-time-idUSL8N1O41H4'|'2017-12-04T10:31:00.000+02:00'
'f8de1160c5ad361837a7866a6fed47a8ffe285a4'|'Turkish banker says U.S. prosecutors withheld evidence'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:42 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Turkish banker says U.S. prosecutors withheld evidence Reuters Staff 3 Min Read NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Lawyers for a banker at Turkey''s state-owned Halkbank who is charged with scheming to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran accused U.S. prosecutors of withholding evidence that might help exculpate their client. They said this included gold trader Reza Zarrab''s alleged willingness to lie in exchange for leniency. In a letter on Monday to U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan, lawyers for Mehmet Hakan Atilla said prosecutors on Saturday evening turned over important materials to them that the judge ordered be turned over on Nov. 28, and that such a delay makes it harder for the defense to prepare. The lawyers said these materials included a summary of a Sept. 15, 2016 call when Zarrab, then held in a U.S. jail, discussed with an individual named Ahad the perceived need when incarcerated in the United States to lie "in order to get out or to get a reduced sentence," and "admit to something you haven''t committed" to get out of prison. Ahad''s identity could not immediately be determined from court records. "Zarrab is proclaiming his willingness to fabricate testimony out of whole cloth in order to obtain a reduced sentence," Atilla''s lawyers wrote in the letter. "The belated production of these statements not only violates this court''s November 28 order, but also significantly impairs the ability of the defense to properly and effectively utilize them at trial." "Mr. Zarrab understands his obligation to provide fully truthful testimony," Robert Anello, a lawyer for Zarrab, said in an email. A spokesman for Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan, whose office is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. Prosecutors were in court on Monday, where Zarrab is testifying for a fourth day. Zarrab has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Atilla has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have alleged that nine defendants took part in a scheme from 2010 to 2015 that involved gold trades and fake purchases of food to give Iran access to international markets, violating U.S. sanctions. Only Zarrab, 34, and Atilla, 47, have been arrested by U.S. authorities. In Monday''s letter, Atilla''s lawyers also renewed arguments that they have not had enough time to review materials turned over by prosecutors, making it harder for their client to get a fair trial. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-turkey-zarrab-letter/turkish-banker-says-u-s-prosecutors-withheld-evidence-idUSL1N1O4126'|'2017-12-04T20:40:00.000+02:00'
'8a4fc7be6ce88e5dc73f08b57390536506e3a9ea'|'Billabong gets about $150 million indicative takeover offer from Boardriders'|'(Reuters) - Sports apparel seller Billabong International Ltd ( BBG.AX ) confirmed on Friday it has received an indicative takeover proposal from Boardriders Inc, which values the company at about A$198 million ($150 million).U.S.-based Boardriders, formerly known as Quiksilver, prices it offer at A$1 cash for each Billabong share, a 28.2 percent premium to Billabong’s Thursday’s closing price.U.S. private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management LP holds 19 percent of the shares in Billabong and is one of Billabong’s two senior lenders. Funds managed by Oaktree also have a majority interest in Boardriders.The offer is subject to a number of conditions, including due diligence to Boardriders’ satisfaction, securing committed financing and a unanimous recommendation from the Billabong board.Billabong said its board had decided to grant due diligence access to Boardriders to enable it to put forward a formal proposal.The company, whose brands include RVCA, Element, Von Zipper and Honolua Surf Company, has appointed Goldman Sachs as its financial advisor and Allens as its legal advisor. .($1 = 1.3238 Australian dollars)Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; editing by Richard PullinOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-billabong-intl-m-a-oaktree-capital/billabong-gets-about-150-million-indicative-takeover-offer-from-boardriders-idINKBN1DU38F'|'2017-11-30T20:44:00.000+02:00'
'62c296ddde2c905a13dae9c6af3a7c8487af3094'|'Slim''s America Movil says acquires some 2018-2024 Olympics TV rights'|'MEXICO CITY, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Mexican telecommunications firm America Movil said on Thursday it had acquired the rights to show the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 in some Latin American countries, starting with the next year’s winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.The company, controlled by the family of billionaire Carlos Slim, said it had acquired exclusive pay TV rights in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.It also acquired exclusive digital rights in those countries and others, the company said. In Mexico it acquired non- exclusive pay TV rights. (Reporting by Christine Murray and Daina Solomon) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/america-movil-olympics/slims-america-movil-says-acquires-some-2018-2024-olympics-tv-rights-idUSE5N16V015'|'2017-11-30T23:53:00.000+02:00'
'd6c2160f1bfe2bb3d3e9c00098ee279068549d1c'|'Exclusive - Nissan sues India over outstanding dues; seeks over $770 million'|'Reuters TV United States December 1, 2017 / 4:13 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Exclusive: Nissan sues India over outstanding dues; seeks over $770 million Aditi Shah 4 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Nissan Motor ( 7201.T ) has begun international arbitration against India to seek more than $770 million in a dispute over unpaid state incentives, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A company logo is seen on the newly-unveiled Nissan "Terrano" compact sport utility vehicle during a news conference in Mumbai, India August 20, 2013. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo In a legal notice sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, Nissan sought payment of incentives due from the Tamil Nadu government as part of a 2008 agreement to set up a car manufacturing plant in the southern state. According to the notice, Nissan said repeated requests to state officials for the payment, due in 2015, were overlooked and even a plea by the company’s chairman, Carlos Ghosn, to Modi in March of last year seeking federal assistance did not yield any results. The notice, sent by Nissan’s lawyers in July 2016, was followed by more than a dozen meetings between federal and state officials and Nissan executives, said the person familiar with the matter, who did not want to be named as it is not public. The federal officials, from several ministries, assured Nissan the payment would be made, and it should not bring a legal case. But, in August, Nissan gave India an ultimatum to appoint an arbitrator, the person said, adding the first arbitration hearing will be in mid-December. A Nissan spokesman said the company was “committed to working with the government of India toward a resolution,” but did not elaborate. A senior Tamil Nadu state official said the government hoped to resolve the dispute without having to go to international arbitration. “There is no discrepancy with regard to the amount due, and we are trying hard to resolve the issue,” the official told Reuters. Modi’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment. The case, brought against India for alleged violations of its Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan, is the latest in a string of international arbitration proceedings against the country by investors concerned about issues ranging from retrospective taxation to payments disputes. There are over 20 cases pending against India, among the highest against any single nation. The dispute between Nissan and the Tamil Nadu government also shows the challenges companies face in India and how local disputes could undermine the Modi government’s efforts to attract foreign investment and create new jobs. GROWING LOSSES Several automakers, including Ford ( F.N ) and Hyundai Motor ( 005380.KS ), have set up production hubs in Tamil Nadu, giving state capital Chennai the nickname; the ‘Detroit of South Asia’. In 2008, when Nissan and its global alliance partner, French carmaker Renault ( RENA.PA ), agreed to invest in setting up a car plant in Chennai, the state government promised several incentives including some tax refunds. Over seven years, Nissan and Renault invested 61 billion rupees ($946 million) and set up a plant with annual production capacity of 480,000 vehicles, which entitled them to receive the incentives in 2015, according to the legal notice. In that notice, Nissan’s lawyers said the state government’s decision to not pay was “arbitrary”, and Nissan has “incurred significant and increasing losses”. Nissan did not specify the business impact in the 8-page notice, but said in 2008 that state incentives were critical to the project’s viability and sustainability. The carmaker, in its notice, is claiming 29 billion rupees in unpaid incentives and 21 billion rupees in damages, plus interest and other costs. Nissan, which has less than a 2 percent share of India’s passenger car market, builds and sells the Micra hatchback, Sunny sedan and Terrano sport-utility vehicle. It also sells low-cost cars under its Datsun brand. The company spokesman said Nissan has created more than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs in India. ($1 = 64.5100 Indian rupees) Reporting by Aditi Shah, with additional reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Euan Rocha and Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-india-arbitration-exclusive/exclusive-nissan-sues-india-over-outstanding-dues-seeks-over-770-million-idUKKBN1DV3MP'|'2017-12-01T06:11:00.000+02:00'
'1eb1ec2a089f19376c168db5c74260b2c3eb2667'|'Uber''s licence suspended in British city of Sheffield'|'December 7, 2017 / 4:36 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Uber''s license suspended in British city of Sheffield   Uber’s license to operate in the northern English city of Sheffield was suspended last Friday after it failed to respond to requests about the management of its taxi app, the local authority said. A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson The firm can continue to operate until Dec. 18 and if it chooses to appeal the suspension, it can still run until that appeal is heard, Sheffield City Council said in a statement on Thursday. “If it decides against an appeal the suspension will come into force,” the council said. Uber said it submitted an application for a new license on Oct. 16 which continues to be processed by local officials. “While we are in regular contact with the council, we did not receive the correspondence the council refers to as they sent the letters to an incorrect address,” a spokesman said “We hope this administrative error can be quickly resolved so we can continue serving tens of thousands of riders and drivers in Sheffield.” The app will submit an appeal if the new application cannot be resolved by Dec. 18 so its drivers can continue to take passengers, the spokesman said. Next week, Uber [UBER.UL] will head to court in London to defend its right to operate in the capital, its most important European market, after the app was deemed unfit to run a taxi service and stripped of its license by the city’s regulator. Reporting by Costas Pitas, editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain-sheffield/ubers-license-suspended-in-british-city-of-sheffield-idUKKBN1E12AT'|'2017-12-07T18:31:00.000+02:00'
'da86af858546d40df033f6ddaee2d2015b89e651'|'UPDATE 1-Russia''s November oil output edges up'|'December 2, 2017 / 9:53 AM / Updated 11 hours ago UPDATE 1-Russia''s November oil output edges up Reuters Staff 2 Min Read * Output 10.94 mln bpd vs 10.93 mln bpd in Oct * Moscow complying with global deal (Adds detail) MOSCOW, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Russian oil output rose to 10.94 million barrels per day (bpd) in November from 10.93 million bpd in October, energy ministry data showed on Saturday. In tonnes, oil output fell to 44.782 million versus 46.23 million in October, and Russia remains in compliance with a global deal to curb production aimed at reducing inventories and supporting oil prices. The latest figures show Russia cut its oil output by around 307,000 bpd from the 11.247 million bpd in produced in October 2016, the baseline for the global agreement to reduce output. Russia agreed to reduce its oil output by 300,000 bpd from that level as part of a pact led by producers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to jointly cut output by 1.8 million bpd. OPEC and non-OPEC producers agreed on Thursday to extend their output cuts until the end of 2018. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said that Russian oil production would remain flat at 547 million tonnes in 2018 if output cuts were maintained for the whole of the year. Russian oil pipeline exports fell to 4.347 million bpd in November from 4.627 million bpd in October. Output at projects run by foreign majors under production sharing agreements (PSA) rose by 8.3 percent in November from October. Output at Rosneft , Russia''s largest oil producer, fell by 0.3 percent in November while output at No.2 oil company Lukoil rose by 0.1 percent. Gas production in November fell to 60.56 billion cubic metres (bcm), or 2.02 bcm per day, from 62.67 bcm in October. (Reporting by Polina Devitt and Natalia Chumakova; editing by Jason Neely)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-energy-production/update-1-russias-november-oil-output-edges-up-idUSL8N1O2070'|'2017-12-02T17:53:00.000+02:00'
'ee1972eb4388213cd26f7b0a4614e4558d3d661e'|'U.S. judge rejects delay of foreign entrepreneur immigration rule'|'December 2, 2017 / 2:55 AM / Updated 3 hours ago U.S. judge rejects delay of foreign entrepreneur immigration rule Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to rescind its delay of a rule that allows some foreign entrepreneurs to stay in the United States to grow their companies, court documents show. Judge James Boasberg of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by a U.S. venture capitalist group in September challenging a delay by DHS of the International Entrepreneur Rule. (file:///C:/Users/U8007446/Downloads/IER-SJ-opinion.pdf) In the lawsuit, the National Venture Capital Association argued that the Trump administration bypassed proper procedures when it delayed the International Entrepreneur Rule, which had been due to go into effect in July 2017. The trade group was later joined by several tech start-ups active in the United States that were founded by foreign entrepreneurs who wanted to stay in the country and work with their businesses through the entrepreneur rule but are now unable to. The rule, proposed by the administration of President Barack Obama, would allow some foreign start-up founders to stay in the United States for up to five years to develop their businesses. Instead, in July the administration of President Donald Trump pushed back implementation to March 2018, and said it was “highly likely” to ultimately rescind the rule. Boasberg, in his ruling issued on Friday, agreed with the lawsuit’s claim that the government’s actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires advance notice of new rules. “This decision is an important reminder that this administration must comply with the law and allow the public to have a voice during the agency rule-making process,” Leslie Dellon, an attorney at the American Immigration Council, said in a statement. Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-immigration-entrepreneurs/u-s-judge-rejects-delay-of-foreign-entrepreneur-immigration-rule-idINKBN1DW03E'|'2017-12-01T23:55:00.000+02:00'
'e6545dd8a106d53d132ee53d489e2c7fc806ac59'|'Wall St hiking corporate profit forecasts on tax cut expectations'|'December 1, 2017 / 10:01 PM / Updated 18 hours ago Wall Street hiking corporate profit forecasts on tax cut expectations Caroline Valetkevitch 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street forecasters have been hiking their outlooks for 2018 corporate profits on rising expectations that the proposed U.S. tax overhaul, championed by President Donald Trump, will pass, giving a boost to companies’ bottom lines. A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. December 28, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Investors are looking for tax cuts to help sustain the rally in U.S. stocks. The separate bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. Goldman Sachs strategists in a Nov. 21 note said the likelihood of a U.S. tax overhaul was the biggest contributor to its raised forecasts, noting that tax cuts should boost 2018 S&P 500 earnings per share by 5 percent. It raised its 2018 earnings per share forecast for S&P 500 companies to $150 from $139, and said that without a tax overhaul, the estimate would be $143. Ed Hyman, founder and chairman of investment firm Evercore ISI wrote in a Nov. 19 note to clients that “assuming a 20 percent corporate tax rate,” it is forecasting S&P 500 EPS of $150 for next year. UBS strategists this week estimated that the S&P 500 could see an earnings boost of 6.5 percent if the corporate tax rate falls to 25 percent. It projects a 9.5 percent gain if the rate goes to 20 percent. “The buy side has largely factored this in,” said Ian Winer, head of equities at Wedbush Securities, which does not put out its own S&P 500 earnings forecast. “The reality is people don’t really know what this will be at the end of the day, but clearly people think this is a positive that is going to be good for stocks.” The S&P 500 .SPX is up about 18 percent so far in 2017. Other firms have yet to factor tax changes into their 2018 profit forecasts, among them Credit Suisse. Wall Street equities analysts, which base their forecasts on guidance from the individual S&P 500 companies, have yet to include the lower tax rate in their estimates. But market watchers say firms providing their own estimates are making adjustments now and others are likely to follow. “Analysts on the Street, they’ve been prudent by not providing the benefits to earnings from tax cuts for 2018. Now you’ll see earnings estimates rising,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. The latest forecast for S&P 500 EPS, based on aggregated company estimates for 2018, is $146.19, compared with an estimate of $146.01 from Sept. 1, according to Thomson Reuters’ data. That compares with a S&P 500 EPS estimate of $131.45 for 2017, the data showed. Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-results/wall-street-hiking-corporate-profit-forecasts-on-tax-cut-expectations-idUSKBN1DV612'|'2017-12-01T23:54:00.000+02:00'
'e8ab99090960ee21863d13290e8a10ccbf6b6cf4'|'Swiss Re buys life policies from Legal & General for 650 million pounds'|' 20 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Swiss Re buys life policies from Legal & General for 650 million pounds   ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss Re has agreed to buy 1.1 million life insurance policies from Legal & General Group (L&G) for 650 million pounds, the Swiss group said on Wednesday. The logo of the world''s second biggest reinsurer Swiss Re is seen in front of the company''s headquarters in Zurich July 8, 2013. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “This move is consistent with Swiss Re’s strategy to acquire closed life books in the UK. The policies – which include with-profit, unit-linked and savings products – will be transferred to ReAssure from Legal & General Assurance Society Limited, which is part of the L&G Group,” it said in a statement. Reporting by Michael Shields, editing by John Miller'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-re-legal-general/swiss-re-buys-life-policies-from-legal-general-for-650-million-pounds-idUKKBN1E00MK'|'2017-12-06T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'491ee9be70973c373ff60507c4d859d259de83cc'|'UPDATE 1-NordLB says needs to bolster capital buffers'|'* NordLB needs CET of 13 pct, currently has 12 pct - CEO* NordLB owner says no new state aid planned* Unit sale planned January, should mitigate problem (Adds owner Quote: , background)HANOVER, Germany, Dec 6 (Reuters) - German state-backed lender NordLB said it needed to bolster its capital buffers as it continues to suffer from high writedowns linked to its exposure to the ailing ship industry.“For our business model we would at least need a core equity tier 1 ratio in the 13 percent range,” Chief Executive Thomas Buerkle said late on Tuesday, adding that no capital increase was planned in the short term.NordLB is 65 percent owned by the German states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, with municipal savings banks owning the rest. Any capital injection by the state draws scrutiny from the European Union, which wants to make sure that competition is not hampered.Lower Saxony’s finance minister, Reinhold Hilbers, said pumping new state money into NordLB was not on the agenda. He said it was “ambitious” for NordLB to meet the challenges on its own “but that remains our goal.”NordLB currently has a CET1 ratio of 12 percent and the CEO said a thicker capital buffer was needed.“The market expects more, the ratings agencies and our owners expect more,” Buerkle said, adding that there were also signals from the financial regulator that capital needed to be bolstered.Buerkle said he expected the bank to decide in January on a sale of its Deutsche Hypo unit, proceeds of which would also bolster NordLB’s capital.He also said he was still seeking synergies from the takeover of Bremer Landesbank by simplifying processes and to reducing costs, including cutting 1,250 of its 6000 jobs.After a record loss of roughly 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) last year the bank aimed to break even this year, Buerkle said.It aims to reduce its non-performing portfolio of ship loans to 5 billion euros by the end of 2019 from 9 billion now.Managing ship loans was a skill that NordLB understands well, Buerkle said, adding that this ability could be offered in case the planned sale of peer HSH Nordbank fell through.“But of course, we have no excess capital,” he said, signalling that NordLB would not act as a buyer of HSH.To avoid new state aid proceedings, HSH’s state owners are not allowed to absorb any losses in a potential sale of the bank. That could prompt them to opt to wind down HSH’s assets on their own.$1 = 0.8462 euros Reporting by Klaus Lauer; Writing by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/nordlb-capital/update-1-nordlb-says-needs-to-bolster-capital-buffers-idINL8N1O6207'|'2017-12-06T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'6f3cb63a10e6729e24349e9b8b69e1488449e095'|'Exclusive: China''s Xiaomi seeks bank pitches for 2018 IPO - sources'|'December 6, 2017 / 6:27 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Exclusive: China''s Xiaomi seeks bank pitches for 2018 IPO - sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has asked banks to pitch next Friday for an initial public offering in 2018, people familiar with the plan told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Attendants are silhouetted in front of Xiaomi''s logo at a venue for the launch ceremony of Xiaomi''s new smart phone Mi Max in Beijing, May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Xiaomi was valued at $46 billion (34.3 billion pounds) in a 2014 funding round completed before its sales stagnated. More recently it has seen expectations of its value pick up following strong results this year. Its float could be the world’s “largest technology IPO” next year, according to one of the people. Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-xiaomi-ipo/exclusive-chinas-xiaomi-seeks-bank-pitches-for-2018-ipo-sources-idUKKBN1E00IJ'|'2017-12-06T08:28:00.000+02:00'
'242b1ef23ce4dd16be422fe7d79dbe4badb66ed3'|'GEMS picks JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Bank of America for $5 billion IPO - sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 10:53 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago GEMS picks JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Bank of America for $5 billion IPO: sources Dasha Afanasieva 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - GEMS Education’s owners have chosen JP Morgan ( JPM.N ), Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) to lead the international private schools group’s initial public offering (IPO), two sources familiar with the matter said. Logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen at a branch office in Luzern, Switzerland October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann GEMS, which operates more than 250 schools across 14 countries, could have a market capitalization of around $4.5-$5 billion in a London listing which is expected to take place in 2018, the sources said. Backed by Dubai-based Fajr Capital, Bahraini state investment fund Mumtalakat and investment firm Blackstone ( BX.N ), GEMs said on Monday it had secured a $1.25 billion loan to refinance existing borrowings and support growth. JP Morgan declined to comment, while the other banks chosen as joint global coordinators did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-gems-ipo-mandate/gems-picks-jp-morgan-credit-suisse-and-bank-of-america-for-5-billion-ipo-sources-idUKKBN1DY153'|'2017-12-04T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'93a6c327837445aa55f320df1f224589b4b4f4b6'|'French bank Natixis bets on fixed-income, equity derivatives to grow Asia sales'|'December 4, 2017 / 9:26 AM / Updated 42 minutes ago French bank Natixis bets on fixed-income, equity derivatives to grow Asia sales Sumeet Chatterjee 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Natixis SA ( CNAT.PA ) aims to boost Asia’s share of its corporate and investment banking sales to more than 15 percent over the next couple of years, as the French bank expands in areas such as fixed-income and equity derivatives, its chief executive said. The logo of French bank Natixis is seen outside one of their offices in Paris February 18, 2013. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The region currently accounts for roughly 13 percent of the bank’s revenue in corporate and investment banking, the biggest contributor to sales at Natixis that also has interests in asset management and insurance. Natixis also plans to continue adding to its headcount of 620 in Asia, its fastest-growing region globally, by 10 percent a year over the next three years, global CEO Laurent Mignon told Reuters in an interview. Natixis’ aim to grow its investment banking business in Asia comes against the backdrop of heightened competition among Wall Street banks and a host of local firms for services including underwriting and deal advisory. The competition has pushed down the fee income for plain-vanilla investment banking offerings, which has weighed on the revenue of the well-heeled foreign banks in the recent years. “We are not trying to compete in some of the areas where everybody is. We are trying to pick up a few items where we have some value to bring to our customers and we do well in that,” said Mignon on a visit to Asia. “The prospective of growing the business here is very important and it is key to us.” Natixis has been increasing its presence in fixed-income and equity derivatives businesses in Asia on the back of growing demand for high-yield investment products from companies including insurers. The French bank is also planning to boost its fixed-income and equity derivative offerings in markets including Australia and Singapore, after establishing a strong presence for those businesses in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. “We are starting to be closer to those clients; we hired some dedicated staff on the fixed-income side,” said Alain Gallois, chief executive officer for Natixis’ Asia-Pacific corporate and investment banking business. “It’s a potential growing market.” In Asia, Natixis’ corporate and investment banking offerings also include structure finance, capital markets, acquisition advisory and finance, and trade finance in countries including Australia, China, Taiwan and South Korea. It mainly focuses on clients in the aviation, energy and natural resources, and infrastructure sectors in the region. “These are two, three areas where we already are a global house with significant presence worldwide, and we want to invest more into these areas to develop investment banking-type service and we will do that specifically in this region,” Mignon said. Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-natixis-asia/french-bank-natixis-bets-on-fixed-income-equity-derivatives-to-grow-asia-sales-idUKKBN1DY0VW'|'2017-12-04T11:26:00.000+02:00'
'da4a3757422be863f90967d0152cb7125b1dc16f'|'Goldman Sachs to add 250 jobs in Poland - FT'|' 44 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Goldman Sachs to add 250 jobs in Poland - FT   (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs is looking to hire about 250 staff in Poland to expand its team there by almost 50 percent in 2018, the head of its Polish technology and operations office told the Financial Times. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The Wall Street bank plans to take its Polish headcount to between 750 and 800 from 525 by the end of next year, the report said. The new jobs will be in operations and technology, risk management, treasury and human resources, the newspaper said. U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase plans to hire more than 3,000 people in its new global operations centre in Poland. Goldman Sachs is also set to sign a lease on a new office in Milan that will boost its presence in Italy as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Goldman Sachs did not respond to a request for immediate comment. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-goldman-sachs-poland/goldman-sachs-to-add-250-jobs-in-poland-ft-idUKKBN1DZ1BE'|'2017-12-05T12:44:00.000+02:00'
'10e63a735723c277f05bc7e3e08a2ab69049330f'|'Natural gas in Petrobras pipelines up about 23 pct in 2017'|'RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The supply of natural gas in the pipeline network of Brazilian state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA likely grew about 23 percent this year compared with 2016, an executive said on Tuesday.Speaking at an event in Rio de Janeiro, Rodrigo Costa, head of natural gas at Petrobras, as the company is known, said he expects gas supply to close the year at an average of 54 million cubic meters per day, up from 44 million cubic meters per day last year.Production in Brazil’s coveted offshore pre-salt layer has helped drive the increase in supply, Costa said.Despite increasing supply, Brazil will likely be importing gas to meet domestic demand until at least 2026, he said. (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Writing by Alexandra Alper Editing by Marguerita Choy) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/petrobras-gas/natural-gas-in-petrobras-pipelines-up-about-23-pct-in-2017-idINL1N1O51IB'|'2017-12-05T14:46:00.000+02:00'
'663058dad4ea7a7495d60cb0fb33a1b3375d9d41'|'Uniper could make small M&A deals: CFO'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy firm Uniper, subject to a 8.05 billion euro ($9.54 billion) takeover bid by Finnish peer Fortum, could make small and selective acquisitions itself, its finance chief told the online version of FINANCE magazine.General view of the Uniper coal power plant in Hanau, Germany, early morning November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “Uniper will not make headlines with large deals in the billions. We want to develop step by step. Apart from organic growth we can imagine making M&A transactions in the low triple-digit millions,” Christopher Delbrueck was Quote: d as saying.He confirmed that Uniper’s management remained opposed to Fortum’s 22-euro-per-share offer, saying it undervalued the company’s prospects and was also lower than Uniper’s current share price, which stood at 24.915 euros apiece at 1216 GMT.Ahead of a strategy update for investors scheduled for Thursday, Delbrueck said that Uniper’s economic net debt would fall to about 2.5 billion euros by the end of the year, compared with 4.1 billion at the end of September.He also said that Uniper would reach its target of 1.0-1.2 billion euros in earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in 2017.($1 = 0.8436 euros)Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a/uniper-could-make-small-ma-deals-cfo-idINKBN1DY1ES'|'2017-12-04T09:40:00.000+02:00'
'740ee609467a171879946e29b2deb59ef9846b59'|'Nikkei edges lower after weakness in large cap stocks weigh'|'TOKYO, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average edged lower on Monday morning with weakness in large-cap stocks such as Fanuc and SoftBank taking a toll, offsetting gains in retail stocks which rose on strong monthly sales.The Nikkei dropped 0.2 percent, or 49.39 points, to 22,769.64 in midmorning trade.Fanuc Corp shed 1.7 percent and SoftBank Group Corp declined 1.0 percent, contributing a hefty negative 26 points to the Nikkei index.Department store operators gained ground, with Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings rising 1.2 percent, J. Front Retailing soaring 2.7 percent and Takashimaya Co surging 1.8 percent after they posted strong monthly sales in November thanks to higher inbound-tourism demand and strong sales of winter clothes.The broader Topix dropped 0.1 percent to 1,794.04. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Eric Meijer) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-edges-lower-after-weakness-in-large-cap-stocks-weigh-idINL3N1O41AU'|'2017-12-03T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'f5e431e15ddb3cab31b21359117a8ac11d8dafca'|'Housebuilding spurs modest rebound in UK construction - PMI'|'December 4, 2017 / 9:40 AM / in 6 hours Housebuilding spurs modest rebound in UK construction - PMI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, (Reuters) - Housebuilding spurred a recovery in Britain’s construction industry last month, making up for weakness in other parts of a largely downbeat sector, a survey showed on Monday. Construction work in London''s Financial centre at Canary Wharf In London, Britain May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Boyce The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI touched a five-month high of 53.1 in November from 50.8 in October and better than all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists that had pointed to a reading of 51.0. The upturn was driven entirely by the residential sector. Commercial and civil engineering activity continued to contract, despite a marked easing in cost pressures. British finance minister Philip Hammond announced a series of measures on Nov. 22 to boost house-building, which has lagged demand for years and contributed to a sharp rise in house prices. IHS Markit said 70 percent of responses to the survey were collected before the budget speech. Confidence about business prospects over the next year edged up to a three-month high but remained near three-year lows. IHS Markit/CIPS, which compiles the survey, said construction companies linked worries to political and economic uncertainty ahead of Britain’s exit from the European Union. “UK construction companies experienced a solid yet uneven improvement in business conditions during November,” said IHS Markit associate director Tim Moore. Costs faced by construction companies for materials increased at the weakest pace since September 2016. Some firms said price increases driven by the pound’s post-Brexit-vote fall had started to lose their bite, IHS Markit reported. Construction comprises around 6 percent of British economic output. A PMI for the services sector -- more than 10 times the size of construction -- is due on Tuesday. Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-pmi/housebuilding-spurs-modest-rebound-in-uk-construction-pmi-idUKKBN1DY0XD'|'2017-12-04T11:45:00.000+02:00'
'e2316cd54c57f9b380685db345087ca9fb2c735a'|'Lexinfintech delays U.S. IPO pricing as China reins in micro-loan sector: source'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese consumer lending firm Lexinfintech [LX.O] will delay the pricing of its planned Nasdaq IPO to conduct more due diligence, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said - a move that comes after Beijing issued new rules to tighten control of the micro-loan sector.China’s financial regulators on Friday circulated new regulations to local governments targeting fast-growing online micro-lenders, that include a ban on loans to borrowers who have no source of income.The crackdown comes amid criticism that users of small, unsecured “cash loans”, which can be issued by mobile phone apps, are vulnerable to exaggerated advertising and aggressive debt collection.Lexinfintech, which focuses on loans to educated young adults between 18 and 36 including loans for e-commerce purchases, had been planning raise some $500 million in its IPO. It filed its prospectus last month and had been planning to make its market debut on Dec. 12, the source said.The source, who was not authorized to speak to the media and declined to be identified, did not say how long the IPO was likely to be delayed.A representative for Lexinfintech said the company “continues to work toward those objectives as described” in its filing.The prospect of a crackdown has weighed on shares of U.S.-listed Chinese micro-lenders.On Friday, shares of China Rapid Finance Ltd ( XRF.N ) plunged 18.9 percent while PPDai Group Inc ( PPDF.N ) shares dropped 8.3 percent. Shares in Qudian Inc ( QD.N ), which is 11 percent owned by Alibaba Group affiliate Ant Financial [ANTFIN.UL], rose 1.3 percent after it said it endorsed the new rules and announced a $300 million share buyback.Online consumer lending in China, of which cash loans are a significant portion, dwarfs similar activity in the rest of the world combined, accounting for more than 85 percent of all such activity globally last year, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.The boom in micro-lending comes as lenders seek to cash in on rising incomes in a country where credit card penetration remains at about one-third of the population, according to data from the central bank, which says about half a billion consumers do not have a credit score.Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-lexinfintech-hol-ipo/lexinfintech-delays-u-s-ipo-pricing-as-china-reins-in-micro-loan-sector-source-idINKBN1DY0DI'|'2017-12-04T02:39:00.000+02:00'
'de875c4d761136558755997c583a29195fb32a34'|'CVS says deal to help build Anthem''s drug benefit still on'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) CEO Larry Merlo said on Monday that its plan to help health insurer Anthem Inc ( ANTM.N ) build its own pharmacy benefit management business remains in place with planning well under way, unaffected by CVS’ deal to buy Anthem rival Aetna Inc ( AET.N ).FILE PHOTO: The CVS logo is seen at one of their stores in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo\ Merlo was responding to a question on a conference call with Wall Street analysts, some of whom have wondered if CVS would lose the business because of the $69-billion deal announced on Sunday.Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aetna-m-a-cvs-health-anthem/cvs-says-deal-to-help-build-anthems-drug-benefit-still-on-idINKBN1DY1T9'|'2017-12-04T11:40:00.000+02:00'
'7b19b1f678e8baea6c0c28f52e980a43557d4a39'|'Eonia fixes at minus 0.291 percent, down from Thursday''s surge'|'December 1, 2017 / 6:20 PM / in 13 minutes Jump in overnight euro bank lending rate baffles markets Dhara Ranasinghe 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A key overnight benchmark rate European banks use to lend money to each other showed signs of stabilizing on Friday after a surge this week that raised questions about possible funding stresses. The headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) are photographed in front of the skyline with its banking towers in Frankfurt, Germany, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The Euro Over Night Index Average (EONIA) EONIA= had spiked 12 basis points over two fixings, leaving analysts puzzled by the sudden surge. But on Friday it was fixed at -0.291 percent, down from -0.241 percent on Thursday, its highest since March 2016. Still, EONIA was set for its biggest weekly rise since November 2014, according to Reuters data. That’s a marked contrast for a rate that has been in a tight trading range for more than a year. Traders said they suspected the sharp rise in the rate was sparked by demand for funds by one bank but did not have any further details, while others added that month-end demand for funds may also have made a contribution to the rise. “I haven’t heard anything systemic here and it seems to be related to one firm which is having some funding issues and we will come to know next week,” said Kit Juckes, head of FX strategy at Societe Generale. “There is no spillover effect to other markets for now.” A spokeswoman for the European Central Bank confirmed that the readings of the fixing were accurate. They are published after the close of markets on each trading day. Another possible cause for the EONIA spike could be a bank or banks which recently enjoyed ratings upgrades, switching their source of funding from the ECB to the interbank market, other analysts said. But while the rare spike in EONIA rates has caused a stir in financial markets, most analysts did not believe it was a sign of broader funding stress among European banks. Most also reckon the benchmark remains a valid measure of interbank lending rates. “We have a robust economic backdrop, countries such as Italy have been addressing problems in its banks and the sector is more solid than it has been for some time, so I don’t see liquidity problems,” said DZ Bank rate strategist René Albrecht. Still, given this week’s sharp moves, traders and analysts had been watching Friday’s fixing with interest. “EONIA is only built on real deals, the only weakness is that it is 28 contributors,” said one euro zone money market trader. Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe, Marc Jones, Sujata Rao and Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-moneymarket-eonia/eonia-fixes-at-minus-0-291-percent-down-from-thursdays-surge-idUKKBN1DV5P7'|'2017-12-01T20:19:00.000+02:00'
'4ac4a05f43150fb3bd5b8c56b4fab3227d6f08fb'|'Qualcomm files new patent infringement complaints against Apple'|'November 30, 2017 / 10:53 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Qualcomm files new patent infringement complaints against Apple Stephen Nellis , Ankit Ajmera 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) said on Thursday it filed three new patent infringement complaints against Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), saying there were 16 more of its patents that Apple was using in its iPhones. A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen, as chip maker Broadcom Ltd announced an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The new complaints represent the latest development in a long-standing dispute and follows Apple’s countersuit on Wednesday against Qualcomm, which alleged that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile phone chips infringed on Apple patents. Apple declined to comment on the new cases, referring to its earlier claims in its Wednesday filing that the company has developed its own technology and patents to power its iPhones. Qualcomm in July accused Apple of infringing several patents related to helping mobile phones get better battery life. That case accompanied a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission seeking to ban the import of Apple iPhones that use competing Intel Corp ( INTC.O ) chips because of the alleged patent violations. A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The three cases filed Thursday were all filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego. One of the cases is a companion civil lawsuit to a new complaint also filed Thursday with the ITC that seeks the same remedy of banning iPhones with Intel chips. The other two cases are civil patent infringement lawsuits. The dispute between Apple and Qualcomm over patents is part of a wide-ranging legal war between the two companies. In January, Apple sued Qualcomm for nearly $1 billion in patent royalty rebates that Qualcomm allegedly withheld from Apple. In a related suit, Qualcomm sued the contract manufacturers that make Apple’s phones, but Apple joined in to defend them. Qualcomm in November sued Apple over an alleged breach of a software agreement between the two companies. Apple emailed Qualcomm to request “highly confidential” information about how its chips work on an unidentified wireless carrier’s network, Qualcomm alleged, but Apple had copied an Intel engineer in the email for information. Separately, Qualcomm is facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over many of the same pricing practices Apple names in its complaints. Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Chris Reese'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-apple-qualcomm/qualcomm-files-new-patent-infringement-complaints-against-apple-idINKBN1DU35R'|'2017-12-01T01:28:00.000+02:00'
'438a11a465ca027f12e478a74ff62a524d694ba1'|'UniCredit shareholders back proposed changes to governance'|' 29 PM / in 30 minutes UniCredit shareholders back proposed changes to governance Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Shareholders in UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) gave their near unanimous approval on Monday to proposed changes in its governance rules to make Italy’s top bank more attractive to investors. Unicredit bank logo is seen in the old city centre of Siena, Italy June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini New Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Mustier is overseeing a restructuring of the lender after raising 13 billion euros ($15 billion) from investors this year. The jumbo cash call has boosted the presence of foreign institutional investors among UniCredit’s shareholders - they now hold 75 percent of its capital - while diluting the interests of charitable foundations that were once the bank’s core investors. Shareholders on Monday backed a proposal to remove a 5 percent cap on voting rights that until now shielded the bank from potential stakebuilders and to convert savings shares into ordinary stock. Following other changes to the bylaws approved on Monday, the bank’s directors will submit their own slate of candidates when shareholders meet again in the spring to pick a new board. UniCredit plans to appoint then former Finance Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni as its new chairman and has already asked him to work on the board’s slate of candidates in an effort to improve its governance. “We’re all aware that a good governance structure is a key element that is carefully assessed both by investors and supervisors,” Saccomanni   Sergio Carbonara, founder of shareholders’ advisory firm Frontis Governance, said the changes introduced were in line with best international practice and allowing the board to pick nominees for its replacement better reflected the bank’s fragmented shareholder base. Reporting by Gianluca SemeraroWriting by Valentina ZaEditing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-italy-unicredit/unicredit-shareholders-back-proposed-changes-to-governance-idUKKBN1DY2EJ'|'2017-12-04T20:18:00.000+02:00'
'abf020394cda285b8b28ebec6ef7a990caaa0c39'|'ACLU sues to block Nebraska executions, challenges governor'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:37 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago ACLU sues to block Nebraska executions, challenges governor Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read Dec 4 (Reuters) - A new lawsuit says the 11 men on Nebraska’s death row cannot be executed because a voter referendum backed by Governor Pete Ricketts to overturn a 2015 repeal of capital punishment failed to restore their death sentences. In a complaint filed on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska said Ricketts exceeded his power under the state constitution by helping finance and control a petition drive that ended in November 2016 when voters reinstated the death penalty. The ACLU asked a state judge to block executions in Nebraska, saying the governor’s actions made the referendum void, and that the death penalty repeal converted the 11 defendants’ sentences to life in prison. Nebraska legislators had voted to eliminate the death penalty in May 2015. Ricketts, a Republican, quickly vetoed the measure, but was overridden. A spokesman for Ricketts had no immediate comment. The ACLU sued less than a month after Nebraska signaled it would to move ahead with plans to eventually execute one of the defendants. Thirty-one U.S. states, as well as the federal government, have capital punishment, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. According to the complaint, Ricketts overstepped his authority when he “proposed, initiated, funded, organized, operated, and controlled” the petition drive. It said several people who were involved had close ties to the governor, and that Ricketts and his parents, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp founder Joe Ricketts and his wife Marlene, donated $425,000, or 29 percent, of the $1.45 million raised by Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, which sponsored the drive. Last month, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said his office was prepared to seek an execution warrant for death row defendant Jose Sandoval, which could lead to the setting of an execution date, pending possible appeals. The state also told Sandoval that it had obtained lethal injection drugs that could be used in an execution. Sandoval was sentenced for his role in the deaths of five people in a September 2002 bank robbery in Norfolk, Nebraska. The ACLU sued on behalf of eight of the 11 death row defendants in the district court of Lancaster County, which includes Nebraska’s capital of Lincoln. According to a footnote, the other three have not consented to be plaintiffs. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/nebraska-execution/aclu-sues-to-block-nebraska-executions-challenges-governor-idUSL1N1O414K'|'2017-12-04T20:35:00.000+02:00'
'e203448df5cca4b543248eb53e83de40c696fe3d'|'Investors line up for Germany''s Techem, which could fetch $5 billion: sources'|'LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Canadian pension funds and private equity investors are lining up to buy German metering company Techem with a multi-billion euro sale expected to launch in early 2018, sources familiar with the matter said.Canadian pension fund Caisse de depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) have teamed up to bid, while private equity groups Partners Group and CVC are also interested in the asset, sources said.Australian infrastructure investor Macquarie ( MQG.AX ) started preparations to sell the business more than a year ago, but the sale of CVC’s Ista, a larger metering asset, got in ahead.Canada Pension Plan Investment Board teamed up with Blackstone ( BX.N ) to buy Ista but lost out in July to Hong Kong’s CK Infrastructure ( 1038.HK ).One banker said that as valuations are rising, the Australian investor will not rush to sell Techem, which supplies energy invoicing and energy management in buildings. Applying Ista’s sale multiple would imply an enterprise value of almost 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion).Macquarie, CVC, CDPQ and Partners Group declined to comment. OTPP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.As asset valuations have gone up in the private equity industry, buyout funds have looked to “core plus” infrastructure assets, competing with pension, infrastructure and sovereign wealth funds which typically go for less risk and lower returns.Macquarie fought hard to win Techem in a hostile takeover battle in 2006. After a year-long struggle with hedge funds and private equity companies it prevailed to buy the company in 2007 for 1.5 billion euros.Techem is held in Macquarie’s European Infrastructure Fund 2, established in 2006, which has been fully invested since 2010 and is nearing the end of its duration. Buyout groups typically hold companies for 3-5 years before selling them.British masts company Arqiva is in the same fund and its efforts to find a new owner earlier this year collapsed, as did its subsequent move to float on the London stock exchange: it canceled its IPO last month.In July, Techem refinanced 1.75 billion euros of loans that comprised a 1.6 billion euro term loan and a 150 million euro revolving credit facility.In an unusual move, the loan was offered with portability, which allows for a loan to stay in place in the event of a sale instead of triggering a loan repayment, something more commonly seen in the bond market.Portability can make a company more attractive to buy as it gives potential buyers comfort that financing is in place.Macquarie had asked JP Morgan ( JPM.N ), Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and its own investment banking unit to organize the divestment last year, Reuters reported.In its fiscal year to March 2017, Techem reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 319.9 million euros on sales of 782.7 million euros.Techem was founded in 1952 and has around 3,640 employees at 60 locations in Germany and at foreign subsidiaries.Additional reporting by Pamela Barbaglia and Claire Ruckin in London; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-macquarie-techem-sale/investors-line-up-for-germanys-techem-which-could-fetch-5-billion-sources-idINKBN1DY2B8'|'2017-12-04T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'ff3470fae778f1d908e81ac0fd87a42af83ee00a'|'Danish pharma company Alk Abello to invest 1 billion crowns in North America'|'December 4, 2017 / 7:13 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Denmark''s Alk Abello suspends dividend to support North America investment Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Danish pharma company Alk Abello ( ALKb.CO ) said on Monday it would invest 1 billion Danish crowns (118 million pounds) in its North America business, a move that is expected put a lid on earnings and revenue growth in the near term. To support the investment, the company also plans to temporarily suspend its dividend. The news sent its shares sharply lower and they were last down 9 percent at 825 crowns, the lowest since February 2016. The company aims to expand its allergy immunotherapy business in North America, which is world’s largest allergy market. The pharma products maker has already an established organisation in the region, where its revenue rose 17 percent year-on-year in the third quarter. Alk Abello, which generates about one-fifth of its revenue in North America, said the expansion plan was expected to boost annual revenue growth to 10 percent or more after 2018. With the expansion, the company expects margins to be in line with the wider speciality pharmaceutical industry in the longer run. However, Alk Abello kept its guidance for 2017 unchanged and expects 2018 revenue to be slightly lower than in 2017. Reporting by Boleslaw Lasocki; Editing by Edmund Blair and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-denmark-alk-abello/danish-pharma-company-alk-abello-to-invest-1-billion-crowns-in-north-america-idUKKBN1DY0L4'|'2017-12-04T09:13:00.000+02:00'
'bee3b6172409738f1e7d17b96e7e83d1e00f5ab0'|'French bank Natixis bets on fixed-income, equity derivatives to grow Asia sales'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Natixis SA ( CNAT.PA ) aims to boost Asia’s share of its corporate and investment banking sales to more than 15 percent over the next couple of years, as the French bank expands in areas such as fixed-income and equity derivatives, its chief executive said.The logo of French bank Natixis is seen outside one of their offices in Paris February 18, 2013. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The region currently accounts for roughly 13 percent of the bank’s revenue in corporate and investment banking, the biggest contributor to sales at Natixis that also has interests in asset management and insurance.Natixis also plans to continue adding to its headcount of 620 in Asia, its fastest-growing region globally, by 10 percent a year over the next three years, global CEO Laurent Mignon told Reuters in an interview.Natixis’ aim to grow its investment banking business in Asia comes against the backdrop of heightened competition among Wall Street banks and a host of local firms for services including underwriting and deal advisory.The competition has pushed down the fee income for plain-vanilla investment banking offerings, which has weighed on the revenue of the well-heeled foreign banks in the recent years.“We are not trying to compete in some of the areas where everybody is. We are trying to pick up a few items where we have some value to bring to our customers and we do well in that,” said Mignon on a visit to Asia.“The prospective of growing the business here is very important and it is key to us.”Natixis has been increasing its presence in fixed-income and equity derivatives businesses in Asia on the back of growing demand for high-yield investment products from companies including insurers.The French bank is also planning to boost its fixed-income and equity derivative offerings in markets including Australia and Singapore, after establishing a strong presence for those businesses in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.“We are starting to be closer to those clients; we hired some dedicated staff on the fixed-income side,” said Alain Gallois, chief executive officer for Natixis’ Asia-Pacific corporate and investment banking business.“It’s a potential growing market.”In Asia, Natixis’ corporate and investment banking offerings also include structure finance, capital markets, acquisition advisory and finance, and trade finance in countries including Australia, China, Taiwan and South Korea.It mainly focuses on clients in the aviation, energy and natural resources, and infrastructure sectors in the region.“These are two, three areas where we already are a global house with significant presence worldwide, and we want to invest more into these areas to develop investment banking-type service and we will do that specifically in this region,” Mignon said.Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-natixis-asia/french-bank-natixis-bets-on-fixed-income-equity-derivatives-to-grow-asia-sales-idUSKBN1DY0V4'|'2017-12-04T11:19:00.000+02:00'
'feadaa53ae7f547449152534c2380a95093c19b3'|'''Ronaldo of finance ministers'' becomes new Eurogroup chairman'|'December 4, 2017 / 5:29 PM / a few seconds ago ''Ronaldo of finance ministers'' becomes new Eurogroup chairman Jan Strupczewski , Francesco Guarascio 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers on Monday chose as their next chairman Portugal’s Mario Centeno, once dubbed the “Ronaldo of EU finance ministers” by Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble in a nod to his soccer superstar compatriot. Mario Centeno, Portugal''s Finance Minister and newly elected President of the Eurogroup, holds a news conference at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Centeno, 50, will succeed Dutchman Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Jan. 13, chairing monthly meetings of the Eurogroup, which comprises the 19 finance ministers of the euro zone and is the European Union’s most powerful economic policy-setting body. The Harvard-educated economist has led Portugal through a strong recovery from a 2011-14 debt crisis and a euro zone bailout program. The economy is growing at its fastest pace in at least 10 years and the budget deficit is set to fall to its lowest in many decades. In May, Germany’s then-finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble compared Centeno to Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo as Portugal was about to exit the EU’s disciplinary procedure for running excessive deficits. “It is an honor to be the next chair of the Eurogroup,” Centeno told a news conference on Monday. “We have a very unique time window to further prepare our economies and societies, are very much focused on that.” EU officials see the first six months of 2018 as the best moment to push through difficult reforms of the single currency area, before Britain’s exit form the EU, campaigning before European elections and a change of the European Commission in 2019 take the focus elsewhere. Mario Centeno, Portugal''s Finance Minister and newly elected President of the Eurogroup, and outgoing Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem hold a news conference at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Centeno was appointed to Portugal’s finance ministry in 2015 by Socialist prime minister Antonio Costa. He reversed some of the austerity measures introduced during the bailout, but has retained a strong grip on public finances, insisting that EU budget goals must be met. During his 2-1/2-year term, Centeno will have a key role in coordinating efforts to deepen euro zone integration by establishing a euro zone budget and finance minister as well as a sovereign insolvency mechanism or transforming the euro zone bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund. He will also oversee the end of the third bailout program for Greece in August 2018, after which the country is to start financing itself on the market again. Asked whether Portuguese politics and anti-euro parties supporting the Portuguese government may affect his job, Centeno said: “Domestic policies are addressed domestically.” He noted the Portuguese government’s “firm determination” to contribute to the EU and the euro zone. He said he would work to promote “inclusive prosperity” to end economic difficulties experienced by European citizens during the economic crisis. “I have the ability and will try to use it to bring all the ideas (…) to promote the inclusive growth and prosperity that may put an end to a period that was very difficult for Europe,” Centeno said in his first news conference after his election. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski and Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-eurogroup-chairman/ronaldo-of-finance-ministers-becomes-new-eurogroup-chairman-idUKKBN1DY2A0'|'2017-12-04T19:28:00.000+02:00'
'93ca50def146a6990ae9dbaf0a2bc24a99c33e7f'|'Toys R Us UK to close stores in restructuring'|'LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Toys R Us UK is to seek creditor approval for a restructuring plan involving closing at least 26 of its 105 stores in Britain in 2018, it said on Monday.The British arm of Toys R Us Inc ( IPO-TOYS.N ) of the United States which filed for bankruptcy in September, said it had submitted a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) plan to its creditors and would seek their approval in the next 17 days.Toys R Us UK said that if approved by the creditors the CVA plan would substantially reduce its rental obligations and allow the business to move to a new, viable business model.The firm said it anticipated redundancies among its workforce of 3,200 but did not give a specific number.Toys R Us UK said all its stores would remain open as normal through Christmas and into the new year. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Edmund Blair) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toys-r-us-uk-restructuring/toys-r-us-uk-to-close-stores-in-restructuring-idINL8N1O424M'|'2017-12-04T07:44:00.000+02:00'
'7ef9569b0e843cd436b73e76645fa7f8a1a6c04b'|'Davis says vital that Brexit talks progress onto trade'|'December 4, 2017 / 11:07 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago Davis says vital that Brexit talks progress onto trade Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Brexit minister David Davis said on Monday it was vital that European Union negotiators agree to move the talks on to discuss trade, saying it was of huge value to all members of the trading bloc. Britain''s Secretary of State for Departing the EU David Davis arrives in Downing Street, London, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson “It’s an important day... Everybody understands that the decision to move on to trade talks is vital, it’s vital to everybody, it’s of huge value to the 27 members and to ourselves,” he told Sky News. British negotiators were locked in last-minute talks with their European Union and Irish counterparts on Monday, trying to put together a Brexit deal that Prime Minister Theresa May might agree over lunch in Brussels. Reporting by Kate Holton and William James; editing by Guy Faulconbridge'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-davis/britains-davis-says-vital-that-brexit-talks-progress-onto-trade-idUKKBN1DY15V'|'2017-12-04T13:07:00.000+02:00'
'edeacce9d8aaaf4c15d875900963593b4a034748'|'REFILE-Europe''s top court to rule whether luxury brands can deny shoppers right to buy online'|'(Fixes headline)By Foo Yun CheeBRUSSELS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Europe’s top court will rule on Wednesday whether luxury brands can block retailers from selling their products on online platforms such as Amazon and eBay, a move which may end a decade-long battle that has split EU countries.The dispute between U.S. cosmetics maker Coty and German retailer Parfumerie Akzente, which sells Coty’s goods on sites including Amazon against Coty’s wishes, reached the Court of Justice of the EU after a German court asked for guidance on whether online sales bans on third-party sites curb competition.Wednesday’s ruling could set a precedent for whether luxury products makers can prevent their products being sold by retailers on online platforms across Europe, a market worth billions of euros.Coty, whose brands include Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein and Chloe, received a boost in July when a court adviser backed its case and argument that such a ban protects the image and exclusivity of its products.After intense lobbying by LVMH and Richemont , EU antitrust regulators drew up rules in 2010 to allow brand owners with less than a 30 percent market share to block online retailers without a bricks-and-mortar shop from distributing their products.Germany however has rocked the boat. In two test cases in recent years, the German cartel office forced Adidas and Asics to drop such bans, saying online platforms are crucial for small- and medium-sized companies and consumers.The German sentiments are understandable in view of the widespread use of online platforms, said lawyer Anne MacGregor at Dechert.“In Germany 62 percent of retailers use online marketplaces, more than in other EU countries. The UK CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) has also spoken out against restricting online sales too vigorously,” she said.The Luxembourg-based court’s ruling could determine who has the upper hand on competition policy in this issue, said Assimakis Komninos, a partner at White & Case.“There is a battle as to who sets competition policy in the EU. Will it be the Commission or will competition authorities be allowed to go their own way as in the case of Germany?” he said.The case is C-230/15 Coty Germany. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Adrian Croft) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/luxury-ecommerce-eu-coty/top-europe-court-to-rule-whether-luxury-brands-can-deny-shoppers-right-to-buy-online-idINL8N1O42AW'|'2017-12-04T15:25:00.000+02:00'
'5f8f99dfda357d8e7aa6b4b2358423f909cb8a0b'|'PSA Group and Nidec to set up electric motor venture'|'December 4, 2017 / 9:23 AM / in 3 minutes PSA Group and Nidec to set up electric motor venture Gilles Guillaume 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ) and Japan’s Nidec Corp ( 6594.T ) will invest 200 million euros ($237 million) in a joint venture to develop and produce electric car motors for a fast expanding market, the companies said on Monday. FILE PICTURE: The Peugeot logo is seen at a dealership of French car maker PSA Peugeot-Citroen in Selestat, eastern France, September 7, 2012. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler Patrice Lucas, PSA’s executive vice president for strategy, said in a presentation the France-based venture would have a production capacity of 900,000 motors per year from 2022. The market for electric automobile motors is expected to double to 45 billion euros ($53 billion) over the next two decades, the companies said in a joint statement, as the industry undergoes profound change, with consumers increasingly demanding alternatives to combustion engines. The electric motors developed with Nidec will supply all Opel and Vauxhall models, Lucas said. Nidec will act via Nidec Leroy-Somer, the French electric motor company it acquired in February this year. The aim of the joint venture is to make high-performance “electric traction motors” for PSA Group and potentially other carmakers, the companies said. Nidec manufactures motors for products ranging from hard disk drives to elevators and automobiles, and owns the U.S. Motors brand. The highly acquisitive company, which describes itself as specializing in “everything that spins and moves”, has been snapping up companies in anticipation that new automotive technologies will result in a boom in the market. It announced last week it had bought driveXpert GmbH, which makes electronic control units for automobiles. Earlier this year, it acquired the motor and electric power generation businesses of France’s Emerson Electric, and the drive business of Emerson Electric Co of Britain. As global competition heats up to develop electric cars and automated driving functions, Nidec has said it wants to become a global auto parts supplier rivaling Germany’s Robert Bosch [ROBG.UL] and Japan’s Denso Corp ( 6902.T ). The transaction remains subject to antitrust clearance and consultations with employee representatives. The joint venture’s headquarters will be in Carrieres-sous-Poissy near Paris. Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Writing by Richard Lough and Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-psa-nidec/psa-group-and-japans-nidec-to-set-up-electric-car-engine-venture-idUKKBN1DY0VG'|'2017-12-04T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'dfcbdf25b0b3a54fe1dc917196738c919a4f9f93'|'MOVES-Former BlackRock governance leader Oleksiuk joins Evercore-sources'|'Dec 3 (Reuters) - Zach Oleksiuk, the former leader of asset manager BlackRock Inc’s investment stewardship team in the Americas, has joined New York-based investment bank Evercore Inc, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.The hire is the latest move by Evercore to boost its practice of defending companies from activist shareholders and hostile takeovers and advising them on corporate governance.It follows the bank’s hiring two years ago of Bill Anderson, who was previously head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s shareholder activism defense business.Evercore could announce the hiring of Oleksiuk as early as this week, the sources said, asking not to be identified ahead of any official statement. Evercore declined to comment, while Oleksiuk did not respond to a request for comment.At BlackRock, Oleksiuk had a voice in how the fund manager cast proxy votes at thousands of corporations each year.With roughly $6 trillion under management as of Sept. 30, BlackRock is the largest shareholder in many U.S. corporations, giving it a powerful voice on their operations and board makeup.Evercore has used its shareholder activism defense practice to boost its mergers and acquisitions franchise and land roles in high-profile deals.It advised U.S. grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc on its $13.7-billion sale to Amazon.com Inc this year, by virtue of having been hired by Whole Foods previously to help defend it against activist hedge fund Jana Partners LLC. (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York Editing by Clarence Fernandez) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/evercore-moves-oleksiuk/moves-former-blackrock-governance-leader-oleksiuk-joins-evercore-sources-idINL1N1O404P'|'2017-12-04T00:34:00.000+02:00'
'8f7d312c84d047e26a7f6d11936499ba88f96c9e'|'Dubai’s GEMS Education says it secured $1.25 billion loan'|'December 4, 2017 / 7:33 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Dubai’s GEMS Education says it secured $1.25 billion loan Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - GEMS Education, an international private education provider based in Dubai, has secured a $1.25 billion loan to refinance existing borrowings and to support future growth, it said on Monday. The company, which is supported by Dubai-based Fajr Capital, Bahraini state investment fund Mumtalakat and private equity giant Blackstone, said in a statement it had drawn $900 million from the seven-year loan. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC Bank Middle East, MashreqBank and Noor Bank were underwriters of the loan, which was backed by a larger group of regional and international investors, the firm said without giving details. The new loan includes a $250 million five-year revolving credit facility, GEMS said. Sources had told Reuters in October GEMS planned to raise the loan to streamline its corporate structure before making an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in London. The company said on Monday its shareholders were “exploring the possibility of an offering of securities in the company” but that no decision to proceed with a transaction had been taken. GEMS had net debt of $742 million at the end of August, before the $1.25 billion loan was raised. In the 12-month period ending Aug. 31, the company posted $926.2 million in revenues, about 17 percent more than the same period a year earlier, driven by enrolment growth and tuition fee increases, it said. (Reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Edmund Blair)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/gems-loan/dubais-gems-education-says-it-secured-1-25-billion-loan-idUSL8N1O411B'|'2017-12-04T09:32:00.000+02:00'
'08fccef35d9326ce6d9eaf0576fd40eeed9b9b49'|'UK pushing to include Bitcoin under money-laundering rules'|'December 4, 2017 / 9:44 AM / in 20 minutes UK pushing to include Bitcoin under money-laundering rules Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain wants to increase regulation of Bitcoin and other digital currencies by expanding the reach of European Union anti-money-laundering rules that force traders to disclose their identities and report suspicious activity. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo With demand for Bitcoin surging, fuelling a 1,000 percent rally in its value so far this year, the British finance ministry said it expected negotiations over changes to the EU rules would conclude later this year or in early 2018. Stephen Barclay, economic secretary to Britain’s Treasury, told parliament in a notice dated Nov. 3 - but only reported by media on Monday - that the amendments “bring virtual currency exchange platforms and custodian wallet providers into Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing regulation.” That would mean those companies would be overseen by national competent authorities, the statement said. The main U.S. derivatives regulator said on Friday it would allow CME Group Inc ( CME.O ) and CBOE Global Markets Inc ( CBOE.O ) to list Bitcoin futures contracts, opening the door to added regulation. Australia has also said it would strengthen its money- laundering laws by bringing Bitcoin providers under the government’s financial intelligence unit. Writing by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-britain/uk-pushing-to-include-bitcoin-under-money-laundering-rules-idUKKBN1DY0Y2'|'2017-12-04T11:54:00.000+02:00'
'a393a5988a148c3b7107ffc38d551f8a5907658b'|'Gold trader says he paid bribes to get out of Turkish jail in 2013'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:37 PM / Updated an hour ago Gold trader says he paid bribes to get out of Turkish jail in 2013 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A Turkish-Iranian gold trader testifying at the trial of a Turkish bank executive in a New York federal court said Monday that he paid bribes to secure his release from jail in Turkey in 2013 after he was arrested there in a corruption investigation. The trader, Reza Zarrab, has not testified as to who received the bribes. He has pleaded guilty to charges that he schemed to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Zarrab is testifying for U.S. prosecutors against Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank facing related charges. Atilla has pleaded not guilty. (Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-turkey-zarrab-bribe/gold-trader-says-he-paid-bribes-to-get-out-of-turkish-jail-in-2013-idUSL1N1O41D4'|'2017-12-04T20:35:00.000+02:00'
'1d44734aec9d039d5b2c28682a8085dba9faf7aa'|'EU''s Verhofstadt says no Brexit deal yet'|'December 4, 2017 / 11:35 AM / Updated 2 hours ago EU''s Verhofstadt says no Brexit deal yet Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the EU have yet to strike a deal on an initial Brexit divorce package, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said on Monday after meeting the EU’s negotiator Michel Barnier. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier meet European Union''s chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt and his Brexit team from the European Parliament, at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Verhofstadt put the chances of a deal when British Prime Minister Theresa May visits Brussels later in the day at 50-50. He said the Parliament was still pressing for more from London on guarantees for the rights of EU citizens in Britain. Elmar Brok, another member of the parliament’s Brexit group who attended the meeting, said there was a “very good chance” of a deal and that May’s meeting with Barnier and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker could resolve outstanding issues. Brok said he was “astonished” at how far the negotiations had come and that differences remained over “just a few words”. The EU was still pressing, he said, for the European Court of Justice to have a say on guaranteeing citizens’ rights, while on Ireland there was “a difficult matter of wording” to ensure there would be a system to avoid border controls with Northern Ireland once Britain leaves the European Union. Verhofstadt later issued a written statement. He said: ”I have reiterated Parliament’s priority: to make sure that the EU citizens living in the UK will not have to go through an unclear, arbitrary and burdensome procedure at great cost. “Their rights must be guaranteed. They came to the UK in good faith to contribute to British society and must be treated with the respect they deserve.” Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-verhofstadt-nodeal/eus-verhofstadt-says-no-brexit-deal-yet-idINKBN1DY18F'|'2017-12-04T13:33:00.000+02:00'
'89bdc9b5d187a4b8ba33440155b76ade54b8ddef'|'CVS, Aetna executives defend $69 billion deal to skeptical Wall Street'|'December 4, 2017 / 5:04 PM / in 7 minutes CVS, Aetna executives defend $69 billion deal to sceptical Wall Street Caroline Humer 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) and Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) on Monday said their $69 billion (£51.2 billion) deal to combine the pharmacy and drug benefit manager and the No. 3 U.S. health insurer would transform healthcare and deliver cost savings, but investors took a pessimistic view of the combination in the short term. CVS and Aetna announced on Sunday that they had reached an agreement for a deal that will allow CVS to expand cheaper medical services in its pharmacy-based MinuteClinics and rein in soaring U.S. healthcare costs for consumers, large corporations, and the government. CVS CEO Larry Merlo said on an investor call on Monday that he expects the deal to close in 2018 after an antitrust review, and that he expects $750 million in savings from eliminating duplicate corporate functions at CVS and Aetna and combining some drug health plan and drug benefit management areas. But investors on Monday described the savings as modest and worried that they will not kick in until 2020 at the earliest. Investors also concerned that CVS earnings would not grow as much as expected next year due to deal costs. CVS shares fell 4.7 percent, or $3.51, to $71.59 and Aetna fell just under 1 percent, or $1.26, to $168.63. LONG-TERM GROWTH, SHORT-TERM PAIN CVS and Aetna envision a new healthcare system in which patient health is improved as the companies integrate pharmacy and medical claims and increase preventative services in clinics from the current emphasis on flu shots to include other areas such as vision, hearing and nutrition. Strategically, Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Jeff Jonas said, he likes the idea, which could drive customer growth in CVS’ MinuteClinics. FILE PHOTO: Mark Bertolini, Chairman and CEO of Aetna, participates in a panel discussion at the 2015 Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco, California November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo “Financially, though, it’s really a stretch,” he said. CVS’ plan to cancel share buybacks likely means lower earnings per share next year and the deal - the biggest merger of 2017 - will increase the company’s debt costs. Two ratings agencies, Moody’s and S&P said on Monday that the debt load from the deal could spur them to lower credit ratings on the companies. The companies are turning to several banks to provide $49 billion in financing to fund the cash portion of the deal. Slideshow (3 Images) Leerink analyst Ana Gupte said that investors were increasingly sceptical, and that attaining the $750 million in savings would be difficult given the stiff competition with rivals and pricing pressure on health insurance products and pharmaceuticals. But she said that the deal would probably be approved after regulators ask for small asset sales of Medicare drug plans to maintain market competition. Antitrust regulators last year blocked two separate mergers proposed by the large insurers: Aetna’s plan to buy Humana Inc ( HUM.N ) and Anthem Inc’s ( ANTM.N ) acquisition of Cigna Corp ( CI.N ), saying they would hurt consumers. Unlike those deals, the CVS-Aetna combination is a “vertical” integration in which the companies do not directly overlap operations. Several antitrust experts said they expected the CVS-Aetna deal to gain approval for that reason, but that it would be scrutinized closely. Large corporate customers were a major factor in the antitrust litigation on the insurer mergers, and benefits consultants said they are taking a wait-and-see attitude about the companies’ promises for the CVS deal. Addressing investor scepticism during a conference call with analysts on Monday, Aetna’s top executive Mark Bertolini said that the companies - which were already working together on pharmacy benefits and to expand MinuteClinics - needed to merge so that CVS could have more control on finding the savings and other opportunities. “Owner economics matter here,” Bertolini said when asked by a Wall Street analyst why the two companies did not simply partner. Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aetna-m-a-cvs-health/cvs-aetna-executives-defend-69-billion-deal-to-skeptical-wall-street-idUKKBN1DY27I'|'2017-12-04T19:03:00.000+02:00'
'a437aef2eac4745efffb0349a701cadd2e51482d'|'South Africa''s rand weaker as ruling party''s succession race gathers steam, stocks firmer'|'December 4, 2017 / 7:26 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago South Africa''s rand weaker as ruling party''s succession race gathers steam, stocks firmer Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JOHANNESBURG, Dec 4 (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand weakened early on Monday as the leadership race for the new leader of the ruling African National Congress gathered momentum, with the largest voting bloc expected to signal its preferred candidate this week. * At 0709 GMT, the rand traded at 13.7950 versus the dollar, down 0.4 percent from its New York close on Friday. * “As provinces submit their nominations for the ANC leadership conference, expect political noise to persist,” lender Nedbank said in a note. * The rand advanced 3 percent last week as South Africa escaped a potentially painful double downgrade of its credit ratings and on indications that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was doing well in nominations for leader of the ANC. * Ramaphosa is seen as the more market-friendly candidate for the ruling party’s top job, but Kwazulu-Natal, the province with the most delegates and home to rival Nkosazana-Dlamini Zuma - has yet to announce its preferred successor to President Jacob Zuma. * The ANC is set to elect a new leader at a national conference later this month. * Stocks opened firmer at 0700 GMT, with the JSE securities exchange’s benchmark Top-40 index up 1 percent by 0709 GMT. * Government bonds were slightly weaker in early trade, with the yield for the benchmark instrument due in 2026 up 3.5 basis points to 9.36 percent. (Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Toby Chopra; Editing by Toby Chopra)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/safrica-markets/south-africas-rand-weaker-as-ruling-partys-succession-race-gathers-steam-stocks-firmer-idUSL8N1O40ZW'|'2017-12-04T09:26:00.000+02:00'
'44587bcbf5051a3a30767e905dbd562b162824d2'|'Uber joins forces with global public transport association'|'December 4, 2017 / 5:44 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Uber joins forces with global public transport association Julia Fioretti 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ride-hailing app Uber [UBER.UL] said on Monday it was joining a global public transport association to improve mobility in the cities it operates in. People walk past an Uber advertisement outside the Uber main office in Mandaluyong city, metro Manila, Philippines August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao Uber also said it was joining the International Association of Public Transportation (UITP) to connect more people to public transport. Andrew Salzberg, Uber’s head of transportation policy and research, said aligning the company with public transport authorities was a good way to make Uber a better partner for cities. UITP represents public transport providers around the world, including Transport for London (TfL) - which in September stripped Uber of its operating licence. Scandal-hit Uber has just had to reassure authorities it is tackling the way it does business after the disclosure of a massive data breach cover-up that has prompted investigations from regulators around the world. Uber, currently valued at $69 billion, has been testing a more collaborative approach to regulators under its new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a shift away from a more aggressive culture under former CEO Travis Kalanick. “One of the big emphases that Dara has made ... is that we want to be better partners for the cities we operate in,” Salzberg said, acknowledging that Monday’s announcement was part of the company’s effort to improve relationships with local authorities. Uber said it would work on a series of training sessions with UITP starting with the so-called first and last mile issue of public transport to connect people better at the start or end of their journeys. Salzberg said the company also wanted to help to reduce congestion on roads by encouraging people to move to shared modes of transport. Alain Flausch, Secretary General of UITP, said Uber joining the association was a sign that the company wanted to have a better relationship with regulators. “They are kind of saying to every politician: ‘We are joining the community and we want to help in the new ecosystem’,” Flausch told Reuters. Flausch said he had told members of UITP that he would check the company stuck to its promises. “It’s a work in progress and having Uber join is a good sign. Of course they keep their business model but ... they need to be a bit more flexible and open to talking.” Reporting by Julia Fioretti. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-transport/uber-joins-forces-with-global-public-transport-association-idUKKBN1DY0DS'|'2017-12-04T07:43:00.000+02:00'
'0e1c5447d0d92ea8b5b4d118d92d82511dc6ca4e'|'Wanda Hotel says founder Wang Jianlin''s wholly-owned unit to become No.1 shareholder'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Wanda Hotel Development Co ( 0169.HK ) said on Monday 65.04 percent of its issued shares will be transferred to a wholly owned unit of billionaire founder Wang Jianlin at HK$1.20 a share in the company’s latest proposed reorganization.Wang’s direct holding in Wanda Hotel will increase after Wanda Investment Holding Co Ltd becomes the largest shareholder. The largest shareholder at present is Wanda Commercial Properties Overseas Ltd, which is majority-owned by Wang.The deal is worth about HK$3.59 billion according to a Reuters calculation.Wanda Hotel shares rose to as high as HK$1.67 after the announcement, extending their daily gain to over 16 percent. Wanda shares have jumped nearly 50 percent since last Monday’s close.In August, Wanda Hotel, a unit of Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, announced it planned to buy assets worth over $1 billion, including theme park operator Wanda Culture Travel Innovation Group Co Ltd and hotel operator Wanda Hotel Management (Hong Kong) Co Ltd, from sister companies controlled by Wang Jianlin.Reporting by Clare Jim; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-wanda-hotel-restructuring/wanda-hotel-says-founder-wang-jianlins-wholly-owned-unit-to-become-no-1-shareholder-idINKBN1DY0E5'|'2017-12-04T02:49:00.000+02:00'
'f0b7833c65a44caa2212f4eec4adf14acbdbc9e7'|'Indonesia plans to acquire Rio Tinto interest in Freeport Indonesia mine'|'JAKARTA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Indonesia plans to acquire Rio Tinto’s 40 percent participating interest in the giant Grasberg copper mine operated by the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, mining minister Ignasius Jonan said on Tuesday.Indonesia plans in 2018 to complete the acquisition of Rio’s interest in the mine, as well as the purchase of a 51 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia by the state-owned enterprise ministry and other government units, Jonan said.The government expects a written agreement on the matter in the near term, he said. (Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Tom Hogue) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/indonesia-freeport-rio-tinto/indonesia-plans-to-acquire-rio-tinto-interest-in-freeport-indonesia-mine-idINJ9N19L027'|'2017-12-05T05:01:00.000+02:00'
'7e63a604bb908b512730b7f57effcec529df63d6'|'INSIGHT-Wooden dams and river jams: U.S. strains to ship record grains'|'ABOARD THE OLIVER C. SHEARER, Ohio River, Dec 5 (Reuters) - A merica’s worst traffic jam this fall occurred on the Ohio River, where a line of about 50 miles of boats hauling grains and other products turned into a waterborne parking lot, as ship captains waited for the river to reopen.Such delays are worsening on the nation’s waterways, which are critical to commerce for the United States, the largest grain exporter in the world. Of the country’s $40 billion in annual grain and soybean exports, about 60 percent is moved by barges on rivers, including the Ohio.The shutdown, caused by worn or missing sections of a dam, snarled traffic from early September into early November through Locks & Dam No. 52 near Paducah, Kentucky. It was the second shutdown in two months at No. 52, which is among the country’s busiest locks with about $22 billion a year of commodities flowing through it.The lock, which has been earmarked for replacement by the Army Corps of Engineers for three decades, is one of many choke points along 25,000 miles of waterways used to transport everything from grains to consumer goods to coal. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2AY9sim )It is a system increasingly under strain. Surging shipments of soybeans and corn - due to record harvests - are overwhelming parts of the antiquated network and causing more frequent and severe backups, according to interviews with farmers, shippers, grains merchants and barge operators.Reverberations have cut across the U.S. agricultural supply chain - and international markets. This fall, delays in moving crops downriver bumped up grain prices at export terminals along the Gulf Coast, opening up an advantage for global competitors such as Brazil.Most of the country’s 239 locks have exceeded their half-century design lives, and nearly half the vessels that use the nation’s inland waterways now experience delays, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.The average delay per lock has nearly doubled on the waterways since the beginning of the century, rising to 121 minutes in 2014 from 64 minutes in 2000, the group said.An October National Waterways Foundation study said a major lock failure in the Midwest could cost shippers $1.5 billion per year in added costs and overwhelm existing rail and road capacity. Every barge can hold as much grain as 16 rail cars or 70 trucks.SWOLLEN STOCKS The delays here and elsewhere are boosting prices for key goods including soybeans, and eating away at the nation’s competitive edge against rival exporters like Brazil.U.S. soybean export prices normally drop in the autumn, as newly harvested supplies flood the market. But the delays caused prices to rise, making it harder for the United States, the second-largest soybean exporter, to compete with Brazil, which ranks first.In mid-August, the price of soybeans loaded for export at U.S. Gulf Coast terminals was about $14 per metric ton below the cost of soybeans loaded at Brazil’s Paranagua port, according to industry data. By mid-November, the U.S. advantage had been cut to less than $4 per ton. Brazil’s soybeans have a higher protein content, and therefore attract a premium.Top soy importer China is expected to buy twice as many soybeans from Brazil in the fourth quarter as it did last year, much of it at the expense of U.S. shipments.Export markets are key for farmers and grain processors due to rising crop yields. In the past two decades, U.S. corn output has outpaced domestic use by 20 percent, and soybeans by more than 70 percent.“Being near the river used to be an advantage, but now having to wait on dams and infrastructure is more of a liability to farmers,” said Marc Bremer, a farmer in Metropolis, Illinois.Bremer sells most of his corn and soybeans to facilities known as elevators, which receive and store grain and load barges on the Ohio River. This autumn, he lost up to $30,000 in revenue when prices tumbled because disruptions caused crop stockpiles to swell at these facilities. He said he may delay buying new farm equipment as a result.The log jams hit local grain buyers - the elevators - who cut bids on crops to the lowest levels since the Port of New Orleans was shuttered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Elevators, including those owned by Bunge Ltd, Cargill Inc and Archer Daniels Midland Co, typically fill barges with corn and soybeans en route to the Gulf of Mexico. But the backup meant they were unable to ship out supplies - overwhelming their storage, too.‘HIDDEN COST’Along the river in Shawneetown, Illinois, Bunge piled soybeans outside on the ground, putting them at risk of damage from rain or animals, because the elevator’s bins were full due to the backlog, local farmers said. An employee of Bunge’s elevator said it took this step because of “market conditions.”Randy Anderson, a farmer from Galatia, Illinois, said he was told to hold back pre-arranged deliveries of crops to the Bunge elevator. Instead, he was forced to take time away from harvesting to load the crops into his own storage bins.“That could have been time I could have been in the field,” he said. “That’s a hidden cost.”The effect was also felt by shipping companies, which make more money the more trips their barges make. Barge operator Campbell Transportation Company of Pittsburgh estimated a loss of $1 million in revenue in September and October because of the delays.“This was the difference between a small profit and a big loss,” said Peter Stephaich, Campbell chief executive.Replacing Locks and Dam No. 52 and nearby No. 53 on the Ohio River has been on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ to-do list for about thirty years, even as its backlog of other projects has grown.Known as the Olmsted Locks and Dam, the replacement is set to finally be completed next year. Its cost has risen to about $3 billion from an original estimate of $775 million.In the meantime, the short-term work to fix the dam continues. Divers working in pitch-black water needed a week to repair the largest hole in the 90-year old dam, one of the last on the river made of wooden slats. Repairs to three other worn and corroded sections may be completed this month. For the seven-man crew of the Oliver C. Shearer, one of 70 towboats hauling hundreds of barges carrying goods, the delay at Locks & Dam No. 52 meant killing time. But there was only so much paperwork, repairs, or waxing the checkerboard floor of the vessel that the crew could do.“You start beating your head against the wall,” Michael McCloud, the boat’s captain, said in October as he looked out at idle barges on the Ohio River from the vessel’s bridge.(For more on life along the Ohio River, see. For a photo essay, see reut.rs/2BF3xM8 )Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago and Tom Polansek on the Oliver C. Shearer and in Paducah, Kentucky; Editing by David Gaffen and Paul Thomasch '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-grains-infrastructure/insight-wooden-dams-and-river-jams-u-s-strains-to-ship-record-grains-idINL1N1NF1YE'|'2017-12-05T03:01:00.000+02:00'
'b7b7fcc3ea4b239fff6f6bcd7059895336e30d09'|'China''s budding coffee culture propels Starbucks, attracts rivals'|'December 5, 2017 / 8:55 AM / in 26 minutes China''s budding coffee culture propels Starbucks, attracts rivals Adam Jourdan , Lisa Baertlein 5 Min Read SHANGHAI/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In Wu Qiong’s small cafe in downtown Shanghai, coffee beans nestle in glass jars on the bar while various brews bubble away behind the counter. A view of the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Shanghai, China, December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The cafe - one of thousands of trendy, artisan coffee shops in the city - reflects a growing cafe culture in China that’s driving growth for chains like Starbucks Corp ( SBUX.O ) and attracting more competition. “There are many more choices for consumers in the coffee market here now,” said Wu, 35, who set up the store with her boyfriend this year, the couple’s second outlet. “People can choose chains or go for specialist coffee stores.” Starbucks dominates in China and is growing fast in the market, while in the United States it comes under pressure from a “third wave” of boutique coffee sellers and cheaper rivals. Executive chairman Howard Schultz, speaking at the launch of Starbucks’ first overseas “Reserve Roastery” - an opulent flagship store with gourmet coffees and a bakery - said China was on track to be “bigger, more powerful and more significant” than the firm’s U.S. business. “With the rising middle class and the opportunity in China, the market is going to be much larger here,” he said, adding Starbucks was looking to hit 10,000 outlets in China within a decade, catching up with the United States in terms of stores. The firm held a 54.8 percent share of China’s 25.2 billion yuan ($3.81 billion) specialist coffee shop market last year, far ahead of rivals like McDonald’s Corp’s ( MCD.N ) McCafe and Whitbread Plc’s ( WTB.L ) Costa Coffee, Euromonitor data show. Unlike in the United States, Starbucks’ challenge in China has been winning over traditional tea drinkers to coffee, rather than fending off local rivals. That could be changing. “Right now we notice an increasing number of small brands and independent coffee shops. They are registering explosive growth rates,” said Shanghai-based Euromonitor analyst Yu Limin. GROWING CAKE Shanghai alone has an estimated 6,500 coffee houses, with small chains, independent stores and bakeries battling for a slice of a market that Mintel says could grow to 79 billion yuan by 2022 from 60 billion yuan this year. Convenience stores, which already offer hot food popular with breakfast crowds, are also rolling out coffee. A view of the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery during a press conference in Shanghai, China, December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song “There are a lot of new players and the cake is getting bigger,” said Lawrence Ge, founder of Single Patch Coffee, who runs coffee workshops and cafes in Shanghai and Suzhou. International coffee chains are now looking to get in on the act, too - despite Starbucks having a big head start. Peet’s Coffee, a craft chain that rivals Starbucks at home, opened its first China store last month, and has brought in local help from investment firm Hillhouse Capital and Sam Su, ex-China head of Yum Brands Inc ( YUM.N ), who drove impressive growth for KFC and Pizza Hut in China. “China is top of my priorities for 2018,” Pascal Heritier, chief operating officer of Italian coffee company Massimo Zanetti ( MZB.MI ), told Reuters, adding the firm, which sells Boncafe and Segafredo coffee, was in talks with local partners about expanding its presence. Slideshow (3 Images) “It’s not only for us, but the whole industry. It’s something that is booming... So for actors in the coffee industry, China will be a country to look at in the future.” CRAFT COFFEE Starbucks itself is doubling down on China, where in the latest quarter it saw 8 percent same-store sales growth and said it would buy out its joint venture partner in east China for $1.3 billion. As well as its new Shanghai coffee “roastery”, Starbucks has rolled out higher-end coffee bars in China, is looking to improve its food offering, and has leveraged popular mobile payment platforms from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) and Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ). That premium push may be too late to win back consumers like Zhou Hanwen, a market analyst in Shanghai who says she’s a “serious coffee user”, but has switched from Starbucks’ lattes to smaller, trendy coffee houses. “I like quieter venues and so usually go to rather arty, yuppie places,” she said, while sipping a brew at downtown Mellower Coffee, which has coffees with names like “sweet little rain” - an Americano with a “cloud” of candyfloss. Zhou added she also now more often makes coffee at home - another trend analysts say is challenging physical stores. For now at least, China’s developing cafe culture is likely to be more a boost than burden for big names like Starbucks. “There’s lots of competition, there always has been,” said Schultz. “The market is very large and the competition will survive, we’re not thinking about them.” Reporting by Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI, Lisa Baertlein in LOS ANGELES and Martinne Geller in LONDON, with additional reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-starbucks-china/chinas-budding-coffee-culture-propels-starbucks-attracts-rivals-idUKKBN1DZ0VQ'|'2017-12-05T10:53:00.000+02:00'
'835813e3a4a2415a08fe0c3b6b572329c6013156'|'Jury orders Bayer, J&J to pay $29 million in Xarelto lawsuit'|'(Reuters) - A Philadelphia state court jury on Tuesday ordered Bayer AG and Johnson & Johnson to pay $27.8 million to an Indiana couple over the drugmakers’ failure to warn of internal bleeding risks from their blood thinner Xarelto.FILE PHOTO - The logo of Bayer AG is pictured at the Bayer Healthcare subgroup production plant in Wuppertal February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo The jury slapped the companies, which jointly developed the blockbuster drug, with $1.8 million in compensatory and $26 million in punitive damages, according to the couple’s lawyer.The verdict marks the first trial loss in litigation over Xarelto. Bayer and J&J have won three previous cases in federal court.Bayer in a statement said it believed there was no basis for the verdict, including the punitive damages award, and said it was going to appeal the verdict.Janssen, J&J&rsquo;s pharmaceutical subsidiary, in a statement also said it was going to appeal the verdict, adding that it contradicted years of scientific data and repeated confirmations of Xarelto’s safety by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.“Xarelto is the worst in class of the new blood thinners,” Michael Weinkowitz, the couple’s lawyer, said in a statement. “The serious health complications suffered by thousands of patients could have been avoided if physicians were properly instructed about the risks.”Lynn Hartman and her husband had sued the drugmakers in 2015.FILE PHOTO -A Johnson & Johnson building is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Hartman was prescribed Xarelto to prevent strokes as a result of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat. She took the drug for approximately one year and in June 2014 was hospitalized with severe gastrointestinal bleeding, which she blamed on Xarelto. She has since recovered.The trial was the first of roughly 1,400 Xarelto cases pending in the Philadelphia court.More than 18,500 cases are pending in federal court, where they are consolidated in a multidistrict litigation at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.Federal juries have cleared the companies of liability in three previous trials. The latest verdict in the federal litigation came down in August in the case of a Mississippi woman.Xarelto is Bayer’s best-selling drug and in 2016 contributed 2.9 billion euros ($3.41 billion) in revenues to the German group’s pharmaceutical business.J&J in 2016 reported $2.2 billion in revenues from Xarelto.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Xarelto in 2011. The drug is prescribed for people with atrial fibrillation and to treat and reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms.Reporting by Anthony Lin; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bayer-xarelto/jury-orders-bayer-jj-to-pay-29-million-in-xarelto-lawsuit-idUSKBN1DZ2NH'|'2017-12-05T20:16:00.000+02:00'
'32da9f005bb0f0fdb3549c90f5201197069abcec'|'Nestle to buy vitamin maker Atrium Innovations for $2.3 billion'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Nestle is paying $2.3 billion to buy Canadian vitamin maker Atrium Innovations, it said on Tuesday, expanding its presence in consumer healthcare as it seeks to offset weakness in packaged foods.FILE PHOTO: The Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters entrance building in Vevey, Switzerland February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo The world’s largest packaged food company is buying the maker of vitamins, probiotics and meal replacements from a group of investors led by Permira Funds. The business will become part of Nestle Health Science, which already sells nutrition products for people with specific medical conditions.Nestle, the maker of Gerber baby food, Purina pet food and Nescafe coffee has come under pressure this year to improve returns from activist shareholder Third Point.The deal reflects Nestle’s ambition to become a “nutrition, health and wellness” company and comments earlier this year from its new chief executive, Mark Schneider, who identified consumer health as a strategic priority as packaged food slows amid changing consumer tastes.“They’ve been trying to articulate a message around Nestle Health Science and health and wellness for some time,” Liberum analyst Robert Waldschmidt said. “In terms of nutrition, this makes sense.”Reuters reported last week that Nestle was also examining a bid for the consumer health business of Germany’s Merck, which also makes vitamins. Merck’s business has a big presence in emerging markets, Waldschmidt said, whereas Atrium tends to be concentrated in developed markets.Atrium - which has seven factories in the United States, Canada, Europe and Argentina - is expected to have 2017 sales of $700 million. Its biggest brand is Garden of Life supplements.This is Nestle’s fourth purchase in recent months. It announced deals for Sweet Earth vegetarian foods and Blue Bottle coffee in September and Chameleon Cold-Brew coffee in November.The purchase of Atrium is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.Atrium was advised by Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets and William Hood & Co, a division of AXIA Capital Markets.Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Susan Fenton and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nestle-m-a-atrium/nestle-to-buy-vitamin-maker-atrium-innovations-for-2-3-billion-idINKBN1DZ2EK'|'2017-12-05T13:41:00.000+02:00'
'32c9b46d88c16d3d47c9ab21e743dd6f4fcc8ee0'|'Japan wants missiles with enough range to strike North Korea-sources'|'TOKYO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Japan is preparing to acquire precision air-launched missiles that for the first time would give it the capability to strike North Korean missile sites, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.Japan plans to put money aside in its next defence budget starting April to study whether its F-15 fighters could launch longer-range missiles including Lockheed Martin Corp’s extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER), which can hit targets 1,000 km (620 miles) away, said one the sources with knowledge of the plan.“There is a global trend for using longer range missiles and it is only natural that Japan would want to consider them,” he said. The sources asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorised to talk to media.Japan is also interested in buying the 500 km-range Joint Strike Missile designed by Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace to be carried by the F-35 stealth fighter, Fuji Television reported earlier.Neither of those two items are included in a 5.26 trillion yen ($46.76 billion) budget request already submitted by Japan’s Ministry of Defence, however additional funds would be made available to evaluate the purchase of these missiles, the sources said.The change suggests that the growing threat posed by North Korean ballistic missiles has given proponents of a strike capability the upper hand in military planning.Restrictions on strike weapons imposed by its war-renouncing constitution means Japan’s missile force is composed of anti-aircraft and anti-ship munitions with ranges of less than 300 kms (186 miles).Any decision to buy longer range weapons capable of striking North Korea or even the Chinese mainland would therefore be controversial, but proponents argue that the strike weapons can play a defensive role.“We are not currently looking at funding for this,” Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said on Tuesday at a regular press briefing.“We rely on the United States to strike enemy bases and are not looking at making any changes to how we share our roles,” he added.Before he took up his post in August, Onodera led a group of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers that recommended Japan acquire strike weapons to deter Pyongyang from launching any attack on Japan.North Korea has since fired ballistic missiles over Japan and last week tested a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile that climbed to an altitude of more than 4,000 km before splashing into the Sea of Japan within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.$1 = 112.5000 yen Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo; writing by Tim Kelly; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/northkorea-missiles-japan/japan-wants-missiles-with-enough-range-to-strike-north-korea-sources-idUSL3N1O51KO'|'2017-12-05T06:28:00.000+02:00'
'588b6df375c93338ac8b61b09252fceab212232b'|'China''s budding coffee culture propels Starbucks, attracts rivals'|'SHANGHAI/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In Wu Qiong’s small cafe in downtown Shanghai, coffee beans nestle in glass jars on the bar while various brews bubble away behind the counter.A view of the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery is seen during the opening ceremony in Shanghai, China, December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The cafe - one of thousands of trendy, artisan coffee shops in the city - reflects a growing cafe culture in China that’s driving growth for chains like Starbucks Corp ( SBUX.O ) and attracting more competition.“There are many more choices for consumers in the coffee market here now,” said Wu, 35, who set up the store with her boyfriend this year, the couple’s second outlet. “People can choose chains or go for specialist coffee stores.”Starbucks dominates in China and is growing fast in the market, while in the United States it comes under pressure from a “third wave” of boutique coffee sellers and cheaper rivals.Executive chairman Howard Schultz, speaking at the launch of Starbucks’ first overseas “Reserve Roastery” - an opulent flagship store with gourmet coffees and a bakery - said China was on track to be “bigger, more powerful and more significant” than the firm’s U.S. business.“With the rising middle class and the opportunity in China, the market is going to be much larger here,” he said, adding Starbucks was looking to hit 10,000 outlets in China within a decade, catching up with the United States in terms of stores.The firm held a 54.8 percent share of China’s 25.2 billion yuan ($3.81 billion) specialist coffee shop market last year, far ahead of rivals like McDonald’s Corp’s ( MCD.N ) McCafe and Whitbread Plc’s ( WTB.L ) Costa Coffee, Euromonitor data show.Unlike in the United States, Starbucks’ challenge in China has been winning over traditional tea drinkers to coffee, rather than fending off local rivals. That could be changing.“Right now we notice an increasing number of small brands and independent coffee shops. They are registering explosive growth rates,” said Shanghai-based Euromonitor analyst Yu Limin.GROWING CAKE Shanghai alone has an estimated 6,500 coffee houses, with small chains, independent stores and bakeries battling for a slice of a market that Mintel says could grow to 79 billion yuan by 2022 from 60 billion yuan this year.Convenience stores, which already offer hot food popular with breakfast crowds, are also rolling out coffee.A view of the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Shanghai, China December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song “There are a lot of new players and the cake is getting bigger,” said Lawrence Ge, founder of Single Patch Coffee, who runs coffee workshops and cafes in Shanghai and Suzhou.International coffee chains are now looking to get in on the act, too - despite Starbucks having a big head start.Peet’s Coffee, a craft chain that rivals Starbucks at home, opened its first China store last month, and has brought in local help from investment firm Hillhouse Capital and Sam Su, ex-China head of Yum Brands Inc ( YUM.N ), who drove impressive growth for KFC and Pizza Hut in China.“China is top of my priorities for 2018,” Pascal Heritier, chief operating officer of Italian coffee company Massimo Zanetti ( MZB.MI ), told Reuters, adding the firm, which sells Boncafe and Segafredo coffee, was in talks with local partners about expanding its presence.Slideshow (11 Images) “It’s not only for us, but the whole industry. It’s something that is booming... So for actors in the coffee industry, China will be a country to look at in the future.”CRAFT COFFEE Starbucks itself is doubling down on China, where in the latest quarter it saw 8 percent same-store sales growth and said it would buy out its joint venture partner in east China for $1.3 billion.As well as its new Shanghai coffee “roastery”, Starbucks has rolled out higher-end coffee bars in China, is looking to improve its food offering, and has leveraged popular mobile payment platforms from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) and Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ).That premium push may be too late to win back consumers like Zhou Hanwen, a market analyst in Shanghai who says she’s a “serious coffee user”, but has switched from Starbucks’ lattes to smaller, trendy coffee houses.“I like quieter venues and so usually go to rather arty, yuppie places,” she said, while sipping a brew at downtown Mellower Coffee, which has coffees with names like “sweet little rain” - an Americano with a “cloud” of candyfloss.Zhou added she also now more often makes coffee at home - another trend analysts say is challenging physical stores.For now at least, China’s developing cafe culture is likely to be more a boost than burden for big names like Starbucks.“There’s lots of competition, there always has been,” said Schultz. “The market is very large and the competition will survive, we’re not thinking about them.”Reporting by Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI, Lisa Baertlein in LOS ANGELES and Martinne Geller in LONDON, with additional reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-starbucks-china/chinas-budding-coffee-culture-propels-starbucks-attracts-rivals-idUSKBN1DZ0TO'|'2017-12-05T10:27:00.000+02:00'
'1b8fc5c5e2a396d3f3f89db292698abb7bab8d3c'|'Key Oi shareholder asks judge to declare Aurelius abusive'|'SAO PAULO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Société Mondiale, an investment fund with sway over the board of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA, on Tuesday filed two petitions with the bankruptcy court overseeing the carrier’s restructuring process, asking a judge to declare key creditors “abusive.”In the petitions, Société Mondiale, a vehicle of distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure, cited a number of disparate reasons for creditors led by Aurelius Capital Management LP to be declared abusive, a designation that could lead to them being barred from restructuring proceedings.Among those reasons is that Aurelius bought debt it holds in Oi for a fraction of its face value, and is seeking to gain unusual profits from the current dispute, Societe Mondiale said. The fund also said that the Aurelius group’s attempt to put forth a plan of its own at a creditors meeting scheduled for Dec. 19, rather than deliberating on plans put forth by the board, represents a conflict of interest.“The bondholders led by Aurelius are making a hostile takeover attempt, participating in blackmail, among other measures,” Société Mondiale said in a statement after filing the documents with the court.A representative for bondholders affiliated with Aurelius declined to comment.In November, the judge overseeing the Oi bankruptcy case, the largest ever in Latin America, effectively removed Oi’s board from ongoing debt renegotiations.The petitions on Tuesday represented the second attempt by Oi’s board to regain power. Last week, Société Mondiale, which controls the board through alliances, asked Brazil’s telecommunications regulator to prohibit the company from signing any contract that would imply a transfer of control to Aurelius.Oi, which filed for bankruptcy protection a year and a half ago, is wracked by divisions between creditors, the board, and management.Aurelius is spearheading a group of creditors known as the International Bondholders Committee, which is in turn part of an alliance of funds and banks holding about 22 billion reais ($6.79 billion) of Oi’s debt.Earlier on Tuesday, a U.S. judge reiterated previous judgments, saying the fight over Oi’s future must be fought in Brazilian courts.The International Bondholders Committee has been attempting to establish jurisdiction for some restructuring proceedings in the Netherlands, which has more creditor-friendly bankruptcy law than Brazil. ($1 = 3.24 reais) (Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/key-oi-shareholder-asks-judge-to-declare-aurelius-abusive-idINL1N1O521Z'|'2017-12-05T17:26:00.000+02:00'
'23882cd583031a15f09854b4cf2fab4750b9dda9'|'With China''s push on gas heating, one-size doesn''t fit all, says China Daily'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Local authorities in China should not use a one-size-fits-all approach to implement the country’s push to heat millions of homes with natural gas this winter, the official English language paper China Daily said in an editorial on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: A resident stands next to a newly installed gas meter in Xiaozhangwan village at the outskirts of Beijing, China, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The comment came as state-owned producer CNOOC said it has leased two tankers off the coast where it is storing an emergency stash of liquefied natural gas (LNG), in an unprecedented, costly step to avoid a heating crisis.The China Daily opinion and the tankers are the strongest signs yet that Beijing is increasingly worried, just two weeks into the winter heating season, about the unintended consequences of its experiment to convert the northern part of the country to cleaner burning natural gas from coal.China made the switch to help clear the smog that blankets the north during the winter and is caused by emissions from home heating systems as well as power plants fired by coal, the country’s primary fuel source.Domestic LNG prices have soared over the past month, hitting record highs this week, as 28 cities have turned on their heating systems and factories have converted to the fuel for the first time.Last week, two major consuming provinces, Hebei and Shandong, warned of shortages and were forced to cut gas supply to factories, highlighting China’s inadequate infrastructure and insufficient domestic output.The China Daily made its warning amid reports that insufficient gas supplies have left some residents without any heating, it said.“Any measures to run after a ‘blue sky’, including the ‘gas-replacing-coal’ campaign some local governments have launched, should fully consider residents’ needs and be tailored to local conditions,” said the China Daily.A worker closes the box of a gas meter in Xiaozhangwan village at the outskirts of Beijing, China, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter “They should not be advanced using a one-size-fits-all approach.”The local authorities have “good intentions” by implementing the central government’s policy, but it should not be at the cost of some people’s well-being and at the risk of their health, it said.State-owned gas producers are trying to address public concerns about a potential heating crisis a day after the state planner ordered eight regions to “regulate” the gas market.Slideshow (2 Images) CNOOC [SASACY.UL], the country’s largest LNG importer, said it has hired two LNG tankers for emergency storage for the first time to ensure adequate supplies and prevent skyrocketing prices.Analysts said this is an unusual move due to the high cost of leasing LNG tankers, but it is not the first time China has employed the method to cope with a spike in winter demand.“What’s CNOOC is doing is similar to what Beijing Gas did last year by parking LNG shipments near the Bohai Bay in case of a cold spell,” said Chen Zhu of SIA Energy.CNOOC said it aims to have 20 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas on hand this winter. China’s winter gas demand will hit a record 23 bcm this year, energy consultants Wood Mackenzie estimate.PetroChina, which operates the nearby Caofeidian LNG receiving terminal in Tangshan, is also boosting volumes at the 6.5 million tonne-per-year facility, but its supplies are limited by tank space, said a company official.Separately on Tuesday, the government said PetroChina has started up the third phase of the West-East gas transmission project. The line can carry 30 bcm of gas a year from fields in Central Asia and the western region of Xinjiang to consumers in the east.Reporting by Josephine Mason and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Tom Hogue '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-pollution-gas/with-chinas-push-on-gas-heating-one-size-doesnt-fit-all-says-china-daily-idUSKBN1DZ0DP'|'2017-12-05T06:58:00.000+02:00'
'4576e2cde2d3193ba7caa44a334f641d7493c0ac'|'Lawmakers call for competition inquiry into SSE/Innogy UK merger'|'December 4, 2017 / 12:11 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Lawmakers call for competition inquiry into SSE/Innogy UK merger Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers called on Monday for a competition inquiry into the proposed merger between SSE and Innogy’s UK retail energy businesses. An SSE company logo is seen on signage outside the Pitlochry Dam hydro electric power station in Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne Lawmakers said the deal could reduce competition and affect consumers as together with Centrica’s British Gas, the combined company would control more than half of the UK market. SSE and Innogy said last month they would merge and list their British retail units to better compete with smaller rivals and reap badly-need synergies in a market with thin margins. The deal, which would give SSE a stake of about two thirds in the combined entity, is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2019 at the latest. A cross-party parliamentary committee called on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to look into a merger that would reduce Britain’s Big Six energy companies to five. “(We) would welcome the confirmation of the CMA that it will look in detail at the potential impacts that this merger could have on the operation of the domestic energy market, and undertake a full investigation if there is any risk of a lessening of competition within the sector,” Rachel Reeves, chair of the cross-parliamentary Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee, wrote in a letter to the CMA. Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-sse-innogy/lawmakers-call-for-competition-inquiry-into-sse-innogy-uk-merger-idUKKBN1DY1BM'|'2017-12-04T14:10:00.000+02:00'
'938798fdc72ef92c71d3b8679cb1656f4fabfc20'|'In ruins of Greek economy, factories turn to exports to grow'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:53   In ruins of Greek economy, factories turn to exports to grow Karolina Tagaris 6 Min Read THESSALONIKI, Greece (Reuters) - Nikolaos Bakatselos, chief executive of Pyramis, one of Greece’s last surviving stainless steel sink makers, says he can hardly keep up with new orders. But fewer than ever are going into Greek kitchens. A worker carries stainless steel sinks at the Pyramis Metallourgia manufacturing facility in Thessaloniki, Greece, November 2, 2017. Picture taken November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis After seven years of one of the deepest recessions seen in modern times, Greek factories are beginning to hum again, as falling wages cut production costs and a recovery in the euro zone makes one of its weakest members competitive again - internationally, at least. “All our moves are made with exports in mind,” Bakatselos said at his plant in Thessaloniki, once the industrial heartland of northern Greece but now an area ravaged by factory closures. “We’re looking at the big picture, not the small one.” The long-awaited rebound in Greek manufacturing as well as brisk tourism, still an important industry for the Mediterranean country, may signal a turnaround for the broader economy. Gross domestic product has grown for three straight quarters, and in a crucial step for the government and its finances, Greece borrowed in the international bond markets in July after a three-year absence. Athens is also looking to end its third international bailout programme next year, after seven years of international lender-mandated firings, cuts to wages and public spending, privatisations and other reforms. All this pain may be beginning to pay off. Activity in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for about 10 percent of Greece’s economy, expanded for the sixth month in November, Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index showed, a benchmark of wider economic activity. At Pyramis, whose buyers include furniture retailer IKEA, exports have almost doubled since the Greek economy imploded. It has branched out into granite sinks and is even in talks on setting up its first overseas factory in the United States. Nationwide, manufacturers hired more workers in November thanks to higher production targets, and at the fastest pace in two decades. Factory operators were more confident than ever on the prospects for growth in the coming year. The positive Purchasing Managers’ data offered “some support to the argument that Greek economy has finally reached a turning point” and bodes well for growth in the coming months, Markit economist Alex Gill said. OPPORTUNITY IN CRISIS The turnaround will take time, however. After nine full years of recession from 2008 to 2016, Greece’s economy has shrunk by a quarter, reducing its output capacity and thereby its ability to respond nimbly to the long-awaited upturn. In 2010, 80,000 factories were pumping out goods around the country, but by 2013 that number had slumped to 57,000, the latest data from Greece’s statistics service shows. A worker holds a stainless steel sink under at the production line of the Pyramis Metallourgia manufacturing facility in Thessaloniki, Greece, November 2, 2017. Picture taken November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis The impact of that is visible on the outskirts of Thessaloniki, where a once-thriving industrial zone that drew in thousands of workers now looks like a wasteland, overgrown with weeds and with company gates rusting away. “We shed any fat we had,” said Bakatselos, whose father founded Pyramis nearly 60 years ago. It cut its borrowing and operating costs, while reducing its spending on equipment and wages alike. When Greece nearly crashed out of the euro and imposed capital controls in 2015, Pyramis had to pool its money in nine subsidiaries abroad and use it to pay suppliers in cash as it imports all its materials - including coil, lubricants and plastic from Germany and Italy. When the domestic market collapsed, the company’s biggest advantage was that it was already exporting, Bakatselos said. Turnover has grown by 34 percent during the crisis and domestic sales now account for 16 percent of the total, compared with 34 percent in 2008, he said. It exports to every continent and has added over 15 new countries in recent years. Slideshow (6 Images) Beyond exports, which now benefit from strong global demand, more competitive firms have strengthened their position in the domestic market thanks to the elimination of competition, said Nikos Magginas, senior economist at National Bank. In 2014, Pyramis, which can produce more than 1.5 million sinks annually at its Thessaloniki plant, opened a second factory in the town of Kilkis producing granite and synthetic sinks. It hired 90 workers and bought its first machine from a competitor who shut down. It wants to raise production there to 300,000 by 2020 from about 120,000 now. “There may have been a crisis in Greece, but the crisis creates opportunities,” Bakatselos said. It is in talks in Michigan and Kentucky on opening a U.S. assembly plant and will spend about 2 million euros (£1.8 billion)of its own funds to buy machines, equipment and basic infrastructure. Initially, the company hopes to produce about 100,000 stainless steel sinks a year there. For all these green shoots, however, it may be too early to talk about long-term economic stability for the country. Unemployment remains the highest in the euro zone at around 21 percent, while the national debt is still at a massive 180 percent of economic output, creating huge debt-servicing costs that limit new government spending. Every sign of growth in the private sector is therefore a boon, but many companies remain cautious about the strength of the recovery. “Greeks have switched off. They’re stuck on survival,” Bakatselos said. “It’s very difficult even today to gear up and think of growth because we’re afraid of what may go wrong.” Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-greece-economy-manufacturing/in-ruins-of-greek-economy-factories-turn-to-exports-to-grow-idUKKBN1E01OO'|'2017-12-06T14:53:00.000+02:00'
'dd4412bc386bbf0e91c5a01787cbf6587099f663'|'Japan Display affiliate becomes nation''s first to commercially sell OLED screens'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - An affiliate of Japan Display Inc ( 6740.T ) sold its inaugural batch of OLED screens on Tuesday, becoming the first Japanese company to commercialize an advanced technology that is currently dominated by South Korean rivals.FILE PHOTO: Japan Display Inc''s logo is pictured at its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, August 9, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo JOLED, which is owned 15 percent by Japan Display, shipped OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panels to Sony Corp ( 6758.T ) for use in medical monitors, according to JOLED executives.JOLED is the world’s first OLED maker to market screens which use a lower-cost printing process, where organic color materials are deposited onto glass substrates in a way similar to ink-jet printing.The printing method can produce OLED screens 20 percent to 30 percent cheaper than the current evaporation process as it doesn’t need vacuum chambers and metal masks for depositing colors, Yoneharu Takubo, JOLED’s technology chief, said at a news briefing.“We eventually want to make the printing method a de facto standard” for producing OLED panels, Takubo said.OLED screens are gaining in popularity as they are generally thinner, more flexible and offer richer colors than liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) has adopted OLED screens for its new iPhone X. But high production costs are still preventing OLED screens from being used widely.At the briefing, Takubo also confirmed that JOLED, created in 2015 by merging the OLED divisions of Sony and Panasonic Corp ( 6752.T ), is seeking to raise 100 billion yen ($888 million) by the end of this financial year to expand production capacity.Takubo said JOLED is in talks with several global panel producers for licensing the new production technology to make television panels. He didn’t specify the names of the panel makers.Japanese manufacturers began investing in OLED technology in the 1990s, led by Sony and Pioneer Corp ( 6773.T ). Most have since given up due to the high costs and defect rates, allowing Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ) and LG Display Co Ltd ( 034220.KS ) to take the lead.Samsung and LG are also working on the lower-cost printing method.($1 = 112.6100 yen)Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-display-oled/japan-display-affiliate-becomes-nations-first-to-commercially-sell-oled-screens-idUSKBN1DZ0XX'|'2017-12-05T11:09:00.000+02:00'
'3171fdd4de50a40f2081e6d07576f1932882d463'|'Fox prefers Disney as buyer for studio, media assets: Bloomberg - Reuters'|'December 4, 2017 / 9:40 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Fox prefers Disney as buyer for studio, media assets: Bloomberg Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Media company Twenty-First Century Fox ( FOXA.O ), controlled by the Murdoch family, favours selling some assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) as it is a better strategic fit and presents fewer regulatory hurdles, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios logo is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The company is said to be in talks on combining certain media assets, including Fox’s stake in European pay-TV provider Sky Plc as well as its Twentieth Century Fox TV and Film studio, with Disney and Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ), Bloomberg reported. Reuters had reported last month that apart from Disney, both Comcast and Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) had also expressed interest in acquiring a significant part of Fox’s assets. Fox and Disney were not immediately available to comment. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-m-a-disney/fox-prefers-disney-as-buyer-for-studio-media-assets-bloomberg-idINKBN1DY2P1'|'2017-12-04T18:40:00.000+02:00'
'936cb8b49322119f1bdd80fdbae3f22ef6f3380a'|'Delivery Hero sees proceeds of $429 million from capital increase'|'December 6, 2017 / 7:54 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Delivery Hero sees proceeds of $429 million from capital increase Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Delivery Hero, the world’s largest online takeaway food delivery group, said it expected gross proceeds of 362.25 million euros ($428.6 million) from the placement of new shares with investors, as it seeks to raise funds to expand through acquisitions. FILE PHOTO: The Delivery Hero headquarters is pictured in Berlin, Germany, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo The group said in a statement on Wednesday it would issue 10.5 million new shares, to be placed at 34.50 euros apiece, an 8 percent discount to Tuesday’s closing price. In addition, Delivery Hero shareholders have placed 2 million existing shares with institutional investors in an accelerated bookbuilding, bringing the total placement to 12.5 million shares. The group had said on Tuesday its shareholders planned to place up to 7.8 million existing shares, or around 4.5 percent of the share capital. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Ludwig Burger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-delivery-hero-shareissue/delivery-hero-sees-proceeds-of-429-million-from-capital-increase-idUKKBN1E00R4'|'2017-12-06T09:54:00.000+02:00'
'52613b18662fed24d49a2aee8ac8c9d2c821c2d4'|'Exclusive: Baupost expected to make quick profit in Westinghouse bankruptcy - sources'|'Reuters TV United States December 6, 2017 / 6:13 AM / Updated an hour ago Exclusive: Baupost expected to make quick profit in Westinghouse bankruptcy- sources Jessica DiNapoli , Tom Hals 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Hedge funds led by the Baupost Group LLC are poised to score a $170 million profit in less than three months from a bet tied to Toshiba Corp’s ( 6502.T ) bankrupt nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric Corp, according to three people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: The Vogtle Unit 3 and 4 site, being constructed by primary contactor Westinghouse, a business unit of Toshiba, near Waynesboro, Georgia, U.S. is seen in an aerial photo taken February 2017. Georgia Power/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Baupost and GSO Capital Partners LP, the credit arm of private equity firm Blackstone Group LP ( BX.N ), in September bought at a discount claims South Carolina utilities had against Toshiba stemming from nuclear projects Westinghouse failed to finish. The funds expected to be repaid over five years. But Toshiba on Tuesday secured roughly $5 billion in financing, which the Japanese company has said it will use to immediately repay settlements with utilities in South Carolina and Georgia that are stuck with unfinished nuclear power plants. The shortened time frame for the repayments will boost the expected returns of the group of hedge funds, the sources said. All told, the funds will reap roughly $170 million from the repayment, a roughly 9 percent gain, the sources said. The funds had bought the $2.2 billion in claims from the South Carolina utilities, SCANA Corp ( SCG.N ) and state-owned Santee Cooper, for 91.5 cents on the dollar. Reuters reported in October that the Baupost Group had acquired the biggest portion of the settlement, with GSO participating. It could not be determined how much each fund would reap. GSO, Baupost and Westinghouse declined to comment. For Baupost, the windfall comes as welcome news for the $31 billion hedge fund at the tail end of a year where its returns are in the low single digits. With the deal in place, Toshiba, which has been rocked by accounting scandals as well as the financial demise of Westinghouse, is looking to further sever ties with its subsidiary, now up for sale in bankruptcy. It plans to demand reimbursement from Westinghouse for the payments to the utilities, and then sell the right to be repaid by the nuclear business. UTILITIES’ EXPENSE By buying the settlement this fall, the hedge funds had bet that Toshiba would stay solvent until it completed the payments in 2022. The funds’ profits come at the expense of SCANA and Santee Cooper, the utilities that own the failed V.C. Summer project in South Carolina, which lost the $170 million by selling the claims at a discount. “It will be an issue with the regulators in terms of the prudence of their decision,” said Todd Shipman, a credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, of SCANA. “It will be up to (SCANA) to lay out their case (about) why they did what they did and when.” The utilities have said they sold the settlement to mitigate the risk the Japanese company would not complete the payments. Along with a parallel Westinghouse nuclear plant in Georgia, the two projects were hailed as the start of U.S. nuclear renaissance. But after years of delays and billions of dollars of cost overruns at V.C. Summer and the Vogtle project in Georgia, Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11. After spending $9 billion on construction, SCANA and Santee Cooper abandoned the South Carolina project in July, saying it no longer made economic sense. A SCANA spokeswoman said the company was not privy to Toshiba’s business discussions when it sold the settlement, and the company wanted to ensure it had funds for the benefit of its customers. Georgia Power, a unit of Southern Co ( SO.N ) that is leading the Vogtle project, held onto its settlement. On Tuesday, it said that Toshiba would pay the remainder of its $3.68 billion guarantee settlement by Dec. 15. Those payments were originally agreed to run through 2021. Georgia Power has said it intends to complete the Vogtle project. Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York; additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting-westinghouse-hedge/exclusive-baupost-expected-to-make-quick-profit-in-westinghouse-bankruptcy-sources-idUKKBN1E00H1'|'2017-12-06T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'49739c58af4b0e4cfee5e50290cbdf885e967c4b'|'Uber''s top European dealmaker to step down from role'|'Reuters TV United States December 6, 2017 / 8:09 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Uber''s top European dealmaker to step down from role Sangameswaran S , Kanishka Singh 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc’s top European dealmaker is stepping down from his role, the latest in a series of management changes at the ride-hailing service. FILE PHOTO - The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The U.S. company said on Wednesday that Fraser Robinson was quitting as head of business for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), but would continue as a senior adviser to the company. Robinson oversaw Uber raising $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in 2016. “After more than three outstanding years as Head of Business for EMEA at Uber, Fraser has decided to step down from his extremely demanding and travel-intensive role in favor of being appointed a Senior Adviser to Uber”, a spokeswoman said in a statement, confirming a report in the Financial Times newspaper. A stream of executives have left Uber in recent months amid controversies involving sexual harassment, data privacy and business practices in Asia. The board removed Travis Kalanick as CEO in June. Last week, three senior managers in Uber’s security unit resigned days after the company’s new chief Dara Khosrowshahi disclosed a massive data breach and criticized past security practices. The ride-hailing service is also facing trouble in London, where the transport regulator recently revoked Uber’s operating licence, saying the company had failed to deal with public safety and security issues. Uber is appealing the decision. Reporting by Sangameswaran S and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-executives-robinson/ubers-top-european-dealmaker-to-step-down-from-role-idUKKBN1E02MR'|'2017-12-06T22:00:00.000+02:00'
'8745095c6f3d47da207635420c2bb1f622b2dc25'|'Uber''s top European dealmaker to step down - FT'|' 48 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Uber''s top European dealmaker to step down - FT Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber’s top dealmaker in Europe, Fraser Robinson, is leaving the company, the Financial Times reported, citing a company-wide email. Robinson, who led Uber’s Saudi investment worth $3.5 billion (£2.6 billion) in 2016, will step down from his role as the head of business development in Europe, Middle East and Africa this month, the newspaper said. The paper added he would continue working with Uber as an adviser. Uber could not immediately be reached for comment outside regular business hours. Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-executives-robinson/ubers-top-european-dealmaker-to-step-down-ft-idUKKBN1E02NZ'|'2017-12-06T20:48:00.000+02:00'
'fd94ca522bd3376eebdf4bffc45ffa6c4aef01a1'|'Britain pushes back date for provisional findings in Sky-Fox deal'|'December 6, 2017 / 11:22 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Britain pushes back date for provisional findings on Sky-Fox deal Kate Holton 3   Britain’s competition watchdog will give its initial verdict on Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Sky next month, later than expected, due to the vast number of responses it has received on the deal. The Sky logo is seen on outside of an entrance to offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Murdoch’s $15 billion (£11.2 billion) bid to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not already own is being watched closely in the United States where Walt Disney Co is in the lead to acquire much of his Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s media empire, including Sky. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has been inundated with submissions from interested parties over the high profile takeover, said on Wednesday it would make its provisional findings public in January rather than the week of Dec. 18. “It is not unusual for us to update our timetables,” a spokeswoman said. “In this case, we have received a large body of evidence – including numerous face-to-face hearings and more than 12,000 submissions - so it is vital that we spend the time to reach an informed and considered provisional view.” The regulator is still due to give its final findings in March, 15 months after Murdoch’s Fox agreed in December 2016 to buy the European pay-TV group, reigniting a row over whether the media mogul has too much influence in Britain. Murdoch failed in a 2011 attempt to buy Sky when a phone-hacking scandal at his News of the World forced him to drop a previous attempt. Since then he has split his companies into two to separate the newspapers from the TV businesses. Fox said when it agreed the deal it did not foresee any regulatory difficulties but the government has taken a strong line against the takeover. The media minister, Karen Bradley, asked the regulator in September to examine whether Murdoch had a genuine commitment to broadcasting standards following concerns about the running of his U.S. Fox News network. Bradley also asked the regulator to scrutinise whether the deal would give him too much influence at the heart of the British media. Fox anticipates that its deal to buy the remaining shares in Sky will be approved in the first half of 2018. Any deal for Fox would include the remaining stake in Sky, sources have told Reuters. Analysts and competition lawyers have told Reuters they expect the CMA to continue reviewing the Fox-Sky deal even if a third party makes a bid for Fox. Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Costas Pitas and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sky-m-a-fox/britain-pushes-back-date-for-provisional-findings-in-sky-fox-deal-idUKKBN1E01CS'|'2017-12-06T13:21:00.000+02:00'
'7c1f489179a6ab81de98d83ecc2c488137772800'|'MOVES-RBC I&TS, BNP Paribas, Peel Hunt'|' 16 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago MOVES-RBC I&TS, BNP Paribas, Peel Hunt Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 4 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Monday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com. RBC INVESTOR & TREASURY SERVICES RBC Investor & Treasury Services (I&TS), a unit of Royal Bank of Canada, appointed Marian Azer as managing director, head of I&TS product management, Asia Pacific, and chief operating officer, global client coverage, Australia. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT The asset management arm of BNP Paribas appointed Elodie Lelief to its ETF and indexed fund solutions sales team. PEEL HUNT UK-based brokerage firm Peel Hunt said on Monday it appointed Michael Nicholson as associate director, James Bavister as associate and Nicole MacDougal as analyst. (Compiled by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/financial-moves/moves-rbc-its-bnp-paribas-peel-hunt-idUSL3N1O43SN'|'2017-12-04T16:13:00.000+02:00'
'724b4977d2cba68506dc2875600c64ed035e70fb'|'UPDATE 2-Cargill may partner on $4.3 bln rail project, Brazil chief says'|'December 4, 2017 / 7:13 PM / a few seconds ago Cargill may partner on $4.3 billion rail project, Brazil chief says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The Brazilian unit of Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] is in talks to form a consortium to bid for a $4.3 billion railway project that would unite grain-growing regions in central Brazil with northern ports, the business head said on Monday. Cargill’s prospective partners to bid for the Ferrogrão railway project include rival grain traders Archer Daniels Midland Co, Bunge Ltd, and Brazil’s Amaggi, said Luiz Pretti, president of Cargill in Brazil, on the sidelines of an American Chambers of Commerce event in São Paulo. ADM, Bunge and Amaggi did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Running about 1,100 kilometers (684 miles), the Ferrogrão railway would link grain-producing regions to the river port of Miritituba, helping farmers avoid moving produce by truck on neglected roads. It would also likely reduce truck traffic along the BR-163 highway, accessed by farmers to ship products through the north, and would be more efficient for grains exporters than using the ports of Santos and Paranaguá in the south. The government plans to issue a 65-year operating license for Ferrogrão, a system that will have the capacity to move 42 million tonnes of grains annually. The government’s modeling for the project has not yet been finalized. There are other groups interested in building and operating Ferrogrão. A government official told Reuters in October that a group of state-owned Chinese firms is planning to form a consortium to bid for the license. The commodities trader, which has gross sales of 36 billion reais ($11 billion) a year in Brazil, has invested $1.2 billion in the country over the past six years, the executive said. Next year, Cargill plans a 500 million reais ($153 million) investment in Brazil, with 70 percent going to infrastructure projects, Pretti said. Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cargill-investments/cargill-may-partner-on-4-3-billion-rail-project-brazil-chief-says-idUSKBN1DY2H9'|'2017-12-04T21:11:00.000+02:00'
'174dca31f774fe8e595f3153dd2330e5fa4f8096'|'Indonesia plans to acquire Rio Tinto interest in Freeport Indonesia mine'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:52 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Indonesia plans to buy out Rio''s share of Grasberg copper mine Wilda Asmarini , Fergus Jensen 5 Min Read JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia plans to acquire Rio Tinto’s 40 percent participating stake in the Grasberg copper mine operated by the local division of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, part of government plans to control more of the country’s resources. Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques poses for photographs before announcing Rio Tinto''s 2017 first-half results in London, Britain August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Under a joint venture formed in 1996, Rio has a 40 percent interest in Freeport’s Grasberg contract, entitling it to 40 percent of production above specific levels until 2021 and 40 percent of all production after 2022. Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport said in August it would divest 51 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia to the Indonesian government, to meet local ownership rules. Indonesia plans to complete the acquisition of Rio’s interest in the mine in 2018, as part of a purchase of a 51 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia by the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) and other government units, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said on Tuesday. Indonesia’s proposal could see the sale of Rio’s interest in Grasberg make up the lion’s share of that deal, provided all parties can agree the structure and price, Jonan said. ”The government will buy Rio Tinto’s 40 percent participating interest in PT-FI,“ Jonan said. If this is fully converted to shares, Freeport agrees if Rio Tinto is willing to sell to the government of Indonesia,” he added. According to Jonan, the drafting of an agreement has begun and the state-owned enterprise ministry and other government bodies aim to complete the acquisition in 2018, along with new fiscal terms in a special mining permit to replace Freeport’s Grasberg contract. Under the proposal, Indonesia’s existing 9.36 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia would be diluted down to around 5 percent, Jonan said. A further 9.36 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia held by PT Indocopper Investama, currently wholly-owned by Freeport McMoRan, would also be bought by the government, he said, and also diluted to around 5 percent. Rio’s interest converted to an equity stake, combined with the diluted Indocopper stake and the existing government stake, added up to “around 51 percent,” Jonan said. “According to the state-owned enterprise ministry, they are willing in principle,” he said referring to the two mining companies. A Melbourne-based spokesman for Rio declined to comment. A spokesman for Freeport Indonesia also declined to comment. Budi Gunadi Sadikin, chief executive of PT Inalum, Indonesia’s state owned mining holding company tipped to acquire the stakes, declined to comment. TWO DECADES A review of two decades of annual reports shows Rio’s capital expenditures on Grasberg, the world’s second-biggest copper mine, reached nearly $2 billion (£1.5 billion), while its net profit adds up to just $1.7 billion. Rio has previously said it was holding talks with Indonesia on a potential exit from the venture, amid concerns about the impact of Indonesian rule changes on the Grasberg contract. “There is no doubt that Grasberg is a world-class resource. However, there’s a difference between a world-class resource and a world-class business,” Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said in April. Outside Indonesia, Rio has been expanding its exposure to copper mining against a favourable outlook for the metal. It is spending around $1 billion a year on an underground expansion to its Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia and also owns the Bingham Canyon copper mine in the United States. In Chile, Rio is a 30 percent owner of the Escondida mine, the world’s largest copper mine. BHP is the majority owner. Rio Tinto is also a partner with BHP in the proposed Resolution copper mine in Arizona, which if developed has the potential to be the biggest source of copper in the U.S. An official at the SOE ministry said in late November that there was “no clear structure yet” for a Freeport deal. Jonan said the government “will maintain the valuation that we believe is correct,” referring to a price of between $6 billion and $7 billion for Freeport’s Indonesian unit. “We’re looking for ways so that this purchase can go ahead and the price is fair.” Benchmark copper prices on the London Metal Exchange dropped 2.2 percent on Tuesday to $6,674.50 per tonne. On Oct. 16, prices surged past the $7,000 per tonne mark to their highest in three years. Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Additional reporting by Cindy Silviana in JAKARTA and Jim Regan in SYDNEY; Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-indonesia-freeport-rio-tinto/indonesia-plans-to-acquire-rio-tinto-interest-in-freeport-indonesia-mine-idUKKBN1DZ1C6'|'2017-12-05T12:51:00.000+02:00'
'57b219b21b4cd7f75eb84e1d341baed1fe258e5d'|'Clariant open to M&A deals as it deals with activist: CEO'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss specialty chemicals group Clariant ( CLN.S ) is open to making fresh acquisitions as it deals with activist investor White Tale, its biggest shareholder, Chief Executive Hariolf Kottmann said in an interview with a local broadcaster on Monday.The logo of Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant is seen at the company''s headquarters in Pratteln, Switzerland October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann White Tale derailed Clariant’s planned $20 billion merger with U.S.-based Huntsman HUN.S in October, after fighting it for months on the grounds it would destroy shareholder value.Last week, White Tale said it would take its demands directly to Clariant’s shareholders after the group snubbed its request for an independent strategic review and three seats on its board of directors.Asked in an interview with Swiss broadcaster SRF if he was seeking a different takeover target, Kottmann said: “I would leave this open this evening. We are trying to be more profitable and more innovative, to grow faster, and this of course includes portfolio measures such as acquisitions or divestments.”With a Clariant stake above 20 percent, White Tale has stepped up its fight for influence over the Swiss group, but Kottmann has kept it at arm’s length.“What it wants is either tactical or for its own benefit,” he said, although he said he was open for more talks.White Tale, whose principals include hedge fund manager Keith Meister and New York investment firm 40 North’s David Winter and David Millstone, has called itself a long-term investor keen to help shape Clariant’s future.Kottmann questioned that in the TV interview.“I think the activist shareholder seeks an exit, and it has to find this exit itself or we offer one for them,” he said. Clariant has shown it has a proven strategy, but has to sharpen this in the months ahead, he said.He played down prospects that Clariant could seek a white knight to buy the group, saying it had developed well as an independent company and had options to generate value.Reporting by Michael Shields, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-clariant-whitetale/clariant-open-to-ma-deals-as-it-deals-with-activist-ceo-idINKBN1DY2SV'|'2017-12-04T19:45:00.000+02:00'
'b4d46e867065da103d99a43d1f41cb1dbabb34e9'|'UK new car sales fell 11 percent in November - data'|' 40 AM / in 9 minutes UK new car sales fell 11 percent in November - data Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - New car registrations in Britain fell by around 11 percent in November, the eighth consecutive month that sales have declined, according to preliminary numbers from an industry body. Vauxhall cars are seen for sale at a car show room near Vauxhall''s plant in Luton, Britain, March 6, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The sales have reflected caution among consumers faced by a rise in inflation since the Brexit vote in 2016 and weak wage growth, as well as concerns that the government would clamp down on diesel vehicles to curb pollution. Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders were expected to show diesel car sales fell sharply again. Britain will increase tax on diesel cars that do not meet more stringent emissions standards, finance minister Philip Hammond said last month. November’s expected drop in sales would add to the fall of nearly 5 percent in overall registrations between January and October. The SMMT is due to publish final numbers at 0900 GMT on Tuesday. Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-autos/uk-new-car-sales-fell-11-percent-in-november-data-idUKKBN1DZ0FW'|'2017-12-05T07:40:00.000+02:00'
'b741d8b5fb3a9b476d8c95b02a6e6411b914f0d4'|'Uber loses bid to appeal driver case to UK Supreme Court'|'December 5, 2017 / 1:24 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Uber loses bid to appeal driver case to UK Supreme Court Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber’s request to appeal a workers’ rights decision to the UK Supreme Court was rejected, according to drivers’ union Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB). FILE PHOTO: Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The decision would mean that the Court of Appeal will have to hear the case first. Two weeks ago, the ride-hailing app submitted a request to appeal directly to the Supreme Court a decision by a British tribunal that said its drivers deserved workers’ rights such as minimum wage. “Today’s decision is another blow to Uber’s legal strategy behind denying workers their rights”, IWGB General Secretary Jason Moyer-Lee said in an e-mailed statement. Uber spokesman said the company will now take the case to the Court of Appeal. Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain/uber-loses-bid-to-appeal-driver-case-to-uk-supreme-court-idUKKBN1DZ04F'|'2017-12-05T03:22:00.000+02:00'
'dbc08d2d5dfac8142742a1c46c6ff417b948b11a'|'Preview: RBI, wary on inflation, set to keep rates on hold'|'December 5, 2017 / 11:56 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Preview: RBI, wary on inflation, set to keep rates on hold Rafael Nam , Suvashree Choudhury 4 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) looks set to keep its policy rate on hold on Wednesday, after inflation accelerated to a seven-month high and stronger economic growth reduced the need for monetary stimulus. A man speaks on his mobile phone outside the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) headquarters in Mumbai, October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files All but two of 54 analysts in a Reuters Poll said the repo rate would be left at 6.00 percent, the lowest since November 2010. In August, the RBI made its only cut in 2017, of 25 basis points, and in October, it held. On Wednesday, after a two-day meeting, the RBI is likely to reiterate concern about inflation, as the annual rate increased to 3.58 percent in October. That’s low by Indian standards, but not far from the central bank’s 4 percent target. Another source of RBI discomfort is that core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, has remained stubbornly high at around 4.5 percent. The central bank is likely to reiterate a “neutral” stance, thus giving itself flexibility to cut rates in February, even though only seven of the 48 analysts in the Reuters poll who gave a view on 2018’s first meeting expect that outcome. Last week, there was welcome news of a recovery in annual economic growth in July-September to 6.3 percent, from 5.7 percent the previous quarter. “The recovery is a source of comfort to the RBI as it lowers pressure on them to take a growth-supportive stance,” said Radhika Rao, an economist at DBS in Singapore. But the latest pace is still well below the 8 percent level India needs to create millions of jobs each year for youths. CALLS FOR A CUT That has sparked renewed calls from some government officials for the RBI, which has cut the repo rate by 200 bps since January 2015, to trim again. While analysts rule out a cut now, some say the central bank could soften its tone somewhat and sound more accommodative. “We don’t expect the tone to be outright hawkish as the RBI might need to trim down its growth projections for FY18, which at current levels is optimistic,” said Rao, who expects a hold on Wednesday and in February. “But they would still sound cautious on inflation and positive on growth.” The RBI’s course will likely be determined by inflation, which in October it projected would accelerate to 4.2 to 4.6 percent in the six months to March, driven by multiple factors including planned pay hikes for government employees. The central bank is also likely to be concerned that the government may have a wider fiscal deficit in the fiscal year ending in March than the 3.2 percent target, raising the prospect New Delhi may have to sell more bonds. Those fears, plus the prospect they would further reduce the scope to cut rates amid accelerating inflation, have sent benchmark 10-year bonds sharply lower since the RBI cut the repo rate on Aug. 2, with the yield up more than 60 bps. The uncertainty about India’s fiscal management is being further exacerbated as the government is due to unveil its budget for the next fiscal year in early February, before the RBI’s next meeting. The government’s prudent fiscal management helped the country earn a much-desired rating upgrade from Moody’s Investors Service last month. Still, some analysts are worried New Delhi could crank up spending next year as it seeks to boost its re-election chances in 2019. Reporting by Rafael Nam and Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-economy-rates-rbi/preview-rbi-wary-on-inflation-set-to-keep-rates-on-hold-idINKBN1DZ1KQ'|'2017-12-05T07:19:00.000+02:00'
'608b065886e5b9a03c803258e0daf8c1ec07ed4d'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 4'|'Dec 4 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- CVS Health Corp said it had agreed to buy Aetna Inc for about $69 billion in a deal that would combine the drugstore giant with one of the biggest health insurers in the United States and has the potential to reshape the nation''s health care industry. nyti.ms/2BvLS8J- Wang Huning, the professor-turned-Communist theoretician who has been a major adviser to three Chinese leaders, called for security and order on the internet as part of five proposals he made to guide the future of cyberspace. He also emphasized China''s technological prowess, and said more should be done by the government to guide the development of new industries like artificial intelligence and quantum computing. nyti.ms/2ArCfbP- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is going to Washington for oral arguments before the Supreme Court in a case that could legalize sports betting in New Jersey, and the governor made clear last week that the stakes give this trip special, personal meaning. nyti.ms/2nppPyp (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-4-idINL3N1O426F'|'2017-12-04T02:34:00.000+02:00'
'b1046bcefb610957538c55a7f431d0cf7bb2ddd7'|'Nordic Capital agreed to buy German nursing home group Alloheim -sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:36 PM / in 10 minutes Nordic Capital agreed to buy German nursing home group Alloheim -sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Buyout group Nordic Capital has agreed to buy Alloheim, one of Germany’s top three nursing home operators, for about 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) including debt, sources close to the matter said. Alloheim owner Carlyle and Nordic Capital declined to comment. Nordic Capital prevailed in an auction against DomusVi, backed by Intermediate Capital Group, as well as buyout groups Ares and Fosun, they added. ($1 = 0.8446 euros) (Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Douglas Busvine)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/carlyle-alloheim-sale/nordic-capital-agreed-to-buy-german-nursing-home-group-alloheim-sources-idUSL8N1O044N'|'2017-12-04T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'ab161834b7ab8296ca5323cfed123bfdd9bbbec2'|'Exclusive: EU regulators set to approve easyJet buy of parts of Air Berlin - sources'|'BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - British budget airline easyJet ( EZJ.L ) is set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval to buy parts of failed German peer Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), people familiar with the matter said on Monday.FILE PHOTO: An EasyJet passenger aircraft makes its final approach for landing at Gatwick Airport in southern England, Britain, October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo EasyJet will take on some of Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel airport in the German capital for around 40 million euros ($47 million). It will also take on leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft, and about 1,000 of Air Berlin’s pilots and cabin crew.The move will allow easyJet to further bolster its position in Berlin, pulling far ahead of Ireland’s Ryanair ( RYA.I ) and Lufthansa Group in the German capital.The European Commission, which is scheduled to decide on the deal by Dec. 12, declined to comment.Air Berlin was the largest carrier in Berlin before its insolvency, followed by the combined Lufthansa Group airlines, Ryanair and easyJet. German flag carrier Lufthansa has traditionally not focused on Berlin, instead doing most of its flying out of hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.Lufthansa’s budget unit Eurowings plans to expand rapidly should Lufthansa’s plans to buy Air Berlin units Niki and LGW receive antitrust approval. It has offered concessions to allay concerns it could become too dominant on German and Austrian domestic routes and the Commission is currently seeking feedback from others on the proposed concessions.Passenger numbers at Berlin’s Tegel and Schoenefeld airports rose by a combined 11.4 percent last year to almost 33 million thanks to booming tourism demand.Should the deals be approved, easyJet will become the largest carrier in Berlin with 16 million seats, ahead of 10.7 million for the Lufthansa Group (including Eurowings, plus the LGW and Niki seats) and Ryanair on 5.9 million, according to presentation slides from easyJet last month.But it is not yet clear how much Lufthansa and Eurowings will be able to expand in the capital and elsewhere. Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said on Monday the group was willing to take over Niki with virtually no slots if it meant getting EU approval for the deal.EasyJet has previously said if it gets approval it expects to start operations from Tegel in January, at first leasing crewed planes while the Air Berlin crews and planes enter its fleet.Ryanair is also keen to expand in Berlin though, having previously criticized Lufthansa’s purchase of Air Berlin assets as a “stitch-up”. On Friday it said it was also seeking slots in the capital in order to base nine new aircraft at Tegel in a challenge to both easyJet and Lufthansa.Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Julia Fioretti/Mark Potter/Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airberlin-m-a-easyjet-eu/exclusive-eu-regulators-set-to-approve-easyjet-buy-of-parts-of-air-berlin-sources-idUSKBN1DY172'|'2017-12-04T13:17:00.000+02:00'
'85d8c7bc79ecf6a24b6303bf7290c4e4e105166b'|'Pendragon to sell U.S. Motor Group business'|'LONDON (Reuters) - British car dealership Pendragon ( PDG.L ) is to sell its U.S Motor Group business after concluding a strategic review following a profit warning, it said on Monday.The firm, which warned on profit in October due to a fall in demand for new cars, said early indications from its adviser were that the group could anticipate proceeds in excess of 100 million pounds ($134.3 million) before tax for the business.“Given the strong performance of this division, we have concluded it is economically right to sell the business at this time to realize its value,” it said.Pendragon also said it had completed a review of capital allocation for premium brands within its UK new car business and concluded that franchise locations will be reduced over a three year period. It said this would release 100 million pounds of capital through disposal proceeds and investment savings.The group said its used car business would remain its focus for growth. It is targeting doubling its used car revenue by 2021.Pendragon also plans to resume its share buyback program.“Following our strategic review, we have focused on reshaping the business to accelerate transformation and ensure capital allocation is optimized across the group,” said Chief Executive Trevor Finn.Shares in Pendragon, down 32 percent over the last six months, closed Friday at 25.3 pence, valuing the business at 360 million pounds.($1 = 0.7447 pounds)Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pendragon-strategy/pendragon-to-sell-u-s-motor-group-business-idUSKBN1DY0LG'|'2017-12-04T09:17:00.000+02:00'
'dad4b2585220170ead1e860b437d6dc7bd607874'|'Exactech gets higher offer from TPG Capital'|'(Reuters) - Medical device maker Exactech Inc ( EXAC.O ) said on Monday TPG Capital raised its offer to buy the company to $737 million cash and its board agreed to the amended terms, saying the offer was in the best interests of shareholders.The revised offer of $49.25 per share represents an increase of 17.3 percent to the previously announced $42 per share on Oct. 23, the company said.Exactech — a developer and producer of orthopedic implant devices and surgical instrumentation for extremities and large joints — expects the deal to close during the first quarter of 2018.J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as financial adviser to Exactech. Greenberg Traurig PA (Miami) and Greenberg Traurig LLP (NYC) are acting as Exactech’s legal adviser. Ropes & Gray LLP is acting as legal adviser to TPG Capital.Since the deal was announced on Oct. 23, the company’s stock has been hovering around the previously announced offer price of $42. The company’s stock was trading at $49.25 in light premarket trading on Monday.Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-exactech-m-a-tpgcapital/exactech-gets-higher-offer-from-tpg-capital-idINKBN1DY1LV'|'2017-12-04T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'459ed4ede9854dd88318024ac00cd789e11f2f12'|'Oil prices fall after U.S. drillers add rigs'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:40 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Oil eases with Brent down $1 as market eyes U.S. output Jessica Resnick-Ault 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil fell more than 1 percent on Monday as the market saw signs of continuing U.S. production increases, though prices remained in sight of their recent two-year highs thanks to last week’s decision by OPEC and other producers to extend output cuts. A gas pump is seen hanging from the ceiling at a petrol station in Seoul June 27, 2011. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak/File Photo Brent crude futures fell $1.00 a barrel to $62.73 by 10:40 a.m. EST (1540 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 70 cents at $57.66. Brent hit a two-year high of $64.65 a month ago and has since attracted record investment by fund managers.[O/ICE] “We’re in a situation where there might not be much more ammunition on the bullish side,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Management in New York. As a result, the market could correct slightly, pulling further downward, he said. The market is continuing to watch U.S. crude production, which is nearing a record high, according to data last week.. Additionally, drillers in the United States added two oil rigs in the week to Dec. 1, bringing the total count to 749, the highest since September, energy services company Baker Hughes said on Friday. [RIG/U] The U.S. rig count, an early indicator of future output, has risen sharply from 477 active rigs a year ago after energy companies boosted spending plans for 2017. “Even higher prices are likely to be precluded by news from the U.S., where drilling activity is being stepped up,” said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch. U.S. producers were encouraged during 2017 to increase activity as crude prices started recovering from a multi-year price slump after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and some non-OPEC producers, including Russia, agreed to production cuts a year ago. Last week the producers agreed to extend those cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of next year. “Market reaction has been positive so far. There are only two worrying aspects ... One is that Iraq’s indiscipline has not been discussed, at least not publicly,” PVM Oil Associates strategist Tamas Varga said, referring to Baghdad’s compliance with output cuts. [OPEC/c] “The second is OPEC’s own forecast for next year. They are by far the most bullish on 2018, with the annual call on their oil at 33.42 million bpd,” he said. The forecast is much higher than those of the U.S. government at 32.70 million bpd and the International Energy Agency’s prediction of 32.38 million bpd. The latest agreement allows for producers to exit the deal early if the market overheats. Russian officials had expressed concern that extending the cuts might encourage U.S. shale oil companies, which have been a thorn in OPEC’s side, to pump more crude. U.S. output rose in September to 9.5 million bpd, the highest monthly output since 9.6 million bpd in April 2015, government data shows. On an annual basis, U.S. output peaked at 9.6 million bpd in 1970. Additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick in TOKYO and Emily Chow in KUALA LUMPUR and Amanda Cooper in LONDON; Editing by David Goodman and Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-fall-after-u-s-drillers-add-rigs-idUKKBN1DY044'|'2017-12-04T03:39:00.000+02:00'
'2c76b786eb90030f6779c374ce884e96f4da7251'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Qatar jumps on hope diplomatic dispute will be resolved'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:18 PM / Updated 4 hours ago MIDEAST STOCKS-Qatar jumps on hope diplomatic dispute will be resolved Reuters Staff * Qatar’s emir to attend annual Gulf summit in Kuwait * Stock index surges 2.2 percent from near six-year lows * Beaten-down real estate firm Ezdan leaps 10 percent * Saudi index rises for ninth straight day * Emaar Properties rebounds in Dubai By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Qatar’s stock market jumped by its biggest margin in nearly five months on Monday because of hopes that Doha’s diplomatic dispute with four other Arab countries will be resolved. Most other Gulf markets were firm. The Qatari foreign minister said late on Sunday that Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani was expected to attend the annual summit of Gulf Arab heads of state in Kuwait on Tuesday and Wednesday. There was no immediate comment from other Gulf nations on the Qatari announcement, and events at the summit are difficult to predict. Nevertheless, investors hope Sheikh Tamim’s attendance will be a step towards renewed dialogue with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. Qatar’s stock index, which has been trading near six-year lows, surged 2.2 percent as trading volume more than doubled from Sunday’s level. The index remains 20 percent below its level just before the Arab states imposed sanctions on Qatar in June. Real estate firm Ezdan Holding, which has been hit hard by a downturn in the Qatari property market that was worsened by the diplomatic crisis, soared its 10 percent daily limit. Qatar Insurance, which has operations in the UAE, gained 4.7 percent. Banks, which have suffered from outflows of Gulf deposits due to the crisis, were also strong with Qatar International Islamic Bank up 4.0 percent. Another big gainer was drilling rig provider Gulf International Services, up 9.7 percent. United Arab Emirates markets, reopening after a long weekend due to public holidays, also climbed. Dubai added 0.3 percent as blue chip Emaar Properties, which has been pulled down in recent months by the slump in Dubai’s real estate market, rebounded 2.8 percent. Abu Dhabi climbed 1.0 percent as the most heavily traded stock, Aldar Properties, climbed 1.4 percent. Investment company Al Qudra Holding listed on the Abu Dhabi exchange’s second market and was the second most heavily traded stock, closing at 1.23 dirhams compared to its par value of 1.00 dirham. Saudi Arabia’s index rose for a ninth straight day to 7,103 points in active trade, confirming a break above its 200-day average, now at 7,015 points. The market has been buoyed by signs that Saudi Arabia’s massive crackdown on corruption is winding down without doing major damage to the economy; major new arrests appear to have stopped and the number of frozen bank accounts has been falling, commercial bankers say. The market would welcome any resolution of Saudi Arabia’s dispute with Qatar, which has alarmed many investors, and is also hoping for an end to the war in Yemen after former president Ali Abdullah Saleh signalled on Saturday that he was abandoning his support of the Iran-aligned Houthis. Cement firms were among the strongest Saudi stocks on Monday; reconstruction in Yemen could fuel regional demand for cement. Najran Cement climbed 9.9 percent in its heaviest trade since 2012, while Southern Province Cement added 7.0 percent. Egypt’s index dropped 1.0 percent after more than a week of strong gains. Real estate developer Palm Hills retreated 2.4 percent. HIGHLIGHTS * The index edged up 0.2 percent to 7,103 points. DUBAI * The index rose 0.3 percent to 3,432 points. ABU DHABI * The index added 1.0 percent to 4,327 points. QATAR * The index surged 2.2 percent to 7,930 points. EGYPT * The index dropped 1.0 percent to 14,572 points. KUWAIT * The index edged up 0.1 percent to 6,222 points. BAHRAIN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-qatar-jumps-on-hope-diplomatic-dispute-will-be-resolved-idUSL8N1O422G'|'2017-12-04T15:18:00.000+02:00'
'2d067c19f9170143f79e1c55066d8a1bd911a1a7'|'Toll Brothers profit jumps 67.8 pct'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc reported a 67.8 percent jump in quarterly profit, partly boosted by an increase in home sales and prices.The company’s net income rose to $191.9 million, or $1.17 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, from $114.4 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier.The year-ago quarter was hit by a $121.2 million warranty charge.Revenue rose 9.3 percent to $2.03 billion. (Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toll-brothers-results/toll-brothers-profit-jumps-67-8-pct-idINL3N1O53EP'|'2017-12-05T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'25e1ef9ab1be81a2459ea266b782ac857b34065e'|'Brazil''s PagSeguro considers IPO in New York: sources'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian payment processor PagSeguro Internet Ltda is considering an initial public offering in the first quarter of 2018 in New York, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.PagSeguro, which provides online and mobile payment services for Brazilian companies, has been in talks with Goldman Sachs & Co for an IPO since earlier this year.Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Universo Online, PagSeguro’s controlling shareholder, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-pagseguro-ipo/brazils-pagseguro-considers-ipo-in-new-york-sources-idINKBN1DY2PJ'|'2017-12-04T18:45:00.000+02:00'
'e8be08464742ddde196dd008e7be4d4f936b1d4d'|'Tamar Petroleum in talks to buy part of Noble stake in gas field'|'TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel’s Tamar Petroleum ( TMRP.TA ) said on Monday it is in talks to buy a 7.5 percent stake in the Tamar natural gas reserve and the Dalit field from Noble Energy ( NBL.N ) for cash and equity.The cash portion would be financed by a public bond offering without harming the company’s credit rating, Tamar Petroleum said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The deal, which The Marker financial newspaper said could be worth as much as $900 million, would be subject to regulatory approvals.Texas-based Noble owns 32.5 percent of the Tamar field, Israel’s primary supply of natural gas, and must reduce its holding to 25 percent by 2021 under government plans to open the market to competition.Tamar Petroleum was created in July when Israel’s Delek Drilling ( DEDRp.TA ) spun off a 9.25 percent stake in the Tamar reserve into a new company.Delek Drilling still holds 22 percent of the Tamar reserve, which it must also sell by 2021.Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Ari Rabinovitch '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tamar-petroleum-noble-energy/tamar-petroleum-in-talks-to-buy-part-of-noble-stake-in-gas-field-idINKBN1DY0M3'|'2017-12-04T04:34:00.000+02:00'
'9851d17191c224ff4fb79b5dbae61767e28c010b'|'BRIEF-AeroVironment reports Q2 Earnings Per Share $0.29'|' 23 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago BRIEF-AeroVironment reports Q2 Earnings Per Share $0.29 Reuters Staff Dec 5 (Reuters) - Aerovironment Inc: * AEROVIRONMENT, INC. ANNOUNCES FISCAL 2018 SECOND QUARTER RESULTS * Q2 EARNINGS PER SHARE $0.29 * Q2 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW $-0.06 -- THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S * SEES FY 2018 EARNINGS PER SHARE $0.45 TO $0.65 * SEES FY 2018 REVENUE $280 MILLION TO $300 MILLION * - AS OF OCT 28, 2017, FUNDED BACKLOG WAS $127.1 MILLION COMPARED TO $78.0 MILLION AS OF APRIL 30, 2017  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-aerovironment-reports-q2-earnings/brief-aerovironment-reports-q2-earnings-per-share-0-29-idUSASB0BWNA'|'2017-12-05T23:21:00.000+02:00'
'15edb321f201a41b5f43c98f60f015d21c22a427'|'General Electric to cut 4,500 jobs in Europe - report'|'PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. firm General Electric ( GE.N ) will cut 4,500 jobs across Europe after reviewing assets it purchased from France’s Alstom ( ALSO.PA ) in 2015, French newspaper Les Echos said on Tuesday. The logo of General Electric is seen at its plant in Baden, Switzerland November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Citing a union source, the report said the cuts would take place in Switzerland, Germany and Britain. GE said in a statement it was “reviewing its operations to ensure the business is best positioned to respond to our market realities and for long-term success.” It did not mention any job losses, but said it had put forward a proposal to the European body representing legacy Alstom employees. Reporting by Matthieu Protard; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ge-redundancies/general-electric-to-cut-4500-jobs-in-europe-report-idUSKBN1DZ2YU'|'2017-12-05T22:48:00.000+02:00'
'7516b4e3d19f9d3010e04e12133e5a88ae0dc35f'|'Toll Brothers sees no change in buyer behavior due to tax reform'|'December 5, 2017 / 5:10 PM / Updated an hour ago Toll Brothers sees no change in buyer behavior due to tax reform Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc ( TOL.N ) said on Tuesday it had not seen a potential change in buyers’ behavior on the back of a looming U.S. tax reform and that it is encouraged by the potential cut in corporate tax rates. A Toll Brothers residential development is shown in Carlsbad, California, U.S., May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake “The issue of tax reform has been looming for months and we haven’t seen a change in our buyers’ behavior. They continue to buy, sales continue to be strong,” Chief Executive Douglas Yearley said on a post earnings call with analysts. Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toll-brothers-tax-reform/toll-brothers-sees-no-change-in-buyer-behavior-due-to-tax-reform-idUSKBN1DZ2H6'|'2017-12-05T19:07:00.000+02:00'
'ddcda1ab10076eff695699788823c397c2f51b7d'|'Disney''s bid for Fox assets gains momentum - sources'|'December 5, 2017 / 2:54 PM / in an hour Disney''s bid for Fox assets gains momentum - sources Greg Roumeliotis , Jessica Toonkel 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co is in the lead to acquire much of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s media empire, though rival suitor Comcast Corp remains in contention, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The Murdoch family, which controls Fox, prefers a deal with Disney because it would rather be paid in Disney than Comcast stock, and expects a potential deal with Disney to be cleared by U.S. antitrust regulators more easily, one of the sources said. However, no deal between Disney and Fox is imminent and several issues have yet to be fully negotiated, the sources said. CNBC had reported earlier on Tuesday that a deal for Disney to buy Fox’s movie studio and television production assets for more than $60 billion (£44.6 billion) could come as early as next week. Fox shares rose 1.6 percent in midday trade, while Disney tumbled 3 percent. Comcast shares were down 0.9 percent. The entrance gate to The Walt Disney Co is pictured in Burbank, California February 5, 2014. Media company Walt Disney Co reported higher profit for the quarter that ended in December, beating Wall Street expectations due to growth at sports network ESPN and the blockbuster performance of its animated hit film "Frozen." REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS) - GM1EA260OXA01 Disney would acquire Fox’s FX and National Geographic cable channels, its movie studio, the Star network in India and stakes in European pay-TV provider Sky PLC. Fox would keep its news and business news divisions, its broadcast stations and Fox Sports, the sources said. Reuters reported in November that Comcast, the largest U.S. cable provider, had expressed interest in Fox assets. Those assets would offer the opportunity for both Comcast and Disney to broaden their international distribution footprint. They would also be a source of new content at a time when companies like Amazon.com Inc and Netflix Inc are spending billions to bulk up on programming. Comcast has steadily boosted its ownership of content over the years. The Reuters sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. Fox declined to comment, while Disney and Comcast did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Any potential deal would follow the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to sue to block AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Jessica Toonkel in New York; Additional reporting by Laharee Chatterjee and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Anjali Athavaley in New York; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-m-a-disney/disney-fox-deal-could-come-as-soon-as-next-week-cnbc-idUKKBN1DZ236'|'2017-12-05T18:59:00.000+02:00'
'b255f161c092a51e70fd914c6c5496c30d600ce8'|'Toll Brothers profit jumps 67.8 pct'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:13 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Toll Brothers profit jumps 67.8 pct Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc reported a 67.8 percent jump in quarterly profit, partly boosted by an increase in home sales and prices. The company’s net income rose to $191.9 million, or $1.17 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, from $114.4 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier. The year-ago quarter was hit by a $121.2 million warranty charge. Revenue rose 9.3 percent to $2.03 billion. (Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/toll-brothers-results/toll-brothers-profit-jumps-67-8-pct-idUSL3N1O53EP'|'2017-12-05T12:10:00.000+02:00'
'c96e9cdb6fd2072da19a530b6451e4726cb77f76'|'Scottish lawmakers to pressure RBS to stop branch closures'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:42 PM / in 19 minutes Scottish lawmakers to pressure RBS to stop branch closures Reuters Staff 3 Min Read EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scottish lawmakers will debate a motion calling for Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) to halt planned cuts to its branch network, which opponents say will damage the remote communities they are meant to serve. Royal Bank of Scotland signs are seen at a branch of the bank, in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The Edinburgh-based bank, which has been owned by the British government since being rescued during the 2008 global financial crisis, plans to close a quarter, or 259, of its branches in the United Kingdom. That includes more than a third of its branches in Scotland. The closures will also entail 680 job cuts. The Scottish parliamentary motion, which looks likely to garner wide support, aims to acknowledge “concern about a lack of support for small businesses, people in rural areas and the elderly,” according to a transcript filed by Scottish Labour, the third-biggest party in the Scottish assembly. It has not yet set a date for the debate, which would put pressure on the bank to reconsider its plan if lawmakers vote in favour. The Scottish National Party, which runs the devolved Scottish government, has said it will oppose the RBS cuts “until such time as a guarantee minimum level of service provision for essential banking services is in place”. The Scottish government has called on the UK government to establish and enforce a guaranteed minimum level of service provision for essential banking services, recognising the importance of continued access to banking for communities across Scotland, and across the UK. Trade union Unite has described the bank’s decision to close 62 branches in Scotland as “morally bankrupt”. RBS defended its decision as a necessary update of its services. “As customers continue to change the way they bank with us, we must change the way we serve them, so we are investing in our more popular branches and shaping our network, replacing traditional bricks and mortar branches with alternative ways to bank,” it said in a statement. The RBS cuts mean British banks are set to close more than 1,000 branches this year, a record according to a Reuters analysis of previous announcements and academic studies, and taking branches away from low-income areas. Reporting by Elisabeth O''Leary; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-scotland-rbs/scottish-lawmakers-to-pressure-rbs-to-stop-branch-closures-idUKKBN1DY2G1'|'2017-12-04T20:44:00.000+02:00'
'76f624c140ccd9b6250860a492bdc14811c4134a'|'Lamborghini races after new customers with first SUV'|' 11 PM / in 7 minutes Lamborghini races after new customers with first SUV Agnieszka Flak 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Lamborghini unveiled its first sport-utility vehicle (SUV) on Monday, as the Volkswagen-owned ( VOWG_p.DE ) luxury sportscar brand strives to grab a share of a fast-growing market. A Lamborghini logo is seen on a car at the SIAM International Motor Show in Monaco February 16, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard Produced at its Sant‘Agata Bolognese headquarters in Italy, Lamborghini believes the model could double its annual sales volumes, which stood at 3,457 last year. Called the Urus, which links to the brand’s bovine branding, the SUV could help it access new markets and customer groups traditionally not attracted to its high-powered, low-slung sportscars. “It is a true Lamborghini in terms of design, performance, driving dynamics and emotion as well as drivable every day in a range of environments,” Chief Executive Stefano Domenicali said in a statement. The first Urus SUV will be delivered in the spring of next year, with a retail price tag in Europe of 171,429 euros (£150,890), excluding taxes. The model marks Lamborghini’s entry into one of the fastest-growing vehicle markets. Global crossover and SUV sales have grown to 26.47 million units in 2016 from 7.93 million just a decade earlier, data from IHS Markit showed. The forecaster expects that to grow to 34.34 million units by 2020. SUV sales in the upper luxury end of the market, which includes the likes of Mercedes G-Class and Bentley Bentayga, have grown nearly five-fold in the six years to 2016, IHS added. The Urus boasts a 4.0 litre V8 twin-turbo engine with 650 horsepower and top speed of 305 km/h. It can race to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds, Lamborghini said. “It will feature driving modes that give it capabilities in off-tarmac situations such as snow or sand. This could make it particularly appealing in markets where its sports cars are less suitable,” said Ian Fletcher, an analyst at IHS Markit. Fletcher forecasts Urus’ annual sales peaking at around 2,900 units in 2019 and 2020, making up around half of Lamborghini’s total sales. The brand’s line-up currently includes the Huracan and Aventador sportscars. Lamborghini, one of Volkswagen’s stable of super-luxury brands along with Bentley and Bugatti, has said a plug-in hybrid version of the Urus will be brought out by 2020. Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lamborghini-suv/lamborghini-races-after-new-customers-with-first-suv-idUKKBN1DY2DU'|'2017-12-04T20:10:00.000+02:00'
'660e6ed62457c8501554cddb67185d7afdcd8f78'|'Broadcom set to unveil challenge to Qualcomm''s board: sources'|'(Reuters) - Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) will take its first formal step on Monday toward a hostile bid to take over Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ), unveiling nominees whom Qualcomm shareholders can vote on to replace the U.S. semiconductor company’s board of directors, according to people familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO: A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, who announced on Monday an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Broadcom’s move comes after Qualcomm rejected its $103 billion cash-and-stock bid last month. Qualcomm shareholders who want the company to engage in sale talks will be able to vote on Broadcom’s board director slate on March 6.Broadcom has lined up nine men and two women as board director nominees, many of whom have considerable experience in the technology sector, the sources said on Sunday. Private equity firm Silver Lake, an investor in Broadcom, has helped with the effort to recruit the nominees, the sources added.Broadcom will not be unveiling any new offer for Qualcomm on Monday, the sources said. It has been considering an improved bid, and will likely present it by March based on the reception its board director slate receives from Qualcomm shareholders, the sources added. Reuters reported last month that Broadcom was considering raising its offer by offering more of its own stock.The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Broadcom and Qualcomm declined to comment.FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is pictured at one of its many campus buildings in San Diego, California, U.S. April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The board director slate that Broadcom puts forward will be heavily scrutinized, because its nominees will not just be asked to put Qualcomm up for sale, but will have to oversee the company until a deal with Broadcom closes.Broadcom has said regulators may take a year to approve an acquisition of Qualcomm, while Qualcomm has countered that the regulatory review process globally could last much longer and is fraught with risks.Qualcomm is also engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ). Unless that legal spat is resolved in the next few months, Broadcom’s board director nominees will have to oversee the resolution of that issue as well.Qualcomm is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal.NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s $110-per-share offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. The spread has tightened, however, in the past month. NXP shares ended trading on Friday at $114.78.Qualcomm does not need to decide to raise its offer for NXP until that deal receives antitrust clearance from all the regulators reviewing the deal around the world.Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-set-to-unveil-challenge-to-qualcomms-board-sources-idINKBN1DY03Y'|'2017-12-03T22:39:00.000+02:00'
'be69b978d17d4cf829a4f5afe46b5e2cd718e0bd'|'Google unveils new Android software in India to power cheap smartphones - Reuters'|'December 5, 2017 / 5:47 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Google unveils new Android software in India to power cheap smartphones Sankalp Phartiyal , Antara Kumar 3 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google launched a stripped-down version of its Android software in India on Tuesday, as it attempts to woo millions of basic phone users in the fast-growing wireless services market. FILE PHOTO - A 3D printed Android mascot Bugdroid is seen in front of a Google logo in this illustration taken July 9, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The Android Oreo Go operating system can work on entry-level smartphones with memory of as low as 512 megabytes, Google said on Tuesday, adding it expects devices running on the software to start hitting store shelves in the coming months. With 1.2 billion mobile phone subscribers, India’s wireless services market is second only to China‘s. But, only about a third of these subscribers currently use smartphones, leaving a vast market for Google, handset and telecom firms to further tap. Although prices of smartphones have fallen sharply in the last few years with Chinese and local phone-makers flooding the market with cheaper handsets, they remain out of reach of a section of customers who are also concerned about a smooth user experience in low-priced phones. “The new lighter operating system, if it works well, will likely attract first-time smartphone buyers to devices retailing in the $30 to $75 range,” said Shobhit Srivastava, an analyst at technology researcher Counterpoint, adding that it would also give Google the opportunity to cross-sell other services like its local payments application Tez that launched in September. Phones running on the new Google mobile operating system will also have access to a special version of its Google Play application store, the company said, highlighting the apps designed to work best on the low-memory smartphones. Google, which has increased its focus on the Indian market in recent years with initiatives including providing free wifi services at railway stations, is competing with the likes of Facebook ( FB.O ) and its WhatsApp messenger services for the attention of hundreds of millions of new internet users. Even for those 400 million or so already connected to the internet in India, consumption of mobile data has seen a huge spurt following the entry of a new carrier Reliance Jio, backed by the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani. Jio up-ended the market with initially free and later cut-priced offerings that forced established rivals to slash their prices. Jio currently offers plans that allow users to download up to 1 gigabyte of data per day for less that $3 a month. Among other products, Google announced on Tuesday a version of its Google Assistant for JioPhone - a low-cost 4G-enabled device marketed by Jio. It also unveiled a version of Google maps tailored for two-wheeler users. Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Antara Kumar; Additional reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-google-india/google-unveils-new-android-software-in-india-to-power-cheap-smartphones-idINKBN1DZ2L1'|'2017-12-05T14:47:00.000+02:00'
'f9d4499a5a7d2f9fa2ee90b854c5a6ffad200716'|'Colombia''s coal output down 8.1 percent in third quarter'|'BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s coal output fell 8.1 percent to 21.5 million tonnes in the third quarter from a year earlier, the national mining agency said on Monday.The Andean nation, the world’s fifth-largest coal exporter, produced 23.4 million tonnes in the third quarter of 2016, the ministry said in a statement.So far this year, the sector has produced 65.1 million tonnes of coal, 4.4 percent lower than for the same period a year ago.The biggest players in Colombia’s coal industry are Drummond Co [DRMND.UL], Glencore Plc, Murray Energy Corp’s [MUYEY.UL] Colombia Natural Resources, and Cerrejon, which is jointly owned by BHP Billiton, Anglo American PLC and Glencore.Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-coal/colombias-coal-output-down-8-1-percent-in-third-quarter-idUSKBN1DZ02C'|'2017-12-05T02:35:00.000+02:00'
'6bb13bf930d72b3ddc3d6d1296a0b5dfdd3d0613'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 5'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Technology, banking and other industries mounted a new round of lobbying Monday to save a wide range of tax breaks following the last-minute switch in the federal tax overhaul by the U.S. Senate. on.wsj.com/2BzJ1fe- CVS Health Corp and Aetna Inc are attempting to create something with little precedent: an integrated healthcare enterprise that isn''t built around doctors. on.wsj.com/2Ay2ugX- Broadcom Ltd opened the next front in its $105 billion takeover bid for Qualcomm Inc saying Monday it plans to submit its own candidates to sit on its target''s board. on.wsj.com/2nrEs4j- Apple Inc released an app that will enable it to test the Apple Watch''s ability to track irregular heart rhythms as part of a study done in collaboration with Stanford University researchers. on.wsj.com/2ijqWdB- Discovery Communications Inc is taking majority control of OWN, the cable network it co-owns with Oprah Winfrey. on.wsj.com/2jfu5fy- Toys R Us Inc announced Monday its British division is seeking to restructure its real-estate portfolio under an insolvency procedure. on.wsj.com/2iS3AQjCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-5-idINL3N1O526X'|'2017-12-05T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'c409f6efcccc31f930a5796ab1bb6579717921fa'|'Standard Chartered says exploring opening new European office'|'December 5, 2017 / 11:57 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Standard Chartered says exploring opening new European office Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered is exploring setting up a new office in Europe to help its expansion in the region, a spokesman for the bank said on Tuesday. A man walks past the head office of Standard Chartered bank in the City of London February 27, 2015. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh The Financial Times reported that Warsaw is one of the locations being examined by the emerging markets-focused bank, and that the new office could house around 500 staff. StanChart did not comment on where the new office would be or how many staff it would have, but said the aim is to support its business growth in Europe and gain access to local talent. Reporting by Lawrence White; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-stanchart-eu/standard-chartered-says-exploring-opening-new-european-office-idUKKBN1DZ1KZ'|'2017-12-05T14:07:00.000+02:00'
'f351ce6e0316c56f39a9f907d229714fda51f02a'|'Italy''s Carige to sell consumer credit arm to Chenavari'|'MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Banca Carige ( CRGI.MI ) aims to sell its consumer credit unit to London-based hedge fund Chenavari ( CCSL.L ) by Dec. 6 when a vital 560 million euro ($664 million) cash call ends.Genoa-based Carige must comply by the end of the year with European Central Bank demands that it boosts its capital and starts cutting bad loans to avoid being wound down.The bank said late on Monday three of its creditors, insurers Generali ( GASI.MI ), UnipolSai ( US.MI ) and an insurance unit of Intesa SanPaolo ( ISP.MI ), planned to convert into Carige’s shares debt they received as part of a bond swap the bank carried out.The three insurers will buy 45 million euros in new shares to be issued under a 60 million euro portion of the cash call reserved to bondholders hit by the swap.The bank also said it had entered exclusive talks to sell its Creditis unit to Chenavari which, as part of the process, has committed to buy unsold shares in Carige’s capital raising for up to 40 million euros.Creditis is worth 100-110 million euros, the Italian press reported on Tuesday.The bank said underwriters Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Barclays had renewed their support for the cash call and were confident it would succeed.Carige had to delay the launch of the stock issue due to last-minute difficulties in securing backing from underwriters.The board on Monday also approved the sale of 1.2 billion euros in bad debts and the lender’s debt servicing platform to bad loan specialist Credit Fondiario, controlled by Tages Group, another hedge fund with offices in London and Milan.The bad loan disposal, which CEO Paolo Fiorentino is set to conclude on Tuesday, was one of the conditions set by underwriters for their commitment.($1 = 0.8428 euros)Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-italy-banca-carige/italys-carige-to-sell-consumer-credit-arm-to-chenavari-idINKBN1DZ0RJ'|'2017-12-05T05:06:00.000+02:00'
'5b78769907641993fe932c93894a3d36a739ece4'|'Buyout firm Platinum seeks parts of Unilever spreads business - sources'|'December 5, 2017 / 8:01 PM / in 17 minutes Buyout firm Platinum seeks parts of Unilever spreads business: sources Pamela Barbaglia , Martinne Geller 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Investment firm Platinum Equity is preparing a binding bid for part of Unilever’s ( ULVR.L ) ( UNc.AS ) margarine and spreads business, sources familiar with the matter said, ahead of next week’s deadline for final offers. The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Los Angeles-based Platinum wants the portion of Unilever’s spreads business that covers developed markets such as Europe and the United States where demand has been falling but profit margins remain high, rather than the whole unit which includes emerging markets, the sources said. Unilever’s banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have asked bidders to submit final bids by Dec. 11 as the consumer giant wants to clinch a deal before the end of 2017, they said. Unilever and Platinum declined to comment. Most bidders want to buy the business as a whole. But Platinum, the smallest fund among those lining up to bid, has only set its sights on the developed markets portion, where changing consumer habits mean people in Western countries eat less bread and margarine. Platinum - which has investments in a range of industries, from industrials and manufacturing to media and entertainment - is ready to pay a competitive multiple to make its proposal attractive, one of the sources said. Unilever Chief Financial Officer Graeme Pitkethly said in June that the company was hoping to get a deal done by the end of the year and was open to evaluating offers for all or parts of its shrinking business. If Unilever can’t generate enough value from a sale, it would consider options such as a spin-off, the firm has said. Investment firms Apollo ( APO.N ) and CVC Capital Partners are also working on rival bids to buy the business as a whole which is worth about 6 billion pounds, the sources. U.S. buyout fund KKR, which also made it to the final stages of the auction, is still working on the dossier but several sources said its interest was waning. KKR, Apollo and CVC declined to comment. Reuters reported on Nov. 29 that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Mizuho would offer a pre-arranged financing package to potential buyers totaling 4 billion euros, more than five times the business’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 700 million to 750 million euros. Unilever put the business up for sale as part of a review into its organization sparked by an unexpected takeover bid from Kraft-Heinz ( KHC.O ) in February. Additional reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-nv-m-a-spreads/buyout-firm-platinum-seeks-parts-of-unilever-spreads-business-sources-idUKKBN1DZ2VU'|'2017-12-05T21:57:00.000+02:00'
'ef63a04762211075059936001401dd4f1d434122'|'CVS, Aetna executives defend $69 billion deal with eye on savings'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ) and Aetna Inc ( AET.N ) top executives on Monday defended their planned merger to Wall Street analysts and investors who questioned the near-term impact on profits of the $69 billion deal to combine the pharmacy and drug benefit manager with the No. 3 U.S. health insurer.A CVS Pharmacy store is seen in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton CVS and Aetna announced on Sunday that they had reached an agreement, two months after talks between the companies were first reported.Investors gave the deal - which envisions $750 million in savings in 2020 at the earliest - a lukewarm reception. Aetna rose 1 percent, or $1.92, to $183.22 and CVS fell 3.5 percent, or $2.62, to $72.52.CVS’s immediate earnings-per-share outlook dimmed a bit with the deal: the company said during the conference call it would cancel share buybacks and its upcoming analyst meeting, where it would have given 2018 financial projections. It also outlined increased debt costs to finance the biggest deal of the year.The assumption is that next year’s CVS earnings will be less than Wall Street currently foresees, Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Jeff Jonas said.FILE PHOTO: People walk by a CVS Pharmacy store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo Strategically, he said, the deal has growth opportunities in its long-term plan to drive customers into CVS’ MinuteClinics and offer more health services there. “Financially, though, it’s really a stretch,” he said.Leerink analyst Ana Gupte said that investors were increasingly skeptical, but that the deal would probably move forward and only face some regulatory scrutiny and asset sale requirements.CEOs DEFEND DEALDuring a conference call with analysts, Aetna’s top executive Mark Bertolini said that the companies, who were already working together on pharmacy benefits and to expand MinuteClinics, are merging in order to realize the full benefits of the combination. The $750 million in near-term savings comes in part from eliminating corporate redundancies. Long-term healthcare cost savings will occur as they move healthcare functions into CVS stores.“Owner economics matter here,” Bertolini said when asked by a Wall Street analyst why the two companies did not simply partner.CVS CEO Larry Merlo said the deal would save money for consumers and payers, including the federal government, which pays for the Medicare insurance program from older adults and the disabled and the Medicaid program for the poor.Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aetna-m-a-cvs-health/cvs-aetna-executives-expect-to-save-by-reducing-redundancy-idINKBN1DY1RD'|'2017-12-04T11:20:00.000+02:00'
'39d2b678c9a67117f2d4ec909065e138e71357b8'|'Indian tycoon Mallya has case to answer on fraud, UK court hears'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:53 PM / Updated 38 minutes ago India asks UK court to extradite tycoon on fraud charges Michael Holden 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - India asked a London court on Monday to extradite tycoon Vijay Mallya to face fraud charges of palming off losses from his failing Kingfisher Airlines onto a state-owned bank. Vijay Mallya arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Mallya denies any wrongdoing, and a court document showed his lawyers planned to argue that the case against him was politically motivated and aimed at quelling public anger in India over the accumulation of bad debts by state lenders. Mallya, 61, has had business interests ranging from aviation to liquor. He is also the co-owner of the Formula One motor racing team Force India. Long-haired and bearded, Mallya arrived at Westminster Magistrates Court wearing a dark blue pin-striped suit and gold-rimmed dark glasses. He was mobbed by a large crowd of Indian reporters on arrival, and again later when the building was briefly evacuated because of a fire alarm and he had to step outside. The case against Mallya centres on a series of loans Kingfisher obtained from Indian banks, and in particular from state-owned IDBI. Indian banks want to recover a total of about $1.4 billion (£1.04 billion) that the Indian authorities say Kingfisher owes. Mark Summers, a British lawyer acting for India, told the court at the start of a two-week extradition hearing that it was entitled to conclude that he never intended to repay money borrowed by Kingfisher from IDBI in 2009. “His company was in intensive care ... it was heading in only one direction,” Summers said. “As it went down, it was going to sustain huge losses.” “THE COST OF FAILURE” Summers said Mallya faced a choice: to take those losses on himself and his lavish lifestyle, or to palm them off. “The cost of failure could either be borne honestly by the defendant or they could be passed on banks, in particular a state-owned bank,” he said. Vijay Mallya arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Summers said the airline had offered the security of its brand name, a further large injection of equity and a commitment to start repaying the capital debt in 2011 when it forecast it would become profitable. But Summers said these were deliberately misleading or overstated. The loans had been taken out under “false pretensions” which were “supported by valueless securities”, he told the court and were then not spent how the bank had been told. Part was used to clear money owed to other banks, to service a corporate jet used by Mallya, his family and friends, and for cash for Mallya himself, Summers said. Some was also spent freeing up credit for Kingfisher at another bank. “Ultimately that money ended up in the defendant’s motor racing team,” Summers told the court. Slideshow (3 Images) Despite giving IDBI personal guarantees for the loans, the lawyer said Mallya had been “squirreling money away to keep it from the bank” including 40 million dollars he received as part of a deal agreed with Diageo Plc (DGE.L). Mallya’s defence team were due to respond orally later in the hearing. In a written document prepared before the hearing and seen by Reuters, his lawyers argued that the extradition request should be rejected because of a lack of evidence, the “abusive origins” of the case, the impossibility of a fair trial in India and detention conditions there being incompatible with British human rights laws. “It is a case which has been driven in India not by evidential enquiry, but by a populist and misguided sentiment that the sheer size of the losses involved in the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (KFA) must be indicative of some criminality somewhere,” the document said. “That sentiment has been stoked in India by politicians of every stripe, all of whom stand only to gain from the demonisation of KFA’s former senior executives, the bankers who lent to it, and – crucially – the man who is now presented as the embodiment of all the ills of capitalism in contemporary India, Dr Mallya.” The judge will have to decide whether there is a prima facie case against Mallya and whether the alleged crimes would be offences in Britain as well as India. The judge, England’s Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, will have to decide whether there is a prima facie case against Mallya and whether the alleged crimes would be offences in Britain as well as India. The hearing is due to conclude next week. Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-india-mallya-britain/indian-tycoon-mallya-has-case-to-answer-on-fraud-uk-court-hears-idUKKBN1DY1UR'|'2017-12-04T16:56:00.000+02:00'
'd15b146ba9aa0b1531359b78e04e29990f7871e6'|'German watchdog investigates Deutsche Bank shareholder HNA - paper'|'December 4, 2017 / 8:44 PM / in an hour German watchdog investigates Deutsche Bank shareholder HNA: paper   FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s financial watchdog Bafin has begun an investigation into the stock market disclosures of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, the biggest shareholder in Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ), a German newspaper reported. FILE PHOTO: The HNA Group logo is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Bafin is investigating whether HNA correctly disclosed its Deutsche Bank shareholdings while building a stake earlier this year, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported according to a pre-release of its Tuesday edition. Bafin was   for comment. HNA said in a statement that its disclosure of Deutsche Bank shareholdings have been and are correct. HNA has a shareholding in Deutsche Bank of just under ten percent. Last month, Switzerland’s Takeover Board said that HNA gave partially untrue or incomplete information during the takeover of Swiss airline catering firm Gategroup last year. Reporting by Arno Schuetze. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-bank-shareholders/german-watchdog-investigates-deutsche-bank-shareholder-hna-paper-idUKKBN1DY2LZ'|'2017-12-04T22:35:00.000+02:00'
'1553aa940a90677e24397c57569ccb631668d8e9'|'BRIEF-US appeals court revives lawsuit against Alibaba by ADS investors'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - u.s. Appeals court revives shareholder lawsuit against alibaba group holding ltd over pre-ipo regulatory warning -- ruling 2Nd u.s. Circuit court of appeals vacates lower court judge’s dismissal of lawsuit by holders of american depository shares and call options Shareholders accused alibaba of concealing a regulator’s warning about its ability to suppress counterfeiting on its websites '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/alibaba-brief/brief-us-appeals-court-revives-lawsuit-against-alibaba-by-ads-investors-idINL1N1O50XV'|'2017-12-05T11:36:00.000+02:00'
'58e25a8048f9c3d98700f43e82e64b39408e54fc'|'UK convenience retailer Nisa to help McColl''s after P&H collapse'|'December 4, 2017 / 7:53 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago UK convenience retailer Nisa to help McColl''s after P&H collapse Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British wholesaler and convenience retailer Nisa Retail said on Monday it would provide a new short-term contract to its member McColl’s Retail Group to help it ensure continuity of supplies after the collapse of Palmer & Harvey (P&H). P&H, the UK’s largest tobacco distributor which also delivers food and drink to supermarkets, went into administration last week after running out of cash, raising the possibility of tobacco shortages across the country. Analysts said McColl’s was relatively well-placed to deal with the situation but could face additional costs. The new contract starts on Monday and covers McColl stores previously supplied by P&H, Nisa Retail said in a statement, adding that the stock would be delivered through existing Nisa-supplied McColl stores. Earlier McColl’s said it had “a contingency plan already in place to ensure continuity of supply to the around 700 newsagents and smaller convenience stores, previously supplied by P&H, within our estate of 1,611 stores”. McColl’s also said that revenue for the 52 weeks to Nov. 26 rose by 19 percent after the integration of 298 acquired convenience stores. In August McColl’s signed an agreement for WM Morrison to supply its convenience stores and 350 newsagents starting in 2018. Liberum analysts rated McColl’s as “buy”. “There are short-term risks relating to Palmer and Harvey’s fall into administration, which need to be watched, but we believe McColl’s is better placed than many of its competitors to deal with the situation,” the analysts said, stressing the retailer’s strong ties with suppliers of scale. But analysts also pointed to added costs, potential working capital increases and availability issues as McColl’s seeks to maintain availability in the stores previously supplied by P&H. McColl’s stock was down 1.7 percent at 285 pence at 0955 GMT. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman and Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mccoll-s-retail-outlook/retailer-mccolls-reassures-on-supply-continuity-after-ph-collapse-idUKKBN1DY0NV'|'2017-12-04T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'665fd7cac3f1ff12ab6d686a4024dc9dde839652'|'Kinder Morgan warns pipeline expansion could be further delayed'|'VANCOUVER/CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd said on Monday the start-up of its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion could be delayed past September 2020 if it is unable to get more clarity around permitting and the judicial process by early next year.FILE PHOTO -- Replacement pipe is stored near crude oil storage tanks at Kinder Morgan''s Trans Mountain Pipeline terminal in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada November 15, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo The company’s appeal to Canada’s energy regulator over municipal permits for the C$7.4 billion ($5.8 billion) expansion was heard on Monday. The company said in a statement that it needs certainty by early 2018 to move ahead with construction.“Unfortunately, the scope and pace of the permits and approvals received does not allow for significant additional construction to begin at this time,” Kinder Morgan Canada Chief Executive Steve Kean said in the statement.The expansion of the pipeline from Alberta’s energy heartland to a port near Vancouver would nearly triple capacity to 890,000 barrels per day.The company had previously said that completion of the expansion could be pushed back by nine months, from December 2019 to September 2020, due to the permitting issues. It said it hoped to mitigate the delays by speeding up work in certain areas.The unit of Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc also said it had earmarked C$1.8 billion for spending on the project in 2018, but noted that further construction delays would lead to reduced 2018 spending. It said it planned to spend the first part of the year advancing the permitting process.The company wants Canada’s energy regulator, the National Energy Board, to resolve permitting issues with the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby and set up a process for addressing future local permit delays.Lawyers for both sides made closing arguments on Monday before the regulator in Canada’s oil capital of Calgary, Alberta. The quasi-judicial body has reserved judgment.Maureen Killoran, representing Kinder Morgan, said Burnaby civil servants had been vague about the timelines for permit assessments and that the process had been tainted by the city’s mayor, who publicly opposes it.Burnaby lawyer Greg McDade said city officials were simply doing their jobs and treated Kinder Morgan impartially, and that any delay was caused by the company’s poorly prepared applications.Kinder Morgan has said each month of delay directly costs the company up to C$35 million and deprives it of more than C$90 million in revenue.The company on Monday did not provide an update on the project’s estimated price tag due to what it said was continued uncertainty.Reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver and Ethan Lou in Calgary, Alberta; Editing by Richard Chang and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kinder-morgan-cn-pipeline-outlook/kinder-morgan-warns-pipeline-expansion-could-be-further-delayed-idUSKBN1DZ025'|'2017-12-05T02:33:00.000+02:00'
'b0c8d55c5d3ea04788d7494b1a5c51f8bee0259d'|'RPT-Brexit buys bruised London Stock Exchange time'|'(Repeats story from late on Friday)* CEO quit on Wednesday after management row* Shareholders to vote on chairman on Dec. 19* Brexit uncertainty clouds bid prospectsBy Huw Jones and Ben MartinLONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Bruised by the collapse of its merger with Deutsche Boerse and battered by the abrupt departure of its CEO, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) may find Brexit buys it time get its house in order.The turbulence at the top of the 300-year-old City of London institution has triggered another round of speculation that large U.S. rivals such as ICE or CME could become predators.While London is Europe’s biggest financial market, Britain is due to leave the European Union in just over a year’s time and it is far from clear what trading relations it will have with the bloc when it comes to cross-border financial services.“I see (a bid from a U.S. rival) as doubtful as ICE especially, in my eyes, wants to see more substance on Brexit negotiations before pulling their cheque book out,” said a top-20 LSE shareholder, who declined to be named.What’s more, while the London exchange’s LCH division dominates the clearing of financial contracts in euros now, some EU policymakers insist the business should move within the currency bloc once Britain quits the EU.“For anyone stepping in and thinking about acquiring the LSE, the big risk for them is Brexit,” said an analyst at an investment bank, who added that LSE shares looked expensive given the uncertain outlook.“ICE and CME would be foolish not to look at LSE as this is one where you want to strike when the iron’s hot. But because of Brexit, it just seems that 22 times next year’s earnings in this environment is a risk,” the analyst said.ICE declined to comment. CME had no immediate comment.VINEYARD CALLING? Before quitting this week after more then eight years at the helm, CEO Xavier Rolet turned the LSE into a diversified exchange group by expanding its activities in stock indexes and buying a controlling stake in LCH Group.Under the former investment banker, the LSE’s share price increased fivefold and a successful merger with Deutsche Boerse would have added a significant futures business to its portfolio to catch up with U.S. rivals.But the deal to create Europe’s biggest stock exchange started to unravel after the Brexit vote as politicians bickered over whether the seat of power should be in London or Frankfurt. EU regulators killed the deal off in May.In October, the LSE announced that Rolet would step down at the end of 2018 but days later, activist investor TCI Fund Management said the Frenchman was being forced out and it should be LSE Chairman Donald Brydon going instead.According to a person close to TCI, the hedge fund started to have misgivings about Rolet’s departure when it spoke to him the day after the 2018 succession plan was announced.Asked whether he planned to spend more time at his family’s vineyard in France, Rolet said he’d barely been to the winery in a decade and didn’t care about it, according to the person, who said it was clear Rolet wanted to stay.“When people answer questions in a certain way, it gives away their true feelings and thought processes,” the person said, adding that Rolet declined to say why he was leaving.A month of messy public wrangling followed, exposing a deep rift between the chairman and the CEO and dragging in the Bank of England. Rolet quit on Wednesday and TCI again called for Brydon to go.On Thursday, the LSE said it would hold a shareholder meeting on Dec. 19 to decide if Brydon should be removed as demanded by TCI, the fourth-biggest LSE shareholder with a 5 percent holding.SENDING MESSAGE An adviser to the LSE said he was confident the vote would go against TCI. The hedge fund believes there is enough shareholder support to back its resolution.Another hedge fund investor who plans to back TCI, accepted it was unclear if it would be successful.“I still think it’s important to send a message even if the vote is lost,” the hedge fund investor said.But even though Brydon’s fate hangs in the balance and the row has shone a light on the breakdown in relations at the top of the LSE, its share price has held firm, meaning there is no quick bargain for a deep-pocketed predator.Coupled with the uncertainty over Brexit and the risk that any merger might run into antitrust difficulties, the London exchange should have time to get back on its feet before any large rival swoops.“We’ve still got a board, we’ve still got the executive team. They may launch a bid but the board is never going to recommend something unless it represents proper fundamental value and I think in the current regulatory environment I don’t know if something will get through,” said the adviser to the LSE. (Additional reporting by Maiya Keidan, Simon Jessop and Noor Zainab Hussain; editing by David Clarke) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lse-ceo/rpt-brexit-buys-bruised-london-stock-exchange-time-idINL8N1O41H4'|'2017-12-04T05:34:00.000+02:00'
'd48501fa4e6f82152dea53b6184e42b435245097'|'BMW says exhaust systems do not shut off in road conditions'|' 59 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago BMW says exhaust systems do not shut off in road conditions Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BMW ( BMWG.DE ) on Monday rejected a media report that said the software in certain diesel models shut off a gas filtering system in certain road conditions, leading to excessive nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. A BMW logo is seen on a car at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero German broadcaster ZDF’s programme WISO and daily newspaper Tagesspiegel had earlier reported that tests by German environmental lobby group DUH showed that the BMW 320d model’s NOx emissions jumped significantly when the car’s speed was increased by 10 percent in road tests. The Tagesspiegel report said DUH’s test showed that the vehicle, whose engine has a euro-6 diesel emissions standard, emitted an average of 470 mg/km when driven at speeds of up to 120 km/hr on a motorway. The Tagesspiegel report said DUH said this showed that the gas filtering system was being shut off by the engine software. At lower speeds and on the test bed, the emissions were below the 80 milligramme per kilometre limit, the reports said. WISO and Tagesspiegel said DUH’s test results had been confirmed by testing firm TUeV Nord. In response to the reports, BMW said its vehicles complied with the legal requirements and had not been manipulated. “There are no activities of technical provisions to affect the test mode used to measure emissions - that means that our exhaust systems are active both on the test bed and in practice,” the group said in a statement. Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) admission in 2015 that it cheated U.S. diesel emissions tests has led to scrutiny of diesel vehicles across the sector. Reporting by Maria Sheahan. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-emissions-bmw/bmw-says-exhaust-systems-do-not-shut-off-in-road-conditions-idUKKBN1DY2JF'|'2017-12-04T21:58:00.000+02:00'
'a1a5971b34f6957bbb7416e95b4639163f2cd7c5'|'Toys R Us UK to close stores in restructuring'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Toys R Us UK is to seek creditor approval for a restructuring plan involving closing at least 26 of its 105 stores in Britain in 2018, it said on Monday.A Toys "R" Us store is seen, in Hayes, Britain December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The British arm of Toys R Us Inc ( IPO-TOYS.N ) of the United States which filed for bankruptcy in September, said it had submitted a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) plan to its creditors and would seek their approval in the next 17 days.Toys R Us UK said that if approved by the creditors the CVA plan would substantially reduce its rental obligations and allow the business to move to a new, viable business model.The firm said it anticipated redundancies among its workforce of 3,200 but did not give a specific number.Toys R Us UK said all its stores would remain open as normal through Christmas and into the new year.Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toys-r-us-uk-restructuring/toys-r-us-uk-to-close-stores-in-restructuring-idUSKBN1DY16C'|'2017-12-04T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'80671fc68d324a7e7524a8069c4dcb7dd1a13044'|'OPEC oil output falls in November to lowest since May'|'Reuters TV United States  44 PM / a few seconds ago OPEC oil output falls in November to lowest since May Alex Lawler 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC oil output fell in November by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) to its lowest since May, a Reuters survey found, pressured by a drop in Angolan and Iraqi exports, strong compliance with a supply cut deal and involunary declines. A worker walks at a petrol station in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser OPEC’s adherence to pledged supply curbs rose to 112 percent from October’s 92 percent, the survey found. Top exporter Saudi Arabia pumped below its OPEC target, as did all other members except Ecuador, Gabon and the United Arab Emirates. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is reducing output by about 1.2 million bpd as part of a deal with Russia and other non-member producers, which have also committed to production cuts. Oil is trading near a two-year high supported by falling inventories, strong demand and high compliance with the promised curbs. The producers at a Nov. 30 meeting extended the deal until the end of 2018, as expected. “Based on the recent past we can start the New Year with relative optimism as far as conformity is concerned,” said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. “The outcome of last Thursday’s meeting looks constructive.” The biggest drop in output in November, of 100,000 bpd, came from Angola where exports fell to a 13-month low. Angolan exports have been curbed in recent months by field maintenance. The second-largest came from Iraq. Output and exports in northern Iraq fell in mid-October when Iraqi forces retook control of oilfields from Kurdish fighters who had been there since 2014, and declined further last month. A boost in exports from Iraq’s south, the outlet for most of the country’s crude, to 3.50 million bpd in November has not quite offset the decline from the north, the survey found. The decline means Iraq, a laggard on compliance compared to OPEC peers like Saudi Arabia earlier this year, has delivered its highest adherence yet, according to Reuters surveys. Production in Venezuela, where the oil industry is starved of funds due to the country’s economic depression, declined further below its OPEC target, the survey found. Both exports and refinery operations were lower in November. Algerian output declined for a second month because of planned oilfield maintenance. Nigeria and Libya, the two producers exempt from the cut whose extra barrels helped OPEC output reach a 2017 high in July, both pumped less in November according to the survey. Nigerian output slipped by 40,000 bpd. The country’s largest crude stream, Qua Iboe, was scheduled in November to export five cargoes, as much as half the rate normally seen. Libyan output slipped by 30,000 bpd as protests impacted output at a Wintershall field. Libyan production remains volatile and, on average, below levels seen earlier this year. OPEC agreed to cap Nigerian and Libyan output for 2018 at last week’s meeting. Saudi Arabia trimmed output by 30,000 bpd, according to sources in the survey, further below its OPEC target. OPEC last year announced a production target of 32.50 million bpd. The target includes Indonesia, which has since left OPEC, and does not include Equatorial Guinea, the latest country to join. According to the survey, output in November has averaged 32.35 million bpd, about 600,000 bpd above the target adjusted to remove Indonesia and not including Equatorial Guinea. With Equatorial Guinea, OPEC production in November totaled 32.48 million bpd, down 300,000 bpd from October and the lowest since 32.44 million bpd in May according to Reuters surveys. The Reuters survey is based on shipping data provided by external sources, Thomson Reuters flows data, and information provided by sources at oil companies, OPEC and consulting firms. Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-opec-oil/opec-oil-output-falls-in-november-to-lowest-since-may-idUKKBN1DY267'|'2017-12-04T18:37:00.000+02:00'
'4b172c4fa8e96b272532d381fd7f752e166746df'|'FTSE rebounds from two-month low as banks rally'|'December 4, 2017 / 9:59 AM / Updated 43 minutes ago Stocks rise to records as U.S. tax bill moves ahead Lewis Krauskopf 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stock markets rose on Monday, along with the dollar and Treasury yields, after a major U.S. tax overhaul cleared an important hurdle. FILE PHOTO: Traders react at the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Markets reacted strongly to the U.S. Senate’s approval on Saturday of the biggest tax law change since the 1980s, taking President Donald Trump closer to his goal of slashing taxes on businesses. On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX and Dow industrials .DJI rose to record highs, while MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.48 percent and hit an all-time peak. “The big story is indeed the tax reform passage. Until fairly recently, markets were pretty sceptical about whether anything was actually going to happen,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Massachusetts. “This can have a meaningful impact on corporate earnings here in the U.S. So you are largely seeing a repricing of the U.S. markets based on that,” McMillan said. The Republicans’ tax plan is expected to add $1.4 trillion over 10 years to the $20 trillion national debt to finance changes that they say would further boost an already growing economy. By mid-afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 199.59 points, or 0.82 percent, to 24,431.18, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 14.62 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,656.84 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 11.57 points, or 0.17 percent, to 6,836.02. Some of the biggest gainers were from areas expected to benefit from a lower corporate tax rate. The S&P 500 banks index .SPXBK surged 3.0 percent, while the Dow Jones Transport Average .DJT jumped 2.8 percent. “Financials should benefit from not only tax reform but as we start to see rates move higher, their interest margins become more profitable,” said Emily Roland, head of investment research at John Hancock Investments in Boston. Aetna ( AET.N ) shares slipped 0.8 percent after drugstore chain operator CVS Health ( CVS.N ) agreed to buy the health insurer for $69 billion. CVS shares fell 4.8 percent. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote In Europe, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.97 percent. Gains in the dollar helped Germany''s dollar-exposed DAX .GDAXI leap from a two-month low, up 1.5 percent. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies after the tax package moved forward. FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The dollar index .DXY rose 0.37 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.34 percent to $1.1849. The Japanese yen weakened 0.58 percent versus the greenback at 112.78 per dollar. “Dollar bulls are pinning their hopes on the sweeping tax deal leading to a more rapid pace of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve,” said Jake Spark, U.S. corporate hedging manager at Western Union Business Solutions, in Washington. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 6/32 in price to yield 2.383 percent, from 2.363 percent late on Friday. Oil fell on profit-taking as the market eyed signs of rising U.S. production, though prices remained close to recent two-year highs thanks to last week’s decision by OPEC and other producers to extend output cuts. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 1.56 percent to $57.45 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $62.59, down 1.79 percent on the day. Gold prices fell toward the roughly four-week lows hit last week as the dollar strengthened. Spot gold XAU= dropped 0.5 percent to $1,274.11 an ounce. Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru, Sujata Rao in London; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-rebounds-from-two-month-low-as-banks-rally-idUKKBN1DY0ZF'|'2017-12-04T11:58:00.000+02:00'
'b831d3aad21a2bd13d3637a7368fe0abeb5bc4d0'|'Danish insurer Tryg to buy Alka for $1.3 billion'|'(Reuters) - Denmark’s largest insurance company Tryg ( TRYG.CO ) said on Monday it agreed to buy unlisted competitor Alka Forsikring for 8.2 billion Danish crowns ($1.31 billion) strengthen its presence in the property and casualty (P&C) insurance markets.Alka, founded in 1944, is the eighth largest P&C insurer in Denmark. Two analysts said the deal could boost Tryg’s market share to about 22 percent from 18 percent now, cementing its place as market leader. Topdanmark ( TOP.CO ) is second with 17 percent.Shares in Tryg rose as much as 4.9 percent, reaching levels last seen in April 2015. By 0928 GMT, they were up 3.7 percent.KBW analyst Michele Ballatore, who has a “market perform” rating on the stock, said the deal would mean Tryg could apply its “superior cost efficiency” skills to Alka, adding that she had a positive long-term view of the deal.Tryg said it has identified 300 million crowns per annum in merger benefits to be delivered by 2021. It said it expected the deal to add to earnings from 2019 with a high single-digit contribution to earnings by 2021.Ballatore said Alka’s ties with Danish trade unions would help Tryg, which said it expected to benefit from Alka’s partnerships with unions to open up “significant opportunities to expand the business.”Alka is owned by Danish trade union movement, companies affiliated with the unions, Folksam and its employees.RBC Capital and UBS analysts said the price of the deal was justified by Alka’s strong capital levels. Excess capital that comes as part of the deal could be used to help finance the transaction, RBC Capital analysts said in a note.The total deal value includes excess capital of 2.5 billion crowns, valuing Alka’s operations at 5.7 billion crowns, Tryg said.Tryg also plans an equity placement of up to 10 percent of its outstanding shares to fund the deal. Tryg’s majority owner TryghedsGruppen will subscribe to 60 percent of the shares.Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan; Editing by Stephen Coates and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-alka-m-a-tryg/danish-insurer-tryg-to-buy-alka-for-1-3-billion-idINKBN1DY0GS'|'2017-12-04T03:24:00.000+02:00'
'82b78d59e13c7b0fb0cb717d17230c5d5ab31baa'|'UAE needs to apply minimum standards to get off tax blacklist - EU envoy'|'December 6, 2017 / 2:55 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago UAE needs to apply minimum standards to get off tax blacklist - EU envoy Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates will have to do more to address the European Union’s concerns about tax transparency in order to get itself removed from a tax-haven blacklist, the EU’s ambassador to the UAE said on Wednesday. UAE flag flies over a boat at Dubai Marina, Dubai, United Arab Emirates May 22, 2015. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah “The EU has been in touch over the last months with the UAE authorities and the UAE made a certain number of commitments,” Patrizio Fondi said in an email to Reuters. But he added that the UAE “does not apply the BEPS (base erosion and profit sharing) minimum standards and did not commit to addressing these issues by Dec. 31, 2018.” BEPS refers to an agreement signed by some OECD member countries to tackle tax avoidance strategies that allow multinational companies to shift profits artificially to low or no-tax locations. EU finance ministers on Tuesday adopted a blacklist of 17 jurisdictions deemed to be tax havens, including the UAE and Bahrain, in an unprecedented step to counter worldwide tax avoidance. Blacklisted countries may no longer be used by EU institutions for international financial operations, and transactions involving them could be subject to closer scrutiny. Fondi said officials in Brussels were still discussing what the full consequences for the UAE of being listed would be. The governments of the UAE and Bahrain did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on Wednesday. Fondi said UAE authorities would receive a letter from the EU in coming days detailing what they could do to be removed from the blacklist. “The placement in the list must not be seen as the end game: on the contrary, the exercise is ongoing and remains a matter of cooperation between partners,” he said. Reporting by Nawied Jabarkhyl, Writing by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Andrew Torchia'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-emirates-tax/uae-needs-to-apply-minimum-standards-to-get-off-tax-blacklist-eu-envoy-idUKKBN1E020W'|'2017-12-06T16:54:00.000+02:00'
'8caa52b3523367c9936b5e2a563c7b83a68f88bc'|'Bitcoin surges above $12,000 to record high on relentless demand'|'Reuters TV United States December 6, 2017 / 3:32 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Bitcoin surges above $12,000 to record high on relentless demand Shinichi Saoshiro 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bitcoin extended its eye-popping rally on Wednesday, breaking above $12,000 to a record high despite questions about the cryptocurrency’s real value and worries about a dangerous bubble. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo Bitcoin received a boost after Friday’s announcement by the main U.S. derivatives regulator that it would allow CME Group Inc and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures contracts. The move opens the door to added regulation but also more mainstream adoption, as bitcoin futures and other derivatives would make it easier to trade the new asset class. Bitcoin’s meteoric ascent of over 10-fold from below $1,000 at the start of the year has drawn regulatory scrutiny around the world. Some high profile individuals such as Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz have said the cryptocurrency should be outlawed. “It took a long time to establish the methodology and the way bitcoin was traded. The original appeal came from the fact they were unregulated. However it’s clearly moved out of those shadows and into center stage,” said Mick McCarthy, CMC Markets’ chief market strategist in Sydney. “We are in the throes of a bubble market, and one of the characteristics of a bubble market is that there is no way to know when the bubble will burst.” The current craze for bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, have been likened by some to the 17th century Dutch tulip mania and more recently the dotcom bubble. Bitcoin was last up 4.48 percent at $12,200.40 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP after surging to the record peak of $12,276.00. “There is a lot of money flowing into bitcoin right now, mostly motivated by ”fear of missing out“ and greed,” said Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro;   Michelle Chen in Hong Kong; Editing by Sam Holmes & Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-extends-gains-rises-above-12000-to-record-high-idUKKBN1E0094'|'2017-12-06T07:04:00.000+02:00'
'19bd11a16dbd4d764146e32613e037e77995d6b8'|'Exclusive: Baupost expected to make quick profit in Westinghouse bankruptcy - sources'|'(Reuters) - Hedge funds led by the Baupost Group LLC are poised to score a $170 million profit in less than three months from a bet tied to Toshiba Corp’s bankrupt nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric Corp, according to three people familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Dollar banknotes are seen in a box at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo Baupost and GSO Capital Partners LP, the credit arm of private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, in September bought at a discount claims South Carolina utilities had against Toshiba stemming from nuclear projects Westinghouse failed to finish. The funds expected to be repaid over five years.But Toshiba on Tuesday secured roughly $5 billion in financing, which the Japanese company has said it will use to immediately repay settlements with utilities in South Carolina and Georgia that are stuck with unfinished nuclear power plants.The shortened time frame for the repayments will boost the expected returns of the group of hedge funds, the sources said. All told, the funds will reap roughly $170 million from the repayment, a roughly 9 percent gain, the sources said.The funds had bought the $2.2 billion in claims from the South Carolina utilities, SCANA Corp and state-owned Santee Cooper, for 91.5 cents on the dollar.Reuters reported in October that the Baupost Group had acquired the biggest portion of the settlement, with GSO participating. It could not be determined how much each fund would reap.GSO, Baupost and Westinghouse declined to comment.For Baupost, the windfall comes as welcome news for the $31 billion hedge fund at the tail end of a year where its returns are in the low single digits.With the deal in place, Toshiba, which has been rocked by accounting scandals as well as the financial demise of Westinghouse, is looking to further sever ties with its subsidiary, now up for sale in bankruptcy.It plans to demand reimbursement from Westinghouse for the payments to the utilities, and then sell the right to be repaid by the nuclear business.UTILITIES’ EXPENSEBy buying the settlement this fall, the hedge funds had bet that Toshiba would stay solvent until it completed the payments in 2022.The funds’ profits come at the expense of SCANA and Santee Cooper, the utilities that own the failed V.C. Summer project in South Carolina, which lost the $170 million by selling the claims at a discount.“It will be an issue with the regulators in terms of the prudence of their decision,” said Todd Shipman, a credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, of SCANA. “It will be up to (SCANA) to lay out their case (about) why they did what they did and when.”The utilities have said they sold the settlement to mitigate the risk the Japanese company would not complete the payments.Along with a parallel Westinghouse nuclear plant in Georgia, the two projects were hailed as the start of U.S. nuclear renaissance.But after years of delays and billions of dollars of cost overruns at V.C. Summer and the Vogtle project in Georgia, Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11.After spending $9 billion on construction, SCANA and Santee Cooper abandoned the South Carolina project in July, saying it no longer made economic sense.A SCANA spokeswoman said the company was not privy to Toshiba’s business discussions when it sold the settlement, and the company wanted to ensure it had funds for the benefit of its customers.Georgia Power, a unit of Southern Co that is leading the Vogtle project, held onto its settlement. On Tuesday, it said that Toshiba would pay the remainder of its $3.68 billion guarantee settlement by Dec. 15. Those payments were originally agreed to run through 2021.Georgia Power has said it intends to complete the Vogtle project.Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York; additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toshiba-accounting-westinghouse-hedgefun/exclusive-baupost-expected-to-make-quick-profit-in-westinghouse-bankruptcy-sources-idINKBN1E00GX'|'2017-12-06T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'1638514a1548dd48eb3c35fc800bdd8d307b1546'|'Exclusive - European Investment Bank plans internationally-focused offshoot'|'December 6, 2017 / 8:13 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Exclusive - European Investment Bank plans internationally-focused offshoot Marc Jones , Francesco Guarascio 5 Min Read LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe’s largest development bank, the EIB, has laid out plans for a new subsidiary focussed solely on non-EU projects that it hopes could also keep some of Britain’s billions in the bank after Brexit, European Union sources said. The logo of the European Investment Bank is pictured in the city of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, March 25, 2017. Reuters/Eric Vidal The outline of the new offshoot, which would initially focus on countries fuelling Europe’s migrant crisis and lend around 7-8 billion euros a year, was given to EU finance ministers at their meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, the sources told Reuters. It aims to bring more of the EU’s international development spending into a streamlined and market-savvy unit that would also be able to work hand-in-hand with the EU’s various national development banks. A working group will now be formed to provide a more thorough examination by early next year, so that it can be factored into the first round of discussions on the EU’s next 7-year spending cycle which starts in 2021. “Nearly two-thirds of (EU) member states spoke in the meeting and in principle the reaction was positive, i.e. let’s go on with the discussion,” said one source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It is at the very early stage so they asked for more information... but the idea is that it will be a way to bundle Europe’s external development policy to make it more efficient than it is today.” Two other sources confirmed the proposals and the plan to mainly work - initially at least - in countries at the source of the recent EU immigration flood. Build better infrastructure and creating jobs should help to boost the appeal of staying put. “Consensus in EU countries is that one of the most effective ways to tackle the migration issues is to deal with it at the point of origin,” said a second EU source. Another crucial element to the plan’s chances of success could also be Brexit negotiations. The European Investment Bank currently invests between 70 - 80 billion euros a year, with around 10 percent or 7-8 billion of that spent outside of the EU from central Africa to Argentina in Latin America. This is the money that would be redirected into the new EIB subsidiary but there could be a snag. Britain’s departure from the EU is expected to see it take its 16 percent stake in EIB leaving a hole of up to 9 billion euros in its finances. The complex web of long-term projects means Britain might have to wait decades to get all its EIB money back. However the sources said the new subsidiary may be a way for the UK to keep at least some of its money in. “It could be a way for the UK to continue engaging in development projects together with the EIB after Brexit,” one source said pointing to the model could be the European Investment Fund (EIF) which is already open to non-EU members. Britain’s finance minister Philip Hammond, was in Brussels for the ECOFIN meeting where the proposals were laid out. In a speech in June he said it may be “mutually beneficial” to maintain a post-Brexit relationship between the UK and the EIB. Asked by Reuters for a comment on the new proposals, a UK Treasury spokesman said: “The UK’s future relationship with the EIB will be determined as part of the negotiations on our exit from the EU.” TURF WAR Though most countries were generally positive on the plan, one source said there were some concerns it could dilute the influence EU member states and the Brussels-based European Commission have in international development spending. Another potential issue is that it could lead to a turf-war with the smaller, London-based, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which the EU states and the EIB itself are also shareholders in. It invests around 10 billion euros-a-year in total but Turkey, which is central to the EU’s migrant crisis, is now its biggest market and it also works in other countries in the nearby region like Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. “Clearly we should avoid overlaps,” the first EU source said. “It (new EIB subsidiary) should really lead to more efficiency and more synergies.” What the EIB is also hoping for is that the EU’s bigger national development banks will also be involved in the new arrangement. “No amount of public money is going to be enough to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals. We need to focus on ‘crowding-in’ private sector finance,” the person added. Additional reporting by William James in London; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-eib-exclusive/exclusive-european-investment-bank-plans-internationally-focused-offshoot-idUKKBN1E02XE'|'2017-12-06T22:12:00.000+02:00'
'ce14d815a5b61b37b5d37fb1ea8164183c31e0f6'|'Atlantia, Hochtief brace for sealed bid contest in Abertis battle: sources'|'LONDON/MILAN/DUSSELDORF (Reuters) - Atlantia ( ATL.MI ) and Hochtief ( HOTG.DE ) are preparing to improve rival offers for Spain’s toll-road operator Abertis in a nearly 20 billion euro takeover battle that is likely to be resolved by sealed bids early next year, sources close to the talks said.The tussle that began in May pits Italy’s largest motorway operator against the German arm of Spanish builder ACS ( ACS.MC ), drawing in an army of banks in Europe’s biggest deal this year.ACS, led by boss Florentino Perez, is currently in the lead having submitted a higher bid on Oct. 18 that values Abertis at 17.1 billion euros.Atlantia, controlled by the Benetton family, is expected to make a counter-bid early next year once Spanish regulators complete a review of Hochtief’s bid approach.Atlantia’s takeover plan has already been vetted by regulators in Spain and in the EU.Several sources said Atlantia, advised by Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) and Mediobanca ( MDBI.MI ), is looking to make a modest increase to Hochtief’s cash and share bid early next year, but it will not call it its “best and final” offer.The Rome-based firm would then make a knock-out offer at the end of the investors’ acceptance period as part of the so-called “blind bid” contest, they said.“They will keep fighting till the end”, said a source working with one of the parties. “For both companies winning this deal is an absolute priority.”Atlantia and Hochtief declined to comment, while ACS was not immediately available.Sources familiar with the negotiations said the bid battle will not be resolved until March or April.Under Spanish law, the bidders competing to buy a publicly-listed company are invited to make their “best and final bid” over the last five days of an investors’ acceptance period, which starts immediately after the regulatory review and lasts 30 days.The sources said both bidders were gearing up for this final arm-wrestling contest as they are both in a position to sweeten their bids a few more times.Atlantia has so far kept its cards close to its chest and is waiting for the Spanish watchdog to give Hochtief the green light, which is expected between late January and early February.The Rome-based company has had lengthy discussions with banks over its financial capacity and is confident it can significantly improve its 15.6 billion-euro offer, the sources said.Any new Atlantia bid would force the Spanish watchdog to stop the clock and review the improved offer within three days. If the bid is approved, the watchdog can then restart the acceptance period or potentially extend it.Atlantia is under no pressure to make a new bid immediately. It could wait until the last five days of the acceptance period in March.This is when the Spanish regulator will ask Atlantia and Hochtief to submit their “best and final” offer in sealed bids. Their proposals will be presented to Abertis’ board for a final decision.Atlantia and Hochtief are both expected to avoid calling any improved bid “best and final” until they reach this final stage, the sources said.There was a similar bidding war in Spain 10 years ago, when construction firm Sacyr and engineering firm Isolux made sealed bids for Spanish road operator Europistas. Sacyr emerged as the winner.But the contest between Atlantia and Hochtief is the first example of a domestic company in Spain being fought over by international players.GREAT EXPECTATIONS Atlantia wants Abertis to create the world’s biggest toll road operator with a combined market value of more than 36 billion euros.The deal would help Atlantia to expand in international markets such as France and Latin America and cut its dependence on low-growth Italy.Atlantia and Abertis have been working on a possible combination for many years and came close to a deal in 2006 when Abertis was about to buy Atlantia but negotiations fell through due to Italian government opposition.Atlantia’s boss Giovanni Castellucci said in May that its cash-and share offer was friendly, adding Atlantia had been in talks with Abertis’ top shareholder Criteria Caixa for weeks.But a bidding war with Hochtief erupted just days after the Atlantia deal was cleared by regulators.Hochief’s parent ACS initially approached infrastructure funds to finance its merger plan, but had no luck and ultimately turned to its publicly-traded German division Hochtief to finance its takeover proposal.ACS, which has a market value of 10 billion euros, is keen to diversify away from its core construction business and build a strong presence in the less volatile infrastructure concessions market, which includes toll roads.It is looking at France’s Vinci ( SGEF.PA ) as a possible model, one of the sources said, as the French firm is active in both infrastructure concessions and construction with operations in more than 100 countries and has a market value of 52 billion euros ($61.31 billion).ACS, advised by JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) and Lazard ( LAZ.N ), is hoping to add Abertis’ more than 5,000 miles of highways to its construction businesses and extend its operations to Brazil among other countries.($1 = 0.8482 euros)Additional reporting by Paola Arosio, Andres Gonzalez, Stefano Bernabei, Tomas Gonzalez and Ben Martin. Editing by Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-abertis-m-a-atlantia/atlantia-hochtief-brace-for-sealed-bid-contest-in-abertis-battle-sources-idINKBN1E02TQ'|'2017-12-06T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'065142b8d9e0bc7e07405232a566e94c1df1a98f'|'Airlines set for record profit in 2018, fare rise forecast'|'December 5, 2017 / 12:05 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Airlines set for record profit in 2018, fare rise forecast Victoria Bryan 4 Min Read GENEVA (Reuters) - Improving economies and robust travel demand will return global airlines to record profit in 2018, with fares also set to rise, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac speaks during the Global Media Day in Geneva, Switzerland December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy - RC1EC73A6190 Overall profits are expected to rise 11 percent to $38.4 billion (£28.7 billion) in 2018, and the outlook is encouraging, IATA said on Tuesday as it raised its 2017 forecast to $34.5 billion, up from an earlier $31.4 billion estimate, but still lower than 2016. Of the $38.4 billion, $27.9 billion will come from North American and European airlines. “We are eight years into this air travel cycle, but we see no reason at present to expect that cyclical pattern to repeat itself,” IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said, with reference to a trend that would usually indicate a major downturn was due. After declining for six years in a row, passenger yields, a measure of ticket pricing, are also expected to rise by 3 percent next year, after falling 1.5 percent in 2017. But not all the forecasts are so positive, with passenger demand measured in revenue passenger kilometres set to rise by only 6 percent, slightly less than 2017’s 7.5 percent increase. And cargo demand, also a bright spot in 2017 with demand up 9.3 percent after a tough few years, is expected to moderate to 4.5 percent in 2018. IATA said the forecast increase in passenger fares was in line with expected inflation. EUROPEAN UPGRADE Rising ticket revenues have helped major European airlines report better than expected profits this year, and IATA said it was upgrading its net profit forecast for Europe to $9.8 billion this year, from a previous estimate of $8.6 billion, and profits should rise further to $11.5 billion next year. While tough competition has seen the demise of some carriers, improving economies and robust demand rather than consolidation are key to rising profit in Europe, Pearce said. In good news for airline investors, the industry’s return on capital is expected to exceed its cost of capital for a fourth year in a row next year. With global profitability now on a more sustainable footing, IATA said airlines’ main focus was on keeping costs under control, with rising fuel prices and labour costs set to weigh. IATA predicts unit costs will rise 4.3 percent in 2018, after 1.7 percent in 2017, and it predicts an average jet fuel price of $73.8 per barrel next year, up 12.5 percent. “The industry is reacting to that cost pressure. We know from the announced schedules that we are likely to see some slowdown in the increases in capacity in 2018,” Pearce said. However, IATA said it was not concerned there was a pilot shortage after high-profile cancellations at Ryanair and American Airlines due to rostering issues and after some U.S. airlines awarded high pay increases to pilots this year. Pearce said air travel demand had grown faster than expected, outpacing the supply of new pilots. “We expect to see the training sector respond and produce more pilots over time,” he said. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airlines-iata/airlines-set-for-record-profit-in-2018-fare-rise-forecast-idUKKBN1DZ1KV'|'2017-12-05T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'4a78e6482065c48deabb74c14af6620b558956d4'|'Hard brexit would be a ''disaster'' for UK-based airlines - IATA chief'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:17 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Hard brexit would be a ''disaster'' for UK-based airlines - IATA chief Reuters Staff 1 Min Read GENEVA (Reuters) - A hard Brexit would be a “disaster” for UK-based airlines, the head of the International Air Transport Association said on Tuesday. International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac speaks during the Global Media Day in Geneva, Switzerland, December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy “If (traffic rights) are not negotiated because it is a hard Brexit it will be a disaster for the UK-based carriers because they will not be allowed to land in Europe, which is a small problem,” Alexandre de Juniac told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, although said he didn’t think it would come to that. De Juniac also repeated that airlines needed clarity on future flying rights by October next year at the latest. Reporting by Victoria Bryan, editing by Alistair Smout'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airlines-iata-brexit/hard-brexit-would-be-a-disaster-for-uk-based-airlines-iata-chief-idUKKBN1DZ17W'|'2017-12-05T12:16:00.000+02:00'
'2f50a0cd549b19eddee9375ff39a24bc9a6238ad'|'BMW expects jump in electric car sales in 2018 - R&D chief'|'Reuters TV United States December 4, 2017 / 11:09 PM / in 16 minutes BMW expects jump in electric car sales in 2018: R&D chief Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - BMW ( BMWG.DE ) expects its sales of electric and hybrid vehicles to jump next year, its research and development chief said as the premium carmaker races to catch up with rivals such as U.S. electric car pioneer Tesla ( TSLA.O ). The BMW all electric i Vision Dynamics concept car. REUTERS/Mike Blake Sales in 2018 will exceed a 2017 sales target of 100,000 vehicles by a medium double-digit percentage, Klaus Froehlich said at an event, without being more specific. In the first 10 months of 2017, BMW sold 78,100 electric cars and plug-in hybrids. BMW, which launched the i3 electric car in 2013, is gearing up to mass produce electric cars by 2020 and aims to have 12 different models by 2025. Chief Executive Harald Krueger said BMW aimed to keep its return on sales around 8 to 10 percent even with the added costs of developing electric cars. Carmakers are trying to lower the cost of electric vehicles by investing in the development of affordable but powerful batteries and through modular production systems. BMW’s Froehlich said he expected such modular systems to benefit the development of autonomous cars as well. BMW earlier this year teamed up with U.S. chipmaker Intel ( INTC.O ) and Israel-based camera specialist Mobileye to develop autonomous driving technologies. Frohlich said another carmaker was to join them by the end of the year. He said the aim was to have partners from Europe, North America and Asia. So far, U.S.-based Fiat Chrysler ( FCHA.MI ) and auto parts makers Delphi ( DLPH.N ) and Magna ( MG.TO ) have joined the partnership, along with Germany’s Continental ( CONG.DE ). Reporting by Irene Preisinger; Writing by Arno Schuetze and Maria Sheahan. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bmw-sales/bmw-expects-jump-in-electric-car-sales-in-2018-rd-chief-idUKKBN1DY2UF'|'2017-12-05T01:03:00.000+02:00'
'a696494c48847f599ab3bc49cb6e08760bd37691'|'Shaftesbury Avenue - the UK''s worst illegal parking blackspot - Money'|'Motoring Shaftesbury Avenue - the UK''s worst illegal parking blackspot Wardens handed out 5,708 parking tickets worth £400,000 in fines in just three months, nearly double the number than the whole of Oxford A parking ticket – aka Parking Charge Notice – fixed on to a car’s windscreen. Photograph: hutchyb/Getty Images Motoring Shaftesbury Avenue - the UK''s worst illegal parking blackspot Wardens handed out 5,708 parking tickets worth £400,000 in fines in just three months, nearly double the number than the whole of Oxford View more sharing options Tuesday 5 December 2017 08.00 GMT Last modified on Tuesday 5 December 2017 08.02 GMT More parking tickets are issued on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the heart of London’s theatre district, than on any other road in the UK, according to a freedom of information request. Theatregoers and shoppers who illegally parked their cars on Shaftesbury Avenue in Westminster picked up 5,708 parking charge notices (PCNs) between July and September 2017, at a total cost of nearly £400,000. How to challenge a parking ticket Read more Such is the scale of illegal parking in the area that more fines were issued on Shaftesbury Avenue during the period than in the whole of the city of Oxford , where 3,314 were issued. The data, obtained by price comparison site comparethemarket.com, reveals the worst spots for parking fines around the country. Unsurprisingly, London authorities issue far more parking fines than anywhere else in the UK, with a total of 549,009 charge notices in the three months, generating revenue of £24m. Edinburgh is the next biggest issuer of fines, and imposes many more charge notices per head than London. There were 58,994 PCNs issued in Edinburgh between July and September, with George Street in the city’s New Town area the most heavily ticketed. Scotland’s eagle-eyed parking wardens garnered two out of the three top spots for parking fines in the UK, with Glasgow following Edinburgh with 33,693 fines issued. Glasgow’s St Vincent Street, close to the pedestrianised Buchanan Street shopping area, was the city’s parking fine blackspot. Comparethemarket also tested how soon parking wardens were likely to issue a fine to a vehicle with an expired ticket. It parked a car on a side street near the department store Harrods in west London, and within 12 minutes of the ticket time expiring, it was given a PCN. When researchers left a car on a street in Liverpool city centre, it took four hours after the ticket expired before the vehicle was given a penalty notice. Can’t pay or display as parking meters don’t take new £1 coin Read more The standard parking fine in central London is £140, reduced to £70 if the vehicle owner pays within 14 days. The number of tickets issued by Westminster city council has fallen dramatically since a peak in 2003-04. In that year, 1,051,798 PCNs were issued by Westminster alone. The figure dropped to 322,454 in 2016-17. Westminster said it still issued the most PCNs of any London borough, but it attributed the numbers to the density of traffic and iconic locations that attracted visitors from all over the world. ‘It''s the worst place to park in the world’ – why Britain is at war over parking Read more Top 10 cities for fines (July-Sept 2017) and their parking blackspot 1 London 549,009 – Shaftesbury Avenue, Westminster. 2 Edinburgh 58,994 – George Street. 3 Glasgow 33,693 – St Vincent Street. 4 Birmingham 32,991 – Alum Rock Road. 5 Leeds 23,734 – South Parade, Central. 6 Wolverhampton 22,961 – Victoria Square bus lane. 7 Newcastle upon Tyne 19,815 – Dean Street multistorey car park. 8 Liverpool 18,948 – Prescot Street. 9 Bradford 14,362 – Piccadilly. 10 Sheffield 13,360 – Ecclesall Road. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/05/shaftesbury-avenue-the-uks-worst-illegal-parking-blackspot'|'2017-12-05T10:00:00.000+02:00'
'f791f0484766dde8e19d4f88c1bc4ada346e911a'|'UK''s Cineworld targets U.S. expansion with $3.6 billion deal to buy Regal Entertainment'|'(Reuters) - Britain’s Cineworld Group Plc sealed an agreement to buy larger U.S. peer Regal Entertainment Group on Tuesday for $3.6 billion in cash, a deal that would create the world’s second largest movie theatre operator.Workers repair a sign at a Cineworld cinema in Bradford northern England, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Files The takeover would put the combined company in a better position to take on industry leader AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc , and give it more scale to fight growing competition from Netflix Inc, Apple Inc and other digital outlets.Regal is three times larger than Cineworld by market value and the combined company would have about 9,542 screens, with 7,315 screens in the United States.Movie theatres have been struggling to win back viewers as competition from digital streaming platforms draws movie-goers away.Cineworld Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger brushed aside those concerns.“When they go to the cinema, they go to the cinema and who loves to go to the cinema more than the Americans?,” Greidinger told Reuters.Greidinger said he expects to boost margins and revenue at Regal, adding that Cineworld currently has margins of 22 percent, while Regal has margins of about 19.6-19.7 percent.Rival AMC is majority owned by China’s Dalian Wanda Group which has bought a slew of cinema assets around the world, including taking a controlling stake in U.S. film studio Legendary Entertainment last year.The approach by Cineworld was considered well-timed as shares in the U.S. company have plunged more than 20 percent over the last year on concerns over stagnant admissions at theatres.The deal value of $23 per Regal share represents a premium of about 12 percent to Regal’s closing price on Monday and implies an enterprise value - equity plus debt - of $5.8 billion.Regal shares have risen 13.6 percent since Reuters first reported in November that Cineworld had approached Regal over a potential deal. Cineworld shares have fallen about 20 percent in the period.Cineworld said it expected the deal to “strongly” add to earnings in the first full year following completion, currently expected in the first quarter of 2018.The combined company is expected to deliver pre-tax benefits of $100 million, as well as additional annual benefits of $50 million, the companies said.Cineworld said it expected to fund the deal through a rights issue to raise about 1.7 billion pounds ($2.3 billion), with the rest provided by committed debt facilities and existing cash.Cineworld expects to be able to maintain its existing dividend policy after the deal closes.However, brokerage Peel Hunt cut its recommendation to “hold” from “add”, citing long-term concerns.While the deal provided a step-change in profitability and cash flow for Cineworld, “the long-term investment proposition had fundamentally changed as a result of higher debt and earnings becoming heavily dominated by mature markets,” Peel Hunt analysts wrote.Cineworld shares were down 2.5 percent, while Regal shares were up 6.1 percent in pre-market trading.($1 = 0.7449 pounds)Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer, Mark Potter and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/regal-entnmnt-gp-m-a-cineworld-group/uks-cineworld-targets-u-s-expansion-with-3-6-billion-deal-to-buy-regal-entertainment-idINKBN1DZ1O0'|'2017-12-05T14:22:00.000+02:00'
'6ac54fac632f1b1b1abfe2fced90226d54efc1de'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Dec 5'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.Headlines* Pendragon quits U.S. and sells UK new car forecourts on.ft.com/2BxvOUg* U.S. court to let Trump travel ban take effect amid legal challenges on.ft.com/2BxzVPY* UK executives'' bonus shares face five-year lock-in period on.ft.com/2Bz1pVu* Facebook launches messaging app for kids as young as six on.ft.com/2BAWgMBOverview- Britain’s biggest car dealerships Pendragon will sell its entire U.S. operation and offload several UK new car forecourts as it shifts focus to used cars.- A controversial ban imposed by the Trump administration has been allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court.- UK-listed companies’ executives would be required to hold on to bonuses paid as shares for at least five years under revisions to Britain’s corporate governance code aimed at restoring public trust in business.- Facebook launched Facebook Messenger for kids designed with controls that allow parents to decide who their children can connect with online. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-dec-5-idUSL3N1O517R'|'2017-12-05T03:25:00.000+02:00'
'a31b98f84993ac99bf62e25b99a385d24c1c3e33'|'Delivery Hero to place 686 million euros worth of shares'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:57 PM / Updated an hour ago Delivery Hero to place 686 million euros worth of shares Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Delivery Hero ( DHER.DE ), the world’s largest online takeaway food delivery group, said on Tuesday it would offer shares worth 686 million euros (£602.8 million) to investors, raking in cash to expand its business through takeovers. FILE PHOTO - The Delivery Hero headquarters is pictured in Berlin, Germany, June 2, 2017. The Berlin-based company Delivery Hero, one of Europe''s largest internet start-ups. Picture taken June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch “Delivery Hero continues to see an increased level of attractive M&A opportunities and, in line with its strategy, looks to further consolidate its market leadership positions and pursue value accretive M&A,” it said in a statement. It said it would place a total of 18.3 million shares, worth 686 million euros based on Tuesday’s closing price, of which 10.5 million will be issued via a capital increase. Separately, a group of minority shareholders, which the company did not identify, will place 7.8 million shares. It was unclear whether German investor Rocket Internet ( RKET.DE ), which in September had halved its stake in Delivery Hero to 13 percent, is among them. Operating in more than 40 countries in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and Asia, Delivery Hero was one of several online food delivery firms to go public in recent years. Others include U.S.-based GrubHub ( GRUB.N ), Britain’s Just Eat ( JE.L ) and Takeaway.com ( TKWY.AS ). Delivery Hero’s shares closed down 3.2 percent on Tuesday at 37.5 euros, but up about 40 percent since the company’s initial public offering in late June. Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-delivery-hero-shareissue/delivery-hero-to-place-686-million-euros-worth-of-shares-idUKKBN1DZ2RN'|'2017-12-05T20:59:00.000+02:00'
'b49a0bf567f2e8ccad7bb2efd835105e92f01468'|'Toyota will decide on new U.S. plant location in early 2018: executive'|'DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) should decide by the first quarter of 2018 on a location for a new U.S. vehicle assembly plant it will build with Mazda Motor Corp ( 7261.T ), the head of Toyota’s North American operations said on Monday.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Toyota Motor Corp. is seen on a company''s Corolla car in Caracas, Venezuela October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo “The final decision has not been made,” Jim Lentz, chief executive of Toyota North America, told Reuters in an interview in Detroit. More than one state remains in the running for the $1.6 billion plant, Lentz said.Toyota and Mazda’s plan to build a new U.S. factory is part of a broader wave of investment in North American production capacity by European and Asian automakers. The increased vehicle-making capacity is coming despite forecasts that U.S. vehicle demand is hitting a plateau.The new factory is part of a broader realignment of Toyota’s production and supply chain in North America. The new plant is expected to build an SUV for Mazda, and Corolla compact cars for Toyota. The Canadian plant that currently builds Corollas will be able to build more SUVs. Toyota also plans a factory in Guanajuato, Mexico that will build Tacoma pickup trucks, freeing up Toyota’s existing factory in San Antonio, Texas to build more Tundra large pickups.Toyota’s production strategy for North America could be disrupted if negotiations among the United States, Mexico and Canada to amend the North American Free Trade Agreement fail, and U.S. President Donald Trump decides to exit the trade pact.“I think the government will make the right decision,” Lentz said. “They will tweak, rather than throw out” the existing agreement that allows tariff-free trade in vehicles and components.Reporting by Joe White; Editing by Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-plant/toyota-will-decide-on-new-u-s-plant-location-in-early-2018-executive-idUSKBN1DY2SL'|'2017-12-05T00:35:00.000+02:00'
'a5c8ffafe0eb1869245ffdda03deff7a618c4a5c'|'Oil prices climb on expected drop in U.S. crude stocks'|' 39 AM / in 18 minutes Oil prices climb on expected drop in U.S. crude stocks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Oil markets rose in early Asian trade on Tuesday, buoyed by expectations of a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles and after last week’s deal between OPEC and other crude producers to extend output curbs. FILE PHOTO - A view shows the French oil giant Total refinery in Donges, France, November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe International benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 11 cents from their last close, or 0.18 percent, at $62.56 per barrel by 0129 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 15 cents, or 0.26 percent, at $57.62 per barrel. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers last week rolled over their agreement to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of 2018, looking to erode a global glut and drive up prices. Goldman Sachs said Saudi Arabia and Russia showed a stronger commitment to extending cuts and raised its Brent and WTI spot forecasts for 2018 to $62 and $57.5 per barrel respectively. “By 2019, however, we believe the response of shale and other producers to higher prices will incentivise OPEC and Russia to pare back their now greater spare capacity, leaving risks to prices skewed to the downside,” the bank added. In November, OPEC crude oil output fell by 300,000 bpd to its lowest since May, according to a Reuters survey released on Monday. While rising U.S. oil production remains a hurdle for OPEC’s efforts to rebalance the market, U.S. crude inventories likely fell last week, marking their third straight weekly drop, a preliminary Reuters poll showed. Seven analysts polled ahead of inventory reports from the industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated, on average, that crude stocks were seen falling 3.5 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 1. Official government inventory data is due on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT). Reporting by Jane Chung; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-climb-on-expected-drop-in-u-s-crude-stocks-idUKKBN1DZ05L'|'2017-12-05T03:38:00.000+02:00'
'4b5314eea16e67f23c217f5befb9d713d2c61e61'|'2018 oil prices lifted by lower stocks, resolve on output cuts, Goldman says'|' 33 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago 2018 oil prices lifted by lower stocks, resolve on output cuts, Goldman says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs has raised its crude oil price forecasts for 2018, citing lower inventories next year and the strong commitment shown by Russia and Saudi Arabia last week to extend output cuts at the OPEC-led meeting in Vienna. Crude oil storage tanks are seen from above at the Cushing oil hub, appearing to run out of space to contain a historic supply glut that has hammered prices, in Cushing, Oklahoma, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Nick Oxford The bank in a note published late on Monday raised its Brent price forecast for next year to $62 a barrel and its WTI forecast to $57.50 a barrel. The revisions also reflect higher U.S. pipeline tariffs and a wider WTI-Brent differential of $4.50 a barrel, the bank said. “While the (OPEC-led) deal leaves room for an earlier exit than currently scheduled, we now reflect this resolve in our supply forecast, with full compliance for longer and a more modest exit rate,” analysts at the bank said in the note. Oil prices, which have come off highs hit following the deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other crude producers to extend their output curbs, are being supported by expectations of a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles. [O/R] “Of course, risks remain and we see these as skewed to the upside into 2018 on the risk of an overtightening, either because of new disruptions, demand exceeding our optimistic forecast or OPEC letting the stock draw run hot,” Goldman said. The bank, however, said it believes the response of shale oil and other producers to higher prices will encourage OPEC and Russia to pare back their now greater spare capacity, leaving long-term risks to prices skewed to the downside. Reporting by Nithin Prasad in BENGALURU; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-research-crude-goldman-sachs/2018-oil-prices-lifted-by-lower-stocks-resolve-on-output-cuts-goldman-says-idUKKBN1DZ0F3'|'2017-12-05T07:33:00.000+02:00'
'c60598596330e53b1c618687a7106492943bf1e5'|'European shares steady as tech-financials rotation continues'|'December 5, 2017 / 9:04 AM / in 8 minutes European shares steady as tech-financials rotation continues Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares see-sawed on Tuesday with sectors strongly diverging as a rotation from tech stocks into financials, bolstered by the U.S. tax bill, gathered pace. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Eurozone blue chips .STOXX50E , fresh from their best day in five months, held steady, while the broader euro zone index .STOXXE edged up 0.1 percent as strength in banking and consumer stocks outweighed weak tech and mining sectors. Germany''s industrials and autos-heavy DAX .GDAXI outperformed peers, up 0.1 percent, while Italy''s FTSE MIB was buoyed by banks Intesa Sanpaolo ( ISP.MI ) and Unicredit ( CRDI.MI ). Euro zone banks .SX7E maintained positive momentum after their best gains in two months on Monday, up 0.3 percent. Societe Generale ( SOGN.PA ) and BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) were among the biggest boosts to France’s CAC 40. Following the pattern in Wall Street and Asian trading overnight, chipmakers led the tech sector .SX8P down as investors switched from highly valued tech stocks into financials. Chipmaker Ams ( AMS.S ) was among the biggest fallers, down 2.4 percent. It’s by far the best-performing European stock this year, up 213 percent. Ams peer and iPhone supplier Dialog Semiconductor ( DLGS.DE ), which sank 24 percent on fears crucial customer Apple ( AAPL.O ) could in-source its chip production, bucked the tech trend, recovering slightly to trade up 1.7 percent. Miners were the worst-performing as metals prices slipped, shrugging off positive Chinese services data as investors took profits. Retailers were set for a rare positive day, the best-performing sector after Goldman Sachs upgraded UK supermarket Tesco ( TSCO.L ) to a “buy”, boosting its shares by 3 percent. Provident Financial ( PFG.L ) sank 15 percent in early deals after UK regulator FCA opened an investigation into its Moneybarn unit. Reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-steady-as-tech-financials-rotation-continues-idUKKBN1DZ0X1'|'2017-12-05T11:03:00.000+02:00'
'c30bad3f83f289f2e8054193458e545468b72e17'|'LSE investor TCI says non-executive directors to stay if chairman leaves'|' 45 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago LSE investor TCI says non-executive directors to stay if chairman leaves Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Non-executive directors at the London Stock Exchange are committed to remain in place if chairman Donald Brydon is removed, hedge fund TCI fund management said. Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The activist hedge fund manager TCI, which has been engaged in a public spat with LSE over the handling of the departure of its CEO, also said Brydon has run a poor process with regards to CEO succession and shareholder engagement. LSE meets shareholders on Dec 19 to decide if Brydon should be removed, as demanded by TCI. A spokeswoman for LSE said the company did not have an immediate comment. Reporting by Maiya Keidan; editing by Carolyn Cohn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-tci/lse-investor-tci-says-non-executive-directors-to-stay-if-chairman-leaves-idUKKBN1DY1GL'|'2017-12-04T14:44:00.000+02:00'
'5f8b5bd8951a91480123e14e80ffd84b2deea370'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 5'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 4 points lower at 7,334.4 on Tuesday, according to financial bookmakers. * ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND: Scottish lawmakers will debate a motion calling for Royal Bank of Scotland to halt planned cuts to its branch network, which opponents say will damage the remote communities they are meant to serve. * GOLD: Gold prices held within a tight range in Asian trade on Tuesday, supported by a slightly weaker dollar as investors awaited the next steps over U.S. tax reform legislation for clues. * OIL: Oil markets rose in early Asian trade on Tuesday, buoyed by expectations of a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles and after last week''s deal between OPEC and other crude producers to extend output curbs. * BRITAIN-EU: Time to reach an agreement between the European Union and Britain on divorce terms is getting very short, but a deal that would unblock talks on a future trade agreement is still possible by next week, the chairman of EU leaders said. * BRITAIN ECONOMY: British shoppers snapped up Black Friday bargains last month but an increasing share of their budgets was taken up by the rising cost of food, retailers said on Tuesday. * BRITAIN-AUTOS: New car registrations in Britain fell by around 11 percent in November, the eighth consecutive month that sales have declined, according to preliminary numbers from an industry body. * The UK blue chip index closed up 0.55 percent at 7,340.91 points on Monday, but lagged behind European peers in a broader rally sparked by progress in U.S. tax reforms, as Britain and the EU failed to strike a deal on an initial Brexit divorce package. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Fulcrum Utility Services Ltd Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Collagen Solutions PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Victrex PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release WYG PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Northgate PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release IG Group Holdings PLC Half Year 2018 Pre-Close Trading Statement Release TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-5-idUSL3N1O52BW'|'2017-12-05T08:22:00.000+02:00'
'76da7d7ee3875229b9fb963c9c853b78dfdb010b'|'Southwest, Microsoft, Apple could benefit from tax plan - Barron''s - Reuters'|'NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Tax cuts that passed the Senate early on Saturday could bolster the shares of Southwest Airlines , Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet , according to a report in financial publication Barron‘s.Domestic airlines like Southwest should benefit from a steep drop in the top federal corporate tax rate, according to the report.At the same time, multinational technology companies may benefit from provisions that could lower the tax rates on foreign earnings held in cash.Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault Editing by Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-barrons/southwest-microsoft-apple-could-benefit-from-tax-plan-barrons-idINL1N1O30MN'|'2017-12-03T19:29:00.000+02:00'
'e65278424dfd730e17c4f71daa7c3b9c829c5df9'|'Norway''s Aker BP sells 10 percent stakes in Valhall, Hod oilfields'|'OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian oil firm Aker BP ( AKERBP.OL ) has agreed to sell 10 percent stakes in two North Sea fields to private equity-backed Pandion Energy for an undisclosed amount to help pay for expansion plans in the area, it deal will leave Aker BP with holdings of 90 percent in each field, and will help pay for projects such as the Valhall Flank West, which is estimated to come on stream in 2020.Aker BP in October announced a $2 billion deal to buy Hess Corp’s ( HES.N ) 64.05 percent stake in the Valhall field and 62.5 percent in Hod, raising its ownership to 100 percent, but added it would seek a partner for the license.“After we announced the Hess transaction, we have seen strong interest to partner with Aker BP in the Valhall area. Through this transaction, we get a partner that shares our ambition of developing the upside potential in these fields,” Aker BP Chief Executive Karl Johnny Hersvik said in a statement.Pandion in June won permission from Norway’s energy ministry to hold oil and gas licenses, and is backed by private equity fund manager Kerogen Capital.Aker BP’s top owners are Norwegian investment firm Aker ASA ( AKER.OL ) with a 40 percent stake and BP Plc ( BP.L ) with 30 percent.The original Hess transaction and the Pandion deal are both subject to customary approvals by regulators, which Aker BP said it expected to receive by the end of 2017.Reporting by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aker-bp-m-a/norways-aker-bp-sells-10-percent-stakes-in-valhall-hod-oilfields-idINKBN1DY0PB'|'2017-12-04T05:09:00.000+02:00'
'60f3c7e44756b0911df30eaad475ca8cc66ca8e9'|'Investors unsure euro zone growth to stay strong in 2018 - Sentix'|' 41 PM / in 28 minutes Investors unsure euro zone growth to stay strong in 2018 - Sentix Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Investor sentiment in the euro zone fell more than expected in December, research group Sentix said on Monday, adding that the fall was no reason for concern given the headline figure had been rising sharply and hit a 10-year high last month. The famous skyline with its banking district is pictured in early evening next to the Main River in Frankfurt, Germany, January 19, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Sentix’s economic sentiment index for the euro zone, based on a survey of 975 investors, fell to 31.1 in December from 34.0 last month. It attributed the fall to a sub-index measuring expectations about the economy falling by six points. “In the eyes of surveyed investors the euro zone is doing great, but looking forward there is a question mark,” the Frankfurt-based research firm said. “Investors are asking whether 2018 can be even better, and are hedging their bets on the future by placing their expectations below those of September 2017,” it added. It said the decline was no reason for concern as the fall had come after a 10-year high record readíng. A separate index tracking Germany also fell. Sentix linked the fall to uncertainty created by Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failure last month to form a government with the ecologist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats. Merkel has turned to Social Democrats (SPD) in the hope of renewing a “grand coalition” with the centre left party that has ruled Germany for the last four years. It said investors now wanted to know how expensive a tie-up with the SPD, who want to significantly increase investments on infrastructure and education, broaden a social security net and improve worker rights, would be. “The price for a continuation of Merkel’s governance and for German finances could be high,” Sentix said. “Foreign investors will be particularly paying attention how high the additional spending will be and whether labour market conditions will worsen.” Merkel, whose conservatives were weakened in an election on Sept. 24 that vaulted a far-right party into parliament, is seeking a fourth term. Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-businesssentiment/investors-unsure-euro-zone-growth-to-stay-strong-in-2018-sentix-idUKKBN1DY1FZ'|'2017-12-04T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'f584cd06a1fcbee9fa2c18ef91eee4b3da3ce0d1'|'ArcelorMittal''s Ilva bid stalled, but EU steel to benefit either way'|'LONDON (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal’s bid to buy Italian steel major Ilva may have hit serious snags, but the European Union’s steel sector is set to benefit in the short term whether or not there is a deal.Steam rises from the ArcelorMittal Dofascon steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada May 14, 2017. Picture taken May 14, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Italy’s Puglia and Taranto regions last week lodged a court appeal against ArcelorMittal’s takeover of Ilva which, if successful, could scupper the deal and lead to the temporary shutdown of Europe’s largest steel plant.Meanwhile, EU antitrust authorities have opened a full inquiry which is likely to see ArcelorMittal’s junior bid partner, Italian steel processor Marcegaglia, exit the deal to buy Ilva.But a rally in European steel prices, which have soared by some 75 percent since the start of last year, is unlikely to be derailed by either outcome, steel industry participants told Reuters following the recent developments.“It doesn’t change anything to have Marcegaglia out of the consortium,” Tomasso Sandrini, chief executive of steel service center S.Polo Lamiere, told Reuters.With Marcegaglia holding just a 6 percent share in the partnership, it would have had a negligible influence on EU steel prices as it would in any case have been unable to co-ordinate its sales strategy with ArcelorMittal-Ilva, he said.EU antitrust authorities in November upgraded their investigation into whether the proposed purchase of Ilva by the consortium led by ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, will lead to steel price hikes.A few weeks later, the Puglia and Taranto regions filed an appeal against the takeover that counter-intuitively put the EU steel sector in a win-win situation in the short term, investment bank Jefferies says.“If the appeal is successful, Ilva may be at least temporarily shut down, removing 6 percent of Euro flat steel production and likely driving spot prices higher,” it said.On the other hand, a successful takeover of Ilva would improve the pricing power of EU steelmakers in the longer term by reducing the number of sellers in the market.ArcelorMittal’s proposed takeover of Ilva comes as steel majors Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp look to combine their European assets, meaning anti-trust authorities have to proceed with particular caution as regards the deals.Already, ArcelorMittal has approached Italian steelmaker Arvedi, among others, about buying its mills in Piombino, Italy, an Arvedi spokesman told Reuters.The Piombino mills make 800,000 tonnes per year of galvanized steel, used in the autos, white goods and construction sectorsMarket concentration in the EU galvanized steel is of particular concern to authorities investigating the Ilva deal, sources say, with Marcegaglia a big player alongside ArcelorMittal and Ilva.Berenberg said earlier this year that Ilva’s privatization alone will see EU steel prices rise by 10-20 euro per tonne, while that of Tata-Thyssenkrupp will boost prices further still.ArcelorMittal reached a 1.8-billion-euro ($2.1 billion) deal to buy Ilva in June, and plans to invest another 2.4 billion euros cleaning up and modernizing a plant which has been dogged by charges of corruption and environmental crime for years.In 2012, Italian authorities ruled emissions of dust and cancer-causing chemicals from the plant had caused deaths, tumors and respiratory disease. About half the plant’s annual 11 million tonne capacity was eventually mothballed.Additional reporting Foo Yun Chee and Francesco Guarascio; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-arcelormittal-m-a-anti-trust/arcelormittals-ilva-bid-stalled-but-eu-steel-to-benefit-either-way-idINKBN1DY26V'|'2017-12-04T13:55:00.000+02:00'
'f58550f0fcc776c4c9b1aeed4037103c83447d0d'|'Canada''s Trudeau says will keep exploring trade deal with China'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Canada will continue to explore a free trade agreement with China, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday, as it weighs its options after the United States threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends an event at the Sina Weibo headquarters in Beijing, China December 4, 2017. CNS/Wang Jun via REUTERS Speaking after a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Trudeau said if “done properly”, such an agreement would benefit both countries and strengthen the middle class.“It’s an opportunity that makes sense for Canadian businesses,” he said at the start of a five-day trip to China. “Canada is and always has been a trading nation. But the landscape of trade is shifting and we need to adjust to it.”Li said China remained open to exploring a free trade deal with Canada as part of joint efforts to safeguard world trade liberalisation and advance globalisation.“We have an open attitude toward the process of negotiations, and an open attitude towards their contents,” Li said.Canada is considering whether to launch talks on a free trade deal with China, which wants a trade pact similar to the ones it has with Australia and New Zealand.But Trudeau, aware of domestic unease at the idea, is moving slowly. Although polls consistently show Canadians are split over the merits of a trade deal, Canada needs to diversify exports to offset the possible damage done if the United States pulls out of NAFTA.Trudeau’s visit, which began on Sunday, comes as plane maker Bombardier Inc is eager to win a breakthrough order from Chinese carriers for its CSeries jet, whose fuselage is made in China.But the chance of sealing such deals has become more cloudy after Canada encouraged Bombardier to sell a controlling stake in the CSeries programme to Airbus rather than a Chinese firm.“On the agricultural front, I‘m pleased to announce the Canadian beef and pork will have greater access to the Chinese market,” Trudeau said, without elaborating.China has been loosening restrictions on beef imports this year to feed the appetite of the country’s growing middle class for more Western food.Trudeau said he also agreed with Li a joint statement that affirms a commitment to “mitigating the global threat of climate change” and lays out a plan for closer collaboration.Earlier on Monday, Trudeau promoted Chinese tourism to Canada at an event held at the headquarters of China’s Twitter-like online media company, Sina Weibo.Canada has said it will co-host a January meeting with the United States of up to 16 foreign ministers in Vancouver to produce “better ideas” to ease tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic tests.In late November, North Korea tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile yet, putting the continental United States within range and increasing pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to deal with the nuclear-armed nation.Li said he discussed international and regional issues with Trudeau, but did not elaborate.Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Nick Macfie '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-canada-trade/canadas-trudeau-says-will-keep-exploring-trade-deal-with-china-idINKBN1DY15B'|'2017-12-04T07:54:00.000+02:00'
'a613a0392c7caf849c7602d89762a2393bef250b'|'U.S. equity index futures open higher after Senate passes tax bill'|'NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures opened higher on Sunday after the U.S. Senate approved a tax overhaul bill early Saturday.S&P 500 e-minis were up about 0.6 percent, Nasdaq 100 e-minis were also up about 0.6 percent, and Dow e-minis up more than 0.7 percent.The upward movement came after Saturday’s Senate vote, which takes Republicans and President Donald Trump a big step closer to their goal of slashing taxes for businesses. (Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault; Editing by Mary Milliken) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/u-s-equity-index-futures-open-higher-after-senate-passes-tax-bill-idUSL1N1O30NF'|'2017-12-04T01:21:00.000+02:00'
'54fb416215b0866f47f744ffc5441dffbd84c017'|'LafargeHolcim chairman says ''unacceptable errors'' made in Syria'|'December 3, 2017 / 9:27 PM / in 9 minutes LafargeHolcim chairman says ''unacceptable errors'' made in Syria Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The chairman of Swiss-French cement maker LafargeHolcim ( LHN.S ) said the company had made unacceptable errors in Syria and that it was cooperating with French investigators, according to an interview published in the French newspaper Le Figaro on Sunday. CEO Eric Olsen of Franco-Swiss cement giant LafargeHolcim attends the company''s annual shareholder meeting in Zurich, Switzerland May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann In April, LafargeHolcim’s chief executive, Eric Olsen, left after the company admitted it had paid armed groups to keep a factory operating in war-ravaged Syria. French prosecutors have placed three people under formal investigation as part of a judicial inquiry into Lafarge’s operations and its possible “financing of a terrorist enterprise”. At issue are allegations about payments that were made to banned groups. An independent internal inquiry found protection payments made to intermediaries to keep open the Jalabiya plant in northern Syria were not in line with its policies. “Unacceptable errors were made that the group regrets and condemns. It’s of course easy to say that with hindsight, but the group certainly pulled out from Syria too late. That could all have been avoided,” Chairman Beat Hess told the newspaper. Asked whether Bruno Lafont, who was the CEO of what was then Lafarge before its merger with Holcim, knew about the payments, Hess said: “I wasn’t in the company then, but I have no reason to have doubts about Bruno Lafont, in view of our internal investigation.” Hess also said there was no reason to change the name of the company after the revelations. “Simply changing the name would not solve anything,” he said. Reporting by Michel Rose, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lafargeholcim-syria/lafargeholcim-chairman-says-unacceptable-errors-made-in-syria-idUKKBN1DX0V0'|'2017-12-03T23:26:00.000+02:00'
'bbc4449179eab1dbc39c359e4f7e69c6e105e98f'|'Portugal''s Centeno chosen as new chairman of euro zone finance ministers'|'December 4, 2017 / 4:24 PM / Updated 42 minutes ago Eurogroup elects Portuguese chairman who defeated austerity at home Jan Strupczewski , Francesco Guarascio 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers on Monday chose as their next chairman Portugal’s Mario Centeno, a move that could embolden countries seeking deeper integration of the 19-country’s bloc. Portugal''s Finance Minister Mario Centeno and president of the Eurogroup speaks at the at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Centeno, 50, will succeed Dutchman Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Jan. 13, chairing monthly meetings of the Eurogroup, which comprises the finance ministers of the euro zone and is the European Union’s most powerful economic policy-setting body. The Harvard-educated economist has led Portugal through a strong recovery from a 2011-14 debt crisis and a euro zone bailout programme. The economy is growing at its fastest pace in at least 10 years and the budget deficit is set to fall to its lowest in many decades. In May, Germany’s then-finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble compared Centeno to Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo as Portugal was about to exit the EU’s disciplinary procedure for running excessive deficits. “It is an honour to be the next chair of the Eurogroup,” Centeno told a news conference on Monday. “We have a very unique time window to further prepare our economies and societies, are very much focussed on that.” His election was supported by France, Germany and Italy, the bloc’s largest countries. He defeated in two rounds of votes three other candidates among the bloc’s finance ministers: Dana Reizniece-Ozola of Latvia, Pierre Gramegna of Luxembourg and Peter Kazimir of Slovakia. He will take office in January as the euro zone prepares for a range of structural reforms that could substantially change the way the bloc functions and channel more common resources to tackle economic weaknesses in its members. EU officials see the first six months of 2018 as the best moment to push through these difficult reforms, before Britain’s exit form the EU, campaigning before European elections and a change of the European Commission in 2019 take the focus elsewhere. The European Commission will unveil a package of proposals on deeper economic integration of the euro zone on Wednesday aimed at making the single-currency area more resilient to potential future crises. Portugal''s Finance Minister Mario Centeno and president of the Eurogroup and outgoing Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem speak at the at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Centeno may play a role in favour of some of the most ambitious ideas, like a euro zone budget, French officials said. Germany has opposed this idea. He was appointed to Portugal’s finance ministry in 2015 by Socialist prime minister Antonio Costa. He reversed some of the austerity measures introduced during the bailout. But he has retained a strong grip on public finances, insisting that EU budget goals must be met. Germany’s acting Finance Minister Peter Altmaier said he backed Centeno because he “supports the stability and growth pact,” which is the set of EU fiscal rules. Portugal''s Finance Minister Mario Centeno speaks during an interview with Reuters in Lisbon, Portugal November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante INCLUSIVE GROWTH During his 2-1/2-year term, Centeno will have a key role in coordinating efforts to deepen euro zone integration by establishing a euro zone budget and finance minister as well as a sovereign insolvency mechanism or transforming the euro zone bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund. He will also oversee the end of the third bailout programme for Greece in August 2018, after which the country is expected to fully return to finance itself on the markets. Asked whether Portuguese politics and anti-euro parties supporting the Portuguese government may affect his job, Centeno said: “Domestic policies are addressed domestically.” He noted the Portuguese government’s “firm determination” to contribute to the EU and the euro zone. He said he would work to promote “inclusive prosperity” to end economic difficulties experienced by European citizens during the economic crisis. “I have the ability and will try to use it to bring all the ideas (…) to promote the inclusive growth and prosperity that may put an end to a period that was very difficult for Europe,” Centeno said in his first news conference after his election. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski and Francesco Guarascio; additional reporting by Peter Maushagen; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-eurogroup-chairman/portugals-centeno-chosen-as-new-eurogroup-chairman-officials-idUKKBN1DY24N'|'2017-12-04T18:34:00.000+02:00'
'611d354298ce59f86b085698fdb0e0b94bfe433d'|'McDonald''s new ''dollar'' menu to intensify 2018 price war'|'December 4, 2017 / 9:48 PM / in 5 minutes McDonald''s new ''dollar'' menu to intensify 2018 price war Lisa Baertlein 2   McDonald’s Corp said on Monday it will introduce new menus with $1, $2 and $3 items in early January as restaurants battle to win U.S. customers who have come to expect deals on food. The logo of a McDonald''s Corp <MCD.N> restaurant is seen in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The move from McDonald’s comes amid an intensifying fast-food price war with rivals ranging from Taco Bell to Dunkin’ Donuts. McDonald’s dropped its popular “Dollar Menu” in 2013 after franchisees groused that selling items like the McDouble cheeseburger for $1 cut into profits. The replacement “Dollar Menu & More” had higher prices, but failed to draw more customers despite heavy marketing. The new dollar menus, set to debut on Jan. 4, include any size soft drinks and cheeseburgers for $1, small McCafe drinks and bacon McDoubles for $2 and Happy Meals and triple cheeseburgers for $3, McDonald’s said. They will supplement McDonald’s current value offers such as McPick 2 for $5. All of the value menus are designed to diners flexibility while protecting franchisee margins, the company said. “You always have to have value as part of the equation,” Chris Kempczinski, president of McDonald’s USA, said in an interview. McDonald’s executives in October said almost all of its U.S. operators support its ongoing turnaround plan that includes the new value menus. Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los AngelesEditing by Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mcdonald-s-value/mcdonalds-new-dollar-menu-to-intensify-2018-price-war-idUSKBN1DY2PP'|'2017-12-04T23:49:00.000+02:00'
'981a6b986c4e5f2a3974b829b36106997fb1e4e0'|'Online broker IG sees 9 percent rise in H1 trading revenue'|'December 5, 2017 / 11:09 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Online broker IG sees 9 percent rise in H1 trading revenue Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British online financial trading company IG Group Holdings Plc said first-half net trading revenue was expected to grow 9 percent as lower costs and an expanding client base continued to help it offset the impact of quiet markets. The company’s stock was up 4.1 percent at 679.5 pence at 1034 GMT on Tuesday, making it the best performer on the FTSE Midcap index. IG Group, which provides online stockbroking and trading services to retail investors, also said the nature and timing of potential regulatory changes in Britain and some other key markets remained uncertain. “It remains difficult...to predict what impact regulatory change may have on the Group this financial year and beyond,” IG Group said. Britain’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, joined other European regulators last year to regulate the 3.5 billion pound financial spreadbetting industry, where it said most retail investors lose money. IG Group also said first-half operating costs, excluding variable remuneration, would be about 7 percent lower than a year ago, helped by lower advertising and marketing spend. IG’s upbeat trading statement follows rivals CMC Markets, who reported a 58 percent jump in first-half profit, and Plus500, which reported higher third-quarter revenue on rising customer numbers. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ig-grp-hldgs-outlook/online-broker-ig-sees-9-percent-rise-in-h1-trading-revenue-idUKKBN1DZ1EO'|'2017-12-05T13:08:00.000+02:00'
'61cfa0cc44dbe9061b917a21407115ec8afef662'|'Globalisation: time to look at the past to plot the future - Joseph Stiglitz'|'F ifteen years ago, I published Globalisation and Its Discontents , a book that sought to explain why there was so much dissatisfaction with globalisation within the developing countries. Quite simply, many believed that the system was rigged against them, and global trade agreements were singled out for being particularly unfair.Now discontent with globalisation has fuelled a wave of populism in the US and other advanced economies, led by politicians who claim that the system is unfair to their countries. In the US, President Donald Trump insists that America’s trade negotiators were snookered by those from Mexico and China.Globalisation is dented but not doomed Read more So how could something that was supposed to benefit all, in developed and developing countries alike, now be reviled almost everywhere? How can a trade agreement be unfair to all parties?To those in developing countries, Trump’s claims – like Trump himself – are laughable. The US basically wrote the rules and created the institutions of globalisation. In some of these institutions – for example, the International Monetary Fund – the US still has veto power, despite America’s diminished role in the global economy (a role which Trump seems determined to diminish still further).To someone like me, who has watched trade negotiations closely for more than a quarter-century, it is clear that US trade negotiators got most of what they wanted. The problem was with what they wanted. Their agenda was set, behind closed doors, by corporations. It was an agenda written by, and for, large multinational companies, at the expense of workers and ordinary citizens everywhere.Indeed, it often seems that workers, who have seen their wages fall and jobs disappear, are just collateral damage – innocent but unavoidable victims in the inexorable march of economic progress. But there is another interpretation of what has happened: one of the objectives of globalisation was to weaken workers’ bargaining power. What corporations wanted was cheaper labour, however they could get it.Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news Read more This interpretation helps explain some puzzling aspects of trade agreements. Why is it, for example, that advanced countries gave away one of their biggest advantages, the rule of law? Indeed, provisions embedded in most recent trade agreements give foreign investors more rights than are provided to investors in the US. They are compensated, for example, should the government adopt a regulation that hurts their bottom line, no matter how desirable the regulation or how great the harm caused by the corporation in its absence.There are three responses to globalised discontent with globalisation. The first – call it the Las Vegas strategy – is to double down on the bet on globalisation as it has been managed for the past quarter-century . This bet, like all bets on proven policy failures (such as trickle-down economics), is based on the hope that somehow it will succeed in the future.The second response is Trumpism: cut oneself off from globalisation, in the hope that doing so will somehow bring back a bygone world. But protectionism won’t work. Globally, manufacturing jobs are on the decline, simply because productivity growth has outpaced growth in demand.Joseph Stiglitz: ''Trump has fascist tendencies'' Read more Even if manufacturing were to come back, the jobs won’t. Advanced manufacturing technology, including robots, means that the few jobs created will require higher skills and will be placed at different locations than the jobs that were lost. Like doubling down, this approach is doomed to fail, further increasing the discontent felt by those left behind.Trump will fail even in his proclaimed goal of reducing the trade deficit, which is determined by the disparity between domestic savings and investment. Now that the Republicans have got their way and enacted a tax cut for billionaires, national savings will fall and the trade deficit will rise, owing to an increase in the value of the dollar. (Fiscal deficits and trade deficits normally move so closely together they are called “twin” deficits.) Trump may not like it, but as he is slowly finding out, there are some things that even a person in the most powerful position in the world cannot control.There is a third approach: social protection without protectionism, the kind of approach that the small Nordic countries took. They knew that as small countries they had to remain open. But they also knew that remaining open would expose workers to risk. Thus, they had to have a social contract that helped workers move from old jobs to new and provide some help in the interim.The Nordic countries are deeply democratic societies, so they knew that unless most workers regarded globalisation as benefiting them, it wouldn’t be sustained. And the wealthy in these countries recognised that if globalisation worked as it should, there would be enough benefits to go around.American capitalism in recent years has been marked by unbridled greed – the 2008 financial crisis provides ample confirmation of that. But, as some countries have shown, a market economy can take forms that temper the excesses of both capitalism and globalisation, and deliver more sustainable growth and higher standards of living for most citizens.We can learn from such successes what to do, just as we can learn from past mistakes what not to do. As has become evident, if we do not manage globalisation so that it benefits all, the backlash – from the New Discontents in the north and the Old Discontents in the south – is at risk of intensifying.• Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel prizewinner in economics, professor at Columbia University, a former senior vice-president and chief economist of the World Bank, and one-time chair of the US president’s council of economic advisers under Bill Clinton © Project Syndicate Topics Business Project Syndicate economists Globalisation International Monetary Fund (IMF) Global economy International trade Robots comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/05/globalisation-time-look-at-past-plot-the-future-joseph-stiglitz'|'2017-12-05T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'b56858f8a6aab27f4bab8c8933dcc1f6d0ea4675'|'Oil prices climb on expected drop in U.S. crude stocks'|'December 5, 2017 / 2:20 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Oil prices fall ahead of U.S. crude stocks data Jane Chung 3 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday ahead of U.S. crude inventories data, as the market weighed the impact of rising U.S. crude output versus last week’s deal between OPEC and other crude producers to extend output curbs. FILE PHOTO: Boats float in front of the VOPAK oil storage terminal in Johor, Malaysia November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein/File Photo International benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading down 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $62.20 per barrel by 0759 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were down 20 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $57.27 a barrel. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers last week rolled over their agreement to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of 2018, aiming to erode a global glut and drive up prices. Although the world’s major oil producers reached an agreement last week, Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said on Tuesday that complying with the global oil output cut deal will be complicated for Kazakhstan, one of the non-OPEC members who supported the pact. Goldman Sachs said Saudi Arabia and Russia showed a stronger commitment to extending cuts and raised its Brent and WTI spot forecasts for 2018 to $62 and $57.50 per barrel respectively. “By 2019, however, we believe the response of shale and other producers to higher prices will incentivize OPEC and Russia to pare back their now greater spare capacity, leaving risks to prices skewed to the downside,” the bank added. In November, OPEC crude oil output fell by 300,000 bpd to its lowest since May, according to a Reuters survey released on Monday. However, data last week showed U.S. crude output rose to nearly 9.5 million bpd in September, the highest monthly production since 2015. “Both contracts (Brent and WTI) have now tested and failed major resistance levels, and all eyes will now be on the U.S. crude inventory data due tonight and tomorrow,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA. While rising U.S. oil production remains a hurdle for OPEC’s efforts to rebalance the market, U.S. crude inventories likely fell last week, marking their third straight weekly drop, a preliminary Reuters poll showed. Seven analysts polled ahead of inventory reports from the industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated, on average, that crude stocks fell 3.5 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 1. The official government inventory data is due on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT). Reporting by Jane Chung; Editing by Richard Pullin and Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-climb-on-expected-drop-in-u-s-crude-stocks-idUKKBN1DZ06W'|'2017-12-05T04:19:00.000+02:00'
'e732d0004a2dea6544eb5661204f91a711043b54'|'UK consumers face sharpest price rise in services for nearly a decade'|'Services sector UK consumers face sharpest price rise in services for nearly a decade Companies such as hotels and restaurants, IT and financial firms blamed weak pound since the Brexit vote for forcing up prices Consumers face the sharpest rise in prices charged by services firms since February 2008. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian Services sector UK consumers face sharpest price rise in services for nearly a decade Companies such as hotels and restaurants, IT and financial firms blamed weak pound since the Brexit vote for forcing up prices View more sharing options   12.55 GMT Last modified on   16.28 GMT Consumers face the sharpest increase in prices charged by services firms in almost a decade, according to a survey, as a range of businesses from hotels to IT companies seek to protect profits against rising costs since the EU referendum. According to a survey from the data firm IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (Cips), companies in the services industries – such as hotels and restaurants, IT, financial services, transport and communications – blamed the weak pound since the Brexit vote for forcing them to drive up prices in November at the fastest pace since February 2008. That was the the second-fastest rise seen since the survey began in 1996. Q&A Show Hide The purchasing managers'' indices, or PMIs, track services sector companies, manufacturers and building firms around the world. They measure activity, output, business confidence and hiring levels, to produce a health check on how these sectors are performing. PMIs are compiled each month from interviews with "purchasing managers" at thousands of companies. They produce a single headline figure – anything above 50 indicates a sector is growing, while a figure below 50 shows a contraction. Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. The snapshot of the largest sector in the economy will worry consumers already caught by weak wage growth and rising inflation. It comes as businesses begin to focus on protecting their profits by passing on higher costs for food, fuel and salaries. The warning comes as business activity in November grew at a slower pace than in October, amid a slight slowdown in new work available to services firms. The rate of staff hiring was also the slowest since March as a result of the rising cost of imported goods and subdued confidence due to mounting economic uncertainty. The closely watched Markit/Cips UK Services PMI (pdf) slipped from its six-month peak in October of 55.6 to 53.8 in November, missing economists expectations for a result of 55. The latest reading signalled a solid increase in the biggest sector of the UK economy, but showed the rate of expansion was slightly slower than the average for this year. It was the 16th consecutive month that the index was above the 50 mark, which separates economic growth from contraction. The warning for higher prices charged to customers will confirm the reasons for the Bank of England’s interest rate hike last month, according to Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at the consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics. He said the reading supported the Bank’s “sombre conclusion” that rising prices can accompany even modest rates of economic growth. Threadneedle Street raised interest rates for the first time in a decade in November, up from 0.25% to 0.5%, as the Bank’s governor Mark Carney said the vote to leave the EU had constrained the speed at which the UK could grow before prices begin to spiral. The UK recorded a growth rate of 0.4% in the three months to September, much lower than the US and eurozone during the same period. Service sector companies reported an uptick in business and consumer spending in the November PMI survey, although some firms noted that stretched budgets and uncertainty as a consequence of Brexit had acted as a brake on growth. The report follows improvements for the smaller manufacturing and construction sectors this week, which combine to suggest that the UK economy may be running at a growth rate of about 0.4% or 0.5% in the final quarter of the year, according to Ruth Gregory, UK economist at the Capital Economics consultancy. She said that inflation fuelled by a weak pound would gradually fade, putting consumer spending on a firmer footing. Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said the slower pace of growth came as a disappointment after the improved performances for both manufacturing and construction. Still, for now, he said the survey data indicates a “sufficient degree of optimism in pockets of the economy, notably financial services, tourism, manufacturing and house building”. “Despite the weaker service sector expansion, the latest survey data indicate that the economy is on course to enjoy robust growth in the fourth quarter,” he said. Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/05/uk-consumers-face-sharpest-price-rise-services-uk-brexit'|'2017-12-05T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'ee4a0ee56283f2052129e1d562c420efe5f4b4e3'|'Exclusive - Trade union sets deadline in talks over Thyssen-Tata venture'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:14 PM / Updated 41 minutes ago Exclusive - Trade union sets deadline in talks over Thyssen-Tata venture Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - IG Metall has given Thyssenkrupp until Dec. 22 to agree to job, plant and investment guarantees for a chance of winning the powerful German trade union’s backing of the planned European steel merger with Tata Steel. A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen “We are putting an end to this process of playing for time. We will negotiate until Dec. 22 and that will be the end,” labour representative Detlef Wetzel, who is also deputy supervisory board chairman of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, told Reuters on Monday. “If there is a negotiation outcome by then we will let IG Metall members vote on it.” The deadline puts further pressure on Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger, whose plan to merge the group’s European steel business with that of India’s Tata Steel is seen as the centrepiece of his efforts to turn around the company. Hiesinger hopes to reach a final deal with Tata Steel in early 2018 but that depends on whether he can get it through Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, where labour representatives have called for job and plant guarantees of 10 years. Labour representatives hold half of the 20 seats on Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, and while a deal can still be pushed through without their consent, their approval could significantly smooth the transaction. Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Ludwig Burger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-workers-exclu/exclusive-trade-union-sets-deadline-in-talks-over-thyssen-tata-venture-idUKKBN1DY1QJ'|'2017-12-04T16:15:00.000+02:00'
'fd5ac6582813c5a1971c855bd3ba1bc4d4fed584'|'Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya has case to answer on fraud, UK court hears'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:50 PM / Updated an hour ago India asks UK court to extradite tycoon Vijay Mallya on fraud charges Michael Holden 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - India asked a London court on Monday to extradite tycoon Vijay Mallya to face fraud charges of palming off losses from his failing Kingfisher Airlines onto a state-owned bank. Vijay Mallya arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Mallya denies any wrongdoing, and a court document showed his lawyers planned to argue that the case against him was politically motivated and aimed at quelling public anger in India over the accumulation of bad debts by state lenders. Mallya, 61, has had business interests ranging from aviation to liquor. He is also the co-owner of the Formula One motor racing team Force India. Long-haired and bearded, Mallya arrived at Westminster Magistrates Court wearing a dark blue pin-striped suit and gold-rimmed dark glasses. He was mobbed by a large crowd of Indian reporters on arrival, and again later when the building was briefly evacuated because of a fire alarm and he had to step outside. The case against Mallya centres on a series of loans Kingfisher obtained from Indian banks, and in particular from state-owned IDBI. Indian banks want to recover a total of about $1.4 billion that the Indian authorities say Kingfisher owes. Mark Summers, a British lawyer acting for India, told the court at the start of a two-week extradition hearing that it was entitled to conclude that he never intended to repay money borrowed by Kingfisher from IDBI in 2009. “His company was in intensive care ... it was heading in only one direction,” Summers said. “As it went down, it was going to sustain huge losses.” “THE COST OF FAILURE” Summers said Mallya faced a choice: to take those losses on himself and his lavish lifestyle, or to palm them off. “The cost of failure could either be borne honestly by the defendant or they could be passed on banks, in particular a state-owned bank,” he said. Vijay Mallya arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Summers said the airline had offered the security of its brand name, a further large injection of equity and a commitment to start repaying the capital debt in 2011 when it forecast it would become profitable. But Summers said these were deliberately misleading or overstated. The loans had been taken out under “false pretensions” which were “supported by valueless securities”, he told the court and were then not spent how the bank had been told. Part was used to clear money owed to other banks, to service a corporate jet used by Mallya, his family and friends, and for cash for Mallya himself, Summers said. Some was also spent freeing up credit for Kingfisher at another bank. “Ultimately that money ended up in the defendant’s motor racing team,” Summers told the court. Slideshow (5 Images) Despite giving IDBI personal guarantees for the loans, the lawyer said Mallya had been “squirrelling money away to keep it from the bank” including 40 million dollars he received as part of a deal agreed with Diageo Plc (DGE.L). Mallya’s defence team were due to respond orally later in the hearing. In a written document prepared before the hearing and seen by Reuters, his lawyers argued that the extradition request should be rejected because of a lack of evidence, the “abusive origins” of the case, the impossibility of a fair trial in India and detention conditions there being incompatible with British human rights laws. “It is a case which has been driven in India not by evidential enquiry, but by a populist and misguided sentiment that the sheer size of the losses involved in the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (KFA) must be indicative of some criminality somewhere,” the document said. “That sentiment has been stoked in India by politicians of every stripe, all of whom stand only to gain from the demonisation of KFA’s former senior executives, the bankers who lent to it, and – crucially – the man who is now presented as the embodiment of all the ills of capitalism in contemporary India, Dr Mallya.” The judge will have to decide whether there is a prima facie case against Mallya and whether the alleged crimes would be offences in Britain as well as India. The judge, England’s Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, will have to decide whether there is a prima facie case against Mallya and whether the alleged crimes would be offences in Britain as well as India. The hearing is due to conclude next week. Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-mallya-britain/indian-tycoon-vijay-mallya-has-case-to-answer-on-fraud-uk-court-hears-idINKBN1DY1UJ'|'2017-12-04T16:49:00.000+02:00'
'2bc3e96b68f730f8309dd95a22620f2a241a5583'|'Tamar Petroleum in talks to buy part of Noble stake in gas field'|'TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel’s Tamar Petroleum ( TMRP.TA ) said on Monday it is in talks to buy a 7.5 percent stake in the Tamar natural gas reserve and the Dalit field from Noble Energy ( NBL.N ) for cash and equity.The cash portion would be financed by a public bond offering without harming the company’s credit rating, Tamar Petroleum said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The deal, which The Marker financial newspaper said could be worth as much as $900 million, would be subject to regulatory approvals.Texas-based Noble owns 32.5 percent of the Tamar field, Israel’s primary supply of natural gas, and must reduce its holding to 25 percent by 2021 under government plans to open the market to competition.Tamar Petroleum was created in July when Israel’s Delek Drilling ( DEDRp.TA ) spun off a 9.25 percent stake in the Tamar reserve into a new company.Delek Drilling still holds 22 percent of the Tamar reserve, which it must also sell by 2021.Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Ari Rabinovitch '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tamar-petroleum-noble-energy/tamar-petroleum-in-talks-to-buy-part-of-noble-stake-in-gas-field-idUSKBN1DY0M3'|'2017-12-04T09:26:00.000+02:00'
'93765ad7d5c089a09b6347e2c36f8c9db10529e1'|'Cboe beats CME to bitcoin futures launch with Dec. 10 start'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:33 PM / in 3 minutes Cboe beats CME to bitcoin futures launch with Dec. 10 start Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Cboe Global Markets Inc will launch trading in its bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 10, just over a week ahead of rival CME Group Inc. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Bitcoin is seen on an advertisement of an electronic shop in Tokyo, Japan September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The bitcoin futures, which will trade under the ticker ''XBT'', will be cash-settled contracts based on cryptocurrency exchange Gemini''s auction price, Cboe said on Monday. ( reut.rs/2BvXvwu ) CME on Friday announced the launch of its bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 18, available for trading on the CME Globex electronic trading platform. Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cboe-bitcoin/cboe-beats-cme-to-bitcoin-futures-launch-with-dec-10-start-idUSKBN1DY1SR'|'2017-12-04T16:28:00.000+02:00'
'f26e062f09bd80ed4eee8371f4b7dd8f293225b0'|'Luxury brands boosted by court ruling for online sales ban'|'Reuters TV United States December 6, 2017 / 8:48 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Luxury brands lifted by EU court backing for online sales ban Foo Yun Chee 4 Min Read LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Coty and other luxury brands scored a landmark victory on Wednesday in their bid to stop retailers selling their products on online platforms such as Amazon ( AMZN.O ) and eBay ( EBAY.O ) when Europe’s top court backed their right to protect their image. Rimmel cosmetics owned by Coty Brands are shown for sale in a retail store in Encinitas, California, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The issue is significant in Europe, whose companies account for 70 percent of global luxury goods sales. Luxury owners have long waged a battle against what they see as free riders cashing in on their exclusivity and branding. Online platforms such as Amazon and eBay, in turn, say online sales curbs are anti-competitive and hurt small businesses. The Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) ruling came in a case involving U.S. cosmetics maker Coty’s ( COTY.N ) German subsidiary and German retailer Parfumerie Akzente, which sells Coty’s goods on sites including Amazon against the company’s wishes. A German court had sought guidance on whether banning online sales on third-party sites restricted competition. “A supplier of luxury goods can prohibit its authorized distributors from selling those goods on a third-party internet platform such as Amazon,” the ECJ said. “Such a prohibition is appropriate and does not, in principle, go beyond what is necessary to preserve the luxury image of the goods.” Coty, whose brands include Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein and Chloe, welcomed the ruling, which carries legal weight across the 28-nation EU. “After years of uncertainty, this means luxury brands can determine how they are placed on digital platforms and it is a clear ruling for the protection of luxury brands’ image, the defense of our teams’ work and the protection of consumers’ rights and information,” the company said. Parfumerie Akzente said it meets the terms for online sales set by luxury owners. “Authorized merchants such as us may sell brand-name products on outward-visible third-party platforms, provided that we meet the conditions that are necessary and reasonable for preserving the luxury image,” Chief Executive Kai Renchen said in a statement. Amazon declined to comment. After intense lobbying by LVMH ( LVMH.PA ), Richemont ( CFR.S ) and other luxury goods companies, EU antitrust regulators laid down rules in 2010 allowing brand owners with less than a 30 percent market share to block online retailers without a bricks-and-mortar shop from distributing their products. The issue has split EU countries, with Germany more eager to promote e-commerce. In two test cases in recent years, the German cartel office forced Adidas ( ADSGn.DE ) and Asics ( 7936.T ) to drop such bans, saying online platforms are crucial for small- and medium-sized companies and consumers. The German cartel office said it expected the court’s ruling to have a limited effect on its policy, noting that its decisions had involved brand manufacturers from outside the luxury industries. “Our preliminary view is that such manufacturers have not received carte blanche to impose blanket bans on selling via platforms,” the office’s president, Andreas Mundt, said in a statement. Germany will now have to fall in line though, said a competition lawyer, who declined to be named. “This judgment sets the principles for the EU as a whole. Germany will have to align with European case law and accept this kind of restrictions unless it contradicts some conditions in competition law,” he said. The case is C-230/15 Coty Germany. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-luxury-ecommerce-eu-coty/europes-top-court-says-coty-can-impose-online-sales-ban-idUKKBN1E00VZ'|'2017-12-06T12:04:00.000+02:00'
'a5d8fcc43bc6ed16f2303ab2e2b585176976e200'|'Exclusive: Nordic Capital agrees to buy German nursing home group Alloheim - sources'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Buyout group Nordic Capital has agreed to buy Alloheim, Germany’s second-largest nursing home operator, for about 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) including debt, people close to the matter told Reuters.Nordic Capital confirmed the deal, but declined to comment on the purchase price.It also said that it intended to support Alloheim’s management and to invest in further expanding the company’s facilities and services.Carlyle ( CG.O ), the seller, declined to comment.Nordic Capital prevailed in an auction against DomusVi, backed by Intermediate Capital Group, as well as buyout groups Ares and Fosun, the sources close to the matter added.The deal values Alloheim at about 12.5 times its 88 million euros in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization expected for 2017, the sources said.The Alloheim sale follows a string of similar deals, including the sale of French rival DomusVi and Germany’s Casa Reha and German clinic chain Schoen.The broader healthcare sector has also seen some high-profile deals this year in Germany, including the sale of generics group Stada to private equity firms Bain and Cinven.Separately, German drugs and high-tech chemicals company Merck ( MRCG.DE ) is currently trying to sell its consumer health division valued at up to 4 billion euros.Banks are offering to part finance the Alloheim deal with debt packages of about 6.5 times core earnings, which could include senior and subordinated loans and bonds or all senior loans, people close to the matter said.Since Carlyle bought Alloheim from Star Capital in 2013, the buyout group has added to the business with a series of acquisitions.Alloheim, founded in 1973, currently operates 155 nursing homes with 20,000 residents. It employs 14,500 staff.Additional reporting by Claire Ruckin and Pamela Barbaglia; Editing by Douglas Busvine/Keith Weir and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-carlyle-alloheim-sale-exclusive/exclusive-nordic-capital-agrees-to-buy-german-nursing-home-group-alloheim-sources-idINKBN1DY1WF'|'2017-12-04T12:10:00.000+02:00'
'0252932ee2d424e772f880bb5965d8c55f0cf4a8'|'Bank of France''s Villeroy: See no Europe-wide bubbles, but local bubbles possible'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:04 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Bank of France''s Villeroy: See no Europe-wide bubbles, but local bubbles possible Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The French central bank governor said on Monday he saw no financial bubbles affecting the whole of Europe but it was possible there were some local bubbles. Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau attends a press conference after the Franco-German Financial Council meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt There are many reasons to be confident that European economies will continue to grow, said Francois Villeroy de Galhau, who is also a European Central Bank policymaker, at the Europlace financial forum in Tokyo. Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Minami Funakoshi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy-villeroy/bank-of-frances-villeroy-see-no-europe-wide-bubbles-but-local-bubbles-possible-idUKKBN1DY0F1'|'2017-12-04T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'af9e588826e8eb9342c92cb0c7c1f0028d09385e'|'Exclusive - EU set to approve easyJet purchase of parts of Air Berlin: sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 11:14 AM / in 26 minutes Exclusive - EU set to approve easyJet purchase of parts of Air Berlin: sources Foo Yun Chee , Alistair Smout 3 Min Read BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - British budget airline easyJet is set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval to buy parts of failed German peer Air Berlin, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. EasyJet Commercial passenger aircraft takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau EasyJet will take on some of Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel airport in the German capital for around 40 million euros (£35 million). It will also take on leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft, and about 1,000 of Air Berlin’s pilots and cabin crew. The move will allow easyJet to further bolster its position in the German capital, notably against Ireland’s Ryanair and Lufthansa’s fast-growing budget unit Eurowings. The European Commission, which is scheduled to decide on the deal by Dec. 12, declined to comment. Air Berlin was the largest carrier in Berlin before its insolvency, with Ryanair and easyJet the next two biggest airlines serving the capital. German flag carrier Lufthansa has traditionally not been so strong in Berlin, instead doing most of its flying out of its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Lufthansa’s budget unit Eurowings plans to expand rapidly should Lufthansa’s plans to buy Air Berlin units Niki and LGW receive antitrust approval. It has offered concessions to allay concerns it could become too dominant on German and Austrian domestic routes and the Commission is currently seeking feedback from others on the proposed concessions. Should the deals be approved, easyJet will become the largest carrier in Berlin with 16 million seats, ahead of 10.7 million for the Lufthansa group (including its planned purchase of Air Berlin units LGW and Niki) and Ryanair on 5.9 million, according to presentation slides from easyJet last month. EasyJet has previously said if it gets approval it expects to start operations from Tegel in January, at first leasing crewed planes while the Air Berlin crews and planes enter its fleet. Ryanair is also keen to expand in Berlin though, having previously criticised Lufthansa’s purchase of Air Berlin assets as a “stitch-up”, and said on Friday it was also seeking slots in the capital in order to base nine new aircraft at Tegel in a challenge to both easyJet and Lufthansa. Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Julia Fioretti and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airberlin-m-a-easyjet-eu-exclusive/exclusive-eu-regulators-set-to-approve-easyjet-buy-of-parts-of-air-berlin-sources-idUKKBN1DY170'|'2017-12-04T13:52:00.000+02:00'
'bd15a1f83840bfeaf365912bb691318570279100'|'Private equity firm Blue Water Energy raises $1.1 bln for oil investment'|'LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Private equity firm Blue Water Energy said on Monday it had raised $1.1 billion for a fund to invest in oil and gas, the latest sign of growing appetite for the industry as crude prices recover from a downturn.The fund was closed after exceeding its initial target, Blue Water said in a statement. It has so far invested in three firms -- Norway-focused Mime Petroleum, infrastructure company GPS Group and Authentix, which provides services for oil trading.The fund is the second Blue Water has launched in recent years. It used the first $862 million fund, launched in 2013, to invest in North Sea producer Siccar Point, a joint venture with Blackstone that acquired a $1 billion portfolio of asset from Austria’s OMV.A number of leading private equity funds have invested billions in oil and gas assets around the world in recent years, hoping to generate strong returns as the sector emerges from the downturn since mid-2014.Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bluewaterenergy-fund/private-equity-firm-blue-water-energy-raises-1-1-bln-for-oil-investment-idINL8N1O41W1'|'2017-12-04T06:39:00.000+02:00'
'fc0786dfeb45d23452475cab9aa2f11c2d797974'|'Disney-Fox deal could come as soon as next week - CNBC'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - A deal between Walt Disney Co and Twenty First Century Fox could come as soon as next week, CNBC reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.The enterprise value for Fox assets in the Disney deal is seen as above $60 billion, according to sources, CNBC said.Fox declined to comment. (Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-ma-disney/disney-fox-deal-could-come-as-soon-as-next-week-cnbc-idINL3N1O54C9'|'2017-12-05T11:51:00.000+02:00'
'32ec73a24c665f237c8a692b2e92fb4bae2de665'|'Prysmian makes $30/share all-cash offer for General Cable'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:36 AM / Updated an hour ago Prysmian makes $30/share all-cash offer for General Cable Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MILAN, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Italian cable maker Prysmian said on Monday it would buy General Cable for $30 per share in an all-cash deal valuing its Kentucky-based rival at around $3 billion, including debt and other liabilities. The purchase price represents a premium of 38 percent to General Cable’s closing price on Friday of $21.80. The deal, which is expected to close by the third quarter of next year, would create a group with combined sales of over 11 billion euros and adjusted core earnings (EBITDA) of around 930 million euros, the companies said in a joint statement. (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/prysmian-ma-generalcable/prysmian-makes-30-share-all-cash-offer-for-general-cable-idUSI6N1NR00M'|'2017-12-04T08:35:00.000+02:00'
'5aad433ebfd757defd4ba0cc5fcfe51c01e701be'|'China''s Lufax picks banks for up to $5 billion Hong Kong IPO - IFR'|' 46 AM / in 6 minutes China''s Lufax picks banks for up to $5 billion Hong Kong IPO - IFR   HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese online wealth management firm Lufax has hired five banks to work on an up to $5 billion (£3.8 billion) Hong Kong initial public offering, IFR reported, citing people familiar with the situation. Lufax, backed by Ping An Insurance, has mandated Citic Securities, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as joint sponsors for the float, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication. Lufax, valued at $18.5 billion in its last fundraising round in January 2016, could be raising $3 billion-$5 billion in the IPO as early as the first half of 2018, IFR reported. Lufax and Ping An did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Reuters. When asked by IFR, a spokesperson for Lufax declined to comment on whether the company had mandated banks for an IPO, and said there was “no schedule at this moment”. Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR, Writing by Kane Wu; Additional reporting by Julie Zhu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufax-ipo-banks/chinas-lufax-picks-banks-for-up-to-5-billion-hong-kong-ipo-ifr-idUKKBN1DZ1BO'|'2017-12-05T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'c3ec14c34070cfc5aae1dc755868c8e00c75b8f9'|'UPDATE 1-Canada scraps buying 18 Boeing fighter jets amid trade dispute -sources'|'(Adds Australian military officials visiting Ottawa, background)OTTAWA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Canada is scrapping a plan to buy 18 Boeing Co Super Hornet fighter jets amid a deepening dispute with the U.S. aerospace company, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.Instead, the Liberal government will announce next week it intends to buy a used fleet of older Australia F-18 jets, the same kind of plane Canada currently operates, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.The Liberals - who said in late 2016 they wanted the Boeing jets as a stopgap measure - froze talks on the proposed deal this year after Boeing launched a trade challenge against Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc.As relations between the two sides deteriorated, Ottawa slammed Boeing for not acting as a trusted partner and began looking at the Australian jets.Two of the sources said Australian military officials had been in Ottawa late last month for talks.The offices of Public Works Minister Carla Qualtrough and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, who share responsibility for military procurement in Canada, both declined to comment. Boeing was not immediately available for comment.Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-boeing-fighterjets/update-1-canada-scraps-buying-18-boeing-fighter-jets-amid-trade-dispute-sources-idINL1N1O520N'|'2017-12-05T17:16:00.000+02:00'
'3a0753de9e46fa89e1f8c2d45969838548ebd37a'|'UPDATE 2-Lexinfintech delays US IPO pricing as China reins in micro-loan sector -source'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese consumer lending firm Lexinfintech will delay the pricing of its planned Nasdaq IPO to conduct more due diligence, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said - a move that comes after Beijing issued new rules to tighten control of the micro-loan sector.China’s financial regulators on Friday circulated new regulations to local governments targeting fast-growing online micro-lenders that include a ban on loans to borrowers who have no source of income.The crackdown comes amid criticism that users of small, unsecured “cash loans”, which can be issued by mobile phone apps, are vulnerable to exaggerated advertising and aggressive debt collection.Lexinfintech, which focuses on loans to educated young adults between 18 and 36 including loans for e-commerce purchases, had been planning to raise some $500 million in its IPO. It filed its prospectus last month and had been planning to make its market debut on Dec. 12, the source said.The source, who was not authorized to speak to the media and declined to be identified, did not say how long the IPO was likely to be delayed.A representative for Lexinfintech said the company “continues to work toward those objectives as described” in its filing.The prospect of a crackdown has weighed on shares of U.S.-listed Chinese micro-lenders.On Friday, shares of China Rapid Finance Ltd ( XRF.N ) plunged 18.9 percent while PPDai Group Inc ( PPDF.N ) shares dropped 8.3 percent. Shares in Qudian Inc ( QD.N ), which is 11 percent owned by Alibaba Group affiliate Ant Financial [ANTFIN.UL], rose 1.3 percent after it said it endorsed the new rules and announced a $300 million share buyback.Online consumer lending in China, of which cash loans are a significant portion, dwarfs similar activity in the rest of the world combined, accounting for more than 85 percent of all such activity globally last year, according to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance.The boom in micro-lending comes as lenders seek to cash in on rising incomes in a country where credit card penetration remains at about one-third of the population, according to data from the central bank, which says about half a billion consumers do not have a credit score.For borrowers, the easy loans can be a risky proposition – especially if they fall behind on payments.The loans are usually in the range of 1,000 yuan; interest is typically about 36 percent annually, and penalty charges and compound interest can quickly add up, according to borrowers.Reporting by Elias Glenn; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lexinfintech-hol-ipo/lexinfintech-delays-u-s-ipo-pricing-as-china-reins-in-micro-loan-sector-source-idUSKBN1DY0DI'|'2017-12-04T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'd60ec90361e5d44eab12eaa6c7d2a1ecf54a6318'|'Exclusive - Exxon eyes Egypt''s offshore oil and gas: sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 12:13 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Exclusive - Exxon eyes Egypt''s offshore oil and gas: sources Ron Bousso , Ernest Scheyder 4 Min Read LONDON/VIENNA (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ) is considering a foray into Egypt offshore oil and gas, seeking to replicate rivals’ success in the country and boost its reserves, officials and industry sources said. FILE PHOTO: A view of the Exxon Mobil refinery in Baytown, Texas September 15, 2008. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi/File Photo Officials from the world’s largest listed oil producer recently held talks with Egypt’s petroleum ministry to discuss investments in oil and gas production, known as upstream operations, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters. “We have been discussing with them, visiting them. They’ve visited us... We are exploring all opportunities for having more and further upstreamers in Egypt,” Molla said on the sidelines of an OPEC meeting in Vienna. “I would be happy to have them with us,” he said, adding that no decision has been made yet. Exxon declined to comment. The Irving, Texas-based company currently has no upstream operations in Egypt, according to its website. The company is looking at exploring the eastern Mediterranean offshore basin, according to industry sources. Italy’s Eni ( ENI.MI ) this month is set to begin producing gas from the Zohr field in the Mediterranean, among the biggest discoveries of the past decade. “After Zohr there was a reassessment of the portfolio profitability in Egypt” by Exxon, one source said, adding that Exxon was looking for “tier one assets” with significant potential. Exxon is also considering opportunities in the Red Sea, where Cairo is preparing to tender exploration blocks, industry sources briefed on the matter told Reuters. Egypt in 2016 had reserves of 3.5 billion barrels of oil and 1.8 trillion cubic meters of gas, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy. RESERVES Egypt has recently ramped up efforts to attract foreign investment in its oil sector to boost its struggling economy. Along with Eni, BP ( BP.L ) and Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) also have significant operations in Egypt in offshore gas production, which is consumed domestically although Cairo aims to become a gas exporter. Exxon like many rivals has curbed spending to ride out a sharp fall in oil prices in mid-2014. With its reserves slipping, Exxon CEO Darren Woods, who took over at the beginning of the year, has gone shopping. Woods has spent or authorized more than $10 billion (7.41 billion pounds) in investment in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield, and in offshore Guyana. In November, Exxon and Japan’s Inpex Corp ( 1605.T ) signed an agreement with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) to boost the capacity of the Upper Zakum offshore oilfield, the world’s fourth largest. Exxon is also close to signing a deal to explore for oil and gas off Mauritania, its oil, energy and mines director said on Wednesday. In 2016, Exxon’s stockpile of total proved oil reserves fell 4 percent to 7.75 billion barrels. In addition, the oil in its portfolio is in hard-to-reach or expensive places, including Russia and Canada. By comparison, rival Chevron Corp ( CVX.N ) has been able to boost its proved oil reserves by about 1 percent since 2014 by expanding in the Permian Basin and Kazakhstan. Exxon’s oil production up to the end of the third quarter stood at 3.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, down about 6 percent from the end of 2016. Oil majors'' production, reserves: tmsnrt.rs/2nGfmte Additional reporting by Clara Denina in London; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-exxon-mobil-egypt-exclusive/exclusive-exxon-eyes-egypts-offshore-oil-and-gas-sources-idUKKBN1DY00M'|'2017-12-04T02:14:00.000+02:00'
'c77468fe7d245339bad1a46f52fc910eb556d549'|'GEMS picks JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Bank of America for $5 bln IPO -sources'|'(Removes extraneous company identification code in alert coding)By Dasha AfanasievaLONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - GEMS Education’s owners have chosen JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to lead the international private schools group’s initial public offering (IPO), two sources familiar with the matter said.GEMS, which operates more than 250 schools across 14 countries, could have a market capitalisation of around $4.5-$5 billion in a London listing which is expected to take place in 2018, the sources said.Backed by Dubai-based Fajr Capital, Bahraini state investment fund Mumtalakat and investment firm Blackstone , GEMs said on Monday it had secured a $1.25 billion loan to refinance existing borrowings and support growth.JP Morgan declined to comment, while the other banks chosen as joint global coordinators did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; editing by Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gems-ipo-mandate/gems-picks-jp-morgan-credit-suisse-and-bank-of-america-for-5-bln-ipo-sources-idINL8N1O42D5'|'2017-12-04T07:59:00.000+02:00'
'1ff429383007cfceefe415a16c6fd7f4c013c76d'|'EU adopts blacklist of 17 tax havens - officials'|'December 5, 2017 / 12:32 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago EU adopts blacklist of 17 tax havens - officials Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers adopted on Tuesday a blacklist of tax havens which includes 17 extra-EU jurisdictions seen as not cooperative on tax matters, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire in Paris, France, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates are the countries listed, officials said. Le Maire said that other 47 jurisdictions are included in a public “grey” list of countries that are currently not compliant with EU standards but have committed to change their tax rules. Following multiple disclosures of offshore tax avoidance schemes by companies and wealthy individuals, EU states launched a process in February to list tax havens in a bid to discourage setting up shell structures abroad which are themselves in many cases legal but could hide illicit activities. Blacklisted countries could lose access to EU funds. Other possible countermeasures will be decided in coming weeks, Le Maire said. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-tax-blacklist-taxhaven/eu-adopts-blacklist-of-17-tax-havens-officials-idUKKBN1DZ1PH'|'2017-12-05T14:32:00.000+02:00'
'1942f8193870c396e3fa37a7e2ddf16bbb7ca7ef'|'Exclusive: Exxon eyes Egypt''s offshore oil and gas - sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 12:10 AM / Updated 11 hours ago Exclusive: Exxon eyes Egypt''s offshore oil and gas - sources Ron Bousso , Ernest Scheyder 4 Min Read LONDON/VIENNA (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ) is considering a foray into Egypt offshore oil and gas, seeking to replicate rivals’ success in the country and boost its reserves, officials and industry sources said. FILE PHOTO: A view of the Exxon Mobil refinery in Baytown, Texas September 15, 2008. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi/File Photo Officials from the world’s largest listed oil producer recently held talks with Egypt’s petroleum ministry to discuss investments in oil and gas production, known as upstream operations, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters. “We have been discussing with them, visiting them. They’ve visited us... We are exploring all opportunities for having more and further upstreamers in Egypt,” Molla said on the sidelines of an OPEC meeting in Vienna. “I would be happy to have them with us,” he said, adding that no decision has been made yet. Exxon declined to comment. The Irving, Texas-based company currently has no upstream operations in Egypt, according to its website. The company is looking at exploring the eastern Mediterranean offshore basin, according to industry sources. Italy’s Eni ( ENI.MI ) this month is set to begin producing gas from the Zohr field in the Mediterranean, among the biggest discoveries of the past decade. “After Zohr there was a reassessment of the portfolio profitability in Egypt” by Exxon, one source said, adding that Exxon was looking for “tier one assets” with significant potential. Exxon is also considering opportunities in the Red Sea, where Cairo is preparing to tender exploration blocks, industry sources briefed on the matter told Reuters. Egypt in 2016 had reserves of 3.5 billion barrels of oil and 1.8 trillion cubic meters of gas, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy. RESERVES Egypt has recently ramped up efforts to attract foreign investment in its oil sector to boost its struggling economy. Along with Eni, BP ( BP.L ) and Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) also have significant operations in Egypt in offshore gas production, which is consumed domestically although Cairo aims to become a gas exporter. Exxon like many rivals has curbed spending to ride out a sharp fall in oil prices in mid-2014. With its reserves slipping, Exxon CEO Darren Woods, who took over at the beginning of the year, has gone shopping. Woods has spent or authorized more than $10 billion in investment in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield, and in offshore Guyana. In November, Exxon and Japan’s Inpex Corp ( 1605.T ) signed an agreement with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) to boost the capacity of the Upper Zakum offshore oilfield, the world’s fourth largest. Exxon is also close to signing a deal to explore for oil and gas off Mauritania, its oil, energy and mines director said on Wednesday. In 2016, Exxon’s stockpile of total proved oil reserves fell 4 percent to 7.75 billion barrels. In addition, the oil in its portfolio is in hard-to-reach or expensive places, including Russia and Canada. By comparison, rival Chevron Corp ( CVX.N ) has been able to boost its proved oil reserves by about 1 percent since 2014 by expanding in the Permian Basin and Kazakhstan. Exxon’s oil production up to the end of the third quarter stood at 3.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, down about 6 percent from the end of 2016. Oil majors'' production, reserves: tmsnrt.rs/2nGfmte Additional reporting by Clara Denina in London; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-egypt/exclusive-exxon-eyes-egypts-offshore-oil-and-gas-sources-idUSKBN1DY009'|'2017-12-04T02:09:00.000+02:00'
'a5d2ba019739e18fdc07cf7eb3ed19ad9d48f1a4'|'Marcato reduces its nominees to Deckers board to three from nine'|'(Reuters) - Activist hedge fund Marcato Capital Management said on Monday it cut the number of nominees to Deckers Outdoor Corp’s ( DECK.N ) board to three from nine amid a prolonged proxy fight in which Marcato is seeking major changes at the UGGs boot maker.Marcato, which owns 8.5 percent of Deckers’ shares, has nominated former Morgan Stanley exec Kirsten Feldman, Steve Fuller, who was previously marketing chief of apparel brand L.L. Bean, and ex Michael Kors ( KORS.N ) executive Anne Waterman to the footwear maker’s board.The three nominees do not include any representative from Marcato.Deckers was not immediately available for comment.Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) on Friday had recommended Deckers’ shareholders back management nominees, but suggested withholding votes for three Deckers directors to make room for three dissident candidates to join the board.Marcato also said ISS had suggested Deckers’ stockholders to vote for Marcato nominees Fuller and Waterman.“The company’s prolonged underperformance, retreating cost and investment discipline, and the board’s lack of urgency in the face of significant industry disruption to address these issues suggest that some degree of board change is necessary,” ISS stated on Friday.In June, Marcato had threatened to replace Deckers’ board in the annual shareholder meeting to be held on Dec. 14 if the company did not find a buyer after its review of strategic alternatives.Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D''CoutoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-deckers-outdoor-marcato/marcato-reduces-its-nominees-to-deckers-board-to-three-from-nine-idINKBN1DY1NK'|'2017-12-04T10:50:00.000+02:00'
'08047d805397c0104eeb9e48f4d3109e7a2e37d3'|'China''s biggest bank says does not intend financing Adani''s Carmichael coal mine'|'December 4, 2017 / 3:04 AM / Updated 7 hours ago China''s top two banks won''t lend to Adani''s Australian coal mine Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - China’s two biggest banks said they do not plan to finance a controversial Australian coal mine, in the latest blow to Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprises’ long delayed project. People walk past the entrance of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Paris January 18, 2011. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/Files Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and China Construction Bank said in separate statements they were not working on the project, after media recently reported that Chinese banks may get involved. Adani is seeking A$2 billion ($1.5 billion) in financing by March 2018 for the A$4 billion first stage of its proposed Carmichael coal mine in the state of Queensland, a project that has been shrunk from a A$16.5 billion plan to make it more viable. Adani declined to comment on its financing plans on Monday or the statements from the Chinese banks. Australian and overseas banks have balked at granting loans for the project, which environmentalists oppose due to climate change and the potential for damage to the Great Barrier Reef. “ICBC has not been, and does not intend to be, engaged in arranging financing for this project,” ICBC, China’s biggest listed lender by assets, said in a statement on its Australian website. “ICBC attaches great importance to its social responsibilities and keenly promotes ‘green financing’ ... This statement is made without any view on or prejudice towards the Carmichael mine project.” FILE PHOTO - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC)''s logo is seen at its headquarters in Beijing, China, March 30, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The mine’s location 400 kms (250 miles) from a Pacific Ocean shipping terminal means financing infrastructure costs has been at the forefront of debate over the project’s economic viability. “China Construction Bank is not involved with, nor considering involvement with, the Adani Carmichael Mine project,” an external spokesperson for China Construction Bank in Australia said in an emailed statement on Monday. CCB in China was not immediately available for comment. Reuters has previously reported that Adani was in talks with China Machinery Engineering Corp (CMEC) for a loan, which could have involved China Construction Bank or China Export Import Bank. China Export Import Bank was not immediately available for comment. Carmichael has been delayed by court challenges from environmentalists and indigenous groups concerned about climate change and the impact on native land and water supply, but those challenges have been rejected. Adani hopes to start shipping coal from Carmichael by March 2020 in the first stage of the project, which it bought amid a coal boom in 2010. ($1 = 1.3153 Australian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/australia-adani-ent/chinas-biggest-bank-says-does-not-intend-financing-adanis-carmichael-coal-mine-idINKBN1DY06H'|'2017-12-04T04:59:00.000+02:00'
'3bc8f9e08b23dd2d9eff82bc36a24789fe3d3515'|'Fed rate expectations on the rise before tax cuts passed Senate'|'BENGALURU (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve is almost certain to raise interest rates later this month, according to a Reuters poll of economists, a majority of whom now expect three more rate rises next year compared with two when surveyed just weeks ago.A police officer keeps watch in front of the U.S. Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, U.S. on October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/Files The results, from a survey taken just before the U.S. Senate voted to pass tax cuts that are expected to add about $1.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, show economists were already becoming more convinced that rates will need to go even higher.While about 80 percent of economists surveyed in October said such tax cuts were not necessary, the passage of the bill, President Donald Trump’s first major legislative success, means the forecast risks have shifted toward higher rates, and faster.The poll’s newly raised expectations for three rate rises next year are now in line with the Fed’s own projections. But they come despite a split among U.S. policymakers on the outlook for inflation, which has remained persistently low.That is a similar challenge faced by other major central banks, who are generally turning away from easy monetary policy put in place since the financial crisis, looking through still-weak wage inflation and overall price pressures for now.The core personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE), which excludes food and energy and is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, has undershot the central bank’s 2 percent target for nearly 5-1/2 years.The latest Reuters poll results suggest it is expected to average below 2 percent until 2019.While the U.S. economy expanded in the third quarter at a 3.3 percent annualized rate, its fastest pace in three years, the latest Reuters poll - taken mostly before the release of that data - suggested that may be the best growth rate at least until the second half of 2019.The most optimistic growth forecast at any point over the next year or so was 3.7 percent, well below the post-financial crisis peak of 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.Still, all the 103 economists polled, including 19 large banks that deal directly with the Fed, said the federal funds rate will go up again in December by 25 basis points, to 1.25-1.50 percent.“This is about just getting back to a neutral level where monetary policy is neither encouraging growth or pushing against growth,” said Brett Ryan, senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, which recently shifted its view to four rate rises next year.“The Fed is still accommodative at the moment and we are still some ways away from the neutral fed funds rate which would in the Fed’s view be closer to 2.75 percent. The Fed can hike without slowing the economy.”Financial markets are also pricing in over a 90 percent chance of a 25 basis-point hike in December, largely based on the falling unemployment rate and reasonably strong economic growth this year.Asked what is the primary driver behind the Fed’s wish to raise rates further, over 40 percent of respondents said it was to tap down future inflation.However, almost a third of economists said it is to gather enough ammunition to combat the next recession.“At some point we are going to have a downturn and they (the Fed) are going to need to react and it is harder to do that when rates are closer to zero,” said Sam Bullard, an economist at Wells Fargo.The remaining roughly 30 percent had varied responses, including some who said higher rates were needed to avoid risks to financial stability.Over 90 percent of the 66 economists who answered another question said that the coming changes at the Fed - a new Fed Chair along with several new Fed Board members - will also not alter the current expected course of rate hikes.“Both the rate tightening outlook and balance sheet reduction program will remain in place as the Fed officials fill open seats. Easing of financial regulation is likely the area that has the most forthcoming changes,” Bullard said.Additional reporting and polling by Khushboo Mittal and Mumal Rathore; Editing by Ross Finley and Hugh Lawson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fed-policy-poll/fed-rate-expectations-on-the-rise-before-tax-cuts-passed-senate-idINKBN1DY1TI'|'2017-12-04T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'dfd96c747b8c2f551f9cff5f181e99123023e51a'|'Ford ramps up electric vehicle push in China amid slowing sales'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:51 AM / Updated 40 minutes ago Ford ramps up electric vehicle push in China amid slowing sales Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) will launch 50 new vehicles in China by 2025, including 15 electrified vehicles, the U.S. firm said at an event in Shanghai on Tuesday, as it looks to rev up sales growth in the market and shift towards cleaner electric cars. FILE PHOTO: Visitors look at Ford models at Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Ford’s sales in China have been weak in recent months, and the company is scrambling to come up with electric and hybrid vehicles to comply with strict Chinese quotas over production and sales for so-called new energy vehicles, or NEVs. The U.S. automaker is undergoing a broad review of its China operations, part of a strategic re-think under new Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett, which will likely see the company focus on electric commercial vans as well as electric cars. “Between now and 2025, we will launch 50 new vehicles in China, and of those 50 new vehicles, 15 of them will be all-new electrified vehicles,” said Peter Fleet, Ford’s head of Asia Pacific, pointing to big growth in the “utility” segment. Fleet also said Ford’s China revenue would grow by 50 percent over the same period. China is pushing automakers towards electric and hybrid petrol-electric vehicles, setting tough quotas for NEVs that come into play in 2019, and has signalled a longer-term shift away from traditional internal combustion engine cars. The major shift in the world’s largest auto market has jolted some automakers, sparking a spate of recent electric vehicle (EV) joint ventures in the market. Ford has announced an EV tie-up with China’s Anhui Zotye Automobile Co Ltd ( 000980.SZ ). “We’ve never seen change like we do today,” said Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford. “Everything is being disrupted” by the development of autonomous vehicles, trends such as ride-sharing and electric vehicles, he added. “It’s clearly the case that China will lead the world in EV development, and so we at Ford are investing enormous amounts of money both here in China and globally to bring electrification into fruition.” Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ford-motor-china/ford-to-launch-50-new-vehicles-in-china-by-2025-idUKKBN1DZ0LC'|'2017-12-05T11:26:00.000+02:00'
'26659275b3a53e459b68821a89033404d7165e4d'|'Banorte shareholders vote to create Mexico''s No. 2 bank'|'MONTERREY (Reuters) - Shareholders in Mexico’s Banorte on Tuesday approved the acquisition of Grupo Financiero Interacciones, which will create the country’s second-biggest bank.More than 81 percent of shareholders attended the meeting and 71.6 percent of them voted in favor of the deal, Banorte said in a filing with the Mexican stock exchange.Banorte was already the biggest Mexican-owned bank and the smaller Interacciones is a major player in loans to state governments and builders. The chairman of Banorte, Carlos Hank Gonzalez, is from Mexico’s influential Hank family and is the son of the chairman of Interacciones, Carlos Hank Rhon.The half-cash, half-stock deal was valued at 26.6 billion Mexican pesos ($1.42 billion), according to a presentation seen by Reuters. The merger is still subject to approval by Mexican regulators.Banorte shares ( GFNORTEO.MX ) were up 1.8 percent on Tuesday and were little changed after news of the approval.($1 = 18.7310 Mexican pesos)Reporting by Christine Murray; editing by Cynthia Osterman and Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-grupo-banorte/banorte-shareholders-approve-acquisition-of-interacciones-sources-idINKBN1DZ2P7'|'2017-12-05T15:21:00.000+02:00'
'6499ea4b790d6718f569c5114657c292cff79789'|'Sprint expects pace of customer defections to slow in holiday quarter'|'(Reuters) - U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Corp expects the pace of customer defections to slow in the key holiday quarter, helped by higher promotions, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: A Sprint store logo is pictured on a building in Boca Raton, Florida, U.S. on March 19, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo - RC1772A9F570 Sprint expects its churn — the rate of defections — to rise 15 basis points (bps) quarter-over-quarter in the three months ending Dec. 31, CFO Tarek Robbiati said at a UBS media conference. Churn rose 20 bps sequentially in the holiday quarter last year, he noted.“We are going to every market, figure out what are the root causes and address that,” Robbiati said, speaking about Sprint’s strategy to limit churn.Robbiati also said Sprint had fully moved on from any merger-related talks with T-Mobile US Inc after several months of discussions collapsed last month.Days after the talks collapsed, Sprint parent SoftBank Group’s CEO Masayoshi Son had said Sprint could grow on its own but would still consider a deal with T-Mobile if it could get management control.Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-outlook/sprint-expects-pace-of-customer-defections-to-slow-in-holiday-quarter-idUSKBN1DZ2JK'|'2017-12-05T19:23:00.000+02:00'
'cb8acdabd7db2ef22c13d50fe5c36ce7f1360c5a'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil''s PagSeguro considers IPO in New York -sources'|'(Adds details, context)By Tatiana BautzerSAO PAULO, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Brazilian payment processor PagSeguro Internet Ltda is considering an initial public offering in the first quarter of 2018 in New York, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.PagSeguro, which provides online and mobile payment services for Brazilian companies, has been in talks with Goldman Sachs & Co for an IPO since earlier this year.PagSeguro’s controlling shareholder, Brazilian media group Universo Online SA (UOL), is deciding whether to list the company on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, the sources added, requesting anonymity because discussions are private.Goldman Sachs declined to comment. UOL did not immediately respond to requests for comment.If successful, PagSeguro would be the first exchange listing among a wave of new Brazilian financial technology startups, or fintechs. The biggest listed fintech in the United States is PayPal Holdings Inc, with a $90.5 billion market value.Brazilian online shoe and apparel retailer Netshoes Ltd raised $149 million in a Nasdaq listing in April.PagSeguro’s controlling shareholder UOL has experience in capital markets, having been listed in Sao Paulo between 2005 and 2012, when it was taken private.PagSeguro competes with Brazilian credit card processing companies such as Cielo SA and Redecard SA, a unit of lender Itaú Unibanco Holding SA.Other banks may be hired to help manage the issue once the shareholder decides on dates and venue for the listing, the sources added. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Peter Cooney and Mary Milliken) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pagseguro-ipo/update-1-brazils-pagseguro-considers-ipo-in-new-york-sources-idINL1N1O4219'|'2017-12-04T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'6372fd743a8cb31815b0c62b6226529a9e67c708'|'MIDEAST - Factors to watch - December 5'|'DUBAI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Here are some factors that may affect Middle East stock markets on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified the press reports and does not vouch for their accuracy.INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL * Ex-president Saleh dead after switching sides in Yemen’s civil war* Qatari emir to attend Gulf summit despite row - foreign minister* U.S. top court lets Trump’s latest travel ban go into full effect* Trump delays announcement on whether U.S. embassy to be moved to Jerusalem* GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares muted as tech blues offset U.S. tax cut optimism* MIDEAST STOCKS-Qatar jumps on hope diplomatic dispute will be resolved* Oil prices edge up on expected drop in U.S. crude stocks* PRECIOUS- Gold holds steady amid softer dollar* Former Egypt premier says he’s “fine” and still mulling election bid* Lebanon’s Hariri to meet major powers in Paris* OPEC oil output falls in November to lowest since May* Syrian walkout from talks “an embarrassment to Russia” - oppositionEGYPT * Egypt’s non-oil business activity grows in Nov for first time in 25 months - PMI* Egypt foreign reserves rise to $36.723 bln at end-November* Egypt aims to increase wheat cultivation to 3.74 mln acresSAUDI ARABIA * Saudi private sector growth at 2-year high amid crackdown on graft -PMI* Saudi says U.S. announcement on Jerusalem to hurt peace process, heighten tensionsUNITED ARAB EMIRATES * UAE private sector growth speeds up in November, output jumps -PMI* Islamic banks lag on corporate governance -report* GEMS Education picks banks for London IPO* QATAR * Qatar raises Nov Marine crude price to highest premium since mid-2014 (Compiled by Dubai newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-factors/mideast-factors-to-watch-december-5-idUSL3N1O51WW'|'2017-12-05T06:36:00.000+02:00'
'2e8422f3d7135410afae56b4012768cb9da8c025'|'Group led by Baidu Capital to invest in EV start-up WM Motor: MW exec'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle (EV) startup WM Motor Technology Co Ltd will receive a sizable injection from a group of investors led by Baidu Capital, a unit of Chinese internet search firm Baidu Inc ( BIDU.O ), WM Motor’s founder and chief executive told Reuters.Freeman Shen, who left Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd [GEELY.UL] to establish WM Motor, said the investors also include Baidu Inc, Chinese venture capitalist Amiba Capital and U.S. trading firm Susquehanna International Group LLP (SIG).Shen, in a telephone interview on Tuesday, declined to discuss the size of the investment, saying the automaker is likely to make an announcement as soon as in a few hours’ time.Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters the figure was in the billions of yuan.The automaker has raised about 12 billion yuan ($1.81 billion) during its three-year life, Shen said.“The whole project probably needs about 20 billion yuan, so we have a bit more fundraising to do,” he said.WM Motor is one of several largely Chinese-funded EV startups betting on the benefits of local production to compete with EV benchmark Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ), which has to import cars from the United States and pay a 25 percent import duty.Tesla has discussed the need to set up local production by has yet to announce any plans.Other Chinese EV startups include Future Mobility Corp Ltd with its Byton brand, and Singulato Motors. They expect demand for their cars due to a government push for so-called new energy vehicles (NEVs).All-electric cars from WM Motor and others are not due to reach the market in China until next year. They aim to launch cars to rival Tesla’s first mass-market car, the Model 3 sedan.WM Motor’s Shen said his company plans to start taking orders for its first vehicle, an all-electric battery sport-utility vehicle (SUV), coinciding with the Beijing auto show in April.Small-scale production of the SUV is slated to start during the first quarter of next year at its assembly plant in the eastern China city of Wenzhou. The plant has an eventual annual capacity of 100,000 vehicles.Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos/group-led-by-baidu-capital-to-invest-in-ev-start-up-wm-motor-mw-exec-idINKBN1DZ0VD'|'2017-12-05T05:51:00.000+02:00'
'c6e686d7ce8eed917eb65f38eb02daca8ba15fd3'|'U.S. House Republicans mull length of spending bill as vote looms'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives were in discussions on Tuesday about how long to fund the federal government in a short-term spending measure expected to come to a vote as early as Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Capitol Dome (L) building is pictured in Washington, DC, U.S. on October 4, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo “I feel like we’re going to have a majority... for passing the CR (spending measure) we have this week,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after a closed-door meeting with fellow House Republican members.“We’re having a good conversation with our members about timing and date ... and all the rest,” he added.The conservative House Freedom Caucus, which has enough members to block legislation, has pressed Republican leaders to consider a spending measure that expires on Dec. 30, eight days later than the Dec. 22 deadline that House and Senate Republicans have been discussing up to now.Ryan said the end date of the measure, known officially as a continuing resolution, or CR, would become known when it reaches the House floor.But House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions told reporters his panel would consider a continuing resolution that expires on Dec. 22. The committee later rescheduled its hearing on the legislation for 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Wednesday.Several other House Republicans, however, said members were still debating whether the funding would expire on Dec. 22 or on Dec. 30, after the Dec. 25 Christmas holiday.“It’s still being negotiated,” said Representative Greg Walden.A Senate Republican leadership aide sidestepped a question on what Senate leaders thought about the CR date. “If the House makes any changes to their bill, I‘m sure they will let everyone know,” the aide said.Reporting by David Morgan and Susan Cornwell; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Dan Grebler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-fiscal/u-s-house-republicans-mull-length-of-spending-bill-as-vote-looms-idINKBN1DZ2NA'|'2017-12-05T20:16:00.000+02:00'
'410d5056c8c9b42a5788519f774f01dea5800685'|'U.S. corporate alternative minimum tax should be removed: House Republican'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:41 PM / Updated 6 hours ago U.S. corporate alternative minimum tax should be removed: House Republican Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The alternative minimum tax on corporations, which had been included in the U.S. Senate’s tax bill, should be eliminated in the final legislation, Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks at a news conference at the Republican National Committee Building in Washington, D.C., U.S. May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein/File Photo “I think that has to be eliminated because that would destroy R&D,” McCarthy said in an interview with CNBC. “ ... Especially when you look at California, the engine that actually creates from a lot of entrepreneurs and others, that should be eliminated for sure.” Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-mccarthy/u-s-corporate-alternative-minimum-tax-should-be-removed-house-republican-idUSKBN1DY1MS'|'2017-12-04T15:40:00.000+02:00'
'7cb6b1351157b3555dab9c0794af354ca4af33ea'|'CEE MARKETS-Budapest bucks European stocks rally on Richter plunge'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:36 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago CEE MARKETS-Budapest bucks European stocks rally on Richter plunge Reuters Staff 8 Min Read * Richter falls as EMA starts review of its Esmya drug * PKN Orlen rebound reverses Warsaw stock index decline * Zloty firms, Polish rate-setters may voice worry over CPI * Romanian 10-year bond sale draws solid demand after yield rise (Adds Romanian government bond auction, rebound of Warsaw stocks) By Sandor Peto and Radu-Sorin Marinas BUDAPEST/Bucharest, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Budapest stocks eased on Monday, dragged down by a sell-off in drugmaker Richter , now under investigation over an anti-tumour drug. Germany''s dollar-exposed equities index and other indices in the Western wing of the European Union rose after the U.S. Senate passed a tax package that is expected to buoy equities markets globally. In Central Europe, Warsaw''s bluechip index reversed an initial fall, driven by a rebound in the shares of oil group PKN Orlen. The stock rose 2.6 percent by 1409 GMT, drifting off 4-month lows reached amid worries that PKN''s margins are deteriorating. Budapest''s main index shed 0.6 percent, pushed down by a 5 percent fall in Richter. Richter shares touched 8-and-1/2-month lows after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) began a review of the company''s Esmya medicine used to treat non-cancerous tumours of the womb. "This follows four reports of serious liver injury, three of which ended in liver transplantation, in patients treated with the medicine," EMA said on its website. Richter''s stock did not recover even though the company said clinical data indicated that Esmya had no demonstrable link with liver damage. The forint and the zloty, firmed, indicating that they were not hurt by outflows into the dollar, which in recent months often weakened them in periods when the greenback strengthened. The zloty gained 0.4 percent, trading on the firm side of the 4.2 line against the euro. The forint firmed 0.2 percent. Regional currencies are buoyed by robust economic growth, except for the leu which trades near record lows due to worry that Romania''s economy is overheating. Romania''s government sold more 10-year bonds than planned at an auction on Monday, indicating that a 60 basis points surge in the yield since September had made the paper attractive. "Demand seems to be backed by a couple of investment funds who wanted our paper in the final weeks of this year," a Bucharest-based trader said. "Given that Poland is at some 3 percent (yield) and Hungary at about 2 percent yields, Romania''s 4.5 looks fair." Poland''s annual inflation jumped to a 5-year high of 2.5 percent in November, but analysts expect the Polish central bank to keep interest rates on hold at its meeting on Tuesday. But its statement will be closely watched as some rate setters may become increasingly worried that inflation may rise above 3.5 percent, the upper limit of the bank''s target range. "If such a comment were to be presented, then the zloty has a chance to strengthen further in relation to core currencies," Citi Handlowy analysts said in a note. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1510 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.585 25.585 +0.00 5.56% 0 5 % Hungary 313.35 313.94 +0.19 -1.45% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.1987 4.2150 +0.39 4.89% % Romanian leu 4.6300 4.6308 +0.02 -2.05% % Croatian 7.5545 7.5547 +0.00 0.01% kuna % Serbian 119.23 119.17 -0.05% 3.46% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1067.5 1063.9 +0.33 +15.8 3 8 % 3% Budapest 37971. 38188. -0.57% +18.6 21 81 5% Warsaw 2410.1 2389.9 +0.85 +23.7 6 2 % 3% Bucharest 7801.9 7796.2 +0.07 +10.1 3 1 % 2% Ljubljana 790.02 784.90 +0.65 +10.0 % 9% Zagreb 1869.5 1861.5 +0.43 -6.28% 0 7 % Belgrade 744.43 744.59 -0.02% +3.77 % Sofia 670.27 667.02 +0.49 +14.3 % 0% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.044 0.039 +075b +3bps ps 5-year 0.766 0.027 +110b +0bps ps 10-year 1.493 -0.052 +116b -9bps ps Poland 2-year 1.682 0.031 +239b +3bps ps 5-year 2.707 0.015 +304b -1bps ps 10-year 3.322 -0.013 +299b -5bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.99 1.18 1.3 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.07 0.11 0.14 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.775 1.85 1.925 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask quotes prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-budapest-bucks-european-stocks-rally-on-richter-plunge-idUSL8N1O43YS'|'2017-12-04T16:36:00.000+02:00'
'0c8e4ff6b109d46a8a532e7a90769106c74d5303'|'Exclusive - EU regulators set to approve easyJet buy of parts of Air Berlin: sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 11:18 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Exclusive: EU regulators set to approve easyJet buy of parts of Air Berlin - sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - British budget carrier easyJet ( EZJ.L ) is set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval to buy parts of failed German peer Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), people familiar with the matter said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: An EasyJet passenger aircraft makes its final approach for landing at Gatwick Airport in southern England, Britain, October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo EasyJet will take on some of Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel airport in the German capital, covering leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft and around 1,000 of its pilots and cabin crew. The move will allow easyJet to strengthen its position in the German capital, notably against Ireland’s Ryanair ( RYA.I ) and Lufthansa’s budget unit Eurowings. The European Commission, which is scheduled to decide on the deal by Dec. 12, declined to comment. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels and Alistair Smout in London, editing by Julia Fioretti'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airberlin-m-a-easyjet-eu/exclusive-eu-regulators-set-to-approve-easyjet-buy-of-parts-of-air-berlin-sources-idUKKBN1DY172'|'2017-12-04T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'656a4ec5c8b459d86b8380981dfe4d2020fa9712'|'METALS-London copper shrugs off firmer dollar as China demand supports'|' 06 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago METALS-London copper shrugs off firmer dollar as China demand supports Reuters Staff 5 Min Read (Adds comment, detail, updates prices) By Melanie Burton MELBOURNE, Dec 4 (Reuters) - London copper held its ground on Monday, defying a stronger dollar to find support from resilient manufacturing demand in top consumer China, although analysts said downward pressure may mount towards year-end. "There''s some more consoldiation in base metals. For copper, there is no clear direction," said analyst Helen Lau of broker Argonaut Securities. Lau said metals demand would come under pressure as construction activity winds down over winter from levels already curbed by Beijing''s anti-pollution drive. Profit-taking by long investors could also add to the downside pressure, she said. "All of these usual seasonal factors will continue to affect base metals. It''s a healthy consolidation. So maybe we have a fresh start next year." * COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper edged up by 0.3 percent to $6,855.50 a tonne by 0650 GMT, adding to 1.1 percent gains from the previous session. Prices last week fell by 2.4 percent, trimming copper''s advance for the year to 23 percent. This is still its largest rally since 2010. * SHFE: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper rose by 1.3 percent to 53,510 yuan ($8,091) a tonne. * CHINA ECONOMY: China''s manufacturing activity remained in expansion mode but grew at the weakest pace in five months in November as input costs remained high and tougher pollution measures weighed on business confidence. * RIO TINTO: Global miner Rio Tinto signalled on Monday it will stick with its "value over volume" strategy, outlining further moves to boost shareholder returns and appointing a new chairman from within its board. * CHINA: Rio also pointed to a possible slowing in China over the next six months, with a weakening in construction, infrastructure and automotive demand growth, but said it remains optimistic about China in the medium to long term. * CHINA ALUMINIUM: China''s central Shanxi province has introduced new rules curbing water use for steel, cement and aluminium production, state media reported on Sunday, in another blow to sectors reeling from government-enforced output cuts. * INVESTORS: Hedge funds and money managers raised their net long positions in COMEX gold and copper contracts in the week to Nov. 28, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday. * In other metals, LME aluminium,, zincand lead all slipped around half a percent, paring strong advances on Friday. LME Nickel bounced by 1.2 percent. * MARKETS: The U.S. dollar bounced to a two-week top on Monday as traders celebrated the passage of a Senate tax bill over the weekend, while stronger U.S. stock futures pointed to a merry start for Asian shares. * COMING UP: U.S. Factory orders Oct at 1500 GMT PRICES 0543 GMT Three month LME copper 6857.5 Most active ShFE copper 53530 Three month LME aluminium 2072.5 Most active ShFE aluminium 14580 Three month LME zinc 3237 Most active ShFE zinc 25685 Three month LME lead 2544.5 Most active ShFE lead 19105 Three month LME nickel 11420 Most active ShFE nickel 92430 Three month LME tin 19495 Most active ShFE tin 141710 LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 604.59 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1275. 07 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 257.57 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1212. 13 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2750.1 5 ($1 = 6.6151 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; editing by Richard Pullin)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-copper-shrugs-off-firmer-dollar-as-china-demand-supports-idUSL3N1O4242'|'2017-12-04T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'562cff635f58ce4172e8941384665516966767e2'|'ECB to review start date for new rules on bad loans'|' 20 AM / in 5 minutes ECB to review start date for new rules on bad loans Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will consider delaying the date from which bank loans that go unpaid will be subject to its proposed new rules, which force lenders to set aside more money for possible losses, its top supervisor said on Thursday. A logo plate is seen at the entrance to the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “The published draft foresees an application of the Addendum to NPLs (non-performing loans) newly classified as such from January 2018 onwards,” Daniele Nouy said in a written reply to a member of the European Parliament. “In the context of the public consultation, we will also review this reference date.” Reporting By Francesco Canepa'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-banks-loans/ecb-to-review-start-date-for-new-rules-on-bad-loans-idUKKBN1E117E'|'2017-12-07T12:20:00.000+02:00'
'e63bc3d015313525c485c856b4d1f82d0ae2ce7f'|'EU to intervene in Microsoft''s U.S. Supreme Court data protection case'|'December 7, 2017 / 4:40 PM / a few seconds ago EU to intervene in Microsoft''s U.S. Supreme Court data protection case Julia Fioretti 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is to make a submission to the U.S. Supreme Court in its hearing of the U.S. Department of Justice’s appeal against a ruling which prevented prosecutors from gaining access to emails held by Microsoft in Ireland. The Microsoft logo is shown on an electric car at the Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The case has attracted significant attention from technology and media companies due to concerns that an unfavorable final ruling could deter customers from using cloud services because of concerns that their data could be seized. In the lower court ruling last year Microsoft successfully challenged a search warrant secured by federal prosecutors wanting to obtain emails stored on its computer servers in Dublin in connection with a drug trafficking investigation, arguing that to hand over the emails directly would undermine people’s trust in cloud computing services and set a dangerous precedent. The Supreme Court in October agreed to hear the U.S. administration’s appeal against the decision. The European Commission said on Thursday it would submit an amicus brief to the court. “Given that the transfer of personal data by Microsoft from the EU to the U.S. would fall under the EU data protection rules, the Commission considered it to be in the interest of the EU to make sure that EU data protection rules on international transfers are correctly understood and taken into account by the U.S. Supreme Court,” the Commission said in a statement. It said the brief would not be in support of either one of the parties. Microsoft, which has 100 data centers in 40 countries, was the first U.S. company to challenge a domestic search warrant seeking data held outside the country. There have been several similar challenges, most brought by Google. “We welcome the EU’s involvement in the case. It is important that European voices are heard by the U.S. Supreme Court” said John Frank, Vice President for EU Government Affairs, Microsoft. A new data protection law in the EU enters into force in May next year which has strict rules on when companies may transfer EU citizens’ data overseas. Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-microsoft/eu-to-intervene-in-microsofts-u-s-supreme-court-data-protection-case-idUKKBN1E12AO'|'2017-12-07T18:35:00.000+02:00'
'75a22e614e8efb3d7af27dd72a480328e1b5a25c'|'Canada''s swipe at Boeing jets could open way for European rivals'|'Reuters TV United States December 6, 2017 / 7:38 PM / in 6 minutes Canada''s swipe at Boeing jets could open way for European rivals David Ljunggren 3 Min Read OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada’s decision to shun Boeing Co ( BA.N ) jets could open the way for European rivals seeking to supply new fighters, assuming the government can sort out major procurement challenges, three sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Boeing''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Canada is scrapping a plan to buy 18 Boeing Super Hornet planes and will instead opt for a second-hand fleet of Australian jets, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Boeing’s future military sales in Canada are in question after the U.S. defense firm launched a trade challenge against Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ). But - in what the sources said was a worst-case scenario - a government angry at Boeing and unconvinced by other U.S. options may end up facing off against a Canadian air force that dislikes the idea of a European jet. “This is a real mess,” said one person familiar with official procurement policy. The Super Hornets were supposed to help tide Canada over as it holds a competition for fighters to replace 77 veteran CF-18s. Canadian defense sources say the air force - seeking to maintain close ties with its U.S. counterpart - has long preferred a U.S. jet, which would narrow the race to the Super Hornet or Lockheed Martin Corp’s ( LMT.N ) F-35 stealth fighter. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not a fan of the F-35 and the Boeing spat means officials are prepared to look at rivals such as the Eurofighter Typhoon ( AIR.PA ) ( BAES.L ) ( LDOF.MI ) and Dassault Aviation SA’s ( AVMD.PA ) Rafale jet, say the sources, who asked to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the situation. Boeing has declined to comment until the government makes an announcement. If Canada went for the Typhoon or the Rafale, it would have to decide whether to use U.S. weapons or buy European armaments systems and integrate them with those used by U.S. forces. An added complication is that the United States and Canada belong to an elite intelligence-sharing network and it is unclear if they would allow Europeans to access sensitive data. One defense expert noted that Britain, Germany and Italy intend to operate both the F-35 and the Eurofighter, evidence that Canada could buy the European jet and still operate with U.S. air force F-35s. Although Canada will extend the lifespan of some CF-18s to 2025 to cover the introduction of the new fighters, Canadian Global Affairs Institute defense analyst David Perry on Wednesday predicted Ottawa would keep the old planes in service for longer than planned and drag out the competition. Reporting by David Ljunggren, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-canada-boeing-fighterjets-future/canadas-swipe-at-boeing-jets-could-open-way-for-european-rivals-idUKKBN1E02T0'|'2017-12-06T21:35:00.000+02:00'
'765178161ba572143471f2106489175c3d90fb17'|'Aetna''s board set to approve $68 bln sale to CVS Health -sources'|'Dec 3 (Reuters) - Aetna Inc’s board of directors was meeting on Sunday to approve the U.S. health insurer’s sale to U.S. drugstore chain operator CVS Health Corp for approximately $207 per share in cash and stock, according to people familiar with the matter.The $68 billion deal will be this year’s largest corporate acquisition. It will combine one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide.CVS plans to pay for the deal mostly with cash, but it will also use its own stock to pay for around 30 percent of the purchase price, the sources said. The announcement of the deal could come as early as Sunday, the sources added.The sources requested not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. CVS and Aetna did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The deal comes as healthcare payers and pharmacies are responding to factors including the Affordable Care Act, rising drug prices and the threat of competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc.CVS plans to use its low-cost clinics to eventually save more than $1 billion per year on health care costs for Aetna’s roughly 23 million medical members, sources have said.A combined insurer and PBM will also likely be better placed to negotiate lower drug prices, and the arrangement could boost sales for CVS’s front-of-store retail business.The company expects to invest billions of dollars in the coming years to add clinics and services, largely financed by diverting funds away from other planned investments.That could eventually cut costs substantially, with the clinics serving as an alternative to more expensive hospital emergency room visits.Meanwhile, deeper collaboration between Aetna’s insurance business and CVS’s PBM division could drive down drug costs by adding clients and boosting the PBM’s leverage with drugmakers.Independent PBMs have long been criticized for potential conflicts of interest with insurance company clients, because they could potentially keep cost savings from drug negotiations rather than passing them on to patients.Aetna patient visits to CVS stores for health care and prescriptions could also boost front-of-store sales, which like those at many retailers have fallen in recent quarters amid competition from online sellers.Health insurers meanwhile have sought to cut costs amid steep prescription drug price rises and requirements to care for even the sickest patients under the Affordable Care Act.Aetna last year tried to buy rival Humana Inc to gain leverage to control costs, but U.S. antitrust regulators shot down that transaction and a proposed merger between Anthem Inc and Cigna Corp.Analysts have said the CVS-Aetna deal could prompt other healthcare sector mega-mergers, as rivals scramble to emulate the strategy.It could spur a merger between Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and Humana Inc, or between Humana and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Ana Gupte, analyst at Leerink Partners, said recently.VERTICAL MERGER Although CVS and Aetna’s planned merger does not directly consolidate the health insurance or pharmaceutical industries, the U.S. Department of Justice has been taking a closer look at so-called vertical mergers, where the companies are not direct competitors.Last month, the Justice Department sued to block AT&T Inc’s planned $85.4 billion merger with Time Warner Inc, saying the integration of a content producer with a distributor could reduce consumer choice.The CVS-Aetna deal could attract similar scrutiny if regulators feared it could block Aetna customers from frequenting other pharmacies or contracting with other PBMs, several investors said, asking not to be named because they were not authorized to talk to the press.But four antitrust experts said there is little doubt the deal will be approved, although it might need to meet conditions to convince antitrust enforcers to sign off.It is unclear whether it would be evaluated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or the Justice Department but that decision might be made based on which agency is less busy, said Matthew Cantor of law firm Constantine Cannon.“(The companies) want the FTC to get it. The reason that the FTC is better at this point is that the Justice Department has just broken with decades of precedent of how to deal with vertical mergers,” said Cantor, referring to the decision to refuse conduct remedies and file a lawsuit to stop AT&T from buying Time Warner. (Reporting by Carl O‘Donnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Lisa Shumaker) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/aetna-ma-cvs-health/aetnas-board-set-to-approve-68-bln-sale-to-cvs-health-sources-idUSL1N1O30CK'|'2017-12-04T00:10:00.000+02:00'
'4abb6189d29821741d7f9fe33d46c42e3c767eef'|'Idorsia to get $230 mln from J&J in latest hypertension deal'|'December 4, 2017 / 7:46 AM / in a few seconds Idorsia to get $230 mln from J&J in latest hypertension deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Idorsia, the Swiss drugmaker spun off from Actelion after it was bought by Johnson & Johnson (J&J), will receive a one-time payment of $230 million from J&J’s Janssen unit as they partner on aprocitentan for resistant hypertension. Aprocitentan is a metabolite of Actelion’s Opsumit. Idorsia and J&J are seeking to develop it to treat hypertension patients whose disease has failed at least three therapies. The costs are to be shared equally by Idorsia and J&J, the Swiss firm said on Monday. With this collaboration, Idorsia Chief Scientific Officer Martine Clozel is sticking to a disease speciality -- hypertension -- that she focused on to build up Actelion in the 1990s to its $30 billion sale to J&J earlier this year. “Janssen has recognised the potential of aprocitentan, the latest product from a research effort that was initiated nearly 30 years ago,” Clozel, who with her husband Jean-Paul is a co-founder of Idorsia, said in a statement. Following the announcement, Idorsia shares were seen rising 3.9 percent according to premarket indicators. Idorsia’s shares have doubled since beginning trading in June. (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Edmund Blair)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/idorsia-deal-johnsonjohnson/idorsia-to-get-230-mln-from-jj-in-latest-hypertension-deal-idUSL8N1O414C'|'2017-12-04T09:43:00.000+02:00'
'bc79271febb8fb244e243240df1a47882e54d07a'|'Britain in marketing push to protect asset management industry against Brexit'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:05 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Britain in marketing push to protect asset management industry against Brexit Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain laid out plans on Wednesday to protect and grow its asset management industry as it looks to fight off Brexit-fuelled competition from rival European centres for the valuable business. British Pound Sterling banknotes are seen at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Britain is Europe’s largest fund management centre, with 8.1 trillion pounds in assets under management, but countries such as Ireland, Luxembourg and France hope to lure businesses that are concerned about the impact of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. In its ‘UK Investment Management Strategy II’, the government said it was updating its original 2013 document to “strengthen the UK’s brand for asset management, enabling firms to respond effectively to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and capitalise upon future trading opportunities”. Amid concern that Brexit could hamper the industry’s ability to access top global investment talent, the government said it would support ‘Asset Management Centres of Excellence’ at UK universities across the country, including apprenticeships, but did not give a timeline or say who would fund the centres. “The industry’s academic research spend is currently spread thinly across many institutions and initiatives. By consolidating the majority of existing research... the industry would be able to benefit from economies of scale and have a greater impact on skills,” the government said. “These Centres will form the backbone of the UK’s world-leading asset management capabilities and professionalism where qualifications would be universally recognised as a global standard.” The plan also aims to attract overseas firms to locate in the UK, including through marketing and liaising with trade bodies such as the Investment Association. Britain’s asset management industry employs over 38,000 people, the government said, and is bigger than that of France, Germany and the Netherlands combined. “The UK is a world leader in asset management, and it is vital that we keep it that way,” Stephen Barclay, economic secretary to the Treasury, said in a statement. The government said the Treasury could look to expand the number of countries its senior officials engage with through financial and economic dialogue or bi-lateral engagement from the current list of Brazil, China, India, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore. Other plans include to develop financial technology, including a blockchain-enabled digital fund, and to support growth in “innovative” investment strategies such as social impact investing. The asset management industry generates around 1 percent of the UK’s gross domestic product. Chris Cummings, chief executive of the Investment Association, said the strategy would provide “a roadmap to success through Brexit and beyond”. Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-funds-strategy/britain-in-marketing-push-to-protect-asset-management-industry-against-brexit-idUKKBN1E01H5'|'2017-12-06T14:06:00.000+02:00'
'b5916d589caad97120dbdec996245f017a61ca66'|'Legal & General to sell mature savings business to Swiss Re'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Legal & General ( LGEN.L ) is to sell a closed savings business with 33 billion pounds in assets to Swiss Re ( SRENH.S ) for 650 million pounds ($872.2 million) to help fund areas of growth including annuities.The logo of Swiss insurer Swiss Re is seen in front of its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, September 23, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo L&G said the roughly one million life insurance policies held in its Mature Savings business were being taken over by Swiss Re’s ReAssure division, a life and pensions business that manages closed and non-core in-force portfolios.Legal & General said in statement it would use the cash from the sale to invest in other areas of the business, including annuities, where it is increasingly looking to insure corporate pension risk, investment management and general insurance.The deal is the latest by an insurer to offload a so-called “closed book” of business, policies which are still in force but not being grown further. It follows similar deals in recent years involving AXA and Deutsche Bank.“Selling Mature Savings is the right decision for us - another important, measured, step in growing our company and updating our products,” said L&G Chief Executive Nigel Wilson.“It will drive further earnings growth by allowing us to focus on our successful market-leading businesses and to accelerate the scaling up of our growth businesses,” he added.The cash deal will see Swiss Re take on the risk of the business from January, although it is expected to be formally completed by mid-2019. During 2016, the Mature Savings business generated 105 million pounds in operating profit.L&G said the deal was likely to generate a small increase in the company’s Solvency II coverage ratio at the outset, increasing to around two percent on completion.Swiss Re said in a separate statement the deal strengthened its position in the British market and recognized its “expertise in acquiring and integrating large books of business”.JPMorgan analysts said in a note to clients the sale would likely hit L&G&rsquo;s operating profit by around 5 percent and cash profits by around 7 percent, “which in our view is slightly negative for the share price in the short term”.“However we believe that LGEN should be able to deploy this cash proceeds sooner than later leading to limited dilution from the disposal,” they said, flagging an “underweight” rating and 218 pence price target.At 0850 GMT, shares in L&G were down 1 percent at 261.5 pence, while shares in Swiss Re were down 1.1 percent at 89.6 Swiss francs.($1 = 0.7453 pounds)Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Michael Shields; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-legal-general-divestiture-swiss-re/legal-general-to-sell-mature-savings-business-to-swiss-re-idINKBN1E00OA'|'2017-12-06T04:38:00.000+02:00'
'328b62b8c6090ec77f87994b04675fbc2b25abdf'|'Stagecoach keeps 2018 earnings forecast despite revenue drop'|' 36 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Stagecoach keeps 2018 earnings forecast despite revenue drop   (Reuters) - British transport company Stagecoach said its 2018 earnings forecast was unchanged despite lower bus revenue and passenger volumes, adding that it expects modest growth in its final dividend for the year. For the six months ended Oct. 28, Stagecoach, which runs bus and train services in different parts of Britain, reported adjusted earnings per share of 13.6 pence, lower than 13.9 pence reported last year. Pretax profit, on an adjusted basis, fell marginally to 96.7 million pounds, while revenue fell 10 percent to 1.80 billion pounds. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-stagecoach-grp-results/stagecoach-keeps-2018-earnings-forecast-despite-revenue-drop-idUKKBN1E00OC'|'2017-12-06T09:36:00.000+02:00'
'21019994fe2f79b332a35397d35c036b0c239e50'|'Hong Kong''s premium office space ranked world''s most expensive'|' 35 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Hong Kong''s premium office space ranked world''s most expensive Venus Wu 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s premium office space has topped the charts as the world’s most expensive for the second consecutive year, outpacing prices in No. 2 Midtown New York by 66 percent, according to property consultancy JLL. FILE PHOTO: Office buildings are seen at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Offices at the top end of the Hong Kong market command an average of US$323 (240 pounds) per square foot (psf) per year in occupancy costs, which include rent, service charges and government taxes, according to the report released on Wednesday. In Midtown New York, the costs are $194 psf, while London’s West End is $193 psf. A separate report published by property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield last week also ranked Hong Kong in the No. 1 spot for the world’s most expensive prime office space, with an occupancy cost per desk space of $27,432, followed by London’s West End at $22,665. “For the same cost of accommodating 100 staff in a Hong Kong office, 300 can be accommodated in Toronto, 500 in Madrid and 900 in Mumbai,” the report said. Supply shortages and high demand from mainland Chinese firms help fuel Hong Kong’s premium office rents, but the city also has the world’s steepest rental discounts in non-core business districts, according to JLL. “Yes, Central is the most expensive, but if you look a bit further out of the CBD in Hong Kong, it’s 64 percent cheaper,” said JLL Hong Kong’s head of research, Denis Ma, referring to the prime Central district. “It is still very competitive.” Office rents in Central rose 5.2 percent in the first 11 months of this year, Ma said, while the rents on the opposite end of Hong Kong Island edged up 2.6 percent. The city’s commercial property and land market has seen a series of record-breaking deals so far this year. Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset Holdings Ltd in November announced the city’s biggest real estate deal when it said it would sell its majority stake in a 73-storey office tower for a record-breaking HK$40.2 billion ($5.14 billion). In May, another major developer Henderson Land Development shattered previous records for commercial land sales in terms of price per square foot when it agreed to pay about HK$50,000 ($6,397.71) per square foot for a rare commercial site in the heart of Central. Reporting by Venus Wu; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hongkong-property-office/hong-kongs-premium-office-space-ranked-worlds-most-expensive-idUKKBN1E010J'|'2017-12-06T11:35:00.000+02:00'
'1664252d2daa708f4cb2c9bbaf9149b5813f399f'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX ends lower as banks, mining stocks weigh'|'December 5, 2017 / 9:55 PM / Updated an hour ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX ends lower as banks, mining stocks weigh Reuters Staff (Adds details on specific stocks, updates prices to close) * TSX ends down 53.35 points, or 0.33 percent, to 15,915.68 * Seven of the TSX’s 10 main groups finished lower By Alastair Sharp TORONTO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index slipped on Tuesday, as banks pulled back at the end of their earnings season and one warned about mortgage originations while mining stocks also weighed with copper and gold prices hitting two-month lows. * The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended down 53.35 points, or 0.33 percent, to 15,915.68. Seven of its 10 main groups finished lower while decliners were outnumbering advancers by almost 2-to-1. * The heavyweight financials group slipped 0.5 percent, with Toronto-Dominion Bank off 1.3 percent at C$72.43. * Shares in smaller lender Laurentian Bank of Canada fell 7.9 percent to C$56. The bank said in an annual report that it had identified documentation issues and client misrepresentations in some mortgages at its B2B Bank subsidiary and plans to perform an in-depth review of originations. * The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 1 percent as miners of copper, nickel, zinc and other base metals were hit hard by falling commodity prices. * First Quantum Minerals Ltd fell 4.5 percent to C$14.56 and Teck Resources Ltd lost 2.9 percent to C$28.99 as copper prices fell their most in two years to hit a two-month low. * Gold miners also fell, with Goldcorp Inc shedding 2.2 percent to C$15.61 and Barrick Gold Corp off 0.9 percent at C$17.51 as gold dropped 1 percent to a two-month low. * Commodity prices were in part hurt by a stronger U.S. dollar on the back of a U.S. tax overhaul plan. * Licensed marijuana producer Aphria Inc jumped 16.4 percent to C$13.53 after saying it had reached a deal to supply medical cannabis to Loblaw Cos Ltd’s pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart. * Bombardier Inc ended 1 percent higher at C$3.17 after two sources said Aeromexico has held preliminary talks to take some of its CSeries jets orders from Delta Air Lines Inc, which owns a stake in the Mexican carrier, to avoid possible U.S. trade duties levied on the planes. * The heavyweight energy group was little changed, while Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd fell 2.6 percent to C$16.61 after saying late on Monday that the start-up of its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion could be delayed past September 2020. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Lisa Shumaker)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-ends-lower-as-banks-mining-stocks-weigh-idUSL1N1O52CF'|'2017-12-05T23:55:00.000+02:00'
'b02ce00f15191024b32f1278c5e1f3dbc90b10f4'|'Atlantia, Hochtief brace for sealed bid contest in Abertis battle - sources'|'December 6, 2017 / 7:46 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Atlantia, Hochtief brace for sealed bid contest in Abertis battle - sources Pamela Barbaglia , Francesca Landini , Matthias Inverardi 6 Min Read LONDON/MILAN/DUSSELDORF (Reuters) - Atlantia ( ATL.MI ) and Hochtief ( HOTG.DE ) are preparing to improve rival offers for Spain’s toll-road operator Abertis in a nearly 20 billion euro takeover battle that is likely to be resolved by sealed bids early next year, sources close to the talks said. The tussle that began in May pits Italy’s largest motorway operator against the German arm of Spanish builder ACS ( ACS.MC ), drawing in an army of banks in Europe’s biggest deal this year. ACS, led by boss Florentino Perez, is currently in the lead having submitted a higher bid on Oct. 18 that values Abertis at 17.1 billion euros. Atlantia, controlled by the Benetton family, is expected to make a counter-bid early next year once Spanish regulators complete a review of Hochtief’s bid approach. Atlantia’s takeover plan has already been vetted by regulators in Spain and in the EU. Several sources said Atlantia, advised by Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) and Mediobanca ( MDBI.MI ), is looking to make a modest increase to Hochtief’s cash and share bid early next year, but it will not call it its “best and final” offer. The Rome-based firm would then make a knock-out offer at the end of the investors’ acceptance period as part of the so-called “blind bid” contest, they said. “They will keep fighting till the end”, said a source working with one of the parties. “For both companies winning this deal is an absolute priority.” Atlantia and Hochtief declined to comment, while ACS was not immediately available. Sources familiar with the negotiations said the bid battle will not be resolved until March or April. Under Spanish law, the bidders competing to buy a publicly-listed company are invited to make their “best and final bid” over the last five days of an investors’ acceptance period, which starts immediately after the regulatory review and lasts 30 days. The sources said both bidders were gearing up for this final arm-wrestling contest as they are both in a position to sweeten their bids a few more times. Atlantia has so far kept its cards close to its chest and is waiting for the Spanish watchdog to give Hochtief the green light, which is expected between late January and early February. The Rome-based company has had lengthy discussions with banks over its financial capacity and is confident it can significantly improve its 15.6 billion-euro offer, the sources said. Any new Atlantia bid would force the Spanish watchdog to stop the clock and review the improved offer within three days. If the bid is approved, the watchdog can then restart the acceptance period or potentially extend it. Atlantia is under no pressure to make a new bid immediately. It could wait until the last five days of the acceptance period in March. This is when the Spanish regulator will ask Atlantia and Hochtief to submit their “best and final” offer in sealed bids. Their proposals will be presented to Abertis’ board for a final decision. Atlantia and Hochtief are both expected to avoid calling any improved bid “best and final” until they reach this final stage, the sources said. There was a similar bidding war in Spain 10 years ago, when construction firm Sacyr and engineering firm Isolux made sealed bids for Spanish road operator Europistas. Sacyr emerged as the winner. But the contest between Atlantia and Hochtief is the first example of a domestic company in Spain being fought over by international players. GREAT EXPECTATIONS Atlantia wants Abertis to create the world’s biggest toll road operator with a combined market value of more than 36 billion euros. The deal would help Atlantia to expand in international markets such as France and Latin America and cut its dependence on low-growth Italy. Atlantia and Abertis have been working on a possible combination for many years and came close to a deal in 2006 when Abertis was about to buy Atlantia but negotiations fell through due to Italian government opposition. Atlantia’s boss Giovanni Castellucci said in May that its cash-and share offer was friendly, adding Atlantia had been in talks with Abertis’ top shareholder Criteria Caixa for weeks. But a bidding war with Hochtief erupted just days after the Atlantia deal was cleared by regulators. Hochief’s parent ACS initially approached infrastructure funds to finance its merger plan, but had no luck and ultimately turned to its publicly-traded German division Hochtief to finance its takeover proposal. ACS, which has a market value of 10 billion euros, is keen to diversify away from its core construction business and build a strong presence in the less volatile infrastructure concessions market, which includes toll roads. It is looking at France’s Vinci ( SGEF.PA ) as a possible model, one of the sources said, as the French firm is active in both infrastructure concessions and construction with operations in more than 100 countries and has a market value of 52 billion euros (£45.87 billion). ACS, advised by JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) and Lazard ( LAZ.N ), is hoping to add Abertis’ more than 5,000 miles of highways to its construction businesses and extend its operations to Brazil among other countries. Additional reporting by Paola Arosio, Andres Gonzalez, Stefano Bernabei, Tomas Gonzalez and Ben Martin. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-abertis-m-a-atlantia/atlantia-hochtief-brace-for-sealed-bid-contest-in-abertis-battle-sources-idUKKBN1E02UI'|'2017-12-06T21:46:00.000+02:00'
'e28f00412b93e1bba8aedf318c7ec5f18a8e4b23'|'UPDATE 2-Kinder Morgan gas pipeline explosion kills 2 in Illinois- fire dept.'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:32 AM / Updated an hour ago Kinder Morgan gas pipeline explosion kills 2 in Illinois: fire dept Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - An explosion on a Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline killed two people and injured two others on Tuesday in Lee County, Illinois, according to the Dixon Rural fire department chief. Kinder Morgan said a suspected third party line strike could have caused a natural gas release on a 20-inch lateral segment of its Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America’s (NGPL) system in Lee County at about 9:35 a.m. central time. “The impacted pipeline has been isolated and the area has been secured with local road closures,” the company said. Earlier, local media reported Kinder Morgan shut a natural gas pipeline due to an explosion in Northern Illinois after it was struck by farming equipment. NGPL, which transports natural gas into the Chicago market, has about 9,200 miles of pipeline, and 288 billion cubic feet of working gas storage, according to a company website. Reporting by Nithin Prasad and Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Arpan Varghese; editing by G Crosse & Simon Cameron-Moore'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pipeline-operations-kinder-morgan-de/natgas-release-at-northern-illinois-occurred-on-a-segment-of-ngpl-kinder-morgan-idUSKBN1E001M'|'2017-12-06T07:08:00.000+02:00'
'2dab7b2ce6e61672a5b8896cbbedbcb2c4b310fe'|'UPDATE 1-Enbridge halts Great Lakes Line 5 pipeline due to bad weather'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:01 AM / Updated an hour ago Enbridge halts Great Lakes Line 5 pipeline due to bad weather Nia Williams 3 Min Read CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc temporarily shut down its Line 5 oil pipeline across the Straits of Mackinac in North America’s Great Lakes on Tuesday, due to high winds and nine-foot (3 meter) high waves, according to the Michigan Agency for Energy (MAE). The 540,000 barrel per day pipeline carries Canadian light crude and refined products from Wisconsin to Ontario and is a key link in Enbridge’s network, which transports the bulk of Canadian crude exports to the United States. Light synthetic Canadian crude prices weakened by 35 cents on Tuesday, according to Shorcan Energy brokers. One market participant in Calgary said the dip was most likely in relation to the Line 5 outage. In a statement on its website, the MAE said Enbridge told Michigan that Line 5 was shut down at 11.37 a.m. local time (1637 GMT) and would restart when conditions improve. Enbridge did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Straits of Mackinac are a turbulent 5-mile (8 km) wide stretch of water connecting lakes Huron and Michigan. Some local businesses, politicians and environmental groups fear the 64-year-old underwater pipeline crossing the Straits is at risk of leaking and contaminating the Great Lakes. In response to those concerns, Enbridge signed an agreement with the state of Michigan on Nov. 27 to suspend the pipeline’s operations during sustained bad weather in which wave heights reach more than eight feet. “The purpose of the state’s agreement with Enbridge was to find practical solutions to concerns we had about the operation of Line 5 and the safety of the Great Lakes,” said Valerie Brader, executive director of the Michigan Agency for Energy. “Enbridge’s action today shows the steps outlined in the plan will have immediate and long-term positive outcomes.” Under the agreement Enbridge must also study the feasibility of placing a new pipeline or the existing Line 5 in a tunnel under the Straits, assess installing underwater technology to better monitor Line 5 and look at ways of mitigating the risk of boat anchors damaging the pipeline. The Calgary-based company must also evaluate ways of minimizing the likelihood of an oil spill at the 245 bodies of water Line 5 crosses in Michigan. Reporting by Nia Williams, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pipeline-operations-enbridge-inc-grea/enbridge-halts-great-lakes-line-5-pipeline-due-to-bad-weather-idUSKBN1DZ3B9'|'2017-12-06T01:55:00.000+02:00'
'c3ec950541f793767f118beb7b0182d3fef42b66'|'UK spring fiscal statement to be announced on March 13 - Hammond'|'December 6, 2017 / 2:58 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago UK spring fiscal statement to be announced on March 13 - Hammond Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor Philip Hammond said he would deliver an update on his budget plans on March 13. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Hammond has previously said he would turn his autumn statement on the budget into the government’s main fiscal announcement of the year, diminishing the importance of the spring statement. Speaking to lawmakers on Wednesday, Hammond said he would use the March statement to respond to the latest forecasts by Britain’s independent budget office and to discuss ideas “around some longer-term issues and initiate consultations” ahead of the autumn 2018 budget statement. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-hammond-budget/uk-spring-fiscal-statement-to-be-announced-on-march-13-hammond-idUKKBN1E021I'|'2017-12-06T17:45:00.000+02:00'
'eb3e02603f418ea3731449c7c8df33ee2a7f9b13'|'Monsanto South America chief sees reduction in corn area'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:46 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Monsanto South America chief sees reduction in corn area Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAO PAULO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Monsanto Co believes the summer corn area in Brazil may drop between 20 and 30 percent in the 2017-2018 cycle, Rodrigo Santos, Chief Executive of South American operations, told reporters on Wednesday at an event in São Paulo. Santos said total corn area should also fall after Brazil plows its second corn crop of the year, planted after soybeans are harvested, but could not provide an estimate for the drop. An expected reduction in winter corn investments is also likely to impact that crop. “Corn buyers have expressed concern over (Brazil) corn supplies next year,” Santos said. (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Alden Bentley)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/monsanto-brazil-corn/cargills-brazil-head-says-eyes-ferrogro-rail-project-with-partners-idUSS0N1IR015'|'2017-12-06T16:22:00.000+02:00'
'3863f59f99d1fce96770c79f072b802b497d9a30'|'Investors wean themselves off oil as electric future beckons'|'December 6, 2017 / 4:14 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago Investors wean themselves off oil as electric future beckons Kit Rees , Helen Reid 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European oil shares, having been for so long the dividend darlings of income funds, are losing their pulling power as investors take another look at the long term future of energy companies focused on fossil fuels. A gas station attendant pumps fuel into a customer''s car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song A proposal by the world’s largest $1 trillion (£0.8 trillion) sovereign wealth fund to ditch its oil and gas shares because of the volatile oil price, has highlighted the risks of being exposed to a sector which analysts say is in long term decline. Investors are pulling money out of exchange traded funds (ETFs) tracking global oil and gas stocks. Net assets in oil and gas ETFs fell to their lowest in a year in November, to $21.9 billion, from a high of $24.4 billion in March, ETFGI data showed. “In the long run, we have to reassess the oil and gas sector as an ex-growth or a sector going into decline,” said Simon Webber, lead portfolio manager on the global and international equities team at Schroders, who said he was underweight in the sector. A combination of factors has put a question mark over the oil sector’s desirability as an investment, chiefly environmental considerations and ambitions for a world powered by electric vehicles. While the price of Brent crude has rallied this year to over $60 a barrel, from $27 in January 2016, the European oil & gas sector has been a notable laggard. The sector is down 3.5 percent in 2017 against a 6.5 percent gain for the pan-European STOXX 600 index. That compares with a near-23 percent gain for oil shares in 2016. Oil stocks are however, still popular for the income they generate through dividend payouts. Of the companies in the FTSE 100, BP and Royal Dutch Shell feature in the top 10 in terms of dividend yield. Currently the FTSE 100 yields 3.8 percent, while the STOXX 600 yields 3.2 percent. By comparison, Shell and BP yield around 6 percent, while the highest yielding stock in the European tech sector is Nokia at 4.2 percent. Shell recently announced it would return to paying cash dividends rather than dividends in shares, and would step up its investment in new energy which focuses on renewables. The sharp fall in oil prices in 2014 prompted oil majors to curb investment in alternative energy technology. “THE LAST HURRAH” Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s November European fund manager survey showed that oil was still the most popular sector. Though fund managers are beginning to rethink their oil exposure, they say the shift will be slow. Gary Paulin, head of institutional brokerage, EMEA and APAC at Northern Trust Capital Markets, expects another big spike in oil prices in the next two or three years. “That will be the last hurrah, however, and then it will be the greatest short for the next 20 years,” Paulin said. Fund managers said they are diversifying their portfolios and looking to a future of electric vehicles. Richard Robinson, manager of the Ashburton Global Energy Fund, has been buying battery makers in order to benefit from the demand for electric vehicles - even though he expects oil prices will continue to rise. Robinson has bought into Albemarle, Nemaska Lithium, Umicore and Clean Teq. He has increased exposure to these lithium and cobalt companies, now accounting for up to 7.6 percent of his portfolio. “It will be a while before it hurts oil demand but the growth that you see in these areas is very exciting,” Robinson said. “We want to be investing wherever energy is going, not necessarily just oil.” Robinson is typical of many investors keen to ride the first wave of a fast growing sector while not betting the farm on its success. This year a string of governments made commitments to phase out diesel and petrol engines. China, the world’s largest car market, wants electric and plug-in hybrid cars to account for at least a fifth of total vehicle sales by 2025. Morgan Stanley expects there to be more than a billion electric vehicles on the road globally by 2050, reaching about 80 percent of global sales. Liberum expects battery demand will grow 20 times by 2025. European carmakers Volkswagen and Daimler are ramping up their investment in electric cars while Tesla is cranking up production. Shares in battery maker Umicore have risen 45 percent this year and chipmakers are also among the big gainers. Northern Trust Capital Markets’ Paulin is a fan of Umicore, and has reassessed his view on miners given the high content of copper, aluminium, nickel and lithium in electric vehicles. “We’ve reached the tipping point in EV proliferation,“ Paulin said. ”We’re looking at ways of how you get exposure to that.”'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-stocks-electric/investors-wean-themselves-off-oil-as-electric-future-beckons-idUKKBN1E028E'|'2017-12-06T18:13:00.000+02:00'
'37ce21fe070825eedf60f1df34c0ff4f75635e89'|'METALS-Shanghai copper prices fall sharply on China demand jitters'|'(Adds Shanghai closing prices, updates London prices) BEIJING, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper fell more than 3 percent on Wednesday, its biggest daily plunge in more than a year, tracking a steep drop on the LME as investors wound in profits on concerns China could see a weaker first half of next year. Analysts said besides a rise in copper inventories, the selloff was fuelled by concerns about liquidity tightness in China towards the year-end, amid a government-led deleveraging push, and slowing investment in the country''s power sector, a key driver for copper. The "sluggish investment in power indicates copper demand in China may remain weak for a while," Helen Lau, an analyst at Argonaut Securities, wrote in a note, adding that she expected to see "more downward pressure" on the metal over the short term. FUNDAMENTALS * SHFE COPPER: The most-traded Shanghai Futures Exchange copper contract fell 3.8 percent in morning trade before closing down 3.1 percent at 51,410 yuan ($7,772.55) a tonne, its biggest one-day drop since November 2016. * TECHNICALS: The ShFE copper contract''s slump took it below the 200-day moving average (DMA), a technical indicator, sending a bearish signal to markets. * LME COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was trading up 0.1 percent at $6,547 a tonne by 0713 GMT, having plummeted 4.2 percent on Tuesday as inventories rose by over 10,000 tonnes. Prices saw the steepest daily drop since July 2015 in the previous session. * SUPPORT: LME copper may test support at $6,492 a tonne, a break below which could cause a loss to the next support at $6,451, according to Reuters analyst Wang Tao. * PUTS: Traders pointed to a large 3,500 strike at $6,500 in December copper put options, which could drag on prices. <0#MCUZ7+> * SELLING: Traders noted consistent buying but one said it was not sufficient to stop copper''s selling momentum which was in line with profit taking typically seen at year end. They are also wary that further weakness could spark margin calls by a large Shfe copper long. * NICKEL: Shanghai nickel closed down 3.9 percent, tracking a 4.6-percent fall on the LME in the previous session to the metal''s lowest level in nearly two months, as prices cracked below the 100-DMA, sparking more chart weakness. * ZINC: ShFE zinc ended down 2.9 percent at 24,660 yuan a tonne amid a broad base metals selloff. * ALUMINIUM: ShFE aluminium was down 2.1 percent in Shanghai, hurtling closer to the 14,000 yuan a tonne mark, and has lost over 17 percent since Sept. 20 as winter production cuts in China turned out to be less severe than expected. METALS NEWS * COPPER: Indonesia said on Tuesday it planned to acquire Rio Tinto''s, stake in the Grasberg copper mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Inc, potentially solving a drawn-out problem for all three parties. * BATTERIES: Glencore has increased production of metals used to make electric car batteries faster than its major mining rivals, according to an industry-wide analysis. PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0713 GMT Three month LME copper 6547 Most active ShFE copper 51420 Three month LME aluminium 2042 Most active ShFE aluminium 14290 Three month LME zinc 3084 Most active ShFE zinc 24655 Three month LME lead 2476.5 Most active ShFE lead 18715 Three month LME nickel 10860 Most active ShFE nickel 88000 Three month LME tin 19430 Most active ShFE tin 140720 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 832.36 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1320.69 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 268.8 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1046.52 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2923.92 ($1 = 6.6143 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Sunil Nair) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-shanghai-copper-prices-fall-sharply-on-china-demand-jitters-idUSL3N1O61IV'|'2017-12-06T07:48:00.000+02:00'
'dd051a58e42f33cdf381cf4389db227d22aa33b9'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 5'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Technology, banking and other industries mounted a new round of lobbying Monday to save a wide range of tax breaks following the last-minute switch in the federal tax overhaul by the U.S. Senate. on.wsj.com/2BzJ1fe- CVS Health Corp and Aetna Inc are attempting to create something with little precedent: an integrated healthcare enterprise that isn''t built around doctors. on.wsj.com/2Ay2ugX- Broadcom Ltd opened the next front in its $105 billion takeover bid for Qualcomm Inc saying Monday it plans to submit its own candidates to sit on its target''s board. on.wsj.com/2nrEs4j- Apple Inc released an app that will enable it to test the Apple Watch''s ability to track irregular heart rhythms as part of a study done in collaboration with Stanford University researchers. on.wsj.com/2ijqWdB- Discovery Communications Inc is taking majority control of OWN, the cable network it co-owns with Oprah Winfrey. on.wsj.com/2jfu5fy- Toys R Us Inc announced Monday its British division is seeking to restructure its real-estate portfolio under an insolvency procedure. on.wsj.com/2iS3AQjCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-5-idUSL3N1O526X'|'2017-12-05T07:44:00.000+02:00'
'b6e7c2e886a79a81a22fb130a9e07ea0bcad3f91'|'U.S. trade hits nine-month high; oil prices lift imports'|'December 5, 2017 / 2:03 PM / Updated an hour ago U.S. trade hits nine-month high; oil prices lift imports Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit increased to a nine-month high in October due to rising oil prices and the widening of America’s long-standing deficits with China and Mexico. FILE PHOTO: Semi-truck trailers are shown at the Port of Long Beach in this aerial photograph taken above Long Beach, California August 5, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The worsening trade deficit came even as exports to China and Mexico were the strongest in more than three years, which some economists said challenged the Trump administration’s argument that the United States was being disadvantaged in its dealings with trade partners. “This leaves the Trump economics team empty handed when it comes to its mission to improve the unfair terms of trade which sent factories offshore starting a couple of decades ago,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday the trade gap widened 8.6 percent to $48.7 billion (£36.2 billion), the highest level since January. The politically sensitive U.S.-China trade deficit increased 1.7 percent to $35.2 billion and the deficit with Mexico surged 15.9 percent to $6.6 billion. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the overall trade deficit rising to $47.5 billion in October. U.S. financial markets were little moved by the large trade shortfall, which was flagged in an advance report last week. Republican President Donald Trump has blamed the trade deficit for the massive loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs as well as moderate economic growth. Trump has ordered the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was signed in 1994 by the United States, Canada and Mexico. NAFTA talks have stalled, with Mexico and Canada rejecting a U.S. proposal to raise the minimum threshold for autos to 85 percent North American content from 62.5 percent as well as to require half of vehicle content to be from the United States. When adjusted for inflation, the trade deficit increased to $65.3 billion, also the largest since January, from $62.2 billion in September. The so-called real trade deficit in October was above the third-quarter average of $62.0 billion, suggesting that trade could subtract from gross domestic product in the October-December quarter. TRADE DRAG The government reported last month that trade contributed 0.43 percentage point to the economy’s 3.3 percent annualised growth pace in the third quarter. The Trump administration believes a smaller trade deficit, together with deeper tax cuts could boost annual GDP growth to 3 percent on a sustained basis. Republicans in the U.S. Congress have approved a broad package of tax cuts, including slashing the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. But the planned fiscal stimulus will come at a time when the economy is at full employment, which will boost imports and widen the trade gap. “While U.S. domestic demand will strengthen, foreign producers will supply an increased share,” said Mickey Levy, chief economist Americas and Asia at Berenberg Capital Markets in New York. “We project the U.S. trade and current account deficits will widen.” Imports of goods and services increased 1.6 percent to a record $244.6 billion in October. Goods imports were the highest since May 2014 amid a $1.5 billion increase in crude oil imports. Imported oil prices averaged $47.26 per barrel in October, the highest since August 2015. The country’s import bill was also boosted by food imports, which were the highest on record. There were also increases in imports of cellphones and other goods. Imports from China and Mexico were the highest on record in October. Exports of goods and services were unchanged at $195.9 billion in October as a surge in shipments of industrial supplies and petroleum was offset by sharp declines in and civilian aircraft exports. Exports to China hit their highest level since December 2013, while those to Mexico were the highest in three years. A separate report on Tuesday showed activity in the services sector slowed in November amid a sharp moderation in both new and export orders. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its non-manufacturing index fell to a reading of 57.4 last month from 60.1 in October. A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates an expansion in the services sector, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy. Last month, a gauge of new orders received by the services industries dropped to 58.7 from a reading of 62.8 in October. A measure of new export orders fell 3.0 points while imports rose 0.5 point. Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-trade-deficit-scales-nine-month-high-oil-prices-lift-imports-idUKKBN1DZ1Y2'|'2017-12-05T19:14:00.000+02:00'
'bfa07adc1774c5a70eadac865ea30c0bd9d76613'|'Paul Singer''s Elliott takes stake in takeover target Uniper'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Activist investor Elliott Management has taken a 5.32 percent stake in Uniper, putting pressure on Finland’s Fortum to sweeten its 8.05 billion euro ($9.51 billion) takeover offer for the German energy company.The logo of Uniper SE is seen in its booth at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The bet marks Elliott’s latest foray into Germany’s M&A arena after the fund took a stake in drugmaker Stada and successfully extracted a higher offer for the group from private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven.Elliott’s stake in Uniper comprises a voting equity stake of 2.39 percent, with a further 2.93 percent held through unspecified instruments, Uniper said on Tuesday.The stake is worth 480 million euros based on Uniper’s closing share price on Monday.The move comes ahead of plans by E.ON, Uniper’s former parent, to tender its remaining 46.65 percent stake in Uniper to Fortum for a fixed price of 22 euros per share by Jan. 11, 2018.Fortum last month submitted a bid for the whole of Uniper to comply with German takeover rules. Uniper’s management rejected the offer, saying it substantially undervalued the group and made no strategic sense.Fortum, which has a strong focus on clean technologies as opposed to Uniper’s exposure to coal- and gas-fired power plants, previously said that its primary aim was to acquire E.ON’s stake in Uniper. It has ruled out an increased offer.Fortum, 50.8-percent state-owned, was not immediately available for comment. Elliott declined to comment.Uniper’s shares closed 3.9 percent higher at 25.88 euros on Tuesday after earlier hitting 25.995 euros, their highest level since the group’s listing in September 2016.E.ON can still withdraw from its deal with Fortum but that would trigger a hefty 1.5 billion euro compensation payment, making it difficult for E.ON to pull out unless Uniper’s shares rise above 30.80 euros.E.ON, which spun off Uniper to focus on renewables, networks and power retail operations, confirmed on Tuesday it would make a final decision on the sale of the Uniper stake in January.Elliott’s strategy of pushing for higher offers in takeover situations has not always worked out. General Electric last year walked away from a 683 million euro bid for German 3D printing gear maker SLM Solutions after Elliott, which had a stake in SLM, said it would reject the bid.($1 = 0.8464 euros)Additional reporting by Tuomas Forsell in Helsinki and Maiya Keidan in London; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a-elliott-stake/uniper-says-elliotts-paul-singer-amasses-5-32-percent-stake-idINKBN1DZ290'|'2017-12-05T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'bc7194b69d1adf815b09bc028a240e25ae577b2d'|'Deutsche Boerse to use access cash for buy backs, acquisitions'|'December 5, 2017 / 1:34 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Deutsche Boerse to use access cash for buy backs, acquisitions Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse has agreed to launch a new share buy back worth roughly 200 million euros (£176.4 million), the German stock exchange operator said in a statement on Tuesday. The plaque of the Deutsche Boerse AG is pictured at the entrance of the Frankfurt stock exchange February 1, 2012. REUTERS/Alex Domanski/File Photo The programme, which Deutsche Boerse wants to complete by the end of June, will be financed with available cash resources worth 800 million euros, part of which will also be used to fund acquisitions, it said. Earlier this year, Deutsche Boerse’s planned merger with LSE Group fell apart. Former Chief Executive Carsten Kengeter said in May that big stock exchange mergers are currently off the table. Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Douglas Busvine'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-boerse-buyback/deutsche-boerse-to-use-access-cash-for-buy-backs-acquisitions-idUKKBN1DZ1V0'|'2017-12-05T15:34:00.000+02:00'
'7e5abfa0d3bb4169514f9f33262321f916d71879'|'Ford to launch 50 new vehicles in China by 2025'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) will launch 50 new vehicles in China by 2025, including 15 electrified vehicles, the U.S. firm said at an event in Shanghai on Tuesday, as it looks to rev up sales growth in the market and shift towards cleaner electric cars.FILE PHOTO: Visitors look at Ford models at Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Ford’s sales in China have been weak in recent months, and the company is scrambling to come up with electric and hybrid vehicles to comply with strict Chinese quotas over production and sales for so-called new energy vehicles, or NEVs.The U.S. automaker is undergoing a broad review of its China operations, part of a strategic re-think under new Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett, which will likely see the company focus on electric commercial vans as well as electric cars.“Between now and 2025, we will launch 50 new vehicles in China, and of those 50 new vehicles, 15 of them will be all-new electrified vehicles,” said Peter Fleet, Ford’s head of Asia Pacific, pointing to big growth in the “utility” segment.The Ford Motor Company logo is pictured at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Fleet also said Ford’s China revenue would grow by 50 percent over the same period.China is pushing automakers toward electric and hybrid petrol-electric vehicles, setting tough quotas for NEVs that come into play in 2019, and has signaled a longer-term shift away from traditional internal combustion engine cars.The major shift in the world’s largest auto market has jolted some automakers, sparking a spate of recent electric vehicle (EV) joint ventures in the market. Ford has announced an EV tie-up with China’s Anhui Zotye Automobile Co Ltd ( 000980.SZ ).“We’ve never seen change like we do today,” said Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford. “Everything is being disrupted” by the development of autonomous vehicles, trends such as ride-sharing and electric vehicles, he added.“It’s clearly the case that China will lead the world in EV development, and so we at Ford are investing enormous amounts of money both here in China and globally to bring electrification into fruition.”Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-china/ford-to-launch-50-new-vehicles-in-china-by-2025-idUSKBN1DZ0KF'|'2017-12-05T08:46:00.000+02:00'
'219c221ec811058caf26b1585d6229d535c4cc9b'|'UPDATE 1-Toll Brothers profit, revenue jump on higher demand'|'(Reuters) - U.S. luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc’s ( TOL.N ) quarterly profit and revenue missed analysts’ expectations on Tuesday as it sold homes at prices lower than its own estimates, sending the company’s shares down 8 percent in morning trading.The company said it also expects a decline in its full-year adjusted gross margin.A robust job market has supported demand for housing in the United States, but homebuilders are not fully able to take advantage of the rise in demand due to supply constraints such as higher labor and raw material costs.The company, which mainly builds single-family homes, expects fiscal 2018 adjusted gross margin of between 23.75 percent and 24.25 percent, compared with 24.80 percent this year.The homebuilder, which typically sells luxury homes that can cost upwards of $1 million, earlier this year introduced a new line of homes with lower prices and quicker delivery times to cater to millennial who are starting families.The move has boosted demand but has also weighed on the company’s average prices, that rose marginally in the fourth quarter following declines for three straight quarters.Toll Brothers, which has been building homes for half a century, forecast full-year revenue of between $6.24 billion and $7.48 billion, compared with $5.81 billion this year.FILE PHOTO: A Toll Brothers home under construction is seen in Broomfield, Colorado February 25, 2014. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo Orders, a key metric of future revenue for homebuilders, rose 14.5 percent to 1,979 homes in the three months ended Oct. 31, its slowest pace in six quarters.Toll Brothers’ average price of homes sold increased to $836,600 in the quarter from a year earlier, missing its own forecast, while the number of homes sold rose 9 percent to 2,424.Homebuilders have reported largely positive quarterly results and remained upbeat on the housing market even as the hurricanes weighed on some operations.Toll has not given any details yet, but MKM Partners analyst Megan McGrath expects the hurricanes to weigh on the homebuilder.The company’s net income rose to $191.9 million, or $1.17 per share, in the quarter, from $114.4 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier. The year-ago quarter was hit by a $121.2 million warranty charge.Revenue rose 9.3 percent to $2.03 billion.Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.19 per share and revenue of $2.08 billion,Up to Monday’s close, the company’s shares had risen 63.4 percent this year.Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toll-brothers-results/toll-brothers-profit-revenue-jump-on-higher-demand-idUSKBN1DZ1AL'|'2017-12-05T12:30:00.000+02:00'
'fef779ec4620fab4933f40c9fc123a3f94d5693e'|'Canada''s Trudeau says will keep exploring trade deal with China'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:54 PM / Updated an hour ago Canada''s Trudeau says will keep exploring trade deal with China Michael Martina 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Canada’s trade minister extended his stay in Beijing on Tuesday in a bid to salvage early talks on a free trade agreement with China, but Canada faces tough choices after the United States threatened to pull out of NAFTA. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang shake hands during a news conference meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau departed Beijing for Guangzhou after meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday, telling reporters that progress towards free trade talks would not be swift. The go-slow signal comes as Canada considers whether to launch formal talks on a free trade deal with China, which wants a trade pact similar to the ones it has with Australia and New Zealand. Trudeau’s Liberal government must weigh domestic unease at closer China ties with pressure from business interests for more access to the Chinese market. Polls show Canadians are split over the merits of a trade deal, but Canada needs to diversify exports to offset the possible damage done if U.S. President Donald Trump pulls out of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trudeau reiterated that a deal with China was not an “overnight process”. “And once we get to the stage of negotiating a trade agreement, that’s going to take years, as well,” Trudeau said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attend a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Canadian media reported that Trudeau did not win the commitment he wanted from Li on a progressive trade agenda. Li said China remained open to exploring a deal. “We have an open attitude toward the process of negotiations, and an open attitude towards their contents,” Li said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang talks to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a signing ceremony meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool While Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne had originally intended to accompany Trudeau to Guangzhou, a spokesman said the minister had made “good progress” in the last two days, and would continue working in Beijing. Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who served two tours in China, said that Trudeau “thought he had come up with something that would satisfy both constituencies and the Chinese just would not buy into it.” “And so we are left with the decision in the months ahead as to whether we want to proceed with free trade or simply continue with the existing arrangements with China, which are leading to a wider and wider trade deficit,” he said. Trudeau’s visit, which began on Sunday, comes as plane maker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ) is eager to win a breakthrough order from Chinese carriers for its CSeries jet, whose fuselage is made in China. [nL1N1NY0OW] But the chance of sealing such deals has become more cloudy after Canada encouraged Bombardier to sell a controlling stake in the CSeries programme to Airbus <SE AIR.PA> rather than a Chinese firm. [nL2N1N0028] Reporting by Michael Martina; editing by Nick Macfie and Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-canada-trade/canadas-trudeau-says-will-keep-exploring-trade-deal-with-china-idUKKBN1DZ2RD'|'2017-12-05T20:53:00.000+02:00'
'5c020280749a1865fe45b8df6993c7da13cad55a'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 5'|'December 5, 2017 / 5:47 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 5 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Broadcom Ltd is nominating 11 directors at Qualcomm Inc. Qualcomm had previously rejected Broadcom''s roughly $105 billion unsolicited offer. nyti.ms/2jf4tzj - Netflix Inc will film the sixth and final season of "House of Cards" with Robin Wright in the lead role, the company said. nyti.ms/2BJCM9g - Alphabet Inc''s YouTube said it is hiring more human reviewers to remove videos that violated its guidelines while teaching computers how to spot troublesome videos. The company plans to have 10,000 people dedicated to reviewing videos in 2018. nyti.ms/2jOPzPX - Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno will be the new president of the Eurogroup, the group that manages crises for the eurozone, a sign that the region''s officials may be ready to leave behind an era during which the euro often appeared to be on the brink of collapse. nyti.ms/2Aup5er - The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will allow payments to victims of financial crime to go forward as usual, the agency''s acting director, Mick Mulvaney, said on Monday, reversing a freeze he put in place last week. Mulvaney also said he had no interest in firing Leandra English, who had attempted to block him from taking control of the agency. nyti.ms/2BBB4G6 (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-5-idUSL3N1O5279'|'2017-12-05T07:45:00.000+02:00'
'a3cb4eecacee96f9194f537fb996e4ae8b26011d'|'RPT-China''s services sector grows at stronger pace in Nov - Caixin PMI'|'BEIJING, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Growth in China’s services sector activity picked up to a three-month high in November, buoyed by a solid rise in new business, though the rate of expansion remained moderate and weaker than the long-run trend, a private survey showed on Tuesday.A general view of the new Shanghai Free Trade Zone in Pudong district, Shanghai September 29, 2013. REUTERS/Carlos Barria The upbeat findings broadly echo those of an official gauge of the non-manufacturing sector last week that showed activity accelerated at a faster rate in November, reinforcing the view that an expected slowdown in the broader economy would be gradual.[nL3N1NZ3NH]The Caixin/Markit services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 51.9 in November, up from 51.2 in October and the highest reading since August.A reading above 50 indicates growth, and any lower signals contraction on a monthly basis.The index had plunged to 21-month low in September after hitting a three-month high in August.New business also grew at the fastest pace in three months, with survey respondents reporting sales were supported by the addition of new clients and promotional activities. Companies slightly picked up the pace of new hiring as a result.China’s leaders are counting on growth in services and consumption to rebalance their economic growth model from its heavy reliance on investment and exports.The services sector accounts for over half of the economy, with rising wages giving Chinese consumers more spending power that is being felt at home and abroad.Sales during China’s annual 24-hour shopping binge on Nov. 11, known as Singles’ Day, exceeded combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States.Alibaba ( BABA.N ), the Chinese e-commerce giant, reported its Singles’ Day sales hit $25.4 billion, smashing its own record from last year and cementing it as the world’s biggest shopping event.[nL3N1NG4YJ]Unlike the official data, the Caixin survey tends to focus more on small and mid-sized companies, which have tended to be under greater strain than their larger, state-supported peers.The Caixin survey showed service providers in China were able to pass through higher input costs to clients, as companies raised their output charges at the quickest pace since July 2015.A number of surveyed firms indicated that greater prices paid for raw materials, fuel and salaries had driven the latest upturn in overall costs.A survey of manufacturers last week also suggested input costs remained high, fueled by China’s government’s tougher pollution measures in a battle against thick winter smog.[nS7N1I3010]Mainly driven by the strong reading in the service sector, the headline Caixin China Composite PMI - which includes both manufacturing and services -- rose to 51.6 in November, compared with 51.0 in October.“The Caixin PMI readings in November showed the economy has maintained stability and there was no imminent risk of a significant decline in its growth rate. But we should be cautious because the economy may come under rising inflationary pressure at the start of next year due to continued price increases,” Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group, said in a note with the report.The world’s second-biggest economy has defied market expectations with growth of 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, supported by a construction boom and robust exports.But China’s booming industrial sector is starting to show some signs of fatigue as higher borrowing costs, a crackdown on air pollution and a cooling housing market weigh on activity.(Reporting by Lusha Zhang and Elias Glenn; Editing by Kim Coghill))LushaZhang1@thomsonreuters.com; 8610-66271276 '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-pmi-factory-caixin/chinas-services-sector-grows-at-stronger-pace-in-nov-caixin-pmi-idUSKBN1DZ062'|'2017-12-05T06:01:00.000+02:00'
'303d5fbe33efc036e1aae32f035bbf7b3dbbec6f'|'China''s warm start to winter heats up Chinese steel, mill profits'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A warm start to the winter has boosted steel prices and margins for mills in China, the world’s top producer, as the higher temperatures have allowed projects to proceed that would normally have come to a halt.FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from a chimney among houses as new high-rise residential buildings are seen under construction on a hazy day in the city centre of Tangshan, Hebei province in this February 18, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/File Photo The delay in the seasonal drop-off in demand from the construction sector has prolonged a year-long rally in steel prices and pushed profits to their highest since at least 2008.The steady demand has exacerbated a supply shortfall caused by mills in 28 Chinese cities cutting their blast furnace output by as much as 50 percent to meet air pollution targets enacted by the government to combat the smog that covers northern China during the winter.Physical spot prices for steel rebar for immediate delivery rose to 5,210 yuan ($787.72) a tonne on Tuesday, its highest since August 2008, according to steel trading platform Xiben New Line E-Commerce in Shanghai.Steel mills that produce rebar for construction use are making profits of as much as 2,000 yuan ($302.39) a tonne, though some mill are making about 1,500 yuan, said three analysts that follow the market.The higher margins are the most since at least 2008, according to Xiben steel, iron ore and coking coal data compiled by Reuters back to that year.“The construction operation rates are little changed, especially in east and southern China,” Wang Yingsheng, vice secretary general of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA), told China Metallurgical News, the association newspaper, in an interview on Monday. “Some construction sites are speeding up the pace, so demand remains robust.”To be sure, building will slow if the mercury plunges and there are growing concerns about the outlook for China’s real estate sector in 2018. However, for now, projects are pushing ahead and the mills are reaping the short-term benefits.“Some projects got delayed due to the national holiday and 19th party congress in October and now they are speeding up, lifting demand,” said Zhao Chaoyue, an analyst with Merchant Futures in Shenzhen.Chinese rebar supplies have been declining this year amid the government’s efforts to reduce overcapacity in the sector. In the first half of 2017, around 120 million tonnes of capacity were shut.Industry website Mysteel showed commercial rebar inventories dropped to 3.16 million tonnes last Thursday, down 5.6 percent from a week earlier and the lowest since early 2009.A trader in Hebei province said production cuts and robust construction have slowed supplies to a trickle. His company typically gets 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes a month of rebar from one particular mill, but it only received 100 tonnes in November.($1 = 6.6181 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Ruby Lian and Josephine Mason; Editing by Christian Schmollinger '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-pollution-steel/chinas-warm-start-to-winter-heats-up-chinese-steel-mill-profits-idINKBN1E010S'|'2017-12-06T11:44:00.000+02:00'
'9e6ff55650283f957aefce5b4cc7852265706b6f'|'Venezuela''s U.N. envoy Ramirez says removed by Maduro'|'December 5, 2017 / 5:36 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Venezuela''s U.N. envoy says he was pushed out by Maduro Alexandra Ulmer , Marianna Parraga 4 Min Read CARACAS/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuela’s powerful former oil czar Rafael Ramirez said on Tuesday he resigned from his job as U.N. envoy on orders of the president, a sign of growing rifts in the Socialist Party once firmly united under late leader Hugo Chavez. FILE PHOTO: Rafael Ramirez speaks to a reporter at the United Nations in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 20, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Ornitz/File Photo Sources told Reuters last week that leftist President Nicolas Maduro fired Ramirez, a political rival who was thought to have presidential ambitions, and summoned him back to Caracas from New York. Several close allies of Ramirez, as well as a relative, have been arrested in Venezuela in recent weeks as part of a purge in the oil sector over graft allegations, sparking questions about whether Ramirez would dare return to Caracas. Insiders say Maduro is feeling empowered after surviving major political protests this year. He is now moving to strengthen his control of the OPEC member’s crucial energy industry and sideline political rivals ahead of presidential elections in 2018. “I have been removed for my opinions,” said Ramirez via Twitter, where he posted a four-page resignation letter. He has for weeks been writing editorials on a left-wing news site that are harshly critical of Maduro and the state of the oil industry. “By attacking me personally, you are affecting the unity of the revolutionary forces and the legacy of Comandante Chavez,” he added in the letter addressed to Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, referring to Chavez, who governed Venezuela for 14 years before dying of cancer in 2013. Ramirez, a 54-year-old engineer, did not discuss his next moves in the resignation letter, but a source close to him told Reuters on Tuesday that had left the United States. His press representative did not immediately respond to request for comment. RAMIREZ’ FALL FROM GRACE The sacking caps a remarkable downfall for Ramirez, who led state oil company PDVSA and the oil ministry for a decade and was one of Chavez’ closest confidants. He oversaw vast oil nationalizations and urged workers to wear red shirts in support of Chavez’s socialist movement. Ramirez was disappointed when Chavez picked Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, as his successor, according to sources familiar with his thinking. Maduro then narrowly won an election to become president in 2013 and swiftly demoted Ramirez the following year, first to the Foreign Ministry and then to the United Nations. Since then, a protracted rivalry between the two men has increased, insiders said. Ramirez has in recent months openly criticized Venezuela’s economy, which has the world’s highest inflation and shortages of basic goods. He wrote an article that was perceived as an attack on Maduro himself, one source said. The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The government said it had appointed Samuel Moncada, a former foreign minister, as U.N. envoy. OIL PURGE Separately, state prosecutor Tarek Saab on Tuesday said Venezuela had ordered the arrests of six oil executives for their alleged role in a 2010 drilling contract with inflated prices. The announcement comes amid a months-long crackdown on alleged graft in the energy industry that has led to the arrest of some 65 former executives, including two prominent officials who used to lead both the oil ministry and PDVSA. Corruption has long plagued Venezuela, home to the world’s biggest crude reserves, but the socialist government usually blamed smear campaigns for accusations of widespread graft. Maduro has recently changed his tack, blaming “thieves” and “traitors” for the country’s crisis. PDVSA has already started an arbitration procedure against PetroSaudi, the company that leased the offshore rig in the 2010 contract, to seek damages for what it says was “poor performance.” PetroSaudi declined to comment. Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Marianna Parraga; Additional reporting by Leon Wietfeld and Andreina Aponte; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil-ramirez/venezuelas-u-n-envoy-ramirez-says-removed-by-maduro-idUSKBN1DZ2KA'|'2017-12-05T19:31:00.000+02:00'
'9e8435d1c13bcee523d82d1716b226603eb39e44'|'Indonesia plans to acquire Rio Tinto interest in Freeport Indonesia mine'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:36 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago Indonesia plans to acquire Rio Tinto interest in Freeport Indonesia mine Wilda Asmarini 4 Min Read JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia plans to acquire Rio Tinto’s 40 percent participating interest in the giant Grasberg copper mine operated by the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, the mining minister said. FILE PHOTO - A sign adorns the building where mining company Rio Tinto has their office in Perth, Western Australia, November 19, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Under a joint venture formed in 1996, Rio has a 40 percent interest in Freeport’s Grasberg contract, which entitles them to 40 percent of production above specific levels until 2021 and 40 percent of all production after 2022. Under a framework agreement announced in August, Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport said it would divest 51 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia to the Indonesian government, but the fate of Rio’s interest in the mine has been unclear. Indonesia plans in 2018 to complete the acquisition of Rio’s interest in the mine, as well as the purchase of a 51 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia by the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) and other government units, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said on Tuesday. “To achieve the 51 percent, there’s Rio Tinto’s 40 percent participating interest that will be acquired by the State-Owned Enterprise Ministry, which has been appointed by the government, along with regional-owned enterprises and (Papuan) tribes linked to the operations of PT Freeport Indonesia,” said Jonan. “Negotiations are underway and discussion of legal drafting have begun,” Jonan added, noting that the talks were being conducted by the companies along with the Ministry of Finance and SOE ministry. A 9.36 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia held by PT Indocopper Investama, which is wholly owned by Freeport McMoRan, will also be bought by the government, he said. The government expects a written agreement on the matter, along with new fiscal terms in a special mining permit, in the near-term, he said. SECOND-BIGGEST COPPER MINE An official at the SOE ministry said in late November that there was “no clear structure yet” for a deal. A Melbourne-based spokesman for Rio declined to comment. A spokesman for Freeport Indonesia also declined to comment. Budi Gunadi Sadikin, chief executive of PT Inalum, the state owned mining holding company tipped to acquire the stakes, declined to comment. A review of two decades of annual reports shows Rio’s capital expenditures on Grasberg, the world’s second-biggest copper mine, reached nearly $2 billion, while its net profit add up to just $1.7 billion. Outside of Indonesia, Rio has been expanding its exposure to copper mining. It is spending around $1 billion a year on an underground expansion to its Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia and also owns the Bingham Canyon copper mine in the United States. In Chile, Rio is a 30 percent owner of the Escondida mine, the world’s largest copper mine. BHP is the majority owner. Rio Tinto is also a partner with BHP in the proposed Resolution copper mine in Arizona, which if developed has the potential to be the biggest source of copper in the U.S. Benchmark copper prices on the London Metal Exchange dropped 2.2 percent on Tuesday to $6,674.50 per tonne. On Oct. 16, prices surged past the $7,000 per tonne mark to their highest in three years. Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Additional reporting by Cindy Silviana in JAKARTA and Jim Regan in SYDNEY; Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/indonesia-freeport-rio-tinto/indonesia-plans-to-acquire-rio-tinto-interest-in-freeport-indonesia-mine-idINKBN1DZ1AB'|'2017-12-05T07:36:00.000+02:00'
'1c438cb17f83df6d28283c956c5e74ac377179d7'|'Morning News Call - India, December 5'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:00 am: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, TRAI Secretary S.K. Gupta, Eros International CEO Jyoti Deshpande, DIPP Secretary Rajiv Aggarwal at CII Big Picture Summit in New Delhi. 10:30 am: Trade union, social sector and agriculture sector representatives to meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the first of the pre-budget meetings in New Delhi. 3:00 pm: CBEC Commissioner Sandeep Kumar to address press meet on the United Nations TIR Convention in New Delhi. 4:00 pm: Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu and Junior Commerce Minister C.R. Chaudhary at mid-term review of Foreign Trade Policy in New Delhi. INDIA TOP NEWS • India asks UK court to extradite tycoon on fraud charges India asked a London court on Monday to extradite tycoon Vijay Mallya to face fraud charges of palming off losses from his failing Kingfisher Airlines onto a state-owned bank. • Trade union sets deadline in talks over Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel deal German labour union IG Metall has given Thyssenkrupp until December 22 to agree guarantees on jobs, plants and investment if the company is to get the union''s backing for its deal with Tata Steel to merge their European steel operations. • Indian public relations firm files insolvency plea against RCom Fortuna Public Relations Pvt. Ltd has filed an insolvency petition against phone carrier Reliance Communications Ltd over a claim for unpaid dues of 4.4 million rupees, a lawyer representing the public relations firm said on Monday. • Growth, healing: New CEO faces twin tests at India''s Infosys Investors on Monday cheered the appointment of Infosys Ltd''s new chief executive, in hopes the Indian IT services firm can move past a costly boardroom spat, though questions remain over how the new boss will navigate strained corporate ties internally. • Indian oil refiners issue tanker tenders aimed at boosting domestic shipping Two of India''s state-owned oil refiners have issued tenders seeking to charter tankers for at least five years while giving preference to Indian companies, tender documents reviewed by Reuters showed, which would boost domestic shipping firms battered by slumping tanker rates. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • U.S. top court lets Trump''s latest travel ban go into full effect The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to President Donald Trump by allowing his latest travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries to go into full effect even as legal challenges continue in lower courts. • Philippines halts sale of Sanofi dengue vaccine amid health risk The Philippines has ordered French drugmaker Sanofi to stop the sale, distribution and marketing of its Dengvaxia dengue vaccine in the country after the company last week warned it could worsen the disease in some cases. • Ex-president Saleh dead after switching sides in Yemen''s civil war Veteran former president Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed in a roadside attack on Monday after switching sides in Yemen''s civil war, abandoning his Iran-aligned Houthi allies in favour of a Saudi-led coalition, foes and supporters said. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were at 10,135.00, down 0.24 percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are likely to fall in early trade ahead of a state supply of notes later today. Investors are also awaiting the Monetary Policy Committee'' decision due tomorrow. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.06 percent-7.11 percent band. • The Indian rupee will likely open a tad higher, as the dollar rally slowed amid caution the U.S. Senate now needs to reconcile the version of the tax bill it passed over the weekend with that approved by the House of Representatives GLOBAL MARKETS • The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high on Monday, with banks and retailers surging and technology companies falling as investors realigned their portfolios in hopes of benefiting from expected corporate tax cuts. • Asian shares were subdued as investors'' rotation out of technology shares took the toll on some of the region''s tech heavyweights although hopes of a major tax cut in the United States underpinned risk sentiment. • The dollar held on to modest gains against its peers, with its rise made at the week''s start slowing as the market awaited the next phase of the U.S. tax reform saga for cues. • U.S. Treasury yields dropped on Monday but remained higher than their levels late on Friday, boosted by increased confidence that the U.S. Congress would enact tax cut legislation after the Senate passed a bill early Saturday. • Oil markets rose in early Asian trade, buoyed by expectations of a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles and after last week''s deal between OPEC and other crude producers to extend output curbs. • Gold was steady, supported by a slightly weaker dollar, after falling in the previous session as proposed changes to U.S. tax rules that could lead to faster economic growth moved a step closer. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.36/64.39 December 4 -$51.89 mln -$5.28 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.13 pct Month-to-date - - Year-to-date $8.60 bln $25.73 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.37 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-december-5-idUSL3N1O51I9'|'2017-12-05T05:16:00.000+02:00'
'ada0e4b4036fb23840c85c2d013addb5142be3ca'|'BRIEF-Layne Christensen Q3 Loss Per Share $0.10 From Continuing Operations'|' 23 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago BRIEF-Layne Christensen Q3 Loss Per Share $0.10 From Continuing Operations Reuters Staff Dec 5 (Reuters) - Layne Christensen Co: * LAYNE CHRISTENSEN REPORTS FISCAL 2018 THIRD QUARTER RESULTS * Q3 LOSS PER SHARE $0.10 FROM CONTINUING OPERATIONS * - TOTAL BACKLOG WAS $172.1 MILLION AT OCTOBER 31, 2017 COMPARED TO $182.8 MILLION AT JULY 31, 2017 * - QTRLY TOTAL REVENUES $127.4 MILLION VERSUS $120.6 MILLION  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-layne-christensen-q3-loss-per-shar/brief-layne-christensen-q3-loss-per-share-0-10-from-continuing-operations-idUSASB0BWNL'|'2017-12-05T23:21:00.000+02:00'
'f47fee993cb8c5c3fc9376fec7f78ea9c42b8cf7'|'French retailers Carrefour and Fnac Darty form purchasing partnership'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:59 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago French retailers Carrefour and Fnac Darty form purchasing partnership Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French retailers Carrefour ( CARR.PA ) and Fnac Darty ( FNAC.PA ) announced a purchasing partnership for domestic appliances and consumer electronics in France, as Carrefour undertakes plans to cut costs in order to boost its earnings. The companies said the agreement would become effective for the 2018 supplier negotiations, and that Carrefour and Fnac Darty would maintain independent commercial policies. The tie-up between Carrefour and Fnac Darty follows a similar, recent partnership between Casino ( CASP.PA ) and Ocado ( OCDO.L ). Analysts have added that Amazon ( AMZN.O ), whose acquisition of U.S. upmarket food retail chain Whole Foods shook up the global supermarket sector this year, may also eye European alliances. Carrefour, the world’s largest retailer after Wal-Mart ( WMT.N ), hired Alexandre Bompard from Fnac Darty - which is France’s largest electronics retailer - in July. Bompard is expected to back a far-reaching restructuring that some analysts estimate could involve a billion euros ($1.2 billion) of cost cutting. Carrefour - which issued a profit warning in August - is due to unveil a strategy plan on Jan. 23. Investors want Bompard to boost the performance of the group’s France-based hypermarkets, a goal that has eluded several predecessors amid competition online and price discounting from rivals such as unlisted Leclerc. They also want him to catch up in terms of the digitization of the retail sector. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Mathieu Rosemain'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fnac-carrefour/french-retailers-carrefour-and-fnac-darty-form-purchasing-partnership-idUKKBN1DZ0LW'|'2017-12-05T09:07:00.000+02:00'
'8c787c1b0daff68d08b16687fc4c53435cf578e3'|'Key Oi shareholder asks judge to declare Aurelius abusive'|'SAO PAULO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Société Mondiale, an investment fund with sway over the board of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA, on Tuesday filed two petitions with the bankruptcy court overseeing the carrier’s restructuring process, asking a judge to declare key creditors “abusive.”In the petitions, Société Mondiale, a vehicle of distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure, cited a number of disparate reasons for creditors led by Aurelius Capital Management LP to be declared abusive, a designation that could lead to them being barred from restructuring proceedings.Among those reasons is that Aurelius bought debt it holds in Oi for a fraction of its face value, and is seeking to gain unusual profits from the current dispute, Societe Mondiale said. The fund also said that the Aurelius group’s attempt to put forth a plan of its own at a creditors meeting scheduled for Dec. 19, rather than deliberating on plans put forth by the board, represents a conflict of interest.“The bondholders led by Aurelius are making a hostile takeover attempt, participating in blackmail, among other measures,” Société Mondiale said in a statement after filing the documents with the court.A representative for bondholders affiliated with Aurelius declined to comment.In November, the judge overseeing the Oi bankruptcy case, the largest ever in Latin America, effectively removed Oi’s board from ongoing debt renegotiations.The petitions on Tuesday represented the second attempt by Oi’s board to regain power. Last week, Société Mondiale, which controls the board through alliances, asked Brazil’s telecommunications regulator to prohibit the company from signing any contract that would imply a transfer of control to Aurelius.Oi, which filed for bankruptcy protection a year and a half ago, is wracked by divisions between creditors, the board, and management.Aurelius is spearheading a group of creditors known as the International Bondholders Committee, which is in turn part of an alliance of funds and banks holding about 22 billion reais ($6.79 billion) of Oi’s debt.Earlier on Tuesday, a U.S. judge reiterated previous judgments, saying the fight over Oi’s future must be fought in Brazilian courts.The International Bondholders Committee has been attempting to establish jurisdiction for some restructuring proceedings in the Netherlands, which has more creditor-friendly bankruptcy law than Brazil. ($1 = 3.24 reais) (Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/key-oi-shareholder-asks-judge-to-declare-aurelius-abusive-idUSL1N1O521Z'|'2017-12-06T04:24:00.000+02:00'
'e0ec10350e89b3bc34213334ba6b2ec6c2fb5f8c'|'CVS says deal to help build Anthem''s drug benefit still on'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:33 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago CVS says deal to help build Anthem''s drug benefit still on Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - CVS Health Corp CEO Larry Merlo said on Monday that its plan to help health insurer Anthem Inc build its own pharmacy benefit management business remains in place with planning well under way, unaffected by CVS’ deal to buy Anthem rival Aetna Inc. Merlo was responding to a question on a conference call with Wall Street analysts, some of whom have wondered if CVS would lose the business because of the $69-billion deal announced on Sunday. Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/aetna-ma-cvs-health-anthem/cvs-says-deal-to-help-build-anthems-drug-benefit-still-on-idUSL1N1O40RP'|'2017-12-04T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'c2dd0ad9e577678e33605bcabb0a2cedd5cbe427'|'OPEC expects to stick to cuts in second half of 2018 - Saudi minister'|'December 4, 2017 / 8:01 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago OPEC expects to stick to cuts in second half of 2018 - Saudi minister Rania El Gamal , Stephen Kalin 3 Min Read RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Monday oil producers might start discussing in June when to raise output once the market outlook was clearer, even though OPEC was expected to continue output curbs in the second half of 2018. Saudi Arabia''s Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih listens during a news conference after an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers led by Russia have agreed to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018 to clear a global glut but have signalled a possible early exit if market overheated. Falih said in Riyadh that the expectation was that “we will not alter our course in the second half of the year,” adding that this assumed there were no unexpected developments. “However, we think that the outlook for when we will hit the balanced market will be clearer in June, and we will start thinking of what do we do in 2019,” he said when asked if he sees oil producers starting to raise output in June when OPEC is set to review the supply cuts. Russia, which this year reduced production significantly with OPEC for the first time, has been pushing for a clear message on how to exit the cuts to ensure the market does not flip into a deficit too soon, prices do not rally too fast and rival U.S. shale firms do not boost output further. Speaking at a news conference with U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Falih said the kingdom and other major oil producers had plenty of supply to respond to any sudden disruptions. “We have close to 2 million barrels (per day, bpd) of spare capacity so our ability to bring back production in case of need for global supply security goes beyond the amount of cuts we have made,” Falih said. “There will be plenty of supply to respond to any need in the market.” Under the current deal, OPEC, Russia and other producers are cutting supply by about 1.8 million bpd in an effort to drain global inventories and boost oil prices. Falih said supply from oil producers which did not take part in the pact, such as the United States, would continue to grow and would add to uncertainty about when inventories would fall. “We will wait and see it, and review it in June,” he said. Benchmark Brent crude prices have rallied above $60 per barrel, raising concerns about a further spike in U.S. shale oil output, which has been steadily climbing. Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-opec-saudi/opec-will-stick-to-policy-in-second-half-of-2018-falih-says-idUKKBN1DY0OO'|'2017-12-04T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'0097767281b6a7e30d67afccc0bc3fb0bf163db2'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 5'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Broadcom Ltd is nominating 11 directors at Qualcomm Inc. Qualcomm had previously rejected Broadcom''s roughly $105 billion unsolicited offer. nyti.ms/2jf4tzj- Netflix Inc will film the sixth and final season of "House of Cards" with Robin Wright in the lead role, the company said. nyti.ms/2BJCM9g- Alphabet Inc''s YouTube said it is hiring more human reviewers to remove videos that violated its guidelines while teaching computers how to spot troublesome videos. The company plans to have 10,000 people dedicated to reviewing videos in 2018. nyti.ms/2jOPzPX- Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno will be the new president of the Eurogroup, the group that manages crises for the eurozone, a sign that the region''s officials may be ready to leave behind an era during which the euro often appeared to be on the brink of collapse. nyti.ms/2Aup5er- The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will allow payments to victims of financial crime to go forward as usual, the agency''s acting director, Mick Mulvaney, said on Monday, reversing a freeze he put in place last week. Mulvaney also said he had no interest in firing Leandra English, who had attempted to block him from taking control of the agency. nyti.ms/2BBB4G6 (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-5-idINL3N1O5279'|'2017-12-05T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'd043585419d04d4c9feedf28ab3e4b5530669c56'|'Chinese firm rescinds takeover offer for Australia''s AWE'|'(Reuters) - Australian oil and gas producer AWE Ltd ( AWE.AX ) said on Tuesday it has received a notice from China Energy Reserve and Chemical Group Australia (CERCG) stating that it has formally withdrawn its bid to buy the company.Last week, AWE had said its initial view of the A$430 million ($327 million) offer was that it is too low.Reporting By Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-awe-m-a-china-energy-reserve/chinese-firm-rescinds-takeover-offer-for-australias-awe-idUSKBN1DY2UV'|'2017-12-05T07:18:00.000+02:00'
'5e3af7d9b05a8ff95bd3d85539f63bea6f1c62b8'|'MIDEAST - Factors to watch - December 5'|'DUBAI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Here are some factors that may affect Middle East stock markets on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified the press reports and does not vouch for their accuracy.INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL * Ex-president Saleh dead after switching sides in Yemen’s civil war* Qatari emir to attend Gulf summit despite row - foreign minister* U.S. top court lets Trump’s latest travel ban go into full effect* Trump delays announcement on whether U.S. embassy to be moved to Jerusalem* GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares muted as tech blues offset U.S. tax cut optimism* MIDEAST STOCKS-Qatar jumps on hope diplomatic dispute will be resolved* Oil prices edge up on expected drop in U.S. crude stocks* PRECIOUS- Gold holds steady amid softer dollar* Former Egypt premier says he’s “fine” and still mulling election bid* Lebanon’s Hariri to meet major powers in Paris* OPEC oil output falls in November to lowest since May* Syrian walkout from talks “an embarrassment to Russia” - oppositionEGYPT * Egypt’s non-oil business activity grows in Nov for first time in 25 months - PMI* Egypt foreign reserves rise to $36.723 bln at end-November* Egypt aims to increase wheat cultivation to 3.74 mln acresSAUDI ARABIA * Saudi private sector growth at 2-year high amid crackdown on graft -PMI* Saudi says U.S. announcement on Jerusalem to hurt peace process, heighten tensionsUNITED ARAB EMIRATES * UAE private sector growth speeds up in November, output jumps -PMI* Islamic banks lag on corporate governance -report* GEMS Education picks banks for London IPO* QATAR * Qatar raises Nov Marine crude price to highest premium since mid-2014 (Compiled by Dubai newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-factors/mideast-factors-to-watch-december-5-idINL3N1O51WW'|'2017-12-05T01:40:00.000+02:00'
'76fc8569fee246a86e4deb84bb937d1da4b1b336'|'UPDATE 1-UK''s Cineworld to buy U.S. Regal Entertainment for $3.6 bln'|'(Adds details)Dec 5 (Reuters) - Britain’s Cineworld Group Plc has agreed to buy U.S. movie theatre operator Regal Entertainment Group for $3.6 billion in cash, the companies said on Tuesday.A deal would put the combined company in a better position to take on U.S. industry leader AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc , and also give it more scale to fight growing competition from Netflix Inc, Apple Inc and other digital outlets.The deal value of $23 per Regal share represents a premium of about 12 percent to Regal’s closing price on Monday and implies an enterprise value - equity plus debt - of $5.8 billion.Regal shares have risen 13.6 percent since Reuters first reported in November that Cineworld had approached Regal over a potential deal.Cineworld said it expected the deal to “strongly” add to earnings in the first full year following completion, currently expected in the first quarter of 2018.The combined company is expected to deliver pretax benefits of $100 million, as well as additional annual benefits of $50 million, the companies said.Cineworld said it expected to fund the deal through a rights issue to raise about 1.7 billion pounds ($2.3 billion), with the rest provided by committed debt facilities and existing cash.Cineworld also expects to be able to maintain its existing dividend policy after the deal closes.$1 = 0.7449 pounds Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/regal-entnmnt-gp-ma-cineworld-group/update-1-uks-cineworld-to-buy-u-s-regal-entertainment-for-3-6-bln-idINL8N1O5161'|'2017-12-05T05:16:00.000+02:00'
'4c5e108cce15c716eddff03804b741a9ecf293f4'|'Statoil to present $5.9 billion Castberg oilfield development plan Tuesday'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:46 AM / Updated an hour ago Statoil presents $5.9 billion Castberg oilfield development plan Reuters Staff 2 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s Statoil ( STL.OL ) presented long-awaited investment plans on Tuesday for its Arctic Johan Castberg oil discovery, which is expected to cost 49 billion Norwegian crowns (4.38 billion pounds) to develop ahead of a 2022 production start-up. Norwegian oil company''s Statoil headquarters in Fornebu, Norway, June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins Statoil initially estimated a cost of more than 100 billion crowns for Castberg, making the field unprofitable at current oil prices, but had vowed to work with suppliers to reduce the investment. In June, Statoil said revised Castberg plans would be presented by the end of the year. “This makes the Johan Castberg project the biggest offshore oil and gas development to be given the go-ahead in 2017,” the company said, adding that it would be the sixth field to come on stream off the coast of northern Norway. Partners in Castberg, which is believed to hold between 450 million and 650 million barrels of oil equivalents, are Statoil with 50 percent, Italy’s Eni ( ENI.MI ) with 30 percent and Norway’s state-owned Petoro with 20 percent. As part of the announcement, engineering company Aker Solutions ( AKSOL.OL ) won a contract worth 4 billion Norwegian crowns to build subsea systems and provide design and procurement services. “The field is essential for continuous production growth on the Norwegian continental shelf for Statoil from 2022 onwards,” Danske Bank analyst Anders Holte said. “The field is one of the few remaining large developments offshore Norway and as such it’s important for the long term outlook for Statoil’s liquids production.” Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-statoil-norway/statoil-to-present-5-9-billion-castberg-oilfield-development-plan-tuesday-idUKKBN1DZ0K7'|'2017-12-05T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'9f1814473b66409f31793abbbca2927cd49dfc1a'|'Chinese investor lifts stake in Dialog Semi to over 7 percent'|'December 5, 2017 / 11:48 AM / in 7 minutes Chinese investor lifts stake in Dialog Semi to over 7 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - An investment vehicle owned by Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd, China’s top state silicon chipmaker, has raised its stake in Anglo-German Dialog Semiconductor to 7.15 percent, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. Dialog semiconductor logo is pictured at a company building in Germering near Munich, Germany August 15, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle The Chinese investor increased its holding to 5.46 million shares from 5.34 million on Nov. 30, the day Dialog shares fell by 20 percent on a report that the company’s main client, Apple, may design its own power-management chips. Reporting by Douglas Busvine and Cate Cadell; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-power-chip-dialog/chinese-investor-lifts-stake-in-dialog-semi-to-over-7-percent-idUKKBN1DZ1JP'|'2017-12-05T13:48:00.000+02:00'
'4e8f3ab8b63580f1622a1a901625ffc562c54ba6'|'Russian state fund RDIF plans to invest in Yandex taxi business'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) plans to invest in Yandex’s ( YNDX.O ) ride-sharing unit Yandex.Taxi and will partner with China’s Alibaba ( BABA.N ) in investing in other internet projects in Russia, the state fund’s CEO said on Tuesday.A taxi with the logo of Russian online taxi service Yandex Taxi drives past a terminal of the Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, Russia, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov “We will announce in the nearest future investments in the Yandex.Taxi company as well as investments in a number of our internet portals with the aim of expanding their operations abroad,” Kirill Dmitriev told Russian President Vladimir Putin.The fund plans to invest together with Alibaba in the logistical infrastructure of the Internet in Russia, Dmitriev also said, according to a transcript of the meeting published on the Kremlin’s website. He gave no details.Alibaba has recently launched its e-commerce platform Tmall in Russia as part of its popular online shopping site AliExpress.The Chinese company is also in preliminary talks with Russia’s largest electronics retailer M.video ( MVID.MM ) about possible cooperation, M.video said last month.Yandex, the “Google of Russia”, and Uber earlier agreed to combine their Russian ride-sharing businesses, with Yandex taking the bigger stake in the venture.Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-yandex-rdif/russian-state-fund-rdif-plans-to-invest-in-yandex-taxi-business-idUSKBN1DZ2EM'|'2017-12-06T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'5e4030532a320dba7274dbe13d0dd3f10f252637'|'Saudi has completed main wave of arrests in anti-graft purge, minister says'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has completed the main wave of arrests in its sweeping crackdown on corruption and is preparing to channel billions of dollars of seized funds into economic development projects, a Saudi minister said on Monday.“As far as I know, this is the case,” Minister of Commerce and Investment Majid bin Abdullah al-Qasabi told Reuters when asked whether authorities had finished taking large numbers of top officials and businessmen into custody.“Now the government will not keep its mouth shut when it sees a corrupt case. So definitely it will act. But this is -- in terms of its magnitude, in terms of scale, in terms of how, in terms of why, in terms of now, that’s it,” he said.Dozens of princes, officials and businessmen were detained last month, about 200 people questioned, and over 2,000 bank accounts frozen in the purge, which has strengthened the authority of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.Some suspects will go to court but authorities are seeking to reach financial settlements with most and said last week that the first deals had been done. Senior prince Miteb bin Abdullah, once seen as a leading contender for the throne, was freed after agreeing to pay over $1 billion, officials said.A special Ministry of Finance account has been opened to receive such funds, which the public prosecutor’s office has estimated should eventually total between $50 billion and $100 billion, Qasabi said during a visit to Washington to meet U.S. businessmen.“This money definitely will be used for housing, for the general public needs, because it is the money for the people. It will not be used for any other issue but for development projects.”The public prosecutor is expected in a few days to issue a statement on the status of the investigation, including how many people are detained and how many face legal charges, Qasabi added.Riyadh is seeking huge amounts of U.S. and foreign investment to reduce its dependence on oil exports. Qasabi conceded that U.S. businessmen were somewhat concerned by the potential impact of the crackdown on corruption.“They’re worried about if this is ... will be, the end of it or where it will stop,” he said.“But they all think this will be good for the country, because the country’s leadership stood visibly to fight corruption, and ultimately this will be a level playing field for everybody.”The economic reforms include a privatisation programme that is to raise some $300 billion. In the past 18 months, there has been little concrete progress as deals have been slowed by red tape, legal uncertainties and high asking prices for assets, foreign businessmen say.Qasabi said the programme was on track and the government, having identified sectors to be privatised, was working on the complex mechanics of asset transfers that would take place by mid-2019. Sea ports will be a major area of activity, he said.Privatisation of grain mills under the Saudi Grains Organisation is in its final phase and could be completed by mid-2018, Qasabi added.The economy has been hit hard in the past couple of years by low oil prices and government austerity measures. Authorities have promised stimulus steps and Qasabi noted they had this year increased the capital of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund, which makes soft loans to businesses.More stimulus measures are likely to be announced with the 2018 state budget, expected to be released in late December, or before then, he added. Financial incentives offered by the government could total 70 billion riyals ($18.7 billion).Qasabi chairs a programme that encourages strategic Saudi companies to expand globally in sectors such as food, logistics, pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals. The government will allocate money to help them grow by acquiring other firms locally, he said.Writing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Catherine Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-arrests-investment/saudi-has-completed-main-wave-of-arrests-in-anti-graft-purge-minister-says-idINKBN1DZ0V7'|'2017-12-05T10:42:00.000+02:00'
'e692aca0726a6854340708aec496f637a67b2b02'|'Glass Lewis recommends LSE shareholders oppose TCI motion to oust chairman'|'December 7, 2017 / 2:58 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Shareholder group Glass Lewis recommends opposing TCI motion to oust LSE chairman Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Shareholder advisory firm Glass Lewis has recommended LSE shareholders vote against a resolution by activist hedge fund TCI calling for the immediate removal of chairman Donald Brydon, it said on Thursday. Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The LSE and TCI have been engaged in a public tussle over the exchange’s handling of plans for Chief Executive Xavier Rolet to step down by the end of 2018. TCI, which has a 5 percent stake in the LSE, had accused the board of forcing Rolet out and instead demanded a meeting to remove Brydon. Glass Lewis is the second influential investor advisory group to recommend investors reject TCI’s proposals after ISS made a similar statement on Wednesday. “We see no reason to believe that the board failed to properly oversee the company during the CEO transition process or that it failed to act in the best interest of shareholders,” Glass Lewis said. “We find little evidence to support the ... claims that shareholders have lost faith in Mr Brydon as chairman,” it added. The shareholder meeting will take place at 1200 GMT on Dec. 19. A source close to TCI said the hedge fund, founded by Christopher Hohn, always expected ISS and Glass Lewis would not support them due to their corporate governance rules. The source did not expect TCI to gain sufficient backing from other shareholders to win the vote, but said it could get enough support to force Brydon out anyway. “I think a bunch of people are humming and hawing because they’re afraid it will create more problems rather than less,” said the source. TCI and LSE declined to comment on the Glass Lewis statement. The LSE board last week said it recommended shareholders reject TCI’s resolution. Reporting by Ben Martin, Carolyn Cohn and Maiya Keidan; editing by Anjuli Davies and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-tci-vote/glass-lewis-recommends-lse-shareholders-oppose-tci-motion-to-oust-chairman-idUKKBN1E121N'|'2017-12-07T16:57:00.000+02:00'
'a8546616f5993a88ba05585dfedd71b007990493'|'Russian state fund RDIF plans to invest in Yandex taxi business'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) plans to invest in Yandex’s ( YNDX.O ) ride-sharing unit Yandex.Taxi and will partner with China’s Alibaba ( BABA.N ) in investing in other internet projects in Russia, the state fund’s CEO said on Tuesday.A taxi with the logo of Russian online taxi service Yandex Taxi drives past a terminal of the Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, Russia, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov “We will announce in the nearest future investments in the Yandex.Taxi company as well as investments in a number of our internet portals with the aim of expanding their operations abroad,” Kirill Dmitriev told Russian President Vladimir Putin.The fund plans to invest together with Alibaba in the logistical infrastructure of the Internet in Russia, Dmitriev also said, according to a transcript of the meeting published on the Kremlin’s website. He gave no details.Alibaba has recently launched its e-commerce platform Tmall in Russia as part of its popular online shopping site AliExpress.The Chinese company is also in preliminary talks with Russia’s largest electronics retailer M.video ( MVID.MM ) about possible cooperation, M.video said last month.Yandex, the “Google of Russia”, and Uber earlier agreed to combine their Russian ride-sharing businesses, with Yandex taking the bigger stake in the venture.Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-russia-yandex-rdif/russian-state-fund-rdif-plans-to-invest-in-yandex-taxi-business-idINKBN1DZ2EM'|'2017-12-05T13:46:00.000+02:00'
'61add631179e482f73694bddd36b670062e2b3ca'|'Sensex declines ahead of RBI policy decision'|'(Reuters) - Indian shares edged lower on Tuesday as investors remained cautious a day before the central bank’s monetary policy decision, while tepid Asian markets also weighed on sentiment.A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, India, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files The broader NSE Nifty closed 0.09 percent lower at 10,118.25 while the benchmark BSE Sensex ended 0.2 percent lower at 32,802.44.Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-sensex-nifty-stock-markets/sensex-declines-ahead-of-rbi-policy-decision-idINKBN1DZ0IS'|'2017-12-05T08:22:00.000+02:00'
'cf48a54a85284b7e688fa888e2528fd08be2c211'|'Oil slips towards $62 in post-OPEC profit taking, US stocks in view'|'December 5, 2017 / 1:35 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Oil slips towards $62 in post-OPEC profit taking, U.S. stocks in view Alex Lawler 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil slipped towards $62 a barrel on Tuesday as investors took profits in the wake of OPEC and other producers’ pact to extend output cuts, although an expected drop in U.S. crude inventories lent support. Oil pumpjacks are seen near Aneth, Utah, U.S., October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen Crude also slipped on concerns that the OPEC-led producer group’s Nov. 30 decision to prolong their supply-cutting deal through 2018 could bolster U.S. output, which climbed to nearly 9.5 million barrels per day in September. Brent crude , the global benchmark, was down 14 cents at $62.31 a barrel by 1218 GMT, declining for a second session. U.S. crude, known as West Texas Intermediate, was down 28 cents at $57.19. “Oil prices are continuing to crumble,” said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank. “We attribute the price slide to profit taking by speculative investors, who were holding almost record-high net long positions ahead of OPEC’s meeting.” The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other non-OPEC producers last week extended the deal to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of 2018. OPEC and its allies are trying to get rid of excess oil in storage. They have made progress in this task and the latest U.S. inventory reports are likely to show a third straight weekly drop in crude stocks. [EIA/S] Analysts expect the reports from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) and the government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) to show crude stocks fell by 3.5 million barrels. The API report is out at 2130 GMT on Tuesday, followed by the government supply report on Wednesday. OPEC has shown strong compliance with the supply cut pledge and in November output fell by 300,000 bpd to its lowest since May, according to a Reuters survey. However, rising U.S. oil production presents a headwind for OPEC’s efforts and data last week showed U.S. crude output rose to nearly 9.5 million bpd in September, approaching the high of 9.63 million bpd seen in 2015. “U.S. output will play the most significant role on the supply front in 2018,” said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. “A jump above $60 in WTI could easily push U.S. production over the 10 million bpd mark, increasing the non-OPEC forecast and capping further attempts to push prices higher.” Additional Reporting by Jane Chung; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-climb-on-expected-drop-in-u-s-crude-stocks-idUKKBN1DZ05D'|'2017-12-05T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'a2109c851de9b2f614394b3010a8461ca98e1b58'|'Law firm seeks criminal case against Shell and its CEO over Nigeria deal'|'December 5, 2017 / 3:18 PM / Updated an hour ago Law firm seeks criminal case against Shell and its CEO over Nigeria deal Libby George 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A Dutch law firm has asked the public prosecutor in the Netherlands to file a case against Royal Dutch Shell, its CEO and former executives of over what it says were criminal actions relating to a 2011 oilfield purchase in Nigeria. Ben van Beurden, chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell, speaks during a news conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 15, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes The Dutch authorities are already investigating the oilfield deal, alongside Italian prosecutors, who want to take Shell and Italy’s Eni to trial over alleged corruption on the same oilfield. Shell and Eni have denied any wrongdoing. Shell said on Tuesday it did not believe there was any basis to prosecute the company or any current or former employee. Prakken d‘Oliveira, a law firm specialising in human rights cases, filed its request in September on behalf of Global Witness and other clients, asking the prosecutor to charge the Shell, as well as its Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden, former CEO Peter Voser and former Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry. Voser and Henry could not immediately be reached for comment. Barbara van Straaten, a lawyer at Prakken d‘Oliveira, said the request would push the Dutch prosecutor’s office to say if they intended to move forward with criminal charges. Campaign group Global Witness has published several reports on the 2011 deal in which Shell and Eni secured the oil prospecting licence (OPL) 245. At the time, Nigeria’s oil minister was Dan Etete. Global Witness and others say much of the $1.3 billion (£1 billion) in payments for the block did not go to the state but instead went to Etete, who has since been convicted of money laundering, and to Malabu Oil and Gas, a firm that previously held the rights. Shell said earlier this year it knew the Nigerian government would compensate Malabu using some of the money, but said the transaction was fully legal. An Italian judge is expected to decide on Dec. 20 whether to try Eni and Shell for alleged corruption in the deal. Milan prosecutors have asked for the two firms, as well as some past and present managers from the companies, including current Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, to be indicted. A Dutch anti-fraud team raided Shell’s headquarters in The Hague in 2016 as part of its investigation. Reporting by Libby George; Additional reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-nigeria/law-firm-seeks-criminal-case-against-shell-and-its-ceo-over-nigeria-deal-idUKKBN1DZ256'|'2017-12-05T18:52:00.000+02:00'
'868cdb94e601d0ee28657b486f1d8abd05c734f0'|'Lloyd Blankfein raises prospect of being replaced by co-chiefs'|'Lloyd Blankfein raises prospect of being replaced by co-chiefs Contest to succeed Goldman Sachs head is one of the most keenly watched in finance Read next Ben McLannahan in New York Experimental feature Play audio for this article Pause Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! Lloyd Blankfein has held out the prospect of being replaced by co-chief executives at Goldman Sachs , suggesting that the Wall Street bank is contemplating a break from the structure in place for the past 18 years. The contest to succeed Mr Blankfein, who has held the top spot at Goldman for over a decade, is one of the most keenly watched in finance. Last December the bank made clear its favoured candidates, appointing two senior executives from the banking and trading businesses to replace Washington-bound Gary Cohn, who had been seen as Mr Blankfein’s heir apparent. During an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday, Mr Blankfein said that the bank would not necessarily name only one person to succeed him when he steps down. That could open the door to a double act of Harvey Schwartz and David Solomon, the co-presidents and co-chief operating officers, in a return to the structure Goldman had before it went public in 1999. “Goldman Sachs as a firm has a long tradition of co-CEOs,” Mr Blankfein said, responding to a question on succession. “That can work if it works and people get along, but it doesn’t necessarily have to work. So I would say that it’s not a guarantee.” I’d say the government probably isn’t going to call me Lloyd Blankfein In the past, Mr Blankfein, 63, has dodged or laughed off questions over his future. In 2012, he noted that five of his six predecessors left the bank to accept jobs with the US government, and six died while still running the firm. “I’d say the government probably isn’t going to call me,” he said then. “So that leaves staying forever and dying at my desk.” More recently, Mr Blankfein — who also serves as chairman — has told underlings that he will be ready to stand aside once he has restored the bank’s return on equity to the mid-teens, according to people familiar with his plans. But talk of succession has become more urgent as Goldman’s returns have fallen well short of that mark, and as the bank has talked more openly about measures to pep up under-performing business lines such as fixed-income trading. There was a flurry of speculation over Mr Blankfein’s fitness for the job in 2015, too, when he underwent treatment for cancer . Other contenders include Stephen Scherr , head of Goldman’s fast-growing consumer banking arm, and Marty Chavez, the chief financial officer. Goldman’s last co-CEOs were Jon Corzine and Hank Paulson. Mr Corzine abruptly stood aside in early 1999, shortly before the 148-year-old firm abandoned its partnership structure to sell shares to the public. Mr Paulson, the sole chief executive until 2006, then served as America’s 74th Treasury secretary through the financial crisis. Reverting to a co-CEO structure could be a smart move, said Dick Bove, analyst at Vertical Group, for an “insular” bank which has struggled to replace revenues lost in recent years to structural shifts in trading and big shifts in regulation. It would be even better if Goldman brought in “new blood” from outside, he said. “The current management team is not doing the job.” Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Print this page'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/c3b54f6e-d618-11e7-8c9a-d9c0a5c8d5c9'|'2017-12-01T00:54:00.000+02:00'
'f3fa11de99fa9e8fbbdbd79840334bc96cddb637'|'Nippon Life to buy 25 percent of U.S. asset manager TCW from Carlyle'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Nippon Life Insurance Co [NPNLI.UL], Japan’s biggest private sector life insurer, has agreed to buy 24.75 percent of U.S. investment firm TCW Group Inc from U.S. asset manager Carlyle Group LP ( CG.O ), the three companies said on Friday.A man walks past a logo of Japanese life insurer Nippon Life at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo April 21, 2011. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao The three did not disclose terms of the deal in a joint statement, but a person with direct knowledge of the matter said the insurer will pay about 55 billion yen ($488.37 million). Nippon Life declined to comment on price when contacted by Reuters.The deal is part of broader push by Nippon Life and other Japanese financial institutions to build scale in asset management, which they see as a promising growth-driver amid persistently low interest rates and stricter capital regulations at home.In the statement, Nippon Life said the transaction is scheduled to close by the end of this month, pending regulatory approval.Headquartered in Los Angeles, TCW provides products in fixed income, equities, emerging markets and alternative investments. It had $191.6 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2016, with a little over 80 percent in U.S. bonds.Well-known bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach was a former TCW employee before setting up rival DoubleLine Capital LP.After Nippon Life’s investment, Carlyle will retain 31.2 percent of TCW, whose management and staff will hold 44.1 percent. Nippon Life said it will have two board seats.Japanese insurers and banks have been expressing interest in buying overseas asset managers. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc ( 8306.T ) has said it is ready to spend up to 1 trillion yen ($8.88 billion) in acquisitions.Yet many officials at Japanese companies acknowledge difficulties in asset management deals, with retention of fund managers the biggest challenge after ownership change.“It’s risky to buy asset management companies outright. What happens if fund managers leave after acquiring control,” said a president of a major banking group, who declined to be identified.“We’d be best starting with a minority stake and building it up after we gain the trust of key staff,” the executive said.($1 = 112.6200 yen)Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tcw-group-m-a-nippon-life-ins/nippon-life-says-it-will-buy-25-percent-stake-in-u-s-asset-manager-tcw-idINKBN1DV424'|'2017-12-01T04:59:00.000+02:00'
'c8ee750c40ed9c199d3e6e93d89f8b4aeecef168'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 1'|'December 1, 2017 / 5:56 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 1 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 1 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Blue Apron Holdings Inc co-founder Matt Salzberg is stepping down as chief executive and being replaced with Chief Financial Officer Brad Dickerson. nyti.ms/2BB1Xe6 - OPEC and other major oil producers wrapped up a deal on Thursday to extend output cuts through the end of 2018, part of efforts to bolster prices. nyti.ms/2BzHWVx - Matt Lauer expressed "sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused" in a statement, his first public comments after NBC News fired the star "Today" show anchor amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior with colleagues. nyti.ms/2jBxncj - Time Inc announced it had sold the Sunset magazine to Regent, a private equity firm run by a Californian. nyti.ms/2i4OQJT (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-1-idUSL3N1O12ES'|'2017-12-01T07:55:00.000+02:00'
'597912b48d480e5c5781012498114fd3a1fe43ff'|'De Mol''s Talpa to sell stake in Dutch newspaper group TMG to Mediahuis'|'(Reuters) - Talpa, the investment vehicle of Dutch tycoon John de Mol, has agreed to sell its stake in Telegraaf Media Group (TMG) ( TLGNc.AS ) to Mediahuis, TMG said on Friday.The Belgian publishing group, which also owns Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, had been engaged in lengthy battle for control of TMG with Talpa, which said in August it had decided not to pursue its takeover bid but would remain as a minority shareholder.Talpa’s decision to sell its 29.16 percent stake gives Mediahuis control of just over 90 percent of the publisher of the Netherlands’ top-selling newspaper, Thomson Reuters data shows.“This will give us some peace and quiet to concentrate fully on implementing the future plans for TMG,” TMG Chief Executive Marc Vangeel said in a statement.As part of the deal, TMG will sell its 23 percent stake in Talpa Radio Holding to Talpa, resulting in a book profit of more than 8 million euros.“It is of strategic importance to have all the shares of the radio company in our possession, which is what we were aiming for,” Talpa Chief Executive Pim Schmitz said.Mediahuis will pay 6 euros per share for the TMG stake. TMG shares closed at 5.66 euros on Friday.Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tmg-m-a-mediahaus/de-mols-talpa-to-sell-stake-in-dutch-newspaper-group-tmg-to-mediahuis-idINKBN1DV5WB'|'2017-12-01T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'd0b640a36ab9f7c72c1b0a065e9323feaf152e8d'|'Retailer McColl''s reassures on supply continuity after P&H collapse'|'Dec 4 (Reuters) - McColl’s Retail Group is in talks with its suppliers and manufacturers and has plans in place to ensure continued supplies to its stores after the collapse of Palmer & Harvey (P&H), the UK’s biggest tobacco distributor.“(We have) a contingency plan already in place to ensure continuity of supply to the around 700 newsagents and smaller convenience stores, previously supplied by P&H, within our estate of 1,611 stores,” McColl’s said on Monday.P&H, which also delivers food and drink to supermarkets and convenience stores, went into administration last week, raising the possibility of tobacco shortages across the UK.McColl’s also said that revenue for the 52 weeks to Nov. 26 rose by 19 percent after the integration of 298 acquired convenience stores. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mccolls-retail-outlook/retailer-mccolls-reassures-on-supply-continuity-after-ph-collapse-idINL3N1O42OT'|'2017-12-04T04:40:00.000+02:00'
'a6a56de146077edb422a96e02e5722e69ea624c8'|'EU to ''closely monitor'' impact of U.S. tax reform - Moscovici'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:25 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago EU to ''closely monitor'' impact of U.S. tax reform - Moscovici Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union “will closely monitor” the impact of the United States’ tax reform adopted by the Senate at the weekend to assess its impact on the U.S. deficit and on global tax rules, the EU tax commissioner said on Monday. European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici in Brussels, Belgium November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman “We don’t discuss the full right of the United States to deliver on their own tax rate, but we also have to consider what are the effects on the U.S. deficit and if there are spillover effects on the way we consider taxation at the worldwide level,” Pierre Moscovici told reporters in Brussels. “We will monitor that closely. We need to have a deep analysis,” he said, adding that the issue will be discussed on Tuesday at a regular meeting of EU finance ministers. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax-eu/eu-to-closely-monitor-impact-of-u-s-tax-reform-moscovici-idUKKBN1DY1KK'|'2017-12-04T15:25:00.000+02:00'
'832c27fe65c6fccf70ab41b37b400a2602bae9a7'|'Adidas expects big boost from soccer World Cup'|'BERLIN, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Adidas expects a big increase in sales of soccer jerseys from the 2018 World Cup in Russia helped by its sponsorship of three of the top teams, the German sportswear maker’s chief executive was Quote: d as saying on Saturday.“In football, we are the clear market leader worldwide and are sponsoring 11 teams at the World Cup next year,” Kasper Rorsted told the Rheinische Post newspaper in an interview.“Overall, I expect a big increase in Adidas jersey sales in 2018 because of the World Cup. I hope that our teams go as far as possible. After all, we are kitting out three of the favourites with Germany, Spain and Argentina.”Adidas is the official sponsor of the World Cup and has long been the top supplier of soccer shirts, shoes and balls.But at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, arch rival Nike sponsored more teams for the first time, including the hosts, and signed more of the most marketable players.Adidas has since enjoyed a big comeback, taking market share from Nike in the United States, and revamping its soccer business. It is back in the lead with the most teams sponsored at the World Cup, including hosts Russia.Nike’s top teams at the World Cup include France and Brazil, which is joint favourite with Germany to win, while sportswear firm Puma has only two sides in the tournament - Uruguay and Switzerland, down from eight in 2014.Rorsted said Adidas should not focus too much on Nike.“This is not a tennis match with two players, where only one can be victorious. We are focusing on our own business and always improving. It makes no sense to declare our main goal as beating Nike,” he said. (Reporting by Emma Thomasson; editing by Jason Neely) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/soccer-worldcup-adidas/adidas-expects-big-boost-from-soccer-world-cup-idINL8N1O208N'|'2017-12-02T08:46:00.000+02:00'
'aa92a6b6513aa6e5779cd06d387e59bc5478129d'|'US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Wall St opens lower as tech stocks fall'|'December 6, 2017 / 2:37 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Wall St opens lower as tech stocks fall Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 6 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes opened lower on Wednesday as technology stocks declined on concerns over stretched valuations and the impact of a U.S. tax reform on corporate earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11.75 points, or 0.05 percent, to 24,168.89. The S&P 500 lost 3.81 points, or 0.144891 percent, to 2,625.76. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 20.75 points, or 0.31 percent, to 6,741.46. Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-snapshot-wall-st-opens-lower-as-tech-stocks-fall-idUSL3N1O64DE'|'2017-12-06T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'30f25a8316741d25d9347210dbbad003fec924f2'|'Luxury brands lifted by EU court backing for online sales ban'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:19 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Luxury brands lifted by EU court backing for online sales ban Foo Yun Chee 4 Min Read LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Coty and other luxury brands scored a landmark victory on Wednesday in their bid to stop retailers selling their products on online platforms such as Amazon and eBay when Europe’s top court backed their right to protect their image. Rimmel cosmetics owned by Coty Brands are shown for sale in a retail store in Encinitas, California, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The issue is significant in Europe, whose companies account for 70 percent of global luxury goods sales. Luxury owners have long waged a battle against what they see as free riders cashing in on their exclusivity and branding. Online platforms such as Amazon and eBay, in turn, say online sales curbs are anti-competitive and hurt small businesses. The Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) ruling came in a case involving U.S. cosmetics maker Coty’s German subsidiary and German retailer Parfumerie Akzente, which sells Coty’s goods on sites including Amazon against the company’s wishes. A German court had sought guidance on whether banning online sales on third-party sites restricted competition. “A supplier of luxury goods can prohibit its authorised distributors from selling those goods on a third-party internet platform such as Amazon,” the ECJ said. “Such a prohibition is appropriate and does not, in principle, go beyond what is necessary to preserve the luxury image of the goods.” Coty, whose brands include Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein and Chloe, welcomed the ruling, which carries legal weight across the 28-nation EU. “After years of uncertainty, this means luxury brands can determine how they are placed on digital platforms and it is a clear ruling for the protection of luxury brands’ image, the defence of our teams’ work and the protection of consumers’ rights and information,” the company said. Rimmel cosmetics owned by Coty Brands are shown for sale in a retail store in Encinitas, California, U.S., November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Parfumerie Akzente said it meets the terms for online sales set by luxury owners. “Authorised merchants such as us may sell brand-name products on outward-visible third-party platforms, provided that we meet the conditions that are necessary and reasonable for preserving the luxury image,” Chief Executive Kai Renchen said in a statement. Amazon declined to comment. After intense lobbying by LVMH, Richemont and other luxury goods companies, EU antitrust regulators laid down rules in 2010 allowing brand owners with less than a 30 percent market share to block online retailers without a bricks-and-mortar shop from distributing their products. The issue has split EU countries, with Germany more eager to promote e-commerce. In two test cases in recent years, the German cartel office forced Adidas and Asics to drop such bans, saying online platforms are crucial for small- and medium-sized companies and consumers. The German cartel office said it expected the court’s ruling to have a limited effect on its policy, noting that its decisions had involved brand manufacturers from outside the luxury industries. “Our preliminary view is that such manufacturers have not received carte blanche to impose blanket bans on selling via platforms,” the office’s president, Andreas Mundt, said in a statement. Germany will now have to fall in line though, said a competition lawyer, who declined to be named. “This judgment sets the principles for the EU as a whole. Germany will have to align with European case law and accept this kind of restrictions unless it contradicts some conditions in competition law,” he said. The case is C-230/15 Coty Germany. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/luxury-ecommerce-eu-coty/luxury-brands-lifted-by-eu-court-backing-for-online-sales-ban-idINKBN1E01HV'|'2017-12-06T09:19:00.000+02:00'
'8847e7286b18fa6c0fa588c795d6b02cd4961878'|'Panama recalls EU ambassador over tax haven list'|' 35 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Panama recalls EU ambassador over tax haven list Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama recalled its ambassador from Brussels for consultations after the Central American country was included on a European Union blacklist of countries deemed as tax havens, the government said on Wednesday. European Union finance ministers adopted a blacklist of 17 jurisdictions deemed tax havens on Tuesday, in an unprecedented step to counter worldwide tax avoidance, although they did not agree on financial levies for the listed countries. “Given the unfortunate incorporation of the country in this discriminatory list, the Republic of Panama has decided to call its Ambassador to the European Union, Dario Chiru, to assess the steps to be followed moving forward,” the government said in a statement. The list also included American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates (UAE). Reporting by Elida Moreno, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-ecofin-tax-panama/panama-recalls-eu-ambassador-over-tax-haven-list-idUKKBN1E02MD'|'2017-12-06T20:34:00.000+02:00'
'0fcd47c3376da9d67a59d27ecb44bd667190a672'|'BUZZ-Dish TV India slides on bigger-than-expected Q2 loss'|'** Dish TV India Ltd slips as much as 2.9 pct at 78.20 rupees, its lowest since Nov 23** Co posted Sept-qtr loss of 178.7 mln rupees ($2.8 mln) on Tuesday vs analysts’ loss estimate of 92.6 mln rupees** Broadly flat ARPU compared to last qtr and higher operating expenses were key negatives in Q2 - HDFC Securities** But inexpensive valuations, synergies from merger with Videocon D2H, digitisation are positives - analysts say** Management reiterated guidance on synergy benefits from Videocon D2H merger, despite delay in approval from Ministry of Information & Broadcasting - analysts** Stock down 4.8 pct this year up to Tuesday ($1 = 64.4250 Indian rupees) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/buzz-dish-tv-india-slides-on-bigger-than/buzz-dish-tv-india-slides-on-bigger-than-expected-q2-loss-idINL3N1O61X9'|'2017-12-06T01:23:00.000+02:00'
'6822a29c09a92cbc5ea7fd05e6ad33140f437dab'|'London hails electric cabs for a fare to a "different world"'|'LONDON (Reuters) - London’s black cab has gone electric - and it’s just hit the roads.FILE PHOTO: A taxi sign on top of an electric cab belonging to the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is seen in London, Britain, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File Photo Wi-Fi, USB charging and even a sunroof are among the new features of the six-seat, battery-powered cabs, with a range extender of up to 400 miles. Fares match those of diesel predecessors, so users can go green at no additional cost.“You can see very clearly this is a London black cab,” Chris Gubbey, chief executive of the London Electric Vehicle Company, a unit of Chinese-owned Geely, told Reuters.“However, everything is new. It (has an) all-aluminium body and electric engine with range extender. But most importantly, it’s bringing clean air to London,” he said.Although the upgrade to a new set of wheels will set back cabbies about 55,000 pounds, or roughly $74,000, Gubbey says it will also save about 100 pounds on average weekly fuel costs.FILE PHOTO: An electric cab belonging to the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is seen in London, Britain, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File Photo “It’s not a step up, it’s a thousand steps up, it’s a different world,” said Pat Follen, who switched to one of the new vehicles after nearly 10 years driving older versions. “All you can hear really is the tires on the tarmac - and the wind!”FILE PHOTO: A charging port on an electric cab belonging to the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is seen in London, Britain, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File Photo The cabs come just ahead of new rules London is adopting within a few weeks for new taxis to be either hybrid or completely emission-free.More than 9,000 electric taxis, or about half the current fleet of black cabs, are expected on the capital’s roads by 2021.Gubbey’s firm hasn’t stopped at London. It plans to roll out 225 vehicles in Amsterdam as part of a transport service for the elderly and disabled. A second European location is in the pipeline, Gubbey added.The company, formerly known as the London Taxi Company, expects to sell 10,000 vehicles a year by the turn of the decade, half of them outside Britain.Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Nick Macfie '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-electric-taxi/london-hails-electric-cabs-for-a-fare-to-a-different-world-idUSKBN1E00E0'|'2017-12-06T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'374893f720c6617781c09b41049042677a131d1d'|'U.S. asset manager Federated Investors considers bid for UK''s Hermes: source'|'LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. fund manager Federated Investors ( FII.N ) is considering a bid for Britain’s Hermes Investment Management, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.Active asset managers are under pressure from index-tracking passive funds, which charge lower fees, and there are other possible bidders for Hermes, which has nearly 31 billion pounds ($41 billion) in assets under management, include Australian fund manager Challenger ( CGF.AX ) and U.S. firms Old Mutual Asset Management ( OMAM.N ) and Eaton Vance ( EV.N ), the source added.Investors expect more consolidation after deals including U.S. manager Janus merging with Henderson and a tie-up between Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based Federated had $364 billion under management as of Sept. 30. It is best known for its money market funds, but lately has emphasized other products.Hermes’ biggest client is the pension fund of British telecoms company BT Group ( BT.L ) and Federated’s interest was reported earlier by Sky News.Hermes, Eaton Vance and Federated Investors declined to comment, while Challenger could not be reached for comment outside of office hours and Old Mutual Asset Management did not immediately respond to request for comment.Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Simon Jessop in London and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by John O''Donnell/Mark Potter/Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hermes-m-a-federatedinvestors/u-s-asset-manager-federated-investors-considers-bid-for-uks-hermes-source-idINKBN1E02DD'|'2017-12-06T14:10:00.000+02:00'
'06be6e2495fdde55da1f1be0fa3409769c9f0fd6'|'T-Mobile board approves up to $1.5 billion buyback program'|'(Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ) said its board approved the U.S. wireless carrier’s first-ever buyback program, a month after the company and rival Sprint Corp ( S.N ) ended their deal talks.FILE PHOTO: A T-Mobile logo is advertised on a building sign in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Deutsche Telekom AG ( DTEGn.DE ), which holds over 60 percent in T-Mobile, also plans to purchase additional shares, T-Mobile said on Wednesday.The buyback of up to $1.5 billion of shares would start from Thursday and take place through Dec. 31, 2018, T-Mobile said.“Coming off the Sprint deal with significant shareholder rotation happening, we think that we have a tremendous value here,” CFO Braxton Carter said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Wednesday.Combined with Deutsche Telekom’s planned repurchases, the program could approach the $2 billion level, Carter said.“(Deutsche Telekom) is finalizing plans right now,” Carter said.Through the buyback, Deutsche Telekom aims to hold its stake broadly steady, within a range of 1-2 percentage points, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.The issue of control was one of several deal-breakers in the T-Mobile-Sprint talks and the buyback would strengthen Deutsche Telekom’s hand in any future merger talks.Carter also said the company was focused on smaller, “tuck-in” acquisitions. “We think there’s a lot of potential out there,” he said. “That would be another use of cash.”T-Mobile’s shares were up 1.3 percent at $61.73.Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru, Anjali Athavaley in New York and Douglas Busvine in Frankfurt; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-t-mobile-buyback/t-mobile-board-approves-up-to-1-5-billion-buyback-program-idUSKBN1E01RX'|'2017-12-06T15:21:00.000+02:00'
'a8293839daf15616698a7fa89f6b8afea4151e05'|'U.S. Comptroller halts plan to remove in-house bank examiners'|'December 6, 2017 / 6:44 PM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. Comptroller halts plan to remove in-house bank examiners Pete Schroeder 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bank examiners can continue working inside the banks they supervise, U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting said on Wednesday, in a policy reversal for the U.S. banking regulator. FILE PHOTO - Joseph M. Otting speaks after being sworn in as Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, U.S., November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts Otting said he was stopping a project begun by his predecessor to move examiners out of large institutions like JPMorgan Chase( JPM.N ) and Bank of America( BAC.N ), citing costs of independent real estate. In a statement, Otting said the regulator would instead seek other approaches to ensure examiners did not become overly sympathetic to the banks they regulated. The policy shift marked the latest example of the Trump administration reversing efforts by former President Barack Obama aimed at stricter oversight of large financial institutions following the global financial crisis. ”Upon review, it is not practical to continue the agency’s efforts to move resident examiners out of on-site locations,“ he said. ”The agency will continue to review its locations and real estate strategy to ensure they support the agency’s mission in the most operationally and cost effective manner possible.” Otting said the OCC would focus on enhancing employee supervision, expand the ranks of its lead experts, and more frequently rotate examiners into different institutions. The policy shift was first reported by Bloomberg. Otting, a former banker who was sworn in as head of the OCC in November, is shifting gears from a project begun by his predecessor, Thomas Curry. Beginning in 2014, the OCC looked into reducing the number of examiners it housed within large banks, in an effort to bolster their independence as supervisors. Most in-house examiners still remain. Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-banks-occ/u-s-comptroller-halts-plan-to-remove-in-house-bank-examiners-idUSKBN1E02N3'|'2017-12-06T20:43:00.000+02:00'
'fcf388690d32ae39f109ab7338d487f3077a25f4'|'Ex-BT Italy boss wins $2 million for wrongful dismissal: sources'|'MILAN (Reuters) - A manager at the center of investigations into an accounting scandal at British Telecom’s Italian business has been awarded almost 1.8 million euros ($2.1 million) in damages for wrongful dismissal, three legal sources said on Wednesday.The logo of BT is seen outside the headquarters in Milan, Italy January 24, 2017. REUTERS/ Stefano Rellandini Gianluca Cimini was fired for disciplinary reasons last year, months before the phone company filed a criminal complaint accusing him of grave violations of corporate governance. The accusations arose from its investigation of alleged accounting fraud that cost the firm 530 million pounds ($690 million).An Italian labor tribunal ruled that the manager’s dismissal was both “illegitimate” and “unfounded”, one source said, quoting the judge’s summary of his decision.Full reasons for the ruling will be issued within 15 days.“We’re extremely disappointed with this decision,” a BT spokesman said in an email, adding that the firm would not comment further until the full judgment was available.Cimini, formerly BT Italy CEO, and several other former top managers remain under investigation by Italian prosecutors on allegations of alleged fraud. The civil case involving Cimini is separate from the criminal investigation.All the accused have always denied any wrongdoing.Cimini’s lawyer, Angelo Zambelli, confirmed the wrongful dismissal ruling.“That’s a courageous sentence which leaves us fully satisfied and which I believe will reinstate Mr Cimini’s reputation and professional decorum that was taken away from him a year ago,” Zambelli said.The accounting scandal surfaced late last year when BT Group said it had discovered financial irregularities at its Italy unit. In January, it characterized it as improper accounting and took a write-down of around 530 million pounds.BT first suspended and later fired Cimini and some other managers late last year after an internal inquiry into bullying.In the criminal complaint filed in March, BT accused several former Italy executives, including Cimini, and other employees of breaking company rules and unlawful conduct.In Cimini’s case, BT alleges he was responsible for breaking corporate governance rules in relation to contracts and suppliers, and for using intimidatory behavior when dealing with staff.($1 = 0.8480 euros)Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Mark Bendeich '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bt-italy-dismissal/ex-bt-italy-boss-wins-2-million-for-wrongful-dismissal-sources-idUSKBN1E02RV'|'2017-12-07T03:33:00.000+02:00'
'63d4ea492f322b5917a3c9b7fae2d19690d46929'|'Bridgepoint raises $6.5 billion for Europe fund, exceeding target - source'|'December 6, 2017 / 10:12 AM / Updated an hour ago Bridgepoint raises $6.5 billion for Europe fund, exceeding target - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British private equity firm Bridgepoint , which owns fastfood chain Pret a Manger, has raised 5.5 billion euros (£4.9 billion) for European investment, exceeding its 5 billion euro target, a source familiar with the matter said. The raising of its sixth European fund had been scheduled to start in early 2018 but has already been fully allocated, the source said on Wednesday. Since the financial crisis almost a decade ago, low-interest rates and cheap debt have boosted capital piling into private equity funds by investors looking for higher returns. But rising valuations have made it harder to achieve high returns so much of the money sits idle. A record $954 billion globally, according to industry data provider Preqin. Prior to this its most recent fund was Bridgepoint Europe V, a 4-billion-euro middle-market buyout fund, raised in 2015, that acquires European-headquartered companies valued up to 1 billion euros. Sources expect the firm, which was spun out of Natwest bank in 2000, to list sandwich and coffee shop chain Pret a Manger in New York next year. In November the firm agreed to buy Britain’s Burger King franchise with 74 restaurants and prior to that British Miller Homes at a time when some private equity firms are discouraged by Britain’s looming exit from the European Union. ($1 = 0.8465 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bridgepoint-fund/bridgepoint-raises-6-5-billion-for-europe-fund-exceeding-target-source-idUKKBN1E015D'|'2017-12-06T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'268189fffaa839421a861337e8962746c4aa5bd2'|'easyJet takes on Lufthansa with German domestic routes from January'|'December 6, 2017 / 7:10 AM / in 31 minutes easyJet takes on Lufthansa with German domestic routes Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Britain’s easyJet will start competing with Lufthansa’s airlines on domestic German routes from Berlin next month, following its planned takeover of parts of insolvent Air Berlin, it said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: An EasyJet passenger aircraft makes its final approach for landing at Gatwick Airport in southern England, Britain, October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The budget carrier currently flies from Berlin Schoenefeld airport to destinations outside of Germany, but the Air Berlin deal will see it move into the larger inner-city Tegel airport, previously home to Air Berlin. Along with four domestic routes to Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart, easyJet will also start flying from Tegel to 15 international destinations, including Zurich, Vienna, Paris Charles de Gaulle and holiday destinations including Mallorca, from January 5. The British carrier said it plans more routes from Tegel for the summer flying season, which begins in late March. EasyJet will therefore go head to head with Lufthansa’s airlines in competition for German business customers. “We believe our flight plan from Tegel will be of particular interest to business customers,” easyJet Europe managing director Thomas Haagensen said in a statement. However, the added competition may also relieve pressure on Lufthansa, which has faced concerns over its dominance in Germany following the collapse of Air Berlin. Lufthansa is having to offer concessions in order to win EU approval for its planned purchase of Air Berlin units Niki and LGW, with CEO Carsten Spohr saying this week Lufthansa will take on Niki virtually without take-off and landing slots if necessary. Ryanair didn’t bid for Air Berlin and also suspended its sole German domestic route after a pilot rostering problem but it too is set to expand in Germany. It is prepared to take over slots at Tegel and base nine aircraft there, which will enable it to almost double its annual passenger numbers at Tegel to 10 million, it said last week. EasyJet will take over from Air Berlin as the market leader in Berlin though, and has said the Air Berlin deal will see it grow to 16 million passengers in the German capital from 5.8 million. It is having to lease crewed planes at first for Tegel while it invests in training crews and refitting planes, which it has said involve costs of around 100 million pounds in its current financial year. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; editing by Ludwig Burger and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-easyjet-germany/easyjet-takes-on-lufthansa-with-german-domestic-routes-from-january-idUKKBN1E00LY'|'2017-12-06T09:10:00.000+02:00'
'f8dfcee2d8bc89caa188517245a7d536a6fc0ebb'|'ITER nuclear fusion project faces delay over Trump budget cuts'|'December 6, 2017 / 3:58 PM / in 4 minutes ITER nuclear fusion project faces delay over Trump budget cuts Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - ITER, an international project to build a prototype nuclear fusion reactor in southern France, said it is facing delays if the Trump administration does not reconsider budget cuts. ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot, in Washington for talks with the U.S. administration, said the U.S. contribution had been cut from a planned $105 million (£78.5 million) to $50 million this year and its 2018 contribution from a planned $120 million to $63 million. The United States has already spent about $1 billion on the prototype reactor and was scheduled to contribute up to another $1.5 billion through 2025, when the experimental fusion reactor is scheduled to run a first operational test. “If we do not respect deadlines (for the first operational test) in the beginning, we cannot respect them in the end,” Bigot told Reuters in a telephone interview. Bigot said that following a letter from French President Emmanuel Macron to President Donald Trump in August, Trump had asked his administration to reconsider the issue. “We hope for a decision this weekend or this week,” he said. The seven partners in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) - Europe, United States, China, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea - launched the project 10 years ago but it has experienced years of delays and budget overruns. It is now halfway towards the first test of its super-heated plasma by 2025 and first full-power fusion by 2035. Earlier this year, ITER’s total budget was revised upwards from 18 to 22 billion euros ($21-26 billion). Unlike existing fission reactors, which produce energy by splitting atoms, ITER would generate power by combining atoms in a process similar to the nuclear fusion that produces the energy of the sun. ITER says fusion will not produce nuclear waste like fission and will be much safer to operate. But the challenges of replicating the sun’s fusion process on earth are enormous and critics say that it remains unclear whether the technology will work and can eventually be commercially viable. Reporting by Geert De Clercq. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nuclearpower-fusion-project/iter-nuclear-fusion-project-faces-delay-over-trump-budget-cuts-idUKKBN1E026J'|'2017-12-06T17:57:00.000+02:00'
'37a8e3086daf44d71ff2fc6a170f4b89001f893b'|'Earnings focus drives violent stock swings, creating opportunities'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Shares reacted much more violently than usual to surprises in company results in the latest quarterly reporting season as investors put a laser-like focus on earnings, generously rewarding winners but mercilessly punishing laggards.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 8, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/Files It’s a phenomenon that runs counter to the generally depressed levels of volatility at the stock index level, and presents opportunities for investors in derivatives trading as well as in traditional stock-picking.Stock markets around the world have surged to a succession of record highs this year, but, far from a rising tide lifting all boats, the gap between winners and losers is widening.Earnings day price moves have been the most extreme on record, Goldman Sachs strategists said, with stocks notching up 3.6 times the average daily move after results.The sharp swings show investors are focusing strongly on individual company performance and underline the crucial importance of strong earnings.“We have something like record low index volatility, but individual stock volatility is not low at all and we have seen a spike up in individual stock vol(atility),” Luke Ellis, CEO of Man Group, told Reuters at an investment summit.The stock market’s verdict on individual companies differed sharply, providing a “fantastic opportunity” for stock pickers to beat the index, he said.This results season has seen blue-chip companies like General Electric in the United States sink 13 percent, while European investors punished both EDF and Burberry to the tune of one-tenth of their market value and Nokia by 18 percent on earnings day.Companies with strong earnings have also been rewarded more than usual, correcting the negative skew seen last quarter where earnings misses were punished more severely than beats were celebrated.“If the big move is coming from earnings then it’s telling you there’s a lot of exuberance about earnings growing,” said Amit Khanna, head of equity research at QuantInsight.“And if that’s not the case and a company misses, you will have a lot of disappointment.”As Eric Moore, income fund manager at Miton Group put it: “When companies disappoint they’re getting properly spanked. The market is in an unforgiving mood.”HEIGHTENED SENSITIVITY Part of investors’ heightened sensitivity is because earnings have been the driving force behind stock markets’ stellar gains this year - and are expected to drive risk appetite through 2018.“2018 is going to be a perfectly decent year for risk assets, on the assumption we get another decent year of profit growth,” Standard Life’s head of global strategy, Andrew Milligan, told Reuters last week. “Profits are still the be-all and end-all for the coming year.”The majority of returns in equities this year have been driven by earnings rather than by the value of a company growing through improved performance, Credit Suisse figures showed.In Europe year-to-date, gains have been almost entirely earnings-led - with 85 percent of returns driven by growth in earnings per share. In emerging markets that figure is 70 percent while the United States owes 50 percent of its returns to earnings, the Credit Suisse figures show.FILE PHOTO: Traders react at the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Knowing that returns are so highly dependent on companies’ bottom line, investors have been ruthless. While the shares of tantalisingly fast-growing companies have skyrocketed this year, investors’ patience with mediocre results has run thin.The phenomenon could also be linked to investors piling into equities, NN Investment Partners CIO Valentijn van Niewenhuijzen said.Global investors’ allocation to equities rose to a net 49 percent overweight in November, the highest since April 2015, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s (BAML) fund manager survey showed.Higher stock volatility has not translated into greater average index volatility, partly because the large earnings-day moves were often corrected the following day.“Investors have been very, very quick to buy the dip and that’s equivalent to fading the volatility spikes, which therefore have not been very long-lived,” said Abhinandan Deb, EMEA head of equity derivatives at BAML.Confidence in the underlying economic growth driving the market put the brakes on any drawn-out sell-offs in stocks.All of this adds up to a perfect environment for stock-picking, a boon for active managers fighting to win back flows which have been pouring into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other passive vehicles this year.“The opportunity set for making money from stock-picking is higher than it’s been before,” said Deb.SIGN OF STRAIN? Goldman Sachs strategists, who observed this pattern in Europe and the United States, said skittishness in stocks on earnings days, combined with generally calmer moves outside of results, was a sign of increased uncertainty under the surface.Data from the bank’s U.S. strategists shows a rise in single stock volatility is generally associated with a decline in equity returns.“While they do not believe this is a reason to sell the market (or buy VIX (the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index)) it is certainly a trend to be monitoring closely,” Goldman strategists wrote.Rather than worrying about volatility affecting returns, some investors have taken advantage of the phenomenon to reap returns in derivatives markets.Investors piled into a “dispersion trade” this year, buying stock volatility and selling index volatility. This relative trade bets on stock correlations falling while hedging against the possibility that volatility might remain low.“This strategy has been very popular this year, with strong volumes traded on the EuroSTOXX 50 and the S&P 500 by hedge funds and asset managers,” said Kokou Agbo-Bloua, global head of flow strategy at Societe Generale.It is also a less costly strategy than being outright long volatility, Agbo-Bloua added.As market volatility starts to show signs of life, investment vehicles tracking lower volatility stocks have also been performing better. Fidelity’s low volatility factor ETF made its strongest gains in nine months in November.“In a rising volatility environment, there is likely to be demand for low volatility assets (which become scarcer),” Goldman strategists said.Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-stocks-reactions/earnings-focus-drives-violent-stock-swings-creating-opportunities-idINKBN1DZ0TU'|'2017-12-05T10:30:00.000+02:00'
'37877ace499a97436857bfe358987a0fbcfde8c0'|'Russia''s Promsvyazbank says it sold asset worth 8 billion roubles'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:58 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Russia''s Promsvyazbank says it sold asset worth 8 billion roubles Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Promsvyazbank (PSB), one of Russia’s biggest private lenders, said on Tuesday its N1.1 capital ratio was expected to reach 7.4 pct as of January 1, 2018 after it sold an asset worth 8 billion roubles (101.41 million pounds). A man speaks on the phone near pigeons, with a branch of Promsvyazbank seen in the background, in Moscow, Russia, August 19, 2015. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev The bank did not disclose the name of the buyer. The bank’s chairman Dmitry Ananyev told Reuters in an interview the bank planned to sell some non-performing assets which together with its usual banking business should allow it to earn 8 billion-9 billion roubles for the October-November period to increase its capital ratio. writing by Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Christian Lowe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-banks-promsvyazbank/russias-promsvyazbank-says-it-sold-asset-worth-8-billion-roubles-idUKKBN1DZ0LL'|'2017-12-05T08:57:00.000+02:00'
'3d664fdb774cf62d10ba631e3d5df0cc888b9efe'|'Euro zone businesses had bumper November, sprinting to year-end - PMI'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:10 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Euro zone businesses sprinting to year-end after busy November Jonathan Cable 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Business activity across the euro zone looks set to end 2017 on a high note after a busy November, according to a survey giving the latest evidence the bloc’s economy was a star performer this year. The famous skyline with its banking district is pictured in Frankfurt early evening April 13, 2015. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Growth accelerated last month as firms struggled to meet booming demand -- in stark contrast to Britain, where the dominant services sector lost some momentum as firms worry about what leaving the European Union will mean for them. GB/PMIS “It confirms that the euro zone economy remains in rude health and the final quarter of the year is going to be very strong. We see a lot of momentum,” said Angel Talavera at Oxford Economics. Forward-looking indicators in the survey suggest the momentum will be maintained this month. IHS Markit’s final composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for the euro zone, seen as a good guide to growth, was confirmed at an earlier flash reading of 57.5, up from October’s 56.0. The PMI scaled its highest level since April 2011 and was comfortably above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. In less upbeat data, euro zone retail sales fell more than expected in October, official data showed on Tuesday. “Warm weather weighed on clothing sales and therefore overall retail sales in October, but November’s rise in consumer confidence to a 16-year high suggests that sales growth rebounded last month,” said Stephen Brown at Capital Economics. Growth in Germany’s services sector slowed a little last month, PMIs showed, but remained solid, while booming growth in France led firms to step up hiring to the fastest pace in 16 years. Italy’s services sector growth accelerated after slowing for three months, boosting prospects for continued expansion in the euro zone’s third-largest economy, although Spain’s grew at a slightly slower pace than a month earlier. “There is a synchronised upturn in the euro zone -- it is not just a German story or core versus periphery,” Talavera said. But Britain’s IHS Markit/CIPS services PMI, spanning businesses from hotels to hairdressers, slumped to 53.8 in November from October’s 55.6. “Political uncertainty and the consumer slowdown will continue to keep a lid on growth next year, even if there are some positive Brexit steps over coming weeks,” said James Smith at ING. Hopes for a deal on the so-called Brexit divorce deal with the European Union was thwarted by Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) over border concerns on Monday. BUMPER GROWTH A euro zone indicator measuring new orders climbed to 57.3 last month from 56.6, a level not seen in almost seven years. As firms struggled to fulfil that demand -- despite increasing headcount sharply -- backlogs of work were built up at rates not seen in over a decade. IHS Markit said the data were consistent with fourth quarter economic growth of 0.8 percent for the euro zone, faster than many of its peers and more optimistic than the 0.6 percent predicted by a Reuters poll last week. A PMI covering the bloc’s dominant service industry soared to a six-month high of 56.2 from October’s 55.0. That upturn coincided with firms raising prices at one of the steepest rates this year. The output price index held steady at October’s 52.1. Signs of stronger pricing pressures, alongside robust growth, will be welcomed by the European Central Bank which has struggled for years to get inflation anywhere close to its near 2 percent target ceiling. Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-pmi/euro-zone-businesses-had-bumper-november-sprinting-to-year-end-pmi-idUKKBN1DZ16W'|'2017-12-05T12:14:00.000+02:00'
'10b08ed6ec4ca51fbc7ecbd3ed54e4b5d4d37f04'|'Europe''s exchanges keep research buzz alive for small companies'|' 08 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Europe''s exchanges keep research buzz alive for small companies Simon Jessop , Dasha Afanasieva 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European stock exchanges expect it to be harder for smaller companies to create a buzz among investors when brokers produce fewer research notes after new rules come into force next year. FILE PHOTO: Traders work at their desks in a trading room at the stock market operator Euronext headquarters in La Defense business and financial district in Courbevoie near Paris, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Some exchanges are so worried about the impact on trading they are offering to pay for the research. Others are pushing companies to pay the bill themselves. Investors often use analysis on a company to decide when to buy or sell a stock. But asset managers are expected to reduce their research budgets when the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II goes live in January. With a shrinking pot of money to pay for analysis, brokers are cutting their teams and reducing coverage of the smallest companies. “The less research coverage you have, the less trading liquidity you get on the back of it,” said Christian Edelmann, global head corporate & institutional banking and wealth & asset management at consultants Oliver Wyman. The region’s biggest exchange, Euronext, already provides free research for some companies, but said it may expand the service to others. Deutsche Boerse launched a new index for smaller companies earlier this year that provides a basic level of research for all the firms, paid for out of listing fees. Borsa Italiana plans to require all small firms listing after January to pay for their own research. Coverage of smaller companies has always been patchy and a spokesman for the EU markets regulator the European Securities and Markets Authority said there was “little evidence that the new rules would negatively impact SMEs”. TRANSPARENCY The exchanges disagree. “We looked at MiFID II and took soundings from the market. They told us that the situation for small and medium-sized companies was getting worse, regarding research,” Renata Bandov, Head of Listing at Deutsche Boerse, said. “They (the companies) need investors and investors need information... it’s really important that you have transparency for investors.” It could become harder to float small companies without the promise of research to help trading after a listing, said Brian Schwieger, head of equities at the London Stock Exchange. This could also mean that companies turn to a growing pool of private equity and venture capital funds as an alternative to listing on a stock exchange. Deutsche Boerse in March this year to launch a new listing segment - Scale - for small and medium-sized enterprises. It provides a basic level of research for all firms paid for out of listing fees. Each company in Scale gets publicly available reports upon listing plus periodic reports afterwards. Listing fees are a basic fee of 20,000 euros (17,640 pounds) plus an extra fee of 10,000-50,000 based on the company’s market capitalisation. The exchange has had four IPOs since March, to add to the 49 companies at Scale’s launch. For all of the companies, which average 200 million euros in size, trading liquidity has improved, Bandov said. The move by Deutsche Boerse follows similar action at Euronext three years ago, where the exchange decided to pay for research for smaller tech and family-owned businesses, which make up a large number of companies on the exchange. It pays for research for 430 companies, but is considering expanding coverage to other companies in light of MiFID II, although no decision has yet been reached, Eric Forest, head of French listings at Euronext, said. He expects more companies to pay for extra research as a way to gain access to investors. “The paying model will probably become, very, very quickly, the most-used model by small and mid-sized companies. They will have to pay to be covered by brokers in terms of equity research,” Forest said. Borsa Italiana, part of the London Stock Exchange Group, said any company listing after January would have to do just that. Barbara Lunghi, head of Primary Markets Borsa Italiana, said the new rules would likely mean that firms employ a specialist broker for research. RETAIL INVESTORS VULNERABLE Fund managers are also concerned that the new rules will leave some companies without any research coverage. Toscafund recently wrote to companies it invests in urging them to pay for research themselves in an effort to forestall a potentially “devastating” drop in coverage. Larry Fink, chief executive of the world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, is also worried about the ability of smaller companies to attract a following by investors. Thomson Reuters data shows 1,119 European Union companies worth under $1 billion with a free-float of at least 25 percent have no analyst coverage. That covers 64 corporate sectors but excludes investment funds and holding companies. Metals and mining, machinery, software, and oil, gas and consumable fuels had the highest levels of companies without research coverage. Luke Ellis, chief executive at hedge fund firm Man Group, said the new rules could also punish less-experienced retail investors. “Is the transparency about what’s going on in small and mid-cap stocks going to get materially worse? Yes. Is it going to create some inherently false markets which will hurt some inexperienced investors? Yes,” he said at Reuters recent Investment Summit in November Additional reporting by Helen Reid; editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-companies-research/europes-exchanges-keep-research-buzz-alive-for-small-companies-idUKKBN1E00LN'|'2017-12-06T09:08:00.000+02:00'
'6d8457661787289d1d6a6d5fa8369e6b526315bd'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. slaps duties on Vietnamese steel originating from China'|'December 5, 2017 / 11:00 PM / Updated an hour ago U.S. slaps duties on Vietnamese steel originating from China David Lawder 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday slapped steep import duties on steel products from Vietnam that originated in China after finding they evaded U.S. anti-dumping and anti-subsidy orders. The decision marked a victory for U.S. steelmakers, who won anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties against Chinese steel in 2015 and 2016 only to see shipments flood in from elsewhere. The industry has argued that Chinese products are being diverted to third countries to circumvent the duties. The Commerce Department said it would apply the same Chinese anti-dumping and anti-subsidy rates on corrosion-resistant and cold-rolled steel from Vietnam that starts out as Chinese-made hot-rolled steel. Although the product was processed in Vietnam to be made corrosion resistant or cold-rolled for use in autos or appliances, the Commerce Department agreed with the claims of American producers that as much as 90 percent of the product’s value originated from China. The global steel industry is struggling with a glut of excess production capacity, much of it located in China, that has pushed down prices. A G20 forum last week failed to make significant progress toward a solution amid divisions between Beijing and Washington. The Vietnamese-shipped cold-rolled steel will face combined preliminary U.S. anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties of 531 percent, while the corrosion-resistant steel will face combined duties of 238 percent - more than high enough to shut both products out of the U.S market. Final duties are expected to be announced on Feb. 16. The decision followed a European Union finding in November that steel shipments from Vietnam into the EU also circumvented tariffs. The Commerce Department said that after anti-dumping duties were imposed on Chinese steel products in 2015, shipments of cold-rolled steel from Vietnam into the United States shot up to $295 million annually from $11 million. The case stems from a petition filed in September by U.S. producers ArcelorMittal USA ( MT.AS ), Nucor Corp ( NUE.N ), AK Steel Holdings Corp ( AKS.N ) and United States Steel Corp ( X.N ) that alleged that Chinese producers began diverting their steel shipments to Vietnam “immediately” after the duties were imposed. The industry is awaiting the Commerce Department’s recommendation from its study on whether steel imports pose a threat to U.S. national security and broad import restrictions should be imposed. Although the study has been largely completed, the recommendations have been delayed until Congress passes tax legislation. By law, the Commerce Department’s findings are due by late January. Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Andrew Hay and Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-steel/u-s-slaps-duties-on-vietnamese-steel-originating-from-china-idUSKBN1DZ385'|'2017-12-06T01:53:00.000+02:00'
'76238d4a8fdade2f300153592a75ddac7eea1611'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 6'|'Dec 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Dish Network Corp said Tuesday that Charlie Ergen has relinquished his role as chief executive to focus on the company''s fledgling wireless business. on.wsj.com/2BFDlAh- Aetna Inc Chief Executive Mark T. Bertolini is set to pocket roughly half a billion dollars when he leaves his company if it successfully merges with CVS Health Corp on.wsj.com/2jgBOtB- United Parcel Service Inc is struggling to handle the surge in shipments from online shoppers, resulting in delivery delays early in the critical holiday season and prompting the carrier to push drivers to work extra hours. on.wsj.com/2BH7LTv- Alphabet Inc''s Google said it is pulling YouTube from some Amazon.com Inc devices in retaliation for Amazon refusing to sell many Google products, escalating a battle between two tech titans as their businesses increasingly overlap. on.wsj.com/2kpX7fV- Nestlé SA agreed to buy Atrium Innovations Inc a Canadian vitamin maker, for $2.3 billion, including the assumption of debt—expanding its range of consumer-health offerings as sales slow for packaged-food staples such as TV dinners and chocolate-powdered drinks. on.wsj.com/2iV3SWA (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-6-idINL3N1O6293'|'2017-12-06T02:58:00.000+02:00'
'fc55939160584ecd3d2748991fd21416eb9b9fea'|'Global Markets: Dollar gains on U.S. tax cut progress; Asian shares listless'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street faded having notched record highs on Monday, while the dollar and Treasury yields climbed, after a major U.S. tax overhaul cleared an important hurdle.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Markets digested the U.S. Senate’s approval on Saturday of the biggest tax law change since the 1980s, taking President Donald Trump closer to his goal of slashing taxes on businesses.On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX set a record intraday high, but then pulled back and finished lower, while the Dow industrials still managed a record high close. MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.14 percent and also hit an all-time peak, but was well off its session high.The Republicans’ tax plan is expected to add $1.4 trillion over 10 years to the $20 trillion national debt to finance changes that they say would further boost an already growing economy.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 58.46 points, or 0.24 percent, to 24,290.05, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.78 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,639.44 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 72.22 points, or 1.05 percent, to 6,775.37.Some of the biggest gainers were from areas expected to benefit from a lower corporate tax rate. The S&P 500 banks index surged 2.3 percent, while the Dow Jones Transport Average jumped 1.8 percent.But the technology sector, which has led Wall Street’s record-setting rally this year, tumbled 1.9 percent.“You’re seeing what amounts to a pretty significant rotation going on in the market. The biggest evidence of that is tech,” Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.“People are taking some profits off the table in those sectors and areas that have been very strong this year,” Carlson said.Aetna ( AET.N ) shares fell 1.4 percent after drugstore chain operator CVS Health ( CVS.N ) agreed to buy the health insurer for $69 billion. CVS shares fell 4.6 percent.FILE PHOTO: U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo In Europe, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.97 percent.Gains in the dollar helped Germany''s dollar-exposed DAX .GDAXI leap from a two-month low, up 1.5 percent.The dollar rose against a basket of currencies after the tax package moved forward.The dollar index rose 0.26 percent, with the euro down 0.26 percent to $1.1858. The Japanese yen weakened 0.23 percent versus the greenback at 112.38 per dollar.“Dollar bulls are pinning their hopes on the sweeping tax deal leading to a more rapid pace of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve,” said Jake Spark, U.S. corporate hedging manager at Western Union Business Solutions, in Washington.Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 3/32 in price to yield 2.3723 percent, from 2.363 percent late on Friday.Gains in the dollar and Treasury yields were capped by political concerns in Washington, as investors remained worried about an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election of Trump, analysts said.Oil fell on profit-taking as the market eyed signs of rising U.S. production, though prices remained close to recent two-year highs thanks to last week’s decision by OPEC and other producers to extend output cuts.Brent crude futures settled down $1.28, or 2 percent, at $62.45 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 were down 89 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $57.47.Spot gold dropped 0.3 percent to $1,276.70 an ounce.Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru, Sujata Rao in London; Editing by Dan Grebler and Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-dollar-gains-on-u-s-tax-cut-progress-asian-shares-listless-idINKBN1DY06Q'|'2017-12-04T05:03:00.000+02:00'
'2b4c0e46fc74902bb598fb18d1c635af0b4ece08'|'GM puts an e-commerce marketplace in the dashboard'|'December 5, 2017 / 5:14 AM / Updated 7 hours ago GM puts an e-commerce marketplace in the dashboard Joseph White 3 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co ( GM.N ) on Tuesday said it will equip newer cars with in-dash e-commerce technology, betting it can profit as drivers order food, find fuel or reserve hotel rooms by tapping icons on the dashboard screen, instead of using smartphones while driving. The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Ramos Arizpe, in Coahuila state, Mexico November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril GM’s Marketplace technology, developed in collaboration with International Business Machines ( IBM.N ) will be uploaded automatically to about 1.9 million model-year 2017 and later vehicles starting immediately, with about 4 million vehicles across the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands equipped with the capability in the United States by the end of 2018, GM said. GM will get an undisclosed amount of revenue from merchants featured on its in-dash Marketplace, Santiago Chamorro, GM vice president for global connected customer experience, said during a briefing for reporters. Customers will not be charged for using the service or the data transmitted to and from the car while making transactions, he said. “This platform is financed by the merchants,” Chamorro said. GM will get paid for placing a merchant’s application on its screens, and “there’s some level of revenue sharing” based on each transaction, he said. It is too soon to say how much revenue GM could realize from the Marketplace system, he said. The GM Marketplace will compete for customer clicks and revenue with hand-held smartphones, which offer a far richer array of applications than the GM system will at the outset. Amazon.com ( AMZN.O )is partnering with other automakers, including Ford Motor Co, ( F.N ), to offer in car ecommerce capability through Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant system. For example, GM will launch Marketplace with just Shell ( RDSa.L ) and Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ) icons in the fuel category. The only restaurant available for in-car table reservations at launch is the chain TGI Fridays, GM said. In addition, there will be apps for parking, and ordering ahead at coffee shops and restaurants such as Starbucks( SBUX.O ), Dunkin’ Donuts ( DNKN.O ) and Applebee‘s. “We will be adding more vendors,” with some coming in the first quarter of 2018, Chamorro said. In addition, he said GM plans to expand integration into its vehicles of music, news and other information services. GM also hopes to use its in-car Marketplace connections to expand purchases of products and services, such as additional access to in-car wifi, from its own replacement parts business and dealer network. Customers can “expect to see more service promotions coming through the platform,” Chamorro said. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gm-tech/gm-puts-an-e-commerce-marketplace-in-the-dashboard-idUSKBN1DZ0DX'|'2017-12-05T07:13:00.000+02:00'
'0a294a0c1d0257cd74a6ad443b59020b95d769fa'|'Growth slows, prices jump for UK services firms in November - PMI'|'December 5, 2017 / 9:36 AM / Updated 8 hours ago UK economy lags further behind resurgent euro zone William Schomberg 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s economy is ending 2017 lagging the euro zone’s strong recovery as the effects of last year’s Brexit vote weigh on shoppers and on businesses, according to a range of data released on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: Customers sit inside the Da Mario restaurant in London, Britain, August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The dominant services sector lost some momentum in November while prices charged by companies rose at their fastest pace in nearly 10 years, potentially adding to the country’s inflation problem, a closely watched survey showed. Another report showed shoppers spent more of their budgets on the rising cost of food, while car sales fell for the eighth month in a row in November. Britain’s economy withstood the initial shock of the Brexit vote in 2016 but has slowed sharply this year as the pound’s plunge following the referendum pushed up inflation and hit households at a time when wages are growing only sluggishly. Companies have meanwhile slowed investment as they wait to see what leaving the European Union means for them, potentially adding to Britain’s weak productivity growth -- another drag on the economy. Prime Minister Theresa May failed to clinch a deal on Monday to open talks on post-Brexit free trade with the European Union after a tentative deal with Dublin to keep EU rules in Northern Ireland angered her political allies in Belfast. The monthly IHS Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), covering businesses from hotels to hairdressers, fell to 53.8 in November from to 55.6 in October, at the low end of most forecasts from economists polled by Reuters. Taken along with a pickup for the smaller manufacturing and construction sectors, November’s PMIs suggested the economy was likely to see robust quarterly growth of about 0.45 percent in late 2017, IHS Markit said -- faster than earlier in the year. But businesses were downbeat about the prospects for the economy and the composite PMI of British services plus manufacturing fell to 54.9, a long way short of the euro zone’s 57.5, its highest since April 2011. [EUR/PMIS] “The euro zone is going great guns at the moment and it will almost certainly outpace the UK this year and next,” Investec economist Philip Shaw said. Chris Williamson, an economist with IHS Markit, said the big news in the services survey was the jump in prices charged by companies. They hit their highest level since February 2008, and the second-highest since the survey began in 1996. That is likely to be a worrying sign for the Bank of England which has said inflation has probably already peaked and has signalled only a gradual rise in interest rates after it raised borrowing costs for the first time in a decade last month. “Rising oil prices were again to blame in November, with firms also reporting the need to pass higher costs of a wide variety of other inputs on to customers as a result of the weak pound having driven up import prices,” Williamson said. “As such, the survey data suggest that inflationary pressures have yet to peak.” Graphics by Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-pmi/growth-slows-prices-jump-for-uk-services-firms-in-november-pmi-idUKKBN1DZ122'|'2017-12-05T11:36:00.000+02:00'
'5834b862cf42533367fc6a040215da0da0d30374'|'INSIGHT-Wooden dams and river jams: U.S. strains to ship record grains'|'ABOARD THE OLIVER C. SHEARER, Ohio River (Reuters) - America’s worst traffic jam this fall occurred on the Ohio River, where a line of about 50 miles of boats hauling grains and other products turned into a waterborne parking lot, as ship captains waited for the river to reopen.Twenty-five year-old lead deckhand Chase Osborne stands at the head of the tow as Campbell Transportation''s towboat H.K McNally enters the New Cumberland Lock on the Ohio River in Stratton, Ohio, U.S., September 10, 2017. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the New Cumberland navigation project was constructed from 1955 to 1961, with the locks opening for traffic in November 1959. Photograph taken at N40°31.558'' W80°37.639''. Photo taken September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder Such delays are worsening on the nation’s waterways, which are critical to commerce for the United States, the largest grain exporter in the world. Of the country’s $40 billion in annual grain and soybean exports, about 60 percent is moved by barges on rivers, including the Ohio.The shutdown, caused by worn or missing sections of a dam, snarled traffic from early September into early November through Locks & Dam No. 52 near Paducah, Kentucky. It was the second shutdown in two months at No. 52, which is among the country’s busiest locks with about $22 billion a year of commodities flowing through it.The lock, which has been earmarked for replacement by the Army Corps of Engineers for three decades, is one of many choke points along 25,000 miles of waterways used to transport everything from grains to consumer goods to coal. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2AY9sim )It is a system increasingly under strain. Surging shipments of soybeans and corn - due to record harvests - are overwhelming parts of the antiquated network and causing more frequent and severe backups, according to interviews with farmers, shippers, grains merchants and barge operators.Reverberations have cut across the U.S. agricultural supply chain - and international markets. This fall, delays in moving crops downriver bumped up grain prices at export terminals along the Gulf Coast, opening up an advantage for global competitors such as Brazil.Most of the country’s 239 locks have exceeded their half-century design lives, and nearly half the vessels that use the nation’s inland waterways now experience delays, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.The average delay per lock has nearly doubled on the waterways since the beginning of the century, rising to 121 minutes in 2014 from 64 minutes in 2000, the group said.An October National Waterways Foundation study said a major lock failure in the Midwest could cost shippers $1.5 billion per year in added costs and overwhelm existing rail and road capacity. Every barge can hold as much grain as 16 rail cars or 70 trucks.SWOLLEN STOCKS The delays here and elsewhere are boosting prices for key goods including soybeans, and eating away at the nation’s competitive edge against rival exporters like Brazil.U.S. soybean export prices normally drop in the autumn, as newly harvested supplies flood the market. But the delays caused prices to rise, making it harder for the United States, the second-largest soybean exporter, to compete with Brazil, which ranks first.In mid-August, the price of soybeans loaded for export at U.S. Gulf Coast terminals was about $14 per metric ton below the cost of soybeans loaded at Brazil’s Paranagua port, according to industry data. By mid-November, the U.S. advantage had been cut to less than $4 per ton. Brazil’s soybeans have a higher protein content, and therefore attract a premium.Top soy importer China is expected to buy twice as many soybeans from Brazil in the fourth quarter as it did last year, much of it at the expense of U.S. shipments. [nL4N1N731I]Export markets are key for farmers and grain processors due to rising crop yields. In the past two decades, U.S. corn output has outpaced domestic use by 20 percent, and soybeans by more than 70 percent.Towboats and barges wait during lock delays at Lock and Dam 52 on the Ohio River in Joppa, Illinois, U.S., September 19, 2017. Photograph taken at N37°12.069'' W88°50.668''. Photo taken September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder “Being near the river used to be an advantage, but now having to wait on dams and infrastructure is more of a liability to farmers,” said Marc Bremer, a farmer in Metropolis, Illinois.Bremer sells most of his corn and soybeans to facilities known as elevators, which receive and store grain and load barges on the Ohio River. This autumn, he lost up to $30,000 in revenue when prices tumbled because disruptions caused crop stockpiles to swell at these facilities. He said he may delay buying new farm equipment as a result.The log jams hit local grain buyers - the elevators - who cut bids on crops to the lowest levels since the Port of New Orleans was shuttered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Elevators, including those owned by Bunge Ltd, Cargill Inc and Archer Daniels Midland Co, typically fill barges with corn and soybeans en route to the Gulf of Mexico. But the backup meant they were unable to ship out supplies - overwhelming their storage, too.‘HIDDEN COST’Slideshow (5 Images) Along the river in Shawneetown, Illinois, Bunge piled soybeans outside on the ground, putting them at risk of damage from rain or animals, because the elevator’s bins were full due to the backlog, local farmers said. An employee of Bunge’s elevator said it took this step because of “market conditions.”Randy Anderson, a farmer from Galatia, Illinois, said he was told to hold back pre-arranged deliveries of crops to the Bunge elevator. Instead, he was forced to take time away from harvesting to load the crops into his own storage bins.“That could have been time I could have been in the field,” he said. “That’s a hidden cost.”The effect was also felt by shipping companies, which make more money the more trips their barges make. Barge operator Campbell Transportation Company of Pittsburgh estimated a loss of $1 million in revenue in September and October because of the delays.“This was the difference between a small profit and a big loss,” said Peter Stephaich, Campbell chief executive.Replacing Locks and Dam No. 52 and nearby No. 53 on the Ohio River has been on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ to-do list for about thirty years, even as its backlog of other projects has grown.Known as the Olmsted Locks and Dam, the replacement is set to finally be completed next year. Its cost has risen to about $3 billion from an original estimate of $775 million.In the meantime, the short-term work to fix the dam continues. Divers working in pitch-black water needed a week to repair the largest hole in the 90-year old dam, one of the last on the river made of wooden slats. Repairs to three other worn and corroded sections may be completed this month.For the seven-man crew of the Oliver C. Shearer, one of 70 towboats hauling hundreds of barges carrying goods, the delay at Locks & Dam No. 52 meant killing time. But there was only so much paperwork, repairs, or waxing the checkerboard floor of the vessel that the crew could do.“You start beating your head against the wall,” Michael McCloud, the boat’s captain, said in October as he looked out at idle barges on the Ohio River from the vessel’s bridge.(For more on life along the Ohio River, see [nL1N1O000E]. For a photo essay, see reut.rs/2BF3xM8 )Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago and Tom Polansek on the Oliver C. Shearer and in Paducah, Kentucky; Editing by David Gaffen and Paul Thomasch '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-grains-infrastructure-insight/wooden-dams-and-river-jams-u-s-strains-to-ship-record-grains-idUSKBN1DZ0HH'|'2017-12-05T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'ba5b4d5447a8098614405f020ad7f16d4bcb8d0f'|'Prysmian agrees $30-a-share all-cash deal for General Cable'|'December 4, 2017 / 6:47 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Prysmian agrees $30-a-share all-cash deal for General Cable Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italian cable maker Prysmian ( PRY.MI ) has agreed to buy General Cable ( BGC.N ) for $30 a share in an all-cash deal that values its Kentucky-based rival at about $3 billion (2.22 billion pounds), including debt and other liabilities. The purchase price represents a premium of 38 percent to General Cable’s closing price on Friday of $21.80 and more than 80 percent higher than its price last July, when it started a strategic review to identify a possible merger partner to boost growth and maximize shareholder value. The deal, which is expected to close by the third quarter of next year, would create a group with combined sales of more than 11 billion euros ($13 billion) and adjusted core earnings (EBITDA) of about 930 million euros, the companies said in a joint statement. “Through the combination of two of the premier companies in the cable industry we will be enhancing our position in the sector by increasing our presence in North America and expanding our footprint in Europe and South America,” Prysmian Chief Executive Valerio Battista said in a statement. General Cable, which specialises in aluminium, copper and fibre-optic wire and cable products, has also attracted interest from rivals Nexans ( NEXS.PA ) and NKT ( NKT.CO ), sources told Reuters in October. The Prysmian deal, which won unanimous approval from both companies’ boards, is subject to acceptance by General Cable shareholders and other regulatory approvals. Prysmian said it expects the combined group to generate run-rate pretax cost benefits of about 150 million euros within five years, mainly from procurement, overhead costs and manufacturing. One-off integration costs are estimated at about 220 million euros. The deal will be financed through a mixture of new debt, cash and existing credit lines. Prysmian said it had asked its chief financial officer to evaluate the possibility of carrying out a rights issue or other financing options for up to 500 million euros over the next 12 months. Goldman Sachs, Mediobanca and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz were advising Prysmian, while General Cable was advised by J.P. Morgan Securities and Sullivan & Cromwell. Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-prysmian-m-a-generalcable/prysmian-makes-30-share-all-cash-offer-for-general-cable-idUKKBN1DY0IE'|'2017-12-04T09:39:00.000+02:00'
'950326d01adab716a6546795bb14d33ff62c1882'|'Uber loses bid to appeal driver case to UK Supreme Court'|'December 5, 2017 / 1:25 AM / in 17 hours Uber loses bid to appeal driver case to UK Supreme Court Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber’s request to appeal a workers’ rights decision to the UK Supreme Court was rejected, according to drivers’ union Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB). FILE PHOTO: Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The decision would mean that the Court of Appeal will have to hear the case first. Two weeks ago, the ride-hailing app submitted a request to appeal directly to the Supreme Court a decision by a British tribunal that said its drivers deserved workers’ rights such as minimum wage. “Today’s decision is another blow to Uber’s legal strategy behind denying workers their rights”, IWGB General Secretary Jason Moyer-Lee said in an e-mailed statement. Uber spokesman said the company will now take the case to the Court of Appeal. Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain/uber-loses-bid-to-appeal-driver-case-to-uk-supreme-court-idUSKBN1DZ04F'|'2017-12-05T03:18:00.000+02:00'
'3e7336e7c804ee12d201d6c7a2ea594af1d43700'|'Canada''s Aurora Cannabis boosts stake in Australia-based Cann Group'|'(Reuters) - Canada’s Aurora Cannabis Inc ( ACB.TO ) said on Monday it increased its stake in Australia-based Cann Group Ltd ( CAN.AX ) to 22.9 percent from 19.9 percent, its latest move to expand in the cannabis industry.Aurora, already Cann Group’s largest shareholder, said it bought the shares at A$2.50 ($1.90) apiece.Shares of Cann Group ended 4.7 percent higher at A$3.14 on the Australian Stock Exchange on Monday.Cann Group was the first Australian company to receive a license to research and cultivate cannabis for medical purposes.Aurora will also invest C$12 million ($9.4 million) in Canadian biotechnology company Radient Technologies Inc ( RTI.V ). The investment will increase Aurora’s stake in Radient to 19.18 percent from 8.8 percent.The investments come as Aurora - one of Canada’s biggest cannabis makers - looks to expand ahead of expectations that Canada will legalize the production, sale and consumption of recreational marijuana.Aurora is also trying to buy medical marijuana company CanniMed Therapeutics Inc ( CMED.TO ), which last week adopted a “poison pill” plan to prevent a takeover.Radient’s stock rose nearly 10 percent on Monday on the TSX Venture Exchange.Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cann-grp-stake/canadas-aurora-cannabis-boosts-stake-in-australia-based-cann-group-idINKBN1DY24E'|'2017-12-04T13:20:00.000+02:00'
'c14562dc8db10dc3d878db4c2d17449aa108f677'|'Ireland says yet to agree exact date for Apple to start transferring tax funds'|'December 6, 2017 / 1:04   Ireland says yet to agree exact date for Apple to start transferring tax funds Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland expects Apple to start paying up to 13 billion euros (£11.5 billion) in back taxes into an escrow account once it is set up at the end of January, but an exact date has yet to be agreed. A man looks at the screen of his mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song More than a year after the European Union ordered that the tax be collected following its ruling that the iPhone maker received unfair tax incentives from Ireland, Dublin’s slow pace in recovering the money has landed it in court. “When it will move in and how it will move in, we have yet to conclude with Apple but I expect that process to begin when we have completed (the setting up of the escrow account),” Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told state broadcaster RTE. Both Dublin and Apple are appealing the record EU order. Reporting by Conor Humphries,; Editing by Padraic Halpin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-apple-tax/ireland-says-yet-to-agree-exact-date-for-apple-to-start-transferring-tax-funds-idUKKBN1E01PT'|'2017-12-06T15:03:00.000+02:00'
'38501299bf84bcf43ad7c55c9cca36093a824cb5'|'Bank of England considered bigger increase to banks'' risk buffer last week'|'December 5, 2017 / 9:49 AM / Updated 11 hours ago Bank of England considered bigger increase to banks'' risk buffer last week Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON,(Reuters) - The Bank of England considered raising banks’ capital requirements last week by more than it had previously signalled to tackle risks to the financial system including those from Brexit, the BoE said on Tuesday. Pedestrians walk past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, May 15, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo Britain’s banks have had to triple the capital they hold as a cushion against potential losses since the 2007-09 financial crisis which plunged the country into a recession, and the BoE is keen to ensure they are well-protected against future risks. Last week the BoE increased British banks’ counter-cyclical capital buffer to 1 percent from 0.5 percent. That was in line with a previous plan which aimed to ensure banks had enough capital at what the BoE sees as the mid-point of a lending cycle. However, a record of the BoE Financial Policy Committee’s meetings running up to the decision showed that they considered raising it higher. Annual stress tests of British banks last week showed that they could cope with a “disorderly” Brexit - but not if it coincided with a deep global recession and further significant fines for financial misconduct. “There were clear benefits to requiring banks to maintain additional capital,” the BoE said, summing up the case for raising the risk buffer above 1 percent. “On the other hand, the likelihood of a disorderly Brexit occurring in combination with both a severe global recession and very substantial additional conduct costs could be seen as extremely remote,” the BoE said. The central bank was also concerned that going against previous guidance that it would increase the CCyB only to 1 percent in November would surprise banks and financial markets. “This could undermine the effectiveness of future communications,” the BoE said. It reiterated that it would look again at the level of the CCyB in the first half of 2018. The buffer is intended to rise and fall over the course of the credit cycle, to ensure that banks do not over-lend during a boom and do not need to cut lending excessively in a downturn. The BoE had warned of the potential costs of Brexit before the June 2016 referendum, drawing ire from Brexit supporters who said Governor Mark Carney was politicising the central bank. The BoE says its mandate requires it to talk about where it sees economic risks. The BoE also said on Tuesday that it had warned England’s High Court earlier this year to be ready for a rush of legal applications from insurers seeking to change millions of contracts ahead of Brexit. The BoE said early estimates suggested that British policyholders held contracts worth at least 20 billion pounds with European insurers, while Europeans held 40 billion pounds of cover with British firms. The BoE has previously said new legislation would be the best way to handle existing cross-border insurance contracts over the Brexit period. Reporting by David Milliken and William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe/bank-of-england-considered-bigger-increase-to-banks-risk-buffer-last-week-idUKKBN1DZ149'|'2017-12-05T11:48:00.000+02:00'
'37d6f43a605e90bca88371cdefcfd8f421cbec3a'|'Triumph to merge precision components, aerospace structures units'|'(Reuters) - U.S. aero parts maker Triumph Group Inc ( TGI.N ) said on Monday it would combine aerospace structures and precision components divisions into one business unit, effective Jan 1.The new unit called aerospace structures will be led by Pete Wick, who is currently executive vice president of its precision components business.The aerospace structures unit, Triumph’s biggest business by revenue, makes aircraft wings, wing boxes, fuselage panels and sub-assemblies such as floor grids.The precision components unit, its third biggest, produces a range of aluminum, hard metal and composite structures used in commercial, military, rotorcraft and business jet markets.Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-triumph-group-restructuring/triumph-to-merge-precision-components-aerospace-structures-units-idINKBN1DY2W0'|'2017-12-04T20:50:00.000+02:00'
'13473470bf45147cb55fb3d771170dab95a019a0'|'Japan Airlines invests $10 million in supersonic jet company Boom'|'(Reuters) - Denver-based startup Boom Supersonic has won a $10 million investment from Japan Airlines Co Ltd ( 9201.T ) in its push to build a supersonic passenger aircraft it claims will be faster, quieter and more affordable to fly than the Concorde.An artist''s impression shows Boom''s 55-seat supersonic aircraft (below) and Boom''s XB-1 supersonic demonstrator in this undated handout obtained by Reuters December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Boom Supersonic Handout via REUTERS Boom has 76 pre-orders for a 55-seat plane that it says will be able to slash the flight time from New York to London in just three hours and fifteen minutes.The firm has said its jetliner, expected to enter service by the mid 2020s, will fly at speeds of Mach 2.2, 10 percent faster than the British-French joint-venture Concorde, which popularized supersonic jet travel in the 1970s.Japan’s second largest airline has the option to purchase up to 20 Boom aircraft and will assist efforts to hone the aircraft’s design and passenger experience, the companies said on Tuesday.It is the first commercial airline to back the venture with investment. Virgin Atlantic is among airlines to have placed pre-orders with Boom, 14 years after the final flight of the Concorde, to date the world’s fastest passenger airplane.An artist''s impression shows Boom''s 55-seat supersonic aircraft in this undated handout on December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Boom Supersonic Handout via REUTERS Industry figures are still debating whether regular supersonic flights, banned over the United States in 1973 by the Federal Aviation Administration, are feasible around modern cities due to the shock waves from the sonic booms the planes create.Boom says its aircraft, priced at $200 million, will produce a sonic boom at least 30 times quieter than the Concorde, which was also dogged by high operating costs and fuel consumption and low capacity utilization.Boom estimates that fares for its aircraft would be 75 percent lower than the Concorde and comparable to current business class tickets, due to better fuel efficiency.General Electric Co ( GE.N ), Honeywell International Inc ( HON.N ) and Netherlands-based TenCate Advanced Composites are among suppliers for Boom’s supersonic jets.It has raised $51 million in backing so far from venture capital firms 8VC, RRE, Lightbank, Y Combinator and Caffeinated Capital, as well as angel investors including Sam Altman, Paul Graham and Greg McAdoo.Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boom-japan-airlines/japan-airlines-invests-10-million-in-supersonic-jet-company-boom-idUSKBN1DZ1N2'|'2017-12-05T14:11:00.000+02:00'
'25286990c77e7c4c9a68ef41e502eeb74729a893'|'GRAPHIC-Lower taxes, big gains: The stocks poised to win from tax cuts'|'December 4, 2017 / 2:58 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago GRAPHIC-Lower taxes, big gains: The stocks poised to win from tax cuts Lewis Krauskopf , Sinead Carew , April Joyner 6 Min Read NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A proposal driven by President Donald Trump to overhaul the country’s tax system has passed a major hurdle in U.S. Congress, raising investor hopes that corporate earnings will get a boost. The U.S. Senate narrowly approved a tax overhaul on Saturday, moving Republicans and Trump a big step closer to their goal of slashing taxes for businesses and the rich while offering everyday Americans a mixed bag of changes. Talks will now begin between the Senate and the House, which already has approved its own version of the legislation, to reconcile their respective bills. While negotiations are ongoing, the legislation could cut the corporate tax rate to as low as 20 percent from 35 percent. UBS strategists project that overall S&P 500 earnings would rise by 6.5 percent should the corporate tax rate fall to 25 percent and increase by 9.5 percent should the rate go to 20 percent. But certain stocks could benefit more than others from the Republican-led plans. “It will be favorable to companies with primarily domestic business that are paying close to the full tax rate,” said John Carey, portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management in Boston. Investors appear to have already rotated into some of these tax-sensitive areas. Some market watchers caution about generalizing winners, noting big differences in effective rates between companies in the same sectors. But strategists point to industries with a concentration of companies poised to benefit, particularly from a lower corporate tax rate. BANKS Of the major S&P sectors, financials pay the highest effective tax rate at 27.5 percent, according to a Wells Fargo analysis of historical tax rates. Brian Klock, managing director in equity research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods who covers large regional banks, expects tax cuts to add 16 percent to median bank earnings in 2018 and 18 percent in 2019. “We’re assuming whatever the benefit is will drop right to the bottom line,” Klock said. “They won’t give up on loan pricing or put any big investments in. With the increased capital they’ll return it to shareholders.” Among large regional banks, Zions Bancorp, M&T Bank Corp and Comerica Inc stand to benefit the most, Klock said. The S&P 500 banks index rose 2.8 percent on Monday, following passage of the Senate plan. TRANSPORTS Transportation ranks among the top industries expected to receive a big earnings boost from a lower corporate tax rate, according to UBS. U.S. railroads such as Union Pacific Corp and CSX Corp are almost entirely exposed to the U.S. statutory rates, said Morningstar analyst Keith Schoonmaker. Railroads would benefit from provisions allowing them to expense their capital expenditures in one year as opposed to over time, lowering their taxable income, Schoonmaker said. “We’ll see what comes out as far as the ability to depreciate immediately, but that certainly would be beneficial because they are all big capital spenders,” Schoonmaker said, noting that railroads spend 18 percent to 20 percent of revenue on capital expenditures. Airlines stand to gain from lower tax rates, analysts said, with UBS pointing to Alaska Air Group Inc and Southwest Airlines Co as possible winners. The Dow Jones Transport Average index jumped 2 percent on Monday. HEALTHCARE SERVICES Domestically geared healthcare companies that focus on services would likely benefit more from tax rate reductions than pharmaceutical and medical device companies that sell their products overseas. “Healthcare services is one of the most taxed industries and would be a big beneficiary of reductions in corporate tax rates,” Lance Wilkes, an analyst at Bernstein, said in a recent note. The S&P 500 healthcare providers and services index , which includes health insurers such as Anthem Inc , drug wholesalers like AmerisourceBergen Corp, and hospital operators such as HCA Healthcare inc, gained 5.4 percent last week. According to Leerink analyst Ana Gupte, a corporate tax rate cut to 20 percent could boost health insurer earnings by about 20 percent to 40 percent, but some of those gains would be expected to be passed through to employer and individual customers. Other potential big winners include home health services company Almost Family Inc, lab-testing company Quest Diagnostics Inc and pharmacy benefit manger Express Scripts Holding, according to Jefferies analyst Brian Tanquilut. RETAIL Department stores head the list of retailers that will benefit because they have among the heaviest U.S. exposure, said Bridget Weishaar, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. Weishaar points to Macy’s Inc, Nordstrom Inc and Kohls Corp as potential winners among department stores, as well as Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands and apparel retailer Ross Stores. “Retail companies will benefit from paying a lower tax rate,” Weishaar said. “Consumers hopefully will have additional cash, which will help consumer discretionary spending.” TELECOMMUNICATIONS Telecom companies, including AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, also stand to gain. “They’re domestically focused companies with a very high percentage of their employee base in the U.S. and significant amounts of investments in U.S. infrastructure,” said Amir Rozwadowski, telecom equity analyst at Barclays. “Therefore they’re predisposed to benefit from tax reform.” AT&T climbed 4.9 percent last week, while Verizon surged 9 percent. Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-stocks-winners/graphic-lower-taxes-big-gains-the-stocks-poised-to-win-from-tax-cuts-idUSL1N1O12BL'|'2017-12-04T16:58:00.000+02:00'
'901bf99faefd4ef357717e099b35a6f77d6aa276'|'Canada scraps buying 18 Boeing fighter jets amid trade dispute - sources'|'Reuters TV United States December 5, 2017 / 8:25 PM / a few seconds ago Canada scraps buying 18 Boeing fighter jets amid trade dispute: sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is scrapping a plan to buy 18 Boeing Co ( BA.N ) Super Hornet fighter jets amid a deepening dispute with the U.S. aerospace company, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The Boeing Company logo is projected on a wall at the "What''s Next?" conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young Instead, the Liberal government will announce next week it intends to buy a used fleet of older Australia F-18 jets, the same kind of plane Canada currently operates, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. The Liberals - who said in late 2016 they wanted the Boeing jets as a stopgap measure - froze talks on the proposed deal this year after Boeing launched a trade challenge against Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ). As relations between the two sides deteriorated, Ottawa slammed Boeing for not acting as a trusted partner and began looking at the Australian jets. Two of the sources said Australian military officials had been in Ottawa late last month for talks. The offices of Public Works Minister Carla Qualtrough and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, who share responsibility for military procurement in Canada, both declined to comment. Boeing was not immediately available for comment. Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-canada-boeing-fighterjets/canada-scraps-buying-18-boeing-fighter-jets-amid-trade-dispute-sources-idUKKBN1DZ2W2'|'2017-12-05T22:22:00.000+02:00'
'6ff4382d648bfade972eb252fcdad1c4141162d7'|'Apple wins EU trademark case against Xiaomi'|'LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) succeeded on Tuesday in preventing Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc ( IPO-XMGP.HK ) from registering its “Mi Pad” tablet computer as an EU trademark because the name was too similar to Apple’s “iPad”.FILE PHOTO: A Xiaomi logo is pictured in Mexico City, Mexico, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo The European Union’s second-highest court, the General Court, ruled that Mi Pad should not be registered as a trademark because consumers were likely to be confused by the similarity of the signs.Xiaomi’s Mi Pad and Apple’s iPad are both tablet computers.“The dissimilarity between the signs at issue, resulting from the presence of the additional letter ‘m’ at the beginning of ”Mi Pad“, is not sufficient to offset the high degree of visual and phonetic similarity between the two signs,” the Court said in a statement.Xiaomi filed an application in 2014 with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to register Mi Pad as an EU trademark.Apple subsequently lodged a complaint that the EUIPO upheld in 2016 on the grounds that consumers would think Mi Pad was a variation on Apple’s iPad trademark.The court agreed with the EUIPO’s decision and said English-speaking consumers were likely to understand the prefix “mi” as meaning “my” and therefore pronounce the “i” of Mi Pad and iPad in the same way.Xiaomi can appeal against the ruling at the EU’s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union.Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-court-apple-xiaomi/apple-wins-eu-trademark-case-against-xiaomi-idUSKBN1DZ1IO'|'2017-12-05T13:39:00.000+02:00'
'2f1c2ff42eb8074910145ac4e39faa8d1e94700d'|'Concerned EU set to assess impact of U.S. tax reform'|'December 4, 2017 / 12:49 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Concerned EU set to assess impact of U.S. tax reform Francesco Guarascio , Leigh Thomas 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers will discuss on Tuesday a planned reform of taxes in the United States that European officials said could affect EU business and global tax rules. European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici presents the EU executive''s autumn economic forecasts during a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman The U.S. Senate approved on Saturday a major tax overhaul that could cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent in what would be the largest change to U.S. tax laws since the 1980s. Recent talks within the EU have instead focused on making sure that firms pay more taxes, after multiple disclosures of financial documents caused public outcry against the widespread use of schemes to slash corporations’ tax bills. After the U.S. move, EU finance ministers rushed to add the issue to the agenda of their monthly meeting on Tuesday. “If these reforms materialize as they stand now, it could create serious difficulties,” a French finance ministry source said. Of particular concern is an aspect of the reform that would give the U.S. government a broader scope to tax European subsidiaries on goods they sell in the United States, a second source said. The EU is also concerned about the wider impact of the U.S. reform on global tax rules and even on financial stability. “We don’t discuss the full right of the United States to deliver on their own tax rate, but we also have to consider what are the effects on the U.S. deficit and if there are spillover effects on the way we consider taxation at the worldwide level,” EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici told reporters in Brussels. “We will monitor that closely. We need to have a deep analysis,” he said. Moscovici declined to comment on the reform’s impact on markets and the risk of bubbles, as the tax cut is set to boost an already growing economy. U.S stocks and the dollar went up on Monday in the first day of trading after the Senate’s approval. The U.S. move could strengthen the hand of EU states like Luxembourg and Ireland that oppose stricter tax rules, fearing they could make Europe less competitive and weaken economic growth. On Tuesday, EU governments are expected to adopt a blacklist of global tax havens in a bid to discourage the use of offshore structures by corporations to optimize their tax bills. They are also set to agree on “exploring” changes to corporate taxation to make sure that tech firms pay their fair share. While some EU states support moves to effectively raise taxation on companies like Facebook ( FB.O ) or Apple ( AAPL.O ), others would prefer a deal at global level before any action in the EU. International agreements on tax matters have proved very difficult. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels and Leigh Thomas in Paris; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-eu/eu-to-closely-monitor-impact-of-us-tax-reform-moscovici-idUKKBN1DY1GH'|'2017-12-04T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'00a7f5d45ee303f97211d10ddbf07232f199a8dc'|'Exclusive: China''s Xiaomi seeks bank pitches for 2018 IPO - sources'|'December 6, 2017 / 6:28 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Exclusive: China''s Xiaomi seeks bank pitches for 2018 IPO - sources Kane Wu , Julie Zhu 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has asked banks to pitch next Friday for an initial public offering in 2018, people familiar with the plan told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Attendants are silhouetted in front of Xiaomi''s logo at a venue for the launch ceremony of Xiaomi''s new smart phone Mi Max in Beijing, May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Xiaomi was valued at $46 billion in a 2014 funding round completed before its sales stagnated. More recently it has seen expectations of its value pick up following strong results this year. Its float could be the world’s “largest technology IPO” next year, according to one of the people. “It is huge,” said another source, adding that a valuation of $100 billion would “not be a crazy number”. The world’s most valuable startup for a brief period in 2014 was worth about $55 billion at the end of June, according to one person close to the company. But two other people familiar with the company’s discussions said it should be worth much more based on its expected earnings. Xiaomi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The maker of budget smartphones saw sales stall in 2016 as it attempted to expand internationally while battling intense competition from Chinese rivals Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], Vivo and Oppo. FILE PHOTO: Customers hold mobile phones during a presentation of the China''s mobile company Xiaomi to celebrate the entry of the company into the Mexican market, in Mexico City, Mexico, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo At the time it pulled back from several overseas markets including Brazil and Indonesia, but this year it has launched and re-launched sales in dozens of countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine. It has overtaken Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) to become China’s fourth-largest smartphone vendor by sales, driven in part by a focus on offline stores, according to research firm Canalys. FILE PHOTO: A Xiaomi logo is pictured in Mexico City, Mexico, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo MORE TO COME The smartphone group’s listing plan comes on the heels of a slew of successful Chinese tech and fintech IPOs in recent months. Already a strong pipeline is building for 2018, with public floats expected from Meituan-Dianping, an online local services group valued at $30 billion, and Lufax, a wealth management platform worth $18.5 billion as of its last funding round. Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, had said the company would not go public until 2025, but a bull run in the stock market and its promising financial numbers have sped up the IPO plan, according to the people. Xiaomi was expected to choose either Hong Kong or the United States as its listing venue, according to the people, who declined to be named as the discussions are confidential. In early November, Xiaomi launched in Spain - its first foray into Western Europe as it revives a stalled global push into other developed markets around Europe and the United States. Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-xiaomi-ipo/exclusive-chinas-xiaomi-seeks-bank-pitches-for-2018-ipo-sources-idUKKBN1E00IK'|'2017-12-06T08:50:00.000+02:00'
'd2538cd7d2958d6bd275d87dbb72a7814e6b4331'|'China''s HNA Group to sell overseas property, dispose non-core assets - 21st Century Business Herald'|'BEIJING, Dec 6 (Reuters) - HNA Group Co Ltd’s Chief Executive Officer Adam Tan said the aviation-to-financial services conglomerate is negotiating to sell overseas real estate as part of a strategic streamlining, according to an interview published by 21st Century Business Herald.HNA also is looking to set-up investment funds to help sell the properties in New York, Sydney and Hong Kong to outside investors, Tan said.“HNA is a rational investor,” Tan told the mainland China media outlet, adding the company will sell and not just buy assets.HNA has “cleared” more than 100 small companies this year that weren’t key to the firm’s core business, Tan said, and has slowed the pace of its outbound investment since last November.Tan’s remarks come as HNA, which inked deals of $50 billion over two years, including stakes in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc and Deutsche Bank AG, faces increased scrutiny from regulators and bankers due to announced changes to its shareholding structure and its use of leverage.Last week, S&P Global Ratings downgraded HNA’s credit profile by one notch to ‘b’, five notches below investment grade, citing the group’s “aggressive financial policy” and tightening liquidity amid looming debt maturities.HNA’s financing woes continued this week, with a report that airlines owned by the Chinese conglomerate have missed some payments due on leased aircraft, Fred Browne, CEO of aviation lessor Aergo Capital Ltd, told industry publication FlightGlobal.Tan told 21st Century Business Herald that HNA’s access to credit remained sound. Domestic banks had a combined credit line of more than 800 billion yuan ($120.96 billion) with HNA at the end of November, Tan said, and nearly 300 billion yuan of credit lines were unused.The company in a separate filing earlier this year said that it had used 454.5 billion yuan of its 745.2 billion yuan total credit lines as of the end of June.Last month, HNA announced that Shanxi Rural Credit Cooperative opened credit line of 10 billion yuan to HNA, mainly to support financing of the aviation tourism industry in Shanxi Province.HNA is facing a regulatory investigations in Europe, following the July announcement by the conglomerate that named key executives as shareholders.The Swiss Takeover Board said last month HNA gave partially untrue or incomplete information during the takeover of Swiss airline catering firm Gategroup, which the conglomerate bought for $1.5 billion last year.The regulator said the group had failed to disclose that company executives held controlling stakes in the conglomerate. ($1 = 6.6140 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Matthew Miller; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hna-group-assets/chinas-hna-group-to-sell-overseas-property-dispose-non-core-assets-21st-century-business-herald-idINL3N1O62J5'|'2017-12-06T04:13:00.000+02:00'
'c5c1e403da7ddc4771333bbf1a05cd32b7134607'|'Russian services sector PMI rises to 10-month high in November'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:31 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Russian services sector PMI rises to 10-month high in November Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MOSCOW, (Reuters) - Activity in Russia’s services sector grew in November at the fastest rate since January thanks to a sharp increase in new business, a survey showed on Tuesday. A general view of eastern town of Nakhodka, Russia November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Maltsev The Markit purchasing managers index (PMI) for the sector rose to 57.4 from a three-month low of 53.9 in November, its highest since the 58.4 reached in January this year. The index has held above the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction since February 2016. “November PMI data signalled steep growth in business activity across the Russian service sector, with the expansion accelerating to reach a ten-month high,” said IHS Markit economist Sian Jones. “The upturn in new business also quickened to a sharp rate that was the fastest for the best part of a decade.” Employment levels in the service sector increased further in November, the survey showed, with job creation accelerating to its strongest pace since May 2013. “Business confidence remained robust in November, but optimism did fall to a three-month low,” Jones said. “Firms stated that positive sentiment reflected planned product diversification and stronger client demand.” On Friday, another PMI survey showed Russian manufacturing activity rose in November thanks to an increase in output and new orders. Reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-economy-pmi/russian-services-sector-pmi-rises-to-10-month-high-in-november-idUKKBN1DZ0JB'|'2017-12-05T08:30:00.000+02:00'
'345a250b1a9ce18315ccfec2215e3bf33596c913'|'Provident''s Moneybarn unit being investigated by UK''s FCA'|'December 5, 2017 / 7:49 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Provident hit again as UK regulator opens new probe Noor Zainab Hussain 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s financial watchdog has launched a second probe into Provident Financial’s lending practices, dealing a fresh blow to a company struggling to revive its door-to-door operations and sending its shares down as much as 16 percent. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seen at the agency''s headquarters in the Canary Wharf business district of London April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Provident said on Tuesday the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had launched an investigation into Moneybarn, its car and van financing arm, focusing on how it assesses whether customers can afford to take on credit and how it deals with borrowers who cannot repay loans. The FCA is already investigating Provident’s Vanquis Bank. Sub-prime lenders such as Provident Financial have seen rapid growth in Britain since the financial crisis, as banks cut back on risky lending and years of austerity have forced poorer people to borrow more. But the high interest rates charged for loans has fuelled a public and political backlash, leading to a regulatory crackdown. Provident has also suffering from a bodged reorganisation of its door-to-door lending business that led to a profit warning, the departure of its CEO, and a share price plunge. Adding to its problems, it is seeking a permanent executive chairman after the sudden death of former investment banker Manjit Wolstenholme, who took the helm earlier this year charged with turning round the business. “We see this morning’s announcement as a further red flag in the context of PFG’s (Provident Financial Group‘s) investment case,” said Goodbody analyst John Cronin. Shares in Provident, which provided loans through the Wall Street crash of 1929 and both world wars, fell as much as 15.9 percent to 740.5 pence, the biggest drop on Europe’s Stoxx index. They have fallen almost 70 percent since June. Provident said the FCA had already discussed certain processes with Moneybarn that had led to a number of “process improvements”, adding it would work with the watchdog to investigate the remaining concerns and fix any outstanding related issues “as soon as practicable”. Jefferies analysts have a forecast for Moneybarn to account for 40.2 million pounds of a group underlying pretax profit of about 164 million pounds in 2018. Provident’s share price plunge has proved lucrative for some hedge funds, which have been building short positions. Eleven hedge funds hold short positions above 0.5 percent, according to regulatory filings, including London-based Lansdowne Partners and Marshall Wace as well as U.S. computer-driven managers AQR Capital Management and WorldQuant. Spokespeople for Lansdowne and Marshall Wace declined to comment on Tuesday, while the other firms could not be immediately reached for comment. Provident’s two biggest shareholders are Invesco Asset Management and Woodford Investment Management, which between them own over 40 percent of the group. The shareholders did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Maiya Keidan, Carolyn Cohn and Simon Jessop in London; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-provident-fin-probe-fca/providents-moneybarn-unit-being-investigated-by-uks-fca-idUKKBN1DZ0QA'|'2017-12-05T09:49:00.000+02:00'
'd8e42165dfddd8bad46bf77219c20cb60758a139'|'Delivery Hero to place $810 million worth of shares'|'FRANKFURT, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Delivery Hero, the world’s largest online takeaway food delivery group, said on Tuesday it would offer shares worth 686 million euros ($810 million) to investors, raking in cash to expand its business through takeovers.“Delivery Hero continues to see an increased level of attractive M&A opportunities and, in line with its strategy, looks to further consolidate its market leadership positions and pursue value accretive M&A,” it said in a statement.It said it would place a total of 18.3 million shares, worth 686 million euros based on Tuesday’s closing price, of which 10.5 million will be issued via a capital increase.Separately, a group of minority shareholders, which the company did not identify, will place 7.8 million shares.It was unclear whether German investor Rocket Internet , which in September had halved its stake in Delivery Hero to 13 percent, is among them.Operating in more than 40 countries in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and Asia, Delivery Hero was one of several online food delivery firms to go public in recent years. Others include U.S.-based GrubHub, Britain’s Just Eat and Takeaway.com.Delivery Hero’s shares closed down 3.2 percent on Tuesday at 37.5 euros, but up about 40 percent since the company’s initial public offering in late June.$1 = 0.8473 euros Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/delivery-hero-shareissue/delivery-hero-to-place-810-million-worth-of-shares-idINL8N1O564U'|'2017-12-05T15:46:00.000+02:00'
'17fa2c39f13e0da64054abe55d4a731dd1f89e0f'|'Banks face Brexit ''point-of-no-return'' in coming months - Bundesbank'|'December 5, 2017 / 3:30 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Banks face Brexit ''point-of-no-return'' in coming months - Bundesbank Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Europe’s banks and brokers could be facing a Brexit “point-of no-return” with key financial contracts as soon as March, one of Germany’s top central bankers said on Tuesday. Andreas Dombret, member of the board of the Deutsche Bundesbank speaks during a news conference in Frankfurt, Germany, October 26, 2014. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo Bundesbank board member Andreas Dombret, who oversees regulatory issues for the German central bank, was talking about the changes sparked by Brexit requiring hundreds of thousands of contracts to be re-written - a process known as “re-papering”. “For the banks, once they start re-papering it is the point-of-no-return and that will happen in the first half of next year maybe even in the first quarter of next year,” Dombret said at conference organised by banking trade association, UK Finance. He added the issue was bigger especially for longer-term contracts. Reporting by Marc Jones, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks/banks-face-brexit-point-of-no-return-in-coming-months-bundesbank-idUKKBN1DZ26G'|'2017-12-05T17:29:00.000+02:00'
'1a131f64e4662c2caa2b412e174422671b71324f'|'Cineworld to buy U.S. peer Regal Entertainment for $3.6 billion'|'December 5, 2017 / 7:51 AM / in 31 minutes UK''s Cineworld targets U.S. expansion with $3.6 billion deal to buy Regal Entertainment Arathy S Nair 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s Cineworld Group Plc sealed an agreement to buy larger U.S. peer Regal Entertainment Group on Tuesday for $3.6 billion (£2.7 billion) in cash, a deal that would create the world’s second largest movie theatre operator. Workers repair a sign at a Cineworld cinema in Bradford northern England, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble The takeover would put the combined company in a better position to take on industry leader AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc , and give it more scale to fight growing competition from Netflix Inc, Apple Inc and other digital outlets. Regal is three times larger than Cineworld by market value and the combined company would have about 9,542 screens, with 7,315 screens in the United States. Movie theatres have been struggling to win back viewers as competition from digital streaming platforms draws movie-goers away. Cineworld Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger brushed aside those concerns. “When they go to the cinema, they go to the cinema and who loves to go to the cinema more than the Americans?,” Greidinger told Reuters. Greidinger said he expects to boost margins and revenue at Regal, adding that Cineworld currently has margins of 22 percent, while Regal has margins of about 19.6-19.7 percent. Rival AMC is majority owned by China’s Dalian Wanda Group which has bought a slew of cinema assets around the world, including taking a controlling stake in U.S. film studio Legendary Entertainment last year. The approach by Cineworld was considered well-timed as shares in the U.S. company have plunged more than 20 percent over the last year on concerns over stagnant admissions at theatres. The deal value of $23 per Regal share represents a premium of about 12 percent to Regal’s closing price on Monday and implies an enterprise value - equity plus debt - of $5.8 billion. Regal shares have risen 13.6 percent since Reuters first reported in November that Cineworld had approached Regal over a potential deal. Cineworld shares have fallen about 20 percent in the period. Cineworld said it expected the deal to “strongly” add to earnings in the first full year following completion, currently expected in the first quarter of 2018. The combined company is expected to deliver pre-tax benefits of $100 million, as well as additional annual benefits of $50 million, the companies said. Cineworld said it expected to fund the deal through a rights issue to raise about 1.7 billion pounds ($2.3 billion), with the rest provided by committed debt facilities and existing cash. Cineworld expects to be able to maintain its existing dividend policy after the deal closes. However, brokerage Peel Hunt cut its recommendation to “hold” from “add”, citing long-term concerns. While the deal provided a step-change in profitability and cash flow for Cineworld, “the long-term investment proposition had fundamentally changed as a result of higher debt and earnings becoming heavily dominated by mature markets,” Peel Hunt analysts wrote. Cineworld shares were down 2.5 percent, while Regal shares were up 6.1 percent in pre-market trading. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer, Mark Potter and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-regal-entnmnt-gp-m-a-cineworld-group/cineworld-to-buy-u-s-peer-regal-entertainment-for-3-6-billion-idUKKBN1DZ0QM'|'2017-12-05T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'17502f0a752db84dc981b4dab1636398191d679a'|'Russian tycoons, fearing new sanctions, float new bond idea-sources'|'* Concern about U.S. sanctions list due end-January* Bond would be forex denominated, holders may be anonymous* Finance Ministry has no comment, sources seem unimpressed* Bank, market sources say money already coming to MoscowBy Darya Korsunskaya, Oksana Kobzeva and Polina DevittMOSCOW, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Wealthy Russians facing the prospect of targeted U.S. sanctions next year have floated the idea of a special treasury bond to facilitate favourable terms for bringing their cash home, three sources familiar with the scheme said.The bond, denominated in foreign exchange, would be offered at a higher yield than bank rates and be more liquid than Eurobonds, the sources said. Crucially, unlike with bank accounts, holders would be able to remain anonymous.“There is information that a number of people want to bring their foreign cash assets back here,” said an executive from a major Russian state company, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.“The idea they came up with is that you open some sort of account, with that you buy special bonds which the finance ministry will issue.”There was no indication that the Russian government was seriously considering such a move, and the finance ministry declined to comment. Two sources close to the ministry said they did not look favourably on the idea.A senior executive in a Russian state bank said it would accelerate a move that has already started.The banker said wealthy people in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle were putting modest amounts of foreign currency into Russian bank deposits.“But the interest rates on foreign currency deposits are low, whereas investing in finance ministry forex instruments can secure them good returns,” he said. “They can make money on that.”A source in the Russian financial markets said he had also heard from wealth managers about new cashflows from abroad.“They are moving their money to Russia,” he said.Special forex bonds have been issued in the past and even have a nickname, “Vebovki”, after state development bank VEB which issued them, according to a person with close ties to the Kremlin and to leading oligarchs.“Now the sanctions could be an additional argument,” for issuing such an instrument, he said.He added they would provide an alternative vehicle for the state to raise debt in case expanded U.S. sanctions bar foreign investors from buying Russian sovereign debt.UNPATRIOTIC Putin has been trying to persuade wealthy Russians to bring their money back to Russia, pointing out that many ordinary Russians view the business community as “unpatriotic” because of their assets offshore.A 2014 “de-offshorisation” law had limited success and for some tycoons even had a deleterious effect by encouraging them to become non-residents.But that was before the U.S. Congress passed sanctions this year over Russia’s annexation of Crimea that include a list of individuals with close links to Putin expected to be submitted at the end of January.The list will not automatically lead to people on it being hit by personal sanctions, which could include freezing foreign assets and bans on travel or access to foreign bank accounts, but many Russian businesspeople have said they believe it will.That has many wealthy Russians in a bind over whether to leave their assets abroad and possibly get caught up in the sanctions net, or bring the assets home to be exposed to other risks, including being prosecuted for tax evasion or getting caught up in an economic crash.Reuters was not able to establish which individuals were involved in the lobbying effort, what approaches they had made, or who in the government they were talking to.“The idea is out there, but for now there is no decision,” the state bank executive said.The Russian authorities have shown little sympathy for the foreign asset problems of wealthy businesspeople in the past.“It’s nonsense,” one of the two sources close to the finance ministry said of the idea of issuing special bonds.OPTIONS AT HOME There is no reliable data on how much money Russians have abroad. According to a rough estimate by Gabriel Zucman, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, Russians had about $200 billion worth of financial assets in offshore tax havens as of 2014, equivalent to 10 percent of Russia’s GDP that year.Several of the wealthiest have told Reuters they keep their assets abroad because of the volatility of the economy, the secrecy afforded by offshore havens and uncertainty about Russia’s future political stability.The options at home have all sorts of pitfalls.Although interest rates for rouble deposits in Russian banks are relatively high, at around 7-8 percent, wealthy Russians are wary of the risk of a rouble crash and prefer to keep deposits in foreign currency where rates are much lower, usually ranging between just above zero to 2 percent.Yields on Eurobonds are higher - a benchmark Eurobond issued this year for 30 years is trading at 5 percent yield - but the market lacks liquidity, as new bond issues are rare, and holders of existing bonds do not tend to sell.In addition, the compliance departments of Russian banks are required to ask lots of questions if a wealthy individual deposits a large amount with them, especially if that person is under U.S. sanctions.Russian banks may also pass information about big depositors to the Russian tax authorities, which some businessman have said they don’t want because they want to protect commercially sensitive information and safeguard their privacy. (Additional reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya and Yelena Orekhova; Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-sanctions-oligarchs-funds/russian-tycoons-fearing-new-sanctions-float-new-bond-idea-sources-idINL8N1O05X6'|'2017-12-05T05:01:00.000+02:00'
'91501cacb92ee82bd8fdc44dbbf2710f9fde812b'|'EU''s Moscovici says expects adoption of blacklist of 20 tax havens'|'December 5, 2017 / 8:37 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago EU''s Moscovici says expects adoption of blacklist of 20 tax havens Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici said he expected EU finance ministers to adopt a blacklist of about 20 tax havens when they meet on Tuesday. European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici presents the EU executive''s autumn economic forecasts during a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman “There will be, I hope, a blacklist that will include about 20 countries that despite ten months of talks have not made the necessary commitments, and then also a list I would call grey with about 40 countries, who have made commitments that will need to be respected,” Moscovici said on arrival at the meeting of EU finance and economy ministers. Following multiple disclosures of offshore tax avoidance schemes by companies and wealthy individuals, EU states launched a process in February to list tax havens in a bid to discourage setting up shell structures abroad which are themselves in many cases legal but could hide illicit activities. Reporting by Julia Fioretti and Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-tax-blacklist/eus-moscovici-says-expects-adoption-of-blacklist-of-20-tax-havens-idUKKBN1DZ0UL'|'2017-12-05T10:36:00.000+02:00'
'35a8af42e35b5e12b5865e1f4f0a3d6245d9cc99'|'U.S. factory activity cools, with employment index edging lower'|'December 1, 2017 / 4:28 PM / in 15 minutes U.S. factory activity cools, with employment index edging lower Jason Lange 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A measure of U.S. factory activity fell more than expected in November as a gauge of employment cooled, but the index continued to point to strengthening manufacturing conditions. A production line employee works at the AMES Companies factory in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. on June 29, 2017. Picture taken on June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Tim Aeppel The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on Friday said its index of national factory activity slipped to a reading of 58.2 last month from 58.7 in October. Even with the decline, the index pointed to growth ahead and was only marginally below a September reading that was the highest since May 2004. But the ISM’s employment index slipped unexpectedly to 59.7 from 59.8, which could point to less strength in manufacturing hiring this month than analysts had expected. “(The ISM reading is) consistent with robust growth in output, exports, capital spending and employment,” said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. U.S. Treasuries yields edged down from session highs after the data, while the dollar and stocks were trading slightly higher. Even with cooler growth in factory activity, strength in the sector as well as in the broader labour market appear likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to increase interest rates later this month. A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates growth in manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the index to slip to 58.4 last month, edging lower from a surge posted after hurricanes disrupted supply chains earlier in the year. The ISM’s new orders index rose to 64 in November from 63.4 a month earlier. Other data on Friday showed U.S. construction spending rising more quickly than expected in October as public construction outlays surged and investment in private projects increased for the first time in four months. The Commerce Department said that construction spending increased 1.4 percent to a record high $1.24 trillion(£0.92 trillion), the swiftest advance in five months. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast construction spending to increase 0.5 percent. Construction spending increased 2.9 percent on a year-on-year basis. Outlays on public construction projects jumped 3.9 percent, the largest gain since 2014. Spending on state and local government construction projects climbed 3.3 percent. Federal government construction spending soared 11.1 percent. Construction spending outlays were revised higher for both August and September, which could affect the government’s estimate for third-quarter gross domestic product growth. On Wednesday, the government said in its second estimate of the economy’s July-September performance that GDP advanced 3.3 percent. Investment in both residential and non-residential structures subtracted from GDP in the quarter. Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-factory-activity-cools-with-employment-index-edging-lower-idUKKBN1DV5AM'|'2017-12-01T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'0704edd00cc7b3a0008442f7b484952eadef8bce'|'Italy financial police visit Gucci''s offices in tax probe: source'|'MILAN (Reuters) - Italian tax police have visited the offices of fashion company Gucci for fiscal checks as part of an investigation by Milan prosecutors into suspected tax evasion, a senior source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Saturday.Gucci logo is seen in a store at Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, April 11, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi “Gucci confirms that it is providing its full cooperation to the respective authorities and is confident about the correctness and transparency of its operations,” Gucci said in an e-mailed statement in response to a report about the tax police audit published by Italian daily La Stampa on Saturday.The source with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the checks were carried out this week at Gucci’s Milan offices and Florence headquarters.The source said the Milan prosecutors suspected Gucci, which is part of French luxury group Kering, may have paid taxes on profits generated by sales in Italy in another country with a more favourable tax regime. The source did not give more details.Gucci, the biggest contributor to Kering’s profits and revenues, has enjoyed a revival in recent years, and in the third quarter of 2017 reported a 49.4 percent rise in sales on a like-for-like basis - excluding currency swings.Contacted by Reuters, a spokeswoman for Kering said the group had no further comment.Reporting by Emilio Parodi, additional reporting by Giulia Segreti, writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Stephen Powell '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/italy-tax-gucci/italy-financial-police-visit-guccis-offices-in-tax-probe-source-idINKBN1DW0IS'|'2017-12-02T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'0adc3e5fa69d904ea69f8c4f7306bbe2e3a1448d'|'China airs ''strong dissatisfaction'' over U.S statement to WTO - Xinhua'|'December 2, 2017 / 10:50 AM / Updated 9 hours ago China airs ''strong dissatisfaction'' over U.S. statement to WTO: Xinhua Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has expressed “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to a statement by the United States to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it opposes granting China market economy status, Xinhua reported. Workers check steel bars at a factory of Dongbei Special Steel Group Co., Ltd. in Dalian, Liaoning province, China November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer China has already appealed to the WTO over a similar case, state news agency Xinhua reported the ministry as saying on Saturday. The U.S. and the European Union argue that Beijing’s pervasive role in the Chinese economy distorts and prevents market determination of domestic prices. The strong response from MOFCOM is the latest volley in an increasingly tense trade relationship between Washington and Beijing, as the Trump administration prepares for trade actions and after a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday that some countries were trying to “skirt their responsibility” under WTO rules. Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-trade/china-expresses-strong-dissatisfaction-over-u-s-statement-to-wto-xinhua-idUKKBN1DW0AP'|'2017-12-02T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'0c5377209ed849ccb28278ffc986deba85964946'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil''s Bovespa steady on cautious buying after November decline'|'SAO PAULO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Brazil''s Bovespa equities index was steady on Friday, dipping just slightly as some investors sought buying opportunities among stocks that swooned about 3 percent in the last three sessions on doubts about whether Congress would pass a proposed overhaul of the country''s pensions. In recent days, investors and analysts have focused on attempts by President Michel Temer to whip up the votes he needs in Congress to pass the pension bill, seen as vital to bolstering the nation''s fiscal health. The Bovespa declined 3.4 percent in the month of November as the bill was watered down and lawmakers were hesitant to support the process ahead of an election year. On Friday, investors were more hopeful about the legislative effort as Temer was due to meet this weekend with Geraldo Alckmin, the governor of São Paulo state and a key figure in the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, which would be an important partner in the pension debate. Brazil''s Bovespa index ticked down 0.12 percent by mid-afternoon, while the real jumped 0.24 percent. Across Latin America, equity and currency markets were relatively steady. Argentina''s Merval and peso currency posted some of the more dramatic gains as institutional investors made select purchases on the relatively small index. Energy utilities in Argentina lead gains after the government said it would hike regulated gas and electricity rates as it slowly removes subsidies from the market. The Merval rose 0.18 percent, and the peso jumped 1.17 percent. Chile''s peso continued to lose ground amid investor jitters over a tight presidential election scheduled for Dec. 19. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1445 GMT: MSCI Emerging Markets 1115,70 -0,45 29,98 MSCI LatAm 2711,41 -0,29 16,18 Brazil Bovespa 71883,45 -0,12 19,35 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 46953,60 -0,29 2,87 Chile IPSA 5012,34 0,18 20,74 Chile IGPA 25216,57 0,2 21,62 Argentina MerVal 26953,26 0,18 59,32 Colombia IGBC 10796,61 -0,11 6,60 Venezuela IBC 1331,27 0,86 -95,80 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3,2631 0,24 -0,43 Mexico peso 18,6865 -0,30 11,01 Chile peso 651,11 -0,63 3,01 Colombia peso 3003,77 0,27 -0,08 Peru sol 3,233 0,00 5,60 Argentina peso (interbank) 17,2500 0,35 -7,97 Argentina peso (parallel) 17,91 1,17 -6,09 (Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by David Gregorio) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-brazils-bovespa-steady-on-cautious-buying-after-november-decline-idINL1N1O110C'|'2017-12-01T12:25:00.000+02:00'
'8d0190f2e266a6626250a88ce9038ada36ddef3a'|'Development bank EBRD expected to add India to sprawling membership'|'Reuters TV United States December 1, 2017 / 3:04 PM / a few seconds ago Development bank EBRD expected to add India to sprawling membership   The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is expected to add India to its growing list of members, two years after China joined, sources at the development bank said. A formal application from India is expected within “days, weeks maximum”, one source told Reuters. A second source confirmed this. If admitted, India would become the 69th shareholder of the EBRD which has expanded its reach considerably in recent years. A spokesman for the bank said directors at the London-based EBRD had been formally told of India’s plans at a board meeting this week. “The next step would be to wait for a formal request from the Indian authorities ... and the final decision will be taken by our Board of Governors,” the spokesman said. India - like China - will only be providing rather than receiving money with its new membership. It may, however, benefit indirectly through EBRD projects or if Indian companies invest alongside the bank. The bank was set up in 1991 to help former Communist states build their economies after the Cold War. As well as its eastern European heartland, the bank now invests in Mongolia, Turkey, economies affected directly or indirectly by the Arab Spring such as Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan, as well as euro zone crisis countries Greece and Cyprus. Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ebrd-india/development-bank-ebrd-expected-to-add-india-to-sprawling-membership-idUKKBN1DV53E'|'2017-12-01T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'544e85cba22cfb51d1232a36d99b48211d52657a'|'China''s Citic completes $1.1 billion acquisition of Dow seeds assets in Brazil'|'RIBEIRÃO PRETO, Brazil (Reuters) - China’s CITIC Agri Fund said on Friday it had completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of Dow Chemical Co’s corn seed business in Brazil, a potential vehicle for future purchases in Latin America.CITIC plans to rename the business LP Sementes Ltda and have its Yuan LongPing High-tech Agriculture Co ( 000998.SZ ) run it.CITIC Agri Fund, which is partly owned by Chinese conglomerate CITIC Ltd ( 0267.HK ), has about $2.65 billion available for takeovers after paying $1.1 billion to Dow, General Manager Shi Liang told Reuters after a news conference in Ribeirão Preto, Sao Paulo state.Beyond seeds, Shi said the main areas the fund is looking at are animal genetics, veterinary products such as vaccines, and crop protection products. But there are no negotiations with possible targets at the moment, he added.The Dow deal, announced in July, includes seed processing plants and seed research centers, a copy of Dow AgroSciences’ Brazilian corn germplasm bank, the Morgan seed brand and a license for the use of the Dow Sementes brand for a limited time.Dow sold the seed business as a condition of its merger with DuPont, which was completed this year.Chinese companies have been investing heavily in Brazil as their local counterparts seek partners to improve their capital structure after the country’s harshest recession on record.Chinese companies invested $14 billion in deals in Brazil in the first nine months of 2017, already making it the second-biggest year since the Brazilian government began tracking such data in 2003.LongPing Chief Executive Officer Zhang Xiukuan said the company planned to expand the seed business in Brazil and was looking for a location to build a rice research center there.The company is a leader in hybrid rice technology in China, with about 30 percent of the market.Zhang said there was large potential to expand rice cultivation in Brazil, which is mainly grown in the southern Rio Grande do Sul state. The new LP Sementes subsidiary is also looking to expand corn seed sales to countries such as Paraguay and Argentina, where it already has operations, he added.Demand for food in China will continue to grow, he said, while Brazil has a large area available for agriculture expansion.Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Jason Neely and Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-grains-citic/chinas-citic-completes-1-1-billion-acquisition-of-dow-seeds-assets-in-brazil-idINKBN1DV4MX'|'2017-12-01T08:35:00.000+02:00'
'b0bad41bc0ab236acb2ed192c2aaf9466634cadf'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 6'|'Dec 6 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 41 points lower at 7,286.6 on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers. * GLAXOSMITHKLINE: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Wednesday said it is taking local units of GlaxoSmithKline and Swiss healthcare company Novartis to court over false or misleading representations in the marketing of pain relief products. * OIL: Oil prices dipped on Wednesday, as refined product inventories in the United States rose in what the market interpreted as a sign of lacklustre demand. * GOLD: Gold prices nudged down early on Wednesday after touching a two-month low in the previous session, despite a slightly weaker dollar. * BRITAIN-PHARMACEUTICALS: Britain won a vote of confidence from its economically important life sciences sector on Wednesday as five drug companies committed to invest in the country under the government''s industrial strategy plans after Brexit. * The UK blue chip index ended the session 0.2 percent lower at 7,327.50 points on Tuesday, as sterling picked itself up from a session low on the back of timid optimism about a Brexit deal. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Tricorn Group PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release RWS Holdings PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Numis Corporation PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Summit Therapeutics PLC Q3 2017 Earnings Release Stagecoach Group PLC Half Year 2017 Earnings Release Schroder Asian Total Return Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Investment Company PLC TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-6-idUSL3N1O62F9'|'2017-12-06T08:29:00.000+02:00'
'042d1c7d2a9fda9e2bdfcf9ada59d34c17e983bb'|'Handbag maker Mulberry posts flat first half group revenues'|'December 6, 2017 / 7:49 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Handbag maker Mulberry posts flat first half group revenues Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Britain’s Mulberry, known for its classic leather handbags, posted a 2 percent rise in retail sales in the first half of its fiscal year and flat total revenues, at a time when it is making a greater push into Asia. FILE PHOTO: A model presents a creation at the Mulberry catwalk show during London Fashion Week in London, Britain February 19, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The company has lowered prices over the past two years to go back to its roots as an “affordable luxury” label, after an ill-fated attempt to go more upmarket, and is developing its business in Japan. Mulberry’s retail sales reached 56.6 million pounds in the six months to end-September, up 2 percent from the same period in 2016. They were down 1 percent, however, on a like-for-like basis, which compares stores that have been trading for a year or more. Total revenues, including from wholesale distribution, were broadly unchanged from a year earlier while the group posted a pre-tax loss of 609,000 pounds versus a 515,000 pounds loss a year earlier. Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mulberry-results/handbag-maker-mulberry-posts-flat-first-half-group-revenues-idUKKBN1E00QJ'|'2017-12-06T09:49:00.000+02:00'
'165e4ed6b9ef55818eb336cc4c5104ebff566777'|'Britain''s Genel Energy seeks to cut bond debt to $300 mln'|'Dec 6 (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan-focused oil producer Genel Energy plc said on Wednesday it is seeking to reduce its bond debt to $300 million from the currently outstanding $421.8 million.The company proposed refinancing some of its bonds through a partial early redemption and reducing its debt by replacing the existing bond agreement with a new $300 million deal.Genel, one of a handful of foreign oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan, is also looking to extend maturity through amending and restating terms to a new 5 year bond with a coupon of 10 percent per annum.The company said a bondholders meeting will be held on Dec. 20 and that bondholders holding a significant proportion of the bonds have confirmed they will vote in favour of the proposal.Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/genel-energy-debtrenegotiation/britains-genel-energy-seeks-to-cut-bond-debt-to-300-mln-idUSL3N1O62V0'|'2017-12-06T16:17:00.000+02:00'
'1affd12741a9a6e91b84bcc040f63093235920dc'|'Fred''s cancels dividend, says exploring options for some assets'|'(Reuters) - Discount store operator Fred’s Inc ( FRED.O ) said on Wednesday it had canceled its quarterly cash dividend and was exploring alternatives for some of its assets, sending its shares plunging 25 percent to their lowest in more than 18 years.Fred’s in June was forced to abandon its offer to acquire 1,200 Rite Aid Corp ( RAD.N ) stores after Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc ( WBA.O ) scrapped its deal to buy Rite Aid following antitrust concerns.Walgreens later agreed to buy some of Rite Aid stores.Fred‘s, which operates about 600 general merchandise and pharmacy stores in the United States, has cut costs, shut underperforming stores and introduced beverages such as beer and wine to attract customers to its stores.But on Wednesday, the company reported its sixth straight decline in quarterly sales and a bigger loss.“I think that if we do nothing, we run the risk of being irrelevant in the space,” Timothy Liebmann, chief operating officer of pharmacy at Fred‘s, said on a conference call.Drugstore operators are also under pressure from the growing possibility of ecommerce giant Amazon.com’s ( AMZN.O ) entry into the business.Fred‘s, however, said its decision to evaluate alternatives for its non-core assets, including real estate and specialty pharmacy business, was not a response to a third party proposal.The company’s shares were down 21 percent at $3.99 in late morning trading on Wednesday. They have lost nearly 60 percent of their value since the failed Rite Aid deal.Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fred-s-restructuring/freds-cancels-dividend-says-exploring-options-for-some-assets-idINKBN1E01JN'|'2017-12-06T09:19:00.000+02:00'
'b96ad502dd873102b90bdbbb5d2ea1a90381a13c'|'Abu Dhabi''s ADNOC cuts indicative price range for unit''s IPO as market sags'|'ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) has cut the price range for an initial public offer of shares in its fuel distribution unit and will sell only a 10 percent stake in the unit, valuing the potential deal at $900 million.United Arab Emirates stock markets have been hit hard this year by subdued economic growth due to low oil prices, a weak real estate market and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil firm had indicated last month that it could sell as much as 20 percent of ADNOC Distribution at a higher price range, which would have valued the deal as high as $2 billion, making it the UAE’s biggest IPO since 2007.But on Wednesday, bookrunners said ADNOC had revised the price range to between 2.35 dirhams a share and 2.65 dirhams, compared to an earlier range of 2.35-2.95 dirhams.It plans to sell 1.25 billion shares, which would value the IPO at 3.31 billion dirhams ($901.37 million) at the top of the range.The price cut reflects a cautious attitude among institutional investors who have become “price-sensitive”, said a source familiar with the deal. However, the retail portion of the offer is 14 times oversubscribed, the source said. Last month’s market debut of Dubai real estate firm Emaar Development ( EMAARDEV.DU ) was weak, and the stock has now dropped to 5.56 dirhams from the IPO price of 6.03 dirhams. The IPO raised $1.3 billion for Emaar Properties EMAR.DU.Abu Dhabi’s main share index .ADI was flat on Wednesday but has fallen 6.2 percent so far this year.Reporting by Stanley Carvalho and Saeed Azhar; Editing by Andrew Torchia '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-adnoc-ipo/abu-dhabis-adnoc-cuts-indicative-price-range-for-units-ipo-as-market-sags-idINKBN1E00U4'|'2017-12-06T05:33:00.000+02:00'
'93bd1ad900416c5042eda6573f882c8a45587f51'|'U.S. challenges Tronox plan to buy Cristal''s titanium dioxide business'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has filed a complaint aimed at stopping chemical maker Tronox Ltd ( TROX.N ) from purchasing Cristal’s titanium dioxide business, the Federal Trade Commission said.The companies are two of the three top suppliers of chloride process titanium dioxide, used to make paint, plastic, paper and other products, the FTC said. The third is the Chemours Company.Tronox did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company valued the deal at $1.673 billion when it was announced in February.The FTC has filed a complaint with its own internal agency judge and has requested a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in Washington, DC to prevent the deal from going forward.Cristal’s U.S. agent is Cristal USA, while its parent companies are Saudi Arabia-based National Industrialization Company ( 2060.SE ) and National Titanium Dioxide Company Limited, the FTC said.Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Andrew Hay and Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cristal-m-a-tronox-ltd/u-s-challenges-tronox-plan-to-buy-cristals-titanium-dioxide-business-idINKBN1DZ37W'|'2017-12-05T19:57:00.000+02:00'
'c31b80c35f393cda32480ec5645045add5dd12e4'|'Lufthansa to gain more slots despite offer to give up most Niki slots - source'|'December 6, 2017 / 6:55 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Lufthansa to gain more slots despite offer to give up most Niki slots - source Foo Yun Chee 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) stands to gain a substantial number of airport slots despite offering to give up some take-off and landing slots to win EU approval to buy Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) assets, a person familiar with the matter said, indicating it may have to offer more concessions to satisfy Brussels. FILE PHOTO - Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr, who wants to expand budget arm Eurowings by buying parts of insolvent Air Berlin, broached the idea on Monday that Lufthansa could give up a large portion of Air Berlin subsidiary Niki’s slots to secure EU approval for the deal. But the limited practical impact of the offer suggests that the German airline will have to ramp up its concessions if it wants to secure EU approval or face an in-depth, four-month investigation that may lead to a veto. The European Commission on Wednesday sought feedback from rivals and other interested parties to concessions offered by the German carrier last week. Lufthansa’s dominant position and slot allocation rules mean the company would eventually acquire Niki’s slots, the person said. “Under the (EU) Slot Regulation and due to the position of Lufthansa at these airports, Lufthansa would still end up with about 50 percent of these slots,” said the person, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. These would include all Niki slots at congested German airports such as Munich and Berlin Tegel. Lufthansa’s portfolio of slots would also expand with its proposed buy of the other Air Berlin unit LGW, which includes peak-time slots in Duesseldorf, the person said. Both LGW and Niki fly to Duesseldorf, a popular business and industrial destination. Lufthansa would also gain Air Berlin’s numerous popular holiday destinations if the deal was approved, the person said. The airline said it had made a sizeable offer to the Commission. “We have put forward a package which contains substantial concessions. We have agreed with the Commission to keep the exact concessions confidential,” a Lufthansa spokesman said. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Victoria Bryan in Frankfurt; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-lufthansa-eu/lufthansa-to-gain-more-slots-despite-offer-to-give-up-most-niki-slots-source-idUKKBN1E02OP'|'2017-12-06T20:55:00.000+02:00'
'8f14ca5f5d8a5ff48b64b21661976215b64a97b5'|'Flurry of UK takeovers set to boost fees for investment banks'|'December 7, 2017 / 5:32 PM / in 3 minutes Flurry of UK takeovers set to boost fees for investment banks Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Investment banks could earn as much as $183 million (£136.2 million) in fees from a flurry of deal-making by British companies this week, according to estimates by Freeman Consulting Services. Online gambling operator GVC’s possible takeover of Ladbrokes Coral, which may value the bookmaker at up 3.9 billion pounds and was announced on Thursday, could generate fees of about 48 million pounds for banks working on the potential cash-and-shares deal, Freeman estimated. Meanwhile, shopping centre owner Hammerson’s 3.4 billion-pound offer for rival Intu Properties, disclosed on Wednesday, is projected to earn up to 39 million pounds for the banks involved. And Cineworld’s reverse takeover of U.S. cinema chain Regal Entertainment agreed on Tuesday could net 49 million pounds for advisers. Britain has seen a rush of takeover deals this week despite, market volatility caused by stalled Brexit negotiations. The activity brings the overall value of domestic deals between UK companies to $60.8 billion so far this year, up from $28.1 billion a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data. The value of all deals involving UK companies has risen to $336.9 billion this year, compared with $329.9 billion, the data show. These figures exclude GVC’s talks with Ladbrokes Coral, which have not yet resulted in a firm offer. More takeovers could also be in the offing this week. Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng has until 1700 GMT on Friday to make a firm offer to take control of FTSE 250-listed Millennium & Copthorne Hotels under Takeover Panel rules. His City Developments Limited firm, which is the majority shareholder in M&C, has proposed a deal to buy out the rest of the hotelier, valuing the company at 1.8 billion pounds. Boutique firm Houlihan Lokey and Investec, which are advising GVC, could together earn 22 million pounds from a deal, while Ladbrokes Coral’s advisers Greenhill, another boutique, and UBS could net up to a combined 26 million, Freeman said. Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Lazard, which are advising Hammerson, could share 18 million pounds, and Intu’s banks, which are Rothschild, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and UBS, could net a combined 21 million pounds, according to Freeman. Cineworld’s advisers, which are Barclays, HSBC and Investec, may together receive fees of 23 million pounds and Morgan Stanley, which is acting for Regal, could earn 26 million. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bank-deals-fees/flurry-of-uk-takeovers-set-to-boost-fees-for-investment-banks-idUKKBN1E12IO'|'2017-12-07T19:32:00.000+02:00'
'1394539d86b33ac500784b08586dabad3d83a502'|'Sage''s depression drug succeeds in mid-stage study'|' 19 AM / in 28 minutes Sage''s depression drug succeeds in mid-stage study Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 7 (Reuters) - Sage Therapeutics Inc said on Thursday its drug to treat patients with moderate to severe depression met the main goal in a mid-stage study. The 89-patient study testing the drug, SAGE-217, showed statistically significant reduction of depression symptoms, compared to a placebo. (Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sage-study/sages-depression-drug-succeeds-in-mid-stage-study-idUSL3N1O73QI'|'2017-12-07T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'a4f59faccc98c0ca49aaa7cf4235447ee7389885'|'UPDATE 3-Canada''s WestJet to partner with Delta, grow fleet by 2020'|'(Adds executive comments from investor day webcast)Dec 6 (Reuters) - Canada’s WestJet Airlines Ltd on Wednesday announced a joint venture with Delta Air Lines to boost trans-border flights and said it expects to nearly double the number of aircraft owned by the carrier by 2020 as it target both cost-conscious passengers and higher-paying customers.Canada’s second-largest carrier is evolving from a single brand into “a model of multiple airlines,” offering higher-end service while also launching an ultra-low-cost carrier in 2018 to target customers on a budget, chief executive Gregg Saretsky said during WestJet’s investor day.“We just got to the point where the single brand can no longer fulfill all the missions we’re seeking to fulfill,” he said.WestJet, which competes against Air Canada, also said it had struck a preliminary agreement with Delta to coordinate schedules for new non-stop flights in the United States and Canada, along with frequent flyer points.WestJet said the agreement is expected to be signed in the first half of 2018 and will likely take effect in 2019 after Delta and WestJet receive all required regulatory approvals.Calgary-based WestJet is targeting an annual operating margin of between 10 percent and 12 percent in 2018 to 2020, consistent with last year, and an improving annual return on invested capital that is expected to exceed 13 percent in 2020.WestJet said it intends to increase the number of aircraft fully owned and paid for by the airline, as opposed to leased, to 96 by 2020 from 51 at the end of the third quarter.The total fleet will grow from 165 planes, including jets and props, to 189 in 2020.Some analysts remained cautious, however, about WestJet’s plans at a time when organized labor has unionized the company’s pilots and is aiming to organize other staff as well.“We remain concerned about execution with so many simultaneous initiatives under way, all in a climate of unease on the labor front,” wrote AltaCorp Capital analyst Chris Murray in a note to clients.Ahead of its investor day, the carrier laid out plans to save C$140 million ($110.6 million) to C$200 million in costs through 2022.WestJet said its plans to attract and retain premium travelers, among other revenue-generating strategies, represent an annual opportunity of between C$300 million to C$500 million through to 2022. The company also said it expects to trim expenses next year to C$780 million compared with C$1 billion in 2017.WestJet stock was up 0.45 percent to C$26.52 in early afternoon trading. ($1 = C$1.27) (Reporting by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru and Allison Lampert in Montreal; editing by Jonathan Oatis and G Crosse) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/westjet-airlines-presentation/update-3-canadas-westjet-to-partner-with-delta-grow-fleet-by-2020-idINL1N1O61GV'|'2017-12-06T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'6a641fa44d405d90633f4f3b67d4d0d6bf1df7d8'|'Gucci confirms its offices were raided over suspected evasion - Fashion'|'The Italian fashion house Gucci has confirmed that its offices in Milan and Florence were raided last week over suspected tax evasion.The company, which is owned by the French luxury group Kering, was forced to issue a statement after the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported on Saturday that police had spent three days searching the offices, including its new Milan headquarters, for evidence amid suspicions that levies on profits made from sales in Italy were instead declared in the more favourable tax regime of Switzerland.By doing so, prosecutors suspect that the 96-year-old brand, which is enjoying a phenomenal revival, managed to save €1.3bn (£1.1bn) in domestic tax over several years.The company said it was “providing its full cooperation to the respective authorities and is confident about the correctness and transparency of its operations”.“The company has a complex group structure, in which the trademark and royalties and a lot of other costs are paid abroad,” Angelo Cremonese, an economics and finance professor at Rome’s Luiss University, said.From paradise to blacklist: EU’s net starts to close on tax havens Read more “It has a Switzerland entity which the tax authorities suspect is an Italian company for tax purposes.”Gucci, whose sales growth surged 49.4% in the third quarter of this year, is the latest fashion house to come under the spotlight of the Italian taxman as part of the country’s aim to claw back more than €100bn estimated to be lost to tax fraud each year.A series of investigations began in 2014, with a probe into Prada’s decade-long tax avoidance totalling €470m being among the most high-profile. Chief executive Miuccia Prada and her husband and joint chief executive Patrizio Bertelli later paid an estimated €420m in a settlement. Giorgio Armani was also forced to pay €270m in 2014 over a tax dispute involving overseas subsidiaries. Meanwhile in the same year, fraud convictions against Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the celebrated founders of Dolce & Gabbana who had been facing jail for allegedly avoiding paying €1bn, were overturned. Since then, tax authorities have homed in on the tech giants, with Apple agreeing to pay a €318m fine in 2015 after its Italy unit allegedly failed to declare taxes totalling €880m between 2008 and 2013. Earlier this year Google settled a €306m tax dispute, while probes into Amazon and Facebook are ongoing.The investigations are reaping some success, with the Italian Revenue Agency saying in April that it had recovered €19bn in unpaid taxes in 2016, a 28% increase on the €14.9bn retrieved in 2015 and more than triple the €6.4bn recovered a decade ago.The bulk of the money (€10.5bn) recovered last year came from tax checks conducted by the agency, while the rest came from settlements or spontaneous payments. The government is also preparing to introduce a so-called “web tax” on digital sales, which will hit tech giants and is expected to bring in an extra €114m a year. Much of the success in recuperating taxes in recent years has been due to voluntary disclosures courtesy of an information sharing-agreement struck between Italy, Switzerland and other tax havens, added Cremonese.“If people or companies with money abroad don’t make a declaration, then Switzerland and other tax havens let the Italian government know.”• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Gucci Retail industry Tax avoidance Corporate governance Italy news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/dec/04/gucci-offices-raided-suspected-tax-evasion-prada-dolce-gabbana'|'2017-12-04T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'9ce8d00661f33d75155783811bdf179324e46743'|'Wall Street set to rally after Senate approves tax bill'|'(Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high on Monday, with banks and retailers surging and technology companies falling as investors realigned their portfolios in hopes of benefiting from expected corporate tax cuts.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The S&P 500 ended with a loss after hitting an intra-day all-time high earlier in the day, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.05 percent.Bank of America ( BAC.N ), JPMorgan Chase ( JPM.N ), Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) and Citigroup ( C.N ) jumped over 2 percent after the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate approved its tax bill on Saturday.Once the Senate and House of Representatives reconcile their respective versions of the legislation, the resulting bill could cut corporate tax rates to 20 percent from 35 percent.“It will likely result in increased dividends and share repurchases, and that makes valuations more reasonable and should prolong the rally,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York.Investors freed up money to buy banks, department stores and other stocks seen benefiting from lower taxes by selling technology stocks, which have become relatively expensive after leading the market’s gains this year.“People are rotating into consumer discretionary and away from technology because of tax advantages from the new bill,” said Michael Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc in San Antonio, Texas.Microsoft ( MSFT.O ) lost 3.77 percent, Nvidia ( NVDA.O ) slumped 5.57 percent and PayPal Holdings ( PYPL.O ) fell 5.75 percent.Also lifting financial stocks was a broad expectation that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates in December, which makes bank lending more profitable.The S&P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT has surged 34 percent in 2017, the market’s top performer. But after it fell 3 percent since Nov. 28, investors on Monday became more concerned about the longevity of the sector’s rally.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.24 percent to end at 24,290.05 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.11 percent to 2,639.44. Earlier in the session, the S&P 500 had touched a record high.The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 72.22 points to end at 6,775.37.The S&P 500 is up 18 percent in 2017 on strong corporate earnings and solid economic growth, as well as expectations that President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress would cut taxes and corporate regulation.The index is now trading at about 18.2 times expected earnings, its highest level since 2002, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.Many department stores pay high tax rates and stand to benefit from the Republican cuts. Macy’s ( M.N ) jumped 6.65 percent and Nordstrom ( JWN.N ) surged 3.87 percent.Media stocks rose after the Financial Times reported that Twenty-first Century Fox ( FOXA.O ) had resumed talks to potentially sell most of its assets to Walt Disney ( DIS.N ).Disney added 4.72 percent and Fox ( FOXA.O ) climbed 2.80 percent.CVS Health ( CVS.N ) shares lost 4.57 percent after the company agreed to buy Aetna ( AET.N ) for $69 billion in the year’s largest corporate acquisition. Aetna shares fell 1.44 percent.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.03-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.27-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.About 7.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, well above the 6.7 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Frances Kerry and Nick ZieminskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-to-rally-after-senate-approves-tax-bill-idINKBN1DY1OV'|'2017-12-04T10:55:00.000+02:00'
'36b006bf44edd4958fbdd26b19dc7258acb79112'|'Chinese firm rescinds takeover offer for Australia''s AWE'|'(Reuters) - Australian oil and gas producer AWE Ltd ( AWE.AX ) said on Tuesday it has received a notice from China Energy Reserve and Chemical Group Australia (CERCG) stating that it has formally withdrawn its bid to buy the company.Last week, AWE had said its initial view of the A$430 million ($327 million) offer was that it is too low.Reporting By Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-awe-m-a-china-energy-reserve/chinese-firm-rescinds-takeover-offer-for-australias-awe-idINKBN1DY2UV'|'2017-12-04T20:20:00.000+02:00'
'b153a7d40aeb839febc4af3a67d35586fb3ac670'|'U.S. tax bill adds to debt need as interest costs weigh'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:04 AM / in 7 hours U.S. tax bill adds to debt need as interest costs weigh Karen Brettell 5 Min Read (Reuters) - A U.S. tax overhaul will increase the government’s need to issue more Treasuries as interest costs on the country’s debt become a larger drain on the budget. Demonstrators march in protest against the federal government tax reform federal San Diego, California, U.S., December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The U.S. Senate on Saturday approved a tax rewrite, which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated would double the deficit over the coming decade to around $2.8 trillion. That would add to the worsening debt outlook, which is already hurt as an aging population boosts healthcare and retirement spending. Increases in issuance could push up bond yields, adding to the cost of carrying the debt. “The debt continues to grow faster than the economy,” said Susan Irving, a senior advisor for debt and fiscal issues at the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington. Rising debt costs will leave less room for other forms of government spending, absent unpopular changes such as tax hikes. “It increases the government’s interest cost, it puts pressure on other parts of the budget, and it limits the ability to respond to unforeseen events,” Irving said. U.S. net interest costs rose to $274 billion in fiscal 2017, the most on record, according to the government’s fiscal 2018 budget. They are projected to increase to $528 billion by 2022, which would account for 10.9 percent of total outlays, up from 6.8 percent this year, the budget shows, making interest costs the fastest-growing major expense over that period. The proposed tax changes will add to the already worsening picture. “I wouldn’t say that this is a game changer per se in the trajectory of the increase in the debt outstanding, but it’s definitely going to contribute to more Treasury issuance,” said Subadra Rajappa, head of U.S. rates strategy at Societe Generale in New York. Total debt held by the public is forecast to rise to $17.52 trillion in 2022, from $14.92 trillion in fiscal 2017. Outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last week that the path of federal debt “should keep people awake at night.” Pressure is intensifying to fix the country’s debt problem. The United States needs to raise its debt limit in the coming months, and if it does not, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the U.S. Treasury would run out of cash to pay its bills by late March or early April. Congress has a notional Dec. 8 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, but the U.S. Treasury can take emergency measures to delay the drop-dead date. For a graphic on the rising U.S. debt burdern, see: tmsnrt.rs/2AU9Cap RISING DEBT COSTS If increased Treasuries supply leads to higher yields, the impact on the budget will be worse. Since the financial crisis of 2009, refinancing high- interest-rate debt at lower rates has held down interest costs even as the debt doubled in size. But with rates now at historic lows, there is less room for further savings. “For another steep drop in interest rates to create similar opportunities to extend the average maturity while reducing overall costs, interest rates would have to cross into negative territory,” rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said in a recent report. The CBO estimates the government will need to increase debt by around $900 billion next year, in part because the Fed is reducing its participation in the market. The Treasury said in November that it expects to announce changes to the sizes of debt auctions in February for the first time since 2009, though it is expected at first to concentrate increases in short- and intermediate-dated debt. That increase in supply may send borrowing costs higher. “I think it will take a little while for the market to get really saturated, but not that long,” said Thomas Simons, a money market economist at Jefferies in New York. If tax cuts fail to spur faster growth and inflation, however, one possible solace could be that debt financing costs stay low. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields tumbled from 15.5 percent in 1981 to 7 percent in 1986 as inflation plummeted, even as the debt rose to $2.1 trillion from $1 trillion in the same period. “Supply doesn’t matter. That’s a red herring in the bigger picture. It’s all about inflation and inflation expectations,” said Lou Brien, a market analyst at DRW Trading in Chicago. Reporting by Karen Brettell; Editing by Dan Grebler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-bonds-debtceiling-analysis/u-s-tax-bill-adds-to-debt-need-as-interest-costs-weigh-idUSKBN1DZ0H6'|'2017-12-05T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'3340dc431930c074699f5771a505a1d4f21bc055'|'UK''s Hammerson to buy smaller rival Intu'|'(Reuters) - British shopping centers owner Hammerson Plc ( HMSO.L ) has agreed to buy smaller rival Intu Properties ( INTUP.L ) for about 3.4 billion pounds ($4.56 billion) in a long-speculated deal to create a malls giant controlling 21 billion pounds of assets.The all-share offer values FTSE 250-listed Intu at 253.9 pence per share, a 27.6 percent premium to its closing price on Dec. 5, the two companies said on Wednesday.It will combine Intu, the owner of Manchester’s Trafford Centre, with the FTSE 100 company behind Bicester Village in Oxfordshire, London’s Brent Cross shopping center and Bristol’s Cabot Circus to form a group that will also have sites in Ireland, France and Spain.Shopping center landlords are facing an increasingly tough backdrop as retailers have become more selective with their expansion plans in response to a difficult consumer spending environment and intense competition from online rivals.“The combination will not alter the structural headwinds impacting the retail property space,” analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note.“Despite this, it should increase the combined group’s control of large dominant centers, helping pricing power with tenants; the group will own or partially own 17 of the UK’s top 25 centers by size.”A tie-up between the pair has often been rumored and analysts said that Hammerson had struck now in an “opportunistic” move on its smaller rival.Robert Duncan of stockbroker Numis said that Intu shares have been trading at a greater than 50 percent discount to net asset value.“This looks like an opportunistic attempt to get its (Hammerson‘s) hands on Intu’s portfolio which it believes it will be able to operate and manage more effectively than the incumbent owner,” Duncan said.Hammerson shareholders will own about 55 percent of the new company and Intu investors will own the rest.The combined business will be led by Hammerson chief executive David Atkins. Hammerson’s finance chief Timon Drakesmith will assume the same position at the enlarged company and Hammerson chairman David Tyler will retain his role.Following the deal, the shopping center owner will also take Hammerson’s name.Intu shares, which have lost nearly a third of their value this year, were up about 18 percent in morning trading. Hammerson shares fell about 1.7 percent.Intu investors will receive 0.475 new Hammerson shares for each share they own and investors representing 50.6 percent of Intu’s stock have already given irrevocable undertakings or letters of intent to support the tie-up.They include Peel Holdings, the group led by billionaire John Whittaker, which owns 26.6 percent of Intu. Whittaker will become deputy chairman of Hammerson after the takeover.Following the deal, the company will sell-off at least 2 billion-pounds of property to help bolster its balance sheet and Hammerson said it expects the tie-up to add to earnings in the first full financial year following closing.It expects pretax benefits for the combined company to reach a run-rate of about 25 million pounds per annum by the end of the second year.There will be a one-off integration cost of about 40 million pounds, Hammerson said.Hammerson also said it expects dividend growth of the combined company to be at least in line with its historical dividend growth.Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ), JP Morgan Cazenove ( JPM.N ) and Lazard ( LAZ.N ) are advising Hammerson, while Rothschild, Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) and UBS ( UBSG.S ) are working with Intu.Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-intu-prop-m-a-hammerson/uks-hammerson-to-buy-smaller-rival-intu-properties-for-around-4-56-billion-idINKBN1E00NJ'|'2017-12-06T04:28:00.000+02:00'
'3c0a5fd88ae0056091bf92464d8a2b1b66f1afb7'|'Infosys seeks settlement with regulator on ex-CFO''s severance pay'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - Infosys has sought a settlement with India’s market regulator over a disputed severance package awarded to its former chief financial officer.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Infosys is pictured inside the company''s headquarters in Bengaluru, India, April 13, 2017. REUTERS/Abhishek N. Chinnappa/File Photo Founders of the Indian IT services company, led by Narayana Murthy, had objected to the payout to Rajiv Bansal and the ensuing row culminated in the resignation of the then CEO Vishal Sikka and chairman R Seshasayee.Infosys said in a statement on Wednesday it had applied to the Securities and Exchange Board of India as it wanted to resolve allegations, including issues related to not seeking the prior approval of the nomination and remuneration committee and disclosures relating to the payout.The company, which appointed Salil Parekh as its new CEO on Saturday, said the process was based on an undertaking that it would “neither admit nor deny” any findings.Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; editing by Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/infosys-regulator/infosys-seeks-settlement-with-regulator-on-ex-cfos-severance-pay-idINKBN1E028N'|'2017-12-06T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'afe2f2983b3ba5ce9379512e84e2a7c872edecdb'|'ISS recommends investors reject TCI proposal to oust LSE chairman'|'December 6, 2017 / 1:32 PM / Updated 3 hours ago ISS recommends investors reject proposal to oust LSE chairman Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Hedge fund TCI has suffered a setback in its campaign to oust the chairman of the London Stock Exchange after influential advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that investors vote against the activist’s proposal. A woman walks past the London Stock Exchange building in the City of London, Britain, January 16 , 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville TCI, which has a 5 percent stake in the LSE, “has not made a sufficiently convincing case for the immediate removal” of LSE Chairman Donald Brydon, proxy adviser ISS said in a report published on Wednesday. It said that other LSE investors should vote against TCI’s resolution calling for the departure of Brydon at a shareholder meeting called by the hedge fund to be held on Dec. 19. The recommendation by ISS marks the latest twist in the corporate governance crisis at the exchange that has already left the City institution without a permanent chief executive. “Support for the removal of the chairman would equate to a strong judgment call against the board, and simultaneously looking for a new chairman and CEO would be far from ideal,” ISS said. “On the other hand, keeping Donald Brydon as chairman for a limited time would provide stability and continuity and he has substantial experience hiring CEOs.” The LSE announced in October that long-serving CEO Xavier Rolet would leave by the end of 2018, prompting the hedge fund to accuse Brydon of forcing out the Frenchman. TCI, led by founder Christopher Hohn, then launched a campaign to keep Rolet as CEO until 2021 and push Brydon from the board. To try to stem the escalating crisis, Rolet quit as chief executive with immediate effect at the board’s request on Nov. 29, saying he would not return “under any circumstances”. On the same day, the LSE said that Brydon had indicated he would not seek re-election at the company’s annual general meeting in 2019. While that prompted TCI to drop its call for Rolet to stay, the hedge fund has continued to push for Brydon to leave immediately so that he is not involved in the process of selecting a new CEO. David Warren, the LSE’s chief financial officer, has replaced Rolet on an interim basis. TCI declined to comment on the ISS recommendation. Reporting by Ben Martin; editing by Simon Jessop and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-tci-vote/iss-recommends-investors-reject-tci-proposal-to-oust-lse-chairman-idUKKBN1E01S6'|'2017-12-06T15:31:00.000+02:00'
'6aba7a7b97cd3e1522a1124577bf5f862b55cd68'|'Rogers considering sale of Blue Jays, Cogeco stake: Bloomberg'|'(Reuters) - Canadian telecom company Rogers Communications Inc is looking to sell assets including the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team and a stake in media company Cogeco Inc, Rogers Chief Financial Officer Tony Staffieri said on Wednesday.A sign is pictured outside a Rogers Communications retail store in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Wattie Though no deal is imminent, a sale will free up capital for other investments, Staffieri said at the UBS Global Media and Communications conference in New York.Rogers still wants sports programming rights, Staffieri said, adding the company does not need to own a team for that reason.Shares of Rogers rose 1 percent to C$66.07 in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee and Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-rci-divestiture/rogers-considering-sale-of-blue-jays-cogeco-stake-bloomberg-idINKBN1E00D0'|'2017-12-06T02:18:00.000+02:00'
'397221e5381714d9037deb5d411c5578950f114b'|'Home Depot announces $15 billion buyback program'|'December 6, 2017 / 11:27 AM / Updated an hour ago Home Depot sets $15 billion share buyback, investment plan Sruthi Ramakrishnan 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Home Depot Inc ( HD.N ) announced a $15 billion share buyback plan on Wednesday and said it would invest in improving its stores to hit a $120 billion annual sales target in the next three years. The retailer’s shares fell 1.4 percent to $180.22 on the New York Stock Exchange as its latest buyback target pointed to a slowdown in the pace of repurchases. The largest U.S. home improvement store chain said it expects to buy back $12.5 billion over the next three years, compared with the $8 billion it plans to buy for the year ending January 2018. It plans to buy $2.1 billion of shares in the current quarter. Home Depot is riding a multi-year recovery in the U.S. housing market and has benefited from reconstruction and repair work after Hurricanes Irma and Harvey struck the United States in August and September. But it also must contend with growing competition from online and brick-and-mortar rivals, so it plans to speed up investment in its in stores, employees, deliveries and online business. “The retail landscape is changing at unprecedented rates and we plan to invest for the future to address the evolving needs of our customers,” Chief Executive Officer Craig Menear said in a statement. FILE PHOTO: A Home Depot store is seen in Long Beach, California, U.S., September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo The Atlanta-based company said it would invest in making check-out faster for customers as well as wages and scheduling for employees. It would also change its merchandise more frequently and make it easier for customers to navigate its giant stores by adding digital signs. The company is doubling its total investment spending over three years, which puts a limit on its profitability expansion and the shares it can buy back, which could be weighing on investor appetite for the stock today, Edward Jones analyst Robin Diedrich said. The company on its investor day call sought to allay concerns about limits on deductions for mortgage interest proposed under the Republican U.S. tax overhaul, a factor that may curb the appetite for new homes. There was no empirical evidence to suggest that tax deductibility influences the rate of home ownership, Home Depot’s Chief Financial Officer Carol Tomé said, because only 5 percent of mortgages are more than $500,000, the proposed cap for tax deductions. Its target range for sales for the year ending January 2021 were for between $114.7 billion and $119.8 billion, compared with this year’s goal of $100.6 billion. Home Depot said the new buyback program would replace its previous authorization of $15 billion set in February. Home Depot’s shares have climbed about 36 percent this year. Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anna Driver and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-home-depot-outlook-investor-day/home-depot-announces-15-billion-buyback-program-idUSKBN1E01D9'|'2017-12-06T13:25:00.000+02:00'
'7104fcb0c5b487867d780e235c8360d2cf803db0'|'Sabre''s London listing priced at 230 pence per share'|'(Reuters) - British car insurance underwriter Sabre’s ( SBRE.L ) shares rose 10 percent on its market debut on Wednesday to 250 pence, valuing the company at around 630 million pounds ($844 million).Sabre’s shares rose to 253 pence in early trade, having priced at 230 pence a share. The listing comprised 125 million shares, or 50 percent of Sabre’s share capital, it said.Founded in 1982, Sabre generated gross written premiums of 197 million pounds in 2016 and intends to maintain its focus on the UK private motor insurance market.Sabre’s listed rivals include Admiral ( ADML.L ), esure ( ESUR.L ) and Direct Line ( DLGD.L ), which trade at between eight and 12 times core earnings, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.Motor insurers had come under scrutiny after a change to the way personal injury claims are calculated, which pushed up the size of those claims and dented insurers’ profits.However, Britain announced plans in September to change the rate for calculating personal injury payments, a move expected to cut the size of the payments.Barclays ( BARC.L ) and Numis Securities Limited are acting as joint global co-ordinators on the deal.Sabre’s private equity owner BC Partners had looked to list the Dorking-based company in London following an unsuccessful joint approach from U.S. investment firm Centerbridge and Qatar Reinsurance Company, sources told Reuters in September.BC Partners took a majority stake in Sabre, which is behind the Insure 2 Drive, Go Girl and Drive Smart brands, in 2013 in a 240 million pound deal.($1 = 0.7462 pounds)Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sabre-insurance-ipo/sabres-london-listing-priced-at-230-pence-per-share-idINKBN1E00PW'|'2017-12-06T04:48:00.000+02:00'
'b524609e8f6fafa801222b2f3b7a332104ad7c1a'|'Italian union says its Ryanair pilots to strike on Dec. 15'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:33 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Italian union plans first Ryanair pilot strike as Dublin staff vote on action Conor Humphries 4 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair will cut the pay and conditions of pilots at its Dublin home base if they vote for industrial action, the airline said on Wednesday as an Italian union said its members would hold the company’s first-ever strike next week. Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The Irish airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, is trying to recover from a damaging wave of cancellations caused by rostering problems, while pilots at less than a third of its 87 bases have accepted an offer to increase pay. Italian union ANPAC, which said the planned strike on Dec. 15 would last for four hours, is one of several across Europe that have been preparing for industrial action over demands for better conditions and an overhaul of Ryanair’s collective bargaining system. Ryanair has never been subject to a pilot strike, although baggage handlers took industrial action briefly in 1998 and does not recognise trade unions. A spokesman said it did not believe the Italian pilots would actually strike. The airline sent a memo to Dublin pilots on Wednesday saying it would freeze promotions, cut cash allowances and possibly move pilots to alternative bases if pilots working out of Dublin support industrial action at ballots on Wednesday and Thursday. The memo said Ireland’s IALPA pilots union had demanded recognition, a move which Ryanair said “simply will not happen”. A Ryanair spokeswoman said the company “did not comment on communication with our people.” “NO ROLE” FOR UNIONS Italy’s ANPAC, which said it represents 280 of Ryanair’s approximately 4,000 pilots - and 40 percent of those based in Italy - said Ryanair pilots and cabin crew would not work between 1400 and 1800 GMT on Dec. 15. Air traffic controllers and other airline workers will also strike on the same day, the union said. The spokesman for Ryanair said ANPAC had “no role in Ryanair” and that the strike was the sixth that it and other Italian unions had announced before later being cancelled. “We expect this latest threatened strike will also be postponed [or] cancelled,” the spokesman said. Pilots have mobilised in the wake of the announcement of 20,000 flight cancellations by the Irish carrier, which it blamed on a lack of standby pilots due to a failure in rostering following a rule change by Irish regulators. Chief Executive Michael O‘Leary told investors in September the airline had probably been “running too tight on pilot numbers” and the airline has since launched a hiring drive. Ryanair routinely dismisses “competitor pilot unions” who it says claim to represent more Ryanair pilots than they do. But several unions in recent weeks have formed company councils and named serving Ryanair pilots as members. Portugal’s SPAC trade union this week announced that its members, which it says include a majority of Ryanair pilots based in the country, had voted to give it a mandate to call for industrial action up to and including a full strike. O‘Leary told pilots in September that there would be “consequences” for any pilots who take industrial action and that some aircraft could be taken out of bases if it were to occur. Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Louise Heavens and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-strike/italian-union-says-its-ryanair-pilots-to-strike-on-dec-15-idUKKBN1E01LV'|'2017-12-06T14:32:00.000+02:00'
'366d53f2a2f47bcabd2bb81f221ec9006e89dfc4'|'U.S. third-quarter unit labour costs revised sharply down'|'December 6, 2017 / 1:37 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago U.S. unit labour costs decline for two straight quarters Lucia Mutikani 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. unit labour costs were much weaker than initially thought, declining both in the second and third quarters of this year, suggesting that inflation could remain benign for a while. Technicians build LEAP engines for jetliners at a new, highly automated General Electric (GE) factory in Lafayette, Indiana, U.S. on March 29, 2017. Picture taken on March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Alwyn Scott The Labor Department said on Wednesday that unit labour costs, the price of labour per single unit of output, dropped at a 0.2 percent annualised rate in the last quarter instead of rising at a 0.5 percent pace as reported last month. That followed a 1.2 percent rate of decline in the second quarter, which was previously reported as a 0.3 percent pace of increase. It was the first time since 2014 that unit labour costs recorded two straight quarterly declines. The downward revisions to unit labour cost could intensify the debate on the future path of inflation at the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week. Inflation has consistently undershot the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target for nearly 5-1/2 years, despite the labour market being near full employment. Compared to the third quarter of 2016, unit labour costs declined at a 0.7 percent rate. The increase in average hourly compensation was revised to down to a 2.7 percent rate from the previously reported 3.5 percent rate in the third quarter. Hours worked rose at a rate of 1.1 percent in the July-September quarter, an upward revision to the previously reported 0.8 percent pace. A separate report from a payrolls processor on Wednesday showed private employers created 190,000 jobs in November, down sharply from October’s unrevised at 235,000 positions. The ADP National Employment Report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics. The ADP figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment. Economists polled by Reuters are looking for U.S. private payroll employment to have grown by 190,000 jobs in November, down from 252,000 the month before. Total non-farm employment is expected to have risen by 200,000. Prices for U.S. Treasuries rose on the data, while the dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies. The Labor Department also said growth in worker productivity was unrevised at a 3.0 percent rate in the third quarter, the quickest pace since the third quarter of 2014. Productivity grew at a 1.5 percent rate in the second quarter. The trend in productivity, however, remains sluggish. Productivity increased at a 1.5 percent rate compared to the third quarter of 2016. Worker productivity has increased at an average annual rate of 1.2 percent from 2007 to 2016, below its long-term rate of 2.1 percent from 1947 to 2016. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Additional reporting by Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-third-quarter-unit-labour-costs-revised-sharply-down-idUKKBN1E01T3'|'2017-12-06T15:36:00.000+02:00'
'da72efe21ffbda75a32c8da3f0486ca41fd9f9a8'|'Siemens, Brazilian prosecutors eyeing settlement over bribery lawsuit - newspaper'|'  German industrial group Siemens AG ( SIEGn.DE ) is negotiating a settlement worth more than 1 billion reais (£227.7 million) with Brazilian state prosecutors over a civil case related to probes into whether bribes were paid to win train contracts, according to a Monday newspaper report. The Estado de S. Paulo reported that lawyers for Siemens and Sao Paulo state prosecutors met last week to discuss the deal, which it said is on the cusp of being sealed and would require the company to admit to illicit acts. The paper cited unnamed sources within the state prosecutors office.  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-siemens-brazil/siemens-brazilian-prosecutors-eyeing-settlement-over-bribery-lawsuit-newspaper-idUKKBN1DY2RH'|'2017-12-05T00:15:00.000+02:00'
'2b847ed1f96b93d6019f48cf261e9f20b120edc1'|'Sabre''s London listing priced at 230 pence per share'|' 48 AM / in a few seconds Sabre''s London listing priced at 230 pence per share   (Reuters) - British car insurance underwriter Sabre priced its London market debut at 230 pence per share, giving the company a market value of 575 million pounds at the start of conditional trading. The offer comprises 125 million shares, resulting in an offer size of 287.5 million pounds, or 50 percent of Sabre’s share capital on admission, it said on Wednesday. Conditional dealings in Sabre’s shares are expected to begin at 0800 GMT on Dec. 6. Founded in 1982, Sabre generated gross written premiums of 197 million pounds in 2016 and intends to maintain its focus on the UK private motor insurance market. Barclays and Numis Securities Limited are acting as joint global co-ordinators on the deal. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sabre-insurance-ipo/sabres-london-listing-priced-at-230-pence-per-share-idUKKBN1E00PW'|'2017-12-06T09:41:00.000+02:00'
'5b3d960782812e0382f905ee3c7d189323488f3c'|'UK''s Royal Mail sees progress in talks with union over pension row'|'December 6, 2017 / 6:03 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago UK''s Royal Mail sees progress in talks with union over pension row Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s Royal Mail ( RMG.L ) said on Wednesday its mediated talks with the Communications Workers Union (CWU) to end a row over plans to replace the firm’s defined benefit pension scheme were advancing. FILE PHOTO - Royal Mail vans are parked in the Leytonstone post office depot in London, Britain early July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Boyce The CWU has been at odds with Royal Mail since April over its plans to save billions of pounds on its pension contributions and has attempted to call a strike. “Mediation has helped both parties to better understand their respective positions,” Royal Mail said. Royal Mail, which appointed Lynette Harris of Britain’s Central Arbitration Committee in October to mediate, said the mediator recommended Royal Mail and CWU commit to introducing a collective defined contribution (CDC) scheme with a defined benefit element. Royal Mail was privatised four years ago and is one of the few big British firms to still have a defined-benefit pension scheme, which pays out a proportion of a member’s final salary determined by length of service. The mediator also recommended establishing a pensions forum to lobby the government to make the necessary legislative and regulatory changes so that a CDC scheme could be established. “Agreement on certain issues is more advanced than on others but all issues remain open for negotiation and final agreement,” Royal Mail said. CWU was not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-royal-mail-strike/uks-royal-mail-sees-progress-in-talks-with-union-over-pension-row-idUKKBN1E02IS'|'2017-12-06T20:01:00.000+02:00'
'ad30d63d59507a3f5956bd3aa229d00a680566fa'|'UnitedHealth to buy DaVita''s medical unit for $4.9 billion'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:07 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago UnitedHealth to buy DaVita primary care unit for $4.9 billion Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - The largest U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc will buy DaVita Inc’s primary and urgent care services for $4.9 billion in its second acquisition this year to expand its fast-growing medical group, it said on Wednesday. Health insurers are trying to cut medical costs by playing a more direct role in medical services, arguing they can save money by shifting patients to cheaper, more accessible locations for routine or non life-threatening emergency medical services. On Sunday, No. 3 health insurer Aetna Inc agreed to be bought by CVS Health as part of a drive to expand medical services at CVS pharmacies to include more preventative screenings such as for vision and hearing. Denver-based DaVita operates medical groups in six states that serve 1.7 million patients through about 300 clinics, adding to UnitedHealth’s 250 MedExpress urgent care centers and its 200 surgical centers that are part of recently acquired Surgical Care Affiliates. Shares in DaVita rose 13.6 percent, a more than $193 million gain for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who owns a 20 percent stake in the dialysis and medical group company. Reuters reported last month that DaVita was exploring a sale of its medical unit. DaVita’s kidney dialysis unit is not included in the deal. Leerink analyst Ana Gupte said the purchase is likely to add to UnitedHealth earnings per share by 1 percent to 4 percent in 2018 and 5 percent to 7 percent in 2019, the first full year after the deal closes. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Down Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company UnitedHealthcare is shown in Cypress, California April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo EvercoreISI analyst Michael Newshal said he thought near-term earnings additions would be close to neutral given the price that UnitedHealth was paying was on the high side. UnitedHealth did not provide any details on the financial impact of the purchase. Its shares gained less than 1 percent to $220.48 on Wednesday, lifting its market capitalization to more than $212 billion. UnitedHealth bought Surgical Care Affiliates for about $2.3 billion in March. The DaVita acquisition will add 2,200 physicians, nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants and 15,000 other affiliated providers who serve its patients to UnitedHealth’s Optum unit, which has more than 30,000 physicians who work for or are affiliated with its practices. Optum includes MedExpress urgent care centers, surgical centers from its $2.3 billion March acquisition of Surgical Care Affiliates, pharmacy benefit management and data services as well as a bank. DaVita will continue to operate DaVita kidney care, which owns or helps manage 2,470 outpatient dialysis centers in the United States. DaVita’s medical group had $4.11 billion in sales last year, or 30 percent of the total. It had become a major drag on the company’s financial performance in recent quarters as it struggled with low payments from the government’s Medicare Advantage program. DaVita plans to use proceeds from the sale for stock buybacks and to repay debt. Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-davita-m-a-unitedhealth/unitedhealth-to-buy-davitas-medical-unit-for-4-9-billion-idUSKBN1E01HJ'|'2017-12-06T14:07:00.000+02:00'
'6e27516583baca2f52922a9495d31363d09aa37f'|'Apple''s Cook says he sees China''s Tencent as a great partner'|' 18 AM / a few seconds ago Apple''s Cook says he sees China''s Tencent as a great partner Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s chief executive Tim Cook said on Wednesday he sees Tencent Holdings, China’s biggest social network and gaming company, as a great partner and thinks very highly of its founder Pony Ma. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, demonstrates an iPhone following a launch event in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo Cook also told the Fortune Forum in Guangzhou that he couldn’t be happier with how the iPhone X is doing in China. China is Apple’s third-largest region by sales, but it has lost market share in recent years as consumers switch to local rivals. Reporting By Sijia Jiang and Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-fortunteforum-apple/apples-cook-says-he-sees-chinas-tencent-as-a-great-partner-idUKKBN1E00MI'|'2017-12-06T09:15:00.000+02:00'
'f8b9454484a7b9613d33040322ab7113fe9da06f'|'Andeavor undeterred by Washington state panel''s rail-terminal snub'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:41 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Andeavor undeterred by Washington state panel''s rail-terminal snub Erwin Seba 3 Min Read HOUSTON (Reuters) - Independent U.S. refiner Andeavor said on Tuesday it will not abandon a push to build a Pacific Coast rail-to-marine terminal despite a Washington state panel’s recommendation against the project. The Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council last week voted unanimously to recommend against building the $210 million project, citing the likelihood of increased accidents and deaths from greater train traffic. Its vote is advisory and the recommendation will be sent within weeks to Governor Jay Inslee, who will make the final decision. Andeavor and partner Savage Cos five years ago had proposed a rail-to-marine terminal that would transfer 11 million barrels of oil a month from trains to tankers at the Port of Vancouver, Washington. Brendan Smith, a spokesman for Andeavor, formerly Tesoro, said on Tuesday the San Antonio-based company was not giving up on the project. “The value of the Vancouver Energy project continues to exist, and our intention at this time is to move forward in the process and await Governor Inslee’s decision,” he said. Inslee, a Democrat, has 60 days from receiving the council’s formal recommendation to accept or reject it. The council is expected to send the formal recommendation to the governor by the end of the month. “The governor definitely appreciates the work the council has done but he has expressed no opinion about the project,” said Inslee spokeswoman Tara Lee. Andeavor and Savage Cos, a Utah-based transportation logistics firm, began the project when West Coast refiners including Royal Dutch Shell Plc were looking to open rail terminals to bring cheaper oil from the U.S. midcontinent to plants along the Pacific Coast. But fierce opposition to shipping crude by rail arose, especially after a 2013 oil-train disaster in Quebec, and the economic incentive declined as fuel demand on along the West Coast leveled off, leading all but Andeavor to cancel their plans. Locally, resistance to the Vancouver terminal also has been strong, fueled by environmentalists and others opposed to moving so much crude on a rail line that runs along the Columbia River. Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-andeavor-us-washington/andeavor-undeterred-by-washington-state-panels-rail-terminal-snub-idUSKBN1E0022'|'2017-12-06T02:36:00.000+02:00'
'd418b18931075c25b0b18b1a5502e73810d37096'|'UPDATE 2-Enbridge restarts Great Lakes Line 5 pipeline after weather conditions improve'|'(Updates with Enbridge response)By Nia WilliamsCALGARY, Alberta, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc said it restarted its Line 5 oil pipeline across the Straits of Mackinac in North America’s Great Lakes on Tuesday after it was shut due to bad weather.The company temporarily shut down the line due to high winds and nine-foot-high (3-meter-high) high waves, according to the Michigan Agency for Energy.The 540,000 barrel per day pipeline from Wisconsin to Ontario carries Canadian light crude and refined products and is a key link in Enbridge’s network, which transports the bulk of Canadian crude exports to the United States.Light synthetic Canadian crude prices weakened by 35 cents on Tuesday, according to Shorcan Energy brokers. One market participant in Calgary said the dip was most likely in relation to the Line 5 outage.In a statement on its website, the MAE said Enbridge told Michigan that Line 5 was shut down at 11:37 a.m. (1637 GMT) and would restart when conditions improve.Enbridge spokesman Michael Barnes confirmed the shutdown and said the line was restarted at 4:40 p.m. ET when weather in the Straits of Mackinac improved.The Straits of Mackinac are a turbulent 5-mile (8 km) wide stretch of water connecting lakes Huron and Michigan. Some local businesses, politicians and environmental groups fear the 64-year-old underwater pipeline crossing the Straits is at risk of leaking and contaminating the Great Lakes.In response to those concerns, Enbridge signed an agreement with the state of Michigan on Nov. 27 to suspend the pipeline’s operations during sustained bad weather in which wave heights reach more than eight feet.“The purpose of the state’s agreement with Enbridge was to find practical solutions to concerns we had about the operation of Line 5 and the safety of the Great Lakes,” said Valerie Brader, executive director of the Michigan Agency for Energy.“Enbridge’s action today shows the steps outlined in the plan will have immediate and long-term positive outcomes.”Under the agreement Enbridge must also study the feasibility of placing a new pipeline or the existing Line 5 in a tunnel under the Straits, assess installing underwater technology to better monitor Line 5 and look at ways of mitigating the risk of boat anchors damaging the pipeline.The Calgary-based company must also evaluate ways of minimizing the likelihood of an oil spill at the 245 bodies of water Line 5 crosses in Michigan. (Reporting by Nia Williams, Editing by Rosalba O‘Brien and Cynthia Osterman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pipeline-operations-enbridge-inc-greatla/update-1-enbridge-halts-great-lakes-line-5-pipeline-due-to-bad-weather-idINL1N1O52OM'|'2017-12-05T20:57:00.000+02:00'
'7d39df2e6c021911785329d55baddd6aaf9f8fd4'|'Roche to seize leap-frog opportunity in lung cancer'|'December 6, 2017 / 6:26 PM / in 8 minutes Roche to seize leap-frog opportunity in lung cancer Ben Hirschler 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - After lagging rivals in cancer immunotherapies, Swiss drugmaker Roche ( ROG.S ) hopes to leap-frog into the lead in the biggest market, tackling previously untreated lung cancer. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is seen outside their headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, January 30, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo “We have a real chance to be at the forefront here,” Chief Executive Severin Schwan said on Wednesday. “Our ambition is to become a clear leader in the field of cancer immunotherapies.” At the same time he warned many investors would lose money across the industry as a large proportion of the hundreds of cancer trials now underway failed, leaving just a few winners. His optimism for Roche has been buoyed by study results showing its immune-boosting medicine Tecentriq given with chemotherapy and the older drug Avastin significantly cut the risk of lung cancer worsening. Researchers will detail the scale of that benefit, versus chemotherapy and Avastin alone, in a keenly awaited presentation at a medical meeting in Geneva on Thursday. “We have the potential to get into the lead in first-line lung cancer,” Schwan said. “In all likelihood we have a medicine here that will potentially change the standard of care ... but we will also have to see how it compares with other therapies.” Overall survival (OS) data will also be crucial in determining the ultimate winner in lung cancer - by far the biggest oncology market - since one of the main benefits of using immunotherapy is its long-lasting effects. Roche does not yet have that OS data but initial observations are “encouraging” and it expects results in the first half of 2018, well ahead of OS findings with a competing drug combination including chemotherapy from Merck & Co ( MRK.N ). Schwan needs Tecentriq to be a success to help replace revenue from older biological cancer drugs whose patents have expired or will shortly, exposing them to cheaper so-called biosimilar competition. “On the pipeline side, we’re even more de-risked than a year ago ... but there is no doubt that the impact from biosimilars will be significant,” Schwan told Reuters. “On balance, I‘m now very confident that we should be able to compensate for this erosion.” Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-roche-lungcancer-interview/roche-to-seize-leap-frog-opportunity-in-lung-cancer-idUKKBN1E02LB'|'2017-12-06T20:25:00.000+02:00'
'68c4bda2be0584ba37ebd92b3c843b24fd6b886b'|'U.S. factory orders slip; core capital goods orders revised up'|'December 4, 2017 / 3:42 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago U.S. factory orders slip; core capital goods orders revised up Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New orders for U.S.-made goods fell less than expected in October and shipments of core capital goods were much stronger than previously reported, pointing to sustained strength in manufacturing that should buoy the economy. A production line employee works at the AMES Companies shovel manufacturing factory in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, U.S. on June 29, 2017. Picture taken on June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Tim Aeppel Factory goods orders dipped 0.1 percent amid a drop in demand for both civilian and defence aircraft, the Commerce Department said on Monday. September data was revised to show orders increasing 1.7 percent instead of the previously reported 1.4 percent rise. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast factory orders falling 0.4 percent in October. Orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft -seen as a measure of business spending plans - rose 0.3 percent in October instead of the 0.5 percent drop reported last month. These so-called core capital goods orders surged 2.3 percent in September. Shipments of core capital goods, which are used to calculate business equipment spending in the gross domestic product report, advanced 1.1 percent in October instead of the previously reported 0.4 percent rise. Core capital goods shipments increased 1.3 percent in September. October’s upward revision to core capital goods shipments could prompt economists to boost their fourth-quarter GDP growth estimates, which are currently as high as a 3.5 percent annualised rate. The economy grew at a 3.3 percent pace in the third quarter. U.S. financial markets were little moved by the data. Business spending on equipment has increased strongly this year as corporations anticipated hefty tax cuts from the Trump administration. Republicans in the U.S. Congress have approved a broad package of tax cuts, including slashing the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. Business spending on equipment increased at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter. That is helping to underpin manufacturing, which makes up about 12 percent of the U.S. economy. Manufacturing is also being supported by a weakening dollar, which has lost about 7 percent of its value against the currencies of the United States’ main trading partners this year. Factory activity is also being boosted by businesses replenishing depleted inventories and strengthening global demand, helping to offset a slowdown in spending on mining exploration, wells and shafts. In October, orders for machinery rose 1.9 percent after a 0.8 percent gain in September. Mining, oil field and gas field machinery orders fell 1.4 percent after soaring 20.2 percent in September. Orders for transportation equipment declined 4.2 percent, reflecting an 18.5 percent plunge in civilian aircraft orders and a 7.6 percent drop in bookings for defence aircraft. Transportation equipment orders rose 4.7 percent in September. Motor vehicle orders increased 1.3 percent after being unchanged in September. Inventories of unsold goods at factories rose 0.2 percent in October, with overall shipments increasing 0.6 percent. That left the inventories-to-shipments ratio unchanged at 1.37. Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-factory-orders-slip-core-capital-goods-orders-revised-up-idUKKBN1DY1YS'|'2017-12-04T17:41:00.000+02:00'
'79542ebfdc30cd4f57bb8562f1acac83cf585700'|'Munich prosecutors start initial inquiry into BMW emissions allegations'|'MUNICH (Reuters) - Munich prosecutors have opened a preliminary inquiry into allegations made this week by Germany’s main environmental lobby group that a BMW diesel model is fitted with engine software capable of cheating on emissions tests.A BMW logo is seen on a car at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero BMW’s 3-Series 320d car, designed to comply with the latest Euro 6 emission standards, was found to have breached permitted nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission levels by up to seven times the legal limit in a series of road tests while emissions remained below the limit in a set of static roller-bed tests, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) alleged on Tuesday.Munich prosecutors on Wednesday said they had initiated a “preliminary examination”, without being more specific, after the German Transport Ministry had said on Tuesday that the KBA motor vehicle regulator would look into the accusations.A BMW spokesman said the company had taken note of the move by Munich prosecutors but remained convinced that the vehicle in question complied with all emission requirements.The company was considering its options with regard to the accusations, the spokesman added.The DUH had said that in the roller-bed tests, which like its road tests were not independently verified, the BMW 320d’s NOx emissions remained significantly below the 80 milligrams per kilometer limit at normal speeds and also when the speed was increased by 10 percent.Volkswagen’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) emissions test-cheating scandal two years ago has since spilled over to the wider German vehicle industry with its luxury division Audi and Daimler the subjects of criminal investigations.Reporting by Irene Preisinger; Writing by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bmw-emissions-prosecutors/munich-prosecutors-start-initial-inquiry-into-bmw-emissions-allegations-idUSKBN1E022P'|'2017-12-06T17:11:00.000+02:00'
'362b2c3ce77758662e21017718a2f282651b6a2c'|'China''s warm start to winter heats up Chinese steel, mill profits'|' 45 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago China''s warm start to winter heats up Chinese steel, mill profits Ruby Lian , Josephine Mason 3 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A warm start to the winter has boosted steel prices and margins for mills in China, the world’s top producer, as the higher temperatures have allowed projects to proceed that would normally have come to a halt. FILE PHOTO: Chinese national flags are flying near a steel factory in Wu''an, Hebei province, China, February 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The delay in the seasonal drop-off in demand from the construction sector has prolonged a year-long rally in steel prices and pushed profits to their highest since at least 2008. The steady demand has exacerbated a supply shortfall caused by mills in 28 Chinese cities cutting their blast furnace output by as much as 50 percent to meet air pollution targets enacted by the government to combat the smog that covers northern China during the winter. Physical spot prices for steel rebar for immediate delivery rose to 5,210 yuan ($787.72) a tonne on Tuesday, its highest since August 2008, according to steel trading platform Xiben New Line E-Commerce in Shanghai. Steel mills that produce rebar for construction use are making profits of as much as 2,000 yuan ($302.39) a tonne, though some mill are making about 1,500 yuan, said three analysts that follow the market. The higher margins are the most since at least 2008, according to Xiben steel, iron ore and coking coal data compiled by Reuters back to that year. China''s steel prices soar even as Beijing''s winter smog cuts bite: reut.rs/2AtqYKa “The construction operation rates are little changed, especially in east and southern China,” Wang Yingsheng, vice secretary general of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA), told China Metallurgical News, the association newspaper, in an interview on Monday. “Some construction sites are speeding up the pace, so demand remains robust.” To be sure, building will slow if the mercury plunges and there are growing concerns about the outlook for China’s real estate sector in 2018. However, for now, projects are pushing ahead and the mills are reaping the short-term benefits. “Some projects got delayed due to the national holiday and 19th party congress in October and now they are speeding up, lifting demand,” said Zhao Chaoyue, an analyst with Merchant Futures in Shenzhen. Chinese rebar supplies have been declining this year amid the government’s efforts to reduce overcapacity in the sector. In the first half of 2017, around 120 million tonnes of capacity were shut. China''s robust construction activity has sustained strong steel demand in 2017: reut.rs/2Avwj3M Industry website Mysteel showed commercial rebar inventories dropped to 3.16 million tonnes last Thursday, down 5.6 percent from a week earlier and the lowest since early 2009. A trader in Hebei province said production cuts and robust construction have slowed supplies to a trickle. His company typically gets 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes a month of rebar from one particular mill, but it only received 100 tonnes in November. ($1 = 6.6181 Chinese yuan renminbi) Reporting by Ruby Lian and Josephine Mason; Editing by Christian Schmollinger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-pollution-steel/chinas-warm-start-to-winter-heats-up-chinese-steel-mill-profits-idUKKBN1E011A'|'2017-12-06T11:45:00.000+02:00'
'740c83c66006ab2a80defb88a5c5ce3eac509259'|'Telecom Italia explores network separation, talks to Mediaset'|'MILAN (Reuters) - Telecom Italia (TIM) ( TLIT.MI ), whose top shareholder is France’s Vivendi ( VIV.PA ), said on Tuesday it would look into whether a separation of its fixed line network was needed to address competition concerns from Italian authorities.FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Telecom Italia logo is seen at the headquarters in Milan, Italy, May 25, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo/File Photo Italy’s biggest phone group will also pursue talks with Mediaset ( MS.MI ) on a new content deal, a move sources say could help settle a bitter dispute between Vivendi and the broadcaster owned by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.TIM is under pressure from Italian politicians, regulators and rival firms to separate and upgrade its network, an asset analysts have valued at up to 15 billion euros ($17.7 billion).The pressure has intensified since Vivendi, which has a 24 percent stake in TIM, began to exert greater influence, raising concerns within the Italian government.“Over the coming months, the management will continue to examine various hypothesis to establish whether network separation is needed to address institutions’ input and to unlock value,” TIM said in a statement after a board meeting.According to a person familiar with board proceedings, newly appointed Chief Executive Amos Genish would make his recommendation on whether to separate the network at a later stage, probably at the next board meeting in March when a 2018-2020 business plan will be presented.Genish said last month TIM wanted to keep control of the network, TIM’s most prized asset, but didn’t need to own it in full, adding the company would make a decision “on our terms when we really believe it’s needed”.Two sources close to the matter said TIM was trying to buy time, with one saying it was unlikely to make any decisions on the network before national elections due by May 2018 which are expected to yield a government change.“It would make sense to separate the network and list it, because it would create value, but TIM doesn’t intend to make any significant announcements before the vote,” one of the sources said.TIM has come under closer scrutiny by Rome, especially since Vivendi began calling the shots at the Italian company and appointed some of its own top executives as CEO and chairman.The government eventually activated special powers to protect TIM as a strategic asset to rein in Vivendi’s influence. But the center-left government’s hand is weakened by the prospect of a likely defeat at next year’s vote, according to the latest opinion polls.The multi-year content talks with Mediaset would include movies, TV series and sport news, TIM said.They come as Vivendi is trying to settle a legal dispute with Mediaset, whose owner Berlusconi’s center-right coalition is riding high in opinion polls ahead of the election, over a soured pay-TV deal.Sources have said Vivendi is keen to strike a deal with Mediaset before a first court hearing on the matter on Dec. 19.A source close to the matter said a recently launched joint venture between TIM and Vivendi’s pay-TV arm Canal+ was “at the heart of the deal discussed (by Vivendi) with Mediaset”.Analysts have said such a content deal would guarantee steady revenues at Mediaset’s pay-TV arm Premium, which Vivendi agreed to buy last year before backtracking on the purchase.Additional reporting by Stefano Rebaudo in Milan, Gweanelle Barzic in Paris; Editing by Silvia Alois and Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-telecom-it-network/telecom-italia-explores-network-separation-talks-to-mediaset-idINKBN1DZ389'|'2017-12-05T20:02:00.000+02:00'
'd842af70d24137db7265f553cc2bc9d049568f9a'|'Winter holiday travel forecast to give U.S. airlines needed boost'|'(Reuters) - The holiday travel period will be busier than last year for U.S. airlines, according to an industry trade group on Wednesday, as affordable fares and an improving economy make air travel more accessible.File Picture: Cars line up at LaGuardia Airport ahead of the holidays in Queens, New York City, U.S., December 23, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Airlines for America (A4A) forecasts that 51 million passengers will fly on U.S. airlines globally during the 21-day period from Dec. 15 to Jan. 4, up nearly 3.5 percent from the year prior.Airlines will welcome a boost to their bottom lines this quarter as significantly higher operating expenses have weighed on profits in recent months.U.S. carriers have made headlines over the last year for substantial pay increases awarded to pilots and flight attendants. The pay bumps have been a sore spot for investors, who fear that airlines’ labor costs are rising more quickly than profits.American Airlines( AAL.O ) is in a particularly vulnerable position. The carrier disclosed late last month that a system error had awarded too much December vacation time to too many pilots.American struck an agreement with its pilots union to pay out twice the hourly rate to cover thousands of otherwise pilotless flights.The carrier had already upset investors earlier in the year by awarding a surprise mid-contract pay increase to pilots and flight attendants, at a projected cost of nearly $1 billion over three years.The busy holiday period, however, will allow airlines to cushion some of the blow from higher expenses.A4A said it expects the busiest travel days to land on Dec. 21, 22 and 26.The trade group said the lightest travel days will be Dec. 16, 24, 25 and 31.The group credited “affordable fares and expanded route options” for the bump and said that increased competition among carriers has given consumers more flight options.Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-airlines-holidays/winter-holiday-travel-forecast-to-give-u-s-airlines-needed-boost-idUSKBN1E00CS'|'2017-12-06T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'd18d71a86c6618b43d4561126acd6e869fa140e2'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds Sky, Sinopec Group, Federated Investors, Ardian, Saudi Basic Industries, WestJet, Vale; Updates UnitedHealth, Rogers)Dec 6 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Wednesday:** The largest U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc will buy DaVita Inc’s primary and urgent care services for $4.9 billion in its second acquisition this year to expand its fast-growing medical group, it said.** Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc said it would buy a 40 percent stake in Chinese pharmacy chain operator Sinopharm Holding GuoDa Drugstores Co Ltd, as the U.S. drugstore chain seeks to expand in the country’s fast-growing healthcare market.** Ford Motor Co is expected to sign as early as Thursday a deal with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd which may allow the U.S. automaker to test selling cars to consumers in China through Alibaba’s online retail arm Tmall, as well as via a new “auto vending machine” store concept, according to a Ford source familiar with the matter.** Legal & General is to sell a closed savings business with 33 billion pounds in assets to Swiss Re for 650 million pounds ($872 million) to help fund areas of growth including annuities.** Canadian telecom company Rogers Communications Inc is looking to sell assets including the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team and a stake in media company Cogeco Inc , Rogers Chief Financial Officer Tony Staffieri said.** British shopping centres owner Hammerson Plc has agreed to buy smaller rival Intu Properties for about 3.4 billion pounds ($4.56 billion) in a long-speculated deal to create a malls giant controlling 21 billion pounds of assets.** The U.S. government has filed a complaint aimed at stopping chemical maker Tronox Ltd from purchasing Cristal’s titanium dioxide business, the Federal Trade Commission said.** Britain’s competition watchdog will give its initial verdict on Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Sky next month, later than expected, due to the vast number of responses it has received on the deal.** China’s Sinopec Group has hired BNP Paribas to sell its oil business in Nigeria and Gabon, three people with knowledge of the matter said, as the state-owned oil giant pares back its presence in Africa.** U.S. fund manager Federated Investors is considering a bid for Britain’s Hermes Investment Management, a source familiar with the matter said.** Buyout group Ardian has received binding bids for its stake in Fives, which may value the French engineering group at about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion), people close to the matter said.** Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China has built up a 5 percent stake in HSBC, it said in a regulatory filing making it a ‘significant investor’ in Europe’s biggest bank.** Petrochemicals company Saudi Basic Industries Corp is considering several possible investments in the United States, while state oil giant Saudi Aramco ( IPO-ARMO.SE ) is looking at gas prospects abroad, Saudi energy minister said.** Canada’s WestJet Airlines Ltd announced a joint venture with Delta Air Lines to boost trans-border flights and said it expects to nearly double the number of aircraft owned by the carrier by 2020 as it target both cost-conscious passengers and higher-paying customers.** Brazilian miner Vale SA expects to sell up to $1.5 billion in non-core assets from 2018 to 2020, the company said in a presentation to investors in New York. (Compiled by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1O63FJ'|'2017-12-06T08:04:00.000+02:00'
'1cf0bc4923ac33308b688b3039bdbae2db057655'|'Wal-Mart drops Stores from name to shed brick and mortar image'|'(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ) will be known as Walmart Inc, effective Feb. 1, the world’s largest retailer said on Wednesday, as part of its efforts to rebrand itself as more than a brick and mortar store. FILE PHOTO -- Shopping carts are seen outside a new Wal-Mart Express store in Chicago July 26, 2011. REUTERS/John Gress/File Photo The name change highlights the company’s online, pickup and delivery and mobile shopping capabilities. “Our customers know us as Walmart and today they shop with us not only in our stores but online and with our app as well,” Chief Executive Doug McMillon said. The company, which has more than 11,600 stores around the world, will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘WMT’. Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-namechange/wal-mart-drops-stores-from-name-to-shed-brick-and-mortar-image-idUSKBN1E0238'|'2017-12-06T17:19:00.000+02:00'
'887feac54efa6d9d3d0fe2cdb78a7374142ae5f9'|'Swiss Re buys life policies from Legal & General for 872 million dollars'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss Re ( SRENH.S ) has agreed to buy 1.1 million life insurance policies from Legal & General Group (L&G) ( LGEN.L ) for 650 million pounds ($872 million), the Swiss group said on Wednesday.“This move is consistent with Swiss Re’s strategy to acquire closed life books in the UK. The policies – which include with-profit, unit-linked and savings products – will be transferred to ReAssure from Legal & General Assurance Society Limited, which is part of the L&G Group,” it said in a statement.($1 = 0.7455 pounds)Reporting by Michael Shields, editing by John Miller '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-re-legal-general/swiss-re-buys-life-policies-from-legal-general-for-872-million-dollars-idUSKBN1E00OE'|'2017-12-06T15:36:00.000+02:00'
'ffe4b06780803792a9f2cb00f94e03b1dea65646'|'UK watchdog feared legal action if it published report on RBS'|'UK watchdog feared legal action if it published report on RBS FCA chose not to release review into bank’s Global Restructuring Group Read next Play audio for this article Pause What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! or Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback The UK’s financial regulator chose not to publish a controversial report into the Royal Bank of Scotland after it received legal advice that it could be sued as a result. The Financial Conduct Authority received a legal opinion from an external barrister that if it followed calls from politicians and the public to publish the independent review into RBS’s Global Restructuring Group, the bank’s former senior managers described in the report could judicially review the regulator, according to minutes of a 2016 FCA board meeting, where the matter is codenamed “Project Sapphire”. “External Counsel’s advice led us to the conclusion that publication of the final report would expose the FCA to an unacceptable risk of successful legal action by current/former RBS managers for unfair treatment,” the minutes read. They add: “We are working on the basis that we will need the consent of RBS to publish the full report. Publishing without their consent would give rise to significant legal risk to the FCA.” Many small-business customers of GRG, which is now defunct, claimed they were pushed to the brink of collapse and restructured for profit after the financial crisis. The FCA commissioned a review, known as a Section 166 or skilled person’s report, into the unit by Promontory, the consultancy group. Despite mounting pressure , the FCA has resisted publishing this review, citing legislation that keeps such reviews confidential. The confidentiality is RBS’s to waive rather than that of the FCA. The regulator has also long said that it is concerned that individuals identified in the report would have the right to go through so-called Maxwellisation — the process by which those criticised in public reports make representations before it is published — which can take many months. The FCA has an enforcement investigation ongoing into GRG. There is also a police inquiry open. The legal opinion is included in board minutes seen by the Financial Times and first reported by the Times, which obtained the minutes through a Freedom of Information request. The minutes show that the FCA board weighed up the reputational damage that would come with not publishing the report against its legal risk. The board also fretted that publishing Promontory’s findings, some of which RBS rejects, could give false hope to many customers that they would be in line for compensation , “which is likely to be restricted to a smaller proportion of customers”. The FCA said in a statement on Tuesday that the decision not to publish the report in full was “consistent with our standard practice”. It said: “Publication of a Skilled Person’s Report by the FCA would only be possible with the consent of institutions and individuals covered by the report. We have not sought consent from the individuals or groups of individuals who are identified in the Skilled Person’s Report as that would necessitate consulting each individual and considering any comments they made on the text that affected them. Our experience of previous reviews carried out by the regulators is that would be a complex and lengthy process and, where consents were not forthcoming, would likely result in only a heavily redacted version of the Skilled Persons’ Report being publishable.” RBS declined to comment. Last week, the FCA published a detailed summary of the 166 report following pressure from the Treasury select committee. The summary showed that of the sample of 207 companies analysed during the independent review, 16 per cent of viable businesses put into GRG experienced inappropriate treatment that “were likely to have resulted in material financial distress”. In all, the independent review found that 92 per cent of the sample suffered some kind of inappropriate treatment. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Print this page'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/6cb71fd6-d9aa-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482'|'2017-12-05T14:08:00.000+02:00'
'87f5e329c1cfe1f172d0985601c78357520bf341'|'UnitedHealth to buy DaVita primary care unit for $4.9 billion'|'(Reuters) - U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc on Wednesday announced a $4.9 billion deal to buy a unit of DaVita Inc, looking to bolster its primary and urgent care services.The all-cash deal is UnitedHealth’s second major acquisition in 2017 that aims to broaden its reach beyond insurance and boost its outpatient care services through a large network of clinics.UnitedHealth bought Surgical Care Affiliates for about $2.3 billion in March.The deal with Denver-based DaVita, which mainly provides dialysis services, will combine UnitedHealth’s Optum unit with DaVita’s physician network business that serves about 1.7 million patients each year through nearly 300 clinics.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Down Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company UnitedHealthcare is shown in Cypress, California April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Besides running urgent care clinics, Optum manages drug benefits and offers data analytics services to industry clients.DaVita’s physician network unit recorded sales of $4.11 billion last year but had become a major drag on the company’s financial performance in recent quarters despite contributing 30 percent to total revenue.News of the deal sent DaVita shares up 9.3 percent to $66.61 in premarket trading on Wednesday.DaVita plans to use the proceeds of the sale for stock buybacks and to repay debt.Reuters reported last month that DaVita was exploring a sale of its medical unit.Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/davita-m-a-unitedhealth/unitedhealth-to-buy-davita-primary-care-unit-for-4-9-billion-idINKBN1E01SW'|'2017-12-06T10:34:00.000+02:00'
'a98fe4ac74c98ab1dffc2ed0fb48a9b65e4d717b'|'Exclusive: China''s Xiaomi seeks bank pitches for 2018 IPO - sources'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has asked banks to pitch next Friday for an initial public offering in 2018, people familiar with the plan told Reuters.Xiaomi was valued at $46 billion in a 2014 funding round completed before its sales stagnated. More recently it has seen expectations of its value pick up following strong results this year.Its float could be the world’s “largest technology IPO” next year, according to one of the people.“It is huge,” said another source, adding that a valuation of $100 billion would “not be a crazy number”.The world’s most valuable startup for a brief period in 2014 was worth about $55 billion at the end of June, according to one person close to the company.But two other people familiar with the company’s discussions said it should be worth much more based on its expected earnings.Xiaomi declined to comment.The maker of budget smartphones saw sales stall in 2016 as it attempted to expand internationally while battling intense competition from Chinese rivals Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, Vivo and Oppo.A Xiaomi logo is pictured in Mexico City, Mexico, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/Files At the time it pulled back from several overseas markets including Brazil and Indonesia, but this year it has launched and re-launched sales in dozens of countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine.It has overtaken Apple Inc to become China’s fourth-largest smartphone vendor by sales, driven in part by a focus on offline stores, according to research firm Canalys.MORE TO COME The smartphone group’s listing plan comes on the heels of a slew of successful Chinese tech and fintech IPOs in recent months.Already a strong pipeline is building for 2018, with public floats expected from Meituan-Dianping, an online local services group valued at $30 billion, and Lufax, a wealth management platform worth $18.5 billion as of its last funding round.Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, had said the company would not go public until 2025, but a bull run in the stock market and its promising financial numbers have sped up the IPO plan, according to the people.Xiaomi was expected to choose either Hong Kong or the United States as its listing venue, according to the people, who declined to be named as the discussions are confidential.In early November, Xiaomi launched in Spain - its first foray into Western Europe as it revives a stalled global push into other developed markets around Europe and the United States.Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/xiaomi-ipo/exclusive-chinas-xiaomi-seeks-bank-pitches-for-2018-ipo-sources-idINKBN1E00IQ'|'2017-12-06T08:28:00.000+02:00'
'632f59be4c913b88eabf52025ab8bfe3c2517e08'|'Listen - the week in banking'|'Financials Listen - the week in banking Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss Deutsche Bank''s plans for the flotation of its asset management arm next year, Swiss efforts to assist the Saudi corruption probe and how the issue of bankers pay has resurfaced Save to myFT Lender to limit power of minority shareholders in soon-to-be listed fund division Tuesday, 5 December, 2017 Rash of referrals to money laundering office follows Riyadh’s anti-corruption purge Sunday, 3 December, 2017 Ex-head of National Guard Prince Miteb bin Abdullah caught up in corruption crackdown Tuesday, 28 November, 2017 Unionists object to key provision over ‘regulatory alignment’ Tuesday, 5 December, 2017 New 30,000 sq ft ‘super premium’ roastery is bid to maintain upscale reputation Tuesday, 5 December, 2017 Trading technology is used in 85 markets worldwide Monday, 4 December, 2017 Tech group to turn UK capital into biggest hub outside the US Monday, 4 December, 2017 Siona Jenkins and guests discuss the future of Britain''s exporters outside the EU Tuesday, 5 December, 2017 Patrick Jenkins and guests review the week in banking Tuesday, 5 December, 2017 Patrick Jenkins and Laura Noonan discuss the merits of Deutsche Bank''s plan for the flotation of its asset management arm next year Tuesday, 5 December, 2017 Unionists object to key provision over ‘regulatory alignment’ Tuesday, 5 December, 2017 FT economics editor Chris Giles on the standout points announced by Philip Hammond Friday, 24 November, 2017 The FT''s chief economics commentator looks behind the speech''s headlines Wednesday, 22 November, 2017 Our FT Alphaville editor on how cryptocurrencies resemble gambling rather than investing. Wednesday, 22 November, 2017 Will banking remain a lucrative business? Saturday, 7 October, 2017 How high-end skis are made to customers'' specifications Friday, 1 December, 2017 The ballet star rehearses ''Take Me To Church'' for a live performance Friday, 1 December, 2017 Five must-read books from this year Friday, 1 December, 2017 FT masterclass in making chocolate gingerbread men Friday, 24 November, 2017 More from the FT Group Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2017. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd. The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice . Close'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/video/c9c105d6-c5f3-4775-9073-20bc84bb23c8'|'2017-12-05T23:10:00.000+02:00'
'844545f0d137c68770ba322cd043ccb7f1b7c268'|'Italy fines Unilever for abuse of dominant position in ice cream'|'December 6, 2017 / 5:21 PM / Updated an hour ago Italy fines Unilever for abuse of dominant position in ice cream Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s antitrust agency said on Wednesday it had fined Unilever’s Italian unit more than 60 million euros (£52.9 million) for abuse of its dominant position in the country’s ice cream market. The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid It said Unilever had abused its position regarding single-wrapped so-called impulse ice creams, intended for immediate consumption, which it sells through its “Algida” brand. ($1 = 0.8486 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unilever-italy-fine/italy-fines-unilever-for-abuse-of-dominant-position-in-ice-cream-idUKKBN1E02F1'|'2017-12-06T19:20:00.000+02:00'
'2f06ba1b7c0d332f3178a0c4af0a3f399333a601'|'Disney CEO Bob Iger to extend tenure past 2019: WSJ'|'(Reuters) - Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) Chief Executive Bob Iger will likely extend his tenure past 2019 to facilitate integration of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) assets with the company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO - Bob Iger, the Chief Executive Officer of Disney, arrives at the European Premiere of Star Wars, The Force Awakens in Leicester Square, London, December 16, 2015. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez Disney is in the lead to acquire much of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) media empire, though rival suitor Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) remains in contention, Reuters reported on Tuesday.Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. on.wsj.com/2AzJIrpReporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-walt-disney/disney-ceo-bob-iger-to-extend-tenure-past-2019-wsj-idINKBN1E030Y'|'2017-12-06T17:56:00.000+02:00'
'74c7dc0c390048faeb684b552be080ad0cd68b84'|'Hopu Investments raising $2.5 bln fund to tap demand for China exposure - sources'|'* Hopu fund targets $2 bln in commitments by year-end - sources* Fund investors include CIC, Temasek, Mitsui - sources* Fund to tap China opportunities, including SOE reforms - sourcesBy Julie Zhu and Shu ZhangHONG KONG/BEIJING, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Chinese private equity firm Hopu Investments is targeting raising up to $2.5 billion in a new dollar fund to capitalise on the country’s state sector reforms and its growing consumer industries, people with knowledge of the matter said.The capital-raising is the latest in a series by China’s homegrown private equity firms and comes as they have increased their dealmaking over the past two years.China is stepping up efforts to reform its bloated state-owned enterprises by streamlining their activities - a strategy bankers and private equity executives expect will produce a series of spin-offs and divestments.Hopu’s new fund, its third one denominated in U.S. dollars, has already received more than $1 billion in commitments and is aiming to secure $2 billion in total by year-end, according to the people. A final close is expected to be reached early next year, they added.The fund counts sovereign wealth funds including China Investment Corp (CIC) and Singapore state investor Temasek as well as Japan’s Mitsui & Co Ltd as investors, said two of the people. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central bank, and Singapore’s GIC , are also among investors, according to one of them.Hopu declined to comment on plans for a new fund. An HKMA spokesman declined to comment on the details of its investment activities. Temasek, GIC and Mitsui declined to comment. CIC didn’t respond to a request for comment.The sources declined to be named as the fundraising plans were private.Hopu is one of the longest-established private equity firms in China, founded in 2007 by Chinese rainmaker Fang Fenglei, who is also the non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs’ investment banking China joint venture, and Richard Ong, now head of RRJ Capital.It joins a list of Chinese private equity firms, which includes Hony Capital and FountainVest Partners, that have raised dollar funds since last year.International investors have become more interested in China-related opportunities after a period when worries over China’s debt levels suppressed their appetite.And for the Chinese private equity groups, raising funds in dollars instead of yuan enables them to target overseas investments without getting entangled in Beijing’s capital controls, while international investors often wish to avoid taking local currency risk.Reuters reported in October that Primavera Capital Group and CITIC Private Equity planned to raise new dollar funds totaling around $5 billion.Chinese private equity firms have targeted raising $49 billion in 35 buyout funds so far this year, up from just $13 billion in 22 such funds one year ago, according to data provider Preqin. The $49 billion is mainly in U.S. dollars and yuan.Acquisitions made by Chinese private equity firms globally amounted to $93 billion since the beginning of 2016, with the number of deals reaching 359, Thomson Reuters data shows.In July, Hopu led a Chinese consortium in an $11.6 billion deal to acquire Singapore-listed warehouse operator Global Logistic Properties, in Asia’s second-largest private equity buyout. (Reporting by Julie Zhu in HONG KONG and Shu Zhang in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE and Makiko Yamazaki in TOKYO; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hopu-fundraising/hopu-investments-raising-2-5-bln-fund-to-tap-demand-for-china-exposure-sources-idINL8N1O432W'|'2017-12-06T02:23:00.000+02:00'
'f7dd6951a9edd3c532ff6956aeb62f1c93010bef'|'UK''s Saga says tour business hurt by Monarch Airlines collapse'|'Dec 6 (Reuters) - Britain’s Saga Plc said it expected its full-year underlying pretax profit to grow by just 1-2 percent due to more challenging trading in insurance broking and the collapse of Monarch Airlines.The provider of travel and insurance services for people of 50 and above said its tour business would see one-off cost of about 2 million pounds ($2.68 million) hurt by Monarch going into administration.Saga also said it had completed a review of its operating structure and would see about 10 million pounds of annualised savings next year.$1 = 0.7455 pounds Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saga-outlook/uks-saga-says-tour-business-hurt-by-monarch-airlines-collapse-idINL8N1O611G'|'2017-12-06T04:28:00.000+02:00'
'1415554eec4388b9efdedab4c3c7f61d53d3f372'|'UPDATE 1-Tanzania-Zambia railway halts copper transportation after strike'|'(Adds Quote: s)LUSAKA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) has suspended all train services, including the transportation of copper following a strike by workers in Africa’s second-largest producer of the metal, the company said on Wednesday.The line is an important route for copper exports from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Africa’s top producer, but the firm transporting the metal struggles to pay its workers, prompting strikes.TAZARA spokesman Conrad Simuchile said train services between Zambia and Tanzania were suspended indefinitely after unionized employees in Zambia went on strike, demanding payment of their unpaid salaries for October and November 2017.“In the last few months, we have been transporting at least 7,000 tonnes of copper exports from DRC and Zambia per month,” Simuchile told Reuters.“In addition, we have also been conveying at least 3,000 tonnes of steel and 10,000 tonnes of fertiliser imports destined for Zambia every month.”In the 2015–2016 financial year from July to June, TAZARA’s annual total freight traffic reached 130,000 tonnes from 87,000 tonnes in 2014–2015.The TAZARA railway is jointly owned by the governments of the Tanzania and Zambia on a 50-50 basis. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by James Macharia and Louise Heavens) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/zambia-mining-strike/update-1-tanzania-zambia-railway-halts-copper-transportation-after-strike-idINL8N1O6291'|'2017-12-06T07:24:00.000+02:00'
'f694f2391e5a3ffe6fbed77ea2417a865f1bb344'|'China November data to show economy facing pressure from debt, pollution crackdowns'|'December 6, 2017 / 5:41 AM / in 27 minutes China November data to show economy facing pressure from debt, pollution crackdowns Reuters Staff 6 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - A raft of Chinese data in coming weeks is expected to show the world’s second-largest economy came under growing pressure in November as the government intensified crackdowns on polluting industries and financial risks. A man rides an electric tricycle past residential apartment blocks under construction on the outskirts of Beijing, China, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Beijing has pledged to switch course from a prolonged, debt-fuelled investment binge to higher quality and more balanced growth, as signalled by President Xi Jinping during an agenda-setting Communist Party Congress in October. But China watchers are uncertain over how much tolerance the government will have for the inevitable slowdown in economic activity that will follow. Besides ramped-up efforts to shut down factories in some provinces to reduce winter smog, authorities unveiled fresh regulatory measures last month for the financial sector, clamping down on high-risk lending and halting some dubious infrastructure projects that would swell local governments’ debt. Economists believe such measures will lead to a slight moderation in China’s growth in the fourth quarter to around 6.7 percent, after a forecast-beating 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year. Growth in factory output is seen slowing to 6 percent on-year in November from October’s 6.2 percent, according to a Reuters poll of 23 economists. But forecasts varied widely, with the pollution crackdown expected to create a lot of noise around industrial data. Some steel mills in the south, for example, are believed to have cranked up output to take market share as their counterparts in the north have had to curtail production. Fixed-asset investment growth is also predicted to have eased to 7.2 percent in January-November, from a 7.3 percent rise in the first 10 months of the year. A slowing property market under persistent government curbs is also to blame, analysts say. But analysts do not see a risk of a sharp economic slowdown at this point, with a burgeoning tech and services sector and rising household consumption offsetting much of the drag from the slowdown in “smokestack” industries. Retail sales growth is expected to accelerate to 10.2 percent on-year from 10 percent the previous month, buoyed by the annual “Singles’ Day” shopping frenzy promoted by e-commerce giant Alibaba. Industrial output, fixed asset investment and retail sales data are set to be published on Dec. 14. THE BALANCING ACT A government-backed construction boom this year has stimulated a commodities rally from cement to steel, putting Beijing comfortably on track to meet its annual economic growth target of around 6.5 percent. But the government’s “deleveraging” campaign also has led to a rise in borrowing costs, which threaten to curb investment and company profits. Beijing’s solution has been to keep liquidity conditions relatively fluid when markets get overly nervous. While working to reduce riskier activity like high levels of interbank lending, the central bank also has frequently injected funds into money markets to temper rate rises and ensure companies and local governments can meet regular funding needs. Bank lending is expected to have picked up in November, with new loans seen rising to 800 billion yuan (90 billion pounds) from around 663 billion in October. The government drive to rein in shadow banking has pushed some off-balance-sheet lending back onto banks’ books, even as mortgage lending is expected to slow due to restrictions on property speculation. Other data is expected to show inflationary pressures in China moderated slightly. The producer price index (PPI) is expected to rise to 5.9 percent in November, down sharply from 6.9 percent in October likely due to a high base effect but still elevated enough to extend this year’s run of stellar industrial profit growth. However, estimates again varied widely as prices of building materials such as steel have rebounded sharply on fears the pollution shutdowns could lead to supply shortages. Consumer inflation is seen easing slightly to 1.8 percent, well within the government target this year of 3 percent. China’s foreign exchange reserves are expected to be up slightly, rising for a 10th month to $3.12 trillion, as capital controls and a weakening dollar continue to staunch outflows. TRADE TENSIONS External risks for China also may be flaring again, such as worries of growing trade protectionism. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Beijing to reduce the large surplus in bilateral trade, which the administration deems to be unfair, and political issues such as North Korea appear to be also putting trade ties at stake. Trump’s maiden trip in November to Beijing appeared to be fruitful as he claimed to have taken home over $250 billion in deals, but his administration has since moved aggressively to target what it says is China’s dumping of aluminium. While economists say global demand remains solid, they expect China’s export growth to have slowed to 5 percent in November on-year, from 6.9 percent the previous month. Imports may have risen 11.3 percent, again slowing sharply from the previous month, but still producing a trade surplus of $35 billion. China is due to announce foreign exchange reserves data on Dec. 7, followed by trade and inflation data on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9, respectively, while loan and money data is expected anytime from Dec. 10 to Dec. 15. Reporting by Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy/china-november-data-to-show-economy-facing-pressure-from-debt-pollution-crackdowns-idUKKBN1E00ES'|'2017-12-06T07:40:00.000+02:00'
'8889c7fdcb662a716feb2a0f2b20077867525b9f'|'U.S. urges judge to reject AT&T/Time Warner court date proposal'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Tuesday urged a federal judge to reject the February court date sought by AT&T ( T.N ) and Time Warner ( TWX.N ) in a dispute over the firms’ proposed merger, arguing the companies are rushing to meet an April 22 closing deadline for their $85.4 billion deal.FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. on October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The U.S. Justice Department last month sued to block AT&T&rsquo;s planned acquisition of Time Warner, saying the combination could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video.AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had called the companies’ requested court date of Feb. 20 a “reasonable ask.” The government had requested that proceedings start on May 7.AT&T will have to pay Time Warner $500 million if the merger is not consummated by April 22.Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-urges-judge-to-reject-att-time-warner-court-date-proposal-idINKBN1E00A2'|'2017-12-06T01:03:00.000+02:00'
'c9cec6bf1162eefe393f44bdda983487eb0b2eae'|'Fox prefers Disney as buyer for studio, media assets: Bloomberg'|'(Reuters) - Twenty-First Century Fox ( FOXA.O ), the media company controlled by the Murdoch family, favors selling some assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) as it is a better strategic fit and presents fewer regulatory hurdles, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo The company is in talks with Disney and Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) to combine certain assets with the potential buyers, and the Murdoch family aims to make a decision by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg. ( bloom.bg/2igd5oy )Reuters had reported last month that apart from Disney, both Comcast and Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) had also expressed interest in acquiring a significant part of Fox’s assets.The Fox assets that buyers have expressed interest in include Fox’s movie and TV production studios, cable networks FX and National Geographic, and international assets such as the Star network in India, and the European pay TV provider Sky Plc ( SKYB.L ).Fox declined to comment, while Disney and Comcast were not immediately available to comment.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-disney/fox-prefers-disney-as-buyer-for-studio-media-assets-bloomberg-idINKBN1DY2OX'|'2017-12-04T18:40:00.000+02:00'
'969282ab7ce320ad175044faf1cc748e3231aaf6'|'Google unveils new Android software in India to power cheap smartphones'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) Google launched a stripped-down version of its Android software in India on Tuesday, as it attempts to woo millions of basic phone users in the fast-growing wireless services market.FILE PHOTO - A 3D printed Android mascot Bugdroid is seen in front of a Google logo in this illustration taken July 9, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The Android Oreo Go operating system can work on entry-level smartphones with memory of as low as 512 megabytes, Google said on Tuesday, adding it expects devices running on the software to start hitting store shelves in the coming months.With 1.2 billion mobile phone subscribers, India’s wireless services market is second only to China‘s. But, only about a third of these subscribers currently use smartphones, leaving a vast market for Google, handset and telecom firms to further tap.Although prices of smartphones have fallen sharply in the last few years with Chinese and local phone-makers flooding the market with cheaper handsets, they remain out of reach of a section of customers who are also concerned about a smooth user experience in low-priced phones.“The new lighter operating system, if it works well, will likely attract first-time smartphone buyers to devices retailing in the $30 to $75 range,” said Shobhit Srivastava, an analyst at technology researcher Counterpoint, adding that it would also give Google the opportunity to cross-sell other services like its local payments application Tez that launched in September.Phones running on the new Google mobile operating system will also have access to a special version of its Google Play application store, the company said, highlighting the apps designed to work best on the low-memory smartphones.Google, which has increased its focus on the Indian market in recent years with initiatives including providing free wifi services at railway stations, is competing with the likes of Facebook ( FB.O ) and its WhatsApp messenger services for the attention of hundreds of millions of new internet users.Even for those 400 million or so already connected to the internet in India, consumption of mobile data has seen a huge spurt following the entry of a new carrier Reliance Jio, backed by the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.Jio up-ended the market with initially free and later cut-priced offerings that forced established rivals to slash their prices. Jio currently offers plans that allow users to download up to 1 gigabyte of data per day for less that $3 a month.Among other products, Google announced on Tuesday a version of its Google Assistant for JioPhone - a low-cost 4G-enabled device marketed by Jio.It also unveiled a version of Google maps tailored for two-wheeler users.Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Antara Kumar; Additional reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-india/google-unveils-new-android-software-in-india-to-power-cheap-smartphones-idUSKBN1DZ2L1'|'2017-12-05T19:42:00.000+02:00'
'833fd203aa1a647b73f460246b9a19708e2d9a77'|'PRESS DIGEST -Wall Street Journal - Dec 1'|'Dec 1 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Verizon Communications Inc plans to start selling home broadband service over its wireless network in late 2018, a move to challenge the cable industry''s grip on Americans'' internet access. on.wsj.com/2j4Mdso- CVS Health Corp is moving closer to a deal to buy Aetna Inc for more than $66 billion in cash and stock. The deal could be announced by Monday. on.wsj.com/2BpJuQX- Volkswagen AG''s VW brand announced plans Thursday to build one or two electric vehicles in the United States by 2023, probably at its Chattanooga factory, as tougher emissions rules drive the global auto industry toward mass production of battery powered cars. on.wsj.com/2j6uzo1- Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said it accepted a payment in bitcoin for its advisory services, its first in a virtual currency. on.wsj.com/2j4n5Cd- Blue Apron Holdings Inc said its co-founder Matt Salzberg would step down as chief executive and be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Brad Dickerson. on.wsj.com/2j4Dab1- Walt Disney Co sued Redbox in an attempt to stop the DVD rental company from selling digital copies of its movies. on.wsj.com/2j5ASZa- The Donald Trump administration is considering a plan to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the U.S. embassy there in the future, U.S. officials said. on.wsj.com/2j6KeDMCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-1-idUSL3N1O12CJ'|'2017-12-01T07:37:00.000+02:00'
'8a15876e0e8793ca3e347b86b77095343bf1dcc1'|'Foundation Medicine gets nod from FDA and Medicare for cancer test'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - A test from Foundation Medicine Inc that can detect cancer-causing mutations in 324 genes has won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agencies said.The test, known as FoundationOne CDx (F1CDx), is only the second diagnostic test to receive co-ordinated regulatory approval from the two agencies under the Parallel Review Program, the agencies said in a statement on Thursday.That program is designed to help beneficiaries of the federal Medicare program for the elderly get earlier access to innovative medical technologies.Tests like FoundationOne can help doctors tailor cancer treatments to the genetic mutations driving a patient’s tumor.The FoundationOne CDx test also probes tumor samples for biomarkers linked with response to immunotherapy drugs. That includes Merck & Co Inc’s Keytruda, which in May won FDA approval for use in patients whose tumors carry a specific genetic glitch, regardless of where in the body the tumor is located.The FoundationOne test is the first ever FDA-approved comprehensive companion diagnostic for multiple types of cancer. Previously, the FDA has approved such tests as companion diagnostics for drugs targeting a single genetic glitch.Cancer experts are in disagreement as to whether testing tumors for mutations driving the cancer and picking drugs that target these mutations ultimately benefits patients.FDA officials said the approval can help patients avoid the need for multiple biopsies for successive, single-gene tests.“With the run of one test, patients and healthcare professionals can now evaluate several appropriate disease management options,” Dr Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement.The Medicare approval is subject to public comment. The decision covers the FoundationOne test and similar tests from other companies for use by Medicare patients with advanced cancers who continue to seek treatment, the CMS agency said.So far, insurance coverage of such tests has been spotty, largely because private insurers have viewed the tests as lacking adequate evidence of benefit.The approval could “set an important precedent for coverage determinations by private insurers,” said Rebecca Eisenberg of the University of Michigan Law School and Harold Varmus of Weill-Cornell Medicine, in an article published on Thursday in the journal Science.Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-foundation-approval/foundation-medicine-gets-nod-from-fda-and-medicare-for-cancer-test-idUSKBN1DU32T'|'2017-12-01T00:00:00.000+02:00'
'9792044530c2baae64fc8b3028933e2f9b761c88'|'Bitcoin rebounds to $10,500 after U.S. regulator approves futures'|'December 1, 2017 / 1:35 PM / in 3 minutes Bitcoin rebounds to $10,500 after U.S. regulator approves futures Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin rebounded on Friday to hit the day’s highs above $10,500, recovering from an earlier dip below $9,500, after the U.S. derivatives regulator said it would allow CME Group ( CME.O ) and CBOE Global Markets ( CBOE.O ) to list bitcoin futures. The announcement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) paves the way for CME and CBOE to become the first traditional U.S. regulated exchanges to launch trading in bitcoin-related financial contracts, a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency that could lead to greater regulatory scrutiny. Bitcoin, which had been trading at around $10,150 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP before the news, jumped to as high as $10,513 in the 20 minutes that followed, leaving it up more than 5 percent on the day. It has been a volatile week for the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, bitcoin smashed through $10,000 before rocketing past $11,000 less than 12 hours later to an all time-high of $11,395, and then plunging around 20 percent in the hours that followed. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee and Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-rebounds-to-10500-after-u-s-regulator-approves-futures-idUSKBN1DV4XH'|'2017-12-01T15:34:00.000+02:00'
'8b7b244cc1ecaeb6b286d05e7551d9a4b791a338'|'U.S. Senate approves Republicans'' tax overhaul'|'December 2, 2017 / 7:10 AM / Updated an hour ago U.S. Senate approves major tax cuts in victory for Trump David Morgan , Amanda Becker 7 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate narrowly approved a tax overhaul on Saturday, moving Republicans and President Donald Trump a big step closer to their goal of slashing taxes for businesses and the rich while offering everyday Americans a mixed bag of changes. In what would be the largest change to U.S. tax laws since the 1980s, Republicans want to add $1.4 trillion (1.04 trillion pounds) over 10 years to the $20 trillion national debt to finance changes that they say would further boost an already growing economy. Trump, speaking to reporters as he left the White House for New York hours after the pre-dawn vote, praised the Senate for passing “tremendous tax reform” and said “people are going to be very, very happy”. Once the Senate and House of Representatives reconcile their respective versions of the legislation, he said, the resulting bill could cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent “to 20 (percent). It could be 22 (percent) when it comes out. It could also be 20 (percent).” U.S. stock markets have rallied for months on hopes that Washington would provide significant tax cuts for corporations. Celebrating their Senate victory, Republican leaders predicted the tax cuts would encourage U.S. companies to invest more and boost economic growth. “We have an opportunity now to make America more competitive, to keep jobs from being shipped offshore and to provide substantial relief to the middle class,” said Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate. The Senate approved their bill in a 51-49 vote, with Democrats complaining that last-minute amendments to win over skeptical Republicans were poorly drafted and vulnerable to being gamed later. “The Republicans have managed to take a bad bill and make it worse,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “Under the cover of darkness and with the aid of haste, a flurry of last-minute changes will stuff even more money into the pockets of the wealthy and the biggest corporations.” No Democrats voted for the bill, but they were unable to block it because Republicans hold a 52-48 Senate majority. Talks will begin, likely next week, between the Senate and the House, which already has approved its own version of the legislation, to reconcile their respective bills. Trump, who predicted that the negotiations would produce “something beautiful,” wants that to happen before the end of the year. This would allow him and his Republicans to score their first major legislative achievement of 2017 after having controlled the White House, the Senate and the House since he took office in January. Republicans failed in their efforts to repeal the Obamacare healthcare law over the summer and Trump’s presidency has been hit by White House in-fighting and a federal investigation into possible collusion last year between his election campaign team and Russian officials. The tax overhaul is seen by Trump and Republicans as crucial to their prospects at mid-term elections in November 2018, when they will have to defend their majorities in Congress. In a legislative battle that moved so fast a final draft of the bill was unavailable to the public until just hours before the vote, Democrats slammed the proposed tax cuts as a give-away to businesses and the rich financed with billions of dollars in taxpayer debt. The framework for both the Senate and House bills was developed in secret over a few months by a half-dozen Republican congressional leaders and Trump advisers, with little input from the party’s rank-and-file and none from Democrats. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) leaves the Senate floor during debate over the Republican tax reform plan in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan Six Republican senators, who wanted and got last-minute amendments and whose votes had been in doubt, said on Friday they would back the bill and did so. Senator Bob Corker, one of few remaining Republican fiscal hawks who pledged early on to oppose any bill that expanded the federal deficit, was the lone Republican dissenter. “I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that ... could deepen the debt burden on future generations,” said Corker, who is not running for re-election. KEY CHANGES Numerous last-minute changes were made to the bill on Friday and in the early morning hours of Saturday. One was to make state and local property tax deductible up to $10,000, mirroring the House bill. The Senate previously had proposed entirely ending state and local tax deductibility. Slideshow (5 Images) “The tax reform measure that passed the Senate is negative overall for state and local government finances. Lower federal tax rates for businesses and individuals could result in a modest boost to hiring and consumption, positively affecting state and local revenues,” Nick Samuels, Vice President at Moody’s Investors Service, said in a statement. “However, the change to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction would reduce disposable income for many taxpayers, likely outweighing the positive effect of lower federal rates on consumption in many communities and states.” In another change, the alternative minimum tax (AMT), both for individuals and corporations, would not be repealed in full. Instead, the individual AMT would be adjusted and the corporate AMT would be maintained as is, lobbyists said. Another change would put a five-year limit on letting businesses immediately write off the full value of new capital investments. That would phase out over four years starting in year six, rather than be permanent as initially proposed. Under the bill, the corporate tax rate would be permanently slashed to 20 percent from 35 percent, while future foreign profits of U.S.-based firms would be largely exempt, both changes pursued by corporate lobbyists for years. On the individual side, the top tax rate paid by the highest-income earners would be cut slightly. The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, analyzed an earlier but broadly similar version of the bill passed by the Senate tax committee on Nov. 16 and found it would reduce taxes for all income groups in 2019 and 2025, with the largest average tax cuts going to the highest-income Americans. Two Republican senators announced their support for the bill on Friday after winning more tax relief for non-corporate pass-through businesses. These include partnerships and other companies not organized as public corporations, ranging from mom-and-pop concerns to large financial and real estate groups. The bill now features a 23 percent tax deduction for such business owners, up from the original 17.4 percent. The Senate bill would gut a section of Obamacare by repealing a fee paid by some Americans who do not buy health insurance, a step critics said would undermine the Obamacare system and raise insurance premiums for the sick and the old. Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, said she obtained commitments from Republican leaders that steps would be taken later in separate legislation to minimize the impact of the repeal of the “individual mandate” fee. Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Susan Heavey, Richard Cowan and Patrick Rucker in Washington; Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Kieran Murray and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax/u-s-senate-approves-republicans-tax-overhaul-idUKKBN1DW074'|'2017-12-02T09:21:00.000+02:00'
'd8a6b69e0f0e3d76a82593f500d066759d8d5d88'|'SAIC-GM to recall 806,367 vehicles in China - quality watchdog'|'December 1, 2017 / 9:46 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago SAIC-GM to recall 806,367 vehicles in China - quality watchdog Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING, Dec 1 (Reuters) - SAIC General Motors Corp Ltd will recall 806,367 Chevrolet Cruze vehicles in China due to power steering-related issues, the country’s quality watchdog said on Friday. SAIC General Motors is a joint venture between SAIC Motor and General Motors. Earlier, the quality watchdog said another three-way tie-up involving SAIC and GM will recall nearly a million vehicles in China. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-autos-recall/saic-gm-to-recall-806367-vehicles-in-china-quality-watchdog-idUSS6N1NK019'|'2017-12-01T11:44:00.000+02:00'
'636434974729b73e8a0ec5da7dc91d3295a35de0'|'Vietnam''s PV Oil plans Jan IPO that aims to raise at least $92 million'|'HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam state oil distribution firm PetroVietnam Oil Corp (PV Oil) plans to offer 20 percent of its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) in January that aims to raise at least $92 million, its parent firm said on Friday.PV Oil would also offer up to an additional 44.72 percent to strategic investors and another 0.18 percent to employees, state oil and gas group PetroVietnam said in a statement on its website.The sale is part of Vietnam’s broader privatization program that seeks to divest from hundreds of state-owned enterprises to improve their performance and to help raise funds for the tight state budget that has challenged efforts to support growth.The government plans to reduce its stake in PV Oil to 35.1 percent, the PetroVietnam statement showed. Nineteen companies have submitted applications to be PV Oil’s strategic investors, and three quarters of those are foreign investors, the firm said.PV Oil is Vietnam’s sole crude oil exporter and among the country’s top oil products retailers with a 22 percent market share in the domestic oil products market, the company said on its website.PV Oil’s sale is among several state energy firms earmarked for privatization, including PetroVietnam Power Co and refinery operator Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Corp (BSR), whose IPO is also targeted for January at the latest.PV Oil said earlier this year its first half pre-tax profit was estimated at 202 billion dong ($8.89 million), down 6 percent from the same period in 2016, while its revenue during January-June rose 43 percent on year to 23.4 trillion dong.($1 = 22,715 dong)Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-pv-oil-sale/vietnams-pv-oil-plans-jan-ipo-that-aims-to-raise-at-least-92-million-idINKBN1DV3S8'|'2017-12-01T02:54:00.000+02:00'
'6893a9b620226f302b5ae68cf45bacd2f168d50a'|'METALS-Nickel get boost from Chinese steel market gains'|'December 4, 2017 / 11:31 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago METALS-Nickel get boost from Chinese steel market gains Reuters Staff * LME/ShFE arb: bit.ly/2wZSAEz (Updates with official prices) By Eric Onstad LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Nickel gained on Monday as the metal mainly used in stainless steel got a boost after Chinese steel futures touched three-month highs. Steel and iron ore contracts in Shanghai surged on Monday as government-ordered steel production cutbacks to reduce pollution led to tighter supplies for some mill products. But the stronger prices might not last long because eventually the steel production cutbacks during the peak Chinese smog season in the winter would mean less need for nickel, Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics, said. Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange climbed 0.8 percent to $11,385 a tonne in official open outcry trading, building on gains of 1.6 percent on Friday. Capital Economics expects nickel - which has declined 12 percent from a two-year peak of $13,030 hit on Nov. 1 - to end this year at $10,750. Other metals are also likely to see a modest amount of further downside, Bain added. “There’s quite a lot of speculation in the market and we think there’s over-optimism about the strength of Chinese demand,” she said. “I think there are clear signs now that the economy is cooling, particularly in the metals-intensive industries.” * DOLLAR: Weighing on the wider metals complex was a rebound in the dollar after the U.S. Senate approved a tax overhaul at the weekend. A firmer dollar makes commodities priced in the greenback more expensive to buyers using other currencies. * COPPER: LME three month copper traded unchanged in official rings at $6,833 a tonne. “Whilst China property concerns remain, steady global growth expectations coupled with on-going mine supply disruptions are likely to lend support on dips with $6,550-$6,650 the bottom of a new range,” Alastair Munro at broker Marex Spectron said. * CHINA: China’s economic growth target for 2018 will reflect new changes in the economy as the government puts more emphasis on higher quality development, the State Council Information Office said on Monday. Policy sources have told Reuters that China’s leaders are likely to maintain this year’s growth target of “around 6.5 percent” in 2018. * CHINA: Global miner Rio Tinto pointed to a possible slowing in China over the next six months, with a weakening in construction, infrastructure and automotive demand growth, but said it remains optimistic about China in the medium to long term. * ALUMINIUM: LME aluminium fell 0.2 percent to $2,071 a tonne in official trading. China’s central Shanxi province has introduced new rules curbing water use for steel, cement and aluminium production, state-media reported. * PRICES: Zinc shed 0.7 percent to $3,228 a tonne in official rings, lead, untraded in rings, was bid up 0.4 percent at $2,553 and tin rose 0.2 percent to $19,500. Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Gareth Jones and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-nickel-get-boost-from-chinese-steel-market-gains-idUSL3N1O43AZ'|'2017-12-04T15:17:00.000+02:00'
'd873b571130b17e77ca06850eaa9031f92e1105c'|'UK factories plan to ramp up investment - EEF'|'December 4, 2017 / 12:08 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Factories plan to ramp up investment - EEF Andy Bruce 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British factories intend to increase investment at the strongest pace in four years, adding to signs that manufacturing will help support an otherwise sluggish economy in 2018, an industry survey showed on Monday. FILE PHOTO - Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May (2nd R), Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell (L) and Martek Managing Director Derek Galloway (2nd L) speak with a worker as they visit a joinery factory in London, Britain August 3, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall Europe’s fast-recovering economy has helped Britain’s factory sector grow quickly at the end of 2017, according to the quarterly report from manufacturing association EEF and accountants BDO. Other surveys in recent weeks have also shown a pickup in British manufacturing activity. Still, the sector makes up only a tenth of overall British economic output and growth in the services sector -- which is roughly eight times as big -- has been patchier. Higher inflation largely caused by the fall in the pound after last year’s Brexit vote has pushed up costs for households and businesses this year, contributing to Britain’s lagging economic performance compared with European peers. The Confederation of British Industry on Monday predicted economic growth of around 1.5 percent this year will be repeated in 2018, describing Britain’s performance as “steady but subdued”. That compares with its forecast for growth of 1.8 percent in the euro zone next year. EEF took a slightly dimmer view of Britain’s prospects for next year, expecting economic growth of 1.3 percent, but said manufacturing looked likely to outperform other sectors. “Stronger global growth has cemented the foundations for growth in manufacturing this year, but the sector’s contribution to the UK economy has been greater than most expected,” EEF economist Lee Hopley said. “There is some confidence that this momentum will carry into 2018, but as we head towards the Brexit end game we need manufacturing to produce the same trick of broad-based growth again next year.” Manufacturers’ investment intentions rose to their highest since the second quarter of 2014, a good omen for Bank of England officials who expect business investment will improve next year. But EEF said there was some evidence that much of the investment was to help cope with short-term demand, with Brexit uncertainty dampening plans for larger-scale projects. Manufacturers expected a sharp increase in selling prices for both domestic and export goods over the next three months, in part reflecting a recent increase energy and commodity costs. The CBI said it thought consumer price inflation had already peaked at 3 percent in October. It pencilled three further BoE interest rate hikes by the end of 2019, starting with one in the third quarter of 2018 -- slightly earlier than the consensus of economists polled by Reuters. The BoE raised rates last month for the first time in a decade. “We expect domestic demand to remain soft. Household spending will remain under pressure from squeezed real wages and Brexit uncertainty will weigh on business investment,” said Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief economist. Reporting by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-manufacturing/uk-factories-plan-to-ramp-up-investment-eef-idUKKBN1DY005'|'2017-12-04T02:10:00.000+02:00'
'47ef4f4253bccf6fc832435b468c459799454070'|'Bitcoin surges above $15,000 after climbing $2,000 in 12 hours'|' 24 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Bitcoin surges above $15,000 after climbing $2,000 in 12 hours Jemima Kelly 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin rocketed above $15,000 for the first time on Thursday, after adding more than $2,000 to its price in fewer than 12 hours. A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, has seen a more than fifteenfold surge in its value since the start of the year. It climbed to as high as $15,344 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange around 1420 GMT, leaving it up more than 12 percent on the day, having traded just above $13,000 12 hours earlier. Many market-watchers said the launch this weekend of bitcoin futures by CBOE, one of the world’s biggest derivatives exchanges, was helping drive up the price on expectations it would draw more investors to the market. “Futures trading will mean more demand...and is a form of ratification of the underlying tech - bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. They are now on the main stage,” said Charles Hayter, founder of cryptocurrency data analysis firm Cryptocompare. But some are warning that the launch of bitcoin futures, which will allow investors to take speculative “short” positions on the cryptocurrency, as well as “long” positions, could cause even greater volatility. “Aggressive traders, such as hedge funds and algorithm-driven funds, (will be able) to use this futures market to enter bitcoin trading with high levels of liquidity for aggressive short-selling and knock the prices really low,” said Think Markets analyst Naeem Aslam. “Players now have an incentive to be on the short side and make profits hedging against the upside.” The latest surge brought bitcoin’s “market cap” - its price multiplied by the total number of bitcoins in circulation - to more than $260 billion, according to Coinmarketcap, a trade website. That, in theory, makes its market value higher than that of Visa. The value of all cryptocurrencies now stands at around $415 billion, according to Coinmarketcap. Bitcoin has more than tripled in price since the start of October, putting it on track for its best quarter since the end of 2013, when it surged above $1,000 for the first time. It slumped in 2014, after Mt Gox, then the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, collapsed, saying it had been hacked and had 650,000 bitcoins stolen. Reporting by Jemima Kelly, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-surges-above-15000-after-climbing-2000-in-12-hours-idUKKBN1E11YT'|'2017-12-07T16:23:00.000+02:00'
'c27191667ff6620a71aab88bfdb86f627f26dc79'|'Fnac Darty eyes higher margin mid-term, Carrefour deal soon'|' 01 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Fnac Darty eyes higher margin mid-term, Carrefour deal soon Dominique Vidalon 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French consumer electronics retailer Fnac Darty on Monday said it banked on merger synergies and its ability to deliver sales growth above that of its markets to nearly double its operating margin mid-term. A logo is seen on the entrance of a store of the retail chain Fnac in Paris, France, April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen Chief Executive Enrique Martinez confirmed during a call that Fnac Darty ( FNAC.PA ) and French retailer Carrefour ( CARR.PA ) were discussing an alliance to negotiate better terms when purchasing from electronics suppliers and that a deal could be clinched soon. “There is an ongoing discussion with Carrefour and it is not impossible that we reach an agreement quickly,” Martinez said, adding that the purchasing deal would be limited to France. Fnac Darty was created last year when Fnac, which sells books and music, won a bidding war with Conforama for control of household goods and electronics equipment maker Darty. The merger created a French market leader with more than 690 stores and with sales of over 7 billion euros (£6.1 billion). The deal was seen as an opportunity for Fnac to build scale to compete with online retailers, such as Amazon ( AMZN.O ), as well as to create synergies in purchasing and other areas. Fnac Darty reiterated that 130 million euros of synergies from the merger would be delivered by end-2018. It said its mid-term target was an operating margin of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent against 2.7 percent in 2016. The retailer, which is 24 percent-owned since July by German peer Ceconomy ( CECG.DE ), said it would open over 200 new franchise stores under its new strategic plan “Confiance +” and further invest in the digitalisation of its stores, its e-commerce platforms and its logistics assets. It would spend between 130 million and 140 million euros per year on digital investments against 100 million previously. ALTERNATIVE TO PURE PLAYERS At a time when brick and mortar retailers worldwide feel the heat from e-commerce giant Amazon, Fnac Darty said its goal was to create “Europe’s benchmark omnichannel services platform.” With online sales making 17 percent of turnover, it was positioning itself as “a solid and profitable alternative” to digital pure players. Apart from a future purchasing alliance with Carrefour, Martinez said his group was mulling opening Fnac Darty shops within other retailers’ stores and also progressively opening its logistics assets to third parties. “We have regular contacts with all the players,” Martinez said. Alexandre Bompard, the former boss of Fnac Darty, took over as CEO at Carrefour, the world’s largest retailer after Walmart, in July. He will unveil his strategy for Carrefour on Jan. 23, following a profit warning in August. Bompard remains a board member at Fnac Darty until end-2017. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Pascale Denis; Editing by Ingrid Melander'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fnacdarty-plan/fnac-darty-eyes-higher-margin-mid-term-carrefour-deal-soon-idUKKBN1DY2CX'|'2017-12-04T20:00:00.000+02:00'
'e8e479c22106173fc909d704152176859bf384b8'|'Nikkei in worst fall for 8 1/2 months, Middle East concerns weigh'|'* Investors rush to take profits after break of 25-day average* Trump’s plan on Jerusalem fans worries about Middle EastBy Hideyuki SanoTOKYO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average posted its biggest fall in 8 1/2 months on Wednesday as investors rushed to lock in gains after it broke below the key technical support from its 25-day moving average.Market sentiment was also bruised on the news U.S. President Donald Trump will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and set in motion the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to the ancient city, a move that is feared could fuel violence in the Middle East.The Nikkei share average fell 2 percent, its biggest daily fall since March 22, to a near three-week low of 22,177.04.A clear break of its 25-day moving average, above which it had stayed since September, prompted selling. The average stood at 22,514 on Wednesday.Market players said investors rushed to take profits from gains in recent months, with materials and other cyclical shares leading the losses following a tumble in copper prices.The non-ferrous metals producer index fell 3.0 percent to become the top loser among the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 industry subindexes, followed by miners and shippers.Nikkei heavyweights Fast Retailing and Nitto Denko fell 4.9 percent and 4.4 percent respectively, helping the Nikkei underperform broader Topix, which fell 1.5 percent to 1,765.42.The turnover hit 3.2 trillion yen, 33 percent more than the average over the past year.In the main board, 82 percent of shares dropped while only 15 percent made gains.“There are many excuses to sell at the moment, the Middle East, North Korea, worries about Russia-gate, you name it. But essentially people just hurried to take profits now,” said Yasuo Sakuma, chief investment officer at Libra Investments. (Additional reporting by Tomo Uetake; Editing by Eric Meijer) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-in-worst-fall-for-8-1-2-months-middle-east-concerns-weigh-idINL3N1O62I5'|'2017-12-06T03:58:00.000+02:00'
'974f2dee0c2f6b7411f6f20e6bcc0d4dfd936cb2'|'T-Mobile board approves up to $1.5 billion buyback program'|'(Reuters) - U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ) said on Wednesday its board authorized a buyback program for up to $1.5 billion of the company’s common stock.FILE PHOTO: A T-Mobile logo is advertised on a building sign in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The stock repurchase program would take place through Dec. 31, 2018, the company said.Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said in November that the company would propose a “significant” share buyback that could start in December, signaling the company is confident in its outlook following the collapse of deal talks with Sprint Corp ( S.N ).Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-t-mobile-buyback/t-mobile-board-approves-up-to-1-5-billion-buyback-program-idINKBN1E01RX'|'2017-12-06T10:24:00.000+02:00'
'f87cb1146c49b4e26cdfd50f0d3e469fb9febf7a'|'MOVES-Houlihan Lokey government services bankers decamp for Baird'|' 07 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago MOVES-Houlihan Lokey government services bankers decamp for Baird Mike Stone 2 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Two senior investment bankers specializing in government services, aerospace and defense are departing boutique investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc for competitor Robert W. Baird, three people familiar with the moves said on Wednesday. Two Washington D.C.-based managing directors, John Song and Jean Stack, as well as a third banker, are leaving Houlihan’s 13-person government services, aerospace and defense practice which advises on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the moves were not yet announced. A spokesperson for Houlihan Lokey declined to comment. Robert W. Baird did not respond to a request for comment. Stack is a founding member and Co-Head of Houlihan’s Government Services Group. The Houlihan Lokey aerospace, defense and government services team has done billions of dollars in deals in the several years it has been together. On Sunday, Houlihan’s aerospace and defense team shared deal credit with investment bank Evercore on the sale of microwave components maker Anaren to TTM Technologies Inc for $775 million. (Reporting by Mike Stone, Editing by Rosalba O‘Brien)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/baird-moves/moves-houlihan-lokey-government-services-bankers-decamp-for-baird-idUSL1N1O5266'|'2017-12-06T20:05:00.000+02:00'
'455489c3bd40ea40b2f98fa2747c1ce41cf1ca96'|'Britain''s Genel finds oil bearing reservoirs in north end of Taq Taq field'|'December 4, 2017 / 7:50 AM / Updated 42 minutes ago Britain''s Genel finds oil bearing reservoirs in north end of Taq Taq field Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Genel Energy Plc ( GENL.L ) said on Monday that one of its wells, drilled to appraise the northern end of its Taq Taq oilfield in Kurdistan region of Iraq, encountered oil bearing reservoirs. The main objective of the well, which has been drilled since February, was to reduce uncertainty about the free water level in the north flank of the field. Further development of the Cretaceous reservoir had been deferred pending results of the testing programme. Genel said the well, which was drilled to a measured depth of 3,100 metres, encountered good quality oil bearing Cretaceous Shiranish and Kometan reservoirs. “Combined with the testing results, management is optimistic for the potential of the northern flank of the Taq Taq field,” said Genel, one of a handful of foreign oil firms in Iraqi Kurdistan. However, the company said it was too early to estimate what impact the well result would have on reserves, long-term production rates or future investment activity in the northern flank and the field as a whole. The Taq Taq field currently has gross production of 15,100 barrels per day of oil. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-genel-energy-production/britains-genel-finds-oil-bearing-reservoirs-in-north-end-of-taq-taq-field-idUKKBN1DY0NM'|'2017-12-04T09:50:00.000+02:00'
'd90f4ab744423c5a65cb642e908f0c24e877d32c'|'Idorsia to get $230 million from J&J in latest hypertension deal'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - Idorsia ( IDIA.S ), the Swiss drugmaker spun off from Actelion after it was bought by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) ( JNJ.N ), will receive a one-time payment of $230 million from J&J&rsquo;s Janssen unit as they partner on aprocitentan for resistant hypertension.Aprocitentan is a metabolite of Actelion’s Opsumit. Idorsia and J&J are seeking to develop it to treat hypertension patients whose disease has failed at least three therapies. The costs are to be shared equally by Idorsia and J&J, the Swiss firm said on Monday.With this collaboration, Idorsia Chief Scientific Officer Martine Clozel is sticking to a disease specialty -- hypertension -- that she focused on to build up Actelion in the 1990s to its $30 billion sale to J&J earlier this year.“Janssen has recognized the potential of aprocitentan, the latest product from a research effort that was initiated nearly 30 years ago,” Clozel, who with her husband Jean-Paul is a co-founder of Idorsia, said in a statement.Following the announcement, Idorsia shares were seen rising 3.9 percent according to premarket indicators. Idorsia’s shares have doubled since beginning trading in June.Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-idorsia-deal-johnson-johnson/idorsia-to-get-230-million-from-jj-in-latest-hypertension-deal-idINKBN1DY0NQ'|'2017-12-04T04:49:00.000+02:00'
'bf8fbe6e77b0c0b049c04d014b2efea1dc840a2d'|'Fox prefers Disney as buyer for studio, media assets - Bloomberg'|'December 4, 2017 / 9:38 PM / a minute ago Fox prefers Disney as buyer for studio, media assets: Bloomberg   (Reuters) - Media company Twenty-First Century Fox ( FOXA.O ), controlled by the Murdoch family, favors selling some assets to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) as it is a better strategic fit and presents fewer regulatory hurdles, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo The company is said to be in talks on combining certain media assets, including Fox''s stake in European pay-TV provider Sky Plc as well as its Twentieth Century Fox TV and Film studio, with Disney and Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ), Bloomberg reported. ( bloom.bg/2igd5oy ) Reuters had reported last month that apart from Disney, both Comcast and Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ) had also expressed interest in acquiring a significant part of Fox’s assets. Fox and Disney were   to comment. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-disney/fox-prefers-disney-as-buyer-for-studio-media-assets-bloomberg-idUKKBN1DY2OX'|'2017-12-04T23:35:00.000+02:00'
'732ec1c6641c7f159ffa05aad1755307acda8982'|'BOJ is resolved to keep ultra-easy policy, says Kuroda'|'December 4, 2017 / 10:20 AM / Updated 41 minutes ago BOJ is resolved to keep ultra-easy policy, says Kuroda Leika Kihara 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan does not plan to change its massive stimulus programme and will “immediately act” if risks to the economy undermines the momentum toward achieving its inflation target, central bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday. Central Bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda of the Bank of Japan attends ECB''s Central Bank Communications Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach While offering a sanguine view of the global economy, Kuroda warned of factors that could threaten the recovery including geopolitical risks and the rising tide of protectionism. “Particularly, what I‘m concerned about are protectionist tendencies in some countries and geopolitical risks surrounding the world economy,” Kuroda told a Europlace financial forum. “I sincerely hope that the multilateral trading system would be maintained in coming years,” he said. U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach has raised concerns among some policymakers in Asia, where many export-reliant economies including Japan benefit from free trade and advocate multilateral trade agreements. Asked if he has become more worried about the demerits of ultra-loose policy, Kuroda said the BOJ had not changed its message since revamping its policy framework last September. The BOJ changed its strategy by revamping its framework last September, when it noted the yield curve had became “too flat” and wasn’t good for the banking system, Kuroda said. “We have been able to maintain yield curve control quite effectively and efficiently without creating financial problems,” he said, adding that current levels of the BOJ’s yield targets were “quite appropriate”. “We will continue our current extremely accommodative monetary policy to achieve the 2 percent inflation target as soon as possible,” the governor said. The BOJ has been dropping subtle, yet intentional, hints that it could edge away from crisis-mode stimulus earlier than expected, sources have said. Kuroda said that while geopolitical risks were “very difficult to predict,” the BOJ would be mindful of the possibility they could threaten Japan’s economic recovery. “If anything happens to undermine the momentum toward achieving our price stability target, we would immediately act in accordance to specific needs,” Kuroda said. “At this stage, I‘m not concerned about that,” since the global economic outlook is “fairly strong and robust”. The BOJ revamped its policy framework last September to one targeting interest rates from the pace of asset purchases after three years of heavy money printing failed to fire up inflation to its 2 percent target. It now guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year government bond yield around zero percent. Editing by Minami Funakoshi and Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-kuroda-ycc/boj-is-resolved-to-keep-ultra-easy-policy-says-kuroda-idINKBN1DY0YL'|'2017-12-04T12:14:00.000+02:00'
'3e71427cc92444a249c8d2f169d58d67fa3ab39a'|'ArcelorMittal''s Ilva bid stalled, but EU steel to benefit either way'|'December 4, 2017 / 4:57 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago ArcelorMittal''s Ilva bid stalled, but EU steel to benefit either way Maytaal Angel , Massimiliano Di Giorgio 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal’s bid to buy Italian steel major Ilva may have hit serious snags, but the European Union’s steel sector is set to benefit in the short term whether or not there is a deal. A logo is seen on the roof of the ArcelorMittal steelworks headquarters in Ostrava, Czech Republic, April 1, 2016. REUTERS/David W Cerny/File Photo Italy’s Puglia and Taranto regions last week lodged a court appeal against ArcelorMittal’s takeover of Ilva which, if successful, could scupper the deal and lead to the temporary shutdown of Europe’s largest steel plant. Meanwhile, EU antitrust authorities have opened a full inquiry which is likely to see ArcelorMittal’s junior bid partner, Italian steel processor Marcegaglia, exit the deal to buy Ilva. But a rally in European steel prices, which have soared by some 75 percent since the start of last year, is unlikely to be derailed by either outcome, steel industry participants told Reuters following the recent developments. “It doesn’t change anything to have Marcegaglia out of the consortium,” Tomasso Sandrini, chief executive of steel service centre S.Polo Lamiere, told Reuters. With Marcegaglia holding just a 6 percent share in the partnership, it would have had a negligible influence on EU steel prices as it would in any case have been unable to co-ordinate its sales strategy with ArcelorMittal-Ilva, he said. EU antitrust authorities in November upgraded their investigation into whether the proposed purchase of Ilva by the consortium led by ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, will lead to steel price hikes. A few weeks later, the Puglia and Taranto regions filed an appeal against the takeover that counter-intuitively put the EU steel sector in a win-win situation in the short term, investment bank Jefferies says. “If the appeal is successful, Ilva may be at least temporarily shut down, removing 6 percent of Euro flat steel production and likely driving spot prices higher,” it said. On the other hand, a successful takeover of Ilva would improve the pricing power of EU steelmakers in the longer term by reducing the number of sellers in the market. ArcelorMittal’s proposed takeover of Ilva comes as steel majors Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp look to combine their European assets, meaning anti-trust authorities have to proceed with particular caution as regards the deals. Already, ArcelorMittal has approached Italian steelmaker Arvedi, among others, about buying its mills in Piombino, Italy, an Arvedi spokesman told Reuters. The Piombino mills make 800,000 tonnes per year of galvanised steel, used in the autos, white goods and construction sectors Market concentration in the EU galvanised steel is of particular concern to authorities investigating the Ilva deal, sources say, with Marcegaglia a big player alongside ArcelorMittal and Ilva. Berenberg said earlier this year that Ilva’s privatisation alone will see EU steel prices rise by 10-20 euro per tonne, while that of Tata-Thyssenkrupp will boost prices further still. ArcelorMittal reached a 1.8-billion-euro (£1.5 billion) deal to buy Ilva in June, and plans to invest another 2.4 billion euros cleaning up and modernising a plant which has been dogged by charges of corruption and environmental crime for years. In 2012, Italian authorities ruled emissions of dust and cancer-causing chemicals from the plant had caused deaths, tumours and respiratory disease. About half the plant’s annual 11 million tonne capacity was eventually mothballed. Additional reporting Foo Yun Chee and Francesco Guarascio; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-arcelormittal-m-a-anti-trust/arcelormittals-ilva-bid-stalled-but-eu-steel-to-benefit-either-way-idUKKBN1DY272'|'2017-12-04T18:56:00.000+02:00'
'132b766ebc2368ea2ca4d65cf80b97a625332b11'|'PSA Group and Japan''s Nidec to set up electric car engine venture'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot carmaker PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ) is to bring the development and production of its electric motors back to France after creating a joint venture with Japan’s Nidec Corp ( 6594.T ) that will initially invest 200 million euros ($237 million).FILE PICTURE: The Peugeot logo is seen at a dealership of French car maker PSA Peugeot-Citroen in Selestat, eastern France, September 7, 2012. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler The France-based tie-up with the Japanese maker of electric motors will equip all new Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall electric cars from 2022, taking over from Germany’s Continental ( CONG.DE ) and the Valeo-Siemens Automotive ( VLOF.PA ) ( SIEGn.DE ) joint venture which will equip the first electric and hybrid-power cars the group launches in 2019.PSA is following Renault ( RENA.PA ), which repatriated its electric motor production several years ago.“Through this partnership, the goal is to move to a strategic phase that gives us more control,” Patrice Lucas, PSA’s executive vice president for strategy, said in a presentation.The PSA-Nidec venture is expected to have a production capacity of 900,000 motors per year from 2022, he said.The market for electric vehicle motors is expected to double to 45 billion euros ($53 billion) over the next two decades, the companies said in a statement, as the industry undergoes profound change, with consumers increasingly demanding alternatives to combustion engines.Nidec will operate the joint venture through Nidec Leroy-Somer, the French electric motor company it acquired in February this year for $1.2 billion.Tetsuo Onishi, executive vice president for Nidec, said that the capital structure of the joint venture would remain split 50-50 once production began but that Nidec would take control of sales.PSA will be the main customer, he said, but production will be open to other carmakers as well.Nidec manufactures motors for products ranging from hard disk drives to elevators and automobiles, and owns the U.S. Motors brand.And as global competition heats up to develop electric cars and automated driving functions, the highly acquisitive Japanese company has said it wants to become a global auto parts supplier rivaling Germany’s Robert Bosch [ROBG.UL] and its compatriot Denso Corp ( 6902.T ).It announced last week it had bought driveXpert GmbH, which makes electronic control units for automobiles and earlier this year it acquired the motor and electric power generation businesses of Emerson Electric( EMR.N ).The PSA deal remains subject to antitrust clearance and consultations with employee representatives.The joint venture’s headquarters will be in Carrieres-sous-Poissy near Paris with production to be based at PSA’s huge diesel engine plant in Tremery.Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Potter, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-psa-nidec/psa-group-and-japans-nidec-to-set-up-electric-car-engine-venture-idINKBN1DY0VG'|'2017-12-04T06:24:00.000+02:00'
'5955ca2bab2c03d2491fc9d43ebe30f91c1bc2b8'|'Saudi Arabian exchange enlists Nasdaq to turbocharge technology'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s Stock Exchange said on Monday it has hired U.S. group Nasdaq ( NDAQ.O ) to replace its 16-year-old registry, depository and settlement infrastructure as it tackles challenges including the forthcoming listing of Saudi Aramco.FILE PHOTO: Passersby walk in front of the NASDAQ market site in New York''s Times Square, May 3, 2012. REUTERS/Keith Bedford/File Photo The kingdom is rapidly developing its stock market, which has a capitalization of about $450 billion, to attract foreign capital as it seeks to reduce the economy’s dependence on oil.The Saudi government aims to raise tens of billions of dollars by selling about 5 percent of national oil giant Saudi Aramco in the second half of 2018, in what could be the world’s biggest initial public offering.Officials also aim to introduce trading of government and corporate bonds, and told Reuters in April that the exchange should be ready for equity futures and options in about 24 months, after completing reforms to help it manage the risks.The Nasdaq technology, which is due to be installed by the end of 2020, will create a new central counterparty clearing system for the market, the Saudi exchange said. It did not disclose the value of the agreement with Nasdaq.The government has said it intends to list Aramco shares in Riyadh and at least one foreign market, but the Saudi exchange’s chief executive said last month that it hoped to be the exclusive venue for the listing, and that it was working hard to convince Aramco of the advantages of such a move.Reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Andrew Torchia and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tadawul-nasdaq/saudi-arabian-exchange-enlists-nasdaq-to-turbocharge-technology-idUSKBN1DY1AK'|'2017-12-04T13:57:00.000+02:00'
'aac209110d54ae4525b342e21cf03e638730b7bb'|'Global air passenger traffic demand up 7.2 percent in October: IATA'|'Global demand for air travel climbed 7.2 percent in October, rebounding after September was disrupted by hurricanes, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: A plane is seen during take off in New Jersey behind the Statue of Liberty in New York''s Harbor as seen from the Brooklyn borough of New York February 20, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “As expected, the recent severe weather in the Americas region had only a temporary impact on the healthy travel demand we have seen this year,” IATA’s CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, said. It said airline capacity rose 6.2 percent and load factor - a measure of how full planes are - increased by 0.8 percentage points to 80.8 percent. IATA said it expected passenger traffic demand to continue its upwards trend in 2018. It will on Tuesday present its updated economic forecasts for the industry at a media event in Geneva. Reporting by Stratos Karakasidis; Editing by Victoria Bryan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airlines-iata-passenger/global-air-passenger-traffic-demand-up-7-2-percent-in-october-iata-idUSKBN1DY13V'|'2017-12-04T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'd671221b30efc8513edf23d3c019c55eeafafda6'|'Irish services sector growth slips to 12-month low in November - PMI'|'December 5, 2017 / 6:08 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Irish services sector growth slips to 12-month low in November - PMI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN, (Reuters) - Ireland’s services sector expanded at the slowest pace in 12 months in November due to weaker domestic demand, a survey showed on Tuesday. The Investec Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) eased to 56.0 in November from 57.5 a month earlier. The index has nevertheless held comfortably above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction since August 2012, when Ireland was halfway through a three-year financial bailout programme. Like the wider economy, services firms have so far proved resilient to neighbouring Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. But while new export orders remained firm in November, growth in new orders overall fell to its lowest level in 12 months, the survey showed. Managers remained optimistic, however, with business sentiment ticking up slightly in the month. “Despite the slightly slower pace of current growth implied by the headline PMI, Irish services firms remain upbeat about the outlook for the sector,” said Investec Ireland chief economist Philip O‘Sullivan. “A number of panellists expect new export orders to be a key driver of growth in 2018 and, given the improving international backdrop, we think that this is a very reasonable assessment of the sector’s prospects,” he said. Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-economy-pmi/irish-services-sector-growth-slips-to-12-month-low-in-november-pmi-idUKKBN1DZ0HK'|'2017-12-05T08:07:00.000+02:00'
'23cc65416c05e00b8f1ae8f08012d6f94fbc6b8e'|'Cineworld to buy U.S. peer Regal Entertainment for $3.6 billion'|'(Reuters) - Britain’s Cineworld Group Plc ( CINE.L ) sealed an agreement to buy larger U.S. peer Regal Entertainment Group ( RGC.N ) on Tuesday for $3.6 billion in cash, a deal that would create the world’s second largest movie theater operator.File Picture: Workers repair a sign at a Cineworld cinema in Bradford northern England, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble The takeover would put the combined company in a better position to take on industry leader AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc ( AMC.N ), and give it more scale to fight growing competition from Netflix Inc ( NFLX.O ), Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and other digital outlets.Regal is three times larger than Cineworld by market value and the combined company would have about 9,542 screens, with 7,315 screens in the United States.Movie theaters have been struggling to win back viewers as competition from digital streaming platforms draws movie-goers away.Cineworld Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger brushed aside those concerns.“When they go to the cinema, they go to the cinema and who loves to go to the cinema more than the Americans?,” Greidinger told Reuters.Greidinger said he expects to boost margins and revenue at Regal, adding that Cineworld currently has margins of 22 percent, while Regal has margins of about 19.6-19.7 percent.Rival AMC is majority owned by China’s Dalian Wanda Group which has bought a slew of cinema assets around the world, including taking a controlling stake in U.S. film studio Legendary Entertainment last year.The approach by Cineworld was considered well-timed as shares in the U.S. company have plunged more than 20 percent over the last year on concerns over stagnant admissions at theaters.The deal value of $23 per Regal share represents a premium of about 12 percent to Regal’s closing price on Monday and implies an enterprise value - equity plus debt - of $5.8 billion.Regal shares have risen 13.6 percent since Reuters first reported in November that Cineworld had approached Regal over a potential deal. Cineworld shares have fallen about 20 percent in the period.Cineworld said it expected the deal to “strongly” add to earnings in the first full year following completion, currently expected in the first quarter of 2018.The combined company is expected to deliver pre-tax benefits of $100 million, as well as additional annual benefits of $50 million, the companies said.Cineworld said it expected to fund the deal through a rights issue to raise about 1.7 billion pounds ($2.3 billion), with the rest provided by committed debt facilities and existing cash.Cineworld expects to be able to maintain its existing dividend policy after the deal closes.However, brokerage Peel Hunt cut its recommendation to “hold” from “add”, citing long-term concerns.While the deal provided a step-change in profitability and cash flow for Cineworld, “the long-term investment proposition had fundamentally changed as a result of higher debt and earnings becoming heavily dominated by mature markets,” Peel Hunt analysts wrote.Cineworld shares were down 2.5 percent, while Regal shares were up 6.1 percent in pre-market trading.Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer, Mark Potter and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-regal-entnmnt-gp-m-a-cineworld-group/cineworld-to-buy-u-s-peer-regal-entertainment-for-3-6-billion-idINKBN1DZ0PN'|'2017-12-05T04:41:00.000+02:00'
'e86f0cd0f3ae7665894f25085860d9864a0b5b83'|'MOVES-BNP Paribas asset management arm hires Lelief to ETF sales team'|'Dec 4 (Reuters) - The asset management arm of BNP Paribas appointed Elodie Lelief to its ETF and indexed fund solutions sales team.Lelief, who began her career at BNP Paribas in 2006 as a financial analyst for key corporate accounts, will focus on French-speaking clients, the firm said. (Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bnp-paribas-moves-elodie-lelief/moves-bnp-paribas-asset-management-arm-hires-lelief-to-etf-sales-team-idINL3N1O43KC'|'2017-12-04T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'1535fdbaf3cd30f6d60ad93747d6d67bd8cc445a'|'Volkswagen executive faces sentencing in U.S. emissions fraud case'|'December 6, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Volkswagen executive faces sentencing in U.S. emissions fraud case Nick Carey 3 Min Read DETROIT, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG executive Oliver Schmidt will be sentenced in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday for his part in a diesel emissions scandal that has cost the German automaker as much as $30 billion. Under a plea agreement, Schmidt, a German national, will face up to seven years in prison and a fine between $40,000 and $400,000 after admitting to conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violating clean-air laws. He pleaded guilty to those charges in August. In a sentencing memorandum submitted to U.S. District Judge Sean Cox, U.S. prosecutors argued Schmidt should be sentenced to the full seven years in prison. “The defendant had a leadership role within VW, and as a consequence of that role, was literally ‘in the room’ for important decisions during the height of the criminal scheme, including when decisions were made to continue to hide the fraud from U.S. regulators and the U.S. public,” prosecutors argued. Schmidt’s attorney, David DuMouchel, asked that the judge impose a sentence of no more than 40 months and a $100,000 fine in line with his client’s “limited role” in the scheme. “Mr. Schmidt is substantially less culpable than... the numerous senior-level VW executives (most of whom will never appear in a U.S. courthouse) who initiated, designed, implemented, and refined the defeat device over nine years before Mr. Schmidt became involved,” DuMouchel wrote. In March, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three felony counts under a plea agreement to resolve U.S. charges that it installed secret software in vehicles in order to elude emissions tests. U.S. prosecutors have charged eight current and former Volkswagen executives so far. Earlier this year, Schmidt was charged with 11 felony counts and federal prosecutors said he could have faced a maximum of up to 169 years in prison. As part of his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop most of the counts and Schmidt consented to be deported at the end of his prison sentence. Schmidt was in charge of the company’s environmental and engineering office in Auburn Hills, Michigan, until February 2015, where he oversaw emissions issues. After being informed of the existence of the emissions software in the summer of 2015, according to his guilty plea, Schmidt conspired with other executives to avoid disclosing “intentional cheating” by the automaker in a bid to seek regulatory approval for its model 2016 VW 2 liter diesels. In a letter to Cox originally published by Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper on the weekend, Schmidt said he had agreed to follow a script, or talking points, agreed on by VW management and a high-ranking lawyer at a meeting with a California Air Resources Board executive. “I must say that I feel misused by my own company in the diesel scandal or ‘Dieselgate,''” Schmidt wrote. (Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Peter Cooney)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-emissions/volkswagen-executive-faces-sentencing-in-u-s-emissions-fraud-case-idUSL1N1O52N5'|'2017-12-06T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'3ac9b3e01ab2a70d0dde592021a03b2efa7a3061'|'Sensex slips ahead of RBI rate decision'|'December 6, 2017 / 6:08 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Sensex ends lower; financials weigh Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Indian shares fell for the second straight session on Wednesday with financials dragging both indexes after the central bank held rates steady and reiterated a “neutral” monetary policy stance. A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, India, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files The broader NSE Nifty closed down 0.73 percent at 10,044.10, while the benchmark BSE Sensex ended 0.63 percent lower at 32,597.18. Reporting by Jessica Kuruthukulangara in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-sensex-nifty-rbi/sensex-slips-ahead-of-rbi-rate-decision-idINKBN1E00GL'|'2017-12-06T08:05:00.000+02:00'
'aa5045beddd45db8a54bab34afb9c51ac10952af'|'METALS-Shanghai copper prices fall sharply, track losses in London'|'BEIJING, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper fell more than 3 percent in early trade on Wednesday, tracking London prices which the session before saw their biggest drop since July, 2015. FUNDAMENTALS * SHFE COPPER: The most-traded Shanghai Futures Exchange copper contract was down 3.2 percent at 51,350 yuan ($7,758.44) a tonne at 0158 GMT, on course for its biggest one-day fall since November, 2016. * LME COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was trading up 0.2 percent at $6,566 a tonne, having plummeted 4.2 percent on Tuesday as inventories rose and the dollar firmed. * NICKEL: Shanghai nickel was down 4 percent, tracking a 4.6-percent fall on the LME in the previous session to the metal''s lowest level in nearly two months. * OTHER METALS: ShFE zinc slipped 2.2 percent, aluminium was down 1.5 percent and lead lost 1.8 percent amid a broad plunge in base metals. METALS NEWS * COPPER: Indonesia said on Tuesday it planned to acquire Rio Tinto''s, stake in the Grasberg copper mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Inc, potentially solving a drawn-out problem for all three parties. * BATTERIES: Glencore has increased production of metals used to make electric car batteries faster than its major mining rivals, according to an industry-wide analysis. * VIETNAM: The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday slapped steep import duties on steel products from Vietnam that originated from Chinese-made steel. For the top stories in metals and other news, click or MARKETS NEWS * Asian stocks slipped on Wednesday, pressured by losses on Wall Street as the technology sector stuttered yet again after a brief rebound, while the dollar sagged on lower long-term U.S. yields. DATA AHEAD (GMT) 0700 Germany Industrial orders Oct 1315 U.S. ADP national employment PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0158 GMT Three month LME copper 6556 Most active ShFE copper 51350 Three month LME aluminium 2053 Most active ShFE aluminium 14360 Three month LME zinc 3096.5 Most active ShFE zinc 24750 Three month LME lead 2480 Most active ShFE lead 18625 Three month LME nickel 10860 Most active ShFE nickel 87980 Three month LME tin 19410 Most active ShFE tin 139920 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 693.92 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1333.89 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 337.46 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1178.49 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2754.6 ($1 = 6.6186 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Joseph Radford) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-shanghai-copper-prices-fall-sharply-track-losses-in-london-idUSL3N1O61EW'|'2017-12-06T10:31:00.000+02:00'
'b0eb12c1e26ece9e98ba2ceef7b802eb26667d68'|'Spirit Aero to add 1,000 jobs, invest $1 billion at Wichita facility'|'(Reuters) - Aircraft parts maker Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc said on Wednesday it would be adding 1,000 jobs and investing $1 billion over the next five years at its Wichita, Kansas facility.The Wichita-based company said the new jobs will mainly be in the hourly ranks, including skilled sheet metal mechanics, composite technicians and computer numerical control (CNC) machine operators.The Wichita facility produces fuselage and propulsion systems for aircraft.Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spirit-aerosystm-investment/spirit-aero-to-add-1000-jobs-invest-1-billion-at-wichita-facility-idUSKBN1E02RO'|'2017-12-07T03:23:00.000+02:00'
'539a9f5e25b9b68bb5025bec94d7c6dca0282d53'|'Asia stocks stumble on Wall Street losses, dollar sags'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:47 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Asia stocks hit 2-month low as risk sentiment sours broadly Shinichi Saoshiro 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks slipped across the board on Wednesday as various factors including weaker metals prices and monetary policy concerns in China soured investor risk sentiment. FILE PHOTO: A man is reflected in an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Spreadbetters saw bearish equity sentiment extending into Europe, predicting Britain''s FTSE .FTSE would open 0.5 percent lower, seeing Germany''s DAX .GDAXI start down 0.6 percent and France''s CAC .FCHI opening 0.5 percent lower. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dropped to a two-month low and was last down 1.5 percent. The index took early cues from overnight losses on Wall Street, where the stuttering technology sector had taken a further toll. The fall in the index deepened as Asia''s equity markets suffered losses, with Shanghai stocks .SSEC falling to three-month lows and Hong Kong''s Hang Seng .HSI dropping to a one-month trough amid fears over central banks tightening liquidity. [.SS] Japan''s Nikkei .N225 was last down 2 percent with non-ferrous metals producers .INFRO.T suffering large losses after copper''s slide overnight to a two-month low. Perceived geopolitical risks also dented confidence with U.S. President Donald Trump due to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel later on Wednesday. In the debt markets, the two-year Treasury yield US2YT=RR hovered near a nine-year high, elevated by the Fed’s tighter policy path and on expectations the U.S. Congress will pass tax reform legislation that gives the economy a fiscal boost. But the 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR declined, flattening the yield curve further. The curve has flattened as investors see limited room for long-term U.S. inflation. The dollar fell, weighed by lower long-term U.S. yields as broader investor risk appetite recedes. The dollar index against six major currencies slipped 0.2 percent to 93.213 .DXY. The greenback lost 0.4 percent to 112.110 yen JPY= and the euro rose 0.15 percent to $1.1842 EUR= after shedding 0.35 percent the previous day. The pound stood at $1.3426 GBP=D3 for a loss of 0.1 percent, having taken a small knock after Sky News reported of a foiled plot to assassinate British Prime Minister Theresa May. Sterling had fallen to as low as $1.3370 on Tuesday on disappointment after May failed to clinch a deal to open talks on post-Brexit free trade with the European Union. [GBP/] Bitcoin continued its relentless advance, climbing to a fresh record high of $12,205.46 on the BitStamp exchange BTC=BTSP . Its latest rise took bitcoin''s gains so far in 2017 above 1,100 percent. “It took a long time to establish the methodology and the way bitcoin was traded. The original appeal came from the fact they were unregulated. However it’s clearly moved out of those shadows and into center stage,” said Mick McCarthy, CMC Markets’ chief market strategist in Sydney. “We are in the throes of a bubble market, and one of the characteristics of a bubble market is that there is no way to know when the bubble will burst.” In commodities, U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 were down 0.4 percent at $57.38 per barrel after American Petroleum Institute data showed that U.S. gasoline stocks and distillate inventories rose more than expected last week. [O/R] Brent crude LCOc1 lost 0.4 percent to $62.62 per barrel, though it is up by over 40 percent since June, supported by a supply cut led by OPEC and Russia which is expected to last throughout 2018. Copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 crawled up 0.35 percent to $6,565.50 per tonne after sliding to a two-month low of $6,507.50 overnight. Base metals were hit by a combination of the dollar’s rise earlier in the week on U.S. tax reform hopes, jitters over demand in major consumer China and a technical sell-off stemming from a rise in inventories. [MET/L] Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-pressured-by-wall-street-losses-dollar-sags-idUKKBN1E002G'|'2017-12-06T05:24:00.000+02:00'
'70339aa1bdba3a14bb3d8b295962a7af4d98100e'|'easyJet takes on Lufthansa with German domestic routes from January'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Britain’s easyJet ( EZJ.L ) will start competing with Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) airlines on domestic German routes from Berlin next month, following its planned takeover of parts of insolvent Air Berlin, it said on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: An EasyJet passenger aircraft makes its final approach for landing at Gatwick Airport in southern England, Britain, October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The budget carrier currently flies from Berlin Schoenefeld airport to destinations outside of Germany, but the Air Berlin deal will see it move into the larger inner-city Tegel airport, previously home to Air Berlin.Along with four domestic routes to Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart, easyJet will also start flying from Tegel to 15 international destinations, including Zurich, Vienna, Paris Charles de Gaulle and holiday destinations including Mallorca, from January 5.The British carrier said it plans more routes from Tegel for the summer flying season, which begins in late March.EasyJet will therefore go head to head with Lufthansa’s airlines in competition for German business customers.“We believe our flight plan from Tegel will be of particular interest to business customers,” easyJet Europe managing director Thomas Haagensen said in a statement.However, the added competition may also relieve pressure on Lufthansa, which has faced concerns over its dominance in Germany following the collapse of Air Berlin.Lufthansa is having to offer concessions in order to win EU approval for its planned purchase of Air Berlin units Niki and LGW, with CEO Carsten Spohr saying this week Lufthansa will take on Niki virtually without take-off and landing slots if necessary.Ryanair ( RYA.I ) didn’t bid for Air Berlin and also suspended its sole German domestic route after a pilot rostering problem but it too is set to expand in Germany.It is prepared to take over slots at Tegel and base nine aircraft there, which will enable it to almost double its annual passenger numbers at Tegel to 10 million, it said last week.EasyJet will take over from Air Berlin as the market leader in Berlin though, and has said the Air Berlin deal will see it grow to 16 million passengers in the German capital from 5.8 million.It is having to lease crewed planes at first for Tegel while it invests in training crews and refitting planes, which it has said involve costs of around 100 million pounds in its current financial year.Reporting by Victoria Bryan; editing by Ludwig Burger and Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-easyjet-germany/easyjet-takes-on-lufthansa-with-german-domestic-routes-from-january-idUSKBN1E00N6'|'2017-12-06T09:23:00.000+02:00'
'7dec118dd2445ca37effc7786dd9b7e404c6d5bc'|'Special bond for wealthy Russians not ruled out: senior Russian official'|'LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Wednesday that the finance ministry could issue a special treasury bond to facilitate favourable terms for the repatriation of cash stashed abroad by wealthy Russians.“I cannot exclude it,” Dvorkovich said on a visit to London, when asked about a Reuters story published on Tuesday.Wealthy Russians facing the prospect of targeted U.S. sanctions next year have floated the idea of a special treasury bond to facilitate favourable terms for bringing their cash home, three sources familiar with the scheme told Reuters.Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva and Clara Denina; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-finmin-bonds-dvorkovich/special-bond-for-wealthy-russians-not-ruled-out-senior-russian-official-idINR4N1O1017'|'2017-12-06T09:14:00.000+02:00'
'9662adb26279906a6cf9c34fa2f534d94cb8f34e'|'Travel group Saga cuts profit forecasts, shares plunge'|'December 6, 2017 / 7:30 AM / in 8 minutes Travel group Saga cuts profit forecasts, shares plunge Noor Zainab Hussain 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Saga’s shares slumped on Wednesday after the travel and insurance group for the over 50s said underlying pretax profit would rise by just 1-2 percent in the current year and fall 5 percent next year. In an unscheduled trading update, Saga said more challenging trading in insurance broking and the collapse of Monarch Airlines would limit profit growth in the year to the end of January 2018. Saga shares tumbled 24.5 percent to 136.8 pence by 1157 GMT, making them the biggest fallers in the FTSE Midcap Index. “We’re projecting 1-2 percent pretax profit growth in the current financial year, the market was currently about 5 percent. So its a lower growth trajectory than we had hoped for this year,” CEO Lance Batchelor told Reuters. The failure of Monarch, the largest British airline to go bust, affected nearly 900,000 passengers in total and hit Saga’s tour operations. “Monarch was quite a meaningful provider in terms of volume. We don’t have our own aircraft. Some of the really big travel companies operate their own fleet and so they were not affected by Monarch,” Batchelor said. Saga said its tour operations business had been hit by the collapse of Monarch, with a one-off cost of about 2 million pounds. Batchelor also flagged rising prices as a long term impact of Monarch’s collapse as competitors rushed to fill the gap and also raised prices. “Fleet prices as a proportion of our package are higher. And we’re expecting them to remain higher next year, and that’s one of the reason that we have cut back our estimate for growth of profit next year,” he said. The drop in the pound since the Brexit vote last year has hit British consumers’ spending power, but Saga said its travel business is expected to perform strongly. “When Monarch goes bust or Hurricane Irma hits the Caribbean, we can’t duck that. But, we are much less impacted by economic conditions, bonuses, Brexit than most operators appeared to be,” Batchelor said. Saga also saw volumes at its travel insurance business being hurt by the “state of the global travel market,” the CEO said. He said Saga’s insurance broking business also faced intense competition in both the home and motor insurance markets. “We obviously need to respond to that ... both to attract new customers and to retain old ones and that cost us some policies and some margin as well,” Batchelor said. Saga said an investment of 10 million pounds to take on more customers by keeping prices competitive, a fall in earned profit and lower reserve releases would push underlying pretax profit 5 percent lower in the year to January 2019. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Keith Weir and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saga-outlook/saga-says-tour-business-hurt-by-monarch-airlines-collapse-idUKKBN1E00NR'|'2017-12-06T15:14:00.000+02:00'
'b4f2dcaa2c2595aad27d5916e2112e4ae1449d51'|'RPT-Top Indian insurer LIC to slow stock investments after bumper buy'|'(Repeats story issued late on Tuesday)By Suvashree ChoudhuryMUMBAI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - State-owned Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC) will likely slow stock purchases for the rest of the fiscal year after nearly doubling its equity market investments in the first half from a year earlier.LIC, with assets of 27.26 trillion rupees ($423.3 billion) as of end-September, had a target of investing 500 billion rupees in stocks through the year which ends in March.During the first six months of that period, LIC’s stock market investments more than doubled from a year earlier to 392.24 billion rupees. As of end-November it had bought equities worth about 440 billion rupees, top executives said.They added they would look at opportunities to take some profit off the table.Powered by strong fund inflows, Indian markets have hit a string of record highs this year, with the main market index gaining nearly 24 percent year-to-date.“We will sell wherever we have opportunity,” V.K. Sharma, LIC’s chairman, told reporters. “We are contrarians and market is at peak.”The surge in LIC’s equity investments to date has been partly driven by the insurer subscribing to some of the stakes being sold by the Indian government in a clutch of companies as part of its asset sales programme.LIC bought shares worth 180 billion rupees in companies where the government sold part of its holdings - including 120 billion rupees in initial public offerings of state-run General Insurance Corp and New India Assurance Co, top company executives said.The government has raised about 524 billion rupees from the asset sales programme this fiscal year, crucial to help it meet its fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2017/18.On the debt side, LIC, which is a big supporter of the government’s bond-borrowing programme, bought 1.61 trillion rupees worth of federal and state government bonds during the first half of the fiscal year, Chairman Sharma said.It aimed to make additional purchases of 100-200 billion rupees worth of government debt securities by March, he added. ($1 = 64.3950 Indian rupees) (Writing by Devidutta Tripathy) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lic-india-investments/rpt-top-indian-insurer-lic-to-slow-stock-investments-after-bumper-buy-idINL3N1O61YT'|'2017-12-06T01:28:00.000+02:00'
'f24355b2020b1e733fa01b154f58838118fef266'|'China pledges "significant" market opening for foreign investors'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China will “significantly” widen market access for foreign investors, state radio on Wednesday Quote: d vice premier Wang Yang as saying, following a recent move to raise foreign ownership limits in local financial firms.Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang attends an opening session in Beijing, China August 28, 2017. CNS/Hou Yu via REUTERS “China’s development in the past has benefited from opening and it’s more necessary to expand openness as we take the road of high quality development driven by innovations,” Wang told a business forum in the southern city of Guangzhou.“We will significantly expand market access and speed up drafting a timetable and roadmap for opening key sectors,” he said.China will “actively and effectively” attract foreign investment, protect legal rights and interests of foreign investors and create an environment for fair competition, he said.At a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress in October, President Xi Jinping called for “making new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts”, and has pledged to allow greater access to China’s markets for foreign investors.In November, China said it would raise foreign ownership limits in domestic financial firms, a long-anticipated step that grants greater access to overseas investors in the Asian giant’s financial services market.China has been accused of unfairly subsidizing exports and of restricting foreign access to its domestic market, with U.S. President Donald Trump often complaining of the massive trade surplus China runs with the United States.Reporting by China monitoring desk and Kevin Yao; Editing by Nick Macfie '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-opening/china-pledges-significant-market-opening-for-foreign-investors-idINKBN1E01AF'|'2017-12-06T13:25:00.000+02:00'
'b9330c27d0f86ecf7772d29a2a8c2fcf2873dd86'|'Brazil telecoms regulator rejects Oi shareholder petition'|'BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel said it rejected a petition by Societe Mondiale, a shareholder in Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ), to stop Aurelius Capital Management inking a debt restructuring accord with the struggling Brazilian telecoms company.The regulator said in a statement on Tuesday, however, that it would open an administrative inquiry to examine claims levied by Societe Mondiale, an investment vehicle of distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure, regarding Aurelius’ holdings in the nation’s telecoms sector.“It’s very welcome given that it opens an investigation into conflicts of interest with regards to Aurelius and its position as a controller of Nextel,” a spokesman for Societe Mondiale said.Last week, Societe Mondiale, which controls Oi’s board through alliances, asked Anatel to prohibit the management of Oi, which is currently in bankruptcy protection, from signing a contract or engaging in debt negotiations that would imply a transfer of control to Aurelius allies.U.S. hedge fund Aurelius is leading a group of Oi creditors known as the International Bondholders Committee, which is pushing for a debt restructuring plan opposed by the board.Spokespeople for the Aurelius-affiliated creditors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.In the original petition, Societe Mondiale said that under the bondholders’ restructuring plan, Aurelius would become co-controller of Oi. The complaint also said that Aurelius holds almost 17 percent of competing telecoms operator Nextel Communications Inc through intermediaries.According to the complaint, Aurelius - due to its Nextel stake - would break Brazilian antitrust rules if its restructuring plan for Oi were to go into effect.“Anatel decided to notify the parties against which the complaint was filed of a 15-day deadline to present clarifications regarding the possible transfer of control of Nextel Telecomunicacoes and Nextel Participacoes,” the regulator said, referring to Nextel units in Brazil.According to a source close to Aurelius, the U.S. hedge fund disputes the Societe Mondiale claim that it holds close to 17 percent of Nextel, asserting that it holds less than 6 percent.Reporting by Leonardo Goy; Additional reporting and writing by Gram Slattery in Sao Paulo; Editing by Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oi-sa-restructuring/brazil-telecoms-regulator-rejects-oi-shareholder-petition-idINKBN1DZ3AZ'|'2017-12-05T20:50:00.000+02:00'
'9cd5ebefd214b687c04457001562569ff1e156ef'|'Nikkei slips below 25-day average, materials sag'|'TOKYO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped on Wednesday, falling below its 25-day moving average almost for the first time since September, as materials, shippers and other cyclical shares came under pressure.The Nikkei fell 0.7 percent to 22,456.11, slipping further from Friday’s three-week peak of 22,994.31 and below its 25-day average of 22,525 as of Wednesday.Non-ferrous metals producers were the biggest losers, falling 1.8 percent after the price of copper dropped more than 4 percent on Tuesday, its biggest daily fall in almost 2 1/2 years. Among them, Sumitomo Metal Mining fell 2.3 percent.Shippers fell 1.5 percent and steelmakers shed 1.2 percent.Recently-battered technology shares were mixed. Silicon wafer manufacturer Sumco gained 2.1 percent but Panasonic fell 1.0 percent to hit a two-month low.The broader Topix fell 0.4 percent. (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Eric Meijer) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-slips-below-25-day-average-materials-sag-idUSL3N1O61EC'|'2017-12-06T10:16:00.000+02:00'
'f6a33e0c48abf759901093bdcc3e16589a4fca5e'|'BOJ''s Masai advocates staying with ''powerful easing'', warns on side-effects'|'KOBE, Japan (Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Takako Masai on Wednesday advocated sticking with ultra-easy monetary policy due to uncertainty over how fast inflation will rise, while warning that the central bank should remain on guard against the possible side-effects.Bank of Japan''s (BOJ) new board member Takako Masai attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Despite a strengthening economy, Masai conceded that it was taking longer than expected to eradicate Japan’s sticky deflationary mindset, or public perceptions that prices won’t rise ahead.“Even so, there’s no change to the need... to conduct powerful monetary easing,” Masai said in a speech to business leaders in Kobe, western Japan, adding that it was critical for the BOJ to keep showing its determination to hit its 2 percent inflation target.“On the other hand, the BOJ must continue to very carefully watch the effects and side-effects” of its stimulus, she said, nodding to growing concern in markets that prolonged easing was taking a toll on Japan’s banking sector by eroding margins.Masai said the narrowing margins, due in part to the BOJ’s stimulus programme, continued to weigh on banks’ profits though this has yet to discourage banks from lending.“Banks have ample capital base, so the risk of Japan’s banking system destabilising isn’t big,” she told reporters after the speech, shrugging off the view that the costs of the BOJ’s ultra-loose policy were outweighing the benefits.Japan’s economy expanded an annualised 1.4 percent in the third quarter due to strong exports, posting the longest period of uninterrupted growth in more than a decade.LINGERING PESSIMISM But core consumer inflation rose just 0.8 percent in October from a year earlier, still well below the BOJ’s target, as many firms remain wary of raising prices and wages due to pessimism over Japan’s long-term growth prospects.Masai said that while downside risks to the economy were diminishing, those to the BOJ’s inflation forecasts remained high as there was uncertainty on whether more companies will begin to raise wages and prices.Still, she added, the BOJ should not be too pessimistic on the outlook as a tightening job market, increasing private consumption and brightening global economic prospects are seen nudging firms to boost wages and prices.The BOJ has been dropping subtle, yet intentional, hints that it could edge away from crisis-mode stimulus earlier than expected, sources say, though an actual exit from ultra-easy policy would be some time away.Under a policy framework adopted last year, the BOJ guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year government bond yield around zero percent. The central bank next meets for a rate review on Dec. 20-21.Masai, formerly a currency market strategist, has voted with the majority of the board including on last year’s policy revamp.Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Richard Borsuk '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-boj/bojs-masai-advocates-staying-with-powerful-easing-warns-on-side-effects-idINKBN1E00O8'|'2017-12-06T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'6dc2affd3a65bc57e4a0b7f784ccafffb84bdd86'|'Vantiv planning USD1.13bn-equivalent 8NC3'|'LONDON, Dec 4 (IFR) - Vantiv LLC and Vantiv Issuer Corp have mandated banks for USD1.13bn-equivalent 8NC3 senior notes to be split between USD and GBP tranches.Joint books are MS (B&D), CS, MUFG, BBVA, Citizens, Lloyds, Mediobanca, Miz, NatWest, SMBC, UniCredit. Co-managers are Barc, Bawag, BMO, Capone, Fifth Third, Janney, PNC.Pricing expected Thursday.UoP: to repay existing debt of Worldpay, pay fees & expenses related to the acquisition and financing.RegS/144A for life, 200k/1k denoms for the USD, 100k/1k for the GBP, NC3 (50%/25%/par).US roadshow Tuesday (NY) and Weds (Boston); UK roadshow Tues and Weds (London). '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/idINL8N1O4368'|'2017-12-04T09:35:00.000+02:00'
'00bc43bef43e0fb9205422692d45b91a7c2adc36'|'Democrat takes aim at controversial capital rule disliked by big U.S. banks'|'NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A Democratic U.S. senator wants to free the biggest U.S. lenders from having to hold capital against certain assets held at central banks, according to a document viewed by Reuters and a person familiar with it.Senator Christopher Van Hollen, of Maryland, has submitted an amendment to a financial regulatory reform bill that would give the banks a partial reprieve from a rule known as the supplemental leverage ratio, according to the document.A spokesperson for Van Hollen did not immediately provide a comment on Monday.The rule, which Wall Street bankers have complained about for years, requires large financial institutions subject to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s annual stress test to hold additional capital to reflect risks they pose to the broader system.The amendment is one of more than 100 changes that financial companies, which lobbyists said include JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc , are jockeying to make to a regulatory relief bill drafted by the Senate Banking Committee.The bill, proposed by Republican Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo to reduce regulatory burdens on small- and mid-sized financial companies, is due to be formally discussed by lawmakers this week.It underscores how financial institutions are still trying to secure the regulatory relief they have been hoping for since Republican Donald Trump was elected president one year ago.Van Hollen’s proposal would eliminate language that imposes the rule on businesses outside of custodial banking, and give regulators 18 months to adjust the rule.Reuters could not immediately learn whether Van Hollen would be able to garner enough support from other lawmakers on the committee to adopt his amendment. He is one of 11 lawmakers in the Democratic minority who sits on the committee.Bank regulators developed the supplemental leverage ratio as part of their required rulemaking under a sweeping set of financial reforms known as Dodd-Frank that was passed in 2010. (Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Additional Reporting by Michelle Price in Washington; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Richard Chang) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-banks-regulation/democrat-takes-aim-at-controversial-capital-rule-disliked-by-big-u-s-banks-idINL1N1O41AS'|'2017-12-04T17:35:00.000+02:00'
'a4053de399688f3b78a89ccc068f1206e99e8712'|'UPDATE 2-Canada''s WestJet to partner with Delta, grow fleet by 2020'|'(Recasts with Delta joint venture, adds analyst comments)Dec 6 (Reuters) - Canada’s WestJet Airlines Ltd on Wednesday announced a joint venture with Delta Air Lines to boost trans-border flights and said it expects to nearly double its fleet by 2020 to meet growing passenger traffic.Calgary-based WestJet is targeting an annual operating margin of between 10 percent and 12 percent in 2018 to 2020, consistent with last year, and an improving annual return on invested capital that is expected to exceed 13 percent in 2020.Canada’s second-largest carrier said it intends to increase its number of aircraft to 96 by 2020 from 51 at the end of the third quarter, as the airline eyes both price-sensitive passengers and higher-paying customers.WestJet, which competes against Air Canada, said it struck a preliminary agreement with Delta to coordinate schedules for new nonstop flights in the United States and Canada.WestJet Chief Executive Gregg Saretsky said in a statement that the company will invest in initiatives that would support its transition from a “low-cost point-to-point model into a high value-based network airline with a global footprint.”WestJet’s decision preceded the launch of its new ultra-low-cost carrier, Swoop, which is expected to begin service next summer.Some analysts remained cautious about WestJet’s plans at a time when organized labor has unionized the company’s pilots and are eying other staff.“We remain concerned about execution with so many simultaneous initiatives underway, all in a climate of unease on the labour front,” AltaCorp analyst Chris Murray wrote in a note.Low and ultra low-cost flight are a hot market for airlines as passengers look for cheaper air travel. Swoop will charge lower fares but generate higher fees for services such as meals.Ahead of its investor day, the company laid out plans to save C$140 million ($110.6 million) to C$200 million in costs through 2022.It said its plans to attract and retain premium travelers, among other revenue-generating strategies, represent an annual opportunity of between C$300 million to C$500 million through to 2022. The company also said it expects C$780 million in expenses next year, compared with C$1 billion in 2017.“We believe this guidance should be seen positively on the margin as it confirms that WestJet’s multiple expansion programs are not going to come at the expense of near-term profitability and balance sheet,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Doug Taylor wrote in a note to clients. ($1 = C$1.27) (Reporting By Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Shounak Dasgupta and Jonathan Oatis) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/westjet-airlines-presentation/update-1-canadas-westjet-to-add-45-aircraft-to-fleet-by-2020-idINL3N1O63TZ'|'2017-12-06T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'b9789e8f443580bf6c4958be2f347c64e7e80268'|'Exclusive: Major U.S. trucking firm Daseke buys three firms'|'SEATTLE (Reuters) - Daseke Inc ( DSKE.O ), the largest owner of flatbed equipment in North America, has acquired three trucking firms in deals aimed at gaining access to higher margin freight, the company said on Monday.FILE PHOTO - Trucks waiting to cross the Canadian border into the United States line up in Surrey, British Columbia, U.S. on March 19, 2003. REUTERS/Andy Clark/File Photo/File Photo Daseke did not disclose the amount it paid for the companies, with a combined revenue of $320 million. The trucker finished 2016 with more than $650 million in revenue and expects to enter 2018 with revenue of $1.2 billion with the new companies included, its chief executive officer told Reuters.The deals are the latest example of major trucking players in the deeply fragmented and low-margin industry scooping up smaller operators ahead of looming digital record-keeping regulations and amid a shortage of drivers in the industry.Daseke bought privately held, Tennessee-based Moore Freight Service, which hauls massive sheets of glass on proprietary trailers, as well as Roadmaster Group, a leading U.S. carrier of ammunition and explosives, and Tennessee Steel Haulers & Co.The deals included cash, stock swaps and assumption of debt. Daseke shares rose 1.2 percent to $12.99 on Monday.“There is a tremendous opportunity to consolidate what is a very fragmented market,” Chief Executive Officer Don Daseke told Reuters by phone.FILE PHOTO: Semi-truck trailers are shown at the Port of Long Beach in this aerial photograph taken above Long Beach, California August 5, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The deals which closed on Friday reflect a growth strategy that has elevated Daseke from a family-owned $30 million trucking company in 2009 to a publicly traded carrier operating more than 5,000 trucks in the United States, Canada and Mexico with a market value of $570 million.Daseke moves industrial freight for companies like Boeing ( BA.N ), Caterpillar ( CAT.N ) and Nucor ( NUE.N ) as well as the U.S. Department of Defense, yet controls less than one percent of the $133 billion open-deck and specialized trucking niche.FILE PHOTO: Semi-truck trailers are shown at the Port of Long Beach in this aerial photograph taken above Long Beach, California August 5, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Moore and Roadmaster give Daseke access to higher-margin freight like enormous glass panels and ammunition while lowering capital costs via owner-operator Tennessee Steel Haulers, which manages other operators’ fleets.Acquisitions have driven about 85 percent of Daseke’s growth since 2009. The Addison, Texas-based company has closed 16 deals since then.Daseke approaches companies that are not for sale, courting regional companies with solid management teams and customer relationships in a process that can take years.“These entrepreneurs that are joining us have great relationships that we want them to continue to have and to own and accentuate,” Daseke said.The company went public in late February through a merger with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp II.Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Nick Carey and Jeffrey Benkoe '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-daseke-m-a-exclusive/exclusive-major-u-s-trucking-firm-daseke-buys-three-firms-idINKBN1DY2ON'|'2017-12-04T18:35:00.000+02:00'
'956fe5f3610b738f5bc01ebde1adafd5f2cec825'|'UPDATE 4-Construction executives detained in Peru in graft probe'|'(Adds comment from defense attorney, share reaction, context)By Marco AquinoLIMA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Four former and current executives of Peruvian construction companies were detained pending trial on Monday, accused of colluding with Brazilian builder Odebrecht to bribe a former president.Judge Richard Concepcion ordered the men, who deny wrongdoing, to be held in pre-trial jail to ensure they do not flee or obstruct the law, as prosecutors prepare criminal charges.The decision marked the first time executives from major Peruvian companies have been jailed in the ‘Car Wash’ scandal, Brazil’s largest-ever corruption probe that has widened to include other Latin American countries.Odebrecht has admitted to bribing local officials in 12 countries to secure public works contracts over the course of a decade and promised authorities that it would provide details.Prosecutor Hamilton Castro accused Jose Alejandro Grana and Hernando Alejandro Grana, who once headed Peru’s biggest construction group Grana y Montero , and Fernando Gonzalo and Jose Fernando Castillo, who work for two private contractors, of providing $15 million of a $20 million bribe that Odebrecht paid.The money was paid to ex-president Alejandro Toledo to secure highway contracts that the companies partnered together on a decade ago and had been disguised on company books as the cost of “additional risks” covered by Odebrecht, Castro said at a court hearing.The judge also ordered Gonzalo Ferraro, a former Grana y Montero manager who was in local hospital, to be placed under house arrest.All five men deny any wrongdoing and are appealing the judge’s ruling, said Ferraro’s attorney Roger Yon.Grana y Montero, and the two private companies, JJC Contratistas Generales and Ingenieros Civiles y Contratistas Generales, declined to comment. The three companies have previously denied knowing about or taking part in Odebrecht’s bribes.Grana y Montero’s U.S.-listed shares closed 6.9 percent lower on Monday.The corruption probe has shaken up the local construction sector as the government prepares to award nearly $8 billion in contracts for rebuilding infrastructure and housing destroyed by flooding.President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who served in Toledo’s cabinet when the highway contracts were awarded, has said he knew nothing about the alleged bribe for Toledo.Toledo, ordered to pre-trial detention in February, has denied taking bribes from Odebrecht. Peru is seeking his extradition from the United States.A second former President, Ollanta Humala, has been in pre-trial detention since July and denies allegations he took illicit funds from Odebrecht. (Reporting by Marco Aquino, Writing By Mitra Taj; Editing by Andrew Hay and Rosalba O‘Brien) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/peru-corruption/update-4-construction-executives-detained-in-peru-in-graft-probe-idINL1N1O40PX'|'2017-12-04T21:10:00.000+02:00'
'3e130cb768dc58643757a36d3d98149da6509d33'|'Soccer star Ronaldo spurs Portugal hotel chain''s attack overseas'|'December 4, 2017 / 12:19 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Soccer star Ronaldo spurs Portugal hotel chain''s attack overseas Andrei Khalip , Sergio Goncalves 4 Min Read LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has teamed up with his country’s top hotel chain, Pestana, in a joint venture that his partner hopes will help open new markets in Asia and reinforce its expansion into Spain and the United States. View of Pestana Palace in Lisbon, Portugal November 28, 2017. Picture taken November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes Ronaldo is following the footsteps of other sports stars who have invested in hotels, including tennis players Andy Murray and Andre Agassi and soccer’s Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs -- but Ronaldo’s venture stands out for its global ambition. He and Pestana plan to open two hotels under the Pestana CR7 brand -- CR7 is a trademark combination of Ronaldo’s initials and jersey number -- by end-2018, having already tested the market at home in Portugal with an initial two hotels. The first Pestana CR7 hotels have opened without fanfare in Madeira and Lisbon, generating positive results, said Pestana CEO Jose Theotonio. “The joint brand is opening possibilities to us, Pestana, in places where we would have hardly gotten alone,” he told Reuters at Lisbon’s ornate Pestana Palace Hotel, temporary home of pop star Madonna who moved to Portugal in September. “We have contacts to enter other markets, where the brand CR7 is strong, in Asia, the Middle East,” Theotonio added, citing interest from mainland China, Macau, Dubai and Qatar. Both partners hail from the Portuguese resort island of Madeira and are investing a total of 75 million euros (£66 million) in the venture, including in the two hotels already opened. The next two hotels will open in Madrid and in New York’s Times Square in late 2018, Theotonio said. The CR7 hotels feature carpets with Ronaldo shoe prints, trophies and foosball tables, and the sound of crowds cheering fill the corridors. View of Pestana Palace in Lisbon, Portugal November 28, 2017. Picture taken November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes Separately, Pestana will roll out several of its own new establishments in Europe and the United States. Further expansion of the CR7-branded hotel chain will depend on the success of the New York and Madrid hotels, but Pestana’s market studies show that “contrary to what one might think”, the Ronaldo CR7 brand is well-known in the United States. Slideshow (20 Images) Pestana, a family-owned chain of 90 upmarket hotels, hopes the Ronaldo partnership will help it compete for a bigger slice of the international luxury market, against larger foreign rivals such as Spain’s Melia, France’s AccorHotels and U.S.-based giant Marriott International. Pestana opened its first hotel in Madeira and has since spread to mainland Portugal, Europe, Africa and the Americas. Two-thirds of its revenues come from Portugal where it is the largest operator with a 5 percent market share, according to Deloitte. It aims to reach 100 hotels by early 2019, including the CR7 hotels, and invest 200 million euros over the next five years, helped by steady earnings growth on the back of Portugal’s tourist boom. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) have doubled since 2013 to about 120 million euros in 2017 and are set to hit 140 million to 150 million in 2019 or 2020, the CEO said. Ronaldo, the world’s best-paid soccer player, said he had long dreamt of owning a hotel. At 32, the Real Madrid striker is three years away from a soccer player’s average retirement age. “In Madeira where I was born hotels are an important industry that creates value and it always interested me a lot,” Ronaldo said in a written reply to questions from Reuters. Named Forbes’ highest-paid soccer player this year with $93 million in earnings, Ronaldo said he is “very easy” about his future, having various investments in different sectors. Editing by Mark Bendeich and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pestana-ronaldo/soccer-star-ronaldo-spurs-portugal-hotel-chains-attack-overseas-idUKKBN1DY1C7'|'2017-12-04T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'3fc165e83fd7cfe3fc3410009d8d9e5401cdb6be'|'VW aims at ride-pooling market with all-electric minibus'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:21 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago VW aims at ride-pooling market with all-electric minibus Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen has unveiled an all-electric minibus to target urban customers who prefer to pay for use rather than own a vehicle, furthering the German company’s push into new forms of online-controlled personal transport services. Volkswagen''s logos are pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Volkswagen’s (VW) new MOIA “mobility services” division on Monday announced plans for a fully electric international ride-pooling service that aims to remove 1 million cars from European and U.S. cities by 2025. MOIA will next year launch 200 of the six-seater buses in Hamburg, Germany’s second most-populous city, offering passengers fast internet access and USB ports to charge phones and tablet computers, MOIA Chief Executive Ole Harms said at a technology conference. Berlin-based MOIA will expand its Hamburg-based electric-bus fleet to 1,000 units within three years and target other cities from 2019, Harms said, declining to give further details. “We will return the cities to the people,” Harms said, adding the ride-pooling plans will help to significantly reduce urban congestion at prices which are cheaper than taxi rides. Harms declined to comment on prices and the economics of the plans, though he said the Hamburg project would initially be running at a loss. But the growth of ride-hailing services and the prospect of driverless vehicles will encourage people to switch to paying for individual journeys rather than buying their own cars, he predicted. “The market is unlimited,” Harms said. Struggling to draw a line under its 2015 diesel emissions test-cheating scandal, VW created MOIA a year ago with a view to it generating a substantial share of group revenues by 2025 as it invests billions of euros in electrification, ride-hailing and self-driving cars. [nL5N1E057P] MOIA will draw on VW’s modular platforms to build the new electric bus which can run for about 300 kilometres (186 miles) on a single battery charge and needs about 30 minutes to recharge to 80 percent of full capacity, Harms said. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-strategy-electric-bus/vw-aims-at-ride-pooling-market-with-all-electric-minibus-idUKKBN1DY1KD'|'2017-12-04T15:21:00.000+02:00'
'bd0b817e7cba63c8a6386f4ab8aa5d8e930ff0b3'|'Ireland expects Apple back tax in escrow account in first-quarter, 2018 - minister'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:47 PM / Updated an hour ago Ireland expects Apple back tax in escrow account in first-quarter, 2018 - minister Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ireland expects iPhone maker Apple to start paying up to 13 billion euros (£11.4 billion) in back taxes into an escrow account in the first quarter of 2018, the finance minister said on Monday. An Apple logo is seen at the Apple store in Munich, Germany, January 27, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle The European Commission said the record sum was the result of Apple receiving unfair tax incentives from Ireland. More than a year after the EU order, Dublin’s slow pace in recovering the money has landed it in court. Ireland is now seeking an investment manager and a custodian to operate the account and expects to appoint both next month. “We have now reached agreement with Apple in relation to the principles and operation of the escrow fund,” Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told reporters before a meeting with European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. “We expect the money will begin to be transmitted into the account from Apple across the first quarter of next year.” Both Dublin and Apple have challenged the EU order. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-apple-ireland-taxavoidance/ireland-expects-apple-back-tax-in-escrow-account-in-first-quarter-2018-minister-idUKKBN1DY1N1'|'2017-12-04T15:46:00.000+02:00'
'25fe5e550e1dd288e7c532d467bb5c0f05dceab7'|'Broadcom launches 11-nominee slate for Qualcomm board'|' 04 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Broadcom launches 11-nominee slate for Qualcomm board Aishwarya Venugopal 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) made its first formal move toward a hostile bid to take over Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) on Monday, laying out a slate of 11 nominees it wants to put on the board of the U.S. semiconductor firm. Shares of both companies fell as Qualcomm confirmed receiving the list, saying Broadcom’s action was a “blatant attempt to seize control of the Qualcomm board in order to advance Broadcom’s acquisition agenda.” Qualcomm last month rejected Broadcom’s $103 billion (£76.5 billiuon) cash-and-stock bid, saying it dramatically undervalued the company, a line it repeated in Monday’s statement. Shareholders will be able to vote for or against the Broadcom nominees at an annual meeting on March 6. The list of nine men and two women included a former president of the mobile networks business group of Nokia and the former director and chairman of the board of Dialog Semiconductor Plc ( DLGS.DE ). “We have heard from many Qualcomm stockholders who have expressed their desire for Qualcomm to engage with us,” Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan said in a statement on Monday. A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake “We have repeatedly attempted to engage with Qualcomm, and despite stockholder and customer support for the transaction, Qualcomm has ignored those opportunities. The nominations give ... stockholders an opportunity to voice their disappointment.” The slate will be heavily scrutinized, because the nominees will not just be asked to put Qualcomm up for sale, but will have to oversee the company until a deal with Broadcom closes. “These nominees are inherently conflicted given Broadcom’s desire to acquire Qualcomm in a manner that dramatically undervalues Qualcomm to Broadcom’s benefit,” Qualcomm said. Reuters reported on Sunday that Broadcom would unveil the nominees on Monday and that private equity firm Silver Lake, an investor in Broadcom, helped with the effort to recruit the nominees. Qualcomm said in its statement on Monday that Broadcom and Silver Lake were effectively asking stockholders to foreclose options and make a decision now on a non-binding proposed transaction that may not be completed for well over a year. Broadcom did not give details of any new offer for Qualcomm. Reuters reported last month that Broadcom was considering raising its offer by offering more of its own stock. Qualcomm shares fell 1.8 percent, while Broadcom lost 2.2 percent. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-launches-11-nominee-slate-for-qualcomm-board-idUKKBN1DY1IZ'|'2017-12-04T20:03:00.000+02:00'
'2f92d44b7bdbd19691a3685684965710230098d6'|'FCA fines Bluefin over independence claim'|'December 6, 2017 / 10:49 AM / in 30 minutes FCA fines Bluefin over independence claim Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Wednesday fined Bluefin Insurance Services 4 million pounds for presenting itself as an independent broker when it was owned by insurer AXA UK. A maintenance worker cleans the entrance area of the headquarters of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the Canary Wharf business district of London April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The FCA said it had fined Bluefin “for having inadequate systems and controls and failing to provide information to its customers about Bluefin’s independence in a way that was clear, fair and not misleading.” Between March 2011 and Dec. 31, 2014, insurance broker Bluefin, which was then owned by AXA UK, called itself “truly independent” in the advice it provided and the insurers it recommended to customers, the watchdog said. “Bluefin’s independence was compromised by its culture which promoted business strategies, including a policy which focussed on increasing the business placed with its parent company, over treating customers fairly,” FCA said. It said customers therefore risked believing they were dealing with a broker who would “conduct an unbiased search of the market”. “It is also unacceptable that firms hold themselves out as independent when they are not,” the watchdog said. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bluefin-fine-fca/fca-fines-bluefin-over-independence-claim-idUKKBN1E019N'|'2017-12-06T12:49:00.000+02:00'
'f7923c406c07fda4c24a2b0705c78bd90b6def0b'|'LPC-Banks start sell down of Altran''s Aricent loan'|'LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Banks are starting to sell down a debt financing backing French technology consultancy Altran’s €1.7bn acquisition of US digital design and engineering services firm Aricent, banking sources said.The acquisition of the California-based company from a group of investors led by KKR is the largest of a series of deals done by Altran and will create a group with revenue of almost €3bn, Altran announced on November 30.A €2.4bn loan will be used to fully finance the acquisition, while €800m will be used to refinance Altran’s existing debt and pay transaction costs.Credit Agricole CIB, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have underwritten a €2bn-equiavlent term loan and will also underwrite a €750m rights issue to refinance part of the committed financing.Banks have started to syndicate a €250m-equivalent revolving credit facility to Altran’s relationship banks and syndication of the €2bn-equivalent cross border term loan will launch to institutional investors in the New Year, the sources said.The term loan is expected to be mainly denominated in euros, but will include some dollars too, the sources said.Altran was not immediately available to comment.The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.Altran tapped the loan market in July to refinance an existing €300m credit facility through a €500m, 5+1+1-year revolving credit facility.That paid an initial margin of 50bp over Euribor, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data, with a 25bp premium for drawings in US dollar and sterling.That financing was coordinated by Natixis alongside bookrunners and mandated lead arranger BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Credit Agricole CIB and Societe Generale.Caixabank, CIC, HSBC and Intesa Sanpaolo were mandated lead arrangers, while Credit Agricole Mutuel de Paris et d’Ile de France also participated. (Editing by Christopher Mangham) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/altran-leveraged-loans/lpc-banks-start-sell-down-of-altrans-aricent-loan-idINL8N1O55LZ'|'2017-12-06T08:54:00.000+02:00'
'79225519f9cf3f2fd108afc1ffa9f247b7a28324'|'UK''s Saga says tour business hurt by Monarch Airlines collapse'|'Dec 6 (Reuters) - Britain’s Saga Plc said it expected its full-year underlying pretax profit to grow by just 1-2 percent due to more challenging trading in insurance broking and the collapse of Monarch Airlines.The provider of travel and insurance services for people of 50 and above said its tour business would see one-off cost of about 2 million pounds ($2.68 million) hurt by Monarch going into administration.Saga also said it had completed a review of its operating structure and would see about 10 million pounds of annualised savings next year.$1 = 0.7455 pounds Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saga-outlook/uks-saga-says-tour-business-hurt-by-monarch-airlines-collapse-idUSL8N1O611G'|'2017-12-06T15:32:00.000+02:00'
'72f86f5f7ce4ee254f75642271ca02798a3d6e7b'|'Britain has not formally assessed impact of Brexit on economy - Brexit minister'|'December 6, 2017 / 9:53 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Britain has not formally assessed impact of Brexit on economy -Brexit minister William James 3   Britain has not conducted formal sector-by-sector analyses of the impact that leaving the European Union will have on the economy, Brexit minister David Davis said on Wednesday, arguing they were not necessary yet. Britain''s Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis arrives at 10 Downing Street, London, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The comments inflamed critics of the government’s handling of the complex divorce process at a time when talks with Brussels have stalled because of a row over how to manage the Irish border after Brexit. Davis has become embroiled in a long-running argument with lawmakers -- including from the ruling Conservative Party -- over what preparatory work the government has undertaken, and how much of it should be made public. “There’s no systematic impact assessment I‘m aware of,” Davis told a parliamentary committee, saying it would be more appropriate to conduct such analysis later in the negotiating process. His remarks drew immediate criticism from lawmakers on the committee, who said Davis was contradicting his previous statement that the government had analyses of the sectoral impact that went into “excruciating detail”. “Whether it’s through incompetence or insincerity, David Davis has been misleading parliament from the start,” said Wera Hobhouse, a member of the Brexit committee from the Liberal Democrat party. “It is unbelievable that these long-trumpeted impact assessments don’t even exist, meaning the government has no idea what their Brexit plans will do to the country.” Parliament could have a decisive role in the Brexit process if it blocks or amends the legislation which the government has proposed to enact the divorce. May has only a slim working majority in parliament and is vulnerable to rebellion from within her own party, which is divided over the right approach to Brexit. Davis and his team of ministers have previously said its sectoral analysis is not a formal impact assessment -- a technical document submitted to parliament -- and that publishing the work it has done could undermine Britain’s negotiating position. Nevertheless, lawmakers have pressured the government into releasing a summary of its analysis to the committee. On Wednesday, they complained that the analysis given to them was incomplete and called for more detail. “We will at some stage do the best we can to quantify the effect of different negotiating outcomes as we come up to them -- bearing in mind we haven’t started phase two (negotiations) yet,” Davis said, referring to the second phase of talks which will focus on trade. He said those assessments would look at the impact of different outcomes on sectors including financial services, manufacturing and agriculture. Reporting by William James; Editing by Elizabeth Piper and Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-davis/britain-has-not-formally-assessed-impact-of-brexit-on-economy-brexit-minister-idUKKBN1E012Z'|'2017-12-06T12:04:00.000+02:00'
'8f74957fc7a2402e51960eb1b185f8c2e2dded18'|'ABC News suspends top journalist over inaccurate Flynn reporting'|'WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - ABC News said on Saturday it had suspended Brian Ross, its chief investigative correspondent, over an error in his reporting about former national security adviser Michael Flynn which sent U.S. stocks, the dollar and Treasury yields lower on Friday.“We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday ... As a result of our continued reporting over the next several hours ultimately we determined the information was wrong and we corrected the mistake on air and online,” ABC News said in a statement.“Effective immediately, Brian Ross will be suspended for four weeks without pay,” added ABC News, owned by the Walt Disney Co.Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, and he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors delving into the actions of President Donald Trump’s inner circle before he took office.Soon after, ABC News reported that Flynn, citing a confidant, was prepared to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with Russians when he was a presidential candidate.Wall Street’s main indexes all fell by more than 1 percent after the report.ABC News later issued a correction that the source clarified that Trump had assigned Flynn and a “small circle of senior advisers” to find ways to improve relations with Russia and other hotspots during the presidential campaign.“It was shortly after the election, that President-elect Trump directed Flynn to contact Russian officials on topics that included working jointly against ISIS,” ABC News said. (Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Mary Milliken)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-russia-abc/abc-news-suspends-top-journalist-over-inaccurate-flynn-reporting-idINL1N1O20O4'|'2017-12-02T20:42:00.000+02:00'
'7a6a3a99d69941765f34d0c55fb119bc0489b6d9'|'Exxon to merge refining and marketing divisions'|'(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp ( XOM.N ) is merging its refining and marketing divisions to boost profits from its downstream businesses, the first major restructuring under Chief Executive Darren Woods.The logo of Exxon Mobil Corporation is shown on a monitor above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, December 30, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Neil Chapman, the head of its global chemicals operations, was named to the company’s management committee, a board-elected panel that typically serves as a stepping stone for future chief executives, Exxon said on Friday.Chapman, 55, joins CEO Woods and four other senior vice presidents on the committee, which oversees the company’s global operations. The president of ExxonMobil Chemical Co also was promoted to corporate senior vice president.The merger of the world’s largest publicly-traded oil producer’s refining and marketing operations will take place in the first quarter, the company said.Bryan Milton, 53, president of Exxon’s fuels, lubricants & specialties marketing business, was named president of the new ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Co effective Jan. 1.Dennis Wascom, president of Exxon’s refining and supply subsidiary, will become vice president of operational excellence, safety, security, health and environment, said Exxon spokesman Scott Silvestri.Woods took over the top job in January after former chief Rex Tillerson resigned to become U.S. secretary of state.The merging of refining, lubricants and marketing is the first major move by Woods since replacing Tillerson and is in the company’s downstream operations, which he used to lead before taking over as CEO.The reorganization aims to squeeze more profits from the fuel and lubricant businesses as the company works to improve its exploration and production operation, which have struggled since 2014 to adjust to lower oil and gas prices.The company’s downstream sector has grown in prominence since Woods took over leadership of Exxon.The changes come as Exxon expands its refining division. The company is investing $20 billion through 2022 to expand its chemical and oil refining plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.The refining and chemicals arms contributed more than $4.2 billion apiece to 2016 earnings, compared with a $196 million profit from exploration and production. Last year’s results were affected by sharply lower crude prices.Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva and Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-restructuring/exxon-to-merge-refining-and-marketing-divisions-idINKBN1DV603'|'2017-12-01T18:35:00.000+02:00'
'8197aab81080da77eafcdcbb00d5e3dc15d260b1'|'Direct Line offers 5-percent Tesla ''auto-pilot'' incentive'|'December 4, 2017 / 3:16 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Direct Line offers 5-percent Tesla ''auto-pilot'' incentive Noor Zainab Hussain 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s largest motor insurer Direct Line is offering Tesla Inc drivers in Britain a 5-percent discount for switching on the car’s autopilot system, seeking to encourage use of a system it hopes will cut down on accidents. A photo illustration shows insurance renewal notices from Direct Line in London October 10, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett (BRITAIN) The move - confirmed by company representatives in response to Reuters’ questions - is Tesla’s only tie-up in the UK and comes at a time when the company is trying to convince insurers that its internet-connected vehicles are statistically safer. Direct Line said it was too early to say whether the use of the autopilot system produced a safety record that justified lower premiums. It said it was charging less to encourage use of the system and aid research. “At present the driver is firmly in charge so it’s just like insuring other cars, but it does offer Direct Line a great opportunity to learn and prepare for the future,” said Dan Freedman, Head of Motor Development at Direct Line. Direct Line sells insurance policies to customers introduced to it by Tesla. Tesla then provides information on the features and capabilities of its vehicles to help Direct Line set insurance prices. A Tesla car showroom is seen in west London, Britain, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville According to Tesla’s website, some of the autopilot functions include matching speed to traffic conditions, automatically changing lanes without driver input and even self-parking. The car can also be “summoned” to and from a garage. “Crash rates across all Tesla models have fallen by 40 percent since the introduction of the autopilot system ... However, when owners seek to insure their Tesla vehicles, this is not reflected in the pricing of premiums,” Daniel Pearce, Financial Analyst at GlobalData, said. “The insurance industry will gradually respond to these developments,” Pearce added. Direct Line, which is enjoying soaring motor insurance prices in Britain, said it sets premiums for Tesla drivers based on the risk they present, including who is driving, their age, driving experience and claim history. “We aim to offer competitive premiums and we’ve welcomed a good number of Tesla drivers in the UK,” Freedman said. Tesla declined to specify how many vehicles with autopilot capabilities currently are on British roads but industry figures pointed to UK data on imports, which suggest the number is more than 4,500. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London; Editing by Patrick Graham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-direct-line-ins-tesla/direct-line-offers-5-percent-tesla-auto-pilot-incentive-idUKKBN1DY1WS'|'2017-12-04T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'244443c1118927d7ed71f2994dd12761d5745985'|'Palmer & Harvey''s pension deficit balloons to £80m'|'Palmer & Harvey’s pension deficit more than doubled over the last 10 years to £80m, as shareholders and some directors took about £70m in dividends from the heavily indebted and loss-making convenience store supplier.The company, which went into administration last week with the loss of 2,500 jobs and a further 900 at risk , was owned by dozens of private individuals via a complex web of equity and loans. Shareholders received more than £8m a year in dividends even as the company made losses of more than £10m a year , a Guardian investigation revealed last week. The company supplied 90,000 stores, including 50,000 independents, which are now struggling to secure stocks of tobacco and groceries at one of the busiest times of the year. Palmer & Harvey paid out £70m since 2008 despite ongoing losses Read more Since it fell into administration, P&H’s pension scheme, which has 2,500 members, is being assessed for entry into the pensions lifeboat, an industry-funded scheme set up by the government. Pensioners are only guaranteed 90% of their expected benefits under the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).It is understood that the pension deficit under the PPF assessment is £80m, as first reported by the Daily Mail. The Guardian has established that this is a rise of more than £50m from the deficit level in 2007, the year before a management-led buy out which saddled P&H with new debts and a large annual dividend.One well-informed source said that the pension deficit increase had been most marked in the last five to six years.Frank Field MP, chairman of the work and pensions select committee, said he would be looking into events at P&H and prepare a report for parliament. Field has written to the pensions regulator asking whether a recovery plan was in place. He also wrote to the chair of the group’s pension fund trustees on Monday asking whether they had challenged the group’s dividend policy and how the company’s board had justified these payments.He said the committee was also examining whether it was necessary to introduce further legislation that would give the pensions regulator more power to prevent shareholders extracting cash from companies that had a pension deficit.“Companies pension schemes are being left vulnerable and falling into PPF while directors are walking off with huge sums of money before the crisis becomes public. We have to revamp the regulator so they are given, and then use, the powers to say ‘we have a hold on that money’.”Accounts for Palmer & Harvey (Holdings), one of the group’s parent companies, show a pension deficit of £5.3m in 2016, down from £10.5m a year before but up from £1.45m in 2009. This accounting estimate is based on less conservative estimates about the likely future liabilities and asset performance than the PPF.A PPF spokesperson said: “We are aware that Palmer & Harvey has gone into administration. As a result, we expect that the pension scheme will enter the PPF assessment period, and members can be reassured that we are there to protect them.”P&H was bought by its management team in 2008 in a deal that valued the company at £345m. The deal was largely funded by debt.P&H has paid out more than £80m in bank interest charges since 2008 on top of about £70m in dividends to shareholders.P&H (2008), the wholesaler’s parent company, paid out more than £8m a year in dividends since 2009 to its shareholders despite making losses of about £10m a year or more in all but one year, 2014. From 2005, companies have been able to seek clearance for buy-outs from the pensions regulator, protecting directors from action to secure additional money for the fund in future. It is not clear whether P&H’s owners did so and the regulator declined to comment. Topics Retail industry PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountancy news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/04/palmer-and-harvey-pension-deficit-80m-dividends'|'2017-12-05T01:39:00.000+02:00'
'ea916a3666c9291f12334799fef41b6b934c91d3'|'Broadcom set to unveil challenge to Qualcomm''s board - sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:44 AM / in 4 hours Broadcom set to unveil challenge to Qualcomm''s board - sources Liana B. Baker , Greg Roumeliotis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) will take its first formal step on Monday toward a hostile bid to take over Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ), unveiling nominees whom Qualcomm shareholders can vote on to replace the U.S. semiconductor company’s board of directors, according to people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, who announced on Monday an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Broadcom’s move comes after Qualcomm rejected its $103 billion (76.44 billion pounds) cash-and-stock bid last month. Qualcomm shareholders who want the company to engage in sale talks will be able to vote on Broadcom’s board director slate on March 6. Broadcom has lined up nine men and two women as board director nominees, many of whom have considerable experience in the technology sector, the sources said on Sunday. Private equity firm Silver Lake, an investor in Broadcom, has helped with the effort to recruit the nominees, the sources added. Broadcom will not be unveiling any new offer for Qualcomm on Monday, the sources said. It has been considering an improved bid, and will likely present it by March based on the reception its board director slate receives from Qualcomm shareholders, the sources added. Reuters reported last month that Broadcom was considering raising its offer by offering more of its own stock. The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Broadcom and Qualcomm declined to comment. FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is pictured at one of its many campus buildings in San Diego, California, U.S. April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The board director slate that Broadcom puts forward will be heavily scrutinized, because its nominees will not just be asked to put Qualcomm up for sale, but will have to oversee the company until a deal with Broadcom closes. Broadcom has said regulators may take a year to approve an acquisition of Qualcomm, while Qualcomm has countered that the regulatory review process globally could last much longer and is fraught with risks. Qualcomm is also engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ). Unless that legal spat is resolved in the next few months, Broadcom’s board director nominees will have to oversee the resolution of that issue as well. Qualcomm is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal. NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s $110-per-share offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. The spread has tightened, however, in the past month. NXP shares ended trading on Friday at $114.78. Qualcomm does not need to decide to raise its offer for NXP until that deal receives antitrust clearance from all the regulators reviewing the deal around the world. Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/broadcom-set-to-unveil-challenge-to-qualcomms-board-sources-idUKKBN1DY04C'|'2017-12-04T03:43:00.000+02:00'
'cc3128ad6b4dc9e0ea529042ce9374ff26404f4f'|'Prysmian makes $30/share all-cash offer for General Cable'|'MILAN (Reuters) - Italian cable maker Prysmian ( PRY.MI ) has agreed to pay a hefty premium to buy U.S. rival General Cable ( BGC.N ) in a $3 billion deal struck despite competing bids from Chinese and European groups.Prysmian, which makes cables for the energy and telecoms sectors, said the acquisition of the Kentucky-based group would strengthen its industry-leading position and increase its exposure to North America.“Four groups were vying for the acquisition including the Chinese ... it was not an easy weekend, but successful one,” Prysmian CEO Valerio Battista told analysts on a conference call.He and Chief Financial Officer Pier Francesco Facchini were speaking from New York in the early hours of Monday after having negotiated over the weekend to trump bids coming from France’s Nexans ( NEXS.PA ), Denmark NKT ( NKT.CO ) and China’s Hengtong Optic-Electric, sources said.Letting others grab General Cable could have put Prysmian under pressure in some markets, especially North America, where it generates 15 percent of its sales. Prysmian has been looking for months for possibilities to grow in the U.S. market.The Italian company is paying $30 for each General Cable share in an all-cash deal that values the group at about $3 billion, once debt and other liabilities are included.The price is a premium of more than 80 percent to General Cable’s price last July, when it started a strategic review to identify a possible merger partner to boost growth and maximize shareholder value.General Cable’s shares rose to $29.70 in premarket trading on Monday, up more than 36 percent from a closing price of $21.8 on Friday.Shares in Prysmian initially fell more than 3 percent as the hefty premium spooked investors, but quickly recovered after executive comments on promised synergies from the deal.The deal will be financed through a mixture of new debt, cash and existing credit lines. Prysmian said it would launch a right issue of up to 500 million euros ($592 million) as it wants to create room for additional acquisitions, without giving more details.Prysmian has a successful track record of buying and merging with rivals as it became the global leader in the sector after acquiring Dutch company Draka in 2011.COUNTING THE BENEFITS The combined Prysmian-General Cable is expected to generate around a third of its sales in North America, while Europe will account for around 54 percent, Battista said.Prysmian derives the bulk of its sales from the energy and infrastructure businesses, which includes its power distribution business.General Cable, instead, generates the biggest part of its revenue from the electrical utility business. The two groups classify their businesses in different ways, making it difficult to forecast the business breakdown of the merged group.Prysmian said it expects the combined group to generate pretax cost benefits of about 150 million euros within five years, mainly from procurement, overhead costs and plant optimisation.It expects the deal to lift underlying earnings per share by 10-12 percent within the first year after it is finalised.Additional synergies are expected, including up to 40 million euros thanks to lower financial costs for General Cable debt and more through efficient use of working capital, executives added during the call. One-off integration costs are estimated at about 220 million euros.“While the share price for General Cable may surprise the market, the synergies potential identified by Prysmian is significant and likely higher than expected,” Lucie Carrier, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a note.The deal, which is expected to close by the third quarter of next year, would create a group with combined sales of more than 11 billion euros and adjusted core earnings (EBITDA) of about 930 million euros, the companies said in a joint statement.Goldman Sachs, Mediobanca and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz were advising Prysmian, while General Cable was advised by J.P. Morgan Securities and Sullivan & Cromwell.Editing by David Goodman and Keith Weir '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-prysmian-m-a-generalcable/prysmian-makes-30-share-all-cash-offer-for-general-cable-idINKBN1DY0I8'|'2017-12-04T03:44:00.000+02:00'
'ab7a1c2414f6fb6982d97b217e7e4c3e97a613ed'|'Russian prosecutors seek 10 years in jail for ex-economy minister -agencies'|'MOSCOW, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Russian prosecutors on Monday sought a sentence of 10 years in jail for ex-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev, on trial on charges of extorting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft chief Igor Sechin, Russian news agencies reported.Ulyukayev denies the charges. (Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Christian Lowe) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-ulyukayev-prosecutors/russian-prosecutors-seek-10-years-in-jail-for-ex-economy-minister-agencies-idINR4N1NX01U'|'2017-12-04T06:54:00.000+02:00'
'caac0d9fa6a62eea584ed1f95de39801d15fc65a'|'AT&T/Time Warner antitrust hearing to focus on trial date'|' 10 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago AT&T/Time Warner antitrust hearing to focus on trial date Diane Bartz 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice and AT&T Inc ( T.N ) will meet in court for the first time on Thursday as the antitrust regulator attempts to stop the U.S. No. 2 wireless company’s $85 billion purchase of media company Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ). FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is seen at a AT&T building in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo The focus of the hearing is likely to be setting a court date for trial. AT&T has asked the court to hear the case beginning Feb. 20. The government is pressing for May 7. AT&T and Time Warner announced their deal in October 2016, but it was not until last month that the Justice Department sued AT&T to block the deal, arguing it could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers and hamper the development of online video. Under their agreement, AT&T will have to pay Time Warner $500 million if the deal does not close by April 22. Merging companies facing a government challenge often push for a faster trial than the government wants because of the cost of holding the deal together and the difficulty in operating businesses during a lengthy process, said Ethan Glass, a former Justice Department litigator now at the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. “It’s pretty common that the merging parties want the trial to happen quickly,” said Glass. “Mergers create a lot of uncertainty at both companies.” TRUMP SPEAKS The fate of the deal has been widely followed since U.S. President Donald Trump criticized it on the campaign trail last year and his repeated attacks on the reporting of Time Warner’s CNN news network. Trump renewed his opposition to the deal last month. “I think your pricing’s going to go up, I don’t think it’s a good deal for the country,” he said in November. It is not clear that Trump’s comments will have an effect on the trial. “I don’t think it is a great idea to get into all of this (allegations of White House interference) because every deal raises different facts,” said Andre Barlow of Doyle, Barlow & Mazard PLLC. “The court is going to decide this case based on the economic realities of the video distribution and content markets and not on President Trump’s public battle with CNN.” Aside from interest generated by Trump, the case is being closely watched by businesses as it is very rare for an antitrust agency to try to prevent a company from buying a supplier, as is the case with AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner. The government usually challenges companies that seek to merge only if they are direct competitors in an already concentrated market. Once in trial, AT&T will likely push a solution it hopes will be palatable to Judge Richard Leon, who will decide whether the deal may go forward. AT&T and Time Warner said in a court filing that Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit had offered its distributors licensing terms that forbid Turner from “going dark” on a distributor for seven years after the deal closes if they reach an impasse in negotiations. Blackouts are a negotiating tool in carriage disputes between distributors and programmers. It is not unusual for companies facing a government challenge to respond with such a fix. In three cases since 2014 - Sysco buying U.S. Foods, Staples buying Office Depot and Aetna buying Humana - the companies offered a fix but their deals were still deemed illegal by the judge hearing their case and the mergers were scrapped. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/att-time-warner-antitrust-hearing-to-focus-on-trial-date-idUKKBN1E11DR'|'2017-12-07T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'5cd334579fb8817d13ff281937f0ddf74b058ee0'|'Britain needs ''new paradigm'' for financial services trade with EU - Hammond'|'December 5, 2017 / 8:20 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Britain needs ''new paradigm'' for financial services trade with EU - Hammond Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will need a “new paradigm” to sell financial services to the European Union after Brexit as existing trade deals the EU has with foreign countries do not go far enough, the country’s finance minister said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond leaves 11 Downing Street in London, September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Philip Hammond, widely viewed as the most pro-European of Prime Minister Theresa May’s senior colleagues, said in a speech at the annual dinner of finance association CityUK that future trading arrangements with the EU had to be “durable and fair”. Britain has yet to start serious trade talks with the EU ahead of its March 2019 departure, as the process is currently bogged down in disagreements over border arrangements between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. May came under pressure on Tuesday from opposition parties and some allies to soften the EU divorce by keeping Britain in the single market and customs union after Brexit, hours after an attempt to break the logjam over the Irish border collapsed. Hammond said Britain wanted to protect its existing trading arrangements with the EU, and that the type of deal the EU had struck with other countries in the past was not acceptable. “We must develop a new paradigm for our future trading relationship in financial services,” he said. “No existing trade agreement, nor third-country access to the EU, could support the scale and complexity of reciprocal trade in financial services that exists between the UK and the EU,” he added. Earlier on Tuesday the Bank of England reiterated its warning that without legislative changes in Britain and the EU, tens of billions of pounds of cross-border insurance contracts risked legal uncertainty after Brexit, and said it was considering if banks needed to hold extra capital. Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Writing by David Milliken; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-hammond/britain-needs-new-paradigm-for-financial-services-trade-with-eu-hammond-idUKKBN1DZ2X9'|'2017-12-05T22:19:00.000+02:00'
'f051300e4267f77cbe2b02a7b3b3afb6f332b488'|'Deutsche Bank receives subpoena from Mueller on Trump accounts: source'|'December 5, 2017 / 9:45 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Trump lawyer denies Deutsche Bank got subpoena on Trump accounts Arno Schuetze , Karen Freifeld 7 Min Read FRANKFURT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal investigator probing alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election asked Deutsche Bank for data on accounts held by President Donald Trump and his family, a person close to the matter said on Tuesday, but Trump’s lawyer denied any such subpoena had been issued. Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after briefing the U.S. House Intelligence Committee on his investigation of potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein Germany’s largest bank received a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller several weeks ago to provide information on certain money and credit transactions, the person said, without giving details, adding that key documents had been handed over in the meantime. Deutsche Bank has lent the Trump Organization hundreds of millions of dollars for real estate ventures and is one of the few major lenders that has given large amounts of credit to Trump in the past decade. A string of bankruptcies at his hotel and casino businesses during the 1990s made most of Wall Street wary of extending him credit. Mueller is investigating alleged Russian attempts to influence the election, and potential collusion by Trump aides. Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that it meddled in the election and Trump has said there was no collusion with Moscow. Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s personal lawyers, said Deutsche Bank has not received any subpoena for financial records relating to the president as part of Mueller’s probe. “We have confirmed that the news reports that the Special Counsel had subpoenaed financial records relating to the president are false,” Sekulow told Reuters in a statement. “No subpoena has been issued or received. We have confirmed this with the bank and other sources.” He later said the bank in question was Deutsche Bank. A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment. A Deutsche Bank spokesman in New York had no immediate comment beyond the statement the bank issued earlier on Tuesday which said the bank takes “its legal obligations seriously and remains committed to cooperating with authorized investigations into this matter.” A U.S. official with knowledge of Mueller’s probe said one reason for the subpoenas was to find out whether Deutsche Bank may have sold some of Trump’s mortgage or other loans to Russian state development bank VEB or other Russian banks that now are under U.S. and European Union sanctions. VEB, as well as the Russian Agricultural Bank and Gazprombank did not immediately reply to emailed requests for comment. “No one from the VTB Group representatives has received a subpoena because there are absolutely no grounds for it,” a bank representative said in response to a request from Reuters. “Deutsche Bank did not contact us regarding people connected with the Trump administration.” “We would not comment on the existence of any such request, had one been received,” responded a representative of Sberbank. Holding Trump debt, particularly if some of it was or is coming due, could potentially give Russian banks some leverage over Trump, especially if they are state-owned, said a second U.S. official familiar with Russian intelligence methods. “One obvious question is why Trump and those around him expressed interest in improving relations with Russia as a top foreign policy priority, and whether or not any personal considerations played any part in that,” the second official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. A source close to Deutsche Bank said the bank had run checks on Trump’s financial dealings with Russia. During his election campaign, Trump said he would seek to improve ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which were strained during President Barack Obama’s administration. The subpoena was earlier reported by German daily Handelsblatt. FINANCES A RED LINE During a photo opportunity with senators at the White House on Tuesday, Trump declined to answer shouted questions from reporters about whether Mueller had crossed a line by asking Deutsche Bank for information. In a July 9 interview with the New York Times, Trump said Mueller should not extend his investigation into Trump’s finances if they were not directly related to the Russia accusations. Asked if delving into his and his family’s finances unrelated to the Russia probe would cross a red line, Trump replied, “I would say yeah. I would say yes.” Deutsche Bank earlier this year rebuffed efforts by Democratic U.S. lawmakers to get more information on its dealings with Trump as well as any information it may have about whether the Republican, his family or advisers had financial backing from Russia. Trump had liabilities of at least $130 million (£96.8 million) to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, a unit of the German bank, according to a federal financial disclosure form released in June by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The Deutsche debts include a loan exceeding $50 million for the Old Post Office, a historic property he redeveloped in downtown Washington, mortgages worth more than $55 million on a golf course in Florida, and a $25 million-plus loan on a Trump hotel and condominium in Chicago, the disclosure shows. All of those loans were taken out in 2012 and will mature in 2023 and 2024, according to the disclosure. Trump and Deutsche Bank have not always been on good terms. Trump sued the bank and other lenders in 2008, demanding $3 billion in damages, claiming they broke agreements in the construction and financing of a Chicago hotel. Deutsche Bank countersued and the two sides eventually settled. Internal Deutsche Bank documents seen by Reuters feature the names of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his wife, Kathleen, in a series of client profiles. But it was not immediately clear what their relationship with the bank is or had been. According to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Manafort and his wife do not have Deutsche Bank accounts. The bank declined to comment on whether Manafort is or has ever been a client. A spokesman for Manafort declined to comment. In October, Manafort pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy against the United States. The charges were brought as part of Mueller’s investigation. Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Tom Bergin in Frankfurt, Tatiana Voronova in Moscow, and Nathan Layne, John Walcott, Nathan Layne, Karen Freifeld and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Writing by Alistair Bell and Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Keith Weir, Mark Potter, Toni Reinhold and Frances Kerry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-deutsche-bank/deutsche-bank-receives-subpoena-from-mueller-on-trump-accounts-source-idUKKBN1DZ13M'|'2017-12-05T11:44:00.000+02:00'
'3b981c546d64cc11f8e680ae36a64e987532764e'|'Trophy assets such as Volkswagen, Shard, Harrods profitable, Qatar says'|'December 5, 2017 / 7:28 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Trophy assets such as Volkswagen, Shard, Harrods profitable, Qatar says Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DOHA (Reuters) - Trophy assets held by the Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, are providing it with great returns, Finance Minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi told a business conference on Tuesday. Qatar''s finance minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi speaks during the Euromoney Qatar Conference in Doha, Qatar December 6, 2016. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon He mentioned the QIA’s stake in Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), London’s Shard skyscraper and the Harrods department store as examples. The QIA has been using some of its money to support Qatari banks and the economy this year in the wake of sanctions imposed on Doha by other Arab states. This has caused speculation that it could sell some assets to raise cash. But Emadi said the QIA had been mandated to invest Qatar’s surplus money in long-term assets and would stay engaged in international markets. Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh; Writing by Andrew Torchia'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gulf-qatar-funds/trophy-assets-such-as-volkswagen-shard-harrods-profitable-qatar-says-idUKKBN1DZ0OC'|'2017-12-05T09:27:00.000+02:00'
'1bbb845e6c53b2265fb1efc05e3328a1f4db3ec7'|'RBI reiterates warnings about trading in Bitcoins'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday reiterated its concerns about Bitcoins, just days after the cryptocurrency hit a record high of just under $11,800, stoking fears that a rapidly swelling bubble could burst in a spectacular fashion.Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The RBI said it wanted to reinforce its previous message to “users, holders and traders of Virtual Currencies (VCs) including Bitcoins regarding the potential economic, financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks associated in dealing with such VCs.”The statement was issued after the cryptocurrency, which trades 24 hours a day and seven days a week, climbed as high as $11,799.99 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Sunday.The RBI had previously said those trading in virtual currencies were doing so at their own risk, given that the central bank has not given a licence or authorisation for any company to deal in such cryptocurrencies.Reporting by Rafael Nam; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-bitcoin-rbi/rbi-reiterates-warnings-about-trading-in-bitcoins-idINKBN1DZ1T6'|'2017-12-05T15:15:00.000+02:00'
'b37c504e9a9ed759409f62391bd614aee4ba6e37'|'"Smart bags" may not fly if battery cannot be removed'|'December 5, 2017 / 1:20 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago "Smart bags" may not fly if battery cannot be removed Reuters Staff 2 Min Read GENEVA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - “Smart suitcases” may be able to charge mobile phones or be easily found if misplaced, but unless their battery can be removed they risk being sent packing by the world’s airlines. Global airlines body IATA said it could issue industry-wide standards on the new luggage soon, after some U.S. airlines issued their own restrictions on smart bags, whose manufacturers include companies such as BlueSmart, Raden or Away. These contain GPS tracking and can charge devices, weigh themselves or be locked remotely using mobile phones, but they are powered by lithium ion batteries, which the aviation industry regards as a fire risk, especially in the cargo hold. “We expect guidance to be issued potentially this week,” Nick Careen, IATA senior vice president of airport, passenger, cargo and security, told a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, when asked about restrictions placed by some airlines. U.S. based carriers American Airlines, Delta and Alaska Airlines all said last week that as of Jan. 15, 2018, they would require the battery to be removed before allowing the bags on board. Careen gave no details of any potential industry-wide standards, but said he expected others could quickly follow the example of the U.S. carriers. Away and Raden say on their websites that batteries in their bags can be easily removed. Concerns over the risk of a lithium ion battery fire were highlighted during the electronics ban temporarily imposed earlier this year on some flights to the United States. (Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Alexander Smith)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/airlines-iata-smart-bags/smart-bags-may-not-fly-if-battery-cannot-be-removed-idUSL8N1O53AH'|'2017-12-05T15:20:00.000+02:00'
'2fb66ada8ffbe189c7c84b5b3fdcd10145c9b275'|'UPDATE 1-Qatar says 2018 budget will focus on resisting economic boycott'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:43 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Qatar says 2018 budget will focus on resisting economic boycott Reuters Staff * Finance minister pledges never to leave Qatar vulnerable again * Will use subsidies to develop strategic industries * To become self-sufficient in some dairy products * Net outflows from banking system have halted, banker says * Executive sees $9 billion sovereign bond issuance next year (Adds details, analysis, context) By Hadeel Al Sayegh DOHA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Qatar’s 2018 state budget will focus on developing local industries and the private sector as the country works to make itself self-sufficient in the face of a boycott by other Arab states, Finance Minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi said on Tuesday. In a speech to an international business conference, delivered exactly six months after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, Emadi said the economy had escaped serious damage. But he added that Qatar was determined never again to leave itself as vulnerable as it was in the initial weeks of the boycott, when the closing of its border with Saudi Arabia slashed imports of fresh food and other Gulf states pulled billions of dollars of deposits from its banks. “It will take years and years for people to forget, and I don’t think they will forget,” he said, describing recent months as a “stress test” for Qatar financially, militarily and socially. The four Arab states accused Qatar of backing terrorism, which Doha denies. At Tuesday’s conference, Emadi and other senior Qatari financial figures sought to convince hundreds of local and foreign businessmen that Doha could withstand the boycott indefinitely if necessary. Emadi said the government would use subsidies to develop some sectors of the economy and boost growth. Doha is also studying how it can make the business environment more competitive and attract foreign capital, he added. One area on which Qatar is focusing is the dairy industry, where a local company is using sophisticated technology to raise cattle in the desert; Emadi predicted the country would be wholly self-sufficient in some dairy products by the first anniversary of the boycott. He also said Doha was looking at poultry farming, and that work on the project had started last week. The government and the central bank have deposited billions of dollars in local banks to insulate them from withdrawals during the boycott, and Emadi made clear that the world’s top liquefied natural gas exporter was prepared to deposit billions more if necessary. “If we see a systematic risk in the state of Qatar, we will make sure the government will intervene. There is no mistake about it.” But Rory Fyfe, head of economics at Qatar National Bank , the country’s largest bank, said net outflows from Qatar’s banking system had halted in November. Outflows have decreased as Gulf depositors have run out of remaining funds to withdraw, and as banks have found new sources of foreign money. Fyfe also estimated the non-hydrocarbon part of the economy would grow 4.5 percent this year - a figure that would make Qatar one of the region’s best-performing economies. Government spending to resist the boycott has raised speculation that its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, with assets estimated at $300 billion, may sell some of its holdings to raise cash. Emadi sought to cool that speculation by saying the QIA had been mandated to invest surplus money in long-term assets and would stay engaged in international markets. Prominent foreign assets held by the QIA, such as a stake in Volkswagen, London’s Shard skyscraper and the Harrods department store, are providing great returns, he said. Fyfe said financing Qatar’s public-sector growth would be a challenge next year, and that the government and some banks were likely to turn to the international bond market. The government will comfortably be able to raise $9 billion through international bond issuance in 2018, said Yousef al-Jaida, chief executive of the Qatar Financial Centre, citing increased interest in Qatari debt among Asian funds. (Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh, writing by Andrew Torchia, editing by Larry King)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/gulf-qatar-economy/update-1-qatar-says-2018-budget-will-focus-on-resisting-economic-boycott-idUSL8N1O5196'|'2017-12-05T12:42:00.000+02:00'
'752a433b40bee4c8940d9a1ff28ec0c89e89259b'|'CVS likely wants FTC antitrust review, not Justice Department, of Aetna deal'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is uncertain who in the U.S. government will carry out an antitrust review of CVS Health Corp’s ( CVS.N ) deal to buy health insurer Aetna Inc ( AET.N ), but the drugstore company is likely hoping the potentially more lenient Federal Trade Commission gets the nod, antitrust experts say.FILE PHOTO: People walk by a CVS Pharmacy store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission share the job of reviewing mergers to make sure they don’t hurt consumers, but sometimes it comes down to a coin toss as to who reviews a deal that involves both agencies’ areas of expertise.The Justice Department might be best-placed since it recently reviewed, and stopped, two insurance industry tie-ups, including Aetna’s plan to buy rival Humana Inc ( HUM.N ).Meanwhile, the FTC also has highly-relevant expertise, considering it reviewed CVS’s purchase of Target’s ( TGT.N ) pharmacy business in 2015 as well as another big pharmacy deal, Walgreens’ ( WBA.O ) purchase of much of Rite Aid ( RAD.N ) this year.“If I were the parties, I would try to steer it to the FTC,” said Fiona Schaeffer of the law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy. She described CVS’s plan to buy Aetna as “eminently approvable” by either agency because critics would be unable to come up with a convincing theory to show the deal will harm consumers.The issue will likely be resolved in clearance discussions held almost immediately after the companies officially inform enforcers about the deal. In the meeting, both sides will consider each agency’s expertise in the industry in question as well as resource constraints.Which agency gets the deal may also be left to chance.“It tends it goes to a coin toss via a computer program if they (agency officials) can’t work it out,” said one expert, who asked not to be named to protect business relationships.Antitrust experts said that the companies likely hope the Justice Department loses that coin toss.After decades of allowing vertical deals like the CVS/Aetna tie-up, where a company merges with a supplier, the Justice Department just sued to stop AT&T ( T.N ), owner of DirecTV, from buying Time Warner ( TWX.N ), in late November.In general, antitrust experts say, the antitrust agencies tend to approve vertical deals because of the efficiencies inherent in buying a supplier. The big exception - and this is the situation in AT&T&rsquo;s deal for Time Warner - is if there is a fear that AT&T&rsquo;s rivals would lose critical access to Time-Warner products like HBO or CNN.Unlike the Justice Department, the FTC has shown no apparent interest in suing to stop a vertical deal. The agency is chaired by Maureen Ohlhausen, a moderate Republican, who will be replaced by Joe Simons, another moderate Republican, as soon as the Senate confirms him.It would be a surprise for moderate Republicans to file a lawsuit to stop a vertical merger, according to six antitrust experts.That said, two antitrust experts said they believed the Justice Department could try to stop this transaction for fear that customers would either face higher drug prices or have less choice.“Events of the past three weeks suggest that (Justice Department’s top antitrust enforcer) Makan (Delrahim) might sue to challenge this deal,” said Chris Sagers, who teaches antitrust at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aetna-m-a-cvs-health-antitrust/cvs-likely-wants-ftc-antitrust-review-not-justice-department-of-aetna-deal-idINKBN1DZ26I'|'2017-12-05T12:26:00.000+02:00'
'c213743eb54d58696be2e13b3fa096abcf4e726b'|'Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered eye 750 new jobs in Poland'|'London (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) is looking to hire about 250 staff in Poland in 2018 and Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) is also considering the country as a possible new hub for around 500 staff, the banks said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Poland, by far the largest country in the European Union’s eastern wing, has seen strong economic growth over the past decade and has proven attractive for international banks and other companies, partly due to its cheaper labor costs.A spokesman for Goldman Sachs said the bank would sharply increase its Polish headcount to between 750 and 800 by the end of next year, up from 525 now.The new jobs will primarily be in operations and technology, risk management, treasury and human resources - mainly ‘back office’ roles which do not have to be located in more expensive locations such as London or Frankfurt.Standard Chartered said it was looking to expand in eastern Europe by setting up an office with about 500 staff, a spokesman said, adding that possible locations included the Polish cities of Warsaw and Krakow as well as Prague and Budapest.The bank will make a decision on the location by the first quarter of 2018, the spokesman added.In September, Poland announced that U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase ( JPM.N ) planned to hire more than 3,000 people for its new global operations center in Warsaw.Goldman Sachs is also set to sign a lease on a new office in Milan that will boost its presence in Italy as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Lawrence White, additional reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-poland/goldman-sachs-standard-chartered-eye-750-new-jobs-in-poland-idUSKBN1DZ1RR'|'2017-12-05T14:58:00.000+02:00'
'59876d85d8c9e9ef5ce551800b6d0b987a2a9ed4'|'GEMS picks JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Bank of America for $5 billion IPO - sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 10:54 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago GEMS picks JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Bank of America for $5 billion IPO - sources Dasha Afanasieva 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - GEMS Education’s owners have chosen JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to lead the international private schools group’s initial public offering (IPO), two sources familiar with the matter said. People chat at a cafe hosted by JP Morgan at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/Files GEMS, which operates more than 250 schools across 14 countries, could have a market capitalisation of around $4.5-$5 billion in a London listing which is expected to take place in 2018, the sources said. Backed by Dubai-based Fajr Capital, Bahraini state investment fund Mumtalakat and investment firm Blackstone, GEMs said on Monday it had secured a $1.25 billion loan to refinance existing borrowings and support growth. JP Morgan declined to comment, while the other banks chosen as joint global coordinators did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gems-ipo-mandate/gems-picks-jp-morgan-credit-suisse-and-bank-of-america-for-5-billion-ipo-sources-idINKBN1DY157'|'2017-12-04T07:54:00.000+02:00'
'b95be642e6b27ff3e8011c39a1c3e25803991e8e'|'Exclusive: Ford set for China tie-up with Alibaba to test online, direct auto sales: source'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. is expected to sign as early as Thursday a deal with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd which may allow the U.S. automaker to test selling cars to consumers in China through Alibaba’s online retail arm Tmall, as well as via a new “auto vending machine” store concept, according to a Ford source familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO: Visitors look at Ford models at Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Representatives of Ford and Alibaba, including Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and Ford CEO Jim Hackett, are expected to be in Hangzhou on Thursday to sign a letter of intent that outlines the scope of the new partnership.According to the source, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak with reporters, the deal is intended to position the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker for an emerging Chinese marketplace where more cars could be sold online.The partnership would be part of Ford’s effort to overhaul its China strategy to revive the growth momentum it has lost in recent months.Ford’s global chief spokesman Mark Truby said the company is expected to make an announcement on Thursday in Hangzhou, where Alibaba is based, but declined to comment in advance.Alibaba spokeswoman Crystal Liu declined to comment.The source said the proposal could mean that cars purchased online are delivered to buyers by franchised Ford retail stores and would be maintained and repaired by them.But Ford could also use Tmall’s new retail concept called the “Automotive Vending Machine” — a multi-storey parking garage that partly resembles a giant vending machine — to sell directly to consumers, the source said. Those cars could come directly from Ford or from its dealers but the details are still to be worked out, the source added.According to Alibaba, consumers can use their phones to browse through the cars garaged in the store and choose to either immediately buy one or test drive it. The vehicle would be delivered to them on the ground floor.CONCERN FOR DEALERS The model allows shoppers with good credit to purchase their new ride with a 10 percent down payment and then make monthly payments for the car purchase through Alibaba’s affiliate Alipay, according to Alibaba.Ford believes dealers would likely agree to this direct retailing model because they still get to service cars sold through Tmall, the Ford source said.The move, though, could be potentially problematic for dealers, some industry experts said.“When online sales and direct sales volume was small that’s one thing. But if this format gained steam, it would definitely impact dealers,” according to Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive Foresight. “Retail innovation is great, but it is by its nature disruptive and can’t keep everybody happy.”The danger is that the dealers lose out not only on a lot of car sales but also the potentially lucrative auto financing aspect of their traditional business.Direct selling by auto brands is not always possible in many markets around the world. In the United States, for example, because of franchise auto dealer operators’ political clout, except for a small number of states, direct selling is largely not possible.The source said Ford is “behind in using big data” to monitor sales trends and effectively market its cars and the move to online sales as well as the access to Tmall’s massive database of information on consumers would help it to catch up.Online auto sales volumes are currently limited in China because car buyers want to be able to see, touch and drive cars before buying them, said Zhang. The ability to test drive a car ordered online could change that.Ford’s China sales have been sluggish in recent months in part because it has failed to catch on to rapidly changing trends in the marketplace, including the rise of entry-level cars popular in smaller and less-well-known cities, where demand is booming.Ford’s sales in the first 10 months of this year were 938,570, a decline of 5 percent from the same period in 2016, against a 2.2 percent gains to 3.13 million for hometown rival General Motors.Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Martin Howell '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-autos-ford-alibaba/exclusive-ford-set-for-china-tie-up-with-alibaba-to-test-online-direct-auto-sales-source-idINKBN1E016Q'|'2017-12-06T12:26:00.000+02:00'
'9da96c5cda4c5e87dc199abaf38a736ff7ec4099'|'CORRECTED-HNA''s airlines miss lease payments -report'|'December 5, 2017 / 9:55 PM / in 13 hours HNA''s airlines miss lease payments: report Reuters Staff 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Airlines owned by Chinese conglomerate HNA Group have missed payments due on leased aircraft, the chief executive of lessor Aergo Capital has told industry publication FlightGlobal. HNA had “stopped paying – via their owned airline subsidiaries – some lessors for leased jets for the past two to three months,” Aergo CEO Fred Browne was quoted as saying. “We only have one aircraft exposed, but I know others have a lot more,” Browne told FlightGlobal. “If those lessors turn around and say ‘no more’ and pull those aircraft out, that could truly shake the market.” Pressure is growing on the HNA conglomerate after a debt-fueled $50 billion acquisition spree including New York properties, Californian golf courses, U.S. electronics wholesaler Ingram Micro and stakes in Deutsche Bank and hotelier Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. Its financing costs have risen as repayments come due, and ratings agency Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded its credit assessment due to its “aggressive financial policy” and tightening liquidity. ”We value our relationships with lessors and we are committed to meeting our obligations to them,” a spokesman for HNA Group said. The rating agency cut the rating of Swiss airport services group Swissport on Tuesday due to the weakening outlook for parent HNA. [L3N1O54NC] The conglomerate’s Chief Executive Adam Tan told a conference in Beijing last week that the company was considering asset sales. [L3N1NY4I7] Headquartered in the southern Chinese island of Hainan, HNA started out as a regional airline. Among its other investments, it owns a group of mostly Chinese air carriers, including Hainan Airlines and Beijing Capital Airlines. It also has stakes in some foreign carriers such as Brazil’s Azul SA. Uncertainty shrouds the owners the privately held company and some international banks have scaled back their dealings with the firm due to its opaque ownership structure. The debt pile at Chinese firms is climbing, with levels at the end of September growing at the fastest pace in four years, according to a Reuters analysis. (This version of the story deletes reference to no comment in paragraph 4; HNA comment in paragraph 6) Reporting by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hnagroup-leases/hnas-airlines-miss-lease-payments-report-idUSKBN1DZ33G'|'2017-12-06T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'336d0d693ac085dea750d19362441bf955804462'|'Samsung Heavy in new rights offering to cut credit risks, shares plunge'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries announced its second rights offering in two years to lessen the risk of tighter credit conditions and forecast a fourth straight year of operating losses, causing its shares to plummet 28 percent.A customer stands near Samsung logo during Galaxy Note 8 consumer launch event in Jakarta, Indonesia September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Beawiharta/Files The $1.4 billion new share issue, which follows a $1 billion issue in 2016, will be used to pay debt as well as to reduce the risk of banks curtailing lending due to its weak earnings prospects, Samsung Heavy said in a statement.South Korea’s three shipbuilders - the world’s biggest - have racked up billions of dollars in losses and embarked on major restructuring as customers slashed orders amid a commodities downturn and a drop-off in shipping trade. They are also having to fend off stiff competition from Chinese and Japanese rivals.Samsung Heavy - the smallest of the three - said in a filing it expected an operating loss of 240 billion won ($220 million) in the next financial year, after an expected loss of 490 billion won this year - the result of weak orders and a failure to reach its targets to cut headcount and other costs.“Given improving market conditions, we expect sales to recover and to swing to a profit from 2019,” it said.New orders won this year have grown 13 times to $6.5 billion, from $500 million last year. Samsung’s outstanding order backlog was worth $20.6 billion for 72 ships up to the end of October compared with $26.7 billion for 90 vessels at the end of December 2016.Under the rights offering, Samsung Heavy will allocate new shares to existing shareholders with any unsubscribed stocks to be offered to third-party investors. It did not specify how many shares would be issued or at what price.“Samsung Heavy’s loss was expected but the rights issue comes as a shock to me,” said Choi Gwang-shik, an analyst at Hi Investment & Securities.In its last rights issue, it raised 1.1 trillion won by selling shares at 7,170 won apiece to existing shareholders including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Samsung Life Insurance Co Ltd. Samsung Electronics is its biggest shareholder with a 16.9 percent stake.In afternoon trade, Samsung Heavy’s share had lost 28 percent to trade at 9,100 won, giving the shipbuilder a market value of about $3.3 billion.“The rights issue will not solve its liquidity problems. The outlook is not good for Samsung Heavy,” said Park Moo-hyun, an analyst at Han Investment & Securities, adding that its shipbuilding capabilities for large commercial vessels lagged rivals Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries.Daewoo Shipbuilding tumbled 4 percent and Hyundai Heavy slid 6 percent on the Samsung Heavy news.Park said, however, that while he thought that some Samsung affiliates could also be hurt by the shipbuilder’s woes, he did not think of it as an issue affecting the nation’s entire shipbuilding sector as the industry is rebounding.Early this year Daewoo gained a fresh $2.6 billion bailout from South Korean banks after it has built up huge losses from offshore projects and risked missing debt repayments.($1 = 1,089.8000 won)Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Additonal reporting by Cynthia Kim in SEOUL, Miyoung Kim and Keith Wallis in Singapore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/samsung-heavy-stocks/samsung-heavy-in-new-rights-offering-to-cut-credit-risks-shares-plunge-idINKBN1E00IE'|'2017-12-06T08:26:00.000+02:00'
'1e9890a7a216082e4bab96942e9a591263c774e2'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 6'|'December 6, 2017 / 5:56 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 6 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Dish Network Corp said Tuesday that Charlie Ergen has relinquished his role as chief executive to focus on the company''s fledgling wireless business. on.wsj.com/2BFDlAh - Aetna Inc Chief Executive Mark T. Bertolini is set to pocket roughly half a billion dollars when he leaves his company if it successfully merges with CVS Health Corp on.wsj.com/2jgBOtB - United Parcel Service Inc is struggling to handle the surge in shipments from online shoppers, resulting in delivery delays early in the critical holiday season and prompting the carrier to push drivers to work extra hours. on.wsj.com/2BH7LTv - Alphabet Inc''s Google said it is pulling YouTube from some Amazon.com Inc devices in retaliation for Amazon refusing to sell many Google products, escalating a battle between two tech titans as their businesses increasingly overlap. on.wsj.com/2kpX7fV - Nestlé SA agreed to buy Atrium Innovations Inc a Canadian vitamin maker, for $2.3 billion, including the assumption of debt—expanding its range of consumer-health offerings as sales slow for packaged-food staples such as TV dinners and chocolate-powdered drinks. on.wsj.com/2iV3SWA (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-6-idUSL3N1O6293'|'2017-12-06T07:55:00.000+02:00'
'0ffd26f5236a830d28fd97a760c7d35cb6a2171b'|'Britain pushes back date for provisional findings in Sky-Fox deal'|'December 6, 2017 / 11:21 AM / in 2 hours Britain pushes back date for provisional findings on Sky-Fox deal Kate Holton 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s competition watchdog will give its initial verdict on Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Sky ( SKYB.L ) next month, later than expected, due to the vast number of responses it has received on the deal. FILE PHOTO: The Sky logo is seen outside of an entrance to offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Murdoch’s $15 billion bid to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not already own is being watched closely in the United States where Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) is in the lead to acquire much of his Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s ( FOXA.O ) media empire, including Sky. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has been inundated with submissions from interested parties over the high profile takeover, said on Wednesday it would make its provisional findings public in January rather than the week of Dec. 18. “It is not unusual for us to update our timetables,” a spokeswoman said. “In this case, we have received a large body of evidence – including numerous face-to-face hearings and more than 12,000 submissions - so it is vital that we spend the time to reach an informed and considered provisional view.” The regulator is still due to give its final findings in March, 15 months after Murdoch’s Fox agreed in December 2016 to buy the European pay-TV group, reigniting a row over whether the media mogul has too much influence in Britain. Murdoch failed in a 2011 attempt to buy Sky when a phone-hacking scandal at his News of the World forced him to drop a previous attempt. Since then he has split his companies into two to separate the newspapers from the TV businesses. Fox said when it agreed the deal it did not foresee any regulatory difficulties but the government has taken a strong line against the takeover. The media minister, Karen Bradley, asked the regulator in September to examine whether Murdoch had a genuine commitment to broadcasting standards following concerns about the running of his U.S. Fox News network. Bradley also asked the regulator to scrutinize whether the deal would give him too much influence at the heart of the British media. Fox anticipates that its deal to buy the remaining shares in Sky will be approved in the first half of 2018. Any deal for Fox would include the remaining stake in Sky, sources have told Reuters. Analysts and competition lawyers have told Reuters they expect the CMA to continue reviewing the Fox-Sky deal even if a third party makes a bid for Fox. Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Costas Pitas and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sky-m-a-fox/britain-pushes-back-date-for-provisional-findings-in-sky-fox-deal-idUSKBN1E01CN'|'2017-12-06T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'586535624983556f966ab9c751124b29e18c54ac'|'China''s Ping An takes 5 percent stake in HSBC via Stock Connect'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China has built up a 5 percent stake in HSBC ( HSBA.L ), it said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, making it a ‘significant investor’ in Europe’s biggest bank.FILE PHOTO - A woman rides a bicycle carrying her child past a car bearing the company logo of Ping An Insurance, in Hefei, Anhui province January 11, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Ping An said the investment is a financial one based on the bank’s strong performance and track record of paying dividends.The investment represents a reversal in the historical relationship between the two financial firms. HSBC in 2012 sold its $9.38 billion stake in Ping An to a conglomerate controlled by Thailand’s then-richest man Dhanin Chearavanont.Ping An said it build up its 5 percent stake in HSBC by buying its Hong Kong-listed shares via the Stock Connect program which allows mainland Chinese companies to buy Hong Kong shares, and vice versa.Reporting by Lawrence White; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ping-an-ins-hsbc/chinas-ping-an-takes-5-percent-stake-in-hsbc-via-stock-connect-idINKBN1E01X0'|'2017-12-06T11:24:00.000+02:00'
'5462e0361e8b5548014674cdfa89f751ba048a1d'|'U.S. judge approves Toys ''R'' Us bonus plan to spur holiday shopping'|'Dec 5 (Reuters) - Toys ‘R’ Us won court approval on Tuesday for plan to pay top executives up to $21 million in bonuses by arguing that the money will incentivize them to boost the bankrupt retailer’s sales during the critical year-end shopping season.“The company is laser-focused on the holidays,” Toys ‘R’ Us lawyer Joshua Sussberg said at a hearing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia.Sussberg said Toys ‘R’ Us Chief Executive David Brandon, one of the bonus plan beneficiaries, estimates that only half of the U.S. population has completed their holiday purchases. That indicates there is still time to motivate shoppers “to buy as much as they can.”Toy ‘R’ Us, the largest U.S. toy retailer, makes 40 percent of net sales in the fourth quarter and its performance during the holiday season could drive the outcome of its attempted turnaround during a seismic shift in the retail industry.Judge Keith Phillips approved the bonus plan over an objection by the U.S. Trustee, a government bankruptcy watchdog, after Toys ‘R’ Us advisers called the payments reasonable.Many bankrupt companies pay bonuses as a way to motivate executives to reach earnings targets.Under the Toys ‘R’ Us plan, 17 eligible executives would split about $21 million if earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization for this fiscal year reach $641 million. Sussberg called the target “incredibly hard to achieve.”Executives would split about $14 million if earnings reach $550 million. The terms were revised after a complaint from unsecured creditors, who ultimately backed the plan.The U.S. Trustee blasted the proposal, saying five of the potential recipients split $8.2 million in retention bonuses a week before the Sept. 19 bankruptcy filing, and noted other salary perks for Brandon such as aircraft and limousine use.The loss-making company - with 64,000 employees, about 1,600 stores and $5 billion of debt - has faced a growing challenge from online platforms like Amazon.com Inc.On Monday, Toys ‘R’ Us UK said it plans to close at least 26 of its 105 stores in Britain in 2018.Toys ‘R’ Us, which plans to spend around $1 billion over the next few years to transform its big box stores and improve consumer experiences, has not yet unveiled planned U.S. store closures.The company wants to present a business plan by July 15, with the hope of exiting bankruptcy before next year’s holiday season, Sussberg said. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toys-r-us-bankruptcy/u-s-judge-approves-toys-r-us-bonus-plan-to-spur-holiday-shopping-idINL1N1O512F'|'2017-12-05T19:37:00.000+02:00'
'0251c76e42efad97f91c685c0261e834bdf1dbc2'|'U.S. urges judge to reject AT&T/Time Warner court date proposal'|'December 6, 2017 / 4:00 AM / Updated 4 hours ago U.S. urges judge to reject AT&T/Time Warner court date proposal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Tuesday urged a federal judge to reject the February court date sought by AT&T and Time Warner in a dispute over the firms’ proposed merger, arguing the companies are rushing to meet an April 22 closing deadline for their $85.4 billion (63.6 billion pounds) deal. The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The U.S. Justice Department last month sued to block AT&T’s planned acquisition of Time Warner, saying the combination could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had called the companies’ requested court date of Feb. 20 a “reasonable ask.” The government had requested that proceedings start on May 7. AT&T will have to pay Time Warner $500 million if the merger is not consummated by April 22. Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-urges-judge-to-reject-att-time-warner-court-date-proposal-idUKKBN1E00A0'|'2017-12-06T10:13:00.000+02:00'
'fed4af69c7d5b24aa494b21c246142fd6d0204cb'|'Oil falls after rise in U.S. fuel stocks; doubt grows over global growth'|'December 6, 2017 / 1:53 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Oil falls after rise in U.S. fuel stocks; doubt grows over global growth Amanda Cooper 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday after a surprise rise in U.S. inventories of refined products in what the market interpreted as a sign of flagging demand. A worker checks the valve of an oil pipe at the Lukoil company owned Imilorskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Kogalym, Russia, January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Brent crude futures were down 48 cents at $62.38 a barrel by 1002 GMT, down 2 percent since last Wednesday, while U.S. crude futures were off 46 cents at $57.16 a barrel. With global equities under pressure from sliding technology stocks and the U.S. bond market suggesting investors are cautious about the outlook for economic growth, industrial commodities such as crude oil and copper are feeling the pinch this week. [MET/L] [MKTS/GLOB] Supply cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers that were extended last week to all of next year have helped lift Brent prices by more than 40 percent since June. “The turn-down in risk sentiment is a nice justification for why you might want to pare down some of the long positions taken going into the OPEC meeting,” London Capital Group’s head of research Jasper Lawler said. “In the supply and demand picture for oil there hasn’t been much change ... There is a general theme of selling back things that have recently been outperforming, tech being the obvious one ... so if you are looking across the asset spectrum and looking to sell things that have done well, then oil fits into that category.” Traders said prices fell after an American Petroleum Institute (API) report on Tuesday that showed a 9.2 million barrel rise in gasoline stocks in the week ended Dec. 1, and an increase of 4.3 million barrels in distillate inventories, which include motor diesel and heating oil. The perception that the higher fuel stocks pointed to weak demand outweighed a drop in crude inventories by 5.5 million barrels to 451.8 million barrels, traders said. One factor that could undermine OPEC’s and Russia’s effort to cut supplies and prop up prices is U.S. oil production, which has risen by 15 percent since mid-2016 to 9.68 million barrels per day, close to levels of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. But a weaker economic performance and a decline in refinery capacity utilisation in the first quarter could be a drag on oil demand and dampen prices, said Georgi Slavov, head of research at commodity broker Marex Spectron. “Demand remains firm, which is the main reason for us to still see oil at/above $60 per barrel. This is likely to change as we approach 2018,” Slavov said in a note. “We are starting to pick up weakness in the macro performance of key oil consuming regions. We are also starting to take note of the forthcoming January–February decline in refinery capacity utilisation,” he said. Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein and Keith Wallis in SINGAPORE; Editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-dips-on-rising-u-s-fuel-stocks-but-opecs-supply-cuts-offer-support-idUKKBN1E005I'|'2017-12-06T12:22:00.000+02:00'
'ef1a094358c9a215b6c07e5dcf97452d20f56efb'|'Ex-BT Italy boss wins $2 mln for wrongful dismissal - sources'|'MILAN, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A manager at the centre of investigations into an accounting scandal at British Telecom’s Italian business has been awarded almost 1.8 million euros ($2.1 million) in damages for wrongful dismissal, three legal sources said on Wednesday.Gianluca Cimini was fired for disciplinary reasons last year, months before the phone company filed a criminal complaint accusing him of grave violations of corporate governance. The accusations arose from its investigation of alleged accounting fraud that cost the firm 530 million pounds ($690 million).An Italian labour tribunal ruled that the manager’s dismissal was both “illegitimate” and “unfounded”, one source said, quoting the judge’s summary of his decision.Full reasons for the ruling will be issued within 15 days.“We’re extremely disappointed with this decision,” a BT spokesman said in an email, adding that the firm would not comment further until the full judgement was available.Cimini, formerly BT Italy CEO, and several other former top managers remain under investigation by Italian prosecutors on allegations of alleged fraud. The civil case involving Cimini is separate from the criminal investigation.All the accused have always denied any wrongdoing.Cimini’s lawyer, Angelo Zambelli, confirmed the wrongful dismissal ruling.“That’s a courageous sentence which leaves us fully satisfied and which I believe will reinstate Mr Cimini’s reputation and professional decorum that was taken away from him a year ago,” Zambelli said.The accounting scandal surfaced late last year when BT Group said it had discovered financial irregularities at its Italy unit. In January, it characterised it as improper accounting and took a write-down of around 530 million pounds.BT first suspended and later fired Cimini and some other managers late last year after an internal inquiry into bullying.In the criminal complaint filed in March, BT accused several former Italy executives, including Cimini, and other employees of breaking company rules and unlawful conduct.In Cimini’s case, BT alleges he was responsible for breaking corporate governance rules in relation to contracts and suppliers, and for using intimidatory behaviour when dealing with staff. ($1 = 0.8480 euros) (Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Mark Bendeich) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bt-italy-dismissal/ex-bt-italy-boss-wins-2-mln-for-wrongful-dismissal-sources-idINI6N1NR019'|'2017-12-06T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'1211c17a53d3325ad7aebdfd14cb15b4830115c0'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil''s GPA aims for stable capex in 2018, focused on new Assai stores'|'December 5, 2017 / 8:58 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Brazil''s GPA aims for stable capex in 2018, focused on new Assai stores Reuters Staff (Adds quote, details on Via Varejo sale, context, byline) By Alberto Alerigi SAO PAULO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Brazilian retailer GPA SA is planning to invest 1.3 billion reais ($400 million) in 2018, in line with capital spending this year, an executive told journalists on Tuesday, as the company continues an expansion drive. Chief Executive Officer Ronaldo Iabrudi said GPA, owned by France’s Casino Guichard Perranchon SA, plans to focus investments in its most profitable formats and open about 20 stores per year in its Assai cash-and-carry format between 2018 and 2020. “We’re calibrating (capital spending) with cash generation,” he told journalists at the beginning of an investors’ day in Sao Paulo. “We’re putting money where it provides the most return.” GPA, like archrival Carrefour Brasil, has been investing heavily in cash-and-carry stores, which offer a wholesale experience to final customers. The expansion of the format, which has been particularly pronounced in Brazil’s northeastern regions, is seen as a way to counteract a sluggish economy, by cutting both operating costs and final prices. Regarding Via Varejo SA, an electronics and appliance retailer that GPA is trying to sell, Iabrudi said it is still on the block despite rumors to the contrary. Still, he noted, the value of the company has increased in recent months, as consumer demand picks up in Brazil and Via Varejo shifts away from large physical formats. “We don’t want to leave money on the table,” he said. “Brazil is going to grow more next year than this year. ...Via Varejo is for sale, but we’re not in a rush.” $1 = 3.24 Brazilian reais Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr.; Writing by Gram Slattery and Brad Haynes; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/p-acucar-cbd-outlook/update-1-brazils-gpa-aims-for-stable-capex-in-2018-focused-on-new-assai-stores-idUSL1N1O522D'|'2017-12-05T22:56:00.000+02:00'
'f216061a5a891653082eaf2a41a1aab2b591fbe8'|'BlackRock president says stocks likely to rise as investors shuffle cash'|'December 5, 2017 / 10:27 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago BlackRock president says stocks likely to rise as investors shuffle cash Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc ( BLK.N ) President Rob Kapito on Tuesday said there is a “high probability” that stocks globally are going to rise as more than $70 trillion (£52.1 trillion) in savings enters the market in search of better returns. Kapito said at a question-and-answer session in New York that cash is also likely to enter the debt market over the long term, keeping interest rates low. Gravity-defying equities and high-priced, low-yielding bonds in the United States have surprised many investors who predicted either or both markets would short-circuit. U.S. stocks have been in a bull market for the better part of a decade, while the benchmark 10-year U.S. note US10YT=RR yield has not breached 2.65 percent in three years. Each trend has helped BlackRock draw money into low-fee “passive” funds that track the market and attracted tens of billions of dollars from investors this year. BlackRock is the world’s largest fund manager, overseeing nearly $6 trillion. Kapito’s remarks anticipating more of the same - low bond yields and high stock prices - echo those he has made at investor events in recent years. Companies reluctant to invest in their businesses have been funnelling money into share repurchases and dividend payouts, he said, while private companies have been reluctant to go public. That has conspired to decrease the amount of stock available in the market, according to Kapito, while central banks reckoning with the financial crisis have pushed bond yields lower. “You may not want to hear this, but there’s not enough stock to buy, and there’s not enough bonds that have any yield to buy,” he said, adding that investors are going to get tired of earning little to nothing on their cash and will move that money into capital markets. “There’s a high probability that stocks across the globe are going to rise.” Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Diane Craft and Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-banks-conference-blackrock/blackrock-president-says-stocks-likely-to-rise-as-investors-shuffle-cash-idUKKBN1DZ36C'|'2017-12-06T00:27:00.000+02:00'
'e9571c72c901d64cc47042efb4921cb1d193ad47'|'California Department of Insurance seeks to suspend Wells Fargo''s licenses'|'(Reuters) - The California Department of Insurance is seeking to suspend or revoke Wells Fargo & Co’s ( WFC.N ) licenses for alleged improper insurance sales practices related to the company’s online insurance referral program. A Wells Fargo stagecoach is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren An investigation by the department found the company had issued about 1,500 insurance policies and charged premiums without customers’ knowledge or permission, the agency said in a statement late on Tuesday. Wells Fargo was not immediately available for comment. The third-largest U.S. lender by assets last week announced plans to exit the personal insurance business, which includes auto, homeowners, renters and umbrella insurance products, and said it would immediately begin winding down marketing and product promotion activity. Wells Fargo has been working for more than a year to recover from a sales scandal that has impacted several of its consumer businesses, including some insurance products. In 2016, the San Francisco-based bank paid $185 million to regulators after an investigation found that Wells Fargo had opened fraudulent deposit and credit card accounts. Wells has already exited several other insurance businesses, including crop insurance. Reporting by Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wells-fargo-insurance/california-department-of-insurance-seeks-to-suspend-wells-fargos-licenses-idUSKBN1E01EX'|'2017-12-06T13:34:00.000+02:00'
'348d8473658fece74555aef227ced4663ea653cf'|'Home Depot sets new $15 billion buyback, long-term sales target'|'December 6, 2017 / 1:54 PM / Updated an hour ago Home Depot sets $15 billion share buyback, investment plan Sruthi Ramakrishnan 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Home Depot Inc ( HD.N ) announced a $15 billion share buyback plan on Wednesday and said it would invest in improving its stores to hit a $120 billion annual sales target in the next three years. FILE PHOTO: A Home Depot store is shown in the Little Havana neighborhood in Miami, Florida, September 18, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo The retailer’s shares fell 1.4 percent to $180.22 on the New York Stock Exchange as its latest buyback target pointed to a slowdown in the pace of repurchases. The largest U.S. home improvement store chain said it expects to buy back $12.5 billion over the next three years, compared with the $8 billion it plans to buy for the year ending January 2018. It plans to buy $2.1 billion of shares in the current quarter. Home Depot is riding a multi-year recovery in the U.S. housing market and has benefited from reconstruction and repair work after Hurricanes Irma and Harvey struck the United States in August and September. But it also must contend with growing competition from online and brick-and-mortar rivals, so it plans to speed up investment in its in stores, employees, deliveries and online business. “The retail landscape is changing at unprecedented rates and we plan to invest for the future to address the evolving needs of our customers,” Chief Executive Officer Craig Menear said in a statement. The Atlanta-based company said it would invest in making check-out faster for customers as well as wages and scheduling for employees. It would also change its merchandise more frequently and make it easier for customers to navigate its giant stores by adding digital signs. The company is doubling its total investment spending over three years, which puts a limit on its profitability expansion and the shares it can buy back, which could be weighing on investor appetite for the stock today, Edward Jones analyst Robin Diedrich said. The company on its investor day call sought to allay concerns about limits on deductions for mortgage interest proposed under the Republican U.S. tax overhaul, a factor that may curb the appetite for new homes. There was no empirical evidence to suggest that tax deductibility influences the rate of home ownership, Home Depot’s Chief Financial Officer Carol Tomé said, because only 5 percent of mortgages are more than $500,000, the proposed cap for tax deductions. Its target range for sales for the year ending January 2021 were for between $114.7 billion and $119.8 billion, compared with this year’s goal of $100.6 billion. Home Depot said the new buyback programme would replace its previous authorization of $15 billion set in February. Home Depot’s shares have climbed about 36 percent this year. Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anna Driver and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/home-depot-outlook-investor-day/home-depot-sets-new-15-billion-buyback-long-term-sales-target-idINKBN1E01T9'|'2017-12-06T15:50:00.000+02:00'
'05eb1b5c9bc0b39c056ab36f5a1c2b2a0d52322e'|'Top UK investor seeks impartial M&A advice for non-executive directors'|' 42 PM / in 5 minutes Top UK investor seeks impartial M&A advice for non-executive directors Simon Jessop , Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest stock market investor is urging non-executive directors in companies in takeover situations to obtain independent advice to make sure they do not sign up to a bad deal and destroy shareholder value. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Legal & General insurance company is seen at their office in central London, Britain, March 17, 2008. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico/File Photo Sacha Sadan, who heads up corporate governance at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), said he had made the request to around 80 non-executive directors and directors of Britain’s leading companies at a recent event hosted by the fund firm. Most deals rely heavily on adviser banks paid a cut of the final deal value, meaning they are not incentivised to advise against a bad one, although boards can ask a separate bank to give a second, so-called ‘fairness opinion’ for a flat fee. Building on this, Sadan said LGIM also wanted non-executive directors (NEDs) to get their own independent advice that was paid for on a fixed-fee basis, to ensure they could protect the interests of shareholders. “Large M&A is very important to investors and can add or destroy value. M&A is transformative in nature and tends to have a life of its own once momentum gets going,” Sadan said. “We believe that NEDs remain the most obvious route to upholding a rigorous governance framework. M&A is a key stewardship topic for LGIM clients.” LGIM has around 64 billion pounds of its more than 1.1 trillion pounds invested in Britain’s 350 biggest companies, Thomson Reuters data show, behind U.S. index-tracking rivals BlackRock and Vanguard. Looking ahead to 2018, Sadan said he expected to see fewer revolts over executive pay as most companies were taking steps to rein in excessive packages. ”The biggest ones that were seen as at the far end in the rankings - Reckitts (Reckitt Benckiser), WPP, BP, Glaxo - have all reduced significantly. Now, if they’re all reducing, you wouldn’t want to be the one going through that. “There might be one that tries and might have a valid reason, but ... the trend is definitely against that.” More needed to be done on the complexity of some packages, he said, although the data showed most companies had scaled back the number of long-term incentive plans (LTIPs) used. In 2011, 46 percent of companies had two or more LTIPs, although this had fallen to 14 percent in 2016, Sadan said. A key area of engagement is expected to be climate change, with LGIM prepared to vote against the re-election of the chairman at large companies which it determines in a second-quarter assessment are performing poorly against their peers. “To us, that is a really big policy change. We are now pushing very hard on climate change,” Sadan said, including checking whether companies are paying lobbyists to argue against climate change. Succession planning and cyber security would also be areas of focus, he added. Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-l-g-investments-governance/top-uk-investor-seeks-impartial-ma-advice-for-non-executive-directors-idUKKBN1E01TO'|'2017-12-06T15:42:00.000+02:00'
'1ff8309a5ed7fd91fa552dd895e3c16fd9b39ed1'|'Canada''s WestJet to expand fleet by 2020'|'December 6, 2017 / 11:57 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago CORRECTED-Canada''s WestJet to expand fully owned fleet by 2020 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Corrects headline and first paragraph to clarify fleet is fully owned and paid for by the company) Dec 6 (Reuters) - Canada’s WestJet Airlines Ltd said it expects to grow its number of aircraft fully owned and paid for by the company, as opposed to leased, to 96 by 2020 from 51 at the end of the third quarter. WestJet’s new ultra-low-cost-carrier Swoop is expected to begin service in the summer of 2018, as other upstart carriers eye a similar time frame. The company on its investor day said it is targeting an annual operating margin of between 10 percent and 12 percent in 2018 to 2020. Reporting By Taenaz Shakir; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/westjet-airlines-presentation/canadas-westjet-to-expand-fleet-by-2020-idUSL3N1O63TD'|'2017-12-06T13:52:00.000+02:00'
'787c2ecd2ec17cb7056bd1e28d46d0af32361936'|'Iraq and Iran negotiating start date for Kirkuk oil exports -Luaibi'|'December 6, 2017 / 1:28 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Iraq and Iran negotiating start date for Kirkuk oil exports: Luaibi Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BADRA OILFIELD, Iraq (Reuters) - The head of Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO is currently holding talks in Iran to determine a start date for oil exports from Iraq’s Kirkuk oilfields, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Wednesday. An oil official told Reuters last week that some Kirkuk crude would be shipped “in the near future” by trucks to Iran’s Kermanshah refinery, at a rate of 30,000 barrels per day. Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Maher Chmaytelli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-iraq-oil/iraq-and-iran-negotiating-start-date-for-kirkuk-oil-exports-luaibi-idUSKBN1E01SK'|'2017-12-06T15:19:00.000+02:00'
'7efe5adb3eeff29b6f2e9ea7605f9308af065f60'|'Exclusive: Ford set for China tie-up with Alibaba to test online, direct auto sales - source'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co is expected to sign as early as Thursday a deal with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd which may allow the U.S. automaker to test selling cars to consumers in China through Alibaba’s online retail arm Tmall, as well as via a new “auto vending machine” store concept, according to a Ford source familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO: Visitors look at Ford models at Auto Guangzhou in Guangzhou, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Representatives of Ford and Alibaba, including Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and Ford CEO Jim Hackett, are expected to be in Hangzhou on Thursday to sign a letter of intent that outlines the scope of the new partnership.According to the source, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak with reporters, the deal is intended to position the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker for an emerging Chinese marketplace where more cars could be sold online.The partnership would be part of Ford’s effort to overhaul its China strategy to revive the growth momentum it has lost in recent months.Ford’s global chief spokesman Mark Truby said the company is expected to make an announcement on Thursday in Hangzhou, where Alibaba is based, but declined to comment in advance.Alibaba spokeswoman Crystal Liu declined to comment.The source said the proposal could mean that cars purchased online are delivered to buyers by franchised Ford retail stores and would be maintained and repaired by them.But Ford could also use Tmall’s new retail concept called the “Automotive Vending Machine” — a multi-storey parking garage that partly resembles a giant vending machine — to sell directly to consumers, the source said. Those cars could come directly from Ford or from its dealers but the details are still to be worked out, the source added.According to Alibaba, consumers can use their phones to browse through the cars garaged in the store and choose to either immediately buy one or test drive it. The vehicle would be delivered to them on the ground floor.CONCERN FOR DEALERS The model allows shoppers with good credit to purchase their new ride with a 10 percent down payment and then make monthly payments for the car purchase through Alibaba’s affiliate Alipay, according to Alibaba.Ford believes dealers would likely agree to this direct retailing model because they still get to service cars sold through Tmall, the Ford source said.The move, though, could be potentially problematic for dealers, some industry experts said.“When online sales and direct sales volume was small that’s one thing. But if this format gained steam, it would definitely impact dealers,” according to Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive Foresight. “Retail innovation is great, but it is by its nature disruptive and can’t keep everybody happy.”The danger is that the dealers lose out not only on a lot of car sales but also the potentially lucrative auto financing aspect of their traditional business.Direct selling by auto brands is not always possible in many markets around the world. In the United States, for example, because of franchise auto dealer operators’ political clout, except for a small number of states, direct selling is largely not possible.The source said Ford is “behind in using big data” to monitor sales trends and effectively market its cars and the move to online sales as well as the access to Tmall’s massive database of information on consumers would help it to catch up.Online auto sales volumes are currently limited in China because car buyers want to be able to see, touch and drive cars before buying them, said Zhang. The ability to test drive a car ordered online could change that.Ford’s China sales have been sluggish in recent months in part because it has failed to catch on to rapidly changing trends in the marketplace, including the rise of entry-level cars popular in smaller and less-well-known cities, where demand is booming.Ford’s sales in the first 10 months of this year were 938,570, a decline of 5 percent from the same period in 2016, against a 2.2 percent gains to 3.13 million for hometown rival General Motors.Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Martin Howell '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos-ford-alibaba/exclusive-ford-set-for-china-tie-up-with-alibaba-to-test-online-direct-auto-sales-source-idUSKBN1E016F'|'2017-12-06T12:23:00.000+02:00'
'6600c4d392661dfbb4a743fadf82157dbbd6ff21'|'Airbus faces hectic December to meet 2017 delivery goal'|'December 6, 2017 / 8:49 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Airbus faces hectic December to meet 2017 delivery goal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus lagged Boeing in jet production and sales in the first 11 months of the year but left itself a shot at meeting full-year delivery targets after unblocking delayed engine supplies for its upgraded A320neo jet, company data showed on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Airbus Group is seen at the Airbus Helicopters Paris-Le Bourget plant dedicated to the production and the renovation of helicopters blades, in Dugny, near Paris, France, December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier The European planemaker handed over 74 jets in November to bring total deliveries in the first 11 months to 591 aircraft. That included twice as many A320neo-family aircraft as in the same month last year, as Airbus emerges from a two-year bottleneck in the availability of engines for the new model from U.S. supplier Pratt & Whitney ( UTX.N ). November’s tally means Airbus needs to roughly repeat a monthly record of 111 deliveries seen in December last year to meet its core target of more than 700 deliveries in 2017. Airbus in October abandoned an informal goal of 720 jet deliveries that was higher than its official target of 700, but investors have welcomed indications that it is sticking to the underlying goal after resolving supply chain problems. Airbus shares rose 0.3 percent on Wednesday. Airbus chief operating officer and planemaking president Fabrice Bregier told French newspaper Les Echos this week that Airbus would deliver more than 700 aircraft in 2017, marking a new production record as engine delivery shortfalls ease. For new business, Airbus reported 388 orders for the first 11 months, or a net total of 333 after cancellations. It is seen unlikely to catch up rival Boeing in the 2017 order race but is on course to post more orders than deliveries for the eighth year if it can finalize a record order for 430 jets announced at the Dubai Airshow last month. Airbus started the year warning the ratio of net orders to deliveries or book-to-bill ratio would fall below 1 in 2017 for the first time since 2009. But it has seen higher-than-expected demand for single-aisle jets, while finding itself outsold more than three to one by Boeing in the contest for wide-body jets. The two planemakers are now competing to sell 100 single-aisle jets to Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ) and industry sources say some wide-body orders are still potentially up for grabs. Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 28, Boeing sold 787 aircraft, or 662 after cancellations. Boeing’s November delivery data is not yet available but it is expected to keep its title as the world’s largest jetmaker by delivering more than Airbus for the sixth year running in 2017. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-deliveries/airbus-faces-hectic-december-to-meet-2017-delivery-goal-idUSKBN1E030N'|'2017-12-06T22:48:00.000+02:00'
'bc4c883bc025e44bcc81edab0e7edfccb55cd47c'|'Swiss Re buys life policies from Legal & General for 650 million pounds'|' 20 AM / in 17 minutes Swiss Re buys life policies from Legal & General for 650 million pounds Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss Re has agreed to buy 1.1 million life insurance policies from Legal & General Group (L&G) for 650 million pounds, the Swiss group said on Wednesday. The logo of the world''s second biggest reinsurer Swiss Re is seen in front of the company''s headquarters in Zurich July 8, 2013. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “This move is consistent with Swiss Re’s strategy to acquire closed life books in the UK. The policies – which include with-profit, unit-linked and savings products – will be transferred to ReAssure from Legal & General Assurance Society Limited, which is part of the L&G Group,” it said in a statement. Reporting by Michael Shields, editing by John Miller'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-re-legal-general/swiss-re-buys-life-policies-from-legal-general-for-650-million-pounds-idUKKBN1E00MK'|'2017-12-06T09:19:00.000+02:00'
'ad1c554e1a9e0f54236c00793c98431622c1fa18'|'Listen - Deutsche Bank''s asset management IPO'|'Companies Listen - Deutsche Bank''s asset management IPO Deutsche Bank has unveiled details of the flotation of its valuable asset management arm next year. The German lender will rename the division DWS and create a structure that will allow it to retain its controlling influence. Patrick Jenkins discusses the merits of the plan with Laura Noonan, the FT''s investment banking correspondent. Music by Kevin MacLeod Save to myFT'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/video/23d04dc5-9cf2-4716-9a8b-f6003b4593fb'|'2017-12-05T22:53:00.000+02:00'
'02663c0be88dfa109c29cfe265392d48794dcfda'|'Steinhoff scandal knocks $12 billion off value in blow to tycoon Wiese'|'JOHANNESBURG/BERLIN (Reuters) - Shocked Steinhoff shareholders have wiped more than $12 billion off its value since it revealed “accounting irregularities” and parted ways with its chief executive, in a dramatic fall from grace for the South African retailer.Once a must-have for investors who backed its reinvention as a retail empire including brands such as Mattress Firm and Poundland under veteran CEO Markus Jooste, Steinhoff shares fell by 43 percent on Thursday, compounding the previous day’s more than 60 percent fall.This collapse leaves South African tycoon Christo Wiese, Steinhoff biggest shareholder and chairman, seriously out of pocket, eroding more about $2.8 billion of his net worth.It also prompted an urgent call by South Africa’s Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba for pension fund managers to report back on their exposures to the sudden sell-off, saying that the accounting issue was a “grave concern”.South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the retailer’s second-largest shareholder, said the allegations against Steinhoff were “serious concerns”.The PIC, which manages civil servants’ pension funds, said in a statement it holds around 10 percent of Steinhoff’s stock.The shares closed down 43 percent at 10 rand in Johannesburg and were down more than 40 percent in Frankfurt, where it has had its primary listing since 2015.Steinhoff has responded by putting 76-year-old Wiese, one of the most respected business leaders in South Africa, in charge for now and calling in PwC to investigate the accounting problems, while also seeking to reassure investors by saying it has enough liquidity to fund its existing operations.Wiese, who describes himself as a “realist, pragmatist”, started his budget clothing retailer Pepkor in the 1960s, in Upington on the southern edges of the Kalahari desert.FILE PHOTO: South African magnate Christo Wiese, whose companies include Steinhoff and investment heavyweight Brait, listens during an interview in Cape Town, South Africa, September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo He studied law in Stellenbosch, a close-knit town dominated by Afrikaans-speaking whites, but now lives in Clifton, an affluent area of Cape Town overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and is best known for transforming budget grocer Shoprite from just six shops in the 1970s to hundreds of stores across Africa.SHOPPING SPREE Wiese and Jooste were instrumental in reinventing Steinhoff, turning it from a modest distributor of furniture made in communist era eastern Europe to a global household goods retailer, vying for market share with the likes of IKEA.Steinhoff has been on shopping spree since 2011 when it took over French furniture retailer Conforama. Last year’s string of acquisitions included Mattress Firm and Poundland, thrusting it firmly on to investors’ radar screens.“Whether Steinhoff’s zealous expansion tactics amount to a winning or losing strategy really does depend on the outcome of the investigation,” said Erika Sirimanne, Head of Home and Garden Research, Euromonitor International.Steinhoff has been under investigation for suspected accounting irregularities by the state prosecutor in Oldenburg, Germany since 2015.Four current and former managers are under suspicion of having overstated revenues at subsidiaries, German prosecutors said this week.Steinhoff has previously said that move related to whether revenues were booked properly, and whether taxable profit was correctly declared.($1 = 13.5574 rand)Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng and Victoria Bryan; Additional reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Susan Fenton/Keith Weir/Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/steinhoff-intlnl-results/steinhoff-scandal-knocks-12-billion-off-value-in-blow-to-tycoon-wiese-idINKBN1E129S'|'2017-12-07T18:24:00.000+02:00'
'7b78b4f754ca7b2b4cb547c497659d6f4a8167cb'|'European shares led lower by tech, miners in broad risk-off move'|'December 6, 2017 / 8:32 AM / in 8 minutes European shares led lower by tech stocks; Steinhoff stumbles Danilo Masoni 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - European shares fell on Wednesday following losses in other stock markets, with richly valued tech stocks falling under renewed pressure and miners hit by a slump in metal markets. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Declines were widespread with most sectors and country indexes trading in negative territory. The broader market was also weighed down by a 60 percent plunge in heavily shorted furniture retailer Steinhoff on worries over accounting irregularities. Tech stocks < .SX8P> and miners fell 1.1 and 0.8 percent respectively, helping drag the pan-European STOXX 600 benchmark index down 0.5 percent by 0924 GMT. Investors have been taking profits in the last few weeks following a strong year but in spite of the wobbles the STOXX remains up 6 percent so far this year, helped by a continued strong economic recovery. Tech stocks have come under pressure recently as worries that a chip market boom could soon come to an end has dented sentiment towards a sectors that in Europe has been the best performer so far this year. Shares in chipmakers STMicro, AMS and Infineon all fell more than 2 percent, while software firm SAP slipped 0.5 percent, tracking losses in Asian peers and after a rebound of US tech stocks fizzled out. Steinhoff fell 58 percent, leading STOXX losers, after the furniture retailer said it would launch an investigation into accounting irregularities, its chief executive resigned and it postponed full-year results. “We fear there is more to come,” said Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Jürgen Kolb, who put his hold rating under review. “It is absolutely unclear what the final outcome will be. The company has grown exceptionally with numerous acquisitions and the level of transparency on the numbers was extremely weak,” he also said. Shares out on loan in Steinhoff surged close record highs on Tuesday. Other top fallers included UK’s Saga, down 23 percent to an all-time low after a profit warning, Elior Group, down 4 percent following results, and Hays, down 3.7 percent after a downgrade to “sell” at Deutsche Bank. A takeover deal sent shopping centre Intu Properties surging 17 percent. Hammerson said had agreed to buy Intu Properties in a deal valuing the smaller rival at about 3.4 billion pounds. Cyclicals sectors were a weak spot with financials taking most points off the STOXX 600 index. Top faller among banks was Allied Irish Bank, down 2.2 percent after a downgrade to hold at Investec, while Italy’s Banco BPM and Germany’s Commerzbank followed with declines of more than 1.7 percent. In the mining sector, London-listed mining giants Rio Tinto and Glencore both dropped more than 1 percent. Their declines came after copper prices fell sharply as investors wound in profits on concerns top metal consumer China could see a weaker first half of next year. Reporting by Danilo Masoni, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-led-lower-by-tech-miners-in-broad-risk-off-move-idUKKBN1E00UA'|'2017-12-06T10:31:00.000+02:00'
'ccf74cbe79b48a3a0ec95f39c9ca234fe79a733a'|'Bridgepoint raises $6.5 bln for Europe fund, exceeding target -source'|'LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - British private equity firm Bridgepoint , which owns fastfood chain Pret a Manger, has raised 5.5 billion euros ($6.50 billion) for European investment, exceeding its 5 billion euro target, a source familiar with the matter said.The raising of its sixth European fund had been scheduled to start in early 2018 but has already been fully allocated, the source said on Wednesday.Since the financial crisis almost a decade ago, low-interest rates and cheap debt have boosted capital piling into private equity funds by investors looking for higher returns.But rising valuations have made it harder to achieve high returns so much of the money sits idle. A record $954 billion globally, according to industry data provider Preqin.Prior to this its most recent fund was Bridgepoint Europe V, a 4-billion-euro middle-market buyout fund, raised in 2015, that acquires European-headquartered companies valued up to 1 billion euros.Sources expect the firm, which was spun out of Natwest bank in 2000, to list sandwich and coffee shop chain Pret a Manger in New York next year.In November the firm agreed to buy Britain’s Burger King franchise with 74 restaurants and prior to that British Miller Homes at a time when some private equity firms are discouraged by Britain’s looming exit from the European Union. ($1 = 0.8465 euros) (Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Anjuli Davies and Louise Heavens) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bridgepoint-fund/bridgepoint-raises-6-5-bln-for-europe-fund-exceeding-target-source-idINL8N1NM5UQ'|'2017-12-06T07:09:00.000+02:00'
'366d846acc33e2dda0319ee2adcc185b30e70219'|'U.S. entrepreneur bets on new Silicon Valley in west France'|'December 6, 2017 / 11:41 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago U.S. entrepreneur bets on new Silicon Valley in west France Mathieu Rosemain 5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - When Rob Spiro left San Francisco to settle in France with his wife and kid in 2016, the family chose a mid-sized city on France’s west coast over Paris’ burgeoning start-up scene. Rob Spiro, American entrepreneur and Director of Imagination Machine, poses in Nantes, France, November 30, 2017. Picture taken November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe At 32, the Yale-educated entrepreneur and former Google product manager had already co-founded two start-ups, including one sold to Google for $50 million (£37.4 million) in 2010. In Nantes, France’s sixth largest city, known for its mediaeval castle and whimsical mechanical creatures, he sees the potential for a smaller version of America’s Silicon Valley, home to tech giants Apple, Facebook and Google. Quality of life, not money, is the key, he says. “What everybody in Nantes sees and experiences is that there are thousands of people who move here from Paris,” he said at his start-up accelerator, Imagination Machine. “They’re looking for a better quality of life, but they want to remain in a city that is active and dynamic.” His “incubator”, financially backed by the region’s biggest companies, opened its doors in June to support the launch of selected start-ups with seed funding and mentoring. Nantes itself is part of the promotional picture. The city was ranked second after Bordeaux among cities where Parisian executives would wish to move, according to an August poll for recruiting website Cadremploi.fr. “Here’s the strategy to become the next Silicon Valley: become a place where people, especially young people, want to live,” Spiro said. With venture capital investments reaching new records in Europe, the competition to lure new tech companies goes beyond the three usual metropolises – London, Paris, Berlin – and now includes smaller cities that bet on their own mix of schools, research centres, investors and culture to lure hotshots. RECORD INVESTMENTS Gregoire Monconduit, Atelier Rosemmod CEO, poses in Nantes, France, November 30, 2017. Picture taken November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe Venture capital firms invested 8.7 billion euros ($10.3 billion) in European tech companies in the first half of 2017, up 21 percent from the year before, according to Dealroom. Such investments jumped 18 percent to 1.3 billion over the same period in France, putting it third after Britain and Germany. The trend is now gaining further momentum, driven by high expectations for business-friendly policies under new President Emmanuel Macron and the uncertainties caused by the British vote to leave the European Union. Nantes-based iAdvize has benefited from the boom. The company, which offers a marketing platform connecting customers to experts, closed a 32-million-euro fundraising in October. It is one of the prime examples of Nantes’ success in the tech field, along with Akeneo, which makes software for retailers, and Lengow, which does the same for e-commerce sites. Slideshow (2 Images) French venture capital fund Alven has shares in all three. Part of Spiro’s plan for boosting Nantes’ profile is inviting former U.S. colleagues to come and check it out. Julian Nachtigal, who worked as head of Spiro’s second start-up, signed up for the “French tech visa” available since January. “I never imagined it would be so easy to get a four-year residential visa to the EU,” Nachtigal said, comparing Europe favourably to the U.S. approach under President Donald Trump. “There’s a growing trend of people leaving Silicon Valley to live elsewhere,” he added, citing the high cost of living. Within France, too, a similar trend can be seen. Gregoire Monconduit, co-founder of Atelier Rosemood, an online maker of personalised birth announcements and wedding invitations, chose to move to Nantes years ago from Paris. “We hesitated between three cities: Lyon, Aix and Nantes,” he said. “We thought we’d be out of Paris for three years, it’s been six years already and it’s the best decision we made.” A long road lies ahead, however, if Nantes is to catch up with Paris, where a 34,000-square-metre megacampus for start-ups, called Station F, opened in June. The Parisian region drew three quarters of all venture capital investments in the first half of this year, according to accounting firm EY. The region that includes Nantes got less than 3 percent of the total. Editing by Luke Baker and Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-tech-nantes/u-s-entrepreneur-bets-on-new-silicon-valley-in-west-france-idUKKBN1E01F3'|'2017-12-06T13:40:00.000+02:00'
'70e0dfbebd18d5a72a925921e41e7d2c633a99b2'|'U.S. private employment growth eases but manufacturing shines: ADP'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. private-sector employment growth eased in November even as the manufacturing sector added the most jobs in at least 15 years, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians pass a sign advertising a sale and a job opening at a shop on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo Private employers added 190,000 jobs last month, down from an unrevised 235,000 in October, the ADP National Employment Report showed. That was roughly in line with expectations for a gain of 185,000 jobs in a Reuters poll of economists, with estimates ranging from 150,000 to 240,000.The report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics.“The job market is red hot, with broad-based job gains across industries and company sizes. The only soft spots are in industries being disrupted by technology, brick-and-mortar retailing being the best example,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said in a statement. “There is a mounting threat that the job market will overheat next year.”Among goods-producing sectors, manufacturing added 40,000 jobs, the most in the ADP series history dating back more than 15 years, while construction shed 4,000.Services-sector employment gains led the advance, with the largest increase coming in education and health services at 54,000, followed by professional and business services at 47,000.Midsized businesses, defined as employing between 50 and 499 people, added 99,000 jobs, while small-employer employment rose by 50,000 and large companies increased their workforces by 41,000.The ADP figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment.Economists polled by Reuters are looking for U.S. private payroll employment to have grown by 190,000 jobs in November, down from 252,000 the month before. Total non-farm employment is expected to have risen by 200,000.The unemployment rate is forecast to stay steady at the 4.1 percent recorded a month earlier.Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-adp/u-s-private-sector-adds-190000-jobs-in-november-adp-idINKBN1E01SE'|'2017-12-06T16:36:00.000+02:00'
'ce2143c4067550ccdf6c6dc1b21fb935529c062a'|'Exclusive: China''s Xiaomi seeks bank pitches for 2018 IPO - sources'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has asked banks to pitch next Friday for an initial public offering in 2018, people familiar with the plan told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Attendants are silhouetted in front of Xiaomi''s logo at a venue for the launch ceremony of Xiaomi''s new smart phone Mi Max in Beijing, May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Xiaomi was valued at $46 billion in a 2014 funding round completed before its sales stagnated. More recently it has seen expectations of its value pick up following strong results this year. Its float could be the world’s “largest technology IPO” next year, according to one of the people. “It is huge,” said another source, adding that a valuation of $100 billion would “not be a crazy number”. The world’s most valuable startup for a brief period in 2014 was worth about $55 billion at the end of June, according to one person close to the company. But two other people familiar with the company’s discussions said it should be worth much more based on its expected earnings. Xiaomi declined to comment. The maker of budget smartphones saw sales stall in 2016 as it attempted to expand internationally while battling intense competition from Chinese rivals Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], Vivo and Oppo. FILE PHOTO: Customers hold mobile phones during a presentation of the China''s mobile company Xiaomi to celebrate the entry of the company into the Mexican market, in Mexico City, Mexico, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo At the time it pulled back from several overseas markets including Brazil and Indonesia, but this year it has launched and re-launched sales in dozens of countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine. It has overtaken Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) to become China’s fourth-largest smartphone vendor by sales, driven in part by a focus on offline stores, according to research firm Canalys. FILE PHOTO: A Xiaomi logo is pictured in Mexico City, Mexico, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo MORE TO COME The smartphone group’s listing plan comes on the heels of a slew of successful Chinese tech and fintech IPOs in recent months. Already a strong pipeline is building for 2018, with public floats expected from Meituan-Dianping, an online local services group valued at $30 billion, and Lufax, a wealth management platform worth $18.5 billion as of its last funding round. Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, had said the company would not go public until 2025, but a bull run in the stock market and its promising financial numbers have sped up the IPO plan, according to the people. Xiaomi was expected to choose either Hong Kong or the United States as its listing venue, according to the people, who declined to be named as the discussions are confidential. In early November, Xiaomi launched in Spain - its first foray into Western Europe as it revives a stalled global push into other developed markets around Europe and the United States. Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-xiaomi-ipo/exclsuive-chinas-xiaomi-seeks-bank-pitches-for-2018-ipo-sources-idUSKBN1E00IK'|'2017-12-06T08:27:00.000+02:00'
'42147ef3de6ee3b7e0a4a141bff2b5c6d81c201e'|'GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks pressured by Wall Street losses, dollar sags'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:41 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks pressured by Wall Street losses, dollar sags Reuters Staff * MSCI Asia-Pacific index down 0.2 pct, Nikkei shed 0.5 pct * Wall Street extends losses on sagging technology shares * Long-term US yields slip as curve flattening continues, USD dips By Shinichi Saoshiro TOKYO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Asian stocks slipped on Wednesday, pressured by losses on Wall Street as the technology sector stuttered yet again after a brief rebound, while the dollar sagged on lower long-term U.S. yields. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched down 0.2 percent. Australian stocks and South Korea’s KOSPI were down 0.2 percent, respectively. Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.5 percent. The S&P 500 information technology index barely rose overnight as it gave up much of the 1.4 percent intraday gains. The year’s top-performing sector was still down nearly 4 percent over the past week, with investors shifting money to banks, retailers and other stocks seen as likely to benefit the most from tax cuts promised by U.S. President Donald Trump. As a result the S&P 500 fell for the third straight session overnight. The Dow and Nasdaq also retreated. “The retreat in U.S. shares coincides with profit taking by investors before they close their books for the year-end. A lot of such year-end window dressing already appears to have taken place in emerging market equities,” said Kota Hirayama, senior emerging markets economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo. “The main focal point for emerging market equities is how U.S. yields move towards the year end. The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy stance for next year bears close watching due to its impact on U.S. yields, and in turn the various equity markets.” Fed funds futures prices showed that investors see a rate increase at Federal Reserve’s Dec. 12-13 meeting as a done deal and much of the focus is on the outlook for rates in 2018 and beyond. The two-year Treasury yield reached a nine-year high overnight as the market increasingly expected the U.S. Congress to pass tax reform legislation and the Fed to tighten policy. But the 10-year Treasury yield fell overnight, flattening the yield curve further. The curve has flattened as investors see limited room for long-term U.S. inflation. The dollar dipped, weighed by sagging long-term U.S. yields. The dollar index against six major currencies slipped 0.05 percent to 93.337. The greenback dipped 0.1 percent to 112.470 yen and the euro was little changed at $1.1824 after shedding 0.35 percent the previous day. The pound extended overnight losses and last stood at $1.3412 for a loss of 0.2 percent. Sterling fell to as low as $1.3370 on Tuesday on disappointment after British Prime Minister Theresa May failed to clinch a deal to open talks on post-Brexit free trade with the European Union. In commodities, U.S. crude oil futures were down 0.3 percent at $57.44 per barrel after American Petroleum Institute data showed that U.S. gasoline stocks and distillate inventories rose more than expected last week. (Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-asia-stocks-pressured-by-wall-street-losses-dollar-sags-idUSL3N1O6037'|'2017-12-06T02:41:00.000+02:00'
'8ec4d348df5ef591eae449d7c1ad494966122f91'|'Electra Private Equity makes shareholder return of 21 percent'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:50 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Electra Private Equity makes shareholder return of 21 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Electra Private Equity ( ELTA.L ) said on Thursday that it made a total shareholder return of 21 percent in the year ended September and cut annual management expenses by over 80 percent. Electra earlier this year split from its investment manager Electra Partners, now renamed Epiris, and is reorganising its structure. One of Britain’s oldest private equity firms, Electra, under pressure to improve shareholder returns from activist investor Edward Bramson, said in October that it will pay a 350 million pound special dividend and suspended new investments after a strategic review. Electra said on Thursday that it would not pay an ordinary dividend for the year, because of the “exceptional level of special dividends” already paid. The company’s investments include restaurant chain TGI Fridays and online photo printing company Photobox. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-electra-pvt-eqty-outlook/electra-private-equity-makes-shareholder-return-of-21-percent-idUKKBN1E10SD'|'2017-12-07T09:49:00.000+02:00'
'649236e66162e7c4fbef3cd3854780f29a3cac1f'|'Oil bounces back from losses prompted by U.S. fuel stocks'|'December 7, 2017 / 12:39 AM / in a minute Oil bounces back from losses prompted by U.S. fuel stocks Amanda Cooper 3   Oil edged higher on Thursday, regaining ground from sharp losses the previous day brought on by an unexpectedly large rise in U.S. stocks of refined fuels. FILE PHOTO: Crude oil storage tanks are seen from above at the Cushing oil hub, in Cushing, Oklahoma, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1 traded 52 cents higher at $61.74 a barrel by 1446 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 crude futures were at $56.35 a barrel, up 39 cents. The previous day, Brent had settled 2.6 percent lower, and WTI 3 percent lower, after an unexpected rise in U.S. fuel stocks. Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday showed that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 5.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 1, to 448.1 million barrels C-STK-T-EIA, putting stocks below seasonal levels in 2015 and 2016. [API/S] [EIA/S] But gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI rose by 6.8 million barrels, well above the 1.7 million-barrel gain analyst had expected, and distillate stocks USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 1.7 million barrels. “It was a sharp correction yesterday, so it’s a bit of a pause today,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director of PetroMatrix, adding “technically, it’s still very weak.” PVM Oil Associates also said in a note that “the weekly data was not as bad as it seems at first sight.” “Current (stock) levels are nearly 7 percent below last year and the surplus to the five-year average is only 3.9 percent,” it said. The market was also underpinned by a threat from one of Nigeria’s main oil unions to go on strike from Dec. 18 over what it said was a “mass sacking of workers.” The country is Africa’s top oil exporter. But troublingly for oil bulls, U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA rose by 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.71 million bpd in the week to Dec. 1, the highest since monthly figures showing the United States produced more than 10 million bpd in the early 1970s. Soaring U.S. output threatens to undermine efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to bring production and demand into balance following years of oversupply. Sukrit Vijayakar, managing director of energy consultancy Trifecta, said there were “darker shadows over the pace of rebalancing, if at all any is taking place.” Additional reporting by Libby George in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Jane Merriman and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-edges-up-after-drop-in-crude-inventories-but-soaring-output-weighs-idUKKBN1E102P'|'2017-12-07T16:59:00.000+02:00'
'5c0f043bd020e36f00a40da5d7f00c534d6d5c50'|'Italy''s Eni targets plastics purchase in strategy shift - sources'|'December 8, 2017 / 5:06 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Italy''s Eni targets plastics purchase in strategy shift - sources Stephen Jewkes 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Energy firm Eni aims to express an interest in bidding for an Italian bioplastics business in a move that underlines a longer-term desire to hedge its exposure to oil and gas, financial sources said. The logo of Italian energy company Eni is seen at an Agip gas station in Lugano, Switzerland June 3, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Eni wants to revive its chemicals, retail and refining businesses to offset volatility in oil prices and regain favour with investors after its shares underperformed those of industry rivals in the past three years, the sources said. The state-controlled major is looking at the Italian assets of bioplastics multinational Mossi Ghisolfi, which has been put under creditor protection, two banking sources said. “Non-binding bids are due in the next few days and Eni is there,” one of the sources said, adding that the deal was worth “hundreds of millions of euros”. There has been media speculation about Eni being interested in Mossi Ghisolfi, but this is the first time it has emerged the group would submit bid interest in the assets. Eni did not comment. The potential acquisition, although small for Eni, flags an ongoing strategy shift for CEO Claudio Descalzi, who has spent four years creating a lean exploration business, racking up big discoveries in places like Mozambique and Egypt. While keeping a firm focus on exploration, the 62-year-old reservoir engineer now wants to rejig the business model to bolster and create greener midstream and downstream businesses like marketing and refining as a hedge against oil price swings. An acquisition of Mossi Ghisolfi’s Italian unit, which uses agricultural waste to make plastics, would fit such a profile. The move comes at a time when the boom in renewable energy and the prospect of a world powered by electric vehicles is creating a challenge for the oil industry. BALANCED PORTFOLIOEni has been sounding out investors on why its shares have underperformed and feedback suggested more downstream protection is needed, said two fund managers contacted by the group. Its heavy presence in high-risk areas such as Libya and Nigeria was another reason for concern, they said. “It makes sense to build a more balanced portfolio less exposed to oil price swings ... It will help boost multiples and support the stock,” said Mediobanca oil analyst Alessandro Pozzi. Since oil prices plunged from above $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016, Eni shares have fallen more than 20 percent while France’s Total has risen 7 percent and Royal Dutch Shell 9 percent. [ reut.rs/2AuObMh ] Total and Shell have fared better because they have greater exposure to downstream businesses such as refining and petrochemicals, where demand is lifted by economic growth fuelled by lower crude prices. Exxon Mobil Corp said last week it was revamping its refining and chemical operations to boost profits. Eni, whose exploration and production (E&P) arm generated more than 80 percent of operating income over 2015 and 2016, has been the industry’s best discoverer in recent years. But its downstream business has struggled. A year or so ago, it toyed with the idea of selling its chemicals and retail operations but pulled both deals, opting instead to streamline operations and make them more profitable. That strategy has led it to consider acquisitions, sources said. CEO Descalzi has said the group could float its retail arm with an initial public offering (IPO) within two to three years. A banker familiar with the matter said Eni wanted to strengthen its retail business, adding this could involve acquisitions. Eni is seeking to reduce its carbon emissions, making new investments in solar plants and converting refineries to biofuels. Last month, it signed a deal with carmaker Fiat Chrysler to work on new carbon-low fuels for cars. It also plans to expand its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business. “It used to be all about E&P. Now at its roadshows Eni dedicates almost half the time to downstream,” the banker said. Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eni-downstream-strategy/italys-eni-targets-plastics-purchase-in-strategy-shift-sources-idUKKBN1E2276'|'2017-12-08T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'df0ae9fc8321009912c838d89659e03f5b8c1062'|'Chambers of commerce see Germany''s 2017 growth at 2.3 percent - report'|'December 2, 2017 / 12:12 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Chambers of commerce see Germany''s 2017 growth at 2.3 percent - report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The German DIHK chambers of industry and commerce will raise its 2017 growth forecast for Europe’s largest economy to 2.3 percent, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday. DIHK in October raised its growth forecast to 2.0 percent from 1.8 percent, saying the economy was firing on all cylinders helped by both exports and private consumption. The DIHK also expects the economy to generate an additional 12 billion euros ($14.27 billion) in tax revenues by 2020, Der Spiegel said, which would give the next government greater fiscal leeway. Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel has turned to the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) as she seeks to form a government after her first attempt to forge an alliance with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens failed. Both the SPD and Merkel’s conservative bloc want to raise investment in Germany, which has been without a government since an election in September that weakened both the conservatives and the SPD. Reporting by Georg Merziger; writing by Joseph Nasr; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy-dihk/chambers-of-commerce-see-germanys-2017-growth-at-2-3-percent-report-idUKKBN1DW0DA'|'2017-12-02T14:13:00.000+02:00'
'461a88417e72fa10ddde39d191c8fe150977091a'|'U.S. judge rejects delay of foreign entrepreneur immigration rule'|'December 2, 2017 / 2:07 AM / in 5 hours U.S. judge rejects delay of foreign entrepreneur immigration rule Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to rescind its delay of a rule that allows some foreign entrepreneurs to stay in the United States to grow their companies, court documents show. Judge James Boasberg of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favour of a lawsuit filed by a U.S. venture capitalist group in September challenging a delay by DHS of the International Entrepreneur Rule. (file:///C:/Users/U8007446/Downloads/IER-SJ-opinion.pdf) In the lawsuit, the National Venture Capital Association argued that the Trump administration bypassed proper procedures when it delayed the International Entrepreneur Rule, which had been due to go into effect in July 2017. The trade group was later joined by several tech start-ups active in the United States that were founded by foreign entrepreneurs who wanted to stay in the country and work with their businesses through the entrepreneur rule but are now unable to. The rule, proposed by the administration of President Barack Obama, would allow some foreign start-up founders to stay in the United States for up to five years to develop their businesses. Instead, in July the administration of President Donald Trump pushed back implementation to March 2018, and said it was “highly likely” to ultimately rescind the rule. Boasberg, in his ruling issued on Friday, agreed with the lawsuit’s claim that the government’s actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires advance notice of new rules. “This decision is an important reminder that this administration must comply with the law and allow the public to have a voice during the agency rule-making process,” Leslie Dellon, an attorney at the American Immigration Council, said in a statement. Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-immigration-entrepreneurs/u-s-judge-rejects-delay-of-foreign-entrepreneur-immigration-rule-idUKKBN1DW02G'|'2017-12-02T04:06:00.000+02:00'
'd70c242939462821ac5a7a96306c36f84106629c'|'CEE MARKETS-Forint touches new 2017 low after Nov inflation data'|'BUDAPEST, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Hungary''s forint touched its lowest level for the year on Friday after November inflation data signalled no imminent change to maintaining the central bank''s ultra-loose monetary policy stance. At 0918 GMT, the forint was a touch weaker on the day, rebounding from a 2017 low of 315.18 versus the euro. Hovering around the key 315 line, the forint has extended its losses for the year and is underperforming both the Polish zloty and the Czech crown . Analysts said a monetary policy divergence between Hungary''s central bank, one of the most dovish in the world, and its more hawkish peers, such as the Czech or the Polish central bank would be among the main market themes of the coming year. Last month Hungary''s central bank announced new monetary easing measures to take effect next year to push yields lower on longer-dated government bonds and to encourage borrowers to choose fixed-rate housing loans. "There is no serious resistance in sight for the forint until the 315.5 technical level, therefore, the weakness of the forint seen in the past nearly two weeks can continue," analysts at local borkerage Erste Investment said in a note. The analysts said Friday''s data, which showed November inflation at an annual 2.5 percent, in line with expectations, signalled that the central bank would not need to adjust its dovish policy stance for the time being. The zloty gained 0.16 percent in early trade, while the crown was a touch weaker. Even so, both currencies have posted gains of about five percent so far this year, eclipsing most other peers in the region. Central Europe''s robust and stable economic growth is expected to boost the crown, zloty and forint next year, with the former two also getting help from likely monetary tightening, a Reuters poll found. The forint is also expected to regain some of the ground it lost this year, even though the Hungarian central bank is not expected to start to tighten monetary policy in contrast to peers elsewhere in central Europe. "Given that we do not expect a sustained breach of the central bank''s 3 percent (inflation) target for a long time, we do not forecast monetary tightening," analysts at CIB Bank said in a note. "The loose monetary policy of the ECB also bolsters the maintenance of the local monetary policy room for manoeuvre." Main stock markets across the region posted modest gains, with Warsaw''s blue-chip index rising 0.9 percent. CEE MARKETS SNAPSHOT AT 1018 CET CURRENCIES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.5700 25.5630 -0.03% 5.62% Hungary forint 315.0500 314.9800 -0.02% -1.98% Polish zloty 4.2040 4.2108 +0.16% 4.75% Romanian leu 4.6300 4.6320 +0.04% -2.05% Croatian kuna 7.5470 7.5450 -0.03% 0.11% Serbian dinar 119.6500 119.6700 +0.02% 3.09% Note: daily calculated from previous close at 1800 CET change STOCKS Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2017 Prague 1059.13 1055.92 +0.30% +14.92% Budapest 38394.92 38348.20 +0.12% +19.97% Warsaw 2414.08 2393.34 +0.87% +23.93% Bucharest 7672.66 7671.61 +0.01% +8.29% Ljubljana 781.21 779.11 +0.27% +8.87% Zagreb 1847.55 1850.00 -0.13% -7.38% Belgrade 740.35 742.65 -0.31% +3.20% Sofia 664.18 665.37 -0.18% +13.26% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech Republic spread 2-year 0.073 0 +082bps -2bps 5-year 0.727 -0.033 +110bps -5bps 10-year 1.403 -0.019 +109bps -4bps Poland 2-year 1.671 0.017 +242bps +0bps 5-year 2.667 0.022 +304bps +1bps 10-year 3.269 0.017 +295bps +0bps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interbank Czech Rep 1 1.19 1.31 0 Hungary 0.03 0.135 0.18 0.03 Poland 1.763 1.817 1.919 1.72 Note: FRA Quote: s are for ask prices (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-forint-touches-new-2017-low-after-nov-inflation-data-idINL8N1O81RK'|'2017-12-08T07:04:00.000+02:00'
'54b936de7cf676c769f8100d030389395a8e39aa'|'PRESS DIGEST-Canada - Dec 1'|'Dec 1 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Keyera Corp is selling C$429.4 million ($334 million) in shares to repay debt and fund growth, the latest infrastructure company to tap markets as crude prices edge up. tgam.ca/2kdGCmY** The Ontario government is increasing its mandate for ethanol in gasoline to 10 percent from the current 5 percent requirement, as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions from fuels. tgam.ca/2kf8oPO** General Motors Co is scaling back production of passenger cars at its Oshawa, Ontario, plant in the first quarter of 2018 as North American drivers abandon their cars in favour of crossover utility vehicles. tgam.ca/2kf58EkNATIONAL POST ** General Motors Co is hoping to be a leader in the race to bring autonomous vehicles to the road, unveiling plans to bring a self-driving, ride-sharing fleet to big U.S. cities in 2019. bit.ly/2kf8zLe** Timothy Moseley, a former litigator at the Ontario Securities Commission who built a career as a senior bank compliance and litigation executive before returning to the regulator as a commissioner in 2015, is expected to be appointed to a two-year term as vice-chair of the OSC. bit.ly/2kfAyu1** Canadian wireless customers are being advised to keep a close eye on their cell phone bills to ensure they''re not dinged with charges banned under the updated wireless code, which goes into effect Friday. bit.ly/2kf6ZJi (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-dec-1-idINL3N1O13NU'|'2017-12-01T07:49:00.000+02:00'
'1ca7e1a94514268012775d32c5306adf4aab4b73'|'Australia''s Crown Resorts faces class action'|'SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd ( CWN.AX ) was slapped with a class action lawsuit on Monday for allegedly failing to inform shareholders of a marketing campaign in China that resulted in staff arrests and a slump in the share price.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Australian casino giant Crown Resorts Ltd adorns the hotel and casino complex in Melbourne, Australia, June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo The company part-owned by billionaire businessman James Packer said it would defend itself against the allegations contained in the suit, filed on behalf of shareholders who invested between Feb. 6, 2015 and Oct. 16, 2016.On Oct. 17, 2016, Crown shares fell almost 14 percent on the news that almost 20 employees had been arrested in China for marketing gambling trips to Macau. While gambling is legal in the southern Chinese territory, it is illegal on the mainland.“Shareholders should have been apprised of the risks that Crown was taking in China and the threat they posed to the company’s revenue streams,” Andrew Watson, national head of class actions at Maurice Blackburn, said in a statement.The arrests triggered an abrupt reversal in Crown’s offshore ambitions and an admission from Packer that his “global strategy” had failed. Australia’s biggest casino company quit Macau and Las Vegas to focus on Australia.Trading volumes at Crown resorts have slumped in the fall-out of the arrests, as profits generated from high rollers plummeted.All of the Crown employees who were detained in China have now been released.Crown said in a statement it would “vigorously defend” itself against the shareholders’ allegations.Crown shares fell as much as 1.2 percent in midday trading on Monday while the benchmark index edged higher.Reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney. Additional reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crown-resorts-lawsuit/australias-crown-resorts-faces-class-action-idUSKBN1DY028'|'2017-12-04T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'445da0d887f847a8309b0899bbd09b56bb7d27fd'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. equity index futures open higher after Senate passes tax bill'|'(Adds comment)By Jessica Resnick-AultNEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures opened higher on Sunday after the U.S. Senate approved a tax overhaul bill early Saturday.S&P 500 e-minis were up about 0.6 percent, Nasdaq 100 e-minis were also up about 0.6 percent, and Dow e-minis up more than 0.7 percent.Saturday’s Senate vote takes Republicans and President Donald Trump a big step closer to their goal of slashing taxes for businesses.The gains should hold since they reflect the Senate passage of the tax bill, said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research.“We’re still on a short schedule - Congress has days to reconcile House and Senate bills,” Colas said. “But markets want to believe it will happen.” (Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault; additional reporting by Megan Davies in New York; Editing by Mary Milliken) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/update-1-u-s-equity-index-futures-open-higher-after-senate-passes-tax-bill-idINL1N1O30OL'|'2017-12-03T20:59:00.000+02:00'
'f4f048bfb6b6bc8eae75c2ab63a0f1bba2e7b8da'|'Prysmian sets sights on other M&A targets after General Cable deal'|'MILAN (Reuters) - Italian cable maker Prysmian ( PRY.MI ) is looking at three more M&A targets, its CEO Valerio Battista said on Tuesday, the day after announcing a $3 billion deal to buy U.S. rival General Cable ( BGC.N ).The targets are mid-sized groups, one based in Asia, one in North America and one with a worldwide presence, Battista said, adding that a deal could be completed in the coming months.“We have sown a lot of seeds and the acquisition of General Cable marks the completion of this process, which has also created other buds that could flourish in the coming months,” Battista told a news conference at its Milan headquarters.Prysmian has been in contact with Nokia’s Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) for a potential acquisition, Battista said, without clarifying whether that company was one of the Italian group’s three possible targets.He made no further comment on possible M&A targets, but Prysmian Chief Financial Officer Pier Francesco Facchini told the same news conference: “The additional targets are active in niches, either geographical or product niches.”On Monday the world’s biggest cable maker announced a deal to acquire Kentucky-based General Cable to create a group with combined sales of more than 11 billion euros and adjusted core earnings (EBITDA) of about 930 million euros.Commenting on that acquisition, Battista said it had allowed Prysmian to strengthen its “worldwide leadership”.Battista said the acquisition also gave Prysmian more exposure to the U.S. market and blocked the expansion of other rivals, including Chinese groups, which he said could create a production platform in Europe by taking control of the European plants of General Cable.Sources told Reuters Prysmian had been competing with France’s Nexans ( NEXS.PA ), Denmark NKT ( NKT.CO ) and China’s Hengtong Optic-Electric ( 600487.SS ) in the final negotiations for its U.S. rival.To trump other offers, Prysmian agreed to pay a premium of more than 80 percent to General Cable’s price last July when the U.S. company started a strategic review to identify a possible merger partner.“The acquisition was a big opportunity and we grabbed it gladly... We paid what we had to pay for it,” Battista said responding to criticism that the group had paid a hefty premium for General Cable.Facchini said the net present value of the industrial synergies expected from the acquisition totaled around 1.2 billion euros.Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-prysmian-m-a/prysmian-sets-sights-on-other-ma-targets-after-general-cable-deal-idINKBN1DZ2CG'|'2017-12-05T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'6704a54d5dafa61043d00d59b4b7f9c47340ece6'|'Lyft''s fresh funding round brings valuation to $11.5 billion'|'(Reuters) - U.S.-based ride hailing company Lyft said on Tuesday it raised an additional $500 million in its recent round of funding, bringing in new capital totaling $1.5 billion.FILE PHOTO - An illuminated sign appears in a Lyft ride-hailing car in Los Angeles, California, U.S. September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The funding round was led by one of Alphabet Inc''s ( GOOGL.O ) investment funds, CapitalG, bringing Lyft''s current valuation to $11.5 billion, Lyft said in a blog post. ( lft.to/2AMnyD8 )Fidelity Management & Research, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, AllianceBernstein, Baillie Gifford, KKR ( KKR.N ), Janus Henderson Investors and Rakuten ( 4755.T ) also took part in the round.Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-lyft-ipo-investors/lyfts-fresh-funding-round-brings-valuation-to-11-5-billion-idINKBN1DZ2RV'|'2017-12-05T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'93eac591241a18ad016dabbc92d3607432d41b37'|'Japan economy minister sees extra education spending on top of $18 billion package'|'December 5, 2017 / 1:08 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Japan economy minister sees extra education spending on top of $18 billion package Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday there would be additional spending for recurrent education, on top of the government’s planned 2 trillion yen (£13.2 billion) economic package, to help address the challenges of Japan’s shrinking labour force. FILE PHOTO - Japanese Minister of Economic Revitalization Toshimitsu Motegi attends a news conference in Da Nang, Vietnam, November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kham Motegi did not say how much spending would be involved for such education, which is aimed at keeping people involved in the workforce over an ever-longer lifespan and which he compared to preventative medical care. “It’s not about how to respond when one becomes unemployed, but rather how to avoid the situation of becoming unemployed,” Motegi told reporters after a regular cabinet meeting. Reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-motegi/japan-economy-minister-sees-extra-education-spending-on-top-of-18-billion-package-idUKKBN1DZ03G'|'2017-12-05T03:07:00.000+02:00'
'182c2244a865b695560e2a40f1cd67fce8b6d922'|'General Electric to cut 4,500 jobs in Europe - report'|'Reuters TV United States December 5, 2017 / 8:55 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago General Electric to cut 4,500 jobs in Europe: report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. firm General Electric ( GE.N ) will cut 4,500 jobs across Europe after reviewing assets it purchased from France’s Alstom ( ALSO.PA ) in 2015, French newspaper Les Echos said on Tuesday. The logo of General Electric is seen at its plant in Baden, Switzerland November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Citing a union source, the report said the cuts would take place in Switzerland, Germany and Britain. GE said in a statement it was “reviewing its operations to ensure the business is best positioned to respond to our market realities and for long-term success.” It did not mention any job losses, but said it had put forward a proposal to the European body representing legacy Alstom employees. Reporting by Matthieu Protard; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge-redundancies/general-electric-to-cut-4500-jobs-in-europe-report-idUKKBN1DZ2YU'|'2017-12-05T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'cc8a7aba8f8848a73820e4c10ce6d5ffb7b83deb'|'Russia''s RDIF says plans to invest in Yandex taxi business - Ifax'|'(Corrects paragraphs 1 and 3 after Interfax clarifies RDIF plans to invest along with Alibaba in Russia, not in Alibaba)MOSCOW, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) plans to invest in Yandex’s ride-sharing unit Yandex.Taxi and will partner with China’s Alibaba in investing in other internet projects in Russia, Interfax news agency Quote: d the state fund’s CEO as saying on Tuesday.“We will announce in the nearest future investments in the Yandex.Taxi company,” Interfax Quote: d RDIF’s head Kirill Dmitriev as saying.RDIF also plans to invest in “a number of our internet portals with the aim to (help them) expand abroad” as well as in the logistical infrastructure of the Internet in Russia together with Alibaba, Dmitriev was Quote: d as telling Russian President Vladimir Putin.Yandex, the “Google of Russia”, and Uber earlier agreed to combine their Russian ride-sharing businesses, with Yandex taking the bigger stake in the venture. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; writing by Maria Kiselyova) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-yandex-rdif/russias-rdif-says-plans-to-invest-in-yandex-taxi-business-ifax-idUSR4N1O1005'|'2017-12-05T23:08:00.000+02:00'
'055af005c15a809db6127b43442b3f31f0480674'|'Deutsche Boerse chairman considering early departure - Handelsblatt'|' 42 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Deutsche Boerse chairman considering early departure - Handelsblatt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ) Chairman Joachim Faber is considering quitting as head of the exchange operator’s supervisory board as early as in 2019, Handelsblatt reported, citing sources in the finance industry. FILE PHOTO - Joachim Faber, chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Boerse AG is recorded by a TV camera as he holds a speech at the New Year reception of the German stock market in Eschborn near Frankfurt, Germany, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Faber, who has chaired the company’s 12-member controlling panel since May 2012, used a meeting with investors in London to discuss the possibility of an early departure, the German business daily reported late on Wednesday. Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse declined to comment. Faber has been criticised by investors for the failed merger with the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) and a compensation programme awarded to Carsten Kengeter who resigned as chief executive in late October, Handelsblatt said, adding several large investors were refusing to re-elect him at the annual shareholders’ meeting next May. No decisions have been taken yet and Faber plans further talks with investors in January, the newspaper said, citing the unidentified finance industry sources. Reporting by Andreas Framke Writing by Andreas Cremer;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-boerse-chairman/deutsche-boerse-chairman-considering-early-departure-handelsblatt-idUKKBN1E02MV'|'2017-12-06T20:41:00.000+02:00'
'f78130a2ed51ee0d35edea43a076422fe258fffb'|'Data workers prove a rare resource for Barrick, fellow miners'|'TORONTO (Reuters) - Barrick Gold, the world’s biggest gold miner, is staking new ground in a dogged push to overhaul its operations, seeking scarce artificial intelligence experts to oversee projects using technology for everything from exploration to robot-run mining.FILE PHOTO: An overview of Barrick Gold Corporation''s Pueblo Viejo gold mine is seen in Cotui December 11, 2013. REUTERS/Ricardo Rojas/File Photo But for an industry perceived as slow-moving and macho, attracting prized human resources can be as difficult as striking gold - particularly as technology titans like Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google chase the same talent.Though the mining sector is late to the so-called "digitization" party, Barrick and others are compelled to push productivity gains in the face of rising costs and depleting resources. (For a graphic, click tmsnrt.rs/2BJQ85K )Miners are stepping up investments in technology that ranges from driverless trucks to computers that sift through and make sense of mountains of data from operations.That shift could deliver global efficiency gains of $373 billion by 2025 for the industry and its stakeholders, estimates consulting giant McKinsey & Co.“There’s so much value that can be created in mining, if we run our mines predictively, rather than reactively,” said Michelle Ash, Barrick Chief Innovation Officer.At Barrick, artificial intelligence (AI) managers will oversee projects that use computers to study reams of data, from sensors tracking equipment and workers, to better understand mine geology, for example. Computers could analyze that information to predict where to mine the best ore, she said, or when equipment maintenance is needed, for example.But the competition for the world’s top programmers, data scientists and AI researchers - who are critical to unlocking the value of high-tech mines - is fierce.David McKay, chief executive of Canada’s biggest lender, Royal Bank of Canada, likens the pursuit of AI workers to “the primary battle ground” in an “arms race.”While the mining industry pays better than some other sectors, such as media or retail, it may fall shy of a AI worker’s dream workplace, said Rachel O‘Connor, who heads a consulting team at global recruiter Korn Ferry.“Mining is not known for a lack of hierarchy, or a lot of freedom to innovate,” she said.But that has not stopped Barrick, which is spending $100 million in a partnership with Cisco Systems, from trying to create the right environment.Having already wired its underground Cortez mine in the Nevada desert, Barrick predicts digital mining will drive production costs down to $700 an ounce by 2021, from current levels of $740-$770.As it scouts for AI project managers and data scientists for the first time, the miner is also sowing recruitment seeds early and broadly, while shifting its corporate image beyond big machines moving big rocks.FILE PHOTO: Workers walk at Barrick Gold Corp''s Veladero gold mine in Argentina''s San Juan province, April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci/File Photo Barrick spotlights its global ''hackathons'', the mining-industry-first virtual job fair it held in August, or the Hackergal hackergal.org/ school coding program it supports.LATE ADOPTERS MAY NOT SURVIVE “The need is greater than ever,” said Richard Sellschop, principal at McKinsey, adding that recruiting the right tech talent for mining is a pinch point.“We’ve seen over the last bit-more-than-a decade that productivity in mining has been negative on a global basis,” he said.Slideshow (2 Images) From 2005 to 2015, mine productivity declined by 3.5 percent annually, on average, a McKinsey study showed.While some miners struggle to find the best workers, the industry has seen success, like early adopter Dundee Precious Metals.The small gold miner is now testing computer analytics to determine more efficient ways to grind and process rocks, for example, or predict when its trucks need repairs, before breaking down, said Chief Executive Rick Howes.That project, which runs until 2019, could cut mine costs by 30 percent, he said. Dundee’s first digitization project doubled output and cut costs nearly 45 percent, from 2010 to 2013, by connecting workers and equipment over a wireless network at its underground Bulgarian mine.“Late adopters, or those who struggle to make that transition, will probably have a difficult time surviving,” Howes said. “The risk is high.”For self-proclaimed technology “evangelist” Jed Schneider, 41, working at a mine was never part of his career plan. He was developing high-tech health care tools for a Las Vegas start-up when Barrick came calling.But Schneider saw a trailblazing opportunity and is now working on custom software programs for Barrick that track haul trucks, for example, automate work orders, and analyze data for better supply chain decisions.“I am in a position where I am one of the first people in the door in an industry that has yet to have any kind of strategy behind the digital transformation,” he said. “We’re doing something that is really cool.”Branding plays a key role in attracting data workers, said Barrick recruiter Richa Garg, but many are lured by the opportunity to see the end results of their hands-on work.“Part of what we’re doing is looking to see how we can show why we’re not your grandfather’s mining company,” said President Kelvin Dushnisky.Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Denny Thomas and Edward Tobin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mining-technology-jobs/data-workers-prove-a-rare-resource-for-barrick-fellow-miners-idUSKBN1E00GN'|'2017-12-06T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'494b074cf3acb8dedd22e6a7ec985a3d89cf9bed'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 6'|'Dec 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- The Walt Disney Co is in advanced discussions to buy significant parts of Twenty-first Century Fox Inc, the media company run by the Murdoch family, people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday. ( nyti.ms/2AbZlX7 )- Britain''s Cineworld Group Plc said on Tuesday that it had agreed to acquire Regal Entertainment Group, one of the biggest cinema operators in the United States, for $3.6 billion. ( nyti.ms/2BM8Rxq )- The Russian government declared the broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty "foreign agents" on Tuesday, in retaliation for a similar action against Russian state-run news outlets in the United States. ( nyti.ms/2Aw0gRp )- Netflix Inc has fired actor Danny Masterson from the show "The Ranch", amid investigations of alleged sexual assault of three women in the early 2000s. ( nyti.ms/2B2CZHB )- Amazon.com Inc quietly began operations in Australia on Tuesday, the start of what could be a shake-up of the country''s retail market, which is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. ( nyti.ms/2knCbGh )Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-6-idINL3N1O6260'|'2017-12-06T02:38:00.000+02:00'
'7d73cdf18f25b62f60851e90fdb77522bd92f99e'|'Uber''s licence suspended in British city of Sheffield'|'December 7, 2017 / 4:32 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Uber''s licence suspended in British city of Sheffield Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Uber’s licence to operate in the northern English city of Sheffield was suspended last Friday after it failed to respond to requests about the management of its taxi app, the local authority said. Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The firm can continue to operate until Dec. 18 and if it chooses to appeal the suspension, it can still run until that appeal is heard, Sheffield City Council said in a statement on Thursday. “If it decides against an appeal the suspension will come into force,” the council said. Uber said it submitted an application for a new licence on Oct. 16 which continues to be processed by local officials. “While we are in regular contact with the council, we did not receive the correspondence the council refers to as they sent the letters to an incorrect address,” a spokesman said “We hope this administrative error can be quickly resolved so we can continue serving tens of thousands of riders and drivers in Sheffield.” The app will submit an appeal if the new application cannot be resolved by Dec. 18 so its drivers can continue to take passengers, the spokesman said. Next week, Uber will head to court in London to defend its right to operate in the capital, its most important European market, after the app was deemed unfit to run a taxi service and stripped of its licence by the city’s regulator. Reporting by Costas Pitas, editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-britain-sheffield/ubers-licence-suspended-in-british-city-of-sheffield-idUKKBN1E12AM'|'2017-12-07T18:31:00.000+02:00'
'949a077ba52d9bebdd0bdb3d895bfb07dd93b428'|'Toymaker Lego wins Chinese copyright case against brick imitators'|'December 7, 2017 / 9:59 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Toymaker Lego wins Chinese copyright case against brick imitators Reuters Staff 3 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Lego has won a landmark case in China against two companies that manufactured and sold toys almost identical to its LEGO Friends range but branded Bela, the Danish toymaker said. Sets of Lego bricks are seen at a toy store in Bonn, Germany, September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay It is the first time that Lego has succeeded in a copyright competition case in China, where copies of its colourful bricks and figures have been a recurrent problem as it seeks to gain share in the $31 billion (£23.1 billion) toys and games market. Earlier this year, the Beijing Higher Court passed a ruling that recognised the Lego logo and name in Chinese as ‘well-known’ trademarks in China, putting the toymaker in a better position to act against infringement of its trademarks. The China Shantou Intermediate People’s Court had ruled that “certain Bela products infringed upon the copyrights of the Lego Group and that manufacturing and selling of those products constituted acts of unfair competition”, Lego said in a statement on Thursday. The court also decided that Lego is protected under Chinese “anti-unfair competition law” for “the distinctive and unique appearance of certain decorative aspects of its packaging across particular product lines (in this case, LEGO Friends)” Capturing the imaginations of Chinese children with its bricks is key to reviving growth for the unlisted company after disappointing revenues in its core U.S. and European markets has brought an end to a decade-long sales boom. Lego, whose name is derived from the Danish “leg godt” meaning “play well”, is competing with Barbie maker Mattel Inc and Hasbro, the firm behind My Little Pony, for a slice of the Chinese market. The case was filed against two Chinese companies, which had been manufacturing and selling Bela products that were almost identical to Lego‘s. They will now have to stop copying Lego’s packaging and logos, it said. “We think this is very important for the continued development of a favourable business environment for all companies operating in the Chinese market,” Lego’s vice president of legal affairs, Peter Thorslund Kjaer said. Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lego-china-copyright/toymaker-lego-wins-chinese-copyright-case-against-brick-imitators-idUKKBN1E1154'|'2017-12-07T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'57310cd087bea8139aa621a97a9812ccc47dfb99'|'U.S. oil edges up after drop in crude inventories, but soaring output weighs'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed more than 1 percent on Thursday due to a threatened strike in Nigeria and as traders cover shorts after sharp losses the previous day brought on by an unexpectedly large rise in U.S. stocks of refined fuels.FILE PHOTO: Crude oil storage tanks are seen from above at the Cushing oil hub, in Cushing, Oklahoma, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo “Short covering in the market, together with the threat of a strike by Nigeria’s key oil union, has provided some support to oil prices in today’s session,” said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy’s Global Gas Analytics in London.One of Nigeria’s main oil unions threatened to go on strike from Dec. 18 over what it said was a “mass sacking of workers.” The country is Africa’s top oil exporter.Brent futures were up 85 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $62.07 a barrel by 11:42 a.m. EST (1642 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 63 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $56.59.The previous day, Brent settled down 2.6 percent and WTI down 2.9 percent after an unexpected rise in U.S. fuel stocks.Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday showed that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 5.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 1, to 448.1 million barrels, putting stocks below seasonal levels in 2015 and 2016. [API/S] [EIA/S]But gasoline stocks rose by 6.8 million barrels, well above the 1.7 million-barrel gain analyst had expected, and distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 1.7 million barrels.“It was a sharp correction yesterday, so it’s a bit of a pause today,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director of PetroMatrix, adding “technically, it’s still very weak.”PVM Oil Associates also said in a note that “the weekly data was not as bad as it seems at first sight.”“Current (stock) levels are nearly 7 percent below last year and the surplus to the five-year average is only 3.9 percent,” it said.But troublingly for oil bulls, U.S. oil production rose by 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.71 million bpd in the week to Dec. 1, the highest since monthly figures showing the United States produced more than 10 million bpd in the early 1970s.Soaring U.S. output threatens to undermine efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to bring production and demand into balance following years of oversupply.Sukrit Vijayakar, managing director of energy consultancy Trifecta, said there were “darker shadows over the pace of rebalancing, if ... any is taking place.”Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper and Libby George in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-edges-up-after-drop-in-crude-inventories-but-soaring-output-weighs-idINKBN1E102P'|'2017-12-07T02:36:00.000+02:00'
'e2e8534aec0aee0be493c887c4ccec73574c17a1'|'Goldman Sachs to clear bitcoin futures - spokeswoman'|'December 7, 2017 / 10:00 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Goldman Sachs to clear bitcoin futures: spokeswoman Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ( GS.N ) is planning to clear bitcoin futures for some clients as the new contracts go live on exchanges in the coming days, a spokeswoman for the bank said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The bank, which helps clients buy and sell derivatives, is “evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, the Goldman Sachs spokeswoman said. Reporting by Anna Irrera; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures/goldman-sachs-to-clear-bitcoin-futures-spokeswoman-idUKKBN1E1333'|'2017-12-07T23:56:00.000+02:00'
'ac258d53f3d65b98aa2a0af1ba4e08678d93121f'|'EU mergers and takeovers (Dec 7)'|'BRUSSELS, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process:APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS -- Czech state-controlled special purpose vehicle Prisko to acquire Czech coal producer OKD Nastupnicka (approved Dec. 6)-- German car parts supplier ZF subsidiary Zukunft Venture, German bicycle parts maker Gustav Magenwirth, German brakes maker Brake Force One and vehicle driving systems maker Unicorn Energy to set up a joint venture (approved Dec. 6)NEW LISTINGS -- U.S. investment fund Starwood Capital Group and French hotel group Accor to jointly acquire a hotel in Budapest, Hungary (notified Dec. 1/deadline Jan. 16/simplified)EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES NoneFIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINE DEC 8 -- French insurer Axa and specialist fund Pradera to jointly acquire two Italian properties (notified Nov. 11/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)-- German air maintenance services provider Lufthansa Technik and and sensor maker Pepperl + Fuchs to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 3/deadline Dec. 8/simplified)DEC 12 -- Private equity firm the Carlyle Group to acquire British delivery company and convenience store operator Palmer & Harvey McLane (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12/simplified)-- British budget carrier easyJet to acquire parts of German airline Air Berlin (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12)DEC 18 -- French property developer Fonciere des Regions and Marriott International to acquire joint control of Le Meridien Hotel in Nice (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified)DEC 20 -- South African chemicals company Tronox to acquire the titanium dioxide business of Cristal, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Tasnee (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20)-- France’s Engie, Omnes Capital and Predica Prevoyance to jointly acquire several wind farms (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20/simplified)DEC 21 -- German carrier Lufthansa to acquire some Air Berlin assets (notified Oct. 31/deadline extended to Dec. 21 from Dec. 7 after Lufthansa offered concessions)-- French aerospace group Safran to acquire French seats maker Zodiac Aerospace (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21)-- French bank Societe Generale and BNP Paribas to jointly acquire French property developer Powerhouse France (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21/simplified)-- Private equity firm CVC to acquire Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ women’s health business (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21)DEC 22 -- Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison’s container terminal operator Hutchison Ports Netherlands B.V. and Dutch stevedoring services provider TMA Holding to acquire joint control of Dutch logistics company TMA Logistics (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private equity firms CVC and Providence to acquire joint control of security services provider Skybox (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private eqyity firm BC Partners to acquire German ceramics maker CeramTec Holding GmbH (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- Private equity firm Blackstone to acquire Portuguese bank Banco Popular’s real estate business (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)-- French petroleum product storage and distribution group Rubis Group and Phillips 66 to acquire joint control of Zeller & Cie (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22)-- German investment group Porsche Digital GmbH, which is a subsidiary of German carmaker Volkswagen, and German publisher Axel Springer to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified)JAN 4 -- Private equity firm EQT Fund Management to acquire German energy company G+E Getec Holding (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified)-- Spanish energy company Companía Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U. (CEPSA), which is controlled by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co, to acquire control of Spanish gas company CEPSA Gas Comercializadora (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified)JAN 5 -- U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital to acquire Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp’s chip unit (notified Nov. 22/deadline Jan. 5/simplified)JAN 8 -- WME Entertainment Parent, which is controlled by private equity firm Silver Lake Group, and Perform Group Ltd, which is a unit of Access Industries Ltd, to set up a joint venture in South America (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified)-- French energy company Engie to acquire indirect sole control of British energy trader IPM Energy Trading and UK natural gas shipping services provider International Power Fuel Co (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified)-- Fund management firm Varde to acquire French vehicle leasing firm Fraikin (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified)-- Japanese electronics parts maker Kyocera to acquire Japanese diecasting maker Ryobi’s power tool business (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified)JAN 9 -- Comsa Concesionanes S.L., Mirova Core Infrastructure and Dutch fund manager PGGM Infrastructure Funds to acquire joint control of Cedinsa Concessionaria (notified Nov. 24/deadline Jan. 9/simplified)JAN 10 -- Chinese pork supplier WH Group subsidiary and U.S. meat producer Smithfield to acquire Polish meat company Pini Polonia (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10)-- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, German insurer Allianz and Spanish utility Gas Natural to acquire joint control of Gas Natural’s natural gas distribution business in Spain Gas Natural Fenosa Generacion Nuclear (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10/simplified)-- UK private equity firm TDR Capital to acquire French restaurant franchise operator Rossini Holding (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10/simplified)JAN 11 -- France’s La Poste, Italian insurer Generali and insurer Malakoff Mederic to acquire joint control of French concierge services provider EAP France (notified Nov. 28/deadline Jan. 11/simplified)-- Asset management firm Aviva Investors, which is part of UK insurer Aviva, and French pension fund ERAFP to jointly acquire a shopping centre in Strasbourg, France (notified Nov. 28/deadline Jan. 11/simplified)JAN 12 -- Private equity firm KKR and South Korean industrial company LS Mtron to jointly acquire South Korean car components maker LS Auto (notified Nov. 29/deadline Jan. 12/simplified)JAN 16 -- French venture capital fund Mirova, which is a subsidiary of French bank BPCE’s Natixis Asset Management, and U.S. industrial group GE to jointly acquire two Spanish windfarms Idesamgar and Idesamgar I (notified Dec. 1/deadline Jan. 16/simplified)MARCH 5 -- German industrial group Bayer to acquire U.S. seeds company Monsanto (notified June 30/deadline March 5)MARCH 8 -- Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French lens manufacturer Essilor to merge (notified Aug. 22/deadline March 8)MARCH 15 -- U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm to acquire Dutch company NXP Semiconductors NV (notified April 28/deadline March 15)MARCH 19 -- U.S. specialty material company Celanese and private equity firm Blackstone to combine their cellulose acetate tow units under a new joint venture (notified Sept. 9/deadline extended to March 19 from March 5)MARCH 23 -- Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal to acquire Italian steel plant (notified Sept. 21/deadline extended to March 23 from Nov. 13 after ArcelorMittal offered concessions)GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS DEADLINES: The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case.Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days.SIMPLIFIED: Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified - that is, ordinary first-stage reviews - until they are approved. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eu-ma/eu-mergers-and-takeovers-idINL8N1O75P3'|'2017-12-07T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'1498d1e9b40cab5bb6faaac994c42affb12bd4c6'|'ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell paid no tax in Australia for 2016'|'MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp ( XOM.N ) and Chevron Corp ( CVX.N ) paid no tax in Australia in the 2016 financial year, the third year in a row, despite reporting billions of dollars in income from operations in the country, a report from the tax office showed on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Chevron (CVX) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Exxon Mobil, which has oil and gas production in the Bass Strait and a stake in the giant Gorgon LNG project among other assets in Australia, reported A$6.7 billion ($5.0 billion) in income, but it reported a loss for taxable income and paid no tax, similar to the previous two years.Exxon said it had no taxable income as it has invested nearly A$18 billion over the past few years on major projects including Gorgon and the Kipper Tuna Turrum field.“As these multi-billion investments were completed in 2017 and have started production, the amount of tax paid by ExxonMobil Australia is anticipated to increase significantly,” said Travis Parnaby, a spokesman for the oil major.Chevron reported A$2.1 billion in income for 2016 and paid no tax, while Shell Energy Holdings Australia - a unit of Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) - reported A$4.2 billion in income and A$97 million in taxable income, but paid no tax.Chevron, operator of the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects, said it expects to pay significant taxes once those projects are running at full tilt. Shell is also a partner in Gorgon LNG.The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) started requiring big companies to disclose their tax payments two years ago in a push to curb alleged tax avoidance.Top global miners BHP Billiton ( BHP.AX )( BLT.L ) and Rio Tinto ( RIO.AX )( RIO.L ) and the oil and gas giants have all been accused of shifting income to countries like the Netherlands and Singapore where tax rates are lower.FILE PHOTO: Logos of ExxonMobil are seen in its booth at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo A probe by the Australian Senate into corporate tax avoidance that began in 2014 was extended this week, and is now due to issue a final report by the end of May 2018.In New Zealand, the new Labour government on Thursday proposed legislation to prevent multinationals from shifting profits out of the country. Its tax office estimated the measures could raise about NZ$200 million ($137 million) a year.“Multinational companies are a welcome part of our economy but they must abide by the rules. They must pay their fair share of tax,” New Zealand Revenue Minister Stuart Nash said in a statement.FILE PHOTO: Shell''s company logo is pictured at a gas station in Zurich April 8, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Australia’s and New Zealand’s company tax rates are 30 percent and 28 percent respectively. The Netherlands has a 25 percent rate.BHP Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie defended the company’s tax payments this week, after Australian Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan was Quote: d in The Australian newspaper saying the ATO might take BHP and Rio Tinto to court to resolve questions about marketing hubs in Singapore, where the miners pay minimal tax.Mackenzie said the fight with the tax office related to about 1 or 2 percent of BHP’s total tax payable in Australia.“We pay our fair share,” Mackenzie told the Melbourne Mining Club on Tuesday.The tax office won a landmark case against Chevron earlier this year over a disputed A$340 million tax bill stemming from an intercompany loan with an exorbitantly high interest rate.“On the back of solid growth in company profits and higher commodity prices, we are seeing a strong increase in company tax collections in 2016-17 which will be reflected in the data next year,” Australia’s Deputy Tax Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn said in a statement released with the tax data.Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Tom Hogue '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-taxavoidance/exxonmobil-chevron-shell-paid-no-tax-in-australia-for-2016-idUSKBN1E11FN'|'2017-12-07T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'd2066c66e3edd31df7788529a6dc3ac4c467cd65'|'Analysis: Bitcoin to start futures trading, stoking Wild West worries'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin fans are salivating over the potential of long-awaited legitimacy for the cyptocurrency when futures trading launches this weekend, but experts worry the risks associated with bitcoin’s Wild West-like nature could overshadow the debut.FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo The first bitcoin future trades kick off Sunday at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Cboe Global Markets Inc’s Cboe Futures Exchange, followed a week later by CME Group Inc’s CME.Nasdaq Inc plans to get into the mix next year, Reuters reported.While Cboe, CME and Nasdaq offer strictly policed trading environments, the underlying bitcoin market is riddled with crypto-exchanges lacking even basic oversight.That has stoked fears of market manipulation, inaccurate pricing, and systemic risk to clearing houses.“I‘m kind of taken aback by what’s happened in the last three months,” said Richard Johnson, an analyst at Greenwich Associates who owns digital currencies and considers himself a bitcoin bull. “I‘m concerned things are moving a bit too quickly.”Bitcoin’s more than 10-fold upsurge this year has led to warnings of a bubble by the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who called it “a fraud” that will eventually blow up. Others, like Wall Street adviser Tom Lee, expect bitcoin to top $100,000.On Wednesday, its hypervolatility was on full display as it broke through $13,000 for the first time on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, jumping more than 11 percent on the day.. Since August 2011, bitcoin has averaged a daily price change of nearly 3 percent, up or down, compared with a daily average change in the U.S. dollar-euro cross rate of less than 0.5 percent since the euro’s debut in 1999.“Maybe it’s just the most unique market that is going to continue to go up forever and ever and so everybody on the long side is going to make money and it’s a great thing, but I’ve been around long enough to know that’s not going to work out so well,” said John Lothian, CEO of advisory firm John J Lothian and Company.As a virtual currency, bitcoin can be used to move money around the world without the need for a central authority, such as a bank or government, which is a double-edged sword, said Steve Grob, director of group strategy at Fidessa.“There is no backstop. If suddenly tomorrow everyone decided bitcoin was worthless, it would be worthless, and I’m not sure whether people have really thought that one through,” he said.Traditional banks remain skeptical of dealing with bitcoin exchanges. Earlier this year, Wells Fargo & Co stopped processing wire transfers for an exchange called Bitfinex, leaving customers unable to transfer U.S. dollars out of their accounts, except through special arrangement with the exchange’s lawyer.Still, new entrants, from retail investors to high-frequency traders, have piled into bitcoin. U.S.-based crypto-exchange Coinbase said it added 100,000 accounts in the three days around the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, for 13.1 million overall.FILE PHOTO: A logo of Bitcoin is seen on an advertisement of an electronic shop in Tokyo, Japan September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo If the futures market were to exceed the size of the spot market, with current daily trading volume of around $6 billion per day, the underlying price could be more susceptible to manipulation, said Kevin Zhou, co-founder of crypto currency fund Galois Capital.“You’ve seen these problems before in bitcoin futures, where right before the settlement, the price pegs it high or low and then bounces back right after,” he said.RISK OF AN ‘AVALANCHE’As volumes increase, there are also questions about the robustness of the technology at bitcoin exchanges, Lothian said.“Particularly when you’re talking about a high-frequency approach to this where people are trying to arb multiple exchanges.”Last month, the Gemini bitcoin exchange, which will set the price for Cboe’s futures contract, and GDAX and Kraken, two of the four exchanges in CME’s bitcoin index, had systems issues.“Every single bitcoin exchange receives and is receiving complaints by users due to the unbelievably surging bitcoin price and the result that has on capacity,” Christina Yee, a Kraken representative, recently told Reuters in an email.Kraken is planning to launch a new trade engine “soon” which should increase the exchange’s capacity, Yee said.The volatile nature of bitcoin could also present a risk to clearing houses, said Thomas Peterffy, CEO of Interactive Brokers Group Inc.Clearing houses act as a middlemen between the parties to futures transactions. If there were a wild price swing in bitcoin and a smaller brokerage failed to meet its margin call, the clearing house would have to take over the position, further moving the price of bitcoin, which could cause other brokers to fail, Peterffy said.“If that happens at a time when bitcoin spikes up for whatever crazy reason, there could be an avalanche,” he said.Questions like these have kept some futures market operators on the sidelines, for now. Intercontinental Exchange Inc, owner of the New York Stock Exchange and ICE Futures U.S., opted not to join CME and Cboe in the race to be first with a bitcoin future.“We didn’t think it was obvious to rush out a product and be first and settle against an index on a lot of exchanges that are not particularly transparent,” ICE Chief Executive Jeffrey Sprecher said this week at a Goldman Sachs conference.Reporting by John McCrank and Anna Irrera; Editing by Dan Burns and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bitcoin-futures/analysis-bitcoin-to-start-futures-trading-stoking-wild-west-worries-idINKBN1E10K5'|'2017-12-07T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'5a6d033e7373e245a220d6c00e5ef3496bb31f20'|'Pakistan''s second LNG import terminal to restart on December 8 - company'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Pakistan GasPort, its second liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, expects to restart operations on Friday evening after suspending gas flows into the grid after a leak occurred, it said on Thursday.The terminal in Port Qasim in Karachi was inaugurated late last month and took in its first cargo around the same time.A leak occurred in a insulation joint linking the facility to the connecting pipeline infrastructure, Pakistan GasPort said.Traders said on Wednesday that repairs to the facility would take 10 days, citing a pipeline blast or gas leak that caused the disruption.“The leak was promptly stopped, the joint has been replaced, and the system is being purged and repressurised,” Pakistan GasPort said.“There are no faults with the jetty and marine works or the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) or the subsea section of the pipeline and there has been no blast,” the companyReporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pakistan-lng-gasport/pakistans-second-lng-import-terminal-to-restart-on-december-8-company-idINKBN1E11QP'|'2017-12-07T15:03:00.000+02:00'
'2738c4db01f687106c72535ad7d84b269efb555e'|'Amid regional tensions, Qatar buys French-made fighter jets'|'December 7, 2017 / 9:52 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Qatar flexes financial muscle with 12 billion euros of French deals Hadeel Al Sayegh 3 Min Read DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar will buy fighter jets and armoured vehicles as part of 12 billion euros (£10.5 billion) worth of commercial contracts it agreed with France on Thursday, bolstering its military capability and its international ties as it faces a boycott by other Arab states. French fighter jet Rafale made by Dassault performs during the Breitling Airshow in Sion, Switzerland September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse The latest contracts underscored how Doha can use the wealth it has accumulated as the world’s biggest exporter of liquified natural gas to defy some of the largest and wealthiest Arab countries. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade relations with the emirate almost six months ago. They accuse the Qataris of backing terrorism, which Qatar denies. “Our position on this blockade was very clear. Qatar’s position was very clear - to resolve this problem, if we saw problems between us and our neighbours - we should be at a table and speak honestly,” Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said at a news conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron, who has tried to play a mediation role between the sides, was in Doha to discuss how to combat the financing of terrorism at a time when the Middle East is locked in a regional power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi‘ite Iran. “Restoring stability to the Gulf is a priority for us because we have a lot of friends here,” Macron said. “Our wish is that we find a quick resolution to today’s situation.” Paris has strong commercial and political ties with Qatar. It has promoted deeper business interests in the country and encouraged Qatari investment in France, where the Gulf state already has assets of about $10 billion. Macron said some 12 billion euros ($14.13 billion) worth of deals were agreed on Thursday. They included Qatar’s taking up an option from 2015 to buy 12 more Dassault Aviation-made Rafale fighters, and saying it could purchase a further 36. It has already bought 24 planes for about 6 billion euros, including missiles. It also committed to buying 490 armoured vehicles from defence firm Nexter. Doha has repeatedly called for dialogue with its neighbours, although it has strengthened its military as relations with them have deteriorated. It has secured this year alone military equipment deals with the United States, Russia and Britain. “In total, it amounts to nearly 12 billion euros which was signed today and which underlines the closeness of our economic cooperation,” Macron said. Among other deals signed, SuezA will dredge and clean Qatar’s lagoon and a rail consortium of RATP and SNCF will build and operate a metro system in the Qatari capital. Qatar Airways also placed a new order for Airbus A321neo civilian aircraft to replace an earlier A320neo order. The new deal for larger planes is worth an extra $930 million at current list prices for Airbus and involves a switch of engine supplier to a French-American venture co-owned by Safran< and General Electric. Additional reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey and Tim Hepher, writing by John Irish, editing by Richard Lough, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qatar-france-contracts/qatar-buys-rafale-fighter-jets-and-airbus-planes-from-france-idUKKBN1E114M'|'2017-12-07T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'01fa4e15a218a8b8b20cb4a45b3ca00eb1a5828f'|'UK airport boss urges government to set out its Brexit vision'|'December 7, 2017 / 2:07 PM / in a minute UK airport boss urges government to set out its Brexit vision Alistair Smout 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The British government needs to set out its vision for Brexit, the head of two of the country’s biggest airports said on Thursday, reflecting exasperation building among the business community. A Ryanair aircraft taxis behind an easyJet aircraft at Manchester Airport in Manchester, Britain June 28, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Yates/File Photo Discussions with the European Union have stalled this week, throwing the whole timetable into doubt, and finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet had not yet discussed what it wanted from its final deal. Executives within the airlines industry are increasingly alarmed because the aviation sector does not have a natural fallback arrangement that will keep flights in the air if Britain leaves the EU without a deal in March 2019. “It’s important that the government move quickly, and it’s a bit worrying when you hear senior politicians saying there is no end state for Brexit agreed in cabinet,” Charlie Cornish, chief executive of the Manchester Airport Group (MAG), told Reuters. “I do think that the government need to seriously up their act and get that end-state vision for the future relationship with Europe sorted.” Chief executives rarely comment on politics in Britain but many have become increasingly concerned in recent weeks about slow progress towards a transition deal to help ease the path out of the EU. Cornish, who at MAG also runs Stansted airport, said that while Brexit was his biggest concern, he believed that a compromise would be found. The industry has warned that it needs clarity soon because it sells flights so far ahead. The government should also think about legislation around airport take-off and landing slots, he said, after a controversial court decision to allow administrators of failed airline Monarch to sell slots at Luton and Gatwick even though it did not intend to operate any more flights. “It seems odd and unfair to customers and airports. There is a need for a fundamental review of how slots are managed when an airline goes into administration,” Cornish said. Monarch’s slots at Manchester were returned to a “pool” to be reassigned by a regulator. MAG said that Jet2.com, Thomas Cook and TUI were already operating flights out of some of the slots, and that other slots for next year would be filled. Editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-airport/uk-airport-boss-urges-government-to-set-out-its-brexit-vision-idUKKBN1E11WS'|'2017-12-07T16:06:00.000+02:00'
'94456e77b5cd3ffb2ee76b8dc6763aafe52784e0'|'HSBC has three-year head start on foreign investment banking rivals in China - Gulliver'|'December 7, 2017 / 6:38 AM / Updated 6 hours ago HSBC has three-year head start on foreign investment banking rivals in China - Gulliver Jennifer Hughes 4 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - HSBC has a three-year head start on its foreign investment banking rivals in China because of the British bank’s unique position of having management control of its securities venture there, chief executive Stuart Gulliver said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a logo of HSBC outside a branch at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China June 2, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Gulliver’s comments come after Beijing, in a surprise move last month, announced it will allow foreigners to control their onshore operations. Currently non-Chinese groups are limited to 49 per cent stakes in joint ventures in the fast-growing market. HSBC’s 51 percent control of HSBC Qianhai Securities is unique because it was able to use its long-established Hong Kong unit to take advantage of a rule favouring banks based in the city. Many international banks are keen to launch new Chinese ventures with majority control or to boost their stakes in existing partnerships to help integrate those operations with their global networks and to better manage reputational risk, bankers have said. But it will be some years before things fall into place for foreign majority-owned ventures to kick off, according to HSBC’s CEO. “The regulations will come in two years time. Then you have to pick your partner and you’ve got to hire people - we think we’ve got a three-year head start,” Gulliver told a media briefing at the launch of its securities joint venture in Shenzhen. FILE PHOTO: A logo of HSBC is displayed outside a branch at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China June 2, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo The joint venture, with Qianhai Financial Holding Company, an investment unit controlled by local government, is part of the UK-headquartered bank’s “pivot to Asia” - a strategy launched in 2015 that aimed to capitalise on its strong links in the region and the closeness of China’s Cantonese-speaking Pearl River Delta region to HSBC’s Hong Kong stronghold. The venture’s licence allows HSBC to underwrite bond and equity sales in the mainland and to act as a broker for shares listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen. It can also publish research on Chinese companies to local clients. So far, almost 100 staff have been hired, with investment bankers making up the biggest group. Asia accounted for 70 percent of HSBC’s adjusted pre-tax profit in the first nine months of this year. Gulliver said on Thursday he expected the Pearl River Delta business, which includes retail and commercial banking as well as the new securities business, to produce $1 billion in cumulative pre-tax profit in the next three to five years and add about $500 million a year after that. The bank has about 17,400 staff in the area already, with 15,000 in data processing and software. About 2,400 are in its branches - a number he expects to double by 2020. Gulliver is due to step down in 2018 as chief executive after seven years at the helm. He will be replaced by John Flint, who currently runs the bank’s retail and wealth management division. The CEO welcomed news that Ping An had become HSBC’s second-largest shareholder. The Chinese insurer began buying shares in 2016 as part of its insurance investments and on Wednesday passed the 5 per cent threshold after which it had to announce its holding. “We are really very happy about this,” Gulliver said, adding that he and other senior managers met regularly with Ping An executives as they did with other large shareholders. Reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hsbc-china/hsbc-has-three-year-head-start-on-foreign-investment-banking-rivals-in-china-gulliver-idUKKBN1E10M9'|'2017-12-07T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'65d0c8819a142be50dd52eb76f1e4950d7db9b30'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 7'|'Dec 7 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- UnitedHealth Group Inc''s Optum unit will acquire Davita Inc''s primary and urgent care services, a large for-profit chain of dialysis centers, for about $4.9 billion in cash. nyti.ms/2AgKT0j- Oliver Schmidt, a former Volkswagen AG manager in Michigan, was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in prison for his role in the German automaker''s decade-long scheme to cheat on diesel emissions tests. nyti.ms/2AYkCDm- Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be free to publicly discuss their work from now on, Scott Pruitt, the agency''s administrator, has assured lawmakers who criticized the EPA for preventing employees from presenting findings about climate change. nyti.ms/2kv7cId- U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a speech on Wednesday that mega-deals like Aetna Inc''s $77 billion sale to CVS Health Corp could kill competition and also backed the Justice Department''s fight against AT&T Inc - Time Warner Inc merger. nyti.ms/2iwaC9tCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-7-idINL3N1O72EL'|'2017-12-07T03:31:00.000+02:00'
'a71a74f1f18c1947ecc8ebf7175d5fd5291f6752'|'Bitcoin to start futures trading, stoking Wild West worries'|'December 7, 2017 / 6:09 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Bitcoin to start futures trading, stoking Wild West worries John McCrank , Anna Irrera 7 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin fans are salivating over the potential of long-awaited legitimacy for the cyptocurrency when futures trading launches this weekend, but experts worry the risks associated with bitcoin’s Wild West-like nature could overshadow the debut. A bitcoin (virtual currency) coin placed on Dollar banknotes, next to computer keyboard, is seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The first bitcoin future trades kick off Sunday at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Cboe Global Markets Inc’s ( CBOE.O ) Cboe Futures Exchange, followed a week later by CME Group Inc’s ( CME.O ) CME. Nasdaq Inc ( NDAQ.O ) plans to get into the mix next year, Reuters reported. While Cboe, CME and Nasdaq offer strictly policed trading environments, the underlying bitcoin market is riddled with crypto-exchanges lacking even basic oversight. That has stoked fears of market manipulation, inaccurate pricing and systemic risk to clearing houses. “I‘m kind of taken aback by what’s happened in the last three months,” said Richard Johnson, an analyst at Greenwich Associates who owns digital currencies and considers himself a bitcoin bull. “I‘m concerned things are moving a bit too quickly.” Some of the world’s largest brokers on Thursday voiced concerns about the process through which bitcoin futures had come to market, noting that market participants should have been better consulted on issues such as margin levels and trading limits. Through an open letter to the U.S. derivatives watchdog from the Futures Industry Association, the brokers said more safeguards are needed to protect against bitcoin’s high volatility and the risk of manipulation in the underlying spot market. “We remain apprehensive with the lack of transparency and regulation of the underlying reference products on which these futures contracts are based,” the FIA letter said. Bitcoin’s more than 10-fold upsurge this year has led to warnings of a bubble by the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who called it “a fraud” that will eventually blow up. Others, like Wall Street adviser Tom Lee, expect bitcoin to top $100,000. On Thursday, its hypervolatility was on full display as it broke through $15,000 for the first time on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP , jumping more than 12 percent from the previous day.. Since August 2011, bitcoin has averaged a daily price change of nearly 3 percent, up or down, compared with a daily average change in the U.S. dollar-euro cross rate EUR= of less than 0.5 percent since the euro''s debut in 1999. “Maybe it’s just the most unique market that is going to continue to go up forever and ever and so everybody on the long side is going to make money and it’s a great thing, but I’ve been around long enough to know that’s not going to work out so well,” said John Lothian, CEO of advisory firm John J Lothian and Company. As a virtual currency, bitcoin can be used to move money around the world without the need for a central authority, such as a bank or government, which is a double-edged sword, said Steve Grob, director of group strategy at Fidessa. “There is no backstop. If suddenly tomorrow everyone decided bitcoin was worthless, it would be worthless, and I’m not sure whether people have really thought that one through,” he said. Traditional banks remain skeptical of dealing with bitcoin exchanges. Earlier this year, Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) stopped processing wire transfers for an exchange called Bitfinex, leaving customers unable to transfer U.S. dollars out of their accounts, except through special arrangement with the exchange’s lawyer. Still, new entrants, from retail investors to high-frequency traders, have piled into bitcoin. U.S.-based crypto-exchange Coinbase said it added 100,000 accounts in the three days around the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, for 13.1 million overall. If the futures market were to exceed the size of the spot market, with current daily trading volume of around $6 billion per day, the underlying price could be more susceptible to manipulation, said Kevin Zhou, co-founder of crypto currency fund Galois Capital. “You’ve seen these problems before in bitcoin futures, where right before the settlement, the price pegs it high or low and then bounces back right after,” he said. RISK OF AN ‘AVALANCHE’ As volumes increase, there are also questions about the robustness of the technology at bitcoin exchanges, Lothian said. “Particularly when you’re talking about a high-frequency approach to this where people are trying to arb multiple exchanges.” Last month, the Gemini bitcoin exchange, which will set the price for Cboe’s futures contract, and GDAX and Kraken, two of the four exchanges in CME’s bitcoin index, had systems issues. “Every single bitcoin exchange receives and is receiving complaints by users due to the unbelievably surging bitcoin price and the result that has on capacity,” Christina Yee, a Kraken representative, recently told Reuters in an email. Kraken is planning to launch a new trade engine “soon” which should increase the exchange’s capacity, Yee said. The volatile nature of bitcoin could also present a risk to clearing houses, said Thomas Peterffy, CEO of Interactive Brokers Group Inc ( IBKR.O ). Clearing houses act as a middlemen between the parties to futures transactions. If there were a wild price swing in bitcoin and a smaller brokerage failed to meet its margin call, the clearing house would have to take over the position, further moving the price of bitcoin, which could cause other brokers to fail, Peterffy said. “If that happens at a time when bitcoin spikes up for whatever crazy reason, there could be an avalanche,” he said. Questions like these have kept some futures market operators on the sidelines, for now. Intercontinental Exchange Inc ( ICE.N ), owner of the New York Stock Exchange and ICE Futures U.S., opted not to join CME and Cboe in the race to be first with a bitcoin future. “We didn’t think it was obvious to rush out a product and be first and settle against an index on a lot of exchanges that are not particularly transparent,” ICE Chief Executive Jeffrey Sprecher said this week at a Goldman Sachs conference. Reporting by John McCrank and Anna Irrera; Editing by Dan Burns and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures-analysis/bitcoin-to-start-futures-trading-stoking-wild-west-worries-idUKKBN1E10J7'|'2017-12-07T08:04:00.000+02:00'
'2c30fcc6c65e43bc8457406b859f899f1f4ffdea'|'Ant Financial''s Yu''e Bao caps daily investment at $3,000'|' 39 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Ant Financial''s Yu''e Bao caps daily investment at $3,000   BEIJING, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Ant Financial’s money market fund will cap the daily amount users can invest at 20,000 yuan ($3,023) from Friday, said Tianhong Asset Management Co Ltd, which manages the fund. Ant Financial is the payment affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The decision to impose a daily cap comes six months after Tianhong set a total investment cap of 250,000 yuan per person for the fund, amid heightening regulation of online lenders. Set up in 2013, Yu‘e Bao is one of the biggest money market funds in the world. ($1 = 6.6152 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Susan Fenton)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/ant-financial-fund-regulation/ant-financials-yue-bao-caps-daily-investment-at-3000-idUSB9N1NY01W'|'2017-12-07T12:39:00.000+02:00'
'23c8b31ccac31bce22bf50ea5e73325984a518b4'|'Eurogroup won''t change policy under Portugal''s Centeno - Dijsselbloem'|'December 7, 2017 / 2:46 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Eurogroup won''t change policy under Portugal''s Centeno - Dijsselbloem Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno’s chairmanship of euro zone finance ministers will not change the policies of the powerful decision-making body, the outgoing chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem told European Parliament on Thursday. Portugal''s Finance Minister Mario Centeno and newly elected President of the Eurogroup is congratulated by outgoing Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Asked if the appointment of Centeno, a socialist, meant euro zone finance ministers would end their policy of austerity, Dijsselbloem said: ”I think it is a non-debate. The strategy of the Eurogroup has never been defined by a one-dimensional approach of austerity. So I think that our strategy won’t fundamentally change. “A large part of the strategy is of course embedded in the Stability and Growth Pact and other agreements between us, part of the strategy is also to sort of the financial sector and get banks back to business,” he said. “So the change of the chair does not mean that all of a sudden policies will change - they have been embedded in agreements between us and there will still be decisions in the Eurogroup by unanimity,” Dijsselbloem said. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-eurogroup-policies/eurogroup-wont-change-policy-under-portugals-centeno-dijsselbloem-idUKKBN1E121E'|'2017-12-07T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'4745797209effb686795b7ea9b39c5ae6920edd6'|'UnitedHealth to buy DaVita''s medical unit for $4.9 billion'|'December 6, 2017 / 12:04 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago UnitedHealth to buy DaVita primary care unit for $4.9 billion Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - The largest U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc will buy DaVita Inc’s primary and urgent care services for $4.9 billion in its second acquisition this year to expand its fast-growing medical group, it said on Wednesday. Health insurers are trying to cut medical costs by playing a more direct role in medical services, arguing they can save money by shifting patients to cheaper, more accessible locations for routine or non life-threatening emergency medical services. On Sunday, No. 3 health insurer Aetna Inc agreed to be bought by CVS Health as part of a drive to expand medical services at CVS pharmacies to include more preventative screenings such as for vision and hearing. Denver-based DaVita operates medical groups in six states that serve 1.7 million patients through about 300 clinics, adding to UnitedHealth’s 250 MedExpress urgent care centers and its 200 surgical centers that are part of recently acquired Surgical Care Affiliates. Shares in DaVita rose 13.6 percent, a more than $193 million gain for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who owns a 20 percent stake in the dialysis and medical group company. Reuters reported last month that DaVita was exploring a sale of its medical unit. DaVita’s kidney dialysis unit is not included in the deal. Leerink analyst Ana Gupte said the purchase is likely to add to UnitedHealth earnings per share by 1 percent to 4 percent in 2018 and 5 percent to 7 percent in 2019, the first full year after the deal closes. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Down Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company UnitedHealthcare is shown in Cypress, California April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo EvercoreISI analyst Michael Newshal said he thought near-term earnings additions would be close to neutral given the price that UnitedHealth was paying was on the high side. UnitedHealth did not provide any details on the financial impact of the purchase. Its shares gained less than 1 percent to $220.48 on Wednesday, lifting its market capitalization to more than $212 billion. UnitedHealth bought Surgical Care Affiliates for about $2.3 billion in March. The DaVita acquisition will add 2,200 physicians, nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants and 15,000 other affiliated providers who serve its patients to UnitedHealth’s Optum unit, which has more than 30,000 physicians who work for or are affiliated with its practices. Optum includes MedExpress urgent care centers, surgical centers from its $2.3 billion March acquisition of Surgical Care Affiliates, pharmacy benefit management and data services as well as a bank. DaVita will continue to operate DaVita kidney care, which owns or helps manage 2,470 outpatient dialysis centers in the United States. DaVita’s medical group had $4.11 billion in sales last year, or 30 percent of the total. It had become a major drag on the company’s financial performance in recent quarters as it struggled with low payments from the government’s Medicare Advantage program. DaVita plans to use proceeds from the sale for stock buybacks and to repay debt. Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-davita-m-a-unitedhealth/unitedhealth-to-buy-davitas-medical-unit-for-4-9-billion-idINKBN1E01HJ'|'2017-12-06T09:04:00.000+02:00'
'44ac20ad4418c1713ead235a77e0b22cbfc52131'|'U.S. jobless claims decline for third straight week'|'December 7, 2017 / 5:12 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago U.S. jobless claims decline for third straight week Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting a rapid tightening of the labour market that bolsters expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week. Emily Harp, Human Resources Specialist for the Colorado Department of Transportation, speaks to a job seeker at the Construction Careers Now! hiring event in Denver, Colorado U.S. August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/Files While another report on Thursday showed layoffs announced by U.S.-based employers rising to a seven-month high in November, the overall trend in job cuts remained low. “Layoffs on the part of corporations are few and far between as good help is hard to find this far along in one of the longest economic expansions in the record books,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 236,000 for the week ended Dec. 2, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the third straight weekly decline in claims. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 240,000 in the latest week. Last week marked the 144th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labour market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labour market was smaller. The labour market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Labor market tightness is seen encouraging the Fed to hike interest rates at the Dec. 12-13 policy meeting. The U.S. central bank has increased borrowing costs twice this year. U.S. financial markets were little moved by the data as investors awaited November’s employment report due to be published on Friday. According to a Reuters survey of economists, nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 200,000 in November after surging 261,000 in October. Job growth in October was boosted by the return to work of thousands of employees, mostly in low-wage industries like hospitality and retail, who had been temporarily dislocated by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The unemployment rate is forecast unchanged in November. It has declined by seven-tenths of a percentage point this year. A Labor Department official said claims-taking procedures continued to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria battered the islands. He said claims processing in Puerto Rico was still not back to normal. The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are not included in the monthly payrolls report. Last week, the four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labour market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, edged down 750 to 241,500. “It’s signalling an extreme reluctance on the part of employers to lay off workers,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York. The claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid fell 52,000 to 1.91 million in the week ended Nov. 25. The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims rose 1,000 to 1.91 million. In a separate report, global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas said U.S.-based employers announced plans to cut payrolls by 35,038 jobs in November. That was the most in seven months and was up 17 percent from October. The trend in layoffs, however, remains low. Employers have announced 386,347 job cuts through November, down 22 percent compared to the same period last year and the lowest since 1997. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-jobless-claims-decline-for-third-straight-week-idUKKBN1E12G1'|'2017-12-07T19:12:00.000+02:00'
'e71c7b3c5dbf8bac9e6c137bfc25ad9a35b06761'|'REFILE-Shareholders in Italy''s Carige take up 66 pct of vital cash call'|'(Reiles to fix typo in 10th paragraph.)* Must raise money by the end of the year* New investors set to buy unsold shares for 120 mln euros-sources* Delay in launching the cash call had rattled sectorBy Valentina ZaMILAN, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Shareholders in Banca Carige took up 66 percent of a 500 million euro ($590 million) cash call demanded by regulators, leaving the Italian bank to rely on accords with a number of investment firms to fill up the gap.The capital raise is expected to remove an immediate threat to the industry but concerns remain over Italian banks, which hold one quarter of Europe’s 843 billion euros in soured debts and are under increasing regulatory pressure to offload them.Carige needs the cash to comply with European Central Bank’s demands it boosts capital and starts shedding bad debts by the end of the year and risked being wound down otherwise.Carige said in a statement it had raised 331 million euros from shareholders and another 46 million euros from bondholders hit by a recent mandatory debt conversion.Carige had reserved a separate, up to 60 million euro, new share offer to such bondholders which include insurers Generali and UnipolSai and bank Intesa Sanpaolo .To reach the 500 million euro minimum requested by the ECB, the bank has said it has in place a number of accords with investors ready to take up unsold shares. Two sources close to the matter on Wednesday said such accords totalled 120 million euros, bringing the total raised on the market to 497 million euros.“Carige represents the first rescue transaction of a bank in Europe executed through a market offer,” Paolo Celesia, head of equity capital markets at Credit Suisse Italy said.Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Barclays are the cash call’s underwriters. Last-minute difficulties in signing the accord with them had forced Carige to delay the launch of the offer, rattling the sector.A group of local businessmen who are the bank’s core shareholders has invested further in the lender to avoid being wiped out. But new shareholders are expected to emerge, including London-based hedge fund Chenavari, which is in talks to buy Carige’s consumer credit unit Creditis and, as part of the process, will take up to 40 million euros in unsold shares.Similarly, Credito Fondario, a debt servicer part of British investment firm Tages Group, which closed on Wednesday the purchase of 1.2 billion euros in bad loans from Carige, is also set to become a shareholder in the bank.After Italy bailed out its fourth-largest bank Monte dei Paschi MI> and liquidated two regional lenders this year, Carige came to the fore as the last remaining large bank still in difficulty following a deep recession.“I think interest from some foreign investors signals confidence in Italy’s improving economy, which is good news,” Roberto Lottici, a fund manager at Banca Ifigest, said.“But as far as the sector is concerned there still are too many uncertainties given its bad loan burden. Investors’ decision will be guided by regulatory moves.”Italian lenders, which trade at a discount to the value of their assets due to fears of fresh loan losses, have come under pressure after the European Central Bank proposed tougher new rules on bad bank debts. Carige priced new shares at just 0.25 times its book value, compared to its peer’s 0.4-0.5 times. ($1 = 0.8478 euros) (Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Toby Chopra) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eurozone-banks-italy-banca-carige/shareholders-in-italys-carige-take-up-66-pct-of-vital-cash-call-idUSL8N1O66AR'|'2017-12-07T06:02:00.000+02:00'
'6f6055c665b942d42c95c8019dbdeb264505e23b'|'Let’s move to Kelso, Roxburghshire: this is a mighty fine town - Money'|'Friday 8 December 2017 16.30 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close What’s going for it? I’m a sucker for a bit of Romanesque architecture. Even the prospect of a half-ruined tower and a crumbled jamb is enough to drag me several score miles off my beaten track. I’m easily distracted. And so I come to Kelso. Like those in its neighbouring border market towns, Kelso’s abbey is a shadow of its 12th-century self, when it was the richest, mightiest monastery in the region. But even the fragments left behind still define the town, though the abbey has competition these days. This is a mighty fine town, a lovely little place squished where the rivers Tweed and Teviot say how d’you do. Every street is an architectural delight. The town hall has grand columns leaping over the cobbles on the Square. And the town has not one but two stately homes in tow. If you think Mellerstain House is fancy-pantsy, have a gawp at vast Floors Castle , possibly the turrety-est stately home in the nation, and definitely not a castle. Those battlements couldn’t withstand the big bad wolf, let alone marauding Northumbrians across the border. The case against Not cheap for hereabouts. Well connected? No trains, but there are several daily buses to Berwick-upon-Tweed (one hour) and Jedburgh and Hawick, plus a few to Edinburgh (two hours). Driving: half an hour to neighbours such as Melrose, Galashiels and Coldstream, 40 mins to the coast and Berwick, and more than an hour (depending on traffic) to central Edinburgh. Schools Primaries: quality indicators for Edenside and Sprouston are “good”; for Broomlands mostly “good”, Education Scotland says. Secondaries: those for Kelso High are “good” or “very good”. Hang out at… There’s just one place you need to know about: the Cobbles . If you can squeeze in. Where to buy The town’s lovely old stone farmhouses or manses attract the highest prices. In town you can’t put a foot wrong for fine stone town houses and terraces, or little cottages tucked down alleys. Some nice views over the river: check out Roxburgh Street heading to Floors Castle. Lovely stone or white render/whitewash. The usual assortment of suburbs and cul-de-sacs. Large detacheds and town houses, £350,000-£600,000. Detacheds and smaller town houses, £175,000-£350,000. Semis, £120,000-£300,000. Terraces and cottages, £100,000-£180,000. Rentals – not much: a one-bed flat, £375pcm; a three-bed house, £450-£500pcm. Bargain of the week A two-bed Victorian terrace, needing a bit of modernisation, yours for £99,995, purplebricks.co.uk . From the streets Sharon Dalziel “Fine views of the river Tweed from Rennie Bridge; good local walks past Junction Pool (one of the best for salmon fishing).” Tony Reed “Kelso belies its size with a showground, rugby, cricket, tennis, bowls and curling venues. Interesting independent shops set along cobbled streets; the Contented Vine for sublime food.” • Do you live in Kelso? Join the debate below. Do you live in Beverley, East Riding, Yorkshire? Do you have a favourite haunt or a pet hate? If so, email lets.move@theguardian.com by Tuesday 12 December. Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/08/lets-move-to-kelso-roxburghshire-property-tom-dyckhoff'|'2017-12-08T23:30:00.000+02:00'
'41e1c2d50e1107bdf8589776b47ff90ddec0a19f'|'UPDATE 1-RBS CEO says chance of U.S. settlement this year diminishing -Bloomberg'|'* RBS case unlikely to be settled this year* CEO had previously said 2017 settlement likely* Resolving case key to RBS’s forecast profit in 2018 (Adds background, share price movement)By Emma Rumney and Lawrence WhiteLONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland’s chances of reaching a settlement this year with the U.S. Department of Justice over its mis-selling of toxic mortgage-backed securities are “diminishing”, its chief executive said in a Bloomberg TV interview.Ross McEwan insisted several times earlier this year that he expected to reach a settlement in 2017, a key step in allowing the bank to return to full-year profitability in 2018. Analysts have estimated the bank could pay up to $12 billion to settle the case.“There are diminishing chances we settle in the year,” McEwan said in the interview.RBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.McEwan has been trying to clean up RBS’s balance sheet and end an array of legal cases so the government can sell the more than 70 percent stake in the bank it obtained via a 46 billion pound ($59.6 billion) bailout during the financial crisis.The case with the U.S. Justice Department is the last major such problem remaining, after RBS in July paid the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency $5.5 billion to settle similar claims.RBS has not made an annual profit since 2007. It has forecast a return to profit in 2018, contingent on its being able to settle the expected multi-billion dollar payment to the DoJ.If that settlement is delayed into 2018, as is now likely, it could jeopardise the bank’s plan to return to profit at a time when Britain’s government is preparing to offload its stake in RBS.RBS shares were up 1.5 percent by 1008 GMT, against a broader 2.8 percent climb in the STOXX European banks index .Reporting by Emma Rumney and Lawrence White; editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rbs-settlement/update-1-rbs-ceo-says-chance-of-u-s-settlement-this-year-diminishing-bloomberg-idINL8N1O8222'|'2017-12-08T07:29:00.000+02:00'
'e63a34533bf779c97dd9d445549e98cb6a9ae38d'|'EU to apply Basel rules taking into account Europe''s ''specificities'''|'December 7, 2017 / 5:00 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago EU to apply Basel rules taking into account Europe''s ''specificities''   BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said new global banking rules agreed on Thursday will be applied in the European Union taking into account “specificities” of the bloc’s banking sector and making full use of the agreed phase-in period until the end of 2026. “We are committed to full application”, the Commission’s vice president Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Brussels commenting the agreement reached earlier on Thursday at the Basel Committee. But he added the EU will “carefully assess the impact” of the new rules and the scope of their application before turning them into binding provisions. Basel rules in Europe in principle would apply to ”basically all banks” and not only to globally systemic lenders, as it could be the case in other regions, Dombrovskis said. The wider application is meant to avoid disruptions to competition but could be calibrated, possibly exempting some banks, if an impact assessment proved that the rules would increase capital requirements. Dombrovskis said the EU “will use the full time of the phase-in period until the end of 2026,” in applying the output floor agreed in Basel to limit banks’ use of their internal models to calculate risk. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Balazs Koranyi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-basel-banks-eu/eu-to-apply-basel-rules-taking-into-account-europes-specificities-idUKKBN1E12EC'|'2017-12-07T19:00:00.000+02:00'
'15cbb8c61e5f77c15868e593dd36f00e8eedd61b'|'IMF report on China does not reflect the ''whole picture'' - China central bank statement'|'December 7, 2017 / 1:58 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago IMF report on China does not reflect the ''whole picture'' - China central bank statement Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s central bank said on Thursday an IMF report on China’s financial system did not reflect the whole picture, according to a statement released on the People’s Bank of China website. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, June 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo China’s financial system is able to fend off risks, the statement said, adding that the IMF report was objective and pertinent. Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-china-finance-pboc/imf-report-on-china-does-not-reflect-the-whole-picture-china-central-bank-statement-idUKKBN1E107F'|'2017-12-07T03:57:00.000+02:00'
'cf11e93dedbf64fb53e7a3c483cf64cfcaa67a6f'|'Bangladesh minister says wants to ''wipe out'' Manila bank for heist role'|'December 10, 2017 / 1:43 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Bangladesh minister says wants to ''wipe out'' Manila bank for heist role Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh’s finance minister said late on Saturday he wanted to “wipe out” a Philippines bank that was used to channel $81 million stolen from the Bangladeshi central bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last year. Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ashikur Rahman/File Photo Abul Maal A. Muhith was responding to questions from reporters about a Reuters story on Friday that said Bangladesh Bank had asked the New York Fed to join a lawsuit it was considering filing against Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) seeking damages. “The Bangladesh Bank has taken a decision (on filing a suit). They will let me know. We haven’t so far taken any steps as the Philippines government was taking care of it (investigating the heist),” Muhith said. “But it seems Rizal bank has been playing delinquent. We want to wipe out Rizal bank from the world.” Muhith did not elaborate. He did not respond to requests seeking comment. Unidentified hackers stole the money using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system. The money was sent to accounts at RCBC and then disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines. Nearly two years later, there is no word on who was responsible and Bangladesh Bank has been able to retrieve only about $15 million, mostly from a Manila junket operator. ( reut.rs/2jk1W74 ) The Philippine central bank fined RCBC a record one billion pesos ($20 million) last year for its failure to prevent the movement of the stolen money through it. RCBC has said it would not pay any compensation to Bangladesh Bank and that Dhaka bank bore responsibility for the theft since it was negligent. RCBC did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on a Sunday about Muhith’s comments. Reporting by Serajul Quadir, Krishna N. Das, Ruma Paul and Karen Lema; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cyber-heist-bangladesh/bangladesh-minister-says-wants-to-wipe-out-manila-bank-for-heist-role-idINKBN1E40J4'|'2017-12-10T15:39:00.000+02:00'
'5abebc31cc1cec65d7f5953ccf30ba0be1b50488'|'LPC-GNC assesses options after failed loan refinancing'|'NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Vitamin and supplement maker General Nutrition Centers’ third failed attempt to refinance an existing US$1.1bn term loan leaves the company with months to avoid a potential technical default if it is unable to refinance before the loan turns current next March with a year until maturity.GNC pushed back over concerns about GNC’s slumping sales as bricks-and-mortar businesses struggle against online giants. The company has hired Goldman Sachs to help evaluate strategic alternatives, after first hiring the bank in 2016.“People were concerned about the company (GNC) and the business,” a loan investor said.All three ratings agencies downgraded GNC after news of the pulled refinancing. S&P cut its rating to CCC+ from B. Fitch lowered the company’s rating to B- from B. Moody’s dropped the company’s rating to Caa1 from B2.If GNC’s term loan is not refinanced before it becomes current in March, accountants could include a qualified opinion in the company’s audit. That would trigger a technical default under GNC’s credit agreement that would require a waiver from lenders.The company could, however, make a fourth attempt to refinance in early 2018 if it delivers positive full-year results, sources said.GNC’s CEO Ken Martindale attributed the decision to cancel the proposed refinancing to not being able to find attractive terms from investors.“Following a thorough process, we determined that the terms offered to GNC under the potential refinancing were not in the company’s best interests at this time,” Martindale said.GNC offered investors pricing of up to 1000bp on a US$300m term loan B-1 due January 31, 2020 and a US$905m term loan B-2 due January 31, 2021 that was launched on November 27. The existing loan is priced at 250bp over Libor.Investors rejected that deal despite a yield of around 12.6%, 2.5 times the average primary yield of around 5% for similarly rated loans, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data.US mutual fund Franklin Templeton agreed to buy all of the B-1 term loan which created tension with other potential investors, investors said.The B-1 term loan had favorable terms including faster amortization and a shorter tenor, which other investors also wanted, while the longer-dated B-2 tranche did not offer enough additional spread to compensate for the risk. Franklin Templeton declined to comment.“No one really wanted to see someone else ahead of them in the structure,” the portfolio manager said.Franklin’s commitment, however, may have been contingent upon the entire deal being syndicated, sources said.In early November, GNC tried to place a US$705m five-year term loan at 700bp over Libor and five-year US$500m in high-yield bonds, but did not generate enough interest among bond buyers with yields of over 10%.GNC’s first attempt in May was also shelved when the company’s request to extend the loan by three years with pricing of 450bp was rejected by investors who called for pricing of 700bp over Libor with an eye on falling sales.GNC’s revenue for the first three quarters dropped 3.8% to US$1.895bn in 2017 from US$1.97bn in 2016.The company said on December 4 that it has US$40.1m in cash and US$246.1m available under its revolving credit facility and confirmed a full-year free cash flow target of US$190m to US$210m which it said will allow it to continue to pursue its turnaround plan and repay its revolver in the fourth quarter.Same store sales during the third quarter were up 1.3% for domestic company-owned stores and down 1.7% for domestic franchise stores.GNC and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. (Editing by Tessa Walsh) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gen-nutr-ctrs-loans/lpc-gnc-assesses-options-after-failed-loan-refinancing-idINL8N1O90DQ'|'2017-12-09T12:52:00.000+02:00'
'31b722da59f6d4355a847fe27be15dd53d1329c1'|'Apple''s Ive returns to helm of design teams'|'December 8, 2017 / 10:39 PM / a few seconds ago Apple''s Ive returns to helm of design teams Stephen Nellis 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Design Officer Jony Ive is returning to day-to-day management of the company’s design teams after handing off managerial duties two years ago to focus on other projects, Apple told Reuters on Friday. FILE PHOTO - Apple CEO Tim Cook (R) plays with an iPhone as Jonathan Ive, Apple''s Chief Design Officer, looks on during a launch event in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam Ive, who had led Apple’s design teams since 1996, was behind many of the company’s most iconic designs, from early iMacs that came in translucent jelly-bean colors to the first iPhone. In 2015, Ive was named chief design officer, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook. He then handed off some administrative duties to Apple design executives Alan Dye and Richard Howarth to focus on broader efforts like Apple’s retail stores and new “spaceship” campus in Cupertino, Apple Park. Dye and Howarth will now report to Ive once again. “With the completion of Apple Park, Apple’s design leaders and teams are again reporting directly to Jony Ive, who remains focused purely on design,” Apple spokeswoman Amy Bessette told Reuters. Bloomberg reported the move earlier. Reporting by Stephen NellisEditing by Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-ive/apples-ive-returns-to-helm-of-design-teams-idUKKBN1E22TP'|'2017-12-09T00:28:00.000+02:00'
'4a13701c83b6a7ef32a65e8c98116ad84fd91e67'|'UPDATE 1-Mexico oil regulator cancels deep water Pemex tie-up auction'|'MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s oil regulator on Thursday canceled a tender for a joint venture with state oil firm Pemex in the deep water Maximino-Nobilis area, as no company expressed interest in the auction.FILE PHOTO - Pemex logo is pictured during the launch of a new franchise and commercial strategy by Pemex, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The National Hydrocarbons Commision (CNH) said the auction to find a partner for Pemex to tap super light crude in the Maximino-Nobilis area, which lies in the Gulf of Mexico near the U.S. border, had been canceled as there had been no interest. The auction had been scheduled to take place on Jan. 31.The joint ventures, known as “farm outs,” are a central pillar of the government’s efforts to lure investment to Mexico since Congress opened up the country’s long-closed oil and gas industry to private investment in 2014.Last month, the CNH said that Pemex’s stake in the potentially lucrative tie-up would be cut to 40 percent from 49 percent.Mexico’s oil regulator has previously said it expects the first commercial barrels from Nobilis-Maximino to come by 2024, with peak output of 174,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and 265 million cubic feet of natural gas per day coming online in 2026.Pemex has sunk two wells in Maximino at a depth of 3,000 meters (9,840 feet), discovering super light crude. In September 2016, Pemex said it had found super light crude in its Nobilis-1 well, also at some 3,000 meters.Reporting by Adriana BarreraEditing by Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-oil/mexico-oil-regulator-cancels-deep-water-pemex-tie-up-auction-idUSKBN1E207E'|'2017-12-08T03:31:00.000+02:00'
'b773d2b57f5f7a6f24b5ed8c6f1e126e94baaacf'|'Adyen executive says currently no plans for 2018 IPO'|'AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Adyen, which handles the payments back-end for many of the largest internet companies, is not actively preparing an initial public offering in 2018, a top executive at the Dutch fintech firm said on Friday.But Adyen’s Chief Operating Officer Roelant Prins did not completely rule out the possibility in a Reuters interview.“We’re exploring various options, but we haven’t initiated - we don’t have banks that are working for us on this,” he said at the company’s headquarters in Amsterdam.“There are no plans for 2018 right now.”Adyen, which handles payments for Facebook ( FB.O ), Spotify, Uber and Netflix ( NFLX.O ), and is considered one of Europe’s most promising fintech companies, was valued at $1.5 billion in a 2015 investment round.But Adyen has been growing rapidly since then and its revenue nearly doubled to $727 million in 2016. In April it forecast similar growth for 2017.“We’re very happy with the progress this year,” Prins said, adding that Adyen will disclose some details of its financial performance in February.He said deals struck in recent years to bypass banks and connect directly to the back-end of credit card companies were paying off. That has been “a game changer for a lot of our merchants, as far as higher approval rates (fewer failed payments) and more efficient processing, so we’ve really met our goals this year,” Prins said.He said that in 2018 the company will increasingly target mid-size customers. He said mid-size companies see big companies “like Uber or Spotify” using Adyen and want to follow suit.Prins cited hotel chains that operate in several countries and need to integrate on-site and online payments as an example.“We’re absolutely looking to open that up as well and make our solution more approachable for that category.”Adyen competes with Vantiv( VNTV.N ), which agreed to buy WorldPay in July, but less so with U.S. startup Stripe, which targets smaller online stores.A source familiar with the matter told Reuters in November the company was laying the groundwork for an 2018 IPO, but had not given any bank a mandate.Prins said on Friday the company is not under pressure from either its investors or its employees to launch an IPO.“We have the ability to stay private for a long time. We’ve been profitable since 2011 and we’re growing quickly,” he said.Reporting by Toby Sterling; additional reporting by Arno Schuetze and Eric Auchard; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-adyen-ipo/adyen-coo-wont-rule-out-2018-ipo-but-no-current-plans-idUSKBN1E21YB'|'2017-12-08T22:53:00.000+02:00'
'19e52db2bca1b3576bca9f568de2795e25d65971'|'Toshiba, Western Digital agree in principle to settle chip dispute - sources'|'December 8, 2017 / 4:57 AM / Updated an hour ago Toshiba, Western Digital agree in principle to settle chip dispute - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp and business partner Western Digital Corp have agreed in principle to settle a dispute over the embattled Japanese conglomerate’s plans to sell its $18 billion (13.4 billion pounds) chip unit, sources with direct knowledge of the talks said. FILE PHOTO: Toshiba''s logo is seen at an industrial area in Kawasaki, Japan, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Toshiba’s board has approved a framework for a settlement and is aiming to reach a final agreement by next week, one of the sources said. The potential for Western Digital - Toshiba’s partner in its main semiconductor plant and jilted suitor in the long and contentious auction of the unit - to block a deal has been seen as the main obstacle to the planned sale to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP. The settlement under discussion calls for Western Digital to drop arbitration claims seeking to stop the sale in exchange for allowing it to invest in a new production line for advanced flash memory chips that is slated to start next year, two sources said. FILE PHOTO: A Western Digital office building under construction is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The sources declined to identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media. A Toshiba spokesman said that while the company was open to a settlement, it would not disclose discussion specifics or details of board of directors meetings. “It is not a fact that we have reached an agreement with Western Digital,” he said. Western Digital declined to comment. Toshiba was forced to put the unit - the world’s no. 2 producer of NAND chips - on the block to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse. The deal with the Bain-led consortium will, however, see it reinvest in the unit and together with Hoya Corp, a maker of parts for chip devices, Japanese firms will hold more than 50 percent of the business - a keen wish of the Japanese government. Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by Yoshiyasu Shida; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-chips-western-digital/toshiba-western-digital-agree-in-principle-to-settle-chip-dispute-sources-idUKKBN1E20FH'|'2017-12-08T06:55:00.000+02:00'
'7195a9f83315d8a1debae3777be3d98c4d017225'|'Lloyds sells London headquarters to Chinese firm in lease-back deal'|'December 7, 2017 / 10:32 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Lloyds sells London headquarters to Chinese firm in lease-back deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group said it has sold its London headquarters to a Chinese property investment company for an undisclosed price. A man enters a Lloyds Bank branch in central London, Britain February 25, 2016. REUTERS/Paul Hackett Under the terms of the sale to Hengli Investments Holding, Lloyds will lease back the 25 Gresham Street building, which it has occupied since its construction, for the next 20 years. The building sits in the heart of the City of London’s financial district. The sharp drop in the value of sterling following Britain’s vote last year to leave the European Union has lured foreign investors into the British real estate market. That coincided with plans outlined by Lloyds in 2016 to cut its non-branch property portfolio by 30 percent as part of a cost-cutting drive. It said at the time that the initiative would result in one-off savings of 100 million pounds and an additional 100 million pounds in run-rate savings by the end of 2018. There will be no disruption to Lloyds’ operations or staff in the building as a result of the sale, a spokeswoman said. “The transaction enables the group to capitalise on the market conditions and realise value in its property portfolio for shareholders,” she continued. According to Savills, a real estate agency that advised Hengli Investments Holding on the deal, the purchase of the 119,742 sq foot (11,124 sq m) building is the firm’s first purchase in the UK. Chen Chang Wei, chairman of Hengli Investments Holding, said the firm was pleased to have reached a deal on the property in less than a month, and that it would continue to consider other investment opportunities locally. Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lloyds-headquarters/lloyds-sells-london-headquarters-to-chinese-firm-in-lease-back-deal-idUKKBN1E118M'|'2017-12-07T12:33:00.000+02:00'
'a2bc8f691e8aa5998844fa2e2e25f1e2dffbf757'|'China''s growth objectives clash with financial stability goal - IMF'|' 11 AM / in 14 minutes China''s growth objectives clash with financial stability goal - IMF Reuters Staff 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China should prioritise financial stability above development goals, as pursuit of regional growth targets and helping firms avoid heavy job losses had led to a surge in debt, particularly at local government level, the International Monetary Fund said. FILE PHOTO - Residential and business buildings are seen under construction in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, China, August 5, 2015. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Noting a lack of coordination and inadequate systemic risk analysis, in a report released on Wednesday, the IMF also recommended the formation of a financial stability sub-committee comprising the central bank and three financial regulatory agencies. Expansionary monetary and fiscal policies aimed at propping up employment and growth had led to a surge in debt among weak corporates and local government entities looking to prevent businesses from failing and their economies from floundering, the IMF said. “The apparent primary goals of preventing large falls in local jobs and reaching regional growth targets have conflicted with other policy objectives such as financial stability,” the IMF said. “Regulators should reinforce the primacy of financial stability over development objectives,” the fund said. China’s credit-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is now very high by global standards and consistent with a high probability of financial distress, the IMF said, citing an estimate from the Bank for International Settlements. While China has been taking steps to address its debt risks, reining in excessive credit growth will require a de-emphasis on high GDP projections in national plans that have spurred local governments to set high growth targets, the fund said. But the near-term prioritisation of social stability seems to depend on credit growth to sustain financing to firms even when they are non-viable, it said. Sources have told Reuters that China is likely to keep this year’s GDP growth target of “around 6.5 percent” in 2018 even as Beijing steps up a campaign, now in its second year, to control systemic financial risks. The IMF said the sub-committee it has recommended should report to Beijing’s new Financial Stability and Development Committee. Chinese banks, while meeting Basel requirements, should gradually increase their capital to create buffers to absorb potential losses that can be expected during China’s economic transition as credit is tightened and implicit guarantees are removed, the IMF said. There are widespread perceptions of implicit guarantees, the fund said, with banks often compensating retail investors for losses and lenders assuming that loss-making state-owned enterprises or financial intermediaries will be bailed out. Banks also need to hold more liquid assets, the fund said. The IMF’s assessment was based on findings by a mission that visited China several times this year, as well as earlier visits in 2015 and 2016. The mission met with senior Chinese leaders and officials from regulatory and government bodies including the central bank. The IMF report is part of the fund’s Financial Sector Assessment Program, established in 1999, that assesses the resilience of a country’s financial sector to shocks and contagion. The first such assessment for China was published in 2011. Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Simon Cameron-moore'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-china-finance/chinas-growth-objectives-clash-with-financial-stability-goal-imf-idUKKBN1E1040'|'2017-12-07T03:11:00.000+02:00'
'91acf893e135cab3ce0b8a598d71b537106d6c98'|'Holidays sink German industrial output in October'|'Reuters TV United States December 7, 2017 / 8:25 AM / a few seconds ago Holidays sink German industrial output in October Joseph Nasr 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German industrial production fell unexpectedly in October, data showed on Thursday, but the cause was probably public holidays that let workers take long weekends, the Economy Ministry and analysts said. Steel rolls are pictured at the plant of German steel company Salzgitter AG in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, Germany March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo Industrial output decreased by 1.4 percent after falling by a revised 0.9 percent in September. The two successive declines came after an increase of 2.6 percent in August, the biggest rise in more than six years. “Looking at the bigger picture, despite today’s drop, developments over the year 2017 so far confirm that the weak spots of the past few years – investment and industrial production – have gradually returned as a strong growth engine,” Carsten Brzeski of ING Diba wrote in a note. “Judging from the data for the first 10 months of the year, industrial production has had its best year since 2011.” Europe’s largest economy is firing on all cylinders. Consumption, state spending and rising exports are driving growth in both industry and services. Supported by low interest rates and a robust labor market, the economy is weathering a political impasse resulting from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failure to form a government since an election in September. She is expected to open talks next week with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) on renewing their coalition, which has governed Germany since 2013. ‘SO WELL’ Surveys indicate that investors want to know how expensive an alliance with the SPD would be. The party is demanding more rights for workers, a broader social security net and significantly more investments in education and infrastructure. Despite the political uncertainty, the economy continues to power ahead. Data released on Wednesday showed that industrial orders had risen unexpectedly in October, suggesting the economy will strengthen in coming months. The October industrial output reading compared with the mid-range forecast in a Reuters poll for a rise of 1.0 percent. A breakdown of the data showed that output fell in all industrial sectors except for energy. “The favorable situation concerning orders and, above all, more optimistic business expectations promise a continuation of good industrial activity,” the economy ministry said of the fall in industrial output. Capital goods, consumer goods, intermediate goods and construction fell the most. “The irony of today’s drop in industrial production is that it probably reflects the strength and not the weakness of the German economy,” Brzeski said. “Apparently it is going so well that people and companies can simply afford to take some time off.”'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-output/holidays-sink-german-industrial-output-in-october-idUKKBN1E10WN'|'2017-12-07T10:21:00.000+02:00'
'8eabe47f18b8c20d4cef81747daa25b288dfebf6'|'Fortnum & Mason ''struggling'' to recruit staff after Brexit vote - Politics - The Guardian'|'Brexit Fortnum & Mason struggling to recruit staff after Brexit vote Boss of luxury store blames fall in pound and rising anti-migrant rhetoric, saying staff shortage is most acute in restaurants Fortnum & Mason Christmas windows at its flagship store in Piccadilly, London. Photograph: Matt Crossick/PR image Brexit Fortnum & Mason struggling to recruit staff after Brexit vote Boss of luxury store blames fall in pound and rising anti-migrant rhetoric, saying staff shortage is most acute in restaurants View more sharing options Friday 1 December 2017 06.00 GMT Last modified on Friday 1 December 2017 09.29 GMT The boss of Fortnum & Mason says the world famous London store is struggling to recruit staff after the Brexit vote with the situation most acute in its restaurants. Fortnum’s chief executive, Ewan Venters, said one in five of the chef posts across its six restaurants were unfilled as the fall in sterling’s value and concerns about anti-migrant attitudes deterred applicants. “Brexit is an alarming issue for me in terms of our ability to hire and retain good people,” said Venters. The collapse in the pound’s value means wages sent home to relatives are worth less but the businessman also sensed a change in mood among workers from the EU. “They are asking: ‘Do I feel welcome?’ That’s more the problem today.” Venters’ comments echo concerns of other business leaders who are worried about a shortage of workers. EU citizens make up a quarter of the 3 million people working in the UK hospitalitysector, according to a report by KPMG . Fortnum & Mason, founded in 1707 and best known for its flagship store in Piccadilly, central London, employs 800 people. About a tenth of the staff are chefs working in its upmarket dining venues which include the restaurant 45 Jermyn St, which occupies the corner of the Piccadilly store. Restaurants fear Brexit will turn boom to bust Read more Venters was speaking as the retailer reported record annual sales and profits. Sales rose 14% to £113m while pre-tax profits increased 23% to £7.6m as the store becomes a destination for epicures seeking out British fare such as organic smoked salmon and salt-aged steaks from Northern Ireland’s Glenarm Estate. Fortnum & Mason is also benefiting from Britons drinking more upmarket brews , with tea sales up 18% buoyed by unusual flavours such as lemon curd, gin & tonic and bloody Mary. Sales of its famous monogrammed wicker hampers were also up 15%. “We are now anticipating a busy and successful Christmas period,” said Venters. “In times of uncertainty, customers turn to brands they trust and we have noticed an upsurge in the sales of traditional products recently.” Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/01/fortnum-mason-struggling-to-recruit-staff-after-brexit-vote'|'2017-12-01T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'84710a078f918a52f1909ea9fb3518065f883f37'|'Toshiba, Western Digital to settle dispute: Bloomberg'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) and Western Digital Corp ( WDC.O ) are close to settling a legal dispute that has threatened to become a major stumbling block in the embattled Japanese conglomerate’s plans to sell its $18 billion semiconductor unit, media reported.Toshiba agreed in September to sell the unit, the world’s second biggest producer of NAND chips, to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP and including South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix ( 000660.KS ).But Western Digital, Toshiba’s chip joint venture partner and jilted suitor in the auction of the unit, argues that no deal can proceed without its consent and is seeking an injunction and a ruling from the International Court of Arbitration.Jiji news agency reported that while Toshiba and Western Digital have agreed to work towards a settlement, the amount of influence that SK Hynix will exert over the chip unit remains a sticking point between Bain and Western Digital.Bloomberg news reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the two sides were close to an agreement and that the U.S. firm would drop its efforts to block the deal in exchange for an extension of their joint venture agreements.Toshiba is always open to a settlement with Western Digital although nothing concrete has been decided, a spokeswoman for the company said. A representative for Western Digital was not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.Toshiba’s shares were up 2 percent in early afternoon trade on Friday.Toshiba, which needs to sell the unit to cover billions of dollars in liabilities at its bankrupt U.S. nuclear reactor maker Westinghouse, gained more negotiating power in its talks with Western Digital after arranging a $5.4 billion new share issue to more than 30 overseas investors.Reporting by Sam Nussey in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-chips-western-digital/toshiba-western-digital-to-settle-dispute-bloomberg-idUSKBN1DV3KD'|'2017-12-01T05:23:00.000+02:00'
'0b3f80a6581bbd458602473e2749f1fedbdccf6d'|'Asian manufacturing expands further, but China remains a risk'|'LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Global manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in years last month and the second-best in two decades in the euro zone, driven by robust demand and bolstering the case for central banks to shift to tighter monetary policy.A raft of mostly strong factory activity surveys released on Friday comes after the European Central Bank announced in October it would cut monthly bond purchases starting in January. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise rates again this month and the Bank of England raised them in November.On Thursday, the Bank of Korea became Asia’s first major central bank to raise interest rates in three years, a potential turning point for the region. Malaysia and the Philippines are among those that may raise rates next year.“Almost across the board, the PMIs were pretty good. The strength of the economies is going to give them (central banks) sufficient confidence to go ahead with their planned policy tightening,” said Andrew Kenningham, chief global economist at Capital Economics.Euro zone factories had their busiest month for over 17 years in November. Forward-looking indicators suggest the momentum will continue to the end of 2017, capping off what is expected to be the best year for euro zone economic growth in a decade [EUR/PMIM].HIS Markit’s final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for the bloc climbed to 60.1 last month from October’s 58.5. That was the second-highest in the survey’s 20-year history. Anything above 50 indicates growth.Meanwhile, British factories enjoyed their best month in more than four years in November, suggesting manufacturing will boost the country’s sluggish economy going into 2018 [GB/PMIM].It added to signs manufacturing could be a bright spot next year, when the overall economy is likely to slow further as Britain approaches its departure from the European Union in March 2019.“The manufacturing sector is a clear bright spot in the UK economy at the moment. But the larger service sector is still flagging and is why we don’t expect a sharp pick-up in growth next year,” said James Smith, an economist at ING.Signs of progress in Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU mean chances of a disorderly Brexit declined in the past month, a Reuters poll found, but growth will lag its peers next year. [ECILT/GB]A U.S. manufacturing survey later on Friday is expected to show faster growth.ASIAN DIVIDE The expansion in factory activity, seen in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, has not been uniform, however. Beijing’s war on pollution was curbing growth in Chinese manufacturing in October.A manufacturer displays camera housing during the China Public Security Expo in Shenzhen, China October 30, 2017. Picture taken Octoberr 30, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip “We’re seeing the strong momentum in the third quarter carrying over in the fourth,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ.“The improving global backdrop ... suggests that central banks in this region will start policy normalization. It’s important to note this is not the start of an outright tightening cycle, this is the removal of very accommodative policies.”Elsewhere in Asia, India saw economic growth rebound in the three months to September, in a sign businesses are recovering from disruptions caused by the introduction of a national sales tax and a ban on high-value banknotes.India’s factory activity quickened in November at the fastest pace since just before the government’s surprise cash clampdown late last year.China, however, remains one of the biggest risks to global growth, analysts say.The world’s second-biggest economy has defied market expectations with economic growth of 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, supported by a construction boom and robust exports.But Beijing’s efforts to reduce air pollution have curtailed factory activity in recent months and the Caixin/Markit Manufacturing PMI dipped to a five-month low of 50.8.An official manufacturing survey on Thursday showed activity unexpectedly picking up. But the Caixin/Markit print tends to focus more on small and mid-sized companies and is seen as a better gauge of private sector activity.For now, the economic data suggests Asia’s electronics producers remain in good shape.South Korea’s factory activity expanded at the strongest pace in 55 months in November. Japanese manufacturing grew at the fastest pace in more than 3 1/2 years. Taiwan’s PMI came at its best in 6 1/2 years.“Even as the smartphone-related boost starts to fade, the outlook for 2018 remains bright amidst the global recovery,” HSBC Greater China economist Julia Wang said.Japanese companies increased spending on factories and equipment in the third quarter by 4.2 percent from the same period last year, suggesting the quarter’s GDP growth could be revised higher.Japan’s jobless rate held steady at 2.8 percent in October and the availability of jobs reached the highest in almost 44 years.Editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy/asian-manufacturing-expands-further-but-china-remains-a-risk-idUSKBN1DV3OC'|'2017-12-01T06:48:00.000+02:00'
'3d1a588de6bed5d7713b6e0323174341a0ed0080'|'China''s debt crackdown hits cash loan providers'|'December 2, 2017 / 5:40 AM / Updated 10 hours ago China''s debt crackdown hits cash loan providers Shu Zhang , Elias Glenn 6 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Executives from Chinese companies specialising in offering consumers small, easy-to-get loans became something of a fixture on Wall Street this year. A man walks past the headquarters of the central bank of the People''s Republic of China in Beijing, January 19, 2010. REUTERS/Loic Hofstedt/Files Led by companies such as Qudian Inc and PPDAI Group Inc, the Chinese micro-lenders raised $1.2 billion with splashy U.S. listings, cashing in on a boom in borrowing by consumers in China with little access to traditional banks. However, the fortunes – and share prices – of the micro-lenders have slumped in the past week as Beijing clamped down on risks in the financial system, zeroing in on the fast-growing and loosely-regulated market for unsecured “cash loans”. On Friday, China’s financial regulators introduced new measures aimed at restricting the industry, which is estimated to be worth 1 trillion yuan ($151.5 billion). China has long been known as a nation of savers, but consumers are rapidly embracing debt from non-bank online platforms. The number borrowers taking out cash loans from the micro-lenders is growing at an unprecedented rate, according to the lending companies and the government. For borrowers, the easy loans can be a risky proposition – especially if they fall behind on payments. The loans are usually in the range of 1,000 yuan; interest is typically about 36 percent annually, and penalty charges and compound interest can quickly add up, according to borrowers. The number of repeat borrowers is rising, which could signal financial stress on borrowers, analysts say. The companies, however, say the repeat lending is just a sign of the attractiveness of their platforms. The People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission did not respond to faxed requests for comment. Angel Xiao, 23, who lives in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen and does not own a credit card, said she borrowed 10,000 yuan last year from two online lenders, PPDAI and Flower Wallet, to attend a jewellery design class. But after she lost her job as a tutor, she found herself unable to pay back the initial loans. With interest piling up, Xiao eventually took out a series of new loans, with an average maturity of 14 days, from more than 30 other lenders. “I didn’t have money to repay loans coming due,” she said in an exchange on WeChat, a messaging service. “So I took out more loans. Every time when I didn’t have money, I used new loans to repay old loans. That’s how I got trapped deeper and deeper.” China Rapid Finance Ltd, an online micro-lender that raised $60 million in an April listing on the New York Stock Exchange, defended its cash loan business. In a statement, it said that its target customers have little or no history with China’s credit bureau, but that they “are prime and near-prime borrowers”, and that it only grants new loans to borrowers who have repaid in full all prior loans granted by the company. It also said the rates it charges are affordable. In its third-quarter earnings report, China Rapid Finance’s repeat borrower rate was 75 percent. BOOMING MARKET Online consumer lending in China, of which cash loans are a significant portion, dwarfs similar activity in the rest of the world combined, accounting for over 85 percent of all such activity globally last year, according to a recent report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.The boom in micro-lending comes as lenders seek to cash in on rising incomes in a country where credit card penetration remains at about one-third of the population, according to data from the central bank, which says about half a billion consumers don’t have a credit score. And the online cash loan sector is projected to reach 2.3 trillion yuan by 2020, according to the research firm iResearch. China Rapid Finance in November reported a 514 percent year-on-year increase in short-term consumer lending in the third quarter to $908 million. PPDAI‘S “handy cash loans”, with maturities of one to six weeks, increased more than 10 fold year-on-year to 1.98 billion yuan in the second quarter, it said. Qudian recorded a 695 percent increase in net income for the first six months this year, it said in its listing prospectus. Qudian and PPDAI declined to comment. In addition to the companies that have already listed on U.S. markets, another Chinese lender, LexinFintech Holdings Ltd, filed for a Nasdaq listing in mid-November hoping to raise $500 million. LexinFintech said in a statement on Friday that it “continues to work toward those objectives as described” in its filing. LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS The explosion in online lending to those without access to traditional banks has raised concerns about the risks of default. Outstanding household debt in China equalled 45.5 percent of gross domestic product at the end of the first quarter, according to the Bank of International Settlements, compared to 27.9 percent five years ago. But that total doesn’t include most online consumer lending, analysts say. “It is entirely fair to say household debt is much higher than is understood,” said Professor Christopher Balding at the Peking University HSBC School of Business in Shenzhen. He estimated that household debt could be over 100 percent of household income in China. Nearly 40 percent of Chinese households lack savings, higher than even the U.S. rate, meaning their cash buffer to pay off debt is limited, said Lu Xiaomeng, a researcher at the Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. The cash loan industry is largely “supply-driven”, said Johnson Zhang, chief financial officer at the Chinese peer-to-peer lender Hexindai Inc. “Whether there is real demand and whether borrowers will be able to pay them back are questionable,” he said, emphasizing that his company only accepted borrowers with credit cards. Reporting by Shu Zhang and Elias Glenn; Additional reporting by the Beijing newsroom and Andrew Galbraith in SHANGHAI; Editing by Philip McClellan and Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-loans/chinas-debt-crackdown-hits-cash-loan-providers-idINKBN1DW05A'|'2017-12-02T07:37:00.000+02:00'
'de7e29d58fff156446155b056096cf247d721080'|'Norway sees future revenues of $16.6 billion from Castberg oilfield'|'OSLO (Reuters) - The potential future revenues to the Norwegian state from the Johan Castberg oilfield is estimated at 138 billion Norwegian crowns ($16.59 billion), Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Soeviknes said in a statement.Statoil on Tuesday presented a $5.9 billion plan to develop the field.($1 = 8.3176 Norwegian crowns)Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Joachim Dagenborg '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-statoil-norway-minister/norway-sees-future-revenues-of-16-6-billion-from-castberg-oilfield-idUSKBN1DZ0P1'|'2017-12-05T15:34:00.000+02:00'
'bc6c5fc53b14329c3149c297dbabcebc80ade91c'|'Bitcoin hits record high of nearly $11,800 after futures lift'|'December 4, 2017 / 1:13 PM / Updated an hour ago Bitcoin dips below $11,000 after setting another record high Jemima Kelly 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin dipped back under $11,000 (8,169.93 pounds)on Monday, coming off a record high just shy of $11,800 it hit on Sunday after a surge from less than $1,000 at the start of the year. A man stands next to the bitcoin sign during Riga Comm 2017, a business technology and innovation fair in Riga, Latvia November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins The cryptocurrency, which trades 24 hours a day and seven days a week, climbed as high as $11,799.99 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange at around 2100 GMT on Sunday. It was not clear what caused the move higher over the weekend other than new investors joining the upstart market, with so-called wallet-providers reporting record numbers of sign-ups over the past week. Analysts said Friday’s announcement by the main U.S. derivatives regulator that it would allow CME Group Inc and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures contracts had turned sentiment positive after a choppy week. “The price rises are triggered by continued media interest driven by the expectation of futures trading on CME,” Charles Hayter, founder of data analysis website Cryptocompare, said. By 1310 GMT on Monday, bitcoin had slipped back to around $10,919, down 2 percent on the day but still up more than 100 percent over the past three weeks. Sunday’s high marked a 1,121 percent increase since the start of the year. Think Markets analyst Naeem Aslam said reports Britain wants to increase regulation of bitcoin and other digital currencies by expanding the reach of European Union anti-money-laundering rules that force traders to disclose their identities and report suspicious activity, had knocked bitcoin off its highs. But others said greater regulatory scrutiny would help. “If anything, regulation will only increase bitcoin’s rate of growth as regulation lends credibility and engenders trust,” Nicholas Gregory, CEO of London-based cryptocurrency firm CommerceBlock, said. Sunday’s record high for bitcoin came as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the launch of the “petro”, which he said would be a cryptocurrency backed by oil reserves, to shore up a collapsed economy. Opposition leaders said the digital currency would need congressional approval and some cast doubt on whether it would ever see the light of day in the midst of turmoil. Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-hits-record-high-of-nearly-11800-after-futures-lift-idUSKBN1DY1JK'|'2017-12-04T15:06:00.000+02:00'
'9d7dbd0613870324129ce67a8fb7e89dc968e131'|'GEMS picks JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Bank of America for $5 billion IPO - sources'|'December 4, 2017 / 10:57 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago GEMS Education picks banks for $5 billion London IPO - sources Dasha Afanasieva 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - GEMS Education’s owners have chosen JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) to lead the private schools group’s planned flotation, sources familiar with the matter said. GEMS, which operates more than 250 schools across 14 countries, could have a market capitalisation of around $4.5-$5 billion (£3.3-£3.7 billion), the sources said, in a London initial public offering (IPO) which is expected to take place in 2018. Backed by Dubai-based Fajr Capital, Bahraini state investment fund Mumtalakat and investment firm Blackstone, GEMs said on Monday it had secured a $1.25 billion loan to refinance existing borrowings and support growth. In the year ending Aug. 31, adjusted consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were $261.6 million, up from $212.8 million in 2016, an auditors’ report for GEMS MENASA in the Cayman Islands showed. Revenue rose to $926.2 million from $789.7 million in 2016. Credit Suisse did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the other banks chosen as joint global coordinators and GEMS declined to comment. Separately on Monday, GEMS said it had invested more than $1 billion in its school network since the 2014 financial year. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; Additional reporting by Stanley Carvalho in Abu Dhabi; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gems-ipo-mandate/gems-picks-jp-morgan-credit-suisse-and-bank-of-america-for-5-billion-ipo-sources-idUKKBN1DY15J'|'2017-12-04T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'29c041593631b0638613e212417827ad74ead76b'|'FTSE rises for second day, led by banks as sterling slides'|'December 7, 2017 / 10:12 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Energy stocks, Brexit drama send FTSE to 10-week low Georgina Prodhan , Helen Reid 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - UK stocks fell to a 10-week low on Thursday, weighed down by energy stocks and consumer staples as sterling edged higher on a glimmer of hope in Brexit talks. People walk through the lobby of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File photo The blue-chip FTSE 100 ended the session down 0.4 percent, with oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell taking the most points off as oil prices hovered near three-week lows. [O/R] BP closed down 1.2 percent and Shell down 1 percent. Sterling rebounded slightly but remained near an eight-day low as many doubted whether British officials would be able to break through a deadlock before a crucial EU summit next week. “We remain in somewhat of a stalemate position,” wrote Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid, adding however that he believed “the prior deadline of achieving a breakthrough this week now seems more flexible”. Talks between Northern Ireland and Britain on the post-Brexit future of the Irish border continued, leaving open the possibility of a deal by the end of the week that would allow Brexit talks to move to the next phase. The pound traded 0.2 percent higher at $1.3425 by 1607 GMT. Aside from Babcock International, which went ex-dividend, consumer staples were among the largest decliners, with Associated British Foods down 2.3 percent and British America Tobacco down 1.4 percent. Pearson was the top blue-chip gainer, up 2.2 percent after JP Morgan raised its target price for the company in its 2018 European media outlook. Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ) jumped 29 percent as Bookmaker GVC Holdings offered to buy it for up to $5.2 billion to create an online and high-street betting giant in the latest consolidation of the gambling market. “Ladbrokes Coral has stuck out like a sore thumb as the next obvious target in an ongoing round of gambling sector consolidation,” said Lee Wild, head of equity strategy at Interactive Investor. GVC was holding back part of the final payout until the results of a UK government review of highly addictive fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT), which investors feared would dent the stocks, was complete. “If FOTB stakes are cut to 2 pounds, the deal will be worth nearer 3.1 billion pounds than 3.9 billion pounds,” said Wild. GVC rose 5 percent, also pulling fellow betting-shop chain William Hill 8.1 percent higher. Small-cap equipment hire group HSS Hire jumped 13.3 percent after it announced additional cost savings. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-rises-for-second-day-led-by-banks-as-sterling-slides-idUKKBN1E116U'|'2017-12-07T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'39d9ba123ceb245ca3c22565aa6b2fcd549c26dc'|'UPDATE 1-China''s growth objectives clash with financial stability goal - IMF'|'* IMF releases report on stability of China’s financial system* IMF says regulators should reinforce primacy of financial stability over growth* China should form financial stability sub-committee - IMF (Adds IMF officials’ comments, China’s central bank’s reaction)By Ryan WooBEIJING, Dec 7 (Reuters) - China should prioritise financial stability above development goals, as pursuit of regional growth targets and helping firms avoid heavy job losses had led to a surge in debt, particularly at local government level, the International Monetary Fund said.Noting a lack of coordination and inadequate systemic risk analysis in a report released on Wednesday, the IMF also recommended the formation of a financial stability sub-committee comprising the central bank and three financial regulatory agencies, and an increase in staff for the banking watchdog.Since the IMF’s last assessment of the Chinese financial sector’s resilience to shocks and contagion in 2011, two concerns remain - credit growth remains high and the expansion of wealth management products, said Ratna Sahay, deputy director of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department.“Risks are large,” Sahay told reporters during an online briefing. “Having said that, the authorities are really aware of risks and they are working proactively to contain these risks.”The IMF report said that while China has been taking steps to address its debt risks, reining in excessive credit growth will require a de-emphasis on high GDP projections in national plans that have spurred local governments to set high growth targets.But the near-term prioritisation of social stability seems to depend on credit growth to sustain financing to firms even when they are non-viable, it said.“The apparent primary goals of preventing large falls in local jobs and reaching regional growth targets have conflicted with other policy objectives such as financial stability,” the report said.“Regulators should reinforce the primacy of financial stability over development objectives,” the fund said.China’s credit-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is very high by global standards and consistent with a high probability of financial distress, the IMF said, citing an estimate from the Bank for International Settlements.NEW PRODUCTS, NEW RISKS The IMF specifically warned that the rapid development of financial products for investors could pose grave risks.“We are also concerned that in a very innovative financial system such as China‘s, new products can emerge very quickly and very rapidly become large and popular, and potentially a systemic risk,” said James Walsh, deputy division chief of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department.“Better coordination among supervisors is therefore essential to make sure that these risks are contained, and that everyone understands what the risks to these products are,” he said.The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) was well-positioned to manage emerging risks, the IMF said, while adding that there was room for improvement.“CBRC should be able to take decisions independently, and its budgetary autonomy should be preserved,” said Alvaro Piris, deputy division chief of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department.“In terms of resources, the CBRC as with the other supervisory agencies under (PBOC) have been working with a headcount that hasn’t changed in 10 years, a period in which the Chinese financial sector has more than doubled in size,” Piris told reporters.The report said Chinese banks, while meeting Basel requirements, should hold more liquid assets and gradually increase their capital to create buffers to absorb potential losses that can be expected during China’s economic transition as credit is tightened and assumed guarantees for investors are removed.The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) reacted swiftly to the report’s release, saying that while the report is objective and pertinent, the assessment “does not the whole picture.”China has relatively strong ability to fend off any financial risk, the central bank said in a statement on its website.Sources have told Reuters that China is likely to keep this year’s GDP growth target of “around 6.5 percent” in 2018 even as Beijing steps up a campaign, now in its second year, to control systemic financial risks. (Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Simon Cameron-moore) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/imf-china-finance/update-1-chinas-growth-objectives-clash-with-financial-stability-goal-imf-idINL3N1O7158'|'2017-12-06T23:36:00.000+02:00'
'fa56f15c27ab90b0b31098cb35f5d413d018bcc1'|'Old Mutual unit picks banks for $3.35 billion flotation - sources'|'December 7, 2017 / 6:02 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Old Mutual unit picks banks for $3.35 billion flotation - sources Dasha Afanasieva , Carolyn Cohn , Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo-South African financial services firm Old Mutual ( OML.L )’s UK wealth unit has chosen Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) to lead its initial public offering (IPO) next year, banking and advisory sources said. FILE PHOTO - The Cape Town headquarters of Anglo-South African financial services company Old Mutual are shown in this picture taken March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings The Old Mutual Wealth flotation is one of several legs in the process of splitting parent Old Mutual into four parts. Before the listing, Old Mutual Wealth plans to sell its single-strategy asset management division, Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI), led by veteran investor Richard Buxton. The IPO, which is taking place alongside a demerger of the unit in June 2018, would value the business at about 2.5 billion pounds ($3.35 billion), assuming the OMGI sale goes ahead, two of the sources told Reuters. Old Mutual Wealth’s pre-tax adjusted operating profit rose by 29 percent in the first half to 134 million pounds. Analysts at KBW and a second source who declined to be named said the IPO would involve 10 percent of the company. Old Mutual, whose businesses including banking, insurance and asset management, has said it is breaking itself up because regulatory change makes the company too complex to run in its current form. In addition to the planned demerger and IPO of Old Mutual Wealth, the break-up involves selling U.S. firm Old Mutual Asset Management ( OMAM.N ), listing Old Mutual’s emerging markets unit and reducing its stake in South Africa’s Nedbank ( NEDJ.J ). The break-up, initiated last year by Chief Executive Bruce Hemphill within months of joining Old Mutual, will land him a maximum 1,000 percent bonus of his 900,000 pound 2016 salary if completed successfully. But, with many moving parts to the process, some analysts see considerable execution risk. Australian bank Macquarie ( MQG.AX ) and private equity firm TA Associates were top contenders to buy Old Mutual Wealth’s OMGI unit, two sources said, which is expected to have a price tag of about 500 million pounds. OMGI CEO Buxton favoured the approach from TA Associates but Macquarie was seen as frontrunner by the wealth unit, they said. Initial bids were due in by the end of September but the process has been slow and Old Mutual Wealth was unlikely to move to exclusive talks this year, one of the sources said. Old Mutual Wealth could also choose to abandon the sale and keep OMGI, two sources said. The U.S. banks mandated for the IPO declined to comment. Old Mutual Wealth, Macquarie, TA Associates and Richard Buxton also declined to comment. On Thursday Old Mutual closed at 197.6 pence, 8.6 percent above the closing price on the day it announced its break-up. Writing by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-old-mutual-wealth-ipo/old-mutual-unit-picks-banks-for-3-35-billion-flotation-sources-idUKKBN1E12MM'|'2017-12-07T20:01:00.000+02:00'
'fa1f49c144490ab6b424d7b18eb8d191914169db'|'From Poles to Filipinos? UK food industry needs post-Brexit workers'|'December 7, 2017 / 3:20 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago From Poles to Filipinos? UK food industry needs post-Brexit workers Nigel Hunt 8 Min Read MILTON KEYNES, England (Reuters) - Britons who voted for Brexit in the hope of slashing immigration seem set for disappointment. In the farming and food industries at least, any exodus of Polish and Romanian workers may simply be followed by arrivals of Ukrainians and Filipinos. Dumidru Voicu poses at Cranswick Convenience Foods in Milton Keynes, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples From dairy farms to abattoirs, employers say not enough Britons have an appetite for milking cows before dawn or disembowelling pig carcasses - jobs often performed by workers from the poorer, eastern member states of the European Union. With unemployment at a four-decade low of 4.3 percent, even Brexit supporters acknowledge the industries will need some migrant workers after Britain leaves the EU in 2019, ending the automatic right of the bloc’s citizens to work in the country. Employers praise eastern European staff for their skills and work ethic. “They are a massively valuable part of our workforce and a massively valuable part of the food industry overall,” said Adam Couch, chief executive of Cranswick plc, a meat processing group founded by pig farmers. Food and drink is the largest UK manufacturing sector, with a turnover of 110 billion pounds ($147 billion) in 2015, government figures show. Much of it depends heavily on staff from elsewhere in the EU, mainly the post-communist east. For example, the British Meat Processors Association says 63 percent of workers in the sector come from other EU countries and in some plants it can be as high as 80 percent. The proportion has risen partly due to increased demand for more labor intensive products such as boneless meat. Association members have found it impossible to recruit the additional employees needed from Britain, the BMPA says. Pro-Brexit campaigners say Britain needs to reduce its reliance on EU workers. “Our sights should be firmly set on raising the skill level of our own domestic workers, employing domestic whenever we possibly can and automating,” said Owen Paterson, a member of parliament for the ruling Conservatives. But Paterson, who as a former Environment Secretary was responsible for UK agricultural policy from 2012-14, added: “Where there is a clear shortage and no technological solution, by all means bring in labor but the good news is we wouldn’t be limited to the EU. We will have the whole world to choose from.” MONEY FOR A MONTH On the meat production line, Romanian Dumidru Voicu explained the attractions of working at Cranswick’s plant in Milton Keynes, a town northwest of London. “I just want to do something with my life, save some money and make my own business. The money for a week here is the money for a month in Romania,” said Voicu, who arrived in the country about the time that Britons voted to leave the EU in June last year. An estimated 27,000 permanent staff from elsewhere in the EU worked in British agriculture last year, House of Commons staff noted in a briefing paper for members of parliament. This figure is swollen at times by around 75,000 seasonal workers. A further 116,000 EU citizens worked in food manufacturing. The Food and Drink Federation predicts the sector, which employs about 400,000 people, needs to recruit another 140,000 by 2024. The government, which wants to reduce immigration sharply, has yet to announce its post-Brexit policy but farm minister George Eustice has recognized employers’ concerns. “Leaving the EU and establishing controlled migration does not mean closing off all immigration,” he told parliament in earlier this year. However, a government document leaked in September showed that restrictions for all but the highest-skilled EU workers were under consideration. Such a possibility alarms farm employers. “Without EU labor there will be no British pig industry as we know it,” said Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association. Dumidru Voicu nets meat at Cranswick Convenience Foods in Milton Keynes, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples British farmers have relied on foreign labor for a long time, at least around harvest time. A Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme was introduced shortly after World War Two. The government ended it in 2013 before Romanians and Bulgarians won the automatic right to work in Britain, arguing that there were now enough EU workers to fill farm vacancies. With EU citizens to lose that right on Brexit, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) wants the scheme - or something similar - reinstated. This may mean going back to the time when people from beyond eastern Europe filled farm jobs. Michael Oakes, chairman of the dairy board at the NFU, says older colleagues remember when people from countries such as the Philippines worked on British farms. “There are other countries in the world that would help to solve the problem but at the moment because they are not within the EU they are not necessarily able to come in and work.” Filipinos already work on New Zealand farms but such an idea could prove politically difficult in Britain as the pro-Brexit side fought the referendum on promises to curb immigration. Slideshow (3 Images) Many of the 17 million Britons who voted to leave are likely to be unhappy if they find eastern Europeans simply replaced by non-EU workers such as Filipinos or Ukrainians. “Perhaps we need to broaden out the opportunities but a lot of people voted for Brexit because of immigration reasons, so it is a tricky one for the government,” said Oakes. MAKING SACRIFICES Any new seasonal scheme could still recruit in the EU, but might be forced to widen its scope to get the required numbers. Net migration to the UK fell to 230,000 in the year to June, far from the government’s ambition of arrivals “in the tens of thousands”. Still, EU citizens accounted for three quarters of the 106,000 drop, the Office for National Statistics reported. The figures present a mixed picture, with a net 20,000 Poles leaving the country in 2016 but 50,000 Romanians arriving. But some eastern Europeans say they feel less welcome since the referendum and resent the negative attitude of some Britons. “I was quite upset. Why do you have a problem with me if I am coming to take a job you don’t want and I am paying tax?” said Zoltan Peter, who came to England in 2009 to work on a dairy farm in western England, initially leaving his wife and baby daughter at home in Romania. Peter now works as a regional manager for LKL, a firm which recruits workers to the dairy industry, but says the early years were not easy. “I didn’t catch my daughter starting to talk, but you sometimes you make sacrifices and eastern European people are making sacrifices,” he told Reuters. A drop in sterling since the referendum has also made Britain less attractive for farm workers who earn at least 7.20 pounds an hour. That was worth 41 Polish zlotys before the vote but now it buys only 34. Part of the answer may lie in a drive to recruit and train more British workers, despite Peter’s doubts. Oakes said he needed people prepared to work long, unsocial hours often in cold, wet conditions. Milking on his farm starts at 4.30 am and the day does not end until 8 pm. “It is an early start or a late finish, and occasionally on bad days you might have to do both,” he said. Additional reporting by Ana Ionova; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Stamp'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-farmworkers/from-poles-to-filipinos-uk-food-industry-needs-post-brexit-workers-idUKKBN1E1245'|'2017-12-07T17:16:00.000+02:00'
'9a5eaf090ebdec4ef94102a919223a89233bb68b'|'UPDATE 1-Ant Financial''s Yu''e Bao caps daily investment at $3,000'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - Ant Financial’s money market fund will cap the daily amount users can invest at 20,000 yuan ($3,000) from Friday, said Tianhong Asset Management Co Ltd, which manages the fund.FILE PHOTO - A logo of Ant Financial is displayed at the Ant Financial event in Hong Kong, China November 1, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/ File Photo The decision to impose a daily cap comes six months after Tianhong set a total investment cap of 250,000 yuan per person for the fund, amid heightening regulation of online lenders.Ant Financial is the payment affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.In a statement on Thursday, Tianhong said it made the changes “to safeguard the interests of investors, better service public investors and adhere to our position as a small cash management tool.”Chinese finance regulators have stepped up restrictions this year in an effort rein in rapid growth in the country’s online finance sector.Earlier this month, it circulated new rules barring online micro-lenders from operating without proper licensing.Online lending and wealth management tools have flourished in China, where mobile payments are popular and regulation has historically been relaxed.Set up in 2013, Yu‘e Bao is now one of the biggest money market funds in the world, and is integrated with Ant Financial’s payment app Alipay.The fund is targeted at individual investors and earlier this year Ant Financial said the average consumer invested roughly 3,800 yuan in the fund.Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Susan Fenton and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ant-financial-fund-regulation/ant-financials-yue-bao-caps-daily-investment-at-3000-idUSKBN1E11FQ'|'2017-12-07T13:07:00.000+02:00'
'ea04262667ec665db30f8b0632f9a78aab34e9ee'|'Air New Zealand cancels flights after "events" involving Rolls-Royce engines'|'December 7, 2017 / 2:20 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Air New Zealand cancels flights after "events" involving Rolls-Royce engines Jamie Freed 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Air New Zealand Ltd said on Thursday “two recent events” involving Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC Trent 1000 engines had prompted it to cancel and delay some international flights over the coming weeks, making it the latest airline to experience problems. FILE PHOTO - The logo for Air New Zealand is displayed at their office located at Sydney International Airport, Australia, June 20, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Engines on its Boeing Co 787-9 jets would now require early maintenance, it said. Rolls-Royce told investors in August that 400 to 500 Trent 1000 engines were affected by issues with components wearing out earlier than expected, according to a conference call transcript. Air New Zealand did not disclose the nature of the two events, but the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission said it was investigating two events involving “engine abnormalities” on Air New Zealand aircraft this week. The Aviation Herald reported on Tuesday that an Auckland-Tokyo flight had returned to its base after take-off due to an engine issue, while plane tracking website FlightRadar24 said a flight to Buenos Aires had returned to Auckland on Wednesday. Japan’s ANA Holdings Inc and Britain’s Virgin Atlantic have also reported issues with the engines over the last 18 months. Air New Zealand said Rolls-Royce did not have spare engines available while the maintenance work was being undertaken, meaning it would be focused on finding replacement aircraft capacity. Rolls-Royce said it was working with Air New Zealand to minimise disruption and restore full flight operations as soon as possible. “It’s not uncommon for long-term engine programmes to experience technical issues during their life and we manage them through proactive maintenance,” a Rolls-Royce spokeswoman said. Air New Zealand said it did not anticipate any change to current earnings guidance at this stage. The airline’s shares were trading 1.6 percent higher on Thursday, compared with a 0.2 percent rise for the broader New Zealand market. Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Stephen Coates and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-new-zealand-rolls-royce-hldg/air-new-zealand-cancels-flights-after-events-involving-rolls-royce-engines-idUKKBN1E108N'|'2017-12-07T04:19:00.000+02:00'
'8d2b4c7cf9166fcd1b2bb92fd3a958900fa116d2'|'Driverless car crashes and data ft: law experts predict the court cases of the future - Legal horizons'|'The rise of technologies such as driverless cars, the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities will result in a proliferation of legal cases to establish who is responsible for automated, intelligent devices, while hackers and fraudsters take advantage of such innovations to find new ways to pry money out of people and companies. Meanwhile, in a bid to keep pace, regulators are writing new laws that require interpretation, while the courts re-imagine existing laws for the connected age.Here, experts in the law and new technology predict the court cases of tomorrow, from class-action data-breach suits to liability for failures across smart homes, the IoT and self-driving cars. Technology is progressing at what seems like an ever-increasing rate. So, is the law as it stands able to provide clarity in this brave – and complicated – new world?Facebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration: Bratislav Milenkovic A car crash waiting to happenDriverless cars are hurtling into the present, promising safer roads without inattentive humans behind the wheel. But there’s still work to do: on the same day that Google’s Waymo announced its driverless cars had been approved for public testing without a human behind the wheel , a Nayva driverless shuttle in Las Vegas took no evasive action to prevent a lorry from reversing into it .In the UK, driverless vehicles are already being tested in Milton Keynes, Greenwich and elsewhere, with varying levels of automation. While it’s likely to be many years until fully driverless cars take over, UK transport secretary Chris Grayling believes completely self-driving cars will be on British roads by 2021. Their arrival could be a boon for road safety around the world. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 94% of crashes in the US are due to human error . Worldwide, says the World Health Organization, 1.25 million people die each year as a result of traffic accidents .Despite this, one of the most common debates about driverless cars centres on what happens when driverless cars are involved in an accident: how do we decide who is at fault? It may not be as difficult as it sounds, says Joseph Raczynski, legal technologist and applications integrator with Thomson Reuters .“Driverless cars with hundreds of sensors will capture everything that occurred with massive volumes of data, audio and video, which will tell a pretty exact story of the incident,” he says. “This brings about the need for lawyers to be able to tap into this data, contract with experts who can extract the data, and understand the full picture.” This means they’ll need to understand how code works, in order to understand what technical experts are telling them.Then there’s the so-called “ trolley problem ”, exploring how a car would “decide” whom to hit. “What if the car’s algorithm has to make a decision between crashing to one side or another of a single lane road, ‘choosing’ to hit an older person rather than a child on the sidewalk?” says Raczynski. “Certainly these are cases that we will see argued with the mass adoption of these new transports.”The degree of automation in a car will affect such cases. Automotive standards body SAE International has six levels of driving automation , ranging from level 0 (automated warnings), to level 3 (drivers can take their eyes off the road but human intervention may be required), and level 5 (steering wheels not necessary).Mid-level systems that let drivers take their hands off the wheel at certain times could prove more contentious than fully automated level 5 cars. “The interesting liability arises if the vehicle has said: ‘Switch back to manual mode’, and the driver doesn’t pick that up quickly enough. Who’s responsible in that scenario,” asks Emma Wright, commercial technology partner, Kemp Little and contributor to Thomson Reuters Practical Law . “It’s going to be difficult to prove what failed and who was responsible.”That’s further complicated by external influences, from software bugs and cyber-attacks, to obscured street signs – who is at fault, says Raczynski, if a self-driving car can’t “read” a stop sign because of graffiti? Facebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration: Bratislav Milenkovic When technology talksConnected devices have already started to arrive in our homes – from thermostats to the voice assistants – as well as our cities, with Google designing an entire “smart” district in Toronto . But while half of Britons own some sort of connected home device most of those are TVs or entertainment-related, with smart appliances and lighting less popular.That does not mean that the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution has stopped. Instead, expect gradual evolution, with smart features popping up in devices as and when they’re replaced. The global IoT market is expected to reach $724bn (£550bn) by 2023 , with more than 20bn connected devices globally by 2020 , according to Gartner. Consumers are already protected if a smart appliance goes wrong, says Wright. “What is the difference between a connected thermostat or tumble dryers causing fires?” she asks. That said, the complex network of companies designing and supporting IoT devices could make liability difficult to ascertain, says Kate Chandler, senior counsel in disputes and investigations at Taylor Wessing, noting that software developers, manufacturers, services providers and even consumers themselves could be found at fault. “The consumer might contribute to the damage if they fail to follow the instructions for use and warnings properly, or did not maintain the product adequately by installing software updates.”The strange case of the dead snail that helped define UK law, and other tales Read more Manufacturers might turn to the “ state of the art ” defence, arguing that their product was as good as it could be at release – though, if a bug could be patched and wasn’t, that may not hold water.The largest source of lawsuits is likely to be security, says Joseph Raczynski, legal technologist and applications integrator with Thomson Reuters, pointing to a string of hacks against security cameras and baby monitors. “All of this happened because most of these IoT devices lacked proper security protocols to protect the device and the home network it sits on,” he says. “This area is undoubtedly the most prime area for suits in the next few years.”The legal liability issues with IoT become more complex as devices start communicating with one another. In a smart home, a connected thermostat might turn on a plug that powers a floor heater, or an alarm clock triggering a coffee maker – all without human interaction. If one sends flawed instructions or spreads a virus, determining who is at fault will involve unpicking a network of systems, services and software, says Angus Finnegan, head of communications in Information Technology at Taylor Wessing. “Responsibility for such damage or interference will need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis to determine whether any of the suppliers involved were at fault – through negligence or otherwise.”Even if users don’t connect their own homes, they’ll still come face-to-face with IoT in cities, offices and even their residences, as landlords future-proof buildings and look to save on costs with smart tech, says Clare Harman Clark, professional support lawyer at Taylor Wessing. “Immediate legal questions arise concerning rights to install technology, as enshrined in existing lease arrangements,” she says, adding that data protection and privacy must be considered in all smart-city implementations. “IoT allows for the collection of considerable data by landlords – by accident or design.”Barry Jennings, legal director in Bird & Bird’s Tech & Comms sector group, adds that privacy concerns and the potential for tracking and surveillance increase with the addition of automation. “Technologies are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate decision-making and reducing or removing human control,” he says. In other words, much of our lives will be overseen and affected by machines that don’t ask us for permission first. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration: Bratislav Milenkovic Phish and chipsFraud isn’t new, but technology is helping it to spread from localised incidents to worldwide phishing and targeted scams. The latest reports from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show British adults were hit by 3.3m fraud attacks in the year to June 2017 , with 57% of those computer-related – suggesting fraud is shifting online.The figures make fraud the most common criminal offence in the UK, the ONS said, with 75% of incidents relating to bank accounts and credit cards, followed by online shopping or fake computer service calls, at 22%. And it’s costing the UK more than £1bn annually , according to KPMG – up 55% in 2016 from the year before.Morag Rea, head of business crime and investigations for Thomson Reuters Practical Law, says that the growth of social media as a selling platform is putting consumers at risk of intellectual property crime and product safety issues, while increasingly connected devices leave users open to data theft.One challenge continues to be accessing the necessary data to track fraud rings. “It is recognised that law enforcement agencies, banks, financial institutions, internet service providers and telecom operators face obstacles to addressing cyberfraud because of data privacy laws, information-sharing restrictions, multi-jurisdiction issues and a lack of resources,” Rea says. “Agreement must be reached to allow access to the right data from private and public partners, within agreed parameters that are mutually respected.”For example, Rea notes that financial regulators are already cracking down on fraudulent transactions: the introduction of the Market Abuse Regulation has resulted in 3,730 suspicious transaction reports being filed to the Financial Conduct Authority in the first nine months of this year. Further tightening of the rules is set to follow with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive update (MiFID II). “When MiFID II comes into force on 3 January, suspected market manipulation will become even easier to detect as the FCA will be able to scrutinise more and more data,” Rea says.With data now the ‘oil’ of the digital economy, does the law need to catch up? Read more However, she adds that this is only the first step for one particular type of fraud: “Although uncovering it may become simpler, the opportunities presented for committing market abuse through cyber-attacks, fake news and “spoofing” are also multiplying. Implementing the systems and controls to keep up with what is required to prevent attack is a huge task.”Indeed, the rise of technology – in particular social media and messaging – makes it easier for fraudsters to find avenues of attack and gather enough information to seem legitimate to their victims. “It’s been going on for hundreds of years, there are just easier ways to do it now – more ways in, and more ways to be credible,” says Paul Glass, partner in disputes and investigations at Taylor Wessing.Just as email led to phishing, every new technology opens the door to a new fraud. “There’s all sorts of ‘fun’ things around cryptocurrencies,” says Glass. “What if someone manages to access my digital wallet and steals my 100 bitcoins – at current prices, that’s close to £100,000. What have they actually stolen? The law is rather behind on this … that will be tested in the next five to 10 years.”Another ripe target is smart contracts based on the blockchain, which are decentralised, automated systems for managing agreements. It may sound niche, but the smart contracts and blockchain market will be worth more than $2bn by 2021 , according to industry reports. For example, Glass says, a delivery could be managed by smart contract via GPS; once the package is at the desired address, the payment is automatically triggered. “What if someone accesses the code and manages to send the payment somewhere else, or spoofs the GPS signal, so it looks like goods have arrived when they have not. Who’s liable in that situation? It’s quite difficult. “Because the technology is so new, we can guess, but we don’t know what the answers are yet.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration: Bratislav Milenkovic The corporate cybercrime crunchQuantifying the effects of cybercrime is difficult, but the figures can be staggering. Government reports suggest as many as 46% of UK companies were hit by a cyber-attack last year , with industry research suggesting hacks cost UK businesses £29bn in the same period.There’s always a new trend among hackers: ransomware attacks were up 250% in the first few months of the year , according to Kaspersky Labs. As hackers develop new techniques to target data, companies will also have to be proactive about security, automating their hunt for infiltrators and their response using artificial intelligence and machine-learning tools.Just ask NHS bosses. Several hospital trusts were knocked offline this year following the WannaCry ransomware attack . Hardly a day goes by without a high-profile company admitting a data breach.This is a problem for businesses, damaging both their reputations and their bottom lines. “A failure to take reasonable security precautions when storing customer data is likely to amount to negligence and potentially an award of damages,” says Tim Gunn, editor for Thomson Reuters Practical Law. “Actions for misuse of private information, breach of confidence and under financial services legislation by investors are also possible in appropriate cases.”At the moment, while there is an exception for certain sectors and a recommendation from the regulator to report in the case of serious breaches, there is no general mandatory duty in the UK to notify in case of a data breach. But changes coming in via the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Network and Information Security Directive in May mean companies will be required to notify authorities and potentially customers of a breach, with different rules depending on sector. “Significant litigation risk arises out of such incidents and this is likely to increase once the EU’s mandatory reporting regime comes into force next year,” says Gunn. “Certain GDPR breaches contemplate fines of up to €20m or 4% of annual worldwide turnover – whichever is higher.”Mandatory reporting means we’ll be hearing about more and more hacks and breaches – and that means more legal action. “These mandatory notification requirements will increase awareness among large pools of potential litigants,” says Gunn. “Businesses that are not cyber-ready should beware.”That could lead to class-action suits over data loss. The first such case hit Morrisons after staff took the grocery retailer to court after an apparently disgruntled employee leaked their bank records and criminal background checks, among other data. “That’s the first significant class-action for that type of claim in this country,” says Glass.Up to 90% of data breaches are thought not to have been made public, so GDPR’s rules mean there will be more people finding out about successful hacks – and more people who can sue. “It’s a death by a thousand cuts,” Glass says. “One person’s claim of £2,000 doesn’t mean very much, but 100,000 people or a million people, that’s suddenly potentially company threatening.”In the future, we can expect major firms to go out of business after a data breach. Because of this, companies will be more careful about who they send data to or what customer data they share with partners, so businesses must expect to be open about their security protections. “They’ll be going in and doing proper audits, some already do this, but it will become a bigger issue,” Glass says. “I think there’ll be a lot more of that happening – at least, I hope so.”'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/legal-horizons/2017/dec/05/driverless-car-crashes-and-data-theft-law-experts-predict-the-court-cases-of-the-future'|'2017-12-06T00:21:00.000+02:00'
'91e586c91edc0db5693c276e77abe22105e33d4b'|'METALS-Shanghai copper set for soft finish to the week'|'SYDNEY, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper futures were on track to end the week in negative territory after opening softer on Friday, ignoring signs of supply-side support.News that China’s second largest producer, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group was idling up to 30 percent its smelting capacity to meet winter output restrictions, did little to counter a bout of end-of-week profit taking.FUNDAMENTALS * SHFE COPPER: The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was down 0.04 percent to 51,460 yuan ($7,776.59)a tonne at 0111 GMT. At the level, the contract is facing a 2.7 percent loss for the week.* LME: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.2 percent to $6,552.50 a tonne and set for a weekly loss of more than 4 percent.* NICKEL: ShFE nickel led gainers, rising more than 1 percent at the open. LME nickel, retreated 0.8 percent after posting a hefty 2.2 percent rise overnight.* VALE NICKEL CUT: Brazilian miner Vale SA dialed back its nickel output forecasts for the next five years on Wednesday, although the world’s top producer of the metal praised its longer term prospects on likely soaring demand for electric cars.* DOLLAR UP: The dollar inched higher on Friday, on track for a weekly gain against a basket of currencies, as the passage of a bill to temporarily extend U.S. government funding raised investors’ optimism that a tax reform bill would also pass.* FREEPORT COPPER EXIT: A proposed three-way deal between the Indonesian government, Rio Tinto and Freeport-McMoRan to clean up the ownership of the giant Grasberg copper-gold mine looks like one of those rare situations where everybody wins. Except that it isn‘t.* For the top stories in metals and other news, click orMARKETS NEWS * Asian shares rallied for a second session on Friday as investors awaited major economic data from China and the United States while marvelling at the meteoric ascent of the market’s new crypto-star, bitcoin.DATA AHEAD (GMT) * China Trade data Nov 0700 Germany Trade data Oct 0745 France Industrial output Oct 1330 U.S. Nonfarm payrolls Nov 1330 U.S. Unemployment rate Nov 1500 U.S. Univ of Michigan sentiment index Dec 1500 U.S. Wholesale sales Oct *No fixed timingPRICES Three month LME copperMost active ShFE copperThree month LME aluminiumMost active ShFE aluminiumThree month LME zincMost active ShFE zincThree month LME leadMost active ShFE leadThree month LME nickelMost active ShFE nickelThree month LME tinMost active ShFE tinARBS ($1 = 6.6173 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by James Regan; editing by Richard Pullin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-shanghai-copper-set-for-soft-finish-to-the-week-idUSL3N1O8186'|'2017-12-08T03:48:00.000+02:00'
'a02fcbc2fe5102ce6700385b4087db8fda0310bf'|'Exclusive: Wells Fargo sanctions are on ice under Trump official - sources'|'December 7, 2017 / 10:12 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Exclusive: Wells Fargo sanctions are on ice under Trump official - sources Patrick Rucker , Pete Schroeder 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new acting head of the U.S. consumer finance watchdog is reviewing whether Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) should pay tens of millions of dollars over alleged mortgage lending abuse, according to three sources familiar with the dispute. A Wells Fargo logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The San Francisco-based bank said in October that it would refund homebuyers who were wrongly charged fees to secure low mortgage rates - a black mark against a lender which has already been roiled by scandal over its treatment of customers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had been investigating the mortgage issue since early this year, said one current and two former officials. The agency accepted an internal review from Wells Fargo and set settlement terms in early November,   were not authorized to speak about internal discussions. But that matter and roughly a dozen others are in question now that Mick Mulvaney, the agency chief tapped by President Donald Trump, has said he is reviewing the CFPB’s prior work. Richard Cordray, the former CFPB director who initiated the Wells Fargo action, approved the terms of a possible settlement before stepping down, said the sources. That proposal envisions a Wells Fargo payout of tens of millions of dollars but likely short of the record, $100 million payout the bank made to the CFPB last year over a phoney accounts scandal, sources said. More than 100,000 borrowers paid the fee to lock in a fixed-rate loan between September 2013 and February 2017, the bank has said, adding it believes a “substantial number” of those charges were appropriate. A Wells Fargo spokesman on Thursday declined to comment on the CFPB actions but said the bank was committed to returning any fees that were wrongly levied. “Over the next few months we will be contacting other customers who paid those fees and will provide refunds,” said spokesman Tom Goyda. Mulvaney has pledged to examine enforcement work that Cordray had left unfinished, which includes the potential Wells Fargo sanctions. In an interview with the Washington Times newspaper last week, Mulvaney said he is reviewing 14 open enforcement matters that Cordray left on his desk. A CFPB official said that review should not taint any eventual settlements. “Acting Director Mulvaney made it clear to staff that any pause should not and will not impact any ongoing negotiations,” said John Czwartacki, an adviser to Mulvaney. Mulvaney has moved swiftly to change course at the CFPB, which was created during President Barack Obama’s administration and has forced financial services companies to pay out $12 billion in fines and consumer relief. No new staff will be hired and no new rules will be written for industry until a review of the agency is completed, Mulvaney has said. Before he took charge of the CFPB, Mulvaney had been one of its vocal critics and called the bureau a “joke.” Mulvaney is now in a legal fight with Leandra English, another senior CFPB official, over who should lead the agency until a permanent chief can be appointed. English has vowed to defend the bureau’s existing consumer protections while Mulvaney has pledged to have the agency step out of the way of business. A federal court has so far endorsed Mulvaney’s position at the top of the bureau, but English is continuing a legal fight. One of the CFPB’s major achievements was the $100 million fine it levied on Wells Fargo last year after it was revealed that staff were opening bank accounts without customer consent. In September, Republican staff for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee asked whether that settlement was too paltry. In a report titled “Did the CFPB let Wells Fargo ‘Beat the Rap’?” Republican staff wrote that the CFPB might have had room to seek a penalty of $10 billion or more against Wells Fargo. The committee’s policy director, Brian Johnson, joined Mulvaney last week as a senior adviser to the CFPB. Reporting by Patrick Rucker and Pete Schroeder; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-wells-fargo-exclusive/exclusive-wells-fargo-sanctions-are-on-ice-under-trump-official-sources-idINKBN1E133P'|'2017-12-07T19:12:00.000+02:00'
'8fd951bd95d67cdfb2ae7b2db4f09247d3c04037'|'EU eyes quick Brexit transition deal, trade pact to take time'|'December 8, 2017 / 6:24 PM / Updated 2 hours ago EU eyes quick Brexit transition deal, trade pact to take time Alastair Macdonald 5 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Businesses fretting about Brexit should get reassurance early in the new year that little will change for a couple of years after Britain leaves the European Union in less then 16 months, EU officials said on Friday. The British flag flies next to European flags at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman The full-blown free trade agreement that London wants will take considerably longer, however. Negotiations will start only later in 2018 and lead at best to a “political declaration” of intent before Brexit. Full negotiation on an actual trade treaty would only begin after March 2019, though Brussels hopes one can be in place by early 2021, when a transition period would end. Following an interim accord on divorce terms struck by Prime Minister Theresa May in Brussels, EU leaders should next Friday agree to start negotiating a transition period of around two years, if they stick to a draft proposal seen by Reuters. “We could easily engage on those issues very early in the new year,” a senior EU official said, noting that the two sides had already voiced quite similar views on the transition. The draft negotiating guidelines echo an agreement among the 27 other EU national leaders in April that Britain would remain bound by essentially all EU rules in the transition but without a say in making them. That will give businesses more time to adjust, but still leave it unclear what will happen in 2021. “Removing uncertainty around transition arrangements would serve as a tremendous relief to businesses on both sides of the continent given supply chains are highly integrated,” said Karen Ward, JP Morgan Asset Management’s chief market strategist. However, some in the EU are wary of giving Britain too easy an assurance before it has fully met their demands for a treaty governing its withdrawal. “We will only accept a transitional period after Brexit if we are satisfied with the outcome of the second phase of negotiations,” said Manfred Weber, the German leader of the European Parliament’s big, center-right bloc. Looking further ahead, EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier repeated his view on Friday that the future relationship would resemble last year’s EU free trade agreement with Canada. This was, he said, largely because May has ruled out staying in the EU’s single market or a customs union and wants to end free immigration from the continent and the oversight of EU courts. “What are you left with?” Barnier asked. “Just one thing: a free trade agreement on the Canadian model.” The senior EU official said that some countries with which the Union already has free trade agreements had already voiced concern that Britain might get better terms than they have. Some treaties have clauses obliging the EU to improve the terms if need be if another subsequently gets more favorable treatment. MORE DETAIL, PLEASE The draft guidelines make clear that Barnier will only be able to start seriously negotiating on trade and other aspects of the future UK-EU relationship such as defense and security after leaders agree a more detailed set of instructions. “We need more clarity on how the UK sees our future relations,” summit chair Donald Tusk told reporters, calling on Barnier to start “exploratory talks” with London. More guidelines could be endorsed at EU summits in February or March but could take longer if London delays, the EU official said. Talks take weeks to start after guidelines are agreed. Moreover, there might be relatively little detail fixed by the time Britain leaves the EU. The withdrawal treaty must take account of the “framework for the future relationship”. But this framework would be contained only in a “political declaration” that will accompany the withdrawal treaty to be ratified by the British and EU parliaments. It is “simply not realistic” to get a full deal by then, the official said. The EU will launch negotiations on a legally binding trade treaty only once Britain becomes a non-member or “third country”. If the two sides fail to reach a deal before the end of the transition period, there would be a “cliff edge”. Legally, it would be possible to extend the transition period, but EU governments are reluctant to do so very far. Britain cannot put new bilateral trade treaties with other countries into effect during the transition period as the EU insists Britain go on collecting EU customs duties as if it were still a member, the official said. Tusk, who will have to maintain unity among the 27 as they embark on the much more divisive phase of negotiating a trade deal that balances the countries’ very different interests, warned “the most difficult challenge is still ahead”. The senior official said the EU assumes a trade deal would require ratification in each country, including some parliaments which have been skeptical of free trade in the past. However, such treaties can go into effect before full ratification. Editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-trade/eu-eyes-quick-brexit-transition-deal-trade-pact-to-take-time-idUKKBN1E22GM'|'2017-12-08T20:18:00.000+02:00'
'adc84b1a015dd96a38d84963356f8e7e58391fed'|'Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions'|'December 8, 2017 / 11:03 AM / Updated an hour ago Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 5 Min Read (Adds Helios Investment Partners, Spotify, KKR & Co, CVS, Millenium & Copthorne Hotels, Aecon, TIM Participações, Seven-Up Bottling, Bayer, Toshiba, Lufthansa, PKO) Dec 8 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday: ** South African construction firm Aveng said it terminated an agreement to sell a 51 percent stake in its Grinaker-LTA unit to a black-owned company, after the acquiring firm failed to fulfill funding conditions. ** Singapore’s top taxi operator ComfortDelGro Corp will buy a 51 percent stake in a unit of Uber that runs a fleet of private hire vehicles, as the companies seek to bridge the gap with dominant ride-hailing firm Grab. ** Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. meat processor, said on Thursday it slightly raised its stake in plant-based protein maker Beyond Meat as it looks to tap growing demand for alternative sources of protein. ** Drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc said on Thursday it was acquiring privately-held Cell Design Labs Inc for up to $567 million, giving it access to new technology platforms that would help in the development of cancer drugs. ** Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc is considering selling itself after receiving takeover interest, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. ** Private equity firm Helios Investment Partners has submitted a bid to acquire Nigeria’s 9mobile under a sale process aimed at finding new investors for the debt-laden telecoms firm, one person fimilar with the matter told Reuters. ** Music streaming company Spotify and the music arm of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd will buy minority stakes in each other ahead of the Swedish firm’s expected stock market listing next year, the companies said. ** Mongolia’s Supreme Court has ruled against the government’s attempt to nationalise a 49 percent stake in one of Asia’s biggest copper mines, industry sources said. ** KKR & Co LP has agreed to buy industrial tool components manufacturer Hyperion from Sandvik, a deal the U.S. buyout firm said marked its first acquisition in the mid-market industrials sector. ** CVS Health Corp expects the U.S. Justice Department to do the antitrust review of its planned acquisition of health insurer Aetna Inc, a spokesman for the drugstore chain operator said. ** ED&F Man is winding down its physical grains business, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, in   centuries-old commodities merchant. ** Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has agreed to a sweetened takeover offer from its majority shareholder that values the London-listed company at about 2 billion pounds ($2.67 billion) after an earlier bid was heavily criticised by minority investors. ** Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc said its C$1.51 billion ($1.18 billion) acquisition by China’s CCCC International Holding Ltd, cleared two regulatory hurdles. ** Brazilian wireless carrier TIM Participações SA sees no “transformational” opportunities in mergers and acquisitions in the short term, but there are smaller targets that could help expand networks, Chief Executive Stefano De Angelis said. ** Nigeria’s Seven-Up Bottling Company will hold a meeting of shareholders in January to approve a bid by majority investor Affelka to buy out minorities in a 19.33 billion naira ($61.5 mln) takeover. ** EU antitrust regulators are set to warn Bayer its planned purchase of U.S. seed maker Monsanto may hurt competition, a person familiar with the matter said, a move that would force Bayer to offer concessions to address the concerns. ** Toshiba Corp and Western Digital Corp have agreed in principle to settle a dispute over the Japanese firm’s plans to sell its $18 billion chip unit and aim to have a final agreement in place next week, sources familiar with the matter said. ** Europe’s antitrust chief expressed “quite deep competition concerns” about Lufthansa’s plan to buy Air Berlin assets, yet another sign the German carrier may have to cough up more concessions in return for her approval of the deal. ** Poland’s biggest bank, PKO BP, denied it may merge with nearest rival Pekao next year, following a report by Rzeczpospolita newspaper that the two were in talks. ** Sri Lanka’s parliament approved a raft of tax concessions for a Chinese-led joint venture which will handle the southern port of Hambantota under a $1.1 billion deal that has sparked public anger and concerns in India and elsewhere. (Compiled by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL3N1O83L8'|'2017-12-08T16:16:00.000+02:00'
'918879df63ea35177351797814d1783be37ca81d'|'FCA disputes reports of legal threat over RBS report'|'December 8, 2017 / 3:40 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago FCA disputes reports of legal threat over RBS report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s financial watchdog on Friday rebutted reports that the threat of legal action from the Royal Bank of Scotland caused it to avoid publishing a confidential report into the bank’s treatment of struggling businesses. A worker cleans the glass exterior next to the logo of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) bank at a building in Gurugram on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that it did not publish the report into RBS’s Global Restructuring Group because it could not do so legally without seeking consent from individuals named in the report, which it did not do. British newspapers earlier this month had reported that the FCA feared legal reprisals if it published the full report. Reporting by Emma Rumney, Editing by Lawrence White'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fca-rbs-report/fca-disputes-reports-of-legal-threat-over-rbs-report-idUKKBN1E2240'|'2017-12-08T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'94a3c75bbb0b1ac0638f7b4a2ef24eefedf0f7bc'|'UPDATE 1-Broadcom tops estimates on strong wireless chip demand'|'(Adds comments from conf call, dividend details, Qualcomm bid background; updates shares)By Arjun PanchadarDec 6 (Reuters) - Broadcom Ltd on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and boosted its dividend by 72 percent, days after the chipmaker took its $103 billion bid for Qualcomm Inc hostile.Shares of Broadcom rose 5 percent in extended trading after the company also forecast first-quarter revenue largely above analysts’ estimates.The company said on Monday it planned to field a slate of 11 nominees to Qualcomm’s board, its first formal move towards a hostile bid for the U.S. chipmaker.Broadcom’s move came after Qualcomm rejected its $70 per share bid, saying the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles.However, Broadcom’s chief financial officer, Thomas Krause, appeared confident of overcoming regulatory hurdles.“After having had initial meetings with certain relevant antitrust authorities, we remain confident that any regulatory requirement necessary to complete the combination will be met in a timely manner,” Krause said in a post-earnings call.A combined Broadcom-Qualcomm would become the dominant supplier of chips used in the 1.5 billion or so smartphones expected to be sold around the world this year.Broadcom’s wireless business has been a strong performer as soaring sales of Apple Inc’s iPhone and Android smartphones drive demand for its WiFi and Bluetooth chips.The business far outperformed its wired infrastructure unit, which makes chips for set-top boxes and cable modems, with a 33.4 percent rise in sales and accounted for much of its fourth-quarter profit.Excluding items, the company earned $4.59 per share in the quarter ended Oct. 29, easily beating analysts’ expectations of $4.52 per share.Net revenue rose to $4.84 billion, slightly above the $4.83 billion analysts had estimated.The company also forecast current-quarter revenue of $5.30 billion, plus or minus $75 million, helped by its acquisition of network gear maker Brocade Communications Systems.Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $4.83 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Broadcom also raised its quarterly dividend to $1.75 per share from $1.02. (Additional reporting by Uday Sampath Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/broadcom-results/update-1-broadcom-tops-estimates-on-strong-wireless-chip-demand-idINL3N1O65CK'|'2017-12-06T18:46:00.000+02:00'
'be3844a312759f4213391d07beb4d59ab6e1b3ac'|'Asia cheers China trade boost, bitcoin shoots for the stars'|'December 8, 2017 / 12:52 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Global stocks, dollar climb after strong U.S. job growth data Lewis Krauskopf 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street and other major global stock markets rose on Friday and the U.S. dollar was on pace for its fifth day of gains after data showed robust U.S. job growth. FILE PHOTO - Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.74 percent, supported by news that Britain and the European Union had a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations. U.S. jobs grew at a strong clip in November even though the wage gains that could fuel inflation remain moderate. The U.S. jobs report followed encouraging economic data from China and Japan that buoyed Asian shares. “We have a continuation of an economy that has been pretty firm and pretty balanced for the better part of the last several years and that’s been good for stock prices,” said Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City. “What we are seeing are yields under control and stocks doing well, but the report was strong enough to suggest a bit of a bump in the dollar,” Ware said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 74 points, or 0.31 percent, to 24,285.48, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 9.82 points, or 0.37 percent, to 2,646.8 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 21.67 points, or 0.32 percent, to 6,834.51. Technology stocks such as Microsoft ( MSFT.O ) and Oracle ( ORCL.N ) helped pace the advance, building on the rebound from the selloff in the sector earlier in the week. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.47 percent. Investors also are continuing to watch a U.S. tax bill moving through Congress that will slash corporate levies, and may have been relieved that U.S. lawmakers late on Thursday agreed to a temporary funding bill that averted a government shutdown. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed the legislation to fund the federal government for two weeks. FILE PHOTO - The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote “Investors are also taking comfort from the lack of surprise from Washington, with the House and the Senate passing continuing resolution,” said Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank’s Private Client Reserve unit. In Europe, the banks index .SX7P jumped 2.2 percent after financial regulators reached a long-sought deal on Thursday to harmonize global banking rules. The dollar rose against the euro and yen in choppy trading after the U.S. jobs data, but gains were capped by wages data that analysts said were disappointing. FILE PHOTO - An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The dollar index .DXY rose 0.11 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.04 percent to $1.1766. “The wages data reinforces the belief that inflationary pressures remain well-contained, keeping the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening plans in check,” said Karl Schamotta, director of global product and market strategy at Cambridge Global Payments in Toronto. The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates at its Dec. 12-13 policy meeting, but Friday’s jobs report could shape debate on monetary policy next year. Bitcoin lost almost a fifth of its value in 10 hours on Friday, having surged more than 40 percent in the preceding 48 hours, sparking fears the market may be heading for a price collapse. U.S. Treasury yields were little changed after the closely watched jobs report. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 1/32 in price to yield 2.3796 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Thursday. Oil prices rose, helped by Chinese crude demand and threats of a strike in Africa’s largest oil exporter. U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 1.09 percent to $57.31 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.33, up 1.82 percent on the day. Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/japanese-shares-rally-bitcoin-shoots-for-the-moon-idUKKBN1E203N'|'2017-12-08T07:24:00.000+02:00'
'61aee27d3dfc6123d5a2ea167a437f3574051348'|'KKR to buy tool components maker Hyperion from Sweden''s Sandvik'|'December 8, 2017 / 3:33 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago KKR to buy tool components maker Hyperion from Sandvik Joshua Franklin 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Buyout firm KKR & Co LP ( KKR.N ) said on Friday it had agreed to buy industrial tool components manufacturer Hyperion from Sweden’s Sandvik ( SAND.ST ), its first acquisition of a relatively small manufacturing company. The deal, which Sandvik said in a statement was worth 4 billion Swedish crowns ($471.6 million), signals a shift by KKR from its past focus on larger deals. “We like the industry and we think this is a neat company with lots of additional potential,” Pete Stavros, the head of KKR’s industrials investment team, said in a telephone interview. KKR said the deal was being funded through its $13.9 billion Americas XII Fund, which finished fundraising earlier this year. Institutional and wealthy individuals have been increasingly eager to invest with private equity firms, which buy companies to sell a few years later for higher returns than available in public financial markets. Buyout funds raised $66 billion in the third quarter, according to research firm Preqin, up 47 percent from the year-ago period. This cash influx into a growing number of private equity firms means the industry has an estimated $954 billion to invest. KKR’s move to look at the smaller-sized, or middle-market, businesses opens the door for more deal opportunities, Stavros said. “If you think about someone who, on my team, covers the building products sector, which is a very fragmented space, there’s just so much more transaction activity in the middle market,” he said. “This’ll give that person a lot more opportunities to look at.” Fair Lawn, New Jersey-based Hyperion has around 1,400 employees. KKR will continue allowing staff to have a stake in the companies it invests in, a policy it believes helps to improve profitability. ($1 = 8.4824 Swedish crowns)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kkr-m-a-hyperion/kkr-to-buy-tool-components-maker-hyperion-from-swedens-sandvik-idUSKBN1E223K'|'2017-12-08T17:26:00.000+02:00'
'79e9d95c2fc4e54c198e2eb89573c24a34f7e8fe'|'Strong November U.S. job gains anticipated; wages seen rising'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth likely increased at a strong clip in November and wages rebounded as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded, creating a portrait of a healthy economy that analysts say does not require the kind of fiscal stimulus that President Donald Trump is proposing.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Dollar banknotes are seen in a box at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo According to a Reuters survey of economists, the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday will likely show that nonfarm payrolls rose by 200,000 jobs last month after surging 261,000 in October.Employment gains in October were boosted by the return to work of thousands of employees who had been temporarily dislocated by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. November’s report will be the first clean reading since the storms, which also impacted September’s employment data.The unemployment rate is forecast to be unchanged at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Average hourly earnings are expected to have risen 0.3 percent in November after being flat the prior month. That would lift the annual increase in wages to 2.7 percent from 2.4 percent in October.Readings in line with expectations would underscore the economy’s strength and fuel criticism of efforts by Trump and his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress to cut the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent.“The labor market is in great shape. Tax cuts should be used when the economy needs tax cuts and it doesn’t need tax cuts right now,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.“When politics and economics are mixed in the stew, the policies that are created often have a very awful smell.”Republicans argue that the proposed tax cut package will boost the economy and allow companies to hire more workers. But with the labor market near full employment and companies reporting difficulties finding qualified workers, economists disagree. Job openings are near a record high.“Companies want workers and do not need tax cuts to give them the financial wherewithal to hire more workers,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “It’s labor, that the economy is running out of.”The economy grew at a 3.3 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, the fastest in three years.FULL EMPLOYMENT While November’s employment report will probably have little impact on expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its Dec. 12-13 policy meeting, it could help shape the debate on monetary policy next year.The U.S. central bank has increased borrowing costs twice this year. It has forecast three rate hikes in 2018.Job growth has averaged 168,000 jobs per month this year, down from the average monthly gain of 187,000 in 2016. A slowdown in job growth is normal when the labor market nears full employment.The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The unemployment rate has declined by seven-tenths of a percentage point this year. Economists believe that the tightening labor market will unleash a faster pace of wage growth next year.That, combined with the tax cuts, would help boost inflation.“I think that in the next three to six months we will see a broader uptick in wage pressures,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Atlantic Trust in Baltimore.“Given where we are in the economic cycle, if you throw some gasoline in the fire with fiscal stimulus, that will ultimately spark some higher inflation.”Employment gains were likely broad in November. Construction payrolls are expected to show strong growth, thanks in part to rebuilding efforts in the areas devastated by the hurricanes.Another month of steady increases is expected in manufacturing employment, while hiring for the holiday season likely boosted retail payrolls. Retailers, including Macy’s Inc, reported strong Black Friday sales.Macy’s said this month it would hire an additional 7,000 temporary workers for its stores to deal with heavy customer traffic in the run up to Christmas.Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy/strong-november-u-s-job-gains-anticipated-wages-seen-rising-idINKBN1E20GB'|'2017-12-08T02:07:00.000+02:00'
'c17c69e543d233a91a11943911c169bf92d55601'|'Toronto votes to regulate and restrict short-term rentals'|'(Reuters) - The Toronto city council on Thursday approved regulations governing short-term rentals, requiring operators to register with the city and restricting the types of properties that homeowners can rent as it grapples with a growing affordability crisis.A 3D printed people''s models are seen in front of a displayed Airbnb logo in this illustration taken, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Under the new rules, homeowners will only be allowed to rent their principal residence on homesharing sites like Airbnb and Expedia Inc’s Homeaway, which the city hopes will lead to more units being available for long-term rentals.That could include listing up to three bedrooms within their principal residence, or their entire home when on vacation, for up to a total of 180 days per year.Homeowners will be banned from listing income properties, and will not be allowed to rent out secondary suites such as self-contained dwellings within a house or on the same grounds, though long-term tenants of those suites would be able to rent their units.The measures come as Toronto, along with major cities around the world, grapples with the effect of home sharing on tight housing supplies and an expensive rental market. Similar rules were passed in Vancouver last month.Airbnb said it viewed Toronto regulating short-term rentals as “a win” and noted that most of its hosts were sharing their principal residence, not renting entire unoccupied units.“At the end of the day, the vast majority of our hosts are now recognized and regulated, it’s legitimizing what they’re doing,” said Lindsey Scully, a spokesperson for Airbnb.A spokesperson for Expedia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Housing advocates have argued that operations like Airbnb remove long-term housing stock from the market, leading to higher rents and more precarious living situations for renters.Those in favor of such services have said they provide homeowners with flexibility to rent secondary suites and pied-à-terre units when they do not need them for personal use.The Toronto city council voted 40-3 in favor of regulating homesharing, and 27-17 in favor of blocking secondary suites. The new rules are due to take effect in June 2018.Reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Editing by Toni Reinhold '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-housing-airbnb/toronto-votes-to-regulate-and-restrict-short-term-rentals-idUSKBN1E206C'|'2017-12-08T03:14:00.000+02:00'
'85a1d65e8590ee7817c61bc7ed85f7c5e455c0b7'|'S&P - UK credit rating not immediately affected by EU talks deal'|'December 8, 2017 / 2:16 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago S&P - UK credit rating not immediately affected by EU talks deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Standard and Poor’s said on Friday its credit rating for the United Kingdom was not immediately affected by the latest agreement between Britain and the European Union to move Brexit talks on to trade and a transition period. A general view of the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs The ratings agency said it stuck with its “AA” credit rating with a negative outlook. “The negative outlook reflects the continued institutional and economic uncertainty surrounding the Brexit negotiations and the UK’s future relationship with the EU after the country’s departure from the bloc in March 2019,” S&P said in a statement. Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-ratings/sp-uk-credit-rating-not-immediately-affected-by-eu-talks-deal-idUKKBN1E21VI'|'2017-12-08T16:15:00.000+02:00'
'fe9993c8be0b004b8f45a846824861110c50cf87'|'Dragon bets on blockchain to cut costs for Asia''s gambling business'|'December 7, 2017 / 4:08 AM / in 11 minutes Dragon bets on blockchain to cut costs for Asia''s gambling business Farah Master 5 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Dragon Inc, which is looking to raise more than $400 million in what would be the world’s largest initial coin offering (ICO), is betting its focus on Asia’s booming gambling industry can lure investors despite mounting concerns over a bubble forming in the virtual currency bitcoin. Dragon Chief Executive Chakrit Ahmad told Reuters the company had secured four junket partners - operators that connect China’s wealthy punters to casinos in Macau and elsewhere - who had already committed a total $265 million in a private sale of the tokens, accounting for more than half of those available. In a proposal paper reviewed by Reuters, Dragon said its business model uses blockchain technology to get around the costly credit processes often used by the opaque junket industry, which contributes to more than half of gambling revenues in the Chinese territory of Macau. The use of blockchain technology means transaction costs are around 1 percent, rather than typical junket transaction fees of around 5-7 percent. “We provide a better, more convenient and more cost-effective solution for them. If they (gamblers) want to exchange their winnings into fiat currency and then carry it themselves, they are free to do so. But the likelihood is they will revert back to digital currencies,” Ahmad said. The public sale of the tokens on December 8 comes amid explosive growth of ICOs to raise money in cryptocurrencies. An ICO allows the issuer to raise funds without having to fulfil often rigorous regulatory requirements that would have to be met by venture capitalists or companies in mainstream markets. Some regulators say such schemes lack transparency and carry major risks. ICOs and bitcoin are banned in mainland China. Dragon investors will get tokens that can be exchanged for gambling chips in Dragon-affiliated casinos or they can hold the tokens for investment purposes. The proceeds raised will initially be used to support Dragon’s junket operators by providing them with funds to establish systems that will exchange Dragon’s digital tokens for gambling chips. The ultimate goal stated in the proposal is to fund the construction of a floating casino hotel which would only accept Dragon tokens. Some Macau watchers are sceptical of the business model due to increased scrutiny from Beijing and as more than 90 percent of punters in Macau originate from the mainland. “If it facilitates funds moving out from China it is subject to China’s view on it,” said Ben Lee, managing partner at Macau- based consultancy IGamiX. Macau’s Monetary Authority said it had told financial institutions not to provide services directly or indirectly for tokens and virtual currencies due to considerable risks, including money laundering and terrorist financing. Macau’s Gambling Inspection and Coordination Bureau did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Dragon’s Ahmad said the ICO would not be affected by China’s ban as many investors hail from Hong Kong and Macau as well as Japan, South Korea and Russia. FORMER GANG BOSS Junket operators, also known as VIP room promoters, act as facilitators for Macau’s huge casino resorts, such as those run by Wynn Macau ( 1128.HK ) and Sands China ( 1928.HK ), and operate in a legal grey area where they are not permitted to provide credit facilities and collect debts in the Chinese mainland. Instead, they utilize an opaque network of agents - making it harder to regulate the businesses. Dragon’s Ahmad said the company planned to start operations in Indochina in January and Macau by the first quarter of 2018. The ICO grabbed attention when former Macau gang boss Wan “Broken Tooth” Kuok-koi, who served 14 years in jail for attempted murder, loan sharking and money laundering, attended a signing ceremony in September. Ahmad said that Wan was not tied to Dragon’s junket partners. Lawrence Ho, head of Melco Resorts - with casinos in the Philippines and Macau - told Reuters he would be fine with junkets operating in his casinos using digital currencies, provided it was allowed by the regulator. Still, a Macau gaming consultant who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the ICO would likely set off alarm bells in Beijing. “It is clearly aimed at mainland players, who make up 90 percent of gaming volumes, giving them a digital way to circumvent the country’s forex controls,” he said. Reporting by Farah Master; Additional reporting by Thomas Wilson in Tokyo; Editing by Martin Howell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bitcoin-macau-ico/dragon-bets-on-blockchain-to-cut-costs-for-asias-gambling-business-idUKKBN1E10D9'|'2017-12-07T06:08:00.000+02:00'
'644b4450ab821903925c0dc2e9eac21b2950afff'|'UK industry surges, construction and trade muddy outlook'|'December 8, 2017 / 9:38 AM / Updated 7 hours ago UK industry surges, construction and trade muddy outlook Andy Bruce , Andrew MacAskill 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British industry expanded in October at its fastest annual pace in almost a year, although a downturn in construction and a mixed trade performance left analysts split about the outlook for the economy in 2018. FILE PHOTO: A worker assembles metal components at the Mec Com Ltd factory near Stafford, central England December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Britain’s economy has lost momentum this year as consumers suffered from higher inflation triggered by sterling’s fall after last year’s Brexit vote - though some exporters have gained from the weaker pound and the stronger euro zone economy. Industrial output was 3.6 percent higher in October than a year ago, the biggest jump since December last year and broadly as expected by economists in a Reuters poll, official data showed on Friday. But in October alone, there was no growth in industrial production and only a 0.1 percent increase in its factory output component, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists were divided over the data, which also showed the sharpest one-month drop in construction output since March 2016. Andrew Sentance, senior economic adviser at PwC and a former Bank of England rate-setter, said the figures were positive. Others focused on the lacklustre monthly performance of industry and construction. “Decent manufacturing and trade data, alongside a continued recession in construction, underscore the variation of UK growth between different sectors,” HSBC economist Chris Hare said. Economists at Barclays said weak industry and construction pointed to a 0.1 percentage-point drag on economic growth in the fourth quarter. The Bank of England said last month that it expects the economy to grow by 0.4 percent in the last three months of the year and to expand by 1.6 percent in 2018, after it raised its key interest rate for the first time since 2007. Business surveys show factories are enjoying demand from a surging European economy, but also face an increase in price pressures. A separate BoE survey on Friday showed that the British public expects inflation to overshoot its target by the most since 2013 in coming years. WATCHING BREXIT The outcome of Britain’s split from the European Union is crucial to the outlook for manufacturers, who account for 10 percent of economic output. The European Commission said on Friday enough progress had been made in Brexit negotiations to allow a second phase of talks on future relations to begin, ending an impasse over the status of the Irish border. That should hearten British exporters, although they are still waiting on details of a Brexit transition deal and trade agreements. “We need to pin down the transition arrangements ... to ensure it’s business as usual for companies for as long as it takes until a final deal is reached. Until we get to that point, many businesses will need to prepare for any and every eventuality,” said Stephen Phipson, chief executive of the EEF manufacturers association. The ONS said car production was a bright spot for the economy in October, helped by strong export demand. Separate figures showed Britain’s goods trade deficit in the three months to September was smaller than first thought, though the gap widened slightly in October to 10.8 billion pounds from September’s 10.5 billion pounds. Still, exports in volume terms outpaced imports, helped by a resurgent European market. ONS figures on construction disappointed again. Output dropped 1.7 percent on the month, worse than all forecasts in a Reuters poll. However, the downturn may ease in future months. New construction orders rose by a record amount in the third quarter, boosted by the new High Speed 2 rail project. ($1 = 0.7428 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy/uk-manufacturing-expands-for-sixth-month-in-october-best-run-for-at-least-20-years-idUKKBN1E213A'|'2017-12-08T15:27:00.000+02:00'
'24556568ec9b813f399862f6acb7101f324605f1'|'L&G to sell life policies business to Swiss Re for 650 million pounds'|'December 6, 2017 / 9:17 AM / Updated 7 hours ago L&G to sell life policies business to Swiss Re for 650 million pounds Clara Denina , Simon Jessop 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Legal & General is to sell a closed savings business with 33 billion pounds in assets to Swiss Re for 650 million pounds to help fund areas of growth including annuities. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss insurer Swiss Re is seen in front of its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, September 23, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo L&G said the roughly one million life insurance policies held in its Mature Savings business were being taken over by Swiss Re’s ReAssure division, a life and pensions business that manages closed and non-core in-force portfolios. Legal & General said in statement it would use the cash from the sale to invest in other areas of the business, including annuities, where it is increasingly looking to insure corporate pension risk, investment management and general insurance. The deal is the latest by an insurer to offload a so-called “closed book” of business, policies which are still in force but not being grown further. It follows similar deals in recent years involving AXA and Deutsche Bank. “Selling Mature Savings is the right decision for us - another important, measured, step in growing our company and updating our products,” said L&G Chief Executive Nigel Wilson. “It will drive further earnings growth by allowing us to focus on our successful market-leading businesses and to accelerate the scaling up of our growth businesses,” he added. The cash deal will see Swiss Re take on the risk of the business from January, although it is expected to be formally completed by mid-2019. During 2016, the Mature Savings business generated 105 million pounds in operating profit. L&G said the deal was likely to generate a small increase in the company’s Solvency II coverage ratio at the outset, increasing to around two percent on completion. Swiss Re said in a separate statement the deal strengthened its position in the British market and recognised its “expertise in acquiring and integrating large books of business”. JPMorgan analysts said in a note to clients the sale would likely hit L&G’s operating profit by around 5 percent and cash profits by around 7 percent, “which in our view is slightly negative for the share price in the short term”. “However we believe that LGEN should be able to deploy this cash proceeds sooner than later leading to limited dilution from the disposal,” they said, flagging an “underweight” rating and 218 pence price target. At 0850 GMT, shares in L&G were down 1 percent at 261.5 pence, while shares in Swiss Re were down 1.1 percent at 89.6 Swiss francs. Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Michael Shields; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-legal-general-divestiture-swiss-re/lg-to-sell-life-policies-business-to-swiss-re-for-650-million-pounds-idUKKBN1E00YC'|'2017-12-06T11:16:00.000+02:00'
'7a24105532faa55c56952bd8032d0a330c96073f'|'Surprise fall in German exports narrows trade surplus in October'|'Reuters TV United States December 8, 2017 / 7:17 AM / a few seconds ago Surprise fall in German exports narrows trade surplus in October Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German exports fell unexpectedly in October and imports jumped, narrowing the trade surplus and adding to evidence that Europe’s biggest economy started the fourth quarter on a weak footing, data showed on Friday. A containership is loaded at a terminal at the harbour in Hamburg, late March 30, 2011. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo Seasonally adjusted exports edged down by 0.4 percent on the month while vibrant domestic demand pushed up imports by 1.8 percent, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed. The exports figure confounded expectations for a 1.0 percent rise while imports beat a forecast for a 1.1 percent increase. The seasonally adjusted trade surplus narrowed to 19.9 billion euros from a upwardly revised 21.9 billion euros in September. The October reading was lower than the Reuters consensus forecast for 21.8 billion euros. Germany’s wider current account surplus, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments, fell to 18.1 billion euros after an upwardly revised reading of 25.8 billion euros in September, unadjusted data showed. The trade figures followed economic data released on Thursday that showed industrial output fell unexpectedly in October - a drop economists linked to public holidays that let workers take long weekends. The weak figures came after data on Wednesday showed that industrial orders had risen unexpectedly in October. Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Michelle Martin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-trade/surprise-fall-in-german-exports-narrows-trade-surplus-in-october-idUKKBN1E20PF'|'2017-12-08T09:05:00.000+02:00'
'5c4bc43982c78a3097c29399fa976c62271ff40a'|'Strong U.S. job growth in November bolster economy''s outlook'|'December 8, 2017 / 5:06 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Strong U.S. job growth in November bolster economy''s outlook Lucia Mutikani 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth increased at a strong clip in November, painting a portrait of a healthy economy that analysts say does not require the kind of fiscal stimulus that President Donald Trump is proposing, even though wage gains remain moderate. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 228,000 jobs last month amid broad gains in hiring as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded, Labor Department data showed on Friday. The government revised data for October to show the economy adding 244,000 jobs instead of the previously reported 261,000 positions. Employment gains in October were boosted by the return to work of thousands of employees who had been temporarily dislocated by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. November’s report was the first clean reading since the storms, which also impacted September’s employment data. Average hourly earnings rose five cents or 0.2 percent in November after dipping 0.1 percent the prior month. That lifted the annual increase in wages to 2.5 percent from 2.3 percent in October. Workers also put in more hours last month. The unemployment rate was unchanged at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent amid a rise in the labour force. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising by 200,000 jobs last month. The fairly upbeat report underscored the economy’s strength and could fuel criticism of efforts by Trump and his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress to slash the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. “The labour market is in great shape. Tax cuts should be used when the economy needs tax cuts and it doesn’t need tax cuts right now,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “When politics and economics are mixed in the stew, the policies that are created often have a very awful smell.” Republicans argue that the proposed tax cut package will boost the economy and allow companies to hire more workers. But with the labour market near full employment and companies reporting difficulties finding qualified workers, most economists disagree. Job openings are near a record high. The economy grew at a 3.3 percent annualised rate in the third quarter, the fastest in three years, and appears to have maintained the momentum early on the October-December quarter. The average workweek rose to 34.5 hours in November, the longest in five months, from 34.4 hours in October. Aggregate weekly hours worked surged 0.5 percent last month after October’s 0.3 percent gain. “A six-minute increase in the work week does not sound like much, but given the size of the labour market, it turns out to be significant in terms of output,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York. The dollar was trading higher against a basket of currencies, while prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. Stocks on Wall Street rose. Job seekers listen to a presentation at the Colorado Hospital Association job fair in Denver, Colorado, U.S., October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking FULL EMPLOYMENT While November’s employment report will probably have little impact on expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its Dec. 12-13 policy meeting, it could help shape the debate on monetary policy next year. The U.S. central bank has increased borrowing costs twice this year and has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. Employment growth has averaged 174,000 jobs per month this year, down from the average monthly gain of 187,000 in 2016. A slowdown in job growth is normal when the labour market nears full employment. The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The unemployment rate has declined by seven-tenths of a percentage point this year. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part time because they cannot find full-time employment, ticked up to 8.0 percent last month from a near 11-year low of 7.9 percent in October. Economists believe the shrinking labour market slack will unleash a faster pace of wage growth next year. That, combined with the tax cuts, would help to boost inflation. “Detractors will argue that wage increases are too slow but we have shown in our research that adjusting for demographic effects, wage gains are where one ought to expect them to be,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York. “As the labour market continues to tighten, we are confident that average hourly earnings will rise above 3 percent next year.” The growth in employment was broad in November. Construction payrolls increased by 24,000 jobs, thanks in part to rebuilding efforts in the areas devastated by the hurricanes, after rising 10,000 in October. Manufacturing scored another month of solid job gains, with payrolls increasing by 31,000 jobs after rising 23,000 in the prior month. Retail payrolls grew by 18,700 jobs last month, the largest gain since January, likely boosted by hiring for the holiday season. Employment at department stores increased by 3,100 jobs last month. Retailers, including Macy’s Inc, reported strong Black Friday sales. Macy’s said this month it would hire an additional 7,000 temporary workers for its stores to deal with heavy customer traffic in the run-up to Christmas. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/strong-november-u-s-job-gains-anticipated-wages-seen-rising-idUKKBN1E20GD'|'2017-12-08T18:00:00.000+02:00'
'636941798ff0cc0a4c7ba1db71ba9b052f0db718'|'Chevron sets 2018 capital budget at $18.3 billion'|'HOUSTON (Reuters) - Chevron Corp ( CVX.N ), the second largest U.S.-based oil producer, is budgeting $18.3 billion for capital projects next year, the company said on Wednesday, about 4 percent less than this year and lower for a fourth year in a row.FILE PHOTO - John Watson, Chevron''s chairman and CEO, speaks during an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid International energy company capital budgets, closely watched for indications of future oil and gas production, broadly have been shrinking after 2014’s oil-price collapse slashed earnings and left many with high debt loads.In Chevron’s case, the sharp declines coincide with its spending winding down on several long-term and costly projects in Australia and elsewhere. Capital and exploratory spending in the first nine months of this year was about half that of three years ago, a company spokeswoman said.The 2018 budget reflects “project completions, improved efficiencies and investment high-grading,” said Chief Executive John Watson in a statement. Spending on shale will rise to $4.3 billion overall this year, said Watson, who will retire early next year.The San Ramon, California-based company expects expenditures this year to be less than $19 billion, down from the $19.8 billion it estimated a year ago. It has told investors that capital spending between 2018 and 2020 would range from $17 billion to $22 billion a year.Next year, Chevron expects to spend $15.8 billion on oil and gas exploration, $2.2 billion on refining, marketing and petrochemicals, and about $300 million for its share of affiliated company spending.Most oil producers have yet to disclose their 2018 budgets, which generally are released in December and January. Analysts expect companies to pledge to keep 2018 spending in check and focus on reducing debt and boosting cash flow.Chevron shares were off 78 cents at $119.61 in trading on Wednesday and are up less than 2 percent this year.Additional reporting by Shalini Nagarajan Sandra Maler and Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chevron-outlook/chevron-sets-2018-capital-budget-at-18-3-billion-idUSKBN1E1025'|'2017-12-07T02:25:00.000+02:00'
'37af8fb1802087db87223a11fd1891fcc04cbcb5'|'UAE says it expects to be taken off EU''s tax blacklist'|'Reuters TV United States December 7, 2017 / 9:10 AM / a few seconds ago UAE says it expects to be taken off EU''s tax blacklist   DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates expects to be taken off the European Union’s tax-haven blacklist after meeting criteria for transparency set by the EU, the UAE government said on Thursday. “We have committed to a reform process which will be finalised by October 2018, and we are absolutely confident this will ensure the UAE is swiftly removed from the list,” the government said in a statement. Reporting by Andrew Torchia, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-emirates-tax/uae-says-it-expects-to-be-taken-off-eus-tax-blacklist-idUKKBN1E1103'|'2017-12-07T11:04:00.000+02:00'
'b31af68d92896b728e46b691c9331bf17b29e1f2'|'China complains that U.S. is releasing negative information about trade relations'|'Reuters TV United States December 7, 2017 / 5:25 AM / a few seconds ago China complains that U.S. is releasing negative information about trade relations Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Commerce Ministry expressed concern on Thursday that the United States has been spreading negative information about the trade relationship between the world’s two largest economies. A security agent takes his position as U.S. and China''s flags flutter over the Forbidden City ahead of the visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing, China November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj “Recently the United States has launched trade remedy investigations into Chinese products and has continuously released negative information,” said Gao Feng, China’s Commerce Ministry spokesman. “This has caused widespread concern among businesses in China and the United States, especially among U.S. companies that are willing to cooperate with and expand into China,” he said. China’s Commerce Ministry expressed “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” on Saturday to a statement by the United States to the World Trade Organization that it opposes granting China market economy status, Xinhua reported. Reporting by Muyu Xu and Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Paul Tait'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-trade-wto/china-complains-that-u-s-is-releasing-negative-information-about-trade-relations-idUKKBN1E10G6'|'2017-12-07T07:21:00.000+02:00'
'55d2bd4c52e29de9b3fd5afabccd96492076f840'|'Old Mutual unit picks banks for $3.35 billion flotation: sources'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo-South African financial services firm Old Mutual ( OML.L )’s UK wealth unit has chosen Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) to lead its initial public offering (IPO) next year, banking and advisory sources said.FILE PHOTO - The Cape Town headquarters of Anglo-South African financial services company Old Mutual are shown in this picture taken March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings The Old Mutual Wealth flotation is one of several legs in the process of splitting parent Old Mutual into four parts.Before the listing, Old Mutual Wealth plans to sell its single-strategy asset management division, Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI), led by veteran investor Richard Buxton.The IPO, which is taking place alongside a demerger of the unit in June 2018, would value the business at about 2.5 billion pounds ($3.35 billion), assuming the OMGI sale goes ahead, two of the sources told Reuters.Old Mutual Wealth’s pre-tax adjusted operating profit rose by 29 percent in the first half to 134 million pounds.Analysts at KBW and a second source who declined to be named said the IPO would involve 10 percent of the company.Old Mutual, whose businesses including banking, insurance and asset management, has said it is breaking itself up because regulatory change makes the company too complex to run in its current form.In addition to the planned demerger and IPO of Old Mutual Wealth, the break-up involves selling U.S. firm Old Mutual Asset Management ( OMAM.N ), listing Old Mutual’s emerging markets unit and reducing its stake in South Africa’s Nedbank ( NEDJ.J ).The break-up, initiated last year by Chief Executive Bruce Hemphill within months of joining Old Mutual, will land him a maximum 1,000 percent bonus of his 900,000 pound 2016 salary if completed successfully. But, with many moving parts to the process, some analysts see considerable execution risk.Australian bank Macquarie ( MQG.AX ) and private equity firm TA Associates were top contenders to buy Old Mutual Wealth’s OMGI unit, two sources said, which is expected to have a price tag of about 500 million pounds.OMGI CEO Buxton favored the approach from TA Associates but Macquarie was seen as frontrunner by the wealth unit, they said.Initial bids were due in by the end of September but the process has been slow and Old Mutual Wealth was unlikely to move to exclusive talks this year, one of the sources said.Old Mutual Wealth could also choose to abandon the sale and keep OMGI, two sources said.The U.S. banks mandated for the IPO declined to comment. Old Mutual Wealth, Macquarie, TA Associates and Richard Buxton also declined to comment.On Thursday Old Mutual closed at 197.6 pence, 8.6 percent above the closing price on the day it announced its break-up.($1 = 0.7456 pounds)Writing by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-old-mutual-wealth-ipo/old-mutual-unit-picks-banks-for-3-35-billion-flotation-sources-idUSKBN1E12O8'|'2017-12-08T02:20:00.000+02:00'
'bff59441b7b8c4c6fd947a7fcdcc6ed5bc8dff10'|'Broadcom profit beats as Qualcomm takeover fight intensifies'|'December 6, 2017 / 9:35 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Broadcom profit beats as Qualcomm takeover fight intensifies Arjun Panchadar 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and boosted its dividend by 72 percent, days after the chipmaker took its $103 billion (£77 billion) bid for Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) hostile. FILE PHOTO - Broadcom Limited company logo is pictured on an office building in Rancho Bernardo, California May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Shares of Broadcom rose 5 percent in extended trading after the company also forecast first-quarter revenue largely above analysts’ estimates. The company said on Monday it planned to field a slate of 11 nominees to Qualcomm’s board, its first formal move towards a hostile bid for the U.S. chipmaker. Broadcom’s move came after Qualcomm rejected its $70 per share bid, saying the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles. However, Broadcom’s chief financial officer, Thomas Krause, appeared confident of overcoming regulatory hurdles. “After having had initial meetings with certain relevant antitrust authorities, we remain confident that any regulatory requirement necessary to complete the combination will be met in a timely manner,” Krause said in a post-earnings call. A combined Broadcom-Qualcomm would become the dominant supplier of chips used in the 1.5 billion or so smartphones expected to be sold around the world this year. Broadcom’s wireless business has been a strong performer as soaring sales of Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) iPhone and Android smartphones drive demand for its WiFi and Bluetooth chips. The business far outperformed its wired infrastructure unit, which makes chips for set-top boxes and cable modems, with a 33.4 percent rise in sales and accounted for much of its fourth-quarter profit. Excluding items, the company earned $4.59 per share in the quarter ended Oct. 29, easily beating analysts’ expectations of $4.52 per share. Net revenue rose to $4.84 billion, slightly above the $4.83 billion analysts had estimated. The company also forecast current-quarter revenue of $5.30 billion, plus or minus $75 million, helped by its acquisition of network gear maker Brocade Communications Systems. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $4.83 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Broadcom also raised its quarterly dividend to $1.75 per share from $1.02. Additional reporting by Uday Sampath Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-broadcom-results/broadcom-quarterly-revenue-rises-17-percent-idUKKBN1E033E'|'2017-12-07T02:22:00.000+02:00'
'e068a918e6ae86daba4a0b8b8d4da3f9edf3e30b'|'MOVES-HSBC''s global head of public sector syndicate to leave the bank'|'LONDON, Dec 7 (IFR) - HSBC’s global head of public sector syndicate will be leaving the bank at the end of the year, according to an internal memo seen by IFR.PJ Bye has been at HSBC for over 21 years and held senior coverage roles in the sovereign, supranational and agency debt capital market business and, most recently, headed its global public sector syndicate.He will be taking time away from the banking industry.Asif Sherani, an SSA syndicate director, will be stepping up once Bye leaves. He joined HSBC from RBS in 2012. (Reporting by Helene Durand; editing by Sudip Roy, Julian Baker) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/moves-hsbcs-global-head-of-public-sector/moves-hsbcs-global-head-of-public-sector-syndicate-to-leave-the-bank-idUSL8N1O7283'|'2017-12-07T17:48:00.000+02:00'
'c84f4cdc8907ecf6dfe44aa31f8aa4256e3ded36'|'Angry homebuyers plan class-action lawsuit against Bovis'|'Bovis Homes , one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, faces a potential class-action lawsuit from a group of buyers who accuse it of selling houses riddled with defects.Puneet Verma bought a five-bedroom house with his wife for £485,000 in Milton Keynes two years ago but says he still has a list of 120 snags. He is now consulting two law firms, Leigh Day and Slater & Gordon, about taking group action.“I have had a survey done by a chartered surveyor that categorically states the workmanship is extremely poor and that Bovis is not in compliance with building regulations,” Verma says. “Bovis has treated, and continues to treat, its customers appallingly and now the only way to get our problems resolved is to take legal action.”Verma is aiming to raise a £100,000 fund through a £100 contribution per homeowner, assuming 1,000 of the 2,500-strong Bovis Homes Victims group on Facebook sign up.It has been almost a year since the housebuilder issued a profit warning and was accused of paying thousands of pounds in cash incentives to get buyers to move into unfinished homes. As the scandal widened, the company set aside £7m to fix defects and appointed a new chief executive.A year on, some Bovis homeowners say they will be spending Christmas in houses that are riddled with faults, including leaks, moving and creaking floors, lack of insulation and sewage backups, as well coping with shoddy workmanship.Too many people are hitting brick walls with Bovis and NHBCIan Tyler, the chairman of Bovis, apologised to buyers in May for “ letting them down ” and admitted the firm had been cutting corners to hit ambitious targets. The company says it slowed production to iron out build problems, retrained sales staff and set up an advisory homebuyers panel, which has met once.Dave Howard, who set up the Facebook group with his wife, Ann, and who sits on the panel, doubts whether Bovis has made any progress on improving build standards and customer service. He claims homeowners who report problems are being referred to the National House Building Council (NHBC), the standard-setting body and main home construction warranty provider for new-builds in the UK. But in the first two years after purchase the housebuilder is responsible for rectifying defects.“We have had constructive contact with the new customer experience director, but there are too many people hitting brick walls with Bovis and NHBC,” Howard says. “Some new customers have had better experiences but that seems to have slipped too.”Bovis says: “We have made significant changes to how we operate in 2017 and a growing majority of our customers would now recommend us to family and friends.“We remain determined to make things right for customers who raise warranty items and apologise to those to whom we have not previously delivered the high levels of quality and service they rightly expected.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bovis Homes ... not flying the flag for quality construction. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA The company says customer problems in the first two years are dealt with by an in-house team. If they are still not satisfied they can then go to NHBC.Guardian Money spoke to a number of people who have bought Bovis homes in the past two years. Bovis declined to comment on the individual cases, or the possible legal action.Gas safety regulations breached When Tara Grosvenor recently returned from a 10-day holiday in the US to her one-year-old, four-bedroom Bovis house in the village of Honeybourne, Warwickshire, she could smell gas. She alerted National Grid, which immediately capped the gas supply off and condemned it.The gas system, which was installed by a Bovis contractor and signed off by NHBC, was found to be in breach of gas safety regulations. “There were loads of other snagging issues in the house, some of which remain outstanding, but this was potentially life threatening,” Grosvenor says.The 29-year-old credit risk manager asked Bovis to buy back the £325,000 house from her but it refused, so she took legal action. Bovis initially offered £500 in compensation and later raised it to £1,000.She deplores what she calls “the lack of weight the consumer has and the insignificance of their voice to fight their case in these situations against a corporation the size of Bovis”.Sewage smell in kitchen Amanda Clarke also wants Bovis to buy back her three-bedroom detached house in Flitwick, Bedfordshire, after discovering major defects. She bought it 14 months ago for £345,000.Clarke, a 49-year-old content developer, has had blocked drains and says she has had to put up with the smell of sewage in her kitchen and toilet for the past 11 months. Not satisfied with Bovis’s response, she had her own survey done, which identified other major issues such as high levels of moisture across the ground floor.Maggot and fly infestation Alex Atrill, who purchased a four-bedroom detached house at Boorley Park in Botley, Hampshire, at the end of June for £439,000, has suffered a gas leak and a major maggot infestation in his kitchen that turned into a fly infestation. He also has poorly laid flooring. “It’s just been a fight,” he says. “They all say they are really sorry but nothing ever gets done.”When you walk into a room the furniture moves. They haven’t fitted things properly but are in denialMore than 100 snags Jenny and Philip Thomas moved into The Winchester, a five-bedroom detached house in Little Wootton, Bedfordshire, in late June. They sold their previous home before Christmas because Bovis promised their new one would be ready in January. But they had to stay in temporary accommodation with two children, one just a few weeks old. They were given two days’ notice before their move-in date.“This is a £600,000 ‘executive’ home – we had better quality in our two bedroom council home seven years ago,” Jenny says.Sewage backed up into their house after plumbing was put in incorrectly, a damp-proof course has been severely breached and the garage floods.“We have had over 100 snags and some major breaches of NHBC standards and building regulation law. Since we have challenged this, with the support of my father-in-law who is an ex-NHBC inspector, and not accepted the offered solutions that are not compliant with the standards, they [Bovis] have totally stonewalled us.”Hole in the living room Karen Stacey-Pope says Bovis has been slow to fix a series of serious defects at the four-bedroom detached house she and her family bought for £335,000 in Banbury last December. She paid £1,100 for a survey by a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors member, but says Bovis won’t accept many of the findings.Defects include damp in the loft, stairs that are too high, missing movement joints (the house is built on a flood plain) and a leak through the kitchen ceiling. She has also had a big hole in the living room near the patio door since March.She is recovering from a breast cancer operation and has an autoimmune disease. Her GP wrote a letter to Bovis, seen by Money, warning about the impact of damp and the issue with the stairs on her health.All the floors move Pete Oldham and his wife, a retired couple, bought a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Cranbrook, Devon, for £234,995 in December 2015. “All the floors move,” Oldham says. “When you walk into a room the furniture moves. They haven’t fitted things properly but are in denial.” He says the floor joists should be 400mm apart, not 600mm. There has been a breakdown in communication with Bovis and he has been referred to NHBC.Topics Property Bovis Homes Construction industry Housing market Real estate features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/09/bovis-homebuyers-class-action-lawsuit-property-defects'|'2017-12-09T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'e74d094c10578f91033b1da3dd93558cb0851157'|'Pilatus jet development far exceeded planned costs - NZZ interview'|'December 9, 2017 / 11:48 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Pilatus jet development far exceeded planned costs - NZZ interview Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss plane maker Pilatus’s development costs of “well over 500 million Swiss francs” (376.50 million pounds) far exceeded the original budget for the company’s first business jet, Chairman Oscar Schwenk told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung in an article published on Saturday. A logo of Pilatus is pictured on their booth during the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Founded in 1939, Pilatus made its name in prop aircraft and military trainers but is now staking its future on versatile, faster jets that appeal to affluent customers and corporate travellers. Pilatus on Thursday obtained certificates from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its PC-24 jet that signify its airworthiness, setting the stage for the first aircraft delivery this month. “And all performance data promised to our first 84 customers have been achieved or even exceeded,” the company said in a statement. However, meeting the targets did not come cheap, Schwenk told the Swiss newspaper, saying a running list of improvements were undertaken on the plane during the certification process. Pilatus investors took a risk in embarking on the jet project, Schwenk told the newspaper, adding that the development costs of “well over 500 million francs” far exceeded the original planned budget. Pilatus now has eight PC-24s on its assembly line in Stans, Switzerland, it said, with the first delivery slated to be made to U.S. fractional aircraft ownership company PlaneSense this month before that plane is flown to the United States in January. In total, 23 deliveries are planned though 2018, it said. Sources in 2016 said that Pilatus was considering a possible IPO. Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pilatusaircraft-jet-costs/pilatus-jet-development-far-exceeded-planned-costs-nzz-interview-idUKKBN1E30CZ'|'2017-12-09T13:47:00.000+02:00'
'110a2364cd2c48a5f0aade9d371b6508936a9047'|'Stock futures sluggish; eyes on tax bill talks and General Electric'|'December 7, 2017 / 12:27 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Wall Street rising: Facebook, Alphabet, Lululemon gain Noel Randewich 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Thursday, buoyed by popular technology companies including Facebook and Alphabet, while shares of yoga pants seller Lululemon Athletica also worked up a sweat. FILE PHOTO - Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Facebook ( FB.O ) climbed 2.31 percent, while Google parent-company Alphabet ( GOOGL.O ) added 1.23 percent, helping the S&P 500 end higher after the index lost ground for four straight sessions. “Technology once again is leading the way here,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York. The top-performing sector this year, the S&P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT had fallen nearly 3 percent since Nov. 28, with some investors cautious about high earnings multiples. Lululemon ( LULU.O ) jumped 6.43 percent after the Canadian apparel maker reported a higher-than-expected profit and gave an upbeat holiday season forecast. General Electric ( GE.N ) increased about 0.3 percent after the industrial conglomerate said it was cutting 12,000 jobs at its global power business. Strong earnings and expectations of corporate tax cuts promised by President Donald Trump have pushed stocks up to record levels this year. The Senate Republicans on Wednesday agreed to talks with the House of Representatives on the tax bill amid early signs that lawmakers could agree on a final bill ahead of a self-imposed Dec. 22 deadline. Thursday’s stock gains suggested investors were not overly worried about a deadline on Friday night faced by Trump and Congress to pass fresh spending legislation. If they cannot agree on the terms, parts of the federal government could shut down. “Market participants are looking past the government shutdown,” said Chad Morganlander, portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors in Florham Park, New Jersey. “It’s a risk-on mood through the last trading session. That will continue into the weekend.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.29 percent to end at 24,211.48 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.29 percent to 2,636.98. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.54 percent to 6,812.84. Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were higher, with industrial .SPLRCI and materials indexes .SPLRCM leading the gainers. The S&P 500 consumer staples index .SPLRCS fell 0.93 percent, hurt by drops of at least 1.2 percent in Procter & Gamble ( PG.N ), Pepsico ( PEP.N ) and Coca-Cola ( KO.N ). LendingClub ( LC.N ) plunged 15.53 percent after the online lender lowered its quarterly revenue forecast. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting a rapid tightening of the labor market. The report comes ahead of more comprehensive government payrolls data on Friday that would be used by investors to gauge the strength of the labor market at a time when the Federal Reserve is almost certain to raise U.S. interest rates next week. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.70-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.75-to-1 ratio favored advancers. About 6.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.6 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data. (This version of the story corrects day of week to Friday, not Thursday, in ninth paragraph) Additional reporting by April Joyner in New York and by Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/stock-futures-sluggish-eyes-on-tax-bill-talks-and-general-electric-idUSKBN1E11NG'|'2017-12-07T14:27:00.000+02:00'
'171420a601133a8be43ba1aa6ced1f7d0daad2f9'|'Honeywell to buy 25 percent of Chinese supply chain software firm'|'(Reuters) - Industrial conglomerate Honeywell ( HON.N ) will take a 25 percent stake in Chinese software provider Flux Information Technology, placing a long-term bet on China’s rapidly growing logistics industry.A Honeywell logo is pictured on the company booth during the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) at Cointrin airport in Geneva, Switzerland, May 24, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo New Jersey-based Honeywell said on Thursday it would also form a joint venture with Flux that will serve customers outside China in the Asia-Pacific region.Honeywell, which makes everything from jet engines to personal safety gear, will own 75 percent of the venture.The companies did not disclose further financial terms.Flux makes warehouse management systems and software, managing more than 12 million square meters (129 million square feet) of warehouse space in China.Its business has been driven significantly by booming Chinese e-commerce, whose Internet-based sales require a huge increase in courier firms’ abilities to deliver.The deal will boost Honeywell’s safety and productivity business — its smallest by revenue — that makes supply chain and warehouse automation software and equipment.It also aligns with Honeywell’s strategy of seeking deals in the supply chain and freight management sectors.The company spent $1.5 billion last year to buy Intelligrated Inc, which provides automated material handling equipment to warehouses.Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-flux-stake-honeywell-intl/honeywell-to-buy-25-percent-of-chinese-supply-chain-software-firm-idUSKBN1E12FJ'|'2017-12-07T19:10:00.000+02:00'
'd2a80a73a5a09645f0890c29ecf177ca613d699c'|'German SPD leader takes aim at U.S. tech giants'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) took aim at U.S. technology firms Apple, Facebook and Google on Thursday, saying a strong Europe was needed to make sure they stick to the rules. Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Martin Schulz walks onto a podium during an SPD party convention in Berlin, Germany, December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Martin Schulz, who hopes to persuade his party to approve talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on forming a new coalition, told a congress of his SPD party that Ireland was complicit in allowing companies like Apple to avoid billions of euros in tax. He also called for the creation of a European finance minister, who should fight tax evasion by reining in the race to the bottom in tax policy among member states. “Only a strong Europe can force platform giants like Facebook and Google to respect our rules and basic rights,” he said. Reporting by Thomas Escritt, writing by Emma Thomasson, editing by Michelle Martin '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-politics-tax/german-spd-leader-takes-aim-at-u-s-tech-giants-idUSKBN1E11IA'|'2017-12-07T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'56469c9687ba803a282153faefe0fb5ba65bd891'|'HNA looks to float Swiss Gategroup early next year -sources'|'FRANKFURT/ZURICH, Dec 8 (Reuters) - China’s HNA Group, which has started selling off assets to allay liquidity concerns, is pushing for a flotation of its Swiss airline caterer Gategroup Holding early next year, people close to the matter said.The company may attract a valuation of more than 10 times its expected core earnings -- or more than 2 billion Swiss francs ($2 billion) including debt -- in an initial public offering, the people said.Bought by HNA last year for $1.5 billion, Gategroup is aiming to list in Zurich at the beginning of the second quarter and expects to complete its line-up of advisers soon.HNA is expected to float a stake of around 50 percent with a view to reaping the maximum proceeds from the deal, while retaining control.Credit Suisse and UBS are organising the planned IPO as what are known as global coordinators.While banks usually rush to pitch for mandates including the more junior bookrunners and co-lead managers, a number of banks declined when asked if they wanted to be part of the consortium of IPO organisers because of concerns over HNA.HNA’s buying binge worth more than $50 billion over two years has prompted increased scrutiny from regulators and bankers due to announced changes to HNA’s shareholding structure and its use of leverage.Swiss regulators have announced they are evaluating what they see as “untrue” or “incomplete” information given by the Chinese group during its takeover of Gategroup in 2016. HNA said that it had provided all necessary information“Especially U.S.-based banks have said that they will not offer any services on reputational issues,” a person close to the matter said. Another person said that some European banks are also avoiding HNA.Gategroup declined to comment, while HNA was not immediately available for comment.HNA Group on Friday sought to allay growing concerns that the conglomerate is facing a liquidity crunch and may need to dispose some recent acquisitions, including stakes in Deutsche Bank and Hilton.Zhao Quan, head of HNA’s tourism division and the group’s newest board member, told Reuters that adjustments in the group’s portfolio have started but that the company was not selling its holdings “blindly”.While HNA’s controlling stake may deter some investors Gategroup is poised to benefit from high investor demand in initial public offerings, they added.Gategroup posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 200.5 million Swiss francs in 2016.In January, the company acquired 49.9 percent in peer Servair, after a string of other deals in 2016. ($1 = 0.9947 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Andreas Cremer and Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-hna-gategroup-holdg/hna-looks-to-float-swiss-gategroup-early-next-year-sources-idUSL8N1O82O5'|'2017-12-08T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'0dfc97467ecbfda6e93f8f0cb3b338a65c6c80c0'|'U.S. job growth strong in November, wages rebound'|'December 8, 2017 / 1:45 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago U.S. job growth strong in November, wages rebound Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth increased at a strong clip in November and wages rebounded, painting a portrait of a healthy economy that analysts say does not require the kind of fiscal stimulus that President Donald Trump is proposing. People wait in line to enter the Nassau County Mega Job Fair at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, U.S. October 7, 2014. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo Nonfarm payrolls rose by 228,000 jobs last month amid broad gains in hiring as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded, Labor Department data showed on Friday. Data for October was revised to show the economy adding 244,000 jobs instead of the previously reported 261,000. Employment gains in October were boosted by the return to work of thousands of employees who had been temporarily dislocated by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. November’s report was the first clean reading since the storms, which also impacted September’s employment data. Average hourly earnings rose five cents or 0.2 percent in November after dipping 0.1 percent the prior month. That lifted the annual increase in wages to 2.5 percent from 2.3 percent in October. Workers also put in more hours last month. The average workweek rose to 34.5 hours from 34.4 hours in October. The unemployment rate was unchanged at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent amid a rise in the labour force. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising by 200,000 jobs last month. The upbeat report underscored the economy’s strength and could fuel criticism of efforts by Trump and his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress to slash the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. “The labour market is in great shape. Tax cuts should be used when the economy needs tax cuts and it doesn’t need tax cuts right now,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “When politics and economics are mixed in the stew, the policies that are created often have a very awful smell,” Naroff said before the report was published. Republicans argue that the proposed tax cut package will boost the economy and allow companies to hire more workers. But with the labour market near full employment and companies reporting difficulties finding qualified workers, most economists disagree. Job openings are near a record high. The economy grew at a 3.3 percent annualised rate in the third quarter, the fastest in three years. FULL EMPLOYMENT While November’s employment report will probably have little impact on expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its Dec. 12-13 policy meeting, it could help shape the debate on monetary policy next year. The U.S. central bank has increased borrowing costs twice this year and has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. Employment growth has averaged 174,000 jobs per month this year, down from the average monthly gain of 187,000 in 2016. A slowdown in job growth is normal when the labour market nears full employment. The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The unemployment rate has declined by seven-tenths of a percentage point this year. Economists believe that the tightening labour market will unleash a faster pace of wage growth next year. That, combined with the tax cuts, would help to boost inflation. The growth in employment was broad in November. Construction payrolls increased by 24,000 jobs, thanks in part to rebuilding efforts in the areas devastated by the hurricanes, after rising 10,000 in October. Manufacturing scored another month of solid job gains, with payrolls increasing by 31,000 jobs after rising 23,000 in the prior month. Retail payrolls grew by 18,700 jobs last month, the largest gain since January, likely boosted by hiring for the holiday season. Retailers, including Macy’s Inc, reported strong Black Friday sales. Macy’s said this month it would hire an additional 7,000 temporary workers for its stores to deal with heavy customer traffic in the run-up to Christmas. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-job-growth-strong-in-november-wages-rebound-idUKKBN1E21RZ'|'2017-12-08T15:45:00.000+02:00'
'05eb1908c8fc1c2834b98bfd62e846474a571f94'|'Digital currency exchange NiceHash says bitcoin worth nearly $64 million hacked'|'Reuters TV United States December 7, 2017 / 3:24 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Digital currency exchange NiceHash says bitcoin worth nearly $64 million hacked Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency marketplace NiceHash said the contents of its bitcoin wallet had been stolen in a security breach and one executive said nearly $64 million had been lost. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo NiceHash head of marketing Andrej P. Škraba told Reuters on Thursday that the hack was “a highly professional attack with sophisticated social engineering” and that about 4,700 bitcoin, worth about $63.92 million at current prices, were lost. He said the company was co-operating with local authorities but declined to give more information. Earlier, Slovenia-based NiceHash said in a statement posted on its website that it had halted operations for 24 hours as it investigated the breach. NiceHash is a digital currency marketplace that matches people looking to sell processing time on their computers in exchange for the digital currency bitcoin. NiceHash advised users to change online passwords, saying it was still trying to understand what had happened during the incident. “We understand that you will have a lot of questions, and we ask for patience and understanding while we investigate the causes and find the appropriate solutions for the future of the service,” the company said in its statement. Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore and Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Jim Finkle and Raju Gopalakrishnan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-nicehash/digital-currency-exchange-nicehash-says-bitcoin-worth-nearly-64-million-hacked-idUKKBN1E10AQ'|'2017-12-07T05:21:00.000+02:00'
'b307b193ca92c5b5471fa94320447184f2e07ca5'|'Court acquits three former Monte dei Paschi managers in derivatives case'|'December 7, 2017 / 5:54 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Court acquits three former Monte dei Paschi managers in derivatives case Silvia Ognibene 3 Min Read FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian court on Thursday acquitted three former managers of Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( BMPS.MI ) of charges that they obstructed regulators and misled authorities over a 2009 derivatives trade that prosecutors said was used to conceal losses. FILE PHOTO - A man walks on a logo of the Monte Dei Paschi Di Siena bank in Rome, Italy September 24, 2013. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo The appeals court in Florence, near the home town of Italy’s fourth-biggest bank, scrapped jail sentences handed down by a lower court for former chairman Giuseppe Mussari, ex-chief executive Antonio Vigni and one-time finance boss Gianluca Baldassari. The appeals court said the accused were acquitted because no crime had been committed. The previous court ruling had called for jail terms of three years and six months for each of the men for allegedly hiding a document relating to the transaction with Japanese bank Nomura. The three executives are still on trial in Milan in relation to that derivatives trade and other transactions for alleged market rigging, false accounting and obstruction of regulators. The three men have always denied any wrongdoing. In the Florence case, defence lawyers said regulators had access to all the necessary information to understand the scope of the derivatives operation. Prosecutors had argued that the executives had not disclosed to the Bank of Italy a key document which was later found in a safe by Vigni’s successor, Fabrizio Viola. Prosecutors have said that the document, a contract known as mandate agreement, was essential for supervisors to be able to understand the nature of the transaction. But the defence said another document, which the Bank of Italy did possess, contained all the necessary information. “The key element was the discovery of the deed of amendment which has the same contents as the mandate agreement,” Baldassarri’s lawyer Filippo Dinacci said last month, while the case was ongoing. “Bank of Italy inspectors had it and the appeals court acquired it.” Baldassarri, speaking after the verdict on Thursday, said: “We did not obstruct regulators, it’s as if somebody had put an elephant in the living room and tried to convince guests it was a sofa.” Thursday’s verdict could lead to more criticism of the Bank of Italy, which has already come under fire together with market watchdog Consob in the wake of a string of bank failures over the past few years. “This trial shows that with a more careful analysis, supervisors would have spotted the connections,” said Alessio Villarosa, a member of the populist 5-Star Movement who sits on the parliamentary committee that is investigating recent banking crises. Reporting by Silvia Ognibene, writing by Isla Binnie and Valentina Za. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-italy-banks-monte-dei-paschi-sentence/court-acquits-three-former-monte-dei-paschi-managers-in-derivatives-case-idUKKBN1E12L2'|'2017-12-07T19:52:00.000+02:00'
'd506fda6bda1ae4363914ddfde81b83b7561bbdf'|'General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp'|'EU sets Sunday deadline for May to cut deal wider image Trump''s first year in office marked by controversy and protests Hamas calls for Palestinian uprising against Israel Reuters TV United States December 7, 2017 / 11:35 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp John Revill 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - General Electric Co ( GE.N ) announced on Thursday it was axing 12,000 jobs at its global power business as the struggling industrial conglomerate responds to dwindling demand for fossil fuel power plants. The logo of General Electric is seen at its plant in Baden, Switzerland November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The U.S. company launched the cuts to save $1 billion in 2018, saying it expected current difficulties in the sector to continue. “Traditional power markets including gas and coal have softened,” GE said. Rumors of sweeping job cuts were confirmed by labor union sources on Wednesday, with staff in Switzerland and Germany among those badly hit. “This decision was painful but necessary for GE Power to respond to the disruption in the power market, which is driving significantly lower volumes in products and services,” said Russell Stokes, head of GE Power. “Power will remain a work in progress in 2018. We expect market challenges to continue, but this plan will position us for 2019 and beyond.” A third of the company’s Swiss workforce face layoffs, while 16 percent of its staff in Germany are also likely to be axed in the shake up. GE said it had begun talks with labor leaders about the steps. Demand for new thermal power plants dramatically dropped in all rich countries, GE said, while traditional utility customers have reduced their investments due to market deterioration and uncertainty about future climate policy measures. Hardly any new power station projects had been commissioned in Germany in recent years, GE said. Heightened Asian competition had also increased price pressures. Last month, General Electric CEO John Flannery outlined plans to reduce the manufacturing footprint of GE’s power business to respond to a sharp fall in demand for fossil fuel power equipment. GE had not specified how many jobs would be cut or where. GE rival Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ) is cutting about 6,900 jobs, or close to 2 percent of its global workforce, mainly at its power and gas division, which has been hit by the rapid growth of renewables. Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge-jobs/ge-to-cut-12000-jobs-in-power-business-bloomberg-idUKKBN1E11GU'|'2017-12-07T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'0324652863de1a805d6893d87939bfcb4d977516'|'Some Japanese aluminium buyers agree Q1 premium at $103/T, up 8-10 pct from Q4 -sources'|'TOKYO, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Some Japanese aluminium buyers have agreed to pay some global producers a premium of $103 per tonne for shipments in the January to March quarter, reflecting higher spot premiums, two sources directly involved in the pricing talks said on Thursday.The new premium is between 8.4 percent and 9.6 percent higher than the $94 to $95 per tonne premiums PREM-ALUM-JP in the current quarter. The rise is the first in three quarters.Japan is Asia’s biggest importer of aluminium and the premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to pay each quarter over the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price set the benchmark for the region. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Tom Hogue) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-aluminium-premiums/some-japanese-aluminium-buyers-agree-q1-premium-at-103-t-up-8-10-pct-from-q4-sources-idUSL3N1O72ZB'|'2017-12-07T10:38:00.000+02:00'
'b7db69ccc332fee8db9b2d3367389b88375d456f'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi bounces from technical support, region mostly sluggish'|'December 7, 2017 / 2:13 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi bounces from technical support, region mostly sluggish Reuters Staff * Saudi climbs from near 200-day average * Dar Al Arkan continues to soar in heavy trade * Saudi Kayan, several other petchems jump * Dubai almost flat but Emaar Development hits new low * Qatar’s Ezdan pulls back sharply after rally By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Most Middle Eastern stock markets were sluggish on Thursday but Saudi Arabia’s index rebounded from technical support in its heaviest trading volume since June. The Saudi index rose 0.9 percent to 7,086 points, bouncing from near strong support around 7,000 points, where the peaks in late October and November roughly coincide with the 200-day average, now at 7,015 points. The most heavily traded stock, real estate firm Dar Al Arkan , climbed 8.3 percent to 12.88 riyals in its heaviuest trade since June. It has rocketed from around 7.50 riyals in mid-November, when MSCI said it was adding the stock to its Saudi Arabia Index. Several petrochemical firms jumped, with Saudi Kayan soaring 9.9 percent, Chemanol up 6.8 percent and PetroRabigh up 5.0 percent. Amiantit jumped 9.7 percent in its heaviest trade since 2012 after saying a 50 percent owned affiliate had won a five-year, 100 million riyal ($26.7 million) contract to manage water utility services in Jeddah. In Dubai, the index edged down 0.03 percent. Emaar Properties DU> rebounded 2.0 percent but its unit Emaar Development continued to slide, falling 3.8 percent to a record low of 5.34 dirhams, compared to last month’s initial public offer price of 6.03 dirhams. Qatar’s index dropped 0.3 percent after sinking 1.5 percent on Wednesday. Real estate firm Ezdan Holding, which had been rebounding strongly in recent days, fell back 7.8 percent. The Qatari market surged early this week on hopes for progress in resolving Qatar’s diplomatic dispute with four other Arab states. But those hopes were dashed when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in an apparent snub of Qatar, did not send their heads of state to this week’s regional summit in Kuwait. HIGHLIGHTS * The index rose 0.9 percent to 7,086 points. DUBAI * The index edged down 0.03 percent to 3,393 points. ABU DHABI * The index dropped 0.8 percent to 4,277 points. QATAR * The index fell 0.3 percent to 7,774 points. EGYPT * The index slipped 0.3 percent to 14,297 points. KUWAIT * The index sank 0.2 percent to 6,187 points. BAHRAIN * The index rose 0.2 percent to 1,267 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-saudi-bounces-from-technical-support-region-mostly-sluggish-idUSL8N1O72ZY'|'2017-12-07T16:12:00.000+02:00'
'a97453ac0e7467f23de61c9fc6c7becd3e7a8d1e'|'EU, Japan conclude world''s largest free trade agreement'|'December 8, 2017 / 1:26 PM / Updated 6 hours ago EU, Japan conclude world''s largest free trade agreement Philip Blenkinsop 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union and Japan concluded negotiations on a free trade deal to create the world’s largest open economic area, signalling their rejection of the more protectionist stance of U.S. President Donald Trump. European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom addresses a news conference on the trade package in Brussels, Belgium September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The two parties, who agreed the outlines of a deal in July, said on Friday negotiators had now finished a legal text that would open up trade for economies making up about 30 percent of global output. “Japan and the EU will join hands and build a free, fair and rule-based economic zone, which will be a model of an economic order in the international community in the 21st century,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. Japan had been one of the signatories to the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive 12-nation trade alliance that Trump ditched on his first day in office. Abe said a “new era” would now start for the EU and Japan. The deal, combining the 28-nation bloc and the world’s third largest economy, will remove EU tariffs of 10 percent tariffs on Japanese cars and the 3 percent rate typically applied to car parts. For the EU, it will scrap Japanese duties of some 30 percent on EU cheese and 15 percent on wines as well as allowing it to increase its beef and pork exports and gain access to large public tenders in Japan. Japan''s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Imperial Household Agency in Tokyo, Japan December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai “This is the biggest trade agreement we have ever negotiated for the European Union,” EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said. “It sends a powerful message in defence of open trade based on global rules.” In the past five months, negotiators worked on stabilising tariffs in services, regulatory cooperation and the means to protect food and drink categories so that, for example, only sparkling wines from a specific Italian region can be called prosecco. Discussions will continue on the contentious issue of investor protection. Japan has been reluctant to adopt the investment court system the EU has devised as an answer to fierce criticism that disputes between foreign companies and states should not be settled by opaque tribunals. “This needs further discussion at the beginning of next year but the rest of the agreement is there,” Malmstrom said, adding this element of the deal could be added on later. The European Union is also hoping to seal free trade agreements with the Mexico and the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Talks on the latter will take place on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization meeting starting on Sunday. “The fact that we manage to finalise this today when we and Japan go to Buenos Aires sends a powerful signal that we can make good trade agreements that are win-win,” she said. Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-eu-trade/eu-japan-conclude-worlds-largest-free-trade-agreement-idUKKBN1E21QH'|'2017-12-08T15:25:00.000+02:00'
'639fe91827ec256d5bfb72ec9d2d214ff3b83712'|'Dover to spin off upstream energy businesses'|'(Reuters) - Dover Corp ( DOV.N ) said on Thursday it plans to spin off its upstream energy businesses into a new publicly traded company, nearly two months after activist investor Daniel Loeb urged the industrial equipment maker to separate its energy business.Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point, which bought a stake in Dover during the third quarter, said in October that the company’s shares underperformed the industrial peer group due to a significant earnings decline in its energy business.Third Point owned 1.06 percent of Dover’s outstanding shares as of Sept. 30, according to Thomson Reuters data.The upstream energy businesses, collectively called Wellsite, make oil and gas production equipment and diamond cutters used in oil and gas exploration.The company’s energy business has struggled as exploration companies scale back projects amid a slide in global oil prices.Wellsite is expected to generate about $1 billion in annual revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $250 million on a pro-forma basis in 2017.The spin off will be tax-free to Dover shareholders and allow Dover to focus on growing its other three businesses - engineered systems, fluid management, and refrigeration and food equipment.The three businesses make products including precision marking and coding equipment used for fast-moving consumer goods, pumps and compressors used for fluids transfer, and kitchen ventilation systems and beverage can-making machinery.Wellsite is expected to raise $700 million to $800 million of debt, which will be paid to Dover in the form of a dividend.Dover said it expects share repurchases of $1 billion in 2018, including the use of cash from the Wellsite dividend.Sivasankaran Somasundaram, chief executive of the Dover Energy segment, will head Wellsite upon completion of the spin off by the second quarter of 2018.Dover said it expects to record $60 million to $65 million in restructuring costs, mainly in the fourth quarter. The costs include headcount reductions and facility closures.Dover said in September it was exploring strategic alternatives, including a sale, for its upstream energy unit, and in the next month the company had estimated restructuring costs of $40 million to $45 million.The restructuring actions are expected to result in benefits of about $50 million in 2018, the company said, up from $40 million estimated earlier.Up to Thursday’s close, Dover’s shares had risen 29 percent this year, compared with a 32.1 percent increase in the Dow Jones U.S. Industrial Engineering index .DJUSIQ.Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-dover-divestiture/dover-to-spin-off-upstream-energy-businesses-idINKBN1E130E'|'2017-12-07T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'e1881da5fc834e4a894cd05682c78122a66d93ab'|'Old Mutual unit picks banks for $3.35 billion flotation: sources'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo-South African financial services firm Old Mutual ( OML.L )’s UK wealth unit has chosen Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), JP Morgan ( JPM.N ) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) to lead its initial public offering (IPO) next year, banking and advisory sources said.FILE PHOTO - The Cape Town headquarters of Anglo-South African financial services company Old Mutual are shown in this picture taken March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings The Old Mutual Wealth flotation is one of several legs in the process of splitting parent Old Mutual into four parts.Before the listing, Old Mutual Wealth plans to sell its single-strategy asset management division, Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI), led by veteran investor Richard Buxton.The IPO, which is taking place alongside a demerger of the unit in June 2018, would value the business at about 2.5 billion pounds ($3.35 billion), assuming the OMGI sale goes ahead, two of the sources told Reuters.Old Mutual Wealth’s pre-tax adjusted operating profit rose by 29 percent in the first half to 134 million pounds.Analysts at KBW and a second source who declined to be named said the IPO would involve 10 percent of the company.Old Mutual, whose businesses including banking, insurance and asset management, has said it is breaking itself up because regulatory change makes the company too complex to run in its current form.In addition to the planned demerger and IPO of Old Mutual Wealth, the break-up involves selling U.S. firm Old Mutual Asset Management ( OMAM.N ), listing Old Mutual’s emerging markets unit and reducing its stake in South Africa’s Nedbank ( NEDJ.J ).The break-up, initiated last year by Chief Executive Bruce Hemphill within months of joining Old Mutual, will land him a maximum 1,000 percent bonus of his 900,000 pound 2016 salary if completed successfully. But, with many moving parts to the process, some analysts see considerable execution risk.Australian bank Macquarie ( MQG.AX ) and private equity firm TA Associates were top contenders to buy Old Mutual Wealth’s OMGI unit, two sources said, which is expected to have a price tag of about 500 million pounds.OMGI CEO Buxton favored the approach from TA Associates but Macquarie was seen as frontrunner by the wealth unit, they said.Initial bids were due in by the end of September but the process has been slow and Old Mutual Wealth was unlikely to move to exclusive talks this year, one of the sources said.Old Mutual Wealth could also choose to abandon the sale and keep OMGI, two sources said.The U.S. banks mandated for the IPO declined to comment. Old Mutual Wealth, Macquarie, TA Associates and Richard Buxton also declined to comment.On Thursday Old Mutual closed at 197.6 pence, 8.6 percent above the closing price on the day it announced its break-up.($1 = 0.7456 pounds)Writing by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-old-mutual-wealth-ipo/old-mutual-unit-picks-banks-for-3-35-billion-flotation-sources-idINKBN1E12O8'|'2017-12-07T15:22:00.000+02:00'
'23766cb6d35c0f1de2f50a8e0c57f3e948a905e1'|'Uniper sees M&A opportunities in gas-fired power business'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy firm Uniper ( UN01.DE ) sees scope for small takeovers in the area of gas-fired power assets, chief financial officer Christopher Delbrueck told investors and journalists on Thursday.A logo of the German energy utility company Uniper SE is pictured at their headquarters in Duesseldorf, Germany April 19, 2016. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The group, which presented an updated strategy that includes a dividend increase of 24 percent for 2018, earlier this week said it could make deals in the low triple-digit million euro range, leaving open in which areas it could buy.($1 = 0.8482 euros)Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert; Editing by Victoria Bryan '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-outlook-m-a/uniper-sees-ma-opportunities-in-gas-fired-power-business-idUSKBN1E111L'|'2017-12-07T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'76956d794d5fb5a47386e4353f4f17ab0eed12e1'|'Strong November U.S. job gains anticipated; wages seen rising'|'December 8, 2017 / 5:06 AM / Updated an hour ago Strong November U.S. job gains anticipated; wages seen rising Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth likely increased at a strong clip in November and wages rebounded as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded, creating a portrait of a healthy economy that analysts say does not require the kind of fiscal stimulus that President Donald Trump is proposing. According to a Reuters survey of economists, the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday will likely show that nonfarm payrolls rose by 200,000 jobs last month after surging 261,000 in October. Employment gains in October were boosted by the return to work of thousands of employees who had been temporarily dislocated by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. November’s report will be the first clean reading since the storms, which also impacted September’s employment data. The unemployment rate is forecast to be unchanged at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Average hourly earnings are expected to have risen 0.3 percent in November after being flat the prior month. That would lift the annual increase in wages to 2.7 percent from 2.4 percent in October. Readings in line with expectations would underscore the economy’s strength and fuel criticism of efforts by Trump and his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress to cut the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. “The labor market is in great shape. Tax cuts should be used when the economy needs tax cuts and it doesn’t need tax cuts right now,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “When politics and economics are mixed in the stew, the policies that are created often have a very awful smell.” Republicans argue that the proposed tax cut package will boost the economy and allow companies to hire more workers. But with the labor market near full employment and companies reporting difficulties finding qualified workers, economists disagree. Job openings are near a record high. “Companies want workers and do not need tax cuts to give them the financial wherewithal to hire more workers,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “It’s labor, that the economy is running out of.” The economy grew at a 3.3 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, the fastest in three years. FULL EMPLOYMENT While November’s employment report will probably have little impact on expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its Dec. 12-13 policy meeting, it could help shape the debate on monetary policy next year. The U.S. central bank has increased borrowing costs twice this year. It has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. Job growth has averaged 168,000 jobs per month this year, down from the average monthly gain of 187,000 in 2016. A slowdown in job growth is normal when the labor market nears full employment. The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The unemployment rate has declined by seven-tenths of a percentage point this year. Economists believe that the tightening labor market will unleash a faster pace of wage growth next year. That, combined with the tax cuts, would help boost inflation. “I think that in the next three to six months we will see a broader uptick in wage pressures,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Atlantic Trust in Baltimore. “Given where we are in the economic cycle, if you throw some gasoline in the fire with fiscal stimulus, that will ultimately spark some higher inflation.” Employment gains were likely broad in November. Construction payrolls are expected to show strong growth, thanks in part to rebuilding efforts in the areas devastated by the hurricanes. Another month of steady increases is expected in manufacturing employment, while hiring for the holiday season likely boosted retail payrolls. Retailers, including Macy’s Inc, ( M.N ) reported strong Black Friday sales. Macy’s said this month it would hire an additional 7,000 temporary workers for its stores to deal with heavy customer traffic in the run up to Christmas. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/strong-november-u-s-job-gains-anticipated-wages-seen-rising-idUKKBN1E20GF'|'2017-12-08T07:04:00.000+02:00'
'fed4b852d7de40cac2f55b90cdecbc3cd5467e55'|'EU rules most U.S. "dark pools" out of MiFID II stock exchange pact'|'December 8, 2017 / 9:52 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago EU rules most U.S. "dark pools" out of MiFID II stock exchange pact Francesco Guarascio 3 Min Read BRUSSELS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Concerns about U.S. alternative exchanges known as “dark pools” have prompted the European Commission to cut the number which will have access to European Union markets when new rules come into force in January, documents seen by Reuters show. The European Union and the U.S. have already clinched an informal deal on mutual recognition to avoid disruptions for investors after the European Union’s MiFID II market rules become operational on Jan. 3, EU sources said. But the EU decision to grant equivalence to U.S. trading venues has been delayed because of opposition in some EU member states to including more than 80 U.S. dark pools, private exchanges usually set up by investment banks to trade large quantities of securities away from the public eye. Under equivalence decisions, the EU recognises that rules of foreign jurisdictions have the same objectives as EU provisions, granting foreign operators access to its markets and vice-versa. Dark pools are often criticised for their lack of transparency and to win over resistance the commission has now trimmed the number it regards as equivalent to 33, clearing the main hurdle to completing the bigger deal, which is now considered only a formality, according to several EU officials. If there was no accord before the end of the year, it would prevent EU investors from accessing more than 20 U.S. regular trading venues, such as Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange, which will be granted the equivalence status, according to the draft decision which has remained unchanged on this matter. After pressure from EU states and lawmakers, the Commission decided to include only alternative exchanges that trade in shares “that are admitted to one of the U.S. national exchanges”, an EU executive’s document said. This “will avoid significant liquidity being diverted away from European exchanges,” vice chairman of the EU parliament’s economic committee Markus Ferber said, adding it “will prevent U.S. dark pools from being the big winners of MiFID II”. The dark pools of large banks, like JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and UBS, are still included in the draft equivalence decision. Alternative venues trading mostly in sovereign bonds and other securities, like the Nasdaq Fixed Income, were excluded, according to the revised list of entities covered. Equivalence decisions are subject to regular scrutiny and may be revoked if foreign jurisdictions’ rules change in ways that make them incompatible with EU rules. To quell concerns from some EU states, the commission added a specific clause for “a review process” after one year to assess the impact on liquidity on European exchanges. A similar equivalence decision for Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange and BX Swiss is still pending, as EU states have not yet approved the draft proposal submitted by the EU executive. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Alexander Smith)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-mifid-usa/eu-rules-most-u-s-dark-pools-out-of-mifid-ii-stock-exchange-pact-idUSL8N1O75YE'|'2017-12-08T11:51:00.000+02:00'
'dd1f0132bd1bde3dafd925abccba2e6c8120adbd'|'Wall Street opens lower as tech stocks fall'|'(Reuters) - The S&P 500 fell marginally on Wednesday, with modest gains in Microsoft and other technology stocks not quite offsetting losses in energy shares after oil prices dropped more than 2 percent.A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 39.73 points, or 0.16 percent, to 24,140.91, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.3 point, or 0.01 percent, to 2,629.27 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 14.16 points, or 0.21 percent, to 6,776.38.The S&P fell for a fourth straight session, a streak not seen since mid-March.Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Nick Zieminski '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-opens-lower-as-tech-stocks-fall-idINKBN1E01YZ'|'2017-12-06T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'd46b8b134683f6532c1451af6d3a9c91f41b93bf'|'Potash CEO meets with Chilean government amid stake sale'|'SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Chief Executive Officer Jochen Tilk met on Thursday with authorities in Chile as the Canadian fertilizer company tries to divest its minority stake in Chilean lithium miner SQM ahead of its proposed merger with rival Agrium Inc.FILE PHOTO - Jochen Tilk, who takes over as Potash Corp''s chief executive officer in July, attends the company''s annual general meeting in Saskatoon, May 15, 2014. REUTERS/Derek Mortensen Tilk met with Eduardo Bitran, head of Chilean government development agency Corfo, which has been embroiled in a legal dispute over mining royalties with SQM since May 2014. Corfo has demanded early termination of SQM’s SQM_pb.SN lease in the Salar de Atacama, home to some of the world’s most productive lithium deposits.The price of lithium, an essential ingredient for batteries used in electric vehicles, has risen sharply this year.Tilk and Bitran declined to comment after the meeting at Corfo’s offices in Santiago.Potash’s move to sell its 32 percent stake in SQM, a condition regulators in India and China have set for the Agrium merger, comes amid the Chilean miner’s ongoing arbitration with its home country’s government.Talks to resolve the dispute ended at an impasse in October, leaving the fate of the company’s lease of lithium reserves to a judge.Tilk said in October that Potash had received significant interest from potential buyers of the SQM stake.Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sqm-m-a-potashcorp/potash-ceo-meets-with-chilean-government-amid-stake-sale-idINKBN1E12PR'|'2017-12-07T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'9f16f5fa5f519ce8150aacf0342678178d4e66e8'|'LPC-GVC increases and amends term loan debt'|'LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - GVC Holdings, the multinational sports betting and gaming group, has increased a term loan by €50m, reduced pricing and amended documentation to enable considerable operational and financial flexibility, it announced on Thursday.The financing coincides with an announcement that GVC has offered to buy Ladbrokes Coral for up to US$5.2bn to create a global online and high street betting giant able to take on rivals and cope with a tougher regulatory environment.The amended, covenant-lite documentation contains provisions that could make it easier for GVC to incur more debt and make acquisitions, banking sources said.”Theoretically the changes will help them,” one of the sources said.Bankers are starting to work on debt packages to back GVC’s potential acquisition of Ladbrokes Coral, although the gaming sector will put some banks off the deal, the sources said.As a result of its latest financing, GVC’s term loan, which originally signed in March 2017, was increased to €300m. The additional €50m raised will be used for potential bolt-on acquisitions and general corporate purposes.Nomura and Deutsche Bank led the deal, which has reduced the interest margin by 50bp to 275bp over Euribor at par, from 325bp over Euribor.An accordion facility, which allows the incurrence of incremental debt subject to a net leverage test, has been increased from 2.25 times to 3.5 times.The company also has a €70m revolving credit facility and there are no plans to draw on it at this time, the company said.GVC, which has 79 million registered accounts and operates in 21 languages through names such as sportingbet and partypoker, previously bought bwin.party in 2016. (Editing by Christopher Mangham) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gvc-leveraged-loans/lpc-gvc-increases-and-amends-term-loan-debt-idINL8N1O73M1'|'2017-12-07T09:12:00.000+02:00'
'860365a607c394ed92e39f2164ba278e59ebe05e'|'UPDATE 1-Ex-BT Italy boss wins $2 mln for wrongful dismissal - sources'|'(Adds BT’s right to appeal in paragraph 6)By Emilio ParodiMILAN, Dec 7 (Reuters) - A manager at the centre of investigations into an accounting scandal at British Telecom’s Italian business has been awarded almost 1.8 million euros ($2.1 million) in damages for wrongful dismissal, three legal sources said.Gianluca Cimini was fired for disciplinary reasons last year, months before the phone company filed a criminal complaint accusing him of grave violations of corporate governance. The accusations arose from its investigation of alleged accounting fraud that cost the firm 530 million pounds ($690 million).An Italian labour tribunal ruled that the manager’s dismissal was both “illegitimate” and “unfounded”, one source said, quoting the judge’s summary of his decision.Full reasons for the ruling, which was made on Wednesday, will be issued within 15 days.“We’re extremely disappointed with this decision,” a BT spokesman said in an email, adding that the firm would not comment further until the full judgement was available.BT can appeal the ruling but must immediately pay the damages, which can only be recouped if the decision is overturned. It was also ordered to pay Cimini’s legal fees.Cimini, formerly BT Italy CEO, and several other former top managers remain under investigation by Italian prosecutors on allegations of alleged fraud. The civil case involving Cimini is separate from the criminal investigation.All the accused have always denied any wrongdoing.Cimini’s lawyer, Angelo Zambelli, confirmed the wrongful dismissal ruling.“That’s a courageous sentence which leaves us fully satisfied and which I believe will reinstate Mr Cimini’s reputation and professional decorum that was taken away from him a year ago,” Zambelli said.The accounting scandal surfaced late last year when BT Group said it had discovered financial irregularities at its Italy unit. In January, it characterised it as improper accounting and took a write-down of around 530 million pounds.BT first suspended and later fired Cimini and some other managers late last year after an internal inquiry into bullying.In the criminal complaint filed in March, BT accused several former Italy executives, including Cimini, and other employees of breaking company rules and unlawful conduct.In Cimini’s case, BT alleges he was responsible for breaking corporate governance rules in relation to contracts and suppliers, and for using intimidatory behaviour when dealing with staff. ($1 = 0.8480 euros) (Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bt-italy-dismissal/update-1-ex-bt-italy-boss-wins-2-mln-for-wrongful-dismissal-sources-idINL8N1O74UU'|'2017-12-07T12:32:00.000+02:00'
'9f9d5f13bf2763a08e63d8dc43f0b8f757ca2973'|'Volkswagen executive gets seven years for U.S. emissions fraud'|'DETROIT (Reuters) - A U.S.-based Volkswagen AG executive who oversaw emissions issues was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $400,000 by a judge on Wednesday for his role in a diesel emissions scandal that has cost the German automaker as much as $30 billion.The prison sentence and fine for the executive, Oliver Schmidt, were the maximum possible under a plea deal in August the German national made with prosecutors after admitting to charges of conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violate clean-air laws.“It is my opinion that you are a key conspirator in this scheme to defraud the United States,” U.S. District Judge Sean Cox of Detroit told Schmidt in court. “You saw this as your opportunity to shine ... and climb the corporate ladder at VW.”Schmidt read a written statement in court acknowledging his guilt and broke down when discussing his family’s sacrifices on his behalf since his arrest in January.“I made bad decisions and for that I am sorry,” he said.U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Benjamin Singer argued in court that Schmidt was “part of the decision making process” at VW to hide a scheme to fake vehicle emissions results and had opportunities tell regulators the truth.“Every time he chose to lie,” Singer said.In March, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three felony counts under a plea agreement to resolve U.S. charges that it installed secret software in vehicles in order to elude emissions tests.FILE PHOTO: A U.S. flag flutters in the wind above a Volkswagen dealership in Carlsbad, California, U.S. on May 2, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo U.S. prosecutors have charged eight current and former Volkswagen executives. Six of those remain at large.Volkswagen rebounded from the scandal during the past year. Chief Executive Matthias Mueller last month predicted record deliveries of vehicles for the company this year, and the Volkswagen car brand has said it expects record deliveries for 2017, and raised its midterm profitability outlook.At the Los Angeles auto show last week, the head of Volkswagen’s U.S. operations declared, “we’re back,” citing improved U.S. vehicle sales.Schmidt was charged with 11 felony counts and federal prosecutors said he could have faced a maximum of up to 169 years in prison. As part of his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop most of the counts and Schmidt consented to be deported at the end of his prison sentence.Schmidt was in charge of the company’s environmental and engineering office in Auburn Hills, Michigan, until February 2015, where he oversaw emissions issues.He returned to Germany the same month where he was told about the existence of the software. According to Schmidt’s guilty plea, later that year he conspired with other executives to avoid disclosing “intentional cheating” by the automaker in a bid to seek regulatory approval for its model 2016 VW 2 liter diesels.The auto industry is still feeling the repercussions of Volkswagen’s diesel cheating.Regulators in the United States and Europe are investigating other automakers for potential violations of diesel emissions rules.On Wednesday, German prosecutors said they had begun an initial inquiry into accusations by an environmental group that BMW AG is selling a vehicle that emits up to seven times the allowed levels of smog-forming nitrogen oxides.Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Peter Cooney and Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-emissions/volkswagen-executive-gets-seven-years-for-u-s-emissions-fraud-idINKBN1E11EZ'|'2017-12-07T13:18:00.000+02:00'
'350adee3c084d6ea648ef1d8fa53c309e0802f1d'|'UPDATE 1-Ex-BT Italy boss wins $2 mln for wrongful dismissal - sources'|'(Adds BT’s right to appeal in paragraph 6)By Emilio ParodiMILAN, Dec 7 (Reuters) - A manager at the centre of investigations into an accounting scandal at British Telecom’s Italian business has been awarded almost 1.8 million euros ($2.1 million) in damages for wrongful dismissal, three legal sources said.Gianluca Cimini was fired for disciplinary reasons last year, months before the phone company filed a criminal complaint accusing him of grave violations of corporate governance. The accusations arose from its investigation of alleged accounting fraud that cost the firm 530 million pounds ($690 million).An Italian labour tribunal ruled that the manager’s dismissal was both “illegitimate” and “unfounded”, one source said, quoting the judge’s summary of his decision.Full reasons for the ruling, which was made on Wednesday, will be issued within 15 days.“We’re extremely disappointed with this decision,” a BT spokesman said in an email, adding that the firm would not comment further until the full judgement was available.BT can appeal the ruling but must immediately pay the damages, which can only be recouped if the decision is overturned. It was also ordered to pay Cimini’s legal fees.Cimini, formerly BT Italy CEO, and several other former top managers remain under investigation by Italian prosecutors on allegations of alleged fraud. The civil case involving Cimini is separate from the criminal investigation.All the accused have always denied any wrongdoing.Cimini’s lawyer, Angelo Zambelli, confirmed the wrongful dismissal ruling.“That’s a courageous sentence which leaves us fully satisfied and which I believe will reinstate Mr Cimini’s reputation and professional decorum that was taken away from him a year ago,” Zambelli said.The accounting scandal surfaced late last year when BT Group said it had discovered financial irregularities at its Italy unit. In January, it characterised it as improper accounting and took a write-down of around 530 million pounds.BT first suspended and later fired Cimini and some other managers late last year after an internal inquiry into bullying.In the criminal complaint filed in March, BT accused several former Italy executives, including Cimini, and other employees of breaking company rules and unlawful conduct.In Cimini’s case, BT alleges he was responsible for breaking corporate governance rules in relation to contracts and suppliers, and for using intimidatory behaviour when dealing with staff. ($1 = 0.8480 euros) (Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/bt-italy-dismissal/update-1-ex-bt-italy-boss-wins-2-mln-for-wrongful-dismissal-sources-idUSL8N1O74UU'|'2017-12-07T23:33:00.000+02:00'
'e0dea9997a54ecdfbfb1226fa2e083cc48265d44'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Dec 7'|' 08 AM / in 13 minutes PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Dec 7 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 7 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Alberta''s ambitious plan to lower its industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions without alienating the province''s powerful oil and gas sector has been rolled out with a mixed response from many of the heavy emitters it will impact. ( tgam.ca/2ACZQXk ) ** Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd is selling C$200 million ($155.96 million) in shares even as the company dials back spending and warns of additional delays to its marquee Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. ( tgam.ca/2ACCf9d ) ** Plains Midstream Canada said it is reopening its train-loading facility in Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, which closed in 2016 after oil prices had plunged to less than $50 a barrel from more than $100 and Canadian crude was shunned by U.S. refiners in favor of cheaper supplies from overseas. ( tgam.ca/2ADiDSo ) NATIONAL POST ** WestJet Airlines Ltd is forming a new trans-border venture with Delta Air Lines to expand its reach into the U.S., part of a diversified growth strategy that will see the Calgary-based airline try to attract more premium customers while also launching an ultra-low cost carrier. ( bit.ly/2AVZM7N ) ** Hudson''s Bay Co Chief Executive Richard Baker believes the department store retailer will see an upside from the demise of Sears Canada, but the apparent health of HBC''s operations in Canada might be moot given the malaise and underperformance of its business divisions in the U.S. and Europe. ( bit.ly/2B01Efw ) ($1 = C$1.28) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-dec-7-idUSL3N1O73OG'|'2017-12-07T13:07:00.000+02:00'
'f4d8095fed47cae700e276a1bceedc954bfa06b8'|'Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch reserves 40 Tesla electric trucks: WSJ'|'December 7, 2017 / 1:52 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch reserves 40 Tesla electric trucks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Budweiser beer maker Anheuser-Busch has reserved 40 Tesla Inc all-electric Semi trucks as it seeks to reduce fuel costs and vehicle emissions, the brewer said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - Tesla''s new electric semi truck is unveiled during a presentation in Hawthorne, California, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandria Sage It was one of the largest publicly announced orders Tesla has received for its electric trucks, which are scheduled to be in production by 2019. “At Anheuser-Busch, we are constantly seeking new ways to make our supply chain more sustainable, efficient, and innovative,” said James Sembrot, senior director of logistics strategy. “This investment in Tesla semi-trucks helps us achieve these goals while improving road safety and lowering our environmental impact.” The U.S. subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV plans to use the trucks for shipments to wholesalers within the 500-mile (800-km) range promised by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk. The Semi is Tesla’s next step to move the economy away from fossil fuels. Limited early orders have reflected uncertainty about the market for electric commercial vehicles due to their limited range compared with diesel vehicles. A range of trucking, grocery, and retail companies have reserved at least 117 Tesla Semi trucks, according to a Reuters tally, including Anheuser-Busch’s 40. That number could be higher because fleet operator J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc said it reserved multiple Semis without providing a specific number. The Wall Street Journal first reported Anheuser-Busch''s Tesla truck orders. ( on.wsj.com/2j40eK1 ) Last month, Tesla received orders for its electric trucks from high-profile companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Germany-based Deutsche Post AG’s DHL and Fortigo Freight Services Inc, one of Canada’s largest fleet management companies, also pre-ordered Tesla’s electric trucks last month to test on limited routes. Lithuania-based transport company Girteka Logistics reserved one Tesla Semi, the company said. Tesla declined to comment.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-trucks-buyers/budweiser-maker-anheuser-busch-reserves-40-tesla-electric-trucks-wsj-idUSKBN1E11V9'|'2017-12-07T15:52:00.000+02:00'
'cc0b2e0adc7e8b1fcf052b7a00e054fd3b74b46e'|'Bookmaker GVC in talks to buy Ladbrokes for up to $5.2 billion'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:18 AM / in 8 hours GVC raises UK gambling stakes with $5.2 billion Ladbrokes bid Ben Martin , Kate Holton 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Online gambling company GVC Holdings is in talks to buy Ladbrokes Coral for up to $5.2 billion (3.9 billion) in a long-awaited deal that would transform it into a bastion of British betting. FILE PHOTO: A branch of Ladbrokes is seen in central London, Britain, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville /File Photo GVC’s bid marks the biggest wager yet by Kenny Alexander, who would become chief executive of the combined group, which is expected to be large enough to enter Britain’s FTSE 100 index. Since becoming chief executive a decade ago, the Scot has built GVC through a series of increasingly ambitious deals, including the 1.1 billion pound reverse takeover of Bwin.Party, growing it from an upstart gambling firm to a FTSE 250 business. Alexander’s latest acquisition would see GVC, which operates Sportingbet, Partypoker, and Foxy Bingo, swallow up the 130-year old Ladbrokes brand, as well as Coral and Gala. It would also mark GVC’s entry into British retail gambling through its acquisition of approximately 3,500 betting shops, making it the biggest player on the high street and competing with William Hill and Paddy Power Betfair. “We’ve come along in a fairly short period of time, we’re very proud of what we’ve achieved,” Alexander said. Talks between GVC and Ladbrokes Coral, led by CEO Jim Mullen, have been “on and off” for about a year, Alexander said. The two firms, whose previous unsuccessful deal discussions leaked in August, said in a joint statement on Thursday they were in detailed talks over a takeover that would give Ladbrokes shareholders around 46.5 percent of the combined group. Shares in Ladbrokes jumped by 26 percent, while GVC shares rose 6 percent on confirmation of the potential offer, which is for 32.7 pence in cash and 0.141 GVC share per Ladbrokes share. HIGH STAKES GVC’s move comes at a pivotal moment for the British gambling industry, which is undergoing a government review. FILE PHOTO: A branch of Ladbrokes is seen in central London, Britain, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The final price GVC pays will depend on the outcome of this review into fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which are big moneyspinners for companies like Ladbrokes but have come under fire for leaving gamblers with very heavy losses. Following its so-called triennial review, the government said in October that the maximum stake allowed on FOBTs could be sharply cut over concerns they fuel addiction. It started a 12-week consultation to consider cutting the stake to between 50 pounds and 2 pounds, from 100 pounds currently. GVC’s offer values Ladbrokes Coral at 160.9 pence per share, equating to a total equity value of around 3.1 billion pounds, plus a contingent fee of up to 42.8 pence a share, meaning the bookmaker could be valued at as much as 3.9 billion pounds. Alexander said the offer both “protects GVC shareholders” and “allows Ladbrokes Coral shareholders to get value for whatever the business may look” like following the FOBT consultation. On Nov. 2, GVC struck a deal to offload its Turkish business, which had been an obstacle in talks with Ladbrokes Coral because of the risks associated with operating in a country where many forms of gambling are banned. Alexander said that talks with Ladbrokes Coral restarted in recent weeks after a deal structure was devised that could account for the different potential FOBT consultation outcomes. “This triennial review has run and run and run and with the political climate in the UK who knows how much longer it may well run for?” he said. “You can only sit and wait for so long.” Stricter regulation and higher taxation have hit betting shops in recent years and in 2015 prompted Ladbrokes to agree a merger with Coral and Paddy Power to tie-up with Betfair. Alexander said buying Ladbrokes Coral would not leave GVC over-exposed to declining betting shops. Based on results from the first half of 2017, he said that 56 percent of the enlarged company’s earnings would come from digital and 38 percent from UK retail. The latter would fall as online grows, he added. Stockbroker Davy said the deal made sense strategically, adding “it creates an online and retail gaming company of enormous scale and should lead to material synergies”. Houlihan Lokey and Investec are advising GVC on the deal, while Ladbrokes Coral is working with Greenhill and UBS. Reporting by Kate Holton and Ben Martin; additional reporting by Arathy S Nair; editing by James Davey and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ladbrokes-m-a-gvc-holdings/bookmaker-gvc-in-talks-to-buy-ladbrokes-for-5-2-billion-idUKKBN1E10P3'|'2017-12-07T09:40:00.000+02:00'
'f291beb07bff92bdbb993e62e63a775e5ab77afe'|'Trump to meet U.S. senators to discuss renewable fuels program'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is open to reforming the country’s biofuels policy if it can be done in a way that protects jobs in both the refining and agriculture industries, senators said on Thursday after a meeting with Trump on the issue.U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel at the White House in Washington, U.S. December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Nine lawmakers had requested the meeting to argue that the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, a law requiring refiners to blend increasing amounts of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into the fuel supply every year, was threatening to put refineries in their districts out of business.The Trump administration had ruled in favour of Big Corn and against the refining industry in a series of decisions this year, with senators on both sides using parliamentary procedures like holds on administrative appointments to punish rivals.Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who led the lawmaker delegation, said Trump was open to a “win-win” solution.”The group as a whole agreed with the president to reconvene next week and to expand the group and work together to find a (solution) that is a win for blue-collar workers, a win for jobs, but also a win for farmers at the same time,” he told Fox News after the meeting.Republican Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and James Lankford of Oklahoma also said Trump expressed a desire to help refiners in a way that also protected the interests of farmers, but that more discussions were needed.“It was just a recognition that this is a more complicated problem and we’re going to have to get everybody together from all sides,” Lankford told reporters.A White House official did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting.The White House said earlier in the day the meeting would include Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Energy Secretary Rick Perry.REFINERS SEEK CHANGES The RFS was introduced more than a decade ago by President George W. Bush as a way to boost U.S. agriculture, slash energy imports and cut emissions, and has since fostered a market for ethanol amounting to 15 billion gallons a year.Refiners oppose the RFS because they say it costs them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in blending and regulatory expenses while propping up demand for rival fuels. Refiners that do not have the facilities to blend biofuels must purchase credits, called RINs, from those that do and hand them into the EPA once a year.The industry has requested tweaks to the policy in the past that would cut the annual volume targets for biofuels, allow ethanol exports to be counted against those targets, or shift the blending burden to supply terminals from refiners.While the leadership of the EPA, which administers the RFS, had considered some of the changes, it ultimately rejected them under pressure from Midwestern lawmakers, and slightly increased biofuels volumes targets for 2018.The meeting with Trump could set the stage for negotiations over legislation, but any measure would likely require cooperation from representatives of the corn belt. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said this week he was not invited to the meeting and called it “a waste of time.”Biofuels industry representatives did not attend the meeting.Cruz has said he would block Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey’s nomination to a key post at the U.S. Department of Agriculture until he gets a meeting about biofuels that includes all sides on the issue.Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Steve Holland; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-biofuels/trump-to-meet-u-s-senators-to-discuss-renewable-fuels-program-idINKBN1E122U'|'2017-12-07T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'290715b10379764f0e4fcfbe3ec4a5a74234aec3'|'Flurry of UK takeovers set to boost fees for investment banks'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Investment banks could earn as much as $183 million in fees from a flurry of deal-making by British companies this week, according to estimates by Freeman Consulting Services.Online gambling operator GVC’s ( GVC.L ) possible takeover of Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ), which may value the bookmaker at up 3.9 billion pounds ($5.2 billion) and was announced on Thursday, could generate fees of about 48 million pounds for banks working on the potential cash-and-shares deal, Freeman estimated.Meanwhile, shopping center owner Hammerson’s ( HMSO.L ) 3.4 billion-pound offer for rival Intu Properties ( INTUP.L ), disclosed on Wednesday, is projected to earn up to 39 million pounds for the banks involved.And Cineworld’s ( CINE.L ) reverse takeover of U.S. cinema chain Regal Entertainment ( RGC.N ) agreed on Tuesday could net 49 million pounds for advisers.Britain has seen a rush of takeover deals this week despite, market volatility caused by stalled Brexit negotiations.The activity brings the overall value of domestic deals between UK companies to $60.8 billion so far this year, up from $28.1 billion a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data.The value of all deals involving UK companies has risen to $336.9 billion this year, compared with $329.9 billion, the data show.These figures exclude GVC’s talks with Ladbrokes Coral, which have not yet resulted in a firm offer.More takeovers could also be in the offing this week.Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng has until 1700 GMT on Friday to make a firm offer to take control of FTSE 250-listed Millennium & Copthorne Hotels ( MLC.L ) under Takeover Panel rules.His City Developments Limited firm, which is the majority shareholder in M&C, has proposed a deal to buy out the rest of the hotelier, valuing the company at 1.8 billion pounds.Boutique firm Houlihan Lokey and Investec, which are advising GVC, could together earn 22 million pounds from a deal, while Ladbrokes Coral’s advisers Greenhill, another boutique, and UBS could net up to a combined 26 million, Freeman said.Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Lazard, which are advising Hammerson, could share 18 million pounds, and Intu’s banks, which are Rothschild, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and UBS, could net a combined 21 million pounds, according to Freeman.Cineworld’s advisers, which are Barclays, HSBC and Investec, may together receive fees of 23 million pounds and Morgan Stanley, which is acting for Regal, could earn 26 million.Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bank-deals-fees/flurry-of-uk-takeovers-set-to-boost-fees-for-investment-banks-idINKBN1E12IZ'|'2017-12-07T14:32:00.000+02:00'
'70fb9b19e47e4eceb44f823865b0e35439bac9e4'|'Pound edges higher after Brexit breakthrough - business live - Business'|'The City Of London skyline. Britain’s business community welcomed Brexit progress on the Irish border but urged the government to move swiftly ahead with the more complex matter of a trade deal with the EU Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo Angela Monaghan (until 2.05pm) and Nick FletcherFriday 8 December 2017 18.01 GMT First published on Friday 8 December 2017 08.07 GMTShare on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email View more sharing options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Close Key events Show 6.01pm GMT 18:01 European markets end higher 3.09pm GMT 15:09 US consumer confidence dips in December 2.36pm GMT 14:36 Wall Street opens strongly 2.01pm GMT 14:01 US jobs report paves way for Fed rate hike next week 1.34pm GMT 13:34 Breaking: US jobs report stronger than expected in November 1.26pm GMT 13:26 Pound falls after earlier gains 1.10pm GMT 13:10 Coming up: closely watched US jobs report Live feed Show 6.01pm GMT 18:01European markets end higher A couple of positive political developments helped push European markets higher, while Wall Street benefitted from the stronger than expected US jobs data.The Brexit breakthrough was welcomed by investors, and even the pound losing its early gains helped the UK market, packed as it is with overseas earners which are helped by a weak sterling. In Germany, hopes that the current impasse in forming a coalition government could be resolved lifted the Dax higher. The final scores in Europe showed:The FTSE 100 finished up 73.21 points or 1% at 7393.96 Germany’s Dax rose 0.83% to 13,153.70 France’s Cac closed 0.28% higher at 5399.09 Italy’s FTSE MIB climbed 1.4% to 22,773.80 Spain’s Ibex ended 0.57% better at 10,321.1 In Greece, the Athens market added 1.64% to 740.72 On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is currently 102 points or 0.42% higher.On that note, it’s time to close for the day. Thanks for all your comments, and we’ll be back next week.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 4.50pm GMT 16:50The early excitement in the pound following the morning’s Brexit news was well and truly short lived, and sterling is now down 0.7% against the dollar at $1.3370. In the wake of the deal news it climbed as high as $1.3519. David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said:At the start of the session, sterling was gaining ground on the back of the announcement that the UK and the EU had made sufficient progress in the first phase talks, so it can now move onto the discussions about trade. The early positive momentum in sterling, ran out of steam and it then the pound turned negative – which propped up the FTSE 100.Part of the reason for the fall was the EU telling the UK that trade talks would not start until February.Updated at 4.51pm GMTFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 4.05pm GMT 16:05Ratings agency Fitch has also opined on the Brexit news from this morning, and like S&P, says it has no immediate effect on its AA rating and negative outlook:The agreement between the UK and the EU to move to the next phase of Brexit negotiations is a step towards a potential agreement on Brexit and trade, but the process remains lengthy and challenging, and the deal leaves many key uncertainties unresolved...The progress report’s carefully crafted language fails to clarify how the UK can achieve all three of its commitments to leave the EU single market and customs union, ensure Northern Ireland retains “unfettered access” to the UK internal market, and avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It states that “in the absence of agreed solutions, the UK will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and Customs Union which... support North-South cooperation”. This would appear to maintain the status quo if a trade deal is not agreed, but we think it would be politically very difficult for the UK government to guarantee regulatory equivalence between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in this event.More broadly, the negotiation process leading up to today’s announcement has strained UK domestic politics, highlighting how June’s general election has weakened policy cohesion, reflecting divisions in parliament and among the UK public regarding the desired post-Brexit relationship with the EU, and meaning the final outcome of negotiations remains uncertain.Fitch concludes:Overall, today’s announcement does not alter the view we expressed when we affirmed the UK’s ‘AA’ sovereign rating in October, that the complexity of the issues, the magnitude of national interests at stake, the lack of a clear UK position, the EU’s negotiating stance, and the limited timeframe will make it challenging for the UK to secure a favourable trade agreement. The Negative Outlook on the rating reflects the uncertainty and corresponding downside economic and fiscal risks.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 3.52pm GMT 15:52Any bursting of the Bitcoin bubble is unlikely to have a major impact on the global economy, says Capital Economics. The consultancy’s Andrew Kenningham says:Unlike the bubbles in the tech sector in the late-1990s and in US residential property a few years later, a bursting of the bitcoin bubble should not have systemic, macroeconomic implications. The total value of bitcoin is (still) too small, and it has few links with the wider economy....As with many start-ups, the “true” value of bitcoin is unknown because it is unclear whether it has a long- term future. But we doubt that any cryptocurrency will become a serious rival to the dollar or other major fiat currencies, many of which have centuries of history behind them and the backing of governments and central banks. Also, technological problems, fraud or tighter regulation may undermine bitcoin. And even if cryptocurrencies in general have a future, one of bitcoin’s numerous competitors, or a central bank digital currency, could kill it off just as plenty of early rivals to Facebook and Google were sunk without trace.Given this uncertainty, it makes sense that bitcoin is often compared to the famous Dutch tulip bubble. Like bitcoin, tulips became popular “because of their strangeness and rarity” and because they were new, having arrived from the Ottoman Empire in the late 16th century. Their prices rose astronomically between 1634 and 1637 and then collapsed. But the crash apparently had little impact on the Dutch economy.There are several channels through which a bursting asset price bubble can, in principle, have macroeconomic consequences, but none are a major risk in the case of bitcoin.Photograph: Capital EconomicsFirst, there may be a hit to household spending as people who have invested suffer losses. But bitcoin’s market capitalisation is too small for this to be a worry. It is currently around $240bn, which is much smaller than the total value of gold outstanding ($8trn) or the value of Apple ($0.9trn). If the price of bitcoin fell to zero today, the paper losses would be equivalent to a 0.6% fall in US equity prices. As most investors have bought bitcoin at much lower prices, the relevant losses would arguably be smaller.While a bursting bubble can affect the economy via the banking sector, this is not much of a risk either, precisely because bitcoin is held and traded outside the banking sector. Also, there is no evidence that people are taking out huge, sub-prime mortgages to finance their speculation in cryptocurrencies.A slump in bitcoin prices should not have much effect on wider investor and business confidence either. As we have pointed out elsewhere, there is no correlation between the prices of bitcoin and other risky assets, so a fall in its price should not affect wider financial conditions. And nor would it tell us anything about wider market sentiment.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 3.31pm GMT 15:31Back with Bitcoin, and JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon - a notable critic of the cryptocurrency - has been commenting again. He told CNBC:CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) JUST IN: JPMorgan Chase CEO Dimon tells @WilfredFrost he remains "highly skeptical" about bitcoin. https://t.co/jn8limUSe7 pic.twitter.com/xvmz37kcr6December 8, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 3.09pm GMT 15:09US consumer confidence dips in December US consumer confidence has slipped back compared to last month, partly due to Democrat voters concerned about the effects of the proposed tax changes.The University of Michigan’s initial consumer sentiment reading for December has come in at 96.8, compared to November’s 98.5 and expectations of a rise to 99.Photograph: University of MichiganThe survey’s chief economist Richard Curtin said:Consumer sentiment has remained quite favorable although it continued to slowly recede in early December from its October cyclical peak. Most of the recent decline was concentrated in the long-term prospects for the economy, while consumers thought current economic conditions have continued to improve.Importantly, the largest decline in long-term economic prospects was recorded among Democrats, which reflected their concerns about the impact of the proposed changes in taxes.Perhaps the most important changes in early December were higher income expectations as well as a higher expected inflation rate in 2018. Income gains have been slowly improving during the past year, and the data indicate that trend has continued. In contrast, the rise in inflation expectations in early December was a surprise, and confidence in this finding must await confirmation in the months ahead before any inferences are drawn. Buying plans for durables have improved in early December, largely due to attractive pricing, in contrast to the rise in the expected inflation rate. Overall, the data signal an expected gain of 2.7% in real consumption expenditures in 2018.Updated at 3.41pm GMTFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 3.00pm GMT 15:00Helena SmithGreek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos is about to begin a round of talks in the US aimed at the debt-stricken country re-accessing markets next year. Helena Smith reports:After eight years of being exiled from international capital markets, Greece hopes to refinance itself for the first time in nearly a decade when its third international bailout programme expires next August. The politics of regaining market access are expected to dominate discussions Tsakalotos is to have in the US, starting today. Auditors representing the European creditors that have kept Greece afloat are also there.The Marxist economist, who has allowed pragmatism to prevail over ideology in his job as finance minister, will be the keynote speaker in the annual Capital Link Invest in Greece Forum on Monday. Interestingly, he has been selected to ring the closing bell at the NYSE on Tuesday. Insiders are interpreting the move as an incipient signal of renewed optimism in the Greek economy.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.47pm GMT 14:47As for that jobs data, it continues its record breaking run:Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) 86...As in 86 consecutive months of jobs growth, by far the longest streak in history. #payrolls pic.twitter.com/5Yf6W4RBZ8December 8, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.36pm GMT 14:36Wall Street opens strongly The better than expected jobs data has seen a positive opening on Wall Street, while European markets continue to be buoyed - partly - by the day’s Brexit news.The Dow Jones Industrial Average is currently up 70 points or 0.29%, with a US rate rise next week now seen as virtually inevitable despite the weaker than expected wages growth. Meanwhile the S&P 500 opened up 0.37% and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 0.7%Elsewhere the FTSE 100 has climbed 0.87%, Germany’s Dax is up 1% and France’s Cac has climbed 0.44%.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.32pm GMT 14:32Over at Bitcoin, and the cryptocurrency is now down around 8% at $15,200.DailyFX Team Live (@DailyFXTeam) Bitcoin trades "quietly" relative to yesterday''s rally pic.twitter.com/MeqXo4EcP6December 8, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.12pm GMT 14:12Back with Brexit, and S&P Global Ratings says the UK’s credit rating at AA and its negative outlook is not immediately affected by this morning’s deal. It says:The EC has announced that the UK has made “sufficient progress” in the first phase of the Brexit talks, which now paves the way for the EC to formally open the next phase in its summit on December 14 and 15. The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has signalled that a final agreement will have to be reached by October 2018. This leaves only 10 months for the UK to agree with the EU a framework for their future relationship, including a trade deal, and transitional arrangements.A final agreement will have to be approved by 27 national parliaments ahead of the March 2019 exit date.While sufficient progress has been made during the first phase, many issues are yet to be fully resolved. The situation is further challenged by the UK’s slowing domestic economy, the lack of a parliamentary majority, and by the absence of consensus within the government on the shape of the final relationship with the EU. Indeed, these considerations contributed to the slow progress during the first phase of negotiations. The negative outlook reflects the continued institutional and economic uncertainty surrounding the Brexit negotiations and the UK’s future relationship with the EU after the country’s departure from the bloc in March 2019.Updated at 2.15pm GMTFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.06pm GMT 14:06The dollar is dipping after the weaker than expected US wage growth outweighed the stronger jobs figures.DailyFX Team Live (@DailyFXTeam) Traders are selling the US Dollar after a strong jobs report is by weak wage growth. pic.twitter.com/XO02wgTDt5December 8, 2017 But economists believe that wage weakness will not deter the Federal Reserve from raising US interest rates at its meeting next week. James Smith at ING Bank said:For markets, a further disappointment in wage growth will be the key takeaway from today’s data. November’s growth in average hourly earnings came in below consensus at 0.2%, following a downward revision to October’s figure, although it’s still probably worth taking these numbers with a pinch of salt. Back in September, the job losses from the hurricanes were highly concentrated in low-wage sectors, and taking them temporarily out of the sample artificially boosted the average level of pay. November’s disappointment could simply be a further correction to this blip.A similar logic can probably be applied to the payrolls numbers. On the face of it, a 228,000 increase in jobs during November looks good, but at least some of this is probably down to people returning to work after the disruption. Either way though, policymakers are less bothered by jobs growth these days - they know that the rate of employment growth should be expected to slow as the remaining slack in the economy erodes.Given all the noise, the Fed will most likely write off this latest jobs report. Wage growth was disappointing, but given the sheer strength of the jobs market, we would still expect pay to accelerate gradually through next year. More broadly, we agree with the Fed’s assertion that most of this year’s inflation dip was ‘transitory’. Throw in 3% economic growth next year, as well as the hawkish rotation in regional Fed voters, and we expect a rate hike next week to be followed by three more in 2018.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.01pm GMT 14:01US jobs report paves way for Fed rate hike next week A stronger than expected rise in non-farm payrolls has reinforced expectations that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week.Paul Ashwell , chief US economist at Capital Economics , gives his view:The slightly bigger than expected 228,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in November all but guarantees another 25 basis point interest rate hike by the Fed next week, particularly with the unemployment rate unchanged at an unusually low 4.1%.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.41pm GMT 13:41The 228,000 rise in non-farm payrolls last month was driven by job creation in professional services, manufacturing, and health care, the US Labor Department said.The department gave some context behind its recent revisions, which it said painted a brighter picture overall:The change in total non-farm payroll employment for September was revised up from +18,000 to +38,000, and the change for October was revised down from +261,000 to +244,000.With these revisions, employment gains in September and October combined were 3,000 more than previously reported. After revisions, job gains have averaged 170,000 over the last 3 months.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.34pm GMT 13:34Breaking: US jobs report stronger than expected in November Non-farm payrolls rose by 228,000 in November, beating expectations of 200,000.But the figure for October was revised down to 244,000 from an earlier estimate of 261,000.The jobless rate was unchanged at 4.1%, while average earnings increased by 0.2%, following a 0.1% fall in October. It was below expectations of a 0.3% pick-up in pay.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.26pm GMT 13:26Pound falls after earlier gains The pound is now down against both the dollar and the euro, after rising earlier in the day against both currencies.The relief rally prompted by progress on Brexit talks appears to have faded away.The pound is down 0.5% against the dollar, at $1.3405, and down 0.3% against the euro at €1.1409.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.17pm GMT 13:17Back to Brexit, and the Institute of Directors says firms are breathing “a huge sigh of relief” after talks progressed.Stephen Martin , director general, adds:The most pressing concern for UK companies has been their EU staff, who have urgently needed certainty about their future in this country. We have grounds to hope now that our members will be able to send their employees off for the Christmas break feeling more comfortable about their status here.We call on the UK and EU to build on this positive momentum going into the new year. It is overwhelmingly in the interests of both sides to begin working on our future economic relationship - particularly in order to fully address the Irish question. And we look forward to further clarity about what the UK’s objectives are for that new relationship as well as a firm commitment on transition in the very near future.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1 of 3 Newest Newer Older Oldest Topics Business Business live Currencies '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/dec/08/pound-edges-higher-after-brexit-breakthrough-business-live'|'2017-12-08T16:09:00.000+02:00'
'5392d0094a6516ce1e05a82bfd10bfff43a0ab49'|'Q&A: Dhoni is the hero of my ''Democracy''s XI'' - Rajdeep Sardesai'|'Meritocracy in cricket made sure the cricketing lineage of Dilip Sardesai was not enough for his son, Rajdeep, to play cricket at the highest level for the country.India''s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni plays a shot during their ICC Cricket World Cup final match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai April 2, 2011. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/Files However, Rajdeep Sardesai, an Oxford Blue , more than makes up for it with a fine effort to chronicle the democratic journey of Indian cricket in his recently published book, “Democracy''s XI” . He spoke to Reuters about his debut book on the sport and the cricketers who changed the course of Indian cricket.Q: Tell us how and when did the idea of “Democracy’s XI” come and what kind of preparation went into writing this book?A: It was always there within me somewhere that I wanted to write a book on cricket. Since Mihir Bose had already written a book on the history of Indian cricket, I wanted to write on cricket with the social and economic fabric of the country as a backdrop. I began writing this book in Jan, 2016 and it took me around 18 months to finish it. My day-job of broadcast journalism left me with little time, so I''d write for couple of hours in the morning as often as possible. I have interviewed almost 80 people for this book and that had its own challenges.Q: You start your book with a touching tribute to your father, Dilip Sardesai. Do you think his innings of 212 in the very first test match at Kingston against the West Indies was a turning point of the 1971 series?A: First, I must say why I included my father in the book. Apart from paying my tribute to him, I felt he represented that dream of a small-town boy (he came from Margao in Goa) who goes on to play for India.I do think my father’s double century, which was the first double century by an Indian batsman overseas, changed the course of the series. But I‘m not alone. Gavaskar once told me that in a practice match before the series my father told him the West Indian pace attack was quite mediocre and paled in comparison to the pace attack of Wesley Hall and Charlie Griffith, which he had faced in ‘61-‘62 series. Gavaskar recalled the remark gave a lot of confidence to rest of the batsmen to take on the West Indian bowling attack. Moreover, Ajit Wadekar, who was captaining the ‘71 team, told me, “Dilip’s innings in Kingston changed Indian cricket forever.”Q: Would you agree that Tiger Pataudi, for the first time, brought ‘self-belief’ to Indian cricket?A: Yes, an element of ‘self-belief’ and to some extent ‘self-respect’ – the belief that you are not playing cricket to just make the numbers but to actually play to win or at least compete hard. Pataudi brought meritocracy into Indian cricket.Q: After winning test series in West Indies and England in ‘71, the Indian team was expected to grow into a world-beating side. Later, we did win a test series (2-0) in England (‘86) and drew a series (1-1) in Australia (‘80-‘81) but for the greater part of next two and half decades, India struggled to win a series overseas. Do you think Indian team went back to ‘saving-the-test-first’ mode or is it that India didn’t have enough match-winning bowlers?A: I think it’s the latter. India didn’t have enough fast bowlers. At the end of the day, to win abroad, on those wickets in England, Australia, West Indies and South Africa, you needed fast bowlers to get you wickets. For a long time we had Kapil Dev through the 80s but he didn’t have the kind of support that the team needed to win. In the 90s, we had Srinath but he also didn’t have the consistent support. Anil Kumble had to play the role of a main bowler overseas and he was never going to be the same kind of a match winner that he was at home.The victories against West Indies and England in ’71 were achieved through spin, which was unusual but it was never going to be a lasting formula. The team needed at least two fast bowlers to win abroad.Q: Your book talks about how Indian cricket grew alongside the progress India was making as a young nation post-independence. In that context, how and where would you place Gavaskar?A: I feel Gavaskar is a critical figure in the evolution of Indian cricket. He gave Indian cricket the self-belief that they could play fast bowlers. I think till Gavaskar came, there was a belief that Indian batsmen were easily intimidated by fast bowling. Gavaskar changed that forever. In the 70s, the West Indies probably had the best fast bowling attack of all time. I think he taught Indian batsmen how to face fast bowling. And please remember, he was the only player who was a part of the victorious team in ‘71 and the team that won the World Cup in 1983. He also brought that hard-edged professionalism to Indian cricket. Earlier, the board dominated the lives of the players in a very feudal manner. He brought a change in relationship, making it more equal.Q: In the intervening period between Gavaskar and Sachin, would you consider Mohammad Azharuddin as perhaps the best batsman? What made you include him in your XI?India''s Sachin Tendulkar plays a shot against Australia during the second cricket test, at the Sydney Cricket Ground January 6, 2012. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne/Files A: I think overseas it was Dilip Vengsarkar but at home it was certainly Azhar. Vengsarkar, for a while in the 80s, was world’s best batsman. But Azhar was special because he brought a certain electricity to his fielding. He may have been controversial because of match-fixing allegations but the reason I have him in my book is that he should be recognised for being a premier batsman of his generation till Tendulkar took over, possibly the best all-round fielder India ever had and a durable captain who lead India for almost a decade (’90-’99).Q: And then came Sachin Tendulkar. Do you think he introduced a new brand of fearless and aggressive cricket, which the likes of Rahul Dravid, V.V.S Laxman, Virender Sehwag and even Anil Kumble as a bowler, emulated?A: I think he did. He had the technical skill of Gavaskar and strokeplay of Viv Richards. He was a modern-day prototype of a perfect batsman. I think Gavaskar was not the best batsman of his era. Viv Richards was probably the most dominating batsman and Greg Chappell was as proficient in a way, but Tendulkar was clearly seen as the greatest batsman of his era, ahead of Brian Lara. He was a global number one player and that inspired others to set the bar higher. The Dravids, the Laxmans, the Sehwags looked up to him and said if Tendulkar can do it, can we also.Q: You mention about the 2001 Kolkata test against the Aussies. How do you think the famous victory impacted Indian cricket?A: The Kolkata test will always stand out for the Laxman-Dravid partnership (376), Harbhajan’s bowling (7 for 123 & 6 for 73) and Ganguly’s captaincy. It was a critical match because it came within 12 months of match-fixing. The victory in the Kolkata test restored a sense of pride in Indian cricket. It gave Indian cricket a new lease of life. If ’71 gave us a sense of ‘self-belief’ for the first time, then ’01 restored it 30 years later.Slideshow (2 Images) Q: But how could you leave out Anil Kumble, perhaps the greatest match winner of Indian cricket, from your XI?A: I wanted to include a cricketer who represented, to my mind, some of the finer traditions of the game. A player who embodied the notion of gentlemanliness, dignity, discipline, determination and of being low profile amidst all the glamour. And I think Dravid represented all those attributes. But so does Kumble. He is very unlucky to miss out the XI but I do refer to him repeatedly in Dravid’s chapter. In fact, I start the chapter with him and his 10-wicket performance in the ‘99 Delhi test match. I think both Kumble and Dravid represented dignity in sport. And therefore when Kumble was removed from the position of Indian coach, I thought that was just not cricket.Q: Your book has a fascinating anecdote of how a famous race horse’s name was used as a code word. However, errors seem to have crept in. The name of the horse Mill Reef has been incorrectly mentioned as Mildred. Moreover, your father, Dilip, had used it as a code word for B.S. Chandrasekhar’s ‘faster delivery’ and not goggly as mentioned in your book.A: I think that’s a mistake I made. I went with my late father’s version, which could have got distorted with time. I should have checked with Chandrasekhar but he was reluctant to talk. However, I should have checked the facts about the story.Q: Your reverence for Dravid is quite apparent in the book. It was also nice to see you mention about his catching skills, which rarely gets written about. How would you describe him as a player?A: I guess somewhere I’d love to be like Dravid in my life. I think he’s shown that it’s possible for the nice guys to win. He is a kind of person who genuinely strived to raise the bar when it comes to life beyond the boundary. Had he lived in any other age, he would have been celebrated much more. He always worked hard at his game. He was an ordinary fielder but worked hard to become perhaps the best slip fielder of his time, worked hard to become probably the best number three batsman of his era. And on so many occasions he’s taken catches off Kumble and Harbhajan, which is so much more difficult than taking catches off fast bowlers in a slip cordon.Q: With his extraordinary batting and captaincy, Dhoni perhaps changed the way shorter versions of the game is played. What do you have to say about him?A: In my view, Dhoni is in a league of his own. If there is a hero in my ‘Democracy’s XI’, it would be Dhoni. He came from a town, Ranchi, which has no cricketing history - a Railway class-3 employee who goes on to become a magical cricketer. He’s almost as much loved as Tendulkar. I think Sachin gave happiness to millions of Indian cricket fans and so did Dhoni. May be it’s the T20 World Cup in ‘07, may be it’s the World Cup in ‘11, there’s something about Dhoni, much like Sachin, that endears him to people.Q: Just the way Sachin and Dhoni have inspired their teammates, do you find Virat Kohli inspiring his team members in terms of fitness and work ethics. Can he inspire his team to win a test series in South Africa, something that India has never done before?A: Absolutely! It’s a baton relay. If you were to look at this book as a baton relay from Pataudi to Gavaskar to Tendulkar to Dhoni and to Kohli, then they all have passed on their passion for the sport. I think Kohli’s biggest contribution is fitness and the conviction that you have to be a 3-in-1 player. It’s not good enough to be only proficient at Test or ODI or T20, you have to be good at all the three formats. If we use Gavaskar as a symbol of ‘self-respect’, Tendulkar as a symbol of ‘stature’, Dhoni as a symbol of ‘power’, then I think we should use Kohli as a symbol of ‘freedom and domination’, which is a tribute to his fitness.Yes, I think he can inspire his team to win the forthcoming test series in South Africa. Don’t forget, this time he has three fast bowlers. If they remain injury free then this team can win the series.Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-cricket-rajdeep-sardesai-democracy/qa-dhoni-is-the-hero-of-my-democracys-xi-rajdeep-sardesai-idINKBN1E210B'|'2017-12-08T06:14:00.000+02:00'
'a963d6978248af46c3ffb17e4e7418ef10d1a310'|'Graft-buster Zhou Liang named vice chairman of china''s banking regulator'|'December 7, 2017 / 9:19 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Graft-buster Zhou Liang named vice chairman of china''s banking regulator Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Zhou Liang, 46, has been appointed as a vice chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), according to a brief statement released on the regulator’s website on Thursday. The appointment was made in November, the CBRC said. Previously Zhou was the head of the organisation department of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the country’s top anti-corruption watchdog. Reporting By Shu Zhang and Beijing monitoring desk; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-regulations/graft-buster-zhou-liang-named-vice-chairman-of-chinas-banking-regulator-idUKKBN1E111G'|'2017-12-07T11:19:00.000+02:00'
'4eccac5c8780f6fbfafb25e6fecd5714db250a7b'|'Barclays loses top spot in European government bond syndications'|'December 7, 2017 / 1:25 PM / in 20 minutes Barclays loses top spot in European government bond syndications Abhinav Ramnarayan , Lawrence White , Maya Nikolaeva 6 Min Read LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - British bank Barclays has slid down the rankings in arranging European government bond sales as new regulations and Brexit uncertainty cause upheaval in the sector. Workers are seen in at Barclays bank offices in the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Barclays had the largest share of the government syndicated bond market in 2015 and 2016 with over 10 percent, Thomson Reuters data show. That dropped to 7.3 percent of the 147.5 billion euros (£130 billion) market so far this year, putting Barclays in fifth position. BNP Paribas, which has been making a push into the market, took the top spot with a 9.3 percent share, the same as last year and up from 5.9 percent in 2015. U.S. lender Citigroup placed second with 9.2 percent, British bank HSBC followed with 7.8 percent and French bank Societe Generale took fourth spot with an increased market share of 7.4 percent. A spokeswoman for Barclays declined to comment on why the bank had fallen in the rankings. Some of the higher profile transactions Barclays has been involved in include Spain’s 8 billion euro sale of 10-year bonds and Italy’s 6 billion euro 15-year deal. But four countries that previously hired Barclays for syndicated bond deals in 2016 did not choose the British lender again to sell their bonds this year. These were Austria, Cyprus, Portugal and Slovakia. Meanwhile, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale worked on France’s high-profile 7 billion 20-year green bond and the latter on Austria’s 3.5 billion euros 100-year bonds. Citigroup did well in peripheral Europe. The U.S. bank was on two Spanish bonds, a 30-year Italian bond and a 10-year bond that was Belgium’s biggest ever deal. Bankers could not say exactly why Barclays’ position had dropped, but two who work in European government bond sales told Reuters it could be accounted for by ‘rotation’. Government debt officers regularly change the banks they use to help sell bonds after a number of years. Others said it could in part be accounted for by Barclays’ rivals having a stronger performance in supporting those countries’ bond auctions. The Barclays spokeswoman declined to comment on its performance in bond auctions. European governments conduct all of their national borrowing through auctions or directly to investors in bond sales underwritten by banks, a process known as a syndication. They hire banks to act as ‘primary dealers’, who buy bonds from them in auctions and distribute them on to investors. Successful primary dealers are rewarded by being selected to run syndicated debt sales which earn fees for the banks. Many banks make most of their profits in this sector from syndications. Countries have different criteria for primary dealers, but they generally consider them to be successful if they have bought a large amount of debt at auction and then sold it to clients to create a liquid secondary market which reduces borrowing costs. BREXIT APPEAL Another factor in Barclays ratings fall could be governments’ desire to strengthen ties with banks already based in the euro zone ahead of Britain’s departure from the European Union, some bankers said. “No one knows what the landscape is going to look like after Brexit, but what we are seeing in general is a lot of clients coming to us because of our connections in Brussels, given the uncertainty,” said a banker at one of the French banks, who declined to be identified speaking about his clients. Bankers said having a strong presence in the eurozone was becoming important for winning mandates as EU officials are considering imposing rules to require banks that are primary dealers to have significant operations in the EU post-Brexit. British bank HSBC said that its large French subsidiary helped it compete against rivals in the sovereign debt business. “Brexit is neutral for us, to positive versus our peers, in terms of our ability to compete in the Euro sovereign bond space, because our French bank is already the legal entity for all our Eurozone sovereign dealing so nothing will change for us,” said Frederic Gabizon, head of European Public Sector at HSBC. Barclays operates the bulk of its European business out of London. It is in talks with regulators to make its Irish unit its EU hub after Brexit. REGULATORY PRESSURE While Brexit is likely to bring new regulatory challenges, several banks had already pulled out of the European government bonds business in recent years to meet the requirements of other new rules requiring them to hold capital to offset potential losses from their trading business. Credit Suisse cut all its European primary dealer relationships apart from Greece in 2015. The move was part of a drive by the Swiss lender to scale back operations in Europe and Asia after announcing plans to boost its capital to meet stricter Swiss financial regulations on balance sheets. Since then, other banks such as Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole, ING, Commerzbank, RBC, Scotiabank and Santander are among those that have either withdrawn or been told by individual governments that they have not met their criteria for being a primary dealer. “With numerous regulations either due to be, or already implemented impacting banks’ balance sheets, there will no doubt be an element of asset deleveraging, this will be reflected in banks’ strategic decisions to withdraw or expand in certain market segments,” said Victoria Webster, director of fixed income at the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME). Graphic - Dealer decline: reut.rs/2ArnAjZ Graphic - Sovereign bond league table 2017 YTD: reut.rs/2AzgF7A Editing by Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-banks-bonds/barclays-loses-top-spot-in-european-government-bond-syndications-idUKKBN1E11T5'|'2017-12-07T15:25:00.000+02:00'
'ffc07a3b17538ea0465f6ea098587cffeee58bff'|'Steinhoff shares climb off 14-year low in volatile trade'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:46 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Steinhoff shares climb off 14-year low in volatile trade Tanisha Heiberg , Tiisetso Motsoeneng 5 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Steinhoff shares plunged another 50 percent on Friday, before paring some losses as traders booked profits on short positions taken out after the South African retailer disclosed accounting irregularities earlier this week. FILE PHOTO: A Poundland employee checks products in a store in London, Britain November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo More than $14 billion (£10.4 billion) has been wiped off the market value of the owner of Conforama furniture stores and Poundland discount shops since Wednesday, when it announced an independent investigation into its accounts and said its CEO was leaving. The collapse leaves South African tycoon Christo Wiese, Steinhoff’s top shareholder and chairman, more than $3 billion out of pocket, stripping him off his billionaire status. Wiese, who likes to say “things go up, things go down,” is now worth just over $740 million, according to Forbes magazine. The stock closed 40 percent lower at 6 rand in Johannesburg after touching a 14-year low of 5 rand. It was down 21 percent in Frankfurt at 1545 GMT, where the group has a primary listing. “This buying we are seeing now is people that sold the shares short when it was in the fifty-fives and the sixties,” said Cratos Capital equities trader Greg Davies. Short-sellers borrow shares for a fee and sell them into the market, in the hope of repurchasing them at a lower price and pocketing the difference. More than half of Steinhoff’s shares that are available to borrow are currently out on loan, according to Markit, a data provider – more than doubling from August and up from 40 percent on Monday. The figure is a record for Steinhoff and the highest for any South African company tracked by Markit. The cost for short-sellers to borrow shares for a year has more than doubled from its twelve-month average of 1.4 percent to 3.1 percent, according to Astec, another data provider. Both Markit and Astec estimate it would take around ten days of trading for short-sellers to close all their positions. ‘BOTTOM FISHING’ Another trader in Johannesburg said there was a growing sense that this week’s approximate 80 percent share price tumble had triggered “bottom fishing” by buyers speculating the stock was at a level from which it could only go up. FILE PHOTO: South African magnate Christo Wiese, Steinhoff''s largest shareholder and chairman, listens during an interview in Cape Town, South Africa, September 27, 2016. Picture taken September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo “There does seem to be a little bit of bottom feeding coming in here, we are starting to see in the last half hour or so,” Independent Securities trader Ryan Woods said. Steinhoff’s problems deepened on Thursday after Moody’s sent its debt deep into junk territory, cutting it by four notches and raising concerns about its governance. “Given that allegations of accounting irregularities were raised and rebutted in August 2017 and again in November 2017 it calls into question the quality of oversight and governance at Steinhoff,” Moody’s said in a statement. It cut Steinhoff’s debt to B1, or highly speculative, from Baa3, the lowest investment grade rating. Steinhoff admitted to accounting problems earlier this week and its veteran chief executive Markus Jooste quit, raising questions about its liquidity and future. A lower credit rating means the borrower usually has to pay more to borrow from investors and can reduce the value of its existing debt, forcing some holders to sell. Steinhoff used debt to fund a shopping spree it began in 2011 with the acquisition of France’s Conforama, and turned it from a South African furniture group to an international retail empire. Its gross debt is around 7 billion euros ($8.2 billion), with 20 percent maturing within five years. Steinhoff said on Friday it was pushing back a meeting in London with its banks from Monday to Dec. 19. That meeting had been due to discuss financial results, but their release was delayed on Wednesday. The banks include Standard Bank, Commerzbank, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and FirstRand. They lent 1.6 billion euros to Wiese last year to buy additional stock in Steinhoff through a family trust. They hold part of his stake in the company as collateral. Steinhoff has been under investigation for suspected accounting irregularities by the state prosecutor in Oldenburg, Germany, since 2015. Four current and former Steinhoff managers are suspected of having overstated revenue at subsidiaries, German prosecutors said this week. Steinhoff has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the German allegations. It has not given any details about the “irregularities” it has identified and has sought to reassure investors about its liquidity. Separately, German financial watchdog Bafin said on Friday it had started a probe into the trading of Steinhoff shares this week. Bafin routinely looks at large or unusual share price moves as part of its campaign to stamp out market manipulation and insider trading. Additional reporting by TJ Strydom in Johannesburg, Alasdair Pal and Tom Bergin in London; Editing by Alexander Smith and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steinhoff-intlnl-results/south-africas-steinhoff-crashes-by-further-45-percent-idUKKBN1E20TG'|'2017-12-08T18:44:00.000+02:00'
'19fef2caa8c211bcb2b64390ee9f04936c4d7ce3'|'Thyssenkrupp ready to make workers offer for Tata Steel deal - Bild am Sonntag'|'Reuters TV United States December 9, 2017 / 11:06 PM / Updated an hour ago Thyssenkrupp ready to make workers offer for Tata Steel deal: Bild am Sonntag Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) is prepared to offer workers commitments on jobs and investments to get union backing for its deal with Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) to merge their European steel operations, German weekly Bild am Sonntag reported, citing an internal memo. A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen “We are prepared to make wide-ranging commitments on the topics that are most important to our employees,” the paper quoted Thyssenkrupp personnel chief Oliver Burkhard as telling managers in the memo. “That concerns for instance securing sites, future investments and job security. With our proposal, we want to secure jobs at the future joint venture into the next decade,” he said. Thyssenkrupp declined to comment on the report. German labor union IG Metall had given Thyssenkrupp until Dec. 22 to agree guarantees on jobs, plants and investments, putting further pressure on Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger, who has said he wants the approval of shop stewards for the merger plan. Hiesinger hopes to reach a final deal with Tata Steel in early 2018 but that depends on whether he can get it passed by Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, where workers’ representatives have called for jobs and plants to be secure for 10 years. Labor leaders hold half of the 20 seats on Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, and while a deal can still be pushed through without their consent, their approval could significantly smooth the transaction. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Additional reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Editing by Andrew Bolton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-workers/thyssenkrupp-ready-to-make-workers-offer-for-tata-steel-deal-bild-am-sonntag-idUKKBN1E30SD'|'2017-12-10T01:05:00.000+02:00'
'315429ed6f9e2ff16418eabce1b8366d9aff3895'|'MOVES-Asset manager Janus Henderson says global head of equities leaves'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:58 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago MOVES-Asset manager Janus Henderson says global head of equities leaves Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 8 (Reuters) - Asset manager Janus Henderson said Graham Kitchen, global head of equities, would leave the firm to pursue other interests. Kitchen will remain with the team until March to ensure a smooth transition, the company said on Friday. Janus Henderson appointed George Maris and Alex Crooke to co-heads of equities. While Maris will be responsible for leading equities in the United States, Crooke will head the team in EMEA and APAC. Both Maris and Crooke will report to Enrique Chang, global chief investment officer. (Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/janus-henderson-moves-graham-kitchen/moves-asset-manager-janus-henderson-says-global-head-of-equities-leaves-idUSL3N1O84WE'|'2017-12-08T21:56:00.000+02:00'
'f6a18eaa2028e6f99496cc729fc1c5df49f6bc68'|'Bitcoin surges above $15,000 after climbing $2,000 in 12 hours'|'LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin rocketed to a lifetime high just shy of $16,000 on Thursday after climbing some 60 percent in just over a week, intensifying the debate about whether the cryptocurrency is in a bubble about to burst.FILE PHOTO: A Bitcoin logo is displayed at the Bitcoin Center New York City in New York''s financial district in NY, U.S. on July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange struggled to keep up with record traffic as the price surged, with an upcoming launch of the first bitcoin futures contract further fueling investor interest.Proponents say bitcoin is a good medium of exchange and a way to store value, much like a precious metal. They also argue it is preferable to traditional currencies because it is not subject to central bank manipulation.The supply of bitcoin will eventually be capped at 21 million, and some 16.7 million have already been released.But critics say that the price run-up is a bubble that has been driven mostly by speculation, leaving bitcoin vulnerable to a sharp reversal. JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon famously called bitcoin a fraud in September.“Bitcoin remains a major gamble as it is very much an asset that remains in uncharted waters, we’ve simply not experienced this before,” said Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group.“Also, an asset that goes almost vertically up should typically raise alarm bells for investors,” he added.The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has surged fifteen-fold in value so far this year.The latest surge brought its so-called market cap, its price multiplied by the number of bitcoins in circulation, to nearly $280 billion, according to Coinmarketcap, a trade website. By comparison, the market value of Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ) is around $288 billion.Analysts said the launch slated for this weekend of bitcoin futures by Cboe Global Markets Inc’s ( CBOE.O ) Cboe Futures Exchange, one of the world’s biggest derivatives exchanges, was helping drive up the price on expectations it would draw more investors to the market.The CME Group will launch bitcoin futures one week later, while Nasdaq Inc ( NDAQ.O ) plans to get into the mix next year.Bitcoin climbed as high as $15,995 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP , up more than 14 percent on the day. It was last at $15,299,97.Coinbase, the largest U.S. platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, said on Thursday on Twitter that it had experienced an outage due to record traffic. The venue was last up and running.Some investors said they still see scope for bitcoin to soar even higher.“It will hit potentially $20,000 because so much capital is coming in and it’s the most liquid secure coin out there,” said David Drake, founder and chairman of DLJ Capital, a family office in New York.Other trading venues showed different prices for bitcoin, which trades in more than 100 cryptocurrency exchanges that are not accountable to any central authority. For instance, at institutional trading platform GDAX, bitcoin topped $19,000, while it hit above $16,000 at itBit.Those price discrepancies could add another level of speculation by introducing the prospect of arbitrage trades between the markets.STOKING VOLATILITY Some warned that the launch of bitcoin futures, which will allow investors to take speculative short positions to bet against the cryptoccurrency, as well as long positions, could spark further volatility.And while Cboe, CME and Nasdaq offer strictly policed trading environments, the underlying bitcoin market is riddled with exchanges lacking even basic oversight.The Futures Industry Association, representing some of the world’s largest brokers, sent a letter on Thursday to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission saying that more safeguards are needed to protect against bitcoin’s high volatility and the risk of manipulation in the spot market.“Aggressive traders, such as hedge funds and algorithm-driven funds, (will be able) to use this futures market to enter bitcoin trading with high levels of liquidity for aggressive short-selling and knock the prices really low,” said Think Markets analyst Naeem Aslam.“Players now have an incentive to be on the short side and make profits hedging against the upside.”Concerns about cybersecurity could also take the shine off of bitcoin.Slovenian cryptocurrency mining marketplace NiceHash, which matches people looking to sell processing time on computers in exchange for bitcoin, said on Thursday it had lost about $64 million worth of bitcoin in a hack of its payment system.Bitcoin slumped in 2014 when MtGox, then the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, collapsed after saying it had been hacked and had 650,000 bitcoins stolen.The value of all cryptocurrencies now stands at nearly $430 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.Bitcoin has more than tripled in price since the start of October, putting it on track for its best quarter since the end of 2013, when it surged above $1,000 for the first time.Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Jemima Kelly in London; Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-surges-above-15000-after-climbing-2000-in-12-hours-idINKBN1E11YH'|'2017-12-07T16:18:00.000+02:00'
'20bffc885ae027e3c79567a042e24437c0a0adf6'|'Bookmaker GVC in talks to buy Ladbrokes for up to $5.2 billion'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Online gambling company GVC Holdings ( GVC.L ) is in talks to buy Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ) for up to $5.2 billion in a long-awaited deal that would transform it into a bastion of British betting.A taxi passes a branch of Ladbrokes in central London, Britain, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville GVC’s bid marks the biggest wager yet by Kenny Alexander, who would become chief executive of the combined group, which is expected to be large enough to enter Britain’s FTSE 100 index.Since becoming chief executive a decade ago, the Scot has built GVC through a series of increasingly ambitious deals, including the 1.1 billion pound reverse takeover of Bwin.Party, growing it from an upstart gambling firm to a FTSE 250 business.Alexander’s latest acquisition would see GVC, which operates Sportingbet, Partypoker, and Foxy Bingo, swallow up the 130-year old Ladbrokes brand, as well as Coral and Gala.It would also mark GVC’s entry into British retail gambling through its acquisition of approximately 3,500 betting shops, making it the biggest player on the high street and competing with William Hill ( WMH.L ) and Paddy Power Betfair ( PPB.I ).“We’ve come along in a fairly short period of time, we’re very proud of what we’ve achieved,” Alexander said.Talks between GVC and Ladbrokes Coral, led by CEO Jim Mullen, have been “on and off” for about a year, Alexander said.The two firms, whose previous unsuccessful deal discussions leaked in August, said in a joint statement on Thursday they were in detailed talks over a takeover that would give Ladbrokes shareholders around 46.5 percent of the combined group.Shares in Ladbrokes jumped by 26 percent, while GVC shares rose 6 percent on confirmation of the potential offer, which is for 32.7 pence in cash and 0.141 GVC share per Ladbrokes share.HIGH STAKES GVC’s move comes at a pivotal moment for the British gambling industry, which is undergoing a government review.The final price GVC pays will depend on the outcome of this review into fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which are big moneyspinners for companies like Ladbrokes but have come under fire for leaving gamblers with very heavy losses.Following its so-called triennial review, the government said in October that the maximum stake allowed on FOBTs could be sharply cut over concerns they fuel addiction. It started a 12-week consultation to consider cutting the stake to between 50 pounds and 2 pounds, from 100 pounds currently.GVC’s offer values Ladbrokes Coral at 160.9 pence per share, equating to a total equity value of around 3.1 billion pounds, plus a contingent fee of up to 42.8 pence a share, meaning the bookmaker could be valued at as much as 3.9 billion pounds.Alexander said the offer both “protects GVC shareholders” and “allows Ladbrokes Coral shareholders to get value for whatever the business may look” like following the FOBT consultation.On Nov. 2, GVC struck a deal to offload its Turkish business, which had been an obstacle in talks with Ladbrokes Coral because of the risks associated with operating in a country where many forms of gambling are banned.Alexander said that talks with Ladbrokes Coral restarted in recent weeks after a deal structure was devised that could account for the different potential FOBT consultation outcomes.“This triennial review has run and run and run and with the political climate in the UK who knows how much longer it may well run for?” he said. “You can only sit and wait for so long.”Stricter regulation and higher taxation have hit betting shops in recent years and in 2015 prompted Ladbrokes to agree a merger with Coral and Paddy Power to tie-up with Betfair.Alexander said buying Ladbrokes Coral would not leave GVC over-exposed to declining betting shops. Based on results from the first half of 2017, he said that 56 percent of the enlarged company’s earnings would come from digital and 38 percent from UK retail. The latter would fall as online grows, he added.Stockbroker Davy said the deal made sense strategically, adding “it creates an online and retail gaming company of enormous scale and should lead to material synergies”.Houlihan Lokey and Investec are advising GVC on the deal, while Ladbrokes Coral is working with Greenhill and UBS.Reporting by Kate Holton and Ben Martin; additional reporting by Arathy S Nair; editing by James Davey and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ladbrokes-m-a-gvc-holdings/bookmaker-gvc-in-talks-to-buy-ladbrokes-for-5-2-billion-idINKBN1E10Q8'|'2017-12-07T04:31:00.000+02:00'
'bfee22052f6ee16d4ea92e17eea00f623abcc6fe'|'European shares edge up as tech recovers, Steinhoff collapses'|' 39 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago European shares edge up as tech recovers, Steinhoff collapses Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares edged up on Thursday as tech stocks rebounded in the wake of a similar move in Asia and Wall Street, while troubled furniture retailer Steinhoff continued its market price collapse in the midst of an accounting scandal. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The STOXX 600 was up 0.1 percent at 0820 GMT with tech stocks up 0.5 percent but financials, industrials and healthcare shares also added points to the pan-European index. Shares in Steinhoff plunged more than 30 percent on Thursday, extending dramatic losses of over 60 percent suffered during the previous session after the South African retailer revealed “accounting irregularities” and its chief executive quit. In London, shares in Ladbrokes Coral surged 28 percent after Bookmaker GVC Holdings said it had offered up to 3.9 billion pounds ($5.2 billion) to create a betting giant. Reporting by Julien Ponthus; Editing by Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-edge-up-as-tech-recovers-steinhoff-collapses-idUKKBN1E10XV'|'2017-12-07T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'a7259f74820db9462400a7003000ad6e872c017d'|'Exclusive: Uber''s Chinese rival Didi Chuxing to enter Mexico next year - sources'|'December 7, 2017 / 8:36 PM / in 40 minutes Exclusive: Uber''s Chinese rival Didi Chuxing to enter Mexico next year - sources Julia Love , Heather Somerville 4 Min Read MEXICO CITY/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Didi Chuxing, China’s ride-hailing behemoth, plans to expand into Mexico next year, intensifying its global rivalry with Uber, according to two sources familiar with the plans. FILE PHOTO - A woman walks past Didi Chuxing''s booth at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2017 in Beijing, China April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee Didi has spoken before of global ambitions, but has not formally announced where or when it would expand. The Chinese company is the second-most highly valued, venture-backed private firm in the world, after Uber Technologies Inc. Didi has no cars outside China, meaning Mexico could be its first international operation. Didi, whose brand is ubiquitous in China but little-known in the West, will launch a smartphone app in Mexico and recruit local drivers to the platform, according to the sources, who declined to be named. It is unclear which cities Didi will target, although one of the sources said the company was aiming to launch in the first quarter of next year. The company has already begun trying to recruit corporate talent in the sector, the source added. A spokesman for Didi declined to comment on Thursday. About a month ago, Didi met with ProMexico, a government trade and investment body, to discuss opportunities in the country, according to a Mexican official, who declined to provide further details about the conversations. The company has made no secret of its desire to expand beyond China, particularly in light of the growing number of Chinese customers who travel overseas. In April, Didi raised $5.5 billion from investors, in part to fund global expansion. But until now, its plans have been limited to financial commitments to ride-hailing companies in other countries and a research lab in Silicon Valley that opened earlier this year. Didi has invested in Uber rivals around the world, including U.S.-based Lyft, Brazil-based 99, India’s Ola, Singapore-headquartered Grab, Estonia’s Taxify and Careem in the Middle East. The company acquired Uber’s China business last year after Uber lost roughly $2 billion trying to compete. After ceding its China business, Uber doubled down on Latin America, where Didi is now encroaching. Uber has established a stronghold in Mexico, with seven million users across 45 cities. Mexico City is Uber’s third-biggest market in the world by rides, after the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Didi will also compete with Spanish ride-hailing company Cabify, which operates in seven Mexican cities. Regulatory battles are looming. In the touristy state of Quintana Roo, for example, Uber has said the proposed regulation is so onerous that it would drive the company out of the market if passed in its current form. The regulation would ban cash fares, which Uber has said are critical for reaching riders without credit cards. Mexican authorities fear that allowing ride-sharing apps to accept cash payments would put them in direct competition with traditional taxis, which are a political force in some cities. Despite Uber’s presence in Mexico, competitors have room to grow, particularly if they can find a way to reach “unbanked” consumers while addressing regulators’ concerns about cash, said Enrique Garcia, a PhD student at Mexico’s CIDE university who has published research on Uber’s presence in the country. “There is not a point of saturation,” Garcia said. Reporting by Julia Love in Mexico City and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Noe Torres in Mexico City; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-didi-mexico-exclusive/exclusive-ubers-chinese-rival-didi-chuxing-to-enter-mexico-next-year-sources-idUSKBN1E12XU'|'2017-12-07T22:35:00.000+02:00'
'aab3c1cce39f12e2bb0bb84e4274b54f0b7a4712'|'DS Smith first-half profit slips on higher costs'|'Reuters TV United States  35 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago DS Smith first-half profit slips on higher costs Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British packaging company DS Smith Plc said first-half pre-tax profit slipped as gains from acquisitions and strong revenues from European and e-commerce customers were more than offset by higher input costs. Shares of the company rose 2.8 percent to 554 pence on the London Stock Exchange. DS Smith, a maker of corrugated cardboard, recycled paper and plastic packaging, said profit before tax fell to 144 million pounds for the six months ended Oct. 31, from 146 million pounds a year earlier. A rise in fiber costs and paper pricing weighed on earnings, the company said. However, DS Smith, which is set to join the FTSE 100 this month, expressed confidence in its outlook, saying despite input cost pressures, the company continued to recover those costs as planned. DS Smith, founded in 1940 as a box-making business in London, serves European fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) operators and competes with Smurfit Kappa, Mondi and RPC Group. An increase in input costs due to a surge in paper and pulp prices have hurt the packaging sector, with South Africa-based Mondi, issuing a profit warning in October. DS Smith raised its dividend by 7 percent in first half, compared with a 15 percent dividend growth in the same period last year. The company, which entered the U.S. market in June with an 80 percent stake buy in Interstate Resources for $920 million, said revenue surged 18.6 percent to 2.80 billion pounds in the first half. DS Smith’s 17 of top 20 pan-European customers have significant U.S. operations and the company has been positioning itself to benefit from the weak British pound since the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in June 2016. Reporting By Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair and Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ds-smith-results/ds-smith-first-half-profit-slips-on-higher-costs-idUKKBN1E10XB'|'2017-12-07T10:27:00.000+02:00'
'3441e08edc7e6187d4359efc1ba6e64a3732f54a'|'Teva considering cutting up to 10,000 jobs: Bloomberg'|'December 8, 2017 / 4:01 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Teva considering cutting up to 10,000 jobs: Bloomberg Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd ( TEVA.TA ) is considering cutting up to 10,000 jobs as CEO Kare Schultz seeks to reduce $1.5 billion to $2 billion in costs over the next two years, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world''s biggest generic drugmaker and Israel''s largest company, is seen in Jerusalem February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo U.S.-listed shares ( TEVA.N ) of the debt-laden Israeli drugmaker jumped as much as 7 percent to $16.09 on Friday. No final decision has been taken, and the targets may be modified, with a range of 5,000 to 10,000 jobs being discussed, Bloomberg reported. bloom.bg/2kdYEBI “We don’t comment on market rumors,” Teva spokeswoman Denise Bradley said in an emailed statement. Israeli financial news website Calcalist had reported two weeks ago that the drugmaker would send termination letters to “tens of percent” of its 10,000 employees in the United States. Schultz, who took over as CEO of the world’s largest maker of generic drugs last month, has ousted the company’s three top division heads. Teva is saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt after its $40.5 billion acquisition of Allergan Plc’s ( AGN.N ) generic drug business last year. Profits from generics have slumped since that deal closed, and the CEO who engineered the purchase was forced to step down earlier this year. Teva has about 57,000 employees globally, according to the company’s website. Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-teva-pharm-ind-redundancies/teva-considering-cutting-up-to-10000-jobs-bloomberg-idUSKBN1E2268'|'2017-12-08T17:59:00.000+02:00'
'13a38403273f072364f91c81a03510724a723139'|'China''s Fosun International plans $500 million IPO of tourism business - IFR'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:29 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago China''s Fosun International plans $500 million IPO of tourism business - IFR Reuters Staff 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate Fosun International ( 0656.HK ) is in talks with banks to list its tourism business, which includes French resort chain Club Med, to raise at least $500 million, IFR reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation. Fosun International Ltd services are displayed at a news conference in Hong Kong, China March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Fosun Tourism & Culture Group includes a Chinese joint venture with tour operator Thomas Cook Group and a luxury hotel in Hainan province as well as Club Med, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication. Shanghai-based Fosun is considering spinning off the unit as early as next year and is likely to pick Hong Kong as the listing venue, according to the people. Two sources said the deal would raise at least $500 million, according to IFR. Fosun declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Fosun, co-founded by Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, was in the vanguard of China’s global dealmaking spree over the past few years, snapping up assets including a Portuguese insurer, and stakes in Greek jewellery retailer Folli Follie and Cirque du Soleil. It bought Club Med for $1 billion in 2015 after a protracted bid battle. The float of Fosun’s tourism unit is one of several expected from China’s largest dealmakers as they rationalise portfolios and seek to boost their finances. Last week, fellow conglomerate HNA said it was considering listing Gategroup, the Swiss airline caterer, in Zurich next year and signalled it was looking at other asset sales. Fosun itself announced plans last year to list Ironshore, its reinsurance unit, but was stalled by a U.S. review of its two-stage acquisition of the Bermuda-based group. It sold the company to U.S. insurer Liberty Mutual for $3 billion last December. In September, it listed Israeli subsidiary Sisram Medical in Hong Kong through a HK$ 977 million (£93.5 million) IPO. Sisram is a producer of medical aesthetics devices. Fosun divides its businesses into “Health”, or pharmaceutical and medical-related, “Wealth” for its financial operations, and “Happiness” for its tourism, leisure and consumer units. In the first half of this year, the Happiness unit reported profits of 516 million yuan (£58.3 million) from sales of 6.53 billion yuan. Fosun shares were trading at HK$15.78 on Thursday afternoon, giving the company a market capitalisation of HK$135 billion. Reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fosun-tourism-ipo/chinas-fosun-international-plans-500-million-ipo-of-tourism-business-ifr-idUKKBN1E10Q4'|'2017-12-07T09:28:00.000+02:00'
'28f1b0299613583c2ea46ed0340790672f93fa37'|'Gig economy workers in UK risk missing out on £22,200 of pension - Business'|'More than a million workers in Britain’s gig economy risk losing more than £22,000 each from being wrongly labelled as self-employed, according to research that shows the dangers posed to people in fragile employment.The insurance firm Zurich said forcing gig economy companies to classify their workers as employees rather than self-employed would mean automatic enrolment in a workplace pension. Under these rules, it estimates a typical worker aged 25 and earning £25,000 a year would receive a total of £22,200 in employer contributions by the time they retire.The analysis carried out for the insurer by the Pensions Policy Institute comes after the government delayed reforms designed to improve the rights for up to 1.1 million workers in the gig economy until next year , amid growing fears it could face opposition from the right wing of the Conservative party. In July, Theresa May’s adviser on modern work, Matthew Taylor , recommended reforms to employment law. MPs have suggested some gig economy firms, including digital operators such as Uber and Deliveroo, may have been exploiting gaps in current legislation. Chris Atkinson at Zurich UK said: “Employment law is lagging far behind advances in working practices, which is leaving some people in the gig economy at risk of being denied basic rights.”'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/07/gig-economy-workers-uk-missing-out-22200-status-workplace-pension'|'2017-12-07T19:16:00.000+02:00'
'c55119574cd5a79e4d7f78a6b7a2a56cefb19bce'|'HSBC beefs up Asia research team with 15 new hires in China'|'Reuters TV United States December 8, 2017 / 4:06 AM / Updated 2 hours ago HSBC beefs up Asia research team with 15 new hires in China Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - HSBC ( 0005.HK )( HSBA.L ) said on Friday that it had expanded its Asian research team by hiring 15 analysts following the launch of HSBC Qianhai Securities, the first Chinese securities joint venture to be majority-owned by a foreign bank. A logo of HSBC is displayed at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip A new team of equity research analysts based in Shenzhen will work with Asian and global colleagues to deliver a research view across sectors, including IT hardware, software, healthcare, internet, media, consumer staples and autos, the bank said. HSBC Qianhai will continue to add to this team, which is expected to reach 50 people over the medium-term. “With the launch of HSBC Qianhai Securities, we will significantly expand our onshore A-share research offerings and help our clients navigate this exciting market,” said William Bratton, Asia-Pacific head of equity research at HSBC. China said last month it would allow foreign ownership in joint-venture firms involved in the futures, securities and funds markets to rise to 51 percent from the current 49 percent. Beijing has been slow to give foreign players more access to its financial sector, but has promised to quicken the pace as foreign investment into Asia’s economic powerhouse slows. Reporting by Michelle Chen; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-financials/hsbc-beefs-up-asia-research-team-with-15-new-hires-in-china-idUKKBN1E20CZ'|'2017-12-08T05:55:00.000+02:00'
'9fdf424b96adbf3bce21ef7850aed0801ef30b29'|'Oracle''s Safra Catz among two new members named to Disney board'|'December 7, 2017 / 10:09 PM / in 13 minutes Oracle''s Safra Catz among two new members named to Disney board Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 7 (Reuters) - Media company Walt Disney Co on Thursday named Oracle Corp’s chief executive, Safra Catz, and her counterpart at Illumina Inc, Francis A. deSouza, to its board. Disney said their election would be effective Feb. 1 but it was yet to decide on which committees they would serve on. The company currently has 12 members on its board, including Facebook Inc’s Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Inc’s Jack Dorsey. The election of the two new members comes at a time when Disney is said to be in the lead to acquire much of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s media empire. Disney Chief Executive and Chairman Bob Iger contemplates on extending his tenure past 2019 to facilitate the integration of Fox’s assets if a deal is completed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. (Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/disney-board/oracles-safra-catz-among-two-new-members-named-to-disney-board-idUSL3N1O75HF'|'2017-12-08T00:09:00.000+02:00'
'f5d2780f22ac587dfc139017ebd9b2df076e75f7'|'KKR to buy tool components maker Hyperion from Sweden''s Sandvik'|'(Reuters) - Buyout firm KKR & Co LP ( KKR.N ) said on Friday it had agreed to buy industrial tool components manufacturer Hyperion from Sweden’s Sandvik ( SAND.ST ), its first acquisition of a relatively small manufacturing company.The deal, which Sandvik said in a statement was worth 4 billion Swedish crowns ($471.6 million), signals a shift by KKR from its past focus on larger deals.“We like the industry and we think this is a neat company with lots of additional potential,” Pete Stavros, the head of KKR’s industrials investment team, said in a telephone interview.KKR said the deal was being funded through its $13.9 billion Americas XII Fund, which finished fundraising earlier this year.Institutional and wealthy individuals have been increasingly eager to invest with private equity firms, which buy companies to sell a few years later for higher returns than available in public financial markets.Buyout funds raised $66 billion in the third quarter, according to research firm Preqin, up 47 percent from the year-ago period. This cash influx into a growing number of private equity firms means the industry has an estimated $954 billion to invest.KKR’s move to look at the smaller-sized, or middle-market, businesses opens the door for more deal opportunities, Stavros said.“If you think about someone who, on my team, covers the building products sector, which is a very fragmented space, there’s just so much more transaction activity in the middle market,” he said. “This’ll give that person a lot more opportunities to look at.”Fair Lawn, New Jersey-based Hyperion has around 1,400 employees. KKR will continue allowing staff to have a stake in the companies it invests in, a policy it believes helps to improve profitability.($1 = 8.4824 Swedish crowns)Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-kkr-m-a-hyperion/kkr-to-buy-tool-components-maker-hyperion-from-swedens-sandvik-idINKBN1E223K'|'2017-12-08T12:35:00.000+02:00'
'd81dfc65f66696c621951bc1ae27f0d4767f0942'|'EU regulators to warn Bayer about Monsanto bid: source'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators are set to warn Bayer its planned purchase of U.S. seed maker Monsanto may hurt competition, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday, a move that would force Bayer to offer concessions to address the concerns.FILE PHOTO: Monsanto logo is displayed on a screen where the stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The $66 billion deal would make Bayer ( BAYGn.DE ) the world’s largest pesticides and seeds company, an outcome already facing strong criticism from environmentalists and some farm groups.The European Commission is expected to send a charge sheet known as a statement of objections to the companies in the coming weeks, but a final decision has not yet been made, the person said.The EU competition enforcer declined to comment. Companies have to address all the concerns addressed in the document with concessions or face a veto.Bayer and Monsanto ( MON.N ) met with Commission officials earlier this week and were told of the regulatory worries.Bayer agreed in October to sell its seed and herbicide units, including its LibertyLink-branded seeds and Liberty herbicide businesses, to world No. 3 crop chemicals maker BASF ( BASFn.DE ) for 5.9 billion euros as part of an attempt to ease competition concerns.It has yet to make a formal offer of concessions to the Commission which opened a full-scale investigation into the deal in August after expressing preliminary concerns that it may reduce competition and jack up prices.Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-eu/eu-regulators-to-warn-bayer-about-monsanto-bid-source-idINKBN1E22CZ'|'2017-12-08T14:20:00.000+02:00'
'5bb7637d4b78a53bfd9d1c1fe6b445d48207b651'|'Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'Reuters TV United States  59 PM / a few seconds ago Take Five: World markets themes for the week ahead Marc Jones 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate the thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. Traders work on   (NYSE)   6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid 1/FED UP It’s a monster week for central bank meetings across the globe. The third Federal Reserve interest rate rise of the year is due Wednesday, with markets hungry to hear how many more might be in the pipeline for next year while they flatten the yield curve on fears over just how aggressive the FOMC might be. Fed chair Janet Yellen may well wax lyrical alongside the dot plots, but the fact she won’t be around to see 2018 through means a certain amount of fog descends. Investors are also trying to figure out just how much gasoline the big Trump tax cuts throw on a nicely blazing economy. Europe’s top two - the ECB and Bank of England - hold their final meetings of the year on Thursday, though it’s highly unlikely either will rock the boat policy-wise. For the BoE, that’s partly because visibility on the Brexit-bound UK economy stretches only to the end of its nose. Emerging markets will see the real action. Russia is expected to trim its rates again with inflation there at a record low, but Turkey should and Mexico could go the other way. Indonesia, Colombia, Ukraine and Philippines also hold rate meetings. (Graphic: Major central bank interest rates - tmsnrt.rs/2jzc8L ) 2/LOOKING TO THE FUTURES Bitcoin fans saw the cryptocurrency blast past $19,000 and then promptly plunge 20 percent to this week but are salivating over the potential for some longed-for legitimacy when futures trading launches this weekend. The first Cboe exchange trades should print Sunday night at 2300 GMT (6 p.m. EST), followed a week later on CME Group’s CME exchange and Nasdaq next year. Traders are speculating what all this will do to the hyperactive price moves. Since August 2011, bitcoin has averaged a daily price change of nearly 3 percent, up or down. That compares to less than 0.5 percent for the euro-dollar rate EUR= since the euro''s introduction in 1999. (Graphic: Bitcoin''s blistering ascent - tmsnrt.rs/2AeMjHe ) 3/FROM ME TO EU Britain and the EU reached an 11th-hour deal on Friday covering the Irish border question that allows the second phase of Brexit negotiations, on future trade relations, to proceed. It was a typical European fudge, pushing the tough negotiations on the details of what will be extremely complex trade and regulatory issues into next year. Sterling initially rallied to a 6-month high against the euro but then slumped, posting its biggest daily fall in two weeks against the euro and three weeks against the dollar. Sterling trading is becoming increasingly choppy - the difference between sterling/dollar volatility and euro/dollar last week was the widest since the UK general election in June. The pound will remain highly sensitive to Brexit headlines and official commentary next week too despite Friday’s breakthrough. Next up is the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on Dec. 14-15. (Graphic: Sterling volatility - reut.rs/2AJ8Egn ) 4/WEAKEST LINKS Crunchtime looms for Turkey and South Africa, the emerging market weak links. Turkey''s central bank should deliver at least 100 basis points in policy tightening at its Dec. 14 meeting to counter double-digit inflation and keep foreigners keen on its bonds. Any less and the lira may slide back to record lows against the dollar - it is currently 4 percent off that level TRY= South African markets will likewise be volatile ahead of the ruling ANC party’s Dec. 16-20 conference to elect a new leader. Expectations of a victory for businessman Cyril Ramaphosa have lifted South African markets but these gains could reverse should his rival Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma take the lead in polls. The outcome of the vote could determine direction for the rand and central bank policy. Bond yields in both countries have surged this year in contrast to broader emerging markets where yields are down - average Turkish yields at 12.5 percent are double the emerging market average, while South African bonds pay 9.8 percent. (Graphic: Turkish, South African bond yields - reut.rs/2jyyf2m ) 5/EXERTING SOME DELEVERAGE China is due to release key data next week including industrial output, retail figures, investment, house prices and the latest loan growth numbers. ECONALLCN The big question most economists and investors are asking about China at the moment is whether Beijing can achieve its main aim of deleveraging - and making the financial sector less risky - but at the same time keep economic growth on its steady glide path. For EM equities followers there is also the spiralling influence of Tencent and Alibaba which are now so outsized in some of the key global EM stocks indices that the merest sniff of a slowdown in the world’s number two economy could cause trouble. (Graphic: China''s markets tumble on deleveraging worries - reut.rs/2A15eWw ) Compiled by Marc Jones; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUKKBN1E22F0'|'2017-12-08T19:54:00.000+02:00'
'bf3509ad95528fd1bf716b752099f05b9eba1eeb'|'UPDATE 1-Mexico oil regulator cancels deep water Pemex tie-up auction'|'(Adds background, details)MEXICO CITY, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Mexico’s oil regulator on Thursday canceled a tender for a joint venture with state oil firm Pemex in the deep water Maximino-Nobilis area, as no company expressed interest in the auction.The National Hydrocarbons Commision (CNH) said the auction to find a partner for Pemex to tap super light crude in the Maximino-Nobilis area, which lies in the Gulf of Mexico near the U.S. border, had been canceled as there had been no interest. The auction had been scheduled to take place on Jan. 31.The joint ventures, known as “farm outs,” are a central pillar of the government’s efforts to lure investment to Mexico since Congress opened up the country’s long-closed oil and gas industry to private investment in 2014.Last month, the CNH said that Pemex’s stake in the potentially lucrative tie-up would be cut to 40 percent from 49 percent.Mexico’s oil regulator has previously said it expects the first commercial barrels from Nobilis-Maximino to come by 2024, with peak output of 174,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and 265 million cubic feet of natural gas per day coming online in 2026.Pemex has sunk two wells in Maximino at a depth of 3,000 meters (9,840 feet), discovering super light crude. In September 2016, Pemex said it had found super light crude in its Nobilis-1 well, also at some 3,000 metres. (Reporting by Adriana Barrera Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mexico-oil/update-1-mexico-oil-regulator-cancels-deep-water-pemex-tie-up-auction-idINL1N1O8037'|'2017-12-07T22:32:00.000+02:00'
'b23472c44437dd06cb7c90494004b86993d06f62'|'Britain''s smaller banks jostle for business banking grants'|'December 10, 2017 / 8:14 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Britain''s smaller banks jostle for business banking grants Emma Rumney 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s smaller banks are lining up to apply for multi-million pound grants the government hopes will help them compete in the corporate banking market. Storm clouds are seen above the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, August 3, 2010. REUTERS/Greg Bos/File Photo For years the government has wanted to reduce the dominance of big banks in the small-to medium-sized business (SME) banking sector. The four largest — HSBC ( HSBA.L ), Barclays ( BARC.L ), RBS ( RBS.L ) and Lloyds Banking Group ( LLOY.L ) — control over 70 percent of business current accounts. Royal Bank of Scotland was directed by the government and the European Commission to set up two funds worth a combined 775 million pounds following its 45.5 billion pound bailout during the financial crisis, seen as an unfair boost to RBS. “A consequence of the 2008-9 crisis was that there was huge consolidation in financial services,” said Anne Boden, CEO of digital Starling Bank, which launched in 2014. Applications for grants from the funds open next year. One, worth 350 million pounds, will be used to encourage customers to switch providers, while the other 425 million pound fund will help challenger banks invest in their SME offerings. The fiercest competition is expected to be over six grants making up the bulk of the second fund and focussed on current or soon-to-be business current account providers. NEW ENTRANTS At least 12 banks are likely to be eligible for just the first two pools of funding containing the six biggest grants. Virgin Money ( VM.L ) and Starling Bank have set out plans to enter business banking in recent months while the CEO of app-based bank Monzo told Reuters it was now also tempted to move into the sector, having previously ruled this out. Virgin Money will be able to bid for a pool of grants including one worth 15 million pounds and two worth 15 million pounds and open to firms new to the sector. Its Chief Commercial Officer Hugh Chater recently told investors that its proposition, offering customers access to partners’ services, would provide a “compelling case” for funding. Starling plans to have its service off the ground before it applies, allowing it to bid for one of the three biggest grants ranging from 60-120 million pounds and earmarked for firms already up and running. Unsuccessful firms will be considered for other pools of grants. “We are very uniquely placed in this... and confident of our ability to win,” said Starling’s Boden, while agreeing competition was heating up. “I think that (the funds) are probably not enough. It could have been much more.” An employee is seen walking over a mosaic of pound sterling symbols set in the floor of the front hall of the Bank of England in London, Britain 25, 2008. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo Another digital player Tandem is set to acquire a banking license and business banking unit if its takeover of Harrods Bank is approved and plans to apply for all four pools of funds on offer. “It (competition) is kicking off now,” said Ricky Knox, CEO of Tandem. “It’s not reached a scale where there is serious acknowledgement of it, but we’re going to see a really interesting 2-3 years.” Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank (CYBG) ( CYBGC.L ), TSB and Metro Bank ( MTRO.L ) are also in the running. FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Royal Bank of Scotland signs are seen at a branch of the bank, in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo CYBG is currently piloting a business e-lending service and expanding in Birmingham and the West Midlands, moves that set it up to apply for the three biggest grants. TSB also has plans to expand. Its CEO Paul Pester said in November it will be at the “front of the queue” for funding. SANTANDER IN THE MIX Santander fits the criteria, but its eligibility has drawn criticism given its parent, Spain’s Banco Santander ( SAN.MC ), is one of the world’s biggest banks. Santander UK CEO Nathan Bostock said the bank has the reputation and proven capability required to convince customers to switch. “We will create some things we feel will help customers make that choice,” he added, referring to new products or services the bank will offer as part of its application. Bostock noted that it has historically been very difficult to win market share from the big four banks. They have dominated the market since 1970, according to a 2016 government report, and suffered relatively little erosion of their market share despite numerous entrants to the market. Switching rates remain low, at about 4 percent in 2014 according to the Competition and Markets Authority, despite thousands of firms being mistreated by major lenders in the past. Some accuse RBS of pushing them into bankruptcy to pick up assets on the cheap during and after the financial crisis. The grant scheme was set up as an alternative way to boost competition after RBS found it was unable to sell its business banking unit Williams & Glyn. The plan targets a transfer of 3 percent market share from RBS to challenger banks. The unit has around 220,000 SME customers. Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-banks-competition/britains-smaller-banks-jostle-for-business-banking-grants-idUKKBN1E406R'|'2017-12-10T10:24:00.000+02:00'
'1cd8a5d29c060c74b34d80c61c43dc3f7074a2e9'|'Elliott Management seeks changes at Alexion - NYT'|'(Reuters) - U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management, which has built a stake in Alexion Pharmaceuticals, is urging the company to take more action to boost its stock price, including exploring a sale, the New York Times reported on Thursday.If Alexion failed to offer more aggressive financial performance guidance or consider strategic alternatives such as a sale, Elliott could start a proxy fight to claim board seats, the paper reported, citing people who were not authorized to speak publicly. nyti.ms/2jqV1sGIn a recent meeting between Alexion and Elliott, the hedge fund sought to have more biotech experts as directors and suggested four potential candidates, the newspaper said.“Alexion believes in active and constructive dialogue with all of our shareholders, and we value their perspective,” a company spokeswoman said in an emailed statement on Friday.The hedge fund has set an end-December deadline for the board changes, according to the report.Alexion has made “significant progress executing an aggressive and decisive strategy”, the spokeswoman said.In September, the company said it would lay off about 20 percent of its workforce.The company has been hit by a sales-practices scandal related to Soliris, its pricey rare-disease treatment, as well as an exodus of top management including its chief executive and chief financial officers who left late last year.Elliott started investing in Alexion in April and has warned the company against ambitious acquisitions beyond its core expertise, according to the report.Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alexion-pharms-elliot-management/elliott-management-seeks-changes-at-alexion-nyt-idUSKBN1E209I'|'2017-12-08T04:34:00.000+02:00'
'05c0abe84fe74f3993fec01608466604f7182359'|'PWC to sell government services practice -sources'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:49 PM / in 19 minutes PWC to sell government services practice: sources Mike Stone 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global financial auditing and consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is exploring the sale of its government consulting practice, which could fetch about $500 million, four people familiar with the matter said this week. The exterior of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is seen in Washington, DC, U.S. December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Stone The sale would give PWC a freer hand to pursue the growing business of auditing government agencies. Professional standards restrict the kind of consulting services audit companies can offer to government customers, which are deterred by even the appearance of conflicts. Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) is running the sale process, said the sources, who requested anonymity because details of the talks were not public. Bidders have received financial information about the consulting practice, which offers business process improvement and operations streamlining services for a variety of government entities, including U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense. The unit’s pretax earnings are expected to rise to more than $60 million next year from about $50 million this year, the sources said. The exterior of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is seen in Washington, DC, U.S. December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Stone Private equity firms including New York-based Veritas and Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners are potential bidders for the unit, the people said. Representatives of PWC, Morgan Stanley, Veritas and Madison Dearborn declined to comment. One of biggest audits in history, the audit of the U.S. Department of Defense, kicked off this month and is due at the end of the government’s 2018 fiscal year. According to Pentagon records, PWC, one of world’s largest auditing companies, has been contracted to provide “audit-readiness” services to the department. “The Department is engaging auditors to perform over 24 individual financial statement audits of its largest components, as well as a Department-wide consolidated audit to summarize all results and conclusions on a DoD-wide basis,” a Pentagon spokesman said. Other companies in the government services sector have struck deals this year, including DXC Technology Co ( DXC.N ), which combined its U.S. public-sector business with Vencore Holding Corp and KeyPoint Government Solutions to create an independent, publicly traded company serving U.S. government clients. Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pricewaterhousecoopers-m-a/pwc-to-sell-government-services-practice-sources-idUSKBN1E22KV'|'2017-12-08T21:42:00.000+02:00'
'dfe980393af142e101e39fad665f4dbf597b24dd'|'China exports growth hits eight-month high, imports defy pollution curbs'|'December 8, 2017 / 4:23 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago China exports growth hits eight-month high, imports defy pollution curbs Reuters Staff 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s exports and imports unexpectedly accelerated last month in an encouraging sign for the world’s second-biggest economy, though analysts expect growth to continue cooling amid a government crackdown on financial risks and polluting factories. FILE PHOTO: Containers are seen at a port of Shanghai Free Trade Zone, February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo As global demand has surprised with its strength, consumers have lapped up Chinese goods at a rapid rate this year, giving the economy a boost and providing policy makers room to tighten rules to curb high-risk lending. Exports in November rose 12.3 percent year-on-year, the fastest pace in eight months, led by strong sales of electronics and high-tech goods, while commodity purchases helped lift imports. The number beat analysts’ forecast of a 5.0 percent increase and compared with 6.9 percent growth in October. Imports grew 17.7 percent year-on-year in November, the General Administration of Customs said on Friday, also well above expectations of 11.3 percent growth and rising at the fastest pace since September. The numbers may help to ease concerns of slowing momentum in Asia’s economic powerhouse, which had surprised markets with robust growth of nearly 6.9 percent in the first nine months of this year, thanks to a government-led infrastructure spending spree and unexpected strength in exports. “While we still expect China’s domestic economy to cool in 2018 on gradually tighter financial policies, the November import data shows that there are upside risks to our China outlook”, said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia Economics at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong. Tighter rules to rein in risks from a rapid build-up in debt and cut pollution have weighed on overall activity since the third quarter. Besides ramped-up efforts to reduce winter pollution, authorities unveiled fresh regulatory measures last month for the financial sector, clamping down on high-risk lending and halting some dubious infrastructure projects that would swell local governments’ debt. IMPORTS BOUNCE TO TAIL OFF? Some of China’s northern provinces have ordered factories to throttle back or halt output to reduce notoriously thick winter smog. While the war on pollution had been expected to reduce raw materials imports, Friday’s trade numbers showed commodity imports rebounded last month. China’s natural gas imports in November rose to a record as domestic demand surged while crude imports were the second-highest ever, as refiners ramped up output to cash in on strong profits as fuel prices soar. China’s iron ore imports rose in November even as steel mills are cutting output as part of a government drive against pollution as some analysts said traders were stockpiling inventory. Iron ore imports “were not necessarily just by steel mills but could have been also purchased by traders,” said Helen Lau at Argonaut Securities in Hong Kong. “They’re trying to accumulate stocks and will do so maybe through March in anticipation of Chinese mills resuming production when China lifts the winter restrictions.” Steel exports rose from the previous month to 5.35 million tonnes in November, data showed. The rebound in imports come as China’s yuan has fallen 2.8 percent against the dollar since hitting its 2017 peak on Sept. 8. The latest data showed the country posted a trade surplus of $40.21 billion for the month versus expectations for $35 billion in November after October’s $38.185 billion. Despite the overall strength of the November data, imports could come under pressure as China’s economy cools, analysts say. “Chinese trade looks to have been surprisingly strong last month. We expect exports to continue to perform well in the coming months on the back of strong global demand,” Capital Economics China economist Julian Evans-Pritchard wrote in a note. “However, we are sceptical that the strength of imports can be sustained given that the delayed impact of policy tightening and a cooling property market are set to weigh on Chinese demand for commodities in coming quarters.” Reporting by Lusha Zhang and Elias Glenn; additional reporting by Winni Zhou in Shanghai; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-trade/china-november-exports-growth-at-eight-month-high-imports-up-on-commodities-demand-idUKKBN1E20EA'|'2017-12-08T07:31:00.000+02:00'
'e497d51881c1114953a965957db86bac0ba0cb48'|'Adyen executive says currently no plans for 2018 IPO'|'AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Adyen, which handles the payments back-end for many of the largest internet companies, is not actively preparing an initial public offering in 2018, a top executive at the Dutch fintech firm said on Friday.But Adyen’s Chief Operating Officer Roelant Prins did not completely rule out the possibility in a Reuters interview.“We’re exploring various options, but we haven’t initiated - we don’t have banks that are working for us on this,” he said at the company’s headquarters in Amsterdam.“There are no plans for 2018 right now.”Adyen, which handles payments for Facebook ( FB.O ), Spotify, Uber and Netflix ( NFLX.O ), and is considered one of Europe’s most promising fintech companies, was valued at $1.5 billion in a 2015 investment round.But Adyen has been growing rapidly since then and its revenue nearly doubled to $727 million in 2016. In April it forecast similar growth for 2017.“We’re very happy with the progress this year,” Prins said, adding that Adyen will disclose some details of its financial performance in February.He said deals struck in recent years to bypass banks and connect directly to the back-end of credit card companies were paying off. That has been “a game changer for a lot of our merchants, as far as higher approval rates (fewer failed payments) and more efficient processing, so we’ve really met our goals this year,” Prins said.He said that in 2018 the company will increasingly target mid-size customers. He said mid-size companies see big companies “like Uber or Spotify” using Adyen and want to follow suit.Prins cited hotel chains that operate in several countries and need to integrate on-site and online payments as an example.“We’re absolutely looking to open that up as well and make our solution more approachable for that category.”Adyen competes with Vantiv( VNTV.N ), which agreed to buy WorldPay in July, but less so with U.S. startup Stripe, which targets smaller online stores.A source familiar with the matter told Reuters in November the company was laying the groundwork for an 2018 IPO, but had not given any bank a mandate.Prins said on Friday the company is not under pressure from either its investors or its employees to launch an IPO.“We have the ability to stay private for a long time. We’ve been profitable since 2011 and we’re growing quickly,” he said.Reporting by Toby Sterling; additional reporting by Arno Schuetze and Eric Auchard; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-adyen-ipo/adyen-coo-wont-rule-out-2018-ipo-but-no-current-plans-idINKBN1E21YB'|'2017-12-08T11:50:00.000+02:00'
'979eaadbf73e9086f6a376f26d900f113449c815'|'Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek to expand to Philippines in 2018'|'December 7, 2017 / 6:42 AM / in 34 minutes Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek to expand to Philippines in 2018 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SINGAPORE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia motorbike-hailing startup Go-Jek plans to set up operations in the Philippines in early 2018, with other Southeast Asian countries to follow later that year, the company’s chief technology officer said on Thursday. Go-Jek, backed by private equity firms KKR & Co LP and Warburg Pincus LLC, competes with Uber Technologies and Singapore-based Grab to lure customers in the Southeast Asian market, home to 600 million people. Ajey Gore said in an interview that “almost all Southeast Asian countries are on the radar over the next three, six to 12 months. The Philippines will be the first one just to figure out how things work.” He declined to identify which other countries it would launch in next. Apart from Indonesia and the Philippines, Southeast Asia comprises Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, East Timor and Myanmar. Gore declined to comment on reports about funding and whether the company had any plans for an IPO. The company is also backed by venture capitalist Sequoia Capital and recently raised funds from Chinese giants JD.com and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Gore said that his team would test some of Go-Jek’s core services such as transportation and then payments, “just to pilot it, learn from mistakes.” It would be the company’s first such operation overseas, he said. Key concerns were to test whether the company’s data and systems applied elsewhere: in Indonesia, for example, motorcycles were more expensive than some cars because they could weave through traffic, making journeys faster, he said. He said the company was also planning to roll out new services soon, including installing charging stations in retail outlets that users can access through their app. The company also plans to launch a laundry pick-up and delivery service. (Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Stephen Coates)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/gojek-southeast-asia/indonesian-ride-hailing-firm-go-jek-to-expand-to-philippines-in-2018-idUSL3N1O72FL'|'2017-12-07T08:41:00.000+02:00'
'a10ca45272e8b4bbf94af75221bc1637a45fc8a6'|'US STOCKS-Wall Street rising: Facebook, Alphabet gain'|'* GE announces job cuts in power business* LendingClub slumps after bleak forecast* Lululemon jumps on strong holiday forecast* Indexes up: Dow 0.27 pct, S&P 0.24 pct, Nasdaq 0.39 pct (Updates to afternoon)By Noel RandewichDec 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Thursday, buoyed by popular technology companies including Facebook and Alphabet, while shares of yoga pants seller Lululemon Athletica also warmed up.Facebook Google parent-company Alphabet added over 1.5 percent, helping push the S&P 500 higher after the index lost ground for four straight sessions.General Electric increased about 0.8 percent after the industrial conglomerate said it was cutting 12,000 jobs at its global power business.Lululemon jumped 7.16 percent after the Canadian apparel maker reported a higher-than-expected profit and gave an upbeat holiday season forecast.“Technology once again is leading the way here,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.The top-performing sector this year, the S&P 500 information technology index had fallen nearly 3 percent since Nov. 28, with some investors eyeing high earnings multiples.Strong earnings and expectations of corporate tax cuts promised by President Donald Trump have pushed stocks up to record levels this year.The Senate Republicans on Wednesday agreed to talks with the House of Representatives on the tax bill amid early signs that lawmakers could agree on a final bill ahead of a self-imposed Dec. 22 deadline.“It’s really going to be the last minute before you really know what’s in that tax bill, but something will pass,” said Stephen Massocca, Senior Vice President at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.Also on investors’ radar, Trump and Congress face a deadline on Friday night to pass fresh spending legislation. If they cannot agree on the terms, parts of the federal government could shut down.At 2:31 pm ET (1931 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.27 percent at 24,205.59 while the S&P 500 had gained 0.24 percent to 2,635.63.The Nasdaq Composite added 0.39 percent to 6,803.12.Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were higher, with industrial and technology sectors leading the gainers.The S&P 500 consumer staples index fell 0.78 percent, hurt by drops of at least 1.2 percent in Procter & Gamble, Pepsico and Coca-Cola.LendingClub plunged 15 percent after the online lender lowered its quarterly revenue forecast.The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting a rapid tightening of the labor market.The report comes ahead of more comprehensive government payrolls data on Friday that would be used by investors to gauge the strength of the labor market at a time when the Federal Reserve is almost certain to raise U.S. interest rates next week.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.59-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.62-to-1 ratio favored advancers. (Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by James Dalgleish) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-wall-street-rising-facebook-alphabet-gain-idINL1N1O71YL'|'2017-12-07T16:52:00.000+02:00'
'aa9619f45eaf38b54613cfe3c89f13f5a843f606'|'ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell paid no tax in Australia for 2016'|'Companies prepare for disorderly Brexit wider image Trump''s first year in office marked by controversy and protests Hamas calls for Palestinian uprising against Israel Reuters TV United States  30 AM / a few seconds ago ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell paid no tax in Australia for 2016 Sonali Paul 4 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp ( XOM.N ) and Chevron Corp ( CVX.N ) paid no tax in Australia in the 2016 financial year, the third year in a row, despite reporting billions of dollars in income from operations in the country, a report from the tax office showed on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Chevron (CVX) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Exxon Mobil, which has oil and gas production in the Bass Strait and a stake in the giant Gorgon LNG project among other assets in Australia, reported A$6.7 billion ($5.0 billion) in income, but it reported a loss for taxable income and paid no tax, similar to the previous two years. Exxon said it had no taxable income as it has invested nearly A$18 billion over the past few years on major projects including Gorgon and the Kipper Tuna Turrum field. “As these multi-billion investments were completed in 2017 and have started production, the amount of tax paid by ExxonMobil Australia is anticipated to increase significantly,” said Travis Parnaby, a spokesman for the oil major. Chevron reported A$2.1 billion in income for 2016 and paid no tax, while Shell Energy Holdings Australia - a unit of Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) - reported A$4.2 billion in income and A$97 million in taxable income, but paid no tax. Chevron, operator of the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects, said it expects to pay significant taxes once those projects are running at full tilt. Shell is also a partner in Gorgon LNG. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) started requiring big companies to disclose their tax payments two years ago in a push to curb alleged tax avoidance. Top global miners BHP Billiton ( BHP.AX )( BLT.L ) and Rio Tinto ( RIO.AX )( RIO.L ) and the oil and gas giants have all been accused of shifting income to countries like the Netherlands and Singapore where tax rates are lower. FILE PHOTO: Logos of ExxonMobil are seen in its booth at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo A probe by the Australian Senate into corporate tax avoidance that began in 2014 was extended this week, and is now due to issue a final report by the end of May 2018. In New Zealand, the new Labour government on Thursday proposed legislation to prevent multinationals from shifting profits out of the country. Its tax office estimated the measures could raise about NZ$200 million ($137 million) a year. “Multinational companies are a welcome part of our economy but they must abide by the rules. They must pay their fair share of tax,” New Zealand Revenue Minister Stuart Nash said in a statement. FILE PHOTO: Shell''s company logo is pictured at a gas station in Zurich April 8, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Australia’s and New Zealand’s company tax rates are 30 percent and 28 percent respectively. The Netherlands has a 25 percent rate. BHP Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie defended the company’s tax payments this week, after Australian Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan was quoted in The Australian newspaper saying the ATO might take BHP and Rio Tinto to court to resolve questions about marketing hubs in Singapore, where the miners pay minimal tax. Mackenzie said the fight with the tax office related to about 1 or 2 percent of BHP’s total tax payable in Australia. “We pay our fair share,” Mackenzie told the Melbourne Mining Club on Tuesday. The tax office won a landmark case against Chevron earlier this year over a disputed A$340 million tax bill stemming from an intercompany loan with an exorbitantly high interest rate. “On the back of solid growth in company profits and higher commodity prices, we are seeing a strong increase in company tax collections in 2016-17 which will be reflected in the data next year,” Australia’s Deputy Tax Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn said in a statement released with the tax data. Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-australia-taxavoidance/exxonmobil-chevron-shell-paid-no-tax-in-australia-for-2016-idUKKBN1E11FN'|'2017-12-07T13:23:00.000+02:00'
'51b620d8dddbf033fc39dbe119e8d3ddd54a2da3'|'CVS expects Justice Department to handle review of Aetna deal'|'December 8, 2017 / 3:39 PM / Updated 5 hours ago CVS expects Justice Department to handle review of Aetna deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CVS Health Corp expects the U.S. Justice Department to do the antitrust review of its planned acquisition of health insurer Aetna Inc, a spokesman for the drugstore chain operator said. FILE PHOTO: Logos of CVS and Aetna are displayed on a monitor above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson CVS Health Corp and Aetna announced the $69 billion deal on Dec. 3, arguing it would enable the companies to tackle soaring healthcare spending by offering lower-cost medical services in pharmacies. The Justice Department and U.S. Federal Trade Commission share the job of reviewing mergers to make sure they do not hurt consumers. The deal, the year’s largest, will combine one of the nation’s biggest pharmacy benefits managers and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers. Asked which antitrust agency would review the deal, CVS spokesman David Palombi late on Thursday said: “Our expectation is that it will be the Justice Department.” No matter who reviews the deal, six antitrust experts have told Reuters that they expect it to be approved since most of the two companies’ business is in separate markets. Two said they believed the Justice Department could try to stop the transaction for fear that customers would face higher drug prices or have less choice. The U.S. government tends to block mergers if the combining companies are competitors in a concentrated market. Deals like this one, where companies make acquisitions up or down the supply chain, tend to be considered to be inherently efficient. The big exception is if there is a fear that the purchasing companies’ rivals would lose critical access to the suppliers’ products. That is the case with AT&T Inc’s deal for Time Warner Inc, which the Justice Department has sued to stop. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aetna-m-a-cvs-health-antitrust/cvs-expects-justice-department-to-handle-review-of-aetna-deal-idUSKBN1E2242'|'2017-12-08T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'f6e801ba204d4c9e82a0b734ed5588132ace824d'|'After years of delays, Vietnam''s privatization plans move up a gear'|'SINGAPORE/HANOI (Reuters) - Foreign investors and bankers who flocked to Vietnam in the past two decades as they sought to cash in on government plans to sell state assets usually left frustrated as what was promised rarely materialized. But now they are finally seeing some modest grounds for optimism.Production samples of Saigon Beer Corporation (Sabeco) are seen during a workshop in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam November 29, 2017. Picture taken November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mai Nguyen In a series of recent moves, the Vietnamese authorities have indicated they may be more serious about significant sales of government-owned companies.Last month, they unveiled plans to sell a stake of up to 54 percent, worth $5 billion, in the nation’s biggest brewer in what is set to be the country’s largest privatization yet.Giving up majority control of Sabeco - Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp SAB.HM is the brewer’s full name - is a bold move in the communist state.Hanoi has already changed the rules to speed up future privatizations from next year. Among the changes are the introduction of a book-building process for initial public offerings and an easing of its restrictions on strategic partners.Vietnam is speeding up its privatization drive as it grapples with a deteriorating fiscal picture, including a budget deficit and growing public debt at a time when it wants to devote more money to developing the nation’s infrastructure.Private share sales and listings are booming. Mall operator Vincom Retail VRE.HM raised $741 million last month in Vietnam’s biggest equity offering, which attracted cornerstone investors such as Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and major U.S. fund manager Franklin Templeton. Total demand for the shares reached $2 billion.Next year, the government has slated 181 state-owned companies to make divestments of stakes to investors and 64 more for broader share sales through IPOs. Altogether, the government has said it wants to sell stakes in at least 533 companies by 2020 through direct sales or IPOs.And this doesn’t include dozens of companies who were on the 2017 list but won’t get to market this year. According to the latest publicly available government figures, Vietnam had only managed 26 divestments in the first eight months of this year from a 135-long list that was planned. The 44 IPOs target this year is also likely to be missed, with only 38 IPOs slated to be completed by year-end, a government committee said.“You have a lot of global asset managers, frontier market investors, hedge funds and others that want to capture and participate in the growth of emerging markets and frontier markets like Vietnam,” said Jeffrey Perlman, Southeast Asia head of Warburg Pincus, which together with a consortium, sold part of its stake in Vincom Retail in the float.“If you can provide them a conduit with which to do that and a business they can understand, they’ll want to participate,” said Perlman.Vietnam’s strong economy and roaring stock market underpin its appeal.Over the past decade, the country has grown by an average 6.1 percent a year, according to World Bank data and Vietnam’s benchmark stock market index .VNI is up 42 percent this year, touching 10-year highs and making it Asia’s best performing market.And last month, Vinamilk VNM.HM, Vietnam’s largest listed company, bolstered hopes that the privatization process is getting smoother.Cans of beer move along a production line at a factory of Saigon Beer Corporation (Sabeco) in Hanoi, Vietnam June 23, 2017. Picture taken June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Kham A year ago, a planned sale of a 9 percent stake in the dairy group was cut sharply following a last minute rule that limited single bidders to 2.7 percent stakes each.In November, though, a further share sale attracted 19 bidders and allowed the winner, part of Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson ( JARD.SI ), to eventually build a 10 percent stake.STRONG STOMACH NEEDED Still, the Vietnam market is not for the faint hearted.Slideshow (2 Images) Few bankers, investors or lawyers interviewed for this article expect the stop-start process of recent years - characterized by fickle policy making, vested interests and high valuations – to disappear overnight.As an example, they point to the unorthodox way in which the Sabeco stake is being sold.In spite of the sale being known about for months, a lack of detail about the size, price or structure until last week means bidders have been given just under three weeks to get their paperwork in order, including arranging deposits and guarantees and setting up onshore accounts.Unlike the auctions familiar in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders need to submit a single price for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round.“I have never seen a process like this for such a large sale. To bid all or nothing is very weird,” said one banker. “People know this process is crazy. They are trying to solve the puzzle.”All bids will be ranked only by price, so the highest bidder’s offer will be accepted in full, with remaining shares allocated to the next highest bidders regardless of how many shares they originally bid, the sale documents show.In theory, for foreigners, the process means a bidder offering the highest price and seeking a 25 percent stake would get that, leaving a rival that offered a price just pennies lower but who wanted the maximum 39 percent, with just 14 percent. Foreigners are restricted to 49 percent total ownership and already hold 10 percent, led by Heineken ( HEIN.AS ) with 5 percent.Since listing on the Ho Chi Minh exchange last December, Sabeco’s share price has tripled. Its enterprise value is now 37 times its core profit versus close to 15 for some of the largest global brewers, according to Reuters data.The stocks rally has left Vietnam as one of the most expensive markets in Asia and dealmakers fear the current optimism could be at risk if prices began slipping.”The market is frothy. And if it crashes, then everyone just goes on to the next thing. It could change very quickly,’ said Tony Foster, Vietnam managing partner for Freshfields Brukhaus Deringer, who has worked in Hanoi for over two decades.Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Mai Nguyen; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Martin Howell '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-privatisation-analysis/after-years-of-delays-vietnams-privatization-plans-move-up-a-gear-idINKBN1E20QG'|'2017-12-08T04:23:00.000+02:00'
'1473e91d34a40b9fb16e1dcf0d17cebfc787b2d2'|'Iberiabank to pay U.S. $11.69 mln over mortgage guarantee claims'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:14 PM / a few seconds ago Iberiabank to pay U.S. $11.69 million over mortgage guarantee claims Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iberiabank Corp ( IBKC.O ) and two subsidiaries agreed to pay $11.69 million to resolve allegations they submitted false claims for federal loan guarantees on mortgages, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday. Between Jan. 1, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2014, the Lafayette, Louisiana-based bank and its Iberiabank and Iberiabank Mortgage Co units admitted to certifying mortgage loans that did not meet Federal Housing Administration standards and paid incentives to underwriters, which is prohibited, the department said in a statement. Reporting by Tim Ahmann; Writing by Eric Walsh; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iberiabank-settlement/iberiabank-to-pay-u-s-11-69-million-over-mortgage-guarantee-claims-idUSKBN1E22JT'|'2017-12-08T21:01:00.000+02:00'
'802f9ffe6ebb1b8b9a3efd9a45594fbcfdb71c2b'|'Foreigners turn net buyers of Saudi stocks as shock of graft purge fades'|'December 10, 2017 / 4:38 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Foreigners turn net buyers of Saudi stocks as shock of graft purge fades Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Foreign investors turned net buyers of Saudi Arabian shares in the last week, suggesting concern about the impact of a sweeping crackdown on corruption has faded, exchange data showed on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: An investor gestures as he monitors a screen displaying stock information in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser/File Photo Foreigners were net sellers of Saudi stocks for four straight weeks after authorities launched the purge in early November, detaining dozens of top officials and businessmen and freezing over 2,000 bank accounts. In the last couple of weeks, however, the risk of damage to the economy has appeared to ease, with the number of frozen accounts falling and some suspects reaching settlements with the government. A purchasing managers’ survey showed most of the private sector operating as normal in November. Foreign investors bought 718 million riyals ($191 million) worth of stocks in the week through Dec. 7 and sold 674 million riyals worth, resulting in 44 million riyals of net buying. In the week to Nov. 9, immediately after the crackdown was announced, there was net selling of 1.08 billion riyals worth of shares, and net selling decreased in every week after that. The latest data also showed Saudi individual investors bought stocks worth 17.53 billion riyals last week and sold 19.21 billion riyals, resulting in net selling of 1.68 billion riyals, down from net sales of 2.19 billion riyals in the previous week. Saudi institutional investors bought 2.83 billion riyals of stocks in the latest week and sold 1.31 billion riyals, for net buying of 1.52 billion riyals. Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-stocks-foreign/foreigners-turn-net-buyers-of-saudi-stocks-as-shock-of-graft-purge-fades-idINKBN1E40P2'|'2017-12-10T18:34:00.000+02:00'
'308c36565a2c39adccd5ebc38c9aab8a2b379ac2'|'Companies prepare for disorderly Brexit as talks stall'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Big companies are stepping up their plans in case Britain crashes out of the European Union without a deal as Prime Minister Theresa May struggles to get talks back on track after a major setback.Britain is aiming to agree with the EU on Dec. 14 to move the Brexit talks on to the second phase. This would focus on trade and a two-year transition deal to smooth the departure after March 2019. But the timetable has been thrown into doubt after discussions broke down in Brussels on Monday.Senior executives in the financial services sector, which accounts for about 12 percent of the economy, told Reuters May’s efforts to secure a transition deal had come too late and they had no choice but to start restructuring.Big supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been working with suppliers to identify potential delays, shortages or price rises. They have lined up alternative providers, according to suppliers and sources in the industry.The uncertainty is particularly painful for the manufacturing sector as low margins make it risky for them to restructure unless it is essential. They have been holding off on investment but are preparing for new certification that would allow them to sell in Europe if there is no deal.“The delay is so great and the uncertainty is so great that companies have no choice but to start triggering their plans,” the head of one of Britain’s largest companies said.Paul Drechsler, the president of the blue-chip business lobby group the CBI, said businesses were now having to plan for the worst while hoping for the best.“No company wants to move jobs or shift production – but business will if it has to,” he said. “There’s no time to waste. In the immediate term, business needs to know the details of any transition deal – Rome is burning on that issue.”Britain and the EU are working to get talks back on track this week but the chairman of one large international bank said its executives had decided to plan for the worst at a conference call on Tuesday.“The question is no longer whether we are moving (operations to the EU), it is a question of how big those moves are?,” he said.Like other executives, he had been asked by his board and the government not to divulge their thinking.FRUIT AND BEEF The chairman said the bank has started discussions with customers about rerouting client activity to European hubs, including rewriting thousands of contracts.Senior employees were told last month if they had to relocate to Europe, he said.Another senior executive at a large U.S. bank said that he was increasingly concerned that May’s government could collapse after the Brussels talks broke down over a dispute about the Irish border, adding to the uncertainty.“We are at the maximum point of danger,” he said.FILE PHOTO: An Airbus A350 aircraft flies in formation with Britain''s Red Arrows flying display team at the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, Britain July 15, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo The financial sector needs extra time to make sure its clients are prepared. For instance, a British bank opening a subsidiary in Europe may need its clients to adopt a new sort code throughout their own supply chains.In other sectors, companies are making smaller changes that would enable them to operate in Europe after Brexit, from preparing compliance changes to drawing up shadow supply chains and looking for additional warehouse space.Food retailers are lining up alternative suppliers in Britain or outside the EU in case delays at borders or new tariffs disrupt deliveries. Around 30 percent of Britain’s food and drink comes from the EU.Some changes would need to be made early next year in time for the 2019 departure. Changing a fresh fruit supplier could require a lead time of a year, depending on the growing cycle.Ali Capper, a partner in Stocks Farm in Worcestershire, central England, and a chair of the Horticulture and Potatoes Board at the National Farmers Union, said there were signs retail customers were requesting more British produce.Slideshow (9 Images) Ireland provides almost 70 percent of UK beef imports, or 270,000 tonnes a year. Were tariffs or border delays to make Irish beef less competitive, supermarkets could look further afield, for instance to Argentina.MANUFACTURING PRESSURE Many manufacturers are unwilling to sign off on new plans until they know how Britain will trade in the future.The drugs sector has been among the first to move to comply with EU regulations. GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are preparing to set up new facilities in mainland Europe to test batches of drugs made in Britain and many firms are transferring UK product licences to continental offices.Autos and aerospace firms are focusing on certification. According to the aerospace and defence trade body, ADS, some companies are considering applying to the European Aviation Safety Agency for a status that would enable them to sell in the EU if Britain was no longer a member state.Japanese carmaker Honda, which builds around 8 percent of British cars at its plant in Swindon, is considering increasing its warehouse capacity in Britain and stock levels to counter any new border delays.Manufacturers reluctance to sign off on big plans has had a knock on effect on companies in the supply chain.“The biggest impact we see is a general unwillingness to make investment and capacity decisions as result of the continued uncertainty,” said Stephen Cheetham, owner of PK Engineering Ltd of Hereford, a supplier of components to the aerospace and scientific industries.“We would expect continued paralysis and short-termism until a trade deal is finalised,” he told Reuters.Having a transition deal will allow businesses to survive the two years after Brexit by allowing them to defer any big decisions until the final parameters of Brexit are worked out, said Andrew Bonfield, finance director of National Grid and chairman of the 100 Group of finance chiefs.“It’s about the avoidance of a cliff edge,” he said.Additional reporting by Costas Pitas and Ben Hirschler; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Anna Willard '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-companies/companies-prepare-for-disorderly-brexit-as-talks-stall-idINKBN1E10JK'|'2017-12-07T08:20:00.000+02:00'
'7843bfe6058e964335978f7e707ba58f9355a5a9'|'Insurers should improve catastrophe models - BOE'|' 08 AM / in 23 minutes Insurers should improve catastrophe models - BOE Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Insurers need to improve the way they calculate potential risks from natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes, the Bank of England said on Thursday, with 2017 expected to be a record year for such losses. A number of insurers and reinsurers in Britain and elsewhere have issued profit warnings following catastrophes such as hurricanes in the U.S. and Caribbean, earthquakes in Mexico and wildfires in California this year. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria are expected to cause at least $100 billion (£74.6 billion) in insured losses, reinsurers and modelling agencies say, compared with losses of about $74 billion caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The UK general insurance sector showed it was resilient in stress tests carried out by the Bank of England, it said in a letter to chief executives published on its website. But scenarios to test risks such as flooding following hurricanes or tsunamis after earthquakes showed “few firms go beyond a simple loading to reflect weaknesses”, it said. “Boards are encouraged to understand what the limitations are with the catastrophe modelling, and their inherent uncertainty when applicable, especially for their key perils,” the Bank said.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-insurance-stresstests/insurers-should-improve-catastrophe-models-boe-idUKKBN1E11E0'|'2017-12-07T13:07:00.000+02:00'
'5feb2baac625b31d2b0b8cfafb04064735dbdcc1'|'Sharp to seek all-Japan OLED alliance to counter South Korea''s Samsung, LG'|'Reuters TV United States  19 AM / a few seconds ago Sharp to seek all-Japan OLED alliance to counter South Korea''s Samsung, LG Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Sharp Corp ( 6753.T ) will ask the government to help it form an alliance with rival Japan Display Inc ( 6740.T ) in OLED technology to better compete with South Korean makers, its chief executive said on Thursday. Sharp Corp''s logo is pictured at its President Tai Jeng-wu''s news conference in Tokyo, Japan December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon “We should create a Japan alliance” in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels, Tai Jeng-wu told reporters at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), after Sharp’s shares returned to the bourse’s first section after a year’s absence. OLED screens are gaining in popularity as they are generally thinner, more flexible and offer richer colors than liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) has adopted OLED screens for its new iPhone X. Sharp and Japan Display, both Apple suppliers, plan to start OLED panel production next year or later. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ) already supplies OLED panels to global smartphone vendors while LG Display Co Ltd ( 034220.KS ) does likewise for television set makers. “Do we want (OLED) technology in Japan or not? I’d like to speak with the industry ministry and INCJ (the Innovation Network Corp of Japan) on the matter,” Tai said. State-backed INCJ owns 36 percent of Japan Display, which was formed by combining the ailing display units of Sony Corp ( 6758.T ), Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ) and Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ). Tai also said he would contact the government for potential investment in JOLED, a Japan Display affiliate, which sold its inaugural batch of OLED screens to Sony on Tuesday. Sharp Corp President Tai Jeng-wu speaks at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon JOLED, which boasts a low-cost printing process for OLED panels, is seeking to raise 100 billion yen ($888 million) in investment from materials, equipment and electronics makers to expand production capacity. Japan Display and INCJ declined to comment. JOLED declined to provide immediate comment. Tai, former vice chairman of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (Foxconn) ( 2317.TW ), became head of Sharp last year after Foxconn took control of a Japanese firm hit by price competition and falling sales in LCD panels. Tai has said he would step down once Sharp turns profitable at the net level and its shares return to the TSE’s first section. Sharp forecasts net profit of 69 billion yen for the year through March, which would be its first annual profit in four years following cost-cutting under Foxconn. Its shares returned to the TSE’s first section on Thursday for the first time since August last year, when they fell to the second section after Sharp booked negative net assets. When asked about his future, Tai on Thursday said he wants Sharp’s board to select a co-chief executive next year to whom he could transfer some of his responsibilities. ($1 = 112.0200 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sharp-oled/sharp-to-seek-all-japan-oled-alliance-to-counter-south-koreas-samsung-lg-idUKKBN1E10KN'|'2017-12-07T08:17:00.000+02:00'
'4d88195449e575304c78d9601efb8b0918e452b8'|'RBS CEO says U.S. settlement could slip into next year: Bloomberg'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland’s chances of reaching a deal this year with the U.S. Department of Justice over its mis-selling of toxic mortgage-backed securities are “diminishing”, its chief executive said in a Bloomberg TV interview.FILE PHOTO: Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Ross McEwan speaks during an interview with Reuters at Canary Wharf in London, Britain July 7, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Ross McEwan had said several times this year he expected to reach a settlement in 2017, a key step in allowing the bank to return to full-year profit in 2018. Analysts have estimated the bank could pay up to $12 billion to settle the case.“There are diminishing chances we settle in the year,” McEwan said in the interview.RBS had no further comment.McEwan has been trying to clean up RBS’s balance sheet and end an array of legal cases so the UK government can sell the more than 70 percent stake in the bank it obtained via a 46 billion pound ($60 billion) bailout during the financial crisis.The case with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) is the last major such problem remaining, after RBS in July paid the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency $5.5 billion to settle similar claims.RBS has not made an annual profit since 2007. It has forecast it will in 2018, contingent on settling with the DoJ.PROFITS JEOPARDISED A man walks past a branch of The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in central London August 27, 2014. REUTERS/Toby Melville If the deal is delayed into 2018, as is now likely, it could jeopardise the bank’s plan to return to profit at a time when Britain’s government is preparing to offload its stake in RBS.Jefferies analyst Joe Dickerson said he expected the bank will need to make an additional provision $2.5 billion to cover the settlement. If shifted into 2018, that would wipe out much of the 3.2 billion pounds of profit the bank is forecast to make, he continued.However he added that if the bank got some certainty on the figure it could still make the provision before its full-year results on Feb. 23. The bank already has $3.1 billion set aside.Talks with the DoJ initially stalled due to staffing changes in the U.S. government following the election of President Donald Trump.McEwan said there had been no substantial discussions with the department when reporting the bank’s third quarter results in October, but that he remained hopeful of settling this year and some preliminary conversations had taken place.This had seemed optimistic to some. Dickerson said most market participants had been expecting a settlement some time between now and the first half of 2018.“It would be positive if this deal could be settled within that timeframe from the standpoint of returning capital to shareholders,” he said.RBS shares were up 1.5 percent by 1052 GMT, against a broader 2.8 percent climb in the STOXX European banks index.Reporting by Emma Rumney and Lawrence White; Editing by Gareth Jones and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rbs-settlement/rbs-ceo-says-u-s-settlement-could-slip-into-next-year-bloomberg-idINKBN1E21XU'|'2017-12-08T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'bbc8ffc5e25727be8f283da0448f55c7b7e2410b'|'Northrop gets second request from U.S. antitrust officials on Orbital deal'|'(Reuters) - U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp ( NOC.N ) said on Wednesday it received a second request from U.S. antitrust regulators for more information about its deal to buy Orbital ATK Inc ( OA.N ).FILE PHOTO - A UAV helicopter build by Northrop Gruman is on deck aboard the soon to be commissioned littoral combat ship USS Coronado during a media tour in Coronado, California April 3, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo A second request from the Federal Trade Commission is often a burden for companies that have to provide extensive information that can drain time and resources to collect. Such requests have in the past led to concessions so a merger gains government approval.The $7.8 billion merger with Orbital, a missile and rocket maker, is still expected to close in the first half of 2018, Northrop said in a statement.Northrop’s deal to buy Orbital will give it greater access to lucrative government contracts and expand its arsenal of missile defense systems and space rockets.The all-cash transaction is the biggest in the defense sector in two years and comes as North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons threats grow, heightening tensions with the United States and its allies.Reporting by Chris SandersEditing by Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-orbital-atk-m-a-northrop-grumman/northrop-gets-second-request-from-u-s-antitrust-officials-on-orbital-deal-idINKBN1E03BL'|'2017-12-06T20:51:00.000+02:00'
'e7ac55ad8b1edc7fb8187d85b368aacbd61c4b9b'|'BOJ''s tankan set to show big manufacturers'' mood improving'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - A measure of business confidence among big Japanese manufacturers is expected to hit its highest in more than a decade next week, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, buoyed by robust demand from overseas and upbeat corporate profits.FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, Japan, August 18, 2016. Picture taken on August 18, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The poll also found that service-sector sentiment held steady on solid domestic demand and growth in the number of foreign visitors to Japan, although labor shortages could weigh on the sector’s spirits.The Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) quarterly tankan business sentiment survey is set to show the headline index for big manufacturers’ sentiment rose by 2 points to plus 24 in December, the poll of 17 economists found.It would be a fifth straight quarterly improvement and the strongest reading since December 2006 when the index was at 25.The index of big non-manufacturers’ sentiment probably stood at 23, unchanged from the September survey, the poll found.“Corporations retain upbeat profits thanks to economic recovery both in Japan and overseas and a weak yen,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.“But labor shortages and higher personnel costs may make corporations cautious going foward.”Economists say that chemicals, steel, electric machinery and production machinery are among sectors expected to show upbeat business sentiment.For non-manufacturers, areas such as construction and real estate are supported by the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.Economists forecast big corporations will increase their capital spending plans for the current fiscal year to March 2018 by 7.5 percent, a tad down from the 7.7 percent seen in the September survey.Both big manufacturers and non-manufacturers forecast business conditions would worsen slightly in the next three months, the poll found.The BOJ will release its tankan survey results at 8:50 a.m. on December 15 (2350 GMT on December 14).The Reuters Tankan, a separate monthly survey that closely tracks the BOJ’s tankan survey, showed on Thursday that confidence among Japanese manufacturers held firm in December and service-sector sentiment rose for a second straight month.OCTOBER MACHINERY ORDERS SEEN RISING Japan will release core machinery orders for October on December 13, which are likely to show a 3.0 percent rise from the previous month, the poll found.Core orders, regarded as a leading but highly volatile data series, tumbled 8.1 percent in September, the fastest fall in more than two years.The core orders are seen likely to fall 2.8 percent in October from a year earlier.The Bank of Japan will announce its corporate goods price index (CGPI) on Tuesday. It measures the prices companies charge each other for goods and services, rising an annual 3.3 percent in November.Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Eric MeijerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy/bojs-tankan-set-to-show-big-manufacturers-mood-improving-idINKBN1E20VI'|'2017-12-08T05:22:00.000+02:00'
'0908a52a54c58815cf21860881c387159072b3bf'|'Nikkei rises, real estate and chip-related firms lead; JDI soars'|'TOKYO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks rose on Friday morning on gains for most sectors after Wall Street climbed overnight, while Japan Display jumped on hopes that Apple may use liquid crystal technology on one of its new smartphones.The Nikkei 225 share average advanced 1.0 percent to 22,715.31 in midmorning trade, comfortably staying above the forecast settlement price of December Nikkei futures and options contracts at 22,590.66.For the week, the Nikkei has fallen 0.4 percent so far. Earlier this week, the market was hammered by news U.S. President Donald Trump will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and set in motion the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to the ancient city, a move many feared could fuel violence in the Middle East.Friday’s big gainers included real estate and chip-related stocks. Realtor Sumitomo Realty & Development rose 2.9 percent, silicon wafer maker Sumco jumped 2.6 percent, while semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron soared 2.5 percent.Japan Display Inc, which has been earning half its revenue selling liquid crystal displays (LCD) to Apple Inc , rocketed as much as 12 percent after the Nikkei business daily reported that Apple may use LCD for one of its three new smartphones it is planning to release late next year.The broader Topix gained 0.8 percent to 1,800.18, with all of its 33 subsectors in positive territory.Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-rises-real-estate-and-chip-related-firms-lead-jdi-soars-idUSL3N1O81DX'|'2017-12-08T04:17:00.000+02:00'
'f58fe498ac9408337911cc386be00fd3aa86823d'|'COLUMN-The boldest market call for 2018? The consensus: McGeever'|'(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)By Jamie McGeeverLONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Credit markets should brace for a U.S. recession, the U.S. yield curve will invert and growth in America will reach President Trump’s lofty and oft-derided target of 4 percent.These are just some of the more eye-catching 2018 calls from analysts at many of the world’s big banks. Yet paradoxically, the biggest shock of all may be that next year is another ‘Goldilocks’ year like this year. In other words, the consensus.That would be a benign mix of strong global growth, chunky corporate profits, low market volatility, a gentle drift higher in bond yields, and the continued “melt up” in stocks.In many respects, 2017 has confounded even the most bullish forecasts. World stocks are up 20 percent, global growth its strongest since 2011, bond and stock market volatility the lowest on record and “junk” bond yields at all-time lows.Aside from the market corrections and bouts of volatility that characterize any given year, analysts broadly reckon 2017 will seamlessly merge into 2018. The pace of change in some markets may vary, but essentially the song will remain the same.But can it?The biggest single driver for markets this year (and the last several) was central bank stimulus. The Fed may be raising rates and about to wind down its balance sheet, but the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan more than filled the void.According to analysts at Deutsche Bank, quantitative easing from the world’s major central banks hit a post-crisis peak of $182 billion a month in March this year. That will shrink to $53 billion by the end of next year and flip to outright liquidity withdrawal in mid-2019, they predict.The oceans of central bank liquidity that have lifted all markets is drying up. What will replace it?Global growth is on such a tear that many economists reckon it doesn’t need central bank rocket fuel. Consumer demand and business investment will be strong enough to keep the world economy expanding at a rate of around 3.5 percent - an impressive enough pace on its own, especially this late in the economic cycle.“A self-enforcing economic cycle,” say Barclays economists, predicting 4.0 percent global growth next year, a conspicuous figure also forecast by BNP Paribas for U.S. growth in the second quarter.There’s no shortage of potential banana skins though. Firstly, it’s been over a decade since the world experienced a global monetary policy tightening cycle.If the last decade of extraordinary policy was an experiment - some 700 interest rate cuts, according to JP Morgan, $8 trillion of QE stimulus, according to Deutsche Bank, and negative interest rates - then reversing it, however carefully, is surely an experiment too.“The great unwind, which has recently begun, is likely to prove to be anything but straightforward,” JP Morgan warns.LETHAL MIX It’s a well-worn argument but the example of Japan cannot be ignored. The Bank of Japan has been battling deflation, low growth and fallout of the property and stock market crashes for nearly quarter of a century.It first adopted zero interest rate policy in 1999, started QE in 2001 (implementing various versions since), unveiled its “yield curve control” policy this year and has been one of the most interventionist central banks ever in currency markets.Exiting and reversing these policies has proved challenging. The BOJ thought the coast was clear and raised interest rates in 2000 and 2006-07, but both turned out to be policy mistakes.BOJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda is now highlighting the risks of easing policy further, signaling that rate hikes might not be too far off. With global debt higher now than it was even before the 2008 crash, tighter policy globally carries clear risk.Secondly, the economic expansion is long in the tooth. In the United States it’s been rolling for over 100 months in a row, and by the time 2018 comes around will be closing in on the record 120 months in the 1960s.It’s said that economic expansions don’t die of old age, instead they’re killed by the Fed. Here, both elements are in play - the cycle is mature, and the Fed is raising rates and about to start shrinking its balance sheet.Should tighter monetary policy take the wind out of the economy’s sails, the remarkable strength of corporate profits this year is unlikely to be replicated next year.For financial markets the earnings recession of 2016 was mitigated by central bank largesse, and this year stocks on both sides of the Atlantic enjoyed earnings growth of at least 10 percent. Next year, earnings won’t be as strong and central banks are taking away the punch bowl. It could be a potent mix.Thirdly, expect higher financial market volatility.Like the economic cycle, markets have been on a roll for years - Wall Street troughed in March 2009 and has barely seen a correction of 10 percent (far less a 20 percent drop) since, the much-anticipated bond market implosion hasn’t happened and the price of high yield bonds has never been higher.Analysts disagree on whether and by how much markets are overvalued. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, is among those who argue that stock market valuation metrics such as the Shiller price/earnings ratio are no longer valid, and that the bull run can continue for several more years yet.But others are wary, and argue that bubbles are forming in certain parts of the equities universe to join those in high yield credit and bond markets.Low volatility has underpinned the market surge this year. The VIX index, which measures implied volatility of the S&P 500, hit a record low below 9 percent last month and its average for the year is the lowest annual rate on record.This has ensured 2017 will go down as the calmest year in U.S. market history. According to Charlie Bilello at Pension Partners in New York, 95 percent of all trading days on the Dow this year have had an intraday range of less than 1 percent.Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Graphics by Jamie McGeever and Helen Reid '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets-2018outlook/column-the-boldest-market-call-for-2018-the-consensus-mcgeever-idINL8N1NY5MT'|'2017-12-08T08:49:00.000+02:00'
'ed80af640ea9d288655624f3516087edb499ada6'|'Strong U.S. job growth data lifts stocks, dollar'|'December 8, 2017 / 12:56 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Strong U.S. job growth data lifts global stocks, dollar Lewis Krauskopf 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street and other major global stock markets posted solid gains on Friday and the U.S. dollar rose for a fifth straight day after data showed robust U.S. job growth. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.74 percent, supported by news that Britain and the European Union had a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations. U.S. jobs grew at a strong clip in November even though the wage gains that could fuel inflation remain moderate. The U.S. jobs report followed encouraging economic data from China and Japan that buoyed Asian shares. “We have a continuation of an economy that has been pretty firm and pretty balanced for the better part of the last several years and that’s been good for stock prices,” said Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 117.68 points, or 0.49 percent, to 24,329.16, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 14.52 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,651.5 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 27.24 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,840.08. Technology stocks such as Microsoft ( MSFT.O ) and Oracle ( ORCL.N ) helped pace the advance, building on the rebound from the selloff in the sector earlier in the week. “Tech stocks, while they will act up here and there because people are going to look at them and say, ‘Wow, we have made a lot of money and we need to take some profits off the table,’ at the end of the day, they keep returning back to it because the quality of that trade is still pretty good,” said Nathan Thooft, co-head of global asset allocation at Manulife Asset Management in Boston. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.57 percent. Investors are continuing to watch a U.S. tax bill moving through Congress that will slash corporate levies, and may have been relieved that U.S. lawmakers late on Thursday agreed to a temporary funding bill that averted a government shutdown. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed the legislation to fund the federal government for two weeks. In Europe, the banks index .SX7P jumped 2.2 percent after financial regulators reached a long-sought deal on Thursday to harmonize global banking rules. The dollar rose against the euro and yen in choppy trading after the U.S. jobs data, but gains were capped by wages data that analysts said were disappointing. The dollar index .DXY rose 0.12 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.06 percent to $1.1764. FILE PHOTO - A man is reflected in an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates at its Dec. 12-13 policy meeting, but Friday’s jobs report could shape debate on monetary policy next year. “The lack of wage pressure will not alter the Fed’s rate hike aspiration in the coming meeting, but will certainly be a major discussion point for the new Fed chairman in 2018,” said Marvin Loh, senior global market strategist at BNY Mellon in Boston. U.S. Treasury yields were little changed after the closely watched jobs report. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 1/32 in price to yield 2.3778 percent, from 2.376 percent late on Thursday. Oil prices rose, helped by Chinese crude demand and threats of a strike in Africa’s largest oil exporter. U.S. crude CLc1 settled at $57.36 a barrel, up 67 cents or 1.2 percent. Brent crude LCOc1 settled at $63.40 a barrel, up $1.20 or 1.9 percent. Bitcoin lost almost a fifth of its value in 10 hours on Friday, having surged more than 40 percent in the preceding 48 hours, sparking fears the market may be heading for a price collapse. Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/japanese-shares-rally-bitcoin-shoots-for-the-moon-idUKKBN1E203Z'|'2017-12-08T23:25:00.000+02:00'
'd3954b5f8ab02a33f21e3c3cdd0c4e5c963965bd'|'Top LSE investor Aviva to vote against TCI at shareholder meet'|'December 8, 2017 / 2:55 PM / Updated 35 minutes ago Top LSE investor Aviva to vote against TCI at shareholder meet Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A top investor in the London Stock Exchange said on Friday that it would vote against a resolution put forward by hedge fund TCI to oust Chairman Donald Brydon at a forthcoming shareholder meeting. People walk through the lobby of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain November 30, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett Trevor Green, head of UK equities at Aviva Investors, said he would back Brydon at the meeting on Dec. 19, having had a “long-running and constructive relationship” with him during his tenure at the LSE and, before that, software company Sage. “The role of chief executive at the LSE is a prestigious position, and I feel confident that the nominations committee will appoint a suitably impressive individual to carry on the work that Xavier Rolet did at the company to get it where it is today,” he said in a statement. Aviva Investors is the 16th-biggest investor in the LSE, Thomson Reuters data showed. Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Maiya Keidan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-investors-egm-aviva/top-lse-investor-aviva-to-vote-against-tci-at-shareholder-meet-idUKKBN1E21Z9'|'2017-12-08T16:55:00.000+02:00'
'dcd7a88b6e8c6f2b14ad224ade1047fe0e7dc43f'|'Just keeper to beat: property academy for wannabe Robbie Fowlers - Business'|'G ettin’ Jiggy Wit It is playing as we file into the Stephenson suite in the basement of the Hilton London Euston. Thirteen of us have come here to learn the secrets of investing from the former Liverpool and England footballer and – we’re told - “property magnate” Robbie Fowler.Adverts for the Robbie Fowler Property Academy picture Fowler and promise wannabe investors they will learn how to “build a property portfolio without the need of a footballer’s salary”. Fowler became so well known for his reputed property empire that during his spell at Manchester City, fans used to sing “We all live in a Robbie Fowler home” to the tune of Yellow Submarine. The former striker, however, is not going to be sharing any of his personal insight. He isn’t here. The adverts point out in the small print: “Robbie Fowler will not attend these events.”Instead, lessons are delivered by a trainer with Legacy Education Alliance, a transatlantic training company that owns the Robbie Flower Property Academy and that promotes its property investment courses using the BBC Homes Under the Hammer presenter Martin Roberts, the former Olympians Roger Black and Steve Backley and the US personal finance guru Robert Kiyosaki . The trainer explains at the beginning of the session that he is “obviously” not Fowler, “but I’m here on behalf of Robbie”. The first thing he wants to do is “congratulate every single one of you guys”, because we have done what “99% of the population are unwilling to do: invest in your financial education”, and we should applaud ourselves. The second is to make sure we don’t have any cameras or recording devices because everything he is about to teach is “copyright myself and Robbie”. Once that’s out of the way, the acronyms come thick and fast. In order to make money in property, the two most important things to remember are BMV and OPM, he says. That’s below market value and other people’s money. “This is not a get rich quick scheme,” the 20-something trainer tells us. But if you do want to get rich quick, he says, borrow other people’s money to buy properties at below market rates, then “flip them” (sell them on quickly for more money), and repeat. “Write this down,” he says. “Money in, money out, asset for free, income for life.” On the screen he flashes up examples of investors who have followed his advice and made hundreds of thousands, or even a million pounds, and secured their “financial freedom”.The big money, he says, comes from more acronym-based strategies. A favourite, he says, are HMOs (houses in multiple occupancy). “That’s buying a house and splitting it up into rooms and letting them individually.” The ROI (return on investment), he says, can be “infinite”.The trainer is also a fan of repossessed homes. But, he says, there are bigger profits to be made by finding people at risk of repossession. “I target repossessions before the people are repossessed,” he says. “I take out ads in the local paper: ‘Are you facing repossession? Call your local landlord, [the trainer].”He promises to teach us how to run a tax-efficient business because he “hates the taxman … doesn’t everyone”. Other methods include “creative finance”, which he promises means even potential investors with no assets and bad credit ratings can borrow money to start their property empire. He then suggests that those in the room with poor credit ratings could offer their friends, or even strangers in pubs, 20% interest to borrow £100,000 to pump into schemes. “Even if they want 50% [interest], you can still do it and make money. You should be able to make money in any market – up, down, sideways,” he says, adding: “I can’t tell you what to do, I’m not a financial adviser.”Noticing some scepticism in the room, the trainer then demands “100% energy, focus and commitment” and emphasises his point with a demonstration that involves throwing a glass of water on the floor. “Don’t worry, the hotel will send me the bill,” he says.About halfway through the promised two-hour free session, he reckons we have now learned enough to declare ourselves property investors. It’s official. “By the power invested in me by the Hilton Euston, I now declare you all professional property investors,” he says.But property investing is complicated, and he can’t possibly tell us all the secrets used by Fowler and others in only two hours. To learn all the “strategies”, we are encouraged to sign up for a three-day weekend course. It costs £1,994, but included in that price is a “home study toolkit” worth £497 and a 20-minute “strategy planning call” with a property adviser, apparently worth £250.Ali, one of the potential investors in the room, lets out a shocked “cor blimey” as the prices are flashed up on screen.The trainer replies: “Look, you don’t know me, but judge me on these people [Fowler, Black and Roberts]. Their name is their brand.” And he says the BBC had to vet the course before Roberts could lend his name to it.Legacy Education Alliance has not been endorsed by the BBC, according to a BBC spokesman, who added that Roberts was freelance and not a member of BBC staff. Roberts’ wife, Kirsty Withyman, who represents him, said: “He feels the courses offer a good insight into the world of becoming a property investor, and that those who go on them have a better chance of success as a result. His own marketing states that the contents of the courses are not endorsed by the BBC, but the BBC are obviously aware that Martin takes part in them.”Fowler, Black and Backley did not respond to requests for comment. Legacy Education Alliance, which is based in Florida, said: “In relation to the accusation regarding property repossessions, this has been taken out of context. Strategies and techniques that are taught are compliant and legal and do not encourage or endorse exploitation of vulnerable individuals.“Many thousands of students have been taught and mentored by Legacy Education Alliance Inc the world over, during the last 15 years. Many of these success stories opt to give back and help others through crewing, training and mentoring the next generation of professional property investors.”At the Euston Hilton, there is a special offer for those who sign up today. The home study toolkit is free, the planning call is free, the course can be picked up for £997 and students can bring a friend – but only if they get their credit cards out now. The weekend course, according to online reviews, appears to be a precursor to other courses that can cost £30,000.The lecturer wants us all to build our own property empire so we can give up our jobs and devote our time to what’s really important in life. Because of property, he says, when his best friend was “in the hospice dying” he could be there at her bedside even when her husband had to go to work. “Last week, Tuesday, she passed away. And it was property that allowed me to be there.” Half a dozen people walk to back of the room with their credit cards out and sign up for the weekend course, and the speakers pump out the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling. “That tonight’s gonna be a good, good night,” the lyrics go. “I got my money, let’s spend it up.” Topics Investing Property Real estate Housing market Liverpool (UK news) Liverpool (Football) features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/08/just-the-keeper-to-beat-property-academy-for-wannabe-robbie-fowlers'|'2017-12-08T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'5e475af955f9133136059b856ecdee91b9093f48'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil markets slump as pension reform odds fade'|' 43 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil markets slump as pension reform odds fade Reuters Staff 4 Min Read By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Brazilian markets plummeted on Thursday after President Michel Temer''s administration failed to gather enough support from lawmakers to put a pension overhaul plan to a vote. A senior lawmaker said on Wednesday that the government''s coalition expected to have enough votes later that day to pass the bill, which investors see as crucial to curbing public debt. But a failure to do so led policymakers to put off a decision, originally planned for Wednesday, to formally schedule the vote, suggesting that the administration might have overestimated its clout in Congress. "The market is anticipating that the pension reform will not be voted this year," said Coinvalores brokerage head of strategy Paulo Nepomuceno. Delaying the vote on the unpopular measure to 2018 would put it close to next year''s elections, a move most investors see as reducing its likelihood of approval. The Brazilian real weakened 1.7 percent, its biggest one-day decline in more than a month. The benchmark Bovespa index fell 2 percent, with all stocks there declining. Yields paid on long-term interest rate futures jumped as investors demanded higher returns, but short-term contracts were flat after the central bank slashed interest rates to an all-time low and hinted at an additional, smaller reduction in February. The yield curve indicated a 60 percent likelihood of a 25-basis-point cut at the next meeting of the central bank and a 40 percent chance that it would stand pat, traders said. Other Latin American currencies mostly weakened due to expectations that the United States will push through a tax overhaul. U.S. Senate Republicans agreed to talks with the House of Representatives on sweeping tax legislation on Wednesday, amid early signs that lawmakers could bridge their differences and agree on a final bill ahead of a self-imposed Dec. 22 deadline. The tax plan could boost economic growth and inflation, forcing the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at a faster-than-expected pace in coming months. Higher U.S. rates tend to drain funds away from emerging markets. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1320 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1099.12 -0.19 27.71 MSCI LatAm 2682.24 -2.11 17.06 Brazil Bovespa 71843.10 -1.95 19.29 Chile IPSA 4877.36 -0.22 17.49 Chile IGPA 24564.45 -0.2 18.47 Argentina MerVal 26470.45 0 56.46 Colombia IGBC 10843.42 0 7.06 Venezuela IBC 1354.40 0 -95.73 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.2867 -1.73 -1.14 Mexico peso 18.9275 -0.31 9.60 Chile peso 655.7 -0.36 2.29 Colombia peso 3013 -0.23 -0.38 Peru sol 3.235 -0.03 5.53 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.2525 0.25 -7.98 Argentina peso (parallel) 17.9 0.34 -6.03 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-brazil-markets-slump-as-pension-reform-odds-fade-idUSL1N1O70T2'|'2017-12-07T15:39:00.000+02:00'
'25861b8752fa8530dbadbdbad3458b7bf0cd2ce1'|'Exclusive: Wells Fargo sanctions are on ice under Trump official - sources'|'December 7, 2017 / 8:42 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Exclusive: Wells Fargo sanctions are on ice under Trump official - sources Patrick Rucker , Pete Schroeder 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new acting head of the U.S. consumer finance watchdog is reviewing whether Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) should pay tens of millions of dollars over alleged mortgage lending abuse, according to three sources familiar with the dispute. FILE PHOTO - The sign outside the Wells Fargo & Co. bank in downtown Denver April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The San Francisco-based bank said in October that it would refund homebuyers who were wrongly charged fees to secure low mortgage rates - a black mark against a lender which has already been roiled by scandal over its treatment of customers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had been investigating the mortgage issue since early this year, said one current and two former officials. The agency accepted an internal review from Wells Fargo and set settlement terms in early November, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak about internal discussions. But that matter and roughly a dozen others are in question now that Mick Mulvaney, the new interim agency chief tapped by President Donald Trump, has said he is reviewing the agency’s prior work. Richard Cordray, the former CFPB director who initiated the Wells Fargo action, approved the terms of a possible settlement before stepping down, said the sources. But Mulvaney has pledged to examine all agency enforcement work that Cordray had left unfinished, which includes the potential Wells Fargo sanctions. Wells Fargo has said the charges could have affected more than 100,000 borrowers. In an interview with the Washington Times newspaper last week, Mulvaney said he is reviewing 14 open enforcement matters that Cordray left on his desk. FILE PHOTO - Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney speaks to the media at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where he began work earlier in the day after being named acting director by U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts A CFPB official said that review should not taint any eventual settlements. “Acting Director Mulvaney made it clear to staff that any pause should not and will not impact any ongoing negotiations,” said John Czwartacki, an adviser to Mulvaney. Mulvaney has moved swiftly to change course at the CFPB, which was created during President Barack Obama’s administration and has forced financial services companies to pay out $12 billion in fines and consumer relief. No new staff will be hired and no new rules will be written for industry until a review of the agency is completed, Mulvaney has said. Before he took charge of the CFPB, Mulvaney had been one of its vocal critics and called the bureau a “joke.” Mulvaney is now in a legal fight with Leandra English, another senior CFPB official, over who should lead the agency until a permanent chief can be appointed. English has vowed to defend the bureau’s existing consumer protections while Mulvaney has pledged to have the agency step out of the way of business. A federal court has so far endorsed Mulvaney’s position at the top of the bureau, but English is continuing a legal fight. Reporting by Patrick Rucker and Pete Schroeder; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-wells-fargo-exclusive/exclusive-wells-fargo-sanctions-are-on-ice-under-trump-official-sources-idUSKBN1E12Y5'|'2017-12-07T22:42:00.000+02:00'
'cfb5f35c0295ccc7e60b5e78aa5a54ed7a1a0bf5'|'Bitcoin to start futures trading, stoking Wild West worries'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin fans are salivating over the potential of long-awaited legitimacy for the cyptocurrency when futures trading launches this weekend, but experts worry the risks associated with bitcoin’s Wild West-like nature could overshadow the debut.A bitcoin (virtual currency) coin placed on Dollar banknotes, next to computer keyboard, is seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The first bitcoin future trades kick off Sunday at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Cboe Global Markets Inc’s ( CBOE.O ) Cboe Futures Exchange, followed a week later by CME Group Inc’s ( CME.O ) CME.Nasdaq Inc ( NDAQ.O ) plans to get into the mix next year, Reuters reported.While Cboe, CME and Nasdaq offer strictly policed trading environments, the underlying bitcoin market is riddled with crypto-exchanges lacking even basic oversight.That has stoked fears of market manipulation, inaccurate pricing and systemic risk to clearing houses.“I‘m kind of taken aback by what’s happened in the last three months,” said Richard Johnson, an analyst at Greenwich Associates who owns digital currencies and considers himself a bitcoin bull. “I‘m concerned things are moving a bit too quickly.”Some of the world’s largest brokers on Thursday voiced concerns about the process through which bitcoin futures had come to market, noting that market participants should have been better consulted on issues such as margin levels and trading limits.Through an open letter to the U.S. derivatives watchdog from the Futures Industry Association, the brokers said more safeguards are needed to protect against bitcoin’s high volatility and the risk of manipulation in the underlying spot market.“We remain apprehensive with the lack of transparency and regulation of the underlying reference products on which these futures contracts are based,” the FIA letter said.Bitcoin’s more than 10-fold upsurge this year has led to warnings of a bubble by the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who called it “a fraud” that will eventually blow up. Others, like Wall Street adviser Tom Lee, expect bitcoin to top $100,000.On Thursday, its hypervolatility was on full display as it broke through $15,000 for the first time on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP , jumping more than 12 percent from the previous day.. Since August 2011, bitcoin has averaged a daily price change of nearly 3 percent, up or down, compared with a daily average change in the U.S. dollar-euro cross rate EUR= of less than 0.5 percent since the euro''s debut in 1999.“Maybe it’s just the most unique market that is going to continue to go up forever and ever and so everybody on the long side is going to make money and it’s a great thing, but I’ve been around long enough to know that’s not going to work out so well,” said John Lothian, CEO of advisory firm John J Lothian and Company.As a virtual currency, bitcoin can be used to move money around the world without the need for a central authority, such as a bank or government, which is a double-edged sword, said Steve Grob, director of group strategy at Fidessa.“There is no backstop. If suddenly tomorrow everyone decided bitcoin was worthless, it would be worthless, and I’m not sure whether people have really thought that one through,” he said.Traditional banks remain skeptical of dealing with bitcoin exchanges. Earlier this year, Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) stopped processing wire transfers for an exchange called Bitfinex, leaving customers unable to transfer U.S. dollars out of their accounts, except through special arrangement with the exchange’s lawyer.Still, new entrants, from retail investors to high-frequency traders, have piled into bitcoin. U.S.-based crypto-exchange Coinbase said it added 100,000 accounts in the three days around the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, for 13.1 million overall.If the futures market were to exceed the size of the spot market, with current daily trading volume of around $6 billion per day, the underlying price could be more susceptible to manipulation, said Kevin Zhou, co-founder of crypto currency fund Galois Capital.“You’ve seen these problems before in bitcoin futures, where right before the settlement, the price pegs it high or low and then bounces back right after,” he said.(GRAPHIC: Bitcoin price hits record high - reut.rs/2AL7Ubh )RISK OF AN ‘AVALANCHE’As volumes increase, there are also questions about the robustness of the technology at bitcoin exchanges, Lothian said.“Particularly when you’re talking about a high-frequency approach to this where people are trying to arb multiple exchanges.”Last month, the Gemini bitcoin exchange, which will set the price for Cboe’s futures contract, and GDAX and Kraken, two of the four exchanges in CME’s bitcoin index, had systems issues.“Every single bitcoin exchange receives and is receiving complaints by users due to the unbelievably surging bitcoin price and the result that has on capacity,” Christina Yee, a Kraken representative, recently told Reuters in an email.Kraken is planning to launch a new trade engine “soon” which should increase the exchange’s capacity, Yee said.The volatile nature of bitcoin could also present a risk to clearing houses, said Thomas Peterffy, CEO of Interactive Brokers Group Inc ( IBKR.O ).Clearing houses act as a middlemen between the parties to futures transactions. If there were a wild price swing in bitcoin and a smaller brokerage failed to meet its margin call, the clearing house would have to take over the position, further moving the price of bitcoin, which could cause other brokers to fail, Peterffy said.“If that happens at a time when bitcoin spikes up for whatever crazy reason, there could be an avalanche,” he said.Questions like these have kept some futures market operators on the sidelines, for now. Intercontinental Exchange Inc ( ICE.N ), owner of the New York Stock Exchange and ICE Futures U.S., opted not to join CME and Cboe in the race to be first with a bitcoin future.“We didn’t think it was obvious to rush out a product and be first and settle against an index on a lot of exchanges that are not particularly transparent,” ICE Chief Executive Jeffrey Sprecher said this week at a Goldman Sachs conference.(GRAPHIC: Bitcoin''s blistering ascent - tmsnrt.rs/2AHKJPd )(GRAPHIC: Bitstamp daily chart - reut.rs/2AXjjVx )(SPECIAL REPORT: Chaos and hackers stalk investors on cryptocurrency exchanges - here )Reporting by John McCrank and Anna Irrera; Editing by Dan Burns and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures-analysis/bitcoin-to-start-futures-trading-stoking-wild-west-worries-idUSKBN1E10J7'|'2017-12-07T08:05:00.000+02:00'
'3d50f412a3407bf4496fb63177a46c89c189023e'|'Companies prepare for disorderly Brexit as talks stall'|'December 7, 2017 / 6:10 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Companies prepare for disorderly Brexit as talks stall Kate Holton , Andrew MacAskill 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Big companies are stepping up their plans in case Britain crashes out of the European Union without a deal as Prime Minister Theresa May struggles to get talks back on track after a major setback. Britain is aiming to agree with the EU on Dec. 14 to move the Brexit talks on to the second phase. This would focus on trade and a two-year transition deal to smooth the departure after March 2019. But the timetable has been thrown into doubt after discussions broke down in Brussels on Monday. Senior executives in the financial services sector, which accounts for about 12 percent of the economy, told Reuters May’s efforts to secure a transition deal had come too late and they had no choice but to start restructuring. Big supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been working with suppliers to identify potential delays, shortages or price rises. They have lined up alternative providers, according to suppliers and sources in the industry. The uncertainty is particularly painful for the manufacturing sector as low margins make it risky for them to restructure unless it is essential. They have been holding off on investment but are preparing for new certification that would allow them to sell in Europe if there is no deal. “The delay is so great and the uncertainty is so great that companies have no choice but to start triggering their plans,” the head of one of Britain’s largest companies said. Paul Drechsler, the president of the blue-chip business lobby group the CBI, said businesses were now having to plan for the worst while hoping for the best. “No company wants to move jobs or shift production – but business will if it has to,” he said. “There’s no time to waste. In the immediate term, business needs to know the details of any transition deal – Rome is burning on that issue.” Britain and the EU are working to get talks back on track this week but the chairman of one large international bank said its executives had decided to plan for the worst at a conference call on Tuesday. “The question is no longer whether we are moving (operations to the EU), it is a question of how big those moves are?,” he said. Like other executives, he had been asked by his board and the government not to divulge their thinking. FRUIT AND BEEF The chairman said the bank has started discussions with customers about rerouting client activity to European hubs, including rewriting thousands of contracts. Senior employees were told last month if they had to relocate to Europe, he said. Another senior executive at a large U.S. bank said that he was increasingly concerned that May’s government could collapse after the Brussels talks broke down over a dispute about the Irish border, adding to the uncertainty. “We are at the maximum point of danger,” he said. FILE PHOTO: An Airbus A350 aircraft flies in formation with Britain''s Red Arrows flying display team at the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, Britain July 15, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo The financial sector needs extra time to make sure its clients are prepared. For instance, a British bank opening a subsidiary in Europe may need its clients to adopt a new sort code throughout their own supply chains. In other sectors, companies are making smaller changes that would enable them to operate in Europe after Brexit, from preparing compliance changes to drawing up shadow supply chains and looking for additional warehouse space. Food retailers are lining up alternative suppliers in Britain or outside the EU in case delays at borders or new tariffs disrupt deliveries. Around 30 percent of Britain’s food and drink comes from the EU. Some changes would need to be made early next year in time for the 2019 departure. Changing a fresh fruit supplier could require a lead time of a year, depending on the growing cycle. Ali Capper, a partner in Stocks Farm in Worcestershire, central England, and a chair of the Horticulture and Potatoes Board at the National Farmers Union, said there were signs retail customers were requesting more British produce. Slideshow (9 Images) Ireland provides almost 70 percent of UK beef imports, or 270,000 tonnes a year. Were tariffs or border delays to make Irish beef less competitive, supermarkets could look further afield, for instance to Argentina. MANUFACTURING PRESSURE Many manufacturers are unwilling to sign off on new plans until they know how Britain will trade in the future. The drugs sector has been among the first to move to comply with EU regulations. GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are preparing to set up new facilities in mainland Europe to test batches of drugs made in Britain and many firms are transferring UK product licences to continental offices. Autos and aerospace firms are focusing on certification. According to the aerospace and defence trade body, ADS, some companies are considering applying to the European Aviation Safety Agency for a status that would enable them to sell in the EU if Britain was no longer a member state. Japanese carmaker Honda, which builds around 8 percent of British cars at its plant in Swindon, is considering increasing its warehouse capacity in Britain and stock levels to counter any new border delays. Manufacturers reluctance to sign off on big plans has had a knock on effect on companies in the supply chain. “The biggest impact we see is a general unwillingness to make investment and capacity decisions as result of the continued uncertainty,” said Stephen Cheetham, owner of PK Engineering Ltd of Hereford, a supplier of components to the aerospace and scientific industries. “We would expect continued paralysis and short-termism until a trade deal is finalised,” he told Reuters. Having a transition deal will allow businesses to survive the two years after Brexit by allowing them to defer any big decisions until the final parameters of Brexit are worked out, said Andrew Bonfield, finance director of National Grid and chairman of the 100 Group of finance chiefs. “It’s about the avoidance of a cliff edge,” he said. Additional reporting by Costas Pitas and Ben Hirschler; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Anna Willard'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-companies/companies-prepare-for-disorderly-brexit-as-talks-stall-idUKKBN1E10JK'|'2017-12-07T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'b5f98145f190e0758600230de37f51b5e4ca7469'|'Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on Dec 7'|'ZURICH, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI was seen opening 0.6 percent higher at 9,364 points on Thursday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer .The following are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks:ROCHE The Swiss drug maker said adding Tecentriq to older drugs doubled the percentage of lung cancer patients who survived a year without their disease advancing, an outcome some experts labeled unprecedented.Additionally, Roche released positive interim data from haemophilia drug Hemlibra dosed every four weeks, saying the results were consistent with previous studies of the medicine dosed once weekly or every two weeks.For more, click onCOMPANY STATEMENTS * Novartis said its Kisqali is the first and only CDK4/6 inhibitor to show superior median progression-free survival compared to oral endocrine therapy as first-line treatment in a phase III trial dedicated to premenopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer.* Novartis also said that it had begun its tender offer for shares of France’s Advanced Accelerator Applications , which it previously agreed to purchase for $3.9 billion in an all-cash offer.* Schaffner Holding said an EBIT margin in mid-single digits is currently expected for fiscal year 2017/18.* Eastern Property Holdings Limited announced the financing for the upcoming closing of the acquisition of 94 percent of the property work life center in Hamburg, Germany.* Cassiopea said that the enrolment of the phase II proof of concept trial for the treatment of genital warts with CB-06-02 has been completed.* Partners Group said it has acquired a total of 4 million square feet of office space in the United States on behalf of its clients since the start of the year. This US office portfolio has a total acquisition value of over $1 billion.* Helvetia Holding said it has invested a single digit million amount in INZMO, an Estonian insurtech company.* Wisekey said it has raised 1 million Swiss francs in cash via a private placement of 198,298 newly issued class B shares with a strategic investor.ECONOMY * The Swiss jobless rate for November rose to 3.1 percent in November from 3 percent in November, the government’s economics department said.* Swiss National Bank foreign exchange reserves for November due at 0800 GMT (Reporting by Zurich newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/markets-swiss-stocks/swiss-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-7-idUSL8N1O65HP'|'2017-12-07T09:05:00.000+02:00'
'f5b68d68676772352f9a4f52b1954d79032688c5'|'China aims to make IPO application process more transparent'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s securities regulator published a set of guidelines for companies applying to make initial public offerings (IPOs), in a bid to be more transparent and stabilize market expectations.The new guidelines, issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) late on Thursday, come as China is poised to approve a record number of IPOs in 2017, while also tightening its grip during the vetting process to ensure the quality of listed companies.In the form of a Q&A, CSRC clarified the deadline by which IPO applicants must respond to regulators’ queries, and listed eight situations in which the IPO vetting process would be suspended.For example, suspension would be triggered if the applicant, its major shareholder, sponsor or underwriting lawyers were under any form of probe for misconduct, or if the IPO application conflicts with other type of securities the applicant is issuing.China is accelerating IPO approvals as part of efforts to broaden direct finance and help companies reduce debt leverage.During the first 10 months of this year, CSRC had approved 359 IPOs, exceeding the annual record of 347 in 2010, potentially making China’s IPO market one of the world’s biggest in 2017, the regulator said in a statement earlier this month.But the pace of approvals has been uneven, with the release of large batches at times hitting the country’s stock markets as investors worried about a flood of new supply.To reduce applicants’ waiting period, CSRC has shortened the vetting process this year, slashing the average approval time to about 15 months, from over three years previously.Meanwhile, CSRC is getting less tolerant of substandard applicants. About 29 percent of IPO applications were rejected during the Jan-Oct period, according to the regulator.Reporting by Samuel Shen and John Ruwitch; Editing by Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-csrc-ipo/china-aims-to-make-ipo-application-process-more-transparent-idUSKBN1E2088'|'2017-12-08T03:49:00.000+02:00'
'5907944201c0d8c9bf8b03b32350dcd699ea8150'|'Global brewers line up bids for Vietnam''s Sabeco sale - sources'|'December 10, 2017 / 9:48 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Global brewers line up bids for Vietnam''s Sabeco sale - sources Anshuman Daga , Martinne Geller 4 Min Read SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) - Brewing groups including Thai Beverage, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Kirin Holdings are gearing up to bid for a stake in Vietnam’s largest brewer, Sabeco, people familiar with the matter said, with the $5 billion sale process by the government opening this week. FILE PHOTO: Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 217. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo The auction of up to 54 percent of Sabeco, in what is set to be Vietnam’s biggest privatisation, offers brewers access to a fast-growing market with a youthful population and beer drinking culture. Sabeco is seen as attractive as assets are scarce in a highly consolidated global beer market. Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, is shaping up as a strong contender, the people said, as it is familiar with the Vietnam system and sees Sabeco as key to expanding outside its home market. “They have been around this situation for many years and are very keen to get this asset,” said one of the people, none of whom wanted to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media. Last month, a Thai Bev unit bought a 49 percent stake in a Vietnamese company which, the people said, could be used as a vehicle to bid for Sabeco as a domestic player, giving it an advantage over international rivals. Thai Bev had no immediate comment, but said in October it was keen to grow through acquisitions in markets such as Vietnam. Firms controlled by Sirivadhanabhakdi also hold a 19 percent stake in Vietnam’s Vinamilk. A spokeswoman for AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, said the company was committed to Vietnam and to growing its business for the long-term. A spokesman for Japan’s Kirin said it was carefully considering its options. Other potential bidders include Asahi Group Holdings, San Miguel and Heineken, though several people said Heineken already had a strong business in Vietnam and could sit out an expensive auction that values Sabeco at about 36 times core earnings - more than double the trading multiples of around 15 for some global brewers, according to Reuters data. Heineken, which already owns 5 percent of Sabeco, did not respond to requests for comment. Bottles of beer move along a production line at a factory of Saigon Beer Corporation (Sabeco) in Hanoi, Vietnam June 23, 2017. Picture taken June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Kham Asahi could not be immediately reached for comment, but the Japanese firm’s president told Reuters in September it was studying Sabeco. San Miguel’s president Ramon Ang said the Philippine conglomerate was interested to bid for Sabeco. Kirin owns around half of its affiliate San Miguel Brewery. The Sabeco auction is on Dec. 18, and bidders who are keen to own a stake equal to 25 percent or more of Sabeco’s shares need to inform local authorities a week before the auction. OWNERSHIP CAP Foreign ownership in Sabeco is limited to 49 percent.That means overseas bidders can only bid for a minority stake of as much as 39 percent as foreign entities already own 10 percent. Lack of control could put off some possible bidders, the people said. “Having control of the business is very important for these international brewers because the multiple is very high. If you’re going to pay that much you want to be able to institute your plans,” said one of the people, who expected international firms to sell their own premium beers like Budweiser, Heineken and Kirin through Sabeco’s distribution network, in addition to Sabeco’s beers, which include the Bia Saigon and 333 brands. Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, which represents state shares in Sabeco, said foreign investors can link with Vietnamese firms to buy Sabeco shares, but have to comply with local laws and regulations. Sabeco’s share price has nearly tripled since its listing a year ago, with analysts citing a small float as inflating its market value. The brewer’s sky-high valuations and a complicated sale process could pose challenges for some potential bidders, the people said. The Sabeco sale could also set the pace for peer Habeco, in which Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S owns 17.3 percent. Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Martinne Geller, with additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in HANOI, Neil Jerome Morales in MANILA, Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK and Junko Fujita in TOKYO; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sabeco-m-a-sale/global-brewers-line-up-bids-for-vietnams-sabeco-sale-sources-idINKBN1E409G'|'2017-12-10T11:47:00.000+02:00'
'deff55dea602664abd09bd1e469be85e3cc05a19'|'China Guangfa Bank fined $109 million for rule violation - regulator'|'December 8, 2017 / 10:02 AM / in 15 minutes China Guangfa Bank fined $109 million for rule violation - regulator Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING, Dec 8 (Reuters) - China’s banking regulator has fined China Guangfa Bank Co 722 million yuan ($109.12 million) for providing illegal guarantees for defaulted corporate bonds, it said on Friday. The high-yielding bonds were issued by southern Chinese phone maker Cosun Group and sold through an Alibaba Group Holding Ltd-backed online wealth management platform. ($1 = 6.6165 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting By Shu Zhang and Beijing moniterding desk)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-banks-fraud/china-guangfa-bank-fined-109-million-for-rule-violation-regulator-idUSB9N1NY02D'|'2017-12-08T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'fcb1bbea106d5fc67009f8c83e4655a8f6d86c42'|'UPDATE 1-Chinese buyout of Canada''s Aecon wins two regulatory approvals'|'(Adds details on deal needing to clear Investment Canada Act, background)Dec 8 (Reuters) - Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc said on Friday its C$1.51 billion ($1.18 billion) acquisition by China’s CCCC International Holding Ltd cleared two regulatory hurdles.Aecon said the closing of the deal remains subject to approval under the Investment Canada Act.Canada places strict restrictions on Canadian assets that China and other nations can buy on national security grounds.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in October his country would review possible security issues related to the deal.China’s National Development and Reform Commission approved the deal, while Canada’s Commissioner of Competition issued a “no action” letter, Aecon said on Friday.Shares of Aecon rose 1.21 percent to C$20.03 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday morning. ($1 = 1.29 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Sriraj Kalluvila) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aecon-group-ma-canada/update-1-chinese-buyout-of-canadas-aecon-wins-two-regulatory-approvals-idINL3N1O84PU'|'2017-12-08T14:55:00.000+02:00'
'f792a33a63235395349677b5db5d670fe323d0e4'|'The art of business relationship – how to connect in a professional environment - NatWest Business'|'Building a business is tricky. Firstly, there are the everyday complexities of running a company to take care of, such as overseeing goods supplies, cashflows and resourcing. But there’s also the human element: everything from managing staff to working with new clients and business partners. Building healthy, constructive working relationships can help us achieve our greatest business goals and be the difference between our work being just a job or something we love.It’s something that NatWest’s relationship managers know all about. To help business owners achieve their future growth goals – and take the stress out of the day-to-day running of things – they have to understand the ins and outs of the business and build a strong partnership with its owner. So how do we get off on the right foot in our professional relationships? And, once we’re there, how do we maintain them over months and years?On first meetingNeuroscientist and business coach Dr Gabija Toleikyte says making a good first impression at a networking event or first business meeting is important, but even more so is being sincere in our interactions with others. “Ask questions and get to know the person in a way that’s important to you. This begins resonant communication where we are much more in tune with that person, can pick up emotions better, notice things more, and are able to get on the same page.”Remembering names is a good start but one that can be the trickiest to execute. A few tips by memory experts suggest repeating the person’s name back to them and choosing something about them that stands out – the colour of their hair, for instance – to associate with their name. Once you start to get to know more about them, remembering something they’ve told you can be an easy way to reconnect with them in the future. This lays the foundation for a long-lasting work relationship, which is built on with a good rapport. To achieve this, be genuine and authentic in your own interests as well as your common interests with the other person, says Toleikyte. “It’s best if you’re naturally interested in their business: how their business is doing, what role they play and the challenges of their business, rather than to pretend and ask the standard questions.” It also helps to focus on your own values rather than the impression you’re making, especially if you’re not comfortable in new social situations. “If you truly care about anything – it could be programming or dogs or stocks – then talking about that area is when we actually open up,” she says. If you find networking tough, there are ways to get used to it, or even like it, says Toleikyte. “Focus on the small wins. Going to the event is already a success, talking to someone is a success, having a conversation where you talk about things that you truly care about is a great success,” she says. “After the event, write down five things that went well. This helps to form positive associations with social networking and reduce the stressor trigger for next time.” Over timeOnce those first steps have been made, from there it’s all about effective communication. “If you really connected with somebody and you have some ideas or see some opportunity to collaborate, then initiate contact with the person in a timeframe that feels natural,” Toleikyte says.With colleagues or business partners, the best way to get across what you want, navigating disagreements or establishing positive boundaries, is what experts call the communication sandwich technique. This can be used in nearly any form of interaction and it’s about getting the balance right between empathy and assertiveness. “If you think about a sandwich you have the two pieces of bread and the filling,” Toleikyte says. “The bread in this case is all about the other person, their needs and why they’re important to us. The filling is all about you.” The technique works best if the person delivering it has a growth mindset – the belief that people are able to grow and change with the help of constructive feedback.Managing Brexit uncertainty and providing advice: a day in the life of a relationship manager Read more Non-verbal communication is just as important and can be used as a sign that a relationship is healthy. “When we have good rapport we naturally mimic the body language of other people,” Toleikyte says. But don’t try to force it; people can pick up if we’re consciously trying to mimic them. “Then it can start to feel a bit awkward,” she says. As someone who has worked in the industry for many years, Andy Gray, managing director of corporate and commercial coverage for NatWest agrees with Toleikyte, noting: “Long-lasting, healthy working relationships are crucial to productivity, from those with external partners and suppliers to the people who help with the day-to-day running of a business.”He adds that NatWest, for instance, values how a supportive relationship can benefit both sides – its Relationship Managers support business owners as they grow. They focus on anticipating key issues, identifying opportunities, offering their expertise and providing local insights and contacts.Having access to these kinds of nurturing relationships is very important, says Toleikyte, helping business owners cut through the stress and focus on the growth and wellbeing of their company. This leaves room for making sure the passion that sparked their interest in the first place can thrive – and creates the space needed to form even more lasting connections.NatWest relationship managers work to understand your business. That’s why they’ve been voted number one* for overall customer satisfaction. As well as rigorous training and accreditation by the Chartered Banker Institute, they’re given the autonomy to act quickly and decisively. Whether they’re anticipating key issues, identifying opportunities or offering personal expertise, they have the skills to build a strong partnership with you and your business. Click here to find out more * Charterhouse Research Business Banking survey, YE Q1 17 data weighted by region and turnover. Numbef one position based on ‘excellent’ ratings (excluding ‘don’t know’) for relationship management service, as rated by NatWest’s customers with annual turnover of £2m - £25m in England & Wales, compared with ratings of competitor banks by their customers. Total respondents 1957, NatWest 489.'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/natwest-business/2017/dec/04/the-art-of-the-business-relationship-how-to-connect-in-a-professional-environment'|'2017-12-05T00:38:00.000+02:00'
'4a7769e189733a832c7dfea802a448068085ac7b'|'Bitcoin rises above $14,000 on Bitstamp to record high'|'December 7, 2017 / 1:16 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Bitcoin rises above $14,000 on Bitstamp to record high Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bitcoin soared to a record high of $14,047.40 on Thursday, continuing its surge from below $1,000 at the beginning of the year. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo The cryptocurrency was last up 2.94 percent at $14,030.00 at the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP . Reporting by the Tokyo markets team; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-rises-above-14000-on-bitstamp-to-record-high-idUKKBN1E1050'|'2017-12-07T03:21:00.000+02:00'
'7d9162ee7d91ddde01a1ea4677ba61a7733b0081'|'German industrial output falls unexpectedly in October'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:11 AM / in 11 minutes German industrial output falls unexpectedly in October   BERLIN (Reuters) - German industrial production fell unexpectedly in October, the Economy Ministry said, adding that public holidays at the start of the third-quarter that prompted many workers to take long weekends had significantly contributed to the fall. Steel rolls are pictured at the plant of German steel company Salzgitter AG in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, Germany March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo Industrial output decreased by 1.4 percent after falling by a revised 0.9 percent in September. In August output rose by 2.6 percent, which was the biggest increase in more than six years. The October reading compared with the mid-range forecast in a Reuters poll for a rise of 1.0 percent. A breakdown of the data showed that output fell in all industrial sectors except for energy. Capital goods, consumer goods, intermediate goods and construction fell the most. “The favourable situation concerning orders and, above all, more optimistic business expectations promise a continuation of good industrial activity,” it said. Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Emma Thomasson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy-output/german-industrial-output-falls-unexpectedly-in-october-idUKKBN1E10OJ'|'2017-12-07T09:11:00.000+02:00'
'439e1f444e753d8f952e0214b25f5cc2f1443929'|'BASF agrees oil unit merger with Fridman''s DEA to spur expansion'|'FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Chemical giant BASF agreed to merge its oil and gas unit Wintershall with DEA, a vehicle of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, to create one of the largest independent oil and gas firms in Europe, the companies said.FILE PHOTO - Flags of the German chemical company BASF are pictured in Monheim, Germany April 20, 2012. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender/File Photo Fridman and his partners in the LetterOne investment vehicle made billions by selling their Russian oil empire in 2013 but have since struggled to expand in the United States and Britain due to sanctions imposed on Moscow despite not being under sanctions themselves.By folding DEA into Wintershall and creating Germany’s first oil champion, cash-rich Fridman could create new opportunities for growth in large Western markets.For BASF it represents a second chance to diversify outside Russia where it is heavily present via ventures with gas monopoly Gazprom. BASF already tried to buy DEA in 2014 from German utility RWE but lost the race to Fridman.“Wintershall DEA will be one of Europe’s largest independent exploration and production companies, with the scale needed to generate sustainable growth long into the future,” said Lord John Browne, the executive chairman of LetterOne Energy.“Wintershall DEA, will be a German and European energy champion which can compete with those in France, Italy, and Spain. Very rarely do you have the opportunity to create a company of this type,” Browne, a former chief of BP, said in a statement.The new company will produce around 590,000 barrels per day from fields mainly in the North Sea, Africa and Russia and have combined proven reserves of 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent.BASF will control 67 percent of the new firm while Fridman’s LetterOne will own the remaining 33 percent.BASF could increase its stake in the company at a later stage by folding into it its pipeline business, which was left outside the initial merger.The new group would consider an initial public share offering (IPO) upon completion of the merger, which is expected in the second half of 2018.In May, Kurt Bock, BASF chief executive, said profit contributions from its oil and gas unit were diminishing further amid weak oil prices. As a result, the group would focus on boosting profitability at its chemicals and crop protection businesses.The drop in profits came amid a slump in oil prices and turmoil in Libya, one of Wintershall’s key sources of oil, following the fall of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi.DEA became a growth platform for Fridman and his partner BP sold Russian oil venture TNK-BP for $55 billion in 2013 to state-controlled oil major Rosneft.DEA’s expansion in Britain and the United States has been hampered by Western sanctions on Russia with DEA unable to close a deal to buy gas fields in Britain’s North Sea as well as shale oil and gas companies in Texas.German daily Handelsblatt had earlier reported a deal was imminent.Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-basf-letterone-oil-report/basf-agrees-oil-unit-merger-with-fridmans-dea-to-spur-expansion-idINKBN1E12SU'|'2017-12-07T16:17:00.000+02:00'
'56e8a0b2be99a1f85e87d60cdc08c448ad1f0811'|'ArcelorMittal''s $1 billion India joint venture to get green light next week - sources'|'December 7, 2017 / 11:26 AM / Updated 10 hours ago ArcelorMittal''s $1 billion India joint venture to get green light next week - sources Neha Dasgupta 3 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is set to approve a long-proposed $1 billion joint venture with ArcelorMittal at its board meeting next week, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A man paddles his rickshaw pasts an advertisement of Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) at a street in New Delhi, India, August 5, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo The decision to approve the deal was reached after talks between ArcelorMittal’s billionaire Chairman Lakshmi Mittal, India’s Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma and SAIL Chairman P.K. Singh at a meeting last week in New Delhi. The much-delayed collaboration to make automotive-grade steel is nearing realisation after legal teams from SAIL and ArcelorMittal finalised a joint term-sheet in talks mediated by a government think-tank in the past two weeks, the sources said. “The joint term-sheet has been prepared and it should hopefully reach its logical end soon,” a senior government official involved in the talks said. “SAIL has called an emergency board meeting to approve the joint venture.” The official did not give a day for the meeting, but two sources with knowledge of the talks said it would be Tuesday. The sources asked not to be named because there had not been any official announcement. SAIL, ArcelorMittal and the steel ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. India is banking on the partnership to cut imports of high-grade auto steel that mostly comes from Japan and South Korea. India is a major automobile producer and exporter. ArcelorMittal plant is seen in Vanderbijlpark, an industrial city south of Johannesburg, South Africa, November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/Files SAIL and ArcelorMittal signed a preliminary understanding in 2015, but disagreements over key commercial terms have delayed the venture that would give the Luxembourg-based company a foothold in the world’s fastest growing major steel market. The venture agreement was extended multiple times, and the last extension lapsed on Nov. 30, the sources said. One of the key points of disagreements between SAIL and ArcelorMittal had been on internal rate of returns and a “non-compete” clause. The sources said the two companies were still exploring the location for the joint venture company in Maharashtra and Gujarat states in the west, and Andhra Pradesh in the south. “They want the location to be near to a port,” the government official said. ArcelorMittal is also planning to bid for debt-ridden Indian steel firms such as Bhushan Steel Ltd, Essar Steel and Bhushan Power and Steel, Reuters reported in September. Reuters has also reported that Japan’s JFE Holdings Inc and India’s JSW Steel Ltd are lining up a joint bid with a private equity firm for the assets of Bhushan Steel. ArcelorMittal, known for turning around troubled steel assets, had earlier run into disagreement with SAIL over its intentions to bid for Indian companies. Reporting by Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Krishna N. Das and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-arcelormittal-sail/arcelormittals-1-billion-india-joint-venture-to-get-green-light-next-week-sources-idINKBN1E11FT'|'2017-12-07T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'8acb13035a7eb78dbe8f9717bde9be50e3956bc0'|'Elliott Management seeks changes at Alexion - NYT'|'(Corrects spelling to “Elliott” from “Elliot” thoughout in text)Dec 7 (Reuters) - U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management, which has built a stake in Alexion Pharmaceuticals, is urging the company to take more action to boost its stock price, including exploring a sale, the New York Times reported on Thursday.If Alexion failed to offer more aggressive financial performance guidance or consider strategic alternatives such as a sale, Elliott could start a proxy fight to claim board seats, the paper reported, citing people who were not authorized to speak publicly. nyti.ms/2jqV1sGIn a recent meeting between Alexion and Elliott, the hedge fund sought to have more biotech experts as directors and suggested four potential candidates, the newspaper said.Elliott started investing in Alexion in April and has warned the company against ambitious acquisitions beyond its core expertise, according to the report.Elliott has set an end-December deadline for the board changes, the report added.In September, Alexion said it would lay off about 20 percent of its workforce.The company has been hit by a sales-practices scandal related to Soliris, its pricey rare-disease treatment, as well as an exodus of top management including its chief executive and chief financial officers who left late last year.Alexion did not respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours. Elliott could not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/alexion-pharms-elliot-management/elliott-management-seeks-changes-at-alexion-nyt-idINL3N1O81EF'|'2017-12-07T23:37:00.000+02:00'
'ae67b1a3a639a3614dda308991e0d03927419b9b'|'Breaking slow: Asia set to raise rates next year, but still lag Fed'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tighter monetary policy is coming to Asia next year. Yet it will lag the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes as Asian central banks balance an exports-led revival in growth with a slowdown in regional locomotive China.FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington September 16 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo That will mark a shift from a few months ago when most economists expected Asian policy makers to hold their ground or even ease further, but the trade windfall behind a synchronized uptick in global growth is seen lasting longer.Last week South Korea took advantage of the trade boom to normalize policy, lifting rates for the first time in more than six years, and analysts expect Malaysia and Philippines - where growth has also benefited from a surge in public investment - to hike in the first quarter.With the benefit of hindsight when the Fed in 2013 signaled it was time to exit ultra-low rates and sparked a taper tantrum, regional central banks should be more confident of looking at the strength of their own economies rather than that of the United States.“The last couple of years has shown us that monetary policy in this region can decouple from the U.S,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ.“Obviously they are cognizant of what the Fed does and capital flows ... (but) this is not a case of central banks being forced to act just because the Fed is looking to tighten further.”That de-coupling has been on show in the past two years as Asia shrugged off four U.S. rate hikes, and some countries even cut rates over that period.South Korea was the first major Asian economy to lift rates since Indonesia’s November 2014 move, which was reversed three months later as markets eventually took the view that a U.S. lift-off won’t necessarily derail global growth.CHINA FACTOR Of course, the Fed cannot be totally ignored as it is expected to hike again next week and two to three more times in 2018. Korea and Malaysia have some of the lowest real interest rates relative to the United States since the global financial crisis and were responsible for most of the net bond market outflows in Asia in October.Australia and New Zealand could hike later next year, China might raise its short-term policy rates, while some analysts expect even India and Indonesia, which have been cutting recently, to reverse their moves.A Chinese national flag flutters outside the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China, the Chinese central bank, in Beijing, April 3, 2014. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/File Photo China is emerging as a key driver of Asia’s policy track next year, with growth in the world’s second-biggest economy set to lose momentum as authorities there extend a year-long crackdown on financial risks.The numbers show Asia is less dependent on American growth than in the past.While emerging Asia’s trade with the United States has gone up by 40 percent since the global financial crisis, its trade with China has risen 120 percent, according to Reuters calculations based on IMF data. Emerging Asia now trades 70 percent more with China than it does with the United States.That means monetary tightening in the region will lag the Fed, as long as any capital outflows driven by the narrower rate differentials do not lead to significantly weaker currencies. Stubbornly low inflation and elevated household debt may also slow rate hikes in some countries.“We have a picture where the average Asian central bank hikes less than the U.S.,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics.“We can argue they can do that without putting pressure on their real economy or financial sector because first, in some countries like India or Indonesia rates start from a higher level than in the United States and they have a buffer and secondly, the dollar would not strengthen a lot.”The good news is that during synchronized global growth the dollar historically tends to be stable or weaker, suggesting that Asian currencies will likely avoid a sharp shakeout.Kuijs expects the 4-8 percent strengthening in Asian currencies this year to come to a halt in 2018, when some might weaken slightly, but by less than 4 percent. BofA Merrill Lynch sees most currencies flat in 2018.FLAT CURVES The other element mitigating the risk of capital outflows is that while short-term bond yields are rising in the U.S. and Asia in anticipation of higher rates, long-term yields have remained stable as markets are yet to be convinced of any global inflationary pressures.While U.S. two-year yields US2YT=RR rose from 1.2 to 1.8 percent this year, 10-year yields US10YT=RR dipped 6 basis points to 2.39 percent, still below South Korean yields KR10YT=RR.“We’re pretty comfortable with the monetary policy outlook for Asia,” said Bryan Collins, portfolio manager, fixed income, at Fidelity International, who sees opportunities in long-dated Asian debt.Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-economy-rates-analysis/breaking-slow-asia-set-to-raise-rates-next-year-but-still-lag-fed-idUSKBN1E10EY'|'2017-12-07T06:37:00.000+02:00'
'5d40e36656298083afb1f31a8b0ae83678ac016e'|'Sterling to coast, but Brexit talks progress would drive rally - Reuters poll'|'December 7, 2017 / 6:55 AM / a few seconds ago Sterling to coast, but Brexit talks progress would drive rally: Reuters poll Jonathan Cable 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Sterling’s outlook is stable over the coming year, but a few currency strategists polled by Reuters expect it to make significant gains if negotiations over Britain’s departure from the European Union take a positive turn. British Pound Sterling banknotes are seen at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Forecasts from the poll of around 60 foreign exchange specialists, taken Dec 4-6, predict the pound GBP= will be worth $1.33 in a month, $1.32 in six and $1.33 in a year. It was trading at $1.34 late on Wednesday and medians were little changed from last month. The most optimistic forecaster - ING - said the pound would be worth $1.53 in a year, which is the highest forecast provided in Reuters polls taken since the EU membership referendum in June 2016. “We believe that sterling markets are underestimating the cyclical economic benefits of a Brexit transition deal. There is more upside to come – especially if a transition deal were to be signed, sealed and delivered in Q1 2018,” Viraj Patel at ING said. “We sniff an opportunity right now for a positive sterling re-rating were we to see further Brexit progress.” Currency speculators flipped to a net long sterling position for the first time in four weeks in the week to Nov. 28, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. However, investors remain hesitant about chasing the rallying pound higher even as the British government said it was close to an agreement with the European Union on how to move Brexit talks onto trade next year. On Tuesday Prime Minister Theresa May came under pressure after a Brexit deal collapsed at the last minute and the gloomiest forecast, from NORD/LB, was for cable at $1.20 in a year. “There will be no ‘sufficient progress’ to start with negotiations about trade at the beginning of next year. In an environment of uncertainty, economic conditions in the UK will become more and more fragile,” said Jens Kramer at NORD/LB. “Therefore, we do not expect the Bank of England to proceed with another rate hike during the next year. All this will weigh on the exchange rate.” Last month, the BoE added back the 25 basis points it took off borrowing costs in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, taking Bank Rate back to 0.50 percent, but it won’t act again until towards the end of 2018 when it will add another 25 basis points, medians in a recent Reuters poll showed. [ECILT/GB] The euro zone economy has emerged as a star performer this year, outshining Britain, and the European Central Bank announced in October a cut to monthly bond buying from January. It is expected to wind down its asset purchases next year. So against the euro EURGBP= the pound was expected to weaken a little. On Wednesday, one euro would get you 88.1 pence and according to the poll it would be worth 88.6p in a month, 90.0p in six and 12 months. As with cable forecasts, the year-out range was wide, going from 76.7p to 102.0p. (For other stories from the December global foreign exchange poll:) Polling by Anu Bararia and Sarmista Sen; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-forex-poll-sterling/sterling-to-coast-but-brexit-talks-progress-would-drive-rally-reuters-poll-idUKKBN1E10MZ'|'2017-12-07T08:47:00.000+02:00'
'9525493ab613f423b1417870b1780617ba8c594c'|'British Airways no longer interested in Air Berlin''s Niki - source'|' 19 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago British Airways no longer interested in Air Berlin''s Niki - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - British Airways is no longer interested in stepping in with an offer for the Niki unit of insolvent Air Berlin, should a planned sale to Lufthansa not be approved, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. British Airways'' Airbus A380 arrives at a hanger after landing at Heathrow airport in London July 4, 2013. REUTERS/Paul Hackett/File Photo British Airways, owned by IAG, had also bid for Niki, but lost out to Lufthansa and a report last week said it had restated its interest after the European Commission signalled concerns over the Lufthansa deal. However, IAG has now dropped out, because a deal is no longer attractive, the person said. IAG and Air Berlin declined to comment. Reporting by Klaus Lauer, additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London, writing by Victoria Bryan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-iag/british-airways-no-longer-interested-in-air-berlins-niki-source-idUKKBN1E11YC'|'2017-12-07T16:18:00.000+02:00'
'ceaf112a97af0016a46fdeb1a6ec6d7b02c9d581'|'France and Qatar sign deals worth 12 billion euros - Macron'|'December 7, 2017 / 10:24 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago France and Qatar sign deals worth 12 billion euros - Macron Reuters Staff 1 Min Read QATAR (Reuters) - France and Qatar signed commercial contracts worth around 12 billion euros (£10.6 billion) on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said, adding that the deals underscored the close relationship between the two countries. French President Emmanuel Macron gestures during his news conference in Algiers, Algeria December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra Qatar has agreed to buy 12 more Rafale fighter planes from Dassault Aviation, will employ France’s Suez to dredge and clean Qatar’s lagoon and has retained France’s RATP and SNCF to build and operate a metro system in Qatar. “In total, it amounts to nearly 12 billion euros which was signed today and which underlines the closeness of our relations,” Macron said at a press conference with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Macron also reiterated he disapproved of U.S President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying the status of the city needed to be determined via negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Luke Baker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qatar-france-macron-middleast/france-and-qatar-sign-deals-worth-12-billion-euros-macron-idUKKBN1E117U'|'2017-12-07T12:25:00.000+02:00'
'd658050146305568af148bc5355c1f6f496d0a97'|'UPDATE 2-ED&F Man reviews physical grains trading, may exit business'|'* Company entered physical grains trading in 2015* Sugar refinery in Israel be shut at the end of 2017 (Adds company comment)By Jonathan Saul, Nigel Hunt and Chris PrenticeLONDON/NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - ED&F Man said on Friday it is reviewing its physical grains trading operations after a challenging year and may partially or entirely exit the business.The company said it would not be taking new positions in physical grains during the review, which is the latest leg of restructuring at the more than 230-year-old commodities firm, which last month saw the ouster of its chief executive officer and managing director of its commodities division.ED&F Man said in October it will be restructuring its core sugar business, as it struggled to cope with surplus stocks depressing prices.The company also said on Friday the EU’s resumption of unrestricted sugar exports, after many years in which they had been limited by quotas, meant its sugar refinery in Kiryat Gat, Israel was not viable and would shut down at the end of 2017.ED&F Man entered the physical grains trading market as a niche player in July 2015 and employs around 40 people in a number of locations including Russia, the Ukraine, China and Switzerland.The move could lead to a quick exit from a grains market that has punished larger, more longstanding grains traders such as Bunge Ltd , Louis Dreyfus Commodities BV and Archer Daniels Midland Co.ED&F Man Capital Markets, the group’s financial brokerage and derivatives trading division, which acts as a broker of grain futures and options, is not affected by the review.In late October Man said CEO Phil Howell would leave as part of a senior management reshuffle after what it described as “a very challenging year”.This followed an earlier announcement in October that the managing director of its commodities division, Jan Kees van der Wild, had decided to step down.The company’s wider portfolio includes businesses involved in trading coffee, molasses and animal feeds, pulses, shipping and capital markets as well as sugar and grains. (Additional reporting by Michael Hogan; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/commodities-edfman/update-1-edf-man-winds-down-physical-grains-business-as-company-shake-up-deepens-sources-idINL8N1O84B8'|'2017-12-08T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'687ee58f5b22cde8b3de230e2b33a7fa2cb51b86'|'City of London sticks to Brexit plans despite progress'|'December 8, 2017 / 11:20 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago City of London sticks to Brexit plans despite progress Simon Jessop , Anjuli Davies 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London’s financial industry welcomed progress on a divorce deal with the European Union on Friday but said it saw little reason to alter preparations for when Britain leaves the EU. Inga Beale, Chief Executive Officer, Lloyd''s, attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich The agreement on Friday paves the way for arduous trade talks, easing immediate pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May and boosting hopes of an orderly Brexit. Banks in Britain are preparing to move an estimated 10,000 jobs to the continent after Brexit in order to maintain full access to the single market. Insurance specialist Lloyd’s of London was among the first to respond, saying that it would press ahead with its plans to establish a foothold in the EU. “We therefore remain very keen to see an agreement that puts in place a sensible transition period and a broad and expansive post-Brexit free trade agreement, which includes the financial services sector,” said Lloyd’s Chief Executive Inga Beale. Her comments echoed those of trade bodies representing the financial services industry. “This agreement ... is a positive and encouraging step,” said Miles Celic, Chief Executive Officer of TheCityUK, the country’s most powerful financial lobby group. “For the financial and related professional services industry, our critical issues must now be progressed. The sand in the timer is running out.” John McFarlane, chairman of Barclays, one of Britain’s biggest banks, welcomed the progress but said many questions remained unanswered. “Good progress on the key political issues and good to see likelihood of a transition period. What ultimately matters for our sector is ”grandfathering“ of existing contracts, and continued market access...” McFarlane told Reuters. “We won’t though know this for some time.” Banks in London are also preparing to move hundreds of thousands of contracts they expect to be rendered invalid by Brexit to continental Europe, in a process known as “repapering”, marking a major step in their adjustment plans and one that they would like to prolong. There were other signs that the industry was continuing to prepare itself for significant changes. Liberty Specialty Markets, part of U.S. insurer Liberty Mutual, which had revenues of $38 billion (£28.3 billion) last year, and is one of the largest U.S. property and casualty insurers, said it was switching the domicile of its insurance company to Luxembourg from London. It announced its plans for a Luxembourg hub in July. “We’ve been pushing the idea of Canada plus,” said one senior banker, referring to the prospect of a future trade deal between the European Union and Britain that would be an expanded version of one between the bloc and Canada. “We’ve been told it’s Canada dry for the financial services industry.” Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Anjuli Davies; editing by John O''Donnell/Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-lloyds-of-london/lloyds-of-london-ceo-says-still-planning-brussels-subsidiary-idUKKBN1E21EF'|'2017-12-08T17:33:00.000+02:00'
'3b9b3f54f9daea756b74588e8f7cd8610775e6a5'|'Troubled Hong Kong penny stock firm appoints new leadership following arrests'|'December 10, 2017 / 1:14 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Troubled Hong Kong penny stock firm appoints new leadership following arrests Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong penny stock firm announced the appointment of new leadership following the anti-graft agency’s arrest of its three executive directors last week. Convoy Global Holdings Ltd ( 1019.HK ) was identified as part of a network of penny-stock firms whose share prices crashed spectacularly in June. It has appointed Johnny Chen, a former chairman of China at Zurich Insurance Group ( ZURN.S ) and former executive member of the Greater-China Management Board at PricewaterhouseCoopers, as its executive director and interim chairman of the board, it said on Sunday. It has also appointed Yap E-hock and Ip Yee-kwan as its executive directors, and named three new independent non-executive directors, Francine Fu, Martin Pak and Yan Tat-wah, it said in a stock exchange statement. The Independent Commission Against Corruption, in its first ever joint operation with markets watchdog the Securities and Futures Commission, arrested Convoy’s three executive directors, Wong Lee-man, Fong Sut-sam and Chan Lai-yee last week. The trio was suspended by the company following the arrests. Reporting by Venus Wu; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hongkong-pennystocks-scandal/troubled-hong-kong-penny-stock-firm-appoints-new-leadership-following-arrests-idUKKBN1E40HS'|'2017-12-10T15:13:00.000+02:00'
'1f237299928a77bfe7194cfc17659f7e467406f5'|'M&C Hotels agrees to sweetened bid from CDL valuing it at 2 billion pounds'|'December 8, 2017 / 4:09 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago M&C Hotels agrees to sweetened bid from CDL valuing it at 2 billion pounds Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Millennium & Copthorne Hotels ( MLC.L ) has agreed to a sweetened takeover offer from its majority shareholder that values the London-listed company at about 2 billion pounds ($2.67 billion) after an earlier bid was heavily criticized by minority investors. A City Developments Limited (CDL) logo is seen on a building in Singapore May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su City Developments Limited (CDL), a vehicle of Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, who is also chairman of M&C, has offered 620 pence per share in cash to acquire the 34.8 percent of the FTSE 250 hotelier that it does not already own, the companies said in a statement on Friday. The offer, which was declared final, has been recommended by M&C’s independent directors. It was announced 75 minutes before a Takeover Panel deadline for CDL to make a firm offer or walk away. CDL’s earlier 552.5 pence per share cash proposal, disclosed to the stock market on Oct. 9, ran into opposition from some of M&C’s smaller shareholders, who argued that it put too low a price on the business because it did not reflect the value of its extensive property portfolio. M&C owns, runs, invests in or franchises 137 hotels around the world. Opponents of the earlier bid, which included MSD Partners, the firm that manages the family wealth of IT entrepreneur Michael Dell, called on CDL in October to raise its offer and criticized M&C’s independent directors for saying they would recommend the proposal. Deutsche Bank and HSBC are advising CDL and Credit Suisse is working with M&C’s independent directors. M&C shares rose 6 percent on news of the bid to close at 613.5 pence. The revised offer caps a busy week of takeover activity for British companies, particularly in the leisure sector. Cineworld agreed a $3.6 billion reverse takeover of U.S. cinema business Regal Entertainment [nL8N1O5161], while online gambling company GVC also disclosed it was holding in-depth talks about a potential 3.9 billion-pound acquisition of bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral. In the UK property sector, shopping centers owner Hammerson ( HMSO.L ) announced a 3.4 billion-pound acquisition of rival Intu Properties. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-mill-cop-hotels-m-a-city-developments/mc-hotels-agrees-to-sweetened-bid-from-cdl-valuing-it-at-2-billion-pounds-idUKKBN1E226K'|'2017-12-08T19:01:00.000+02:00'
'74656aa202387b19274c16299361f4d10c9db035'|'PRESS DIGEST -Wall Street Journal - Dec 8'|'December 8, 2017 / 5:56 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST -Wall Street Journal - Dec 8 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 8 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - United Industries LLC, part of Caterpillar Inc''s Progress Rail Services unit, admitted that it cheated customers by performing unnecessary repairs to their railcars and pleaded guilty to dumping brake shoes and other parts into the ocean to hide evidence, according to court documents. on.wsj.com/2AE5E2H - General Electric Co said it was cutting 12,000 jobs in its power business, or nearly 18 percent of the unit''s workforce, as the conglomerate slashes costs and battles overcapacity in an industry in upheaval. on.wsj.com/2kapPgT - Toys "R" Us Inc''s ( IPO-TOYS.N ) unsecured creditors want to take a deeper look into the troubled retailer''s hefty and complex debt load. on.wsj.com/2kastU7 - European Union officials agreed to expand the bloc''s powers to police and fine auto makers, seeking to prevent a repeat of the diesel-emissions scandal that exposed abuses by many local manufacturers. on.wsj.com/2BUz4d6 Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-8-idUSL3N1O82CR'|'2017-12-08T07:55:00.000+02:00'
'6adc0111cf874320e31c550af0f121541599fa5b'|'Fuel shippers seek U.S. review of ''excessive'' Colonial Pipeline rates'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:04 PM / a few seconds ago Fuel shippers seek U.S. review of ''excessive'' Colonial Pipeline rates Devika Krishna Kumar , Jarrett Renshaw 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil major Chevron, leading refiner Valero and Delta Air Lines have complained to the U.S. energy watchdog about fees Colonial Pipeline charges to ship gasoline, diesel and jet fuel over its fuel network, the country’s largest. The 917-page complaint, filed last month with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), says Colonial’s fees “greatly exceed just and reasonable levels”. It alleges Colonial overcharged the companies by more than $60 million combined, and is potentially monopolizing fuel delivery into the New York region. The complaint could lead to the first regulatory reexamination of Colonial Pipeline’s rates in nearly 20 years, at a time when the line’s importance for delivering refined products to the Northeast and Southeast United States has come into sharp focus. Colonial says the complaint has no merit, and a legal expert said it may be hard for the shippers to prove their case. Even with the current fees, the 3 million-barrel-per-day Colonial system is the cheapest and most efficient way to move barrels from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast. Over the past two years, a series of outages, including shutdown of parts of the line in wake of Hurricane Harvey, drove up pump prices and created fears of gasoline shortages across numerous states. Spokeswoman Malesia Dunn said Colonial Pipeline believes the shippers manipulated data “and made improper and highly unrealistic assumptions in an effort to strengthen their arguments.” The complaint was filed on Nov. 22 by Chevron Products Co, Valero Marketing & Supply Co and Epsilon Trading LLC, the trading arm of Delta. The companies did not elaborate on the dispute to Reuters. Colonial shippers have often complained that the company has tried to squeeze access and limit competition for space on its congested line. One shipper sued Colonial this year in federal court in New Jersey, alleging it is blending gasoline from its customers without authorization, and profiting from that. The company has answered the complaint, denying the charges. “We have a diverse shipper base, with nearly 300 shippers,” said Dunn. “We aim to provide value and the best offerings for a majority of shippers. We can’t customize for every shipper.” Other companies, such as Murphy Oil, Vitol and Flint Resources LP have lodged complaints with FERC against Colonial in the past two years, but the latest action represents the largest threat to the operator’s current rate structure. “I expect given the importance of the line, the resources of the parties bringing the complaint and the number of shippers that use the line, this case will be heavily litigated and is very serious,” said Tony Clark, a senior advisor at Wilkinson, Barker Knauer LLP and a FERC Commissioner from 2012 until 2016. NEW YORK MONOPOLY The companies say in the complaint that they were collectively overcharged by about $64.1 million between Oct. 1, 2015 and Sept. 30, 2017. They say Colonial’s exorbitant and opaque fee structure pushed its 2016 interstate revenue to exceed its costs by $339.3 million, earning it about a 29 percent realized return on equity. The companies said they used adjustments that accounted for, among other things, the cost of two pipeline outages in 2016 to arrive at that figure. “The Commission has previously held that an apparent over-recovery of this magnitude...is more than sufficient to warrant setting for hearing a complaint against the pipeline rates,” the complaint says. Interstate pipelines are allowed to recover operating costs by charging shippers to use the line, but are prohibited from “over-recovery.” The U.S. Congress set Colonial’s rates in 1990s-era legislation. In 2001, FERC allowed Colonial to charge market-based rates from the Gulf Coast to the Philadelphia and New York areas, on the understanding that Colonial lacked monopoly power over those markets. For other delivery points, such as Alabama and Georgia, Colonial rates are not market-based. Colonial’s market power raises serious concerns over whether its rates remain “just and reasonable,” the complaint says. It says the market-based rate structure has not undergone scrutiny for years, while economic conditions have changed enough to warrant a review. It may be hard for shippers to convince FERC that market-based rates are excessive, said FERC litigation partner Joseph Fagan, at Day Pitney LLP. “Simply saying that they are charging rates that are very high and therefore they must have market power, that doesn’t get you there ... Frustration does not a valid complaint make,” he said. Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-colonialpipeline-rates/fuel-shippers-seek-u-s-review-of-excessive-colonial-pipeline-rates-idUSKBN1E22JE'|'2017-12-08T20:47:00.000+02:00'
'd7976ebed83dbaab74ee8fc0394f236c7778d3a5'|'China to push structural reforms, curb risks in 2018 - Xinhua'|'December 8, 2017 / 9:57 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago China to push structural reforms, curb risks in 2018 - Xinhua Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China will deepen structural reforms and curb risks while maintaining steady economic growth in 2018, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday, as top leaders seek to prevent a destabilising build-up of debt. FILE PHOTO: Apartment blocks are pictured next to a construction site on a hazy day in Wuqing district of Tianjin, China, December 10, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo The government will balance the need to keep economic growth steady with efforts to push reforms and contain risks, Xinhua said, citing a statement released after a meeting of the Politburo, a top decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party. “Promoting high-quality development will be the fundamental requirement for determining our thinking on development, formulating economic policies and implementing macro-control measures,” Xinhua said. President Xi Jinping said at a party congress in October that China will strive for higher quality, more efficient and fair growth. Top leaders are due to map out an economic and reform agenda for 2018 during an annual Central Economic Work Conference later this month. The government will deepen supply-side reforms next year to deal with excess factory capacity and structural problems, Xinhua said. The Politburo also pledged to “prevent and resolve major risks to effectively control macroeconomic leverage ratios”, Xinhua said. The news agency also said the government aims to significantly cut emissions of major pollutants next year under a drive to fight pollution. Authorities will also focus on speeding up property market reform and establish a long-term mechanism for the market in 2018, Xinhua added. In the first nine months of this year, China’s economy grew 6.9 percent from a year earlier. This was underpinned by stronger exports and sustained state spending, positioning China to exceed the government’s growth target of around 6.5 percent this year. Sources have told Reuters that Chinese leaders are likely to stick with that growth target for 2018, even as they ratchet up efforts to prevent a destabilising build-up of debt. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Kevin Yao; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-property/china-aims-to-build-long-term-property-market-mechanism-state-media-idUKKBN1E2155'|'2017-12-08T19:16:00.000+02:00'
'830c89ec92d3d81d40cc4988d2fbe8352364ddac'|'MOVES-OppenheimerFunds, KPMG, Janus Henderson'|'December 8, 2017 / 8:03 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago MOVES-OppenheimerFunds, KPMG, Janus Henderson Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 8 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Friday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com. OPPENHEIMERFUNDS The asset manager named Patrik Silfverling as head of the Nordics and Benelux regions. KPMG LLP The advisory services firm named James Hillon as a director to its general insurance team in Manchester. JANUS HENDERSON The asset manager said Graham Kitchen, global head of equities, would leave the firm to pursue other interests. (Compiled by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/financial-moves/moves-oppenheimerfunds-kpmg-janus-henderson-idUSL3N1O84XJ'|'2017-12-08T21:59:00.000+02:00'
'c4413d7ecbe64a11cd18865653842e185032aaa0'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 8'|'December 8, 2017 / 5:54 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 8 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 8 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Ford Motor Co is shifting production of a future battery electric vehicle to Mexico to free up capacity at its Michigan''s Flat Rock plant for self-driving cars, as it expects the market for self-driving cars to grow rapidly after it rolls out its first model in 2021. nyti.ms/2BgnsnK - U.S. hedge fund Elliot Management, which has built a stake in Alexion Pharmaceuticals, is urging the company to take more action to boost its stock price, including exploring a sale. nyti.ms/2j3XVqo - General Electric Co said it would cut 12,000 jobs in its power division, reducing the size of the unit''s work force by 18 percent. nyti.ms/2BUDSiJ - Harold Ford Jr., a former congressman-turned-managing director, was fired by the financial services firm Morgan Stanley recently for inappropriate conduct related to an undisclosed event, the company said in a statement on Thursday. nyti.ms/2j8GUvb Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-8-idUSL3N1O82CG'|'2017-12-08T07:51:00.000+02:00'
'9f4e030000fba436dfdf4d8ed6d3d7857ec34e4a'|'Thyssenkrupp ready to make workers offer for Tata Steel deal - Bild am Sonntag'|'December 9, 2017 / 11:06 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Thyssenkrupp makes offer to workers for Tata Steel deal - sources Tom Käckenhoff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) has offered workers commitments on jobs and investments to get union backing for its deal with Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) to merge their European steel operations, several people close to labour union IG Metall said. A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen Details of the offer are to be discussed at a meeting of management and labour representatives on Tuesday, the sources told Reuters on Sunday. German industrial group Thyssenkrupp and India’s Tata Steel agreed in September to merge their European steel operations, creating the continent’s second largest steelmaker with revenues of 15 billion euros (13.22 billion pounds). But workers at Thyssenkrupp fiercely oppose the deal, concerned more steel jobs will be lost on top of the 2,000 already announced. IG Metall has demanded 10-year guarantees for jobs, plants and investments and has set a Dec. 22 deadline for an agreement. German weekly Bild am Sonntag had on Sunday cited Thyssenkrupp personnel chief Oliver Burkhard as saying in an internal memo that the industrial group was prepared to make commitments on future investments and job security. “With our proposal, we want to secure jobs at the future joint venture into the next decade,” it had quoted him as saying. Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger hopes to reach a final deal with Tata Steel in early 2018 but that depends on whether he can get it passed by Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, where labour leaders hold half of the seats. “If the employer’s side wants to move forward now, then that’s a signal to which we will respond,” Knut Giesler, the head of IG Metall in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia said. Thyssenkrupp declined to comment on the matter. Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Andrew Bolton/Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-workers/thyssenkrupp-ready-to-make-workers-offer-for-tata-steel-deal-bild-am-sonntag-idUKKBN1E30SF'|'2017-12-10T06:09:00.000+02:00'
'b34fe9b60089e9a2d1ecc48ffe7628c1143ec8b4'|'After bitcoin’s wild week, traders brace for futures launch'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The newest way to bet on bitcoin, the cyptocurrency that has taken Wall Street by storm with its stratospheric price rise and wild daily gyrations, will arrive on Sunday when bitcoin futures start trading.Virtual currency Bitcoin tokens are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The first bitcoin future <0#XBT:> trades are set to kick off at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Cboe Global Markets Inc’s ( CBOE.O ) Cboe Futures Exchange.The launch has given an extra kick to the cyptocurrency’s scorching run this year. It has nearly doubled in price since the start of December, but recent days saw sharp moves in both directions, with bitcoin losing almost a fifth of its value on Friday after surging more than 40 percent in the previous 48 hours.But while some market participants are excited about a regulated way to bet on or hedge against moves in bitcoin, others caution that risks remain for investors and possibly even the clearing organizations underpinning the trades.The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.“The pretty sharp rise we have seen in bitcoin in just the last couple of weeks has probably been driven by optimism ahead of the futures launch,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin.Bitcoin fans appear excited about the prospect of an exchange-listed and regulated product and the ability to bet on its price swings without having to sign up for a digital wallet.The futures are an alternative to a largely unregulated spot market underpinned by cryptocurrency exchanges that have been plagued by cybersecurity and fraud issues.“You are going to open up the market to a whole lot of people who aren’t currently in bitcoin,” Frederick said.The futures launch has so far received a mixed reception from big U.S. banks and brokerages.Interactive Brokers plans to offer its customers access to the first bitcoin futures when trading goes live, but bars clients from assuming short positions and has margin requirements of at least 50 percent.Several online brokerages including Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade will not allow the trading of the newly launched futures from day one.Some of the big U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase ( JPM.N ) and Citigroup ( C.N ), will not immediately clear bitcoin trades for clients, the Financial Times reported on Friday.Sparks glow from broken Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) on Thursday said it is planning to clear bitcoin futures for certain clients.VOLATILITY DAMPENER Bitcoin’s manic run-up this year has boosted volatility far in excess of other asset classes. The launch of futures may help dampen some of the sharp moves, analysts said.“Hypothetically, volatility over the long run should drop after institutions get involved,” said Ophir Gottlieb, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Capital Market Laboratories.“But there may not be an immediate impact, say in the first month,” he said.Slideshow (3 Images) The launch futures on an underlying spot market can lend more order to spot trading in the long run, by facilitating better price discovery and directional bets, not just long bets, J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago, said.Analysts, however, warn that much of how the futures market will react is a mystery, given that bitcoin is unlike any other asset.“This is completely unknown territory,” said Charles Schwab’s Frederick.Fears of inaccurate pricing and systemic risk to clearing houses should prices move sharply and clients fail to meet margin calls remain. Brokers have said that more safeguards are needed to protect against bitcoin’s high volatility.For a factbox on the launch of bitcoin futures contracts, see:The risk of market participants manipulating the underlying spot market to their benefit in the futures market is another big concern.“Large equity indexes show some volatility around cash settlements and those are in highly liquid, highly regulated venues,” said Steve Sosnick, chief options strategist at Interactive Brokers Group Inc in Greenwich, Connecticut.“Compare that to cash settlement in bitcoin, and there is a lot more uncertainty on how that would play out.”(For a graphic on Bitcoin''s blistering ascent, click here )Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures/after-bitcoins-wild-week-traders-brace-for-futures-launch-idINKBN1E404D'|'2017-12-10T08:05:00.000+02:00'
'c141b5ac7b4b4a9cdfa43f43e49fe2568b799c28'|'Deutsche Bank can cope with Basel III outcome: CFO in paper'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) is able to cope with the stricter capital rules on banks that were agreed this week, its finance chief told a German paper.The head quarters of Germany''s largest business bank, Deutsche Bank, is photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “We are well capitalized. There is no need to be alarmed,” James von Moltke was Quote: d as saying by Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an advance copy of an interview to be published on Monday.Financial regulators reached a long-sought deal on Thursday to harmonize global banking rules, known as Basel III, capping a decade of effort to make banks more resilient.Von Moltke joined Deutsche in July, at a time when it has managed to put 15 billion euros ($17.64 billion) worth of legal headaches behind it and bolstered its capital with an 8 billion euro rights issue.He rejected the idea that Deutsche Bank was still involved in risky business. “We are not taking gambles,” he was Quote: d as saying.He added that he expected further mergers in the sector.“There will probably be further mergers in the banking industry in the coming years. But each deal must make sense in terms of the business model, so that everyone - shareholders, employees and customers - can benefit.”(In this version of the story the paper corrects publication date of interview to Monday)Reporting by Victoria Bryan, editing by David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-bank-capitalisation/deutsche-bank-can-cope-with-basel-iii-outcome-cfo-in-paper-idUSKBN1E22AL'|'2017-12-08T18:52:00.000+02:00'
'b040347aa80c5618eb300b53f09700f0ecb3a80f'|'PWC to sell government services practice - sources'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:49 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago PWC to sell government services practice - sources Mike Stone 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global financial auditing and consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is exploring the sale of its government consulting practice, which could fetch about $500 million (£373.2 million), four people familiar with the matter said this week. The exterior of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is seen in Washington, DC, U.S. December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Stone The sale would give PWC a freer hand to pursue the growing business of auditing government agencies. Professional standards restrict the kind of consulting services audit companies can offer to government customers, which are deterred by even the appearance of conflicts. Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) is running the sale process, said the sources, who requested anonymity because details of the talks were not public. Bidders have received financial information about the consulting practice, which offers business process improvement and operations streamlining services for a variety of government entities, including U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense. The unit’s pre-tax earnings are expected to rise to more than $60 million next year from about $50 million this year, the sources said. The exterior of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is seen in Washington, DC, U.S. December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Stone Private equity firms including New York-based Veritas and Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners are potential bidders for the unit, the people said. Representatives of PWC, Morgan Stanley, Veritas and Madison Dearborn declined to comment. One of biggest audits in history, the audit of the U.S. Department of Defense, kicked off this month and is due at the end of the government’s 2018 fiscal year. According to Pentagon records, PWC, one of world’s largest auditing companies, has been contracted to provide “audit-readiness” services to the department. “The Department is engaging auditors to perform over 24 individual financial statement audits of its largest components, as well as a Department-wide consolidated audit to summarize all results and conclusions on a DoD-wide basis,” a Pentagon spokesman said. Other companies in the government services sector have struck deals this year, including DXC Technology Co ( DXC.N ), which combined its U.S. public-sector business with Vencore Holding Corp and KeyPoint Government Solutions to create an independent, publicly traded company serving U.S. government clients. Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pricewaterhousecoopers-m-a/pwc-to-sell-government-services-practice-sources-idUKKBN1E22KR'|'2017-12-08T21:48:00.000+02:00'
'83cb2444167ed9e6694757b0f399a2a1961ae495'|'Exclusive: Bangladesh Bank, NY Fed discuss suing Manila bank for heist damages'|'December 8, 2017 / 3:21 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Exclusive: Bangladesh Bank, NY Fed discuss suing Manila bank for heist damages Krishna N. Das , Serajul Quadir 5 Min Read DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh’s central bank has asked the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to join a lawsuit it plans to file against a Philippines bank for its role in one of the world’s biggest cyber-heists, several sources said. FILE PHOTO: Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka, Bangladesh on March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ashikur Rahman/File Photo The Fed is yet to respond formally, but there is no indication it would join the suit. Unidentified hackers stole $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the New York Fed in February last year, using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system. The money was sent to accounts at Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp RCBS.PS and then disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines. Nearly two years later, there is no word on who was responsible and Bangladesh Bank has been able to retrieve only about $15 million, mostly from a Manila junket operator. ( reut.rs/2jk1W74 ) Officials from Bangladesh Bank and the New York Fed spoke about legal action against RCBC in a conference call last month that was also attended by two representatives from SWIFT, according to three sources in Dhaka who had direct knowledge of the conversations. It was agreed that Bangladesh Bank would send a proposal on the suit to the New York Fed, they said. “The aim is to file a case by March-April in New York,” said one of the sources. “Work is on. Bangladesh Bank is likely to send something to the Fed soon.” The source said the idea was it would be a civil suit to recover the money, and that Bangladesh hoped the Fed and SWIFT would be joint petitioners. Subhankar Saha, a spokesman for Bangladesh Bank, said he had no knowledge of any plans to sue RCBC but that “efforts are on to recover the entire stolen money”. The New York Fed and SWIFT declined comment. A source familiar with the New York Fed’s thinking confirmed that Bangladesh Bank’s external counsel raised the idea of filing a suit against RCBC in the call. The New York Fed officials agreed to review any proposal Bangladesh Bank wrote up but they did not formally agree to a joint effort, and have not since worked on it nor heard from Bangladesh Bank, the source said. FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands guard outside a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Paranaque city, Metro Manila, Philippines August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo There was no indication that the Fed would join the suit once it had received and reviewed the proposal. ROGUE EMPLOYEES RCBC has blamed rogue employees and Philippine prosecutors have filed money laundering charges against a former RCBC bank manager and four people who owned the bank accounts where the funds were sent, but are not identifiable since the accounts were in fake names. They are the only people to be formally cited anywhere in the world in association with the crime. Bangladeshi officials have cited internal RCBC documents, also seen by Reuters, to assert that the Filipino bank ignored suspicions raised by some RCBC officials when the money was first remitted to the accounts on Feb. 5, 2016, and then delayed acting on requests from RCBC''s head office to freeze the funds on Feb. 9. ( reut.rs/2BM9EOO ) RCBC did not respond to requests for comment. But it has said in the past that it would not pay any compensation and that Bangladesh Bank bore responsibility for the theft since it was negligent. RCBC was fined a record one billion Philippine pesos ($20 million) by the country’s central bank last year for its failure to prevent the movement of the stolen money through it. Separately, a Bangladesh court has sent “letters rogatory” to the United States seeking the findings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the case, said the main police investigator in Dhaka. Letters rogatory are documents used to obtain judicial assistance from foreign courts. “We have questions for the Federal Reserve Bank, we want to collect the FBI report, what their findings are,” Molla Nazrul Islam, a special superintendent of police in Bangladesh, told Reuters this week. An FBI spokeswoman said the agency could not comment on ongoing cases. A hacking group called Lazarus that is believed to have connections to North Korea has been linked to the Bangladesh cyber heist and some U.S. officials said earlier this year that prosecutors were building a case against Pyongyang. But no case has yet been filed. Reporting by Krishna N. Das and Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila, Michelle Price in Washington, Jonathan Spicer in New York and Jim Finkle in Toronto; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-heist-bangladesh-exclusive/exclusive-bangladesh-bank-ny-fed-discuss-suing-manila-bank-for-heist-damages-idUKKBN1E20BS'|'2017-12-08T05:24:00.000+02:00'
'1d5fabec48561dd7b24daf05c18ce9b99e80069f'|'Lloyd''s of London pushes ahead with Brexit plans'|'Reuters TV United States December 8, 2017 / 12:44 PM / Updated 6 hours ago City of London sticks to Brexit plans despite progress Simon Jessop , Anjuli Davies 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London’s financial industry welcomed progress on a divorce deal with the European Union on Friday but said it saw little reason to alter preparations for when Britain leaves the EU. Employees pass the Lutine Bell as they travel on escalators on the underwriting floor of Lloyd''s of London insurance market in the City of London October 24, 2014. REUTERS/Toby Melville The agreement on Friday paves the way for arduous trade talks, easing immediate pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May and boosting hopes of an orderly Brexit. Banks in Britain are preparing to move an estimated 10,000 jobs to the continent after Brexit in order to maintain full access to the single market. Insurance specialist Lloyd’s of London [SOLYD.UL] was among the first to respond, saying that it would press ahead with its plans to establish a foothold in the EU. “We therefore remain very keen to see an agreement that puts in place a sensible transition period and a broad and expansive post-Brexit free trade agreement, which includes the financial services sector,” said Lloyd’s Chief Executive Inga Beale. Her comments echoed those of trade bodies representing the financial services industry. “This agreement ... is a positive and encouraging step,” said Miles Celic, Chief Executive Officer of TheCityUK, the country’s most powerful financial lobby group. “For the financial and related professional services industry, our critical issues must now be progressed. The sand in the timer is running out.” Inga Beale, Chief Executive Officer, Lloyd''s, attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich John McFarlane, chairman of Barclays, one of Britain’s biggest banks, welcomed the progress but said many questions remained unanswered. “Good progress on the key political issues and good to see likelihood of a transition period. What ultimately matters for our sector is ”grandfathering“ of existing contracts, and continued market access...” McFarlane told Reuters. “We won’t though know this for some time.” Banks in London are also preparing to move hundreds of thousands of contracts they expect to be rendered invalid by Brexit to continental Europe, in a process known as “repapering”, marking a major step in their adjustment plans and one that they would like to prolong. There were other signs that the industry was continuing to prepare itself for significant changes. Liberty Specialty Markets, part of U.S. insurer Liberty Mutual, which had revenues of $38 billion last year, and is one of the largest U.S. property and casualty insurers, said it was switching the domicile of its insurance company to Luxembourg from London. It announced its plans for a Luxembourg hub in July. “We’ve been pushing the idea of Canada plus,” said one senior banker, referring to the prospect of a future trade deal between the European Union and Britain that would be an expanded version of one between the bloc and Canada. “We’ve been told it’s Canada dry for the financial services industry.” Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Anjuli Davies; editing by John O''Donnell/Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-lloyds-of-london/lloyds-of-london-pushes-ahead-with-brexit-plans-idUKKBN1E21N9'|'2017-12-08T14:34:00.000+02:00'
'bdad800c677f7097b43162eeb1cfbfed3d3fe229'|'Nissan premium brand Infiniti''s November global sales up 4 percent'|'Reuters TV United States December 8, 2017 / 5:46 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Nissan premium brand Infiniti''s November global sales up 4 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) premium brand Infiniti recorded global sales growth of 4 percent in November from the same period a year earlier to 20,790 vehicles, showed an unpublished news release viewed by Reuters. The Infiniti QX50 VC-Turbo is seen in Torrance, California U.S. November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Volume in the first 11 months of this year grew 8 percent to 221,204 vehicles, the news release showed. January-November sales were relatively strong in the United States and China, with volume increasing 14 percent in the U.S. to 137,036 vehicles and 15 percent in China to 42,585 vehicles. Christian Meunier, head of Infiniti’s global sales operations and marketing, told Reuters that sales volume this year will likely beat last year’s 230,000 vehicles. “Infiniti is on track to set a new record for global sales this year,” Meunier said. Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos-nissan-infiniti/nissan-premium-brand-infinitis-november-global-sales-up-4-percent-idUKKBN1E20I3'|'2017-12-08T07:40:00.000+02:00'
'e598a52e29c60d923d974d7037a2d0bdc2a242c9'|'Growth plan for MLS'|'Toronto FC General Manager Tim Bezbatchenko discusses how Major League Soccer has grown to this point and the steps it needs to take to become a bigger force in the global game. Plus, my take on Roger Goodell’s role with the NFL and why Detroit should win one of two expansion franchises MLS plans to award by the end of 2017. DELETE DELETE(Rick Horrow is the CEO of Horrow Sports. As an attorney and consultant, he has been the architect of 100+ deals worth more than $20 billion in sports, performing arts, and other urban infrastructure projects. Horrow pioneered the public/private partnership and infrastructure branding concepts that, to date, have enticed more than $4 billion in corporate funding to cities and development projects. The opinions expressed here and in videos and podcasts hosted by Rick are his alone and do not represent the views of Reuters) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-keepingscore-08dec17/growth-plan-for-mls-idUSKBN1E22G6'|'2017-12-09T02:13:00.000+02:00'
'12be9e2bdd95f2d2fc67f26fca5c6a615b127ab8'|'Bain gets almost 90 pct of Japan''s Asatsu-DK in tender offer -Nikkei'|'TOKYO, Dec 7 (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital has garnered nearly 90 percent of Japanese advertising agency Asatsu-DK Inc’s (ADK) shares in a tender offer that closed on Wednesday, the Nikkei business daily reported.ADK is expected to announce on Thursday the results of the tender offer after a months-long dispute between Bain and its top shareholder, WPP.Bain had been seeking a stake of at least 50.1 percent to take ADK private, offering 3,660 yen per share in Japan’s third-biggest ad agency.ADK declined to comment. Bain was not immediately available for comment.Britain’s WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group and ADK’s largest shareholder with a 25 percent stake, had initially tried to block Bain’s tender offer, which it said undervalued the company. But it reversed its position last month and agreed to sell its stake at the original offer price in return for the possibility of holding a quarter of the entity that would own ADK. (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Minami Funakoshi, Chang-Ran Kim and Edwina Gibbs) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/asatsu-dk-ma/bain-gets-almost-90-pct-of-japans-asatsu-dk-in-tender-offer-nikkei-idUST9N1NJ03Z'|'2017-12-07T03:10:00.000+02:00'
'11b260405f1e09bcb3f3e5d9b9f409ccd0e77836'|'U.S. oil edges up after drop in crude inventories, but soaring output weighs'|'December 7, 2017 / 12:41 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Oil shrugs off U.S. fuel supply increase Amanda Cooper 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose on Thursday in a sign that investors are wary of pushing the market lower in response to an unexpectedly large rise in U.S. stocks of refined products that has increased concern about the demand outlook. FILE PHOTO - Crude oil storage tanks are seen at the Kinder Morgan terminal in Sherwood Park, near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada November 14, 2016.REUTERS/Chris Helgren Brent crude futures were at $61.55 a barrel, up 33 cents by 1008 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $56.16 a barrel, up 20 cents, after having fallen nearly 3 percent on Wednesday. U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 5.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 1, to 448.1 million barrels, putting stocks below seasonal levels in 2015 and 2016. [API/S] [EIA/S] But gasoline stocks rose 6.8 million barrels, to 220.9 million barrels, according to the report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), much more than analyst expectations for a gain of 1.7 million barrels. “We had a nice run to the downside yesterday and it seems for now that it’s ‘take your short profits soon and keep your longs for longer’,” Saxo Bank senior manager Ole Hansen said. “We are at the time of year when liquidity tends to dry up and people are more concerned about reducing risk than adding it.” PVM Oil Associates said in a note: “Inventories in other products were down by 5.36 million barrels on the week. The net result is a 2.52-million barrel draw in total commercial oil inventories.” “Current levels are nearly 7 percent below last year and the surplus to the five-year average is only 3.9 percent. On balance, the weekly data was not as bad as it seems at first sight.” But more troublingly for the bulls, U.S. oil production rose by 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.71 million bpd, the highest since monthly figures showing the United States produced more than 10 million bpd in the early 1970s. Soaring U.S. output threatens to undermine efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to bring production and demand into balance following years of oversupply. Sukrit Vijayakar, managing director of energy consultancy Trifecta said there were “darker shadows over the pace of rebalancing, if at all any is taking place.” Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Tom Hogue and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/us-oil-edges-up-after-drop-in-crude-inventories-but-soaring-output-weighs-idUKKBN1E102X'|'2017-12-07T02:42:00.000+02:00'
'099f9b59ac230030ff4bf3867830da81f485f6e2'|'China November CPI rises 1.7 year-on-year; PPI up 5.8 percent year-on-year, below forecasts'|'December 9, 2017 / 1:49 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago China''s November producer prices ease to four-month low as pollution curbs bite Stella Qiu , Kevin Yao 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s producer price inflation slowed to a four-month low in November as factory activity softened due to the government’s ongoing efforts to curb pollution, cooling demand from factories for raw materials. People shops at a supermarket inside a commercial tower at the financial Central district in Hong Kong, China November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Producer prices rose 5.8 percent from a year earlier - the lowest since July, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday. The rise was slightly less than market expectations and compared with the previous month’s 6.9 percent increase. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted the PPI in November would rise an annual 5.9 percent, easing back also because of a high base a year earlier. “The environmental protection drive could affect production of middle- and low-stream firms, easing demand for raw materials,” said Wen Bin, an economist at Minsheng Bank in Beijing. “Looking ahead, producer price inflation is likely to slow steadily due partly to the high base effect.” On a month-on-month basis, the PPI rose 0.5 percent in November. As northern China officially entered the heating season in mid-November, the government has stepped up efforts to address winter smog, ordering many steel mills, smelters and factories to curtail or halt production to rein in pollution. Analysts expect producer price pressures to recede as the war on smog curtails production, cooling demand from factories for raw materials. Raw materials prices rose 7.5 percent in November year-on-year, compared with 9 percent in October, data from the statistics bureau showed. However, production curbs at factories have triggered fears of supply shortages, giving a major boost to iron ore and steel futures prices. Shanghai steel futures SRBcv1 rose 9.7 percent in November, while iron ore prices DCIOcv1 surged 16.5 percent over the month. In particular, the government’s plan ordering millions of households in northern China to convert to gas heating from coal this year caused an unexpected shortage in natural gas supplies as prices soared despite a record amount of natural gas imports in November. Oil and natural gas prices jumped 20.3 percent year-on-year in November, compared with a 16.5 percent rise in October, the bureau’s data showed. Coal mining and processing prices rose 8.6 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 19.7 percent rise in October. The latest anti-pollution measures come on top of ongoing government efforts to trim down and upgrade the country’s bloated industrial sector by shutting outdated capacity, which has also helped support producer prices. CONSUMER PRICES SOFTEN China’s consumer inflation, which has stayed well within Beijing’s 2017 target of 3 percent this year, also slowed more than expected in November to 1.7 percent from 1.9 percent previously, as food prices fell. Non-food price inflation quickened to 2.5 percent in November from 2.4 percent in October. The consumer price index (CPI) had been expected to edge down to 1.8 percent on-year compared with an increase of 1.9 percent in October. The world’s second-biggest economy has defied market expectations with economic growth of 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, supported by a construction boom and robust exports. But factory activity has shown signs of cooling in the past few months as Beijing extended a crackdown on financial risks, which has increased borrowing costs and weighed on new investment. Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-inflation/china-november-cpi-rises-1-7-year-on-year-ppi-up-5-8-percent-year-on-year-below-forecasts-idUKKBN1E302O'|'2017-12-09T03:48:00.000+02:00'
'7659409406aaff4ef46492945d3a116c1386d1ee'|'ICL sells fire safety, oil additives units for $1 bln to SK Capital'|'TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel Chemicals (ICL) ( ICL.TA ) ( ICL.N ) said it has agreed to sell its fire safety and oil additives units to SK Capital for about $1 billion.The business is part of ICL Specialty Solutions’ Advanced Additives business line and has operations in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia.ICL’s fire safety unit supplies chemicals and services for fighting wild fires and foams to extinguish fires. Its oil additives are used in the manufacture of lubrication oil additives, mining chemicals and pesticides.In the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2017, the units contributed $294 million to ICL’s sales and $112 million to operatingincome.The sale to SK Capital, a private investment firm focused on specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, is expected to close in the first half of 2018.The decision to sell the business is in line with ICL’s strategy to exit low synergy businesses as it focuses on its mineral operations and reducing debt ratios and generating funds for growth initiatives, the company said on Thursday.Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-icl-sk-capital-m-a/icl-sells-fire-safety-oil-additives-units-for-1-billion-to-sk-capital-idUSKBN1E10UV'|'2017-12-07T10:06:00.000+02:00'
'f89c2573b1d3693b06aad02f6ca9c04f834aba34'|'Italy - Factors to watch on Dec. 7'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:42 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Italy - Factors to watch on Dec. 7 Reuters Staff 5 Min Read The following factors could affect Italian markets on Thursday. Reuters has not verified the newspaper reports, and cannot vouch for their accuracy. New items are marked with (*). For a complete list of diary events in Italy please click on . POLITICS Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, whose Democratic Party (PD) is shedding support in opinion polls, suffered a further setback on Wednesday when two allies said they would not contest next year’s election. DEBT The Italian Treasury said on Wednesday it would offer 4.75 billion euros ($5.60 billion) in 12-month bills at an auction on Tuesday. ECONOMY Bank of Italy releases November data on Target 2 liabilities and European Central Bank funding to Italian banks. COMPANIES Bourse After Hours market closed. BANCA CARIGE Shareholders in Banca Carige took up 66 percent of a 500 million euro ($590 million) cash call demanded by regulators, leaving the Italian bank to rely on accords with a number of investment firms to fill up the gap. (*) The lender said on Thursday it had signed a binding agreement for the sale of 80.1 percent of Creditis consumer credit unit to Chenavari Investment Managers for 80.1 million euros. (*) The bank’s CEO Paolo Fiorentino told La Repubblica shares not taken up in its rights issue would not be enough to meet demand from investors wanting to enter capital or raise stakes. ATLANTIA, HOCHTIEF Atlantia and Hochtief are preparing to improve rival offers for Spain’s toll-road operator Abertis in a nearly 20 billion euro takeover battle that is likely to be resolved by sealed bids early next year, sources close to the talks said. LEONARDO Canada’s decision to shun Boeing jets could open the way for European rivals seeking to supply new fighters, assuming the government can sort out major procurement challenges, three sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. CREDITO VALTELLINESE Fitch Ratings has downgraded Creval to ‘B-’ from ‘BB-’ and placed them on ‘rating watch evolving’, saying “prospects for Creval’s ongoing viability have weakened because the decision to materially accelerate the reduction of impaired loans will crystalise losses”. ENEL Standard & Poor’s raised Enel’s rating to ‘BBB+’ from ‘BBB’, and revised its outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘positive’. Enel said S&P appreciated the company’s focus on networks and renewable generation as well as its effort to simplify corporate structure. UNILEVER Italy’s antitrust agency said on Wednesday it had fined Unilever’s Italian unit more than 60 million euros ($71 million) for abusing its dominant position in the country’s ice cream market. AMAZON Italy’s competition regulator said on Wednesday two logistical units of Amazon operating in the country had to be considered as “postal service” providers and had to take measures to meet requirements for being such. IPO, DE CECCO Italian pasta maker De Cecco has picked UniCredit and Credit Suisse to help it prepare for an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares, several sources close to the matter said on Wednesday. For Italian market data and news, click on codes in brackets: 20 biggest gainers (in percentage) 20 biggest losers (in percentage) FTSE IT allshare index'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/italy-factors-dec-7/italy-factors-to-watch-on-dec-7-idUSL8N1NZ4M1'|'2017-12-07T09:39:00.000+02:00'
'daeeff46b5af2a8177474fbe2f8639c6fc8ea9b4'|'China imposes record fine on Guangfa Bank over guarantees for defaulted bonds'|'December 8, 2017 / 12:56 PM / Updated 44 minutes ago China imposes record fine on Guangfa Bank over guarantees for defaulted bonds Shu Zhang , Ryan Woo 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s banking regulator has confiscated illegal income and imposed fines on China Guangfa Bank Co totalling 722 million yuan (£81.2 million) for providing illegal guarantees for defaulted corporate bonds sold through an Alibaba-backed online finance platform, it said on Friday. The fine, the biggest penalty ever handed down by China’s banking regulator, was equivalent to about 8 percent of Guangfa Bank’s 2016 profit, according to Reuters calculations based on the bank’s annual report. The high-yielding bonds were issued privately by southern Chinese phone maker Cosun Group and sold through “Zhao Cai Bao”, an online platform run by Ant Financial Services Group, the finance affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. When the bonds defaulted in December last year, Ant Financial asked Zheshang Property and Casualty Insurance Co, which wrote insurance policies on the bonds, to repay investors. But the insurer released documents carrying Guangfa Bank’s official seals and said that the bank’s Huizhou branch had promised to guarantee its insurance policies for the bonds. Guangfa Bank said at the time that the guarantee documents, official seals and personal seals presented by the insurer of the bonds were “all fake” and that the bank had reported the matter to the police. The dispute highlighted risks in China’s loosely regulated asset management industry, where retail investors buy high-yielding bonds and other risk assets but expect them to be “risk-free” due to guarantees provided by various parties. In Friday’s statement, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said the fraud, involving 12 billion yuan and more than 10 financial institutions, was a “collusion” between employees at Guangfa Bank’s Huizhou branch and Cosun to conceal the bank’s huge amount of non-performing assets and operational losses. Guangfa Bank’s weak internal controls and unsuitable performance incentive system “provided opportunities for offenders to commit crimes”, the CBRC said. “The bank ignored the authorities’ repeated bans and red lines on interbank and wealth management business and provided illegal guarantee of investment return. The practice has seriously violated the law and regulation, disrupted order in the interbank market, and severely damaged the financial eco-system,” the banking regulator said. Guangfa Bank’s illicit practice caused risks to grow and spread to other financial institutions, the CBRC said. The banking regulator has also removed five senior executives, including the head of Guangfa’s Huizhou branch, from their positions and issued lifelong bans on six employees involved in the fraud, it said. The regulator said the bank has recognised it had “serious problems” in internal controls and business operation and would rectify those issues. Reuters couldn’t immediately reach Guangfa Bank for comment outside of business hours. Ant Financial said in a statement: “We will continue to put investors’ interests in first place, protect market openness, transparency and fairness.” Cosun and Zheshang Property and Casualty Insurance Co could not be immediately reached for comment. Reporting By Shu Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-banks-fraud/china-imposes-record-fine-on-guangfa-bank-over-guarantees-for-defaulted-bonds-idUKKBN1E21KU'|'2017-12-08T14:55:00.000+02:00'
'815b3cbaa54f836cbbfec07412f34583134348f5'|'Spotify and Tencent signs equity investment deal'|'December 8, 2017 / 2:19 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Spotify and Tencent Music to buy stakes in each other Reuters Staff 2 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Music streaming company Spotify and the music arm of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd will buy minority stakes in each other ahead of the Swedish firm’s expected stock market listing next year, the companies said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Headphones are seen in front of a logo of online music streaming service Spotify in this February 18, 2014 illustration picture. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The deal will help Spotify, a music streaming leader in Europe and North America, and China-focused Tencent Music, to increase exposure to each other’s core markets. The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter, that the firms were in talks to swap stakes of up to 10 percent in each other. Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, and Spotify will buy new shares representing minority equity stakes in each other for cash, the companies said in a statement. “This transaction will allow both companies to benefit from the global growth of music streaming,” Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said. A Tencent sign is seen during the fourth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Tencent Holding will also buy a minority stake in Spotify, the companies said, without giving details. The size of the stakes was not disclosed in the statement and a Spotify spokeswoman declined to provide further details about the agreement. Tencent owns a majority stake in TME, which is the dominant player in the Chinese market with music service providers QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo. “TME and Spotify will work together to explore collaboration opportunities,” TME Chief Executive Cussion Pang said. Sources told Reuters in September that Spotify was aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators in order to list in the first half of 2018. Reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Olof Swahnberg; Editing by Niklas Pollard and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/spotify-tencent/spotify-and-tencent-signs-equity-investment-deal-idINKBN1E21VF'|'2017-12-08T16:16:00.000+02:00'
'0036f3d8633557133e6336913cb3faa7328bea9b'|'Sharp to seek all-Japan OLED alliance to counter South Korea''s Samsung, LG'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Sharp Corp ( 6753.T ) will ask the government to help it form an alliance with rival Japan Display Inc ( 6740.T ) in OLED technology to better compete with South Korean makers, its chief executive said on Thursday. Sharp Corp''s logo is pictured at its President Tai Jeng-wu''s news conference in Tokyo, Japan December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon “We should create a Japan alliance” in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels, Tai Jeng-wu told reporters at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), after Sharp’s shares returned to the bourse’s first section after a year’s absence. OLED screens are gaining in popularity as they are generally thinner, more flexible and offer richer colors than liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) has adopted OLED screens for its new iPhone X. Sharp and Japan Display, both Apple suppliers, plan to start OLED panel production next year or later. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ) already supplies OLED panels to global smartphone vendors while LG Display Co Ltd ( 034220.KS ) does likewise for television set makers. “Do we want (OLED) technology in Japan or not? I’d like to speak with the industry ministry and INCJ (the Innovation Network Corp of Japan) on the matter,” Tai said. State-backed INCJ owns 36 percent of Japan Display, which was formed by combining the ailing display units of Sony Corp ( 6758.T ), Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ) and Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ). Tai also said he would contact the government for potential investment in JOLED, a Japan Display affiliate, which sold its inaugural batch of OLED screens to Sony on Tuesday. Sharp Corp President Tai Jeng-wu speaks at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon JOLED, which boasts a low-cost printing process for OLED panels, is seeking to raise 100 billion yen ($888 million) in investment from materials, equipment and electronics makers to expand production capacity. Japan Display and INCJ declined to comment. JOLED declined to provide immediate comment. Tai, former vice chairman of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (Foxconn) ( 2317.TW ), became head of Sharp last year after Foxconn took control of a Japanese firm hit by price competition and falling sales in LCD panels. Tai has said he would step down once Sharp turns profitable at the net level and its shares return to the TSE’s first section. Sharp forecasts net profit of 69 billion yen for the year through March, which would be its first annual profit in four years following cost-cutting under Foxconn. Its shares returned to the TSE’s first section on Thursday for the first time since August last year, when they fell to the second section after Sharp booked negative net assets. When asked about his future, Tai on Thursday said he wants Sharp’s board to select a co-chief executive next year to whom he could transfer some of his responsibilities. ($1 = 112.0200 yen) Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sharp-oled/sharp-to-seek-all-japan-oled-alliance-to-counter-south-koreas-samsung-lg-idUSKBN1E10KN'|'2017-12-07T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'66a256f3712da0562ece9e768111377be32922d3'|'METALS-London copper mired near two-month low as China demand growth cools'|'MELBOURNE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - London copper edged up on Thursday but was still not far two-month lows amid signs that growth in China''s property and power sectors, both major copper consumers, is tapering into the year end. FUNDAMENTALS * London Metal Exchange copper edged up by 0.3 percent to $6,571.50 a tonne by 0209 GMT, after closing little changed in the previous session. Prices on Tuesday fell to $6,507.50, the weakest since Oct. 10. Shanghai Futures Exchange copper slipped 0.3 percent to 51,430 yuan ($7,771) a tonne. * ALUMINIUM: Aluminium hovered around four-month lows at $2,011 a tonne, close to support at the 200 day moving average of $2,000, a break of which would open the way to further selling. Shfe aluminium trimmed losses but was still down 1.7 percent, after China''s winter output cuts were set to be less severe than initially feared. China is the world''s top producer of aluminium. * NICKEL: Brazilian miner Vale SA dialed back its nickel output forecasts for the next five years on Wednesday, although the world''s top producer praised the metal''s longer term prospects on likely soaring demand for electric cars. Vale cut its nickel output estimate by 15 percent to 263,000 tonnes next year and said it was still seeking an investor for its New Caledonia nickel mine. * LME nickel prices steadied above the two-month bottom of $10,755 a tonne hit the previous session. * JAPAN MANUFACTURERS: Confidence among Japanese manufacturers held firm in December and service-sector sentiment rose for a second straight month, the Reuters Tankan poll showed on Thursday, underscoring steady economic growth driven by both external and domestic demand. * CHINA ECONOMY: China should prioritise financial stability above development goals, as pursuit of regional growth targets and helping firms avoid heavy job losses had led to a surge in debt, particularly at local government level, the International Monetary Fund said. * CHINA INVESTORS: China will "significantly" widen market access for foreign investors, state radio on Wednesday Quote: d vice premier Wang Yang as saying, following a recent move to raise foreign ownership limits in local financial firms. * For the top stories in metals and other news, click or MARKETS NEWS * Asian shares held close to a two-month low on Thursday as softer oil and copper as well as U.S. policy uncertainty kept sentiment in check, while high-tech stocks struggled to recover after a searing sell-off. DATA/EVENTS 0700 Germany Industrial output Oct 0745 France Trade data Oct 1000 Euro zone Revised GDP Q3 1330 U.S. Weekly jobless claims 1500 ECB President Mario Draghi holds news conference on Basel banking reforms PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0206 GMT Three month LME copper 6570.5 Most active ShFE copper 51400 Three month LME aluminium 2017 Most active ShFE aluminium 14215 Three month LME zinc 3103 Most active ShFE zinc 24670 Three month LME lead 2494 Most active ShFE lead 18775 Three month LME nickel 10815 Most active ShFE nickel 87680 Three month LME tin 19450 Most active ShFE tin 140170 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 648.24 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1297.1 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 266.71 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1106.1 7 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2758.94 ($1 = 6.6181 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; editing by Richard Pullin) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-copper-mired-near-two-month-low-as-china-demand-growth-cools-idUSL3N1O71JJ'|'2017-12-07T04:43:00.000+02:00'
'c578ab785d33bfae6921609ccf55a3232ee325c1'|'Britain doesn''t need ''kindness of strangers'' - BoE researchers'|'December 7, 2017 / 2:01 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Britain doesn''t need ''kindness of strangers'' - BoE researchers David Milliken 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain does not rely on “the kindness of strangers” to fund its big current account gap, two Bank of England researchers said, disagreeing with a phrase used by Governor Mark Carney to describe the country’s relationship with overseas investors. A man speaks on his phone outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Britain’s current account deficit hit a record 5.9 percent of gross domestic product last year, raising concerns that it could be vulnerable to any sudden change of investor sentiment, particularly as it faces the challenge of Brexit. Despite a big fall in the pound after June 2016’s referendum decision to leave the European Union, which in theory should narrow the shortfall, government forecasters predicted last month that it would exceed 4 percent of GDP for the foreseeable future, unusually high for a big advanced economy. Before the Brexit vote, Carney told lawmakers that “relying on the kindness of strangers is not optimal ... when you’re running a 4, 4-1/2 percent current account deficit”. Large current account deficits are most common in emerging economies that suck in foreign finance to fund rapid growth. Two BoE staff, Stephen Burgess and Rachana Shanbhogue, said on Thursday this did not accurately reflect Britain’s position. Rather than relying on foreign finance, Britain is instead funding its current account deficit by slowly selling down a large stock of foreign assets. “There has been no ‘kindness of strangers’,” they wrote on a BoE blog used for staff research. “Rather than a pauper relying on the charity of strangers, the UK is more like a member of the landed gentry, using its past foreign investment to fund its lifestyle of excess.” Showing a falling reliance on foreign investors, the researchers said gross flows of foreign capital into Britain averaged less than 4 percent of GDP over the past three years, in contrast to more than 60 percent before the financial crisis. Looking at the experience of other countries over the past 30 years, this suggests Britain has only a 5 percent chance of a ‘sudden stop’ next year - under half the average frequency for the group over the period, the BoE researchers said. Britain has foreign assets worth over four times its annual economic output, and has been selling an amount worth 6 percent of GDP a year to fund its current account deficit, so in theory it could continue like this for decades, the researchers said. Moreover, Britain had benefited from the value of its assets growing faster than its foreign liabilities - more than offsetting the effect of asset sales over the past five years. Research published on the BoE’s blog represents the personal views of its authors, not the BoE’s official view. Last week the BoE said the deficit remained a material risk. (Story refiled to fix spelling of name in paragraph 6) Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-currentaccount/britain-doesnt-need-kindness-of-strangers-boe-researchers-idUKKBN1E11WI'|'2017-12-07T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'3439b08a6327536dd8dfa4d3e31818e3718ee144'|'AT&T/Time Warner antitrust hearing to focus on trial date'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice and AT&T Inc ( T.N ) will meet in court for the first time on Thursday as the antitrust regulator attempts to stop the U.S. No. 2 wireless company’s $85 billion purchase of media company Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ).FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is seen at a AT&T building in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo The focus of the hearing is likely to be setting a court date for trial. AT&T has asked the court to hear the case beginning Feb. 20. The government is pressing for May 7.AT&T and Time Warner announced their deal in October 2016, but it was not until last month that the Justice Department sued AT&T to block the deal, arguing it could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers and hamper the development of online video.Under their agreement, AT&T will have to pay Time Warner $500 million if the deal does not close by April 22.Merging companies facing a government challenge often push for a faster trial than the government wants because of the cost of holding the deal together and the difficulty in operating businesses during a lengthy process, said Ethan Glass, a former Justice Department litigator now at the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.“It’s pretty common that the merging parties want the trial to happen quickly,” said Glass. “Mergers create a lot of uncertainty at both companies.”TRUMP SPEAKS The fate of the deal has been widely followed since U.S. President Donald Trump criticized it on the campaign trail last year and his repeated attacks on the reporting of Time Warner’s CNN news network.Trump renewed his opposition to the deal last month.“I think your pricing’s going to go up, I don’t think it’s a good deal for the country,” he said in November.It is not clear that Trump’s comments will have an effect on the trial.“I don’t think it is a great idea to get into all of this (allegations of White House interference) because every deal raises different facts,” said Andre Barlow of Doyle, Barlow & Mazard PLLC. “The court is going to decide this case based on the economic realities of the video distribution and content markets and not on President Trump’s public battle with CNN.”Aside from interest generated by Trump, the case is being closely watched by businesses as it is very rare for an antitrust agency to try to prevent a company from buying a supplier, as is the case with AT&T&rsquo;s purchase of Time Warner.The government usually challenges companies that seek to merge only if they are direct competitors in an already concentrated market.Once in trial, AT&T will likely push a solution it hopes will be palatable to Judge Richard Leon, who will decide whether the deal may go forward.AT&T and Time Warner said in a court filing that Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit had offered its distributors licensing terms that forbid Turner from “going dark” on a distributor for seven years after the deal closes if they reach an impasse in negotiations. Blackouts are a negotiating tool in carriage disputes between distributors and programmers.It is not unusual for companies facing a government challenge to respond with such a fix.In three cases since 2014 - Sysco buying U.S. Foods, Staples buying Office Depot and Aetna buying Humana - the companies offered a fix but their deals were still deemed illegal by the judge hearing their case and the mergers were scrapped.Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Bill Rigby '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/att-time-warner-antitrust-hearing-to-focus-on-trial-date-idINKBN1E11DR'|'2017-12-07T08:07:00.000+02:00'
'fca7939c7b9d6cae30cc41f07b5115ecdbbccee5'|'WestJet to gain market share with Delta joint venture -Moody''s'|'Dec 8 (Reuters) - WestJet Airlines Ltd’s joint venture with Delta Air Lines Inc will put the Canadian air carrier in a stronger position to gain market share, credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said.WestJet on Wednesday announced the Delta joint venture to boost its trans-border flight service and said it expects to nearly double the number of aircraft owned by the carrier by 2020 as it targets both cost-conscious passengers and higher-paying customers.WestJet’s decision is credit positive for unsecured debt holders. However, it faces execution risk in carrying out large scale projects simultaneously, Moody’s said in a note published on Thursday.Shares of Canada’s second-largest air carrier were up 0.8 percent on Friday. (Reporting by Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/westjet-airlines-moodys/westjet-to-gain-market-share-with-delta-joint-venture-moodys-idINL3N1O84PH'|'2017-12-08T14:20:00.000+02:00'
'244a725c6b2a0d506295868ac5c568a90fce65c4'|'Chinese buyout of Canada''s Aecon wins two regulatory approvals'|'(Reuters) - Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc ( ARE.TO ) said on Friday its C$1.51 billion ($1.18 billion) acquisition by China’s CCCC International Holding Ltd ( 601800.SH ) ( 1800.HK ) cleared two regulatory hurdles.Aecon said the closing of the deal remains subject to approval under the Investment Canada Act.Canada places strict restrictions on Canadian assets that China and other nations can buy on national security grounds.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in October his country would review possible security issues related to the deal.China’s National Development and Reform Commission approved the deal, while Canada’s Commissioner of Competition issued a “no action” letter, Aecon said on Friday.Shares of Aecon rose 1.21 percent to C$20.03 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday morning.($1 = 1.29 Canadian dollars)Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-aecon-group-m-a-canada/chinese-buyout-of-canadas-aecon-wins-regulatory-approval-idINKBN1E227O'|'2017-12-08T13:20:00.000+02:00'
'0a1562bc42bdea19e726a28076f2ad7f64aa7f92'|'US employment market bounces back after hurricanes, adding 228,000 jobs'|'Friday 8 December 2017 14.07 GMT First published on Friday 8 December 2017 13.51 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close The US job market appears to have bounced back from the devastating storms that struck Florida and Texas in the autumn, adding 228,000 jobs in November as the unemployment rate remained at a 17-year low of 4.1%. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma set off huge swings in job-creation numbers, released each month by the labor department, causing a sharp slowdown in September followed by a strong rebound in October. The news is likely to ensure that the Federal Reserve will vote to raise interest rates when it meets next week. If the Fed acts as expected, it will be the third rate rise this year as the central bank moves away from its policy of keeping rates close to zero that it imposed after the recession. Paul Ashworth, chief US economist for Capital Economics, said the latest jobs numbers “all but guarantees” another rate hike by the Fed next week Economists had been expecting the US to add 200,000 new jobs in November. On Wednesday ADP, the largest private payrolls company, said private companies had added 190,000 jobs in November with a strong showing for manufacturers, who hired 40,000 new workers. “The labor market continues to grow at a solid pace,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice-president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “Notably, manufacturing added the most jobs the industry has seen all year. As the labor market continues to tighten and wages increase it will become increasingly difficult for employers to attract and retain skilled talent.” While the US continues to add jobs at a steady pace, issues remain. The unemployment rate for white Americans (3.6%) is half that of African Americans (7.3 %). Unemployment for US teenagers stands at 15.9%. US economy rebounds from September slump by adding 261,000 jobs in October Read more Wage growth has lagged behind the recovery in the jobs market that followed the Great Recession. In November average hourly earnings for private sector employees rose 5¢ to $26.55. Over the year wages have risen just 2.5%, a tepid pace of growth and below economists’ forecasts. Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economics Policy Institute, said the latest report showed that the economy was on the right track but added that problems remained and the Fed should think twice before raising rates. “The economy needs to get back to full employment for all workers – young and old, black and white – to feel the positive effects of a growing economy with better opportunities and faster wage growth,” she said. The impact of last autumn’s hurricanes appears smaller than first anticipated. The storms shut down large parts of Texas and the labor department initially calculated that the US had lost 33,000 jobs over September, the first time in seven years that the US monthly total had recorded a fall. After reassessing the numbers, the US now believes the economy actually added 38,000 new jobs over the month. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/08/us-jobs-market-bounces-back-after-hurricanes'|'2017-12-08T21:07:00.000+02:00'
'9247dcb21f5bf4294736007f4fedfab2ae571dee'|'Helios, others bid for Nigerian telecoms firm 9mobile - sources'|' 45 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Helios, others bid for Nigerian telecoms firm 9mobile - sources Chijioke Ohuocha 2 Min Read LAGOS (Reuters) - Private equity firm Helios Investment Partners has submitted a bid to acquire Nigeria’s 9mobile under a sale process aimed at finding new investors for the debt-laden telecoms firm, one person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Nigerian lenders have picked Barclays to try to find new investors for 9mobile after banks took over the telecoms firm, formerly called Etisalat Nigeria, for defaulting on its loan. Since the debt issue, 9mobile, the country’s fourth biggest operator, has lost subscribers. In October its total number of users had fallen to 17.1 million, giving it a 12.2 percent market share, from 20 million subscribers with a 14 percent share earlier this year, the telecoms regulator said. South Africa’s MTN, the market leader has 36.1 percent. Nigeria’s Globacom and Bharti Airtel’s local subsidiary also submitted bids, another source familiar with the matter said. Smile Telecoms and Teleology Holdings Limited have been shortlisted, Business Day reported. Helios declined to comment. Globacom, Airtel, Smile and Teleology could not be reached for comment. Bidders are required to submit a firm financial bid and conduct due diligence by Dec 31, the local paper reported. Etisalat Nigeria took out a $1.2 billion (£0.8 billion) syndicated loan from a group of 13 local banks but struggled to make repayments this year due to a currency crisis and recession in Nigeria. The Nigerian central bank intervened to save the company from collapse and prevent creditors from putting it into receivership, leading to a change in its board and management, as well as the new name 9mobile. The crisis forced the telecoms company’s one-time parent Etisalat to terminate its management agreement with its Nigerian business and surrender its 45 percent stake to a trustee following the central bank intervention. Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nigeria-9mobile-bids/helios-others-bid-for-nigerian-telecoms-firm-9mobile-sources-idUKKBN1E21Y0'|'2017-12-08T16:44:00.000+02:00'
'2e1dec556eb96c944f03b1e61be115b0f98425db'|'China''s November producer prices ease to four-month low as pollution curbs bite'|'December 9, 2017 / 4:55 AM / Updated 13 hours ago China''s November producer prices ease to four-month low as pollution curbs bite Stella Qiu , Kevin Yao 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s producer price inflation slowed to a four-month low in November as factory activity softened due to the government’s ongoing efforts to curb pollution, cooling demand from factories for raw materials. FILE PHOTO: A worker jokes and beckons at her colleague as she rolls away carts of unused tools between rows of spinning machine at a factory in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Venus Wu/File Photo Producer prices rose 5.8 percent from a year earlier - the lowest since July, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday. The rise was slightly less than market expectations and compared with the previous month’s 6.9 percent increase. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted the PPI in November would rise an annual 5.9 percent, easing back also because of a high base a year earlier. “The environmental protection drive could affect production of middle- and low-stream firms, easing demand for raw materials,” said Wen Bin, an economist at Minsheng Bank in Beijing. “Looking ahead, producer price inflation is likely to slow steadily due partly to the high base effect.” On a month-on-month basis, the PPI rose 0.5 percent in November. As northern China officially entered the heating season in mid-November, the government has stepped up efforts to address winter smog, ordering many steel mills, smelters and factories to curtail or halt production to rein in pollution. Analysts expect producer price pressures to recede as the war on smog curtails production, cooling demand from factories for raw materials. Raw materials prices rose 7.5 percent in November year-on-year, compared with 9 percent in October, data from the statistics bureau showed. However, production curbs at factories have triggered fears of supply shortages, giving a major boost to iron ore and steel futures prices. Shanghai steel futures SRBcv1 rose 9.7 percent in November, while iron ore prices DCIOcv1 surged 16.5 percent over the month. In particular, the government’s plan ordering millions of households in northern China to convert to gas heating from coal this year caused an unexpected shortage in natural gas supplies as prices soared despite a record amount of natural gas imports in November. Oil and natural gas prices jumped 20.3 percent year-on-year in November, compared with a 16.5 percent rise in October, the bureau’s data showed. Coal mining and processing prices rose 8.6 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 19.7 percent rise in October. The latest anti-pollution measures come on top of ongoing government efforts to trim down and upgrade the country’s bloated industrial sector by shutting outdated capacity, which has also helped support producer prices. CONSUMER PRICES SOFTEN China’s consumer inflation, which has stayed well within Beijing’s 2017 target of 3 percent this year, also slowed more than expected in November to 1.7 percent from 1.9 percent previously, as food prices fell. Non-food price inflation quickened to 2.5 percent in November from 2.4 percent in October. The consumer price index (CPI) had been expected to edge down to 1.8 percent on-year compared with an increase of 1.9 percent in October. The world’s second-biggest economy has defied market expectations with economic growth of 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, supported by a construction boom and robust exports. But factory activity has shown signs of cooling in the past few months as Beijing extended a crackdown on financial risks, which has increased borrowing costs and weighed on new investment. Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-inflation/chinas-november-producer-prices-ease-to-four-month-low-as-pollution-curbs-bite-idUKKBN1E305P'|'2017-12-09T05:17:00.000+02:00'
'2cf81f7b0e288d6418309876932cae64e0566ef5'|'Uber agrees to settle U.S. lawsuit filed by India rape victim'|'December 9, 2017 / 12:46 AM / Updated 14 hours ago Uber agrees to settle U.S. lawsuit filed by India rape victim Dan Levine , Heather Somerville 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and a woman who accused top executives of improperly obtaining her medical records after a company driver raped her in India have agreed to settle a civil lawsuit the woman filed against Uber in June, according to a U.S. federal court filing on Friday. FILE PHOTO: A man arrives at the Uber offices in Queens, New York, U.S. on February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The Uber driver was convicted of the rape, which occurred in Delhi in 2014, in a criminal case in India. He was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison. The Indian woman had previously settled a civil U.S. lawsuit against Uber in 2015, but sued the company again in a San Francisco federal court saying that shortly after the incident, a U.S. Uber executive “met with Delhi police and intentionally obtained plaintiff’s confidential medical records.” Uber kept a copy of those records, the lawsuit said. The woman was living in the United States when she filed the lawsuit. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed in the court document. A spokesman for San Francisco-based Uber declined to comment. An attorney for the woman could not immediately be reached for comment. The settlement comes as new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who took the top job in August, is seeking to put several scandals behind the company following eight years of CEO Travis Kalanick’s pugnacious leadership, which led to rule-breaking around the world. The lawsuit cited several media reports that said Kalanick and others doubted the victim’s account of her ordeal. “Uber executives duplicitously and publicly decried the rape, expressing sympathy for plaintiff, and shock and regret at the violent attack, while privately speculating, as outlandish as it is, that she had colluded with a rival company to harm Uber’s business,” the lawsuit said. A source with knowledge of the matter previously told Reuters that Kalanick had told other Uber executives he believed the incident had been staged by Indian ride-services rival Ola. In a prior statement, while Kalanick was CEO, Uber said: “No one should have to go through a horrific experience like this, and we’re truly sorry that she’s had to relive it.” A spokesman for Kalanick was not immediately available for comment on Friday. Uber’s actions have led to a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice of whether managers violated U.S. bribery laws, specifically the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the company said in June. The Justice Department did not say on what country or countries the investigation centred on. Bloomberg said it focussed on activity in at least five Asian countries. Uber has also notified U.S. authorities about payments made by Uber staff to police officers in Indonesia, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Uber previously hired law firm O‘Melveny & Myers LLP to investigate how it obtained the medical records of the rape victim, Reuters reported in June. Reporting by Dan Levine and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Editing by Richard Chang and Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-rape-settlement/uber-agrees-to-settle-u-s-lawsuit-filed-by-india-rape-victim-idUKKBN1E300R'|'2017-12-09T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'5aedb2f086e20e24d19303436bd954325673710f'|'UPDATE 1-Singapore''s ComfortDelGro buying majority stake in Uber unit for $218 mln'|'(Adds background, share performance)Dec 8 (Reuters) - Singapore’s ComfortDelGro Corp said on Friday it is buying a 51 percent stake in private hire vehicle fleet owner Lion City Holdings from Uber Technologies’ unit Mieten B.V. for S$295 million ($217.99 million) in cash, in a bid to tackle local rival Grab.Lion City Holdings owns Lion City Rental, which runs a fleet of 14,000 vehicles.The island-state’s biggest taxi operator said in a statement that the deal would create the opportunity for its drivers to receive ride requests on the Uber driver application, while letting users of the Uber application book a ComfortDelGro taxi directly.The deal, which ComfortDelGro will fund using existing resources, comes to fruition after the company disclosed in August it was in exclusive talks with Uber for a potential tie-up that was seen as a move that could help Uber compete with the dominant Singaporean ride-hailing firm Grab.The announcement came after trading hours on Friday, with the company’s shares ending the day 1.6 percent lower while the overall market closed over 1 percent higher.$1 = 1.3533 Singapore dollars Reporting By Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christian Schmollinger '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lion-city-holdings-ma-comfortdelgro/update-1-singapores-comfortdelgro-buying-majority-stake-in-uber-unit-for-218-mln-idINL3N1O83LW'|'2017-12-08T07:24:00.000+02:00'
'dceffb0817413a093fbe94f4a8f635a94d546646'|'CEE MARKETS-Forint touches new 2017 low after Nov inflation data'|'December 8, 2017 / 10:02 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago CEE MARKETS-Forint touches new 2017 low after Nov inflation data Reuters Staff 6 Min Read BUDAPEST, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Hungary''s forint touched its lowest level for the year on Friday after November inflation data signalled no imminent change to maintaining the central bank''s ultra-loose monetary policy stance. At 0918 GMT, the forint was a touch weaker on the day, rebounding from a 2017 low of 315.18 versus the euro. Hovering around the key 315 line, the forint has extended its losses for the year and is underperforming both the Polish zloty and the Czech crown . Analysts said a monetary policy divergence between Hungary''s central bank, one of the most dovish in the world, and its more hawkish peers, such as the Czech or the Polish central bank would be among the main market themes of the coming year. Last month Hungary''s central bank announced new monetary easing measures to take effect next year to push yields lower on longer-dated government bonds and to encourage borrowers to choose fixed-rate housing loans. "There is no serious resistance in sight for the forint until the 315.5 technical level, therefore, the weakness of the forint seen in the past nearly two weeks can continue," analysts at local borkerage Erste Investment said in a note. The analysts said Friday''s data, which showed November inflation at an annual 2.5 percent, in line with expectations, signalled that the central bank would not need to adjust its dovish policy stance for the time being. The zloty gained 0.16 percent in early trade, while the crown was a touch weaker. Even so, both currencies have posted gains of about five percent so far this year, eclipsing most other peers in the region. Central Europe''s robust and stable economic growth is expected to boost the crown, zloty and forint next year, with the former two also getting help from likely monetary tightening, a Reuters poll found. The forint is also expected to regain some of the ground it lost this year, even though the Hungarian central bank is not expected to start to tighten monetary policy in contrast to peers elsewhere in central Europe. "Given that we do not expect a sustained breach of the central bank''s 3 percent (inflation) target for a long time, we do not forecast monetary tightening," analysts at CIB Bank said in a note. "The loose monetary policy of the ECB also bolsters the maintenance of the local monetary policy room for manoeuvre." Main stock markets across the region posted modest gains, with Warsaw''s blue-chip index rising 0.9 percent. CEE MARKETS SNAPSHOT AT 1018 CET CURRENCIES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.5700 25.5630 -0.03% 5.62% Hungary forint 315.0500 314.9800 -0.02% -1.98% Polish zloty 4.2040 4.2108 +0.16% 4.75% Romanian leu 4.6300 4.6320 +0.04% -2.05% Croatian kuna 7.5470 7.5450 -0.03% 0.11% Serbian dinar 119.6500 119.6700 +0.02% 3.09% Note: daily calculated from previous close at 1800 CET change STOCKS Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2017 Prague 1059.13 1055.92 +0.30% +14.92% Budapest 38394.92 38348.20 +0.12% +19.97% Warsaw 2414.08 2393.34 +0.87% +23.93% Bucharest 7672.66 7671.61 +0.01% +8.29% Ljubljana 781.21 779.11 +0.27% +8.87% Zagreb 1847.55 1850.00 -0.13% -7.38% Belgrade 740.35 742.65 -0.31% +3.20% Sofia 664.18 665.37 -0.18% +13.26% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech Republic spread 2-year 0.073 0 +082bps -2bps 5-year 0.727 -0.033 +110bps -5bps 10-year 1.403 -0.019 +109bps -4bps Poland 2-year 1.671 0.017 +242bps +0bps 5-year 2.667 0.022 +304bps +1bps 10-year 3.269 0.017 +295bps +0bps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interbank Czech Rep 1 1.19 1.31 0 Hungary 0.03 0.135 0.18 0.03 Poland 1.763 1.817 1.919 1.72 Note: FRA quotes are for ask prices (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Keith Weir)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-forint-touches-new-2017-low-after-nov-inflation-data-idUSL8N1O81RK'|'2017-12-08T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'e3cc739735dcbb78ef857227151108b96173353e'|'Volkswagen recalls 30,777 cars in Russia - standards agency'|'Reuters TV United States December 8, 2017 / 7:07 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Volkswagen recalls 30,777 cars in Russia: standards agency Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s standards agency Rosstandart said on Friday it had been informed about the recall of 30,777 Volkswagen Polo cars sold in Russia in 2015-2017. A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero The vehicles were being recalled due to a defect which might prevent the engine starting, Rosstandart said. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; writing by Maria Tsvetkova; editing by Maria Kiselyova and Andrew Osborn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-volkswagen-recall/volkswagen-recalls-30777-cars-in-russia-standards-agency-idUKKBN1E20OJ'|'2017-12-08T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'96851066f0903d063c99e4835c4b931a85d51432'|'Total says work on 200,000 bpd Nigerian oilfield will be complete in fourth-quarter 2018'|'December 8, 2017 / 3:07 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Total says work on 200,000 bpd Nigerian oilfield will be complete in fourth-quarter 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil major Total said it expects work on a major oilfield offshore Nigeria to conclude in the fourth quarter of next year, eventually adding 10 percent to the country’s oil output. The logo of Total oil company is pictured in Abuja, Nigeria October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde Total’s Egina project, with an estimated 200,000 (barrels per day) in output is now 88 percent complete, the company said in a statement. The 330-metre long Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel set sail for Nigeria in October, from its origin in South Korea, and work on the vessel will be completed in Nigeria. Total is developing the offshore field in Oil Mining License 130 in partnership with state oil firm NNPC, China’s CNOOC, SaPetro and Petrobras. The project will substantially boost the country’s current maximum output of roughly 2.2 million bpd. Reporting By Libby George, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nigeria-oil/total-says-work-on-200000-bpd-nigerian-oilfield-will-be-complete-in-fourth-quarter-2018-idUKKBN1E220K'|'2017-12-08T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'127af131c28f290312610437f131298a5e3a7879'|'M&C Hotels agrees to sweetened bid from CDL valuing it at 2 billion pounds'|'LONDON (Reuters) - City Developments Limited has made an improved bid to acquire Millennium & Copthorne Hotels ( MLC.L ) that values the FTSE 250 company at about 2 billion pounds ($2.67 billion), the companies said in a statement on Friday.A City Developments Limited (CDL) logo is seen on a building in Singapore May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su CDL, the vehicle of Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, has made an offer of 620 pence per share to buy out the 34.8 percent of the hotelier that it does not own, a bid that it has declared final and which has been recommended by M&C&rsquo;s independent directors.It comes after a previous proposal of 552.5 pence per share was criticized by some of M&C&rsquo;s minority investors for undervaluing the business.Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mill-cop-hotels-m-a-city-developments/mc-hotels-agrees-to-sweetened-bid-from-cdl-valuing-it-at-2-billion-pounds-idUSKBN1E226K'|'2017-12-09T00:08:00.000+02:00'
'20d47d2caf3595dc2d9b466ce54197aba151b432'|'Phoenix Solar to file for insolvency next week'|'FRANKFURT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Phoenix Solar, once one of Germany’s largest solar groups during the sector’s heyday, on Friday said it would file for insolvency next week after an unnamed U.S. customer demanded payments that exceed the group’s funds.“Following the drawdown of project-related letters of credit in the amount of approximately $8 million by a large customer of Phoenix Solar Inc. ... the parent company Phoenix Solar AG is obligated to reimburse the issuing banks immediately under its existing financing agreements,” Phoenix Solar said.“Attempts by the company’s management to find a solution with the said U.S. customer and the company’s banking consortium in Germany have failed,” it added.Shares in the group, which used to be a member of Frankfurt’s technology index before an oversupply crisis led most of its local peers to file for insolvency, traded 1.7 percent lower at 1.46 euros apiece.The news comes only months after larger peer SolarWorld filed for insolvency, overwhelmed by a renewed wave of cheap Chinese exports that was caused by reduced ambitions in China to expand solar power generation. (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Arno Schuetze) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/phoenix-solar-bankruptcy/brief-phoenix-solar-to-file-for-insolvency-idINASM000GUW'|'2017-12-08T09:04:00.000+02:00'
'38789f8aeaaaf982b575b7a2d953c3ce9e658a23'|'Former BP boss Browne back with what he knows best - oil mergers'|' 40 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Former BP boss Browne back with what he knows best - oil mergers Dmitry Zhdannikov , Ron Bousso 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - For Lord John Browne, the former chief of oil major BP, it feels like time has been rolled back 20 years and he is busy doing mega-mergers again. Lord John Browne (L) answers questions during a news conference at Texas City Hall in Texas City, March 24, 2005. REUTERS/Richard Carson Browne, who led BP’s transformational acquisitions of Arco and Amoco in the 1990s, has helped with the merger of DEA, a vehicle of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, and Wintershall, the oil and gas unit of chemical giant BASF. The new firm Wintershall-DEA is still significantly smaller than BP, which in its glory days was producing 4 million barrels per day, or more than five percent of global output, but the deal is still significant. It will become the biggest independent oil and gas firm in Europe and the first German champion in the sector, with output of around 600,000 barrels of oil and gas equivalent per day and estimated annual earnings of more than 2 billion euros (£1.7 billion). Browne told Reuters he saw a need for consolidation in the sector as demand for oil was expected to come under threat by the early 2030s, as the world shifts away from fossil fuel to reduce carbon emissions and fight global warming. “We were thinking about the future of DEA strategically with oil and gas prices wallowing around and demand which is flat at best over the long term,” said Browne, who bought Amoco and Arco in the 1990s just as oil prices fell below $10 per barrel. “This is an industry that benefits from economies of scale, as it has in the past, and therefore consolidation. We have concluded that DEA should be part of that consolidation process,” said Browne, who is the executive chairman of LetterOne Energy, which owns DEA. “Most small oil companies go nowhere in the oil and gas business in today’s environment so you do need scale. If you want to buy that scale it would cost you unimaginable amounts of money,” said Browne. DEA ALSO FACING CHALLENGES Fridman and his partners in the LetterOne investment vehicle made billions by selling their Russian oil empire in 2013 but have since struggled to expand due to sanctions imposed on Moscow, though they are not under sanctions themselves. They bought DEA in 2014 and subsequently appointed Browne, one of the biggest names in the oil industry, to run it. However DEA struggled to buy assets in the UK North Sea and in Texas due to the sanctions on Russia, imposed over the Ukraine crisis. “The character of Wintershall-DEA is now global, and that is very important,” said Browne when asked whether the merger of DEA was partly driven by a deadlock in its expansion. BASF will control 67 percent of the new firm while Fridman’s LetterOne will own the remaining 33 percent, making it a largely German-owned company. BASF could increase its stake at a later stage by folding into it its pipeline business, which was left outside the initial merger. Fridman still has a lot of cash to invest and could help drive the new firm’s expansion into new regions. “This merger will create a German and European energy champion which can compete with those in France, Italy and Spain,” Browne said. “The company will be able... to compete more successfully against the major groups.” Winterhall is heavily exposed to Russia, which represents 51 percent of total reserves of the combined firm. The company will extract 42 percent of its output in Russia, 39 percent from Europe, 7 percent from Africa and the Middle East, and 12 percent from Latin America. Browne declined to discuss his own role in the new company. Sources close to the deal said he would lead the merger process for LetterOne, which will take at least a year. The new firm will have headquarters in the German cities Hamburg and Kassel, consider a share float after completing the merger and be run by a chief from Winterhall and deputy chief from LetterOne. “We have agreed the principles of joint leadership, joint governance, and joint headquarters. Through the merger we retain significant interest in the business and control and veto power,” Browne said. Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-basf-letterone/former-bp-boss-browne-back-with-what-he-knows-best-oil-mergers-idUKKBN1E21WY'|'2017-12-08T16:39:00.000+02:00'
'877aec545be22d05e328151cb96b2584d9a22094'|'The Snowdonian furniture store where all pieces are falling into place - Connected for growth'|'Blessed with a pristine beach, a charming high street, and the vast expanses of the Snowdonia national park as its back garden, Barmouth in north Wales is a beautiful part of the world.But, with a permanent population of just over 2,500 and a two-hour drive to the nearest city, it’s not the sort of place that stands out immediately as a bustling commercial hub – much less a centre of interior design and bespoke cabinetry and furniture. The Highland chocolatiers who are Wonkas of the wilderness Read more Jack Brooks changed all that when he launched Pieces for Places in this corner of north Wales back in September 2014. “I was born and brought up here in north Wales,” he says. “After college I travelled around, I went abroad.” He lived near Geneva, worked in Australia for a year, moved to Berlin, and then lived in France for two years.“When it was time for me to settle down and think about where I wanted to live, I decided I wanted to come back to north Wales, but all the interests I’d got from living abroad were to do with interiors and furniture design, and there wasn’t anywhere for me to just apply for a job around the local area. So, I knew that if I wanted to live here and work in the furniture and design area, I had to create something for myself.”Although his initial idea had been to run a bespoke design and furniture business, Brooks pivoted towards a shop when he found the restored Victorian Methodist chapel that Pieces for Places now occupies. “Because we moved on to a high-street location, it had to be a little more retail-based,” he explains. “Which is what’s happened. And now I’m actually really glad about that, because I love the retail side of it all – having a shop where people can come and chat about what you’ve got on show.”But why go to the effort of setting up shop in such a remote corner of Snowdonia? Brooks says he’s not the only person drawn back to the area: “You hear of people who have been coming on holiday here for 60 years. They came with their kids and now they bring their grandchildren.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barmouth’s Victorian Methodist chapel has been given a new lease of life with Pieces for Places. Photograph: PR Company Handout Barmouth’s status as a holiday destination means Pieces for Places gets a lot of tourists passing through, but it can be hard to pin down buyers when you’re this remote. Word of mouth can do a lot of the work, but reminding customers about the business can be tricky. “You can be as friendly and as nice as you like in the shop, but then if people are going to forget about it when they leave, that’s not much use.” For Brooks, this is where using social media comes in. “With Facebook, when they leave, you can remind them of what it’s like to be in the shop, even when they’re not there.”Brooks uses Facebook for Pieces for Places as a way of getting his company’s personality across to his customers. “I was using Facebook a lot anyway, and I knew what it could do. Then I opened the shop and started really doing a lot about the business through Facebook. And that helped the word spread.“We made a decision early on that our advertising was never going to be about selling – it would be about promoting our company’s values and personality. The problem is that if you’ve got a promotion on a sofa, your audience is so limited, because the only people who’ll be interested are those thinking about buying a sofa at that precise moment in time. If you put ‘50% off’ or ‘have a look at this product’, that narrows your audience. What we try to do is engage with as many people as possible. Facebook Twitter Pinterest For Brooks, promoting the store to customers via Facebook is vital. Photograph: Gareth Phillips for the Guardian “We’re all about finding something we can connect with people about. The weather is a really popular one – if we post a picture about the weather in Barmouth, that’s going to get loads of people sharing and commenting, and then you’re in their psyche. “We just want to be gently reminding people that we’re here, we’re still doing what we do, we still believe in having fun, and that’s it really. And then when the time comes to buy a sofa or a mattress, they think: ‘Oh, I’m going to go to Pieces for Places and see what they have.’”But does it work in practice? Brooks highlights a viral video the business shared on Facebook a few years ago. It got a huge reception, and more than a million views, he says, “but we didn’t see any immediate uptick in sales from that. However, people still come into my shop today, years later, and say: ‘Oh, I saw your video, are you doing a video this year? I love your videos.’”However, you must not forget your essentials, he advises: “You’ve still got to build a good business and make sure that your quality is high, but then are the people coming into your shop because of Facebook? A lot of the time, I think they are. “We’re remote, but the shop is absolutely full and it’s not exactly high season. Why do people drive quite long distances to come here? It’s got to be because we stay in touch by those Facebook posts. It keeps us in contact with our customers, even when they’re not here.”'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/connected-for-growth/2017/dec/08/the-snowdonian-furniture-store-where-all-the-pieces-are-falling-into-place'|'2017-12-08T17:27:00.000+02:00'
'e7c4e74317d6fbe78501cf75112a030686b23bdf'|'Former Lafarge CEO under investigation in Syria payments case'|'Reuters TV United States December 8, 2017 / 10:09 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Former Lafarge CEO under investigation in Syria payments case Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The Paris prosecutor put former French cement group Lafarge’s CEO Bruno Lafont and his former deputy for operations under formal investigation on Friday as part of an inquiry into the group’s activities in Syria, the men’s lawyers said. FILE PHOTO - Bruno Lafont, Chairman and CEO of Lafarge speaks during the group''s shareholders general meeting in Paris, France, May 7, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier Being placed under investigation means that prosecutors believe they have “serious or consistent evidence” that could result in prosecution. It is a step towards a possible trial, though the investigation can still be dropped. The men’s lawyers made no further comment. On Thursday, prosecutors also placed under formal investigation Lafont’s successor Eric Olsen, former chief executive of Franco-Swiss cement group LafargeHolcim ( LHN.S ), the world’s largest cement maker, which resulted from the 2015 takeover of Lafarge by Swiss Holcim. FILE PHOTO - Chief Executive Officer Eric Olsen of LafargeHolcim, the world''s largest cement maker, addresses a news conference to present the company''s 2016 results in Zurich, Switzerland March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Olsen quit as CEO in April after the company admitted it had paid armed groups to keep a factory operating in Syria. His lawyer has said Olsen will appeal against being put under investigation. In June, French prosecutors launched an investigation into LafargeHolcim’s operations and its possible “financing of a terrorist enterprise”. LafargeHolcim Chairman Beat Hass told French daily Le Figaro earlier this month the firm had made unacceptable errors in Syria and that it was cooperating with French investigators. Two other former Lafarge executives and one LafargeHolcim executive still working for the group were also placed under formal investigation last week in the same case. LafargeHolcim employs some 90,000 people in around 80 countries. Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lafargeholcim-syria/former-lafarge-ceo-under-investigation-in-syria-payments-case-idUKKBN1E22RG'|'2017-12-09T00:03:00.000+02:00'
'35d9ed5a28b32232934cf7f5255f720310d2aed1'|'Bangladesh minister says wants to ''wipe out'' Manila bank for heist role'|'December 10, 2017 / 12:07 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Bangladesh minister says wants to ''wipe out'' Manila bank for heist role Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh’s finance minister said late on Saturday he wanted to “wipe out” a Philippines bank that was used to channel $81 million stolen from the Bangladeshi central bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last year. FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands guard outside a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Paranaque city, Metro Manila, Philippines August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo Abul Maal A. Muhith was responding to questions from reporters about a Reuters story on Friday that said Bangladesh Bank had asked the New York Fed to join a lawsuit it was considering filing against Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) RCBS.PS seeking damages. “The Bangladesh Bank has taken a decision (on filing a suit). They will let me know. We haven’t so far taken any steps as the Philippines government was taking care of it (investigating the heist),” Muhith said. “But it seems Rizal bank has been playing delinquent. We want to wipe out Rizal bank from the world.” Muhith did not elaborate. He did not respond to requests seeking comment. FILE PHOTO: Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka, Bangladesh on March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ashikur Rahman/File Photo Unidentified hackers stole the money using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system. The money was sent to accounts at RCBC and then disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines. Nearly two years later, there is no word on who was responsible and Bangladesh Bank has been able to retrieve only about $15 million, mostly from a Manila junket operator. ( reut.rs/2jk1W74 ) The Philippine central bank fined RCBC a record one billion pesos ($20 million) last year for its failure to prevent the movement of the stolen money through it. RCBC has said it would not pay any compensation to Bangladesh Bank and that Dhaka bank bore responsibility for the theft since it was negligent. RCBC did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on a Sunday about Muhith’s comments. Reporting by Serajul Quadir, Krishna N. Das, Ruma Paul and Karen Lema; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-heist-bangladesh/bangladesh-minister-says-wants-to-wipe-out-manila-bank-for-heist-role-idUKKBN1E40ET'|'2017-12-10T14:06:00.000+02:00'
'4e6e673d45781a376dd3ade19961d19f638e2f4c'|'Euro zone bond yields rise as Brexit progress weakens safe-haven demand'|'LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Bond yields across the euro zone rose in early Friday trade after news of a breakthrough in divorce talks between Britain and the European Union weakened demand for safe-haven bonds.The European Commission on Friday said Britain and the bloc have made “sufficient progress” in talks on Britain’s exit from the EU.Germany’s 10-year bond yield was up 3 basis points on the day at 0.32 percent, up from three-month lows reached earlier this week at 0.29 percent.Most other long-dated bond yields in the bloc were also around 3 bps higher on the day.Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe, editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-bonds/euro-zone-bond-yields-rise-as-brexit-progress-weakens-safe-haven-demand-idINL8N1O80VT'|'2017-12-08T04:13:00.000+02:00'
'723fccffceec37961fbf5d8e0efc931452d707cc'|'A tale of three central banks'|'December 8, 2017 / 2:50 PM / Updated 4 hours ago A tale of three central banks Balazs Koranyi 5 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Three central banks, meeting on both sides of the Atlantic, will highlight the diverging fortunes of the world’s biggest economies as they head into 2018 after an exceptionally tranquil year. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks during the Bank''s financial stability report at the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Victoria Jones/Pool While the growth cycle in the United States may be close to peaking, the euro zone is just getting comfortable with its economic run and Britain is weighed down by Brexit uncertainty, suggesting that their monetary policies will be out of sync for years to come. Indeed, the U.S. Federal Reserve is all but certain to raise rates on Wednesday, likely predicting three more hikes for next year, even as the European Central Bank pledges on Thursday to maintain super-low borrowing costs and the Bank of England promises only very gradual increases over the coming years. The U.S. economy will start the new year in the perfect spot but that would suggest that the only way is down, and a range of issues from uncertainty over tax cuts to midterm elections and high turnover atop the Fed, cloud the outlook. “The music will keep playing for another year or so, but be wary of what is next,” BNP Paribas said. “In 2018, we think the U.S. economy will see its best year in terms of economic activity since 2005 with the unemployment rate dropping to its lowest level since 1969.” “The turn of the cycle is in sight,” it added. “We see the recovery as long in the tooth and believe that cycles do die of old age.” Indeed, the economy is likely to face capacity constraints as the labour market tightens, pushing core inflation to the Fed’s target and raising prospects of overheating if a tax proposal, now in Congress, substantially increases deficit spending. A big tax cut under discussion would - potentially - boost growth, and likely push the Fed to tighten more quickly. “Better growth would increase downward pressure on the unemployment rate and upward pressure on inflation,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch said. “Hence the Fed would respond with a modestly steeper path of monetary policy.” EUROPE Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen testifies on the U.S. economic outlook, before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria The euro zone economy is in a similarly sweet spot but the growth cycle is still relatively young and only now beginning to broaden out so the ECB will remain reluctant to give up support. “The ECB faces the best of the possible outlooks in years: the moderate expansion phase is set to continue in 2018 and 2019, with limited risks of a setback, absent signs of excesses in demand wages dynamics and in leverage,” Intesa Sanpaolo said in a research note. The ECB is not in a hurry to alter communication both on asset purchases and interest rates,” it added. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi attends a Eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Indeed, after an October stimulus cut that actually loosened rather than tightened financial conditions, the ECB will likely say it is content with the reaction, suggesting it will not revisit its stance for some time. It will also unveil initial 2020 inflation projections, which will likely show price growth at or just below target, rising only gradually over the coming three years, another argument not to take support away just yet. Meanwhile, the Bank of England will have to tread a fine line between sounding like more rate hikes are coming and not squashing growth that economists think may slow to around 1.3 percent next year from 1.5 percent in 2017. Uncertainty over Brexit, low wage growth and weak productivity are weighing on the economy but the BoE is not keen to see the pound weaken and add to an inflation rate that is expected to exceed its 2 percent target over the next three years. Although Britain appears to have cleared a key hurdle in Brexit talks and focus can now move to a discussion of a trade agreement, slow progress so far suggest that uncertainty will remain high and even if an eventual deal is likely, its terms will not be clear for some time. “For the doves, there has been no shortage of weak data since November, particularly related to the consumer sector and housing market,” HSBC said in a note to clients. ”The MPC seems minded to make another (hike), based more on weak supply growth than rising demand growth,“ it added. ”After that, we expect a long pause while it assesses the impact of its policy moves and given our expectation that activity growth will stay soft and wage growth weak. Additional reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-economy-outlook/a-tale-of-three-central-banks-idUKKBN1E21YY'|'2017-12-08T16:49:00.000+02:00'
'54a7277ac9eca5d9c3d2578a986f06b8d05ca293'|'China''s HNA says it is not selling assets "blindly"'|'December 8, 2017 / 2:54 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago China''s HNA pushes back against liquidity concerns, won''t sell assets ''blindly'' Matthew Miller , Julie Zhu 4 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL] sought to allay growing concerns that the massive conglomerate is facing a liquidity crunch and may need to dispose some recent acquisitions, including stakes in Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Hilton ( HLT.N ). FILE PHOTO: The HNA Group logo is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Zhao Quan, head of HNA’s tourism division and the group’s newest board member, told Reuters on Friday in a telephone interview from Haikou city in southern China that adjustments in the group’s portfolio had started earlier, and the company was not selling its holdings “blindly”. HNA has not “suddenly started to liquidate assets”, said Zhao, who added the company has been disposing of non-core businesses in line with group strategy. Zhao dismissed “outside speculation” that the group is facing a “liquidity crisis”. Zhao’s comments come against a backdrop of a slew of repayment obligations and concerns about rising financing costs at the indebted airline-to-property conglomerate. HNA’s $50 billion worth of deal-making over the past two years has sparked intense scrutiny of its opaque ownership and use of leverage. Pressure on HNA’s finances has risen after the Chinese government told major banks in June to review their credit exposure to HNA and a handful of other non-state companies. HNA subsidiaries have issued 5 billion yuan ($755.60 million) in domestic commercial paper over the last month, with all yielding around 7 percent, which one analyst said was high. “The onshore interest rates have risen in the medium term and that may be pushing HNA to short term paper first to accommodate their liquidity condition,” said Banny Lam, Head of Research at CEB International. HNA’s Zhao attributed the more expensive notes to tightening domestic markets, especially as the government moves to deleverage the economy, along with a changing global macroeconomic environment. OVERSEAS ASSETS REVIEW HNA is undertaking a review of its overseas assets, Zhao confirmed, but added it would take time to evaluate and find any suitable buyers. Among the assets he identified as being up for sale is 1180 6th Avenue in New York. The company says it already has “cleaned up” more than 100 non-core units this year. Among HNA’s most high-profile offshore acquisitions has been a 25 percent stake in Hilton for $6.5 billion and a 9.9 percent stake in Deutsche Bank. Zhao characterized both share purchases as “successful” financial investments, as well as “profitable”. Hilton dividends have amounted to $30 million over the last nine months, Zhao said, while the Deutsche Bank shares have gained 300 million euros. “We hope to have more cooperation with both companies,” Zhao said. HNA’s plans to turn four parcels of land it acquired for about $3.5 billion in Hong Kong into a massive residential development also were moving forward, he said, calling the project “strategic”. Zhao also dismissed a recent weak credit assessment of HNA by S&P, suggesting the credit ratings agency may have been influenced by a “small amount of public information”. James Wang, HNA group’s chief investment officer, expressed confidence in the same interview that pending deals to buy New Zealand’s UDC Finance and a controlling stake in U.S. hedge fund platform Skybridge Capital would receive regulatory approval. HNA, which is also facing scrutiny and due diligence checks from financial regulators and some global banks following its July announcement that indicated that two named shareholders were actually acting as proxies for company founding executives, is moving forward to clear compliance hurdles, Zhao said. “It’s only a matter of time” before the company clears know-your-customer checks with some Wall Street banks, he said. Reporting By Matthew Miller and Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Umesh Desai; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hna-group-strategy/chinas-hna-says-it-is-not-selling-assets-blindly-idUSKBN1E20A1'|'2017-12-08T04:46:00.000+02:00'
'1f05520d6be343ed05d03ae4cd36fc7a4a4ef6f7'|'After years of delays, Vietnam''s privatisation plans move up a gear'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:21 AM / a few seconds ago After years of delays, Vietnam''s privatization plans move up a gear Anshuman Daga , Mai Nguyen 7 Min Read SINGAPORE/HANOI (Reuters) - Foreign investors and bankers who flocked to Vietnam in the past two decades as they sought to cash in on government plans to sell state assets usually left frustrated as what was promised rarely materialized. But now they are finally seeing some modest grounds for optimism. Production samples of Saigon Beer Corporation (Sabeco) are seen during a workshop in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam November 29, 2017. Picture taken November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mai Nguyen In a series of recent moves, the Vietnamese authorities have indicated they may be more serious about significant sales of government-owned companies. Last month, they unveiled plans to sell a stake of up to 54 percent, worth $5 billion, in the nation’s biggest brewer in what is set to be the country’s largest privatization yet. Giving up majority control of Sabeco - Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp SAB.HM is the brewer’s full name - is a bold move in the communist state. Hanoi has already changed the rules to speed up future privatizations from next year. Among the changes are the introduction of a book-building process for initial public offerings and an easing of its restrictions on strategic partners. Vietnam is speeding up its privatization drive as it grapples with a deteriorating fiscal picture, including a budget deficit and growing public debt at a time when it wants to devote more money to developing the nation’s infrastructure. Private share sales and listings are booming. Mall operator Vincom Retail VRE.HM raised $741 million last month in Vietnam’s biggest equity offering, which attracted cornerstone investors such as Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and major U.S. fund manager Franklin Templeton. Total demand for the shares reached $2 billion. Next year, the government has slated 181 state-owned companies to make divestments of stakes to investors and 64 more for broader share sales through IPOs. Altogether, the government has said it wants to sell stakes in at least 533 companies by 2020 through direct sales or IPOs. And this doesn’t include dozens of companies who were on the 2017 list but won’t get to market this year. According to the latest publicly available government figures, Vietnam had only managed 26 divestments in the first eight months of this year from a 135-long list that was planned. The 44 IPOs target this year is also likely to be missed, with only 38 IPOs slated to be completed by year-end, a government committee said. “You have a lot of global asset managers, frontier market investors, hedge funds and others that want to capture and participate in the growth of emerging markets and frontier markets like Vietnam,” said Jeffrey Perlman, Southeast Asia head of Warburg Pincus, which together with a consortium, sold part of its stake in Vincom Retail in the float. “If you can provide them a conduit with which to do that and a business they can understand, they’ll want to participate,” said Perlman. Vietnam’s strong economy and roaring stock market underpin its appeal. Over the past decade, the country has grown by an average 6.1 percent a year, according to World Bank data and Vietnam’s benchmark stock market index .VNI is up 42 percent this year, touching 10-year highs and making it Asia’s best performing market. And last month, Vinamilk VNM.HM, Vietnam’s largest listed company, bolstered hopes that the privatization process is getting smoother. Cans of beer move along a production line at a factory of Saigon Beer Corporation (Sabeco) in Hanoi, Vietnam June 23, 2017. Picture taken June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Kham A year ago, a planned sale of a 9 percent stake in the dairy group was cut sharply following a last minute rule that limited single bidders to 2.7 percent stakes each. In November, though, a further share sale attracted 19 bidders and allowed the winner, part of Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson ( JARD.SI ), to eventually build a 10 percent stake. STRONG STOMACH NEEDED Still, the Vietnam market is not for the faint hearted. Slideshow (2 Images) Few bankers, investors or lawyers interviewed for this article expect the stop-start process of recent years - characterized by fickle policy making, vested interests and high valuations – to disappear overnight. As an example, they point to the unorthodox way in which the Sabeco stake is being sold. In spite of the sale being known about for months, a lack of detail about the size, price or structure until last week means bidders have been given just under three weeks to get their paperwork in order, including arranging deposits and guarantees and setting up onshore accounts. Unlike the auctions familiar in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders need to submit a single price for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round. “I have never seen a process like this for such a large sale. To bid all or nothing is very weird,” said one banker. “People know this process is crazy. They are trying to solve the puzzle.” All bids will be ranked only by price, so the highest bidder’s offer will be accepted in full, with remaining shares allocated to the next highest bidders regardless of how many shares they originally bid, the sale documents show. In theory, for foreigners, the process means a bidder offering the highest price and seeking a 25 percent stake would get that, leaving a rival that offered a price just pennies lower but who wanted the maximum 39 percent, with just 14 percent. Foreigners are restricted to 49 percent total ownership and already hold 10 percent, led by Heineken ( HEIN.AS ) with 5 percent. Since listing on the Ho Chi Minh exchange last December, Sabeco’s share price has tripled. Its enterprise value is now 37 times its core profit versus close to 15 for some of the largest global brewers, according to Reuters data. The stocks rally has left Vietnam as one of the most expensive markets in Asia and dealmakers fear the current optimism could be at risk if prices began slipping. ”The market is frothy. And if it crashes, then everyone just goes on to the next thing. It could change very quickly,’ said Tony Foster, Vietnam managing partner for Freshfields Brukhaus Deringer, who has worked in Hanoi for over two decades. Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Mai Nguyen; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Martin Howell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-privatisation-analysis/after-years-of-delays-vietnams-privatization-plans-move-up-a-gear-idUKKBN1E20QG'|'2017-12-08T09:15:00.000+02:00'
'267917c0cd1d2ec7771bd86ce5eb5ba4e1171474'|'KKR to buy tool components maker Hyperion from Sandvik'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:32 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago KKR to buy tool components maker Hyperion from Sandvik Joshua Franklin 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Buyout firm KKR & Co LP ( KKR.N ) said on Friday it had agreed to buy industrial tool components manufacturer Hyperion from Sweden’s Sandvik ( SAND.ST ), its first acquisition of a relatively small manufacturing company. The deal, which Sandvik said in a statement was worth 4 billion Swedish crowns (£352 million), signals a shift by KKR from its past focus on larger deals. “We like the industry and we think this is a neat company with lots of additional potential,” Pete Stavros, the head of KKR’s industrials investment team, said in a telephone interview. KKR said the deal was being funded through its $13.9 billion Americas XII Fund, which finished fundraising earlier this year. Institutional and wealthy individuals have been increasingly eager to invest with private equity firms, which buy companies to sell a few years later for higher returns than available in public financial markets. Buyout funds raised $66 billion in the third quarter, according to research firm Preqin, up 47 percent from the year-ago period. This cash influx into a growing number of private equity firms means the industry has an estimated $954 billion to invest. KKR’s move to look at the smaller-sized, or middle-market, businesses opens the door for more deal opportunities, Stavros said. “If you think about someone who, on my team, covers the building products sector, which is a very fragmented space, there’s just so much more transaction activity in the middle market,” he said. “This’ll give that person a lot more opportunities to look at.” Fair Lawn, New Jersey-based Hyperion has around 1,400 employees. KKR will continue allowing staff to have a stake in the companies it invests in, a policy it believes helps to improve profitability. Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kkr-m-a-hyperion/kkr-to-buy-tool-components-maker-hyperion-from-sandvik-idUKKBN1E22KJ'|'2017-12-08T21:31:00.000+02:00'
'1dad02bd882059fe8185c6063ef0e2e2d0ee04c3'|'M&C Hotels agrees to sweetened bid from CDL valuing it at 2 billion pounds'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Millennium & Copthorne Hotels ( MLC.L ) has agreed to a sweetened takeover offer from its majority shareholder that values the London-listed company at about 2 billion pounds ($2.67 billion) after an earlier bid was heavily criticized by minority investors.A City Developments Limited (CDL) logo is seen on a building in Singapore May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su City Developments Limited (CDL), a vehicle of Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, who is also chairman of M&C, has offered 620 pence per share in cash to acquire the 34.8 percent of the FTSE 250 hotelier that it does not already own, the companies said in a statement on Friday.The offer, which was declared final, has been recommended by M&C&rsquo;s independent directors. It was announced 75 minutes before a Takeover Panel deadline for CDL to make a firm offer or walk away.CDL’s earlier 552.5 pence per share cash proposal, disclosed to the stock market on Oct. 9, ran into opposition from some of M&C&rsquo;s smaller shareholders, who argued that it put too low a price on the business because it did not reflect the value of its extensive property portfolio.M&C owns, runs, invests in or franchises 137 hotels around the world.Opponents of the earlier bid, which included MSD Partners, the firm that manages the family wealth of IT entrepreneur Michael Dell, called on CDL in October to raise its offer and criticized M&C&rsquo;s independent directors for saying they would recommend the proposal.A source close to some of the minority investors said the improved offer still “materially” undervalues the company.Deutsche Bank and HSBC are advising CDL and Credit Suisse is working with M&C&rsquo;s independent directors.M&C shares rose 6 percent on news of the bid to close at 613.5 pence.The revised offer caps a busy week of takeover activity for British companies, particularly in the leisure sector.Cineworld agreed a $3.6 billion reverse takeover of U.S. cinema business Regal Entertainment while online gambling company GVC also disclosed it was holding in-depth talks about a potential 3.9 billion-pound acquisition of bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral.In the UK property sector, shopping centers owner Hammerson ( HMSO.L ) announced a 3.4 billion-pound acquisition of rival Intu Properties.A spokesman for M&C investors who were among the opponents of a deal declined to comment.($1 = 0.7479 pounds)Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-mill-cop-hotels-m-a-city-developments/mc-hotels-agrees-to-sweetened-bid-from-cdl-valuing-it-at-2-billion-pounds-idINKBN1E226K'|'2017-12-08T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'54d4fccb12587f73066dbb45512bfff82712887d'|'After bitcoin’s wild week, traders brace for futures launch'|'December 10, 2017 / 6:12 AM / Updated an hour ago After bitcoin’s wild week, traders brace for futures launch Saqib Iqbal Ahmed 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The newest way to bet on bitcoin, the cyptocurrency that has taken Wall Street by storm with its stratospheric price rise and wild daily gyrations, will arrive on Sunday when bitcoin futures start trading. Virtual currency Bitcoin tokens are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The first bitcoin future <0#XBT:> trades are set to kick off at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Cboe Global Markets Inc’s ( CBOE.O ) Cboe Futures Exchange. The launch has given an extra kick to the cyptocurrency’s scorching run this year. It has nearly doubled in price since the start of December, but recent days saw sharp moves in both directions, with bitcoin losing almost a fifth of its value on Friday after surging more than 40 percent in the previous 48 hours. But while some market participants are excited about a regulated way to bet on or hedge against moves in bitcoin, others caution that risks remain for investors and possibly even the clearing organizations underpinning the trades. The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. “The pretty sharp rise we have seen in bitcoin in just the last couple of weeks has probably been driven by optimism ahead of the futures launch,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin. Bitcoin fans appear excited about the prospect of an exchange-listed and regulated product and the ability to bet on its price swings without having to sign up for a digital wallet. The futures are an alternative to a largely unregulated spot market underpinned by cryptocurrency exchanges that have been plagued by cybersecurity and fraud issues. “You are going to open up the market to a whole lot of people who aren’t currently in bitcoin,” Frederick said. The futures launch has so far received a mixed reception from big U.S. banks and brokerages. Interactive Brokers plans to offer its customers access to the first bitcoin futures when trading goes live, but bars clients from assuming short positions and has margin requirements of at least 50 percent. Several online brokerages including Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade will not allow the trading of the newly launched futures from day one. Some of the big U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase ( JPM.N ) and Citigroup ( C.N ), will not immediately clear bitcoin trades for clients, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Sparks glow from broken Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) on Thursday said it is planning to clear bitcoin futures for certain clients. VOLATILITY DAMPENER Bitcoin’s manic run-up this year has boosted volatility far in excess of other asset classes. The launch of futures may help dampen some of the sharp moves, analysts said. “Hypothetically, volatility over the long run should drop after institutions get involved,” said Ophir Gottlieb, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Capital Market Laboratories. “But there may not be an immediate impact, say in the first month,” he said. Slideshow (3 Images) The launch futures on an underlying spot market can lend more order to spot trading in the long run, by facilitating better price discovery and directional bets, not just long bets, J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago, said. Analysts, however, warn that much of how the futures market will react is a mystery, given that bitcoin is unlike any other asset. “This is completely unknown territory,” said Charles Schwab’s Frederick. Fears of inaccurate pricing and systemic risk to clearing houses should prices move sharply and clients fail to meet margin calls remain. Brokers have said that more safeguards are needed to protect against bitcoin’s high volatility. For a factbox on the launch of bitcoin futures contracts, see: The risk of market participants manipulating the underlying spot market to their benefit in the futures market is another big concern. “Large equity indexes show some volatility around cash settlements and those are in highly liquid, highly regulated venues,” said Steve Sosnick, chief options strategist at Interactive Brokers Group Inc in Greenwich, Connecticut. “Compare that to cash settlement in bitcoin, and there is a lot more uncertainty on how that would play out.” (For a graphic on Bitcoin''s blistering ascent, click here ) Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures/after-bitcoins-wild-week-traders-brace-for-futures-launch-idUKKBN1E404D'|'2017-12-10T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'8abc8a2e3be237b252091a8fa80fa84bfd4864b1'|'Global brewers line up bids for Vietnam''s Sabeco sale - sources'|'December 10, 2017 / 7:37 AM / Updated an hour ago Global brewers line up bids for Vietnam''s Sabeco sale: sources Anshuman Daga , Martinne Geller 5 Min Read SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) - Brewing groups including Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ), Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ) and Kirin Holdings ( 2503.T ) are gearing up to bid for a stake in Vietnam’s largest brewer, Sabeco SAB.HM, people familiar with the matter said, with the $5 billion sale process by the government opening this week. FILE PHOTO: Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 217. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo The auction of up to 54 percent of Sabeco, in what is set to be Vietnam’s biggest privatization, offers brewers access to a fast-growing market with a youthful population and beer drinking culture. Sabeco is seen as attractive as assets are scarce in a highly consolidated global beer market. Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, is shaping up as a strong contender, the people said, as it is familiar with the Vietnam system and sees Sabeco as key to expanding outside its home market. “They have been around this situation for many years and are very keen to get this asset,” said one of the people, none of whom wanted to be named as they are not authorized to speak to the media. Last month, a Thai Bev unit bought a 49 percent stake in a Vietnamese company which, the people said, could be used as a vehicle to bid for Sabeco as a domestic player, giving it an advantage over international rivals. Thai Bev had no immediate comment, but said in October it was keen to grow through acquisitions in markets such as Vietnam. Firms controlled by Sirivadhanabhakdi also hold a 19 percent stake in Vietnam’s Vinamilk VNM.HM. A spokeswoman for AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, said the company was committed to Vietnam and to growing its business for the long-term. A spokesman for Japan’s Kirin said it was carefully considering its options. Other potential bidders include Asahi Group Holdings ( 2502.T ), San Miguel ( SMC.PS ) and Heineken ( HEIN.AS ), though several people said Heineken already had a strong business in Vietnam and could sit out an expensive auction that values Sabeco at about 36 times core earnings - more than double the trading multiples of around 15 for some global brewers, according to Reuters data. Heineken, which already owns 5 percent of Sabeco, did not respond to requests for comment. Asahi could not be immediately reached for comment, but the Japanese firm’s president told Reuters in September it was studying Sabeco. San Miguel’s president Ramon Ang said the Philippine conglomerate was interested to bid for Sabeco. Kirin owns around half of its affiliate San Miguel Brewery. The Sabeco auction is on Dec. 18, and bidders who are keen to own a stake equal to 25 percent or more of Sabeco’s shares need to inform local authorities a week before the auction. OWNERSHIP CAP Foreign ownership in Sabeco is limited to 49 percent.That means overseas bidders can only bid for a minority stake of as much as 39 percent as foreign entities already own 10 percent. Lack of control could put off some possible bidders, the people said. “Having control of the business is very important for these international brewers because the multiple is very high. If you’re going to pay that much you want to be able to institute your plans,” said one of the people, who expected international firms to sell their own premium beers like Budweiser, Heineken and Kirin through Sabeco’s distribution network, in addition to Sabeco’s beers, which include the Bia Saigon and 333 brands. Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, which represents state shares in Sabeco, said foreign investors can link with Vietnamese firms to buy Sabeco shares, but have to comply with local laws and regulations. Sabeco’s share price has nearly tripled since its listing a year ago, with analysts citing a small float as inflating its market value. The brewer’s sky-high valuations and a complicated sale process could pose challenges for some potential bidders, the people said. The Sabeco sale could also set the pace for peer Habeco BHN.HM, in which Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S ( CARLb.CO ) owns 17.3 percent. Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Martinne Geller, with additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in HANOI, Neil Jerome Morales in MANILA, Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK and Junko Fujita in TOKYO; Editing by Ian Geoghegan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-m-a-sale/global-brewers-line-up-bids-for-vietnams-sabeco-sale-sources-idUKKBN1E405K'|'2017-12-10T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'aa8da9ec500316ce98e8d34204397be2ae02e410'|'Thyssenkrupp ready to make workers offer for Tata Steel deal: Bild am Sonntag'|'December 9, 2017 / 11:06 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Thyssenkrupp makes offer to workers for Tata Steel deal: sources Tom Käckenhoff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) has offered workers commitments on jobs and investments to get union backing for its deal with Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) to merge their European steel operations, several people close to labor union IG Metall said. A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen Details of the offer are to be discussed at a meeting of management and labor representatives on Tuesday, the sources told Reuters on Sunday. German industrial group Thyssenkrupp and India’s Tata Steel agreed in September to merge their European steel operations, creating the continent’s second largest steelmaker with revenues of 15 billion euros ($17.7 billion). But workers at Thyssenkrupp fiercely oppose the deal, concerned more steel jobs will be lost on top of the 2,000 already announced. IG Metall has demanded 10-year guarantees for jobs, plants and investments and has set a Dec. 22 deadline for an agreement. German weekly Bild am Sonntag had on Sunday cited Thyssenkrupp personnel chief Oliver Burkhard as saying in an internal memo that the industrial group was prepared to make commitments on future investments and job security. “With our proposal, we want to secure jobs at the future joint venture into the next decade,” it had quoted him as saying. Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger hopes to reach a final deal with Tata Steel in early 2018 but that depends on whether he can get it passed by Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, where labor leaders hold half of the seats. “If the employer’s side wants to move forward now, then that’s a signal to which we will respond,” Knut Giesler, the head of IG Metall in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia said. Thyssenkrupp declined to comment on the matter. Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Andrew Bolton/Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-workers/thyssenkrupp-ready-to-make-workers-offer-for-tata-steel-deal-bild-am-sonntag-idUSKBN1E30SD'|'2017-12-10T01:05:00.000+02:00'
'117c348c5253e8ba15b0bdecfa00af7b7b51c0d3'|'Russia''s Sistema countersues Rosneft for $5.6 billion in growing row'|'December 8, 2017 / 12:12 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Russia''s Sistema countersues Rosneft for $5.6 billion in growing row Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian conglomerate Sistema said on Friday it had filed a 330.5 billion rouble (£4.1 billion) lawsuit against Rosneft, retaliating against $4.5 billion in legal claims made against it by Russia’s top oil producer. The logo of Russia''s Rosneft oil company is pictured at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. Picture taken August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Shares in Sistema, which groups the assets of Russian businessman Vladimir Yevtushenkov and includes the country’s largest mobile operator MTS, hit a three-year low after Rosneft filed its second lawsuit on Thursday. [L8N1O73P5] Rosneft is seeking the return of dividends paid out by mid-sized oil company Bashneft in the years between 2009 and 2014, when Sistema was its controlling shareholder. “Sistema has been forced to take actions to defend the legitimate interests of the corporation, its employees, partners and shareholders, and has asked the court to compensate the losses incurred,” Sistema said on Friday. A spokesman for the group said it had not ruled out further lawsuits to counter the actions of Rosneft and Bashneft, raising the stakes in a long and bitter dispute which has resurrected fears about the risk of doing business in Russia. The Russian government seized Sistema’s stake in Bashneft in 2014, saying its privatisation had been illegal. Rosneft later bought a controlling stake in Bashneft and in May filed its first lawsuit, alleging Sistema had removed assets from the company - something Sistema denies. A Russian court ruled in August that Sistema should pay Rosneft more than 136 billion roubles in compensation. Russian news agencies reported Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev as saying Sistema’s legal action was “absurd”. President Vladimir Putin has fuelled speculation about the Kremlin’s role in such disputes by calling on Rosneft and Sistema to settle out of court, saying this would benefit both companies and the wider Russian economy. But the president’s intervention appears to have been ignored, with both companies accusing one another of not making compromise proposals. Reporting by Denis Pinchuk and Anastasia Teterevleva; writing by Maria Tsvetkova and Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Katya Golubkova and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-oil-rosneft-sistema/russias-sistema-sues-rosneft-for-330-5-billion-roubles-idUKKBN1E21JO'|'2017-12-08T18:12:00.000+02:00'
'44e832eee1fbeb0b3b4b18dadb790500af64cb36'|'U.S. judge sets March trial for AT&T-Time Warner merger case'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The judge who will oversee the U.S. Justice Department’s bid to stop wireless and pay TV company AT&T Corp from buying media company Time Warner Inc, on Thursday set March 19 as the trial date.The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Judge Richard Leon at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia set the date in a pre-trial hearing. AT&T asked the court to hear the case beginning Feb. 20. The government was pressing for May 7.AT&T and Time Warner announced their $85 billion deal in October 2016, and the Justice Department sued last month to block the it, arguing that the transaction could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers and hamper the development of online video.Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by G Crosse '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-trial/u-s-judge-sets-march-trial-for-att-time-warner-merger-case-idINKBN1E12VJ'|'2017-12-07T16:51:00.000+02:00'
'c0b012976083535ffd8ccc351cb06251f9831097'|'Roche drug cocktail doubles chance of holding lung cancer at bay'|'December 7, 2017 / 6:13 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Roche drug cocktail doubles chance of holding lung cancer at bay John Miller 5 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Adding Roche’s immunotherapy Tecentriq to older drugs doubled the percentage of lung cancer patients who survived a year without their disease advancing, an outcome some experts on Thursday labelled unprecedented. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is seen outside their headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, January 30, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo Its shares retreated, however, as analysts said uncertainty lingers over whether the result is sufficient to give the Swiss drugmaker a jump on rivals Merck & Co and Bristol-Myers Squibb, whose immunotherapy sales dwarf Roche’s own. Thirty-seven percent of patients in Roche’s closely watched clinical trial who got Tecentriq, Avastin and chemotherapy reached the one-year mark without their cancer progressing (PFS), according to data released at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Geneva. For patients getting just Avastin and chemotherapy in the Impower 150 study, that fell to 18 percent. Roche is counting on Tecentriq to help replace revenue from its $20 billion (£15 billion)-per-year trio of Avastin, Herceptin and Rituxan whose patents have expired or will shortly, exposing them to cheaper competition. Chief Executive Severin Schwan hopes Roche can leap-frog ahead of Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb, both of which are still awaiting key lung cancer combination trial results of their own. “This is very, very promising,” Dr. Solange Peters, the head of Medical Oncology at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois in Lausanne, Switzerland, said of the latest results. “Doubling PFS (progression-free survival) at one year is something we have not seen with any targeted therapy in unselected patients to date.” Tecentriq, already approved in bladder cancer treatment and second-line lung cancer treatment, is seen posting annual sales of $4.6 billion by 2023, according to the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters. It costs $150,000 per patient a year. Roche, which said it would submit Thursday’s results to regulatory authorities, had said in November that the Impower 150 trial had broadly succeeded in first-line lung cancer patients, helping spur a one-day, $12 billion rally in the Basel-based drugmaker’s shares. With the release of the specific numbers, however, the Swiss company’s shares had fallen 2.2 percent by 1330 GMT, giving up a quarter of their gain since mid-November, while Bristol-Myers and Merck shares both rose. Roche investors feared Thursday’s results might not be good enough, analysts said. For instance, patients getting the Swiss company’s immunotherapy survived an average of 8.3 months without their disease getting worse, compared with the PFS of 6.8 months for those getting chemotherapy and Avastin, according to the study. That trailed the benefit of Merck’s Keytruda plus chemotherapy in a trial that led to U.S. approval for treatment of first-line lung cancer in May. “The market’s view is that the 1.5 months difference versus the Avastin plus chemo arm is insufficient, as Merck’s Keytruda has shown a 4.3 months difference,” Morgan Stanley analyst Vincent Meunier said. Still, several analysts said such comparisons are difficult and potentially misleading given vast differences in how trials are organised. For instance, Merck’s trial of its Keytruda cocktail was earlier stage and involved just 123 patients, tiny compared to Roche’s 1,202-person study of Tecentriq. It also did not include a targeted therapy like Avastin. “Impower 150 is one important piece of a complex, still largely incomplete, puzzle,” wrote Bernstein’s Tim Anderson. Martin Reck, a chief oncology physician at the Lung Clinic in Grosshansdorf, Germany, and lead author of the Tecentriq study, said that a larger PFS benefit would have been better. Still, Reck said the combination’s 38 percent reduction in risk of disease progression or death, combined with a durable survival benefit that improved at the six- and 12-month treatment marks, should carry more weight. And while the trial’s overall survival data will not be mature until the first half of 2018, Reck said, a preliminary reading of 19.2 months versus 14.5 months among patients not getting Tecentriq suggests an “encouraging trend”. “In the end, I‘m not really disappointed ... because this is something we’ve seen in other trials with immunotherapies,” he told a news conference. SWIFT ADOPTION Some analysts were also optimistic, saying Thursday’s results will clearly be enough to help Roche win expanded U.S. approval in first-line lung cancer treatment by next year. “We see the highly significant 38 percent reduction in risk of disease progression or death securing a swift adoption of Tecentriq on top of Avastin,” wrote Bruno Bulic, a Baader Helvea analyst with a “buy” rating on Roche shares. Roche said serious adverse events were seen in 25.4 percent of patients getting the Tecentriq combination, compared with 19.3 percent in the Avastin-chemo group. Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Ben Hirschler, Mark Potter and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-roche-lung-cancer/roche-drug-cocktail-doubles-chance-of-holding-lung-cancer-at-bay-idUKKBN1E10K3'|'2017-12-07T08:12:00.000+02:00'
'15ff99d08ee9ae66b333efc0deac4357d6375dc1'|'BOJ''s Kuroda signals chance of rate hikes, warns of demerits of easing'|'December 7, 2017 / 3:42 AM / in 22 minutes BOJ''s Kuroda signals chance of rate hikes, warns of demerits of easing Leika Kihara , Stanley White 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stressed the need to look at the impact monetary policy has on the banking system and said changes in the economy could trigger a hike in the bank’s yield targets, offering the strongest signal to date it may edge away from its crisis-mode stimulus programme. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda makes a speech at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Kuroda said that while it was premature to debate specifics now, the BOJ’s future communication would focus on how to exit from quantitative easing without disrupting financial markets. “At present, we consider the current shape of the yield curve as appropriate,” though this could change depending on how the economy and prices perform, as well as how the BOJ’s easy policy affects Japan’s banking system. “In accordance to such changes, we will consider where our short- and long-term rate targets should be in order to create an appropriate shape of the yield curve,” he said, suggesting the BOJ’s focus was now on when to dial back, not ramp up, its massive stimulus programme. Under a policy framework adopted last year, the BOJ now guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year government bond yield around zero percent. Kuroda said the BOJ was “very mindful” of the impact its ultra-easy monetary policy was having on financial institutions’ profits via narrowing margins, particularly on regional banks suffering from a lack of fund demand and a dwindling population. “Both financial and price stability are important policy mandates for the BOJ,” Kuroda said, in a departure from his usual stance of putting more emphasis on achieving the BOJ’s price target than on the impact its policy is having on the banking system. Kuroda repeated it was too early to debate which steps, and in what order, the BOJ should take when withdrawing stimulus, saying communicating the strategy now would cause market confusion. But he said the BOJ has the necessary tools and means to achieve a smooth exit from quantitative easing. “When considering our future communication with markets, an exit from quantitative and qualitative easing would be quite an important topic,” he said. Despite an improving economy, Japan’s consumer prices have remained stubbornly weak and well below the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target. As a result, most economists surveyed by Reuters expect the BOJ will not start unwinding stimulus until later next year or beyond. Editing by Minami Funakoshi, Sam Holmes and Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj/boj-chief-says-current-policy-framework-is-sustainable-idUKKBN1E10C6'|'2017-12-07T06:57:00.000+02:00'
'e52de65e49c259cfe0d5e448a6d45e5d51436d2b'|'Stryker to buy Entellus Medical for $662 million'|'(Reuters) - Medical device maker Stryker Corp ( SYK.N ) said on Thursday it would buy Entellus Medical Inc ( ENTL.O ) for $662 million, adding heft to its ear, nose and throat (ENT) business.Stryker would pay $24 per Entellus share, a premium of about 50 percent to Entellus’s Wednesday close. Entellus shares jumped 53.7 percent to $24.60 in premarket trading.Plymouth, Minnesota-based Entellus designs minimally invasive products for the treatment of various ENT diseases. The company generated revenue of $23 million in the third quarter.Entellus’s portfolio of ENT devices like dilation system XprESS and nasal implant Latera would complement its instrument business, Stryker said.The deal is expected to be dilutive to Stryker’s 2018 adjusted net earnings by about 4 cents per share, but accretive thereafter, the company said.Guggenheim Securities was financial adviser to Stryker, while Piper Jaffray & Co advised Entellus.Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-entellus-medical-m-a-stryker/stryker-to-buy-entellus-medical-for-662-million-idINKBN1E11U4'|'2017-12-07T10:42:00.000+02:00'
'98ecb49216689dda82c8f35cc0d8107218bbb8e7'|'Former HSBC chairman Douglas Flint joins Fintech fund''s advisory board'|'December 6, 2017 / 2:33 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Former HSBC chairman Douglas Flint joins Fintech fund''s advisory board Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Former chairman of HSBC Douglas Flint has joined the advisory council of Motive Partners, an investment firm specialising in financial technology companies. HSBC bank is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland, November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Motive partners announced the hire on Wednesday. Its other high-profile members of the advisory council include former United States Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Microsoft Corp Chairman John Thompson and former chief technology officer of Goldman Sachs Paul Walker. The advisory council members will provide Motive and the companies it invests in with advice on its strategy, the fund said. Flint left HSBC on Sept. 30, after more than 20 years at Europe’s biggest bank. Reporting By Lawrence White, editing by Anjuli Davies'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-moves-hsbc-flint/former-hsbc-chairman-douglas-flint-joins-fintech-funds-advisory-board-idUKKBN1E01YI'|'2017-12-06T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'050a230cf10d98edbcc15a9a631a3a4ca7445302'|'China exchanges hike fees to snuff out speculators in commodities'|' 44 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago China exchanges hike fees to snuff out speculators in commodities Reuters Staff 5 Min Read (Reuters) - China’s commodity exchanges have hiked transaction fees and margin requirements for a range of futures this year in their latest effort to curb speculative trading that Beijing says has spurred recent price surges in markets from sugar to ferro-silicon. FILE PHOTO: A China yuan note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange has hiked transaction fees and issued risk warning statement for ferro-silicon against recent surge in the market. In the past two years, the Dalian Commodity Exchange, Shanghai Futures Exchange and Zhengzhou have all used fee hikes and position limit curbs as ways to snuff out speculative rallies that the authorities say are not justified by fundamentals. The following are actions taken since Aug. 11 DALIAN COMMODITY EXCHANGE: COKE, COKING COAL * On Aug. 18, the Dalian Commodities Exchange said it adjusted margins for coke and coking coal futures contract to 12 percent of its contract value starting on Aug. 22 IRON ORE * On Aug. 18, the bourse curbed positions that non-member investors can take. Non-members are allowed to take a maximum of 6,000 lots for both buy and sell side positions effective Aug. 22. Each lot is 100 tonnes. * On Nov.24, it cut transaction fee for contracts excluding Jan, May, Sept delivery to 0.0006 percent of trading value from 0.006 percent. CORN * On Nov.24, Dalian cut non-intraday transaction fee for contracts excluding Jan, May, Sept delivery to 0.2 yuan per lot from 1.2 yuan per lot. * It also cut intraday transaction fee for corn contracts excluding Jan, May, Sept delivery to 0.1 yuan per lot from 0.5 yuan per lot. SOYMEAL * The bourse cut transaction fee for contracts excluding Jan, May, Sept delivery to 0.2 yuan per lot from 1.5 yuan per lot. SHANGHAI FUTURES EXCHANGE: NICKEL * On Sept. 21, the bourse raised transaction fees for nickel contract for January delivery to 18 yuan per lot from 6 yuan * On Sept. 22, the exchange raised transaction fees for nickel contract for January delivery to 30 yuan per lot, up from 18 yuan per lot and curbed maximum transaction size to 1500 lots from Sept. 25. LEAD * On Sept.25, it halved the intraday transaction fee to 0.02 percent. ZINC * On Aug. 21, the Shanghai Futures Exchange adjusted transaction fees for zinc futures for delivery in October and November to 15 yuan per lot and limit number of such contracts non members can trade each day to 2,000 lots. * On Oct.17, the exchange limited size of position for non-members at 2,000 lots and adjusted intraday transaction fees to 15 yuan per lot. STEEL: * On Aug. 11, the Shanghai Futures Exchange moved to limit on intraday positions and raise transaction fees on steel rebar contracts with effect from Aug. 15 as it looked to ease a months-long rally. * In November and December last year, the exchanges increased transaction fees three times on rebar. Trading limits were also put on some contracts. * On Aug. 24, it raised the intra-day transaction fee for hot-rolled coil steel for some delivery dates and limited positions for non-members. FUEL OIL * The Shanghai Futures Exchange said on Aug. 15 it would raise margin requirements and transaction fees on fuel oil futures contracts from Sept. 1. ZHENGZHOU COMMODITY EXCHANGE: FERRO-SILICON * The exchange has twice raised ferro-silicon transaction fees over the past two weeks * On Aug. 17, the exchange said it will adjust intraday transaction fees to 6 yuan per lot from Aug 21 onwards. On Aug. 30, it said it will raise them further to 9 yuan per lot from Sept. 1 * On Aug. 30, it also said it will adjust trading limits * On Dec. 6, it hiked trading margins fees to 14 percent from current 5 percent, and raise trading limit to 8 pct from 4 percent. * The bourse also issued a statement warning of “heightened uncertainties” in ferro-silicon and silico manganese trading. SUGAR * On Sept. 12, it raised trading limits on sugar options to no more than 2,000 lots, up from 300 previously. * On Nov. 22, Zhengzhou adjusted trading margins and trading limit to 10 percent and 6 percent respectively. * On Nov. 23, the bourse cut intraday transaction fees on sugar options to 1.5 yuan per lot from 3 yuan a lot, and adjust options exercising fees to 1.5 yuan per lot. COTTON * On Nov.3, Zhengzhou adjusted trading margin and trading limits to 5 percent and 4 percent respectively, and halved intraday transaction fee. RAPESEED * On Nov.3, the exchange cut intraday transaction fee to 1.5 yuan per lot from 3 yuan previously. Reporting by Josephine Mason, Meng Meng and Muyu Xu; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-exchanges-commodities/china-exchanges-hike-fees-to-snuff-out-speculators-in-commodities-idINKBN1E018Z'|'2017-12-06T12:42:00.000+02:00'
'6fdf55389880066d53dded440c39b6218c68d2e0'|'Indonesia bans fintech firms in payments from using cryptocurrencies'|'December 7, 2017 / 11:17 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Indonesia bans fintech firms in payments from using cryptocurrencies Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s central bank has issued a regulation banning use of cryptocurrencies by financial technology companies involved in payment systems, and said it is examining whether there’s a need to regulate trading on virtual currency exchanges. FILE PHOTO: A Bitcoin ATM is seen at the Bitcoin Center NYC in New York City, U.S. on November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “Financial technology operators are banned from using virtual currency in payment system activities,” said Sugeng, a deputy governor at Bank Indonesia (BI). The regulation, signed in November but made public on Thursday, requires financial technology companies involved in processing payments, such as e-wallets, to register at BI to ensure virtual currencies are not used in payments. Bank Indonesia (BI) first advised against using virtual currencies in 2014 and two years later banned payment system service providers from processing transactions using virtual currencies. The central bank said on Thursday it had issued the new regulation to enhance governance over virtual currencies that could pose a big risk for the economy. BI Governor Agus Martowardojo has previously said Bitcoin is not recognized as legal tender in Indonesia and warned that virtual currencies could be used in money laundering and terrorist financing. So far, trading of virtual currencies has not been regulated in Indonesia, said Rosalia Suci, head of BI’s legal department, but possible regulation of exchanges for them was something that the central bank “continues to look into”. Bitcoin.co.id, a local online cryptocurrency exchange, on its website said that at 0740 GMT Bitcoin was trading at 233.4 million rupiah ($17,225) per unit. The virtual currency on Thursday briefly soared to a record high of $14,100 at the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP , after jumping more than 35 percent this month Some Indonesian merchants, including an online grocery store in Bali and online t-shirt stores in Jakarta, say on their websites that they accept payment in Bitcoin. Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Ed Davies and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-indonesia/indonesia-bans-fintech-firms-in-payments-from-using-cryptocurrencies-idINKBN1E11DB'|'2017-12-07T13:04:00.000+02:00'
'456db2764613993292d424c06975bb23eed1b0f6'|'GE to cut 12,000 jobs in power business - Bloomberg'|'December 7, 2017 / 11:48 AM / Updated 2 hours ago General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp John Revill 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - General Electric Co announced on Thursday it was axing 12,000 jobs at its global power business as the struggling industrial conglomerate responds to dwindling demand for fossil fuel power plants. The logo of General Electric is seen at its plant in Birr, Switzerland November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The U.S. company launched the cuts to save $1 billion (£0.8 billion) in 2018, saying it expected current difficulties in the sector to continue. “Traditional power markets including gas and coal have softened,” GE said. Rumours of sweeping job cuts were confirmed by labour union sources on Wednesday, with staff in Switzerland and Germany among those badly hit. “This decision was painful but necessary for GE Power to respond to the disruption in the power market, which is driving significantly lower volumes in products and services,” said Russell Stokes, head of GE Power. “Power will remain a work in progress in 2018. We expect market challenges to continue, but this plan will position us for 2019 and beyond.” A third of the company’s Swiss workforce face layoffs, while 16 percent of its staff in Germany are also likely to be axed in the shake up. GE said it had begun talks with labour leaders about the steps. Demand for new thermal power plants dramatically dropped in all rich countries, GE said, while traditional utility customers have reduced their investments due to market deterioration and uncertainty about future climate policy measures. Hardly any new power station projects had been commissioned in Germany in recent years, GE said. Heightened Asian competition had also increased price pressures. Last month, General Electric CEO John Flannery outlined plans to reduce the manufacturing footprint of GE’s power business to respond to a sharp fall in demand for fossil fuel power equipment. GE had not specified how many jobs would be cut or where. GE rival Siemens is cutting about 6,900 jobs, or close to 2 percent of its global workforce, mainly at its power and gas division, which has been hit by the rapid growth of renewables. Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ge-jobs/ge-to-cut-12000-jobs-in-power-business-bloomberg-idUKKBN1E11I2'|'2017-12-07T13:47:00.000+02:00'
'272503b913cf6e1bb7ae1267727407a8887c900d'|'CEE MARKETS-Crown rebounds after strong output data, Serbia seen holding rates'|'* Czech Oct industrial output surges by mnore than 10 pct * Crown is off 3-week low, timing and scope of rate hikes mulled * Serbian central bank meets, key rate seen on hold at 3.5 pct * Polish ruling party to meet, likely to replace PM Szydlo By Sandor Peto and Robert Muller BUDAPEST/PRAGUE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The crown rebounded from 3-week lows on Thursday as October Czech industrial output and trade account figures underpinned healthy and balanced economic expansion. Czechs were a leader of Central Europe''s robust growth in the third quarter, with 5 percent annual output rise. Thursday''s data showed 10.5 percent annual surge in Czech industrial output, and the trade account remained in a surplus, even though smaller than expected. The crown, with 5.5 percent gain versus the euro so far this year, became the world''s top-performing currency in 2017 after the central bank (CNB) removed a cap on it in April, boosted by the strong economy and two CNB rate hikes since August The currency reached a 3-week low of 25.696 on Wednesday amid doubts if the CNB continues to raise rates at its meeting next week, but firmed mildly to 25.617 by 1004 GMT on Thursday. Investments could rise further next year, said Viktor Zeisel, analyst at Komercni Banka. "We expect a (CNB) rate hike in each quarter of the next year," he added. The region''s and the Czech Republic''s worsening labour shortage forces firms to invest in efficiency and automation, Erste analyst Jiri Polansky said. The output data, though it heralds higher wage growth, will not increase pressure on the CNB to hike rates because a rise in productivity-enhancing investment moderates inflation, he added. A Reuters poll of analysts showed that the crown is seen leading the forint and the zloty higher next year. Elsewhere, the dinar eased 0.1 percent to 119.65 against the euro ahead of the Serbian central bank''s meeting where it is expected to keep the region''s highest benchmark rate on hold at 3.5 percent. It would not put further pressure on the dinar by cutting rates, on top of expectation that the Federal Reserve will hike rates next week, Raiffeisen analyst Stephan Imre said in a note. That is relevant due to a high share of dollar investors in Belgrade''s bond market, he said. In Romania, an auction of 3-year papers is expected to draw healthy demand and see a cut-off yield near Wednesday''s closing mid of 3.4 percent, ING analysts said in a note. The bond originally launched in August has reached a historic high, along with other Romanian yields boosted by concerns that inflation will surge in the economy which grew 8.8 percent in annual terms in the third quarter. The rise has revived interest among non-resident yield-hunters, Imre said. In Warsaw, the zloty firmed slightly. Top officials of the ruling party PiS, meeting after markets close, are expected to replace Prime Minister Beata Szydlo. The likely replacement is her deputy, Mateusz Morawiecki, who would be a market-friendly choice, analysts said. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1104 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.617 25.619 +0.01 5.43% 0 5 % Hungary 314.60 314.46 -0.04% -1.84% forint 00 50 Polish zloty 4.2110 4.2140 +0.07 4.58% % Romanian leu 4.6325 4.6291 -0.07% -2.10% Croatian 7.5370 7.5472 +0.14 0.24% kuna % Serbian 119.65 119.49 -0.13% 3.09% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1056.0 1053.1 +0.28 +14.5 8 5 % 9% Budapest 37851. 37591. +0.69 +18.2 81 53 % 8% Warsaw 2406.4 2394.6 +0.49 +23.5 9 7 % 4% Bucharest 7672.3 7670.1 +0.03 +8.29 1 6 % % Ljubljana 779.15 773.03 +0.79 +8.58 % % Zagreb 1863.5 1853.2 +0.56 -6.58% 9 3 % Belgrade 743.97 743.97 +0.00 +3.71 % % Sofia 667.41 666.31 +0.17 +13.8 % 1% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.075 0.072 +082b +7bps ps 5-year 0.801 0.015 +118b +2bps ps 10-year 1.42 -0.001 +112b +0bps ps Poland 2-year 1.656 0.006 +240b +0bps ps 5-year 2.657 0.023 +304b +2bps ps 10-year 3.258 0.004 +295b +0bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 0.99 1.19 1.31 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.085 0.135 0.17 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.773 1.818 1.919 1.73 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-crown-rebounds-after-strong-output-data-serbia-seen-holding-rates-idINL8N1O72A3'|'2017-12-07T07:16:00.000+02:00'
'ec12ae5e7438153bbd6237c20ae7b8a2cbd36c12'|'Ryanair presses for Air Berlin slots and eyes potential German bases'|'December 7, 2017 / 5:25 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Ryanair presses for Air Berlin slots and eyes potential German bases Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair is pressing the European Commission to make available take-off and landing slots in Germany after the failure of Air Berlin, with a view to opening new bases there, the company’s chief commercial officer said on Thursday. Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The Commission has extended a deadline for examining Lufthansa’s planned acquisition of Air Berlin units Niki and LGW to Dec. 21. It is concerned about Lufthansa’s potential dominance in Germany and is seeking feedback on concessions put forward by the airline. “We believe that the regulatory authorities should ensure that sufficient slots from the Air Berlin failure should be made available to Ryanair,” the Irish carrier’s chief commercial officer, David O‘Brien, told Reuters. A source familiar with the process said on Wednesday that Lufthansa’s current concessions included divesting some Niki slots in Germany but keeping those in congested Munich and Berlin Tegel. While the German carrier plans to give up some Niki slots in Duesseldorf, LGW’s portfolio also includes peak-time slots there. “Ryanair is interested in access to slots -- not slots contrived to deliver an inefficient operation, but sufficient slots to run a modern, efficient low-cost operation out of, for example, Munich, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Berlin Tegel,” O‘Brien said. Ryanair did not enter the bidding for Air Berlin assets, but rival easyJet is starting new German domestic routes after buying Air Berlin operations at Berlin Tegel. O‘Brien said that Ryanair, which is currently taking delivery of 40 to 50 planes a year, could station 10 aircraft at those four German airports within a year and would look at domestic routes, though international destinations are more likely. Ryanair has nine aircraft stationed in Berlin Schoenefeld and plans for 10 in Frankfurt next summer. However, self-inflicted rostering problems have forced Ryanair to scale back growth plans this winter, including the scrapping of its sole German domestic route between Cologne and Berlin and a reduction in planes stationed at Frankfurt to six from seven. O‘Brien said the Cologne-Berlin route would be reinstated next summer. He also repeated Ryanair’s view that the Air Berlin sale process was designed to minimise competition for Lufthansa. “These entities should simply be allowed to disappear and the slots should go back into the pool and more efficient airlines should organically grow and deliver consumers what they want,” he said when asked if Ryanair would bid for Niki should the sale to Lufthansa not be approved. British Airways has dropped its renewed interest in Niki, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-germany/ryanair-presses-for-air-berlin-slots-and-eyes-potential-german-bases-idUKKBN1E12HN'|'2017-12-07T19:25:00.000+02:00'
'bf9cc07d1d16ed95aba7f9cc2ee57252757a1fe9'|'Singapore''s ComfortDelGro buying majority stake in Uber unit for $218 mln'|'December 8, 2017 / 9:53 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Singapore''s ComfortDelGro buying majority stake in Uber unit for $218 mln Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 8 (Reuters) - Singapore’s ComfortDelGro Corp said on Friday it is buying a 51 percent stake in private hire vehicle fleet owner Lion City Holdings from Uber Technologies’ unit Mieten B.V. for S$295 million ($217.99 million) in cash. Lion City Holdings owns Lion City Rental, which runs a fleet of 14,000 vehicles. ComfortDelGro said in a statement that it was in the process of finalising additional collaboration opportunities with Lion City Rental. ($1 = 1.3533 Singapore dollars) (Reporting By Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/lion-city-holdings-ma-comfortdelgro/singapores-comfortdelgro-buying-majority-stake-in-uber-unit-for-218-mln-idUSL3N1O83JY'|'2017-12-08T11:53:00.000+02:00'
'f8822421c55d0682e684b4a65b323657721541d3'|'CVS expects U.S. Justice Department to handle review of Aetna deal'|' 37 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago CVS expects U.S. Justice Department to handle review of Aetna deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CVS Health Corp expects the U.S. Justice Department to do the antitrust review of its planned acquisition of health insurer Aetna Inc, a spokesman for the drugstore chain operator said. Logos of CVS and Aetna are displayed on a monitor above   shortly after the opening bell   5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson CVS Health Corp and Aetna announced the $69 billion (£51.4 billion) deal on Dec. 3, arguing it would enable the companies to tackle soaring healthcare spending by offering lower-cost medical services in pharmacies. The Justice Department and U.S. Federal Trade Commission share the job of reviewing mergers to make sure they do not hurt consumers. The deal, the year’s largest, will combine one of the nation’s biggest pharmacy benefits managers and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers. Asked which antitrust agency would review the deal, CVS spokesman David Palombi late on Thursday said: “Our expectation is that it will be the Justice Department.” No matter who reviews the deal, six antitrust experts have told Reuters that they expect it to be approved since most of the two companies’ business is in separate markets. Two said they believed the Justice Department could try to stop the transaction for fear that customers would face higher drug prices or have less choice. The U.S. government tends to block mergers if the combining companies are competitors in a concentrated market. Deals like this one, where companies make acquisitions up or down the supply chain, tend to be considered to be inherently efficient. The big exception is if there is a fear that the purchasing companies’ rivals would lose critical access to the suppliers’ products. That is the case with AT&T Inc’s deal for Time Warner Inc, which the Justice Department has sued to stop. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aetna-m-a-cvs-health-antitrust/cvs-expects-u-s-justice-department-to-handle-review-of-aetna-deal-idUKKBN1E22EA'|'2017-12-08T19:36:00.000+02:00'
'f2e4b5446db86b48c8ddebc3b548dd28263acf74'|'RBS CEO says U.S. settlement could slip into next year - Bloomberg'|'Palestinians and Muslims worldwide hold ''Day of Rage'' over Jerusalem Special Report How Monsanto’s GM cotton sowed trouble in Africa Britain and EU make Brexit "breakthrough" Reuters TV United States December 8, 2017 / 10:38 AM / Updated 3 hours ago RBS CEO says U.S. settlement could slip into next year: Bloomberg Emma Rumney , Lawrence White 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland’s ( RBS.L ) chances of reaching a deal this year with the U.S. Department of Justice over its mis-selling of toxic mortgage-backed securities are “diminishing”, its chief executive said in a Bloomberg TV interview. Royal Bank of Scotland signs are seen at a branch of the bank, in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Ross McEwan had said several times this year he expected to reach a settlement in 2017, a key step in allowing the bank to return to full-year profit in 2018. Analysts have estimated the bank could pay up to $12 billion to settle the case. “There are diminishing chances we settle in the year,” McEwan said in the interview. RBS had no further comment. McEwan has been trying to clean up RBS’s balance sheet and end an array of legal cases so the UK government can sell the more than 70 percent stake in the bank it obtained via a 46 billion pound ($60 billion) bailout during the financial crisis. The case with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) is the last major such problem remaining, after RBS in July paid the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency $5.5 billion to settle similar claims. RBS has not made an annual profit since 2007. It has forecast it will in 2018, contingent on settling with the DoJ. PROFITS JEOPARDIZED If the deal is delayed into 2018, as is now likely, it could jeopardize the bank’s plan to return to profit at a time when Britain’s government is preparing to offload its stake in RBS. Jefferies analyst Joe Dickerson said he expected the bank will need to make an additional provision $2.5 billion to cover the settlement. If shifted into 2018, that would wipe out much of the 3.2 billion pounds of profit the bank is forecast to make, he continued. However he added that if the bank got some certainty on the figure it could still make the provision before its full-year results on Feb. 23. The bank already has $3.1 billion set aside. Talks with the DoJ initially stalled due to staffing changes in the U.S. government following the election of President Donald Trump. McEwan said there had been no substantial discussions with the department when reporting the bank’s third quarter results in October, but that he remained hopeful of settling this year and some preliminary conversations had taken place. This had seemed optimistic to some. Dickerson said most market participants had been expecting a settlement some time between now and the first half of 2018. “It would be positive if this deal could be settled within that timeframe from the standpoint of returning capital to shareholders,” he said. RBS shares were up 1.5 percent by 1052 GMT, against a broader 2.8 percent climb in the STOXX European banks index .SX7P. Reporting by Emma Rumney and Lawrence White; Editing by Gareth Jones and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-rbs-settlement/rbs-ceo-says-chance-of-u-s-settlement-this-year-diminishing-bloomberg-idUKKBN1E219N'|'2017-12-08T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'7ab6e72730dcbf96588b12ad85c5602666d5aad2'|'UBS slates KPMG''s Anderson to join board next year'|' 27 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago UBS slates KPMG''s Anderson to join board next year   UBS Group ( UBSG.S ) said on Friday that Jeremy Anderson will be nominated for election to the Swiss bank’s board of directors at its forthcoming annual general meeting planned for May 3. FILE PHOTO: The offices of Swiss bank UBS are seen in the financial district of the City of London, Britain October 31, 2012. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo Anderson was the chairman of auditor KPMG’s global financial services practice from 2010 until he retired last month, the Zurich-based bank   Reporting by John Miller; editing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ubs-group-board/ubs-slates-kpmgs-anderson-to-join-board-next-year-idUKKBN1E20LO'|'2017-12-08T08:26:00.000+02:00'
'deb61df1fff7666feac4102977bf9dc61b9232ce'|'Toshiba, Western Digital aiming to settle chip dispute next week: sources'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) and Western Digital Corp ( WDC.O ) have agreed in principle to settle a dispute over the Japanese firm’s plans to sell its $18 billion chip unit and aim to have a final agreement in place next week, sources familiar with the matter said.The board of the embattled Japanese conglomerate approved a framework for a settlement on Wednesday, one of the sources said.The potential for Western Digital - Toshiba’s partner in its main semiconductor plant and jilted suitor in the auction - to block a deal has been seen as the main obstacle to the planned sale of the unit to a Bain Capital-led consortium.The settlement under discussion calls for Western Digital to drop arbitration claims seeking to stop the sale in exchange for Toshiba allowing it to invest in a new production line for advanced flash memory chips that is slated to start next year, two sources said.All sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media.A Toshiba spokesman said that while the company was open to a settlement, it would not disclose discussion specifics or details of board of directors meetings. “It is not a fact that we have reached an agreement with Western Digital,” he said.Western Digital declined to comment.Toshiba was forced to put the unit - the world’s no. 2 producer of NAND chips - on the block to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse.The deal with the Bain-led consortium will, however, see it reinvest in the unit and together with Hoya Corp ( 7741.T ), a maker of parts for chip devices, Japanese firms will hold more than 50 percent of the business - a keen wish of the Japanese government.FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo July 31, 2012. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File Photo DEAL DETAILS As part of the planned settlement, Toshiba and Western Digital would extend existing agreements for their chip joint ventures in Yokkaichi, central Japan, one of the sources said. The current agreements are set to start expiring from 2021.Western Digital would also invest in a completely new chip plant that Toshiba will start building next year in northern Japan, the source said.FILE PHOTO: A Western Digital office building under construction is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Western Digital, one of world’s leading makers of hard disk drives, paid some $16 billion last year to acquire SanDisk, Toshiba’s chip joint venture partner since 2000.With data storage key to most next-generation technologies from artificial intelligence and autonomous driving to the Internet of Things, NAND chips have only grown in importance and Western Digital has been desperate to keep the business out of the hands of rival chipmakers.South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix’s ( 000660.KS ) participation in the Bain consortium has infuriated Western Digital and a key sticking point in recent weeks has been how to ensure it will be blocked from accessing proprietary information that belongs to the chip unit, separate sources have previously said.While it was not immediately clear if this issue had been completely resolved, one of the sources said agreements on aspects that had been under contention were “not far off”.Toshiba gained the upper hand in negotiations with Western Digital after securing a $5.4 billion cash injection from overseas funds that will allow it to bolster its balance sheet before the end of March and avoid a delisting.The sale still needs to clear regulatory reviews but they are not expected to scuttle the deal.Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by Yoshiyasu Shida and Junko Fujita; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-chips-western-digital/toshiba-western-digital-agree-in-principle-to-settle-chip-dispute-sources-idINKBN1E20FF'|'2017-12-08T01:58:00.000+02:00'
'af434317c0c515ee9bf67c33c02c0a104dc7be4a'|'Text alert: the ‘bank’ message that cost a student £5,400 of her loan money'|'When Alison Dean received a text from her bank, the Co-operative, asking whether she had just made a £999 purchase – asking her to call the bank if she hadn’t – she did what many of us would have done, and dialled the number in the message.After all, the text had clearly come from the bank – it was listed on her handset amid previously sent texts that the PhD student knew had come from the Co-op – and she was well used to getting such messages from the bank.But the text message wasn’t from the Co-op. Somehow, fraudsters had managed to insert the message into the run of authentic texts from the bank. When Dean rang the number, she was duped into handing over her personal details – and the crucial card-reader-generated code. That allowed the crooks to remove £5,400 from her account – and the Co-op says it will not be refunding her.If that sounds bad, how about the case of Ben Bowman, who thought he might have to give up his university place after less than three weeks at Bristol, after being similarly conned? In his case he was rung up by fraudsters who knew all his details and previous transactions – to the extent he was convinced he was talking to his bank, Natwest.Once they had duped the budding rapper into handing over his personal details, the crooks managed to take his first student loan payment of £1,713 and, incredibly, to successfully apply for a £20,000 loan in his name. Both duped students say they have no idea how the fraudsters got their mobile number, or how they knew that they were customers of those particular banks (see below).Dean’s case is particularly worrying as it exposes how easy it is for fraudsters to text customers “as the bank” by disguising the number the text is sent from.It is also a reminder that consumers should not trust any information apparently to them sent by their bank via email or text. Account holders should only call their bank using the phone number on the back of their card, not the number on a text or email. Students seem particularly prone to this scam as they are often financially inexperienced.The real (top two) and the fake (bottom) texts received by Alison Dean Dean, who is studying biology, says: “As soon as I got the text I called the number and they answered as the Co-op’s fraud department. I was on the phone to them for 24 minutes. Throughout the call I had no reason to believe I wasn’t talking to Co-op staff. I gave them my card details and used my card reader over the phone. Looking back it seems rather stupid but it was all done so expertly. I genuinely thought I was talking to bank staff who were helping me deal with a fraud.”She says as soon as she realised that something was wrong she called the Co-op to report what had happened. By that time five transactions had been made from her online banking account. The Co-op cancelled two of them, but three had already gone through. It has since refused to refund her the £5,400 taken and has, she says, just washed its hands of the matter.Ben Bowman’s case is similar except that he was physically called on his mobile by someone claiming to be from Natwest’s fraud department. The caller proceeded to list his previous transactions, and asked him to confirm the genuine ones. He was then asked if had bought a £140 handbag in Edinburgh.“The caller knew I had bought a Domino’s pizza two days ago and all my other purchases. I had never been called up by a fraud department but he sounded exactly as I would have expected. All the account details he quoted were right. I was 1000% convinced that the guy worked for Natwest and was genuine. He said he would send me a text which I should read back to him. I kept thanking him for helping me,” says the politics and international studies student.At the end of the call he says he was told that Natwest would shut down his online banking facility and that he should delete the mobile app. He just happened to go home for the weekend, where he received a letter from Natwest approving the £20,000 loan the bank had given the “penniless” student. A visit to his local branch exposed the scam – £500 had been taken each day for five days. Staff, he says, spent three minutes analysing the case and then declared he was responsible and would get no refund.“They were quite happy to send me out of the branch knowing that I had absolutely no money in the world,” he says.Following the Guardian’s intervention, Natwest has had a change of heart and has refunded Bowman the £2,500 he lost as a “one-off” gesture of goodwill.“We know how distressing being a victim of fraud can be and would encourage customers to remain vigilant in response to unexpected phone calls from individuals acting as their bank and if requested to provide security details, hang up immediately and phone the bank on a trusted number,” says a Natwest spokesman.However, the ethical bank, the Co-op, has refused to refund its customer despite Money’s intervention.A Co-op spokesman said: “She responded to the fraudulent message and disclosed her full security details, which is something we explicitly advise customers not to do. As with all banks, we would never ask customers to disclose full security details, or use our two-factor authentication card reader to perform transactions over the phone. As she was in breach of our terms and conditions and means we are unable to refund her for the losses she incurred.”Meanwhile, Bowman says his online banking days are probably over. “It will be a pain but this episode says to me that it’s just not worth the risk,” he says. “The way the bank wanted to put it all on me, was just ridiculous and breaks all the safety promises they make when you start banking online.”Some names have been changed How did the fraudsters get their details? Could the two featured victims both have been caught up in hacking incidents that could have put their personal details in the hands of fraudsters?Both victims had registered their debit cards with Uber. The company has admitted its customers’ mobile phone, email and other personal details were hacked last year, but claimed no card details were compromised. Many shopping sites have poor online security, and there are probably other hacking incidents of which consumers are not even aware. Any one of these might have led to fraudsters obtaining crucial details about the students.Fraudsters who know the first few digits of a debit card can usually work out which bank provided the card. If they also have the mobile phone number and customer’s name they are in business, and can immediately target the customers in the ways seen above. These are not mass texts and emailing exercises; individuals are targeted so that the fraudster has someone ready to pick up the call to the “bank”.The real banks all use clients’ mobile numbers as a way to contact them, but the systems are arguably insecure. It is easy for a fraudster to send texts as if they were the bank. In the past Money has highlighted how easy it is for fraudsters to take over a victim’s mobile phone account entirely. If your phone suddenly stops working and your bank uses your mobile to contact you, be on guard for a possible fraud.Topics Banks and building societies Banking Students Higher education'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/09/text-bank-student-loan-money'|'2017-12-09T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'e224586fd41a158a2fabde2aa29cb94e9fe6f34d'|'Uber agrees to settle U.S. lawsuit filed by India rape victim'|'December 9, 2017 / 12:43 AM / Updated 18 hours ago Uber agrees to settle U.S. lawsuit filed by India rape victim Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Uber has agreed to settle a U.S. civil lawsuit filed by a woman who had accused top executives of improperly obtaining her medical records after a company driver raped her in India, according to a court filing on Friday. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed in the court filing. (Reporting by Dan Levine Editing by Sandra Maler)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uber-rape-settlement/uber-agrees-to-settle-u-s-lawsuit-filed-by-india-rape-victim-idUSL1N1O900V'|'2017-12-09T02:43:00.000+02:00'
'ed9335b20e97fef533a951ada2e9e89a41149a39'|'Whitbread jumps after hedge fund Sachem Head declares stake'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Whitbread ( WTB.L ) shares jumped more than 7 percent on Wednesday after U.S.-based hedge fund Sachem Head Capital Management declared a 3.4 percent stake in the British hotel and coffee chain operator.FILE PHOTO - Pigeons sit on a table at a branch of Costa Coffee in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, historically claimed by Spain, April 21, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Whitbread, owner of Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, has been the subject of break-up speculation in the past.Sachem Head has previously taken activist positions at companies, though it is unclear whether it will push for changes at the FTSE-100 leisure giant.The hedge fund has already met with Whitbread management, according to a person familiar with the matter.Before Wednesday’s jump, Whitbread shares were down nearly 2 percent this year, having risen in part on hopes that Premier Inn’s domestic hotels would benefit from foreign visitors cashing in on the weak pound. They fell back when those benefits turned out to be smaller than expected.The company warned in April of a tougher consumer environment, as rising inflation and muted wage growth forced consumers to rein in spending.The shares closed about 7.5 percent higher at 3,990 pence.Sachem Head, with about $4 billion (£3 billion) in assets under management, was founded in 2013 by Scott Ferguson, one of a number for former partners at Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management who have launched their own funds.The New York-based firm has been popular with investors, both because of its steady run of positive returns and the fact Ferguson, who shies away from being called an activist, largely stays out of the headlines.Ferguson took a board seat at software maker Autodesk ( ADSK.O ), and has held sizeable stakes in CDK Global ( CDK.O ) and Zoetis ( ZTS.N ). Its current UK holdings include Worldpay Group ( WPG.L ) and Shire ( SHP.L ).A spokeswoman for Whitbread was not immediately available for comment.A spokesman for Sachem Head declined to comment beyond Wednesday’s regulatory filing, which declared contracts for difference over 6.2 million shares expiring July 2020.Additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston and Ben Martin in London.; Editing by Mark Potter and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-whitbread-stake/whitbread-jumps-after-hedge-fund-sachem-head-declares-stake-idINKBN1E0294'|'2017-12-07T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'4905760e1af49b926bb8ffd86666df987cb7a5e1'|'Insurance Australia Group to share premiums with reinsurers'|'(Reuters) - Insurance Australia Group Ltd ( IAG.AX ) said on Friday that it had entered agreements to share its premiums with reinsurers Munich Re ( MUVGn.DE ), Swiss Re ( SRENH.S ) and Hannover Re ( HNRGn.DE ).A security guard stands in the foyer of the headquarters of Insurance Australia Group Ltd (IAG), Australia''s largest general insurer, located in central Sydney, Australia, October 15, 2015.REUTERS/David Gray Under the agreements, from Jan. 1, 2018, the reinsurers would receive a combined 12.5 percent of the company’s consolidated gross earned premium and pay 12.5 percent of claims and expenses, Insurance Australia said in a statement.The agreements would cover business in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand, and cut its regulatory capital requirement by about A$435 million ($326.73 million) over three years.The company had entered a similar agreement with Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway ( BRKa.N ) in 2015 for a 20 percent quota of its insurance business.“In tandem with the Berkshire Hathaway quota share, we have removed downside earnings risk from 32.5 percent of our business while retaining significant exposure to earnings upside via the profit-share arrangements,” Chief Executive Peter Harmer said.The company raised its reported insurance margin guidance for fiscal 2018 by 125 basis points to the range of 13.75 percent to 15.75 percent, and said its natural perils allowance for the same period would reduce as a result of the agreement.($1 = 1.3314 Australian dollars)Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-iag-au-deals/insurance-australia-group-to-share-premiums-with-reinsurers-idINKBN1E1366'|'2017-12-07T19:47:00.000+02:00'
'f97f77cb18b4b80a7bd79d3217372ec4c074ecca'|'EMERGING MARKETS-LatAm currencies seesaw on mixed U.S. jobs data'|'By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies seesawed on Friday after U.S. job growth posted solid gains in November but wages rose less than expected. U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 228,000 jobs last month amid broad gains in hiring as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded. Still, average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent, less than the 0.3 percent consensus estimate. The figures left investors guessing over the pace of U.S. interest rate hikes in coming months. Consistent signs of strength in the labor market have been followed by mixed figures on inflation, which remains stubbornly below the Federal Reserve''s target. A faster pace of rate hikes could reduce demand for high-yielding assets in emerging markets. The Mexican peso firmed 0.2 percent, while the Brazilian real was down 0.5 percent. Chilean and Colombian markets were closed due to local holidays. Also hurting demand for Brazilian assets was uncertainty over President Michel Temer''s ability to pass a plan to streamline the social security system and trim government debt. That uncertainty drove the biggest daily loss on the real in seven months on Thursday, but the currency found some support on Friday after Temer agreed with congressional leaders to a Dec. 18 vote. The benchmark Bovespa stock index rose 0.8 percent, boosted by blue-chips such as oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA , lenders Banco do Brasil SA and Itaú Unibanco SA and miner Vale SA. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1720 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 1111.84 1.03 27.63 MSCI LatAm 2706.75 0.52 15.05 Brazil Bovespa 73032.54 0.75 21.26 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 47245.94 0.55 3.51 Argentina MerVal 26841.50 1.4 58.66 Venezuela IBC 1317.56 -1.31 -95.84 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.3016 -0.49 -1.59 Mexico peso 18.9300 0.22 9.58 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.2750 -0.12 -8.10 Argentina peso (parallel) 17.83 0.67 -5.66 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Susan Thomas) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-latam-currencies-seesaw-on-mixed-u-s-jobs-data-idUSL1N1O80Z1'|'2017-12-08T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'b1d8302af11d32f929967d8911274a6a1c2fdff9'|'Steinhoff shares climb off 14-year low in volatile trade'|'Reuters TV United States December 8, 2017 / 11:58 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Steinhoff shares climb off 14-year low in volatile trade Tanisha Heiberg , Tiisetso Motsoeneng 6 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Steinhoff ( SNHJ.J ) ( SNHG.DE ) shares plunged another 50 percent on Friday, before paring some losses as traders booked profits on short positions taken out after the South African retailer disclosed accounting irregularities earlier this week. FILE PHOTO: A Poundland employee checks products in a store in London, Britain November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo More than $14 billion has been wiped off the market value of the owner of Conforama furniture stores and Poundland discount shops since Wednesday, when it announced an independent investigation into its accounts and said its CEO was leaving. The collapse leaves South African tycoon Christo Wiese, Steinhoff’s top shareholder and chairman, more than $3 billion out of pocket, stripping him off his billionaire status. Wiese, who likes to say “things go up, things go down,” is now worth just over $740 million, according to Forbes magazine. The stock closed 40 percent lower at 6 rand in Johannesburg after touching a 14-year low of 5 rand. It closed down 21 percent in Frankfurt, where the group has a primary listing. After the market close, Steinhoff said it had set up a board subcommittee, composed of independent non-executive directors, to strengthen governance and that advisory firm PwC had started its independent investigation. “Trading in the underlying businesses across the globe continues uninterrupted particularly in the pre-Christmas period,” it added in a regulatory statement. Cratos Capital equities trader Greg Davies said earlier buying of the stock was due to profit taking by short-sellers who had sold the shares around 55-60 rands. Short-sellers borrow shares for a fee and sell them into the market, in the hope of repurchasing them at a lower price and pocketing the difference. More than half of Steinhoff’s shares that are available to borrow are currently out on loan, according to Markit, a data provider – more than doubling from August and up from 40 percent on Monday. The figure is a record for Steinhoff and the highest for any South African company tracked by Markit. The cost for short-sellers to borrow shares for a year has more than doubled from its twelve-month average of 1.4 percent to 3.1 percent, according to Astec, another data provider. Both Markit and Astec estimate it would take around ten days of trading for short-sellers to close all their positions. ‘BOTTOM FISHING’ FILE PHOTO: South African magnate Christo Wiese, Steinhoff''s largest shareholder and chairman, listens during an interview in Cape Town, South Africa, September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo Another trader in Johannesburg said there was a growing sense that this week’s approximate 80 percent share price tumble had triggered “bottom fishing” by buyers speculating the stock was at a level from which it could only go up. “There does seem to be a little bit of bottom feeding coming in here, we are starting to see in the last half hour or so,” Independent Securities trader Ryan Woods said. Steinhoff’s problems deepened on Thursday after Moody’s sent its debt deep into junk territory, cutting it by four notches and raising concerns about its governance. “Given that allegations of accounting irregularities were raised and rebutted in August 2017 and again in November 2017 it calls into question the quality of oversight and governance at Steinhoff,” Moody’s said in a statement. It cut Steinhoff’s debt to B1, or highly speculative, from Baa3, the lowest investment grade rating. Steinhoff admitted to accounting problems earlier this week and its veteran chief executive Markus Jooste quit, raising questions about its liquidity and future. A lower credit rating means the borrower usually has to pay more to borrow from investors and can reduce the value of its existing debt, forcing some holders to sell. Steinhoff used debt to fund a shopping spree it began in 2011 with the acquisition of France’s Conforama, and turned it from a South African furniture group to an international retail empire. Its gross debt is around 7 billion euros ($8.2 billion), with 20 percent maturing within five years. Steinhoff said on Friday it was pushing back a meeting in London with its banks from Monday to Dec. 19. That meeting had been due to discuss financial results, but their release was delayed on Wednesday. The banks include Standard Bank, Commerzbank, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and FirstRand. They lent 1.6 billion euros to Wiese last year to buy additional stock in Steinhoff through a family trust. They hold part of his stake in the company as collateral. Steinhoff has been under investigation for suspected accounting irregularities by the state prosecutor in Oldenburg, Germany, since 2015. Four current and former Steinhoff managers are suspected of having overstated revenue at subsidiaries, German prosecutors said this week. Steinhoff has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the German allegations. It has not given any details about the “irregularities” it has identified and has sought to reassure investors about its liquidity. Separately, German financial watchdog Bafin said on Friday it had started a probe into the trading of Steinhoff shares this week. Bafin routinely looks at large or unusual share price moves as part of its campaign to stamp out market manipulation and insider trading. Additional reporting by TJ Strydom in Johannesburg, Alasdair Pal and Tom Bergin in London, Victoria Bryan in Berlin; Editing by Alexander Smith and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-steinhoff-intlnl-results/steinhoff-shares-plunge-again-after-moodys-cut-hits-debt-idUKKBN1E21IF'|'2017-12-08T18:44:00.000+02:00'
'3a6519b6127ff0e438b72806fdc648739656b5cd'|'Steinhoff slides further on accounting scandal'|'December 7, 2017 / 8:18 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Steinhoff scandal knocks $12 billion off value in blow to tycoon Wiese Tiisetso Motsoeneng , Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read JOHANNESBURG/BERLIN (Reuters) - Shocked Steinhoff shareholders have wiped more than $12 billion (£8.9 billion) off its value since it revealed “accounting irregularities” and parted ways with its chief executive, in a dramatic fall from grace for the South African retailer. FILE PHOTO: South African magnate Christo Wiese, Steinhoff''s largest shareholder and chairman, listens during an interview in Cape Town, South Africa, September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo Once a must-have for investors who backed its reinvention as an international retail empire including brands such as Mattress Firm and Poundland under veteran CEO Marcus Jooste, Steinhoff shares fell by a third on Thursday, compounding the previous day’s more than 60 percent fall. This collapse also leaves South African tycoon Christo Wiese, Steinhoff biggest shareholder and chairman, seriously out of pocket, eroding more about $2.8 billion of his net worth. “One of the reasons we owned Steinhoff was because of the management’s ability in sweating their assets. That has now changed, management has turned out to be a liability,” said Michael Treherne, a fund manager at Vestact in Johannesburg. By late afternoon, the stock had fallen 31 percent in Johannesburg, and was down about 34 percent in Frankfurt where it has had its primary listing since 2015. Steinhoff has put 76-year-old Wiese, one of the most respected business leaders in South Africa, in charge for now and called in PwC to investigate the accounting problems. Wiese, who describes himself as a “realist, pragmatist”, started his budget clothing retailer Pepkor in the 1960s, in Upington on the southern edges of the Kalahari desert. He studied law in Stellenbosch, a close-knit town dominated by Afrikaans-speaking whites, but now lives in Clifton, an affluent area of Cape Town overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and is best known for transforming budget grocer Shoprite from just six shops in the 1970s to hundreds of stores across Africa. SHOPPING SPREE Wiese and Jooste were instrumental in reinventing Steinhoff, turning it from a modest distributor of furniture made in communist era eastern Europe to a global household goods retailer, vying for market share with the likes of IKEA. Steinhoff has been on shopping spree since 2011 when it took over French furniture retailer Conforama. Last year’s string of acquisitions included Mattress Firm and Poundland, thrusting it firmly on to investors’ radar screens. “Whether Steinhoff’s zealous expansion tactics amount to a winning or losing strategy really does depend on the outcome of the investigation,” said Erika Sirimanne, Head of Home and Garden Research, Euromonitor International. Steinhoff has been under investigation for suspected accounting irregularities by the state prosecutor in Oldenburg, Germany since 2015. Four current and former managers are under suspicion of having overstated revenues at subsidiaries, German prosecutors said this week. Steinhoff has previously said that move related to whether revenues were booked properly, and whether taxable profit was correctly declared. Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Susan Fenton/Keith Weir/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steinhoff-intlnl-results/steinhoff-slides-further-on-accounting-scandal-idUKKBN1E10VP'|'2017-12-07T10:16:00.000+02:00'
'b4b410f45cba844338b65dec1958b142965a40fb'|'Exclusive - Uber paid 20-year-old Florida man to keep data breach secret: sources'|'December 7, 2017 / 12:15 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Exclusive - Uber paid 20-year-old Florida man to keep data breach secret: sources Joseph Menn , Dustin Volz 7 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 20-year-old Florida man was responsible for the large data breach at Uber Technologies Inc last year and was paid by Uber to destroy the data through a so-called “bug bounty” programme normally used to identify small code vulnerabilities, three people familiar with the events have told Reuters. UBER PROBLEMS: Ride-hailing company Uber faced a regulatory crackdown after disclosing that it paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts. The disclosure was the latest in a string of legal troubles and regulatory scrutiny across the globe over the year. Uber was stripped of its London license in September, a major blow to the firm which has 3.5 million users and 40,000 drivers working in the capital. REUTERS/Simon Dawson Uber announced on Nov. 21 that the personal data of 57 million passengers and 600,000 drivers were stolen in a breach that occurred in October 2016, and that it paid the hacker $100,000 to destroy the information. But the company did not reveal any information about the hacker or how it paid him the money. Uber made the payment last year through a programme designed to reward security researchers who report flaws in a company’s software, these people said. Uber’s bug bounty service - as such a programme is known in the industry - is hosted by a company called HackerOne, which offers its platform to a number of tech companies. Reuters was unable to establish the identity of the hacker or another person who sources said helped him. Uber spokesman Matt Kallman declined to comment on the matter. Newly appointed Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi fired two of Uber’s top security officials when he announced the breach last month, saying the incident should have been disclosed to regulators at the time it was discovered, about a year before. It remains unclear who made the final decision to authorise the payment to the hacker and to keep the breach secret, though the sources said then-CEO Travis Kalanick was aware of the breach and bug bounty payment in November of last year. Kalanick, who stepped down as Uber CEO in June, declined to comment on the matter, according to his spokesman. A payment of $100,000 through a bug bounty programme would be extremely unusual, with one former HackerOne executive saying it would represent an “all-time record.” Security professionals said rewarding a hacker who had stolen data also would be well outside the normal rules of a bounty programme, where payments are typically in the $5,000 to $10,000 range. HackerOne hosts Uber’s bug bounty programme but does not manage it, and plays no role in deciding whether payouts are appropriate or how large they should be. HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos said he could not discuss an individual customer’s programmes. “In all cases when a bug bounty award is processed through HackerOne, we receive identifying information of the recipient in the form of an IRS W-9 or W-8BEN form before payment of the award can be made,” he said, referring to U.S. Internal Revenue Service forms. According to two of the sources, Uber made the payment to confirm the hacker’s identity and have him sign a nondisclosure agreement to deter further wrongdoing. Uber also conducted a forensic analysis of the hacker’s machine to make sure the data had been purged, the sources said. One source described the hacker as “living with his mom in a small home trying to help pay the bills,” adding that members of Uber’s security team did not want to pursue prosecution of an individual who did not appear to pose a further threat. The Florida hacker paid a second person for services that involved accessing GitHub, a site widely used by programmemers to store their code, to obtain credentials for access to Uber data stored elsewhere, one of the sources said. GitHub said the attack did not involve a failure of its security systems. “Our recommendation is to never store access tokens, passwords, or other authentication or encryption keys in the code,” that company said in a statement. ‘SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS’ Uber received an email last year from an anonymous person demanding money in exchange for user data, and the message was forwarded to the company’s bug bounty team in what was described as Uber’s routine practice for such solicitations, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Bug bounty programmes are designed mainly to give security researchers an incentive to report weaknesses they uncover in a company’s software. But complicated scenarios can emerge when dealing with hackers who obtain information illegally or seek a ransom. Some companies choose not to report more aggressive intrusions to authorities on the grounds that it can be easier and more effective to negotiate directly with hackers in order to limit any harm to customers. Uber’s $100,000 payout and silence on the matter at the time was extraordinary under such a programme, according to Luta Security founder Katie Moussouris, a former HackerOne executive. “If it had been a legitimate bug bounty, it would have been ideal for everyone involved to shout it from the rooftops,” Moussouris said. Uber’s failure to report the breach to regulators, even though it may have felt it had dealt with the problem, was an error, according to people inside and outside the company who spoke to Reuters. “The creation of a bug bounty programme doesn’t allow Uber, their bounty service provider, or any other company the ability to decide that breach notification laws don’t apply to them,” Moussouris said. Uber fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, and a deputy, attorney Craig Clark, over their roles in the incident. “None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Khosrowshahi, said in a blog post announcing the hack last month. Clark worked directly for Sullivan but also reported to Uber’s legal and privacy team, according to three people familiar with the arrangement. It is unclear whether Clark informed Uber’s legal department, which typically handled disclosure issues. Sullivan and Clark did not respond to requests for comment. In an August interview with Reuters, Sullivan, a former prosecutor and Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) security chief, said he integrated security engineers and developers at Uber “with our lawyers and our public policy team who know what regulators care about.” Last week, three more top managers in Uber’s security unit resigned. One of them, physical security chief Jeff Jones, later told others he would have left anyway, sources told Reuters. Another of the three, senior security engineer Prithvi Rai, later agreed to stay in a new role. Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Dustin Volz in Washington; Additional reporting by Heather Somerville and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-cyber-payment-exclusive/exclusive-uber-paid-20-year-old-florida-man-to-keep-data-breach-secret-sources-idUKKBN1E101G'|'2017-12-07T02:27:00.000+02:00'
'9ab0523d48e5e8e772b398c64894cdfbbe8cf6cf'|'Former Lafarge CEO under investigation in Syria payments case'|'PARIS (Reuters) - The Paris prosecutor put former French cement group Lafarge’s CEO Bruno Lafont and his former deputy for operations under formal investigation on Friday as part of an inquiry into the group’s activities in Syria, the men’s lawyers said.FILE PHOTO - Bruno Lafont, Chairman and CEO of Lafarge speaks during the group''s shareholders general meeting in Paris, France, May 7, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier Being placed under investigation means that prosecutors believe they have “serious or consistent evidence” that could result in prosecution. It is a step towards a possible trial, though the investigation can still be dropped.The men’s lawyers made no further comment.On Thursday, prosecutors also placed under formal investigation Lafont’s successor Eric Olsen, former chief executive of Franco-Swiss cement group LafargeHolcim ( LHN.S ), the world’s largest cement maker, which resulted from the 2015 takeover of Lafarge by Swiss Holcim.FILE PHOTO - Chief Executive Officer Eric Olsen of LafargeHolcim, the world''s largest cement maker, addresses a news conference to present the company''s 2016 results in Zurich, Switzerland March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Olsen quit as CEO in April after the company admitted it had paid armed groups to keep a factory operating in Syria. His lawyer has said Olsen will appeal against being put under investigation.In June, French prosecutors launched an investigation into LafargeHolcim’s operations and its possible “financing of a terrorist enterprise”.LafargeHolcim Chairman Beat Hass told French daily Le Figaro earlier this month the firm had made unacceptable errors in Syria and that it was cooperating with French investigators.Two other former Lafarge executives and one LafargeHolcim executive still working for the group were also placed under formal investigation last week in the same case.LafargeHolcim employs some 90,000 people in around 80 countries.Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Alison Williams '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lafargeholcim-syria/former-lafarge-ceo-under-investigation-in-syria-payments-case-idUSKBN1E22RG'|'2017-12-09T00:05:00.000+02:00'
'155f40a60a6604ed3a58c8ccfeb4becdf57e3983'|'ICL sells fire safety, oil additives units for $1 billion to SK Capital'|'TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel Chemicals (ICL) ( ICL.TA ) ( ICL.N ) said it has agreed to sell its fire safety and oil additives units to SK Capital for about $1 billion.The business is part of ICL Specialty Solutions’ Advanced Additives business line and has operations in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia.ICL’s fire safety unit supplies chemicals and services for fighting wild fires and foams to extinguish fires. Its oil additives are used in the manufacture of lubrication oil additives, mining chemicals and pesticides.In the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2017, the units contributed $294 million to ICL’s sales and $112 million to operatingincome.The sale to SK Capital, a private investment firm focused on specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, is expected to close in the first half of 2018.The decision to sell the business is in line with ICL’s strategy to exit low synergy businesses as it focuses on its mineral operations and reducing debt ratios and generating funds for growth initiatives, the company said on Thursday.Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-icl-sk-capital-m-a/icl-sells-fire-safety-oil-additives-units-for-1-billion-to-sk-capital-idINKBN1E10UV'|'2017-12-07T05:11:00.000+02:00'
'a4a3e38c93786074608c930a375808504f2b4170'|'Boston Herald files for bankruptcy protection to pursue sale'|'December 8, 2017 / 11:14 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Boston Herald files for bankruptcy protection to pursue sale Jim Christie 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The parent company of the Boston Herald filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday and will look to sell the newspaper to Gatehouse Media LLC, a move that underscores the hard times facing traditional print journalism. Publisher and owner Patrick Purcell broke the news personally to the newspaper’s staff and said in a letter to employees that a court-supervised sale was the best option for the Boston Herald, which traces its roots to 1846, to stay in business. “All I ever wanted to do was keep the Boston Herald alive,” Purcell said in the letter, according to the newspaper’s report of the sale and the bankruptcy filing. “And it is with this pending sale that I am able to do that in these difficult newspapering times.” “I am certain this is the best pathway forward for you and for the newspaper we have nurtured together, in my case, for the last 33 years,” said Purcell. The sale to Gatehouse, which publishes daily and weekly newspapers in Massachusetts, is pending court approval. Financial details were not disclosed. Parent Boston Herald Inc and Gatehouse were not immediately available for comment. The Boston Herald’s report on the sale and bankruptcy filing noted the tabloid had been “hindered like many other newspapers with significant pension and retirement liabilities as well as declining revenue with the onset of digital media and a growing variety of news originators and aggregators.” Purcell bought the newspaper in the 1990s from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. At its peak in 2000, it had about 900 employees. Now it has 240 employees, with more than half working in the newsroom. The Boston Herald, which has a circulation of 64,500, said it will publish as usual as its parent company pursues the sale. Boston Herald Inc filed for protection from its creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The company’s Chapter 11 petition indicated it has between 200 and 999 creditors and estimated assets and liabilities each between $10 million and $50 million. Reporting by Jim Christie, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-boston-herald-bankruptcy/boston-herald-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-to-pursue-sale-idUKKBN1E22UX'|'2017-12-09T01:11:00.000+02:00'
'2e60c887e7163a231faee331b5041dd159a92d92'|'Japan to revise up growth forecasts - Nikkei'|'December 9, 2017 / 4:35 AM / Updated 13 hours ago Japan to revise up growth forecasts: Nikkei Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is expected to revise up its economic growth forecasts for the current and next fiscal years, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday, helping Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make the case his stimulus policies are working. Data released on Friday showed the world’s third-largest economy grew twice as fast as originally estimated in the third quarter, thanks to a business spending splurge and buoyant exports. In predictions to be released later this month, the Cabinet Office will revise up its growth forecast for the year beginning in April, perhaps to near 2 percent from the current 1.4 percent, the Nikkei said without citing sources. The forecast for the current fiscal year will also be revised up from the current 1.5 percent, the paper said. The projections will serve as a basis for estimating tax revenues and compiling the state budget for next fiscal year. Reporting by Leika Kihara'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-forecast/japan-to-revise-up-growth-forecasts-nikkei-idUKKBN1E305M'|'2017-12-09T06:30:00.000+02:00'
'd44ad0626227f9dbb8d93820735ea35f6c67062e'|'From Poles to Filipinos? UK food industry needs post-Brexit workers'|'MILTON KEYNES, England (Reuters) - Britons who voted for Brexit in the hope of slashing immigration seem set for disappointment. In the farming and food industries at least, any exodus of Polish and Romanian workers may simply be followed by arrivals of Ukrainians and Filipinos.Dumidru Voicu poses at Cranswick Convenience Foods in Milton Keynes, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples From dairy farms to abattoirs, employers say not enough Britons have an appetite for milking cows before dawn or disembowelling pig carcasses - jobs often performed by workers from the poorer, eastern member states of the European Union.With unemployment at a four-decade low of 4.3 percent, even Brexit supporters acknowledge the industries will need some migrant workers after Britain leaves the EU in 2019, ending the automatic right of the bloc’s citizens to work in the country.Employers praise eastern European staff for their skills and work ethic. “They are a massively valuable part of our workforce and a massively valuable part of the food industry overall,” said Adam Couch, chief executive of Cranswick plc, a meat processing group founded by pig farmers.Food and drink is the largest UK manufacturing sector, with a turnover of 110 billion pounds ($147 billion) in 2015, government figures show. Much of it depends heavily on staff from elsewhere in the EU, mainly the post-communist east.For example, the British Meat Processors Association says 63 percent of workers in the sector come from other EU countries and in some plants it can be as high as 80 percent.The proportion has risen partly due to increased demand for more labor intensive products such as boneless meat. Association members have found it impossible to recruit the additional employees needed from Britain, the BMPA says.Pro-Brexit campaigners say Britain needs to reduce its reliance on EU workers. “Our sights should be firmly set on raising the skill level of our own domestic workers, employing domestic whenever we possibly can and automating,” said Owen Paterson, a member of parliament for the ruling Conservatives.But Paterson, who as a former Environment Secretary was responsible for UK agricultural policy from 2012-14, added: “Where there is a clear shortage and no technological solution, by all means bring in labor but the good news is we wouldn’t be limited to the EU. We will have the whole world to choose from.”MONEY FOR A MONTH On the meat production line, Romanian Dumidru Voicu explained the attractions of working at Cranswick’s plant in Milton Keynes, a town northwest of London.“I just want to do something with my life, save some money and make my own business. The money for a week here is the money for a month in Romania,” said Voicu, who arrived in the country about the time that Britons voted to leave the EU in June last year.An estimated 27,000 permanent staff from elsewhere in the EU worked in British agriculture last year, House of Commons staff noted in a briefing paper for members of parliament. This figure is swollen at times by around 75,000 seasonal workers.A further 116,000 EU citizens worked in food manufacturing. The Food and Drink Federation predicts the sector, which employs about 400,000 people, needs to recruit another 140,000 by 2024.The government, which wants to reduce immigration sharply, has yet to announce its post-Brexit policy but farm minister George Eustice has recognized employers’ concerns. “Leaving the EU and establishing controlled migration does not mean closing off all immigration,” he told parliament in earlier this year.However, a government document leaked in September showed that restrictions for all but the highest-skilled EU workers were under consideration.Such a possibility alarms farm employers. “Without EU labor there will be no British pig industry as we know it,” said Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association.Dumidru Voicu nets meat at Cranswick Convenience Foods in Milton Keynes, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples British farmers have relied on foreign labor for a long time, at least around harvest time. A Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme was introduced shortly after World War Two.The government ended it in 2013 before Romanians and Bulgarians won the automatic right to work in Britain, arguing that there were now enough EU workers to fill farm vacancies.With EU citizens to lose that right on Brexit, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) wants the scheme - or something similar - reinstated. This may mean going back to the time when people from beyond eastern Europe filled farm jobs.Michael Oakes, chairman of the dairy board at the NFU, says older colleagues remember when people from countries such as the Philippines worked on British farms.“There are other countries in the world that would help to solve the problem but at the moment because they are not within the EU they are not necessarily able to come in and work.”Filipinos already work on New Zealand farms but such an idea could prove politically difficult in Britain as the pro-Brexit side fought the referendum on promises to curb immigration.Slideshow (3 Images) Many of the 17 million Britons who voted to leave are likely to be unhappy if they find eastern Europeans simply replaced by non-EU workers such as Filipinos or Ukrainians.“Perhaps we need to broaden out the opportunities but a lot of people voted for Brexit because of immigration reasons, so it is a tricky one for the government,” said Oakes.MAKING SACRIFICES Any new seasonal scheme could still recruit in the EU, but might be forced to widen its scope to get the required numbers.Net migration to the UK fell to 230,000 in the year to June, far from the government’s ambition of arrivals “in the tens of thousands”. Still, EU citizens accounted for three quarters of the 106,000 drop, the Office for National Statistics reported.The figures present a mixed picture, with a net 20,000 Poles leaving the country in 2016 but 50,000 Romanians arriving.But some eastern Europeans say they feel less welcome since the referendum and resent the negative attitude of some Britons.“I was quite upset. Why do you have a problem with me if I am coming to take a job you don’t want and I am paying tax?” said Zoltan Peter, who came to England in 2009 to work on a dairy farm in western England, initially leaving his wife and baby daughter at home in Romania.Peter now works as a regional manager for LKL, a firm which recruits workers to the dairy industry, but says the early years were not easy. “I didn’t catch my daughter starting to talk, but you sometimes you make sacrifices and eastern European people are making sacrifices,” he told Reuters.A drop in sterling since the referendum has also made Britain less attractive for farm workers who earn at least 7.20 pounds an hour. That was worth 41 Polish zlotys before the vote but now it buys only 34.Part of the answer may lie in a drive to recruit and train more British workers, despite Peter’s doubts.Oakes said he needed people prepared to work long, unsocial hours often in cold, wet conditions. Milking on his farm starts at 4.30 am and the day does not end until 8 pm. “It is an early start or a late finish, and occasionally on bad days you might have to do both,” he said.Additional reporting by Ana Ionova; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Stamp '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-farmworkers/from-poles-to-filipinos-uk-food-industry-needs-post-brexit-workers-idUSKBN1E1245'|'2017-12-07T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'481ecd640c5f8f581de3757693fdee8daffeab42'|'L&G says on track for record year in 2017'|'December 7, 2017 / 8:06 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago L&G says on track for record year in 2017 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Legal & General said on Thursday it is on track for a record year with strong growth in its core business driving profits higher. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Legal & General insurance company is seen at their office in central London, Britain, March 17, 2008. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico/File Photo “L&G is on track for a record year for earnings and profits... our business is now well-positioned and focused on the products and geographies where we see optimum growth and cultural alignment,” CEO Nigel Wilson said in a statement. The insurer said sales at its retirement business for 2017 to date stood at 6.2 billion pounds supported by strong UK and U.S. institutional pension risk transfer markets, individual annuities and lifetime mortgages. L&G has been growing in the bulk annuity market, which involves taking on the risk of company defined benefit, or final salary, pension schemes. This is seen as an expanding market as many schemes are in deficit and companies want to offload them. It said annuity sales generated 4.5 billion pounds of annuity premium and that it had doubled its U.S. institutional pension risk transfer business versus 2016. L&G said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its Mature Savings business to Swiss Re for around $870 million. Reporting by Clara Denina; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-legal-general-outlook/lg-says-on-track-for-record-year-in-2017-idUKKBN1E10UL'|'2017-12-07T10:05:00.000+02:00'
'6a5bad0515eb68e9f8484d30adbe2086bff3bb94'|'Breaking slow - Asia set to raise rates next year, but still lag Fed'|'December 7, 2017 / 4:36 AM / in 10 minutes Breaking slow - Asia set to raise rates next year, but still lag Fed Marius Zaharia 5 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tighter monetary policy is coming to Asia next year. Yet it will lag the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes as Asian central banks balance an exports-led revival in growth with a slowdown in regional locomotive China. People past the headquarters of the central bank of the People''s Republic of China in Beijing February 16, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo That will mark a shift from a few months ago when most economists expected Asian policy makers to hold their ground or even ease further, but the trade windfall behind a synchronised uptick in global growth is seen lasting longer. Last week South Korea took advantage of the trade boom to normalise policy, lifting rates for the first time in more than six years, and analysts expect Malaysia and Philippines - where growth has also benefited from a surge in public investment - to hike in the first quarter. With the benefit of hindsight when the Fed in 2013 signalled it was time to exit ultra-low rates and sparked a taper tantrum, regional central banks should be more confident of looking at the strength of their own economies rather than that of the United States. “The last couple of years has shown us that monetary policy in this region can decouple from the U.S,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ. “Obviously they are cognisant of what the Fed does and capital flows ... (but) this is not a case of central banks being forced to act just because the Fed is looking to tighten further.” That de-coupling has been on show in the past two years as Asia shrugged off four U.S. rate hikes, and some countries even cut rates over that period. South Korea was the first major Asian economy to lift rates since Indonesia’s November 2014 move, which was reversed three months later as markets eventually took the view that a U.S. lift-off won’t necessarily derail global growth. CHINA FACTOR Of course, the Fed cannot be totally ignored as it is expected to hike again next week and two to three more times in 2018. Korea and Malaysia have some of the lowest real interest rates relative to the United States since the global financial crisis and were responsible for most of the net bond market outflows in Asia in October. Australia and New Zealand could hike later next year, China might raise its short-term policy rates, while some analysts expect even India and Indonesia, which have been cutting recently, to reverse their moves. China is emerging as a key driver of Asia’s policy track next year, with growth in the world’s second-biggest economy set to lose momentum as authorities there extend a year-long crackdown on financial risks. The numbers show Asia is less dependent on American growth than in the past. FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington September 16 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo While emerging Asia’s trade with the United States has gone up by 40 percent since the global financial crisis, its trade with China has risen 120 percent, according to Reuters calculations based on IMF data. Emerging Asia now trades 70 percent more with China than it does with the United States. That means monetary tightening in the region will lag the Fed, as long as any capital outflows driven by the narrower rate differentials do not lead to significantly weaker currencies. Stubbornly low inflation and elevated household debt may also slow rate hikes in some countries. “We have a picture where the average Asian central bank hikes less than the U.S.,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics. “We can argue they can do that without putting pressure on their real economy or financial sector because first, in some countries like India or Indonesia rates start from a higher level than in the United States and they have a buffer and secondly, the dollar would not strengthen a lot.” The good news is that during synchronised global growth the dollar historically tends to be stable or weaker, suggesting that Asian currencies will likely avoid a sharp shakeout. Kuijs expects the 4-8 percent strengthening in Asian currencies this year to come to a halt in 2018, when some might weaken slightly, but by less than 4 percent. BofA Merrill Lynch sees most currencies flat in 2018. FLAT CURVES The other element mitigating the risk of capital outflows is that while short-term bond yields are rising in the U.S. and Asia in anticipation of higher rates, long-term yields have remained stable as markets are yet to be convinced of any global inflationary pressures. While U.S. two-year yields US2YT=RR rose from 1.2 to 1.8 percent this year, 10-year yields US10YT=RR dipped 6 basis points to 2.39 percent, still below South Korean yields KR10YT=RR. “We’re pretty comfortable with the monetary policy outlook for Asia,” said Bryan Collins, portfolio manager, fixed income, at Fidelity International, who sees opportunities in long-dated Asian debt. For a graphic on Asian central bank policy rates, click - tmsnrt.rs/2mv7VVh For a graphic on emerging Asia''s trade with China and the U.S., click - bit.ly/2jIR9CU For a graphic on real interest rates in Asia vs. U.S., click - bit.ly/2Ag9XRD Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asia-economy-rates-analysis/breaking-slow-asia-set-to-raise-rates-next-year-but-still-lag-fed-idUKKBN1E10EW'|'2017-12-07T06:41:00.000+02:00'
'5c163d710f3897f1e129e97db34deb1113ab0326'|'Oil edges up as U.S. crude stocks fall, but soaring output weighs'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed more than 1 percent on Thursday due to a threatened strike in Nigeria and as traders cover shorts after sharp losses the previous day brought on by an unexpectedly large rise in U.S. stocks of refined fuels.An oil pump jack is seen at sunset in a field outside Scheibenhard, near Strasbourg, France, October 6, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann “Short covering in the market, together with the threat of a strike by Nigeria’s key oil union, has provided some support to oil prices in today’s session,” said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy’s Global Gas Analytics in London.One of Nigeria’s main oil unions threatened to go on strike from Dec. 18 over what it said was a “mass sacking of workers.” The country is Africa’s top oil exporter.Brent futures LCOc1 were up 85 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $62.07 a barrel by 11:42 a.m. EST (1642 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was up 63 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $56.59.The previous day, Brent settled down 2.6 percent and WTI down 2.9 percent after an unexpected rise in U.S. fuel stocks.Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday showed that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 5.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 1, to 448.1 million barrels C-STK-T-EIA, putting stocks below seasonal levels in 2015 and 2016. [API/S] [EIA/S]But gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI rose by 6.8 million barrels, well above the 1.7 million-barrel gain analyst had expected, and distillate stocks USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 1.7 million barrels.“It was a sharp correction yesterday, so it’s a bit of a pause today,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director of PetroMatrix, adding “technically, it’s still very weak.”PVM Oil Associates also said in a note that “the weekly data was not as bad as it seems at first sight.”“Current (stock) levels are nearly 7 percent below last year and the surplus to the five-year average is only 3.9 percent,” it said.But troublingly for oil bulls, U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA rose by 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.71 million bpd in the week to Dec. 1, the highest since monthly figures showing the United States produced more than 10 million bpd in the early 1970s.Soaring U.S. output threatens to undermine efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to bring production and demand into balance following years of oversupply.Sukrit Vijayakar, managing director of energy consultancy Trifecta, said there were “darker shadows over the pace of rebalancing, if ... any is taking place.”Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper and Libby George in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-oil/u-s-oil-edges-up-after-drop-in-crude-inventories-but-soaring-output-weighs-idINKBN1E102T'|'2017-12-07T06:27:00.000+02:00'
'5f4bbc00bd29b87c4e710dbfdd6ab7770bd74c13'|'New York pension fund seeks more pay disclosure from Wells Fargo'|'December 7, 2017 / 5:39 PM / in an hour New York pension fund seeks more pay disclosure from Wells Fargo Dan Freed 3 Min Read (Reuters) - New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is asking Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC.N ) to disclose more information about employee incentive pay, an issue that was at the heart of a scandal that has roiled the third-largest U.S. lender for more than a year. FILE PHOTO - New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli speaks during an interview with Reuters in New York, October 18, 2010. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid DiNapoli oversees the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the third largest U.S. state pension fund with more than $200 billion in assets and a top 50 Wells Fargo shareholder with nearly 14 million shares. “The bank has not reassured investors that its pay practices encourage long-term, sustainable growth,” DiNapoli said in an emailed statement. Wells Fargo spokesman Mark Folk said the bank values input from shareholders and is reviewing the proposal. Wells Fargo’s scandal began in September 2016 when the bank settled with regulators over the creation of potentially up to 2.1 million fake accounts, a number the bank later revised to as high as potentially 3.5 million. FILE PHOTO - The sign outside the Wells Fargo & Co. bank in downtown Denver April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Compensation incentives “contributed to problematic behavior,” in the creation of fake accounts, according to an internal report by Wells Fargo’s board of directors released on April 10. Other problems have since come to light in different areas of the bank, including auto insurance, residential mortgages, and foreign exchange trading. The proposal by DiNapoli requests that Wells Fargo’s board prepare a report disclosing detailed information about incentive-based pay throughout the bank. Should the board agree to produce such a report, DiNapoli would withdraw the proposal, according to a letter by his staff to Wells Fargo Chief Executive Tim Sloan. Barring such an agreement, DiNapoli requested the proposal be included on the bank’s proxy statement to be voted on by shareholders at Wells Fargo’s annual meeting in the spring. DiNapoli submitted a similar proposal last year, but Wells Fargo got permission from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to leave it off the proxy, arguing it was similar to another shareholder proposal calling for a broader report on several matters, including “evidence that incentive systems are aligned with customers’ best interests.” Reporting by Dan Freed in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wells-fargo-accounts-compensation/new-york-pension-fund-seeks-more-pay-disclosure-from-wells-fargo-idUSKBN1E12JJ'|'2017-12-07T19:39:00.000+02:00'
'548446a1b72a32915490a9ae3e1a73f4fe740ff6'|'Ireland''s CRH withdraws from bidding for South African cement maker PPC'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:32 AM / in 11 minutes Ireland''s CRH withdraws from bidding for South African cement maker PPC Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Irish cement producer CRH, the world’s third-largest building materials supplier by market value, had decided not to bid for rival PPC the South African company said on Thursday. Last month, CRH made an undisclosed cash bid for PPC and had been given time for due diligence and to submit an updated bid. “CRH has decided not to submit an updated expression of interest and therefore considers it appropriate to withdraw from the Independent Board’s process,” PPC said in a statement. PPC last month turned its back on a takeover attempt by AfriSam [AFRSMV.UL], backed by Canada’s Fairfax Africa. However, regulations allow Fairfax until Dec. 12 to post its partial offer circular. PCC, which has been a consolidation target on-and-off for several years, said it was still talking to Swiss company LafargeHolcim. CRH said in August it had around 5 billion euros ($5.90 billion) in cash to spend on M&A over the next 18-24 months. It has committed 3 billion euros of that to buying Ash Grove Cement Co. Dublin-based CRH did not respond to a request for immediate comment. Shares in PPC, which has a market capitalisation of 11.02 billion rand ($812 million) and had net debt of 4.4 billion rand at the end of September, were down 4.21 percent at 6.60 rand by 0755 GMT. CRH’s stock was up 1 percent at 39.60 euros. PPC last month reported a 36 percent rise in half-year earnings, helped by robust performance in Zimbabwe and Rwanda. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ppc-m-a-crh/irelands-crh-withdraws-from-bidding-for-south-african-cement-maker-ppc-idUKKBN1E10QO'|'2017-12-07T10:13:00.000+02:00'
'8a5b7b9923bc88c26137653587300e60a4689d8a'|'Spotify and Tencent Music to buy stakes in each other'|'STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Music streaming company Spotify and the music arm of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd will buy minority stakes in each other ahead of the Swedish firm’s expected stock market listing next year, the companies said on Friday.FILE PHOTO: Headphones are seen in front of a logo of online music streaming service Spotify, February 18, 2014 REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The deal will help Spotify, a music streaming leader in Europe and North America, and China-focused Tencent Music, to increase exposure to each other’s core markets.The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter, that the firms were in talks to swap stakes of up to 10 percent in each other.Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, and Spotify will buy new shares representing minority equity stakes in each other for cash, the companies said in a statement.“This transaction will allow both companies to benefit from the global growth of music streaming,” Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said.Tencent Holding will also buy a minority stake in Spotify, the companies said, without giving details.The size of the stakes was not disclosed in the statement and a Spotify spokeswoman declined to provide further details about the agreement.Tencent owns a majority stake in TME, which is the dominant player in the Chinese market with music service providers QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo.“TME and Spotify will work together to explore collaboration opportunities,” TME Chief Executive Cussion Pang said.Sources told Reuters in September that Spotify was aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators in order to list in the first half of 2018.Reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Olof Swahnberg; Editing by Niklas Pollard and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-tencent/spotify-and-tencent-music-to-buy-stakes-in-each-other-idINKBN1E2214'|'2017-12-08T12:09:00.000+02:00'
'72e4948e96742bafabc59919a131ed9f44e5ba35'|'Five reasons the US job market is not as rosy as it looks - Dominic Rushe - Business'|'On the face of it, the US job market appears in rude health , with unemployment at a 17-year-low. But look beyond the headlines, and it’s not all milk and honey Contact author Friday 8 December 2017 18.58 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close U nemployment in the US is now at a 17-year low, having grown for 86 months in a row since the Great Recession. Hiring did grind to a halt in September after hurricanes Harvey and Irma tore through Florida and Texas, disrupting some of the country’s most economically important areas. But on Friday, the economy appeared to have shaken off the slump that followed in their wake, adding 228,000 new jobs in November according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Beneath the surface, however, there are still some deep scars and structural problems remaining in the labor market. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/08/us-jobs-market-economy-not-so-rosy'|'2017-12-09T01:58:00.000+02:00'
'48ab67267a1b63ff06c1ed321c0a2ae863e580a8'|'Morning News Call - India, December 6'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:00 am: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s pre-budget meeting with industry and trade groups in New Delhi. 02:30 pm: RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee to announce interest rate decision in Mumbai. 02:45 pm: RBI Governor Urjit Patel briefs media post release of monetary policy statement in Mumbai. 05:00 pm: RBI analyst conference call post Monetary Policy Committee rate decision in Mumbai. INDIA TOP NEWS • India''s central bank, wary on inflation, set to keep rates on hold The Reserve Bank of India looks set to keep its policy rate on hold, after inflation accelerated to a seven-month high and stronger economic growth reduced the need for monetary stimulus. • More Chinese lenders plan to pursue RCom in insolvency court -sources Two major Chinese lenders plan to support a move by China Development Bank to put Indian wireless carrier Reliance Communications into insolvency court as they seek to recover about $2 billion in debt, said three people with knowledge of the matter. • Google unveils new Android software in India to power cheap smartphones Alphabet Inc''s Google launched a stripped-down version of its Android software in India on Tuesday, as it attempts to woo millions of basic phone users in the fast-growing wireless services market. • Indian refiners turn to use dirty fuel to produce power, gas Indian oil refiners are drawing up plans to use petroleum coke for power generation and to produce syngas after the government banned use of the heavily polluting fuel in and around New Delhi. • India''s cenbank reiterates warnings about trading in Bitcoins India''s central bank on Tuesday reiterated its concerns about Bitcoins, just days after the cryptocurrency hit a record high of just under $11,800, stoking fears that a rapidly swelling bubble could burst in a spectacular fashion. • India''s case against Mallya politically motivated, UK court hears The Indian government’s fraud case against tycoon Vijay Mallya is baseless and politically motivated, his defence lawyer told a London court on Tuesday as she battled to prevent his extradition to his home country. • Top Indian insurer LIC to slow stock investments after bumper buy State-owned Life Insurance Corp of India will likely slow stock purchases for the rest of the fiscal year after nearly doubling its equity market investments in the first half from a year earlier. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel capital, upending decades of U.S. policy President Donald Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel''s capital and set in motion the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to the ancient city, senior U.S. officials said, a decision that upends decades of U.S. policy and risks fueling violence in the Middle East. • Russia banned from Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Russia has been banned from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after the IOC found evidence of an "unprecedented systematic manipulation" of the anti-doping system that has led to a series of suspensions for the country''s athletes in recent months. • Trump lawyer denies Deutsche Bank got subpoena on Trump accounts A U.S. federal investigator probing alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election asked Deutsche Bank for data on accounts held by President Donald Trump and his family, a person close to the matter said on Tuesday, but Trump''s lawyer denied any such subpoena had been issued. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) The SGX Nifty Futures were at 10,116.50, down 0.27% from its previous close. Indian government bonds are likely to trade steady ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision on interest rates due later today. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.05percent -7.08percent band till the MPC decision, a trader with a primary dealership said. The Indian rupee will likely edge higher against the dollar, as concerns of a likely U.S. government shutdown stalled the greenback’s recent gains triggered by the Senate’s approval of a tax bill. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street fell on Tuesday as a technology rebound lost steam and Walt Disney Co shares dipped, while investors assessed how a Republican U.S. tax overhaul would impact corporate earnings. • Asian stocks slipped, pressured by losses on Wall Street as the technology sector stuttered yet again after a brief rebound, while the dollar sagged on lower long-term U.S. yields. • The dollar edged down, as concerns about a possible U.S. government shutdown offset optimism about progress on tax reform legislation, while the Australian dollar weakened after economic data showed worrying signs for growth. • Short-dated U.S. Treasury yields rose to their highest in more than eight years on Tuesday as investors increasingly expected the U.S. Congress to pass tax reform legislation and the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates several times next year. • Oil prices dipped, as refined product inventories in the United States rose in what the market interpreted as a sign of lacklustre demand. • Gold prices nudged down early on Wednesday after touching a two-month low in the previous session, despite a slightly weaker dollar. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.41/64.44 December 5 -$228.6 mln $236.25 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.11 pct Month-to-date - $230.97 mln Year-to-date $8.60 bln $25.97 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.3500 Indian rupees) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-december-6-idUSL3N1O61CD'|'2017-12-06T11:21:00.000+02:00'
'cbcdff4a414a13248bff9a871603b73acaba5072'|'Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on Dec 8'|'ZURICH, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI was seen opening 0.4 percent higher at 9,304 points on Friday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer .Here are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks on Friday.SWISS RE Swiss Re Chief Financial Officer David Cole will step down next March and be replaced by the group’s head of strategy, John Dacey, the world’s second-largest reinsurer said on Friday.LAFARGEHOLCIM The former chief executive of Franco-Swiss cement group LafargeHolcim Ltd, Eric Olsen, was placed under formal investigation on Thursday as part of an inquiry into the group’s activities in Syria, a source with the prosecutor’s office said.ROCHE Scientists at Swiss drugmaker Roche said on Friday they may have discovered why some tumours resist new immunotherapy drugs as well as a possible means of turning the tables to incite a T-cell attack.UBS UBS said Jeremy Anderson, former KPMG chairman of global financial services, will be nominated for election to the Swiss bank’s board of directors at its forthcoming annual general meeting planned for May 3.COMPANY STATEMENTS * Novartis division Sandoz said new Phase I data showing proposed biosimilar Pegfilgrastim matches reference medicine* Clariant said it has entered into an agreement with Xuzhou HaiDing Chemical Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a CATOFIN catalyst and propane dehydrogenation unit together with technology partner CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Pizhou, Jiangsu Province, China, Clariant said. (Reporting by Zurich newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-swiss-stocks/swiss-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-8-idINL8N1O75SV'|'2017-12-08T04:38:00.000+02:00'
'2d12215d49d11ddaf8aa7b265c707403a7ac291e'|'WRAPUP 1-Strong November U.S. job gains anticipated; wages seen rising'|'December 8, 2017 / 5:05 AM / in 3 hours Strong U.S. job growth in November bolsters economy''s outlook Lucia Mutikani 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth increased at a strong clip in November, painting a portrait of a healthy economy that analysts say does not require the kind of fiscal stimulus that President Donald Trump is proposing, even though wage gains remain moderate. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 228,000 jobs last month amid broad gains in hiring as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded, Labor Department data showed on Friday. The government revised data for October to show the economy adding 244,000 jobs instead of the previously reported 261,000 positions. November’s report was the first clean reading since the storms, which also impacted September’s employment data. Average hourly earnings rose five cents or 0.2 percent in November after dipping 0.1 percent the prior month. That lifted the annual increase in wages to 2.5 percent from 2.3 percent in October. Workers also put in more hours last month. The unemployment rate was unchanged at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent amid a rise in the labor force. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising by 200,000 jobs last month. The fairly upbeat report underscored the economy’s strength and could fuel criticism of efforts by Trump and his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress to slash the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. “The labor market is in great shape. Tax cuts should be used when the economy needs tax cuts and it doesn’t need tax cuts right now,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “When politics and economics are mixed in the stew, the policies that are created often have a very awful smell.” Republicans argue that the proposed tax cut package will boost the economy and allow companies to hire more workers. But with the labor market near full employment and companies reporting difficulties finding qualified workers, most economists disagree. Job openings are near a record high. The White House said the strong jobs report was a sign that “Trump’s bold economic vision continues to pay off.” The Democratic Party, however, said Republicans are handing working American families a “bad deal.” The economy grew at a 3.3 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, the fastest in three years, and appears to have maintained the momentum early in the October-December quarter. The average workweek rose to 34.5 hours in November, the longest in five months, from 34.4 hours in October. Aggregate weekly hours worked surged 0.5 percent last month after October’s 0.3 percent gain. “A six-minute increase in the work week does not sound like much, but given the size of the labor market, it turns out to be significant in terms of output,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York. Brochures are displayed for job seekers at the Construction Careers Now! hiring event in Denver, Colorado U.S. August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The dollar was trading higher against a basket of currencies, while prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. Stocks on Wall Street rose. FULL EMPLOYMENT While November’s employment report had no impact on expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its Dec. 12-13 policy meeting, it could help shape the debate on monetary policy next year. The U.S. central bank has increased borrowing costs twice this year and has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. Employment growth has averaged 174,000 jobs per month this year, down from the average monthly gain of 187,000 in 2016. A slowdown in job growth is normal when the labor market nears full employment. The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The unemployment rate has declined by seven-tenths of a percentage point this year. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part time because they cannot find full-time employment, ticked up to 8.0 percent last month from a near 11-year low of 7.9 percent in October. Economists believe shrinking labor market slack will unleash a faster pace of wage growth next year. Higher wages and tax cuts will fuel inflation. Some say wage growth is being understated. “Most recognize that average hourly earnings is a flawed gauge of wages, since it is currently being held down by the fact that higher-paid older workers are retiring,” said Michelle Girard, chief economist at NatWest Markets in Stamford, Connecticut. The growth in employment was broad in November. Construction payrolls increased by 24,000 jobs, thanks in part to rebuilding efforts in the areas devastated by the hurricanes, after rising 10,000 in October. Manufacturing scored another month of solid job gains, with payrolls increasing by 31,000 jobs after rising 23,000 in the prior month. Retail payrolls grew by 18,700 jobs last month, the largest gain since January. Employment at department stores increased by 3,100 jobs, likely boosted by hiring for the holiday season. Retailers, including Macy’s Inc, ( M.N ) reported strong Black Friday sales. Macy’s said this month it would hire an additional 7,000 temporary workers for its stores to deal with heavy customer traffic in the run-up to Christmas. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/strong-november-u-s-job-gains-anticipated-wages-seen-rising-idUSKBN1E20GF'|'2017-12-08T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'f098ec5e1cd604d6755ef64818862c69dcc1c9cb'|'McDonald''s Malaysia refutes Israel ties after boycott calls'|'December 10, 2017 / 4:31 AM / in 12 hours McDonald''s Malaysia refutes Israel ties after boycott calls Reuters Staff 3 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The Malaysian franchise of McDonald’s Corp ( MCD.N ) said it was “disappointed” with calls on social media to boycott the fast food restaurant chain in apparent retaliation to the United State’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The corporate logo of McDonald''s Corp fast food chain is seen on display in the Malaysian town of Pekan May 4, 2013. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad Social media users in the Muslim-majority country called on boycotting various U.S. companies following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to relocate the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a city important to both Israelis and Muslims. One user of Twitter Inc’s ( TWTR.N ) microblogging platform, TheUsopIbrahim, stated without citing sources that U.S.-headquartered McDonald’s “channeled funds to Israel”. The post has been retweeted 320 times and “liked” 138 times. TheUsopIbrahim did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. McDonald’s Malaysia, in a statement on Facebook Inc’s ( FB.O ) social media platform on Saturday, said the chain does not support or engage in any political or religious conflicts. “The claim that McDonald’s channels funds to Israel is a false accusation, a lie, fake and slanderous. The charges made by an irresponsible party in (Facebook‘s) Whatsapp messages are also unsubstantiated,” said Azmir Jaafar, managing director and operating partner of franchisee Gerbang Alaf Restaurants Sdn Bhd, without specifying any social media posts. Azmir also said Gerbang’s largest shareholder is Muslim. The Malaysian and Singaporean franchise rights were bought by Saudi Arabia’s Lionhorn Pte Ltd a year ago, as part the U.S. parent’s strategy of moving away from direct ownership in Asia. The Malaysian franchise also faced boycott calls in 2014 when social media posts alleged, without citing sources, that the restaurant chain was helping fund Israeli attacks on Gaza. The company denied the allegation. On Friday, Malaysian protesters condemned the U.S. action, burning an effigy of Trump in front of the American embassy. Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-mcdonalds-boycott/mcdonalds-malaysia-refutes-israel-ties-after-boycott-calls-idUSKBN1E4034'|'2017-12-10T12:31:00.000+02:00'
'20dd5538fb2f22b7d559a410daf8b18eee686185'|'Steinhoff calls in Moelis and AlixPartners to advise ahead of lenders'' meeting'|'BERLIN, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Troubled international retail conglomerate Steinhoff , whose shares plunged last week after disclosing accounting problems, said on Sunday it had appointed two advisory firms ahead of a meeting with lenders on Dec. 19.The South African company said it has appointed U.S. investment bank Moelis & Co to advise the company on talks with its lenders, and has asked management consultancy AlixPartners “to assist on liquidity management and operational measures”.More than $14 billion was wiped off the market value of the Johannesburg and Frankfurt-listed group last week after it announced it was ordering an independent investigation into its accounts and said its CEO was leaving.“The group is currently fully focussed on safeguarding operational liquidity to continue funding existing operations throughout its various subsidiaries,” the company said on Sunday.“In this context, the group is asking for and requires continued support in relation to existing facilities from all its lenders to achieve an immediate stabilisation of the group’s financing,” it added in a statement.On Friday the company had said it was postponing its regular annual lenders’ meeting in London from Dec. 11 to Dec. 19 as a result of it having postponed its financial results pending the outcome of the accounting investigation.“The purpose of the meeting will be for the group to provide an update on its ongoing operational and financial situation. An agenda for the meeting will be circulated ahead of 19 December 2017,” the company said on Sunday. (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Greg Mahlich) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/steinhoff-intlnl-ceo-advisers/steinhoff-calls-in-moelis-and-alixpartners-to-advise-ahead-of-lenders-meeting-idINL8N1OA0TK'|'2017-12-10T17:24:00.000+02:00'
'329d7bd9a4671c06a5121571792b38898b4e6365'|'VW executive convicted in U.S. may seek transfer to Germany - Welt am Sonntag'|'December 9, 2017 / 11:04 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago VW executive convicted in U.S. may seek transfer to Germany - Welt am Sonntag Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) executive Oliver Schmidt, convicted in the United States this week for his role in the German carmaker’s emissions scandal, may ask to serve his prison sentence in Germany, German weekly Welt am Sonntag reported, citing sources close to Schmidt. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt, charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States over the company''s diesel emissions scandal is shown in this booking photo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., provided January 9, 2017. Courtesy of Broward County Sheriff''s Office/Handout via REUTERS The paper said such a request would have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice as well as a German court. Schmidt was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in prison and fined $400,000 (298,886.7 pounds), the maximum possible under a plea deal the German national made with prosecutors in August after admitting to charges of conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violate clean-air laws. Schmidt read a written statement in court acknowledging his guilt. Welt am Sonntag quoted Schmidt’s lawyer Alexander Saettele as saying that he was looking into a possible appeal but that no decision had been made yet. The verdict “was not a surprise, but it was still disappointing to him that he was not able to get through to the judge,” Saettele told the paper. Saettele of Berlin-based lawfirm Danckert Huber Baerlein was not immediately available for comment outside his firm’s office hours. David DuMouchel, a Detroit-based lawyer for Schmidt of lawfirm Butzel Long, declined to provide any details on the case. “There are a number of matters that remain to be done and so the matter is still active and therefore I cannot comment,” he said in an e-mailed statement. Schmidt also still faces possible disciplinary action at Volkswagen, including damages claims and termination of his contract, according to a company spokesman. “That is an integral part of the compliance guidelines of any company,” the spokesman told Reuters on Friday. In March, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three felony counts under a plea agreement to resolve U.S. charges that it installed secret software in vehicles in order to elude emissions tests. Schmidt was in charge of the company’s environmental and engineering office in Auburn Hills, Michigan, until February 2015, where he oversaw emissions issues. U.S. prosecutors have charged eight current and former Volkswagen executives. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Additional reporting by Jan Schwartz; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-emissions/vw-executive-convicted-in-u-s-may-seek-transfer-to-germany-welt-am-sonntag-idUKKBN1E30S9'|'2017-12-10T01:08:00.000+02:00'
'2ba97cbbfcf7cca7f064f596e394998d2a967f66'|'Primavera lines up US$220 million of loans for Stratford School LBO'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - China-based private equity firm Primavera Capital has secured US$220m of loan commitments from Macquarie Group to back its leveraged buyout of US private schools system Stratford School, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The financing is split between a US$150m term loan with a first priority claim and a US$50m term loan with a second priority claim, the sources said. The debt package will include a US$20m revolving credit facility, one of the sources added.The transaction has already closed, according to another source familiar.Primavera paid about US$500m for Stratford, representing a multiple of 14.5 times the company’s last 12 months Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, of approximately US$34m, the first two sources said.Stratford was acquired from private equity firm Warburg Pincus.Macquarie declined to comment. Stratford, Primavera and Warburg Pincus did not respond to requests for comment.The deal comes amid a growing interest in educational assets from investors, largely Asia-based, seeking to capitalize on Eastern students’ pursuit of Western education resources.Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire Partners in September announced it would make a significant investment in Curriculum Associates, a US provider of K-12 educational assessment and instructional materials.Hong Kong-based buyout firm Baring Private Equity Asia last month agreed to buy Spain-based language teaching business Wall Street English from Pearson in a consortium with CITIC Capital Holdings for around US$300m.Baring is also nearing a deal to acquire U.S. educational services company Prometric Inc from nonprofit Educational Testing Service (ETS) for roughly US$1bn, including debt, Reuters reported on Wednesday.The debt will bring Stratford’s leverage to 4.4 times through the senior loan and 5.9 times through the junior loan, based on US$200m of funded debt.Stratford operates schools throughout Southern and Northern California focusing on science, technology, engineering, arts and math programs for preschool through eighth grade.Reporting by Andrew Berlin; Editing By Jon MethvenOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-primavera-stratford-lbo/primavera-lines-up-us220-million-of-loans-for-stratford-school-lbo-idINKBN1E22QH'|'2017-12-08T18:50:00.000+02:00'
'80c34f3de937a434571ffefedd091a00aba94586'|'Boston Herald files for bankruptcy protection to pursue sale'|'SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The parent company of the Boston Herald filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday and will look to sell the newspaper to Gatehouse Media LLC, a move that underscores the hard times facing traditional print journalism.Publisher and owner Patrick Purcell broke the news personally to the newspaper’s staff and said in a letter to employees that a court-supervised sale was the best option for the Boston Herald, which traces its roots to 1846, to stay in business.“All I ever wanted to do was keep the Boston Herald alive,” Purcell said in the letter, according to the newspaper’s report of the sale and the bankruptcy filing. “And it is with this pending sale that I am able to do that in these difficult newspapering times.”“I am certain this is the best pathway forward for you and for the newspaper we have nurtured together, in my case, for the last 33 years,” said Purcell.The sale to Gatehouse, which publishes daily and weekly newspapers in Massachusetts, is pending court approval. Financial details were not disclosed.Parent Boston Herald Inc and Gatehouse were not immediately available for comment.The Boston Herald’s report on the sale and bankruptcy filing noted the tabloid had been “hindered like many other newspapers with significant pension and retirement liabilities as well as declining revenue with the onset of digital media and a growing variety of news originators and aggregators.”Purcell bought the newspaper in the 1990s from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. At its peak in 2000, it had about 900 employees. Now it has 240 employees, with more than half working in the newsroom.The Boston Herald, which has a circulation of 64,500, said it will publish as usual as its parent company pursues the sale.Boston Herald Inc filed for protection from its creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The company’s Chapter 11 petition indicated it has between 200 and 999 creditors and estimated assets and liabilities each between $10 million and $50 million.Reporting by Jim Christie, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-boston-herald-bankruptcy/boston-herald-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-to-pursue-sale-idINKBN1E22UX'|'2017-12-08T20:15:00.000+02:00'
'154213e9b0ec85a4adf32f12071d4fc35450efff'|'Delta Air Lines cancels hundreds of flights due to winter storm'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ) has canceled more than 600 flights due to inclement weather at its Atlanta hub, the carrier said on Friday, as a winter storm travels towards the northeast, threatening more cancellations and delays. FILE PHOTO: Delta planes line up at their gates while on the tarmac of Salt Lake City International Airport in Utah September 28, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The Atlanta-based airline said a wintry mix was to blame for lengthy delays on de-icing planes. By Friday evening, the carrier had canceled 625 flights from Atlanta. The early winter storm is expected to move northward along the eastern seaboard leaving a trail of snow and slush along major airline routes, including the New York area and Boston. Even relatively small storms can pose a big headache for airlines, which can end up with millions of dollars of lost revenue from costly cancellations and delays. Delta, United Airlines ( UAL.N ) and American Airlines ( AAL.O ) have issued change fee waivers for customers flying out of potentially affected airports. Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-delta-air-weather/delta-air-lines-cancels-hundreds-of-flights-due-to-winter-storm-idUSKBN1E22RM'|'2017-12-09T00:06:00.000+02:00'
'09476d351af2ea97f6a4561c27d6d8a4184ad4f4'|'Greek unemployment dips to 20.5 percent in September'|'December 7, 2017 / 12:09 PM / in an hour Greek unemployment dips to 20.5 percent in September Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s jobless rate eased to 20.5 percent in September from an upwardly revised 20.7 percent in August, the country’s statistics service ELSTAT said on Thursday. Seasonally adjusted data showed the number of registered unemployed at 981.126 people, with younger persons aged up to 24 bearing the brunt of being out of work. Among younger persons aged 15 to 24, the jobless rate eased to 39.5 percent from 45 percent a year ago. Greece’s jobless rate, which hit a record high of 27.9 percent in September 2013, has been easing in recent months but remains the highest in the euro zone. Greece expects the unemployment rate to fall to 18.4 percent next year, based on projections in its 2018 budget draft. Unemployment in the 19 countries sharing the euro stood at 9.8 percent in October, the lowest rate since January 2009. Reporting by George Georgiopoulos'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-unemployment/greek-unemployment-dips-to-20-5-percent-in-september-idUKKBN1E11LD'|'2017-12-07T14:08:00.000+02:00'
'95d65b38972ceb777c9ea7f88b1259c945270b4b'|'Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Adds ArcelorMittal, Kiwi.com, Uniper, Royal KPN, Esaote, Sears, Stryker, British Airways, Nordic Capital, Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, Dialog Semiconductor, BASF, AT&T, Honeywell; updates GVC Holdings)Dec 7 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Thursday:** Israel Chemicals (ICL) said it has agreed to sell its fire safety and oil additives units to SK Capital for about $1 billion.** Lloyds Banking Group said it has sold its London headquarters to a Chinese property investment company for an undisclosed price.** Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund has made its first real estate investment in Asia by acquiring a 70 percent stake in five properties in Tokyo and hopes to do more property deals in the Japanese capital, it said.** Online gambling company GVC Holdings is in talks to buy Ladbrokes Coral for up to $5.2 billion in a long-awaited deal that would transform it into a bastion of British betting.** U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital has won enough shareholder support to complete its tender offer of Asatsu-DK Inc (ADK), allowing the Japanese advertising agency to end a bitter two-decade partnership with top shareholder WPP .** Hong Kong-based buyout firm Baring Private Equity Asia is nearing a deal to acquire U.S. educational services company Prometric Inc for roughly $1 billion, including debt, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.** State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is set to approve a long-proposed $1 billion joint venture with ArcelorMittal at its board meeting next week, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.** Shareholders in Kiwi.com are considering selling up to a majority stake in the Czech online travel agency, with a deal possible within months, one of the main owners said.** German energy firm Uniper promised higher dividends in coming years in its bid to convince shareholders not to tender their stock to Fortum in the Finnish group’s 8.05 billion euro ($9.49 billion) takeover bid.** Dutch telecoms firm Royal KPN NV said it was not interested in pursuing any foreign takeovers for now, responding to a Bloomberg report that its incoming CEO could target Belgium’s Proximus or Denmark’s TDC.** A group of Chinese investors, including a private equity fund co-founded by Alibaba head Jack Ma, has agreed to buy Italian medical device group Esaote, the company said.** A Sears Holdings Corp investor asked the struggling retailer to consider options including going private and investigate what it called an “unusually high volume” of short-selling in the company’s shares.** Medical device maker Stryker Corp said it would buy Entellus Medical Inc for $662 million, adding heft to its ear, nose and throat (ENT) business.** British Airways is no longer interested in stepping in with an offer for the Niki unit of insolvent Air Berlin, should a planned sale to Lufthansa not be approved, a source familiar with the matter said.** Nine banks have lined up €725m of leveraged loans to back Nordic Capital’s acquisition of Germany’s second-largest nursing home operator Alloheim, banking sources said.** Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Chief Executive Officer Jochen Tilk met with authorities in Chile as the Canadian fertilizer company tries to divest its minority stake in Chilean lithium miner SQM ahead of its proposed merger with rival Agrium Inc.** China’s top state silicon chipmaker has raised its stake in Dialog Semiconductor, buying into share price weakness triggered by fears the Anglo-German firm could lose its top customer Apple Inc.** Chemical giant BASF agreed to merge its oil and gas unit Wintershall with DEA, a vehicle of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, to create one of the largest independent oil and gas firms in Europe, the companies said.** The U.S. Department of Justice and AT&T Inc will meet in court for the first time as the antitrust regulator attempts to stop the U.S. No. 2 wireless company’s $85 billion purchase of media company Time Warner Inc.** Industrial conglomerate Honeywell will take a 25 percent stake in Chinese software provider Flux Information Technology, placing a long-term bet on China’s rapidly growing logistics industry. (Compiled by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1O73ED'|'2017-12-07T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'fb61aaf317b4b2bba74f4b3c4af8b7afdafd4e07'|'Bookmaker GVC in talks to buy Ladbrokes for $5.2 billion'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:30 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago GVC ups stakes in UK gambling with $5.2 billion Ladbrokes bid Kate Holton , Arathy S Nair 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bookmaker GVC Holdings ( GVC.L ) has offered to buy Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ) for up to $5.2 billion to create a global online and high street betting giant able to take on rivals and cope with a tougher regulatory environment. A taxi passes a branch of Ladbrokes in central London, Britain, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville GVC, which boasts 79 million registered accounts and operates in 21 languages through names such as sportingbet and partypoker, previously bought bwin.party in 2016. The proposed takeover would give it access to the Ladbrokes, Coral and Gala brands and the combined company would compete with William Hill ( WMH.L ) and Paddy Power Betfair ( PPB.I ). The two groups said in a joint statement on Thursday they were in detailed talks over a deal that would give Ladbrokes shareholders around 46.5 percent of the combined group. Shares in the 230-year-old Ladbrokes jumped 26 percent in early trading, while GVC shares rose 6 percent on confirmation of the long-rumoured offer, which is in cash and shares. The final price will depend on the outcome of a government review into fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). The machines are big moneyspinners for companies like Ladbrokes but they have come under fire for leaving gamblers with very heavy losses. “The enlarged group would be an online-led globally positioned betting and gaming business that would benefit from a multi-brand, multi-channel strategy applied across some of the strongest brands in the sector,” the companies said. “The enlarged group would be geographically diversified with a large portfolio of businesses across both regulated and developing markets, with the scale and resources to address the dynamics of a rapidly changing global industry.” HIGH STAKES Isle of Man-based GVC ( GVC.L ), which has grown rapidly into one of Britain’s biggest online gambling companies, and high street-based Ladbrokes held talks about a deal earlier this year but they broke down without agreement. Analysts and executives had expected the government review to spark a new round of consolidation but they had expected any deal to come after the final conclusion was handed down. The government has said the maximum stake allowed in FOBTs could be sharply cut over concerns that the terminals fuel addiction. In October it started a 12-week consultation to consider cutting the stake to between 50 pounds and 2 pounds, from the current 100 pound wage. The offer values Ladbrokes Coral at 160.9 pence per share, equating to a total equity value of around 3.1 billion pounds, plus a contingent fee of up to 42.8 pence a share, depending on the outcome of the government review. GVC said the deal would enhance earnings per share by a double digit level from the first full year of completion. Shares in Ladbrokes Coral had closed on Wednesday at 135.7 pence, giving a market capitalisation of 2.61 billion pounds. GVC closed at 909 pence, valuing it at 2.77 billion pounds. Reporting by Kate Holton and Arathy Nair; editing by James Davey and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ladbrokes-m-a-gvc-holdings/bookmaker-gvc-in-talks-to-buy-ladbrokes-for-5-2-billion-idUKKBN1E10Q8'|'2017-12-07T09:18:00.000+02:00'
'7a4d3214ebe38fbf24a946a4ad50d9bd767d4079'|'Alaskan oil lease sale brings few bids despite vast territory offered'|'December 7, 2017 / 2:47 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Alaskan oil lease sale brings few bids despite vast territory offered Yereth Rosen 3 Min Read ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An oil-and-gas lease sale that raised concerns with environmentalists due to the vast amount of acres offered in Arctic Alaska drew few bids on Wednesday, government officials said. Seven bids were received, covering about 80,000 acres - or less than 1 percent of the 10.3 million acres offered in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska by the Trump administration. It was, by far, more territory than ever offered in any of the previous 12 NPR-A lease sales held since 1999. The sale was the latest move by the administration of President Donald Trump, a Republican, supporting his pledge to make the United States “energy dominant” by boosting output of oil, natural gas and coal. Environmentalists have generally accepted some oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve but worry the Trump administration will lift too many restrictions. Environmentalists want to entirely block opening the state’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc, in partnership with Anadarko Petroleum Corp, submitted the seven bids, totalling $1.16 million, for tracts in the NPR-A. Results were revealed in a bid opening conducted in Anchorage by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The ConocoPhillips-Anadarko bids were for tracts along the southern border of ConocoPhillips’ Greater Mooses Tooth unit, where oil production is expected to start next year. “Lease sale interest is unpredictable,” Ted Murphy, associate director of the BLM’s Alaska office, said in a telephone news conference after the sale. “We don’t know what industry, ultimately, will be interested in getting from year to year.” Last year’s NPR-A lease sale drew $18.8 million (14.1 million pounds) in bids, led by ConocoPhillips, for 67 tracts covering 613,529 acres. One environmentalist said the results on Wednesday suggest that the Trump administration is overestimating industry’s desire to drill new Arctic territory. “It seems, from my perspective, that it’s this mentality that if we open it, industry will come. And that’s not necessarily true,” said Lisa Baraff of the Fairbanks-based Northern Alaska Environmental Center. Kara Moriarty, executive director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, said the low level of NPR-A bidding might show that companies were being strategic about new leases. She noted that another lease sale for state land “right next door” to NPR-A drew brisk bidding. The Alaska Oil and Gas Division’s lease sale, also held Wednesday, drew $19.9 million and over 100 bids, mostly from Spanish energy company Repsol SA and Colorado-based independent oil company Armstrong. Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-alaska-oil/alaskan-oil-lease-sale-brings-few-bids-despite-vast-territory-offered-idUKKBN1E109W'|'2017-12-07T04:46:00.000+02:00'
'2727ce841a7fbf7eb686a2c4ad185f05aa17557f'|'WorldRemit sees strong revenues, rapid user growth, eventual IPO'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Cross-border digital money transfer service WorldRemit aims to increase its customers fivefold to 10 million in 2020, with half of them in Africa, Chief Executive Ismail Ahmed said.The London-based company enables its immigrant customer base to use digital financial remittances to bypass more expensive cash transfer options from the likes of Western Union ( WU.N ) and MoneyGram ( MGI.O ) to send money home to families and friends.WorldRemit said on Thursday it aimed to achieve its aggressive growth target with $40 million in new funding from venture backers and after doubling revenue growth in the last two years, which has made it increasingly self-sufficient.“The revenue we generate, the funding that we have received, together, gives us the war chest that we need to significantly expand our business,” Ahmed said in an interview. The Somaliland-born entrepreneur once worked as a United Nations adviser on money-laundering rules.The funding round is led by emerging markets investor LeapFrog Investments, with backing from existing stakeholders Accel Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). WorldRemit has raised $220 million since its founding in 2010.WorldRemit is set to generate around 60 million pounds this year, up from 40 million pounds in 2016 and 27 million pounds in 2015, the founder said. “The revenues we generate allow us to self-finance the business.”Ahmed said its strategy is to enable intra-African money transfers, helping its 1 million customers on the continent avoid some of the world’s most prohibitive cross border bank transfer costs. For example, small business traders in Kenya might source inventory from Uganda or online shoppers in South Africa might pay for goods in Nigeria.The company also is counting on surging growth in the United States, where it expects to generate up to 40 percent of revenue in coming years, compared to 14 percent, he said. Britain and Australia are now its largest revenue generators, each contributing 20 percent of overall revenue.WorldRemit will reinvest potential profits to fuel rapid expansion, Ahmed said. “We could be profitable even today, if we wanted to, but we are investing in growth.”The company is reaching the crossover point where it can finance itself from cash flows, and is gearing up to go public in the next few years, he said.“I think the business is mature. We have reached the stage where we could be a candidate for an IPO (initial public offering),” Ahmed said. “Not 2018. We haven’t put a date on it.”Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-worldremit-outlook/worldremit-sees-strong-revenues-rapid-user-growth-eventual-ipo-idINKBN1E10GE'|'2017-12-07T02:26:00.000+02:00'
'84a7bc3e6e5ef04e9d0a0ac0a84f93c992030636'|'Israel Chemicals sells stake in desalination firm IDE for $167 million'|'JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel Chemicals (ICL) ( ICL.TA ) said on Sunday it completed a sale of its 50 percent holding in water desalination firm IDE Technologies for $167 million.The final price was below an initial agreement of $178 million, ICL said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.ICL ( ICL.N ) said it expects to post a capital gain of $40 million in the fourth quarter from the sale.ICL, a top global supplier of potash, said in June that it reached a deal with a limited partnership whose general partner is a company controlled by IDE’s own chief executive, Avshalom Felber. The partnership also includes institutional bodies from Israel’s Clal Insurance ( CLIS.TA ).IDE, which has built major desalination plants in the United States, Israel, India and China, is jointly owned by ICL and Israeli conglomerate Delek Group ( DLEKG.TA ).Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Jeffrey Heller '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-icl-ide/israel-chemicals-sells-stake-in-desalination-firm-ide-for-167-million-idINKBN1E405U'|'2017-12-10T04:43:00.000+02:00'
'7768b616edfc62a502cab3b13b73488a662ac845'|'South Korea''s Hyundai says faces headwinds from weaker yen next year'|'December 10, 2017 / 12:07 AM / Updated 14 hours ago South Korea''s Hyundai says faces headwinds from weaker yen next year Hyunjoo Jin 3 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean automakers face a major headwind from a weakening Japanese yen, which will boost rivals like Toyota Motor Corp. ( 7203.T ) next year, a Hyundai Motor ( 005380.KS ) think tank said. The logo of Hyundai Motor is seen on wall at a event of Hyundai Motor Co''s new Accent in Mexico City, Mexico August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero The fall in the yen will intensify competition in major markets, such as China and the United States, where overall demand is expected to shrink in 2018, the think tank said. It projected that the Korean won would fetch 978 per 100 yen next year, compared with 1,018 this year. The re-election in November of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who favors massive monetary and fiscal stimulus policies, should point to further yen weakness, the think tank said. Toyota Motor in November raised its forecast for full-year operating profit, in part due to expectations of a weaker yen, which can make goods exported from Japan cheaper and can boost the value of overseas profits when they are repatriated. “The currency environment is expected to deteriorate next year,” Lee Bo-sung, a director of the think tank, the Global Business Intelligence Center, said at a press briefing on Friday. The contents of the briefing were embargoed until 9 am Sunday Seoul time (0000 GMT). “The weaker yen is expected to be the biggest challenge for South Korean automakers next year, as they are competing against Japanese,” Lee said. He said the price gap between Korean and Japanese cars had already narrowed due to the yen’s decline. For example, Hyundai’s Sonata sedan was 10 percent cheaper than Honda’s ( 7267.T ) Accord in the United States in 2011 and the gap is only 2 percent this year, he said. A weaker yen and higher profit have also allowed Japanese carmakers to boost investment and gain market share in China and other emerging markets, Hyundai’s stronghold, he said. Hyundai Motor has seen its net profit tumble by nearly one-third so far this year, and is on track to miss its annual vehicle sales target by a large margin, having failed to position for a consumer swing to sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and a diplomatic row with Beijing that hit Korean-made products. Hyundai Motor said on Friday it plans to roll out three SUVs next year in the United States - the redesigned Santa Fe, the Kona, and the tweaked Tucson, to revive its sales momentum. In China next year, Hyundai and Kia plan to release three China-targeted small SUVs next year. Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin: Additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu in TOKYO and Cynthia Kim in SEOUL: Editing by Neil Fullick'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-motor-yen/south-koreas-hyundai-says-faces-headwinds-from-weaker-yen-next-year-idUKKBN1E4003'|'2017-12-10T02:02:00.000+02:00'
'be6db531d9c79f0094d52c5319d85166c114c331'|'McDonald''s Malaysia refutes Israel ties after boycott calls'|'December 10, 2017 / 4:32 AM / Updated 8 hours ago McDonald''s Malaysia refutes Israel ties after boycott calls Reuters Staff 3 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The Malaysian franchise of McDonald’s Corp ( MCD.N ) said it was “disappointed” with calls on social media to boycott the fast food restaurant chain in apparent retaliation to the United State’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The corporate logo of McDonald''s Corp fast food chain is seen on display in the Malaysian town of Pekan May 4, 2013. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad Social media users in the Muslim-majority country called on boycotting various U.S. companies following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to relocate the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a city important to both Israelis and Muslims. One user of Twitter Inc’s ( TWTR.N ) microblogging platform, TheUsopIbrahim, stated without citing sources that U.S.-headquartered McDonald’s “channeled funds to Israel”. The post has been retweeted 320 times and “liked” 138 times. TheUsopIbrahim did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. McDonald’s Malaysia, in a statement on Facebook Inc’s ( FB.O ) social media platform on Saturday, said the chain does not support or engage in any political or religious conflicts. “The claim that McDonald’s channels funds to Israel is a false accusation, a lie, fake and slanderous. The charges made by an irresponsible party in (Facebook‘s) Whatsapp messages are also unsubstantiated,” said Azmir Jaafar, managing director and operating partner of franchisee Gerbang Alaf Restaurants Sdn Bhd, without specifying any social media posts. Azmir also said Gerbang’s largest shareholder is Muslim. The Malaysian and Singaporean franchise rights were bought by Saudi Arabia’s Lionhorn Pte Ltd a year ago, as part the U.S. parent’s strategy of moving away from direct ownership in Asia. The Malaysian franchise also faced boycott calls in 2014 when social media posts alleged, without citing sources, that the restaurant chain was helping fund Israeli attacks on Gaza. The company denied the allegation. On Friday, Malaysian protesters condemned the U.S. action, burning an effigy of Trump in front of the American embassy. Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-mcdonalds-boycott/mcdonalds-malaysia-refutes-israel-ties-after-boycott-calls-idUKKBN1E4034'|'2017-12-10T06:23:00.000+02:00'
'6f6cdb144e713400ccea635260434a5fc323d788'|'Dollar General 3rd-qtr comp sales beat on hurricane-fueled demand'|'  Dollar General 3rd-qtr comp sales beat on hurricane-fueled demand Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 7 (Reuters) - Dollar General Corp reported better-than-expected comparable sales for the third quarter, as hurricanes resulted in increased traffic and higher spending at its stores. Sales at stores open at least a year increased 4.3 percent, above the average analysts’ estimate of 2.8 percent growth, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income rose to $252.5 million, or 93 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Nov. 3, from $235.3 million, or 84 cents per share, a year earlier. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/dollar-general-results/dollar-general-3rd-qtr-comp-sales-beat-on-hurricane-fueled-demand-idUSL3N1O541F'|'2017-12-07T14:02:00.000+02:00'
'd419d9d4abf1e83f40b8dcd4533e76416ca7d7ac'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX rises with banks, energy stocks'|'December 7, 2017 / 12:35 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago TSX rises with energy stocks, financials Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index rose on Thursday, boosted by gains for financial and energy stocks and bounceback rises for discount store chain Dollarama Inc ( DOL.TO ), commerce software company Shopify ( SHOP.TO ) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc ( VRX.TO ). The Toronto Stock Exchange sign is seen in Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The Toronto Stock Exchange''s S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE unofficially ended up 106.9 points, or 0.67 percent, at 16,015.68. Nine of its 10 main groups closed in positive territory. Reporting by Alastair Sharp; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-stocks/canadian-stock-futures-gain-on-higher-oil-prices-idUSKBN1E11NS'|'2017-12-07T16:41:00.000+02:00'
'e4731829283859541a9f8d25bd90148975d5dc84'|'Asia shares hover near two-month low as growth, U.S. policy risks weigh'|'December 7, 2017 / 1:14 AM / Updated an hour ago Stocks gain as risk appetite returns; oil rebounds Lewis Krauskopf 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - A gauge of global stocks gained on Thursday, led by Wall Street, and the U.S. dollar touched a two-week high before pulling back as risk appetite returned and investors braced for developments with U.S. policy and for a key U.S. jobs report due on Friday. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Major U.S. equity indexes were solidly higher, while oil prices rebounded a day after hitting two-week lows. A U.S. tax bill moving swiftly through Congress has influenced markets in the past month, with investors hoping that deep cuts to corporate tax rates will help further drive the record-setting run in equities. U.S. Senate Republicans agreed to talks with the House of Representatives on sweeping tax legislation on Wednesday, amid early signs that lawmakers could bridge their differences and agree on a final bill ahead of a self-imposed Dec. 22 deadline. ”Obviously, we have had a very strong run in the markets here in the U.S. in the past year and I think they are probably looking at tax policy as a key to continuing that,” said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois. Investors were also wary of U.S. negotiations over a spending package. U.S. President Donald Trump will face off with Democratic leaders of Congress on Thursday in a meeting intended to bridge differences over a spending bill and prevent a government shutdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 84.63 points, or 0.35 percent, to 24,225.54, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 8.21 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,637.48 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 34.82 points, or 0.51 percent, to 6,811.20. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.01 percent. Technology stocks gained in the United States .SPLRCT and Europe .SX8P after the high-flying sector had retreated in recent days. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote “Technology once again is leading the way here,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.26 percent, after declining the past two sessions. The dollar rose to a two-week high against a basket of currencies, recovering losses against the yen, on stronger risk appetite across markets. FILE PHOTO - A man is reflected in an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato The dollar index .DXY rose 0.01 percent to $93.62 after rising as high as $93.80, with the euro EUR= up 0.01 percent to $1.1796. “Tomorrow’s jobs report will play a significant factor in keeping the (dollar) rally alive and heightening hopes for an early 2018 rate hike,” said Lennon Sweeting, chief market strategist at XE in Toronto. Bitcoin soared to a record high of $15,000 on the Bitstamp exchange, continuing a surge from less than $1,000 at the beginning of the year. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 5/32 in price to yield 2.3456 percent, from 2.33 percent late on Wednesday. Oil prices climbed due to a threatened strike in Nigeria and as traders cover shorts after sharp losses the previous day brought on by an unexpectedly large rise in U.S. stocks of refined fuels. U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 1.29 percent to $56.68 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $62.15, up 1.52 percent on the day. Copper CMCU3 rose 0.15 percent to $6,560.00 a tonne, but had yet to retrace steep declines from Tuesday’s session. Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Dion Rabouin in New York, and Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-shares-hover-near-two-month-low-as-growth-u-s-policy-risks-sap-sentiment-idUKKBN1E104G'|'2017-12-07T05:22:00.000+02:00'
'ddc7f793ef4fdbab4027e58f3f80747ae4fe4bb4'|'Growth, rate hikes to jack up main CEE currencies - Reuters poll'|'December 7, 2017 / 8:10 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Growth, rate hikes to jack up main CEE currencies - Reuters poll Sandor Peto 3 Min Read BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Central Europe’s robust and stable economic growth is expected to boost the crown, zloty and forint next year, with the former two also getting help from likely monetary tightening, a Reuters poll found. FILE PHOTO: Polish currency zloty coins are seen in this photo illustration taken in Warsaw, Poland, September 29, 2012. REUTERS/Peter Andrews/File Photo The median forecasts in a Dec 1-6 Reuters poll of 39 analysts showed that the world’s best-performing currencies this year - the zloty and the crown - could extend gains in 2018. Hungary’s forint is expected to regain some of the ground it lost this year, even though the Hungarian central bank is not expected to start to tighten monetary policy. The Czech crown is seen gaining 2.6 percent in the next 12 months relative to Tuesday’s close, to 25 against the euro, a firmer level than 25.165 projected for the one-year horizon in a survey a month ago. The crown has already firmed more than 5 percent this year after the Czech central bank (CNB), fighting rebounding inflation, removed a cap in April that had kept it weaker than 27 per euro for years and has raised interest rates twice since August. A sound economy and expectations for further rate hikes are seen keeping the crown on a firming course. The poll was conducted mostly before Governor Jiri Rusnok said the CNB may raise its 0.5 percent base rate by quarter of a percentage point each half-year. Poland’s central bank played down inflation risks after its meeting on Tuesday, but most analysts expect it to start to raise interest rates in the last quarter of 2018 at the latest. “We still expect very good macroeconomic data over the next 12 months in Poland and (the) CEE region,” said Mateusz Namysl, analyst at Raiffeisen in Warsaw. “We also expect that good economic data may change the attitude of MPC (Monetary Policy Council) in Poland so that they may start raising interest rates in the second half of 2018.” The poll sees the zloty firming 1.5 percent to 4.145 versus the euro in the next 12 months, compared with last month’s 4.21 forecast. Hungary’s central bank (NBH), regarded as one of the most dovish monetary authorities in the world, announced new loosening measures just last month and is unlikely to join a global trend of tightening next year, analysts said. The forint is still seen firming 2.2 percent by December next year, to 307.34 per euro. “Hungary’s current account surplus and a generally good performance in emerging markets strengthens the forint,” said Gabor Ambrus of NatWest, adding that the NBH would slow that process. Elsewhere in Central Europe, the leu could ease 0.4 percent to 4.65 and the dinar shed 0.9 percent to 120.5 against the euro in the next 12 months according to the poll. (For other stories from the FX poll:) Reporting by Sandor Peto; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-forex-poll-centraleurope/growth-rate-hikes-to-jack-up-main-cee-currencies-reuters-poll-idUKKBN1E10UN'|'2017-12-07T10:09:00.000+02:00'
'83ef2d17e079bfd8e81c71fa69e402230d506f96'|'Alibaba to cooperate with Ford Motor for new retail opportunities'|'Reuters TV United States December 7, 2017 / 8:09 AM / in a few seconds Alibaba to cooperate with Ford Motor for new retail opportunities Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba ( BABA.N ) said on Thursday it signed an agreement with Ford Motor ( F.N ) on strategic cooperation to jointly explore areas such as connectivity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. FILE PHOTO: The Ford Motor Company logo is pictured at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo “The agreement aims to explore new ways to redefine how consumers purchase and own vehicles, as well as how to leverage digital channels to identify new retail opportunities,” Alibaba said in a press release. The agreement between Alibaba and Ford is to “explore a pilot study” for new retail opportunities, it added. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos-ford-alibaba/alibaba-to-cooperate-with-ford-motor-for-new-retail-opportunities-idUKKBN1E10UJ'|'2017-12-07T09:56:00.000+02:00'
'e46a17b6a4716ef988b0927d4498a26c788784a2'|'Bain gets almost 90 percent of Japan''s Asatsu-DK in tender offer: Nikkei'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital has garnered 87 percent of Japanese advertising agency Asatsu-DK Inc’s (ADK) ( 9747.T ) shares in a tender offer that closed on Wednesday after a months-long dispute with ADK’s top shareholder.Bain completed the tender offer of ADK, Japan’s third-biggest ad agency, at 3,660 yen ($32.55) each, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday. It had been seeking more than half of ADK to take it private in a 152 billion yen ($1.35 billion) deal announced in October.Britain’s WPP ( WPP.L ), the world’s biggest advertising group and ADK’s largest shareholder with a 25 percent stake, had initially tried to block Bain’s tender offer, which it said undervalued the company. But it reversed its position last month after agreeing plans to reinvest in ADK at a later date. Bain’s final offer price was unchanged from the original.ADK and WPP had formed a business alliance in 1998 to jointly cultivate clients and set up ventures. But with synergies failing to materialize, ADK sought to end its ties with WPP to restructure and focus more on fast-growing areas such as mobile video advertising in a new partnership with Bain.Other ADK shareholders, such as London-based fund manager Silchester International and Hong Kong-based activist hedge fund Oasis Management Company, also had said Bain’s offer was too low. The three shareholders represented at least 42 percent of ADK.Expectations that Bain would raise its offer price drove ADK’s stock to as high as 3,980 yen, a year-high, versus 3,170 yen on the day the bid was made. ADK shares ended morning trade at 3,660 yen on Thursday.Like other advertising markets, Japan is undergoing a rapid transformation as money moves from traditional media outlets to digital. The industry is largely controlled by Dentsu and Hakuhodo DY Holdings, with ADK a distant third.($1 = 112.4300 yen)Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-asatsu-dk-m-a/bain-gets-almost-90-percent-of-japans-asatsu-dk-in-tender-offer-nikkei-idINKBN1E104W'|'2017-12-06T22:16:00.000+02:00'
'b1e9eb96332c43a02335135c4b26734843723dca'|'Uniper sees M&A opportunities in gas-fired power business'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy firm Uniper ( UN01.DE ) sees scope for small takeovers in the area of gas-fired power assets, chief financial officer Christopher Delbrueck told investors and journalists on Thursday.The group, which presented an updated strategy that includes a dividend increase of 24 percent for 2018, earlier this week said it could make deals in the low triple-digit million euro range, leaving open in which areas it could buy.($1 = 0.8482 euros)Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert; Editing by Victoria Bryan '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-outlook-m-a/uniper-sees-ma-opportunities-in-gas-fired-power-business-idINKBN1E111L'|'2017-12-07T06:21:00.000+02:00'
'd6f4f503425419b72bebdc8e528bc7469ed0079e'|'Asia shares hover near two-month low as growth, U.S. policy risks sap sentiment'|' 14 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Asia shares hover near two-month low as growth, U.S. policy risks sap sentiment Hideyuki Sano 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares held close to a two-month low on Thursday as softer oil and copper as well as U.S. policy uncertainty kept sentiment in check, while high-tech stocks struggled to recover after a searing sell-off. An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Investors are looking to the final tax legislation in the United States, where a potential U.S. government shutdown looms if Congress fails to agree on a spending package. There are also fears of a violent backlash in the Middle East from President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was barely changed in early trade, still hovering near a two-month low touched the previous day. From its 10-year peak hit on Nov. 23, it has slipped 4.6 percent. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 gained 1.2 percent after having suffered its biggest fall since late March on Wednesday. MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS hit a two-week low on Wednesday while Wall Street''s benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX edged down for its fourth straight session of losses. “I would say markets are going through a healthy correction after their rallies during the past three months, or six months. I don’t think we need to panic,” said Hirokazu Kabeya, chief global strategist at Daiwa Securities. A relentless selloff in U.S. technology shares, which has pressured global equities in recent weeks, subsided somewhat with S&P technology shares .SPLRCT bouncing slightly 0.75 percent. The energy sector dragged the U.S. market lower overnight as oil prices dropped. Oil prices flirted with two-week lows after its big fall on Wednesday, when a sharp rise in U.S. inventories of refined fuel suggested demand may be flagging, while U.S. crude production hit another weekly record. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 traded at $56.10 per barrel, up 0.25 percent in early Asian trade but not far off Wednesday’s low of $55.87. The price of copper, seen as barometer of global economic health because of its extensive industrial use, also fell sharply earlier this week, raising worries about the world growth outlook. “When you look at growth in China’s industrial output and copper price over the last 10 years, you could say that copper still looks a bit expensive. I wouldn’t be surprised to see further drop in copper if investors grow wary of the possibility of slowdown in China’s output,” said Makoto Noji, senior strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities. Copper CMCU3 closed at $6,550 a tonne on Wednesday, not far from its two-month low of $6,507.5 touched on Tuesday. In the currency market, the euro EUR= fetched $1.1803, having slipped to a two-week low of $1.1780 on Wednesday. The dollar eased to 112.27 yen JPY= , slipping further from Monday''s high of 113.09, which was its highest level in more than two weeks. Bitcoin soared to a new record high, rising to $14,047 BTC=BTSP on cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. On the other hand, silver XAG= extended its decline since late last month to hit a near five-month low of $15.94 per ounce. Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-shares-hover-near-two-month-low-as-growth-u-s-policy-risks-sap-sentiment-idUKKBN1E104E'|'2017-12-07T03:13:00.000+02:00'
'a1d05b6d8dd76912735dd45e315ff5e7607c3d47'|'UPDATE 1-Congolese lower house adopts new mining code that increases taxes'|'(Adds details, background, byline)By Aaron RossDAKAR, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The Congolese lower house of parliament has adopted a new mining code that will increase taxes and royalties, two members of parliament and an aide to the speaker said.The code had originally been proposed in 2015, but was shelved because of fierce objections from mining companies, which complained that it would put off investment. It now goes to the Senate for another vote.Two lawmakers, Alain Lubamba and Juvenal Munubo, and Adam Chalwe, an aide to parliament speaker Aubin Minakund, confirmed the bill’s passage late on Friday, saying only relatively minor changes had been made.Congo is Africa’s largest copper producer, a significant gold miner and one of the world’s leading sources of cobalt, increasingly sought after for use in electric car batteries.The government suspended consideration of the revised code in March 2016 because companies had objected that its increased royalties and would make their projects unprofitable at current low commodity prices.In the earlier version of the bill, Copper royalties increase to 3.5 percent from 2 percent. Gold royalties go up to 3.5 percent from 2.5 percent. It was not clear whether or not these had changed.Major investors in Congo’s mining sector include Glencore , Randgold Resources and China Molybdenum .Low commodity prices since 2015 have left the government desperately short of cash and caused the franc currency to collapse. Mining and oil accounts for about 95 percent of export revenues.Lubamba said changes to the bill included an increase of the state’s minimum unpaid share of new mining projects from 5 percent to 10 percent and an amendment that, for large-scale mines, a Congolese investor must also hold at least 10 percent of shares. (Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Toby Chopra) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/congo-mining/update-1-congolese-lower-house-adopts-new-mining-code-that-increases-taxes-idINL8N1OA0I0'|'2017-12-10T11:33:00.000+02:00'
'05b66ace03d93d70acad9f4c9d4411509a570117'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 7'|'December 7, 2017 / 7:38 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 7 Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Adds company news and futures) Dec 7 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 11 points higher at 7,358.6 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures up 0.10 percent ahead of the cash market open. * DS SMITH: British packaging group DS Smith said first-half profit slipped as gains from acquisitions and strong revenues from its European and e-commerce customers were offset by higher costs. * GVC HOLDINGS: Bookmaker GVC Holdings has offered to buy Ladbrokes Coral for around 3.9 billion pounds ($5.2 billion) to create an online global betting giant that brings together some of the biggest brands in the industry. * HSBC: HSBC has a three-year head start on its foreign investment banking rivals in China because of the British bank’s unique position of having management control of its securities venture there, chief executive Stuart Gulliver said on Thursday. * ROLLS-ROYCE: Air New Zealand Ltd on Thursday said it would cancel and delay some international flights over the coming weeks because engines on its Boeing Co BA.N 787-9 jets manufactured by Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC required early maintenance. * ROYAL MAIL: Britain’s Royal Mail said on Wednesday its mediated talks with the Communications Workers Union (CWU) to end a row over plans to replace the firm’s defined benefit pension scheme were advancing. * UNILEVER: Italy’s antitrust agency said on Wednesday it had fined Unilever‘s, Italian unit more than 60 million euros ($70.7 million) for abuse of its dominant position in the country’s ice cream market. * OIL: Oil prices inched higher on Thursday after a data report showed a decrease in U.S. crude inventories, but rising gasoline stocks and crude production weighed on the market. * GOLD: Gold prices edged lower early on Thursday, hovering close to a two-month low hit earlier this week, amid a steady dollar. * COPPER: London copper edged up on Thursday but was still not far two-month lows amid signs that growth in China’s property and power sectors, both major copper consumers, is tapering into the year end. * BRITAIN-EU: The Irish and British Prime Minister agreed to speak again over the coming days after Irish premier Leo Varadkar reiterated his firm position on the Irish border in a call with Theresa May on Wednesday, his spokesman said. * EX-DIVS: Babcock, Mediclinic, Next will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 0.46 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations * The UK blue chip index rose 0.5 percent to 7,364.05 points on Wednesday, as Brexit negotiations dented the pound, while Costa owner Whitbread got a late boost when activist investor Sachem Head declared a stake in the company. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY‘S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-7-idUSL3N1O72OQ'|'2017-12-07T09:37:00.000+02:00'
'248a501b3d2eb46d3dbc02ca6167e47a9ecbf801'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX rises with energy stocks; Kinder Morgan Canada jumps'|'December 8, 2017 / 12:34 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago TSX notches 2-week high in broad-based rally Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index rose to a two-week high on Friday, led by financial and industrial shares after investor sentiment got a boost from solid U.S. jobs data, while energy and mining stocks climbed on higher commodity prices Businessmen pass the Toronto Stock Exchange sing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The Toronto Stock Exchange''s S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE unofficially closed up 80.39 points, or 0.5 percent, at 16,096.07. Nine of the index''s 10 main groups ended higher. Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-stocks/tsx-set-for-higher-open-as-oil-prices-rise-idUSKBN1E21ME'|'2017-12-08T16:41:00.000+02:00'
'3b675b2a35a20d232864926e3c4fb38f1026cf25'|'Steinhoff calls in Moelis and AlixPartners to advise ahead of lenders'' meeting'|'December 10, 2017 / 8:27 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Steinhoff calls in Moelis and AlixPartners to advise ahead of lenders'' meeting Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Troubled international retail conglomerate Steinhoff ( SNHJ.J ) ( SNHG.DE ), whose shares plunged last week after disclosing accounting problems, said on Sunday it had appointed two advisory firms ahead of a meeting with lenders on Dec. 19. The South African company said it has appointed U.S. investment bank Moelis & Co ( MC.N ) to advise the company on talks with its lenders, and has asked management consultancy AlixPartners “to assist on liquidity management and operational measures”. More than $14 billion (10.5 billion pounds) was wiped off the market value of the Johannesburg and Frankfurt-listed group last week after it announced it was ordering an independent investigation into its accounts and said its CEO was leaving. “The group is currently fully focussed on safeguarding operational liquidity to continue funding existing operations throughout its various subsidiaries,” the company said on Sunday. “In this context, the group is asking for and requires continued support in relation to existing facilities from all its lenders to achieve an immediate stabilisation of the group’s financing,” it added in a statement. On Friday the company had said it was postponing its regular annual lenders’ meeting in London from Dec. 11 to Dec. 19 as a result of it having postponed its financial results pending the outcome of the accounting investigation. “The purpose of the meeting will be for the group to provide an update on its ongoing operational and financial situation. An agenda for the meeting will be circulated ahead of 19 December 2017,” the company said on Sunday. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steinhoff-intlnl-ceo-advisers/steinhoff-calls-in-moelis-and-alixpartners-to-advise-ahead-of-lenders-meeting-idUKKBN1E40UR'|'2017-12-10T22:27:00.000+02:00'
'5b0cbf88263e611bb9a56ca519d40ec0e8cbed0d'|'Italian fund denies seeking to raise stake in Aston Martin'|'December 10, 2017 / 4:24 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Italian fund denies seeking to raise stake in Aston Martin Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Investindustrial is not in talks to increase its stake in Aston Martin and no decision has been taken on a possible stock market listing for the British carmaker, the private equity group said, denying an earlier newspaper report. A company logo is seen on the new Aston Martin Vantage car at a media event in Gaydon, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Italian daily Il Messaggero had reported on Sunday that the fund was in advanced negotiations to raise its stake in the maker of the famous sports car driven by fictional secret agent James Bond to 50 percent from 37.5 percent by the end of the year and that it aimed to list the company next summer. The report had added that the fund, led by founder Andrea Bonomi, was to buy shares from other stakeholders, including a consortium of Kuwaiti investors, which currently holds 54.5 percent, Daimler and the group’s management. A London-based spokesman for Investindustrial denied the report. “Because of the recent good performance of the Aston Martin business, none of the shareholders want to sell,” the spokesman said. Aston Martin last month said it was on course to post its first annual pretax profit since 2010, helped by strong demand for the luxury automaker’s DB11 sports car. There are no discussions on ownership structure at the moment, the spokesman said, adding that the situation could change in the future “given it is a private equity fund and it might eventually want to monetise (its) assets”. He also said that no decision had been taken about a possible initial public offering (IPO). Aston Martin said in an email to Reuters that it did not “have any comment to make on this speculation”. The group’s Chief Executive Andy Palmer has repeatedly said that the decision and timing of an IPO were matters for the shareholders but that it made sense for them to consider the option before the end of the company’s turnaround plan, which is due to complete in 2022. Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Keith Weir and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/astonmartin-ipo-investindustrial/italian-fund-denies-seeking-to-raise-stake-in-aston-martin-idINKBN1E40OY'|'2017-12-10T18:23:00.000+02:00'
'2e89ee61e75c9be3b9c77f5a898018ddeb95820b'|'Low-income households at risk as mortgage support benefit is axed'|'Thousands of hard-up older people are being given a stark choice: sign up to a “second mortgage” with the government, or lose some of the financial help you receive.In a little-noticed move, the government is axing a benefit that has been around since 1948 and has thrown a lifeline to many people on low incomes. “ Support for mortgage interest ” (SMI) helps financially constrained homeowners with their mortgage payments – some of them might otherwise be at risk of being repossessed. But from April 2018, SMI will no longer be paid as a free benefit. Instead, the government is offering to loan people the money, which will have to be repaid later with interest.Critics say this means tens of thousands of people, many of them pensioners, will be saddled with what amounts to a new mortgage on top of their existing home loan. A 68-year-old woman who is still paying off her mortgage and receives SMI contacted Guardian Money to say she isn’t comfortable taking out a government loan, so she is going to reject the offer. But that means she will have to find the money to replace the benefit. “This is going to cause a lot of hardship for people,” she says.However, others argue that it’s not the role of UK taxpayers, many of whom can’t afford to buy a home of their own, to subsidise people’s mortgage payments and enable them to acquire a potentially valuable asset they can pass on to their children after their death.SMI helps homeowners on certain income-related benefits pay the interest on their mortgage and the Department for Work and Pensions normally sends the money straight to the mortgage lender. It was introduced after the second world war as a working-age benefit that would offer a short-term lifeline to people who had lost their job or become ill and were trying to get back on their feet.Thousands of people are getting letters that miss crucial details such as the interest rate on the mortgageHowever, almost 70 years later, many of those who receive it are of pension age and retired, and they are able to claim it indefinitely while their mortgage is outstanding. That is because pension credit is one of the qualifying benefits. The others include income support and income-based jobseeker’s allowance.According to the government, there are about 124,000 people receiving SMI at a cost of £205m a year to the state. Almost half the recipients are of pension age and many have interest-only mortgages.However, the government said the current setup was unsustainable, so in the summer 2015 budget it announced that from April 2018, SMI would no longer be paid as a benefit. Instead, it will be replaced by a state-backed loan, secured against the mortgaged property. The loans will offer the same support – the DWP will carry on making regular payments to the individual’s mortgage lender – but interest will be added every month to the total amount the person owes. The longer someone has the loan, the more interest they will need to pay back, so those who claim for several years could easily face bills running into thousands of pounds.This isn’t the same as a normal loan: the mortgage holder does not have to pay it back until the house is eventually sold or transferred to someone else, though they might want to make voluntary repayments if they can afford to. In that sense, it’s like a government-sponsored version of equity release. If someone inherits the house, they will need to pay back the DWP from any available equity if the property is sold or someone else becomes the legal owner. If there isn’t enough equity, any amount that can’t be paid back will be written off.So will the government make a profit from these loans? The DWP says no, as the interest rate people will pay will be “the rate the government borrows at” and based on official gilt rate forecasts. The latest prediction is for an interest rate of about 1.5% in 2018-19, rising to 2% in 2021-22. If you turn down the offer of the loan, SMI benefit payments will stop on 5 April 2018.The 68-year-old who contacted us (and didn’t wish to be named) has a £67,000 mortgage. As she has decided she doesn’t want to the loan, she is going to have to find another £55 a month for her mortgage payments, “which is not a lot for some people, but is for others”, she says. “Where are people going to find that kind of money when they are only on a pension in the first place?”Mutual insurer Royal London has criticised the way the change is being handled . “The government needs to make sure people have the help and advice they need to decide whether or not to take out a second mortgage to pay for this,” it says. “But instead, thousands of people are getting letters that miss crucial details such as the interest rate on the mortgage.”However, the DWP says switching to loans will save it about £170m a year. It adds: “This change continues to provide a safety net to help people stay in their homes and avoid repossession. Over time, someone’s house is likely to increase in value, so it’s reasonable that anyone who has received financial help towards their mortgage should be asked to pay that back if there is available equity when the property is sold.”Topics Mortgage arrears Mortgages Borrowing & debt Property Benefits Family finances features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/09/support-mortgage-interest-benefit-axed-reposession'|'2017-12-09T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'a985eeea1e1ce5959f626b36f2bd1b8d4c7c6e7b'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 8'|'December 8, 2017 / 7:49 AM / in 2 hours UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 8 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds company news and futures) Dec 8 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 futures is up 0.20 percent ahead of the cash market open on Friday. * BRITAIN-EU: The European Commission said on Friday enough progress had been made in Brexit negotiations with Britain and that a second phase of negotiations should begin, ending an impasse over the status of the Irish border. * GLENCORE: Global miner Glencore on Friday said it had reached new labour agreements with workers at 13 of its coal mines in Australia, ending months of negotiations over wages and benefits. * OLD MUTUAL: Anglo-South African financial services firm Old Mutual ’s UK wealth unit has chosen Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to lead its initial public offering (IPO) next year, banking and advisory sources said. * OIL: Oil prices dipped on Friday as the U.S. dollar strengthened, although OPEC-led supply cuts are seen supporting markets going into next year. * GOLD: Gold edged up in early Asian trade on Friday, after dropping below its recent trading range to hit a more than four-month low overnight. * BANK-DEALS: Investment banks could earn as much as $183 million in fees from a flurry of deal-making by British companies this week, according to estimates by Freeman Consulting Services. * BRITAIN-EU: British and Irish negotiators are “moving quickly” toward an agreement on their border after Brexit and could conclude one in the coming hours, a senior Irish official said on Thursday. * The UK blue chip index ended the session down 0.4 percent on Thursday, as sterling edged higher on a glimmer of hope in Brexit talks. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY‘S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-8-idUSL3N1O82SJ'|'2017-12-08T09:46:00.000+02:00'
'0a5a9f67b5f349019c6aaf4dcab963e5c17cc0a5'|'Exclusive: Bangladesh Bank, NY Fed discuss suing Manila bank for heist damages'|'December 8, 2017 / 3:22 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Exclusive: Bangladesh Bank, NY Fed discuss suing Manila bank for heist damages Krishna N. Das , Serajul Quadir 5 Min Read DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh’s central bank has asked the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to join a lawsuit it plans to file against a Philippines bank for its role in one of the world’s biggest cyber-heists, several sources said. FILE PHOTO: Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka, Bangladesh on March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ashikur Rahman/File Photo The Fed is yet to respond formally, but there is no indication it would join the suit. Unidentified hackers stole $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the New York Fed in February last year, using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system. The money was sent to accounts at Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp RCBS.PS and then disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines. Nearly two years later, there is no word on who was responsible and Bangladesh Bank has been able to retrieve only about $15 million, mostly from a Manila junket operator. ( reut.rs/2jk1W74 ) Officials from Bangladesh Bank and the New York Fed spoke about legal action against RCBC in a conference call last month that was also attended by two representatives from SWIFT, according to three sources in Dhaka who had direct knowledge of the conversations. It was agreed that Bangladesh Bank would send a proposal on the suit to the New York Fed, they said. “The aim is to file a case by March-April in New York,” said one of the sources. “Work is on. Bangladesh Bank is likely to send something to the Fed soon.” The source said the idea was it would be a civil suit to recover the money, and that Bangladesh hoped the Fed and SWIFT would be joint petitioners. Subhankar Saha, a spokesman for Bangladesh Bank, said he had no knowledge of any plans to sue RCBC but that “efforts are on to recover the entire stolen money”. The New York Fed and SWIFT declined comment. A source familiar with the New York Fed’s thinking confirmed that Bangladesh Bank’s external counsel raised the idea of filing a suit against RCBC in the call. The New York Fed officials agreed to review any proposal Bangladesh Bank wrote up but they did not formally agree to a joint effort, and have not since worked on it nor heard from Bangladesh Bank, the source said. FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands guard outside a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Paranaque city, Metro Manila, Philippines August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo There was no indication that the Fed would join the suit once it had received and reviewed the proposal. ROGUE EMPLOYEES RCBC has blamed rogue employees and Philippine prosecutors have filed money laundering charges against a former RCBC bank manager and four people who owned the bank accounts where the funds were sent, but are not identifiable since the accounts were in fake names. They are the only people to be formally cited anywhere in the world in association with the crime. Bangladeshi officials have cited internal RCBC documents, also seen by Reuters, to assert that the Filipino bank ignored suspicions raised by some RCBC officials when the money was first remitted to the accounts on Feb. 5, 2016, and then delayed acting on requests from RCBC''s head office to freeze the funds on Feb. 9. ( reut.rs/2BM9EOO ) RCBC did not respond to requests for comment. But it has said in the past that it would not pay any compensation and that Bangladesh Bank bore responsibility for the theft since it was negligent. RCBC was fined a record one billion Philippine pesos ($20 million) by the country’s central bank last year for its failure to prevent the movement of the stolen money through it. Separately, a Bangladesh court has sent “letters rogatory” to the United States seeking the findings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the case, said the main police investigator in Dhaka. Letters rogatory are documents used to obtain judicial assistance from foreign courts. “We have questions for the Federal Reserve Bank, we want to collect the FBI report, what their findings are,” Molla Nazrul Islam, a special superintendent of police in Bangladesh, told Reuters this week. An FBI spokeswoman said the agency could not comment on ongoing cases. A hacking group called Lazarus that is believed to have connections to North Korea has been linked to the Bangladesh cyber heist and some U.S. officials said earlier this year that prosecutors were building a case against Pyongyang. But no case has yet been filed. Reporting by Krishna N. Das and Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila, Michelle Price in Washington, Jonathan Spicer in New York and Jim Finkle in Toronto; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-heist-bangladesh-exclusive/exclusive-bangladesh-bank-ny-fed-discuss-suing-manila-bank-for-heist-damages-idUSKBN1E20BS'|'2017-12-08T05:20:00.000+02:00'
'5ae24bec0f635100097f7f761a64a62a3f8ac148'|'Sports Direct and its staffing agencies paid workers £1m too little'|'Sports Direct and its staffing agencies paid workers £1m too little Retailer, Best Connection and Transline named and shamed by government after having to repay £946,000 in total Staff in a Sports Direct warehouse at the company’s headquarters in Shirebrook, Derbyshire. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Sports Direct and its staffing agencies paid workers £1m too little Retailer, Best Connection and Transline named and shamed by government after having to repay £946,000 in total Friday 8 December 2017 00.01 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close Sports Direct and its employment agencies Best Connection and Transline have been named and shamed by the government for paying workers less than the legal minimum wage , underpaying them by nearly £1m. The companies make up three of the top four underpayers in the latest list published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). This list names 260 employers which failed to pay a record 16,000 workers a combined total of £1.7m. Primark is the third biggest offender in value terms and the biggest in terms of number of staff, after it underpaid 9,735 workers by £230,000. The cut-price clothing chain’s underpayment relates to a demand that all staff wear black clothing. HM Revenue & Customs said this policy amounted to a uniform and a deduction from pay to cover the clothing took pay below the legal minimum. Primark has since introduced a more flexible policy and provides some clothing free. A Primark spokesperson said: “The average amount paid back per employee was £23.75 and relates to a workwear policy that was changed in 2016.” Sports Direct criticised over plan to pay £11m to Mike Ashley’s brother Read more Primark said a small proportion of the underpayment also related to administration costs levied on pay packets linked to a duty to deduct money which the courts had ruled some employees owed, such as child maintenance. The name and shame list also features several football clubs, including Bristol Rovers and Motherwell, and dozens of hairdressers. But it is the hospitality industry which is the worst offender. Upmarket establishments such as the Bedruthan in Cornwall and Ramside Estates, which owns Hardwick Hall and Ramside Hall near Durham – where a luxury room can cost up to £149 a night – are among 45 hotels, bars and restaurants named for underpaying. Scottish specialist windfarm contractor Edward Mackay underpaid four workers an average of £12,850 each – the biggest underpayment per head. HMRC looked into Sports Direct and its employment agencies after a Guardian investigation exposed how Sports Direct workers were being paid less than the legal minimum . A spokesperson for Sports Direct said: “This matter relates to the historical situation in our warehouse that was widely publicised in 2016, for which we apologised at the time. “We cooperated fully with HMRC to make back payments to Sports Direct staff who were affected. We are committed to treating all our people with dignity and respect, and we pay above the national minimum wage. “The company is committed to the national minimum wage and has apologised to the employees concerned. It has also reviewed its procedures in order to avoid this situation reoccurring.” The list revealed that Best Connection has repaid £469,273 to 2,558 workers; Qualitycourse, trading as Transline, has repaid £310,302 to 1,421 workers; and Sports Direct has repaid £167,036.24 to 383 workers – amounting to £946,611 in total. But it is clear that HMRC did not levy the biggest fine possible on Sports Direct – which would amount to double the wages owed, nearly £2m. Primark''s sales jump despite squeeze on high street spending Read more The 260 companies named were forced to pay a total of £1.3m in fines between them. The business minister Margot James said: “There is no excuse for not paying staff the wages they’re entitled to and the government will come down hard on businesses that break the rules.” The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “Today’s list should put the frighteners on rogue employers across the country. Pay your staff properly or face hefty fines and get shamed in the papers.” Some companies blamed the complexity of minimum wage rules for their underpayments. Bedruthan and Ramside Estates said they had not intended to underpay. A spokesperson for Bedruthan said it paid hourly pay rates above the national minimum wage for all employees, regardless of age, and its underpayment related to live-in employees asking for services such as meals eaten at the hotel to be deducted automatically from their wages. “Had the employees paid cash for those same services, the legislation would not have been breached,” the company said. Bedruthan said it had put the correct system in place since 2015 and reimbursed everyone affected where possible. Ramside said its underpayment related to chefs working split shifts with a four-hour break in the middle of the day. John Adamson of Ramside Estates said: “It does seem that the hospitality industry is being particularly targeted and that we are being made a scapegoat in this instance.” Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/08/sports-direct-and-its-staffing-agencies-paid-workers-1m-too-little'|'2017-12-08T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'ec34e21e28c3989354a60a5122ac62c48afa920d'|'Column: The boldest market call for 2018? The consensus - McGeever'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Credit markets should brace for a U.S. recession, the U.S. yield curve will invert and growth in America will reach President Trump’s lofty and oft-derided target of 4 percent.A pedestrian stands to look at an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, February 26, 2016. Asian shares made guarded gains on Friday as a gathering of world finance leaders provided a welter of reassuring comments, but little in the way of actual policy stimulus. REUTERS/Yuya Shino These are just some of the more eye-catching 2018 calls from analysts at many of the world’s big banks. Yet paradoxically, the biggest shock of all may be that next year is another ‘Goldilocks’ year like this year. In other words, the consensus.That would be a benign mix of strong global growth, chunky corporate profits, low market volatility, a gentle drift higher in bond yields, and the continued “melt up” in stocks.In many respects, 2017 has confounded even the most bullish forecasts. World stocks are up 20 percent, global growth its strongest since 2011, bond and stock market volatility the lowest on record and “junk” bond yields at all-time lows.Aside from the market corrections and bouts of volatility that characterize any given year, analysts broadly reckon 2017 will seamlessly merge into 2018. The pace of change in some markets may vary, but essentially the song will remain the same.But can it?The biggest single driver for markets this year (and the last several) was central bank stimulus. The Fed may be raising rates and about to wind down its balance sheet, but the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan more than filled the void.According to analysts at Deutsche Bank, quantitative easing from the world’s major central banks hit a post-crisis peak of $182 billion a month in March this year. That will shrink to $53 billion by the end of next year and flip to outright liquidity withdrawal in mid-2019, they predict.The oceans of central bank liquidity that have lifted all markets is drying up. What will replace it?Global growth is on such a tear that many economists reckon it doesn’t need central bank rocket fuel. Consumer demand and business investment will be strong enough to keep the world economy expanding at a rate of around 3.5 percent - an impressive enough pace on its own, especially this late in the economic cycle.“A self-enforcing economic cycle,” say Barclays economists, predicting 4.0 percent global growth next year, a conspicuous figure also forecast by BNP Paribas for U.S. growth in the second quarter.There’s no shortage of potential banana skins though. Firstly, it’s been over a decade since the world experienced a global monetary policy tightening cycle.If the last decade of extraordinary policy was an experiment - some 700 interest rate cuts, according to JP Morgan, $8 trillion of QE stimulus, according to Deutsche Bank, and negative interest rates - then reversing it, however carefully, is surely an experiment too.“The great unwind, which has recently begun, is likely to prove to be anything but straightforward,” JP Morgan warns.People look at an electronic board showing the graph of the recent fluctuations of market indices at the floor of Brazil''s BM&F Bovespa Stock Market in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, January 7, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker LETHAL MIX It’s a well-worn argument but the example of Japan cannot be ignored. The Bank of Japan has been battling deflation, low growth and fallout of the property and stock market crashes for nearly quarter of a century.It first adopted zero interest rate policy in 1999, started QE in 2001 (implementing various versions since), unveiled its “yield curve control” policy this year and has been one of the most interventionist central banks ever in currency markets.Exiting and reversing these policies has proved challenging. The BOJ thought the coast was clear and raised interest rates in 2000 and 2006-07, but both turned out to be policy mistakes.BOJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda is now highlighting the risks of easing policy further, signaling that rate hikes might not be too far off. With global debt higher now than it was even before the 2008 crash, tighter policy globally carries clear risk.Secondly, the economic expansion is long in the tooth. In the United States it’s been rolling for over 100 months in a row, and by the time 2018 comes around will be closing in on the record 120 months in the 1960s.It’s said that economic expansions don’t die of old age, instead they’re killed by the Fed. Here, both elements are in play - the cycle is mature, and the Fed is raising rates and about to start shrinking its balance sheet.Should tighter monetary policy take the wind out of the economy’s sails, the remarkable strength of corporate profits this year is unlikely to be replicated next year.For financial markets the earnings recession of 2016 was mitigated by central bank largesse, and this year stocks on both sides of the Atlantic enjoyed earnings growth of at least 10 percent. Next year, earnings won’t be as strong and central banks are taking away the punch bowl. It could be a potent mix.Thirdly, expect higher financial market volatility.Like the economic cycle, markets have been on a roll for years - Wall Street troughed in March 2009 and has barely seen a correction of 10 percent (far less a 20 percent drop) since, the much-anticipated bond market implosion hasn’t happened and the price of high yield bonds has never been higher.Analysts disagree on whether and by how much markets are overvalued. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, is among those who argue that stock market valuation metrics such as the Shiller price/earnings ratio are no longer valid, and that the bull run can continue for several more years yet.But others are wary, and argue that bubbles are forming in certain parts of the equities universe to join those in high yield credit and bond markets.Low volatility has underpinned the market surge this year. The VIX index, which measures implied volatility of the S&P 500, hit a record low below 9 percent last month and its average for the year is the lowest annual rate on record.This has ensured 2017 will go down as the calmest year in U.S. market history. According to Charlie Bilello at Pension Partners in New York, 95 percent of all trading days on the Dow this year have had an intraday range of less than 1 percent.Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Graphics by Jamie McGeever and Helen Reid '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets-2018outlook/column-the-boldest-market-call-for-2018-the-consensus-mcgeever-idINKBN1E21XS'|'2017-12-08T11:50:00.000+02:00'
'08e6b7af50ea9756a21263aa0e6a67d75fd9f261'|'UK''s Petrofac hires Bain & Co to explore options for North Sea business -Times'|'Dec 11 (Reuters) - British oilfield services company Petrofac Ltd has hired consultancy Bain & Co to explore options for the its North Sea operations, including a sale, the Times reported on Sunday.Petrofac, which is being investigated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for its dealings with Monaco-based Unaoil, has been struggling to reduce its $1 billion debt pile.Petrofac and Bain were not immediately available for comment.The Telegraph reported last month that U.S. oilfield services companies Schlumberger and Halliburton as well as a Middle Eastern company were among the firms circling Petrofac, with market talk of a bid of around 600 pence per share. ( bit.ly/2C27SsY )Petrofac has lost about half its value since May, when the SFO had commenced an investigation into the company and its units, and has a current market capitalisation of 1.45 billion pounds ($1.94 billion).Shares of the company were up 1.6 percent at 423.3 pence in early trading. ($1 = 0.7472 pounds) (Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/petrofac-divestiture-north-sea/uks-petrofac-hires-bain-co-to-explore-options-for-north-sea-business-times-idINL3N1OB2KT'|'2017-12-11T05:30:00.000+02:00'
'632d8f3340680af2acb416af4aa7e619773c3308'|'Renting: why are we seeing the death of the living room? - Patrick Collinson'|'T he huge shared living space, the lavender walls and the college-dorm chic; most of us can picture Monica and Chandler’s apartment in Friends, the 1990s TV series no doubt being re-run on some channel right now. I preferred This Life, the flatmates drama which defined the 1990s in a rather more British way. But you couldn’t make either of them today. Or, for that matter, The Liver Birds, Men Behaving Badly or even Not Going Out.Why? Lodgers can no longer lounge around together on some dog-eared sofa because living rooms simply no longer exist in many rented properties. When a landlord sees a living room or a dining room, what they see is enhanced rental yield. Why have shared spaces and shared experiences, when the room can be turned into another bedroom? The tenants can pop a chicken korma ready-meal into a microwave and eat it in their bedrooms. It doesn’t make for good TV drama – but it’s certainly very profitable.Take, for example, a two-bed flat I know in south London. It was rented until recently to a relative of mine, in her 20s. The lounge space is now a bedroom, rented at £600 a month. The three flatmates (total rental yield on the flat: £1,800 pcm) can’t all be in the kitchen at the same time, there’s so little space. There are two stools in the corner of the kitchen. It may be a flatshare but there’s no sharing. Although she has found somewhere better, her flat hunting was a depressing round of apartments carved up for the maximum rental yield.Technology is sadly pushing this along. In my late 1980s flatshare, we had one TV in the living room. One phone, in the hallway. And not even a microwave. Today it’s so much easier to peel off into your bedroom with your ready-meal in front of your iPad while watching Net-flix. Social interaction, such a part of the shared living experience, is fast disappearing, replaced by the atomised world of social media.But some landlords might be in for a shock. The Mortgage Works (TMW), part of Nationwide building society, has told valuers that when a landlord is remortgaging, it’s not acceptable that there is no shared social space in a rented property with four or more tenants. The criteria has been around for some time, but valuers tell me it is now being more rigorously enforced, particularly on three-bed flats that have been turned into four bedrooms plus a kitchen. Once that happens they become by default an HMO (house of multiple occupation) and new rules apply.One valuer said he now routinely rejects lots of TMW remortgages because they are breaking the rules. He pointed to a three-bed flat in London where the landlord seeking a remortgage was renting it at £2,800 a month. He guessed that the level of rent was almost certainly indicative of a conversion into four bedrooms. He visited the flat, and sure enough it had been converted, prompting the valuer to warn TMW it was in breach of its criteria.TMW does not insist upon a living room in properties with four or more bedrooms – but it does insist that there is enough social space, such as a decent-sized kitchen-diner. A kitchen with a fold-down table shoved in the corner doesn’t pass muster.The loss of living rooms hasn’t just been socially damaging – it has also played its part in driving up house prices, making them ever more unaffordable to young adults. If a three-bed flat can command a rent of £2,800 a month once the lounge is converted, then it means a prospective landlord can afford to bid up the purchase price of the property, elbowing aside conventional buyers. If they can only obtain a rent of £2,100, then they will only be able to obtain a smaller mortgage, and pay a lower price for the property.Our rental market is absurdly loosely regulated. The rules shouldn’t be TMW’s – they should be from the government – and apply to all apartments, not just HMOs.p.collinson@theguardian.comTopics Renting property On reflection House prices Property Housing market Real estate comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2017/dec/09/renting-living-room-landlords-bedrooms-prices'|'2017-12-09T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'314099545f8468dbc6460b705d106b6544cf6ba0'|'KKR''s tender offer for Hitachi Kokusai ends in success: Nikkei'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. buyout fund KKR & Co LP ( KKR.N ) managed a successful tender offer for Japanese semiconductor equipment maker Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc ( 6756.T ) by a razor-thin margin, winning 24.9 percent of the company, statements from the companies showed on Saturday.KKR had sought at least about 24 percent of Hitachi Kokusai at 3,132 yen each in a contentious tender offer that closed on Friday. Parent Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ) has agreed to sell its stake of just over 50 percent back to Hitachi Kokusai at 1,870 yen per share as part of the $2.2 billion deal.KKR had boosted its offer price twice to appease U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management, known for buying stakes in firms in the middle of takeovers. The first increase came after Elliott disclosed a stake in Hitachi Kokusai in September, and the final price was 25 percent higher than the initial offer of 2,503 yen.Elliott has since boosted its holding to 8.59 percent.KKR said in a statement 26,242,364 shares were tendered, versus the minimum 24,815,889 it was seeking. The tendered shares amount to 25.5 percent of Hitachi Kokusai when excluding treasury shares.KKR has been taking advantage of a push by Japanese conglomerates to restructure and spin off non-core assets. In January it bought Hitachi Koki Co, Hitachi’s power tool unit, for $1.3 billion. That followed a $4 billion acquisition of autoparts maker Calsonic Kansei Corp from Nissan Motor Co ( 7201.T ) last year.Elsewhere, KKR on Friday agreed to buy industrial tool components maker Hyperion from Sweden’s Sandvik ( SAND.ST ) in a deal worth 4 billion Swedish crowns ($471.6 million).Booming demand for semiconductors thanks to the global spread of smartphones and data server centres has resulted in a flurry of deals and rising valuations for chip-related firms. Hitachi Kokusai in October lifted its full-year net income forecast by 37 percent to 19.9 billion yen ($179 million).KKR initially agreed to buy Hitachi Kokusai in April at 2,503 yen per share, but the plan was shelved in August after a third-party committee set up by the Japanese company said the terms of the deal could be disadvantageous to minority shareholders..Expectations that KKR would raise its offer price drove Hitachi Kokusai’s stock to as much as 3,370 yen, the highest in more than 25 years, versus 2,416 yen on the day before the deal was first announced.Hitachi Kokusai ended at 3,155 yen on Friday.KKR plans to spin off Hitachi Kokusai’s chip-making equipment division, retaining full ownership, and then sell 40 percent of the remaining business, which includes communications and video equipment services, to Hitachi and private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners Inc.($1 = 113.4800 yen)Reporting by Junko Fujita in TOKYO and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Jacqueline Wong '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hitachi-kokusai-m-a-kkr/kkrs-tender-offer-for-hitachi-kokusai-ends-in-success-nikkei-idINKBN1E22V1'|'2017-12-08T20:20:00.000+02:00'
'2137fadf9d029e207f1a9f8360970de9e20a4ffe'|'Pilatus jet development far exceeded planned costs - NZZ interview'|'December 9, 2017 / 11:44 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Pilatus jet development far exceeded planned costs - NZZ interview Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Swiss plane maker Pilatus’s development costs of “well over 500 million Swiss francs” ($504 million) far exceeded the original budget for the company’s first business jet, Chairman Oscar Schwenk told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung in an article published on Saturday. Founded in 1939, Pilatus made its name in prop aircraft and military trainers but is now staking its future on versatile, faster jets that appeal to affluent customers and corporate travellers. Pilatus on Thursday obtained certificates from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its PC-24 jet that signify its airworthiness, setting the stage for the first aircraft delivery this month. “And all performance data promised to our first 84 customers have been achieved or even exceeded,” the company said in a statement. However, meeting the targets did not come cheap, Schwenk told the Swiss newspaper, saying a running list of improvements were undertaken on the plane during the certification process. Pilatus investors took a risk in embarking on the jet project, Schwenk told the newspaper, adding that the development costs of “well over 500 million francs” far exceeded the original planned budget. Pilatus now has eight PC-24s on its assembly line in Stans, Switzerland, it said, with the first delivery slated to be made to U.S. fractional aircraft ownership company PlaneSense this month before that plane is flown to the United States in January. In total, 23 deliveries are planned though 2018, it said. Sources in 2016 said that Pilatus was considering a possible IPO. ($1 = 0.9928 Swiss francs) (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/pilatusaircraft-jet-costs/pilatus-jet-development-far-exceeded-planned-costs-nzz-interview-idUSL8N1O907H'|'2017-12-09T13:43:00.000+02:00'
'f925f99bab9f809672640bbe63336364eef5b842'|'Banks are an endangered species on our high streets'|'Banks are an endangered species on our high streets Give us your views on how Britain can save its banking network Play audio for this article Pause What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! or Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback Bank branches are an endangered species on our high streets. There are already 3,000 communities in Britain that no longer have a single bank — mostly market towns and in the countryside — says the Post Office. Before the slew of closures announced last week, branch numbers had fallen 10 per cent this year, according to the Local Data Company, which says bank closures are going “further and faster”. Banks explain the trend by pointing to the growing popularity of online services, the falling number of customer visits and the cost of maintaining a branch network. You can see the same trend at work in the retail sector. Online shopping means store numbers are being sliced, with “destination” shops clustered in more populous and affluent areas. Our vanishing bank network causes serious worry for FT Money readers. It’s not just older people who rely on banking in branch rather than online. There are millions of digitally disenfranchised consumers who rely on cash because they do not have smartphones or a home broadband connection. I also hear from many readers who do not want to try any form of online banking. Two of them are Mr and Mrs Barrett — my parents. They are in their late 70s and computer literate. But they worry, perhaps unjustly, that banking online will make them more vulnerable to fraud. They don’t even like paying for items online with a credit card. I indulge them and book their holidays, travel tickets and order their online shopping — and they post me a cheque. Soon I will be able to pay in their cheques by taking a photo on my bank’s app. If I wanted to visit a bank branch, I am well provided for in London. “Where there’s brass, there’s banks. Where there isn’t, there ain’t,” is the snappy up-sum from Matthew Hopkinson of the Local Data Company. His research shows the affluent south is far better provided for. At the last count there were more than 1,100 bank branches in Greater London — compared with 743 in the whole of Scotland. There has been an average closure rate of 10 per cent across the UK this year but in Scotland it is 16 per cent and in London it is 7 per cent. According to LDC’s year-on-year comparison, the number of Clydesdale Bank branches has fallen by 39 per cent, Yorkshire Bank by 29 per cent, NatWest by 20 per cent, HSBC by 16 per cent, Lloyds by 13 per cent and Bank of Scotland by 12 per cent. Metro Bank’s branch network has expanded by 8 per cent — it now has 55, the farthest north being Peterborough. Clearly there is a problem. The obvious response is legislation. A few years ago, politicians tried and failed to get the big banks to sign up to a “last bank in town” pledge. Once a town or village has lost its only bank, the rest of the high street could enter terminal decline. People will travel to the next town and spend the money they withdraw in the shops there. Once the banks go, so do their free cash points . This has been the focus of a separate political row this week. As banks shut shop, most of the UK’s cash points are operated by independent owners who are paid an “interchange fee” when a bank customer withdraws cash. Link, which oversees a network of free-to-use cash points, wants to cut these fees. There are fears that this could lead to fewer free cash points — yet more evidence of the cashless society conspiracy. The solution the banks and the politicians are standing behind is the Post Office. The last bastion of cash on the high street, almost any customer of any bank (personal or business) can pay in cash or cheques, take money out or obtain change — with no charge to the customer. For bigger and more profitable services, such as mortgages, loans and investments, they will still need to travel to their bank’s “destination” branch. About 95 per cent of the population lives within a mile of a Post Office. There are 11,600 branches across the country — more than all of the banks put together — and this number has held steady since 2009 while bank numbers have plummeted. The Post Office will pass on a small transaction charge to your bank. With 120m transactions a year, it is clearly cheaper for the banks to fund this levy than keep their branches open. The number of transactions has grown by a tenth this year — the same rate at which bank branches are closing. But think of a Post Office, and you will think of one thing — queues. How much more of the strain can the network take? According to banking director Martin Kearsley, chip and pin technology has largely replaced paper-based transactions, freeing capacity to handle twice the current number of daily transactions. At the present rate of bank closures and transaction growth, that could take seven years. If the rate increases, though, it could take four to five. Small business banking deposits are the biggest area of growth. Could politicians force the banks to pay a higher fee so Post Offices can upgrade, provide more staff and extend opening hours? And what about changing business rates? Currently, charity shops are largely exempt from these charges. Why not extend the discount to the “last bank in town”? Giving any bank a tax break will be controversial but councils and business may see it as an investment. Finally — and most controversially — what about customers? Just as we would expect to pay a fee for using an overdraft, would those customers who could afford it be prepared to pay a small annual charge to guarantee that their local branch would be spared from closure for a set period? None of these solutions is perfect — but we want to get people talking. Tell us what you think. We promise to put your views to a panel of banking industry representatives in FT Money next year. Claer Barrett is the editor of FT Money; ; Twitter: @Claerb Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Print this page'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/dce6d92e-db42-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482'|'2017-12-08T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'1b832e110053d68cc8a1b43bf18c0301398794eb'|'Phoenix Solar to file for insolvency next week'|'FRANKFURT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Phoenix Solar, once one of Germany’s largest solar groups during the sector’s heyday, on Friday said it would file for insolvency next week after an unnamed U.S. customer demanded payments that exceed the group’s funds.“Following the drawdown of project-related letters of credit in the amount of approximately $8 million by a large customer of Phoenix Solar Inc. ... the parent company Phoenix Solar AG is obligated to reimburse the issuing banks immediately under its existing financing agreements,” Phoenix Solar said.“Attempts by the company’s management to find a solution with the said U.S. customer and the company’s banking consortium in Germany have failed,” it added.Shares in the group, which used to be a member of Frankfurt’s technology index before an oversupply crisis led most of its local peers to file for insolvency, traded 1.7 percent lower at 1.46 euros apiece.The news comes only months after larger peer SolarWorld filed for insolvency, overwhelmed by a renewed wave of cheap Chinese exports that was caused by reduced ambitions in China to expand solar power generation. (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Arno Schuetze) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/phoenix-solar-bankruptcy/brief-phoenix-solar-to-file-for-insolvency-idUSASM000GUW'|'2017-12-08T20:08:00.000+02:00'
'2a19e903a03770b89e5ef2f3fe29b7ddb44c820e'|'France to allow blockchain for trading unlisted securities'|'December 8, 2017 / 8:49 PM / Updated 37 minutes ago France to allow blockchain for trading unlisted securities Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The French government opened the way on Friday for trading unlisted securities using blockchain digital ledgers with the adoption of new rules aimed at improving Paris’ image as a center for financial innovation. A city view shows the French flag above the skyline of the French capital as the Eiffel Tower and roof tops are seen in Paris, France, March 30, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier The new rules mean that banks and fintech companies can set up blockchain platforms where unlisted securities can trade instantly, cutting out middlemen like brokers and custodian banks. Securities listed on financial exchanges will still be required to pass through custodians and clearing houses. “The use of this new technology will allow fintech firms and other financial actors to develop new ways of trading securities that are faster, cheaper, more transparent and safer,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a statement. Le Maire added that the new rules would be “another asset for Paris’ attractiveness as a financial center” as the sector seeks to put itself on the fintech map, where London currently looms large. Eager to attract business from London after Brexit, the French government has already introduced measures to make Paris a more attractive financial center ranging from payroll tax cuts to a labor reform and promises to set up more international schools. Blockchain, which first emerged as the system underpinning cryptocurrency bitcoin, is a shared ledger of transactions that is maintained by a network of computers on the internet rather than a central authority. Financial institutions have been ramping up their investments in the nascent technology in the hope that it can help reduce the complexity and cost of some of their burdensome back office processes. Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Geert De Clercq'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-france-finance/france-to-allow-blockchain-for-trading-unlisted-securities-idUKKBN1E22OA'|'2017-12-08T23:06:00.000+02:00'
'b2163506f510b218212fa4e72885bb73f4888b22'|'Britain committed to no hard Irish border, whatever outcome of Brexit talks - Davis'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Britain intends to prevent a hard border in Ireland after leaving the European Union whatever the outcome of talks with the bloc, UK’s Brexit minister said on Monday, saying comments that this was not legally enforceable were taken out of context.European Union Chief Negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier accompanied by a delegation of Irish ministers visits the Armagh and County Louth border between Northern Ireland and Ireland May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Davis on Sunday said that a pledge on the Irish border agreed as part of a divorce settlement was “a statement of intent” rather than a legally binding move, but said the media had twisted his words.“Of course it’s legally enforceable, under the withdrawal agreement, but even if that didn’t for some reason, if something went wrong, we would still be seeking to provide a frictionless, invisible border,” Davis told LBC radio.Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Michael Holden '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-davis/britain-committed-to-no-hard-irish-border-whatever-outcome-of-brexit-talks-davis-idUSKBN1E50TF'|'2017-12-11T11:40:00.000+02:00'
'31befcfcef78510053e28289e2a515afbfef2c28'|'RPT-California wildfires send film, TV productions scrambling'|'December 9, 2017 / 12:00 PM / in 6 hours RPT-California wildfires send film, TV productions scrambling Reuters Staff (Repeats story published on Friday with no changes) By Nichola Groom LOS ANGELES, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Wildfires raging across Southern California are taking a toll on the region’s iconic film industry, forcing producers of commercials, television shows and even student films to pause or seek alternate shooting locations. The Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday suspended permitted filming in zones near the fires as well as other areas deemed to be at severe risk of burning. Applications for filming in the Angeles National Forest were also halted this week. Movie studios set up in California in part because of great weather and varied scenery, from rugged mountains to manicured mansions. More than 200,000 people have been forced to evacuate Southern California fires which poured smoke into neighborhoods miles away. The mountain neighborhoods impacted by the fires are “highly desirable” locations for filming because they often have large houses with distinctive architecture, said Phil Sokoloski, a spokesman for Film L.A., which coordinates film permits for the city of Los Angeles and other governments in the region. Film L.A. has spent this week helping productions find and secure permits for alternate locations such as parks on flat land or neighborhoods that have similar-looking homes. Several of the city’s major parks were reopened to filming on Friday, and Sokoloski said he expected those to be popular alternatives. “Everyone is usually rushing to complete production ahead of the holidays,” said Sokoloski. “This may put some additional time pressure to finish their work before the holiday season.” “Westworld”, the science fiction TV series by Time Warner Inc’s HBO, was among the productions that were temporarily halted on Tuesday due to nearby wildfires. Later that day, one of the show’s stars, Evan Rachel Wood, on Instagram jokingly posted “Meanwhile, at work today...” alongside images of billowing dark smoke and a fire-breathing dragon. The show’s production resumed the following day. CBS Corp’s crime drama S.W.A.T. was shut down for two days, eventually moving filming to sound stages. The new Twenty-First Century Fox Inc comedy series “LA to Vegas” also had to cancel a location shoot this week, a spokesman said. In some cases, productions outside the fire zones were halted because there were not police or fire department staff required to supervise special effects shoots or control traffic, LAPD Film Unit Supervisor Vincent Aguirre said. They were needed to fight fires. Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Peter Henderson and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-wildfires-filming/rpt-california-wildfires-send-film-tv-productions-scrambling-idUSL1N1O900T'|'2017-12-09T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'ea58d6521343a975ec5ae6daacdf2861dea354f4'|'Expert Views: RBI keeps repo rate on hold at 6 percent'|'(Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India kept its policy rate unchanged at a more than seven-year low of 6.00 percent on Wednesday after inflation accelerated to a seven-month high and stronger economic growth reduced the need for monetary stimulus.FILE PHOTO: People walk past a barricade inside the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) headquarters in Mumbai, India June 7, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo COMMENTS: GOVIND SANKARANARAYANAN, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER - RETAIL BUSINESS & HOUSING FINANCE, TATA CAPITAL”Global cues by central banks - which have been tightening their monetary stance coupled with more domestic issues related to commodity prices, market liquidity, hardening bond yields and more importantly rising inflation – which could rise to 4.5% from 3.58% in October 2017 have influenced the RBI’s recent decision to adopt a wait-and-watch stance.From an NBFC standpoint, we do not expect it to have a significant effect.”SHILAN SHAH, INDIA ECONOMIST AT CAPITAL ECONOMICS ”With core price pressures building, we think the debate may shift towards the need for tighter policy later in 2018...With growth strengthening and core price pressures building, the RBI is likely to continue ignoring the recent pleas from prominent members of government for further rate cuts. In fact, we think that policy tightening could come onto the agenda in the second half of 2018.”SUNIL SINHA, DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL ECONOMIST, INDIA RATINGS, DELHI”A rate cut in February is unlikely given that the upside inflation risks that the central bank was expecting are still panning out. Given where the vegetable prices and oil prices have stood at recently, CPI and WPI data is expected to come in higher than October numbers.The tone of the policy statement in my view is cautious. While it highlights positives on the growth front, issues on global development and outlook on inflation put the RBI in a difficult situation.”SUDHAKAR PATTABIRAMAN, HEAD OF RESEARCH OPERATIONS AT MARKETSMITH, PART OF WILLIAM O‘NEIL, BANGALORE“All indicators such as inflation, oil and commodity prices, and global cues have been in one direction since the last policy meet. They don’t seem to favour a rate cut going forward.”“I don’t see a reason why RBI would cut rates in the next meeting in February unless something substantial changes.”“It’s too early to predict beyond the February policy meet, we’ll have to see how things shape up.”SUVODEEP RAKSHIT, SENIOR ECONOMIST, KOTAK INSTITUTIONAL EQUITIES, MUMBAI“It is unlikely that the RBI will move in the February policy too, given the inflation trajectory which is likely to peak in June 2018. Further, global policy rate cycle and commodity prices along with consolidated fiscal position will keep the RBI cautious. However, incoming data versus the RBI’s projections will remain key.”“The tone of the policy does not indicate much room for any rate cuts. We maintain our call that the RBI will be on a pause in the near term. Chances of any rate hikes will be contingent on durability of inflation remaining above the RBI’s comfort zone”Reporting by Bengaluru Newsroom; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-economy-rates/expert-views-rbi-keeps-repo-rate-on-hold-at-6-percent-idINKBN1E00Y6'|'2017-12-06T11:22:00.000+02:00'
'1c28130cd7dc751f878510c8b7bcea87be0c65dc'|'Kobe Steel''s copper plant loses JIS certification - government'|'December 8, 2017 / 6:36 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Kobe Steel''s copper plant loses JIS certification - government Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) certification for copper and copper alloy seamless pipes produced by Kobe Steel Ltd’s unit Shinko Metal Products has been suspended, the nation’s trade ministry said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Kobe Steel (Kobelco) is seen at the company headquarters in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo Japan’s third-largest steelmaker, which supplies the manufacturers of cars, planes, trains and other products across the world, has said that about 500 of its customers had received products with falsified specifications, in one of Japan’s biggest industrial scandals. Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Vyas Mohan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kobe-steel-scandal-certification/kobe-steels-copper-plant-loses-jis-certification-government-idUKKBN1E20M2'|'2017-12-08T08:35:00.000+02:00'
'd6a3b6a8b3b4937bbf48259dac4563794d2bb5b5'|'Italian fund to raise Aston Martin stake, IPO next summer - paper'|'December 10, 2017 / 9:34 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Italian fund denies seeking to raise stake in Aston Martin Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Investindustrial is not in talks to increase its stake in Aston Martin and no decision has been taken on a possible stock market listing for the British carmaker, the private equity group said, denying an earlier newspaper report. A company logo is seen on the new Aston Martin Vantage car at a media event in Gaydon, Britain November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble Italian daily Il Messaggero had reported on Sunday that the fund was in advanced negotiations to raise its stake in the maker of the famous sports car driven by fictional secret agent James Bond to 50 percent from 37.5 percent by the end of the year and that it aimed to list the company next summer. The report had added that the fund, led by founder Andrea Bonomi, was to buy shares from other stakeholders, including a consortium of Kuwaiti investors, which currently holds 54.5 percent, Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) and the group’s management. A London-based spokesman for Investindustrial denied the report. “Because of the recent good performance of the Aston Martin business, none of the shareholders want to sell,” the spokesman said. Aston Martin last month said it was on course to post its first annual pretax profit since 2010, helped by strong demand for the luxury automaker’s DB11 sports car. There are no discussions on ownership structure at the moment, the spokesman said, adding that the situation could change in the future “given it is a private equity fund and it might eventually want to monetise (its) assets”. He also said that no decision had been taken about a possible initial public offering (IPO). Aston Martin said in an email to Reuters that it did not “have any comment to make on this speculation”. The group’s Chief Executive Andy Palmer has repeatedly said that the decision and timing of an IPO were matters for the shareholders but that it made sense for them to consider the option before the end of the company’s turnaround plan, which is due to complete in 2022. Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Keith Weir and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-astonmartin-ipo-investindustrial/italian-fund-to-raise-aston-martin-stake-ipo-next-summer-paper-idUKKBN1E408Y'|'2017-12-10T11:33:00.000+02:00'
'13396ce8add8409a06a0d60dd88b6b708879f9a5'|'After bitcoin’s wild week, traders brace for futures launch'|'December 10, 2017 / 6:11 AM / Updated 6 hours ago After bitcoin’s wild week, traders brace for futures launch Saqib Iqbal Ahmed 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The newest way to bet on bitcoin will arrive on Sunday, when futures of the cryptocurrency that has taken Wall Street by a storm begin trading. Virtual currency Bitcoin tokens are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The first bitcoin future <0#XBT:> trades are set to kick off at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on CBOE Global Markets Inc’s ( CBOE.O ) CBOE Futures Exchange. This has given an extra kick to the cryptocurrency’s scorching run this year. Bitcoin’s price soared so far this month, but it has made sharp moves in both directions in recent days, falling by almost a fifth on Friday after surging more than 40 percent in the previous 48 hours. On Sunday, bitcoin was up about 3 percent at $15,000 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. On the Gemini Exchange, it was at $15,650. For interactive graphic on bitcoin''s blistering ascent click: here Bitcoin fans appear excited about the prospect of an exchange-listed and regulated product and the ability to bet on its price swings without having to sign up for a digital wallet. Others, however, caution that risks remain for investors and possibly even the clearing organizations underpinning the trades. The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. “The pretty sharp rise we have seen in bitcoin in just the last couple of weeks has probably been driven by optimism ahead of the futures launch,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas. “You are going to open up the market to a whole lot of people who aren’t currently in bitcoin,” Frederick said. The futures are an alternative to a largely unregulated spot market underpinned by cryptocurrency exchanges that have been plagued by cybersecurity and fraud issues. The launch has so far received a mixed reception from big U.S. banks and brokerages, though. Interactive Brokers Group Inc ( IBKR.O ) plans to offer its customers access to the first bitcoin futures when trading goes live but will bar clients from assuming short positions and has margin requirements of at least 50 percent. Several online brokerages, including Charles Schwab Corp ( SCHW.N ) and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp ( AMTD.O ), will not allow trading of the new futures immediately. Sparks glow from broken Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ), Citigroup Inc ( C.N ) and other large U.S. banks will not immediately clear bitcoin trades for clients, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) said on Thursday it was planning to clear such trades for certain clients. VOLATILITY DAMPENER Bitcoin’s manic run-up this year has boosted volatility far in excess of other asset classes. The futures trading may help dampen some of the sharp moves, analysts said. “Hypothetically, volatility over the long run should drop after institutions get involved,” said Ophir Gottlieb, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Capital Market Laboratories. “But there may not be an immediate impact, say in the first month.” Slideshow (3 Images) Placing futures on an underlying spot market can lend more order to spot trading in the long run by helping to determine the proper price of a security and by allowing investors to express both bullish and bearish biases, said J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. Analysts warn, however, against trying to predict how the futures will perform, given that bitcoin is unlike any other asset. “This is completely unknown territory,” said Charles Schwab’s Frederick. Bitcoin’s meteoric price rise has raised worries that it could collapse soon, although analysts have little concern that this could hurt broader financial markets because the cryptocurrency lacks correlation with other risky assets and is held and traded largely outside the banking sector. However, there are still fears of inaccurate pricing and systemic risk to clearing houses, should prices move sharply and clients fail to meet margin calls. Brokers have called for more safeguards to protect against bitcoin’s high volatility. For a factbox on the launch of bitcoin futures contracts, see: The risk that investors might manipulate the underlying spot market to benefit in the futures market is another big concern. “Large equity indexes show some volatility around cash settlements, and those are in highly liquid, highly regulated venues,” said Steve Sosnick, chief options strategist at Interactive Brokers in Greenwich, Connecticut. “Compare that to cash settlement in bitcoin, and there is a lot more uncertainty on how that would play out.” Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures/after-bitcoins-wild-week-traders-brace-for-futures-launch-idUSKBN1E404D'|'2017-12-10T14:11:00.000+02:00'
'ea9e16f7b2f8dac3331d83cb43becc9f7a21b037'|'RPT-California wildfires send film, TV productions scrambling - Reuters'|'(Repeats story published on Friday with no changes)By Nichola GroomLOS ANGELES, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Wildfires raging across Southern California are taking a toll on the region’s iconic film industry, forcing producers of commercials, television shows and even student films to pause or seek alternate shooting locations.The Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday suspended permitted filming in zones near the fires as well as other areas deemed to be at severe risk of burning. Applications for filming in the Angeles National Forest were also halted this week.Movie studios set up in California in part because of great weather and varied scenery, from rugged mountains to manicured mansions. More than 200,000 people have been forced to evacuate Southern California fires which poured smoke into neighborhoods miles away.The mountain neighborhoods impacted by the fires are “highly desirable” locations for filming because they often have large houses with distinctive architecture, said Phil Sokoloski, a spokesman for Film L.A., which coordinates film permits for the city of Los Angeles and other governments in the region.Film L.A. has spent this week helping productions find and secure permits for alternate locations such as parks on flat land or neighborhoods that have similar-looking homes. Several of the city’s major parks were reopened to filming on Friday, and Sokoloski said he expected those to be popular alternatives.“Everyone is usually rushing to complete production ahead of the holidays,” said Sokoloski. “This may put some additional time pressure to finish their work before the holiday season.”“Westworld”, the science fiction TV series by Time Warner Inc’s HBO, was among the productions that were temporarily halted on Tuesday due to nearby wildfires.Later that day, one of the show’s stars, Evan Rachel Wood, on Instagram jokingly posted “Meanwhile, at work today...” alongside images of billowing dark smoke and a fire-breathing dragon.The show’s production resumed the following day.CBS Corp’s crime drama S.W.A.T. was shut down for two days, eventually moving filming to sound stages. The new Twenty-First Century Fox Inc comedy series “LA to Vegas” also had to cancel a location shoot this week, a spokesman said.In some cases, productions outside the fire zones were halted because there were not police or fire department staff required to supervise special effects shoots or control traffic, LAPD Film Unit Supervisor Vincent Aguirre said. They were needed to fight fires.Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Peter Henderson and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-wildfires-filming/rpt-california-wildfires-send-film-tv-productions-scrambling-idINL1N1O900T'|'2017-12-09T09:01:00.000+02:00'
'390c16f8430f45e40d1c592426d26f65f6aa5d48'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Profit-taking lifts Mexican stocks, U.S wages boost peso'|'(Updates prices) By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Mexican stocks rose on Friday, as investors snapped up relatively cheap assets following two consecutive sessions of the bourse''s leading index trading at lows not seen since February. Mexico''s S&P/BMV IPC ended Friday''s session up 1.23 percent at 47,566.54 points. The peso strengthened about 0.20 percent, after U.S. job growth posted solid gains in November but wages rose less than expected. U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 228,000 jobs last month amid broad gains in hiring as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded. Still, average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent, less than the 0.3 percent consensus estimate. The figures left investors guessing over the pace of U.S. interest rate hikes in coming months. Consistent signs of strength in the labor market have been followed by mixed figures on inflation, which remains stubbornly below the Federal Reserve''s target. A faster pace of rate hikes could reduce demand for high-yielding assets in emerging markets. Brazilian assets have seen patchy demand due to uncertainty over President Michel Temer''s ability to pass a plan to streamline the social security system and trim government debt. That uncertainty drove the biggest daily loss on the real in seven months on Thursday, but the currency found some support on Friday after Temer agreed with congressional leaders to a Dec. 18 vote. The Brazilian real strengthened 0.08 percent, while the benchmark Bovespa stock index rose 0.34 percent. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2130 GMT: Stock Latest daily % change YTD % change indexes MSCI Emerging 1111.32 0.98 27.63 Markets MSCI LatAm 2710.39 0.65 15.05 Brazil Bovespa 72731.84 0.34 20.76 Mexico S&P/BMV IPC 47566.54 1.23 4.21 Chile IPSA 4887.16 -0.02 17.72 Chile IGPA 24616.07 0.01 18.72 Argentina MerVal 26841.50 1.4 58.66 Colombia IGBC 10871.89 0.26 7.34 Venezuela IBC 1292.52 -3.19 -95.92 Currencies Latest daily % change YTD % change Brazil real 3.2913 0.08 -1.28 Mexico peso 18.9335 0.20 9.56 Chile peso 655.6 0.00 2.30 Colombia peso 3009 0.04 -0.25 Peru sol 3.235 0.00 5.53 Argentina peso 17.2750 -0.12 -8.10 (interbank) Argentina peso 17.83 0.67 -5.66 (parallel) (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Susan Thomas) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-profit-taking-lifts-mexican-stocks-u-s-wages-boost-peso-idUSL1N1O81SL'|'2017-12-09T00:00:00.000+02:00'
'c32a909564973d9ee5b051da87445a75457534b9'|'Blackstone''s real estate fund buys 10 pct stake in Logicor- FT'|' 42 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Blackstone''s real estate fund buys 10 pct stake in Logicor- FT Reuters   Blackstone Group LP’s real estate fund is taking a 10 percent stake in European warehouse firm Logicor Ltd ( IPO-LOG.L ), the Financial Times reported on Tuesday citing people briefed on the matter. The private equity group in June had agreed to sell Logicor to Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp for 12.25 billion euros ($14.42 billion). China Investment Corp also hired Blackstone to manage Logicor''s warehouses and logistic properties portfolio, the report said. on.ft.com/2C3V70Z Blackstone’s recently-raised $2 billion European fund is one of several investors that the Chinese sovereign wealth fund has invited to buy stakes in Logicor, with several insurers also looking at the company, the report added. Blackstone, China Investment Corp and Logicor were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours. ($1 = 0.8495 euros) (Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/blackstone-group-logicor/blackstones-real-estate-fund-buys-10-pct-stake-in-logicor-ft-idUSL3N1OC20X'|'2017-12-12T07:41:00.000+02:00'
'42e5597e2400673efb13d582eba789a92f6f2239'|'Bombardier signs $724 million UK train contract'|'December 12, 2017 / 11:59 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Bombardier signs $724 million UK train contract Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc’s rail unit said on Tuesday it signed a $724 million (£542.6 million) contract to sell 333 of its electric Aventra trains to be used by British rail operator West Midlands. Under the deal, Bombardier will sell and maintain three-car trains for metro services and five-car trains for outer suburban and long distances. The trains will be made at Bombardier’s Derby facility in England and are expected to be delivered between 2020 and 2022. Reporting by Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bombardier-contract/bombardier-signs-724-million-uk-train-contract-idUKKBN1E61D3'|'2017-12-12T13:59:00.000+02:00'
'18823a65645697f482b406878fe0885b94736932'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX rises to record high as financials and energy gain'|' 43 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX rises to record high as financials and energy gain Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index rose to a record high on Tuesday, led by the heavyweight financials group as bond yields rose, while the energy group also gained ground. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 17.07 points, or 0.11 percent, to 16,120.58, shortly after the open. Six of the index’s 10 main groups gained. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-rises-to-record-high-as-financials-and-energy-gain-idUSL1N1OC0WU'|'2017-12-12T16:42:00.000+02:00'
'7d9bb056c56a6775c75f69828b50e4b4b0b86930'|'Scottish fund Kiltearn halves stake in troubled Carillion'|' 14 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Scottish fund Kiltearn halves stake in troubled Carillion Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Scottish investment firm Kiltearn Partners, the largest shareholder in troubled Carillion has halved its stake in the British construction company, a regulatory filing on Monday showed. FILE PHOTO: A Carillion sign can be seen on a van in Manchester, Britain July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Kiltearn Partners cut its stake to 4.94 percent on Dec. 7, from 9.85 percent, Carillion said in a notification of major holdings statement. Carillion issued its third profit warning in five months in November and said it was heading towards a breach of debt covenants and would need fresh capital. The firm is fighting for its survival after costly contract delays and a downturn in new business at the company, which handles major infrastructure projects for the British and other governments. Its CEO quit in July. Carillion disclosed on Aug. 11 that Kiltearn had doubled its stake to 10 percent at the start of February when shares were trading at around 225 pence each, becoming the company’s biggest shareholder. The company’s shares have slumped over 90 percent since a profit warning in July and traded at 16.25 pence at 0910 GMT on Monday. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-carillion-kiltearn/scottish-fund-kiltearn-halves-stake-in-troubled-carillion-idUKKBN1E50QY'|'2017-12-11T11:13:00.000+02:00'
'd1ea15e2c715a7546bd9f75afb02e6756f60bfc5'|'Peru''s Kuczynski acknowledges having advised Odebrecht project'|'December 9, 2017 / 6:25 PM / in 15 minutes Peru''s Kuczynski acknowledges having advised Odebrecht project Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski acknowledged that he worked as a financial adviser for an irrigation project owned by the Brazilian builder Odebrecht [ODBES.UL] on Saturday, contradicting his previous denials of having any links to the company. Peru''s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski attends the APEC Economic Leaders'' Meeting in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva Odebrecht is at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal and has admitted to paying about $30 million in bribes to secure contracts in Peru over a decade. Kuczynski worked in the Cabinet of former President Alejandro Toledo, who prosecutors say took a $20 million bribe from Odebrecht during his 2001-2006 term. However, Kuczynski has not been named as a suspect in the far-reaching graft probe by the attorney general’s office. In a televised interview with local broadcaster RPP, Kuczynski denied being a partner in an investment fund that allegedly had links to Odebrecht. However, he said he had worked as a financial adviser for several companies that needed to raise funds for big projects, including an Odebrecht firm. “They use bankers,” said Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker elected president in 2016. “I’ve been a banker, in New York, for a very prestigious bank. I’ve been one of the founders of what’s called project financing. So sometimes, I was hired. For H2Olmos, an irrigation project.” Odebrecht owns H2Olmos SA, which was formed in 2009 to build and operate one of its landmark projects in Peru - carving a 20-kilometer (12-mile) tunnel through the Andes to transport water to irrigate agricultural fields in the desert. Kuczynski’s comments could provide more ammunition for the opposition-controlled Congress as it targets him in its probe into Odebrecht’s links to politicians. Kuczynski had previously denied reports in local media that Odebrecht hired him as an adviser a decade ago to mend ties with him after he opposed highway contracts awarded to the company in Toledo’s government. Kuczynski did not provide additional details about his work for H2Olmos, and his office did not respond to requests for comment. However, he stressed in the interview that the advising work was done when he was a private citizen and denied favoring any company while in public office. Odebrecht reached a deal to sell H2Olmos to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and Suez SA a year ago. However, the sale has not closed. While the attorney general’s office reopened a preliminary probe related to Odebrecht and Kuczynski a year ago, it has not accused Kuczynski of wrongdoing. Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peru-kuczynski-odebrecht/perus-kuczynski-acknowledges-having-advised-odebrecht-project-idUSKBN1E30OX'|'2017-12-09T20:13:00.000+02:00'
'60873cc6abb2a5e3a0c289f4abd5199a65bb673c'|'Wall Street rally sets the stage for big IPO year in 2018'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:43 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Wall Street rally sets the stage for big IPO year in 2018 Sweta Singh , Ankur Banerjee 3 Min Read (Reuters) - A relentless bull-run in U.S. stock indexes this year has set the stage for a strong IPO market in 2018, with several multi-billion dollar firms including Airbnb and Spotify widely expected to grab headlines with their offerings. A 3D printed people''s models are seen in front of a displayed Airbnb logo in this illustration taken, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY The S&P 500 .SPX , the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI and the Nasdaq .IXIC are all set to cap the year with their biggest annual gains since 2013. Riding the rally, the U.S. IPO market also recovered in the second half of 2017, after being spooked by a slump in shares of Snapchat owner Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ) and meal-kit delivery company Blue Apron ( APRN.N ) following their debut earlier in the year. “With the market at all-time highs valuations are at the high-end, presenting a favourable backdrop for IPOs,” said Nelson Griggs, president, Nasdaq Stock Exchange. “Interest rates are still around historical lows so there is likely a sense of urgency for companies to take advantage of the window.” (For a graphic on IPO performance against S&P and Dow, click reut.rs/2ogw33Z ) While several “unicorns”, or companies valued at more than $1 billion, are likely to list in 2018, it will be the small- and mid-sized firms and listings by foreign companies that will fuel the market, experts say. Headphones are seen in front of a logo of online music streaming service Spotify in this February 18, 2014 illustration picture. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo According to consultancy firm CB Insights, 14 unicorns went public globally this year, compared with eight in 2016 and 10 in 2015. Most of them made their debut in the United States. (For a graphic on IPO proceeds, click reut.rs/2kw0DSn ) Apart from Airbnb and Spotify, file-sharing service Dropbox and ride-hailing company Lyft are among the notable companies expected to go public in 2018. The chances of a 2018 listing by Uber Technologies remains slim, given the corporate governance challenge it continues to face. An IPO by the ride hailing company, valued at more than $60 billion, has been eagerly awaited by investors for years. “We’ll continue to see unicorns trickle out (in 2018), not a unicorn boom year, but a steady stream,” Ernst & Young Americas IPO Markets Leader Jackie Kelley said. This year is set to end with 159 companies going public and raising about $38 billion. This compares with 277 companies and about $93 billion raised in 2014, the best year since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, according to Reuters data. United States will continue to be an attractive destination for foreign companies looking to tap the public markets next year. About a quarter of listings on U.S. exchanges in 2017 were by overseas firms, led by China. “There is a strong foundation going into the next year and significant amount of interest. The pipeline is pretty robust,” Kelley said. Reporting by Sweta Singh and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-ipo/wall-street-rally-sets-the-stage-for-big-ipo-year-in-2018-idUKKBN1E92IU'|'2017-12-15T20:42:00.000+02:00'
'b09611a5ad05dec9d3a16c0a08ebb40f75ee9cef'|'Big British local authority pensions step up hedge fund bets'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:08 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Big British local authority pensions step up hedge fund bets Maiya Keidan , Carolyn Cohn , Simon Jessop 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - From Essex binmen to Liverpool councillors, government pension schemes in England and Wales are investing more in hedge funds whose bets, sometimes dictated by algorithms, have included exotic holdings such as Puerto Rican debt. Those running local authority retirement pots have been reluctant to advertise their hedge fund holdings, but a Reuters survey reveals that the value of such investments by the 10 largest schemes in England and Wales rose by a third to 2.2 billion pounds in the year to the end of March. This backing for an industry which some investors criticise for its high fees and relative lack of transparency has led some finance experts to warn that hedge funds expose the pensions of ordinary people to risk and volatility. “Diversification is good but if you are overstretching for yield and take too much risk, buyer beware,” Peter Hahn, professor at the London Institute of Banking and Finance, said, citing the problems experienced by local governments which deposited funds with Icelandic banks before their 2008 collapse. In their quest to get better returns for their members during a period of low yields in bonds, assets invested in hedge funds at nine out of the top 10 schemes analysed by Reuters rose during the period, in part due to performance gains, while three pension funds added new hedge fund managers and none were dropped, the Reuters survey found. The 10 schemes - which control around 100 billion pounds of the 259 billion pounds within Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) in England and Wales - had 2.3 percent of their assets allocated to hedge funds in the year, up from 2.1 percent a year earlier. Schemes in England and Wales accounted for almost 10 percent of Britain’s total pension fund assets at the end of 2016, a report from Willis Towers Watson shows. While a direct comparison with investments by other pension funds is not possible because most are not required to give the same level of disclosure, several funds, such as Rhode Island in the United States and British Rail, have reduced their hedge fund exposure or dropped it entirely. But just one of the 10 funds analysed - Labour-run Greater Manchester - said it had no hedge fund investments. Six out of the nine schemes where hedge fund assets rose were controlled by the left-wing Labour party, which is the main UK opposition. “Our longstanding view is that hedge funds are far too expensive, insufficiently transparent (despite recent improvements) and do not appear to provide the sustainable returns required,” a spokeswoman for Greater Manchester said. ALTERNATIVE APPEAL For Chris Rule, chief investment officer of Local Pensions Partnership, a tie-up between London Pension Funds Authority (LPFA) and Lancashire, hedge funds appeal because they offer an alternative that is not tied to mainstream investments. “What we are looking for is something that is independent,” he said. “It may do badly (and) it may do well, at different times. The critical thing is it doesn’t move in lock-step.” For the purposes of the survey, Reuters defined a ‘hedge fund’ as either a fund that charged a performance and management fee or was described explicitly as a hedge fund, although the schemes were often reluctant to do so. LPFA added three investments in hedge funds in the 12 months to end-March, in Winton Capital, GSA Capital Partners and Graham Capital Management, amounting to 213.5 million pounds. All three hedge funds declined to comment or did not respond to requests. The new LPFA investments were all in computer-driven funds that follow market patterns, trends or momentum -- a strategy that also appeals to Merseyside, which invests in Winton too. New investments from other pension funds this year included a so-called ‘fund of hedge funds’ that invested in other hedge funds and an emerging markets strategy. Reports by the local government pension funds in the Reuters survey show that total assets in the schemes rose 21 percent to 97.8 billion pounds in 2017. Much of this is accounted for by gains in the value of investments, due to rising stock markets. “Part of it is that equities have had such a good run over the last 10 years, LGPS are traditionally very big equity owners and looking to take profits and looking for alternatives elsewhere,” said Colin Cartwright, partner at consultant Aon Hewitt. “One of those alternatives will be hedge funds.” “Hedge funds are something that provide a different return stream to equities. They should provide some sort of diversification, especially if markets get choppy from here.” West Midlands, the second-largest LGPS in England and Wales, had five investments in hedge funds at end-March 2017, up from four at end-March 2016, but did not respond to requests for comment on asset size and therefore their assets could not be included in calculating the total investments. Other pensions included in the Reuters analysis were Essex, Lancashire, West Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire and Hampshire. ($1 = 0.7491 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hedgefunds-pensions-analysis/big-british-local-authority-pensions-step-up-hedge-fund-bets-idUKKBN1E81RX'|'2017-12-14T16:41:00.000+02:00'
'43fe45d752dd222c03ece0c30977161c3a91bccf'|'Gold rises to 1-week high as dollar holds steady'|'December 14, 2017 / 5:14 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Gold edges back from 1-week high as dollar recovers Eric Onstad 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Gold pulled back from a one-week high on Thursday when the dollar recovered after tumbling a day earlier following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates. Gold bars are seen at the Austrian Gold and Silver Separating Plant ''Oegussa'' in Vienna, Austria, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo The Fed raised benchmark rates for the third time this year as widely expected, but maintained its outlook of three rate increases in 2018 on low inflation concerns. The dollar slid on Wednesday as the Fed kept its outlook on interest rates unchanged, but recovered and held steady on Thursday. Gold was likely to hold up well in the short term, although there were risks that bullion could revisit the bottom of its range close to $1,200, said Jonathan Butler, commodities analyst at Mitsubishi in London. “There’s still some supportive factors going towards the year end. We’ve got a great deal of uncertainty over U.S. tax reform, the U.S. debt ceiling and potentially government funding,” he said. “But if U.S. stock markets continue to fly, if we continue to see flows into some of the more unconventional assets including crypto currencies, then that would erode some of the investor interest in gold as a safe haven and alternative asset.” Spot gold had edged up 0.1 percent to $1,256.25 an ounce by 1100 GMT after earlier touching its highest since Dec. 7 at $1,259.11. U.S. gold futures rose 0.8 percent at $1,258.50. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is likely to bump up some of its economic forecasts on Thursday and may debate tweaking its pledge to keep money at its current, ultra-easy level, but will ultimately reaffirm is policy stance. “People factor too much hawkishness into these meetings and it disappoints a bit and that’s kind of what happened ... the nervousness in the market helped gold,” a Hong Kong-based trader said. Platinum failed to react much to news that South African precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater agreed to buy Lonmin, the world’s third biggest platinum producer. “It makes for a good match, but it doesn’t resolve oversupply of the PGM (platinum group metals) industry,” said Nedbank precious metals analyst Leon Esterhuizen. Platinum dipped 0.2 percent to $882.85 an ounce. On Tuesday, it touched its lowest since February, 2016. Palladium shed 0.6 percent to $1,010 an ounce. Silver fell 0.6 percent to $15.97 an ounce, after hitting a five-month low of $15.59 in the previous session. Additional reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru and Zandi Shabalala in London; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-rises-to-1-week-high-as-dollar-holds-steady-idINKBN1E80GT'|'2017-12-14T07:14:00.000+02:00'
'53340d02b2812dc2cb18705d4be16369e3118d4e'|'UniCredit steps up bad loan reduction, raises dividend'|'Reuters TV United States  31 AM / a few seconds ago UniCredit steps up bad loan reduction, raises dividend Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s biggest bank UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) on Tuesday pledged to shed more soured loans than previously envisaged as it updated its business plan to 2019 and raised its dividend payout. FILE PHOTO: Unicredit bank logo is seen on a banner downtown Milan, Italy, May 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo In confirming other key targets of its “Transform 2019” plan, UniCredit said it now planned to pay out to shareholders 30 percent of profits in 2019, up from 20 percent previously. It also raised its post-2019 dividend payout ratio to up to 50 percent once its core capital ratio will be confirmed above 12.5 percent once taken into account all regulatory impacts. The bank said it was confident it would generate enough capital to absorb the hit from regulatory headwinds after 2019. As previously announced, UniCredit targets a core capital ratio above 12.5 percent in 2019 and a return on tangible equity of more than 9 percent. It said it would shed an additional 4 billion euros ($4.71 billion) in soured loans over the course of the business plan. Reporting by Valentina Za; editing by Agnieszka Flak'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-banks-italy-unicredit/unicredit-steps-up-bad-loan-reduction-raises-dividend-idUKKBN1E60ML'|'2017-12-12T09:26:00.000+02:00'
'671357b03a386b7c03abc85948aff911c72cce7a'|'EU''s Barnier rules out full EU-UK trade pact in time for Brexit'|'December 12, 2017 / 4:50 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago EU''s Barnier rules out full EU-UK trade pact in time for Brexit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - There is “no possibility” that Britain and the European Union can conclude a free trade agreement by the time Britain leaves in March 2019, EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barner said on Tuesday. European Union''s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier holds a press conference at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Asked about suggestions in London that a trade deal could be ready for signature shortly after Britain is no longer an EU member, Barnier reiterated the EU’s official line that only a “political declaration” outlining future trading relations would be ready at the time of Britain’s withdrawal. He told reporters after he had briefed EU ministers ahead of a leaders’ summit on Friday that negotiating a free trade pact would take longer. He also stressed that there must be “no backtracking” by Britain on an outline divorce package agreed last week if it wants to negotiate the future relationship. He said that after the summit he hoped he would be able to present draft language early in the new year on the withdrawal treaty, elements of which were agreed last Friday. Reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Editing by Gabriela Baczynska'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-barnier/eus-barnier-rules-out-full-eu-uk-trade-pact-in-time-for-brexit-idUKKBN1E6289'|'2017-12-12T18:49:00.000+02:00'
'eea20be675fceb93e3f25bdc27531ba3c98066d5'|'ECB likely to delay rules on bad loans by a "few months" - Nouy'|'December 11, 2017 / 7:21 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago ECB likely to delay rules on bad loans by a "few months" - Nouy Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is likely to delay the implementation of its new rules on non-performing loans by a few months as it needs time to process industry feedback, supervisory chief Daniele Nouy told a Portuguese newspaper. European Central Bank''s chief supervisor Daniele Nouy speaks during a banking conference in Lisbon, Portugal, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante “I think this process of analysis will take a month or two,” Nouy told Público. “It is therefore very likely that implementation will be postponed by a few months.” “However, I would say that it doesn’t change much whether it happens on say 1 January, 1 April or 1 June,” she said, adding that there was no reason for a delay until 2019. For the text of the interview, click on: here Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-ecb/ecb-likely-to-delay-rules-on-bad-loans-by-a-few-months-nouy-idUKKBN1E50JL'|'2017-12-11T09:21:00.000+02:00'
'990658771156fa1d90f1cd845dd9d0f5c8c3e36b'|'SEC orders food review startup to shut down coin offering 11,'|'Bitcoin futures begin trading The SEC shut down plans by a startup food review site to raise money by selling digital tokens. The startup planned what''s known as an initial coin offering, an arrangement that is drawing increased scrutiny from the feds. Munchee, based in San Francisco, was trying to raise $15 million to improve its app, but the SEC said that would have been similar to issuing securities without properly registering with regulators. Munchee, a small company based in San Francisco, did not immediately respond to an email from CNNMoney. According to the SEC, the company was trying to create what it called an ecosystem -- a marketplace where it could pay users in tokens for writing food reviews and sell advertising to restaurants. The company told investors that they could expect the tokens to increase in value, and the company said it would help create a secondary market for the tokens, the SEC said. The SEC said it would not seek a penalty against Munchee because the company shut down the coin offering quickly and returned the proceeds to investors without issuing tokens. The company still had references to the offering on its website Monday, including a link to its "new decentralized block-chain based food review and social platform." But the links led to error pages. Related: Feds start to crack down on ICOs as Bitcoin soars Federal authorities, including the SEC''s newly formed Cyber Unit, have been ramping up scrutiny of initial coin offerings , which function in a similar way to initial public offerings of stock. Coin offerings often receive investments in the form of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, which has soared to meteoric heights . Last week, the SEC said it froze the assets of PlexCorps , a company that was running a coin offering for its own cryptocurrency called PlexCoins, and filed civil charges against Dominic Lecroix, the Canadian who was allegedly running it.'|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/11/news/munchee-initial-coin-offering-sec/index.html'|'2017-12-11T21:21:00.000+02:00'
'16f6bf1e26fee9a1159ac0babd2152f95cf11cff'|'Apple in talks to acquire music identification app Shazam - source'|'December 9, 2017 / 12:19 AM / Updated 17 hours ago Apple in talks to acquire music identification app Shazam: source Stephen Nellis 2 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) is in talks to acquire Shazam Entertainment Ltd, whose software helps users identify songs by pointing their phone at an audio source, according to a person familiar with the situation. FILE PHOTO - A man looks at the screen of his mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Shazam’s smartphone app is already tightly integrated with Apple’s Siri digital assistant. Users of Apple’s iPhone with the Shazam app installed can say: “Hey Siri, what’s that song?” and the app will identify it. But Shazam has other features, such as the ability to identify television shows, that do not yet work with Siri. Tech news website TechCrunch reported the talks earlier, writing that Apple could pay about $400 million for Shazam and that a deal could be signed as early as next week. Shazam did not respond to a request for comment. Privately-held, UK-based Shazam has raised $143 million from DN Capital Limited, Institutional Venture Partners, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, among others, over its 18-year history, according to PitchBook, a firm that tracks private venture investments. The price TechCrunch reported would fall far below Shazam’s most recent $1 billion valuation reported by PitchBook. An acquisition of Shazam could help bolster Apple’s music efforts by making it easier for users to find songs and add them to playlists in its Apple Music service. As of mid-2017, Apple Music had 27 million subscribers, behind rival music streaming service Spotify’s 60 million users. Reporting by Stephen Nellis, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-shazam/apple-in-talks-to-acquire-music-identification-app-shazam-source-idUKKBN1E3007'|'2017-12-09T02:18:00.000+02:00'
'50a1790ae3ddf70f19bba67ce7cf411fc0cb601b'|'Bankers call on Bank of England to act fast on EU branches'|'December 11, 2017 / 12:58 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Bankers call on Bank of England to act fast on EU branches Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England should fast-track licensing of European banks that want to continue doing business in London after Brexit to avoid cutting off customers and disrupting markets, bankers and financial lobbyists said. A worker walks past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville There are 106 banks in London that are branches of lenders headquartered elsewhere in the EU. They operate here under EU “passporting” rules, but are uncertain whether they can still do business in Britain after it exits the bloc in March 2019. BoE Deputy Governor Sam Woods is due to say by the end of the year whether any or all of these branches must reapply for branch licences to operate after Brexit, or even become a subsidiary. Establishing fully-fledged subsidiaries can be a costly move for EU-headquartered branches, said a Brexit paper from TheCityUK lobby group seen by Reuters. Switching from being a branch to a subsidiary means having to build up buffers of capital and cash locally. “A change of policy could have wider cost implications for UK and EU27 businesses and customers alike,” the Brexit paper said. “The UK has always benefitted from its openness to foreign business, this is a key component of its international competitiveness,” it said. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), which lobbies on behalf of European lenders, urged the BoE to take a “pragmatic” approach. AVOIDING “CLIFF EDGE” AFME said in an unpublished briefing note that any licence applications for branches already up and running should be “grandfathered” - that is, the existing licence is rolled over - or fast-tracked, a person who has seen the note said. AFME warns that the fate of EU bank branches could become a “cliff edge soon”, and especially by March next year, given that 12 months are typically needed to obtain a new licence from a regulator, the person added. TheCityUK called for “imminent clarity” on the issue. Woods, along with BoE Governor Mark Carney, is due to appear before parliament’s Treasury Select Committee on Dec. 20 to discuss last month’s Financial Stability Report. Last week Britain and the EU agreed to open talks on a transition period of about two years to follow Brexit day - a step bankers say would make it easier to implement their staff and business moves from London to new hubs on the continent. But AFME says that some market risks would still need to be addressed by authorities irrespective of whether a transition deal is agreed, the person said. TheCityUK also calls for Britain to continue allowing EU-regulated mutual funds known as UCITS to be sold in the UK. Many of the funds are listed in Luxembourg and Dublin but are run from London. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks/bankers-call-on-bank-of-england-to-act-fast-on-eu-branches-idUKKBN1E51EG'|'2017-12-11T14:59:00.000+02:00'
'2b25e28f9e47064620b3eef1f8e417b5aa74f60c'|'Bitcoin futures surge past $18,000; Asian shares firm'|'December 11, 2017 / 1:03 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Bitcoin futures surge past $18,000; Asian shares firm Swati Pandey 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - The craze for cryptocurrencies entered a new chapter on Monday as bitcoin futures rocketed by one-fifth of their value at a closely-watched launch, while Asian shares climbed amid optimism about global growth. Virtual currency Bitcoin tokens are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The most-traded contract on the Chicago-based CBOE Global Markets exchange opened at $15,460 in New York on Sunday evening, before leaping to a high of $18,700 - a gain of 21 percent. They were last quoted at $17,550 a premium of more than $1,600 to the price on Gemini Exchange. The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The cryptocurrency has boasted a gravity-defying 15-fold gain since the start of the year, attracting institutional interest and no small amount of question marks. The acting governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Sunday said bitcoin appeared to be a “classic case” of a bubble. “With a bubble you never know how far it is going to go before it comes around,” Grant Spencer told TVNZ. Some market participants believe the fallout across other financial assets from a potential bursting of the bubble will be limited. “Bitcoin’s market capitalisation is currently around $240 billion, which is much smaller, say, than the value of gold outstanding,” said Andrew Kenningham, economist at Capital Economics. “If the price of bitcoin fell to zero today, the paper losses would be equivalent to a 0.6 percent fall in U.S. equity prices. As most investors have bought bitcoin at much lower prices, the relevant losses would arguably be smaller.” Asian shares were buoyant following strong U.S payrolls data and better-than-expected Chinese trade data on Friday. The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.4 percent, staying well above a recent two-month trough of 542.27 points. Japan’s Nikkei added 0.4 percent while Chinese shares rallied, with the blue-chip CSI 300 index up 0.9 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.5 percent. RATE RISES? Currency market investors were cautious ahead of a big week for policy meetings globally, with the Federal Reserve the only major central bank expected to raise interest rates. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are likely to hold rates steady. The dollar rose to a near one-month top against the yen, after climbing 1.2 percent last week. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was steady near a three-week high. Traders will keep their eyes peeled for the Fed’s future rate projections as U.S. wages growth and inflation crawl at a snail’s pace. Data out on Friday showed average hourly earnings in the United States nudged up 5 cents or 0.2 percent in November when economists had looked for a 0.3 percent gain. The weakness persisted despite stronger-than-expected non-farm payrolls, which rose by 228,000 in November. “We’ll be listening close for any signs of a dovish shift,” said Aerin Williams, New York-based forex strategist for Citi about the Dec. 12-13 Fed meeting. Elsewhere, oil prices slipped after the latest rise in the U.S rig count pointed to an increase in production there. U.S. crude was down 24 cents at $57.12 a barrel and Brent crude inched 27 cents lower to $63.14, drifting away from a recent 2-1/2 year peak of $64.65. Spot gold was barely changed at $1,248.06 an ounce. Editing by Sam Holmes and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/bitcoin-futures-race-higher-in-volatile-launch-dollar-steady-idUKKBN1E502Z'|'2017-12-11T06:47:00.000+02:00'
'54edeba944b07d6b760e7296856d9a5aa5c7c871'|'Ryanair Dublin pilots vote in favour of industrial action - union'|'December 11, 2017 / 5:05 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Ryanair pilots in Dublin vote in favour of industrial action Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Pilots employed directly by Ryanair in Dublin, its second largest base, have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action in a growing dispute over the airline’s collective bargaining system, the IMPACT trade union said on Monday. Ryanair headquarters building is seen in Dublin, Ireland September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The Irish airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, is trying to recover from a damaging wave of flight cancellations caused by crew rostering problems, while pilots at fewer than a third of its 87 bases have accepted an offer to increase pay. Several unions across Europe have been preparing for industrial action in a demand for better conditions at Ryanair with its pilots in Italy due to stage the company’s first ever strike by pilots later this week. The Dublin ballot covered direct employees only, rather than the majority of pilots which the airline hires through agencies. Of the 84 ballots issued, 79 voted in favour of industrial action, with three against and one not returned. Directly employed pilots are generally at the rank of captain so any strike action would likely cause disruption for passengers at the airline’s home base. An IMPACT committee that Ireland’s IALPA pilots union operates under will meet on Tuesday to decide on the next steps, a spokesman for the union said. Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Ryanair, which does not recognise trade unions, said in a statement that it has not received notification of any industrial action by its Dublin pilots and that it suspected the ballot was “more PR activity” by IALPA. It said that it instead expected the Dublin pilots to follow colleagues at other Irish bases in Cork, Shannon and Belfast in signing up for a 20 percent pay increase. “However, if Ryanair’s Dublin pilots are misled ... into industrial action, then they will lose their favourable rosters and remuneration benefits that are specifically linked by agreement to dealing directly with Ryanair,” the airline said. Ryanair told its Dublin pilots last week it would freeze promotions, cut cash allowances and possibly move pilots to alternative bases if they voted in favour of industrial action. Pilots have mobilised in the wake of the announcement of 20,000 flight cancellations by the Irish carrier, which it blamed on a lack of standby pilots due to a failure in its rostering following a rule change by Irish regulators. Ryanair routinely dismisses “competitor pilot unions” who it says claim to represent more Ryanair pilots than they do. But several unions in recent weeks have formed company councils and named serving Ryanair pilots as members. Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-strike/ryanair-dublin-pilots-vote-in-favour-of-industrial-action-union-idUKKBN1E5250'|'2017-12-11T19:05:00.000+02:00'
'd8f97d6af04544b39559eddef0390d1fb3dfcf97'|'Kuwait replaces oil and finance ministers - state news agency'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Kuwait replaced its oil and finance ministers in a cabinet reshuffle on Monday, state news agency KUNA reported.Bakhit al-Rashidi was appointed the new oil minister of the OPEC member state and Nayef Falah al-Hajraf was named the new finance minister, KUNA said citing a royal decree.Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad, son of the ruling Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, was appointed the new minister of defence.The previous cabinet resigned on Oct. 30 when its information minister was questioned by parliament and faced a no-confidence vote over violations of budgetary and legislative rules. Mohammed Nasser Al-Jabri was named the new minister.The major oil producer has the oldest legislature among the Gulf Arab states and experiences frequent cabinet reshuffles. The previous government was formed in February.Writing By Noah Browning; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/kuwait-cabinet/kuwait-replaces-oil-and-finance-ministers-state-news-agency-idINKBN1E5161'|'2017-12-11T08:40:00.000+02:00'
'2e3ebf37a1f7859251a867298ecf79e2697cf2d6'|'Rosatom says planned Egypt nuclear plant to cost $21 billion'|'December 11, 2017 / 2:08 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Rosatom says planned Egypt nuclear plant to cost $21 billion Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CAIRO (Reuters) - Russian state nuclear company Rosatom said on Monday a power station it will build in Egypt will cost up to $21 billion (£15.7 billion) and is expected to be finished by 2028-2029. The logo of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will sign an agreement on the project on Monday, the Kremlin said. Moscow and Cairo signed an agreement in 2015 for Russia to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt, with Russia extending a loan to Egypt to cover the cost of construction. Rosatom Chairman Alexei Likhachyov said the loan would cover 85 percent of the construction costs and the company would service the plant’s four reactors for 60 years. Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; writing by Polina Nikolskaya; editing by Maria Kiselyova'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-egypt-nuclear-rosatom/rosatom-says-planned-egypt-nuclear-plant-to-cost-21-billion-idUKKBN1E51K3'|'2017-12-11T16:08:00.000+02:00'
'ff73dace8d777ab04c813fe8ebeaa716ad9229e5'|'Hong Kong activist fund tells Toshiba chip unit sale to Bain group not necessary'|'TOKYO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A Hong Kong-based activist investor in Toshiba Corp has told the embattled conglomerate that the $18 billion sale of its chip unit sale to a Bain Capital-led group is no longer necessary after its recent capital injection, according to a letter seen by Reuters.Argyle Street Management Ltd, a hedge fund with $1.2 billion under management, sent the letter to Toshiba’s board late on Monday, the fund’s chief investment officer, Kin Chan, told Reuters. The fund declined to say how many Toshiba shares it owns.The first activist shareholder to openly voice opposition to the sale, Argyle is inviting the 30-plus overseas investors who participated in Toshiba’s recent 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion)new share issue to team up and is already in talks with at least three funds who share the same view, Chan said.Toshiba agreed to sell Toshiba Memory - the world’s no. 2 producer of NAND chips - to the Bain consortium to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse.In order to ensure its listing status, however, Toshiba also secured a $5.4 billion cash injection from overseas funds this month, which with tax write-offs gives it sufficient funds to maintain its listing status.Argyle said it believes “there no longer is any urgency to undertake a sale of Toshiba Memory,” it said in a draft of the letter which was seen by Reuters. The letter proposed a meeting with Toshiba’s board in either December or January.The $18 billion price tag for the chip unit “significantly undervalues the business,” the letter said, adding that the board should consider instead an IPO for Toshiba Memory. ($1 = 113.4400 yen) (Reporting by Taro Fuse and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toshiba-chips/hong-kong-activist-fund-tells-toshiba-chip-unit-sale-to-bain-group-not-necessary-idINL3N1OB1ZQ'|'2017-12-11T06:45:00.000+02:00'
'ec78c6568e91c129377579ca51dd147f6447fe0e'|'Exclusive: China''s Nanjing Hanrui can''t be sure its cobalt did not involve child labour'|' 55 PM / Updated 44 minutes ago Exclusive: China''s Nanjing Hanrui can''t be sure its cobalt did not involve child labour Pratima Desai , Tom Daly 7 Min Read LONDON/BEIJING - China’s Nanjing Hanrui Cobalt, which sells the metal to a firm approved by the London Metal Exchange, said it was unable to ascertain that its products did not involve the use of child labour in Africa. Nanjing Hanrui is a supplier to another Chinese company, Yantai Cash, which is on the LME’s list of firms whose cobalt meets its quality standards. Concerns about the sourcing of Yantai’s metal have reduced interest in the LME’s cobalt contract, trading sources said, although there is no proof to date that children are involved in its extraction. The issue is sensitive because cobalt chemicals are used in batteries to power the electric vehicles whose rapid growth is revolutionising the motor industry. Car companies are worried about possible scarcities of responsibly sourced cobalt. Nanjing Hanrui said in a statement that it was examining its cobalt supply chain in the Democratic Republic of Congo, adding that initial findings showed “a part” of its cobalt came from “small-scale mining and artisanal mining areas”. As this investigation started just over a month ago, the company still lacked experience in supply chain compliance management and it was “not yet possible to judge whether there is a risk of child labour,” the statement said. Nanjing Hanrui said it was stepping up its supply chain studies with the help of experts. Liu Xiaohan, manager of the international trade department at Yantai Cash, said in an emailed response that the firm bought part of its cobalt from Nanjing Hanrui, which is a business partner of Yantai Cash. “We are currently unable to confirm what you discuss about Nanjing Hanrui’s artisanal mining and the risk of it involving child labour,” Liu said. This is because Yantai Cash has just started to set up a responsible management system and has not yet completed supply chain traceability, he added. Yantai Cash’s metal can be delivered against the LME’s cobalt contract, which was launched in 2010. The LME said action would be taken if any evidence was found of practices that fell below its standards. Concerns arose in the market about the source of Yantai’s metal in June after it started buying from Hanrui, sources said. “The market is worried Yantai’s cobalt is sullied by child labour, the LME should take it off the deliverable list,” a source on the exchange’s cobalt committee said. The source said customers did not want to take the risk of getting Yantai metal. “They are shunning the contract.” TAINTED Cobalt metal is used in alloys for jet engines, while cobalt chemicals are a key ingredient for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles. Consumers worried about potential scandal are under pressure to ensure the cobalt they use is not tainted by child labour in DRC, the source of about 65 percent of the world’s cobalt. Concerns about shortages of cobalt from untainted sources have prompted car makers to take steps to secure supplies for the longer term. Volkswagen last month held talks with Glencore, China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, commodity trader Traxys, U.S. miner Freeport-McMoran and Eurasian Resources Group about securing cobalt supplies. “Besides supplies and costs, other topics in discussion include future capacity expansion, sustainability and transparency,” a VW representative said. A report last month from Amnesty International said about a fifth of cobalt production in the DRC is mined by hand, including by children, often in dangerous conditions. “At least on a temporary basis, they have to ban Yantai Cash from the good delivery list,” a cobalt industry source said, adding that worries about Yantai metal had negatively impacted prices, volumes traded and open interest, a measure of the flow of money into the market. LME cobalt at around $70,000 a tonne has recently traded well below benchmark prices gathered by Metal Bulletin, a trade publication. The discount has widened since June 19, when worries about where Yantai’s material was sourced from started to filter through the market. It has averaged $4,500 a tonne since June 19 from near $400 a tonne between Jan 2 and June 16. Open interest crashed by more than 40 percent to 308 tonnes between June 19 and 22, while volumes traded on the LME in the third quarter at 1,949 tonnes are less than half the levels in the previous three quarters. RESPONSIBLE SOURCING INITIATIVES Yantai Cash said it is willing to work with companies in the cobalt supply chain “as well as other stakeholders to promote the alleviation of child labour and other human rights risks”. It recently submitted an application to join China’s Responsible Cobalt Initiative (RCI). A representative of the RCI secretariat said Yantai Cash’s application would be accepted by Dec. 12 if there are no objections from the RCI board. The RCI was formed last year under the umbrella of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers & Exporters (CCCMC). Its members agreed last month to establish the association as a legal entity with more than 20 members involved in the cobalt supply chain The LME too has been looking at the subject of responsible sourcing and has been working with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which gets involved in setting such standards, for several years. “There is no international standard in this area and the jurisdictional differences between certification regimes, audits and codes are extensive,” the LME spokesperson said. Last month the exchange sent out a survey on responsible sourcing, auditing and certification of metal to all producers delivering metal against LME contracts. “The LME’s recent survey sent to all LME-listed producers was designed to elicit further information with regard to the sourcing of materials,” a statement said. “We have been clear that any evidence of sub-standard practices that fall short of our requirements would be investigated by the LME and action would be taken,” it added. The LME said it wanted to apply international standards on responsible sourcing. These would cover sustainable environmental management and occupational health, required for producers wanting to deliver against LME contracts. Reporting by Pratima Desai; Additional reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Veronica Brown and Giles Elgood'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lme-cobalt-yantai/exclusive-chinas-nanjing-hanrui-cant-be-sure-its-cobalt-did-not-involve-child-labour-idINKBN1E523O'|'2017-12-11T18:52:00.000+02:00'
'e51ea7a624b607e50ad56b1fad1729db01ba5928'|'UPDATE 1-SandRidge offers Icahn some deal records, rebuts claims'|'(Adds details on SandRidge letter, share price reaction)By Gary McWilliamsDec 11 (Reuters) - SandRidge Energy Inc on Monday pushed back against activist investors Carl Icahn and Fir Tree Partners’ attack on the oil and gas producer’s proposed $746 million acquisition of rival Bonanza Creek Energy Inc.In a letter to its shareholders, the Oklahoma City-based energy firm said opponents’ claims the transaction would hurt shareholder value were “false and reckless,” and a purchase would boost cash flow per share by 15 percent next year and provide operational and financial synergies.It also said it would expect to have greater than $300 million in liquidity at the deal’s closing through a planned $700 million credit facility.Both activist investors have assailed the deal. Icahn, who holds about 13.5 percent of the oil company’s shares, has called the offer “value-destroying” and said it provides “no obvious synergies nor economies of scale”.Icahn, a billionaire activist known for shaking up management at companies, said in an open letter to SandRidge’s board released Dec. 1 that he may look to overturn the company’s board of directors.Icahn could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.Fir Tree, which holds about 8.3 percent of SandRidge shares, has described the bid as providing an “unjustified premium.”In early trading on Monday, Bonanza Creek shares were up 2.5 percent at $27.50, well below SandRidge’s Nov. 15 offer of $36 a share in cash and stock. SandRidge shares were up 2 percent at $18.69.SandRidge on Dec. 8 also agreed to make some company records available to Icahn subject to reaching a confidentiality agreement, according to a federal filing released on Monday.The company wrote that Icahn’s efforts to discuss his opposition with others or seeking to remove members of the board would not automatically trigger the company’s poison pill plan. On Dec. 1, the activist investor had asked the oil and gas producer to release internal documents on its proposed acquisition and posed a series of questions on what the shareholder rights plan would bar.Icahn has said he wants to investigate deliberations involving the deal and other matters including executive compensation at SandRidge. (Additional reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Andrew Hay) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sandridge-carl-icahn/update-1-sandridge-offers-icahn-some-deal-records-rebuts-claims-idINL3N1OB45S'|'2017-12-11T12:45:00.000+02:00'
'609512dc7d4c0fe9d674897d25ba22fb3c02c305'|'Japan November wholesale prices rise at fastest pace in nine years'|'December 12, 2017 / 3:14 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Japan November wholesale prices rise at fastest pace in nine years Leika Kihara , Sumio Ito 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s wholesale prices rose an annual 3.5 percent in November, the fastest rate in nine years, the Bank of Japan said, in a sign that rising global commodity costs were driving up corporate expenses. A woman buys eggs at a wholesale shop in Kawasaki, nearby Tokyo, January 11, 2011. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Analysts say it is uncertain whether household spending is resilient enough to allow firms to pass the higher costs on to consumers, but Tuesday’s data may offer some hope that consumer inflation could be headed towards the central bank’s 2 percent target. “Wholesale prices continue to move on a firm note” but only a handful of goods, such as steel products, are seeing prices rise on robust domestic demand, a BOJ official told a briefing. The increase in the corporate goods price index (CGPI), which measures the price companies charge each other for goods and services, exceeded a median market forecast for a 3.3 percent rise and followed a 3.4 percent gain in October. It was the fastest rate of increase since October 2008, when wholesale prices rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier. Overall final goods prices, or the prices of finished products charged to businesses, rose 1.4 percent. Domestic final goods prices, which loosely track the consumer price index, rose 1.0 percent from a year earlier, the data showed. Reporting by Leika Kihara and Sumio Ito; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-prices/japan-november-wholesale-prices-rise-at-fastest-pace-in-nine-years-idUKKBN1E609F'|'2017-12-12T05:14:00.000+02:00'
'f6483a763094d733cccb623e7f201d9e8f32dcd8'|'China-backed buyer aims to fund $5.2 billion HK skyscraper deal mostly via debt - sources'|'December 12, 2017 / 10:51 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago China-backed buyer aims to fund $5.2 billion HK skyscraper deal mostly via debt-sources Clare Jim , Yan Jiang 4 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - The China-backed buyer of a Hong Kong skyscraper from billionaire Li Ka-shing for a record $5.2 billion is seeking to borrow as much as 90 percent to fund the deal, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters and people with knowledge of the matter. Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing attends a news conference in Hong Kong, China March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The unusually high leverage level reflects a growing appetite from new mainland China buyers who are willing to pay a high price to get into the Hong Kong property market, at a time when many traditional local players are selling and investing overseas. Hong Kong business tycoon Li’s CK Asset Holdings ( 1113.HK ) said last month it was selling “The Center”, a 73-storey office tower, to C.H.M.T. Peaceful Development Asia Property, in the world’s biggest single property sale which would bring in a HK$14.5 billion ($1.86 billion) gain. Beijing-based China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group Properties Ltd owns 55 percent of C.H.M.T. Peaceful Development, while the remainder is held by a few Hong Kong investors. The buyer of “The Center” is looking to raise around 40 percent of the $5.2 billion in one-year mezzanine financing by offering to pay 8 percent interest, the term sheet showed. The remainder of up to 50 percent will be raised in the form of a senior loan, said four people, three of whom were bankers involved in the deal. “It’s a sign that there’s a lot of new entrants in the Hong Kong market from the mainland, and the buyers are names people aren’t so familiar with,” said Stuart Jackson, chief executive officer of InfraRed NF Advisers Limited, an Asian real estate investment manager. “(At the same time) it seems to be a trend that Hong Kong players are selling and investing overseas...the level of substitute capital from the mainland has been more than sufficient to compensate, so for now prices continue to go up.” C.H.M.T. Peaceful Development could not be immediately reached for comment. MEZZANINE LOANS Most property buyers in Hong Kong borrow about 40-50 percent of the deal value to finance their acquisitions, according to industry experts, and the use of mezzanine loans is not common. Mezzanine loans command much higher interest rates than other types of loans because they require minimal collateral. Property related mezzanine loans carry interest of between 6 percent and 10 percent in Hong Kong. Because banks in Hong Kong are restricted from lending more than 50 percent of the transaction value, the mezzanine financing will likely be provided by fund houses. The consortium has until March to finalize the mezzanine financing, according to the C.H.M.T term sheet. C.H.M.T. has already paid a 10 percent deposit. Due to the high coupon and the low investment yield in Hong Kong, mezzanine loans are usually used as bridge financing. Local media has reported that C.H.M.T. Peaceful Development is planning to flip the investment by selling off part of the building. Banking sources said any plan to sell off a part of the building, however, may make some banks hesitant about joining the senior loan portion, as it could potentially complicate repayment obligations. The latest deal further expands Chinese investors’ footprint in the Asian financial hub’s prime office district, where half of all new leasing space has been snapped up by mainland Chinese companies - many of them funded via debt raised in Hong Kong. Chinese conglomerate HNA Group said last month it had repaid part of a HK$3.5 billion ($448 million) loan, while obtaining lenders’ consent to extend the remainder’s maturity, linked to the group’s first land purchase in Hong Kong. ($1 = 7.8075 Hong Kong dollars) Reporting by Clare Jim and Yan Jiang of LPC; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ck-asset-hldg-sale-loan/china-backed-buyer-aims-to-fund-5-2-billion-hk-skyscraper-deal-mostly-via-debt-sources-idUKKBN1E615K'|'2017-12-12T12:34:00.000+02:00'
'804ef5402de96500df8915572fa885b5481e061a'|'Lending startup Affirm valued at $1.8 bln in latest financing round'|'December 11, 2017 / 5:24 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Lending startup Affirm valued at $1.8 billion in latest financing round Heather Somerville 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley lending startup Affirm said on Monday it has raised $200 million in a fresh round of funding, boosting prospects as the firm aims to go after the market for millennial shoppers needing loans. The new financing put Affirm’s total fundraising to date at about $450 million, and increases its valuation to $1.75 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. The Singapore government’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, led the round, and was joined by earlier investors including Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund and Spark Capital. San Francisco-based Affirm is led by Max Levchin, an entrepreneur and investor who cofounded PayPal Holdings Inc ( PYPL.O ), where he helped pioneer online payments in the dot-com era. Affirm offers loans to young consumers making purchases that may be too much to pay for entirely upfront, such as a new mattress or sofa. The company partners with more than 1,200 online retailers to offer loans at the point of sale. It claims to offer better terms, such as no late fees, than most retailer credit cards. Affirm said it approves 126 percent more total borrowers than Synchrony Financial ( SYF.N ), which is the largest issuer of private-label credit cards offered by retailers. Many of Affirm’s customers are millennials, the demographic cohort born in the early 1980s through the 1990s, who are more apt to make big purchases on their smartphones and more open to non-traditional financial services, Levchin said. While some consumers in this demographic do not have a substantial credit history or may have a negative credit history after maxing out their credit cards in college, Levchin said Affirm approves more borrowers than traditional lenders. It considers a larger set of data, such as the borrower’s debt-to-income ratio, rather than simply relying on the borrower’s credit score or credit bureau history, he added. Since its founding, Affirm has made more than 1.5 million loans, and the company says its loan origination volume this year is four times larger than last year. The company has raised $630 million in debt, separate from its equity funding, to finance the loans. Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-affirm-fundraising/lending-startup-affirm-valued-at-1-8-billion-in-latest-financing-round-idUSKBN1E526W'|'2017-12-11T19:20:00.000+02:00'
'ace4a1daf997dfb4e9044ca511a838acfc05096e'|'Exclusive - Comcast drops bid for Fox assets, leaving Disney in pole position'|'December 11, 2017 / 10:04 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Comcast drops bid for Fox assets, leaving Disney in pole position Anjali Athavaley 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Comcast Corp ( CMCSA.O ) said on Monday it had abandoned its bid for most of the assets of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ), leaving Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) as the sole suitor in pursuit of the $40 billion-plus deal. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. on November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo Sources told Reuters last week that Disney was in the lead to acquire the assets, which include Fox’s FX and National Geographic cable channels, its movie studio, the Star network in India and stake in European pay-TV provider Sky PLC ( SKYB.L ). The Murdoch family, which controls Fox, prefers a deal with Disney because it would rather be paid in Disney stock than Comcast stock, and expects a potential deal with Disney to be cleared by U.S. antitrust regulators more easily, one of the sources said. Comcast, the biggest cable provider in the United States, said in a statement on Monday that its discussions with Fox had ended. “When a set of assets like Fox’s becomes available, it is our responsibility to evaluate if there is a strategic fit that could benefit our company and our shareholders,” Comcast said. “That is what we tried to do and we are no longer engaged in the review of those assets. We never got the level of engagement needed to make a definitive offer.” FILE PHOTO - The NBC and Comcast logo are displayed on top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, formerly known as the GE building, in midtown Manhattan in New York July 1, 2015. The Art Deco skyscraper, also known as ''30 Rock'' and once displayed a large neon ''GE'', unveiled the NBC Peacock logo and Comcast brand-name this week. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The assets in question would have expanded Comcast’s international footprint through ownership of Sky and Star. A source told Reuters in mid-November that Comcast had approached Fox about its interest, and talks were in early stages. FILE PHOTO - A logo of Walt Disney company is displayed on a monitor outside of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Disney’s negotiations with Fox are continuing, and a deal could be reached as early as this month, sources close to the situation said on Monday. The persons asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Disney did not immediately respond to request for comment. A Fox representative declined to comment. Any potential deal will follow the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision last month to sue to block AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ). Comcast shares were up 1.5 percent in after-hours trading, while Disney shares were up 0.2 percent and Fox shares fell 1.3 percent. Reporting by Anjali Athavaley and Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-m-a-comcast-exclusive/exclusive-comcast-drops-bid-for-fox-assets-leaving-disney-in-pole-position-idUKKBN1E52OE'|'2017-12-12T00:03:00.000+02:00'
'87dad5b0f2b8f41629fe9de9ae1dfc8db843ca7a'|'Major Cineworld investor ''uncomfortable'' with debt for Regal deal'|'December 12, 2017 / 11:26 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Major Cineworld investor ''uncomfortable'' with debt for Regal deal Ben Martin 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - One of the biggest shareholders in Cineworld has expressed concern about the company’s $3.6 billion (£2.7 billion) takeover of bigger U.S. rival Regal Entertainment, saying it is uncomfortable with the debt the British business will take on to finance the deal. The $23-a-share acquisition will transform FTSE 250-listed Cineworld into the second biggest cinema chain in the world by number of screens, with 9,542 in Europe and the United States. However, it has confounded expectations among some shareholders that the company would pursue smaller acquisitions in Europe and could even return cash to investors. Richard Marwood, a fund manager at Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), which is Cineworld’s fourth-biggest shareholder with a 3.9 percent stake according to Thomson Reuters data, said the deal was “a bit of a surprise”. “We’ve been slightly taken aback by the region – the fact that they’re going to the U.S. – and also just the sheer scale of what it is they’re tackling,” he told Reuters. The takeover comes at a difficult time for the film industry, which is wrestling with falling cinema attendances in the United States as consumers’ viewing habits change amid the growing popularity of streaming services such as Netflix. It also marks another stage of consolidation among cinema operators that has seen U.S. firm AMC Entertainment Holdings acquire Stockholm-based Nordic Cinema Group, the UK’s Odeon & UCI and America’s Carmike Cinemas. Shares in Cineworld have tumbled by 21.5 percent since the British company said on Nov. 28 that it would require a “material equity raise” to help finance the transaction, after Reuters reported it was in talks with Regal. When the two companies announced they had agreed a deal on Dec. 5, Cineworld confirmed it would fund the takeover by way of a 1.7 billion-pound rights issue and with debt. That will see its leverage jump to about four times net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, once the latter is adjusted for the $100 million of annualised pre-tax synergies the company expects from the deal. The group’s leverage stood at 1.6 times at the end of last year. Marwood said the Regal takeover changes “the debt profile” of Cineworld “quite dramatically”. “The gearing is probably the aspect that makes me slightly uncomfortable,” he said. “But is this a management team that I would back to do a good deal and make money for shareholders? Yes it is.” RLAM joins Jupiter Asset Management, a small Cineworld shareholder with a 0.3 percent stake according to Thomson Reuters data, in raising questions about the deal. Jupiter fund manager Alastair Gunn said there were two reasons why he was unhappy with the takeover. “First, they have taken on a lot of debt at a point in the economic cycle when I don’t consider it prudent to do so,” Gunn said. “Second, with the U.S., Cineworld is buying into the most mature market in the world,” he said, adding that he believed other countries would present “more growth opportunity”. Cineworld is led by chief executive Mooky Greidinger and the Greidinger family holds a 28 percent stake in the company through their vehicle Global City Holdings. Global City and Cineworld’s directors, who hold about 0.9 percent of the shares, have said they will support the acquisition at a shareholder vote on the deal. A spokesman for Cineworld did not return requests for comment. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-regal-entertainment-m-a-cineworld/major-cineworld-investor-uncomfortable-with-debt-for-regal-deal-idUKKBN1E619U'|'2017-12-12T13:25:00.000+02:00'
'57dfaad87699ccd3a36cff503367564999949c51'|'EU mergers and takeovers (Dec 11)'|'December 11, 2017 / 4:09 PM / in 33 minutes EU mergers and takeovers (Dec 11) Reuters Staff 8 Min Read BRUSSELS, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process: APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS None EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES -- Private equity firm the Carlyle Group to acquire British delivery company and convenience store operator Palmer & Harvey McLane (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12/simplified/withdrawn Nov. 29) -- French insurer Axa and specialist fund Pradera to jointly acquire two Italian properties (notified Nov. 3/deadline Dec. 8/simplified/withdrawn Nov. 23) FIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINE DEC 12 -- British budget carrier easyJet to acquire parts of German airline Air Berlin (notified Nov. 7/deadline Dec. 12) DEC 18 -- French property developer Fonciere des Regions and Marriott International to acquire joint control of Le Meridien Hotel in Nice (notified Nov. 13/deadline Dec. 18/simplified) DEC 20 -- South African chemicals company Tronox to acquire the titanium dioxide business of Cristal, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Tasnee (notified Nov. 15/deadline Dec. 20) DEC 21 -- German carrier Lufthansa to acquire some Air Berlin assets (notified Oct. 31/deadline extended to Dec. 21 from Dec. 7 after Lufthansa offered concessions) -- French aerospace group Safran to acquire French seats maker Zodiac Aerospace (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21) -- French bank Societe Generale and BNP Paribas to jointly acquire French property developer Powerhouse France (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21/simplified) -- Private equity firm CVC to acquire Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ women’s health business (notified Nov. 16/deadline Dec. 21) DEC 22 -- Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison’s container terminal operator Hutchison Ports Netherlands B.V. and Dutch stevedoring services provider TMA Holding to acquire joint control of Dutch logistics company TMA Logistics (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) -- Private equity firms CVC and Providence to acquire joint control of security services provider Skybox (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) -- Private eqyity firm BC Partners to acquire German ceramics maker CeramTec Holding GmbH (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) -- Private equity firm Blackstone to acquire Portuguese bank Banco Popular’s real estate business (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) -- French petroleum product storage and distribution group Rubis Group and Phillips 66 to acquire joint control of Zeller & Cie (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22) -- German investment group Porsche Digital GmbH, which is a subsidiary of German carmaker Volkswagen, and German publisher Axel Springer to set up a joint venture (notified Nov. 17/deadline Dec. 22/simplified) JAN 4 -- Private equity firm EQT Fund Management to acquire German energy company G+E Getec Holding (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified) -- Spanish energy company Companía Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U. (CEPSA), which is controlled by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co, to acquire control of Spanish gas company CEPSA Gas Comercializadora (notified Nov. 21/deadline Jan. 4/simplified) JAN 5 -- U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital to acquire Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp’s chip unit (notified Nov. 22/deadline Jan. 5/simplified) JAN 8 -- WME Entertainment Parent, which is controlled by private equity firm Silver Lake Group, and Perform Group Ltd, which is a unit of Access Industries Ltd, to set up a joint venture in South America (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified) -- French energy company Engie to acquire indirect sole control of British energy trader IPM Energy Trading and UK natural gas shipping services provider International Power Fuel Co (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified) -- Fund management firm Varde to acquire French vehicle leasing firm Fraikin (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified) -- Japanese electronics parts maker Kyocera to acquire Japanese diecasting maker Ryobi’s power tool business (notified Nov. 23/deadline Jan. 8/simplified) JAN 9 -- Comsa Concesionanes S.L., Mirova Core Infrastructure and Dutch fund manager PGGM Infrastructure Funds to acquire joint control of Cedinsa Concessionaria (notified Nov. 24/deadline Jan. 9/simplified) JAN 10 -- Chinese pork supplier WH Group subsidiary and U.S. meat producer Smithfield to acquire Polish meat company Pini Polonia (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10) -- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, German insurer Allianz and Spanish utility Gas Natural to acquire joint control of Gas Natural’s natural gas distribution business in Spain Gas Natural Fenosa Generacion Nuclear (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10/simplified) -- UK private equity firm TDR Capital to acquire French restaurant franchise operator Rossini Holding (notified Nov. 27/deadline Jan. 10/simplified) JAN 11 -- France’s La Poste, Italian insurer Generali and insurer Malakoff Mederic to acquire joint control of French concierge services provider EAP France (notified Nov. 28/deadline Jan. 11/simplified) -- Asset management firm Aviva Investors, which is part of UK insurer Aviva, and French pension fund ERAFP to jointly acquire a shopping centre in Strasbourg, France (notified Nov. 28/deadline Jan. 11/simplified) JAN 12 -- Private equity firm KKR and South Korean industrial company LS Mtron to jointly acquire South Korean car components maker LS Auto (notified Nov. 29/deadline Jan. 12/simplified) JAN 16 -- U.S. investment fund Starwood Capital Group and French hotel group Accor to jointly acquire a hotel in Budapest, Hungary (notified Dec. 1/deadline Jan. 16/simplified) -- French venture capital fund Mirova, which is a subsidiary of French bank BPCE’s Natixis Asset Management, and U.S. industrial group GE to jointly acquire two Spanish windfarms Idesamgar and Idesamgar I (notified Dec. 1/deadline Jan. 16/simplified) JAN 18 -- UK retailer JD Sports Fashion Plc, investment vehicle Balaiko Firaja Invest and food and non-food trader Sonae MC, which is controlled by Efanor Investimentos, to jointly acquire sports goods retailer JDSH Sprinter Holdings 2010 (notified Dec. 5/deadline Jan. 18) MARCH 5 -- German industrial group Bayer to acquire U.S. seeds company Monsanto (notified June 30/deadline March 5) MARCH 8 -- Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French lens manufacturer Essilor to merge (notified Aug. 22/deadline March 8) MARCH 15 -- U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm to acquire Dutch company NXP Semiconductors NV (notified April 28/deadline March 15) MARCH 19 -- U.S. specialty material company Celanese and private equity firm Blackstone to combine their cellulose acetate tow units under a new joint venture (notified Sept. 9/deadline extended to March 19 from March 5) MARCH 23 -- Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal to acquire Italian steel plant (notified Sept. 21/deadline extended to March 23 from Nov. 13 after ArcelorMittal offered concessions) GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS DEADLINES: The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case. Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days. SIMPLIFIED: Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified - that is, ordinary first-stage reviews - until they are approved. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-ma/eu-mergers-and-takeovers-idUSL8N1OB4SA'|'2017-12-11T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'2d936d12dfe8713d0a6a944242917bbb514f1167'|'Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monsanto Co will give cash back to U.S. farmers who buy a weed killer that has been linked to widespread crop damage, offering an incentive to apply its product even as regulators in several U.S. states weigh restrictions on its use.The incentive to use XtendiMax with VaporGrip, a herbicide based on a chemical known as dicamba, could refund farmers over half the sticker price of the product in 2018 if they spray it on soybeans Monsanto engineered to resist the weed killer, according to company data.The United States faced an agricultural crisis this year caused by new formulations of dicamba-based herbicides, which farmers and weed experts say harmed crops because they evaporated and drifted away from where they were sprayed.Monsanto says XtendiMax is safe when properly applied. The company is banking on the chemical and soybean seeds engineered to resist it, called Xtend, to dominate soybean production in the United States, the world’s second-largest exporter.BASF SE and DowDuPont also sell versions of dicamba-based herbicides.Monsanto’s cash-back offer comes as federal and state regulators are requiring training for farmers who plan to spray dicamba in 2018 and limiting when it can be used. Weed specialists say the restrictions make the chemical more costly and inconvenient to apply, but Monsanto’s incentive could help convince farmers to use it anyway.“We believe cash-back incentives for using XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology better enable growers to use a management system that represents the next level of weed control,” said Ryan Rubischko, Monsanto product manager.XtendiMax costs about $11 per acre to buy, and Monsanto is offering $6 per acre in cash back to farmers when they apply it on Xtend soybeans along with other approved herbicides, according to the company.FILE PHOTO: Monsanto logo is displayed on a screen where the stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. on May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Monsanto competes against rivals including Bayer AG to sell genetically modified soybean seeds and chemicals to farmers. Bayer is selling its LibertyLink soybean brand, a main rival to Xtend, to BASF as part of a deal to acquire Monsanto for $63.5 billion.Monsanto also faces increasing government oversight.This month, North Dakota said it planned to prohibit the use of dicamba herbicides after June 30, 2018, and when temperatures top 85 degrees Fahrenheit in a bid to prevent the chemical from drifting away from where it is sprayed. Missouri said it intends to finalize restrictions on XtendiMax soon, after banning sprayings of BASF’s dicamba herbicide, called Engenia, in 10 counties after June 1, 2018, and statewide after July 15, 2018.Arkansas is close to prohibiting dicamba sprayings after April 15, 2018, the tightest limits yet, while Minnesota is also considering restrictions.The states are taking action after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated special training for dicamba users for 2018, requiring farmers to keep records proving they were complying with label instructions.“Utilizing the technology, the cost will go up because of these changes,” said Andrew Thostenson, a pesticide specialist for North Dakota State University.Monsanto predicts U.S. farmers will double plantings of Xtend soybeans to about 40 million acres next year despite reports of crop damage this past summer.Farmers said its cash-back offer was designed to increase sales.“I think they’re just trying to buy more acres,” Dan Henebry, an Illinois farmer who plans to grow Xtend soybeans next year, said about Monsanto.Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-pesticides-monsanto/monsanto-offers-cash-to-u-s-farmers-who-use-controversial-chemical-idINKBN1E50DD'|'2017-12-11T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'82d01e7f7ba355502e7432eec7e7973372e3b60a'|'German watchdog recalls VW Touaregs over defeat devices'|' 43 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago German watchdog recalls VW Touaregs over defeat devices Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HAMBURG/BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s KBA automotive watchdog on Tuesday announced a recall of Volkswagen’s flagship European sport-utility vehicles (SUV) with 3-litre diesel engines after detecting two illicit emissions control devices in the models. A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero New evidence of Volkswagen’s deployment of defeat devices continues to emerge more than two years after its emissions-test cheating scandal exploded in the United States. Europe’s biggest carmaker has been working to draw a line under the affair. The recall of the Touareg model of the latest Euro 6 diesel generation was ordered on Dec. 8 and affects 57,600 models globally, about half or 25,800 of which in Volkswagen’s (VW) German home market, the KBA said by email. “Two inadmissable switch-off devices were found upon examination of the VW Touareg 3.0-litre diesel Euro 6 by the Federal Motor Vehicle Authority,” it said. The move follows a recall by German authorities in July of 22,000 Porsche Cayenne SUVs in Europe, the Touareg’s sister model which shares the same modular platform and also uses the 3.0 litre engine developed by premium VW stable mate Audi. KBA said that an emissions-lowering “warming-up strategy” that got activated on the Touareg model when the vehicle was examined in static roller-bed tests carried out under the new European driving cycle (NEFZ) did not, for the most part, go into operation in road testing. Also, KBA said that on Touareg models fitted with costlier selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, it detected a strategy that, under certain conditions, illegally restricts the use of AdBlue, a urea-based liquid needed to help filter nitrogen oxides from diesel emissions. The world’s biggest automaker has adjusted production of the Touareg and developed a new engine software to help fix the affected vehicles, KBA said. VW, which in September 2015 admitted to systematic manipulation of engine management software to rig emissions tests, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Reporting by Jan Schwartz; Writing by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Victoria Bryan and Georgina Prodhan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-emissions-germany/german-watchdog-recalls-vw-touaregs-over-defeat-devices-idUKKBN1E61OK'|'2017-12-12T15:42:00.000+02:00'
'd56790d503b5a38e51a8754fb09b72e9b0540560'|'Icahn calls for new leadership at Xerox'|'(Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn said on Tuesday Xerox Corp ( XRX.N ) “desperately” needed new leadership, arguing that the printer manufacturer was slow to launch new products and grow revenue.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Xerox company is seen on a building in Minsk, Belarus, March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko/File Photo Icahn’s remarks, in an open letter to Xerox shareholders, come a day after he named four nominees to the company’s board of directors.The nominations followed the resignation of Jonathan Christodoro, whom Icahn placed on Xerox’s board last June. Christodoro had a difference of opinion with the board.On Monday, Xerox backed its yearly earnings forecast and highlighted the 30 percent increase in its stock price this year as a sign of investor confidence."To be clear, the primary reason Xerox stock is up 30 percent year-to-date is the Conduent spin-off that I spent over a year fighting for," Icahn said in the letter. bit.ly/2APy8a5Xerox split itself in two last year, spinning off its business process outsourcing unit into Conduent Inc ( CNDT.N ).Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-xerox-icahn/icahn-calls-for-new-leadership-at-xerox-idINKBN1E61SY'|'2017-12-12T11:27:00.000+02:00'
'a4b8a42b833fbb1f2813908e94f543a7c504cf7f'|'Rates on the up, as NS&I relaunches growth bonds'|'T here was some rare good news for savers this week after National Savings & Investments reintroduced its popular one- and three-year Guaranteed Growth/Income Bonds last offered back in 2009.NS&I, the government’s savings arm, says its one-year Guaranteed Growth Bond will pay an interest rate of 1.50%, while the three-year deal will earn 2.20%.For those that prefer their interest monthly, the one-year Income Bonds pay 1.45%, or 2.15% over three years.This compares with 1.86% offered by the Al Rayan Bank – the highest-paying one-year fixed-rate bond, or 2.25% on the highest paying three-year bond from the Bank of London & the Middle East.In all cases the NS&I bonds have a minimum of £500 investment (up to a maximum of £1m) per person, per issue. They have to be bought online – through nsandi.com – but, once opened, also can be managed by phone or post.Savers can cash them in early with a penalty equivalent to 90 days’ interest on the amount withdrawn.Savers must keep a balance of at least £500 to keep the bond open, it says. Unlike some other NS&I products, the earned interest is taxable, and will count towards the customer’s personal savings allowance.Ian Ackerley, NS&I’s chief executive, says the move was “another boost to savers” coming on top of rate increases to its variable rate products, including Premium Bonds, on 1 December.He adds: “As well as being able to invest up to £1m, savers will also benefit from NS&I’s 100% HM Treasury guarantee.”Sarah Coles, analyst at investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, says the bonds are part of NS&I’s ambitious target to attract between £10bn and £16bn in the next tax year. “The last time it had such a bold target was the launch of the so-called ‘pensioner bond’, paying 4% over five years, which saw £2.3bn invested in its first three days,” she says.“These bonds are not quite so generous, but they are competitive. The three-year Guaranteed Growth Bond looks particularly strong, with the second highest interest rate for a minimum investment of £500. The one-year Growth Bond is also among the top five most generous rates in the current market.”On 1 December NS&I upped the rates on a number of accounts – including its Direct Isa and Direct Saver – by 0.25%. It also increased the prize fund rate on Premium Bonds by the same amount and the odds of a win are improved from 30,000 to 1, to 24,500 to 1.Topics Savings rates Savings Investments features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/09/national-savings-investments-growth-bond-higher-rates'|'2017-12-09T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'd1971f0d49e6a580666ed3c877686a16b47dd268'|'Australia''s AWE Ltd receives takeover offer from Mineral Resources'|'MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia’s Mineral Resources ( MIN.AX ) has offered A$484 million ($364 million) for domestic gas producer AWE Ltd ( AWE.AX ), topping a sweetened bid from state-owned China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group (CERCG).The two suitors are targeting AWE’s stake in a gas project in Western Australia, Waitsia, which the company has called the country’s biggest conventional gas find onshore in four decades.Mineral Resources, a provider of mining infrastructure, made an all-scrip offer worth A$0.80 a share based on its closing price last Friday, a 47 percent premium to AWE’s last trade before it revealed on Nov. 30 that it had received an offer from CERCG.CERCG last Friday raised its all-cash offer slightly to A$0.73 a share, going straight to shareholders after AWE rebuffed a friendly approach.AWE told shareholders on Monday to take no action while it weighed the two offers. Its shares jumped 15 percent to trade above both offers at A$0.84, their highest level since August 2016.Both offers are well below a valuation of A$0.91 from analysts at Royal Bank of Canada, which ran a recent share sale for AWE.Shares in Mineral Resources, which has offered one of its shares for every 22.33 AWE shares, fell 4.8 percent after the bid was announced.Mineral Resources said the acquisition would help it secure energy supplies for its own operations.CERCG said on Monday it is mainly looking to supply gas to remote communities and mine sites in Australia using its technology to liquefy gas, transport it in containers and regasify it in areas not connected to pipelines.However it is also considering shipping LNG in containers to Australia’s east coast, where gas prices have soared due to the start-up of three gas export plants and rising demand for gas-fired power.“We believe we have the technology and business know-how to provide a cost-effective gas supply to customers pretty much anywhere in Australia,” CERCG Australia business manager Kevin Gao said in a statement.AWE rejected a A$750 million scrip-based offer from Senex Energy in 2013 before oil prices collapsed and a A$421 million approach from U.S. private equity firm Lone Star last year.($1 = 1.3319 Australian dollars)Reporting by Sonali Paul; Additional reporting by Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-awe-m-a-mineral/australias-awe-ltd-receives-takeover-offer-from-mineral-resources-idINKBN1E40WX'|'2017-12-10T19:54:00.000+02:00'
'1a38b081b3a71b0ecc6980eb48b90e3afcb32be3'|'CEE MARKETS-Crown eases as inflation data supports CEE monetary doves'|'* Czech annual inflation falls to 2.6 pct from 2.9 pct * Fall reduces chance of another CNB rate hike on Dec. 21 * Forint again approaches one-year low (Adds Czech central bank comments, comment on Polish inflation, oil stocks decline) By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Central Europe''s main currencies eased on Monday, stung by Czech and Polish inflation figures that did not support the case for imminent monetary tightening. Czech annual inflation dropped to 2.6 percent in November from 2.9 percent in October, still above the Czech central bank''s (CNB) 2 percent target. The Czech crown eased by 0.15 percent to 25.593 against the euro at 1417 GMT. The inflation figure was in line with market expectations. The CNB said the data was also in line with its own forecast and that overall inflation pressures were peaking, reflecting accelerating wage growth. The inflation decline makes it less likely that the CNB, the region''s most hawkish central bank, will raise rates again at its Dec. 21 meeting after two increases since August, analysts said. "Tightening (rates) is appropriate but does not demand any urgent steps. December''s CNB policy meeting will be exciting but is not likely to bring a change in rates," said Pavel Sobisek, UniCredit''s chief economist in Prague. A further interest rate increase is expected to strengthen the crown next year. The crown has been the world''s top-performing currency this year with a 5.5 percent gain against the euro. CNB Governor Jiri Rusnok last week said the rise in interest rates would be gentle and gradual next year. The forint eased in tandem with the crown. It approached Friday''s one-year lows of 315.14 against the euro, reached after November inflation data signalled that the Hungarian central bank is unlikely to change its ultra-loose monetary stance. Surging wages have not had an impact on inflation yet, Raiffeisen analyst Zoltan Torok said in a note. It could rise from November''s 2.5 percent, but forecasts still point downwards rather than upwards, underpinning the super-easy monetary policy, he added. The zloty eased slightly, but at 4.205 it remains near six-month highs. It has performed well this year thanks to strong and balanced Polish economic growth, coupled with expectations for central bank rate increases to start late next year. "In the coming months we expect inflation to ease," said Erste analyst Katarzyna Rzentarzewska, commenting on Monday''s detailed November Polish inflation figures. On Friday, as expected, the Polish parliament approved an overhaul of the judiciary -- defying threats of legal action from the EU -- and Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was designated as the new prime minister. In equities markets, oil shares in the region remained on a roller-coaster ride. Poland''s leading refiners PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos lost about 5 percent as investors took profits after steep gains earlier this year. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1517 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.593 25.554 -0.15% 5.52% 0 5 Hungary 314.29 313.82 -0.15% -1.74% forint 00 00 Polish zloty 4.2050 4.2020 -0.07% 4.73% Romanian leu 4.6325 4.6316 -0.02% -2.10% Croatian 7.5400 7.5508 +0.14 0.20% kuna % Serbian 119.68 119.62 -0.05% 3.07% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1058.7 1062.3 -0.34% +14.8 3 5 8% Budapest 37896. 38232. -0.88% +18.4 96 56 2% Warsaw 2388.1 2408.8 -0.86% +22.6 9 3 0% Bucharest 7625.5 7693.5 -0.88% +7.63 8 5 % Ljubljana 775.79 780.04 -0.54% +8.11 % Zagreb 1849.3 1849.1 +0.01 -7.29% 7 4 % Belgrade 744.46 741.79 +0.36 +3.78 % % Sofia 667.02 665.29 +0.26 +13.7 % 4% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.066 -0.007 +081b -1bps ps 5-year 0.783 0.05 +115b +5bps ps 10-year 1.409 -0.015 +112b +0bps ps Poland 2-year 1.651 -0.006 +240b -1bps ps 5-year 2.611 -0.033 +298b -4bps ps 10-year 3.218 -0.036 +293b -2bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1 1.18 1.32 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.06 0.185 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.761 1.83 1.93 1.72 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-crown-eases-as-inflation-data-supports-cee-monetary-doves-idINL8N1OB3YY'|'2017-12-11T12:00:00.000+02:00'
'bedeef4bcc64c4135e3ee928cbe04043ece9cef3'|'British investment firm Man Group launches China hedge fund'|' 46 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago British investment firm Man Group launches China hedge fund Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - British investment firm Man Group PLC said it has launched a hedge fund in China, becoming the first foreign firm to run a quantitative investment fund in the country. The fund’s strategy will be “systemic trend following”, Man said in a statement without disclosing its size. It will be run by a wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in Shanghai, Man said. The strategy will leverage Man’s “quantitative investing expertise, combining this with our local investment capabilities to serve the needs of Chinese investors,” Man Group’s China chairman Li Yifei said in a statement dated Dec. 8. The fund will initially invest in Chinese futures including agricultural commodities, industrial commodities, bonds, metals, energy and stock indices, Man said. In January, Fidelity International became the first global asset manager permitted to launch investment products in China through a wholly owned local subsidiary. Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-man-group-china/british-investment-firm-man-group-launches-china-hedge-fund-idUKKBN1E50OJ'|'2017-12-11T10:46:00.000+02:00'
'bbd9378708908de916ae9d002809bbe74c8bbeab'|'Ryanair pilots in Dublin vote in favor of industrial action'|'DUBLIN (Reuters) - Pilots employed directly by Ryanair ( RYA.I ) in Dublin, its second largest base, have voted overwhelmingly in favor of taking industrial action in a growing dispute over the airline’s collective bargaining system, the IMPACT trade union said on Monday.Ryanair headquarters building is seen in Dublin, Ireland September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The Irish airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, is trying to recover from a damaging wave of flight cancellations caused by crew rostering problems, while pilots at fewer than a third of its 87 bases have accepted an offer to increase pay.Several unions across Europe have been preparing for industrial action in a demand for better conditions at Ryanair with its pilots in Italy due to stage the company’s first ever strike by pilots later this week.The Dublin ballot covered direct employees only, rather than the majority of pilots which the airline hires through agencies. Of the 84 ballots issued, 79 voted in favor of industrial action, with three against and one not returned.Directly employed pilots are generally at the rank of captain so any strike action would likely cause disruption for passengers at the airline’s home base.An IMPACT committee that Ireland’s IALPA pilots union operates under will meet on Tuesday to decide on the next steps, a spokesman for the union said.Ryanair, which does not recognize trade unions, said in a statement that it has not received notification of any industrial action by its Dublin pilots and that it suspected the ballot was “more PR activity” by IALPA.It said that it instead expected the Dublin pilots to follow colleagues at other Irish bases in Cork, Shannon and Belfast in signing up for a 20 percent pay increase.“However, if Ryanair’s Dublin pilots are misled ... into industrial action, then they will lose their favorable rosters and remuneration benefits that are specifically linked by agreement to dealing directly with Ryanair,” the airline said.Ryanair told its Dublin pilots last week it would freeze promotions, cut cash allowances and possibly move pilots to alternative bases if they voted in favor of industrial action.Pilots have mobilized in the wake of the announcement of 20,000 flight cancellations by the Irish carrier, which it blamed on a lack of standby pilots due to a failure in its rostering following a rule change by Irish regulators.Ryanair routinely dismisses “competitor pilot unions” who it says claim to represent more Ryanair pilots than they do. But several unions in recent weeks have formed company councils and named serving Ryanair pilots as members.Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ryanair-strike/ryanair-pilots-in-dublin-vote-in-favor-of-industrial-action-idUSKBN1E529H'|'2017-12-11T19:50:00.000+02:00'
'61232f034d4f7aa843c5af679618dcf4002abf88'|'HSBC announces end to suspended sentence for Mexican cartel case'|'December 11, 2017 / 8:46 AM / in an hour HSBC announces end to suspended sentence for Mexican cartel case Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - HSBC on Monday said its deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice has expired, marking an end to the threat of further punishment for lapses in its anti-money laundering controls. HSBC said it has lived up to its commitments under the five-year deal signed in December 2012, under which it pledged to strengthen its sanctions and anti-money laundering controls. Europe’s biggest bank entered into the five-year agreement and paid a $1.9 billion fine for failing to prevent Mexican cartels from laundering hundreds of millions of dollars through the bank. (Reporting by Lawrence White; editing by Jason Neely)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/hsbc-usa/hsbc-announces-end-to-suspended-sentence-for-mexican-cartel-case-idUSL9N1HY01O'|'2017-12-11T10:45:00.000+02:00'
'e8ee19188ada64819a416efb28a994b6802c8a0d'|'Sausage-skin maker Devro says CEO to step down'|'December 11, 2017 / 7:27 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Sausage-skin maker Devro says CEO to step down Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British sausage-skin maker Devro Plc said its Chief Executive Peter Page had agreed with the board to step down after the company’s annual results in February. The maker of edible collagen casings for bratwurst, salami and chorizo named its Finance Director Rutger Helbing as its new CEO effective Feb. 28. Devro, whose shares have nearly doubled in value since Page became CEO in June 2007, is now battling slowing sales volumes, especially in China due to pricing issues. It has taken up an investment programme to increase sales and manufacturing efficiency. Rutger, who joined Devro as finance director in April last year, was named CEO after a thorough selection process, the company said. A search for Helbing’s successor has commenced, Devro said. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-devro-plc-ceo/sausage-skin-maker-devro-says-ceo-to-step-down-idUKKBN1E50K6'|'2017-12-11T10:07:00.000+02:00'
'b5af07f0dfa404116636a6681abeb5e3a105092d'|'RPT-COLUMN-The boldest market call for 2018? The consensus: McGeever - Reuters'|'(Repeats Friday’s story without changes)By Jamie McGeeverLONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Credit markets should brace for a U.S. recession, the U.S. yield curve will invert and growth in America will reach President Trump’s lofty and oft-derided target of 4 percent.These are just some of the more eye-catching 2018 calls from analysts at many of the world’s big banks. Yet paradoxically, the biggest shock of all may be that next year is another ‘Goldilocks’ year like this year. In other words, the consensus.That would be a benign mix of strong global growth, chunky corporate profits, low market volatility, a gentle drift higher in bond yields, and the continued “melt up” in stocks.In many respects, 2017 has confounded even the most bullish forecasts. World stocks are up 20 percent, global growth its strongest since 2011, bond and stock market volatility the lowest on record and “junk” bond yields at all-time lows.Aside from the market corrections and bouts of volatility that characterize any given year, analysts broadly reckon 2017 will seamlessly merge into 2018. The pace of change in some markets may vary, but essentially the song will remain the same.But can it?The biggest single driver for markets this year (and the last several) was central bank stimulus. The Fed may be raising rates and about to wind down its balance sheet, but the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan more than filled the void.According to analysts at Deutsche Bank, quantitative easing from the world’s major central banks hit a post-crisis peak of $182 billion a month in March this year. That will shrink to $53 billion by the end of next year and flip to outright liquidity withdrawal in mid-2019, they predict.The oceans of central bank liquidity that have lifted all markets is drying up. What will replace it?Global growth is on such a tear that many economists reckon it doesn’t need central bank rocket fuel. Consumer demand and business investment will be strong enough to keep the world economy expanding at a rate of around 3.5 percent - an impressive enough pace on its own, especially this late in the economic cycle.“A self-enforcing economic cycle,” say Barclays economists, predicting 4.0 percent global growth next year, a conspicuous figure also forecast by BNP Paribas for U.S. growth in the second quarter.There’s no shortage of potential banana skins though. Firstly, it’s been over a decade since the world experienced a global monetary policy tightening cycle.If the last decade of extraordinary policy was an experiment - some 700 interest rate cuts, according to JP Morgan, $8 trillion of QE stimulus, according to Deutsche Bank, and negative interest rates - then reversing it, however carefully, is surely an experiment too.“The great unwind, which has recently begun, is likely to prove to be anything but straightforward,” JP Morgan warns.LETHAL MIX It’s a well-worn argument but the example of Japan cannot be ignored. The Bank of Japan has been battling deflation, low growth and fallout of the property and stock market crashes for nearly quarter of a century.It first adopted zero interest rate policy in 1999, started QE in 2001 (implementing various versions since), unveiled its “yield curve control” policy this year and has been one of the most interventionist central banks ever in currency markets.Exiting and reversing these policies has proved challenging. The BOJ thought the coast was clear and raised interest rates in 2000 and 2006-07, but both turned out to be policy mistakes.BOJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda is now highlighting the risks of easing policy further, signaling that rate hikes might not be too far off. With global debt higher now than it was even before the 2008 crash, tighter policy globally carries clear risk.Secondly, the economic expansion is long in the tooth. In the United States it’s been rolling for over 100 months in a row, and by the time 2018 comes around will be closing in on the record 120 months in the 1960s.It’s said that economic expansions don’t die of old age, instead they’re killed by the Fed. Here, both elements are in play - the cycle is mature, and the Fed is raising rates and about to start shrinking its balance sheet.Should tighter monetary policy take the wind out of the economy’s sails, the remarkable strength of corporate profits this year is unlikely to be replicated next year.For financial markets the earnings recession of 2016 was mitigated by central bank largesse, and this year stocks on both sides of the Atlantic enjoyed earnings growth of at least 10 percent. Next year, earnings won’t be as strong and central banks are taking away the punch bowl. It could be a potent mix.Thirdly, expect higher financial market volatility.Like the economic cycle, markets have been on a roll for years - Wall Street troughed in March 2009 and has barely seen a correction of 10 percent (far less a 20 percent drop) since, the much-anticipated bond market implosion hasn’t happened and the price of high yield bonds has never been higher.Analysts disagree on whether and by how much markets are overvalued. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, is among those who argue that stock market valuation metrics such as the Shiller price/earnings ratio are no longer valid, and that the bull run can continue for several more years yet.But others are wary, and argue that bubbles are forming in certain parts of the equities universe to join those in high yield credit and bond markets.Low volatility has underpinned the market surge this year. The VIX index, which measures implied volatility of the S&P 500, hit a record low below 9 percent last month and its average for the year is the lowest annual rate on record.This has ensured 2017 will go down as the calmest year in U.S. market history. According to Charlie Bilello at Pension Partners in New York, 95 percent of all trading days on the Dow this year have had an intraday range of less than 1 percent.Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Graphics by Jamie McGeever and Helen ReidOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets-2018outlook/rpt-column-the-boldest-market-call-for-2018-the-consensus-mcgeever-idINL8N1O82O3'|'2017-12-11T04:50:00.000+02:00'
'68634730831f87c5604a1a273be60195514b043d'|'Buyout firm Ardian sells 1 bln euro infrastructure asset portfolio'|'LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Ardian has agreed to sell its stake in infrastructure assets to existing shareholder pension fund APG, in a deal which values the entire portfolio at more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) the private equity firm told Reuters.The portfolio is comprised of investments in Italian gas distribution company 2i Rete Gas, French LGV Lisea, Spanish toll road Trados M-45, French rail GSM communications’ network Synerail, French renewable energy company Kallista Energy, Italian Renewable energy company 3 New & Partners, French toll road A88 and Italian hospital HISI Legnano.Ardian declined to say what percentage of the portfolio changed hands or how much APG paid in this transaction. Insurer AXA remains a shareholder in the portfolio with an undisclosed stake.Paris-based Ardian said it will remain the asset manager and adviser for the portfolio, whose equity value including minority stakes was more than 1 billion euros.However, the enterprise value of the portfolio, which includes debt, exceeds 10 billion euros, Mathias Burghardt, who is a member of Ardian’s executive committee said, adding that all the assets were valued above their net asset value.The sale is an example of an exit strategy for an infrastructure fund which is tailored to the varied time horizons of different investment funds, signalling the maturing of the relatively new infrastructure investing industry.“By organising a competitive auction, we have given liquidity to some investors in ten years while allowing others to remain on as shareholders,” Burghardt said.The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.APG is one of the biggest Dutch pension funds with 467 billion euros in assets under management, while French insurer and fund manager AXA has almost 1.5 trillion euros.Ardian has assets of $66 billion which it manages or advises on in Europe, North America and Asia and is majority-owned by its employees. The group is in the process of raising an infrastructure fund for assets in the United States. ($1 = 0.8476 euros) (Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; editing by Alexander Smith and Jane Merriman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ardian-portfolio-sale/buyout-firm-ardian-sells-1-bln-euro-infrastructure-asset-portfolio-idINL8N1OB46H'|'2017-12-12T05:01:00.000+02:00'
'de3260338d3595bb8d41c0f925ff5f52b4dcb64e'|'Ashtead starts share buyback, lifts full-year forecast'|' 32 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Ashtead starts share buyback, lifts full-year forecast Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British industrial equipment hire group Ashtead Group Plc launched a share buyback programme and hiked its annual results forecast, helped by hurricane clear-up activity in the United States. Ashtead said on Tuesday it is starting a share buyback programme of at least 500 million pounds and up to 1 billion over the next 18 months. The company, which hires out diggers and tools on short-term contracts, said underlying pretax profit rose to 536.9 million pounds from 425.9 million pounds for the six months ended Oct. 31. Underlying rental revenue rose 22.8 percent to 1.77 billion pounds. “Whilst we would anticipate that activity levels would normalise during the second half, post-hurricane clean-up, we expect full-year results to be ahead of our prior expectations,” Ashtead said. Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ashtead-group-results/ashtead-starts-share-buyback-lifts-full-year-forecast-idUKKBN1E60NH'|'2017-12-12T09:31:00.000+02:00'
'11b3de85fe1b6a7c3b00f9cc80dd4d5bbf8a7f64'|'EasyJet wins unconditional EU approval to buy Air Berlin assets'|'December 12, 2017 / 3:40 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago EasyJet wins unconditional EU approval to buy Air Berlin assets Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British budget carrier easyJet gained unconditional EU antitrust approval on Tuesday to buy parts of Air Berlin, in contrast with rival Lufthansa which is trying to convince regulators of its own bid for other Air Berlin assets. EasyJet Commercial passenger aircraft takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The 40-million-euro ($46.9 million) deal, which includes some of Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel airport, leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft, and taking on about 1,000 of Air Berlin’s pilots and cabin crew, will make easyJet the largest carrier in the German capital. The European Commission said the acquisition would not hurt competition, confirming a Reuters report on Dec. 4. “EasyJet’s plans to buy certain Air Berlin assets will not reduce competition and we have approved it today. Our decision enables easyJet to grow its presence at Berlin airports and start competing on new routes to the benefit of consumers,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. Booming tourism demand lifted passenger numbers at Berlin’s Tegel and Schoenefeld airports by a combined 11.4 percent last year to almost 33 million. Lufthansa, which wants to purchase Air Berlin units Niki and LGW, will have to give up more airport slots and routes to address competition concerns or face a full-scale EU investigation, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters last week. ($1 = 0.8522 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-easyjet-eu/eu-clears-easyjets-takeover-of-parts-of-air-berlin-idUKKBN1E621V'|'2017-12-12T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'd88bc76442fa2f4737d9f7b9188f834fef268169'|'Record number of Americans to travel during Christmas holiday: AAA'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:31 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Record number of Americans to travel during Christmas holiday: AAA Jarrett Renshaw 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. travelers will hit the roads, rails and skies this Christmas holiday in their largest numbers on record, lured by cheap plane tickets and a growing economy, the nation’s largest motor advocacy group said on Thursday. A man stops to take a photo as others rush past during a busy Christmas eve for travelers at Grand Central Terminal in the Manhattan borough of New York December 24, 2015. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri Roughly 107.3 million Americans will journey 50 miles (80 km) or more from home during Dec. 23 through Jan. 1, a 3.1 percent increase from a year earlier and the most ever recorded, AAA said in a report. That would be the sixth consecutive record high for the holiday season, the Heathrow, Florida-based organization said. “More expensive gas prices are not swaying holiday revelers to stay home,” AAA Senior Vice President Bill Sutherland said. ”We’ve seen the strong economy and growing consumer confidence fuel holiday travel all year long.” The largest share of travel, roughly 90.7 percent, will be on U.S. roads. Energy traders watch this activity closely because it accounts for 10 percent of global oil demand. U.S. motor trips will rise to 97.3 million for this holiday season, the seventh consecutive annual increase, AAA said. The group expects air travel to grow by 4.1 percent to 6.4 million trips, the highest since 2004 as passengers take advantage of lower ticket prices. Air travel now accounts now for 5.9 percent of all travel, following four consecutive years of share increases, AAA said. For 2017, motorists are on pace to break the record for most vehicle miles driven on U.S. roads, helping spur potential record demand for gasoline. U.S. gasoline demand and vehicle miles traveled both set records in 2016. [nL1N1OC196] Gas prices jumped more than 10 percent after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, peaking on Sept. 8 at an average of $2.67 a gallon. Prices were at $2.45 a gallon on Thursday, up about 9 percent from a year earlier, AAA said. Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-christmas-travel/record-number-of-americans-to-travel-during-christmas-holiday-aaa-idUSKBN1E823F'|'2017-12-14T16:30:00.000+02:00'
'f94a013768eeb58f9fcb6f9f8c8a5c883c0e503f'|'UPDATE 1-Ecuador court sentences VP to six years in jail in Odebrecht graft case'|'(Adds judge Quote: ; details on Glas, Odebrecht)By Jose Llangari and Alexandra ValenciaQUITO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - An Ecuadorean court on Wednesday sentenced Vice President Jorge Glas to six years in jail after finding him guilty of receiving bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in return for handing the scandal-ridden firm state contracts.A close ally of leftist ex-President Rafael Correa, Glas served as Correa’s vice president from 2013 and retained the position under current President Lenin Moreno.But Moreno, who has largely broken from Correa, suspended Glas in August, accusing him of not being a team player. An Ecuadorean judge in October then ordered pre-trial detention for Glas as part of the investigation into Odebrecht.The public prosecutor’s office accused him of pocketing a roughly $13.5-million bribe from Odebrecht via his uncle.“Glas constructed, with (former Odebrecht executive) Jose Conceicao Santos, the awarding of public contracts in return for payment,” Judge Edgar Flores said on Wednesday as he read the decision.Glas, a 48-year-old electrical engineer, has been accused by senior members of Correa’s government of corruption while serving as strategic sectors minister and vice president.His lawyer slammed the decision as “unjust” and vowed to appeal.Glas’ downfall highlights how fallout from the massive Odebrecht corruption scandal has continued to ripple across South America.The company, which has admitted to paying bribes to win contracts in a number of countries, has paid $3.5 billion in settlements in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland.Odebrecht allegedly paid $33.5 million in bribes to secure contracts in Ecuador. The opposition says that Correa’s government was slow to investigate, although he rejects that. (Writing by Alexandra Ulmer Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ecuador-politics/update-1-ecuador-court-sentences-vp-to-six-years-in-jail-in-odebrecht-graft-case-idINL1N1OD2T6'|'2017-12-13T20:39:00.000+02:00'
'ceffdb689c115b1199f686147f6c0f98606f6ed5'|'China''s premier says improving South Korea-China ties to benefit South Korea businesses'|'December 15, 2017 / 9:56 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago China''s premier says improving South Korea-China ties to benefit South Korea businesses Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Chinese premier Li Keqiang on Friday said stalled bilateral projects with South Korea would resume as ties between the two nations thaw, South Korea’s presidential office spokesman said. South Korea''s President Moon Jae-In (L) shakes hands with China''s Premier Li Keqiang (R) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Nicolas Asfouri/Pool Many South Korean businesses will benefit from better ties with China, and many Chinese are expected to visit South Korea during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Yoon Young-chan said in text messages to reporters, citing Li. Reporting by Jane Chung and Cynthia Kim; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-southkorea/chinas-premier-says-improving-s-korea-china-ties-to-benefit-s-korea-businesses-idINKBN1E90XJ'|'2017-12-15T11:48:00.000+02:00'
'0a8fd6d42eb66977addcd0fb33baebc83857e0ac'|'Southwest Airlines would use tax savings on planes, share buybacks'|'December 14, 2017 / 9:56 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Southwest Airlines would use tax savings on planes, share buybacks Alana Wise 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines Co ( LUV.N ) would use savings from a potential cut to the U.S. corporate tax rate to buy new planes and fund share buybacks, Chief Executive Gary Kelly said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Southwest Airlines Chairman of the Board, President & Chief Executive Officer Gary C. Kelly answers a question at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers conference held on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas April 8, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Stone Republicans in the U.S. Congress reached a deal this week on a final version of their debt-financed legislation to cut taxes for businesses and wealthy Americans, with House and Senate votes expected early next week. “We’re trying to grow and at the same time keep our costs low and manage the risks of growth, and this is very welcomed,” Kelly said. “We’ll have more money to invest in airplanes, add jobs, share with our current employees and also take good care of our shareholders as well,” he added. Kelly said that savings would also help Southwest, which built its reputation as a low-cost airline, keep it’s fares low. The tax bill, if passed, would cut the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. The bill hit potential obstacles on Thursday as two more Republican senators joined a list of lawmakers whose support is uncertain. Kelly said that even if a windfall did not translate into more Southwest jobs “it’d be more jobs with Boeing to build more airplanes”. Southwest’s entire fleet is comprised of Boeing 737 jets. Rival Delta Air Lines( DAL.N ) has also said that the carrier would use a windfall to buy equipment, but Chief Executive Ed Bastian said the money would not go back to investors in the form of share repurchases. Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-southwest/southwest-airlines-would-use-tax-savings-on-planes-share-buybacks-idUSKBN1E834T'|'2017-12-14T23:58:00.000+02:00'
'f823252db244409b258b94e3a0d33a6416277a34'|'Germany''s VDMA sees UK engineering market stagnating under Brexit'|'December 12, 2017 / 10:56 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Germany''s VDMA sees UK engineering market stagnating under Brexit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German engineering association VDMA expects the British market to stagnate next year as manufacturers hold off investments in factory equipment while they wait for a degree of clarity in Brexit negotiations. The market is likely to grow by 1 percent in 2018, “if at all”, VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann told a news conference on Tuesday, following expected growth of 5 percent this year. German engineering exports to Britain fell 4.5 percent in the first nine months of 2017, and the VDMA expects additional costs of 180 million euros ($212 million) a year for its members if Britain leaves the customs union. “What we’re seeing there is a perfect storm,” said VDMA President Carl Martin Welcker. “I don’t see that the Brits are preparing properly.” He cited issues ranging from traffic jams at ports to technical standards for equipment piling on top of the pure financial considerations and investment uncertainty created by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-engineering-britain/germanys-vdma-sees-uk-engineering-market-stagnating-under-brexit-idUKKBN1E6165'|'2017-12-12T12:54:00.000+02:00'
'3460324f1c0949493dbd55380b9131d404c38636'|'FTSE flat ahead of key UK inflation data'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:35 AM / Updated 5 hours ago FTSE holds steady after UK inflation hits six-year high Julien Ponthus 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - UK shares eased only slightly on Tuesday after data showing UK inflation rose to its highest in six years pushed up the pound, with rising oil prices keeping the benchmark index in positive territory. FILE PHOTO: A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo At 1000 GMT, the blue-chip FTSE 100 was up 0.17 percent at 7466.35 points after a 0.7 percent gain during the previous session. Consumer price inflation hit an annual rate of 3.1 percent in November, slightly above a 3.0 economist consensus, reflecting the impact of the pound’s plunge after last year’s vote to leave the European Union. “This was basically priced in,” said Kallum Pickering, a senior economist at Berenberg, commenting on the limited impact of the data on sterling and the FTSE. A lower pound generally supports the FTSE as the weaker currency translates into an accounting boost for large companies with overseas revenues. Pickering said investors would be closely watching the wording of the Bank of England’s minutes on Thursday to see whether the central bank would try to raise expectations for monetary tightening next year. “Price developments will be decisive in determining whether and if so how soon the Bank of England will hike interest rates again,” Commerzbank strategists said earlier in a note. Energy stocks provided the most support as Brent crude was boosted above $65 a barrel after an outage at the UK’s biggest North Sea oil pipeline. Royal Dutch Shell and BP both added about 1.4 percent. Supermarkets Sainsbury and Morrison were the worst performers, down 2.7 percent each, after data by market researcher Kantar Worldpanel showed both lagged behind Tesco in sales growth. Tesco rose 0.5 percent. Industrial equipment hire company Ashtead posted the best performance in early dealings, rising 2.7 percent after it launched a share buyback programme and raised its annual results forecast. Britain’s largest floor coverings retailer Carpetright shed 6.4 percent after lowering its full-year 2017-18 profit forecast. Miner and trader Glencore lost 1.3 percent after a market update for its marketing division. In the sector, Rio Tinto was also down 0.8 percent, and Fresnillo lost 1.5 percent. Financials also weighed on the index, retreating from the previous session’s gains. HSBC was down 0.4 percent, Standard Chartered <STAN.L > and Prudential 0.7 percent each. Reporting by Julien Ponthus; editing by Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-flat-ahead-of-key-uk-inflation-data-idUKKBN1E60SS'|'2017-12-12T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'b783075684353ca6ce024b108565f2798abdfe92'|'Brent crude jumps to highest since mid-2015 after North Sea pipeline outage'|'December 12, 2017 / 1:12 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Oil tops $65, first time since 2015, on UK pipeline outage Alex Lawler 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose above $65 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015 on Tuesday as an unplanned shutdown of the UK’s biggest North Sea oil pipeline supported a market already tightened by OPEC-led production cuts. FILE PHOTO - A general view shows the Philadelphia Energy Solutions petroleum refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania December 4, 2014. REUTERS/Tom Mihalek The Forties oil pipeline helps set global oil prices. It was scheduled to pump 406,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December, but was shut down on Monday after cracks were found in what traders believe is the first unplanned outage for some years. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up by 90 cents at $65.59 at 0915 GMT, after breaking above $65 for the first time since June 2015 and trading as high as $65.70. U.S. crude rose 49 cents to $58.48. “Such a reaction indicates that supply disruptions can no longer be ignored in tight markets,” said Hussein Sayed, analyst at FXTM. The Forties pipeline is important for the global oil market because the crude it carries normally sets the price of dated Brent, a benchmark used to price physical crude around the world and which underpins Brent futures. Analysts said the outage was likely to cause significant delays in the loading of Forties crude cargoes. “The complex is receiving support from the physical side and what is expected to be a multi-week outage,” JBC Energy said. “We would expect a large deferrals list for the Forties loading programme to spill over into January.” Oil also gained support from expectations the latest reports on U.S. inventories will show a further tightening of supplies. U.S. crude stocks are expected to fall by 3.8 million barrels, a fourth straight week of decline, according to analysts polled ahead of reports from industry group American Petroleum Institute and the government’s Energy Information Administration. [EIA/S] The API is scheduled to release its data for last week at 2130 GMT on Tuesday, with the EIA following on Wednesday. Oil supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries this year have helped to whittle away an excess of inventories which built up following a global supply glut which began to emerge in late 2014. But U.S. crude has lagged the rally in Brent in part because of rising U.S. oil production. As a result, Brent has jumped to a premium to U.S. crude of more than $7, the highest in more than two years. Graphic - WTI/Brent crude oil price spread: bit.ly/2AL1KoJ Graphic - U.S. oil production: bit.ly/2ANLt2g Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/brent-crude-prices-near-2015-high-after-north-sea-pipeline-disruption-idUKKBN1E603L'|'2017-12-12T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'3f5b90bf5df5c4115c6868ab58df28e2949f5df4'|'Oasis Petroleum adds more acreage in Delaware Basin for $946 million'|'(Reuters) - Oil and gas producer Oasis Petroleum Inc ( OAS.N ) said it would buy more acreage in the Delaware Basin from privately-held Forge Energy LLC for about $946 million in cash and stock, boosting its presence in the top U.S. oil field.The company also said that it was divesting non-core assets in Williston Basin for up to $500 million in 2018.The deal to buy 20,300 acres, which produced about 3,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD) in November, will help more than double Oasis’s core net inventory, the company said in a statement.Oasis said it expected to drill 16 to 20 wells in the new acreage and complete six to eight wells with a capital program of about $100 million in 2018.It also raised its 2017 production forecast to a range of 71,000 to 73,000 BOEPD from a range of 69,000 to 72,000 BOEPD estimated previously.Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oasis-petr-assets/oasis-petroleum-to-buy-permian-assets-for-about-946-million-idINKBN1E52M7'|'2017-12-11T18:26:00.000+02:00'
'9fa6a8eaccba4583c93bee02aa92b2377eab5029'|'U.S. company sues China''s HNA over deal, cites opaque ownership'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ness Technologies S.A.R.L., a U.S. software engineering company, has sued Chinese conglomerate HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL] accusing it of failing to adequately answer questions about its ownership in a U.S. review of takeovers by foreign companies, thereby causing their $325 million deal to fail.The lawsuit by New Jersey-based Ness is the latest case involving HNA, which has come under U.S. and European scrutiny after a $50 billion worldwide acquisition spree that included stakes in Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc ( HLT.N ).HNA is part of a consortium that agreed in January to buy a majority stake in SkyBridge Capital LLC, a U.S. hedge fund investment firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci, a former aide to U.S. President Donald Trump.In the lawsuit filed last week in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Ness claimed that HNA had caused it financial harm by not using what it called “best efforts” to get regulatory approval for its takeover of a Ness unit.HNA’s Beijing-based subsidiary, Pactera Technology International Ltd, had agreed in March to buy Ness’ unit, Jersey Holding Corp, according to the court filing.The deal needed a greenlight from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an intra-government agency that scrutinizes for national security concerns foreign groups’ purchases of U.S. assets.According to the lawsuit, between July and October, CFIUS sent HNA and Pactera at least 77 follow-up questions about its ownership and shareholding structure pertaining to HNA’s takeover of Jersey Holding as well as SkyBridge Capital.CFIUS often looks at whether foreign governments have any involvement in a U.S. acquisition. In a case earlier this year, it cited the role of the Chinese government when rejecting the acquisition of a U.S. chipmaker by a Chinese-backed private equity fund.HNA has been waiting for nearly a year for CFIUS to approve its investment in SkyBridge Capital.The Ness lawsuit claimed that HNA and Pactera “covertly worked to evade and frustrate” CFIUS’ review of the investment by “discussing, planning, orchestrating and implementing various schemes to disguise the true nature of their organizations, corporate structures and ownership.”Ness and a CFIUS spokesperson declined to comment. HNA did not respond to requests for comment.SkyBridge spokeswoman Woomi Yun declined to comment.The lawsuit said HNA and Pactera disclosed to CFIUS that HNA Founder Chen Feng was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and held a “current government position in China.”The lawsuit also said HNA and Pactera “revealed additional ties to the Chinese government” and disclosed a number of loans from China’s government, including two loans worth over $175 million. No further details were given.HNA, which has fielded many questions about its ownership over the past year, tried to address issue in July by creating New York-based Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation Inc to act as its single biggest stakeholder with a 29.5 percent stake.In its lawsuit, Ness claimed that HNA and Pactera told it that the charity had “chosen not to be tax-exempt to avoid U.S. federal regulations involving corporate ownership.”The lawsuit cited CFIUS staff as saying that most of their questions to HNA involved “the ‘core’ issue of HNA Group’s ownership structure, which presented an unresolved national security issue.”HNA is being investigated by the German financial watchdog over its stock market disclosures, and the Swiss Takeover Board said in November that HNA had given partially untrue or incomplete information when it took over a Swiss company last year.HNA’s heavy reliance on leverage to fund its investments has raised its financing cost, prompting some credit rating agencies to downgrade its creditworthiness.Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Richard Chang '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hna-group-ownership/u-s-company-sues-chinas-hna-over-deal-cites-opaque-ownership-idUSKBN1E606X'|'2017-12-12T04:01:00.000+02:00'
'1a8daf7016b3907fda9de9808f2ff74de2aca318'|'UK banks must check suitability of customers to products'|'December 13, 2017 / 10:25 AM / Updated an hour ago UK banks must check suitability of customers to products Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Financial firms unable to demonstrate that their stocks and bonds products are being sold to the right customers from January could fall foul of regulators, Britain’s banking trade body said on Wednesday. UK Finance published guidance on Wednesday to ensure banks are consistent in how they check if end customers are suited to their products. Third parties such as wealth managers who sell products on behalf of banks must also show they understand what sort of customers fall within clearly defined “target markets”. “UK Finance has developed guidelines on this target market criteria so firms can share data in the knowledge their activity will be broadly in line with a common industry approach,” it said. The requirements are being introduced on Jan. 3 under a European Union law known as MiFID II, and the guidance seeks to help financial firms in Britain comply with it. Bankers are rushing to meet the January deadline as regulators put last minute finishing touches to the rules. The EU approved a decision on Wednesday to allow European investors to continue trading shares listed on U.S. and other exchanges, removing major uncertainty for banks. MiFID marks a step change in how products are designed and sold to ensure that pressure to chalk up sales does not translate into products being sold to customers who do not understand or are unable to manage the risks they pose. The guidance focuses on the information that must be exchanged between the banks who design products and third parties who sell them, said Rob Driver, a policy lead at UK Finance. “Firms will need to develop and apply an appropriate target market criteria to help demonstrate the right products are being offered to the right end-clients,” he said. Although Britain is due to leave the EU in March 2019, UK Finance expects that UK financial firms will have to continue applying the rules after Brexit day. The guidance has been drawn up after discussions with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, which will enforce MiFID II in the UK, and lawyers. There is already market speculation the FCA might go further and launch a root-and-branch review of product governance. One of the aims of MiFID II is to toughen up investor protection and make it easier for regulators to crack down on mis-selling of financial products that contain shares, bonds, derivatives or commodities. EU regulators are also being given powers to ban products that harm consumers, but UK Finance hopes the guidance will help to avert such action in the first place. Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-banks-regulations/uk-banks-must-check-suitability-of-customers-to-products-idUKKBN1E715N'|'2017-12-13T12:24:00.000+02:00'
'310e047aac47be9014b942e668625c0373a449c5'|'Oil prices drop on increased U.S. drilling activity'|'December 11, 2017 / 12:34 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Oil gains on Forties Pipeline shutdown, New York blast Jessica Resnick-Ault 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose Monday, reversing earlier declines, after a North Sea pipeline shut for repairs and investors focused on commodities following an explosion in New York. FILE PHOTO - A drilling rig owned by Parsley Energy Inc. seen near Midland, Texas, U.S. on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose $1.01 to $64.41 a barrel by 11:05 EST (1605 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $57.70 a barrel, 35 cents above their last settlement. The difference between the two grades was the largest since late October, as Brent rallied after the shutdown of the pipeline that carries the largest grade of North Sea crude oil. The 450,000 barrels per day pipeline, which carries Forties crude from the North Sea to the Kinneil processing terminal in Scotland, has been operating at reduced capacity for about four days before the shutdown. The market had expected the pipeline to return to service quickly and was surprised by the extended shutdown, said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. “It’s a significant amount of crude oil in a market that has been the tightest for crude oil,” Kilduff said. Earlier in the session, both benchmarks popped higher after an explosion on Monday rocked New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal, one of the city’s busiest commuter hubs. Investors tend to head for hard-asset commodity markets like gold and silver during high-risk events, and oil can also attract investment, Kilduff said. Early in the session, prices faced downward pressure from rising U.S. drilling activity that pointed to a further increase in American production, countering OPEC-led output cuts. Brent and WTI have gained well over a third from 2017 lows, drawing support from a cut in production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of non-OPEC producers, including Russia, which has been in place since the start of the year. During the weekend, Kuwait’s oil minister suggested that an exit from the supply-cut agreement would be studied before June. The United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said on Monday that OPEC plans to announce in June an exit strategy from the cuts, though he added it did not mean the pact would end by then. Gains from the cuts could also be undermined by rising output from the United States, which is not participating in the deal to withhold production. The number of rigs drilling for new oil output in the United States rose by two in the week to Dec. 8, to 751, the highest since September, energy services company Baker Hughes said on Friday. RIG-OL-USA-BHI “The largest concern for investors currently remains the rise in the U.S. rig count,” said Shane Chanel, equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth Advisers. A higher rig count points to a further rise in U.S. crude production C-OUT-T-EIA, which is already up more than 15 percent since mid-2016 at 9.71 million barrels per day. That’s the highest since the early 1970s, and close to the output levels of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Libby George in London, editing by Louise Heavens; Editing by Dale Hudson and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-drop-on-increased-u-s-rig-drilling-idUKKBN1E501P'|'2017-12-11T06:22:00.000+02:00'
'9dd0a66b46927c5a9037f297d55d76441be474e4'|'Blackstone''s real estate fund buys 10 pct stake in Logicor- FT'|'Dec 12 (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP’s real estate fund is taking a 10 percent stake in European warehouse firm Logicor Ltd ( IPO-LOG.L ), the Financial Times reported on Tuesday citing people briefed on the matter.The private equity group in June had agreed to sell Logicor to Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp for 12.25 billion euros ($14.42 billion).China Investment Corp also hired Blackstone to manage Logicor''s warehouses and logistic properties portfolio, the report said. on.ft.com/2C3V70ZBlackstone’s recently-raised $2 billion European fund is one of several investors that the Chinese sovereign wealth fund has invited to buy stakes in Logicor, with several insurers also looking at the company, the report added.Blackstone, China Investment Corp and Logicor were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours. ($1 = 0.8495 euros) (Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/blackstone-group-logicor/blackstones-real-estate-fund-buys-10-pct-stake-in-logicor-ft-idINL3N1OC20X'|'2017-12-12T02:46:00.000+02:00'
'b7538551aeca753455ced719279b65330e1c6996'|'CML buys 65 percent of UK''s ETS pipeline, to keep Perenco as operator'|'December 12, 2017 / 3:13 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago CML buys 65 percent of UK''s ETS pipeline, to keep Perenco as operator Reuters Staff 1 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - CATS Management Limited (CML), a British gas infrastructure company owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners, has acquired 65 percent of Britain’s Esmond Transportation System (ETS) pipeline and will keep Perenco as its operator, the firm said on Tuesday. CATS did not give a value for the transaction. ETS, a 165-kilometer pipeline that transports gas from fields in the southern North Sea to Britain’s Bacton gas terminal, is operated by Perenco, which also runs the country’s Trent and Tyne gas fields. CML bought a 30-  pipeline from Premier Oil, 25 percent from Centrica and 10 percent from Perenco UK Limited, the company said in a statement. Premier Oil sold its stake for 23.6 million pounds, it said in a statement on Monday. Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-gas/cml-buys-65-percent-of-uks-ets-pipeline-to-keep-perenco-as-operator-idUKKBN1E61WW'|'2017-12-12T17:12:00.000+02:00'
'd1a186cfacf20d0d0e0b1f824f01f68208460c36'|'Seadrill bondholders propose alternative debt restructuring -sources'|'OSLO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - An unofficial committee of Seadrill’s unsecured bondholders has submitted a binding alternative proposal for the company’s restructuring, two sources familiar with the proposal told Reuters on Tuesday.Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen and a group of hedge funds proposed on Sept. 12 to invest $1.06 billion via new equity and secured debt to restructure indebted Seadrill, once the largest drilling rig operator by market value.“Total investments (in the alternative plan) are on par with the official restructuring proposal, but it’s not a copy paste. It’s an improvement for unsecured bondholders,” one source said, declining to elaborate.Seadrill was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/seadrill-bankruptcy/seadrill-bondholders-propose-alternative-debt-restructuring-sources-idINO9N1NZ001'|'2017-12-12T06:47:00.000+02:00'
'c5461fa9601dbc2a7eac47421b456b15fe1e2fcd'|'Pilatus jet development far exceeded planned costs - NZZ interview'|'ZURICH, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Swiss plane maker Pilatus’s development costs of “well over 500 million Swiss francs” ($504 million) far exceeded the original budget for the company’s first business jet, Chairman Oscar Schwenk told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung in an article published on Saturday.Founded in 1939, Pilatus made its name in prop aircraft and military trainers but is now staking its future on versatile, faster jets that appeal to affluent customers and corporate travellers.Pilatus on Thursday obtained certificates from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its PC-24 jet that signify its airworthiness, setting the stage for the first aircraft delivery this month.“And all performance data promised to our first 84 customers have been achieved or even exceeded,” the company said in a statement.However, meeting the targets did not come cheap, Schwenk told the Swiss newspaper, saying a running list of improvements were undertaken on the plane during the certification process.Pilatus investors took a risk in embarking on the jet project, Schwenk told the newspaper, adding that the development costs of “well over 500 million francs” far exceeded the original planned budget.Pilatus now has eight PC-24s on its assembly line in Stans, Switzerland, it said, with the first delivery slated to be made to U.S. fractional aircraft ownership company PlaneSense this month before that plane is flown to the United States in January.In total, 23 deliveries are planned though 2018, it said.Sources in 2016 said that Pilatus was considering a possible IPO. ($1 = 0.9928 Swiss francs) (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pilatusaircraft-jet-costs/pilatus-jet-development-far-exceeded-planned-costs-nzz-interview-idINL8N1O907H'|'2017-12-09T08:46:00.000+02:00'
'1519d2b76682dbe9cf8a299ceeaa69f2caeff42e'|'Glencore sees 2018 zinc output steady at around one million tonnes'|'December 12, 2017 / 12:43 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Glencore sees 2018 zinc output steady at around one million tonnes Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Glencore said on Tuesday it expected zinc output to fall slightly in 2018 to around 1.09 million tonnes versus 1.1 million tonnes this year. The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann It would creep higher in 2019 to 1.16 million tonnes, the company said in an online presentation. The market has been waiting for news of when Glencore might bring back online 500,000 tonnes of zinc capacity, idled in 2015 when commodity prices were crashing. Reporting by Barbara Lewis and Eric Onstad'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-glencore-investors-zinc/glencore-sees-2018-zinc-output-steady-at-around-one-million-tonnes-idUKKBN1E61JA'|'2017-12-12T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'22a79f3ae74adefa6b2177711605ddc8b98bd4b5'|'Poland slaps $415,000 fine on TVN24 over coverage of protests in parliament'|'December 11, 2017 / 5:22 PM / in 8 minutes Poland slaps $415,000 fine on TVN24 over coverage of protests in parliament Reuters Staff 3 Min Read WARSAW, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Poland’s media regulator has slapped a 1.5 million zloty ($415,000) fine on leading news broadcaster TVN24 over its coverage of protests in parliament last year, prompting accusations that it aims to muzzle free media. Critics said the KRRiT media watchdog had punished the U.S.-owned broadcaster in an effort to mute its criticism of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party amid speculation the Polish state may take over TVN24. Earlier this year Polish tax authorities demanded that TVN, TVN24’s parent company, pay an allegedly unpaid 110 million zloty tax, claiming irregularities in a transaction when the group took over a rival in 2012. TVN is challenging the order. “After a proceeding regarding the method of coverage of events in parliament on Dec. 16-18 (last year), KRRiT concluded that TVN SA, broadcaster of the TVN24 programme, infringed ... a law by promoting illegal activities and encouraging behaviour that threatens security,” KRRiT said in a statement on Monday. The media regulator did not spell out precisely how TVN24, the most widely watched independent broadcaster in Poland, had allegedly infringed the law in covering the protests. TVN24, in a statement issued by its press office, said it strongly disagreed with the regulator’s decision and would appeal against it in Polish courts. “It is very disturbing that for reporting these types of events - the parliamentary crisis and society’s response to it - one of the TV (stations) faces negative consequences,” said Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights lawyer Dorota Glowacka. “It may be perceived as a certain warning signal for other media that would like to report independently some events that are uncomfortable from the point of view of the ruling party.” Polish media extensively covered last year’s protests in parliament including a blockade of the rostrum by opposition leaders after PiS imposed curbs on media access to the legislature. Since winning election in late 2015, the PiS has been increasingly at loggerheads with the European Union over immigration quotas for EU member states and its placing of courts and media under increased state control. $1 = 3.5634 zlotys Reporting by Marcin Goclowski; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/poland-politics-tvn/poland-slaps-415000-fine-on-tvn24-over-coverage-of-protests-in-parliament-idUSL8N1OB4OZ'|'2017-12-11T19:21:00.000+02:00'
'2bfb97bfbf3e6234a980b6eef222b26b781e86a2'|'Congo mines say revised code threatens industry''s future'|'December 11, 2017 / 5:22 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Congo mines say revised code threatens industry''s future Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DAKAR, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Mining companies in Democratic Republic of Congo said on Monday that proposed changes to the mining code adopted by the lower house of parliament last week would do lasting damage to investment in Africa’s top copper producer. The process of revising the 2002 mining code in Congo has dragged on for over five years but the National Assembly on Friday approved a bill that would increase taxes and royalties and sent it to the upper house Senate for a second vote. The measure would also increase the state’s minimum unpaid share of new mining projects and require that Congolese investors hold at least 10 percent of shares in large-scale mines. In a statement, several of Congo’s largest copper and gold mines, including projects operated by Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore and London-listed Randgold Resources , said investors would look elsewhere if the code were approved by the Senate and signed into law by the president. “This very heart of the DRC’s economy is now seriously threatened while it should be protected, supervised and strengthened,” the statement said. “This would cause the certain death of a young industry, however it contributes to the achievements of the national economy.” The government and some civil society groups in Congo dispute the companies’ financial models and argue that the proposed 3.5 percent royalties on precious and base metals are lower than in competitor nations such as neighbouring Zambia. Congo’s mines minister suspended consideration of the revised code in March 2016 because companies had complained that its fiscal terms would make their projects unprofitable, given current low commodity prices. But the government reintroduced the proposal in May, saying it was essential to boosting public revenues in a country with an annual budget of only around $5 billion. Congo’s mining sector accounts for some 95 percent of the country’s export revenues and represents about 20 percent of national gross domestic product. (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing by Gareth Jones)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/congo-mining/congo-mines-say-revised-code-threatens-industrys-future-idUSL8N1OB52A'|'2017-12-11T19:21:00.000+02:00'
'61a2e3bcf18e098d28598c5ce8a2e22284029fe5'|'Nikkei flat as real estate, construction stocks weigh'|'TOKYO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks struggled for traction on Monday as gains in financial shares were offset by drops in real estate and construction companies, with Obayashi Corp diving more than 8 percent.Obayashi tumbled on reports that it is under investigation on suspicion of rigging contracts for Japan’s magnetic levitation train line.The Nikkei share average was little changed at 22,815.28 by midmorning trade after opening up 0.4 percent.Financials gained ground, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rising 1.0 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group up 2.0 percent and insurer T&D Holdings adding 1.3 percent.The construction sector plunged 1.9 percent and was the worst performer.Real estate firms also languished, with Mitsui Fudosan and Mitsubishi Estate both falling 1.2 percent.Chip equipment makers also lost ground. Tokyo Electron Ltd dropped 1.5 percent and Advantest Corp shed 0.5 percentThe broader Topix shed 0.1 percent to 1,801.54.Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Kim Coghill '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-flat-as-real-estate-construction-stocks-weigh-idUSL3N1OB1E9'|'2017-12-11T04:31:00.000+02:00'
'ed246da86483de0f98249a7103c43ffd2c2fa3c0'|'Brazil''s Kroton looks to expand overseas through acquisitions'|'SAO PAULO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Brazilian for-profit education company Kroton Educacional SA has begun studies to expand abroad via acquisitions and is also eyeing new domestic targets, the firm’s chairman and senior executives said on Monday.Speaking to investors and analysts, Chairman Rodrigo Calvo Galindo and the executives said the company aims to increase its participation in Brazil’s extension studies market to between 5 percent and 10 percent in five years, from 2 percent currently. (Reporting by Gabriela Mello; Writing by Gram Slattery Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/kroton-outlook/brazils-kroton-looks-to-expand-overseas-through-acquisitions-idINE6N1N0009'|'2017-12-11T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'0c5e31c28e186c56a2ef9330d7a5debcffa3bf8f'|'M&G Investments taps RBS for new head of asset based lending'|'December 11, 2017 / 1:02 PM / Updated an hour ago M&G Investments taps RBS for new head of asset based lending Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - UK-based investment manager M&G Investments named Oliver Wilson as head of asset based lending in the company’s direct lending team. Wilson, who will be based in London, joins from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s asset based lending division. Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-m-g-investments-moves-oliverwilson/mg-investments-taps-rbs-for-new-head-of-asset-based-lending-idUKKBN1E51EZ'|'2017-12-11T15:01:00.000+02:00'
'02d3687dd3bcb86bab7c809b2285fa58b702d03b'|'The Bank of England and a move to Birmingham'|'The Bank of England and a move to Birmingham Relocating government agencies without real devolution is a gimmick Read next Birmingham, UK: Could this really be the new home of the Bank of England? Save to myFT Play audio for this article Pause What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! or Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback Could the Old Lady move to Brum? The latest suggestion from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party to spread power and wealth around the country involves shifting the Bank of England from the City of London, its home since the institution was created in 1694, to Birmingham. The motive may have some merit. Labour is right to be concerned that the UK’s economy and its governance are over-centralised and dominated by London and the south-east of England. Moreover, there is no doubt the BoE has an image problem. Its multiple traditional roles of setting monetary policy, supervising financial institutions and boosting the country’s financial services sector have laid it open to charges of being captured by the City. Yet it is hard to see how these problems would be solved, as the consultancy report commissioned by Labour suggests, by shifting “some functions” of the BoE to Birmingham. Moving its supervisory operation will achieve little except boosting profits of the train operating companies on the lines to London as staff shuttle back and forth to the city where most of the industry they are regulating will still be based. As for economics and monetary policy, the bank already has a network of regional agents who gather intelligence and also serve a public relations function, facilitating visits by senior staff. But moving the Monetary Policy Committee and its associated squadrons of staff economists from one city to another will not — certainly it should not — materially affect the setting of interest rates. The MPC should look at data for the economy as a whole. It is not there to be lobbied by particular regional interests. Moving the central bank to Birmingham is a symbol of regionalisation without the reality The move is tied up with Labour’s plan for a state-sponsored national investment bank and a public-private “strategic investment board”, including the BoE, to encourage lending to local businesses. Although the BoE has an interest in ensuring the efficient provision of finance to industry, it is not there to take decisions on directing credit. Moreover, it is always a risk moving specialised, highly trained staff who have other lucrative and rewarding career options. Placing some administrative functions of government in regional towns and cities, such as the Department for International Development’s offices in East Kilbride in Scotland, has worked fine. But, as a review of the quality of official data found, moving the Office for National Statistics to Newport in south Wales in 2007 created an exodus of experienced staff and weakened its performance. The UK undoubtedly has a hugely over-centralised government. Its economy is too dependent on financial services and associated industries in London and the south-east. But the solution to this is genuinely to shift power over policies and budgets, not just to the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but also to provincial English cities and regions. With some exceptions such as the transfer of substantial powers over health, social care, transport and planning to Greater Manchester, this has often proved a slow and difficult process, not least because moves are often resisted by the regions themselves. In the absence of such substantive changes, moving the central bank to Birmingham is a symbol of regionalisation without the reality. Dispersing the agencies of a centralised state around the country does not constitute devolution. If Mr Corbyn wishes to tame finance capitalism in Britain, or spread prosperity and jobs across the country, he needs to find more meaningful policies than a mostly symbolic move of the BoE. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Print this page '|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/fe879752-de8b-11e7-8f9f-de1c2175f5ce'|'2017-12-11T20:13:00.000+02:00'
'199572382dd61bf008bf69d27efbdefae26ab28b'|'Powell faces early test of policy view as tax cuts near approval'|'Reuters TV United States  19 AM / a few seconds ago Powell faces early test of policy view as tax cuts near approval Howard Schneider 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Incoming Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, chosen by U.S. President Donald Trump to keep the recovery humming, appears set to let an expected trillion=dollar tax cut run its course through the economy as weak wage growth and inflation buttress his view that the economy remains underpowered. Jerome Powell testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on his nomination to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, U.S., November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts Powell in statements throughout the year, culminating with his recent Senate confirmation hearing, has been clear he sees little risk of inflation that would prompt the Fed to raise rates faster than expected, and takes weak wage growth as a sign that sidelined workers remain to be drawn into jobs. New data added evidence to that view on Friday. Employment in November grew faster than expected, but wage growth remained muted. The share of working age adults with jobs continued a steady, six-year recovery that is approaching its pre-crisis peak. Even with the unemployment rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent, “there’s no sense of an overheating economy or a particularly tight labor market,” Powell told members of the Senate Banking Committee, saying that the Fed should raise rates only gradually. Debate among Powell’s colleagues, meanwhile, has highlighted other risks if the Fed speeds its pace of rate increases. Some policymakers feel the central bank has already undercut its credibility by raising interest rates while inflation remains so weak. Others have noted that if the Fed continues raising short-term rates while long-term rates remain stalled, it could turn the shape of the bond yield curve upside down, a typical signal of recession. “If the Fed gets its paradigm wrong and sees inflation that ultimately doesn’t materialize, and they take rates too far, then markets would feel aggrieved,” said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust in Chicago, and a former senior risk official at the Fed Board. Other analysts are starting to see a potential dovish surprise when Powell takes over in February, the tax cuts could kick in, and the Fed stands aside. “MORE DOVISH FED” With a background as an investment banker rather than as an economist rooted in a particular analytical framework, Powell will lead “a more data-driven Fed, which at the current juncture means a more dovish Fed,” until and if inflation recovers, said Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance. He expects the Fed under Powell to only raise rates twice next year. Policymakers will give an initial reading on the impact of the Republican tax plan when they meet next week. They are expected to raise interest rates for the third time this year. They will also update their economic and interest rate projections for 2018 and beyond, the first such forecasts since the outlines of the tax overhaul became clear. Top Republicans from the House and the Senate are rushing to complete negotiations to push the tax plan into law. Though Janet Yellen remains Fed chair until February, her final scheduled press conference on Wednesday afternoon will set the policy backdrop Powell inherits. The 64-year-old lawyer will attend the meeting as a sitting governor, and help shape the statement issued that day by the Federal Open Market Committee. It is a group struggling with a fundamental issue. The economy is arguably as much as a half a percentage point below full employment, a condition in which prices and wages should be rising. Yet both remain weak. Into that mix, the tax cut legislation would put tens of billions of dollars back in the hands of corporations and households. If there is still “slack” in the economy, that could produce faster real growth as spending and investment increase, and more workers are hired. However, if the economy is near or above its potential, as some measures indicate, it may merely cause faster-than-desired price increases, or a jump in stock and other asset values that raise concerns of a bubble. As the tax plan advanced in Congress, forecasting shops at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and others penciled in a faster pace of Fed rate increases - essentially expecting the Fed would need to lean against the inflationary outcome. The tax package is “ultimately worth almost two additional Fed hikes” in coming years, Goldman Sachs economists David Mericle and Alec Phillips wrote in a recent analysis. But the new chair’s own public speeches and comments throughout the past year have shown an evolving faith that the Fed’s go-slow approach can continue, giving more time for workers to rebound from the 2007-2009 crisis without creating other economic risks. “Accommodative policy did not generate high inflation or excessive credit growth; rather, it helped restore full employment,” Powell said in June in his last extensive speech on monetary policy before he emerged as a contender for the top Fed job. His outlook is consistent with positions Trump and current chair Janet Yellen have taken, and the depth of his commitment to that view will be a critical part of the Fed’s debate about whether and how to react to the tax plan. At his confirmation hearing, Powell avoided any direct critique or endorsement of the pending legislation, telling lawmakers fiscal policy was their domain. But when asked about Fed staff research that challenged a key Republican premise that corporate tax cuts generate jobs, Powell kept his distance. “It’s just someone’s research,” Powell told senators. “Don’t associate that with a position of the board.” Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by David Chance and Jeffrey Benkoe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-powell/powell-faces-early-test-of-policy-view-as-tax-cuts-near-approval-idUKKBN1E50EH'|'2017-12-11T08:10:00.000+02:00'
'f10faafcce7381b34739452fd0f50126c8862859'|'Pound, financials push FTSE higher'|'December 11, 2017 / 9:22 AM / Updated an hour ago FTSE advances, led by gains in financial services Julien Ponthus , Helen Reid 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A weaker pound, rising oil prices and growing confidence in the financial sector helped pushed British shares higher and well ahead of their European peers on Monday. Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The blue-chip FTSE 100 climbed 0.7 percent, outperforming Paris and Frankfurt which retreated 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent respectively. “GBP (sterling) has given up the gains made on Friday morning” after the announcement of a deal between the European Commission and Britain on Brexit divorce terms, Rabobank said in a note. A lower pound generally supports the FTSE as the weaker currency translates into an accounting boost for large firms with overseas revenues. Financials added the most points to the index as the Federal Reserve’s widely expected rate hike on Wednesday and a deal last week on banking rules fuelled positive sentiment. HSBC rose 2.2 percent and got an additional boost after the threat of further U.S. penalties for a drug cartel money laundering case was lifted. Anglo-South African investment bank and asset manager Investec was up 3.5 percent after it said its credit exposure to troubled South African retailer Steinhoff represented only a small portion of its balance sheet. Standard Chartered <STAN.L > rose 1.6 percent and Barclays added 1 percent. Energy stocks also provided support as oil prices edged higher after a man with a homemade bomb strapped to his body set off an explosion at a New York commuter hub, injuring himself and three other people in what New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called an attempted terrorist attack.. Royal Dutch Shell added 1.3 percent and BP < BP.L> gained 1.1 percent. Miners also rose with Rio Tinto up 2 percent, Glencore rising 1.7 percent and BHP Billiton adding 2.2 percent. BAE Systems was flat after Qatar agreed to a $6.7 billion Typhoon combat jet deal. Babcock, which provides maintenance and training services for the defence industry, saw its shares rise 2 percent after a reassuring update on the adoption of the latest financial reporting rules. Unilever was stable, up 0.1 percent after reports of a possible new bid in a $7 billion auction for its spreads business. Whitbread, the owner of Costa Coffee, was the worst performer, down 2.7 percent after its CEO said its different units were not yet ready to stand alone. Outside blue-chips, telco TalkTalk fell 9.8 percent after Jefferies cut its target price for the stock, the latest downgrade after similar moves from Barclays and JP Morgan. Inmarsat also fell sharply, down 8.4 percent after Goldman Sachs removed it from its pan-Europe “buy” list and downgraded the stock to “neutral”. Reporting by Julien Ponthus; Editing by Keith Weir and Ken Ferris'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/pound-financials-push-ftse-higher-idUKKBN1E50RZ'|'2017-12-11T11:22:00.000+02:00'
'fca73077808c51919adc81f7c18216949a28e895'|'USTR Lighthizer says WTO losing focus, must rethink development'|'December 11, 2017 / 2:19 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Lighthizer says WTO losing focus, must rethink development Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade chief said on Monday that the World Trade Organization is losing its focus on trade negotiations in favor of litigation and needed to rethink how it defines developing economies. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer speaks at the 11th World Trade Organization''s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci “We need to clarify our understanding of development within the WTO. We cannot sustain a situation in which new rules can only apply to a few and that others will be given a pass in the name of self-proclaimed development status,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the opening session of the WTO’s ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires. Reporting by Luc Cohen and David Lawder'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-wto/ustr-lighthizer-says-wto-losing-focus-must-rethink-development-idUKKBN1E51MG'|'2017-12-11T16:35:00.000+02:00'
'3fac78dfa5c4c4dfcdf562c57e2bfd9fbf9c40bc'|'U.S. company sues China''s HNA over deal, cites opaque ownership'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ness Technologies S.A.R.L., a U.S. software engineering company, has sued Chinese conglomerate HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL] accusing it of failing to adequately answer questions about its ownership in a U.S. review of takeovers by foreign companies, thereby causing their $325 million deal to fail.The lawsuit by New Jersey-based Ness is the latest case involving HNA, which has come under U.S. and European scrutiny after a $50 billion worldwide acquisition spree that included stakes in Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc ( HLT.N ).HNA is part of a consortium that agreed in January to buy a majority stake in SkyBridge Capital LLC, a U.S. hedge fund investment firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci, a former aide to U.S. President Donald Trump.In the lawsuit filed last week in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Ness claimed that HNA had caused it financial harm by not using what it called “best efforts” to get regulatory approval for its takeover of a Ness unit.HNA’s Beijing-based subsidiary, Pactera Technology International Ltd, had agreed in March to buy Ness’ unit, Jersey Holding Corp, according to the court filing.The deal needed a greenlight from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an intra-government agency that scrutinizes for national security concerns foreign groups’ purchases of U.S. assets.According to the lawsuit, between July and October, CFIUS sent HNA and Pactera at least 77 follow-up questions about its ownership and shareholding structure pertaining to HNA’s takeover of Jersey Holding as well as SkyBridge Capital.CFIUS often looks at whether foreign governments have any involvement in a U.S. acquisition. In a case earlier this year, it cited the role of the Chinese government when rejecting the acquisition of a U.S. chipmaker by a Chinese-backed private equity fund.HNA has been waiting for nearly a year for CFIUS to approve its investment in SkyBridge Capital.The Ness lawsuit claimed that HNA and Pactera “covertly worked to evade and frustrate” CFIUS’ review of the investment by “discussing, planning, orchestrating and implementing various schemes to disguise the true nature of their organizations, corporate structures and ownership.”Ness and a CFIUS spokesperson declined to comment. HNA did not respond to requests for comment.SkyBridge spokeswoman Woomi Yun declined to comment.The lawsuit said HNA and Pactera disclosed to CFIUS that HNA Founder Chen Feng was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and held a “current government position in China.”The lawsuit also said HNA and Pactera “revealed additional ties to the Chinese government” and disclosed a number of loans from China’s government, including two loans worth over $175 million. No further details were given.HNA, which has fielded many questions about its ownership over the past year, tried to address issue in July by creating New York-based Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation Inc to act as its single biggest stakeholder with a 29.5 percent stake.In its lawsuit, Ness claimed that HNA and Pactera told it that the charity had “chosen not to be tax-exempt to avoid U.S. federal regulations involving corporate ownership.”The lawsuit cited CFIUS staff as saying that most of their questions to HNA involved “the ‘core’ issue of HNA Group’s ownership structure, which presented an unresolved national security issue.”HNA is being investigated by the German financial watchdog over its stock market disclosures, and the Swiss Takeover Board said in November that HNA had given partially untrue or incomplete information when it took over a Swiss company last year.HNA’s heavy reliance on leverage to fund its investments has raised its financing cost, prompting some credit rating agencies to downgrade its creditworthiness.Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hna-group-ownership/u-s-company-sues-chinas-hna-over-deal-cites-opaque-ownership-idINKBN1E606X'|'2017-12-11T23:11:00.000+02:00'
'0c45354460aecd57630134a7a59b60169f3f3dc9'|'Austria ex-finance minister goes on trial accused of corruption'|'December 12, 2017 / 2:53 PM / in 17 minutes Austria ex-finance minister goes on trial accused of corruption Kirsti Knolle 3 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - An Austrian former finance minister went on trial on Tuesday accused of bribery and embezzlement in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country’s recent history. Former Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser arrives at a courthouse on the first day of his trial for embezzlement in Vienna, Austria, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader Karl-Heinz Grasser and 15 former high-ranking politicians, managers and bankers are charged in connection with the privatization of state housing company Buwog in 2004. Grasser, 48, was one of Austria’s most popular politicians and became the country’s youngest finance minister in 2000 when he was appointed aged 31 to serve in a coalition between the conservatives and the far right Freedom Party. He is accused of embezzling part of a commission for the sale of 60,000 federal apartments. He denies the accusations and said in a television interview on Monday he was glad the trial was starting so he could prove his innocence. Defense lawyers say the case is politically motivated at a time when conservatives and the far-right are working to form a government to replace a coalition led by social democrats. Former Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser arrives at the courtroom on the first day of his trial for embezzlement in Vienna, Austria, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hans Klaus Techt/Pool Investigators spent eight years gathering evidence and working on an indictment that runs for more than 800 pages. It says he under-priced the biggest ever sale of state-owned flats. The tender came down to two bidders and the contract was awarded to a financial consortium that offered just 1 million euros ($1.2 million) more than its competitor. After the sale, millions of euros in commissions flowed to two Grasser associates suggesting insider dealing, according to prosecutors. Grasser, who is married to socialite Fiona Swarovski, the heir of the Swarovski crystal manufacturers, says he is a victim of prejudice from the media and the judiciary. The trial is the latest to stem from the tenure of Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel who took power in 2000. Others have concerned the telecoms and real estate sectors. The court rejected a petition by Grasser’s defense lawyer Manfred Ainedter to remove the chief of the four judges, Marion Hohenecker, due to conflict of interest because of tweets critical of Grasser sent by her husband who is also a judge. Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-politics-crime/austria-ex-finance-minister-goes-on-trial-accused-of-corruption-idUSKBN1E61VF'|'2017-12-12T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'8029e3be90c6a6e19a66335f52c68caec0b5dd88'|'EU clears easyJet''s takeover of parts of Air Berlin'|'December 12, 2017 / 3:51 PM / a few seconds ago EU clears easyJet''s takeover of parts of Air Berlin Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust authorities approved on Tuesday British budget carrier easyJet’s ( EZJ.L ) planned purchase of parts of bankrupt German peer Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) without setting any conditions. FILE PHOTO: EasyJet passengers line up at Nice Cote d''Azur airport as most of the flights are cancelled due to a storm in Nice, France, December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard The European Commission said the deal would not hurt competition, confirming a Reuters report on Dec. 4. “EasyJet’s plans to buy certain Air Berlin assets will not reduce competition and we have approved it today. Our decision enables easyJet to grow its presence at Berlin airports and start competing on new routes to the benefit of consumers,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. The deal will see EasyJet take on some of Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel airport in the German capital for around 40 million euros ($47 million), leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft and about 1,000 of Air Berlin’s pilots and cabin crew. ($1 = 0.8518 euros) Reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Alastair Macdonald'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-m-a-easyjet-eu/eu-clears-easyjets-takeover-of-parts-of-air-berlin-idUKKBN1E624D'|'2017-12-12T17:39:00.000+02:00'
'2c155bff1cea18be0ab123b76af01f218ec0c9c3'|'Atos offers to buy Gemalto for 4.3 billion euros to boost cyber security services'|'PARIS (Reuters) - French technology consulting firm Atos ATO.O offered to buy Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) for 4.3 billion euros ($5.06 billion) on Monday to boost its cyber security services as states and big corporations seek to cope with a growing number of attacks on the Internet worldwide.FILE PHOTO - Atos Chairman and CEO Thierry Breton poses in front of the company''s logo during a presentation of the new Bull sequana supercomputer in Paris, France, April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer The bid comes as Gemalto, the world’s largest maker of chips found in mobile phones and credit cards, is under pressure after posting four profit warnings in a year and having missed a chance to strengthen its security business through a large acquisition.The combination would strengthen Atos in the burgeoning so-called Internet of Things (IoT) sector of internet-connected machinery and household devices able to collect and exchange data using embedded sensors and European payment services on top of digital security, it said.Atos said it delivered an offer to Gemalto’s board on Nov. 28.Shortly after issuing the formal offer, Atos Chief Executive Thierry Breton said he had already received the backing of Gemalto’s biggest shareholder, France’s state-owned investment bank Bpifrance.“I’ve met the main shareholders and Bpi in particular,” Breton said in a call with reporters following the announcement of the unsolicited bid for Gemalto.“Bpi is not only favorable to this operation of European consolidation, but it also authorized me to tell you about it,” he added.Bpifrance holds 8.51 percent of Gemalto’s shares, according to the group’s last annual report. Gemalto and Bpifrance were not immediately reachable for comment.STOCK PRESSURED FILE PHOTO - The shadow of an attendee is cast below a logo of Franco-Dutch technology firm Gemalto during a news conference in Paris February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Gemalto had to postpone to March 2018 the presentation the presentation of its next multiyear strategic plan, after several profit warnings notably caused by slowing demand for credit card chips.The group’s shares have shed 38 percent so far this year compared with an increase of 24 percent for Atos.Since Breton took the helm of Atos in November 2008, the firm has multiplied its stock price by close to six times, outperforming French rival Capgemini ( CAPP.PA ) and U.S. companies Accenture ( ACN.N ) and IBM ( IBM.N ).Atos’ revenue has more than doubled over the period to reach 11.7 billion euros in 2016, after having bought assets from Germany’s Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ), U.S. group Xerox ( XRX.N ) and France-based computer company Bull.Gemalto had sales of 3.2 billion euros in 2016.The all-cash bid reflects a price of 46 euros per Gemalto share, representing a 42 percent premium on the group’s last closing price, Atos said in a statement.The bid would be financed by Atos’ existing cash resources and debt, the company said without elaborating.Breton said that two banks had already given their approval for a potential loan.($1 = 0.8495 euros)Editing by G Crosse '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gemalt-m-a-atos/atos-offers-to-buy-gemalto-for-4-3-billion-euros-to-boost-cyber-security-services-idUSKBN1E52S8'|'2017-12-12T01:14:00.000+02:00'
'13ac97b296a507a084a6a9c300bab41b810b154e'|'France''s Unibail-Rodamco bids $24.7 billion for Australia''s Westfield'|'SYDNEY/MELBOURNE/PARIS (Reuters) - Europe’s biggest property firm Unibail-Rodamco is to buy U.S. and UK mall operator Westfield Corp for $16 billion, a defensive move to create a global leader in a sector grappling with the online shopping challenge led by Amazon ( AMZN.O ).The deal gives Europe-focused Unibail ( UNBP.AS ), which owns ‘Les 4 Temps’ and ‘Forum des Halles” in Paris and has centres spreading from Helsinki to Valencia, exposure to the United States and Britain, where Westfield ( WFD.AX ) operates 35 malls, including landmark premises in London.Under its Australian billionaire chairman and co-founder Frank Lowy, Westfield has pioneered U.S. mall redevelopment, introducing upscale food courts, high-end restaurants, bars, cinemas and boutique fashion outlets to entice shoppers.Talks to seal a deal had taken just six weeks, said Lowy whose family will no longer run the company he set up in 1960 but will end up with a 2.8 percent stake in the combined group.Lowy said it made sense to sell because Unibail offered a “very good price”, but acknowledged that the sale partly reflected global consolidation and the pressure on retailers.A tough consumer spending environment and intense competition from online rivals has made retailers more selective with their expansion plans, making life tough for shopping center operators and driving consolidation in the sector.Unibail’s move dwarfs British shopping center owner Hammerson’s ( HMSO.L ) purchase of smaller rival Intu Properties ( INTUP.L ) for some 3.4 billion pounds, creating a global leader with $72 billion of gross market value in 27 retail markets under the distinctive red Westfield logo.Around 37 percent of the combined entity’s portfolio would be in France and 22 percent in the United States.“Westfield is the best fit for us and a natural extension of our strategy,” Unibail’s chief executive Christopher Cuvillier said following the announcement of the proposed deal, which would be worth $24.7 billion including debt.Westfield Chairman and co-founder Frank Lowy appears with his son Peter on a screen via video-link, as his other son Steven Lowy sits with Elliot Rusanow, Chief Financial Officer of Westfield, during a media conference in Sydney, Australia, today. REUTERS/David Gray Unibail is focused on large sites with heavy footfall and high-profile tenants such as Apple, Zara and Primark and analysts said it would gain from importing the Westfield model.Under the terms of the deal, Westfield shareholders would receive cash and shares totaling $7.55, or A$10.01, an 18 percent premium per share. The shares were halted earlier on Tuesday pending the announcement, having last traded at A$8.50.“With a A$10 handle in front, the offer doesn’t look bad,” Sydney-based CLSA analyst Sholto Maconochie said, adding the deal would “create the leading mall operator globally”.Slideshow (2 Images) Shares in Unibail-Rodamco, which was formed in 2007 by the merger of France’s Unibail and Dutch-based Rodamco, were down 4 percent at 1500 GMT, with analysts at Kepler Cheuvreux saying that the deal looked expensive.RETAIL REINVENTION Shopping center owners are scrambling to reinvent themselves to keep up with rapid changes in consumer behavior, with the expansion of e-commerce giant Amazon.com coinciding with an explosion in online purchases, while consumers increasingly treat malls as places for socializing and window shopping.Once dominant United States department store operators such as Macy’s Inc ( M.N ) and J C Penney Co Inc ( JCP.N ) have announced plans to shut hundreds of stores in recent years, putting pressure on landlords to find new “anchor tenants” or come up with new ways to grow returns.“Westfield has got assets in the UK and in the U.S. that are all in mature Amazon markets. They’re already 50 percent through that online retail switch,” Morningstar analyst Tony Sherlock said of the deal.The Lowy family, which owns 9 percent of Westfield, said they would rather be investors than executives after putting in a combined 145 years at the company, which has stakes in 18 suburban U.S. shopping centres, three of which it wholly owns.Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) have committed to provide 6.1 billion euros in funding to cover the cash portion of the offer, Unibail said.Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Additional reporting by Swati Pandey in Sydney and Susan Mathew in Bangalore, Geert De Clercq, Blandine Henault, Matthieu Protard and Maya Nikolaeva in Paris; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-westfield-m-a-unibail-rodamco/unibail-rodamco-agrees-to-buy-australias-westfield-for-24-7-billion-including-debt-idINKBN1E60HG'|'2017-12-12T03:32:00.000+02:00'
'0273fa3b9542b0d99cb0cb5d8cec58e75746112a'|'Unibail-Rodamco agrees to buy Australia''s Westfield for $24.7 billion including debt'|'December 12, 2017 / 6:35 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Europe''s Unibail bids $16 billion for Westfield to counter online threat Byron Kaye , Sonali Paul , Maya Nikolaeva 5 Min Read SYDNEY/MELBOURNE/PARIS (Reuters) - Europe’s biggest property firm Unibail-Rodamco is to buy U.S. and UK mall operator Westfield Corp for $16 billion, a defensive move to create a global leader in a sector grappling with the online shopping challenge led by Amazon ( AMZN.O ). The deal gives Europe-focused Unibail ( UNBP.AS ), which owns ‘Les 4 Temps’ and ‘Forum des Halles” in Paris and has centres spreading from Helsinki to Valencia, exposure to the United States and Britain, where Westfield ( WFD.AX ) operates 35 malls, including landmark premises in London. Under its Australian billionaire chairman and co-founder Frank Lowy, Westfield has pioneered U.S. mall redevelopment, introducing upscale food courts, high-end restaurants, bars, cinemas and boutique fashion outlets to entice shoppers. Talks to seal a deal had taken just six weeks, said Lowy whose family will no longer run the company he set up in 1960 but will end up with a 2.8 percent stake in the combined group. Lowy said it made sense to sell because Unibail offered a “very good price”, but acknowledged that the sale partly reflected global consolidation and the pressure on retailers. A tough consumer spending environment and intense competition from online rivals has made retailers more selective with their expansion plans, making life tough for shopping center operators and driving consolidation in the sector. Unibail’s move dwarfs British shopping center owner Hammerson’s ( HMSO.L ) purchase of smaller rival Intu Properties ( INTUP.L ) for some 3.4 billion pounds, creating a global leader with $72 billion of gross market value in 27 retail markets under the distinctive red Westfield logo. Around 37 percent of the combined entity’s portfolio would be in France and 22 percent in the United States. “Westfield is the best fit for us and a natural extension of our strategy,” Unibail’s chief executive Christopher Cuvillier said following the announcement of the proposed deal, which would be worth $24.7 billion including debt. Westfield Chairman and co-founder Frank Lowy appears with his son Peter on a screen via video-link, as his other son Steven Lowy sits with Elliot Rusanow, Chief Financial Officer of Westfield, during a media conference in Sydney, Australia, today. REUTERS/David Gray Unibail is focused on large sites with heavy footfall and high-profile tenants such as Apple, Zara and Primark and analysts said it would gain from importing the Westfield model. Under the terms of the deal, Westfield shareholders would receive cash and shares totaling $7.55, or A$10.01, an 18 percent premium per share. The shares were halted earlier on Tuesday pending the announcement, having last traded at A$8.50. “With a A$10 handle in front, the offer doesn’t look bad,” Sydney-based CLSA analyst Sholto Maconochie said, adding the deal would “create the leading mall operator globally”. Slideshow (2 Images) Shares in Unibail-Rodamco, which was formed in 2007 by the merger of France’s Unibail and Dutch-based Rodamco, were down 4 percent at 1500 GMT, with analysts at Kepler Cheuvreux saying that the deal looked expensive. RETAIL REINVENTION Shopping center owners are scrambling to reinvent themselves to keep up with rapid changes in consumer behavior, with the expansion of e-commerce giant Amazon.com coinciding with an explosion in online purchases, while consumers increasingly treat malls as places for socializing and window shopping. Once dominant United States department store operators such as Macy’s Inc ( M.N ) and J C Penney Co Inc ( JCP.N ) have announced plans to shut hundreds of stores in recent years, putting pressure on landlords to find new “anchor tenants” or come up with new ways to grow returns. “Westfield has got assets in the UK and in the U.S. that are all in mature Amazon markets. They’re already 50 percent through that online retail switch,” Morningstar analyst Tony Sherlock said of the deal. The Lowy family, which owns 9 percent of Westfield, said they would rather be investors than executives after putting in a combined 145 years at the company, which has stakes in 18 suburban U.S. shopping centres, three of which it wholly owns. Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) have committed to provide 6.1 billion euros in funding to cover the cash portion of the offer, Unibail said. Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Additional reporting by Swati Pandey in Sydney and Susan Mathew in Bangalore, Geert De Clercq, Blandine Henault, Matthieu Protard and Maya Nikolaeva in Paris; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-westfield-m-a-unibail-rodamco/unibail-rodamco-agrees-to-buy-australias-westfield-for-24-7-billion-including-debt-idUKKBN1E60HG'|'2017-12-12T08:28:00.000+02:00'
'e0f6cd02807b6fad2d4b07d4f769553e5e8edbfe'|'U.S. looks to Germany to stop Baltic undersea Russian gas pipeline'|'December 12, 2017 / 9:08 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago U.S. looks to Germany to stop Baltic undersea Russian gas pipeline Timothy Gardner 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Russian pipeline project that would boost Moscow’s ability to manipulate European energy markets can be slowed by Denmark but ultimately Germany would be needed to stop it, U.S. State Department officials said on Tuesday. Russian natural gas company Gazprom ( GAZP.MM ) and its European partners are seeking to build Nord Stream 2, a project to move gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, bypassing existing land routes through Ukraine and Poland. U.S. diplomats are talking to their German counterparts about the project, but it is unclear whether Germany’s government, still forming after elections in September, can be convinced to stop it. Germany and neighbouring Austria have companies financing the pipeline, which would carry 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. “We have to use this political opening before the gelatin mould has really set with that government,” Wess Mitchell, assistant secretary for the State Department’s bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, said about Germany’s government. Denmark, which has been caught in a geopolitical conflict over the pipeline, passed a law in late November allowing it to ban Nord Stream 2 from going through its waters on foreign policy grounds. “This is a potentially significant political and legal stumbling block that could really slow progress on the pipeline,” Mitchell told a U.S. Senate panel. “But to be clear I think the country that could do the most to stop this project is Germany,” he said. The Trump administration, like the Obama administration before it, is concerned that Nord Stream 2, which would concentrate 75 percent of Russian gas shipments to Europe, could help Moscow use energy as a weapon. Russia cut gas shipments in winter months in 2006, 2009 and 2014 during pricing disputes with neighbouring countries including Ukraine. Nord Stream 2 is a “political rather than a commercial undertaking” that could slash pipeline transit payments Russia makes to Ukraine by about $2 billion a year, Mitchell said. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson encouraged Denmark to consider domestic laws to stop the pipeline. But the Nord Stream consortium is looking at another route through international waters just north of Denmark that would mean the project could proceed despite any ban. Washington hopes to diversify Europe’s gas supply with shipments of U.S. liquefied natural gas, or LNG, a business that has emerged recently with advent of the fracking boom. Currently 90 percent of U.S. LNG goes to markets in Asia. But the exports are expected to soar in coming years as U.S. facilities open, which could mean more will be available for Europe. When European countries install infrastructure to import U.S. LNG, it can be “transformative,” said John McCarrick, the deputy assistant secretary, at the State Department’s energy bureau. After Lithuania opened an LNG terminal, it negotiated a 20 percent cut in the price it pays for Russian gas, he said. Washington also supports other gas pipeline projects including the Southern Gas Corridor to bring gas to southern and central Europe from Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea. Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing byn Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-energy-europe/u-s-looks-to-germany-to-stop-baltic-undersea-russian-gas-pipeline-idUKKBN1E62TX'|'2017-12-12T23:07:00.000+02:00'
'c3a4ead03db8c1c4b68b73b2cc8a9a3d3b787a2f'|'Althea Efunshile joins Channel 4 board after government U-turn - Media'|'The government has appointed Althea Efunshile, a former deputy chief executive of Arts Council England (ACE), to the board of Channel 4 , in a dramatic U-turn after the culture secretary blocked her appointment a year ago in favour of four white men.Efunshile was the only one of five candidates for Channel 4’s board rejected by Karen Bradley in November 2016. Ofcom is responsible for finding, vetting and appointing Channel 4 non-executive directors, with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport usually rubber-stamping its decisions.Bradley’s unusual move to step in to reject Efunshile, which at the time meant three of Channel 4’s 13 board members were women and all were white, embarrassed the government.The announcement came on the same day as a green paper on corporate governance was published that highlighted the importance of “improving the diversity of boardrooms so that their composition better reflects the demographics of employees”.Theresa May was forced to defend Bradley’s decision after the Labour MP David Lammy used prime minister’s questions to ask whether she thought there “isn’t a woman or a black person in the country worthy of being on the board of Channel 4?” The DCMS said at the time that it approved only the candidates who “met the specific skills and experiences set out in Ofcom’s advertised job descriptions”.However, the regulator said all five candidates it put forward were of a “high calibre”.Efunshile, who was appointed deputy CEO of ACE in 2012, received a CBE in June 2016 in the Queen’s birthday honours for services to arts and culture.She was also made the first chair of the National College for the Creative and Cultural Industries.A dozen of the most respected female figures in the arts and creative industries, including the playwright Bonnie Greer, the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, the former cabinet minister Valerie Amos and Gail Rebuck, the chair of Penguin Random House UK, called on the government to explain its decision .On Tuesday, the DCMS announced Efunshile as one of four new non-executive directors on the Channel 4 board. Industry sources told the Guardian after the rejection last year that Efunshile would be included in the next wave of appointments.Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, called on the government to explain why it had “wasted a year” appointing Efunshile.“Althea Efunshile is a very good appointment to the Channel 4 board, but she would have been a very good appointment a year ago, too, when ministers blocked her,” he said.“After she was blocked, Matthew Hancock [digital minister] attacked ‘tokenism’ and said that board members had to be appointed on merit. The government should explain what has changed, and why they wasted a year making this decision.”A DCMS spokesman defended Bradley’s decision-making, saying Efunshile met the criteria for a different non-executive role at Channel 4, one that required a person with “experience working and/or engaging with young people, for example from an organisation with an educational purpose”.An Ofcom spokesman said: “The secretary of state approves candidates on the basis that they meet the specific skills and experiences set out in Ofcom’s advertised job descriptions.“Althea’s experience in the educational and cultural sectors will help make sure the interests of young people are represented at board level, and she was the best candidate for this particular role.”The DCMS also approved Ofcom’s selection of Tom Hooper, the director of the King’s Speech, Fru Hazlitt, a former senior executive at companies including ITV, Yahoo and Virgin Radio, and Uzma Hasan, a producer and co-founder of Little House Productions.The number of members on Channel 4’s board is flexible, with the four new appointments replacing three departures in Josie Rourke, MT Rainey, and Paul Potts.The Channel 4 chairman, Charles Gurassa , said: “I am delighted to welcome Althea, Fru, Tom and Uzma to the Channel 4 board.“They bring an impressive track record of creative and commercial leadership in both the public and private sector. I know that they all share great admiration and enthusiasm for the work of Channel 4 and the importance and value of its public service remit.”Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Channel 4 Television industry Television Karen Bradley news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/12/althea-efunshile-channel-4-board-culture-secretary'|'2017-12-12T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'0612b66d9a90323321ccc9ba9a92f4e59e28a8d1'|'France''s AXA to step up investments in green projects to $11 billion by 2020'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:03 AM / Updated 7 hours ago France''s AXA to step up investments in green projects to $11 billion by 2020 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French insurer AXA announced on Tuesday it would quadruple its investments in environmentally-friendly projects by 2020 to 9 billion euros ($10.60 billion) and disinvest further from the coal industry. Logo of France''s biggest insurer Axa is seen in Paris, France, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen “In 2015 AXA committed to reach 3 billion euros in green investments by 2020. Given that this target has already been reached, the Group has decided to quadruple its original target and reach 12 billion euros by 2020,” the insurer said. French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a climate summit this week where he will press rich countries to increase financing for dealing with climate change and urge investors worldwide to turn their backs on polluters in a bid to accelerate efforts to combat global warming. With respect to disinvesting from the coal industry, Axa will target companies that derive more than 30 percent of their revenue from coal. It also said it would not insure any new coal mines or oil sands projects, including associated pipeline businesses. Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva and Matthieu Protard; editing by Richard Lough, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-summit-axa-sa/frances-axa-to-step-up-investments-in-green-projects-to-11-billion-by-2020-idUSKBN1E60PM'|'2017-12-12T10:02:00.000+02:00'
'0c584067f50ad742520abe0d28a7b8811b71b6a4'|'Brazil''s Kroton looks to expand overseas through acquisitions'|' 34 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Brazil''s Kroton looks to expand overseas through acquisitions Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAO PAULO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Brazilian for-profit education company Kroton Educacional SA has begun studies to expand abroad via acquisitions and is also eyeing new domestic targets, the firm’s chairman and senior executives said on Monday. Speaking to investors and analysts, Chairman Rodrigo Calvo Galindo and the executives said the company aims to increase its participation in Brazil’s extension studies market to between 5 percent and 10 percent in five years, from 2 percent currently. (Reporting by Gabriela Mello; Writing by Gram Slattery Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/kroton-outlook/brazils-kroton-looks-to-expand-overseas-through-acquisitions-idUSE6N1N0009'|'2017-12-11T19:33:00.000+02:00'
'ca19d5061b88a87ad4860d106cf9e8cf5e8ed41c'|'Exclusive - Detained Saudi billionaire al-Sanea seeks to end debt dispute'|'December 11, 2017 / 5:52 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Exclusive - Detained Saudi billionaire al-Sanea seeks to end debt dispute Davide Barbuscia , Tom Arnold 5 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - A detained Saudi billionaire who led the collapsed Saad Group is seeking to repay part of a multi-billion dollar debt to creditors under a deal that could allow his release, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The businessman, Maan al-Sanea, was detained in October in the kingdom’s Eastern Province for unpaid debts, and has since been in a civil detention centre in the city of Khobar, according to several sources. Reemas Group, a financial consultancy hired by Saad Group, has outlined a proposed settlement covering $4 billion in debt. In an email sent by Reemas to creditors, of copy of which Reuters has obtained, it suggests that they would get more of their money back than under a court-enforced liquidation of the company, albeit over a longer period. At the height of his success, al-Sanea held investments in a number of large companies, including a 3.1 percent stake in British-based bank HSBC bought in 2007. That year, when his net worth was estimated at over $10 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s 100 richest men. But al-Sanea’s fortunes turned in 2009, when his business collapsed under heavy debts, unleashing a series of long-running legal disputes. Al-Sanea was detained a few weeks before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a crackdown on corruption in which dozens of Saudi princes and businessmen are being held. However, there is no indication that al-Sanea’s case is linked with this campaign, as he was detained by the Saudi authorities for unpaid debts rather than alleged graft. Sources told Reuters that al-Sanea has access to a telephone to speak to his legal team and advisers, and has been trying to organise the debt settlement with the help of some members of his family. A source at the Ministry of Justice in Riyadh said al-Sanea could be released if his debts with creditors are settled. Khobar General Court could not immediately be reached for comment. Reemas Group, which has branches in Khobar and Bahrain, said in the email that 34 financial institutions had obtained court judgements in the case worth 15.7 billion riyals ($4.19 billion). “We have contacted 90 percent either directly or via their local representative over the past few days. They have welcomed the idea, and we are yet to receive their preliminary consent in order to proceed with the next step,” said the email, which was sent to other creditors last month. Reemas said in the email that rather than auctioning off Saad Group’s assets under the liquidation process, they would be moved into a special purpose vehicle, with creditors owning the new company. “The initiative would protect the (assets) from substantial reduction in value and enhance the debt coverage ratio to reach at least 20-25 percent,” it said. Reemas Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. WEIGHT OF DEBT Saad Group, once one of the largest business conglomerates in the Gulf, collapsed under the weight of its debts in 2009 along with the family-owned Saudi conglomerate Ahmad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB). Since then, the two groups have been battling each other in the courts, with creditors seeking to recover billions of dollars. AHAB said it had yet to approached about the proposed debt settlement. “We are happy to engage in the dialogue and feel we should be included and if we’re not included we will pursue all avenues available to us,” said Simon Charlton, AHAB’s chief restructuring officer and acting chief executive. The debt settlement efforts, sources said, came after an entity established by the Supreme Judicial Council in Saudi Arabia, called the Joint Directorate of Enforcement at the General Court in Al-Khobar (JDEK), took over al-Sanea’s personal assets and began a liquidation process for Saad Group. The proposed settlement suggests creditors would recover the funds over a five-year period. Two sources said that according to the debt recovery path indicated by JDEK, they would get only 6 to 8 cents in the dollar but more quickly, over a period of one to three years. According to the terms of the settlement, the special purpose vehicle would be supervised by a steering committee headed by Saudi Arabia’s Arab National Bank. Arab National Bank did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Two of the sources familiar with the matter confirmed that a consensual and speedy settlement would show al-Sanea is serious about repaying creditors and could potentially accelerate his release. ($1 = 3.7502 riyals)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-debt-restructuring-exclusive/exclusive-detained-saudi-billionaire-al-sanea-seeks-to-end-debt-dispute-idUKKBN1E529J'|'2017-12-11T19:52:00.000+02:00'
'9a89dd593c33904f369d8e5b09d33daf0912ce56'|'Blackstone''s real estate fund buys 10 percent stake in Logicor - FT'|'December 12, 2017 / 5:45 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Blackstone buys back 10 percent in warehouse firm Logicor - source Parikshit Mishra , Shubham Kalia 2 Min Read (Reuters) - A Blackstone real estate fund is buying a 10 percent stake in Logicor Ltd just months after selling the European warehouse firm to a Chinese sovereign wealth fund, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - The ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group is displayed at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Blackstone Group LP sold Logicor to China Investment Corp in June for 12.25 billion euros (£10.8 billion). China Investment Corp has also hired the U.S. private equity firm to manage Logicor’s warehouses and logistic properties portfolio, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the matter. Blackstone’s recently raised $2 billion European fund is one of several investors that the Chinese fund has invited to buy stakes in Logicor, with several insurers also looking at the company, the Financial Times said. Logicor was founded by Blackstone’s real estate division in 2012 to manage and operate its European logistics assets. A Blackstone spokeswoman declined to comment, while China Investment Corp and Logicor did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Shubham Kalia and Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair and Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-blackstone-group-logicor/blackstones-real-estate-fund-buys-10-percent-stake-in-logicor-ft-idUKKBN1E60F7'|'2017-12-12T07:45:00.000+02:00'
'ba16337d5a832def77c16b8e45deae5b82ce28a9'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'(Updates Unibail-Rodamco, Atos; adds Steinhoff, BHP, and others)Dec 12 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1400 GMT on Tuesday:** Unibail-Rodamco, Europe’s biggest property group, has agreed to buy shopping mall owner Westfield Corp for $16 billion, marking the biggest takeover of an Australian company and a shift in global retail property to counter online shopping.** Australia’s Tatts Group Ltd cleared one of the last hurdles in its takeover by horse race-betting firm Tabcorp Holdings Ltd with the lottery owner getting the green signal from its shareholders.** Zurich Insurance has agreed to buy Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s life insurance arm for A$2.85 billion ($2.1 billion), its biggest foray into Australia and its third in the last two years.** Thai Beverage, through a Vietnam unit, has emerged as the only bidder which has registered to own at least 25 percent of the nation’s top brewer, Sabeco, in which the government is selling a $5-billion stake.** Russian business conglomerate Sistema has ceded control of Detsky Mir by selling a 5 percent stake in the country’s largest toy retailer for around $56 million.** Germany’s Audi has abandoned plans to sell its Italian motorcycle brand Ducati, its chief executive Rupert Stadler said, in a sign of confidence that the carmaker expects to be able to carry the costs of its transformation.** South Africa’s Steinhoff is considering selling stakes worth a combined $1.4 billion in local companies PSG Group and KAP Industrial to help plug a liquidity gap at the retailer, two sources familiar with the matter said.** German cooperative lender DZ Bank is moving ahead with plans to sell its DVB transport finance arm, after being hit by large provisions for bad shipping loans, people familiar with the matter said.** Investors gave an early thumbs up to a 4.3 billion euro bid by French technology company Atos for smaller rival Gemalto, betting the tie-up will yield benefits and boost revenues.** Bharti Airtel Ltd said an affiliate of U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus will buy up to a 20 percent stake in the Indian telecom operator’s direct-to-home arm for $350 million.** BHP,, the world’s largest miner, has asked four investment banks to help it prepare for either a sale or spin-off of its underperforming U.S. shale oil and gas unit, with a view to taking a decision in early 2018, sources said.** Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd plans to buy a 5 percent stake in Yonghui Superstores Co Ltd , the department store operator said on Monday, in the latest push by China’s internet giants into offline retail.** Comcast Corp said on Monday it had abandoned its bid for most of the assets of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, leaving Walt Disney Co as the sole suitor in pursuit of the $40 billion-plus deal.** Buyout firm Ardian has agreed to sell its stake in infrastructure assets to existing shareholder pension fund APG, in a deal which values the entire portfolio at more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) the private equity firm told Reuters.** French ski resort operator Compagnie des Alpes said it was confident of making progress in selling a stake to potential investors including China’s Fosun in the coming months.** A Blackstone real estate fund is buying a 10 percent stake in Logicor Ltd ( IPO-LOG.L ) just months after selling the European warehouse firm to a Chinese sovereign wealth fund, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. (Compiled by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1OC438'|'2017-12-12T11:22:00.000+02:00'
'051159cf598d18a23ca679fc3a6ba416c6e88efd'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 11'|'Dec 11 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Matthias Muller, the chief executive of Volkswagen AG , said the German government should consider phasing out the subsidies that encourage Europeans to buy diesel cars, a startling change of position by the company largely responsible for diesel''s popularity in Europe. nyti.ms/2jLGlVr- Britain''s best-known publicist, Max Clifford, died on Sunday after collapsing in prison, where he was serving an eight-year sentence for indecently assaulting teenage girls in the 1970s and 1980s. nyti.ms/2Aa1oqR- U.S. President Donald Trump called for a Washington Post reporter named Dave Weigel to be fired over a misleading tweet about the size of the crowd at a rally for the president on Friday in Pensacola, Florida. nyti.ms/2jNJHHx (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-11-idUSL3N1OB1YL'|'2017-12-11T07:45:00.000+02:00'
'60b7ef510249f3b02e543c47490a0575ff7c21a7'|'VW sees 4-5 billion euros in outflows in 2018 due to dieselgate'|'December 11, 2017 / 4:10 PM / Updated 2 hours ago VW sees 4-5 billion euros in outflows in 2018 due to dieselgate Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Volkswagen expects cash outflows of 4-5 billion euros ($4.7-5.9 billion) next year in relation to the dieselgate emissions cheating scandal, the carmaker’s Chief Financial Officer Frank Witter told journalists on Monday. A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero “I am not at all relaxed with regard to the diesel issue,” Witter said. The figure is below the up to 17 billion euros in outflows expected this year. Dieselgate has so far cost the company more than 25 billion euros and contributed to a strategy shift in the sector towards electric vehicles, with most manufacturers having announced far-reaching investment packages. ($1 = 0.8482 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-emissions/vw-sees-4-5-billion-euros-in-outflows-in-2018-due-to-dieselgate-idINKBN1E51VA'|'2017-12-11T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'97ab8f1ca1735b71095847d47e66a721af96a89c'|'Brazil''s Samarco wins waste permits in small step toward resuming operations'|'December 11, 2017 / 4:39 PM / in 13 minutes Brazil''s Samarco wins waste permits in small step toward resuming operations Reuters Staff 1 Min Read RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Samarco Mineração SA , a joint venture between Brazilian miner Vale and Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton, on Monday received two waste system permits in a small step toward resuming operations halted after a November 2015 tailings mine dam collapsed, killing 19 people. The permits issued by Minas Gerais state, where the mine is located, allow for the construction of a waste system in a depleted mine to receive tailings. Environmental authorities expect to analyze the operations permit and a corrective operations permit in the middle of 2018, after the waste disposal system has been built. (Reporting by Marta Nogueira, writing by Alexandra Alper, editing by G Crosse)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-samarco-miner-operations/brazils-samarco-wins-waste-permits-in-small-step-toward-resuming-operations-idUSE5N1M8018'|'2017-12-11T18:37:00.000+02:00'
'3eb37bde7ebc5ed92695723ec9aefd1f284123f9'|'UBS leads blockchain data reporting pilot ahead of new EU rules'|'December 11, 2017 / 4:29 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago UBS leads blockchain data reporting pilot ahead of new EU rules Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi , Anna Irrera 4 Min Read ZURICH/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Financial companies led by Swiss bank UBS are testing a blockchain platform to help them comply with new European Union trade data standards due to come into force next year. FILE PHOTO: Christmas decorations are seen at the building of Swiss bank UBS at the Paradeplatz square in Zurich, Switzerland, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Blockchain, the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, is a shared and immutable database maintained by a network of computers on the internet. The more stringent requirements are part of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, an overhaul of EU rules aimed at improving financial market transparency.. “The project is getting market participants to collaborate using blockchain to improve regulatory reporting,” Peter Stephens, head of blockchain at UBS, told Reuters. The group, which includes Barclays, Credit Suisse, KBC, Swiss stock exchange SIX and Reuters parent Thomson Reuters, is testing an Ethereum blockchain to help ensure data accuracy and consensus. Ethereum, a type of blockchain that can be used to develop decentralized applications, was invented by 23-year-old programer Vitalik Buterin. Many large companies and industry consortia have teamed up to develop standards and technology to make it easier for enterprises to use the Ethereum code, hoping it can help them streamline some of their processes. “The point is to allow us to come to a consensus for this noncompetitive reference data which is essential for trade reporting purposes,” Stephens said. Rather than replacing existing processes the blockchain, which runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud, will let financial firms perform a “quality check” of their own data against that of others, Stephens said. UBS Head of Data Christophe Tummers added that the pilot may be expanded to not only detect anomalies but resolve them too. The new EU rules, which are due to take effect on Jan. 3, 2018, require banks to report more data to regulators and will also oblige banks and financial firms to obtain information identifying clients, issuers and counterparties of trades. One element in this is a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), a unique 20-digit code that connects key information about a company or legal entity such as its name, location, industry and regulatory data, which financial groups must obtain from clients before making any transactions that require reporting. Firms can anonymously submit data onto the private blockchain, which will then check for any anomalies against other submissions under the same LEI, allowing the firm to update or standardise its own submissions. Financial institutions have been investing in blockchain with the aim of developing software that can help them better manage some data-heavy processes. Proponents say it is well suited for when many parties need access to the same data. “This use of blockchain to solve real-world regulatory requirements in a cost effective way is very appealing,” Credit Suisse’s head of blockchain strategy, Emmanuel Aidoo, said. The pilot phase, which uses real LEI data, is set to conclude at the end of January. Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Anna Irrera; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-banks-blockchain/ubs-leads-blockchain-data-reporting-pilot-ahead-of-new-eu-rules-idUKKBN1E521A'|'2017-12-11T18:31:00.000+02:00'
'4a184f92dd000b19697013d5287818e1dfbcaef6'|'Warburg Pincus to buy 20 pct stake in Bharti Airtel''s DTH arm for $350 mln'|'December 12, 2017 / 1:12 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Warburg Pincus to buy 20 percent stake in Bharti Airtel''s DTH arm for $350 million Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel Ltd ( BRTI.NS ) on Tuesday said an affiliate of U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus will buy up to a 20 percent stake in the Indian telecom operator’s direct-to-home arm for $350 million. FILE PHOTO: A Bharti Airtel office building is pictured in Gurugram, previously known as Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo Under the deal, Bharti Airtel will sell 15 percent stake in Bharti Telemedia Ltd, while the remaining 5 percent will be sold by another Bharti entity, the telecom operator said in a statement. ( bit.ly/2C5FBBX ) Viraj Sawhney, managing director of Warburg Pincus India, will join Bharti Telemedia’s board as part of the deal. Once the deal closes, Airtel will own 80 percent stake in the DTH unit. Bharti Telemedia, which operates under the brand Airtel TV, has about 14 million subscribers and a revenue of about $550 million in the 12-month period ended Sept. 30. Reporting By Samantha Kareen Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-warburg-pincus-investment/warburg-pincus-to-buy-20-pct-stake-in-bharti-airtels-dth-arm-for-350-mln-idINKBN1E61M7'|'2017-12-12T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'3b27ff972f0ac0ec70cd483563febcb4f3ba477e'|'Poland slaps $415,000 fine on TVN24 over coverage of protests in parliament'|'WARSAW, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Poland’s media regulator has slapped a 1.5 million zloty ($415,000) fine on leading news broadcaster TVN24 over its coverage of protests in parliament last year, prompting accusations that it aims to muzzle free media.Critics said the KRRiT media watchdog had punished the U.S.-owned broadcaster in an effort to mute its criticism of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party amid speculation the Polish state may take over TVN24.Earlier this year Polish tax authorities demanded that TVN, TVN24’s parent company, pay an allegedly unpaid 110 million zloty tax, claiming irregularities in a transaction when the group took over a rival in 2012. TVN is challenging the order.“After a proceeding regarding the method of coverage of events in parliament on Dec. 16-18 (last year), KRRiT concluded that TVN SA, broadcaster of the TVN24 programme, infringed ... a law by promoting illegal activities and encouraging behaviour that threatens security,” KRRiT said in a statement on Monday.The media regulator did not spell out precisely how TVN24, the most widely watched independent broadcaster in Poland, had allegedly infringed the law in covering the protests.TVN24, in a statement issued by its press office, said it strongly disagreed with the regulator’s decision and would appeal against it in Polish courts.“It is very disturbing that for reporting these types of events - the parliamentary crisis and society’s response to it - one of the TV (stations) faces negative consequences,” said Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights lawyer Dorota Glowacka.“It may be perceived as a certain warning signal for other media that would like to report independently some events that are uncomfortable from the point of view of the ruling party.”Polish media extensively covered last year’s protests in parliament including a blockade of the rostrum by opposition leaders after PiS imposed curbs on media access to the legislature.Since winning election in late 2015, the PiS has been increasingly at loggerheads with the European Union over immigration quotas for EU member states and its placing of courts and media under increased state control.$1 = 3.5634 zlotys Reporting by Marcin Goclowski; editing by Mark Heinrich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/poland-politics-tvn/poland-slaps-415000-fine-on-tvn24-over-coverage-of-protests-in-parliament-idINL8N1OB4OZ'|'2017-12-11T14:25:00.000+02:00'
'009c579ca610ad527ff7420aa1ad7ec2e141a26f'|'Premier Oil to sell North Sea pipeline stake to CATS'|' 50 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago Premier Oil to sell North Sea pipeline stake to CATS Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Premier Oil Plc will sell its 30 percent stake in a North Sea pipeline to UK gas infrastructure company CATS Management Ltd for up to 23.6 million pounds, it said on Monday. The Esmond Transportation System (ETS) pipeline, currently operated by Perenco UK Limited transports gas from Esmond Area fields to the Bacton gas terminal on the North Sea coast in Norfolk. CATS will make an initial upfront payment of 21 million pounds payable on deal completion, which is currently expected in the first half of 2018. It will pay up to 2.6 million pounds more if milestones related to development of the Pegasus field are achieved, London-listed Premier company said. Premier said it would use the proceeds to pay down debt. Its net debt stood at $2.8 billion as of Sept. 30. Perenco and Centrica Plc have also entered into separate agreements to sell their interests in the pipeline to CATS, Premier said. CATS is owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-premier-oil-divestiture/premier-oil-to-sell-north-sea-pipeline-stake-to-cats-idUKKBN1E50LA'|'2017-12-11T09:49:00.000+02:00'
'486ec7a146a13b8802e4a5b634dd7db31b8aaeec'|'Verizon to pay $2.25 billion to NFL for five-year streaming deal: source'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc will pay around $2.25 billion for a five-year partnership with the National Football League that allows users to stream games on its Yahoo and go90 platforms as well as on mobile devices, a source told Reuters on Monday.FILE PHOTO: The Verizon store in Superior, Colorado, U.S., July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Under the partnership, Verizon renews its agreement to stream NFL games on its mobile devices but loses its exclusive rights to the airings.Representatives from Verizon and the NFL declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal but the No.1 U.S. wireless carrier said the deal will go into effect in January with streaming of NFL playoff games on Yahoo and Yahoo Sports, in addition to the go90 streaming platform and the NFL mobile app.The partnership will also include mobile access to jointly-developed original content, Verizon said.Jennifer Fritzsche, analyst at Wells Fargo, said in a research note that the deal shows how Verizon is trying to expand its mobile advertising platform. In June, Verizon bought Yahoo’s core assets for $4.48 billion and combined it with AOL to form its Oath business.“With the recent consolidation of these properties in the Oath division, we would expect this to take on more of a growing focus for (Verizon) in 2018,” Fritzsche said.Verizon estimates that it reaches more than 200 million U.S. monthly unique mobile and digital users. The company has said its goal for Oath is to contribute $20 billion in revenue by 2020.Verizon shares were up 0.4 percent to $51.27 in morning trading.Reporting by Alana Wise, Jessica Toonkel, Munsif Vengattil and Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Peter Cooney and Marguerita Choy '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-verizon-communications-inc-m-a-nfl/verizon-and-nfl-reach-digital-streaming-agreement-idINKBN1E51FN'|'2017-12-11T10:10:00.000+02:00'
'65cc87e28948a0081384fcef37e5cfed06d4c5a4'|'Airbus may lower A380 output to six planes a year - sources'|'December 11, 2017 / 3:31 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Airbus may cut A380 production to six planes a year - sources Tim Hepher 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus is exploring plans to cut A380 superjumbo production to as low as six aircraft per year as it battles to make the world’s largest airliner commercially viable beyond the end of the decade, industry sources said. The logo of Airbus is pictured at the company''s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau - RC16BD631E60 Squeezed by smaller but efficient twin-engined jets, Airbus has announced plans to lower A380 output to 12 aircraft in 2018 and eight in 2019, down from an annual peak of 30, as it holds out for what it believes will be a recovery in demand. But plans to maintain that rate are in doubt as Airbus seeks to finalise an order for 36 new aircraft from Emirates. Industry analysts say ongoing negotiations with Emirates will be decisive for the future of the A380 aircraft, which recently marked its 10th anniversary in operation. Airbus, which has delivered 14 A380s so far this year, has told some suppliers it is studying eventually reducing production to six a year, industry sources said. The timing of the move was not immediately clear. An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on production beyond the company’s previous announcements. Emirates, which held off signing an order for an estimated 36 aircraft at last month’s Dubai Airshow, wants guarantees Airbus will produce the A380 for 10 years and has expressed confidence it will be able to meet the conditions. Industry sources say Airbus appears comfortable giving the undertaking, ensuring production remains open until 2028, though there are questions over the support of suppliers. Reducing output to six a year would help to bridge that period and support key second-hand values while Airbus looks for other buyers, but could keep the programme in the red for at least part of the period. Airbus shares extended losses and were down 2.16 percent at 1601 GMT. Airbus broke even on the A380 for the first time in 2015, when it delivered 27 aircraft. After a clampdown on costs it has said the A380 can break even at around 20 a year and Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier has said he is pushing the breakeven level as low as possible to sustain low production. The company said in October that any losses triggered by lower A380 production would have little financial impact. Finance Director Harald Wilhelm also told analysts that A380 deliveries were protected by the existing backlog until 2019. Singapore Airlines, the first airline to fly the double-decker jet, is due on Wednesday to take delivery of the first A380 featuring a new cabin, following an $850 million investment. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Luke Baker and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-a380/airbus-may-lower-a380-output-to-six-planes-a-year-sources-idUKKBN1E51VH'|'2017-12-11T17:30:00.000+02:00'
'd6e864d600b68f2f7922eec3e3428c6fd14d08b2'|'Newly minted bitcoin futures indicate more modest growth ahead'|' 19 PM / Updated an hour ago New bitcoin futures suggest breakneck price gains to slow Saqib Iqbal Ahmed , Jemima Kelly , Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 6 Min Read NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Newly launched bitcoin futures on Monday suggested that traders expect the cryptocurrency’s blistering price gains to slow in the coming months. Chicago-based derivatives exchange Cboe Global Markets launched the futures late on Sunday, marking the first time investors could get exposure to the bitcoin market via a large, regulated exchange. The one-month bitcoin contract <0#XBT:> opened at 6 p.m. local time (2300 GMT) on Sunday at $15,460. By midday on Monday in New York, it was trading at $17,780, roughly 10 percent above bitcoin’s spot price of $16,335 on the Bitstamp exchange. But given bitcoin has almost tripled in value over the past month, and was up more than 10 percent on Monday alone, the futures pricing suggested investors see price increases moderating. And many traders may be looking for payoffs other than a simple gain in the price of bitcoin, said Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM in Dubai. He noted though that the listing of the futures contract on Cboe and next week on the CME will likely provide at least a temporary arbitrage trading opportunity due to pricing differences. Sayed added that the arbitrage trading should lead to “improved price efficiency and probably less volatility.” After volatility settles down, investors will focus again on price direction, he said. Bitcoin futures were already offered on some unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges outside the United States, but backers said the U.S. market debut would confer greater legitimacy on the volatile cryptocurrency and encourage its wider use. The CME Group is expected to launch its futures contract on Dec. 17. Graphic - Bitcoin futures suggest growth, but slower: reut.rs/2yfblkV VOLATILITY CONCERNS Although there are hopes that the futures will draw in new investors, most fund managers at larger asset managers and institutional investors say bitcoin remains too volatile and lacks the fundamentals that give other assets value. “There’s no place for bitcoin in a multi-asset portfolio given the very high volatility,” said Robeco Chief Investment Officer Lukas Daalder. The two-month contract was trading at $17,970 a 10 percent premium over the spot price, while the three-month contract was changing hands at $18,140, a roughly 11 percent premium. Despite being modest when compared with bitcoin’s 270 percent increase over the past three months and 230 percent rise in the last two months, those levels still showed a lack of large “short” positions betting against bitcoin. “Anyone, especially a professional trading outfit, would be crazy to actually short sell this bull market,” said Nick Spanos, founder of Bitcoin Center NYC. “But just because it doesn’t happen on day one doesn’t mean it won’t in the future.” Bitcoin is up more than 1,500 percent so far in 2017, having started the year at less than $1,000. FILE PHOTO: A Bitcoin logo is displayed at the Bitcoin Center New York City in New York''s financial district in NY, U.S. on July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo ‘MARCH TOWARDS LEGITIMISATION’ As of early afternoon trading in New York, 3,613 one-month contracts had changed hands, meaning around $64.7 million had been notionally traded. That compares with daily trading volumes of more than $21.5 billion across all cryptocurrencies, according to trade website Coinmarketcap. There had been speculation that the futures launch would trigger more gyrations in the market. But while volatile compared with traditional currencies or assets, the 10 percent rise on Monday was relatively tame for bitcoin. Bitcoin surged more than 40 percent in 48 hours last week, before tumbling 20 percent in the following 10 hours. “(Bitcoin futures) will speed up the march towards legitimisation of an asset class that only a few years ago many law enforcement agencies would have argued had limited legitimate reasons for people to use,” said Jo Torode, a financial crime lawyer at Ropes & Gray in London. The futures are cash-settled contracts, allowing investors exposure without having to hold any of the cryptocurrency. Slideshow (3 Images) The futures are based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs and brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. DRAMATIC GAINS Bitcoin’s origins have been the subject of much speculation. It was set up in 2008 by an individual or group calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto, and was the first digital currency to successfully use cryptography to keep transactions secure and hidden, making traditional financial regulation difficult if not impossible. Central bankers and critics of the cryptocurrency have been ringing the alarm bells over its surge in price and other risks such as whether the opaque market can be used for money laundering. “It looks remarkably like a bubble forming to me,” the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Acting Governor Grant Spencer said on Sunday. Somebody who invested $1,000 in bitcoin at the start of 2013 would now be sitting on around $1.2 million. Heightened excitement ahead of the launch of the Cboe futures had given an extra kick to the cryptocurrency’s scorching run this year. The launch has so far received a mixed reception from big U.S. banks and brokerages. Several online brokerages, including Charles Schwab Corp and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp, did not allow trading of the new futures immediately. The Financial Times reported on Friday that JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc would not immediately clear bitcoin trades for clients. Goldman Sachs Group Inc said on Thursday it was planning to clear such trades for certain clients. Graphic - Bitcoin''s blistering ascent: tmsnrt.rs/2AeMjHe Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and John McCrank in NEW YORK; Michelle Chen in HONG KONG and Helen Reid in LONDON; Graphics by Ritvik Carvalho in LONDON and Reuters Graphics team; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-bitcoin-futures/hotly-anticipated-bitcoin-futures-ease-off-after-22-percent-surge-idUSKBN1E404F'|'2017-12-11T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'06d283ff969a4c6a7d35525fbfd7bd5b774ef8bd'|'Morning News Call - India, December 11'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 9:00 am: IRDAI Member (Life) Nilesh Sathe, National Insurance Company MD K. Sanath Kumar and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance MD K.G. Krishnamoorthy Rao at The Economic Times Insurance Summit in Mumbai. 10:00 am: Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari and Science & Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan at Ground Water Vision 2030 in New Delhi. 10:15 am: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Former RBI Governors Y.V. Reddy and D. Subbarao, NABARD General Manager D. Nageswara Rao at India Finance event in New Delhi. 10:30 am: SIAM to announce industry sales figures for November in New Delhi. 11:00 am: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to inaugurate NIC Data Security Centre in New Delhi. 11:00 am: Road and Transport Nitin Gadkari to address ASEAN-India Connectivity Summit in New Delhi. INDIA TOP NEWS • Indians vote in first stage of election seen as acid test for Modi Tens of thousands of Indians voted in the first stage of assembly elections in the western state of Gujarat on Saturday, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces his toughest electoral test since coming to power with a landslide victory in 2014. • Thyssenkrupp makes offer to workers for Tata Steel deal - sources Thyssenkrupp has offered workers commitments on jobs and investments to get union backing for its deal with Tata Steel to merge their European steel operations, several people close to labour union IG Metall said. • Uber agrees to settle U.S. lawsuit filed by India rape victim Uber Technologies Inc and a woman who accused top executives of improperly obtaining her medical records after a company driver raped her in India have agreed to settle a civil lawsuit the woman filed against Uber in June, according to a U.S. federal court filing on Friday. • Indian court says government can take control of Unitech An Indian court on Friday allowed the government to take over management control of the debt-laden property developer Unitech Ltd, a rare intervention that the government said was to protect the public interest. • India''s Future Supply Chain Solutions $101 mln IPO sees strong demand Indian logistics provider Future Supply Chain Solution Ltd''s initial public offering of shares to raise up to 6.5 billion rupees was subscribed 7.5 times on the last day of the sale on Friday, adding to what has been a record year for initial share sales in the country. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Hotly anticipated bitcoin futures debut in sedate fashion The eagerly anticipated launch of futures trading of the world''s largest cryptocurrency bitcoin got off to a positive start on Sunday, with the price nearly 9 percent ahead after briefly slipping below its opening level. • Palestinian stabs Israeli in Jerusalem; anti-Trump protest flares in Beirut A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli security guard at Jerusalem''s main bus station on Sunday, police said, and violence flared near the U.S. Embassy in Beirut over U.S. President Donald Trump''s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel''s capital. • China''s Nov producer prices ease to 4-month low as pollution curbs bite China''s producer price inflation slowed to a four-month low in November as factory activity softened due to the government''s efforts to curb pollution, cooling demand from factories for raw materials. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,309.00, up 0.2percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are likely to fall in early trade after the latest U.S. data cemented the view that the Federal Reserve will hike its rates later this week. A rise in crude oil prices will further weigh on demand, traders said. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.06 percent-7.11percent band. The note closed at 97.96 rupees, the lowest since its issuance on May 12, yielding 7.09percent on Dec. 8. • The Indian rupee will likely open a tad lower against the dollar after data showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls in November rose more than expected, strengthening bets the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates after a two-day meeting that starts tomorrow. GLOBAL MARKETS • U.S. stocks advanced on Friday, buoyed by a solid payrolls report for November that locked in expectations for an interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve next week and raised optimism about economic prospects in 2018. • Futures in bitcoin, which has taken global financial markets by storm, swung above their launch price, while the dollar kept gains in Asian session on expectations the Federal Reserve will stick to its tightening path. • The dollar was steady, underpinned by expectations of higher U.S. interest rates, while bitcoin seized the spotlight as futures of the cryptocurrency began trading. • U.S. Treasury yields were little changed on Friday after seesawing following the release of a U.S. jobs report that showed the economy added 228,000 jobs last month but average hourly earnings failed to meet expectations. • Oil prices fell, pulled down as the latest rise in the U.S. rig count pointed to a further increase in American production, potentially undermining efforts led by OPEC to tighten markets. • Gold prices were steady, holding above a four-month low hit last week, amid a firm dollar. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.45/64.48 December 8 -$104.70 mln $26.06 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.13 pct Month-to-date -$634.80 mln $410.31 mln Year-to-date -$8.06 bln $26.14 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.4700 Indian rupees) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-december-11-idUSL3N1OB1CM'|'2017-12-11T05:19:00.000+02:00'
'56a644db99005fb9795d7da3d25c2b20365fb946'|'Cross-border bank deals can boost stability - ECB''s Villeroy'|'December 11, 2017 / 11:11 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Cross-border bank deals can boost stability - ECB''s Villeroy Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Cross-border banking mergers would not necessarily create “too-big-to-fail” behemoths and could contribute to financial stability, ECB governing council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Monday. Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau attends a press conference in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt European banking regulations put in place since the 2008-2009 financial crisis have discouraged banks from becoming too complex, Villeroy, the governor of the Bank of France, told a bank supervision conference in Paris. Meanwhile, new European rules on winding down troubled banks aim to remove implicit government guarantees which Villeroy said had previously provided incentives for excessive risk taking. “We are reaching the point in Europe where facilitating healthy and well-designed cross-border mergers could actually improve financial stability,” Villeroy said. ”It would make banks better able to diversify their risks, achieve economies of scale and become more efficient. “And as we have strengthened the single supervision and resolution of significant institutions, we should not fear the ‘too-big-to-fail’ issue,” he added. European banks have so far largely ignored calls to merge from some central bankers, who think that consolidation would make it easier to transmit monetary policy more evenly across the euro zone. In private, senior bankers say that mergers are discouraged by ever-changing regulations, though some of the uncertainty has cleared since global financial supervisors last week reached a long-sought deal to harmonise bank capital rules. Bankers are also concerned that buying a bank in another euro zone country could raise their capital requirements. But Villeroy said that the bloc should be considered as a single geographic area. Reporting by Leigh Thomas, Editing by Sarah White'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-banks-regulations/cross-border-bank-deals-can-boost-stability-ecbs-villeroy-idUKKBN1E5131'|'2017-12-11T13:11:00.000+02:00'
'899566e0e36ece4f4b25a4b1b2645ee754328820'|'UAE says OPEC, allies to announce an exit strategy from supply cuts in June'|'December 11, 2017 / 6:27 AM / Updated an hour ago UAE says OPEC, allies to announce an exit strategy from supply cuts in June Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said on Monday that OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers plan to announce an exit strategy from global oil supply cuts in June. UAE Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui talks to reporters during the 15th International Energy Forum Ministerial (IEF15) in Algiers, Algeria September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina Mazroui told reporters that it was premature now to talk about the form or the shape of such an exit strategy before June, when OPEC, Russia and other oil producers participating in the pact are due to meet next. “We will announce ... a strategy in the June meeting, that does not mean we will exit in June. That means we will come up with a strategy,” he said in Abu Dhabi. The UAE holds OPEC presidency in 2018. Reporting by Stanely Carvalho, Rania El Gamal'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-opec-emirates/uae-says-opec-allies-to-announce-an-exit-strategy-from-supply-cuts-in-june-idUKKBN1E50F5'|'2017-12-11T08:27:00.000+02:00'
'51284e7797c679642b330656c482045ff0dfa181'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Dec 11'|'Dec 11 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.Headlines* BAE Systems signs off 5 bln pound Qatar deal for 24 Typhoon fighters on.ft.com/2C1yhY6* Leading London NHS trust chairman quits amid funding crunch on.ft.com/2C1c64b* UK financial watchdog’s fines increase tenfold on.ft.com/2C0ubPP* Corbyn backs call for MPs’ pension fund to divest fossil fuels on.ft.com/2BX7eglOverview- Ensuring UK production of the combat aircraft into the mid-2020s, BAE Systems and Qatar finalised a 5 billion pound deal for 24 Typhoon fighter jets.- Bob Kerslake, the chairman of one of the UK’s biggest and busiest NHS trusts, resigned from his post at King’s College Hospital over the government’s approach to the “enormous challenges” around funding.- UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s total fines for the year stand at 229.4 million pounds compared with the 22.2 million pounds levied in 2016, a tenfold increase in the level of fines meted out by the UK’s financial watchdog.- Labour party’s John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn are joining a campaign for the 612 million pounds parliamentary pension fund to drop its investments in fossil fuels.Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-dec-11-idINL3N1OB03P'|'2017-12-10T21:34:00.000+02:00'
'44653f0926d0a1eee583de6dc4838595923964bc'|'RWE on the lookout for more power plants - Rheinische Post'|'December 11, 2017 / 3:04 AM / Updated 3 hours ago RWE on the lookout for more power plants - Rheinische Post Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German utility RWE is looking for opportunities to acquire more power plants, the head of its RWE Power division, Matthias Hartung, told German daily newspaper Rheinische Post. FILE PHOTO: RWE logo in Essen, Germany, March 14, 2017. Reuters/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo “We are on the lookout for attractive power plants that are up for sale. We look at everything,” the paper quoted Hartung as saying in an interview in Monday’s edition. He declined to say whether RWE was in talks to buy assets from smaller German rival EnBW but said that power plants were especially interesting in southern Germany because the phase-out of nuclear power would be most felt there. The group said earlier this year it aimed to play an active role in the generating industry’s consolidation but would favour cost discipline over large-scale M&A as it goes on the offensive after years of crisis. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rwe-acquisitions/rwe-on-the-lookout-for-more-power-plants-rheinische-post-idUKKBN1E506R'|'2017-12-11T05:04:00.000+02:00'
'007d02df2ed60046a3d0bc1a22c42398a2225f99'|'FS Investments moves lending platform from Blackstone to KKR'|'(Reuters) - Debt investment company FS Investment Corp and buyout firm KKR are pooling together more than $18 billion in private capital to invest in mid-sized businesses, in a push to do bigger deals which are out of reach for other alternative lenders.As a result, FS, which invests in the debt of private middle market U.S. companies, dropped a partnership with Blackstone Group LP.The KKR deal will create the world’s largest business development company (BDC) platform, the companies said on Monday.BDCs became popular with investors after the 2008 financial crisis as banks and other traditional lenders to companies retrenched, though their growth has slowed amid increasing competition in the sector.“Scale enables you to do larger, upper middle market deals that you would not otherwise be able to do,” Mike Gerber, executive vice president at FS, said in an interview.“That really matters right now because the private credit markets are very competitive, particularly in the middle and lower end of the market.”Some $13.7 billion will come from FS Investments and a further $4.6 billion from Corporate Capital Trust, a BDC externally managed by KKR.The KKR deal takes the place of FS Investments’ sub-advisory agreement with Blackstone, which said on Monday it is launching a new direct lending business.Blackstone said the FS funds on its platform had generated strong investment performance, exceeding substantially all of the relevant market benchmarks.FS will pay Blackstone $640 million in cash, representing approximately three years of revenues, to end the partnership.Bennett Goodman, a senior managing director at Blackstone, said the parting of ways was mutual and that Blackstone wanted to have “100 percent control over our direct lending activities to the middle market.”KKR said the deal will help it grow the assets under management at its credit business by 33 percent to $55 billion.“Our sources and the data that we have found see this partnership taking KKR Credit from a top 10 player in private credit to a top three player,” CCT CEO and KKR Credit and Markets President Todd Builione said in an interview.The partnership is subject to shareholder approval.In a separate statement, FS Investments also said it is partnering with private equity firm EIG Global Energy Partners to create a $4 billion joint venture to finance energy and infrastructure companies.Reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-kkr-fs-investments-funds/fs-investments-moves-lending-platform-from-blackstone-to-kkr-idINKBN1E601O'|'2017-12-11T21:36:00.000+02:00'
'00760821eaf9e730205728335c9b606fb81a91e6'|'Rolls-Royce creates cross-business data unit to drive efficiency'|' 00 AM / a few seconds ago Rolls-Royce creates cross-business data unit to drive efficiency Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Rolls-Royce has created a data unit, named R2 Data Labs, that uses analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve efficiency across its civil and defense aerospace, marine, nuclear and power systems businesses. Chief digital officer Neil Crockett said the model would deliver a “step change” in the capability of the British company’s data services and would enable it to work more closely with its customers. “R2 Data Labs will tap into expertise from across a wide data and analytics supply chain, building a diverse community of data innovators: including OEM partners, niche start-ups, academics, and a broad range of other trusted third-parties,” he said on Tuesday. Last month Rolls-Royce said it would work with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on building a new digital platform that will help it develop new products quicker - one of the main targets in Chief Executive Warren East’s turnaround plan. Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-rolls-royce-hldg-data/rolls-royce-creates-cross-business-data-unit-to-drive-efficiency-idUKKBN1E60OS'|'2017-12-12T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'0587d09f56c2ae50da7810776b1da9dba829e608'|'Atlantia braced for legal battle to secure Abertis bid rights - source'|' 41 PM / a few seconds ago Atlantia braced for legal battle to secure Abertis bid rights: source Pamela Barbaglia , Ben Martin 5 Min Read LONDON(Reuters) - Italy’s largest motorway operator Atlantia ( ATL.MI ) is examining legal action to stay in the $20 billion bidding war for Spanish rival Abertis ( ABE.MC ) amid concerns it will be frozen out of the contest, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The move comes after two Spanish ministers asked the CNMV, the country’s stock markets and merger deals regulator, to revoke the approval it granted in October for Atlantia’s bid, which has also been cleared by the EU’s competition regulators. If successful, a merger of Atlantia and Abertis would create the world’s biggest toll road operator with a combined market value of more than 40 billion euros ($46.89 billion). However, due to the political hostilitiy in Madrid the odds are lengthening that the Rome-based company will prevail over German bidder Hochtief ( HOTG.DE ), which is controlled by Spanish construction group ACS ( ACS.MC ). Atlantia is now preparing for legal action should its bid be blocked, the source said. The Rome-based firm, controlled by the Benetton family, is fully focused on winning control of Abertis, regardless of the opposition from Spanish public works minister Inigo de la Serna and energy minister Alvaro Nadal, he added. “Those ministers have previously voiced discontent but the rest of the government is neutral,” he said. “This is a financial transaction and only the market will decide.” A spokesman for Atlantia declined to comment. Spain’s infrastructure and energy ministries told the CNMV on Dec. 7 it should not have authorized the bid as Atlantia had not sought permission from the government to take control of Abertis’s communication satellites business. The government considers Hispasat, majority-owned by Abertis, as a strategic asset since it controls Spain’s national satellite communications system. The uncertainty surrounding the CNMV’s decision, which is due by Jan. 7, is keeping Atlantia’s management on tenterhooks as it wants to submit a higher bid in January. Atlantia needs to trump a 17.1 billion euro counter-bid from Hochtief, which was submitted on Oct. 18. Should CNMV apply different rules to the Hochtief bid and only require Atlantia to get government permission to bid for Abertis, then the Italian firm would seek the intervention of the European Commission on the grounds of alleged discrimination. Atlantia has already negotiated a financing package with a pool of banks which include Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ), Mediobanca ( MDBI.MI ), Santander ( SAN.MC ), UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) and Intesa ( ISP.MI ), the source said, adding that the terms of the package are guaranteed until a deal has been agreed. ALL-CASH BID The Italian firm, led by boss Giovanni Castellucci, is now considering making an all-cash bid, the source and another person close to the negotiations said, adding this is the easiest option as banks are willing to lend more cash.   6 that Atlantia was likely to wait to call any new bid its “best and final” offer until the last five days of an investors’ acceptance period, which will start immediately after the regulatory review and will last 30 days. This is when the Spanish regulator will ask Atlantia and Hochtief to submit their final offers in sealed bids. Their proposals will be presented to Abertis’s board for a final decision. Yet both parties now face a delay due to the impending CNMV ruling on Atlantia. Under Spanish law the two ministers who raised concerns over Atlantia’s takeover plan may still appeal against any decision which clears the way for the Italian bid to go ahead, the source said. But the acceptance period for both Hochtief and Atlantia can only open when both bids have been cleared by the regulators. And any appeal by either side would cause further delay to a process which has been running since May and has mobilized an army of bankers and lawyers. DLA Piper and Italy’s Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners are among Atlantia’s legal advisers while Credit Suisse, Mediobanca and Santander are its main banks. Freshfields and Linklaters are advising ACS and Hochtief on legal matters alongside a pool of investment banks led by JPMorgan and Lazard. Abertis has retained Citi and boutique bank AZ Capital while Spanish law firm Uría Menéndez Abogados is its legal adviser. ($1 = 0.8531 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-abertis-m-a-atlantia/atlantia-braced-for-legal-battle-to-secure-abertis-bid-rights-source-idUKKBN1E62KL'|'2017-12-12T20:38:00.000+02:00'
'fa5f034601ee24f6885e67b1ef8f181d7c6365c2'|'Luxembourg challenges EU order to recover tax from Amazon'|' 23 AM / in 7 minutes Luxembourg challenges EU order to recover tax from Amazon Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Luxembourg is challenging a European Union order to recover about 250 million euros ($295 million) in back taxes from Amazon, saying it disagreed with EU state aid regulators’ decision that the U.S. online retailer had received special treatment. The appeal to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest, comes two months after the European Commission accused the Grand Duchy of giving illegal tax benefits to Amazon and sparing the company from paying taxes on almost three quarters of its profits. “Luxembourg believes that the Commission has not established the existence of a selective advantage,” its finance ministry said in a statement. “Furthermore, Luxembourg does not share the Commission’s analysis with regard to transfer pricing.” Amazon employs 1,500 people in Luxembourg, making it one of the biggest employers in the country of half a million. Luxembourg has also appealed against a 2015 ruling ordering it to recover up to 30 million euros in back taxes from Italian carmaker Fiat. ($1 = 0.8475 euros) (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Adrian Croft)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-amazon-luxembourg-taxavoidance/luxembourg-challenges-eu-order-to-recover-tax-from-amazon-idUSL8N1OF2DP'|'2017-12-15T13:22:00.000+02:00'
'026675e29df890c350a8017b71dfdf3fe97ccfe4'|'Irish GDP skewed again, but ''real'' growth very strong'|'December 15, 2017 / 2:39 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Irish GDP skewed again, but ''real'' growth very strong Padraic Halpin 3 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Statistical distortions catapulted Ireland’s gross domestic product (GDP) index to apparent annual growth of 10.5 percent in the third quarter, but underlying data nevertheless showed the real economy performing very strongly. FILE PHOTO - Ireland''s Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe holds a copy of the budget on the steps of Government Buildings in Dublin, Ireland October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The relevance of using GDP as an accurate measure in Europe’s fastest growing economy was called into question last year when 2015 growth figures were adjusted up to 26 percent after a massive revision to the stock of capital assets related to Ireland’s large multinational sector. This time net exports were flattered greatly by an absence of large imports of intellectual property and aircraft leasing activity, which have skewed data in the past. That pushed GDP up 4.2 percent quarter-on-quarter, ensuring the series remains “an analyst’s nightmare”, Davy Stockbrokers wrote in a note. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that even if there was no growth in the final quarter, the final figure for 2017 would still come in close to 7 percent. China’s economy is forecast to grow by 6.5 percent this year. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said GDP was likely to beat official forecasts for growth of 5.1 percent this year. “Notwithstanding the well-known limitations with GDP, it is clear that the recovery continues to outperform expectations and while this is to be welcomed, it creates its own challenges,” Donohoe said in a statement. “In particular, if the economy continues to grow in excess of its potential, capacity constraints will begin to emerge. In these circumstances, it is essential that budgetary policy does not contribute to overheating. This is one of the defining economic challenges facing the Government.” Irish GDP growth is almost certain to be the best in Europe for the fourth successive year, and a host of more consistent data economists prefer - from tumbling unemployment to robust retail sales - have been very strong in that period. The statistics office has begun to phase in a new measure - “Modified Gross National Income”, or “GNI*” - which strips out the effects of multinational firms re-domiciling, relocating or depreciating their capital assets. A quarterly published sub-index of the new series - modified final domestic demand, which removes some of those globalised activities - rose by 2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and by 5 percent on the year. Michael Connolly, a senior statistician at the CSO, pointed to that as a figure that gives a more accurate picture of actual activity in the economy. “Ireland continues to be a hyper-globalised economy but the core observation we can make is that the Irish consumer is in a sweet spot and they now have the confidence to spend,” said Fergal O‘Brien, chief economist at Irish business lobby IBEC. “Solid wage growth, no inflation and very strong employment growth has created really strong momentum in the economy while construction is recovering and there are no major flashing lights in relation to Brexit impacts in the trading position.” Editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-economy-gdp/irish-gdp-skewed-again-but-real-growth-very-strong-idUKKBN1E91VE'|'2017-12-15T16:39:00.000+02:00'
'86ba287a7916bbdae0aa3037c2d2080a5d0a4377'|'Peru central bank does not see major impacts from political crisis'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:08 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Peru central bank does not see major impacts from political crisis Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LIMA (Reuters) - Peru’s central bank president Julio Velarde said on Friday that he did not expect the country’s political crisis to affect economic growth or discourage investments as long as constitutional order was respected. FILE PHOTO - Julio Velarde, president of the Central Bank of Peru, talks to the media during a news conference in Lima, Peru, August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo Velarde added that the central bank was prepared to intervene in the foreign exchange market if necessary to curb volatility that he said should be temporary. President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski faced calls to resign or face impeachment from lawmakers in the opposition-ruled Congress on Friday. Reporting By Teresa Cespedes, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-peru-odebrecht-kuczynski-cenbank/peru-central-bank-does-not-see-major-impacts-from-political-crisis-idUKKBN1E92F8'|'2017-12-15T20:07:00.000+02:00'
'c4f7d057c6405f4940c8ee791a47226b1665cd1f'|'Hong Kong gearing up to allow controversial dual-class shares'|'December 15, 2017 / 9:34 AM / in 2 hours Hong Kong to push ahead with controversial dual-class shares Jennifer Hughes 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong is set to allow controversial dual-class shares under rule changes to be proposed by the city’s stock exchange as it raises the stakes in its battle against New York for blockbuster Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs). Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) ( 0388.HK ), the city’s exchange operator, said on Friday it had begun drafting specific rule changes that will be put up for a formal public consultation in the first three months of 2018. Dual-class shares, which typically give one set of shareholders greater voting rights than others, have been favored by many owners of new age industries such as technology, with the extra voting power given to top executives seen as protection against pressure for short-term returns. But they have also come in for criticism from corporate governance activists, who have warned of its potential abuse by company insiders. Hong Kong’s proposed changes, which stem from a discussion paper published in June, come as a series of hotly-anticipated Chinese tech groups are considering their options for listing next year. These include Xiaomi, which is hearing bank pitches on Friday for a role in an IPO expected to value the smartphone maker at least $50 billion. In spite of Hong Kong’s role as the world’s biggest equity capital-raising center for four of the last 10 years, it has fallen well behind New York, its arch-rival, in the battle for hot tech stocks and other growth sectors. Just 3 per cent of Hong Kong listings in the past decade, by market value, have been so-called “new economy” companies, compared with 47 per cent for the New York Stock Exchange, according to the June discussion paper produced by the HKEX. The exchange said on Friday that “a large majority” of the 360 responses it received to its June paper were supportive of permitting dual-class shares. “The market has made it clear they want the Exchange to take action to broaden Hong Kong’s capital markets access and enhance its competitiveness,” HKEX chief executive Charles Li said in a statement. “By the second half of next year we hope that we will see a significant number of innovative companies beginning to choose Hong Kong.” Other stock exchanges, including London and Singapore, are also weighing allowing dual-class shares. Reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hkex-regulation/hong-kong-gearing-up-to-allow-controversial-dual-class-shares-idUSKBN1E90UR'|'2017-12-15T11:20:00.000+02:00'
'54a6e4c5de63c7054eb3c9f3ccc9e03529909be4'|'PSA, Toyota lead European car sales gain, helped by extra selling day'|'Reuters TV United States December 14, 2017 / 7:13 AM / a few seconds ago PSA, Toyota lead European car sales gain, helped by extra selling day Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - European car sales rose 5.8 percent in November, helped by an extra selling day as PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ) and Toyota ( 7203.T ) posted the strongest gains among the region’s major automakers, industry data published on Thursday showed. A Toyota Motor Corp. worker inspects a Yaris on the production line of the company''s plant in Onnaing, near Valenciennes, France, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Registrations rose to 1.26 million cars last month in the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, Brussels-based industry body ACEA said, from 1.19 million a year earlier. Eleven-months sales were up 4 percent to 14.5 million autos. Sales by France’s PSA soared 83 percent from November 2016 to 200,211 cars as registrations of the newly acquired Opel-Vauxhall division were not included in year-earlier records, while Toyota was up 12 percent at 57,355 cars. French rival Renault ( RENA.PA ) grew 10 percent to 139,335 vehicles whereas Fiat Chrysler ( FCHA.MI ) slipped 1 percent to 74,568 cars, weighed down by declines of over 20 percent each at its Jeep and Alfa Romeo brands. Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), Europe’s biggest automotive group reported a 5 percent increase to 310,647 cars with premium nameplates Audi ( NSUG.DE ) and Porsche as well as mass-market brands Seat and Skoda all posting growth. Of Europe’s five biggest auto markets, Germany, France and Spain posted double-digit or close to double-digit advances, outweighing an 11 percent plunge in the No. 2 market Britain where weaker consumer confidence and uncertainty over the future of diesel have been hurting demand. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-vehicleregistrations/psa-toyota-lead-european-car-sales-gain-helped-by-extra-selling-day-idUKKBN1E80P0'|'2017-12-14T09:04:00.000+02:00'
'2e9a8592e23c0bf86fe11245492ce18d490ad4ac'|'Russia''s economic recovery driven by domestic demand - Putin'|'Reuters TV United States December 14, 2017 / 10:04 AM / a few seconds ago Russia''s economic recovery driven by domestic demand: Putin Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s economic recovery is increasingly driven by domestic demand, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Speaking at an annual press conference, Putin said the economy has overcome two major shocks: a drop in oil prices and Western sanctions. Economic growth is now supported by a recovery in industrial output and Russia’s thriving agriculture sector that is on track to produce a record harvest this year, Putin said. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-putin-economy/russias-economic-recovery-driven-by-domestic-demand-putin-idUKKBN1E814X'|'2017-12-14T11:52:00.000+02:00'
'db3d37f8affabb530630a3203f3b79e09f55aba5'|'UK retailers enjoy bumper Black Friday sales: ONS'|'December 14, 2017 / 9:40 AM / Updated 4 hours ago UK retailers enjoy bumper Black Friday sales David Milliken , William Schomberg 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shoppers pounced on electrical goods and other Black Friday bargains last month, giving an unexpectedly big boost to retail sales, which contrasted with earlier signs of a subdued start to Christmas spending. FILE PHOTO: Shoppers are reflected in a window as they carry bags along Oxford street during the final weekend of shopping before Christmas in London December 20, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo Consumers have been squeezed through most of this year by rising inflation which hit its highest in nearly six years last month, at a time when wages are failing to keep up. But there was some unexpected cheer for retailers in November data from the Office for National Statistics, which showed sales volumes were 1.6 percent higher than a year ago, beating all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. Spending in cash terms was 4.7 percent higher. The market reaction was muted and some economists said the surge in retail sales might reflect Christmas spending being brought forward to take advantage of Black Friday discounts. “The boost from Black Friday will be fleeting,” Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics said. The figures may provide some reassurance to the Bank of England, which raised interest rates for the first time in over a decade last month and will publish its latest rate decision at 1200 GMT. Kallum Pickering, an economist with Berenberg Bank, said the figures added to signs from factories that Britain’s economy was picking up a bit of speed in late 2017 and he expected that momentum to continue into 2018. “The risk from inflation to real spending growth has been exaggerated. Households will simply borrow a little more and save a little less to smooth out their consumption,” he said. On the month, overall retail sales were 1.1 percent higher, up from growth of 0.5 percent in October and much stronger than economists’ forecasts of a 0.4 percent rise. Household goods stores specifically reported that Black Friday promotions had boosted sales, the ONS said, with the amount of electrical household appliances sold jumping by nearly 9 percent compared with October. The data are seasonally adjusted, but the agency said this may not fully strip out the effect of Black Friday, as the promotion period - a relatively recent phenomenon borrowed from the United States - has increased in Britain in recent years. Looking at the past three months as a whole, which smoothes out monthly volatility, the picture is gloomier. Sales in the three months to November grew by just 1.0 percent compared with a year earlier, the weakest since May 2013. When the BoE raised interest rates on Nov. 2, it forecast real-terms household consumption growth would slow to 1 percent next year from 1.5 percent predicted for this year as demand shifted towards business investment and exports. Official data earlier this week showed that consumer price inflation rose to its highest in nearly six years at 3.1 percent in November, while the number of people in work fell for a second consecutive month. Food prices are rising at their fastest rate in four years, adding to the squeeze on household budgets. The ONS data showed the volume of food purchased was 0.1 percent lower than a year before, while spending on food was up by 3.5 percent. This week British electronics retailer Dixons Carphone ( DC.L ) said it had enjoyed record sales during November’s Black Friday promotion, despite weak demand for mobile phones that hit profits. But home furnishings company Carpetright ( CPRC.L ) cut forecasts after warning of fragile consumer confidence. The British Retail Consortium said last week its members had seen subdued sales last month and credit card company Visa reported the first year-on-year fall in inflation-adjusted spending in five years as Britons cut back on big purchases. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-retail/uk-retailers-enjoy-bumper-black-friday-sales-ons-idUSKBN1E8129'|'2017-12-14T11:42:00.000+02:00'
'c10b4820c9addc3c7a07983ad77037f59162edb5'|'China November investment growth slows, factory output and retail sales steady'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:18 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago China raises market rates to fend off financial risks, growth cools Kevin Yao , Winni Zhou 6 Min Read BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s central bank on Thursday nudged up money market rates as authorities sought to defuse financial risks without imperiling the economy, a balancing act that they have managed successfully so far this year as activity remained broadly steady. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, June 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo The world’s second-biggest economy has started to cool in recent months amid a government crackdown on high-risk lending and polluting factories, and the move by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) - coming hours after an anticipated U.S. Federal Reverse rate hike - signaled that Beijing will keep policy tighter next year. A flurry of data on the day highlighted the economic impact of government efforts to wean China off its years-long addiction to debt, with industrial output, investment and property market all backing evidence of a moderation in momentum. Analysts said the PBOC rate hikes, widely seen as a backdoor approach that avoids the need to raise benchmark policy rates, will not impede activity though they signaled a commitment by authorities to continue curbing leverage. “It’s more a symbolic move which helps stabilize market expectations after the Fed rate hike,” said Wen Bin, an economist at Minsheng Bank in Beijing. He noted that the gap between 10-year U.S. and Chinese bond yields has widened to 160 basis points so the 5 bps rise will not put any pressure on the yuan, which slumped in 2016 before recovering this year after authorities slapped a range of capital control measures. “They want to narrow the gap between operating interest rates and market interest rates for financial institutions, otherwise it could give financial institutions the wrong impression and lead to arbitrage and an increase in leverage.” The PBOC increased rates on reverse repurchase agreements, or reverse repos, used for open market operations by 5 basis points for the 7-day and 28-day tenors. It also increased rates on its one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) also by 5 basis points. A trader at an asset management firm in Shanghai said that the yield on 10-year Chinese government bonds CN10YT=RR fell 2-3 basis points after the PBOC’s announcement, as some had expected a bigger move. However, he expects the broader trend of higher yields will continue amid the ongoing campaign to reduce financial risk. It was the first rate increase by the Chinese central bank since March, but market interest rates have risen on their own in the interim as the government pursued a range of policies to lower debt in the economy. That has dragged on activity, a fact underscored by Thursday’s National Bureau of Statistics data releases which showed industrial output was up 6.1 percent in November year-on-year, versus forecasts for an increase of 6.0 percent, but below the 6.2 percent gain in October. China’s fixed-asset investment growth also slowed to 7.2 percent in the January-November period, from the 7.3 percent expansion in the January-October months. A CRH (China Railway High-speed) bullet train runs past Beijing''s central business area, China December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee Along with the rest of trade-dependent Asia, China’s economy gained a lift this year from an exports boom, while a government-led infrastructure spending spree and a resilient property market drove growth in the Asian giant to a surprisingly strong 6.9 percent in the nine months of the year. SLOWDOWN Growth has been cooling in recently, however, hurt by higher borrowing costs while tighter rules on polluting factories have crimped production. As northern China officially entered the heating season in mid-November, the government has also stepped up efforts to address winter smog, ordering many steel mills, smelters and factories to curtail or halt production. The curbs saw China’s daily crude steel output slide in November to the lowest in nine months “Economic operations are generally steady and economic growth is more resilient... so this provides a good time window for stepping up structural reforms, including pollution controls,” statistics bureau spokesman Mao Shengyong told reporters following a regular press conference on Thursday. The construction boom has driven up demand for everything from cement to steel and lifted prices of commodities. A red-hot property market has also been a major growth driver of China’s economy this year, but a slowdown is expected as more cities unveil measures to curb soaring home prices and banks raise mortgage rates in response to tighter policy. New construction starts measured by floor area accelerated 6.9 percent in January-November, though property investment slowed to 7.5 percent on-year in that period, from a 7.8 percent gain in the first 10 months of 2017. ON TARGET Thursday’s data also showed growth of private investment slowed a touch to 5.7 percent in January-November. Retail sales gained 10.2 percent in November on-year, just above the prior month, likely boosted by China’s annual 24-hour shopping binge on Nov. 11, known as Singles’ Day, when sales hit $38.25 billion - exceeding combined revenue for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States. Taken together, the data suggest economic growth is still expected to easily meet or beat the government’s full-year target of around 6.5 percent and signaled that China has sufficient headroom to keep policy tight over the next year. “The adjustment of China’s money market rate hike will continue to remind investors that financial de-leverage is a long haul project for China,” OCBC economist Tommy Xie wrote in a note. Reporting by Kevin Yao, Cheng Fang, Yawen Chen, Muyu Xu, Elias Glenn in BEIJING and Winni Zhou, John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI; Writing by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-activity/china-november-investment-growth-slows-industrial-output-beats-expectations-idUKKBN1E8077'|'2017-12-14T04:43:00.000+02:00'
'0025c39df2da32475c43d830795729edd2422f9a'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 14'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:01 AM / a minute ago PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 14 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 14 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - The United States federal investigators are pursuing at least one criminal investigation into Uber Technologies Inc, according to a court document released on Wednesday. The document, which was submitted by the United States attorney''s office in the northern district of California, does not specify what the agency is investigating. ( nyti.ms/2Cfv5rW ) - The United States Federal Reserve, buoyed by a steadily strengthening economy, raised interest rates on Wednesday for a fifth time since the financial crisis and predicted that a proposed tax cut moving through Congress would modestly increase economic growth for the next few years without stoking inflation. ( nyti.ms/2jU5Dk7 ) - Communications Workers of America, a major union, has won significant job protection and increased pay for about 20,000 AT&T Inc''s AT&T Mobility employees, as well as a commitment to bring work back from overseas. ( nyti.ms/2j1uxNV ) - Facebook Inc, confounding expectations, said on Wednesday that the company had found no evidence of a significant Russian effort to interfere in the British referendum last year on leaving the European Union. ( nyti.ms/2ksw2or ) - Alphabet Inc''s Google said on Wednesday it is opening a China-based center devoted to artificial intelligence. The move nods to the country''s growing strength in A.I., thanks to substantial government funding prompted by Beijing''s ambition of having a say in the technologies of the future. ( nyti.ms/2j1xi1J ) Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-14-idUSL4N1OE2MB'|'2017-12-14T14:01:00.000+02:00'
'd1f4abd5e4a411fd1ec4b0f1a5e13429a16d2948'|'Australia''s Crown Resorts signs several divestment deals to reduce debt'|' 21 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Australia''s Crown Resorts signs several divestment deals to reduce debt Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 14 (Reuters) - Australian casino operator Crown Resorts said on Thursday it has signed several divestment deals as part of its ongoing debt reduction strategy, including the sale of its interest in a Las Vegas site for $300 million to a unit of Wynn Resorts Ltd. The company said in a statement it expects gross proceeds of $264 million from the sale of the Las Vegas site. Crown has been retreating from a decade-long foray into the global gaming hub since 18 staff were arrested for gambling crimes in China last October amid a broader crackdown on corruption. (Reporting by Christina Martin in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/crown-resorts-divestiture/australias-crown-resorts-signs-several-divestment-deals-to-reduce-debt-idUSL4N1OE2M4'|'2017-12-14T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'fcc452b966dc7313f2fdd76b56ca74747449bb6a'|'EU, U.S., Japan agree to cooperate to end excess factory capacity'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, European Union and Japan said on Tuesday they agreed to cooperation in the World Trade Organization to deal with excess factory capacity and other market distorting trade practices.The statement did not name China but it reflected long-standing concerns among major industrial countries over Beijing’s trade practices, ranging from subsidies for state-owned enterprises to technology transfer requirements for foreign companies.“We, to address this critical concern, agreed to enhance trilateral cooperation in the WTO and in other forums, as appropriate, to eliminate these and other unfair market distorting and protectionist practices by third countries,” the statement said.Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trade-wto-statement/eu-u-s-japan-agree-to-cooperate-to-end-excess-factory-capacity-idINKBN1E62W4'|'2017-12-12T18:47:00.000+02:00'
'df11c37bf833f31c35352922058eb6aa6893fd5a'|'RPT-UPDATE 1-Banks eye Paris airports operator in Macron privatisation drive -sources'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:45 AM / in 11 minutes RPT-UPDATE 1-Banks eye Paris airports operator in Macron privatisation drive -sources Reuters Staff (Repeats Dec. 12 story with no change to text) * ADP seen among first of Macron’s privatisation targets * Banks including BAML, Lazard, BNP expected to be involved * Complexity of structure may mean delays By Dasha Afanasieva and Arno Schuetze LONDON/FRANKFURT, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Investment banks are vying to work with potential buyers or the French government on the sale of its majority stake in Aeroports de Paris (ADP) , sources close to the matter said, in one of the largest infrastructure deals expected to come to market in 2018. ADP, which runs Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports outside Paris, is likely to be an early target in President Emmanuel Macron’s privatisation drive. The company, 50.63 percent-owned by the French state, may be valued at about 25 billion euros ($29 billion) including debt in a potential deal. According to two sources, the state equity agency has picked Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to manage the privatisation. Another source familiar with the matter said BNP Paribas was working with ADP. ADP, Bank of America and BNP Paribas all declined to comment. State holding company APE said it frequently seeks outside advice about its portfolio. Several bankers said France’s Vinci, Europe’s biggest construction and concessions company, was seen as the frontrunner in any sale. Vinci already has an 8 percent stake in ADP and has publicly expressed an interest in investing more if the state decides to sell all or part of its stake. Vinci is expected to hire investment banking boutique Lazard to advise it, four sources familiar with the matter said. A fifth source denied that Vinci had yet awarded formal mandates. Vinci and Lazard declined to comment. Last year Vinci secured a stake in Lyon airport along with public sector lender Caisse des Depots (CDC) and it operates 35 airports worldwide. CDC, which is relatively independent from the French government, has also expressed an interest in ADP. Vinci’s position as a current shareholder is deterring some potential buyers, sources said, adding that a structure which would make the process most competitive had not been agreed. LENGTHY PROCESS Pension funds and insurers are among those preparing for ADP bids as they shift part of their assets towards infrastructure investments, which are regarded as relatively safe but which also promise higher returns than government bonds. The ADP sale could take a long time to be completed, given the complexity of its structure, and it is likely to serve as a test case for broader French privatisation policy. A wave of consolidation among European airlines is creating pressure for the region’s airports because it gives carriers more negotiating power over their hubs. Several sources said the stake in ADP, which has a market cap of 16 billion euros ($18.84 billion), could be too big to be sold in one go as a competitive process. One banking source said the government’s stake should be broken up into chunks to be sold off separately, while another said the company should be split into an operating and real estate arm. Given the size of the asset, bidders are likely to form consortia. One source said he expected the sale to launch formally only in the second half of 2018 as there was too much to be sorted out before a structured process could begin. “All large U.S., Canadian and Middle East funds will look,” he said. “It remains unclear whether France would welcome a buyer from China or the Gulf. Everybody is spending time on the subject, but hardly anyone has actually chosen an adviser already.” ADP could be valued at around 20-25 times its expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), in line with valuations seen in other recent airport sales. ADP’s EBITDA was 1.2 billion euros in 2016. ADP shares traded down half a percent at 161.9 euros on Tuesday. Vinci shares were up 0.37 percent at 86.77 euros. ($1 = 0.8493 euros) (Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Mathieu Protard in Paris, Clara Denina, and Julien Ponthus in London; Editing by Gareth Jones)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/adp-privatisation-vinci/rpt-update-1-banks-eye-paris-airports-operator-in-macron-privatisation-drive-sources-idUSL8N1OD1B6'|'2017-12-13T09:44:00.000+02:00'
'feaea3a1f27fb06cd7bd82e72a203e272efa406f'|'Bonds erase losses on suspected RBI intervention, debt buyback'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian bonds erased losses and traded marginally higher on Tuesday as traders said the central bank likely intervened by buying bonds in the secondary market, while sentiment was also helped after the government announced a planned debt buyback.FILE PHOTO: An India Rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Data on how much the Reserve Bank of India bought in secondary markets was not immediately available. Such data is available daily after the close of markets as well as weekly.The Reserve Bank of India also announced the government will buy back 200 billion rupees ($3.10 billion) of bonds on Dec. 18.The benchmark 10-year bond yield was down 2 basis points at 7.17 percent from its close on Tuesday, having earlier risen to as high as 7.26 percent after stronger-than-expected inflation data spooked investors.($1 = 64.4400 Indian rupees)Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Rafael Nam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-bonds/bonds-erase-losses-on-suspected-rbi-intervention-debt-buyback-idINKBN1E71CR'|'2017-12-13T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'17a0218af8640b2a4cfa6f9470c03e71fcd0cfd1'|'Delta may place order for 100 Airbus A321neo jets: sources'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:10 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Delta may place order for 100 Airbus A321neo jets: sources Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ) looked close on Wednesday to placing an order for 100 Airbus ( AIR.PA ) A321neo jets in a boost for the European planemaker as it tries to narrow a 2017 order gap against Boeing ( BA.N ), two people familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO - Passengers check in at a counter of Delta Air Lines in Mexico City, Mexico, August 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ginnette Riquelme/File Photo The preliminary selection, first reported by CNN, follows a fierce competition and is subject to approval at a board meeting later on Wednesday, which could still alter or delay the decision, the people said. Such a deal would be worth $12.7 billion at list prices, but would typically involve steep discounts. Delta and both planemakers declined comment. The A321neo has a significant lead in market share over equivalent Boeing narrowbody models, but faces potential competition from a new mid-market jet being studied by Boeing and for which the U.S. firm may start seeking offers next year. But the endorsement from the second largest U.S. airline by passenger traffic, known as one of the industry’s pickiest buyers, brings respite to Airbus after a year marked by a slowdown in sales and internal management tensions. It is also a boost for United Technologies subsidiary Pratt & Whitney ( UTX.N ), which is likely to win an engine contract to power the A321neo aircraft, industry sources said. Airbus has been in discussions with Pratt & Whitney to ensure that enough engines are available to support the pledge to supply 100 jets to Delta as the U.S. engine maker works through recent industrial problems, they added. Pratt & Whitney, which competes with French-American venture CFM International to power the A320 family, declined to comment. Delta’s decision to side with Airbus jets over the Boeing model puts pressure on an already tense relationship between the two U.S.-based companies. Their relationship began to strain in October when Boeing successfully lobbied the U.S. Commerce Department to propose trade duties of nearly 300 percent on Delta’s order of CSeries jets from rival planemaker Canada-based Bombardier Inc. Boeing had alleged that Bombardier received illegal subsidies from the Canadian government, allowing the planemaker to dump the 75 jets at “absurdly low” prices. Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris and Alana Wise in New York; Editing by Leigh Thomas, David Evans and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-delta-air-aircraft/delta-may-place-order-for-100-airbus-a321neo-jets-sources-idUSKBN1E72QE'|'2017-12-13T21:09:00.000+02:00'
'b6160fb7a7a628a35391e49c193204a868b5a70e'|'Target to buy grocery app Shipt, vows same-day delivery by end-2019'|'CHICAGO (Reuters) - Target Corp ( TGT.N ) will buy grocery delivery platform Shipt Inc for $550 million in cash, it said on Wednesday, promising same-day delivery of all goods by the end of 2019 to lure customers that have turned to online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ).The Minneapolis-based big-box retailer said it would roll out same-day delivery for groceries, essentials, home products, electronics and other items at about half its stores by early 2018.Shipt’s services, which cost $99 a year for unlimited deliveries made by more than 20,000 personal shoppers, will be at most Target stores before the 2018 holiday shopping season, the retailer said.Target, like other traditional retailers, has invested heavily this year in its digital business and delivery options. Amazon.com’s purchase of Whole Foods has rattled the grocery industry on worries the e-commerce giant will disrupt the business in the same way it did with books and electronics.“That Target will have this service in place during 2018 will significantly improve its online competitive position as the service is integrated and rolled out to customers,” said Moody’s analyst Charlie O‘Shea. “This is yet another example of a brick-and-mortar retailer leveraging its physical assets to improve its online offerings.”Target, which has been trying to overhaul its grocery business, said the Shipt acquisition would also strengthen its supply chain.Shares in Target were up 1.4 percent in morning trading on Wednesday.“We will move from days to hours, dramatically accelerating our ability to bring affordable same-day delivery to guests across the country,” Target Chief Operating Officer John Mulligan said. He expects the deal to be immaterial to Target’s near-term results and modestly accretive to earnings per share in 2018.Mulligan said Birmingham, Alabama-based Shipt would continue to work with other retailers and provide its services to customers who are not shopping at Target.Shipt’s founder and Chief Executive Bill Smith said on a call that Target would not have access to data of customers using Shipt to shop at other retailers on the platform, which include Kroger Co ( KR.N ) and Costco Wholesale Corp ( COST.O ).Target said in August it would buy San Francisco-based transportation software firm Grand Junction to speed up delivery and work on Target’s same-day delivery pilot in Tribeca, New York.Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-shiptinc-m-a-target/target-to-buy-shipt-promises-same-day-delivery-by-end-2019-idINKBN1E7274'|'2017-12-13T13:04:00.000+02:00'
'd32acde46768b0947fbdbf55922185edf50f282a'|'Brent crude prices near 2015 high after North Sea pipeline disruption'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose above $65 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015 on Tuesday after a shutdown of the UK’s biggest North Sea oil pipeline, which helps set the benchmark for global prices.A maze of crude oil pipes and valves is pictured during a tour by the Department of Energy at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas, U.S. June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Richard Carson The Forties pipeline, which was scheduled to pump 406,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December, was shut down on Monday after cracks were found in what traders believe is the first unplanned outage for some years.Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up by 92 cents at $65.61 at 1132 GMT, after breaking above $65 for the first time since June 2015 and trading as high as $65.70. U.S. crude rose 31 cents to $58.30.“With no timeframe yet available as to when supplies through the Forties pipeline will resume, bulls are in control,” said Ole Hansen of Saxo Bank.Forties is important for the global oil market because the crude it carries normally sets the price of dated Brent, a benchmark used to price physical crude around the world and which underpins Brent futures.“The disruption to Forties is not just about missing barrels, it is also about losing a key component for the main seaborne crude oil benchmark,” said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix.Analysts and traders said the outage was likely to cause significant delays in the loading of Forties crude cargoes.“There are going to be loads,” a trade source said, adding that the number was hard to estimate until the pipeline’s restart date is known.Oil also gained support from expectations the latest reports on U.S. inventories will show a further tightening of supplies.U.S. crude stocks are expected to fall by 3.8 million barrels, a fourth straight week of decline, according to analysts polled ahead of reports from industry group American Petroleum Institute and the government’s Energy Information Administration.The API is scheduled to release its data for last week at 2130 GMT on Tuesday. The EIA follows on Wednesday.Oil supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries this year have helped to whittle away an excess of inventories which built up following a supply glut that began to emerge in late 2014.But U.S. crude has lagged the rally in Brent in part because of rising U.S. oil production.As a result, Brent has jumped to a premium to U.S. crude of more than $7, the highest in more than two years.Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-oil/brent-crude-prices-near-2015-high-after-north-sea-pipeline-disruption-idINKBN1E603F'|'2017-12-12T03:10:00.000+02:00'
'1f3dd6ade46aa2eb77cdd36d80ac52ec257fb22d'|'Canada scraps plan to buy Boeings, warns firm on future orders'|'December 12, 2017 / 6:19 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Canada scraps plan to buy Boeings, warns firm on future orders Reuters Staff 2 Min Read OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada said on Tuesday it was scrapping the planned purchase of 18 Boeing Co ( BA.N ) Super Hornet jets and made clear the U.S. company currently has little chance of winning a larger contract for 88 fighters. FILE PHOTO - Boeing''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The announcement marks a new low in relations between the Liberal government and Boeing, which are locked in an increasingly acrimonious trade dispute. Canada will instead buy a second-hand fleet of 18 Australian F-18s, the same planes the Canadian air force already operates, officials told reporters. The Australian jets - set to cost around C$500 million (£291.6 million) - will act as a stopgap measure until Canada has run a competition for 88 fighters and the new jets start entering service in 2025. In a clear reference to Boeing, an official said “any bidder responsible for harm to Canada’s economic interests will be at a significant disadvantage” if the harm was still being inflicted the time bids for the 88 jets are being assessed. Reuters reported last week that the Liberal government would abandon plans to buy the 18 Boeing jets after the U.S. aerospace giant launched a trade challenge against Canadian plane maker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ), accusing it of dumping airliners on the American market. Reporting by David Ljunggren and Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-canada-boeing-fighterjets/canada-scraps-plan-to-buy-boeings-warns-firm-on-future-orders-idUKKBN1E62JW'|'2017-12-12T20:22:00.000+02:00'
'39652f43a84c7b9646e23cf98085400a946a65f7'|'BHP hires four banks for U.S. shale exit ahead of early 2018 deadline - sources'|'December 12, 2017 / 12:33 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago BHP hires four banks for U.S. shale exit ahead of early 2018 deadline - sources Clara Denina , David French 4 Min Read LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - BHP, the world’s largest miner, has asked four investment banks to help it prepare for either a sale or spin-off of its underperforming U.S. shale oil and gas unit, with a view to taking a decision in early 2018, sources said. BHP said in August it aimed to sell its unconventional onshore shale assets in the Eagle Ford, Permian, Haynesville and Fayetteville basins, which it acquired at the height of the oil boom and could be valued at more than $10 billion (£7.4 billion). It has hired Barclays and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to assess options for the sale of assets, including whether they would be sold together or separately, as they may appeal to different potential buyers, the sources said. It has also asked Citi and Goldman Sachs to research the potential spin-off of the unit into a new company, the sources added. BHP, Citi, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch declined to comment. Barclays and Goldman Sachs did not reply to a request for comment. Although global oil prices have steadied after sinking to multi-year lows of $27 a barrel in 2016, they remain some 40 percent lower than the $112 highs hit in 2014. The company is now pursuing two potential exits: a sale of the assets or separation into a standalone company, which is usually a tax-free solution for the parent company. BHP will keep its conventional assets in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Australia and Trinidad and Tobago. BAD BETS The miner’s entire petroleum division, valued at more than $20 billion, was its second-biggest earner behind iron ore until 2014. But bad bets on U.S. shale and collapsing oil and gas prices turned it into a big drag from 2015. As a result, U.S. activist investor Elliott Advisors, which has built up a 5 percent stake in BHP’s London-listed arm, urged the sale of the whole U.S. petroleum business to help boost shareholder value. Hurt by the oil pain plus the woes from a dam disaster in Brazil in late 2015 at a mine it half owns, the miner’s share performance this year so far was the weakest compared to major peers Rio Tinto, Glencore and Anglo American. BHP is the biggest by market capitalization of them all. “Splitting the business into a standalone company would give shares back to shareholders,” one of the sources said. However, they all pointed out that this could be a problem because BHP’s shareholders are mostly mining investors who wouldn’t want to be holding oil shares. The company could consider selling some or all of the shares of the newly formed company to the market via a public listing, with the proceeds of such an offering going to BHP shareholders. This would be the second demerger in three years for the company, which spun off its aluminium, manganese, nickel, silver and coal assets into South32 in 2015. The mining company will run the sale of its gas-rich Fayetteville field in Arkansas, for which it hired Barclays back in May, separately, one of the sources said. Bankers expect companies like Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Statoil and Exxon Mobil to be interested in the Permian assets, viewed as the highest quality, while Eagle Ford may be less attractive as a single asset and may need to be sold in parts. Its Hayensville assets will likely attract interest from private equity buyers, sources added. Additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in London; graphic by Helen Reid; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bhp-divestiture-shale/bhp-hires-four-banks-for-u-s-shale-exit-ahead-of-early-2018-deadline-sources-idUKKBN1E61HC'|'2017-12-12T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'53c24eaa37782ca47fe12c8ad6f603c265717969'|'Bears and bulls lock horns over China''s blue chips'|'Reuters TV United States December 12, 2017 / 6:30 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Bears and bulls lock horns over China''s blue chips Samuel Shen , John Ruwitch 5 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Kweichow Moutai, the Chinese drinkmaker made famous when Richard Nixon drank its fiery sorghum liquor on his historic state visit to Beijing in 1972, has been the toast of the mainland’s blue chip stock rally, surging 93 percent this year. Investors look at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo The stock’s eye-popping rise prompted an editorial last month by Xinhua news agency, a government mouthpiece, that singled out Moutai as an example of a major stock vulnerable to value-destructive speculation. While even the drinkmaker agreed its rally was too hot, the pointed warnings had limited market impact, knocking barely 10 percent off the stock’s gains for the year, with the rally resuming as investors scooped up what they saw as a bargain. And despite words of caution about a stock bubble from official channels and some market participants, other institutional investors argue a wider blue chip rally could last well into next year as China’s investor base widens. “Moutai’s current valuation is not a deviation from fundamentals,” said Jacqueline Zhang, Emerging Markets Equity analyst at U.S.-based investment manager OppenheimerFunds, whose China fund remains one of Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd’s ( 600519.SS ) top 10 shareholders. “No doubt, Moutai is the most profitable liquor company in the world. The uniqueness of its assets merits the premium.” Although OppenheimerFunds slashed nearly one-fifth of its holdings in the firm last quarter as its stock price hit levels double that at the beginning of the year, it maintains that Moutai is not overpriced. More broadly, the blue-chip index .CSI300 is up about 22 percent this year, though it''s been a bumpy ride higher. The SSE50 .SSE50 , which investors have dubbed China''s Nifty 50 index, has far outperformed the broader stock market .SSEC this year, but posted its worst weekly loss in almost 12 months in the last week of November. Index heavyweights including Moutai, insurance giant Ping An ( 601318.SS ) and automaker SAIC Motor saw heavy selling. Several large investment firms concur that while prices of some large Chinese firms are in bubble-like territory, fresh investment flows from foreign funds looking to partake in China’s rapid growth will push share prices even higher. Shi Bin, the head of China equities at UBS Asset Management in Hong Kong, said this year’s sharp rise in blue chips reflects a normalization of previously depressed valuations. He expects China’s inclusion next year into global index provider MSCI’s benchmarks will channel more money into China’s large-cap stocks, pushing prices higher. Dutch firm NN Investment Partners has stayed put through the volatility, having picked Chinese businesses it believes have strong underlying fundamentals. “Some investors are taking profits, especially where the valuations are quite full,” said Ashish Goyal, NNIP’s head of emerging markets equity. “But many of these companies are still great businesses and will continue to do well operationally.” Shane Oliver, the Sydney-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital, which invests in Chinese securities and operates a mutual fund venture with China Life, believes a cash rotation out of blue-chips and into the broader market is due, given the higher return on equity for Chinese small- to mid-cap firms. TROUBLE BREWING Moutai’s stock had surged as much as 115 percent until Nov. 16, when the company itself warned investors the price rise had been too rapid. The selloff that ensued wiped out 110 billion yuan of market value from Moutai’s peak. Even after the recent correction, Moutai trades at more than 30-times earnings compared with just around 13 times two years ago. It commands a market capitalization exceeding 800 billion yuan ($120.98 billion), dwarfing oil giant Sinopec ( 600028.SS ), and top insurer China Life ( 601628.SS ). Gu Weiyong, the chief investment officer at Shanghai-based money manager Ucom Investment, said a rise in borrowing costs following Beijing’s crackdown on shadow banking is likely to make sectors valued at 30-50-times earnings seem too expensive. Like OppenheimerFunds, state-backed China Securities Finance Corp and Singapore’s state investment firm GIC have pared their Moutai holdings, exchange filings show, while others, such as UBS, have no plans yet to reduce their stakes, citing longer-term gains. For the bears, however, a continuation of the exuberance into next year will only lead to more pain. “The blue-chip bubble may be inflated bigger in 2018, before bursting,” said Sun Zheng, strategist at China Development Bank Securities. Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-markets-bluechips/bears-and-bulls-lock-horns-over-chinas-blue-chips-idUKKBN1E60GU'|'2017-12-12T08:14:00.000+02:00'
'5e0b83674b7d2246d0e3f7e609878016806d01ee'|'UPDATE 1-Abu Dhabi''s Mubadala partners Softbank for 15 to 16 technology investments'|'(adds more Quote: s on investment, background)ABU DHABI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala has made 15 to 16 investments in technology firms as part of a partnership with SoftBank Group of Japan, deputy group chief executive Waleed al-Muhairi told a conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.Mubadala has committed $15 billion to SoftBank’s $93 billion private equity fund, the SoftBank Vision Fund, which has also raised money from Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund and other investors.“We have done 15 to 16 different investments today, mostly centred in Silicon Valley,” Muhairi said, adding that areas of investment included artificial intelligence and biotechnology.“Those businesses will be incredibly disruptive,” he said.In October, Mubadala said it had launched a venture capital arm that would oversee an early growth fund set up with SoftBank and a fund of funds focusing on emerging fund managers.Muhairi said the 15 to 16 technology investments were made as part of Mubadala’s partnership with SoftBank, and that the Vision Fund was involved in some of them.Mubadala is looking at new sectors for investment, such as transportation and roads globally, he said, adding that the state fund could also exit some investments by next year. He did not disclose names.Mubadala, which managed 465.5 billion dirhams ($127 billion) at the end of June, has indicated before that it could list its unit Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), one of the world’s biggest aluminium producers, next year. (Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Andrew Torchia) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mubadala-softbank-group-tech/update-1-abu-dhabis-mubadala-partners-softbank-for-15-to-16-technology-investments-idINL8N1OB0V0'|'2017-12-11T05:05:00.000+02:00'
'e8bd9e0aaf37eda784db9e7f1b8b33b4d24d15d7'|'Exclusive: Canada''s CIBC plans U.S. listing of $2 billion Caribbean unit - sources'|'TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ( CM.TO ) plans to list its $2 billion Caribbean unit in New York, enabling it to exit a region in which it has been hampered by reputational risks and difficulties growing profits, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters this week.A Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) sign is seen outside of a branch in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie Canada’s fifth-biggest lender, which will provide an update to investors on the bank’s growth strategy on Wednesday, no longer views the business as a core asset, the people said, declining to be named as the information is not public.“FirstCaribbean is considering a potential stock market listing in the U.S., the world’s deepest capital market,” CIBC spokeswoman Caroline Van Hasselt confirmed, adding that no decisions have been made.CIBC, which has been doing business in the Caribbean since the 1920s, could start by listing 20 percent of the business early next year and sell down further stake subsequently, two of the people said.The bank has faced risks to its reputation by operating in the region following a bribery scandal involving FIFA, the world soccer governing body.FirstCaribbean was caught up in the affair after an indictment announced by U.S. prosecutors in 2015 said an illegal payment was facilitated by a representative of the bank. FirstCaribbean said at the time it would take steps to ensure the bank is never used for illicit purposes.Barbados-based CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank has around 3,000 staff, over $12 billion in assets and a market value of $2 billion, according to the bank’s 2017 annual report.CIBC FirstCaribbean said that it made net income of $142 million in the year to Oct. 31, 2017, compared with $143 million the year before.Reporting by John Tilak, Matt Scuffham in Toronto, and David French in New York; Editing by Denny Thomas and Clive McKeef '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cibc-divestiture-exlusive/exclusive-canadas-cibc-plans-u-s-listing-of-2-billion-caribbean-unit-sources-idUSKBN1E62OS'|'2017-12-13T03:33:00.000+02:00'
'bc0a18503574e2ccdbdbf8cfe05639899c3f610d'|'Brent crude jumps above $65 for first time since 2015 after North Sea pipeline outage'|'December 12, 2017 / 1:15 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Brent crude jumps above $65 for 1st time since 2015 after North Sea pipeline outage Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude oil prices jumped above $65 per barrel for the first time since 2015 after the shutdown of the Forties North Sea pipeline knocked out significant supply from a market that was already tightening due to OPEC-led production cuts. FILE PHOTO - A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, U.S. April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $65.29 a barrel at 0253 GMT, up 60 cents, or 0.9 percent, from their last close. That marks the first time Brent has risen above $65 since June, 2015. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $58.30 a barrel, up 31 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their last settlement. “Brent crude raced higher ... as news broke that the North Sea’s Forties Pipeline system would have to be shut down for a ‘number of weeks’ after a hairline crack was found in it,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore. “The pipeline ... is a significant component underpinning the Brent benchmark.” Britain’s Forties oil pipeline, the country’s largest at a capacity of 450,000 barrels per day (bpd), shut down on Monday after cracks were revealed. “The market reaction shows that in a tight market, any supply issue will quickly be reflected in higher prices,” said ANZ bank. GOING WIDE The jump in Brent prices widened its premium to WTI prices to almost $7 a barrel, up from around $5 last week, making U.S. oil exports more attractive. CL-LCO1=R The cheaper WTI is also a result of rising U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has jumped by more than 15 percent since mid-2016 to 9.71 million bpd, levels not seen since the early 1970s. U.S. production is now also not far off that of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. The rising U.S. output threatens to undermine efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of non-OPEC producers, most importantly Russia, to support prices by withholding supplies. OPEC and its allies started withholding supplies last January and currently plan to continue doing so throughout 2018. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/brent-crude-prices-near-2015-high-after-north-sea-pipeline-disruption-idUKKBN1E603J'|'2017-12-12T05:03:00.000+02:00'
'c774326492bb04d77aa9b977d6e49080ac9ac184'|'German pilots union calls for strikes at Ryanair in Germany'|'December 12, 2017 / 10:50 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago German pilots union steps up pressure on Ryanair with strike call Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit said strike action at Ryanair was possible in Germany, as of now, as staff join pilots in other countries in pushing for better conditions at the Irish budget carrier. Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Pilots at Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers have mobilised in the wake of the announcement of 20,000 flight cancellations by the Irish carrier, which it blamed on a lack of standby pilots due to a failure in its rostering following a rule change by Irish regulators. They want to push for better conditions at the carrier, with VC saying it would not rest until Ryanair agreed to a collective labour agreement. “We want to agree contracts with Ryanair. We see no other way,” Vereinigung Cockpit president Ilja Schulz told reporters in Frankfurt. Ryanair rejects union representation, saying it prefers to negotiate with staff directly. Ryanair said it had received no notification of strike action by its German pilots. “If any such action takes place, Ryanair will deal with it head on, but we will not deal with or recognise the Lufthansa pilots union VC, regardless of what action – if any – takes place,” it said in a statement. The German union joins those in Italy and Portugal, which have also announced plans to strike. Some Ryanair pilots in Dublin on Monday voted in favour of industrial action. Several analysts have expressed scepticism as to whether the Ryanair employment model is under threat. “We are not saying that this is not a difficult period for Ryanair and that there are not deep divisions between pilots and management that are yet to be bridged, however, what we are saying is that the headlines are worse than the reality on the ground,” Goodbody analysts wrote in a note earlier, ahead of the German union announcement. VC’s Schulz declined to say when and where the strikes in Germany would take place, but that the union would give notice and that no walkouts would take place from the afternoon of Dec 23 and until the end of Dec 26. During a long-running dispute with Lufthansa over pay and conditions, the union typically gave 24 hours’ notice of strike action. Reporting by Victoria Bryan, editing by Emma Thomasson and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots-germany/german-pilots-union-calls-for-strikes-at-ryanair-in-germany-idUKKBN1E614N'|'2017-12-12T12:49:00.000+02:00'
'e37fbc910c5f3551fbc20d4e0d3653826c218855'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Chile stocks see highest rise in two years on copper prices'|'By Felipe Iturrieta and Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Chilean stocks rose more than 2 percent on Monday, their highest daily rise in almost two years, driven by foreign buyers in large stocks and higher prices for copper, the country''s main export. The IPSA index rose 2.69 percent to 5,018.67 points, its best performance since January 2016. The copper reference price on the London Metals Exchange rose 1.5 percent, its largest daily rise in almost two months. Shares in industrial giant Empresas Copec rose 6.25 percent. Traders said that the rise was also partly a lag from a national holiday on Friday, a day which was positive for markets around the world. Brazilian stocks closed nearly flat ahead of a crucial week for the government''s plans to streamline the social security system and curb public debt. Investors widely see the unpopular bill as crucial to regaining an investment grade rating, meeting budget laws and avoiding a fiscal crisis. But lawmakers have shown strong resistance to the constitutional amendment, raising the threat that a lower house vote is delayed to early 2018. Trading in most Latin American markets was muted as investors avoided making big bets ahead of central bank meetings across the region. Central banks in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru will meet throughout the week to set benchmark interest rates. Also helping to foster caution, the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release its monetary policy statement on Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates, and is seen possibly tightening two or three times in 2018. But still-sluggish inflation and wage growth has clouded next year''s policy outlook. Key Latin American stock indexes at 2300 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change Latest change MSCI Emerging 1119.97 0.83 29.89 Markets MSCI LatAm 2720.30 0.67 16.22 Brazil Bovespa 72800.04 0.09 20.88 Mexico IPC 47699.04 0.27 4.50 Chile IPSA 5018.67 2.69 20.89 Chile IGPA 25211.15 2.42 21.59 Argentina MerVal 27307.06 1.73 61.41 Colombia IGBC 11068.78 1.81 9.29 Venezuela IBC 1292.52 -3.19 -95.92 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Andrew Hay and Diane Craft) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-chile-stocks-see-highest-rise-in-two-years-on-copper-prices-idINL1N1OB20B'|'2017-12-11T20:36:00.000+02:00'
'c68afd7d74320f56483bf7cd041c950ee877e33e'|'Thai Beverage emerges as only bidder for large stake in Vietnam''s Sabeco'|' 02 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Thai Beverage emerges as only bidder for large stake in Vietnam''s Sabeco Mai Nguyen , Anshuman Daga 3 Min Read HANOI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Thai Beverage, through a Vietnam unit, has emerged as the only bidder which has registered to own at least 25 percent of the nation’s top brewer, Sabeco, in which the government is selling a $5-billion (3.8 billion pounds) stake. FILE PHOTO: A man rides his motorcycle past a beer factory belonging to Thai Beverage in Ayutthaya province, Thailand September 11, 2012. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang/File Photo Last month, Vietnam announced its biggest-ever and long-delayed state sale of Sabeco, or Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp and said it was open to selling a stake of nearly 54 percent, but retained a cap of 49 percent on foreign ownership. Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported on Sunday that brewing groups including Thai Beverage, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kirin Holdings, Asahi Group Holdings and San Miguel were interested in the auction. The people had said that Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, was shaping up as a strong contender, as it was familiar with the Vietnam system and saw Sabeco as key to expanding outside its home market. “Thai Bev had been planning to buy into Sabeco long before the formal sales process kicked off. They seem to have ticked all the right boxes,” a source, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media, said on Tuesday. On its website, Vietnam’s trade ministry said Vietnam Beverage Company Ltd, a unit of Thai Bev, was the only investor to register an interest to own 25 percent or more of Sabeco as of 1100 GMT on Monday. It did not give any details. Sabeco’s shares jumped by the daily limit of 7 percent in early trade to stand at 313,000 dong ($13.8). The shares have nearly trebled since listing a year ago, with analysts citing a small float as inflating its market value. FILE PHOTO: Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 217. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo The Sabeco auction is on Dec. 18, and bidders keen to own a stake of 25 percent or more of Sabeco’s shares need to inform local authorities a week ahead. Sabeco’s foreign ownership cap limits overseas bidders to a minority stake of up to 39 percent, as foreign entities already own 10 percent. Vietnam Beverage Company Ltd is owned by Vietnam F&B Alliance Investment Company, which is in turn 49-percent owned by BeerCo Ltd, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Thai Beverage, official documents on the companies showed. Thai Beverage had no immediate comment and shares in the Singapore-listed company were halted for trading pending an announcement. Lack of control, the unorthodox manner of the sale of the Sabeco stake and sky-high valuations could put off some possible bidders, bankers, investors and lawyers said. It was not immediately clear if other potential bidders for Sabeco had decided to bid for stakes of less than 25 percent or if they would sit out the auction. Vietnam’s trade ministry, which represents state shares in Sabeco, has said foreign investors can link up with Vietnamese firms to buy shares in Sabeco, but have to comply with local laws and regulations. Reporting by Mai Nguyen in HANOI and Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE; Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-vietnam-privatisation-sabeco/thai-beverage-emerges-as-only-bidder-for-large-stake-in-vietnams-sabeco-idUKKBN1E60JP'|'2017-12-12T09:01:00.000+02:00'
'83bf45270c7fa7eb90cc5c7ed11e89fcb2da6593'|'Storebrand starts $1.3 billion fossil-free bond fund'|' 03 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Storebrand starts $1.3 billion fossil-free bond fund Reuters Staff 2 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Storebrand, Norway’s biggest private pension fund, launched a $1.3 billion (975 million pounds) fossil-fuel-free bond programme on Tuesday and urged investors to do more to curb climate change. The bond fund adds to $2.1 billion equity funds run by Storebrand which also have no investments in fossil fuels. In total, Storebrand has a total $80 billion worth of assets under management. “We’re building a track record in managing these low-carbon solutions,” Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO of Storebrand Asset Management, told Reuters, saying they were also reducing Storebrand’s overall exposure to oil and gas. “We aim to inspire others to follow suit”, he said. The new fund, Storebrand Global Kreditt IG, will be invested mainly in corporate bonds issued by financial institutions and industrial companies in developed nations, it said. French President Emmanuel Macron will host a summit in Paris on Tuesday seeking to bolster action on climate change two years to the day since almost 195 nations adopted a landmark accord in the French capital to limit global warming. Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-norway-storebrand/storebrand-starts-1-3-billion-fossil-free-bond-fund-idUKKBN1E60JZ'|'2017-12-12T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'e5fa27890cd3f96b2ad2ef35bae2c532db815bad'|'UPDATE 1-Forced labor uncovered at New York waterfront wedding hall, authorities say'|'(Adds details, background)By Ellen WulfhorstNEW YORK, Dec 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - U.S. authorities have accused two men in New York of recruiting immigrants from the Philippines to work for little or no pay at an historic catering hall in a case of human trafficking happening “in plain sight”.The pair lured workers with promises of good jobs and paid money into their bank accounts but took it back and threatened to report them if they complained, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said in a statement.Many of the workers were living with expired visas in the basement of the hall’s owner, who has since filed for bankruptcy and closed the troubled business, ICE said.“This case is an example of ruthless labor trafficking hiding in plain sight,” said Angel Melendez, ICE special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York, in a statement.“These individuals allegedly committed visa fraud while forcing people to work in their catering hall under horrible conditions, in what seemed to be an inescapable situation.”Nearly 25 million people around the world are trapped in forced labor, according to an estimate by the International Labour Organization and human rights group Walk Free Foundation.The two men, Ralph Colamussi of New York and Roberto Villanueva of the Philippines, are accused of forcing immigrants to work at the Thatched Cottage in Centerport, New York, about 40 miles (65 km) east of New York City.The two men recruited more than two dozen workers in the Philippines between 2008 and 2013, promising positions as waiters, cooks and other jobs, and made them pay upfront fees, which are illegal, ICE said.When they arrived in the United States, the workers found themselves in lesser jobs getting low or no wages, the indictment said.They were threatened with deportation or violence to themselves or their families back home if they told anyone, it said.Colamussi, who owned the Thatched Cottage, asked one worker to help him flood and burn it down, according to the indictment.When the worker refused and fled, Colamussi threatened to find him and kill him, it said.Colamussi filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and closed the picturesque waterfront venue, which dated back to 1915.He doused himself with gasoline in what officials said was a suicide attempt in 2014 the day before the bankrupt property was to be sold at auction, according to local media. He planned to set himself and his van on fire but was overcome by fumes and lost consciousness, officials told the Newsday newspaper.Colamussi and Villanueva face federal charges of conspiring to engage in forced labor of immigrants, visa fraud and other counts.Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith and Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women''s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-forcedlabor-new-york/update-1-forced-labor-uncovered-at-new-york-waterfront-wedding-hall-authorities-say-idINL8N1OC55H'|'2017-12-12T13:52:00.000+02:00'
'dcf1b53dc7baf20bc18057c3d84dd9b7ad00a3b6'|'European shares inch up near four-week highs helped by banks'|'December 11, 2017 / 8:22 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago European shares edge up near four-week highs, helped by banks Danilo Masoni 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - European shares rose slightly to near 4-week highs on Monday following gains in Asian markets overnight and helped by strength among financial stocks. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 index inched up 0.1 percent by 0837 GMT with banks leading sectoral gainers on relief after last week’s deal on new global banking rules and ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday. The STOXX 600 has recovered part of the losses suffered in November but remains more than 2 percent below the two-year highs hit at the start of last month. Traders said markets will likely remain quiet before the much awaited Fed meeting, which is widely expected to raise rates, a measure that could support banking stocks. “There is not much major data scheduled to be released today, which makes range-trading the most likely scenario... Also with the FOMC meeting just around the corner many traders might prefer to remain on the sideline for now,” said Markus Huber, trader at City of London Markets. HSBC was the biggest gainer on Monday, up 1.8 percent, while among other heavyweight banks, UBS rose 0.6 percent and France’s BNP Paribas was up 0.2 percent, while Deutsche Bank declined 0.6 percent. Over the weekend, Deutsche Bank’s finance chief told a German paper the bank was able to cope with the stricter capital rules on banks that were agreed last week. Top gainers on the STOXX were Steinhoff, which rose 23 percent to break three sessions of dramatic losses stemming from its discovery of accounting irregularities, and Italian defence contractor Leonardo, up 2.5 percent following an upbeat note from Goldman Sachs. Elsewhere, Bayer shares were 0.7 percent higher, brushing off a report that EU antitrust regulators are expected to warn the group in the coming weeks that its planned takeover of U.S. seed maker Monsanto may hurt competition. AB InBev was up 0.7 percent following a source-based report saying the company is among the brewing groups looking to bid for a stake in Vietnam’s largest brewer in a $5 billion sale process. Gains on the broader market were limited by renewed weakness among tech stocks, the sector which has gained the most in Europe so far this year. Chipmaker AMS, whose shares have risen more than 220 percent so far this year, was the biggest faller on the STOXX 600, down more than 3 percent. Also weighing were losses among utilities and telecoms, two sectors which tend to underperform when interest rates rise, making their steady dividend flows less attractive. Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-inch-up-near-four-week-highs-helped-by-banks-idUKKBN1E50MK'|'2017-12-11T10:21:00.000+02:00'
'0a983fef84b15e0044857d1e9d9ccb2c227e9667'|'Ski resort operator Compagnie des Alpes confident of stake sale'|'December 12, 2017 / 6:57 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Ski resort operator Compagnie des Alpes confident of stake sale Dominique Vidalon , Pascale Denis 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French ski resort operator Compagnie des Alpes said it was confident of making progress in selling a stake to potential investors including China’s Fosun in the coming months, as it posted higher annual operating profit on Tuesday. “Our potential partners remain very interested and this reflects the quality and solidity of the company,” Chairman and CEO Dominique Marcel told Reuters, adding he was “confident” of making progress “in the coming months”. Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) operates 11 ski resorts in France and 13 leisure parks in Europe, including Parc Asterix and the Grevin waxworks museum in Paris. It wants to expand abroad, notably in high-growth markets such as China, and has been looking for partners to help with this. But talks that started nearly two years ago had been put on hold ahead of May’s presidential election in France and were further delayed by the search for a new boss at key shareholder state-owned bank Caisse des Depots, sources have told Reuters. Fosun, which already controls French holiday group Club Med, told Reuters in July it was still interested in CDA, where it could take a holding of up to 10 percent. However, French politicians and local officials in the French Alps voiced concerns last year about French regions losing control of ski resorts to foreign companies. Caisse des Depots (CDC), which is CDA’s main shareholder of with a 39.5 percent stake, has said it would stay as the reference shareholder and keep the company anchored in France. Eric Lombard was named last month as the new head of CDC by French President Emmanuel Macron. CDA achieved sales of 762 million euros (673.4 million pounds) in the 2016-2017 financial year and employs close to 5,000 people. Ski resorts make up 56 percent of its global turnover. It reported operating profit of 93.1 million euros for the year ended Sept. 30, a year-on-year rise of 27.4 percent. CDA also said it had decided to sell or close its loss-making Seoul Grevin and Prague Grevin museums, taking a depreciation charge of 18.8 million euros. Although its net profit fell 6.3 percent to 31.3 million euros, CDA proposed a dividend of 0.50 euros per share, a rise of 25 percent. CDA shares have gained more than 51 percent so far this year, closing at 28.96 euros on Monday, underpinned by a recovery in French tourism and speculation about its ownership. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alpes-partners-results/ski-resort-operator-compagnie-des-alpes-confident-of-stake-sale-idUKKBN1E60J5'|'2017-12-12T08:56:00.000+02:00'
'bceed814b6887a22c62db0b1b4b90abae7c6c14f'|'With Westfield sale, Frank Lowy calls time on rags-to-riches story'|'SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian billionaire Frank Lowy, co-founder of global retail property group Westfield Corp ( WFD.AX ), said on Tuesday he looks forward to being an investor rather than an executive, nearly six decades after opening a small shopping center on Sydney’s outskirts.Westfield Chairman and co-founder Frank Lowy speaks via video-link as his sons Peter and Steven Lowy listen on during a media conference in Sydney, Australia, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray Lowy, 87, a Holocaust survivor-turned-knighted property tycoon, will retire from Westfield, and his sons Steven and Peter will retire as co-CEOs, marking a dynastic end to their Westfield rule in the wake of a proposed $24.7 billion sale to France’s Unibail-Rodamco.“It’s more than a lifetime that I’ve put into this company. It’s time, from a personal point of view, for me to move on,” Lowy told reporters via a video link in London. “We want to change our roles; we would rather be investors than executives.”The Lowy family owns 9 percent of Westfield and, if the cash-and-share deal goes through, will end up with a 2.8 percent stake in Unibail-Rodamco.The proposed deal is the latest in a retail sector shake-up, with online giants such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) putting the squeeze on shopping center operators.Westfield has melded traditional mall stores with upscale food courts, restaurants, bars, cinemas and boutique fashion outlets to keep people shopping in bricks-and-mortar stores.“Westfield has assets in the UK and in the United States that are all in mature Amazon markets,” said Morningstar REIT analyst Tony Sherlock. “They’re already 50 percent through that online retail switch.”RICH LIST In his adopted homeland - he was born in what is now Slovakia - Lowy is seen as an immigrant success story, and as a savvy developer who survived the Internet-fuelled onslaught on the retail sector.FILE PHOTO: Westfield Chairman and co-founder Frank Lowy speaks via video-link as his sons Peter and Steven Lowy listen on during a media conference in Sydney, Australia, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray In his early years, Lowy lived in a ghetto in Hungary during World War Two and was moved frequently before being interned in a British detention camp in Cyprus. He has said he later learned that his father was beaten to death at Auschwitz concentration camp.Lowy arrived in Australia in the 1950s and met surviving members of his family. He went on to co-found Westfield Development Corp with a friend, John Saunders, by developing a shopping center in the downmarket western suburbs of Sydney.Westfield listed on Australia’s stock exchange in 1960.Lowy said the Unibail-Rodamco agreement was the second-most important day in Westfield’s history. “The most important was (in) September 1960, when Westfield was born,” he said.The Australian shopping centers have since been separated from Westfield’s U.S. and European businesses, and are not part of the proposed sale.Lowy has spent the past decade near the top of Australia’s rich lists - with an estimated wealth this year of A$8.26 billion ($6.23 billion) - and he retains a high public profile in sports administration as a former chairman of Football Federation Australia.He is often credited with establishing soccer as a leading sport in a country where it has had to vie with the traditionally more popular rugby league, rugby union and Australian Rules football.But Lowy said that selling Westfield wouldn’t necessarily give him more free time.“I‘m not looking for too much time to spare, but the workload will be totally different. It’s real investing rather than managing.”($1 = 1.3259 Australian dollars)Reporting by Swati Pandey and Byron Kaye in SYDNEY; Writing by Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Ian Geoghegan '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-westfield-m-a-unibail-rodamco-lowy/with-westfield-sale-frank-lowy-calls-time-on-rags-to-riches-story-idINKBN1E619J'|'2017-12-12T08:22:00.000+02:00'
'416cccf5a12d995780d2f88a6c2bd00754e0d75d'|'Twitter to let users make tweet threads more easily'|'(Reuters) - Twitter said on Tuesday it would add a pair of buttons that will allow users to more easily see and add new tweets to existing ones on the same topic.The Twitter logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo With the new feature, users who create threads — stitching tweets together to tell a longer story — need no longer reply to previous tweets to do so.It is the latest instance of the social network altering or adding a feature after reviewing feedback to keep its more than 300 million monthly active users engaged.Just last month, Twitter doubled the character limit for tweets from 140 to 280, in a major shift.Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-feature/twitter-to-let-users-make-tweet-threads-more-easily-idUSKBN1E62I5'|'2017-12-12T20:06:00.000+02:00'
'0674e662b8034b66c7d06ad4d18db54ce1a6dc9f'|'Canadian Solar CEO offers to take company private'|'(Reuters) - Canadian Solar Inc ( CSIQ.O ) said on Monday it received a letter from its Chief Executive Shawn Qu to take the company private.The solar company said Qu, its largest shareholder, has offered to buy all of the outstanding shares he and his wife Hanbing Zhang do not already own for $18.47 per share.The offer represents a 7.1 percent premium to Canadian Solar’s Friday close. Qu and Zhang own about 23.5 percent of the company’s shares.Canadian Solar’s shares, which have risen nearly 42 percent this year, were halted in premarket trading on Monday.The company had a market cap of $1.07 billion, according to Reuters calculations.Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D''Couto '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-canadian-solar-m-a/canadian-solar-ceo-offers-to-take-company-private-idINKBN1E51BK'|'2017-12-11T09:25:00.000+02:00'
'218b77c2e674e411f7ca78bcfb9273401514e68f'|'Futures inch up, bitcoin grabs investor interest'|'December 11, 2017 / 12:50 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Wall Street ends higher with help from tech, energy Sinead Carew 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street indexes closed higher on Monday and the biggest drivers were technology and energy sectors as oil prices rose and investors waited for an expected U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike later in the week. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Technology stocks were back in favor with the biggest boost from Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) as investors eyed a continuation of strong fundamentals in the sector. “Investors are a little exhausted from the rise of the market and making sector moves,” said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey. “They’re not willing to commit a whole lot of new money at these levels but they’re rotating a bit. Some of it is year-end tax planning.” Traders, waiting for the Fed’s two-day rate setting meeting to begin on Tuesday, see an 85-percent probability for a 25 basis point hike to the Fed funds rate target and a 15-percent chance of a 50 basis point hike, which would be the third rate hike this year, according to CME Group’s Fedwatch tool. “Valuations are getting to the point where even good news on the economy might pose some additional risks to the market. There’s the risk that good news for the economy may be bad news for markets because the Fed is at the cusp of a level of tightening that could dampen growth,” said Mark Heppenstall, CIO at Penn Mutual Asset Management in Horsham, Pennsylvania. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 56.87 points, or 0.23 percent, to 24,386.03, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 8.49 points, or 0.32 percent, to 2,659.99 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 35.00 points, or 0.51 percent, to 6,875.08. Most of the 11 major S&P sectors ended higher, with the biggest boost from a 0.8 percent gain in information technology stocks .SPLRCT. The S&P energy .SPNY index rose 0.71 percent as oil prices rose after a North Sea pipeline shut for repairs. [O/R] The S&P’s financial .SPSY and industrial .SPLRCI sectors were the benchmark’s only decliners for the day with losses of around 0.2 percent. Healthcare investors focused on makers of drugs for blood disorders after clinical data presentations at the annual American Society of Hematology four-day meeting in Atlanta. Shares of Bluebird Bio ( BLUE.O ) closed up 17.9 percent at $201.8, after hitting a record high of $222.03, following news of positive responses in an early stage myeloma study of its experimental gene-modifying immunotherapy drug co-developed with Celgene ( CELG.O ). Celgene’s shares rose 1.8 percent. Interest in the surge in digital currency bitcoin and the Sunday debut of futures trading in the cryptocurrency continued to fuel bets on related stocks. Shares of Marathon Patent ( MARA.O ) rose 42.9 percent while Xunlei ( XNET.O ) climbed 29.4 percent. Riot Blockchain ( RIOT.O ) rose about 45.5 percent. The equity market appeared to shrug off an early morning explosion that officials called an attempted terrorist attack at one of New York’s busiest commuter hubs. The suspect wounded himself and three others. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.18-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.14-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 31 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 84 new highs and 55 new lows. More than 5.85 billion shares changed hands on U.S. stock exchanges compared with the 6.5 billion average for the last 20 sessions. Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/futures-inch-up-bitcoin-grabs-investor-interest-idUSKBN1E51DU'|'2017-12-11T14:50:00.000+02:00'
'23f9fb85fe03c6a21998bca26e9ca7726b49ddb6'|'UPDATE 1-Airbus may cut A380 production to six planes a year -sources'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus is exploring plans to cut A380 superjumbo production to as low as six aircraft per year as it battles to make the world’s largest airliner commercially viable beyond the end of the decade, industry sources said.Squeezed by smaller but efficient twin-engined jets, Airbus has announced plans to lower A380 output to 12 aircraft in 2018 and eight in 2019, down from an annual peak of 30, as it holds out for what it believes will be a recovery in demand.But plans to maintain that rate are in doubt as Airbus seeks to finalize an order for 36 new aircraft from Emirates.Industry analysts say ongoing negotiations with Emirates will be decisive for the future of the A380 aircraft, which recently marked its 10th anniversary in operation.Airbus, which has delivered 14 A380s so far this year, has told some suppliers it is studying eventually reducing production to six a year, industry sources said.The timing of the move was not immediately clear.An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on production beyond the company’s previous announcements.Emirates, which held off signing an order for an estimated 36 aircraft at last month’s Dubai Airshow, wants guarantees Airbus will produce the A380 for 10 years and has expressed confidence it will be able to meet the conditions.Industry sources say Airbus appears comfortable giving the undertaking, ensuring production remains open until 2028, though there are questions over the support of suppliers.Reducing output to six a year would help to bridge that period and support key second-hand values while Airbus looks for other buyers, but could keep the program in the red for at least part of the period.Airbus shares extended losses and were down 2.16 percent at 1601 GMT.Airbus broke even on the A380 for the first time in 2015, when it delivered 27 aircraft. After a clampdown on costs it has said the A380 can break even at around 20 a year and Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier has said he is pushing the breakeven level as low as possible to sustain low production.The company said in October that any losses triggered by lower A380 production would have little financial impact.Finance Director Harald Wilhelm also told analysts that A380 deliveries were protected by the existing backlog until 2019.Singapore Airlines, the first airline to fly the double-decker jet, is due on Wednesday to take delivery of the first A380 featuring a new cabin, following an $850 million investment.Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Luke Baker and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-a380/airbus-may-lower-a380-output-to-six-planes-a-year-sources-idUSKBN1E51U9'|'2017-12-11T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'224621a9f42f8917bce73e2f6821930b26eb8e27'|'British investment firm Man Group launches China hedge fund'|'SHANGHAI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - British investment firm Man Group PLC said it has launched a hedge fund in China, becoming the first foreign firm to run a quantitative investment fund in the country.The fund’s strategy will be “systemic trend following”, Man said in a statement without disclosing its size. It will be run by a wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in Shanghai, Man said.The strategy will leverage Man’s “quantitative investing expertise, combining this with our local investment capabilities to serve the needs of Chinese investors,” Man Group’s China chairman Li Yifei said in a statement dated Dec. 8.The fund will initially invest in Chinese futures including agricultural commodities, industrial commodities, bonds, metals, energy and stock indices, Man said.In January, Fidelity International became the first global asset manager permitted to launch investment products in China through a wholly owned local subsidiary.Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/man-group-china/british-investment-firm-man-group-launches-china-hedge-fund-idINL3N1OB20W'|'2017-12-11T05:45:00.000+02:00'
'f36d6324c1c3c170885a577c702c7d7a6d2f7d13'|'US STOCKS-Wall St to open higher, futures recover after explosion scare'|'* Bluebird Bio-Celgene CAR-T drug receives positive response* Cryptocurrency related stocks bounce after bitcoin futures debut* Futures up: Dow 41 pts, S&P 1.75 pts, Nasdaq 7.5 pts (Adds comment, details, updates prices)By Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat RamanDec 11 (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open higher on Monday, recovering from a brief pullback in stock futures after reports of an explosion in New York’s busy Port Authority commuter hub.Police confirmed one person is in custody but were not yet identifying the device used. Local news channel WABC cited police sources as saying a possible pipe bomb detonated in a passageway below ground at Port Authority.“When you see one of these events in a major city, you get a little cautious tone. But it’s never enough to really rout a stock market intraday,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director, institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.The CBOE Volatility index, a widely followed measure of market anxiety, briefly rose above 10 points.At 9:02 a.m. ET (1402 GMT), Dow e-minis were up 41 points, or 0.17 percent, with 17,818 contracts changing hands.S&P 500 e-minis were up 1.75 points, or 0.07 percent, with 255,483 contracts traded.Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 7.5 points, or 0.12 percent, on volume of 20,687 contracts.Interest in the surge in bitcoin and opening of futures trading continued to fuel bets on crypotcurrency related stocks, many of which have risen exponentially in value in the past three months.Shares of Marathon Patent, Riot Blockchain , Overstock.com and Xunei were up between 4.31 percent and 17 percent in premarket trading.Bitcoin futures jumped more than 20 percent in the U.S. debut on Sunday, which backers hope will encourage wider use and give legitimacy to cryptocurrency.“We’ve got the Fed meeting on Tuesday where it’s pretty much factored in that the Fed is going to be raising rates. The concern is what they are going to say about going forward,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, buoyed by a solid payrolls report for November that locked in expectations for an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this week.The report showed the economy added 228,000 jobs in November but average hourly earnings failed to meet expectations.The third rate hike in 2017 is near certain, with traders betting a 90 percent chance in its favor, according to CME Group’s Fedwatch tool.However, a sluggish growth that the latest jobs report showed could raise doubts about the central bank’s plan to raise interest rates thrice in 2018.Bluebird Bio shares rose about 25 percent after its experimental gene-modifying immunotherapy drug co-developed with Celgene received positive responses in early stage study. Celgene was up 3.4 percent.Xerox shares inched up 1.32 percent after activist investor Carl Icahn named four nominees to the company’s board after a current Icahn-appointed director resigned due to a difference of opinion with the board. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-wall-st-to-open-higher-futures-recover-after-explosion-scare-idINL3N1OB3ZF'|'2017-12-11T11:20:00.000+02:00'
'5f61fbff87ba9997349a6a6fec5ad408aa1ee519'|'Zurich Insurance to buy ANZ''s life insurance businesses for $2.14 billion'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - Zurich Insurance ( ZURN.S ) has agreed to buy ANZ’s ( ANZ.AX ) OnePath Life insurance businesses for 2.85 billion Australian dollars ($2.14 billion), the latest and largest foray by the Swiss company into the Australian market.Scaffolding is seen at the headquarters of Zurich insurance during renovation works in Zurich, Switzerland November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The deal, announced on Monday, is the third purchase by Zurich in Australia over the last two years as the insurer doubles down on a region where a robust economy and low insurance penetration rates have proved attractive.Zurich has focused on the Asia Pacific as a major growth driver in its life insurance business, previously picking up Macquaries’ ( MQG.AX ) retail life insurance business for US$300 million in 2016 and the Cover-More Group for US$554 million in April this year.The ANZ deal - Zurich’s biggest since 2011 - would be immediately accretive to the Swiss company’s earnings, and would increase return on equity and shareholder returns, the company said.It would increase cash flows by around $225 million over the 2017-2019 planning period, Europe’s fifth largest insurer added.“The existing portfolio provides a highly cash-generative business that will add to our cash remittances, increase our business operating profit after tax return on equity target by 50 basis points and support dividend growth beyond that implied by our existing plan,” Zurich Chief Executive Mario Greco said in a statement.As part of its 2017-2019 targets, Zurich has promised to pay shareholders 75 percent of its net profit. With the ANZ deal expected to be completed by the end of 2018, the full benefit of the acquisition will become apparent in the 2019 dividend.Following the deal, Zurich will have around 19 percent of the Australia retail life insurance market, making it the biggest provider in the market, it said.CEO Greco also highlighted how the purchase would build up Zurich’s distribution of insurance products through ANZ’s branches and digital distribution channels.As part of the deal, Zurich would get access to ANZ’s 6 million customers through a 20 year distribution agreement to sell life insurance.Zurich said it said it would fund the deal from its own cash pile and through senior debt.On a pro-forma basis, the operations to be acquired reported net earned premiums for the 12 months ended September 30, 2017 of US$1.1 billion and a net profit after tax of US$142 million.The deal is the largest since Greco took over at Zurich last year. The executive brought in from Generali ( GASI.MI ) to engineer a turnaround for the troubled group has promised to make Zurich leaner and more efficient.Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Adrian Croft and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-zurich-ins-group-anz-bank-onepath/zurich-insurance-to-buy-anzs-life-insurance-businesses-for-2-14-billion-idINKBN1E52G2'|'2017-12-11T16:20:00.000+02:00'
'06bbc5a26c074285f213abfc5a0446a5ff492eb9'|'Boeing lifts dividend by 20 percent, sets new $18 billion share buyback'|'(Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) said on Monday it would raise its quarterly dividend by 20 percent and replace its existing share repurchase programme with a new $18 billion authorization.A model of the Boeing 777 is seen at the Boeing booth at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2017 in Hamburg, Germany April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer The company said it would pay a quarterly dividend of $1.71 per share from $1.42 earlier. The new dividend is payable on March 2.The world’s biggest maker of jetliners said the new repurchase programme would replace a $14 billion authorization approved in December 2016, under which it had repurchased $9.2 billion.The company said it expects to complete the new buybacks in the next 24-30 months.Boeing’s shares were up 1.2 percent in after-market trading on Monday.The stock is the top performer on the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI this year with its stock rising 84 percent. The index is up 24 percent in the same period.Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru'' Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/boeing-dividend/boeing-lifts-dividend-by-20-percent-sets-new-18-billion-share-buyback-idINKBN1E52PH'|'2017-12-12T00:25:00.000+02:00'
'35eb4a4974ed72f23310c52723f36047cf7df06e'|'Atos offers to buy Gemalto for 4.3 billion euros to boost cyber security services'|' 15 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Atos offers to buy Gemalto for 4.3 billion euros to boost cyber security services Mathieu Rosemain , Cyril Altmeyer 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French technology consulting firm Atos ATO.O offered to buy Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) for 4.3 billion euros ($5.06 billion) on Monday to boost its cyber security services as states and big corporations seek to cope with a growing number of attacks on the Internet worldwide. FILE PHOTO - Atos Chairman and CEO Thierry Breton poses in front of the company''s logo during a presentation of the new Bull sequana supercomputer in Paris, France, April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer The bid comes as Gemalto, the world’s largest maker of chips found in mobile phones and credit cards, is under pressure after posting four profit warnings in a year and having missed a chance to strengthen its security business through a large acquisition. The combination would strengthen Atos in the burgeoning so-called Internet of Things (IoT) sector of internet-connected machinery and household devices able to collect and exchange data using embedded sensors and European payment services on top of digital security, it said. Atos said it delivered an offer to Gemalto’s board on Nov. 28. Shortly after issuing the formal offer, Atos Chief Executive Thierry Breton said he had already received the backing of Gemalto’s biggest shareholder, France’s state-owned investment bank Bpifrance. “I’ve met the main shareholders and Bpi in particular,” Breton said in a call with reporters following the announcement of the unsolicited bid for Gemalto. “Bpi is not only favorable to this operation of European consolidation, but it also authorized me to tell you about it,” he added. Bpifrance holds 8.51 percent of Gemalto’s shares, according to the group’s last annual report. Gemalto and Bpifrance were not immediately reachable for comment. STOCK PRESSURED FILE PHOTO - The shadow of an attendee is cast below a logo of Franco-Dutch technology firm Gemalto during a news conference in Paris February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Gemalto had to postpone to March 2018 the presentation the presentation of its next multiyear strategic plan, after several profit warnings notably caused by slowing demand for credit card chips. The group’s shares have shed 38 percent so far this year compared with an increase of 24 percent for Atos. Since Breton took the helm of Atos in November 2008, the firm has multiplied its stock price by close to six times, outperforming French rival Capgemini ( CAPP.PA ) and U.S. companies Accenture ( ACN.N ) and IBM ( IBM.N ). Atos’ revenue has more than doubled over the period to reach 11.7 billion euros in 2016, after having bought assets from Germany’s Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ), U.S. group Xerox ( XRX.N ) and France-based computer company Bull. Gemalto had sales of 3.2 billion euros in 2016. The all-cash bid reflects a price of 46 euros per Gemalto share, representing a 42 percent premium on the group’s last closing price, Atos   The bid would be financed by Atos’ existing cash resources and debt, the company said without elaborating. Breton said that two banks had already given their approval for a potential loan. ($1 = 0.8495 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-gemalt-m-a-atos/atos-offers-to-buy-gemalto-for-4-3-billion-euros-to-boost-cyber-security-services-idUKKBN1E52S8'|'2017-12-12T01:12:00.000+02:00'
'29e72a7dc153deae17bb574f744534bf89a8238f'|'Twenty companies join nations planning coal phase out'|'December 12, 2017 / 4:11 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Twenty companies join nations planning coal phase out Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - About 20 companies including Unilever, EDF and Iberdrola joined an international alliance of 26 nations on Tuesday pledging to phase out coal to combat global warming. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid /File Photo At a climate summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, new members of the “Powering Past Coal Alliance” agreed that traditional coal power should be phased out by 2030 in rich nations and by 2050 in other parts of the world. The coal phase-out plan, launched last month by about 20 governments, widened on Tuesday to companies also including BT , Engie , Kering, Diageo, Marks & Spencer, Orsted , Storebrand and Virgin Group. Nations including Sweden, Ethiopia and Latvia, as well as the U.S. state of California, also joined the alliance as part of commitments under the 195-nation Paris climate agreement reached on December 12 two years ago. The companies committed to setting targets to end the use of traditional coal from the power sector, both for consumption and in generating electricity. Coal could play a continued role, for instance, if greenhouse gas emissions were captured and buried. Founder members of the alliance, launched at U.N. climate negotiations in Germany, include Britain, France, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Costa Rica and the Marshall Islands A declaration said that coal-fired power plants produce almost 40 percent of global electricity. Most of the countries in the alliance are already cutting their use of coal and big coal users, such as China, India, the United States, Germany and Russia have not joined. U.S. President Donald Trump plans to pull out of the Paris Agreement. He doubts that climate change is caused by man-made greenhouse gases and wants to bolster the U.S. coal and oil industries. Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-summit-coal/twenty-companies-join-nations-planning-coal-phase-out-idUKKBN1E625T'|'2017-12-12T18:08:00.000+02:00'
'15c3347fe3f976fe4a6e006512c36ec0765f67a6'|'EU''s Malmstrom sees Mercosur trade deal by early 2018'|' 45 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago EU''s Malmstrom sees Mercosur trade deal by early 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Trade talks between the European Union and South America’s Mercosur bloc are closing on a deal which could come early in the new year, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told reporters on Tuesday. European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom addresses a news conference on the trade package in Brussels, Belgium September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir “We have made good advancement but there’s still stock taking today,” Malmstrom said. “We see the end of this.” Reporting by Luc Cohen and Eliana Raszewski, editing by Tom Miles'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-mercosur/eus-malmstrom-sees-mercosur-trade-deal-by-early-2018-idUKKBN1E61OS'|'2017-12-12T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'aeabe2f7cd4c2c11635756979f9552a6da659a63'|'EU eyes lower capital charges for banks'' green investments'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:23 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago EU eyes lower capital charges for banks'' green investments Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission could lower capital requirements for banks’ environmentally-friendly investments in a bid to boost the green economy and counter climate change, the EU executive’s vice president said on Tuesday. European Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis holds a news conference at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Vidal The Commission, which is in charge of proposing laws at EU level, is “looking positively” at plans to reduce capital requirements for banks’ green investments, Valdis Dombrovskis said at the “One Planet” summit on climate change financing in Paris. “This could be done at first stage by lowering capital requirements for certain climate-friendly investments, such as energy-efficient mortgages or electric cars,” Dombrovskis said in a speech at the conference held on the second anniversary of the Paris climate accord. He added that the reduced charges could be modelled on “existing discounts for investments in small and medium-sized enterprises or high-quality infrastructure projects”. Currently, the EU grants capital reductions of 23.81 percent for banks’ exposures to small firms for investments below 1.5 million euros (1.3 million pounds), and is considering a 15 percent reduction for the share of investment above that threshold. The climate change financing move would be part of a broader set of measures the EU plans to present in March to boost green investment and meet the target of cutting carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. Brussels estimates that around 180 billion euros in additional low-carbon investments are needed per year to meet the target. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-climatechange-summit-eu-banks/eu-eyes-lower-capital-charges-for-banks-green-investments-idUKKBN1E60RW'|'2017-12-12T10:23:00.000+02:00'
'efeec7c3817df8b90ef634745d240f2bf6c55bb1'|'Boeing lifts dividend by 20 percent, sets new $18 billion share buyback'|'(Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) said on Monday it would raise its quarterly dividend by 20 percent and replace its existing share buyback program with a new $18 billion authorization.The Boeing Company logo is projected on a wall at the "What''s Next?" conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young The company’s shares, the best-performing Dow component this year with an 84 percent surge, were up 1.2 percent at $286.51 in after-market trading.The world’s biggest maker of jetliners said the raised dividend and the new buyback program were not in response to a Republican tax overhaul, which seeks to cut corporate taxes to 20 percent from 35 percent.Other U.S. corporations have said they would use the windfall from the tax overhaul to buy back shares, retire debt and other shareholder-friendly moves.The cash deployment plans reflect ongoing confidence in our financial strength and the long-term outlook of our business, Boeing Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith said in a statement.Boeing’s dividend increase comes at the high-end of analysts’ estimates of 15 percent to 20 percent, Robert W Baird & Co analyst Peter Arment wrote in a note.The company said on Monday the new quarterly dividend would be $1.71 per share, up from $1.42.Boeing said the new repurchase program would replace a $14 billion authorization approved in December 2016, under which the company had repurchased $9.2 billion.The increase in the buyback amount also comes as a surprise and shows the management’s confidence in generating strong free cash flows over the next few years, analyst Arment said.Boeing said it expected to complete the new buybacks in the next 24-30 months.Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru and Alwyn Scott in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-dividend/boeing-lifts-dividend-by-20-percent-sets-new-18-billion-share-buyback-idUSKBN1E52NW'|'2017-12-11T23:59:00.000+02:00'
'4cc1712409e31fc58adb12089d2b5d57259941bb'|'Autoliv plans to move ahead with listing of electronics business'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:28 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Autoliv plans to move ahead with listing of electronics business Reuters Staff 2 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s Autoliv said on Tuesday it plans to move ahead with a listing of its electronics business, which makes radars, visions systems and driver assistance software. It said it expected the spin-off and listing of the electronics business to be completed during the third quarter of 2018. The electronics business is also expected to receive a cash injection from Autoliv to ensure Autoliv retains strong investment grade. Autoliv said its passive safety business, which includes airbags and seatbelts and accounts for the bulk of the group’s earnings, would continue to operate under the Autoliv name. The world’s biggest maker of airbags surprised investors in September when it said it had initiated a review with the intention to split into two companies, with one focused on technology to capture the growth related to the development of self-driving cars, and the other on products such as airbags and seatbelts. “Through the separation, additional value for shareholders and other stakeholders will be created by the ability to better address two distinct, growing markets with leading product offerings,” the company said in a statement. Autoliv’s Swedish shares have risen 20 percent since the September announcement. Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-autoliv-restructuring/autoliv-plans-to-move-ahead-with-listing-of-electronics-business-idUKKBN1E60S8'|'2017-12-12T10:28:00.000+02:00'
'85f39329e27a3acf352754ae8f071eced3488b14'|'Russian court to hear new Rosneft lawsuit against Sistema in Jan.'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:55 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Russian court to hear new Rosneft lawsuit against Sistema in January Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Arbitration Court of Bashkortostan will hold preliminary hearings of a 131.6-billion-rouble ($2 billion) lawsuit filed by Russia’s Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) and Bashneft ( BANE.MM ) against Sistema ( AFKS.MM ) on Jan. 12, court documents showed. The logo of Russian conglomerate Sistema is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin State-controlled Rosneft and its subsidiary Bashneft filed the lawsuit last week, months after a court ruled that the Sistema conglomerate should pay more than $2 billion to Rosneft as a result of an earlier claim. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-rosneft-sistema-court/russian-court-to-hear-new-rosneft-lawsuit-against-sistema-in-jan-idUKKBN1E60TW'|'2017-12-12T10:54:00.000+02:00'
'05ff508223d69efea942a4c559b033b7d8938376'|'Gemalto says board has until Friday to review unsolicited Atos bid'|'PARIS (Reuters) - French security software maker Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) has until Friday to review the unsolicited all-cash bid made by consulting firm Atos ( ATOS.PA ), Gemalto’s board said on Tuesday.The shadow of an attendee is cast below a logo of Franco-Dutch technology firm Gemalto during a news conference in Paris February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes “The company subsequently informed Atos that it would carefully review the proposal and respond to it before such date,” it said in a statement.Atos offered 4.3 billion euros ($5.06 billion), or 46 euros a share, dividend included, to buy all of Gemalto to boost its cyber security services as states and big corporations seek to cope with a growing number of attacks on the Internet worldwide.Gemalto has taken Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) as financial advisor. Law firm Allen & Overy acts as its legal advisor.Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by GV De Clercq '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-gemalto-m-a-atos/gemalto-says-board-has-until-friday-to-review-unsolicited-atos-bid-idINKBN1E60ME'|'2017-12-12T04:31:00.000+02:00'
'706b83f97e40f14c649f62082fe1521982970f16'|'Beirut redeveloper Solidere struggles through Lebanon''s turmoil'|'December 12, 2017 / 9:05 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Beirut redeveloper Solidere struggles through Lebanon''s turmoil Lisa Barrington 5 Min Read BEIRUT (Reuters) - The company formed to rebuild Lebanon’s capital Beirut after its civil war ended in 1990 is struggling to overcome the latest period of political turmoil roiling the Middle East. Oussama Kabbani, Chief Operating Officer of Solidere International gestures as he walks in downtown Beirut, Lebanon October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir Until the 2011 Arab uprisings and the start of neighbouring Syria’s civil war, Solidere’s property business was booming along with Lebanon’s real estate sector. But political tensions have put a security cordon around Solidere’s glittering central Beirut showcase and scared off investors. Low oil prices also weigh on a market long dependent on petrodollars from the Gulf. “(Investors) have to believe Lebanon is going somewhere stable to start to invest ... At the moment people are still in a wait and see mode, even though there are some bullish investors negotiating deals to benefit from the long-term value of downtown properties,” Oussama Kabbani, Chief Operating Officer of Solidere International, told Reuters. Solidere has sold no land this year, recording an unaudited net loss of $18.9 million in the first half of 2017. But the company said some negotiations are in progress. Its reliance on land sales means revenue can swing dramatically between profit and loss. However, the peaks are now much lower and the troughs deeper than a decade ago. In response, Solidere is offering new deals to potential land buyers, has focussed more on rent revenues and cut expenses. “Solidere is trying to make it easy for people who are serious to buy,” said Kabbani, who was involved in drawing Solidere’s original masterplan for Beirut. Analysts say the scarcity of land in Lebanon and Solidere’s ownership of prime sites mean the company has good value medium to long-term, but maintaining liquidity in the short term is more of a challenge. DECLINE The Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut Central District (Solidere) was founded by then prime minister Rafik al-Hariri in 1994, aiming to finish its work and dissolve by 2019. But he was assassinated in 2005, prompting a series of political, security and economic crises in Lebanon that also pushed central Beirut into steady decline. Solidere’s mandate has been extended to 2029, but it still has around 1.7 million square metres of land to sell and shareholders received no dividend this year. Closed shops are seen in downtown Beirut, Lebanon November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir Because of the tight security around the showpiece Place d‘Etoile area near Lebanon’s parliament, people cannot access the area freely and most shops and restaurants have closed. Solidere has sold on most of the buildings there, but the area’s decline has deterred investors. It has also reduced the flow of people to the adjacent Beirut Souks shopping area, where Solidere makes money from rent. “There was a period where people from the Gulf, their dream was to come and sit ... to do nothing but sit and watch people going by,” Kabbani said, referring to the boom years in 2004-05. “If we didn’t have those security enclaves in Downtown, I‘m sure Downtown could have continued to be the centre of attraction.” INVESTOR DEALS Slideshow (2 Images) Instead, land prices in Downtown have fallen by 1-2 percent annually and by around 15 percent in the past 5-7 years. In response Solidere plans to start converting unused office space into small apartments and is offering investors better deals. “Today Solidere might give you more flexible terms to pay (or) to develop, simply because it understands you are taking a country risk with your cash,” Kabbani said. It is also trying to reduce costs and has cut overheads by 25-30 percent, he said. This included withdrawing from the London Stock Exchange because the low trading volume was not worth the fees. Solidere’s share price in Beirut, which peaked at around $40 mid-2008, has declined to around $8 today. Some of Lebanon’s political problems appeared to abate earlier this year, only to flare again in November when Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, Rafik al-Hariri’s son, unexpectedly resigned in a shock broadcast from Saudi Arabia -- a move linked to conflict in the wider region between Riyadh and Tehran. He subsequently withdrew the resignation, with Western states pledging support for Lebanon’s stability. “There are some big question marks still remaining on the country as well as the region in general,” Kabbani said, citing security, the political divisions in government, low oil prices and the future of Syria. (This story has been refiled to change the dateline to Dec 12) Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-economy-solidere/beirut-redeveloper-solidere-struggles-through-lebanons-turmoil-idUKKBN1E60UH'|'2017-12-12T11:09:00.000+02:00'
'071ef2a00295bb1cf1f7bd6b1f439305ac679a26'|'Column: Forties pipeline outage is a gift to U.S. oil exporters, others'|'LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) - The shutdown of Britain’s largest crude oil pipeline is an early Christmas gift to U.S. exporters shipping to Asia, and a complication for Middle Eastern and African producers seeking to maintain market share in the world’s top importing region.The Forties Pipeline System, which carries about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the North Sea to Scotland, may be closed for several weeks for unscheduled repair work, operator Ineos said on Monday.Forties crude is the largest of the five North Sea crudes that make up the dated Brent price benchmark.Brent crude futures jumped 2 percent on Monday to settle at $64.69 a barrel, their highest in 2-1/2 years.But given the price spike is related to an actual physical supply issue, the price of competing U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude wasn’t as affected. It rose by only 1 percent to end at $57.99 a barrel on Monday.This widened the premium of front-month Brent over WTI to $6.74 a barrel, up from $4.76 as recently as Nov. 24. The spread is closing in on the $7.07 touched in September when Hurricane Harvey knocked out U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, temporarily cutting crude demand.The blowout of the Brent-WTI spread in September saw a flood of U.S. crude head toward Asia, with vessel-tracking data showing that top global crude buyer China imported a record 293,000 bpd in November.This pace is likely to be maintained in December, with data from Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts showing China is set to import 281,000 bpd from the United States this month.The flows may ease in January and February in line with the lower Brent premium over WTI that prevailed when cargoes would have been booked in November.They are likely to pick up again, though, as the economics move in favour of WTI-priced oil over Brent-priced equivalents.MIDDLE EAST CRUDE IMPACT While it’s true that the higher Brent price is mainly an issue for African exporters such as Angola and Libya, the flow-on effect on other crude benchmarks is likely to hit major Middle East exporters as well.This is because Middle Eastern crudes are becoming more expensive vis-a-vis WTI as well.The main regional futures contract, Dubai Mercantile Exchange’s Oman, has been following Brent more closely than WTI.The contract closed on Monday at $62.20 a barrel, matching the 2-1/2-year high reached on Nov. 6.This put Oman at a premium of $4.21 a barrel to WTI, well above the 52 U.S. cents that prevailed at the end of last year and the 42 cents on June 30.Oman is more of a benchmark for Middle East heavy crude grades, as opposed to WTI being a light, sweet crude.The wider the premium of Oman over WTI, however, the more likely refiners in Asia that can be flexible with their crude slates will seek to switch to oil priced against WTI.This will especially hurt the top exporters in the region restricting output as part of the agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies to cut production by a combined 1.8 million bpd.So while the Forties pipeline outage has given an immediate lift to U.S. crude exporters, it will also likely prove helpful to other producers who didn’t sign on to the OPEC and allies agreement, such as Brazil and Canada.Saudi Arabia has also recently been raising its official selling price (OSP) to customers in Asia, which account for about two-thirds of the kingdom’s exports.The OSP for its benchmark Arab Light grade (which is actually a medium-heavy crude), was increased for January-loading cargoes by 40 cents a barrel to a premium of $1.65 a barrel over the average of Oman-Dubai prices.While Saudi pricing generally reflects prevailing market conditions, the rising premium will effectively make the kingdom’s oil even more expensive relative to competing grades in Asia.The Saudis could not have predicted the Forties outage when they released their January prices on Dec. 5, but the event has most likely made their crude less competitive in Asia.Editing by Tom Hogue '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/column-russell-crude-asia/column-forties-pipeline-outage-is-a-gift-to-u-s-oil-exporters-others-idINKBN1E60E5'|'2017-12-12T02:21:00.000+02:00'
'8ad6fe26e6e6ebecfca322f14aeadfa36b494b07'|'New Basel reforms, Brexit update and Swiss private banking'|'New Basel reforms, Brexit update and Swiss private banking Save to myFT Save to myFT The Financial Times banking team discusses the biggest banking stories of the week, bringing you global insight and commentary on the top issues concerning this sector. December 12, 2017 Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss the long-awaited compromise deal on Basel reforms, banks'' reaction to the preliminary UK-EU deal on Brexit and the future of Swiss private banking. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Print this page'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'2017-12-12T18:46:00.000+02:00'
'0ed7808ad453b7cc0835fa8dd1d91a26c694ba58'|'Audi CEO drops plan to sell motorcycle brand Ducati'|'December 12, 2017 / 9:08 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Audi CEO drops plan to sell motorcycle brand Ducati Andreas Cremer 4 Min Read INGOLSTADT, Germany (Reuters) - Germany’s Audi has abandoned plans to sell its Italian motorcycle brand Ducati, its chief executive Rupert Stadler said, in a sign of confidence that the carmaker expects to be able to carry the costs of its transformation. FILE PHOTO: The Ducati logo is seen on a Scrambler model in Rome, Italy, March 5 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo Steps to reduce costs by 10 billion euros (8.9 billion pounds), cut red tape and deepen ties with fellow Volkswagen-owned brand Porsche are “gradually increasing our financial and organisational leeway for the strategic realignment,” chief executive Rupert Stadler told reporters. There is therefore no economic need to sell Ducati, Stadler said. Volkswagen asked banks to evaluate options for Ducati and transmissions maker Renk earlier this year as seeks to become more nimble in its shift towards electric and self-driving cars following its diesel emissions cheating scandal. “I can assure you that Ducati belongs to the Audi family,” said Stadler. “Ducati is the perfect implementation of our premium philosophy in the world of motorbikes.” The plans had already stalled in the summer when VW’s powerful labour unions, backed by the controlling Porsche-Piech families, opposed the logic and need for asset sales given the group’s financial resilience. Investors and potential Ducati buyers, however, expect that VW could change its mind again and eventually opt to sell the asset which they say has least strategic importance to VW. “For Volkswagen’s powerful works council it could be an easy bargaining chip they could offer to push through something completely different,” a person close to the matter said. Investors have long favoured divestments to simplify VW’s group structure and to strengthen its management’s ability to push through structural changes against the unions’ wishes. Audi, which owns Ducati and Italian supercar maker Lamborghini, last month reported higher operating profit and revenue for the first nine months, helped by growing auto demand in the higher-margin western European and U.S. markets. While pushing the costly shift to zero-emissions and autonomous technologies, holding on to the profitable Ducati division and the lucrative Lamborghini brand has become more important, Stadler said. “Looking after a premium bouquet is as difficult as the work of a gardener,” Stadler said. “Therefore I am pleased with every new flower, with every promising new branch,” he added, predicting Lamborghini’s sales would double on the back of its new sport-utility vehicle. Separately, Stadler said Audi will spend nearly half a billion euros over the next eight years on training staff for the digital age, with steps to develop as well as hire experts such as automotive app-designers and car robotics specialists. To rein in costs, Audi wants to keep headcount stable, at least over the next 2-3 years, even as it plans to have more than 20 electrified vehicles on the market by 2025 and pushes into digitised mobility services, the CEO said. With two-thirds of Audi’s 60 or so models by 2025 still slated to be combustion-engine cars, tightening carbon dioxide (CO2) rules will pose the “biggest risk” in coming years, he said, adding that Audi would face 1 billion euros of fines if its average fleet CO2 emissions exceeds EU limits by no more than eleven grammes per kilometres. Audi has overhauled its whistleblower system to allow domestic and international staff to flag illegal conduct more easily and it has set up a permanent investigation office. Audi plans early next year to dissolve a task force set up to monitor fixes for 850,000 diesel-fuelled cars that the automaker said in July needed updates with emissions-control software to help avoid potential driving bans. “It’s a sign that we can slowly shift from crisis mode back into standard operation,” Stadler said, predicting the check-ups to be completed by the end of the first quarter. Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze; editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-audi-ducati-m-a/audi-ceo-drops-plan-to-sell-motorcycle-brand-ducati-idUKKBN1E60VC'|'2017-12-12T11:07:00.000+02:00'
'335b1bbaaf31f5d4afccd5916e340cfbab8bf021'|'Merck raises stakes in lung cancer as rivals close in'|'December 11, 2017 / 6:03 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Merck raises stakes in lung cancer as rivals close in Deena Beasley 6 Min Read LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc, maker of the only immunotherapy approved for patients newly-diagnosed with the most common type of lung cancer, could solidify its lead by playing the long game, even as rivals edge closer. Shares of Merck have fallen 10 percent since the drugmaker several weeks ago said it would make survival a main goal of a key lung cancer trial for immunotherapy Keytruda, extending the study by up to a year. In the meantime, Roche Holding AG has shaken up Wall Street expectations for the $15-billion lung cancer market, showing its Tecentriq immunotherapy slows the spread of advanced lung cancer when combined with older treatments. Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan said the Swiss company has “the potential to get into the lead in first-line lung cancer.” Some Merck investors and medical experts are betting it will be worth the wait to prove that Keytruda can extend lives. Modifying the study - which previously measured cancer progression - moved completion to February 2019 from early 2018. “Adding survival makes a lot of sense. The benefit of these drugs tend to come out over a longer period of time,” said Karim Suwwan, manager of Fidelity’s Select Pharmaceutical Portfolio. The fund ranked immunotherapy rivals Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca in its top 10 holdings as of September 30. Non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in Merck’s Phase 3 study are treated with Keytruda plus the chemotherapy drugs Alimta, sold by Eli Lilly & Co, and carboplatin, or with chemo alone. “The validity of the results will be stronger if there is a survival benefit,” said Dr Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center, who has been involved in several immunotherapy trials. An earlier trial in similar patients indicated that initial treatment with Keytruda and chemotherapy improves survival, but it was too small to be definitive. Merck research chief Roger Perlmutter said making survival a primary goal of the larger study aims to confirm this outcome. Based on the smaller study, U.S. regulators in May approved the chemo plus Keytruda combination. Keytruda alone is also approved as an initial treatment for lung cancer patients whose tumours have high levels of PDL1, a protein targeted by the drug. In Roche’s Phase III study presented last week, patients getting Tecentriq plus the older drug Avastin and chemo drugs carboplatin and paclitaxel lived for an average of 8.3 months without their disease getting worse, only modestly better than the 6.8 months seen for those getting chemotherapy and Avastin. More than a quarter of patients given the four-drug combination suffered serious side effects. Sandra Horning, chief medical officer at Roche’s Genentech unit, said survival results are expected in the first quarter of 2018. Bristol and AstraZeneca also expect to report data from key lung cancer immunotherapy combination trials early next year. EXTRA BENEFIT Keytruda and Tecentriq, as well as Bristol’s Opdivo and Astra’s Imfinzi, are designed to unleash the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells, and have been approved for a variety of cancers. Lung cancer is the biggest oncology market, with about 220,000 people in the United States due to be diagnosed this year and 155,000 seen dying from the disease often caused by smoking. Some industry experts expect Merck to release initial survival results as early as mid-2018. That could allow the company to expand use of the drug more quickly to patients without PDL1 in their tumours, and build a stronger case for European approval, said Tony Butler, managing director at equity research firm Guggenheim Securities. For Tony Scherrer, co-portfolio manager at Smead Capital Management, Merck is justified in taking a slower road. Smead owns shares of Merck, but not Bristol, Roche or AstraZeneca. “Others tried to speed up and didn’t get past the FDA,” he said. “Merck is doing what Merck has done over a long history - get it done right.” Shares of Merck trade at 13.6 times 2018 earnings estimates, a discount to their five-year average of 15 times, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. For 2023, Wall Street analysts forecast Keytruda sales of $11.6 billion, Opdivo sales of $7.7 billion and Tecentriq sales of $4.7 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. Drugmakers, doctors and patients have hoped that new, less toxic immunotherapies could replace chemotherapy for many cancers, but that works for only a minority of patients. So drugmakers began combining the newer therapies with chemo, other older cancer drugs and experimental treatments. Hundreds of these trials are underway. Some have disappointed, including a cocktail of Bristol’s Opdivo with another immunotherapy, Yervoy, in lung cancers. Chemo alone tends to help only 30 percent of advanced lung cancer patients. Researchers say that chemo could act as a catalyst, creating cellular debris that makes tumour cells more visible to the immune system. “Nobody knows what chemo backbones could be the most powerful, and data will win out here,” Daniel Chen, head of cancer immunotherapy at Roche, told investors in October. Reporting By Deena Beasley; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cancer-merck-co-lung/merck-raises-stakes-in-lung-cancer-as-rivals-close-in-idUKKBN1E50DF'|'2017-12-11T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'396bc0c24a79c3b31fa2f48b375f84cfa0a2a8ca'|'German investor morale weakens more than forecast in December'|'December 12, 2017 / 10:47 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago German investor morale weakens more than forecast in December Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The mood among German investors worsened more than expected in December, a survey showed on Tuesday, reflecting uncertainty over the policies of a government yet to be formed, Britain’s expected exit from the European Union and reforms in the bloc. The LP12 Mall of Berlin shopping mall is pictured with Christmas decorations in Berlin, Germany, December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch The Mannheim-based ZEW research institute said its monthly survey showed its economic sentiment fell to 17.4 from 18.7 in November. That was a sharper fall than a Reuters consensus forecast for a drop to 18.0. A separate gauge measuring investors’ assessment of the economy’s current conditions climbed to 89.3 from 88.8 last month. That compared with the Reuters consensus forecast for an increase to 88.5. Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Michelle Martin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy-zew/german-investor-morale-weakens-more-than-forecast-in-december-idUKKBN1E6152'|'2017-12-12T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'067704b7c7baa94cd1c2555738ba6aba63409e79'|'Facebook to book advertising revenue locally amid political pressure'|'BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Social media giant Facebook said on Tuesday it would start booking advertising revenue locally instead of re-routing it via its international headquarters in Dublin although the move is unlikely to result in it paying much more tax.Corporate taxation has become a hot-button topic in the wake of revelations of tax avoidance schemes by multinationals which have led to calls for companies to pay more tax while Europe has begun exploring options for taxing digital giants.Facebook Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner said the company had decided to move to a local selling structure in countries where it has an office to support sales to local advertisers.“In simple terms, this means that advertising revenue supported by our local teams will no longer be recorded by our international headquarters in Dublin, but will instead be recorded by our local company in that country,” Wehner said in a blog post.“We believe that moving to a local selling structure will provide more transparency to governments and policy makers around the world who have called for greater visibility over the revenue associated with locally-supported sales in their countries.”The European Commission is working on legislative proposals, expected in March, to increase taxes on multinational digital companies, who are accused of paying too little in the EU by booking profits in low tax countries where they have their EU headquarters, like Ireland and Luxembourg.Among the options the EU executive is considering to quickly raise taxes on tech giants is a levy on revenues from advertising activities, according to an EU document published in September.Wehner said Facebook would implement the change throughout 2018 and aim to complete it by the first half of 2019.$1 = 0.7491 pounds Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Tom Bergin in London '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/facebook-tax/facebook-to-book-advertising-revenue-locally-amid-political-pressure-idINL8N1OC4EW'|'2017-12-12T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'b886b39795b73706f9d37a8d4ab6bdcb743a393f'|'Female directors snubbed, Plummer surprises at Golden Globe nominations'|' 34 PM / in 7 minutes Female directors snubbed, Plummer surprises at Golden Globe nominations Piya Sinha-Roy 3 Min Read LOS ANGELES, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Women were shut out of the directors race at the 2018 Golden Globe nominations on Monday, while Ridley Scott’s scramble to reshoot “All the Money in the World” led to a surprise nod for actor Christopher Plummer, who replaced Kevin Spacey. Greta Gerwig, who made her solo directorial debut with the warmly reviewed coming-of-age tale “Lady Bird,” was snubbed in a category in which Scott, Guillermo del Toro, Martin McDonagh, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg were nominated. Patty Jenkins, who delivered box office superhero smash “Wonder Woman,” was also left out, along with directors Dee Rees, of Netflix Inc’s racial period drama “Mudbound,” and Kathryn Bigelow, of the racially charged drama “Detroit.” “It’s a terrible shame, to be honest,” said McDonagh, who wrote and directed small-town drama “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”“I know there have been great screenplays by women recognized this year but not directing, and maybe that will change in the Oscars.” Gerwig, 34, was nominated for best screenplay for writing “Lady Bird,” which also landed two acting nods for its star, Saoirse Ronan, and supporting actress, Laurie Metcalf. Metcalf told Reuters that Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” set was collaborative and stress-free. “I‘m spoiled rotten,” Metcalf said. “She just made it a beautiful and personal experience for the entire cast and crew.” Scott’s “All the Money in the World” received nominations for supporting actor Plummer and lead actress Michelle Williams in the drama about the 1973 kidnapping of oil heir John Paul Getty III. Plummer replaced Spacey last month in the role of Jean Paul Getty after Spacey was cut because of multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him. Spacey issued an apology for the first reported incident, involving actor Anthony Rapp. Reuters could not independently confirm the allegations. Scott did last-minute reshoots to have the Sony Pictures film completed in time for its Dec. 25 release. “I am especially proud that the beautiful performances of Michelle and Chris were celebrated today,” Scott said in an emailed statement. “Despite the unexpected challenges we encountered after shooting was completed, we were determined that audiences around the world would be able to see our film.” Other surprises included Vietnamese-American actress Hong Chau for her breakout role in the best supporting actress race for futuristic comedy “Downsizing.” Other key snubs included Amazon’s interracial romantic comedy “The Big Sick,” which failed to land any nominations, especially for its star Kumail Nanjiani, who wrote the film with his real-life wife on the circumstances that brought them together. Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/awards-goldenglobes-surprises/female-directors-snubbed-plummer-surprises-at-golden-globe-nominations-idUSL1N1OB15B'|'2017-12-11T19:33:00.000+02:00'
'f1fdff2ce7977b023a4755e9fb80d0f6be9dc9d3'|'China liquidity tool moves into focus as Fed rate decision awaited'|' 48 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago China liquidity tool moves into focus as Fed rate decision awaited Winni Zhou , Kevin Yao 5 Min Read SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Speculation is growing that China’s central bank will wield a liquidity management tool twice this month for the first time since March, and that has some traders feeling Beijing might tighten policy soon after this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, June 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo The tool is the medium-term lending facility (MLF). Ten months ago, when the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) last made two such injections, it followed the Fed’s March lead and hiked its short- and medium-term target rates. The Financial News, a newspaper under the PBOC, said last week a second MLF injection in December was probable. A Shanghai money-market trader said this “could potentially mean the PBOC would raise rates during the next round of MLF rollovers”. A batch of MLFs worth 187 billion yuan ($28.3 billion) matures on Dec. 16 - two days after the Fed decision is known in Asia. Fanning speculation that tightening might be ahead, central bank researcher Sun Guofang told a conference last week that emerging market economies should start “monetary policy normalization” as soon as possible. But it is not clear the PBOC will follow any Fed hike this time; it held steady in June, when U.S. rates last rose. “There is no room for policy loosening, given that the Fed’s rate rises, balance sheet cuts and Trump’s tax cuts will lead to money flows to the United States,” said Tang Jianwei, an economist at Bank of Communications in Shanghai. “We should not rush to tighten... If we tighten monetary policy, there will be big impact on the real economy.” EFFECTIVE TIGHTENING Chinese interest rates have risen this year, and prudential policies aimed at reducing debt and leverage have also effectively tightened market conditions. The volume-weighted average rate of the benchmark seven-day repo closed at 2.8264 percent on Friday. The official published rate is 2.45 percent, and the spread has been widening, but the PBOC’s Q3 monetary policy report said it was “reasonable” for this rate to hover between 2.75-3 percent. The benchmark secondary market yield on 10-year Chinese treasuries was 3.9102 percent, up around 80 basis points since the start of 2017. One-year Shibor < SHICNY1YD=> has also soared. On Friday, it was at 4.6562 percent, up from 3.3833 at the start of the year. And the weighted average lending rate for non-financial firms, a key indicator of corporate funding costs, rose by 49 basis points in the first nine months to 5.76 percent. “If market rates in China were hovering at low levels, then a rate hike in the United States could guide us; but our rates are already at high levels,” said Nie Wen, an economist at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai. LESS YUAN CONCERN Another factor, the yuan, is also less of a concern for policymakers. After falling 6.5 percent last year, the yuan has risen more than 5 percent in 2017 and worries of destabilising capital outflows have receded. “The necessity for the PBOC to defend the yuan through a rise in money market rates has reduced markedly,” Gao Qi, currency strategist at Scotiabank in Singapore, wrote in a report on Wednesday. Still, he expected the PBOC to raise its reverse repo and MLF rates in December “in step with an expected rate hike by the Fed” this week. David Qu, markets economist at ANZ in Shanghai, says regardless of what happens with the Fed, the PBOC needed to raise its key market rates to catch up with reality of already-rising market rates. The PBOC has raised rates on its liquidity tools this year, but at a combined 20 basis points (with the exception of one overnight rate), the increases to MLF, reverse repo and standard lending facility (SLF) interest rates have been much smaller than the rise in market rates on the back of the deleveraging push. “Markets have already priced in a December Fed rate hike, and domestic market rates, i.e. Shibor, have climbed up fast to relatively high levels recently, it is necessary for the PBOC to make upward adjustment,” Qu said. He expects a China rate rise before the end of March, and four increases next year. Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-rates/china-liquidity-tool-moves-into-focus-as-fed-rate-decision-awaited-idUKKBN1E50L2'|'2017-12-11T09:48:00.000+02:00'
'f59e12f3d9d385de7980c878a9482fe0d5bd4ec5'|'WTO losing focus, must rethink development - U.S. trade chief'|'December 11, 2017 / 2:36 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago WTO losing focus, must rethink development - U.S. trade chief Luc Cohen 2 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade chief said on Monday that the World Trade Organization is losing its focus on trade negotiations in favour of litigation and needed to rethink how it defines developing economies. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer addresses the media to close the second round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada at Secretary of Economy headquarters in Mexico City, Mexico, September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Setting a combative tone at the start of the WTO’s 11th ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer complained that too many countries were not following WTO rules and too many wealthier members had been given unfair exemptions as developing countries. “We need to clarify our understanding of development within the WTO. We cannot sustain a situation in which new rules can only apply to a few and that others will be given a pass in the name of self-proclaimed development status,” Lighthizer told the conference’s opening session. Lighthizer said it was impossible to negotiate new WTO rules when many of the current ones were not being followed, and added that too many members viewed exemptions from WTO rules as a path to faster growth. In a thinly veiled swipe at China’s trade practices, Lighthizer said the United States was leading negotiations to “correct the sad performance of many members in notification and transparency.” He also said Washington wanted the WTO to help make markets operate more efficiently, addressing new challenges such as chronic industrial overcapacity and the influence of state-owned enterprises. Lighthizer, who has long criticized the WTO’s dispute settlement system, has emerged as the leading voice behind the Trump administration’s “America First” trade agenda. That includes stepped up trade enforcement actions, along with several studies that could lead to broad new tariffs on steel and aluminium, as well as potential retaliation against China’s intellectual property practices. Some of these could run afoul of WTO rules. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-trade-wto/ustr-lighthizer-says-wto-losing-focus-must-rethink-development-idUKKBN1E51N1'|'2017-12-11T17:40:00.000+02:00'
'7a1db41f1677da436d45a686a0320ea470c0b508'|'Buyout firm Ardian sells 1 billion euro infrastructure asset portfolio'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:14 AM / Updated an hour ago Buyout firm Ardian sells 1 billion euro infrastructure asset portfolio Dasha Afanasieva 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Ardian has agreed to sell its stake in infrastructure assets to existing shareholder pension fund APG, in a deal which values the entire portfolio at more than 1 billion euros (900 million pounds) the private equity firm told Reuters. The portfolio is comprised of investments in Italian gas distribution company 2i Rete Gas, French LGV Lisea, Spanish toll road Trados M-45, French rail GSM communications’ network Synerail, French renewable energy company Kallista Energy, Italian Renewable energy company 3 New & Partners, French toll road A88 and Italian hospital HISI Legnano. Ardian declined to say what percentage of the portfolio changed hands or how much APG paid in this transaction. Insurer AXA remains a shareholder in the portfolio with an undisclosed stake. Paris-based Ardian said it will remain the asset manager and adviser for the portfolio, whose equity value including minority stakes was more than 1 billion euros. However, the enterprise value of the portfolio, which includes debt, exceeds 10 billion euros, Mathias Burghardt, who is a member of Ardian’s executive committee said, adding that all the assets were valued above their net asset value. The sale is an example of an exit strategy for an infrastructure fund which is tailored to the varied time horizons of different investment funds, signalling the maturing of the relatively new infrastructure investing industry. “By organising a competitive auction, we have given liquidity to some investors in ten years while allowing others to remain on as shareholders,” Burghardt said. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. APG is one of the biggest Dutch pension funds with 467 billion euros in assets under management, while French insurer and fund manager AXA has almost 1.5 trillion euros. Ardian has assets of $66 billion which it manages or advises on in Europe, North America and Asia and is majority-owned by its employees. The group is in the process of raising an infrastructure fund for assets in the United States. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva; editing by Alexander Smith and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ardian-portfolio-sale/buyout-firm-ardian-sells-1-billion-euro-infrastructure-asset-portfolio-idUKKBN1E60R1'|'2017-12-12T10:13:00.000+02:00'
'dc33a5e3d887568d9293ad68e7746b5e3ea305e9'|'Small Canadian miners in pole position for electric vehicle battery boon'|' 38 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Small Canadian miners in pole position for electric vehicle battery boon Nicole Mordant 5 Min Read VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canadian developers of cobalt and lithium mines stand to benefit from a round of investments from the makers of electric vehicles and the batteries powering them, a potential game-changer for small miners short on money to develop deposits of these critical battery ingredients. Toronto-listed cobalt companies, Ecobalt Solutions and Fortune Minerals, are in talks, ranging from preliminary to more advanced, with more than a dozen groups, including car and battery makers, on financing their projects, their chief executives told Reuters. The interest in miners from downstream players along the battery supply chain - a new area of investment for most - would provide a life-line to miners at time when equity funding for developers remains relatively tight after a five-year downturn on weak metals prices. “We anticipate additional transactions in the coming months and years. It is a function of demand-supply imbalance,” said John Kanellitsas, President and Vice Chairman of Lithium Americas Corp, which raised nearly $300 million this year for a project in Argentina. A string of potential financing deals in Canada comes after a handful of predominantly lithium miners in Australia - the world’s biggest lithium producer - secured investment from mainly Chinese automakers and battery makers this year looking to lock in future raw material supply. For a FACTBOX on recent deals, click: Lithium mine developers have been able to secure funding earlier than their cobalt peers as fears of a supply shortage started in late 2015, when cobalt was still in surplus. Like lithium, cobalt’s price has doubled - but most of that upswing has come this year on concerns of multi-year shortfalls in the next decade as demand from the electric vehicle sector surges. Cobalt’s fortunes are more closely tied to batteries than lithium‘s: about 55 percent of all cobalt goes into battery chemicals compared to about 40 percent for lithium, according to a Dec. 4 BMO Capital Markets report. For a graphic click tmsnrt.rs/2AE9JGq Although there are no guarantees that deals will be struck, the cobalt miners, who have been advancing their projects for more than a decade, are in their strongest position yet to secure funding, said Cormark Securities analyst MacMurray Whale. That is because of deficit forecasts due to constrained supply and expected soaring demand from the electric vehicle market. “All those elements together suggest to me that it can’t be better,” Whale said. MINING HUB IN CANADA With more than 1,200 publicly listed mining companies, Canada has long been the global hub for mine developers with projects around the world. Vancouver-based Ecobalt’s “path forward” is to first sign a long-term supply agreement, called an offtake, with one or more customers to provide a portion of the funds it needs to develop its Idaho cobalt project, CEO Paul Farquharson said in an email. Once in place, this would significantly lower the risk for the project, making it more attractive for banks to provide debt financing and other investors to fund the balance. Ecobalt outlined plans on Dec. 7 to produce for offtake a cobalt concentrate, a less-processed cobalt product than initially planned - a step that could slash as much as $100 million, according to analysts, off its previous project capital cost estimate of $187 million. Ecobalt, whose Idaho project is the only fully-permitted, primary cobalt deposit in the United States, is the most likely of the Canadian cobalt developers to secure financing, possibly within six months, said Eight Capital analyst David Talbot. Canada’s Nemaska Lithium and Mason Graphite, which both have projects in Quebec, could also secure funding in coming months, Talbot said. Graphite is another battery ingredient but unlike cobalt and lithium, batteries are not graphite’s main end-use. Ecobalt’s Idaho project has unique advantages over other projects including that around 75 percent of its revenue will come from cobalt and that it is located in a safe political jurisdiction, Talbot said. Almost all cobalt is produced as a by-product from copper and nickel mines, meaning output increases are dependant on other markets. More than half of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labour is used in mines - a worry for automakers looking to secure ethically-sourced battery raw materials. Fortune, which is seeking more than $700 million to develop its Nico cobalt mine and processing plant in Canada, expects to secure finance in 2018 once it releases a feasibility study on an expanded project, CEO Robin Goad said. “Our biggest advantage is to be able to market our project as a Canadian source of supply,” Goad said. Additional reporting by Tom Daly in Beijing; Editing by Denny Thomas and Edward Tobin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mining-evbatteries-canada/small-canadian-miners-in-pole-position-for-electric-vehicle-battery-boon-idUKKBN1E50DH'|'2017-12-11T11:37:00.000+02:00'
'add4ca0edb8704df9d02dd4e271ff0468a50ce30'|'Germany favours Eurofighter as it seeks to replace Tornado'|'December 11, 2017 / 4:28 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Germany favours Eurofighter as it seeks to replace Tornado Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The German Defence Ministry said on Monday that the European fighter jet was in poll position to replace its Tornado jets, which it wants to phase out starting in 2025. It added in a statement that Boeing’s F-15 and F-18 fighters, as well as Lockheed Martin’s F-35 aircraft, were secondary options. No final decision has been made. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a joint project between British defence group BAE, France’s Airbus and Italy’s Finmeccanica. France and Germany said earlier this year they plan to develop an European fighter jet as they seek to tighten defence and security cooperation. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Alison Williams)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-defence/germany-favours-eurofighter-as-it-seeks-to-replace-tornado-idUSB4N1LS028'|'2017-12-11T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'8b6a919189c7b67be9f9be0143265eb00f1ce190'|'Elliott says chipmaker NXP worth more than Qualcomm''s offer'|'December 11, 2017 / 1:20 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Elliott says chipmaker NXP worth 23 percent more than Qualcomm''s offer Aishwarya Venugopal 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Activist investor Elliott Management Corp said on Monday NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI.O ) is worth about 23 percent more than Qualcomm Inc’s ( QCOM.O ) $38-billion offer to buy the chipmaker. A man works on a tent for NXP Semiconductors in preparation for the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on January 4, 2015. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo Elliott, which has a stake of about 6 percent in NXP, said NXP was worth $135 per share on an intrinsic standalone basis, compared with Qualcomm’s offer of $110 made in October 2016. NXP shares were up 0.6 percent at $116 in morning trading, while Qualcomm’s shares were up about 1 percent at $64.87. Elliott, a New York-based hedge fund, said Qualcomm’s offer had taken advantage of NXP’s depressed stock price last year and has acted as a ceiling on its valuation. “We believe NXP’s prospects are bright. Approximately half of NXP’s revenue is exposed to exciting growth engines of the semiconductor market – automotive and industrial,” Elliott said in a letter to other NXP shareholders. Qualcomm replied saying it believed the agreed-upon price of $110 is full and fair, and that it remained fully committed to closing the acquisition. “Elliott’s value assertion for NXP is unsupportable and is clearly nothing more than an attempt to advance its own self-serving agenda,” Qualcomm said in a statement. Elliott said it has retained UBS to conduct a financial analysis on NXP and that it would share the report with other shareholders. NXP’s shares have been trading above Qualcomm’s offer price since Aug. 4 when Elliott indicated it was pushing for a higher price. Besides trying to convince NXP investors of the planned acquisition, Qualcomm has also toiled to win regulatory approval and has offered certain concessions to address concerns the deal would hamper competition in the market. Since it offered to buy NXP, Qualcomm itself has been the target of an acquisition approach from Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ), but it rejected the $103-billion offer last month. Broadcom had indicated it was willing to acquire Qualcomm, for $70 per share, irrespective of whether it closed the NXP deal. Acquiring NXP would make Qualcomm the leading chip supplier to the fast-growing automotive market. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nxp-semicondtrs-elliott/elliott-says-chipmaker-nxp-worth-more-than-qualcomms-offer-idINKBN1E51GN'|'2017-12-11T10:20:00.000+02:00'
'c3d91253a18279c96f64df2173f164eddb955396'|'Brazil''s Petrobras raises $1.5 billion with distribution unit IPO'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - State-controlled oil company Petrobras’ fuel distribution unit priced its shares at the bottom of the pre-established range for its IPO but still raised 5.02 billion reais ($1.5 billion) in one of Brazil’s biggest stock flotations of the year.Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, priced shares in the subsidiary at 15 reais, at the bottom of the suggested price range, with concern about presidential elections next year and struggle to approve much-needed macroeconomic reforms weighing on investors orders, according to people close to the deal.Petrobras opted for a lower price, but increased the size of the offer, with investors exercising the 15 percent “greenshoe” option for an over-allotment of shares.Petrobras Distribuidora SA’s IPO was the largest since the 5.12 billion reais listing of the local unit of retailer Carrefour SA ( CARR.PA ) in July. Carrefour´s listing was the biggest in four years.According to one person with knowledge of the matter, Petrobras Distribuidora was valued at around seven times its expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a gauge of operational profitability known as EBITDA. Private sector rivals such as Ultrapar Participações SA trade at multiples above 10.The long-awaited transaction has been discussed between the oil company and the banks for at least two years. Asset sales and spinoffs are being used by Petrobras to trim the largest debt burden of any major oil company, at about $95 billion.Renewed demand for emerging market assets, and a nascent economic recovery have fostered demand for Brazilian assets following the deepest recession in a century.Brazil is going through one of the busiest weeks for capital markets this year, with four transactions. Companies are rushing to complete the deals and avoid expected market volatility ahead of a wide-open presidential campaign next year.($1 = 3.3099 reais)Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Flavia Bohone, Bruno Federowski and Brad Haynes; Editing by Christian Plumb and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-br-distribuidora-ipo/brazils-petrobras-raises-1-5-billion-with-distribution-unit-ipo-idINKBN1E735I'|'2017-12-13T20:29:00.000+02:00'
'331e7006922717d887c9d57d96b92ecb31e011a3'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 14'|' 26 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 14 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Dec 14 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen to open 18 points lower at 7,478.8 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. * RIO TINTO: Liberty House, the industrial and commodities group buying a number of steel assets around the world, is considering a bid for Rio Tinto''s , aluminium smelter in northern France, the largest in Europe, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. * OIL: Oil markets rose on Thursday, lifted by a fourth straight weekly fall in U.S. crude inventories, though climbing output capped prices well below the 2015 highs reached earlier this week. * GOLD: Gold inched up in early trade on Thursday as the dollar was nearly unchanged after tumbling in the previous session following the U.S. Federal Reserve''s widely expected decision to raise interest rates, although it left the outlook on rates unchanged. * GLOBAL-METALS: London metals were broadly higher on Thursday as the dollar fell after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its rate outlook unchanged, while encouraging factory figures from China and Japan added to the rosier picture. * BRITAIN-EU: British Prime Minister Theresa May will urge European Union leaders to approve an agreement to move Brexit talks on to a second phase on Thursday, describing it as a fair deal that offers a good base for a discussion of future ties. * EX-DIVS: Associated British Foods, 3I Group will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 0.7 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations. * The UK blue chip index ended less than 0.1 percent lower on Wednesday, as investors'' anticipation of a rate rise from the U.S. Federal Reserve drove financial stocks higher while high-yielding consumer stocks suffered. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Byotrol PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Tungsten Corp PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Bunzl PLC Pre-Close Trading Statement Release Capita PLC Pre-Close Trading Statement Release Sports Direct International PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release PZ Cussons PLC Trading Statement Release Ocado Group PLC Q4 2017 Trading Statement Release TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-14-idUSL4N1OE2PK'|'2017-12-14T08:23:00.000+02:00'
'f85fcc759e4b0e617e1b9c3a57ef0a71e1b4af38'|'Companies in the region vote with their feet against political uncertainty - Adéu to Catalonia'|'“WE ARE used to dealing with political crises, but not a break in the rule of law,” says the boss of a big Barcelona cement firm, of Catalonia’s constitutional crisis. Fearing separatists in the region would declare independence, as they did on October 27th, he shifted its headquarters to Madrid. That ended decades of family tradition, but there is no plan to return. “It was a painful decision, but we had no alternative,” he says.Catalonia accounts for roughly a fifth of Spain’s GDP and a quarter of its exports, but only a sixth of the country’s population. Its diversified economy is the envy of much of Spain, notes Jordi Alberich Llaveria of Cercle d’Economia, a business lobby in Barcelona, thanks to flourishing medium-sized, family-run industrial, textile and perfume-making firms. It has become a hub for multinationals, carmakers, pharmaceutical firms, fashion boutiques and hundreds of startups.  43 minutes   7   7   The cement-maker’s boss worries that those industrial and entrepreneurial traditions may fade because of political turmoil. In an independent Catalonia, his company’s double-taxation deals with other countries (70% of its revenues come from abroad) might have been invalid.Many others have made the same choice. By this week, over 2,900 firms had moved legal headquarters elsewhere in Spain as a result of the crisis—around half to Madrid. The central government made shifting easier to do with a decree on October 6th that removed a previous requirement for a shareholders’ meeting to grant permission first. Before the crisis, the region hosted seven of the 35 companies on Madrid’s IBEX stock index. Only one, Grifols, a pharmaceutical firm, remains.The exodus slowed after Madrid imposed direct rule in late October and the jailing of separatists in early November. But uncertainty persists over the result of an election on December 21st. Business would like a lower vote for separatists, but that would not dispel their worries.Moving legal headquarters need not mean that business operations and factories leave Catalonia. But in practice moving headquarters can affect where staff, especially senior ones, spend time. This is especially the case for some 1,000 firms that have taken a slightly bigger step—shifting their fiscal as well as their legal registration. “You move the board, then the CEO, then senior management. There is a natural knock-on effect,” says one company boss. “The danger is if the brains start leaving,” warns a member of a business lobby.The financial industry has seen the biggest shift. Before the crisis, Catalonia was home to several of Spain’s largest insurance firms. Five have moved to Madrid; the sixth, a subsidiary of AXA, a French giant, said it is going to Bilbao. The two biggest Catalan banks, CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell, reportedly saw billions of euros of deposits withdrawn weekly at the peak of the crisis. That stopped, and their battered share prices stabilised, only when they left Catalonia. Neither of the big banks will return. “We don’t see any reason to reverse that decision, even in the medium term,” says an executive at one of them.Firms in other industries are delaying expansion. “Our corporate clients in Catalonia have stopped investment,” says the banker. An official at Barcelona’s city hall (his office overlooks a huge poster demanding “freedom for political prisoners”) confirms that investment has slowed. Big Spanish companies in various industries say local uncertainty is worse than what they face in Britain because of Brexit, where there is at least a legal process.Other economic activity has slowed, too. Barcelona lawyers, usually busy with property developments, say they have had little business since September. Guifré Homedes Amat, a property agent who also manages 5,000 flats and houses in Barcelona, says trade is flat, after two booming years. Once-keen foreign buyers of second homes—notably rich Egyptians, Chinese and Turks—watch and wait.José Luis Bonet, boss of Freixenet, a big producer of Cava wine, suggests that damage has also been done to the brand of Barcelona. He frets that fellow Spaniards may boycott his own firm’s sparkling product this Christmas, as they have in the past when there were separatist tensions. A lawyer who advises a Catalan sweets factory and a maker of baby products says both firms worry that compatriots will shun their wares. Depending on the election, business confidence could slowly return—but many firms will probably keep their headquarters elsewhere for the foreseeable future, just in case.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Adéu to Catalonia"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732569-over-3000-firms-have-moved-legal-headquarters-elsewhere-spain-1000-have-shifted-their?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'a54561197e2ff78b795db6604846a641ce98b95f'|'BRIEF-Lonestar Resources US Announces Offering Of Senior Unsecured Notes'|' 36 PM / in 11 minutes BRIEF-Lonestar Resources US Announces Offering Of Senior Unsecured Notes Reuters Staff Dec 14 (Reuters) - Lonestar Resources US Inc: * LONESTAR RESOURCES US INC. ANNOUNCES OFFERING OF SENIOR UNSECURED NOTES * LONESTAR RESOURCES US INC - INTENDS TO OFFER $250 MILLION IN AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF SENIOR UNSECURED NOTES DUE 2022 * LONESTAR RESOURCES US INC - INTENDS TO USE NET PROCEEDS FROM OFFERING TO REDEEM ALL OF ITS OUTSTANDING 8.750% SENIOR NOTES DUE 2019 * LONESTAR RESOURCES US INC - INTENDS TO USE NET PROCEEDS FROM OFFERING ALSO TO REDUCE AMOUNTS OUTSTANDING UNDER ITS REVOLVING CREDIT FACILITY Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-lonestar-resources-us-announces-of/brief-lonestar-resources-us-announces-offering-of-senior-unsecured-notes-idUSASB0BXZA'|'2017-12-14T20:34:00.000+02:00'
'7f6edc2a03cee011ec938eef4598245d5427609a'|'Uber Eats to offer couriers insurance in Europe'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:06 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Uber Eats to offer couriers insurance in Europe Julia Fioretti 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Uber’s [UBER.UL] food-delivery business will begin offering an insurance package to its couriers in Europe, a move to address the conditions of “gig economy” workers. Riders for food-delivery companies such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo are typically self-employed and the firms have come under fire for how they treat their workers. Uber Eats   start offering all its couriers in Europe an insurance package with AXA with coverage for personal accidents, cash benefits for hospitalisation, property damage and cover for third-party injury. “Uber Eats couriers can now enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working on their own schedule with the peace of mind provided by additional security and protection,” said Filip Nuytemans, Uber Eats general manager for Europe. The couriers will be able to benefit from the policy whether they are fully independent or employed via a third party, and the company will pay for the insurance. Uber Eats currently operates in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Britain. The plan will be introduced Jan. 8 next year, the company said. The gig economy, where individuals work for multiple employers day-to-day without having a fixed contract, has expanded with the arrival of apps such as Uber and Deliveroo, who say their workers have the full flexibility to work when they want and for how long they want. But companies in the gig economy come under fire from unions and politicians for what they call exploitative practices and riders for Deliveroo have gone to court in the UK to seek employment rights such as the minimum wage. Two drivers for Uber’s ride-hailing app successfully argued at a tribunal in London that the San Francisco company had responsibilities in terms of workers’ rights. The plan offered by Uber Eats will reimburse couriers up to 7,500 euros ($8,847.75) for medical expenses from an accident that results in hospitalisation or 3,000 euros if the hospitalisation is for three consecutive nights or more. Couriers will also get a cash benefit for severe sickness or injury and cover for third party bodily injuries and property damage. Reporting by Julia Fioretti Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-europe-insurance/uber-eats-to-offer-couriers-insurance-in-europe-idUKKBN1E90IS'|'2017-12-15T09:06:00.000+02:00'
'8dca9308bc053b66a4150dafcc56405ffa7386e5'|'Greeks call strike over austerity and bailout reforms'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:15 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Greeks call strike over austerity and bailout reforms Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greeks walked off the job on Thursday in a nationwide strike protesting against austerity measures and reforms the leftist-led government has agreed with the country’s bailout lenders. People hold a banner during a demonstration marking a 24-hour general strike against austerity in Athens, Greece, December 14, 2017. The banner reads, "We Resist" REUTERS/Costas Baltas Domestic flights and Athens transport were disrupted, ships remained docked for 24 hours and some public services were shut by the strike organized by Greece’s largest labor unions, private sector GSEE and its public sector counterpart ADEDY. The two unions have staged repeated strikes since the first bailout in 2010 but participation has been low in recent years due to inertia and austerity fatigue after three rescue packages and five snap elections in eight years. Around midday, about 10,000 striking workers, pensioners and students marched peacefully to parliament where lawmakers have been debating the 2018 budget. A vote on the draft is scheduled for next week. They chanted: “Take your bailouts and get out of here.” Protesters held banners reading “Shame on you!” and “No more lies!”. Greece’s fiscal goals have been approved by its European Union lenders and the International Monetary Fund. People shout slogans during a demonstration marking a 24-hour general strike against austerity in Athens, Greece, December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Costas Baltas Under its latest bailout review, the government has agreed to cut spending further, reduce pensions, complete an evaluation of public sector staff’s skills and qualifications and sell coal-fired power stations. It will also tighten the rules for unions to call a strike. “Hands off unions!,” chanted some of the protesters. Slideshow (6 Images) The state had adopted “ruthless dead end policies which were strangling the Greek people”, GSEE said in a statement. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks have lost their jobs during the crisis and a deep recession induced by austerity. Pensioners have seen their income slashed by more than 30 percent. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won power in 2015 on promises to end austerity but later signed up to a new 86 billion euro bailout that ends in August. He was re-elected on pledges to protect the poor and pensioners as well as workers’ wages and rights. With his Syriza party’s popularity sliding in opinion polls, Tsipras, whose term ends in 2019, wants to attempt “a clean exit” from the bailout, without additional financial aid from the lenders that usually comes with more conditions. Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-greece-strike/greeks-call-strike-over-austerity-and-bailout-reforms-idINKBN1E81KD'|'2017-12-14T14:50:00.000+02:00'
'bd92a5e89dbc1aa699287957d4e476c7ae771d08'|'Hackers hit major ATM network after U.S., Russian bank breaches - report'|'December 11, 2017 / 3:26 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago Hackers hit major ATM network after U.S., Russian bank breaches - report Eric Auchard 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A previously undetected group of Russian-language hackers silently stole nearly $10 million (£7.4 million) from at least 18 mostly U.S. and Russian banks in recent years by targeting interbank transfer systems, a Moscow-based security firm said on Monday. Group-IB warned that the attacks, which began 18 months ago and allow money to be robbed from bank automated teller machines (ATMs), appear to be ongoing and that banks in Latin America could be targeted next. The first attack occurred in the spring of 2016 against First Data’s “STAR” network, the largest U.S. bank transfer messaging system connecting ATMs at more than 5,000 organisations, Group-IB researchers said in a 36-page report. The firm said it was continuing to investigate a number of incidents where hackers studied how to make money transfers through the SWIFT banking system, while stopping short of saying whether any such attacks had been carried out successfully. SWIFT said in October that hackers were still targeting its interbank messaging system, but security controls instituted after last year’s $81 million heist at Bangladesh’s central bank had thwarted many of those attempts. ( reut.rs/2z1b7Bo ) Group-IB has dubbed the hacker group “MoneyTaker” after the name of software it used to hijack payment orders to then cash out funds through a network of low-level “money mules” who were hired to pick up money from automated teller machines. The security researchers said they had identified 18 banks who were hit including 15 across 10 states in the United States, two in Russia and one in Britain. Beside banks, financial software firms and one law firm were targeted. The average amount of money stolen in each of 14 U.S. ATM heists was $500,000 per incident. Losses in Russia averaged $1.2 million per incident, but one bank there managed to catch the attack and return some of the stolen funds, Group-IB said. Hackers also stole documentation for OceanSystems’ Fed Link transfer system used by 200 banks in Latin America and the United States, it said. In addition, they successfully attacked the Russian interbank messaging system known as AW CRB. Once hackers penetrated targeted banks and financial organisations, they stole internal bank documentation in order to mount future ATM attacks, Group-IB said. In Russia, the hackers continued to spy on bank networks after break-ins, while at least one U.S. bank had documents robbed twice, it said. Group-IB said it had notified Interpol and Europol in order to assist in law enforcement investigations. The unidentified hackers used a mix of constantly changing tools and tactics to bypass anti virus and other traditional security software while being careful to eliminate traces of their operations, helping them to go largely unnoticed. To disguise their moves, hackers used security certificates from brands such as Bank of America, the Fed, Microsoft and Yahoo. Reporting by Eric Auchard; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cyber-banks-atm/hackers-hit-major-atm-network-after-u-s-russian-bank-breaches-report-idUKKBN1E51US'|'2017-12-11T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'9f4f062892a194d17b7baa91344fb734e33dde5f'|'Verizon and NFL reach digital streaming agreement'|'NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc and the National Football League have reached an agreement for a multi-year digital streaming deal, Verizon said on Monday.Under the five-year deal, Verizon renews its agreement to stream NFL games on its mobile devices but loses its exclusive rights to the airings.“Verizon’s portfolio of premium digital and mobile media properties, including Yahoo Sports, will stream in-market and national games, including national pre-season, regular season, playoff games, and the Super Bowl nationwide to sports fans – regardless of mobile network,” Verizon, the no. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, said in a statement.The partnership takes effect in January.The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/verizon-communications-inc-ma-nfl/verizon-and-nfl-reach-digital-streaming-agreement-idINL1N1OB044'|'2017-12-11T10:00:00.000+02:00'
'47cd6f4e9ecc6a5b11df569ebcf4d57c38fd5368'|'Scottish fund Kiltearn halves stake in troubled Carillion'|'Dec 11 (Reuters) - Scottish investment firm Kiltearn Partners, the largest shareholder in troubled Carillion has halved its stake in the British construction company, a regulatory filing on Monday showed.Kiltearn Partners cut its stake to 4.94 percent on Dec. 7, from 9.85 percent, Carillion said in a notification of major holdings statement.Carillion issued its third profit warning in five months in November and said it was heading towards a breach of debt covenants and would need fresh capital.The firm is fighting for its survival after costly contract delays and a downturn in new business at the company, which handles major infrastructure projects for the British and other governments. Its CEO quit in July.Carillion disclosed on Aug. 11 that Kiltearn had doubled its stake to 10 percent at the start of February when shares were trading at around 225 pence each, becoming the company’s biggest shareholder.The company’s shares have slumped over 90 percent since a profit warning in July and traded at 16.25 pence at 0910 GMT on Monday. ($1 = 0.7480 pounds) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/carillion-kiltearn/scottish-fund-kiltearn-halves-stake-in-troubled-carillion-idINL8N1OB1IO'|'2017-12-11T06:15:00.000+02:00'
'edbcf87625512de745f23ad93d1e544262c63ff8'|'UK Forties oil pipeline shut, INEOS says mulling repair options'|' 29 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago UK Forties oil pipeline shut, INEOS says mulling repair options Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Forties crude oil pipeline remain closed on Wednesday and the operator INEOS said it was considering several options to repair a crack that has stopped shipments of oil and gas. INEOS said any work would likely take several weeks. The pipeline, which carries about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Forties crude, was shut on Monday after a routine inspection revealed the crack in the pipeline south of Aberdeen. INEOS had told clients late on Tuesday it believed the work would take no less than two weeks to complete. “A number of repair options are currently being considered and progressed. At this stage, it is still too early to say how quickly the repair will take at this point but it is expected to be a matter of weeks rather than days,” INEOS said on Wednesday. UK natural gas prices have surged to their highest since 2013 since the closure of the pipeline that carries roughly a third of the country’s offshore gas production. Oil prices briefly touched their highest since mid-2015 around $65 a barrel following the shutdown, which has cut off supply of the largest North Sea crude stream. Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-forties-pipeline/uk-forties-oil-pipeline-shut-ineos-says-mulling-repair-options-idUKKBN1E70ZF'|'2017-12-13T11:28:00.000+02:00'
'139d2ebedd7533da61d92ba65e4921b997ce97b8'|'METALS-Copper largely steady ahead of expected U.S. rate hike'|'MELBOURNE, Dec 13 (Reuters) - London copper trading was little changed on Wednesday, as volumes thinned throughout the complex in the lead-up to holidays and ahead of a U.S. monetary policy meeting which may spell out higher interest rates. FUNDAMENTALS * LME: London Metal Exchange copper was up 0.1 percent at $6,666.50 a tonne, as of 0247 GMT, having closed little changed in the previous session. Prices have found a base around $6,500, but have run into resistance at the 100-day moving average around $6,690. * SHFE: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper rose by half a percent to 52,180 yuan ($7,881) a tonne. * GLENCORE: Miner and trader Glencore said on Tuesday its battery minerals, especially cobalt, should spur profit in 2017 and beyond in an update for investors that also promised to grow the business, especially through partnerships. * ZINC: Glencore said next year''s zinc production would be roughly steady at just over one million tonnes, although it will start to ramp up some capacity. * JAPAN ECONOMY: Japanese machinery orders rose more than expected in October, the Cabinet Office said on Wednesday, rebounding after a big fall in the prior month in a sign capital spending will remain resilient. * BAUXITE: Paris-based miner AMR began production at its Guinean bauxite mine on Tuesday, aiming to produce between 6 million and 10 million tonnes a year of the aluminium ore, the company said. * LEAD: Seasonally strong demand from battery makers, tight supplies caused by mine shutdowns and dwindling inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses are expected to sustain lead prices, which recently hit six-year highs. * SHFE: Lead and zinc climbed 1.8 percent and 0.9 percent respectively, buoyed by a crackdown on polluters in China''s Henan and Hunan provinces. * For the top stories in metals and other news, click or MARKETS NEWS * Asian shares were treading water in early trade on Wednesday as crude oil futures steadied after a selloff, while a widely expected interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve underpinned the dollar. DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT) 0700 Germany Wholesale price index Nov 1000 Euro zone Industrial production Oct 1000 Euro zone Employment Q3 1330 U.S. Consumer prices Nov 1900 Federal Reserve announces interest rate decision 1930 Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds news briefing PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0255 GMT Three month LME copper 6667 Most active ShFE copper 52140 Three month LME aluminium 2019.5 Most active ShFE aluminium 14255 Three month LME zinc 3134.5 Most active ShFE zinc 25055 Three month LME lead 2514 Most active ShFE lead 19195 Three month LME nickel 11155 Most active ShFE nickel 89800 Three month LME tin 19100 Most active ShFE tin 135150 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 630.68 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1259.4 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 429.49 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -1023.7 4 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2201.16 ($1 = 6.6207 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-copper-largely-steady-ahead-of-expected-u-s-rate-hike-idUSL3N1OD1G1'|'2017-12-13T04:58:00.000+02:00'
'b170a0372f39afc72506033a31d921f75a62b072'|'Sanofi investors hungry for drug progress and deal news'|'December 12, 2017 / 11:48 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Sanofi investors hungry for drug progress and deal news Matthias Blamont 5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Sanofi ( SASY.PA ) still needs to convince markets it can deliver on an exciting and sustainable growth path as it contends with fresh difficulties in its vaccines arm and looks set for another gloomy year in diabetes, investors told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen in front of the entrance at the headquarters French drugmaker Sanofi in Paris October 30, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The French drugmaker holds an “innovation day” on Wednesday to discuss its pipeline of new drugs while it attempts to overcome fallout from a safety row in the Philippines over its dengue vaccine. Already irked by the lack of a large acquisition since Olivier Brandicourt was appointed as chief executive in 2015, some investors are losing patience that has been stretched for months. Shares in Sanofi are trading close to a 10-month low and are down more than 4 percent this year after a 2.2 percent decline last year. Over the past five years they have lagged the sector, rising about 3 percent against a 49 percent gain for the STOXX Europe 600 Healthcare index.SXDP. “Nothing is happening in terms of business development and there is very little news in the pipeline. What just happened with dengue is negative and shocking,” said Rudi Van Den Eynde, of asset management firm Candriam. DENGVAXIA BLOW The Philippines suspended a national immunization program last week after Sanofi’s recent findings that its Dengvaxia vaccine could, in some cases, increase the risk of severe dengue in recipients not previously infected by the virus. Manila launched an investigation and halted the sale of the medication. Once touted out as a potential $1 billion-a-year blockbuster product, Dengvaxia’s initial sales last year were only 55 million euros ($65 million) and industry analysts have been dialing back expectations. The Dengvaxia blow follows two other snags at Sanofi Pasteur, the group’s vaccines unit. The division ended the development of an experimental vaccine for clostridium difficile infection this month and pulled out of a Zika vaccine program with the U.S. military this summer. FILE PHOTO: Sanofi''s Chief Executive Officer Olivier Brandicourt attends a news conference to present the company''s 2015 annual results in Paris, France, February 9, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo PRESSURE AHEAD Last month Sanofi said that currency-adjusted sales at its diabetes franchise were likely to have shrunk by 6-8 percent a year between 2015 and 2018 after third-quarter results below expectations. It had previously forecast a 4-8 percent drop owing to persistent pricing pressure in the United States, the world’s largest healthcare market, where its blockbuster insulin drug Lantus has lost its patent. “What is frustrating is that we constantly feel Sanofi is one step behind the competition,” another London-based investor said, asking not to be named. FILE PHOTO: Concepcion Yusop, a national immunisation programme manager, shows dengue vaccine Dengvaxia in Sta. Cruz city, Metro Manila, Philippines December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo “We are not expecting anything magical during the innovation day. Management is likely to talk at length about its monoclonal antibody candidate in multiple myeloma, isatuximab, but Genmab ( GEN.CO ) and Johnson & Johnson (J&J)( JNJ.N ) already have a drug on the market, Darzalex, that sells well.” NO CHEAP TARGETS Sanofi has said several times this year that it has felt no urge to engage in a large acquisition and that investors were lauding its financial discipline. The group has, however, failed to land major deals after losing California-based cancer specialist Medivation to Pfizer ( PFE.N ) in 2016 and Swiss biotech company Actelion to U.S. drugmaker J&J in January. “Looking back, Sanofi would maybe have overpayed for Medivation. In that regard, their discipline is healthy, yet we see that the company is struggling at laying out a strategy and getting us excited,” Moneta Asset Management’s Gregoire Uettwiller said. Moneta and Candriam are both long-term investors with small stakes in Sanofi of around 0.1 percent, Reuters data shows. Candriam’s Van Den Eynde, meanwhile, says Sanofi needs to shed its qualms about splashing out on a big deal. “Once you see that your pipeline is not paying off, you cannot be naive, you must engage in M&A,” Van Den Eynde said. “Hiding behind the fact that targets are expensive is not doing it. In the modern world, no interesting firm will be available at low valuations.” Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sanofi-strategy-investors/sanofi-investors-hungry-for-drug-progress-and-deal-news-idUSKBN1E61C7'|'2017-12-12T13:46:00.000+02:00'
'4aea09e0f21bfb6685147e27596cf5e55b08d44e'|'Forced labor uncovered at New York waterfront wedding hall, authorities say'|'NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - U.S. authorities have accused two men in New York of recruiting immigrants from the Philippines to work for little or no pay at an historic catering hall in a case of human trafficking happening “in plain sight”.The pair lured workers with promises of good jobs and paid money into their bank accounts but took it back and threatened to report them if they complained, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said in a statement.Many of the workers were living with expired visas in the basement of the hall’s owner, who has since filed for bankruptcy and closed the troubled business, ICE said.“This case is an example of ruthless labor trafficking hiding in plain sight,” said Angel Melendez, ICE special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York, in a statement.“These individuals allegedly committed visa fraud while forcing people to work in their catering hall under horrible conditions, in what seemed to be an inescapable situation.”Nearly 25 million people around the world are trapped in forced labor, according to an estimate by the International Labour Organization and human rights group Walk Free Foundation.The two men, Ralph Colamussi of New York and Roberto Villanueva of the Philippines, are accused of forcing immigrants to work at the Thatched Cottage in Centerport, New York, about 40 miles (65 km) east of New York City.The two men recruited more than two dozen workers in the Philippines between 2008 and 2013, promising positions as waiters, cooks and other jobs, and made them pay upfront fees, which are illegal, ICE said.When they arrived in the United States, the workers found themselves in lesser jobs getting low or no wages, the indictment said.They were threatened with deportation or violence to themselves or their families back home if they told anyone, it said.Colamussi, who owned the Thatched Cottage, asked one worker to help him flood and burn it down, according to the indictment.When the worker refused and fled, Colamussi threatened to find him and kill him, it said.Colamussi filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and closed the picturesque waterfront venue, which dated back to 1915.He doused himself with gasoline in what officials said was a suicide attempt in 2014 the day before the bankrupt property was to be sold at auction, according to local media. He planned to set himself and his van on fire but was overcome by fumes and lost consciousness, officials told the Newsday newspaper.Colamussi and Villanueva face federal charges of conspiring to engage in forced labor of immigrants, visa fraud and other counts.Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith and Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women''s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-forcedlabor-new-york/forced-labor-uncovered-at-new-york-waterfront-wedding-hall-authorities-say-idUSKBN1E61KZ'|'2017-12-12T20:55:00.000+02:00'
'8a1e045acc3b00ea96981ad60734c51bf7347e67'|'U.S., EU, Japan to join forces on Chinese excess capacity - source'|'December 12, 2017 / 1:55 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago U.S., EU, Japan to join forces on Chinese excess capacity: source Luc Cohen , David Lawder 3 Min Read BUENOS AIRES/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, European Union and Japan are expected to announce a joint effort on Tuesday aimed at confronting China over its excess industrial capacity and other trade practices, a source close to the discussions said. Trade officials from the two countries and the EU will make a joint statement on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires, aligning to address the overcapacity issue, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because talks on the issue were continuing. It was unclear whether China would be specifically named in the statement. Washington, Brussels and Tokyo have raised complaints about China’s subsidies to state-owned enterprises, state financing and investment rules that often force foreign firms to transfer strategic technologies. They argue that such distortions have fueled rampant overcapacity in key industries such as steel and aluminum that are flooding global markets and forcing layoffs elsewhere. The United States has sided with the EU in arguing that the WTO should not grant China market economy status, a move that would severely weaken Western trade defenses. On Monday, Japanese Trade and Economy Minister Hiroshige Seko voiced support for efforts to strengthen WTO transparency and reporting standards - a U.S. initiative largely aimed at exposing illegal Chinese subsidies. “Free trade only works when we secure fair conditions for competition,” Seko said in remarks to WTO colleagues. “Fair market conditions must not be negatively affected by measures such as market-distorting subsidies, forced technology transfer, infringement of intellectual property rights and unfair trade practices by state-owned enterprises.” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, in remarks to colleagues, said some members were “intentionally circumventing” their obligations and seeking unfair concessions through litigation, causing the WTO to lose its trade negotiation focus. The Financial Times reported that the joint statement would also target China’s intellectual property practices, including requirements that require firms turn technology over to local joint-venture partners. The Trump administration is investigating Chinese intellectual property practices, which could lead to unilateral trade retaliation under a U.S. trade law that predates the WTO’s creation in 1995. The administration is also considering broad import restrictions on steel and aluminum on national security grounds under a Cold War-era trade law. EU member countries including as Germany have threatened retaliation against any U.S. steel tariffs and have urged Washington against such unilateral actions. Reporting by Luc Cohen in Buenos Aires and David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-wto-china-excess/u-s-eu-japan-to-join-forces-on-chinese-excess-capacity-source-idUKKBN1E6069'|'2017-12-12T03:50:00.000+02:00'
'5eeeece43cf9c8b9ec363243dbe2ae78cd2ab6f9'|'Air Berlin administrator says no Niki offer after talks with Thomas Cook'|'December 12, 2017 / 5:08 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Air Berlin administrator says no Niki offer after talks with Thomas Cook Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Air Berlin’s administrator said renewed talks with Thomas Cook have not led to a sustainable offer for the insolvent carrier’s Austria-based Niki unit. Flight AB6210, the last by insolvent carrier Air Berlin, arrives at the Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke “Renewed talks with the consortium of bidders related to tour operator Thomas Cook have to date not even remotely led to a sustainable alternative offer,” Air Berlin administrator Frank Kebekus said on Tuesday. After a meeting on Tuesday, the creditor committee said Germany’s Lufthansa remains the only valid prospective buyer. British Airways parent IAG has already dropped out of the bidding. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a/air-berlin-administrator-says-no-niki-offer-after-talks-with-thomas-cook-idUKKBN1E62BP'|'2017-12-12T19:07:00.000+02:00'
'c4dc49414a7004eb5ef212ebc333b82100896614'|'Royal Mail facing legal action from drivers over employment rights'|'December 12, 2017 / 1:24 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Royal Mail facing legal action from drivers over employment rights Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Four courier drivers at Royal Mail have filed a legal action against the company over employment rights, the law firm representing the workers said on Tuesday. A Royal Mail postal worker stands in the yard of a sorting office in Altrincham, Britain October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble The claims, launched in the Employment Tribunal by GMB union, alleges a “failure by Royal Mail to pay the Parcelforce drivers the national minimum wage and holiday pay,” law firm Leigh Day said in an email. “We are aware that a case has been filed. We do not comment on ongoing legal cases,” a Royal Mail spokesman said. The drivers also claim Royal Mail should give them “paternity pay, sick pay and employee protections such as protection from discrimination.” The couriers are classed as self-employed and not entitled to the same right as employees, the law firm added. A first hearing will be held at the Employment Tribunal on Feb. 16. The Communications Workers Union has been at odds with Royal Mail since April over its plans to save billions of pounds on its pension contributions and has attempted to call a strike. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-royal-mail-gmb/royal-mail-facing-legal-action-from-drivers-over-employment-rights-idUKKBN1E61NG'|'2017-12-12T15:23:00.000+02:00'
'bed99c74e253f258fdfcb4d7172de47573c2db91'|'Asia shares take breather, Brent breaks above $65'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow closed higher on Tuesday along with major European stock indexes a day ahead of the Federal Reserve’s expected U.S. interest rate hike, while Brent crude oil fell after reaching $65 per barrel for the first time since mid-2015.Brazilian mining company Vale S.A.''s CEO Fabio Schvartsman speaks with specialist trader Meric Greenbaum on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The Fed, whose two-day policy meeting ends Wednesday, is widely expected to raise its benchmark rate to between 1.25 and 1.50 percent.The S&P and the Dow hit record closing highs, boosted by bank stocks as investors focused on a potential cut in U.S. corporate tax rates and continued strong economic growth.“As investors become more comfortable (that) the economic recovery appears to be expanding, they’re starting to dip their toes into the value sectors like industrials, financials and energy that need earnings growth to expand,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI closed 118.77 points, or 0.49 percent, higher at 24,504.8, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 4.12 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,664.11 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 12.76 points, or 0.19 percent, to 6,862.32.Mergers and acquisitions helped boost European stocks, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index closing up 0.66 percent.Shares of Gemalto ( GTO.AS ), a Netherlands-based digital security services company, surged 34.6 percent after a 4.3 billion euro bid from French tech consultancy Atos ( ATOS.PA ).The earlier jump in oil prices also boosted energy-heavy European stock indexes, with the STOXX 600’s oil and gas sector .SXEP jumping 1.56 percent.MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.02 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.43 percent.OIL Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.56 per barrel, down 1.75 percent. Oil prices rose to a more than two-year high earlier after Britain’s Forties pipeline was shut due to cracks as a cold snap swept the country.U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 1.26 percent to $57.26.The Forties pipeline is important for the global oil market because the crude it carries normally sets the price of dated Brent, a benchmark used to price physical crude around the world and which underpins Brent futures.The shutdown comes as oil supply cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have helped drain some of the excess inventories built up following a global supply glut which began to emerge in late 2014.Investors will keep their focus on policy decisions worldwide, with a slate of central banks, including the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, set to meet this week.The U.S. dollar rose against a basket of currencies as the Fed began its meeting. Investors will watch for any signs that Fed officials are more optimistic on the prospect of faster growth as lawmakers appear close to passing a major overhaul of the tax code.The dollar index .DXY rose 0.19 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.2 percent to $1.1745.The Japanese yen strengthened 0.05 percent versus the greenback at 113.51 per dollar JPY= , while sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.3317, down 0.15 percent on the day.The New Zealand dollar NZD= reached a one-month high earlier as investors welcomed the appointment of national pension fund chief Adrian Orr to head the Reserve Bank.U.S. Treasury yields rose as stronger-than-forecast data on producer prices in November offset average demand at a $12 billion auction of 30-year bonds.The two-year yield reached its highest in more than nine years as traders anticipated a Fed rate increase.Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 4/32 in price to yield 2.3993 percent, from 2.385 percent late on Monday.The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last fell 2/32 in price to yield 2.7746 percent, from 2.772 percent late on Monday.Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho, Helen Reid and Danilo Masoni in London, Bryan Sims in Houston, Rama Venkat Raman and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Sinead Carew and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by Daniel Bases and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asia-wagers-global-cheer-will-outlive-fed-tightening-idINKBN1E600L'|'2017-12-12T04:54:00.000+02:00'
'432d6904f2f637ed0f866d318caf43ccb1bbeed3'|'Morning News Call - India, December 12'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 9:30 am: Communications Minister Manoj Sinha, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, Transport and Highways Secretary Yuvdhir Singh Malik and Transport and Highways Joint Secretary Dakshita Das at ASEAN-India Connectivity Summit in New Delhi. 10:00 am: SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi, NSE Managing Director Vikram Limaye, BSE MD & CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan and Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management ED & CEO Sundeep Sikka at AIBI Summit 2017 in Mumbai. 11:30 am: Volvo Auto India MD Charles Frump at Volvo’s new launch in Mumbai. 12:00 pm: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at Digital Payment Security Awareness campaign in Mumbai. 5:30 pm: Government to release November consumer price inflation data in Mumbai. 5:30 pm: Government to release October Industrial output data in Mumbai. INDIA TOP NEWS • India''s Rahul Gandhi takes helm of Congress party to challenge Modi India''s main opposition Congress party on Monday elevated Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the country''s most fabled political dynasty, as its president, preparing to challenge the dominance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of national polls in 2019. • Apple, India wrangle over import tax on mobile parts - sources Apple Inc has asked India to defer a planned increase in import taxes on mobile phone parts so it can expand its iPhone manufacturing in the country, but the government is unlikely to accede, people familiar with the matter said. • Russia urges India to line up behind China''s Belt and Road initiative Russia threw its weight behind China''s massive Belt and Road plan to build trade and transport links across Asia and beyond, suggesting to India on Monday that it find a way to work with Beijing on the signature project. • India government favours petcoke import ban, U.S. would be biggest loser India''s government is in favour of banning imports of petroleum coke to curb air pollution, according to a government affidavit filed with its top court, which could be a big blow to U.S. refiners who export heavily to the country. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Bitcoin futures suggest breakneck rise in price to slow Newly launched bitcoin futures on Monday suggested that traders expect the cryptocurrency''s blistering price gains to slow in the coming months, even as it blasted above $17,000 to a fresh record high in the spot market. • EU tells Netanyahu it rejects Trump''s Jerusalem move Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his case to Europe to ask allies to join the United States in recognising Jerusalem as Israel''s capital, but met a firm rebuff from EU foreign ministers who saw the move as a blow against the peace process. • China''s banks dole out record credit in 2017 as Nov loans blow past forecasts Bank lending in China hit a fresh record after a much stronger-than-expected surge in credit in November, even as authorities step up efforts to reduce risks in the financial system from a rapid build-up in debt. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) The SGX Nifty Futures were at 10,340.00, trading down 0.06 percent from its previous close. The Indian rupee will likely edge lower against the dollar, as the greenback strengthened amid bets the U.S. Federal Reserve will almost certainly tighten interest rates tomorrow. Indian government bonds are likely to fall in early trade as investors await the retail inflation data for November. A fresh supply of state debt would also damp demand. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.14 percent-7.20 percent band, a trader with a primary dealership said. The note closed at 97.41 rupees. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street indexes closed higher on Monday and the biggest drivers were technology and energy sectors as oil prices rose and investors waited for an expected U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike later in the week. • Asian shares took a breather after three straight sessions of gains, with markets consolidating in the hope an upswing in global growth could outlast a likely hike in U.S. borrowing costs this week. • The dollar held steady near a recent two-week high versus a basket of major currencies, with traders awaiting the U.S. Federal Reserve''s policy meeting this week for fresh catalysts. • U.S. Treasury debt prices were little changed on Monday after rallying earlier in the session on safe-haven buying following an explosion in midtown Manhattan which New York Mayor Bill de Blasio described as an "attempted terrorist attack." • Brent crude oil prices jumped above $65 per barrel for the first time since 2015 after the shutdown of the Forties North Sea pipeline knocked out significant supply from a market that was already tightening due to OPEC-led production cuts. • Gold was slightly higher in early trade, having shed half a percent in the previous session, ahead of the start of a two-day Federal Reserve meeting in the United States. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.33/64.36 December 11 -$28.09 mln $131.76 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.19 pct Month-to-date -$628.02 mln $542.07 mln Year-to-date $6.78 bln $26.28 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.3500 Indian rupees) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-december-12-idINL3N1OC1C3'|'2017-12-12T00:16:00.000+02:00'
'99317dbbd03486eaa23c59a5c4e57931d5436d01'|'China likely to keep 2018 GDP target around 6.5 percent - policy adviser'|' 42 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago China likely to keep 2018 GDP target around 6.5 percent - policy adviser Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China will likely set its 2018 economic growth target at around 6.5 percent, unchanged from the previous year, leaving more room for quality growth as a government deleveraging campaign is set to intensify, a policy adviser was quoted as saying on Tuesday. A man walks on a bridge in front of the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai, China, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Lou Feng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state think tank, expects China to rely more on “innate drivers” for economic growth such as technology innovation in 2018, stressing the country is now minimising the importance of quantitative targets, according to Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald. China routinely sets an annual growth target which is widely watched by the market for clues on how much the government will likely stimulate the economy throughout the year. A proposed target would be endorsed by top leaders at the closed-door Central Economic Work Conference in mid-December, and then announced at China’s annual congress in early 2018. China lowered its 2017 growth target to around 6.5 percent from the previous year’s 6.5 to 7 percent, but its debt-fuelled investment binge has driven up infrastructure investment and real estate development, which has given the economy a surprise boost. The Chinese economy is on course to hit an expansion of 6.8 percent in 2017, Lou said, according to the newspaper. He said the government would seek to reduce overall leverage in the economy, pressing for a lower broad money supply against its gross domestic product (GDP) in the next step of a deleveraging campaign. Many analysts say efforts to cut high debt levels received a renewed push after the agenda-setting Communist Party Congress concluded in October. Policy sources have told Reuters that China’s leaders are likely to maintain this year’s growth target of around 6.5 percent in 2018, even as they ratchet up efforts to prevent a destabilising build-up of debt. Reporting by Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-gdp/china-likely-to-keep-2018-gdp-target-around-6-5-percent-policy-adviser-idUKKBN1E60F3'|'2017-12-12T07:41:00.000+02:00'
'2b74b308af3427d024e74d75df80070aabf610e2'|'Audi CEO drops plan to sell motorcycle brand Ducati'|'INGOLSTADT, Germany (Reuters) - Germany’s Audi has abandoned plans to sell its Italian motorcycle brand Ducati, its chief executive Rupert Stadler said, in a sign of confidence that the carmaker expects to be able to carry the costs of its transformation.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati is seen in Dietlikon, Switzerland October 11, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Steps to reduce costs by 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion), cut red tape and deepen ties with fellow Volkswagen-owned brand Porsche are “gradually increasing our financial and organisational leeway for the strategic realignment,” chief executive Rupert Stadler told reporters.There is therefore no economic need to sell Ducati, Stadler said. Volkswagen asked banks to evaluate options for Ducati and transmissions maker Renk earlier this year as seeks to become more nimble in its shift towards electric and self-driving cars following its diesel emissions cheating scandal.“I can assure you that Ducati belongs to the Audi family,” said Stadler. “Ducati is the perfect implementation of our premium philosophy in the world of motorbikes.”The plans had already stalled in the summer when VW’s powerful labour unions, backed by the controlling Porsche-Piech families, opposed the logic and need for asset sales given the group’s financial resilience.Investors and potential Ducati buyers, however, expect that VW could change its mind again and eventually opt to sell the asset which they say has least strategic importance to VW.“For Volkswagen’s powerful works council it could be an easy bargaining chip they could offer to push through something completely different,” a person close to the matter said.Investors have long favoured divestments to simplify VW’s group structure and to strengthen its management’s ability to push through structural changes against the unions’ wishes.Audi, which owns Ducati and Italian supercar maker Lamborghini, last month reported higher operating profit and revenue for the first nine months, helped by growing auto demand in the higher-margin western European and U.S. markets.While pushing the costly shift to zero-emissions and autonomous technologies, holding on to the profitable Ducati division and the lucrative Lamborghini brand has become more important, Stadler said.“Looking after a premium bouquet is as difficult as the work of a gardener,” Stadler said. “Therefore I am pleased with every new flower, with every promising new branch,” he added, predicting Lamborghini’s sales would double on the back of its new sport-utility vehicle.Separately, Stadler said Audi will spend nearly half a billion euros over the next eight years on training staff for the digital age, with steps to develop as well as hire experts such as automotive app-designers and car robotics specialists.To rein in costs, Audi wants to keep headcount stable, at least over the next 2-3 years, even as it plans to have more than 20 electrified vehicles on the market by 2025 and pushes into digitised mobility services, the CEO said.With two-thirds of Audi’s 60 or so models by 2025 still slated to be combustion-engine cars, tightening carbon dioxide (CO2) rules will pose the “biggest risk” in coming years, he said, adding that Audi would face 1 billion euros of fines if its average fleet CO2 emissions exceeds EU limits by no more than eleven grammes per kilometres.Audi has overhauled its whistleblower system to allow domestic and international staff to flag illegal conduct more easily and it has set up a permanent investigation office.Audi plans early next year to dissolve a task force set up to monitor fixes for 850,000 diesel-fuelled cars that the automaker said in July needed updates with emissions-control software to help avoid potential driving bans.“It’s a sign that we can slowly shift from crisis mode back into standard operation,” Stadler said, predicting the check-ups to be completed by the end of the first quarter.($1 = 0.8493 euros)Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/audi-ducati-m-a/audi-ceo-drops-plan-to-sell-motorcycle-brand-ducati-idINKBN1E6110'|'2017-12-12T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'01a883eb3cb0536ec34bcf2f70aca4ba8d48f86a'|'Exclusive: South Africa''s Steinhoff considers sale of PSG, KAP stakes to lift liquidity - sources'|'December 12, 2017 / 9:19 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Exclusive: South Africa''s Steinhoff considers sale of PSG, KAP stakes to lift liquidity - sources Tiisetso Motsoeneng , Arno Schuetze 2 Min Read JOHANNESBURG/ FRANKFURT (Reuters) - South Africa’s Steinhoff is considering selling stakes worth a combined $1.4 billion (1.1 billion pounds) in local companies PSG Group and KAP Industrial to help plug a liquidity gap at the retailer, two sources familiar with the matter said. Steinhoff, the owner of more than 40 retail brands including Conforama, Mattress Firm and Poundland, is fighting for survival after more than $14 billion was wiped off its market value last week following its disclosure of accounting irregularities and the exit of its chief executive. The company has said it planned to raise around 2 billion euros ($2 billion) from the sale of non-core assets and the proceeds of debt repayments from its African unit Steinhoff Africa Retail, to fill a hole in its balance sheet. “It cannot get any more non-core than their stake in PSG,” a source in Johannesburg said. “It is on the table and so is the stake in KAP.” The likely sale of the stakes was corroborated by a second source based in Frankfurt, who said they were first on the list of possible divestitures to plug funding holes. Steinhoff owns about 25 percent of PSG, a 60 billion rand ($4.40 billion) investment holding company, and 39 percent, or of diversified industrial group KAP Industrial, which is worth around 6.1 billion rand at current market prices. Steinhoff, KAP Industrial and PSG Group declined to comment. The Johannesburg source, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, also said the stakes would most likely be sold in chunks via a so-called accelerated book build to institutional investors. Steinhoff said on Sunday it had called in turnaround specialist AlixPartners to help shore up its liquidity. It also hired U.S investment bank Moles & Co to help it prepare for a delayed meeting with lenders in London next week. Additional reporting by TJ Strydom in Johannesburg; Editing by James Macharia and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steinhoff-intlnl-results/exclusive-south-africas-steinhoff-considers-sale-of-psg-kap-stakes-to-lift-liquidity-sources-idUKKBN1E60WY'|'2017-12-12T11:19:00.000+02:00'
'0c543cbe6a42322cc29f0a20ab17fa760e34a1cb'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil''s Bovespa drops 1 pct on pension jitters'|' 43 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil''s Bovespa drops 1 pct on pension jitters Reuters Staff 5 Min Read SAO PAULO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Brazil''s benchmark Bovespa index led declines among Latin American equities markets on Tuesday, falling more than 1 percent amid persisting uncertainty over the passage of pension reform legislation seen as key to the nation''s fiscal health. Speaking to journalists in Argentina late on Sunday, President Michel Temer said a vote on streamlining Brazil''s social security system could be delayed until early 2018 as the government struggles to gather support among lawmakers. On Monday, Carlos Marun, a key lawmaker in Temer''s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, told journalists the government still lacked 40 to 50 votes. An early 2018 vote would fall dangerously close to parliamentary and presidential elections, making approval of the unpopular measure less likely. "If it''s not this year, it will be in the beginning of next year," Temer said, according to a transcript of a news conference. In separate comments on Tuesday, Rodrigo Maia, the speaker of Brazil''s lower house, said he was planning to put the pension bill to a vote next week. He added that it was unclear if the government had the support needed to pass the bill and send it to the nation''s senate. The Bovespa fell more than 1.2 percent in morning trading, but firmed slightly after Maia''s comments. By midday the Bovespa was off 1.01 percent, while the nation''s real currency was down 0.58 percent. Among the nation''s top performing stocks was private education company Kroton Educacional SA, which rose 2.4 percent after previewing an aggressive expansion plan at an investors'' day on Monday. Other markets in Latin America were relatively quiet on Tuesday. Colombia''s peso was the biggest mover on currency markets, dropping 0.58 percent after Standard & Poor''s lowered the country''s long-term foreign currency rating to BBB- on Monday, citing the its weakened policy flexibility. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1359 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1113,30 -0,6 29,89 MSCI LatAm 2689,37 -1,14 16,22 Brazil Bovespa 72069,55 -1 19,66 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 47699,04 0,27 4,50 Chile IPSA 5021,79 0,06 20,97 Chile IGPA 25230,67 0,08 21,69 Argentina MerVal 27307,06 0 61,41 Colombia IGBC 11068,78 0 9,29 Venezuela IBC 1289,61 -0,23 -95,93 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3,3151 -0,58 -1,99 Mexico peso 19,0900 -0,14 8,66 Chile peso 654,5 0,15 2,48 Colombia peso 3029,56 -0,58 -0,93 Peru sol 3,234 0,00 5,57 Argentina peso (interbank) 17,2100 0,17 -7,76 Argentina peso (parallel) 17,88 0,00 -5,93 (Reporting by Gram Slattery)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-brazils-bovespa-drops-1-pct-on-pension-jitters-idUSL1N1OC0UH'|'2017-12-12T16:42:00.000+02:00'
'f52f81fb483c012183c929a9bcfd5236bb679f7d'|'Boeing lifts dividend by 20 percent, sets new $18 billion share buyback'|'(Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) said on Monday it would raise its quarterly dividend by 20 percent and replace its existing share buyback program with a new $18 billion authorization.The Boeing Company logo is projected on a wall at the "What''s Next?" conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young The company’s shares, the best-performing Dow component this year with an 84 percent surge, were up 1.2 percent at $286.51 in after-market trading.The world’s biggest maker of jetliners said the raised dividend and the new buyback program were not in response to a Republican tax overhaul, which seeks to cut corporate taxes to 20 percent from 35 percent.Other U.S. corporations have said they would use the windfall from the tax overhaul to buy back shares, retire debt and other shareholder-friendly moves.The cash deployment plans reflect ongoing confidence in our financial strength and the long-term outlook of our business, Boeing Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith said in a statement.Boeing’s dividend increase comes at the high-end of analysts’ estimates of 15 percent to 20 percent, Robert W Baird & Co analyst Peter Arment wrote in a note.The company said on Monday the new quarterly dividend would be $1.71 per share, up from $1.42.Boeing said the new repurchase program would replace a $14 billion authorization approved in December 2016, under which the company had repurchased $9.2 billion.The increase in the buyback amount also comes as a surprise and shows the management’s confidence in generating strong free cash flows over the next few years, analyst Arment said.Boeing said it expected to complete the new buybacks in the next 24-30 months.Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru and Alwyn Scott in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-dividend/boeing-lifts-dividend-by-20-percent-sets-new-18-billion-share-buyback-idINKBN1E52NW'|'2017-12-12T00:25:00.000+02:00'
'11f739910f1c149e5942af37a27a59b90361cdff'|'Exclusive: Canada''s CIBC plans U.S. listing of $2 billion Caribbean unit - sources'|'TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ( CM.TO ) plans to list its $2 billion Caribbean unit in New York, enabling it to exit a region in which it has been hampered by reputational risks and difficulties growing profits, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters this week.A Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) sign is seen outside of a branch in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie Canada’s fifth-biggest lender, which will provide an update to investors on the bank’s growth strategy on Wednesday, no longer views the business as a core asset, the people said, declining to be named as the information is not public.“FirstCaribbean is considering a potential stock market listing in the U.S., the world’s deepest capital market,” CIBC spokeswoman Caroline Van Hasselt confirmed, adding that no decisions have been made.CIBC, which has been doing business in the Caribbean since the 1920s, could start by listing 20 percent of the business early next year and sell down further stake subsequently, two of the people said.The bank has faced risks to its reputation by operating in the region following a bribery scandal involving FIFA, the world soccer governing body.FirstCaribbean was caught up in the affair after an indictment announced by U.S. prosecutors in 2015 said an illegal payment was facilitated by a representative of the bank. FirstCaribbean said at the time it would take steps to ensure the bank is never used for illicit purposes.Barbados-based CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank has around 3,000 staff, over $12 billion in assets and a market value of $2 billion, according to the bank’s 2017 annual report.CIBC FirstCaribbean said that it made net income of $142 million in the year to Oct. 31, 2017, compared with $143 million the year before.Reporting by John Tilak, Matt Scuffham in Toronto, and David French in New York; Editing by Denny Thomas and Clive McKeef '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cibc-divestiture-exlusive/exclusive-canadas-cibc-plans-u-s-listing-of-2-billion-caribbean-unit-sources-idINKBN1E62OS'|'2017-12-12T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'28323860a92fe123c96ae57fe4822ae8480fb48c'|'''More to come'' after bitcoin futures launch - Cboe CEO'|'December 11, 2017 / 8:35 PM / Updated an hour ago ''More to come'' after bitcoin futures launch: Cboe CEO John McCrank 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The generally smooth launch of bitcoin futures on Cboe Global Markets ( CBOE.O ) could pave the way for other cryptocurrency-related products like options and ETFs, the head of the exchange operator said in an interview on Monday. FILE PHOTO - Edward Tilly, CBOE''s CEO, speaks at the Sandler O''Neill + Partners, L.P. Global Exchange and Brokerage Conference in New York June 7, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid It may take U.S. regulators a bit longer to warm to the idea of a proliferation of products and securities related to digital currencies, but Cboe Chief Executive Ed Tilly said this weekend’s debut should support progress toward that. “We will be building confidence in the coming months, and stay tuned, there are more to come,” he said. Chicago-based Cboe operates markets in options, futures, equities and currencies. The most-active contract exhibited the volatility that has become bitcoin’s hallmark, surging 20 percent at one point to trigger a five-minute trading halt. “We saw pretty volatile overnight markets, a lot of price moves, but everything worked as it should,” Tilly said. Cboe was the first U.S.-based, traditional exchange to offer bitcoin futures, and its widely anticipated launch on Sunday evening was seen as a litmus test for more mainstream adoption of the digital asset. By early afternoon on Monday, nearly 3,700 contracts <0#XBT> had traded hands, with nearly 20 trading firms participating. Most of the activity was concentrated in the January, or front-month, contract XBTF8. “Just about all of the participants who had shown us readiness late last week and even into this weekend, showed up,” Tilly said. On the heels of the launch, three fund managers, REX Shares LLC, Van Eck Associates Corp and First Trust Advisors LP, went back to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking permission to launch bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The SEC has denied or tabled all bitcoin ETF proposals so far, but proponents think a successful debut of futures could breathe new life into the plans. Cboe plans to wait until there have been a couple of settlements on the one-month futures contracts before it moves forward with any new crypto-derivative products, said Tilly. Those could include options on futures contracts and on ETFs, Tilly said. Cboe has also appealed a ruling by the SEC that blocked a Cboe-listed bitcoin ETF proposed by the Gemini bitcoin exchange, which Cboe uses for the final settlement price of its bitcoin futures contracts. Bitcoin is the largest of the hundreds of crypto-currencies that have flooded the over-the-counter market in recent years, and as demand for other digital coins rises, futures on those coins will follow, Tilly said. “I do see other currencies going forward.” LET‘S DO IT AGAIN! Bitcoin has almost tripled in value in the past month and is up around 15-fold this year. That volatility had some worried about how Cboe’s bitcoin futures would trade. Just after the opening tick of $15,000 at 6 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, the price of the contract surged 10 percent higher. Cboe had the option of halting trading at that point, but allowed it to continue because trading was orderly, Tilly said. Following another 10 percent climb, Cboe halted trading in the futures contract for five minutes. “Markets came back in line and we reopened in an orderly fashion,” said Tilly. “We could not have been more pleased with the way that played out last night.” Also around the time trading started, Cboe’s website, which is not connected to the company’s trading engine, briefly went down. Tilly said the outage was the result of traffic that was around six times more than the site receives on an average weekday. Never has a new product launch at Cboe exceeded the level of interest and anticipation around bitcoin futures, he said. “It’s just been so exciting for us to bring this to market. I told the team last night, I said, ‘let’s do this every Sunday! This is a ton of fun.''” Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Dan Burns and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures-cboe-interview/more-to-come-after-bitcoin-futures-launch-cboe-ceo-idUKKBN1E52JP'|'2017-12-11T22:36:00.000+02:00'
'63783a86f3b20fbfc27eec7eb79012848abbc02e'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Dec 12'|'Dec 12 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.Headlines* Apple confirms plans to buy music recognition app Shazam on.ft.com/2C3qjgR* TalkTalk slides to 5-year low on covenant worries on.ft.com/2C4pW5T* French IT services group Atos proposes 4.3 bln euro deal for Gemalto on.ft.com/2C4gzTN* UK pipeline shutdown sends oil and gas prices soaring on.ft.com/2C5VgkwOverview- Apple Inc confirmed its plans to buy UK-based music recognition app Shazam, in its biggest acquisition since the deal to buy Beats Electronics in 2014.- Jefferies analysts said the broadband provider TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc was heading for a breach of debt covenants after which after which the company slumped to a five-year low on Monday.- French IT services group Atos SE proposed to buy Gemalto NV in a deal worth about 4.3 billion euros.- UK North Sea’s main pipeline system is likely to be shut for weeks for emergency repairs. The news sent oil and gas prices soaring as the country braces itself for a prolonged cold snap. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom Editing by Sandra Maler) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-dec-12-idINL3N1OC01E'|'2017-12-11T21:21:00.000+02:00'
'f5620519cda799fe9b5d4f514b6964c2385cde2f'|'Russian budget deficit almost doubles in a month'|'December 12, 2017 / 6:17 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Russian budget deficit almost doubles in a month Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s budget deficit for the first 11 months of this year totalled 505.5 billion roubles (£6.4 billion), almost double what it was a month earlier, data on the finance ministry’s website showed on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - A cashier places 5 rouble coins into a counting machine at an office in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, January 22, 2016. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin/File Photo The 10-month figure had been 261.4 billion roubles. Budget income for Jan.-Nov. totalled 13.41 trillion roubles and spending 13.92 trillion roubles, the data showed. Legislation on Russia’s budget deficit sets it at 1.92 trillion roubles or at 2.1 percent of gross domestic product, but the finance ministry expects it to come in lower, at about 1.8 to 1.9 percent of GDP. Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-budget/russian-budget-deficit-almost-doubles-in-a-month-idUKKBN1E62IU'|'2017-12-12T20:16:00.000+02:00'
'5e0c4f9472a42ff94b6de2833bb8242c100996d7'|'The social enterprise turning plastic waste into currency, for a cleaner ocean - Innovative sustainability'|'Millions of viewers of the BBC’s Blue Planet II will have seen footage of a turtle trapped in a plastic sack and a pilot whale nursing its dead calf. It’s likely to have died from drinking its mother’s plastic-contaminated milk.The episode prompted environment secretary Michael Gove to tweet : “Still haunted by last night’s #BluePlanet2 – the imperative to do more to tackle plastic in our oceans is clear. We @DefraGovUK will work urgently to identify further action.”It seems everyone agrees that the issue of ocean plastic is one that requires urgent attention, and the business community has started to respond.It’s like if your sink is overflowing – the first thing you do isn’t clean it. You turn off the tap. It''s the same with plasticBut the task is mammoth and multi-faceted; consumer goods companies struggle to deal with the issue holistically. A new collaboration between global company Henkel and the social enterprise Plastic Bank may provide a template for future action. The manufacturer of brands such as Schwarzkopf, Loctite and Persil (outside the UK) has teamed up with Plastic Bank to help prevent plastic from reaching the ocean, while also providing opportunities for people in Haiti.When we see marine animals caught in plastic, or huge floating islands of rubbish , the impulse is to demand it be cleaned up. But, according to David Katz, Plastic Bank’s founder, “Cleaning the ocean is the last thing we should be doing.”“It’s like if you walk into your kitchen and your sink is overflowing – the first thing you do isn’t to clean it up. You turn off the tap. It’s the same with plastic.”Plastic Bank’s approach is to turn waste plastic – of which about 8m tonnes is dumped into the oceans every year – into an asset for some of the world’s poorest people, to stop it from ever reaching the sea. It was this idea of recycling having a social impact, alongside an environmental one – an approach the organisation calls Social Plastic – that appealed to Henkel, says Marie-Ève Schröder, corporate senior vice-president for international marketing in their beauty care business unit. “Plastic Bank was the only partner we could identify that combined environmental benefits and social benefits. It’s not just about recycling plastic and helping the environment. It also provides a permanent revenue opportunity, often for women.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plastic washing up on European beaches often comes from countries many thousands of miles away. Photograph: s0ulsurfing - Jason Swain/Getty Images Where health meets eco-consciousness: the gym made from used aerosol cans Read more The scheme was launched in Haiti, says Katz, “because it is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and because when you look at the ocean currents, all the plastic that is washing up on Europe’s beaches comes from places like Haiti”. The Caribbean nation is a substantial source of plastic because it lacks recycling infrastructure. With nowhere to go, the plastic just lies on the ground until it rains, when it is washed into the sea.Plastic Bank pays people above market prices to collect waste and take it to collection centres. It is then ground into flakes and transported abroad (on cargo ships that otherwise would have returned empty to North America or Europe, for instance). Henkel’s packaging experts are currently researching ways of incorporating the plastic collected into its product packaging in the future.Collectors can convert the plastic either into cash or other goods, such as cooking fuel, or vouchers that pay for schooling or mobile phone charging. “Often, the collectors are homeless, and a phone number is like your ID – it’s the only way people can contact you and it is the tool connecting you to life and society,” Schröder says.The first bottles containing recycled ocean plastic – obtained from Plastic Bank and other sources – will hit the shelves in the second half of 2018, says Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, head of global research and development in Henkel’s laundry and home care unit. “A growing number of customers are asking for sustainable solutions and they want to be able to see what is being done. Ocean plastic will only be a small part of the recycled material that we use, but it is very visible, so it’s important. We want to change our supply chain and move towards a circular economy.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plastic Bank provides opportunities for people while preventing plastics from reaching the ocean. Photograph: Ullstein Bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images The partners are planning to expand to other markets in 2018, including Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Brazil, and Plastic Bank is set to announce links with other fast-moving consumer goods companies, to add to its partnerships with Shell, IBM, Marks & Spencer and Henkel. The organisation was recently awarded a Momentum for Change Lighthouse award by the United Nations at the COP23 Climate Change Conference , in recognition of its “practical and scalable efforts to address climate change and set sustainable development goals”. Katz spent a week at the Vatican, including a meeting with the Pope, looking at ways the world’s 1.2bn Catholics could help to tackle the issue. “What if each of them could bring 500g of plastic a week to church with them? That is enough to change the world,” he says.Another initiative seeking to redefine the future of plastics is the New Plastics Economy , which kicked off earlier this year and is led by circular economy experts the Ellen MacArthur Foundation . It aims to look beyond today’s incremental improvements “to create a shared sense of direction, to spark a wave of innovation and to move the plastics value chain into a positive spiral of value capture, stronger economics, and better environmental outcomes”.Already, six participants – including Mars, M&S and PepsiCo – have pledged to use 100% reusable , recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025 at the latest. Topics innovative sustainability advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/innovative-sustainability/2017/dec/08/social-enterprise-ocean-currency-haiti-environment-henkel-plastic-bank'|'2017-12-08T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'82250d057608f14ea2fcae9e0d70ed0f01636b37'|'U.S. transit agencies cautious on electric buses despite bold forecasts'|'LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Communities across the United States are looking to replace their dirty diesel buses, ushering in what some analysts predict will be a boom in electric fleets. But transit agencies doing the buying are moving cautiously, an analysis by Reuters shows. Out of more than 65,000 public buses plying U.S. roads today, just 300 are electric. Among the challenges: EVs are expensive, have limited range and are unproven on a mass scale. A typical 40-foot electric bus costs around $750,000, compared with about $435,000 for a diesel bus. Cheaper fuel and maintenance expenses can lower the overall costs over the 12-year life of the vehicles. But those costs can widely depending on utility rates, terrain and weather. The technology is still a gamble for many cities at a time when bus ridership is falling nationwide and officials are trying to keep a lid on fares, says Chris Stoddart, an executive at Canadian bus maker New Flyer Industries Inc ( NFI.TO ). A top supplier of conventional buses to the U.S. market, the company has just a handful of pure battery electrics in service. “People worry about being an early adopter. Remember 20 years ago someone paid $20,000 for a plasma TV and then 10 years later it was $900 at Best Buy,” said Stoddart, senior vice president of engineering and customer service for New Flyer. “People just don’t want a science project.” Rival electric bus manufacturers expect dramatic growth; the most ambitious forecasts call for all bus purchases to be electric by 2030. But even green-energy advocates are skeptical of such rosy predictions. CALSTART, a California-based nonprofit that promotes clean transportation, figures 50 percent to 60 percent of new buses will be zero emissions by 2030. Market research firm Navigant Research expects electric buses to make up 27 percent of new U.S. bus sales by 2027. NOT QUITE THERE YET Transit agencies have found EV performance lags in extreme conditions. In environmentally friendly San Francisco, officials have resisted electrics over concerns about the city’s famously steep hills. “The technology isn’t quite there yet,” Erica Kato, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said in a statement. Weather is also a major challenge. An electric bus tested last year near Phoenix wilted in the summer heat due to the strains of running the air conditioning. The vehicle never achieved more than 89.9 miles on a charge, less than two-thirds of its advertised range, according to a report by the Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority. In Massachusetts, two agencies running small numbers of electric buses - the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority in Springfield and Worcester’s Regional Transit Authority - say the vehicles weaken in extreme cold and snow. They have no plans to acquire additional EVs, officials at those agencies said. Even places with successful pilots have downplayed expectations. Seattle’s King County Metro transit agency soon will be operating more than a dozen vehicles by three manufacturers, according to Pete Melin, director of zero emission fleet technologies. The agency likes what it has seen so far. Still, Melin said, high electricity rates from the local utility at peak demand periods are a concern. And the lack of a uniform charging system among bus makers has complicated Seattle’s goal of running an all-electric fleet by 2034. “We have caveats to becoming zero emissions,” Melin said in an interview. Another worry is government funding. Federal money for bus purchases is about 25 percent lower than it was five years ago, according to Rob Healy, vice president of government affairs for the American Public Transportation Association. An electric bus sits under a charging station in Pomona, California U.S. November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson An Obama-era program that sets aside $55 million a year in grants to help transit agencies purchase clean buses will expire in 2020 if not renewed by Congress. THE EV BUS HEAVYWEIGHTS In addition to New Flyer, the fledgling U.S. electric bus industry has two other major players: Chinese automaker BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( BRKa.N ); and Silicon Valley startup Proterra Inc. BYD and Proterra began selling electric buses into the U.S. market several years ago, and have 165 and 126 vehicles on the road today, respectively. Both are ramping up U.S. manufacturing on expectations that EVs will account for nearly all new bus sales in a little over a decade. BYD has a plant in Lancaster, California, while Proterra has manufacturing facilities in City of Industry, California and Greenville, South Carolina. Buffett paid $230 million for a 10 percent stake in BYD in 2008. Today the company has a market capitalization of $25 billion, thanks mainly to China’s aggressive move to electrify transportation. More than 15 percent of the 608,600 buses in China are pure electric, according to government data. Proterra investors include venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the venture capital arm of General Motors Co ( GM.N ). Proterra, based in Burlingame, California, is planning an initial public offering, but would not give a timeline for the debut. Slideshow (9 Images) Chief Executive Ryan Popple said range is improving quickly. The company is currently shipping models with up to 350 miles of range, but new battery technology is expected to boost that by nearly 30 percent. “We’re starting to outstrip the market requirement in terms of what city buses actually do,” Popple said. “It opens up new markets for us.” Notably, Proterra’s growth should also lift the fortunes of U.S. wind blade maker TPI Composites Inc ( TPIC.O ), which struck a deal to build up to 3,350 lightweight bus bodies for the EV bus maker over the next five years. Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov estimated the deal could account for 12 percent of Scottsdale, Arizona-based TPI’s revenue in 2019. Winnipeg-based New Flyer, meanwhile, has won some big orders, including a deal to supply up to 100 electric buses to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Still, company executives view electrification as a gradual transformation. “It’s going to be a slow, methodical rather than an absolute disruption type environment,” CEO Paul Soubry said on a conference call with analysts last month. WORKING WELL, WITH TRADE-OFFS Despite the technology’s limitations, some U.S. transit agencies are hitting the accelerator on their electric conversions. IndyGo, which serves greater Indianapolis, has struck a deal with BYD to purchase 31 electric buses, with the option to add dozens more, in addition to the 21 already in its fleet, according to an IndyGo board of directors meeting report from July. Agency spokesman Bryan Luellen said the EVs have reduced fuel and maintenance costs by up to half compared to conventional buses. Foothill Transit, in Southern California, has been operating Proterra buses since 2010. It now has 17 in its fleet, with 13 more scheduled to arrive before the end of the year, according to spokeswoman Felicia Friesema. Still, both agencies acknowledged trade-offs due to the limited range of these vehicles. Foothill has mainly confined its electric buses to a short 16-mile route. The Indianapolis EVs run primarily during the morning and evening rush hours, not all day long like the diesel workhorses that remain the mainstay of the fleet. Still, IndyGo’s Luellen figures the best is yet to come. “With battery technology evolving rapidly we think it’s a big opportunity for us to maximize our budget and do more,” he said. Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Sue Horton and Marla Dickerson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-transportation-buses-electric-analysi/u-s-transit-agencies-cautious-on-electric-buses-despite-bold-forecasts-idUSKBN1E60GS'|'2017-12-12T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'840d08808a5a9df044839b0d082298dc8c84e4b5'|'Border deal welcome but major Brexit risk remains - Irish Central Bank'|'December 12, 2017 / 11:15 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Border deal welcome but major Brexit risk remains - Irish Central Bank Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Britain’s departure from the EU still poses a major risk to the Irish economy even though last week’s Brexit agreement to ensure customs regulations stay the same on both sides of the Irish border is welcome, the Irish central bank said on Tuesday. Deputy Governor Sharon Donnery and Governor Philip R. Lane (R) in Dublin, Ireland November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne “The agreement last week is to be welcomed, but Brexit continues to pose a major risk to the Irish economy given that any final deal is still subject to continued negotiations which will be both significant and complex,” Deputy Governor Sharon Donnery said in a statement as the central bank published in its twice-yearly macro-financial review of the economy. “Without the detail of any final deal, it is prudent that we continue to call out the risks. Sectors such as agri-food and manufactured goods, which are highly dependent on the UK for trade, remain vulnerable.” The central bank added that in the absence of a final trade deal, disruption to supply chains is also a possibility while high levels of indebtedness in many Irish firms may deter investment and leave them unable to raise the finance required to alter business models post-Brexit. Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-ireland/border-deal-welcome-but-major-brexit-risk-remains-irish-central-bank-idUKKBN1E618M'|'2017-12-12T13:14:00.000+02:00'
'8231a67c67bada9a6b7a839b3142385e27bf91cb'|'EU antitrust official sees competition threat if mergers lead to high margins'|'BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU regulators are keeping tabs on high profit margins enjoyed by companies that are merging, concerned this may threaten competition, a senior EU antitrust official warned on Tuesday.European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The comments by Chief Competition Economist Tommaso Valletti underline current unease among antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic about whether they have gone too far in allowing a recent wave of mergers and acquisitions. Some have resulted in significant price hikes, to the detriment of consumers.Some antitrust experts say high profit margins may even discourage companies from developing new and improved products. The contrary view is that industry consolidation is a logical response to shrinking profit margins.“Margins need to go back very prominently in our analysis. Margins are an essential ingredient,” Valletti told a conference organized by consultancy CRA, citing his analysis of more than 170 industries in the five largest EU countries between 2010 and 2015.“With respect to antitrust, the upward trend in margins increases the potential for anti-competitive leverage,” he said.The Commission scuppered TeliaSonera and Telenor’s ( TEL.OL ) planned merger of their Danish operations in 2015 on concerns of price increases and less innovation.Valletti said competition enforcers would not hesitate to act in future.“Merger control matters especially in preventing anti-competitive effects in a world of high margins,” he said, speaking in a personal capacity.Valletti urged companies to address such concerns before politicians step in and impose measures which may be harsher than those demanded by competition regulators.“If we do not properly adapt to changing markets, the risk is politics will, in ways we might not approve of,” he said.Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Susan FentonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-eu-m-a-antitrust/eu-antitrust-official-sees-competition-threat-if-mergers-lead-to-high-margins-idINKBN1E613Z'|'2017-12-12T07:42:00.000+02:00'
'e53617a686c65633201699d3d7522de18dbc9e9e'|'Risks lurk as yen keeps BOJ from faster tapering despite stronger economy'|'December 12, 2017 / 7:42 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Risks lurk as yen keeps BOJ from faster tapering despite stronger economy Leika Kihara 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Regardless of a return to solid economic growth, the risk of sharp appreciation in the yen means Japan’s central bank would be in no rush to exit its ultra-loose monetary policy, say sources familiar with the bank’s thinking. FILE PHOTO: People cross a street in front of high-rise buildings in the Shinjuku district in Tokyo, Japan, September 29, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Stubbornly low inflation would also make the Bank of Japan hesitant to taper its huge crisis-mode stimulus programme and shift away from rock-bottom interest rates too quickly. While the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target remains elusive, its money printing strategy has brought about a desirable depreciation in the yen. “Yen moves have been, and will continue to be, very important factors for BOJ policy,” said one of the sources. Though the BOJ officially does not target the yen as it would invite accusations of currency manipulation from G20 countries, arresting abrupt yen rises has been a priority for policymakers in supporting the export-reliant economy. “The BOJ’s main worry is the risk of causing a yen spike, as a weak yen is among the few accomplishments of its policy,” said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute. “The yen could rise sharply the moment the BOJ signals the chance of normalising policy. That makes it really hard for the bank to head for an exit.” DANGERS Letting policy be held hostage by the yen means the BOJ would fall further behind its U.S. and European counterparts emerging from their easing cycles. The Federal Reserve is set to raise rates on Wednesday and predict more hikes next year, while the European Central Bank and the Bank of England hold their policy meetings on Thursday. Perpetuating the ultra-easy stance would also leave the BOJ with scant ammunition to fend off a recession if the global environment turns sour. With financial institutions complaining of the hit from ultra-low rates on their margins, the BOJ too has been dropping subtle hints it could edge away from crisis-mode stimulus earlier than expected. That is unsurprising with consumption picking up, the economy expanding an annualised 2.5 percent in July-September to mark the best uninterrupted run of growth in 16 years and job availability nearing a 44-year high. But any hike in the BOJ’s yield targets, which could come next year, would be a modest, one-off move rather than the start of a full-fledged rate hike cycle, the sources said. “With the inflation outlook uncertain, there’s no need to rush,” said one of the sources. RECURRING POLITICAL PRESSURE Many analysts expect core consumer inflation, now at 0.8 percent, to slow next year unless firms pay heed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s calls to hike wages by 3 percent - no easy task given how wary they had been in raising salaries so far. While Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has signalled the bank could adjust rates before his price target is met, many policymakers feel that inflation needs to exceed 1 percent to even ponder a rate hike, the sources say. An impending leadership change at the BOJ, as Kuroda ends his term in April, further complicates the outlook since candidates for the job include Abe’s former aide Etsuro Honda - a vocal advocate of aggressive easing. Most of all, the BOJ wants to avoid triggering a yen spike that could choke off the recovery, the sources say. Whenever the yen has spiked, BOJ officials have come under political pressure to act. Kuroda’s predecessor, Masaaki Shirakawa, was heavily criticised for being too slow in responding to the pain from sharp yen gains. The priority Abe puts on stock prices also makes it hard for the BOJ to slow purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETF), despite criticism from investors it is distorting prices. The BOJ is already slowing government bond purchases to around 40 trillion yen (264 billion pounds) per year - roughly half the amount it loosely pledges to buy. And yet, its balance sheet - roughly the size of Japan’s 500-trillion-yen economy - keeps rising at a much faster pace than that of the Fed and the ECB. By raising its yield targets and slowing asset purchases next year, the BOJ could stock up some tools to fight any shocks to the economy, analysts say. Otherwise, it may be forced to deepen negative rates, a hugely unpopular move that may destabilise the banking system, or opt for extreme steps like bankrolling government debt, they say. “The economy is doing remarkably well and may be near its peak,” said a third source. “If not now, I wonder whether the BOJ could ever start normalising policy.” Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj-analysis/risks-lurk-as-yen-keeps-boj-from-faster-tapering-despite-stronger-economy-idUKKBN1E60O5'|'2017-12-12T09:46:00.000+02:00'
'9f4e4ccfd4d93e94226693a39332c866309fb94a'|'Column: In Brexit Britain, economic gravity will take its toll'|'(Reuters) - Britain looks set to get what it craves in its negotiations with the European Union. The British government has contrived a way around the impasse over avoiding controls at the Irish land border and bowed to paying more or less what the EU was demanding as a divorce settlement. Now European leaders meeting at the summit of Dec. 14-15 are expected to authorize talks over the UK’s main priority: future trade arrangements.An Anti-Brexit protestor waves EU and Union flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson But just as the first phase of the negotiations has revealed Britain’s weak hand over the terms of its departure from the EU, so the next phase will reveal its weak hand in forging a favorable new economic relationship with the union.Blame economic gravity for that. The larger and closer that economies are the more they trade with each other. The smaller and farther away that they are the less they trade with one another. This well-attested phenomenon explains the intensity of trade in services as well as in goods. That is a crucial reason why in 2016 Britain exported more in goods and services to small yet prosperous – and above all close – Ireland than to distant China, India and Brazil combined.Economic gravity explains why leaving the EU is potentially so harmful for the British economy. Britain is set on a course that will hurt its trade with the world’s biggest trading bloc, which conveniently happens to be on its doorstep. Economic gravity also explains why it is unrealistic to expect new trade deals after Brexit with more distant and often poorer countries to compensate for the losses in trade with Europe.British Prime Minister Theresa May insists that she is striving for a “deep and special partnership” with the EU. Unwrap the rhetoric and this is a more diplomatically packaged version of the Brexiter “having our cake and eating it” view of foreign secretary Boris Johnson, whose folly on this occasion was candor. Britain will leave the customs union, which it joined in 1973, creating new opportunities to strike supposedly lucrative trade deals with faster-growing parts of the world. The hope is that trade in goods with the EU will be as free and as frictionless as possible, while Britain’s key services sector will retain reasonable access to the single market that has removed regulatory barriers.Unfortunately this Panglossian future will not be available. Michel Barnier, the EU’s formidable chief negotiator, has already given warning that Britain will face a choice between remaining in the single market on the same terms as Norway or a free-trade deal similar to that recently struck with Canada. Given that Barnier has just prevailed in the first stage of the talks the British government should heed what he says about the second.Of the two options, the first would be far and away the best outcome for the British economy. Norway, Iceland and tiny Liechtenstein are outside the EU but belong together with the EU to the European Economic Area (EEA). That means the three countries are in the single market (excluding fisheries and agriculture) even though they are not part of the customs union, allowing them to strike their own trade deals (in general jointly with Switzerland) with other economies. Such an arrangement would minimize the damage to the British economy, though it would not go unscathed.But May has already made clear that she is not prepared to go down this path because it would change Britain from being a rule maker through its influence and voting power within the EU decision-making institutions to becoming a rule taker. Moreover, a condition of remaining in the single market is accepting freedom of movement of people within the EEA, which would mean Brexit Britain could not “take back control” over migration.That points to a free trade deal similar to the one between Canada and the EU though more ambitious: “Canada-plus.” The trouble is that any “plus” is unlikely to make up for the basic limitations of this model. Although the agreement does liberalize trade in goods it is inferior to Britain’s status within the customs union. More important, it offers much less for services, such as finance and air transport, which are Britain’s forte. A plausible Canada-plus deal where the plus is minimized at European insistence would be much more damaging for the economy than the EEA option.Brexiters hope that any such harm will be offset through trade-creating deals with other countries once Britain is free again to negotiate them having left the customs union. Yet the scope for increasing trade will run counter to the force of economic gravity. Hopes for a resurgence in trade with members of the Commonwealth, for example – dubbed insensitively the “empire 2.0” strategy – will founder either because they are far away or their economies are small, or both.Britain’s new freedom to negotiate trade deals with other countries will, in any case, come at a cost. Outside the EU it will have less clout, since the British economy is so much smaller than the bloc it is leaving. For example, Britain has gained new opportunities for its law firms from the EU’s trade agreement in 2011 with South Korea. But that concession formed part of an overall bargain in which the prize for South Korea was enhanced access to the EU-wide car market through the elimination of tariffs. And though British ministers talk up the prospects for a trade deal with the United States they and their negotiators would lack muscle in what would be a hard-nosed “America first” wrestling match.Far from prospering through leaving the EU, Britain will be a lonelier and weaker economy. A transition period essentially sustaining the current economic relationship for around two years after the exit in March 2019 will give companies more time to adjust, but little else besides. After that, expect gravity to prevail.Reporting by Paul Wallace '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/wallace-gravity/column-in-brexit-britain-economic-gravity-will-take-its-toll-idINKBN1E60C9'|'2017-12-12T01:31:00.000+02:00'
'53904e19583f02a96f3598bdaa182951d731baa6'|'Exxon to provide details on climate-change impact to its business'|'December 12, 2017 / 1:00 AM / Updated an hour ago Exxon to provide details on climate-change impact to its business Ross Kerber , Gary McWilliams 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp on Monday said it would publish new details about how climate change could affect its business in a move aimed at appeasing critics and forestalling another proxy fight next year. The logo of Exxon Mobil Corporation is shown on a monitor above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, December 30, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The largest U.S. oil and gas producer said in a filing to U.S. securities regulators that its board agreed to provide shareholders with information on “energy demand sensitivities, implications of two degree Celsius scenarios, and positioning for a lower-carbon future.” Scientists have warned that world temperatures are likely to rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius (35.6°F) this century, surpassing a “tipping point” that a global climate deal aims to avert. Exxon’s statement, which came three days before the deadline for its 2018 annual meeting resolution submissions, said additional information would be released in the near future, but did not provide details. The company’s board originally opposed providing shareholders with a report outlining the potential impact of global warming on Exxon’s long-term outlook. Thomas P. DiNapoli, New York state’s comptroller, heads one the two lead sponsors of a shareholder resolution calling for Exxon to issue a climate-impact report. He called Monday’s decision “a win for shareholders and for the company’s ability to manage risk.” However, another sponsor noted the lack of specificity in the company’s statement. “This is giving no detail,” said Tim Smith, who leads shareholder engagement efforts at Walden Asset Management, a co-filer of last spring’s resolution. He said Exxon’s statement “needs to be expanded to assure shareowners that they’re responsive to last year’s request.” An Exxon spokesman declined to comment beyond the filing. Some 50 shareholder and climate activists earlier this year demanded the company produce an annual report on the risks to its business from extreme climate and government policies seeking to reduce carbon emissions. The resolution was backed by 62 percent of shares voted in Exxon’s May annual meeting. Other energy companies already have begun detailing their view of climate-related risks to their businesses. Refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp recently published a report, “Perspectives on Climate-Related Scenarios,” meant partly to address suggestions from the global Financial Stability Board about how to measure and respond to such risks. Members of the shareholder group had said they were considering refiling had Exxon not agreed to a detailed plan. Big investors including BlackRock Inc and Vanguard Group backed the May resolution and have made climate change a priority in their governance efforts. BlackRock and Vanguard representatives last week declined to comment on their outreach to Exxon. The report will carry weight beyond the company’s next shareholder meeting. Exxon faces investigations by the Massachusetts and New York attorneys general into whether it has misled the public and investors by soft-pedaling climate change risks. Exxon has described the probes as politically motivated and intended to force it and others to change their positions on climate change. The big funds would likely cast more critical votes in 2018 if Exxon did not respond adequately to the resolution, Jason Malinowski, chief investment officer for the Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System, which has about 115,000 Exxon shares, said on Friday. Malinowski’s agency and leaders of two other pension funds separately have asked Exxon director Steven Reinemund to discuss governance reforms, such as changing pay programs and bringing in directors with “climate-competent” perspectives. Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston and Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-climate/exxon-to-provide-details-on-climate-change-impact-to-its-business-idUKKBN1E602L'|'2017-12-12T02:54:00.000+02:00'
'015e01e60a0f8492df6d2529986195c58d61d542'|'UK workers face renewed hit to spending power in 2018 - Korn Ferry'|'December 12, 2017 / 12:08 AM / Updated 5 hours ago UK workers face renewed hit to spending power in 2018 - Korn Ferry Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Workers in Britain look set to suffer another hit to their spending power in 2018 while most of their peers in the world’s other big rich economies will have small gains, human resources firm Korn Ferry said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London, August 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville A combination of high inflation, caused in large part by the 2016 Brexit vote, and weak wage growth means British workers are expected to see their salaries fall in real terms by 0.5 percent next year, according to a survey published by the firm. The most recent official data has shown British average weekly earnings fell by an annual 0.4 percent in the three months to September when adjusted for inflation. Globally, inflation-adjusted wages are expected to rise by 1.5 percent next year, Korn Ferry said, the weakest predicted increase in five years, underscoring the challenge for policymakers in many countries where unemployment is low but wage growth is weak. Benjamin Frost, Korn Ferry’s global general manager, said the situation in Britain was aggravated by the jump in inflation which hit 3 percent in October and is expected to stay at that level when data for November is released on Tuesday. “What stands out is that employers are not increasing their pay rises to account for that,” he said. “They have limited ability to charge their customers more and improvements in productivity are easier said than done in the short term.” In the United States, workers were expected to see a real-terms salary increase of 1 percent in 2018, based on forecasts of wage increases of 3 percent and inflation of 2 percent. Korn Ferry said the predicted salary increases were based on its database which contains information from 25,000 organisations across more than 110 countries. In Britain, 770 firms took part. Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-jobs/uk-workers-face-renewed-hit-to-spending-power-in-2018-korn-ferry-idUKKBN1E600D'|'2017-12-12T02:08:00.000+02:00'
'5fd9e13f6fa99dcadc5c6942fe7c86389c4947af'|'Carpetright says UK consumer confidence fragile, lowers forecasts'|' 36 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Carpetright says UK consumer confidence fragile, lowers forecasts Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s largest floor coverings retailer Carpetright forecast full-year 2017-18 profit towards the bottom end of market expectations, saying consumer confidence remains fragile and competition intense. The firm, whose fortunes are closely tied to the strength of the housing market, said it made a pretax profit of 2.1 million pounds in the 26 weeks to Oct. 28, down from 5.1 million pounds in the same period last year, despite revenue rising 2.6 percent to 228.1 million pounds. Carpetright had said in October that first-half profit would fall short of the same period last year, though it forecast a better second half. UK like-for-like sales increased 0.7 percent in the first half and rose 1.4 percent in the six weeks to Dec. 9. In the Rest of Europe division - made up of the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland - first half like-for-like sales increased 6.5 percent and were up 9.2 percent in the first six weeks of the second half. British consumers’ discretionary spending is under pressure from rising inflation, subdued wage growth and ongoing uncertainty in the UK economy. Squeezed British consumers reined in Christmas travel plans and bought fewer new cars last month, setting the stage for the first fall in festive spending in five years, credit card company Visa said on Monday. “While trading over the first six weeks of the new period has been encouraging...in light of the consumer outlook we are taking a more cautious view of the second half and now expect underlying profit before tax for the full year will be towards the bottom end of the current range of market expectations,” said Chief Executive Wilf Walsh. Prior to Tuesday’s update analysts were forecasting 13.8-16.5 million pounds versus 14.4 million pounds in 2016-17. Shares in Carpetright, up 23 percent so far this year, closed Monday at 185 pence. Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-carpetright-results/carpetright-says-uk-consumer-confidence-fragile-lowers-forecasts-idUKKBN1E60NP'|'2017-12-12T09:35:00.000+02:00'
'2449c1dcc2d79703661a2a7051fda287554fb8b2'|'BlackRock to back London Stock Exchange chair in TCI spat- source'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:04 PM / in an hour BlackRock to back London Stock Exchange chair in TCI spat- source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - BlackRock, one of the London Stock Exchange’s largest shareholders, will vote against a motion next week to ditch the exchange’s chairman Donald Brydon, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The motion has been brought by activist hedge fund TCI Fund Management, which is unhappy with Brydon’s handling of the succession of Xavier Rolet, the LSE’s former chief executive. BlackRock, LSE and TCI declined to comment. The Qatar Investment Authority, another big LSE shareholder, is also due to support Brydon at the shareholder meeting next Tuesday. TCI, the hedge fund firm run by Christopher Hohn, is not expecting to pass the resolution to oust Brydon, a source close to the firm has told Reuters. Shareholder advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services have previously recommended shareholders vote against removing Brydon. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain, Maiya Keidan and Huw Jones. Editing by John O‘Donnell and Jane Merriman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/lse-blackrock-vote/blackrock-to-back-london-stock-exchange-chair-in-tci-spat-source-idUSL8N1OD48W'|'2017-12-13T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'd51af8d679b571d7073f1f3184076cf95706ba81'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 13'|'Dec 13 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Walt Disney Co was closing on an all-stock transaction to cleave out most of the assets of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, which is controlled by the Murdoch family, with an agreement possibly coming as soon as Thursday. nyti.ms/2yjMTii- An enormous explosion rocked a major natural gas hub in Baumgarten, Austria on Tuesday, killing an employee, injuring at least 18 people and raising concerns about tightening supplies across Europe. nyti.ms/2ykEzyV- Republican lawmakers, scrambling to reach agreement on a final tax bill that they hope to pass next week, are coalescing around a plan that would slightly raise the proposed corporate tax rate, lower the top rate on the richest Americans and scale back the existing mortgage interest deduction. nyti.ms/2C9piEc- Crowdfunding firm Indiegogo started a new service to vet coin offerings, also known as Initial Coin Offerings, and then help sell them to small and large investors. nyti.ms/2nRwnpMCompiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-13-idINL3N1OD273'|'2017-12-13T02:53:00.000+02:00'
'1cb80937d0570ab6c9d53e38df3d28a170ffc557'|'Australia''s Cleanaway Waste Management to buy rival Tox Free Solutions'|'(Reuters) - Cleanaway Waste Management ( CWY.AX ) said on Monday it would buy smaller rival Tox Free Solutions ( TOX.AX ) for A$3.425 per share in cash, valuing Tox at A$671 million ($503.72 million) on a diluted basis.The Cleanaway offer is at a 20.6 percent premium to Tox’s closing level on Friday of A$2.84. Under the deal, Tox shareholders will be entitled to receive an interim dividend of A$0.05 per share in fiscal 2018, the company said in a statement.In a separate statement, directors of Tox Free said they unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the Cleanaway offer.($1 = 1.3321 Australian dollars)Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tox-free-m-a-cleanaway-waste/australias-cleanaway-waste-management-to-buy-rival-tox-free-solutions-idINKBN1E40W3'|'2017-12-10T19:24:00.000+02:00'
'189ee19c1db8a23cd7574d7877af264627c4fce3'|'Britain''s Labour Party looks to move some BoE functions away from London'|'(Reuters) - Britain’s Labour Party is considering moving some of Bank of England’s functions to Birmingham, from its current home in Threadneedle Street in the City of London, according to an interim report on the British financial system released on Sunday.A man wears a bowler hat outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Launched by the opposition Labour Party’s finance policy chief John McDonnell, the report was led by consultants GFC Economics.The report’s main recommendations included establishing BoE offices in Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast, along with two smaller regional offices in Newcastle and Plymouth. It also called for locating Labour’s National Investment Bank in Birmingham.Britain’s output from high-tech industries has fallen on average over the last 10 years, the report said, with only one other EU member performing more poorly.Investment in manufacturing, information and communications technology and other critical sectors in Britain is lagging 28 billion pounds behind investment in real estate companies, the report added.Commenting on the report, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said, “This important report drums home the message that our financial system isn’t delivering enough investment across the whole country, and in the high-technology industries and firms of the future where it is needed most”.The report said that the proposed recommendations will be considered for inclusion in the next Labour manifesto.Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru and Elizabeth Piper in London; Editing by Will Dunham '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-labour-boe/britains-labour-party-looks-to-move-some-boe-functions-away-from-london-idUSKBN1E40WP'|'2017-12-11T00:50:00.000+02:00'
'979a30c817fd2990f0d24950e171b8bb6d201731'|'Bitcoin futures surge past $18,000; Asian shares firm'|'December 11, 2017 / 1:03 AM / Updated an hour ago Bitcoin futures rocket past $18,000; Asian shares buoyant Swati Pandey 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - The craze for cryptocurrencies entered a new chapter on Monday as bitcoin futures rocketed by one-fifth of their value at a hotly anticipated launch, while Asian shares climbed amid optimism about global growth. A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration The most-traded contract on the Chicago-based CBOE Global Markets exchange XBTc1 opened at $15,460 in New York on Sunday evening, before leaping to a high of $18,700 - a gain of 21 percent. They were last quoted at $18,100 a premium of more than$1,700 to the price on Gemini Exchange. The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The cryptocurrency has boasted a gravity-defying 15-fold gain since the start of the year, attracting institutional interest and no small amount of question marks. The acting governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Sunday said bitcoin appeared to be a “classic case” of a bubble. “With a bubble you never know how far it is going to go before it comes around,” Grant Spencer told a local television program. Some market participants believe the fallout across other financial assets from a potential bursting of the bubble will be limited. “Bitcoin’s market capitalization is currently around $240 billion, which is much smaller, say, than the value of gold outstanding,” said Andrew Kenningham, economist at Capital Economics. “If the price of bitcoin fell to zero today, the paper losses would be equivalent to a 0.6 percent fall in U.S. equity prices. As most investors have bought bitcoin at much lower prices, the relevant losses would arguably be smaller.” Asian shares were buoyant with every single market but one in the black, following strong U.S payrolls data and better-than-expected Chinese trade figures on Friday. Spreadbetters pointed to a strong opening for European shares, while U.S. stock futures indicated a firm start for the S&P 500 which is seen up 0.1 percent ESc1. The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS added 0.5 percent to 552.38, well above a recent two-month trough of 542.27 points. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 climbed 0.6 percent while Chinese shares rallied, with the blue-chip CSI 300 index .CSI300 up 1.3 percent. Vietnam .VNI was the only Asian index in the red. RATE RISES? Currency market investors were cautious ahead of a big week for policy meetings globally, with the Federal Reserve the only major central bank expected to raise interest rates. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are likely to hold rates steady. The dollar steadied near a one-month top against the yen JPY= , after climbing 1.2 percent last week. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, eased 0.1 percent from close to a three-week high. .DXY Traders will keep their eyes peeled for the Fed’s future rate projections as U.S. wages growth and inflation crawl at a snail’s pace. Data out on Friday showed average hourly earnings in the United States nudged up 5 cents or 0.2 percent in November when economists had looked for a 0.3 percent gain. The weakness persisted despite stronger-than-expected non-farm payrolls, which rose by 228,000 in November. “We’ll be listening close for any signs of a dovish shift,” said Aerin Williams, New York-based forex strategist for Citi about the Dec. 12-13 Fed meeting. Elsewhere, oil prices slipped after the latest rise in the U.S rig count pointed to an increase in production there. U.S. crude CLc1 was down 15 cents at $57.21 a barrel and Brent crude LCOc1 inched 17 cents lower to $63.23, drifting away from a recent 2-1/2 year peak of $64.65. Spot gold was a tad firmer at $1,249.96 an ounce XAU=. Editing by Sam Holmes and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/bitcoin-futures-race-higher-in-volatile-launch-dollar-steady-idUKKBN1E502W'|'2017-12-11T06:47:00.000+02:00'
'0d2ae836d6aa416e59ed442541f51470049d4950'|'Japan''s Obayashi says offices raided by prosecutors, shares tumble'|' 28 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Japan''s Obayashi says offices raided by prosecutors, shares tumble Sam Nussey 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Obayashi Corp, one of Japan’s ‘big four’ construction firms, on Monday said Tokyo prosecutors have raided its offices on suspicion of “deceptive obstruction of business”, sending its shares tumbling as much as 8 percent. The logo of Obayashi Corp is seen at a construction site in Tokyo, Japan December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The statement followed local media reports over the weekend that Obayashi was under investigation due to suspected inappropriate behaviour during bidding for contracts related to a magnetic levitation (maglev) train line project. Obayashi declined to comment on the allegation or elaborate on the investigation when contacted by Reuters. The raid comes as Japan’s corporate culture is under increased scrutiny after a string of compliance failings at manufacturers including automakers and steel makers. Prosecutors are investigating the bidding process for a contract to build a tunnel emergency exit which was won by a joint venture of Obayashi, Toda Corp and a unit of Central Japan Railway Co (JR Central), the Nikkei business daily reported. Bidding for a separate contract won by Obayashi, Maeda Corp and the JR Central unit is also under investigation, the newspaper reported. An executive vice-president at Obayashi was among those questioned by prosecutors, the Nikkei reported. An Obayashi spokesman declined to comment to Reuters on the matter. Representatives of JR Central, Toda and Maeda told Reuters they had not been contacted by prosecutors. Employees at another of the ‘big four’ constructors that is involved in the maglev project, Kajima Corp, underwent voluntary questioning by prosecutors, a company spokesman said. A representative for the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office could not be immediately reached for comment. Japan is working on a 9 trillion yen (59.2 billion pounds) maglev line linking Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Trains running at speeds of up to 500 km (311 miles) per hour, through tunnels deep under mountainous terrain, will cut the train travel time between Tokyo and Nagoya to 40 minutes from 100 minutes or more when operation begins in 2027. Backed by cheap government loans and running in addition to Japan''s extensive bullet train network, the project has drawn criticism for its cost and lack of export potential. ( reut.rs/2BvUJM2 ) Japan’s large and politically influential construction industry, which worked closely with the government during the country’s post-war economic boom, has been a frequent source of scandals such as bid-rigging. Legislation has been tightened in recent years to prevent bid-rigging, for instance, and during efforts to clean up the industry, Obayashi in 2006 required managers to sign a pledge to abide by antitrust laws. The next year, however, the firm’s top management resigned following a public works scandal. “It’s not a surprise to see this kind of news,” said Yasuo Sakuma, chief investment officer at Libra Investments. “This huge national project, involving deep-level works, is only feasible for the largest general contractors and you can imagine competitive bidding being in name only.” Obayashi’s shares closed down 7 percent on Monday, giving it a market value of some 996 billion yen ($8.77 billion). Shares of Kajima and Toda closed down around 4 percent, Maeda was down around 2 percent while JR Central was down around 1 percent. The benchmark Nikkei 225 share price index closed up 0.6 percent. Reporting by Sam Nussey, additional reporting by Tomo Uetake; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-obayashi-probe/japans-obayashi-says-offices-raided-by-prosecutors-shares-tumble-idUKKBN1E50SD'|'2017-12-11T11:27:00.000+02:00'
'd30db4257f6efcfd989b01ea91e152cd44b6aa79'|'Russian-owned Helsinki shipyard looks for new investor as sanctions bite'|'HELSINKI/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) is looking to sell a majority stake in its Arctech shipyard in Finland as sanctions against the holding company hamper business, the head of the shipyard said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: An icebreaker built for the Russian Ministry of Transport is seen at Arctech Helsinki Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, September 10, 2015. REUTERS/Jussi Rosendahl/File Photo The Helsinki shipyard is the world’s biggest builder of vessels that can navigate ice-covered waters and expects more orders as melting sea ice opens the Arctic to more shipping, mining and oil drilling.However, the yard’s access to finance has been complicated by its Russian ownership after East-West sanctions prompted by the Ukraine crisis.Arctech Managing Director Esko Mustamaki told Reuters that USC was looking to sell a majority stake in the shipyard to an industrial buyer from the West.“I don’t want to comment on the reasons, that is up to the owner, but it is clear that sanctions are a big problem for us,” he said by telephone.FILE PHOTO: An icebreaker built for the Finish government is seen at Arctech Helsinki Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, September 10, 2015. REUTERS/Jussi Rosendahl/File Photo “All issues regarding finance and insurance have been challenging.”In addition, sanctions against Russia have reduced the country’s investments in new icebreakers, which is why the shipyard is now looking to expand into cruise ships, Mustamaki said.Business daily Kauppalehti on Tuesday Quote: d USC executive Evgeny Zagorodniy as saying the company was trying to find new partners for the shipyard because of sanctions and that it had discussed the situation with the Finnish government.A USC spokeswoman said: “USC is considering different options to develop its Finnish assets, including attracting new partners.”The shipyard, which has built about 60 percent of all icebreakers in global use today, was once owned by Norway’s Kvaerner and Aker Yards, and later by South Korea’s STX, the financial problems of which eventually prompted the 2014 sale to Russia.Mustamaki declined to disclose Arctech financial information.Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl; Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow; Editing by David Evans and David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-russia-finland-shipyard/russian-owned-helsinki-shipyard-looks-for-new-investor-as-sanctions-bite-idINKBN1E61Z0'|'2017-12-12T12:22:00.000+02:00'
'e38e36b70c9dd59f7c6410043be43c7d34282a33'|'Workers at Chile''s Quebrada Blanca mine set to strike -union'|'SANTIAGO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A union at Teck Resources’ Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile is set to strike after contract talks mediated by the Chilean government failed to reach a deal, the union told Reuters.Union 1 president Jorge Flores said workers had failed to find agreement with the company on a bonus scheme that would put it on equal footing with the mine’s other unions.“We were unable to reach a deal with the company, and so we will begin to strike on our first shift tomorrow at 7 a.m.,” said Flores.A company official was not immediately available for comment.Flores said the 105-member union represents only a quarter of the mine’s workforce, but predicted the walk-off would likely affect production.“Our people work in key positions {in the mine} and we believe operations will be affected,” Flores said.The mine’s remaining unions earlier this year opted to extend their contracts for 15 months, leaving negotiations until 2018.Quebrada Blanca has produced 17,300 tonnes of copper so far this year. Chile is the world’s top copper producer. (Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by James Dalgleish) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/chile-copper-strike/workers-at-chiles-quebrada-blanca-mine-set-to-strike-union-idINL1N1OC1V6'|'2017-12-12T16:42:00.000+02:00'
'40da6382ff2dc0c33b50379bcf8f3ac4628ce50a'|'EU sends stark warning to airlines on post-Brexit flying'|'Reuters TV United States December 12, 2017 / 5:17 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago EU sends stark warning to airlines on post-Brexit flying Julia Fioretti 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British airlines will lose all flying rights to the European Union if there is no transition agreement after Brexit, the EU executive said on Tuesday, a stark reminder of the risks facing the aviation sector if there is no deal. A man arrives at the British Airways check-in desk at Gatwick Airport in southern England, Britain, May 28, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay In a notice to all airlines, the European Commission said UK air carriers would no longer enjoy traffic rights under any air transport agreement to which the EU is a party, meaning they would no longer have the right to fly to the EU and between its member states. They would also lose flying rights under agreements between the EU and third countries, such as the U.S.-EU Open Skies agreement. Airlines based in the EU have the right to fly to, from and within any country in the bloc thanks to the single aviation market created in the 1990s, but Britain now has less than two years to renegotiate access or come up with an alternative system. British carriers include easyJet ( EZJ.L ), British Airways ( ICAG.L ), Flybe ( FLYB.L ), Jet2 ( DTG.L ) and Virgin Atlantic [VA.UL]. Budget airline easyJet has already moved to establish a new airline in Austria to protect its flying rights within the EU once Britain leaves the bloc. [nL8N1K51JE] Airlines have been vocal about the risks posed by the no-deal scenario and have urged London and Brussels to quickly provide certainty for the industry. [nL5N1H612D] RESTRICTIONS Without a deal airlines would have to rely on a decades-old traffic rights accord between the UK and EU states. These are typically more restrictive and do not allow airlines to fly within member states. Britain and the EU clinched a divorce deal last Friday, paving the way for them to start talks on future trade ties and a two-year Brexit transition period that will start when Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019. [nL8N1O80E7] However, Brussels has ruled out a separate deal just for aviation on the grounds that it would be tantamount to cherry-picking. The note also says EU carriers would lose their flying rights to or from Britain granted by a third country under any air transport agreement to which the EU is a party. Similarly, carriers from third countries would lose the right to fly to or from Britain under agreements negotiated by the EU. U.S. airlines such as Delta ( DAL.N ), United Airlines [UALCO.UL] and American Airlines [AAMRQA.UL] have been lobbying the EU and Britain to strike an agreement on aviation, fearing that a failure to do so could jeopardize the antitrust immunity granted to their transatlantic joint ventures as well as their ability to fly passengers to the EU via London Heathrow. The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) said the Commission’s note was cause for great concern. ”Here it is in black and white from the EU Commission – UK flights to the EU will be grounded in March 2019 should no agreement be reached,“ said Brian Strutton, general secretary of BALPA. ”We need the UK Government to sort air traffic rights now. Once again, no deal is not an option.” Additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Victoria Bryan in Berlin; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-aviation/eu-sends-stark-warning-to-airlines-on-post-brexit-flying-idUKKBN1E62CC'|'2017-12-12T19:03:00.000+02:00'
'eb294550f4603fbe06bb3ddba5deb0d7f140d539'|'Trump administration holds talks with airlines, keeps pressure on Gulf carriers'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration met with major airlines on Tuesday to discuss complaints that some Gulf states are unfairly subsidizing state-owned carriers, keeping up pressure on the Middle East airlines at the center of a spat with U.S. rivals. Qatar Airways aircrafts are seen at Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon U.S. and Gulf airlines representatives met at the U.S. State Department with administration officials to discuss the status of the government’s review of complaints about subsidies. A State Department official said there would be no announcement after the meeting, but officials plan new talks with Gulf states starting this week. Heads of the three largest U.S. passenger carriers - American Airlines Group Inc ( AAL.O ), United Continental Holdings Inc ( UAL.N ) and Delta Air Lines Inc ( DAL.N ) - have urged the Trump administration to challenge the conduct of three major Middle Eastern carriers under “Open Skies” agreements signed in the early 2000s. The U.S. airlines contend the Gulf carriers are being unfairly subsidized by their governments. The airlines, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates, have denied those accusations. The Gulf airlines operate around 200 flights per week to 12 U.S. cities. President Donald Trump told airline executives in February he recognized they were facing pressure from foreign carriers, but added that he wanted foreign airlines also to do well. “They come with big investments, in many cases those investments come from their governments, but they are still big investments,” he said. An Etihad Airways Boeing 777-3FX company aircraft takes off at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy, France, August 9, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen/File Photo In a Sept. 14 White House memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday, Trump administration officials agreed the U.S. government “should take action to address the unfair behavior of Gulf carriers.” It said the government should “seek disciplines on subsidies, transparency and state owned enterprises” and consider withdrawing from the Open Skies agreements if “sufficient progress it not made.” The Partnership for Open & Fair Skies, which includes Delta, American, United and some major airline unions, on Tuesday applauded “the Trump administration for taking action to level the playing field with the Gulf carriers and their massive government subsidies”, spokeswoman Jill Zuckman said. Slideshow (3 Images) But U.S. smaller airlines grouped under the U.S. Airlines for Open Skies Coalition said their larger rivals “still cannot point to a specific violation” of the Open Skies agreements. It said it was “confident further investigation by the Trump administration will show the claims for what they are: a political ploy to protect themselves from competition and limit choice for U.S. travelers”. The coalition represents Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc ( AAWW.O ), FedEx Corp ( FDX.N ), Hawaiian Airlines, and JetBlue Airways Corp ( JBLU.O ). U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow also said on Tuesday: “We strongly oppose any efforts to reduce secure travel, connectivity, growth and consumer choice.” Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-airlines-gulf/trump-administration-holds-talks-with-airlines-keeps-pressure-on-gulf-carriers-idUSKBN1E62O8'|'2017-12-12T21:21:00.000+02:00'
'bfbbd02d9e2bf01749bcc5adaf6e34e9eff3f45f'|'U.S. company sues China''s HNA over deal, cites opaque ownership'|'December 12, 2017 / 2:08 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago U.S. company sues China''s HNA over deal, cites opaque ownership Reuters Staff 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ness Technologies S.A.R.L., a U.S. software engineering company, has sued Chinese conglomerate HNA Group accusing it of failing to adequately answer questions about its ownership in a U.S. review of takeovers by foreign companies, thereby causing their $325 million (243.7 million pounds) deal to fail. The lawsuit by New Jersey-based Ness is the latest case involving HNA, which has come under U.S. and European scrutiny after a $50 billion worldwide acquisition spree that included stakes in Deutsche Bank and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. HNA is part of a consortium that agreed in January to buy a majority stake in SkyBridge Capital LLC, a U.S. hedge fund investment firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci, a former aide to U.S. President Donald Trump. In the lawsuit filed last week in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Ness claimed that HNA had caused it financial harm by not using what it called “best efforts” to get regulatory approval for its takeover of a Ness unit. HNA’s Beijing-based subsidiary, Pactera Technology International Ltd, had agreed in March to buy Ness’ unit, Jersey Holding Corp, according to the court filing. The deal needed a greenlight from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an intra-government agency that scrutinizes for national security concerns foreign groups’ purchases of U.S. assets. According to the lawsuit, between July and October, CFIUS sent HNA and Pactera at least 77 follow-up questions about its ownership and shareholding structure pertaining to HNA’s takeover of Jersey Holding as well as SkyBridge Capital. CFIUS often looks at whether foreign governments have any involvement in a U.S. acquisition. In a case earlier this year, it cited the role of the Chinese government when rejecting the acquisition of a U.S. chipmaker by a Chinese-backed private equity fund. HNA has been waiting for nearly a year for CFIUS to approve its investment in SkyBridge Capital. The Ness lawsuit claimed that HNA and Pactera “covertly worked to evade and frustrate” CFIUS’ review of the investment by “discussing, planning, orchestrating and implementing various schemes to disguise the true nature of their organisations, corporate structures and ownership.” Ness and a CFIUS spokesperson declined to comment. HNA did not respond to requests for comment. SkyBridge spokeswoman Woomi Yun declined to comment. The lawsuit said HNA and Pactera disclosed to CFIUS that HNA Founder Chen Feng was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and held a “current government position in China.” The lawsuit also said HNA and Pactera “revealed additional ties to the Chinese government” and disclosed a number of loans from China’s government, including two loans worth over $175 million. No further details were given. HNA, which has fielded many questions about its ownership over the past year, tried to address issue in July by creating New York-based Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation Inc to act as its single biggest stakeholder with a 29.5 percent stake. In its lawsuit, Ness claimed that HNA and Pactera told it that the charity had “chosen not to be tax-exempt to avoid U.S. federal regulations involving corporate ownership.” The lawsuit cited CFIUS staff as saying that most of their questions to HNA involved “the ‘core’ issue of HNA Group’s ownership structure, which presented an unresolved national security issue.” HNA is being investigated by the German financial watchdog over its stock market disclosures, and the Swiss Takeover Board said in November that HNA had given partially untrue or incomplete information when it took over a Swiss company last year. HNA’s heavy reliance on leverage to fund its investments has raised its financing cost, prompting some credit rating agencies to downgrade its creditworthiness. Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hna-group-ownership/u-s-company-sues-chinas-hna-over-deal-cites-opaque-ownership-idUKKBN1E6071'|'2017-12-12T04:08:00.000+02:00'
'eb58922b8614ea7a469633e2b0d6086960f4a557'|'U.S. transit agencies cautious on electric buses despite bold forecasts'|'Reuters TV United States December 12, 2017 / 6:15 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago U.S. transit agencies cautious on electric buses despite bold forecasts Nichola Groom 8 Min Read LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Communities across the United States are looking to replace their dirty diesel buses, ushering in what some analysts predict will be a boom in electric fleets. An electric bus sits under a charging station in Pomona, California U.S. November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson But transit agencies doing the buying are moving cautiously, an analysis by Reuters shows. Out of more than 65,000 public buses plying U.S. roads today, just 300 are electric. Among the challenges: EVs are expensive, have limited range and are unproven on a mass scale. A typical 40-foot electric bus costs around $750,000, compared with about $435,000 for a diesel bus. Cheaper fuel and maintenance expenses can lower the overall costs over the 12-year life of the vehicles. But those costs can widely depending on utility rates, terrain and weather. The technology is still a gamble for many cities at a time when bus ridership is falling nationwide and officials are trying to keep a lid on fares, says Chris Stoddart, an executive at Canadian bus maker New Flyer Industries Inc. A top supplier of conventional buses to the U.S. market, the company has just a handful of pure battery electrics in service. “People worry about being an early adopter. Remember 20 years ago someone paid $20,000 for a plasma TV and then 10 years later it was $900 at Best Buy,” said Stoddart, senior vice president of engineering and customer service for New Flyer. “People just don’t want a science project.” Rival electric bus manufacturers expect dramatic growth; the most ambitious forecasts call for all bus purchases to be electric by 2030. But even green-energy advocates are skeptical of such rosy predictions. CALSTART, a California-based nonprofit that promotes clean transportation, figures 50 percent to 60 percent of new buses will be zero emissions by 2030. Market research firm Navigant Research expects electric buses to make up 27 percent of new U.S. bus sales by 2027. NOT QUITE THERE YET Transit agencies have found EV performance lags in extreme conditions. In environmentally friendly San Francisco, officials have resisted electrics over concerns about the city’s famously steep hills. “The technology isn’t quite there yet,” Erica Kato, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said in a statement. Weather is also a major challenge. An electric bus tested last year near Phoenix wilted in the summer heat due to the strains of running the air conditioning. The vehicle never achieved more than 89.9 miles on a charge, less than two-thirds of its advertised range, according to a report by the Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority. In Massachusetts, two agencies running small numbers of electric buses - the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority in Springfield and Worcester’s Regional Transit Authority - say the vehicles weaken in extreme cold and snow. They have no plans to acquire additional EVs, officials at those agencies said. Even places with successful pilots have downplayed expectations. Seattle’s King County Metro transit agency soon will be operating more than a dozen vehicles by three manufacturers, according to Pete Melin, director of zero emission fleet technologies. The agency likes what it has seen so far. Still, Melin said, high electricity rates from the local utility at peak demand periods are a concern. And the lack of a uniform charging system among bus makers has complicated Seattle’s goal of running an all-electric fleet by 2034. “We have caveats to becoming zero emissions,” Melin said in an interview. Another worry is government funding. Federal money for bus purchases is about 25 percent lower than it was five years ago, according to Rob Healy, vice president of government affairs for the American Public Transportation Association. Passengers ride an electric bus in Azusa, California U.S. November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson An Obama-era program that sets aside $55 million a year in grants to help transit agencies purchase clean buses will expire in 2020 if not renewed by Congress. THE EV BUS HEAVYWEIGHTS In addition to New Flyer, the fledgling U.S. electric bus industry has two other major players: Chinese automaker BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc; and Silicon Valley startup Proterra Inc. BYD and Proterra began selling electric buses into the U.S. market several years ago, and have 165 and 126 vehicles on the road today, respectively. Both are ramping up U.S. manufacturing on expectations that EVs will account for nearly all new bus sales in a little over a decade. BYD has a plant in Lancaster, California, while Proterra has manufacturing facilities in City of Industry, California and Greenville, South Carolina. Buffett paid $230 million for a 10 percent stake in BYD in 2008. Today the company has a market capitalization of $25 billion, thanks mainly to China’s aggressive move to electrify transportation. More than 15 percent of the 608,600 buses in China are pure electric, according to government data. Proterra investors include venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the venture capital arm of General Motors Co. Proterra, based in Burlingame, California, is planning an initial public offering, but would not give a timeline for the debut. Slideshow (8 Images) Chief Executive Ryan Popple said range is improving quickly. The company is currently shipping models with up to 350 miles of range, but new battery technology is expected to boost that by nearly 30 percent. “We’re starting to outstrip the market requirement in terms of what city buses actually do,” Popple said. “It opens up new markets for us.” Notably, Proterra’s growth should also lift the fortunes of U.S. wind blade maker TPI Composites Inc, which struck a deal to build up to 3,350 lightweight bus bodies for the EV bus maker over the next five years. Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov estimated the deal could account for 12 percent of Scottsdale, Arizona-based TPI’s revenue in 2019. Winnipeg-based New Flyer, meanwhile, has won some big orders, including a deal to supply up to 100 electric buses to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Still, company executives view electrification as a gradual transformation. “It’s going to be a slow, methodical rather than an absolute disruption type environment,” CEO Paul Soubry said on a conference call with analysts last month. WORKING WELL, WITH TRADE-OFFS Despite the technology’s limitations, some U.S. transit agencies are hitting the accelerator on their electric conversions. IndyGo, which serves greater Indianapolis, has struck a deal with BYD to purchase 31 electric buses, with the option to add dozens more, in addition to the 21 already in its fleet, according to an IndyGo board of directors meeting report from July. Agency spokesman Bryan Luellen said the EVs have reduced fuel and maintenance costs by up to half compared to conventional buses. Foothill Transit, in Southern California, has been operating Proterra buses since 2010. It now has 17 in its fleet, with 13 more scheduled to arrive before the end of the year, according to spokeswoman Felicia Friesema. Still, both agencies acknowledged trade-offs due to the limited range of these vehicles. Foothill has mainly confined its electric buses to a short 16-mile route. The Indianapolis EVs run primarily during the morning and evening rush hours, not all day long like the diesel workhorses that remain the mainstay of the fleet. Still, IndyGo’s Luellen figures the best is yet to come. “With battery technology evolving rapidly we think it’s a big opportunity for us to maximize our budget and do more,” he said. Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Sue Horton and Marla Dickerson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-transportation-buses-electric-analysi/u-s-transit-agencies-cautious-on-electric-buses-despite-bold-forecasts-idUKKBN1E60GS'|'2017-12-12T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'f274ab241b27942cc79e9f2a94418281cee8e663'|'UK city York refuses to renew Uber''s licence'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:11 PM / a few seconds ago UK city York refuses to renew Uber''s licence Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - The English city of York rejected Uber’s licence renewal on Tuesday, citing concerns about the ride-hailing app’s data breach and the number of complaints received, a city council spokesperson said. The logo of Uber is seen on an iPad, during a news conference to announce Uber resumes ride-hailing service, in Taipei, Taiwan April 13, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain-york/uk-city-york-refuses-to-renew-ubers-licence-idUKKBN1E62QX'|'2017-12-12T22:09:00.000+02:00'
'f37328bc862796883fafc119ddf317fdc6014122'|'State leader named to board of main ThyssenKrupp shareholder'|'DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - The chief minister of Germany’s state of North Rhine-Westphalia has been elected to the board of the foundation that is the largest shareholder in engineering group ThyssenKrupp ( TKAG.DE ), it said on Monday.Armin Laschet of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party CDU is sworn in after being elected as North Rhine-Westphalia''s federal state premier in Duesseldorf, Germany, June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay The election for a seven-year term of Armin Laschet, from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, comes as ThyssenKrupp seeks to diversify away from its traditional focus on steel.“The membership is not tied to the position of chief minister. It is the individual who is elected, as with all other members,” the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation said in a statement.The foundation controls more than 20 percent in ThyssenKrupp, which has agreed to merge its steel operations with those of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) and is focusing on growth areas like elevators and auto components.Labour leaders have urged the state government to take a more active interest in ThyssenKrupp to minimise possible job losses that may result from the steel merger.The state’s previous chief minister, Social Democrat Hannelore Kraft, was a member of the Krupp foundation board but stood down after losing an election in May.Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/thyssenkrupp-shareholder/state-leader-named-to-board-of-main-thyssenkrupp-shareholder-idINKBN1E52C0'|'2017-12-11T20:22:00.000+02:00'
'cf7aa0acb1ed9762fe18de7edde870e997f1d6a4'|'UK''s Petrofac hires Bain & Co to explore options for North Sea business - Times'|' 27 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago UK''s Petrofac hires Bain & Co to explore options for North Sea business - Times Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British oilfield services company Petrofac Ltd ( PFC.L ) has hired consultancy Bain & Co to explore options for the its North Sea operations, including a sale, the Times reported on Sunday. Petrofac, which is being investigated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for its dealings with Monaco-based Unaoil, has been struggling to reduce its $1 billion debt pile. Petrofac and Bain were not immediately available for comment. The Telegraph reported last month that U.S. oilfield services companies Schlumberger ( SLB.N ) and Halliburton ( HAL.N ) as well as a Middle Eastern company were among the firms circling Petrofac, with market talk of a bid of around 600 pence per share. ( bit.ly/2C27SsY ) Petrofac has lost about half its value since May, when the SFO had commenced an investigation into the company and its units, and has a current market capitalisation of 1.45 billion pounds ($1.94 billion). Shares of the company were up 1.6 percent at 423.3 pence in early trading. ($1 = 0.7472 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-petrofac-divestiture-north-sea/uks-petrofac-hires-bain-co-to-explore-options-for-north-sea-business-times-idUKKBN1E50MT'|'2017-12-11T10:26:00.000+02:00'
'b536beb101da337950b7732ff8fbda82aecc3112'|'Brexit: City of London will lose 10,500 jobs on day one, says EY - Politics - The Guardian'|'City firms plan to move 10,500 jobs out of the UK on “day one” of Brexit , with Dublin and Frankfurt the financial centres most likely to benefit from the UK’s departure from the EU.The job tracker compiled by the accountants EY, which counts job announcements to the end of November, found that the number of roles likely to be affected had fallen from estimates of 12,500 a year ago. But it also concluded that the jobs being affected by Brexit were not just the “back office” ones initially forecast, but “front office” staff who deal directly with clients.Omar Ali, EY’s UK financial services leader, said Friday’s announcement of a first-stage deal, allowing talks to move on to trade , had sent “a wave of relief across the City”.“It signalled an intention to agree a transitional period as early as possible next year and the starting point for negotiations on future trade deals, both of which are fundamental to avoid adding any additional risks to the system and for the future strength of the UK financial services industry,” said Ali.Major City firms have started to announce how they will respond to the UK’s exit from the EU after being told by the Bank of England to present contingency plans f or all eventualities, including a “hard” Brexit. Last month Sam Woods, a deputy governor of the Bank , warned that 10,000 jobs could leave the City on “day one” after reviewing these plans.Ali said firms’ contingency plans had become more detailed over the past year. “The extent of broader strategic restructurings and relocation plans will of course ultimately depend on the specifics of any long-term UK deal with the EU, but a drop in the volume of jobs moving will be welcome news for the City.”EY said that since the July 2016 referendum 31% of the 222 companies it was tracking have said they are considering or have confirmed the movement of some of their operations and/or staff out of the UK.Goldman Sachs, for instance, has begun to implement contingency plans by taking the top eight floors of a 37-storey block under construction in Frankfurt, even though it is building a new European headquarters in London. It has not said how many of its 6,000 roles in London will be impacted.EY’s tracker puts Dublin and Frankfurt ahead of other alternative centres in the EU, attracting 14 and 12 companies, respectively.Analysts at the Japanese bank Nomura are also tracking the potential for job moves and said: “Depending on whether we get a transitional deal, 10,000 jobs spread over a one- to three-year period is a relatively small number, but for markets it’s the long- term impact of Brexit that we find adds up to 35-40,000 that will matter more.”• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Brexit Financial sector Banking Job losses London news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/11/brexit-city-of-london-jobs-ey-dublin-frankfurt'|'2017-12-11T18:59:00.000+02:00'
'3611d9b884bcf51c711141375927d8817602db2a'|'IOC shuts FCCU at Paradip refinery after fire'|'NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Oil Corp has shut the fluidised catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) at its Paradip refinery, a company spokesman said. FCCU was shut after a fire broke out at a nearby facility at about 1100 hours local time. The east coast refinery has a capacity of 300,000 barrels per dayFILE PHOTO: A logo of Indian Oil is seen on the shirt of an employee at a fuel station in New Delhi, India August 29, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo Reporting by Nidhi Verma; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/markets/companyOutlooksNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-ioc-fire/ioc-shuts-fccu-at-paradip-refinery-after-fire-idINKBN1E617G'|'2017-12-12T08:06:00.000+02:00'
'8eefe33c085e0078b17dbc9b4de754c305ef6229'|'Central Asia yet to adjust to cheaper oil - World Bank'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:01 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Central Asia yet to adjust to cheaper oil - World Bank Olzhas Auyezov 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Countries across energy-rich Central Asia are a long way from readjusting to lower oil prices and will need to carry out large-scale reforms to regain competitiveness, a senior World Bank economist told Reuters in an interview. Failure to do so could undermine ruling elites and create serious political risks, said Hans Timmer, chief economist for the Europe and Central Asia region of the World Bank. “Anxiety among the population... should be taken seriously. Remember the Arab Spring? Or populism in Europe and the United States? Something like that could happen in Central Asia if no adjustments are made,” Timmer said by telephone from Astana. Although only Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are energy exporters, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have also benefited from petrodollars, largely thanks to remittances from hundreds of thousands of their citizens working in Russia. Following the plunge of global oil prices, all five Central Asian states have seen their currencies fall sharply against the dollar and their economic growth significantly slow. “The main challenge (for Central Asian nations) is rebalancing their economies to adjust to the new economic reality of lower oil prices seen since 2014,” Timmer said. Other major issues faced by Central Asia’s 70 million inhabitants are adjustments in the neighbouring China’s economy and global technological changes, he said. Timmer compared the situation to the early 1990s when the former Soviet republics were plunged into poverty and chaos by the collapse of the Soviet Union and had to reform quickly and under pressure. “I think this risk (of the events of the early 1990s repeating) is there, and everybody has to learn from that experience,” he said. “Not transforming is a huge risk.” UBER FOR TRACTORS Economies in the region lost their competitive edge during the oil-fuelled boom, while a lot of investment went into sectors producing non-tradable goods such as the construction and property industry, Timmer said. The primary concerns now are government finances - states across Central Asia are borrowing to finance spending - and financial sectors, which are riddled with bad debt. But fundamentally, reforms need to focus on improving the business environment, he added. “Ultimately, the goal should be creating an environment where new jobs are being created,” Timmer said. The region needed to take advantage of all opportunities, he said, for example developing horticulture in Uzbekistan, where farmers need access to credit, a level playing field and help with implementing new technology. Uzbekistan could also benefit from “an Uber-like system” for renting tractors and other agricultural machines, he said. China’s evolution into an exporter of foreign direct investment and its “Belt and Road” infrastructure project was another opportunity for the region which, after currency devaluations, can offer cheaper labour than China itself. FLEXIBILITY China could also serve as a good example of policy flexibility for the region, which is dominated by autocratic governments where vested interests sometimes stand in the way of change, Timmer said. Asked if deep structural economic reforms were possible without political ones, he said: “It all depends on the extent to which the existing political powers see the urgency and the need to reform.” Citing his experience of working with the Beijing government on its China 2030 programme, Timmer said he was surprised by “how much they wanted to change their policies, sometimes going 180 degrees”. “You need the same kind of attitude,” he said. He stressed the importance of avoiding moves such as bailing out businesses run by the elites and the need to make way for grass roots decision-making. “All countries in the region except maybe for Kyrgyzstan have a tradition of top-down guidance of the economy. But the ultimate solution will at least partly come from a bottom-up approach,” Timmer added. Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Jon Boyle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-centralasia-worldbank/central-asia-yet-to-adjust-to-cheaper-oil-world-bank-idUKKBN1E81RA'|'2017-12-14T15:00:00.000+02:00'
'9e6b1ef4cd8e8d68f6042b7b45213897939a97b6'|'The global property business tries to adapt to e-commerce - Vacant spaces'|'FIFTH AVENUE in New York is the most expensive stretch of retail property in the world, now festooned with lights in the approach to Christmas. The pavements heave with crowds eager to see the diamonds sparkling at Tiffany & Co, a jeweller, and festive displays at Saks Fifth Avenue, a department store. But storefronts further downtown in once-thriving shopping districts remain vacant.The global retail property business is having to adapt as consumers spend more online. Consolidation is in vogue. On December 12th two retail property companies, France’s Unibail-Rodamco and Australia’s Westfield, agreed to merge in a deal worth $24.7bn to form the world’s second-biggest owner of shopping malls by market value. Westfield earns about 70% of its revenues from property holdings in America.  43 minutes   7   7   In November, Brookfield Property Partners, another mall owner, bid $14.8bn for the 66% of GGP, a rival, that it did not already own. Two activist investors, Third Point and Elliott Management, took stakes in two others. They are among several investors to recognise that change is hastening, as many retail properties labour and others discover brighter prospects.Location, as ever, is key. In France and the Netherlands, as elsewhere, retail properties in smaller cities are struggling while those in big ones thrive. Well-known thoroughfares can attract luxury-goods firms that like having flagship stores to advertise their brand. One example is New Bond Street in London, which is booming. Rents jumped by 34% in the year to June, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a property-services firm. But even prominent streets in some places are experiencing a correction in prices. In Hong Kong rents in shopping hubs have slipped along with rates of visitors from mainland China.In America, which has about five times as much mall space per person as Britain, “there is a huge bifurcation”, says Todd Caruso of CBRE, a brokerage. Some areas and certain types of properties are expected to fare well and others to slump. Atlanta and Orlando are among the cities particularly saturated with stores, with only paltry levels of disposable income and retail sales, according to Green Street Advisors, a property research firm. These will probably see more shop closures. Enclosed malls are usually filled with department stores such as Macy’s and other clothes retailers that are all closing outlets. But strip malls, which have shops connected by a car park, often have a supermarket, so are less susceptible to e-commerce—most Americans still buy food in person, at least for now.What will happen to retail properties as stores shut is on the minds of city authorities. Other types of companies may fill vacant space in larger cities. In October Hudson’s Bay, a retailer, said it would sell its Lord & Taylor department-store building on Fifth Avenue to WeWork, a shared-office firm, for $850m. Mall owners hope to find new tenants from service industries such as restaurants and gyms. Retailers such as Bonobos that once sold clothes only online are opening more shops.Bigger groups are better placed to spend on the best malls and sell others. Unibail-Rodamco’s plan for its American shopping malls is to “focus on improving them, ride out the storm and see where we go from there,” said the company’s chief financial officer this week. GGP in October announced an agreement to add flats to a mall in Seattle; Sandeep Mathrani, GGP’s boss, wants to make retail centres into “mini cities”. Other property companies face more of a challenge. CBL Properties, for instance, owns malls in smaller American cities that have less shopping traffic. CBL’s share price has fallen by more than 50% this year, making it harder to invest and turn around ailing spaces.As the property market evolves, at least one type of investor can be unequivocally cheerful. Vacancies for industrial real estate, including e-commerce warehouses, are at their lowest rate in three decades. Prologis, the biggest owner globally of such property, has seen its share price jump by nearly 20% this year, while other property firms’ value has remained flat.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Vacant spaces"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732568-many-retail-properties-will-slump-others-have-brighter-prospects-global-property?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'3f1c7772174d93f70f6823b5841865e8e85c2c63'|'Driver shortages hit sales growth at online grocer Ocado'|'December 14, 2017 / 7:23 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Driver shortages dent sales growth at UK online grocer Ocado James Davey 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British online grocer Ocado suffered a slow down in sales growth in its latest quarter, blaming a shortage of drivers across the industry and increasing wage costs. FILE PHOTO: A worker packs bags as a conveyer belt transports goods inside the Ocado Customer Fulfilment Centre in Hatfield on the outskirts of London, Britain, April 6, 2016 . REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo Ocado, which last month secured its biggest overseas deal so far - a partnership with French supermarket group Casino - said that in parts of London and south east England it had found it much harder than anticipated to recruit enough drivers, and had to offer higher wage rates. About half of Ocado’s total workforce of 12,000 are drivers. “A shortage of capacity, with the lack of drivers in certain locations being the largest factor, restricted our sales growth,” said Chief Executive Tim Steiner. “While this driver shortage has now been largely resolved, there was some short term impact on average orders per week over the period.” Shares in Ocado, up 29 percent so far this year, reversed early losses to be up 3.9 percent at 1021 GMT. Partnerships with retailers overseas are seen by analysts as a key influence on the share price of Ocado, which has a UK grocery market share of 1.3 percent, according to industry data. On Thursday, Steiner reiterated Ocado’s confidence in signing more deals in the medium term. Ocado declined to comment on market speculation that U.S. giant Walmart could be interested. An Ocado delivery truck drives through Fingest in southern England October 8, 2013. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett Ocado, which sells products supplied by upmarket grocer Waitrose and also has its own distribution agreement with Britain’s No. 4 supermarket Morrisons, said retail sales rose 11.6 percent to 373.8 million pounds in the 14 weeks to Dec. 3, its fiscal fourth quarter, having increased 13.1 percent in the previous quarter. Average orders per week increased 11.1 percent to 280,000, versus growth of 16 percent in the previous quarter, while average order size rose 0.3 percent to 106.1 pounds. Chief Financial Officer Duncan Tatton-Brown said the sales increase would have been “closer to 13 percent” were it not for the driver shortage. “I don’t think this is a unique problem (to Ocado),” he told Reuters. “It’s pretty clear that employment levels in London and the south east of the country are pretty high and there’s a lot of growth in e-commerce and delivery generally.” But not everyone was convinced by Ocado’s explanation. “Management blame the slowdown largely on a lack of drivers in certain locations but we can’t see that causing such a large drop-off in orders per week growth,” said Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne, who has an ‘underperform’ rating on the stock. Prior to Thursday’s update, analysts average forecast for 2016-17 core earnings was 90.6 million pounds, up from 84.3 million in 2015-16, according to a consensus compiled by Ocado. Tatton-Brown said he did not expect “material” moves to the consensus forecast. The Casino deal came five months after Ocado clinched a long awaited first overseas licensing deal with an unidentified European retailer, though it was for software only. Editing by Kate Holton and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ocado-outlook/driver-shortages-hit-sales-growth-at-online-grocer-ocado-idUKKBN1E80QV'|'2017-12-14T09:22:00.000+02:00'
'1fff00a49e0f52680486a68b0ceb46cceab1ceef'|'Spotify price tag rises ahead of filing for NYSE listing - sources'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:40 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Spotify price tag rises ahead of filing for NYSE listing: sources Reuters Staff 3 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The value of music streaming service Spotify, which is planning a stock market listing, has grown around 20 percent to at least $19 billion in the past few months, outperforming U.S. and European tech indexes, sources familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: Headphones are seen in front of a logo of online music streaming service Spotify, February 18, 2014 REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The most recent private trades in the Swedish company have taken place at above $4,000 per share according to sources. One of the sources said the recent trades were at a record-high of $4,200, valuing the firm at $19 billion or more. That compares to around $16 billion earlier this autumn. Spotify is aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators toward the end of this year, sources said. Also supporting perceptions of Spotify’s increasing value, Tencent’s ( 0700.HK ) purchase of new Spotify shares implies a valuation of $5,000 per share, one of the sources said. Spotify and the music arm of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd said last week they would buy minority stakes in each other, but gave no financial details. Spotify did not immediately respond to inquiries about valuation and listing. The private market for shares prior to a public listing allows employees and founders of private companies such as Spotify to cash in on some of their paper wealth, while letting other investors get a head start on the listing. Spotify’s valuation when it lists - expected to be within 90 days after filing - is forecast to be a few billion dollars higher than current trades as illiquidity risk tends to depress the value ahead of listing, the sources said. While several big tech firms have struggled to enter China, Spotify has with the Tencent deal secured an exposure to the growing Chinese music streaming market. Spotify is the biggest global music streaming company and counts tech giants Apple ( AAPL.O ) and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) as its main rivals. The timing for its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in December is roughly in line with what has been previously suggested by sources. Spotify aims to pursuing a so-called direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange, allowing existing investors to sell shares without raising money from new ones, sources have previously told Reuters. The move is also aimed at saving hundreds of millions of dollars in underwriting fees from investment banks. Reporting by Olof Swahnberg and Helena Soderpalm, additional reporting by Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Niklas Pollard and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-listing/spotify-price-tag-rises-ahead-of-filing-for-nyse-listing-sources-idINKBN1E82AI'|'2017-12-14T17:40:00.000+02:00'
'1fc6b5c5f32c715164fc1b6f37ac6a04bc8a4088'|'US STOCKS-Wall Street up as gains in consumer staples power recovery'|'December 15, 2017 / 3:03 PM / in 2 hours US STOCKS-Wall Street up as gains in consumer staples power recovery Reuters Staff * S&P, Dow set for four weeks of gains in a row * Oracle dips after bleak forecast for cloud business * Indexes up: Dow 0.53 pct, S&P 500 0.51 pct, Nasdaq 0.35 pct (Updates to open) By Rama Venkat Raman Dec 15 (Reuters) - Wall Street indexes rose on Friday with gains in consumer stocks such as Costco Wholesale helping a broad recovery. Costco rose 4 percent after the retailer reported upbeat results and pushed up the S&P Consumer Staples index by 0.9 percent. The index was the biggest gainer among the 11 major S&P sectors. The S&P 500 fell the most in a month on Thursday after Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee declined to back the bill without changes to child tax credits. “What Rubio was looking for is more help for the lower-income people, child tax credits. That’s something that can easily be adjusted, so the bill will move forward,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital. “Things are looking like this (tax bill) will get through. But the market is going to be sensitive to any inkling that it’s going to be a problem.” Stocks have rallied this year, partly on hopes of corporate tax cuts that U.S. President Donald Trump promised during his election campaign last year. The bill, in its current form, proposes a corporate tax cut to 21 percent from 35 percent. The stock markets are expected to see a rise in trading volume as the session progresses with traders likely to close hedging positions of futures, options and stocks or roll them over at the last minute. At 9:33 a.m. ET (1433 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 129.05 points, or 0.53 percent, at 24,637.71 and the S&P 500 was up 13.49 points, or 0.51 percent, at 2,665.5. The Nasdaq Composite was up 24.34 points, or 0.35 percent, at 6,880.87. The S&P 500 and the Dow were on track to record four weeks of gains in a row, while the Nasdaq was set to post its first rise in three weeks. Shares of consumer staple companies such as Walgreen Boots , Kraft Heinz, Mondelez, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart rose between 0.37 percent and 1.25 percent. Oracle’s shares slipped 5.6 percent after the company’s forecast for the current-quarter cloud revenue growth missed estimates and the second quarter sales in the business disappointed. CSX Corp fell about 8 percent after the No.3 U.S. railroad said its Chief Executive Hunter Harrison was taking medical leave, a decision that comes in the middle of a controversial turnaround plan. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,885 to 572. On the Nasdaq, 1,428 issues rose and 852 fell. (Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-wall-street-up-as-gains-in-consumer-staples-power-recovery-idUSL4N1OF42B'|'2017-12-15T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'84fd90e156c813d41dc68509d47f5e46fd965501'|'HSBC announces end to suspended sentence for Mexican cartel case'|'December 11, 2017 / 8:48 AM / Updated an hour ago HSBC draws line under Mexican cartel case after five years on probation Lawrence White 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC drew a line under its punishment for lapses in anti-money laundering controls on Monday, saying the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) would end its deferred prosecution agreement, lifting the threat of further penalties. FILE PHOTO: The HSBC bank logo is seen at their offices in the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause/File Photo Europe’s biggest bank paid a $1.9 billion (£1.4 billion) fine and entered into the five-year deal in 2012 for failing to prevent Mexican drug cartels from laundering hundreds of millions of dollars. Under the deal, HSBC pledged to strengthen its sanctions and anti-money laundering controls. It had successfully done this and the DoJ will therefore file a motion to dismiss the charges that had been deferred by the agreement, HSBC said. “While we still have improvements to make and work to do, this shows the DPA has worked in the way intended which was to lead to a transformation in the way HSBC manages financial crime risk,” Stuart Levey, Chief Legal Officer at HSBC, said. In a deferred prosecution agreement a prosecutor grants an amnesty in exchange for the defendant agreeing to fulfil certain requirements, often including the payment of a fine and a pledge to avoid further bad behaviour. U.S. prosecutors in 2012 said that in February 2008, Mexican authorities told the CEO of HSBC’s Mexico unit that a local drug lord referred to the bank as the “place to launder money”. Lax money laundering controls at HSBC allowed two cartels - one each in Mexico and Colombia - to move $881 million in drug proceeds through the bank over the second half of the last decade, according to documents in the case. Following its signing of the DPA in 2012, HSBC embarked on a worldwide programme of upgrading its compliance systems to U.S. standards, raising its spending to more than $1 billion a year. As part of the agreements with the U.S. prosecutors and Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), HSBC also installed an independent monitor charged with producing annual reports on the progress of its reforms on fighting financial crime. The bank said on Monday that the monitor, former U.S. district attorney and financial crime expert Michael Cherkasky, would continue in his FCA capacity for an unspecified time. HSBC shares rose 1.8 percent by 1224 GMT, the most among major European banks, as the STOXX European index of 600 lenders rose by 0.47 percent. Reporting by Lawrence White; editing by Jason Neely and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hsbc-usa/hsbc-announces-end-to-suspended-sentence-for-mexican-cartel-case-idUKKBN1E50OO'|'2017-12-11T10:47:00.000+02:00'
'4ba0195b44070b3a1dc40b6e5503b55b2e674756'|'Trafigura and Eni trade first Middle East, India LNG futures contract: SGX'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Commodity trader Trafigura and Eni Trading and Shipping traded the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) futures contract representing delivered prices to Dubai, Kuwait and India, Singapore Exchange (SGX) said on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: Trafigura logo is pictured in the company entrance in Geneva, Switzerland March 11, 2012. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo A total of 100,000 million British thermal units, a fraction of a standard-size cargo, of February 2018 futures was cleared by SGX at a price of $9.85 per mmBtu on Dec. 8, the exchange said in a statement.Tullett Prebon brokered the trade, the first of its kind to represent delivered prices to the Middle East and India.“The region has been a source of growth both in volumes and in liquidity for the LNG market,” Chin Hwee Tan, Chief Executive of Asia Pacific for Trafigura said.Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/futures-lng/trafigura-and-eni-trade-first-middle-east-india-lng-futures-contract-sgx-idINKBN1E71D1'|'2017-12-13T13:22:00.000+02:00'
'b7f7ce768d1f86af7793fe79ad89edac5ce48ea8'|'Ex-Trump aide Carter Page tells court to stop AT&T Time Warner deal'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page argued in court papers on Tuesday that AT&T Inc ( T.N ) should not be permitted to buy CNN parent Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) because there was a risk it would lead to “recklessness” in journalism.FILE PHOTO - One-time advisor of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump Carter Page addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow, Russia, December 12, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Page, whose contacts with Russia have been under scrutiny by Congress and a special counsel, made his argument in a friend-of-the-court brief that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has yet to accept.Late on Tuesday, the court appeared to dismiss his opinion, saying in a brief filing that “Dr. Page’s submission does not appear to be meaningfully relevant to the issues in this case.”Trump criticized the deal on the campaign trail last year and has repeatedly attacked the reporting of Time Warner’s CNN news network.Page said in an interview with Reuters that he had not been in contact with the White House about the filing.FILE PHOTO - The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The U.S. Department of Justice sued AT&T in November to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner, saying the deal could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video. A trial is set for March 19.Both AT&T and the Justice Department declined to comment.“This market power concentrated in the hands of a few dominant mega corporate telecommunications-media conglomerates encourages extreme levels of journalistic recklessness and impropriety since it allocates considerable resources to the media outlets under their control,” Page said in the court papers.Page, who traveled to Russia twice in 2016, has testified to congressional committees investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In that testimony and elsewhere, he has argued that he has been the subject of unfair and inaccurate media coverage.As an example of what he said was media abuse, Page criticized Yahoo, which is owned by Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ), for publishing what he called a “highly misleading” story in September 2016 regarding U.S. intelligence officials probing Trump’s ties to Russia.Page, who described himself as a “junior, unpaid, informal adviser” to the Trump campaign, also argued that it would provide an incentive for the big media outlets to exclude viewpoints it does not like.Reporting by Diane Bartz; Additional reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Grant McCool '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-carterpage/ex-trump-aide-carter-page-tells-court-to-stop-att-time-warner-deal-idINKBN1E632T'|'2017-12-12T20:53:00.000+02:00'
'55e83246288382eea3ee841169c8e5f8c1b1fbc1'|'Gas exports from Total''s UK Elgin Franklin platform halted until Jan. 2'|'LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Gas exports from Total E&P&rsquo;s Elgin-Franklin gas platform in Britain’s North Sea have been halted until Jan. 2 due to the shutdown of the Forties oil pipeline, Total said in a market notice on Wednesday.It said the unplanned outage at the site, which has a capacity of 10 million cubic metres/day of gas, started on Dec. 12.Forties pipeline operator INEOS said on Tuesday it expected the Forties outage to last at least two weeks following the discovery of a crack.Reporting by Susanna Twidale, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-forties-gas/gas-exports-from-totals-uk-elgin-franklin-platform-halted-until-jan-2-idINL8N1OD1KL'|'2017-12-13T05:43:00.000+02:00'
'98ca0ec2e58c47f0b83695f3e63265683d1f354d'|'EU pensions providers look weak under stress - watchdog'|' 13 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago EU pensions providers look weak under stress: watchdog Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A stress test on European Union pension providers show that on the whole they do not have enough assets to cover their liabilities, the European Union’s insurance and pension watchdog said on Wednesday. The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published aggregated results of this year’s stress test of 195 institutions that provide pensions. The stress test simulated prolonged low interest rates and a plunge in asset prices, a scenario that EIOPA Chairman Gabriel Bernardino called “severe but not implausible”. The adverse scenario revealed a shortfall of as much as 702 billion euros ($826.68 billion), a level that could harm the real economy, EIOPA said. “The stress test results show that the risks stemming from shocks ... could also spill over into the real economy with negative implications on economic growth and employment,” said Bernardino. The tests are not directly comparable to the last round conducted in 2015, but Bernardino said the overall assessment was similar. ($1 = 0.8499 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-pensions-stress/eu-pensions-have-insufficient-assets-to-cover-liabilities-watchdog-idUKKBN1E72KO'|'2017-12-13T21:30:00.000+02:00'
'628af14accdc99efcc27358c7863115925d35b00'|'Saudi Aramco lifts spending plans to $414 billion over next decade'|'December 12, 2017 / 9:48 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago Saudi Aramco lifts spending plans to $414 billion over next decade Reem Shamseddine , Rania El Gamal 3 Min Read DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco plans to raise its spending to $414 billion (310.5 billion pounds) over the next 10 years, including on infrastructure and drilling, as the state oil giant moves into new businesses, executives said. FILE PHOTO: Visitors are seen at the Saudi Aramco stand at the Middle East Process Engineering Conference & Exhibition in Manama, Bahrain, October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo The spending plan is higher than Aramco’s projection last year of around $334 billion by 2025, as the oil producer has been expanding its businesses, the company’s chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday. “We are into so many sectors now,” Nasser told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference aimed at promoting the kingdom’s industrial base and the manufacture of a bigger share of products domestically. Saudi Aramco’s plan includes $134 billion to spend on drilling and well services and $78 billion to maintain oil output potential, Nassir Al Yami, general manager for procurement, told a conference in Dammam. Aramco has already created a department for renewables to develop wind and solar projects and last month it signed a preliminary deal with petrochemical producer Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) to build a $20 billion complex to convert crude oil to chemicals. The project, which the partners said would be the largest crude-to-chemicals facility in the world and the first in the kingdom, are part of the Saudi government’s effort to diversify the economy beyond exporting crude. The kingdom’s “Vision 2030” economic reform plan aims at ending its reliance on oil and to stimulate the domestic non-oil private sector. Its centrepiece is a plan to sell up to 5 percent of Aramco in an initial public offering (IPO) next year. Saudi Aramco outlined a plan known as In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) two years ago, aimed at doubling the percentage of locally produced energy-related goods and services to 70 percent of the total spent by 2021. “Saudi Aramco is expected to spend more than 1 trillion Saudi riyals over the next decade. That has not changed, and we still want to see 70 percent of those riyals being spent locally,” Nasser said. Supporting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a main part of the IKTVA drive and Saudi Vision 2030, which would help create over 40,000 jobs and could add around 30 billion riyals to the kingdom’s annual GDP, Nasser said. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) said in October it is creating a 4 billion riyal ($1.07 billion) “fund of funds” to support SMEs. Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-oil-aramco/saudi-aramco-lifts-spending-plans-to-414-billion-over-next-decade-idUKKBN1E60ZE'|'2017-12-12T11:47:00.000+02:00'
'57110bcbbc4011c622cc9c075c174d15db3535d5'|'VW''s truckmaker Scania appeals 880 million euro fine for price fixing'|'STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish truckmaker Scania said on Tuesday it had filed an appeal against a decision by the European Commission to fine it 880 million euros ($1 billion) for taking part in a price fixing cartel.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swedish truck maker Scania is pictured at the IAA truck show in Hanover, September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer The European Commission announced the fine in September, saying Scania had colluded with five peers, fixing vehicle prices to enable them to pass the costs of required environmental improvements on to customers.“In the appeal, Scania contests the findings and allegations made in the Commission’s decision,” Volkswagen-owned ( VOWG_p.DE ) Scania said in a statement.In July, Volkswagen’s MAN, Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ), Volvo ( VOLVb.ST ), Iveco ( CNHI.MI ) and DAF ( PCAR.O ) admitted to taking part in the cartel in return for a 10 percent cut in their fines. Scania did not settle.Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; editing by Johan Ahlander '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-scania-cartel/vws-truckmaker-scania-appeals-880-million-euro-fine-for-price-fixing-idUSKBN1E6274'|'2017-12-12T18:25:00.000+02:00'
'de160e1e76ed43825f3dcf406e2aed7b07c4760d'|'Portola Provides Update On European Marketing Authorization Application For Betrixaban'|' 38 PM / in 14 minutes BRIEF-Portola Provides Update On European Marketing Authorization Application For Betrixaban Reuters Staff Dec 12 (Reuters) - Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc: * PORTOLA PHARMACEUTICALS PROVIDES UPDATE ON EUROPEAN MARKETING AUTHORIZATION APPLICATION FOR BETRIXABAN * CHMP OF EMA HAS REQUESTED ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RELATED TO MARKETING AUTHORIZATION APPLICATION (MAA) FOR BETRIXABAN * CHMP OF EUROPEAN MEDICINES AGENCY REQUESTED MORE INFORMATION RELATED TO MARKETING AUTHORIZATION APPLICATION (MAA) FOR BETRIXABAN * PORTOLA PHARMA SAYS CHMP HAS PROVIDED DAY 195 LOOI TO CO WITH REQUEST FOR RESPONSES DURING NEXT AVAILABLE SUBMISSION WINDOW OF JAN 23, 2018 * EXPECTS CHMP TO ISSUE AN OPINION ON BETRIXABAN LATER IN Q1 OF 2018. Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-portola-provides-update-on-europea/brief-portola-provides-update-on-european-marketing-authorization-application-for-betrixaban-idUSASB0BXJR'|'2017-12-12T21:38:00.000+02:00'
'd1c5b363319087a7d474f5d04a1ae7498c273e66'|'Some Ryanair pilots in Ireland to strike, German union steps up pressure'|'Reuters TV United States December 12, 2017 / 10:45 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Some Ryanair pilots in Ireland to strike, German union steps up pressure Victoria Bryan , Padraic Halpin 4 Min Read BERLIN/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Some Irish-based Ryanair ( RYA.I ) pilots served notice of a one-day strike on Tuesday and German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit said strike action was also possible in Germany in a growing push for better conditions at the Irish budget carrier. FILE PHOTO: Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo Pilots at Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers have mobilized in the wake of the announcement of 20,000 flight cancellations by the Irish carrier, which it blamed on a lack of standby pilots due to a failure in its rostering following a rule change by Irish regulators. Pilots are pushing for better conditions at the carrier and the Irish umbrella IMPACT trade union said Irish-based pilots employed directly by Ryanair and who are members of the IALPA pilots union will withdraw their labor on Dec. 20. The pilots planning to strike were mostly captains, IMPACT said, predicting either flight disruptions or substantial costs to the airline. It warned of further strike days if agreement is not reached on the airline’s bargaining with staff. In response to the vote in favor of action on Monday, Ryanair, which does not recognize trade unions, said the ballot represented less than 28 percent of its Dublin pilots and warned they would lose favorable rosters and remuneration benefits if they were “misled into industrial action.” In Germany, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said it would not rest until Ryanair agreed to a collective labor agreement. “We want to agree contracts with Ryanair. We see no other way,” VC president Ilja Schulz told reporters in Frankfurt. Ryanair rejects union representation, saying it prefers to negotiate with staff directly. Ryanair, which has offered its pilots substantial increases in pay that fewer than a third of its 87 bases have accepted, said it had received no notification of strike action by its German pilots. “If any such action takes place, Ryanair will deal with it head on, but we will not deal with or recognize the Lufthansa pilots union VC, regardless of what action – if any – takes place,” it said in a statement. The German union joins those in Italy and Portugal, which have also announced plans to strike. Italian pilots are due to stage the company’s first ever strike by pilots on Friday. VC’s Schulz declined to say when and where the strikes in Germany would take place, but that the union would give notice and that no walkouts would take place from the afternoon of Dec 23 and until the end of Dec 26. During a long-running dispute with Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) over pay and conditions, the union typically gave 24 hours’ notice of strike action. Several analysts have expressed scepticism as to whether the Ryanair employment model is under threat. “We are not saying that this is not a difficult period for Ryanair and that there are not deep divisions between pilots and management that are yet to be bridged, however, what we are saying is that the headlines are worse than the reality on the ground,” Goodbody analysts wrote in a note before the two announcements. Reporting by Victoria Bryan, editing by Emma Thomasson and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ryanair-pilots-germany/german-pilots-union-calls-for-strikes-at-ryanair-in-germany-idUKKBN1E614F'|'2017-12-12T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'7a9634a6f75d1afcc4a89477b141f94a9158900f'|'Philippine bank accuses Bangladesh of heist ''cover-up'''|'December 12, 2017 / 3:37 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Philippine bank accuses Bangladesh of heist ''cover-up'' Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines bank through which $81 million (60.7 million pounds) stolen from Bangladesh’s central bank was channelled in February 2016 has accused Dhaka’s monetary authority of covering up its negligence and demanded that it stop making the bank a “scapegoat.” FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands guard outside a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Paranaque city, Metro Manila, Philippines August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) was responding to comments on Saturday by Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal A. Muhith who said he wanted to “wipe-out” the Manila-based bank. The comments follow a Reuters story that Bangladesh Bank (BB) had asked the New York Federal Reserve of New York to join a lawsuit it was considering filing against RCBC seeking damages, according to several sources. “RCBC has revealed everything it legally could to the (Philippine) Senate and its regulator, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. BB however, has concealed everything it could. The contrast is telling,” George dela Cuesta, head of legal affairs at RCBC, said in a statement on Tuesday. Unidentified hackers stole $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the New York Fed in February last year, using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system. The money was sent to accounts at Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp and then disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines. Nearly two years later, there is no word on who was responsible and Bangladesh Bank has been able to retrieve only about $15 million, mostly from a Manila junket operator. “BB is definitely partly to blame for the heist. Its refusal to be transparent is a continuing cover-up and a disservice to global efforts to combat cybercrime,” dela Cuesta said. “RCBC is clearly a victim of BB’s negligence.” RCBC has blamed rogue employees and Philippine prosecutors have filed money laundering charges against a former RCBC bank manager and four people who owned the bank accounts where the funds were sent, but are not identifiable since the accounts were in fake names. They are the only people to be formally cited anywhere in the world in association with the crime. RCBC was fined a record one billion pesos ($20 million) by the country’s central bank last year for its failure to prevent the movement of the stolen money through it. “BB must be sanctioned until it owns up and shares what it knows to prevent a repeat. Up to now, not one Bangladeshi has been identified in the inside job, much more hauled to the court,” dela Cuesta said. Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Michael Perry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cyber-heist-bangladesh/philippine-bank-accuses-bangladesh-of-heist-cover-up-idUKKBN1E60A7'|'2017-12-12T05:36:00.000+02:00'
'1b45a042e79ecceafdd53ca0405b1dc6a14bfaac'|'Australia''s Westfield poised to announce major deal'|'December 12, 2017 / 4:26 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago France''s Unibail-Rodamco bids $15.7 billion for Australia''s Westfield Byron Kaye , Sonali Paul 5 Min Read SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - France’s Unibail-Rodamco has agreed to buy shopping mall owner Westfield Corp for $15.7 billion (11.8 billion pounds), in what would be the biggest takeover of an Australian company on record. Westfield Chairman and co-founder Frank Lowy speaks via video-link as his sons Peter and Steven Lowy listen on during a media conference in Sydney, Australia, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray The deal accelerates consolidation of the global retail property sector as it grapples with challenges from online retailers led by Amazon.com Inc. It comes on the heels of world No. 2 retail real estate investment trust GGP Inc’s rejection of a $14.8 billion offer from Brookfield Property for the two-thirds it did not already own. Westfield, which owns and operates 35 shopping centres in the United States and United Kingdom valued at $32 billion, said the transaction was “highly compelling” for Westfield and Unibail-Rodamco’s shareholders. “Unibail-Rodamco’s track record makes it the natural home for the legacy of Westfield’s brand and business,” Westfield Chairman and co-founder Frank Lowy said in a statement. Unibail-Rodamco said Westfield shareholders would receive a combination of cash and shares, valuing Westfield at $7.55, or A$10.01 a share, an 18 percent premium to Westfield’s last trade. Including debt, the deal would be worth $24.7 billion. Unibail-Rodamco said the deal would create a global property leader with $72 billion of gross market value in 27 retail markets. It will rebadge its malls with the red Westfield logo. RETAIL REINVENTION Shopping centre owners around the world are scrambling to reinvent themselves to keep up with rapid changes in consumer behaviour and boost earnings. The expansion of e-commerce giant Amazon.com has coincided with an explosion in online purchases of physical goods, while consumers increasingly treat malls as places for socialising. Once dominant United States department store operators such as Macy’s Inc and J C Penney Co Inc have announced plans to shut hundreds of stores in recent years, putting pressure on landlords to find new “anchor tenants” or come up with new ways to grow returns. Westfield has been seen as a pioneer in U.S. mall redevelopment, melding traditional mall retailers with atypical mall fixtures like upscale food courts, high-end restaurants, bars, cinemas and boutique fashion outlets. FILE PHOTO: Westfield Group logo is seen at the top of a shopping mall in central Sydney November 3, 2010. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz “Westfield has got assets in the UK and in the U.S. that are all in mature Amazon markets. They’re already 50 percent through that online retail switch,” said Morningstar analyst Tony Sherlock. Chairman Lowy, a holocaust survivor-turned-knighted property billionaire, will retire from the company he co-founded in 1960, and his sons Steven and Peter, will retire from their positions as co-chief executives. “This is obviously a day of mixed emotions for me although I am 100 percent comfortable with our decision,” Frank Lowy told reporters in Sydney via video conference from London. He said talks to seal a deal had taken just six weeks. “VERY GOOD PRICE” Slideshow (3 Images) Lowy said it made sense to sell now because it was a “very good price” for shareholders, but acknowledged that the sale partly reflected the global trend of consolidation and the pressures on retailers. “It seems like a good strategic rationale, given the synergies, and it will create the leading mall operator globally,” said Sydney-based CLSA analyst Sholto Maconochie. “With a A$10 handle in front, the offer doesn’t look bad,” he said, adding that he was still evaluating the deal. The offer price closed the gap between the underlying value of the company and its share price, Peter Lowy said. The Lowys said they also chose to sell as they would rather be investors than executives now, after putting in a combined 145 years at the company. Westfield’s flagship malls include Westfield London, where it is working on a 600,000 pound ($800,000) expansion, and Century City in Los Angeles, where it is completing a $1 billion overhaul. It also has stakes in 18 suburban U.S. shopping centres, three of which it wholly owns. Shares in Westfield were halted earlier on Tuesday pending the announcement, having last traded at A$8.50. Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Additional reporting by Swati Pandey in Sydney and Susan Mathew in Bangalore; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-westfield-deals/australias-westfield-poised-to-announce-major-deal-idUKKBN1E60C7'|'2017-12-12T06:25:00.000+02:00'
'8f84f7d0de747498a7dad92de55e1e892c15aff9'|'U.S. producer prices rise strongly, point to firming inflation'|'December 12, 2017 / 2:31 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago U.S. producer prices rise strongly, point to firming inflation Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. producer prices rose in November as gasoline prices surged and the cost of other goods increased, leading to the largest annual gain in nearly six years. An employee works in the fresh produce department with a mound of sweet corn at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Springdale, Arkansas, June 4, 2015. Wal-Mart will hold its annual meeting June 5, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking The fairly strong report from the Labor Department on Tuesday suggested a broad acceleration in wholesale price pressures, which could assuage concerns among some Federal Reserve officials over persistently low inflation. The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand increased 0.4 percent last month, advancing by the same margin for three straight months. In the 12 months through November, the PPI shot up 3.1 percent. That was the biggest gain since January 2012 and followed a 2.8 percent rise in October. Economists had forecast the PPI rising 0.3 percent last month and increasing 2.9 percent from a year ago. A key gauge of underlying producer price pressures that excludes food, energy and trade services rose 0.4 percent last month. The so-called core PPI had increased by 0.2 percent for two straight months. It rose 2.4 percent in the 12 months through November, the largest gain since the series started in August 2014, after increasing 2.3 percent in October. The dollar advanced against a basket of currencies on the data, while prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. U.S. stock index futures were trading slightly higher. The broad rise in producer prices supports views that weak inflation readings experienced through the first half of the year have probably run their course. Some Fed officials had worried that the factors that had held down inflation early in the year could become more persistent. The Fed officials were due to gather for a two-day policy meeting. The U.S. central bank is expected to raise interest rates on Wednesday, for a third time this year, with a robust labour market and strengthening economy expected to overshadow policymakers’ earlier concerns about tame inflation. The central bank tracks the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, which has undershot the Fed’s 2 percent target for nearly 5-1/2 years. Last month, gasoline prices surged 15.8 percent, the biggest gain since August 2009, after dropping 4.6 percent in October. Gasoline accounted for two thirds of the 1.0 percent increase in the final demand goods index. There were also increases in the prices of light motor trucks, pharmaceutical preparations, beef, residential electricity and jet fuel. Wholesale food prices rose 0.3 percent in November after increasing 0.5 percent in October. Prices for services increased 0.2 percent last month after increasing 0.5 percent in October. Core goods increased 0.3 percent in November, rising by the same margin for a third consecutive month. Prices for passenger cars increased 0.5 percent last month, the largest increase since December 2016, after being unchanged in October. The cost of healthcare services was unchanged last month after rising 0.3 percent in October. Those costs feed into the Fed’s core PCE price index. Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-producer-prices-rise-strongly-point-to-firming-inflation-idUKKBN1E61TD'|'2017-12-12T16:30:00.000+02:00'
'52598ccb9c6d7418c8aea4d4db607f6a91cf3d98'|'UPDATE 2-Canada, provinces end dispute on how to split pot tax revenues'|'OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government and the country’s 10 provinces on Monday settled a disagreement on how to split the revenues from a proposed federal tax on marijuana sales once the narcotic drug is legalized next July, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said.Canada''s Finance Minister Bill Morneau takes part in a meeting with his provincial and territorial counterparts in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Wattie Morneau told reporters that for an initial two years, 75 percent of the money would go to the provinces and 25 percent to Ottawa.Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to allow recreational marijuana nationwide by July 2018, which will make Canada the first Group of Seven country to do so.Trudeau says legalization is needed to keep the drug out of the hands of underage users and reduce related crime.The federal government had initially suggested a 50-50 revenue split, an idea the provinces rejected on the grounds it was not enough to help cover the extra costs of enforcing the new rules once they take effect.Morneau said he and his provincial counterparts also agreed to stick to Ottawa’s proposal for a tax on all cannabis products of C$1 (78 cents) per gram (0.04 ounce), or 10 percent of the retail price, whichever is higher.“Our expectation is that by keeping prices low, we will be able to get rid of the black market. However, that will happen over time,” said Morneau.The responsibility for setting up networks of stores to actually sell the drug lies with the provinces, who along with some police officials have complained Ottawa is moving too fast toward legalization and not taking extra costs into account.Morneau said the additional tax revenue would allow the provinces to help meet the costs of municipalities dealing with the pot trade on a daily basis.He estimated the tax would raise around C$400 million a year for the first two years, at which point Ottawa and the provinces will meet to reassess the initiative.The federal take will be capped at C$100 million a year, with any revenues exceeding that amount going to the provinces. The finance minister of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said he was very pleased by that part of the deal.“If there is a surge in the marketplace, we can accommodate it more effectively,” said Charles Sousa.Morneau spoke after a two-day meeting with counterparts from the provinces as well as Canada’s three sparsely populated northern territories, which also agreed to the revenue split.Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Chris Reese, Peter Cooney and G Crosse '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-cannabis/canada-provinces-agree-on-deal-to-split-proposed-federal-pot-tax-idUSKBN1E52LT'|'2017-12-12T01:26:00.000+02:00'
'3312f25f7a556cf645ee06e063bc4154849d70c2'|'Qatar sovereign fund backs LSE chairman in activist stand-off - source'|' 35 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Qatar sovereign fund backs LSE chairman in activist stand-off - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has thrown its support behind the embattled chairman of the London Stock Exchange Group, who is facing calls from an activist shareholder to be removed, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. A worker shelters from the rain as he passes the London Stock Exchange in the City of London at lunchtime October 1, 2008. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo British hedge fund firm TCI Fund Management, a 5 percent shareholder in LSE, is pushing to oust Chairman Donald Brydon over his handling of the succession of Xavier Rolet, the group’s former chief executive who resigned last month. A shareholder meeting has been called by the LSE board for Dec. 19 to decide on Brydon’s future Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the second-largest shareholder in LSE with a 10.37 stake, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data, disagrees that the chairman should be ousted, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. “QIA’s view is it would not be beneficial to have an immediate change in the chairman,” said the source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. LSE declined to comment on Tuesday, but said last month that the board unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the resolution, saying ditching Brydon risked significantly damaging the company. A spokesman for TCI also declined to comment on Tuesday. The hedge fund firm run by Christopher Hohn is not expecting to pass the resolution to oust Brydon, a source close to the firm told Reuters. Shareholder advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services have previously recommended shareholders vote against removing Brydon. The Financial Times earlier reported the news about QIA’s support for the chairman. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai, Additional reporting by Huw Jones and Maiya Keidan in London; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-chairman-qia/qatar-sovereign-fund-backs-lse-chairman-in-activist-stand-off-source-idUKKBN1E61O1'|'2017-12-12T15:42:00.000+02:00'
'1643f8f54d050f60c822539cced2ef5fe9e84968'|'CEE MARKETS-Romanian CPI surge hits leu, PM speech watched in Warsaw'|'* Romania''s annual inflation highest in more than 4 years * Leu eases on concern that central bank falls behind the curve * Polish PM designate speech may be moderately positive to markets By Sandor Peto and Radu-Sorin Marinas BUDAPEST/BUCHAREST, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The leu fell on Tuesday after Romania reported a surge in inflation while investors in Poland waited to see how a policy speech by prime minister designate Mateusz Morawiecki later in the day would affect the zloty. Romania''s November annual inflation jumped to its highest in more than four years to 3.2 percent from 2.6 percent from October, exceeding analyst forecasts. The inflation rate has risen two percentage points in just three months and almost seven percentage points since May 2016, making it the fastest rising inflation rate in Central Europe. The leu eased 0.1 percent to 4.6365 against the euro by 0941 GMT. The Romanian central bank (NBR) has tightened policy via various tools in recent months, but it has not lifted its interest rates from record lows even though a surge in debt yields has prompted the government to reject bids at several debt auctions since October. The bank is unlikely to change rates at its next meeting on Jan. 8, but could hike them on Feb. 7 when it presents its updated inflation forecasts, ING''s chief economist in Romania, Ciprian Dascalu said. "If the central bank is perceived to fall behind the curve we will have an outflow from government bonds by offshore (investors), and as a result a deterioration of the capital account..." he said, pointing to Romania''s widening current account gap. A surge in wages has pushed up prices across the region but the latest inflation figures from Budapest, Prague and Warsaw released on Monday did not show enough of a rise to bolster central bank hawks and led to a weakening of the region''s main currencies. These regained some ground on Tuesday. The zloty traded a tad firmer, at 4.2049 against the euro. Investors will watch Prime Minister designate Mateusz Morawiecki'' policy speech in parliament later on Tuesday. Morawiecki replaces Beata Szydlo, and his appointment and that of other new ministers may cause friction within the ruling PiS party in which Szydlo is more popular, analysts have said. It may however ease tensions between Poland and the European Commission, which has accused Warsaw with undermining the rule of law and has clashed with Szydlo on a number of occasions. The speech may improve sentiment in Polish markets if Morawiecki addresses improved tax collection and the functioning of institutions, said Pekao SA analyst, Arkadiusz Urbanski. "We can expect a reference to a more economy-focused policy, since that was how politicians justified changing the PM, and every optimistic word should support the zloty," he said. However, Wednesday''s Federal Reserve meeting was likely to have a bigger market influence, Urbanski said. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1041 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.625 25.636 +0.04 5.39% 0 0 % Hungary 314.07 314.66 +0.19 -1.67% forint 00 00 % Polish zloty 4.2049 4.2063 +0.03 4.73% % Romanian leu 4.6365 4.6326 -0.08% -2.19% Croatian 7.5420 7.5410 -0.01% 0.17% kuna Serbian 119.47 119.48 +0.01 3.25% dinar 00 00 % Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1057.1 1058.0 -0.09% +14.7 3 8 0% Budapest 37913. 37575. +0.90 +18.4 70 75 % 7% Warsaw 2388.2 2386.9 +0.05 +22.6 0 3 % 0% Bucharest 7589.3 7614.5 -0.33% +7.12 3 1 % Ljubljana 778.94 775.79 +0.41 +8.55 % % Zagreb 1853.8 1854.4 -0.03% -7.07% 3 5 Belgrade 746.24 744.46 +0.24 +4.02 % % Sofia 667.60 665.47 +0.32 +13.8 % 4% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year -0.033 0 +070b +0bps ps 5-year 0.793 -0.019 +114b -3bps ps 10-year 1.415 -0.008 +111b -2bps ps Poland 2-year 1.645 -0.023 +238b -2bps ps 5-year 2.619 -0.001 +297b -1bps ps 10-year 3.223 0.001 +292b -1bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1 1.19 1.32 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.06 0.1 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.761 1.83 1.904 1.72 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask Quote: s prices'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-romanian-cpi-surge-hits-leu-pm-speech-watched-in-warsaw-idINL8N1OC2CT'|'2017-12-12T08:07:00.000+02:00'
'd685155f8ca0b31c2288a987a11e2af37bfef9e8'|'UK pipeline outage lifts oil prices, disrupts gas flows in cold snap'|'December 12, 2017 / 7:39 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Broken pipeline cuts British supply during peak energy demand Amanda Cooper , Alex Lawler 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest pipeline from its North Sea oil and gas fields is likely to be shut for several weeks for repairs, its operator said on Tuesday, disrupting gas flows and sending international crude prices to their highest since mid-2015. FILE PHOTO: A general view shows Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland on April 25, 2008. REUTERS/David Moir/File Photo The closure has struck during a winter freeze in Britain, where snow and ice have driven up demand for heating fuel just as gas flows through the network, which carries a third of Britain’s gas produced offshore, were disrupted. “We’re hearing it will be likely down for two weeks,” an industry source familiar with the operations said. The pipeline, which carries about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Forties crude, was shut after cracks were found. It has particular significance to global markets because Forties is the largest out of the five crude oil streams that underpin the dated Brent benchmark, against which other crude prices are broadly based. Benchmark Brent crude prices rose above $65 per barrel for the first time since the middle of 2015 following the closure on Monday. INEOS, which only completed the purchase of the Forties pipeline system from oil major BP in October, said it was too soon to say how long repairs would last, but that it would be “weeks rather than days.” A minor leak had caused a partial shutdown on Dec. 7. Paul Wheelhouse, the Scottish Energy Minister, said there were no plans to shut the 200,000 bpd Grangemouth refinery, which uses Forties crude. “A technical assessment is under way to inform the repairs required and the likely duration of the shutdown. There are no plans to shut down Grangemouth refinery and no impacts are anticipated for fuel and gas supplies,” he told the devolved Scottish parliament. “If it’s a lengthy outage, then a recovery period for the fields will be long as well,” the trading source said. FIELDS CLOSING A number of producers including BP, Shell and Chrysaor, said they had closed down oil fields in response. The largest contributor to the Forties stream, the 180,000-bpd Buzzard oil field run by Nexen Petroleum UK Ltd, a subsidiary of China’s CNOOC, had also closed, two trading sources said. Monthly loading programmes show the supply of Forties is expected to reach 21 cargoes of 600,000 barrels each this month, equal to a daily supply rate of 406,000 bpd. The closure has created havoc with loading schedules in the North Sea, with one trading source saying cargo owners had been offered options to drop cargoes from the loading programme. “At this point we would expect a large deferral list for the Forties loading programme to spill over into January,” analysts from JBC Energy said in a note. INEOS was due to meet with producers including oil majors on Tuesday to discuss the situation, trading sources said. “The timing of the outage could not be much worse as winter weather is just materialising,” Jefferies bank analysts wrote. Jefferies estimated the closure resulted in production loss for BP of 105,000 bpd, for Total of 55,000 bpd, for Chevron of 45,000 bpd, for Exxon Mobil of 40,000, for Eni of 25,000 bpd, for Shell of 25,000 bpd, for ConocoPhillips of 15,000 bpd. The Paris-based International Energy Agency, which advises Western governments and coordinates the release of oil from strategic stocks in the case of supply disruptions, said it stood ready to take action but it did not believe this was necessary for the time being. “We are monitoring the situation closely, and stand ready to act, but at the moment we see no need as the market is amply supplied from other sources and stocks are well above the five-year average,” the IEA said. Additional reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; Editing by Edmund Blair/Jane Merriman/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-forties/forties-crude-oil-pipeline-now-closed-down-for-further-inspection-idUKKBN1E60NX'|'2017-12-12T14:30:00.000+02:00'
'8538c4566b4b1260fe27a5e986e4ba9db451bc10'|'UK banks forced to publish complaints and security breach data'|'UK banks forced to publish complaints and security breach data Regulators want to make it easier for customers to compare services Read next Play audio for this article Pause What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! or Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback UK banks will have to publish data on how many complaints and security breaches they have as part of efforts to shake up Britain’s heavily consolidated industry. The Financial Conduct Authority unveiled final rules on Tuesday that aim to make it easier for customers to compare services by forcing banks to publish, for the first time, information ranging from how long it takes to reissue debit cards or open a current account to where and when customers can receive help. Scrutinising the UK’s retail banking market has been one of the FCA’s priorities for the year, and it is undertaking a wide-ranging review of industry business models that is expected to be completed by the middle of next year. Andrew Bailey, the FCA’s chief executive, has said the question of how banks cross-subsidise the cost of current accounts will form part of the review. Regulators have worried for years about the low numbers of customers who switch banks in the UK’s £16bn personal and small business account market. A two-year inquiry by the Competition and Markets Authority that finished in 2016 found that just 3 per cent of British banking customers switched current accounts in the preceding 12 months and that 57 per cent had been with the same bank for more than a decade. “We want to see current account providers competing hard for their customers’ business by offering better service, alongside competition on interest and charges,” said Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition. “These rules will help people see how their bank compares to others so they can choose an account that suits their needs.” The rules are designed to “complement” the findings of the CMA, which concluded that banks could continue to set their own overdraft limits and called on high-street lenders to invest in technology. At the same time, the CMA shied away from ending free banking for customers whose accounts are in credit, a decision politicians have since called “feeble”. UK Finance, the industry lobby, said it welcomed the FCA’s new rules. “Making it easier for consumers and businesses to compare the quality of service offered by different current account providers is a great way to encourage customers to shop around,” said Eric Leenders, UK Finance’s managing director of personal finance. Still, the FCA decided not to go ahead with its original plans to force lenders to publish data about powers of attorney. Instead, it said it would accept a voluntary initiative by lenders over how to treat vulnerable customers — another priority for the FCA this year. Half of all adults in the UK are financially vulnerable , the FCA said in October, with many consumers struggling because of lack of internet access or overdraft facilities. James O’Sullivan of the Building Societies Association said its members would work with the FCA to “provide relevant and helpful information to customers who find themselves in vulnerable circumstances”. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Print this page'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/d7fb6ffe-df54-11e7-a8a4-0a1e63a52f9c'|'2017-12-12T20:05:00.000+02:00'
'348b8b780fd3c9d53d24e680dfed78a1dfb3f6c6'|'Gemalto rejects Atos takeover bid'|'PARIS (Reuters) - Gemalto ( GTO.AS ), the world’s largest maker of chips found in mobile phones and credit cards, on Wednesday rejected a takeover bid from French technology consulting firm Atos ( ATOS.PA ), saying the 4.3 billion euro offer undervalued the company.FILE PHOTO - The shadow of an attendee is cast below a logo of Franco-Dutch technology firm Gemalto during a news conference in Paris February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes The bid came earlier this week as Gemalto is under pressure after posting four profit warnings in a year and having missed a chance to strengthen its security business through a large acquisition.“We believe that Gemalto - the world leader in digital security - is best positioned to grow successfully on a standalone basis and create long term value for its stakeholders, including its shareholders,” Gemalto’s management wrote in a letter to Atos CEO Thierry Breton.They added that Atos’ offer “significantly undervalued” Gemalto because its share price did not yet reflect its growing position in businesses like cybersecurity.Reporting by Leigh Thomas, editing by David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-gemalto-atos/gemalto-rejects-atos-takeover-bid-idINKBN1E72TC'|'2017-12-13T16:54:00.000+02:00'
'c4e64477f2e7f988db854534f7fb72cf28b55dfd'|'Abu Dhabi-based fund to invest $2 billion in India technology'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - Next Orbit Ventures (NOVF) ESDM, a newly established Abu Dhabi-based fund, said on Wednesday it had launched a $2 billion fund to invest in India’s semiconductor and electronics industries.Mumbai-based private equity firm Next Orbit Ventures set-up the fund under the regulation of the Abu Dhabi Global Market financial centre after receiving funding commitments from the Gulf region.Around $1.5 billion for the fund will be raised from the region, while the remaining $500 million has been secured from a consortium of investors involving both the Indian government and ultra high net worth individuals, NOVF said.The investments are aimed at creating the required infrastructure to cope with India’s fast-growing market for electronic goods and components.India imported nearly $45 billion worth of electronic goods and components in 2016, according to a study by Ernst & Young and the Indian Electronics & Semiconductor Association.The Indian government has been trying to boost investments in the semiconductor industry to curb the risk of trade imbalances and enhance cybersecurity.Reporting by Tom Arnold; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/privateequity-india/abu-dhabi-based-fund-to-invest-2-billion-in-india-technology-idINKBN1E71T3'|'2017-12-13T15:57:00.000+02:00'
'5ed42f7800887721c0a40c6adbfb57924a14e5d9'|'T-Mobile to launch new television service in 2018, acquire Layer3 TV'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc will launch a new television service in 2018 and acquire television technology company Layer3 TV Inc for an undisclosed amount, the U.S. No. 3 wireless carrier said on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: A T-Mobile logo is advertised on a building sign in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The moves come a month after T-Mobile and rival Sprint Corp ended merger talks. Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said at the time the company would instead focus on smaller, “tuck-in” acquisitions. Last week T-Mobile’s board approved its first-ever share buyback program.Layer3 TV integrates television, online video content and social media and is available online and on mobile devices in five cities across the United States, T-Mobile said.The Denver-based startup, founded in 2013, offers more than 275 high-definition channels and 25,000 on-demand titles.T-Mobile shares were up 1.3 percent at $64.30.Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-layer3-m-a-tmobile/t-mobile-to-launch-a-new-television-service-in-2018-acquire-layer3-tv-idINKBN1E722M'|'2017-12-13T12:23:00.000+02:00'
'af62e3016195d4eda71de3b797b92145011a11e7'|'InterGlobe Aviation founders to sell 2.91 percent stake for $197 million'|'December 12, 2017 / 1:37 PM / Updated 8 hours ago InterGlobe Aviation founders to sell 2.91 percent stake for $197 million Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, the owner of India’s biggest airline IndiGo, on Tuesday said two of its founder group companies will in this week sell a combined 2.91 percent stake in the company worth about 12.65 billion rupees ($196.5 million). Women spread fryums for drying on a rooftop as an IndiGo Airlines aircraft moves on the runway after landing at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport in Ahmedabad, July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Amit Dave/Files Acquire Services Pvt Ltd plans to sell about 8 million shares in InterGlobe while IGE (Mauritius) Pvt Ltd will offload 3.2 million shares in a stock market auction on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a regulatory filing. ( bit.ly/2BW8a3L ) The shares will be sold at a floor price of 1,130 rupees each, the filing showed. ($1 = 64.3925 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/interglobe-sharesale/interglobe-aviation-founders-to-sell-2-91-percent-stake-for-197-million-idINKBN1E61O3'|'2017-12-12T15:35:00.000+02:00'
'e0a87734400b6c658425816550c2eb8c2640d196'|'France''s TF1 in talks with Axel Springer for stake in lifestyle website'|' 08 AM / Updated 42 minutes ago France''s TF1 in talks with Axel Springer for stake in lifestyle website Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France’s TF1 news channel said on Monday it was in exclusive talks with Germany’s Axel Springer to buy its 78.43 percent stake in aufeminin S.A., which runs a lifestyle website. FILE PHOTO: The logo of German publisher Axel Springer is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Berlin July 25, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo The site covers news on topics such as fashion, beauty and healthcare. “Whether or not an agreement will be reached by the negotiating parties as well as the terms of such an agreement will depend on the further progress of the discussions,” TF1 said. The TF1 group is controlled by Bouygues. Axel Springer confirmed the talks. Reporting by Sarah White, Editing by Ingrid Melander'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tf1-axelspringer/frances-tf1-in-talks-with-axel-springer-for-stake-in-lifestyle-website-idUKKBN1E50Q7'|'2017-12-11T11:08:00.000+02:00'
'4313da54a3111884fd202651cdd8545cfaf8df59'|'UPDATE 1-Canada, provinces end dispute on how to split pot tax revenues'|'(Adds details, background)OTTAWA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The Canadian government and the 10 provinces on Monday settled a disagreement on how to split the revenues from a proposed federal tax on the sale of marijuana once the drug is legalized, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said.Morneau told reporters that for an initial two years, 75 percent of the money would go to the provinces and 25 percent to Ottawa.The federal government had initially suggested a 50-50 split, an idea the provinces rejected on the grounds it was not enough to help cover the extra costs of enforcing the new rules once they take effect next July.Morneau said he and his provincial counterparts also agreed to stick to Ottawa’s proposal for a tax on all cannabis products of C$1 (78 cents) per gram (0.04 ounce), or 10 percent of the retail price, whichever is higher.Keeping the tax relatively low would help authorities keep the drug out of the hands of underage users and reduce related crime, he added. The Liberals plan to allow recreational marijuana across the entire country by July 2018, making it the first Group of Seven country to do so.Morneau spoke after a two-day meeting with counterparts from the provinces as well as Canada’s three sparsely populated northern territories, which also agreed to the revenue split.$1 = 1.2857 Canadian dollars Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chris Reese and Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-cannabis/update-1-canada-provinces-end-dispute-on-how-to-split-pot-tax-revenues-idUSL1N1OB1TM'|'2017-12-12T05:42:00.000+02:00'
'16347c54117f5ceb0c70e82df657456273a6d42b'|'REFILE-Sweden''s Ratos sacks CEO as turnaround remains elusive'|'(Corrects spelling in headline)STOCKHOLM, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Swedish private equity firm Ratos on Wednesday sacked its chief executive after just 13 months in the job saying it was displeased with the company’s performance.Ratos, whose portfolio ranges from oil services to clothing retail, said that outgoing CEO Magnus Agervald would be replaced by Chairman Jonas Wistrom, who in turn would be replaced by Per-Olof Soderberg.The company has struggled in recent years. Once an investor darling, it made a loss last year and is battling to turn around a weak earnings development in its portfolio.“The Board is not satisfied with Ratos’s performance. To succeed in implementing the new strategic direction established during the year, we believe a different leadership is needed,” new chairman Soderberg said in a statement.The Soderberg family is the main owner of Ratos.The firm’s stock fell 5.2 percent in early trading in Stockholm, taking its drop this year to 16 percent.Ratos’ stock, which soared in the years before the global financial crisis hit, has tumbled more than 70 percent since 2010.Investments since then include a big bet on the oil market in 2013 with the purchase a large stake in Norwegian oil services Aibel just a year before oil prices collapsed. (Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ratos-ceo/swedens-ratos-sacks-ceo-as-turnaround-remains-illusive-idINL8N1OD1WH'|'2017-12-13T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'b0d515cce9a381e84aee0892a3728637128b2fc3'|'UK''s Wood Group sees 2017 core earnings of $590-$600 million'|'December 13, 2017 / 8:22 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago UK''s Wood Group sees 2017 core earnings of $590-$600 million Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Oilfield services company John Wood Group Plc ( WG.L ), which bought smaller rival Amec Foster Wheeler earlier this year, said on Wednesday it expects 2017 core earnings of between $590 million (443 million pounds) and $600 million (450 million pounds). Wood Group, which saw muted demand for its services after oil producers cut budgets amid weak oil prices, said there was better-than-expected outcome on some oil and gas projects even as its core oil and gas business remained challenging. The company said its annualised cost savings from the Amec integration was ahead of plan, and maintained its target of over $170 million by the end of the third year following deal completion. Wood said its pro forma 2017 results will include the results of Amec and heritage Wood Group from Jan. 1. It will also exclude results of Amec’s North Sea upstream business, North American nuclear operations and the disposed business of Global Power Group. Shares of Wood Group were little changed in early trading. British oil services companies, including Wood Group, Amec and Petrofac ( PFC.L ), have faced issues after UK’s Serious Fraud Office launched a criminal probe last July into Monaco-based Unaoil in connection with suspected bribery, corruption and money laundering. Wood Group, which has been carrying out its own investigation into the dealings with Unaoil, said it was cooperating with the SFO probe into Amec. The company said it was also complying with voluntary requests for information from the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-john-wood-outlook/uks-wood-group-sees-2017-core-earnings-of-590-600-million-idUKKBN1E70T2'|'2017-12-13T10:21:00.000+02:00'
'9ff1230bdb9c1e26cb3d9281c9ead2dd231799bc'|'Wall Street rises at open as technology stocks gain'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 dipped on Wednesday under pressure from the financial sector after the Federal Reserve made a widely expected interest rate hike but kept its rate outlook for coming years even as it projected faster U.S. economic growth.A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 81.11 points, or 0.33 percent, to 24,585.91, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.21 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,662.9 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 13.48 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,875.80.Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/sp-dow-to-open-flat-ahead-of-feds-rate-decision-idINKBN1E71VL'|'2017-12-13T16:37:00.000+02:00'
'9afb142180212507aa9c7dd8c8b02a4e7d68d32e'|'Australia''s Commonwealth Bank admits to some AUSTRAC allegations'|'December 13, 2017 / 8:43 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Australia''s Commonwealth Bank admits to some AUSTRAC allegations Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Commonwealth Bank of Australia on Wednesday formally admitted to some allegations levelled against it by financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC, including claims of late submission of over 53,000 so-called threshold transaction reports. FILE PHOTO: The logo for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia adorns their head office in central Sydney, Australia, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The late filings were a result of a single systems-related error, CBA said in a statement, in which it also contested some allegations. The bank also agreed that it did not adequately adhere to risk assessment requirements for Intelligent Deposit Machines (IDMs) and all its transaction monitoring requirements on some affected accounts. AUSTRAC filed a civil case in August accusing the bank of several breaches of law including failing to identify, monitor and report money transfers over $10,000, in contravention of the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing Act. Reporting by Chris Thomas in BENGALURU; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-cba-moneylaundering/australias-commonwealth-bank-admits-to-some-austrac-allegations-idUKKBN1E70V1'|'2017-12-13T10:42:00.000+02:00'
'bc6d343b1658455fce75364cb1cc086fce466ffa'|'UPDATE 2-Dassault to axe and relaunch Falcon 5X jet after engine delays'|'(Adds background, details)By Cyril Altmeyer and Tim HepherPARIS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Dassault Aviation said on Wednesday it was scrapping development of its Falcon 5X business jet due to delays and technical problems with its French-supplied engines and pledged to launch a new model powered by a rival Canadian supplier.The decision comes after repeated difficulties for the Silvercrest engine developed by France’s Safran and forces some tweaking of plans by Dassault to refresh its fleet in the face of rising business-jet competition.The French planemaker noted that Safran had recently disclosed an additional delay and new performance shortfall in the Silvercrest development, making the 2020 entry into service of the aircraft impossible.The unnamed new aircraft will appear in 2022 and will be powered by engines from Pratt & Whitney Canada, a subsidiary of U.S.-based United Technologies.“Considering the magnitude of the risks involved both on the technical and schedule aspects of the Silvercrest program, Dassault Aviation initiates the termination process of the Silvercrest contract,” Dassault said in a statement.Safran said it planned no further provisions after taking a 654 million euros ($720 million) non-cash charge for the delays early last year.Dassault said there was still a strong market need for a new long-range aircraft with a large cabin.“I have decided to launch a new Falcon project powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada engines, featuring the same cross section as the Falcon 5X,” Dassault Chief Executive Eric Trappier said.Data from tracking website Flightradar24.com showed the first Falcon 5X, which made its maiden flight in July using prototype Silvercrest engines, last took to the skies on Dec. 6, ending at Dassault’s factory near Bordeaux, France.Dassault has been banking on three models to renew its portfolio: the Falcon 8X which entered service in October 2016, a second jet due to be defined at the end of this year and now the replacement of the Falcon 5X, which is due out in 2022.Safran Chief Executive Philippe Petitcolin said in October it was not possible to estimate a certification date for the Silvercrest engine after the latest glitch, but said it was a question of months rather than weeks.Dassault nonetheless appears to have taken that as a cue to drop the Silvercrest engine, following worries expressed by its clients and the cancellation of 12 orders in 2016.Safran said in a statement that Dassault had indicated it did not share Safran’s analysis of the engine programme.Safran reaffirmed financial targets for 2017. Analysts say the Falcon 5X was not seen as a major contributor to revenues.Any penalties are covered by existing provisions, it added.Dassault’s decision leaves a new jet powered by Textron’s Cessna as the only platform for the Silvercrest motor.The planemaker said in October it continued to have confidence in Safran after picking the Silvercrest for its Citation Hemisphere in November last year.It had no immediate comment on Wednesday. (Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Leigh Thomas and David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/dassault-safran/update-1-dassault-ends-falcon-5x-jet-program-with-safran-turns-to-pratt-whitney-idINL8N1OD5QQ'|'2017-12-13T15:19:00.000+02:00'
'ad9366416357e286e2d9831b70a0fa2fe0a2a01c'|'MOVES-UBS hires Merrill''s Cormier to head up TMT equity capital markets -memo'|'NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS has hired Chris Cormier to head up its technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) equity capital markets business in the Americas, according to a memo seen by Reuters.“Chris will join UBS in March 2018 from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), where he has held a similar position since 2015,” read the memo, the contents of which were confirmed by a UBS spokesman.Cormier also worked at Deutsche Bank for 10 years where he headed up its Americas technology equity capital markets business, UBS said in the memo. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/ubs-group-moves/moves-ubs-hires-merrills-cormier-to-head-up-tmt-equity-capital-markets-memo-idUSL1N1OD1FU'|'2017-12-14T00:54:00.000+02:00'
'224b7ad2a93e06af23bdce723cc3644ca5a773c2'|'Serco sees 2017 profit at top end of range'|' 24 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Britain''s Serco buoys shares with outsourcing outlook Elisabeth O''Leary 3 Min Read EDINBURGH (Reuters) - An upbeat outlook on Wednesday from Serco lifted shares in the British outsourcer, which runs government services in defence, justice, immigration, transport and health, bucking recent pressure on the sector due to political uncertainty. A Serco flag is seen flying alongside a Union flag outside Doncaster Prison in northern England in this December 13, 2011 file photograph. REUTERS/Darren Staples/Files Serco said strong growth in overseas markets was offsetting slower prospects at home because of Brexit. Combined with cost cutting, this meant its 2017 underlying trading profit would be at the top end of an earlier forecast range. Although Chief Executive Rupert Soames was positive about the prospects for Serco once Britain’s exit from the European Union is decided, he said the pipeline was unpredictable. “Some markets, and in particular the UK, are currently growing more slowly than their former trend rate,” he said in a statement. “The (UK) government is incredibly distracted at the moment,” he later told Reuters. “That’s a threat, but once Brexit is done, the one thing that is absolutely certain is that there is going to be a whole lot more government going on in the UK, and we’re going to have to have different arrangements at borders,” he added. Soames cited the need to set up new regulatory agencies and new environmental compliance rules as reasons to be more positive on the British market in the future. Serco, which is undergoing an overhaul started three years ago after a series of profit warnings prompted a reset of its strategy, said 2017 revenues would be just under 3 billion pounds, while it also saw good profit growth in 2018 and 2019. Shares in the company, which had fallen by nearly 16 percent in the last three months, were up by 5.6 percent to 100.7 pence at 1051 GMT, after earlier rising as much as 13 percent. Outsourcers have been grappling with global political uncertainty which is hampering the pace of decision-making in the public and private sector and increasing margin pressure. Serco also announced the purchase of some of the UK healthcare facilities of debt-laden Carillion for about 47.7 million pounds. It said the timing of reaching a long-term goal of 5 to 7 percent revenue growth and 5 to 6 percent profit margin would depend on when demand reverted to trend in its target markets. Soames said Serco was rebalancing its business development budget away from the UK to target other countries but its pipeline of new bid opportunities, currently worth 4 to 5 billion pounds, would be “noticeably lower” by the year end. Serco dropped out of a big Middle Eastern rail contract bid process earlier this year because it was too difficult to predict the level of risk, Soames said. But its businesses abroad were otherwise performing well, with “green shoots” in its U.S. defence business. Reporting by Elisabeth O''Leary; editing by Kate Holton and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-serco-results/serco-sees-2017-profit-at-top-end-of-range-idUKKBN1E70NW'|'2017-12-13T09:54:00.000+02:00'
'f3d0f2684d2fa895c7a43c98f3a3aebacd26b453'|'Exclusive - Hong Kong fund tells Toshiba that chip unit sale to Bain group not necessary'|'December 11, 2017 / 9:49 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Exclusive: Hong Kong fund tells Toshiba that chip unit sale to Bain group not necessary Taro Fuse , Makiko Yamazaki 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - A Hong Kong-based activist investor in Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) has told the embattled conglomerate that the $18 billion sale of its chip unit to a Bain Capital-led group is no longer necessary after its recent capital injection, according to a letter seen by Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A reporter raises his hand for a question during a news conference at the Toshiba Corp company headquarters in Tokyo, Japan June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Argyle Street Management Ltd, a hedge fund with $1.2 billion under management, sent the letter to Toshiba’s board late on Monday, Chief Investment Officer Kin Chan told Reuters. The fund declined to say how many Toshiba shares it owns. The first activist shareholder to openly voice opposition to the sale, Argyle is inviting the 30-plus overseas investors who participated in Toshiba’s recent 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion) new share issue to team up. It is already in talks with at least three funds who share the same view, Chan said. While the potential for activist funds to hinder or even scupper the deal with the Bain-led consortium will depend on how many join forces in opposition, Argyle’s letter underscores some fears that Toshiba had opened a potential can of worms by tapping activist shareholders in its new share issue. Toshiba agreed in September to sell Toshiba Memory - the world’s no. 2 producer of NAND chips - to the Bain consortium to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse. But to ensure it remains listed, Toshiba also secured the $5.3 billion cash injection from overseas funds this month, which with tax write-offs gives it sufficient funds to cover its liabilities. Argyle believes “there no longer is any urgency to undertake a sale of Toshiba Memory,” it said in the letter, which proposed a meeting with Toshiba’s board in either December or January. The $18 billion price tag for the chip unit “significantly undervalues the business,” the letter said, adding that the board should consider instead an IPO for Toshiba Memory. A Toshiba spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the firm received the letter. But she said Toshiba is working to complete the sale to the Bain-led group by the end of March “to ensure that Toshiba Memory has the resources it needs to continue to innovate and deliver for a fast-growing flash memory market.” FILE PHOTO: Toshiba''s used-memory chips are seen at an electronics shop in Tokyo November 9, 2010. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Representatives for Bain were not immediately available for comment. ACTIVIST SHAREHOLDERS The new share issue, equivalent to a 35 percent stake in Toshiba, saw some big-name activist shareholders including Third Point LLC and Oasis Management Company take part, although Argyle was not one of them. Argyle started buying shares in Toshiba over the last couple of months, said Chan. He added that at least two of the funds Argyle is talking to about teaming up with were existing shareholders in Toshiba prior to the new share issue. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo July 31, 2012. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File Photo Argyle also said in the letter that it believed Toshiba’s U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse still had substantial value and that it was puzzled as to why Toshiba had assigned zero value to its claims against Westinghouse. The letter argued that as the new share issue had resulted in a major change in the shareholder composition of Toshiba, the board should take into account the views of the new shareholders. Under the deal with the Bain-led consortium, Toshiba will reinvest in the unit to hold just over 40 percent and together with Hoya Corp ( 7741.T ), a maker of parts for chip devices, Japanese firms will hold more than 50 percent - a keen wish of the Japanese government. Toshiba’s largest shareholder is currently Singapore-based fund Effissimo Capital Management, established by former colleagues of Japan’s best-known activist investor, Yoshiaki Murakami, with an 11.34 percent stake. The news of a potential new hurdle to Toshiba’s chip unit sale comes just another major obstacle looks like it could be resolved. Toshiba and Western Digital Corp ( WDC.O ), its chips business partner which has threatened to try to block the sale, are aiming to have a finalize a settlement to their dispute this week, sources have said. The settlement under discussion calls for Western Digital to drop arbitration claims seeking to stop the sale in exchange for Toshiba allowing it to invest in a new production line for advanced flash memory chips that is slated to start next year, two sources said. Reporting by Taro Fuse and Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-chips/hong-kong-activist-fund-tells-toshiba-chip-unit-sale-to-bain-group-not-necessary-idUKKBN1E50TS'|'2017-12-11T13:34:00.000+02:00'
'5702247a5b6835555f83d75381a180e80f551ca9'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'Dec 12 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1100 GMT on Tuesday:** France’s Unibail-Rodamco has agreed to buy shopping mall owner Westfield Corp for $15.7 billion, in what would be the biggest takeover of an Australian company on record.** Australia’s Tatts Group Ltd cleared one of the last hurdles in its takeover by horse race-betting firm Tabcorp Holdings Ltd with the lottery owner getting the green signal from its shareholders.** Zurich Insurance has agreed to buy Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s life insurance arm for A$2.85 billion ($2.1 billion), its biggest foray into Australia and its third in the last two years.** Thai Beverage, through a Vietnam unit, has emerged as the only bidder which has registered to own at least 25 percent of the nation’s top brewer, Sabeco, in which the government is selling a $5-billion stake.** Russian business conglomerate Sistema has ceded control of Detsky Mir by selling a 5 percent stake in the country’s largest toy retailer for around $56 million.** Germany’s Audi has abandoned plans to sell its Italian motorcycle brand Ducati, its chief executive Rupert Stadler said, in a sign of confidence that the carmaker expects to be able to carry the costs of its transformation.** French security software maker Gemalto has until Friday to review the unsolicited all-cash bid made by consulting firm Atos, Gemalto’s board said.** Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd plans to buy a 5 percent stake in Yonghui Superstores Co Ltd , the department store operator said on Monday, in the latest push by China’s internet giants into offline retail.** Comcast Corp said on Monday it had abandoned its bid for most of the assets of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, leaving Walt Disney Co as the sole suitor in pursuit of the $40 billion-plus deal.** Buyout firm Ardian has agreed to sell its stake in infrastructure assets to existing shareholder pension fund APG, in a deal which values the entire portfolio at more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) the private equity firm told Reuters.** French ski resort operator Compagnie des Alpes said it was confident of making progress in selling a stake to potential investors including China’s Fosun in the coming months.** A Blackstone real estate fund is buying a 10 percent stake in Logicor Ltd ( IPO-LOG.L ) just months after selling the European warehouse firm to a Chinese sovereign wealth fund, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. (Compiled by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL3N1OC3I0'|'2017-12-12T08:06:00.000+02:00'
'758ac627ca36bbcfc791a782b5c9d693820c1689'|'UPDATE 1-Banks eye Paris airports operator in Macron privatisation drive -sources'|'* ADP seen among first of Macron’s privatisation targets* Banks including BAML, Lazard, BNP expected to be involved* Complexity of structure may mean delaysBy Dasha Afanasieva and Arno SchuetzeLONDON/FRANKFURT, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Investment banks are vying to work with potential buyers or the French government on the sale of its majority stake in Aeroports de Paris (ADP) , sources close to the matter said, in one of the largest infrastructure deals expected to come to market in 2018.ADP, which runs Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports outside Paris, is likely to be an early target in President Emmanuel Macron’s privatisation drive. The company, 50.63 percent-owned by the French state, may be valued at about 25 billion euros ($29 billion) including debt in a potential deal.According to two sources, the state equity agency has picked Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to manage the privatisation. Another source familiar with the matter said BNP Paribas was working with ADP.ADP, Bank of America and BNP Paribas all declined to comment. State holding company APE said it frequently seeks outside advice about its portfolio.Several bankers said France’s Vinci, Europe’s biggest construction and concessions company, was seen as the frontrunner in any sale. Vinci already has an 8 percent stake in ADP and has publicly expressed an interest in investing more if the state decides to sell all or part of its stake.Vinci is expected to hire investment banking boutique Lazard to advise it, four sources familiar with the matter said. A fifth source denied that Vinci had yet awarded formal mandates. Vinci and Lazard declined to comment.Last year Vinci secured a stake in Lyon airport along with public sector lender Caisse des Depots (CDC) and it operates 35 airports worldwide. CDC, which is relatively independent from the French government, has also expressed an interest in ADP.Vinci’s position as a current shareholder is deterring some potential buyers, sources said, adding that a structure which would make the process most competitive had not been agreed.LENGTHY PROCESS Pension funds and insurers are among those preparing for ADP bids as they shift part of their assets towards infrastructure investments, which are regarded as relatively safe but which also promise higher returns than government bonds.The ADP sale could take a long time to be completed, given the complexity of its structure, and it is likely to serve as a test case for broader French privatisation policy.A wave of consolidation among European airlines is creating pressure for the region’s airports because it gives carriers more negotiating power over their hubs.Several sources said the stake in ADP, which has a market cap of 16 billion euros ($18.84 billion), could be too big to be sold in one go as a competitive process. One banking source said the government’s stake should be broken up into chunks to be sold off separately, while another said the company should be split into an operating and real estate arm.Given the size of the asset, bidders are likely to form consortia. One source said he expected the sale to launch formally only in the second half of 2018 as there was too much to be sorted out before a structured process could begin.“All large U.S., Canadian and Middle East funds will look,” he said. “It remains unclear whether France would welcome a buyer from China or the Gulf. Everybody is spending time on the subject, but hardly anyone has actually chosen an adviser already.”ADP could be valued at around 20-25 times its expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), in line with valuations seen in other recent airport sales. ADP’s EBITDA was 1.2 billion euros in 2016.ADP shares traded down half a percent at 161.9 euros on Tuesday. Vinci shares were up 0.37 percent at 86.77 euros. ($1 = 0.8493 euros) (Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Mathieu Protard in Paris, Clara Denina, and Julien Ponthus in London; Editing by Gareth Jones) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/adp-privatisation-vinci/update-1-banks-eye-paris-airports-operator-in-macron-privatisation-drive-sources-idINL8N1OB5N1'|'2017-12-12T13:22:00.000+02:00'
'bf3d6388fab1aa4293e800e570bfa6c9cbb63e42'|'EU renews approval for herbicide glyphosate for five years'|'December 12, 2017 / 2:48 PM / Updated 6 hours ago EU renews approval for herbicide glyphosate for five years Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Tuesday it had renewed for five years the license for the weed-killer glyphosate, a key ingredient in Monsanto Co’s ( MON.N ) top-selling Roundup, following a heated debate over whether it causes cancer. FILE PHOTO: Monsanto''s Roundup weedkiller atomizers are displayed for sale at a garden shop near Brussels, Belgium November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman A sufficient majority of EU countries voted at the end of November to clear the license extension, but opposition to the herbicide remained, including from a citizens’ initiative wanting it banned and demanding greater transparency in future. The Commission said in a statement it would introduce measures early in 2018 to make decisions on pesticides more transparent and to enhance the quality and independence of scientific assessments. Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Alastair Macdonald'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-health-glyphosate/eu-renews-approval-for-herbicide-glyphosate-for-five-years-idUSKBN1E61UJ'|'2017-12-12T16:36:00.000+02:00'
'45b1a6bcf841cd3f707e3b3addd2a1e50e90d99b'|'Boeing lifts dividend by 20 percent, sets new $18 billion share buyback'|' 17 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Boeing lifts dividend by 20 percent, sets new $18 billion share buyback Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) said on Monday it would raise its quarterly dividend by 20 percent and replace its existing share buyback programme with a new $18 billion authorization. FILE PHOTO - The Boeing Company logo is projected on a wall at the "What''s Next?" conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young The company’s shares, the best-performing Dow component this year with an 84 percent surge, were up 1.2 percent at $286.51 in after-market trading. The world’s biggest maker of jetliners said the raised dividend and the new buyback programme were not in response to a Republican tax overhaul, which seeks to cut corporate taxes to 20 percent from 35 percent. Other U.S. corporations have said they would use the windfall from the tax overhaul to buy back shares, retire debt and other shareholder-friendly moves. The cash deployment plans reflect ongoing confidence in our financial strength and the long-term outlook of our business, Boeing Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith   Boeing’s dividend increase comes at the high-end of analysts’ estimates of 15 percent to 20 percent, Robert W Baird & Co analyst Peter Arment wrote in a note. The company said on Monday the new quarterly dividend would be $1.71 per share, up from $1.42. Boeing said the new repurchase programme would replace a $14 billion authorization approved in December 2016, under which the company had repurchased $9.2 billion. The increase in the buyback amount also comes as a surprise and shows the management’s confidence in generating strong free cash flows over the next few years, analyst Arment said. Boeing said it expected to complete the new buybacks in the next 24-30 months. Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru and Alwyn Scott in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-boeing-dividend/boeing-lifts-dividend-by-20-percent-sets-new-18-billion-share-buyback-idUKKBN1E52SR'|'2017-12-12T01:17:00.000+02:00'
'f031ebcd16133d6f0709ab3e08543848ba4ad46b'|'Reliance mulls telecom unit Jio''s listing by early 2019 - Bloomberg'|'December 12, 2017 / 11:01 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Reliance considers listing telecoms unit Jio by early 2019: Bloomberg Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s Reliance Industries Ltd is holding internal talks about listing its telecoms unit Jio by late 2018 or early 2019, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people it did not identify. FILE PHOTO: A woman checks her mobile phone as she walks past a mobile store of Reliance Industries'' Jio telecoms unit, in Mumbai, India, July 11, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File photo A Reliance spokesman said the article was “speculative”, and said the company did not comment on media speculation and rumours as a matter of policy. Jio has upended India’s wireless market with free services initially and later through disruptive pricing since it began operations in September last year. It has added customers faster than rivals and triggered a price war in the highly competitive market. Reliance, controlled by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, has pumped more than $30 billion into Jio. Jio, the fourth-biggest player in the sector with 146 million customers as of end-October, reported a loss of 2.71 billion rupees ($42.1 million) for its fiscal second quarter to end-September. Internal discussions about Jio''s listing are at a preliminary stage, Bloomberg said. bloom.bg/2AvI3EO ($1 = 64.4250 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/reliance-jio-ipo/reliance-mulls-telecom-unit-jios-listing-by-early-2019-bloomberg-idINKBN1E616H'|'2017-12-12T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'd53f50821af4a3b0e03e549318c60833f63866b0'|'Bitcoin slips to around $16,300, futures volumes drop'|' 01 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Bitcoin slips to around $16,300, futures volumes drop Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Virtual currency bitcoin dipped slightly from the previous session’s record highs on Tuesday, after a month of whirlwind and volatile gains leading up to the launch of bitcoin futures on the weekend. A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration Bitcoin was quoted at $16,390 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, down half a percent or $80 from its previous close. The world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency hit a record high of $17,270 on Monday, registering a nearly twenty-fold increase in its price for the year as it drew in millions of new investors. The newly launched bitcoin futures on the Cboe Futures Exchange were also tepid, with prices steady and volumes a fraction of those seen on Monday. Bitcoin futures maturing in January were at $17,970, with 237 contracts traded compared with 3,956 contracts on the first day. The Cboe March 2018 contract was quoted at $18,110, with volume in the low double-digits. “The trading volume was huge yesterday as bitcoin price fluctuated in a wide range over the weekend,” said Park Nok-sun, a cryptocurrency analyst at NH Investment and Securities in Seoul. ”Now that the exchange price is relatively calm, it is obvious for futures trading volume to fall.” While market participants are still heavily divided over the digital currency’s utility, value and safety, they expect the futures contract to offer a legitimate means for institutions to bet on bitcoin. Some investors even expect the futures will offer markets an easier means to take short positions on the cryptocurrency. The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Additional reporting by Dahee Kim in SEOUL; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-slips-to-around-16300-futures-volumes-drop-idUKKBN1E60PE'|'2017-12-12T10:00:00.000+02:00'
'921bbccb19f93a11cf25d4315f65c500ef267a8c'|'RPT-U.S. soy processors build new capacity at fastest rate in 20 years'|' 02 AM / in 25 minutes RPT-U.S. soy processors build new capacity at fastest rate in 20 years Reuters Staff (Repeats with no changes to text.) By Michael Hirtzer CHICAGO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - U.S. agricultural cooperatives are building new soybean crushing plants at the fastest rate in two decades as farmers in the world’s top producer prepare to sow another record area with soy. The growth worldwide in the number of consumers with income to spend on pork and chicken has led to a rapid rise in demand for food to raise animals. Crushing plants produce high-protein soymeal feed for livestock and soyoil for food and fuel. U.S. processors are expected to open plants with capacity to process at least 120 million bushels of soybeans in 2019, up around 5 percent from existing capacity of an estimated 1.9 billion bushels. The last time outright capacity grew that much was in 1997-98, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture and soy industry data. Strong demand for feed has boosted crushing margins, the measure of profitability for the plants. Margins stand at more than a $1 per bushel, the strongest for 18 months, according to the CME Group. The margins have encouraged processors to build more plants. “Margins on soybean processing were very good, some of the best we’ve had in many years. And when the industry has good margins, you expand production,” said Mark Sandeen, vice president of product marketing at farmer cooperative Ag Processing Inc (AGP). Growth in feed demand means crushing capacity worldwide will need to expand further. Global soy production would have to increase by 20 percent over the next decade to keep up with feed consumption, said Tom Hammer, president of industry group National Oilseed Processing Association. U.S. soy plantings totaled a record 90.2 million acres this year and the USDA in a preliminary forecast set plantings next year at 91.0 million acres. And while industry capacity could reach 2 billion bushels in under two years, the USDA said crushings likely will not reach that level until 2020-21. AGP broke ground earlier this year on a new soy plant in Aberdeen, South Dakota, that will have annual capacity to process 40 million bushels. Another cooperative, North Dakota Soybean Processors, planned to build a similarly sized facility for an estimated $287 million near the town of Spiritwood. The plants will increase demand for local soybeans, potentially pushing up prices that farmers nearby will receive for their crops, and reducing transport costs. Ryan Wagner, who grows soybeans about 50 miles away from the new soy plant in South Dakota, said the processor could add 10 to 15 cents to the local soybean price - an amount that might mean the difference between making or losing money. Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures on Friday were $9.89-3/4 per bushel, down 2-1/4 cents. “That basis will be nice but in the long run I think the greater economic impact will be the attraction of more opportunities for raising livestock because of the new supply of soybean meal,” Wagner said. “We are already starting to see interest in our area for more pork and poultry production since the announcement.” Family-owned Zeeland Farm Services plans to build the second plant in the state of Michigan with capacity of 40 million bushels, to open in 2019. The company built Michigan’s first soybean processor in 1996 in Zeeland. The company will supply soybean meal to hog, turkey, dairy and aquaculture farms in Michigan and export both soymeal and soyoil, said Cliff Meeuwsen, president of Zeeland. Due to a lack of processing plants in Michigan, much of the soybeans there are shipped to Ohio where merchant giants Archer Daniels Midland Co, Bunge Ltd and Cargill Inc have plants. Soymeal then gets shipped back to Michigan to feed animals, raising costs. “We hope to cut those costs out, thereby raising the price of soybeans to producers and cutting the cost of feed and protein to livestock producers,” Zeeland’s Meeuwsen said. Earlier this year Perdue Farms opened a processor with capacity for 17.5 million bushels in Pennsylvania, that state’s first large-scale soy crushing plant. Many of the new facilities are in places outside the central U.S. Midwest soy belt, taking advantage of increased supplies from farmers in those areas that have switched to soybeans from less profitable crops such as wheat. Grain handlers will increase their profits by building the plants, as the margins are bigger for crushing than they are for simply buying and shipping soybeans, said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soybean Transportation Coalition. “The old adage is it’s better to export meat than (soy) meal and better to export meal than soybeans. You are always trying to export that higher-value product,” Steenhoek said. (Additional reporting by Karl Plume; editing by Simon Webb and Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-soy-crush-expansion/rpt-u-s-soy-processors-build-new-capacity-at-fastest-rate-in-20-years-idUSL1N1O81XL'|'2017-12-12T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'852ed57057c7d683ced79df719a585a98199908f'|'New Zealand government appoints Adrian Orr as next Reserve Bank governor'|'December 11, 2017 / 3:25 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago New Zealand government appoints Adrian Orr as next Reserve Bank governor Charlotte Greenfield 2 Min Read WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand’s government on Monday named pension fund chief Adrian Orr as the new governor of the nation’s central bank, triggering a rally in the local dollar as markets prepared for changes to the monetary policy mandate. FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands in the main entrance to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand located in central Wellington, New Zealand, July 3, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Orr will take up the role at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) on March 27, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an emailed statement. The announcement drove the New Zealand dollar up by 0.7 percent to a five-day high of $0.6905. Orr served as deputy governor of the RBNZ for four years before joining the New Zealand Super Fund in 2007. Dominick Stephens, chief economist at Westpac, said markets welcomed Orr’s appointment, adding that he was unlikely to veer away dramatically from the inflation target. “He’s an extremely accomplished economist, he’s got lots of experience at the Reserve Bank and he’s unlikely I think to allow inflation out of the box.” Orr takes up the role at a sensitive time for the RBNZ, as the new Labour-led government plans to add maximising employment to the bank’s objectives alongside its inflation target. “The Board agreed unanimously that he can bring to the role of Governor of the Reserve Bank strong leadership and commitment to ensure the Bank is fit for its wide role in the New Zealand economy,” said RBNZ board chairman Neil Quigley in the statement. Robertson said in the statement that the laws to change the bank’s mandate would likely not be in force by March, but the policy target agreement between him and Orr would be “developed in a manner consistent with the direction of reform.” In November, Robertson told Reuters that willingness to focus on lifting employment, alongside inflation, would be key in accepting the RBNZ’s choice for the next governor. Previous governor Graeme Wheeler stepped down in September at the end of his five year term and deputy governor Grant Spencer took on the role for a six-month term while the search for a new chief was under way. Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield and Sydney newsroom; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-newzealand-cenbank-governor/new-zealand-government-appoints-adrian-orr-as-next-reserve-bank-governor-idUKKBN1E507T'|'2017-12-11T08:01:00.000+02:00'
'379329fe7206285d0ad9768644547118cc77c4f1'|'U.S. Treasury estimates quicker growth from tax plan to yield $1.8 trillion in revenue'|'December 11, 2017 / 4:00 PM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. Treasury estimates quicker growth from tax plan to yield $1.8 trillion in revenue Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tax overhaul bill passed by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee would lift economic growth enough to generate an additional $1.8 trillion in revenue over 10 years, more than enough to offset revenue lost from a cut in taxes, the Treasury Department estimated on Monday. United States money printing plates are seen at the Museum of American Finance in New York October 15, 2010. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo In a summary analysis of a white paper, the Treasury Department said it based its estimate on a presumed 0.7 percentage point increase to the U.S. economy’s annual growth rate. The Treasury Department’s estimate compares to an analysis from the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation that suggested quicker growth spurred by the tax-cut plan would yield an additional $408 billion in revenue. Reporting by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-revenue/u-s-treasury-estimates-quicker-growth-from-tax-plan-to-yield-1-8-trillion-in-revenue-idINKBN1E51YE'|'2017-12-11T17:59:00.000+02:00'
'0eb7cde1383459a95dd83c4f0a8b75b104b1b0b8'|'PRESS DIGEST -Wall Street Journal - Dec 11'|'Dec 11 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Two hospital systems Ascension and Providence St. Joseph Health are in talks about a possible merger as a series of deals shape up to further consolidate control of the healthcare landscape. on.wsj.com/2AtiZyb- The government of Qatar and British weapons maker Bae Systems Plc have finalized a multi-billion deal for 24 combat jets, continuing a weapons buying spree by the Middle East country. on.wsj.com/2AsKvMb- JP Morgan Chase & Co has hired Barclays Plc card executive Matthew Massaua to oversee the popular rewards card and other Sapphire cards. on.wsj.com/2ArX7mx- The White House is preparing to roll out a long-delayed infrastructure rebuilding plan in January, as U.S. President Donald Trump''s advisers bet that voters want a $1 trillion road-and-bridge-building plan, even though it is opposed by some lawmakers. on.wsj.com/2Atabbu- Three people have been arrested for allegedly throwing fire bombs at a synagogue in the Swedish city of Goteborg, the second anti-Jewish attack in the Nordic nation in two days. on.wsj.com/2At6tyt (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-11-idUSL3N1OB1Y6'|'2017-12-11T07:42:00.000+02:00'
'b93cf4b78863be194ba5db223a4df616a2e3b573'|'Zurich Insurance to buy ANZ''s life insurance businesses for $2.14 billion'|'(Reuters) - Zurich Insurance ( ZURN.S ) has agreed to buy ANZ’s ( ANZ.AX ) OnePath Life insurance businesses for 2.85 billion Australian dollars ($2.14 billion), the latest and largest foray by the Swiss company into the Australian market.FILE PHOTO - The logo of Swiss company Zurich insurance is seen at an office building in Zurich''s Oerlikon suburb, Switzerland August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The deal, announced on Monday, is the third purchase by Zurich in Australia over the last two years as the insurer doubles down on a region where a robust economy and low insurance penetration rates have proved attractive.Zurich has focused on the Asia Pacific as a major growth driver in its life insurance business, previously picking up Macquaries’ ( MQG.AX ) retail life insurance business for US$300 million in 2016 and the Cover-More Group for US$554 million in April this year.The ANZ deal - Zurich’s biggest since 2011 - would be immediately accretive to the Swiss company’s earnings, and would increase return on equity and shareholder returns, the company said.It would increase cash flows by around $225 million over the 2017-2019 planning period, Europe’s fifth largest insurer added.ANZ said the outcome of the sale of the OnePath life insurance and pension businesses would be an accounting loss of about A$640 million.Zurich Chief Executive Mario Greco said in a statement: “The existing portfolio provides a highly cash-generative business that will add to our cash remittances, increase our business operating profit after tax return on equity target by 50 basis points and support dividend growth beyond that implied by our existing plan,”As part of its 2017-2019 targets, Zurich has promised to pay shareholders 75 percent of its net profit. With the ANZ deal expected to be completed by the end of 2018, the full benefit of the acquisition will become apparent in the 2019 dividend.Following the deal, Zurich will have around 19 percent of the Australia retail life insurance market, making it the biggest provider in the market, it said.CEO Greco also highlighted how the purchase would build up Zurich’s distribution of insurance products through ANZ’s branches and digital distribution channels.As part of the deal, Zurich would get access to ANZ’s 6 million customers through a 20 year distribution agreement to sell life insurance.Zurich said it said it would fund the deal from its own cash pile and through senior debt.On a pro-forma basis, the operations to be acquired reported net earned premiums for the 12 months ended September 30, 2017 of US$1.1 billion and a net profit after tax of US$142 million.The deal is the largest since Greco took over at Zurich last year. The executive brought in from Generali ( GASI.MI ) to engineer a turnaround for the troubled group has promised to make Zurich leaner and more efficient.For ANZ, the deal marks the realisation of plans to offload its Australian insurance and wealth division, flagged over a year ago.In October, ANZ sold its pension business to Australian pension management business IOOF Holdings ( IFL.AX ) for A$975 million.“ This transaction (with Zurich) will complete the simplification of ANZ’s Australian wealth business , however we will continue to work hard to minimise any disruption to our customers during the transition,” ANZ Group Executive Wealth Australia Alexis George said in a statement.ANZ said there would be no changes to any current insurance policies as a result of the sale.Reporting by John Revill; additional reporting by Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft and Jane Merriman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zurich-ins-group-anz-bank-onepath/zurich-insurance-to-buy-anzs-life-insurance-businesses-for-2-14-billion-idUSKBN1E52G2'|'2017-12-11T21:17:00.000+02:00'
'eb76dc4cb4b997294e84314f026bbbc90dac65d7'|'Airbus CEO Enders will not seek a third mandate: Figaro'|' 14 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago Airbus CEO Enders will not seek a third mandate: Figaro Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Tom Enders has told the French Presidency he will not seek a third mandate as chief executive of European planemaker Airbus ( AIR.PA ), Le Figaro daily reports on its website. FILE PHOTO - Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders speaks during a news conference on the aerospace group''s annual results, in London, Britain February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Hannah McKay “According to our information, the last board meeting of 2017, this Thursday, should ratify the non-renewal of Tom Enders at the helm of the group following the expiry of his mandate in May 2019,” the Figaro said, without citing its sources. “Tom informed the Elysee very recently he would not seek a third mandate,” a source cited by Le Figaro said. Industry sources have said it was widely assumed that Enders would not seek a third mandate, when his current mandate expires in May 2019. Airbus was not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Tim Hepher; editing by John Irish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-enders/airbus-ceo-enders-will-not-seek-a-third-mandate-figaro-idUSKBN1E62NS'|'2017-12-12T21:12:00.000+02:00'
'c0fe8472fe741e4d43678d3d03c9841817881f9a'|'Asia wagers global cheer will outlive Fed tightening'|' 10 AM / Updated an hour ago Oil prices jump on pipeline outage, stocks take breather Ritvik Carvalho 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped on Tuesday after the shutdown of a North Sea pipeline knocked out significant supply from an already tightening market, while world stocks took a break from a three-day rally. A pedestrian stands to look at an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Yuya Shino Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose above $65 a barrel - their highest since mid-2015 - after Britain’s Forties pipeline was shut due to cracks as a cold snap sweeps the country. [O/R] “The market reaction shows that in a tight market, any supply issue will quickly be reflected in higher prices,” said ANZ bank. Analysts also said the pipeline is a significant component underpinning the Brent benchmark. U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 rose nearly 1 percent to $58.51 a barrel. The jump in Brent prices widened its premium to WTI prices to as much as over $7 a barrel CL-LCO1=R, the highest premium since May 2015 and up from around $5 last week, making U.S. oil exports more attractive. The MSCI index of world equities .MIWD PUS, which tracks stocks across 47 countries, was flat after posting three straight days of gains. While the jump in oil helped boost commodity-heavy European stock indices, it was not enough to offset weakness in bank stocks, pushing the pan-European STOXX index down 0.1 percent in early trading. For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets Asian shares took a small step back gaining for three straight sessions, with markets consolidating in the hope an upswing in global growth could outlast a likely hike in U.S. interest rates this week. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS drifted off 0.3 percent, having bounced 2 percent in the past three sessions. Commodity-linked currencies also got a boost from the pick up in oil prices. The Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar were both up half a percent while the Norwegian crown rose 0.7 percent. CENTRAL BANK VIGIL Investors continued their policy vigil with the Federal Reserve set to end its two-day meeting on Wednesday, while the European Central Bank meets on Thursday. JPMorgan Economist David Hensley suspects the Fed will revise up its growth forecast while trimming the outlook for the unemployment rate, potentially adding upside risk to the “dot plot” forecasts on interest rates. “The dot plot previously called for three hikes in 2018; it is a close call whether this moves to four hikes,” he warned, a shift that would likely boost the dollar but could bludgeon bonds. “For its part, the European Central Bank (ECB)is likely to emphasize its low-for-long stance and continue to distance itself from the Fed,” he added. “The staff is likely to revise up its 2018 growth forecast, while we think the core inflation forecast will reveal an even slower recovery than before.” The divergence in Fed and ECB policy was supposed to be bullish for the dollar, given it had widened the premium offered by U.S. two-year yields US2YT=RR over German yields DE2YT=RR to 256 basis points from 188 basis points this time last year. The last time the spread was that plump was in 1999. Yet the euro is currently up 12 percent on the dollar this year, while the dollar is down 8 percent on a basket of currencies .DXY - an indication interest rate differentials aren’t everything in forex. The dollar was idling at 113.42 yen JPY= , just off a one-month top of 113.69, while the index that measures it against a basket of peers was down 0.1 percent. Dealers at Citi noted interbank volumes in the forex market had been 35 percent below average overnight and another thin session was in prospect for Tuesday. There was a little more action in bitcoin, which was last up 1 percent on the day at $16,598 on the Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP while its newly minted futures contract <0#XBT:> fell slightly to stand at $18,545. Gold remained out of favour at $1,244.70 an ounce XAU= having suffered its biggest weekly drop since May last week. Reporting by Ritvik Carvalho; additional reporting by Wayne Cole in SYDNEY and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-wagers-global-cheer-will-outlive-fed-tightening-idUKKBN1E600R'|'2017-12-12T02:12:00.000+02:00'
'5e91f86b06de201de513cfe31a4f3303d34617e9'|'Aecon And Areva Signed Contract Valued At More Than $130 Million'|' 38 PM / in 14 minutes BRIEF-Aecon And Areva Signed Contract Valued At More Than $130 Million Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 12 (Reuters) - Aecon Group Inc: * INTEGRATED JV FORMED AMONG AECOM, CO AND AREVA NP SIGNED CONTRACT VALUED AT MORE THAN $130 MILLION * CONTRACT IS TO REPLACE STEAM GENERATORS AT UNIT 6 OF BRUCE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION IN ONTARIO, CANADA * WORK UNDER CONTRACT IS SCHEDULED TO REACH SUBSTANTIAL COMPLETION IN Q1 OF 2022 * SGRT SIGNED PREFERRED SUPPLIER AGREEMENT FOR STEAM GENERATOR REPLACEMENTS AT UNIT 6‘S REMAINING FIVE UNITS Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-aecon-and-areva-signed-contract-va/brief-aecon-and-areva-signed-contract-valued-at-more-than-130-million-idUSFWN1OC0RX'|'2017-12-12T21:38:00.000+02:00'
'fa7802eda2f928c42b2fc47d3e17946676f0d054'|'Saudi sovereign fund plans cinema venture with AMC Entertainment'|'December 12, 2017 / 3:55 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Saudi sovereign fund plans cinema venture with AMC Entertainment Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund said it planned to enter the cinema business with major U.S.-based movie exhibition company AMC Entertainment Holdings, as the conservative kingdom lifts a 35-year-old ban on cinemas. “In line with the fund’s mandate to help unlock promising new sectors within the kingdom, PIF and AMC Entertainment will explore theatrical exhibition and related investment and partnership opportunities in Saudi Arabia,” the Public Investment Fund said. Neither of the partners gave details of the business ventures which might arise from their non-binding memorandum of understanding. The Saudi government announced on Monday that the first theatres could start showing films as early as March, part of a liberalising reform drive that has opened the door to concerts, comedy shows and women drivers in the past year. AMC, which owns the Odeon brand, is one of the largest movie exhibition companies in the world with about 1,000 theatres and 11,000 screens across the globe. Other cinema chains are also eyeing the Saudi market. Dubai-based mall operator Majid Al Futtaim, which owns VOX Cinemas, said it wanted to open the first movie theatre there. The government said it expected to open over 300 cinemas with more than 2,000 screens by 2030. With assets of over $220 billion, the PIF is being used by the government to spearhead its drive to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil. The fund is getting into a wide range of industries from real estate development to technology investment, tourism and waste recycling. Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; Writing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-film-amc-ent-holdg/saudi-sovereign-fund-plans-cinema-venture-with-amc-entertainment-idUKKBN1E60B6'|'2017-12-12T05:55:00.000+02:00'
'91553e84bab29d356affefb6986917bbcc866325'|'France-based Miner AMR starts bauxite production in Guinea'|'CONAKRY, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Paris-based miner AMR began production at its Guinean bauxite mine on Tuesday, aiming initially to produce between 6 and 10 million tonnes a year of the aluminium ore, the company said.Alliance Miniere Responsable (AMR) was founded by two French businessmen and major shareholders include former Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon and French telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel.A company statement said the mine’s output will all be sold to Societe Miniere de Boke, a Guinean company whose main shareholders are Singapore’s privately-owned Winning International Group and China’s Shandong Weiqao.Guinea has about a third of the world’s bauxite reserves, but annual production has hovered below 20 million tonnes a year for several years, owing largely to political instability.In 2017, SMB expects to export more than 15 million tonnes of bauxite, putting it on a par with number one producer Guinea Bauxite Company (CBG), majority owned by Alcoa, Rio Tinto and Dadco.Until 2015, CBG and Russia’s Rouski Alumini were the only companies that exported bauxite from Guinea.Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Dakar; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/guinea-mining/france-based-miner-amr-starts-bauxite-production-in-guinea-idINL8N1OC4XN'|'2017-12-12T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'2fc7f25ad3fc524bf398a1d65b0d4d3c5fdf1365'|'Germany''s Axel Springer to sell online platform to TF1'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s Axel Springer ( SPRGn.DE ) plans to sell its majority stake in online platform aufeminin S.A. ( OFMN.PA ) to France’s TF1 ( TFFP.PA ) news channel for 286 million euros ($335.4 million).The publisher signed a put option on Tuesday to sell its 78 percent stake in aufeminin which runs a lifestyle website with news on topics such as fashion, beauty and healthcare.“We have sold a non-core asset at a very, very attractive price,” finance chief Julian Deutz told reporters late on Tuesday.Berlin-based Axel Springer, listed on Germany’s mid-cap index .MDAXI MDAX, earlier on Tuesday announced a purchasing price of 38.74 euros per share, a 45-percent premium on last Friday’s close.Axel Springer expects a brief review of the planned transaction by labor representatives and then will sign a sale agreement, with the closing expected in the first quarter next year after a review by antitrust authorities, Deitz said.($1 = 0.8527 euros)Reporting by Douglas Busvine. Writing by Andreas Cremer. Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-axel-springer-m-a-tf1/germanys-axel-springer-to-sell-online-platform-to-tf1-idINKBN1E62OK'|'2017-12-12T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'c481b9172df786c233d19ce6ffd1f6ce068d13a8'|'Canada''s Fairfax drops plan to buy stake in cement maker PPC'|'JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Canada’s Fairfax Africa Investments Proprietary Ltd will not proceed with a plan to buy 23 percent of cement producer PPC ( PPCJ.J ) for 2 billion rand ($146.34 million), the South African company said on Monday.Last month PPC’s board said it had advised Fairfax ( FAHu.TO ) that it would not be recommending the Canadian company’s partial offer to shareholders.“On 8 December 2017, the Independent Board received Fairfax’s formal notification that it will not proceed with the partial offer and that, accordingly, the Fairfax partial offer circular will not be posted to PPC shareholders,” PPC said in a statement.The Takeover Regulation Panel had granted Fairfax an extension to post its partial offer circular until Dec. 12.Fairfax offered to buy 23 percent of PPC in September for 5.75 rand per share, or 2 billion rand, on condition that it was approved by shareholders in order to allow a merger with South African rival cement maker AfriSam.Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ppc-m-a-fairfax-africa/canadas-fairfax-drops-plan-to-buy-stake-in-cement-maker-ppc-idINKBN1E5125'|'2017-12-11T08:05:00.000+02:00'
'eaf81618450b1e1c03fa04128f3392c068c748f1'|'Cutting U.S. electric vehicle tax credit ''will have an impact'': GM'|'DETROIT (Reuters) - If Congress eliminates an electric vehicle tax credit it “will have an impact” on sales of U.S. electric vehicles such as General Motors Co’s Chevrolet Bolt, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Monday.General Motors Chairman & CEO Mary Barra attends a press conference in Shanghai, China September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The House version of a bill that would cut corporate tax rates calls for eliminating a tax credit of up to $7,500 for purchasers of electric vehicles. Auto industry and environmental groups are lobbying to save the credit as the House and Senate move to merge their versions of the tax overhaul legislation.Barra said eliminating the tax credit would affect the way potential electric vehicle buyers calculate the cost of owning one. “It changes the equation,” she told reporters at an event sponsored by the Automotive Press Association of Detroit.“I‘m a proponent of that staying in” the tax code, Barra said. “That’s what we convey to the administration.”The tax credit is in effect a subsidy for manufacturers of electric vehicles, which can charge a higher price for battery electric cars knowing the buyer will get a rebate from the government.Reporting By Joseph White; Editing by Susan Thomas and Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gm-autos-taxbreaks/cutting-u-s-electric-vehicle-tax-credit-will-have-an-impact-gm-idUSKBN1E52P7'|'2017-12-12T00:10:00.000+02:00'
'69afede35b5391f157ef55db571f1cc9b46af74a'|'Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical'|'December 11, 2017 / 6:24 AM / in 4 hours Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical Tom Polansek 4 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monsanto Co ( MON.N ) will give cash back to U.S. farmers who buy a weed killer that has been linked to widespread crop damage, offering an incentive to apply its product even as regulators in several U.S. states weigh restrictions on its use. FILE PHOTO: Monsanto logo is displayed on a screen where the stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. on May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The incentive to use XtendiMax with VaporGrip, a herbicide based on a chemical known as dicamba, could refund farmers over half the sticker price of the product in 2018 if they spray it on soybeans Monsanto engineered to resist the weed killer, according to company data. The United States faced an agricultural crisis this year caused by new formulations of dicamba-based herbicides, which farmers and weed experts say harmed crops because they evaporated and drifted away from where they were sprayed. Monsanto says XtendiMax is safe when properly applied. The company is banking on the chemical and soybean seeds engineered to resist it, called Xtend, to dominate soybean production in the United States, the world’s second-largest exporter. BASF SE ( BASFn.DE ) and DowDuPont ( DWDP.N ) also sell versions of dicamba-based herbicides. Monsanto’s cash-back offer comes as federal and state regulators are requiring training for farmers who plan to spray dicamba in 2018 and limiting when it can be used. Weed specialists say the restrictions make the chemical more costly and inconvenient to apply, but Monsanto’s incentive could help convince farmers to use it anyway. “We believe cash-back incentives for using XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology better enable growers to use a management system that represents the next level of weed control,” said Ryan Rubischko, Monsanto product manager. XtendiMax costs about $11 per acre to buy, and Monsanto is offering $6 per acre in cash back to farmers when they apply it on Xtend soybeans along with other approved herbicides, according to the company. Monsanto competes against rivals including Bayer AG ( BAYGn.DE ) to sell genetically modified soybean seeds and chemicals to farmers. Bayer is selling its LibertyLink soybean brand, a main rival to Xtend, to BASF as part of a deal to acquire Monsanto for $63.5 billion. Monsanto also faces increasing government oversight. This month, North Dakota said it planned to prohibit the use of dicamba herbicides after June 30, 2018, and when temperatures top 85 degrees Fahrenheit in a bid to prevent the chemical from drifting away from where it is sprayed. Missouri said it intends to finalize restrictions on XtendiMax soon, after banning sprayings of BASF’s dicamba herbicide, called Engenia, in 10 counties after June 1, 2018, and statewide after July 15, 2018. Arkansas is close to prohibiting dicamba sprayings after April 15, 2018, the tightest limits yet, while Minnesota is also considering restrictions. The states are taking action after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated special training for dicamba users for 2018, requiring farmers to keep records proving they were complying with label instructions. “Utilizing the technology, the cost will go up because of these changes,” said Andrew Thostenson, a pesticide specialist for North Dakota State University. Monsanto predicts U.S. farmers will double plantings of Xtend soybeans to about 40 million acres next year despite reports of crop damage this past summer. Farmers said its cash-back offer was designed to increase sales. “I think they’re just trying to buy more acres,” Dan Henebry, an Illinois farmer who plans to grow Xtend soybeans next year, said about Monsanto. Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pesticides-monsanto/monsanto-offers-cash-to-u-s-farmers-who-use-controversial-chemical-idUSKBN1E50EN'|'2017-12-11T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'662539cab6b2cfe5d256bae0b5ecb97128c0a4e7'|'Liechtenstein says didn''t press for Swiss inclusion on EU tax havens list'|' 31 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Liechtenstein says didn''t press for Swiss inclusion on EU tax havens list Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland’s inclusion on an EU watch list of tax havens was not at the behest of Liechtenstein, the tiny principality’s prime minister said. Both are on the grey list of 47 countries whose tax systems do not comply with EU standards but have committed to change. The NZZ am Sonntag paper said at the weekend Switzerland was included only after Liechtenstein complained it was on Brussels’s draft list while Switzerland was not. Switzerland had expected not to be included, and summoned officials from neighbouring Liechtenstein for an explanation after the list was published this month. Liechtenstein leader Adrian Hasler denied any involvement by the principality. “It was neither our suggestion nor our intention that Switzerland get put on the grey list,” he told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper in an interview published on Monday. “Our intervention aimed to have no grey list published or, if so, that Liechtenstein was judged as conforming (with EU rules) and did not appear on it,” he said, noting that the principality had every right to defend its national interests. Both countries have oversized financial industries and in the past have drawn scrutiny as places to stash offshore wealth. Switzerland is about to start automatically exchanging data on foreign holders of Swiss bank accounts. It has also sought to overhaul its corporate tax system to avoid being branded a low-tax pariah, but it had to go back to the drawing board when voters rejected the plan this year. Liechtenstein faces demands from the EU to change the way it taxes dividends and treats allowances for corporate equity. Reporting by Michael Shields; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-liechtenstein/liechtenstein-says-didnt-press-for-swiss-inclusion-on-eu-tax-havens-list-idUKKBN1E50N5'|'2017-12-11T10:30:00.000+02:00'
'b921c78e78865adb32d5f083bf9c54109dd7b37b'|'Exclusive - U.S. mall owner GGP rejects Brookfield Property''s $14.8 billion offer: sources'|'December 10, 2017 / 10:25 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Exclusive - U.S. mall owner GGP rejects Brookfield Property''s $14.8 billion offer: sources Carl O''Donnell , Greg Roumeliotis 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - GGP Inc ( GGP.N ), one of the largest owners and operators of U.S. shopping centres, has rejected a $14.8 billion (11.1 billion pounds) buyout offer from its biggest shareholder, Brookfield Property Partners LP ( BPY.O ), people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. Brookfield Property made a $23-per-share cash and stock offer last month for the 66 percent of GGP it does not already own. A combination of Chicago-based GGP and Brookfield Property would create one of the world’s largest publicly traded property companies. Brookfield Property is considering a new offer for GGP after a special committee of GGP’s board directors turned down its Nov. 11 offer as inadequate, and negotiations between the two companies are expected to continue, the sources said. The companies do not plan to make a new announcement unless their negotiations lead to a deal or end unsuccessfully, the sources added, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. GGP and Brookfield Property did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Brookfield Property’s efforts to buy GGP have come as mall owners across the United States are struggling as a result of many retailers losing out to e-commerce firms such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ). GGP shares ended trading at $23.43 on Friday, giving it a market capitalization of $22.2 billion. Its shares have underperformed the wider stock market this year because of the company’s exposure to troubled retailers such as Sears Holdings Corp ( SHLD.O ). Brookfield Property Partners shares ended trading on Friday at $21.61, giving it a market capitalization of $15.2 billion. Brookfield Property, an owner and operator of office and retail properties, said last month the deal would allow it to grow, transform or reposition GGP’s shopping centres. The acquisition would create a company with an ownership interest in almost $100 billion real estate assets globally and annual net operating income of about $5 billion, according to Brookfield Property. It is not the first time Brookfield Property’s attempt to buy out a real estate investment trust in which it already owns a big stake has been rejected. Last year, Rouse Properties Inc, another U.S. mall owner, rejected an offer by Brookfield Property, its largest shareholder, only to subsequently agree to a sweetened $2.8 billion offer. Other GGP peers are also coming under pressure. Rival mall owner Macerich Co ( MAC.N ) currently is under pressure from activist hedge fund Third Point Management to explore options including a sale. Reporting by Carl O''Donnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Will Dunham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ggp-m-a-brookfld-prpty-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-mall-owner-ggp-rejects-brookfield-propertys-14-8-billion-offer-sources-idUKKBN1E40W1'|'2017-12-11T00:32:00.000+02:00'
'15164bfab36b6333effca993c44b4a6aa6b02c1c'|'CEE MARKETS-Crown eases as inflation data supports CEE monetary doves'|'December 11, 2017 / 3:01 PM / Updated 2 hours ago CEE MARKETS-Crown eases as inflation data supports CEE monetary doves Reuters Staff 8 Min Read * Czech annual inflation falls to 2.6 pct from 2.9 pct * Fall reduces chance of another CNB rate hike on Dec. 21 * Forint again approaches one-year low (Adds Czech central bank comments, comment on Polish inflation, oil stocks decline) By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Central Europe''s main currencies eased on Monday, stung by Czech and Polish inflation figures that did not support the case for imminent monetary tightening. Czech annual inflation dropped to 2.6 percent in November from 2.9 percent in October, still above the Czech central bank''s (CNB) 2 percent target. The Czech crown eased by 0.15 percent to 25.593 against the euro at 1417 GMT. The inflation figure was in line with market expectations. The CNB said the data was also in line with its own forecast and that overall inflation pressures were peaking, reflecting accelerating wage growth. The inflation decline makes it less likely that the CNB, the region''s most hawkish central bank, will raise rates again at its Dec. 21 meeting after two increases since August, analysts said. "Tightening (rates) is appropriate but does not demand any urgent steps. December''s CNB policy meeting will be exciting but is not likely to bring a change in rates," said Pavel Sobisek, UniCredit''s chief economist in Prague. A further interest rate increase is expected to strengthen the crown next year. The crown has been the world''s top-performing currency this year with a 5.5 percent gain against the euro. CNB Governor Jiri Rusnok last week said the rise in interest rates would be gentle and gradual next year. The forint eased in tandem with the crown. It approached Friday''s one-year lows of 315.14 against the euro, reached after November inflation data signalled that the Hungarian central bank is unlikely to change its ultra-loose monetary stance. Surging wages have not had an impact on inflation yet, Raiffeisen analyst Zoltan Torok said in a note. It could rise from November''s 2.5 percent, but forecasts still point downwards rather than upwards, underpinning the super-easy monetary policy, he added. The zloty eased slightly, but at 4.205 it remains near six-month highs. It has performed well this year thanks to strong and balanced Polish economic growth, coupled with expectations for central bank rate increases to start late next year. "In the coming months we expect inflation to ease," said Erste analyst Katarzyna Rzentarzewska, commenting on Monday''s detailed November Polish inflation figures. On Friday, as expected, the Polish parliament approved an overhaul of the judiciary -- defying threats of legal action from the EU -- and Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was designated as the new prime minister. In equities markets, oil shares in the region remained on a roller-coaster ride. Poland''s leading refiners PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos lost about 5 percent as investors took profits after steep gains earlier this year. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1517 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.593 25.554 -0.15% 5.52% 0 5 Hungary 314.29 313.82 -0.15% -1.74% forint 00 00 Polish zloty 4.2050 4.2020 -0.07% 4.73% Romanian leu 4.6325 4.6316 -0.02% -2.10% Croatian 7.5400 7.5508 +0.14 0.20% kuna % Serbian 119.68 119.62 -0.05% 3.07% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1058.7 1062.3 -0.34% +14.8 3 5 8% Budapest 37896. 38232. -0.88% +18.4 96 56 2% Warsaw 2388.1 2408.8 -0.86% +22.6 9 3 0% Bucharest 7625.5 7693.5 -0.88% +7.63 8 5 % Ljubljana 775.79 780.04 -0.54% +8.11 % Zagreb 1849.3 1849.1 +0.01 -7.29% 7 4 % Belgrade 744.46 741.79 +0.36 +3.78 % % Sofia 667.02 665.29 +0.26 +13.7 % 4% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.066 -0.007 +081b -1bps ps 5-year 0.783 0.05 +115b +5bps ps 10-year 1.409 -0.015 +112b +0bps ps Poland 2-year 1.651 -0.006 +240b -1bps ps 5-year 2.611 -0.033 +298b -4bps ps 10-year 3.218 -0.036 +293b -2bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1 1.18 1.32 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.06 0.185 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.761 1.83 1.93 1.72 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask quotes prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-crown-eases-as-inflation-data-supports-cee-monetary-doves-idUSL8N1OB3YY'|'2017-12-11T17:00:00.000+02:00'
'c8303be5b014dd86d56b3adc3f050c5eed275b06'|'UPDATE 1-Colombia fines Argos, Cemex and Holcim $66 mln for fixing cement prices'|'December 12, 2017 / 6:21 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Colombia fines Argos, Cemex and Holcim $66 mln for fixing cement prices Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia on Tuesday fined cement companies Cementos Argos, Cemex and Holcim, along with some of its managers, more than 200 billion pesos ($66 million) for fixing prices. The companies, which represent 96 percent of Colombia’s cement market, allegedly agreed to set prices between January 2010 and December 2012, during which time cement prices increased 29.9 percent while inflation was only 9.3 percent. “Argos, Cemex and Holcim did not offer an economically reasonable or truthful explanation that would justify the price parallels, nor the way prices are set within these companies,” the trade and industry regulator said in a statement. The companies “abstained, in a conscious and coordinated manner, from competing effectively,” the regulator said. Holcim said in a statement it disagreed with the regulator’s findings and that it had turned over “conclusive proof that demonstrates that this anti-competitive conduct never existed.” The company will use “administrative resources and judicial actions” to protest the fine, the statement said. Argos said in a separate statement it “rejected” the fine and that it too had turned over evidence that there was no price-fixing. “We will exhaust our legal resources against the decision of the regulator,” it said. Mexico’s Cemex said in a statement it would also take legal measures and “fundamentally disagreed” with the “erroneous” conclusions drawn by the regulator. The cement market in Colombia reported sales of more than 8 trillion pesos between 2010 and 2012, the investigation showed. The watchdog has undertaken five investigations since 1997 against companies in the cement sector with charges of illegal pricing.The latest investigation is one of multiple probes against cement companies by authorities in more than 30 countries or jurisdictions including the European Union, Spain, Colombia, India, Poland, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, the United Kingdom and Belgium, the regulator said. ($1 = 3,013.99 Colombian pesos) Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra and Julia Symmes Cobb; Writing by Helen Murphy; Editing by Bill Trott and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-cement/colombia-fines-argos-cemex-and-holcim-66-mln-for-fixing-cement-prices-idUSKBN1E62K2'|'2017-12-12T20:14:00.000+02:00'
'6b446b2710d00cd8b455df34bcb5740ecd6b1583'|'Japanese stocks post modest gains helped by financials, shippers'|'TOKYO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks edged up on Tuesday morning in choppy trade supported by gains in financial stocks, mining shares and shippers, with investors on tenterhooks ahead of this week’s U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting.The Nikkei share average rose 0.1 percent to 22,949.88 in midmorning trade, after opening flat. The broader Topix added 0.3 percent to 1,818.16.The market may stay directionless throughout the day as investors are expected to remain on the sidelines before the Fed’s two-day policy meeting ends on Wednesday, at which the central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates.Mining and shipping led the gains, with Inpex Corp soaring 2.6 percent, Mitsui OSK Lines surging 2.5 percent and Kawasaki Kisen advancing 1.7 percent. Shippers’ gains were supported after Baltic dry index of freight charges rose overnight to hit its highest level since January 2014.Banking, securities and insurance stocks were also in demand. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rose 1.9 percent, Nomura Holdings gained 1.8 percent and Dai-ichi Life Holdings was up 1.6 percent.On the other hand, food companies languished. Condiment maker Ajinomoto Co shed 2.2 percent and soy sauce maker Kikkoman Corp dropped 1.4 percent. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Eric Meijer) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/japanese-stocks-post-modest-gains-helped-by-financials-shippers-idUSL3N1OC1FA'|'2017-12-12T04:25:00.000+02:00'
'a2ea495775559c506902faafff0737f546950c6a'|'Tezos board member resigns, fuelling turmoil at cryptocurrency startup'|'December 12, 2017 / 6:32 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Tezos director resigns, sowing more uncertainty at crypto startup Steve Stecklow , Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi 3 Min Read LONDON/ZURICH (Reuters) - One of the three board members of the Swiss foundation that conducted the online fundraiser for the embattled Tezos cryptocurrency tech project has resigned, Reuters has learnt. Photo illustration shows detail of Tezos website, October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The departure on Monday of Guido Schmitz-Krummacher, a Swiss legal and management expert, is likely to add further turmoil to the project, which raised $232 million (£174.3 million) in cryptocurrencies in July. The project has been embroiled in a battle over control between its founders, Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, and the president of the Zug-based Tezos Foundation, Johann Gevers. Reuters detailed the feud in October. Schmitz-Krummacher resigned because he was frustrated by the infighting, which was consuming a lot of his time, according to information obtained by Reuters. He sits on several dozen Swiss boards. Under the foundation’s bylaws, Gevers gets to nominate Schmitz-Krummacher’s replacement. If the third board member votes against the candidate, Gevers can cast an overriding vote. Representatives for the board and for the Breitmans did not immediately respond to separate requests for comment. The Breitmans own the Tezos source code through a Delaware-based company they control, but the Tezos Foundation controls all of the fundraiser’s proceeds. The standoff has delayed the Tezos project’s launch. Contributors to the fundraiser, known as an “initial coin offering,” have not received new digital coins, called Tezzies. Their contributions were made in bitcoins and ether, two other cryptocurrencies whose values have surged. Last week, Tezos supporters launched an online petition criticizing “the behaviour and inaction of the current board” of the Tezos Foundation. They demanded that Gevers resign or be dismissed. More than 1,200 people have signed the petition to date. The Breitmans, their Delaware-based company and the foundation are facing three class-action lawsuits in the United States. Plaintiffs allege federal securities law violations and that the fundraiser defrauded participants, who were told they were making non-refundable donations to the foundation. The lawsuits are seeking refunds and damages. Reuters reported on Dec. 1 that the Breitmans want the foundation to cover their legal costs. The foundation has not agreed to the request. Doing so would mean that contributors to the foundation would be indirectly footing the bill. According to Swiss filings, the foundation’s regular auditor resigned in late November. An independent auditor is now examining allegations made by the Breitmans of wrongdoing by Gevers, which he denies. That auditor’s report has not been completed. (This story has been refiled to correct Reuters story was published in October, not September, in third paragraph.) Reporting by Steve Stecklow in London and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bitcoin-tezos-board/tezos-board-member-resigns-fuelling-turmoil-at-cryptocurrency-startup-idUKKBN1E62KF'|'2017-12-12T20:31:00.000+02:00'
'c190ceb923e9408fde9517907d1a168b04eb00ee'|'Corning to buy 3M''s communication markets unit for $900 million'|'(Reuters) - Gorilla Glass maker Corning Inc ( GLW.N ) said on Monday it would buy substantially all of 3M Co’s ( MMM.N ) communication markets business for about $900 million in cash.FILE PHOTO: A man walks by an advertisement for Corning Gorilla Glass 3 outside the Las Vegas Convention Center on the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 8, 2013. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo 3M’s unit provides optical fiber and copper passive connectivity solutions for the telecommunications industry and has annual global sales of about $400 million.The deal is part of New-York-based Corning’s plan to invest$1 billion-$3 billion in acquisitions, Corning said.The Austin-based unit will be part of Corning’s optical communications business, which makes optical fiber products and accounted for more than a third of Corning’s sales in the recently reported third quarter.Corning expects the deal, set to close next year, to add earnings per share of 7 cents-9 cents.About 500 3M employees would join Corning after the deal and 3M expects to realize a gain of about 40 cents per share.Goldman Sachs was the exclusive financial adviser to 3M.Shares in both Corning and 3M were little changed in early trading on Monday.Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D''Couto '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-3m-asset-corning/corning-to-buy-3ms-communication-markets-unit-for-900-mln-idINKBN1E51PA'|'2017-12-11T11:40:00.000+02:00'
'9b1a724ede150b68934ff72ca885393e12ca144c'|'Oil prices under pressure from rise in U.S. drilling rigs'|'December 11, 2017 / 12:37 AM / Updated 38 minutes ago Oil gains as New York blast turns focus to political risk Libby George 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on Monday, reversing earlier losses, after an explosion in New York refocused the market on the geopolitical risk. FILE PHOTO - A drilling rig owned by Parsley Energy Inc. seen near Midland, Texas, U.S. on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were 30 cents higher at $63.70 a barrel by 1409 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.57 a barrel, 21 cents above their last settlement. Both benchmarks popped higher after an explosion rocked New York’s Port Authority, one of the city’s busiest commuter hubs, on Monday morning. “There was a bit of an increase in reaction” to the blast, Olivier Jakob, managing director of PetroMatrix said. “We’ve been staying in a range for a while now.” Earlier in the day, prices were under downward pressure from rising U.S. drilling activity that pointed to a further increase in American production, countering OPEC-led output cuts. Analysts at PVM Oil Associates also said the “deteriorating geopolitical backdrop acted as a pillar of price support” over the past week, with turmoil in Yemen and potential worker strikes in Nigeria underpinning the market. But the primary support has been a cut in production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of non-OPEC producers, including Russia, which has been in place since the start of the year. Brent and WTI have gained well over a third from 2017 lows. But all this could be undermined by rising output from the United States, which is not participating in the deal to withhold production. The number of rigs drilling for new oil output in the United States rose by two in the week to Dec. 8, to 751, the highest level since September, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday. “The largest concern for investors currently remains the rise in the U.S. rig count,” said Shane Chanel, equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth Advisers. A higher rig count points to a further rise in U.S. crude production, which is already up more than 15 percent since mid-2016 at 9.71 million barrels per day. That’s the highest since the early 1970s, and close to the output levels of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. OPEC started withholding supplies in January and announced late last month an extension through 2018. The United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said on Monday that OPEC plans to announce in June an exit strategy from the cuts, though he added it did not mean the pact would end by then. Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore, editing by Louise Heavens; Editing by Dale Hudson and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-drop-on-increased-u-s-rig-drilling-idUKKBN1E501Y'|'2017-12-11T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'e2f28d4041d86cafb6745de72edb754cd9c16a9f'|'CanniMed asks Canadian regulators to intervene in hostile Aurora bid'|'December 11, 2017 / 4:36 PM / Updated 2 hours ago CanniMed asks Canadian regulators to intervene in hostile Aurora bid Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Medical marijuana company CanniMed Therapeutics Inc has asked Canadian regulators to intervene as it seeks to prevent a hostile takeover by bigger rival Aurora Cannabis Inc. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based CanniMed said on Monday it asked the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan and the Ontario Securities Commission to declare that Aurora’s move to take its buyout offer directly to CanniMed shareholders constituted an insider bid. An insider bid is a takeover offer made by a company insider or their affiliates within a year before the bid. Canadian securities laws demand disclosure, review and approval processes in the event of such a bid to protect minority shareholders. CanniMed said SaskWorks Venture Fund Inc, Apex Investments LP, Golden Opportunities Fund Inc and Vantage Asset Management Inc - its “locked-up” shareholders - acted jointly with Aurora. Alberta-based Aurora offered to buy CanniMed last month but CanniMed adopted a plan to prevent shareholders from entering agreements with Aurora, viewing the deal to be “coercive.” “We had hoped to make this a friendly and collaborative process, but Mr. Zettl (CanniMed CEO Brent Zettl) refuses to even pick up the phone or return our calls to have a discussion,” Aurora said on Monday in response to CanniMed’s move. Aurora has sought acquisitions to expand in Canada and abroad amid expectations that Canada will soon legalize the production, sale and consumption of recreational marijuana. Shares of CanniMed, which were down about 1 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday morning, have risen 28 percent since Aurora made its offer on Nov. 14. Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cmed-m-a-aurora-cannabis/cannimed-asks-canadian-regulators-to-intervene-in-hostile-aurora-bid-idUSKBN1E522L'|'2017-12-11T18:29:00.000+02:00'
'564d805a44f5e5ecb01ab4b54a72279c4936da51'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Dec 11'|'Dec 11 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.Headlines* BAE Systems signs off 5 bln pound Qatar deal for 24 Typhoon fighters on.ft.com/2C1yhY6* Leading London NHS trust chairman quits amid funding crunch on.ft.com/2C1c64b* UK financial watchdog’s fines increase tenfold on.ft.com/2C0ubPP* Corbyn backs call for MPs’ pension fund to divest fossil fuels on.ft.com/2BX7eglOverview- Ensuring UK production of the combat aircraft into the mid-2020s, BAE Systems and Qatar finalised a 5 billion pound deal for 24 Typhoon fighter jets.- Bob Kerslake, the chairman of one of the UK’s biggest and busiest NHS trusts, resigned from his post at King’s College Hospital over the government’s approach to the “enormous challenges” around funding.- UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s total fines for the year stand at 229.4 million pounds compared with the 22.2 million pounds levied in 2016, a tenfold increase in the level of fines meted out by the UK’s financial watchdog.- Labour party’s John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn are joining a campaign for the 612 million pounds parliamentary pension fund to drop its investments in fossil fuels.Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-dec-11-idUSL3N1OB03P'|'2017-12-11T02:31:00.000+02:00'
'41ab12bfec39f9530d8a747c761f62e904162eed'|'Oil prices drop on increased U.S. rig drilling'|'SINGAPORE, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday, pulled down as the latest rise in the U.S. rig count pointed to a further increase in American production, potentially undermining efforts led by OPEC to tighten markets.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.10 a barrel at 0019 GMT, down 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were down 32 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $63.08 a barrel.“The largest concern for investors currently remains the rise in the U.S. rig count, which could potentially jeopardize the OPEC and Russian agreement when they meet for a review in June, 2018,” said Shane Chanel, equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth Advisers.The amount of rigs drilling for new oil production in the United States rose by two in the week to Dec.8, to 751, the highest level since September, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said on Friday. RIG-OL-USA-BHIA higher rig count points to a further rise in U.S. crude production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has already increased by more than 15 percent since mid-2016 to 9.71 million barrels per day (bpd).That’s the highest level since the early 1970s, and close to levels from top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia.Rising U.S. output threatens to undermine efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of non-OPEC producers, most importantly Russia, to support prices by withholding supplies.OPEC and its allies started withholding supplies last January and currently plan to continue doing so throughout 2018.Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-oil/oil-prices-drop-on-increased-u-s-rig-drilling-idUSL3N1OB02S'|'2017-12-11T02:28:00.000+02:00'
'562d721b820b1100a983468eff3a7934a2f39b11'|'Ex-Trump aide Carter Page tells court to stop AT&T Time Warner deal'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:02 AM / Updated an hour ago Ex-Trump aide Carter Page tells court to stop AT&T Time Warner deal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page argued in court papers on Tuesday that AT&T Inc ( T.N ) should not be permitted to buy CNN parent Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) because there was a risk it would lead to “recklessness” in journalism. FILE PHOTO - One-time advisor of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump Carter Page addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow, Russia, December 12, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Page, whose contacts with Russia have been under scrutiny by Congress and a special counsel, made his argument in a friend-of-the-court brief that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has yet to accept. Trump criticized the deal on the campaign trail last year and has repeatedly attacked the reporting of Time Warner’s CNN news network. Page said in an interview with Reuters that he had not been in contact with the White House about the filing. The U.S. Department of Justice sued AT&T in November to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner, saying the deal could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video. A trial is set for March 19. Both AT&T and the Justice Department declined to comment. “This market power concentrated in the hands of a few dominant mega corporate telecommunications-media conglomerates encourages extreme levels of journalistic recklessness and impropriety since it allocates considerable resources to the media outlets under their control,” Page said in the court papers. Page, who travelled to Russia twice in 2016, has testified to congressional committees investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In that testimony and elsewhere, he has argued that he has been the subject of unfair and inaccurate media coverage. As an example of what he said was media abuse, Page criticized Yahoo, which is owned by Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ), for publishing what he called a “highly misleading” story in September 2016 regarding U.S. intelligence officials probing Trump’s ties to Russia. Page, who described himself as a “junior, unpaid, informal adviser” to the Trump campaign, also argued that it would provide an incentive for the big media outlets to exclude viewpoints it does not like. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-time-warner-m-a-at-t-carterpage/ex-trump-aide-carter-page-tells-court-to-stop-att-time-warner-deal-idUKKBN1E632Z'|'2017-12-13T02:02:00.000+02:00'
'9b4646dc85718880783313a02f7d7f7c81712bb5'|'Want cheaper British car insurance? Mind how you shop'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Ever wondered what your shopping habits say about your driving? Britain’s big supermarkets have.FILE PHOTO: Shopping trolleys are seen at a Tesco Express in southwest London September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo The two biggest, Tesco ( TSCO.L ) and Sainsbury’s ( SBRY.L ), are offering discounts on financial products such as car insurance based on the predictability of people’s shopping, a step beyond the traditional route of price cuts in return for brand loyalty.Banks and insurance companies around the world are exploring using customers’ data to better price financial products but few have links to supermarkets accounting for almost half of a country’s grocery market as Tesco and Sainsbury’s do.Sainsbury’s Bank Chief Executive Peter Griffiths told Reuters the supermarket chain’s bank customers, of which there are 1.8 million, can get cheaper offers on products such as home and car insurance based on what else they buy and how they shop.”Our strategy is to be the bank for the Sainsbury’s shopper, and we’re uniquely placed to use the power of data to offer better prices and products,” Griffiths said.The supermarket chain said in one example it uses data from its Nectar card loyalty scheme to track shoppers whose regular, predictable pattern of visits to stores shows they plan ahead, characteristics associated with being a more cautious and safer driver.Such people are offered cheaper car insurance.The practice is entirely legal but some experts say it is too intrusive.“People like me have been warning about this sort of thing for a very long time; we’d been talking about it as a theoretical for a while and waiting for real examples,” said Paul Bernal, an expert in internet privacy and companies’ use of personal data at the University of East Anglia.Bernal said the trend rings a number of alarm bells. If the data provide an overly accurate picture of the customer’s lifestyle and behavior, that could breach their privacy, while if the data are, conversely, misleading, that could lead to the customer being unfairly treated, he said.The retailer does not look at individual items purchased when pricing insurance policies, but rather a range of ‘anonymised’ purchases that can collectively show behavioral tendencies, Sally Marshak, a spokeswoman for Sainsbury‘s, said.Tesco, Britain’s largest retailer whose bank holds 8 million accounts, similarly uses data from its Clubcard loyalty scheme to offer discounts of up to 25 percent on car, home and pet insurance products.“We use a range of data and criteria when assessing a customer’s eligibility for our products, however, as an extra help for customers, for some of our products we also use Clubcard data to offer them even better value,” Chris Sibbald, a spokesman for the company, said.Campaigners like Bernal said the practice could leave some customers worse off based on their behavior, in ways they might not understand. For example, those who do not buy the right products or shop in the right way could miss out on discounts without realizing.The retailers said they took that into account. “We’re not just looking at how people fill up cars at Tesco petrol stations and whether they do that at night, because they might be a taxi driver for example and there’s a reason for it, but together with other data you can build a picture,” Sibbald said.Both supermarket groups said data are only used to offer discounts to some shoppers, never to increase prices.“We’re trying to understand people’s shopping habits, and then see how can you use that to tailor the products and offer some of them a better price. The key thing is we don’t use it to up-price people,” Sibbald said.POWER OF DATA FILE PHOTO: A shopper browses items at a Sainsbury''s store in London, Britain, October 11, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Tesco and Sainsbury’s are Britain’s two biggest retail chains, with a combined market share of the 192 billion pounds ($256.76 billion) a year grocery market of 45 percent, according to consumer research company Kantar Worldpanel.They both have long-established loyalty schemes allowing customers to earn points and rewards for spending on groceries, giving them a rich database of shopping habits to help with marketing. Sainsbury‘s, for example, offers shoppers who buy pet food discounts of up to 12.5 percent on pet insurance.It is not unusual for companies to gather and use information in this way.Life insurers are exploring analyzing social media to lower rates for people who are upbeat on Twitter, for example, while some motor insurers offer discounts to motorists who exhibit safe driving behavior after installing a tracking device.[nL8N1CR2O4]But campaigners say the supermarket chains could end up with an unfair advantage due to the power of the data they hold.The retailers’ banking units offer in-store shoppers a range of banking products such as credit cards, insurance and loans, taking advantage of the regular contact with potential customers at a time when Britain’s big banks are slashing branches.FILE PHOTO: Shopping baskets are displayed at a Sainsbury''s store in London, Britain April 30, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo “The thing people don’t understand about big data is that it is fertile and generates new data, so the more a company knows about your spending habits, the more valuable each new piece of information is in predicting your actions,” said Joe McNamee, executive director at European Digital Rights (EDRi), a Brussels-based association of civil rights organizations focused on digital rights and freedoms.NEW RULES One potential source of protection is a new set of laws, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is aimed at overhauling how companies handle customer data and comes into force in May 2018.Britain’s government published a draft bill in September that would implement the bulk of GDPR.While the rules are intended to harmonize data protection laws across Europe, they also give people better access to data held on them by companies and oblige companies to do more to get permission to obtain such data.GDPR includes some restrictions on companies ‘profiling’ customers by using data about them to predict their preferences or actions, requiring customers to offer their consent.Supermarket chains comply with the rules by including a privacy policy in the terms and conditions of loyalty card schemes that customers consent to when signing up.UEA’s Bernal said most shoppers likely do not realize those implications.“There is an issue around informed consent here, I don’t think people realize what they are signing up to, if they even read the terms and conditions at all,” he said.It remains to be seen whether the implementation of the new rules will do enough to stave off concerns about privacy and competition as big companies benefit exponentially with each new recorded purchase.“I’ve not seen many examples like this,” said EDRi’s McNamee about the supermarkets’ use of data to price financial products. “The issue of big data is something that society hasn’t got to grips with yet, but there are big companies now that know more about you than you know about yourself.”($1 = 0.7478 pounds)Editing by Philippa Fletcher '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-supermarkets-data-insight/want-cheaper-british-car-insurance-mind-how-you-shop-idUSKBN1E71TV'|'2017-12-13T16:06:00.000+02:00'
'8e5c6a9083f7dde8b4b59e3224edef239597a869'|'RTL names Habets sole CEO, completing ''smooth transition'''|'December 13, 2017 / 10:54 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago RTL names Habets sole CEO, completing ''smooth transition'' Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - European broadcaster RTL Group said on Wednesday that Bert Habets would take over as its sole chief executive, completing a leadership handover in which co-CEO Guillaume de Posch will step aside at the end of the year. Employees of the RTL Media Group, Europe''s leading entertainment company look out of a window from RTL''s German TV headquarters in Cologne, Germany, April 28, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay The transition was announced in April when Habets, 46, was named co-CEO. De Posch, 60, had headed RTL Group since 2012 and had expressed the wish to stand down after six years at the top. “I simply believe that now is the right time – both for a change at the top of RTL Group and for me to focus on new things in life,” de Posch told staff in a farewell interview. “This is a smooth transition in RTL Group’s leadership, and this continuity is one of our key strengths: promotion from inside.” RTL, controlled by Bertelsmann, has, thanks to its greater focus on producing its own content, has gained share in the key German market against rival ProsiebenSat.1, whose own CEO Thomas Ebeling is standing down after a series of downgrades to its advertising and earnings forecasts. Habets joined Luxembourg-based RTL Group in 1999 and became CFO of RTL Nederland in 2001, rising to become CEO of the Dutch business in 2008. Elmar Heggen will remain CFO of RTL Group and become deputy CEO, taking over portfolio responsibility for Groupe M6, the French broadcaster, and RTL Belgium on behalf of RTL’s executive team, the company said in a statement. De Posch will assume the role of non-executive director at RTL Group. Reporting by Douglas Busvine, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rtl-group-moves-ceo/rtl-names-habets-sole-ceo-completing-smooth-transition-idUKKBN1E7192'|'2017-12-13T12:53:00.000+02:00'
'417d0326c4d1e110d7c457cb0b4e80a0424dc0b6'|'Toshiba, Western Digital end chip dispute; joint investment to resume'|'December 12, 2017 / 10:26 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Toshiba, Western Digital end chip dispute; joint investment to resume Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) and its chip business partner Western Digital Corp ( WDC.O ) agreed to settle a long-running dispute over the embattled Japanese conglomerate’s plans to sell its chip unit, the companies said in a statement, removing a key obstacle to the deal. FILE PHOTO -The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen behind cherry blossoms at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Toshiba agreed in late September to sell Toshiba Memory, the world’s second-biggest producer of NAND chips, to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP for $18 billion to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from Toshiba’s now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse. With data storage key to most next-generation technologies, demand for NAND chips has boomed, and Western Digital, Toshiba’s chip business partner and jilted suitor in the auction, had threatened to block any deal without its consent. The settlement calls for Western Digital to drop arbitration claims seeking to stop the sale to the Bain consortium in exchange for Toshiba allowing the U.S. partner to invest in a new production line for advanced memory chips. As part of the settlement, Toshiba and Western Digital will extend existing agreements for their chip joint ventures in Yokkaichi, central Japan, until 2027 or later. FILE PHOTO - A Western Digital office building is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Western Digital also plans to invest in a new chip plant that Toshiba will start building next year in northern Japan. Toshiba gained the upper hand in negotiations with Western Digital after securing a $5.4 billion cash injection from overseas funds that will allow it to bolster its balance sheet before the end of March and avoid a delisting. The chip unit sale may, however, face more complications. Argyle Street Management Ltd, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund with $1.2 billion under management, sent a letter to Toshiba’s board on Monday urging the company to scrap the deal, which the fund claims significantly undervalues the chip unit. Argyle is inviting the 30-plus overseas investors who participated in Toshiba’s new share issue to team up in opposition to the deal although it remains to be seen just how much traction it will gain. The sale also needs to clear regulatory reviews, but they are not expected to scuttle the deal. Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo and Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-divestiture-western-digital/toshiba-western-digital-end-chip-dispute-resume-joint-investment-idUKKBN1E62YD'|'2017-12-13T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'd23e7a438537c1cb6d6236e568a3a79cd979c420'|'U.S. not granting loan relief to defrauded students -inspector general'|'WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Education Department under President Donald Trump and Secretary Betsy DeVos has stopped cancelling the student-loan debt of people defrauded by failed for-profit schools and those borrowers face mounting interest and other burdens, its inspector general said on Monday.DeVos is seeking to redo the process for cancelling the debts of people who attended Corinthian Colleges, which collapsed in 2015 amid government investigations into its post-graduation rates, and other failed schools.In the final days of his administration, President Barack Obama approved rules speeding up the debt cancellations. DeVos has delayed implementing those rules, saying they would create significant costs for taxpayers.According to a report by the inspector general, DeVos also brought the existing cancellation process to a crawl.Since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the department has received 25,991 claims for discharging loans. It has denied two requests and approved none, the inspector general, an independent auditor within the agency, found.That is in contrast to Obama’s final months in office. From July 1, 2016, through inauguration, the department received 46,274 claims and approved 27,986. It denied none.Caught in limbo, borrowers are seeing interest and fees accrue and their credit damaged, the inspector general’s report showed. Borrowers could ultimately owe more on a denied discharge than if they had not asked for cancellation and simply continued making payments, the inspector said.Some state attorneys general have pushed the department to cancel the loans, saying students cannot afford to repay the often-large amounts because the schools did not give them adequate training or a diploma.The inspector general also found the department did not have a sufficient information system and had to manually retrieve claims data.“Hundreds of thousands of students were defrauded and cheated by predatory colleges that broke the law, but today’s report confirms Secretary DeVos tried to shirk her responsibility to these students and shut down the borrower-defense program, leaving them with nowhere to turn,” said Senator Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the Education Committee.In a memo to the inspector general, A. Wayne Johnson, chief operating officer of the federal student aid program, said the department has “authorized an interest credit” for long-outstanding claims, will resume reviewing some claims and will soon approve claims for 11,000 Corinthian students. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-education-loans/u-s-not-granting-loan-relief-to-defrauded-students-inspector-general-idINL1N1OB1Z0'|'2017-12-11T19:51:00.000+02:00'
'64d932cdba10bb6cadeeb03ed872416f188b8c91'|'Debt-laden Carillion secures deal to sell part of UK healthcare unit'|'(Reuters) - Troubled British construction firm Carillion ( CLLN.L ) said on Wednesday it had reached a deal to sell a large part of its UK healthcare facilities management business to outsourcing group Serco ( SRP.L ), helping it cut its debt by 41.4 million pounds.A Carillion sign can be seen on a van in Manchester, Britain July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo The company’s shares, which have slumped more than 90 percent since a profit warning in July, rose as much at 10 percent in early trade on Wednesday. They traded at 18 pence at 0813 GMT.Carillion, which has said it was heading towards a breach of debt covenants and needed fresh capital, had said it would exit its UK healthcare and Canadian businesses to help raise more than 300 million pounds by the end of 2018 from disposals.The sale, for about 47.7 million pounds ($63.55 million), includes a portfolio of healthcare facilities management contracts and related ancillary contracts and assets. The firm said 15 sites would be transferred to Serco on a phased basis.The firm had said in September said it intended to exit the business and then announced it had a preliminary agreement for selling a large part of it to Serco for 50.1 million pounds.Carillion said net disposal proceeds of 41.4 million pounds would be used to prepay of part of a 140 million pound credit.“I am pleased we have been able to successfully conclude this transaction which will contribute to our efforts to reduce net debt,” Carillion’s Interim CEO Keith Cochrane said.Analysts estimate Carillion’s debts including provisions, pensions and accounts payable at about 1.5 billion pounds.Carillion is fighting for its survival after costly contract delays and a downturn in new business at the company, which handles major infrastructure projects for the British and other governments. Its CEO quit in July and it issued its third profit warning in five months in November.Lazard & Co is acting as lead financial adviser and sponsor to Carillion for the healthcare unit sale.Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-carillion-divestiture-serco-group/debt-laden-carillion-secures-deal-to-sell-part-of-uk-healthcare-unit-idUSKBN1E70QC'|'2017-12-13T09:45:00.000+02:00'
'0ddaf132c71c3028b72826bfb70ca222ab3b7e62'|'Pandox to buy hotel portfolio in UK and Ireland for $1 billion'|' 29 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Pandox to buy hotel portfolio in UK and Ireland for $1 billion Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Pandox AB said it had agreed with Lone Star to acquire a portfolio of 37 hotel businesses in the UK and Ireland for 800 million pounds. After a reorganisation of the portfolio, Pandox will retain ownership of 20 investment properties and one operating property in the UK and Ireland. [nWkr5BT37B] The portfolio is expected to contribute about 450 million Swedish crowns in net operating income and 200 million crowns in cash earnings by 2018, provided the deal is closed in 2017, the company said. ($1 = 0.7490 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pandox-hotels/pandox-to-buy-hotel-portfolio-in-uk-and-ireland-for-1-billion-idUKKBN1E71Y1'|'2017-12-13T16:28:00.000+02:00'
'10e6c41ed9776cfdea86ff67a3764d6ba8904fdf'|'Exclusive - Saudi Aramco to push ahead with market share, expansion strategy: CEO'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:12 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Exclusive - Saudi Aramco to push ahead with market share, expansion strategy: CEO Rania El Gamal , Reem Shamseddine 6 Min Read DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, aims to regain its lost market share after the OPEC-led supply-cut pact ends and plans to push ahead with a downstream expansion strategy to be on par with Big Oil, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo Amin Nasser, the CEO of the state oil giant, which is preparing for an IPO next year, told Reuters Aramco is moving ahead with its refining and petrochemicals expansion strategy and is in discussions with several potential partners in Asia, Europe and the United States. “We had to cut our allocations to certain markets based on the (OPEC) agreement ... hopefully we will regain these markets as soon as this deal ends,” he said in an exclusive interview. “We have a very reliable customer base. I don’t see (any)sort of problems in terms of gaining market share beyond the OPEC agreement,” Nasser said, adding the company will continue to abide with the OPEC production targets. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers led by Russia have agreed to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018 to help lower global inventories and support prices. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de-facto leader, has shouldered the bulk of the output reductions, slashing its production by some 500,000 barrels per day to around 10 million bpd. One country where Aramco is currently looking at is Russia, the world’s top oil producer which is part of the cuts pact. Nasser said his company has held talks with Russian firms including Kremlin-controlled Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) on possible joint investments. Saudi Arabia and Russia say they will remain in partnership long after the current output reduction deal expires. When oil prices collapsed in mid-2014, both economies were driven into deficit after years of high spending and are only now slowly recovering. Economically and politically, the unlikely partnership between Moscow and Riyadh has been born out of necessity. Neither country can afford another oil price shock. In October, Saudi King Salman held a visit to Russia, the first by a Saudi monarch, showing the high level of mutual trust between the world’s two oil powers. During the trip, which Nasser was part of, Aramco signed several memoranda of understanding with Russian companies. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih to buy Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to spare Saudi Arabia’s oil, Interfax news agency reported. “We are engaging ... with the Russian companies to identify opportunities whether in Russia or globally in terms of joint investments in areas of interest to both sides,” Nasser said. “We have discussions with Rosneft in different areas, in terms of creating JVs. Essar is one area that we were interested in. And still the discussions (with other partners) are on going.” Saudi Arabia is competing with Iraq to be India’s top oil supplier. It has eyed a stake in Indian refiner Essar, but Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) had managed to seal that deal. Nasser said Aramco has a huge interest to expand in India and is in talks with several partners for possible downstream ventures there. EXPANDING FOOTHOLD The Saudi government plans to sell up to 5 percent in Aramco next year in what could be the world’s largest initial public offering. Aramco aims to become the world’s largest integrated energy firm, with plans to expand its refining operations and petrochemical output. The company plans to raise its total refining capacity - both inside the kingdom and abroad - to 8 million-10 million bpd from around 5.4 million bpd now. “If you look at our peers, their refining capacity is either equal or much higher than their production capacities. So we are looking at our refining capacity to be in that range,” Nasser said. Aramco’s focus to expand and regain its market share will remain on Asia, Nasser said, adding that the United States and Europe are also two important markets for the company. “The U.S. is an important market and we are looking at expanding after having taken the full ownership of Motiva. We are looking at expanding our footprint in the U.S. for sure,” he said. Last year, Shell ( RDSa.L ) and Aramco announced plans to break up U.S. Motiva Enterprises LLC after almost two decades, dividing its assets. China, the world’s second biggest oil consumer, is one of the main markets where Aramco wants to expand its foothold, Nasser said. That would fit in with a push by Aramco to regain its dominance in supplying China, having lost the upper hand to Russia this year. The company is in talks with PetroChina, China’s second-largest state-run refiner, to invest in its Yunnan refinery which started operations this year. Nasser said he expects to finalise the Yunnan joint venture agreement soon. Earlier this year Saudi Arabia pledged billions of dollars of investment in projects in Indonesia and Malaysia to ensure long-term oil supply deals. Writing by Rania El Gamal, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-aramco-strategy-exclusive/exclusive-saudi-aramco-to-push-ahead-with-market-share-expansion-strategy-ceo-idUKKBN1E72QG'|'2017-12-13T21:13:00.000+02:00'
'34e9049080ec46c5c9d937887fd6db77bc88b6ec'|'Lockheed Martin could beat Boeing in race to supply Canada jets'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:17 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Lockheed Martin may top Boeing in race to supply Canada jets: experts David Ljunggren 4 Min Read OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada’s decision to make it harder for Boeing Co ( BA.N ) to win a major jet order hands rival plane maker Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) an advantage in capturing the contract, defense experts said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: Lockheed Martin''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan on October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo That would mark a reversal in Lockheed’s fortunes after Liberal leader Justin Trudeau campaigned in 2015 on a promise not to buy the firm’s F-35 stealth fighter. Trudeau’s government on Tuesday scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing Super Hornets and made clear the company would not win a contract for 88 jets unless it dropped a trade challenge against Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ). Government officials estimate the cost of the jets at between C$15 billion ($11.7 billion) and C$19 billion and say it is the biggest investment in the air force in 30 years. Last week Boeing issued a statement making clear it would not back down in its fight against Bombardier, which it accuses of trying to dump airliners on the U.S. market. The firm may not even launch a bid for the 88 jets, the first of which are due to be delivered in 2025. That leaves the F-35, a new aircraft, up against two European rivals which first flew in the 1990s: the Eurofighter Typhoon ( AIR.PA ) ( BAES.L ) ( LDOF.MI ) and Dassault Aviation SA’s ( AVMD.PA ) Rafale. “The longer this process plays out, the narrower the government’s options become, and the prospects for a European jet become even dimmer,” said one defense source, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the situation. A second defense source said Boeing now had little chance of winning the 88-plane contract and noted Canada’s air force had long sought an American jet so it could operate easily with the U.S. military. Neither source works for a company which might make a bid. Lockheed Martin said in a statement it was confident the F-35 was superior to older competitors. Boeing spokesman Scott Day described the Super Hornet as “the low-risk, low-cost approach” which could serve Canada’s needs well into the future. Canada is part of the nine-nation consortium that helped fund development of the F-35, which has been hit by years of delays and cost overruns. Trudeau initially opposed the F-35 on the grounds that it was too costly but Ottawa has since softened its line. Officials insist the competition will be open and say no company will be excluded. Yet in a clear swipe at Boeing, federal ministers on Tuesday said any bidder deemed to have harmed Canada’s economy would be at a distinct disadvantage. “Can Canada get away with this? The answer is probably ... when procurement for the military is involved, governments have wide latitude,” U.S. trade expert Bill Perry said by email. Boeing accuses Bombardier of imitating Airbus by trying to muscle into the U.S. market. People familiar with Boeing say the strategic importance of defending its core passenger jet business outweighs the fighter dispute. Jerry Dias, president of the Unifor union, said in a phone interview he did not think Boeing would react by cutting jobs. Unifor represents 1,300 workers at a Boeing plant in Winnipeg. Boeing says its operations support 17,500 Canadian jobs. ($1=1.2865 Canadian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-boeing-fighterjets/lockheed-martin-now-seen-with-edge-in-race-to-supply-canada-jets-idUSKBN1E72QC'|'2017-12-13T21:36:00.000+02:00'
'90089098b5c4e3c4398963513164250405d84adf'|'Paris threatens Airbnb, peers with court over unregistered listings'|'December 11, 2017 / 3:03 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Paris threatens Airbnb, peers with court over unregistered listings Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Paris city council put several flat-sharing and rental sites including Airbnb on formal notice on Monday, demanding the platforms take down listings lacking official registration numbers as part of fresh curbs on short-term lets. A woman talks on the phone at the Airbnb office headquarters in the SOMA district of San Francisco, California, U.S., August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Gabrielle Lurie As of Dec. 1 people renting out apartments on specialist websites in Paris have to register them with the town hall, echoing a bid by legislators worldwide to regulate a booming industry that has been blamed for driving up property prices. Authorities said they had totted up over 1,000 unregistered listings on Airbnb and several hundred on four other platforms: Homeaway, Paris Attitude, Sejourning and Windu. “We’re putting five platforms on notice, including Airbnb, so that they remove these listings,” said Ian Brossat, a housing official at the city council. “From this point onwards, either the platforms remove the listings and so much the better, or they persevere and we’ll take the matter to court.” France is Airbnb’s second-largest market after the United States, and Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world, is its biggest single market, with around 65,000 homes listed. A spokesman for Airbnb said the company was waiting to receive the city council’s notification before commenting. In cities such as Paris, Berlin, New York and Barcelona, local authorities are experimenting with new rules or fines to keep track of listings and limit abuses. Homeowners in Paris are not allowed to rent out their properties for more than 120 days a year, and now have to register them to make fraud easier to detect. The growing popularity of the platforms with tourists have sparked a backlash from locals in some instances, with fears that its widespread usage is pushing up rental prices and driving residents out of city centres. The sites have also faced fierce lobbying from the hotel industry. But home-sharing platforms argue that they are giving households a chance to earn extra money and that tougher rules often penalise people just wanting to share their home with visitors, rather than professional operators. Airbnb’s CEO in France was due to meet the country’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire later on Monday in a separate matter, to discuss a payment system suspected of facilitating tax avoidance. Reporting by Arthur Connan and Sarah White; Editing by Dominique Vidalon and Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-airbnb/paris-threatens-airbnb-peers-with-court-over-unregistered-listings-idUKKBN1E51RT'|'2017-12-11T17:02:00.000+02:00'
'5bc357833a68bfa4ccb6ba0117c01deca62856fa'|'Chemicals distribution group Azelis considers 2018 IPO: sources'|'MADRID/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Belgium-based chemicals distribution group Azelis is considering a 2018 stock market listing as its private equity owner seeks to benefit from high sector valuations, sources close to the matter said.Buyout group Apax, which bought Azelis from 3i ( III.L ) in early 2015, could seek a valuation of more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) through the possible IPO, they added.“Apax is preparing Azelis for a 2018 float, most likely in Brussels,” an equity capital markets banker familiar with the matter said.Apax declined to comment.Azelis is expected to post earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 122 million euros this year.Most listed peers trade at a multiple of more than 11 times their expected core earnings.Despite years of consolidation, the chemicals distribution market is still fragmented -- market leader Brenntag commands a market share of less than 6 percent -- while distribution outsourcing by large chemicals makers offers continuing growth opportunities alongside non-core activities such as mixing, storage and quality checks.Brenntag ( BNRGn.DE ), Univar ( UNVR.N ) and Nexeo ( NXEO.O ) are the three largest players in the 165 billion euro global chemicals distribution market.Azelis is No.3 in Europe, trailing Brenntag and Univar, but ahead of IMCD ( IMCD.AS ), which listed on the Euronext Amsterdam in 2014.Since Apax’s Azelis buyout the company has acquired Koda Distribution to expand in the American market, taking on $675 million of loans to finance the deal.Azelis has 1,700 staff worldwide and a presence in more 40 countries.Separately on Monday, final terms emerged on a refinancing of some of Azelis’ debt, banking sources said.($1 = 0.8474 euros)Additional reporting by Dasha Afanasieva, Claire Ruckin and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Douglas Busvine and David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-azelis-ipo/chemicals-distribution-group-azelis-considers-2018-ipo-sources-idINKBN1E52DA'|'2017-12-11T15:45:00.000+02:00'
'e5eb724cca2f83f857e8e2ff2e82f7c993bd8946'|'Thai Beverage unit to bid for at least 25 percent of Vietnam''s Sabeco'|'HANOI (Reuters) - A unit of Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ) has emerged as the only prospective bidder for state-owned shares in Sabeco SAB.HM that has declared that it could lead to it owning 25 percent or more of Vietnam’s biggest brewer, the Trade Ministry said on Monday.The auction of up to 54 percent of Sabeco worth at least $5 billion, in what is set to be Vietnam’s biggest privatization, offers brewers access to a fast-growing market with a youthful population and beer drinking culture.Investors who want shares that would lead to an ownership of 25 percent or more in Sabeco have to inform the local authorities and publicize the information a week before the auction date, which is set for Dec. 18, according to the rules of the offer.Other brewing groups including Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ) and Kirin Holdings ( 2503.T ) have been preparing to bid for a stake, people familiar with the matter have said.But the trade ministry said in a statement on its website that as of 1100 GMT on Monday the one prospective investor which has registered an interest in buying 25 percent or more of Sabeco that has publicized the information is Vietnam Beverage Company Limited.Vietnam Beverage Company Limited is owned by Vietnam F&B Alliance Investment Company, which is 49-percent owned by BeerCo Limited, an indirect but wholly-owned subsidiary of Thai Beverage, official documents about the companies showed.Foreign ownership in Sabeco is limited to 49 percent. That means overseas bidders can only bid for a minority stake of as much as 39 percent as foreign entities already own 10 percent.Lack of control and the unorthodox way in which theSabeco stake is being sold could put off some possible bidders, bankers, investors and lawyers familiar with the matter said.The Vietnam trade ministry, which represents state shares in Sabeco, said foreign investors can link up with Vietnamese firms to buy shares in Sabeco, but have to comply with local laws and regulations.Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Jane Merriman, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-privatisation-sabeco/thai-beverage-unit-to-bid-for-at-least-25-percent-of-vietnams-sabeco-idINKBN1E52CN'|'2017-12-11T15:30:00.000+02:00'
'e4933127d2175fd91190ba7f95516aaf929793c2'|'Nifty, Sensex gain; banks lead'|'December 11, 2017 / 7:00 AM / Updated 11 hours ago Nifty, Sensex rise; IT, banks lead Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Indian shares closed higher for the third successive session on Monday, boosted by gains in IT and public sector bank stocks, as investors remained bullish on the outcome of a possible victory for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the western state of Gujarat. A broker monitors share prices while trading at a brokerage firm in Mumbai May 13, 2014. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/Files The benchmark BSE Sensex closed up 0.62 percent at 33,455.79. The broader NSE Nifty, which finished above 10,300 for the first time this month, ended 0.55 percent higher at 10,322.25. Reporting by Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-stocks-nifty-sensex/nifty-sensex-gain-banks-lead-idINKBN1E50GM'|'2017-12-11T08:56:00.000+02:00'
'30cddd509acc5817bcc9a1d34ffd52d01f32badf'|'RPT-The silent creditor group in Venezuela''s debt crisis: Venezuelans'|'(Repeats earlier story with no change to text)By Brian Ellsworth and Corina PonsCARACAS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The prospect of a Venezuelan debt default triggering a clash between revolutionary socialists and foreign creditors has overshadowed an equally complicated dilemma facing the OPEC nation: a standoff with its own citizens who are bondholders.Though Venezuela’s junk bonds are popular among high-rolling Wall Street funds, they are also widely held by Venezuelans due to a decade-long Socialist Party policy of subsidizing the purchase of foreign debt by individual investors.Large Venezuelan businesses have also plowed significant resources into bonds to use the exorbitant yields to compensate for sharp declines in sales amid the implosion of the country’s socialist economic system.The result is that any future debt negotiations will include Venezuelans ranging from high-net-worth individuals to humble retirees and college professors.Many may be unwilling to accept the major losses implied by the restructuring that the country’s President Nicolas Maduro proposed last month, sending debt prices plunging.The government could face intense lobbying from Venezuelan businesses and wealthy individuals as well as ballot-box-pressure from middle-class bondholders to protect their investments. But without a large “haircut” to reduce the debt service Venezuela has to pay, the country will likely struggle to bring its economy out of recession.“Venezuelan bond investors range from taxi drivers to large companies, and everything in the middle,” said Victor Silva of local brokerage Kapital, which has intermediated the sale of paper issued by Venezuela and state oil company PDVSA.“A lot of companies also got in to protect themselves from the depreciation of the currency. Even very orthodox companies who were never involved in capital markets started buying them as a means of hedging.”It is not immediately clear what percentage of the country’s $60 billion in outstanding bonds are held by Venezuelan individuals.New York-based Torino Capital estimates “resident holdings” of such debt at around $14 billion, though a significant portion of that is believed to be in the hands of state institutions.The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.While Maduro’s government has said it wants to restructure Venezuela’s foreign debt, it has continued to make payments, at least so far. Still, a number of the bonds are already in default because interest payments have been delayed beyond the established grace period. This has created nervousness among individual investors who depend on the interest payments to meet their living expenses, according to two brokers.CHEAP DOLLARS, CHEAP BONDS Late Socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who in 2003 created Venezuela’s currency control system, for years encouraged the purchase of dollar-denominated bonds by allowing Venezuelans to buy them in local currency at a subsidized exchange rate.Most individuals quickly flipped the notes to obtain dollars, but some held on to the bonds because they provided interest income in hard currency.Several individuals and businesses contacted by Reuters confirmed that they owned Venezuelan bonds but declined to be named, citing security risks associated with publicly discussing having dollar savings in a country where hard currency is scarce and kidnappings abundant.One college professor who holds Venezuelan bonds noted that Chavez spoke about the “democratization of capital,” which encouraged people with little investment experience to buy the bonds.Venezuelan debt has historically been seen as a high-risk investment for individuals with little financial experience. Due to increased concern about default, it is now seen as exceptionally risky even for investment professionals.“When the bonds matured, people would reinvest them in other Venezuelan bonds, or in some cases use the proceeds to cover post-graduate degrees,” said the professor, in reference to coworkers who also held bonds.The 2014 collapse in oil prices pushed Venezuela’s ailing economy into crisis and led to a dramatic decline in the bonds’ prices as many investors worried that Maduro would stop paying.Business owners who understood the Socialist Party’s commitment to paying debt despite its revolutionary rhetoric started buying the bonds to protect revenue from constant devaluation of the bolivar currency, according to brokers consulted by Reuters.As the economy worsened, the bonds’ yields - which are as high as 220 percent - provided revenue to maintain bare-bones operations in efforts to avoid shuttering businesses or selling them for a pittance.“These bonds offer income in dollars under clear rules in an environment in which there are no clear rules,” said one broker who has helped businesses purchase such bonds. (Editing by Daniel Flynn and Andrew Hay) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-debt-bondholders/rpt-the-silent-creditor-group-in-venezuelas-debt-crisis-venezuelans-idINL1N1O72OU'|'2017-12-08T09:04:00.000+02:00'
'a8a5d247f9ec40526a26c71251f9efdbcbc554af'|'Exclusive: South Africa''s Steinhoff considers sale of PSG, KAP stakes to lift liquidity -sources'|'December 12, 2017 / 9:19 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago Exclusive: South Africa''s Steinhoff considers sale of PSG, KAP stakes to lift liquidity -sources Tiisetso Motsoeneng , Arno Schuetze 3 Min Read JOHANNESBURG/ FRANKFURT (Reuters) - South Africa’s Steinhoff ( SNHG.DE ) is considering selling stakes worth a combined $1.4 billion in local companies PSG Group and KAP Industrial to help plug a liquidity gap at the retailer, two sources familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: A Poundland employee checks products in a store in London, Britain November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo Steinhoff ( SHFFp.J ), the owner of more than 40 retail brands including Conforama, Mattress Firm and Poundland, is fighting for survival after more than $14 billion was wiped off its market value last week following its disclosure of accounting irregularities and the exit of its chief executive. The company has said it planned to raise around 2 billion euros ($2 billion) from the sale of non-core assets and the proceeds of debt repayments from its African unit Steinhoff Africa Retail ( SRRJ.J ), to fill a hole in its balance sheet. “It cannot get any more non-core than their stake in PSG,” a source in Johannesburg said. “It is on the table and so is the stake in KAP.” The likely sale of the stakes was corroborated by a second source based in Frankfurt, who said they were first on the list of possible divestitures to plug funding holes. Steinhoff owns about 25 percent of PSG, a 60 billion rand ($4.40 billion) investment holding company, and 39 percent, or of diversified industrial group KAP Industrial ( KAPJ.J ), which is worth around 6.1 billion rand at current market prices. Steinhoff, KAP Industrial and PSG Group declined to comment. The Johannesburg source, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, also said the stakes would most likely be sold in chunks via a so-called accelerated book build to institutional investors. Steinhoff said on Sunday it had called in turnaround specialist AlixPartners to help shore up its liquidity. It also hired U.S investment bank Moles & Co to help it prepare for a delayed meeting with lenders in London next week. Additional reporting by TJ Strydom in Johannesburg; Editing by James Macharia and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-steinhoff-intlnl-results-exclusive/exclusive-south-africas-steinhoff-considers-sale-of-psg-kap-stakes-to-lift-liquidity-sources-idUSKBN1E60WP'|'2017-12-12T11:19:00.000+02:00'
'9aae7573f7cdd91580d9c11a786cf0260f67d7e0'|'Battered Steinhoff shares bounce after traumatic week'|'December 11, 2017 / 8:50 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago South African exchange investigates Steinhoff disclosures Tiisetso Motsoeneng , TJ Strydom 4 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African exchange operator JSE launched an investigation on Monday into whether Steinhoff broke disclosure rules, heaping pressure on the retailer as it tries to contain an accounting scandal. South African magnate Christo Wiese, whose companies include Steinhoff and investment heavyweight Brait, gestures during an interview in Cape Town, South Africa, September 27, 2016. Picture taken September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings Shares in Steinhoff fell by 80 percent last week after the international retail group, whose brands include Poundland and Mattress Firm, disclosed “accounting irregularities” and parted ways with veteran chief executive Markus Jooste. The JSE said in a statement it was investigating whether there had been any breaches of its listing requirements, adding this included “any breaches in relation to previous financial disclosures made to the public by Steinhoff International”. Steinhoff has a secondary listing on the bourse, which is also reviewing trading in its shares ahead of last week’s announcements, which included the company delaying its earnings report. Two days before Steinhoff’s initial announcement, trading volumes in its shares jumped to between 27 and 32 million. This was the highest since Sept. 22 when the company said it expected a Dutch court to throw out a petition by its former joint venture partner to order a probe into the company’s accounts. SHARE BOUNCE Steinhoff’s shares rose by as much as 40 percent on Monday, regaining some ground after it called on its lenders to help. It has also hired U.S. investment bank Moelis & Co and asked management consultancy AlixPartners “to assist on liquidity management and operational measures”. “The group is asking for and requires continued support in relation to existing facilities from all its lenders to achieve an immediate stabilisation of the group’s financing,” it said. The company has delayed its regular annual lenders’ meeting in London by a week to Dec. 19. By 1313 GMT, the stock was up 38 percent at 8.30 in Johannesburg, recouping around $700 million (£524.4 million) of the $14 billion of shareholder value wiped off since last Wednesday. Steinhoff has its main listing in Frankfurt where its shares rose by more than 13 percent. There was some buying off a low base, but most investors were waiting for more information, Independent Securities trader Ryan Woods said. “On the positive side, it does look like Christo Wiese is doing a salvage job,” Woods said of the retail group’s biggest shareholder and chairman, who is now at the helm. Wiese and former chief executive Jooste were instrumental in turning Steinhoff from a modest distributor of furniture made in communist era eastern Europe to a global household goods juggernaut, vying for market share with the likes of IKEA. Steinhoff has been on shopping spree since 2011 when it took over French furniture retailer Conforama. Last year’s string of acquisitions thrust it firmly on to investors’ radar screens. Separately, Anglo-South African investment bank and asset manager Investec said its credit exposure to Steinhoff represented a small portion of its balance sheet. Investec said it had derivative exposures linked to the Steinhoff share price, where a trading loss could materialise. The loss maximum potential loss could be approximately 3 percent of the Investec group’s post-tax operating profit, although it could be as low as zero. Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng and TJ Strydom; Editing by Louise Heavens/Keith Weir/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steinhoff-intlnl-results/battered-steinhoff-shares-bounce-after-traumatic-week-idUKKBN1E50OV'|'2017-12-11T10:49:00.000+02:00'
'9fee6f95496f03d56640f9fa45119bc14513fef7'|'India November inflation likely exceeded RBI''s 4 percent target: Reuters Poll'|'BENGALURU (Reuters) - India’s retail inflation likely breached the central bank’s 4.0 percent medium-term target in November after unseasonably heavy rains sent food prices soaring, a Reuters poll showed.A vendor arranges vegetable at his stall in a market in Mumbai, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files In the poll of more than 30 economists, annual consumer inflation, due to be released on Dec. 12 at 1200 GMT, was seen surging to a 13-month high of 4.20 percent in November from October’s 3.58 percent.The higher inflation rate is unlikely to push the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to change its key rate any time soon, economists in the poll said.November’s heavy rains “created lots of damage” for perishable fruit and vegetable crops, said Rupa Rege Nitsure, group chief economist at Larsen & Toubro. “We have seen that translated into price rises for onions, tomatoes and other perishable commodities”.Increased house rent allowances for government employees and rising crude oil prices added to inflationary pressures alongside higher raw material costs due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout, she said.Wholesale prices are expected to have risen 3.78 percent last month from a year earlier, compared to a 3.59 percent rise in October.NEUTRAL STANCE At its Dec. 6 policy meeting, the central bank raised its inflation projection by 10 basis points to between 4.3 and 4.7 percent for the six months ending in March. It kept interest rates steady and stressed a neutral policy stance.The RBI cut rates by 200 basis points from January 2015 until August this year while food and energy prices were down. It is likely to keep them unchanged through the end of 2018, according to a separate Reuters poll.“Interest rates will remain stable for some time before they (the RBI) start hiking them because industrial growth is still weak,” Nitsure said. “Recovery is happening in a few sectors but it has not spread to all sectors and private investment sentiment also remains low.”Industrial output growth eased to 3.0 percent in October from September’s 3.8 percent, as demand continued to suffer from disruption caused by the new national sales tax as well as last year’s currency clampdown that wiped out over 85 percent of the cash in circulation.But halting a five-quarter slide, India’s economic growth rebounded in the three months ending in September with businesses starting to overcome troubles from implementation of the new tax.“We still have some output gap but it’s not as bad as it used to be a couple of quarters back. It will not make any sense for the RBI to just react to the (inflation) number. They also have to look at other factors,” said Arun Singh, lead economist at Dun & Bradstreet India in Mumbai.The poll also showed India’s trade deficit likely narrowed to $13.75 billion last month from October’s near three-year high of $14.02 billion.Polling by Shaloo Shrivastava and Khushboo Mittal; Editing by Richard BorsukOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-economy-inflation/india-november-inflation-likely-exceeded-rbis-4-percent-target-reuters-poll-idINKBN1E50CQ'|'2017-12-11T07:57:00.000+02:00'
'c3986822fdfe03a64cd0a53a19d2c74b7a2e3a15'|'Morning News Call - India, December 11 - Reuters'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 9:00 am: IRDAI Member (Life) Nilesh Sathe, National Insurance Company MD K. Sanath Kumar and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance MD K.G. Krishnamoorthy Rao at The Economic Times Insurance Summit in Mumbai. 10:00 am: Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari and Science & Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan at Ground Water Vision 2030 in New Delhi. 10:15 am: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Former RBI Governors Y.V. Reddy and D. Subbarao, NABARD General Manager D. Nageswara Rao at India Finance event in New Delhi. 10:30 am: SIAM to announce industry sales figures for November in New Delhi. 11:00 am: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to inaugurate NIC Data Security Centre in New Delhi. 11:00 am: Road and Transport Nitin Gadkari to address ASEAN-India Connectivity Summit in New Delhi. INDIA TOP NEWS • Indians vote in first stage of election seen as acid test for Modi Tens of thousands of Indians voted in the first stage of assembly elections in the western state of Gujarat on Saturday, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces his toughest electoral test since coming to power with a landslide victory in 2014. • Thyssenkrupp makes offer to workers for Tata Steel deal - sources Thyssenkrupp has offered workers commitments on jobs and investments to get union backing for its deal with Tata Steel to merge their European steel operations, several people close to labour union IG Metall said. • Uber agrees to settle U.S. lawsuit filed by India rape victim Uber Technologies Inc and a woman who accused top executives of improperly obtaining her medical records after a company driver raped her in India have agreed to settle a civil lawsuit the woman filed against Uber in June, according to a U.S. federal court filing on Friday. • Indian court says government can take control of Unitech An Indian court on Friday allowed the government to take over management control of the debt-laden property developer Unitech Ltd, a rare intervention that the government said was to protect the public interest. • India''s Future Supply Chain Solutions $101 mln IPO sees strong demand Indian logistics provider Future Supply Chain Solution Ltd''s initial public offering of shares to raise up to 6.5 billion rupees was subscribed 7.5 times on the last day of the sale on Friday, adding to what has been a record year for initial share sales in the country. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Hotly anticipated bitcoin futures debut in sedate fashion The eagerly anticipated launch of futures trading of the world''s largest cryptocurrency bitcoin got off to a positive start on Sunday, with the price nearly 9 percent ahead after briefly slipping below its opening level. • Palestinian stabs Israeli in Jerusalem; anti-Trump protest flares in Beirut A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli security guard at Jerusalem''s main bus station on Sunday, police said, and violence flared near the U.S. Embassy in Beirut over U.S. President Donald Trump''s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel''s capital. • China''s Nov producer prices ease to 4-month low as pollution curbs bite China''s producer price inflation slowed to a four-month low in November as factory activity softened due to the government''s efforts to curb pollution, cooling demand from factories for raw materials. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,309.00, up 0.2percent from its previous close. • Indian government bonds are likely to fall in early trade after the latest U.S. data cemented the view that the Federal Reserve will hike its rates later this week. A rise in crude oil prices will further weigh on demand, traders said. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.06 percent-7.11percent band. The note closed at 97.96 rupees, the lowest since its issuance on May 12, yielding 7.09percent on Dec. 8. • The Indian rupee will likely open a tad lower against the dollar after data showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls in November rose more than expected, strengthening bets the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates after a two-day meeting that starts tomorrow. GLOBAL MARKETS • U.S. stocks advanced on Friday, buoyed by a solid payrolls report for November that locked in expectations for an interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve next week and raised optimism about economic prospects in 2018. • Futures in bitcoin, which has taken global financial markets by storm, swung above their launch price, while the dollar kept gains in Asian session on expectations the Federal Reserve will stick to its tightening path. • The dollar was steady, underpinned by expectations of higher U.S. interest rates, while bitcoin seized the spotlight as futures of the cryptocurrency began trading. • U.S. Treasury yields were little changed on Friday after seesawing following the release of a U.S. jobs report that showed the economy added 228,000 jobs last month but average hourly earnings failed to meet expectations. • Oil prices fell, pulled down as the latest rise in the U.S. rig count pointed to a further increase in American production, potentially undermining efforts led by OPEC to tighten markets. • Gold prices were steady, holding above a four-month low hit last week, amid a firm dollar. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.45/64.48 December 8 -$104.70 mln $26.06 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.13 pct Month-to-date -$634.80 mln $410.31 mln Year-to-date -$8.06 bln $26.14 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.4700 Indian rupees)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-december-11-idINL3N1OB1CM'|'2017-12-11T00:19:00.000+02:00'
'8387e344b63cafb21ec518e5d3325370dc36ae6d'|'UBS leads blockchain data reporting pilot ahead of new EU rules'|'ZURICH/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Financial companies led by Swiss bank UBS ( UBSG.S ) are testing a blockchain platform to help them comply with new European Union trade data standards due to come into force next year.FILE PHOTO: Christmas decorations are seen at the building of Swiss bank UBS at the Paradeplatz square in Zurich, Switzerland, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Blockchain, the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, is a shared and immutable database maintained by a network of computers on the internet.The more stringent requirements are part of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, an overhaul of EU rules aimed at improving financial market transparency..“The project is getting market participants to collaborate using blockchain to improve regulatory reporting,” Peter Stephens, head of blockchain at UBS, told Reuters.The group, which includes Barclays BARC.N, Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ), KBC ( KBC.BR ), Swiss stock exchange SIX and Reuters parent Thomson Reuters ( TRI.TO ), is testing an Ethereum blockchain to help ensure data accuracy and consensus.Ethereum, a type of blockchain that can be used to develop decentralized applications, was invented by 23-year-old programer Vitalik Buterin. Many large companies and industry consortia have teamed up to develop standards and technology to make it easier for enterprises to use the Ethereum code, hoping it can help them streamline some of their processes.“The point is to allow us to come to a consensus for this noncompetitive reference data which is essential for trade reporting purposes,” Stephens said.Rather than replacing existing processes the blockchain, which runs on the Microsoft ( MSFT.O ) Azure cloud, will let financial firms perform a “quality check” of their own data against that of others, Stephens said. UBS Head of Data Christophe Tummers added that the pilot may be expanded to not only detect anomalies but resolve them too.The new EU rules, which are due to take effect on Jan. 3, 2018, require banks to report more data to regulators and will also oblige banks and financial firms to obtain information identifying clients, issuers and counterparties of trades.One element in this is a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), a unique 20-digit code that connects key information about a company or legal entity such as its name, location, industry and regulatory data, which financial groups must obtain from clients before making any transactions that require reporting.Firms can anonymously submit data onto the private blockchain, which will then check for any anomalies against other submissions under the same LEI, allowing the firm to update or standardise its own submissions.Financial institutions have been investing in blockchain with the aim of developing software that can help them better manage some data-heavy processes. Proponents say it is well suited for when many parties need access to the same data.“This use of blockchain to solve real-world regulatory requirements in a cost effective way is very appealing,” Credit Suisse’s head of blockchain strategy, Emmanuel Aidoo, said.The pilot phase, which uses real LEI data, is set to conclude at the end of January.Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Anna Irrera; editing by Alexander Smith '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-banks-blockchain/ubs-leads-blockchain-data-reporting-pilot-ahead-of-new-eu-rules-idUSKBN1E521A'|'2017-12-11T18:21:00.000+02:00'
'6c3327df96ecd818f23be82c22a58b3c6c7e234d'|'Exclusive: Comcast drops bid for Fox assets, leaving Disney in pole position'|'December 11, 2017 / 10:21 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Exclusive: Comcast drops bid for Fox assets, leaving Disney in pole position Anjali Athavaley 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Comcast Corp said on Monday it had abandoned its bid for most of the assets of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, leaving Walt Disney Co as the sole suitor in pursuit of the $40 billion-plus deal. FILE PHOTO: The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios flag flies over the company building in Los Angeles, California U.S. on November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson /File Photo Sources told Reuters last week that Disney was in the lead to acquire the assets, which include Fox’s FX and National Geographic cable channels, its movie studio, the Star network in India and stake in European pay-TV provider Sky PLC. The Murdoch family, which controls Fox, prefers a deal with Disney because it would rather be paid in Disney stock than Comcast stock, and expects a potential deal with Disney to be cleared by U.S. antitrust regulators more easily, one of the sources said. Comcast, the biggest cable provider in the United States, said in a statement on Monday that its discussions with Fox had ended. “When a set of assets like Fox’s becomes available, it is our responsibility to evaluate if there is a strategic fit that could benefit our company and our shareholders,” Comcast said. “That is what we tried to do and we are no longer engaged in the review of those assets. We never got the level of engagement needed to make a definitive offer.” FILE PHOTO - A logo of Walt Disney company is displayed on a monitor outside of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The assets in question would have expanded Comcast’s international footprint through ownership of Sky and Star. A source told Reuters in mid-November that Comcast had approached Fox about its interest, and talks were in early stages. FILE PHOTO - The NBC and Comcast logo are displayed on top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, formerly known as the GE building, in midtown Manhattan in New York July 1, 2015. The Art Deco skyscraper, also known as ''30 Rock'' and once displayed a large neon ''GE'', unveiled the NBC Peacock logo and Comcast brand-name this week. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Disney’s negotiations with Fox are continuing, and a deal could be reached as early as this month, sources close to the situation said on Monday. The persons asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Disney did not immediately respond to request for comment. A Fox representative declined to comment. Any potential deal will follow the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision last month to sue to block AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc. Comcast shares were up 1.5 percent in after-hours trading, while Disney shares were up 0.2 percent and Fox shares fell 1.3 percent. Reporting by Anjali Athavaley and Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-m-a-comcast-exclusive/exclusive-comcast-drops-bid-for-fox-assets-leaving-disney-in-pole-position-idINKBN1E52QC'|'2017-12-12T00:19:00.000+02:00'
'f2e52277118dc3467777a369681a1b0b232d55cf'|'''Star Wars: The Last Jedi'' mostly finds its force with critics'|'December 12, 2017 / 7:08 PM / in 3 hours ''Star Wars: The Last Jedi'' mostly finds its force with critics Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” won warm reviews from most critics on Tuesday, a day before the latest installment in the sci-fi saga begins hitting movie theaters worldwide in what is projected to be the biggest-grossing movie of 2017. Actors Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill pose for photographers as they arrive for the European Premiere of ''Star Wars: The Last Jedi'', at the Royal Albert Hall in central London, Britain December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The Walt Disney Co. movie received four or five stars from most reviewers, along with praise for its energy and emotion. “The Last Jedi” scored a 94 percent “fresh” rating on aggregator site RottenTomatoes.com. The film, arriving in movie theaters from Dec. 13, picks up from 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which took in more than $2 billion at the global box office to become the third-biggest-grossing movie of all time. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, “The Last Jedi” kicks off with the Resistance fighting Supreme Leader Snoke’s First Order, which is trying to take control of the galaxy. The movie features the final appearance of Carrie Fisher, who plays the franchise’s Princess Leia. The actress died at age 60 last December, weeks after completing filming. Numerous critics including The Hollywood Reporter felt that at 2-1/2 hours, the movie’s run time was a little too long. But the Hollywood Reporter added, “there’s a pervasive freshness and enthusiasm to Johnson’s approach that keeps the film, and with it the franchise, alive, and that is no doubt what matters most.” Actor John Boyega poses for photographers as he arrives for the European Premiere of ''Star Wars: The Last Jedi'', at the Royal Albert Hall in central London, Britain December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The London Times newspaper deemed it the best “Star Wars” movie yet, calling it a “film of wit and wonder, of eye-gouging visual spectacle, and one that is buttressed by entirely unexpected, and frequently devastating, emotional power.” Entertainment Weekly said “The Last Jedi” was a “triumph with flaws,” while USA Today said it was “a stellar entry” in the “Star Wars” franchise. Slideshow (5 Images) The Washington Post praised the film’s “irreverent humor and worshipful love for the original text.” Variety was among a handful of less enthusiastic reviews, calling the film “ultimately a disappointment.” CNN said “Last Jedi” felt “like a significant letdown, one that does far less than its predecessor to stoke enthusiasm for the next leg in the trilogy.” Before the reviews were out, Boxoffice.com projected that “Last Jedi” would haul in $185 million to $215 million in North America in its first weekend, which would rank as one of the biggest film debuts in history. Disney said in November that Johnson will oversee a new trilogy of “Star Wars” films that will not follow the Skywalker saga, which George Lucas kicked off in 1977. Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-film-starwars-reviews/star-wars-the-last-jedi-mostly-finds-its-force-with-critics-idUSKBN1E62ML'|'2017-12-12T20:59:00.000+02:00'
'e892a383ba25faf8d1fc9417d914db721c55c86f'|'NEWSMAKER-South Africa''s nearly man Ramaphosa may lead country at last'|'JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The nearly man of South African politics, Cyril Ramaphosa, is at last in with a chance of becoming president after being overlooked for years.FILE PHOTO: South Africa''s President and African National Congress (ANC) party president Jacob Zuma (L) gestures at Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the party''s National Executive Committee (NEC) three-day meeting in Pretoria, South Africa March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo Ramaphosa’s political abilities have been apparent for decades. Whenever Nelson Mandela needed a breakthrough in talks to end apartheid, he would turn to the then trade union leader with a reputation as a tenacious negotiator.Using skills honed in pay disputes with mining bosses, Ramaphosa steered those talks to a successful conclusion, allowing Mandela to sweep to power in 1994 as head of the African National Congress.Mandela wanted Ramaphosa to be his heir but was pressured into picking Thabo Mbeki by a group of ANC leaders who had fought apartheid from exile.It has taken more than two decades for Ramaphosa, now deputy president, to get another chance to run the country.The 65-year-old is one of the two favorites to become ANC leader at a party vote this weekend. Whoever wins the ANC race will probably be the country’s next president because of the ruling party’s electoral dominance.“Ramaphosa’s ambition for the presidency has been clear through his whole adult life. He was quite clearly wounded by his marginalization in the Mbeki period,” said Anthony Butler, a politics professor who has written a biography of Ramaphosa.The choice between Ramaphosa and his main rival for the ANC’s top job, former cabinet minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, will help determine the pace of reform in South Africa and affect how the country gets on with with foreign powers.A trained lawyer with an easygoing manner, Ramaphosa has vowed to fight corruption and revitalise an economy which has slowed to a near-standstill under President Jacob Zuma.That message has gone down well with foreign investors and ANC members who think Zuma’s handling of the economy could cost the party dearly in 2019 parliamentary elections.Dlamini-Zuma, who clashed with Western countries while foreign minister, has promised a radical brand of wealth redistribution which is popular with poorer ANC voters who are angry at racial inequality.While Ramaphosa, who declined to be interviewed for this story, has backed “radical economic transformation”, an ANC plan to tackle inequality, he tends to couch his policy pronouncements in more cautious terms.Analysts say the race between Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma, who was previously married to President Zuma, is too close to call.LABOR LEADER Unlike Zuma or Dlamini-Zuma, Ramaphosa was not driven into exile for opposing apartheid, which some of the party’s more hardline members hold against him.He fought the injustices of white minority rule from within South Africa, most prominently by defending the rights of black miners as leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).A member of the relatively small Venda ethnic group, Ramaphosa was able to overcome divisions that sometimes constrained members of the larger Zulu and Xhosa groups.A massive miners’ strike led by Ramaphosa’s NUM in 1987 taught business that “Cyril was a force to be reckoned with,” said Michael Spicer, a former executive at Anglo American.South Africa''s President Jacob Zuma (L) chats to his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the African National Congress 5th National Policy Conference at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Soweto, South Africa, June 30, 2017. Picture taken June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko “He has a shrewd understanding of men and power and knows how to get what he wants from a situation,” Spicer said.The importance of Ramaphosa’s contribution to the talks to end apartheid is such that commentators have referred to them in two distinct stages: BC and AC, Before Cyril and After Cyril.Ramaphosa also played an important role in the drafting of South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution.INVESTOR FAVORITE After missing out on becoming Mandela’s deputy, Ramaphosa withdrew from active political life, switching focus to business.His investment vehicle Shanduka - Venda for “change” - grew rapidly and acquired stakes in mining firms, mobile operator MTN and McDonald’s South African franchise.FILE PHOTO: Former African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (L) chats to South Africa''s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the African National Congress 5th National Policy Conference at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Soweto, South Africa, June 30,2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo Phuti Mahanyele, a former chief executive at Shanduka, recalled that Ramaphosa was a passionate leader who required staff to contribute to charitable projects aimed at improving access to education for the underprivileged.By the time Ramaphosa sold out of Shanduka in 2014, the firm was worth more than 8 billion rand ($584 million in today’s money), making Ramaphosa one of South Africa’s 20 richest people.To his supporters, Ramaphosa’s business success makes him well-suited to the task of turning around an economy grappling with 28 percent unemployment and credit rating downgrades.In the Johannesburg township of Soweto last month, Ramaphosa called for a “new deal” between business and government to spur economic growth.Pravin Gordhan, a respected former finance minister, told Reuters that if Ramaphosa was elected ANC leader, “the whole narrative about South Africa’s economy would change for the better within three months”.Signs that Ramaphosa has done well in the nominations by ANC branches that precede the leadership vote have driven a rally in the rand in recent weeks.But Ramaphosa has his detractors too.He was a non-executive director at Lonmin when negotiations to halt a violent wildcat strike at its Marikana platinum mine in 2012 ended in police shooting 34 strikers dead. An inquiry subsequently absolved Ramaphosa of guilt. But some families of the victims still blame him for urging the authorities to intervene.“My conscience is that I participated in trying to stop further deaths from happening,” Ramaphosa said recently about the Marikana deaths. Others are unconvinced that Ramaphosa, who has been deputy president since 2014, will be as tough on corruption as his campaign rhetoric suggests.Bantu Holomisa, an opposition politician and former ANC member who worked closely with Ramaphosa in the 1990s, said he was by nature cautious.“Cyril has been part of the machinery and has not acted on corruption so far,” Holomisa said. “It is not clear whether he will if he gets elected.”(For a graphic on ''ANC election in South Africa'' click here )(For a graphic on ''South African economy'' click here )Editing by James Macharia and Giles Elgood '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-politics-ramaphosa-newsmaker/south-africas-nearly-man-ramaphosa-may-lead-country-at-last-idUSKBN1E61ZB'|'2017-12-12T17:07:00.000+02:00'
'fa656e260c133d46a74fefe91c13b2d318052a18'|'Lufthansa scraps deal for Air Berlin''s Niki'|'December 13, 2017 / 4:13 PM / a few seconds ago Lufthansa scraps deal for Air Berlin''s Niki Victoria Bryan 4 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has abandoned plans to buy Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) subsidiary Niki after being told by the European Commission that it would not allow the deal, meaning Niki could join the list of Europe’s collapsed airlines this year. A placard is seen in the cockpit of the plane of the AB6210, the last flight, operated by insolvent carrier Air Berlin before departing Munich''s international airport, southern Germany, October 27, 2017. Sign reads "Air Berlin says goodbye". REUTERS/Michael Dalder Tough competition and falling ticket prices have led to the demise of Monarch and Air Berlin while Alitalia has filed for insolvency protection. Lufthansa’s planned takeover of Air Berlin businesses Niki and LGW had raised concerns among rivals that Lufthansa would become too dominant in Germany, with Ryanair boss Michael O‘Leary describing the deal as a “stitch-up”. Lufthansa said on Wednesday it had offered to give up take-off and landing slots in order to get the deal approved, but that the European Commission considered that to be insufficient. The withdrawal leaves Air Berlin’s administrators scrambling to find a new buyer for Austria-based Niki, which had not filed for insolvency itself and was still flying with the help of funding from Lufthansa. The administrators said on Tuesday British Airways’ parent IAG ( ICAG.L ) was no longer interested and talks with Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) had not yet resulted in a viable deal. Thomas Cook declined to comment on Wednesday. The German government, which stands to lose out on a loan given to Air Berlin, said it expected Niki, founded by former Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda, to file for insolvency protection and be grounded. Lufthansa, and Air Berlin’s administrators had also previously warned that would happen if the deal was not approved. GROWTH Lufthansa will likely still be able to expand its market position even without the Niki deal. It has previously said it planned to grow the Eurowings’ fleet to about 210 aircraft from 160 as a result of the Air Berlin insolvency. Lufthansa said on Wednesday it still intended to pursue growth plans for its Eurowings budget subsidiary and would apply for any Niki slots that become free in the event of an insolvency. It had been providing funding to keep Niki in the air until the deal was approved and said that money would now be used to grow on its own in Niki’s markets. “(From a financial point of view), this leads to a comparable result for the Lufthansa Group,” it said. Lufthansa said it still planned to buy Air Berlin subsidiary LGW and would submit a revised proposal, including foregoing slots, to the Commission on Wednesday. The purchase price for LGW on its own is around 18 million euros ($22 million), Air Berlin said, compared to a previous price of 210 million euros for the deal including Niki. The German government had been expecting to use the sale proceeds as repayment for a 150 million euros bridge loan it awarded to Air Berlin to keep it flying after it filed for insolvency protection. “We deeply regret the Commission decision,” it said in a statement. It added that it expected only part of the loan could now be repaid and it would take steps to minimize losses for taxpayers. easyJet ( EZJ.L ) is paying 40 million euros for Air Berlin’s operations at Berlin Tegel, a deal which has received Commission approval. That would leave the German government nearly 100 million euros short. ($1 = 0.8499 euros) Reporting by Victoria Bryan, Klaus Lauer; Additional reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Tom Sims and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-m-a-lufthansa/lufthansa-scraps-deal-for-air-berlins-niki-idUKKBN1E7285'|'2017-12-13T18:03:00.000+02:00'
'7363a8106e7638954a6875704f8b91103d79248a'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 13'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:44 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 13 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds company news and futures) Dec 13 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 futures up 0.02 percent ahead of the cash market open on Wednesday. * SERCO: British outsourcer Serco said its full-year underlying trading profit would come in around the top end of its guidance range but flagged potential pitfalls for the years ahead. * BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO: British American Tobacco said on Wednesday it was continuing to perform well and was confident it would deliver another year of good earnings growth at constant currency as its brands outperformed the industry. * DIXONS: British electricals and mobile phone retailer Dixons Carphone on Wednesday reported a slump in first-half profit, hurt by a weak mobile market as customers hold on to handsets for longer. * THOMAS COOK: Air Berlin’s administrator said renewed talks with Thomas Cook have not led to a sustainable offer for the insolvent carrier’s Austria-based Niki unit. * OIL: Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Wednesday as industry data showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles. * GOLD: Gold prices were almost unchanged on Wednesday after hitting their lowest in nearly five months in the previous session, with investors in ‘wait-and-see’ mode ahead of the outcome of a two-day meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve. * COPPER: London copper trading was little changed on Wednesday, as volumes thinned throughout the complex in the lead-up to holidays and ahead of a U.S. monetary policy meeting which may spell out higher interest rates. * BRITAIN-EU: Prime Minister Theresa May’s control of the Brexit process will undergo its stiffest parliamentary test yet on Wednesday, when she faces a showdown with rebels in her own party over the laws that will take Britain out of the European Union. * The UK blue chip index closed up 0.63 percent at 7500.79 points, on Tuesday, as rising oil prices boosted energy stocks and the pound retreated, even though British UK inflation rose to its highest in six years. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY‘S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-13-idUSL3N1OD2MK'|'2017-12-13T09:41:00.000+02:00'
'8b23fae57a304a0ef6db8a0e3967439a9ff0a17c'|'Airbus leadership under fire as crisis deepens'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:20 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Airbus leadership under fire as crisis deepens Tim Hepher , Cyril Altmeyer 5 Min Read TOULOUSE/PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) is engulfed in a fresh bout of speculation over the future of senior managers as corruption probes rattle the aerospace company and add fuel to a long-running clash of egos at the top, people familiar with the group said. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders attends a ceremony during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Board directors meeting on Thursday are seeking to contain damage from multiple international fraud investigations over commercial and military sales, while getting a grip on what could become a chain reaction of departures, insiders said. “You can’t rule out a change of governance before the end of the year,” a senior source close to the company said. Others are more cautious, pointing to 2018 as the pivotal period for a company enjoying a record share price but struggling to maintain its sales position against rival Boeing. So far, investors have been sanguine about the impact of investigations and a loss of sales momentum, but coupled with senior retirements, the sense of uncertainty is deepening. “You won’t recognise the company within 12-18 months,” a person who deals closely with Airbus said. Chief Executive Tom Enders has indicated he will not stay beyond his current term which ends in 2019, Le Figaro reported on Tuesday, reversing a position taken in April. Enders, who is seen as increasingly isolated after losing a top aide last week and facing a backlash over compliance reforms, has said his future is up to him and the board. “Reports of my demise are premature and exaggerated,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an aircraft delivery ceremony in Toulouse on Wednesday. In a move first reported by Reuters in October, the board has appointed head-hunters to examine fresh options for top posts, though the company insists this is a normal planning exercise. ‘WHO GOES AND IN WHAT ORDER?’ Industry sources have said Enders is expected to give up on a third term for a mixture of personal reasons and a recognition the board is looking for a fresh start to ease the chances of a settlement of corruption allegations. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders attends a ceremony during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The more pressing question, some company watchers say, is whether Enders will complete his current mandate and stay through 2018. Enders, who turns 59 this month, has said he is focussed solely on his mandate to 2019. He recently won the board’s backing amid a flurry of negative press reports. That in turn has raised speculation whether his deputy and long-time internal rival Fabrice Bregier will ride out the storm and fulfil a long-held ambition to succeed Enders. Only a handful of people expect Bregier, who is in charge of delivering on a record order backlog that underpins the share price, to stay for long if it becomes clear he is no longer Enders’ automatic heir. Slideshow (3 Images) He has been occasionally linked with energy firm Engie ( ENGIE.PA ). But so far he has appeared strongly committed to Airbus and one person who has known both executives for years said Bregier was still expected to succeed Enders. La Tribune newspaper reported Bregier had agreed to leave in February next year, but in a statement issued from Asia where he is visiting customers, Bregier dismissed such speculation. “I am surprised by information reported by the press about my imminent departure,” Bregier said. “I only have one priority: to meet Airbus targets (including) the delivery of more than 700 aircraft this year.” Festering animosity between Bregier and Enders boiled over earlier this year in a row over who should control the powerful jet sales department - a spat first disclosed by Reuters. The two are now locked in a battle for survival which could leave both of them vulnerable, insiders said. Both have told visitors they expect the other to go, but sources disagree whether Enders is manoeuvring for Bregier’s early departure as their power battle intensifies. “The question is who goes and in what order,” a source close to the company said. A person close to Enders denied speculation of a management crisis, adding “we are taking all the necessary decisions, the company is running well, we are active in the (aircraft) market and we are delivering on our targets.” Succession plans and operational priorities will be discussed by the board on Thursday, but a source familiar with the agenda said it would not likely be a decisive session. Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-management/airbus-leadership-under-fire-as-crisis-deepens-idUKKBN1E72R2'|'2017-12-13T21:19:00.000+02:00'
'3af60007b45a81923d62ef88f2c2fda66b415fbd'|'Thai Beverage unit to bid for at least 25 percent of Vietnam''s Sabeco'|'HANOI (Reuters) - A unit of Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ) has emerged as the only prospective bidder for state-owned shares in Sabeco SAB.HM that has declared that it could lead to it owning 25 percent or more of Vietnam’s biggest brewer, the Trade Ministry said on Monday.The auction of up to 54 percent of Sabeco worth at least $5 billion, in what is set to be Vietnam’s biggest privatization, offers brewers access to a fast-growing market with a youthful population and beer drinking culture.Investors who want shares that would lead to an ownership of 25 percent or more in Sabeco have to inform the local authorities and publicize the information a week before the auction date, which is set for Dec. 18, according to the rules of the offer.Other brewing groups including Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ) and Kirin Holdings ( 2503.T ) have been preparing to bid for a stake, people familiar with the matter have said.But the trade ministry said in a statement on its website that as of 1100 GMT on Monday the one prospective investor which has registered an interest in buying 25 percent or more of Sabeco that has publicized the information is Vietnam Beverage Company Limited.Vietnam Beverage Company Limited is owned by Vietnam F&B Alliance Investment Company, which is 49-percent owned by BeerCo Limited, an indirect but wholly-owned subsidiary of Thai Beverage, official documents about the companies showed.Foreign ownership in Sabeco is limited to 49 percent. That means overseas bidders can only bid for a minority stake of as much as 39 percent as foreign entities already own 10 percent.Lack of control and the unorthodox way in which theSabeco stake is being sold could put off some possible bidders, bankers, investors and lawyers familiar with the matter said.The Vietnam trade ministry, which represents state shares in Sabeco, said foreign investors can link up with Vietnamese firms to buy shares in Sabeco, but have to comply with local laws and regulations.Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Jane Merriman, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-privatisation-sabeco/thai-beverage-unit-to-bid-for-at-least-25-percent-of-vietnams-sabeco-idUSKBN1E52CN'|'2017-12-12T02:32:00.000+02:00'
'571ae421176c251ed713f7f2b826d7c195093053'|'Hong Kong activist fund tells Toshiba chip unit sale to Bain group not necessary'|' 47 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Hong Kong activist fund tells Toshiba chip unit sale to Bain group not necessary Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - A Hong Kong-based activist investor in Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) has told the embattled conglomerate that the $18 billion sale of its chip unit sale to a Bain Capital-led group is no longer necessary after its recent capital injection, according to a letter seen by Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Toshiba''s logo is seen at an industrial area in Kawasaki, Japan, January 16, 2017. Picture taken on January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Argyle Street Management Ltd, a hedge fund with $1.2 billion under management, sent the letter to Toshiba’s board late on Monday, the fund’s chief investment officer, Kin Chan, told Reuters. The fund declined to say how many Toshiba shares it owns. The first activist shareholder to openly voice opposition to the sale, Argyle is inviting the 30-plus overseas investors who participated in Toshiba’s recent 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion)new share issue to team up and is already in talks with at least three funds who share the same view, Chan said. Toshiba agreed to sell Toshiba Memory - the world’s no. 2 producer of NAND chips - to the Bain consortium to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse. In order to ensure its listing status, however, Toshiba also secured a $5.4 billion cash injection from overseas funds this month, which with tax write-offs gives it sufficient funds to maintain its listing status. Argyle said it believes “there no longer is any urgency to undertake a sale of Toshiba Memory,” it said in a draft of the letter which was seen by Reuters. The letter proposed a meeting with Toshiba’s board in either December or January. The $18 billion price tag for the chip unit “significantly undervalues the business,” the letter said, adding that the board should consider instead an IPO for Toshiba Memory. Reporting by Taro Fuse and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-chips/hong-kong-activist-fund-tells-toshiba-chip-unit-sale-to-bain-group-not-necessary-idUKKBN1E50TR'|'2017-12-11T11:47:00.000+02:00'
'6209cff7851a2f103946e804a8452fa4d18f7006'|'Russia''s Rosneft asks to freeze some of Sistema''s assets-RIA'|'December 12, 2017 / 9:12 AM / in 9 minutes Russia''s Rosneft asks to freeze some of Sistema''s assets-RIA Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Russian oil major Rosneft is seeking a freezing injunction in respect of some of Sistema’s assets under its second legal claim against the conglomerate, the RIA news agency quoted a Rosneft spokesman as saying on Tuesday. State-controlled Rosneft and its subsidiary Bashneft filed a second, 131.6-billion-rouble lawsuit against Sistema last week. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; writing by Maria Kiselyova; editing by Dmitry Solovyov)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-rosneft-sistema-assets/russias-rosneft-asks-to-freeze-some-of-sistemas-assets-ria-idUSR4N1OB000'|'2017-12-12T11:09:00.000+02:00'
'402988c00908393a6b8d4dd64bc165e036d92799'|'Airbus CEO Enders will not seek a third mandate - Figaro'|'December 12, 2017 / 7:20 PM / Updated an hour ago Airbus CEO Enders will not seek a third mandate - Figaro Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Tom Enders has told the French Presidency he will not seek a third mandate as chief executive of European planemaker Airbus ( AIR.PA ), Le Figaro daily reports on its website. FILE PHOTO - Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders speaks during a news conference on the aerospace group''s annual results, in London, Britain February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Hannah McKay “According to our information, the last board meeting of 2017, this Thursday, should ratify the non-renewal of Tom Enders at the helm of the group following the expiry of his mandate in May 2019,” the Figaro said, without citing its sources. “Tom informed the Elysee very recently he would not seek a third mandate,” a source cited by Le Figaro said. Industry sources have said it was widely assumed that Enders would not seek a third mandate, when his current mandate expires in May 2019. Airbus was not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Tim Hepher; editing by John Irish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-enders/airbus-ceo-enders-will-not-seek-a-third-mandate-figaro-idUKKBN1E62OG'|'2017-12-12T21:20:00.000+02:00'
'0913fd64680b0e9bf25f7f11e00baa12000a7cd5'|'Goldman Sachs to have Labour over for tea as City seeks warmer ties'|' 09 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Goldman Sachs to have Labour over for tea as City seeks warmer ties Anjuli Davies , Andrew MacAskill 5   The British Labour Party’s would-be finance minister, John McDonnell, has accepted an invitation for talks at the Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs as it seeks better relations with a political party whose leaders have pilloried bankers. John McDonnell arrives at the BBC in London, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner Banks in London had hardly bothered to court Labour since 2015, when it elected the leftist Jeremy Corbyn as its leader - but are taking it more seriously after a strong election in which it deprived the Conservatives of their absolute majority and left Prime Minister Theresa May severely weakened. McDonnell’s spokesman said he had accepted Goldman’s invitation. “I said of course I would (meet),” McDonnell said in an interview with Bloomberg, which first reported news of the plan to meet a top executive. “We’ll even make him a cup of tea and throw in some Rich Teas (biscuits) as well.” There is clearly work to be done. The U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley has told investors political uncertainty is a bigger threat to Britain than Brexit, given the risk of Corbyn winning power and dismantling its free-market economy. Under Corbyn and McDonnell, Labour has shifted from the centrist pro-business platform of former prime minister Tony Blair to being more interventionist and left-wing - and Corbyn’s response was forthright. “Bankers like Morgan Stanley should not run our country but they think they do,” he said in a video posted on Twitter on Dec 1. “So when they say we’re a threat, they’re right: We’re a threat to a damaging and failed system that is rigged for the few.” SHIFT IN TONE But there are also signs of a shift in tone from both sides. After Labour’s unexpectedly strong gains with an anti-austerity message in June’s election, Barclays Bank Chairman John McFarlane praised Corbyn’s campaign as “bang on”. “What people soon realise is how serious we are about tackling some of the long-term economic problems the UK faces,” Jonathan Reynolds, the Labour party’s envoy for financial services, told Reuters on Tuesday, “and that we really do welcome their input into our policy development.” Nevertheless, Labour sees scope to extract more revenue from the City of London, home to more banks than any other financial centre. London vies with New York for the title of the world’s financial capital and dominates the $5.1-trillion-a-day global foreign exchange market; financial services contributed 11.5 percent of total UK government tax receipts in 2016. McDonnell has already met executives from Standard Chartered, the London Stock Exchange, the City of London Corporation, lawyers, lobbyists and accountants about Labour’s proposals to expand an existing tax on shares to include trading on other assets such as bonds and derivatives. FLEEING TAXES? Industry figures say such a tax could exacerbate the impact of Brexit by prompting more businesses to flee London. McDonnell also said on Monday that he had held discussions with Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Executive Ross McEwan after Labour said it wanted to break up the state-owned lender into smaller banks with a mandate to serve local areas. As a backbencher a decade ago, McDonnell attacked Goldman Sachs financiers for giving themselves multi-million pound bonuses at the height of the financial crisis. “The people and institutions who have brought us to the brink of recession are rewarding themselves by becoming even more filthy rich,” he said. In the past, McDonnell has said he wants to overthrow capitalism and nationalise banks, and praised Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s “Communist Manifesto”. “If we have Corbyn, we have Cuba without the sun,” Bobby Vedral, a London-based partner at Goldman Sachs, said recently. But others take a more pragmatic view. Mark Dowding, head of investment grade at BlueBay Asset Management, a specialist fixed income investor with $51.7 billion of assets under management, recently met McDonnell. “The thing I would observe is the portrayal of individuals such as McDonnell that are verging on the hysterical,” he said. “In meeting with individuals such as himself, we are struck by the fact that there is a degree of thoughtfulness and passion about them that is encouraging.” Additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, William James and Abhinav Ramnarayan in London; writing by John O''Donnell; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-politics-goldman-sachs/goldman-sachs-to-have-labour-over-for-tea-as-city-seeks-warmer-ties-idUKKBN1E61QD'|'2017-12-12T16:08:00.000+02:00'
'ba0395d755504da11426a469f2b24faa5a0b8a75'|'Glencore confirms dividend policy, EBIT guidance'|' 23 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Glencore confirms dividend policy, EBIT guidance Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Miner and trader Glencore on Tuesday in an update for investors said its 2017 marketing EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) would be at the top end of its previous guidance at $2.8 billion (2.1 billion pounds). FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Glencore in October had raised its marketing division’s full-year EBIT guidance to between $2.6 billion and $2.8 billion, reflecting higher raw materials prices. The company also confirmed its 2018 dividend policy would include a fixed dividend of $1 billion and said it would reactivate idled capacity “when appropriate”. The market has been waiting for news of when Glencore might bring back to the market zinc capacity idled in 2015 when commodity prices were crashing. Reporting by Barbara Lewis in London and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-glencore-investors/glencore-confirms-dividend-policy-ebit-guidance-idUKKBN1E60M9'|'2017-12-12T09:22:00.000+02:00'
'a8ebce3f4bfda0aab9ed54f0022868f0c9e40e3b'|'PepsiCo makes biggest public pre-order of Tesla Semis - 100 trucks'|'December 12, 2017 / 12:21 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago PepsiCo makes biggest public pre-order of Tesla Semis: 100 trucks Eric M. Johnson 3 Min Read SEATTLE (Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc ( PEP.N ) has reserved 100 of Tesla Inc’s ( TSLA.O ) new electric Semi trucks, the largest known order of the big rig, as the maker of Mountain Dew soda and Doritos chips seeks to reduce fuel costs and fleet emissions, a company executive said on Tuesday. Tesla has been trying to convince the trucking community that it can build an affordable electric big rig with the range and cargo capacity to compete with relatively low-cost, time-tested diesel trucks. Several transportation firms are holding off on the Tesla for now, citing uncertainty over the time it takes to recharge compared to a diesel fill-up, range, and payload capabilities and how the market for electric commercial vehicles will develop. About 260,000 heavy-duty Class-8 trucks are produced in North America annually, according to FTR, an industry economics research firm. Navistar International Corp ( NAV.N ) and Volkswagen AG’s Truck and Bus are working to launch an electric medium duty truck by late 2019, while rival Daimler AG has delivered the first of a smaller range of electric trucks to customers in New York. PepsiCo’s 100 trucks add to orders by more than a dozen companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ), fleet operator J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc ( JBHT.O ), and food service distribution company Sysco Corp ( SYY.N ). Tesla has at least 285 truck reservations in hand, according to a Reuters tally. FILE PHOTO: Tesla''s new electric semi truck is unveiled during a presentation in Hawthorne, California, U.S. on November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandria Sage/File Photo PepsiCo intends to deploy Tesla Semis for shipments of snack foods and beverages between manufacturing and distribution facilities and direct to retailers within the 500-mile (800-km) range promised by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk. The semi-trucks will complement PepsiCo’s U.S. fleet of nearly 10,000 big rigs and are a key part of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain by a total of at least 20 percent by 2030, said Mike O‘Connell, senior director of North American supply chain for PepsiCo subsidiary Frito-Lay. FILE PHOTO: Tesla''s new electric semi truck is unveiled during a presentation in Hawthorne, California, U.S. on November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandria Sage/File Photo PepsiCo is analyzing what routes are best for its Tesla trucks but sees a wide range of uses for lighter loads like snacks or shorter shipments of heavier beverages, O‘Connell said. Tesla declined to comment on its customers and potential customers to date. Tesla unveiled the Semi last month and expects the truck to be in production by 2019. O‘Connell declined to say how much PepsiCo paid to reserve its trucks, when it placed the order, or whether it plans to lease the trucks or buy them outright. Tesla initially asked $5,000 per truck for pre-orders but that amount has since risen to about $20,000. Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-pepsico-tesla-orders/pepsico-makes-biggest-public-pre-order-of-tesla-semis-100-trucks-idUKKBN1E61FB'|'2017-12-12T20:08:00.000+02:00'
'1fcd4c56b4001a7b0b83bff706811355ea38d730'|'Exclusive: Comcast drops bid for Fox assets, leaving Disney in pole position'|'December 11, 2017 / 10:06 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Comcast drops bid for Fox assets, leaving Disney in pole position Anjali Athavaley 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Comcast Corp said on Monday it had abandoned its bid for most of the assets of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, leaving Walt Disney Co as the sole suitor in pursuit of the $40 billion-plus deal. FILE PHOTO - The NBC and Comcast logo are displayed on top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, formerly known as the GE building, in midtown Manhattan in New York July 1, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Sources told Reuters last week that Disney was in the lead to acquire the assets, which include Fox’s FX and National Geographic cable channels, its movie studio, the Star network in India and stake in European pay-TV provider Sky PLC. The Murdoch family, which controls Fox, prefers a deal with Disney because it would rather be paid in Disney stock than Comcast stock, and expects a potential deal with Disney to be cleared by U.S. antitrust regulators more easily, one of the sources said. Comcast, the biggest cable provider in the United States, said in a statement on Monday that its discussions with Fox had ended. “When a set of assets like Fox’s becomes available, it is our responsibility to evaluate if there is a strategic fit that could benefit our company and our shareholders,” Comcast said. “That is what we tried to do and we are no longer engaged in the review of those assets. We never got the level of engagement needed to make a definitive offer.” FILE PHOTO - The Twenty-First Century Fox Studios logo is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The assets in question would have expanded Comcast’s international footprint through ownership of Sky and Star. A source told Reuters in mid-November that Comcast had approached Fox about its interest, and talks were in early stages. FILE PHOTO -A logo of Walt Disney company is displayed on a monitor outside of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Disney’s negotiations with Fox are continuing, and a deal could be reached as early as this month, sources close to the situation said on Monday. The persons asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Disney did not immediately respond to request for comment. A Fox representative declined to comment. Any potential deal will follow the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision last month to sue to block AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc. Comcast shares were up 1.5 percent in after-hours trading, while Disney shares were up 0.2 percent and Fox shares fell 1.3 percent. Reporting by Anjali Athavaley and Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-comcast-exclusive/exclusive-comcast-drops-bid-for-fox-assets-leaving-disney-in-pole-position-idINKBN1E52OM'|'2017-12-11T19:06:00.000+02:00'
'db6472a89c458017f09c6d01d13960050b274665'|'Australia''s Transurban Group to raise $1.43 billion to fund West Gate Tunnel Project'|'(Reuters) - Transurban Group Ltd ( TCL.AX ) said on Tuesday it would raise about A$1.9 billion ($1.43 billion) through an equity offer to fund its West Gate Tunnel Project.The company said in a statement it would carry out the capital raising at an offer price of A$11.40 per new security in a three for 37 entitlement offer.The company added that it had closed the contract with the Victorian State Government to build, toll and operate the West Gate Tunnel Project till 2045.The toll road developer had said earlier in the year that Cimic Group’s ( CIM.AX ) construction arm CPB Contractors and infrastructure developer John Holland had been selected as the preferred constructors for the West Gate Tunnel Project.Cimic said in a separate statement that the contract would generate revenue for CPB of about A$2.49 billion.The West Gate Tunnel Project is a government initiative to relieve traffic congestion in Melbourne.Transurban said that the total costs of the project would be about A$5.5 billion, of which the company would contribute A$4.0 billion with the rest to be borne by the state.Trading in the shares of the company will be halted till the completion of the equity raising.The company also reaffirmed its distribution guidance of 56.0 cents per share for fiscal 2018.($1 = 1.3287 Australian dollars)Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-transurban-fundraising/australias-transurban-group-to-raise-1-43-billion-to-fund-west-gate-tunnel-project-idINKBN1E52QZ'|'2017-12-11T19:46:00.000+02:00'
'69a4e029d6457c9e48a086290cc3bd8948a35dac'|'DoubleLine''s Gundlach says investors should add commodities in portfolios - CNBC'|' 33 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago DoubleLine''s Gundlach says investors should add commodities in portfolios - CNBC Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach said on Wednesday that his best investment idea for the new year is commodities, against the backdrop of increasing global economic activity and the valuation attractiveness of commodities relative to U.S. stocks. FILE PHOTO - Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “I think investors should add commodities to their portfolios,” said Gundlach on CNBC, pointing to the “remarkable” inverse relationship between the total return of the S&P 500 and the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index. “You go into these massive cycles,” he said. “The repetition of this is almost eerie. And so if you look at that chart the value in commodities is, historically, exactly where you want it to be a buy.” Gundlach noted that commodities are just as cheap relative to stocks as they were at turning points in previous cycles that began in the 1970s and 1990s. The S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index is up 5 percent this year, versus the S&P 500’s 19 percent gain. Fundamentals are also at play in commodities, Gundlach said. He pointed out that global economic activity is increasing, a tax cut could boost growth and the European Central Bank is implementing “absurd” stimulative policies in the euro zone. “I mean, GDP in Europe...Germany is higher than the U.S. for the last year-over-year in nominal terms,” he said. Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-funds-doubleline/doublelines-gundlach-says-investors-should-add-commodities-in-portfolios-cnbc-idUKKBN1E72NA'|'2017-12-13T20:32:00.000+02:00'
'7a6b7aaa31076540401e0f9bfb3d7878c462c5e1'|'Israel labor boss calls half-day strike for Sunday over Teva crisis'|'JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s Histadrut labor federation called a half-day general strike for Sunday, the first day of the Israeli work week, in protest at what it described as mass layoffs planned by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ).FILE PHOTO - A building belonging to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world''s biggest generic drugmaker and Israel''s largest company, is seen in Jerusalem February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun “The entire economy - from the airport to the banks to the seaports to the municipalities to the government service to the health clinics - will stand until noon on Sunday in solidarity with Teva’s employees,” Histadrut chief Avi Nissenkorn told reporters.Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Andrew Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-teva-pharm-ind-restructuring-strike/israel-labor-boss-calls-half-day-strike-for-sunday-over-teva-crisis-idINKBN1E72LZ'|'2017-12-13T15:29:00.000+02:00'
'77e1924d2d6ab8061d1d46f4c8acff1bfd78e4c5'|'Toyota, Panasonic to hold news conference at 1.30 a.m. ET'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:39 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Toyota, Panasonic consider joint development of EV batteries Naomi Tajitsu , Makiko Yamazaki 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) is considering making batteries for electric vehicles (EV) with Panasonic Corp ( 6752.T ), as it ramps up battery development to help meet its goal for green cars to comprise half of global sales by 2030. The joint announcement on Wednesday builds on an existing agreement under which Panasonic - a global market leader for automotive lithium-ion batteries - makes batteries for Toyota’s petrol-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The plan to co-operate more closely on batteries comes as automakers compete to develop more EVs in compliance with tightening regulations worldwide to reduce vehicle emissions. Toyota’s battery needs are likely to increase after it said last year it would add fully electric vehicles to its product line-up in the early 2020s, expanding a green-car strategy which has focused on plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles (FCV). “The auto industry faces many hurdles to developing next-generation batteries which are difficult for automakers or battery makers to tackle on their own,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a joint news conference. “It would be difficult for us to meet our 2030 goals given the current pace of battery development. That’s why we’re looking to Panasonic and other companies to help us develop ever-better cars and batteries.” Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda (L) and Panasonic Corp President Kazuhiro Tsuga attend a joint news conference in Tokyo, Japan, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Toyoda said the automaker’s annual sales target for petrol-electric and plug-in hybrids is 4.5 million vehicles by 2030, and 1.0 million units for EVs and FCVs. To that end, Toyota in September formed an EV technology venture with peer Mazda Motor Corp ( 7261.T ) and supplier Denso Corp ( 6902.T ). The venture reflects a trend of automakers and components makers partnering to develop the next-generation cars, to reduce research, development and manufacturing costs. Slideshow (11 Images) In Panasonic, Toyota is partnering the main battery supplier of major U.S. EV maker Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ). With a 29 percent market share, Panasonic is the world’s biggest supplier of batteries for plug-in hybrids and EVs, showed January-June data from Nomura Research. The pair plan to expand development of prismatic - flat, pouch-shaped - batteries with higher energy density. Panasonic already makes prismatic batteries for Toyota, whereas for Tesla, it makes cylindrical batteries of a type similar to those used in laptops. “Our cylindrical batteries are the most widely used batteries in pure EVs at the moment,” said Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga. “But when you look at the future, it’s difficult to gauge which format holds more demand potential.” “We need to be able to develop new battery technologies in a prismatic format, and this would be difficult on our own.” Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-panasonic/toyota-panasonic-to-hold-news-conference-at-1-30-a-m-et-idUSKBN1E707L'|'2017-12-13T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'43d861cc6450c505785283b65007b7f0dd5575e3'|'UPDATE 2-European stock, bond futures open on Eurex after delay'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:39 AM / Updated 2 hours ago UPDATE 2-European stock, bond futures open on Eurex after delay Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Recasts with open of futures and stock markets) LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The start of trading in government bond and stock market futures on the derivatives and futures exchange Eurex was delayed by around 50 minutes on Wednesday after the platform suffered “serious issues”. Eurostoxx 50 futures and DAX futures opened 0.1 percent lower after technical issues had delayed their opening. German, French, British and Italian government bond futures were little changed after the delayed opening. The opening of trading on Eurex at 0700 GMT was delayed as the exchange was experiencing “serious issues”. The technical problems had little impact on trading in cash government bond markets in the euro area, one of the biggest in the world, where active trading of prices could be seen shortly after 0700 GMT. There was also little impact on regional stock markets, which opened at 0800 GMT. Eurex is operated by Germany’s Deutsche Börse. German and French government bond futures are among the most actively traded contracts on Eurex. (Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe and Helen Reid; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eurozone-markets-eurex/update-1-european-stock-bond-futures-trading-delayed-eurex-platform-has-serious-issues-idUSL8N1OD155'|'2017-12-13T10:15:00.000+02:00'
'e03a64a248f1f9d50010fc2f81dd4306dbd6aa6c'|'Russian court rejects Siemens claim that Crimea turbines sale was invalid'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:58 AM / Updated 41 minutes ago Russian court rejects Siemens claim that Crimea turbines sale was invalid Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow’s Arbitration Court on Thursday rejected a claim by Germany’s Siemens that the sale of its turbines which were delivered to Crimea was invalid. FILE PHOTO: A flag with the logo of German technology firm Siemens is seen at its branch in Berlin, Germany, May 30, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo In August, the same court rejected a request by Siemens to seize its gas turbines, which had turned up in Crimea contrary to EU sanctions. Russia is under Western sanctions for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis, including Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Reuters was the first to report this year that Russian firms had shipped the Siemens turbines to Crimea, which has been subject to EU sanctions on energy technology. Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Maria Kiselyova'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ukraine-crisis-crimea-siemens-court/russian-court-rejects-siemens-claim-that-crimea-turbines-sale-was-invalid-idUKKBN1E80YH'|'2017-12-14T10:57:00.000+02:00'
'8de832f77127880b384f4cd6d984b33ea542405f'|'SNB sticks to expansive policy to tackle highly valued franc'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:50 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago SNB sticks to expansive policy to tackle highly valued franc John Revill 1 Min Read BERN (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank maintained its ultra-loose monetary policy stance on Thursday, saying it would keep its negative interest rates in place to combat the “highly valued” Swiss franc. A general view shows the building of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in Zurich, Switzerland November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The SNB kept the target range for its benchmark three-month interest rate at minus 1.25 percent to minus 0.25 percent, in line with expectations of analysts polled by Reuters. The SNB also maintained a negative interest rate of 0.75 percent on deposits of commercial banks at the national bank. Reporting by John Revill, editing by John Miller'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/swiss-snb-rates/snb-sticks-to-expansive-policy-to-tackle-highly-valued-franc-idINKBN1E80XN'|'2017-12-14T10:46:00.000+02:00'
'3796f240372724b420698f7c906e0e1387bf5ab0'|'Minority investors in M&C Hotels seek to block to resist takeover from CDL'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:55 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Minority investors in M&C Hotels seek to block to resist takeover from CDL Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A group of minority investors in Millennium & Copthorne Hotels ( MLC.L ) has rejected a takeover offer from the company’s majority shareholder and called on other investors to follow suit to defeat the offer, which values the business at 2 billion pounds. International Value Advisers, MSD Partners, and Classic Fund Management on Friday said they would not tender their shares into the “highly opportunistic” 620 pence a share offer made by City Developments Limited on Dec. 8 for the 34.8 percent of FTSE 250-listed M&C that it does not already own. The three investment firms said they represented about 37 percent of the shares targeted in CDL’s bid. The offer by CDL, the vehicle of Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, is conditional on it securing acceptances from investors with more than 50 percent of the stock it does not hold. The move by the trio marks an escalation of long-running investor opposition to CDL’s bid, which has already forced the Singaporean firm to raise its bid from a 552.5 pence per share proposal that M&C disclosed to the stock market on Oct. 9. CDL declared its 620 pence a share offer “final” when it made the bid earlier this month, meaning it cannot be increased again. Given that Kwek is also M&C’s chairman, the stance of the investors pits them against the head of the hotelier’s board. CDL’s bid has also been recommended by M&C’s independent directors. “We will not tender our shares into such an unattractive offer at any time to help CDL reach the acceptance threshold of its offer,” the three investors said in a letter to the independent directors. “It is our desire that other independent shareholders do the same once the offer is formally made, leaving the company to resume its business for the benefit of all its stakeholders.” Shares in the hotelier fell 2 percent to 575.5 pence. M&C owns, runs, invests in, or franchises a total of 137 hotels around the world and at issue is whether CDL’s offer reflects the value of the hotelier’s property assets. IVA, MSD and Classic argued in their letter that CDL’s bid “fundamentally undervalues” the hotelier, which had a book value of 822 pence per share at the end of 2016. Furthermore, that book value was based mainly on valuations from 2003 and so also “significantly understates the market value of the company’s assets,” the trio said. In October Fidelity International, another M&C shareholder, also criticised CDL’s earlier 552.5 pence a share offer for not reflecting the value of the company’s property portfolio. MSD is the firm that manages the family wealth of IT entrepreneur Michael Dell. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mill-cop-hotels-bid-cdl/minority-investors-in-mc-hotels-to-resist-takeover-from-cdl-idUKKBN1E825Z'|'2017-12-14T17:52:00.000+02:00'
'a486da566757d2c562de094d4490d14cf7dd3cee'|'Talks with possible buyers for airline Niki to start on Thursday'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:54 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Talks begin with possible buyers to save Austrian airline Niki Alexander Hübner , Kirsti Knolle 4 Min Read MUNICH/VIENNA (Reuters) - Niki’s administrator began urgent talks on Thursday to find a buyer for the insolvent Austrian carrier after a deal with Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) fell through and with the clock ticking before Niki loses its valuable runway slots. FILE PHOTO: An aircraft operated by German carrier Niki and Air Berlin sits on the tarmac of Berlin''s Tegel airport, Germany, August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo German flagship carrier Lufthansa scrapped plans to buy Niki on Wednesday due to competition concerns, grounding the airline’s fleet and stranding thousands of passengers in what its managing director said was a “national disaster for Austria”. A spokesman for Niki’s administrator said the carrier would lose its runway slots in a few days, one of the most attractive assets for possible buyers. In Europe, when airlines go bust, their take-off and landings slots are usually returned to a pool and redistributed unless a buyer is found for the airline business. Niki is owned by Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), which itself collapsed earlier this year. Air Berlin’s administrator Frank Kebekus said he hoped to agree a deal for Niki by the end of the year. “If we had that, then we can certainly take another week or two in January to finalize it,” he told rbb-Inforadio. Three to four parties are interested in taking over Niki, Wolfgang Katzian of Austrian union GPA told broadcaster ORF earlier on Thursday, without naming them. Before Air Berlin was carved up in October, former motor racing driver and Niki’s founder Niki Lauda offered around 100 million euros jointly with Thomas Cook’s ( TCG.L ) airline Condor for Niki plus 17 aircraft. He said on Wednesday that he was still interested but told ORF radio on Thursday that he would try to take over Niki without a partner. British Airways parent IAG ( ICAG.L ) has dropped out of the bidding. PASSENGERS AND STAFF WAIT AND HOPE Austria’s Transport Ministry estimated that about 5,000 Niki passengers could be stranded in the next two weeks. Many of them will be able to fly home on other airlines, but the ministry has started talks to charter some planes. It is also in talks to secure a bridge loan for Niki from the Finance Ministry in a bid to save the carrier’s nearly 1,000 jobs, Transport Minister Joerg Leichtfried told Austrian ORF radio. “There are deliberations to do something with bridge financing, under certain circumstances,” he said, adding talks on the matter were “very, very good”. Management addressed Niki’s workers at a townhall meeting at Vienna airport on Thursday, which one staff member said ended in a heated argument over their future. “Let’s wait and see whether we still get our salary... Questions on that were not answered,” Niki technician Sebastian van Ven, who attended the meeting after working the night shift, told Reuters. He said salaries for November were due to be paid on Dec. 28. German industry body BDL said German airlines would help return Niki passengers home by offering them available seats on their flights at “rescue fares”. Lufthansa’s Eurowings and tourism group TUI ( TUIT.L ) are also offering such fares. Additional   Bryan and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Edmund Blair and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-m-a-lufthansa/trade-unionist-says-several-parties-interested-insolvent-airline-niki-idUKKBN1E80NU'|'2017-12-14T15:50:00.000+02:00'
'290b1fb9bc8904c6e1de31e5f13ce8716b3abfc5'|'Steinhoff to restate 2016 financial results'|'Reuters TV United States December 13, 2017 / 9:03 PM / a few seconds ago Steinhoff to restate 2016 financial results Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Steinhoff International Holdings NV ( SNHG.DE ) said on Wednesday its consolidated financial results for 2016 will have to be restated and “can no longer be relied upon”. The company’s share price has plunged since announcing last week that its chief executive had quit and that it had found problems with its accounts which has delayed the reporting of its financial results. Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-steinhoff-intlnl-results-restatement/steinhoff-to-restate-2016-financial-results-idUKKBN1E72X8'|'2017-12-13T22:58:00.000+02:00'
'971fac6eb577e3abc9a1a6ce1feb86c01776054b'|'UK''s Wood Group sees 2017 core earnings of $590-$600 mln'|'December 13, 2017 / 8:20 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago UK''s Wood Group sees 2017 core earnings of $590-$600 mln Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 13 (Reuters) - Oilfield services company John Wood Group Plc, which bought smaller rival Amec Foster Wheeler earlier this year, said on Wednesday it expects 2017 core earnings of between $590 million and $600 million. Wood Group, which saw muted demand for its services after oil producers cut budgets amid weak oil prices, said there was better-than-expected outcome on some oil and gas projects even as its core oil and gas business remained challenging. The company said its annualised cost savings from the Amec integration was ahead of plan, and maintained its target of over $170 million by the end of the third year following deal completion. Wood said its pro forma 2017 results will include the results of Amec and heritage Wood Group from Jan. 1. It will also exclude results of Amec’s North Sea upstream business, North American nuclear operations and the disposed business of Global Power Group. Shares of Wood Group were little changed in early trading. British oil services companies, including Wood Group, Amec and Petrofac, have faced issues after UK’s Serious Fraud Office launched a criminal probe last July into Monaco-based Unaoil in connection with suspected bribery, corruption and money laundering. Wood Group, which has been carrying out its own investigation into the dealings with Unaoil, said it was cooperating with the SFO probe into Amec. The company said it was also complying with voluntary requests for information from the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/john-wood-outlook/uks-wood-group-sees-2017-core-earnings-of-590-600-mln-idUSL3N1OD2P9'|'2017-12-13T10:19:00.000+02:00'
'57f5b5dd8adfa9efb49d60419cc58c3625095b40'|'Greek top court clears way for U.S. extradition of Russian cybercrime suspect'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:32 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Greek top court clears way for U.S. extradition of Russian cybercrime suspect Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s top court cleared the way on Wednesday for the extradition to the United States of a Russian man, also wanted in Moscow, suspected of having laundered billions of dollars in the digital currency bitcoin. A final decision on where Alexander Vinnik is extradited to now lies with the Greek justice minister, who steps in to resolve competing requests. Vinnik, the alleged mastermind of a $4 billion bitcoin laundering ring, is one of seven Russians arrested or indicted worldwide this year on U.S. cybercrime charges. U.S. authorities accuse him of running BTC-e -- a digital currency exchange used to trade bitcoin -- to facilitate crimes ranging from computer hacking to drug trafficking since 2011. He denies the charges against him and says he was a technical consultant to BTC-e and not its operator. Since Vinnik’s arrest in a village in northern Greece in July, Moscow has also requested he be returned home, as it has done before with other nationals wanted by the United States. Vinnik has agreed to be returned to Russia, where he is wanted on lesser fraud charges amounting to 10,000 euros, but he appealed to the Greek Supreme Court against a ruling that he be extradited to the United States. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal on Wednesday. Bitcoin was the first digital currency to successfully use cryptography to keep transactions secure and anonymous, making it difficult to subject them to conventional financial regulations. The price of bitcoin has soared this year and hit another all-time high on Tuesday, two days after the launch of the first bitcoin futures contract on a U.S. exchange. Reporting by Constantinos Georgizas; Writing by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-greece-russia-extradition/greek-top-court-paves-way-for-u-s-extradition-of-russian-bitcoin-fraud-suspect-idUKKBN1E71K7'|'2017-12-13T15:32:00.000+02:00'
'967b187b963396f8d12c57070a9a853a41111917'|'Dixons Carphone profit slumps on weak mobile phone market'|' 17 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Dixons Carphone profit slumps on weak mobile phone market Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British electricals and mobile phone retailer Dixons Carphone on Wednesday reported a slump in first-half profit, hurt by a weak mobile market as customers hold on to handsets for longer. FILE PHOTO: A sign displays the logo of Dixons Carphone at the company headquarters in London, Britain August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The group, which trades as Currys, PC World and Carphone Warehouse in the UK and Ireland, Elkjop and Elgiganten in Nordic countries and Kotsovolos in Greece, said it would reposition its mobile business to deliver a simpler, less capital-intensive operation. Dixons Carphone made an underlying pretax profit of 61 million pounds in the 26 weeks to Oct. 28. That compares to analysts’ average forecast of 63 million pounds and 144 million pounds made in the same period last year. Dixons Carphone issued a profit warning in August and its shares have more than halved this year. It said group like-for-like sales rose 4 percent in the first half, and were up 3 percent in the second quarter. The group said it expected to deliver full year 2017-18 underlying pretax profit of 360-400 million pounds versus guidance in August of 360-440 million pounds. Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dixons-carphone-results/dixons-carphone-profit-slumps-on-weak-mobile-phone-market-idUKKBN1E70NK'|'2017-12-13T09:16:00.000+02:00'
'abae98b8fb25d0fadf98ce842ae5e6625529adc0'|'Airbus leadership under fire as crisis deepens'|'Reuters TV United States December 13, 2017 / 12:22 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Airbus leadership under fire as crisis deepens Tim Hepher , Cyril Altmeyer 5 Min Read TOULOUSE/PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus is engulfed in a fresh bout of speculation over the future of senior managers as corruption probes rattle the aerospace company and add fuel to a long-running clash of egos at the top, people familiar with the group said. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders attends a ceremony during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Board directors meeting on Thursday are seeking to contain damage from multiple international fraud investigations over commercial and military sales, while getting a grip on what could become a chain reaction of departures, insiders said. “You can’t rule out a change of governance before the end of the year,” a senior source close to the company said. Others are more cautious, pointing to 2018 as the pivotal period for a company enjoying a record share price but struggling to maintain its sales position against rival Boeing. So far, investors have been sanguine about the impact of investigations and a loss of sales momentum, but coupled with senior retirements, the sense of uncertainty is deepening. “You won’t recognize the company within 12-18 months,” a person who deals closely with Airbus said. Chief Executive Tom Enders has indicated he will not stay beyond his current term which ends in 2019, Le Figaro reported on Tuesday, reversing a position taken in April. Enders, who is seen as increasingly isolated after losing a top aide last week and facing a backlash over compliance reforms, has said his future is up to him and the board. “Reports of my demise are premature and exaggerated,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an aircraft delivery ceremony in Toulouse on Wednesday. In a move first reported by Reuters in October, the board has appointed head-hunters to examine fresh options for top posts, though the company insists this is a normal planning exercise. ‘WHO GOES AND IN WHAT ORDER?’ Industry sources have said Enders is expected to give up on a third term for a mixture of personal reasons and a recognition the board is looking for a fresh start to ease the chances of a settlement of corruption allegations. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders attends a ceremony during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The more pressing question, some company watchers say, is whether Enders will complete his current mandate and stay through 2018. Enders, who turns 59 this month, has said he is focused solely on his mandate to 2019. He recently won the board’s backing amid a flurry of negative press reports. That in turn has raised speculation whether his deputy and long-time internal rival Fabrice Bregier will ride out the storm and fulfill a long-held ambition to succeed Enders. Only a handful of people expect Bregier, who is in charge of delivering on a record order backlog that underpins the share price, to stay for long if it becomes clear he is no longer Enders’ automatic heir. FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders arrives to attend a ceremony during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau He has been occasionally linked with energy firm Engie. But so far he has appeared strongly committed to Airbus and one person who has known both executives for years said Bregier was still expected to succeed Enders. La Tribune newspaper reported Bregier had agreed to leave in February next year, but in a statement issued from Asia where he is visiting customers, Bregier dismissed such speculation. “I am surprised by information reported by the press about my imminent departure,” Bregier said. “I only have one priority: to meet Airbus targets (including) the delivery of more than 700 aircraft this year.” Festering animosity between Bregier and Enders boiled over earlier this year in a row over who should control the powerful jet sales department - a spat first disclosed by Reuters. The two are now locked in a battle for survival which could leave both of them vulnerable, insiders said. Both have told visitors they expect the other to go, but sources disagree whether Enders is maneuvering for Bregier’s early departure as their power battle intensifies. “The question is who goes and in what order,” a source close to the company said. A person close to Enders denied speculation of a management crisis, adding “we are taking all the necessary decisions, the company is running well, we are active in the (aircraft) market and we are delivering on our targets.” Succession plans and operational priorities will be discussed by the board on Thursday, but a source familiar with the agenda said it would not likely be a decisive session. Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-management/airbus-leadership-under-fire-as-crisis-deepens-idUKKBN1E71J7'|'2017-12-13T21:19:00.000+02:00'
'335057e76b58303db577e77c0f155c77daf1f75f'|'Fears of Israeli job cuts at Teva sparks call for general strike'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:09 PM / Updated an hour ago Fears of Israeli job cuts at Teva sparks call for general strike Tova Cohen 3 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Reports that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ) is planning a restructuring involving mass layoffs in Israel sparked calls on Wednesday for a half-day general strike to be held in protest. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world''s biggest generic drugmaker and Israel''s largest company, is seen in Jerusalem February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo The plan includes closing Teva’s research and development centre in the coastal city of Netanya, selling its logistics centre in Shoham and cutting 3,300 jobs out of 6,430 nation-wide, the Israeli financial news website Calcalist reported. Teva ( TEVA.N ), the world’s largest generic drug maker which employs more than 56,000 people, did not comment on the details of the report. But it confirmed there was a restructuring plan that it would discuss in a 1300 GMT conference call on Thursday. Saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt since acquiring Allergan’s ( AGN.N ) Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion, Teva made a series of changes after Kare Schultz joined as its new chief executive on Nov. 1. Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said only that he was following the situation closely. Avi Nissenkorn, chief of the Histadrut labour federation, declared a half-day general strike for Sunday, the beginning of the Israeli work week. “The entire economy - from the (Ben Gurion) airport to the banks to the seaports to the municipalities to the government service to the health clinics - will stand until noon on Sunday in solidarity with Teva’s employees,” Nissenkorn told reporters. He predicted mass layoffs under the Teva restructuring plan, which he described as “ruinous” for a company that was long a symbol of Israeli enterprise. One of the plants earmarked for sale, Calcalist said, is the Teva Tech factory in Israel’s southern Negev desert. It produces raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry and employs 870 workers, according to Teva’s website. “This is a young plant ... and hundreds of millions of shekels of Israeli government money were invested here,” Meir Babayoff, chairman of the Negev region in the Histadrut, told Israel Radio. He vowed to stop any layoffs and called on Israel’s government “to wake up”. Last week Bloomberg reported that the firm was considering cutting up to 10,000 jobs to reduce costs by $1.5 billion to $2 billion in the next two years. Teva said on Tuesday that Yitzhak Peterburg, who previously served as its chairman and interim CEO, had resigned from its board with immediate effect. Schultz ousted top division heads last month and said he would combine the firm’s generic and specialty drug businesses. He had also said Teva was working on a detailed restructuring plan to be unveiled in mid-December. Additional reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Alexander Smith, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-teva-pharm-ind-restructuring/fears-of-israeli-job-cuts-at-teva-sparks-call-for-general-strike-idUKKBN1E72Q8'|'2017-12-13T21:08:00.000+02:00'
'7980af10d081c1d9a1203415b1f35b4ccc02219f'|'Debt-laden Carillion secures deal to sell part of UK healthcare unit'|'(Reuters) - Troubled British construction firm Carillion ( CLLN.L ) said on Wednesday it had reached a deal to sell a large part of its UK healthcare facilities management business to outsourcing group Serco ( SRP.L ) for about 47.7 million pounds ($63.55 million).A Carillion sign can be seen on a van in Manchester, Britain July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Carillion said in September said it intended to exit the business and announced it had a preliminary agreement for selling a large part of it to Serco for 50.1 million pounds.Carillion said net disposal proceeds of 41.4 million pounds would be used to prepay of part of a 140 million pound credit.The firm, which has said it was heading towards a breach of debt covenants and needed fresh capital, had said it would exit its UK healthcare and Canadian businesses to help raise more than 300 million pounds by the end of 2018 from disposals.Lazard & Co is acting as lead financial adviser and sponsor to Carillion for the healthcare unit sale.Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-carillion-divestiture-serco-group/debt-laden-carillion-secures-deal-to-sell-part-of-uk-healthcare-unit-idINKBN1E70QC'|'2017-12-13T04:53:00.000+02:00'
'83f9125b1316dd3d15938eca268e8a07c315a328'|'Carlsberg moves closer to Habeco deal in Vietnam'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:52 AM / a few seconds ago Carlsberg moves closer to Habeco deal in Vietnam Reuters Staff 2 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish brewer Carlsberg ( CARLb.CO ) has edged closer to reaching an agreement with the Vietnamese government to increase its stake in Habeco BHN.HM, one of Vietnam’s biggest brewers, which it hopes will speed up the process. FILE PHOTO: Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo Vietnam has one of the world’s most attractive beer markets and the biggest in Southeast Asia, buoyed by a young population that consumed nearly 4 billion liters last year. The government wants to fully divest its majority stake in Habeco and also in rival Sabeco SAB.HM. Carlsberg, which already owns 17.3 percent of shares in Habeco, has been discussing its priority purchase rights with the Vietnamese government for years. “Carlsberg, the Vietnamese government and Habeco have reached a common understanding on a number of issues during the negotiations, and we expect this will accelerate the process,” a Carlsberg spokesman said. Most recently, Carlsberg has acknowledged its long-term obligations in Vietnam with regards to Habeco and the oldest beer brand in Hanoi, he said without elaborating. The government said last month it expects a stake sale in Habeco to be completed in the first quarter of 2018. The government is pushing ahead with a privatization process against the backdrop of a rally in Vietnam’s broader equity market. Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-habeco-sale-carlsberg/carlsberg-moves-closer-to-habeco-deal-in-vietnam-idUKKBN1E70PS'|'2017-12-13T09:44:00.000+02:00'
'f08abbd3e14a0a6669d536b50dbcbe9a3675d5a3'|'Airbus leadership under fire as crisis deepens'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:21 PM / in 8 minutes Airbus leadership under fire as crisis deepens Tim Hepher , Cyril Altmeyer 5 Min Read TOULOUSE/PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus is engulfed in a fresh bout of speculation over the future of senior managers as corruption probes rattle the aerospace company and add fuel to a long-running clash of egos at the top, people familiar with the group said. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders attends a ceremony during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Board directors meeting on Thursday are seeking to contain damage from multiple international fraud investigations over commercial and military sales, while getting a grip on what could become a chain reaction of departures, insiders said. “You can’t rule out a change of governance before the end of the year,” a senior source close to the company said. Others are more cautious, pointing to 2018 as the pivotal period for a company enjoying a record share price but struggling to maintain its sales position against rival Boeing. So far, investors have been sanguine about the impact of investigations and a loss of sales momentum, but coupled with senior retirements, the sense of uncertainty is deepening. “You won’t recognize the company within 12-18 months,” a person who deals closely with Airbus said. Chief Executive Tom Enders has indicated he will not stay beyond his current term which ends in 2019, Le Figaro reported on Tuesday, reversing a position taken in April. Enders, who is seen as increasingly isolated after losing a top aide last week and facing a backlash over compliance reforms, has said his future is up to him and the board. “Reports of my demise are premature and exaggerated,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an aircraft delivery ceremony in Toulouse on Wednesday. In a move first reported by Reuters in October, the board has appointed head-hunters to examine fresh options for top posts, though the company insists this is a normal planning exercise. ‘WHO GOES AND IN WHAT ORDER?’ Industry sources have said Enders is expected to give up on a third term for a mixture of personal reasons and a recognition the board is looking for a fresh start to ease the chances of a settlement of corruption allegations. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders attends a ceremony during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The more pressing question, some company watchers say, is whether Enders will complete his current mandate and stay through 2018. Enders, who turns 59 this month, has said he is focused solely on his mandate to 2019. He recently won the board’s backing amid a flurry of negative press reports. That in turn has raised speculation whether his deputy and long-time internal rival Fabrice Bregier will ride out the storm and fulfill a long-held ambition to succeed Enders. Only a handful of people expect Bregier, who is in charge of delivering on a record order backlog that underpins the share price, to stay for long if it becomes clear he is no longer Enders’ automatic heir. FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders arrives to attend a ceremony during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau He has been occasionally linked with energy firm Engie. But so far he has appeared strongly committed to Airbus and one person who has known both executives for years said Bregier was still expected to succeed Enders. La Tribune newspaper reported Bregier had agreed to leave in February next year, but in a statement issued from Asia where he is visiting customers, Bregier dismissed such speculation. “I am surprised by information reported by the press about my imminent departure,” Bregier said. “I only have one priority: to meet Airbus targets (including) the delivery of more than 700 aircraft this year.” Festering animosity between Bregier and Enders boiled over earlier this year in a row over who should control the powerful jet sales department - a spat first disclosed by Reuters. The two are now locked in a battle for survival which could leave both of them vulnerable, insiders said. Both have told visitors they expect the other to go, but sources disagree whether Enders is maneuvering for Bregier’s early departure as their power battle intensifies. “The question is who goes and in what order,” a source close to the company said. A person close to Enders denied speculation of a management crisis, adding “we are taking all the necessary decisions, the company is running well, we are active in the (aircraft) market and we are delivering on our targets.” Succession plans and operational priorities will be discussed by the board on Thursday, but a source familiar with the agenda said it would not likely be a decisive session. Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-management/airbus-leadership-under-fire-as-crisis-deepens-idUSKBN1E71J7'|'2017-12-13T14:21:00.000+02:00'
'9d20e68a7a9f33f959534ee16f07f2df0422bd51'|'Dutch subsidiary of Russia''s Alfa Bank raided in money laundering inquiry'|' 45 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Dutch subsidiary of Russia''s Alfa Bank raided in money laundering inquiry Reuters Staff 2 Min Read AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch subsidiary of Russia’s Alfa Bank, owned by billionaire Mikhail Fridman, was searched last week as part of an investigation into possible money laundering, the Dutch financial crimes prosecutor said on Tuesday. Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB) is suspected of violating anti-money laundering laws by withholding information on “unusual transactions” made by clients and failing to do adequate background checks on its clients, the prosecutor’s office, FIOD, said in a statement. “The bank’s office has been searched and accounts were seized as part of a criminal investigation”, FIOD spokeswoman Marieke van der Molen said. ATB said on Wednesday that a new management team since 2014 has focused on “bringing compliance and risk management standards in line with best practices”. “The investigation focuses on a client portfolio that ceased to be part of the bank’s business some years ago,” it said in a statement. “Clearly, ATB has cooperated and will continue to cooperate with the investigation.” ATB, part of the Alfa Bank Group, mainly provides trade financing to companies doing business in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union and had total assets worth 1.3 billion euros (1.1 billion pounds) at the end of last year, according to its most recent annual report. The bank has come under financial stress in recent years due to the Russian economic crisis and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which damaged its creditworthiness. The bank also became entangled in a corruption scandal in which telecom company Veon, formerly known as Vimpelcom, paid $795 million to Dutch and U.S. authorities in 2016 to settle claims of bribery in Uzbekistan. Fridman’s investment vehicle, LetterOne, owns roughly 48 percent of Veon shares. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, accounts of ATB, amongst others, were used to pay the bribes by Vimpelcom. Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Anthony Deutsch/Susan Fenton/Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-netherlands-russia-bank/dutch-subsidiary-of-russias-alfa-bank-raided-in-money-laundering-inquiry-idUKKBN1E7105'|'2017-12-13T11:44:00.000+02:00'
'4ab8a4a65df7cafb297a02f32aaf25bc8dafddcb'|'U.S. consumer prices increase, but core CPI moderates'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:39 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago U.S. core inflation slows, puts spotlight on 2018 interest rate outlook Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Underlying U.S. consumer inflation slowed in November, held down by weak healthcare costs and the biggest drop in apparel prices in nearly two decades, which could impact the pace at which the Federal Reserve raises interest rates next year. FILE PHOTO: A shopper walks in the Old Town shopping area of Pasadena, California, U.S. June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Inflation has moderated for much of this year, leading to concern among some Fed officials that the factors holding back price pressures could prove more persistent. The U.S. central bank on Wednesday increased borrowing costs for a third time this year, encouraged by a tightening labor market and strengthening economy. It forecast three rate hikes in 2018. “The lack of a sustained pickup in core CPI does make the Fed deliberations about the pace of monetary policy tightening next year more complicated,” said Kathy Bostjancic, head of U.S. macro investor services at Oxford Economics in New York. The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index excluding the volatile food and energy components ticked up 0.1 percent also as prices for airline fares and household furnishing fell. The so-called core CPI advanced 0.2 percent in October. As a result, the annual increase in the core CPI slowed to 1.7 percent in November from 1.8 percent in October. The Fed has a 2 percent inflation target. The central bank’s preferred inflation measure, the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, has consistently undershot its target for almost 5-1/2 years. The overall CPI increased 0.4 percent in November after edging up 0.1 percent in October. That raised the year-on-year increase in the CPI to 2.2 percent from 2.0 percent in October. Prices for U.S. Treasuries rose on the core CPI data and the Fed’s interest rate decision, while the dollar fell against a basket of currencies. Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher. FISCAL STIMULUS Economists believe inflation will rise next year after Republicans in the U.S. Congress approved plans for sweeping tax cuts, including slashing the corporate income tax rate to about 20 percent from 35 percent. The fiscal stimulus will come at a time when the economy is almost at full employment. “This expectation supports our forecast for the Fed to raise its policy rate four times next year after increasing it today,” said Mickey Levy, chief economist for Americas and Asia at Berenberg Capital Markets in New York. Last month, the cost of healthcare services slipped 0.1 percent, the first drop since May, with prices for doctor visits falling 0.8 percent. In the 12 months through November, the cost of doctor visits tumbled 1.8 percent, the biggest decline since records started in 1947. Apparel prices dropped 1.3 percent, the largest fall since September 1998, after dipping 0.1 percent in October. Economists said an unseasonably warm November probably contributed to the decline in apparel prices, as well as competition from online retailers like Amazon ( AMZN.O ). “It was one of the warmest Novembers on record, which means that people would have bought proportionally less full-price winter clothing and more discounted summer/fall clothing,” said Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics in Toronto. “If we’re right, clothing prices will snap back in December.” Owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence gained 0.2 percent after rising 0.3 percent in October. Gasoline prices rebounded 7.3 percent after falling 2.4 percent in October. Food prices were unchanged for a second straight month. Prices for new motor vehicles rose 0.3 percent after two straight monthly declines. There were also increases in prices of alcohol, mobile phone services and tobacco. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-inflation/u-s-consumer-prices-increase-but-core-cpi-moderates-idUSKBN1E71QM'|'2017-12-13T15:40:00.000+02:00'
'8abcd82f7574179580ab3e974bd770e8efb3d1d1'|'Some Irish-based Ryanair pilots to strike on December 20 - union'|' 15 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Some Irish-based Ryanair pilots to strike on December 20 - union Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish-based pilots employed directly by Ryanair and who are members of the IALPA pilots union served notice of a one-day strike on Tuesday in a dispute over the airline’s collective bargaining system, the umbrella IMPACT trade union said. A Ryanair aeroplane prepares to land at Dublin airport in Dublin, Ireland September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The pilots, whom IMPACT said were mostly captains, will withdraw their labour on Dec. 20 in a strike the union predicted will either disrupt flights or generate substantial costs to the airline. It warned of further strike days if agreement is not reached on the airline’s bargaining with staff. In response to the vote in favour of action on Monday, Ryanair, which does not recognise trade unions, said the ballot represented less than 28 percent of its Dublin pilots and warned they would lose favourable rosters and remuneration benefits if the were “misled into industrial action.” Reporting by Padraic Halpin, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-strike/some-irish-based-ryanair-pilots-to-strike-on-december-20-union-idUKKBN1E61S8'|'2017-12-12T16:15:00.000+02:00'
'b59c24ee39d9cf7073d9ca1ef34f59186b43c973'|'Russian businessman Berezkin considers buying coal power plant from Enel'|'December 12, 2017 / 5:57 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Russian businessman Berezkin considers buying coal power plant from Enel Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s ESN Group, controlled by businessman Grigory Berezkin, is considering buying the Reftinskaya coal power plant from Italy’s Enel, Berezkin told Reuters late on Monday. Enel, Italy’s biggest utility, has mandated Sberbank to arrange the sale of the plant as it was switching to the renewable business, including the wind power. Enel is one of several foreign firms which bought into the Russian power sector in the last decade when the state monopoly was broken up. “We don’t exclude this, we have done a due-dilligence, we are looking at this option,” Berezkin told Reuters when asked about his interest to buy the Reftinskaya plant. Enel Russia’s chief, Carlo Palasciano, told Reuters in September that the Italian company has received interest from potential buyers including from outside of Russia. Gazprom, the world’s top gas producer, was also considering to buy into Reftinskaya, after being approached by Sberbank with a proposal, Gazprom Energoholding head Denis Fedorov told Reuters in October. Enel had said earlier that the selling process was underway and all binding bids would probably be in place by the end of the year, while the sale was seen in the first quarter of 2018. Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-enel-plant-grigory-berezkin/russian-businessman-berezkin-considers-buying-coal-power-plant-from-enel-idUKKBN1E60FO'|'2017-12-12T07:56:00.000+02:00'
'edb66debacc2f317ee50ebb3925cf4720dfa0d0b'|'France-based Miner AMR starts bauxite production in Guinea'|' 00 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago France-based Miner AMR starts bauxite production in Guinea Reuters Staff 2 Min Read CONAKRY, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Paris-based miner AMR began production at its Guinean bauxite mine on Tuesday, aiming initially to produce between 6 and 10 million tonnes a year of the aluminium ore, the company said. Alliance Miniere Responsable (AMR) was founded by two French businessmen and major shareholders include former Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon and French telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel. A company statement said the mine’s output will all be sold to Societe Miniere de Boke, a Guinean company whose main shareholders are Singapore’s privately-owned Winning International Group and China’s Shandong Weiqao. Guinea has about a third of the world’s bauxite reserves, but annual production has hovered below 20 million tonnes a year for several years, owing largely to political instability. In 2017, SMB expects to export more than 15 million tonnes of bauxite, putting it on a par with number one producer Guinea Bauxite Company (CBG), majority owned by Alcoa, Rio Tinto and Dadco. Until 2015, CBG and Russia’s Rouski Alumini were the only companies that exported bauxite from Guinea. Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Dakar; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/guinea-mining/france-based-miner-amr-starts-bauxite-production-in-guinea-idUSL8N1OC4XN'|'2017-12-12T16:58:00.000+02:00'
'eba3b77e0d52bb3b84f3b477a90e71637629feb3'|'Renault, China''s Brilliance Auto form light commercial vehicle venture'|'December 15, 2017 / 11:12 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Renault, China''s Brilliance Auto form light commercial vehicle venture Norihiko Shirouzu 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Renault and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd have formed a joint venture to design and manufacture light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in China, with an aim to sell 150,000 such vehicles a year by 2022, the two firms said on Friday. The logo of Renault is seen during the 87th International Motor Show at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland March 8, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The venture, Renault-Brilliance-Jinbei Automotive Co, will have manufacturing operations in Shenyang, the provincial capital of Liaoning, they said in a joint statement. It plans to produce and sell multi-purpose vans and commercial vans under the Jinbei, Renault and Huasong brands. The move comes as demand in China for LCVs is expected to rise significantly, especially for electric commercial vans, which Beijing is encouraging in its polluted and congested city centres, in addition to electric cars. Renault and Brilliance said their goal is to “achieve… an acceleration of electrifying power trains” as part of the partnership, without further elaboration. Ford Motor Co is overhauling its China plans in order to reinvigorate its business in the world’s biggest auto market which has struggled to grow this year. As part of that review, Ford will likely focus on electric commercial vans – a shift that fits well with the company’s reckoning that a best play globally for electrification and autonomous driving might be in commercial and delivery vehicles. To form the new LCV JV, Renault is purchasing a 49 percent equity interest in Shenyang Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co (SBJ), Brilliance’s existing LCV unit, they said. SBJ is being restructured into a JV owned 51 percent by Brilliance China and 49 percent by Renault. The companies had signed a framework cooperation agreement to pursue the formation of the JV in July. Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-renault-china/renault-chinas-brilliance-auto-form-light-commercial-vehicle-venture-idUKKBN1E9162'|'2017-12-15T13:11:00.000+02:00'
'e73ed599e88e084cb5aa5bf989d91f78ce5b299e'|'Canadian Solar CEO offers to take company private'|'(Reuters) - Canadian Solar Inc ( CSIQ.O ) said on Monday it received a letter from its Chief Executive Shawn Qu to take the company private.The solar company said Qu, its largest shareholder, has offered to buy all of the outstanding shares he and his wife Hanbing Zhang do not already own for $18.47 per share.The offer represents a 7.1 percent premium to Canadian Solar’s Friday close. Qu and Zhang own about 23.5 percent of the company’s shares.Canadian Solar’s shares, which have risen nearly 42 percent this year, were halted in premarket trading on Monday.The company had a market cap of $1.07 billion, according to Reuters calculations.Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D''Couto '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canadian-solar-m-a/canadian-solar-ceo-offers-to-take-company-private-idUSKBN1E51BK'|'2017-12-11T20:23:00.000+02:00'
'ca7b5b2bd80f30c45325fc8f3799039ec701d39e'|'Want cheaper British car insurance? Mind how you shop'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:07 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Want cheaper British car insurance? Mind how you shop 7   Ever wondered what your shopping habits say about your driving? Britain’s big supermarkets have. FILE PHOTO: Shopping trolleys are seen at a Tesco Express in southwest London September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo The two biggest, Tesco ( TSCO.L ) and Sainsbury’s ( SBRY.L ), are offering discounts on financial products such as car insurance based on the predictability of people’s shopping, a step beyond the traditional route of price cuts in return for brand loyalty. Banks and insurance companies around the world are exploring using customers’ data to better price financial products but few have links to supermarkets accounting for almost half of a country’s grocery market as Tesco and Sainsbury’s do. Sainsbury’s Bank Chief Executive Peter Griffiths told Reuters the supermarket chain’s bank customers, of which there are 1.8 million, can get cheaper offers on products such as home and car insurance based on what else they buy and how they shop. ”Our strategy is to be the bank for the Sainsbury’s shopper, and we’re uniquely placed to use the power of data to offer better prices and products,” Griffiths said. The supermarket chain said in one example it uses data from its Nectar card loyalty scheme to track shoppers whose regular, predictable pattern of visits to stores shows they plan ahead, characteristics associated with being a more cautious and safer driver. Such people are offered cheaper car insurance. The practice is entirely legal but some experts say it is too intrusive. “People like me have been warning about this sort of thing for a very long time; we’d been talking about it as a theoretical for a while and waiting for real examples,” said Paul Bernal, an expert in internet privacy and companies’ use of personal data at the University of East Anglia. Bernal said the trend rings a number of alarm bells. If the data provide an overly accurate picture of the customer’s lifestyle and behavior, that could breach their privacy, while if the data are, conversely, misleading, that could lead to the customer being unfairly treated, he said. The retailer does not look at individual items purchased when pricing insurance policies, but rather a range of ‘anonymised’ purchases that can collectively show behavioral tendencies, Sally Marshak, a spokeswoman for Sainsbury‘s, said. Tesco, Britain’s largest retailer whose bank holds 8 million accounts, similarly uses data from its Clubcard loyalty scheme to offer discounts of up to 25 percent on car, home and pet insurance products. “We use a range of data and criteria when assessing a customer’s eligibility for our products, however, as an extra help for customers, for some of our products we also use Clubcard data to offer them even better value,” Chris Sibbald, a spokesman for the company, said. Campaigners like Bernal said the practice could leave some customers worse off based on their behavior, in ways they might not understand. For example, those who do not buy the right products or shop in the right way could miss out on discounts without realizing. The retailers said they took that into account. “We’re not just looking at how people fill up cars at Tesco petrol stations and whether they do that at night, because they might be a taxi driver for example and there’s a reason for it, but together with other data you can build a picture,” Sibbald said. Both supermarket groups said data are only used to offer discounts to some shoppers, never to increase prices. “We’re trying to understand people’s shopping habits, and then see how can you use that to tailor the products and offer some of them a better price. The key thing is we don’t use it to up-price people,” Sibbald said. POWER OF DATA FILE PHOTO: A shopper browses items at a Sainsbury''s store in London, Britain, October 11, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Tesco and Sainsbury’s are Britain’s two biggest retail chains, with a combined market share of the 192 billion pounds ($256.76 billion) a year grocery market of 45 percent, according to consumer research company Kantar Worldpanel. They both have long-established loyalty schemes allowing customers to earn points and rewards for spending on groceries, giving them a rich database of shopping habits to help with marketing. Sainsbury‘s, for example, offers shoppers who buy pet food discounts of up to 12.5 percent on pet insurance. It is not unusual for companies to gather and use information in this way. Life insurers are exploring analyzing social media to lower rates for people who are upbeat on Twitter, for example, while some motor insurers offer discounts to motorists who exhibit safe driving behavior after installing a tracking device.[nL8N1CR2O4] But campaigners say the supermarket chains could end up with an unfair advantage due to the power of the data they hold. The retailers’ banking units offer in-store shoppers a range of banking products such as credit cards, insurance and loans, taking advantage of the regular contact with potential customers at a time when Britain’s big banks are slashing branches. FILE PHOTO: Shopping baskets are displayed at a Sainsbury''s store in London, Britain April 30, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo “The thing people don’t understand about big data is that it is fertile and generates new data, so the more a company knows about your spending habits, the more valuable each new piece of information is in predicting your actions,” said Joe McNamee, executive director at European Digital Rights (EDRi), a Brussels-based association of civil rights organizations focused on digital rights and freedoms. NEW RULES One potential source of protection is a new set of laws, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is aimed at overhauling how companies handle customer data and comes into force in May 2018. Britain’s government published a draft bill in September that would implement the bulk of GDPR. While the rules are intended to harmonize data protection laws across Europe, they also give people better access to data held on them by companies and oblige companies to do more to get permission to obtain such data. GDPR includes some restrictions on companies ‘profiling’ customers by using data about them to predict their preferences or actions, requiring customers to offer their consent. Supermarket chains comply with the rules by including a privacy policy in the terms and conditions of loyalty card schemes that customers consent to when signing up. UEA’s Bernal said most shoppers likely do not realize those implications. “There is an issue around informed consent here, I don’t think people realize what they are signing up to, if they even read the terms and conditions at all,” he said. It remains to be seen whether the implementation of the new rules will do enough to stave off concerns about privacy and competition as big companies benefit exponentially with each new recorded purchase. “I’ve not seen many examples like this,” said EDRi’s McNamee about the supermarkets’ use of data to price financial products. “The issue of big data is something that society hasn’t got to grips with yet, but there are big companies now that know more about you than you know about yourself.” ($1 = 0.7478 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-supermarkets-data-insight/want-cheaper-british-car-insurance-mind-how-you-shop-idUKKBN1E71TV'|'2017-12-13T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'9481703cb4c8a355f904fb59518a60d1e6f82791'|'UPDATE 1-BHP hires four banks for U.S. shale exit ahead of early 2018 deadline - sources'|'(Adds Update 1 tag in headline)* Chart on BHP lagging peers reut.rs/2ju1s1g* BHP hires Barclays, Citi, BAML and GSBy Clara Denina and David FrenchLONDON/NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters) - BHP , the world’s largest miner, has asked four investment banks to help it prepare for either a sale or spin-off of its underperforming U.S. shale oil and gas unit, with a view to taking a decision in early 2018, sources said.BHP said in August it aimed to sell its unconventional onshore shale assets in the Eagle Ford, Permian, Haynesville and Fayetteville basins, which it acquired at the height of the oil boom and could be valued at more than $10 billion.It has hired Barclays and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to assess options for the sale of assets, including whether they would be sold together or separately, as they may appeal to different potential buyers, the sources said.It has also asked Citi and Goldman Sachs to research the potential spin-off of the unit into a new company, the sources added.BHP, Citi, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch declined to comment. Barclays and Goldman Sachs did not reply to a request for comment.Although global oil prices have steadied after sinking to multi-year lows of $27 a barrel in 2016, they remain some 40 percent lower than the $112 highs hit in 2014.The company is now pursuing two potential exits: a sale of the assets or separation into a standalone company, which is usually a tax-free solution for the parent company.BHP will keep its conventional assets in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Australia and Trinidad and Tobago.BAD BETS The miner’s entire petroleum division, valued at more than $20 billion, was its second-biggest earner behind iron ore until 2014.But bad bets on U.S. shale and collapsing oil and gas prices turned it into a big drag from 2015. As a result, U.S. activist investor Elliott Advisors, which has built up a 5 percent stake in BHP’s London-listed arm, urged the sale of the whole U.S. petroleum business to help boost shareholder value.Hurt by the oil pain plus the woes from a dam disaster in Brazil in late 2015 at a mine it half owns, the miner’s share performance this year so far was the weakest compared to major peers Rio Tinto , Glencore and Anglo American. BHP is the biggest by market capitalization of them all.“Splitting the business into a standalone company would give shares back to shareholders,” one of the sources said.However, they all pointed out that this could be a problem because BHP’s shareholders are mostly mining investors who wouldn’t want to be holding oil shares.The company could consider selling some or all of the shares of the newly formed company to the market via a public listing, with the proceeds of such an offering going to BHP shareholders.This would be the second demerger in three years for the company, which spun off its aluminum, manganese, nickel, silver and coal assets into South32 in 2015.The mining company will run the sale of its gas-rich Fayetteville field in Arkansas, for which it hired Barclays back in May, separately, one of the sources said.Bankers expect companies like Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Statoil and Exxon Mobil to be interested in the Permian assets, viewed as the highest quality, while Eagle Ford may be less attractive as a single asset and may need to be sold in parts.Its Hayensville assets will likely attract interest from private equity buyers, sources added.Additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in London; graphic by Helen Reid; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bhp-divestiture-shale/update-1-bhp-hires-four-banks-for-u-s-shale-exit-ahead-of-early-2018-deadline-sources-idINL8N1NQ5LB'|'2017-12-12T09:32:00.000+02:00'
'91730a564d58e4e7dee5c8b45354aef602961081'|'WTO struggles to hone global trade vision after U.S. turnabout'|' 30 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago WTO struggles to hone global trade vision after U.S. turnabout Luc Cohen 3 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Trade ministers looked set to wrap up their biennial World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting without having reached a single agreement on Wednesday, still reeling from criticism brought by the United States, once the WTO’s driving force. China''s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen speaks next to European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom and Japan''s Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry while Morocco''s Secretary of State in charge of Foreign Trade Rakiya Eddarhem arrives during the Business Forum at the 11th World Trade Organization''s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci The ministers gathered in Buenos Aires were never expected to agree great reforms, with relatively minor and unrelated proposals on the table, including discussions on fishing subsidies and e-commerce. But a discordant intervention by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on the first morning effectively left the conference adrift, since the WTO requires consensus -- unanimity among all 164 members -- to reach any agreement. Even the perfunctory joint ministerial statement looked uncertain. A draft had already been blocked by the United States at ambassadorial level before the conference had even begun, due to U.S. objections to references to the WTO’s central role in the global trading system and to trade as a driver of development. Driven by President Donald Trump’s “America First” strategy and a preference for bilateral deals, the United States had already blocked drafting of a ministerial declaration in Geneva, rejecting references to the WTO’s central role in the global trading system and to trade as a driver of development. WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters that the chairwoman of the conference, Argentina’s former foreign minister Susana Malcorra, was still hoping to get ministers to agree on one text later on Wednesday. “There still seems to be significant gaps. Whether they can find wording that can bridge those gaps I don’t know,” Rockwell said. The failure to reach any major deals means that negotiations on the same topics will continue into 2018, with no deadline and no heavyweight ministerial momentum to get agreement. “It’s very appropriate to stay at this stage that we are in a forward-looking mode,” Rockwell said. “The focus of most of the work here is on work programs, and while there is disappointment that we couldn’t get a little further in terms of concrete outcomes, being able to nail down an effective work programme is very important.” Lighthizer told the WTO ministers on Monday that it was impossible to negotiate new rules while many of the current rules were not being followed, and that the WTO was losing its focus and becoming too litigation-focused. He said the WTO should make markets more efficient, reducing overcapacity and the influence of state-owned enterprises, widely seen as a swipe at China. Many trade experts disagree with parts of his analysis and are dismayed that the United States is vetoing new judicial appointments at the WTO, which has plunged the settlement of trade disputes into crisis. Ministers who followed Lighthizer onto the podium offered widespread support for the global trading system, with the WTO at its heart. Reporting by Luc Cohen; Writing by Tom Miles; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-trade-wto/wto-struggles-to-hone-global-trade-vision-after-u-s-turnabout-idUKKBN1E71IB'|'2017-12-13T14:29:00.000+02:00'
'c55bb99f51094d418ce3f69f4f0f8c412517ee41'|'EU leaders to make banking union, bailout fund priorities in euro zone overhaul'|'December 13, 2017 / 5:30 PM / Updated an hour ago EU leaders to make banking union, bailout fund priorities in euro zone overhaul Jan Strupczewski 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders are likely to decide on Friday to give priority in euro zone integration to completing its banking union and expanding the tasks of the euro zone bailout fund, leaving politically more difficult issues for later. Leaders of the EU’s 27 countries that will remain in the bloc after Britain leaves in March 2019 will discuss ways to deepen euro zone integration on Friday, starting six months of detailed talks by finance ministers. Euro zone leaders generally agree one aim of deeper integration is to better protect the 19 countries using the euro from financial crises. Another is to help rally the EU around the single currency. But French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker have widely differing view on what form greater integration should take. In a letter to the leaders, summit chairman Donald Tusk suggests they focus on three areas of “broad convergence”. The first two are the development of the euro zone bailout fund ESM and making it a backstop for the euro zone’s bank- resolution fund in an emergency -- an idea that has been on the cards since 2013. With no near-term prospect of a crisis, the issue is no longer controversial. Turning the bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund also has backing, Tusk said. The new fund would handle future bailouts together with the European Commission, eliminating the ECB and the International Monetary Fund, which has clashed with euro zone governments over debt relief for Greece over its latest bailout. Tusk said leaders also broadly agreed to set out when and under what conditions the euro zone could gradually introduce a European Deposit Insurance Scheme that would increase confidence in euro zone banks. MORE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS But at the heart of the debate are more difficult issues, like creating a euro zone budget and a finance minister and simplifying EU budget rules. Paris wants a euro zone budget of several hundred billion euros, while Berlin wants no budget at all. The Commission is proposing a euro zone line in the existing EU budget. Officials also talk of a rainy day fund, an unemployment insurance scheme and a fund to support investment in crisis. Macron would also like to see a euro zone finance minister in charge of the euro budget and the bailout fund. Germany is sceptical, unsure what powers such a position would carry. The Commission is proposing a third option - a European Minister of Economy and Finance who would be a senior Commission official in charge of all EU money, bailout fund included, and accountable to the European Parliament. This is anathema to euro zone governments, which see it as a power grab by EU institutions. Euro zone ministers say the 500 billion-euro lending capacity of the bailout fund is ultimately backed by their national budgets, so it cannot be EU money. Euro zone ministers also want EU budget rules, which set limits on government borrowing, to be simplified and the political discretion that the Commission now has in policing them to be more limited for greater predictability. Germany, Slovakia and others are pushing to introduce a sovereign insolvency mechanism, which would put market pressure on governments to conduct prudent fiscal policy. Countries with huge public debts, like Italy, are against. Tusk’s letter to leaders said there was no broad convergence on neither of the more difficult issues. “Leaders are encouraged to indicate whether they agree ... to mandate the (EU finance ministers) ... to take forward work on the above issues, giving priority to those where there is the largest degree of convergence,” Tusk said. Reporting By Jan Strupczewski, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-summit-eurozone/eu-leaders-to-make-banking-union-bailout-fund-priorities-in-euro-zone-overhaul-idUKKBN1E72HC'|'2017-12-13T19:30:00.000+02:00'
'496a5d2cea848be1b0060b7b2c0aaa93c327c764'|'WTO unlikely to reach final fishery deal during conference - spokesman'|'BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - World Trade Organization (WTO) members are unlikely to reach a final deal to curb fishery subsidies during the ministerial conference underway this week in Buenos Aires, spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters on Monday.A police officer stands as a man sweeps the floor at the headquarters of the 11th World Trade Organization''s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci Delegates of the 164-member body were instead discussing an “interim” deal, but remained divided on whether such a temporary agreement should contain exemptions for certain countries while negotiations for a final deal went ahead, Rockwell said.“It seems clear that we may not be able to get a final decision, so an interim decision on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is being discussed, it’s on the cards,” he said.The United States and 12 other countries said last year they would begin WTO negotiations to ban harmful fishery subsidies, which they said contributed to over fishing and over capacity in the sector or were linked to illegal fishing.The success of any deal is widely seen to rest on the willingness of China, which has resisted pressure to curb its vast fleet, to accept restrictions. China presented a plan last month to ban subsidies to IUU fishing vessels, but with exemptions for developing countries and areas subject to territorial disputes.“Overcapacity and over fishing - that’s something that has not been taken up here to any great extent because we’ve only got three days and they’re trying to put all their energies into things that are doable,” Rockwell said.Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Paul Tait '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/trade-wto-fisheries/wto-unlikely-to-reach-final-fishery-deal-during-conference-spokesman-idINKBN1E60AY'|'2017-12-12T05:52:00.000+02:00'
'8009bfb4c1d076accce7988d8335c14c5eed8d81'|'Bitcoin euphoria puts other retail bets in shade'|'(Reuters) - If you wondered why 18-year old twitterati and seasoned speculative traders alike have bet on bitcoin’s surge towards $20,000 this week, look no further than the comparison with the past year’s new stock exchange floatations.Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration As the below chart shows, the exchange-traded fund of Renaissance Capital that tracks a basket of newly floated companies after their initial public offerings has delivered a more than respectable 36 percent return so far in 2017.That surpasses the S&P 500 index''s .SPX 20 percent rise and is far better than last year when IPOs trailed behind an overall index fuelled by the Trumpflation trade and the cheap funds being pumped into markets by central banks.(For a graphic of the IPO ETF vs S&P 500 click reut.rs/2jxWIrw )Next to Bitcoin, however, it might as well be flat. The cryptocurrency has risen 1700 percent in value in the same period.(For a graphic of the Bitcoin vs IPO ETF vs S&P 500 click reut.rs/2jznjVg )That means $1000 invested in the U.S. IPO ETF at the beginning of this year was worth $1360 on Tuesday. Preferring bitcoin would have left the average amateur market punter with $17,545.The cryptocurrency has faced harsh criticism for lack of transparency and Wall street is largely divided on how it wants to view the currency. Several banks and central bankers have warned against its meteoric rise in its value.Chicago-based derivatives exchange Cboe Global Markets ( CBOE.O ) launched the futures late on Sunday, lending it some legitimacy and giving investors an exposure to the bitcoin market via a large, regulated exchange.Goldman Sachs has been arguing for some months that the lack of liquidity and increased volatility of bitcoin mean in the long run it cannot rival gold as a convincing term store of value.The market cap for bitcoin is still just $275 billion versus the world’s $8.3 trillion worth of gold.(For a graphic of Bitcoin vs Gold vs Oil click reut.rs/2yi8yas )Reporting by Ankur Banerjee and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-euphoria-puts-other-retail-bets-in-shade-idINKBN1E62O4'|'2017-12-12T21:25:00.000+02:00'
'4e8857f9dd3d0e79732d8ed8eb554eca41367e57'|'LPC-Banks line up €5.2bn for Unilever spreads sale'|'LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Banks are lining up around €5.2bn-equivalent of leveraged loans and high-yield bonds to back a potential acquisition of Unilever’s margarine and spreads business after final bids went in this week, banking sources said.Final bids for the business, which is worth around £6bn, were due on December 11 in a sale process run by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.The successful bidder is expected to be able to tap into debt financings comprising as much as €3.5bn-equivalent of senior secured term loans, €1bn-equivalent of subordinated high yield bonds and €700m-equivalent of revolving credit facility, the sources said.The financing is likely to be denominated in euros and dollars to tap liquidity on both sides of the Atlantic, the sources said.The financings equate to 6.0-7.0 times the business’s approximate €700m-€750m Ebitda, the sources said.If a successful bidder is announced before the year end, as expected, the financing could be one of the first out of the blocks for syndication in January, the sources said.Unilever was not immediately available to comment.The debt financings being worked on are significantly higher than the staple financing of €4bn-equivalent, or 5.0 times debt to Ebitda, being offered by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Mizuho.“The staple financing is now deemed to be conservative and the views on cost cutting and synergies will be driving some of these more aggressive terms,” a head of capital markets said.A number of bankers have a better understanding of Unilever’s margarine and spreads business since the launch of the sales process and its growth prospects under private equity ownership, the sources said.“Many banks have moved on from the staple. People understand the business better and there is a better appreciation of what private equity can bring to the party in terms of managing the brands and the products within it. There is great potential so bankers feel more comfortable piling on more debt,” a syndicate head said.The majority of banks are backing private equity bidders Apollo, KKR and CVC Capital Partners, in some instances backing two out of the three in an attempt to secure a spot on the large and lucrative underwritten financing, the sources said.However, given the amount of competition to win a place on the financing, there is no guarantee a bank will secure a mandate even if they have backed the right horse, the sources said.“Competition between the banks will be rife,” a banker said.The expectation is that the financing will comprise a large number of banks, in varying degrees of seniority, as there is a lot of RCF to sell, the sources said.“There could be around three banks at the top, followed by a second tier of bookrunners and even a third tier of arrangers,” the banker said.Unilever Chief Financial Officer Graeme Pitkethly said in June that the company was hoping to get a deal done by the end of the year and was open to evaluating offers for all or parts of its shrinking business.Los Angeles-based Platinum was considering putting in a bid for a portion of Unilever’s spreads business that covers developed markets such as Europe and the US where demand has been falling but profit margins remain high, rather than the whole unit which includes emerging market.Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch giant behind Dove soap, Knorr soup and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, put the spreads unit up for sale this autumn after a surprise US$143bn takeover approach from Kraft-Heinz in February forced it to review its operations. (Editing by Christopher Mangham) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/unilever-leveraged-loans/lpc-banks-line-up-5-2bn-for-unilever-spreads-sale-idINL8N1OD3O4'|'2017-12-13T11:13:00.000+02:00'
'd1070c0d2e6032a4e6f0fce8e9d3fe289dd86dbb'|'Finnish power grid company Elenia sold to Allianz, Macquarie'|'LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners, London-listed 3i Infrastructure ( 3IN.L ) and Finnish pensions insurance company Ilmarinen are selling Finnish power grid company Elenia Oy to Allianz Capital Partners ( ALVG.DE ), Australian infrastructure investor Macquarie ( MQG.AX ) and the State Pension Fund of Finland.The companies declined to comment on the valuation on Wednesday.But two sources familiar with the matter said the price equated to an enterprise value for the whole of Elenia of 3.6 billion euros ($4.23 billion), making it one of Europe’s biggest infrastructure deals of 2017.The deal follows several sales of regulated grid businesses in recent years as European energy companies have sought to cut debt and raise funds for new infrastructure projects.Grid deals have been sensitive in Finland. State-controlled Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ) recently sold all its Scandinavian distribution assets for 9.3 billion euros in a move which was followed by significant price hikes in Finland by Caruna, a new company formed to operate the grid.The Macquarie and Allianz consortium beat competition from China Southern Power Grid and a group of investors including Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) and the Netherlands’ second-largest pension fund PGGM, according to people familiar with the matter.Allianz and Macquarie are taking 45 percent each in Elenia, while the state pension fund Valtion Eläkerahasto is acquiring 10 percent. Completion of the transaction is expected during the first quarter of 2018.3i Infrastructure said the sale of its 39.3 percent stake in Finland’s second-largest power company would generate gross proceeds of about 725 million pounds ($968 million).Elenia made a core profit of 168.4 million euros last year on revenue of 315.3 million euros. It serves 420,000 customers in central Finland.Since the 3i Infrastructure-led consortium acquired Elenia in January 2012 for around 1.5 billion euros, the business has invested over 600 million euros aimed at increasing weather proofing of the network to improve reliability of electricity supply for customers.“We look forward to our partnership with Allianz Capital Partners, MIRA (Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets) and Valtion Eläkerahasto who will support our continued investment program focused on weather proof distribution of electricity and continuous development of digital services for our customers,” Elenia chief executive Tapani Liuhala said.Elenia was founded in 2012, when Sweden’s Vattenfall sold its Finnish power grids.($1 = 0.7491 pounds)($1 = 0.8501 euros)Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl in Helsinki and Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by David Evans, Greg Mahlich '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-elenia-sale/finnish-power-grid-company-elenia-sold-to-allianz-macquarie-idINKBN1E72N8'|'2017-12-13T15:34:00.000+02:00'
'd8357491dd85bc0482e046f841aa8a4d449de16e'|'Asian shares flat, Fed hike expectations underpin dollar'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:58 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago European shares close lower; U.S. Treasury yields fall Stephanie Kelly 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - European shares closed lower as U.S. stock indexes advanced on Wednesday ahead of a widely expected interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve, while U.S. Treasury yields fell on disappointing inflation data. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS rose to a record high, gaining 0.20 percent. The Fed is expected to raise benchmark U.S. rates to between 1.25 and 1.50 percent at a two-day policy meeting ending Wednesday. “They’re going to be paying special attention to the unemployment numbers and whether or not the stage is getting set for wage inflation,” said Jerry Paul, senior vice president of fixed income at ICON Advisers in Denver, Colorado. “Obviously they’re going to care about what the (U.S.) tax package looks like,” he added. The pace at which the Fed and other central banks will tighten monetary policy is considered a top factor in extending the current bull market into 2018. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed .FTEU3 down 0.30 percent. Wall Street indexes advanced, with the S&P 500 and the Dow reaching record highs earlier in the day. Industrials helped push stocks higher in afternoon trading with a surge in Caterpillar and Boeing. Industrials are expected to benefit the most from an overhaul of the tax bill, on which Republican leaders of both the Senate and the House reached a deal on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 101.85 points, or 0.42 percent, to 24,606.65, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.12 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,666.23 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 13.84 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,876.16. In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS climbed 0.68 percent. Japan''s Nikkei stock index .N225 finished 0.47 percent lower, however, pressured by a strengthening yen and shrugging off upbeat economic data that showed Japanese core machinery orders rose an unexpectedly high 5 percent in October. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote YIELDS, DOLLAR INDEX FALLS U.S. Treasury yields fell after an increase in core consumer prices in November fell short of analysts’ expectations, reducing bets on a broad pickup in inflation. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 7/32 in price to yield 2.3779 percent, compared with 2.403 percent late on Tuesday. The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last rose 20/32 in price to yield 2.7499 percent, compared with 2.781 percent late on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Earlier Wednesday data showed the U.S. consumer price index, the government’s broadest inflation gauge, grew 0.4 percent last month, matching economists’ estimates. However the CPI core rate, which excludes energy and food prices, moderated to 0.1 percent from a 0.2 percent increase in October and was below market expectations. Traders also mulled the potential implications of Democrat Doug Jones’ victory in the special U.S. Senate election in Alabama on Tuesday, which thinned the Republicans’ Senate majority to 51-49, raising discussion about their ability to pass tax legislation before year-end. The dollar index .DXY, which weighs the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.3 percent, while the euro was EUR= up 0.27 percent to $1.1772. The yen strengthened 0.47 percent against the greenback to 113.03 per dollar JPY= , while sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.3357, up 0.32 percent on the day. Italian bonds were firmly in play. Yields jumped on reports that a long-anticipated national election will be held on March 4, raising concerns about political stability. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.6 percent to $56.80 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $62.58, down 1.2 percent. Spot gold XAU= added 0.4 percent to $1,248.50 an ounce. Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Additional reporting by Rama Venkat Raman and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Richard Leong and Karen Brettell in New York, Danilo Masoni in Milan and Julien Ponthus in London; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-shares-flat-fed-hike-expectations-underpin-dollar-idUKKBN1E7042'|'2017-12-13T02:58:00.000+02:00'
'924444f88139b2e0f3d453d3f331ff7c0e163aca'|'OPEC sees balanced oil market by late 2018 as cuts erode glut'|' 39 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago OPEC sees balanced oil market by late 2018 as cuts erode glut Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC expects the world oil market to be balanced by late 2018 as its deal with other producers to cut output reduces excess oil in storage, even as U.S. and other producers outside the group pump more crude. A man fixes a sign with OPEC''s logo next to its headquarter''s entrance before a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Austria, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in a monthly report, cut its estimate of global demand for its crude in 2018 by 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 33.15 million bpd, in part because of higher U.S. supply. But the 14-country producer group said its oil output in November, as assessed by secondary sources, was below the 2018 demand forecast at 32.45 million bpd, a drop of about 133,000 bpd from October. The report follows the Nov. 30 decision by OPEC, Russia and several other non-OPEC producers to extend their oil output-cutting deal until the end of 2018 to finish clearing a global glut of crude that built up from 2014. “This should lead to a further reduction in excess global inventories, arriving at a balanced market by late 2018,” OPEC sad in the report. Oil prices are trading near to $64 a barrel, close to their highest since 2015, supported by the OPEC-led effort and an unplanned shutdown of a British oil pipeline. The price of crude is still about half its level of mid-2014. OPEC said oil stocks fell further in October. Its production figures showed compliance with the supply cuts increased in November from already high rates. Adherence by the 11 OPEC members with output targets has risen to 121 percent, according to a Reuters calculation, higher than October’s level. Reporting by Alex Lawler; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-oil-report/opec-sees-balanced-oil-market-by-late-2018-as-cuts-erode-glut-idUKKBN1E71KB'|'2017-12-13T14:50:00.000+02:00'
'93b391f010e288037cc87f04146da3584ec62a55'|'Manhattan luxury condo sales skew apartment prices - survey'|'Reuters TV United States December 13, 2017 / 5:12 AM / Updated an hour ago Manhattan luxury condo sales skew apartment prices: survey Herbert Lash 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - A boom in newly built luxury apartments in Manhattan has skewed prices for the overall residential real estate market in the borough and masked a sharp drop in transaction volume over the past five years, a property report on Wednesday showed. FILE PHOTO: The building known as 432 Park Avenue rises above the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S. on November 2, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo The number of apartment sales priced above $10 million has doubled since 2013 when the post-crisis recovery was fully in swing, CityRealty’s 2017 Year-End Manhattan Market Report said. The number of units that sold for less than $1 million plunged by 35 percent over that period, the report said. The super wealthy have tilted condo prices in Manhattan, marking a dramatic change from the pre-crisis building boom, said Gabby Warshawer, director of research at the CityRealty real estate listings and data website. During the mid-2000s, developers constructed a record number of new condo units in Manhattan but prices were generally not higher than the average for existing condos, she said. In the past five years, however, Manhattan has seen a different kind of development boom. Prices for these units are higher than they ever were before but the number of units built and sold is way off levels achieved a decade ago, Warshawer said. “As prices have risen, less of the market share is comprised of cheaper units,” she said. In 2013, 7,787 units were sold for under $1 million for a total $4.7 billion in sales. This year is projected to end with 5,040 units sold at under $1 million for $3.4 billion in sales. Units sold at 432 Park Avenue, a 96-story tower marketed by developers as the tallest residential building in the Americas, garnered the most number of sales in a listing of the 25 highest-priced condos, CityRealty said. The two highest priced sales were also at 432 Park Avenue for $65.7 million and $65.2 million, respectively. The median sales price of high-end apartments edged higher in 2017, but the closely watched average square-foot price slid a bit for condos as prices leveled off after years of heady growth, the report said. While the average and median sales price for all residential units has jumped since 2007 by 61 percent to $2.2 million and 44 percent to $1.2 million, respectively, transaction volume is off 30 percent from peak activity a decade ago, CityRealty said. CityRealty examined sales registrations from the city’s Department of Finance. Much of Harlem and nearby areas were excluded because its market size. Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-newyork-property-survey/manhattan-luxury-condo-sales-skew-apartment-prices-survey-idUKKBN1E70G5'|'2017-12-13T07:05:00.000+02:00'
'8b04fd9ab5a918ad5e9e73350afc0ed9b6dcbc5e'|'RPT-Unfazed by OPEC, Libya and Nigeria seek to boost oil output'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:35 PM / in 15 minutes RPT-Unfazed by OPEC, Libya and Nigeria seek to boost oil output Reuters Staff (Repeats story published on Dec. 12 with no changes to text) By Ahmad Ghaddar and Libby George LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Less than two weeks after OPEC’s decision to extend oil production cuts, Libya and Nigeria – the only two exempt members of the group – are signalling their intent to raise output next year. While several ministers at the Nov. 30 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries suggested the two nations had joined the output-curbing deal, both are working to add to their peak production from this year. On Friday, oil company Total said its new Egina field offshore Nigeria was on track to start next year – adding 10 percent to the country’s production. The field will have a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) and launch in the fourth quarter of 2018, counterbalancing production constrained by ageing pipelines, perpetual theft and sabotage. “That could certainly change the dynamics,” said Ehsan Ul-Haq, head of crude and products at Resource Economist, a consultancy. The Nigerian petroleum ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the Egina field startup, and whether production elsewhere would be curtailed as a result. On Saturday, the head of Libya’s U.N.-backed government met the head of Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC) and the governor of Tripoli’s central bank to discuss how the corporation could get more cash to raise oil output next year. The NOC received a quarter of its requested budget in 2017, hampering efforts to sustain oil output near 1 million bpd. Any additional funds could help make crucial repairs to the country’s energy infrastructure, a regular target for militant attacks, and boost output above the roughly 1 million bpd mark where it currently stands. Libya’s NOC has so far not spoken officially about the OPEC deal and declined a Reuters request for comment. NO CAPS The developments may come as a surprise to market observers, who, after the Nov. 30 meeting, believed Nigeria and Libya had agreed to participate in the OPEC agreement by imposing official caps at their peak 2017 production levels. Instead, the two countries merely provided their production outlook for 2018 and an assessment that the combined total would not exceed 2.8 million bpd, their forecast output for 2017, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. That outlook was dependent on both countries’ finances and security situation, one of those sources said. The headline of a statement issued by Nigeria’s petroleum ministry on the day of the OPEC meeting stressed, in block capitals, that Nigeria and Libya were exempt from cuts. Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu emphasised in the statement that the nation’s condensates - a form of ultra-light crude - were exempt from any total, giving it leeway in calculations. He also told local media there was “no obligation” to do anything. Oil production from the two countries has averaged 1.7 million bpd and 900,000 bpd, respectively, this year according to Reuters assessments. PRODN-NG PRODN-LY But it has swung in each country in a range of 340,000-350,000 bpd. (Editing by Dale Hudson)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/opec-oil-output/rpt-unfazed-by-opec-libya-and-nigeria-seek-to-boost-oil-output-idUSL8N1OD45J'|'2017-12-13T15:35:00.000+02:00'
'c3a55524782d8ed2c9156942645298ecc0ba175a'|'Brazil''s Petrobras raises $1.5 billion with fuel distribution unit IPO'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - State-controlled oil company Petrobras’ fuel distribution unit priced its shares at the bottom of the pre-established range for its IPO but still raised 5.02 billion reais ($1.5 billion) in one of Brazil’s biggest stock flotations of the year.Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, priced shares in the subsidiary at 15 reais, at the bottom of the suggested price range, with concern about presidential elections next year and struggle to approve much-needed macroeconomic reforms weighing on investors orders, according to people close to the deal.Petrobras opted for a lower price, but increased the size of the offer, with investors exercising the 15 percent “greenshoe” option for an over-allotment of shares.Petrobras Distribuidora SA’s IPO was the largest since the 5.12 billion reais listing of the local unit of retailer Carrefour SA ( CARR.PA ) in July. Carrefour´s listing was the biggest in four years.According to one person with knowledge of the matter, Petrobras Distribuidora was valued at around seven times its expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a gauge of operational profitability known as EBITDA. Private sector rivals such as Ultrapar Participações SA trade at multiples above 10.The long-awaited transaction has been discussed between the oil company and the banks for at least two years. Asset sales and spinoffs are being used by Petrobras to trim the largest debt burden of any major oil company, at about $95 billion.Renewed demand for emerging market assets, and a nascent economic recovery have fostered demand for Brazilian assets following the deepest recession in a century.Brazil is going through one of the busiest weeks for capital markets this year, with four transactions. Companies are rushing to complete the deals and avoid expected market volatility ahead of a wide-open presidential campaign next year.($1 = 3.3099 reais)Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Flavia Bohone, Bruno Federowski and Brad Haynes; Editing by Christian Plumb and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-br-distribuidora-ipo/brazils-petrobras-raises-1-5-billion-with-distribution-unit-ipo-idUSKBN1E735I'|'2017-12-14T07:25:00.000+02:00'
'30aa49a701f6eb45573d6574a543dfb69f04bfed'|'BRIEF-Jacobs And Ch2m Announce Ch2m Stockholder Approval Of Merger'|' 35 PM / in 22 minutes BRIEF-Jacobs And Ch2m Announce Ch2m Stockholder Approval Of Merger Reuters Staff Dec 13 (Reuters) - Jacobs Engineering Group Inc: * JACOBS AND CH2M ANNOUNCE CH2M STOCKHOLDER APPROVAL OF MERGER AND PRELIMINARY MERGER CONSIDERATION ELECTION RESULTS * JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP - PRELIMINARY RESULTS SHOW ABOUT 95.57% OF OUTSTANDING SHARES OF CH2M STOCK & CH2M PREFERRED STOCK VOTED IN FAVOR OF DEAL Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-jacobs-and-ch2m-announce-ch2m-stoc/brief-jacobs-and-ch2m-announce-ch2m-stockholder-approval-of-merger-idUSFWN1OD138'|'2017-12-14T00:34:00.000+02:00'
'caff8b84581b075719c6f76acb6bb912b8b3c409'|'Spotify price tag rises ahead of filing for NYSE listing: sources'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:37 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Spotify price tag rises ahead of filing for NYSE listing: sources Reuters Staff 3 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The value of music streaming service Spotify, which is planning a stock market listing, has grown around 20 percent to at least $19 billion in the past few months, outperforming U.S. and European tech indexes, sources familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: Headphones are seen in front of a logo of online music streaming service Spotify, February 18, 2014 REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The most recent private trades in the Swedish company have taken place at above $4,000 per share according to sources. One of the sources said the recent trades were at a record-high of $4,200, valuing the firm at $19 billion or more. That compares to around $16 billion earlier this autumn. Spotify is aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators toward the end of this year, sources said. Also supporting perceptions of Spotify’s increasing value, Tencent’s ( 0700.HK ) purchase of new Spotify shares implies a valuation of $5,000 per share, one of the sources said. Spotify and the music arm of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd said last week they would buy minority stakes in each other, but gave no financial details. Spotify did not immediately respond to inquiries about valuation and listing. The private market for shares prior to a public listing allows employees and founders of private companies such as Spotify to cash in on some of their paper wealth, while letting other investors get a head start on the listing. Spotify’s valuation when it lists - expected to be within 90 days after filing - is forecast to be a few billion dollars higher than current trades as illiquidity risk tends to depress the value ahead of listing, the sources said. While several big tech firms have struggled to enter China, Spotify has with the Tencent deal secured an exposure to the growing Chinese music streaming market. Spotify is the biggest global music streaming company and counts tech giants Apple ( AAPL.O ) and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) as its main rivals. The timing for its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in December is roughly in line with what has been previously suggested by sources. Spotify aims to pursuing a so-called direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange, allowing existing investors to sell shares without raising money from new ones, sources have previously told Reuters. The move is also aimed at saving hundreds of millions of dollars in underwriting fees from investment banks. Reporting by Olof Swahnberg and Helena Soderpalm, additional reporting by Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Niklas Pollard and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-listing/spotify-price-tag-rises-ahead-of-filing-for-nyse-listing-sources-idUSKBN1E82AI'|'2017-12-14T17:36:00.000+02:00'
'dcb72eb28140097f5d585dab62ddbf30520f9f99'|'Danske Bank to buy SEB''s Danish pension unit in $1 billion deal'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:04 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Danske Bank in $1 billion deal to create Denmark''s largest private pension fund Teis Jensen 2 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danske Bank has agreed to buy the Danish pension assets of Sweden’s SEB in a $1 billion (£0.7 billion) deal to create Denmark’s largest private pension fund. Danske Bank said the purchase would bring its market share to 19.2 percent, surpassing the current market leader PFA. According to figures from lobby group Insurance & Pension, Danske Bank’s pension unit Danica Pension had a market share of 13.4 percent in 2016. “This gives us the options to invest in products and services in the growth areas in the market: health and digitisation,” Danica’s chief executive Per Klitgaard said in an interview. Under the deal, which still needs approval from the authorities, Danske Bank will pay 5 billion Danish crowns ($795 million) in cash for the assets after SEB has paid itself 1.5 billion crowns in dividend. Klitgaard estimated synergies from the merger would be in a range of 150-175 million crowns per year. SEB Pension was too small a player in Denmark to bring down its costs to competitive levels and to make the needed investments, its chief executive Soren Lockwood said. “This makes good strategic sense for Danske. The larger you are, the more administrative costs you can cut off, and the more money you can make,” Nykredit analyst Ricky Rasmussen said, adding the price seemed “fair.” The SEB unit has around 275 employees, more than 100 billion crowns under management and around 200,000 customers. Danica made a pretax profit of 1.0 billion crowns in the first six months of 2017, while Danske Bank Group’s total pretax profit was 13.3 billion. Danske expects final approval in the first half of 2018. Reporting by Teis Jensen; Editing by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Adrian Croft and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-seb-m-a-danske-bank/danske-bank-to-buy-sebs-danish-pension-unit-in-1-billion-deal-idUKKBN1E80UF'|'2017-12-14T10:04:00.000+02:00'
'49ccac26fb62f0fe453653b078ef477b11769680'|'GM says former UAW Vice President Joe Ashton to resign from board'|'Dec 13 (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Wednesday Joseph Ashton, a former United Auto Workers vice president who led the union’s GM department, has resigned from the company’s board.Ashton was nominated to his GM board seat by the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits trust, which administers funds that pay for health benefits for UAW-GM retirees. ( bit.ly/2AEPGJa )The trust can nominate a replacement for Ashton, but shareholders won’t vote on the trust’s nominee until the company’s next annual meeting in the spring, a GM spokesman said.The U.S. Justice Department is looking into the use of money at UAW managed training centers funded by GM and Ford Motor Co , and into charities established by senior UAW officers.General Motors and Ford said last month they were cooperating with the investigation into the finances of training centers.GM is conducting its own investigation of the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources, the company spokesman said, but did not provide details of that investigation.Ashton has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and federal authorities have not disclosed that he is under scrutiny as part of their probe.Federal officials expanded their probe of the UAW training centers after charging a former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV vice president of making $1.2 million in improper payments to a former union vice president and his wife. Four people have been charged in the Fiat Chrysler investigation. (Reporting by Joe White in Detroit and Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gm-uaw/gm-says-former-uaw-vice-president-joe-ashton-to-resign-from-board-idINL4N1OE1X8'|'2017-12-14T00:34:00.000+02:00'
'7062c124c6f277b30affc3bdc98309eb6f7b58a3'|'UPDATE 1-TIM expands high end broadband offerings in Brazil'|'December 8, 2017 / 8:03 PM / Updated an hour ago TIM expands high end broadband offerings in Brazil Gram Slattery 3 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian telecoms provider TIM Participacoes SA launched an expansion of its fiber-to-the-home service outside the country’s two biggest cities on Friday, adding to competition for Brazil’s high-end broadband customers. Chief Executive Stefano de Angelis, speaking at a year-end event in Sao Paulo, added that the company was expanding its TIM Live service, a speedy internet service than can support high-quality streaming video, in the South. His comments reflect how TIM’s focus is expanding from its core wireless business into the high-end residential market where rival Telefonica Brasil SA has made great strides since acquiring broadband provider GVT in 2015. Until Friday, only consumers in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro could subscribe to TIM’s offerings of fiber-to-the-home, a technology that runs fiber optic cables directly to a consumer’s home, boosting broadband speeds. “We’ll be investing more and more in residential services, like TIM Live,” said de Angelis said, who took over the Brazilian unit of Telecom Italia SpA in the middle of last year. TIM’s expanding fiber network in Brazil has raised questions about potential acquisitions. De Angelis told journalists there were no “transformational” deals imminent, although the company would examine small acquisitions as a means of expansion. One TIM competitor, Oi SA, is currently struggling with a messy debt restructuring. A consortium of U.S. investment fund TPG Capital Management LP and China Telecom Corp Ltd are considering taking control of the company after creditors approve a plan to take the company out of bankruptcy protection, sources have told Reuters. Local media have speculated that Oi, which has a geographically expansive fixed-line network in Brazil, would then discuss a possible tie-up with TIM. Speaking to journalists, de Angelis said TIM would not consider a tie-up “at least” until after a restructuring plan is approved. “The problems of Oi are financial,” de Angelis told journalists. “There hasn’t been some great blackout.” Reporting by Gram Slattery; editing by Phil Berlowitz and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tim-part-outlook/tim-expands-high-end-broadband-offerings-in-brazil-idUSKBN1E22LT'|'2017-12-08T21:56:00.000+02:00'
'ace880109da84c54fbd1fce853cf07068f892aa6'|'Goldman Sachs to clear bitcoin futures: spokeswoman'|'December 7, 2017 / 10:00 PM / Updated a day ago Goldman Sachs to clear bitcoin futures: spokeswoman Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ( GS.N ) is planning to clear bitcoin futures for some clients as the new contracts go live on exchanges in the coming days, a spokeswoman for the bank said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The bank, which helps clients buy and sell derivatives, is “evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, the Goldman Sachs spokeswoman said. Reporting by Anna Irrera; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures/goldman-sachs-to-clear-bitcoin-futures-spokeswoman-idUSKBN1E1333'|'2017-12-08T00:03:00.000+02:00'
'fcb90ad55ce281900cd985772283075198c8c499'|'M&C Hotels agrees to sweetened bid from CDL valuing it at two billion pounds'|'December 8, 2017 / 5:01 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago M&C Hotels agrees to sweetened bid from CDL valuing it at two billion pounds Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Millennium & Copthorne Hotels ( MLC.L ) has agreed to a sweetened takeover offer from its majority shareholder that values the London-listed company at about 2 billion pounds ($2.67 billion) after an earlier bid was heavily criticised by minority investors. City Developments Limited (CDL), a vehicle of Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, who is also chairman of M&C, has offered 620 pence per share in cash to acquire the 34.8 percent of the FTSE 250 hotelier that it does not already own, the companies said in a statement on Friday. The offer, which was declared final, has been recommended by M&C’s independent directors. It was announced 75 minutes before a Takeover Panel deadline for CDL to make a firm offer or walk away. CDL’s earlier 552.5 pence per share cash proposal, disclosed to the stock market on Oct. 9, ran into opposition from some of M&C’s smaller shareholders, who argued that it put too low a price on the business because it did not reflect the value of its extensive property portfolio. M&C owns, runs, invests in or franchises 137 hotels around the world. Opponents of the earlier bid, which included MSD Partners, the firm that manages the family wealth of IT entrepreneur Michael Dell, called on CDL in October to raise its offer and criticised M&C’s independent directors for saying they would recommend the proposal. Deutsche Bank and HSBC are advising CDL and Credit Suisse is working with M&C’s independent directors. M&C shares rose 6 percent on news of the bid to close at 613.5 pence. The revised offer caps a busy week of takeover activity for British companies, particularly in the leisure sector. Cineworld agreed a $3.6 billion reverse takeover of U.S. cinema business Regal Entertainment while online gambling company GVC also disclosed it was holding in-depth talks about a potential 3.9 billion-pound acquisition of bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral. In the UK property sector, shopping centres owner Hammerson ( HMSO.L ) announced a 3.4 billion-pound acquisition of rival Intu Properties. Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mill-cop-hotels-m-a-city-developments/mc-hotels-agrees-to-sweetened-bid-from-cdl-valuing-it-at-2-billion-pounds-idUKKBN1E22BU'|'2017-12-08T22:25:00.000+02:00'
'c12c68d8edd9b7148d3edc71a18b3ec60c388e1e'|'UK estimates cost of Brexit bill at 40-45 billion euros - source'|'December 8, 2017 / 10:43 AM / Updated 3 hours ago UK estimates cost of Brexit bill at 40-45 billion euros - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain estimates the ultimate cost of meeting its financial obligations to the European Union on Brexit at 40 to 45 billion euros (£34.8-£39.2 billion), a British source said on Friday. Britain''s Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker hold a news conference at the EC headquarters in Brussels, Belgium December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-cost/uk-estimates-cost-of-brexit-bill-at-40-45-billion-euros-source-idUKKBN1E219Z'|'2017-12-08T12:45:00.000+02:00'
'dce93fb7e0962baaf6c7a46c3775cd75703255d6'|'India''s 2017/18 cotton output seen rising 9.3 percent from year ago - government official'|'December 12, 2017 / 10:26 AM / Updated 7 hours ago India''s bumper cotton output to fall short of record high Rajendra Jadhav 3 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s cotton output is set to rise 9.3 percent in 2017/18 but won’t be the record high predicted by industry analysts as bollworm had caused damage in some regions, a government official said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: An employee works inside a cotton processing unit at Kadi town, about 56 km (35 miles) north of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, India, March 9, 2012. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo Overall production by India, the world’s biggest cotton producer, could touch 37.7 million bales in the year that began in October, Kavita Gupta, India’s textile commissioner, told a news conference. That would be up from 34.5 million bales produced in the 2016/17 marketing year, but almost 6 percent lower than previous industry estimates for a record 40 million bales, each of 170 kg. A 19 percent jump in the area planted with cotton had prompted most industry officials to estimate record production this year. But as harvesting began farmers found fields were infested with pink bollworms which consume the cotton fibre and seeds inside the boll, or fruit, of the plant. The problem was especially widespread in the western state of Maharashtra, the country’s biggest cotton growing area. The problem curtailed the country’s surplus for exports. Gupta expects India to export 6.7 million bales in the 2017/18 marketing year, up 15.1 percent from a year earlier but lower than the industry’s previous estimate of 7.5 million bales. Pakistan is likely to increase cotton purchases from India after slashing them by 71 percent to 790,000 bales last year due to its own bumper crop, Gupta said. Still, lower than expected exports from India, the world’s biggest exporter after the United States, could help rivals like the United States, Brazil and Australia to raise their exports to Asian buyers like Pakistan, China and Bangladesh. Pink bollworm attacks have cut yields in India’s main cotton growing regions of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, Gupta said, but added that production nationwide should still be higher than in 2016/17. The bollworm infestation has occurred even as Indian farmers have adopted genetically modified seeds known as Bt cotton developed by Monsanto Co that are resistant to the pest. The government approved the seed in 2006. The technology transformed India into the world’s second-largest cotton exporter. However, pink bollworms are now developing resistance to the technology, scientists say. Industry officials are now more pessimistic than the government, saying production could fall to 36 million bales in 2017/18. “The pest damage is severe in Maharashtra and Telangana. I don’t think production would be higher than 36 million bales,” said a Mumbai-based dealer at a global trading firm. India’s cotton consumption in 2016/17 is likely to jump 9.2 percent from a year ago to 33.4 million bales, Gupta said. (1 Indian bale = 170 kg) Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Writing by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cotton-india-output/indias-2017-18-cotton-output-seen-rising-9-3-percent-from-year-ago-government-official-idINKBN1E612O'|'2017-12-12T12:23:00.000+02:00'
'9d87e3e4227e5c4b4288fc4b92cee0843fb9d125'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Oil prices help Gulf rise, Saudi petchems strong'|'  MIDEAST STOCKS-Oil prices help Gulf rise, Saudi petchems strong Reuters Staff * Brent oil above $65 a barrel for first time since mid-2015 * Saudi Electric climbs before news on energy price hikes * Dar Al Arkan falls back slightly in very heavy trade * Dubai’s Drake & Scull continues rally * Qatar market rebounding from near six-year lows By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Middle East stock markets mostly rose on Tuesday after the shutdown of a North Sea pipeline pushed Brent oil above $65 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015. The Saudi stock index gained 0.3 percent, with petrochemical companies, whose profit margins tend to benefit from higher oil prices, outperforming. Saudi Kayan added 3.7 percent and PetroRabigh rose 3.0 percent. Utility Saudi Electricity climbed 3.5 percent. The state budget for 2018 will be announced next Tuesday and officials may detail plans to raise domestic energy prices, which could benefit the company’s earnings depending on the structure of the price hikes. But real estate firm Dar Al Arkan, the most heavily traded stock, fell 1.4 percent to 12.42 riyals after plunging 9.9 percent on Monday. The stock has been a focus of the Saudi stock market in recent weeks, soaring to a close of 13.99 riyals in heavy trade on Sunday from around 7.50 riyals in mid-November, when international index compiler MSCI said it was adding the stock to its Saudi Arabia Index. But many analysts think it may have become overvalued because of heavy speculative buying by local retail investors, who pushed its valuation above 50 times trailing earnings. Dubai’s index added 1.2 percent as builder Drake &Scull, which posted a big loss for the third quarter, shot up 6.7 percent to its highest level since February. Some investors are betting that restructuring will help the company report much better fourth-quarter earnings. In Abu Dhabi, the index gained 0.6 percent on the back of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, which climbed 3.5 percent. Qatar’s index surged 1.4 percent, rebounding for a third straight day from near six-year lows. Real estate firm Ezdan Holding jumped 6.3 percent and shipper Qatar Navigation rose 4.2 percent. Egypt’s index rose 1.1 percent as blue chip lender Commercial International Bank gained 1.6 percent, bouncing from near its lowest levels this year. HIGHLIGHTS * The index gained 0.3 percent to 7,123 points. DUBAI * The index rose 1.2 percent to 3,454 points. ABU DHABI * The index gained 0.6 percent to 4,382 points. QATAR * The index surged 1.4 percent to 8,033 points. EGYPT * The index climbed 1.1 percent to 14,590 points. KUWAIT * The index added 0.7 percent to 6,198 points. BAHRAIN * The index edged down 0.1 percent to 1,264 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-oil-prices-help-gulf-rise-saudi-petchems-strong-idUSL8N1OC4P9'|'2017-12-12T16:41:00.000+02:00'
'e9a25e9df6ecc2141a881771a2384fe7b23d34e0'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil Burger King operator may price IPO near top of range -sources'|'(Adds details, context)By Tatiana Bautzer and Ana ManoSAO PAULO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The operator of the Burger King fast-food chain in Brazil, BK Brasil Operação e Assessoria a Restaurantes SA, is expected to price its initial public offering near the top of the suggested price range, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said Tuesday.One of the people said the offer is three times oversubscribed at the top of the 14.50 to 18 reais range.Shareholders and the banks underwriting the IPO will set pricing early on Thursday, the sources added, asking for anonymity because are not allowed to discuss the matter publicly.Due to the strong investor demand, the deadline for investor orders was brought forward to Wednesday evening from Thursday afternoon, two of the sources said.If priced at the top of the suggested range, 18 reais per share, BK Brasil´s IPO would raise 2.26 billion reais ($681 million) with investors, not considering the sale of additional and supplementary allotments of shares.BK Brasil would raise around 886 million reais in the so-called primary portion of the IPO to fund the expansion of its chain of 623 restaurants in Brazil. The rest would be received by shareholders selling part of their stakes in the secondary portion of the offering. BK Brasil did not immediately comment on the matter. ($1 = 3.3169 reais) (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Ana Mano; Editing by David Gregorio and Susan Thomas) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bk-brasil-ipo/update-1-brazil-burger-king-operator-may-price-ipo-near-top-of-range-sources-idINL1N1OC126'|'2017-12-12T12:52:00.000+02:00'
'd650450bb628c54aa7ea76fea684825fd9685373'|'Syndicate Bank seeks up to $186.4 million in share sale - sources'|'December 12, 2017 / 2:57 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Syndicate Bank seeks up to $186.4 million in share sale - sources Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian state-run Syndicate Bank Ltd has launched a share sale to institutional investors, seeking to raise up to 12 billion rupees ($186.4 million) to help boost its capital ratio, sources with direct knowledge said on Tuesday. The deal has a base size of up to 7 billion rupees with an upsize option of up to 5 billion rupees, the sources said, adding the bank has set an indicative sale price of 84.15 rupees a share. Ahead of the launch of the share sale, the stock closed at 84.45 rupees on the National Stock Exchange on Tuesday. Equirus Capital, BOB Capital Markets, BNP Paribas, Centrum Capital, Elara Capital and IDBI Capital are the banks managing the share sale, according to Syndicate Bank’s regulatory filing with the stock exchanges. India’s state-run banks are raising funds from share sales as part of the government’s recapitalisation plan for the lenders that will also see New Delhi injecting 1.35 trillion rupees in them through recapitalisation bonds. ($1 = 64.3925 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/syndicate-bnk-sharesale/syndicate-bank-seeks-up-to-186-4-million-in-share-sale-sources-idINKBN1E61VJ'|'2017-12-12T16:53:00.000+02:00'
'09f45df1b1e86a7068a677711c0b9d54e73b3a44'|'BBL Company says pipeline flow curbs to Britain to be lifted'|'December 12, 2017 / 2:59 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago BBL Company says pipeline flow curbs to Britain to be lifted Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - BBL Company, which operates the gas pipeline between the Netherlands and Britain, said on Tuesday a restriction on gas flows to the UK will lifted from 1600 GMT. BBL earlier said it would not be able to meet all requests for gas following a flow restriction at a compression station at the Bacton terminal in the UK. The pipeline flows gas from the Netherlands to Britain, where a major North Sea pipeline system outage, Russian supply disruptions to Europe and output reductions in Norway have caused gas prices to surge. Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic, editing by Louise Heavens and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-gas-bbl/bbl-company-says-pipeline-gas-flows-to-britain-will-be-constrained-idUKKBN1E61WA'|'2017-12-12T17:42:00.000+02:00'
'92edd1cd4658f81abc3cc8f4e92d343c7d9f3bab'|'UK grocery inflation hits highest level since 2013 - Kantar Worldpanel'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:21 AM / Updated 7 hours ago UK grocery inflation hits highest level since 2013 - Kantar Worldpanel James Davey 2   British grocery inflation hit its highest level since 2013 over the last quarter, led by price rises in products such as butter, fish and fresh pork, industry data showed on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: A woman shops in a supermarket in London, Britain April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo Grocery inflation was 3.6 percent in the 12 weeks to Dec. 3, up from 3.4 percent in its November report, market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said. Prices were falling in only a few categories, such as fresh poultry and crisps, it said. “We expect inflation will peak in this period or the next and will drop next year once the (lagged) FX impact starts to fall away,” Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne said. Official data on Tuesday showed overall British inflation rose to its highest level in nearly six years in November, tightening the post-Brexit vote squeeze on households whose spending is the main driver of the country’s economy. Kantar said overall supermarket sales increased in value by 3.1 percent year on year over the 12 weeks to Dec. 3 - below the rate of inflation. It said Tesco was the best performer with a sales rise of 2.5 percent. Sainsbury‘s, Morrisons and Asda had growth of 2.0 percent, 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent respectively. Shares in Tesco were up 0.5 percent at 0938 GMT, Sainsbury’s was down 2.7 percent and Morrisons was down 2.9 percent. All of the big four grocers continued to lose market share to German discounters, who are continuing to expand aggressively. Aldi’s sales increased 15.1 percent, as it reclaimed the crown as Britain’s fastest growing grocer. Lidl’s sales increased 14.5 percent. Kantar noted that online grocery sales growth slowed considerably to 2.8 percent, though specialist Ocado outperformed the market with growth of 5.2 percent. Kantar forecast that over Friday Dec. 22 and Saturday Dec. 23 UK shoppers would spend 1.5 billion pounds ($2.0 billion). Last week research group IGD forecast the UK grocery market would grow 2.6 percent to 22.2 billion pounds over the entire festive period. Reporting by James Davey; editing by Paul Sandle and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-grocers-kantar/uk-grocery-inflation-hits-highest-level-since-2013-kantar-worldpanel-idUKKBN1E60RK'|'2017-12-12T10:26:00.000+02:00'
'd4aa39a6d1aaf84e0b4f092a3e9cc4751faf0e20'|'UniCredit raises dividend, bad loan reduction goals'|'December 12, 2017 / 7:27 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago UniCredit raises dividend, bad loan reduction goals Valentina Za , Pamela Barbaglia , Gianluca Semeraro 3 Min Read MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Italy’s top bank UniCredit raised its 2019 dividend goal and pledged to shed more soured debts as it pressed on with a turnaround under CEO Jean Pierre Mustier, fending off adverse regulatory changes. FILE PHOTO: Unicredit bank logo is seen on a banner downtown Milan, Italy, May 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo UniCredit hired the former Societe Generale executive, 56, in the middle of 2016 to put to rest long-standing concerns over its weak balance sheet. The French banker sold assets and shut branches, pulling off a record 13 billion euro (£11.4 billion) share sale this year to fund bad loan disposals and job cuts. UniCredit’s shares have gained around 80 percent since his appointment. “We’re making good progress on our plan, but this is not a sprint, we’re one third (of the way) on our marathon,” Mustier told investors in London on Tuesday. He dismissed speculation that a merger could be the endpoint of the bank’s restructuring efforts, saying growth plans to 2019 and beyond were stand-alone. In updating its three-year plan, UniCredit stuck to a 2019 net profit goal of 4.7 billion euros ($5.5 billion) and a core capital ratio above 12.5 percent despite regulatory changes estimated to shave 1.5 percentage points off the ratio over the period. It now plans to pay out to shareholders 30 percent of its 2019 profit, up from 20 percent previously. It will raise its payout further to up to 50 percent after 2019, provided its core capital ratio stays above 12.5 percent once a number of further regulatory headwinds, including tougher new European Central Bank’s rules on loans turning sour, are accounted for. “The approach confirms UniCredit’s strong relative capital position versus peers in our view (and offers continued absolute upside on dividend as regulation finalises,” Jefferies said in a note. UniCredit raised bad loan reduction targets set a year ago, signalling heightened efforts by Italian banks to deal with soured debts left behind by a harsh recession as the ECB turns up pressure. The bank completed on Tuesday the last leg of a key 17.7 billion euro bad loan sale, reducing its holding in the portfolio to below 20 from 49.9 percent, in a move that will add 10 basis points to its core capital ratio. UniCredit said it would cut an additional 4 billion euros in gross soured debts by the end of 2019 so that they would account for 7.8 percent of total loans by then, down from a previous 8.4 percent goal set in December 2016 when it announced its plan. Mustier said the reduction would be achieved through sales, recoveries and write-offs. UniCredit also plans to bring to zero by 2025 a non-core loan portfolio which at the end of September included 29 billion euros in gross impaired debts. Shares in UniCredit were up 1.4 percent by 1154 GMT, outperforming the sector. By contrast, smaller rival UBI Banca dropped 3 percent after it warned in a bond document the ECB had asked it for more ambitious bad loan reduction targets. Editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-italy-unicredit/unicredit-steps-up-bad-loan-reduction-raises-dividend-idUKKBN1E60MF'|'2017-12-12T15:00:00.000+02:00'
'5a1db919cdd9b953190fb34558ecb515d55e7eba'|'May says RBS branch closures are a commercial matter for the bank'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:39 PM / Updated 41 minutes ago May says RBS branch closures are a commercial matter for the bank Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said that branch closures announced by the Royal Bank of Scotland were a commercial matter for the bank, after she was asked to intervene to halt the closures. A worker cleans the glass exterior next to the logo of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) bank at a building in Gurugram on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi Scottish National Party leader at Westminster Ian Blackford asked May to tell RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan not to carry through his plan to close 259 branches of the RBS and NatWest. “The decision to open and close branches is a commercial decision taken by the banks without intervention from the government,” May said in parliament on Wednesday. “But we do recognise the impact this has on communities and the Secretary of State for Scotland has raised concerns .... with RBS.” Writing by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-politics-royal-bank-scot/may-says-rbs-branch-closures-are-a-commercial-matter-for-the-bank-idUKKBN1E71PA'|'2017-12-13T15:38:00.000+02:00'
'76672e6cea490f65e36234a46034f37c1bd8a2e6'|'Exclusive: Ford to base Fusion production in China, ship to U.S. - sources'|'December 13, 2017 / 6:20 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Ford to shift midsize sedan production out of Mexico: sources Paul Lienert 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co has told suppliers it plans to shift production of midsize Fusion and Mondeo sedans out of Mexico and Spain in 2020 and move it to China, three sources said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The Ford logo is seen at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero The automaker said it will not ship those cars from China to the United States and Europe. Ford did not address the future of the plants in Hermosillo, Mexico and Valencia, Spain that currently build midsize sedans for the North American and European markets, respectively. Ford said last month it would invest more than 750 million euros ($887 million) in Valencia to produce a new generation of its Kuga sport utility vehicle. Recent Ford documents shared with suppliers show the automaker plans to shift some Focus and Mondeo production to China, and no longer list Hermosillo and Valencia as production sites, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. Ford said in a statement “we have no plans to export the next-generation Fusion/Mondeo from China to North America and Europe. Fusion/Mondeo are an important part of the Ford car lineup. We will have more information to share about the next Fusion/Mondeo at a later date.” Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett has taken a series of steps to cut the automaker’s production costs, and shift the company’s product lineup away from sedans toward sport utility and crossover vehicles, especially in North America. Fusion sales in the United States are down 22 percent this year, while Mondeo sales in Europe are down 21 percent. Ford in June said it would shift some production of its Focus small car from Mexico to China and import the vehicles to the United States. Ford’s latest moves come as U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to significantly revamp or possibly exit the North American Free Trade Agreement that allows tariff-free shipments of vehicles to the United States from Mexico. Last week, Ford said it plans to relocate production of a future battery electric vehicle to Cuatitlan, Mexico in 2020 to free up capacity at its Flat Rock, Michigan, plant to build self-driving vehicles in 2021. Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Andrew Hay and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fordmotor-china/exclusive-ford-to-base-fusion-production-in-china-ship-to-u-s-sources-idUSKBN1E72LK'|'2017-12-13T20:19:00.000+02:00'
'1425ccb229e145970c29d96d8d312dbb945efb9f'|'Zalando seeks more brand partnerships to fend off Amazon'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:22 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Zalando seeks more brand partnerships to fend off Amazon Emma Thomasson , Nadine Schimroszik 6 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe’s top online-only fashion retailer Zalando is stepping up its fast-growing brand partnerships programme, building on ties with the likes of Nike and Superdry to repel the challenge of U.S. interloper Amazon. FILE PHOTO: A Adidas shoebox stands above a Zalando cardboard box on a staged scene in Berlin, Germany June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt - File Photo The German company’s share price has come under pressure as Amazon’s big push into fashion has prompted Zalando to increase investment in logistics and technology to keep pace, forcing it to trim profit forecasts. But Zalando sees its new business line giving it an edge over its U.S. rival. Launched in Berlin in 2008, Zalando has grown fast to sell almost 2,000 brands in 15 countries via a classical e-commerce model, buying in stock to be sold online and shipped from its vast warehouses. It started complementing that with a partner programme two years ago to increase choice, charging fashion labels a commission for selling additional stock through the Zalando website and shipping the goods direct to customers. The brands, meanwhile, can keep control of pricing and presentation. After a pilot with Adidas, Zalando has signed up 700 brands and the programme now accounts for nearly 10 percent of the total value of goods sold on its site, with a long-term target of 20-30 percent. Carsten Keller, Zalando’s managing director of partner solutions, expects the scheme to support profitability and cement relationships with brands, some of which remain wary of listing on Amazon, where third-party sellers compete on price. “The brands are put in the driving seat. They keep control over the assortment, prices and brand representation. It is a very different environment to other market places like eBay or Amazon,” Keller told Reuters. PROFITABILITY German shoe brand Birkenstock is withdrawing from Amazon because of concerns over counterfeit products, while luxury brands last week won the right in Europe to stop retailers selling their products on online platforms. Zalando says the partner scheme’s expected profitability should help the company to reach a long-term target for an operating margin of 10 percent. But analysts have their doubts, on average forecasting 5.9 percent by 2020, up only slightly from the close to 5 percent Zalando expects in 2017. British rival ASOS, by comparison, forecasts a stable operating margin of 4 percent but is growing sales faster than Zalando and is seen as better insulated from Amazon’s advance thanks to a focus on fashion-mad youngsters. “We think expectations look demanding, as does the company’s longer-term margin guidance, given Zalando’s desire to push for market share, more intense online competition and expansion into lower-margin regions,” said RBC analyst Richard Chamberlain. Keller, a former McKinsey consultant who joined Zalando last year, says the partner programme was born because Zalando realised it was losing millions of potential sales when it ran out of stock on top-selling items. “It is growing with very high momentum. We doubled it over the past 12 months,” Keller said. “It adds substantial value and has a positive effect on the bottom line.” Nike is particularly pleased with the arrangement -- so much so that its executives mentioned it three times on a recent analyst call. ”Our partnership with Zalando is creating growth and shaping the digital marketplace in and beyond Europe,” said Elliot Hill, who runs Nike’s wholesale and direct-to-consumer businesses. Zalando is attracting brands that do not normally sell wholesale, such as Inditex’s Oysho, while also persuading others to offer exclusive ranges. Nike, for instance, released new colours of its classic Air Force 1 shoe for the German site. ‘VIRTUOUS CYCLE’ “Amazon is a strong competitor, but is more transactional, offering more basic and discounted fashion. Zalando gets edgier stuff,” said Macquarie analyst Andreas Inderst, who has an “outperform” rating on Zalando. “It is a virtuous cycle because the more consumers come to the home page, the more Zalando can leverage consumer insights through data analytics, the more brands are attracted.” Zalando is offering its partners data about who is buying what and where, as well as helping brands with their marketing strategies, online content, logistics and inventory management, buying two software firms that help brands with digital inventory management. “In an Amazon or eBay environment, brands lose contact with their consumers because they do not get their hands on consumer data,” Keller said. Some analysts remain sceptical that Zalando will be able to fend off Amazon for long. Amazon more than doubled its share of the western European market for online fashion in five years to 6.5 percent in 2016, just behind Zalando on 7.4 percent, Euromonitor data shows. Amazon has signed up more than 350 brands in Europe in the past year and is running a pilot with Nike in the United States in return for more control over its goods on the site. “At the moment, Zalando has better brands and Amazon doesn’t have as broad a range of current-season products,” said Berenberg analyst Michelle Wilson, who rates Zalando a “sell”. “But it is only a matter of time until Amazon can convince brands they won’t destroy their brand equity.” Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-zalando-brands/zalando-seeks-more-brand-partnerships-to-fend-off-amazon-idUKKBN1E71P4'|'2017-12-13T15:21:00.000+02:00'
'9694972c0ed3d5461afc9afdef782090b49f1a78'|'Hedge funds add wary sterling bets before EU summit'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Sterling steadied on Monday after posting its biggest daily drop in more than a month on Friday, with investors cautiously adding some long bets at the start of a week when Britain and the EU will sign off on a deal to move to the next stage of Brexit talks.Wads of British Pound Sterling banknotes are stacked in piles at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Latest positioning data showed hedge funds added to long sterling bets for a third consecutive week, in a potentially busy week for the British currency. A central bank meeting is scheduled for Thursday and a raft of top-tier data including for retail sales, inflation and jobs are also due this week.Sentiment on sterling has improved slightly and investors have become a tad more hopeful for the short term, though trading has remained choppy since Prime Minister Theresa May managed to break the Brexit deadlock on Friday.Some strategists like Peter Chatwell, head of euro rates strategy at Mizuho, said sterling’s moves reflected a lower likelihood of a disorderly Brexit rather than prospects of stronger growth or tighter monetary policy, which will depend a lot on any transition period and future trade deal.British government bond prices rose strongly on Monday, reversing a fall on Friday as investors assessed the challenge for the government as it moves into the second phase of the Brexit negotiations.The spread between 10-year British and German government bond yields was down about six basis points on the day, a three-week low. But a lot of the future trend in sterling will depend on a key central bank meeting later this week.Some analysts such as Viraj Patel, an FX strategist at ING in London, say the central bank decision this week will be closely watched to see whether policymakers will acknowledge the developments in the Brexit negotiations.“While we suspect the statement will be largely unchanged, it’ll be interesting to see whether the monetary policy committee explicitly acknowledges the recent Brexit progress,” said ING’s Patel.“If so, one could see this as a hawkish development – with risks that sterling moves up to 1.3500/50.”Sterling weakened slightly against the dollar GBP=D3 to $1.3360 after shedding 0.7 percent on Friday, its biggest daily drop since Nov. 2. Sterling had skidded when cautious investors booked profits after a sharp rally in previous days.Against the euro, EURGBP=D3 sterling weakened by 0.4 percent to 88.31 pence in early trade on Monday.Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Additional reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-sterling/hedge-funds-add-wary-sterling-bets-before-eu-summit-idINKBN1E50U6'|'2017-12-12T06:12:00.000+02:00'
'9ce4c4a1113daf6ff276b1a34c05790e73f37071'|'Robert Walters sees annual profit ahead of market estimates'|' 26 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Robert Walters sees annual profit ahead of market estimates Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British recruiter Robert Walters, which has raised its full-year profit forecasts twice this year, said annual earnings would now exceed current market expectations due to strong trading, sending its shares sharply higher on Tuesday. Shares in the company rose 9 percent to 601 pence at 0850 GMT, making the stock the third-biggest gainer on the London Stock Exchange. The company, which places people in finance, engineering, legal and marketing jobs, said full-year profit before tax is expected to be materially ahead of current market expectations. The company raised its profit forecast in July before bumping it up again in October, saying banks continued to hire “significant numbers” of people in London, underpinning its confidence that jobs in the sector would not move to the continent anytime soon despite concerns over Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Where other recruiters in the UK have seen a slowdown in the aftermath of the vote, Robert Walters’ results have been broadly stronger, propped up by consistent growth in its domestic outsourcing services business. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-robert-walters-outlook/robert-walters-sees-annual-profit-ahead-of-market-estimates-idUKKBN1E60XX'|'2017-12-12T11:25:00.000+02:00'
'90decfe1c971b56f7496df78899be4985c25fcee'|'Shareholders in Brazil´s Sanepar raise $302 mln with share offering'|'SAO PAULO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Brazilian water and sanitation utility Companhia de Saneamento do Paraná priced its secondary share offering at 55.20 reais per unit, the company said in a securities filing late on Tuesday.Each unit represents one common and four preferred shares. Shareholders in Sanepar, as the company is known, sold 18.85 million units and raised 1 billion reais ($302 million).The company said shareholders exercised the option of selling an additional allotment of shares, effectively raising the total number of shares sold by 15 percent, due to strong investor demand.$1 = 3.31 reais Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sanepar-offering/shareholders-in-brazils-sanepar-raise-302-mln-with-share-offering-idINE6N1LL00N'|'2017-12-12T23:08:00.000+02:00'
'929cd8ff48b5d21192400540b831c585ff43381f'|'Canadian regulator schedules hearing on CanniMed-Aurora takeover battle'|'(Reuters) - The Ontario Securities Commission on Tuesday scheduled a hearing on CanniMed Therapeutics’ request to intervene in a hostile takeover bid by bigger rival Aurora Cannabis Inc on Dec. 20.Medical marijuana company CanniMed on Monday asked the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan and the Ontario Securities Commission to declare Aurora’s move to take its buyout offer directly to CanniMed shareholders as an insider bid.Alberta-based Aurora offered to buy CanniMed last month but CanniMed adopted a plan to prevent shareholders from entering agreements with Aurora, viewing the deal to be “coercive.”Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-cmed-m-a-aurora-cannabis/canadian-regulator-schedules-hearing-on-cannimed-aurora-takeover-battle-idINKBN1E6323'|'2017-12-12T20:28:00.000+02:00'
'8a2b9dcaa97ed346afa4d08ba19a2a4226adec39'|'India delays deadline to link Aadhaar details to bank, phone services'|'December 13, 2017 / 10:58 AM / Updated 10 hours ago India delays deadline to link Aadhaar details to bank, phone services Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India on Wednesday dropped a December 31 deadline for citizens to link Aadhaar details to facilities such as bank accounts and telephone numbers, saying it would announce a fresh date later. A villager goes through the process of a fingerprint scanner for the Unique Identification (UID) database system at an enrolment centre at Merta district in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan February 22, 2013. REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal/Files The move came as the Supreme Court hears a number of cases over a controversial identification project based on biometric details and rolled out by the government nationwide, known as Aadhaar. Initially created to help citizens access government services, Aadhaar details have subsequently been deemed mandatory for the opening of new bank accounts and the provision of telephone numbers. The approaching deadline has brought numerous reports of banks and telephone companies showering people with reminders, fanning the fears of many that the authorities may freeze their accounts. On Wednesday, the finance ministry amended its rules on the India’s prevention of money-laundering act, saying a new deadline would be announced later. It gave no reasons for the change. Reporting by Rahul Bhatia; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-banks-regulation-aadhaar/india-delays-deadline-to-link-aadhaar-details-to-bank-phone-services-idINKBN1E7197'|'2017-12-13T12:54:00.000+02:00'
'91d46887c3194b202e7e4f30bebc087639748f3c'|'Innogy lowers 2017 outlook on weak British retail business'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:19 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Npower forces Innogy to cut profit outlook, shares tumble Christoph Steitz 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy company Innogy on Wednesday trimmed its operating profit forecast for 2017, citing a persistently difficult market environment for npower, its ailing British retail energy supply business. Having for years struggled with fierce competition in the local retail market, Innogy last month agreed to merge npower with the British retail unit of SSE, hoping to rid itself of the struggling business in the mid-term. “Unfortunately, the intensity of competition has not eased during the fourth quarter,” Chief Financial Officer Bernhard Guenther told journalists during a call, adding that cutting costs was not enough to offset the tough market environment. As a result, the company lowered its 2017 target for adjusted operating profit (EBIT) to 2.8 billion euros (£2.5 billion) from 2.9 billion. Innogy also gave its first forecast for 2018, saying it expected adjusted EBIT of about 2.7 billion euros and adjusted net income of more than 1.1 billion euros. Innogy forecasts adjusted net income of more than 1.2 billion euros this year. The expected profit decline in 2018 is mainly due to increased spending on networks, broadband technology and renewables, which will rise by more than a quarter to more than 3 billion euros, the group said. “Even if this will weigh on our earnings short-term, I am convinced that this is the right strategy for setting up Innogy optimally for the future,” Chief Executive Peter Terium said. SHARES DROP Shares in Innogy fell as much as 13.6 percent, their biggest intra-day loss since it was carved out of utility RWE and listed last year. It was the stock’s lowest level in nearly seven months. “Given the current level of the broader market, shares are much more vulnerable to negative news; all the more so when there is a downward trend, as is the case with RWE,” a local trader said. RWE, which still owns a 76.8 percent stake in Innogy, fell as much as 13.4 percent. The group confirmed its 2017 outlook and said Innogy’s downgrade would have no impact on its dividend or dividend yield. Between the two groups, 4.7 billion euros in market capitalisation was lost by late afternoon. Innogy, which focuses on energy networks, renewable power generation and retail business, had previously cut 480 million euros off the value of npower, warning that more impairment charges could come. Additional reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Hakan Ersen; Editing by Greg Mahlich and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-innogy-outlook/innogy-lowers-2017-outlook-on-weak-british-retail-business-idUKKBN1E71OU'|'2017-12-13T15:19:00.000+02:00'
'79b435d04ef8d2f5bf831fa2c6263e68c7e1d9fd'|'UPDATE 1-EU warns British airlines on post-Brexit flying'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:29 PM / in 9 minutes UPDATE 1-EU warns British airlines on post-Brexit flying Reuters Staff (Adds Commission comment, airport figures) By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - British airlines will lose all flying rights the European Union has negotiated with third countries as well as those negotiated by individual EU states after Britain quits the bloc, the EU executive said in a note. In a notice to all airlines, a stark reminder of the risks facing the sector if there is no Brexit deal, the European Commission said UK air carriers would no longer enjoy traffic rights under any air transport agreement to which the EU is a party, such as the U.S.-EU Open Skies agreement. They would also lose flying rights under agreements between individual EU member states and third countries as they would not longer be considered EU airlines. In addition, all operating licences granted by the British civil aviation authority will no longer be valid for the EU, the notice said, which means the airlines would be cut off from the intra-EU market. “In order to continue benefiting from the freedoms of establishment and to provide air services within the EU internal market as of the withdrawal date, air carriers are advised to consider any measure required to ensure that the conditions for holding an EU operating licence are complied with in all circumstances,” the notice said. Airlines based in the EU have the right to fly to, from and within any country in the bloc thanks to the single aviation market was created in the 1990s, but Britain now has less than two years to renegotiate access or come up with an alternative system. British carriers include easyJet, IAG’s British Airways, Flybe, Jet2 and Virgin Atlantic. Budget airline easyJet has already moved to establish a new airline in Austria to protect its flying rights within the EU once Britain leaves the bloc. Both airlines and airports have been vocal about the risks posed by the no-deal scenario and have urged London and Brussels to quickly provide certainty for the industry. Airport operators’ association Airports Council International has pointed out that more than one in every two passengers handled by UK airports is flying to or from the rest of the EU, making the British market heavily dependent on the EU. RESTRICTIONS Without a deal airlines would have to rely on a decades-old traffic rights accord between the UK and EU states. These are typically more restrictive and many observers have doubts as to their validity. Britain and the EU clinched a divorce deal last Friday, paving the way for them to start talks on future trade ties and a two-year Brexit transition period that will start when Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019. However, Brussels has ruled out a separate deal just for aviation on the grounds that it would be tantamount to cherry-picking. A Commission spokesman said the notice did not cover the situation of UK traffic rights to and from EU member states that “will be determined in due course”. “The notice is without prejudice to possible transitional arrangements on which talks may start in January,” the notice said. (Additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Victoria Bryan in Berlin; Editing by Gareth Jones, Greg Mahlich)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-aviation/update-1-eu-warns-british-airlines-on-post-brexit-flying-idUSL8N1OD3NJ'|'2017-12-13T15:28:00.000+02:00'
'c7c633c2fa9027eb979453d3476c114dc2aa3ab4'|'Financials lead FTSE as markets tread water ahead of Fed'|'December 13, 2017 / 9:42 AM / Updated an hour ago Financials lead FTSE as markets tread water ahead of Fed Helen Reid 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shares traded sideways on Wednesday as investors’ anticipation of a rate rise from the U.S. Fed drove financial stocks higher while high-yielding consumer stocks suffered. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The FTSE 100, mid-cap and small-cap indices all held steady by 0920 GMT, reflecting the broader European market which tread water ahead of the rate decision. The prospect of rising rates in the United States drove sector performance on Wednesday, boosting financials while dragging on housebuilders and consumer stocks. “The market does seem to have rotated a little bit into HSBC and financials. It’s a little bit of an inflation trade coming back on with a return to the banks,” said Colin McLean, CEO of SVM Asset Management in Edinburgh. Financials were the best performers, led by HSBC, whose international footprint makes it easier for it to benefit from higher U.S. rates. The stock was the strongest boost to the index. Barclays and RBS also gained slightly. Housebuilders, which have benefited from historically low interest rates, fell 1.1 to 1.4 percent. Barratt Development, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon all fell. Ashtead fell back from the previous session’s rally, down 5.2 percent at the bottom of the FTSE. Serco jumped 13 percent after the contractor reported a much rosier outlook for 2018 profit, saying it would come in at the top end of its range. “We note that with the provisions utilisation continuing as expected, free cash generation is set to turn positive through 2018 - at last a positive and addressable valuation metric emerges,” wrote ShoreCap analyst Robin Speakman. “In sum, encouraging, but still with tough markets evident,” he added, reiterating the broker’s ‘hold’ recommendation. Dixons Carphone jumped 6 percent after reporting strong Black Friday trading and maintaining the first-half dividend. These positives outweighed a slump in profits caused by weaker mobile phone markets. In small-caps, shares in material technology firm Zotefoams were boosted up 15 percent after the company announced a partnership with Nike to supply it with foam technology. The gap between valuations of the FTSE 100 and U.S. benchmark S&P 500 has widened strongly since the Brexit vote, analysts at Man Group found. While this is partly down to U.S. stocks becoming more expensive, it could also reflect investors’ Brexit anxiety, they said, adding the trend could reverse if last Friday’s negotiations breakthrough was a turning point. "Certainly international investors have been shunning the FTSE until Brexit is sorted. Money will come back when that happens," said SVM''s McLean. DELETE'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/financials-lead-ftse-as-markets-tread-water-ahead-of-fed-idUKKBN1E710Y'|'2017-12-13T11:41:00.000+02:00'
'c0ab1e260d6e5273d1714687d8e3ece1e719771e'|'With rate hike in the bag, Fed may hint at Trump effect on economy'|'December 13, 2017 / 6:06 AM / in 33 minutes Fed lifts interest rates, keeps 2018 policy outlook unchanged Howard Schneider , Lindsay Dunsmuir 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, as anticipated, but left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged even as policymakers projected a short-term acceleration in U.S. economic growth. The move, coming at the final policy meeting of 2017 and on the heels of a flurry of relatively bullish economic data, represented a victory for a central bank that has vowed to continue a gradual tightening of monetary policy. Having raised its benchmark overnight lending rate three times this year, the Fed projected three more hikes in each of 2018 and 2019 before a long-run level of 2.8 percent is reached. That is unchanged from the last round of forecasts in September. “Economic activity has been rising at a solid rate ... job gains have been solid,” the Fed’s policy-setting committee said in a statement in which it announced the federal funds rate had been lifted to a target range of 1.25 percent to 1.50 percent. U.S. stocks extended gains after the release of the policy statement, while Treasury yields dropped to session lows. The U.S. dollar fell against a basket of currencies. Fed Chair Janet Yellen, in her last press conference before her four-year term ends early next year, pointed to the Trump administration’s proposed tax overhaul as the impetus for an upgrade of policymakers’ economic growth forecasts. The Fed now sees gross domestic product growing 2.5 percent in 2018, up from the 2.1 percent forecast in September. The pace of growth is expected to cool to 2.1 percent in 2019, slightly higher than the prior forecast of 2.0 percent. “Most of my colleagues factored in the prospect of fiscal stimulus, along the lines of what is contemplated by Congress, into their projections,” she said. But Yellen said the precise impact of the tax plan, which includes a sharp reduction in corporate income taxes, depended on various factors. “While changes in tax policy will likely provide some lift to economic activity in coming years, the magnitude and timing of the macroeconomic effects of any tax package remain uncertain,” she said. Yellen will be succeeded at the helm of the central bank by Fed Governor Jerome Powell. U.S. outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, U.S. December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst GRAPHIC-U.S. core CPI, PCE, fed funds rate - reut.rs/2ACP5ay INFLATION CONCERNS The Fed also said on Wednesday it expected the nation’s unemployment rate would fall to 3.9 percent next year and remain at that level in 2019. It previously had forecast a jobless rate of 4.1 percent for those two years. Slideshow (5 Images) But inflation is projected to remain shy of the central bank’s 2 percent goal for another year, with weakness on that front still enough of a concern that policymakers saw no reason to accelerate the expected pace of rate increases. That means that the tax cuts, if passed by Congress, would take effect without the Fed having flagged any likely response in the form of higher rates or concerns of a jump in inflation. “It shows at least some members of the Fed don’t see any reason to keep hiking rates in an environment where the economy is growing more strongly but certainly not overheating and where inflation hasn’t become a problem and doesn’t look like it is going to be one,” said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones. Policymakers do see the federal funds rate rising to 3.1 percent in 2020, slightly above the 2.8 percent “neutral” rate they expect to maintain in the long run. That indicates possible concerns about a rise in inflation pressures over time. As it stands, inflation is expected to remain below the Fed’s target in the near term and is being monitored “closely” by policymakers. Yellen reiterated that the inflation outlook was still considerably uncertain. “We recognize there has been a prolonged shortfall ... (it‘s) one of the risks facing policy,” she said. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari dissented in the policy statement on Wednesday. The Fed also said that, as of January, it would raise the amount of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities that it would not reinvest on a monthly basis to $12 billion and $8 billion, respectively. That is consistent with its balance sheet reduction plan. Reporting by Howard Schneider and Lindsay Dunsmuir; Additional reporting by Jason Lange in Washington, Jonathan Spicer in New York and Ann Saphir in San Francisco; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed/with-rate-hike-in-the-bag-fed-may-hint-at-trump-effect-on-economy-idUSKBN1E70IX'|'2017-12-13T08:04:00.000+02:00'
'f38935c3d50c936a0ff012d16087d46e24bba1b8'|'Activist investor Primestone urges Tennant to merge with Nilfisk'|'December 13, 2017 / 4:40 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Activist investor Primestone urges Tennant to merge with Nilfisk Reuters Staff 2 Min Read COPENHAGEN/LONDON (Reuters) - Activist hedge fund Primestone Capital on Wednesday urged U.S. cleaning equipment company Tennant and Danish peer Nilfisk to consider merging after building up minority stakes in both firms. “Primestone Capital owns more than 5 percent of both Tennant and Nilfisk and believes a combination of the two will generate extraordinary returns for shareholders,” the London-based activist firm said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It disclosed it had taken a 5.2 percent stake in Tenant. Nilfisk, which was spun off from Danish cable maker NKT in October, and Tennant were not immediately available to comment. Shares in Nilfisk rose 4.9 percent in Copenhagen after Primestone’s statement, while Tennant traded up 0.8 percent in New York at 1532 GMT. Primestone said it believed a merger would create earnings per share (EPS) accretion in excess of 85 percent for both companies. It is following a trend, as 91 European companies have been subject to activist campaigns this year as of the end of November, according to industry tracker Activist Insight. Primestone Capital, which does not disclose its assets under management, was set up in December 2014 by former Carlyle Group senior partners Franck Falézan, Benoît Colas and Jean-Pierre Millet. Primestone owns a 5.6 percent stake in Nilfisk. Reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Maiya Keidan in London, editing by Louise Heavens and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tennant-nilfisk-holding-hedgefunds/activist-investor-primestone-urges-tennant-to-merge-with-nilfisk-idUKKBN1E72B0'|'2017-12-13T18:39:00.000+02:00'
'd30d4b2ef8fcc0ef306d0a8712923d545734aa8d'|'UK sees 3.8 billion pounds a year of opportunities in steel sector by 2030'|'December 15, 2017 / 3:02 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago UK sees 3.8 billion pounds a year of opportunities in steel sector by 2030 Maytaal Angel 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will have £3.8 billion a year of business opportunities for steelmakers by 2030, according to an independent study commissioned by the government. The British government, which has come under pressure to protect vulnerable industrial sectors from the effects of Brexit, also said it plans to use 3 million tonnes of UK steel in infrastructure projects in the next five years. “Through our modern industrial strategy, the government has been clear that we will do everything we can to support our steel industry,” the minister for climate change and industrial policy, Claire Perry, said in a statement. The government last month launched an industrial strategy aimed at intervening in key sectors to tackle weak productivity and bolster businesses, hoping to counter any problems caused by the country’s planned exit from the European Union. Prime Minister Theresa May first flagged the plan in January, seven months after Britain voted to leave the EU, adopting a hands-on approach to business that had largely been abandoned by her predecessors. UK Steel, an industry association, said: “This report shows once and for all that there can be a positive future here for our steel producers, if the right measures are put in place.” “The government has a vital role to play in delivering the right business environment and in maximising the opportunities for UK producers from its own purchase of steel.” Between September 2015 and March 2017, some 7,000 UK steel jobs were lost, about a quarter of the workforce. It is estimated that for every one steel job lost, three or four jobs are lost in related industries. Heavy industries in Britain pay some of the highest energy costs and green taxes in the world, but the British government says it is working to combat these problems. The government’s industrial strategy targets life sciences, construction, artificial intelligence and the automotive industry, which have suffered from weak productivity since the 2008 financial crisis. EU steel prices ST-MBEUDNHRC-MB have risen some 73 percent since early 2016, when they hit their lowest in more than a decade. The market, however, remains vulnerable given persistent overcapacity in the global steel sector. Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-steel/uk-sees-3-8-billion-pounds-a-year-of-opportunities-in-steel-sector-by-2030-idUKKBN1E91XY'|'2017-12-15T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'a4c97aa64a4d9ebf3ab9136bf0adeeced80d238b'|'Nikkei falls hit by telecom stocks, posts 1.1 pct weekly drop'|' 33 AM / in 10 minutes Nikkei falls hit by telecom stocks, posts 1.1 pct weekly drop Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks fell to their lowest in more than a week on Friday, with mobile firms extending a sell-off on concerns of increased competition after e-commerce group Rakuten said it aims to become the country’s fourth wireless carrier. Taking the cue from weak U.S. stocks overnight, the Nikkei share average declined 0.6 percent to 22,553.22, the lowest closing since Dec. 7. For the week, the Nikkei shed 1.1 percent. The information and communication sector slumped 3.2 percent and was the worst performer on the board. KDDI Corp tumbled 6.7 percent, NTT Docomo skidded 4.6 percent and SoftBank, which has a more diversified business portfolio, shed 2.4 percent. The sell-off was triggered after Rakuten Inc said it was weighing entry into the mobile carrier market, which would set it up to compete with the telecom giants. On the other hand, heavyweight stocks such as clothing company Fast Retailing Co rose 1.3 percent, while chip equipment makers also gained ground, with Tokyo Electron rising 1.4 percent and Advantest gaining 0.9 percent. The broader Topix dropped 0.8 percent to 1,793.47. Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-falls-hit-by-telecom-stocks-posts-1-1-pct-weekly-drop-idUSL4N1OF27X'|'2017-12-15T08:30:00.000+02:00'
'eee50c36439f6532547ec70bfb9caa1cf469e02d'|'Hungary courts Tesla with tax breaks, incentives -MTI'|' 18 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Hungary courts Tesla with tax breaks, incentives -MTI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BUDAPEST, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Hungary’s foreign minister has met executives of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla during a tour of Silicon Valley, extolling tax breaks and other incentives offered to car makers, national news agency MTI reported on Friday. The production and export of cars by foreign automakers is a key driver of economic growth in Hungary, where wages for skilled workers are well below Western European levels. The car sector employs over 100,000 people and accounts for about a third of industrial output in Hungary, an eastern member of the European Union. Neighbouring Slovakia and the Czech Republic are also major car making hubs in the region. “Our purpose with today’s visit was to place Hungary on the map ... as a country, which puts great emphasis on the car sector,” Szijjarto was quoted as saying after talks on Thursday with Tesla’s business development and legal directors. Szijjarto said Tesla executives responded “very positively” to tax breaks linked to research and development and investments in Hungary, as well as the country’s corporate tax rate, which at 9 percent is the lowest in the 28-member EU. The minister said Hungary aimed to install over 3,000 electric charging points by 2019. He added that Tesla would build two supercharging stations in Hungary by the end of next year, one in the western town of Gyor, an industrial hub home to German premium car maker Audi , and another in Nagykanizsa in the southwest. Audi is one of Hungary’s biggest exporters and revenue earners and the company describes the Gyor engine plant as the world’s largest, supplying more than 30 Volkswagen Group sites. Other major car makers in Hungary include German rival Daimler, PSA Group’s Opel, and Suzuki Motor Corp . South Korea’s SK Innovation said last month it would invest 840.2 billion won ($771.86 million) to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Hungary to meet demand from automakers in Europe. $1 = 1,088.5400 won Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/hungary-tesla/hungary-courts-tesla-with-tax-breaks-incentives-mti-idUSL8N1OF0WX'|'2017-12-15T10:13:00.000+02:00'
'695002961efcfbb96022f5f347d2d506ef8208db'|'UK keeps top financial sector global ranking, Brexit seen as risk'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:11 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago UK keeps top financial sector global ranking, Brexit seen as risk Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain kept the top spot in global financial services exports last year but Brexit threatens to raise barriers to its biggest market in Europe, TheCityUK said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The body, which promotes Britain as a financial centre, said banks, insurers, asset managers, and the accountants and lawyers who support them, netted a total trade surplus of $93.6 billion in 2016, more than the next two leading countries, the United States and Switzerland, combined. “However, we cannot take this position for granted,” said Anjalika Bardalai, TheCityUK’s chief economist and head of research. “Brexit is likely to create some economic friction with our largest trading partner - the EU and with an increasing number of regional and specialist centres arising in Asia and elsewhere - it is vital that the UK seek new trading and investment opportunities.” It also needs to step up trade with existing major partners like the United States and Japan, TheCityUK said. Britain is sending a trade delegation to China this weekend that will include financial services firms such as the London Stock Exchange to drum up business to help plug any gap in business lost due to Brexit. “While markets like China and India are growing fast, trade flows are still relatively small, indicating potential for the future,” Bardalai said. ($1 = $1.0000)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-banks-trade/uk-keeps-top-financial-sector-global-ranking-brexit-seen-as-risk-idINKBN1E909U'|'2017-12-15T06:08:00.000+02:00'
'da316b80b7ad3ffff97fdf17eb1781242c802054'|'Exclusive - Safran, Zodiac deal expected to win unconditional EU approval: source'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:16 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Exclusive - Safran, Zodiac deal expected to win unconditional EU approval: source Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - French aero engine maker Safran ( SAF.PA ) is set to secure an EU green light for its $7.7 billion (£5.8 billion) bid for aircraft seat maker Zodiac Aerospace ( ZODC.PA ) to create the world’s third-largest aerospace supplier, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of French aircraft seats and equipment manufacturer Zodiac Aerospace is seen in Paris, France, April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Safran has said the deal would boost its position in making smarter and more connected aircraft, targeting planemakers such as Airbus ( AIR.PA ) and Boeing ( BA.N ). The merged entity would compete with U.S companies United Technologies ( UTX.N ) and General Electric ( GE.N ). The European Commission, which is scheduled to rule on the deal by Dec. 21, declined to comment. Safran also declined to comment. The proposed takeover is one of several deals in the aerospace industry which includes United Technologies Corp’s $23 billion plan to buy avionics maker Rockwell Collins Inc ( COL.N ). The Safran, Zodiac tie-up has already been given the regulatory go-ahead in Canada, Kenya, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, the United States and pre-authorised in South Korea. Authorities in China and Brazil are also expected to clear the deal. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Cyril Altmeyerhenzien in Paris; editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-zodiac-aero-m-a-safran-eu-exclusive/exclusive-safran-zodiac-deal-expected-to-win-unconditional-eu-approval-source-idUKKBN1E92FW'|'2017-12-15T20:15:00.000+02:00'
'76f22893d7b799e7416cb4774c1bc9d7f4c59776'|'Shop early, shop often to avoid Christmas impulse buying - study'|'December 15, 2017 / 9:29 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Shop early, shop often to avoid Christmas impulse buying - study Jon Herskovitz 2 Min Read AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Parcelling out holiday shopping in small amounts and completing it in a realistic schedule helps people maintain the self-control needed to avoid being swept away in impulse purchases that can wreck budgets, a study to be published in January said. FILE PHOTO: An employee checks on a Christmas display at a Walmart store in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski/File Photo The study from Texas A&M University researchers looked at how well people complied with maintaining self-control for tasks such as making purchases and found that people should pace themselves if they want to accomplish larger goals. “Try to conserve your energy. Don’t try to make it too hard on yourself because it is going to backfire,” said Marco Palma, director of the Human Behavior Laboratory at Texas A&M and co-author of the study called “Self-control: Knowledge or perishable resource?” It will be published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. Palma recommended making a list and dividing it into sub-goals of small purchases. Shopping online and shopping early in the day can help conserve energy, which can also help people exercise self-control. FILE PHOTO - Christmas decorations are seen as people shop at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan in New York City, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “Committing to a shopping list will help you stay on budget,” he said in an interview this week. The worst shopping scenario in terms of self-control is waiting until the last minute to make the bulk of holiday purchases, he said. FILE PHOTO: Christmas decorations are seen as people shop at Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan in New York City, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The study used biometric data including eye tracking and brain scanning to measure how well people complied with easy and difficult tasks that required self-control. It found that an initial moderate self-control act enhances subsequent self-control ability by increasing confidence and motivation, but exerting too much self-control drains subsequent self-control ability. But humans are humans and even when they are nice, they can be a little bit naughty. A person who completes a holiday shopping list as planned may splurge with a little reward for themselves, Palma said. Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Marguerita Choy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-holidayshopping-study/shop-early-shop-often-to-avoid-christmas-impulse-buying-study-idUKKBN1E92SU'|'2017-12-15T23:32:00.000+02:00'
'5bd9974b4dfe30f91b85b84d7ea91c494409fee5'|'Bumper crop of new drugs fails to lift big pharma R&D returns'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:09 AM / in 17 hours Bumper crop of new drugs fails to lift big pharma R&D returns Ben Hirschler 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - It is shaping up to be a bumper year for drug approvals, with U.S. officials clearing twice as many novel medicines as in 2016, yet returns on research investment at leading pharmaceutical companies are down. FILE PHOTO - A view shows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland August 14, 2012. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo In fact, projected returns at 12 of the world’s top drugmakers have fallen to an eight-year low of only 3.2 percent, consultancy Deloitte said on Thursday. The disconnect reflects the rising cost of developing new drugs, meager peak sales expectations for individual products and the fact that younger biotechnology companies are accounting for a growing proportion of new products. So far this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, gatekeeper to the world''s biggest drugs market, has approved 41 novel drugs compared with 22 for the whole of 2016. ( tmsnrt.rs/2hGom21 ) The strong biotech sector is good news for investors like Daniel Koller, head of investment management at Swiss-based BB Biotech, which has money tied up in fast-growing U.S. and European companies. “It’s been a great year for approvals in 2017 and we assume another very positive year for biotech in 2018,” he told Reuters. “It is a confirmation of the health of the industry.” But for the giants of the pharma world tracked by Deloitte, things are not so rosy. This decade has seen shrinking profitability in their research labs, with the average internal rate of return (IRR) down sharply from 10.1 percent in 2010 to 3.2 percent this year. A separate group of four large biotech companies are projected to enjoy an IRR nearly four times higher at 11.9 percent. The calculations are based on long-term sales forecasts. “The biotech companies are seeing more success,” said Mark Steedman, one of the report’s authors. Steedman said biotechs typically had a leaner cost structure, although there were signs of big pharma beginning to streamline R&D operations and deploy new technologies in drug discovery, such as artificial intelligence. “There are reasons for optimism,” he said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time but we the think the impact could be monumental in terms of increasing productivity.” $2 BILLION PER DRUG Today, the average cost of bringing a new drug to market at a large company is nearly $2 billion, up from $1.2 billion in 2010, while forecast annual peak sales per drug have fallen from $816 million in 2010 to $465 million. The figures highlight a dilemma as R&D resources are shifted from mass-market treatments to more specialist therapy areas. This year’s haul of new drugs does include some likely blockbusters designed for relatively wide use, such as Roche’s multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus and Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic for diabetes. But many new drugs are for rare diseases, including very specific sub-types of cancer. A few are truly ground-breaking, such as the first gene-modified cell therapy against a type of leukemia from Novartis, and next year is expected to see the first U.S. approval of a gene therapy for a rare inherited eye condition. Such pioneering drugs come at a huge price, with Novartis’ cell therapy Kymriah costing $475,000, while gene therapy could fetch around $1 million per patient. “The insights from human genetics and the insights from an understanding of the immune system are finally being translated in medicines, and very new technologies are now starting to pay off,” Roche CEO Severin Schwan said in a recent interview. The 12 big drugmakers analyzed in the Deloitte study were Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Merck & Co, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Takeda and Amgen. The four large biotech companies were Biogen, Celgene, Gilead Sciences and AbbVie. Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pharmaceuticals-r-d/bumper-crop-of-new-drugs-fails-to-lift-big-pharma-rd-returns-idUSKBN1E800P'|'2017-12-14T02:07:00.000+02:00'
'2bf65dc7de8de70fc10161b816d4b4348b8ccf0e'|'UPDATE 2-Lebanon gives go-ahead to first offshore energy exploration'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:02 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago UPDATE 2-Lebanon gives go-ahead to first offshore energy exploration Reuters Staff * Drilling expected start of 2019 - energy minister * Total-ENI-Novatek can explore two offshore blocks * Sovereign wealth fund, NOC laws not yet passed (Adds PIX, TV, adds energy minister and NGO comments) By Lisa Barrington BEIRUT, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Lebanon’s cabinet approved a bid on Thursday by a consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s ENI and Russia’s Novatek, in the country’s much-delayed first oil and gas offshore licensing round, a government source told Reuters. Exploratory drilling is expected to start at the beginning of 2019, Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abi Khalil said in a statement. “Congratulations to the Lebanese people on the passing of the oil decree and on Lebanon entering the club of oil countries,” Abi Khalil said on Twitter in response to the decision. Lebanon is on the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean where a number of big sub-sea gas fields have been discovered since 2009, including the Leviathan and Tamar fields located in Israeli waters near the disputed marine border with Lebanon. Data suggests there are reserves in Lebanon’s waters, but so far no exploratory drilling has taken place to estimate reserves. The first licensing round for exploration and production rights in five blocks (1, 4, 8, 9 and 10) was re-launched in January after a three-year delay caused by political paralysis. After being without a president for more than two years, Lebanon in January installed a new government and reactivated the licensing round. Total-ENI-Novatek was the only consortium to submit an offer out of the 51 companies which qualified to bid, bidding for blocks 4 and 9. Block 9 borders Israeli waters. Lebanon considers Israel an enemy state and has an unresolved maritime border dispute with it over a triangular area of sea of around 860 sq km (330 square miles) that extends along the edge of three of the five blocks put up for tender. The exploration phase will last up to five years with a possible one-year extension, the Lebanese Petroleum Administration, the state body that manages the offshore sector, said. The government gave no other details of the agreement with the three energy companies. But under a model exploration and production agreement published by the Lebanese government in January, companies that make a discovery must produce oil and gas for 25 years with a possible further five-year extension. Companies must pay royalties to the state equal to 4 percent of gas produced and a varying percentage (between 5 and 12 percent) of any oil produced. A percentage of the oil and gas is allocated to the companies to cover their costs. Diana Kaissy, executive director of the Lebanon Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI), a non-governmental organisation promoting transparency and policy development in the hydrocarbon sector, said the contracts will likely be signed in January. Kaissy said there was a legislative framework for drilling to begin, but four other draft laws for the sector were still being discussed: sovereign wealth fund legislation, an onshore petroleum law, legislation for a national oil company and a petroleum assets law. LOGI wants to make Lebanon’s nascent hydrocarbon industry as transparent as possible and says it will be using freedom of information laws to make the government’s evaluation of the consortium’s bid available for public scrutiny. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Laila Bassam; Editing by Adrian Croft)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/lebanon-economy-energy/update-1-lebanon-approves-offshore-oil-gas-exploration-bid-idUSL8N1OE3LZ'|'2017-12-14T18:22:00.000+02:00'
'f846416985ff6d6b429e373971cdca97e9ae6b3e'|'American business has concerns on tax reform - Let the games begin'|'PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S effort to change America’s tax code is approaching the finishing line. Republican negotiators from the Senate and the House of Representatives this week hashed out a consensus bill behind closed doors. On December 13th, Mr Trump expressed confidence that he would be able to sign the reform into law before Christmas.The key provision is the slashing of the corporate tax rate, from 35% to 21%. Big business in America uniformly cheers this reduction. The US Chamber of Commerce calls it a measure to “grow the economy, create jobs, and increase paychecks”. The Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think-tank, claims that reducing the corporate rate to 20%, just one percentage point lower, would increase the size of the economy by 2.7% over the long run. Yet big firms are less enamoured of controversial international provisions that may make it into the final law. Both the Senate bill and the House bill try to stop the shifting of profits by American multinationals (MNCs) to affiliates in lower-tax countries by imposing some form of tax on cross-border transactions between business units.  44 minutes   7   7   MNCs, both American and foreign, worry that such measures will throttle global supply chains. A trade association for foreign carmakers with operations in America calls the reform effort “highly problematic.” America’s big trading partners are also concerned. This week, finance ministers from five European countries wrote a joint letter to Steven Mnuchin, America’s treasury secretary, warning that the proposals could violate tax treaties and rules of the World Trade Organisation.Yet the Republican leadership will move heaven and earth to forge an agreement—however imperfect—before Christmas. Republicans have only a slender majority in the Senate. The taking of a Senate seat in Alabama by Doug Jones, a Democrat, on December 12th (pending a possible recount) suggests that the best hope for Republicans is to strike a deal before he takes office early next year.The final details of the consensus bill remain uncertain, but two things already seem clear. First, whatever law is passed, lobbying will continue. The last such effort of a similar scale, the tax reform of 1986, was the result of years of work and bipartisan consensus. That comprehensive law stood the test of time. In contrast, this year’s rushed effort seems likely to leave important constituencies dissatisfied.Technology-intensive firms are up in arms about a proposed reduction in tax breaks for investing in research and development. Drugmakers are fighting a provision that would make it more expensive to develop “orphan drugs” for serious diseases affecting relatively few people. Many other lobbies are unhappy. All will agitate for changes to the tax code in future.Second, tax experts have outlined ways in which the Republican proposals can be gamed. Companies would be able to manipulate a deduction for export earnings, for example, by “round-tripping” products out of and then back into America. Individuals can benefit, too. They can set up corporations and give up salaries, taxed at rates of 40% or more, in favour of fees paid by those firms, which would be taxed at 20%. Other examples abound. The main winners from all this seem likely to be accountants and tax lawyers. Gaming the American tax code used to be a select, corporate sport, but it now looks to become everyman’s pastime.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Let the games begin"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732567-republicans-tax-reform-offers-opportunities-game-complex-rules-american-business-has?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'89a6ad1641cb6ab16ba5ad57b9af401ac6991412'|'Oil and gas supply disruptions ripple around the world - The Baumgarten effect'|'CALL it the hydrocarbon equivalent of the butterfly effect. As oil and gas supplies tighten during the northern winter, disruptions as remote as a hairline fracture on a piece of Scottish pipeline, and an explosion in an Austrian natural-gas plant, have repercussions felt around the world.Start with the pipeline. After Ineos, a chemicals company, detected a growing crack on a piece of pipe near Aberdeen, on December 11th it said it would shut the main Forties pipeline carrying North Sea oil and gas to Britain for weeks. The suspension of a pipeline carrying 450,000 barrels a day (b/d) of crude, in a global market of almost 98m b/d, would not normally be disruptive. Yet Brent crude, the benchmark for pricing much of the world’s seaborne crude, is itself partly priced on the flow of crude from 80 fields that feed the Forties pipeline, magnifying the impact.  43 minutes   7   7   Futures prices for Brent crude delivered in February and March surged to two-year highs, above $65 a barrel, before falling back. That emphasised how little slack the market has, after the extension last month of a production cut by OPEC, the producers’ cartel, Russia and other petrostates. Ann-Louise Hittle of Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy, says some European refineries rely on Brent crude to produce heating oil for sale in Germany and elsewhere. “Suddenly half a million barrels are out of action at a delicate time going into winter,” she says. Those refineries may now receive some shipments of American crude.The mishap also highlighted the fragility of the Brent benchmark, which is priced based on demand for four types of crude produced in ageing North Sea fields running through pipelines dating from the 1970s. Earlier this year S&P Global Platts, an agency that assesses the Brent price, said it would incorporate from January a fifth crude from a Norwegian field, to ensure a more stable mix of production.The pipeline also carries a tenth of Britain’s natural-gas supply. Stuart Elliot of S&P Global Platts says that, in Britain, wholesale gas prices surged by 40% following the shutdown, until terminals storing liquefied natural gas (LNG) disgorged some stock. Indicating the global reach of the incident, he says Britain may stock up on gas by buying a cargo from the first tanker bringing LNG from Yamal, a field in the Russian Arctic, which was inaugurated by President Vladimir Putin on December 8th. Much of its gas is destined for China.As Britain struggled with its gas supplies, elsewhere in Europe had to cope with an explosion at the Baumgarten gas hub in Austria on December 12th that killed one person. It stopped the flow of Russian gas through Austria into Italy, sending day-ahead prices for such gas soaring. Italy, which depends on Russian gas for about a third of its consumption, declared a state of emergency. But later that night Russian gas reached Italy again after OMV, Baumgarten’s operator, diverted flows. Predictably, the Kremlin used the incident to press for more pipelines to Europe. But the EU is reluctant to lean too heavily on imports of Russian gas. It sees LNG, including from America, as a useful alternative that could enhance its energy security.This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline "The cracking forties"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21732557-tight-markets-and-wintry-weather-exacerbate-problem-oil-and-gas-supply?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'1bdaee2800b08c707a58c3f74143b76e28f62441'|'Toyota, Panasonic to hold news conference at 0630 GMT'|'TOKYO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp and Panasonic Corp on Wednesday said they would hold a joint news conference in Tokyo at 3:30 pm (0630 GMT).The two companies did not give details on the content of the news conference.The Nikkei business daily reported earlier on Wednesday that Toyota and Panasonic were forming a tie-up to establish standards for batteries used in electric vehicles which could help reduce manufacturing costs and establish recycling options for used batteries.Panasonic manufactures batteries used in Toyota’s gasoline hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, and Toyota is developing battery-electric vehicles (EVs) which it plans to market in the early 2020s.A Toyota spokeswoman declined to comment on the Nikkei report. Panasonic also supplies Tesla Inc with EV batteries. (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/toyota-panasonic/toyota-panasonic-to-hold-news-conference-at-0630-gmt-idINT9N1NJ04A'|'2017-12-12T23:28:00.000+02:00'
'af540e3db4e51a76634e9d21b936c41e9540baea'|'Debt-laden Carillion secures deal to sell part of UK healthcare unit'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:52 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Debt-laden Carillion secures deal to sell part of UK healthcare unit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Troubled British construction firm Carillion ( CLLN.L ) said on Wednesday it had reached a deal to sell a large part of its UK healthcare facilities management business to outsourcing group Serco ( SRP.L ) for about 47.7 million pounds ($63.55 million). A Carillion sign can be seen on a van in Manchester, Britain July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Carillion said in September said it intended to exit the business and announced it had a preliminary agreement for selling a large part of it to Serco for 50.1 million pounds. Carillion said net disposal proceeds of 41.4 million pounds would be used to prepay of part of a 140 million pound credit. The firm, which has said it was heading towards a breach of debt covenants and needed fresh capital, had said it would exit its UK healthcare and Canadian businesses to help raise more than 300 million pounds by the end of 2018 from disposals. Lazard & Co is acting as lead financial adviser and sponsor to Carillion for the healthcare unit sale. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-carillion-divestiture-serco-group/debt-laden-carillion-secures-deal-to-sell-part-of-uk-healthcare-unit-idUKKBN1E70QC'|'2017-12-13T09:48:00.000+02:00'
'70c96b49ed9b3ae3bd92b86d315f56af27cde43b'|'Lockheed Martin now seen with edge in race to supply Canada jets'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:15 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Lockheed Martin now seen with edge in race to supply Canada jets David Ljunggren 4 Min Read OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada’s decision to make it harder for Boeing Co ( BA.N ) to win a major jet order hands rival plane maker Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) an advantage in capturing the contract, defence experts said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Lockheed Martin''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon That would mark a reversal in Lockheed’s fortunes after Liberal leader Justin Trudeau campaigned in 2015 on a promise not to buy the firm’s F-35 stealth fighter. Trudeau’s government on Tuesday scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing Super Hornets and made clear the company would not win a contract for 88 jets unless it dropped a trade challenge against Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ). Government officials estimate the cost of the jets at between C$15 billion ($11.7 billion) and C$19 billion and say it is the biggest investment in the air force in 30 years. Last week Boeing issued a statement making clear it would not back down in its fight against Bombardier, which it accuses of trying to dump airliners on the U.S. market. The firm may not even launch a bid for the 88 jets, the first of which are due to be delivered in 2025. That leaves the F-35, a new aircraft, up against two European rivals which first flew in the 1990s: the Eurofighter Typhoon ( AIR.PA ) ( BAES.L ) ( LDOF.MI ) and Dassault Aviation SA’s ( AVMD.PA ) Rafale. “The longer this process plays out, the narrower the government’s options become, and the prospects for a European jet become even dimmer,” said one defence source, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the situation. A second defence source said Boeing now had little chance of winning the 88-plane contract and noted the Canadian air force had long sought an American jet so it could operate easily with the U.S. military. Neither source works for a company which might make a bid. Boeing spokesman Scott Day described the Super Hornet as “the low-risk, low-cost approach” which could serve Canada’s needs well into the future. Lockheed was not immediately available for comment. Trudeau initially opposed the F-35 on the grounds that it was too costly but the government has since softened its line. Officials insist the competition will be open and say no company will be excluded. Yet in a clear swipe at Boeing, federal ministers on Tuesday spelled out that any bidder deemed to have harmed Canada’s economy would be at a distinct disadvantage. “Can Canada get away with this? The answer is probably ... when procurement for the military is involved, governments have wide latitude,” U.S. trade expert Bill Perry said by email. Boeing, which has extensive aerospace operations in Canada, accuses Bombardier of imitating Airbus by trying to muscle into the U.S. market. People familiar with Boeing say the strategic importance of defending its core passenger jet business outweighs the fighter dispute. Jerry Dias, president of the Unifor union, said in a phone interview he did not think Boeing would react by cutting jobs. Unifor represents 1,300 workers at a Boeing plant in Winnipeg in central Canada. “I‘m not expecting retaliation,” he said of Boeing, which he described as a good employer. Boeing says its operations support 17,500 Canadian jobs. ($1=1.2865 Canadian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-canada-boeing-fighterjets/lockheed-martin-now-seen-with-edge-in-race-to-supply-canada-jets-idUKKBN1E72QM'|'2017-12-13T21:15:00.000+02:00'
'e8939bd98cee9b5b99f9d06ceabfca2d22fea1d8'|'ATM machine-maker Diebold''s CEO to step down'|'Dec 13 (Reuters) - Diebold Nixdorf Inc, one of the world’s largest ATM makers, said on Wednesday that President and Chief Executive Andreas Mattes is stepping down, effective immediately.Diebold said Chief Financial Officer Christopher Chapman and Chief Operating Officer Juergen Wunram will serve as interim co-presidents and co-CEOs. (Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D‘Souza) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/diebold-ceo/atm-machine-maker-diebolds-ceo-to-step-down-idINL3N1OD3WE'|'2017-12-13T09:13:00.000+02:00'
'6e820a27c615a77a2fad8644a9336f0d0c0a1241'|'Ex-Trump aide Carter Page tells court to stop AT&T Time Warner deal'|'December 12, 2017 / 11:52 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Ex-Trump aide Carter Page tells court to stop AT&T Time Warner deal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page argued in court papers on Tuesday that AT&T Inc ( T.N ) should not be permitted to buy CNN parent Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ) because there was a risk it would lead to “recklessness” in journalism. FILE PHOTO - One-time advisor of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump Carter Page addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow, Russia, December 12, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Page, whose contacts with Russia have been under scrutiny by Congress and a special counsel, made his argument in a friend-of-the-court brief that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has yet to accept. Late on Tuesday, the court appeared to dismiss his opinion, saying in a brief filing that “Dr. Page’s submission does not appear to be meaningfully relevant to the issues in this case.” Trump criticized the deal on the campaign trail last year and has repeatedly attacked the reporting of Time Warner’s CNN news network. Page said in an interview with Reuters that he had not been in contact with the White House about the filing. FILE PHOTO - The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The U.S. Department of Justice sued AT&T in November to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner, saying the deal could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video. A trial is set for March 19. Both AT&T and the Justice Department declined to comment. “This market power concentrated in the hands of a few dominant mega corporate telecommunications-media conglomerates encourages extreme levels of journalistic recklessness and impropriety since it allocates considerable resources to the media outlets under their control,” Page said in the court papers. Page, who traveled to Russia twice in 2016, has testified to congressional committees investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In that testimony and elsewhere, he has argued that he has been the subject of unfair and inaccurate media coverage. As an example of what he said was media abuse, Page criticized Yahoo, which is owned by Verizon Communications Inc ( VZ.N ), for publishing what he called a “highly misleading” story in September 2016 regarding U.S. intelligence officials probing Trump’s ties to Russia. Page, who described himself as a “junior, unpaid, informal adviser” to the Trump campaign, also argued that it would provide an incentive for the big media outlets to exclude viewpoints it does not like. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Additional reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-carterpage/ex-trump-aide-carter-page-tells-court-to-stop-att-time-warner-deal-idUKKBN1E632T'|'2017-12-13T04:23:00.000+02:00'
'8bb771a9159c1e5ddff3145d51e7dc5d9c935b88'|'Renault gears up for driverless cars by buying magazines'|'December 13, 2017 / 4:10 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Renault gears up for driverless cars by buying magazines Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French carmaker Renault has bought a stake in a glossy magazine publishing group, its first foray into media, as it prepares to keep travellers occupied in the era of driverless cars. The logo of Renault is seen during the 87th International Motor Show at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland March 8, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann Renault billed its move into media as the first among the world’s automobile manufacturers, who are carrying out advanced testing of self-driving cars in France and other countries. “This project is totally in line with Renault’s strategy, which aims to offer new, high-quality connected services and to improve the customer experience,” Renault chairman Carlos Ghosn said in a statement on Wednesday. Renault, which is conducting trials of semi-autonomous cars and plans to put totally self-driving vehicles on the road as soon as 2021, says entertainment will become a bigger chunk of business as drivers switch from speedometers and steering wheels to pastimes such as in-car entertainment and dining. “When going from place to place – whether alone or with family or friends – we listen, look, and pay attention (to) the world around us,” Ghosn said. “This is already true of travel in today’s cars, and will be even more true in the autonomous, and driverless car of tomorrow,” he added. Renault did not disclose how much it is paying for the 40 percent stake in the group which produces five publications including Challenges, an equivalent of the Fortune business magazine, as well as Historia and Sciences & Avenir. “This project will enable millions of drivers and their passengers to have completely free access to a choice of high-quality information and content,” Renault said. Reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Laurence Frost; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-renault-press/renault-gears-up-for-driverless-cars-by-buying-magazines-idUKKBN1E727Q'|'2017-12-13T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'06de42300a6a1e9b78cb988b7465d936779b92e9'|'Morning News Call - India, December 13'|'To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:00 am: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, TRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma, Communications Minister Manoj Sinha, Communications Secretary Aruna Sundarajan at India Satcom 2017 in New Delhi. 10:00 am: Supreme Court to continue hearing of Unitech plea against NCLT in New Delhi. 12:00 pm: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to brief media on BPO promotion scheme in New Delhi. 1:00 pm: Aviation Ministry weekly briefing in New Delhi. 2:00 pm: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at ASEAN-India Partnership in New Delhi. 3:15 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at FICCI’s annual general meeting in New Delhi. INDIA TOP NEWS • India''s Nov retail inflation breaches central bank''s 4 pct target India''s retail inflation in November breached the central bank''s medium-term target of 4 percent, which could put pressure on it to raise policy rates in 2018. • India''s markets regulator probes prescient messages in WhatsApp groups India’s market regulator is “seriously” looking into the issue of prescient messages on company results circulated by market insiders in private WhatsApp groups, its chairman said on Tuesday, a sign the investigation is gaining momentum. • Punjab National Bank raises $777 mln in share sale - sources Punjab National Bank has raised 50 billion rupees from a share sale to institutional investors, sources with direct knowledge of the transaction said on Tuesday. • India''s Reliance considers listing telecoms unit Jio by early 2019 - Bloomberg India''s Reliance Industries Ltd is holding internal talks about listing its telecoms unit Jio by late 2018 or early 2019, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people it did not identify. • India''s Syndicate Bank seeks up to $186.4 mln in share sale - sources Indian state-run Syndicate Bank Ltd has launched a share sale to institutional investors, seeking to raise up to 12 billion rupees to help boost its capital ratio, sources with direct knowledge said on Tuesday. • India''s InterGlobe Aviation founders to sell 2.91 pct stake for $197 mln InterGlobe Aviation Ltd the owner of India''s biggest airline IndiGo, on Tuesday said two of its founder group companies will in this week sell a combined 2.91 percent stake in the company worth about 12.65 billion rupees. • Warburg Pincus to buy 20 pct stake in Bharti Airtel''s DTH arm for $350 mln Bharti Airtel Ltd on Tuesday said an affiliate of U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus will buy up to a 20 percent stake in the Indian telecom operator''s direct-to-home arm for $350 million. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Republican Moore holds slight lead in bitter U.S. Senate race in Alabama A bitter U.S. Senate race in Alabama with high stakes for President Donald Trump was too close to call on Tuesday, with Republican Roy Moore leading despite allegations against the candidate of sexual misconduct toward teenagers. • Tillerson says U.S. ready to talk to N.Korea; Kim promises more weapons U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, backing away from a key U.S. demand that Pyongyang must first accept that giving up its nuclear arsenal would be part of any negotiations. • Australia c.bank gov says bitcoin fascination is "speculative mania" The fascination with virtual currencies feels more like a "speculative mania", the head of Australia''s central bank said on Wednesday, just days after the launch of the world''s first bitcoin futures. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) The SGX Nifty Futures were at 10,245.00, trading down 0.11 percent from its previous close. Indian government bonds are likely to fall in early trade after the nation’s retail inflation accelerated to its highest in 15 months, further reducing the scope for monetary easing. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.22 percent-7.28 percent band. Yesterday, the note closed at 97.28 rupees, the lowest since its issuance on May 12. The Indian rupee will likely edge lower against the dollar, as the nation’s retail inflation jumped to a 15-month high last month, while industrial output grew at its slowest pace in three months in October. GLOBAL MARKETS • The S&P 500 and the Dow industrials registered record closing highs on Tuesday with a boost from bank stocks as investors eyed a potential cut in U.S. corporate taxes and continued economic growth after strong inflation data. • Asian shares were treading water in early trade as crude oil futures steadied after a selloff, while a widely expected interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve underpinned the dollar. • The dollar stood near a four-week high against a basket of currencies after strong U.S. wholesale price figures kept the Federal Reserve on track for a widely-expected rate rise this week and more in 2018. • U.S. Treasury yields rose on Tuesday as stronger-than-forecast data on producer prices in November offset average demand at a $12 billion auction of 30-year bonds. • Oil prices rose in early Asian trade as industry data showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles. • Gold prices were almost unchanged after hitting their lowest in nearly five months in the previous session, with investors in ''wait-and-see'' mode ahead of the outcome of a two-day meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.47/64.50 December 12 $130.09 mln $178.11 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.21 pct Month-to-date -$649.19 mln $363.96 mln Year-to-date $8.04 bln $26.10 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.4000 Indian rupees) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-december-13-idUSL3N1OD1CE'|'2017-12-13T05:16:00.000+02:00'
'a9156e5b3cdac83e905dd493210aa6fe54c0e56b'|'Amazon''s cloud unit expands in China, with new partner in Ningxia'|' 35 AM / a few seconds ago Amazon''s cloud unit expands in China, with new partner in Ningxia   BEIJING (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday it was expanding its cloud computing business in China with a new local partner, aiming to win share in an increasingly crowded and highly regulated market. FILE PHOTO: Amazon.com''s logo is seen at Amazon Japan''s office building in Tokyo, Japan, August 8, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Amazon Web Services (AWS) will start offering customer services based out of the northern Chinese city of Ningxia in partnership with local firm Ningxia Western Cloud Data Technology Co Ltd (NWCD), the U.S. firm said. “AWS has formed a strategic technology collaboration with NWCD, and NWCD operates and provides services from the AWS China Ningxia Region, in full compliance with Chinese regulations,” Amazon said in a statement. The move comes a month after AWS said it will sell the hardware assets of its Beijing-registered cloud unit for up to 2 billion yuan ($302.06 million) to its partner Beijing Sinnet Technology Co Ltd to comply with new regulations. China launched strict new regulations in June that require foreign firms to store data locally and outsource hardware elements to local partners. Cloud services have become a crowded and competitive field in China in recent years, with domestic companies, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, opening dozens of new data centers in just the past year. Chinese firms account for roughly 80 percent of total cloud services revenue in China, according to Synergy Research Group. U.S. companies Amazon, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp must jump over hurdles to compete, facing new surveillance measures by China and increasing scrutiny of cross-border data transfers. The infrastructure for the new data centers in Ningxia was built by NWCD affiliates using specifications provided by AWS, an Amazon spokesman told Reuters. While the AWS services offered in China are similar to services offered elsewhere, they are separated from other regions globally and customers enter agreements with Sinnet and NWCD rather than with AWS, Amazon said. Reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing and Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-amazon/amazons-cloud-unit-expands-in-china-with-new-partner-in-ningxia-idUKKBN1E60CN'|'2017-12-12T06:28:00.000+02:00'
'd16a9acf4567e5ae066c1c89bb4c9eebf8dae7f1'|'LSE investors should abstain at meet to oust chairman - advisor PIRC'|'December 12, 2017 / 3:37 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago LSE investors should abstain at meet to oust chairman - advisor PIRC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Shareholder advisory group PIRC recommended on Tuesday that LSE shareholders abstain in a vote on a resolution put forward by activist hedge fund TCI to oust chairman Donald Brydon. People walk through the lobby of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File photo The shareholder meeting takes place on Dec. 19 PIRC said it had a “number of concerns” about the LSE board’s behaviour following the sudden departure of Chief Executive Xavier Rolet, and said its handling of the succession strategy constituted a “major failure of board leadership”. LSE and TCI have been engaged in a public tussle over the exchange’s handling of initial plans for Rolet to step down by the end of 2018, and which instead led to him leaving in late November. TCI, which has a 5 percent stake in the LSE, had accused the board of forcing Rolet out and instead demanded a meeting to remove Brydon. Fellow shareholder advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis last week both said investors should back the company and reject the TCI resolution. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Simon Jessop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-tci-shareholders/lse-investors-should-abstain-at-meet-to-oust-chairman-advisor-pirc-idUKKBN1E622E'|'2017-12-12T17:36:00.000+02:00'
'bc891cf614463f8c5327a2fb0506f138d113c786'|'Australia''s Crown Resorts signs several divestment deals to reduce debt'|'Dec 14 (Reuters) - Australian casino operator Crown Resorts said on Thursday it has signed several divestment deals as part of its ongoing debt reduction strategy, including the sale of its interest in a Las Vegas site for $300 million to a unit of Wynn Resorts Ltd.The company said in a statement it expects gross proceeds of $264 million from the sale of the Las Vegas site.Crown has been retreating from a decade-long foray into the global gaming hub since 18 staff were arrested for gambling crimes in China last October amid a broader crackdown on corruption. (Reporting by Christina Martin in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/crown-resorts-divestiture/australias-crown-resorts-signs-several-divestment-deals-to-reduce-debt-idINL4N1OE2M4'|'2017-12-14T03:19:00.000+02:00'
'fefd9f7348aef14249e2bdc820186d3a4848cd46'|'Wall Street sees repeat of three U.S. rate hikes in 2018 - poll'|'December 13, 2017 / 11:52 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Wall Street sees repeat of three U.S. rate hikes in 2018 - poll Richard Leong 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street’s top banks expect the Federal Reserve to raise U.S. interest rates three times in 2018, matching the number of rate hikes this year and the central bank’s own outlook, as policy-makers turned more upbeat on economic growth and the jobs market. FILE PHOTO: Flags fly over the Federal Reserve Headquarters on a windy day in Washington, U.S., May 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Still, stubbornly low inflation remained a worry for policy-makers who saw consumer price growth stuck below their desired 2-percent goal in 2018. This meant core inflation would be running below that critical threshold for 6-1/2 years, according to a poll of the primary dealers conducted on Wednesday. “They feel good about growth and the labour market, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about inflation. That is a key thing that’s holding them back,” said Matt Luzzetti, senior economist at Deutsche Bank, one of the 23 dealers that do business directly with the Fed. Business activities is seen enjoying a boost if Congress passes the steep tax cuts Republican lawmakers have proposed and President Donald Trump has endorsed. The poll was taken on Wednesday after the Fed raised key short-term rates by a quarter point to a range of 1.25-1.50 percent, marking the third rate hike in 2017 and the fifth one that started two years ago. As the economic expansion has hummed along, Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who will succeed Fed Chair Janet Yellen to head the central bank early next year, was expected to stick close to Yellen’s playbook of gradually raising rates and unwinding the Fed’s nearly $4.5 trillion balance sheet, the latest poll showed. That said, Powell, who is widely viewed as a centrist on monetary policy, is seen overseeing a more hawkish Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policy-setting group, in 2018 than the current set of voting members this year. “Next year the voting line-up turns quite a bit more hawkish,” Michael Feroli, Fed watcher at JPMorgan, a primary dealer, wrote in a research note. U.S. inflation, fed funds rate - reut.rs/2ACP5ay Additional reporting by Dan Burns, Charles Mikolajczak, Rodrigo Campos, Sinead Carew, Dion Rabouin, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Lewis Krauskopf and Caroline Valetkevitch; Writing by Richard Leong; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-poll/wall-street-sees-repeat-of-three-u-s-rate-hikes-in-2018-poll-idUKKBN1E7370'|'2017-12-14T01:52:00.000+02:00'
'b2a15bdcccedbff13dc079b662c666147bb8a6cc'|'China November property investment growth slows, sales pick up'|' 16 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago China November property investment growth slows, sales pick up Yawen Chen , Kevin Yao 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Growth in China’s property investment cooled in November as an official crackdown on riskier lending and stiffer regulation of the real estate market took effect. FILE PHOTO: New properties are seen near a square in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Yawen Chen/File Photo Property investment growth eased for a second straight month to 4.6 percent in November from a year earlier, the slowest pace since July 2016, Reuters calculated from National Bureau of Statistics data. Investment growth was 5.6 percent in October. But new construction starts measured by floor area, a telling indicator of developers’ confidence, were up a sharp 18.8 percent in November from a year earlier, after falling 4.3 percent in October, Reuters calculations showed. Developers’ land purchases measured by area rose 16.3 percent in the first 11 months of the year, compared to 12.9 percent in January-October. “Overall the investment level is pretty steady, which could be explained by property developers’ enthusiasm in land bids despite the property purchase curbs,” said Yan Yuejin, an analyst with Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute. Yan suggested the land bids could be due to a surge in local government land supply towards the year-end. SALES REBOUND Property sales by floor area reached a five-month high in November, rising 5.3 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 6.0 percent decline in October, showing considerable resilience even as more tightening measures are expected for lower-tier cities. But many analysts attribute November’s rebound to a low base effect as sales plummeted last year after more than a dozen major Chinese cities introduced measures to rein in sky-rocketing prices last October, and they are sceptical such a pick-up could be sustained. “As the tightening measures continue to intensify and mortgage rates reach a record high, sales in smaller tier-3 and tier-4 cities have dropped significantly,” analysts at Haitong securities wrote in a note. “A sales rebound is hardly sustainable.” Property experts generally expect growth in China’s property sales, investment, and credit supply to the sector to weaken further next year as government cooling measures are likely to continue, a recent Reuters housing poll showed. Property investment in the first 11 months of the year rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier, compared with 7.8 percent in Jan-Oct. The figure mainly focuses on residential real estate but also includes commercial and office space. Household loans, mostly mortgages, rose to 620.5 billion yuan in November from 450.1 billion yuan in October, according to Reuters calculations based on the central bank’s data out on Monday. China’s economy has surprised global financial markets and investors with robust growth of 6.9 percent through the first nine months of this year, driven by a renaissance in long-ailing “smokestack” industries such as steel thanks to the resilient property market and government infrastructure spending. Reporting by Yawen Chen and Kevin Yao; Additional Reporting by Jenny Su and Cheng Fang; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-property-investment/china-november-property-investment-growth-slows-sales-pick-up-idUKKBN1E80DD'|'2017-12-14T06:15:00.000+02:00'
'bd963a48b75b6f636a53a64de011a1bf0793b1cc'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Region mixed, stimulus plan doesn''t buoy Saudi'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:46 PM / Updated an hour ago MIDEAST STOCKS-Region mixed, stimulus plan doesn''t buoy Saudi Reuters Staff * Doubts over timing, impact of Saudi stimulus steps * Saudi Electricity continues slide on news of payment to state * Saudi banks strong after reverse repo rate rises, repo flat * Dubai property developers drag market lower * Kuwait outperforms after central bank keeps rates unchanged By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Middle Eastern stock markets were mixed on Thursday, with the Saudi Arabian bourse taking little encouragement from the government’s announcement of a 72 billion riyal ($19 billion) stimulus package. King Salman issued a royal decree approving measures to stimulate growth in the private sector. They include residential loans worth 21.3 billion riyals, a 10 billion riyal fund to support economic projects, and 1.5 billion riyals to support distressed companies. But some of these steps had already been expected, and it remains unclear how quickly they can be implemented and affect the economy. The government plans to introduce a 5 percent value-added tax and domestic energy price rises next year. The Saudi stock index fell 0.3 percent with utility Saudi Electricity, which had plunged 9.9 percent on Wednesday, sinking a further 5.1 percent. The stock rose early this week in anticipation of the government announcing hikes in electricity tariffs. But the company said on Wednesday it would pay the government a fee equivalent to the rise in tariffs, so there should be no positive impact on its profits. Nine of the 12 banks were firm. The Saudi central bank hiked its reverse repo rate, the rate at which commercial banks deposit money with it, in line with U.S. Federal Reserve overnight, but it kept the repo rate, used to lend money to banks, unchanged at 2.00 percent. This may be modestly positive for Saudi banks’ margins, since they have excess cash with the economy and loan growth sluggish. National Shipping Co of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) rose 1.1 percent after proposing a 2017 cash dividend of 1.5 riyals per share, down from 2.5 riyals for 2016; some investors had expected a lower dividend after profits shrank this year. The Dubai index dropped 1.4 percent as Emaar Properties, which had dropped 6.2 percent on Wednesday on news of a smaller-than-expected special dividend for shareholders, lost a further 3.7 percent. Fellow developer DAMAC Properties slid 3.5 percent in sympathy. Courier firm Aramex sank 5.3 percent to iots lowest level since February. In Abu Dhabi, ADNOC Distribution edged down 0.4 percent to 2.64 dirhams. It traded for the first time on Wednesday after an initial public offer at 2.50 dirhams per share. The Abu Dhabi index slipped 1.0 percent. Qatar’s index edged up 0.1 percent as real estate firm Ezdan Holding, the most heavily traded stock, climbed 1.8 percent after jumping 6.4 percent on Wednesday. The company said on Wednesday that a shareholder, Abdullah Ahmed Taher, had filed suit seeking to annul the shareholders’ meetings which approved its decision to go private - a move that caused the stock to plunge. Kuwait’s index outperformed the region, surging 1.5 percent after the central bank decided to keep interest rates on hold despite the U.S. hike. Unlike the other rich Gulf Arab oil exporting countries, which peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, Kuwait manages the dinar against a dollar-dominated basket, giving it more flexibility in monetary policy. HIGHLIGHTS * The index fell 0.3 percent to 7,076 points. DUBAI * The index dropped 1.4 percent to 3,355 points. ABU DHABI * The index sank 1.0 percent to 4,339 points. QATAR * The index edged up 0.1 percent to 8,212 points. EGYPT * The index rose 0.2 percent to 14,680 points. KUWAIT * The index surged 1.5 percent to 6,332 points. BAHRAIN * The index edged up 0.1 percent to 1,266 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-region-mixed-stimulus-plan-doesnt-buoy-saudi-idUSL8N1OE2XQ'|'2017-12-14T15:46:00.000+02:00'
'947e3cd833d0fab2101df5b7db27dd4bd53aad00'|'Oil stable on tighter market, but rising U.S. output looms for 2018'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:24 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Oil holds below two-year highs as focus turns to U.S. output Jessica Resnick-Ault 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices remained little changed, lingering below two-year highs on Friday as the continuing outage of a North Sea pipeline and OPEC-led production cuts supported prices, while climbing U.S. output kept a lid on gains. FILE PHOTO - A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, U.S. April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Brent crude futures were down 1 cent at $63.30 a barrel by 10:41 a.m. EST (1541 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 14 cents at $57.18 a barrel. WTI hit a two-year high of $59.05 on Nov. 24. Both contracts were on track to end the week broadly flat. “There’s a fight in the market,” said Gene McGillian, senior analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. Speculators have staked out long positions, betting that production cuts will continue to remove oversupply from the market, he said. Analysts at Barclays said product inventory levels in industrialized nations were 2 percent below the five-year average at the start of December, compared with 10 percent above the five-year average at the start of 2017, with the drawdown driven by a combination of outages and strong demand growth. On the other side, U.S. production is seen rising in response to higher prices. Goldman Sachs said market conditions allowed major oil companies, or Big Oil, to enter “a positive earnings-revision cycle”. It added: “This should allow Big Oil to re-employ capital at double-digit returns.” “Exactly how that is going to play out is going to be the determinant of how our prices move in the first half of the year,” Tradition’s McGillian said. The ongoing outage of the Forties pipeline, which carries North Sea oil to Britain, was the main price support early in the session, traders said. The outage’s main physical impact is the North Sea region, but it has global relevance as the crude is used to underpin the Brent price benchmark. Operator INEOS declared force majeure on Forties, the first such declaration in decades. Force majeure is a legal designation that suspends a firm’s contractual obligations due to situations beyond its control. Still, U.S. oil production, which has soared 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.78 million barrels per day (bpd), has undermined OPEC’s output curbs. U.S. supply, now close to matching levels of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, will likely move oil markets into a supply surplus in the first half of 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. The market will be closely watching the weekly rig report at 1 p.m. EST from General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm.. In the previous week, drillers added two oil rigs. Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault, Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-stable-on-tighter-market-but-rising-us-output-looms-for-2018-idUKKBN1E904D'|'2017-12-15T03:22:00.000+02:00'
'1f5732385680bf25f5c7ea065bb225c6dacf267e'|'UPDATE 1-Russia c.bank moves to save Promsvyazbank, in third bailout this year'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:03 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Russia c.bank moves to save Promsvyazbank, in third bailout this year Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds background, quotes) MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Russia’s central bank on Friday put the country’s 10th largest private lender by assets under temporary administration, the third such bailout in the Russian banking sector this year. The central bank said in a statement it was providing funds to support Promsvyazbank’s liquidity and would send in temporary administrators. It said there would be no moratorium on Promsvyazbank meeting creditors’ claims, and that the bank was operating as normal. “As part of measures aimed at increasing (Promsvyazbank‘s) financial stability and ensuring its continued work in the banking services market, it is planned that the Bank of Russia act as an investor using the funds of the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund,” the regulator said in a statement. Russia’s banking sector has been under intense scrutiny since the central bank was forced to step in to save two of the country’s private lenders earlier this year. Otkritie Bank and B&N Bank were both subject to central bank bailouts in the space of a month after disclosing holes in their balance sheets. Lawmaker Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the Duma finance committee and head of the Russian Banking Association, told TASS news agency Promsvyazbank’s bailout would not affect the wider banking sector, and was the last time such a measure would be taken this year. Sources close to Promsvyazbank told Reuters an agreement was reached late on Thursday night at a meeting between Promsvyazbank’s co-owner and chairman, Dmitry Ananyev, and central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina Promsvyazbank is Russia’s 10th biggest bank by assets, according to Interfax data. Dmitry Ananyev and his brother, Alexei, together control just over 50 percent of the bank. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Christian Lowe)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-banks-promsvyazbank/update-1-russia-c-bank-moves-to-save-promsvyazbank-in-third-bailout-this-year-idUSL8N1OF0Q9'|'2017-12-15T09:00:00.000+02:00'
'dce1322b804840f6d66d461cf175ea9ff3048785'|'ECB keeps policy unchanged, leaving money taps wide open'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:00 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago ECB''s Draghi sidelines critics to keep money taps wide open Francesco Canepa , Balazs Koranyi 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank on Thursday stuck to its pledge to keep money pouring into the euro zone economy for as long as needed, despite opposition from some rate setters and increased growth and inflation forecasts for the area. The European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The ECB raised its euro zone growth forecasts from this year through to 2019 and nudged up its expectations for inflation, now seen at 1.7 percent in 2020, close to its target of almost 2 percent. But it kept its interest rates at rock bottom and also held rigidly to its script on what it plans for next year in asset purchases. Pressure from some policymakers to signal a possible change of plan was easily rebuffed, sources close to the matter told Reuters. “All in all the revision of the macroeconomic projections is going in the right direction,” ECB President Mario Draghi told a news conference. “(But) an ample degree of monetary stimulus remains necessary.” Better-than-expected growth and, to a lesser extent, inflation are giving fresh ammunition to critics of the ECB’s 2.55 trillion euro ($3 trillion) bond-buying programme, such as Dutch central bank governor Klaas Knot. Indeed, two central bank sources told Reuters that a minority of ECB rate-setters at Thursday’s meeting wanted to signal that the ECB may change its easy-money pledge if euro zone inflation keeps accelerating. Their suggestions included dropping a pledge to continue to buy bonds until inflation converges to the ECB’s target or the option to increase purchases if the outlook worsens. FILE PHOTO: The euro sign landmark is seen at the headquarters (R) of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, Germany September 2, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo “Some people wanted to say that if inflation continues to increase, we will be forced to change the forward guidance perhaps,” one of the sources said. But these hawks were outnumbered as most rate-setters opted to simply repeat the ECB’s plan to keep buying bonds at least until September and to keep rates at record lows well after that, the sources said, adding the debate was not heated. Draghi said there was no discussion of the quantitative easing asset-buying scheme and Knot’s recently expressed view that the scheme had “simply run its course” was not shared by the majority. NUANCED In a nuanced message, Draghi nonetheless added that he was more confident that the inflation target could be reached and said he saw no negative effect from tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which announced its third rate hike of 2017 on Wednesday. “It’s quite early before we talk about change in our monetary policy support,” Draghi told a news conference. “Though in the presence of an expansion which is gaining momentum, our confidence towards this objective is increasing and is certainly greater than it was at the last monetary policy meeting.” Having faced five years of anaemic price pressures, the ECB has deployed its entire policy arsenal, cutting rates into negative territory, giving banks cheap loans and soaking up bonds with an unprecedented 2.55 trillion euros ($3 trillion) of purchases. Its work has paid off as the euro zone recovery is now well into its fifth year thanks to nine million new jobs, letting policymakers curb stimulus from next year and raising the prospect that the lavish bond buys it started in early 2015 could finally end. But Draghi’s words left the market in no doubt the ECB was in no rush to curb stimulus. ”Remember the metaphor of the euro zone being the patient on intensive care?,“ ING economist Carsten Brzeski said. Today, Draghi once again made clear that...only once the patient is able to sprint an entire marathon will the crutches come off.” Reporting by Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi Additional reporting by Tom Sims and Mark John; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ecb-policy/ecb-keeps-policy-unchanged-leaving-money-taps-wide-open-idINKBN1E81Q5'|'2017-12-14T14:56:00.000+02:00'
'0433c8a3025553870b62a10359abd4dc87d72d8a'|'The Santa clause - Schumpeter'|'DEAR Team, I trust you are looking forward to your vacations and that the spirit of love and generosity infuses your family gatherings. I also hope that this spirit will be left next to the Christmas tree when you return to work at this incredible company on January 2nd. Because 2018 is going to be the year when America Inc loses its head after a decade of iron financial self-control. And I am not going to make that mistake. Let me drop some festive wisdom: when everyone else is throwing money around like Santa, it is best to behave like Scrooge.During my workout at 5.10am this morning my trainer played U2. I love Bono for his personal advice on charitable giving, but he is also a perceptive lyricist. “It’s a beautiful day” captures the mood in business. Third-quarter results blew the roof off. Earnings per share for the S&P 500 are 23% above the last peak in 2007. The world economy is rocking. At this week’s digital town halls our sales teams in Houston and Guangzhou reported record industrial orders. President Macron—whom I first met in 2008 when he was a junior spreadsheet guy at Rothschild—tells me that even the Europeans are doing high fives.  43 minutes   7   7   The triple adrenaline shot of a stockmarket boom, synchronised global growth and a worldwide passion for technology is both exciting and dangerous for corporations. Let’s not kid ourselves. People will get sloppy about allocating capital. My worst blunders were in the boom years of 1998 to 2001, when we caught the internet bug too early, and between 2006 and 2008 when we invested too much in energy. Every boss is tempted to splurge right now, cheered on by politicians, economists and investors.I waded through Washington last week. The tax bill will boost our profits by 9%. After I got mad at Mitch McConnell, he reinserted a helpful clause that will save us money in Cayman. Our firm will pay only a small levy to repatriate cash held offshore and will benefit from accelerated depreciation. Like most companies, we’ve also noticed a better attitude from our regulators: unlike the Obama years, I get my calls returned. There is a price, though. Many Republicans are sincere—they believe in “trickle down” economics and expect us to invest more. A few even expect us to revive the rustbelt. When I saw the president he gave me his hardest sell yet on building a new plant in Iowa. Ivanka had to turn on Fox News to distract him.The intellectual climate has turned pro-investment. Most economists claim firms are chronically underspending. I know that 67.384% of that is BS. Our job is not to flip-flop according to their models but to deploy capital over economic and technology cycles. Gross corporate investment, at 12.4% of GDP, is in line with the 50-year average, and we have invested a steady share of sales. Still, they are right that many big firms have the resources to let their hair down and let capex rise in line with record profits.Investors are pivoting, too. The same Wall Street analysts that used to say the “L” in long-term stands for “loser”, and begged us to buy back more shares two years ago, now hint we should seek to grow. For the first time in years the shares of firms that invest heavily are no longer underperforming, according to Morgan Stanley. Buy-backs are out of style: just $128bn was spent on them last quarter, 20% less than in the same quarter in 2015.Twenty years ago CEOs would have looked at all this and asked “how much” more they should invest. But to understand investment today you have to do a deep dive and answer four other questions: who, what, where and when? Our firm used to be America’s third-biggest investor, just behind ExxonMobil. But “who” invests has changed: Alphabet has taken our place (including research and development). Tech firms are competing with incumbents and using their dirt-cheap cost of capital to invest on their behalf. They account for 24% of investment by S&P 500 firms. My buddy Satya Nadella at Microsoft says if we shift our IT centres to his cloud division, we’ll save $700m of investment a year. If I can trust Microsoft not to steal our data, he’s got a deal.“What” we invest in has changed, too. Like most firms, a quarter of our budget goes on intangibles, including software. When I grew up AI was an acronym used in animal husbandry, but I know our firm needs to make mid-size bets on new technologies like artificial intelligence. Tech cuts both ways, though: I’m nervous about building factories that may quickly become obsolete.As for “where”, it’s simple: everywhere. We’re fairly typical for a big American firm, with 40% of our sales and investment abroad. Given that emerging markets will outpace America, that may rise. Other countries are being protectionist, too. President Xi’s people are clear that if we want full access to China’s domestic market, we have to invest more there. We have to pay to play.Lastly, “when” should our firm invest more? Now, in the 101st month of a recovery? The longest-ever expansion, in 1991-2001, lasted 120 months. I have got to admit, it’s a tough call.A turkey shoot in 2020Here is my prediction. Expect a surge in corporate investment in 2018, with nominal spending rising by up to 10%, equalling the boom in 2006. There’s just too much pent-up energy. But it will be more skewed towards intangible assets than in the past, and while it will help the economy, it won’t revive the rustbelt.As for our firm. I get it, I know our investment committee is besieged. We need a new campus in Austin, our software is buggy and fleet management wants Teslas. But leadership is about prioritisation, not saying “yes” to everyone. If you doubt it, repeat two words after me: Jeff Immelt. The former boss of General Electric was so soft on capital allocation the firm has turned to jelly.So here’s the deal. Santa isn’t coming to this company. We’ll wait as our rivals’ budgets swell and the tech boom turns into a bubble. When recession strikes in 2019 our balance-sheet will be pristine and we’ll expand when others are weak. In Christmas 2020 this incredible firm will enjoy the biggest stocking ever.'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732575-festive-memo-one-americas-leading-chief-executives-his-lieutenants-santa-clause?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'2884ae5abee5426ff425a78bf5fcb4112f624fe0'|'3i Infrastructure sells stake in Finnish power company Elenia'|'Dec 13 (Reuters) - London-listed 3i Infrastructure Plc said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its stake in Finnish power company Elenia Oy to Allianz Capital Partners , Macquarie and the State Pension Fund of Finland.3i Infrastructure said the sale of the investment to the consortium would generate gross proceeds of about 725 million pounds ($967.80 million).Reuters had reported Elenia, Finland’s second-largest power company, could fetch an enterprise value -- debt plus equity -- of about 3 billion euros in what would be one of Europe’s biggest infrastructure deals of 2017.$1 = 0.7491 pounds Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/elenia-sale/3i-infrastructure-sells-stake-in-finnish-power-company-elenia-idINL3N1OD4CR'|'2017-12-13T11:18:00.000+02:00'
'29ec76a052a2b9f5b93e3939bab49f60f63d2e9b'|'Bitcoin fever exposes crypto-market frailties'|'December 13, 2017 / 3:47 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Bitcoin fever exposes crypto-market frailties Jemima Kelly , Anna Irrera 9 Min Read LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - As bitcoin raced to another record high on Tuesday, one of the biggest providers of digital currency wallets, Coinbase, went down under the weight of traffic, leaving many of its more than 10 million customers unable to access their funds. FILE PHOTO: A Bitcoin logo is displayed at the Bitcoin Center New York City in New York''s financial district in NY, U.S. on July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo At the same time, Bitfinex, the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange by trading volume, said it was under a heavy denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, meaning its servers had been intentionally flooded with junk online requests, taking down its website and crippling its services. The latest outages show how the market infrastructure for an immature and volatile instrument that millions of investors have piled into may be ill-equipped to cope with sudden shifts in demand, which is worrying some investors. During a particularly volatile period of trading on Dec. 7, bitcoin surged from below $16,000 to $19,500 in less than an hour on Coinbase’s exchange GDAX, while it was changing hands at less than $16,000 on another, Bitstamp. As trading volume surged, GDAX and Coinbase went down at least 10 times because of “record-high traffic”, Coinbase said. “More people are engaging with our platform than ever and that bodes well for the future of the digital currency. At the same time, it does create extreme volatility and stress on our systems,” the company’s director of business operations, David Farmer, said. “We can confirm that there has been no unusual or suspicious activity. All we know right now is that there is a large amount of traffic,” he told Reuters. Bitfinex said it had been under a sustained DDoS attack since last week. “While last week the platform traded continuously, to effectively perform emergency maintenance, we took the website down for a brief time today (Tuesday) to mitigate further issues for customers,” a spokesman said. “We are constantly improving our systems to ensure that we’re able to both accommodate the immense volume of trading that occurs on our platform while also fending off sustained DDoS attacks,” he said. 24/7 MARKET Daniel Masters, founder of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund, worries the exchanges would struggle to cope if there were a sudden rush for the exit. “The ability of these platforms to handle volume is yet to be tested properly,” he said. “What happens if this market turns into a lot of sellers? The liquidity itself could be an issue.” Charles Cascarilla, chief executive of New York-based company Paxos, which operates cryptocurrency exchange itBit, told Reuters that dealing with spikes in volume was a problem faced by all exchanges, not just cryptocurrency platforms. “Clearly the reality is the world of cryptocurrency is growing at an exponential rate right now and everyone is doing their best to expand infrastructure, but it is hard to know what would happen in a hypothetical scenario,” he said. Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini exchange, an early bitcoin investor and an outspoken supporter of the cryptocurrency, said the risk the wider market would suffer badly if one exchange went down no longer existed, as trading volume had become more evenly spread. “We are definitely beyond the too-big-to-fail situation,” he told Reuters. “That was a problem we had five years ago when Mt. Gox accounted for 95 percent of volume.” “Most of the exchanges are doing a good job. This is a 24/7 market, there is no session close and there is no downtime.” Mt. Gox, the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange at the time, collapsed in 2014 after hackers stole 650,000 bitcoins, triggering a collapse in the bitcoin price. The demise of Mt. Gox left more than 24,000 customers unable to access hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency and cash. More than three years later none has recouped a cent. BITCOIN FUTURES Some investors had said they were worried the launch of bitcoin futures by the world’s biggest derivative exchanges could exacerbate volatility by prompting some traders to take out large positions betting on a price fall in the future. The Chicago-based Cboe Global Markets Inc. futures launched a futures contracts on bitcoin on Dec. 10 and CME Group Inc will launch a rival contract a week later. So far this week, the launch of futures by Cboe does not appear to have created any additional volatility, with price moves less violent than last week’s wild trading. But Tim Swanson, a bitcoin expert and founder of Post Oak Labs, a technology advisory firm, said he was concerned that if the futures liquidity increases there could be an incentive for someone with a large bet against bitcoin to disrupt or attack the network to make money from the ensuing price fall. CME Group and Cboe declined to comment. Flooding the bitcoin network with tiny transactions could potentially send the price down sharply, said Swanson, as could sending many sell-signals to the market that are not honored - so-called spoofing, which is illegal in regulated markets. A surge in bitcoin trades in recent weeks has also left the blockchain network that the cryptocurrency relies on to process and verify transactions struggling to keep up. As of Wednesday at 1445 GMT, more than 125,000 bitcoin transactions remained unconfirmed. In the past week, more than half a million new users have opened wallets with retail-focused bitcoin wallet provider Blockchain, the firm said, taking the total number of users to more than 20 million, from 10 million last year. The London-based company has also been struggling to keep up, citing “record traffic levels” last week. VOLATILE TRADING Created in 2008, bitcoin uses encryption and a shared blockchain database that enables the anonymous transfer of funds outside of a conventional centralized payment system. But there is little evidence to suggest buyers are using bitcoin as a means of exchange and payment. On the whole, they buy the cryptocurrency as a speculative investment, attracted by massive price gains, said Garrick Hileman, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. As a result, some banks say they are worried that a collapse in bitcoin would have a knock-on effect on investments by individual investors in other asset classes. Deutsche Bank said in a report on Dec. 7 that a bitcoin crash - and the impact it could have on retail investors’ confidence - was one of the biggest risks to markets in 2018. Periods of high volatility are not uncommon in other currencies and asset classes, particularly in commodities and emerging markets. But bitcoin’s volatility is extreme, and frequent: the one-day price move has been more than 10 percent on nine days in the past three months. Moves of a similar magnitude for the U.S dollar, for example, are extremely rare. Its biggest one-day move against a major currency was in January 2015 when the Swiss central bank abandoned a cap on the franc, sending the dollar down 18 percent. Some bitcoin watchers, such as Swanson, also worry about the risk of one of the big exchanges being suddenly shut by authorities. In July, U.S. authorities shut down the website of the BTC-e exchange, saying it had “facilitated transactions involving ransomware, computer hacking, identity theft, tax refund fraud schemes, public corruption, and drug trafficking”. BTC-e, which is no longer operating, could not be reached for comment. The top three exchanges out of more than 100 - Bitfinex, GDAX and bitFlyer - are home to more than 60 percent of all trading, according to data provider Bitcoinity. Another issue specific to the market is the risk of hacking and theft. More than 980,000 bitcoins have been stolen from exchanges, Reuters has found, with the Mt. Gox heist accounting for the majority. Last week, a Slovenian cryptocurrency mining marketplace, NiceHash, said it had lost about $64 million worth of bitcoin in a hack of its payment system. For graphic on bitcoin''s blistering ascent, click: tmsnrt.rs/2zClJF3 Reporting by Jemima Kelly and Anna Irrera; additional reporting by Amanda Cooper; editing by David Clarke'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-risks-insight/bitcoin-fever-exposes-crypto-market-frailties-idUKKBN1E7254'|'2017-12-13T17:45:00.000+02:00'
'b214cf6d49fd8157ea441ab4cfb7e21f8b9af8a6'|'Japanese court rules against Shikoku Electric nuclear restart'|'December 13, 2017 / 8:58 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Japanese court rules against Shikoku Electric nuclear restart Osamu Tsukimori 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese court on Wednesday ordered Shikoku Electric Power Co not to restart one of its reactors, overturning a lower court decision and throwing into turmoil Japan’s protracted return to nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster. FILE PHOTO: A man walks next to port area destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami in Kessenuma town, in Miyagi prefecture March 28, 2011. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo The decision by the High Court in Hiroshima in western Japan has no immediate effect on Shikoku Electric’s operations because the reactor in question has been idled for maintenance, but it casts into doubt any restart. Shikoku Electric shares fell more than 8 percent after the ruling and the company cancelled plans for a bond sale. The ruling also marks a victory for Japan’s anti-nuclear movement, which has won a number of lawsuits seeking to halt or prevent nuclear operations in recent years, only to see them overturned by more conservative higher courts. “This is unexpected and goes against the tide of gradual restarts of nuclear plants,” said Fumio Matsumoto, a senior fund manager at Dalton Capital (Japan) in Tokyo. “Despite the progress in nuclear restarts, Japanese power companies face an uncertain future,” Matsumoto said. Other utilities also fell on Wednesday, with Kansai Electric Power Co dropping 3.2 percent and Kyushu Electric Power Co losing 2.3 percent. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.5 percent. Kansai Electric and Kyushu Electric are the only other two nuclear operators with reactors running. Just four reactors are currently operating out of 42 commercially viable units. All reactors in Japan had to be relicensed after a new regulator was set up following the Fukushima disaster of 2011. Residents have lodged injunctions against most nuclear plants across Japan. Lower courts have been increasingly siding with them on safety concerns, but the verdicts are usually overturned in higher courts. FUEL COSTS TO RISE The court ruling overturns a March decision by Hiroshima District Court to back Shikoku Electric against residents, who want to close down the 890-megawatt No.3 reactor at the power company’s Ikata nuclear station. Shikoku Electric said the ruling was regrettable and that it would file an objection with the high court. A Shikoku Electric spokesman said the injunction ordered the company not to restart its Ikata No.3 reactor until Sept. 30 next year. The company could face about 3.5 billion yen (23.2 million pounds) a month in additional costs, such as for increased use of fossil fuel for power generation, with the delay. Shikoku had been planning to restart the reactor around Jan. 20, the spokesman said. The company said it cannot yet estimate any changes to profit forecasts. Court actions against the Ikata plants reactors are also pending in several other courts, it said. Shikoku Electric also decided to cancel a 10 billion yen bond sale after the ruling, said an official in the company’s treasury department. The bonds were to be priced on Thursday. While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is keen to restore a power source that provided about a third of electricity supply before the meltdowns at Fukushima, the public remains deeply sceptical over industry assurances on safety. Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori, Yoshiyuki Osada and Yasunori Fukui; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-nuclear-court/japanese-court-rules-against-shikoku-electric-nuclear-restart-idUKKBN1E70VU'|'2017-12-13T10:57:00.000+02:00'
'0edbb4da2ef091ca3145dfb032f76990a4b6634d'|'UPDATE 1-Deutsche Boerse Xetra trading platform functioning again - website'|'December 13, 2017 / 8:29 AM / Updated an hour ago UPDATE 1-Deutsche Boerse Xetra trading platform functioning again - website Reuters Staff * Exchange operator reported brief disruption before market open * Disruption didn’t affect start of normal trade (Updates with resumption of functioning) FRANKFURT, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse, the German stock exchange operator, experienced a short disruption on its Xetra trading platform early on Wednesday, but trading started as normal at 0800 GMT. Deutsche Boerse was not immediately available to explain the disruption, which surfaced around 0715 GMT with a notice on its website. That notice was removed about 30 minutes later. Such short-lived disruptions occur from time to time. Wednesday’s difficulty did not spill over into the start of normal trade. The DAX index of 30 major companies opened down 0.3 percent. Reporting by Tom Sims, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deutsche-boerse-xetra/update-1-deutsche-boerse-xetra-trading-platform-functioning-again-website-idUSL8N1OD1FH'|'2017-12-13T10:27:00.000+02:00'
'4f74f9928ffc45f13263c2d1b18151050054f3fb'|'Australian regulator to oppose BP buy of Woolworths gas stations'|'December 13, 2017 / 11:29 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Australian watchdog blocks BP buy of Woolworths petrol stations Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia’s antitrust regulator on Thursday blocked BP Plc’s A$1.8 billion (1.04 billion pounds) purchase of Woolworths Ltd’s petrol stations, even after the oil company offered to sell some stations to ease competition concerns. FILE PHOTO: A Woolworths logo is displayed above one of the company''s supermarkets in Sydney, Australia, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo BP and Woolworths, which wants to exit the business to focus on its supermarkets, said they were disappointed by the decision after months of talks with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and were reviewing what to do next. Decisions by the commission can be challenged in court. “We remain confident that, with appropriate divestments as offered by BP, this transaction would not substantially lessen competition,” BP Australia President Andy Holmes said in a statement. “In light of this, we are currently consulting with our lawyers to determine our next steps.” Woolworths shares initially fell 1.4 percent after the announcement but recovered to trade down 0.7 percent in a broader market that was up slightly. While the asset sale was blocked, its petrol retail revenue stream remains unaffected. Investors said the rejection was not a total surprise, given the regulator had flagged concerns about the deal earlier this year. The acquisition was announced in December 2016. “I don’t think it’s significant for Woolworths,” said Stephen Bruce, a portfolio manager at Perennial Value Management, an investor in Woolworths. The main issue for Woolworths is that following any sale of its petrol stations it wants its supermarket shoppers to continue to receive fuel discounts from the new owner, which the regulator cleared separately on Thursday. The blocked acquisition boosted BP rival Caltex Australia Ltd, which stood to lose a major fuel supply contract with Woolworths that it said previously would have cost it up to A$150 million in lost earnings before interest and tax, or 15 percent of its forecast earnings for 2017. Caltex shares rose as much as 5.2 percent. The company said on Thursday it would continue to supply Woolworths. The competition watchdog said BP’s acquisition would likely lead to higher fuel prices, highlighting that BP’s prices on average were sharply higher than Woolworths in Australia’s big cities. It said BP tended to raise fuel prices faster than Woolworths and lower them more slowly in response to oil price changes. If Woolworths were no longer a competitor on pricing, it added, all remaining players would raise their fuel prices. “The bottom line is that we consider motorists will end up paying more, regardless of where they buy fuel, if this acquisition goes ahead,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement. Reporting by Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Additional reporting by Susan Mathew in BENGALURU; Editing by G Crosse and Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-woolworths-grp-divestiture-bp/australian-regulator-to-oppose-bp-buy-of-woolworths-gas-stations-idUKKBN1E735W'|'2017-12-14T01:29:00.000+02:00'
'ca24275b24580fda24d923745bcfd14fc65bcc3c'|'Australian regulator to oppose BP buy of Woolworths gas stations'|'MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia’s antitrust regulator on Thursday blocked BP Plc’s ( BP.L ) A$1.8 billion ($1.4 billion) purchase of Woolworths Ltd’s ( WOW.AX ) petrol stations, even after the oil company offered to sell some stations to ease competition concerns.FILE PHOTO: A Woolworths logo is displayed above one of the company''s supermarkets in Sydney, Australia, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo BP and Woolworths, which wants to exit the business to focus on its supermarkets, said they were disappointed by the decision after months of talks with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and were reviewing what to do next.Decisions by the commission can be challenged in court.“We remain confident that, with appropriate divestments as offered by BP, this transaction would not substantially lessen competition,” BP Australia President Andy Holmes said in a statement. “In light of this, we are currently consulting with our lawyers to determine our next steps.”Woolworths shares initially fell 1.4 percent after the announcement but recovered to trade down 0.7 percent in a broader market that was up slightly. While the asset sale was blocked, its petrol retail revenue stream remains unaffected.Investors said the rejection was not a total surprise, given the regulator had flagged concerns about the deal earlier this year. The acquisition was announced in December 2016.“I don’t think it’s significant for Woolworths,” said Stephen Bruce, a portfolio manager at Perennial Value Management, an investor in Woolworths.The main issue for Woolworths is that following any sale of its petrol stations it wants its supermarket shoppers to continue to receive fuel discounts from the new owner, which the regulator cleared separately on Thursday.The blocked acquisition boosted BP rival Caltex Australia Ltd ( CTX.AX ), which stood to lose a major fuel supply contract with Woolworths that it said previously would have cost it up to A$150 million in lost earnings before interest and tax, or 15 percent of its forecast earnings for 2017.Caltex shares rose as much as 5.2 percent. The company said on Thursday it would continue to supply Woolworths.The competition watchdog said BP’s acquisition would likely lead to higher fuel prices, highlighting that BP’s prices on average were sharply higher than Woolworths in Australia’s big cities.It said BP tended to raise fuel prices faster than Woolworths and lower them more slowly in response to oil price changes. If Woolworths were no longer a competitor on pricing, it added, all remaining players would raise their fuel prices.“The bottom line is that we consider motorists will end up paying more, regardless of where they buy fuel, if this acquisition goes ahead,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.Reporting by Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Additional reporting by Susan Mathew in BENGALURU; Editing by G Crosse and Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-woolworths-grp-divestiture-bp/australian-regulator-to-oppose-bp-buy-of-woolworths-gas-stations-idINKBN1E735Q'|'2017-12-13T20:29:00.000+02:00'
'bef608c68cb1984d8d8ab55951341882af944c93'|'Fed raises interest rates, keeps policy outlook unchanged for 2018'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, as anticipated, but left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged even as policymakers projected a short-term acceleration in U.S. economic growth.U.S. outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, U.S. December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst The move, coming at the final policy meeting of 2017 and on the heels of a flurry of relatively bullish economic data, represented a victory for a central bank that has vowed to continue a gradual tightening of monetary policy.Having raised its benchmark overnight lending rate three times this year, the Fed projected three more hikes in each of 2018 and 2019 before a long-run level of 2.8 percent is reached. That is unchanged from the last round of forecasts in September.“Economic activity has been rising at a solid rate ... job gains have been solid,” the Fed’s policy-setting committee said in a statement announcing the federal funds rate had been lifted to a target range of 1.25 percent to 1.50 percent.U.S. stocks extended their gains after the release of the policy statement, while Treasury yields dropped to session lows.Fed Chair Janet Yellen is due to hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET (1930 GMT).INFLATION CONCERNS Fed officials acknowledged in their latest forecasts that the economy had gained steam in 2017 by raising their economic growth forecasts and lowering the expected unemployment rate for the coming years.U.S. outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, U.S. December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Gross domestic product is expected to grow 2.5 percent in 2018, up from the 2.1 percent forecast in September, while the unemployment rate is seen falling to 3.9 percent next year, compared to 4.1 percent in the last set of projections.But inflation is projected to remain shy of the Fed’s 2 percent goal for another year, with weakness on that front remaining enough of a concern that policymakers saw no reason to accelerate the expected pace of rate increases.Slideshow (4 Images) That means that the Trump administration’s tax overhaul, if passed by Congress, would take effect without the central bank having flagged any likely response in the form of higher rates or concerns of a jump in inflation.“It shows at least some members of the Fed don’t see any reason to keep hiking rates in an environment where the economy is growing more strongly but certainly not overheating and where inflation hasn’t become a problem and doesn’t look like it is going to be one,” said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones.Policymakers do see the federal funds rate rising to 3.1 percent in 2020, slightly above the 2.8 percent “neutral” rate they expect to maintain in the long run. That indicates possible concerns about a rise in inflation pressures over time.As it stands, inflation is expected to remain below the Fed’s target in the near term and is being monitored “closely” by policymakers.Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari dissented in the policy statement on Wednesday.The Fed also said that, as of January, it would raise the amount of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities that it would not reinvest on a monthly basis to $12 billion and $8 billion, respectively. That is consistent with its balance sheet reduction plan.Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by David Chance and Paul Simao '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed/with-rate-hike-in-the-bag-fed-may-hint-at-trump-effect-on-economy-idINKBN1E70IX'|'2017-12-13T21:06:00.000+02:00'
'06a481c97471ea5115fcd38bcdae1363eed32892'|'H&M leads European shares lower after sales miss, telecoms rise'|'December 15, 2017 / 8:40 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago H&M leads European shares lower after sales miss, telecoms rise Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - European shares dipped in early dealing on Friday, weighed down by disappointing trading updates from fashion brands H&M ( HMb.ST ) and Ferragamo ( SFER.MI ) and continued weakness among banking stocks. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Telecom shares rose after Sweden’s Tele2 ( TEL2b.ST ) agreed to sell its Dutch unit to Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ). The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.2 percent by 0826 GMT, while euro zone blue chips .STOXX50E also fell 0.2 percent and the UK''s FTSE 100 .FTSE inched 0.1 percent lower. H&M plunged 12 percent, leading losers on the STOXX, after   reported an unexpected drop in quarterly sales due to fewer visitors to its core brand stores. Ferragamo fell 7.3 percent after the Italian luxury goods company said it could not confirm targets it had set for the next three years and 2018 would be another year of transition. Banks pulled the STOXX index down the most, with the sector under continued pressure a day after central banks in the euro zone and the UK kept benchmark interest rates unchanged. Telecoms .SXKP, the worst performing sector in Europe this year, rose 0.2 percent. Tele2 jumped more than 4 percent after it agreed to sell its Dutch business to Deutsche Telekom. Reporting by Danilo Masoni; editing by Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/hm-leads-european-shares-lower-after-sales-miss-telecoms-rise-idUKKBN1E90RZ'|'2017-12-15T10:40:00.000+02:00'
'f962e20e7d918afb5c35b29d1b02fdbe16c8a7fa'|'Japan, UK eye post-Brexit mutual recognition of trade standards'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:37 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Japan, UK eye post-Brexit mutual recognition of trade standards William James 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Japan and Britain said they hoped to achieve a swift deal on mutual recognition of each other’s standards for goods and services when Britain leaves the European Union. Britain''s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson welcome Japan''s Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera and Foreign Minister Taro Kono at the National Maritime Museum in London, Britain December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Matthews/Pool Britain is looking to cement its relationship with Japan - whose firms have invested billions in the country’s auto and energy sectors - as it prepares to leave the EU in March 2019. Earlier this year, May visited Japan to reassure her counterpart Shinzo Abe and concerned investors that Brexit will not make it a less attractive business partner. Speaking at a meeting in London focused on foreign and defence policy, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said he wanted agreements with Britain on mutual recognition of standards and judicial support after Brexit. “We have an agreement with the EU about those but with the coming Brexit I want to start preparing to make such agreements between Japan and the UK,” Kono said through a translator. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, speaking alongside Kono, said: “Of course it is exactly right that we need to protract the economic partnership agreement between the EU and Japan and make it specific to the UK.” “But we believe in terms of mutual recognition, as Taro has just said, we believe that can be readily and speedily accomplished,” Johnson said. When Britain leaves the world’s biggest trading bloc in 2019, it hopes to have a bespoke free trade deal with the EU and will have to renegotiate trade deals with the world’s biggest economies. During May’s visit to Japan in August, the two countries agreed to use an EU-Japan trade deal as the starting point for their new bilateral agreement. MUTUAL RECOGNITION A mutual recognition agreement, which would allow the two countries to accept each other’s rules as equivalent, would prevent the erection of technical barriers to cross-border trade. For example, this may mean there does not need to be separate goods testing processes in each country. Britain is the second most important destination for Japanese investment after the United States. Japanese companies including carmaker Nissan and conglomerate Hitachi have invested more than 40 billion pounds in Britain, and Japanese companies employ a total of 140,000 people in the country. The total value of traded goods between the UK and Japan is around 13 billion pounds per year. But Japan has been unusually outspoken about its concerns that Britain’s departure from the EU, which was decided by a national vote in 2016, could affect current and future Japanese investments in Britain. Asked about the government’s handling of the Brexit process, Kono said he wanted it to be predictable and transparent. Britain, Johnson said, would remain the best place in this hemisphere for Japanese and other companies to invest after Brexit. Johnson also said that a rebellion in parliament on the legislation required to execute Brexit, which embarrassed May and complicated the legal exit process on Wednesday, would not stop Britain’s plans to leave the EU. “Brexit is unstoppable,” Johnson said. “My view is it won’t for one second stop Brexit or stop the Brexit process.” ($1 = 112.6200 yen) ($1 = 0.7451 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-japan-trade/japan-uk-eye-post-brexit-mutual-recognition-of-trade-standards-idUKKBN1E82AL'|'2017-12-14T19:40:00.000+02:00'
'196004d3b6eb27a3e69d5d6d42f684d63d050eb3'|'Exclusive: Aston Martin owners rev up for 2018 exit with Lazard hire'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:39 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Exclusive: Aston Martin owners rev up for 2018 exit with Lazard hire Pamela Barbaglia , Ben Martin 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Aston Martin’s owners have hired Lazard to prepare for a stock market listing or sale of the British sportscar maker made famous by fictional spy James Bond, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Italian private equity fund Investindustrial and a group of Kuwaiti investors, who together own more than 90 percent of the marque, are hoping to cash in on a recovery in sales and are in the initial stages of a strategic review. They have hired investment bank Lazard to work on a preliminary plan and could either opt for an initial public offering (IPO) in the third or fourth quarter of 2018 or a trade sale, two of the sources said on Friday. A deal could value the maker of the sportscar driven by Britain’s Prince William on his wedding day at between 2 and 3 billion pounds ($4 billion), one of the sources said, adding a listing was the most likely option. However, no final decision had been taken and the investors could decide to retain control, the sources added. Investindustrial declined to comment while Aston Martin and Lazard   Adeem Investment, one of the Kuwaiti investors, was not immediately available. If successful, a float of Aston Martin would be a milestone deal for the 104-year-old car manufacturer and would follow the IPO of Italian sportscar maker Ferrari ( RACE.MI ) which made its Wall Street debut in 2015 amid strong investor demand. Investindustrial, led by founder Andrea Bonomi, bought 37.5 percent of Aston Martin in 2012 in what was the fund’s best-known investment in Britain. The fund, which has clinched a number of Southern European investments since its launch in 1990, is Aston Martin’s single biggest investor and is driving the plans, the sources said. Beside Lazard, other investment banks have approached the private equity fund in recent weeks offering advice ahead of a possible IPO, another source said. Yet no other mandates will be awarded this year for the Gaydon-based firm, which is in the midst of a turnaround plan that aims to restore the business to profitability following six years of losses. Aston Martin, which recently unveiled its new Vantage model, is on course to post its first annual pre-tax profit since 2010 as strong demand for the luxury automaker’s DB11 sports car boosts its performance. Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer has repeatedly said that the decision and timing of an IPO were matters for the shareholders but that it made sense for them to consider the option before the end of the company’s turnaround plan, which is due to be completed in 2022. Since Palmer’s appointment in 2014, the firm has pursued a recovery strategy designed to boost its model line-up, quadruple volumes and produce its first SUV at a new plant in Wales. Its volumes rose by 65 percent to 3,330 cars in the first nine months of the year, prompting the firm to raise its full-year guidance to expect core earnings of at least 180 million pounds on revenue of more than 840 million pounds. ($1 = 0.7509 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aston-martin-m-a-exclusive/exclusive-aston-martin-owners-rev-up-for-2018-exit-with-lazard-hire-idUSKBN1E92MY'|'2017-12-15T21:38:00.000+02:00'
'9202f0f409f52b0113d084c225e2baf6fe0f55ed'|'Ineos considers shifting Grangemouth work due to Forties outage - sources'|' 10 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Ineos considers shifting Grangemouth work due to Forties outage - sources Ron Bousso , Ahmad Ghaddar 3   Ineos may bring forward maintenance work at its Grangemouth refinery in Scotland due to the unplanned outage at its Forties North Sea crude pipeline, which threatens to choke the plant’s feedstock, industry sources said on Wednesday. The Forties pipeline which carries about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Forties crude, roughly a quarter of the North Sea’s total output, was shut early this week after a crack was found, sending global crude prices soaring to a two-year high.[O/R] The original plan was to perform maintenance on the Grangemouth diesel-making hydrocracker throughout March 2018, and to shut down a crude distillation unit and a diesel hydrotreater from April 1 to May 13, 2018, the sources said. Regional refinery margins, which move inversely to crude oil prices, declined to their lowest since March 2016 after the Forties pipeline was shut down, according to Reuters data. Ineos said on Wednesday that it was still considering repair options on the pipeline and reiterated that any repairs would take several weeks. “Ineos could keep the Grangemouth refinery running but at a fair cost,” one of the trading sources said. Moving maintenance forward now appears like the most likely option but nothing has been decided so far. For one thing, it was unclear if maintenance crews were available on short notice, he said. Another trading sources said the refinery was considering shutting down crude sections because importing crude into the site was complicated and costly. “Imports will kill a pretty much non-existent (refining) margin,” he said. Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultancy Energy Aspect, said the 200,000 barrel-per-day refinery imported a maximum of 120,000 bpd of crude oil, mostly from West Africa, this year from the nearby Finnart oil terminal northwest of Glasgow. The rest of its crude supplies came through the Forties Pipeline System. “The issue for Grangemouth is to make up for lost FPS volumes via imports. That faces both infrastructure constraints but also long transit times of around 20 days which may mean the refinery has to reduce runs if the FPS outage is prolonged,” Sen said. Ineos did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Additioanl reporting by Libby George; Editing by Edmund Blair and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-refinery-grangemouth/ineos-considers-shifting-grangemouth-work-due-to-forties-outage-sources-idUKKBN1E71UU'|'2017-12-13T16:09:00.000+02:00'
'3ccf798fd165eb458db95415f999af503baa9600'|'Sports Direct shareholders veto payment to brother of founder Mike Ashley'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:06 PM / in 6 hours Sports Direct shareholders veto payment to brother of founder Mike Ashley Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Independent shareholders in Sports Direct ( SPD.L ) on Wednesday voted against making a retrospective payment of 11 million pounds ($15 million) to the brother of founder and majority shareholder Mike Ashley for his work as an IT expert. FILE PHOTO: A man arrives for Sports Direct AGM at their headquarters in Shirebrook, Britain September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo Sports Direct said last month a report by law firm RPC had found that John Ashley was entitled to the money for his work since the British retailer floated in 2007. It asked independent shareholders to vote on the matter. At a meeting, held at Sports Direct’s headquarters in Shirebrook, central England, 71 percent of independent shareholders voted against the resolution. “The board respects the views of the company’s independent shareholders, and considers all these matters to be closed. We now intend to move on,” Sports Direct said. Mike Ashley, Sports Direct’s chief executive and 61 percent shareholder, and the rest of the board had abstained from the vote. He had said in November he did not expect independent shareholders to back the payment even though he felt John Ashley was owed the money RPC had recommended that Sports Direct pay John Ashley 11,029,296 pounds in bonuses for his work between the IPO and April 2015 to bring his compensation into line with other members of the company’s senior management team. John Ashley had received a salary of 150,000 pounds a year after the IPO, and received a bonus of 706,502 pounds under a separate employee bonus scheme, RPC said. The latest showdown came after years of clashes between shareholders and Ashley. Chairman Keith Hellawell, blamed by investors for a string of management and governance failures, narrowly survived a vote to oust him in September. Shares in Sports Direct, which will report first-half results on Thursday, were down 1.9 percent at 1325 GMT. Separately on Wednesday Sky News reported that Mike Ashley was close to selling English Premier League soccer club Newcastle United to Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners. Reporting by James Davey and Paul Sandle; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sports-direct-investors/sports-direct-shareholders-veto-payment-to-brother-of-founder-mike-ashley-idUSKBN1E71NS'|'2017-12-13T15:05:00.000+02:00'
'ac214d2c35ee1e579f5b5f70aaea01b3780a7e2e'|'Niki Lauda says still interested in buying Niki'|'VIENNA (Reuters) - Former motor racing driver Niki Lauda is still interested in buying back the Niki subsidiary of collapsed airline Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), but said it would need a fresh start on the basis of insolvency proceeding, he told Reuters on Wednesday.Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) dropped plans to buy Niki on Wednesday, and Lauda said he expected the airline to file for insolvency within two days as a result.“Of course I am still interested in Niki,” Lauda said.“The price one must pay for an insolvent airline is lower than that of one that is still flying,” he said, when asked about how much he was willing to offer.Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Victoria Bryan '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-m-a-lufthansa-niki/niki-lauda-says-still-interested-in-buying-niki-idUSKBN1E727W'|'2017-12-14T00:14:00.000+02:00'
'86dc949876e31e3ff8496122df2223b97e64cbef'|'Lufthansa scraps purchase of Air Berlin''s Niki'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:13 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Lufthansa scraps purchase of Air Berlin''s Niki Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa has abandoned plans to buy Air Berlin subsidiary Niki after being told by the European Commission that it would not allow the deal. A placard is seen in the cockpit of the plane of the AB6210, the last flight, operated by insolvent carrier Air Berlin before departing Munich''s international airport, southern Germany, October 27, 2017. Sign reads "Air Berlin says goodbye". REUTERS/Michael Dalder The planned takeover of Air Berlin businesses Niki and LGW had raised concerns among rivals that Lufthansa would become too dominant in Germany. Lufthansa said it would still pursue its growth plans for its Eurowings low-cost business but would do so without the Niki acquisition. Air Berlin administrators had been holding fresh talks with others parties previously interested in Niki - British Airways’ parent IAG and Thomas Cook’s Condor. But they said on Tuesday that no suitable offers were ready and that unless the deal was approved quickly, Niki would have to follow its parent and file for insolvency protection itself. Lufthansa said it still planned to buy Air Berlin subsidiary LGW and would submit a revised proposal, including foregoing slots, to the Commission on Wednesday. The purchase price for LGW on its own is around 18 million euros (£15.9 million), Air Berlin said, compared to a previous price of 210 million euros for the deal including Niki. The German government had been expecting to use the sale proceeds to repay a bridge loan it awarded to Air Berlin to keep it flying after it filed for insolvency protection. ($1 = 0.8499 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-lufthansa/lufthansa-scraps-purchase-of-air-berlins-niki-idUKKBN1E71V8'|'2017-12-13T16:13:00.000+02:00'
'41fbcf40f6b4ccce037e6437ba3fe791d29cf755'|'U.S. core inflation slows, puts spotlight on 2018 interest rate outlook'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:33 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago U.S. core inflation slows, puts spotlight on 2018 interest rate outlook Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Underlying U.S. consumer inflation slowed in November, held down by weak healthcare costs and the biggest drop in apparel prices in nearly two decades, which could impact the pace at which the Federal Reserve raises interest rates next year. FILE PHOTO: A shopper walks in the Old Town shopping area of Pasadena, California, U.S. June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Inflation has moderated for much of this year, leading to concern among some Fed officials that the factors holding back price pressures could prove more persistent. The U.S. central bank is expected to raise interest rates when policymakers conclude a two-day meeting later on Wednesday. The Fed has increased borrowing costs twice this year, encouraged by a tightening labour market and strengthening economy. It has forecast three rate hikes next year. “The lack of a sustained pickup in core CPI does make the Fed deliberations about the pace of monetary policy tightening next year more complicated,” said Kathy Bostjancic, head of U.S. macro investor services at Oxford Economics in New York. The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index excluding the volatile food and energy components ticked up 0.1 percent also as prices for airline fares and household furnishing fell. The so-called core CPI advanced 0.2 percent in October. As a result, the annual increase in the core CPI slowed to 1.7 percent in November from 1.8 percent in October. The Fed has a 2 percent inflation target. The central bank’s preferred inflation measure, the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, has consistently undershot its target for almost 5-1/2 years. The overall CPI increased 0.4 percent in November after edging up 0.1 percent in October. That raised the year-on-year increase in the CPI to 2.2 percent from 2.0 percent in October. Prices for U.S. Treasuries rose marginally on the core CPI data, while the dollar fell against a basket of currencies. Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher. FISCAL STIMULUS Economists believe inflation will rise next year after Republicans in the U.S. Congress approved plans for sweeping tax cuts, including slashing the corporate income tax rate to about 20 percent from 35 percent. The fiscal stimulus will come at a time when the economy is almost at full employment. “This expectation supports our forecast for the Fed to raise its policy rate four times next year after increasing it today,” said Mickey Levy, chief economist for Americas and Asia at Berenberg Capital Markets in New York. Last month, the cost of healthcare services slipped 0.1 percent, the first drop since May, with prices for doctor visits falling 0.8 percent. In the 12 months through November, the cost of doctor visits tumbled 1.8 percent, the biggest decline since records started in 1947. Apparel prices dropped 1.3 percent, the largest fall since September 1998, after dipping 0.1 percent in October. Economists said an unseasonably warm November probably contributed to the decline in apparel prices, as well as competition from online retailers like Amazon. “It was one of the warmest Novembers on record, which means that people would have bought proportionally less full-price winter clothing and more discounted summer/fall clothing,” said Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics in Toronto. “If we’re right, clothing prices will snap back in December.” Owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence gained 0.2 percent after rising 0.3 percent in October. Gasoline prices rebounded 7.3 percent after falling 2.4 percent in October. Food prices were unchanged for a second straight month. Prices for new motor vehicles rose 0.3 percent after two straight monthly declines. There were also increases in prices of alcohol, mobile phone services and tobacco. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-core-cpi-slows-in-november-apparel-prices-tumble-idUKKBN1E71YU'|'2017-12-13T18:34:00.000+02:00'
'00ed650db7539a36888da8a0c5ca8cc1c312dec2'|'UK''s Domino''s Pizza to expand stake in Iceland operation'|'(Reuters) - Domino’s Pizza ( DOM.L ), a master franchisee of U.S. group Domino’s Pizza Inc ( DPZ.N ), said on Thursday it would buy a further 44.3 percent stake in Domino’s Iceland for 30.2 million euros ($35.71 million).The deal would take the company’s stake in Domino’s Iceland to 95.3 percent.The company also approved a further 20 million pound share-buyback and said that return of excess capital to shareholders would continue to be a part of its strategy.Domino’s reported in October a pick up in third-quarter sales driven by online orders and decided to increase its store count in Britain.Domino’s also said in October that its German joint venture, in which it owns a third of the stake, would buy Germany’s largest independent pizza chain, Hallo Pizza, to expand its business in the country.Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-dominos-piza-grp-iceland-stake/uks-dominos-pizza-to-expand-stake-in-iceland-operation-idINKBN1E80V4'|'2017-12-14T05:15:00.000+02:00'
'0b72b2b213ca13e18949792e045c28a35bb69b02'|'Thomas Cook considering acquisition of Niki'|' 57 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Thomas Cook considering acquisition of Niki Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Tourism group Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) is considering a takeover of insolvent holiday carrier Niki, a spokesman said on Thursday, after Niki was left looking for a new investor following Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) decision to drop a bid. Empty Niki check-in counters are seen at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader “We plan to increase our capacity in the German market in light of the increased demand,” he said. “We are considering our options, including a takeover of Niki, or buying parts of the airline.” Thomas Cook and its German airline Condor had been among the initial parties to bid for Niki, part of collapsed German carrier Air Berlin, but lost out to Lufthansa. Niki filed for insolvency on Wednesday after Lufthansa dropped its bid, citing competition concerns. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-thomas-cook-grp/thomas-cook-considering-acquisition-of-niki-idUKKBN1E8267'|'2017-12-14T16:56:00.000+02:00'
'2424351b52602aaead7b0cb97647ecdb9133ed37'|'America’s Public Company Accounting Oversight Board gets a new boss - Who audits the auditors?'|'THE collapses of Enron and WorldCom in the early years of this century turned book-cooking into front-page news. Investors lost over $200bn; in 2002 the stockmarket fell by over a fifth between April and July. In response, America’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act set up a new body, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), to supervise auditors.Its quest to give auditors more teeth continues, with the introduction of new rules that James Doty, its outgoing chairman, bills as the most significant changes to reporting by auditors in over 70 years. The question now is whether Mr Doty’s successor, who was announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 12th along with four new PCAOB board members, will keep heading in the same direction.  44 minutes   7   7   New disclosures on auditors’ tenure and independence take effect this week. And from 2019 auditors must go above and beyond the low bar they have historically set themselves, which is a pass or fail “opinion” on whether financial statements obey accounting rules. They will have to explain “critical audit matters”, meaning occasions when they had to confront company management. Many big firms loathe these changes, warning that investors will be swamped by minutiae. Their real fear may be a loss of control over the flow of information to investors.The rules are meant to mitigate the incentive problems that have long riddled the profession, which is dominated by the Big Four partnerships—Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. To foster investor trust, listed firms must engage external auditors. But companies pay them, not investors, which may dampen the motivation to scrutinise.In the West, stronger oversight does appear to have coincided with better quality. Accounting scandals are far from consigned to history’s ash heap. In America last year, for example, PwC settled a $5.5bn lawsuit alleging negligence when it gave Colonial Bank a clean bill of health in the years before the lender’s collapse in 2009; the bank turned out to have made loans against assets that did not even exist. Yet both the frequency and the severity of accounting restatements have fallen over time in America (see chart), and inspectors are finding fewer audit deficiencies. In Britain, where auditors have been required to discuss contentious bits of the audit for some years already, 81% of FTSE 350 audits inspected by regulators in 2016 either met their standards or had only minor problems, up from 56% five years before.But two big weaknesses in the audit industry remain. First, at a global level, quality is still relatively low. A survey of 36 countries last year by the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators found that an “unacceptably high” 42% of 855 audits did not meet inspectors’ standards. All of the Big Four have been caught up in scandals in recent years, particularly in emerging markets.American regulators can lift standards. The PCAOB inspects audits for all firms listed in America, regardless of the auditor’s location (though China refuses its inspectors access). More of its sanctions have been taken against foreign firms, including affiliates of the Big Four. In its severest punishment ever, it fined Deloitte in Brazil $8m last year for doctoring paperwork and hiding evidence from inspectors.Senior executives at the Big Four admit to embarrassment about violations abroad. But because most country firms are legally distinct affiliates, they have been able to avoid broad reputational damage. And the worry is that neither companies nor regulators can afford to discipline auditors harshly for their failings because of the second big flaw: limited competition. The Big Four dominate audit for large listed companies, scrutinising the accounts of 99% of those on the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100. Companies’ choices are even more limited because conflict-of-interest rules forbid the same firms from selling consulting and audit services. Over 85% of S&P 500 companies have been audited by the same firm for over ten years, according to Audit Analytics, a data provider. Such cosiness jeopardises objectivity.How this should be addressed, if at all, is unclear. Mr Doty reckons independence of auditors must be the priority; if that is assured, a lack of competition, in itself, is less worrisome. In any case, the PCAOB has little scope to act, since the House of Representatives voted in 2013 to ban mandatory auditor rotation. In contrast, European regulators now require firms that have used the same auditor for ten years to put their contract out to tender. Nevertheless, the four remain dominant.That concentration worries some. What happens if another scandal were to sink one of the firms, turning the Big Four into the Titanic Three? European regulators are now monitoring risks to audit firms; in Britain, audit-firm boards must include independent non-executive directors. Steven Harris, an outgoing PCAOB board member who helped to draft Sarbanes-Oxley, would like to see similar rules in America.That seems unlikely, because of a new risk to audit quality: a possible relaxation of American policy. Many bosses hope for looser rules. That would fit with the Trump administration’s deregulation agenda. Although Sarbanes-Oxley has not ranked highly on the list of rule books to be burned, Mr Doty’s successor, William Duhnke, a former Republican Senate aide, is thought to favour deregulation. Two of the four other new board members are former Big Four auditors. Reassuringly, the SEC’s chair, Jay Clayton, has said he is not looking for radical change. He would be wise to consider how much progress has been made since the dark days of Enron and WorldCom before consigning audit regulation to the flames.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Custodians of capitalism"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732572-new-regime-americas-audit-watchdog-could-undermine-progress-americas-public-company?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'7949ba2c446d50a56b0a53f85ea2fbfbf6223500'|'Lockheed Martin now seen with edge in race to supply Canada jets'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:13 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Lockheed Martin may top Boeing in race to supply Canada jets: experts David Ljunggren 4 Min Read OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada’s decision to make it harder for Boeing Co ( BA.N ) to win a major jet order hands rival plane maker Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) an advantage in capturing the contract, defense experts said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: Lockheed Martin''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan on October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo That would mark a reversal in Lockheed’s fortunes after Liberal leader Justin Trudeau campaigned in 2015 on a promise not to buy the firm’s F-35 stealth fighter. Trudeau’s government on Tuesday scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing Super Hornets and made clear the company would not win a contract for 88 jets unless it dropped a trade challenge against Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ). Government officials estimate the cost of the jets at between C$15 billion ($11.7 billion) and C$19 billion and say it is the biggest investment in the air force in 30 years. Last week Boeing issued a statement making clear it would not back down in its fight against Bombardier, which it accuses of trying to dump airliners on the U.S. market. The firm may not even launch a bid for the 88 jets, the first of which are due to be delivered in 2025. That leaves the F-35, a new aircraft, up against two European rivals which first flew in the 1990s: the Eurofighter Typhoon ( AIR.PA ) ( BAES.L ) ( LDOF.MI ) and Dassault Aviation SA’s ( AVMD.PA ) Rafale. “The longer this process plays out, the narrower the government’s options become, and the prospects for a European jet become even dimmer,” said one defense source, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the situation. A second defense source said Boeing now had little chance of winning the 88-plane contract and noted Canada’s air force had long sought an American jet so it could operate easily with the U.S. military. Neither source works for a company which might make a bid. Lockheed Martin said in a statement it was confident the F-35 was superior to older competitors. Boeing spokesman Scott Day described the Super Hornet as “the low-risk, low-cost approach” which could serve Canada’s needs well into the future. Canada is part of the nine-nation consortium that helped fund development of the F-35, which has been hit by years of delays and cost overruns. Trudeau initially opposed the F-35 on the grounds that it was too costly but Ottawa has since softened its line. Officials insist the competition will be open and say no company will be excluded. Yet in a clear swipe at Boeing, federal ministers on Tuesday said any bidder deemed to have harmed Canada’s economy would be at a distinct disadvantage. “Can Canada get away with this? The answer is probably ... when procurement for the military is involved, governments have wide latitude,” U.S. trade expert Bill Perry said by email. Boeing accuses Bombardier of imitating Airbus by trying to muscle into the U.S. market. People familiar with Boeing say the strategic importance of defending its core passenger jet business outweighs the fighter dispute. Jerry Dias, president of the Unifor union, said in a phone interview he did not think Boeing would react by cutting jobs. Unifor represents 1,300 workers at a Boeing plant in Winnipeg. Boeing says its operations support 17,500 Canadian jobs. ($1=1.2865 Canadian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-canada-boeing-fighterjets/lockheed-martin-now-seen-with-edge-in-race-to-supply-canada-jets-idUKKBN1E72QC'|'2017-12-13T21:15:00.000+02:00'
'7a5483d692144320f338dd2c07f1fbe0a8ceb0cb'|'Russian court rules ex-minister Ulyukayev extorted bribe'|'December 15, 2017 / 9:13 AM / in 25 minutes Russian court rules ex-minister Ulyukayev extorted bribe Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A Russian court has established that former Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev had extorted a $2 million bribe from Igor Sechin, the CEO of oil company Rosneft , judge Larisa Semyonova said on Friday. Ulyukayev demanded the money in India’s Goa where he was on a working trip, after his ministry approved the sale of a government stake in oil firm Bashneft to Rosneft, the judge said. (Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; writing by Maria Tsvetkova; editing by Maria Kiselyova)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-ulyukayev-verdict-corruption/russian-court-rules-ex-minister-ulyukayev-extorted-bribe-idUSR4N1OD00Z'|'2017-12-15T11:11:00.000+02:00'
'0225e1e098feba9aa113f8db96e6cbf3b131cb2b'|'PSA''s Opel to shorten workers'' hours in restructuring'|'December 15, 2017 / 10:37 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago PSA''s Opel to cut workers'' hours in restructuring Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - PSA Group’s Opel, under pressure to cut costs, said on Friday that management and staff representatives had reached an agreement that includes shorter hours for its workers. The logo of car manufacturer Opel is seen on a vintage van in Muttenz, Switzerland October 29, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The Ruesselsheim, Germany-based carmaker said a deal had been struck to, among other things, cut hours for at least six months from Jan. 1 in the engineering and administration departments. From April 1, the work week will also be shortened to 35 hours for workers who currently have agreements in place to work more, Opel said. Opel, which operates as Vauxhall in Britain, did not say how many workers would be affected. The loss-making company, which PSA bought from General Motors, earlier this year, employs over 37,000 people, including more than 19,000 in Germany, according to its website. Opel also said a new common procurement organisation for Opel/Vauxhall with PSA’s other brands, including Peugeot and Citroen, would increase efficiencies. In the long term, 30 percent of savings from the integration of Opel into PSA will stem from procurement, it said. “It is our common goal to make Opel competitive,” said Michael Lohscheller, chief executive officer of Opel Automobile. PSA Group Chief Executive Carlos Tavares had signalled possible cost cuts at Opel, noting in a newspaper interview in October that production costs were at least 50 percent higher than at the group’s French factories. Tavares has also said a failure of turnaround efforts at Opel would spell “very serious” consequences for workers at the German division and the company as a whole. PSA has given Opel until 2020 to return to profit as part of a recovery plan aimed at shifting the brand’s model lineup onto PSA’s architecture, with the French parent pursuing 1.7 billion euros (£1.5 billion) in savings from its purchase of Opel. Other key elements of the agreement announced on Friday include an expansion of part-time programmes for older employees and the possibility of early retirement. Managers’ bonuses will be linked to the turnaround plan, Opel said. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-psa-opel-costs/psas-opel-to-shorten-workers-hours-in-restructuring-idUKKBN1E912F'|'2017-12-15T12:37:00.000+02:00'
'e4bf18b2ed601b4004028cb570805385b33e213e'|'Kremlin says no target for number of banks in Russia'|' 23 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Kremlin says no target for number of banks in Russia Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - There is no specific target for the number of banks that should be operating in Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, after the central bank moved to rescue Promsvyazbank. “There are no such targets,” Peskov told reporters, adding that President Vladimir Putin continued to value highly the actions of the central bank. (Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by John Stonestreet)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-banks-promsvyazbank-kremlin/kremlin-says-no-target-for-number-of-banks-in-russia-idUSR4N1OD017'|'2017-12-15T13:20:00.000+02:00'
'6824838d899be5a1ec36f23eb2bf86dfc59d6d6c'|'Exclusive: EU regulators set to clear Safran, Zodiac deal - source'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:52 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Exclusive: Safran, Zodiac deal expected to win unconditional EU approval - source Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - French aero engine maker Safran ( SAF.PA ) is set to secure an EU green light for its $7.7 billion bid for aircraft seat maker Zodiac Aerospace ( ZODC.PA ) to create the world’s third-largest aerospace supplier, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. Safran has said the deal would boost its position in making smarter and more connected aircraft, targeting planemakers such as Airbus ( AIR.PA ) and Boeing ( BA.N ). The merged entity would compete with U.S companies United Technologies ( UTX.N ) and General Electric ( GE.N ). The European Commission, which is scheduled to rule on the deal by Dec. 21, declined to comment. Safran also declined to comment. The proposed takeover is one of several deals in the aerospace industry which includes United Technologies Corp’s $23 billion plan to buy avionics maker Rockwell Collins Inc ( COL.N ). The Safran, Zodiac tie-up has already been given the regulatory go-ahead in Canada, Kenya, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, the United States and pre-authorized in South Korea. Authorities in China and Brazil are also expected to clear the deal. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Cyril Altmeyerhenzien in Paris; editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zodiac-aero-m-a-safran-eu-exclusive/exclusive-eu-regulators-set-to-clear-safran-zodiac-deal-source-idUSKBN1E927T'|'2017-12-15T18:50:00.000+02:00'
'3b86b8f0b569b98c9d8480b0f92314444a49ef56'|'UPDATE 1-UK''s Domino''s Pizza to expand stake in Iceland operation'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:16 AM / Updated an hour ago UK''s Domino''s Pizza to expand stake in Iceland operation Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Domino’s Pizza ( DOM.L ), a master franchisee of U.S. group Domino’s Pizza Inc ( DPZ.N ), said on Thursday it would buy a further 44.3 percent stake in Domino’s Iceland for 30.2 million euros ($35.71 million). The deal would take the company’s stake in Domino’s Iceland to 95.3 percent. The company also approved a further 20 million pound share-buyback and said that return of excess capital to shareholders would continue to be a part of its strategy. Domino’s reported in October a pick up in third-quarter sales driven by online orders and decided to increase its store count in Britain. Domino’s also said in October that its German joint venture, in which it owns a third of the stake, would buy Germany’s largest independent pizza chain, Hallo Pizza, to expand its business in the country. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dominos-piza-grp-iceland-stake/uks-dominos-pizza-to-expand-stake-in-iceland-operation-idUSKBN1E80V4'|'2017-12-14T10:10:00.000+02:00'
'1af6fbc9ea53223730f400b3be5bf33e399f108d'|'UK pay picks up slightly but employment falls for second month'|'December 13, 2017 / 9:39 AM / Updated an hour ago UK employment falls for second month, pay edges up Andy Bruce , William Schomberg 4   The number of people in work in Britain fell again, suggesting employers are turning more cautious as Brexit nears, and while pay growth quickened slightly, it remained lower than inflation, official data showed on Wednesday. Unlike other countries in Europe, Britain’s economy has slowed sharply this year as the 2016 referendum decision to leave the European Union weighed on households and companies. But job creation had largely remained strong, until recently. The number of people in work fell by 56,000 during the three months to October, the most since mid-2015, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. It was the second consecutive fall, driven entirely by young workers. A separate measure of the balance between the number of people in work, those classed as unemployed and people neither working nor seeking a job showed a net 44,000 people leaving employment in the earlier July to September period. That was the biggest outflow since the three months to September 2011, the ONS said. Sterling fell from a day’s high against the U.S. dollar despite the pick-up in pay growth which the Bank of England is monitoring as it decides when to raise interest rates again. The failure of pay to pick up quickly as unemployment falls fast has puzzled central banks in advanced economies around the world. The problem in Britain is more acute, given the spike in inflation since the Brexit vote caused the pound to lose value. Average weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, rose by an annual 2.3 percent in the three months to October, compared with 2.2 percent in the three months to September. Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected to see no improvement. City workers make their way home in the City of London, Britain October 18, 2017. October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner Including bonuses, wage growth picked up to 2.5 percent from 2.3 percent, as expected in the Reuters poll. That was the strongest increase since the end of 2016 although the comparison was flattered by weak bonus payments last year. Peter Dixon, an economist with Commerzbank, said growth in wages would probably continue to gain speed gradually, but the weakness in the employment figures hinted at trouble ahead. “I wonder whether the numbers might be telling us that the labour market is beginning to weaken. We will have to keep an eye on that going forward,” Dixon said. The unemployment rate held unexpectedly at its four-decade low of 4.3 percent, against expectations for a further decrease to 4.2 percent in a Reuters poll of economists. The Bank of England increased interest rates for the first time since 2007 last month as most of its policymakers thought the steep fall in unemployment will soon start to push up wages. The BoE’s next rate decision announcement is due on Thursday when it is widely expected to keep borrowing costs on hold. Despite October’s improvement, pay growth is still lagging inflation which hit a nearly six-year high of 3.1 percent in November. The ONS said the number of unemployment benefit claimants rose by 5,900 to 817,500 in November while the number of vacancies hit a new record high of 798,000. Economists taking part in the Reuters poll had expected the number of benefit claimants - which is considered to be a potential early warning sign of an economic downturn - to rise by 3,200. Writing by Andy Bruce; Editing by William Schomberg and Raissa Kasolowsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-unemployment/uk-pay-picks-up-slightly-but-employment-falls-for-second-month-idUKKBN1E7109'|'2017-12-13T11:38:00.000+02:00'
'95173fa1c04093c35c19d86ad4e84ea1a163972b'|'Toyota and Panasonic eye joint development of new EV batteries'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:41 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Toyota and Panasonic eye joint development of new EV batteries Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Panasonic Corp and Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday they will consider jointly developing batteries for electric vehicles. The Toyota logo is shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The move could help Panasonic extend its lead as the world’s largest automotive lithium-ion battery manufacturer. The announcement builds on an existing agreement under which Panasonic manufactures batteries for Toyota’s gasoline hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Toyota said last year it was planning add fully electric vehicles to its product line-up - a strategic shift away from its previous position that it saw fuel-cell vehicles and plug-in hybrids as the most sensible technologies to make cars greener. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-panasonic/toyota-panasonic-to-hold-news-conference-at-1-30-a-m-et-idUKKBN1E707L'|'2017-12-13T09:00:00.000+02:00'
'c9f65b7558ef6098d45f05340712c104a1bc7f21'|'France''s Sanofi pins hopes on new drugs after setbacks'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:10 AM / Updated 3 hours ago France''s Sanofi pins hopes on new drugs after setbacks Matthias Blamont 5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Sanofi’s ( SASY.PA ) promising pipeline of experimental drugs can help it overcome setbacks including the low uptake of a new cholesterol treatment and concerns about a dengue vaccine, the French pharmaceuticals group said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen in front of the entrance at the headquarters French drugmaker Sanofi in Paris October 30, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The world’s sixth largest drugmaker, battling to contain the fallout from a safety row in the Philippines over dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, said it expected to file nine medicines for regulatory assessment in the next 18 months. Shares in Sanofi were down 0.77 percent at 1510 GMT. Some investors have voiced discontent with the group’s product pipeline and its failure to make a large acquisition since it appointed Olivier Brandicourt as chief executive in 2015. Sanofi is under pressure to stand out in research and development as its diabetes division still has to overcome pricing constraints in the United States, the world’s largest health market, where its blockbuster insulin medication Lantus has lost its patent. In opening remarks at a company investor day, Brandicourt said the group was “on track” to sell its European generic drugs unit in “the coming year”, a long-awaited deal which could be worth more than 2 billion euros ($2.35 billion), sources say. “We are making good progress overall on our roadmap and I am confident that Sanofi now is much better positioned to deliver the sustained and long term growth that our shareholders are expecting from us,” he said. The company said in November 2015 its five-year strategic plan would see six key launches likely to generate peak sales of 12 billion to 14 billion euros by 2025. One of them, Dengvaxia, is proving disappointing after findings the vaccine could, in some cases, increase the risk of severe dengue in recipients not previously infected by the virus. Once touted as a $1 billion-a-year blockbuster product, Dengvaxia’s initial sales last year were only 55 million euros. Hurdles to patient access by health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers have also led to disappointing sales in Sanofi’s new cholesterol drug Praluent. “When I turn to delivering outstanding launches, I concede that our record over the past two years has been mixed,” Brandicourt said. “While we are not changing our ambition of combined peak sales, we are clearly much more reliant on our immunology franchise.” ‘MULTI-TARGETING’ In immunology, Sanofi has been concentrating on “multi-targeting” drugs that have the potential to treat more than one disease. One example is dupilumab, which was developed with U.S partner Regeneron ( REGN.O ) and for which it has secured approval in the United States and Europe to treat eczema. The drug is also expected to have further uses in asthma, nasal polyps, eosinophilic esophagitis and food allergies. “Phase 3 development for dupilumab is now planned in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),” Sanofi said. Sanofi, whose shares have underperformed major rivals, reiterated its strategy to rebuild its position in cancer and said it expected a first regulatory submission of its monoclonal antibody for relapsed refractory multiple myeloma in 2018. The drug will compete with Genmab’s ( GEN.CO ) and Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) ( JNJ.N ) Darzalex which is already on the market. DIVERSIFIED The Cancer Research Institute said last week the race to come up with new immunotherapy treatments for cancer had sparked an unprecedented expansion in the oncology drug pipeline, with more than 2,000 immune-system-boosting agents in development. The result is a scramble for patients to enrol in clinical trials, duplication of effort and the likely ultimate failure of many projects, according to experts. Asked if Sanofi had the means to pursue its strategy in multiple indications while some other players have opted to focus on niche products or key drugs, Brandicourt said Sanofi had made a clear choice to remain diversified. “There is no miracle recipe,” he said. “But given the risks in the industry, we came to the conclusion that being active in one therapeutic area only was dangerous.” ($1 = 0.8505 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sanofi-strategy/sanofi-sees-nine-regulatory-submissions-over-next-18-months-idUKKBN1E70N2'|'2017-12-13T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'451281e0c28bbac4e1a08cc8ade431222b8bdeec'|'L''Oreal turns to plant-based hair dye as natural cosmetics thrive'|'December 13, 2017 / 8:21 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago L''Oreal turns to plant-based hair dye as natural cosmetics thrive Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - L‘Oreal ( OREP.PA ) is launching its first wholly plant-based hair dye as cosmetics companies look to win over customers who are becoming increasingly wary of chemical ingredients. FILE PHOTO: The logo of French cosmetics group L''Oreal is seen on the company''s building in Clichy, near Paris February 12, 2015. Picture taken with zooming effect. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The French company, the world’s biggest maker of skincare and beauty products, said on Wednesday the new range based on ingredients such as henna would be aimed at professionals for use in salons across Europe from May 2018. The organic cosmetics boom has been driven by rising numbers of younger consumers rejecting chemical-based products in favour of plant-based ones. The natural and organic beauty market was worth around $11 billion worldwide in 2016, consultants Ernst & Young said, adding that it was likely to double by 2024. L‘Oreal believes the natural beauty market already stands at 24 billion euros (£21.1 billion) and is growing at 12 percent a year, said Marion Brunet, manager of L‘Oreal Professional, one of the brands within the professional division that caters to salons. “There’s very strong demand from women to move towards healthier formulas,” Brunet said, adding that a branch of cosmetics that used to be the preserve of more militant “green” consumers 15 to 20 years ago had spread across society. FILE PHOTO: A scientist speaks in front of a World map composed from cuttings of hair at cosmetics company L''Oreal''s new World hair research centre in Saint-Ouen, near Paris, France, December 5, 2017. Picture taken December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The vegan range, called Botanea, is sourced from three plants found in India and is not available for mass market consumption yet, as the different shades need to be mixed to measure. Revenue growth at L‘Oreal - founded almost 100 years ago by a chemist as a hair dye company - has benefited from a make-up boom in the age of “selfies” on social media, while its luxury brands such as Lancome are also doing well. But its professional products division has lagged, however, with like-for-like sales growth down 0.3 percent in the nine months to September, while other areas including the smaller active cosmetics business, which caters to dermatological conditions, expanded. L‘Oreal, which spent 3.3 percent of its 26 billion euros in sales last year on research, rivals large groups such as Estee Lauder ( EL.N ). But small start-ups in skincare and beauty have acquired visibility and are reaching a greater audience through online sales and marketing in recent years. L‘Oreal sold The Body Shop earlier this year to Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos ( NATU3.SA ), after the label, one of the pioneers in the field of natural-based cosmetics, struggled against rising competition. Reporting by Sarah White; editing by Richard Lough, Louise Heavens and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-l-oreal-products/loreal-turns-to-plant-based-hair-dye-as-natural-cosmetics-thrive-idUKKBN1E72VE'|'2017-12-13T22:20:00.000+02:00'
'2d197e764d274cf3eebc42dd4938f5aa84d0b464'|'UPDATE 1-Sanofi sees 9 regulatory submissions over next 18 months'|' 09 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Sanofi sees 9 regulatory submissions over next 18 months Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details) PARIS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Sanofi said on Wednesday it expected to file nine regulatory submissions for new drugs over the next 18 months and that its pipeline of new products would support long-term growth. The French drugmaker, battling to contain the fallout from a safety row in the Philippines over its dengue vaccine, also said it would launch at least 10 pivotal Phase 3 studies in the next year. The company has been focussing on “multi-targeting” drugs that have the potential to treat more than one disease. One example is dupilumab - developed with U.S partner Regeneron and for which it has already secured approval in eczema in the U.S and Europe - with expected uses in asthma, nasal polyps, eosinophilic esophagitis and food allergies. “Phase 3 development for dupilumab is now planned in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),” Sanofi said in a statement. Sanofi reiterated its strategy to re-build its position in cancer and said that it expected a first regulatory submission of its monoclonal antibody for relapsed refractory multiple myeloma this year. Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Richard Lough'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sanofi-strategy/update-1-sanofi-sees-9-regulatory-submissions-over-next-18-months-idUSL8N1OD0NT'|'2017-12-13T09:06:00.000+02:00'
'5ab11de54ee728af0d038e26ad07800dfc1478f0'|'Kloeckner & Co says not preparing offer for Thyssenkrupp unit'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:36 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Kloeckner & Co says not preparing offer for Thyssenkrupp unit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German steel distributor Kloeckner & Co is not working on a bid for Thyssenkrupp’s Materials Services unit, a spokesman for the company said in response to a media report. German monthly Manager Magazin earlier reported that Kloeckner CEO Gisbert Ruehl would soon propose a joint venture under the leadership of his company, taking advantage of growing shareholder criticism over Thyssenkrupp’s slow turnaround. “There are currently neither talks between Kloeckner & Co and Thyssenkrupp over a tie-up with the Material Services division nor are we preparing an offer for it,” a Kloeckner & Co spokesman said. Ruehl had said in October that parts of Thyssenkrupp’s Materials Services, which generates more than twice the annual sales of Kloeckner, would be a good strategic fit. The difference in value of the two businesses would be compensated for via a cash payment from Kloeckner & Co as part of Ruehl’s potential proposal, Manager Magazin said, not elaborating further. About two thirds of Materials Services’ 13.8 billion euros (£12.1 billion) in sales come from Thyssenkrupp’s materials distribution business, which competes with Kloeckner, Salzgitter and U.S.-listed Reliance Steel & Aluminum. Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-m-a-kloeck-co/kloeckner-co-says-not-preparing-offer-for-thyssenkrupp-unit-idUKKBN1E81VN'|'2017-12-14T15:36:00.000+02:00'
'b80bfada35fdc65793b3ef0674d557f63a6c06f3'|'Euro zone bond yields may be in for New Year shock as ECB cuts buying'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:24 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Euro zone bond yields may be in for New Year shock as ECB cuts buying Abhinav Ramnarayan , Helen Reid 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields are close to multi-month lows just as the European Central Bank is on the verge of cutting its bond-buying scheme by half, leaving some investors worried that a sharp correction may be due in 2018. European Union flags flutter outside the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski While bond markets are among the most liquid in the world, some participants believe the trillions pumped into them by central banks have distorted yields so much that they are not reflecting the impending reduction of financial stimulus. “It’s consensus to say that the sharp deceleration of central bank purchases is priced in ...(but) I think it’s very difficult to price in that deceleration ahead of time when the weight of central bank money is so strong,” said Jim Reid, head of global credit strategy at Deutsche Bank. “When you’ve got that relentless buying from central banks it’s difficult to see how fixed income markets can be a rational two-way market.” The ECB has already injected 2.55 trillion euros ($3 trillion) into markets by buying government and corporate bonds in an attempt to ward off deflation and revive a euro zone economy ravaged by debt crises between 2010 and 2012. However, the euro zone is set for its best growth in a decade this year and the deflation risk has receded. So in January the ECB will cut asset purchases by half from to 30 billion euros a month until at least September 2018. Many expect the quantitative easing (QE) scheme to end next year. This prospect ought to lower bond prices and consequently push up yields sharply. Yet the yield on Germany’s 10-year government bond, the benchmark for the region, dropped as low as 0.29 percent this week. This compares with 0.48 percent in October. DE10YT=TWEB Such relentless demand for high-grade government debt has baffled some people in the market. “It’s a mystery,” said a trader at one European bank, asking to remain unnamed. SHARP CORRECTION Many believe a sharp correction from January onwards is possible when the ECB purchases begin to fall. This could be amplified by copious supply that traditionally hits the market through a concentration of bond auctions at the start of every year. “At the moment, the ECB is buying roughly 2.5 billion euros of government bonds every single day on average. Starting January this will go down to something like 1 billion euros a day,” said Said Haidar, president and chief executive officer of Haidar Capital Management, a $365 million global macro hedge fund. Haidar based his projection on analysis of ECB buying patterns in recent times and the suggestion that it will keep corporate bond purchases more or less steady, making most of the reductions in government bond purchases. “Bond yields have fallen quite significantly recently because of the lack of supply and the ECB purchases. Well, both of those factors will reverse in January and we could see a repeat of last year, where Europe outperformed U.S. by 30 bps in at the end of the year and then underperformed 30 bps in January,” he said. Indeed, the gap between German and higher U.S. 10-year borrowing costs widened as much as 50 basis points in the last quarter of 2016, as U.S. Treasury yields rose sharply following the presidential election. This reversed in the first quarter of 2017, and the spread tightened as much as 40 basis points. While the move has not been as dramatic this time, German debt has steadily outperformed its U.S. equivalent since September. “It makes sense for (euro zone) yields to rise more, that’s certainly our expectation for 2018 with the ECB likely to tighten policy and perhaps end QE altogether,” said John Taylor, a fixed income portfolio manager at asset manager AllianceBernstein. “I can see some volatility in euro govvies, but the serious rise in yields will likely happen as we approach September. One way or another, we expect yields to rise next year.” Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Helen Reid, Graphic by Ritvik Carvalho; editing by David Stamp'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-bonds-ecb-analysis/euro-zone-bond-yields-may-be-in-for-new-year-shock-as-ecb-cuts-buying-idUKKBN1E828O'|'2017-12-14T17:18:00.000+02:00'
'fb757d7b8f4c5177900f2904da5479afaf3caa18'|'Saudi king approves $19 billion of economic stimulus steps'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:46 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Saudi king approves $19 billion of economic stimulus steps Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a royal decree approving 72 billion riyals ($19.2 billion) worth of measures to stimulate growth in the private sector next year, state news agency SPA reported on Thursday. Saudi Arabia''s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud presides over a cabinet meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, December 5, 2017. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS The measures include residential loans worth 21.3 billion riyals, a 10 billion riyal fund to support economic projects, and 1.5 billion riyals to support distressed companies. A 2.8 billion riyal government fund will be created to invest in smaller companies, while the government will adjust the fees which it charges for services to save smaller companies 7 billion riyals. Reporting by Reem Shamseddine and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Writing by Andrew Torchia'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-stimulus/saudi-king-approves-19-billion-of-economic-stimulus-steps-idUKKBN1E80NM'|'2017-12-14T08:46:00.000+02:00'
'd52a85dede71d06e1a3976547548078e5f90e9a7'|'U.S. FCC meeting briefly evacuated ahead of net neutrality vote'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:11 PM / in 8 minutes U.S. FCC meeting briefly evacuated ahead of net neutrality vote Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s meeting on net neutrality was briefly interrupted on Thursday as the agency evacuated the meeting room before later reopening it. It was not immediately clear what prompted the room to be evacuated. Images on a live video feed of the meeting in Washington showed law enforcement officers in the room with dogs. (Reporting by Chris Sanders and David Shepardson; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Andrew Hay)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-internet-evacuation/u-s-fcc-meeting-briefly-evacuated-ahead-of-net-neutrality-vote-idUSL1N1OE1Q9'|'2017-12-14T20:08:00.000+02:00'
'0214587eb14c60efad5007afc03626f047e8f09a'|'Bank of England and ECB meetings in focus after Fed rate hike - business live - Business - The Guardian'|'Close Skip to main content switch to the International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home become a supporter subscribe find a job jobs sign in Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out my account search news opinion sport arts lifestyle All sections Close news world news UK news science cities global development football tech business environment obituaries opinion the guardian view columnists cartoons opinion videos letters sport football rugby union cricket tennis cycling F1 golf US sports arts books music tv & radio art & design film games classical stage lifestyle fashion food recipes love & sex health & fitness home & garden women family travel money What term do you want to search? 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Share your thoughts here. business economics banking money markets project syndicate b2b more Bank of England Business live ECB hikes growth forecasts but admits losses on Steinhoff bonds - as it happened All the day’s economic and financial news, as central bankers hold their final monetary policy meetings of 2017Latest: Mario Draghi admits ECB has lost money on Steinhoff bonds Bonds were bought through its stimulus programme Steinhoff hit by accounting problems ECB also raised growth forecasts Earlier:Bank of England votes 9-0 to leave borrowing costs unchanged Bank: Brexit progress has boosted the pound LIVE Updated A statue is silhouetted against the Bank of England in the City of London on Tuesday. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters Graeme Wearden Thursday 14 December 2017 14.46 GMT First published on Thursday 14 December 2017 07.59 GMT Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email View more sharing options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Close Key events Show 2.06pm GMT 14:06 Draghi: We''ve taken a loss on our Steinhoff bonds 1.41pm GMT 13:41 ECB hikes growth forecasts as economy strengthens 1.29pm GMT 13:29 Watch the ECB press conference here. 12.54pm GMT 12:54 European Central Bank leaves rates on hold 12.50pm GMT 12:50 Bank of England: What the experts say 12.23pm GMT 12:23 Disney to buy 21st Century Fox assets in $66bn deal 12.17pm GMT 12:17 Bank of England notes Brexit progress Live feed Show 2.46pm GMT 14:46 Time for a recap. The European Central Bank has hiked its growth forecasts , but admitted that inflation still won’t be on target by 2020.In its final meeting of 2017, the eurozone’s central bank voted to leave interest rates on hold - and repeated its commitment to running an asset-purchase stimulus programme until at least next September.Playing his cards close to his chest, president Mario Draghi batted away questions on whether the stimulus programme would continue at a slower rate beyond September 2018, or come to an abrupt halt.Draghi also admitted that the ECB has incurred losses on corporate bonds issued by troubled retailer Steinhoff . Those bonds have plunged in value since the company announced accounting problems, and the departure of its CEO.Reuters has a good take:“Running such big corporate programmes it is not unusual that losses may be happening,” he told a news conference after the bank left benchmark interest rates and the terms of the asset purchase scheme unchanged. The ECB’s rules only allow it to own debt as part of its asset-buying programme, which means it might have to sell its Steinhoff holding if the bonds were converted to equity.Draghi said the ECB had stopped buying the bonds as soon as the firm’s troubles emerged, and its losses from the purchases had been “by and large exaggerated by a factor of 10.”He said policymakers were discussing the issue but “I cannot elaborate a lot about what we are going to do next.”Karin Richards (@Richards_Karin) Draghi forced to defend ECB''s buying of Steinhoff bonds."Will draw lessons from Steinhoff experience.""As soon as we got news of Steinhoff scandal we stopped buying the bond.""Losses reported in the media exaggerated by a factor of 10."~via fxstreetDecember 14, 2017 That’s probably all for today. Thanks for reading and commenting. GW Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.27pm GMT 14:27 The press conference is over -- several minutes early. As suspected at the start , Draghi is ready for Christmas. Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.26pm GMT 14:26 Back on the ECB’s stimulus programme....Draghi says the ECB hasn’t discussed whether it should bring its bond-buying programme to an abrupt stop next September, or simply continue at a slower rate.Axel Merk (@AxelMerk) Draghi walks back his sudden stop denial he mentioned last press conf, now says they have not discussed QE after September 2018, meaning it may very well be cut to zeroDecember 14, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.24pm GMT 14:24 Q: What the risks to your inflation forecasts - to the downside, or the upside? The risk of deflation has disappeared, Draghi replies, but he won’t go much further than that.Frederik Ducrozet (@fwred) Draghi refused to provide an explicit balance of risks to the inflation outlook. The last time the ECB had one ("broadly balanced") was August 2014.December 14, 2017 Angel Talavera (@atalaveraEcon) German journo trying to get Draghi to admit that inflation risks are to the upside.What happens next will not surprise you. : )December 14, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.23pm GMT 14:23 Q: Do you think Greece will need a fourth bailout when its existing programme expires? That’s an issue for the Greek government, Draghi replies.DailyFX Team Live (@DailyFXTeam) ECB''s Draghi: Up to Greek Government to decide on aid program.December 14, 2017 Draghi is also asked about the legal proceedings against Greece’s former chief statistician earlier.The independence of statistical bodies and their people is essential, Draghi declares passionately, as their data is vital for designing monetary policyIt is wrong to undermine this credibility, Draghi insists, adding that one must also respect the independence of the judiciary.Updated at 2.25pm GMT Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.17pm GMT 14:17 Q: Germany hasn’t had a government for three months, and it might take several more months. Will this impact the push for banking union? Draghi replies that the ECB is ‘entirely in the hands of the citizens of Europe’. Thanks to democracy, it is the people who will decide how and when the eurozone is strengthened.Anneken Tappe (@AnnekenTappe) "The citizens of this part of the world take their time to form governments...," says Mario Draghi when asked about Germany''s government formation.December 14, 2017 Maxime Sbaihi (@MxSba) #Draghi : "it''s not in our hands", it''s up to the citizens to decide what to do with the euro area. grazie!December 14, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.15pm GMT 14:15 Q: Are you worried about bubbles in the financial markets, and how your exit from your stimulus programme could effect them? We always discuss financial stability issues, Draghi replies firmly.The ECB does see some localised causes for concern, but no ‘systemically significant’ threats.Crucially, leverage doesn’t seem to be going up - a key issue when examining whether asset valuations have hit dangerous levels, he adds.lemasabachthani (@lemasabachthani) *DRAGHI: ECB DOESN''T SEE SYSTEMIC RISKS TO FINANCIAL STABILITYDecember 14, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.11pm GMT 14:11 Q: Mr Draghi, do you expect to raise interest rates before your term ends in autumn 2019? Draghi says he can’t say what he expects...but any rate rise would be good news as it would mean that inflation was on a ‘self-sustained’ recovery.Updated at 2.14pm GMT Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.10pm GMT 14:10 On the Steinhoff bond issue, Mario Draghi also insisted that the ECB’s losses were being exaggerated significantly.Lorcan Roche Kelly (@LorcanRK) he said "ten fold" so safe to go with €40 million instead of €400 million?December 14, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.08pm GMT 14:08 Q: Some European companies think they are disadvantaged by the new US tax reforms - do you have any concerns? Draghi says the ECB hasn’t looked at this issue yet, but it will give it some consideration.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.06pm GMT 14:06 Draghi: We''ve taken a loss on our Steinhoff bonds Draghi is then asked whether the ECB expects to suffer significant losses over its holdings in bonds issued by Steinhoff, the retail giant that is embroiled in a deepening financial scandal . Draghi confirms that “the losses are there” within the ECB’s bond-buying programme, although they’ve not been realised yet.So who will pay for these losses? These bonds are only a small fraction of the profit we achieved last year, Draghi replies, suggesting the ECB can absorb the hit.But he also points out that the ECB’s bond-buying programme is one of its policy tools to achieve its mandate.The goal is not to achieve profits or avoid losses.Draghi also argues that the ECB should be applauded for being so open about which bonds it has bought under its stimulus programme.Other central banks didn’t disclose what they held, so journalists don’t know what losses they made.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1 of 5 Newest Newer Older Oldest Topics Bank of England Business live European Central Bank Economics Mark Carney Mario Draghi Swiss franc'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/dec/14/bank-of-england-ecb-meetings-interest-rates-retail-sales-business-live'|'2017-12-14T15:04:00.000+02:00'
'1d04731fcec6e37dd1694183b559e7697e06d8ec'|'Airbus executive says considering cuts to A380 production, no decision yet'|'December 14, 2017 / 4:23 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Airbus executive says considering cuts to A380 production, still undecided Jamie Freed 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Airbus SE is considering cutting production of its A380 superjumbo to six or seven planes a year, but has made no final decision on the matter, a top executive said on Thursday amid growing question marks over the future of the double-decker jet. Airbus Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier speaks before a tour of Singapore Airlines'' A380 fitted with newly launched cabin products at Changi Airport in Singapore December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su The A380 has battled against sluggish sales, squeezed by smaller, more efficient twin-engined jets. Airbus has previously announced plans to lower output to 12 aircraft in 2018 and eight in 2019, compared with an annual peak of 30. “We believe we can produce this aircraft at 6-7 a year in an industrial way,” Airbus Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier told Reuters after the first Singapore Airlines Ltd A380 featuring a new cabin configuration landed in Singapore. “It is a way to be able to go through I would say are low tide years... The A380 will find its way progressively.” The comments come ahead of a board meeting on Thursday where directors are seeking to contain damage from international fraud investigations over commercial and military sales, while getting a grip on what could become a chain reaction of departures, people familiar with the matter have said. Bregier, who dismissed on Wednesday a report in France’s La Tribune newspaper that he had agreed to leave Airbus in February next year, said on Thursday he hoped to remain at the firm. A Singapore Airlines'' A380 fitted with newly launched cabin products arrives at Changi Airport in Singapore December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su “You can see I am quite relaxed about it,” he said. “I don’t need to be outside the door to listen to what will happen but I think they were clear that all of this buzz in the French press is probably a bit premature.” Festering animosity between Bregier, who is not a board member, and CEO Tom Enders boiled over earlier this year in a row over who should control the powerful jet sales department. Airbus Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier and Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong take a tour of the newly launched economy class cabin on a Singapore Airlines'' A380 at Changi Airport in Singapore December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su Analysts say ongoing negotiations over a deal with carrier Emirates will be decisive for the future of the A380. Emirates, which held off signing an order for an estimated 36 aircraft at last month’s Dubai Airshow, wants guarantees Airbus will produce the A380 for the next 10 years. Reducing output to six a year would help to bridge that period and support key second-hand values while Airbus looks for other buyers, but could leave the programme losing money for at least part of the period. Following a clampdown on costs, Airbus has said the A380 can break even at production levels of 20 a year, while Bregier has previously said he is pushing the breakeven level as low as possible to sustain low production. (Corrects paragraph 2 to read “eight in 2019” instead of “eight in 2018”) Reporting by Jamie Freed; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-singapore-air-airbus/airbus-executive-says-considering-cuts-to-a380-production-no-decision-yet-idUKKBN1E80E1'|'2017-12-14T06:22:00.000+02:00'
'3b003f2d4102a89f559a95202f21fe08248f321e'|'Airbus executive says considering cuts to A380 production, still undecided'|'Reuters TV United States December 14, 2017 / 4:03 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Airbus executive says considering cuts to A380 production, still undecided Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) is considering cutting production of its A380 superjumbo to six or seven planes a year, but has made no final decision on the matter, a top executive said on Thursday amid growing question marks over the future of the double-decker jet. An Airbus A380, the world''s largest jetliner, takes part in flying display, during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 25, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol The A380 has battled against sluggish sales, squeezed by smaller, more efficient twin-engined jets, and Airbus has already cut output of the plane from an annual peak of 30 while waiting for a recovery in demand. “We believe we can produce this aircraft at 6-7 a year in an industrial way,” Airbus Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier said after the first Singapore Airlines Ltd ( SIAL.SI ) A380 featuring a new cabin configuration landed in Singapore. “The A380 will find its way progressively,” he said. A new Airbus A380 aircraft for Singapore Airlines takes off after a delivery ceremony at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Industry sources told Reuters this week that the company was exploring plans to cut A380 production to as low as six aircraft per year as it battles to make the world’s largest airliner commercially viable beyond the end of the decade. Following a clampdown on costs, Airbus has said the A380 can break even at production levels of 20 a year, while Bregier has previously said he is pushing the break even level as low as possible to sustain low production. A new Airbus A380 aircraft for Singapore Airlines takes off after a delivery ceremony at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders expressed his confidence in the jet on Wednesday, though analysts say ongoing negotiations over a deal with carrier Emirates will be decisive for the future of the aircraft. Emirates, which held off signing an order for an estimated 36 aircraft at last month’s Dubai Airshow, wants guarantees Airbus will produce the A380 for the next 10 years. Reducing output to six a year would help to bridge that period and support key second-hand values while Airbus looks for other buyers, but could leave the program losing money for at least part of the period. Reporting by Jamie Freed; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-air-airbus/airbus-executive-says-considering-cuts-to-a380-production-no-decision-yet-idUKKBN1E80CE'|'2017-12-14T06:50:00.000+02:00'
'd0d812882a954415afff4deb5466f757329dc362'|'SEBI chairman says banks should disclose corporate defaults'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:50 PM / Updated 9 hours ago SEBI chairman says banks should disclose corporate defaults Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi said on Thursday banks should disclose defaults in corporate loans, similar to the system in place for corporate bonds, saying it was an issue that regulators would need to address. FILE PHOTO - Commuters walk past a bank sign along a road in New Delhi, India, November 25, 2015. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File Photo Tyagi, addressing a markets conference in Mumbai, also pushed for a reduced reliance on bank loans and instead said more such financing should be provided through corporate bonds. Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-sebi-chairman/sebi-chairman-says-banks-should-disclose-corporate-defaults-idINKBN1E81PO'|'2017-12-14T14:26:00.000+02:00'
'2f4c3d060a55365304f6aba8a405715657adac47'|'Peru sol opens down after document links Kuczynski to Odebrecht payments'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:36 PM / in 9 minutes Peru sol opens down after document links Kuczynski to Odebrecht payments Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LIMA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Peru’s sol currency opened down 0.43 percent at 3.246 per dollar on Thursday after a document suggested firms controlled by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski received payments from scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht SA. The company sent Peru’s congress on Wednesday a document showing some $4.8 million transferred to companies linked to Kuczynski between 2004 and 2012, some of which was paid to a company he controlled while holding senior government roles. He denied wrongdoing, but did not deny the transfers took place. (Reporting by Ursula Scolla; Writing by Luc Cohen Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/peru-forex-odebrecht/peru-sol-opens-down-after-document-links-kuczynski-to-odebrecht-payments-idUSL1N1OE11A'|'2017-12-14T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'd2e879e40c89bee945a5232be513a052328fc9e7'|'RPT-UPDATE 1-India government ignored warnings over GST roll out-sources'|'December 15, 2017 / 11:59 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago RPT-UPDATE 1-India government ignored warnings over GST roll out-sources Reuters Staff (Repeats to more subscribers) By Sankalp Phartiyal and Rahul Bhatia MUMBAI, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Indian government ignored several warnings from private companies that the complex technology required for a nationwide goods and services tax (GST) to work smoothly was not ready for launch, several people who worked on the project said. Weeks before the July 1 start of India’s biggest tax overhaul in decades, the government declared itself ready and chided industry experts who said more time was needed to prepare for the changes. “It’s not a complicated process,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on June 20. However, more than 10 tax and IT consultants who worked on the project said that behind the scenes the government was ignoring warnings for more testing of the complex system even as it was pushing through late changes. While the sources said Infosys, which built the GST technological network, made “basic errors”, they said government officials have not accepted any responsibility for the glitches in the GST roll out. The government is still making changes to tax rates, filing deadlines, and other features, making it difficult to stabilise the system, they said, declining to be identified for fear of losing future government contracts. “At that time, the powers in New Delhi were mocking industry, saying ‘the government’s ready, but industry’s not.''” said the director of a financial planning firm involved in developing the GST network. “Now people are laughingly asking, ‘so who was really not ready?''” he said. The finance ministry and GSTN, the government authority managing the GST network, declined to comment on specific problems about the GST rollout or specific warnings by industry that more time was needed for testing. The GST law was debated for decades, industry had enough time to prepare, and glitches are being fixed, a finance ministry spokesman said. Infosys said in a statement that “several stakeholder concerns” had been raised about the GST system and some of its best engineers were working to resolve all issues. WARNINGS The GST system was designed to replace a slew of federal and state levies, and Moody’s Investors Service has said the tax would boost the economy by removing trade barriers between the country’s 29 states. However, since launch, the system has been beset by problems from a confusing tax structure with four main rates to technical glitches that make it unstable. The sources said they had warned government officials in the run up to the launch that a key part of the GST technology, allowing users to connect to the GST network, was not working smoothly. There were other technical flaws that resulted in incorrect tax assessments, they said. One technology officer involved in the GST rollout said his company had to deal with a “revolving door” of government requests in the run up to the launch. The director of the financial planning firm said the government was “adamant” on introducing GST on July 1. “Obviously, it led to chaos,” he said. The disruption wrought by GST has been blamed in part for a slide in Indian economic growth to a three-year low in the April-June quarter. Growth rebounded in the following quarter. The opposition Congress party is using the chaotic rollout of GST as a political stick to beat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in elections in Gujarat, Modi’s home state. They are set to be a test of Modi’s political fortunes ahead of national elections due by 2019. In one of the latest changes, the GST Council, a political body that decides GST tax rates, cut the tax rate on a popular Gujarati snack to 5 percent from 12 percent, which Praveen Rai, a political analyst at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, said was driven by BJP “fear of an electoral backlash in state elections.” A person working for an audit firm said in one example, a test adopted by GSTN did not reflect real-world conditions. “GSTN in the month of April and May gave 100 companies an invoice to upload and see whether it was getting uploaded or not,” he said. “You can’t really test the system by taking one invoice as a sample,” he said. “GSTN told companies it would do more testing with a larger number of transactions. That never happened.” However, Prakash Kumar, the head of GSTN, said “a phased approach was adopted” at launch and “change is a constant in large IT projects.” A top finance ministry official, who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said Infosys failed to understand “the gravity of the situation” in building the network. “No doubt, the government didn’t realise the difficulties that would be faced,” he said. “But Infosys is also responsible.” (Additional reporting by Manoj Kumar in NEW DELHI: Writing by Rahul Bhatia: Editing by Neil Fullick.)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-tax-infosys/rpt-update-1-india-government-ignored-warnings-over-gst-roll-out-sources-idUSL4N1OF3PB'|'2017-12-15T13:58:00.000+02:00'
'2d803e2114275456cf762598af6f299fa8e54f72'|'Russia''s central bank moves to save Promsvyazbank, in third bailout this year'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:11 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Russia''s central bank moves to save Promsvyazbank, in third bailout this year Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s central bank on Friday put the country’s 10th largest private lender by assets under temporary administration, the third such bailout in the Russian banking sector this year. A man speaks on the phone near pigeons, with a branch of Promsvyazbank seen in the background, in Moscow, Russia, August 19, 2015. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev/Files The central bank said in a statement it was providing funds to support Promsvyazbank’s liquidity and would send in temporary administrators. It said there would be no moratorium on Promsvyazbank meeting creditors’ claims, and that the bank was operating as normal. “As part of measures aimed at increasing (Promsvyazbank‘s) financial stability and ensuring its continued work in the banking services market, it is planned that the Bank of Russia act as an investor using the funds of the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund,” the regulator said in a statement. Russia’s banking sector has been under intense scrutiny since the central bank was forced to step in to save two of the country’s private lenders earlier this year. Otkritie Bank and B&N Bank were both subject to central bank bailouts in the space of a month after disclosing holes in their balance sheets. Lawmaker Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the Duma finance committee and head of the Russian Banking Association, told TASS news agency Promsvyazbank’s bailout would not affect the wider banking sector, and was the last time such a measure would be taken this year. Sources close to Promsvyazbank told Reuters an agreement was reached late on Thursday night at a meeting between Promsvyazbank’s co-owner and chairman, Dmitry Ananyev, and central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina Promsvyazbank is Russia’s 10th biggest bank by assets, according to Interfax data. Dmitry Ananyev and his brother, Alexei, together control just over 50 percent of the bank. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Christian Lowe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-banks-promsvyazbank/russias-central-bank-moves-to-save-promsvyazbank-in-third-bailout-this-year-idINKBN1E90J3'|'2017-12-15T09:06:00.000+02:00'
'a9458ee67af0da6a942d2a40b5af31fb7b7854a0'|'World trade order in a wobble as Washington snubs WTO status quo'|' 35 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago World trade order in a wobble as Washington snubs WTO status quo Michael Nienaber 6 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The frustration of Roberto Azevedo was evident when, as director general of the World Trade Organization, he summed up the results of a three-day ministerial conference in Buenos Aires in the past week. There were simply none. FILE PHOTO: Freight containers stand half immersed in water after the Elbe River broke its bank at a storage facility at the harbour in Riesa, Germany, June 6, 2013. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The delegates of more than 160 countries from around the globe failed to reach any new agreements in the face of stinging U.S. criticism of the WTO and vetoes from other countries. At the end, they were not even able to agree on a joint communique. And a further blow could strike in the coming week when Republican U.S. lawmakers aim to pass sweeping changes to the tax code which may introduce protectionist measures critics say are at odds with WTO rules. “In retrospect, 2017 could mark the beginning of the end of the rules-based free trade order and the system unraveling,” said Andre Sapir, senior fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. He called it a “big worry”. U.S. President Donald Trump, propelled to power by his election promise to put “America First” and protect U.S. workers against what he views as unfair trade practices from China and others, has weakened the WTO as a forum to settle disputes. In the past months, Washington has blocked the appointment of several WTO appeals judges, a move which could paralyze the body’s dispute settlement system for years to come. “The new U.S. administration does not want to work within multilateral frameworks. It wants bilateral deals,” Sapir said. As a critic, he says, “This would lead to a system in which the stronger ones outplay the smaller ones, it would be the law of the jungle.” This apparent change of course in Washington is puzzling for free trade advocates who argue that the United States for decades supported and benefited from multilateral decision-making and rules-based arbitration enshrined in the WTO statutes. THREAT TO GROWTH For them, Trump’s protectionist rhetoric is a threat to global growth and prosperity since tariffs and other trade barriers such as import restrictions, registration formalities or state aid for domestic suppliers push up costs for everyone. The slow dismantling of the international trade order could also hurt mid-term export prospects for European countries and Germany in particular at a time when the euro zone economy is benefiting from a surge in demand for its manufactured goods. A rebound in exports is one of the key drivers of Germany’s economic upswing as they still account for more than 40 percent of its gross domestic product. The United States is Germany’s most important single export destination after the bloc of European Union countries. FILE PHOTO: Container ships are seen at a loading terminal at the Elbe river in the harbour in Hamburg, Germany February 6, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo But the combat lines have also become blurry. In a sign that other countries share Trump’s concerns about Chinese trade practices, the European Union and Japan joined Washington in the past week in vowing to combat market-distorting policies that fuel excess industrial capacity, including subsidies for state-owned enterprises and technology transfer requirements. Following the fruitless WTO meeting, the U.S. tax overhaul could now be another nail in the coffin of free trade. The European Union and the finance ministers of Europe’s five biggest economies have sounded an alarm over elements of the plan. In a letter sent to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said that the inclusion of “certain less conventional” tax provisions would contravene WTO rules and violate double taxation treaties. In a separate letter, the European Commission warned Mnuchin the planned overhaul contained elements that risk seriously hampering trade and investment flows between the world’s two biggest economic blocs. Slideshow (2 Images) Some of the provisions would discriminate against foreign business in the United States, the Commission said, while the Federation of German Industries (BDI) - the biggest lobby group for manufacturers in Europe’s largest economy - was more blunt. “Clearly protectionist,” it said of some proposed excise taxes. What actually emerges from Washington remains unclear, but even if U.S. lawmakers decide to delete some of the disputed measures in their final bill, Trump is still wedded to a unilateral approach to trade that does not require consultations with Congress. So far, he has not fulfilled campaign threats such as withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or imposing steep import tariffs on imported goods such as German and Japanese cars manufactured abroad. But Trump has ordered the U.S. Commerce Department to conduct an investigation into whether steel imports threaten U.S. national security and whether broad import restrictions should be imposed. European allies have warned Trump that such a move could trigger a global trade war since trading partners could retaliate and impose trade barriers on certain U.S. goods that they label as a threat to their national security. Chad P. Bown, senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, said Trump’s approach may not end up targeting China, but will hit partners such as Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico and South Korea - most of which have little to do with the concerns the U.S. has with China. In a research note entitled “Trump Is A New Kind of Protectionist - He Operates in Stealth Mode”, Bown warned that Trump’s version of protectionism could result in higher costs for U.S. industries that use steel and aluminum. But for Trump the drive is a matter of “America First” whether the international trade order established after World War Two gets in the way or not. Reporting by Michael Nienaber; additional reporting by Gernot Heller and Tom Koerkemeier in Berlin and by David Morgan and Susan Cornwell in Washington Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy-outlook/world-trade-order-in-a-wobble-as-washington-snubs-wto-status-quo-idUKKBN1E91GY'|'2017-12-15T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'205d00e06b90bad4e593aeca83a7afbf6b436cf2'|'White House to host fresh biofuels talks to help refiners -sources'|'(Reuters) - The White House will host talks between the rival oil and ethanol industries on Wednesday in hopes of brokering a deal to help refiners struggling to meet the country’s biofuels policy, according to sources familiar with the matter.FILE PHOTO - Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks with reporters after the failure of the "skinny repeal" health care bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein The meeting comes after the White House last week pressured Midwest lawmakers to take part in talks over possible tweaks to the Renewable Fuels Standard, a law that requires refiners to blend increasing amounts of biofuels, mainly corn-based ethanol, into the nation’s fuel supply each year.A handful of refiners say the law is threatening to put them out of business. But ethanol interests have said the refineries can pass along the costs at the pumps and have vehemently opposed any changes to the regulation.The meeting on Wednesday will include staff from the offices of Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, both representing the oil-refining industry, according to the sources.On the corn side, staff will be present from the offices of Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, along with Deb Fischer of Nebraska, the sources said. Staff from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture were also expected to attend.A spokesman for Grassley confirmed that “staff-level dialogue and meetings” were under way but did not provide details. Officials for the other senators and the White House did not comment.One source familiar with the matter said the meeting would likely focus on short-term fixes to help oil refiners on the U.S. East Coast who say they are struggling with the costs of meeting the RFS requirements.FILE PHOTO - Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) speaks with reporters following the party luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein Refining companies - like Philadelphia Energy Solutions PESC.N and Monroe Energy, both of Pennsylvania, along with Texas giant Valero Energy Corp ( VLO.N ) - that do not have adequate facilities to blend biofuels into their products are required to purchase blending credits called RINs from rivals that do.RINs prices have surged this year.Slideshow (2 Images) The source said talks on Wednesday could center on solutions like a price cap for RINs or waivers to certain refiners that are at risk of going bankrupt without relief. The governors of both Texas and Pennsylvania have already formally requested such waivers from the administration.The industry has requested tweaks to the policy in the past that would cut the annual volume targets for biofuels, allow ethanol exports to be counted against those targets, or shift the blending burden to supply terminals from refiners. But the Trump administration has ruled in favor of Big Corn and against the refining industry in a series of decisions this year.Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency, the regulator which administers the RFS, slightly increased biofuels volumes targets for 2018.The refining industry has also been seeking a longer-term overhaul of the RFS before it expires in 2022, but such a change would require an act of Congress and has met with stiff resistance from the corn lobby.The RFS was introduced more than a decade ago by President George W. Bush as a way to boost U.S. agriculture, slash energy imports and cut emissions, and it has since fostered a market for ethanol amounting to 15 billion gallons a year.Reporting by Richard Valdmanis and Jarrett Renshaw; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biofuels-talks/white-house-to-host-fresh-biofuels-talks-to-help-refiners-sources-idUSKBN1E62L5'|'2017-12-12T20:31:00.000+02:00'
'1b7f8462e8851eb5626ca32141ff00f4b4f010bd'|'Zurich Insurance to buy ANZ''s life insurance businesses for 2.85 billion Australian dollars'|'December 11, 2017 / 7:19 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Zurich Insurance to buy ANZ''s life insurance businesses for $2.14 billion John Revill 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Zurich Insurance ( ZURN.S ) has agreed to buy ANZ’s ( ANZ.AX ) OnePath Life insurance businesses for 2.85 billion Australian dollars ($2.14 billion), the latest and largest foray by the Swiss company into the Australian market. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Swiss company Zurich insurance is seen at an office building in Zurich''s Oerlikon suburb, Switzerland August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann The deal, announced on Monday, is the third purchase by Zurich in Australia over the last two years as the insurer doubles down on a region where a robust economy and low insurance penetration rates have proved attractive. Zurich has focused on the Asia Pacific as a major growth driver in its life insurance business, previously picking up Macquaries’ ( MQG.AX ) retail life insurance business for US$300 million in 2016 and the Cover-More Group for US$554 million in April this year. The ANZ deal - Zurich’s biggest since 2011 - would be immediately accretive to the Swiss company’s earnings, and would increase return on equity and shareholder returns, the company said. It would increase cash flows by around $225 million over the 2017-2019 planning period, Europe’s fifth largest insurer added. ANZ said the outcome of the sale of the OnePath life insurance and pension businesses would be an accounting loss of about A$640 million. Zurich Chief Executive Mario Greco said in a statement: “The existing portfolio provides a highly cash-generative business that will add to our cash remittances, increase our business operating profit after tax return on equity target by 50 basis points and support dividend growth beyond that implied by our existing plan,” As part of its 2017-2019 targets, Zurich has promised to pay shareholders 75 percent of its net profit. With the ANZ deal expected to be completed by the end of 2018, the full benefit of the acquisition will become apparent in the 2019 dividend. Following the deal, Zurich will have around 19 percent of the Australia retail life insurance market, making it the biggest provider in the market, it said. CEO Greco also highlighted how the purchase would build up Zurich’s distribution of insurance products through ANZ’s branches and digital distribution channels. As part of the deal, Zurich would get access to ANZ’s 6 million customers through a 20 year distribution agreement to sell life insurance. Zurich said it said it would fund the deal from its own cash pile and through senior debt. On a pro-forma basis, the operations to be acquired reported net earned premiums for the 12 months ended September 30, 2017 of US$1.1 billion and a net profit after tax of US$142 million. The deal is the largest since Greco took over at Zurich last year. The executive brought in from Generali ( GASI.MI ) to engineer a turnaround for the troubled group has promised to make Zurich leaner and more efficient. For ANZ, the deal marks the realisation of plans to offload its Australian insurance and wealth division, flagged over a year ago. In October, ANZ sold its pension business to Australian pension management business IOOF Holdings ( IFL.AX ) for A$975 million. “ This transaction (with Zurich) will complete the simplification of ANZ’s Australian wealth business , however we will continue to work hard to minimise any disruption to our customers during the transition,” ANZ Group Executive Wealth Australia Alexis George said in a statement. ANZ said there would be no changes to any current insurance policies as a result of the sale. Reporting by John Revill; additional reporting by Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-zurich-ins-group-anz-bank-onepath/zurich-insurance-to-buy-anzs-life-insurance-businesses-for-2-14-billion-idUKKBN1E52G2'|'2017-12-11T23:34:00.000+02:00'
'42bac6967e1ebdaafefa3918fb8fed71c8bd1bfd'|'METALS-Zinc up after Glencore holds 2018 output forecast steady'|'* LME/ShFE arb: bit.ly/2wZSAEz (Adds closing prices) By Maytaal Angel LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Zinc prices rose on Tuesday after miner and trader Glencore held its output forecast steady for next year, disappointing investors who had largely bet it would restart more capacity. Glencore told an investors presentation it would restart its Lady Loretta mine in the first half of 2018, but added that it expects zinc output to fall slightly to about 1.09 million tonnes from 1.1 million tonnes this year. In 2019, Glencore sees its zinc output creeping up to 1.16 million tonnes. "Based on their guidance numbers it does remain fairly constructive for zinc. The market was expecting more of an immediate supply increase," said ING commodities strategist Warren Patterson. However, he added that ING expects overall global zinc supply to increase next year, with the addition of capacity coming online in Australia and South Africa. * ZINC: London Metal Exchange zinc ended up 1 percent at $3,157 a tonne. * LEAD: Seasonally strong demand from battery makers, tight supplies caused by mine shutdowns and dwindling LME inventories are expected to sustain lead prices, which recently hit six-year highs. Lead , which is mined alongside zinc, closed up 1.2 percent at $2,517. * DOLLAR: The U.S. currency rose to three-week highs against a basket of currencies as the Federal Reserve begins a two-day policy meeting widely expected to result in a hike in interest rates. A strong U.S. currency makes dollar-priced priced metals costlier for non-U.S. investors. * GLENCORE COPPER: Glencore said its expects to produce 150,000 tonnes of copper next year and 300,000 tonnes in 2019 at its Katanga mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mine has restarted after a suspension dating back to 2015. * CHINA ECONOMY: Vehicle and loans data from China, which accounts for about half of global consumption of industrial metals, on Monday pointed to improved consumer confidence. "There is as yet little evidence of the government’s deleveraging attempts given that lending has also risen sharply since the beginning of the year," Commerzbank said in a note. * CHINA ALUMINIUM: "Barring a stronger enforcement of the (aluminium) capacity cuts in China, we believe the aluminium market should remain oversupplied. Hence, we stick to our cautious view while reiterating our three and twelve-month price targets at $1,950 and $1,850 per tonne," Julius Baer said in a note. * METALS PRICES: Aluminium closed down 0.3 percent at $2,016 a tonne, copper ended down 0.1 percent at $6,663, nickel closed down 1.6 percent at $11,065 and tin closed down 1.2 percent at $19,165. (Addititonal reporting by James Regan; Editing by Jane Merriman and David Goodman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-zinc-up-after-glencore-holds-2018-output-forecast-steady-idINL8N1OC2PJ'|'2017-12-12T12:17:00.000+02:00'
'f8cd7f20934d54ea30897438e52baee84f06e970'|'Italy puts on hold sales of stakes in ENI, ENAV -sources'|'ROME, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Italy has suspended a plan to sell stakes in two businesses it controls to holding company Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) after European authorities questioned whether it should be shifting assets to a state-controlled entity, sources said on Monday.Last month, the Treasury started the process of offloading shares in air traffic controller ENAV and energy group ENI as part of a programme of privatisations intended to cut the euro zone’s second-highest public debt proportionate to output.But European statistics agency Eurostat has raised doubts about such a transaction, Italian government sources said, because CDP is publicly owned, although its assets are not considered part of the public accounts.Eurostat and the Treasury have been in contact on the matter informally, and the Bank of Italy has produced a written opinion suggesting the regulator may not accept that the deal cleans up public finances, the sources said.More worryingly for Rome, Eurostat could decide to count all of CDP’s liabilities when calculating Italy’s public debt, which already stands at 131.6 percent of gross domestic product.Under the privatisation plan, the Treasury had hoped to raise up to 3 billion euros ($3.54 billion) by selling 50.37 percent of ENAV and most of its 4.34 percent holding in ENI.Eurostat has already expressed concern about the established practice whereby the Treasury sells state assets to CDP, in which it holds 83 percent.Since 2012, CDP has bought thousands of millions of euros worth of state-owned real estate, foreign investment insurance firm Sace, holding company Fintecna and service provider Simest.$1 = 0.8478 euros Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Massimiliano Di Giorgio; Additional reporting by Stefano Bernabei and Francesco Guarascio; Writing by Isla Binnie; Editing by Catherine Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/italy-privatisation-eni/italy-puts-on-hold-sales-of-stakes-in-eni-enav-sources-idINL8N1OB245'|'2017-12-11T09:50:00.000+02:00'
'5c77a8d0dd76b196e00512ee551f2f4aec504c9c'|'Hong Kong activist fund tells Toshiba chip unit sale to Bain group not necessary'|'TOKYO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A Hong Kong-based activist investor in Toshiba Corp has told the embattled conglomerate that the $18 billion sale of its chip unit sale to a Bain Capital-led group is no longer necessary after its recent capital injection, according to a letter seen by Reuters.Argyle Street Management Ltd, a hedge fund with $1.2 billion under management, sent the letter to Toshiba’s board late on Monday, the fund’s chief investment officer, Kin Chan, told Reuters. The fund declined to say how many Toshiba shares it owns.The first activist shareholder to openly voice opposition to the sale, Argyle is inviting the 30-plus overseas investors who participated in Toshiba’s recent 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion)new share issue to team up and is already in talks with at least three funds who share the same view, Chan said.Toshiba agreed to sell Toshiba Memory - the world’s no. 2 producer of NAND chips - to the Bain consortium to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse.In order to ensure its listing status, however, Toshiba also secured a $5.4 billion cash injection from overseas funds this month, which with tax write-offs gives it sufficient funds to maintain its listing status.Argyle said it believes “there no longer is any urgency to undertake a sale of Toshiba Memory,” it said in a draft of the letter which was seen by Reuters. The letter proposed a meeting with Toshiba’s board in either December or January.The $18 billion price tag for the chip unit “significantly undervalues the business,” the letter said, adding that the board should consider instead an IPO for Toshiba Memory. ($1 = 113.4400 yen) (Reporting by Taro Fuse and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/toshiba-chips/hong-kong-activist-fund-tells-toshiba-chip-unit-sale-to-bain-group-not-necessary-idUSL3N1OB1ZQ'|'2017-12-11T17:46:00.000+02:00'
'562a0e82345ffa4ebc494c9c43994d3508a19291'|'European finance ministers call for U.S. tax reform rethink'|'December 11, 2017 / 1:56 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago European finance ministers call for U.S. tax reform rethink Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The finance ministers of Europe’s five largest economies called in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for the U.S. to rethink tax reform proposals that they said were discriminatory and could harm the financial sector and international trade. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville In the letter, seen by Reuters, the finance ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said a proposed excise tax would contravene World Trade Organisation rules and violate double taxation treaties and could hamper trade and investment flows between Europe and the U.S. They also warned that a proposed “base erosion and anti-abuse tax” may target genuine commercial arrangements involving payments to foreign companies, harming international banking and insurance businesses and discouraging non-U.S. financial institutions from operating in the U.S. “The inclusion of certain less conventional international tax provisions could contravene the U.S.’s double taxation treaties and may risk having a major distortive impact on international trade,” the ministers wrote. Reporting by Tom Koerkemeier; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax-europe-letter/european-finance-ministers-call-for-u-s-tax-reform-rethink-idUKKBN1E51JZ'|'2017-12-11T15:54:00.000+02:00'
'837b85c9283b7448d2e6f6ff9bd8edf11b7e5308'|'CSX says CEO Hunter Harrison on medical leave'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:17 AM / Updated an hour ago CSX says CEO Hunter Harrison on medical leave Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 14 (Reuters) - Rail operator CSX Corp said on Thursday its Chief Executive Officer and President Hunter Harrison, was on medical leave due to unexpected complications from a recent illness. The company, which is the No. 3 U.S. railroad operator, named Chief Operating Officer James Foote as acting CEO. (Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/csx-ceo/csx-says-ceo-hunter-harrison-on-medical-leave-idUSL1N1OF03B'|'2017-12-15T03:16:00.000+02:00'
'c83c9b47bc3eda915665081aa2b432caf3a9df39'|'GRAPHIC-Wall St rally sets the stage for big IPO year in 2018'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:03 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago GRAPHIC-Wall St rally sets the stage for big IPO year in 2018 Sweta Singh , Ankur Banerjee 3 Min Read Dec 15 (Reuters) - A relentless bull-run in U.S. stock indexes this year has set the stage for a strong IPO market in 2018, with several multi-billion dollar firms including Airbnb and Spotify widely expected to grab headlines with their offerings. The S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq are all set to cap the year with their biggest annual gains since 2013. Riding the rally, the U.S. IPO market also recovered in the second half of 2017, after being spooked by a slump in shares of Snapchat owner Snap Inc and meal-kit delivery company Blue Apron following their debut earlier in the year. “With the market at all-time highs valuations are at the high-end, presenting a favorable backdrop for IPOs,” said Nelson Griggs, president, Nasdaq Stock Exchange. “Interest rates are still around historical lows so there is likely a sense of urgency for companies to take advantage of the window.” While several “unicorns”, or companies valued at more than $1 billion, are likely to list in 2018, it will be the small- and mid-sized firms and listings by foreign companies that will fuel the market, experts say. According to consultancy firm CB Insights, 14 unicorns went public globally this year, compared with eight in 2016 and 10 in 2015. Most of them made their debut in the United States. Apart from Airbnb and Spotify, file-sharing service Dropbox and ride-hailing company Lyft are among the notable companies expected to go public in 2018. The chances of a 2018 listing by Uber Technologies remains slim, given the corporate governance challenge it continues to face. An IPO by the ride hailing company, valued at more than $60 billion, has been eagerly awaited by investors for years. “We’ll continue to see unicorns trickle out (in 2018), not a unicorn boom year, but a steady stream,” Ernst & Young Americas IPO Markets Leader Jackie Kelley said. This year is set to end with 159 companies going public and raising about $38 billion. This compares with 277 companies and about $93 billion raised in 2014, the best year since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, according to Reuters data. United States will continue to be an attractive destination for foreign companies looking to tap the public markets next year. About a quarter of listings on U.S. exchanges in 2017 were by overseas firms, led by China. “There is a strong foundation going into the next year and significant amount of interest. The pipeline is pretty robust,” Kelley said. For a factbox on possible unicorn IPOs in 2018, click: Reporting by Sweta Singh and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-ipo/graphic-wall-st-rally-sets-the-stage-for-big-ipo-year-in-2018-idUSL3N1O74N8'|'2017-12-15T20:02:00.000+02:00'
'bf674c68967034c18d580da148e62e9195a48e3a'|'Japan''s big manufacturers'' mood hits 11-year high - tankan'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:00 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Big Japanese manufacturers'' mood hits 11-year high - tankan Leika Kihara , Tetsushi Kajimoto 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese business confidence improved for a fifth straight quarter in the three months to December to hit an 11-year high, a central bank survey showed, a sign the economy is gathering momentum from robust exports and booming corporate profits. FILE PHOTO: A man produces machine parts inside a factory in Tokyo August 12, 2013. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo But big manufacturers and non-manufacturers expect business conditions to worsen in the next three months, highlighting their reluctance to embrace the improved operating environment via increases in wages and investment. Nudging cash-rich firms into spending more on wages has been a priority for premier Shinzo Abe’s efforts to vanquish the deflation that has plagued Japan for nearly two decades. As part of those efforts, Abe’s ruling coalition approved a plan on Thursday to slash the corporate tax rate - but only for companies that increase spending - a move that could brighten business sentiment in coming months. The closely watched “tankan” survey also showed capacity constraints and staff shortages were increasing price pressures, which would help the Bank of Japan achieve its elusive 2 percent target but could squeeze corporate margins ahead. Still, many analysts doubt wages will rise much and therefore expect any interest rate hikes to be some time away. “The tankan results support the BOJ’s bullish economic view backed by global economic recovery,” said Hidenobu Tokuda, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute. “But prices remain weak and far below the BOJ’s price target. There’s no way it can move to tighten policy anytime soon,” he said. The headline index for big manufacturers’ sentiment stood at plus 25 in December, the tankan showed on Friday, up from plus 22 in September and slightly higher than a median market forecast for plus 24. It matched the high reached in December 2006, when a booming economy allowed the BOJ to end a previous spell of quantitative easing and zero interest rates. An index measuring big non-manufacturers’ sentiment was unchanged from September at plus 23, matching forecasts. Big firms expect to increase capital expenditure for the current fiscal year to March 2018 by 7.4 percent, roughly in line with forecasts, the tankan showed. PRICE PRESSURE BUILDING The tankan showed that conditions for price and wage gains were gradually falling into place. An index measuring employment conditions showed firms were faced with the most severe staff shortages since 1992, while their capacity to meet demand was at its tightest since 1991. An index gauging output prices hit a nine-year high for big manufacturers, a sign that more large companies were in a position to raise prices - reflecting strong demand. But analysts doubt whether the outlook for consumer prices will change much. “Even looking at these figures, it doesn’t provide enough energy for the BOJ to change its policy, such as, for example, changing its yield curve target or negative rates,” said Hiroaki Muto, an economist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center. The tankan will be among key data the BOJ will scrutinise at its next rate review on Dec. 20-21. Japan’s economy expanded an annualised 2.5 percent in the July-September period to mark a seventh straight quarter of expansion, supporting the central bank’s recent signals that it could move away from crisis-era monetary policy. But many analysts expect core consumer inflation, now at 0.8 percent, to slow next year unless firms pay heed to Abe’s calls to hike wages by 3 percent. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-tankan/japans-big-manufacturers-mood-hits-11-year-high-tankan-idUKKBN1E9037'|'2017-12-15T02:59:00.000+02:00'
'c144d173d07b27c3495881ad822e5f769af1d4ce'|'Russian court finds ex-minister Ulyukayev guilty of taking a bribe - judge'|'December 15, 2017 / 8:48 AM / Updated 41 minutes ago Russian court finds ex-minister Ulyukayev guilty of taking a bribe - judge Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A Russian court on Friday found ex-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev guilty of taking a bribe. The court established that Ulyukayev had personally taken a bribe from Igor Sechin, the chief executive officer of oil giant Rosneft, a judge said. (Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-ulyukayev-verdict/russian-court-finds-ex-minister-ulyukayev-guilty-of-taking-a-bribe-judge-idUSR4N1OD00K'|'2017-12-15T10:45:00.000+02:00'
'75f2bd97e66c42bfb9066bdb104b9dd217b54a70'|'Black Friday lifts UK retail sales despite income squeeze - Business - The Guardian'|'Black Friday discounts encouraged British consumers to increase their spending on the high street and online in November, despite the most protracted squeeze on household income in memory.Officials at the Office for National Statistics said the American-inspired promotional event had helped drive a 1.1% increase in the number of goods bought last month compared with October, with sales of electrical household appliances making the biggest contribution to growth. City economists had forecast growth of 0.4%. The figures suggest consumers are willing to keep spending despite the sharpest rise in inflation for almost six years , driven by the higher cost of importing goods to the UK as a consequence of the pound’s weakness since the Brexit vote.Households are also coming under pressure from weak wage growth, despite record levels of unemployment in the UK and falling net migration , which should be acting to drive up the bargaining power of British workers to demand higher wages as firms face labour shortages. According to the Resolution Foundation thinktank, average annual pay when taking account of inflation may not return to its pre-financial crisis peak until at least 2025.Economists have previously that warned stronger spending growth may be coming at the expense of household savings as a result of rising prices and weaker earnings growth. Households also run the risk of borrowing more to keep up with the rise in the cost of living. Still, the sales figures are encouraging for the health of the economy, providing a shot in the arm for retailers hit by higher inflation driving up their costs and potentially discouraging shoppers. Economists said the sales increase would help boost GDP growth in the final three months of the year. The Bank of England is likely to take comfort from the unexpected stronger growth in consumption, after raising interest rates for the first time in a decade last month to curb rising inflation. The Bank argued the growth potential of the economy before prices began to spiral had fallen since the Brexit vote. Threadneedle Street left interest rates on hold on Thursday after the first meeting of its monetary policy committee since November’s rate hike – in line with expectations from City economists. However, the Bank said it still saw the need for “further modest increases” over the next few years to get inflation down to its target rate of 2%. The consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation rose to 3.1% in November , the highest level in almost six years, forcing Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, to write a letter to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, to explain why inflation was more than one percentage point higher than the official target. Non-food sales rose 1.5% in November from the previous month, while household goods sales – which includes electrical appliances in hot demand over Black Friday – were up 2.9%. There was a 1.4% rise in sales of textiles, clothing and footwear, while food sales increased by 0.6%.The monthly sales figures also show the increasing importance of online shopping in the UK, with an increase in average weekly spending of 10.2% compared with a year ago. Internet sales account for 17% of the retail sector, excluding automotive fuel, compared with 16.1% a year ago.There are, however, warnings that the Black Friday lift could be short-lived because the sales encourage consumers to finish their Christmas shopping earlier in the year, which could lead to weaker sales in the traditional boom month of December. The British Retail Consortium warned there was a general downward trend for the growth in the quantity of goods sold – compared with their monetary value – in 2017, cautioning that Christmas and the new year were likely to be a testing time for the high street.Ruth Gregory, a UK economist at the consultancy Capital Economics , said: “Black Friday discounting has generally led consumers to do their Christmas shopping earlier than usual, rather than making many additional purchases. So some weakening in December seems likely.”Topics Black Friday Retail industry Consumer spending Economic growth (GDP) Economics news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/retail/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/14/black-friday-retail-sales-uk-income-squeeze'|'2017-12-14T19:18:00.000+02:00'
'70594099590da2b785220df4450f53838022a85f'|'Ontario to introduce rebates to boost electric truck demand'|'December 14, 2017 / 4:01 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Ontario to introduce rebates to boost electric truck demand Allison Lampert 3 Min Read MONTREAL, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Canada’s biggest province, Ontario, will introduce a new rebate program worth up to C$75,000 for buyers of electric trucks, in a move that could boost domestic purchases of models by Tesla Inc and rivals like China’s BYD, a government spokesman said ahead of a Thursday announcement. The program will offer buyers rebates of up to 60 percent of the incremental purchase cost of an electric truck, compared with an equivalent diesel vehicle, up to a cap of C$75,000 per vehicle, according to documents seen by Reuters. Ontario’s new Green Commercial Vehicle Program, which also gives rebates on other fuel-saving devices, helps brings the province in line with other jurisdictions like Quebec, California and New York states, which offer incentives to defray the higher costs of electric trucks. Canadian firms, including retailer Loblaw Cos Ltd, have been among the first to pre-order Semi trucks from Tesla, which has at least 285 reservations in hand, according to a Reuters tally as of Dec. 12. Tesla has been trying to convince the trucking community that it can build an affordable electric big rig with the range and cargo capacity to compete with relatively low-cost, time-tested diesel trucks. The rebate program comes as Ontario is working to attract electric vehicle manufacturers and parts-suppliers. The automaking province has lost ground in recent years to lower-cost jurisdictions like Mexico and the southern United States. The rebates are being offered through a C$12 million fund, for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2018. The government used an existing incentive program to help attract BYD, which recently announced it will open an Ontario factory to assembly 900 electric vehicles over the next five years, Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid said by email. BYD could not be reached for comment. Ontario has set the target of cutting greenhouse gas pollution to 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, 37 percent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050 and the use of electric vehicles is expected to help reach that goal. ($1 = 1.2856 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Allison Lampert; Editing by Frances Kerry)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-electrictruck/ontario-to-introduce-rebates-to-boost-electric-truck-demand-idUSL1N1OC2I3'|'2017-12-14T18:00:00.000+02:00'
'16b7324deb94d465471b1dd07149f99f4004bb5a'|'Siemens CEO sees group as ''fleet of ships'' - Manager Magazin'|'Reuters TV United States December 14, 2017 / 11:38 AM / a few seconds ago Siemens CEO sees group as ''fleet of ships'': Manager Magazin Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - Siemens’ ( SIEGn.DE ) chief executive sees the German group as a “fleet of ships”, each thriving under its own steam, but rejects the idea of separate listings for its core factory-automation and energy businesses, he told Manager Magazin. Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser attends the company''s annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder Joe Kaeser has carved out or divested several of the industrial group’s businesses since becoming CEO in 2013, sparking speculation of a break-up of the group with Siemens effectively becoming a holding company. “We are not breaking anything up, we are building new companies,” Kaeser said in the interview published on Thursday, likening Siemens to a fleet of ships and reiterating his view that old-style conglomerates have no future. But he added: “Speculation that we will float first Digital Factory and then Energy Management, or even sell Building Technologies, are nonsense.” The most radical step so far is set to take place in the first half of next year, with the flotation of healthcare unit Healthineers, which is expected to value the business at around 40 billion euros ($47 billion). The move is designed to enable the business to raise its own funds for acquisitions and investments in the fast-changing healthcare sector as well as crystallizing its standalone market value, removing some of the “conglomerate discount” that weighs on Siemens’ valuation. In the past year, Siemens has merged its wind-power business with Spain’s Gamesa in a joint venture ( SGREN.MC ) and agreed to create another joint venture with France’s Alstom ( ALSO.PA ) for its transportation operations. Together with Healthineers, these businesses generate more than a third of Siemens’ sales. Siemens shares have are broadly flat this year to date, underperforming the Stoxx European capital goods index .SXNP. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-structure/siemens-ceo-sees-group-as-fleet-of-ships-manager-magazin-idUKKBN1E81DX'|'2017-12-14T13:23:00.000+02:00'
'c474d87e2348b0163155babe5f5dc5a41f582b58'|'Steinhoff says Christo Wiese steps down as chairman'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:56 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Wiese resigns as Steinhoff chairman in wake of accounting scandal Emma Thomasson , Tiisetso Motsoeneng 4 Min Read BERLIN/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African tycoon Christo Wiese resigned on Thursday as chairman of Steinhoff ( SNHG.DE ), the latest setback for the retail group in the throes of an accounting scandal. FILE PHOTO - Christo Wiese, whose companies include Steinhoff International, speaks as Shoprite reported it''s results in Cape Town, South Africa, February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings Once a must-have for investors who backed its reinvention from small furniture outfit into a retail empire, Steinhoff has seen its shares crash more than 80 percent since last week when it ordered an investigation into its accounts and parted ways with long-serving chief executive Markus Jooste. Steinhoff said Wiese, its top shareholder and chairman who stood in as chief executive last week, had offered to step down to reinforce independent governance and address any possible conflict of interest. Wiese has been chairman since last year and a board member since 2013. He owns about 22 percent of the company, the stake he built in 2014 when he sold his clothing retailer Pepkor to Steinhoff via a combination of cash and shares. Steinhoff named Heather Sonn, a member of the supervisory board and its independent sub-committee, as acting chairperson, and said Wiese’s son Jacob had also resigned from the board. The accounting scandal has tarnished the 76-year-old’s credentials as one of South Africa’s most respected stewards of shareholder capital. It has also reduced his stake in Steinhoff: the company said on Thursday that banks have sold 98.4 million shares they used as security to lend Wiese 1.6 billion euros ($1.89 billion) to fund the purchase of additional shares in Steinhoff in September 2016. Wiese started budget clothing retailer Pepkor in the 1960s, in Upington on the southern edges of the Kalahari desert, but is best known for transforming grocery retailer Shoprite ( SHPJ.J ) from just six shops in the 1970s to hundreds of stores across Africa. He was also instrumental in reinventing Steinhoff, turning it from a modest distributor of furniture made in communist era eastern Europe to a global household goods retailer, vying for market share with the likes of IKEA. But he suffered a setback this year when Steinhoff and Shoprite, in which Wiese owns a 20 percent stake, called off a deal in February to merge to create an African shopping giant, preventing Wiese from bringing more of his retail assets under one roof. His resignation comes a day after Steinhoff’s second largest shareholder Public Investment Corporation expressed discomfort about possible conflict of interest in having Wiese as interim chief executive. Steinhoff, which moved its primary share listing from Johannesburg to Frankfurt two years ago, has been under investigation for suspected accounting fraud in Germany since 2015. Four current and former managers are under suspicion of having overstated revenues at subsidiaries, prosecutors said. Steinhoff has previously said that the investigation related to whether revenues were booked properly, and whether taxable profits were correctly declared. Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-steinhoff-intlnl-chairman/steinhoff-says-christo-wiese-steps-down-as-chairman-idUSKBN1E82SH'|'2017-12-14T20:54:00.000+02:00'
'374f4642e450cb38e67824eb358d1a6aed7ccfcd'|'Bullish bets on most emerging Asian currencies drop - Reuters poll'|'December 14, 2017 / 4:36 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Bullish bets on most emerging Asian currencies drop - Reuters poll Christina Martin 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Investors cut their long positions on most emerging Asian currencies in the last two weeks, a Reuters poll showed, with bullish bets on the Indian rupee hitting the lowest since January as bonds dropped to a 16-month low. FILE PHOTO: A China yuan note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo India’s benchmark 10-year bond fell on fears that the central bank could raise interest rates earlier than expected after data showed annual inflation spiked to a 15-month high in November, way above expectations. Investors reduced their bullish bets on most emerging Asian currencies as the dollar rallied over the last two weeks before of the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting. Long positions on the Chinese yuan and the Singapore dollar reached their lowest in a month. Investors maintained their positions on the Indonesian rupiah, but turned more bearish on the Philippine peso, according to the poll of 11 analysts, traders and fund managers. Sentiment towards the Korean won, the Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht weakened slightly. The poll was conducted between Tuesday and Wednesday, with the bulk of the responses coming in before the conclusion of the U.S. central bank’s two-day policy meeting. The Fed raised interest rates for the third time this year on Wednesday and stuck to its projection for three rate hikes in 2018, as policymakers forecasted a short-term jump in the country’s economic growth from the government’s proposed tax cuts. The U.S. Treasury yields dropped and the dollar inched down against a basket of currencies after the release of the policy statement. The Asian currency positioning poll is focused on what analysts and fund managers believe are the current market positions in nine Asian emerging market currencies: the Chinese yuan, South Korean won, Singapore dollar, Indonesian rupiah, Taiwan dollar, Indian rupee, Philippine peso, Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht. The poll uses estimates of net long or short positions on a scale of minus 3 to plus 3. A score of plus 3 indicates the market is significantly long U.S. dollars. The figures include positions held through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs). The next poll will be conducted in January. Reporting by Christina Martin in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Aditya Soni and Chris Thomas; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-asia-forex-emerging/bullish-bets-on-most-emerging-asian-currencies-drop-reuters-poll-idUKKBN1E80EN'|'2017-12-14T06:35:00.000+02:00'
'e437c23345935576a29c31b01bd692630b434efa'|'U.S. retail sales surge; weekly jobless claims fall'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:03 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago U.S. retail sales surge; weekly jobless claims fall Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in November as the holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start, pointing to sustained strength in the economy that could pave the way for further Federal Reserve interest rate hikes next year. A woman shops at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan in New York City, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The economic outlook was also bolstered by other data on Thursday that showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropping to near a 44-1/2-year low last week. The Fed offered a rosy assessment of the economy in its latest policy statement on Wednesday, describing activity as “rising at a solid rate.” The U.S. central bank raised borrowing costs for a third time this year and forecast three rate increases for 2018. The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.8 percent last month, with households buying a range of goods even as they cut back on purchases of motor vehicles. Data for October was revised to show sales gaining 0.5 percent instead of the previously reported 0.2 percent increase. Retail sales accelerated 5.8 percent on an annual basis. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales increasing only 0.3 percent in November. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies after the release of the data, while prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. U.S. stocks were trading higher. Last month, sales at gardening and building material stores jumped 1.2 percent after slipping 0.1 percent in October. That helped to offset a 0.2 percent drop in receipts at auto dealerships. Retail sales were also lifted by a 2.8 percent gain in sales at service stations, which reflected higher gasoline prices. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales jumped 0.8 percent last month after climbing 0.4 percent in October. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product. STRONG CONSUMER SPENDING Last month’s increase in core retail sales suggested a strong pace of consumer spending in the fourth quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is being supported by steady wage gains as the labour market tightens. In a separate report, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 225,000 for the week ended Dec. 9. That was the lowest reading since mid-October when claims dropped to 223,000, a level not seen since March 1973. Last week marked the 145th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labour market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labour market was smaller. Fed Chair Janet Yellen told reporters on Wednesday that the central bank expected the “labor market to remain strong, with sustained job creation, ample opportunities for workers, and rising wages.” The economy added 228,000 jobs in November. Consumer spending increased at a 2.3 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, contributing to the economy’s 3.3 percent growth pace during that period. Spending could get a lift from the Trump administration’s plan to lower income taxes. But with the bulk of the tax relief expected to go to high-income households, economists caution that the boost might be limited. Last month, sales at electronics and appliance stores increased 2.1 percent. Receipts at clothing stores rose 0.7 percent in November. Retailers, including Macy’s Inc, reported strong sales for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the holiday retail season. Sales at online retailers soared 2.5 percent last month. Receipts at restaurants and bars gained 0.7 percent and sales at sporting goods and hobby stores shot up 0.9 percent. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-retail-sales-surge-weekly-jobless-claims-fall-idUKKBN1E826H'|'2017-12-14T17:02:00.000+02:00'
'0efd139403966916a0bcf1dda8101a846cc3f8e6'|'WTO meeting ends in stalemate after U.S. rebukes, member vetoes'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:18 PM / Updated 3 hours ago WTO meeting ends in stalemate after U.S. rebukes, member vetoes Luc Cohen 4 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization’s biennial meeting ended in stalemate on Wednesday after U.S. criticism and member country vetoes, raising questions about the body’s ability to govern increasingly disputed global trade. FILE PHOTO - European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom speaks next to China''s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen (2nd L), Argentina''s Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie (L) and Japan''s Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Tadao Yanase during the Business Forum at the 11th World Trade Organization''s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci Ministers gathered in Buenos Aires were never expected to agree on major trade reforms, but even relatively minor proposals on e-commerce and fishing subsidy curbs ran aground. “We have not achieved any multilateral outcomes,” European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told a news conference. “The sad reality is that we did not even agree to stop subsidizing illegal fishing.” She said the meeting laid bare the deficiencies of the WTO negotiating system, which requires unanimity among all 164 member countries. She said the United States was partly to blame, but other countries also held up progress. “Procedural excuses and vetoes from one member or another, cynical hostage taking, have led to the sobering result of today,” Malmstrom added. WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo added that WTO members needed to do some “real soul searching” about the way forward and realize they cannot get everything they want. Absent any agreements, trade ministers focused on the WTO’s post-conference work programs, such as efforts to improve market efficiency and curb excess industrial capacity, WTO spokesman Ken Rockwell told reporters. Some 70 member countries, including the United States, European Union, Japan and Brazil pledged to forge ahead with an effort to negotiate rules on electronic commerce after a broader deal among the full membership failed. Absent from the group were China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer set an acrimonious tone at the start of the conference with sharp criticisms of the WTO. The 23-year-old trade body requires unanimity among all 164 WTO member countries to reach any agreement. Two people pose for a photo outside the headquarters of the 11th World Trade Organization''s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci Lighthizer told WTO ministers on Monday that it was impossible to negotiate new rules while many of the current rules were not being followed, and that the WTO was losing its focus and becoming too litigation-focused. Even the perfunctory joint ministerial statement looked in doubt at the conference, known as MC11. AMERICA FIRST Slideshow (3 Images) Driven by President Donald Trump’s “America First” strategy and a preference for bilateral deals, the United States had already blocked ambassadors from drafting a ministerial text in Geneva that included references to the centrality of the global trading system and to trade as a driver of development. USTR spokeswoman Emily Davis denied that the United States was the problem in the lack of negotiated outcomes, saying the Obama administration had raised similar WTO grievances. “The United States has remained engaged throughout MC11 to achieve progress where possible,” Davis said in an emailed statement, adding that Lighthizer made “honest remarks on issues the United States has been raising for years.” Lighthizer left Buenos Aires for Washington on Tuesday night, missing the final day of the conference. The failure to reach any major deals meant that negotiations on the same topics will continue into 2018, with no deadline and no heavyweight ministerial momentum to get agreement. But on Tuesday, the European Union and Japan joined the United States in vowing to combat market-distorting policies, such as those pervasive in China that have fueled excess industrial capacity, including subsidies for state-owned enterprises and technology transfer requirements. An EU source familiar with negotiations over the statement said it was instigated by Japan, partly as a means to coax Washington into working multilaterally to solve such problems rather than resorting to unilateral trade restrictions. Additional reporting by David Lawder; Writing by David Lawders and David Lawder; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-trade-wto/wto-struggles-to-hone-global-trade-vision-after-u-s-turnabout-idUKKBN1E71IJ'|'2017-12-14T00:53:00.000+02:00'
'697b8d554ad62d7cc8bf62d7b2315a494d0a2c8b'|'ECB lowers emergency funding cap for Greek banks to 24.8 billion euros'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:19 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago ECB lowers emergency funding cap for Greek banks to 24.8 billion euros Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has lowered the ceiling on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) Greek banks draw from the domestic central bank by 1.0 billion euros to 24.8 billion euros ($29.33 billion), the Bank of Greece said on Thursday. The European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The move reflected improved liquidity conditions, taking into account private sector deposit flows and banks’ access to financial markets, it said. The ELA ceiling is valid up to Jan. 9 2018 inclusive. Greek banks have relied on emergency liquidity assistance(ELA) since February 2015 after being cut off from the ECB’s funding window. Emergency funding is more costly than borrowing directly from the ECB. In June last year the ECB reinstated Greek banks’ access to its cheap funding operations, allowing lenders to reduce their dependence on the emergency liquidity lifeline. ELA funding to Greek lenders dropped by 2.9 billion euros, or 12.7 percent, to 19.85 billion euros in November compared to the previous month. Reporting By Michele Kambas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-greece-banks-funding/ecb-lowers-emergency-funding-cap-for-greek-banks-to-24-8-billion-euros-idUKKBN1E81T6'|'2017-12-14T15:15:00.000+02:00'
'70fa821e285dbe2d03ef98f0749a045517c6c605'|'BRIEF-Chesapeake Utilities Says Unit Filed With FERC Uncontested Settlement Agreement'|' 30 PM / in 27 minutes BRIEF-Chesapeake Utilities Says Unit Filed With FERC Uncontested Settlement Agreement Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 13 (Reuters) - Chesapeake Utilities Corp: * CHESAPEAKE UTILITIES - UNIT FILED WITH FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION UNCONTESTED SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH CURRENT RATE CASE PROCEEDING * CHESAPEAKE UTILITIES CORP - AS A RESULT OF SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT, UNIT WILL RECORD AN INCREASE IN BASE RATES OF APPROXIMATELY $9.8 MILLION Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-chesapeake-utilities-says-unit-fil/brief-chesapeake-utilities-says-unit-filed-with-ferc-uncontested-settlement-agreement-idUSFWN1OD0XA'|'2017-12-14T00:27:00.000+02:00'
'f46d09e3e0cf97fe7cc231223953e9739c78e23b'|'BRIEF-Sotherly Hotels Enters Hotel Purchase & Sale Agreement To Buy Hyatt Centric Arlington'|' 35 PM / in 22 minutes BRIEF-Sotherly Hotels Enters Hotel Purchase & Sale Agreement To Buy Hyatt Centric Arlington Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 13 (Reuters) - Sotherly Hotels Inc: * SOTHERLY HOTELS INC - ENTERED HOTEL PURCHASE & SALE AGREEMENT TO BUY HYATT CENTRIC ARLINGTON HOTEL FOR ABOUT $81 MILLION - SEC FILING Source text: [ bit.ly/2j0oDwl ]  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-sotherly-hotels-enters-hotel-purch/brief-sotherly-hotels-enters-hotel-purchase-sale-agreement-to-buy-hyatt-centric-arlington-idUSFWN1OD0Z4'|'2017-12-14T00:34:00.000+02:00'
'fff1bad67ce80d25cd3f3fce46e487706a3f1f2f'|'Banks drag European shares down as investors eye BoE, ECB meetings'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:44 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Banks drag European shares down as investors eye BoE, ECB meetings Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Weakness in bank stocks dragged European shares to a downbeat open on Thursday as financial sectors caught the cold from U.S. and Asian trading which suffered from a less hawkish than expected tone from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Despite the Fed’s rate rise which is a boost to lenders, banks were the worst-performing sector in Europe as cautious comments from Chair Janet Yellen on persistently low inflation shook investors’ confidence in financial stocks. They dragged Europe''s STOXX 600 down 0.2 percent, while euro zone blue chips .STOXX50E fell 0.1 percent. Italy''s FTSE MIB .FTMIB rose 0.3 percent following heavy losses in the previous session due to resurfacing political worries. Banks HSBC ( HSBA.L ), Santander ( SAN.MC ), Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) and UBS ( UBSG.S ) were the biggest drags to the STOXX. Attention turned to Europe’s central bank meetings later on Thursday with the Bank of England and European Central Bank both expected to keep rates on hold. Steinhoff ( SNHG.DE ) shares sank 12.5 percent after the latest twist in the South African retailer’s accounting woes, when it said it would have to restate 2016 financial results. Dassault Aviation ( AVMD.PA ) shares fell 2.4 percent after the firm said it plans to axe and relaunch its Falcon 5X jet after engine delays. Safran ( SAF.PA ), which provides the Silvercrest engines, also fell 2.4 percent. Among gainers, wind turbine maker Vestas Wind ( VWS.CO ) rose 4.9 percent, with its Spanish peer Siemens Gamesa SGEN.MC also up 1 percent. In merger news, UK-listed platinum producer Lonmin’s ( LMI.L ) shares soared 16.5 percent after South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater offered to buy it in a deal valued at 285 million pounds. Meanwhile Atos ( ATOS.PA ) fell back, down 2.8 percent, after Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) rebuffed the French technology consultancy’s takeover offer. Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Danilo Masoni'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/banks-drag-european-shares-down-as-investors-eye-boe-ecb-meetings-idUKKBN1E80X6'|'2017-12-14T10:42:00.000+02:00'
'88e38692b5cdfc965d7b75562b01dc347e949b9a'|'Turnbull declares ''jobs and growth'' a reality as employment surges - Business'|'Australian economy Turnbull declares ''jobs and growth'' a reality as employment surges In a streak not seen since 1994, job numbers grow for 14th consecutive month, with greatest gains in Victoria and NSW Starring role: prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says jobs boost is due to his government’s policies. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Australian economy Turnbull declares ''jobs and growth'' a reality as employment surges In a streak not seen since 1994, job numbers grow for 14th consecutive month, with greatest gains in Victoria and NSW   07.00 GMT Last modified on   07.01   Malcolm Turnbull is claiming credit for another surge in the number of Australians finding work, as economists label 2017 a “stellar year” for the labour market. New data shows another 61,600 jobs were created in November, lifting the number of new jobs this year to 383,300. It was the 14th consecutive month of employment gains, a streak not seen since 1994, prompting some economists to predict the economy may reach “full employment” next year. “At the last election, you will all remember, we campaigned on jobs and growth,” Turnbull said in Sydney on Thursday. “Well, it was a slogan then but it is an outcome now. Our policies are restoring confidence to business and business is responding by investing, creating more jobs and hiring more workers.” The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, released on Thursday, show 41,900 full-time jobs and 19,700 part-time jobs were created in November in seasonally adjusted terms. Employment rose in every state and territory, with the largest rises in Victoria (by 32,900 jobs) and New South Wales (by 28,500). Are Australians better off now than before the last election? - Greg Jericho Read more The unemployment rate remained steady at 5.4% (a five-year low) due to a jump in the number of people actively joining the labour force to look for work. That saw the so-called participation rate rise by 0.3 percentage points, from 65.2% to 65.5% – a six-year high. If the participation rate had been steady, the unemployment rate would have declined to 5.1%. “What these numbers mean is that anybody who was looking for a job or wants to get a better job or a different job has more opportunities to find one,” Turnbull said. Katie Hickie, an economist from Capital Economics, said 80% of new jobs in 2017 had been full-time positions, helping to explain why average hours worked per employee is now growing at an annual pace of 0.8% – “its fastest since June and well above the five-year average of -0.2%”. “It has clearly been a stellar year for the labour market and this will raise the annual growth rate of household disposable income from the very weak 0.5% in the third quarter,” she said. “And while such elevated rates of jobs growth are unlikely to be sustained, most leading indicators suggest employment growth will remain decent in the coming months.” Penalty rate cuts followed by weakest consumer spending since 2008 Read more The strength in full-time work also led to a further fall in people considered “underemployed” – employed but seeking more hours of work. The underemployment rate declined slightly to 8.4% in August, accounting for just over 1 million workers, after hitting a record high of 8.9% in February. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief economist, Adam Carr, said it was clear the economy was gaining strength. “Results like this give us confidence wage growth will pick up,” he said in a statement. BIS Oxford Economics’ head of Australian macroeconomics, Sarah Hunter, said employment growth would likely slow in 2018, with the present rate of more than 3% unsustainable in the long run. “But the continued strong performance … will provide some more relief to households and consumer spending,” she said, adding that household consumption ought to bounce back strongly in the December quarter. The recent national accounts showed household consumption slipped to its slowest rate since the 2008 global financial crisis in the face of slow wages growth. Commonwealth Bank economist Gareth Aird said the strength of the jobs market all but confirmed the next move by the Reserve Bank would be an increase in the cash rate. “We think wages growth will lift gradually but not sufficiently so to bring a rate rise into the fray until late 2018,” Aird said. The treasurer, Scott Morrison , will hand down his mid-year budget review on Monday, which is expected to show a smaller deficit than predicted in May, partly as a result of a revenue windfall from a strong labour market. With Australian Associated Press'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/14/turnbull-declares-jobs-and-growth-a-reality-as-employment-surges'|'2017-12-14T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'f300d3a301e9724b63d2f88391d063a68557a6b3'|'Big firms call on EU to set 35 percent renewable power supplies target'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:04 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Big firms call on EU to set 35 percent renewable power supplies target Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A group of big technology, industry and power companies have called on the European Union to set a target for renewables of at least 35 percent when EU energy ministers meet next week. The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake The energy-hungry firms, including Amazon, Facebook, Google <Google LLC>, IKEA, Microsoft, Philips and Unilever, say an ambitious target would encourage their investment in multi-year wind and solar power supply contracts, known as Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). In a letter, the 50 big firms called on EU energy ministers to lift all regulatory barriers to PPAs, to which firms are increasingly turning to source electricity needed for energy-intensive data centres or to run heavy machinery. The target now being discussed by EU nations is for the bloc to source at least 27 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030 - up from the 20 percent goal for green energy by 2020. The European Parliament has called for a higher target. The final law will result from negotiations between the two bodies. “The post 2020 Renewable Energy Directive has a key role to play to unlock the potential of corporate renewable PPAs, which remains largely untapped in Europe,” the firms said. “A strong investment signal is key to further positioning industries with large investment potential in supporting Europe’s clean energy goals.” As EU governments cut back on subsidies for wind power, many developers say they are turning to PPAs as a new source of revenue to get projects financed. The letter highlights that in the last two months alone, more than a gigawatt of renewable energy capacity, mostly from wind turbines, was contracted through corporate renewable PPAs. The new EU renewable targets are part of a set of proposals to implement the bloc’s climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-electricity-renewables-ppas/big-firms-call-on-eu-to-set-35-percent-renewable-power-supplies-target-idUKKBN1E71GK'|'2017-12-13T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'148eaec3a6bdd3b73dfcfc7c9a11cd145747aca2'|'Luxottica CEO exits eyewear giant ahead of Essilor merger'|'December 16, 2017 / 4:48 PM / in 2 hours Luxottica CEO exits eyewear giant ahead of Essilor merger Valentina Za , Giulia Segreti 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Luxottica has parted ways with its fourth chief executive in three years as Chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio prepares the eyewear group he founded for a planned merger with France’s Essilor. FILE PHOTO: Luxottica''s founder Leonardo Del Vecchio poses during MIDO Exhibition in Milan, Italy in this May 6, 2005 photo. REUTERS/Sergio Oliverio/Imagoeconomica/File Photo Luxottica, the biggest maker of spectacles, agreed in January to merge with the top lens manufacturer to create a 46 billion euro ($54 billion) group with a global shop network and brands from Ray Ban to Giorgio Armani and Burberry. Luxottica said on Friday Massimo Vian, CEO for products and operations, would step down three months before the expiry of the current board’s mandate as it simplified its structure ahead of the merger. Vian’s responsibilities will be handed to both Del Vecchio and his close aide Deputy Chairman Francesco Milleri, who will also take on the position of CEO. A spokesman said Chief Operating Officer Giorgio Striano would ensure continuity in the running of the industrial side of the business. “The post-merger integration of Essilor and Luxottica is fast approaching,” EXANE BNP Paribas said in a note. EU regulators are set to clear the merger without asking for concessions, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The deal still needs antitrust approval in the United States, China and Brazil. Del Vecchio, 82, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday that Milleri would replace him at the merged group if anything happened to him. Milleri, 58, started working with Luxottica as an IT consultant and earned the trust of Del Vecchio, becoming over time his right-hand man. Del Vecchio and Essilor CEO Hubert Sagnières are set to share powers at EssilorLuxottica for the first three years as, respectively, executive chairman and executive vice-chairman. Sagnières, 62, told the Financial Times last week the group would look to hire a chief executive at some point. “Sagnières has ruled himself out - as too old - which is a not too subtle indication that Del Vecchio is not in the game either,” EXANE said. “Investors shouldn’t expect a smooth post-merger integration path.” Del Vecchio returned to the helm of Luxottica in 2014, taking on executive powers as chairman. A legendary figure who rose from an orphanage to being one of Italy’s richest men, Del Vecchio is also known for his top-down management style, taking key decisions without broad consultation. He has presided over an overhaul of the business he founded in 1961, boosting digital investments while also expanding the retail network, centralising distribution in China and fighting online discounts of top brand Ray Ban in the United States. He owns 62.5 percent of Luxottica and will be the single biggest shareholder in the merged group. “In the past three years ... I’ve fixed and improved Luxottica to keep up with the times. And I was able to do it thanks to Francesco Milleri ... he shared every important decision,” Del Vecchio told Corriere. Vian had been appointed at the top within a dual-CEO structure put in place in October 2014, after Luxottica lost two bosses in six weeks due to frictions with Del Vecchio. Vian had remained as the only CEO after co-head Adil Mehboob Khan left in January 2016. An engineer who had joined in 2005, Vian will pocket a gross 6.3 million euros in addition to severance pay, Luxottica said. ($1 = 0.8508 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/luxottica-ceo/luxottica-ceo-exits-eyewear-giant-ahead-of-essilor-merger-idINKBN1EA0J3'|'2017-12-16T18:28:00.000+02:00'
'edc93fb539e345638150cf3df24dc63690efccf8'|'P&G appoints Peltz to board despite losing proxy battle'|'December 15, 2017 / 11:40 PM / in 4 hours P&G appoints Peltz to board despite losing proxy battle Siddharth Cavale 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co ( PG.N ) said it appointed Nelson Peltz to its board despite the activist investor narrowly losing a months-long proxy fight, the biggest ever involving a U.S. company. The company’s shares were up 1 percent in after-market trading on Friday. Immediately after its annual meeting in mid-October, P&G said it beat Peltz by a slim margin, but a preliminary tally by an independent election inspector, released a month later, showed otherwise. “Because the election results were so close, and because a large number of shareholders voted for Nelson Peltz to be a director, the board has engaged in numerous discussions with Mr. Peltz regarding a board seat,” P&G said on Friday. The consumer goods conglomerate said it increased its board size by 2 to 13 - to accommodate Peltz and appoint a new director in Joseph Jimenez, CEO of drugmaker Novartis AG <NOV N.S>. P&G said it had recounted nearly two billion votes, many of which were paper ballots. The recount showed that shareholders elected all eleven P&G nominees, including Ernesto Zedillo, for whom the votes cast were extremely close to those for Peltz. Following recent discussions, Peltz and P&G agreed that the company would not be predisposed to take on excessive debt, reduce R&D spending, advocate for a break-up of the company or move the company out of its headquarters in Cincinnati - demands Peltz had made during the proxy battle. “I look forward to bringing fresh perspectives to the boardroom, and working collaboratively with (CEO) David and the rest of the board to drive sustainable long-term shareholder value at P&G,” Peltz said in an email. Peltz’s appointment is the latest twist in a contest that saw the two sides collectively spend more than an estimated $100 million on mailings, phone calls and advertisements to woo investors. Peltz’s appointment is effective March 1 and the company also committed to re-nominate the investor as part of its board slate for next year’s annual meeting, P&G said. The company also said it would link executive compensation to its sales and stock performance. Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-procter-gamble-trian/pg-appoints-peltz-to-board-despite-losing-proxy-battle-idUSKBN1E92ZA'|'2017-12-16T01:38:00.000+02:00'
'28091dedbae20fdacf6cf5fd159243b7e1f521c5'|'Leading U.S. antitrust senator urges hearing on Disney, Fox deal'|'December 15, 2017 / 10:36 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Leading U.S. antitrust senator urges hearing on Disney, Fox deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate antitrust panel, urged the subcommittee on Friday to hold a hearing on Walt Disney Co’s ( DIS.N ) plan to buy a number of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) businesses. FILE PHOTO - Sen. Amy Klobuchar speaks at a news conference to unveil congressional Democrat''s "A Better Deal" economic agenda on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein Disney struck a deal to buy film, television and international businesses from Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc for $52.4 billion (£39.4 billion) in stock. The deal includes a plan to add Fox’s 22 regional sports networks to Disney’s No. 1 sports network ESPN. “I’m concerned about the impact of this transaction on American consumers,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “As the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, I have asked Senator (Mike) Lee, who has worked closely with me in this area in the past, and (Judiciary Committee) Chairman (Chuck) Grassley to schedule a hearing on the proposed merger,” she said. Lee, who chairs the subcommittee, has asked his staff to take a close look at the proposed deal, Conn Carroll, a spokesman for Lee, said. ”A hearing has not been ruled out.” Five antitrust experts said this week the deal would likely win approval from the U.S. Justice Department, which is expected to review the purchase since they have reviewed other content deals, although the agency may require asset sales or conditions. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-m-a-disney-senator/leading-u-s-antitrust-senator-urges-hearing-on-disney-fox-deal-idUKKBN1E92WX'|'2017-12-16T00:49:00.000+02:00'
'f12774e96f07035f102beb9559d18d8a9ef9ebe4'|'Embraer sees 2024 commercial launch for Uber flying cabs'|'December 15, 2017 / 5:30 PM / Updated an hour ago Embraer sees 2024 commercial launch for Uber flying cabs Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A network of electric aircraft Uber Technologies Inc is developing with Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ) is likely to launch commercially in 2024, the Brazilian planemaker’s chief executive said on Friday, adding a year to the latest forecast from the ride-hailing company. FILE PHOTO - Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Embraer Chief Executive Paulo Cesar de Souza told journalists the business model and financial commitments of the partnership have not been defined. Uber Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden said last month that a paid, intra-city flying taxi service could start in 2023. Souza said the companies would soon determine specifications of the proposed vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Engineers are projecting one-tonne vehicles transporting a pilot and four passengers at an altitude of 800 to 1,000 meters (2,600-3,300 feet), Souza said. The aircraft will be powered by batteries that can charge in as little as five minutes between flights, he added. The project has provided an outlet for engineering resources at Embraer, whose newest planes — a military cargo jet and a new generation of passenger jets — are well into their flight testing campaigns. Some 65 international delegations have shown interest in the KC-390 military transport aircraft that will enter the Brazilian Air Force next year, Souza said. The transition to a new commercial jet line-up is pressuring operations, but Souza said Embraer would meet the bottom end of its 2017 profit margin and aircraft delivery targets. Reporting by Brad Haynes; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-embraer-outlook-uber/brazils-embraer-eyes-2024-commercial-launch-for-uber-partnership-ceo-idUKKBN1E92BT'|'2017-12-16T01:16:00.000+02:00'
'81c68f2daa5e6702b06fc373b1bb29d862a55a22'|'India''s July-September current account deficit more than doubles'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:48 PM / Updated 8 hours ago India''s July-September current account deficit more than doubles Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s July-September current account deficit more than doubled from a year earlier after imports accelerated while crude prices surged, data published by the Reserve Bank of India showed on Wednesday. An India Rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/Files The July-September current account deficit (CAD) widened to 1.2 percent of gross domestic product, or $7.2 billion. That was wider than the 0.6 percent or $3.4 billion in the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, the trade deficit widened to $32.8 billion in the previous quarter from $25.6 billion a year ago. “The widening of the CAD on a year-on-year basis was primarily on account of a higher trade deficit brought about by a larger increase in merchandise imports relative to exports,” the RBI said in the release. Going ahead the current account deficit is expected to widen and end the fiscal year ending in March at 1.7-2.0 percent of GDP, analysts estimated, as oil and other global commodity prices continue to gain, while exports remain stable. Despite a wider current account deficit, India’s balance of payments posted a surplus of $9.5 billion in July-September compared with $8.5 billion a year ago, helped by a stronger capital account. The capital account surplus, which includes foreign direct investment and portfolio inflows, was at $6.9 billion in the September quarter compared with $4.3 billion a year ago. Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Rafael Nam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-currentaccount/indias-july-september-current-account-deficit-more-than-doubles-idINKBN1E71LN'|'2017-12-13T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'6f4672893356c3e11aa72a83cd224d8b67a36e70'|'Austria will repatriate any stranded Niki passengers, ministry says'|'VIENNA (Reuters) - The Austrian government has agreed to repatriate any passengers of Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) unit Niki stranded abroad by canceled return flights, a Transport Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has abandoned plans to buy Niki after the European Commission told Lufthansa that it would not allow the deal, meaning Niki could join the list of Europe’s collapsed airlines this year.“(Chancellery Minister Thomas) Drozda, (Finance Minister Hans Joerg) Schelling and (Transport Minister Joerg) Leichtfried agreed to repatriate stranded passengers as quickly as possible,” the spokesman said.“The repatriation offer applies to any Niki flights that have been canceled due to the current situation, independent of any insolvency,” he added.Several Niki flights scheduled for Thursday have been canceled but those cancellations were long-standing and unrelated to any insolvency, a Vienna Airport spokesman said.Reporting by Kirsti Knolle '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-m-a-lufthansa-repatriation/austria-will-repatriate-any-stranded-niki-passengers-ministry-says-idINKBN1E72CK'|'2017-12-13T13:49:00.000+02:00'
'88eb1fc0b6b588e92ab9a8213877a99533a5802c'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 14'|' 16 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 14 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 14 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Chinese online lender LexinFintech Holdings Ltd, which is planning to go public in the U.S., scaled back its fundraising ambitions after regulatory changes in China sparked a rout in shares of similar companies. on.wsj.com/2ADP8D9 - Walt Disney Co is close to a deal to acquire a large piece of 21st Century Fox Inc in a pact that could help the entertainment company accelerate its ambitions in streaming media, shore up its television business and grab hold of lucrative movie franchises. on.wsj.com/2AEjp4X - The highest-earning Americans will get a lower tax rate and corporations will pay slightly more than in previous plans under a deal House and Senate Republicans reached on the party''s competing tax-overhaul bills. on.wsj.com/2AFhuwU - Apple Inc is awarding one of its key suppliers Finisar Corp $390 million as part of its effort to fund U.S. technology manufacturers, the tech company said Wednesday. on.wsj.com/2AEbrsq - A former United Auto Workers bargaining official Joseph Ashton resigned from General Motors Co''s board of directors amid a broad federal investigation into training-center funds jointly overseen by domestic automakers and the union. on.wsj.com/2AEd5ue (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-14-idUSL4N1OE2OP'|'2017-12-14T08:12:00.000+02:00'
'acda28843db50d0eb39363692f27ff271fb6909a'|'China November investment growth slows, industrial output beats expectations'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:10 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago China November investment growth slows, industrial output beats expectations Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s fixed-asset investment growth slowed to 7.2 percent in the January-November period, while industrial output expanded at a faster pace than markets had expected. A CRH (China Railway High-speed) bullet train runs past Beijing''s central business area, China December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee Analysts polled by Reuters had correctly predicted investment growth of 7.2 percent, cooling from the 7.3 percent rate in the Jan-Oct period. Private sector fixed-asset investment rose 5.7 percent in January-November, down from the first 10 months of the year. Industrial output rose 6.1 percent in November from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, surpassing analysts’ estimates for a rise of 6.0 percent. In October, output increased 6.2 percent. Retail sales gained 10.2 percent in November on-year, in line with expectations, in line with expectations, but slightly ahead of the prior month. The world’s second-biggest economy has defied market expectations with economic growth of 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, supported by a construction boom and robust exports. But factory activity has shown signs of cooling in the past few months as Beijing extended a crackdown on financial risks, which has increased borrowing costs and weighed on new investment. Reporting by Cheng Fang and Kevin Yao; Writing by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-activity/china-november-investment-growth-slows-industrial-output-beats-expectations-idUKKBN1E806W'|'2017-12-14T04:10:00.000+02:00'
'37b5c4a2d872b96e91a2052435069d829d4c05cf'|'No plan for strategic cooperation with Japanese airlines: Air France-KLM executive'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Air France-KLM SA ( AIRF.PA ) has no plans to develop strategic cooperation with airlines in Japan, a senior airline executive told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday.Code sharing with Japan Airlines Co Ltd ( 9201.T ) was suspended in 2015.The Franco-Dutch airline said it plans to increase flight capacity to Japan by 18 percent next year as demand to Europe gradually recovers after the slump caused by a series of terror attacks and with more buoyant economies in Japan and Europe.Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Jacqueline Wong '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-air-france-klm-japan/no-plan-for-strategic-cooperation-with-japanese-airlines-air-france-klm-executive-idINKBN1E80RJ'|'2017-12-14T04:34:00.000+02:00'
'c86cd4795aeed685d46e629e1fb956f9fe38be94'|'FTSE weighed down by financials, eyes on Bank of England'|'December 14, 2017 / 9:39 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Financials weigh on FTSE as BoE holds rates Danilo Masoni 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Britain’s top share index slipped on Thursday, weighed down by losses among financial stocks, while miner Lonmin soared after a rescue takeover bid. FILE PHOTO: A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo The FTSE index fell 0.46 percent to 7,462 points, with scarce impact from the Bank of England’s decision to keep benchmark interest rates on hold. The decision was widely expected, with the economy slowing amid uncertainty over the country’s exit from the European Union. Mid-caps fell 0.18 percent. HSBC, Lloyds and Standard Chartered dragged the FTSE down, tracking other global banks lower after the U.S. Federal Reserve struck a less hawkish tone than expected following its expected rate hike. In the UK, BoE policymakers voted unanimously to keep rates at 0.5 percent, a month after raising them for the first time in more than a decade. Bank profits tend to grow when interest rates rise. “Although inflation has jumped to its highest level in almost six years, it seems that the growing uncertainty over Brexit is likely to encourage the central bank to adopt a wait and see approach moving forward,” said Lukman Otunuga, analyst at FXTM. Lonmin soared 19 percent after South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater agreed to buy the troubled platinum miner in a deal that valued it at about 285 million pounds. Lonmin shareholders have seen the value of their asset slump by 98 percent in five years as it called upon them repeatedly for cash. They will end up with about 11 percent of the combined company. “We would take this offer... Looking longer term, the offer gives Lonmin investors the haven of a larger more robust group able to fund the likely catch-up of sustaining capital over the next few years,” said Peel Hunt analysts. Elsewhere on the FTSE, BT was among the biggest gainers, climbing 2.7 percent after UBS upgraded the British telecom company to “buy” from “neutral”, driven primarily by a lower pension deficit. Mining heavyweight Rio Tinto rose 0.8 percent and energy major Royal Dutch Shell climbed 0.4 percent, supported by slight gains in oil and metal prices. [O/R] [MET/L] Among mid-caps, Capita declined 13 percent to its lowest in 12 years after the outsourcing company signalled a difficult 2018. Capita said it was on track to hit its full-year profit target but said upcoming work was unlikely to provide an immediate boost and that the market for major contracts was still “subdued”. Ocado inched up 0.3 percent after the online grocer suffered a slowdown in retail sales growth in its latest quarter, hurt by a shortage of drivers. Reporting by Danilo Masoni; editing by Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-weighed-down-by-financials-eyes-on-boe-idUKKBN1E812N'|'2017-12-14T11:41:00.000+02:00'
'38b7a880cbffd564101a9e18bb83446dc123abe8'|'Teva Pharm to lay off a quarter of workforce, suspends dividend'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:26 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Teva Pharm to lay off a quarter of workforce, suspends dividend Tova Cohen , Ari Rabinovitch 5 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ) ( TEVA.N ) is to cut its workforce by more than a quarter, give up many of its manufacturing plants and suspend its dividend on ordinary shares in a much-anticipated overhaul to help pay off its debts. A Teva Pharmaceutical Industries building is seen in Jerusalem December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad The Israel-based company, the world’s largest generic drugmaker, said on Thursday the move will result in a reduction of 14,000 jobs globally, with the majority to come in 2018. The two-year restructuring plan is intended to reduce Teva’s cost base by $3 billion by the end of 2019, out of an estimated cost base for 2017 of $16.1 billion. Shares in Teva were up 14.6 percent at $18 in New York, but are down 53 percent since January. Investors will like this plan as most are focused on the near-term cost cuts and not the business outlook, Wells Fargo analyst David Maris said. “However, in our view, the new CEO’s $3 billion cost-savings goal is larger than we had anticipated, and while this is more needed for survival versus optimization, it may also have significant negative effects to Teva’s competitiveness,” said Maris, who rates the shares “market perform”. Saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt since acquiring Allergan’s ( AGN.N ) Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion, Teva made a series of changes after Kare Schultz joined as its new chief executive on Nov. 1. In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Schultz said action was needed to ensure Teva’s future. “It is clear that without taking drastic steps in the coming weeks and months, the company will be increasingly vulnerable to potential takeover by global financial institutions or activists with their own agendas and the risk is real,” he said. Teva expects a restructuring charge from the plan in 2018 of at least $700 million, mostly to come in the second and third quarters and mainly related to severance costs. Additional charges may follow decisions on closures or divestment of plants, R&D facilities and office locations. “A longer-term strategy will come later in the year, however, in the near term we must remain focused on cash-flow generation, short-term revenue and serving our debt,” Schultz said in a letter to employees. SERVICING DEBT Slideshow (3 Images) Investors and analysts have questioned how Teva will be able to service its debt in coming years. In a conference call with analysts, Schultz said Teva would use cash flow to pay down debt, initially focusing on bank debt. “We have no plans for raising new equity, short term or long term,” he told Reuters in an interview. The company also expects help next year from two new branded products - its migraine drug fremanezumab and Austedo, which treats abnormal, involuntary movements associated with Huntington’s disease. In the U.S. generics market, which has suffered from price declines in the past year, Schultz expects further price erosion overall in 2018. This has led to some products becoming unprofitable. Teva is now determining which products it can adjust the price for and which products it “needs to get out of”. Despite the consolidation, Schultz said he is confident Teva can remain competitive because of its broad portfolio of generic drugs. Some 1,700 jobs will be cut and a manufacturing site will be closed in Israel, where the main labor federation threatened to hold a half-day general strike on Sunday, the start of the Israeli work week, in protest at the layoffs. Schultz said Teva will maintain its headquarters in Israel. The government went into damage-control mode ahead of Teva’s announcement, including a telephone call from Netanyahu to Schultz, asking that he keep layoffs in Israel to a minimum. Economy Minister Eli Cohen said Teva’s employees should not pay for the company’s failed investments abroad. “Teva has succeeded thanks to grants and tax benefits it received from the state and thanks to developments by Israeli scientists,” he said, adding: “We will fight for every employee.” The company said dividends on convertible preferred shares would be evaluated on a quarterly basis. Teva will provide its 2018 outlook in February. Editing by Dale Hudson, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-teva-pharm-ind-restructuring/teva-pharm-to-lay-off-a-quarter-of-workforce-suspends-dividend-idUSKBN1E81ML'|'2017-12-14T14:28:00.000+02:00'
'abd01b9348ea752f5babcaf3608500eade757de6'|'Stock futures up, eyes on Disney-Fox deal, bank stocks'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:48 PM / in 40 minutes Wall Street ends down; investors worry about tax bill passage Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended lower on Thursday as investors worried about potential roadblocks to Republicans’ tax overhaul, offseting their optimism over strong retail sales data. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 75.32 points, or 0.31 percent, to 24,510.11, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 10.69 points, or 0.40 percent, to 2,652.16 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 19.27 points, or 0.28 percent, to 6,856.53. Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/stock-futures-up-eyes-on-disney-fox-deal-bank-stocks-idUSKBN1E81P4'|'2017-12-14T14:47:00.000+02:00'
'd6acf3d8483f0f5594e9b14e636ab1c07da8798f'|'Ivory Coast awards Tullow two new offshore oil blocks'|'December 14, 2017 / 5:05 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Ivory Coast awards Tullow two new offshore oil blocks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast has awarded Tullow Oil two new onshore oil blocks, a government spokesman said on Thursday, expanding the company’s footprint in the Gulf of Guinea. The two blocks - CI-521 and CI-522 - are near Ivory Coast’s eastern border with Ghana, where Tullow operates the Jubilee oil and gas field and is developing the TEN fields. Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Abidjan, government spokesman Bruno Kone said SECI, a unit of French industrial group Bouygues, had also signed contracts for two blocks. SECI paid a signing bonus of $2.5 million (£1.8 million) while Tullow paid $1.125 million, Kone said, adding that Ivory Coast’s state oil company Petroci retained a 10 percent stake in all four blocks. London-listed Tullow now has stakes in seven Ivorian blocks, having bought 90 percent stakes in four other onshore blocks in October. It also has a 21.33 percent position in the Espoir field, which is operated by Canada’s CNR. In September, an international tribunal ruled in favour of Ghana in a dispute with Ivory Coast over the two countries’ maritime boundary, clearing the way for Tullow to resume development of its acreage along the border. Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Tim Cocks and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ivorycoast-tullow/ivory-coast-awards-tullow-two-new-offshore-oil-blocks-idUKKBN1E82JC'|'2017-12-14T19:04:00.000+02:00'
'1795330975c04c064c35ba87405b29c0922a015a'|'French central bank bumps up 2017 growth forecast to 1.8 percent'|'December 14, 2017 / 5:03 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago French central bank bumps up 2017 growth forecast to 1.8 percent Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France’s economy has grown faster than expected this year thanks to surging business and household investment and could gain further steam if reforms bear fruit, the central bank said on Thursday. Businessmen are seen on the esplanade of La Defense, in the financial and business district in La Defense, west of Paris, September 19, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann Growth this year is expected to have reached the fastest pace since 2011 at 1.8 percent, and should be followed by 1.6-1.8 percent annually through to the end of the decade, the Bank of France said in a biannual update of its forecasts. The central bank had previously estimated growth of 1.6 percent in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Its latest forecast for this year tops the 1.7 percent expected by the government. The bank said growth could turn out faster in 2019 and 2020 if reforms boosted the economy’s potential output. The French economy has benefited from a rebound in its main trade partners while consumer and business confidence has surged since the election of President Emmanuel Macron in May. Boosted by low interest rates, business investment has jumped 4.1 percent this year and will slow to a more moderate but still healthy pace, the bank’s outlook said. External trade would switch from being a drag on the economy to a source of growth next year as French firms won back market share internationally despite the negative impact of a strong euro on export prices. “Growth is more balanced than in the past. In domestic demand, investment - especially from companies - is taking up the baton from consumption and external trade should weigh less than in the past,” Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said in an interview with Les Echos newspaper. The central bank said wage gains would boost purchasing power and thus consumer spending. Household investment, made up primarily of new home purchases, would ease back after surging 5.1 percent this year amid exceptionally low interest rates. Unemployment would average 9.6 percent this year and next, before gradually falling to 8.8 percent by 2020. Inflation was seen averaging 1.2 percent this year before rising to 1.4 percent in 2018 mainly because of planned tax increases on tobacco and diesel. On public finances, the central bank estimated the deficit would be kept to slightly less than three percent of economic output this year and next but warned that the government would have to react quickly to rein in any slippage in spending. Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Maya Nikolaeva and Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-economy/french-central-bank-bumps-up-2017-growth-forecast-to-1-8-percent-idUKKBN1E82J3'|'2017-12-14T19:35:00.000+02:00'
'97257e1351e402c8d6be2365cff52f845b1eeb56'|'Denmark''s Nilfisk says its strategy is to grow via mergers'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:58 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Denmark''s Nilfisk says its strategy is to grow via mergers Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 14 (Reuters) - Danish cleaning equipment company Nilfisk said it was aware of activist hedge fund Primestone Capital’s push for it to consider a merger with U.S. peer Tennant and added that it was open to growing via mergers. Primestone called on Wednesday for the two companies to merge after it built up a more than 5 percent stake in both firms. “Nilfisk’s strategy continues to be to simplify its business and to grow organically and through M&A,” the Danish company, which was spun off from cable maker NKT, said in a statement. Nilfisk shares were up 4.2 percent at 332.30 Danish crowns as of 1524 GMT. They have risen 11.8 percent since Primestone’s statement on Wednesday. (Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Gdynia; Editing by Susan Fenton)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/nilfisk-holding-ma-tennant/denmarks-nilfisk-says-its-strategy-is-to-grow-via-mergers-idUSL8N1OE62D'|'2017-12-14T17:57:00.000+02:00'
'8e8306bd1a871498776d472bb9f337690267e0a8'|'Pandox to buy hotel portfolio in UK and Ireland for $1 billion'|'(Reuters) - Swedish hotelier Pandox ( PANDXb.ST ) has agreed to buy Britain’s Jurys Inn hotel chain as part of an 800 million pound ($1.1 billion) deal with private equity investor Lone Star.The deal is part of an expansion push in Britain after last year’s vote to leave the European Union boosted the popularity of so-called staycation holidays for Britons and resulted in a drop in the pound that made the country more appealing to foreign tourists.“The acquisition fulfils all Pandox’s strategic criteria regarding countries, cities and locations, as well as size, segment and profitability,” Pandox CEO Anders Nissen said in a statement.Pandox is acquiring 20 Jurys Inn hotels to be run by Middle East and European hotels operator Fattal, plus one other property that it will operate itself. Pandox is paying 680 million pounds for its part of the Lone Star deal, which also involves Fattal buying rights to operate 16 other properties for 120 million pounds.The portfolio is expected to contribute about 450 million Swedish crowns ($53.3 million) in net operating income and 200 million crowns in cash earnings by 2018, provided the deal closes before the end of this year, Pandox said.With this deal, its second biggest, Pandox will gain significant market presence in the UK and Ireland, it added.Pandox currently has 122 hotels spanning 11 countries, including Norway, Finland and Denmark, for a total of about 27,000 rooms.The company will finance the deal with bank loans and a 120 million pound ($160.4 million) loan from Fattal.Reuters reported in late October that Pandox was among a group of bidders preparing binding offers for Jurys Inn.($1 = 8.4510 Swedish crowns)($1 = 0.7482 pounds)Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan; Additional reporting by Marta Frackowiak in Gdynia; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-pandox-hotels/pandox-to-buy-hotel-portfolio-in-uk-and-ireland-for-1-billion-idINKBN1E71XU'|'2017-12-13T11:28:00.000+02:00'
'04aafa7c437eafaa87f52a492315c807f125567e'|'Poland''s PKN seeks full control of Czech unit Unipetrol'|'PRAGUE/WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s biggest oil refiner PKN Orlen PKN.WA launched a voluntary tender offer to buy the remaining shares in its Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol ( UNPE.PR ) to take full control and delist it from the Prague bourse.The Polish group said in a statement on Wednesday it was offering 380 crowns per share for Unipetrol, in which it holds 62.9 percent, a premium to Tuesday’s close and near record levels seen in the past month.Unipetrol has been on an upswing in the past few years thanks to firming refining and petrochemical margins that have boosted profits to the strongest levels since PKN Orlen acquired the company in 2005, leading to the renewal of dividend payouts.But PKN Orlen has had frosty relations with Unipetrol’s minority shareholders who have challenged decisions and sought bigger dividends because the company is debt-free.“The current ownership structure prevents PKN Orlen from reaping the full benefits of the initiatives we have put in motion in the Czech Republic, including our efforts to improve the refining and sales efficiency and our investments in the petrochemical assets,” PKN Orlen Chief Executive Wojciech Jasinski said in the statement.“Also, minority shareholders have expressed different expectations regarding the dividend policy,” he said.The offer valued the firm at 68.9 billion crowns ($3.16 billion). Shares jumped 3.6 percent to 378 crowns in early trade on Wednesday. They traded at a record 389 crowns in November.Unipetrol posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 11.9 billion crowns in 2016, a bumper year, and is near completing an 8.5 billion crown investment into a new polyethylene unit (PE3) that analysts see boosting core profit by 1 billion crowns a year.But shareholders also challenged Unipetrol’s decision last year to buy Czech chemicals firm Spolana from PKN Orlen because of worries over the cost of needed investments.Paulinino Limited, Unipetrol’s biggest minority shareholder with 20 percent, said it was too early to comment on PKN Orlen’s offer. “We need to analyze all the details of the offer thoroughly,” its representative, Pavel Muchna, said by email.Analysts at Komercni Banka said the price was too low given the earnings outlook.PKN Orlen said the deal, running until Jan. 30, was conditional on acquiring at least 90 percent. To secure that amount will cost PKN Orlen 3.05 billion and up to 4.2 billion zlotys ($1.17 billion) for full control.It said the deal would not affect its other acquisition plans and dividend. It added it would finance it with its own funds and a syndicated loan available to the company.PKN Orlen’s cash reserve stood at 6.5 billion zlotys at the end of the third quarter.Reporting by Jason Hovet and Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edmund Blair '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-unipetrol-m-a-pkn-orlen/polands-pkn-seeks-full-control-of-czech-unit-unipetrol-idINKBN1E70VB'|'2017-12-13T05:48:00.000+02:00'
'b4c4b0cad22d5f6deb158a72b42970d2bfe575f2'|'Suez sees more M&A as water treatment business booms'|'PARIS (Reuters) - French waste and water group Suez ( SEVI.PA ) expects more mergers and acquisitions in the very fragmented market for industrial water treatment, its CEO said, after its purchase of General Electric’s ( GE.N ) water business in March for $3.4 billion.Suez, which had 2016 revenue of 15.3 billion euros, now has about $2.7 billion revenue in industrial water following the GE Water acquisition, and it expects that to grow to more than $3.1 billion by 2020.But that is a relatively small share of a $100 billion market, in which the top 10 players each have no more than a few percentage points of market share.As environmental regulations tighten worldwide, companies are increasingly outsourcing the recycling and reuse of water from industrial processes to players such as Suez.“Industrial water remains an extremely fragmented market with very few companies present on the whole value chain. This means several players are looking to buy parts of that chain,” Suez CEO Jean-Louis Chaussade told reporters on Wednesday.Suez will focus on integrating its GE Water acquisition in the next 18 months, but the firm remains on the lookout for further small to medium-size acquisitions to complete its range.“We are reviewing our own portfolio to see what pieces we are missing in that value chain, while we are also looking at what is no longer useful and we could sell,” Chaussade said, adding that this review would take a few months.Suez and competitors such as French peer Veolia ( VIE.PA ), Danaher ( DHR.N ), Japan’s Kurita ( 6370.T ), Solenis, and Pentair ( PNR.N ) clean up wastewater for industries from oil-and-gas, mining and power to chemicals, micro-electronics, pharmaceuticals and food-and-beverage.“FURTHER CONSOLIDATION”Suez estimates that market leader Ecolab ( ECL.N ) has $3.8 billion revenue in industrial water following its $5.4 billion acquisition of U.S. water treatment firm Nalco in 2011, while U.S.-based Xylem ( XYL.N ) and Finland’s Kemira ( KEMIRA.HE ) have industrial water revenues of $2.8 and $2.5 billion respectively.In October, private equity firm AEA rejected Xylem’s $2.5 billion bid for Evoqua, the former Siemens Water Technologies, ( SIEGn.DE ) which AEA bought in 2014 and which has an estimated $1.1 billion in industrial water revenue.In a bid to get a higher valuation, AEA took Evoqua ( AQUA.N ) public, adding another listed player to the crowded field of water treatment firms. In early December Xylem bought Canadian wastewater specialist Pure Technologies for $397 million.Chaussade said companies, rather than handling pollution themselves at individual plant level, want treatment services for dozens of plants in the same company.“This way they can focus on their core business and turn a capital expense into an operating cost,” he said.Chaussade said he expected future water M&A to be focused on smart water services, specialized equipment and mobile, skid-based filtering systems.“Our GE Water acquisition has excited a lot of other players. I am convinced this market will see further consolidation,” Chaussade said.Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-suez-consolidation/suez-sees-more-ma-as-water-treatment-business-booms-idINKBN1E724E'|'2017-12-13T12:38:00.000+02:00'
'9b21ce17c2d3fbf10854bed344ed2215ee421aaa'|'RPT-UPDATE 1-Banks eye Paris airports operator in Macron privatisation drive -sources'|'(Repeats Dec. 12 story with no change to text)* ADP seen among first of Macron’s privatisation targets* Banks including BAML, Lazard, BNP expected to be involved* Complexity of structure may mean delaysBy Dasha Afanasieva and Arno SchuetzeLONDON/FRANKFURT, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Investment banks are vying to work with potential buyers or the French government on the sale of its majority stake in Aeroports de Paris (ADP) , sources close to the matter said, in one of the largest infrastructure deals expected to come to market in 2018.ADP, which runs Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports outside Paris, is likely to be an early target in President Emmanuel Macron’s privatisation drive. The company, 50.63 percent-owned by the French state, may be valued at about 25 billion euros ($29 billion) including debt in a potential deal.According to two sources, the state equity agency has picked Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to manage the privatisation. Another source familiar with the matter said BNP Paribas was working with ADP.ADP, Bank of America and BNP Paribas all declined to comment. State holding company APE said it frequently seeks outside advice about its portfolio.Several bankers said France’s Vinci, Europe’s biggest construction and concessions company, was seen as the frontrunner in any sale. Vinci already has an 8 percent stake in ADP and has publicly expressed an interest in investing more if the state decides to sell all or part of its stake.Vinci is expected to hire investment banking boutique Lazard to advise it, four sources familiar with the matter said. A fifth source denied that Vinci had yet awarded formal mandates. Vinci and Lazard declined to comment.Last year Vinci secured a stake in Lyon airport along with public sector lender Caisse des Depots (CDC) and it operates 35 airports worldwide. CDC, which is relatively independent from the French government, has also expressed an interest in ADP.Vinci’s position as a current shareholder is deterring some potential buyers, sources said, adding that a structure which would make the process most competitive had not been agreed.LENGTHY PROCESS Pension funds and insurers are among those preparing for ADP bids as they shift part of their assets towards infrastructure investments, which are regarded as relatively safe but which also promise higher returns than government bonds.The ADP sale could take a long time to be completed, given the complexity of its structure, and it is likely to serve as a test case for broader French privatisation policy.A wave of consolidation among European airlines is creating pressure for the region’s airports because it gives carriers more negotiating power over their hubs.Several sources said the stake in ADP, which has a market cap of 16 billion euros ($18.84 billion), could be too big to be sold in one go as a competitive process. One banking source said the government’s stake should be broken up into chunks to be sold off separately, while another said the company should be split into an operating and real estate arm.Given the size of the asset, bidders are likely to form consortia. One source said he expected the sale to launch formally only in the second half of 2018 as there was too much to be sorted out before a structured process could begin.“All large U.S., Canadian and Middle East funds will look,” he said. “It remains unclear whether France would welcome a buyer from China or the Gulf. Everybody is spending time on the subject, but hardly anyone has actually chosen an adviser already.”ADP could be valued at around 20-25 times its expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), in line with valuations seen in other recent airport sales. ADP’s EBITDA was 1.2 billion euros in 2016.ADP shares traded down half a percent at 161.9 euros on Tuesday. Vinci shares were up 0.37 percent at 86.77 euros. ($1 = 0.8493 euros) (Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Mathieu Protard in Paris, Clara Denina, and Julien Ponthus in London; Editing by Gareth Jones) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/adp-privatisation-vinci/rpt-update-1-banks-eye-paris-airports-operator-in-macron-privatisation-drive-sources-idINL8N1OD1B6'|'2017-12-13T04:48:00.000+02:00'
'43864dc7bf2b7d7f016a917ed9516df366e29311'|'AirAsia names new CEO for Malaysia-based operations'|'December 13, 2017 / 5:35 AM / Updated 34 minutes ago AirAsia names new CEO for Malaysia-based operations Reuters Staff 1 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - AirAsia Bhd appointed Riad Asmat as the new chief executive of the budget airline’s Malaysia-based operations, as part of a series of management changes announced on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: AirAsia planes are seen parked on the tarmac at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) in Sepang, Malaysia February 15, 2016. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin/File Photo Riad will assume the post from Jan 10. Aireen Omar, who is currently the CEO of AirAsia Bhd, was promoted as deputy Group Chief Executive for digital transformation and corporate services. “It’s our tradition to promote internally. It is our tradition to break the norm,” Fernandes told reporters in a press conference. Aireen Omar resigned from her board position as a non-independent director of AirAsia last week. Bo Lingam was appointed Deputy Group CEO of AirAsia’s airline business. Reporting by Liz Lee,; writing by Praveen Menon; editing by Vyas Mohan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airasia-deal/airasia-names-new-ceo-for-malaysia-based-operations-idUKKBN1E70HD'|'2017-12-13T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'3da23054ec6e334c3e5ef1644554dd3184fbfdd2'|'After years of toxic oil spills, indigenous Peruvians use tech to fight back - World news - The Guardian'|'Peru After years of toxic oil spills, indigenous Peruvians use tech to fight back Fidel Sandi’s Achuar community has been plagued with oil contamination for decades – but he is now able to collect and gather evidence for his claims Oil pipelines run through the Amazon region of Loreto in August 2011. Photograph: Reuters Peru After years of toxic oil spills, indigenous Peruvians use tech to fight back Fidel Sandi’s Achuar community has been plagued with oil contamination for decades – but he is now able to collect and gather evidence for his claims Thursday 14 December 2017 10.00 GMT Last modified on Thursday 14 December 2017 10.02 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close Armed with territorial knowledge, rubber boots, smartphones and drones, indigenous Amazonians in Peru are doing what state and private oil companies have long failed to do: report oil spills that have been polluting their corner of the rainforest for decades. Fidel Sandi, 33, a leader in the indigenous Achuar community of San Cristobal, plunges a stick into the spongy soil of a palm swamp and watches as sticky crude bubbles to the surface leaving an oily sheen on the water. “The trees are drying out, the people gather fruit here for the market, there are animals here that they hunt, but everything is polluted,” Sandi sighs with a mixture of anger and exasperation. Gazing at the palms, he has a keen eye for the signs of oil contamination. Now he can use his smartphone to gather geo-referenced photographic and video evidence to report to Peru’s environmental supervision agency OEFA . $1bn to clean up the oil in Peru’s northern Amazon Read more His community still collect aguaje palm nuts and hunt peccary in this patch of wetland, part of Oil Block 8 which has been concessioned to Pluspetrol, the largest oil and gas producer in Peru, for the last 15 years. A company sign says it was environmentally remediated in 2009 but Sandi says crude deposits mean the food chain is contaminated. Oil drilling began around his village on the bank of the Corrientes river before Sandi was born. Oil contamination is not just a problem for this Achuar village but for fellow communities upriver; in the neighbouring Pastaza river basin; for the Kichwa in the Tigre river and the Kukama and Wampis in the Marañon and Santiago rivers, across a swath of Peru’s northern Amazon. Workers from Argentine firm Pluspetrol clean up after an oil spill in the Amazon region of Loreto in August 2011, after about 1,100 barrels of oil were leaked into the jungle. Photograph: Antonio Escalante/Reuters Environmental monitors have come from all these places to San Cristobal to learn how to use this technological toolkit with a team from the International Institute of Social Studies at Holland’s Erasmus University and the NGO Digital Democracy . “With the internet and drones we can get images from the depths of the Amazon to the boardrooms of companies in a matter of seconds when before it would take days or weeks,” says the NGO’s Gregor MacLennan. “The modern world is already here in the shape of the oil companies. We believe that indigenous people need to be able to fight on equal ground.” Rafael Rojas, in charge of hydrocarbons supervision at OEFA says the drones “help to determine the affected areas with much greater speed and accuracy” when there is an oil spill. There have been scores of spills in the last year particularly linked to the deteriorating North Peruvian pipeline run by the state oil operator Petroperu. Petroperu has said it will expand the pipeline’s infrastructure and has a contingency plan in place to deal with spills. San Cristobal’s oldest residents can chart the oil drilling’s deadly legacy back more than 45 years. Sandi’s mother, Anacha Hualinga, says she doesn’t remember a time before there was oil in the Corrientes river. She believes its toxic impact has tragically marked her life. Anacha Hualinga blames her children’s deaths on pollution from oil. Photograph: Dan Collyns “My son died vomiting blood. My children have died, also my grandchildren, because of the contaminants, their bodies could not endure them. Others were born dead because they could not bear the pollution,” she said. Two of her children died as infants and three of her many grandchildren also died very young, she explained. “Today it continues, children are born with pains or wounds. For me it is very painful to lose my children and grandchildren.” In 2006, Peru’s health ministry found more than 90% of Achuar men, women and children in the Corrientes basin had levels of toxic-heavy metals in their bloodstream well above safe norms . In the same year, Pluspetrol signed an agreement pledging to reinject production waters laced with heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and barium deep into the ground so they would no longer enter the water cycle. Peru tribal leaders vow to halt oil output unless indigenous rights respected Read more Pluspetrol, which has run the nearby oil block since 2001, has blamed a previous operator – the US-based Occidental Petroleum – for the pollution. In 2015 the US company paid an undisclosed sum to the Achuar people in an out-of-court settlement. Pluspetrol did not respond to questions. Peru’s health ministry has yet to carry out a toxicological study in the area and the people receive no medical attention for their specific symptoms, says América Arias, a public health specialist working for Equidad , an NGO. “Conditions are starting to emerge which can have no other cause than the pollution; cancer cases, deformities in newborn babies, congenital diseases, low cognitive development in children,” she said. Several scientific studies show the build-up of heavy metals in soils, as well as fish and animals consumed along the Corrientes, is potentially carcinogenic. Fidel Sandi shows other from his village how to operate a drone. Photograph: Dan Collyns The Amazon region of Loreto is one of nine regions in Peru where toxic-heavy metals produced by mining and oil drilling are damaging health, according to Amnesty International . Representatives have petitioned the government in Lima demanding a specific health plan and potable water. After a visit by the delegation, Peru’s health ministry said it would coordinate with the environment, housing, finance and energy and mines ministries to control and reduce the causes of the contamination. But Peru will have to start from scratch, says Fernando Serrano, an occupational health professor at the University of Missouri and an expert on toxic-heavy metal pollution. “To this day there is no national assessment of how many people have been exposed to lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury … and many other toxic metals which we know cause disease,” he said. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/oil/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/14/after-years-of-toxic-oil-spills-indigenous-peruvians-use-tech-to-fight-back'|'2017-12-14T17:00:00.000+02:00'
'117f6abb4457c7d4dfe43014399b155a12211c5a'|'Online shopping won''t grow forever, says Unibail boss creating malls giant'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:21 PM / in 35 minutes Online shopping won''t grow forever, says Unibail boss creating malls giant Byron Kaye , Maya Nikolaeva 3 Min Read SYDNEY/PARIS (Reuters) - Online shopping has its limits and physical stores will never go out of fashion, says the CEO of Unibail-Rodamco which is betting $16 billion on buying Westfield to create a global mall giant. The deal comes at a time when the traditional retail sector and shopping centers are under pressure to reinvent themselves in the face of fierce online competition led by Amazon. However, Unibail-Rodamco Chief Executive Christophe Cuvillier predicted online shopping would peak at 20 percent of global retail spending, up from 8-10 percent now, although he did not give a timeframe. “Internet will grow but internet cannot do everything. It’s very difficult to be profitable on the internet, particularly pure-play online retailers,” he told journalists on a call on Thursday. “Retailers need physical presence,” he added, noting that largely online companies like Apple, Nespresso, Tesla and even Amazon had opened bricks-and-mortar stores. Franco-Dutch group Unibail’s planned acquisition of Westfield will create a stronger competitor for the world’s biggest commercial property owner Simon Property Group, one with 104 centers and more than 1.2 billion visitors a year. The deal gives Europe-focused Unibail, which owns Les 4 Temps and Forum des Halles in Paris and has centers spreading from Helsinki to Valencia, exposure to Britain, the United States and Italy, countries where Westfield operates 35 malls. The acquisition is part of Unibail’s strategy of increasingly focusing on high-end “destination” malls in landmark locations and Westfield would bring shopping centers in big cities like London, New York and San Francisco, which offer customers a wide range of restaurants, bars and entertainment. Unibail could replicate some of Westfield’s services at its other centers around Europe, including staging events like concerts and hosting pop-up shops, according to a source familiar with the matter. “The big (Westfield) malls are only getting stronger,” said Grant Berry, portfolio manager at Australian broker S.G. Hiscock, which holds real-estate investment trust shares, including Westfield. “Nothing’s changed in terms of these big malls as gathering places for entertainment and experiences.” As part of its “destination” mall push, Unibail has said it plans to sell some regional Westfield shopping centers in the United States to concentrate on malls in central locations of big cities, but has not provided more specific details. Cuvillier said one of the reasons why many American malls and department stores were struggling was a failure to diversify into offering customers food. ”I think it (food retailing) is a way of recovery for United States shopping centers. Some department stores ... have nothing more to offer. Additional reporting by Herbert Lash in New York; Editing by Luke Baker and Pravin Char'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-unibail-westfield/online-shopping-wont-grow-forever-says-unibail-boss-creating-malls-giant-idUSKBN1E821W'|'2017-12-14T16:07:00.000+02:00'
'6b6a5954c38bbd658190c2e51ffb88fc5368b3cb'|'Scottish government to raise taxes on higher earners, boost public pay'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:58 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Scotland breaks from rest of UK with tax hike for higher earners Elisabeth O''Leary 3 Min Read EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scotland’s government said on Thursday it will raise taxes on higher earners and increase public sector pay as it tried to draw a contrast between its economic plans and those of Britain’s national government. FILE PHOTO: A man puts money in his sporran at the Birnam Highland Games in Scotland, Britain August 30, 2014. Scotland will hold a referendum on independence on September 18. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File Photo The budget plan, set out by the pro-independence Scottish government, means 70 percent of tax-payers in Scotland will not pay more than they previously did and 55 percent would pay less than they would elsewhere in the U.K., the government said. “The 2018-19 budget will demonstrate beyond doubt where the Scottish government’s priorities are: stopping UK cuts, protecting public services and unlocking Scotland’s economic potential,” finance secretary Derek Mackay said. By using its devolved tax powers differently to the tax stance of the UK government, the Scottish administration hopes to show voters than it can manage the country’s economy and burnish the case for independence. However, the ruling Scottish National Party does not have much room for manoeuvre - forecasts published along with the budget showed Scotland’s economy is set to grow at persistently lower rates than the overall U.K. economy, which is also weak. Annual growth in Scotland is only due to surpass 1 percent in 2022, according to the forecasts. Scottish voters rejected breaking away from Britain in a referendum in 2014, but 45 percent of Scots continue to favour independence, according to polls. FILE PHOTO: Scotland''s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrives to offer her reaction to the attack in Manchester to journalists in Edinburgh, Britain May 23, 2017. REUTERS/David Cheskin/Pool/File Photo Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said another referendum should be held after Britain decided last year to leave the European Union, but she is not pushing for a quick new vote after the SNP lost support in a national election in June. Thursday’s budget plan offered public sector workers such as nurses, firefighters and teachers earning less than 30,000 pounds ($40,242) a year a 3 percent pay rise, and those earning more than that a 2 percent pay rise. The proposals were more generous than a recent relaxation of a public sector pay cap announced by Britain’s government. Mackay said his income tax changes would make the tax system in Scotland fairer. The higher and additional rates of income tax will be raised by one percentage point to 41 and 46 percent respectively while the basic rate of tax will be frozen at 20 percent. Mackay also introduced an intermediate tax rate of 21 percent, and a starter rate of tax of 19 percent. The lion’s share of finances in Scotland, one of the UK’s four nations, is decided by the UK government in London and the rest is decided by the devolved government. ($1 = 0.7455 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-scotland-tax/scottish-government-to-raise-taxes-on-higher-earners-boost-public-pay-idUKKBN1E826B'|'2017-12-14T16:58:00.000+02:00'
'c50d1aea0970459323e74015bddbba5ef15fbf06'|'PSA, Toyota lead European car sales gain, helped by extra selling day'|'December 14, 2017 / 7:13 AM / Updated an hour ago PSA, Toyota lead European car sales gain, helped by extra selling day Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - European car sales rose 5.8 percent in November, helped by an extra selling day as PSA Group ( PEUP.PA ) and Toyota ( 7203.T ) posted the strongest gains among the region’s major automakers, industry data published on Thursday showed. A Toyota Motor Corp. worker inspects a Yaris on the production line of the company''s plant in Onnaing, near Valenciennes, France, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Registrations rose to 1.26 million cars last month in the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, Brussels-based industry body ACEA said, from 1.19 million a year earlier. Eleven-months sales were up 4 percent to 14.5 million autos. Sales by France’s PSA soared 83 percent from November 2016 to 200,211 cars as registrations of the newly acquired Opel-Vauxhall division were not included in year-earlier records, while Toyota was up 12 percent at 57,355 cars. French rival Renault ( RENA.PA ) grew 10 percent to 139,335 vehicles whereas Fiat Chrysler ( FCHA.MI ) slipped 1 percent to 74,568 cars, weighed down by declines of over 20 percent each at its Jeep and Alfa Romeo brands. Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), Europe’s biggest automotive group reported a 5 percent increase to 310,647 cars with premium nameplates Audi ( NSUG.DE ) and Porsche as well as mass-market brands Seat and Skoda all posting growth. Of Europe’s five biggest auto markets, Germany, France and Spain posted double-digit or close to double-digit advances, outweighing an 11 percent plunge in the No. 2 market Britain where weaker consumer confidence and uncertainty over the future of diesel have been hurting demand. Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-vehicleregistrations/psa-toyota-lead-european-car-sales-gain-helped-by-extra-selling-day-idUSKBN1E80P0'|'2017-12-14T09:11:00.000+02:00'
'faa76fd4da9c7d296f9e25182583662f97009873'|'London-based investment banks to face closer EU scrutiny - documents'|'December 15, 2017 / 10:46 AM / Updated 3 hours ago London-based investment banks to face closer EU scrutiny - documents Francesco Guarascio , Peter Maushagen 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Large investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan will be subject to tighter controls in the European Union after Britain leaves the bloc, under EU draft proposals meant to prevent them exploiting laxer rules in EU member states. A man walks into the JP Morgan headquarters at Canary Wharf in London May 11, 2012. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo Big broker-dealers and investment firms are already required to hold significant capital buffers against the risk of failure, but EU regulators fear that, when they move some of their business from London to the EU, they could seek out jurisdictions with lower capital requirements. To prevent this, the European Commission is proposing that supervision of big investment banks operating in the EU should be transferred from national authorities to the European Central Bank, according to draft documents seen by Reuters. Many of them are planning to relocate part of their business from the EU’s current financial hub, London, to other member states to maintain secure access to the bloc’s market after Brexit. This is likely to mean an overall transfer of 1.8 trillion euros (1.6 trillion pounds) of assets, equal to 17 percent of all banking assets in Britain, the commission said, citing a report from the Bruegel think-tank. Financial services are a key issue in talks between Britain and the EU on their future relationship after Brexit. The sector accounts for about 12 percent of Britain’s economic output and potentially has a lot to lose from the end of unfettered access to the remaining EU market of 440 million people. ARBITRAGE The overhaul, scheduled for Commission approval on Dec. 20, will maintain high capital requirements for big investment firms, but is expected to reduce charges and costs for several smaller companies. In order to prevent exploitation of the system by larger companies splitting into smaller units, the commission is proposing to treat large investment firms as single entities in the euro zone. And by transferring the supervision of these firms to the ECB, it also hopes to prevent “supervisory arbitrage”, where national regulators compete to attract investment banks from London by offering them waivers or lower capital requirements. The commission has held back the adoption of the measures by a few weeks because of concerns raised by the financial industry and some EU countries that are reluctant to lose their supervisory powers over large financial firms, banking and EU officials told Reuters. If the proposals are adopted by the commission, they will need the approval of EU states and lawmakers to become law. Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks/london-based-investment-banks-to-face-closer-eu-scrutiny-documents-idUKKBN1E9130'|'2017-12-15T12:49:00.000+02:00'
'66d6b8a516ae3cef22bdd0268a26e227b79a584e'|'Nikkei falls to more than 1-week low; telecom stocks extend slide'|'December 15, 2017 / 2:27 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago Nikkei falls to more than 1-week low; telecom stocks extend slide Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks fell to more than a week low on Friday morning, with mobile firms extending a sell-off on concerns of increased competition after Rakuten said it aims to become Japan’s fourth wireless carrier. Taking the cue from weak U.S. stocks overnight, the Nikkei share average declined 0.7 percent to 22,525.77 in midmorning trade after slipping to 22,479.97, the lowest since Dec. 7. For the week, the Nikkei has fallen 1.4 percent, on track to post the biggest weekly fall in three months. The information and communication sector slumped 3.1 percent and was the worst performer on the board. KDDI Corp tumbled as much as 5.3 percent, NTT Docomo skidded 5.4 percent and SoftBank, which has a more diversified business portfolio, shed 2.6 percent. The sell-off was triggered after Rakuten Inc said it was weighing entry into the mobile carrier market, which would set it up to compete with the telecom giants. On the other hand, heavyweight stocks such as clothing company Fast Retailing Co rose 0.2 percent, while chip equipment makers also gained ground, with Tokyo Electron rising 0.7 percent and Advantest gaining 0.5 percent. The broader Topix dropped 1.1 percent to 1,788.99. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/nikkei-falls-to-more-than-1-week-low-telecom-stocks-extend-slide-idUSL4N1OF1G7'|'2017-12-15T04:22:00.000+02:00'
'f8c4550b2352550648dbf3d38bcc75563649e6de'|'Indian court cancels 2014 government rule on stringent tobacco pack warnings'|'December 15, 2017 / 2:41 PM / in 19 minutes Tobacco industry trumps as India court cancels stringent health labelling rules Aditya Kalra   An Indian court on Friday quashed federal rules that mandated stringent graphic health warnings on tobacco products, lawyers involved in the case said, in a decision seen as a major victory for the tobacco industry and a setback for health advocates. A shopkeeper selling cigarettes waits in his store at a market in Mumbai, India, January 6, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files India’s Supreme Court last year ordered enforcement of the government’s 2014 federal rules that required 85 percent of a tobacco pack’s surface to be covered in health warnings, up from 20 percent earlier, despite protests by the tobacco industry. At the same time, the top court had asked a court in southern Karnataka state to rule on the dozens of tobacco industry pleas that challenged the federal rules. The High Court of Karnataka on Friday struck down the government’s 2014 notification, said Aradhana L, a lawyer at Poovayya & Co, who represented tobacco companies including India’s ITC and Philip Morris International Inc’s Indian partner, Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. The government lawyer in the case, Krishna S. Dixit, confirmed the rules had been struck down but said he would appeal in the Supreme Court. Dixit said that for now the older federal rules mandating 20 percent warnings on packs will be in force. But, he added, ”the court has allowed us to remake the rules. Similar battles between tobacco companies and authorities have played out around the world in recent years as governments try to discourage smoking. India’s tobacco packaging rules were among the world’s most stringent and aimed at reducing tobacco consumption which kills more than 900,000 people a year. The World Health Organization estimates tobacco-related diseases cost India about $16 billion annually. A government survey earlier this year found that 62 percent of cigarette smokers thought of quitting because of warning labels on the packets. “The court is setting aside a proven strategy on improving public health. This is very disappointing,” said Sanjay Seth, head of tobacco control at non-profit Sambandh Health Foundation. The tobacco industry, however, has maintained the rules were extreme. At one point last year, the industry briefly shut down its factories across India in protest and filed dozens of legal cases.( reut.rs/1Of3fKL ) It was not clear if the tobacco manufacturers, who currently print the mandated bigger health warnings, will stop doing so immediately, or if the government will step in to make a new rule. Industry lawyer Sajan Poovayya cheered the move. “Bye Bye gruesome warnings on tobacco packages,” he said on Twitter after the verdict. Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-tobacco/indian-court-cancels-2014-government-rule-on-stringent-tobacco-pack-warnings-idINKBN1E91VC'|'2017-12-15T16:39:00.000+02:00'
'29983582eb774535277b866d0d93d20ef2061c05'|'Steady as she goes - ECB to keep money taps wide open'|'December 13, 2017 / 11:08 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago ECB keeps easy money pledge despite big growth upgrade Balazs Koranyi , Francesco Canepa 5 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank raised growth and inflation forecasts for the euro area on Thursday but stuck to its pledge to provide stimulus for as long as needed, predicting inflation would remain below target into 2020. The European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The ECB kept its key rates on hold and also held rigidly to its script on its intentions for next year - despite pressure from some policymakers to acknowledge explicitly the strength of the euro zone recovery and more closely follow the U.S. Federal Reserve’s tightening trend. The euro rose to a day’s high of $1.186 after the bank raised its growth forecasts from this year through to 2019. There was also a modest upgrade of price expectations, though inflation was predicted at just 1.7 percent in 2020 - short of its official target of close to 2 percent. “All in all the revision of the macroeconomic projections is going in the right direction,” ECB President Mario Draghi told a news conference, noting that the inflation outlook was still muted and thus required “ample” stimulus. So while growth and inflation forecasts were raised, by big margins in some cases, the ECB did not even discuss changes to its policy stance or the guidance that serve to anchor expectations. NUANCED In a nuanced message, Draghi nonetheless added that he was more confident than two months ago that the inflation target could be reached and said he saw no negative effect from tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which announced its latest rate hike on Wednesday. Six weeks after agreeing to halve asset buys from January, the ECB reiterated its commitment to continue bond purchases at least until the end of September, and to keep reinvesting cash from maturing debt until much later to support a rebound in growth and inflation. Having faced five years of anaemic price pressures, the ECB has deployed its entire policy arsenal, cutting rates into negative territory, giving banks cheap loans and hoovering up bonds with an unprecedented 2.55 trillion euros ($3 trillion) of purchases. Its work has paid off as the euro zone recovery is now well into its fifth year thanks to nine million new jobs, letting policymakers curb stimulus from next year and raising the prospect that the lavish bond buys it started in early 2015 could finally end. But the economic run is stronger than most have expected. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi and ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio address a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The euro zone purchasing managers’ index rose to a seven-year high this month, data on Thursday showed, while Germany’s Ifo institute unveiled a surprisingly bullish forecast for the euro zone’s biggest economy. This rapid expansion is fuelling arguments among more conservative policymakers that the ECB is moving too slowly and should be more decisive in signalling the end of quantitative easing to preserve its remaining firepower after the crisis tested its limits. WALKING WITH CRUTCHES? “Remember the metaphor of the euro zone being the patient on intensive care?,” ING economist Carsten Brzeski said. “The ECB has been the chief physician, getting the patient into rehab and making him walk again with monetary crutches.” Slideshow (2 Images) “Today, Draghi once again made clear that walking, even walking fast, without creating inflation was fine. A reasonable cure. Only once the patient is able to sprint an entire marathon will the crutches come off.” Still, a muted reaction to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s third rate hike this year could potentially make the ECB’s job easier in shifting its message. This was a sign that investors were confident enough in the state of the global economy not to fear a continued, albeit very gradual, increase in the cost of borrowing dollars - the currency that underpins much of world trade. Policy hawks in Frankfurt want Draghi to keep preparing markets for an end to asset buys sometime next year, arguing for changes in the bank’s message to set up a formal decision by mid-year on ending the bond purchase scheme. But Draghi said there was no discussion either of a formal end date for the asset purchases or cutting the direct link between inflation and bond purchases, something advocated by several influential policymakers in recent months. They argued that the ECB should instead connect its overall policy stance to inflation, de facto cutting the emphasis on quantitative easing (QE) and making it easier to end it. Some policymakers argue that the ECB should increase the proportion of private sector purchases by keeping those volumes steady when sovereign purchases are cut from January. Such a shift could also take some pressure off sovereign buys as the ECB is nearing its self-imposed purchase limits in several countries. Additional reporting by Tom Sims; Writing by Mark John; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-policy/steady-as-she-goes-ecb-to-keep-money-taps-wide-open-idUKKBN1E734M'|'2017-12-14T01:10:00.000+02:00'
'df6c259045b0f4c332a8dba815a2e8a1dc02b7f4'|'Exclusive - Ford to base Fusion production in China: sources'|'December 13, 2017 / 6:22 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Exclusive - Ford to base Fusion production in China: sources Paul Lienert 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) plans to consolidate global production of midsize sedans in China in 2020, three sources said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The Ford Motor Company logo is pictured at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo In North America, the Fusion sedan currently is built in Hermosillo, Mexico, while in Europe, the companion Mondeo sedan is built in Valencia, Spain. Both models are expected to be redesigned in mid to late 2020, when Ford plans to shift their production to Chongqing, to a joint-venture plant operated with Ford’s Chinese partner Changan Automobile Co 000625.SZ, according to sources connected to Ford’s component suppliers who are familiar with the automaker’s future production plans. A Ford of Mexico spokesperson declined to comment. The move is part of Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett’s ongoing effort to reduce inefficiency and trim costs, while shifting the company’s emphasis away from sedans towards sport utility and crossover vehicles, especially in North America. Ford in June said it would shift some production of its Focus small car from Mexico to China and import the vehicles to the United States. Ford’s latest moves could blunt U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to repeal or revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement. As with the Focus move, the decision to build the Fusion in China also signals a shift in strategy at Ford, which is responding to dwindling U.S. consumer demand for passenger cars in favour of more expensive and more profitable trucks and SUVs. Last week, Ford said it plans to relocate production of a future battery electric vehicle to Cuatitlan, Mexico in 2020 to free up capacity at its Flat Rock, Michigan, plant to build self-driving vehicles in 2021. (This story corrects headline, first and eighth paragraphs to show that Ford does not plan to import China-made vehicles to United States)   Laurence Frost in Paris and Anthony Esposito in Mexico City; Editing by Andrew Hay and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fordmotor-china-exclusive/exclusive-ford-to-base-fusion-production-in-china-ship-to-u-s-sources-idUKKBN1E72LD'|'2017-12-13T23:37:00.000+02:00'
'0d07d2821f3f3fa350b58e433f3c53c2f281b3df'|'Meggitt sees possible impairment after Dassault axes Falcon 5X jet'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:22 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Meggitt sees possible impairment after Dassault axes Falcon 5X jet   (Reuters) - Meggitt said Dassault Aviation SA’s cancellation of its Falcon 5X business jet programme could lead to a non-cash impairment of some or all of the capitalised work undertaken by Meggitt to date. Dassault Aviation said on Wednesday it was scrapping development of the Falcon 5X jet due to delays and technical problems with its French-supplied engines. It said it would launch a new model powered by a rival supplier Pratt & Whitney Canada, a subsidiary of U.S.-based United Technologies Corp. Aerospace and defence group Meggitt said Dassault Aviation would re-use most of the work done to date on the Falcon 5X business jet and that it intended to work with Meggitt on the successor programme. Meggitt currently has 50 million pounds of assets relating specifically to the 5X programme, and a further 11 million pounds of assets relating to the Silvercrest engine on its balance sheet. Meggitt said it expected to have further talks with Dassault Aviation in the coming weeks. Meggitt also said it has good content on the Pratt & Whitney PW800 engine anticipated to be used in the successor aircraft. Meggitt’s shares were 1.5 percent lower by 0807 GMT. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-meggitt-orders-dassault-avi/meggitt-sees-possible-impairment-after-dassault-axes-falcon-5x-jet-idUKKBN1E80VM'|'2017-12-14T10:21:00.000+02:00'
'bb81a04e8fc6fae7d678fd5eba354fb7440c2c16'|'Fueling dissent: how the oil industry set out to undercut clean air - Environment'|'On sunny days, when his classmates run out to play, Gabriel Rosales heads to the school nurse for a dose of Albuterol.The fine mist opens his airways, relaxing the muscles in his chest. Without it, recess could leave the nine-year-old gasping for breath. He gets a second dose at the end of the day before heading home from St John Bosco Elementary School, in San Antonio, Texas.How big oil is tightening its grip on Donald Trump''s White House Read more Over the past year, Gabriel’s asthma has worsened. Visits to the emergency room, shortened trips to the park and reliance on inhalers have become his new norm. “It got to the point where I couldn’t even leave him with anybody,” said his father, Gabe, who works as a consultant to the National Association of Public Employees, a workers’ advocacy group, and a seasonal field director of the Bexar County Democratic Party. “One time he almost looked blue.”Gabriel’s health is deteriorating alongside air quality in San Antonio, where oil and gas development, a hotter climate and a growing population have combined to spell misery for a city that once boasted clean air compared to other Texas metropolitan areas. Part of the problem lies southeast of the city in the Eagle Ford Shale,a 400-mile-long hub of hydraulic fracturing that unleashes microscopic particles and smog-causing, ground-level ozone.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gabe Rosales and his son, Gabriel. Photograph: Tom Dart for the Guardian The state’s environmental regulator – the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality – has been criticized for not making things better. In fact, it’s followed in the footsteps of Big Oil’s biggest lobby, the American Petroleum Institute , which has forestalled progress on ozone for decades. Using consultants also hired by API, the commission has spent millions of taxpayer dollars in an effort to question scientific evidence linking particulate matter and ozone with bronchitis, asthma and premature death.Air quality is the new frontier for climate-change skeptics long tied to API. The institute has fueled uncertainty on climate by producing what critics call misleading scientific and economic studies. Now, by attempting to discredit established research on ozone and fine particles, API and its cadre of doubters are trying to undermine the Clean Air Act – the landmark US law credited with saving millions of lives. Working in concert with other free-market groups, they’re taking their message to Capitol Hill. API officials did not grant interview requests from the Center for Public Integrity.Timeline Big oil and the US government Show Hide 1911 Standard Oil broken up Standard Oil’s monopoly is broken up by the US Supreme Court. The trust which had been set up by John D. Rockefeller in 1882, had gained control of nearly 90 percent of US oil production1917 Oil industry gets close to government during war The US joins the first world war and supplies allied forces with oil. President Woodrow Wilson appoints multiple oil executives to war-effort committees and nationalizes the railways1919 API created Brought together by the war, oil executives form a trade body, the American Petroleum Institute (API) in 1919. Ten years later, another trade association, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) is formed to represent smaller companies.1939 Second world war starts During World War II, the US government worked closely with the oil industry, putting a federal  investigation into its monopolistic practices on hold. A peacetime version of a wartime committee becomes the National Petroleum Council, an advisory committee that exists today.1959 Global warming warning API hosts renowned nuclear physicist Edward Teller at a conference at Columbia University, where he warns of impending global warming.1965 President Johnson warns of global warning Lyndon B. Johnson is the first U.S. president to publicly acknowledge climate change, calling it a serious global threat during a speech. 1968 CO2 warning Scientists at the Stanford Research Institute deliver reports to API, warning of global warming induced by CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.1970 EPA created President Nixon signs an executive order creating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.1978 CO2 research by Exxon starts Exxon starts internal climate research programme on carbon dioxide1979 Ozone standards weakened The EPA relaxes the standard for ozone, which contributes to smog. The move angers environmentalists and industry alike. API sues the agency.1988 Nasa scientist gives evidence NASA scientist James E Hansen testifies before Congress that the planet is warming because of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from fossil fuels1997 Kyoto Protocol signed The Kyoto Protocol treaty is signed. Countries pledge to reduce greenhouse gases and recognize the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and is likely caused by fossil fuel emissions.2016 Paris accord signed Some 195 countries back the Paris climate agreement, pledging efforts to reduce emissions and curb global warming.2017 Trump announces US exit from Paris President Trump announces the US exit from the Paris climate agreement, citing industry-hired economists that call the accord a bad deal for US businesses. Supporting the move is Scott Pruitt, a climate-change skeptic, who Trump appointed to head the EPA.Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. Residents of San Antonio’s low-income, mostly Latino neighborhoods – like Hillcrest, where Gabriel Rosales lives – bear the brunt of poor air quality even if they aren’t in ozone hot spots, said Mario Bravo , an outreach specialist with the Environmental Defense Fund. “They have less access to healthcare,” Bravo said. “They have less access to transportation to get to the health-care providers.”Dangerous and under dispute In June, two peer-reviewed studies trumpeted a conclusion at odds with years of solid science: fine-particle pollution long linked to premature death and chronic illness isn’t as dangerous as health advocates contend. If true, the findings would call into question health benefits claimed by the US Environmental Protection Agency , which has set ever-tightening air-quality standards.There was a catch, however. The articles – which were published within a week of one another – appeared in Critical Reviews in Toxicology and Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, two journals favored by industry consultants . And both studies were funded by API, a trade group that has spent $40m since 2013 to lobby Congress on topics ranging from taxes to global warming.“Our study is published ... air quality does not kill. $600m of EPA junk science up in smoke,” Steve Milloy , a climate change skeptic and Donald Trump acolyte, tweeted in June, linking to the Regulatory Toxicology article . During a congressional luncheon a month later, the former coal executive took credit for conceiving the study before turning it over to friend, S Stanley Young , and two other statisticians, who authored the final article. No mention of Milloy’s involvement is made in the publication.Some of the same data was used in the Critical Reviews article published by Louis Anthony “Tony” Cox Jr, which also disputed the link between fine particles and mortality. Cox, a biostatistician from Colorado, started consulting for API in 1988. Cox disclosed that his paper “benefited from close proofreading and copy editing suggestions from API” but denied in an interview that his findings were influenced. In November, he was named the next chair of the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee , drawing criticism from groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists.The science on particle pollution, much like the science on global warming, is exhaustive and widely accepted, with thousands of studies pointing to serious health implications. The World Health Organization notes that particulate matter “affects more people than any other pollutant”, with effects observed at even “very low concentrations”. The particles – found in automotive and industrial exhaust and smaller than one-fifth of the width of a strand of hair – form a toxic mix with ozone that lodges deep in the lungs. Unlike Cox, most researchers are no longer fixated on whether this form of pollution is fundamentally dangerous; they worry instead about whether it can cause – not just exacerbate – chronic illness.Attacking the science is one way of undermining the Clean Air Act, said John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which advocates for more protective air-quality standards. The Clean Air Act is routinely hailed as one of the most cost-effective federal laws, even by business groups. In 2015, the EPA estimated that the law will have saved the US economy $2tn by 2020 while costing $65bn to implement. About 85% of the act’s benefits come from reducing fine-particle pollution, which raises the risk of early death. Opponents of the law “deny that air pollution is deadly … or even harmful in order to try to pretend that no benefits are delivered,” Walke said.Milloy’s July congressional luncheon at the Rayburn House Office Building – billed as a “congressional staff and media briefing” – helped him plug his latest book, Scare Pollution: Why and How to Fix the EPA, which condemns the “echo chamber of deceptive science” on ozone and fine particles. Copies of the book were on a table at the side of the room.The event was hosted by Myron Ebell , who chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition , a climate skeptics’ group that began as an alliance of free-market think tanks. “It’s a lot like climate,” Milloy told the audience. “This stuff is pulled out of thin air.”Reached for comment, Milloy said the study is not an attack on the Clean Air Act but part of his 20-year effort to expose the EPA’s “garbage-in, garbage-out” air pollution research. He denied having any formal ties to API. “I am very, very disappointed in the American Petroleum Institute and all the oil companies for not defending their products, for leaving the science to people like me,” he said.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steve Milloy Illustration: Robert G Fresson Young, who authored the study, stood behind its findings and disputed the idea that industry funding presents ethical conflicts. His study data are publicly available, he said, but the EPA isn’t as transparent. Ebell agreed, accusing the agency of using “junk science” to justify air-quality and greenhouse-gas regulation.Despite their misgivings about the EPA, all three men have become tethered to the agency. Earlier this year, Ebell oversaw the EPA transition for Trump, leading a group that included Milloy. Young was named to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board in October.Senator Sheldon Whitehouse , co-founder of the Senate Climate Action Task Force, complained that such appointments have become all too common. “These people were fringe fanatics and industry stooges fighting on behalf of the industry a propaganda war against science,” he said.Milloy and Ebell were listed among the authors of a $2m plan to amplify uncertainty in climate science – as revealed in a 1998 API memo leaked to The New York Times. Both say the memo grew out of an API brainstorming session that never resulted in concrete action, with Milloy calling it “just a big joke”.Years before, API had refuted the very concept of global warming under its president, Charles DiBona, who joined the institute shortly after a stint as energy policy advisor to Richard Nixon in the 1970s. White House communications show that DiBona regularly met with then president Frank Ikard, a close friend of Nixon’s, before becoming Ikard’s deputy in 1974.In recent years, fringe views espoused by API have found a receptive audience in US Representative Lamar Smith , whose climate-denial credentials rival those of Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Since Smith became chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology in 2013, the panel has handed out dozens of subpoenas – many to scientists at regulatory agencies and environmental groups – aiming to debunk climate research.Smith – whose district includes San Antonio – has opened the committee’s hearing rooms to Cooler Heads Coalition events such as Milloy’s book promotion and briefings that urged the United States to drop out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. In February, he reissued a controversial subpoena to New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who is investigating ExxonMobil’s historical knowledge on climate change. Since he joined Congress in 1989, Smith’s top campaign donors have been from the oil and gas sector, which gave him at least $764,000 , according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Smith did not respond to requests for comment.In 2016, Influence Map, a nonprofit environmental research group, estimated that ExxonMobil had spent about $27m on “climate obstruction” lobbying and advertising campaigns. That amount was dwarfed by the $65m API spent on similar efforts , the group found. ExxonMobil is one of the oldest and largest API members.‘Tired, old industry argument’ In July, the House passed a bill targeting what its proponents called “job-killing regulations” – namely, bedrock air-quality standards. Its lead author was Representative Pete Olson , a Republican from the ozone-plagued Houston area. All but four of the 229 “aye” votes were cast by Republicans, Lamar Smith among them.Under Olson’s bill, states would have until 2025 to meet the EPA’s latest ozone limit, which was supposed to take effect in October. The agency, which is legally required to update air standards to keep pace with evolving science, would be obligated to review rules for pollutants once a decade, as opposed to once every five years.The 2017 bill is the latest iteration of a proposal Olson first floated in 2015, seeking to delay regulation of ozone. The same day his bill passed, 144 trade groups, including regional offshoots of API, pledged their support in a letter to Congress . Oil and gas interests have been Olson’s top political contributors, donating more than $1m to his campaigns since 2007. A Senate version of the bill has not come up for a vote.In an email, Olson’s office wrote that the congressman “believes the Clean Air Act is critically important” but has “fundamental concerns” about Texas’ ability to meet tighter standards. Pollution control, the email said, “can be done rationally and with an eye on our economy”.By law, the EPA is not allowed to consider cost when setting ozone standards, but that hasn’t stopped API and other industry groups from injecting economics into the policy debate.Economics, like some controversial science, has provided API with grist to challenge regulations.Armed with seemingly authoritative studies from firms such as NERA Economic Consulting , the institute has recast issues such as action on climate change as reckless moves that could tank the US economy. NERA, whose clients include API collaborators such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Chemistry Council , was co-founded by Irwin Stelzer , an economist who works at the Hudson Institute, a free-market think tank.Such studies, like the NERA report Trump cited when he announced the US exit from the Paris climate agreement earlier this year, can be “extremely misleading”, often tallying every conceivable cost and ignoring every possible benefit, said Ben Franta, a Stanford University researcher investigating API’s climate activities. Because data underlying these reports are proprietary, Franta said, in many cases they can neither be verified or debunked. What’s left are unsupported arguments: “New ozone rules could be the most expensive ever,” reads an API webpage linking to dozens of NERA findings.The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has taken a tack similar to API’s. Since 2013, the TCEQ has paid NERA more than $870,000 for economic research on ozone – a topic the firm studied earlier for API. More than $2.2m in taxpayer funds have also been spent on contracts with Gradient – a consultancy previously hired by API to question the benefits of a stricter ozone limit. The TCEQ declined to comment on this story but on its website describes its mission as protecting the “state’s public health and natural resources consistent with sustainable economic development”.Anne E Smith , a managing director at NERA, did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment. She was among several industry-friendly voices at a 2015 TCEQ ozone workshop in Austin led by Michael Honeycutt, the agency’s director of toxicology. Other speakers included Gradient scientists, the editor of Critical Reviews in Toxicology, industry toxicologist Michael Dourson and air researcher Robert Phalen, known for saying the air “is a little too clean for optimum health”.Speakers at the Austin workshop have risen to prominence in the Trump administration. This fall, Honeycutt, Anne Smith, Dourson and Phalen were all named to key EPA science positions as either advisers or staff. Economics has long figured into API’s strategy to derail ozone rules. In 1971, the newly formed EPA set the ozone standard at 80 parts per billion, but in 1979 took an unexpected U-turn and weakened it to 120 ppb – angering industry and environmentalists alike. The latter called the reversal scientifically indefensible and accused the EPA of prioritizing economics over health. API promptly sued the EPA, with DiBona claiming the relaxed standards would still cost “billions of dollars without significantly improving the quality of the environment or the health of the public”.Spurred by lawsuits from the American Lung Association that compelled it to update air standards based on the latest science, the EPA reverted to its original 80 ppb ozone limit in 1997. The cap is now at 70 ppb, though even that number may not be protective enough, as some research has found health effects at 60 ppb.Nonetheless, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt – a former Oklahoma attorney general with deep ties to oil and gas – tried to keep the 70 ppb standard from taking effect. He backed off on the delay after 16 state attorneys general sued the agency in August. In a lawsuit filed this month , however, environmental groups accused the EPA of failing to enforce the rule.Pruitt had put forth what Dr Greg Diette – a lung specialist at Johns Hopkins University who has testified in favor of tighter ozone standards – calls “a tired, old industry argument. They say, ‘It’s going to put us out of business,’ and it doesn’t,” Diette said. “All this stuff always comes down to who has to pay.”But not all costs are economic. High ozone days are the hardest for Diette’s patients. “It can be terrifying – it’s the sensation of not being able to breathe,” he said. “Some feel as if they’re going to pass out. Some feel as if they’re going to die.”Asthmatics can do little more than hide indoors in an air-conditioned environment. The only other option, Diette said, is to move.Relocating isn’t possible for the Rosales family of San Antonio, who are uninsured and struggling to keep up with the cost of Gabriel’s medications. The air he breathes is expected to degrade further as oil prices rebound and drilling picks up in the Eagle Ford.With additional reporting by Tom Dart in San Antonio, Texas. Read the final part of the Guardian US/Center for Public Integrity pieces on big oil and power on Sunday: Venue of last resort: the climate lawsuits threatening future of Big Oil . Read more in the Center for Public Integrity’s special report, Unites States of Petroleum . Topics Air pollution Oil (Business) US Environmental Protection Agency features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/oil/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/14/fueling-dissent-how-the-oil-industry-set-out-to-undercut-clean-air'|'2017-12-14T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'494ff4699160275c48b3b3771a0f7974f570fbd1'|'Ocado blames driver shortage for sales slowdown - Business'|'Ocado has been forced to increase pay for its delivery drivers after a shortage of recruits hit sales at the online grocer.The company said it had put up pay by mid single digits in London and the south-east as it struggled to find new drivers to meet growing demand in these areas.Duncan Tatton-Brown, chief financial officer of Ocado, said there was currently a tight labour market, partly caused by the boom in online shopping, generally high employment levels in the south and possibly the fall in attractiveness of the UK to EU drivers following the Brexit vote and the plunge in the value of the pound.UK jobs boom is petering out, claims employers'' survey Read more “More people are buying products as soon as they want online and there are more demand for delivery services and a tight labour market,” he said.He said the company had resolved the matter by raising wages and changing the way it recruited and advertised for its drivers, all of whom are direct employees. Ocado employs about 12,000 people, half of them drivers.Ocado is not the only company finding it hard to recruit. According to the recruitment company Manpower, some firms are offering bonuses and paying premiums of up to 20% on their standard rates to attract workers. Lorry drivers can earn more than £20 an hour as well as bonuses of £100 per shift.Retail revenues at the online grocer rose 11.6% to £374m in the 14 weeks to 3 December, its fourth quarter, down from 13.1% in the previous three months. Growth in average orders per week slowed to 11.1%, to 280,000, while the average order size edged up 0.3% to £106.11.Tatton-Brown, said without the driver shortage the sales increase would have been closer to 13%.Ocado’s deliveries are also restricted by the capacity of its latest highly automated warehouse in Andover, Hampshire. The company said the facility was delivering 50% more orders a week than three months ago with its robots working longer and more being added to the system. Tatton-Brown said the facility was “progressing very nicely” but he added: “We have not set a public deadline when we expect to get to full capacity but it is not unreasonable to expect it to take three years.”Analysts described Ocado’s sales growth as slower than hoped and suggested that the gradual ramp up at Andover would continue to prove a “headwind”.But there was optimism about the company signing more deals with overseas partners after joining up with French supermarket business Groupe Casino last month. Under the deal Ocado will build a robotic warehouse for the French group’s Monoprix brand which is due to start operating in 2019.The long-awaited deal reassured investors who view Ocado as a tech firm which can sell its inventions and expertise worldwide.Tim Steiner, chief executive of Ocado, said he remained confident in the company’s ability to sign more overseas deals in the “medium term”.Topics Ocado Retail industry Supermarkets Online shopping Consumer affairs news'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/14/ocado-blames-delivery-drivers-shortage-sales-growth-slowdown'|'2017-12-14T11:46:00.000+02:00'
'39996b18c4abc783ceac78d5777f1627e66c65ff'|'Renault revives Alpine production with 6,000-car capacity'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:56 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Renault revives Alpine production with 6,000-car capacity Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DIEPPE, France (Reuters) - Renault ( RENA.PA ) has invested in plant capacity to build up to 6,000 sports cars annually under the revived Alpine brand, the company said on Thursday, as it formally opened the new production line in Dieppe, northern France. Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, poses near the Renault''s Alpine Celebration car before a presentation in Monaco February 16, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard The French carmaker has spent 36 million euros ($42 million) upgrading the site, factory boss Pierre-Emmanuel Andrieux told reporters at an inauguration ceremony marking the return of Alpine, 22 years after Renault shut it down to cut costs. In a nod to the history of the brand, founded in 1955, the new A110 will be produced in a limited edition of 1,955 vehicles, taking its name and styling from the best-known past model, sold between 1961 and 1977. First shown at the Geneva car show earlier this year, the new A110 is priced at 58,000 euros and will reach its first customers in the first quarter of 2018. Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Writing by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Richard Lough'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-renault-alpine/renault-revives-alpine-production-with-6000-car-capacity-idUSKBN1E82CH'|'2017-12-14T17:55:00.000+02:00'
'9768d8bcc4342e75bbedc58efbb29519467a2d9e'|'Euro zone businesses to start 2018 on near seven-year high'|'December 14, 2017 / 9:15 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Euro zone businesses to start 2018 on near seven-year high Jonathan Cable 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Businesses across the euro zone are ending 2017 on a near seven-year high, with demand and price pressures picking up and forward-looking indicators pointing to a busy start to 2018. Euro coins are seen in front of displayed flag and map of European Union in this picture illustration taken in Zenica, May 28 2015. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic The results of a key private sector survey on Thursday were better than economists polled by Reuters expected, with factories marking their best month in the survey’s two-decade history while services activity also accelerated. December’s upbeat numbers come the month before the European Central Bank is set to cut in half its monthly asset purchases to 30 billion euros (£26.4 billion). The ECB meets later today and is likely to bump up some economic forecasts. Despite a decade of ultra-loose policy, the ECB has failed to get inflation up to its target of just under 2 percent. So evidence in the latest survey of continuing price pressures, although a bit weaker than in November, will be welcomed. IHS Markit’s composite flash Purchasing Managers’ Index for the euro zone climbed to 58.0 this month, its highest since February 2011 and confounding the median forecast in a Reuters poll for a fall to 57.2 from a final November reading of 57.5. Anything above 50 indicates growth. “The rise in the euro zone composite PMI caps off a strong year and puts the economy on a very firm footing for the start of 2018,” said Stephen Brown at Capital Economics. “Ahead of the ECB’s meeting later today, policymakers will therefore be encouraged that the latest signals point to broad-based growth across the region.” Germany and France PMIs released earlier also showed the bloc’s two biggest economies growing strongly. The euro zone economy as a whole likely expanded 0.8 percent this quarter, IHS Markit said. If correct, that would be the strongest official quarterly growth rate since early 2015. “Fourth-quarter GDP growth is set up to be a beauty,” said Bert Colijn at ING. “GOOD TIMES AHEAD” Growth in new business touched a level not seen in over a decade, with the new orders sub-index rising to 57.9 from 57.3. Firms increased headcount at one of the fastest rates in the survey’s near 20-year history too. The PMI covering the bloc’s dominant service industry confounded a forecast for a slight dip to 56.0, instead rising from November’s 56.2 to 56.5, the highest since April 2011. That pushed up the business expectations gauge to a three-month high of 65.6 from 64.8. A manufacturing PMI also beat expectations, bouncing to a record high of 60.6 from 60.1, confounding forecasts for a fall to 59.8. An index measuring output, which feeds into the composite PMI, rose to 62.0 from 61.0 -- the highest since April 2000. It has only been above that level once before. Factories also built up supplies of raw materials at the third-fastest rate recorded, suggesting businesses expect demand to increase. The stocks of purchases index rose to 52.3 from 52.1, not seen since early 1998. “Current demand is very strong ... and companies are building up for good times ahead,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit. Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-pmi/euro-zone-businesses-end-2017-on-near-seven-year-high-pmis-show-idUKKBN1E8103'|'2017-12-14T13:04:00.000+02:00'
'3a729d3909dacf82f868d60c1caa8639fcf79170'|'BRIEF-Merck Says Prevymis To Be Available In Canada By End Of December'|' 33 PM / in 14 minutes BRIEF-Merck Says Prevymis To Be Available In Canada By End Of December Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 14 (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc: * MERCK & CO SAYS RECENTLY APPROVED PREVYMIS (LETERMOVIR) IS EXPECTED TO BE AVAILABLE IN CANADA BY END OF DECEMBER 2017 Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-merck-says-prevymis-to-be-availabl/brief-merck-says-prevymis-to-be-available-in-canada-by-end-of-december-idUSFWN1OE16I'|'2017-12-14T20:33:00.000+02:00'
'9d62502d7726ed164dbbf7d566655feb150424ca'|'Ryanair says threatened industrial action may disrupt flights'|'December 14, 2017 / 11:41 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Ryanair warns of disruption as more pilots join planned strike Conor Humphries , Padraic Halpin 3 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair ( RYA.I ) is making contingency plans for disruption to flights after pilot unions in three countries announced strikes for the coming days and two others threatened industrial action. Ryanair commercial passenger jet takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The strikes, which would be the first in Ryanair’s 32-year history, are being organised by pilots demanding an overhaul of the company’s system of contracts and collective bargaining, which they say gives management too much power. Pilots and ground crew in Italy are due to take action first with a four-hour strike on Friday, to be followed by a 24-hour stoppage by pilots in Ireland and Portugal on Dec. 20. Pilots in Germany and Spain have said they are considering industrial action. “Ryanair has been notified of threatened industrial action up to and including a 24-hour strike on Wednesday Dec. 20 next by a minority of our pilots in Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Spain. This may lead to some flight disruptions,” a spokesman for the airline said in a statement on Thursday. The company will publish contingency plans to minimise disruptions on Dec. 18, he said. “We apologise sincerely to our customers... Rest assured that we will do everything we can to minimise disruption for our customers,” the spokesman said. Pilots at Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers have mobilised in the wake of the announcement of 20,000 flight cancellations by the Irish carrier, which it blamed on a lack of standby pilots due to a failure in its rostering following a rule change by Irish regulators. Ryanair has denied claims by pilots that it has a pilot shortage. Ryanair, which does not recognise trade unions, promised to “face down” the threatened strike. Management has warned pilots in internal memos that pilots who take part in strike action may lose out on promotions and could cause the company to shift planes and jobs to lower-cost bases. Portuguese union SPAC said in a statement that it “deeply regrets the failure by management to engage with the pilots’ representatives in a meaningful manner.” It said its pilots had decided to strike because Ryanair was refusing to offer contracts under local rather than Irish law and to recognise the union’s company council as its exclusive negotiating partner in Portugal. Ryanair refuses to recognise unions, insisting instead on its own system of collective bargaining. Most pilots are hired on Irish contracts. SPAC also demanded “a commitment to end the established culture of fear and bullying towards its (Ryanair‘s) crew.” Ryanair denies there is any bullying at the airline and says it pilots have some of the best pay and conditions in the sector. A spokesman for German union VC said it had not yet set a date for a strike in Germany. Reporting by Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries; additional   Bryan; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots/ryanair-says-threatened-industrial-action-may-disrupt-flights-idUKKBN1E81FV'|'2017-12-14T13:40:00.000+02:00'
'43ab6817b338cc1593be87ca05eebce584ea82da'|'The Risk Business'|'Close The Risk Business Our monthly series delves into the biggest challenges that no chief executive can ignore, and gives tips on how companies can best prepare themselves for change.Natural disasters on one part of the world affect distant economies through today’s global supply chains. Whistleblowers expose scandals that can bring entire companies down. Meanwhile, migration in a globalised world changes the structure of the workforce and brings new pressures for decision-makers. The next part will publish on January 16 2018 © Bloomberg Four senior FT writers describe how businesses will have to weather startling changes over the next decade Tuesday, 5 December, 2017 When employees reveal wrongdoing, instead of being rewarded they are often punished Tuesday, 7 November, 2017'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/eb0ee18e-da31-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482'|'2017-12-14T19:20:00.000+02:00'
'e8e8e92e38c3f3e1856b1f5ffa32da9c391b6541'|'Swiss National Bank relaxed on virtual currencies'|'December 14, 2017 / 4:23 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Swiss National Bank relaxed on virtual currencies Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERN (Reuters) - Virtual currencies like bitcoin present no risks to monetary policy although investors should be aware of the dangers from big price swings, Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Thursday. Swiss National Bank (SNB) Chairman Thomas Jordan, addresses a news conference in Bern, Switzerland December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse - RC157D0A7880 Bitcoin surged from $1,000 at the start of the year to above $16,000. “We don’t see any risks from these cryptocurrencies to the effectiveness of monetary policy today or in the future,” he told a news conference after the SNB kept policy on hold. He said the currencies were more used as investments rather than to make payments. “Of course there are also valuation risks, because there can be big profits or losses,” Jordan said. “It is more a question of protecting the investor than a question of monetary policy.” The use of cryptocurrencies was still relatively small, Jordan said. ”From today’s point of view we don’t see any financial stability risks, he said. European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny this week said the European Union needs to consider regulating bitcoin, citing risks of money laundering and of a bubble emerging. Reporting by John Revill and Silke Koltrowitz Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-snb-crypto/swiss-national-bank-relaxed-on-virtual-currencies-idUKKBN1E82EU'|'2017-12-14T18:22:00.000+02:00'
'55b5e0408767f41458aa013eb723db9fe6ab942b'|'UPDATE 1-Japan, UK eye post-Brexit mutual recognition of trade standards'|'December 14, 2017 / 5:11 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Japan, UK eye post-Brexit mutual recognition of trade standards Reuters Staff (Adds details and quotes) By William James LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Japan and Britain said they hoped to achieve a swift deal on mutual recognition of each other’s standards for goods and services when Britain leaves the European Union. Britain is looking to cement its relationship with Japan - whose firms have invested billions in the country’s auto and energy sectors - as it prepares to leave the EU in March 2019. Earlier this year, May visited Japan to reassure her counterpart Shinzo Abe and concerned investors that Brexit will not make it a less attractive business partner. Speaking at a meeting in London focused on foreign and defence policy, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said he wanted agreements with Britain on mutual recognition of standards and judicial support after Brexit. “We have an agreement with the EU about those but with the coming Brexit I want to start preparing to make such agreements between Japan and the UK,” Kono said through a translator. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, speaking alongside Kono, said: “Of course it is exactly right that we need to protract the economic partnership agreement between the EU and Japan and make it specific to the UK.” “But we believe in terms of mutual recognition, as Taro has just said, we believe that can be readily and speedily accomplished,” Johnson said. When Britain leaves the world’s biggest trading bloc in 2019, it hopes to have a bespoke free trade deal with the EU and will have to renegotiate trade deals with the world’s biggest economies. During May’s visit to Japan in August, the two countries agreed to use an EU-Japan trade deal as the starting point for their new bilateral agreement. MUTUAL RECOGNITION A mutual recognition agreement, which would allow the two countries to accept each other’s rules as equivalent, would prevent the erection of technical barriers to cross-border trade. For example, this may mean there does not need to be separate goods testing processes in each country. Britain is the second most important destination for Japanese investment after the United States. Japanese companies including carmaker Nissan and conglomerate Hitachi have invested more than 40 billion pounds ($53.68 billion)in Britain, and Japanese companies employ a total of 140,000 people in the country. The total value of traded goods between the UK and Japan is around 13 billion pounds per year. But Japan has been unusually outspoken about its concerns that Britain’s departure from the EU, which was decided by a national vote in 2016, could affect current and future Japanese investments in Britain. Asked about the government’s handling of the Brexit process, Kono said he wanted it to be predictable and transparent. Britain, Johnson said, would remain the best place in this hemisphere for Japanese and other companies to invest after Brexit. Johnson also said that a rebellion in parliament on the legislation required to execute Brexit, which embarrassed May and complicated the legal exit process on Wednesday, would not stop Britain’s plans to leave the EU. “Brexit is unstoppable,” Johnson said. “My view is it won’t for one second stop Brexit or stop the Brexit process.” ($1 = 112.6200 yen) ($1 = 0.7451 pounds) (Reporting by William James and Andrew MacAskill, additional reporting by William Schomberg; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-japan-trade/update-1-japan-uk-eye-post-brexit-mutual-recognition-of-trade-standards-idUSL8N1OE62X'|'2017-12-14T19:11:00.000+02:00'
'56c99d233ce4c0aff396e25faeba2f3298e569c7'|'Australian watchdog blocks BP buy of Woolworths petrol stations'|'December 13, 2017 / 11:28 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Australian watchdog blocks BP buy of Woolworths petrol stations Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia’s antitrust regulator on Thursday blocked BP Plc’s ( BP.L ) A$1.8 billion ($1.4 billion) purchase of Woolworths Ltd’s ( WOW.AX ) petrol stations, even after the oil company offered to sell some stations to ease competition concerns. BP and Woolworths, which wants to exit the business to focus on its supermarkets, said they were disappointed by the decision after months of talks with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and were reviewing what to do next. Decisions by the commission can be challenged in court. “We remain confident that, with appropriate divestments as offered by BP, this transaction would not substantially lessen competition,” BP Australia President Andy Holmes said in a statement. “In light of this, we are currently consulting with our lawyers to determine our next steps.” Woolworths shares initially fell 1.4 percent after the announcement but recovered to trade down 0.7 percent in a broader market that was up slightly. While the asset sale was blocked, its petrol retail revenue stream remains unaffected. Investors said the rejection was not a total surprise, given the regulator had flagged concerns about the deal earlier this year. The acquisition was announced in December 2016. “I don’t think it’s significant for Woolworths,” said Stephen Bruce, a portfolio manager at Perennial Value Management, an investor in Woolworths. The main issue for Woolworths is that following any sale of its petrol stations it wants its supermarket shoppers to continue to receive fuel discounts from the new owner, which the regulator cleared separately on Thursday. The blocked acquisition boosted BP rival Caltex Australia Ltd ( CTX.AX ), which stood to lose a major fuel supply contract with Woolworths that it said previously would have cost it up to A$150 million in lost earnings before interest and tax, or 15 percent of its forecast earnings for 2017. Caltex shares rose as much as 5.2 percent. The company said on Thursday it would continue to supply Woolworths. The competition watchdog said BP’s acquisition would likely lead to higher fuel prices, highlighting that BP’s prices on average were sharply higher than Woolworths in Australia’s big cities. It said BP tended to raise fuel prices faster than Woolworths and lower them more slowly in response to oil price changes. If Woolworths were no longer a competitor on pricing, it added, all remaining players would raise their fuel prices. “The bottom line is that we consider motorists will end up paying more, regardless of where they buy fuel, if this acquisition goes ahead,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement. Reporting by Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Additional reporting by Susan Mathew in BENGALURU; Editing by G Crosse and Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-woolworths-grp-divestiture-bp/australian-regulator-to-oppose-bp-buy-of-woolworths-gas-stations-idUKKBN1E735Q'|'2017-12-14T04:30:00.000+02:00'
'649d7f5185d9b53f07cc9f13b5ff9ead1073dd6e'|'Sports Direct shareholders veto payment to brother of founder Mike Ashley'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:08 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Sports Direct shareholders veto payment to brother of founder Mike Ashley Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Independent shareholders in Sports Direct on Wednesday voted against making a retrospective payment of 11 million pounds to the brother of founder and majority shareholder Mike Ashley for his work as an IT expert. A man arrives for Sports Direct AGM at their headquarters in Shirebrook, Britain September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples Sports Direct said last month a report by law firm RPC had found that John Ashley was entitled to the money for his work since the British retailer floated in 2007. It asked independent shareholders to vote on the matter. At a meeting, held at Sports Direct’s headquarters in Shirebrook, central England, 71 percent of independent shareholders voted against the resolution. “The board respects the views of the company’s independent shareholders, and considers all these matters to be closed. We now intend to move on,” Sports Direct said. Mike Ashley, Sports Direct’s chief executive and 61 percent shareholder, and the rest of the board had abstained from the vote. He had said in November he did not expect independent shareholders to back the payment even though he felt John Ashley was owed the money RPC had recommended that Sports Direct pay John Ashley 11,029,296 pounds in bonuses for his work between the IPO and April 2015 to bring his compensation into line with other members of the company’s senior management team. John Ashley had received a salary of 150,000 pounds a year after the IPO, and received a bonus of 706,502 pounds under a separate employee bonus scheme, RPC said. The latest showdown came after years of clashes between shareholders and Ashley. Chairman Keith Hellawell, blamed by investors for a string of management and governance failures, narrowly survived a vote to oust him in September. Shares in Sports Direct, which will report first-half results on Thursday, were down 1.9 percent at 1325 GMT. Separately on Wednesday Sky News reported that Mike Ashley was close to selling English Premier League soccer club Newcastle United to Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners. ($1 = 0.7493 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sports-direct-investors/sports-direct-shareholders-veto-payment-to-brother-of-founder-mike-ashley-idUKKBN1E71NI'|'2017-12-13T15:56:00.000+02:00'
'f57770bd4fbdb11ae75c2b48e1dff75523f61031'|'UPDATE 1-Brazilian telecom Oi reaches breakthrough with creditors'|'(Adds information on government creditors, updates share price)By Gram Slattery and Leonardo GoyRIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA has reached a deal with two major creditor groups on a plan to exit bankruptcy protection, in a major breakthrough for Latin America’s largest ever in-court debt restructuring.The company said in a filing on Wednesday that the Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders and International Bondholders Committee had agreed in principle on a new restructuring plan that would effectively let creditors take over the company.The creditors’ support could open the door to formal approval of the new restructuring plan at a Dec. 19 creditor meeting, lifting a cloud from a company that employs more than 100,000 Brazilians and serves 40 million wireless subscribers.Common shares of Oi plunged 23 percent on Wednesday, as the plan would give bondholders up to 75 percent of the company’s shares, severely diluting equity.It was the stock’s biggest daily drop since June 2016, when Brazil’s largest telecom company by network size filed for protection from creditors on 65 billion reais ($20 billion) of bonds, bank debt and other obligations.The price of Oi’s 5.75 percent bonds due in 2022 jumped as much as 11 percent to $45.10 on Wednesday.Among the bondholders who stand to win from the deal include distressed debt titans Aurelius Capital Management, Goldentree Asset Management, and York Capital Management.The two major private bondholder groups, which hold about 22 billion reais of debt, declined to comment.The Brazilian government, which holds billions of dollars in Oi debt through state banks and unpaid regulatory fines, has also agreed in principle to the plan, a government official said on condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of talks.The head of Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel, Juarez Quadros, said the agency would still push for changes to the grace period and interest rates on 14 billion reais of fines that Oi owes.A separate government source who has followed the negotiations said the federal solicitor general’s office had brokered the deal reached late on Tuesday.A person with knowledge of the company’s thinking said that while insiders at Oi had been pessimistic about previous plans, the new restructuring proposal had an “excellent” chance of being approved.A prior plan submitted by Oi with approval of its board limited a debt-for-equity swap to 25 percent of the carrier’s capital, generating stiff resistance from bondholders.$1 = 3.30 Brazilian reais Reporting by Gram Slattery in Rio de Janeiro and Leonardo Goy in Brasilia; editing by David Gregorio and Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/update-1-brazilian-telecom-oi-reaches-breakthrough-with-creditors-idINL1N1OD0QS'|'2017-12-13T12:13:00.000+02:00'
'2b829c1626b3439b254b5f6adc73e670ddeaf823'|'Behind bitcoin boom, Japanese retail investors pile in'|'December 13, 2017 / 6:07 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Behind bitcoin boom, Japanese retail investors pile in Hideyuki Sano 6 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s army of retail investors, no strangers to high risk bets in the past, have emerged as a major force in bitcoin’s spectacular rally, now accounting for an estimated 30-50 percent of trading in the cryptocurrency as it spikes to record highs. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Bitcoin is seen on an advertisement of an electronic shop in Tokyo, Japan September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Once skeptics, Japanese retail investors have been attracted by the digital currency’s volatility and inefficiencies in pricing that create opportunities to make money on arbitrage between exchanges. “When I first heard about the bitcoin a few years ago, I thought it was a fraud,” said Yoshinori Kobayashi, 39, a former stock trader who took up bitcoin trading two-and-a-half years ago. “But I tried it out after I had come to know some people making money on it. I bought it at 60,000 yen, which quickly become 80,000 yen and I started to regret I hadn’t started earlier,” said Kobayashi, who believes bitcoin is on a long uptrend but took some profits last week. The spectacular surge in bitcoin, up more than 16-fold this year to above $17,000, has drawn comparisons to the 1970s gold spike or Japanese shares’ rally in the 1980s’ go-go era. Both of those delivered massive gains to Japanese retail investors before plunging sharply. Statistics on bitcoin and crypto-currencies are patchy because their trading is unregulated in most countries. According to data compiled by Jpbitcoin.com, a Japanese bitcoin website, yen-based bitcoin trades reached a record 4.51 million bitcoins in November, almost a half of the total of the world’s major exchanges of 9.29 million bitcoin. Industry officials say not all yen-based bitcoin trading is done by Japanese retail players as some hedge funds now trade bitcoin in the yen to take advantage of price differentials between the yen and dollar prices. Still, many industry officials estimate Japanese account for somewhere between a third and half of global bitcoin trade. Japan’s global share of the bitcoin market jumped after a clampdown this year by Beijing saw bitcoin trading in yuan almost entirely disappear. South Korea, another key centre for bitcoin trade, said it would hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the trading of cryptocurrencies amid calls for tighter regulation. VALIDITY AND VOLATILITY Japan’s approach to bitcoin has encouraged retail investor interest. The Japanese government in April granted cryptocurrencies legal status as a means of settlement and in September officially recognized 11 digital currencies exchanges. Also in September, the tax agency issued clarification that revenues from bitcoin will be treated as income, from which trading losses can be deducted. That eased concerns that profits from bitcoin might be taxed like gambling, where gains will be taxed but losses will not be regarded as costs. FILE PHOTO: Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes, next to computer keyboard, are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Some investors including Kobayashi also feel affinity to bitcoin partly because its inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, is said to be Japanese, though the true identity of the father of the blockchain technology is shrouded in mystery. Trading at Japanese major bitcoin exchanges grew to 4.51 million bitcoin in November from 1.19 million in April. In dollar terms, it has surged to $35.4 billion in November from $1.45 billion in April. A lack of major institutional investors is providing retail investors a rare chance to become dominant players, with primitive pricing leaving opportunities for savvy traders, market participants say. Even within dollar based exchanges, it is not uncommon to see a price in one exchange 10 percent higher than another exchange, for example. Then there are often gaps of more than 10 percent between yen-based bitcoin price and dollar-based price. “Most Japanese traders don’t even bother to check the dollar price,” said a veteran financial trader, who started bitcoin in September. TEXTBOOK CASE The trader also said bitcoin’s moves after it rose above 100,000 yen ($880) are very similar to what happened in a big rally in gold and silver in the past. “They both rallied very quickly after having broken out many years of range-bound trading,” he said. Indeed, many traders say technical analysis works remarkably well when it comes to bitcoin. Hiroyuki Kato has traded cryptocurrencies for two years, spending two to three hours a day studying the patterns and ratios popular in technical analysis on his smartphone or computer terminal. “I use Bollinger Band, MACD, the stuff everyone knows. It’s easier to win in bitcoin than in FX and stocks,” said Kato, who quit his sales job at a trading firm about two years ago to focus on trading cryptocurrencies and other assets. Among some financial professionals, there is growing talk that the meteoric rise in bitcoin resembles the “tulip mania” bubble in the Netherlands in the 17th century that burst spectacularly. However, many Japanese traders expect bitcoin’s stellar run to continue for some time yet. “The world’s total financial assets is around 10 quadrillion yen, and bitcoin is only just about 0.1 percent of that, which seems way too small if we assume the use of bitcoin spreads,” Kobayashi said. Bitcoin’s net worth could reach about 10 percent of the world’s assets, about 100 times its size today, Kobayashi reckons. Kato believes the digital currency is already in a bubble but still expects the start of futures trading on the Chicago Merchantile Exchange next week to attract more funds from institutional investors and push up bitcoin prices further. A major burst could happen in 2019, Kato says, but not until factors including low interest rates and the deep doubts harbored by many change. “At the moment, many people are still skeptical about bitcoins and when many are skeptical, there won’t be a burst of the bubble.” (For a graphic on Bitcoin''s blistering ascent, click tmsnrt.rs/2AHKJPd ) Reporting by Hideyuki Sano, Yoshiyuki Osada and Daiki Iga; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-japan/behind-bitcoin-boom-japanese-retail-investors-pile-in-idUKKBN1E70IT'|'2017-12-13T08:15:00.000+02:00'
'2f6c64bf9f42073dcd22d30b64ba6a04be7a92e2'|'Novartis generics arm says may sell or end some products'|'ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis’s Sandoz generics business is in the process of selling or closing some products in the United States, it said on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: Swiss drugmaker Novartis'' logo is seen at the company''s plant in the northern Swiss town of Stein, Switzerland October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann “In response to high price pressure, we are optimizing our U.S. portfolio. This includes the sale or discontinuation of certain non-core products and concentration of investment in strategic areas that will drive growth and improve access,” it said in a statement in response to a report by the Swiss newspaper Handelszeitung.“As we continue to refine our portfolio, it is clear that the U.S. market is a very important market for Sandoz and will continue to be in the future,” it added.Reuters had reported last month that Novartis was working with Centerview to examine options for its dermatology business, including a possible sale, as it trims non-core assets. [nL8N1N889J]Reporting by Paul Arnold, Editing by Michael Shields '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-novartis-sandoz/novartis-generics-arm-says-may-sell-or-end-some-products-idUSKBN1E720A'|'2017-12-13T16:43:00.000+02:00'
'a694943b49a4b95eccd526507c6f4c7641c70e67'|'Westfield $16 billion Unibail-Rodamco sale rings the bell on retail''s next chapter'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:51 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Westfield $16 billion Unibail-Rodamco sale rings the bell on retail''s next chapter Byron Kaye , Sonali Paul 5 Min Read SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - For investors in Australia’s Westfield Corp, its $16 billion (£12 billion) sale to European property giant Unibail-Rodamco may mark a turning point for a mall industry under pressure to reinvent itself amid fierce online competition. FILE PHOTO: Westfield Group Chairman Frank Lowy addresses an investors briefing in central Sydney November 3, 2010. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo But to billionaire Frank Lowy, who built Westfield’s vast European and U.S. shopping centre network into multi-purpose leisure venues, it was also the perfect moment to call time on a family empire. “He probably thought that he’d taken it as far as he could with his sons, and there were other people that may have a different way of approaching the industry,” said Harold Finger, founder of Sydney-based shopping centre investor Haben Property Fund Pty Ltd, who has known Lowy since he was a boy. “He’s 87 years old, his kids are not little babies any more, they’ve got kids and they’ve got other interests that they can get involved in,” he said, referring to two of Lowy’s sons, Peter and Steven. The sale of Westfield to Paris and Amsterdam-listed Unibail-Rodamco is a milestone for so-called bricks-and-mortar retailers, which have so far argued they can downsize or, in Westfield’s case, go upmarket to avoid the incursion of online competitors led by U.S. giant Amazon.com Inc. But analysts and investors in the sector disagree about what comes next. “Lowy has bailed on Westfield before Amazon destroys his malls and turns them into relic tombs of the 20th century,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of private equity investor the Patriarch Organization, by telephone from Los Angeles. “You can only do so much to re-imagine a shopping mall, and they’ve tried here in Los Angeles, but it’s like trying to reinvent the horse and carriage. No matter how much you try you can’t turn a horse into a Tesla. It’s not going to happen.” The deal may nudge other mall owners towards considering a sale more seriously, though some point out that further M&A action will be more difficult with Westfield and Unibail-Rodamco - two big players - now off the board. The Lowy family, which owns 9 percent of Westfield, will end up with a 2.8 percent stake in the combined group. Citi analysts noted Lowy’s public statement that he remained committed to his seven-decade-old company as an investor but said “it’s hard not to see today’s announcement as signalling a significant shift in view”. The deal has lifted expectations in a sector sold down by investors over its gloomy outlook. Shares of Scentre Group, which Westfield spun off in 2014 to hold its Australian shopping centres while Westfield kept the U.S. and British assets, rose 2 percent on Wednesday, on top of a 4 percent jump a day earlier. GOING HIGH-END The explosion of online retail has led to a worldwide decline in department store footprints, forcing mall owners such as Westfield to rethink their business models to sustain or grow earnings. In the United States, Macy’s Inc and J C Penney Co Inc have said they would shut hundreds of stores to protect themselves from declining sales. Credit Suisse estimates that up to 25 percent of U.S. malls will shut by 2025. Westfield has been seen as a pioneer of reinventing the mall concept, adding cinemas, apartment towers, high-end food courts and luxury fashion labels to its rental mix. The overhaul - which has spanned the Westfield portfolio from Beverly Hills, California, to London and Milan - has nonetheless curtailed earnings growth as capital works hit rents, weighing on the company’s share price and making it attractive for buyers. “Westfield particularly we saw as a good opportunity because it’s rare that you see a group that has such high quality assets, and they’re building out what is really the pre-eminent retail portfolio globally,” said Grant Berry, a portfolio manager at Australian broker S.G. Hiscock, which invests in retail real estate investment trusts (REITs), including Westfield. “They’ve been doing all the right things and the market hasn’t been giving them credit for that.” Winston Sammut, managing director of Folkestone Maxim Asset Management, said the deal offered Lowy and his family an exit just as their business entered its most challenge phase, while offering the buyer access to a fresh market. “It’ll probably turn out to be good timing,” said Sammut. “There’s still a lot of headwinds for the sector in general. The writing’s on the wall. You’ve got to take opportunities as they come.” Reporting by Byron Kaye in SYDNEY and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Additional reporting by Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Alex Richardson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-westfield-m-a-unibail-rodamco/westfield-16-billion-unibail-rodamco-sale-rings-the-bell-on-retails-next-chapter-idUKKBN1E71RR'|'2017-12-13T15:51:00.000+02:00'
'a892bb27a1585793951216a20ca2251642da14ee'|'Russia''s Gazprom says gets loan, credit line of 1.7 billion euros'|'December 13, 2017 / 6:56 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Russia''s Gazprom says gets loan, credit line of 1.7 billion euros Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian gas giant Gazprom said on Wednesday it obtained a credit line and a club loan worth of 1.7 billion euros (1.5 billion pounds). The logo of Russian gas giant Gazprom is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin It said Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank, Ltd and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., London Branch have approved a loan worth 1 billion euros. It also said UNICREDIT S.p.A. has agreed to provide a five-year credit line of 700 million euros. Reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva and Polina Devitt; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Polina Devitt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-gazprom-loans/russias-gazprom-says-gets-loan-credit-line-of-1-7-billion-euros-idUKKBN1E70M2'|'2017-12-13T08:55:00.000+02:00'
'5b7b59376636bca70d8f27c65d4d80f4d75ec5d1'|'Russia''s central bank to form biggest non-state pension fund with $9 billion merger - sources'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:25 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Russia''s central bank to form biggest non-state pension fund with $9 billion merger - sources Tatiana Voronova , Elena Fabrichnaya 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s central bank is preparing to merge three pension funds run by bailed out bank Otkritie to create the biggest non-state pension fund in Russia, while guaranteeing payouts to their 7.7 million members, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The funds had been indirectly controlled by Otkritie Holding, the former parent of Otkritie bank. Once Russia’s largest private lender, it was rescued in August by the central bank, which was then lumbered with the three pension funds too. The Russian central bank has since increased the estimate of the overall cost of the bailout, which includes the three pension funds, Lukoil-Garant, Eletroenergetiki and RGS, to 456 billion roubles. The former owners of Otkritie bank, led by the holding company’s chief executive Vadim Belayev, failed in an attempt to merge them to form the biggest non-state pension fund in Russia with funds under management of 519 billion roubles ($9 billion). Two people close to the two funds and a person close to Otkritie, which declined to comment, told Reuters that the central bank has decided to merge the three funds. The central bank declined to comment on the plan, which will result in a pension fund larger than that of top lender Sberbank ( SBER.MM ), which has 430 billion roubles under management. It was not immediately clear why the central bank would merge the funds, other than potential synergies, although one of the people said the new structure would make it easier for Otkritie bank’s new head, Mikhail Zadornov, to manage. A spokeswoman for Zadornov confirmed that the preliminary decision to merge the three funds was taken by the central bank. She added that Denis Rudomanenko, head of the Lukoil-Garant fund, is expected to head the combined fund. The central bank has said that it planned to sell the financial assets it was cleaning up - Otkritie bank and B&N bank - once they return to the financial health. Reporting by Tatiana Voronova and Elena Fabrichnaya; writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by John O''Donnell and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-banks-pensions-cenbank/russias-central-bank-to-form-biggest-non-state-pension-fund-with-9-billion-merger-sources-idUKKBN1E81UA'|'2017-12-14T17:57:00.000+02:00'
'288f99e210ff3bf376081ff1780376655882cade'|'Brazil telecom Oi reaches breakthrough with creditors'|'RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA ( OIBR3.SA ) has reached a deal with two major creditor groups on a plan to exit bankruptcy protection, in a major breakthrough for Latin America’s largest ever in-court debt restructuring.The logo of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA is pictured on a payphone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes The company said in a filing on Wednesday that the Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders and International Bondholders Committee had agreed in principle on a new restructuring plan that would effectively let creditors take over the company.The creditors’ support could open the door to formal approval of the new restructuring plan at a Dec. 19 creditor meeting, lifting a cloud from a company that employs more than 100,000 Brazilians and serves 40 million wireless subscribers.Common shares of Oi plunged 23 percent on Wednesday, as the plan would give bondholders up to 75 percent of the company’s shares, severely diluting equity.It was the stock’s biggest daily drop since June 2016, when Brazil’s largest telecom company by network size filed for protection from creditors on 65 billion reais ($20 billion) of bonds, bank debt and other obligations.The price of Oi’s 5.75 percent bonds due in 2022 jumped as much as 11 percent to $45.10 on Wednesday. USP18445AG4=1MAmong the bondholders who stand to win from the deal include distressed debt titans Aurelius Capital Management, Goldentree Asset Management, and York Capital Management.The two major private bondholder groups, which hold about 22 billion reais of debt, declined to comment.The Brazilian government, which holds billions of dollars in Oi debt through state banks and unpaid regulatory fines, has also agreed in principle to the plan, a government official said on condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of talks.The head of Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel, Juarez Quadros, said the agency would still push for changes to the grace period and interest rates on 14 billion reais of fines that Oi owes.A separate government source who has followed the negotiations said the federal solicitor general’s office had brokered the deal reached late on Tuesday.A person with knowledge of the company’s thinking said that while insiders at Oi had been pessimistic about previous plans, the new restructuring proposal had an “excellent” chance of being approved.A prior plan submitted by Oi with approval of its board limited a debt-for-equity swap to 25 percent of the carrier’s capital, generating stiff resistance from bondholders.($1 = 3.30 Brazilian reais)Reporting by Gram Slattery in Rio de Janeiro and Leonardo Goy in Brasilia; editing by David Gregorio and Andrew Hay '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-oi-sa-restructuring/brazil-telecom-oi-reaches-breakthrough-with-creditors-idINKBN1E730D'|'2017-12-13T18:59:00.000+02:00'
'c3adf09d070fd5afd4187d57fdde097f5dab48a6'|'India''s top court allows Vodafone to initiate second arbitration over $2 billion tax demand'|' 25 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago India''s top court allows Vodafone to initiate second arbitration over $2 billion tax demand Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s top court on Thursday allowed Britain’s Vodafone ( VOD.L ) to initiate a second arbitration process under an India-UK investment pact over New Delhi’s tax demand for more than $2 billion (1.5 billion pounds) arising out of a deal that was struck a decade ago. FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Branding hangs outside a Vodafone shop in Oxford, Britain, May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Vodafone, the world’s second-largest mobile operator, entered India in 2007 by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa’s wireless assets. It is contesting a tax bill of more than $2 billion relating to that acquisition. Separately, Vodafone has already initiated an arbitration process under India’s investment pact with the Netherlands. Reporting by Suchitra Mohanty and Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Malini Menon'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-vodafone-group-india-tax/indias-top-court-allows-vodafone-to-initiate-second-arbitration-over-2-billion-tax-demand-idUKKBN1E8111'|'2017-12-14T11:25:00.000+02:00'
'93ed8b9ccc4d287375724a87e99454390cc46db4'|'British Columbia rejects KGHM''s proposed Ajax mine'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:49 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Poland''s KGHM considers appeal against British Columbia mine rejection Julie Gordon 3 Min Read VANCOUVER/WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish miner KGHM said on Friday it was considering its next step after British Columbia said it would not issue an environmental certificate for its Ajax copper and gold mine in the province’s interior. The proposed mine aims to produce 109 million pounds of copper a year and 99,000 ounces of gold. It is located some 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the city of Kamloops, in central British Columbia, and is on the traditional territories of four Indigenous communities. British Columbia said on Thursday the adverse effects of the project would outweigh any benefit. The province’s decision follows a seven-year joint review by provincial and federal regulators, which found that the project would have 53 residual and cumulative adverse effects, 21 of which were considered of moderate to high magnitude. “KGHM Ajax (...) will consider taking further steps, which could include using an appeal measure,” the Polish miner said in a statement released on Friday. Canada’s environment minister Catherine McKenna separately recommended against the project on Thursday, saying it was likely to cause “significant adverse environmental effects and cumulative effects to Indigenous heritage.” A final federal decision will come down to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet. No timeline was given for that decision. In its statement, British Columbia said because the 1,700-hectare open pit mine would be so close to the city, and in particular an elementary school, it would present an “unacceptable risk.” It also noted that the area was of “high importance” to local First Nation groups and its development would have a significant effect on their heritage and right to use the land for traditional purposes. KGHM has said the mine would create 1,800 construction jobs and 500 full-time positions, along with significant tax benefits for the city and province. It entered into a joint venture to develop the project in 2010 with Abacus Mining which owned the rights and in 2012 increased its stake in the Ajax project to 80 percent from 51 percent. Shares in KGHM fell by 0.05 percent at 1127 GMT. Reporting by Julie Gordon; Additional reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko in Warsaw; Editing by James Dalgleish and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kghm-polska-mine-canada/british-columbia-rejects-kghms-proposed-ajax-mine-idUSKBN1E838S'|'2017-12-15T00:44:00.000+02:00'
'b86b8795be94498e35a7aabcc9a6b6b51eecd607'|'Russia''s Aksakov: Promsvyazbank rescue won''t affect other banks'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:13 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Russia''s Aksakov: Promsvyazbank rescue won''t affect other banks Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Russian banking sector will not be affected by the central bank’s decision to bail out Promsvyazbank, the country’s 10th largest lender by assets, TASS news agency cited the head of the Russian banking association as saying on Friday. Anatoly Aksakov, the head of Russia’s regional banks association and a member of the Duma finance committee, also said Promsvyazbank’s bailout would be the last such rescue of a bank this year. The Bank of Russia said on Friday it was putting Promsvyazbank under temporary administration, the third such bailout in the Russian banking sector this year. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Jack Stubbs)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-banks-promsvyazbank-aftermath/russias-aksakov-promsvyazbank-rescue-wont-affect-other-banks-idUSR4N1NX02I'|'2017-12-15T09:09:00.000+02:00'
'bb2f7558897e89b2423a552f81cb72ec47d7a77f'|'Statkraft sells Sheringham Shoal wind farm stake to UK''s Equitix'|'December 14, 2017 / 11:53 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Statkraft sells Sheringham Shoal wind farm stake to UK''s Equitix Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Norway’s state-owned power firm Statkraft said on Thursday it had agreed to sell its stake in the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm to UK fund manager Equitix. The 40 percent stake in the wind farm, located off the coast of Norfolk in Britain, will be sold for 558 million pounds.($749.28 million). The 317 megawatt (MW) capacity Sheringham Shoal has been operational since 2012 and is owned by Statoil, Statkraft and the wind fund managed by Green Investment Group Management Limited. Statkraft is also looking to sell its 30 percent stake in 402 MW Dudgeon wind farm. In June, the company had said that it would conclude the stake sales process for both wind farms towards the end of 2017 and potentially close early next year. Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-statkraft-britain-windfarm-equitix/statkraft-sells-sheringham-shoal-wind-farm-stake-to-uks-equitix-idUKKBN1E83E1'|'2017-12-15T01:53:00.000+02:00'
'b40f3b0c32b06d369dab6a6f4b8ce70025e847a7'|'Italy''s Ferragamo unable to confirm medium-term targets'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:51 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Italy''s Ferragamo unable to confirm medium-term targets Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italian luxury goods brand Salvatore Ferragamo ( SFER.MI ) said on Thursday it could not confirm the targets it had set for the next three years in its business plan as 2018 would be another year of transition. FILE PHOTO - People walks past a Salvatore Ferragamo shop in downtown Rome, Italy, February 10, 2016. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo In a statement it said it could not be sure of “the medium-term ambitions presented to the market on Feb. 3”, when it unveiled its strategy for the years 2017 to 2020, but it did not give a new guidance. Back in February the Florence-based group had said its revenue would increase at twice the market rate in the four years starting in 2017. It also said both gross margins and core profits would improve in the period, however without quantifying the growth. But since launching the ambitious new strategy, focussing on raising sales per square metre at its almost 700 boutiques around the world, core profit margins have been falling year-on-year, severely hit by a planned clearance of inventory products. The move is aimed at freeing up space for new products, in a broader push by the 90-year old brand to become more contemporary and appealing to younger customers, now a larger proportion of the luxury sector’s client-base. The group also said that “the transition phase, that characterised 2017” would extend into 2018. Chief Executive Eraldo Poletto, who took over from long-serving Michele Norsa last year, had already warned in November, when the group reported a 25 percent drop in nine-month core profit, that 2018 would be ”another year of hard work. Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ferragamo-strategy/italys-ferragamo-unable-to-confirm-medium-term-targets-idUKKBN1E8310'|'2017-12-14T22:51:00.000+02:00'
'279791666783accc2fa8c00d740a91948597dfe3'|'Blessing to replace Zeltner as UBS wealth management head'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:31 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago Veteran German banker to become head of UBS wealth management   ZURICH (Reuters) - Veteran German banker Martin Blessing will replace Juerg Zeltner as the head of UBS’s market-leading wealth management business at the turn of the year, Switzerland’s biggest bank said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Commerzbank Chief Executive Martin Blessing attends the bank''s annual news conference in Frankfurt, Germany, February 12, 2016. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Blessing, former head of Germany’s Commerzbank, has run UBS’s Swiss business since September 2016. Zeltner, who has worked for UBS for more than three decades, will retire in 2018, the bank said in a statement. The move sparked speculation that Blessing, 54, was now in pole position to succeed Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti, who has given no signs of wanting to stand down any time soon. “There was already speculation that Blessing wouldn’t remain the head of Swiss retail banking forever,” said Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Javier Lodeiro. “This isn’t likely to lead to a new strategic direction for wealth management. It will certainly take a few quarters until Blessing’s new accents manifest themselves.” UBS Chairman Axel Weber, the former head of the Bundesbank, is also German. UBS’s wealth management business boosted pretax profit by 16 percent in the third quarter as net new money increased. It managed 1.1 trillion Swiss francs ($1.12 trillion) in invested assets as of the end of September. Axel Lehmann, the current chief operating officer, will succeed Blessing as the head of UBS Switzerland. Sabine Keller-Busse will become chief operating officer and also be in charge of human resources. “Lehmann will take over what is a well-run business,” ZKB’s Lodeiro said. Zeltner’s departure is the second major move in Swiss private banking within weeks after Boris Collardi abruptly quit his job as Julius Baer chief executive to join Geneva-based Pictet. Baer declined to comment on whether Zeltner could be a CEO candidate. Reporting by Michael Shields and Oliver Hirt; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ubs-group-wealth/blessing-to-replace-zeltner-as-ubs-wealth-management-head-idUKKBN1E80M1'|'2017-12-14T08:30:00.000+02:00'
'c8ab84f315d059c1affb0d09f4b638d669aa7654'|'Rising U.S. output to push global oil market into H1 2018 surplus - IEA'|'December 14, 2017 / 9:14 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago Rising U.S. output weighs on oil prices Ahmad Ghaddar 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices came under pressure on Thursday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) increased its forecast for growth in U.S. oil output next year, raising the prospect of excess supply. FILE PHOTO: A sample bottle of crude oil is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 29 cents to $56.31 a barrel, down from a high of $56.93. Brent crude futures were at virtually unchanged at $62.45 a barrel at 14.44 GMT, after hitting a session high of $63.14. The Paris-based IEA said U.S. crude output next year would increase by 870,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from its November forecast of 790,000 bpd. The change mirrors upward revisions issued by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the United States government. “The IEA underlined the same take that the U.S. Energy Department had the day before yesterday and OPEC had yesterday,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst with SEB Bank, adding that further upward revisions might follow. With cash pouring into the U.S. shale oil industry, the United States is on track to deliver up to 80 percent of the world’s oil production gains through 2025, the IEA estimates. OPEC revised its estimate for U.S. oil output growth for 2018 to 1.05 million bpd, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration increased its growth forecast to 780,000 bpd. The IEA expects the oil market to have a surplus of 200,000 bpd in the first half of next year before reverting to a deficit of about 200,000 bpd in the second half. That means 2018 overall should show “a closely balanced market”. For now, Brent prices remain underpinned by an outage on the Forties crude pipeline that is expected to last several weeks. Operator Ineos declared force majeure on crude oil, gas and condensate deliveries from the pipeline, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. A fall in U.S. crude inventories last week also lent some support. Stocks fell by 5.1 million barrels in the week to Dec. 8, the fourth consecutive week of decline, to 442.99 million barrels, the lowest since October 2015. Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-iea/rising-u-s-output-to-push-global-oil-market-into-h1-2018-surplus-iea-idINKBN1E8105'|'2017-12-14T11:13:00.000+02:00'
'576329583772bc05e4f4f1f2c7e5e990338c7db3'|'Asia stocks edge higher after Fed meeting; dollar, U.S. yields sag'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:53 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Asia stocks slightly up after Fed move; dollar, U.S. yields sag Shinichi Saoshiro 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks generally rose on Thursday after the Federal Reserve delivered a much-anticipated interest rate hike, while its caution on inflation tempered expectations for 2018 tightening, weighing on the dollar and Treasury yields. FILE PHOTO - Investors look at computer screens showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song China’s central bank also raised rates, though marginally. While Chinese shares slipped, the wider impact was limited. Spreadbetters expected Britain''s FTSE .FTSE to open 0.2 percent lower, Germany''s DAX .GDAXI to start 0.3 percent off and France''s CAC .FCHI to slip 0.15 percent at the open. As long expected, the Fed raised rates for the third time this year on Wednesday, and it stuck to its projection for three rate increases next year. But the policy tightening was accompanied by concerns about low inflation, toning down expectations for policy tightening in 2018. The Fed projected inflation to remain shy of its goal for another year, giving policymakers little reason to accelerate the expected pace of rate increases. “The key takeaway from the Fed meeting was the degree of concern shown toward low inflation, which likely led to two dissenting votes,” said Junichi Ishikawa, senior FX strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo. “The 10-year Treasury yield fell sharply on the Fed’s stance and lackluster U.S. CPI, which shows that the markets don’t necessarily see the Fed hiking rates three times in 2018.” After dropping nearly 6 basis points overnight, the 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR crawled up about a basis point to 2.3654 percent. Data earlier on Wednesday showed U.S. core consumer prices, which exclude volatile energy and food prices, moderated to 0.1 percent in November from a 0.2 percent increase in October. The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was steady at 93.425 .DXY after sliding about 0.7 percent on Wednesday to pull away from a one-month top of 94.219 set on Tuesday. The Fed’s less hawkish statements supported MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS, but by afternoon its gain had been pared to 0.15 percent. China''s yuan was firmer and Shanghai shares .SSEC were lower after the People''s Bank of China hiked the reverse repo rate and the one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) rate by 5 basis points as Beijing seeks to prevent destabilizing capital outflows without hurting economic growth. “Five basis points is not going to make that much of a difference. But it is an important symbolic message in the right direction, that rates are going higher,” said Heng Koon How, head of markets strategy for United Overseas Bank in Singapore. South Korea''s KOSPI .KS11 climbed 0.5 percent. Other gainers included equities from Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 lost 0.3 percent, hurt by dollar weakness after the Fed decision. The dollar was little changed at 112.625 yen JPY= after losing 0.9 percent overnight. The euro was flat at $1.1825 EUR= following gains of 0.7 percent the previous day. The European Central Bank is expected to stand pat on monetary policy when it announces a decision later in the global day, but investors will eye President Mario Draghi’s views on the euro zone economy for potential incentives. The pound was little changed at $1.3429 GBP=D3 . Investors will sift through the Bank of England''s views on Brexit when the central bank announces its policy decision later on Thursday. The BoE is seen holding policy steady after raising rates last month for the first time since 2007. Prime Minister Theresa May’s government suffered a defeat on Wednesday, when lawmakers forced through changes to its Brexit blueprint that ministers said could endanger Britain’s departure from the European Union. Lawmakers voted in favor of an amendment to the EU withdrawal bill giving parliament more say over any final exit deal. In commodities, U.S. crude futures CLc1 rose 0.15 percent to $56.69 per barrel, lifted by the weaker dollar after two days of losses. Brent LCOc1 advanced 0.6 percent to $62.80 per barrel. Spot gold XAU= rose to a one-week high of $1,259.11 an ounce. Copper and nickel also advanced. [GOL/] [MET/L] A lower dollar generally makes dollar-priced commodities such as oil, gold and industrial metals cheaper for non-U.S. investors, boosting demand. Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano in Singapore; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-edge-higher-after-fed-meeting-dollar-us-yields-sag-idUKKBN1E803L'|'2017-12-14T02:57:00.000+02:00'
'73d52b927dcc611f5a5fc931f0aa7dd314ddcc85'|'Most Asian FX restrained by cautious sentiment, rupee rallies'|' 11 AM / Updated an hour ago Most Asian FX restrained by cautious sentiment, rupee rallies Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Most emerging Asian currencies traded in narrow ranges on Friday, restrained by weak equity markets and a lack of fresh catalysts though the Indian rupee rose on signs the country’s ruling party could win a key state election. FILE PHOTO: An India Rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The Indian rupee climbed nearly half a percent against the dollar, after exit polls showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will likely win elections in the his home state of Gujarat but caution remains ahead of the actual results. The state election is seen as a litmus test for Modi ahead of a national election in 2019. “A possible landslide victory by the BJP could signal strength in the coalition, paving the way for PM Modi to continue his economic policies,” Maybank said in a note on Friday. In a sign of wider caution in the region, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.5 percent on Friday. The Indonesian rupiah and the Philippine peso were trading flat after their central banks kept their key interest rates unchanged, as expected. On Thursday, Indonesia’s central bank said future policy decisions would depend on inflation and a stable rupiah currency amid rate rises by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other developed economies. The Philippine central bank dismissed concerns the economy is at risk of overheating from strong domestic demand and investments. China’ yuan was slightly higher against the dollar on the day. However, most regional currencies were headed for weekly gains. On Friday, the dollar index was on the defensive after wrangling over a bill to change the U.S. tax code dented confidence. The dollar index was marginally higher at 93.566 on the day. The passage of the tax reform took a hit after two U.S. Republican senators on Thursday were reported to have sought changes to the proposed legislation to overhaul the U.S. tax code. The tax bill needs a simple majority to pass in the Senate, in which Republicans hold just 52 of the 100 seats and no Democrats are expected to support it. Some analysts said the passage of U.S. tax reform would support Asian currencies. “Tax reform is good for U.S demand, which is good for Asian exports. So dollar may not necessarily be very strong against Asian currencies (next year),” said Nizam Idris, head of strategy, fixed income and currencies at Macquarie Bank. “But the dollar has a bit more upside against major currencies, through policy differentials.” Profit taking at the year-end also kept regional currencies in check. Exchange data showed foreigners have sold more than $1 billion in Taiwan equities and $940 million in South Korean equities this month. There were net outflows in Indonesia, Philippine and Thailand markets also. Reporting By Patturaja Murugaboopathy; Additional reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-forex-emerging/most-asian-fx-restrained-by-cautious-sentiment-rupee-rallies-idINKBN1E90JD'|'2017-12-15T09:08:00.000+02:00'
'b251eb3254ef2f0b65a71291b83de66d1034484a'|'Asian shares slip, U.S. tax reform woes dent sentiment'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:04 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago World shares gain; U.S. yield curve flattest in decade Stephanie Kelly 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World shares gained on Friday and Wall Street opened higher on U.S. tax legislation optimism, while the U.S. yield curve hit its flattest in a decade after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates earlier this week. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.35 percent after a week of central bank meetings that saw the U.S. Federal Reserve raise interest rates yet left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England held off on hikes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 162.25 points, or 0.66 percent, to 24,670.91, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 26.08 points, or 0.98 percent, to 2,678.09 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 82.80 points, or 1.21 percent, to 6,939.32. Wall Street equities sharply rose as U.S. Republican lawmakers are to reveal details of the final Republican tax bill later on Friday. Votes on the legislation from both the House of Representatives and the Senate are expected next week. “People still think the tax bill will get done. I don’t think Republicans are going to let this by the wayside as they’ve come this far,” said Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company in Wisconsin. The bill has been one of the catalysts for this year’s surge in the stock markets. Europe’s STOXX 600 closed down 0.19 percent, as a 12.98 percent slump in fashion giant H&M ( HMb.ST ) and a 6.29 percent drop for Italian luxury goods firm Ferragamo ( SFER.MI ) spooked retailers. In addition, worries over political risk spurred profit-taking. According to EPROM’s weekly data, worries over the national election next year in Italy hit European equity funds with outflows at their highest level in over a year. Emerging market stocks lost 0.19 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.45 percent. Japan''s Nikkei stock index .N225 finished down 0.6 percent at its lowest in more than a week, with mobile firms extending a selloff on concerns of increased competition after e-commerce group Rakuten said it aims to become the country''s fourth wireless carrier. Slideshow (2 Images) U.S. YIELD CURVE HITS FLATTEST IN DECADE The margin between U.S. shorter-dated and longer-dated Treasury yields contracted to its slimmest in a decade on Friday after the Fed earlier this week upgraded U.S. growth forecasts but left its inflation view unchanged. “That sparked the extra kicker for curve flatteners the last couple of days,” said Thomas Roth, head of U.S. Treasury trading at MUFG Securities Americas in New York. “People are very comfortable with holding long-dated paper.” The yield spread between five-year and 30-year Treasuries US5US30=TWEB was last at 53.2 basis points. The U.S. dollar strengthened as Republican negotiators put the finishing touches on the tax overhaul bill and expectations rose that the bill would pass by year-end. [L1N1OF1Q8] The greenback rose and fell throughout the week after news surrounding the central bank policy meetings and tax reform. News that the European Union had formally agreed to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact triggered a 0.83 percent drop in the pound GBP= , as traders cashed in recent gains. The euro was EUR= down 0.2 percent to $1.1754. In commodity markets, U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 0.46 percent to $57.30 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.22, down 0.14 percent on the day. Spot gold XAU= added 0.2 percent to $1,255.30 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 gained 0.09 percent to $1,258.20 an ounce. Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Additional reporting Danilo Masoni in Milan, Julien Ponthus in London, Karen Brettell and Richard Leong in New York, Rama Venkat Raman and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-shares-edge-up-on-track-for-weekly-gain-idUKKBN1E903J'|'2017-12-15T06:48:00.000+02:00'
'8458115db7afb6f096918fd4f33ce9c4030c0606'|'BP to return to solar market with 43 percent stake in Lightsource'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:40 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago BP to return to solar market with 43 percent stake in Lightsource Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - BP ( BP.L ) will buy a 43 percent stake in solar energy company Lightsource for $200 million, the British oil producer said on Friday, marking its return to the solar sector. FILE PHOTO: A BP logo is seen at a petrol station in London, January 15, 2015. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo The investment, a fraction of the approximately $17 billion BP has spent in 2017, comes six years after BP wrote down billions on its first foray into solar, when its panel manufacturing business struggled with competition from China. “We’re excited to be coming back to solar, but in a new and very different way,” Chief Executive Bob Dudley said. London-based Lightsource, to be renamed Lightsource BP, will target the growing demand for large-scale solar projects. The company has a 6 gigawatt (GW) growth pipeline largely focussed on the United States, India, Europe and the Middle East, BP said. Lightsource has commissioned 1.3 GW of solar capacity to date and manages about 2 GW of capacity under long-term operations and maintenance contracts. BP will pay $50 million when the deal is completed, with the balance paid in instalments over three years, it said. Two decades ago, BP had set out to transcend oil, adopting a sunburst logo to convey its plans to pour $8 billion over a decade into renewable technologies, even promising to power its gas stations with the sun. That transformation - marketed as “Beyond Petroleum” - led to BP manufacturing solar panels in Australia, Spain and the United States and erecting wind farms in the United States and the Netherlands. BP, which will have two seats on Lightsource board, expects the deal to be completed in early 2018. Lightsource were advised by Rothschild, White and Case, Deloitte and Baker & McKenzie. Other oil majors including Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) and France’s Total ( TOTF.PA ) have invested in renewable energy as they prepare for a shift away from fossil fuels in the fight against climate change. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lightsource-bp-stake/bp-to-buy-43-percent-stake-in-solar-energy-firm-lightsource-for-200-million-idUKKBN1E90GW'|'2017-12-15T10:00:00.000+02:00'
'95dbf9ecb0185bca9839182b3a7b65dac88e35c8'|'Brazil Burger King operator may price IPO near top of range: sources'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The operator of the Burger King fast-food chain in Brazil, BK Brasil Operação e Assessoria a Restaurantes SA, is expected to price its initial public offering near the top of the suggested price range, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.FILE PHOTO: A Burger King restaurant is seen on a main street in Sao Paulo, Brazil October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker One of the sources said the offer is three times oversubscribed at the top of the 14.50 to 18 reais range.Shareholders and banks underwriting the IPO will set pricing early on Thursday, said the sources, who asked for anonymity because they are not allowed to discuss the matter publicly.Due to strong investor demand, the deadline for investor orders was made earlier to Wednesday evening from Thursday afternoon, two of the sources said.BK Brasil did not immediately comment on the matter.If priced at the top of the suggested range, BK Brasil´s IPO would raise 2.26 billion reais ($681 million), not considering the sale of additional and supplementary allotments of shares.BK Brasil would raise around 886 million reais in the so-called primary portion of the IPO to fund the expansion of its chain of 623 restaurants in Brazil. The rest would be received by shareholders selling part of their stakes in the secondary portion of the offering.Burger King Corp [BKCBK.UL], owner of the chain in the United States and controlled by buyout fund 3G Capital Inc, has a 13 percent stake in BK Brasil and is not selling shares in the IPO.The IPO is being managed by the investment banking units of Itaú Unibanco Holding SA ( ITUB4.SA ), Bank of America Corp ( BAC.N ), Banco Bradesco SA ( BBDC4.SA ), Grupo BTG Pactual SA ( BPAC11.SA ) and JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) and by Brazilian broker XP Investimentos CCTVM SA.The transaction in Brazil is being closely watched by shareholders of other companies operating Burger King restaurants outside the United States.Peter Yu, managing partner of private equity firm Cartesian Capital Group LLC, expects the price to be a “relevant comparable” to the IPO of the company operating Burger King restaurants in China.Cartesian is a shareholder in BK China, which operates 750 restaurants in mainland China.Burger King’s largest franchisee outside the United States, TFI TAB Gida Yatirimlari AS, filed for an IPO in New York in November. TFI TAB, which operates more than 1,820 Burger King restaurants in Turkey, is also a shareholder in BK China.(This story corrects spelling of name of Cartesian Capital partner Peter Yu, from Peter Wu, in 11th paragraph.)Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Ana Mano; Additional reporting by Bruno Federowski in Brasilia; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Shumaker '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bk-brasil-ipo/brazil-burger-king-operator-may-price-ipo-near-top-of-range-sources-idINKBN1E62C8'|'2017-12-12T14:12:00.000+02:00'
'4b996d626d725e1bb5537b56abe186e933d804e5'|'China will cut, remove export tariffs on some steel, fertiliser'|'December 15, 2017 / 11:11 AM / in 24 minutes China will cut, remove export tariffs on some steel, fertiliser Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China will cut export taxes on some steel products and fertilisers and ditch those for sales abroad of steel wire, rod and bars from Jan. 1, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday, in a series of measures that could boost shipments. FILE PHOTO: Workers check steel bars at a factory of Dongbei Special Steel Group Co., Ltd. in Dalian, Liaoning province, China November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo The move is likely to stir concerns among foreign competitors in the United States and Europe that China, the world’s top steel producer, may be looking to sell its excess product abroad. Stainless steel plate export tariffs will fall to 5 percent from 10 percent, while billet tariffs will be 10 percent, down from 15 percent currently. The country exported 64.5 million tonnes of steel products in the first 10 months of the year, down 30 percent from a year earlier. That included 1.74 million tonnes of steel wire, down 9.5 percent from a year before. Export taxes on three fertiliser compounds - nitrogen, phosphorous and potash - will be lowered to 100 yuan ($15.14) per tonne, compared with the current rate of 20 percent of the total shipment value, it said. Coal tar tariffs will also be cut and import duties on steel slag are to be ditched, it said. China will further cut tariffs on IT products from July 1, the ministry said without disclosing details. ($1 = 6.6072 Chinese yuan/renminbi) Reporting by Muyu Xu, Josephine Mason and Meng Meng; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr. and Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-export-steel/china-will-cut-remove-export-tariffs-on-some-steel-fertiliser-idINKBN1E915Y'|'2017-12-15T13:09:00.000+02:00'
'73edc0023373bae3c7b7bacb49499f3f8cd806de'|'Battery suppliers struggle to keep up with demand for Porsche''s Panamera'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:08 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Battery suppliers struggle to keep up with demand for Porsche''s Panamera Andreas Cremer 3 Min Read LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) - Battery suppliers are struggling to cope with buoyant demand for Porsche’s Panamera hybrid sedan, the sports car maker told Reuters, in a sign parent Volkswagen’s shift to cleaner vehicles may be paying off, but also of the challenges involved. A Porsche logo is seen at the entrance to the Porsche museum in Stuttgart, Germany, August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle The share of Panamera hybrids, which combine a conventional combustion engine with electric propulsion, of the model’s total output has doubled in the past 12 months, said Gerd Rupp, head of Porsche’s Leipzig plant where the four-door car is assembled. “At present we are able to meet customer demand well,” he said in an interview, adding about 8,000 Panamera hybrids would be built this year. “But there are limits because we are dependent on the capacities of battery suppliers.” “As a buyer we had originally projected different volumes (of battery systems needed),” Rupp said. “The effects can be seen in longer delivery times of currently 3-4 months for Panamera hybrid models.” Following its diesel emissions scandal in 2015, Volkswagen announced a huge investment in electric and self-driving vehicles, gambling that demand was finally about to take off. The success of the strategy has become all the more important, with new European regulations set to penalise carmakers that do not curb their CO2 emissions. Porsche’s stablemate Audi said this week it could face 1 billion euros (£0.8 billion) of fines if its average fleet emissions exceeded EU limits by eleven grammes per kilometre. Porsche, a key contributor to Volkswagen’s (VW) profit, is spending about 1 billion euros on its first battery-only model called “Mission E” and is considering a purely electric version of its top-selling Macan SUV to help lower CO2 emissions across its fleet, which includes big emitters such as the Cayenne and 911 Turbo versions. Production of an all-electric vehicle at Leipzig, where over 4,000 staff make the Panamera and Macan models as well as body shells for VW’s ultra-luxury Bentley brand, would require “a larger three-digit million-euro” investment in an all-new body shop, Rupp said. “The chances for producing a fully-electric Porsche in Leipzig are good,” he said, predicting a decision in the first half of 2018. But Porsche is struggling to recruit the mechatronic engineers, software experts and tool mechanics it needs, he added. With carmakers racing to offer hi-tech and automated driving systems, there is huge demand across the industry for such specialists. “It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to find the right experts” for Leipzig with adjacent suppliers and a BMW plant competing for hirings. As a result, Porsche is working to improve the skills of its existing staff at a new training centre at Leipzig, Rupp said. “We cannot completely rely on the open job market,” he said. ($1 = 0.8472 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-porsche-electric/battery-suppliers-struggle-to-keep-up-with-demand-for-porsches-panamera-idUKKBN1E923E'|'2017-12-15T18:07:00.000+02:00'
'56171dff86e660592f8b7298e8cef7dec467774d'|'Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'December 15, 2017 / 5:31 PM / a few seconds ago Take Five: World markets themes for the week ahead Reuters Staff 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. People walk past the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo, Japan June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai 1/BOJ JOB The Bank of Japan holds the last of this year’s major central bank meetings next week. Japan’s economy is now into its best period of expansion this century, the labor market continues to improve, and bank lending is booming. Yet the BOJ’s stimulus remains pretty much at full throttle, having already ballooned its balance sheet to the same size as Japan’s GDP. Keeping the yen from appreciating and thus disturbing the cyclical tailwinds of growth seems to have become a major reason why the BOJ is a laggard on policy ‘normalization’. Some BOJ policymakers have been dropping subtle hints to prepare markets for an eventual exit from its policy -- one that keeps short-term rates negative and pegs the 10-year yield to zero percent -- but investors expect little guidance around that exit plan at next week’s meeting. The first changes may come via a small rise in the 10-year yield target, they suspect, but even the odds of that are low so long as wage growth is subdued and inflation remains well below the BOJ’s 2 percent target. (Graphic: BOJ lags other major central banks with policy normalization - reut.rs/2jWTuLc ) 2/HOME SWEET HOME? Fresh U.S. figures on existing home sales and housing starts could point to a continued deceleration going into 2018. On a 12-month percentage change, dating back to 2000, both data series reveal how the housing market is softening. The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cycle has been a major factor -- in particular, short-term mortgages, where interest rates on floating-rate home loans have risen the most, making life harder for some would-be buyers. One of the conundrums though is that the White House wants to juice up the economy with tax cuts while the Federal Reserve wants to keeping raising interest rates so they get back to more normal levels. (Graphic: U.S. housing - reut.rs/2jYQxtQ ) 3/VIVA ESPANA A snap election takes places in Catalonia on Thursday with the Spanish government hoping the vote will put an end to the wealthy region’s independence bid. One recent poll suggested pro-independence parties may fail to retain an absolute majority of seats in the Catalan parliament, with pro-unity parties poised to increase their vote share. Failure to win a majority in the regional parliament would be a blow for Catalan separatists who have billed the Dec. 21 election as a de facto plebiscite on Madrid’s decision to impose direct rule in October following an independence referendum. Spanish bonds and stocks markets, both unnerved by the political crisis, have recovered ground. Any signs that the election will bring calm to the euro zone’s fourth biggest economy should cheer investors -- and give them plenty of time focus on elections likely to be held in Italy early next year. (Graphic: Spanish assets since Oct. 1 Catalonia referendum - reut.rs/2kuPYqU ) 4/ANC YOU LATER South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party is expected to anoint its next leader on Sunday -- but whoever wins, the chances of the party splitting in two have grown. The bruising battle to choose the successor to President Jacob Zuma between business-friendly Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former cabinet minister and ex-wife of President Jacob Zuma, is too close to call. The rand ZAR=D3 has performed well in recent weeks on expectations that Ramaphosa will clinch the victory, but the complexity of the leadership contest means the outcome is far from certain. So investors who had been hoping for political stability and a chance for the country to enact some much-needed structural reforms could be disappointed. (Graphic: South African rand firms on hopes of Ramaphosa win - reut.rs/2CxA2w7 ) 5/VINTAGE YEAR With just one full trading week left to the end of the year, perhaps one of the few remaining issues to decide markets-wise is whether this was the best in year in global stocks since 2013 or 2009. Right now 2017 is vying with 2013, with gains just above 20 percent year-to-date seen in both. The crash recovery year of 2009 clocked up more than 30 percent and stocks are well shy of that. Next week we may well finally see the inking of a U.S. tax cut deal but trading flows are also likely to slow to a trickle as investors shut up shop. It could make markets more sensitive to volatility but it shouldn’t ruin the end-of-year parties. (Graphic: Global assets in 2017 - reut.rs/2jVemCC ) Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUKKBN1E929P'|'2017-12-15T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'932e27950ef270b76e4246548cd1194ed19a288a'|'E.ON sticks with British business - CEO in WirtschaftsWoche'|'December 14, 2017 / 9:32 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago E.ON sticks with British business - CEO in WirtschaftsWoche Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - E.ON confirmed it has no plans to pull out of the British energy retail market, its chief executive was quoted as saying, a day after rival Innogy cut its operating profit outlook due to ongoing weakness there. E.ON Chief Executive Officer Johannes Teyssen during annual news conference in Essen, Germany, March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen “We are staying in the British retail business and want to grow there,” Johannes Teyssen told WirtschaftsWoche in an interview published on Thursday. “Particularly in markets like these you have to have a certain willingness to fight it out, and that means you have to get through troughs.” E.ON said last month that it lost about 200,000 customers in the competitive British retail market so far this year, but added it currently was not examining any strategic options for the business. Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-e-on-britain/e-on-sticks-with-british-business-ceo-in-wirtschaftswoche-idUKKBN1E811E'|'2017-12-14T11:31:00.000+02:00'
'fd94ff2a2e9806b7672c36224dce7b9f9b623341'|'Suzuki says EV battery supply deal possible with Toyota-Panasonic'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Suzuki Motor Corp’s ( 7269.T ) president said the Japanese automaker will not join efforts by Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) and Panasonic Corp ( 6752.T ) to develop batteries for electric vehicles, but a supply deal could be possible.The logo of Suzuki Motor Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Toyota on Wednesday said it is considering making EV batteries with Panasonic to help meet its goal for green cars to comprise half of global sales by 2030.Automakers are competing to launch more EVs to meet tightening regulations on vehicle emissions, and have been announcing partnerships with parts suppliers and other companies to meet the high costs of developing new technologies.Toshihiro Suzuki, speaking at a product launch in Tokyo on Thursday, told reporters there was “no room” to join the tie-up between Toyota and Panasonic, but that a supply arrangement was possible.Suzuki and Toyota have agreed to trade expertise in parts supplies and research and development, including selling electric vehicles in India.Reporting by Maki Shiraki; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-suzuki-ev/suzuki-says-supply-deal-with-toyota-panasonic-on-ev-batteries-possible-idINKBN1E809H'|'2017-12-13T23:55:00.000+02:00'
'739855e0b633a1ac66acae707b2f83a8c842662f'|'Vijay Mallya''s extradition hearing told of abuse of UK "Chennai Six"'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:35 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Vijay Mallya''s extradition hearing told of abuse of UK "Chennai Six" Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - One of the “Chennai Six” group of ex-British soldiers jailed in India was dragged to a psychiatric hospital and force-fed anti-psychotic tablets during his time in jail, a London court considering whether to extradite Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya was told on Thursday. Mallya, 61, is wanted in India on fraud and money-laundering charges relating to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines and Indian authorities want to recover about $1.4 billion they say Kingfisher owes. The businessman, co-owner of the Force India Formula One team, who moved to Britain in March last year, says the case him is politically motivated and is fighting extradition on several grounds including a claim that jail conditions in India are incompatible with British human rights laws. As part of this, his lawyer quizzed prison conditions expert Dr Alan Mitchell about a conversation he had had two days ago with one of the former British soldiers who had been held for four years in India on weapons-smuggling charges after the vessel they were working on strayed into Indian waters in 2013. The soldiers were released from jail in Chennai, eastern India, after a successful appeal and began arriving back in Britain last week. The ex-soldier, named only as “A”, said he had been grabbed by 15 prison guards and prisoners and taken to a psychiatric hospital because he had been “excessively walking” around the prison, Mitchell told London’s Westminster Magistrate Court. Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya is seen outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls “While in the psychiatric hospital, he stated he was tied up, gagged, he was beaten and he was forcibly injected. In addition he described being force-fed anti-psychotic tablets that he managed to spit out,” Mitchell said. Asked by Mallya’s lawyer Clare Montgomery about assurances given over the treatment of Mallya, who she said had diabetes, coronary artery disease and sleep apnoea, Mitchell said the British government had likewise told parliament that the Chennai Six were being well looked after. Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya is seen outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls “Despite assurances having been given in parliament, ‘A’ was extremely disappointed by what effect the involvement of the High Commission and the UK government had on conditions in which he and his fellow prisoners were held,” he said. Mark Summers, the lawyer representing the Indian government, said Mitchell’s evidence involved an uncorroborated account which could be used as a “platform for a compensation claim against the UK government”. He said conditions in Chennai would bear no relation to the jail in Mumbai where Mallya would be held. Another hearing in the London extradition case against Mallya will be held on Jan. 10 with a decision expected at a later date. Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-mallya-britain/vijay-mallyas-extradition-hearing-told-of-abuse-of-uk-chennai-six-idINKBN1E8247'|'2017-12-14T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'f23386fc2c1196d5a8f036146d33c1ef8493cf6a'|'Lockheed to partner with Aerion to develop supersonic business jet'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:53 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Lockheed to partner with Aerion to develop supersonic business jet Mike Stone 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ), the maker of the F-35 and F-22 fighter jets, is partnering with plane maker Aerion Corp to develop the world’s first supersonic business jet. Over the next year, the companies will draw up a plan for all phases of the program such as engineering, certification and production to develop the jet, the Aerion AS2, the companies said on Friday. The head of Lockheed’s aeronautic division, Orlando Carvalho, said “new materials, new technologies are making civil supersonic flight a realistic near-term possibility.” Reno, Nevada-based Aerion said it expects the supersonic business jet to be operational by 2025. During the next year the project could create as many at 40 jobs at Lockheed Martin alone, Carvalho told Reuters in an interview. In May, General Electric Co’s ( GE.N ) GE Aviation and Aerion announced a joint study to develop a supersonic engine for the AS2. U.S. space agency NASA last year awarded a contract to a unit of Lockheed to design a low-boom flight demonstration aircraft as part of its Commercial Supersonic Technology Project. Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington, D.C., and Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lockheed-aerion/lockheed-to-partner-with-aerion-to-develop-supersonic-business-jet-idUSKBN1E92J5'|'2017-12-15T20:51:00.000+02:00'
'b6a834c571bad2eadbcfaf1c3e831e0c01858fb1'|'EU, Mercosur officials say no trade deal expected this year'|'December 13, 2017 / 10:41 PM / Updated an hour ago EU, Mercosur officials say no trade deal expected this year Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Negotiations for a trade deal between the European Union and South American trade bloc Mercosur will extend into next year, officials from both sides said on Wednesday, after the Europeans asked for more time to analyse proposed changes. Negotiators for Mercosur - comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - indicated to their European counterparts some improvements they would be willing to make to their offers during talks on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization conference in Buenos Aires this week. But the EU did not improve its offer setting import allotments for beef and ethanol, two major Mercosur exports, Uruguay’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The agricultural sectors in countries like France and Ireland have voiced fierce objections to an increase in imports. “The European commissioners need to check in and be sure they have backing to be able to respond to the proposals we presented,” Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes told reporters on Wednesday. Mercosur members had been hoping to announce a political framework for a deal either at the WTO meeting, which concluded on Wednesday, or at the bloc’s summit in Brasilia on Dec. 21. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the two parties were “weeks away” from announcing an agreement, noting that she still needed to explain it to member countries and the European parliament. “We are simply not there yet,” she told reporters. Reporting by Luc Cohen and Maximiliano Rizzi; Editing by Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-mercosur/eu-mercosur-officials-say-no-trade-deal-expected-this-year-idUKKBN1E733C'|'2017-12-14T00:40:00.000+02:00'
'ac9daca1b249c0a78a77f028af9742aaf6d60a32'|'The WTO remains stuck in its rut - The art of the impossible'|'“THERE is life after Buenos Aires,” soothed Susana Malcorra, chair of the 11th ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Multilateralism may not be dead, but it has taken a kicking. Expectations were low as the meeting began in the Argentine capital. They sank even lower as it progressed. Delegates failed to agree on a joint statement, let alone on any new trade deals.Many arrived with a culprit already in mind. Robert Lighthizer, the United States Trade Representative, was the face of an administration that is both questioning the benefits of multilateralism and jamming the WTO’s process of settling disputes. As negotiations progressed, some delegates groused that American leadership was lacking. Some even speculated that the Americans might be happy if multilateral talks foundered. What better proof, after all, that the system is broken?  43 minutes   7   7   Ms Malcorra, without mentioning the Americans by name, warned against creating scapegoats out of those who might recently have “shifted gear”. The WTO, after all, had problems before Mr Lighthizer took up his job. Decisions are made by consensus, which leaves deals vulnerable to hostage-takers. In some cases, the victim is the negotiating agenda. Still hanging over the WTO is a 16-year-old negotiating round, in theory meant to further global development. Until that round is concluded, members such as South Africa are reluctant to negotiate on any new issues, like rules on e-commerce or investment facilitation.Members arrived in Buenos Aires in disagreement, and refused to budge. The Indian delegation wanted to lift restrictions on its government’s ability to distribute stockpiles of food. When the Americans refused, the Indians looked for a way to retaliate. They ended up killing an agreement to ban subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing—as national leaders had agreed to do by 2020 as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Cecilia Malmstrom, the European trade commissioner, called this failure “horrendous”.Amid the triumph of self-interest over the greater good, there were some grounds for cheer. For now, it seems Mr Lighthizer is planning to influence the multilateral system from within. A joint statement released by America, Japan and the European Union pledged “to enhance trilateral co-operation in the WTO” when dealing with excess capacity, forced technology transfer and local-content requirements.Perhaps more importantly, members are actually moving ahead on some issues. A coalition of countries ranging from America and the EU to Cambodia has signed up to negotiate new rules on e-commerce on a plurilateral, rather than a multilateral, basis. As long as enough members agree among themselves for the deal to be worthwhile, and do not discriminate against other members of the WTO, a deal is possible. The message was clear: if some members want to block discussion, then they will be left behind.It seems unlikely that a surge of plurilateral agreements will be enough to jolt the WTO into life. For that, the organisation’s members will need to show more commitment to it—and to learn the art of compromise. Roberto Azevêdo, the WTO’s director-general, wrapped up the conference by reminding members that “multilateralism doesn’t mean that we get what we want. It means we get what is possible.”This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline "The art of the impossible"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21732555-its-ministerial-meeting-buenos-aires-finishes-virtually-no-noticeable?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'd2ce0706424938c4d4acc7fc871111cf7160db78'|'Thomas Cook considering acquisition of Niki'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:14 PM / a few seconds ago Thomas Cook considering acquisition of Niki Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Tourism group Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) is considering a takeover of insolvent holiday carrier Niki, a spokesman said on Thursday, after Niki was left looking for a new investor following Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) decision to drop a bid. FILE PHOTO: A sign is seen outside a Thomas Cook shop in central London, November 26, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo “We plan to increase our capacity in the German market in light of the increased demand,” he said. “We are considering our options, including a takeover of Niki, or buying parts of the airline.” Thomas Cook and its German airline Condor had been among the initial parties to bid for Niki, part of collapsed German carrier Air Berlin, but lost out to Lufthansa. Niki filed for insolvency on Wednesday after Lufthansa dropped its bid, citing competition concerns. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-m-a-thomas-cook-grp/thomas-cook-considering-acquisition-of-niki-idUKKBN1E8261'|'2017-12-14T16:56:00.000+02:00'
'7685767f6c16db395cb3605cc20fd228e6475cbe'|'ETP seeks U.S. OK to drill more on Rover natgas pipe, Ohio wants pause'|'December 14, 2017 / 7:34 PM / in 15 minutes ETP seeks U.S. OK to drill more on Rover natgas pipe, Ohio wants pause Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Energy Transfer Partners LP urged U.S. regulators to allow the company to start more horizontal drilling as it works to complete part of the Rover natural gas pipeline by the end of the year, after delays caused by spills. The request, involving the largest gas pipeline under construction in the United States, was made in a letter to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency that was filed with U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission late on Wednesday. It was a response to the Ohio agency’s request to the commission on Nov. 24 to pause Rover’s horizontal drilling to cross under large obstacles like highways and rivers, citing fluid spills in the state. ETP officials were not immediately available for comment. Once complete, the $4.2 billion Rover will carry up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the U.S. Midwest and Ontario in Canada. One bcfd of gas can supply about 5 million U.S. homes. In the letter, ETP said the Ohio EPA “grossly mischaracterizes Rover’s activities.” ETP said the five spills identified by the Ohio EPA were at two locations, Captina Creek and Black Fork Mohican, and not “significant” in size, the biggest being an estimated 1,188 gallons at Captina Creek on Oct. 11. Ohio EPA spokesman James Lee, however, said by phone on Thursday there have been two additional spills at Black Fork Mohican since Nov. 24, the biggest being an estimated 350 gallons. ETP said Rover was in compliance with the FERC-approved plan that allowed the company to start horizontal drilling again in September. FERC banned ETP from new horizontal drilling in May following a spill of around 2 million gallons of fluid into the Tuscarawas River wetland in Ohio. ETP has said that Rover was more than 95 percent complete and it expects to finish the first phase of the project in Ohio by year-end and the second phase from Ohio to Michigan by the end of the first quarter. In late November, ETP said it had only the Captina Creek drill left to finish to complete phase 1B of the project from Seneca to Cadiz in southeast Ohio. The company finished the 225-mile (362 km) phase 1A from Cadiz to Defiance in northwest Ohio in August. Flows on the pipe peaked at 0.8 bcfd in November, according to Reuters data. ETP also said in late November that it had completed 25 of the 49 horizontal drills for the entire project and had 16 in process. Major gas producers that have signed up to use Rover include units of privately held Ascent Resources LLC, Antero Resources Corp, Range Resources Corp, Southwestern Energy Co, Eclipse Resources Corp and EQT Corp. Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-transf-pipeline-natgas-rover/etp-seeks-u-s-ok-to-drill-more-on-rover-natgas-pipe-ohio-wants-pause-idUSKBN1E82VF'|'2017-12-14T21:29:00.000+02:00'
'245a373b3fa6f0931aa0beeafb3ffd47986cf5c5'|'Japan''s ruling bloc approves big corporate tax cut to encourage wage hikes'|'Reuters TV United States  19 AM / a few seconds ago Japan''s ruling bloc approves big corporate tax cut to encourage wage hikes Tetsushi Kajimoto , Takaya Yamaguchi 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s ruling bloc approved a plan on Thursday to slash the corporate tax rate to around 20 percent from 30 percent - but only for companies that raise wages aggressively and boost domestic capital spending. Japan''s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan June 1, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The carrot-and-stick approach is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s most aggressive step yet to convince companies to lift wages 3 percent, which he believes is needed to stimulate consumer spending and vanquish the deflation that has plagued Japan for nearly two decades. Qualifying companies would also need to substantially boost investment in factories and equipment. The proposal, which would be effective for three years from fiscal 2018, needs parliamentary approval to be enacted. It would bring real tax rates for qualifying companies in line with an average of around 23 percent among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development members, through greater deductions. But analysts are skeptical that the tax breaks will prompt Japanese firms to spend some of their record cash piles on higher worker pay amid concerns about the country’s shrinking population and prospects for low growth. “Policy tax breaks are put in place only for a specified period of time, therefore they are unlikely to encourage firms to boost permanently fixed costs such as base pay,” said Koya Miyamae, senior fiscal analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities. A recent Reuters poll of 230 big and mid-sized businesses found that two-thirds of respondents think Abe’s wage rise target of 3 percent is unrealistic. The annual tax code revision is expected to be endorsed by Abe’s cabinet and submitted to parliament early next year for approval by April 1, the start of the next fiscal year. TAX HIKES Abe’s ruling bloc also approved a raft of tax hikes for coming years to pay for a bulging welfare bill, at the risk of putting a damper on private consumption. The government expects a rise in personal income tax effective in 2020 to bring in some 90 billion yen ($800 million) in additional annual tax revenue. The tax increase will be realized through cuts in deductions for salaried workers earning more than 8.5 million yen annually, except those with children or other family members in need of care. Basic deductions for all earners will be expanded to encourage more work flexibility. The tobacco tax will be hiked by 3 yen per cigarette or 60 yen a pack in stages over the next four years, the first such increase since 2010. Taxes will also rise on “heat-not-burn” tobacco in stages over the next five years. In addition, the ruling bloc agreed to adopt a departure tax of 1,000 yen on people leaving Japan to enhance infrastructure for tourism, starting in 2019. It also agreed to adopt an additional residential tax of 1,000 yen to fund conservation of forests from April 2024. Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Andrew Galbraith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-tax/japans-ruling-bloc-approves-big-corporate-tax-cut-to-encourage-wage-hikes-idUKKBN1E80KR'|'2017-12-14T08:12:00.000+02:00'
'a56aff99c0882515ab75cff6d83932c504e6c1eb'|'Bank of England''s Brexit views in focus as rates set to stay on hold'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:12 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Bank of England - disorderly Brexit risk reduced by EU talks progress David Milliken , William Schomberg 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Last week’s breakthrough in Brexit talks has reduced the risk of a disorderly British departure from the European Union and may boost economic confidence, the Bank of England said on Thursday after it left interest rates unchanged. FILE PHOTO - A man is silhouetted as he walks past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne BoE policymakers voted unanimously to keep rates at 0.5 percent, as expected, a month after raising them for the first time in more than a decade as inflation approached its highest level in nearly six years. Sterling fell against the dollar and 10-year British government bond yields touched a three-month low, however, as markets got no sense that the BoE would speed up its rate hike plans. Domestic data suggested the economy might be slowing slightly into the end of the year, and Brexit remained a big uncertainty going forward, the central bank said. But it drew positive conclusions from finance minister Philip Hammond’s annual budget in November - which it said would boost growth slightly over the next few years - as well as from developments in Brexit talks. Prime Minister Theresa May secured agreement from the European Commission last week that Britain had made sufficient progress in preliminary talks to move on to negotiating a transition agreement and a longer-term trade deal. “This would reduce the likelihood of a disorderly exit, and was likely to support household and corporate confidence,” the BoE said, adding that it would consider progress on Brexit more closely when it updates its forecasts in February. May is in Brussels on Thursday to get EU national governments to sign off on last week’s deal. BoE Governor Mark Carney has previously faced criticism from Brexit supporters for focusing on the risks of leaving the EU. GRADUAL RATE RISES The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee stuck to its view from last month that interest rates were only likely to need to rise gradually. “The committee remained of the view that, were the economy to follow the path expected in the November Inflation Report, further modest increases in Bank Rate would be warranted over the next few years,” the BoE said. The BoE decision comes the day after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates for a third time this year, and shortly before the European Central Bank was due to make a statement on monetary policy. “We expect that the MPC will raise interest rates again next year but there were no hints today as to when that will occur. We think August 2018 is the most likely date for the next hike,” said Rhys Herbert, a senior economist at Lloyds Bank. Economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected a 9-0 vote in favour of leaving policy unchanged from the Monetary Policy Committee after last month’s rate rise. The BoE said this marked the start of a very gradual tightening cycle as the economy comes close to running at full capacity. Inflation hit its highest level in nearly six years in November at 3.1 percent, and the jobless rate remains at the lowest since 1975, even though the outlook for growth is soft. Last month the BoE said it expected the economy to grow by 1.6 percent next year, unchanged from what it expects for 2017 and somewhat faster than the government and most economists polled by Reuters expect. Both financial markets and economists mostly expect the BoE to wait nearly a year before raising interest rates again. Figures overnight pointed to the weakest housing market since 2013 but retail sales data earlier on Thursday were unexpectedly strong, as shoppers pounced on Black Friday bargains. The BoE said inflation was now near its peak and reiterated its view that above-target price growth was almost all due to sterling’s fall after June 2016’s Brexit vote. It expects inflation to fall slowly next year. Wage growth - which many BoE policymakers view as a good guide to medium-term inflation pressures - remains slow, with regular pay in the three months to October up just 2.3 percent on a year earlier. However, the BoE said this was in line with expectations, unlike in previous years when it had disappointed, and that slack in the economy was being steadily eroded. Editing by Jon Boyle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe/bank-of-englands-brexit-views-in-focus-as-rates-set-to-stay-on-hold-idUKKBN1E8013'|'2017-12-14T02:14:00.000+02:00'
'00fd69ee4aee5104fdebdce69786d28a7cee5287'|'Irish mortgage arrears inch lower again in third quarter'|' 38 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Irish mortgage arrears inch lower again in third quarter Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - The number of Irish homeowners in arrears for more than 90 days inched lower to 7 percent in the third quarter from 7.1 percent three months earlier, central bank data showed on Thursday, confirming a pattern of moderating declines. Arrears began falling sharply from a peak of 12.9 percent in 2013 in line with an economic recovery but the pace has slowed down since, dropping to 7.6 percent a year ago as lenders manage the most intractable non-performing loans (NPLs). Irish Central Bank Deputy Governor Ed Sibley said this week that while the banks had made “enormous progress” on reducing their NPLs, they were now left with very challenging cases that need to be dealt with in a sustainable manner. Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-cenbank-banks/irish-mortgage-arrears-inch-lower-again-in-third-quarter-idUKKBN1E81O4'|'2017-12-14T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'626b95635a4b8f5840064bfc455702fb9a2d26f1'|'Family-friendly Disney to bring edgier Fox fare to streaming video'|'December 14, 2017 / 11:17 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Family-friendly Disney to bring edgier Fox fare to streaming video Lisa Richwine 3 Min Read LOS ANGELES, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co is poised to add foul-mouthed superhero Deadpool and gory TV series “American Horror Story” to its portfolio, a novel move for the king of family-friendly entertainment into the adult-oriented programming consumers are devouring on streaming video. Disney’s deal to buy most of the film and TV businesses of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc will aid the efforts of Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger to transform the company from a traditional media operation dependent on pay TV distributors to one that streams shows and movies directly to consumers online. With the Fox deal, “they have content for everyone,” Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth said. “They have family-friendly content, but that does not need to be the only thing they do, because there is a broader audience looking for a broad type of content.” In acquiring the Fox assets, Disney will also gain majority control of Hulu, a live TV and on-demand video provider that competes with Netflix Inc, the dominant streaming service. Disney plans to make Hulu the home for programming aimed at adults such as FX series, keeping it separate from a Disney-branded streaming service for families planned for 2019, Iger told reporters on a conference call. “It’s an opportunity for us to take some of these brands that don’t necessarily share all of the Disney brand attributes and use them to grow Hulu,” Iger said. FX airs shows such as the bloody “American Horror Story” and the dark and often graphically violent drama “Fargo,” a type of programming more akin to series found on Netflix or Time Warner Inc’s HBO. Iger said Disney has shown itself able in the past to successfully integrate new kinds of programming into its mission. Disney previously acquired Pixar Animation Studios, superhero studio Marvel Entertainment and “Star Wars” producer Lucasfilm and has given them a large degree of autonomy. That experience “suggests that we will be able to integrate these brands into the company in a manner that does not in any way create negatives for us,” Iger said. In March 2016, after Fox’s “Deadpool” movie became a huge hit, Iger was asked at the company’s annual shareholder meeting if Disney would consider making similar R-rated films featuring its Marvel superheroes. Iger said Disney did not plan to. On Thursday, Iger pulled back from that position, saying that characters like Deadpool might provide a model for an edgier kind of Marvel movie. “We think there might be an opportunity for a Marvel R brand for something like Deadpool,” he said, “as long as we let the audience know what’s coming.” Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sue Horton and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/fox-ma-walt-disney-culture/family-friendly-disney-to-bring-edgier-fox-fare-to-streaming-video-idUSL1N1OE1P8'|'2017-12-15T01:16:00.000+02:00'
'7cfe1ea4cd7cad7366879efd9000fde4a3430351'|'Siemens buys Fast Track Diagnostics to boost molecular offering'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:25 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Siemens buys Fast Track Diagnostics to boost molecular offering Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens said it has agreed to buy Luxembourg-based Fast Track Diagnostics to boost its molecular-testing offering, one of the areas it is keen to expand as it prepares to float its healthcare unit, Healthineers. A logo of Siemens is pictured on a building in Mexico City, Mexico, May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The Munich-based group did not disclose a purchase price on Friday for Fast Track, which has about 80 employees in Luxembourg, Malta and India. Siemens said the acquisition would allow it to reduce time in the laboratory for the detection of conditions including respiratory infections, gastroenteritis, meningitis, hepatitis and tropical diseases. It follows the acquisition of Neo New Oncology last year. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Christoph Steitz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-siemens-healthineers-acquisition/siemens-buys-fast-track-diagnostics-to-boost-molecular-offering-idUKKBN1E91EB'|'2017-12-15T14:24:00.000+02:00'
'5527c5bb7e148e48bb8cf838973b03ad28853aed'|'Mediaset, Vivendi to request hearing delay as they seek deal - source'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:11 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Mediaset, Vivendi to request hearing delay as they seek deal - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Mediaset and France’s Vivendi are set to ask a Milan judge to adjourn a Dec. 19 hearing over a failed pay-TV deal in view of a potential agreement, a source close to the matter said on Friday. The Vivendi logo is pictured at the main entrance of the entertainment-to-telecoms conglomerate headquarters in Paris, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The two groups have engaged in a legal battle since the French group’s surprise decision to pull out of an April 2016 contract which would have handed it full control of Mediaset’s pay-TV unit Premium. An Italian judge had asked the two companies to seek an agreement over the case. Sources close to the matter have said that the two sides are in talks over a possible deal. The Milan-based TV group had been seeking to enforce the sale contract. Mediaset and the Berlusconi family’s holding company Fininvest, which owns just under 40 percent of the broadcaster, are seeking 3 billion euros in damages. The source said the postponement request would be made at the start of the Dec. 19 hearing. Reporting by Stefano Rebaudo, writing by Giulia Segreti, editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mediaset-vivendi-court/mediaset-vivendi-to-request-hearing-delay-as-they-seek-deal-source-idUKKBN1E91CN'|'2017-12-15T14:10:00.000+02:00'
'53d0ef830d4083a4a4dab587914671cac2e5f29f'|'Wall Street set for higher open as tax bill concerns wane'|'December 15, 2017 / 2:01 PM / in 17 minutes Wall Street set for higher open as tax bill concerns wane Rama Venkat Raman 3 Min Read REUTERS - Wall Street was set to open higher on Friday, recovering from a bout of uncertainty surrounding the passage of the Republicans’ much-awaited tax overhaul bill. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The S&P 500 fell the most in a month on Thursday after Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee declined to back the bill without changes to child tax credits. “What Rubio was looking for is more help for the lower-income people, child tax credits. That’s something that can easily be adjusted, so the bill will move forward,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital. “Things are looking like this (tax bill) will get through. But the market is going to be sensitive to any inkling that it’s going to be a problem.” Stocks have rallied this year, partly on hopes of corporate tax cuts that U.S. President Donald Trump promised during his election campaign last year. The bill, in its current form, proposes a corporate tax cut to 21 percent from 35 percent. The stock markets are expected to see a rise in trading volume as the session progresses with traders likely to close hedging positions of futures, options and stocks or roll them over at the last minute. At 8:28 a.m. ET (1328 GMT), Dow e-minis were up 94 points, or 0.38 percent, with 1,808 contracts changing hands. S&P 500 e-minis were up 8.75 points, or 0.33 percent, with 22,818 contracts traded. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 20.5 points, or 0.32 percent, on volume of 2,679 contracts. The S&P 500 and the Dow were on track to record four weeks of gains in a row, while the Nasdaq was set to post its first rise in three weeks. Bitcoin rose to an all-time high of $17,751 on Bitstamp exchange in the day, boosting related stocks, including Riot Blockchain, Overstock.com, Xunlei by 1 percent to 11 percent in early premarket trading. Oracle’s shares slipped 6.85 percent after the company’s forecast for the current-quarter cloud revenue growth missed estimates and the second quarter sales in the business disappointed. CSX Corp fell over 12 percent and was the most traded stock on all U.S. exchanges premarket after the No.3 U.S. railroad said its Chief Executive Hunter Harrison was taking medical leave, a decision that comes in the middle of a controversial turnaround plan. Costco Wholesale shares rose about 3 percent after the retailer’s quarterly profit and revenue beat analysts’ estimates. Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-for-higher-open-as-tax-bill-concerns-wane-idINKBN1E91RO'|'2017-12-15T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'a32961d69dfd698f07576d9a6d1f79e1e022ad44'|'UPDATE 1-Atos shares fall 2.8 pct after Gemalto rejects takeover bid'|' 53 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Atos shares fall 2.8 pct after Gemalto rejects takeover bid Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details) PARIS, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Shares in Atos fell as much as 2.8 percent early on Thursday after Franco-Dutch chip maker Gemalto rejected its 4.3 billion euro ($5 billion) takeover bid. Atos led losers on the French blue-chip CAC 40 index early on. Gemalto, the world’s largest maker of chips found in mobile phones and credit cards, on Wednesday said Atos’ offer undervalued the company. Gemalto shares reversed early gains and traded down 0.50 percent on the previous session. Philippe Cohen, fund manager at Kiplink Finance said traders expected Atos to sweeten the deal. “Atos started with a low price, which is logical in this type of negotiations. There’s also the scenario of a ‘white knight’, probably French, such as Thales for example,” he said. “But the most likely scenario for us is that Atos raises its offer,” he added. In an interview with French daily Les Echos, Gemalto’s chief executive Philippe Vallee said Atos’s strategy for the group was “unconvincing” and “significantly” undervalued the company, but he did not completely shut the door on a deal. “We had to respond to this offer,” Vallee told the paper. Asked if Gemalto would reconsider its decision if Atos responded to their concerns, Vallee added: “Our answer is clear. I can’t foresee the future.” At 0850 GMT shares in Atos traded at 130.7 euros. (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/gemalto-ma-atos/update-1-atos-shares-fall-2-8-pct-after-gemalto-rejects-takeover-bid-idUSL8N1OE1VV'|'2017-12-14T10:52:00.000+02:00'
'42493d8bb6674b55889bbf169a7f802a887c354c'|'Humming German economy to grow by 2.6 percent in 2018 - Ifo'|' 35 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Humming German economy to grow by 2.6 percent in 2018 - Ifo Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The Ifo institute raised next year’s growth forecast for the German economy to 2.6 percent from 2.0 percent previously, pointing to a broad-based upswing that is generating record-high employment and buoyant tax revenues. FILE PHOTO: A construction site at the river Spree is pictured in Berlin, Germany, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo “The German economy is humming,” Ifo head Clemens Fuest said on Thursday, adding that the strong economic upswing would extend far into 2018. “Many sectors are flourishing, from construction to manufacturing and trade, which is why the Ifo business climate index is climbing from one record-high to the next,” Ifo economist Timo Wollmershaeuser said. The Ifo institute confirmed its recently raised forecast for German economic growth of 2.3 percent for this year, unadjusted for calendar effects. “If the number of working days were not so low, we would even have a growth rate of 2.5 percent this year,” Wollmershaeuser said. For 2019, Ifo predicts growth of 2.1 percent. Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Madeline Chambers'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy-ifo/humming-german-economy-to-grow-by-2-6-percent-in-2018-ifo-idUKKBN1E8125'|'2017-12-14T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'753a3521eb7789c64e320363f50fcf577ea6bd25'|'India''s November Iran oil imports skid to lowest since Feb 2016 - trade data'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:59 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago India''s November Iran oil imports skid to lowest since Feb 2016 - trade data Nidhi Verma 4 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s refiners imported nearly half as much crude oil from Iran in November as the month before, ship tracking data showed, cutting purchases to a 21-month low in protest at Tehran’s decision to award a giant gas field to a Russian company. India, the world’s No. 3 crude oil consumer, received about 266,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran last month, a decline of 43 percent from October and 55 percent from a year ago, according to a review of tanker arrival data from trade sources and numbers available on Thomson Reuters Eikon. For the fiscal year to March 2018, Indian refiners have opted to order about a quarter less Iranian crude as Tehran decided to award development rights for its huge Farzad B gas field to Russian rivals instead of an Indian consortium that discovered the field. For April-November, the first eight months of this fiscal year, India shipped in 19 percent less Iranian oil at about 427,200 bpd, according to the data. But India’s oil imports from Iran will likely rise in December, as vessels holding about 4 million barrels of oil sailed from the Iranian ports in end-November and discharged cargoes in early December, the data showed. Iran, facing the potential threat of further U.S. sanctions, has also cut oil prices in efforts to retain Asian customers and boost the appeal of its crude compared with other Middle Eastern supply. Last month’s drop in Iranian crude purchases left the Middle East’s slice of India’s overall oil imports squeezed to 57 percent in November from about 69 percent in October. Iraq continued to be the top oil supplier to India, followed by Saudi Arabia, the data showed. India’s imports of Iraqi oil surged in November when Basra Light discounts widened to 30-70 cents a barrel compared with official selling prices. Meanwhile African oil’s share of India’s overall imports climbed to about 16 percent in November from about 10.5 percent in the previous months, as supplies from the region, mainly Nigeria, improved after a repair to a key pipeline in late October. Most of the Nigerian cargoes were received by India in the first fortnight of November, indicating that refiners lifted buying in October, a month for which Brent’s premium to Dubai narrowed averaged $1.55 a barrel. Elsewhere, Latin America’s share of India’s oil imports jumped to about 19 percent in November from 12 percent the month before on higher intake of Mexico’s Maya crude, the data showed. Mexico’s crude oil exports had already surged in October to 1.35 million bpd, the highest since September 2016. Mexico emerged as third-biggest supplier replacing Iran, which tumbled to seventh position. Nigeria replaced Venezuela as the fourth-largest supplier. India’s Essar Oil, which used to depend heavily on Iranian oil is gradually diversifying its crude imports under new management led by Russia’s Rosneft. The private refiner took two very large crude carrier (VLCCs) shipments of Mexican Maya grade in November, the data showed. Overall India imported 4.7 million bpd oil in November, meaning growth of about 12 percent from a year ago as the country raised its refining capacity. Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-oil-table/indias-november-iran-oil-imports-skid-to-lowest-since-feb-2016-trade-data-idINKBN1E80YF'|'2017-12-14T10:55:00.000+02:00'
'f11a8fb5fb503312d15768d5cb33164413fd5603'|'South African regulator probes conduct of Steinhoff auditors'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:33 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago South African regulator probes conduct of Steinhoff auditors Reuters Staff 1 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) is investigating Steinhoff’s ( SNHG.DE ) auditor following the retail group’s disclosure of accounting irregularities, it said on Friday. “This entity (Steinhoff) is audited by Deloitte South Africa, who has confirmed that it will fully cooperate with the IRBA during the investigation,” the body’s chief executive Bernard Agulhas in a statement. Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by James Macharia'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-steinhoff-intlnl-investigation/south-african-regulator-probes-conduct-of-steinhoff-auditors-idUSKBN1E91OW'|'2017-12-15T15:33:00.000+02:00'
'86434002ce623012fb0a82e4151c0e408c0d4b50'|'UPDATE 1-Votorantim Energia, Canada pension board form JV to invest in power'|' 18 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Votorantim Energia, Canada pension board form JV to invest in power Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details from statement and background) Dec 15 (Reuters) - Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Brazil’s Votorantim Group’s energy unit Votorantim Energia have formed a joint venture that will buy two operational wind parks in northeastern Brazil, they said. The wind parks will have a combined generation capacity of 565 megawatts, they said in a joint statement. Canada’s biggest public pension plan will be initially contributing C$272 million ($213 million) in equity, according to the statement. The joint venture sees an investment of more 3 billion reals ($897.72 million) in Brazil’s power generation sector and will pursue further acquisitions in Brazil. Reuters reported in October Votorantim SA’s energy unit was in talks with global pension and sovereign wealth funds to create an integrated wind, solar and small-scale hydropower electricity joint venture in Brazil. Votorantim Energia had earlier discussed about plans of a joint venture with Singapore’s GIC Pte Ltd and several North American pension funds. The Votorantim conglomerate has doubled down on energy for diversification from core metals, cement, pulp and steel making. Clean energy projects often provide stable revenue and cash flow streams - generally a goal pursued by pension and sovereign wealth firms alike. Brazil’s power grid is highly dependent on renewable energy with the role of solar energy growing in recent times. Years of harsher-than-expected droughts are pushing the government and investors to rethink the country’s dependence on hydropower while accelerating a replacement of fossil fuels. ($1 = 1.2771 Canadian dollars) ($1 = 3.3418 reals) (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/votorantim-partc-cppib/update-1-votorantim-energia-canada-pension-board-form-jv-to-invest-in-power-idUSL4N1OF2NH'|'2017-12-15T10:17:00.000+02:00'
'b92d0489bdb4ca8211abdb8bc634e567015f92ef'|'Britain''s finance minister, central bank chief head to China seeking deals'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:09 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Hammond, Carney head to China seeking deals Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain hopes to seal a billion pounds worth of trade and investment agreements with China during weekend visit by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, Bank of England chief Mark Carney and senior executives. FILE PHOTO - Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney and Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond arrive at the International Fintech Conference in London, Britain April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The Beijing visit is the latest instalment in long-running economic talks between the two states but it has now taken on new importance for Britain as it looks to re-invent itself as a global trading nation after leaving the European Union in 2019. “We are committed to working with our partners to build a truly global Britain, and our relationship with China is strong, growing, and delivering benefits for both countries,” Hammond said in a statement released by his office ahead of the trip. The focus on a “Golden Era” of relations, touted loudly by both sides in 2015 when then-prime minister David Cameron hosted a state visit by President Xi Jinping, has cooled under Cameron’s successor Theresa May. In 2016 she caused a diplomatic spat by unexpectedly deciding to delay approval of a partly-Chinese funded nuclear power project. She later granted it, but not before drawing criticism from Beijing. Nevertheless, the government said on Friday it wanted to begin a new phase. Hammond will meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Vice Premier Ma Kai and other officials. Business Minister Greg Clarke will also travel to Beijing along with a delegation of executives including London Stock Exchange CEO Nikhil Rathi and representatives from major financial firms such as BlackRock, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank. Talks are expected to focus on a more integrated approach to financial services, new industrial partnerships and economic reform. Previous rounds of discussions have looked at how to develop London as an offshore hub for trading China’s currency and closer integration of the two countries’ stock markets. Clark will hold energy-specific talks focussed on clean and renewable power generation. Reporting by William James Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-china-finance/britains-finance-minister-central-bank-chief-head-to-china-seeking-deals-idUKKBN1E900C'|'2017-12-15T02:08:00.000+02:00'
'f1e175a7f94a535bb145e7e529dda87f8c7175c3'|'SNB sticks to expansive policy to tackle highly valued franc'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:31 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago SNB signals potential policy shift by raising inflation outlook John Revill , Silke Koltrowitz 4 Min Read BERN (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank expects inflation in Switzerland to exceed its target in three years - an indication of when it might exit its ultra-loose monetary policy. Swiss National Bank (SNB) Chairman Thomas Jordan leaves after a news conference in Bern, Switzerland December 14, 2017. REUTERS Denis Balibouse The SNB kept that policy in place on Thursday, saying the Swiss franc weakened this year but remained “highly valued”. The bank was in “no rush at all” to start normalising policy, Chairman Thomas Jordan said, even though the economy is performing well and some other central banks -- notably the U.S. Federal Reserve -- have started to raise interest rates. The SNB said it expected Swiss consumer prices to rise 2.1 percent in the third quarter of 2020 - marginally higher than the bank’s goal of price stability, which it defines as prices rising by less than 2 percent. It outlined its views hours before a meeting of the European Central Bank, which has reduced the pace of its asset purchase programme, seen as the first stage in weaning the euro zone off loose money. The ECB meeting may debate tweaking its pledge to keep money at its current ultra-easy level, although it is likely to ultimately reaffirm its policy stance. The Swiss central bank nudged up its short-term inflation expectations for 2017 and 2018 while leaving its 2019 view unchanged. Rising prices, attributed to the recent weakening of the franc and higher oil prices, could lead to higher interest rates, analysts said. Rates have been frozen in negative territory for nearly three years. Jordan said it was too early to speak of normalising SNB policy. The franc remained “highly valued”, he told a news conference, despite the currency’s losing around 7 percent in value over the last six months. Swiss National Bank (SNB) Chairman Thomas Jordan gestures during a news conference in Bern, Switzerland December 14, 2017. REUTERS Denis Balibouse “We still have to be very prudent and there is no necessity to start at this moment the normalisation process,” Jordan said. SAFE HAVENS The SNB said risk aversion could return at any point, pushing up the franc, so its expansionary monetary policy -- negative interest rates and currency market interventions where needed -- remained necessary. Slideshow (3 Images) The SNB kept the target range for its benchmark interest rate at minus 1.25 percent to minus 0.25 percent, in line with market expectations. It kept its negative rate of 0.75 percent on deposits held by commercial banks with the SNB, a measure to make Swiss franc less attractive to investors. Analysts said the SNB’s rising inflation expectations could be the central bank’s long-term sign it was considering tightening monetary policy. “An increased inflation forecast is an early signal that the SNB is looking to normalise its policy,” said Maxime Botteron, an economist at Credit Suisse, noting the SNB might have to raise rates to keep inflation under control. “However, as the central bank continues to point at the high valuation of the franc, some more depreciation of the currency would probably be required for the SNB to raise its policy rate before the European Central Bank. That said, the probability of a rate hike in 2018 has increased after today’s meeting.” ING Bank’s Julien Manceaux said: “The new 2020 inflation forecast indicates that the SNB is likely to be ready to follow the ECB on the rate hike path at the end of 2019, opening the door to a normalisation of its ultra-accommodative monetary policy.” Reporting by John Revill, editing by John Miller, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-snb-rates/snb-sticks-to-expansive-policy-to-tackle-highly-valued-franc-idUKKBN1E817T'|'2017-12-14T12:30:00.000+02:00'
'a32769ae90e599970323e7c6d9b225e37ae1b381'|'China November investment growth slows, factory output and retail sales steady'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s industrial output and retail sales grew at a steady pace last month, while fixed asset investment cooled slightly, reinforcing signs of a modest slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy amid a government crackdown on financial risks.FILE PHOTO: A China yuan note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Tighter rules on polluting factories have also crimped production, while higher borrowing costs have weighed on overall economic activity.Earlier in the day, China’s central bank raised interest rates marginally, hours after an anticipated U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike.Thursday’s data showed industrial output rose 6.1 percent in November from a year earlier, just above analysts’ estimates for an increase of 6.0 percent, and below the 6.2 percent gain in October.As northern China officially entered the heating season in mid-November, the government has also stepped up efforts to address winter smog, ordering many steel mills, smelters and factories to curtail or halt production to rein in pollution.China’s fixed-asset investment growth slowed to 7.2 percent in the January-November period, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Analysts had expected an increase of 7.2 percent, versus the 7.3 percent growth in the January-October period.Along with the rest of trade-dependent Asia, China’s economy gained a lift from an exports boom that has spurred a synchronized uptick in global growth.The Asian economic powerhouse grew at a surprisingly strong pace of nearly 6.9 percent through the first nine months of this year, buoyed largely by a recovery in its manufacturing sector thanks to a government-led infrastructure spending spree, a resilient property market and unexpected strength in exports.The construction boom has driven up demand for everything from cement to steel and lifted prices of commodities. The war on pollution has cut both ways on prices of commodities - with fears of supply shortages due to production cuts lifting iron ore prices, for instance, while concerns of a demand-slowdown have dented other resources.Earlier this month, China reported better-than-expected factory growth (PMI) and trade data for November. The upbeat data reinforced expectations of a more modest slowdown in growth, rather than a sharp downturn in the face of Beijing’s campaign to wean the economy off its addiction to debt.Indeed, economic growth is still expected to easily meet or beat the government’s full-year target of around 6.5 percent.Thursday’s data also showed fixed-asset investment by state firms rose 11.0 percent in January-November, quickening from 10.9 percent in the first ten months.Growth of private investment slowed to 5.7 percent from 5.8 percent in January-October.Retail sales gained 10.2 percent in November on-year, meeting expectations. Retail sales growth has hovered in the 10 to 11 percent range for the last two years.Analysts had forecast they would rise 10.2 percent, slightly higher than the prior month, likely boosted by China’s annual 24-hour shopping binge on Nov. 11, known as Singles’ Day.Sales on that day hit $38.25 billion, exceeding combined revenue for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States.Reporting by Kevin Yao and Cheng Fang; Writing by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-activity/china-november-investment-growth-slows-factory-output-and-retail-sales-steady-idINKBN1E80EW'|'2017-12-14T06:36:00.000+02:00'
'5b6065d142952318fb3e107a2197054711af7e0d'|'French tech firm Atos to pursue Gemalto bid despite rebuff'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:53 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago French tech firm Atos to pursue Gemalto despite rebuff Michel Rose , Mathieu Rosemain 5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Atos said on Thursday it would pursue its “friendly” bid for chipmaker Gemalto, despite a rejection of the French technology company’s 4.3 billion euro (£3.7 billion) offer. FILE PHOTO - People walk in front of Atos company''s logo during a presentation of the new Bull sequana supercomputer in Paris, France, April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo The unsolicited bid comes after a difficult period for Franco-Dutch Gemalto, which has lost close to 40 percent of its stock market value over the last twelve months following a string of profits warnings. Gemalto called the 46 euro per share Atos offer to create a digital security leader “opportunistic” late on Wednesday, although chief executive Philippe Vallee did not completely shut the door on a deal in an interview with French newspaper Les Echos. Gemalto’s biggest shareholder, German billionaire family Quandt, supported the firm’s stance, a spokesman for the family said on Thursday. The Quandts own more than 10 percent of Gemalto’s shares, he added. Atos, meanwhile, repeated its readiness to open talks, saying in a statement it was confident Gemalto’s board would engage in talks and that it still had “friendly intentions”. IMPROVED OFFER? The share reaction on Thursday showed investors were hoping for an improved bid from Atos, with shares in Gemalto, the world’s largest maker of chips found in mobile phones and credit cards, trading above 47 euros at 1456 GMT. ”The most likely scenario for us is that Atos raises its offer,” Philippe Cohen, fund manager at Kiplink Finance, said. “Atos started with a low price, which is logical in this type of negotiation. There’s also the scenario of a ‘white knight’, probably French, such as Thales for example.” Shares in Gemalto, which is run out of France but listed in the Netherlands, have surged since news of the Atos bid. They had fallen heavily after four profit warnings since October 2016. Atos shares were 2.4 percent lower at 130.5 euros as investors priced in the likelihood of it having to pay more for its target if it pursues the chase. STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY Gemalto’s SIM cards have equipped millions of phones, but it has been moving away from this slowing business, trying to grab a share of fast-growing cybersecurity instead. Gemalto has developed electronic passports with biometric features that are used by 30 countries. It has also developed software for digital banking and data encryption for companies. Its customers include U.S. telecom operator Verizon and online retailers Amazon and Alibaba. Gemalto has also attracted the attention of governments around the world for its technologies which are key to surveillance apparatus. In 2015, it said U.S. and British spies were likely to have hacked it in an attempt to steal codes that protect the privacy of billions of mobile phone users. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the government will keep a close eye over the impact on jobs and technologies that are deemed important to France’s sovereignty. State-owned investment bank Bpifrance, which is Gemalto’s second-biggest shareholder, said that it was favourable to consolidation between two French companies in the tech sector. DIVIDED UNIONS Gemalto’s French unions, which are negotiating on the terms of a 288 job cut plan in the country, appeared divided on whether to support Atos’ bid or not. “If we can get some visibility on job cuts, we’ll clearly be in favour of the bid,” said Anthony Vella, the union leader for CFE-CGC at Gemalto, as he was taking a break from a works council on Thursday. Alexandre Benoit, a union leader for CFDT, disagreed. “If we get bought, the situation is likely to be even worse down the road,” he said, citing the cost savings that Atos might want to generate out of the merger. Vallee came to meet union leaders on Thursday morning to tell them that Gemalto would be better off on its own, the two union officials said. Gemalto also jointly asked to meet Le Maire and Atos’s Thierry Breton, who became chief executive nine years ago. Atos’ revenue has more than doubled since 2008 to reach 11.7 billion euros in 2016, having bought assets from Germany’s Siemens, U.S. group Xerox and France-based computer company Bull. ($1 = 0.8452 euros) Additional reporting by Cyril Altmeyer, Patrick Vignal, Marc Angrand in Paris, aJulien Ponthus in London, Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt; Editing by Alexander Smith and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gemalto-m-a-atos/atos-shares-fall-2-8-percent-after-gemalto-rejects-takeover-bid-idUKKBN1E80Y9'|'2017-12-14T14:42:00.000+02:00'
'032c24547eb11c4b79359acddd5bf6ac7847a881'|'Investors pour cash into U.S. shale despite questions on returns'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:04 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Investors pour cash into U.S. shale despite questions on returns Ernest Scheyder 7 Min Read HOUSTON (Reuters) - Financiers keep pouring cash into the shale oil sector, providing producers with a path to keep U.S. output rising through the middle of the next decade. FILE PHOTO: A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo The United States is on track to deliver up to 80 percent of the world’s oil production gains through 2025, the International Energy Agency estimates, increases fuelled in part by easy access to capital. Rising U.S. production is undermining OPEC’s attempts to curb global supply and boost prices, forcing the oil cartel to continue restraining output through the end of 2018. Hedge funds and private equity firms have given producers a range of new and traditional financial levers they can pull as needed to keep shale rigs drilling, according to interviews with more than a dozen financiers, advisers and executives. The money continues to flow despite rising pressure from some investors for drillers to prioritise better profit margins over expanded production. Producers holding land in prime fields with oil trapped in shale rock are having little trouble financing their fracking projects, said Buddy Clark, co-chairman of the energy practice group at Haynes Boone law firm in Houston. “If you’ve got the rocks, you can get the money,” he said. The IEA predicts U.S. shale oil output, now about 6.17 million barrels per day (bpd), will rise another 8 million bpd by 2025. That would turn the world’s largest oil-consuming nation into a net exporter of oil. The United States already is a net exporter of natural gas. Through the third quarter of this year, private equity firms have put $20.26 billion into energy-related deals, 36 percent more than all of last year, according to financial data provider Preqin. Initial stock offerings for U.S.-listed oil and gas firms raised $2.93 billion this year, up from $1.52 billion in 2016, according to Thomson Reuters data. Another way to finance drilling - production hedging, or contracts producers use to lock in prices on future output - also is on the rise this year. Hedging acts as insurance against price drops, letting producers drill with more certainty they can earn a profit. Forty midsize producers tracked by researcher PetroNerds LLC hedged 45 percent of their production in the third quarter, up from 36.5 percent a year earlier. Those same companies boosted capital spending by nearly two-thirds this year. RISING OUTPUT, SPENDING In response to investor pressure for better profits, producers are touting efficiencies from newer well designs and their efforts to shed less productive shale acreage as evidence that they can lift returns and output at the same time. A 39 percent increase in crude prices since June also has helped shale producers deliver better returns while boosting spending. ConocoPhillips - which has sold properties in the Canadian oil sands, along with less profitable shale holdings - recently said that its capital budgets from 2018 to 2020 will average $5.5 billion annually, up from about $4.5 billion this year, because of higher production and cash flow. “This is not a supply source that is going away any time soon,” said Ryan Lance, Conoco’s chief executive, in a recent interview. FILE PHOTO: The Elevation Resources drilling rig is shown at the Permian Basin drilling site in Andrews County, Texas, U.S., May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Ann Saphir/File Photo The rising investment marks a reversal from the period following the 2014 oil price collapse, which triggered scores of oil-firm bankruptcies and caused banks to abruptly pull back on lending to oil and gas producers. In their place, private equity firms, hedge funds and others have added to investments and unleashed new ways to finance drilling. “You’ve seen this marriage of necessity between private equity and independent producers needing to drill acreage,” said Hillary Holmes of Gibson Dunn, a Houston law firm specializing in energy finance. The retreat of banks and other lenders opened “a finance vacuum that we’re looking to fill,” said Mark Stoner, a partner at Houston private equity fund Bayou City Energy, which has financed about 80 new shale wells since last year. One innovation that emerged is DrillCos, which allow investors to finance new wells and control their cash flow for a few years until double-digit rates of return are met. Such partnerships have contributed at least $2 billion to producers since 2015. FILE PHOTO: A pump jack operates at a well site leased by Devon Energy Production Company near Guthrie, Oklahoma, U.S., September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo DrillCos’ potential for returns of about 15 percent have been a hit with investors looking for alternatives to other short-term investments with lower payouts. “Folks are dying for yield,” said Sharam Honari, a partner with hedge fund BlackGold Capital Management, which invests in energy companies. “They are doing what it takes to find that yield.” Other financing vehicles replacing bank financing for shale firms include so-called SPACs - special purpose acquisition companies - and infrastructure partnerships that allow producers to tap pipeline and storage operations for cash. SPACs raise money in equity markets by selling investors on the reputation of their veteran managers, then they go hunting for oil firms to acquire. The success of such financing vehicles has helped them spread. The first non-U.S. SPAC recently raised $650 million to pursue energy deals in Mexico. SCEPTICISM FROM OPEC OPEC officials last month played down the capabilities of shale producers even as the oil cartel agreed to extend production cuts in response to strong U.S. oil output. Forecasts of rapid production growth also have been challenged by shale producers, such as Continental Resources Inc, and oilfield services giant Schlumberger NV. Pointing to studies of the rapid decline in shale-well output over time and the dangers of ever-longer horizontal shale wells, Schlumberger Executive Vice President Patrick Schorn earlier this month told investors: “The ability of tight (shale) oil to influence global supply dynamics, and therefore price, will diminish over time.” The shale sector’s resilience has been tested before, and firms have adapted to lower prices by using new technologies and financing vehicles, said Charlie Leykum, founder of private equity fund CSL Capital Management LLC, which has invested in and started several oilfield service companies. “The upstream industry has been really creative in how it pursues financing of late,” he said. Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Brian Thevenot'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-oil-finance/investors-pour-cash-into-u-s-shale-despite-questions-on-returns-idUKKBN1E80JK'|'2017-12-14T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'c9f8a580e6d53a750696a94d528157da7e685e57'|'Airbus planemaking chief Bregier to step down - sources'|'Reuters TV United States December 14, 2017 / 7:49 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago Airbus planemaking chief Bregier to step down: sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) Chief Operating Officer and planemaking chief Fabrice Bregier is expected to step down following a board meeting on Thursday to tackle management tensions at the aerospace group, two sources familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO - Fabrice Bregier applauds after the maiden flight of the Airbus A350-1000 in Colomiers near Toulouse, Southwestern France, November 24, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Bregier, who is in Asia visiting customers, could not be reached for comment. Bregier, 56, is credited with stabilizing industrial problems at the world’s second largest planemaker and overseeing a number of market breakthroughs but has been embroiled in a long-running power battle with Chief Executive Tom Enders. The sources said Frenchman Bregier had sought a public expression of confidence from the French government, mirroring recent backing from Berlin for German-born Enders, in a row over responsibilities but had failed to secure such a commitment. Airbus and the French government declined to comment. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-management/airbus-planemaking-chief-bregier-to-step-down-sources-idUKKBN1E82W5'|'2017-12-14T21:49:00.000+02:00'
'7dcd5dc795637bc01db6c5096dd99a4fec1e7c38'|'Japan''s Yamato plans to open labor-saving facility next year'|'December 15, 2017 / 8:58 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Japan''s Yamato plans automated facility to beat labor shortage Taiga Uranaka , Ritsuko Shimizu 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Yamato Transport Co, Japan’s largest package delivery company, plans to open a new distribution facility with labor-saving technology near Tokyo early next year, its chief executive said on Friday. The move comes amid widening labor shortage and a surge in parcel volumes because of the country’s growing use of e-commerce retailers such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ). The Bank   survey on Friday showed Japanese companies were faced with the most severe staff shortages since 1992. “It’s especially difficult to find workers in big cities. The labor shortage got more severe in December,” Yamato Transport CEO Yutaka Nagao said in an interview. The company, a core unit of Yamato Holdings Co ( 9064.T ) that is known for its black cat logo, has become a symbol of Japan Inc’s struggle with labor shortages. Yamato, which commands a 47 percent share in Japan’s parcel market, saw its delivery volume rising 60 percent in the past 10 years to over 1.87 billion packages for the year ended in March. It has put pressure on Yamato’s profit margin as the company has to pay more for its workers and contractors to deliver packages on time. Slideshow (3 Images) For the six months ended in September, parent Yamato Holdings posted an operating loss of 12.9 billion yen ($115.1 million), its first first-half loss in its 68-year history as a listed company. “I expect the labor shortage to continue ... We need to consider labor-saving measures,” said Nagao, 52, a career insider who joined the company in 1988. The new facility in Kanagawa, outside Tokyo, will have automation in parcel-sorting work that is currently done by an army of part-time workers at its neighborhood delivery stations, Nagao said. Yamato raised delivery prices for retail customers by 15 percent in October, the first such hike in nearly three decades, to overcome ballooning labor costs. The company also started negotiations with its 1,100 biggest corporate shippers to reduce their volume discounts. Nagao said Yamato had also been talking with smaller corporate clients over a price hike. Some relatively large shippers stopped doing business with Yamato after they failed to agree on new prices, but the company could ask for further cuts in volume discounts in coming years if necessary to reflect costs, he said. “Our service prices have not yet reached fair levels,” he said. ($1 = 112.0900 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yamato-hldg-strategy/japans-yamato-plans-to-open-labor-saving-facility-next-year-idUSKBN1E90S7'|'2017-12-15T10:56:00.000+02:00'
'0e88d5cef67faaa73374b015db5a6b4398759126'|'Brazil''s Petrobras receives $3 billion in China Development Bank loan'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:49 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Brazil''s Petrobras receives $3 billion in China Development Bank loan Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA on Thursday received $3 billion under a $5 billion loan from China Development Bank, the company said in a securities filing. The remaining $2 billion will be disbursed by CDB in January. Petrobras said it will prepay other liabilities. Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-petrobras-credit/brazils-petrobras-receives-3-billion-in-china-development-bank-loan-idUSKBN1E838O'|'2017-12-15T00:40:00.000+02:00'
'a81676c4d9a76bcfd7a956aa1ee3c47a286bd546'|'LPC: Petsmart''s loan under pressure after weak 3Q earnings'|'December 15, 2017 / 5:43 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago LPC: Petsmart''s loan under pressure after weak 3Q earnings Andrew Berlin 4 Min Read NEW YORK, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Pet supplies retailer Petsmart’s US$4.2bn leveraged loan has fallen in the US secondary market after the company reported sluggish third quarter results on Monday and investors anticipate a weak fourth quarter, two sources close to the matter said. The loan has fallen by around seven points to 77 bid this week, compared to 84 bid before Monday’s earnings release, the sources said. Weak earnings have pushed the company’s debt-to Ebitda ratio up to a whopping 6.2 times on a secured basis and to 8.7 times total. The loan, which was arranged in 2015 to back Petsmart’s leveraged buyout by a consortium of private equity firms led by BC Partners, is due to mature in 2022 and pays 300bp over Libor with a 1% Libor floor. Petsmart does not file financials or hold public earnings calls. The company reported US$2.3bn in revenue for the period ending October 31, showing a 30% year-over-year increase, from US$1.8bn, the sources said. The gains were attributed to Chewy.com, which the company acquired for roughly US$3bn in May to give it an edge in the growing e-commerce landscape and prop up its brick and mortar operations. To be sure, revenue at Petsmart’s legacy business slipped by 1.5%. However, the combined company’s Ebitda sank 34% to US$189m, from US$288m a year earlier, driven by negative Ebitda at Chewy that has been exacerbated by ongoing costs related to growth initiatives and customer acquisition. Petsmart’s standalone Ebitda fell 15%. “The company is draining cash out of existing Petsmart to fund Chewy,” one of the sources said. “It’s the Amazon model – Amazon takes money from the cloud business to fund the retail business.” The company’s debt includes the term loan, a US$1.35bn secured note used to fund the Chewy purchase and US$2.55bn of unsecured notes, US$650m of which was also used to fund the Chewy deal. BC Partners and the company declined to comment. The pressure on the loan stems more from a knee-jerk reaction to management’s comments on the earnings call than the company’s most recent performance, the sources said. “Everyone knew Chewy was a negative Ebitda company,” the same source said. “You can’t turn it around instantly, or you’d stunt growth.” Investors have been expecting positive revenue comparisons in the fourth quarter, which they say should be achievable as the company has moved past its failed negotiations with Colgate-Palmolive over mass distribution of its Science Diet pet food in the fourth quarter of last year. Fallout included Petsmart pulling the product from its shelves and delivering a roughly 5% slump in revenue. “Three quarters of the decline was due to Colgate,” the source said. More recently, another of the company’s suppliers, pet food maker Blue Buffalo, also decided to shift to mass distribution. Though asked, management held off on the earnings call on Tuesday from providing insight into fourth quarter revenue, telling investors it would be addressed on the next call, the sources said. Investors also asked management whether the private equity owners could use the restricted payments and permitted investments basket in the debt documents to separate Chewy from Petsmart and take control of the business, but management declined to answer the question. “They wouldn’t talk about it,” one of the sources said. The restricted payments basket is tied to net income and proceeds from equity issuance. The capacity grew with the Chewy transaction, as financing included a US$1bn equity check from shareholders. (Reporting by Andrew Berlin; Editing By Tessa Walsh)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/petsmart-loan/lpc-petsmarts-loan-under-pressure-after-weak-3q-earnings-idUSL1N1OF19C'|'2017-12-15T19:42:00.000+02:00'
'55eab67c4b1917708db9ffd183055be2bf39cdc9'|'Exclusive: KKR wins auction for Unilever''s spreads business - sources'|'December 15, 2017 / 2:03 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Exclusive: KKR wins auction for Unilever''s spreads business - sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Private equity firm KKR ( KKR.N ) is in exclusive talks to buy Unilever’s ( ULVR.L ) margarine and spreads business, people familiar with the matter said on Friday, in a deal expected to top $7 billion. KKR prevailed in an auction for the business and could finalize a deal as early as this month, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. KKR and Unilever did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-spreads-kkr-exclusive/exclusive-kkr-wins-auction-for-unilevers-spreads-business-sources-idUSKBN1E91S1'|'2017-12-15T16:06:00.000+02:00'
'b8bcf12a6f1bed83fd4d7dcbb98d1ace929d6b11'|'Steady as she goes: ECB to keep money taps wide open'|'December 13, 2017 / 11:08 PM / Updated 4 hours ago ECB''s Draghi sidelines critics to keep money taps wide open Francesco Canepa , Balazs Koranyi 4 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank on Thursday stuck to its pledge to keep money pouring into the euro zone economy for as long as needed, despite opposition from some rate setters and increased growth and inflation forecasts for the area. The ECB raised its euro zone growth forecasts from this year through to 2019 and nudged up its expectations for inflation, now seen at 1.7 percent in 2020, close to its target of almost 2 percent. But it kept its interest rates at rock bottom and also held rigidly to its script on what it plans for next year in asset purchases. Pressure from some policymakers to signal a possible change of plan was easily rebuffed, sources close to the matter told Reuters. “All in all the revision of the macroeconomic projections is going in the right direction,” ECB President Mario Draghi told a news conference. “(But) an ample degree of monetary stimulus remains necessary.” Better-than-expected growth and, to a lesser extent, inflation are giving fresh ammunition to critics of the ECB’s 2.55 trillion euro ($3 trillion) bond-buying program, such as Dutch central bank governor Klaas Knot. Indeed, two central bank sources told Reuters that a minority of ECB rate-setters at Thursday’s meeting wanted to signal that the ECB may change its easy-money pledge if euro zone inflation keeps accelerating. Their suggestions included dropping a pledge to continue to buy bonds until inflation converges to the ECB’s target or the option to increase purchases if the outlook worsens. “Some people wanted to say that if inflation continues to increase, we will be forced to change the forward guidance perhaps,” one of the sources said. But these hawks were outnumbered as most rate-setters opted to simply repeat the ECB’s plan to keep buying bonds at least until September and to keep rates at record lows well after that, the sources said, adding the debate was not heated. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi and ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio address a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Draghi said there was no discussion of the quantitative easing asset-buying scheme and Knot’s recently expressed view that the scheme had “simply run its course” was not shared by the majority. NUANCED In a nuanced message, Draghi nonetheless added that he was more confident that the inflation target could be reached and said he saw no negative effect from tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which announced its third rate hike of 2017 on Wednesday. “It’s quite early before we talk about change in our monetary policy support,” Draghi told a news conference. “Though in the presence of an expansion which is gaining momentum, our confidence towards this objective is increasing and is certainly greater than it was at the last monetary policy meeting.” Slideshow (2 Images) Having faced five years of anemic price pressures, the ECB has deployed its entire policy arsenal, cutting rates into negative territory, giving banks cheap loans and soaking up bonds with an unprecedented 2.55 trillion euros ($3 trillion) of purchases. Its work has paid off as the euro zone recovery is now well into its fifth year thanks to nine million new jobs, letting policymakers curb stimulus from next year and raising the prospect that the lavish bond buys it started in early 2015 could finally end. But Draghi’s words left the market in no doubt the ECB was in no rush to curb stimulus. ”Remember the metaphor of the euro zone being the patient on intensive care?,“ ING economist Carsten Brzeski said. Today, Draghi once again made clear that...only once the patient is able to sprint an entire marathon will the crutches come off.” (For a graphic on ECB inflation and rates, click reut.rs/2zPbHUT ) (For estimated dates when issuer limits will be hit, click reut.rs/2zjXFd1 ) Reporting by Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi Additional reporting by Tom Sims and Mark John; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy/steady-as-she-goes-ecb-to-keep-money-taps-wide-open-idUKKBN1E734S'|'2017-12-14T10:13:00.000+02:00'
'b589d89ab89ef2d91a1a9879485807ecd6a18515'|'An accounting scandal sends Steinhoff plummeting - Broken furniture'|'THE scale is staggering, even by the standards of scandal-worn South Africa. Steinhoff, a retailer that is one of the country’s best-known companies, admitted to “accounting irregularities” on December 6th when it was due to publish year-end financial statements. Its chief executive, Markus Jooste, resigned, and the firm announced an internal investigation by PwC. Within days Steinhoff had lost €10.7bn ($12.7bn) in market value as its share price fell by more than 80% (see chart). Much is unclear, but it is shaping up to be the biggest corporate scandal that South Africa has ever seen. The company has said it is reviewing the “validity and recoverability” of €6bn in non-South African assets.Steinhoff traces its roots to West Germany, where it found a niche sourcing cheap furniture from the communist-ruled east. The company merged with a South African firm in 1998 and is based in Stellenbosch, near Cape Town—a Winelands town that is home to some of the wealthiest Afrikaner businessmen. It recently pursued a debt-fuelled expansion, buying furniture and homeware chains, from Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in America to Poundland in Britain, becoming Europe’s second-largest furniture retailer after IKEA. It has 130,000 employees at 12,000 outlets in over 30 countries.  43 minutes   7   7   Between June 2014 and September 2016 Steinhoff expanded its assets by 145% as its acquisition spree intensified. This splurge added to its financial complexity and might have helped it to hide bad news. A recent report by Viceroy Research, which hunts for stocks to sell short, or bet against, accuses Steinhoff of using off-balance-sheet vehicles to inflate profits and mask losses. Viceroy’s analysts concluded that these vehicles were controlled by associates and former executives of Steinhoff, and that they engaged in transactions with Steinhoff that the firm failed to disclose.They also allege that Steinhoff made loans to these entities, allowing it to book interest revenue that was never likely to be translated into cash. This, they argue, went hand in hand with “round-tripping”, in which large blocks of business were moved off the books and only the profitable bits were then brought back on. The firm has not commented in detail on the analysis, though it has denied impropriety.Steinhoff’s biggest shareholder is Christo Wiese, one of South Africa’s richest men. One money manager wonders how Mr Wiese could have been unaware of accounting problems. But there are also questions over the level of due diligence performed by some large financial firms. Steinhoff was a top-15 stock by market value on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE); many fund managers had it in their portfolio. Investec, a bank, has warned that it could lose up to 3% of its annual post-tax profit, from trading in Steinhoff-linked derivatives. Deloitte, Steinhoff’s auditor, is also under scrutiny over the scandal, although the audit regulatory body has said it may not have been in the wrong.The biggest damage could be suffered by South African pensioners. The Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), with more than 1m members, is one of Steinhoff’s biggest shareholders, with a stake of around 10%. The GEPF said its stake in Steinhoff amounted to 1% of total assets, making the collapse in the share price “significant but manageable”.The South African parliament’s public-accounts committee is less phlegmatic: it has called for Steinhoff to be investigated by an elite police unit called the Hawks. The JSE and South Africa’s corporate and financial regulators have all said they will investigate whether Steinhoff breached regulations. German investigators, meanwhile, have been looking at the company’s accounting practices since shortly before its listing in Frankfurt in December 2015.Steinhoff’s share price has recovered slightly, but is expected to be volatile until more is known about the firm’s liquidity position and the nature of the accounting “irregularities”. Steinhoff has appointed Moelis & Company, an investment bank, to advise on talks with lenders, and AlixPartners, a consultancy, to help with “liquidity management and operational measures”. An annual meeting with lenders in London has been postponed to December 19th. “We’re all in the dark,” says David Shapiro of Sasfin Securities. “Speculating whether there is value or not—there’s no point, it’s too early.”This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Broken furniture"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732566-owner-poundland-conforama-and-mattress-firm-loses-107bn-its-market-value?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'a792d8a93ca5d7d1b89841168ed0e88c936496a9'|'UK RICS house price balance slips to lowest since March 2013'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:09 AM / Updated 4 hours ago UK RICS house price balance slips to lowest since March 2013 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British house prices were flat for the first time in more than four years during the past three months, a closely watched industry survey showed on Thursday, as falling prices in London and nearby areas dragged down the national average. FILE PHOTO - Property sale signs are seen outside of a group of newly built houses in west London, Britain, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its monthly house price balance fell to zero in November from +1 the month before, meaning its members were evenly split between those reporting price rises compared with three months ago and those seeing falls. This was the lowest level for RICS’s price balance since March 2013, and in line with the average forecast for a decline in a Reuters poll, as tax changes and concerns about Brexit dented demand in central London in particular. RICS members expect prices to fall over the next three months - though less sharply than they thought a couple of months ago - and now expect prices to rise over the next year. “The mood music in London and the South East is very much flatter than elsewhere and interestingly, the forward looking indicators suggest this is likely to persist into the new year,” RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said. Prices in eastern and northeast England also fell, but there were solid gains in Wales, Northern Ireland and northwest England, RICS said. Official data for the year to October, released on Tuesday, painted a similar picture. Prices for the United Kingdom as a whole were 4.5 percent higher, while London was up 2.1 percent. London’s housing market is the most exposed to foreign investors’ concerns about Brexit, as well as to tax increases for property purchases valued at over 1 million pounds. Last month the government scrapped property purchase tax for most first-time buyers as the flagship measure of its annual budget in a bid to tackle falling home ownership among young people who find it increasingly hard to buy their own home. RICS said its members had seen little sign of increased interest from buyers in the weeks since the change. The body also reported the biggest fall on record in demand from tenants to rent property - though it said this was likely to be partly a seasonal effect in the run-up to Christmas. Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-houseprices-rics/uk-rics-house-price-balance-slips-to-lowest-since-march-2013-idUKKBN1E800N'|'2017-12-14T02:09:00.000+02:00'
'fa2ca30a0cee7600dd6c2a139ded5ece45d6bfdb'|'Banks drag European shares down as investors eye BoE, ECB meetings'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:47 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Banks drag European shares down as investors await Draghi Helen Reid 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Weakness in bank stocks dragged European shares lower on Thursday as the financial sector caught the cold from U.S. and Asian trading after a less hawkish than expected tone from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The Fed raised rates, as widely expected, but banks fell in Europe as cautious comments from Chair Janet Yellen on persistently low inflation shook investor confidence in financial stocks. They dragged Europe''s STOXX 600 down 0.2 percent, while euro zone blue chips .STOXX50E fell 0.1 percent. “It’s really the Fed driving the movement today. It was a pretty dovish rate hike and wasn’t voted through unanimously,” said Rory McPherson, head of investment strategy at Psigma Investment Management. “Bond yields all dropped on the back of it, which is bad for banks.” HSBC ( HSBA.L ), Santander ( SAN.MC ), Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) and UBS ( UBSG.S ) were the biggest drags to the STOXX. The weakness in financials put the brakes on a developing shift in investors’ preferences from tech stocks into sectors more likely to benefit from rising rates. “I don’t think the rally in tech is over, but tech is up 20 percent more than the next best sector so you’re getting profit-taking,” said McPherson. “Banks are just a lot cheaper in a world where everything is quite expensive.” Tech was the worst-performing sector, with chipmakers Dialog Semiconductor ( DLGS.DE ) and ASML ( ASML.AS ) down 2.9 and 0.5 percent. The sector was also weighed by French technology consultancy Atos ( ATOS.PA ) which fell 2.8 percent after Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) rebuffed a takeover offer. Despite being heavily weighted towards financial stocks, Italy''s FTSE MIB .FTMIB rose 0.3 percent, bouncing back after heavy losses in the previous session due to resurfacing political worries. Attention was turning to central bank meetings later on Thursday, with the Bank of England and European Central Bank both expected to keep rates on hold. Investors will be scrutinising forward guidance from ECB chief Mario Draghi. “Any suggestion that (the ECB‘s) bond buying program is running out of steam, or that September is going to be targeted as an end... all the language around that will be quite key,” said Psigma’s McPherson. On the corporate front, the latest twist in South African retailer Steinhoff’s accounting woes sent its Germany-listed shares down 6.7 percent as it said it would have to restate 2016 financial results. Among gainers, wind turbine maker Vestas Wind ( VWS.CO ) jumped 5.9 percent, with its Spanish peer Siemens Gamesa SGEN.MC up 2.9 percent, with a change to the U.S. tax reform package giving the sector a boost. An original Senate proposal for an Alternative Minimum Tax, which would have jeopardized a tax credit renewable energy firms benefit from, was scrapped as a deal between congressional Republicans was reached on Wednesday. Dassault Aviation ( AVMD.PA ) shares fell 2.2 percent after the firm said it planned to axe and relaunch its Falcon 5X jet after engine delays. Safran ( SAF.PA ), which provides the Silvercrest engines, fell 2.4 percent. (For a graphic on ''European benchmarks performance 2017'' click reut.rs/2ksTtxV ) Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Danilo Masoni and John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/banks-drag-european-shares-down-as-investors-eye-boe-ecb-meetings-idUSKBN1E80X6'|'2017-12-14T10:33:00.000+02:00'
'763d9d600d5647c81b0f18fa770fac059a266fd5'|'UPDATE 1-Perrigo lines up bid for Merck''s consumer health unit -sources'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:06 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Perrigo lines up bid for Merck''s consumer health unit: sources Pamela Barbaglia , Ludwig Burger 4 Min Read LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Generic drugmaker Perrigo has decided to enter the fray for Merck KGaA’s consumer health unit, sources told Reuters, and is preparing an indicative offer for the $4.7 billion business ahead of a deadline on Friday. Birds are seen on the logo of generic drugmaker Perrigo Co outside their new factory in the city of Yeruham, in southern Israel March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Amir Cohen Perrigo is expected to face competition from Swiss food giant Nestle and the private equity owners of German drug firm Stada, which are also lining up non-binding offers for the maker of Seven Seas vitamins and Bion nutritional supplements, the sources said on Thursday. Merck’s financial adviser JPMorgan wants to shortlist bidders for the business before the end of the year, they said. “We are entering a very important phase of the decision making process,” said Merck KGaA’s head of healthcare business, Belen Garijo. “We are looking at all options as we announced in September,” she said and declined to comment further. Perrigo declined to comment. The family-controlled German drugmaker said on Sept. 5 it was exploring options for its consumer health business, which generates about $1 billion a year in sales of over-the-counter medicines and vitamin supplements. Proceeds from the deal, which is worth about 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion), will help fund research into higher-margin prescription drugs. Merck initially tapped Nestle to discuss a possible consumer joint venture but it subsequently decided to kick off an auction process, mainly targeting large industry players including Nestle. Perrigo, which has a market value of $12.1 billion, sees Merck’s vitamins and supplements as a good fit for its portfolio of generic and over-the-counter drugs, the sources said. The 130-year old Perrigo, with faces pressure from activist hedge fund Starboard Value, recently beefed up its portfolio by launching five new generic products. It is now looking at consumer health as another strategic area for growth after walking away from a $205-per-share offer from generic drug maker Mylan NV in late 2015. BIDDING FIELD The bidding field for Merck’s consumer health business also includes Germany’s Stada, which has less than half of Perrigo’s market value and is controlled by private equity investors. Bain and Cinven, who earlier this year took control of Stada, are looking to use Merck’s consumer health unit as a buy-and-build platform for their portfolio firm, which makes generic drugs and consumer care products. Stada, which had annual revenues of more than 2 billion euros in 2016, is vying with industry players while buyout funds which do not have a presence in the consumer and healthcare industries have been advised against entering the process. Nestle, which recently agreed to buy Canadian vitamin maker Atrium Innovations for $2.3 billion, wants to continue expanding its presence in consumer healthcare as it seeks to offset weakness in packaged foods, another source said. The Swiss firm, which wants to become a “nutrition, health and wellness company,” promised shareholders in September that moving into consumer health would not be “a carte blanche for reckless diversification.” Consumer health is a fragmented sector ranging from over-the-counter medicines and vitamins to sports nutrition products and condoms. It has proved fertile ground for deals in recent years, as aging populations and health-conscious consumers drive demand. Additional reporting by Martinne Geller and Carl O''Donnell; editing by David Evans and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-merck-m-a-perrigo-company/perrigo-preparing-non-binding-bid-for-merck-kgaas-consumer-health-unit-sources-idUSKBN1E82OF'|'2017-12-14T21:28:00.000+02:00'
'73e7ed71fac197d6edfbefd83d176a196aa41c69'|'Investors pour cash into U.S. shale despite questions on returns'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:01 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Investors pour cash into U.S. shale despite questions on returns Ernest Scheyder 7 Min Read HOUSTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Financiers keep pouring cash into the shale oil sector, providing producers with a path to keep U.S. output rising through the middle of the next decade. The United States is on track to deliver up to 80 percent of the world’s oil production gains through 2025, the International Energy Agency estimates, increases fueled in part by easy access to capital. Rising U.S. production is undermining OPEC’s attempts to curb global supply and boost prices, forcing the oil cartel to continue restraining output through the end of 2018. Hedge funds and private equity firms have given producers a range of new and traditional financial levers they can pull as needed to keep shale rigs drilling, according to interviews with more than a dozen financiers, advisers and executives. The money continues to flow despite rising pressure from some investors for drillers to prioritize better profit margins over expanded production. Producers holding land in prime fields with oil trapped in shale rock are having little trouble financing their fracking projects, said Buddy Clark, co-chairman of the energy practice group at Haynes Boone law firm in Houston. “If you’ve got the rocks, you can get the money,” he said. The IEA predicts U.S. shale oil output, now about 6.17 million barrels per day (bpd), will rise another 8 million bpd by 2025. That would turn the world’s largest oil-consuming nation into a net exporter of oil. The United States already is a net exporter of natural gas. Through the third quarter of this year, private equity firms have put $20.26 billion into energy-related deals, 36 percent more than all of last year, according to financial data provider Preqin. Initial stock offerings for U.S.-listed oil and gas firms raised $2.93 billion this year, up from $1.52 billion in 2016, according to Thomson Reuters data. Another way to finance drilling - production hedging, or contracts producers use to lock in prices on future output - also is on the rise this year. Hedging acts as insurance against price drops, letting producers drill with more certainty they can earn a profit. Forty midsize producers tracked by researcher PetroNerds LLC hedged 45 percent of their production in the third quarter, up from 36.5 percent a year earlier. Those same companies boosted capital spending by nearly two-thirds this year. RISING OUTPUT, SPENDING In response to investor pressure for better profits, producers are touting efficiencies from newer well designs and their efforts to shed less productive shale acreage as evidence that they can lift returns and output at the same time. A 39 percent increase in crude prices since June also has helped shale producers deliver better returns while boosting spending. ConocoPhillips - which has sold properties in the Canadian oil sands, along with less profitable shale holdings - recently said that its capital budgets from 2018 to 2020 will average $5.5 billion annually, up from about $4.5 billion this year, because of higher production and cash flow. “This is not a supply source that is going away any time soon,” said Ryan Lance, Conoco’s chief executive, in a recent interview. The rising investment marks a reversal from the period following the 2014 oil price collapse, which triggered scores of oil-firm bankruptcies and caused banks to abruptly pull back on lending to oil and gas producers. In their place, private equity firms, hedge funds and others have added to investments and unleashed new ways to finance drilling. “You’ve seen this marriage of necessity between private equity and independent producers needing to drill acreage,” said Hillary Holmes of Gibson Dunn, a Houston law firm specializing in energy finance. The retreat of banks and other lenders opened “a finance vacuum that we’re looking to fill,” said Mark Stoner, a partner at Houston private equity fund Bayou City Energy, which has financed about 80 new shale wells since last year. One innovation that emerged is DrillCos, which allow investors to finance new wells and control their cash flow for a few years until double-digit rates of return are met. Such partnerships have contributed at least $2 billion to producers since 2015. DrillCos’ potential for returns of about 15 percent have been a hit with investors looking for alternatives to other short-term investments with lower payouts. “Folks are dying for yield,” said Sharam Honari, a partner with hedge fund BlackGold Capital Management, which invests in energy companies. “They are doing what it takes to find that yield.” Other financing vehicles replacing bank financing for shale firms include so-called SPACs - special purpose acquisition companies - and infrastructure partnerships that allow producers to tap pipeline and storage operations for cash. SPACs raise money in equity markets by selling investors on the reputation of their veteran managers, then they go hunting for oil firms to acquire. The success of such financing vehicles has helped them spread. The first non-U.S. SPAC recently raised $650 million to pursue energy deals in Mexico. SKEPTICISM FROM OPEC OPEC officials last month played down the capabilities of shale producers even as the oil cartel agreed to extend production cuts in response to strong U.S. oil output. Forecasts of rapid production growth also have been challenged by shale producers, such as Continental Resources Inc, and oilfield services giant Schlumberger NV. Pointing to studies of the rapid decline in shale-well output over time and the dangers of ever-longer horizontal shale wells, Schlumberger Executive Vice President Patrick Schorn earlier this month told investors: “The ability of tight (shale) oil to influence global supply dynamics, and therefore price, will diminish over time.” The shale sector’s resilience has been tested before, and firms have adapted to lower prices by using new technologies and financing vehicles, said Charlie Leykum, founder of private equity fund CSL Capital Management LLC, which has invested in and started several oilfield service companies. “The upstream industry has been really creative in how it pursues financing of late,” he said. Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Brian Thevenot'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-oil-finance/investors-pour-cash-into-u-s-shale-despite-questions-on-returns-idUSL1N1NR1R8'|'2017-12-14T14:01:00.000+02:00'
'5f4f01973acdbd6f02032b93387fbd55f13ef589'|'Flows return to normal through BBL Netherlands-Britain gas pipeline'|' 05 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Flows return to normal through BBL Netherlands-Britain gas pipeline Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Gas flows through the BBL gas pipeline, which connects Britain and the Netherlands returned to normal at 1700 GMT on Tuesday, operator BBL Company said on Wednesday. The disruption, which meant the company was not able to meet all requests for gas on Tuesday, was caused by a request from National Grid for the BBL to reduce flows, BBL said. “No technical issue at the BBL station in Bacton (on Britain’s east coast) took place which caused the flow restriction,” BBL said. Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-gas-bbl/flows-return-to-normal-through-bbl-netherlands-britain-gas-pipeline-idUKKBN1E71GM'|'2017-12-13T14:05:00.000+02:00'
'ae42774ff8878762af222364de834fd86bc93b56'|'Zara-owner Inditex''s nine-month net profit rises 6 percent year-on-year'|' 43 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Zara-owner Inditex''s nine-month net profit rises 6 percent year-on-year Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MADRID (Reuters) - Inditex ( ITX.MC ), the world’s largest clothing retailer, on Wednesday reported net profit to September of 2.3 billion euros (2 billion pounds), up 6 percent from a year earlier. FILE PHOTO: A woman looks at a display window in a Zara store in Madrid, Spain, June 15, 2016. REUTERS/Paul Hanna/File Photo In the third quarter, net profit rose 2.7 percent to 975 million euros, in line with a Reuters forecast. In the first nine months, sales rose 10 percent to 18.0 billion euros, while gross margin fell slightly to 57.4 percent from 57.9 percent last year. Inditex generates more than half of its sales in non-euro currencies and then books those sales in euros when reporting results. ($1 = 0.8506 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-inditex-results/zara-owner-inditexs-nine-month-net-profit-rises-6-percent-year-on-year-idUKKBN1E70KQ'|'2017-12-13T08:42:00.000+02:00'
'89d41f0188f9cd6daa3d2f8d1794f526d588a973'|'Westfield $16 billion Unibail-Rodamco sale rings the bell on retail''s next chapter'|'SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - For investors in Australia’s Westfield Corp ( WFD.AX ), its $16 billion sale to European property giant Unibail-Rodamco UNBP.AX may mark a turning point for a mall industry under pressure to reinvent itself amid fierce online competition.A Westfield Corp sign adorns the side of a building in central Sydney, Australia, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray But to billionaire Frank Lowy, who built Westfield’s vast European and U.S. shopping center network into multi-purpose leisure venues, it was also the perfect moment to call time on a family empire.“He probably thought that he’d taken it as far as he could with his sons, and there were other people that may have a different way of approaching the industry,” said Harold Finger, founder of Sydney-based shopping center investor Haben Property Fund Pty Ltd, who has known Lowy since he was a boy.“He’s 87 years old, his kids are not little babies any more, they’ve got kids and they’ve got other interests that they can get involved in,” he said, referring to two of Lowy’s sons, Peter and Steven.The sale of Westfield to Paris and Amsterdam-listed Unibail-Rodamco is a milestone for so-called bricks-and-mortar retailers, which have so far argued they can downsize or, in Westfield’s case, go upmarket to avoid the incursion of online competitors led by U.S. giant Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ).But analysts and investors in the sector disagree about what comes next.“Lowy has bailed on Westfield before Amazon destroys his malls and turns them into relic tombs of the 20th century,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of private equity investor the Patriarch Organization, by telephone from Los Angeles.“You can only do so much to re-imagine a shopping mall, and they’ve tried here in Los Angeles, but it’s like trying to reinvent the horse and carriage. No matter how much you try you can’t turn a horse into a Tesla. It’s not going to happen.”The deal may nudge other mall owners towards considering a sale more seriously, though some point out that further M&A action will be more difficult with Westfield and Unibail-Rodamco - two big players - now off the board.The Lowy family, which owns 9 percent of Westfield, will end up with a 2.8 percent stake in the combined group.Citi analysts noted Lowy’s public statement that he remained committed to his seven-decade-old company as an investor but said “it’s hard not to see today’s announcement as signaling a significant shift in view”.FILE PHOTO: Westfield Group Chairman Frank Lowy addresses an investors briefing in central Sydney November 3, 2010. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo The deal has lifted expectations in a sector sold down by investors over its gloomy outlook.Shares of Scentre Group ( SCG.AX ), which Westfield spun off in 2014 to hold its Australian shopping centers while Westfield kept the U.S. and British assets, rose 2 percent on Wednesday, on top of a 4 percent jump a day earlier.GOING HIGH-END FILE PHOTO: Frank Lowy, Chairman of Football Federation Australia (FFA), listens a question from the media at Sydney airport March 31, 2010. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo The explosion of online retail has led to a worldwide decline in department store footprints, forcing mall owners such as Westfield to rethink their business models to sustain or grow earnings.In the United States, Macy’s Inc ( M.N ) and J C Penney Co Inc ( JCP.N ) have said they would shut hundreds of stores to protect themselves from declining sales. Credit Suisse estimates that up to 25 percent of U.S. malls will shut by 2025.Westfield has been seen as a pioneer of reinventing the mall concept, adding cinemas, apartment towers, high-end food courts and luxury fashion labels to its rental mix.The overhaul - which has spanned the Westfield portfolio from Beverly Hills, California, to London and Milan - has nonetheless curtailed earnings growth as capital works hit rents, weighing on the company’s share price and making it attractive for buyers.“Westfield particularly we saw as a good opportunity because it’s rare that you see a group that has such high quality assets, and they’re building out what is really the pre-eminent retail portfolio globally,” said Grant Berry, a portfolio manager at Australian broker S.G. Hiscock, which invests in retail real estate investment trusts (REITs), including Westfield.“They’ve been doing all the right things and the market hasn’t been giving them credit for that.”Winston Sammut, managing director of Folkestone Maxim Asset Management, said the deal offered Lowy and his family an exit just as their business entered its most challenge phase, while offering the buyer access to a fresh market.“It’ll probably turn out to be good timing,” said Sammut. “There’s still a lot of headwinds for the sector in general. The writing’s on the wall. You’ve got to take opportunities as they come.”Reporting by Byron Kaye in SYDNEY and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Additional reporting by Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Alex Richardson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-westfield-m-a-unibail-rodamco/westfield-16-billion-unibail-rodamco-sale-rings-the-bell-on-retails-next-chapter-idINKBN1E71BD'|'2017-12-13T13:08:00.000+02:00'
'79383975837da789074e07858f099fc7c2fc84a1'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 13'|'December 13, 2017 / 5:49 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 13 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 13 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Walt Disney Co was closing on an all-stock transaction to cleave out most of the assets of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, which is controlled by the Murdoch family, with an agreement possibly coming as soon as Thursday. nyti.ms/2yjMTii - An enormous explosion rocked a major natural gas hub in Baumgarten, Austria on Tuesday, killing an employee, injuring at least 18 people and raising concerns about tightening supplies across Europe. nyti.ms/2ykEzyV - Republican lawmakers, scrambling to reach agreement on a final tax bill that they hope to pass next week, are coalescing around a plan that would slightly raise the proposed corporate tax rate, lower the top rate on the richest Americans and scale back the existing mortgage interest deduction. nyti.ms/2C9piEc - Crowdfunding firm Indiegogo started a new service to vet coin offerings, also known as Initial Coin Offerings, and then help sell them to small and large investors. nyti.ms/2nRwnpM Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-13-idUSL3N1OD273'|'2017-12-13T13:49:00.000+02:00'
'079a24cdd23d98658905ae2d8abc05e7ec7a5983'|'Did Sanofi, WHO ignore warning signals on dengue vaccine?'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:22 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Did Sanofi, WHO ignore warning signals on dengue vaccine? Julie Steenhuysen , Ben Hirschler 10 Min Read CHICAGO/LONDON (Reuters) - When French drugmaker Sanofi published the results of clinical trials of children given its dengue vaccine two years ago, the overall findings were that it protected against the world’s biggest and fastest growing mosquito-borne disease. FILE PHOTO: An aedes aegypti mosquito with the dengue-blocking Wolbachia bacteria is seen inside a laboratory tube before being released in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares/File Photo But the trial also showed that in the third year after receiving the Dengvaxia inoculation, younger children were more likely to end up in hospital with a severe case of dengue than those who didn’t get the vaccine. The study’s authors cited two main possibilities: the children had immature immune systems that made the vaccine less protective, or the vaccine itself made them more susceptible to severe disease if they had never had dengue and later became infected. More than two years later, it turns out the latter was the primary factor - a revelation at the end of last month that has triggered alarm among hundreds of thousands of anxious parents in the Philippines, where the vaccine has been given to over 830,000 children. It has also torpedoed initial expectations by analysts and the company that Dengvaxia, the first dengue vaccine to be developed, might become a $1 billion-a-year blockbuster product. Sanofi says it will take a charge of around 100 million euros ($118 million) for the fourth quarter. Initially, to address the issue seen in younger children, Sanofi had recommended that the vaccine only be given to those aged 9 and older in areas where the disease was widespread. The World Health Organization analyzed Sanofi’s data and came to the same conclusion. It made a conditional recommendation to use the vaccine. But after a new analysis of data from the trials, Sanofi confirmed last month the vaccine could increase the risk of severe dengue in some cases in people who had not been previously exposed to the disease. The WHO has now backed a decision by the Philippines government to suspend a mass immunization program and said it has begun reviewing safety data. In Sanofi’s large-scale trials, blood samples were not collected from all the children before they were vaccinated, which would have identified prior exposure to the disease by showing the presence of antibodies. “The development process around the first dengue vaccine led to a degree of momentum and judgments being made that we should learn lessons from,” Neil Ferguson, a professor at Imperial College London and an unpaid adviser to both Sanofi and the WHO, told Reuters. The case raises questions whether Sanofi and the WHO, in their pursuit of a new weapon to fight a deadly disease, should have foreseen the risk. Their decisions on how the vaccine was rolled out could set back efforts to combat dengue by a generation, some disease experts say. REJECTED SUGGESTIONS Sanofi has rejected suggestions it ignored any risks or took any short-cuts. However, it has acknowledged that clinical tests of the vaccine did not fully investigate whether a previous dengue infection could influence the outcome. ”When you are the first in class, we’re the ones having to develop and understand the science as we go,“ said Dr. Su-Peing Ng, the global medical head of Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of the drugmaker. ”We don’t have another vaccine to follow the lead on. “The findings we have today, we would have loved to have (earlier),” she told Reuters. “Now that we have these findings, of course it’s our responsibility again to ... share this information.” The protocols for the tests, devised in 2009, were “thoroughly vetted by many dengue experts, including with WHO’s technical advisory group and various regulators”, Ng added. The WHO said it acted promptly to address concerns when they arose. It has also said its recommendations on use of Dengvaxia were conditional and confined to children aged 9 and older in areas where dengue was endemic. Complicating matters, scientists were sharply divided about the risks of the vaccine. Four decades ago, Dr. Scott Halstead, a leading figure in dengue research, first proposed that antibodies from an initial exposure to one of four types of the disease could increase the risk of a potentially lethal complication called severe dengue when a person was infected a second time, a process know as antibody-dependent enhancement or ADE. This phenomenon could make development of a dengue vaccine tricky. Rather than being protective, a shot given to someone who had never had dengue could act like a first infection, increasing their risk of severe dengue when they were exposed a second time. Halstead, an adjunct professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, said when he saw Sanofi’s 2015 paper, he was convinced the increased risk that some children would contract severe dengue was evidence of ADE. FILE PHOTO: Concepcion Yusop, a national immunization program manager, shows an anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia inside a vaccine storage room in Sta. Cruz city, Metro Manila, Philippines December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo Halstead wrote a series of papers published in Vaccine, the Journal of Infectious Diseases and other journals urging Sanofi and the WHO to proceed with caution in rolling out the vaccine. “It was not obvious to Sanofi and the World Health Organization, but it was obvious to me,” he told Reuters. CONDITIONAL GUIDANCE Dr. Joachim Hombach, senior health adviser in WHO’s vaccine department, said he understood Halstead’s concerns but the organization could only work with data generated by research. He told Reuters that WHO “strongly encouraged” Sanofi to conduct follow-up studies to clarify whether children who had never had dengue before being vaccinated were more prone to severe dengue. “It was recognized it was something that would be important to follow as part of our long-term program,” said Sanofi’s Ng. “This is exactly what we’ve done with our recent analysis.” In the end, WHO issued its conditional guidance on Dengvaxia in July, 2016, after a year of deliberations, favoring use of the vaccine only in countries with a high burden of dengue, and stipulated that it only be given to children aged 9 and older. Ferguson, at Imperial College, also raised concerns about the vaccine in a paper published in the journal Science in September 2016, suggesting the vaccine could increase severe dengue in some places with low transmission of dengue. Slideshow (2 Images) But until last month, many other scientists were on the fence about whether the signals in Sanofi’s trials were evidence of true ADE. “I‘m not sure it was nailed down until now,” Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust medical charity who has served on WHO’s working group on dengue vaccines, told Reuters. A paper in PLOS Medicine in November 2016 described a “split” among dengue experts between those like Farrar who supported the WHO recommendations on cautious use of Dengvaxia and those such as Halstead who said it was too risky. To do the follow-up study, Sanofi had to solve a major problem. The company said it had only collected blood samples that would have revealed prior exposure to dengue in 10 percent of the more than 30,000 children in its clinical trials before they had been vaccinated. Sanofi did have blood samples from nearly all of the children but only after they had been vaccinated. So it would be hard to tell from those samples whether the antibodies in their blood were produced in response to a natural dengue infection or the vaccine itself. Responding to questions from Reuters, the company said in an email it would have been considered ‘unethical’ to take blood samples from all the kids prior to vaccination, because there wasn’t a clear reason to do so when it set up the protocols for the trial. SHEER MOMENTUM In 2014, Sanofi had entered into a scientific collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research to measure responses to the vaccine in its trials. At the time, the company had no reason to suspect that the vaccine would increase risks in children who had never had dengue, Ng said, but this test ultimately proved critical in allowing the company to differentiate those who had been infected before vaccination from those who had not. That test only became ready to use this past July, said Dr. Ernesto Marques, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Pittsburgh, who helped develop the test. Sanofi used the test to re-analyze blood samples collected in its trials and alerted public health officials last month that there was an increased risk of severe dengue in people who had not been previously infected, even among the children 9 and older who had been recommended for the vaccine. By the time Sanofi announced findings from its follow-up study at the end of last month, the vaccine had been given to over 830,000 children in the Philippines, and about 300,000 people in Brazil. One factor in decision-making was the sheer momentum behind the project, said Ferguson, the unpaid adviser, referring to the surge in the incidence of dengue and the fact that Dengvaxia was the first vaccine developed to contain the disease. The WHO says dengue is now endemic in more than 100 countries, up from 9 countries before 1970. An estimated half a million people suffering from dengue require hospitalization each year and about 12,500 die. “Clearly, in retrospect, it was a mistake” not to have taken baseline blood samples, said Ferguson, “The question is, could it (the need to do so) have been anticipated?” Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sanofi-dengue-science-insight/did-sanofi-who-ignore-warning-signals-on-dengue-vaccine-idUKKBN1E7072'|'2017-12-13T04:21:00.000+02:00'
'bb5f50260c29dcc62d07807650c3328093ae644e'|'Britain eyes bespoke trade arrangement with EU - Hammond'|' 52 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Britain eyes bespoke trade arrangement with EU - Hammond Reuters Staff 2   Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said it is likely Britain will want to negotiate a bespoke arrangement for future trade deals with the European Union. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond attends the UK-China Economic Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China December 16, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool Speaking at a press conference in Beijing on Saturday with Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai and Chinese Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin, Hammond said he expected that the United Kingdom would develop a trade deal that is not a “Canada model.” Hammond, who is in China on an official visit, was referring to a deal similar to the one the EU agreed to last year with Canada. Shi told reporters that China believes Britain and the EU are able to reach an agreement that is satisfactory to both sides. The European Union agreed on Friday to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact but some leaders cautioned that the final year of divorce negotiations before Britain’s exit could be fraught with peril. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer   Vice Premier Ma Kai attend the UK-China Economic Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China December 16, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool EU leaders, who had offered British Prime Minister Theresa May a rare summit round of applause over dinner in Brussels the night before, took just 10 minutes to agree that she had made “sufficient progress” on divorce terms last week and to give negotiators a mandate to move on to the main phase of talks. Summit chair Donald Tusk said the world’s biggest trading bloc would start “exploratory contacts” with Britain on what London wants in a future trade relationship, as well as starting discussion on the immediate post-Brexit transition.   Brexit negotiations have been a vexed issue for the global economy as markets feared prolonged uncertainty would hit global trade and the growth. A transition period is now seen as crucial for investors and businesses who worry that a “cliff-edge” Brexit would disrupt trade flows and sow chaos through financial markets. Hammond’s China visit is the latest instalment in long-running economic talks between the two states but it has now taken on new importance for Britain as it looks to re-invent itself as a global trading nation after leaving the EU in 2019. Reporting by Ben Blanchard;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-britain-eu/britian-eyes-bespoke-trade-arrangement-with-eu-hammond-idUKKBN1EA05S'|'2017-12-16T09:28:00.000+02:00'
'cac824fd3a2508e0e5da26e89c79b91c3550cab5'|'UPDATE 1-Israel''s Teva to cut jobs in restructuring on Thursday - report'|'(Adds comments from labour leader, new figures on scope of layoffs)By Tova CohenTEL AVIV, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will unveil a restructuring plan on Thursday that will include laying off more than half its Israeli workforce, the Calcalist financial news website said.Teva’s plan includes closing its research and development centre in the coastal city of Netanya, selling its logistics centre in Shoham and cutting 3,300 jobs out of 6,430 in Israel, Calcalist said, citing people familiar with the matter.Saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt since acquiring Allergan’s Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion, Teva made a series of changes after Kare Schultz joined as its new chief executive on Nov. 1.A spokeswoman for Teva, the world’s largest generic drug maker which employs more than 56,000 people, declined to comment on Wednesday’s report, while Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said only he was following the situation closely.One of the plants earmarked for sale, Calcalist said, is the Teva Tech factory in Israel’s southern Negev desert. It produces raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry and employs 870 workers, according to Teva’s website.“This is a young plant ... and hundreds of millions of shekels of Israeli government money were invested here,” Meir Babayoff, chairman of the Negev region in the Histadrut labour federation, told Israel Radio.He vowed to stop any layoffs and called on Israel’s government “to wake up”, but declined to detail what actions labour leaders plan pending an official announcement from Teva.Last week Bloomberg reported that the firm was considering cutting up to 10,000 jobs to reduce costs by $1.5 billion to $2 billion in the next two years.Teva said on Tuesday that Yitzhak Peterburg, who previously served as its chairman and interim CEO, had resigned from its board with immediate effect.New CEO Schultz ousted top division heads last month and said he would combine the firm’s generic and specialty drug businesses. He had also said Teva was working on a detailed restructuring plan to be unveiled in mid-December. (Additional reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Edmund Blair and Alexander Smith) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/teva-pharm-ind-restructuring/update-1-israels-teva-to-cut-jobs-in-restructuring-on-thursday-report-idINL8N1OD3DR'|'2017-12-13T10:03:00.000+02:00'
'40f21b7785690ade984ab9c9ef0841a1dda20027'|'Germany''s Axel Springer to sell online platform to TF1'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s Axel Springer ( SPRGn.DE ) plans to sell its majority stake in online platform aufeminin S.A. ( OFMN.PA ) to France’s TF1 ( TFFP.PA ) news channel for 286 million euros ($335.4 million).The publisher signed a put option on Tuesday to sell its 78 percent stake in aufeminin which runs a lifestyle website with news on topics such as fashion, beauty and healthcare.“We have sold a non-core asset at a very, very attractive price,” finance chief Julian Deutz told reporters late on Tuesday.Berlin-based Axel Springer, listed on Germany’s mid-cap index .MDAXI MDAX, earlier on Tuesday announced a purchasing price of 38.74 euros per share, a 45-percent premium on last Friday’s close.Axel Springer expects a brief review of the planned transaction by labor representatives and then will sign a sale agreement, with the closing expected in the first quarter next year after a review by antitrust authorities, Deitz said.($1 = 0.8527 euros)Reporting by Douglas Busvine. Writing by Andreas Cremer. Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-axel-springer-m-a-tf1/germanys-axel-springer-to-sell-online-platform-to-tf1-idUSKBN1E62OK'|'2017-12-13T03:23:00.000+02:00'
'465dc8122a23a395eef733c973af5851d831dde5'|'Gemalto says board has until Friday to review unsolicited Atos bid'|' 31 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Gemalto says board has until Friday to review unsolicited Atos bid Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French security software maker Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) has until Friday to review the unsolicited all-cash bid made by consulting firm Atos ( ATOS.PA ), Gemalto’s board said on Tuesday. The shadow of an attendee is cast below a logo of Franco-Dutch technology firm Gemalto during a news conference in Paris February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes “The company subsequently informed Atos that it would carefully review the proposal and respond to it before such date,” it said in a statement. Atos offered 4.3 billion euros ($5.06 billion), or 46 euros a share, dividend included, to buy all of Gemalto to boost its cyber security services as states and big corporations seek to cope with a growing number of attacks on the Internet worldwide. Gemalto has taken Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) and JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) as financial advisor. Law firm Allen & Overy acts as its legal advisor. Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by GV De Clercq'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-gemalto-m-a-atos/gemalto-says-board-has-until-friday-to-review-unsolicited-atos-bid-idUKKBN1E60ME'|'2017-12-12T09:14:00.000+02:00'
'fce76b2991c5a1ab330d410b24554939a68dc14c'|'UPDATE 1-France-based Miner AMR starts bauxite production in Guinea'|'(Adds interview with AMR chief, details, byline)By Saliou SambCONAKRY, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Paris-based miner AMR began production at its Guinean bauxite mine on Tuesday, aiming to produce between 6 and 10 million tonnes a year of the aluminium ore, the company said.Alliance Miniere Responsable (AMR) was founded by two French businessmen and major shareholders include former Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon and French telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel.A company statement said the mine’s output will all be sold to Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB), a Guinean company whose main shareholders are Singapore’s privately-owned Winning International Group and China’s Shandong Weiqao.“It’s all going to China,” CEO and co-founder Romain Girbal told Reuters by telephone. By next year they should be producing about 8 million tonnes, but by the following year they should have exceeded the 10 million target, he said.Guinea has about a third of the world’s bauxite reserves, but annual production has hovered below 20 million tonnes a year for several years, owing largely to political instability.Guinea has suffered periodic protests and riots in its bauxite-mining areas, like the town of Boke, by locals who complain of pollution and a perceived lack of jobs created by mining companies operating there.Girbal said the company would operate in a more environmentally friendly way than some other operators.”Regarding pollution, the main nuisance is dust. SMB and AMR are particularly aware of this and regularly water mining tracks, he said.“AMR is going to use surface miners, a method that is more respectful of the environment and respectful of the population, starting in March. This will notably cause less dust.”In 2017, SMB expects to export more than 15 million tonnes of bauxite, putting it on a par with number one producer Guinea Bauxite Company (CBG), majority owned by Alcoa, Rio Tinto and Dadco.Until 2015, CBG and Russia’s RUSAL were the only companies that exported bauxite from Guinea.Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Dakar; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/guinea-mining/update-1-france-based-miner-amr-starts-bauxite-production-in-guinea-idINL8N1OC53Q'|'2017-12-12T14:17:00.000+02:00'
'2f68c747c6c9d44e8bab365428aacf8990cdc88b'|'Airline consolidation creates pressures for Europe''s airports'|'December 12, 2017 / 12:46 PM / Updated an hour ago Airline consolidation creates pressures for Europe''s airports Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - A wave of consolidation among European airlines is creating pressure on the region’s airports because it gives carriers more negotiating power over their hubs, the head of airports association ACI Europe told Reuters. Air Berlin sign is seen at the check-in for the AB6210, the last flight, operated by insolvent carrier Air Berlin before departing Munich''s international airport, southern Germany, October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder European airlines have had a turbulent year. Monarch, Air Berlin and Alitalia have entered administration after struggling to compete as air fares fell. Lufthansa and easyJet are scooping up Air Berlin’s assets and have also both made bids for some Alitalia operations. Meanwhile British Airways has acquired collapsed Monarch’s valuable Gatwick slots. “Consolidation means less airlines in the market to chase, to serve your airport and open destinations. It also gives airlines more purchasing power, more power to dictate the conditions under which they serve an airport,” ACI Europe head Olivier Jankovec told Reuters. While budget airlines such as Ryanair were already more flexible in shifting business to and from airports, the creation of big airline groups with multi-hub operations - IAG, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Group - means traditional airlines can now also go elsewhere, he said. For example, Lufthansa this year upped pressure on Fraport, the operator of its main base in Frankfurt, by moving some of its A380 superjumbos to Munich. “An airport cannot move, an airline can move to another location. With those three groups emerging in Europe, they all have multi-hub operations so they can play that game,” Jankovec said. The Air Berlin collapse has left Berlin’s Tegel airport lacking in more lucrative long-haul flights. Jankovec also predicted that Rome Fiumicino could suffer if Alitalia ceased operations or was bought by a rival. It took Brussels airport traffic 14 years to recover after the collapse of Sabena, he said, while Budapest lost its status as a hub following the demise of home carrier Malev. Airports can try to woo airlines, however, by making their operations more efficient so that planes spend less time on the ground, thus earning the airlines more money, he said. Aviation analyst John Strickland said airports had to be looking ahead all the time. “It’s about airports being dynamic in what they do, not overspending on capital programmes or coming up with ambitious plans to win architectural awards, but looking at operational efficiency, with which they can be flexible given the shifting sands of the industry,” he said. Jankovec said the airport sector remained attractive for investors overall, thanks to expected growing passenger numbers. Shares in European airport operators Fraport, Flughafen Zurich, Vienna Airport, Aena and Groupe ADP have risen by between 19 and 60 percent this year. Credit rating agency Moody’s last month gave a positive outlook for European airports in 2018 thanks to strong passenger growth, though it highlighted airline consolidation as a risk in the medium term as surviving carriers could cut capacity and hike ticket prices. Reporting by Victoria Bryan, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-airports/airline-consolidation-creates-pressures-for-europes-airports-idUKKBN1E61J8'|'2017-12-12T14:46:00.000+02:00'
'b4b59d8f76514552a4af9a81c554e682780030ec'|'Australia cobalt rush accelerates on electric vehicle demand, DRC troubles'|'December 15, 2017 / 9:05 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Australia cobalt rush accelerates on electric vehicle demand, DRC troubles Melanie Burton 3 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia, home to the world’s second-biggest cobalt reserves, is seeing a rush of interest in projects still years from production as makers of batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) seek supplies of the metal from a more costly but less risky source than top miner, the Democratic Republic of Congo. As auto makers seek to develop greener cars, shares in Clean TeQ ( CLQ.AX ) - owner of one of the largest cobalt deposits in Australia - have trebled this year. Minnows Cobalt Blue ( COB.AX ), Australian Mines ( AUZ.AX ), Artemis Resources ( ARV.AX ) and Aeon Metals ( AML.AX ) have also seen shares surge. On Friday, Aeon, developing a copper-cobalt project in Queensland, raised A$30 million ($23 million) from institutional investors. Investor interest has surged further since Amnesty International reported as much as a fifth of the DRC’s cobalt was artisanally mined in dangerous conditions, involving women and children. Giants like Toyota ( 7203.T ) and Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) pledged last month to uphold ethical standards in buying cobalt and other minerals needed for EVs. “We have 10 (battery making) firms in discussions,” said Australian Mines Managing Director Benjamin Bell, citing advanced talks with firms from Germany, Japan, China and South Korea to secure offtake for its Queensland Sconi project. Sconi is expected to produce 2,500 tonnes of cobalt and 17,500 tonnes of nickel annually after production starts in late 2019. FILE PHOTO: Artisanal miners sit outside a cobalt mine-pit in Tulwizembe, Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo November 25, 2015. REUTERS/Kenny Katombe/File Photo “The reason they are contact with us is they can see that cobalt out of the DRC is probably not going to be acceptable for their users over time,” Bell told Reuters. Australia is rich in cobalt, mined as a by-product of copper and nickel, holding some 1.1 million tonnes of reserves or 15 percent of world supply. That’s less than a third of the DRC’s reserves, but around five times that of Canada, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. “To be honest, costs in Australia are much higher than DRC, but half our revenue is cobalt and half nickel. The battery makers are talking to us saying that they would take both,” Bell said. Clean TeQ began life as a water treatment technology firm but acquired a cobalt-nickel-scandium deposit in 2014 and is now capitalized at A$832 million. “We are talking to many people regarding offtake and the discussions are ongoing,” a spokesman said. Meanwhile Artemis Resources plans to reprocess ore stockpiles from a shuttered mine in the Pilbara from the middle of next year. It is not in formal offtake negotiations, but has been speaking with Chinese and American firms, director Ed Mead told Reuters. Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Gavin Maguire and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-cobalt-batteries/australia-cobalt-rush-accelerates-on-electric-vehicle-demand-drc-troubles-idUSKBN1E90R4'|'2017-12-15T11:04:00.000+02:00'
'9b39e0ca569b2a764881b514fa1d75c7a90179c3'|'Let board do its job finding successor, Airbus CEO urges staff'|' 10 PM / a minute ago Let board do its job finding successor, Airbus CEO urges staff Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) Chief Executive Tom Enders, who is stepping down in 2019, urged employees on Friday to allow the board to pick his successor without being distracted by speculation about who would replace him. “You may be wondering who will replace me in 2019,” Enders said in a letter seen by Reuters shortly after a management shake-up. “This is a matter for the board to decide in due course, behind closed doors and in the sole interest of Airbus, its employees and shareholders.” “We have much to achieve together between now and then, so my suggestion is to let the board do their work and we’ll focus on ours.” Enders acknowledged past differences with his no.2 and chief operating officer, Fabrice Bregier, and said he was relying on Bregier’s team to welcome his successor Guillaume Faury into the role “with open arms and ease him into the job”. Bregier is leaving in February 2018, having told the board he would not seek the CEO position in 2019, Airbus said earlier. Several people close to the company said tensions between the two top executives had contributed to Bregier’s departure, though aides to Enders said it was solely related to the board-supervised succession process. “I am personally very grateful to Fabrice for everything he has done for Airbus,” Enders said. Faury will be replaced as head of Airbus Helicopters in coming weeks, he added. In his own letter, Bregier thanked staff and called for one last push to meet a “difficult” challenge of reaching a record target of more than 700 jet deliveries in 2017. “It will require a huge effort, but I am confident that with your support and full dedication, we will be successful again.” Enders called for “all hands on deck” to meet the same goal, which is being closely watched by aerospace investors. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Richard Lough'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-management-letters/let-board-do-its-job-finding-successor-airbus-ceo-urges-staff-idUSKBN1E91DH'|'2017-12-15T14:10:00.000+02:00'
'1e8a0e2d5733265132aebc31e9303acadc9627a9'|'Uber investor departs venture firm amid harassment claims'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:23 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Uber investor departs venture firm amid harassment claims Heather Somerville 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar, known for his early bet on Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL], said on Thursday that he would sever ties with his venture capital company, Sherpa Capital, after being accused of sexual misconduct. FILE PHOTO - Shervin Pishevar of Hyperloop One speaks during 2016 TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, California, U.S. September 14, 2016. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach Pishevar, who has denied the accusations, said in a statement provided by his lawyer that he was voluntarily leaving Sherpa Capital, which he co-founded, because of ongoing “untruthful attacks” against him. Bloomberg reported in November that five women accused Pishevar of exploiting a professional connection or the prospect of a job, mentorship or investment to make unwanted sexual advances. ( bloom.bg/2BAvK70 ) Reuters was unable to independently confirm the accusations. “I refuse to allow my enemies to drag my Sherpa family into their fight with me,” Pishevar said in the statement. “That is why I have decided on my own accord to end my association with Sherpa Capital, effective immediately.” In a statement, Sherpa Capital thanked Pishevar for his contributions to the firm and said it was “deeply committed to our culture of integrity, inclusion, and respect.” The firm previously said it had never received any sexual harassment complaint but was nevertheless launching an independent internal review to ensure its “practices and operations continue to reflect the highest professional and ethical standards.” Pishevar earlier this month took a leave of absence from Sherpa Capital to fight the allegations of sexual assault and harassment and focus on a defamation lawsuit he filed against political consulting firm Definers Public Affairs, which he has accused of orchestrating the accusations. Pishevar also stepped down from his board responsibilities at various startups, including Hyperloop One, the transportation company he co-founded. His announcement on Thursday made his departure from Sherpa Capital permanent. “I plan to focus now on the appropriate ongoing legal actions against those who are unjustly orchestrating the smear campaign against me,” Pishevar said. Pishevar in November sued Arlington, Virginia-based Definers Public Affairs and its founder, Matt Rhoades, and president, Joe Pounder. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that they orchestrated “a malicious smear campaign, apparently designed to incite false, defamatory, and highly damaging chatter and gossip about Mr. Pishevar.” Tim Miller, a partner at Definers Public Affairs, called Pishevar’s accusations “frivolous.” Earlier this month, Definers filed a motion seeking to have Pishevar’s lawsuit dismissed. At the time, Miller said the lawsuit had “kept women from speaking out.” Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-people-shervinpishevar/uber-investor-departs-venture-firm-amid-harassment-claims-idUKKBN1E8370'|'2017-12-15T04:16:00.000+02:00'
'de11143845e19041e0792977576fe40df4898c52'|'UK nuclear regulator approves Hitachi-GE reactor design'|'December 14, 2017 / 11:46 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago UK nuclear regulator approves Hitachi-GE reactor design Nina Chestney 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s nuclear regulator has approved Hitachi-GE’s reactor design, paving the way for it to be used in Horizon’s planned new nuclear project in Britain. A logo of Hitachi Ltd. is pictured at the CEATEC JAPAN 2017 (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, October 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) said it was satisfied that Hitachi-GE’s advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) meets the necessary safety, security and environmental protection standards for it to be used in plants in Britain. Hitachi’s Horizon Nuclear Power unit plans to construct at least 5.4 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity at two sites in Britain - Wylfa Newydd in Wales and Oldbury-on-Severn in England. It will use Hitachi-GE’s advanced boiling water reactors in the plants. “The completion of the generic design assessment of the UK ABWR is a significant step in our regulation of the overall process to construct this type of reactor in the UK, ensuring that the generic design meets the highest standards of safety that we expect in this country,” said Mark Foy, ONR’s chief nuclear inspector. “We’re already working on our assessment of Horizon’s site licence application and on the development of the site specific safety case to progress, in due course, the construction and operation of these reactors at Wylfa Newydd,” he added. The approval paves the way for new nuclear power capacity to be built in Britain, which needs to replace an ageing fleet of nuclear reactors and coal plants coming offline in the 2020s. Separately, South Korea’s state utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) said last week that it had been picked as a preferred bidder for Toshiba’s NuGen nuclear project in Britain, throwing the troubled project a lifeline. KEPCO said in a statement the company planned to negotiate with Toshiba over the next few months to buy a stake in the nuclear project and sign a deal in the first half of next year if the negotiation progresses smoothly. Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Mark Potter and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-nuclear-hitachi/uk-nuclear-regulator-approves-hitachi-ge-reactor-design-idUKKBN1E81FH'|'2017-12-14T13:46:00.000+02:00'
'691f29712d262dca35b99ff3540cc15f4b66913a'|'China''s HNA charity turns to former German official for leadership'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:26 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago China''s HNA charity turns to former German official for leadership Matthew Miller 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Former German Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler has been appointed to the top job at HNA Group’s New York-based foundation, a move intended to provide stability and legitimacy for the Chinese conglomerate’s charitable efforts in the United States. FILE PHOTO: Philipp Roesler reacts as he delivers his resignation speech at a FDP party congress in Berlin, December 7, 2013. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Roesler becomes the first chief executive of Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation Inc, a New York-based not-for-profit corporation, the foundation said Thursday. The foundation is the largest shareholder of HNA Group Co [HNAIRC.UL], the highly acquisitive Chinese conglomerate that holds large stakes in Hilton Worldwide Holdings ( HLT.N ) and Deutsche Bank AG ( DBKGn.DE ). Hainan Cihang said it planned to contribute up to $200 million toward charitable undertakings over the next five years, including $30 million in pledges to Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Calvary Hospital in New York. Officially registered with the New York attorney general in September, Hainan Cihang will focus at first on programs to provide healthcare, education and entrepreneurship, Roesler said in an interview with Reuters. Hainan Cihang “will grant and support financially some projects,” Roesler said. “We won’t hire doctors to make vaccinations, but what we can do is support organizations doing this.” Roesler said he expected Hainan Cihang to work closely with the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on refugee issues, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean. HNA Group, the aviation-to-property and financial services conglomerate that has entered into $50 billion worth of deals over two years, announced the establishment of Hainan Cihang in July, as part of a wider attempt to clear-up questions about its shareholding structure. FILE PHOTO: Philipp Roesler reacts after first exit polls in the German general election (Bundestagswahl) in Berlin September 22, 2013. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo Hainan Cihang is now HNA’s biggest shareholder, with 29.5 percent of group stock, while a sister foundation based in mainland China holds 22.75 percent of the conglomerate. Roesler, while aware of media reports concerning HNA’s ownership structure and short-term financing problems, said he remained “optimistic” he would be able to focus on his current job and the “mission of the foundation”. HNA announced its restructuring in July, listing the two charities and 12 HNA founders and executives as shareholders, leading to heightened scrutiny by global banks and regulators. For at least 10 years, around 17 percent of HNA’s shares were held in trust by Bharat Bhise, a key HNA banker, as a “favor” to the company, Bhise told Reuters. Those shares, along with another stake, were transferred to Hainan Cihang. In November, the Swiss Takeover Board said HNA gave partially untrue or incomplete information about its shareholders during its acquisition of the Swiss airline catering firm Gategroup last year. HNA Group’s chief executive, Adam Tan, acts as chairman of Hainan Cihang’s board of directors. Other directors include Guang Yang, HNA Capital’s chief investment officer, and Chen Guoqing, brother of HNA Group founder and chairman Chen Feng. Dividends for Hainan Cihang’s shareholding in HNA Group is likely to provide additional funding, Roesler said, adding that an evaluation of the “exact value” of the 29.5 percent stake was now underway. Roesler comes to the Hainan Cihang from the World Economic Forum, where he was a managing board member. Roesler, trained as a medical doctor, earlier served as Germany’s health minister as well as economics and technology minister. Reporting By Matthew Miller; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hna-cihang/chinas-hna-charity-turns-to-former-german-official-for-leadership-idUSKBN1E829K'|'2017-12-14T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'd15b16fb6920dadba6ec5fb777469d2a4f282adb'|'Petrofac sees recovery in new orders, cuts capex'|' 58 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Petrofac sees recovery in new orders, cuts capex Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Oilfield services company Petrofac Ltd said on Thursday it saw a recovery in new orders as an uptick in oil prices boosted project activity, and cut its full-year capital budget for the second time. Oilfield service companies had been hurt by weak demand as subdued oil prices forced exploration and production companies to cut capital expenditure and defer or cancel contracts. Petrofac, which designs, builds, operates and maintains oil and gas facilities, said it secured $5.2 billion in new orders so far this year and it continued to see a high level of tendering activity in its core markets. The company said backlog stood at $10.3 billion at Nov. 30, reflecting a recovery in new order intake, offset by progress on existing portfolio of projects. Petrofac also cut its full-year capital expenditure guidance to about $175 million from the $200 million-$250 million range. The company said trading was in line with expectations and net debt was expected to be around $850 million at Dec. 31, lower than the $1 billion it reported as of June 30. The Times reported on Sunday Petrofac hired consultancy Bain & Co to explore options for its North Sea operations, including a sale, after The Telegraph reported last month that U.S. oilfield services companies Schlumberger and Halliburton and a Middle Eastern company were among the firms circling Petrofac. ( bit.ly/2C27SsY ) Petrofac also said on Thursday its Chairman Rijnhard van Tets was planning to step down at the May 2018 annual general meeting after an 11-year tenure. He will be succeeded by current senior independent director René Médori, the company said. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-petrofac-outlook/petrofac-sees-recovery-in-new-orders-cuts-capex-idUKKBN1E80TX'|'2017-12-14T09:57:00.000+02:00'
'10e4861451dbfacbb27b0e7b5a0f8f33228bc353'|'South Korea prosecutors seek four-year jail term for Lotte group chief'|'Reuters TV United States  23 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago South Korea prosecutors seek four-year jail term for Lotte group chief   SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s prosecutors are seeking a four-year jail term for Lotte Group chief Shin Dong-bin, the corporate group’s spokesman said by telephone on   Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin attends a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo Prosecutors also demanded 25 years in jail for Choi Soon-sil, who was indicted last year on charges of forcing conglomerates such as Samsung Group and Lotte Corp to donate millions to foundations, Yonhap news said. Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lottecorp-chief-prosecution/south-korea-prosecutors-seek-four-year-jail-term-for-lotte-group-chief-idUKKBN1E80L8'|'2017-12-14T08:19:00.000+02:00'
'cba53e947223559311571e130b1e0081ab170721'|'Amazon to pay 100 mln euros to settle Italy tax dispute - statement'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:03 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Amazon to pay 100 million euros to settle Italy tax dispute Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s tax authority said on Friday it had reached an agreement with e-commerce giant Amazon to settle outstanding tax claims covering the period 2011-2015. Amazon will pay a total of 100 million euros ($118 million) to resolve the dispute, the tax agency said in a statement. In April, Milan tax police said it believed the world’s largest online retailer had evaded 120-130 million euros of taxes in Italy, a source told Reuters. At the time Amazon said its profits in Italy, on which taxes are paid, had been low due to its considerable investments in the country. The group confirmed in a statement on Friday it had reached an agreement with the authorities “on matters of the past”, without giving details. “In May 2015 ... we have created an Italian subsidiary which registers all revenues, expenses profits and owed taxed in Italy for its retail sales,” it said. It added the company had invested over 800 million euros since setting up in the country, in 2010, and employs over 3,000 people. Amazon, and other multinational companies, have faced a crackdown by countries, particularly in Europe, trying to increase revenues from major corporations and close loopholes. In October, Luxembourg said it would ask Amazon to set aside the 250 million euros that the European Commission has ordered the company to repay in taxes while the parties consider whether or not to appeal. Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Steve Scherer and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-italy-tax/amazon-to-pay-100-million-euros-to-settle-italy-tax-dispute-statement-idUSKBN1E91KM'|'2017-12-15T14:57:00.000+02:00'
'7e61fa3b0fe9f68f4f8c6920dc9d344783bc95aa'|'Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'December 15, 2017 / 5:09 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead Reuters Staff 12 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. Workers are seen on scaffolds on the Bank of Japan building that is undergoing construction works in Tokyo, Japan, October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai 1/BOJ JOB The Bank of Japan holds the last of this year’s major central bank meetings next week. Japan’s economy is now into its best period of expansion this century, the labour market continues to improve, and bank lending is booming. Yet the BOJ’s stimulus remains pretty much at full throttle, having already ballooned its balance sheet to the same size as Japan’s GDP. Keeping the yen from appreciating and thus disturbing the cyclical tailwinds of growth seems to have become a major reason why the BOJ is a laggard on policy ‘normalization’. Some BOJ policymakers have been dropping subtle hints to prepare markets for an eventual exit from its policy -- one that keeps short-term rates negative and pegs the 10-year yield to zero percent -- but investors expect little guidance around that exit plan at next week’s meeting. The first changes may come via a small rise in the 10-year yield target, they suspect, but even the odds of that are low so long as wage growth is subdued and inflation remains well below the BOJ’s 2 percent target.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUKKBN1E9296'|'2017-12-15T19:08:00.000+02:00'
'8db97833115fa80e38bca387fc81bde7a9687925'|'Russian central bank, in surprise move, cuts key rate to 7.75 percent'|'December 15, 2017 / 10:57 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago Russian central bank, in surprise move, cuts key rate to 7.75 percent Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian central bank cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 7.75 percent from 8.25 percent on Friday, a sharper cut than expected, and said further cautious reductions were possible in the first half of next year. Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina reacts while presenting the new 200 and 2,000 rouble banknotes in Moscow, Russia October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor Friday’s cut, the sixth this year, was a surprise for the market because all 22 analysts polled by Reuters expected the central bank to cut the rate by just 25 basis points to 8 percent.. The central bank said it would also consider cutting the key rate next year because inflation had slipped below its 4 percent target to 2.5 percent in annual terms as of Dec. 11. “The Bank of Russia will continue its gradual transition from moderately tight to neutral monetary policy and holds open the prospect of some key rate reduction in the first half of 2018,” the central bank said in a statement. Inflation has slowed faster than expected this year largely thanks to booming agriculture production, a stronger rouble and the central bank’s tight monetary policy. Further rate cuts, however, are likely to be cautious and gradual as the central bank sees risks of inflation picking up again next year. The central bank noted that the extension of an output cut agreement between oil-exporting countries lowered uncertainty on the global energy market and reduced related pro-inflationary risks over a one-year horizon. “However, the risks of upward deviation of inflation from the forecast in the medium term still prevail,” it said. The central bank has previously said it aims to bring its key rate down to 6.5-7 percent over the next two years as a sharp slowdown in inflation leaves room for cuts. Annual inflation in Russia is currently at an all-time low after tumbling from around 17 percent in early 2015. The central bank said it had also confirmed its economic growth forecasts for this year at 1.7-2.2 percent. Elvira Nabiullina, the central bank’s governor, is expected to give more information about the central bank’s plans and forecasts at a regular news conference due at 1200 GMT. The rouble weakened briefly to 59.06 against the dollar after the deeper-than-expected rate cut from around 58.88 seen shortly before the rate announcement. It later recovered to trade at 58.99 as of 1038 GMT. The next rate-setting meeting is scheduled for Feb. 9. Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Andrew Osborn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-cenbank-rate/russian-central-bank-in-surprise-move-cuts-key-rate-to-7-75-percent-idUKKBN1E9146'|'2017-12-15T12:56:00.000+02:00'
'd1364a9dfadc080b9318a5302de48b1c94ef29cb'|'EMERGING MARKETS-LatAm currencies firm on bets of slower U.S. rate hikes'|'By Bruno Federowski BRASILIA, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies strengthened on Wednesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump''s Republicans suffered defeat in a special election in Alabama, imposing a possible hurdle to his policy agenda. Expectations that Trump''s efforts to cut taxes and boost infrastructure investments could boost U.S. economic growth and speed up inflation have weighed on investor demand for emerging market assets in recent months. Quickening inflation could force the Federal Reserve to hike U.S. interest rates more quickly in the coming months, dampening the allure of higher-yielding assets. But a disappointing U.S. inflation reading put the U.S. dollar on the backfoot on Wednesday and trimmed expectations of U.S. policy tightening going forward. Currencies from Chile, Mexico and Brazil firmed between 0.2 percent and 1.2 percent, while stock markets jumped. The U.S. special election result and inflation figures also temporarily seized the spotlight away from the Federal Reserve, which is widely expected to raise interest rates later on Wednesday and could provide clues about the timing of future U.S. policy moves. Shares of Cosan SA Indústria e Comércio led gainers on Brazil''s benchmark Bovespa stock index after it concluded the acquisition of a stake in natural gas distributor Cia de Gás de Sao Paulo from oil major Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Phone carrier Oi SA slumped after it reached a deal with two major creditor groups on a plan to recover the company from bankruptcy protection that would give bondholders up to 75 percent of the company''s shares. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1645 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily YTD pct pct change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1,120.13 0.7 29 MSCI LatAm 2,754.25 1.33 16.13 Brazil Bovespa 74,277.26 0.63 23.33 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 48,171.94 0.99 5.54 Chile IPSA 5,107.87 1.35 23.04 Chile IGPA 25,645.20 1.23 23.69 Argentina MerVal 27,456.47 0.42 62.29 Colombia IGBC 11,085.44 0.11 9.45 Venezuela IBC 1,265.84 0.24 -96.01 Currencies Latest Daily YTD pct pct change change Brazil real 3.3038 0.71 -1.65 Mexico peso 19.1390 0.19 8.39 Chile peso 646.35 1.15 3.77 Colombia peso 3,013.15 0.40 -0.39 Peru sol 3.232 0.03 5.63 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.3050 0.32 -8.26 Argentina peso (parallel) 17.89 0.34 -5.98 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-latam-currencies-firm-on-bets-of-slower-u-s-rate-hikes-idINL1N1OD1CH'|'2017-12-13T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'd1671c47acb9caf62149140e424470c346d2a74b'|'3i Infrastructure sells stake in Finnish power company Elenia'|' 29 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago 3i Infrastructure sells stake in Finnish power company Elenia Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - London-listed 3i Infrastructure Plc said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its stake in Finnish power company Elenia Oy to Allianz Capital Partners, Macquarie and the State Pension Fund of Finland. 3i Infrastructure said the sale of the investment to the consortium would generate gross proceeds of about 725 million pounds. Reuters had reported Elenia, Finland’s second-largest power company, could fetch an enterprise value -- debt plus equity -- of about 3 billion euros in what would be one of Europe’s biggest infrastructure deals of 2017. ($1 = 0.7491 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-elenia-sale/3i-infrastructure-sells-stake-in-finnish-power-company-elenia-idUKKBN1E71YM'|'2017-12-13T16:29:00.000+02:00'
'33be4fa8df8fae2c91321809da7eca9c24ad4840'|'Toyota, Panasonic consider joint development of EV batteries'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:30 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Toyota, Panasonic consider joint development of EV batteries Naomi Tajitsu , Makiko Yamazaki 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is considering making batteries for electric vehicles (EV) with Panasonic Corp, as it ramps up battery development to help meet its goal for green cars to comprise half of global sales by 2030. Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda (L) and Panasonic Corp President Kazuhiro Tsuga attend a joint news conference in Tokyo, Japan, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The joint announcement on Wednesday builds on an existing agreement under which Panasonic - a global market leader for automotive lithium-ion batteries - makes batteries for Toyota’s petrol-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The plan to co-operate more closely on batteries comes as automakers compete to develop more EVs in compliance with tightening regulations worldwide to reduce vehicle emissions. Toyota’s battery needs are likely to increase after it said last year it would add fully electric vehicles to its product line-up in the early 2020s, expanding a green-car strategy which has focused on plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles (FCV). “The auto industry faces many hurdles to developing next-generation batteries which are difficult for automakers or battery makers to tackle on their own,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a joint news conference. “It would be difficult for us to meet our 2030 goals given the current pace of battery development. That’s why we’re looking to Panasonic and other companies to help us develop ever-better cars and batteries.” Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda (L) and Panasonic Corp President Kazuhiro Tsuga attend a photo session after a joint news conference in Tokyo, Japan, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Toyoda said the automaker’s annual sales target for petrol-electric and plug-in hybrids is 4.5 million vehicles by 2030, and 1.0 million units for EVs and FCVs. To that end, Toyota in September formed an EV technology venture with peer Mazda Motor Corp and supplier Denso Corp. The venture reflects a trend of automakers and components makers partnering to develop the next-generation cars, to reduce research, development and manufacturing costs. Slideshow (8 Images) In Panasonic, Toyota is partnering the main battery supplier of major U.S. EV maker Tesla Inc. With a 29 percent market share, Panasonic is the world’s biggest supplier of batteries for plug-in hybrids and EVs, showed January-June data from Nomura Research. The pair plan to expand development of prismatic - flat, pouch-shaped - batteries with higher energy density. Panasonic already makes prismatic batteries for Toyota, whereas for Tesla, it makes cylindrical batteries of a type similar to those used in laptops. “Our cylindrical batteries are the most widely used batteries in pure EVs at the moment,” said Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga. “But when you look at the future, it’s difficult to gauge which format holds more demand potential.” “We need to be able to develop new battery technologies in a prismatic format, and this would be difficult on our own.” Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toyota-panasonic/toyota-panasonic-to-hold-news-conference-at-0630-gmt-idUKKBN1E707J'|'2017-12-13T13:23:00.000+02:00'
'4f7dcfe9395a9bdef2da6d25c83bdd2998b6ede1'|'European shares open on a cautious note ahead of Fed meeting'|'(ADVISORY- Follow European and UK stock markets in real time on the Reuters Live Markets blog on Eikon - see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets)LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - European bourses opened on a cautious note on Wednesday despite gains on Wall Street and in Asia as investors await a U.S. Federal reserve meeting and assess the political implications of Donald Trump’s setback in a bitter Senate election in Alabama.The pan-European STOXX 600 slipped 0.1 percent with Paris, Frankfurt and London trading in negative territory.“Last night’s new U.S. records aren’t expected to translate through to this morning’s open in Europe, where the underlying sentiment is likely to be caution ahead of today’s Fed meeting and tomorrow’s Swiss National Bank, Bank of England and European Central Bank rate meetings”, CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said before markets opened.Swedish builder NCC posted the worst performance of the index, falling more than 8 percent after it warned on Wednesday its operating earnings for the fourth quarter would be “close to zero”.Supermarket group Colruyt followed with a 3.7 percent fall after Barclays cut its target price for the stock.There was also disappointment at the earnings of Aurubis NAFG.DE>, Europe’s biggest copper smelter, which slid 2.2 percent.Zara fashion chain owner Inditex rose by almost 4 percent after reporting net profit to September of 2.3 billion euros, a 6 percent gain. (Reporting by Julien Ponthus; editing by Tom Pfeiffer) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-shares-open-on-a-cautious-note-ahead-of-fed-meeting-idUSL8N1OD1C7'|'2017-12-13T10:25:00.000+02:00'
'ae2b8d41237fe006791ca6daec5c1a6ca82d1829'|'Despite lawsuits, Russia''s Rosneft says not after Sistema''s assets'|' 39 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Despite lawsuits, Russia''s Rosneft says not after Sistema''s assets Vladimir Soldatkin 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil giant Rosneft said on Wednesday it was not seeking control of assets belonging to business conglomerate Sistema, despite successfully freezing Sistema assets worth around $5 billion in a legal wrangle. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Russia''s Rosneft oil company is pictured at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo A Russian court froze $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion) of assets on Tuesday, at Rosneft’s behest, prompting Sistema’s shares to fall by 9 percent in early trade on Wednesday. They recovered a little later, but Sistema - which holds the assets of Russian businessman Vladimir Yevtushenkov - has lost a quarter of its market value since the legal battle erupted in early May. In June, the same court froze assets worth more than $3 billion, part of a first lawsuit filed by Rosneft. “This is an injunction,” Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said of the latest asset freeze on Wednesday. “We don’t need the assets, we need the funds ... This is in case Sistema fails or refuses to pay in cash.” The dispute centres on mid-sized oil company Bashneft and pits powerful Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, against Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who some reports suggest is close to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The way the battle is being fought - via lawsuits and counter lawsuits - and the high value of the assets involved, has rekindled concerns about Russia’s investment climate and raised questions about the Kremlin’s oversight of business. Yevtushenkov was placed under house arrest in 2014 over alleged money laundering before the state renationalised Bashneft, saying its privatisation had been illegal, while dropping all charges against him. Rosneft then bought a controlling stake in Bashneft from the government in 2016. It later alleged Sistema had removed assets from the company, something Sistema denies. A Russian court ruled in August that Sistema should pay more than 136 billion roubles ($2.3 billion) to Rosneft in compensation as a result of Rosneft’s first lawsuit in the case. Rosneft filed a second $2.2 billion lawsuit earlier this month, and Sistema then counter-sued Rosneft for around $5.6 billion. Putin has fuelled speculation about the Kremlin’s role in such disputes by calling on Rosneft and Sistema to settle their differences out of court, saying this would benefit both companies and the wider Russian economy. But the president’s intervention appears to have so far been ignored, with both companies accusing one another of not making compromise proposals, and the dispute has resurrected fears about the risk of doing business in Russia. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the legal battle on Wednesday. ($1 = 59.0775 roubles)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-rosneft-sistema/russias-rosneft-says-not-seeking-control-over-sistemas-assets-idUKKBN1E70P0'|'2017-12-13T13:34:00.000+02:00'
'c07c526e59596466f19e01778b851f9a5b927c77'|'Futures flat ahead of Fed''s decision on interest rate hike'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:25 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Wall Street mixed as financials drag after Fed rate hike Sinead Carew 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended slightly lower on Wednesday pressured by the financial sector after the Federal Reserve announced a widely expected interest rate hike but kept its rate outlook for coming years even as it projected faster U.S. economic growth. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The quarter-percentage-point rise in the overnight lending rate, which marked the third hike this year, came along with an increase to the Fed’s 2018 gross domestic product growth forecast to 2.5 percent from 2.1 percent. The Dow and the Nasdaq ended higher but the S&P could not sustain gains in choppy trading after the Fed statement. The S&P was dragged lower by a late-session tumble in bank stocks, which tend to get a profit boost from higher interest rates. The financial sector’s .SPSY 1.3 percent drop for the day suggested, however, that investors may have expected a more hawkish Fed. “It’s a fairly dovish statement which is positive for risk assets,” said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management in Philadelphia. “Always the worry with the market is if the Fed pushes back too hard and takes away the punch bowl. It just doesn’t seem that they’re setting the table for that at all,” he said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 80.63 points, or 0.33 percent, to end at 24,585.43, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.26 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,662.85 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 13.48 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,875.80. The consumer staples sector .SPLRCS was the strongest of the S&P’s 11 sectors with a 0.5 percent gain. The S&P utilities .SPLRCU sector pared gains after hitting a session high to end up 0.3 percent. Investors were also keeping a sharp eye on progress in the Republicans’ push for a U.S. tax law overhaul that would involve a corporate tax cut. Shortly before the Fed news, congressional Republicans said they had reached a deal on tax legislation and U.S.   said he would back a corporate tax rate of 21 percent. “The equities market is also reacting to the possibility that Congress may have a tax plan on the president’s desk by the end of the year,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist, Prudential Financial, Newark, New Jersey. Earlier in the day a Labor Department report showed underlying consumer inflation slowed in November, possibly affecting the pace at which the Fed hikes rates. Investors also assessed Democrat Doug Jones’ victory in a bitter fight for a U.S. Senate seat in deeply conservative Alabama on Tuesday. Some participants said his win could mean trouble for Trump’s policy agenda as it narrows the Republicans’ already slim majority in the Senate. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.27-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.61-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 39 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 67 new highs and 46 new lows. Volume so far on U.S. exchanges was 6.77 billion shares, compared to the 6.53 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Rama Venkat Raman and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/futures-flat-ahead-of-feds-decision-on-interest-rate-hike-idUSKBN1E71JL'|'2017-12-13T14:23:00.000+02:00'
'82e82ed105469ecdbafbba849f8d7c7fd7d49510'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Emaar dividend drags down Dubai, Saudi Electricity plunges'|'DUBAI, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Weakness in Emaar Properties after news of a special dividend payment pulled down Dubai’s stock market in early trade on Wednesday, while utility Saudi Electricity plunged after it said it would pay increased revenues to the state.The Dubai stock index sank 1.6 percent as Emaar tumbled to its lowest level since June in heavy trade.Emaar said it would pay a special dividend of 4 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion) related to its listing of Emaar Development - 3 billion dirhams next month and 1 billion after its annual general assembly in April.That equates to a dividend of 0.56 dirham a share, less than the market had been expecting.Neighbouring Abu Dhabi fell 0.4 percent despite a strong debut by the fuel distribution unit of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co after the market’s first initial public offer in six years.ADNOC Distribution opened at 2.90 dirhams against its IPO price of 2.50, and after 75 minutes was trading at 2.71. There had been concern about the debut because the initial pricing range was lowered and Emaar Development had a weak debut in Dubai last month.In Saudi Arabia, the index edged down 0.2 percent as Saudi Electricity plunged 9.9 percent.The stock had climbed 3.5 percent on Tuesday in anticipation of the government announcing hikes in electricity tariffs, and after the close, the regulator revealed higher tariffs for residential users from Jan. 1.But the company said it would pay the government a fee equivalent to the rise in tariffs, so there should be no positive impact on its profits.The most heavily traded stock, real estate firm Dar Al Arkan , rebounded 6.5 percent after falling for two days. It has soared since mid-November, when international index compiler MSCI said it was adding the stock to its Saudi Arabia Index.Al Tayyar Travel, whose founder has been detained in Saudi Arabia’s sweeping crackdown on corruption, added 1.5 percent. The company announced a transformation plan that includes new products such as insurance and holiday activities, and boosting reservations on electronic platforms.Qatar’s index gained 1.1 percent in a broad-based rally, with advancers outnumbering decliners by 37 to one.Late on Tuesday the government released a 2018 state budget plan that includes a 2.4 percent rise in spending. It said it expected to award 29 billion riyals ($8.0 billion) of contracts to support growth in the private sector next year, part of a drive to diversify and strengthen the economy as it faces a boycott by four other Arab states. (Reporting by Andrew Torchia; editing by John Stonestreet) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-emaar-dividend-drags-down-dubai-saudi-electricity-plunges-idINL8N1OD1BK'|'2017-12-13T04:53:00.000+02:00'
'b6b5d9374c748162d47af05cd93e718cf4d456f5'|'UK billionaire Gupta to form listed company with Atlantis Resources'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:20 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago UK billionaire Gupta to form listed company with Atlantis Resources Maytaal Angel 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance has struck a deal with tidal power firm Atlantis Resources that marks the British billionaire’s first step into the stock market. Liberty Steel''s Sanjeev Gupta smiles outside their newly acquired Liberty Steel processing mill in Dalzell, Scotland, Britain April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne GFG Alliance, the $10 billion (£7.5 billion) turnover consortium that runs metals group Liberty House and energy and commodities group SIMEC, said in a statement Atlantis had agreed to buy SIMEC Energy’s Uskmouth power station in Wales. In return, SIMEC Energy will own a 49.99 percent stake in Atlantis, which will be renamed SIMEC Atlantis Energy Ltd, a new company that will become part of Gupta’s worldwide energy, metals and industrials consortium. As Atlantis Energy is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market, the deal makes SIMEC Atlantis Energy the first member of the GFG Alliance to be listed on public markets. Gupta last year offered to rescue steel plants owned by Tata Steel UK at the height of a steel market crisis that led to job losses, capacity cuts and bankruptcies worldwide. The deal did not materialise but he has since bought other steel, aluminium and iron ore assets in Britain, Australia and the United States, and is eyeing industrial assets in India. With the Atlantis deal, Gupta aims to drive forward the Uskmouth power station’s 200 million pound conversion to renewable energy, and is looking to develop a tidal stream project in Scotland, as well as a tidal barrage project in Lancashire, England. “The potential for this business to create enormous value in the renewable energy market in the near term is tangible and very exciting,” said Gupta, whose “green steel” model is based on using renewable energy to recycle locally sourced scrap. Under the GFG Alliance, Gupta owns assets around the world that span steelmaking, aluminium smelting, engineering, renewable and non-renewable energy, commodities trading, shipping, property and finance. He told Reuters earlier this year that GFG is looking to list parts of its multi-billion dollar business, but that the listing of a steel asset will more likely happen in the United States rather than Britain. Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Mark Potter and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gfgalliance-atlantis-rsrcs/british-billionaire-sanjeev-gupta-strikes-deal-with-atlantis-resources-to-form-new-listed-company-idUKKBN1E816T'|'2017-12-14T13:58:00.000+02:00'
'8cbb0d5eaaf258de2bffa4566b148e12a174f2ce'|'Perrigo preparing non-binding bid for Merck KgaA''s consumer health unit -sources'|'December 14, 2017 / 5:41 PM / in 14 minutes Perrigo preparing non-binding bid for Merck KgaA''s consumer health unit -sources Pamela Barbaglia , Ludwig Burger 1 Min Read LONDON/FRANKFURT, Dec 14 (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Perrigo has decided to enter the fray for Merck KgaA’s consumer health unit, sources told Reuters on Thursday, and is preparing an indicative offer for the $4.7 billion business ahead of the Dec. 15 deadline. Perrigo is expected to face competition from Swiss food giant Nestle and the private equity owners of German drug firm Stada, which are also lining up non-binding offers for the unit, the sources said. Merck’s financial adviser JPMorgan wants to shortlist bidders for the business, which makes Seven Seas vitamins and Bion nutritional supplements, before the end of the year, they said. Perrigo and Merck declined to comment. ($1 = 0.8492 euros) (Reporting By Pamela Barbaglia, editing by David Evans)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/merck-ma-perrigo-company/perrigo-preparing-non-binding-bid-for-merck-kgaas-consumer-health-unit-sources-idUSL8N1OE6SN'|'2017-12-14T19:40:00.000+02:00'
'5b98da91a94062deceb708441ad45ef98dfb5bc9'|'Volkswagen says some employees cooperated with Brazil''s military regime'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:37 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Volkswagen says some employees cooperated with Brazil''s military regime Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) said on Thursday that a historian commissioned by the carmaker found that some of the security staff at Volkswagen do Brasil had cooperated with the country’s former military regime. A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero “There is no clear evidence found, that the cooperation was institutionalized by the company,” said Christopher Kopper, a history professor at Germany’s Bielefeld University who carried out the study on Volkswagen’s role in Brazil from 1964 to 1985. Kopper based his study on statements made by former employees, documents from Volkswagen’s corporate archives in Germany and Brazil as well as Brazilian state archives, Volkswagen said. Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-brazil/volkswagen-says-some-employees-cooperated-with-brazils-military-regime-idUSKBN1E823X'|'2017-12-14T16:36:00.000+02:00'
'0fcae6033b88e9343bd0f4166ca5ee307d735b7c'|'Teva Pharm to lay off a quarter of workforce, suspends dividend'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:33 PM / Updated an hour ago Teva Pharma to lay off a quarter of workforce, suspends dividend Tova Cohen , Ari Rabinovitch 2 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will cut its workforce by more than a quarter, give up many of its manufacturing plants and suspend its dividend on ordinary shares in a much-anticipated overhaul to help pay back its massive debt. An Israeli flag flutters near the logo of Teva Tech which is part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in Neot Hovav, southern Israel December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen Israel-based Teva, the world’s largest generic drugmaker, said on Thursday these measures will result in the reduction of 14,000 positions globally, with the majority of the cuts expected in 2018. The two-year restructuring plan is intended to reduce Teva’s cost base by $3 billion (£2.2 billion) by the end of 2019, out of an estimated cost base for 2017 of $16.1 billion. Israel’s main labour federation has threatened to hold a half-day general strike on Sunday, the start of the Israeli work week, in protest at the layoffs. Saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt since acquiring Allergan’s Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion, Teva made a series of changes after Kare Schultz joined as its new chief executive on Nov. 1. Teva expects a restructuring charge from the plan in 2018 of at least $700 million, mainly related to severance costs, with additional charges possible following decisions on closures or divestment of plants, R&D facilities and office locations. A man cleans near the logo of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries at their plant in Jerusalem December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad “We will execute this plan in a timely and prudent manner, remaining focused on revenue and cash flow generation, in order to make sure Teva is ready to meet all of its financial commitments,” Schultz said in a statement. He said Teva would preserve its core capabilities in Slideshow (4 Images) generic drugs and in select specialty products. “In 2018, we expect to secure the successful launches of Austedo and fremanezumab,” he said, referring to the company’s treatments for complications arising from Huntington’s disease and migraines. The company said dividends on convertible preferred shares would be evaluated on a quarterly basis. Teva will provide its 2018 outlook in February and a longer-term strategic direction for the company later that year. Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-teva-pharm-ind-restructuring/teva-pharm-to-lay-off-a-quarter-of-workforce-suspends-dividend-idUKKBN1E81L3'|'2017-12-14T14:33:00.000+02:00'
'865ea8edf9cfa5d624a9991ffac253ed92b2f7ef'|'Exclusive: FCC plans to fine Sinclair $13.3 million over undisclosed commercials'|'December 15, 2017 / 5:40 PM / in an hour Exclusive: FCC plans to fine Sinclair $13.3 million over undisclosed commercials David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission plans to fine Sinclair Broadcasting Corp $13.3 million after it failed to properly disclose that paid programming that aired on local TV stations was sponsored by a cancer institute, three people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The proposed fine, which covers about 1,700 spots including commercials that looked like news stories that aired during newscasts for the Utah-based Huntsman Cancer Institute over a six-month period in 2016, could bolster critics of Sinclair’s proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co. Sinclair Broadcasting and a spokesman for the FCC declined to comment. Sinclair, which has told reporters previously the violations were unintentional, disclosed the investigation in financial filings. Sinclair, which owns more than 170 U.S. television stations and is the largest U.S. operator, announced plans in May to acquire Tribune’s 42 TV stations in 33 markets as well as cable network WGN America and digital multicast network Antenna TV, extending its reach to 72 percent of American households. The FCC and Justice Department are reviewing Sinclair’s proposed acquisition of Tribune. The proposed fine, which was approved by the five-member FCC earlier this week but has not yet been made public, is significant, officials said. The penalty represents an average fine of about $7,700 for each of the improperly aired spots but is significantly less than the maximum fine Sinclair could have faced under the law. Sinclair will have the opportunity to respond to the proposed fine before it becomes final. Some Democrats have questioned if FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is biased in favor of Sinclair. In November, Democratic Representatives Frank Pallone and Elijah Cummings asked the FCC inspector general to investigate, citing FCC decisions that benefited Sinclair and a media report last year that the election campaign of President Donald Trump struck a deal with Sinclair for favorable coverage. Pai has denied the allegations. Advocacy group Free Press said in an FCC filing in August that Sinclair forces its stations to “air pro-Trump propaganda and then seeks favors from the Trump administration.” Politico, citing unnamed sources, reported in December 2016 that Trump’s campaign made a deal with Sinclair to get favorable coverage in exchange for more access to Trump. Sinclair denied that allegation. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, told a congressional committee in October, “All of our media policy decisions seem to be custom-built for this one company.” Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sinclair-fcc-exclusive/exclusive-fcc-plans-to-fine-sinclair-13-3-million-over-undisclosed-commercials-idUSKBN1E92C7'|'2017-12-15T19:39:00.000+02:00'
'ce91c2f3961a4c1079433caf6ab4cd358c53fc16'|'UK retailers enjoy bumper Black Friday sales - ONS'|'December 14, 2017 / 9:39 AM / Updated 4 hours ago UK retailers enjoy bumper Black Friday sales David Milliken , William Schomberg 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British shoppers pounced on electrical goods and other Black Friday bargains last month, giving an unexpectedly big boost to retail sales, which contrasted with earlier signs of a subdued start to Christmas spending. Consumers have been squeezed through most of this year by rising inflation which hit its highest in nearly six years last month, at a time when wages are failing to keep up. But there was some unexpected cheer for retailers in November data from the Office for National Statistics, which showed sales volumes were 1.6 percent higher than a year ago, beating all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. Spending in cash terms was 4.7 percent higher. The market reaction was muted and some economists said the surge in retail sales might reflect Christmas spending being brought forward to take advantage of Black Friday discounts. “The boost from Black Friday will be fleeting,” Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics said. The figures may provide some reassurance to the Bank of England, which raised interest rates for the first time in over a decade last month and will publish its latest rate decision at 1200 GMT. Kallum Pickering, an economist with Berenberg Bank, said the figures added to signs from factories that Britain’s economy was picking up a bit of speed in late 2017 and he expected that momentum to continue into 2018. “The risk from inflation to real spending growth has been exaggerated. Households will simply borrow a little more and save a little less to smooth out their consumption,” he said. FILE PHOTO: Shoppers are reflected in a window as they carry bags along Oxford street during the final weekend of shopping before Christmas in London December 20, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo On the month, overall retail sales were 1.1 percent higher, up from growth of 0.5 percent in October and much stronger than economists’ forecasts of a 0.4 percent rise. Household goods stores specifically reported that Black Friday promotions had boosted sales, the ONS said, with the amount of electrical household appliances sold jumping by nearly 9 percent compared with October. The data are seasonally adjusted, but the agency said this may not fully strip out the effect of Black Friday, as the promotion period - a relatively recent phenomenon borrowed from the United States - has increased in Britain in recent years. Looking at the past three months as a whole, which smoothes out monthly volatility, the picture is gloomier. Sales in the three months to November grew by just 1.0 percent compared with a year earlier, the weakest since May 2013. When the BoE raised interest rates on Nov. 2, it forecast real-terms household consumption growth would slow to 1 percent next year from 1.5 percent predicted for this year as demand shifted towards business investment and exports. Official data earlier this week showed that consumer price inflation rose to its highest in nearly six years at 3.1 percent in November, while the number of people in work fell for a second consecutive month. Food prices are rising at their fastest rate in four years, adding to the squeeze on household budgets. The ONS data showed the volume of food purchased was 0.1 percent lower than a year before, while spending on food was up by 3.5 percent. This week British electronics retailer Dixons Carphone ( DC.L ) said it had enjoyed record sales during November’s Black Friday promotion, despite weak demand for mobile phones that hit profits. But home furnishings company Carpetright ( CPRC.L ) cut forecasts after warning of fragile consumer confidence. The British Retail Consortium said last week its members had seen subdued sales last month and credit card company Visa reported the first year-on-year fall in inflation-adjusted spending in five years as Britons cut back on big purchases. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-retail/uk-retailers-enjoy-bumper-black-friday-sales-ons-idUKKBN1E8129'|'2017-12-14T11:40:00.000+02:00'
'76904d9ac634ee33a1fdffe6c643c463f15ee0ee'|'Not even “The Last Jedi” will reverse Americans’ retreat from cinemas - Blockbusted'|'THE new “Star Wars” film opens this week. “The Last Jedi” arrives in cinemas in time to boost expected ticket sales for the year to about $11bn in America, only slightly down from last year’s record. But the American film industry is in trouble. Tickets sold per person have declined to their lowest point since the early 1970s, before the introduction of the multiplex. Expensive flops have prompted studio executives to complain that Rotten Tomatoes, a ratings website, is killing off films before their opening weekends. The studios count on remakes and sequels to attract fans; such films account for all of this year’s top ten at the box office.It may get worse. Americans are losing the film-going habit as new sources of entertainment seize their attention. Netflix and other streaming services have made it more convenient to watch movies and TV programmes anywhere, on internet-connected TVs, tablets and smartphones. Apps such as Facebook and YouTube are fine-tuned to keep users gawping. Americans spend more than eight hours a day on their various devices, compared with just over four hours a day on TV in 2002, according to Nielsen, a research firm.  43 minutes   7   7   That leaves little room for the cinema. Americans are on track to have bought around 3.6 movie tickets per person by the end of the year, down by 30% from 5.1 in 2002. They pay $8.93 for a ticket, 54% more than 15 years ago, which means, for now, higher total takings, but attendance is expected to decline further. Frequent filmgoers—those who go once a month or more—have dwindled, from 28% of North Americans in 2002 to 11% in 2016, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. The average American goes to the cinemas only to take in a big-budget spectacle or the occasional buzzy hit.This shift in how people consume entertainment has also changed how it is made, further boosting the allure of the couch. Competition for subscribers among Netflix, Amazon, HBO and other pay-TV services has substantially increased investment in television series and films made for home viewing. Why go to the cinema when you can binge-watch “The Crown” and “Stranger Things 2”? MoffettNathanson, a research firm, reckons that Netflix’s production of films that never reach the big screen will reduce movie ticket sales in America by $300m-1bn a year.With the exception of Disney, profits are stagnating. Last year the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of the film studios at Fox, Time Warner, Universal and Viacom (Paramount) added up to $1.8bn, down from $1.9bn in 2010, MoffettNathanson estimates. Studios used to make a lot of money when consumers stayed at home, from DVD sales of their films, but no longer. When “Revenge of the Sith”, another “Star Wars” film, was released in 2005, retail sales, rentals and downloads of all films totalled $25bn, with the studios taking fat profit margins. That market collapsed to $12bn last year, according to The Numbers, a website. Streaming revenue is on the rise, but less of that money goes to the studios. (Disney is likely to buy Fox in part to bulk up its own streaming service, which it plans to launch in 2019.)Studios rely increasingly on international markets for box-office returns, especially fast-growing emerging markets such as China. China’s box office is expected to grow by more than 20% this year to about $8.3bn, and could surpass America’s by the end of the decade. The country added more than 1,600 cinemas last year—more than four per day. In America, some exhibitors have invested heavily in upgrades, such as recliner seats, to attract customers. Others have sold out of the market. That may have been wise. AMC Entertainment, a large North American chain in which Dalian Wanda Group of China holds a majority stake, has been on a spending spree to acquire smaller chains. Its share price has fallen by 55% this year.Studio and cinema executives argue that the secular trend in American film habits is less about decline than a change in tastes. Jeffrey Katzenberg, a former head of Disney’s film studio and co-founder of DreamWorks Animation, observes that American film-going has evolved from a “blue collar egalitarian” habit to a more “upscale” experience, at cinemas with luxuriant comforts and IMAX and 3D screens. That may be true, but there is a limit to how long new technology can justify rising ticket prices for the silver screen.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Blockbusted"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732583-tickets-sold-head-have-declined-their-lowest-point-early-1970s?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-14T22:49:00.000+02:00'
'eff17d012b03ea03e6b245e87d6abc329a42dfb2'|'Old Mutual Global Investors chief near buyout deal backed by TA Associates - source'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:27 AM / Updated an hour ago Old Mutual Global Investors chief near buyout deal backed by TA Associates - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - The chief of Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) Richard Buxton is nearing a 550 million pound buyout of the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. The buyout, which will be announced as soon as Friday or more likely next week, will be backed by private equity firm TA Associates, according to the person. A source told Reuters earlier in September that Buxton was eager to strike off on his own and had been in talks with private equity firm TA Associates about a possible management buyout of OMGI. Last month, Old Mutual Plc ( OML.L ), said it was on course to list its wealth unit Old Mutual Wealth in 2018 and announced a series of planned changes to the brand. The Anglo-South African insurer, whose primary share listing is on the London Stock Exchange, said in 2016 it planned to break itself up into four parts, blaming regulatory changes for making the company too complex to run in its current form. As part of the break-up, Old Mutual was also looking to sell part of OMGI, the asset management business of Old Mutual Wealth. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London and Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-old-mutual-sale-buxton-ta-associates/old-mutual-global-investors-chief-near-buyout-deal-backed-by-ta-associates-source-idUKKBN1E904L'|'2017-12-15T03:26:00.000+02:00'
'068a7200022a34eb6e4533404da091dae3babbb8'|'Saudi Arabia advisory council approves draft bankruptcy law'|'DUBAI, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council, a top advisory body to the government, has approved a draft bankruptcy law for the kingdom, a government statement said on Wednesday.The draft law, consisting of 231 articles in 17 chapters, aims to regulate bankruptcy procedures such as settlements and liquidation, the statement said. (Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Matthe Mpoke Bigg) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-bankruptcy/saudi-arabia-advisory-council-approves-draft-bankruptcy-law-idIND5N1KU01N'|'2017-12-13T07:18:00.000+02:00'
'2f972efaa5e5f84d9832c6785fbfc5fc4a3d68bf'|'RPT-Toyota and Panasonic eye joint development of new EV batteries'|'(Repeats to attach to additional alerts)TOKYO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Japan’s Panasonic Corp and Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday they will consider jointly developing batteries for electric vehicles.The move could help Panasonic extend its lead as the world’s largest automotive lithium-ion battery manufacturer.The announcement builds on an existing agreement under which Panasonic manufactures batteries for Toyota’s gasoline hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles.Toyota said last year it was planning add fully electric vehicles to its product line-up - a strategic shift away from its previous position that it saw fuel-cell vehicles and plug-in hybrids as the most sensible technologies to make cars greener. (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/toyota-panasonic-batteries/rpt-toyota-and-panasonic-eye-joint-development-of-new-ev-batteries-idUST9N1NL02J'|'2017-12-13T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'3e21f6265f52479244c4363c6be4b690ad9a8211'|'Exclusive: EU regulators to clear Luxottica, Essilor deal without conditions - sources'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:40 PM / Updated 4 hours ago Exclusive: Luxottica, Essilor tie-up on track for unconditional EU okay - sources Foo Yun Chee , Julia Fioretti 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italian eyewear maker Luxottica ( LUX.MI ) and French lens manufacturer Essilor ( ESSI.PA ) are set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval for their 48 billion-euro ($57 billion) merger, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The Luxottica name is reflected in a pair of sunglasses in this photo illustration taken in Rome February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/Illustration/File Photo Having had some initial concerns about the deal between Luxottica, the world’s biggest eyeglass frame maker and Essilor, the biggest lens maker, the European Commission is scheduled to decide by March 8 on whether to clear it. The Commission declined to comment on Thursday. Luxottica also declined to comment. Luxottica shares last traded up 0.6 percent at 50.75 euros on Thursday, while Essilor closed up 0.3 percent at 112.50 euros. The deal was worth 46 billion euros when it was unveiled in January but a rise in the share prices has pushed up the value since then to 48 billion euros. Some rivals and opticians have expressed concerns that the merged company might persuade opticians to buy eyewear and lenses as a package, leveraging on Luxottica’s strong brand portfolio which includes Ray Ban, Oakley and Persol as well as licensed names such as Chanel and Armani. The companies have told the EU competition enforcer that this was unlikely and also cited buoyant competition. Exane BNP Paribas said the imminent EU approval meant that the deal looks set to be cleared by competition authorities in all major markets without material concessions. The deal has already secured the regulatory green light in Australia, Canada, Colombia, India, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan. U.S regulators are also expected to give the go-ahead. However, the authorities in Singapore and Brazil are taking a closer look. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Julia Fioretti, additional reporting by Agnieszka Flak in Milan and Simon Jessop in London; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-essilor-m-a-luxottica-group-eu/exclusive-eu-regulators-to-clear-luxottica-essilor-deal-without-conditions-sources-idUSKBN1E81NA'|'2017-12-14T14:39:00.000+02:00'
'3da9662064be84f4c7dc7659a776c8d1197e8d3d'|'Suzuki says EV battery supply deal possible with Toyota-Panasonic'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Suzuki Motor Corp’s ( 7269.T ) president said the Japanese automaker will not join efforts by Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) and Panasonic Corp ( 6752.T ) to develop batteries for electric vehicles, but a supply deal could be possible.The logo of Suzuki Motor Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Toyota on Wednesday said it is considering making EV batteries with Panasonic to help meet its goal for green cars to comprise half of global sales by 2030.Automakers are competing to launch more EVs to meet tightening regulations on vehicle emissions, and have been announcing partnerships with parts suppliers and other companies to meet the high costs of developing new technologies.Toshihiro Suzuki, speaking at a product launch in Tokyo on Thursday, told reporters there was “no room” to join the tie-up between Toyota and Panasonic, but that a supply arrangement was possible.Suzuki and Toyota have agreed to trade expertise in parts supplies and research and development, including selling electric vehicles in India.Reporting by Maki Shiraki; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-suzuki-ev/suzuki-says-supply-deal-with-toyota-panasonic-on-ev-batteries-possible-idUSKBN1E809H'|'2017-12-14T10:55:00.000+02:00'
'326f42a76823da6ee3b62fa61cbdde32097ea879'|'Murdoch bets live sports and news will boost new, smaller Fox'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:15 PM / Updated 9 hours ago Murdoch bets live sports and news will boost new, smaller Fox Jessica Toonkel 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch is banking on Americans’ love of live sports and breaking news for a new, slimmed down version of his Fox TV business after selling the company’s film studios and international operations to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ). The 86-year-old media mogul’s play is based on the fact that sports and news still attract viewers watching in real time - and the advertisers that want to reach them - even as more people watch their favorite shows on demand after they air or online, skipping commercials completely. “Are we retreating? Absolutely not,” Murdoch told investors on Thursday. “We are pivoting at a pivotal moment.” Disney’s $52.4 billion purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) film, television and international businesses, announced earlier on Thursday, leaves Fox with a smaller but more focused set of assets, based on Fox News Channel - the U.S. No. 1 news cable network - and its broadcasts of sports such as National Football League and Major League Baseball. Murdoch, who started in the news business 65 years ago when he inherited his father’s newspaper, is keen to adapt to new ways of reaching customers. The new Fox will keep the technology it has been working on and is developing an online streaming video service to boost online audiences for its programs, executives said. The new Fox will be about a third of the size of what it is now, with about $10 billion in annual revenue, company executives said. If investors value the new company with the same or a greater multiple as the current Fox, it would suggest a market value of at least $20 billion. Its smaller size may mean it has less leverage when negotiating with cable and satellite companies to carry its content or bidding for sports rights to air on its network. Nevertheless, Murdoch challenged investors to trust him, saying he faced similar doubts when he launched Fox News 21 years ago and Fox Sports 1 in 2013. “Content and news relevant to you will always be valuable,” Murdoch said. LESS IS MORE Fox’s reduced size was not an immediate concern for investors. Mario Gabelli, chief executive of GAMCO Investors Inc, which is a Fox shareholder, told Reuters he is not worried about the new Fox’s size given that competitors such as Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc ( SBGI.O ) are smaller. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s recent move to roll back regulations that prohibit owning a television station and newspaper in the same market means the new Fox could grow by buying a string of papers and stations, Gabelli said. Contrary to recent speculation, there are no plans to fold the new Fox into News Corp ( NWSA.O ), the news business including the Wall Street Journal that Murdoch split from Fox in 2013 and in which he still owns a large stake. “We haven’t thought about combining with News Corp and if we do it’s way, way into the future,” Murdoch said on Thursday. However, a smaller Fox may be at a disadvantage competing for sports rights from deep-pocketed digital rivals such as Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) and Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) as well as traditional competitors, said Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research. Fox’s deal to carry Major League Baseball’s games is up for renewal in 2021 and its deal with the NFL is up in 2023. Twenty-First Century Fox CEO James Murdoch said the new Fox still would have the required scale and will compete for sports rights. Murdoch is also banking on Fox News Channel continuing its success as the top-rated cable news network, despite the fact that the median age of Fox News’ viewers is over 65, according to Nielsen. The median age of rival MSNBC’s viewers is also over 65, while CNN’s is 59. “For some advertisers Fox News is an important way to reach their customers,” said Barry Lowenthal, president of The Media Kitchen, a New York-based media buyer. “But the challenge for them is how do you bring in the younger consumers.” Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Anna Driver and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fox-m-a-disney-strategy-analysis/murdoch-bets-live-sports-and-news-will-boost-new-smaller-fox-idUSKBN1E836G'|'2017-12-15T00:14:00.000+02:00'
'b5b38f11ea39e43d3907aa43da36b711e2fc7fdc'|'Exclusive - KKR wins auction for Unilever''s spreads business: sources'|'December 15, 2017 / 2:05 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Exclusive: KKR wins auction for Unilever''s spreads business - sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Private equity firm KKR ( KKR.N ) is in exclusive talks to buy Unilever’s ( ULVR.L ) margarine and spreads business, people familiar with the matter said on Friday, in a deal expected to top $7 billion. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid /File Photo KKR prevailed in an auction for the business and could finalize a deal as early as this month, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. KKR and Unilever did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-spreads-kkr-exclusive/exclusive-kkr-wins-auction-for-unilevers-spreads-business-sources-idUKKBN1E91S1'|'2017-12-15T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'190cc38170cf359aecddbf7dc05a83fe740655f8'|'Natixis bank broadens metals fraud lawsuit, targets Glencore unit'|' 57 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Natixis bank broadens metals fraud lawsuit, targets Glencore unit Eric Onstad 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - French bank Natixis has broadened its $32 million (£24 billion) lawsuit over fraudulent receipts for nickel stored at warehouses in Asia by adding a unit of commodities giant Glencore as a defendant, a court filing showed. The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, September 30, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Glencore’s warehouse unit Access World rejected the accusations, according to the court papers. The move increases the focus on Access World, which said in January it had become aware of fake warehouse receipts circulating in its name and urged holders to seek authentication. In May, Natixis launched a lawsuit against metals broker Marex Spectron for $32 million after the bank said it paid the broker for metal but the ownership receipts provided by Marex for nickel stored in a warehouse turned out to be fakes. Marex rejected the claim and issued a counterclaim against Glencore’s unit Access World, which stored the metal. Marex said it had been diligent in verifying the warrants and that the warehouse firm had confirmed the receipts were authentic. “Some further particulars having been provided by Marex, the bank has now brought the claims against Access World,” Natixis said in a court document filed on Dec. 7. Natixis had no immediate comment. Marex and Glencore declined to comment. Metals markets were rocked about three years ago by a $3 billion fraud at Qingdao port in China, when a firm allegedly duplicated warehouse certificates to pledge metal as collateral for multiple bank loans. Following the more recent fraud, some global banks briefly froze credit lines for Singapore metal traders, people familiar with the matter said at the time. DISPUTED DOCUMENTS The Natixis legal action revolves around a series of complex trades in nickel warehouse receipts in late 2016 and early 2017 in which the bank granted what amounted to loans using nickel as collateral. Warehouse receipts can be endorsed from one holder to another and in this case the documents were transferred between several parties before they were discovered to be fakes. Marex said it verified some of the documents by sending them by courier to Access World’s office in Singapore. The warehouse company acknowledged in court papers that on Dec. 22, 2016 and on Jan. 9, 2017 it certified that the receipts were valid, but raised the possibility that they were not the same documents that were shown to be fakes in February. “As soon as the warehouse receipt leaves Access World’s possession, it will have to be re-authenticated by Access World on any subsequent presentation,” it said in a court filing on Sept. 15. Fake warehouse receipts for metal stored in Access World depots have also spurred legal action from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, which was involved in a similar loan deal using nickel as collateral. Unlike Natixis, ANZ has sued neither its broker, ED&F Man, nor Access World, but said in U.S. court papers it was targeting parties in Asia it suspected were behind the fraud. ANZ was not immediately available for comment and ED&F Man declined to comment. ANZ received permission from the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to interview U.S. witnesses linked to Asian firms involved in the nickel trades, a court filing in August showed. ANZ, Australia’s third-biggest lender, said in the court papers that it had already unearthed information in Hong Kong after it asked courts there for access to bank records. Those bank documents, included in the U.S. court filing, showed transfers of $151 million from two Hong Kong firms involved in the nickel trades to people and entities in California. The two Hong Kong firms - Come Harvest Holdings Ltd (CHH) and Mega Wealth International Trading Ltd - were clients of ED&F Man and handed over the warehouse receipts in exchange for loans. One of them, CHH, was also a client of Marex and provided the warehouse receipts for the transactions with Natixis, the British court documents show. CHH and Mega Wealth were not available for comment. Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-natixis-lawsuit-glencore/natixis-bank-broadens-metals-fraud-lawsuit-targets-glencore-unit-idUKKBN1E91J1'|'2017-12-15T14:55:00.000+02:00'
'4340aa44f789906406e7305e9cd4d18dd4d51b46'|'COLUMN-Futures may legitimize Bitcoin, but let it infect other markets: McGeever'|' 03 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago COLUMN-Futures may legitimize Bitcoin, but let it infect other markets: McGeever Reuters Staff (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) By Jamie McGeever LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin is taking its first steps toward becoming a legitimate investment vehicle with the creation of futures contracts in the crypto-currency this month, moves which may also allow it to infect wider financial market stability for the first time. Although the financial world simply does not have enough exposure to the sector to cause concern right now, growing participation of hedge funds and their banks via the new futures creates a link and risk that a bursting of what many see a gigantic bubble could leak into other markets. In some ‘worst case’ scenarios, it could be the trigger for a correction across global equity markets that have seemed impervious to pretty much all other risks for the past two years. Let’s be clear - we’re not talking systemic risk here. We saw that with Lehman Brothers in 2008 when the financial and economic world as we know it came within hours of a wipe-out. This is about the market-to-market contagion that could spread if large banks or leveraged speculators like hedge funds, having taken on big positions in bitcoin futures, find themselves on the wrong side of a sudden and dramatic price swing. In this scenario, they would be forced to liquidate holdings of other assets like stocks or bonds to cover their position in Bitcoin, or meet the hefty margin requirements stipulated by the market-making exchanges and brokers. Doug Kass, president of Seabreeze Partners Management, thinks one of next year’s big market surprises could be bitcoin soaring above $20,000 before plunging below $2,000, a crash that could take hedge funds down with it. “Several large, well-known hedge funds desperate for alpha are caught with their pants and portfolios down and with a large weighting in bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies; they lose more than 30 percent of their funds’ assets and value, and are forced to liquidate their cryptocurrency holdings and close their funds,” he ventures. Clearing houses, the institutions charged with ensuring exchanges aren’t left exposed if a bank or fund is unable to meet a cash call, may also forced to sell assets to raise the required cash. Selling begets further selling, especially in the opaque hedge fund world and market participants aren’t sure who’s bailing or why. If there’s the whiff of smoldering panic, a lack of visibility will fan the flames. The collapse of a hedge fund, exchange or brokerage often has no impact on markets at all. But sometimes it does. The most famous was hedge fund LTCM in 1998, and in 2011 the demise of broker MF Global triggerd a 10 percent correction on Wall Street over a 4-week period. DESPERATELY SEEKING ALPHA To say there’s been no shortage of volatility in bitcoin is an understatement. It has soared to over $17,000 from under $1,000 in January and intraday swings of $1,000 or more are now routine. There are good reasons to believe bitcoin’s extreme volatility will hit only those exposed to the cryptocurrency, and that ripples across financial markets will barely be felt. For all the hype, press coverage and wild price moves lately, bitcoin remains only a very small part of the financial universe. Its entire market capitalization is around $280 billion, roughly the same as Walmart. If Walmart shares crash, say 50 percent, will world markets crumble with it? Volatility would certainly spike higher, but it’s unclear how widespread or lasting the contagion would be. To put that market cap into context, Wall Street’s total equity market cap is over $20 trillion. Even if hedge funds do wade into bitcoin, how deep can they go? Hedge fund assets under management are nudging $4 trillion and the bitcoin universe is $280 billion. If bitcoin crashed as much as 90 percent today it would still be higher than it was at the start of the year. So those who have been holding it for a while - i.e, most Bitcoin investors - would still be sitting on paper gains. Yet the combination of extreme price volatility, the introduction of futures and the opportunity for speculators to take risky bets with borrowed capital creates a new and riskier dynamic. In the cash market, most bitcoin trading has been from retail investors and unleveraged. That means losses are limited to the individuals and nominal positions in question. The scope for wider contagion is minimal. But that won’t necessarily be the case when bigger players and more aggressive speculators get involved with borrowed capital in the desperate pursuit of higher returns. Andy Brenner, Head of International Fixed Income at National Alliance Securities in New York, says the growth of trading volume and open interest in bitcoin futures bears monitoring. “What you need for any contagion risk to emerge is a lot of trading, a lot of positions. It doesn’t matter if people are long or short the futures - but futures is the only way contagion risk appears,” he said. Cboe Global Markets Inc launched a bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 10. Trading volume and open interest so far is minimal - barely 400 contracts - but that will surely rise in the coming months. The CME Group launched its bitcoin future on Sunday Dec. 17. Both exchanges are taking extraordinary steps to protect themselves against excessive volatility, with intraday price limits and initial margin rates of 30 and 35 percent respectively. These are far tighter controls than other asset classes. And if a fund has deep enough pockets to put up a 35 percent margin then you could argue it can take the hits when they come. But 2017 has been a bad year for hedge funds. Many will be tempted to borrow and gamble heavily next year. Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Angus MacSwan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-bitcoin-spillover/column-futures-may-legitimize-bitcoin-but-let-it-infect-other-markets-mcgeever-idUSL8N1OD5DN'|'2017-12-15T15:01:00.000+02:00'
'a1fdee7369f8146c4b898944b804f4d9d7f0d0fb'|'Global shares little changed after central bank meetings'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:35 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago World stocks lower; U.S. Treasury yield gap shrinks Stephanie Kelly 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World shares were lower on Thursday after concern from investors over potential obstacles to Republican’s tax overhaul and a slate of policy meetings from major central banks in Europe. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.20 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 75.94 points, or 0.31 percent, to 24,509.49, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 10.79 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,652.06 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 19.27 points, or 0.28 percent, to 6,856.53. While U.S. Congressional Republicans reached a deal on final tax legislation on Wednesday, some policymakers said they were unhappy with the legislation’s child tax credit approach. Equity investors worry that stocks could tumble if the bill, which includes slashing corporate taxes, fails. “The fear they can’t get corporate tax cuts across the finish line might be causing the market to turn down, despite the strong retail sales and other good economic data,” said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh. Earlier in the day, stocks moved lower after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal net neutrality rules. Weakness in bank stocks contributed to a downbeat mood for equities in Europe, and the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed down 0.46 percent. On Thursday, both the European Central Bank and Bank of England left interest rates unchanged, as expected. The ECB promised to hold rates low for an extended period and even maintained a pledge to provide more stimulus if needed. The decisions come a day after a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting where the central bank announced a widely expected interest rate hike, but left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged. The Fed’s less hawkish statements supported MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS, but its gains were pared to 0.18 percent. U.S. TREASURY YIELD GAP SHRINKS The gap between U.S. shorter-dated and longer-dated Treasury yields shrank as surprisingly strong data on retail sales in November supported the view the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates further to keep the economy from overheating. The yield spread between five-year and 30-year Treasuries US5US30=TWEB was last at 57.0 basis points. “The yield curve will flatten in the long term,” said Matt Freund, head of fixed income strategies at Calamos Investments in Chicago. “The long end of the curve will be well-behaved with the Fed being deliberate in raising short-term rates.” Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 1/32 in price to yield 2.3511 percent, from 2.349 percent late on Wednesday. The 30-year Treasury US30YT=RR last rose 17/32 in price to yield 2.7094 percent, from 2.735 percent late on Wednesday The euro EUR= fell 0.34 percent after the ECB revised its growth forecasts upward while sticking with its pledge to provide stimulus if needed. The dollar index .DXY, tracking the greenback against a basket of major currencies, rose 0.12 percent, paring earlier gains on tax legislation concern. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.25 percent at 112.28 per dollar. In Greece, 10-year government bond yields GR10YT=RR fell, touching the lowest in almost a decade on Thursday. Earlier this month, Greece and its euro zone creditors reached a preliminary agreement on reforms Athens needs to roll out under its bailout programme, while economic data has proven stronger than anticipated. U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 0.94 percent to $57.13 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.40, up 1.54 percent on the day. Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly, Fanny Potkin, Dhara Ranasinghe, Helen Reid, Julien Ponthus in London, Rama Venkat Raman and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, and Richard Leong, Karen Brettell, Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/european-stocks-euro-dip-as-central-banks-dominate-idINKBN1E817V'|'2017-12-14T21:16:00.000+02:00'
'b730c648c2c3a8b4e3a08cdc613f558c63089e7e'|'Russia''s economic recovery driven by domestic demand - Putin'|' 48 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Russia''s economic recovery driven by domestic demand - Putin Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s economic recovery is increasingly driven by domestic demand, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia, December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Speaking at an annual press conference, Putin said the economy has overcome two major shocks: a drop in oil prices and Western sanctions. Economic growth is now supported by a recovery in industrial output and Russia’s thriving agriculture sector that is on track to produce a record harvest this year, Putin said. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-putin-economy/russias-economic-recovery-driven-by-domestic-demand-putin-idUKKBN1E813R'|'2017-12-14T11:52:00.000+02:00'
'f24d7c24ad2422ce811e6cb3977af6fa231b21c9'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil currency touches 7-month low as pension vote delayed'|'December 14, 2017 / 5:41 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil currency touches 7-month low as pension vote delayed Reuters Staff 4 Min Read By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The Brazilian real on Thursday hit a fresh seven-month low after the lower house of Congress delayed to February a vote on a key bill to cut social security benefits. President Michel Temer had said he hoped for a vote by Tuesday, but he has struggled to rally lawmaker support for the unpopular pension cuts, which many investors consider essential to reining in Brazil''s surging public debt. Lower House Speaker Rodrigo Maia said the vote will now be held on Feb. 19. Traders saw the move as reducing the likelihood of passing the unpopular bill, as it puts the vote closer to October''s presidential and parliamentary elections. The Brazilian real weakened as much as 0.9 percent to 3.3464 per dollar, the weakest since May. Brazil''s benchmark Bovespa stock index fell 0.8 percent, dragged down by blue-chip shares, such as miner Vale SA , oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA and lender Itaú Unibanco Holding SA. Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras SA also fell as traders feared putting off the pension reform vote could delay the process of privatizing the state-controlled power utility. In Chile, the peso led currency gains in Latin America, closing at a two-week high as rising prices for copper supported further profit-taking after the peso touched a five-month low earlier this week. Mexico''s peso, however, slipped 0.5 percent as traders remained cautious ahead of a central bank interest rate decision later on the day. Analysts narrowly expect Mexico''s central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate on Thursday to counter a recent uptick in inflation and match a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1720 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily YTD pct pct change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1,120.20 0.12 29.75 MSCI LatAm 2,700.53 -1.16 16.73 Brazil Bovespa 72,312.15 -0.83 20.07 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 48,444.95 0.35 6.14 Chile IPSA 5,114.00 -0.41 23.19 Chile IGPA 25,671.92 -0.42 23.81 Argentina MerVal 27,354.78 1.18 61.69 Colombia IGBC 11,050.36 -0.43 9.11 Venezuela IBC 1,265.50 0.63 -96.01 Currencies Latest Daily YTD pct pct change change Brazil real 3.3425 -0.83 -2.79 Mexico peso 19.1035 -0.51 8.59 Chile peso 638.3 1.17 5.08 Colombia peso 2,995.8 0.45 0.19 Peru sol 3.24 -0.22 5.37 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.4000 -0.46 -8.76 Argentina peso (parallel) 17.91 0.11 -6.09 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski, editing by G Crosse)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-brazil-currency-touches-7-month-low-as-pension-vote-delayed-idUSL1N1OE1N3'|'2017-12-14T19:39:00.000+02:00'
'bd20631fa0909483c4a8f85d1651fa8d30345802'|'UK''s Domino''s to buy further 44.3 percent stake in Iceland subsidiary'|' 48 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago UK''s Domino''s to buy further 44.3 percent stake in Iceland subsidiary   (Reuters) - Domino’s Pizza, a master franchisee of U.S. group Domino’s Pizza Inc, said on Thursday it would buy a further 44.3 percent stake in Domino’s Iceland for 30.2 million euros (26.6 million pounds). The deal would take the company’s stake in Domino’s Iceland to 95.3 percent. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dominos-piza-grp-iceland-stake/uks-dominos-to-buy-further-44-3-percent-stake-in-iceland-subsidiary-idUKKBN1E80T8'|'2017-12-14T09:47:00.000+02:00'
'e4e0aa1702a6767d438deb8c092f5ef1f83a7f71'|'Bank of England: disorderly Brexit risk reduced by EU talks progress'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:05 PM / Updated an hour ago Bank of England: disorderly Brexit risk reduced by EU talks progress David Milliken , William Schomberg 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Last week’s breakthrough in Brexit talks has reduced the risk of a disorderly British departure from the European Union and may boost economic confidence, the Bank of England said on Thursday after it left interest rates unchanged. A statue is silhouetted against the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne BoE policymakers voted unanimously to keep rates at 0.5 percent, as expected, a month after raising them for the first time in more than a decade as inflation approached its highest level in nearly six years. Sterling fell against the dollar and 10-year British government bond yields touched a three-month low, however, as markets got no sense that the BoE would speed up its rate hike plans. Domestic data suggested the economy might be slowing slightly into the end of the year, and Brexit remained a big uncertainty going forward, the central bank said. But it drew positive conclusions from finance minister Philip Hammond’s annual budget in November - which it said would boost growth slightly over the next few years - as well as from developments in Brexit talks. Prime Minister Theresa May secured agreement from the European Commission last week that Britain had made sufficient progress in preliminary talks to move on to negotiating a transition agreement and a longer-term trade deal. “This would reduce the likelihood of a disorderly exit, and was likely to support household and corporate confidence,” the BoE said, adding that it would consider progress on Brexit more closely when it updates its forecasts in February. May is in Brussels on Thursday to get EU national governments to sign off on last week’s deal. BoE Governor Mark Carney has previously faced criticism from Brexit supporters for focusing on the risks of leaving the EU. GRADUAL RATE RISES The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee stuck to its view from last month that interest rates were only likely to need to rise gradually. “The committee remained of the view that, were the economy to follow the path expected in the November Inflation Report, further modest increases in Bank Rate would be warranted over the next few years,” the BoE said. The BoE decision comes the day after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates for a third time this year, and shortly before the European Central Bank was due to make a statement on monetary policy. “We expect that the MPC will raise interest rates again next year but there were no hints today as to when that will occur. We think August 2018 is the most likely date for the next hike,” said Rhys Herbert, a senior economist at Lloyds Bank. Economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected a 9-0 vote in favour of leaving policy unchanged from the Monetary Policy Committee after last month’s rate rise. The BoE said this marked the start of a very gradual tightening cycle as the economy comes close to running at full capacity. Inflation hit its highest level in nearly six years in November at 3.1 percent, and the jobless rate remains at the lowest since 1975, even though the outlook for growth is soft. Last month the BoE said it expected the economy to grow by 1.6 percent next year, unchanged from what it expects for 2017 and somewhat faster than the government and most economists polled by Reuters expect. Both financial markets and economists mostly expect the BoE to wait nearly a year before raising interest rates again. Figures overnight pointed to the weakest housing market since 2013 but retail sales data earlier on Thursday were unexpectedly strong, as shoppers pounced on Black Friday bargains. The BoE said inflation was now near its peak and reiterated its view that above-target price growth was almost all due to sterling’s fall after June 2016’s Brexit vote. It expects inflation to fall slowly next year. Wage growth - which many BoE policymakers view as a good guide to medium-term inflation pressures - remains slow, with regular pay in the three months to October up just 2.3 percent on a year earlier. However, the BoE said this was in line with expectations, unlike in previous years when it had disappointed, and that slack in the economy was being steadily eroded. Editing by Jon Boyle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-boe/bank-of-england-disorderly-brexit-risk-reduced-by-eu-talks-progress-idINKBN1E81R5'|'2017-12-14T15:03:00.000+02:00'
'f50e2508ddad75cb706d2ff640f16194d8a137f3'|'Atos shares fall 2.8 pct at open after Gemalto rejects takeover bid'|'December 14, 2017 / 8:45 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Atos shares fall 2.8 pct at open after Gemalto rejects takeover bid Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Shares in Atos fell 2.8 percent early on Thursday after Franco-Dutch chip maker Gemalto rejected its takeover bid. Atos led losers on the French blue-chip CAC 40 index early on. Gemalto, the world’s largest maker of chips found in mobile phones and credit cards, on Wednesday said Atos’ 4.3 billion euro ($5 billion) offer undervalued the company. Gemalto shares reversed early gains and traded down 0.50 percent on the previous session. (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/gemalto-ma-atos/atos-shares-fall-2-8-pct-at-open-after-gemalto-rejects-takeover-bid-idUSL8N1OE1FZ'|'2017-12-14T10:43:00.000+02:00'
'c29d90c26b9b785508b8a3d027bc4636f35a693d'|'Austria will repatriate any stranded Niki passengers, ministry says'|'VIENNA (Reuters) - The Austrian government has agreed to repatriate any passengers of Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) unit Niki stranded abroad by canceled return flights, a Transport Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) has abandoned plans to buy Niki after the European Commission told Lufthansa that it would not allow the deal, meaning Niki could join the list of Europe’s collapsed airlines this year.“(Chancellery Minister Thomas) Drozda, (Finance Minister Hans Joerg) Schelling and (Transport Minister Joerg) Leichtfried agreed to repatriate stranded passengers as quickly as possible,” the spokesman said.“The repatriation offer applies to any Niki flights that have been canceled due to the current situation, independent of any insolvency,” he added.Several Niki flights scheduled for Thursday have been canceled but those cancellations were long-standing and unrelated to any insolvency, a Vienna Airport spokesman said.Reporting by Kirsti Knolle '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-m-a-lufthansa-repatriation/austria-will-repatriate-any-stranded-niki-passengers-ministry-says-idUSKBN1E72CK'|'2017-12-14T00:49:00.000+02:00'
'bf8f8caf61135c16b8fb7e1cf218534551fa85ec'|'DoubleLine''s Gundlach says investors should add commodities in portfolios: CNBC'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach said on Wednesday that his best investment idea for the new year is commodities, against the backdrop of increasing global economic activity and the valuation attractiveness of commodities relative to U.S. stocks.Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “I think investors should add commodities to their portfolios,” said Gundlach on CNBC, pointing to the “remarkable” inverse relationship between the total return of the S&P 500 and the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index.“You go into these massive cycles,” he said. “The repetition of this is almost eerie. And so if you look at that chart the value in commodities is, historically, exactly where you want it to be a buy.”Gundlach noted that commodities are just as cheap relative to stocks as they were at turning points in previous cycles that began in the 1970s and 1990s. The S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index is up 5 percent this year, versus the S&P 500’s 19 percent gain.Fundamentals are also at play in commodities, Gundlach said. He pointed out that global economic activity is increasing, a tax cut could boost growth and the European Central Bank is implementing “absurd” stimulative policies in the euro zone. “I mean, GDP in Europe...Germany is higher than the U.S. for the last year-over-year in nominal terms,” he said.Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/funds-doubleline/doublelines-gundlach-says-investors-should-add-commodities-in-portfolios-cnbc-idINKBN1E72OO'|'2017-12-13T20:52:00.000+02:00'
'9e29eb31110e7d21a469b93736f2c1c76e53c3db'|'EDF board approves buying 75.5 percent of Areva NP by end 2017 - sources'|' 43 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago EDF board approves buying 75.5 percent of Areva NP by end 2017 - sources Geert De Clercq 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The board of French state-owned utility EDF has given final approval for the acquisition of a 75.5 percent stake in Areva NP, the nuclear reactor construction unit of fellow state-owned nuclear group Areva, by year-end, three sources said. The logo of France''s state-owned electricity company EDF is seen on the company''s headquarters in Paris, France, November 24, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau - RC1AA2DECB90 One said the board had lifted required guarantees on the successful completion of Areva-designed EPR reactors in Flamanville, France, and Taishan, China, as these reactors should be starting up in the coming year. The source also said that Areva would not, as it had originally wanted, keep a 15 percent stake in its former reactor unit because of European Commission objections. The companies have said previously that Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will buy a 19.5 percent stake in Areva NP, while French industrial engineering firm Assystem will buy a 5 percent stake. EDF and Areva declined to comment. Another source said that if the agreement is not finalised by year-end, the situation would go back to “square one”. Under a Nov. 2016 agreement, EDF agreed to buy between 51 and 75 percent of Areva NP based on a value of 2.5 billion euros (£2.2 billion) for 100 percent of its capital.. French daily Le Figaro reported on Wednesday that the 2.5 billion euro valuation would be reviewed “slightly downwards” to take into account the impact of problems with manufacturing quality and document falsification at Areva’s foundry unit Le Creusot. EDF’s acquisition of Areva NP is part of a state-led financial rescue operation for Areva which was decided by the previous government in June 2015, when current French President Emmanuel Macron was economy minister in Francois Hollande’s socialist cabinet. Construction problems at its reactor projects, an ill-timed investment in an African uranium mine and a dearth of orders following the 2011 Fukushima disaster led to years of losses at Areva and wiped out its equity. The sale of Areva NP is the last step in a restructuring that unwinds Areva’s once much-vaunted model of an integrated nuclear group that mines and enriches uranium, produces nuclear fuel, builds reactors and recycles spent fuel. Following the sale of Areva NP and other units, Areva is now a uranium mining and nuclear fuel group. Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Benjamin Mallet; Editing by Richard Lough/Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-edf-areva/edf-board-approves-buying-75-5-percent-of-areva-np-by-end-2017-sources-idUKKBN1E91GK'|'2017-12-15T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'd047bb976a20a813aa5b0815a9cd216016232db2'|'Ford to move autonomous vehicle business to Detroit'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:37 PM / Updated 6 hours ago More efficient SUVs a factor in product strategy: Ford CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett said on Thursday the automaker is reviewing its product portfolio as consumers show a preference for sport utility vehicles that have fuel efficiencies closer to sedans. Hackett, at a Ford event in Detroit, said that in the past SUVs were not fuel efficient, but “we’re starting to crack that code”. The automaker is conducting an annual review of its product portfolio against that backdrop, he said, but did not address specifics. Ford has signaled a plan to stop producing mid-size Fusion sedans for North America at a plant in Mexico, people familiar with Ford’s communications with suppliers told Reuters on Wednesday. Ford had previously announced plans to shift production of its Focus cars to China from Mexico. Separately, Ford also said on Thursday it would relocate its autonomous and electric vehicle units to Detroit from Dearborn, Michigan. “The relocation brings together Ford teams that are creating new business models in a resurgent, diverse neighborhood with industrial roots”, Ford said. The company said the new facility located in the Corktown neighborhood would be up and running early next year. The team in Corktown will be led by Sherif Marakby, Ford’s vice president of autonomous vehicles and electrification. The company will begin testing its latest self-driving vehicle technology next year. Reporting by Joe White in Detroit and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-autonomous-detroit/ford-to-move-autonomous-vehicle-business-to-detroit-idUSKBN1E8387'|'2017-12-15T00:34:00.000+02:00'
'9e929c1bf6662330cac945e014dab9abe8bc9691'|'UPDATE 1-Airbus confirms management shake-up'|' 34 AM / in 9 minutes UPDATE 1-Airbus confirms management shake-up Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details) PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Airbus confirmed a top management shake-up on Friday, following weeks of turmoil at the European planemaker. Chief operating officer and planemaking chief Fabrice Bregier will step down in February 2018, while chief executive Tom Enders will not seek a new mandate when his term expires in 2019, the company said. Guillaume Faury, currently chief executive of Airbus Helicopters, will succeed Bregier as president of the main commercial aircraft division, it said in a statement, confirming a Reuters report. The company said the board had acted to secure an orderly succession at the world’s second-largest planemaker, which has been beset by rivalries and abrupt changes in the past. During 2018, the board will assess internal and external candidates for the CEO role with a view to announcing Enders’ successor in good time for confirmation at the 2019 annual shareholder meeting, the statement said. Bregier, a 56-year-old Frenchman who has long been seen as the natural heir to Enders, has told the board he does not intend to be part of the selection process for the CEO position in 2019, and will therefore step down in February 2018 to “pursue other interests,” the statement said. However, Bregier hinted at the long-running battle with Enders over status and responsibility which many people in the company say contributed to his unscheduled departure, listing the various titles he had held while running the planes unit. Enders said he would work to ensure a smooth transition. (Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Dominique Vidalon)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/airbus-management/update-1-airbus-confirms-management-shake-up-idUSL8N1OF0KF'|'2017-12-15T08:33:00.000+02:00'
'70a1de0e685e0f323c66d1bf796741c512505d43'|'Skewed Irish GDP likely to beat official projections - finance minister'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:29 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Skewed Irish GDP likely to beat official projections - finance minister Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s volatile gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to beat official forecasts for growth of 5.1 percent this year after expanding sharply in the third quarter, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Friday. Ireland''s Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe displays a copy of the budget on the steps of Government Buildings in Dublin, Ireland October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne “On the basis of today’s data, the outturn for this year is likely to be above the Department’s projections. Having said that, it must be acknowledged that a key factor behind the stronger-than-expected growth was exports associated with contract manufacturing which has little, if any, impact on domestic activity,” Donohoe said in a statement. “Notwithstanding the well-known limitations with GDP and GNP, it is clear that the recovery continues to outperform expectations and while this is to be welcomed, it creates its own challenges ... It is essential that budgetary policy does not contribute to overheating.” Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-economy-gdp-finmin/skewed-irish-gdp-likely-to-beat-official-projections-finance-minister-idUKKBN1E91E7'|'2017-12-15T14:28:00.000+02:00'
'17849519ef4786b6cb15fd283e1df16498776bbc'|'UPDATE 1-Tobacco industry trumps as India court cancels stringent health labelling rules'|'December 15, 2017 / 5:38 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Tobacco industry trumps as India court cancels stringent health labelling rules Reuters Staff * Court said federal rule on bigger tobacco warnings arbitrary * Verdict major victory for $11 bln tobacco industry * Federal government lawyer says will appeal in Supreme Court (Adds details, comments, context) By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI, Dec 15 (Reuters) - An Indian court on Friday quashed federal rules that mandated stringent graphic health warnings on tobacco products, lawyers involved in the case said, in a decision seen as a major victory for the tobacco industry and a setback for health advocates. India’s Supreme Court last year ordered enforcement of the government’s 2014 federal rules that required 85 percent of a tobacco pack’s surface to be covered in health warnings, up from 20 percent earlier, despite protests by the tobacco industry. At the same time, the top court had asked a court in southern Karnataka state to rule on the dozens of tobacco industry pleas that challenged the federal rules. The High Court of Karnataka on Friday struck down the government’s 2014 notification, said Aradhana L, a lawyer at Poovayya & Co, who represented tobacco companies including India’s ITC and Philip Morris International Inc’s Indian partner, Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. The government lawyer in the case, Krishna S. Dixit, confirmed the rules had been struck down but said he would appeal in the Supreme Court. Dixit said that for now the older federal rules mandating 20 percent warnings on packs will be in force. But, he added, ”the court has allowed us to remake the rules. Similar battles between tobacco companies and authorities have played out around the world in recent years as governments try to discourage smoking. India’s tobacco packaging rules were among the world’s most stringent and aimed at reducing tobacco consumption which kills more than 900,000 people a year. The World Health Organization estimates tobacco-related diseases cost India about $16 billion annually. A government survey earlier this year found that 62 percent of cigarette smokers thought of quitting because of warning labels on the packets. “The court is setting aside a proven strategy on improving public health. This is very disappointing,” said Sanjay Seth, head of tobacco control at non-profit Sambandh Health Foundation. The tobacco industry, however, has maintained the rules were extreme. At one point last year, the industry briefly shut down its factories across India in protest and filed dozens of legal cases.( reut.rs/1Of3fKL ) It was not clear if the tobacco manufacturers, who currently print the mandated bigger health warnings, will stop doing so immediately, or if the government will step in to make a new rule. Industry lawyer Sajan Poovayya cheered the move. “Bye Bye gruesome warnings on tobacco packages,” he said on Twitter after the verdict. (Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Richard Balmforth)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-tobacco/update-1-tobacco-industry-trumps-as-india-court-cancels-stringent-health-labelling-rules-idUSL4N1OF44O'|'2017-12-15T19:37:00.000+02:00'
'c18f2750d3f85f7b8eab98c94bec32930b09ad79'|'BP to buy 43 percent stake in solar energy firm Lightsource for $200 million'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:50 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago BP to reenter solar market with 43 percent stake in Lightsource Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British oil producer BP ( BP.L )   buy a 43 percent stake in solar energy firm Lightsource for $200 million, marking its reentry into solar. FILE PHOTO: A BP logo is seen at a petrol station in London, January 15, 2015. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo Two decades ago, BP had set out to transcend oil, adopting a sunburst logo to convey its plans to pour $8 billion over a decade into renewable technologies, even promising to power its gas stations with the sun. That transformation - marketed as “Beyond Petroleum” - led to BP manufacturing solar panels in Australia, Spain and the United States and erecting wind farms in the U.S. and the Netherlands. However, the company shed the business in 2011 due to intensified competition from cheaper solar panels from China. Oil companies currently have relatively modest investments in a wide range of renewable technologies. “We’re excited to be coming back to solar, but in a new and very different way,” BP’s chief executive Bob Dudley said. BP will pay Lightsource $50 million when the deal is completed, with the balance paid in installments over three years. The majority of the investment will fund Lightsource’s growth pipeline, BP said. BP will have two seats on Lightsource board and the solar company will be renamed Lightsource BP. Lightsource BP will target the growing demand for large-scale solar projects and will continue to develop and deliver its 6 gigawatt (GW) growth pipeline, which is largely focused in the U.S., India, Europe and the Middle East, BP said. London-based Lightsource has commissioned 1.3 GW of solar capacity to date and manages about 2 GW of capacity under long-term operations and maintenance contracts. BP expects the deal to be completed in early 2018. Lightsource were advised by Rothschild, White and Case, Deloitte and Baker & McKenzie. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lightsource-bp-stake/bp-to-buy-43-percent-stake-in-solar-energy-firm-lightsource-for-200-million-idUKKBN1E90H9'|'2017-12-15T08:40:00.000+02:00'
'c0944ce843694d77e54b1684e779029c2edff71a'|'Malaysia''s Eco World acquires 70 percent in UK sites'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:46 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Malaysia''s Eco World acquires 70 percent in UK sites Reuters Staff 2 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian property developer Eco World International Bhd ( ECOD.KL ) said on Friday it had acquired a 70 percent stake in a dozen British sites, agreeing to pay 64.9 million pounds for half of the assets first. Eco World said it would buy the stake in a unit of construction group Willmott Dixon which owns the 12 sites in Greater London and southeastern England, and would become joint development manager with its British partner. The acquisition will be done in two stages, and the purchase consideration for the remaining six sites was not finalised yet. Eco World planned to fund the acquisition of the first six sites through its initial public offering proceeds, and the rest through a combination of borrowings and proceeds from its IPO. Eco World launched its IPO on the Malaysian bourse in April, raising 2.58 billion ringgit (£470 million). It was backed by state-linked funds Employees Provident Fund and Permodalan Nasional Bhd, and has Singapore-listed GuocoLand Ltd ( GUOC.SI ) as a strategic investor. President and Chief Executive Teow Leong Seng said the joint venture would enable the group to establish a footprint in Britain’s build-to-rent subsector and enter the private rental sector in which demand had been increasing. “Regardless of what people say about Brexit, our sales are still improving, momentum is still very much intact,” he said. The Malaysia-based company, 27 percent-owned by Eco World Development Group Bhd ( ECOW.KL ), focuses on overseas projects and currently has projects in Britain and Australia. Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-malaysia-eco-world-intl/malaysias-eco-world-acquires-70-percent-in-uk-sites-idUKKBN1E90AN'|'2017-12-15T06:45:00.000+02:00'
'451b26da7877d44c177df4b40599051ed039b6f2'|'Investors pull most money in 2017 from U.S. stock funds -Lipper'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:32 PM / a few seconds ago Investors pull most money in 2017 from U.S. stock funds: Lipper Trevor Hunnicutt 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors pulled $16.2 billion from U.S.-based equity funds during the latest week, according to Lipper on Thursday, marking the largest withdrawals since December 2016. Taxable-bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds recorded $1.2 billion in outflows, with U.S.-based high-yield junk bond funds posting outflows of $922 million in the latest week ended Wednesday. On the other end of the spectrum, safer U.S.-based money-market funds posted more than $30 billion of inflows, the research service said. U.S.-based government-Treasury funds also saw healthy inflows for the week, as investors poured over $1.15 billion into the sector, Lipper said. Tom Roseen, head of research services at Thomson Reuters Lipper, noted that the broad-based indices generally rallied to new highs during the fund-flow week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing the flows week up 1.84 percent, while the S&P 500 Index rose 1.28 percent. “Nonetheless, fund investors appeared to be content sitting on the sidelines, taking some of their equity-related winnings off the table ahead of the holiday season,” Roseen said. Year-to-date, the Dow and the NASDAQ Composite indices are up 24.40 percent and 27.73 percent, respectively. Roseen said tax selling was also at play during the outflow week for equity funds. “It makes sense that investors might be making strategic moves ahead of the implementation of the FIFO rule (first-in-first-out tax treatment on the sale of securities) suggested,” he said. “In a hugely up market like we have seen, it makes sense to use your losers to help offset realized gains. So there is probably some take loss-selling going on.” For the 38th consecutive week, conventional fund (ex-Exchange Traded Fund) investors were net redeemers of equity funds, redeeming $19.3 billion for the flows week - its fourth largest weekly net outflows on record, according to Lipper data. Domestic equity funds (ex-ETFs) posted outflows of more than $18.5 billion - their largest weekly withdrawals on record - witnessed their 50th week of net outflows while chalking up a 1.20 percent return on average, Roseen said. Meanwhile, their non-domestic equity fund counterparts posted a 1.31 percent return on average, but witnessed net outflows of $779 million in the weekly period, their group’s third straight week of withdrawals, Roseen said. “Interestingly, six of the seven largest weekly net redemptions for equity funds, ex ETFs, occurred in December,” Roseen said. “This appears to be a theme.” Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-investment-mutualfunds-lipper/investors-pull-most-money-in-2017-from-u-s-stock-funds-lipper-idUSKBN1E8383'|'2017-12-15T00:29:00.000+02:00'
'27a2318b6182ec37d2e300fe3898ed3c81be6695'|'Pennsylvania man admits to trading on tips about drug company'|'December 15, 2017 / 8:29 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Pennsylvania man admits to trading on tips about drug company Nate Raymond 2 Min Read (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he traded on confidential, inside information that a former Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc employee supplied him, including that the company now owned by Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc ( JAZZ.O ) was planning to be acquired. Daniel Perez, who authorities said lived next door to a former Celator accountant in Yardley, Pennsylvania, entered his plea to one count of securities fraud in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, prosecutors said. The plea followed Perez’s arrest in August. Prosecutors at that time announced that three other people, including Evan Kita, the former employee at the New Jersey drug company, had pleaded guilty to participating in the insider trading scheme. A lawyer for Perez, 28, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Prosecutors said Kita told Perez and another friend, Richard Yu, in 2016 that clinical trials for his company’s leukemia drug had produced positive results, allowing both men to place trades before Celator announced the news. Kita, who joined another drug company in April 2016, later learned from two friends about Celator’s plans to be acquired, ultimately by Dublin-based Jazz for $1.5 billion, according to court papers. Kita tipped Perez off again, telling him in a May 2016 message via an encrypted smartphone application that he had a “little bird” that would make Celator’s stock “pop,” the documents said. Kita also told Yu about the potential sale, prosecutors said. They said Yu in turn shared the information with his father, Chiang Yu, who also traded on the tip and agreed to share the profits with Kita. Kita, Richard Yu and Chiang Yu pleaded guilty on Aug. 31 to securities fraud charges. The trio and Perez are scheduled for sentencing on April 18. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-insidertrading-celator/pennsylvania-man-admits-to-trading-on-tips-about-drug-company-idUKKBN1E92P6'|'2017-12-15T22:28:00.000+02:00'
'64d97714c2dbfc3cb3531222945521888b1b3664'|'BT and Sky strike deal to carry each other''s channels'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:24 AM / Updated 41 minutes ago BT and Sky strike deal to carry each other''s channels Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s leading pay-TV companies Sky ( SKYB.L ) and BT ( BT.L ) have agreed to supply their most popular channels to each other’s platforms in a thawing of a once difficult relationship. The Sky logo is seen on outside of an entrance to offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo In a joint statement the two companies said BT customers would be able to sign up for Sky’s NOW TV service which shows sports and U.S. drama. In return, BT will make its sports channels available to Sky satellite customers. The companies said the multi-year deal was expected to be available from early 2019. Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bt-sky/bt-and-sky-strike-deal-to-carry-each-others-channels-idUKKBN1E90KK'|'2017-12-15T09:23:00.000+02:00'
'4253dda32a68785d9e3d10d7d4010bce1bec156e'|'Exclusive - Aston Martin owners rev up for 2018 exit with Lazard hire'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:31 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago Exclusive - Aston Martin owners rev up for 2018 exit with Lazard hire Pamela Barbaglia , Ben Martin   Aston Martin’s owners have hired Lazard to prepare for a stock market listing or sale of the British sportscar maker made famous by fictional spy James Bond, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Britain''s Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge drive from Buckingham Palace in an Aston Martin DB6 Mark 2, after their wedding in Westminster Abbey, in central London April 29, 2011. REUTERS/John Stillwell/Pool/File Photo Italian private equity fund Investindustrial and a group of Kuwaiti investors, who together own more than 90 percent of the marque, are hoping to cash in on a recovery in sales and are in the initial stages of a strategic review. They have hired investment bank Lazard to work on a preliminary plan and could either opt for an initial public offering (IPO) in the third or fourth quarter of 2018 or a trade sale, two of the sources said on Friday. A deal could value the maker of the sportscar driven by Britain’s Prince William on his wedding day at between 2 and 3 billion pounds, one of the sources said, adding a listing was the most likely option. However, no final decision had been taken and the investors could decide to retain control, the sources added. Investindustrial declined to comment while Aston Martin and Lazard did not return requests for comment. Adeem Investment, one of the Kuwaiti investors, was not immediately available. If successful, a float of Aston Martin would be a milestone deal for the 104-year-old car manufacturer and would follow the IPO of Italian sportscar maker Ferrari ( RACE.MI ) which made its Wall Street debut in 2015 amid strong investor demand. Investindustrial, led by founder Andrea Bonomi, bought 37.5 percent of Aston Martin in 2012 in what was the fund’s best-known investment in Britain. The fund, which has clinched a number of Southern European investments since its launch in 1990, is Aston Martin’s single biggest investor and is driving the plans, the sources said. Beside Lazard, other investment banks have approached the private equity fund in recent weeks offering advice ahead of a possible IPO, another source said. Yet no other mandates will be awarded this year for the Gaydon-based firm, which is in the midst of a turnaround plan that aims to restore the business to profitability following six years of losses. Aston Martin, which recently unveiled its new Vantage model, is on course to post its first annual pre-tax profit since 2010 as strong demand for the luxury automaker’s DB11 sports car boosts its performance. Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer has repeatedly said that the decision and timing of an IPO were matters for the shareholders but that it made sense for them to consider the option before the end of the company’s turnaround plan, which is due to be completed in 2022. Since Palmer’s appointment in 2014, the firm has pursued a recovery strategy designed to boost its model line-up, quadruple volumes and produce its first SUV at a new plant in Wales. Its volumes rose by 65 percent to 3,330 cars in the first nine months of the year, prompting the firm to raise its full-year guidance to expect core earnings of at least 180 million pounds on revenue of more than 840 million pounds. Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aston-martin-m-a-exclusive/dollar-index-firmer-as-volumes-thin-ahead-of-holidays-idUKKBN1E92MD'|'2017-12-15T21:36:00.000+02:00'
'd26c5d4a229c0f597cdc7620454011be9dbc7ca5'|'Standard Life Aberdeen fund arm nine-month AUM drops 2 percent'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:41 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Standard Life Aberdeen''s fund management arm''s assets fall 2 percent Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Life Aberdeen’s ( SLA.L ) fund arm’s assets under management dropped two percent in the first nine months of 2017, it said on Friday, following a cautious reception among investors to its recent merger. Rival Scottish fund managers Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management joined forces earlier this year in an 11 billion pound ($14.78 billion) deal, one of several mergers globally of active asset managers in an attempt cut costs. “Where we’ve seen probably the effect of the merger is that people are not funding things yet, they are waiting to see how the funds settle down,” co-chief executive Martin Gilbert told a media call. Assets under management at Aberdeen Standard Investments, the fund management business, dropped by 10.9 billion pounds to 569.7 billion pounds at end-September, the company said in its first update since the merger. Multi-asset funds, including the firm’s flagship Global Absolute Return Strategy (GARS), reported net outflows of 5.6 billion pounds. The company has said it might sell its 16 billion pound book of annuities that are closed to new customers, but co-chief executive Keith Skeoch said no decision had been made. “We are very, very focussed on value and we are patient,” he said. The firm’s overall assets under administration were steady at 646.2 billion pounds at end-Sept, from 647.6 billion at end-2016. Analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove said net flows for the company were “broadly consistent” with their estimates, reiterating their “overweight” rating on the stock. Standard Life Aberdeen''s shares rose 0.17 percent to 415.6 pence at 0820 GMT, compared with a 0.12 percent drop in the FTSE 100 index .FTSE . Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Huw Jones and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-standard-life-aberdeen-results/standard-life-aberdeen-fund-arm-nine-month-aum-drops-2-percent-idUKKBN1E90MR'|'2017-12-15T09:41:00.000+02:00'
'4b9444b037b40d595aa18a45d31062b629c1c60a'|'Japan November exports expected to grow on upbeat demand, BOJ to keep policy steady'|'December 15, 2017 / 5:45 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Japan November exports expected to grow on upbeat demand, BOJ to keep policy steady Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s exports are expected to have risen for a 12th straight month in November, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, as buoyant overseas demand helps drive a steady economic recovery. Newly manufactured vehicles await export at a port in Yokohama, Japan, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Exports are expected to have risen 14.6 percent in November from a year earlier, the poll of 19 economists showed, thanks to strong overseas demand for cars, semiconductor production equipment and steel. The expected gain in exports would follow 14.0 percent growth in October. Imports were seen to have risen an annual 18.0 percent in November, up for an 11th straight month, on higher oil prices and demand for new-model smartphones, the poll found. This outcome would result in a trade deficit of 54.9 billion yen (£363.9 million), which would be the first trade deficit since May. “The data will confirm exports are on a rising trend as the global economy is expanding,” Mana Saito, economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, responded in the survey. The finance ministry will publish the trade data at 8:50 a.m. Tokyo time on Monday (2350 GMT Sunday). The poll also found that economists expect the Bank of Japan to keep its short-term policy interest rate at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year government bond yield target at around zero percent at its two-day meeting starting Dec. 20. “In our main scenario, we expect long global yields to increase and this should make room for the BOJ to increase the target rate on the 10-year government bonds,” Bjorn Tangaa Sillemann, an analyst at Danske Bank, said in the survey. “As long as we are not seeing any significant pickup in core inflation and long global yields remain low we believe it is too soon, though.” Japanese business confidence improved for a fifth straight quarter in the three months to December to hit an 11-year high, the Bank of Japan’s tankan survey showed on Friday, a sign the economy is gathering momentum from robust exports and booming corporate profits. The tankan will be among key data the BOJ will scrutinise at its rate review next week. Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-trade/japan-november-exports-expected-to-grow-on-upbeat-demand-boj-to-keep-policy-steady-idUKKBN1E90DC'|'2017-12-15T07:44:00.000+02:00'
'd9aba28b24f7ddb3646d32ce75e84dd942dd08f1'|'Credit ratings agency wrote to me about a hack, but how did it get my details? - Money'|'I recently received a letter from Equifax, the credit ratings agency, telling me that my personal details had been hacked in May. I do not have a direct relationship with Equifax and do not have a mortgage, do not use a credit card and have no loans. Equifax couldn’t tell me any more. What can I do to protect myself. I have already taken out Cifas fraud protection. NP, London The most likely outcome is that Equifax carried out a credit check when you took on a mobile phone contract.Cifas will notify you if anyone applies for credit in your name, so there’s not a lot else you can do.But readers should note Cifas Protective Registration costs £20 for two years. Where a company has been hacked and personal details obtained by fraudsters, it should pay for Cifas for those affected.We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, The Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to  our terms and conditions Topics Consumer rights Consumer champions Scams Consumer affairs Hacking features'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/13/equifax-hack-warning-credit-rating-agency-personal-details'|'2017-12-13T09:00:00.000+02:00'
'f8eb4e5ea00909cb8ebaab12f9cd8209941ae6b2'|'Bitcoin fever exposes crypto-market frailties'|'December 13, 2017 / 3:43 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Bitcoin fever exposes crypto-market frailties Jemima Kelly , Anna Irrera 8 Min Read LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - As bitcoin raced to another record high on Tuesday, one of the biggest providers of digital currency wallets, Coinbase, went down under the weight of traffic, leaving many of its more than 10 million customers unable to access their funds. A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration At the same time, Bitfinex, the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange by trading volume, said it was under a heavy denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, meaning its servers had been intentionally flooded with junk online requests, taking down its website and crippling its services. The latest outages show how the market infrastructure for an immature and volatile instrument that millions of investors have piled into may be ill-equipped to cope with sudden shifts in demand, which is worrying some investors. During a particularly volatile period of trading on Dec. 7, bitcoin surged from below $16,000 to $19,500 in less than an hour on Coinbase’s exchange GDAX, while it was changing hands at less than $16,000 on another, Bitstamp. As trading volume surged, GDAX and Coinbase went down at least 10 times because of “record-high traffic”, Coinbase said. “More people are engaging with our platform than ever and that bodes well for the future of the digital currency. At the same time, it does create extreme volatility and stress on our systems,” the company’s director of business operations, David Farmer, said. “We can confirm that there has been no unusual or suspicious activity. All we know right now is that there is a large amount of traffic,” he told Reuters. Bitfinex said it had been under a sustained DDoS attack since last week. “While last week the platform traded continuously, to effectively perform emergency maintenance, we took the website down for a brief time today (Tuesday) to mitigate further issues for customers,” a spokesman said. “We are constantly improving our systems to ensure that we’re able to both accommodate the immense volume of trading that occurs on our platform while also fending off sustained DDoS attacks,” he said. 24/7 MARKET Daniel Masters, founder of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund, worries the exchanges would struggle to cope if there were a sudden rush for the exit. “The ability of these platforms to handle volume is yet to be tested properly,” he said. “What happens if this market turns into a lot of sellers? The liquidity itself could be an issue.” Charles Cascarilla, chief executive of New York-based company Paxos, which operates cryptocurrency exchange itBit, told Reuters that dealing with spikes in volume was a problem faced by all exchanges, not just cryptocurrency platforms. “Clearly the reality is the world of cryptocurrency is growing at an exponential rate right now and everyone is doing their best to expand infrastructure, but it is hard to know what would happen in a hypothetical scenario,” he said. Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini exchange, an early bitcoin investor and an outspoken supporter of the cryptocurrency, said the risk the wider market would suffer badly if one exchange went down no longer existed, as trading volume had become more evenly spread. “We are definitely beyond the too-big-to-fail situation,” he told Reuters. “That was a problem we had five years ago when Mt. Gox accounted for 95 percent of volume.” “Most of the exchanges are doing a good job. This is a 24/7 market, there is no session close and there is no downtime.” Mt. Gox, the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange at the time, collapsed in 2014 after hackers stole 650,000 bitcoins, triggering a collapse in the bitcoin price. The demise of Mt. Gox left more than 24,000 customers unable to access hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency and cash. More than three years later none has recouped a cent. BITCOIN FUTURES Broken representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency, placed on a monitor that displays binary digits, are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Some investors had said they were worried the launch of bitcoin futures by the world’s biggest derivative exchanges could exacerbate volatility by prompting some traders to take out large positions betting on a price fall in the future. The Chicago-based Cboe Global Markets Inc. futures launched a futures contracts on bitcoin on Dec. 10 and CME Group Inc will launch a rival contract a week later. So far this week, the launch of futures by Cboe does not appear to have created any additional volatility, with price moves less violent than last week’s wild trading. But Tim Swanson, a bitcoin expert and founder of Post Oak Labs, a technology advisory firm, said he was concerned that if the futures liquidity increases there could be an incentive for someone with a large bet against bitcoin to disrupt or attack the network to make money from the ensuing price fall. CME Group and Cboe declined to comment. Flooding the bitcoin network with tiny transactions could potentially send the price down sharply, said Swanson, as could sending many sell-signals to the market that are not honoured - so-called spoofing, which is illegal in regulated markets. A surge in bitcoin trades in recent weeks has also left the blockchain network that the cryptocurrency relies on to process and verify transactions struggling to keep up. As of Wednesday at 1445 GMT, more than 125,000 bitcoin transactions remained unconfirmed. In the past week, more than half a million new users have opened wallets with retail-focused bitcoin wallet provider Blockchain, the firm said, taking the total number of users to more than 20 million, from 10 million last year. The London-based company has also been struggling to keep up, citing “record traffic levels” last week. VOLATILE TRADING Created in 2008, bitcoin uses encryption and a shared blockchain database that enables the anonymous transfer of funds outside of a conventional centralised payment system. But there is little evidence to suggest buyers are using bitcoin as a means of exchange and payment. On the whole, they buy the cryptocurrency as a speculative investment, attracted by massive price gains, said Garrick Hileman, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. As a result, some banks say they are worried that a collapse in bitcoin would have a knock-on effect on investments by individual investors in other asset classes. Deutsche Bank said in a report on Dec. 7 that a bitcoin crash - and the impact it could have on retail investors’ confidence - was one of the biggest risks to markets in 2018. Periods of high volatility are not uncommon in other currencies and asset classes, particularly in commodities and emerging markets. But bitcoin’s volatility is extreme, and frequent: the one-day price move has been more than 10 percent on nine days in the past three months. Moves of a similar magnitude for the U.S dollar, for example, are extremely rare. Its biggest one-day move against a major currency was in January 2015 when the Swiss central bank abandoned a cap on the franc, sending the dollar down 18 percent. Some bitcoin watchers, such as Swanson, also worry about the risk of one of the big exchanges being suddenly shut by authorities. In July, U.S. authorities shut down the website of the BTC-e exchange, saying it had “facilitated transactions involving ransomware, computer hacking, identity theft, tax refund fraud schemes, public corruption, and drug trafficking”. BTC-e, which is no longer operating, could not be reached for comment. The top three exchanges out of more than 100 - Bitfinex, GDAX and bitFlyer - are home to more than 60 percent of all trading, according to data provider Bitcoinity. Another issue specific to the market is the risk of hacking and theft. More than 980,000 bitcoins have been stolen from exchanges, Reuters has found, with the Mt. Gox heist accounting for the majority. Last week, a Slovenian cryptocurrency mining marketplace, NiceHash, said it had lost about $64 million worth of bitcoin in a hack of its payment system. Reporting by Jemima Kelly and Anna Irrera; additional reporting by Amanda Cooper; editing by David Clarke'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-bitcoin-risks/bitcoin-fever-exposes-crypto-market-frailties-idINKBN1E7251'|'2017-12-13T17:42:00.000+02:00'
'702a1b9a46fd1140c0f927a40ca1c10618eab4b0'|'Toshiba, Western Digital end chip dispute; joint investment to resume'|'December 12, 2017 / 10:25 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Toshiba, Western Digital end chip dispute; joint investment to resume Reuters Staff 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ) and its chip business partner Western Digital Corp ( WDC.O ) agreed to settle a long-running dispute over the embattled Japanese conglomerate’s plans to sell its chip unit, the companies said in a statement, removing a key obstacle to the deal. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo July 31, 2012. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File Photo Toshiba agreed in late September to sell Toshiba Memory, the world’s second-biggest producer of NAND chips, to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP for $18 billion to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from Toshiba’s now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse. With data storage key to most next-generation technologies, demand for NAND chips has boomed, and Western Digital, Toshiba’s chip business partner and jilted suitor in the auction, had threatened to block any deal without its consent. The settlement calls for Western Digital to drop arbitration claims seeking to stop the sale to the Bain consortium in exchange for Toshiba allowing the U.S. partner to invest in a new production line starting next year for advanced memory chips. As part of the settlement, Toshiba and Western Digital will extend existing agreements for their chip joint ventures in Yokkaichi, central Japan, until 2027 or later. The current agreements are set to start expiring from 2021. The ownership ratio for the joint ventures remains 50.1 percent for Toshiba and 49.9 percent for Western Digital. They also plan to enter into a definitive agreement “in due course” under which Western Digital will participate in a new chip plant that Toshiba will start building next year in northern Japan, the statement said. FILE PHOTO: A Western Digital office building under construction is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc’s ( 000660.KS ) participation in the Bain consortium has infuriated Western Digital and a key sticking point in recent weeks had been how to ensure it would be blocked from accessing proprietary information that belonged to the chip unit, sources have previously said. The joint statement said both companies “have agreed on mutual protections for their assets and confidential information in connection with the sale of Toshiba Memory, and on collaborating to ensure the future success of Toshiba Memory as a public company following an eventual IPO.” “We wanted to make sure that our interests in the JV were sufficiently protected and we had the right kind of protections and the right kind of access,” Western Digital Chief Executive Steve Milligan told a conference call. Toshiba gained the upper hand in negotiations with Western Digital after securing a $5.4 billion cash injection from overseas funds that will allow it to bolster its balance sheet before the end of March and avoid a delisting. The chip unit sale may, however, face more complications. Argyle Street Management Ltd, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund with $1.2 billion under management, sent a letter to Toshiba’s board on Monday urging the company to scrap the deal, which the fund claims significantly undervalues the chip unit. Argyle is inviting the 30-plus overseas investors who participated in Toshiba’s new share issue to team up in opposition to the deal although it remains to be seen just how much traction it will gain. The sale also needs to clear regulatory reviews, but they are not expected to scuttle the deal. Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Ritsuko Ando in Tokyo and Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-divestiture-western-digital/toshiba-western-digital-end-chip-dispute-resume-joint-investment-idUKKBN1E62YB'|'2017-12-13T02:09:00.000+02:00'
'175326a1ffaa0345d5e34ecff2ef7d9abc89239f'|'Gas supply from Austrian gas hub back to normal after deadly blast'|' 53 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Gas supply from Austrian gas hub back to normal after deadly blast Kirsti Knolle 3 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - The supply of gas to neighbouring countries from Austria’s main pipeline hub was back to normal on Wednesday after a deadly explosion shut it down. A column of fire is seen after an explosion ripped through Austria''s main gas pipeline hub in Baumgarten, Austria December 12, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media. TOMAS HULIK/via REUTERS The Baumgarten site in eastern Austria is a major regional transfer node, taking gas from as far away as Russia and pumping it towards neighbours including Italy - its biggest recipient - as well as Germany, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. “We are back in normal operation,” a spokesman for Gas Connect Austria, a subsidiary of energy group OMV, said the day after Tuesday’s explosion. All transit systems in all directions were well functioning. Russia separately pointed to the accident as underlining the need for its own Gazprom gas projects to proceed. The amount of damage was not clear yet, and the Gas Austria Connect spokesman said he did not know to what claims against it, if any, would be made against his company. Tuesday’s explosion, in which one person was killed and 21 were injured, led Italy to declare a state of emergency as flows from the site were cut off for most of the day. Italian gas grid operator Snam said flows from Russia resumed on Tuesday night. News of the blast sent gas prices in Europe soaring on fears it would restrict supply as winter sets in, as one third of Russian natural gas is transported via the transport hub, according to Gas Connect. In response to the outage, the Kremlin pushed its Gazprom plans. “Of course this accident shows how important sustainable supplies of natural gas and energy resources (are) to Europe and how acute is the issue of sustainability of the whole (energy) system functioning,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular conference call. The Russian energy group, which redirected its gas flows on Tuesday after the incident in Austria, plans to build a new pipeline to pump natural gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea, bypassing existing land routes over Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. European Union executives see Russia’s plan as undercutting EU efforts to reduce dependence on Moscow. Russian gas transit through Ukraine dropped 23 percent to 200 million cubic metres per day after the explosion, Maksim Belyavsky, aide to Ukraine’s energy minister, told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that Ukraine was now ready to ramp up pumping to levels seen before the blast. The cause of the explosion could have been a technical fault of the filter system, the Gas Connect Austria spokesman said. Work was carried out on the filter system on Monday, and staff from the licensing authority TUV Austria was on site for a technical certification at the time of the blast, he said. He was informed that the person killed was a TUV employee. TUV Austria was not immediately available for comment. Two independent probes, one internal by Gas Connect and one by Lower Austria’s criminal police, were being conducted. Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes in MILAN, Pavel Polityuk in KIEV, Dmitry Solovyov in MOSCOW; Editing by Ludwig Burger/Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/austria-blast/gas-supply-from-austrian-gas-hub-back-to-normal-after-deadly-blast-idINKBN1E718N'|'2017-12-13T12:50:00.000+02:00'
'9aa97894fd1544875d0e4383095eb07c40dc9b8c'|'Brazil''s Oi files new restructuring plan allowing takeover by bondholders'|'SAO PAULO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Brazilian telecommunications company Oi SA filed late on Tuesday a new restructuring plan with the Rio de Janeiro court sweetening the terms for bondholders and government credits in a push to get approval in a key creditors meeting on Dec. 19.Oi said in a statement bondholders will be allowed to trade their debt for up to 75 percent of the carrier´s capital, effectively allowing Oi SA to be taken over by creditors.A former plan submitted by Oi with approval of its board limited the debt-for-equity swap to 25 percent of the carrier´s capital and was strongly criticized by bondholders.The company also changed restructuring terms to regulatory agency Anatel credits. The fines will be paid in 20 years, with adjustment by Selic, Brazil´s benchmark interest rate. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Gram Slattery; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazils-oi-files-new-restructuring-plan-allowing-takeover-by-bondholders-idINL1N1OD02G'|'2017-12-12T22:53:00.000+02:00'
'96d64f1687dcd1d710c4b358be53c338d6d8011f'|'S&P futures extend losses as Democrat tipped to win Alabama race'|'TOKYO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - U.S. S&P futures extended earlier losses on Wednesday, as Democrat Doug Jones took a slight lead over Republican Roy Moore with about 86 percent of the vote counted in a bitter U.S. Senate race in Alabama.S&P emini futures were down 0.3 percent, compared to their drop 0.1 percent before the Alabama polls closed.A Jones victory could mean trouble for President Donald Trump and his populist political base. It would narrow the Republicans’ already slim majority in the U.S. Senate, possibly making it harder for Trump to advance his policy agenda.Reporting by Tokyo markets team; Editing by Sam Holmes '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-markets/sp-futures-extend-losses-as-democrat-tipped-to-win-alabama-race-idUSL3N1OD1OT'|'2017-12-13T05:40:00.000+02:00'
'582e722be02fe1ea254fa3336b3edef5a01b262a'|'China raises short and medium-term interest rates after Fed'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:17 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago China raises short and medium-term interest rates after Fed John Ruwitch , Winni Zhou 4 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s central bank nudged money market interest rates upward on Thursday just hours after the Federal Reserve raised the U.S. benchmark, as Beijing seeks to prevent destabilising capital outflows without hurting economic growth. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, June 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo Economists were surprised by the move but said at just five basis points, the increases were small and more symbolic than substantive. The People’s Bank of China called it a “normal market reaction” to the Fed that would keep interest rate expectations reasonable and help with the deleveraging campaign. China’s major stock indexes declined modestly after the news, with infrastructure, IT and financial shares down. The PBOC increased rates on reverse repurchase agreements, or reverse repos, used for open market operations by 5 basis points for the 7-day and 28-day tenors. It also said in a statement it increased rates on its one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) also by 5 basis points. Thursday’s move was the first time the Chinese central bank has raised rates since March, but market interest rates have risen on their own during the interim as the government pursues a range of policies to lower leverage and debt in the economy. Chen Ji, an analyst at Bank of Communications, said the rate increase was unexpected but too small to have much meaningful impact, and represented only a response to the Fed’s rate hike. “(It) doesn’t really impact borrowing costs, and fluctuations of this level are very normal in the interbank market,” he said, adding that he thought China’s economy was not robust enough to handle a benchmark rate increase. Ken Cheung, senior Asian forex strategist at Mizuho Bank Ltd in Hong Kong, also said the rise was surprising, and characterised the five basis point magnitude as “mild”. “This suggests that the PBOC’s intention to balance the risk of over-tightening amid the deleveraging process,” Cheung wrote in a note. Benchmark one-year lending and deposit rates have remained unchanged since October 2015, but the PBOC has increasingly relied on market rates to guide the economy. “The move also aims to shrink the gap between short-term and long-term rates to curb (financial institutions) from using short-term loans to invest long-term debt by overly adding leverage,” Nie Wen, economist at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai. Nie added that a “too aggressive” rate hike would have “too much” impact to real economy. For details of the rates that were raised on Thursday, click on: The PBOC has moved to a tightening bias this year following six benchmark interest rate cuts in 2014-2015 as the economy stabilises and the focus turns toward credit risk. In a statement accompanying the rate increases, the PBOC said on Thursday the upward adjustment reflected supply and demand in the market, and was a “normal market reaction” to Fed’s rate increase. It said the adjustment would help shape “reasonable” interest rate expectations. At the same time, the rate hike would help prevent financial institutions from over-leveraging while helping control the overall macro leverage ratio. As market rates have risen this year, the differential with official rates has widened. On Thursday, the volume-weighted average rate of the benchmark seven-day repo traded in the interbank market, considered the best indicator of general liquidity in China, was 2.8412 percent. Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-rates/china-raises-short-and-medium-term-interest-rates-after-fed-idUKKBN1E80AM'|'2017-12-14T05:16:00.000+02:00'
'a13288eb07c3ad8a82935ae5f232145ce694b399'|'Oil rises on lower U.S. crude stocks, but growing output caps gains'|'December 14, 2017 / 1:49 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Oil prices up on lower U.S. crude stocks, but growing output caps gains Henning Gloystein 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil markets rose on Thursday, lifted by a fourth straight weekly fall in U.S. crude inventories, though climbing output capped prices well below the 2015 highs reached earlier this week. FILE PHOTO: An employee pumps petrol into a car at a petrol station in Hanoi, Vietnam December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $56.77 a barrel at 00344 GMT, up 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $62.81 a barrel, up 37 cents, or 0.6 percent from their last close. U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell by 5.1 million barrels in the week to Dec. 8, the fourth consecutive week of declines, to 442.99 million barrels, the lowest since October, 2015. Despite the rise, Brent was well below the $65.83 a barrel June, 2015 high reached earlier this week. It hit that level after the Forties pipeline in the North Sea, which carries significant amounts of crude used to underpin Brent crude futures, was shut down due to cracks. The International Energy Agency said it saw no immediate need to act, for instance with the release of strategic stockpiles, as the market remains well supplied. Another cap on prices has been soaring U.S. production, which has risen by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.78 million barrels per day, the highest since the early 1970s and close to levels from top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. Singapore’s OCBC bank said on Thursday in its 2018 commodities outlook that a “further rise in prices could well be met by stronger U.S. production as shale oil players turn taps on”, suggesting that oil prices may not rise too far in 2018. “A lot of, perhaps all, the current news about tightness in the oil market is already priced in,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-rises-on-lower-u-s-crude-stocks-but-growing-output-caps-gains-idUKKBN1E805Z'|'2017-12-14T03:48:00.000+02:00'
'3d881d0765595a06a1cb8a20901194713907a95e'|'Asian shares up, dollar dips as Republicans lose Alabama Senate race'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:56 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Asian shares up, dollar dips as Republicans lose Alabama Senate race Lisa Twaronite 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures, Treasury yields and the dollar dipped on Wednesday as Democrat Doug Jones beat Republican Roy Moore in a bitter U.S. Senate race in Alabama, while Asian shares gained as crude oil futures took back some lost ground. A pedestrian stands to look at an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Yuya Shino European stock futures suggested a subdued opening for the region, FTSE futures FFIc1 nearly flat and CAC futures FCEc1 0.1 percent lower. Jones’ victory could mean trouble for President Donald Trump and his populist political base. It narrows the Republicans’ already slim majority in the U.S. Senate, possibly making it harder for Trump to advance his policy agenda. “The U.S. dollar is on the backfoot after Jones has scored an upset victory over Moore in the Republican stronghold of Alabama, and the implications are that it shrinks the Republican’s Senate majority from 51 to 49,” said Sue Trinh, head of Asia foreign-exchange strategy at RBC Capital Markets in Hong Kong. “The big issue now is, whether Republicans will push through their tax bill before Christmas,” she said. “And more broadly, U.S. dollar bulls will be more worried that this marks a Democratic revival into 2018 mid-term Congressional elections.” The election temporarily seized the spotlight away from the Federal Reserve, which is widely expected to raise interest rates later on Wednesday and could provide clues about the timing of future U.S. policy moves. S&P e-mini futures ESc1 were down as much as 0.3 percent after the election outcome. They were last down 0.1 percent. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rival currencies, was down 0.2 percent at 93.959 .DXY pulling away a high of 94.219 touched on Tuesday, which was its highest since Nov. 14. The dollar slumped 0.2 percent to 113.38 yen JPY= , while the euro rose 0.1 percent to $1.1755 EUR= . “Heading into tonight, this reaction could be an opportunity for people to pick up some dollars ahead of the Fed meeting,” said Bart Wakabayashi, branch manager for State Street Bank in Tokyo. The 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR stood at 2.401 percent after falling to a session low of 2.389 percent, compared to its U.S. close on Tuesday of 2.403 percent. ( tmsnrt.rs/2AiADAj ) MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.5 percent, while South Korean shares .KS11 gained 0.8 percent. Japan''s Nikkei stock index .N225 finished 0.5 percent lower, pressured by the stronger yen and shrugging off upbeat economic data that showed Japanese core machinery orders rose a more-than-expected 5 percent in October. On Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI and the S&P 500 .SPX both notched record closing highs, though the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC shed 0.19 percent. [.N] Bitcoin was down 0.9 percent on the Bitstamp exchange at $16,510.34 BTC=BTSP . The Fed will conclude its two-day policy meeting and is seen raising its benchmark rate to between 1.25 and 1.50 percent, with investors also focusing on clues to the pace of tightening next year. Concerns that the central bank would take a slower pace of tightening due to cool inflation were partly alleviated by data on Tuesday that showed U.S. wholesale inflation rose last month. Consumer price index (CPI) data will be released later in the global session on Wednesday. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank will also meet this week and are expected to hold rates steady. Crude oil futures took back lost ground after facing profit-taking following their surge to two-year highs in the previous session on an unplanned closure of the pipeline that carries the largest volume of North Sea crude oil. [O/R] Brent crude LCOc1 added 0.8 percent, or 51 cents, to $63.85 a barrel, after shedding 2 percent on Tuesday. U.S. crude CLc1 added 0.7 percent, or 38 cents, to $57.52, after slipping 1.4 percent overnight. Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-shares-flat-fed-hike-expectations-underpin-dollar-idUKKBN1E703E'|'2017-12-13T09:39:00.000+02:00'
'8ae4db3ce6885f3d8c16cfce686b21f0a8faefcd'|'EU pensions have insufficient assets to cover liabilities - Watchdog'|'December 13, 2017 / 6:13 PM / Updated 42 minutes ago EU pensions have insufficient assets to cover liabilities - Watchdog Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Union pension providers on the whole do not have enough assets to cover their liabilities, the European Union’s insurance and pension watchdog said on Wednesday. The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published aggregated results of this year’s stress test of 195 institutions that provide pensions. The results showed shortfalls of between 349 billion euros (£307.5 billion) and 702 billion euros, levels that could harm the real economy, EIOPA said. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Arno Schuetze'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-pensions-stress/eu-pensions-have-insufficient-assets-to-cover-liabilities-watchdog-idUKKBN1E72KZ'|'2017-12-13T20:13:00.000+02:00'
'3b9a0cf9e18a5a77f67138c8d81664215d2a3df4'|'Listen: Basel reforms, Brexit and Swiss banks'|'Brexit Listen: Basel reforms, Brexit and Swiss banks Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss the long-awaited compromise deal on Basel reforms, banks'' reaction to the preliminary UK-EU deal on Brexit and the future of Swiss private banking. Save to myFT Draghi hails measure but provisions may not take effect until two decades after crisis Thursday, 7 December, 2017 Attempt to prevent banks from gaming post-crisis rules Thursday, 7 December, 2017 A clampdown on tax evasion is forcing the closure of many institutions Monday, 11 December, 2017 Diplomats say EU irritated by Davis comment that divorce deal is only statement of intent Tuesday, 12 December, 2017 Cboe Global Markets forced to halt trading twice due to heavy traffic Monday, 11 December, 2017 Daniel Garrahan previews the big stories in the week ahead Monday, 11 December, 2017 Air-popped kernels coated in imaginative flavours are a multi-million pound turnover business Monday, 11 December, 2017 Big decisions to be made on trade talks, transition and how quickly to proceed Monday, 11 December, 2017 Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss new Basel reforms, the preliminary EU-UK deal on Brexit and the future of Swiss private banking Tuesday, 12 December, 2017 Inflation the clearest economic effect of Brexit vote Tuesday, 12 December, 2017 Our Emerging Markets editors explains why investing late in the EM cycle might be risky Tuesday, 12 December, 2017 There has been strength in numbers, with each account inspiring the next Tuesday, 12 December, 2017 FT columnists on #MeToo movement Tuesday, 12 December, 2017 FT economics editor Chris Giles on the standout points announced by Philip Hammond Friday, 24 November, 2017 The FT''s chief economics commentator looks behind the speech''s headlines Wednesday, 22 November, 2017 Our FT Alphaville editor on how cryptocurrencies resemble gambling rather than investing. Wednesday, 22 November, 2017 Air-popped kernels coated in imaginative flavours are a multi-million pound turnover business Monday, 11 December, 2017 What does £24,000 a night get you? An exclusive tour of the Langham Hotel''s Sterling Suite Friday, 8 December, 2017 Chef Sarit Packer with her recipe for this mouthwatering cake Wednesday, 6 December, 2017 How high-end skis are made to customers'' specifications Friday, 1 December, 2017 More from the FT Group Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2017. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd. The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice . Close'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/video/1ee9d528-45dd-4682-9faa-a250f92c4c8e'|'2017-12-12T23:54:00.000+02:00'
'3fe50baab889539ea8f19e8e2166838a69a9028e'|'Deutsche Telekom, EWE to invest two billion euros in German fibre buildout'|'December 13, 2017 / 11:50 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Deutsche Telekom, EWE to invest two billion euros in German fibre buildout Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom is partnering with EWE AG to invest 2 billion euros (£1.8 billion) in building out a superfast glass-fibre broadband network in northwestern Germany, the companies said on Wednesday. Timotheus Hoettges, Chief Executive Officer of Germany''s telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom AG, arrives for the company''s annual shareholder meeting in Cologne, Germany May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has been slow to upgrade its internet infrastructure and lags behind many other developed countries in terms of its households’ access to a fast glass-fibre connection. Deutsche Telekom and EWE plan to set up a 50-50 joint venture, under a memorandum of understanding, that would connect more than a million households in the states of Lower Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia and Bremen over the next decade. Pending cartel office approval, the venture would start its operations in mid-2018, the companies said in a joint statement. “Through cooperation we can make the buildout of glass fibre much more economic,” said Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Tim Hoettges, adding that the regional network would be open to third-party providers. According to research by the Bertelsmann Foundation only 7 percent of Germany’s 40 million households has access to a fast glass-fibre connection. That compares with 73 percent in Estonia and 53 percent in Spain. Germany ranks 28th out of 32 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s league table of access to fast internet. Germany’s powerful engineering industry has blamed Telekom’s reliance on ‘vectoring’ - or tweaking old copper-wire connections to increase data transmission speeds - that it views as a poor alternative to glass fibre and a threat to its export competitiveness. Germany has yet to settle on a regulatory regime for glass fibre, creating a dynamic competitive environment in which telecoms, glass fibre specialists, utilities and municipalities are forging alliances. Telekom argues the market should not be regulated at all. “This framework is a precondition for the implementation of this joint project, and to that end we are in contact with the Federal Network Agency,” Hoettges said. The agency has said it would adopt a light-touch regime for glass fibre. Wednesday’s agreement marks the culmination of talks that EWE had disclosed back in January, and intensifies competition with rivals including British-based Vodafone, which is also ramping up its investments in Germany. Germany’s political leaders want to realise the vision of a so-called “Gigabit society” by the middle of next decade, in which every household in the country has a high-speed internet connection. Glass fibre will be vital to the operation of fifth-generation mobile services due to be launched from 2020 onwards, supporting new technologies such as driverless cars and “smart” home appliances. Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-telekom-internet/deutsche-telekom-ewe-to-invest-two-billion-euros-in-german-fibre-buildout-idUKKBN1E71FW'|'2017-12-13T13:49:00.000+02:00'
'8882b8b357e0bf4720f59654d281032132dab006'|'Corporation Bank under RBI ''corrective action'' lens on bad loans'|'(Reuters) - State-run Corporation Bank said on Wednesday that the Reserve Bank of India has initiated ‘prompt corrective action’ for the lender over high bad loans and the need to raise capital.The bank did not provide further details on the central bank move, but said it would not have any material impact. bit.ly/2Canye1The bank had a net non-performing assets ratio of 10.24 percent as of end-September.The central bank has this year put several other state-run lenders under its corrective action plan, mainly due to their high bad loans.Reporting by Samantha Kareen Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/corporation-bank-correctiveaction/corporation-bank-under-rbi-corrective-action-lens-on-bad-loans-idINKBN1E71LX'|'2017-12-13T14:45:00.000+02:00'
'1065a47881f87b37693d02d30051419ff869ddea'|'Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical'|'December 11, 2017 / 6:10 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical Tom Polansek 5 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monsanto Co ( MON.N ) will give cash back to U.S. farmers who buy a weed killer that has been linked to widespread crop damage, offering an incentive to apply its product even as regulators in several U.S. states weigh restrictions on its use. The incentive to use XtendiMax with VaporGrip, a herbicide based on a chemical known as dicamba, could refund farmers over half the sticker price of the product in 2018 if they spray it on soybeans Monsanto engineered to resist the weed killer, according to company data. The United States faced an agricultural crisis this year caused by new formulations of dicamba-based herbicides, which farmers and weed experts say harmed crops because they evaporated and drifted away from where they were sprayed. Monsanto says XtendiMax is safe when properly applied. The company is banking on the chemical and soybean seeds engineered to resist it, called Xtend, to dominate soybean production in the United States, the world’s second-largest exporter. BASF SE ( BASFn.DE ) and DowDuPont ( DWDP.N ) also sell versions of dicamba-based herbicides. Monsanto’s cash-back offer comes as federal and state regulators are requiring training for farmers who plan to spray dicamba in 2018 and limiting when it can be used. Weed specialists say the restrictions make the chemical more costly and inconvenient to apply, but Monsanto’s incentive could help convince farmers to use it anyway. “We believe cash-back incentives for using XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology better enable growers to use a management system that represents the next level of weed control,” said Ryan Rubischko, Monsanto product manager. XtendiMax costs about $11 per acre to buy, and Monsanto is offering an extra $6 per acre in cash back to farmers when they apply it on Xtend soybeans, rather than using another seed-and-chemical combination to control weeds. The rebate means farmers can receive up to $11.50 per acre in cash back next year when they use XtendiMax along with other approved chemicals, such as one called Intact that aims to prevent drift and costs $2.40 per acre, according to Monsanto. The company, which launched a programme offering incentives to use multiple herbicides in 2010, competes against rivals including Bayer AG ( BAYGn.DE ) to sell genetically modified soybean seeds and chemicals to farmers. FILE PHOTO: Monsanto logo is displayed on a screen where the stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. on May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Bayer is selling its LibertyLink soybean brand, a main rival to Xtend, to BASF as part of a deal to acquire Monsanto for $63.5 billion. Monsanto also faces increasing government oversight. On Monday, Missouri said it would ban sprayings of XtendiMax and DowDuPont’s product, called FeXapan, in 10 counties after June 1, 2018, and statewide after July 15, 2018. Last month, the state imposed the same restrictions on BASF’s dicamba herbicide, Engenia. FILE PHOTO: John Weiss looks over his crop of soybeans, which he had reported to the state board for showing signs of damage (L) due to the drifting of pesticide Dicamba, at his farm in Dell, Arkansas, U.S. on July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht/File Photo North Dakota said it planned to prohibit the use of dicamba herbicides after June 30, 2018, and when temperatures top 85 degrees Fahrenheit in a bid to prevent the chemical from drifting away from where it is sprayed. Arkansas is close to prohibiting dicamba sprayings after April 15, 2018, the tightest limits yet, while Minnesota is also considering restrictions. The states are taking action after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated special training for dicamba users for 2018 and required farmers to keep records proving they were complying with label instructions. “Utilizing the technology, the cost will go up because of these changes,” said Andrew Thostenson, a pesticide specialist for North Dakota State University. U.S. farmers planted 90 million acres of soybeans this year, and about 4 percent showed signs of damage linked to dicamba, according to University of Missouri data. Despite that, Monsanto predicts farmers will double plantings of Xtend soybeans to about 40 million acres next year. Farmers said its cash-back offer was designed to increase sales. “I think they’re just trying to buy more acres,” Dan Henebry, an Illinois farmer who plans to grow Xtend soybeans next year, said about Monsanto. Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Andrew Hay and Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-pesticides-monsanto/monsanto-offers-cash-to-u-s-farmers-who-use-controversial-chemical-idUKKBN1E50DM'|'2017-12-12T01:56:00.000+02:00'
'da2e30e4917fb580ba3b10a29b6cfbdc0f9c4b60'|'Exclusive: Myanmar to delay law that would have allowed more foreign investment'|'YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar will delay a long-awaited reform that would open the door further to foreign investment, two officials told Reuters, a move likely to disappoint cash-starved businesses amid growing doubts over the management of the economy by the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.FILE PHOTO: Two fishermen stand on a boat in front of Myanmar industrial port terminal at the banks of the Hlaing river in Yangon, June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo The postponement of the corporate reform, which would have allowed foreign companies to take up to a 35 percent stake in Myanmar companies, will likely deal a fresh blow to investor confidence in Suu Kyi’s administration.Economic reform is a key goal for her to complete Myanmar’s democratic transition after decades of isolation under military rule.The delay underscores the daunting challenge facing Suu Kyi, whose promise of a reformist government that would attract foreign investment is under threat.Some aid to Myanmar is already being withheld and investors are concerned that the sanctions that long hobbled the country’s economy will be reinstated over its treatment of its Rohingya minority.A Myanmar companies law, which could bring much-needed foreign capital to the country after decades of mismanagement by the former military junta, was approved last week by President Htin Kyaw without a commencement date specified.Aung Naing Oo, head of Myanmar’s Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), told Reuters the authorities may not be ready to implement the new rules until as late as August 2018, after bylaws were prepared and a company registry that he said was vital to enforcement was completed.“We really want to implement the law as soon as possible but there are many things for us to do,” he said, declining to elaborate what bylaws were needed. He said the government would make sure implementation would be no later than August 1. “We have to make sure the reform is on the right track.”Myo Min, director of DICA, said the authorities needed up to eight months to “work on the guidance and operating manual” for the country’s first modern online registry, an initiative driven by the Asian Development Bank to electronically revamp the country’s company registry to boost transparency.The law includes a first set of modern corporate governance regulations, in some parts replacing rules made over a century ago, to bring the country’s business regulatory framework closer to international standards.At issue is a clause that allows foreigners to take up to a 35 percent share in local companies, which would give local businesses access to a larger capital pool and open up the door for mergers and acquisitions in sectors that are in urgent need of an injection of cash from banking to property.Myanmar''s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi gives a speech at the opening ceremony of the "CPC in dialogue with world political parties high-level meeting, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool/Files The delay of the much-anticipated reform comes as Suu Kyi faces criticism that she has neglected economic reforms. Growth in both foreign investment and gross domestic product have slowed since her National League for Democracy took office last year in one of the region’s poorest countries.Htay Aung, president of the property-to-trading conglomerate Sakura Trade Center, said putting off implementation of the law “was bad for business as it will bring delays and extra costs, which result in losses”.The company is seeking $100 million in over­seas financing for a condominium development in Myanmar’s commercial hub, Yangon. “Foreign investment will be postponed and local businessmen will be disappointed.”“MISSED OPPORTUNITY”Investors have been waiting for the corporate reform, which was initiated by the former military-backed government in 2014. It establishes guidelines on how a company is run and governed, removing outdated rules on share transfers and offering greater protection to shareholders.But Chris Hughes, a lawyer with Berwin Leighton Paisner in Yangon who was commissioned to draft the rules, said it was a “missed opportunity” for Suu Kyi’s administration.“I can’t see a compelling economic reason or policy behind the delay. It seems more driven by technology or administrative factors.”William Greenlee, managing director at law firm DFDL in Yangon, said the business community would struggle with the delay.“International investors are watching and it’s wins like this that create a buzz and can materialize into a profound and sustained increase in foreign investment,” he said. “The euphoria will quickly turn to disappointment if it’s not implemented quickly.”Aung Naing Oo of DICA said there would be no negative impact on investment. “Investors always need to take some time before they invest,” he said. “So this actually is the time for investors to make preparation to invest in Myanmar.”The Asian Development Bank, which gives financial and technical assistance to Myanmar, said “it is ultimately the government’s decision when the law comes into force” and declined to comment further.Writing By Yimou Lee; Editing by Philip McClellan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/myanmar-investment/exclusive-myanmar-to-delay-law-that-would-have-allowed-more-foreign-investment-idINKBN1E50IK'|'2017-12-11T09:10:00.000+02:00'
'ef480ae1757b18a23256791a1d27ec3cc697fece'|'LKQ to buy German car parts retailer Stahlgruber in $1.77 billion deal'|'(Reuters) - U.S. auto parts retailer LKQ Corp ( LKQ.O ) said on Monday it would buy German peer Stahlgruber for about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion), including debt, to consolidate its dominant position in the European market.Stahlgruber will help Chicago-based LKQ withstand intensifying competition from rivals including U.S.-based Genuine Parts Co ( GPC.N ), which in September announced its foray into Europe with a $2 billion deal to buy Alliance Automotive Group.The deal values Stahlgruber at 11.9 times its 2017 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a source familiar with the matter said - in line with LKQ’s own valuation, but at a discount to Genuine Parts’ valuation, which is at 13.2 times EBITDA, according to ThomsonReuters data.Stahlgruber, which sells car replacement parts, tools and other accessories, will also complement LKQ’s portfolio of vehicle engines, axles and wheels.LKQ is the No.1 parts distributor by billings in the roughly 68-billion-euro European light vehicle aftermarket. It has expanded on the continent mainly through acquisitions and most recently bought Rhiag-Inter Auto Parts Italia S.p.A for $1.1 billion two years ago.It expects to complete its purchase of Stahlgruber late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2018, subject to regulatory approvals.LKQ plans to fund the acquisition with debt offerings, its credit facility and by issuing 8.1 million new LKQ shares to Stahlgruber Otto Gruber AG, Stahlgruber’s owner.Reuters reported in September that Stahlgruber’s family owners had put the car parts retailer up for sale and had selected bidders including LKQ.The source said Stahlgruber expects its revenue to increase to 1.6 billion euros in 2017, from 1.5 billion last year, while its EBITDA is set to grow to 128 million euros from 121 million.Deutsche Bank advised the family owners of Stahlgruber on the deal, while Bank of America and Credit Suisse advised LKQ.Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Susan Fenton '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-stahlgruber-m-a-lkq/lkq-to-buy-german-car-parts-retailer-stahlgruber-in-1-77-billion-deal-idINKBN1E51CQ'|'2017-12-11T09:40:00.000+02:00'
'41ce7971a87e4a615e2c79da1700dce194ae34a7'|'Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical'|' 24 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical Tom Polansek 4 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monsanto Co will give cash back to U.S. farmers who buy a weed killer that has been linked to widespread crop damage, offering an incentive to apply its product even as regulators in several U.S. states weigh restrictions on its use. FILE PHOTO: Monsanto logo is displayed on a screen where the stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. on May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The incentive to use XtendiMax with VaporGrip, a herbicide based on a chemical known as dicamba, could refund farmers over half the sticker price of the product in 2018 if they spray it on soybeans Monsanto engineered to resist the weed killer, according to company data. The United States faced an agricultural crisis this year caused by new formulations of dicamba-based herbicides, which farmers and weed experts say harmed crops because they evaporated and drifted away from where they were sprayed. Monsanto says XtendiMax is safe when properly applied. The company is banking on the chemical and soybean seeds engineered to resist it, called Xtend, to dominate soybean production in the United States, the world’s second-largest exporter. BASF SE and DowDuPont also sell versions of dicamba-based herbicides. Monsanto’s cash-back offer comes as federal and state regulators are requiring training for farmers who plan to spray dicamba in 2018 and limiting when it can be used. Weed specialists say the restrictions make the chemical more costly and inconvenient to apply, but Monsanto’s incentive could help convince farmers to use it anyway. “We believe cash-back incentives for using XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology better enable growers to use a management system that represents the next level of weed control,” said Ryan Rubischko, Monsanto product manager. XtendiMax costs about $11 per acre to buy, and Monsanto is offering $6 per acre in cash back to farmers when they apply it on Xtend soybeans along with other approved herbicides, according to the company. Monsanto competes against rivals including Bayer AG to sell genetically modified soybean seeds and chemicals to farmers. Bayer is selling its LibertyLink soybean brand, a main rival to Xtend, to BASF as part of a deal to acquire Monsanto for $63.5 billion. Monsanto also faces increasing government oversight. This month, North Dakota said it planned to prohibit the use of dicamba herbicides after June 30, 2018, and when temperatures top 85 degrees Fahrenheit in a bid to prevent the chemical from drifting away from where it is sprayed. Missouri said it intends to finalize restrictions on XtendiMax soon, after banning sprayings of BASF’s dicamba herbicide, called Engenia, in 10 counties after June 1, 2018, and statewide after July 15, 2018. Arkansas is close to prohibiting dicamba sprayings after April 15, 2018, the tightest limits yet, while Minnesota is also considering restrictions. The states are taking action after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated special training for dicamba users for 2018, requiring farmers to keep records proving they were complying with label instructions. “Utilizing the technology, the cost will go up because of these changes,” said Andrew Thostenson, a pesticide specialist for North Dakota State University. Monsanto predicts U.S. farmers will double plantings of Xtend soybeans to about 40 million acres next year despite reports of crop damage this past summer. Farmers said its cash-back offer was designed to increase sales. “I think they’re just trying to buy more acres,” Dan Henebry, an Illinois farmer who plans to grow Xtend soybeans next year, said about Monsanto. Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pesticides-monsanto/monsanto-offers-cash-to-u-s-farmers-who-use-controversial-chemical-idUKKBN1E50EN'|'2017-12-11T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'1c121662339c6b31a78c9cbbae698e6df7d2abf9'|'Sweden''s Vostok leads $50 mln investment in Brazil fintech Creditas'|'December 11, 2017 / 4:52 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Sweden''s Vostok leads $50 mln investment in Brazil fintech Creditas Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAO PAULO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Swedish fund Vostok Emerging Finance led a 165 million reais ($50 million) investment in Brazilian financial-technology startup Creditas Soluções Financeiras Ltda, the company said on Monday. Creditas, founded in 2012 and specialized in providing loans with real estate or vehicles as collateral, had a 135 million loan book last year. Founder and CEO Sergio Furio said Creditas would use the new equity raised to grow its loan book 30 fold in three years. Investors in Creditas also include Kaszek Ventures LP, Quona Capital Management Ltd, Naspers Ltd and the International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of IRBD. Some Brazilian fintechs that recently went through fundraising rounds are financial planning app GuiaBolso and credit card provider Nubank. ($1 = 3.2855 reais) (Reporting by Aluisio Alves; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Andrew Hay)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-startup-investment/swedens-vostok-leads-50-mln-investment-in-brazil-fintech-creditas-idUSL1N1OB0WY'|'2017-12-11T18:52:00.000+02:00'
'9040fddd1851b0ede7c0fe41072138544c2dc606'|'U.S. retail sales surge; weekly jobless claims fall'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:50 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago U.S. retail sales surge; weekly jobless claims fall Lucia Mutikani 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in November as the holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start, pointing to sustained strength in the economy that could pave the way for further Federal Reserve interest rate hikes next year. A woman is seen inside a holiday shop at the Bryant Park Winter Village in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton The economic outlook was also bolstered by other data on Thursday that showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropping to near a 44-1/2-year low last week. The Fed offered a rosy assessment of the economy in its latest policy statement on Wednesday, describing activity as “rising at a solid rate.” The U.S. central bank raised borrowing costs for a third time this year and forecast three rate increases for 2018. The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.8 percent last month, with households buying a range of goods even as they cut back on purchases of motor vehicles. Data for October was revised to show sales gaining 0.5 percent instead of the previously reported 0.2 percent increase. Retail sales accelerated 5.8 percent on an annual basis. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales increasing only 0.3 percent in November. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies after the release of the data, while prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. U.S. stocks were trading higher. Last month, sales at gardening and building material stores jumped 1.2 percent after slipping 0.1 percent in October. That helped to offset a 0.2 percent drop in receipts at auto dealerships. Retail sales were also lifted by a 2.8 percent gain in sales at service stations, which reflected higher gasoline prices. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales jumped 0.8 percent last month after climbing 0.4 percent in October. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product. STRONG CONSUMER SPENDING Last month’s increase in core retail sales suggested a strong pace of consumer spending in the fourth quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is being supported by steady wage gains as the labor market tightens. In a separate report, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 225,000 for the week ended Dec. 9. That was the lowest reading since mid-October when claims dropped to 223,000, a level not seen since March 1973. Last week marked the 145th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. Fed Chair Janet Yellen told reporters on Wednesday that the central bank expected the “labor market to remain strong, with sustained job creation, ample opportunities for workers, and rising wages.” The economy added 228,000 jobs in November. Consumer spending increased at a 2.3 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, contributing to the economy’s 3.3 percent growth pace during that period. Spending could get a lift from the Trump administration’s plan to lower income taxes. But with the bulk of the tax relief expected to go to high-income households, economists caution that the boost might be limited. Last month, sales at electronics and appliance stores increased 2.1 percent. Receipts at clothing stores rose 0.7 percent in November. Retailers, including Macy’s Inc, reported strong sales for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the holiday retail season. Sales at online retailers soared 2.5 percent last month. Receipts at restaurants and bars gained 0.7 percent and sales at sporting goods and hobby stores shot up 0.9 percent. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy/u-s-retail-sales-surge-weekly-jobless-claims-fall-idINKBN1E825B'|'2017-12-14T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'68019974b45f254707dbc0fb86e5aa92b8cabd9a'|'Sports Direct investors spooked by cost of upmarket shift'|'Reuters TV United States  39 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Sports Direct investors spooked by cost of upmarket shift Paul Sandle 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Sports Direct’s ( SPD.L ) efforts to move upmarket with new flagship stores contributed to a softening of its top line, a margin squeeze and a jump in debt, hitting its shares on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A man arrives for Sports Direct AGM at their headquarters in Shirebrook, Britain September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo The retailer, which has been criticized for its disclosure, corporate governance and past treatment of workers, is trying to revive sales and profit growth with smarter stores that sell more premium products from the likes of Nike ( NKE.N ) and Adidas ( ADSGn.DE ). The group, founded and run by Mike Ashley, wants to become the “Selfridges of sport”, emulating the status of the department store on Oxford Street in London. But the move upmarket resulted in retail revenue in its core British business falling 1.0 percent to 1.14 billion pounds in the six months to Oct. 29 as it reduced online promotional activity and closed stores. And net debt increased to 471.7 million pounds from 182.1 million pounds at April 30, which it put down to investment in long-term strategic partnerships, the cost of the new stores and share buybacks. Also in the negative column was a 80 basis points squeeze on its UK retail gross margin to 39.4 percent due to an increase in inventory levels and an adverse dollar effect. Sports Direct shares fell to a near five-month low of 341 pence and were down 10 percent at 345 pence by mid-morning. “Ashley has described trading at the new format stores as ‘spectacular’, but it’s difficult to see evidence of that in the numbers. Improved profits are being driven by cost cuts rather than sales growth – which is actually negative in the UK,” Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst Nicholas Hyett. Ashley, who has a 61 percent stake in Sports Direct, said the group planned to open between 10 and 20 new flagship stores next year. “Our high street elevation strategy is currently delivering spectacular trading performance within our flagship stores,” he said after the group reported a 7 percent rise in first-half adjusted earnings to 156.1 million pounds ($210 million), in line with market expectations. Analysts at Jefferies downgraded Sports Direct to “underperform” on Wednesday, saying there was limited visibility on the progress of the “premiumisation” strategy. They said Sport Direct would struggle to make real inroads into rival JD Sports Fashion’s ( JD.L ) position in the more-expensive and exclusive fashion end of the market, while the threat from French group Decathlon was increasing at the discount end. Hargreaves Lansdown’s Hyett also noted that Sports Direct’s corporate governance practices continued to attract headlines for all the wrong reasons, with independent shareholders rejecting an 11-million pound payment to Mike Ashley’s brother on Wednesday. Sports Direct, which trades from around 700 stores in Britain and continental Europe, said it still anticipated that it would grow core earnings by 5-15 percent in the full year. ($1 = 0.7451 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-sports-direct-results/sports-direct-investors-spooked-by-cost-of-upmarket-shift-idUKKBN1E81NS'|'2017-12-14T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'440a1154ef61927a16a276fb5c795ade50a37fb1'|'How Hong Kong keeps 7 million people moving - Cities in motion with Arcadis'|'How Hong Kong keeps 7 million people moving Paid for by With a public transport system among the most heavily used in the world, we look at why this metropolis is top of its class for getting around Smart move: Hong Kong’s MTR network’s diversification into real estate has helped it pay for rail extensions and improvements. Photograph: Mongkol Chuewong/Getty Images How Hong Kong keeps 7 million people moving Paid for by With a public transport system among the most heavily used in the world, we look at why this metropolis is top of its class for getting around   11.32 GMT Last modified on   11.33 GMT View   High vehicle taxes mean that less than one-fifth of Hong Kong’s residents travel through the city from behind the wheel of their own car. However, levies also encourage people to use public transport: over 90% of daily journeys are made this way, the highest rate in the world. The city’s highly efficient public transport network is one of the reasons Hong Kong has taken the top spot on Arcadis’s Sustainable Cities Mobility Index , an offshoot oftheir Sustainable Cities Index report . The global design and consultancy firm partnered with the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) to assess the social and human implications of urban mobility systems, their environmental impact and ability to facilitate growth and support business. Twenty-three indicators – including the share of trips taken by public transport, greenhouse gas emissions, and commuting travel times – were used to rank 100 global cities. An average of each city’s score in the people, planet and profit sub-indexes was then used to create the overall scores and rankings. “Hong Kong scores so highly because public transit is so efficient,” says John Batten, global cities director at Arcadis. In particular, the city’s modern, well-organised and well-funded mass transit railway (MTR) network helped it secure first place in the people sub-index and sixth in profit, giving it the edge over rival Asian cities, such as Seoul (fourth) and Singapore (eighth). Hong Kong invests heavily in its rail system. And investment is a hallmark of high-performing cities “They take a few hits in terms of greenhouse gas emissions,” Batten says, which was the main reason for Hong Kong’s relatively low rank (53rd) in the planet sub-index, “but they make up for it in terms of the utilisation of public transport.” MTR (Mass Transit Railway) – a public corporation – reported revenues of $HK45.18bn (£4.4bn) in 2016, with a net profit of HK$10.25bn (£1bn). Its farebox recovery ratio (the percentage of operational costs covered by fares) is the highest in the world, at 186%, and MTR also owns malls, shopping centres and other types of real estate around its metro stations. This helps to diversify its income and pay for line extensions and other improvements to the rail network – a model now being exported to mainland China. “There’s MTR construction going on throughout Hong Kong – new hubs, new stations, new line expansions,” says Batten. “It invests heavily in the system. And investment is really a hallmark of high-performing cities.” The fact that MTR is “as much a commercial developer as they are a public transport operator”, also marks it out as highly innovative. MTR’s Octopus smartcard also allows people to pay for travel and items from convenience stores, fast-food shops and supermarkets, and there is 3G across the network. Private cars v public transport European and Asian cities fared better than US cities in the index: of the top 10 places, seven are European, while New York, at 23, was the highest-placed US city. “A lot of cities in North America are basically organised with very large suburbs, and within those suburbs people tend to have very few options other than commuting in a private car,” says Nina Skero, head of macroeconomics at Cebr. “That private car is often heavily polluting. That weighed down the overall scores for a lot of North American cities.” From ding dings to funiculars, 10 cities with the best transport – in pictures Read more Registration taxes of between 40% and 155% of the sales value have made petrol and diesel cars prohibitively expensive for many Hong Kong residents. This has spurred the adoption of electric vehicles – particularly Tesla’s models – although the tax waiver that encouraged their adoption recently ended , and sales have since stalled. Even with the tax disincentive, sales of private cars have increased over the past decade, which has contributed to traffic jams and poor air quality. The latter is exacerbated by emissions from container ships entering Hong Kong’s bustling port, a problem that afflicts almost all port cities, as well as smog blowing in from mainland China. Kowloon East Unlike many other leading cities, Hong Kong has been slow to embrace bike-sharing schemes. According to Batten this could be down to the city’s topography (hilly) and climate (hot). But walking is definitely getting a boost through the transformation of Kowloon East into a second core business district. As well as improving the area’s connectivity with MTR stations and other forms of infrastructure, the Energizing Kowloon East Office (EKEO) is trying to create a more pleasant pedestrian environment by cleaning up back alleys and integrating them with existing pedestrian routes. The wider streetscape and open spaces are also being improved, while the My Kowloon East mobile app aims to further boost walking rates by suggesting personalised routes, such as sheltered and barrier-free paths. The app’s smart-parking function also provides real-time parking vacancy data. “We hope that this application could help drivers in finding a nearby parking space quickly, minimising unnecessary car journeys and air pollution,” a spokesperson from EKEO explains. Building bridges The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, a high-speed cross-border rail link to Guangzhou, and the third runway at Hong Kong International airport (HKIA) look set to dramatically change Hong Kong’s transport infrastructure. The 55km-long bridge will shorten the distance from Hong Kong to Macau and Zhuhai, from 160km to 30km, and should encourage closer economic ties with the Pearl River Delta region. However, the bridge has been beset by delays and there are fears that an increase in vehicles from China will increase the pressure on Hong Kong’s congested roads. James Wang, associate professor in the department of geography at the University of Hong Kong, and a member of the Hong Kong 2030+ expert advisory panel, also has concerns about the project. “What kind of vehicles will use the bridge? If it’s buses, fine – that means more people on each vehicle, but much less traffic. But that also means you don’t get enough return [from tolls] for the cost of building it.” Mobility extends far beyond a city’s geographical boundaries, so traffic through a city’s main airport is included as an indicator in the people sub-index – and HKIA is one of the world’s busiest. The airport is operating at 99% capacity, but a third runway, which is due to open in 2024, will ease the pressure and improve Hong Kong’s (and mainland China’s) connections with the rest of the world. The Hong Kong to Guangzhou high-speed rail link is expected to begin operation in 2018 and will reduce the journey time from slightly over two hours to 48 minutes. However, this project has also faced delays. Despite setbacks, all these projects demonstrate Hong Kong’s commitment to continuing to improve its impressive and tightly integrated transport infrastructure. Read the Arcadis Sustainable Cities Mobility Index to find out more about Hong Kong’s approach to mobility, as well as that of other leading cities. Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/cities-in-motion-with-arcadis/2017/dec/13/how-hong-kong-keeps-7-million-people-moving'|'2017-12-13T18:32:00.000+02:00'
'1911f542c0170968445c9352ea8d549f91844ada'|'UK lawmakers say watchdog too slow on steelworker pensions'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:27 PM / Updated an hour ago MPs say watchdog too slow on steelworker pensions Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s markets watchdog was accused on Wednesday of being an “archangel with feet of clay” for not dealing faster with concerns that steelworkers are being “ripped off” over their pensions, members of parliament said on Wednesday. The logo of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seen at the agency''s headquarters in the Canary Wharf business district of London April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Steelworkers in South Wales and northern England must decide what to do about their 15 billion pound British Steel pension pot. They face a multitude of advisors and “introducers” touting for business, some offering a free meal to win business. The steelworkers must transfer to a new scheme or join a pensions lifeboat, the Pension Protection Fund, following the closure of their current pension scheme. “What have you been doing to actually get hold of the crooks?” Frank Field, chair of parliament’s Work and Pensions Committee, asked Megan Butler, executive director of supervision at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Was the FCA “knocking on doors” to catch the “cowboys” and end the “horrors going on in the streets”? Field added. Butler said four financial advisors have stopped offering advice after the FCA intervened, with visits being made by a team of eight supervisors to several more. It held four seminars with advisory firms, and is holding public meetings this week. “We can and do act,” Butler said. Over 12,000 steelworkers have asked advisers for a transfer quote, with 2,200 transfers made or in progress from an eligible pool of 38,000 pension members. The aim is to “cauterise” immediate harm ahead of “phase two” when compensation may be paid to people given bad advice, Butler said. “It sounds like a gentle tap on the wrist to me,” a committee member said. BIG FEES Some transfers involve sums up to a million pounds, meaning big fees for advisers, and Butler said there was evidence of a “high level of confusion” about transfer choices. Field criticised Butler for not remembering off hand the names of the four advisory firms that can no longer advise the steelworkers. “There is something desperately wrong at the centre of the FCA that it operates like this,” Field said. With the help of aides at the meeting, Butler named three of the four firms: Active Wealth (UK), Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre, and Mansion Park. The fourth would not be named for the time being. Lawmakers criticised Active Wealth (UK) and Celtic Wealth Management for not turning up to the hearing. Both had no immediate comment. Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre said it could not comment in detail due to ongoing FCA inquiries, but expected it will be shown that it acted properly and correctly at all times. Mansion Park confirmed it was visited by the FCA and voluntarily stepped back from dealing with the steelworkers until it has received written feedback from the watchdog. “Early indications are that some of our implementation processes may need to be reviewed and strengthened,” Mansion Park said. Unconnected to the FCA’s investigations, St James’s Place, one of Britain’s biggest financial advisers, said it would no longer accept new transfer requests from the steelworkers, but would complete those in the pipeline. Lawmaker Stephen Kinnock, who represents some of the steelworkers, said separately that he will meet with FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey next week. “I am increasingly concerned about the stories of unscrupulous advisers targeting the steelworkers and cheating them out of their pension money,” Kinnock said in a statement. Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Simon Jessop, editing by Ken Ferris and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-pensions-steelworkers/uk-lawmakers-say-watchdog-too-slow-on-steelworker-pensions-idUKKBN1E71Y4'|'2017-12-13T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'4807eb3392e7d8c057e4f5206ca9d7b97c2bb3f7'|'BlackRock to back London Stock Exchange chair in TCI spat - source'|' 16 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago BlackRock to back London Stock Exchange chair in TCI spat - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - BlackRock, one of the London Stock Exchange’s largest shareholders, will vote against a motion next week to ditch the exchange’s chairman Donald Brydon, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The motion has been brought by activist hedge fund TCI Fund Management, which is unhappy with Brydon’s handling of the succession of Xavier Rolet, the LSE’s former chief executive. BlackRock, LSE and TCI declined to comment. The Qatar Investment Authority, another big LSE shareholder, is also due to support Brydon at the shareholder meeting next Tuesday. TCI, the hedge fund firm run by Christopher Hohn, is not expecting to pass the resolution to oust Brydon, a source close to the firm has told Reuters. Shareholder advisory firms Glass Lewis and InstitutionalShareholder Services have previously recommended shareholdersvote against removing Brydon. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain, Maiya Keidan and Huw Jones. Editing by John O''Donnell and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-blackrock-vote/blackrock-to-back-london-stock-exchange-chair-in-tci-spat-source-idUKKBN1E71VM'|'2017-12-13T16:15:00.000+02:00'
'94e46c97e04a945b2d221ccdb4c6f19d4d663216'|'UK city of York refuses to renew Uber''s licence in new regulatory setback'|'December 12, 2017 / 8:10 PM / Updated 3 hours ago UK city of York refuses to renew Uber''s licence in new regulatory setback Sangameswaran S 3 Min Read (Reuters) - The English city of York refused to renew Uber’s licence to operate there on Tuesday, the city council said, the latest regulatory setback suffered by the ride-hailing app. FILE PHOTO - The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo The City of York Council’s Gambling, Licensing and Regulatory Committee rejected Uber’s application to renew its private hire operator’s licence, citing concerns about a data breach that is currently under investigation and the number of complaints it had received about the service. Uber’s data breach was brought to light last month by its new chief Dara Khosrowshahi, who said that Uber had failed to disclose a massive breach last year that exposed the data of some 57 million of its users. The licence renewal rejection in the northern English city was another blow to Uber’s UK operations after it was found unfit to run a taxi service in London in September and its Sheffield licence was suspended earlier this month. “This is a disappointing vote for the riders and drivers who use our app in the city,” Uber’s general manager in York, Neil McGonigle, said in an e-mailed statement. Uber would review the details of the decision once it received formal notice from the council, he added. Uber has 21 days to decide whether to appeal against the decision to a magistrates’ court. If it does so, it could continue operating in York until the appeal is heard. Uber was granted an operator’s licence by the City of York Council on December 21, 2016 to run until midnight on December 23, 2017. The company’s licence to operate in the northern English city of Sheffield was suspended on Dec. 1 after it failed to respond to requests about the management of its taxi app. Uber is appealing against September’s decision by regulator Transport for London to strip it of its licence in its most important European market. A London court is expected to hear the case next year. Uber has told Britain’s data protection regulator that about 2.7 million user accounts - representing the vast majority of people using the ride-hailing service in the country - were affected by the 2016 data breach. Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-britain-york/uk-city-york-refuses-to-renew-ubers-licence-idUKKBN1E62QV'|'2017-12-12T23:37:00.000+02:00'
'5c503485a9cc387090a3f616699907744f5c3197'|'Russia, Saudi Arabia sign atomic energy cooperation roadmap'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:37 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Russia, Saudi Arabia sign atomic energy cooperation roadmap Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Saudi Arabia have signed a roadmap for cooperation in the atomic energy sector, Russian state nuclear company Rosatom said on Thursday. The roadmap comprises a number of steps needed to implement a cooperation programme that was signed by the two nations during Saudi King Salman’s visit to Russia in October. Saudi Arabia, which wants to reduce oil consumption at home, is considering building 17.6 gigawatts of nuclear-powered electricity generating capacity by 2032 and has sent a request for information to international suppliers to build two reactors in the kingdom. Last month Rosatom said it hoped to win the Saudi tender. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-saudi-nuclear/russia-saudi-arabia-sign-atomic-energy-cooperation-roadmap-idUKKBN1E818F'|'2017-12-14T12:37:00.000+02:00'
'52d60da65f1608f3de020410a51994c9d5bf7a3a'|'Indonesia''s Go-Jek acquires 3 companies to boost payment services'|'December 15, 2017 / 3:07 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Indonesia''s Go-Jek acquires three companies to boost payment services Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s Go-Jek has acquired three financial technology businesses, as it expands from ride-hailing and other mobile on-demand offerings into payments and other services. Go-Jek has bought offline payments processing company Kartuku, online payment gateway Midtrans, and saving and lending network Mapan, the company said in a statement on Friday. The acquisitions will take its combined debit card, credit card and digital wallet transactions to close to $5 billion, it said. The value of the acquisitions was not disclosed. The acquisitions “will accelerate financial inclusion for millions of Indonesians and stimulate economic productivity throughout the country,” Go-Jek founder and chief executive officer Nadiem Makarim said. Go-Jek, backed by private equity firms KKR & Co LP and Warburg Pincus LLC [WP.UL], competes with Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] and Singapore-based Grab to lure customers in the Southeast Asian market, home to 600 million people. According to the statement, Go-Jek currently has 15 million weekly active users and processes 100 million transactions per month. Reporting by Ed Davies; Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gojek-indonesia/indonesias-go-jek-acquires-three-companies-to-boost-payment-services-idUSKBN1E9088'|'2017-12-15T04:53:00.000+02:00'
'59b8881012fd076af743b07e543d5efb0030a4fd'|'Russia moves to save Promsvyazbank in third bailout of 2017'|'December 15, 2017 / 2:53 PM / Updated an hour ago Russia moves to save Promsvyazbank in third bailout of 2017 Tatiana Voronova , Jack Stubbs , Katya Golubkova 6 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia stepped in to rescue Promsvyazbank, the country’s 10th largest private lender, on Friday in the third costly financial bailout by the country’s central bank this year. FILE PHOTO: People are reflected on a window of an office of Promsvyazbank in Moscow, December 4, 2012. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Promsvyazbank’s (PSB) rescue follows the central bank bailout in August of Otkritie, once the country’s largest private bank, and later B&N. The bailouts mark the biggest challenge to Russia’s financial sector since a banking crisis 20 years ago and show how the country and its banks are grappling with the economic impact of lower oil prices and Western sanctions. The central bank has recently increased the estimate for the Otkritie and B&N bailouts to a combined 820 billion roubles ($14 billion). The central bank has not yet disclosed the expected cost of rescuing PSB. There are just over 500 banks in Russia, half the number it had some years ago, as the central bank continues a clean-up supported by President Vladimir Putin. One senior lawmaker said there would be no further such rescues this year, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was no target for the number of banks in Russia. The central bank said it was providing funds to support Promsvyazbank’s liquidity and would send in temporary administrators. However, it said there would be no moratorium on paying creditors and that the bank was operating as normal. “As part of measures aimed at increasing (Promsvyazbank‘s) financial stability and ensuring its continued work in the banking services market, it is planned that the Bank of Russia act as an investor using the funds of the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund,” the regulator said. The latest rescue followed late-night talks, when the central bank presented the troubled bank with an ultimatum: find 100 billion roubles of extra capital or be bailed out. People with direct knowledge of the matter said Promsvyazbank’s co-owner and chairman, Dmitry Ananyev, and central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina, agreed on a rescue at a late-night meeting. Dmitry Ananyev and his brother, Alexei, who together control just over 50 percent of the bank, said on Friday the bank’s serious difficulties had prompted them to ask for state support. “Over a prolonged period of time the regulator was examining our assets, which resulted in a request for additional provisions and, as a result, the temporary administration was introduced,” the bank said in a statement. Lawmaker Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the Duma finance committee and head of the Russian Banking Association, said the bailout would not affect the wider sector and was the last such step to be taken this year. CLEAN SLATE The latest rescue marks a reversal of fortune for three private banks with ties to the Kremlin which had helped out dollar-starved Russian companies when big state banks were hampered by Western sanctions. Otkritie, Promsvyazbank and B&N Bank had won business lending to state energy firms and others needing to meet big overseas debt repayments as the Ukraine conflict closed financial markets to state lenders such as Sberbank ( SBER.MM ). Russia’s central bank is gradually tightening requirements on the lending to related parties and also demands stronger capital buffers, with the newest requirements coming into force as soon as from Jan 1. The stricter rules make business of so-called ‘pocket banks’ - creatures of the early capitalist years of Russia - less profitable. The combined assets of the three banks taken over by the central bank would amount to 4 trillion roubles, the equivalent of Russia’s fourth biggest, according to Reuters calculations. The assets of Russia’s top bank, Sberbank, total 22 trillion roubles. In an interview with Reuters, the last one Dmitry Ananyev gave before the bailout, he said that the bank would be selling some of its non-performing loans to boost capital and meet the fresh central bank requirements. The central bank said Otkritie and B&N were too financially weak to continue. Richard Segal, a corporate debt strategist at investor Manulife Asset Management, said he was not surprised by the bank’s rescue because its capital had been running low. One financial executive with knowledge of the rescue said the move cleared banking problems ahead of preparations for presidential elections. “If not now ... you will have to postpone the decision for at least a month. Plus, better to do it before the campaign is in its height,” said the person, who asked not to be named. Putin announced his intention to run for another term last week and on Friday the upper house of the Russian parliament voted to set March 18 as the date of next year’s election. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Budushchee, one of Russia’s largest private pension funds, the Credit Bank of Moscow and non-state pension fund Safmar are among Promsvyazbank shareholders, data from end-November published on the bank’s website showed. The Ananyevs will retain another bank, Vozrozhdenie ( VZRZ.MM ), which is Russia’s No.36 by assets and which they decided not to merge with PSB in October. (This version of the story has been refiled to add dropped word “not”, paragraph 4) Reporting by Maria Kiselyova, Tatiana Voronova, Jack Stubbs, Elena Fabrichnaya, Elena Orekhova and Sujata Rao-Coverley, writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by John O''Donnell, Jane Merriman and Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-banks-promsvyazbank/russia-moves-to-save-promsvyazbank-in-third-bailout-of-2017-idUKKBN1E91XA'|'2017-12-15T16:52:00.000+02:00'
'1edd3bf5e2478c0c510452f011047e3a4360c088'|'Bundesbank sees German growth slowing beyond 2018'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:49 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Bundesbank sees German growth slowing beyond 2018 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s central bank raised growth projections on Friday, arguing that the economy will continue to enjoy an export-driven boom, even if its rate of expansion is likely to taper off as the business cycle matures. The Bundesbank now sees calendar-adjusted gross domestic product growth in the euro zone’s biggest economy expanding by 2.5 percent next year, above a June projection for 1.7 percent, while growth in 2019 is seen at 1.7 percent, above a previous forecast for 1.6 percent. “Germany’s economy is experiencing a strong upswing,” the Bundesbank said in its twice-yearly update of projections. “Driven by lively foreign demand, industry is seeing dynamic growth and the sharp upturn in business investment is persisting.” ”This broad-based, robust economic upswing is reaching an increasingly mature state, which means that the pace of growth is likely to slow in the medium term and converge to that of potential growth,” it added. But it predicted that export growth will weaken further out, particularly due to capacity constraints and labour shortages. The Bundesbank also raised its inflation projections for 2018 but cut it for 2019, suggesting that the European Central Bank will continue to struggle to hit its target for price growth just below 2 percent. The following are the Bundesbank’s new projections for inflation and GDP growth, with June forecasts in brackets. For 2020, the Bundesbank provided projections for the first time. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy-bundesbank/bundesbank-sees-german-growth-slowing-beyond-2018-idUKKBN1E90NH'|'2017-12-15T09:49:00.000+02:00'
'fdc05333d99e80a79b55af40ccdccb41e21d0173'|'Russia''s Promsvyazbank says its bail-out due to new cenbank demands'|' 15 AM / in 13 minutes Russia''s Promsvyazbank says its bail-out due to new cenbank demands Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Russia’s Promsvyazbank said on Friday that its bail-out was a result of a decision by the central bank to ask for additional provisions. The Russian central bank announced earlier on Friday it would rescue Promsvyazbank . Promsvyazbank said it was in constructive talks with the central bank. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-banks-promsvyazbank-explanation/russias-promsvyazbank-says-its-bail-out-due-to-new-cenbank-demands-idUSR4N1OD00P'|'2017-12-15T10:14:00.000+02:00'
'ca89a84faddc0a3fdb570d1e3a998d46d628fd84'|'Hong Kong to push ahead with controversial dual-class shares'|'December 15, 2017 / 9:31 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Hong Kong to push ahead with controversial dual-class shares Jennifer Hughes 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong is set to allow controversial dual-class shares under rule changes to be proposed by the city’s stock exchange as it raises the stakes in its battle against New York for blockbuster Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs). FILE PHOTO: The company logo of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX) is displayed outside its exhibition hall in Hong Kong August 10, 2011. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) ( 0388.HK ), the city’s exchange operator, said on Friday it had begun drafting specific rule changes that will be put up for a formal public consultation in the first three months of 2018. Dual-class shares, which typically give one set of shareholders greater voting rights than others, have been favored by many owners of new age industries such as technology, with the extra voting power given to top executives seen as protection against pressure for short-term returns. But they have also come in for criticism from corporate governance activists, who have warned of its potential abuse by company insiders. Hong Kong’s proposed changes, which stem from a discussion paper published in June, come as a series of hotly-anticipated Chinese tech groups are considering their options for listing next year. These include Xiaomi, which is hearing bank pitches on Friday for a role in an IPO expected to value the smartphone maker at least $50 billion. In spite of Hong Kong’s role as the world’s biggest equity capital-raising center for four of the last 10 years, it has fallen well behind New York, its arch-rival, in the battle for hot tech stocks and other growth sectors. Just 3 per cent of Hong Kong listings in the past decade, by market value, have been so-called “new economy” companies, compared with 47 per cent for the New York Stock Exchange, according to the June discussion paper produced by the HKEX. The exchange said on Friday that “a large majority” of the 360 responses it received to its June paper were supportive of permitting dual-class shares. “The market has made it clear they want the Exchange to take action to broaden Hong Kong’s capital markets access and enhance its competitiveness,” HKEX chief executive Charles Li said in a statement. “By the second half of next year we hope that we will see a significant number of innovative companies beginning to choose Hong Kong.” Other stock exchanges, including London and Singapore, are also weighing allowing dual-class shares. Reporting by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-hkex-regulation/hong-kong-gearing-up-to-allow-controversial-dual-class-shares-idINKBN1E90UR'|'2017-12-15T13:33:00.000+02:00'
'676e5e86b387937bfec66ec1769bf240ea5fddcb'|'Odebrecht paid firms linked to Peru''s Kuczynski $4.8 mln -document'|'* Kuczynski denies wrongdoing* Kucynski’s connections to Odebrecht under probe* Some lawmakers call for Kuczynski to resignBy Mitra Taj and Teresa CespedesLIMA, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Brazilian builder Odebrecht transferred $4.8 million to companies linked to Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski between 2004 and 2012, some of which was paid to a company Kuczynski controlled when he held senior government roles, according to a document the company sent to Congress.In a brief recorded message broadcast on local radio program RPP after lawmakers made the contents of the document public on Wednesday, Kuczynski denied wrongdoing but did not deny the transfers took place.Kuczynski’s office declined further comment.Odebrecht declined to comment. A source in the company who spoke on condition of anonymity said the document seen by Reuters was authentic.The transfers shown in the document contradicted Kuczynski’s previous denials about his ties to Odebrecht and prompted some lawmakers in the opposition-controlled Congress to call for his resignation.Odebrecht is at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal and has admitted to paying about $30 million in bribes to officials in Peru over a decade, including during the 2001-2006 term of ex-President Alejandro Toledo, when Kuczynski was finance minister and prime minister.After Odebrecht’s public acknowledgement a year ago, Kuczynski repeatedly denied ever taking money from Odebrecht or having any professional connections to the company.But on Saturday Kuczynski announced on a local radio program that he once worked as a financial adviser for an Odebrecht project when he did not hold public office; he did not mention the company that paid him.“I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE”According to the document sent to Congress, Odebrecht made seven transfers totaling about $780,000 to Kuczynski’s company Westfield Capital Ltd between 2004 and 2007, including about $60,000 when Kuczynski worked in Toledo’s Cabinet and the government awarded several contracts to Odebrecht. Later, between 2008 and 2012, Odebrecht paid about $4 million to First Capital Inversiones Y Asesorias.Kuczynski has previously said that First Capital belongs to his friend and Chilean business partner, Gerardo Sepulveda. Kuczynski was the sole director of Westfield Capital, according to his sworn declaration on the presidency’s website.Kuczynski has not appeared in public since his radio interview on Saturday. He said on RPP on Wednesday that he had decided to heed Congress’ repeated calls to explain any connections he had with Odebrecht to an investigative committee.“I’ve never favored any company. I‘m willing to clarify everything that needs to be clarified before Congress and prosecutors because I have nothing to hide,” Kuczynski said on RPP, without taking any questions from journalists.A spokesman for Popular Force, the opposition party that holds a majority of seats in Peru’s single-chamber Congress, slammed Kuczynski.“The country, Mr. Kuczynski, is tired of your lies and doesn’t want any more explanations. The country hasn’t just lost its trust in you, but in your government as well,” Daniel Salaverry, the spokesman, told a news conference.In a televised plenary session late on Wednesday, hardline Popular Force lawmaker Hector Becerril called for Kuczynski to resign, calling the transferred funds “camouflaged bribes.” An independent lawmaker also called for Kuczynski to step down.A source in the attorney general’s office said prosecutors investigating Odebrecht in Peru were probing Kuczynski’s relationship with the company but could not name him as a suspect until his term and presidential immunity end.Toledo, the former president under whom Kuczynski worked, has been accused of taking a $20 million bribe from Odebrecht in exchange for help in securing lucrative highway contracts. Toledo has denied the charges. Authorities in Peru are seeking his extradition from the United States.Reporting by Mitra Taj and Teresa Cespedes; Additional reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/peru-odebrecht-kuczynski/odebrecht-paid-firms-linked-to-perus-kuczynski-4-8-mln-document-idINL1N1OD2VO'|'2017-12-13T23:29:00.000+02:00'
'a3407631ee2ac9453ca05b0b97e94147e939bf82'|'South Korea prosecutors seek four-year jail term for Lotte group chief'|'December 14, 2017 / 6:21 AM / Updated 7 hours ago South Korea prosecutors seek four-year jail term for Lotte group chief Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s prosecutors are seeking a four-year jail term and a fine of 7 billion won ($6.44 million) for Lotte Group chief Shin Dong-bin over a bribery scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye and her close friend Choi Soon-shil, a Lotte spokesman said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin attends a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo Prosecutors have asked for a 25 year jail sentence and a fine of 126.3 billion won for Choi, who was indicted last year on charges of forcing conglomerates such as Samsung Group and Lotte Corp ( 004990.KS ) to donate millions to foundations, Yonhap news said. Prosecutors accused Shin of paying bribes totaling 7 billion won to an organization linked to Choi in return for government favors in offering a duty free license, the spokesman said. Shin denied charges during trials. In August, Jay Y. Lee, the head of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group, was sentenced to five years in jail over the bribery scandal. In a separate corruption probe, South Korean prosecutors in October demanded a 10-year jail term for Shin. He faces a ruling on the corruption charges later this month. Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Michael Perry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lottecorp-chief-prosecution/south-korea-prosecutors-seek-four-year-jail-term-for-lotte-group-chief-idUSKBN1E80L8'|'2017-12-14T08:21:00.000+02:00'
'043153ae034bb6874fc6543e1c0b6b0d1905ea39'|'U.S. still sees prospects for German fighter jet sales'|'December 14, 2017 / 2:56 PM / in 6 minutes U.S. still sees prospects for German fighter jet sales Andrea Shalal 4 Min Read BERLIN, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it still sees prospects for selling American fighter jets to Germany despite a Defence Ministry statement this week that it was primarily looking at the Eurofighter Typhoon to replace its fleet of 85 Tornado jets. The ministry on Monday distanced itself from comments by Air Force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Karl Muellner, who had made clear last month that he preferred the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter, given military requirements for stealth and long-distance strike capabilities. The ministry said it did not share his view, and was looking first at the European option, and secondarily at three U.S. fighter jets. But it made clear that no decisions would be made until after a comprehensive assessment of all options. Washington must respond by March 31 to the German ministry’s formal request for information about the F-35 and two fighter jets built by Boeing Co, the F-15 and the F/A-18E/F. It has also sought similar information about the Eurofighter. The ministry said the replies would inform its evaluation of possible successors for its Tornado fleet, which is due to start leaving service around 2030. It said the process could “potentially (result) in a request for proposal and possible procurement over the next decade.” One U.S. military official said the process was just getting started. “The United States is confident that there are U.S. platforms that would be competitive,” the official said. U.S. law requires Washington to equally represent all potential U.S. bids in foreign competitions. Lockheed, which has launched a big lobbying push in Germany, including offering F-35 simulator rides for ministry officials and lawmakers last month, said its aircraft offered “the proven capability” to fulfill the German air force’s requirements. Lockheed also featured a large photo montage at the Berlin Security Conference that showed an F-35 flying over Berlin. “We anticipate an open and fair competition,” said Lockheed spokesman Eric Schnaible. “We’re confident the F-35 is the best value for NATO’s air forces now and for credible deterrence well into the future.” No comment was immediately available from Boeing. U.S. officials briefed German officials on the capabilities of the Boeing aircraft last month, following a similar briefing on the Lockheed jet in July. Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain in the maturing Eurofighter programme, declined to comment on the letter. “Generally, we view the Eurofighter as the ideal solution to take over the missions of the Tornado since it has already been introduced in the German military and would also guarantee the sovereignty of German missions,” an Airbus spokesman said. The Eurofighter programme, which also includes Britain through BAE Systems and Italy via Leonardo, has already provided the German military with a study about ways to further develop the aircraft, and expand its capabilities. One key issue may be Germany’s need to provide NATO with aircraft to carry the primary U.S. nuclear bombs, the B61s stored at a high-security military base in western Germany. The Eurofighter would have to be adapted to carry the bombs and then certified, and Washington would have to sign off on the matter. The F-15 is already approved to carry the bombs, and the F-35 is due to get the capability in the early 2020s. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by William Maclean)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-military-fighter/u-s-still-sees-prospects-for-german-fighter-jet-sales-idUSL1N1OE0YL'|'2017-12-14T16:56:00.000+02:00'
'0349b22b8efc0de6693febc544f57eb7c80d8904'|'South Africa''s Sibanye-Stillwater to buy troubled platinum producer Lonmin'|'December 14, 2017 / 7:43 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago South Africa''s Sibanye-Stillwater buys troubled platinum miner Lonmin Zandi Shabalala , Barbara Lewis 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater ( SGLJ.J ) has agreed to buy Lonmin ( LMI.L ) ( LONJ.J ) for about 285 million pounds ($382 million) in an all-share deal that drove shares in the troubled London-listed platinum miner up by more than a fifth. FILE PHOTO: A mine worker returns from the Lonmin mine at the end of his shift, outside Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg October 5, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo Lonmin, the world’s third biggest platinum producer, has been battling weak global platinum prices and soaring operating costs in South Africa, shrinking the company’s market value by 98 percent in the past five years. After the announcement, Lonmin’s shares jumped 23 percent, while shares in Sibanye-Stillwater, which will become the world’s second largest platinum producer on completion of the deal, fell 5 percent in Johannesburg. “This is a bailout deal for Lonmin,” Nedbank precious metals analyst Leon Esterhuizen said “It makes for a good match, but it doesn’t resolve oversupply of the PGM (platinum group metals) industry.” Global platinum prices XPT= are trading around their lowest levels since early 2016, under pressure from bloated supply and declining demand from the automotive industry. “The flexibility inherent in the larger regional PGM footprint will create a more robust business, better able to withstand volatile PGM prices and exchange rates,” Sibanye Chief Executive Officer Neal Froneman said in a statement. Under the offer, Lonmin shareholders would receive 0.967 new Sibanye-Stillwater shares for each Lonmin share, the firms said. Following completion of the deal Lonmin shareholders would hold about 11.3 percent of the enlarged group. “While in some way I am sad, I am sure has hell that this is the right thing for the sustainability of the company,” Lonmin CEO Ben Magara told Reuters. Under Sibanye’s plans, Lonmin would put all of its older mines on care and maintenance, which means operations stop but they are kept in a condition to resume in future. The plan involves cutting 12,600 jobs in the next three years with a further 890 jobs at risk, a Sibanye presentation showed. Job cuts are a particularly sensitive in South Africa where unemployment runs at around 27 percent. Lonmin now employs about 35,500 people. All of its mines are in South Africa. The revised mine plan assumes “lower for longer” platinum prices, the presentation said. FILE PHOTO: A miner returns from his shift in Nkaneng township outside the Lonmin mine in Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg, June 26, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo “SUFFERING” SHAREHOLDERS Sibanye and Lonmin have been talking for months, sources said, after looking at Lonmin a few years ago before turning to another deal. One banking source told Reuters the rest of Lonmin’s portfolio would be reviewed over time. Lonmin, listed in London since 1961, has been undergoing an operational review to help resolve its cash crunch that led its banks to relax some debt covenants. The miner has tapped shareholders for cash three times since 2009. “Doubtless welcome news to long suffering Lonmin shareholders averting the need to dig into their pockets once again to refinance the company in its regular three to four year refinancing cycle,” said Marc Elliott, analyst at Investec bank. He said Sibanye management could get the most value from Lonmin’s smelting and refining assets and could also be betting on a rebound in the price of platinum group metals. Lonmin emerged in the 1990s after the split up of Lonrho, a sprawling conglomerate run for three decades by buccaneering tycoon Tiny Rowland, whose firm was branded in the 1970s by Britain’s prime minister at the time as the “unacceptable face of capitalism”. Lonmin was in the headlines again in 2012 when 34 striking miners at its Marikana facility were killed by police in the bloodiest confrontation since white rule ended in South Africa. Sibanye, spun off from Gold Fields ( GFIJ.J ), made its first foray into platinum by acquiring Anglo American Platinum’s labour intensive Rustenburg operations in 2015. The company also bought Aquarius Platinum and U.S. palladium producer Stillwater. With Lonmin, Sibanye will leapfrog another troubled miner, Impala Platinum ( IMPJ.J ), to become the world’s No. 2 platinum producer. The government-owned Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which owns 30 percent of Lonmin, increased its stake in Sibanye in November to 10 percent. PIC was not immediately available to comment on the deal. In November, Reuters reported on its array of measures to save cash after it delayed its annual financial results pending conclusion of a business review. UBS and HSBC ( HSBA.L ) advised Sibanye on the deal. Additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain, Ed Stoddard and Clara Denina; Editing by Adrian Croft and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lonmin-m-a-sibanye-gold/south-africas-sibanye-stillwater-to-buy-troubled-platinum-producer-lonmin-idUKKBN1E80SU'|'2017-12-14T10:43:00.000+02:00'
'4411a8e22eb97d56eca351cccf58767537d1f711'|'Sports Direct first half earnings rise 7 percent, boosted by flagships'|' 21 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Sports Direct earnings boosted by new flagship stores Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct reported a 7 percent rise in first-half adjusted earnings on Thursday, and said its new flagship stores, designed to move the discount brand up-market, were trading well. FILE PHOTO: A man arrives for Sports Direct AGM at their headquarters in Shirebrook, Britain September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD - SEARCH GLOBAL BUSINESS 11 DEC FOR ALL IMAGES The company, which has been criticised for its corporate governance regime, reported underlying earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation of 156.1 million pounds for the six months to 29 Oct, on group revenue up 4.7 percent to 1.71 billion pounds. Founder, majority shareholder and chief executive Ashley is opening smarter stores in city centres that can showcase premium products from Nike and Adidas, and better compete with rival JD Sports Fashion . “Our high street elevation strategy is currently delivering spectacular trading performance within our flagship stores,” he said. “We intend to open between 10 and 20 new flagship stores next year.” Sports Direct reiterated its target of growing core earnings by 5-15 percent in the 2017-18 financial year. Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Guy Faulconbridge'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sports-direct-results/sports-direct-first-half-earnings-rise-7-percent-boosted-by-flagships-idUKKBN1E80QR'|'2017-12-14T09:20:00.000+02:00'
'67f6762f75e04c0516f7fe1b03973fceb1373df4'|'MEDIA-EDF says no new nuclear reactors in France without state support-Ouest France'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:53 PM / in 10 minutes MEDIA-EDF says no new nuclear reactors in France without state support-Ouest France Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ** French state-controlled utility EDF’s CEO Jean-Bernard Levy tells Ouest France daily that EDF can no longer build new nuclear reactors in France without state support. ** Asked when EDF could build new reactors at home, Levy says “Henceforth, we cannot build new reactors without adequate regulation providing guaranteed income”. He said that Flamanville was launched at a time of high power prices and that now all power sources, nuclear as well as renewable, need to get the same visibility on sales prices. ** For its project to build two EPRs in Hinkley Point, Britain, EDF has obtained an EU-approved state-guaranteed price of 92.5 pounds per megawatt-hour over 35 years, which is way above current market prices. ** The centrist government of French President Emmanuel Macron is not talking about building new nuclear reactors, but about closing old reactors in order to reduce the share of nuclear energy in French power generation to 50 percent by around 2035 from 75 percent today. ** Asked when the first Areva-designed EPR reactor could start up, Levy said ”that should be in a few weeks in China. The start-up will be gradual, to make sure everything works well. ** Levy said EDF expects to get approval to charge nuclear fuel in its Flamanville reactor at the end of 2018. He said that once operational, Flamanville will be a good showcase to sell nuclear reactors in Asia. Note: Reuters has not verified this story and does not vouch for its accuracy Reporting by Geert de Clercq, Editing Dominique Vidalon'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/edf-nuclearpower/media-edf-says-no-new-nuclear-reactors-in-france-without-state-support-ouest-france-idUSL8N1OF3EP'|'2017-12-15T14:52:00.000+02:00'
'83a020dbe3dd2f26354c51528857b5466b852c5d'|'Exclusive - Ford to base Fusion production in China, ship to U.S.: sources'|'Reuters TV United States December 13, 2017 / 6:22 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Exclusive: Ford to base Fusion production in China, ship to U.S. - sources Paul Lienert 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co plans to consolidate global production of midsize sedans in China in 2020 and ship them to the United States and Europe, three sources said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The Ford logo is seen at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero In North America, the Fusion sedan currently is built in Hermosillo, Mexico, while in Europe, the companion Mondeo sedan is built in Valencia, Spain. Both models are expected to be redesigned in mid to late 2020, when Ford plans to shift their production to Chongqing, to a joint-venture plant operated with Ford’s Chinese partner Changan Automobile Co, according to sources connected to Ford’s component suppliers who are familiar with the automaker’s future production plans. A Ford of Mexico spokesperson declined to comment. The move is part of Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett’s ongoing effort to reduce inefficiency and trim costs, while shifting the company’s emphasis away from sedans toward sport utility and crossover vehicles, especially in North America. Ford in June said it would shift some production of its Focus small car from Mexico to China and import the vehicles to the United States. Ford’s latest moves could blunt U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to repeal or revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement. The move suggests China could play a much larger role in future vehicle production for North America, perhaps eclipsing Mexico as a low-cost manufacturing source. As with the Focus move, the decision to build the Fusion in China also signals a shift in strategy at Ford, which is responding to dwindling U.S. consumer demand for passenger cars in favor of more expensive and more profitable trucks and SUVs. Last week, Ford said it plans to relocate production of a future battery electric vehicle to Cuatitlan, Mexico in 2020 to free up capacity at its Flat Rock, Michigan, plant to build self-driving vehicles in 2021. Additional reporting by Laurence Frost in Paris and Anthony Esposito in Mexico City; Editing by Andrew Hay and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fordmotor-china/exclusive-ford-to-base-fusion-production-in-china-ship-to-u-s-sources-idUKKBN1E72LK'|'2017-12-13T20:46:00.000+02:00'
'ece6519d1457077cc4fff47cabdfb42743687d02'|'WTO struggles to hone global trade vision after U.S. turnabout'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:16 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago WTO to end meeting with no deals after U.S. rebukes Luc Cohen 4 Min Read BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Trade ministers looked set to wrap up their biennial World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting on Wednesday without any new agreements after criticism of the agency by the United States, once the WTO’s driving force. FILE PHOTO - China''s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen speaks next to European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom and Japan''s Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry while Morocco''s Secretary of State in charge of Foreign Trade Rakiya Eddarhem arrives during the Business Forum at the 11th World Trade Organization''s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci Ministers gathered in Buenos Aires were never expected to agree on major trade reforms, but even relatively minor proposals on e-commerce and fishing subsidy curbs ran aground. “Members cannot even agree to stop subsidizing illegal fishing. Horrendous,” European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “Destructive behavior by several large countries made results impossible,” Malmstrom added without naming them. Instead, ministers were focusing on the WTO’s post-conference work programs, such as efforts to improve market efficiency and curb excess industrial capacity, WTO spokesman Ken Rockwell told reporters. “While there is disappointment that we couldn’t get a little further in terms of concrete outcomes, being able to nail down an effective work program is very important,” Rockwell told reporters. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer set an acrimonious tone at the start of the conference with sharp criticisms of the WTO. The 23-year-old trade body requires unanimity among all 164 WTO member countries to reach any agreement. Lighthizer told WTO ministers on Monday that it was impossible to negotiate new rules while many of the current rules were not being followed, and that the WTO was losing its focus and becoming too litigation-focused. Even the perfunctory joint ministerial statement looked in doubt at the conference, known as MC11. FILE PHOTO - European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom speaks next to China''s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen (2nd L), Argentina''s Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie (L) and Japan''s Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Tadao Yanase during the Business Forum at the 11th World Trade Organization''s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci AMERICA FIRST Driven by President Donald Trump’s “America First” strategy and a preference for bilateral deals, the United States had already blocked ambassadors from drafting a ministerial text in Geneva that included references to the centrality of the global trading system and to trade as a driver of development. USTR spokeswoman Emily Davis denied that the United States was the problem in the lack of negotiated outcomes, saying the Obama administration had raised similar WTO grievances. FILE PHOTO - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Japan''s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko, and European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom pose for a photo before a meeting at the 11th World Trade Organization''s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci “The United States has remained engaged throughout MC11 to achieve progress where possible,” Davis said in an emailed statement. “Under these circumstances, it’s nonsense for anyone to think that MC11 could be adrift over Ambassador Lighthizer’s honest remarks on issues the United States has been raising for years.” Lighthizer left Buenos Aires for Washington on Tuesday night, missing the final day of the conference. The failure to reach any major deals meant that negotiations on the same topics will continue into 2018, with no deadline and no heavyweight ministerial momentum to get agreement. Many trade experts disagree with the U.S. view toward the WTO and are dismayed that the United States is vetoing new judicial appointments at the WTO, which is threatening to halt the settlement of trade disputes. Ministers who followed Lighthizer onto the podium offered widespread support for the global trading system, with the WTO at its heart. But on Tuesday, the European Union and Japan joined the United States in vowing to combat market-distorting policies, such as those pervasive in China that have fueled excess industrial capacity, including subsidies for state-owned enterprises and technology transfer requirements. An EU source familiar with negotiations over the statement said it was instigated by Japan, partly as a means to coax Washington into working multilaterally to solve such problems rather than resorting to unilateral trade restrictions. Additional reporting by David Lawder; Writing by Tom Miles and David Lawder; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-wto/wto-struggles-to-hone-global-trade-vision-after-u-s-turnabout-idUSKBN1E71IJ'|'2017-12-13T14:24:00.000+02:00'
'519b9fb86b56467b6e46dff94f44a81061ac59af'|'Saudi Aramco signs $10.4 billion worth of MOUs with companies'|'December 13, 2017 / 8:31 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Saudi Aramco signs $10.4 billion worth of MOUs with companies Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] signed on Wednesday agreements with foreign and local companies worth at least 39 billion riyals (8 billion pounds). FILE PHOTO: Visitors are seen at the Saudi Aramco stand at the Middle East Process Engineering Conference & Exhibition in Manama, Bahrain, October 9, 2016. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo The bulk of the memorandum of understanding agreements were part of a drive to promote local manufacturing, the company said. One agreement was also signed with drilling and oil service company Schlumberger ( SLBG34.SA ) worth 6 billion riyals. ($1 = 3.7502 riyals)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-aramco-deals/saudi-aramco-signs-10-4-billion-worth-of-mous-with-companies-idUKKBN1E70TE'|'2017-12-13T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'9843e42dc945db441112f015708f135a936a3b38'|'With rate hike in the bag, Fed may hint at Trump effect on economy'|'December 13, 2017 / 6:07 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Fed raises interest rates, keeps 2018 policy outlook unchanged Howard Schneider , Lindsay Dunsmuir 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, as anticipated, but left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged even as policymakers projected a short-term acceleration in U.S. economic growth. FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington September 16 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo The move, coming at the final policy meeting of 2017 and on the heels of a flurry of relatively bullish economic data, represented a victory for a central bank that has vowed to continue a gradual tightening of monetary policy. Having raised its benchmark overnight lending rate three times this year, the Fed projected three more hikes in each of 2018 and 2019 before a long-run level of 2.8 percent is reached. That is unchanged from the last round of forecasts in September. “Economic activity has been rising at a solid rate ... job gains have been solid,” the Fed’s policy-setting committee said in a statement announcing the federal funds rate had been lifted to a target range of 1.25 percent to 1.50 percent. U.S. stocks extended their gains after the release of the policy statement, while Treasury yields dropped to session lows. Fed Chair Janet Yellen is due to hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET (1930 GMT). INFLATION CONCERNS Fed officials acknowledged in their latest forecasts that the economy had gained steam in 2017 by raising their economic growth forecasts and lowering the expected unemployment rate for the coming years. FILE PHOTO - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen testifies on the U.S. economic outlook, before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Gross domestic product is expected to grow 2.5 percent in 2018, up from the 2.1 percent forecast in September, while the unemployment rate is seen falling to 3.9 percent next year, compared to 4.1 percent in the last set of projections. But inflation is projected to remain shy of the Fed’s 2 percent goal for another year, with weakness on that front remaining enough of a concern that policymakers saw no reason to accelerate the expected pace of rate increases. That means that the Trump administration’s tax overhaul, if passed by Congress, would take effect without the central bank having flagged any likely response in the form of higher rates or concerns of a jump in inflation. “It shows at least some members of the Fed don’t see any reason to keep hiking rates in an environment where the economy is growing more strongly but certainly not overheating and where inflation hasn’t become a problem and doesn’t look like it is going to be one,” said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones. Policymakers do see the federal funds rate rising to 3.1 percent in 2020, slightly above the 2.8 percent “neutral” rate they expect to maintain in the long run. That indicates possible concerns about a rise in inflation pressures over time. As it stands, inflation is expected to remain below the Fed’s target in the near term and is being monitored “closely” by policymakers. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari dissented in the policy statement on Wednesday. The Fed also said that, as of January, it would raise the amount of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities that it would not reinvest on a monthly basis to $12 billion and $8 billion, respectively. That is consistent with its balance sheet reduction plan. Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by David Chance and Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed/with-rate-hike-in-the-bag-fed-may-hint-at-trump-effect-on-economy-idUKKBN1E70IX'|'2017-12-13T08:02:00.000+02:00'
'e100a740f075c2b570c04b3f59f18b24aa0789c2'|'All transit lines at Austrian gas hub back online - Gas Connect Austria'|'December 13, 2017 / 6:42 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Gas supply from Austrian gas hub back to normal after deadly blast Kirsti Knolle 3 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - The supply of gas to neighbouring countries from Austria’s main pipeline hub was back to normal on Wednesday after a deadly explosion shut it down. A column of fire is seen after an explosion ripped through Austria''s main gas pipeline hub in Baumgarten, Austria December 12, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media. TOMAS HULIK/via REUTERS The Baumgarten site in eastern Austria is a major regional transfer node, taking gas from as far away as Russia and pumping it towards neighbours including Italy - its biggest recipient - as well as Germany, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. “We are back in normal operation,” a spokesman for Gas Connect Austria, a subsidiary of energy group OMV, said the day after Tuesday’s explosion. All transit systems in all directions were well functioning. Russia separately pointed to the accident as underlining the need for its own Gazprom gas projects to proceed. The amount of damage was not clear yet, and the Gas Austria Connect spokesman said he did not know to what claims against it, if any, would be made against his company. Tuesday’s explosion, in which one person was killed and 21 were injured, led Italy to declare a state of emergency as flows from the site were cut off for most of the day. Italian gas grid operator Snam said flows from Russia resumed on Tuesday night. News of the blast sent gas prices in Europe soaring on fears it would restrict supply as winter sets in, as one third of Russian natural gas is transported via the transport hub, according to Gas Connect. In response to the outage, the Kremlin pushed its Gazprom plans. “Of course this accident shows how important sustainable supplies of natural gas and energy resources (are) to Europe and how acute is the issue of sustainability of the whole (energy) system functioning,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular conference call. The Russian energy group, which redirected its gas flows on Tuesday after the incident in Austria, plans to build a new pipeline to pump natural gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea, bypassing existing land routes over Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. European Union executives see Russia’s plan as undercutting EU efforts to reduce dependence on Moscow. Russian gas transit through Ukraine dropped 23 percent to 200 million cubic metres per day after the explosion, Maksim Belyavsky, aide to Ukraine’s energy minister, told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that Ukraine was now ready to ramp up pumping to levels seen before the blast. The cause of the explosion could have been a technical fault of the filter system, the Gas Connect Austria spokesman said. Work was carried out on the filter system on Monday, and staff from the licensing authority TUV Austria was on site for a technical certification at the time of the blast, he said. He was informed that the person killed was a TUV employee. TUV Austria was not immediately available for comment. Two independent probes, one internal by Gas Connect and one by Lower Austria’s criminal police, were being conducted. Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes in MILAN, Pavel Polityuk in KIEV, Dmitry Solovyov in MOSCOW; Editing by Ludwig Burger/Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-austria-blast/all-transit-lines-at-austrian-gas-hub-back-online-gas-connect-austria-idUKKBN1E70L6'|'2017-12-13T08:42:00.000+02:00'
'8b4327f1c4f20491b167552532b3f248ca51d25d'|'Deutsche Boerse weighs offering bitcoin future'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:48 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago Deutsche Boerse weighs offering bitcoin future Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse ( DB1Gn.DE ) is considering the launch of a bitcoin future on its Eurex derivative exchange, a spokesman said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins placed on Dollar banknotes, next to computer keyboard, are seen in this illustration picture, November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo It will take “some time” before a final decision is made, he said. The development was first reported by German weekly WirtschaftsWoche. Futures of the best-known cryptocurrency made their world debut on a U.S. stock exchange earlier this week. Germany is carefully monitoring the impact of cryptocurrencies on markets, a finance ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. Reporting by Andreas Framke; Writing by Tom Sims, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-deutsche-boerse/deutsche-boerse-weighs-offering-bitcoin-future-idUKKBN1E720G'|'2017-12-13T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'da83f18efe19c8916f75ad60e7a0db0fe9f84a65'|'TUI says Turkey picking up, takes hit from Air Berlin insolvency'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:14 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Travel firm TUI puts plans in place to avoid Brexit disruption Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - European tourism group TUI is putting contingency plans in place for Britain’s exit from the European Union, it said on Wednesday, aiming to address potential problem areas such as flying rights, visa requirements and changes in demand. The TUI logo is displayed on a computer screen in London, Britain, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay “Whilst we are not able to control the outcome of these (Brexit) negotiations, we are putting contingency plans in place in order to manage potential disruption to our operations,” it said. CEO Fritz Joussen said if certain destinations became more expensive for Britons due to a fall in sterling then demand could shift to cheaper countries, and the group had already increased hotel space in places such as Bulgaria and Croatia. He said UK customers typically spent around 1,000 pounds on their holidays and TUI had seen a slight weakening of demand for long-haul destinations. It is not yet clear what flying rights will apply to carriers once Britain leaves the bloc, though airlines have said they need clarity by October next year at the latest. TUI urged negotiators to come up with a “workable solution” for airlines, including extending current agreements until such a solution is agreed. Joussen said, though, that TUI did not need to follow the example of easyJet, which has received an Austrian licence to protect intra-EU flying, because it already had five operating licences. The comments came after TUI reported a 12 percent rise in underlying profit for its 2017 financial year and said winter trading was in line with expectations, with Turkey picking up. Its shares were up 1.3 percent in early deals, among the top FTSE risers. TUI said, however, that it took a 15 million euro (13.2 million pounds) hit from the insolvency of Air Berlin, previously Germany’s second largest carrier, due to the need to renegotiate a lease agreement it had with the airline. Seven of the planes that used to fly for Air Berlin are now flying for Lufthansa and its Eurowings unit and Joussen said this would not change even if the EU blocked Lufthansa’s plans to acquire parts of Air Berlin. TUI reported underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) up 12 percent at constant currency to 1.2 billion euros, having earlier predicted an increase of at least 10 percent. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Emma Thomasson and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tui-results/tui-says-turkey-picking-up-takes-hit-from-air-berlin-insolvency-idUKKBN1E70NA'|'2017-12-13T09:13:00.000+02:00'
'2dd2355df1141a278a036f77a7d8d1d2c333d8f7'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 15'|' 23 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 15 Reuters Staff 2   Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening down 13 points on Friday, according to financial bookmakers. * OLD MUTUAL: The chief of Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) Richard Buxton is nearing a 550 million pound buyout of the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. * BP: BP plans to invest $200 million in Europe''s largest solar power developer Lightsource, with a 43 percent stake buy, the Financial Times reported on Friday. on.ft.com/2BqfckN * MILLENNIUM & COPTHORNE HOTELS: A group of minority investors in Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has rejected a takeover offer from the company''s majority shareholder and called on other investors to follow suit to defeat the bid, which values the business at 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion). * GOLD: Gold prices edged higher in Asian trade on Friday, heading for their first weekly gain in four, as the dollar sagged on concerns about the progress of U.S. tax reform. * The UK blue chip index closed 0.46 percent lower at 7,462 points on Thursday, weighed down by losses among financial stocks, while miner Lonmin soared after a rescue takeover bid. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Thruvision Group Half Year 2018 Earnings Sthree Full Year 2017 Trading Update TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Justin George Varghese)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-15-idUSL4N1OF27O'|'2017-12-15T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'f8c18f679e76a53670942b51d6d7a7fd52ddef7f'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Dec 15'|' 18 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Dec 15 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 15 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Ontario''s securities watchdog is looking to mirror a U.S. ban against Miles Nadal, former CEO of MDC Partners Inc . tgam.ca/2yvLk0J ** Asian demand for U.S. iron ore is driving up freight volumes on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Overall cargo tonnage, including mining products and grain, rose by 8.5 percent to 33 million tonnes on the water route as of the end of November, from the same period a year ago, the Chamber of Marine Commerce said on Thursday. tgam.ca/2ywk1n1 ** Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is creating a renewable-energy and power group, jump-starting its investment strategy with a deal for Brazilian wind assets. tgam.ca/2ywm7n2 NATIONAL POST ** Saddled with large debts, Cenovus Energy Inc announced a cost-cutting budget Thursday that will eliminate 500 to 700 jobs and a reshuffling of its management team as the company tries to deleverage. bit.ly/2ywG50M ** Boeing Co was dealt another major blow this week as Delta Air Lines confirmed Thursday it will order 100 jets from its aerospace rival, Airbus SE a deal valued at around $12.7 billion. bit.ly/2ywIhp2 ** More than two years into its five-year turnaround plan, Bombardier Inc''s Chief Executive, Alain Bellemare said the company is on track to achieve its goals by 2020 as it focuses on the profitability of its transportation and business jet units while preparing to give Airbus SE the reins to the CSeries program. bit.ly/2ywPVQx (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-dec-15-idUSL4N1OF3H3'|'2017-12-15T13:16:00.000+02:00'
'24a4c3a4ff97f09f5a5689d894a8cce69434a6a4'|'EU court rejects U.S. intervention in Apple''s Irish $15 billion tax case'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:33 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago EU court rejects U.S. intervention in Apple''s Irish $15 billion tax case Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe’s second-highest court has rejected a request from the U.S. government to intervene in Apple’s challenge against an EU order to pay back taxes of up to 13 billion euros ($15.3 billion) because it failed to prove a direct interest in the outcome of the case. Apple, maker of the iPhone, appealed to the Luxembourg-based General Court a year ago after the European Commission ruled that its “sweetheart” tax deal with Ireland was an illegal subsidy in breach of EU rules against unfair competition. The then Obama administration had criticized the EU decision, saying the EU was helping itself to cash that should have ended up in the United States. The U.S. intervention was filed in April, a move to which the Commission objected. The court said it was unconvinced by the U.S. arguments regarding the alleged negative effects of the EU decision on its tax revenues, the bilateral tax deals with EU countries and its efforts to develop rules on transfer pricing in line with OECD rules. “The United States of America has failed to establish the existence of a direct interest in the result of the case,” judges ruled on Friday. The court also rejected a bid by IBEC Company Limited by Guarantee, a representative body for national and multinational companies operating in Ireland, to intervene in support of Apple and Ireland. It said IBEC had failed to show that its members’ interests would be affected by the result of the case. The case is T-892/16 Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe v Commission. ($1 = 0.8491 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-apple-usa-taxavoidance/eu-court-rejects-u-s-intervention-in-apples-irish-15-billion-tax-case-idUSKBN1E926G'|'2017-12-15T18:32:00.000+02:00'
'892893ae075b268b9a3b0d6e2765497902652e3f'|'Malaysia''s AirAsia says leasing unit deal should be finalised by March'|'KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia’s AirAsia Bhd ( AIRA.KL ) hopes to reach a deal on the sale of its aircraft leasing unit by March, its group chief executive said on Wednesday, as the budget carrier seeks funds to return to shareholders.FILE PHOTO: An AirAsia logo is pictured at the ticketing counter at Changi Airport in Singapore December 29, 2014. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo Tony Fernandes, who built AirAsia into the region’s biggest budget airline from a two-plane operation a decade ago, has been looking to sell stakes in non-flying businesses to pay special dividends.Talks have been underway for more than a year to sell a stake in the leasing unit, in a deal sources have valued at around $900 million. Fernandes has said he would prefer AirAsia to keep a stake in the business rather than sell it entirely.“Can’t give you date, but it’s moving very well,” Fernandes said at a news conference, saying it should be announced by the time the airline reports its fourth-quarter results, usually at the end of February. “I am very optimistic.”In October, Fernandes said the leasing unit was likely to be sold by the end of December.The budget carrier has also been looking for ways to boost revenue.Fernandes, AirAsia’s co-founder, last month said the airline was testing personalized baggage pricing and launching a travel money card, targeting a 22 percent rise in revenue per passenger from add-ons by the end of 2018.On Wednesday, he appointed Riad Asmat as chief executive of the airline’s Malaysia-based operations, as part of a series of management changes. Riad will assume the post on Jan. 10.Aireen Omar, currently chief executive of AirAsia Bhd, will become deputy group chief executive for digital transformation and corporate services, the airline said.Fernandes also said AirAsia will add 30 aircraft next year across the group, which includes offshoots in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, India and Japan.“That would be about a 13-14 percent capacity we are adding,” he said.The group plans to add 12 aircraft to its fleet through operating leases in the fourth quarter.AirAsia shares were up 1.3 percent in afternoon trade, versus a rise of 0.4 percent in the benchmark index .KLSE.(This story corrects paragraph 4 to clarify announcement expected by the time of Q4 result, not within this financial year.)Reporting by Liz Lee; Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Vyas Mohan and Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-airasia-deal/malaysias-airasia-says-leasing-unit-deal-should-be-finalised-by-march-idINKBN1E70S0'|'2017-12-13T05:08:00.000+02:00'
'29035f92e56586dacd5a379542fa834bc7c16aeb'|'Diageo warns of Brexit cost if new deal restricts trade'|' 25 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Diageo warns of Brexit cost if new deal restricts trade Elisabeth O''Leary , Paul Sandle 3 Min Read EDINBURGH/LONDON (Reuters) - Diageo said Brexit could cost it tens of millions of pounds if Britain did not replicate the EU’s trade deals with other countries for Scotch whisky and keep an open border in Ireland, where it makes Guinness stout and Baileys liqueur. The museum room is seen at the Diageo Cardhu distillery in Scotland March 21, 2014. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne Dan Mobley, the drinks giant’s head of corporate relations, said losing the benefits of EU trade deals with so-called third countries such as South Korea, Colombia and South Africa would be unwelcome. Likewise, he said the introduction of border controls between Ireland and Northern Ireland would hinder its supply chain, and hurt its many small suppliers. The company currently treats the island of Ireland as one, although EU member Ireland is separated by a land border from Northern Ireland, a province of the United Kingdom and therefore set to leave the European Union. British Prime Minister Theresa May moved closer to unlocking stalled Brexit talks last week by offering Ireland and her allies in Northern Ireland a pledge to avoid any return of a hard border. Scotch whisky accounts for about a quarter of Diageo’s 12 billion pound annual turnover, while Scotch is Britain’s biggest food and drink export, worth around one fifth of the total. “For us to lose the benefits of (EU) trade deals would be unwelcome, but it would be manageable, it would be tens of millions of pounds lost, rather than hundreds of millions,” Mobley told a parliamentary scrutiny committee in London. Mobley said Diageo made Baileys using ingredients from both sides of the Irish border, taking for example 11 percent of Ireland’s cream output to make the drink. “We are moving about 18,000 trucks a year over that border, so even small hold-ups to process those truck movements would be really unwelcome, but the big problem would be for our suppliers,” he said. He said Diageo had advised the British and Irish governments about technical measures that could relieve pressures on any new controls, but retaining an open border was preferable. “We would much rather what was agreed last week, which is for an open border,” he said. “We are heartened that all sides say that’s what they want, but we need to now see the details.” Diageo is also pressing the British government to exert influence over India to bring down its 150 percent tariff on imported Scotch, which makes the premium spirit unaffordable except for the very wealthy, Mobley said. As regards trading opportunities, he said India, the world’s biggest whisky market, was the “holy grail”. “(But) we are realistic and we know trade agreements take a long time to negotiate,” he said. Diageo produces whisky in India, but Scotch can only be made in Scotland. ($1 = 0.7490 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-diageo/diageo-warns-of-brexit-cost-if-new-deal-restricts-trade-idUKKBN1E71WQ'|'2017-12-13T16:25:00.000+02:00'
'27c60dd099958c476a7dd926f070e4949a219ec8'|'Oil recovers on big U.S. crude stock drawdown'|' 00 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Oil recovers on big U.S. crude stock drawdown Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Wednesday as industry data showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles. A driver looks at the price as he fills the tank of his car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Brent crude was up 50 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $63.84 a barrel by 0152 GMT. It had settled down $1.35, or 2.1 percent, at $63.34 on Tuesday on a wave of profit-taking after news of a key North Sea pipeline shutdown helped send the global benchmark above $65 for the first time since mid-2015. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 36 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $57.50 a barrel, having earlier settled down 85 cents at $57.14. After settlement on Tuesday, industry group the American Petroleum Institute said crude stocks in the United States fell by 7.4 million barrels last week. That is almost twice the decline of analysts’ expectations for a decline of 3.8 million barrels. Gasoline stocks rose by 2.3 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.5 million-barrel gain. Distillate fuels stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.5 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 902,000-barrel gain, the API data showed. The U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration releases its weekly oil report later on Wednesday. Selling had gained pace on Tuesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its monthly short-term energy outlook that U.S. crude oil output will rise by 780,000 barrels per day (bpd) to a record-high of 10.02 million bpd in 2018. But some analysts said that despite the projected rise in U.S. production, oil prices are likely to see further upward momentum given planned output curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and a rise in global oil demand. Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-recovers-on-big-u-s-crude-stock-drawdown-idUKKBN1E7067'|'2017-12-13T03:59:00.000+02:00'
'f8f4bf601f2f62cb311031566d7cc4b4e334fe34'|'Big firms call on EU to set 35 percent renewable power supplies target'|' 17 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Big firms call on EU to set 35 percent renewable power supplies target Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A group of big technology, industry and power companies have called on the European Union to set a target for renewables of at least 35 percent when EU energy ministers meet next week. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France on February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo The energy-hungry firms, including Amazon, Facebook, Google <Google LLC>, IKEA, Microsoft, Philips and Unilever, say an ambitious target would encourage their investment in multi-year wind and solar power supply contracts, known as Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). In a letter, the 50 big firms called on EU energy ministers to lift all regulatory barriers to PPAs, to which firms are increasingly turning to source electricity needed for energy-intensive data centers or to run heavy machinery. The target now being discussed by EU nations is for the bloc to source at least 27 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030 - up from the 20 percent goal for green energy by 2020. The European Parliament has called for a higher target. The final law will result from negotiations between the two bodies. “The post 2020 Renewable Energy Directive has a key role to play to unlock the potential of corporate renewable PPAs, which remains largely untapped in Europe,” the firms said. “A strong investment signal is key to further positioning industries with large investment potential in supporting Europe’s clean energy goals.” As EU governments cut back on subsidies for wind power, many developers say they are turning to PPAs as a new source of revenue to get projects financed. The letter highlights that in the last two months alone, more than a gigawatt of renewable energy capacity, mostly from wind turbines, was contracted through corporate renewable PPAs. The new EU renewable targets are part of a set of proposals to implement the bloc’s climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-electricity-renewables-ppas/big-firms-call-on-eu-to-set-35-percent-renewable-power-supplies-target-idUKKBN1E71IL'|'2017-12-13T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'76cf89bacb6fdc8c96f02c30590879486c6dba81'|'Sports Direct reveals falling sales and profits as slump in pound bites - Business'|'Sports Direct has revealed falling sales at its core UK stores and a dive in profits partly caused by the slump in the value of the pound.Sales at the Sports Direct , USC and Heatons chains fell 1% to £1.14bn in the six months to 29 October, as the company said it had cut online promotions and closed stores as part of its attempts to improve the look and feel of its stores.Overall revenues for the group, which owns stores in the US and Europe as well as the Flannels fashion chain, rose 4.7%, partly thanks to acquisitions and overseas growth. But profits dived 67.3% to £45.8m in the half year as margins came under pressure from the fall in the value of the pound against the dollar, in which Sports Direct buys much of its stock.Sports Direct shareholders block £11m payout to Mike Ashley''s brother Read more Tony Shiret, an analyst at Whitman Howard, said in a note that changes to Sports Direct’s structure made it difficult to assess performance but he believed sales at the core chain’s established stores and website were both down.Mike Ashley , chief executive and the majority shareholder of Sports Direct, said underlying profit before tax remained healthy and the company was investing for the long-term.“Our high street elevation strategy is currently delivering spectacular trading performance within our flagship stores. We intend to open between 10 and 20 new flagship stores next year,” he said.Shares in Sports Direct closed down just over 2% as analysts were surprised by a big rise in net debt to £471m, from £182m a year before, and raised concerns about lack of transparency, corporate governance and investments in potentially distracting “strategic stakes” in companies such as Debenhams.Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Sports Direct’s corporate governance practices continue to attract headlines for all the wrong reasons, with independent shareholders rejecting an £11m payment to Mike Ashley’s brother on Wednesday .“Unfortunately the lack of transparency also stretches to the ‘Selfridges of Sport’ initiative. Mike Ashley has described trading at the new format stores as ‘spectacular’, but it’s difficult to see evidence of that in the numbers. Improved profits are being driven by cost cuts rather than sales growth.”Topics Sports Direct International Retail industry Mike Ashley Sterling Currencies news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/14/sports-direct-reveals-falling-sales-profits-pound-slump-bites'|'2017-12-15T02:50:00.000+02:00'
'c0cf7288f3ce5900e7d21d742a5329032ac0e9d8'|'Japan, UK eye post-Brexit mutual recognition of trade standards'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:49 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Japan, UK eye post-Brexit mutual recognition of trade standards Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Japan and Britain said on Thursday they hoped to achieve a swift deal on mutual recognition of each other’s standards for goods and services when Britain leaves the European Union. Britain''s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, Japan''s Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera hold a joint press conference at the National Maritime Museum in London, Britain December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said he wanted agreements on mutual recognition of standards and an agreement on judicial support between Britain and Japan after Brexit. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, speaking alongside Kono, said: “Of course it is exactly right that we need to protract the economic partnership agreement between the EU and Japan and make it specific to the UK.” “But we believe in terms of mutual recognition, as Taro has just said, we believe that can be readily and speedily accomplished,” Johnson said. Reporting by William James; editing by Guy Faulconbridge'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-japan-trade/japan-uk-eye-post-brexit-mutual-recognition-of-trade-standards-idUKKBN1E82C1'|'2017-12-14T17:36:00.000+02:00'
'6863bc3a93c1cf5ba580431a7847a99ebd8de839'|'Behind bitcoin boom, Japanese retail investors pile in'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s army of retail investors, no strangers to high risk bets in the past, have emerged as a major force in bitcoin’s spectacular rally, now accounting for an estimated 30-50 percent of trading in the cryptocurrency as it spikes to record highs.Yoshinori Kobayashi, bitcoin trader, poses with his mobile phone after an interview with Reuters at his office in Tokyo, Japan December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Once sceptics, Japanese retail investors have been attracted by the digital currency’s volatility and inefficiencies in pricing that create opportunities to make money on arbitrage between exchanges.“When I first heard about the bitcoin a few years ago, I thought it was a fraud,” said Yoshinori Kobayashi, 39, a former stock trader who took up bitcoin trading two-and-a-half years ago.“But I tried it out after I had come to know some people making money on it. I bought it at 60,000 yen, which quickly become 80,000 yen and I started to regret I hadn’t started earlier,” said Kobayashi, who believes bitcoin is on a long uptrend but took some profits last week.The spectacular surge in bitcoin, up more than 16-fold this year to above $17,000, has drawn comparisons to the 1970s gold spike or Japanese shares’ rally in the 1980s’ go-go era. Both of those delivered massive gains to Japanese retail investors before plunging sharply.Statistics on bitcoin and crypto-currencies are patchy because their trading is unregulated in most countries.According to data compiled by Jpbitcoin.com, a Japanese bitcoin website, yen-based bitcoin trades reached a record 4.51 million bitcoins in November, almost a half of the total of the world’s major exchanges of 9.29 million bitcoin.Industry officials say not all yen-based bitcoin trading is done by Japanese retail players as some hedge funds now trade bitcoin in the yen to take advantage of price differentials between the yen and dollar prices.Still, many industry officials estimate Japanese account for somewhere between a third and half of global bitcoin trade.Japan’s global share of the bitcoin market jumped after a clampdown this year by Beijing saw bitcoin trading in yuan almost entirely disappear.South Korea, another key centre for bitcoin trade, said it would hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the trading of cryptocurrencies amid calls for tighter regulation.VALIDITY AND VOLATILITY Japan’s approach to bitcoin has encouraged retail investor interest.The Japanese government in April granted cryptocurrencies legal status as a means of settlement and in September officially recognised 11 digital currencies exchanges.Also in September, the tax agency issued clarification that revenues from bitcoin will be treated as income, from which trading losses can be deducted.That eased concerns that profits from bitcoin might be taxed like gambling, where gains will be taxed but losses will not be regarded as costs.Yoshinori Kobayashi, bitcoin trader, demonstrates a bitcoin application on his mobile phone during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Some investors including Kobayashi also feel affinity to bitcoin partly because its inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, is said to be Japanese, though the true identity of the father of the blockchain technology is shrouded in mystery.Trading at Japanese major bitcoin exchanges grew to 4.51 million bitcoin in November from 1.19 million in April. In dollar terms, it has surged to $35.4 billion in November from $1.45 billion in April.A lack of major institutional investors is providing retail investors a rare chance to become dominant players, with primitive pricing leaving opportunities for savvy traders, market participants say.Even within dollar based exchanges, it is not uncommon to see a price in one exchange 10 percent higher than another exchange, for example. Then there are often gaps of more than 10 percent between yen-based bitcoin price and dollar-based price.“Most Japanese traders don’t even bother to check the dollar price,” said a veteran financial trader, who started bitcoin in September.TEXTBOOK CASESlideshow (4 Images) The trader also said bitcoin’s moves after it rose above 100,000 yen ($880) are very similar to what happened in a big rally in gold and silver in the past.“They both rallied very quickly after having broken out many years of range-bound trading,” he said.Indeed, many traders say technical analysis works remarkably well when it comes to bitcoin. Hiroyuki Kato has traded cryptocurrencies for two years, spending two to three hours a day studying the patterns and ratios popular in technical analysis on his smartphone or computer terminal.“I use Bollinger Band, MACD, the stuff everyone knows. It’s easier to win in bitcoin than in FX and stocks,” said Kato, who quit his sales job at a trading firm about two years ago to focus on trading cryptocurrencies and other assets.Among some financial professionals, there is growing talk that the meteoric rise in bitcoin resembles the “tulip mania” bubble in the Netherlands in the 17th century that burst spectacularly. However, many Japanese traders expect bitcoin’s stellar run to continue for some time yet.“The world’s total financial assets is around 10 quadrillion yen, and bitcoin is only just about 0.1 percent of that, which seems way too small if we assume the use of bitcoin spreads,” Kobayashi said.Bitcoin’s net worth could reach about 10 percent of the world’s assets, about 100 times its size today, Kobayashi reckons.Kato believes the digital currency is already in a bubble but still expects the start of futures trading on the Chicago Merchantile Exchange next week to attract more funds from institutional investors and push up bitcoin prices further.A major burst could happen in 2019, Kato says, but not until factors including low interest rates and the deep doubts harboured by many change.“At the moment, many people are still sceptical about bitcoins and when many are sceptical, there won’t be a burst of the bubble.”($1 = 113.4700 yen)Reporting by Hideyuki Sano, Yoshiyuki Osada and Daiki Iga; Editing by Lincoln Feast '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-bitcoin-japan/behind-bitcoin-boom-japanese-retail-investors-pile-in-idINKBN1E70IJ'|'2017-12-13T03:08:00.000+02:00'
'29347a3ded4e1ba5b9dda44c0dc243d3bfe730a6'|'Seadrill confirms receiving rival bids for its debt restructuring'|'OSLO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Drilling rig firm Seadrill confirmed on Wednesday it had received two rival bids for its debt restructuring from unsecured bondholders.The company, which filed for Chapter 11 restructuring in a U.S. court on Sept. 12, has sought alternative proposals for the plan put forward by its main owner, Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen and a group of hedge funds.“We have received two alternative bids from unsecured bondholders ... We are evaluating these bids and are in active dialogue with the bidders,” the company said in an emailed statement.“Generally, the bids seek to replace some or all of the existing Restructuring Support Agreement (RSA) new money providers, while replicating the broad construct of the existing Plan,” it added.Fredriksen and a group of hedge funds have proposed to invest $1.06 billion via new equity and secured debt to restructure indebted Seadrill, once the largest drilling rig operator by market value.Seadrill declined to provide more details on the bids or the bidders, but said its evaluation was pending “the receipt of a satisfactory deposit from bidders”.Seadrill said it expected the court to hold a hearing on the official restructuring plan on Jan. 10.Reuters reported on Tuesday that Seadrill received one binding proposal from a group of bondholders, including about 40 investors from the United States, Europe and Asia.Kris Hansen, a lawyer for Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, who represents the group, has previously said the unsecured bondholders felt they would recover too little compared to Fredriksen and a group of funds supporting him.Under the official plan, holders of Seadrill’s $2.3 billion of unsecured bonds would receive 14.3 percent of the stock in the reorganised firm, while existing shareholders will get only 1.9 percent.The official committee of unsecured creditors, appointed by the U.S. government bankruptcy watchdog, is seeking to interview Fredriksen under oath on Jan. 25, the court’s filing showed. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by David Evans) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/seadrill-bankruptcy/seadrill-confirms-receiving-rival-bids-for-its-debt-restructuring-idINL8N1OD5OL'|'2017-12-13T15:19:00.000+02:00'
'41dc9cf2cdf9d0c7068114782c687c33d23cebc2'|'Carlsberg moves closer to Habeco deal in Vietnam'|'COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish brewer Carlsberg ( CARLb.CO ) has edged closer to reaching an agreement with the Vietnamese government to increase its stake in Habeco BHN.HM, one of Vietnam’s biggest brewers, which it hopes will speed up the process.FILE PHOTO: Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo Vietnam has one of the world’s most attractive beer markets and the biggest in Southeast Asia, buoyed by a young population that consumed nearly 4 billion liters last year. The government wants to fully divest its majority stake in Habeco and also in rival Sabeco SAB.HM.Carlsberg, which already owns 17.3 percent of shares in Habeco, has been discussing its priority purchase rights with the Vietnamese government for years.“Carlsberg, the Vietnamese government and Habeco have reached a common understanding on a number of issues during the negotiations, and we expect this will accelerate the process,” a Carlsberg spokesman said.Most recently, Carlsberg has acknowledged its long-term obligations in Vietnam with regards to Habeco and the oldest beer brand in Hanoi, he said without elaborating.The government said last month it expects a stake sale in Habeco to be completed in the first quarter of 2018.The government is pushing ahead with a privatization process against the backdrop of a rally in Vietnam’s broader equity market.Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-habeco-sale-carlsberg/carlsberg-moves-closer-to-habeco-deal-in-vietnam-idINKBN1E70PS'|'2017-12-13T04:53:00.000+02:00'
'987cee1765f13a34ecb39cd6f7c61b71af7f6da5'|'Renault gears up for driverless cars by buying magazines'|'December 13, 2017 / 1:58 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Renault gears up for driverless cars by buying magazines Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French carmaker Renault has bought a stake in a glossy magazine publishing group, its first foray into media, as it prepares to keep travellers occupied in the era of driverless cars. A logo is seen on a Renault vehicle at a dealing centre Renault store in Minsk, Belarus June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko /Files Renault billed its move into media as the first among the world’s automobile manufacturers, who are carrying out advanced testing of self-driving cars in France and other countries. “This project is totally in line with Renault’s strategy, which aims to offer new, high-quality connected services and to improve the customer experience,” Renault chairman Carlos Ghosn said in a statement on Wednesday. Renault, which is conducting trials of semi-autonomous cars and plans to put totally self-driving vehicles on the road as soon as 2021, says entertainment will become a bigger chunk of business as drivers switch from speedometers and steering wheels to pastimes such as in-car entertainment and dining. “When going from place to place – whether alone or with family or friends – we listen, look, and pay attention (to) the world around us,” Ghosn said. “This is already true of travel in today’s cars, and will be even more true in the autonomous, and driverless car of tomorrow,” he added. Renault did not disclose how much it is paying for the 40 percent stake in the group which produces five publications including Challenges, an equivalent of the Fortune business magazine, as well as Historia and Sciences & Avenir. “This project will enable millions of drivers and their passengers to have completely free access to a choice of high-quality information and content,” Renault said. Reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Laurence Frost; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Alexander Smith'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/renault-press/renault-gears-up-for-driverless-cars-by-buying-magazines-idINKBN1E71ST'|'2017-12-13T15:58:00.000+02:00'
'aadf8619cc37229c18d902edfe080c803ad798c3'|'Electric vehicle battery prices to steady by 2020-Hyundai Motor'|' 01 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Electric vehicle battery prices to steady by 2020-Hyundai Motor Reuters Staff * Mineral supply constraints to slow battery price fall - Lee * Hyundai plans to have 38 green models by 2025 - Lee * Sth Korean company seen lagging rivals in electric vehicles By Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co believes electric vehicle battery prices will level off by 2020 due to supply constraints of key ingredients, ending years of sharp declines that have helped stimulate activity in the booming sector. Despite its cautious outlook, the South Korean carmaker and smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp planned to release 38 green models using a variety of technologies by 2025, Hyundai Motor Senior Vice-President Lee Ki-sang said. “Not a single ingredient is going in a positive direction in terms of pricing,” Lee, who oversees Hyundai’s green car operations, said in remarks to reporters last week that were embargoed until Wednesday. “So far battery prices have been declining at a rapid pace, but the pace will moderate significantly or maintain the status quo by 2020.” While rivals have announced ambitious plans for electric vehicles, some analysts say Hyundai has been late to the game. It plans to launch a long-range electric vehicle next year, well behind the likes of General Motors Co and Tesla Inc . Demand for minerals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium used in electric car batteries is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models. Batteries are the most expensive part of electric vehicles, and their affordability is key to the take-up of the technology. Lithium-ion battery cell prices fell about 60 percent in the five years to 2016 as larger-scale production made them cheaper to make. In September, Reuters reported that Volkswagen was moving to secure long-term supplies of cobalt for the group’s electric vehicle plans, but its talks with cobalt producers in November ended without a supply deal. Lee said that although Hyundai Motor saw the need to develop batteries in-house, it still relied on outside suppliers due to a lack of economies of scale to secure raw materials. In aimed to release vehicles powered by solid-state lithium batteries by about 2020, promising greater range and safety than existing lithium-ion units. Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp also has announced a similar schedule for the development of solid-state battery-powered vehicles. In addition to hybrids and battery-powered vehicles, Hyundai was “coordinating” with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles over hydrogen cars propelled by electricity generated from fuel cells, Lee added. Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Saturday the two companies were in talks about a technical partnership in hydrogen and transmissions. “We are not at a stage where we can discuss it publicly,” Lee said. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Stephen Coates)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/hyundai-motor-batteries/electric-vehicle-battery-prices-to-steady-by-2020-hyundai-motor-idUSL3N1OC05Z'|'2017-12-13T01:00:00.000+02:00'
'59bf2fd87d8cff55e58f82f5aba2043f26e134fb'|'Japan''s SMBC Nikko poised to poach bankers in push for U.S. growth'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc’s ( 8316.T ) brokerage unit is ready to poach bankers to expand its U.S. investment banking arm and could even buy small firms if the right target comes up, its chief executive said.SMBC Nikko Securities'' President and CEO Yoshihiko Shimizu speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan December 5, 2017. Picture taken December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon SMBC Nikko, Japan’s third-biggest brokerage by assets, launched in New York last year a niche team focusing on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and debt capital markets in an effort to capitalize on Japanese companies expanding in the United States.“If targets come up for sale, we have the strength to buy them,” Yoshihiko Shimizu said in an interview. “But if we do buy something, it would be as much as a team (of bankers).”“If that one team is a company, we’ll buy the whole company. If there are 30 able people in a team of 100, I only want the 30 people,” he said.Japanese investment banks and brokerages are betting on the U.S. as domestic companies strive to escape a shrinking population and tepid growth at home by expanding in the world’s largest economy.SMBC Nikko’s rivals Nomura Holdings Inc ( 8604.T ) and Daiwa Securities Group Inc ( 8601.T ), Japan’s biggest and second-biggest brokerages respectively, have this year beefed up their U.S. investment banking coverage.SMBC Nikko Securities'' logo is pictured at its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan December 5, 2017. Picture taken December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Nomura is boosting its ranks of investment bankers in New York, including senior hires in the tech and finance sectors. Daiwa, looking to earn more money from advising mid-sized firms, bought two boutique M&A advisory firms in New York and Baltimore.Still, Shimizu said buying large securities firms could risk a loss of control - something that has hit Japanese brokerages before. Nomura’s 2008 acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ Asian and European businesses led to six straight years of overseas pretax losses totaling 385 billion yen ($3.40 billion).SMBC Nikko Securities'' President and CEO Yoshihiko Shimizu speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan December 5, 2017. Picture taken December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon SMBC Nikko’s New York team, comprising 10 senior bankers, focuses on sectors where the brokerage’s parent - No. 3 among Japan’s “megabanks” - has strong connections, including pharmaceuticals and raw materials.In the year to November, the parent was the top advisor by number of deals involving Japanese firms, but only fifth by deal volume, Thomson Reuters data showed. Last year it ranked second by commissions and 10th by deal volume.“Little by little, we’re seeing success.” said Shimizu, a 39-year veteran of Japan’s banking industry.SMBC Nikko will leverage its parent’s lending business as an “entrance ticket” to broaden opportunities in debt and equity financing and M&A advisory, Shimizu said, with the company looking to serve major Japanese firms.“You can’t make money by focusing only on blue-chips. But at the same time I don’t want to focus in America on small and medium-size firms,” he said.Reporting by Thomas Wilson and Takahiko Wada; Additional reporting by Taro Fuse; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-smfg-brokerage/japans-smbc-nikko-poised-to-poach-bankers-in-push-for-u-s-growth-idUSKBN1E51RV'|'2017-12-11T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'd35c9ef47774ad468e37e567a8d85307c97afdbd'|'Angelo, Gordon promotes top executives amid succession planning'|'BOSTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Investment firm Angelo, Gordon is promoting two senior executives to co-chief investment officers to work alongside the firm’s co-founder, Michael Gordon, as the firm prepares for an eventual generational change.Josh Baumgarten, the firm’s deputy chief investment officer, and Adam Schwartz, who heads the firm’s real estate group in the United States and Europe, will become co-chief investment officers on Jan. 1, Michael Gordon, wrote in a letter to the firm.Pointing to the men’s “substantial contributions,” Gordon, who currently holds the titles of chief executive officer and chief investment officer, wrote that the promotions are “a natural progression in their leadership.” Reuters saw a copy of the letter which was sent on Monday.Gordon co-founded the $28 billion firm with John Angelo 29 years ago and said he has no plans to retire anytime soon. But he has been taking steps ever since Angelo died in 2016 to ensure that the firm will someday survive without him.“The next generation of Angelo, Gordon leadership will build on our heritage of nearly 30 years of disciplined, research-driven investing for our clients and a steadfast focus on capital preservation,” the letter said.In September 2016, Gordon announced that the firm had created a management committee to run the business and said it would let senior employee partners buy out the founders’ controlling interests over the coming years.Baumgarten, who joined Angelo Gordon from private equity giant Blackstone Group in 2016, and Schwartz, who has been with the firm since 2000, were both named members of the new management committee in 2016.Succession planning has become a critical issue in the investment management industry where many of the country’s biggest hedge funds and private equity firms are still being run by founders who are edging closer to retirement age. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hedgefunds-angelogordon/angelo-gordon-promotes-top-executives-amid-succession-planning-idINL1N1OB1FI'|'2017-12-11T17:31:00.000+02:00'
'e3ea44f23828f9ab66e1db79c7ed860cfb286484'|'Siemens partners with Amazon as it ramps up industrial software platform'|'December 15, 2017 / 10:21 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Siemens partners with Amazon as it ramps up industrial software platform Georgina Prodhan 3 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - Siemens is partnering with Amazon as it accelerates the rollout of its MindSphere industrial software platform, the core of its bid to dominate the market in digital factory automation. Attendees at Amazon.com Inc annual cloud computing conference walk past the Amazon Web Services logo in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Salvador Rodriguez The German group’s next version of MindSphere, to be launched in January, will run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) - the most popular cloud system with industrial software developers. “Many customers appreciate it very much,” Siemens Chief Technology Officer Roland Busch told reporters and analysts at a company presentation in Munich on Friday. “You have to really scale up in order to justify your money.” So far, MindSphere has run on the SAP cloud, and from April it will also run on Microsoft’s Azure. MindSphere gathers data from devices, analyses the information and uses it to help customers optimize processes. Attracting a critical mass of developers to work on the platform is crucial to improving the quality of software applications. MindSphere is one of a number of so-called Internet-of-Things platforms being developed by industrial companies racing to help their manufacturing customers improve productivity, where growth has been slowing in developed countries. The technology was thrown into sharp focus in August by Emerson Electric’s failed $29 billion bid to buy Rockwell Automation. The area is still in its infancy, with companies pursuing different strategies, although Siemens is generally considered to be leading the pack, helped by more than $5 billion of acquisitions in the past two years and by arch-rival General Electric’s partial retreat as it narrows focus. Siemens said it was targeting 1.25 million connected devices and systems by the end of its fiscal year in September, up from 1 million currently, as it expands its offering - previously focused on autos and aerospace - to cover all sectors. It is increasing research and development spending to over 5.6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) this fiscal year from 5.2 billion last year, the lion’s share of which will go to its Digital Factory division. Siemens says it made 5.2 billion euros in digital revenues in the year to September. It has 23,000 in-house software developers, rivalling some of the world’s biggest pure-play software companies. General Electric is reducing investment in its Predix industrial software platform by about $400 million this coming year to $1.2 billion, and focusing solely on its own installed base of customers for the rollout. Under new Chief Executive John Flannery, GE as a whole is narrowing its focus and shedding businesses with around $20 billion in revenue. [LINK] GE aims to double Predix revenues to $1 billion in 2018. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-digital/siemens-partners-with-amazon-as-it-ramps-up-industrial-software-platform-idUKKBN1E90YY'|'2017-12-15T12:10:00.000+02:00'
'f77e589711f376b78fc70b54dc7dca6cdd872b35'|'Murdoch bets live sports and news will boost new, smaller Fox'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:31 PM / in 33 minutes Murdoch bets live sports and news will boost new, smaller Fox Jessica Toonkel 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch is banking on Americans’ love of live sports and breaking news for a new, slimmed down version of his Fox TV business after selling the company’s film studios and international operations to Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ). FILE PHOTO: Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox, reacts during a panel discussion at the B20 meeting of company CEOs in Sydney, July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Reed//File Photo The 86-year-old media mogul’s play is based on the fact that sports and news still attract viewers watching in real time - and the advertisers that want to reach them - even as more people watch their favourite shows on demand after they air or online, skipping commercials completely. “Are we retreating? Absolutely not,” Murdoch told investors on Thursday. “We are pivoting at a pivotal moment.” Disney’s $52.4 billion purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox’s ( FOXA.O ) film, television and international businesses, announced earlier on Thursday, leaves Fox with a smaller but more focused set of assets, based on Fox News Channel - the U.S. No. 1 news cable network - and its broadcasts of sports such as National Football League and Major League Baseball. Murdoch, who started in the news business 65 years ago when he inherited his father’s newspaper, is keen to adapt to new ways of reaching customers. The new Fox will keep the technology it has been working on and is developing an online streaming video service to boost online audiences for its programs, executives said. The new Fox will be about a third of the size of what it is now, with about $10 billion in annual revenue, company executives said. If investors value the new company with the same or a greater multiple as the current Fox, it would suggest a market value of at least $20 billion. Its smaller size may mean it has less leverage when negotiating with cable and satellite companies to carry its content or bidding for sports rights to air on its network. Nevertheless, Murdoch challenged investors to trust him, saying he faced similar doubts when he launched Fox News 21 years ago and Fox Sports 1 in 2013. “Content and news relevant to you will always be valuable,” Murdoch said. LESS IS MORE Fox’s reduced size was not an immediate concern for investors. Mario Gabelli, chief executive of GAMCO Investors Inc, which is a Fox shareholder, told Reuters he is not worried about the new Fox’s size given that competitors such as Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc ( SBGI.O ) are smaller. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s recent move to roll back regulations that prohibit owning a television station and newspaper in the same market means the new Fox could grow by buying a string of papers and stations, Gabelli said. Contrary to recent speculation, there are no plans to fold the new Fox into News Corp ( NWSA.O ), the news business including the Wall Street Journal that Murdoch split from Fox in 2013 and in which he still owns a large stake. “We haven’t thought about combining with News Corp and if we do it’s way, way into the future,” Murdoch said on Thursday. However, a smaller Fox may be at a disadvantage competing for sports rights from deep-pocketed digital rivals such as Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) and Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) as well as traditional competitors, said Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research. Fox’s deal to carry Major League Baseball’s games is up for renewal in 2021 and its deal with the NFL is up in 2023. Twenty-First Century Fox CEO James Murdoch said the new Fox still would have the required scale and will compete for sports rights. Murdoch is also banking on Fox News Channel continuing its success as the top-rated cable news network, despite the fact that the average age of a Fox News viewer is over 65, according to Nielsen. “For some advertisers Fox News is an important way to reach their customers,” said Barry Lowenthal, president of The Media Kitchen, a New York-based media buyer. “But the challenge for them is how do you bring in the younger consumers.” Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Anna Driver and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/fox-m-a-disney-strategy-analysis/murdoch-bets-live-sports-and-news-will-boost-new-smaller-fox-idINKBN1E8374'|'2017-12-15T00:27:00.000+02:00'
'0665586fac3be4f8e5efd198735cf2056ec2d760'|'Euro zone needs 19 healthy economies, not special budget - Dutch PM'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:16 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Euro zone needs 19 healthy economies, not special budget - Dutch PM Jan Strupczewski 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone does not need a special budget to help deal with crises, but rather 19 healthy national budgets that can withstand economic shocks, Dutch Prime Ministers Mark Rutte will tell his fellow European Union leaders on Friday. Netherlands'' Prime Minister Mark Rutte smiles as he arrives to attend the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a special euro zone budget of several hundred billion euros to pay for various joint projects, while the euro zone bailout fund has advocated setting up a fund of up to 200 billion euros ($236 billion) to soften crises that hit one or a handful of euro zone countries. A new, centralised pool of money for the euro zone is one of the key ideas for deeper euro zone integration that EU leaders are discussing with a view to take decisions in June 2018. “I am not in favour of one big European shock absorption fund but 19 smaller ones. These being the countries themselves and their ability to deal with crises individually,” Rutte told reporters in remarks he was set to repeat to EU leaders on Friday. Germany, like the Netherlands, believes no euro zone budget is needed. For budgets to be sound, the European Commission must better enforce existing EU budget rules, called the Stability and Growth Pact, which set limits on government borrowing. “Each time the Commission overlooks violations of that pact, which happens too often if you ask me, it makes us weaker instead of stronger,” Rutte said. He will also call for establishing a clear link between receiving EU funds by governments and their implementation of reforms suggested each year by the Commission. Before changing anything in the current euro zone set-up, leaders should focus on strengthening the banking sector. But he said that to introduce a proposed euro zone-wide deposit insurance scheme, banks had to reduce risks they take first. He said this included changing the risk weights of various government bonds that under current rules are all considered risk-free. “It’s a fact that not all government bonds are created equal. The associated risk needs to be reflected on balance sheets,” Rutte said. The Netherlands also wants, like Germany and Slovakia, to introduce a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism that would set out the rules for private investors’ losses in case government debt has to be restructured. Rutte will stress that responsibility for the euro was with national governments, rather than with EU institutions, putting himself in opposition to European Commission proposals aimed at turning euro zone government bodies like the Eurogroup of ministers and their bailout fund, into EU institutions. ($1 = 0.8475 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-summit-eurozone-netherlands/euro-zone-needs-19-healthy-economies-not-special-budget-dutch-pm-idUKKBN1E912Y'|'2017-12-15T14:15:00.000+02:00'
'e5ea7ca3bcd5a82651e2adf3360d494246aa6b16'|'Exclusive - Bankers may get notes to help push industry line on Brexit'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:34 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Exclusive - Bankers may get notes to help push industry line on Brexit Huw Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bankers may be given a cribsheet to help the industry push for close ties with the European Union following Brexit, according to a document drawn up for the organisation that promotes Britain as a financial centre. The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The document, reviewed by Reuters, points to growing concerns at the TheCityUK lobby group that its core messages on Brexit - that Britain must secure a transition deal and mutual market access with the EU or risk losing thousand of jobs - are getting muddied in the press and parliament. However, the proposal has also drawn fire from within the financial services sector that it could be seen as an attempt to stamp out alternative opinions. It could set a “dangerous precedent” by “crushing any kind of opposing view,” Helena Morrissey, head of personal investing at Legal & General Investment Management and a prominent figure in London’s City financial district, told Reuters. The document, drafted for a key TheCityUK working group on Brexit issues, refers to mounting concerns among members about the “prominence of ideas and proposals” that could undermine the financial sector’s “key messages and asks” on Brexit. There is an “opportunity to challenge ideas” that do not represent the mainstream industry view in private meetings. “A private document for TheCityUK members could be compiled, listing key ideas and themes that might have to be rebutted in such meetings,” the document said. Such a cribsheet could be used when speaking with lawmakers and journalists that have no specialism in finance, it said. Bankers have warned that London’s future as a top financial centre and tax source depends on maintaining close relations with the EU after Brexit. However, the UK government is indicating it may seek a trade deal similar to the one between Canada and the EU, which leaves out financial services. A person familiar with TheCityUK document said it was partly aimed at Barney Reynolds, a lawyer at Shearman & Sterling. In his “The Art of the No Deal” paper, Reynolds said a mutual recognition of rules between Britain and the EU was the best solution, but that there were alternatives that banks could consider if there is no deal. FILE PHOTO: The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Reynolds, who sits on TheCityUK’s advisory board, said he was not aware of what prompted the document. “As a regulatory lawyer I‘m focussed on helping clients understand what the law currently says and what is legally possible,” he told Reuters. CRITICAL TIME TheCityUK wants a clear message on Brexit at a critical time for banks as the government starts talks on future EU trading relations, a financial industry official said. Skyscrapers are seen in the the City of London financial district, Britain, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville “A lot of what Barney argues for is to say no deal is not such a bad outcome. It’s so kind of opposite. TheCityUK’s concern is that this dilutes the pragmatic message they are trying to get across,” the official said. In a statement, TheCityUK said it was “focused on ensuring the core Brexit priorities of the industry are widely understood and communicated – those being urgent transition, mutual market access based on mutual recognition and regulatory cooperation and mutual access to talent.” “Both the Chancellor (UK finance minister) and David Davis (Brexit minister) have acknowledged the importance of these priorities,” it added. Reynolds has said that by drawing on existing international laws and rights, the UK financial services sector could function successfully with minimal adjustments if there is no trade deal with the EU. “It’s law, you can rely on it. It’s used in Asia and the United States,” he told a meeting of think tank Politeia this month attended by prominent lawmakers who support Brexit. “Those who move operations will lose money, and customers will pay more. This is a fixable situation.” Clare Woodman, chief operating officer at Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Securities, has said Reynolds’ ideas have not been backed by EU authorities and were not practical with Brexit just over a year away. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks-exclusive/exclusive-bankers-may-get-notes-to-help-push-industry-line-on-brexit-idUKKBN1E91OY'|'2017-12-15T15:43:00.000+02:00'
'39ff452e8d2785641271201f778816c936f16f2d'|'Elliott seeks to remove CEO John Hess of Hess Corp: WSJ'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:23 PM / Updated 38 minutes ago Hedge fund Elliott prepares second challenge to Hess Corp Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Elliott Management Corp is readying for a new fight with Hess Corp ( HES.N ) to remedy what the activist hedge fund called on Thursday “continuing underperformance” by the U.S. oil and gas producer. FILE PHOTO - John Hess, CEO of the Hess Corporation, speaks during the IHS CERAWeek 2015 energy conference in Houston, Texas April 21, 2015. REUTERS/Daniel Kramer This would be the second time the New York-based investment firm, which owned 6.6 percent of Hess as of Sept. 30 according to Thomson Reuters data, has targeted the company. Elliott conducted an activist campaign against Hess in 2013 that led to a slew of asset sales and three Elliott-backed directors joining the board. “As long-term shareholders in Hess, we are frustrated by the company’s continuing underperformance,” John Pike, senior portfolio manager at Elliott, said in a statement. “Shareholders are getting impatient, because the changes needed to remedy Hess’s severe undervaluation are substantial and need to be announced without delay.” U.S. energy stocks have broadly underperformed other sectors this year, as oil prices initially failed to achieve their 2017 forecasts, dampening investor appetite. Crude has rallied around 40 percent since June; company share prices have been slower to recover. Hess, which has a market value of $13.6 billion, is down 31.5 percent year-to-date, according to Thomson Reuters data. “The Hess board unanimously and unequivocally supports the company’s current strategy and John Hess as CEO,” Hess said in a statement. It said Hess and the management team have done an “excellent job” in challenging times. “The company is well positioned to deliver industry-leading returns and value to shareholders for many years to come.” OPTIONS Elliott’s challenge could include unseating John Hess, who for more than two decades has run the company founded by his father in 1933, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. The newspaper, citing people familiar with the matter, said Elliott was also expected to call for the sale of all or part of the company, as well as a cut in the company’s dividend, with the capital instead used to repurchase Hess stock. One divestment that Elliott could push for would be Hess’ operations in Malaysia and Thailand. This tactic of reducing the number of places where an oil company drills to optimize its cash usage has been proffered by activist shareholders in other U.S. energy companies. This year, Hess has already sold its interests in Norway and offshore Equatorial Guinea, as part of an asset sale program that stemmed from Elliott’s 2013 activism campaign. This would leave Hess focused on two main areas: the Bakken shale field in North Dakota and offshore Guyana, where it is working with Exxon Mobil Corp ( XOM.N ) and Chinese oil firm CNOOC ( 0883.HK ) to develop part of the Liza oilfield. Hess is likely to argue that further divestments could impact its ability to generate enough cash to fund future Guyana scheme commitments: the first phase requires Hess put in $955 million out of the $4.4 billion total investment. The company’s current reserves of cash and short-term investments - worth $2.53 billion as of Sept. 30, according to Thomson Reuters data - are much higher than its peers. Apache Corp ( APA.N ) and Noble Energy Inc. ( NBL.N ), producers with overseas operations and with similar market capitalizations to Hess, had, respectively, $1.85 billion and $564 million at end-September, according to Thomson Reuters data. Reporting by David French and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Additional reporting by Karina Dsouza in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hess-corp-elliott/elliott-seeks-to-remove-ceo-john-hess-of-hess-corp-wsj-idUSKBN1E8372'|'2017-12-15T00:21:00.000+02:00'
'4a8fe615b3a01f3a9194080f881a1ce269515ce0'|'Uber investor departs venture firm amid harassment claims'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:41 PM / in 23 minutes Uber investor departs venture firm amid harassment claims Heather Somerville 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar, known for his early bet on Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL], said on Thursday that he would sever ties with his venture capital company, Sherpa Capital, after being accused of sexual misconduct. FILE PHOTO - Shervin Pishevar of Hyperloop One speaks during 2016 TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, California, U.S. September 14, 2016. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach Pishevar, who has denied the accusations, said in a statement provided by his lawyer that he was voluntarily leaving Sherpa Capital, which he co-founded, because of ongoing “untruthful attacks” against him. Bloomberg reported in November that five women accused Pishevar of exploiting a professional connection or the prospect of a job, mentorship or investment to make unwanted sexual advances. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the accusations. “I refuse to allow my enemies to drag my Sherpa family into their fight with me,” Pishevar said in the statement. “That is why I have decided on my own accord to end my association with Sherpa Capital, effective immediately.” In a statement, Sherpa Capital thanked Pishevar for his contributions to the firm and said it was “deeply committed to our culture of integrity, inclusion, and respect.” The firm previously said it had never received any sexual harassment complaint but was nevertheless launching an independent internal review to ensure its “practices and operations continue to reflect the highest professional and ethical standards.” Pishevar earlier this month took a leave of absence from Sherpa Capital to fight the allegations of sexual assault and harassment and focus on a defamation lawsuit he filed against political consulting firm Definers Public Affairs, which he has accused of orchestrating the accusations. Pishevar also stepped down from his board responsibilities at various startups, including Hyperloop One, the transportation company he co-founded. His announcement on Thursday made his departure from Sherpa Capital permanent. “I plan to focus now on the appropriate ongoing legal actions against those who are unjustly orchestrating the smear campaign against me,” Pishevar said. Pishevar in November sued Arlington, Virginia-based Definers Public Affairs and its founder, Matt Rhoades, and president, Joe Pounder. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that they orchestrated “a malicious smear campaign, apparently designed to incite false, defamatory, and highly damaging chatter and gossip about Mr. Pishevar.” Tim Miller, a partner at Definers Public Affairs, called Pishevar’s accusations “frivolous.” The firm countersued Pishevar, alleging that his lawsuit was designed “to intimidate women from coming forward,” Miller said. Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/people-shervinpishevar/uber-investor-departs-venture-firm-amid-harassment-claims-idINKBN1E8389'|'2017-12-15T00:39:00.000+02:00'
'f4474d494e5e0bbc1cd13254974e2b38ed49edc6'|'Guilty verdict for Russian ex-economy minister Ulyukayev ''groundless'' - Putin adviser'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:03 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Guilty verdict for Russian ex-economy minister Ulyukayev ''groundless'' - Putin adviser Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin, an adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that a court’s guilty verdict for ex-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev in a bribery case was groundless. Ulyukayev, who protests his innocence, was sentenced to 8 years in prison earlier on Friday after a court found him guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Igor Sechin, the CEO of oil giant Rosneft.. “It’s a terrible, groundless verdict,” Kudrin said on social media. “It’s weak work by the investigation... Many face such injustice these days.” (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-ulyukayev-verdict-kudrin/guilty-verdict-for-russian-ex-economy-minister-ulyukayev-groundless-putin-adviser-idUSR4N1OD01D'|'2017-12-15T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'd63dc4eb60d74591d05a6f8ea2e91f5b8e5f0c45'|'Steinhoff''s ex-chairman Wiese calls off $2.6 billion Shoprite deal'|'December 15, 2017 / 3:23 PM / Updated an hour ago Steinhoff''s ex-chairman Wiese calls off $2.6 billion Shoprite deal Tiisetso Motsoeneng 4 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African tycoon Christo Wiese on Friday called off plans to sell his stake in grocer Shoprite ( SHPJ.J ) to Steinhoff’s African arm ( SRRJ.J ), a day after he resigned from Steinhoff’s board in the midst of an accounting scandal. More than $10 billion has been wiped off retailer Steinhoff’s market value in the last two weeks following the disclosure of accounting irregularities and also its chief executive’s exit. Steinhoff, owner of more than 40 retail brands including Conforama, Mattress Firm and Poundland, in August revealed plans to buy a controlling stake in Shoprite through its African spinoff Steinhoff Africa Retail in a share deal worth 35.5 billion rand ($2.68 billion). Wiese, the largest shareholder in both companies at that time, had said that he wanted to do this deal to consolidate his holdings. But Steinhoff Africa Retail said on Friday the deal had been terminated. It did not give reasons for the decision. The decision to call off the sale follows Wiese’s decision to quit as chairman of Steinhoff to reinforce independent governance and address any possible conflict of interest. Steinhoff named Heather Sonn, a member of the supervisory board and its independent sub-committee, as acting chairperson. The crisis has tarnished Wiese’s credentials as one of South Africa’s most respected stewards of shareholder capital, stripped him of his billionaire status and reduced his 22.8 percent stake in Steinhoff to 20.5 percent. Banks have sold 98.4 million of the shares they used as security to lend Wiese 1.6 billion euros ($1.89 billion) to fund the purchase of additional shares in Steinhoff in September 2016. Steinhoff did not name the bank or banks that have exercised their security rights over the stock. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Nomura provided financing, which was backed by 628 million shares, or 15 percent of the company. Steinhoff, which moved its primary share listing from Johannesburg to Frankfurt two years ago, has been under investigation for suspected accounting fraud in Germany since 2015. Four current and former managers are under suspicion of having overstated revenues at subsidiaries, prosecutors said. It has previously said that the investigation related to whether revenues were booked properly, and whether taxable profits were correctly declared. Steinhoff’s shares fell a more than 8 percent on Friday in Johannesburg and Frankfurt. South Africa’s Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) said on Friday it was investigating Steinhoff’s auditor, Deloitte South Africa, for the audits of financial years ended 2014-2016. LIQUIDITY HOLE Steinhoffs Africa Retail said earlier on Friday it was preparing to repay $1.2 billion it owes to its parent, a move that would go a long way to plugging a $2.4 billion liquidity hole in the group. Steinhoff Africa Retail appointed FirstRand’s Rand Merchant Bank to arrange the refinancing of about 16 billion rand ($1.19 billion) in shareholder loans from the parent company. Steinhoff is working with turnaround specialist AlixPartners to help maintain its liquidity. The company said on Friday it reduced its 25.5 percent stake in local investment conglomerate PSG Group ( PSGJ.J ) to 16 percent, raising 4.7 billion rand. Reuters had reported on Tuesday that Steinhoff was also considering selling its stakes worth $1.4 billion in PSG Group and the KAP Industrial to fill the hole in its balance sheet. Steinhoff has also has also hired U.S investment bank Moelis & Co to help it prepare for a delayed meeting with lenders in London next week to discuss its financial health. Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng, additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Keith Weir and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-steinhoff-intlnl-results/steinhoffs-ex-chairman-wiese-calls-off-2-6-billion-shoprite-deal-idUSKBN1E91Z8'|'2017-12-15T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'13619ea1f9e67c38b821b6e7b64f8997a3ed8300'|'Ryanair to recognise unions in historic shift to stop strike'|'December 15, 2017 / 8:17 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Ryanair offers to recognise unions in historic shift to try to avert strikes Conor Humphries 5 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair offered on Friday to recognise pilot unions for the first time in its 32-year history in a last-minute attempt to avert its first-ever pilot strike. The move convinced Italy’s largest pilot union to suspend a four-hour strike planned for Friday afternoon, but it was unclear if other unions would call off strikes planned for next week in Ireland and Portugal. Investors also took fright at the potentially major change to the business model at Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, with Ryanair shares tumbling as much as 9 percent to 14.90 euros. With his offer, Chief Executive Michael O‘Leary is reversing a policy at the heart of the ultra low-cost model he developed to turn a small Irish regional airline into Europe’s biggest by passenger numbers. He was once quoted as saying he would rather cut off his own hand than recognise unions. “Recognising unions will be a significant change for Ryanair, but we have delivered radical change before,” O‘Leary said in a statement. “We hope and expect that these structures can and will be agreed with our pilots early in the new year.” The pilots mobilised after Ryanair in September announced the cancellation of around 20,000 flights, which it blamed on a lack of standby pilots due to a failure in its rostering following a rule change by Irish regulators. Pilot groups complain of a toxic work atmosphere and have said Ryanair is facing a major staffing shortage, but management has repeatedly denied this and says it offers some of the best pay and conditions in the sector. Management was quick to reassure investors there would be no major changes to Ryanair’s business model based on filling seats irrespective of how low the fare and that it might be easier to attract pilots once unions were recognised. But analysts said the move introduced significant uncertainty in terms of both staff costs and possible future disruption by emboldened employees. “It adds complexity, it adds uncertainty, and you can’t put a number on that,” said Mark Simpson at broker Goodbody. Investec, though, said it saw the share price move as a buying opportunity and that it would not shift its target price from 19 euros. FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane prepares to land at Manchester Airport in Manchester northern England, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo URGENT MEETINGS Ryanair sent a letter to unions in Ireland, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal at 0800 GMT on Friday to offer talks to formalise recognition and asking for confirmation that industrial action would not proceed. The move comes after Ryanair pilots in several countries threatened to strike in the busy run-up to Christmas. While Italian union ANPAC suspended a strike due to take place between 1400 and 1800 GMT on Friday, the FIT-CISL transport union, which represents a smaller number of Italian pilots and some cabin crew, said the planned four-hour strike on Friday would go ahead. A Ryanair commercial passenger jet is seen at Barcelona El-Prat Airport in Barcelona, Spain, October 10, 2017. Picture taken October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard It was not immediately clear if Ryanair’s concession would be enough to stop a 24-hour stoppage by pilots in Ireland and Portugal on Dec. 20. ANPAC and Irish union IALPA asked for urgent meetings with Ryanair, while British pilot union BALPA said it accepted the offer to start talks, describing the company’s change of heart as welcome. Other unions said they were considering their position. A Ryanair spokesman said “the sensible course of action” for both ANPAC and IALPA was to meet the airline on Wednesday, the day their strikes are due to take place, but to call off the threat of disruption before then. The spokesman added that if other pilot unions approached management about recognition, it would consider their request. The company will “wait and see what comes” before deciding about recognising unions in other parts of the company, Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson told Reuters. Wilson said, however, he did not expect management would deal with an unofficial pan-European pilot body, the European Employee Representative Council (EERC), that pilots have formed in recent months, describing it as “unworkable.” Management will, though, be open to talking to pilots about their demand to introduce local contracts rather than the Irish contracts used across Ryanair’s European bases. Wilson said there was no reason to think costs would increase as a result of the move, but declined to comment on how the events of recent months might impact profitability. Additional reporting by Stefano Bernabei, Victoria Bryan, Padraic Halpin and Steve Scherer; Editing by Jason Neely, Adrian Croft and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots/ryanair-to-recognise-unions-in-historic-shift-to-stop-strike-idUKKBN1E90PP'|'2017-12-15T10:20:00.000+02:00'
'4dd451369f9b1343b8ed0cd3ae88c746910dbd62'|'Oil prices rise on North Sea pipeline outage, but rising US output looms'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:26 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Oil prices rise on North Sea pipeline outage, but rising U.S. output looms Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices moved up on Friday, lifted by the Forties pipeline outage in the North Sea and ongoing OPEC-led production cuts, although rising output from the United States kept a lid on markets. FILE PHOTO - A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, U.S. April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.21 a barrel at 0651 GMT, up 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.46 a barrel, up 15 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their previous close. The ongoing outage of the Forties pipeline, which carries North Sea oil to Britain, was the main price driver, traders said. “Forties pipeline operator Ineos declared force majeure on crude deliveries following Tuesday’s discovery of leaks in the pipeline, indicating that repairs could take several weeks,” U.S. investment bank Jefferies said. While the pipeline outage physically mostly affects the North Sea region, it is of global relevance as the crude it supplies is part of the supply that underpins the Brent price benchmark. “If the duration of the outage is for several weeks it should put upward pressure on the Brent price,” Jefferies said. Beyond the North Sea supply disruption, traders said markets were generally supported by efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to withhold production to prop up prices. Goldman Sachs said that market conditions allowed the major oil companies, which it referred as Big Oil, to enter “a positive earnings-revision cycle” and that “this should allow Big Oil to re-employ capital at double-digit returns”. The U.S. bank said that the improved market conditions were a result of a higher Brent crude oil price outlook of an expected annual average of $62, $60, and $55 per barrel for 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively. The companies usually associated with ‘Big Oil’ are BP, Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total. Undermining OPEC’s efforts to tighten the market is U.S. oil production, which has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.78 million barrels per day (bpd), close to levels of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. Rising U.S. supply, driven largely by shale drilling, will likely move oil markets into a supply surplus in the first half of 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. “Total supply growth could exceed demand growth: indeed, in the first half the surplus could be 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) before reverting to a deficit of about 200,000 bpd in the second half, leaving 2018 as a whole showing a closely balanced market,” the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly oil market report. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-stable-on-tighter-market-but-rising-us-output-looms-for-2018-idINKBN1E904D'|'2017-12-15T09:05:00.000+02:00'
'8727d14f045a07a3416bd62af8505be53237137f'|'Fed''s rosy economic scenario leaves inflation puzzle for Powell'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:38 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Fed''s rosy economic scenario leaves inflation puzzle for Powell Howard Schneider 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As incoming Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell works through his holiday shopping list, he might consider the nearly 50 percent discount he could get buying Calvin Klein underwear online instead of at the local mall. U.S. outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, U.S. December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst In the litany of reasons that explains why U.S. consumer price inflation has stalled, the drop in clothing prices last month, which was the largest in 20 years, takes its place alongside cheap cellphone contracts, one-off declines in drug prices and cheap gasoline, among others. The Fed considers all of these price drops “transitory,” but there have been enough in a row for the central bank to miss its inflation target five years running, and fresh economic projections this week indicate policymakers remain mystified about why prices are not rising, given unemployment is at a 17-year low and the economy is growing steadily. When the Fed met this week and raised short-term interest rates for the fifth time since late 2015, the inflation issue triggered two dissents among the nine voters on the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, and that division could widen. “Inflation ... is too low and has been for some time,” Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said in a dissenting statement on Friday. Evans, who will not be voting on monetary policy in 2018, framed low inflation as a long-term problem if businesses and households stop believing the Fed is committed to its 2 percent inflation target. A low but steady level of inflation is considered healthy in developed economies, but it depends importantly on public psychology and expectations that Evans said “appear to me to have drifted down.” NEW CHAIR, OLD PROBLEM The debate will likely dog Powell during his early months as Fed chief. It will be hard for the Fed to justify further rate increases unless inflation moves towards the central bank’s target. That, in turn, would saddle Powell with exceptionally low interest rates, and little room to respond with rate reductions in the event of a recession. Fed Chair Janet Yellen, in her final press conference as head of the central bank, had little advice other than to acknowledge that something may be fundamentally wrong about how the Fed looks at inflation, unemployment and the important relationship between them. “I have tried to be straightforward in saying that this could end up being something that is more ingrained and turns out to be permanent. It’s very important to watch it and, if necessary, rethink,” Yellen told reporters on Wednesday, referring to the Fed’s inflation miss. The economic projections issued this week after the Fed’s policy meeting contained what seems to be an internal tension. Jerome Powell testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on his nomination to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, U.S., November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts Economic growth is forecast to accelerate next year, and unemployment to drop to 3.9 percent from the current 4.1 percent. That should put it at a level low enough to mean workers have leverage to demand wage increases and businesses feel emboldened to raise prices. Yet inflation is not seen rising and the Fed did not say it expects to raise rates any faster then already planned. Fed officials say their preferred forecast for inflation is around 1.7 percent for this year, rising to 1.9 percent in 2018, then reaching 2.0 percent in 2019 and staying there. They have made similar projections in the past, and been wrong. On the list of possible reasons, Yellen, like Evans, cited a possible slip in public expectations. She said the Fed may also simply misunderstand how inflation and unemployment relate in the current economy, with millions of working-age adults still on the sidelines of the job market, more choosing part-time work, and an expanding “gig economy.” Theoretically, there is an unemployment rate below which inflation rises, and while estimates of that “have come down,” Yellen said, “it’s conceivable that they need to come down even more.” In the projections last week, the median forecast of Fed officials kept that estimated “longer-run” unemployment rate at 4.6 percent. Yet they also saw unemployment averaging below 4 percent through 2020 without any appreciable jump in inflation, another seeming contradiction. Retail experts and analysts who follow inflation say the Fed’s inflation outlook is not likely to get any help soon from the prices of clothes, home appliances, electronics, cars or other goods. The 1.3 percent drop in apparel prices recorded in November was the largest since 1998, when the move to globalised supply chains and the integration of China into the world economy were still gaining momentum. Now, it is the transformation of how things are sold and how consumers shop that is holding down prices, said Blerina Uruci, vice president of economic research at Barclays, and there is no sign of the process letting up soon. The use of e-commerce sites like Amazon still only accounts for about 10 percent of retail sales, Uruci noted, and the impact of technological innovation on sales and distribution will likely take years to run its course. Meanwhile, consumers are becoming more adept with the tools at hand. Anyone looking for underwear in a brick-and-mortar store can quickly compare prices on a phone. Technology is “allowing shoppers to push retailers towards a very competitive environment,” said Rick Helfenbein, president and chief executive officer of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. “Retailers have reacted.”'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed-inflation-analysis/feds-rosy-economic-scenario-leaves-inflation-puzzle-for-powell-idUKKBN1E92IJ'|'2017-12-15T20:38:00.000+02:00'
'd54234daad9b4b1ea77bd9998604845bde2d3a1a'|'South Korea vice finance minister sees Chinese tourists return as ties improve'|' 03 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago South Korea vice finance minister sees Chinese tourists return as ties improve Cynthia Kim , Shinhyung , Lee 3 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean vice finance minister Ko Hyoung-kwon said on Friday he expects improving diplomatic ties with Beijing to support the country’s economic growth next year as Chinese tourists return to its shores. South Korea''s vice finance minister Ko Hyoung-kwon speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, December 15, 2017. Lee Young-joo/the Ministry of Strategy and Finance/Handout via REUTERS Ko’s comments come a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in pledged at a summit in Beijing to move past a spat over Seoul’s deployment of a U.S. missile shield. “One of many factors that makes next year more optimistic than this year is better Korea-China relations,” Ko told Reuters in an interview in Seoul. He added there would be a resurgence in the visits by Chinese tourists, particularly if President Xi attends the 2018 Winter Olympics in February. Seoul has requested Xi visit South Korea for the event. The government hopes the games will serve as a turning point for peace on the Korean Peninsula. For nearly a year, China-South Korea relations have been tense with Beijing angry about the deployment of the U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in Korea. China claims THAAD’s powerful radar can penetrate deep into its territory. Ko expects an economic boon from improved relations with China in 2018 would help sustain momentum, which is currently supported by a memory chip boom and facility investments. He said the economy is likely to expand 3.2 percent this year, but declined to give an estimate for next year. For much of this year, South Korea’s tourism, cosmetics and entertainment industries have taken the brunt of a Chinese political backlash against Seoul. In October, the two nations agreed to normalise relations. South Korea''s vice finance minister Ko Hyoung-kwon speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, December 15, 2017. Lee Young-joo/the Ministry of Strategy and Finance/Handout via REUTERS The number of inbound Chinese tourists, which used to account for about half of all visitors, fell by about 50 percent in the 10 months through October versus same period in 2016, costing South Korea more than $8 billion based on the average spending of Chinese visitors in 2015. China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, buying about a quarter of its exports. ‘WILD HORSE’ On the nation’s frenzy over cryptocurrency trading, Ko made it clear that the market needs to be regulated. “The (cryptocurrency) market is like a wild horse that needs to be domesticated,” Ko said. Asked if the government would impose a tax on trading of virtual currencies or capital gains, Ko declined to give details, but said any plans to regulate the market would need elaborate planning to avoid unintended consequences. The government on Wednesday said it is mulling taxes on the cryptocurrency market after bitcoin notched almost 20-fold surge in value this year. “To tax them, there needs to be many preconditions, for example licensing the exchanges. But the market could also soar with such a permit,” he said, noting that such a regime could be seen as an implicit approval that virtual currencies were an accepted part of the financial system. “It’s like a wild horse that likes to be whipped.” Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-southkorea-economy-china/south-korea-vice-finance-minister-sees-chinese-tourists-return-as-ties-improve-idUKKBN1E90EF'|'2017-12-15T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'932b635c61bd93444293595c830e399980101a01'|'Spotify price tag rises ahead of filing for NYSE listing - sources'|'December 14, 2017 / 3:45 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Spotify price tag rises ahead of filing for NYSE listing - sources Reuters Staff 3 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The value of music streaming service Spotify, which is planning a stock market listing, has grown around 20 percent to at least $19 billion in the past few months, outperforming U.S. and European tech indexes, sources familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: Headphones are seen in front of a logo of online music streaming service Spotify in this February 18, 2014 illustration picture. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo The most recent private trades in the Swedish company have taken place at above $4,000 per share according to sources. One of the sources said the recent trades were at a record-high of $4,200, valuing the firm at $19 billion or more. That compares to around $16 billion earlier this autumn. Spotify is aiming to file its intention to float with U.S. regulators towards the end of this year, sources said. Also supporting perceptions of Spotify’s increasing value, Tencent’s purchase of new Spotify shares implies a valuation of $5,000 per share, one of the sources said. Spotify and the music arm of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd said last week they would buy minority stakes in each other, but gave no financial details. Spotify did not immediately respond to inquiries about valuation and listing. The private market for shares prior to a public listing allows employees and founders of private companies such as Spotify to cash in on some of their paper wealth, while letting other investors get a head start on the listing. Spotify’s valuation when it lists - expected to be within 90 days after filing - is forecast to be a few billion dollars higher than current trades as illiquidity risk tends to depress the value ahead of listing, the sources said. While several big tech firms have struggled to enter China, Spotify has with the Tencent deal secured an exposure to the growing Chinese music streaming market. Spotify is the biggest global music streaming company and counts tech giants Apple and Amazon as its main rivals. The timing for its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in December is roughly in line with what has been previously suggested by sources. Spotify aims to pursuing a so-called direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange, allowing existing investors to sell shares without raising money from new ones, sources have previously told Reuters. The move is also aimed at saving hundreds of millions of dollars in underwriting fees from investment banks. Reporting by Olof Swahnberg and Helena Soderpalm, additional reporting by Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Niklas Pollard and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/spotify-listing/spotify-price-tag-rises-ahead-of-filing-for-nyse-listing-sources-idINKBN1E82AH'|'2017-12-14T17:59:00.000+02:00'
'221b6c7b0dd0d27cd457f1aef7959884931c3a23'|'Lockheed to partner with Aerion to develop supersonic business jet'|'Reuters TV United States December 15, 2017 / 6:55 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Lockheed to partner with Aerion to develop supersonic business jet Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ), the maker of F-35 and F-22 fighter jets, is partnering with plane maker Aerion Corp to develop the world’s first supersonic business jet. Lockheed Martin''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Over the next year, the companies would draw up a plan for all phases of the program such as engineering, certification and production to develop Aerion AS2, the companies said on Friday. Reno, Nevada-based Aerion said it expects the supersonic business jet to be operational by 2025. In May, General Electric Co’s ( GE.N ) GE Aviation had partnered with Aerion to develop a supersonic engine for the AS2. U.S. space agency NASA last year had awarded a contract to a unit of Lockheed to design a low-boom flight demonstration aircraft as part of its Commercial Supersonic Technology Project. Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lockheed-aerion/lockheed-to-partner-with-aerion-to-develop-supersonic-business-jet-idUKKBN1E92J5'|'2017-12-15T20:51:00.000+02:00'
'7dcb87dccd8b76bad1e8fe9431ddfab674847d14'|'India''s trade deficit narrows to $13.83 billion in November'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:41 PM / Updated 8 hours ago India''s trade deficit narrows to $13.83 billion in November: trade ministry Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s trade deficit INTRD=ECI narrowed to $13.83 billion from $14.02 billion in the previous month, government data showed on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Fishing trawlers are seen in front of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai, India, July 31, 2015. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD - SEARCH GLOBAL BUSINESS 11 DEC FOR ALL IMAGES Merchandise exports INEXP=ECI for November rose 30.55 percent from a year ago to $26.20 billion. Goods imports INIMP=ECI last month were $40.02 billion, a gain of 19.61 percent from a year ago, data from the commerce and industry ministry showed. Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Malini Menon'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-india-trade/indias-trade-deficit-narrows-to-13-83-billion-in-november-trade-ministry-idINKBN1E91HO'|'2017-12-15T14:28:00.000+02:00'
'b6af9df4004e56faf236f9e7740ef7baa8fb35b4'|'Brazil telecoms regulator Anatel still against Oi restructuring plan'|'December 15, 2017 / 5:43 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Brazil telecoms regulator Anatel still against Oi restructuring plan Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRASILIA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel still plans to vote against a plan put forth by carrier Oi SA to exit bankruptcy protection, the body’s president, Juarez Quadros, said on Friday. Creditors are set to meet in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday to vote on a company plan to restructure some 65 billion reais ($19.6 billion) in debt. A negative vote by Anatel, which holds 14 billion reais in the carrier’s debt through regulatory fines, could complicate the process, but the plan would still have a path to approval given its broad support among other major creditors. ($1 = 3.32 reais) (Reporting by Mateus Maia; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazil-telecoms-regulator-anatel-still-against-oi-restructuring-plan-idUSE6N1N000B'|'2017-12-15T19:40:00.000+02:00'
'79a785da77a73e0e0e89865c76873cb435c224e9'|'Airbus confirms management shake-up'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:19 AM / a few seconds ago Airbus board triggers shake-up to end succession row Tim Hepher , Cyril Altmeyer 5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) confirmed the departure of planemaking chief Fabrice Bregier as part of a series of board moves on Friday to clear the air over succession plans following weeks of speculation surrounding Europe’s largest aerospace firm. The move gives rival Chief Executive Tom Enders a free hand for the rest of what will now be his last term as CEO, ending in April 2019, but also casts him as a caretaker as Airbus looks for fresh blood to lead it out of a growing corruption scandal. Confirming details reported by Reuters, Airbus said Bregier would be replaced in February as president of the planemaking division by fellow Frenchman Guillaume Faury, the 49-year-old chief of Airbus Helicopters who has also worked in automobiles. German-born Enders, who had earlier this year voiced interest in staying beyond 2019, will now step down at the end of his current term, saying it was time for “fresh minds”. Shares in Airbus fell half a percent after the changes which left uncertainty over the future CEO role beyond 2019. “This is a quite remarkable, and really rather sad, change of management,” said Agency Partners analyst Sash Tusa. “It is likely in the near term to leave Airbus far more inward-looking than is healthy, with only CFO Harald Wilhelm in post for over 5 years,” he added. “Fabrice ... was very popular with airlines for his rapid response and attention to details,” Peter Bellew, chief operations officer at Ryanair ( RYA.I ) and former CEO of Malaysia Airlines. Airbus officials denied speculation that Enders had a hand in his deputy’s departure and cited an independent board. But analysts said the push for a fresh start had curtailed the ambitions of both executives, ending a troubled partnership at the helm of Airbus. Even so, many saw Enders as clear winner. COLLATERAL DAMAGE Slideshow (3 Images) Enders in 2014 froze payments to middlemen and later shared an audit revealing misleading filings with UK authorities, but has seen his authority challenged as the discovery triggered UK and French fraud investigations and a backlash in France. “It means two things: that despite his wishes, Enders could be replaced, and it would not automatically be Bregier,” a senior source with close links to the company said. The overhaul is not directly connected to investigations but both men appear to have suffered collateral damage from the probes, which made their differences clearer, one source said. The company said the board had acted to secure an orderly succession at the world’s second-largest planemaker. During 2018, the board will look both inside and outside for a successor to 58-year-old Enders “in good time” for confirmation at the 2019 annual shareholder meeting, it said. The shake-up came after Bregier, a 56-year-old who has long been seen as the natural heir to Enders, told the board he did not intend to be part of the selection process for 2019 and would therefore step down in February to “pursue other interests” - widely viewed as code for not being short-listed. Enders said he would work to ensure a smooth transition. However, both scarcely tried to mask tensions as Bregier recalled changes of title - a pointed reminder of a bitter feud with Enders - while Enders said he agreed with Bregier’s decision “and frankly, I would not have done differently”. Some sources said Bregier had sought support from the French government and Airbus’s French chairman, prompting the board to show its muscle. But the selection process will remain under scrutiny from investors worried about any return to past efforts by shareholders France or Germany to tilt appointments. “We believe the worst thing that could happen at Airbus in the coming 12-24 months is for evidence of political considerations coming to the fore,” Jefferies analyst Sandy Morris said. Speaking in a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after a European summit, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would be vigilant about the changes and seek to balance national interests with those of the company. Both he and Merkel ruled out trying to win special influence on the board. Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan, Editing by Keith Weir and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-management/airbus-confirms-management-shake-up-idUSKBN1E90F8'|'2017-12-15T08:17:00.000+02:00'
'bff4c7e1f63f5b2319570ed394a2424f4a420742'|'Barclays proposes alternative Seadrill restructuring plan-court filing'|' 22 PM / in 15 minutes Barclays proposes alternative Seadrill restructuring plan-court filing Reuters Staff 3 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - British bank Barclays Plc ( BARC.L ) has submitted an alternative proposal to restructure Seadrill ( SDRL.OL ), the oil rig company said in a U.S. court filing. Seadrill, which filed for Chapter 11 restructuring in a U.S. court on Sept. 12, has already received two restructuring proposals. The Norwegian company, once the largest drilling rig operator by market value, filed for bankruptcy protection after being hit hard by oil company investment cutbacks following the fall in oil prices. One of the proposals is from its main owner, Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen and a group of hedge funds.[L8N1OD5OL]. The other came from an “Ad-Hoc Group” of unsecured bondholders, including about 40 investors from the United States, Europe and Asia. “Indeed, the debtors (Seadrill) recently received proposals from each of Barclays and the Ad Hoc Group,” Seadrill said in the court documents filed last Friday. Barclays, which also holds Seadrill’s bonds, was not immediately available to comment. The court filing did not give any details of Barclays’ plan. Seadrill said it would continue to engage with both Barclays and the Ad Hoc Group “in hopes of reaching a global resolution.” The company also said the original plan proposed by Fredriksen represented “the highest and otherwise best value-maximizing alternative.” The proposal from Fredriksen and the group of hedge funds’s envisages investing $1.06 billion via new equity and secured debt to restructure Seadrill and its $12.8 billion in debt and other liabilities. This plan offered holders of Seadrill’s $2.3 billion of unsecured bonds 14.3 percent of the stock in the reorganized company, while existing shareholders would be left with just 1.9 percent. The plan requires the approval of unsecured bondholders as their holdings will be impaired in the restructuring. In a court filing on Friday, Seadrill said this plan was backed by about 40 percent of unsecured bondholders and almost all of its bank lenders. Seadrill’s spokesman said in an email on Monday the company had no further comments. A hearing on the official restructuring plan will be held in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas on Jan. 10. Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-seadrill-bankruptcy/barclays-proposes-alternative-seadrill-restructuring-plan-court-filing-idUSKBN1EC28H'|'2017-12-18T19:21:00.000+02:00'
'7fcece10881d080980c34ee3ef2a873e555f6fb0'|'Scottish companies say Brexit already making it hard to find staff'|'December 18, 2017 / 4:03 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Scottish companies say Brexit already making it hard to find staff Elisabeth O''Leary 4 Min Read EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scottish businesses said on Monday that Britain’s impending exit from the European Union was already making it hard to fill gaps in their workforces, citing a skills shortage, visa problems and a negative, uncertain image of the United Kingdom abroad. FILE PHOTO - An Anti-Brexit protestor waves EU and Union flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson In evidence given to a UK parliamentary committee, representatives of the food and drink, tourism, health and social care sectors pointed to difficulties recruiting and training staff to cope with demand for their services, particularly in Scotland’s many rural communities. They also expressed worries about the bureaucracy of a future migration system, which they said would hamper both small businesses and applicants. The decline in the pound against the euro was another factor as it diminished the value of earnings workers could send back to their families abroad. “Our profound fear is that now we are already in the process of that (workforce) tap being turned off, where is that workforce going to come from?” said Dr Donald Macaskill, the chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents a sector supporting around 100,000 care-home care-at-home jobs. He said six to eight percent of his nurses at care homes were from the European Economic Area. As Britain approaches the second phase of Brexit negotiations, centring on trade, many companies have asked for clarity on what status EU workers living in the UK will have during an expected transition phase of two years. Many Britons who voted for Brexit did so because they were unhappy about the flow of migrants into Britain, and one of the key issues for them is stopping the unlimited flow of EU citizens into Britain as a full EU member. For business, however, recruiting staff is becoming more difficult. “For us, Brexit isn’t something that we are waiting to happen, it’s something that is already starting ... we are hearing anecdotally in the last year that more and more individuals are working out that it is more profitable for them to work back in their own country,” Macaskill said. Most of those asked seemed not to agree, however, that Scotland’s needs were unique, as the pro-independence Scottish government has argued. Instead, they said industries needed bespoke arrangements and a simple and flexible immigration system. Shirley Rogers, direct of health workforce at the Scottish health service, said 5 to 6 percent of doctors, 4 percent of nurses in training and 2 percent of dentists in Scotland were from the EU. She pointed out a 96 percent drop in the number of EU citizens recruited by the UK Royal College of Nursing this year, adding that where nurses train strongly influences where they then decide to work. “It’s about how welcome and attractive we are in a world where (professionals) can go to America, Canada, Australia or anywhere else,” she said. “My anxiety is around the messaging that we are sending to people.” Data last month showed net migration to Britain fell by the largest amount on record in the 12 months after the Brexit vote. “It is about flexibility and ... the ability to grow, and food and drink in Scotland has the ambition to grow turnover to 30 billion pounds by 2030 and we need people to do the work. Without people to fill 27,000 jobs in next 10 years, then we are going to struggle to meet that ambitious target,” David Thomson, the chief executive of Food and Drink Federation Scotland, told the committee. The food and drink sector employs 45,000 people in Scotland and is targetting turnover of 16.5 billion pounds this year. Reporting by Elisabeth O''Leary, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-scotland/scottish-companies-say-brexit-already-making-it-hard-to-find-staff-idUKKBN1EC21I'|'2017-12-18T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'a9e8567ba570400fbbccbec29ecaee3b516f3eab'|'LimeBike expands to Europe as dockless bike-sharing rivalry mounts'|'FRANKFURT, Dec 11 (Reuters) - U.S. bicycle-sharing start-up LimeBike said on Monday it has begun operating in two European cities, marking the first overseas expansion move by U.S. firms seeking to keep pace with vastly better-funded Chinese rivals’ own international moves.Silicon Valley-based LimeBike, a company which only launched early in 2017, starts offering free bikes in Frankfurt and Zurich after expanding rapidly into 30 U.S. markets this year. It plans more European expansion moves in the spring, it said.It has raised $62 million in funds from investors including Andreesen Horowitz, a major Silicon Valley internet-focused venture firm, and New York-based hedge fund Coatue Management, backer of Uber, Lyft and Snap Inc.LimeBike is breaking in on an increasingly global craze dominated by Chinese players Ofo and Mobike, Singapore’s OBike and smaller U.S. rivals such as Spin. The three Asian firms have each made initial European forays of their own in recent months. (Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Christoph Steitz) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bicycle-sharing-europe/limebike-expands-to-europe-as-dockless-bike-sharing-rivalry-mounts-idINL8N1OB3TV'|'2017-12-11T11:00:00.000+02:00'
'0dd4aae77662d07f948692207d07d44d714dfd18'|'Brazilian carrier Oi reaches deal with creditor groups -filing'|'SAO PAULO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Debt-laden Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA has reached a deal with two major creditor groups on a plan to recover the company from bankruptcy protection, the telecom said in a Wednesday securities filing.Oi said the International Bondholder Committee and “ad hoc creditor group” had agreed in principle on a new restructuring plan announced late on Tuesday, including a debt-for-equity swap that would effectively let creditors take over the company. (Reporting by Brad Haynes Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/brazilian-carrier-oi-reaches-deal-with-creditor-groups-filing-idINE6N1NE00E'|'2017-12-13T09:58:00.000+02:00'
'241b32e158698c10e89020d460dd5d2cb0ce5046'|'Asian shares flat, Fed hike expectations underpin dollar'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:54 AM / in 4 minutes World stocks at record high after Fed hike; dollar falls Stephanie Kelly 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - A gauge of world shares rose to further record highs after the Federal Reserve announced a widely expected interest rate hike on Wednesday, while U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar fell. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.28 percent. The Fed, as anticipated, raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, but left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged. The central bank lifted the federal funds rate to a target range of 1.25 to 1.50 percent, and also projected three more hikes in each of 2018 and 2019. Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis, said the Fed’s statement was “pretty much as expected” but slightly more dovish. “So it’s not a big surprise but it’s a shift in the direction of saying the Fed is going to keep watching the data and if we don’t see higher inflation we could see fewer rate hikes in 2018,” Warne said. While the Dow and the Nasdaq Composite closed higher, the S&P 500 dipped under pressure from the financial sector after the Fed’s announcement. Investors were also focused on efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to overhaul the U.S. tax system. Congressional Republicans reached a tax legislation deal on Wednesday, according to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 80.63 points, or 0.33 percent, to end at 24,585.43, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.26 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,662.85 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 13.48 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,875.80. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed .FTEU3 down 0.30 percent. In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS climbed 0.67 percent. Japan''s Nikkei stock index .N225 finished lower, however, pressured by a strengthening yen and shrugging off upbeat economic data that showed Japanese core machinery orders rose an unexpectedly high 5 percent in October. YIELDS, DOLLAR INDEX FALLS U.S. Treasury yields fell after the Fed’s announcement. Yields had fallen earlier in the day as well after an increase in core consumer prices in November fell short of analysts’ expectations. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 16/32 in price to yield 2.3457 percent, compared with 2.403 percent late on Tuesday. The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last rose 1-2/32 in price to yield 2.7285 percent, compared with 2.781 percent late on Tuesday. Earlier Wednesday data showed the U.S. consumer price index, the government’s broadest inflation gauge, grew 0.4 percent last month, matching economists’ estimates. However the CPI core rate, which excludes energy and food prices, moderated to 0.1 percent from a 0.2 percent increase in October and was below market expectations. A pedestrian stands to look at an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Yuya Shino Traders also mulled the potential implications of Democrat Doug Jones’ victory in the special U.S. Senate election in Alabama on Tuesday, which thinned the Republicans’ Senate majority to 51-49, raising discussion about their ability to pass tax legislation before year-end. The dollar index .DXY, which weighs the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.72 percent, while the euro was EUR= up 0.71 percent to $1.1823. The yen strengthened 0.92 percent against the greenback to 112.50 per dollar JPY= , while sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.3416, up 0.76 percent on the day. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.72 percent to $56.73 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $62.59, down 1.18 percent. Gold prices rose later in the day after hovering near their lowest in nearly five months. Spot gold was last XAU= 1.0 percent higher at $1,255.93 an ounce. Global assets in 2017 - reut.rs/1WAiOSC Global currencies vs. dollar - tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh Global bonds dashboard - tmsnrt.rs/2fPTds0 Emerging markets in 2017 - tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Additional reporting by Rama Venkat Raman and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Richard Leong, Sinead Carew and Karen Brettell in New York, Danilo Masoni in Milan and Julien Ponthus in London; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-shares-flat-fed-hike-expectations-underpin-dollar-idUSKBN1E703E'|'2017-12-13T02:53:00.000+02:00'
'7b7b533df6b495c754f84ed58fa8198a61ff5796'|'MOVES-UBS hires Merrill''s Cormier to head up TMT equity capital markets -memo'|'NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS has hired Chris Cormier to head up its technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) equity capital markets business in the Americas, according to a memo seen by Reuters.“Chris will join UBS in March 2018 from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), where he has held a similar position since 2015,” read the memo, the contents of which were confirmed by a UBS spokesman.Cormier also worked at Deutsche Bank for 10 years where he headed up its Americas technology equity capital markets business, UBS said in the memo. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ubs-group-moves/moves-ubs-hires-merrills-cormier-to-head-up-tmt-equity-capital-markets-memo-idINL1N1OD1FU'|'2017-12-13T13:59:00.000+02:00'
'faa4715e071c9bc77630885745e4580281ebb0b2'|'UPDATE 2-European stock, bond futures open on Eurex after delay'|'(Recasts with open of futures and stock markets)LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The start of trading in government bond and stock market futures on the derivatives and futures exchange Eurex was delayed by around 50 minutes on Wednesday after the platform suffered “serious issues”.Eurostoxx 50 futures and DAX futures opened 0.1 percent lower after technical issues had delayed their opening.German, French, British and Italian government bond futureswere little changed after the delayed opening.The opening of trading on Eurex at 0700 GMT was delayed as the exchange was experiencing “serious issues”.The technical problems had little impact on trading in cash government bond markets in the euro area, one of the biggest in the world, where active trading of prices could be seen shortly after 0700 GMT.There was also little impact on regional stock markets, which opened at 0800 GMT.Eurex is operated by Germany’s Deutsche Börse. German and French government bond futures are among the most actively traded contracts on Eurex. (Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe and Helen Reid; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-markets-eurex/update-1-european-stock-bond-futures-trading-delayed-eurex-platform-has-serious-issues-idINL8N1OD155'|'2017-12-13T04:38:00.000+02:00'
'465627ca0348a0764b7a11e425ac362cd8c95849'|'Oil up on U.S. crude stocks draw, Forties outage supports'|'December 13, 2017 / 3:31 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Oil mixed after U.S. crude stocks draw; Forties outage lends support David Gaffen 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices bounced between positive and negative territory on Wednesday after U.S. crude stockpiles fell more than expected, though that was somewhat offset by a larger-than-forecast rise in gasoline inventories and more growth in U.S. oil production. A driver looks at the price as he fills the tank of his car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Expectations for an extended shutdown of a major North Sea crude pipeline continued to bolster Brent crude, the world oil benchmark. U.S. crude inventories dropped by 5.1 million barrels, more than anticipated, and U.S. production figures hit another new record at 9.78 million barrels a day for weekly data. The U.S. peak, when records were only kept on a monthly basis, is 10.04 million bpd, set in November 1970. “The report is modestly supportive on the large crude oil inventory decline. That decline was offset mightily by the large increase in gasoline inventories,” said John Kilduff, partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital LLC in New York. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3 cents to $57.11 a barrel as of 10:57 a.m. EST. Brent crude fell 23 cents to $63.04 a barrel. It settled down 2.1 percent on Tuesday on a wave of profit-taking after the North Sea pipeline shutdown helped send the global benchmark above $65 for the first time since mid-2015. Britain’s biggest pipeline from its North Sea oil and gas fields is likely to be shut for several weeks for repairs. On Wednesday morning, its operator said it was still considering repair options and reiterated that any repairs would take several weeks. The pipeline, which carries about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Forties crude, was shut after a crack was found. It has particular significance to global markets because Forties is the largest of the five crude oil streams that underpin the dated Brent benchmark. A number of producers, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell, said they had closed down oil fields in response. While the Forties shutdown has provided a price floor, early gains quickly evaporated in a global market that is still oversupplied and with output rising in the United States. “The fact that the market sold off so much after the Forties outage shows that the market struggles to trend higher. Now, we’re basically where we were a month ago,” Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix consultancy said. Selling gained pace on Tuesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its monthly short-term energy outlook that U.S. crude oil output will rise by 780,000 barrels per day (bpd) to a record-high of 10.02 million bpd in 2018. United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroui said on Wednesday that it was premature to talk about an exit strategy from the current global supply cut agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producers. Additional reporting by Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by Jane Merriman and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-recovers-on-big-u-s-crude-stock-drawdown-idUKKBN1E70AT'|'2017-12-13T13:52:00.000+02:00'
'ff775e2df6d20dc61ac457c843ef2a5aaa901083'|'Delta may place order for 100 Airbus A321neo jets -sources'|'December 13, 2017 / 7:00 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Delta may place order for 100 Airbus A321neo jets -sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS/NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines looked close on Wednesday to placing an order for 100 Airbus A321neo jets in a boost for the European planemaker as it tries to narrow a 2017 order gap against Boeing, two people familiar with the matter said. The preliminary selection, reported earlier by CNN, follows a fierce competition and is subject to approval at a board meeting later on Wednesday, which could still alter or delay the decision, the people said. Such a deal would be worth $12.7 billion at list prices, but would typically involve steep discounts. Delta and both planemakers declined comment. (Reporting by Tim Hepher, Alana Wise; Editing by Leigh Thomas)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/delta-air-aircraft/delta-may-place-order-for-100-airbus-a321neo-jets-sources-idUSL8N1OD5XS'|'2017-12-13T20:57:00.000+02:00'
'71efb462f87444984117e1a675e184f873cf3cbe'|'Toshiba, Western Digital end chip dispute, resume joint investment'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp and its chip business partner Western Digital Corp agreed to settle a long-running dispute over the embattled Japanese conglomerate’s plans to sell its chip unit, the companies said in a statement, removing a key obstacle to the deal.Toshiba agreed in late September to sell Toshiba Memory, the world’s second-biggest producer of NAND chips, to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP for $18 billion to cover billions of dollars in liabilities arising from Toshiba’s now bankrupt U.S. nuclear power unit Westinghouse.With data storage key to most next-generation technologies, demand for NAND chips has boomed, and Western Digital, Toshiba’s chip business partner and jilted suitor in the auction, had threatened to block any deal without its consent.The settlement calls for Western Digital to drop arbitration claims seeking to stop the sale to the Bain consortium in exchange for Toshiba allowing the U.S. partner to invest in a new production line starting next year for advanced memory chips.As part of the settlement, Toshiba and Western Digital will extend existing agreements for their chip joint ventures in Yokkaichi, central Japan, until 2027 or later. The current agreements are set to start expiring from 2021.The ownership ratio for the joint ventures remains 50.1 percent for Toshiba and 49.9 percent for Western Digital.They also plan to enter into a definitive agreement “in due course” under which Western Digital will participate in a new chip plant that Toshiba will start building next year in northern Japan, the statement said.FILE PHOTO -The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen behind cherry blossoms at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc’s participation in the Bain consortium has infuriated Western Digital and a key sticking point in recent weeks had been how to ensure it would be blocked from accessing proprietary information that belonged to the chip unit, sources have previously said.The joint statement said both companies “have agreed on mutual protections for their assets and confidential information in connection with the sale of Toshiba Memory, and on collaborating to ensure the future success of Toshiba Memory as a public company following an eventual IPO.”“We wanted to make sure that our interests in the JV were sufficiently protected and we had the right kind of protections and the right kind of access,” Western Digital Chief Executive Steve Milligan told a conference call.FILE PHOTO - A Western Digital office building is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Toshiba gained the upper hand in negotiations with Western Digital after securing a $5.4 billion cash injection from overseas funds that will allow it to bolster its balance sheet before the end of March and avoid a delisting.The chip unit sale may, however, face more complications.Argyle Street Management Ltd, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund with $1.2 billion under management, sent a letter to Toshiba’s board on Monday urging the company to scrap the deal, which the fund claims significantly undervalues the chip unit.Argyle is inviting the 30-plus overseas investors who participated in Toshiba’s new share issue to team up in opposition to the deal although it remains to be seen just how much traction it will gain.The sale also needs to clear regulatory reviews, but they are not expected to scuttle the deal.Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Ritsuko Ando in Tokyo and Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-divestiture-western-digital/toshiba-western-digital-end-chip-dispute-resume-joint-investment-idINKBN1E62YD'|'2017-12-13T00:22:00.000+02:00'
'dffc7db3439e3fb5236ef2cfaaef519ad0298870'|'BMW electric cars hit 100,000 sales target'|'Reuters TV United States December 18, 2017 / 7:20 PM / Updated an hour ago BMW electric cars hit 100,000 sales target Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - BMW ( BMWG.DE ) said on Monday it had hit its target of selling 100,000 electric cars this year around the world, benefiting from strong demand in western Europe and the United States for models such as the i3 and the 2-series plug-in hybrid Active Tourer. The new BMW i3 electric car is seen after it was unveiled at a ceremony in London, July 29, 2013. REUTERS/Andrew Winning This is more than 60 percent up from the 62,255 electric cars BMW sold last year. The German luxury carmaker has said it expects 2018 electric-vehicle (EV) sales to grow by a medium two-digit percentages. A pioneer in electric cars, BMW launched the i3 hatchback in 2013 but sales have been relatively low and management has wrestled with whether to go all-out for electrification. But that changed in September when the Munich-based group said it would gear up for mass production of electric cars and aimed to have 12 fully electric models by 2025 with a range of up to 700 kilometers. “Electric mobility is the indicator where I measure our success,” Chief Executive Harald Krueger said. Earlier on Monday, U.S. EV battery company Solid Power said it had partnered with BMW to develop the next-generation solid-state battery technology for use in electric cars. Reporting by Andreas Cremer. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bmw-electric/bmw-electric-cars-hit-100000-sales-target-idUKKBN1EC2G5'|'2017-12-18T21:19:00.000+02:00'
'cbcc2e96090208d202e996b3d21926c2867402b0'|'EU agrees new five-year mandate for German chair of bank watchdog SRB'|' 00 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago EU agrees new five-year mandate for German chair of bank watchdog SRB Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Monday to renew the mandate of Elke Koenig, the German head of the European Union’s body in charge of disposing of failing banks, for another five years. FILE PHOTO - Elke Koenig, Chair of the Single Resolution Board, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Brussels, Belgium, August 10, 2016. Picture taken on August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Koenig, who has chaired the Single Resolution Board (SRB) since its creation in 2014, currently has a three-year mandate that expires in December. The decision to extend her term was formalised by EU governments on Monday after the European Commission and the European Parliament had backed the move. Koenig has this year overseen the first wind-down of a euro zone bank under new rules aimed at reducing taxpayers’ costs when lenders fail. The SRB’s decision, together with the EU Commission, to force the sale of Spain’s ailing Banco Popular to rival Santander in June has sparked a record number of lawsuits from bondholders who have seen their investment wiped out in the process. The decision also erased shareholdings but avoided a full liquidation of the bank and spared depositors. It was deemed a “success” by EU regulators. A few weeks after winding down Banco Popular, the SRB decided not to intervene in the rescue of two smaller Italian banks from the Veneto region, Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca. The decision allowed the Italian government to provide state aid to the two lenders with laxer conditions than in an SRB rescue, prompting accusations that EU banking rules were being applied inconsistently. The SRB said it had declined to intervene because the banks were small and did not pose risks to the euro zone’s financial stability. Koenig has also championed strict capital requirements for the 142 major euro zone banks under her watch to make sure they hold sufficient buffers that could be written off, or bailed-in, if they collapse. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-banks-srb/eu-agrees-new-five-year-mandate-for-german-chair-of-bank-watchdog-srb-idUKKBN1EC16J'|'2017-12-18T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'f6205c6aa0a4eecc5790cf843ef3584a603c62c3'|'Hershey nears $1.6 bln deal to buy Amplify Snacks- CNBC'|' 38 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Hershey nears $1.6 billion deal to buy Amplify Snacks: CNBC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Hershey Co ( HSY.N ), the maker of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses, is nearing a deal to buy SkinnyPop parent Amplify Snack Brands ( BETR.N ) for $1.6 billion, CNBC reported on Monday. The deal, which could be announced as early as Monday, would value Amplify at $12 a share, a 71 percent premium to Friday’s closing price, CNBC added, citing sources familiar with the matter. Global food manufacturers have been struggling with weakening growth as consumers seek healthier foods. Pennsylvania-based Hershey has been boosting its portfolio in snacks, which are typically lower-margin products than candy. Just over a year ago, The U.S. candy maker had spurned a $107 per share takeover offer from Mondelez. Hershey’s and Amplify were not immediately available for comment outside regular U.S. business hours. Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amplify-snack-m-a-hershey/hershey-nears-1-6-billion-deal-to-buy-amplify-snacks-cnbc-idUSKBN1EC0IL'|'2017-12-18T08:31:00.000+02:00'
'1d1efcd6eaf3bd28a3f368933406017210ff153c'|'German logistics firm Zeitfracht says looking at Niki''s books'|'December 16, 2017 / 4:27 PM / Updated 14 hours ago German logistics firm Zeitfracht says looking at Niki''s books Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Family-owned German logistics firm Zeitfracht is studying the books of Austrian airline Niki with view to buying some of its assets, a spokesman for Zeitfracht said on Saturday. Airline Niki founder Niki Lauda attends a news conference in Vienna November 8, 2011. REUTERS/Herwig Prammer Niki, a unit of Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), filed for insolvency on Wednesday. Zeitfracht and maintenance group Nayak are jointly interested in some assets, including Niki crews, in order to expand Zeitfracht’s newly-bought subsidiary WDL Aviation, the spokesman said. They were also interested in Niki Technik, he said. This adds to the list of interested parties. Former motor racing driver Niki Lauda, who founded the Niki airline in 2003, British holiday group Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Irish low cost carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ) have also expressed an interest in its assets. Zeitfracht and Nayak have already bought Air Berlin’s cargo marketing platform Leisure Cargo and maintenance units. Niki’s insolvency came after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) scrapped plans to buy Niki, grounding the airline’s fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. Administrators for parent company Air Berlin have since been working to find a new buyer for Niki’s assets, which include valuable take off and landing slots in airports such as Duesseldorf, Munich and Vienna. They are under pressure to clinch a deal before Niki loses its airport slots, which could be in a matter of days, depending on the outcome of talks between the Austrian transport ministry and the airport coordinator. Lufthansa abandoned plans to buy Niki due to the European Commission’s competition concerns. Reporting by Kerstin Doerr, Writing by Victoria Bryan and Vera Eckert; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-zeitfracht/german-logistics-firm-zeitfracht-says-looking-at-nikis-books-idUKKBN1EA0J7'|'2017-12-16T18:26:00.000+02:00'
'6dc0e01d18165b967d140fa38a1aa5c10b02d2f5'|'Italian hat maker Borsalino faces liquidation after court decision'|'December 18, 2017 / 8:02 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Italian hat maker Borsalino faces liquidation after court decision Giulia Segreti 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - One of the world’s most famous hat makers, Borsalino, whose stylish fedoras and straw panamas are popular with movie stars and celebrities, faces liquidation after a rescue plan was rejected by an Italian court on Monday. A judge in the northern town of Alessandria, where the luxury hat maker was founded 160 years ago, refused a request for court protection from creditors, who are owed some 18 million euros ($21 million), a local trade union leader told Reuters. “It’s dramatic if a solution is not found. Borsalino is part of Italian history, and it’s a big name abroad too,” Franco Armosino said. Borsalino, whose hats have been worn by celebrities such as Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca” and singer Rihanna, ran into financial difficulties after posting a large loss in 2013. Former majority owner Marco Marenco was arrested by Swiss police in April 2015 on suspicion of financial crime. For the past two years, the group has been run by Haeres Equita, a consortium led by Swiss-Italian financier Philippe Camperio, which invested some 10 million euros to relaunch the company. Borsalino returned to profit in 2015. Sales in 2016 rose to 17.5 million euros and core profits more than doubled to 2.6 million euros. It expected revenue this year to be in line with last year’s and sales to grow by 20 per cent in 2018. But it was still struggling with debt and sought court protection from creditors. Following Monday’s decision, two court-appointed officials will wind down the company to pay back creditors. Armosino said that unions expected further details “in the next days”. Camperio, who bought the Borsalino trademark for about 18 million euros in May, could decide to bid for the company, or part of it. The judge’s decision will not stop production at Borsalino, which has 134 workers and makes some 150,000 hats a year, both Armosino and Camperio said. “We will remain committed to finding solutions that will preserve this iconic brand and the interest of all stakeholders ...,” Camperio said in a statement, adding that bankruptcy had nothing to do with Haeres Equita’s management. “We hope to continue to build a future for Borsalino,” Camperio added. ($1 = 0.8477 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-italy-borsalino-court/italian-hat-maker-borsalino-faces-liquidation-after-court-decision-idUKKBN1EC2IV'|'2017-12-18T22:01:00.000+02:00'
'dafe66428e1e54d260acdd82cf43c12e1793bbe9'|'BRIEF-TSMC''s Nanjing Subsidiary Acquires Property Assets Worth T$786 Million'|' TSMC''s Nanjing Subsidiary Acquires Property Assets Worth T$786 Million Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd : * SAYS ITS NANJING SUBSIDIARY ACQUIRES PROPERTY ASSETS WORTH T$786 MILLION ($26.21 million)   ($1 = 29.9830 Taiwan dollars) (Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-tsmcs-nanjing-subsidiary-acquires/brief-tsmcs-nanjing-subsidiary-acquires-property-assets-worth-t786-million-idUSS7N1KM021'|'2017-12-18T11:59:00.000+02:00'
'0cbdfedd2a15ab22a38cbc0c7345db1c7bce1e89'|'Hitachi aims double-digit margin by 2021, not interested in GE assets - CEO'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:31 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Hitachi aims double-digit margin by 2021, not interested in GE assets - CEO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The head of Japan’s Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ) said the company was aiming to improve its operating margin to double digits by fiscal 2021 from current levels of around 7 percent. A logo of Hitachi Ltd. is pictured at the CEATEC JAPAN 2017 (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, October 2, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Chief Executive Toshiaki Higashihara, in an interview to reporters, also said Hitachi was not interested in assets being put up for sale by General Electric ( GE.N ). The U.S. conglomerate wants to get rid of at least $20 billion of assets through sales, spin-offs or other means to turn itself into a smaller, more focused company. Reporting by Kentaro Hamada; Editing by Vyas Mohan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hitachi-margin/hitachi-aims-double-digit-margin-by-2021-not-interested-in-ge-assets-ceo-idUKKBN1EC0MS'|'2017-12-18T09:30:00.000+02:00'
'4ff2065f24e2f36414307550950b612e1f3feeb0'|'Asia stocks edge higher after Fed meeting; dollar, U.S. yields sag'|'December 14, 2017 / 12:54 AM / Updated an hour ago World shares little changed amid slate of central bank meetings Stephanie Kelly 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets were little changed on Thursday after policy meetings from major central banks in Europe, while some U.S. shares were buoyed by news that the Republicans’ tax legislation could face final votes in Congress before year-end. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained just 0.01 percent. Both the European Central Bank and Bank of England left interest rates unchanged, as expected. The ECB promised to hold rates low for an extended period and even maintained a pledge to provide more stimulus if needed. The decisions come a day after a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting where the central bank announced a widely expected interest rate hike, but left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged. Weakness in bank stocks contributed to a downbeat mood for equities in Europe, and the pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.29 percent. The Fed’s less hawkish statements supported MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, but its gains were pared to 0.14 percent. Wall Street was little changed, with some gain in technology and banking shares amid optimism on a vote on a Republican tax-code overhaul coming before year-end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.63 points, or 0.01 percent, to 24,589.06, the S&P 500 lost 0.79 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,662.06 and the Nasdaq Composite added 7.11 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,882.91. On Wednesday, Republicans in the Senate and the House reached a deal on final tax legislation that would slash the corporate tax rate to 21 percent. “It will take some time to go through the details, what that means for specific companies, but it’s consistent with the general positive tone,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida. EURO TURNS NEGATIVE Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The euro fell 0.41 percent after the ECB revised its growth forecasts upward while sticking with its pledge to provide stimulus if needed. ECB President Mario “Draghi is, frustratingly, on the one hand saying that the progress we have achieved and expect to achieve is contingent on continued accommodation, which doesn’t speak to a central banker that’s ready to pull the rug away from QE,” said Richard Franulovich, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corporation in New York. “But by the same token he is growing increasingly convinced that the recovery is broadening and more sustainable, and he’s got growing confidence that they can hit their inflation forecasts, so there is enough there to keep euro trapped in current ranges,” Franulovich added. FILE PHOTO - Investors look at computer screens showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The dollar index, tracking the U.S. dollar against a basket of major currencies, rose 0.27 percent. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.03 percent versus the greenback at 112.53 per dollar, while sterling was at $1.3432, up 0.10 percent on the day. U.S. Treasury yields rose earlier after surprisingly strong data on retail sales in November supported solid economic growth in the fourth quarter. Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 4/32 in price to yield 2.3618 percent, from 2.349 percent late on Wednesday. The 30-year bond last rose 5/32 in price to yield 2.7277 percent, from 2.735 percent late on Wednesday. In Greece, 10-year government bond yields fell, touching its lowest in almost a decade on Thursday. Earlier this month, Greece and its euro zone creditors earlier in December reached a preliminary agreement on reforms Athens needs to roll out under its bailout program, while economic data has proven stronger than anticipated. U.S. crude rose 0.21 percent to $56.72 per barrel and Brent was last at $62.96, up 0.83 percent on the day. Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho, Jemima Kelly, Fanny Potkin and Dhara Ranasinghe in London, Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru, and Richard Leong and Karen Brettell in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-edge-higher-after-fed-meeting-dollar-us-yields-sag-idINKBN1E803L'|'2017-12-14T02:51:00.000+02:00'
'750b0fba0d8b73bd87a3ec61ed84c3eecccec10c'|'FCA to take closer look at initial coin offerings'|'December 15, 2017 / 3:45 PM / a minute ago UK watchdog to take closer look at initial coin offerings Huw Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s markets watchdog will step up its scrutiny of the initial coin offering (ICO) market to see if new rules are needed to protect investors after issuing an alert in September. A man walks past an electric board showing exchange rates of various cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (top L) at a cryptocurrencies exchange in Seoul, South Korea December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji Start-ups have begun issuing new digital currencies via ICOs and the market has raised about 3.7 billion pounds ($4.93 billion) this year according to an industry estimate. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it would gather further evidence on the market and conduct a deeper examination of what it called fast-paced developments. “Our findings will help to determine whether or not there is need for further regulatory action in this area,” the FCA said in a statement on Friday. Paul Lewis, a lawyer at Linklaters, said the legal and regulatory treatment of ICOs were often complex and unclear due to many jurisdictions being involved. He said the FCA’s had sent “a signal that regulators are seeking to bring greater control to the ICO market, but it is far too early in the development of this market to predict what the settled or common regulatory approach will be.” The watchdog said it had noticed steady growth in the volume of contracts for differences (CFDs) trades linked to digital currencies. CFDs allow investors to gain indirect exposure to price movements in an underlying asset like digital currencies. “This trend raises significant concerns about potential harm to retail consumers,” the FCA said. The watchdog issued an alert on the products last month. Jake Green, financial regulatory partner at law firm Ashurst, said the CFD industry was awaiting new European Union laws in January which give EU regulators powers to ban products. “I think it is now a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ that we will see the European Securities and Markets Authority exercise power in relation to limit certain types of offerings – digital currencies maybe where they start,” Green said. FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey told the BBC on Thursday that investors in digital currencies like bitcoin should be prepared to lose all their money. The FCA also published feedback to its public consultation on blockchain, or distributed ledger technology (DLT), the shared electronic database architecture that underpins digital currencies like bitcoin. “Based on the feedback and its own work, overall the FCA is open to all forms of deployment of DLT ... provided the operational risks are properly identified and mitigated,” the watchdog said. No new regulatory requirements were needed for blockchain at this stage, the FCA said. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-blockchain-regulator/uk-watchdog-to-take-closer-look-at-initial-coin-offerings-idUKKBN1E920C'|'2017-12-15T17:29:00.000+02:00'
'00afab925f55e0734b648080fbc5d404503f8e53'|'EU court rejects U.S. intervention in Apple''s Irish $15 billion tax case'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:24 PM / Updated an hour ago EU court rejects U.S. intervention in Apple''s Irish $15 billion tax case Foo Yun Chee 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe’s second-highest court has rejected a request from the U.S. government to intervene in Apple’s challenge against an EU order to pay back taxes of up to 13 billion euros (£11.4 billion) because it failed to prove a direct interest in the outcome of the case. A man looks at the screen of his mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Apple, maker of the iPhone, appealed to the Luxembourg-based General Court a year ago after the European Commission ruled that its “sweetheart” tax deal with Ireland was an illegal subsidy in breach of EU rules against unfair competition. The then Obama administration had criticised the EU decision, saying the EU was helping itself to cash that should have ended up in the United States. The U.S. intervention was filed in April, a move to which the Commission objected. The court said it was unconvinced by the U.S. arguments regarding the alleged negative effects of the EU decision on its tax revenues, the bilateral tax deals with EU countries and its efforts to develop rules on transfer pricing in line with OECD rules. “The United States of America has failed to establish the existence of a direct interest in the result of the case,” judges ruled on Friday. The court also rejected a bid by IBEC Company Limited by Guarantee, a representative body for national and multinational companies operating in Ireland, to intervene in support of Apple and Ireland. It said IBEC had failed to show that its members’ interests would be affected by the result of the case. The case is T-892/16 Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe v Commission. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-apple-usa-taxavoidance/eu-court-rejects-u-s-intervention-in-apples-irish-15-billion-tax-case-idUKKBN1E925H'|'2017-12-15T18:24:00.000+02:00'
'e80956cac78f398caaccf0e08245f2d9f25c6cc0'|'Rio Tinto not expected to relinquish interest in Freeport Indonesia copper mine until 2022 -govt official'|' 38 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Rio Tinto not expected to relinquish interest in Freeport Indonesia copper mine until 2022 -govt official Reuters Staff 1 Min Read JAKARTA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto is not expected until 2022 to relinquish its interest in the giant Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia operated by the local unit of Freeport McMoRan Inc, a government official said on Friday. “In 2022 it will automatically convert to a shareholding,” the official said, referring to Rio’s 40 percent participating interest in Grasberg under a joint venture with PT Freeport Indonesia. Reporting by Fergus Jensen'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/indonesia-freeport-rio-tinto/rio-tinto-not-expected-to-relinquish-interest-in-freeport-indonesia-copper-mine-until-2022-govt-official-idUSJ9N1NK000'|'2017-12-15T08:33:00.000+02:00'
'd1da96c62c6fe772c1b7962fb498c7ef59b4880a'|'H&M sales unexpectedly shrink in fourth-quarter'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:45 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago H&M shares tumble on surprise quarterly sales drop Reuters Staff 3 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Fashion retailer H&M ( HMb.ST ) said on Friday sales had fallen during the last three months as fewer shoppers visited its stores, sending its shares plummeting and underlining its struggle to adapt to a shift of business online. A boy enters   Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) store on its opening day in central Moscow, Russia, May 27, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo Shares in the world’s second largest fashion retailer fell 13 percent to their lowest level since 2009. The Swedish group said sales in the September-November period were far below its own expectations. It plans to speed up efforts to adjust to changes in the market, including closing more H&M stores and opening fewer new ones, and start selling the brand through Chinese online platform Tmall.. “The quarter was weak for the H&M brand’s physical stores, which were negatively affected by a continued challenging market situation with reduced footfall to stores due to the ongoing shift in the industry,” the company said in a statement. “In addition, there have been imbalances in parts of the H&M brand’s assortment composition,” it added, suggesting issues with the product ranges. H&M has seen inventories pile up over the past two years. Fourth quarter sales shrank 4 percent year-on-year, or 2 percent in local currencies, to 50.4 billion crowns (4.5 billion pounds), lagging a mean Reuters poll forecast for a 2 percent increase, or 5 percent in local currencies. Main rival Inditex ( ITX.MC ), the owner of Zara, has outperformed H&M and others in recent years, helped by a more flexible supply chain that allows it to adapt quicker to demand. The Spanish company this week reported slower sales growth in the three months through October but said sales growth had gained pace again in November. A string of analysts have lowered their ratings on the H&M stock recently amid concerns that H&M won’t be able, despite rapid online growth, to keep up with newer and nimbler pure-online players such as Zalando ( ZALG.DE ) and Asos ( ASOS.L ), and that comparable sales declines will extend into 2018. H&M’s full quarterly earnings report is due Jan. 31. Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Johannes Hellstrom and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-h-m-sales/hm-sales-unexpectedly-shrink-in-fourth-quarter-idUKKBN1E90N9'|'2017-12-15T09:45:00.000+02:00'
'65f959a4e0024553fdbe82a3042aa5ed82e2a719'|'Nestle sells off tea brands in North America'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:45 AM / Updated an hour ago Nestle sells two iced tea brands in North America John Revill 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Nestle ( NESN.S ) has sold two of its iced tea brands in North America as the world’s biggest food maker presses ahead with reshaping its business to focus on new trends and consumer healthcare. Private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners said on Monday it has linked up with Dunn’s River Brands to buy the Sweet Leaf Tea and Tradewinds businesses from Nestle North America. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Nestle, which is also looking to sell its U.S. confectionery business, declined to say if other sales within the drinks business were planned. Nestle said the sale was part of its strategy of focusing on its core waters brands in North America, which include Poland Spring and Arrowhead. “We took this difficult but important step to position us to further deliver upon our healthy hydration ambitions,” a Nestle spokeswoman said. “We are confident that these changes to our portfolio will allow us to sharpen our focus on legacy brands, while identifying new areas of growth and innovation.” She declined to give the size of the business, but said tea was only a small part of the company’s overall operations. Under Chief Executive Mark Schneider, who took over this year, Nestle has embarked upon an overhaul of its brands and strategy as it seeks to overcome sluggish growth in its traditional businesses which has come under the spotlight from activist investors. In September, Schneider said the company was intensifying its focus on high-growth categories such as bottled water, coffee, pet care and infant nutrition. The Swiss company this month announced the purchase of Canadian vitamin maker Atrium Innovations for $2.3 billion, its fourth purchase in recent months. It bought Sweet Earth vegetarian foods and Blue Bottle coffee in September and Chameleon Cold-Brew coffee in November as it adjusts to a market in which customers favor smaller, independent brands. The maker of Gerber baby food, Purina pet food and Nescafe coffee came under pressure this year to improve returns from shareholder Third Point. It has since announced a share buyback and a margin target. As well as making acquisitions, Nestle has also been trimming its operations including cutting jobs in its skin health business. Nestle said in June it might sell its U.S. confectionery business, which includes regional mass-market brands such as Butterfinger, Crunch and 100 Grand and could be valued at around $2 billion. Reporting by John Revill, editing by Louise Heavens and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nestle-tea-sale/nestle-sells-off-tea-brands-in-north-america-idUSKBN1EC0NN'|'2017-12-18T09:38:00.000+02:00'
'c0b0d8feb7df53350d6d3cc659693a31501e93d4'|'EasyJet confirms stakes in Air Berlin assets'|'December 15, 2017 / 10:30 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago EasyJet confirms stakes in Air Berlin assets Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s budget airline easyJet Plc ( EZJ.L ) confirmed on Friday that it partly acquired Air Berlin Plc’s ( AB1.DE ) operations at Berlin Tegel Airport. FILE PHOTO - EasyJet passengers wait at Nice Cote d''Azur airport as most of the flights are cancelled due to a storm in Nice, France, December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard The 40 million euro (£35.3 million) deal includes some of Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel airport, leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft and about 1,000 of Air Berlin’s pilots and cabin crew. It will make easyJet the largest carrier in the German capital. The airline currently flies from Berlin Schoenefeld airport to destinations outside Germany. The deal will allow it to move into the larger inner-city Tegel airport. The British company was expected to confirm the acquisition after it gained unconditional EU antitrust approval earlier this week. Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-easyjet/easyjet-confirms-stakes-in-air-berlin-assets-idUKKBN1E92WF'|'2017-12-16T00:29:00.000+02:00'
'cb8598c81f7632bddc3de2bb73f360568ed4b039'|'Asian shares edge up, on track for weekly gain'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:59 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Asian shares edge up, on track for weekly gain Lisa Twaronite 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares edged higher on Friday, on track for weekly gains, though sentiment was kept in check by Wall Street’s weakness on concerns about the progress of U.S. tax reform. FILE PHOTO - Investors look at computer screens showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.04 percent in early trade, poised to gain 1.2 percent for the week. But Japan''s Nikkei stock index .N225 slipped 0.8 percent, down 1.3 percent for the week, feeling the pinch of a stronger yen even amid fresh signs the economy is gathering momentum. Big Japanese manufacturers’ business confidence improved for a fifth straight quarter in the three months to December to hit an 11-year high, the Bank of Japan’s quarterly tankan survey showed. On Thursday, U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in November and the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to near a 44-1/2-year low last week. That pointed to sustained strength in the economy that could pave the way for further Federal Reserve interest rate hikes next year. The Fed hiked interest rates on Wednesday but left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged even as policymakers projected a short-term jump in U.S. economic growth from the Trump administration’s proposed tax cuts. “The Fed’s move this week was largely perceived as a dovish hike,” said Bill Northey, chief investment officer at the private client group of U.S. Bank in Helena, Montana. “It was ultimately well within expectations, and I think the one surprise was how strong the upgrade was for 2018 without any corresponding upgrade for their expectations for inflation,” he said. “That keeps our expectations around three rate hikes for 2018.” On Wall Street on Thursday, major U.S. stock indexes fell, with the S&P 500 .SPX down the most in a month, as investor worries over potential roadblocks to the Republicans'' tax overhaul more than offset optimism over the strong data. Republicans in the U.S. Congress reached a deal this week on a final version of their debt-financed legislation to cut taxes for businesses and wealthy Americans, with House and Senate votes expected early next week. But the bill has yet to get needed support of some key Senators, and investors worry about downward pressure on stocks if the bill were to fail. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, was up 0.1 percent at 93.577 .DXY, down 0.3 percent for the week. But the dollar was 0.1 percent lower against the yen at 112.28 JPY= , down more than 1 percent for the week, and moving away from a one-month high of 113.75 yen logged on Tuesday. The euro was steady at $1.1779 EUR= . On Thursday, the European Central Bank raised growth and inflation forecasts for the euro area, but stuck with its pledge to provide stimulus for as long as needed. Sterling was steady at $1.3435 GBP= . The Bank of England also left interest rates unchanged on Thursday, as expected. U.S. crude oil futures extended gains, after rising on Thursday as a pipeline outage in Britain continued to support prices despite forecasts showing global crude surplus in the beginning of next year. U.S. crude CLc1 added 0.1 percent, or 8 cents, to $57.12 a barrel, after gaining 0.8 percent overnight. Brent crude futures LCOc1 had yet to trade on Friday after settling up 1.4 percent, or 87 cents, at $63.31 a barrel on Thursday. Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-shares-edge-up-on-track-for-weekly-gain-idUKKBN1E9032'|'2017-12-15T03:05:00.000+02:00'
'48e06dd1ef146e832b321446b49ce82ba1590fb3'|'EU set to focus on banking union, bailout fund in euro zone overhaul'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:22 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago EU sets bank union, ESM as euro zone overhaul priorities Jan Strupczewski , Philip Blenkinsop 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders on Friday set the completion of a banking union and expansion of the role of the euro zone bailout fund as priorities for euro zone integration, putting off contentious issues such as a budget for the currency area. Estonia''s Prime Minister Juri Ratas, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Council President Donald Tusk arrive to address a joint news conference during a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir “In the next six months, the work of our finance ministers should concentrate on areas where the convergence of views is the biggest,” summit chairman Donald Tusk told reporters after a summit of the 27 countries that will remain in the EU after Britain leaves in 2019. “Progressing step-by-step on ... the completion of the banking union and the transformation of the ESM into the so-called European Monetary Fund should significantly strengthen the resilience of the Economic and Monetary Union,” he said. Tusk said discussions would continue on other ideas such as a euro zone budget, finance minister, parliament or sovereign insolvency mechanism, but they needed more time to “mature”. These are issues where there are wide differences between the key players -- French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. At a joint press conference to underline Franco-German cooperation, which has traditionally driven EU development, Merkel and Macron said they would have a joint view on euro zone reform by March, when EU leaders meet again on the issue. BETTER PROTECTION “There is agreement that we aim for a banking union. There is agreement ... that there will be structural reforms,” Merkel told reporters. The aim of the reforms is to protect the 19 countries using the euro better from financial crises and help rally the EU around it at a time of strong anti-EU sentiment and Britain’s decision to leave the EU. Strengthening the banking sector by gradually introducing a pan-European scheme to protect bank deposits across borders is one of the ideas that enjoy broad support, although with caveats. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrive for a joint news conference after the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Vidal “We want the debate to focus mainly on the banking union,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters. “But the banks must first be made safe ... before you go to deposit guarantees.” Germany and the Netherlands insist that the deposit guarantees can only become reality when risks in the banking sector are substantially reduced. This is likely to mean cutting the number of bad loans that banks hold, and adjusting the risk weighting on government bonds to better reflect the likelihood of sovereign default. FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES Slideshow (9 Images) The other idea that the leaders back is to transform the euro zone bailout fund, the ESM, into a European Monetary Fund and make it an emergency backstop for the euro zone’s bank resolution fund -- an idea tested since 2013. The new fund would handle all future bailouts, cutting out the International Monetary Fund, which has clashed with euro zone governments over debt relief for Greece in connection with its latest bailout. But at the heart of the debate are more contentious issues, such as creating a post of finance minister for the euro zone and a budget that could finance shared European public infrastructure or be a buffer against external shocks. Macron said earlier this year he wanted a euro zone budget of several hundred billion euros, while Berlin wants no budget at all. In an effort to bring the positions closer, Macron stressed on Friday that in his main policy speech in September he did not mention a numerical value for the budget. “The size will be determined by our ambition and ability to develop a common vision,” Macron said, standing beside Merkel. Siding with Germany, Rutte said healthy national finances were the best protection against external economic shocks and that there was no need for a special euro zone budget. “I am not in favour of one big European shock absorption fund, but 19 smaller ones, these being the countries themselves and their ability to deal with crises individually,” Rutte said. Additional reporting by Luke Baker, Noah Barkin and Francesci Guarascio; Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-summit-eurozone/eu-set-to-focus-on-banking-union-bailout-fund-in-euro-zone-overhaul-idUKKBN1E91EE'|'2017-12-15T14:23:00.000+02:00'
'eaf4576a64bc7579d92f57ed05c6c1c5794dc3bd'|'South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax as regulators grapple with "speculative mania"'|'December 13, 2017 / 12:56 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax as regulators grapple with ''speculative mania'' Christine Kim , Cynthia Kim 5 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Wednesday it may tax capital gains from cryptocurrecy trading as global regulators worried about a bubble, with Australia’s central bank chief warning of a ‘speculative mania” that has seen the digital asset making rip-roaring gains. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo As bitcoin futures made their world debut on a U.S. stock exchange this week, policy makers have been forced to contend with cryptocurrencies becoming more of a mainstream play and the need to regulate them. The world''s biggest and best known cryptocurrency, bitcoin BTC=BTSP , surged past $17,000 to new all-time highs this week, marking an almost dizzying 20-fold rise this year and feeding fears of a bubble. Australia’s central bank governor Philip Lowe warned on Wednesday the fascination with the assets felt like a “speculative mania.” The comments come days after his New Zealand counterpart said bitcoin appeared to be a “classic case” of a bubble, and cast doubt on its future. The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday warned trading and public offerings in the emerging asset class may be in violation of federal securities law. Digital currencies are very popular across Asia, with many retail investors giving up their daily jobs to trade them full time in countries such as Japan and South Korea, which together make up for more than half the global trading volumes by some estimates. But the possibility of major losses if the bubble bursts and wild gyrations of 10-30 percent in a single day have instilled a sense of urgency among policymakers to come up with a regulatory response. In Seoul, after an emergency meeting on Wednesday, South Korea’s government said it will consider taxing capital gains from trading of virtual coins and will also ban minors from opening accounts on exchanges, according to a statement obtained by Reuters ahead of its official release. To be eligible, exchanges in South Korea will need to uphold investor protection rules and disclose all bid and offer quotes. The measures need parliamentary approval. Seoul will maintain a current ban on all financial institutions dealing virtual currencies. “The regulations in Korea will not have a negative effect,” said Thomas Glucksmann, head of marketing at Hong Kong-based exchange Gatecoin, adding that on the contrary, “licensing brings certainty, which encourages already regulated entities ... to get involved in addition to skeptical retail investors.” In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, the Seoul-based operator of the world’s busiest virtual currency exchange Bithumb, said it will fully comply with potential regulations from the South Korean government and adequately capitalize itself to protect its clients. Elsewhere in Asia, China in September ordered Beijing-based cryptocurrency exchanges to stop trading and immediately notify users of their closure, in a move aimed at limiting risks in the speculative market. Economists and cryptocurrency advocates say the move was also intended to close an avenue used to evade Beijing’s capital controls. Japan requires crypto-currency operators to register with the government. The Japanese government in April granted cryptocurrencies legal status as a means of settlement and in September officially recognized 11 digital currencies exchanges. CRYPTO COINS WEAKEN Bitcoin dropped to $16,575 on Wednesday, down 0.5 percent on the day, after losing $152 from its previous close. On Bithumb, it was down 2 percent at $17,083. Bitcoin futures maturing in January on the Cboe Global Markets Inc’s Cboe Futures Exchange XBTF8 were $17,700, having opened at $18,010. Bitcoin-related shares in Seoul slumped in early trade on news of the government’s emergency meeting, before rebounding as the statement did not mention harsh restrictions. Vidente Co Ltd ( 121800.KQ ) and Omnitel Inc ( 057680.KQ ), which hold stakes of Bithumb, were up 4 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Bitcoin mining-related company JCH Systems Inc ( 033320.KQ ) were up 1 percent. While crypto trading has attracted anyone from hedge funds and finance professionals to housewives and college students, it is yet to lure institutional asset managers whose mandates require them to make long-term investments which do not chime with highly-volatile digital currencies, whose fundamental values are also difficult to define. “BlackRock’s view is that this isn’t a financial asset that we would trade in terms of equities or fixed income instruments,” said Belinda Boa, head of active investments for Asia Pacific, BlackRock. “There are questions around the store of value and the fact that actually for our clients we’re looking at longer term investments.” Reporting by Dahee Kim, Cynthia Kim and Christine Kim in SEOUL and Michelle Chen and Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-southkorea/south-korea-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-cryptocurrencies-measures-expected-friday-idUKKBN1E703O'|'2017-12-13T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'75316f8b6c0daad6873e17f1d999987c78a6c3e6'|'Russia''s central bank says to bail out Promsvyazbank'|' 33 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Russia''s central bank says to bail out Promsvyazbank Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Russia’s central bank said on Friday it had put Promsvyazbank, the country’s 10th biggest private lender by assets, under temporary administration as part of a bailout plan. The central bank said in a statement it was providing funds to support Promsvyazbank’s liquidity and would send in temporary administrators. It said there would be no moratorium on Promsvyazbank meeting creditors’ claims, and that the bank was operating as normal. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Jack Stubbs)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-banks-promsvyazbank/russias-central-bank-says-to-bail-out-promsvyazbank-idUSR4N1NX02H'|'2017-12-15T08:29:00.000+02:00'
'80dec00cc8bd697ce4748949e5d10538a4d38d37'|'Seven days left to find solution for Niki airline - works council chief'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:59 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Ryanair says in touch with administrators over Niki assets Kirsti Knolle , Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read VIENNA/BERLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair ( RYA.I ) may bid for assets of Niki, Europe’s biggest budget carrier said on Friday, as administrators scramble to find a buyer for the insolvent Austrian airline before it loses its valuable runway slots. A Niki logo and a traffic sign are seen at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader Niki, a unit of Air Berlin, filed for insolvency on Wednesday after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) scrapped plans to buy its business, grounding the airline’s fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. “Ryanair confirmed today ... that it had contacted the administrators of Niki Luftfahrt GmbH in respect of the insolvency process and the potential purchase of remaining Niki assets,” the carrier said in an emailed statement. Founder and former Formula One champion Niki Lauda as well as tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) have also expressed an interest in taking over Niki. The parties are under pressure to agree a deal before Niki loses its take-off and landing rights, its most attractive assets, which works council chief Stefan Tankovits told broadcaster ORF could happen within about a week. Airport slots in Europe are usually returned to a pool and redistributed when airlines collapse unless a buyer is found. The administrators of collapsed British holiday airline Monarch were able to hang on to its slots at London Gatwick and Luton airports and sell them to IAG ( ICAG.L ) and Wizz ( WIZZ.L ), even though no buyer was found for its business overall and its operating licence was revoked, causing surprise in the industry. Slideshow (3 Images) Austria’s Transport Ministry is in talks with the coordinating authority Slots Austria on whether Niki’s slot certificates can be extended, but no decision has been made yet. TALKS ONGOING Talks with possible buyers were ongoing but a result was not expected on Friday, a spokesman for Niki’s insolvency administrator, declining to mention names. A spokeswoman for Niki Lauda said he had travelled to Frankfurt early on Friday to join the negotiations. Thomas Cook declined to comment on negotiations on Friday. Lufthansa abandoned plans to buy Niki due to the European Commission’s competition concerns, after giving the carrier tens of millions of euros to keep its planes in the air until the deal was completed. It is still buying LGW, another unit of Air Berlin, and has said it would use the money set aside to buy Niki to grow its own operations in Niki’s markets. Following Air Berlin’s collapse, Ryanair had expressed interest in some of the German carrier’s assets but then decided against bidding, saying the way that Lufthansa seemed to be handed the most valuable bits was a “stitch-up”. The German authorities rejected Ryanair’s assertion. Reporting by Kirsti Knolle in VIENNA and Victoria Bryan in BERLIN; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ari-berlin-m-a-lufthansa/seven-days-left-to-find-solution-for-niki-airline-works-council-chief-idUKKBN1E90OB'|'2017-12-15T09:57:00.000+02:00'
'8245730798582eacf4749f1c215853b09037ba6f'|'RPT-INSIGHT-Paralysis at PDVSA: Venezuela''s oil purge cripples company'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:03 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago RPT-INSIGHT-Paralysis at PDVSA: Venezuela''s oil purge cripples company Reuters Staff (Repeats with no changes to text) By Alexandra Ulmer and Marianna Parraga CARACAS/HOUSTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Decisions at some joint ventures with foreign firms are delayed. A growing number of oil tankers sit idle because no one authorizes payments. Employees struggle to get approval for routine expenses, from taxis to training. An alleged crackdown on graft in Venezuela, seen by critics as an effort by President Nicolas Maduro to consolidate power, has sown panic across the country’s energy industry and all but paralyzed state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, according to people at the company and across the sector. The ongoing purge, in which prosecutors have arrested at least 67 executives including two recently ousted oil ministers, now threatens to further harm operations for the OPEC country, which is already producing at near 30-year-lows and struggling to run PDVSA units including Citgo Petroleum, its U.S. refiner. Further trouble for the all-important industry could cause yet more economic chaos in the once-prosperous Andean country, which is currently grappling with a profound recession, soaring crime and violence, crippled public services and the world’s steepest inflation rate. Many of those detained have not yet been replaced, as the once world-leading company, already struggling with a brain drain, wants for qualified personnel. Executives that remain, meanwhile, are so rattled by the arrests that they are loathe to act, scared they will later be accused of wrongdoing. “In PDVSA, nobody dares sign anything now, not even a Christmas card,” said one executive at a joint venture between PDVSA and a foreign firm in the Orinoco oil belt, asking to remain anonymous. Interviews with around 20 current and former PDVSA employees, executives at foreign firms, traders and PDVSA clients say fear is compounding problems including the loss of talent, mounting debts, equipment shortages, rampant theft and chronic underinvestment. Venezuela’s Oil Ministry and PDVSA did not respond to a request for comment. “WITCH HUNT” Oil accounts for over 90 percent of Venezuela’s export revenue and provides the hard currency for Maduro’s socialist government. Yet the country, which sits on the world’s largest crude reserves, is now producing under 2 million barrels per day (bpd). A political tool even before Maduro mentor Hugo Chavez became president in 1999, PDVSA has increasingly become an extension of Venezuela’s beleaguered government, critics say, with lackeys and soldiers now filling posts, including the top job, that once required industry expertise. In what some executives call a “witch hunt,” some mid-level managers are now using the purge as an excuse to fire anti-government employees or even disliked colleagues. “You say anything against anyone right now, and they believe you,” said one PDVSA employee, calling from a relative’s phone to avoid potential eavesdropping. The purge comes years after industry analysts and opposition politicians began criticizing PDVSA management for widespread graft. A report by the opposition-led Congress last year said at least $11 billion went “missing” at PDVSA between 2004 and 2014. For years, the government decried such accusations as “smear campaigns” against socialism and in favor of a U.S.-backed coup. But Maduro, expected to run for reelection next year, recently changed tone. He now blames “thieves” and “traitors” for an economic crisis so severe that disease and malnutrition are spreading unchecked by a broken public health system. Arrests, including that of former oil ministers and PDVSA bosses Eulogio Del Pino and Nelson Martinez last month, have targeted officials once thought untouchable. Attorneys and opposition figures criticize prosecutors for providing little evidence of crimes. Maduro last month appointed a general to take the reins of PDVSA and the oil ministry. The new oil czar, former housing minister Major General Manuel Quevedo, has no experience in the energy sector. Quevedo has yet to produce a detailed business plan, but has vowed to boost production by 1 million bpd - roughly the volume lost in the last four years. “If we can build almost 2 million homes, we can recover production!” he said in a recent speech to employees, urging them to name and shame “squalid” pro-opposition colleagues. Critics within the sector say Quevedo’s words betray ignorance of what it would take to revive the foundering industry. They say there is no proof that the general even oversaw construction of that many houses. Already, Quevedo decreed that all contracts with PDVSA be reviewed in a “clean up.” While it is unclear what the review will entail, it has already spooked clients and partners who fear for the integrity of existing contracts. DELAYS AND CONFUSION There is also growing concern about PDVSA’s dwindling ability to finance payments and operations, especially with inexperienced executives now at the helm. Some PDVSA employees say boat shortages are so acute in western Lake Maracaibo that workers often cannot get to platforms. Late payments have led tanker operators to halt around 18 vessels needed to carry oil and refined products, two sources said. PDVSA’s crown jewel, Texas-based Citgo, has not been spared. Most of its board was arrested in Caracas last month, and Asdrubal Chavez, a cousin of the late president, was appointed to replace his jailed predecessor. So far, Chavez is managing Citgo from Caracas, two sources said, causing delays and confusion. Citgo did not respond to a request for comment. Even much of the day-to-day office work at PDVSA has ground to a halt. One PDVSA worker said simple expenses like taxis are now off the table. “They’ve suspended training courses,” said another employee. Combined, the woes are prompting analysts to question just how low Venezuela’s oil production will fall. The International Energy Agency predicts output will fall at least 500,000 bpd to 1.5 million bpd in 2018. Analysis firm Medley Global Advisors forecasts a decline of as much as 550,000 bpd, citing risks including “PDVSA’s militarization and purge of what remains of its technical capacity.” A steep drop would heighten chances that cash-strapped Venezuela defaults on some $60 billion in foreign debt. Maduro’s government has sought to restructure the debt, but has continued to make payments, albeit with delays. Even if production rebounded, PDVSA does not stand to reap a windfall. A growing portion of exports are being used to repay loans from allies, like China and Russia, who have thrown vital lifelines to Maduro’s government. Meanwhile, foreign companies in Venezuela, including U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. and Russian energy giant Rosneft , are frustrated. They see little progress on longstanding demands, from more operational control at joint ventures with PDVSA to better security at isolated oil fields, according to people close to the firms. “We’ve lost hope of resolving our problems,” said one executive. “We’re on hold.” Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas and Mariana Parraga in Houston. Editing by Paulo Prada.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-oil/rpt-insight-paralysis-at-pdvsa-venezuelas-oil-purge-cripples-company-idUSL1N1OF0KL'|'2017-12-15T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'a2dae7e6442438f070c2c57457054ca8e6cc224e'|'UPDATE 2-Unilever to sell spreads business to KKR for $8 billion'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:37 PM / in 5 minutes Unilever to sell spreads business to KKR for $8 billion Greg Roumeliotis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Unilever ( ULVR.L ) has agreed to sell its margarine and spreads business to U.S. private equity firm KKR ( KKR.N ) for 6.83 billion euros ($8.04 billion) to concentrate on faster growing products. The maker of Knorr soup and Dove soap announced the deal on Friday, hours after Reuters reported that KKR had entered exclusive talks to buy the shrinking business after outbidding rivals. The brands to be sold include Becel, Flora, Country Crock and Blue Band. Unilever put the business up for sale in April, following a review of its assets prompted by February’s unsolicited $143 billion takeover attempt by Kraft Heinz ( KHC.O ). “The announcement today marks a further step in reshaping and sharpening our portfolio for long-term growth,” said Chief Executive Paul Polman. “The consideration recognizes the market leading brands and the improved momentum we have achieved.” The spreads business has been in decline for years as people eat less bread and margarine, but Unilever has taken steps to stem the decline and the unit is very profitable. That made it attractive to private equity firms who were the main bidders in the auction run by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Based in New York, KKR had $153 billion in assets under management as of the end of September. The firm has a long history in the consumer sector and it has investments in India’s Coffee Day Resorts and Chinese white goods maker Qingdao Haier. Earlier this year, KKR bought majority control of vitamin maker Nature’s Bounty. The deal with Unilever is expected to close mid-2018, subject to regulatory approvals and employee consultations. Unilever, whose sales unexpectedly slowed in October, said it plans to return the cash to shareholders, unless more value-creating acquisition options arise. This year Unilever has snapped up small brands including Tazo tea, Sundial Brands and Carver Korea. Unilever said last month it favored ending its dual Anglo-Dutch structure to become a single entity, but it has delayed a decision whether it would be based in Britain or the Netherlands. ($1 = 0.8497 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-spreads-kkr/unilever-to-sell-margarine-and-spreads-unit-to-kkr-for-8-billion-idUSKBN1E926O'|'2017-12-15T19:53:00.000+02:00'
'57237b6b0a5c2cc7aa2651a846f43180ba8bae84'|'Exclusive - KKR wins auction for Unilever''s spreads business: sources'|'December 15, 2017 / 2:05 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Exclusive - KKR wins auction for Unilever''s spreads business: sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Private equity firm KKR ( KKR.N ) is in exclusive talks to buy Unilever’s ( ULVR.L ) margarine and spreads business, people familiar with the matter said on Friday, in a deal expected to top $7 billion. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid /File Photo KKR prevailed in an auction for the business and could finalise a deal as early as this month, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. KKR and Unilever did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unilever-spreads-kkr-exclusive/exclusive-kkr-wins-auction-for-unilevers-spreads-business-sources-idUKKBN1E91S5'|'2017-12-15T16:11:00.000+02:00'
'9edc88436b80e7a2af0aae768f3514025a12cf2c'|'China''s Tencent plans to buy 5 percent stake in Yonghui Superstores'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Tencent Holding Ltd ( 0700.HK ) plans to buy a 5 percent stake in Yonghui Superstores ( 601933.SS ), the department store operator said on Monday.FILE PHOTO: Tencent company name is displayed at a news conference in Hong Kong, China March 17, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo The investment will be made through an affiliate of Tencent, which also aims to take a 15 percent stake in Yonghui Superstore Co Ltd’s ( 601933.SS ) supply chain and logistics subsidiary via a capital increase, the retailer said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange.Details of the investments, including the transaction prices and stake sellers, remain under discussion, it added in the filing.Tencent was not immediately available for comment outside of normal business hours.Trade in Yonghui Superstores remains suspended after it was halted on December 8. Before the suspension, it jumped its daily limit of 10 percent following local reports of Tencent’s investment.China’s e-commerce giants have pushed into traditional retail. In November, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) said it would invest $2.9 billion in China’s top hypermart operator Sun Art Retail Group Ltd ( 6808.HK ) for a major stake.[nL3N1NQ03M]Reporting by Meg Shen; Additional reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-tencent-holdings-yh-superstores-stake/chinas-tencent-plans-to-buy-5-percent-stake-in-yonghui-superstores-idINKBN1E51UK'|'2017-12-11T12:25:00.000+02:00'
'095d1991228a698726b745f2682c2d75917b5dba'|'Nearly half of Americans still oppose Republican tax bill: Reuters/Ipsos poll'|'WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Republicans in the U.S. Congress rush to finish their tax plan, the legislation is not getting more popular with the public, with nearly half of Americans still opposed to it, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Monday.People listen as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about tax reform in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts Of adults who were aware of the plan being considered by Congress, 49 percent said they were opposed to it, a sentiment that has not changed much in the past few weeks, the poll showed.In addition to the 49 percent who said they opposed the Republican tax bill, 31 percent said they supported it and 20 percent said they “don’t know,” according to the online opinion poll of 1,499 adults conducted Dec. 3 to 7, with 1,138 adults saying they were aware of the tax legislation. A poll taken at the end of November also showed 49 percent opposed to the plan.Tax negotiators are trying to reconcile the differences between separate bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate, then to send a final bill to President Donald Trump, who want to sign it into law before year’s end.Accomplishing this feat would represent the Republicans’ first major legislative victory since they took control of both chamber of Congress and the White House in January.Republican tax legislation would slash the corporate tax rate, eliminate some taxes paid only by rich Americans and offer a mixed bag of temporary cuts to other individuals and families.Trump, who is expected to give a speech on the tax overhaul on Wednesday, praised it in a tweet on Sunday by saying the “end result will be not only important, but SPECIAL!”When asked about Trump’s handling of tax policy, 53 percent of those polled said they disapproved, 38 percent approved and 9 percent said they “don’t know,” the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.When asked who stands to benefit most from the Republican plan, more than half of American adults surveyed selected either the wealthy or large U.S. corporations. Twelve percent chose “all Americans,” 8 percent picked the middle class and 2 percent chose lower-income Americans.The Reuters/Ipsos poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 about percentage points.A USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released on Sunday showed that 32 percent of Americans support the Republican tax plan, with more than half predicting it would not lower tax bills for their families or help the economy in a major way.Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Bill Trott '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-poll/nearly-half-of-americans-still-oppose-republican-tax-bill-reuters-ipsos-poll-idINKBN1E52I7'|'2017-12-11T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'a373545acd22d66a287733e9ea054d151f70653e'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 11'|'Dec 11 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 31 points higher at 7,393.96 on Monday, according to financial bookmakers. * UNILEVER: Apollo Global Management, U.S. agricultural trader Archer Daniels Midland and former chief executive of Germany''s Grohe, David Haines, are preparing to submit a new bid in a $7 billion auction for Unilever''s spreads business, the Financial Times reported on Saturday. ( on.ft.com/2AmmC8V ) * LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE: The London Stock Exchange Group has begun interviewing candidates for chief executive, a sign of the board''s growing confidence it will fend off an activist investor''s attempt to oust the chairman, the Financial Times reported. ( on.ft.com/2iRcaLy ) * BRITAIN-BANKS: Britain''s smaller banks are lining up to apply for multi-million pound grants the government hopes will help them compete in the corporate banking market. * OIL: Oil prices fell on Monday, pulled down as the latest rise in the U.S. rig count pointed to a further increase in American production, potentially undermining efforts led by OPEC to tighten markets. * GOLD: Gold prices were steady early on Monday, holding above a four-month low hit last week, amid a firm dollar. * BRITAIN-EU: Businesses fretting about Brexit should get reassurance early in the new year that little will change for a couple of years after Britain leaves the European Union in less then 16 months, EU officials said on Friday. * The UK blue chip index closed up 1.2 percent on Friday, as sterling fell back, dented by investors banking their gains in the currency which has swung violently as negotiations unfolded. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: IXICO PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Hardide PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Photo-Me International PLC Interim 2018 Earnings Release TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-11-idUSL3N1OB26O'|'2017-12-11T08:40:00.000+02:00'
'b616784d4d5b97a64868027e99487690860034f6'|'Exclusive: Myanmar to delay law that would have allowed more foreign investment'|'Reuters TV United States December 11, 2017 / 6:34 AM / a few seconds ago Exclusive: Myanmar to delay law that would have allowed more foreign investment Thu Thu Aung , Yimou Lee 5 Min Read YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar will delay a long-awaited reform that would open the door further to foreign investment, two officials told Reuters, a move likely to disappoint cash-starved businesses amid growing doubts over the management of the economy by the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar''s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi gives a speech at the opening ceremony of the "CPC in dialogue with world political parties high-level meeting, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool The postponement of the corporate reform, which would have allowed foreign companies to take up to a 35 percent stake in Myanmar companies, will likely deal a fresh blow to investor confidence in Suu Kyi’s administration. Economic reform is a key goal for her to complete Myanmar’s democratic transition after decades of isolation under military rule. The delay underscores the daunting challenge facing Suu Kyi, whose promise of a reformist government that would attract foreign investment is under threat. Some aid to Myanmar is already being withheld and investors are concerned that the sanctions that long hobbled the country’s economy will be reinstated over its treatment of its Rohingya minority. A Myanmar companies law, which could bring much-needed foreign capital to the country after decades of mismanagement by the former military junta, was approved last week by President Htin Kyaw without a commencement date specified. Aung Naing Oo, head of Myanmar’s Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), told Reuters the authorities may not be ready to implement the new rules until as late as August 2018, after bylaws were prepared and a company registry that he said was vital to enforcement was completed. “We really want to implement the law as soon as possible but there are many things for us to do,” he said, declining to elaborate what bylaws were needed. He said the government would make sure implementation would be no later than August 1. “We have to make sure the reform is on the right track.” Myo Min, director of DICA, said the authorities needed up to eight months to “work on the guidance and operating manual” for the country’s first modern online registry, an initiative driven by the Asian Development Bank to electronically revamp the country’s company registry to boost transparency. The law includes a first set of modern corporate governance regulations, in some parts replacing rules made over a century ago, to bring the country’s business regulatory framework closer to international standards. At issue is a clause that allows foreigners to take up to a 35 percent share in local companies, which would give local businesses access to a larger capital pool and open up the door for mergers and acquisitions in sectors that are in urgent need of an injection of cash from banking to property. The delay of the much-anticipated reform comes as Suu Kyi faces criticism that she has neglected economic reforms. Growth in both foreign investment and gross domestic product have slowed since her National League for Democracy took office last year in one of the region’s poorest countries. Htay Aung, president of the property-to-trading conglomerate Sakura Trade Center, said putting off implementation of the law “was bad for business as it will bring delays and extra costs, which result in losses”. The company is seeking $100 million in over­seas financing for a condominium development in Myanmar’s commercial hub, Yangon. “Foreign investment will be postponed and local businessmen will be disappointed.” “MISSED OPPORTUNITY” Investors have been waiting for the corporate reform, which was initiated by the former military-backed government in 2014. It establishes guidelines on how a company is run and governed, removing outdated rules on share transfers and offering greater protection to shareholders. But Chris Hughes, a lawyer with Berwin Leighton Paisner in Yangon who was commissioned to draft the rules, said it was a “missed opportunity” for Suu Kyi’s administration. “I can’t see a compelling economic reason or policy behind the delay. It seems more driven by technology or administrative factors.” William Greenlee, managing director at law firm DFDL in Yangon, said the business community would struggle with the delay. “International investors are watching and it’s wins like this that create a buzz and can materialize into a profound and sustained increase in foreign investment,” he said. “The euphoria will quickly turn to disappointment if it’s not implemented quickly.” Aung Naing Oo of DICA said there would be no negative impact on investment. “Investors always need to take some time before they invest,” he said. “So this actually is the time for investors to make preparation to invest in Myanmar.” The Asian Development Bank, which gives financial and technical assistance to Myanmar, said “it is ultimately the government’s decision when the law comes into force” and declined to comment further. Writing By Yimou Lee; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-investment-exclusive/exclusive-myanmar-to-delay-law-that-would-have-allowed-more-foreign-investment-idUKKBN1E50FK'|'2017-12-11T08:25:00.000+02:00'
'a650de872a9ed44201318e27155c4855c5bcd3ed'|'Icahn nominates four directors to Xerox''s board'|'December 11, 2017 / 12:25 PM / in an hour Icahn nominates four directors to Xerox''s board Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn has named four nominees to Xerox Corp’s ( XRX.N ) board of directors, the company said on Monday, after a current Icahn-appointed director resigned due to a difference of opinion with the board. FILE PHOTO: Billionaire activist-investor Carl Icahn gives an interview on FOX Business Network''s Neil Cavuto show in New York, U.S., February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The resignation of Jonathan Christodoro, a former managing director of Icahn Capital LP, ended a standstill arrangement the company and the Icahn Group agreed on in June 2016 and allowed Icahn to make his nominations, Xerox said. [nBw8Y6kZ1a] Christodoro, a Xerox''s board member since June last year, told Xerox''s chairman in a letter that he was one of the four Icahn nominations along with Keith Cozza, Jay Firestone and Randolph Read. bit.ly/2BUxB5X “Until the last few weeks, it appeared that the Board’s decisions would be consistent with my views on the best interests of Xerox and our shareholders,” Christodoro wrote in letter on Dec. 8 to Chairman Robert Keegan. “It now appears, however, that the Board will make decisions and take Xerox in a direction with which I strongly disagree.” Christodoro did not elaborate on these decisions. Xerox, in a statement, reaffirmed its full-year forecasts for adjusted operating margin, earnings per share, cash flow and revenue and noted that its stock''s near 30 percent rise this year had outperformed the S&P 500 .SPX . Icahn Associates Corp is Xerox’s largest shareholder with 9.7 percent stake as of September. Centerview Partners LLC is Xerox’s financial adviser and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP its legal adviser. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-xerox-board-icahn/icahn-makes-four-nominations-for-xerox-board-idUSKBN1E51BT'|'2017-12-11T14:54:00.000+02:00'
'4c2582a57c838c389aa6d5d07b917d417ff998c4'|'Meet the actor who became a leading corporate lawyer – and ‘found nirvana’ - Legal horizons'|'In an era of change for the legal profession, the role of general counsel (GC) has become one of the most complex, challenging and exciting in the corporate world. No one knows that better than Bjarne P Tellmann, GC and chief legal officer of Pearson, the world’s largest education publishing company.Three years into his current role, he has overseen a sweeping reorganisation of the company’s legal division, a major accomplishment in a career that could have taken a very different direction. As a young man born to a Norwegian diplomat father and an American mother, he had his heart set on becoming an actor.He says: “I studied acting at theatre school, and did some TV work in Sweden and a couple of films in Norway. I loved it and it was a very deep passion of mine for a very long time.”But a future in entertainment was not to be. Other things were grabbing his interest and he left the theatre programme to study political science, before completing an MSc in economics at the London School of Economics.“I spent the rest of that year wondering what to do next,” he says. “I moved to LA where I spent a lot of time watching LA Law, which made the image of lawyers look really exciting, so I decided to study law at the University of Chicago. That first year was a revelation. Everything that really interested me; human incentives, emotion, how you regulate society – this wonderful melange of topics and issues – all came together in the law.”With data now the ‘oil’ of the digital economy, does the law need to catch up? Read more After graduating, Tellmann, now in his mid-20s, set his sights on doing something international. “This was 1995, and globalisation was in full swing. Law was also on the cusp of globalising as a profession, however, only a few firms were doing that in an interesting way, and White & Case was one of them.”He joined the New York office for a year, before being posted to the Stockholm office to work on the restructuring of Coca-Cola’s Nordic and northern Eurasia bottling operations. From there he moved to Sullivan & Cromwell and its Frankfurt office, becoming specialised in capital markets. When the firm wanted him to return to New York, he knew this was an inflection point. He says: “I had to decide, do I really want to become a lawyer’s lawyer, hyper specialised and working in a very narrow space, or do I want to try something different?”He chose the latter, going in-house for the first time at personal care corporation Kimberly-Clark in London. “This was a really interesting time,” he says. “Every day was different, and working in-house, I knew had found my nirvana.”Tellmann’s next move took him back to the Coca-Cola Company and the role of GC Japan, followed by GC Asia-Pacific, and finally associate GC at the firm’s Atlanta HQ. Then, in 2014, Pearson called.He says: “They were in the process of a significant transformation, one aspect of which involved the transition from a holding company structure to a vertically integrated business model. At that time they had a global legal team of around 220 people, and they were bringing it together under one GC and one budget. I saw that as a great opportunity to apply my skills and my experience.”The task of unifying budgets, putting the right talent in the right place, implementing technology, and optimising the process was challenging, but three years later Tellmann had rebalanced the company’s external and internal spending ratios, and reduced costs by 40%. With the backbone of the legal division in place, Tellmann turned his attention to Pearson’s strategy and values.You can get all this hardware in place, reduce costs, increase efficiencies, but the deeper question remains; what is our purpose?He says: “You can get all this hardware in place, reduce costs, increase efficiencies, but the deeper question remains; what is our purpose? We had to figure out what kind of culture we wanted.”In what he describes as a “culture hack”, the team set about identifying elements of the culture they wanted to keep and develop, and those they wanted to lose. “The cool thing about it is it’s not me telling people what the culture is or how we are going to change, it’s them telling me,” says Tellmann. “There is ownership of the company from within, and that is very rewarding.”And what about the future? The legal profession is undergoing massive change, says Tellmann, a change that is being driven largely by technology.“We are living at a time when the regulatory environment is proliferating at a massive rate, and globalisation means those regulations and other legal problems don’t stay put; they have global implications,” he says. “There is also a blurring of the lines between legal and reputation and other forms of risk, increased complexity, and pressure to do more with less. The only way to solve those things is by using technology.“Communication tools like email and video conferencing didn’t exist when I started. But today I can hire – and I have – single mothers living three hours north of London, people with disabilities who might not be able to come in, or millennials who may not want to come in. Technology gives me access to that talent.”Tellmann cites the raft of available online self-help tools, best practice tools, legal research tools, and transparency tools as being truly transformational to the current role of the lawyer, and sees newer technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine-learning as having profound implications for how lawyers will work in the future.“JP Morgan recently rolled out a machine-learning-based tool called COIN that basically reviews loan documents,” he says. “It can do in seconds what previously took lawyers and loan officers 360,000 hours.”Based on his experiences, Tellmann has written a book called Building an Outstanding Legal Team. As well as providing insight into the skills needed to be an outstanding GC, it also encapsulates the extent to which the innovation revolution is changing the legal profession.He says: “A big topic of discussion at law schools is to what extent the conventional training of legal professionals should be shifting to training the future leaders who are going to shape the law. If young people coming in are excited about the business of law, about being in a business that is radically changing, and using new technologies to be part of that disruption, there is no better time to be in law.”Topics legal horizons advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/legal-horizons/2017/dec/18/meet-the-actor-who-became-a-leading-corporate-lawyer-and-found-nirvana'|'2017-12-18T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'a1b7cb3a420a4729bf849f849461b73ad0844246'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Dec 18'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:58 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Dec 18 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Statistics Canada plans to experiment with online crowdsourcing to help figure out how much cannabis costs on Canada''s street corners, which will aid Ottawa in reaching one of its core goals to undercut the drug''s black market when legalization occurs next summer. tgam.ca/2oFJMSc ** Ottawa is pushing venture capitalists to help fix the gender gap in the Canadian startup scene, telling those who want to qualify for a C$400 million ($311 million) funding program they must "demonstrate how their strategies would advance these objectives." tgam.ca/2yRcJuv ** A Brazilian appeals court has upheld the suspension of a key license for Toronto-based Belo Sun Mining Corp, which hopes to build Brazil''s largest open-pit gold mine in the Amazon forest. tgam.ca/2kelJoV NATIONAL POST ** Toronto Police have released the cause of deaths of pharmaceuticals billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife, Honey. The couple, whose bodies were found on Friday, died from "ligature neck compression", the police said on Sunday. bit.ly/2yM93tH (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-dec-18-idUSL4N1OI3QN'|'2017-12-18T12:54:00.000+02:00'
'dde459784891d6e9d20e3475e095b275f8bc4583'|'Campbell Soup to buy snacks maker Snyder''s-Lance for $4.87 billion'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:42 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Campbell Soup to buy snacks maker Snyder''s-Lance for $4.87 billion Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Campbell Soup Co ( CPB.N ) will buy Pretzels and Cape Cod chips maker Snyder‘s-Lance Inc ( LNCE.O ) for $4.87 billion as it looks to expand its snack business amid sagging soup sales. Campbell said on Monday it would pay Snyder’s shareholders $50 per share in cash. The offer represents a 27 percent premium to Snyder’s close on Wednesday, a day before CNBC first reported it had hired an investment bank to weigh a potential sale following an approach from Campbell. The equity value of the deal is based on 97.46 million outstanding Snyder shares, according to Thomson Reuters data. Including debt the deal is valued at about $6 billion. Campbell said it plans to finance the acquisition through a combination of long- and short-term debt of $6.2 billion. Credit Suisse acted as lead financial adviser to Campbell in this transaction. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP acted as Campbell’s legal counsel. Goldman Sachs & Co LLC acted as lead financial adviser to Snyder‘s-Lance and Jenner & Block LLP acted as its legal counsel. Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-snyders-lance-m-a-campbell-soup/campbell-soup-to-buy-snacks-maker-snyders-lance-for-4-87-billion-idUSKBN1EC1J3'|'2017-12-18T14:41:00.000+02:00'
'814c2c8f8910c2da6ca6d605e94fd43d0b01c289'|'Berlin regrets EU decision on airline Niki as insolvency looms'|'December 13, 2017 / 2:40 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Berlin regrets EU decision on airline Niki as insolvency looms Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government said it “greatly regrets” a decision by the European Commission to block Lufthansa’s planned purchase of airline Niki and it signalled insolvency for the Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ) subsidiary and the grounding of its flights. “Due to the unexpected collapse in proceeds from the sale of Niki, it is possible that only a part of the government guaranteed loan from KfW (bank) to Air Berlin will be repaid,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in a statement. “The government will do everything it can to limit the damage to the tax payer,” he added. Reporting by Thomas Escritt and Madeline Chambers'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airberlin-m-a-germany/berlin-regrets-eu-decision-on-airline-niki-as-insolvency-looms-idUKKBN1E71ZY'|'2017-12-13T16:40:00.000+02:00'
'24b3e3f312459f56f528b2569fa36891e46eb1dd'|'Westfield $16 billion Unibail-Rodamco sale rings the bell on retail''s next chapter'|'SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - For investors in Australia’s Westfield Corp ( WFD.AX ), its $16 billion sale to European property giant Unibail-Rodamco UNBP.AX may mark a turning point for a mall industry under pressure to reinvent itself amid fierce online competition.A Westfield Corp sign adorns the side of a building in central Sydney, Australia, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray But to billionaire Frank Lowy, who built Westfield’s vast European and U.S. shopping center network into multi-purpose leisure venues, it was also the perfect moment to call time on a family empire.“He probably thought that he’d taken it as far as he could with his sons, and there were other people that may have a different way of approaching the industry,” said Harold Finger, founder of Sydney-based shopping center investor Haben Property Fund Pty Ltd, who has known Lowy since he was a boy.“He’s 87 years old, his kids are not little babies any more, they’ve got kids and they’ve got other interests that they can get involved in,” he said, referring to two of Lowy’s sons, Peter and Steven.The sale of Westfield to Paris and Amsterdam-listed Unibail-Rodamco is a milestone for so-called bricks-and-mortar retailers, which have so far argued they can downsize or, in Westfield’s case, go upmarket to avoid the incursion of online competitors led by U.S. giant Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ).But analysts and investors in the sector disagree about what comes next.“Lowy has bailed on Westfield before Amazon destroys his malls and turns them into relic tombs of the 20th century,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of private equity investor the Patriarch Organization, by telephone from Los Angeles.“You can only do so much to re-imagine a shopping mall, and they’ve tried here in Los Angeles, but it’s like trying to reinvent the horse and carriage. No matter how much you try you can’t turn a horse into a Tesla. It’s not going to happen.”The deal may nudge other mall owners towards considering a sale more seriously, though some point out that further M&A action will be more difficult with Westfield and Unibail-Rodamco - two big players - now off the board.The Lowy family, which owns 9 percent of Westfield, will end up with a 2.8 percent stake in the combined group.Citi analysts noted Lowy’s public statement that he remained committed to his seven-decade-old company as an investor but said “it’s hard not to see today’s announcement as signaling a significant shift in view”.FILE PHOTO: Westfield Group Chairman Frank Lowy addresses an investors briefing in central Sydney November 3, 2010. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo The deal has lifted expectations in a sector sold down by investors over its gloomy outlook.Shares of Scentre Group ( SCG.AX ), which Westfield spun off in 2014 to hold its Australian shopping centers while Westfield kept the U.S. and British assets, rose 2 percent on Wednesday, on top of a 4 percent jump a day earlier.GOING HIGH-END FILE PHOTO: Frank Lowy, Chairman of Football Federation Australia (FFA), listens a question from the media at Sydney airport March 31, 2010. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo The explosion of online retail has led to a worldwide decline in department store footprints, forcing mall owners such as Westfield to rethink their business models to sustain or grow earnings.In the United States, Macy’s Inc ( M.N ) and J C Penney Co Inc ( JCP.N ) have said they would shut hundreds of stores to protect themselves from declining sales. Credit Suisse estimates that up to 25 percent of U.S. malls will shut by 2025.Westfield has been seen as a pioneer of reinventing the mall concept, adding cinemas, apartment towers, high-end food courts and luxury fashion labels to its rental mix.The overhaul - which has spanned the Westfield portfolio from Beverly Hills, California, to London and Milan - has nonetheless curtailed earnings growth as capital works hit rents, weighing on the company’s share price and making it attractive for buyers.“Westfield particularly we saw as a good opportunity because it’s rare that you see a group that has such high quality assets, and they’re building out what is really the pre-eminent retail portfolio globally,” said Grant Berry, a portfolio manager at Australian broker S.G. Hiscock, which invests in retail real estate investment trusts (REITs), including Westfield.“They’ve been doing all the right things and the market hasn’t been giving them credit for that.”Winston Sammut, managing director of Folkestone Maxim Asset Management, said the deal offered Lowy and his family an exit just as their business entered its most challenge phase, while offering the buyer access to a fresh market.“It’ll probably turn out to be good timing,” said Sammut. “There’s still a lot of headwinds for the sector in general. The writing’s on the wall. You’ve got to take opportunities as they come.”Reporting by Byron Kaye in SYDNEY and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Additional reporting by Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Alex Richardson '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-westfield-m-a-unibail-rodamco/westfield-16-billion-unibail-rodamco-sale-rings-the-bell-on-retails-next-chapter-idUSKBN1E71BD'|'2017-12-13T13:12:00.000+02:00'
'6d25b659a18a6b4c72e8b22cd454b60409ce497a'|'CSX shares derail after CEO takes unexpected medical leave'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:12 PM / in 5 minutes CSX shares derail after CEO takes unexpected medical leave Eric M. Johnson 5 Min Read (Reuters) - CSX Corp ( CSX.O ) shares skidded as much as 10 percent on Friday, wiping out $4 billion in market value, as the No. 3 U.S. railroad by revenue sought to assure investors its turnaround would progress despite the unexpected medical leave of its chief executive officer. CSX stock, which has soared nearly 60 percent this year, tumbled 7.3 percent to $53.11 in midafternoon trading after earlier falling as low as $51.63. Most of the gains came after Hunter Harrison, 73, who led turnarounds of two Canadian railroads, was hired as CEO in March in a push by activist investor Paul Hilal. Harrison has tried to reform CSX to boost profits and streamline operations, although his rapid-fire system changes, cost cuts and layoffs triggered service disruptions and drew the ire of customers and regulators. Harrison started the overhaul of the railroad in March, but customer complaints and service disruptions came to light over the summer and continued at least through October, drawing federal scrutiny. Acting CEO Jim Foote, who worked with Harrison at Canadian National Railway ( CNR.TO ), insisted he will carry on the CEO’s plans, but offered no details on his health or when he might return to the helm of the Jacksonville, Florida-based company. Harrison previously took a medical leave at Canadian Pacific in 2015 after surgery and a bout with pneumonia. “My thoughts are totally consistent with everything that Hunter and CSX have said to date about what we intend to do. I see no significant material change from those plans,” Foote told Reuters by phone after a conference call with analysts. In June, CSX shareholders approved an $84 million payout to Hilal’s new investment firm Mantle Ridge for arranging Harrison’s appointment and gave the septuagenarian a four-year contract estimated at $300 million. Hilal, who now sits on the CSX board, was instrumental in appointing Harrison to run Canadian Pacific Ltd ( CP.TO ) when Hilal worked at William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management. The bet on CP earned the hedge fund $2.5 billion. Hilal   RAISING QUESTIONS With Foote now running the show, investors showed some nervousness about whether the executive can deliver on Harrison’s ambitious plans. FILE PHOTO: Hunter Harrison, CEO of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, looks on before speaking to the economic community at a business luncheon in Toronto, Canada, on March 2, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo “It will be a classic ‘show me’ story,” said Taylor Glasebrook, an associate portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, which owns 10.5 million shares of CSX, making it the No. 8 shareholder in CSX. “One investor concern may be that any possible changes to the pace of margin improvements (envisioned by Harrison) could slow down,” he said. Even before taking on the CEO job, Foote had his hands full as chief operating officer and chief sales and marketing officer. “There could be concerns among investors about whether Jim can wear three hats,” Glasebrook added. CSX will give investors details on the company’s strategy, such as possible plans to sell off some short-line rail segments, at its investor conference in early March, Foote said. Given Harrison’s age and health problems - he was seen using an oxygen tank when meeting with investors last month - investors want to know more about the company’s succession plans. Harrison on Nov. 29 said he was “trying to stay back a little bit” to give Foote and other managers the space to steer CSX, a move he described as part of his succession plan. “Hunter Harrison is a unique talent and leader and if he is unable to return to the company it would raise real questions over CSX’s long-term margin potential,” Citi analyst Christian Wetherbee said in a research note. While at Canadian Pacific, Harrison sought to acquire competitors. He made a failed bid for No. 4 U.S. railroad Norfolk Southern Corp ( NSC.N ), backed by CP shareholder Pershing Square and held abortive talks to buy CSX. Foote, who previously was the CEO of railroad products supplier Bright Rail Energy Inc, has never headed a major railroad. Foote brushed off questions about whether the board was slow in warning that Harrison has health problems. “The board acted properly and promptly based on the information that we had,” Foote said, adding that Harrison held management training sessions and spoke at an analyst conference in recent days. Foote said CSX has already gone through the “real heavy lifting,” including closing numerous rail yards where train cars are sorted. But Foote declined to say whether he would be in contact with Harrison regarding day-to-day operations. “We just can’t talk about it, simple as that,” he said. Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; additional reporting by Nick Carey in Detroit, Svea Herbst-Balyiss in Boston, Arunima Banerjee in Bangalore, and Anna Driver in New York; editing by Chizu Nomiyama and G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-csx-ceo/csxs-acting-ceo-says-running-railroad-in-same-manner-as-hunter-harrison-idUSKBN1E91M8'|'2017-12-15T21:42:00.000+02:00'
'567be95a60a2e1b712c958916cff736893fc1434'|'Massachusetts regulator opens pension probe against MetLife'|'December 18, 2017 / 4:38 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Massachusetts regulator opens pension probe against MetLife Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BOSTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The top securities regulator in Massachusetts on Monday said he has opened an investigation of MetLife Inc after the insurer revealed last week it had failed to pay pensions to potentially thousands of people. “Retirees cannot afford to have glitches with their pension checks,“ Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said in a statement. ”I want to uncover why this occurred and how MetLife is going to rectify the problem for the retirees.” MetLife said in a filing on Friday that it believed the group missing out on the payments represented less than 5 percent of about 600,000 people who receive benefits from the company via its retirement business. Those affected generally have average benefits of less than $150 a month, it said. (Reporting By Tim McLaughlin Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/metlife-pension-investigation/massachusetts-regulator-opens-pension-probe-against-metlife-idUSL1N1OI14D'|'2017-12-18T18:37:00.000+02:00'
'b06c0d5cc2e8bcb5c5684489758e9be37d698f46'|'British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta to buy U.S.-based steel assets in 2018'|' 15 PM / a few seconds ago British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta to buy U.S.-based steel assets in 2018 Maytaal Angel 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta is in talks to purchase and build more U.S.-based steel and industrial assets next year, after buying ArcelorMittal’s Georgetown Steelworks at the weekend. Gupta, executive chairman of GFG Alliance which is a $10 billion metals, industrials and energy group, has been snapping up distressed industrial assets in Britain, Australia and the United States in the past few years. Last week, GFG Alliance struck a deal with UK-based tidal power firm Atlantis Resources to form a listed company that marked Gupta’s first step onto the stock market, with further such steps expected next year. The industrialist told Reuters this year that GFG would list parts of its business, but was more likely list a steel asset in the United States than Britain. The Georgetown steelworks, which includes a 540,000 tonne-per-year electric arc furnace and a 680,000 tonne-per-year rod mill, would restart in the spring, GFG Alliance said in a statement. Gupta will initially rehire 125 former employees at the steelworks, aiming to expand the workforce to 250 in the medium-term. The plant was closed in August 2015 and directly employed more than 320 workers. The GFG Alliance runs metals group Liberty House and energy and commodities group SIMEC, with assets spanning steelmaking, aluminum smelting, engineering, renewable and non-renewable energy, commodities trading, shipping, property and finance. Born in Punjab, India, Gupta moved to Britain aged 12 and ventured into business at Cambridge University by selling chemical products to Nigeria where his industrialist father had business interests. He bears no relation to the Gupta family in South Africa. Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-steel-u-s-gupta/british-industrialist-sanjeev-gupta-to-buy-u-s-based-steel-assets-in-2018-idUSKBN1EC1S7'|'2017-12-18T16:09:00.000+02:00'
'9841bf569775273ba773f7348779ab02b988b69f'|'Uber ties up with BBM messenger on ride booking'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:07 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Uber ties up with BBM messenger on ride booking Reuters Staff 1 Min Read JAKARTA (Reuters) - Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] said on Monday it has joined forces with BBM Messenger to allow users around the world, including in the application’s biggest market of Indonesia, to book rides via the messenger service. The partnership agreement is with Creative Media Works, operating as BBM Messenger, the company said in a statement. ”With this partnership, BBM users can quickly request an Uber ride via BBM despite variations in quality of location, network speed, or device features,” said Chan Park, Uber’s general manager in Southeast Asia. The agreement means that BBM Messenger users, including both Android and iOS users, can book an Uber ride without leaving the BBM app, or being required to have a stand-alone Uber app on their phone, the company said. Creative Media works is a unit of Indonesian media group PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk. The company operates the global BBM consumer messaging and social networking platform under a license from BlackBerry Limited. Reporting by Ed Davies; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-bbm-messenger/uber-ties-up-with-bbm-messenger-on-ride-booking-idUSKBN1EC0K2'|'2017-12-18T08:56:00.000+02:00'
'fddcad090b1d45ce98f078fa0acc31466a620945'|'Thai Bev''s unit seeks to buy a near $5 billion stake in Sabeco'|'December 17, 2017 / 11:50 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Thai beer magnate extends SE Asia push with $4.8 billion Sabeco deal Mai Nguyen , Anshuman Daga 6 Min Read Ho CHI MINH CITY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ) has won an auction to buy a majority stake worth $4.84 billion in Vietnam’s top brewer Sabeco SAB.HM, a lofty deal that adds a major asset to the beer-to-property empire of Thai magnate Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. FILE PHOTO: Sabeco''s Saigon beers are display for sale in a market in Hanoi, Vietnam April 17, 2017. Picture taken April 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo The deal is a big step for Charoen, the son of a Bangkok street vendor, who is emerging as one of Asia’s biggest power players in brewing. He dominates his home market with Chang beer and owns Singapore’s Fraser and Neave Ltd ( FRNM.SI ). The Sabeco stake will give him control of brands like Saigon Beer and 333. The Sabeco deal will also help Thai Beverage (Thai Bev) tap into Vietnam’s beer market, worth about $6.48 billion last year, where a young population and booming economy are an attractive lure, despite political resistance, a high minimum bid price and a cap on foreign ownership. Thai Bev’s local unit, Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd, was named winner of the 54 percent Sabeco stake on offer at the auction on Monday after global brewing groups stayed away. It barely had any competition as the other investor, a Vietnamese individual, bid for only 0.003 percent. Late on Sunday, Singapore-listed Thai Bev had said that the Vietnamese unit had submitted the registration form to participate in the bidding. Vietnam Beverage is owned by Vietnam F&B Alliance Investment Company, which is 49-percent owned by BeerCo Limited - an indirect but wholly-owned unit of Thai Bev, official documents about the companies showed. “We are very grateful for the opportunity to participate in the future of Sabeco,” a legal representative for Vietnam Beverage told reporters after the auction. The government had set a minimum sale price of 320,000 dong or $14.1 per share for Sabeco, formally known as Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, whose shares have jumped almost three fold to 309,200 dong since its listing a year ago. That priced the target at about 36 times core earnings, more than double the trading multiples for global peers, indicating Charoen had to pay a hefty premium to secure the prize. “We see this as an example of a successful equitization process,” said Fiachra Mac Cana, head of research at Ho Chi Minh City Securities. “The sums involved are huge and this is also good news for government coffers at the end of the year.” Thai Bev, controlled by Charoen, was keen to buy Sabeco in a bid to expand outside its home market, sources told Reuters. Sabeco’s foreign ownership is capped at 49 percent. With 10 percent already in foreign hands, only 39 percent was on the table for overseas buyers at Monday’s auction. Local bidders could bid for a majority stake of up to 54 percent. Heineken ( HEIN.AS ) holds a 5 percent stake. “DISCONNECT” Slideshow (4 Images) Reuters previously reported the auction was drawing interest from brewing groups such as Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), Kirin Holdings ( 2503.T ), Asahi Group Holdings ( 2502.T ) and San Miguel ( SMC.PS ), but in the end they all stayed away. “There’s a disconnect between what the government wants to achieve and how international brewers view this auction,” said one person familiar with the matter. “In a normal auction, bidders are fully aware of what stake they’ll end up owning and bid for it accordingly,” said the person, who was not authorized to speak to the media. Unlike similar sales in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders needed to submit a single offer for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round. Truong Thanh Hoai, an official at Vietnam’s trade ministry, said there was a level playing field for bidders in the auction, but added the price on offer was not attractive for everyone. “Some investors see Sabeco fitting with their business philosophy and they can exploit its potential, while some others don’t see it as a fit and feel they can’t make a profit from the amount of capital they’re paying, so they don’t participate. ” Charoen, who has shown an adept hand at cultivating ties with governments, started trading and supplying distilleries in the 1960s and was able obtain concessions to produce liquor at a time when production was under strict state control. The Thai King bestowed a royal name on the family in 1988, recognizing service to the country. In Vietnam, Charoen already owns nearly 20 percent of the country’s biggest-listed firm Vinamilk VNM.HM through Fraser & Neave. He has also acquired the Metro supermarket chain as well as other consumer goods and convenient stores in the country. The current deal, however, looks expensive, a Singapore-based financial source said, but could bear fruit if Thai Bev had come to certain agreements with its Vietnamese partners. “These multiples only make sense if there is a concession available,” said the source, adding there would likely be job cuts and re-allocation of employees from Sabeco to other state firms, helping Thai Bev improve efficiencies. Still, getting the firm in line with rivals’ valuations would be tough, said the person, who did not want to be named due to rules on talking to media. “He would have to double EBITDA to get the multiple below 20 times. That’s where the highest global peers are trading.” Reporting by Mai Nguyen and Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Stephen Coates and Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-m-a-sale/thai-bevs-unit-seeks-to-buy-a-near-5-billion-stake-in-sabeco-idINKBN1EB0DM'|'2017-12-17T14:10:00.000+02:00'
'ce106a4cade3f4f630bd35bfff96d550d7427cd3'|'EU''s top court to decide whether Uber is a digital app or a taxi service'|'December 18, 2017 / 4:04 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago EU''s top court to decide whether Uber is a digital app or a taxi service Julia Fioretti 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A debate in Europe over whether ride-hailing app Uber is merely a digital company or one providing transport services will be decided when the top European Union court hands down its verdict on Wednesday in a highly anticipated case. FILE PHOTO: The Uber logo is seen on mobile telephone in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo While a ruling that Uber is a transport company is unlikely immediately to change the way it operates, it will give local authorities in the EU a green light to regulate the U.S. start-up more like a traditional taxi company, with obligations ranging from licensing to insurance. Uber - which has clashed with local and national regulators in Europe since its launch there six years ago - says it is simply a digital app which acts as an intermediary between drivers and customers looking for a ride. Judges at the Luxembourg-based court will decide on Wednesday whether Uber - the world’s second most valuable private venture-backed company - provides transport services, online services or a combination of both. EU law protects online services from undue restrictions and national governments must notify the European Commission of any measures regulating them so it can ensure they are not discriminatory or disproportionate. Transport services, on the other hand, are regulated at national and local level and there is no prior EU oversight of new rules. “Any ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law,” a spokeswoman for Uber said. ”As our new CEO (Dara Khosrowshahi) has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber. We want to partner with cities to ensure everyone can get a reliable ride at the tap of a button.” In May, an adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) said Uber should be considered a transport provider on the grounds it does much more than link supply and demand. Although his opinion is non-binding, the judges usually follow such advice. The case stems from a complaint of unfair competition brought by a Barcelona taxi association against Uber’s unlicensed ride-hailing service, UberPOP, which used amateur drivers to pick up riders and has since been suspended in most European cities. CHANGE OF FOCUS Following protests from taxi drivers and multiple court fights, Uber has drastically cut back its use of unlicensed drivers in the EU and focused instead on its licensed services, such as UberX and UberBLACK. Uber has suffered a torrid last few months. In September, London stripped it of its operating licence - a decision Uber is appealing against. It lost a bid last month to overturn a British tribunal’s finding that its drivers deserved workers’ rights such as the minimum wage. Soon afterwards, it disclosed it paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts. Khosrowshahi, who took the helm at Uber in August after the departure of founder Travis Kalanick following a slew of scandals, has taken a much more conciliatory approach with local authorities. The company has for example paused its services in Finland and Norway so that it can re-launch under new transport regulations. It now only operates unlicensed services in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, although in the first two Uber is switching its drivers to operate under local transportation law. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), of which Uber is a member, said the ruling will ”decide over the ability of the EU to ensure online services are not unduly restricted by member states. “The judgement will either promote the digital single market or lead to more market fragmentation for online innovators,” said Jakob Kucharczyk, vice president for competition and EU regulatory policy at the lobby group. Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-court/eus-top-court-to-decide-whether-uber-is-a-digital-app-or-a-taxi-service-idUKKBN1EC21R'|'2017-12-18T18:03:00.000+02:00'
'1395a04644696d70abda028ac36c4abbd891f8e7'|'Lockmaker Assa Abloy picks Metso''s Delvaux as CEO'|'  10 minutes ago Lockmaker Assa Abloy picks Metso''s Delvaux as CEO   STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s Assa Abloy ( ASSAb.ST ) has appointed Nico Delvaux, chief at mining gear maker Metso ( METSO.HE ), as chief executive, the world’s biggest lockmaker said on Monday. Assa Abloy locks are displayed in a shop in Riga, Latvia September 19, 2013. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo Belgian Delvaux, who has been the head of Metso ( METSO.HE ) for just five months, replaces Johan Molin, who in October announced his plans to leave the job after 12 years at the helm. “With Nico Delvaux, we have found a strong and experienced leader of large global businesses with a strong track record,” Assa Chairman Lars Renstrom said in a statement. Before his time at Metso, Delvaux headed the compressor technique business at Sweden’s Atlas Copco ( ATCOa.ST ), where both Molin and Renstrom held executive positions earlier in their careers. Delvaux, born in 1966, will start his new job no later than June, Assa Abloy said. The Metso board said it was disappointed to see Delvaux leave. “However, the business plans and organizational changes that have been decided during the fall have the board’s full support and everybody in Metso will focus on executing these plans going forward, ” Metso Chairman Mikael Lilius said in a statement. Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-assa-abloy-ceo/lockmaker-assa-abloy-picks-metsos-delvaux-as-ceo-idUKKBN1EC0NY'|'2017-12-18T09:45:00.000+02:00'
'af91e75d7861e90ad49d41e57f9ed260e57c7264'|'Wall Street hits records on tax bill hopes, M&A flurry'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:52 PM / in an hour Wall St jumps on tax-cut hopes, M&A flurry Sruthi Shankar 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock indexes hit record highs in a broad rally on Monday as the long-awaited bill to lower taxes looked set to be passed into law and a flurry of dealmaking buoyed sentiment. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid More U.S. Republicans Senators on Sunday said they expected Congress to pass the tax bill this week, with a Senate vote set for Tuesday and President Donald Trump expected to sign the bill into law by the end of the week. U.S. stocks have enjoyed a near year-long rally – the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX and the bluechip Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI are set for their best year since 2013 – that has of late been powered by increasing expectations of an imminent tax overhaul. The bill proposes to cut corporate taxes to 21 percent from 35 percent, which investors are betting will boost profits as well as trigger share buybacks and higher dividend payouts. “Interest rates are going up, with tax-cut stimulus expected and the stocks that go up the most are the ones that benefit the most from tax cuts,” said John Serrapere, Arrow Funds Director of Research. He expects retail and telecom companies to benefit the most. At 10:42 a.m. ET (1542 GMT), the Dow .DJI was up 172.88 points, or 0.7 percent, at 24,824.62 and the S&P .SPX was up 16.37 points, or 0.61 percent, at 2,692.18. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 54.83 points, or 0.79 percent, at 6,991.41. Besides the three indexes, the Nasdaq 100 .NDX and the S&P 100 .OEXA also hit record intraday highs. The materials index .SPLRCM gained 1.23 percent, the most among the major 11 S&P sectors. The utilities index .SPLRCU was the lone decliner with a drop of 0.8 percent. Another expected outcome of lower taxes is likely to be cash repatriation, which market analysts say could boost merger and acquisition activity. On Monday, investors were treated to a flood of deals. Shares of Amplify Snack ( BETR.N ) soared 70 percent to $11.94 after Hershey ( HSY.N ) said it would buy the SkinnyPop popcorn maker in a $1.6 billion deal. Hershey rose 0.7 percent. Synder‘s-Lance ( LNCE.O ) was up about 7 percent after Campbell Soup ( CPB.N ) said it would buy the Pretzels and Cape Cod chips maker for $4.87 billion. Campbell shares rose 1.8 percent. Casino operator Penn National Gaming ( PENN.O ) said it would buy Pinnacle Entertainment ( PNK.O ) in a $2.8 billion deal. Penn National dipped about 5 percent, while Pinnacle rose 0.3 percent. Twitter ( TWTR.N ) jumped more than 8 percent to a 1-year high after J.P. Morgan said it expects the company to post double-digit daily average user growth of 10 percent in 2018. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,200 to 606. On the Nasdaq, 2,127 issues rose and 660 fell. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/stock-futures-gain-on-rising-tax-bill-hopes-corporate-dealmaking-idINKBN1EC1KF'|'2017-12-18T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'7d3f59829db933ae3083f84bb07aa217a02e307d'|'British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta to buy U.S.-based steel assets in 2018'|' 13   British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta to buy U.S.-based steel assets in 2018 Maytaal Angel 2 Min   British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta is in talks to purchase and build more U.S.-based steel and industrial assets next year, after buying ArcelorMittal’s ( MT.AS ) Georgetown Steelworks at the weekend. FILE PHOTO - Liberty Steel''s Sanjeev Gupta smiles outside their newly acquired Liberty Steel processing mill in Dalzell, Scotland, Britain April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne Gupta, executive chairman of GFG Alliance which is a $10 billion (£7.4 billion) metals, industrials and energy group, has been snapping up distressed industrial assets in Britain, Australia and the United States in the past few years. Last week, GFG Alliance struck a deal with UK-based tidal power firm Atlantis Resources ( ARL.L ) to form a listed company that marked Gupta’s first step onto the stock market, with further such steps expected next year. The industrialist told Reuters this year that GFG would list parts of its business, but was more likely list a steel asset in the United States than Britain. The Georgetown steelworks, which includes a 540,000 tonne-per-year electric arc furnace and a 680,000 tonne-per-year rod mill, would restart in the spring, GFG Alliance said in a statement. Gupta will initially rehire 125 former employees at the steelworks, aiming to expand the workforce to 250 in the medium-term. The plant was closed in August 2015 and directly employed more than 320 workers. The GFG Alliance runs metals group Liberty House and energy and commodities group SIMEC, with assets spanning steelmaking, aluminium smelting, engineering, renewable and non-renewable energy, commodities trading, shipping, property and finance. Born in Punjab, India, Gupta moved to Britain aged 12 and ventured into business at Cambridge University by selling chemical products to Nigeria where his industrialist father had business interests. He bears no relation to the Gupta family in South Africa. Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steel-u-s-gupta/british-industrialist-sanjeev-gupta-to-buy-u-s-based-steel-assets-in-2018-idUKKBN1EC1S5'|'2017-12-18T16:12:00.000+02:00'
'b5f009d1dae16136a4ebc9593be8963870d09f29'|'Nasdaq tops 7,000 for first time on rising tax-cut hopes'|'December 18, 2017 / 2:11 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago Nasdaq tops 7,000 for first time on rising tax-cut hopes Sruthi Shankar 4 Min Read (Reuters) - The Nasdaq surpassed the 7,000-point mark for the first time in early afternoon on Monday, while the S&P and the Dow were at record levels on rising optimism among traders that Republican promise of lower corporate tax rates would soon be a reality. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid More Republicans said on Sunday they expected Congress to pass the tax bill this week, with a Senate vote set for Tuesday and President Donald Trump expected to sign the bill into law by the end of the week. U.S. stocks have enjoyed a near year-long rally, with the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI set for their best year since 2013. The bill proposes to cut corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent, which investors are betting will boost profits as well as trigger share buybacks and higher dividend payouts. Another expected outcome of lower taxes is cash repatriation, which market analysts say, could boost mergers and acquisitions. “The stocks that go up the most are the ones that benefit the most from tax cuts,” said John Serrapere, Arrow Funds Director of Research. He expects retail and telecom companies to benefit the most. At 12:33 p.m. ET(1733 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 180.2 points, or 0.73 percent, at 24,831.94 and the S&P 500 .SPX was up 18.04 points, or 0.67 percent, at 2,693.85. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 63.82 points, or 0.92 percent, at 7,000.41. Besides the three indexes, the Nasdaq 100 .NDX and the S&P 100 .OEXA also hit record intraday highs. The materials index .SPLRCM gained 1.4 percent, the most among the major 11 S&P sectors. Utilities index .SPLRCU was the lone decliner, with a drop of 0.8 percent. On Monday, investors were treated to a flood of deals. Shares of Amplify Snack ( BETR.N ) soared above 70 percent to $11.99 after Hershey ( HSY.N ) said it would buy the SkinnyPop popcorn maker in a $1.6 billion deal. Hershey rose 0.6 percent. Synder‘s-Lance ( LNCE.O ) was up about 7 percent after Campbell Soup ( CPB.N ) said it would buy the Pretzels and Cape Cod chips maker for $4.87 billion. Casino operator Penn National Gaming ( PENN.O ) said it would buy Pinnacle Entertainment ( PNK.O ) in a $2.8 billion deal. Penn National dipped about 5 percent, while Pinnacle’s shares were flat. Twitter ( TWTR.N ) jumped more than 8 percent after JPMorgan said it expects the company to post double-digit daily average user growth of 10 percent in 2018. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,149 to 708. On the Nasdaq, 2,092 issues rose and 806 fell. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-poised-for-record-on-tax-bill-hopes-merger-activity-idINKBN1EC1RT'|'2017-12-18T20:11:00.000+02:00'
'ac632b27c08dfb1bbf4d72c20af79d519ad9c90f'|'World shares gain; U.S. yield curve flattest in decade'|'December 15, 2017 / 1:05 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago World shares gain; U.S. yield curve flattest in decade Stephanie Kelly 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - World shares gained on Friday and Wall Street opened higher on U.S. tax legislation optimism, while the U.S. yield curve hit its flattest in a decade after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates earlier this week. A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.35 percent after a week of central bank meetings that saw the U.S. Federal Reserve raise interest rates yet left its rate outlook for the coming years unchanged. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England held off on hikes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 162.25 points, or 0.66 percent, to 24,670.91, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 26.08 points, or 0.98 percent, to 2,678.09 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 82.80 points, or 1.21 percent, to 6,939.32. Wall Street equities sharply rose as U.S. Republican lawmakers are to reveal details of the final Republican tax bill later on Friday. Votes on the legislation from both the House of Representatives and the Senate are expected next week. “People still think the tax bill will get done. I don’t think Republicans are going to let this by the wayside as they’ve come this far,” said Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company in Wisconsin. The bill has been one of the catalysts for this year’s surge in the stock markets. Europe’s STOXX 600 closed down 0.19 percent, as a 12.98 percent slump in fashion giant H&M ( HMb.ST ) and a 6.29 percent drop for Italian luxury goods firm Ferragamo ( SFER.MI ) spooked retailers. In addition, worries over political risk spurred profit-taking. According to EPROM’s weekly data, worries over the national election next year in Italy hit European equity funds with outflows at their highest level in over a year. Emerging market stocks lost 0.19 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.45 percent. Japan''s Nikkei stock index .N225 finished down 0.6 percent at its lowest in more than a week, with mobile firms extending a selloff on concerns of increased competition after e-commerce group Rakuten said it aims to become the country''s fourth wireless carrier. U.S. YIELD CURVE HITS FLATTEST IN DECADE The margin between U.S. shorter-dated and longer-dated Treasury yields contracted to its slimmest in a decade on Friday after the Fed earlier this week upgraded U.S. growth forecasts but left its inflation view unchanged. “That sparked the extra kicker for curve flatteners the last couple of days,” said Thomas Roth, head of U.S. Treasury trading at MUFG Securities Americas in New York. “People are very comfortable with holding long-dated paper.” The yield spread between five-year and 30-year Treasuries US5US30=TWEB was last at 53.2 basis points. The U.S. dollar strengthened as Republican negotiators put the finishing touches on the tax overhaul bill and expectations rose that the bill would pass by year-end. [L1N1OF1Q8] The greenback rose and fell throughout the week after news surrounding the central bank policy meetings and tax reform. News that the European Union had formally agreed to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact triggered a 0.83 percent drop in the pound GBP= , as traders cashed in recent gains. The euro was EUR= down 0.2 percent to $1.1754. In commodity markets, U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 0.46 percent to $57.30 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.22, down 0.14 percent on the day. Spot gold XAU= added 0.2 percent to $1,255.30 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 gained 0.09 percent to $1,258.20 an ounce. Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Additional reporting Danilo Masoni in Milan, Julien Ponthus in London, Karen Brettell and Richard Leong in New York, Rama Venkat Raman and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asian-shares-edge-up-on-track-for-weekly-gain-idINKBN1E903B'|'2017-12-15T23:58:00.000+02:00'
'393c7872fccab46b5eb24001644de67d676ebed4'|'Strike briefly shuts down Israel over Teva Pharm job cuts'|'December 17, 2017 / 8:11 AM / in 6 hours Strike briefly shuts down Israel over Teva Pharm job cuts Steven Scheer 3 Min Read JERUSALEM, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Israel’s main public-sector labour union went on a half-day strike on Sunday, closing the airport, the stock exchange, banks and all government ministries as part of a protest against mass layoffs planned by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. The debt-ridden Teva, one of Israel’s largest companies and the world’s largest generics drugmaker, last week said it would cut its global workforce by more than a quarter, or 14,000 jobs. Some 1,700 jobs will be cut and a manufacturing site will be closed in Israel, prompting anger from unions and politicians, who believe Teva’s employees should not pay for the company’s failed investments abroad. Sunday is the beginning of the Israeli work week. Hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike until 12:00 pm (1000 GMT) and many held solidarity rallies outside Teva facilities. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange said the trading day would be shortened, opening at 1 pm and closing as usual at about 4:30 pm. All departing flights - mainly from Europe - at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport between 8 am and at least 12 pm were either cancelled or delayed. Similarly, no flights will be allowed to land until after 12 pm. Trains and buses were initially supposed to strike as well, but the Histadrut labour federation decided to allow public transit to operate so that soldiers could get back to their bases, as they typically do on Sunday mornings. “We are fighting on behalf of Teva’s workers to save Israel’s industry ... and to convey the message that layoffs are the last and not the first step in the public and private sectors,” said Histadrut chief Avi Nissenkorn. He called the current crisis the fault of Teva’s management and board, adding: “It is the state’s responsibility to prevent thousands of Israeli families from paying the price for this.” Saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt since acquiring Allergan’s Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion, Teva made a series of changes after Kare Schultz joined as its new chief executive on Nov. 1. Its two-year restructuring plan is intended to reduce Teva’s cost base by $3 billion by the end of 2019, out of an estimated cost base for 2017 of $16.1 billion. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Schultz last week, asking that he keep layoffs in Israel to a minimum. Schultz said Teva would maintain its headquarters in Israel. (Reporting by Steven Scheer, editing by Larry King)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/israel-economy-strike/strike-briefly-shuts-down-israel-over-teva-pharm-job-cuts-idUSL8N1OH058'|'2017-12-17T10:09:00.000+02:00'
'c5bfb88cf8b88fb942114e989b49aadd9a596d72'|'ECB says one euro zone bank falls short of capital requirements'|'December 18, 2017 / 8:13 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago ECB says one euro zone bank falls short of capital requirements Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - One euro zone bank is falling short of the European Central Bank’s capital requirements, the ECB said on Monday, meaning it will need to raise cash quickly or face intervention by the supervisor. FILE PHOTO: European Union flags flutter outside the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo The ECB did not name any bank in its annual review of the 119 lenders on its watch. On average, it asked these banks to hold capital worth 10.6 percent of their risky assets, roughly stable from the year before. Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-banks/ecb-says-one-euro-zone-bank-falls-short-of-capital-requirements-idUKKBN1EC0QP'|'2017-12-18T10:12:00.000+02:00'
'fc62ab824230eb8474d144a2e80a1c360420d31a'|'British coal still burning abroad despite push for global ban'|' 10 PM / Updated an hour ago British coal still burning abroad despite push for global ban Susanna Twidale , Barbara Lewis 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain led calls for an end to coal-fired power generation at United Nations climate talks in Bonn last month but at the same time British companies are active in coal projects around the world, often with government help. In Britain, the use of coal in electricity generation has declined sharply since the introduction of a carbon tax in 2013, although the country remains a center of coal-mining expertise. Many in the mining industry see no contradiction. They say coal remains the best option in some countries and it would be hypocritical for the developed world to deny emerging economies the power they need. There is however a clash with the words of the British climate minister, who said the world needed to stop burning coal to meet U.N. targets to slow climate change. For a graphic on coal futures prices, click tmsnrt.rs/2CjBjqH Britain led an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation in the EU and developed countries by 2030 and by 2050 worldwide at U.N. talks in Bonn on implementing the Paris agreement on climate change. It also announced programs worth more than 300 million pounds ($400 million) to help developing countries tackle climate change. At home, Britain plans to phase out coal power plants by 2025, unless they have technology to capture and store emissions. “The biggest thing the world can do is stop burning coal. That is the biggest, number one thing we need to do to try to meet the Paris Agreement targets,” British climate minister Claire Perry said following the Bonn talks. Coal-fired power stations emit around twice as much carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming, as gas generation, while nuclear and renewable energy produce electricity without emissions. Asked if there was any contradiction between calling for a global phase-out and encouraging exports to supply the coal industry abroad, a government spokesman said Britain adhered to a 2015 international deal that bars financial help for exporters of equipment to heavily polluting coal operations. EXPORTING IS GREAT That deal, agreed by members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), does not prevent other forms of support, which is part of the work of the British government’s Department for International Trade (DIT). The DIT gives no direct funding, but takes part in overseas mining events, such as conferences, provides information on projects, builds contacts and administers advice. Its website, Exporting is Great, advertises tenders, which this month include one for 10,000 tonnes of coking coal sought by an Indian company, a feasibility and pilot study and pilot project for expertise in underground coal gasification, also in India, and a firm in Kazakhstan seeking coal processing technology. BRITAIN MINES AT HOME In Britain, where the last deep pit coal mine closed in 2015, surface mining continues. The Banks Group works open cast pits in northern England, supplying Britain and Spain. It hopes to open a new pit at Druridge Bay on the North Sea coast next year. Jeannie Kielty, the firm’s community relations manager, said there was a need for “high-quality jobs that enable many dozens of local people to put food on their families’ tables”. Coal prices are up around 40 percent in Europe this year. Britain’s coal exports rose 15 percent in 2016 to 443,000 tonnes, worth 50 million pounds ($67 million) at current prices. Exports are expected to rise further this year after a 22 percent increase in the first half. NEED FOR POWER Mining companies say coal can be a force for economic good and the alternatives can be worse as remote communities cannot develop without reliable power. “These are places where people have no access to energy and are burning charcoal, which has very damaging primary and secondary health effects,” said Louis Coetzee, CEO of Kibo Mining, which is developing coal and power in Tanzania and Botswana. Britain’s Oracle Power is developing a $1.6 billion coal mine and power plant in Pakistan’s Thar desert. “Eight years ago there was nothing to see at the site but camels and peacocks, now we are bringing power to a region where it is needed and opportunities for jobs,” CEO Shahrukh Khan said, estimating the project would create around 1,000 jobs. It is the biggest private sector investment by a British company in Pakistan, Khan said. He said he had the blessing of the British government, but no financial help. That is provided by China, which is working to reduce pollution at home, but is active in coal abroad. It did not join the November alliance on phasing out coal and is not in the OECD. Chinese investment company SCIG and PowerChina, both state-owned, will arrange finance through Chinese banks. How clean the plant will be remains to be seen. Khan said he wanted it to be toward the upper end of industry standards, but that depended on contractors and Chinese partners. (For a graphic on coal futures prices, click tmsnrt.rs/2BEqVMK ) Editing by Giles Elgood'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-coal/british-coal-still-burning-abroad-despite-push-for-global-ban-idUSKBN1EC1WH'|'2017-12-18T17:01:00.000+02:00'
'13682d17d7706317d33172e19101f5f90d696016'|'UK factories enjoy another three-decade high for orders - CBI'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:25 PM / Updated 3 hours ago UK factories enjoy another three-decade high for orders: CBI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British factories matched a three-decade high for orders this month, a survey showed, adding to signs that manufacturers are riding high even as Britain’s Brexit-bound economy remains slow. FILE PHOTO - A worker inspects a component on the fuel inlet production facility at Futaba Industrial in Foston, central England January 21, 2014. REUTERS/Darren Staples Factories have benefited from an economic recovery elsewhere in Europe and beyond, and from the fall in the value of the pound after last year’s referendum decision to leave the European Union. The Confederation of British Industry said on Monday its industrial order book balance remained at +17 in December, its joint highest level since August 1988. The survey’s gauge of export orders edged down to +16 from +20 in November which was its highest level since 1995. Manufacturing accounts for only 10 percent of Britain’s economy. But the Bank of England hopes exports can soften the hit to overall growth from lower spending by consumers at home who have been pinched by a rise in inflation caused by sterling’s fall. Data published last week showed retail sales in the three months to November recorded the slowest growth in more than four years, despite a bounce last month linked to Black Friday sales promotions. Howard Archer, an economist with EY Item Club, a forecasting organization, said as well as helping exporters, the weaker pound appeared to have encouraged some firms to switch to domestic sources for supplies. Samuel Tombs, an economist Pantheon Macroeconomics, a consultancy, said the CBI survey suggested many factories were now running at full capacity. “The risk, then, is that the UK economy fails to capitalize fully on the recovery in global trade and remains the Group of Seven’s laggard next year,” he said. Despite the recent strength in orders, the CBI’s gauge of factory output expectations for the next three months remained at +13, its lowest since October 2016, while manufacturers expected their prices would rise at the fastest rate since June. The survey of 371 manufacturers was conducted between Nov. 22 and Dec. 12. Writing by William Schomberg, Editing by William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-manufacturing-cbi/uk-factories-enjoy-another-three-decade-high-for-orders-cbi-idUKKBN1EC1GH'|'2017-12-18T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'3ce853e16fe1a575afe7271ca12db229ff2a5f97'|'Casino operator Penn National to buy Pinnacle in $2.8 billion deal'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:22 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Casino operator Penn National to buy Pinnacle in $2.8 billion deal Arunima Banerjee 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Casino operator Penn National Gaming Inc ( PENN.O ) said on Monday it would buy Pinnacle Entertainment Inc ( PNK.O ) in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $2.8 billion, cementing its position as the leading U.S. regional gaming operator. The deal is the latest in a series of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. gambling sector in recent years as companies look to expand their reach, diversify their businesses and take advantage of recent legalization of gaming in some states. In a bid to assuage regulatory concerns around the deal, Pinnacle will sell four of its Ameristar properties to Boyd Gaming Corp ( BYD.N ) for $575 million. At the same time, Boyd will sign a lease agreement with Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc ( GLPI.O ), the landlord for Penn National and Pinnacle. “This was a very complex four-party transaction and we took a look holistically at the deal and what we needed to handle regulatory (approval) at the state and federal level,” Penn National Chief Executive Timothy Wilmott said. After the deal, Penn National will operate a combined 41 properties with about 53,500 slots, 1,300 tables and 8,300 hotel rooms in the United States. Under the deal, Pinnacle’s shareholders will receive $32.47 per share, comprising $20.00 in cash and 0.42 shares of Penn National common stock. The offer represents a premium of 36 percent for Pinnacle shareholders based on the closing price of the two stocks on Oct. 4, a day before the Wall Street Journal first reported that the companies were in merger talks. Pinnacle’s shares were trading at $31.03, below the offer price, while those of Penn National were down 3.6 percent at $31.00. Penn National expects to benefit with respect to the potential changes in the tax laws, including getting access to additional ammunition for potential acquisitions,   William Fair said on a call with analysts. Union Gaming Research analyst John DeCree said he expected M&A activity in the sector to continue through 2018, adding that casino operators would gain from low cost of capital and potential tax reforms next year. The Pinnacle deal is expected to generate $100 million in annual run-rate cost savings within 2 years of closing. After the deal, Penn National shareholders will own 78 percent of the combined company and Pinnacle shareholders the rest. Goldman Sachs was the lead financial adviser and BofA Merrill Lynch was the financial adviser to Penn National. J.P. Morgan was advising Pinnacle. Reporting by Arunima Banerjee and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pinnacl-ent-m-a-penn-natl-gaming/penn-national-to-buy-pinnacle-entertainment-in-2-8-billion-deal-idUSKBN1EC1FQ'|'2017-12-18T14:58:00.000+02:00'
'375f885aaa8df8823726db6d2b6a3377e2d76ff9'|'Uber investor departs venture firm amid harassment claims'|'Reuters TV United States December 14, 2017 / 10:24 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Uber investor departs venture firm amid harassment claims Heather Somerville 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar, known for his early bet on Uber Technologies Inc, said on Thursday that he would sever ties with his venture capital company, Sherpa Capital, after being accused of sexual misconduct. FILE PHOTO - Shervin Pishevar speaks during 2016 TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, California, U.S. September 14, 2016. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach Pishevar, who has denied the accusations, said in a statement provided by his lawyer that he was voluntarily leaving Sherpa Capital, which he co-founded, because of ongoing “untruthful attacks” against him. Bloomberg reported in November that five women accused Pishevar of exploiting a professional connection or the prospect of a job, mentorship or investment to make unwanted sexual advances. ( bloom.bg/2BAvK70 ) Reuters was unable to independently confirm the accusations. “I refuse to allow my enemies to drag my Sherpa family into their fight with me,” Pishevar said in the statement. “That is why I have decided on my own accord to end my association with Sherpa Capital, effective immediately.” In a statement, Sherpa Capital thanked Pishevar for his contributions to the firm and said it was “deeply committed to our culture of integrity, inclusion, and respect.” The firm previously said it had never received any sexual harassment complaint but was nevertheless launching an independent internal review to ensure its “practices and operations continue to reflect the highest professional and ethical standards.” Pishevar earlier this month took a leave of absence from Sherpa Capital to fight the allegations of sexual assault and harassment and focus on a defamation lawsuit he filed against political consulting firm Definers Public Affairs, which he has accused of orchestrating the accusations. Pishevar also stepped down from his board responsibilities at various startups, including Hyperloop One, the transportation company he co-founded. His announcement on Thursday made his departure from Sherpa Capital permanent. “I plan to focus now on the appropriate ongoing legal actions against those who are unjustly orchestrating the smear campaign against me,” Pishevar said. Pishevar in November sued Arlington, Virginia-based Definers Public Affairs and its founder, Matt Rhoades, and president, Joe Pounder. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that they orchestrated “a malicious smear campaign, apparently designed to incite false, defamatory, and highly damaging chatter and gossip about Mr. Pishevar.” Tim Miller, a partner at Definers Public Affairs, called Pishevar’s accusations “frivolous.” The firm countersued Pishevar, alleging that his lawsuit was designed “to intimidate women from coming forward,” Miller said. Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-people-shervinpishevar/uber-investor-departs-venture-firm-amid-harassment-claims-idUKKBN1E8376'|'2017-12-15T00:22:00.000+02:00'
'24e071b12ca0db0edef46997411d3bc6d872ac57'|'Murdoch bets live sports and news will boost new, smaller Fox'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:14 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Murdoch bets live sports and news will boost new, smaller Fox Jessica Toonkel 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch is banking on Americans’ love of live sports and breaking news for a new, slimmed down version of his Fox TV business after selling the company’s film studios and international operations to Walt Disney Co. FILE PHOTO: Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox, reacts during a panel discussion at the B20 meeting of company CEOs in Sydney, July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Reed//File Photo The 86-year-old media mogul’s play is based on the fact that sports and news still attract viewers watching in real time - and the advertisers that want to reach them - even as more people watch their favourite shows on demand after they air or online, skipping commercials completely. “Are we retreating? Absolutely not,” Murdoch told investors on Thursday. “We are pivoting at a pivotal moment.” Disney’s $52.4 billion purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox’s film, television and international businesses, announced earlier on Thursday, leaves Fox with a smaller but more focussed set of assets, based on Fox News Channel - the U.S. No. 1 news cable network - and its broadcasts of sports such as National Football League and Major League Baseball. Murdoch, who started in the news business 65 years ago when he inherited his father’s newspaper, is keen to adapt to new ways of reaching customers. The new Fox will keep the technology it has been working on and is developing an online streaming video service to boost online audiences for its programs, executives said. The new Fox will be about a third of the size of what it is now, with about $10 billion in annual revenue, company executives said. If investors value the new company with the same or a greater multiple as the current Fox, it would suggest a market value of at least $20 billion. Its smaller size may mean it has less leverage when negotiating with cable and satellite companies to carry its content or bidding for sports rights to air on its network. Nevertheless, Murdoch challenged investors to trust him, saying he faced similar doubts when he launched Fox News 21 years ago and Fox Sports 1 in 2013. “Content and news relevant to you will always be valuable,” Murdoch said. LESS IS MORE Fox’s reduced size was not an immediate concern for investors. Mario Gabelli, chief executive of GAMCO Investors Inc, which is a Fox shareholder, told Reuters he is not worried about the new Fox’s size given that competitors such as Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc are smaller. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s recent move to roll back regulations that prohibit owning a television station and newspaper in the same market means the new Fox could grow by buying a string of papers and stations, Gabelli said. Contrary to recent speculation, there are no plans to fold the new Fox into News Corp, the news business including the Wall Street Journal that Murdoch split from Fox in 2013 and in which he still owns a large stake. “We haven’t thought about combining with News Corp and if we do it’s way, way into the future,” Murdoch said on Thursday. However, a smaller Fox may be at a disadvantage competing for sports rights from deep-pocketed digital rivals such as Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc as well as traditional competitors, said Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research. Fox’s deal to carry Major League Baseball’s games is up for renewal in 2021 and its deal with the NFL is up in 2023. Twenty-First Century Fox CEO James Murdoch said the new Fox still would have the required scale and will compete for sports rights. Murdoch is also banking on Fox News Channel continuing its success as the top-rated cable news network, despite the fact that the average age of a Fox News viewer is over 65, according to Nielsen. “For some advertisers Fox News is an important way to reach their customers,” said Barry Lowenthal, president of The Media Kitchen, a New York-based media buyer. “But the challenge for them is how do you bring in the younger consumers.” Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Anna Driver and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fox-m-a-disney-strategy-analysis/murdoch-bets-live-sports-and-news-will-boost-new-smaller-fox-idUKKBN1E836C'|'2017-12-15T00:19:00.000+02:00'
'ac55db6389e62d4bab78830ba6f5ea1508a22e47'|'UK households turn downbeat about finances as Brexit weighs - BoE survey'|'December 15, 2017 / 12:38 PM / Updated 2 hours ago UK households turn downbeat about finances as Brexit weighs - BoE survey Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - More households in Britain expect a deterioration in their finances than an improvement for the first time in three years, with much of it linked to the Brexit vote in 2016, a survey published by the Bank of England showed. A shop assistant hands out vouchers to shoppers on Oxford Street in London, Britain, November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi The fall reflected how households felt about their personal finances over the past 12 months and a loss of confidence in the outlook for the economy since the referendum decision to take Britain out of the European Union, the BoE said. “Households’ expectations of income and spending have both increased since last year, which likely reflects the rise in cost of living following the depreciation of sterling,” the BoE said as it published the survey by polling firm NMG Consulting. Britain’s inflation rate has jumped to 3.1 percent, pushed up largely by the fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote, while wages have grown more weakly. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks during the Bank''s financial stability report at the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Victoria Jones/Pool The BoE raised rates for the first time in more than 10 years last month, pushing up Bank Rate to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent. At the time, it said it expected little impact on British households from the change. Friday’s survey showed a slight deterioration in the balance sheets of British households over the past year although the share of households which spend more than 40 percent of their income on mortgage debt remained low, the BoE said. The survey also suggested only one in 40 households in Britain with a mortgage was likely to spend less or work more hours in response to the BoE’s decision to raise rates. The share of households with mortgages likely to take action to offset higher borrowing costs would rise from 2.5 percent to 7.5 percent if the BoE raised rates by a further 25 basis points, according to the survey. The online survey of 6,018 households was conducted between Sept. 6 and 26 and was considered by the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee before it voted to raise rates on Nov. 2. Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe/uk-households-turn-downbeat-about-finances-as-brexit-weighs-boe-survey-idUKKBN1E91H0'|'2017-12-15T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'b9e907d412b331e62c69a92cfede35535ee5fc64'|'U.S. Justice Dept, AT&T settlement talks failed: court filing'|'December 15, 2017 / 9:47 PM / Updated 7 hours ago U.S. Justice Dept, AT&T settlement talks failed: court filing Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice and AT&T Inc ( T.N ) have held unsuccessful settlement talks over the wireless and pay-TV company’s bid to buy movie and TV show maker Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ), the two sides said in a court filing on Friday. The AT&T logo is pictured during the Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido The Justice Department has sued to stop AT&T, owner of DirecTV and the No. 2 U.S. wireless company, from buying Time Warner for $85 billion because of concerns that it could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers and hamper the development of online video. A trial to decide the matter is set to begin on March 19, and run about 15 days, according to the filing. The two sides noted in the filing, which set out an agreed schedule leading up to the March trial, that there had been unsuccessful settlement discussions between the two. “All parties have engaged in good-faith settlement negotiations, but despite their efforts, have not been able to settle the matter,” the filing said. In an effort to help reach an agreement, AT&T and Time Warner last month offered to use licensing terms that forbid Time Warner’s Turner unit from “going dark” on any distributor for seven years after the deal closes if they were to reach an impasse in negotiations. In preparation for the trial, final fact witness lists will be exchanged by Feb. 2 and all pretrial motions should be filed by March 12, according to the court filing. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/time-warner-m-a-at-t/u-s-justice-dept-att-settlement-talks-failed-court-filing-idINKBN1E92U6'|'2017-12-15T23:49:00.000+02:00'
'f2cd7ad33f14b3b28b364c18382045375f3a7af6'|'Hershey nears $1.6 billion deal to buy Amplify Snacks - CNBC'|'December 18, 2017 / 6:40 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Hershey nears $1.6 billion deal to buy Amplify Snacks: CNBC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Hershey Co ( HSY.N ), the maker of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses, is nearing a deal to buy SkinnyPop parent Amplify Snack Brands ( BETR.N ) for $1.6 billion, CNBC reported on Monday. Hershey''s chocolate bars are shown in this photo illustration in Encinitas, California January 29, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake The deal, which could be announced as early as Monday, would value Amplify at $12 a share, a 71 percent premium to Friday’s closing price, CNBC added, citing sources familiar with the matter. Global food manufacturers have been struggling with weakening growth as consumers seek healthier foods. Pennsylvania-based Hershey has been boosting its portfolio in snacks, which are typically lower-margin products than candy. Just over a year ago, The U.S. candy maker had spurned a $107 per share takeover offer from Mondelez. Hershey’s and Amplify were not immediately available for comment outside regular U.S. business hours. Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amplify-snack-m-a-hershey/hershey-nears-1-6-billion-deal-to-buy-amplify-snacks-cnbc-idUKKBN1EC0IL'|'2017-12-18T08:49:00.000+02:00'
'4a4e97565a0f5e27973c8094472ca0660b1e8ebd'|'Buwog agrees to be taken over by Vonovia in 5.2 billion euros deal'|' 24 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Buwog agrees to be taken over by Vonovia in 5.2 billion euros deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Real estate group Buwog ( BWOA.VI ) has agreed to be taken over by Germany’s Vonovia ( VNAn.DE ) in a cash deal valuing the Austrian firm at 5.2 billion euros (4.59 billion pounds), the two companies said on Monday. The logo of Austrian property group Buwog is pictured on an office building in Vienna, Austria, September 27, 2016. Picture taken September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Buwog shareholders are to be offered 29.05 euros per share under the offer, details of which are to be announced in February. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Victoria Bryan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-buwog-m-a-vonovia/buwog-agrees-to-be-taken-over-by-vonovia-in-5-2-billion-euros-deal-idUKKBN1EC0RL'|'2017-12-18T10:23:00.000+02:00'
'ca4b9db65cfdb5e65e80f4cfa97987d3a63fa671'|'Odey adds to Sky disquiet following Disney''s deal with Fox'|'December 18, 2017 / 2:04 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Odey adds to Sky disquiet following Disney''s deal with Fox Ben Martin 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey has argued that Sky ( SKYB.L ) should fetch a higher price following Walt Disney Co’s ( DIS.N ) $52 billion deal(£38.8 billion) with Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. ( FOXA.O ), adding to shareholder disquiet about the fate of the European broadcaster. The Sky logo is seen on outside of an entrance to offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Rupert Murdoch’s Fox agreed last December to buy the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own for 10.75 pounds-a-share but the deal has been delayed by a regulatory review. Fox’s existing 39 percent stake in Sky is now part of a wider package of film, television and international assets being sold to Disney, a deal that Odey believes demonstrates that Sky is being sold too cheaply. If approved by regulators, Fox’s takeover of Sky is expected to close by the end of next June, before the completion of the Disney acquisition. That means Mickey Mouse-owner Disney would acquire all of the UK company following its deal with Fox. “Basically, here is Fox being bought-out on 12 times cashflow,” Odey, whose hedge fund is a 0.9 percent investor Sky company, told Reuters. “If we [Sky shareholders] were being sold on 12 times cashflow we’d be at 12.30 pounds.” Sky shares were up 0.6 percent at 10.24 pounds on Monday. A spokesman for Sky declined to comment. Fox and Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Disney’s deal with Fox, announced on Dec. 14, adds another complication to the 11.7 billion-pound Sky deal, which has already faced fierce criticism from British politicians and is being investigated by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Odey, who had previously criticised the planned Fox deal, joins fellow small shareholder Polygon in questioning the takeover of the FTSE 100 company in the wake of the Disney deal. TWIST IN THE TALE The UK’s Takeover Panel said last week that it had been told by Disney that the U.S. giant did not believe it should be forced to make an offer for Sky if Fox is blocked from buying out the remaining 61 percent by the regulator. Disney would hold a 39 percent stake in Sky if the Fox acquisition of the broadcaster fails. Rule 9.1 of the Takeover Panel’s code stipulates that an investor buying 30 percent or more of a listed company must automatically make an offer for the rest of the shares, although exemptions can be agreed by the watchdog. The Panel’s executive said it was seeking the views of Sky’s independent directors before making a decision on Disney. “In the case of Disney/Fox, if Disney had agreed to buy the 39 percent Sky stake directly from Fox, minority shareholders in Sky would have been entitled to an increase in the 10.75 pounds-per-share price already being offered by Fox to the price being offered by Disney,” Polygon said. Given that Disney is paying about 12 times 2017 and 2018 enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the Fox businesses, the hedge fund said that the price for Sky should be more than 13 pound-a-share. “But the Fox and the Mouse have been more clever than that,” Polygon said. “They have wrapped the Sky stake with a number of other attractive Fox assets and tied it up with a bow and ribbon and told the Takeover Panel that Rule 9.1 does not apply – and therefore that no premium is due to Sky’s minority shareholders.” Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sky-m-a-fox-odey/odey-adds-to-sky-disquiet-following-disneys-deal-with-fox-idUKKBN1EC1QZ'|'2017-12-18T16:04:00.000+02:00'
'3149c0024d5df3c8548cbfd8e98578f57159381e'|'Acacia to sell Burkina Faso asset for $45 mln to Canada''s Sandstorm Gold'|' 41 AM / a few seconds ago Acacia to sell Burkina Faso asset for $45 million to Canada''s Sandstorm Gold Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Acacia Mining Plc said on Tuesday it would sell its 2 percent royalty over the Houndé Mine in Burkina Faso for $45 million to Sandstorm Gold Ltd. The deal is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2018. Acacia, whose three producing gold mines are in Tanzania, has been hit by changes in mining laws that have dented the investment appeal of companies operating in countries such as South Africa and Tanzania, where nations feel they are not reaping the benefits of their minerals. Barrick Gold, the world’s biggest gold miner and 63.9 percent owner of Acacia, struck a deal with the Tanzanian government in October to end a dispute, part of which involved Acacia making a $300 million payment to the east African country. Acacia said then it could not immediately afford the payment. The sale will help bolster the company’s balance sheet as the concentrate export ban in Tanzania enters its second year, Jefferies analysts wrote in a note on Tuesday. Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-acacia-mining-divestiture/acacia-to-sell-burkina-faso-asset-for-45-million-to-canadas-sandstorm-gold-idUSKBN1ED0NA'|'2017-12-19T09:36:00.000+02:00'
'9e4a3216b6c50fae6856ccb3f60f0850781bee9f'|'China regulators open antitrust probe of Toshiba deal - newspaper'|'December 14, 2017 / 11:00 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago China regulators open antitrust probe of Toshiba deal - newspaper Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have opened an antitrust investigation into Toshiba Corp’s ( 6502.T ) $18 billion (£13.4 billion) deal to sell its memory chip unit to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP that includes memory maker SK Hynix ( 000660.KS ), possibly delaying the March closing date Toshiba’s leaders have targeted, the Nikkei Asian Review newspaper reported on Friday. FILE PHOTO: A reporter raises his hand for a question during a news conference at the Toshiba Corp company headquarters in Tokyo, Japan June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Chinese regulators started their review earlier this month, despite the fact that Toshiba had applied for it in September, when it reached a deal with Bain and its partners, the newspaper said. Such reviews in China typically take about four months but sometimes stretch to six, making it unclear whether Toshiba can hit its March 2018 target for closing the deal, the paper said. A U.S.-based spokeswoman for Toshiba was not immediately able to comment on the report. Toshiba is racing against the clock to complete the deal because it needs to bolster its balance sheet before March to avoid potentially being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. A delisting would be a major blow for one of Japan’s largest and oldest industrial companies. The deal has already secured regulatory approval in the United States and Japan but still needs approval in China, Taiwan and South Korea, the Nikkei Asian Review said. Toshiba reached the deal with Bain and its partners after a protracted legal fight with Western Digital Corp ( WDC.O ), which had a joint venture with Toshiba around memory chips and objected to the deal’s inclusion of SK Hynix. Toshiba and Western Digital settled their differences earlier this week, but shareholder and regulatory complications remain before Toshiba can close the deal. Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-divestiture-antitrust/china-regulators-open-antitrust-probe-of-toshiba-deal-newspaper-idUKKBN1E83A1'|'2017-12-15T00:59:00.000+02:00'
'402f19371906300953aef9623ec1c70313b49a67'|'India raises import tax on cellphones, move to hurt Apple'|'December 15, 2017 / 10:30 AM / in 5 hours India raises import tax on cellphones, move to hurt Apple Manoj Kumar , Aditya Kalra 3 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has increased the import tax on dozens of electronic products such as mobile phones and television sets, a government statement said, to help curb supplies from overseas and build up the domestic industry. The rise in tax from 10 percent to 15 percent on handsets will make imports of phones - including most of Apple’s iPhone models - more expensive at a time the company’s revenue growth is slowing in India’s $10 billion smartphone market. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a flagship Make-in-India program to expand the domestic industrial base, and one of the areas showing success is electronics. Pankaj Mohindroo, president of the Indian Cellular Association, said on Friday the tax hike will boost domestic manufacturers who are making about 500 million cellphones a year, more than double the output three years ago. Eight out of 10 phones sold in 2017 have been made locally, data from Counterpoint Research showed. Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ) assembles in India most of the handsets it sells in the country. FILE PHOTO: A man talks on his iPhone at a mobile phone store in New Delhi, India, July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File photo Apple ( AAPL.O ) currently only assembles its iPhone SE models in India and imports its others. The company has sought a range of incentives and tax relief from the government for it to expand its manufacturing in India, but government officials have said they are unlikely to make exemptions for Apple. Tarun Pathak, an associate director at Counterpoint Research, said the government’s new tax notification, announced late on Thursday, will impact mobile phones companies heavily dependent on imports. “It will impact Apple the most as the company imports 88 percent of its devices into India,” he said. “Either this will lead to increase in iPhone prices or force Apple to start assembling more in India.” Aside from cellphones, the government also raised the import tax on video cameras to 15 percent from 10 percent and doubled the one on television sets 20 percent, its statement said. On Monday, a delegation of Indian telecoms equipment manufacturers met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, seeking government help to promote the domestic industry while he prepares the budget for 2018/19. India’s goods imports in the seven months ending October rose 22 percent to $256.4 billion from a year earlier, raising concerns among policymakers. Additional reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-tax-imports/india-raises-import-tax-on-cellphones-move-to-hurt-apple-idUSKBN1E911D'|'2017-12-15T12:29:00.000+02:00'
'f8554ede4cd107c2eca12ca213291e22882f3216'|'Dealmaking in focus as European shares make strong start'|' 41 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Dealmaking in focus as European shares make strong start Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - European shares rose in early trading on Monday with fresh merger and acquisition activity in focus and investor sentiment buoyed by expectations that a U.S. tax bill could pass soon. General view of the Frankfurt stock exchange, Germany, June 29, 2015. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Thales ( TCFP.PA ) rose 6.6 percent after the French aerospace and defence company agreed to buy chipmaker Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) for 4.8 billion euros. Gemalto shares rose 6.1 percent. “It’s a healthy premium and it looks like the sort of deal the Gemalto board will be happy with,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG. Both stocks were among the biggest gainers on the pan-European STOXX 600 index, which was up 0.8 percent by 0811 GMT, helped by gains across all sectors. Euro zone blue chips .STOXX50E added 0.9 percent and the UK''s FTSE .FTSE rose 0.6 percent. Unilever ( ULVR.L ) slipped 0.3 percent after the consumer goods group agreed to sell its margarine and spreads business to U.S. private equity firm KKR for 6.8 billion euros to concentrate on faster-growing products. Among outstanding fallers, UK-based online broker IG Group ( IGG.L ) fell 12 percent after European regulator ESMA said it was considering measures to restrict offering of “speculative” products to retail investors. The STOXX is up more than 7 percent so far this year and remains below a two-year peak hit at the start of November on profit taking and resurfacing worries over political risks in the region. Sentiment was supported on Monday by expectations that U.S. lawmakers will pass a tax bill in the coming days or early next year. Reporting by Danilo Masoni; editing by Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/dealmaking-in-focus-as-european-shares-make-strong-start-idUKKBN1EC0T7'|'2017-12-18T10:41:00.000+02:00'
'be6018a132710cf107486a5b65091d008c794691'|'Japan exports boom, but inflation not following script in blow to BOJ exit plan'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:54 AM / Updated 38 minutes ago Japan exports boom, but inflation not following script in blow to Bank of Japan exit plan Tetsushi Kajimoto 5   Japanese exports accelerated sharply in November, yet again pointing to growing momentum in the world’s third-biggest economy. There was just one catch: inflation remained stubbornly low and well off the central bank’s 2 percent target. FILE PHOTO: Newly manufactured cars await export at a port in Yokohama, Japan, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The combination of steady growth and benign consumer prices mean the Bank of Japan will lag other major central banks in exiting crisis-era monetary stimulus, with analysts widely expecting BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda to keep the liquidity tap wide open at a meeting later this week. “Inflation expectation is in a gradual recovery trend, but a gap between firm economic indicators and weak price indexes remains wide open,” said Yuichiro Nagai, economist at Barclays Securities. Indeed, a BOJ survey on Monday showed companies’ inflation expectations heightened only a touch in December from three months ago, despite a tight labor market and business confidence at over a decade high. The persistently low inflation - with core prices running at an annual pace of 0.8 percent - was also hard to square off with the robust performance of Japan Inc., which has benefited from booming exports thanks to upbeat global demand. [nL3N1NZ241 Separate data from the Ministry of Finance showed exports grew 16.2 percent in the year to November, beating a 14.6 percent gain expected by economists in a Reuters poll and accelerating from the prior month’s 14.0 percent increase, led by a stellar sales to China and Asia. Economists expect brisk Asia-bound shipments of electronics and solid capital investment in advanced economies will underpin Japan’s export performance in coming months. “The global economic outlook by IMF and OECD suggests the world economy will remain resilient for the time being, which will provide favourable export conditions,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. That upbeat outlook was highlighted in the BOJ’s tankan survey on business sentiment last week, which showed big manufacturers’ optimism hit an 11-year high. All of this has helped Japan’s economy score its second-longest run of postwar growth. That marked a feather in the cap of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe whose ‘Abenomics’ stimulus policies have put the nation on the cusp of vanquishing nearly two decades of deflation. INFLATION, ANYONE? A pedestrian walks past the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo, May 22, 2013. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo Many economists, however, are skeptical that consumer price gains will keep up with growth in overall economic activity. And earlier this month, Kuroda signaled the BOJ may edge away from its crisis-mode stimulus, saying keeping it for too long could undermine regional banks’ health. “The BOJ will likely be forced into cutting its price projections once again in its quarterly outlook report in January. That will highlight a distance to an exit from the BOJ’s monetary stimulus,” said Barclays’ Nagai. The BOJ quarterly “tankan” survey on corporate inflation expectations survey showed companies expect consumer prices to rise 0.8 percent a year from now, slightly ahead of their projection for a 0.7 percent increase three months ago. The marginal nudge up in expectations underscored why inflation is still well off the BOJ’s target, with firms expecting consumer prices to rise an annual 1.1 percent three years from now and 1.1 percent five years ahead, unchanged from three months ago, the survey showed. On the external front, the news continued to look up for Japan, offering hope that a much-anticipated virtual circle of private sector-led growth will boost consumption and prices. The value of exports to China, Japan’s largest trading partner, rose 25.1 percent year-on-year in November to 1.38 trillion yen ($12.24 billion), the highest monthly amount on record, led by equipment to manufacture liquid crystal displays (LCD). Shipments to Asia, which account for more than half of Japan’s exports, grew 20.4 percent in the year to November to 3.89 trillion yen, the record amount. Exports to the United States rose 13.0 percent in the year to November, led by cars and excavators, following a 7.1 percent gain in the previous month. “The upshot is that net exports should have provided another boost to GDP growth in the current quarter,” said Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics. ($1 = 112.7300 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-trade/japan-export-growth-accelerates-underscores-steady-economic-recovery-idUKKBN1EC020'|'2017-12-18T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'24f7c1f1bb98417b89ae8eb62db83aecbbccf65a'|'Hershey to buy SkinnyPop parent Amplify Snack for $1.6 billion'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:14 PM / Updated 3 minutes ago Hershey to buy Amplify Snack in $1.6 billion bet on healthy snacks   (Reuters) - U.S. candy maker Hershey Co ( HSY.N ) said on Monday it would buy SkinnyPop popcorn maker Amplify Snack Brands ( BETR.N ) in a deal valued at $1.6 billion, including debt, to gain a firmer footing in the fast-growing market for healthy snacks. The maker of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses said it would pay $12 per Amplify share, a 71.4 percent premium to the stock’s close on Friday. Amplify’s shares were at $11.96 in premarket trading, while Hershey fell 1 percent to $113. Big U.S. food companies are snapping up smaller brands as they try to maintain dominance with consumers increasingly moving to smaller, healthier or more artisanal brands. Over the past two years, Hershey has acquired brands such as Krave meat jerky and Ripple Brand Collective’s barkTHINS. Amplify Snack owns brands such as SkinnyPop popcorn and Paqui chips which claim to have no artificial ingredients or transfats and come in dairy-free cheese and naturally sweet flavors that are popular among millennial consumers. “Hershey’s snack mix and meat snacks products, combined with Amplify’s Skinny Pop, Tyrrells, Oatmega, Paqui and other international brands, will allow us to capture more consumer snacking occasions by creating a broader portfolio of brands,” Hershey Chief Executive Michele Buck said in a statement. Hershey, which rejected a $23 billion bid from Oreo cookie owner Mondelez International Inc ( MDLZ.O ) in June last year, said it expects to save $20 million over the next two years through the Amplify deal. It expects to use cash on hand and take on new debt to fund the deal, which is expected to close next quarter. Hershey’s offer values Amplify’s equity at $920.95 million and it will also take on the company’s debt, which was $590.5 million as of Sept. 30. Hershey will also incur a make-whole payment of $76 million related to a tax receivable agreement that Amplify entered into when it went public in 2015. Amplify’s largest stockholder, TA Associates, and key company insiders who collectively represent about 57 percent of outstanding shares have agreed to back the deal, the companies said in a joint statement. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC were financial advisers to Hershey, while Jefferies LLC advised Amplify. Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Martinne Geller in London; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amplify-snack-m-a-hershey/hershey-to-buy-skinnypop-parent-amplify-snack-for-1-6-billion-idUSKBN1EC1F2'|'2017-12-18T14:13:00.000+02:00'
'f73480b198411639a97f95d9b580e3a12fe97f0a'|'Statoil buys 25 percent stake in major Petrobras oilfield for up to $2.85 billion'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:12 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Statoil buys 25 percent stake in major Petrobras oilfield for up to $2.85 billion Reuters Staff 2 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Statoil ( STL.OL ) has bought a stake in one of Brazil’s largest oilfields from national oil company Petrobras ( PETR4.SA ) for up to $2.85 billion (2.14 billion pounds), nearly tripling its production off the South American country, the Norwegian firm said on Monday. The company logo of Statoil is seen during a company results presentation in London February 6, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Statoil bought a 25-percent stake in the Roncador oilfield, Petrobras’ third-largest producing field, situated in the Campos basin offshore Brazil. The deal consists of an initial payment of $2.35 billion plus “additional contingent payments” of up to $550 million, Statoil said in a statement on Monday. After the transaction, Statoil’s output off Brazil will increase to 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day from around 40,000 boe per day, it said. Petrobras will continue to operate the field and will hold a 75-percent stake. Roncador holds expected remaining recoverable volumes of more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Statoil said. “The ambition is to increase the recovery factor by at least 5 percentage points, bringing the total remaining recoverable volumes to more than 1,500 million boe,” it said. The transaction over Roncador will take effect from Jan. 1. The deal is subject to approval from Brazilian authorities. Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Ole Petter Skonnord'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-statoil-brazil-petrobras/statoil-buys-25-percent-stake-in-major-petrobras-oilfield-for-up-to-2-85-billion-idUKKBN1EC0L7'|'2017-12-18T09:12:00.000+02:00'
'cf5ebfc1cb30a5215a080cfdd48fc4b263ab959e'|'Denmark lowers 2017 domestic financing needs'|'December 17, 2017 / 7:21 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Denmark lowers 2017 domestic financing needs Reuters Staff 1 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark has lowered its 2017 domestic financing needs to 86 billion Danish crowns (10.19 billion pounds) from an August forecast of 99 billion crowns, the Finance Ministry said on Sunday. It also said it saw 2018 domestic financing needs of 127 billion crowns, up from an August forecast of 120 billion crowns. The estimates were issued ahead of the government’s economic review which will be released on Monday. (This version of the story corrects the word “down” to “up” in the second paragraph.) Reporting by Teis Jensen'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-denmark-borrowings/denmark-lowers-2017-domestic-financing-needs-idUKKBN1EB0QZ'|'2017-12-17T21:21:00.000+02:00'
'c54651b75bfa23d04b74cd2196f86233701e7763'|'U.S. employers say CVS-Aetna deal would affect health-benefits decisions: survey'|'December 17, 2017 / 1:25 PM / in an hour U.S. employers say CVS-Aetna deal would affect health-benefits decisions: survey Caroline Humer 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - CVS Corp’s proposed purchase of Aetna Inc will affect decision-making by a majority of large and mid-size U.S. corporations on employee health benefits, a survey by benefits consultant Aon Plc found. Shoppers walk outside a CVS store and pharmacy in Medford, Massachusetts, U.S. December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder CVS, the second-largest U.S. pharmacy benefit manager, on Dec. 3 said it agreed to buy No. 3 health insurer Aetna for $69 billion. Reuters reported earlier this month that the deal would change the way top U.S. employers contract health benefits, based on early feedback from benefits consultants. The new Aon survey, which included responses from decision makers at 450 medium and large-size corporations, provided additional insight into how CVS and Aetna customers may view the deal. Sixty-one percent of survey respondents, including ones that are not customers of CVS or Aetna, said the deal would affect their decision-making process on health benefits, with 23 percent saying it would accelerate a reassessment of healthcare strategy and 38 percent saying it would delay any such moves until the transaction’s impact could be understood. Thirty-nine percent expected no change to their overall healthcare strategy. The survey did not determine whether major employers expect the deal to change the cost of their health benefits, which could affect how antitrust regulators view it. A majority of large employers contract with separate companies to provide prescription drug coverage and medical coverage, believing they can keep costs lower in that way. Combining CVS with Aetna would leave only one major pharmacy benefits company, Express Scripts Holding Co, operating as a standalone entity. Logos of CVS and Aetna are displayed on a monitor above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson CVS and Aetna argue they can offer bigger savings to customers by better managing prescription drug use and expanding lower-cost medical services offered at thousands of CVS pharmacies. Jim Winkler, Aon senior vice president for health, said he was surprised that as many companies thought they might make a change in their overall healthcare strategy, whether immediately or down the road. “This is on their radar screen in a bigger way than I would have anticipated,” Winkler said. “Typically employers tend to look at this type of news and think ‘it’s too big, and it’s too far off to matter to me yet.''” The Aon survey was conducted during an online seminar with corporate decision makers on Thursday. Many participants focused their questions on what kinds of medical services CVS might introduce in its pharmacies, Winkler said. According to the survey, 71 percent of respondents expect moderate changes in where their employees access care, while 14 percent said they foresee significant changes. Among a smaller group of 210 respondents, 52 percent surveyed by Aon said they planned to keep their pharmacy benefits separate from medical coverage. An additional 15 percent said they are considering separating those contracts. Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aetna-m-a-cvs-employers/u-s-employers-say-cvs-aetna-deal-would-affect-health-benefits-decisions-survey-idINKBN1EB0GS'|'2017-12-17T15:21:00.000+02:00'
'5e55628b691b1e5678e86b7a16633d43801ea94b'|'Buwog agrees to be taken over by Vonovia in 5.2 billion euros deal'|' 30 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Buwog agrees to be taken over by Vonovia in $6.1 billion deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s Vonovia ( VNAn.DE ) has agreed to buy Buwog ( BWOA.VI ) in a cash deal valuing the Austrian real estate company at 5.2 billion euros ($6.12 billion), the two companies said on Monday. The logo of German real estate company Vonovia SE, a member of the German DAX-30 stock market index, is seen at a Vonovia building in Essen, western Germany May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo The deal will further grow Vonovia’s portfolio of residential properties to almost 400,000 flats from around 350,000 now, cementing its position as Germany’s leading property group and adding further properties in Austria. Buwog shareholders are to be offered 29.05 euros per share under the offer, an 18.1 percent premium to Friday’s closing price, which Vonovia said it would finance with debt capital. Vonovia will also offer 115,753.65 euros in cash for each outstanding bond convertible into Buwog shares during the initial acceptance period and a reduced price during an additional three-month acceptance period. Vonovia said it expected joint management of the two companies’ flats following the deal would lead to cost savings of around 30 million euros a year, a substantial part of which is to be realized by the end of 2019. The deal will also have a positive effect on Vonovia’s underlying earnings per share and adjusted net asset value per share, Vonovia said. Further details of the offer are to be announced in February. ($1 = 0.8490 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-buwog-m-a-vonovia/buwog-agrees-to-be-taken-over-by-vonovia-in-6-1-billion-deal-idUKKBN1EC0RW'|'2017-12-18T10:23:00.000+02:00'
'5d41c223c51ec3971b1a246eababe7f04f67e422'|'INEOS assessing damage to Forties crude pipe, sticks with 2-4 week repair estimate'|' 33 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago INEOS assessing damage to Forties crude pipe, sticks with 2-4 week repair estimate Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Assessment of the damage to the Forties crude oil pipeline in the North Sea is ongoing a week after the system closed down, operator INEOS said on Monday, adding that it still expected repair work to take between two and four weeks. The system, which carries around 450,000 barrels per day of Forties crude to Britain, along with a third of the UK’s total offshore natural gas output, has been closed since last Monday after a routine inspection revealed a crack in an onshore section of the pipe. “We are currently monitoring the pipeline and working through some of the solutions for repair,” INEOS spokesman Richard Longden said. (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Louise Heavens)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oil-forties-pipeline/ineos-assessing-damage-to-forties-crude-pipe-sticks-with-2-4-week-repair-estimate-idUSL8N1OI2AL'|'2017-12-18T13:29:00.000+02:00'
'7ad2a74e313cd5ade80c66676245ee5286bf91f9'|'UPDATE 1-South Korea''s GS Caltex buys rare Canadian crude cargo for Feb'|' 32 AM / in a minute UPDATE 1-South Korea''s GS Caltex buys rare Canadian crude cargo for Feb Reuters Staff * 300,000 bbl Cold Lake crude to arrive in 2nd half of Feb * GS Caltex trying out heavy crude from Canada -source (Adds comment, shipment details) By Jane Chung and Florence Tan SEOUL/SINGAPORE, Dec 18 (Reuters) - South Korean refiner GS Caltex Corp has bought a rare cargo of Cold Lake crude, the company’s first purchase in more than two decades of this Canadian oil grade, a company spokesman said on Monday. The second-largest refiner in South Korea bought 300,000 barrels of the heavy sour crude for delivery in the second half of February, he said. The refiner is trying out a small volume of the oil, which has a quality similar to that of Iraq’s Basra Heavy crude, a person familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised speak to media. About 300,000 barrels of Cold Lake were loaded onto Panamax Selecao on Dec. 13 at Vancouver for delivery to an unspecified destination, trade flows data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed. One trading source said the arbitrage window might have briefly opened when the discount between U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude and Brent futures CL-LCO1=R stretched as wide as $7 a barrel last week on a disruption in Forties crude supply. Heavy crude produced in Canada is trading close to its deepest discount in four years as pipeline constraints pushed western Canadian crude inventories to record highs. GS Caltex operates a 790,000 barrels per day refinery in Yeosu. The refiner is equally owned by GS Energy Corp, a unit of GS Holdings, and U.S. oil major Chevron Corp . Another South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank Corp has also expressed interest in purchasing Canadian crude. Reporting by Jane Chung in SEOUL and Florence Tan in SINGAPORE; Additional reporting by Nia Williams in CALGARY; Editing by Tom Hogue and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/southkorea-oil-gs/update-1-south-koreas-gs-caltex-buys-rare-canadian-crude-cargo-for-feb-idUSL4N1OI2V0'|'2017-12-18T10:29:00.000+02:00'
'1f1d5a885433a1cec8abb133ee3588cb222a1775'|'Founding family ups stake in Idemitsu to over 28 percent'|' 31 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Founding family ups stake in Idemitsu to over 28 percent Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Idemitsu Kosan’s ( 5019.T ) founding family, which is locked in a battle with the firm’s management over a proposed buyout of a rival, said on Monday that it had increased its stake in the Japanese refiner to more than 28 percent. A signboard of Idemitsu Kosan Co. is seen at its gas station in Tokyo, Japan, October 2, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The family bought more shares in Idemitsu after having its holding diluted when the company sold new stock earlier this year, Yohei Tsuruma, the family’s lawyer, said in a statement. The descendants of founder Sazo Idemitsu remain opposed to plans for a takeover of Showa Shell Sekiyu ( 5002.T ), Tsuruma added. Idemitsu said in August that the new share sale had diluted the founding family’s stake in Idemitsu to about 26 percent, from more than a third previously, eliminating the family’s ability to veto the merger with Showa Shell. In a rare public corporate battle, the founding family and the board have been disputing the merger for about two years, through court and shareholder actions. The family, led by Shosuke Idemitsu, has said the two companies are too different for any merger to work, while the board says the combination is necessary to compete in Japan’s shrinking oil products market. A spokeswoman for the family declined to comment further when contacted by Reuters. Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori, writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-idemitsu-kosan-share/founding-family-ups-stake-in-idemitsu-to-over-28-percent-idUKKBN1EC0SF'|'2017-12-18T10:31:00.000+02:00'
'27b46f902ddfd4cf744ecd94b745765eec41a062'|'UPDATE 1-Cominar REIT to sell non-core assets for C$1.14 bln'|'December 18, 2017 / 1:13 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Cominar REIT to sell non-core assets for C$1.14 billion Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust ( CUF_u.TO ) said on Monday it would sell its non-core property assets to privately held Slate Acquisitions Inc for C$1.14 billion ($885.23 million) to reduce debt and focus on core assets. Cominar said it intends to sell another C$1 billion to C$1.5 billion worth of properties. The assets being sold to Slate include 97 properties located in the Greater Toronto Area, Atlantic provinces and in western Canada, the company said. Cominar said proceeds from the asset sale would be used to reduce debt by about C$875 million. The company had C$4.4 billion in debt as of Sept. 30. The deal is expected to close by the end of March, Cominar said. Reporting by John Benny and Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cominar-divestiture/cominar-reit-to-sell-non-core-assets-for-c1-14-billion-idUSKBN1EC1M1'|'2017-12-18T15:50:00.000+02:00'
'e55d84e46295e43db627d2d78d4bfe157c05b55c'|'Airbus confirms management shake-up'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:18 AM / Updated an hour ago Airbus board triggers shake-up to end succession row Tim Hepher , Cyril Altmeyer 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus confirmed the departure of planemaking chief Fabrice Bregier as part of a series of board moves on Friday to clear the air over succession plans following weeks of speculation surrounding Europe’s largest aerospace firm. An Airbus logo is pictured during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The move gives rival Chief Executive Tom Enders a free hand for the rest of what will now be his last term as CEO, ending in April 2019, but also casts him as a caretaker as Airbus looks for fresh blood to lead it out of a growing corruption scandal. Confirming details reported by Reuters on Thursday, Airbus said Bregier would be replaced in February as president of the main planemaking division by fellow Frenchman Guillaume Faury, the 49-year-old chief of Airbus Helicopters who has also worked in automobiles. German-born Enders, who had earlier this year voiced interest in staying beyond 2019, will now step down at the end of his current term, saying in a statement it was time for “fresh minds for the 2020s”. Shares in Airbus remained broadly flat. “Fabrice ... was very popular with airlines for his rapid response and attention to details. Airbus has a big pool of talent ... and will power on with new leadership,” Peter Bellew, chief operations officer at Ryanair and former CEO of Malaysia Airlines, told Reuters. Airbus officials sought to dampen speculation that Enders had a hand in his deputy’s departure and presented the move as the work of an independent board. But analysts said the push for a fresh start had curtailed the ambitions of both executives, ending a longstanding but troubled partnership at the helm of Airbus. Even so, many saw Enders as a clear winner. COLLATERAL DAMAGE Enders in 2014 froze payments to middlemen and later shared an audit revealing misleading filings with UK authorities, but has seen his authority challenged as the discovery triggered UK and French fraud investigations and a backlash in France. “It means two things: that despite his wishes, Enders could be replaced, and it would not automatically be Bregier,” a senior source with close links to the company said. The overhaul is not directly connected to investigations but both men appear to have suffered collateral damage from the probes, which made their differences clearer, one source said. The company said the board had acted to secure an orderly succession at the world’s second-largest planemaker. During 2018, the board will look both inside and outside for a successor to 58-year-old Enders “in good time” for confirmation at the 2019 annual shareholder meeting, it said. The shake-up came after Bregier, a 56-year-old who has long been seen as the natural heir to Enders, told the board he did not intend to be part of the selection process for 2019 and would therefore step down in February to “pursue other interests” - widely viewed as code for not being short-listed. Enders said he would work to ensure a smooth transition. However, both scarcely tried to mask tensions as Bregier recalled changes of title - a pointed reminder of a bitter feud with Enders - while Enders said he agreed with Bregier’s decision “and frankly, I would not have done differently”. Some sources said Bregier had sought support from the French government and Airbus’s French chairman, prompting the board to show its muscle. But the selection process will remain under scrutiny from investors worried about any return to past efforts by shareholders France or Germany to tilt appointments. “We believe the worst thing that could happen at Airbus in the coming 12-24 months is for evidence of political considerations coming to the fore,” Jefferies analyst Sandy Morris said. Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan, Editing by Dominique Vidalon'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-management/airbus-confirms-management-shake-up-idUKKBN1E90FA'|'2017-12-15T08:19:00.000+02:00'
'dbd350c85da90532870da9987e46cabb9d98f9fa'|'Unilever to sell spreads business to KKR for £6 billion'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:40 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Unilever to sell spreads business to KKR for $8 billion Greg Roumeliotis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Unilever ( ULVR.L ) has agreed to sell its margarine and spreads business to U.S. private equity firm KKR ( KKR.N ) for 6.83 billion euros ($8.04 billion) to concentrate on faster growing products. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid /File Photo The maker of Knorr soup and Dove soap announced the deal on Friday, hours after Reuters reported that KKR had entered exclusive talks to buy the shrinking business after outbidding rivals. The brands to be sold include Becel, Flora, Country Crock and Blue Band. Unilever put the business up for sale in April, following a review of its assets prompted by February’s unsolicited $143 billion takeover attempt by Kraft Heinz ( KHC.O ). “The announcement today marks a further step in reshaping and sharpening our portfolio for long-term growth,” said Chief Executive Paul Polman. “The consideration recognizes the market leading brands and the improved momentum we have achieved.” The spreads business has been in decline for years as people eat less bread and margarine, but Unilever has taken steps to stem the decline and the unit is very profitable. That made it attractive to private equity firms who were the main bidders in the auction run by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Based in New York, KKR had $153 billion in assets under management as of the end of September. The firm has a long history in the consumer sector and it has investments in India’s Coffee Day Resorts and Chinese white goods maker Qingdao Haier. Earlier this year, KKR bought majority control of vitamin maker Nature’s Bounty. The deal with Unilever is expected to close mid-2018, subject to regulatory approvals and employee consultations. Unilever, whose sales unexpectedly slowed in October, said it plans to return the cash to shareholders, unless more value-creating acquisition options arise. This year Unilever has snapped up small brands including Tazo tea, Sundial Brands and Carver Korea. Unilever said last month it favored ending its dual Anglo-Dutch structure to become a single entity, but it has delayed a decision whether it would be based in Britain or the Netherlands. Additional reporting by Martinne Geller in London; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-spreads-kkr/unilever-to-sell-margarine-and-spreads-unit-to-kkr-for-8-billion-idUKKBN1E926O'|'2017-12-16T02:31:00.000+02:00'
'b9586ea737a4211f52d648dca1fd05810ee92c76'|'Britain looking at distinct trade deal with EU - Hammond'|'December 16, 2017 / 7:32 AM / Updated 11 hours ago Britain looking at distinct trade deal with EU: finance minister Ben Blanchard 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Saturday it is likely Britain will want to negotiate a bespoke arrangement for a future trade deal with the European Union, rather than copying existing arrangements like the Canada-EU deal. Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond and Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai pose with delegates during the UK-China Economic Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China December 16, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool The European Union agreed on Friday to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact but some leaders cautioned that the final year of divorce negotiations before Britain’s exit could be fraught with peril. Summit chair Donald Tusk said the world’s biggest trading bloc would begin “exploratory contacts” with Britain on what London wants in a future trade relationship, as well as starting discussion on the immediate post-Brexit transition. Speaking in Beijing, Hammond said it was probably not helpful to think in terms of off-the-shelf models like the Canada-EU deal. “We have a level of trade and commercial integration with the EU 27 which is unlike the situation of any trade partner that the EU has ever done a trade deal with before,” he told reporters. “And therefore it is likely that we will want to negotiate specific arrangements, bespoke arrangements,” Hammond added. “So I expect that we will develop something that is neither the Canada model nor an EEA model, but something which draws on the strength of our existing relationship.” Britain''s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond attends the UK-China Economic Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China December 16, 2017. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool The Brexit negotiations have been a vexed issue for the global economy as markets feared prolonged uncertainty would hit global trade and growth. A transition period is now seen as crucial for investors and businesses who worry that a “cliff-edge” Brexit would disrupt trade flows and sow chaos through financial markets. Hammond’s China visit is the latest instalment in long-running economic talks between the two states but it has now taken on new importance for Britain as it looks to re-invent itself as a global trading nation after leaving the EU in 2019. China is one of the countries Britain hopes to sign a free trade agreement with once it leaves the EU, and London and Beijing have been keen to show that Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc will not affect ties. Hammond sought to offer reassurance to Chinese firms post-March 2019 when Britain formally leaves the EU. “We won’t technically or legally be in the customs union or in the single market, but we’re committed as a result of the agreement we’ve made this week to creating an environment which will effectively replicate the current status quo,” he said. Addressing the press after Hammond had spoken, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin said China hopes Britain and the EU can reach a win-win agreement. Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-britain-eu/britain-eyes-bespoke-trade-arrangement-with-eu-uk-finance-minister-idUKKBN1EA067'|'2017-12-16T10:32:00.000+02:00'
'0d856f3533700d6f618ce9c143962271c2c106b1'|'Thales agrees 4.8 billion euro Gemalto takeover to trump rival French bid'|'December 17, 2017 / 4:25 PM / in 20 minutes Thales agrees 4.8 billion euro Gemalto takeover to trump rival French bid Cyril Altmeyer 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Aerospace and defence group Thales has agreed to buy chipmaker Gemalto for 4.8 billion euros ($5.6 billion), trumping an earlier bid by fellow French firm Atos to take aim at a fast-growing digital security market. The shadow of an attendee is cast below a logo of Franco-Dutch technology firm Gemalto during a news conference in Paris February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes The bidding contest for Gemalto has come after a difficult year for the Franco-Dutch group in which profit warnings have hurt its share price and overshadowed its attempt to shift from a slowing market for phone SIM cards towards security services such as data encryption and biometric passports. “This is a terrific project,” Thales CEO Patrice Caine told reporters on Sunday. “In digital, Gemalto and Thales are like twins.” Caine said his firm’s bid represented a total of 5.6 billion euros ($6.6 billion), including 800 million of debt in addition to its offer for shares. This showed its basic 51 euro per share offer for Gemalto was worth 4.8 billion euros in comparison with Atos’ 4.3 billion bid based on a 46 euro per share price. Atos saw its offer rejected by Gemalto this week but said it would pursue its bid. Atos declined to comment on the deal between Thales and Gemalto. Thales’ all-cash bid has the unanimous backing of the both companies’ boards, Thales and Gemalto said in an earlier statement. The agreement calls for Thales’ digital activities to be merged with Gemalto to create a business with 3.5 billion euros in sales and which would be a top-three global player in digital security, they said. “RIGHT DIRECTION” Christophe Castaner, a junior minister in the French government and head of the party of President Emmanuel Macron, told France 3 television the deal was “in the right direction”. The French state is the largest shareholder in Thales, while state-owned bank Bpifrance is Gemalto’s second-biggest shareholder. Bpifrance said this week it was favourable to consolidation between two French companies in the tech sector. Thales will be able to finance the offer through its available cash resources and a 4.0 billion euro fully committed credit arrangement secured for the Gemalto offer, it said. Thales and Gemalto said their digital security entity would generate pre-tax cost synergies of between 100 million and 150 million euros by 2021, as well as meaningful revenue synergies. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2018, would have a positive effect on earnings per share of 15-20 percent, before synergies, from the first year, they said. Thales did not expect job losses from the takeover and pledged to maintain current job levels at Gemalto’s French operations until at least the end of 2019. However, union officials at Gemalto cautioned that the announcement did not refer to the traditional chip card activity. Gemalto last month announced 288 job cuts in France in response to a declining chip market. ($1 = 0.8509 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/france-thales-gemalt/thales-agrees-4-8-billion-euro-gemalto-takeover-to-trump-rival-french-bid-idINKBN1EB0M8'|'2017-12-17T18:22:00.000+02:00'
'6b1d98892bd4f4a1e6271dc7181725f4312a2c13'|'Second bitcoin futures debut could lure volume to wild market'|'December 17, 2017 / 6:08 AM / Updated 11 hours ago Second bitcoin futures debut could lure volume to wild market Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin investors expect futures volumes to perk up when CME Group Inc, the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator, launches its own contract to wager on the cryptocurrency on Sunday. Tokens of the virtual currency Bitcoin are seen placed on a monitor that displays binary digits in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The second U.S. bitcoin futures launch is seen as another step towards big institutional investors warming up to a volatile asset that had until recently been accessible only via largely unregulated markets. Like the futures contract launched last week by rival Cboe Global Markets, CME’s will be cash settled. But it will be priced off an index of data from several cryptocurrency exchanges, instead of just one. “The CME contract is based on a broader array of exchanges,” said Matt Osborne, chief investment officer of Altegris, a $2.5 billion alternative investments provider based in San Diego, California. “So there is a possibility that the CME contract may generate more interest and more volume.” The January CME contract will trade on. Bitcoin has drawn attention for its eye-popping price gains, but it is also notoriously volatile. Bitcoin exchanges and digital currency wallets meanwhile have struggled with issues like outages, denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and hacks. Bitcoin hit another record high on Friday near $18,000 on the Luxembourg-based BitStamp platform, and has soared roughly 1,700 percent so far this year. Chicago-based Cboe’s bitcoin futures surged nearly 20 percent in their debut on Monday, and more than 4,000 contracts changed hands by the end of the 4:15 p.m. EDT settlement. But the trading volume in the one-month contract, which expires in January, fell to just around 1,500 contracts the next day. By Friday, volume had stabilized at roughly more than 1,000 contracts. In contrast, trading volume in the Cboe volatility index futures typically runs in the tens of thousands to more than 100,000 contracts, market participants said. The decline in bitcoin futures volume had been expected, analysts said, given concerns about the cryptocurrency’s underlying volatility. And discount brokerage TD Ameritrade said on Friday it would allow certain clients to trade Cboe bitcoin futures from Dec. 18, pointing to a potential pickup. The futures contract price has declined more than 5 percent since its launch on Dec. 10. Some investors believe the CME bitcoin futures could attract more institutional demand because the final settlement price is culled from multiple exchanges. The Cboe futures contract is based on a closing auction price of bitcoin from the Gemini exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs and brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. To be sure, the general sentiment in the market remains one of caution and this has been reflected in margin requirements for the contracts. In the futures market, margin refers to the initial deposit made into an account in order to enter into a contract. The margin requirement at CME is 35 percent, while at Cboe, it is 40 percent, reflecting the cryptocurreny’s volatility. The margin for an S&P 500 futures contract, by contrast, is just 5 percent, analysts said. One futures trader said the average margin for brokers or intermediaries on bitcoin contracts is roughly twice the exchange margins. Andrew Busch, chief market intelligence officer of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission in an interview with CNBC last week pointed out that the underlying cash market for bitcoin is still not regulated. “It’s important to keep that in mind when (investors) are trying to make a decision,” he added. Some analysts believe it is going to take some time before bitcoin futures take off in a big way. Many professional traders use quantitative systems to identify trading opportunities and that requires a history of data which the bitcoin futures contracts do not yet have. “Volumes are going to slowly increase as professional traders get comfortable with the price action and more importantly get comfortable with the volatility and the margin usage,” said Altegris’ Osborne. Bitcoin was set up in 2008 by an individual or group calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto, and was the first digital currency to successfully use cryptography to keep transactions secure and hidden, making traditional financial regulation difficult if not impossible. Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures/second-bitcoin-futures-debut-could-lure-volume-to-wild-market-idUKKBN1EB04N'|'2017-12-17T08:06:00.000+02:00'
'7599fbc1732580b113323aa112c1f493ec601d38'|'Shareholders criticise LSE for ''very sorry affair'' over CEO spat'|'December 19, 2017 / 12:46 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago TCI fails in bid to oust London Stock Exchange chairman Huw Jones , Maiya Keidan 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A push by activist hedge fund TCI to oust the chairman of the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) was heavily defeated on Tuesday, but that may not draw a line under the row. FILE PHOTO: The London Stock Exchange is seen in the City of London April 11, 2011. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo LSE shareholders voted by 79.07 to 20.93 percent at an extraordinary general meeting, defeating a resolution that aimed to ditch Donald Brydon over the way he handled the departure of former chief executive Xavier Rolet in November. TCI, which has a 5 percent stake in the exchange, was founded by Christopher Hohn, who called for the vote after accusing the board of forcing Rolet out. A source close to TCI said the firm would keep up efforts to ditch Brydon, saying 20 percent backing for its resolution showed significant support among shareholders. “Many of the large shareholders who voted against the resolution have informed us that they had asked the board to commence work on the chairman’s succession plan immediately,” Hohn said in a letter to the LSE after the vote. The spat has shone a spotlight on the 300-year old exchange. “This is a very sorry affair, which has brought considerable opprobrium on the company,” Aubrey Franklin, a small shareholder for more than 20 years who backed the bid to remove the chairman, said during the meeting. A string of institutional shareholders, such as BlackRock ( BLK.N ) and Aviva ( AV.L ), had said they would vote against TCI’s resolution, making its defeat all but a certainty. “It seems to me the old boys network has got together and the establishment is winning out,” Franklin said. Paul Heiden, a senior LSE non-executive director, told the meeting the board unanimously backed Brydon to remain in his post until the annual meeting in 2019, adding that suddenly losing the chairman would destabilise the exchange. David Warren, interim chief executive, said the exchange was positioned to grow under the strategy put in place by Rolet. “The group continues to perform well across all main businesses,” Warren said. When asked why Rolet quit early rather than stay until the end of 2018 as originally planned, Heiden said the former CEO was asked to step down after relations between him and senior management “became fairly strained.” TCI founder Hohn did not attend the shareholder meeting. Brydon told the meeting that board members reached their decision collectively regarding Rolet’s succession. “United, your board will proceed to complete the identification and recruitment of the next chief executive,” he said. Rolet is widely credited with turning around a lacklustre company into a larger and more diversified firm, but the Frenchman’s attempt to merge with the German exchange Deutsche Boerse collapsed in the face of regulatory opposition. Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2019 raises questions about the LSE’s strategy at the heart of Europe’s biggest financial centre. Deutsche Boerse is trying to take market share in clearing euro denominated derivatives from LSE, with tacit backing from euro zone policymakers. Without a permanent CEO, the LSE may be more vulnerable to a takeover bid, although Brexit uncertainties may protect it for now. Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Huw Jones. Editing by Jane Merriman and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-chairman-vote/lse-board-accused-of-very-sorry-affair-over-ceo-spat-idUKKBN1ED1IA'|'2017-12-19T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'eb079d168b9af53c9a0228110544da1216821328'|'SEC suspends trading in tiny firm after eye-popping rise'|'December 19, 2017 / 3:36 PM / Updated an hour ago SEC halts trading in crypto firm after eye-popping rise Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators on Tuesday temporarily suspended trading in the shares of Crypto Company, a small firm that saw its stock rise more than 2,700 percent this month after signing a deal to buy a cryptocurrency data platform. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cited concerns about the “accuracy and adequacy of information” about the Malibu, California-based company available to investors. The suspension will remain in place until Jan. 3. “Questions have also arisen concerning potentially manipulative transactions in the company’s stock in November 2017,” the SEC said in a Monday press release. Crypto Co, which says it provides a “portfolio of digital assets, technologies, and consulting services to the blockchain and cryptocurrency markets,” changed its name from Croe Inc to Crypto Company in October. In late November, the over-the-counter-traded company announced a deal to buy a majority stake in Coin Tracking e.K., a German cryptocurrency data platform. Investors have been pouring millions of dollars into companies with “crypto” or “blockchain” in their names, reminiscent of the late 1990s, when firms with “.com” in their names saw their shares surge. Bitcoin, the world’s best known cryptocurrency, has risen more than 1,800 percent this year as mainstream exchange companies introduced futures trading in the virtual currency. Crypto Co’s stock hit $575 on Monday, rising from $3.50 in late September. The company’s market value surpassed $11 billion, almost equalling that of home appliances maker Whirlpool Corp or railroad Kansas City Southern. Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-the-crypto-company-suspension/sec-suspends-trading-in-tiny-firm-after-eye-popping-rise-idUSKBN1ED1ZX'|'2017-12-19T17:35:00.000+02:00'
'feadb235e52898cd5a86fdb70505aa47fc3b2dfd'|'Portuguese 2017 bond returns leave peers trailing'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:57 PM / Updated an hour ago Portuguese bond rally dims after Fitch upgrade morning fever pitch Dhara Ranasinghe , Fanny Potkin 4   Portugal’s bond yields hit their lowest since early 2015 in early trading before inching up, after an unprecedented two-notch upgrade from Fitch boosted investor optimism. Fitch, which had rated the country BB+, shifted position late Friday to BBB, two notches into investment grade territory and with a stable outlook, citing a diminishing debt to GDP ratio. The upgrade means Portugal now looks set to return to major government bond indexes after an absence of more than five years. Most major indexes, such as the Markit iBoxx euro benchmark index and the Bloomberg/Barclays euro aggregate index, use the average ratings of Moody‘s, S&P and Fitch. While investors had anticipated an upgrade from Fitch back into investment grade territory after a similar move from Standard & Poor’s in September, the two-notch upgrade took many by surprise and unleashed a fresh rally in a bond market that has already had a stellar performance this year. In morning trades on Monday, Portugal’s 10-year bond yield tumbled to 1.73 percent PT10YT=TWEB, its lowest level since early 2015. Portuguese yields moved decisively below their Italian peer on Monday for part of the European trading session, a first since early 2010.IT10YT=TWEB While Portuguese bonds have been bolstered by a stronger-than-expected economic performance, improved fiscal position and political stability, Italian bonds have been undermined in recent weeks as focus turns to elections early next year. The leader of Italy’s main opposition party said at the weekend he was keeping the option of a referendum on the euro open in the event his party won elections and failed to convince Brussels of the need to change some of the euro zone’s economic rules. However by the end of trading, the yield difference had evaporated. Portugal’s 10-year bond yield rose up to 1.804 percent, while Italy’s stayed at 1.81 percent. A snap election meanwhile takes places in Catalonia on Thursday with the Spanish government hoping the vote will put an end to the wealthy region’s independence bid. Against this backdrop, Portuguese bonds outperformed peripheral and higher-rated euro zone peers. “The direction of travel is still for Portuguese bonds to perform well,” said Nick Gartside, international chief investment officer for fixed income at JP Morgan Asset Management, one the world’s largest investors. “We’ve liked the periphery all year and still do.” Along with Greece, Portugal is the bloc’s best performing government bond investment of 2017. Returns on both Portuguese and Greek 10-year government bonds were up around 20 percent each this year, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. This is well above returns of 2-4 percent from other euro zone economies including southern European peers Italy and Spain, and benchmark bond issuer Germany. Meanwhile, the yield curve in Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy and its benchmark bond issuer, was its flattest in almost six months, Tradeweb data showed on Monday. The gap between German 30 and 2-year bond yields shrank to 178 basis points, its tightest since late June. DE30YT=TWEB DE2YT=TWEB For a graphic on Portugual''s 10-year bond yield below Italy''s, click - reut.rs/2CUN2MM For a graphic on Portuguese/German bond-yield spread, click - reut.rs/2oChcRU Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-bonds-returns/portuguese-2017-bond-returns-leave-peers-trailing-idUKKBN1EC1KN'|'2017-12-18T15:04:00.000+02:00'
'b05e7a3e127ce764d5ee8bb0ade3050bd4d48b1d'|'Thales sees five percent revenue growth from Gemalto assets'|' 22 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Thales sees five percent revenue growth from Gemalto assets Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Aerospace and defence group Thales ( TCFP.PA ) on Monday forecast the revenues of acquisition target Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) would grow 5 percent annually and said it would hold on to all the chipmaker’s assets. The logo of French defence and electronics group Thales is seen at the company''s headquarters in Neuilly, near Paris, May 20, 2008. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo “Our intention is to keep all of the assets in Gemalto’s portfolio,” CEO Patrice Caine said in a call with analysts, suggesting that SIM card operations remained core alongside Gemalto’s growing focus on cybersecurity. Thales shares surged 8.2 percent to 93.45 euros in early trading, while Amsterdam-listed Gemalto’s shareprice was 5.47 percent high at 49.38 euros, below Thales’ 51 euro per share basic offer. Gemalto’s board accepted Thales’ bid worth 4.8 billion euros (£4.24 billion) days after rejecting a 4.3 billion euro offer from tech company Atos ( ATOS.PA ). Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gemalto-m-a-thales/thales-4-8-billion-euro-bid-for-gemalto-gets-thumbs-up-from-investors-idUKKBN1EC196'|'2017-12-18T13:24:00.000+02:00'
'67e40189680dc1eef706fecf9a37a292b44b06ca'|'To thwart Amazon, Kroger and Walmart lure shoppers with curbside pickup'|' 20 AM / a few seconds ago To thwart Amazon, Kroger and Walmart lure shoppers with curbside pickup Lisa Baertlein 8 Min Read LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As Amazon.com looks to upend the U.S. grocery market with home delivery, some veteran supermarket operators are betting on a different strategy: curbside pickup. Americans have long loved the convenience of drive-through service for burgers and coffee. Kroger Co ( KR.N ) and Walmart Inc ( WMT.N ) are tweaking that formula for groceries. FILE PHOTO - A Ralph''s grocery store employee loads a cart for a customer who has used Kroger''s ClickList online ordering and curbside pickup service in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The companies have invested heavily in online systems that allow customers to order ahead from their neighborhood store. Workers pick and pack the products, then run them out to shoppers in the parking lot, the grocery version of carry out pizza. For the retailers, the service is cheaper than delivery, because customers do the driving. For shoppers, it means skipping crowds and queues at their local market, and no worries about missing packages or melted ice cream if they are not at home to meet the delivery guy. Tony Sacco, who lives in the Los Angeles beach community of Playa Del Rey, is a regular user of the service at a nearby Ralphs supermarket, owned by Cincinnati-based Kroger. Each pickup costs $6.95, but the time-crunched married father of three says it is worth it. “This is easy. Time is money,” said Sacco, 47, as a worker loaded bags into his SUV on a recent morning. Retaining customers like Sacco is critical for traditional grocery retailers as they battle an array of upstarts bent on turning groceries into the next home-delivery juggernaut. New entrants such as meal-kit company Blue Apron and organic food seller Thrive Market are peeling off coveted slices of their business. Amazon ( AMZN.O ), the nation’s largest online retailer, has amassed an 18 percent share of the $12.6 billion U.S. online grocery market mainly through the sale of packaged goods such as pasta and diapers. It is the largest player in a sector that is expected to grow to $41.7 billion by 2022, according to market research firm Packaged Facts. (For a graphic on U.S. online grocery sales, see tmsnrt.rs/2kwT9OU ) But even mighty Amazon has struggled with the trickiest part of the trade: delivering fresh produce, meat, dairy and other perishables. Its AmazonFresh service started more than a decade ago, but has yet to make a major mark. Amazon is making another run at it with its $13.7 billion purchase of upscale grocery chain Whole Foods earlier this year. Amazon has said little about its plans. But analysts expect it will use Whole Foods’ 450 locations as distribution hubs for home delivery, opening a new front in its campaign to disrupt the $700-billion U.S. grocery industry. Old-line players are responding with some new moves of their own. Kroger and Walmart are experimenting with delivery. But they are wagering that pickup is the true sweet spot in the industry’s online evolution. Both are rolling out the service in thousands of their stores. “The way people are going to shop for groceries is going to be curbside, not delivery,” said Jason Goldberg, a senior vice president at digital marketing firm SapientRazorfish. Amazon, too, is eyeing that channel. AmazonFresh has already tested pickup in Seattle and analysts expect Whole Foods to do the same. Nevertheless, researcher Packaged Facts says traditional retailers can win with real estate: “Companies such as Walmart and Kroger have the advantage, because they already have stores all over the country in both urban and rural settings,” it said in a recent report. CLICK AND COLLECT Kroger bought its way into pickup with its 2014 purchase of southeast grocer Harris Teeter, which had an established program. That same year, Kroger debuted its own offering, known as ClickList, adding features such as coupons and promotions based on detailed customer data. Slideshow (10 Images) Pickup is now available at 1,000 of the chain’s 2,800 stores and the company is adding the service at 400 to 500 locations a year, according to Matt Thompson, the vice president of ClickList. He said curbside customers spend 40 percent to 60 percent more than traditional shoppers, because they tend to stock up on bulky items such as bottled water. Users pay $4.95 to $6.95 for each order depending on their location. Kroger would not disclose how many shoppers use ClickList. It promotes the service in stores and online, while customers spread the word through social media. Users log into ClickList online. They put items into digital carts, pay and reserve a pickup time at least four hours in advance. The order is sent to a terminal in a store’s dedicated ClickList room, where “pickers” are dispatched with handheld devices that tell them exactly where to find each item. These workers bag the products and put them into labeled bins; perishables are kept in a nearby freezer or fridge. When customers pull into designated pickup parking spaces, they are directed to call a number to alert a ClickList staffer, who wheels the bags to their cars. Kroger gave Reuters a tour of its ClickList operation at a Ralphs supermarket in Los Angeles’ Westchester neighborhood in late November. Miguel Lopez, who leads the ClickList team there, said it takes about 30 minutes to pick a $100 order; a $400 order takes an hour. The team tracks progress on a white board that showed weekly progress since the service debuted in January. The number of daily orders ranged from 13 to 36. Sales for the week Reuters visited, which included Thanksgiving Day, were on pace to hit a record of more than $12,000. Analysts say typical Kroger stores have annual sales of around $30 million, excluding gasoline. Deutsche Bank analyst Shane Higgins said pickup already accounts for over 5 percent of sales in some locations. Kroger declined to comment on the overall performance of ClickList but acknowledged costs are initially higher for pickup orders because of the additional labor involved. Company executives said increasing sales and efficiency can virtually eliminate that gap in as little as three years. Another challenge to profitability is that pickup customers are not tempted by in-store impulse items. But the biggest risk, analysts say, is to do nothing and let customers drift to competitors that offer the service. Shopper Kimberlee Isaacs says ClickList has kept her loyal to the Westchester Ralphs, where she drops $800 a month on groceries for her family of three. “We use it every single week. I don’t go into the store unless I forgot something,” Isaacs, 50, said. COMING ON STRONG Meanwhile, Walmart, the nation’s top grocery seller, aims to add free curbside pickup at 1,000 stores next year, bringing the total to 2,100 of its 4,700 U.S. locations. It declined to discuss profitability of the service. But spokeswoman Molly Blakeman said the company decided to expand it quickly based on encouraging results. Pickup is winning converts such as Hudson, Florida shopper Steve Mondock, who had previously shunned Walmart. “I hated the crowds, I hated the parking,” said'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-kroger-onlineshopping/to-thwart-amazon-kroger-and-walmart-lure-shoppers-with-curbside-pickup-idUKKBN1EC0GS'|'2017-12-18T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'b14b46190a5a19b15f3711ed62cf6a5a704bbf97'|'Morning News Call - India, December 18'|'December 18, 2017 / 3:27 AM / Updated an hour ago Morning News Call - India, December 18 Reuters Staff 6 Min Read To access the newsletter, click on the link: here If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: here FACTORS TO WATCH 10:00 am: IRDAI Chairman T.S. Vijayan and New India Assurance CMD G. Srinivasan to speak at Annual Health Insurance Conference. 11:00 am: Winter session of parliament continues. 6:00 pm: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu at APEC Export Awards. GMF: LIVECHAT – 2018 INVESTMENT OUTLOOK Get an investment outlook for the year ahead with Rory McPherson, Head of Investment Strategy, Psigma at 1530 IST. To join the conversation, click on the link: here INDIA TOP NEWS India''s Adani drops contractor for Australian coal mine India''s Adani said it had canceled plans with Downer EDI to help develop and run its Carmichael coal mine in Australia after failing to secure a cheap government loan for the A$16.5 billion project. India government ignored warnings over GST roll out-sources The Indian government ignored several warnings from private companies that the complex technology required for a nationwide goods and services tax (GST) to work smoothly was not ready for launch, several people who worked on the project said. Tobacco industry trumps as India court cancels stringent health labelling rules An Indian court on Friday quashed federal rules that mandated stringent graphic health warnings on tobacco products, lawyers involved in the case said, in a decision seen as a major victory for the tobacco industry and a setback for health advocates. Italy''s CDP, Intesa set for role in ArcelorMittal bid for Ilva -source Italy''s state holding company CDP and Intesa Sanpaolo have signed a non-binding agreement to join ArcelorMittal''s bid to buy Italian steelmaker Ilva, a source close to the matter said on Friday. GLOBAL TOP NEWS Japan export growth accelerates, underscores steady economic recovery Japan''s export growth accelerated in November to mark a full year of annual gains, underscoring the strength of external demand that has led the economy to its second-longest run of postwar growth. Thai Bev only bidder seeking to buy $5 bln stake in Vietnam''s Sabeco Thai Beverage, through a local unit, emerged as the only bidder keen to buy all shares on offer of Vietnam''s top brewer Sabeco worth nearly $5 billion, as Vietnam conducts an auction in its biggest privatisation process. Australia''s ANZ reveals $1.2 bln buy-back, hints more to come Australia and New Zealand Banking Group said it would start buying back up to A$1.5 billion of its shares on-market, as it begins returning surplus capital to shareholders after a series of divestments. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) The SGX Nifty Futures was trading at 10,403.00, up 0.4 percent from its previous close. The Indian rupee will likely open slightly lower against the dollar, in line with most other Asian currencies, as top Republican lawmakers expect the U.S. Congress to approve a long-pending tax reform bill as early as this week, lifting demand for the greenback. Indian government bonds will likely open little changed ahead of state election results, even as investors remain focused on the government’s fiscal stance. The yield on the benchmark 6.79 percent bond maturing in 2027 is likely to trade in a 7.11 percent-7.16 percent band. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street''s three major indexes climbed to record closing highs on Friday with broad-based gains as a long-awaited bill to cut corporate tax rates looked like it would win enough support from lawmakers to pass. • Asian shares inched up, tracking Wall Street, which hit record highs on expectations U.S. lawmakers will pass a long-awaited tax bill, while the British pound hovered near 3-week lows amid Brexit talks. • The dollar held modest gains against the euro and yen, having received a lift after U.S. tax reform efforts moved another step closer to ratification over the weekend. • The margin between U.S. shorter-dated and longer-dated Treasury yields shrank to its smallest in a decade on Friday, based on traders'' expectations that the Federal Reserve would increase short-term interest rates further and long-term inflation would stay tame. • Oil markets were stable, hovering around Friday''s levels as a lack of conclusive market indicators prevented prices from swinging either way. • Gold prices inched down early on Monday, pressured by firmer equities and a buoyant dollar after a bill to overhaul the tax system in the United States moved a step closer to ratification. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.12/64.15 December 15 -$143.75 mln $109.93 mln 10-yr bond yields 7.18 pct Month-to-date -$390.82 mln $343.57 mln Year-to-date $8.30 bln $26.08 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.0700 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-morningcall/morning-news-call-india-december-18-idUSL4N1OI1OY'|'2017-12-18T05:26:00.000+02:00'
'e9110a5efab514157304ff8a5a1134bd9d263c5c'|'BRIEF-500.Com Ltd Says CFO Min Yu Has Resigned'|' 500.Com Ltd Says CFO Min Yu Has Resigned Reuters Staff Dec 18 (Reuters) - 500.Com Ltd: * 500.COM LIMITED ANNOUNCES MANAGEMENT CHANGE * 500.COM LTD SAYS MIN YU HAS RESIGNED AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF COMPANY, EFFECTIVE TODAY * 500.COM LTD SAYS YU‘S DUTIES WILL BE ASSUMED BY QIANG YUAN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF COMPANY  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-500com-ltd-says-cfo-min-yu-has-res/brief-500-com-ltd-says-cfo-min-yu-has-resigned-idUSASB0BY7Q'|'2017-12-18T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'08ac0585cd682c917e5e2fca780a926e84d66730'|'RPT-COLUMN-Futures may legitimize Bitcoin, but let it infect other markets: McGeever'|' 17 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago RPT-COLUMN-Futures may legitimize Bitcoin, but let it infect other markets: McGeever Reuters Staff (Repeats Friday’s story without changes) By Jamie McGeever LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin is taking its first steps toward becoming a legitimate investment vehicle with the creation of futures contracts in the crypto-currency this month, moves which may also allow it to infect wider financial market stability for the first time. Although the financial world simply does not have enough exposure to the sector to cause concern right now, growing participation of hedge funds and their banks via the new futures creates a link and risk that a bursting of what many see a gigantic bubble could leak into other markets. In some ‘worst case’ scenarios, it could be the trigger for a correction across global equity markets that have seemed impervious to pretty much all other risks for the past two years. Let’s be clear - we’re not talking systemic risk here. We saw that with Lehman Brothers in 2008 when the financial and economic world as we know it came within hours of a wipe-out. This is about the market-to-market contagion that could spread if large banks or leveraged speculators like hedge funds, having taken on big positions in bitcoin futures, find themselves on the wrong side of a sudden and dramatic price swing. In this scenario, they would be forced to liquidate holdings of other assets like stocks or bonds to cover their position in Bitcoin, or meet the hefty margin requirements stipulated by the market-making exchanges and brokers. Doug Kass, president of Seabreeze Partners Management, thinks one of next year’s big market surprises could be bitcoin soaring above $20,000 before plunging below $2,000, a crash that could take hedge funds down with it. “Several large, well-known hedge funds desperate for alpha are caught with their pants and portfolios down and with a large weighting in bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies; they lose more than 30 percent of their funds’ assets and value, and are forced to liquidate their cryptocurrency holdings and close their funds,” he ventures. Clearing houses, the institutions charged with ensuring exchanges aren’t left exposed if a bank or fund is unable to meet a cash call, may also forced to sell assets to raise the required cash. Selling begets further selling, especially in the opaque hedge fund world and market participants aren’t sure who’s bailing or why. If there’s the whiff of smoldering panic, a lack of visibility will fan the flames. The collapse of a hedge fund, exchange or brokerage often has no impact on markets at all. But sometimes it does. The most famous was hedge fund LTCM in 1998, and in 2011 the demise of broker MF Global triggerd a 10 percent correction on Wall Street over a 4-week period. DESPERATELY SEEKING ALPHA To say there’s been no shortage of volatility in bitcoin is an understatement. It has soared to over $17,000 from under $1,000 in January and intraday swings of $1,000 or more are now routine. There are good reasons to believe bitcoin’s extreme volatility will hit only those exposed to the cryptocurrency, and that ripples across financial markets will barely be felt. For all the hype, press coverage and wild price moves lately, bitcoin remains only a very small part of the financial universe. Its entire market capitalization is around $280 billion, roughly the same as Walmart. If Walmart shares crash, say 50 percent, will world markets crumble with it? Volatility would certainly spike higher, but it’s unclear how widespread or lasting the contagion would be. To put that market cap into context, Wall Street’s total equity market cap is over $20 trillion. Even if hedge funds do wade into bitcoin, how deep can they go? Hedge fund assets under management are nudging $4 trillion and the bitcoin universe is $280 billion. If bitcoin crashed as much as 90 percent today it would still be higher than it was at the start of the year. So those who have been holding it for a while - i.e, most Bitcoin investors - would still be sitting on paper gains. Yet the combination of extreme price volatility, the introduction of futures and the opportunity for speculators to take risky bets with borrowed capital creates a new and riskier dynamic. In the cash market, most bitcoin trading has been from retail investors and unleveraged. That means losses are limited to the individuals and nominal positions in question. The scope for wider contagion is minimal. But that won’t necessarily be the case when bigger players and more aggressive speculators get involved with borrowed capital in the desperate pursuit of higher returns. Andy Brenner, Head of International Fixed Income at National Alliance Securities in New York, says the growth of trading volume and open interest in bitcoin futures bears monitoring. “What you need for any contagion risk to emerge is a lot of trading, a lot of positions. It doesn’t matter if people are long or short the futures - but futures is the only way contagion risk appears,” he said. Cboe Global Markets Inc launched a bitcoin futures contract on Dec. 10. Trading volume and open interest so far is minimal - barely 400 contracts - but that will surely rise in the coming months. The CME Group launched its bitcoin future on Sunday Dec. 17. Both exchanges are taking extraordinary steps to protect themselves against excessive volatility, with intraday price limits and initial margin rates of 30 and 35 percent respectively. These are far tighter controls than other asset classes. And if a fund has deep enough pockets to put up a 35 percent margin then you could argue it can take the hits when they come. But 2017 has been a bad year for hedge funds. Many will be tempted to borrow and gamble heavily next year. Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Angus MacSwan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-bitcoin-spillover/rpt-column-futures-may-legitimize-bitcoin-but-let-it-infect-other-markets-mcgeever-idUSL8N1OI16C'|'2017-12-18T10:16:00.000+02:00'
'436568d6f30be11f8d4c6532575471b81ce7b91d'|'John Lewis fails to deliver on its wedding gift list promises - Money'|'Despite Storm Brian a few weeks ago my wife and I managed to have our fairytale wedding … with the exception of the John Lewis gift list.We had instances where guests had paid for items (which in our view is a contract with John Lewis to supply the goods), only to be informed that they were no longer available and we needed to convert the value into vouchers.Since the gift list only opens a few weeks before the wedding, this inability to check availability and process items to ensure they are reserved, is frustrating. It is doubly frustrating when the purchaser isn’t told and given the opportunity to select something else.When we arranged for delivery, it had failed to update our home address. However, they then lost the entire order. A knock-on effect is that yet more items are out of stock or discontinued.So far, about 10-15% of our entire list has been converted to vouchers. To cap it all, JL seems to be making little effort to try and find out where our items have gone, nor recompensing for the time taken off for missed deliveries.DB and LB , Hartley Wintney, HampshireJohn Lewis operates one of the largest and (arguably) most successful wedding list services in the UK. While the odd glitch is inevitable given the volumes involved, we have had other complaints about the scale of “unavailable” items having to be exchanged for vouchers.JL says: “We are very sorry to hear about the experience of Mr and Mrs B. We have apologised, as we appreciate this has been extremely inconvenient. In addition we have provided a gesture of goodwill and are pleased to hear that the customers are happy with the steps that we have taken. While complications with the delivery of gifts are extremely rare, we are keen to understand how this issue came about and are conducting an internal investigation.” As you said, it might have been easier to have sent everyone an Amazon gift list.We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditionsTopics John Lewis Consumer champions Consumer affairs Consumer rights Retail industry features'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/18/john-lewis-wedding-gift-list-customer-service'|'2017-12-18T09:00:00.000+02:00'
'9513a2d496e8d4a9222493380b8a0c6f2057fe33'|'South Korea trade ministry says ready to begin renegotiating U.S. trade pact'|'December 18, 2017 / 1:07 AM / Updated 5 hours ago South Korea trade ministry says ready to begin renegotiating U.S. trade pact Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s trade ministry said on Monday it had reported to parliament a plan to renegotiate the 2012 free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States after President Donald Trump threatened earlier this year to scrap the accord unless it was revised. The trade ministry said in a statement that Monday’s report completes South Korea’s own process to begin renegotiations of the KORUS FTA, as it is known. Specific dates for renegotiations will be determined in future. South Korea will seek to protect sensitive industries such as agriculture and livestock while formulating its approach to subjects the United States is expected to raise, including products’ country of origin, services, investment and non-tariff measures, the ministry said. Trump has complained about current U.S. trade deficit with South Korea, while South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said the Korea-U.S. FTA benefits both countries by expanding their trade. Moon has said the U.S trade deficit with South Korea was limited to products and was shrinking while South Korea continued to post large trade deficits with the United States in the service sector. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-usa-trade/south-korea-trade-ministry-says-ready-to-begin-renegotiating-u-s-trade-pact-idUSKBN1EC02B'|'2017-12-18T03:06:00.000+02:00'
'875083cca34220b9cb33d111bb79314b56050978'|'Apple names long-time exec as new India sales head - source'|'December 19, 2017 / 6:51 AM / Updated an hour ago Apple names long-time exec as new India sales head: source Sankalp Phartiyal 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) has appointed Michel Coulomb as its top sales executive in India, replacing Sanjay Kaul, a source familiar with the move said on Tuesday, as the U.S. tech giant pursues a bigger share of the world’s third-largest smartphone market. A man talks on his iPhone at a mobile phone store in New Delhi, India, July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi Coulomb has worked with Apple since 2003 and was most recently the managing director for Apple in South Asia, according to his biography on professional network LinkedIn. The Economic Times newspaper had reported earlier on Tuesday that Kaul would be leaving after six years with Apple, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Coulomb and Kaul were not immediately reachable. The Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of the iPhone is keen to widen its reach in India where it currently holds just under 3 percent of the smartphone market. Apple’s sales rose 17 percent to 116.19 billion rupees ($1.81 billion) in the fiscal year to March 2017, much slower than the 50 percent growth in the previous year, regulatory filings show. It is also seeking incentives and tax breaks from the federal government to expand manufacturing in India. On Monday, Apple increased prices for all its phones in India by an average 3.5 percent after the government last week raised taxes on imported phones, except the low-cost SE model that it assembles through its Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron ( 3231.TW ) in Bengaluru. India’s price-sensitive market is currently dominated by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ), and Chinese players including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. Apple’s iPhones remain aspirational for a rising middle class but their price keeps them out of the reach of many. ($1 = 64.1500 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-india/apple-names-long-time-exec-as-new-india-sales-head-source-idUKKBN1ED0IF'|'2017-12-19T08:44:00.000+02:00'
'8fbabded173ed7e6dce9eddf636124ae69d492d3'|'Wall Street set for modest gains as tax bill vote draws near'|' 08 PM / in 24 minutes Apple leads Wall Street lower as tax-bill vote looms Sruthi Shankar 3   Wall Street’s main indexes were slightly lower on Tuesday, weighed down by an Apple-led pullback in technology stocks and after two strong session of gains on rising hopes that the U.S. Congress will vote in favor of a proposed tax overhaul. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The House of Representatives will vote on the bill on Tuesday afternoon, followed by the Senate later in the night or on Wednesday morning, and will likely be signed into law by the end of the week. The bill would cut corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent, which investors are betting will boost profits as well as trigger share buybacks and higher dividend payouts. “There’s still strong belief that it’s going to happen. But the market is not going to completely relax until they get done,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida. Apple fell 1.23 percent after broker Instinet downgraded the stock to “neutral,” saying the supply/demand balance for the iPhone X suggested little space for raise estimates for the next quarter. Apple’s drop weighed the most on the S&P 500 technology sector, which dropped 0.31 percent. A half-a-percent drop in Facebook and Microsoft also dragged down the index and weighed on the market. At 9:50 a.m. ET (1450 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 48.75 points, or 0.2 percent, at 24,743.45 and the S&P 500 was down 2.9 points, or 0.11 percent, at 2,687.26. The Nasdaq Composite was down 19.95 points, or 0.29 percent, at 6,974.81. The index briefly topped 7,000-point mark on Monday for the first time, after rallying along with the broader market on rising hopes of the tax bill being passed. Another expected outcome of lower taxes is cash repatriation. That, along with a modest rise in interest rates, will leave a lot of cash on corporate balance sheets, which makes a “very strong market for M&A,” said Brown. After a spate of dealmaking on Monday, Tuesday kicked off with health insurer Humana’s $4.1 billion, or $9 per share, offer for Kindred Healthcare. Kindred’s shares fell 5.5 percent to $8.97, from its close of $9.50 on Monday after a run-up on media reports of a deal. Humana shares were down about 1 percent. Five of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 0.4 percent increase in the consumer staples index. The biggest boost came from Wal-Mart, which jumped 1.51 percent after Citi upgraded the stock to “buy”, on expectations of the stock will rise further in 2018. General Motors rose 1 percent after RBC upgraded the automaker’s stock to “outperform” on expectations of better profitability in 2018. Navistar International gained more than 10 percent as higher demand for its buses and trucks drove its quarterly results. Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,301 to 1,250. On the Nasdaq, 1,282 issues rose and 1,206 fell. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-for-modest-gains-as-tax-bill-vote-draws-near-idINKBN1ED1R4'|'2017-12-19T16:07:00.000+02:00'
'5d6edee93a5ea07384330e2e452e3af19e0f6ff5'|'Workers at Israel''s Teva Pharm block roads, continue protest over job cuts'|'December 18, 2017 / 9:53 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Workers at Israel''s Teva Pharm block roads, continue protest over job cuts Steven Scheer 3 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Workers at Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ) protested pending job cuts for a second straight day on Monday, blocking roads and shutting down a number of the drugmaker’s plants nationwide. Hundreds of Teva ( TEVA.N ) employees, many wearing white lab coats, blocked the road and entrance to the finance ministry in Jerusalem, where union leaders were set to meet with finance and economy ministry officials and Teva representatives. Debt-ridden Teva, the world’s largest generics drugmaker, said last week it would cut its global workforce by more than a quarter, or 14,000 jobs, including 1,700 in Israel where it will also close a manufacturing site. The plans have angered unions and politicians, who believe employees should not pay for the company’s failed investments abroad. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he planned to meet with Teva CEO Kare Schultz this week to try and minimize the impact on staff, after thousands of workers belonging to public sector unions staged a half-day strike on Sunday to show solidarity with Teva workers. The strike forced closure of Ben-Gurion airport, banks, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and all government ministries. Workers of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries stand at the entrance to their facility in Ashdod, Israel December 17, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen Teva is one of the biggest employers in Israel. Avi Nissenkorn, head of the Histadrut, the umbrella organization for all public sector unions, said “job cuts were a last resort” and called on the government to minimize harm to workers and ensure Teva’s plants remain in Israel. Workers at Teva Medical blocked an entrance to the port city of Ashdod and the company’s headquarters, and two other plants were shutdown. At its Jerusalem plant, hundreds of workers have been holed up since Sunday and the facility was likely to remain closed on Monday. At a plant in Kfar Saba, 250 staff planned to stop work between 1200 p.m and 4 p.m (1000-1400 GMT) while protests will take place throughout the day at other Teva facilities, according to Histadrut. The layoffs stem from Teva taking on $35 billion in debt to acquire Allergan’s ( AGN.N ) Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion last year, a move that coincided with rapidly declining generic drug prices in the United States and the start of competition to its blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. Under a two-year restructuring plan, Teva plans to reduce its cost base by $3 billion by the end of 2019, from an estimated $16.1 billion for 2017. Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-teva-pharm-ind-workers/workers-at-israels-teva-pharm-block-roads-continue-protest-over-job-cuts-idUSKBN1EC0ZA'|'2017-12-18T11:53:00.000+02:00'
'aab988419a1f365ce1f2ecb4b53105d57e588899'|'Uber should have given court an ex-employee''s letter about ''fraud and theft'' in Waymo case'|'December 16, 2017 / 2:42 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Uber should have given court an ex-employee''s letter about ''fraud and theft'' in Waymo case Heather Somerville 4 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Ride hailing company Uber was obligated to turn over to a U.S. federal judge a letter from a former employee that told of the company’s “fraud and theft” and mentioned evidence of stolen trade secrets nailed “like a scalp” to the wall, a court official said Friday. FILE PHOTO: Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Special master, John Cooper, assigned to a lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] by Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, released a report on Friday stating the company should have produced the letter and was wrong in keeping it from the court. The letter, from former Uber security analyst Richard Jacobs alleging Uber engaged in illegal and unethical competitive tactics and had stolen trade secrets, is at the heart of Waymo’s lawsuit against Uber. The letter was sent to Uber’s in-house lawyer in May and shared with executives and board members, who could easily access it, special master Cooper said in his report. “This needle was in Uber’s hands the whole time,” he said. Cooper’s determination marks another setback for Uber in a case in which the judge has blamed Uber for withholding evidence and masterminding a coverup. U.S. District Judge William Alsup will determine what, if any, consequences Uber faces for not turning over the letter. The 37-page letter from Jacobs was released publicly for the first time Friday, partially redacted, although its contents had been discussed in detail during court testimony last month. Because Uber had not disclosed it, the letter turned up just last month when the U.S. Department of Justice notified Alsup about it. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the matter. A Waymo self-driving vehicle moves through an intersection in Chandler Arizona, U.S., December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Natalie Behring Waymo sued Uber in February, alleging it had stolen trade secrets from Waymo’s self-driving car designs, and estimates damages in the case at $1.9 billion. Uber has said no Waymo designs have been used in its cars and rejects the financial damages claim. In the letter, written by Jacobs’ lawyer, the ex-Uber employee said Uber’s security team had a unit that “exists expressly for the purpose of acquiring trade secrets, codebase, and competitive intelligence,” and a second unit that “frequently engages in fraud and theft.” His letter says that Uber stole trade secrets from Waymo, but in court testimony last month he recanted that statement. Jacobs’ letter also describes surveillance operations in which Uber employees bugged meetings with transportation regulators and recorded executives of rival companies, and says that former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick directed these operations. In a statement on Friday, Uber said it has not substantiated all of the claims in Jacobs’ letter, but “our new leadership has made clear that going forward we will compete honestly and fairly, on the strength of our ideas and technology.” Dara Khosrowshahi replaced Kalanick as CEO in August, and has been critical of Uber’s behaviour under its old leader. Jacobs named Mat Henley, who is on medical leave from Uber, Nick Gicinto, a manager on the security team, as instrumental in Uber’s clandestine intelligence-gathering operation. Security chief Joe Sullivan, and legal director Craig Clark, who were both fired last month for their role in concealing a massive data breach, were also involved, the letter said. Sullivan said in a statement on Friday his team “acted ethically” and an attorney for Clark said has he “acted appropriately at all times.” Matthew Umhofer, an attorney for Henley, Gicinto and other members of Uber, said: “Jacobs’ letter is nothing more than character assassination for cash.” Jacobs was forced to resign in April after a demotion, and sent the letter the following month. He struck a deal with for Uber a $7.5 million settlement, and Jacobs continues to work for Uber as a consultant. Additional reporting by Joseph Menn and Dan Levine in San Francisco; editing by Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-alphabet-letter/uber-should-have-given-court-an-ex-employees-letter-about-fraud-and-theft-in-waymo-case-idUKKBN1EA02R'|'2017-12-16T04:40:00.000+02:00'
'd386adc29ded7e960a71753c6a30867027fe30dd'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Region edges up, building-related shares boost Saudi before budget'|'December 17, 2017 / 2:28 PM / Updated 7 hours ago MIDEAST STOCKS-Region edges up, building-related shares boost Saudi before budget Reuters Staff * Saudi 2018 budget seen hiking infrastructure spending a bit * Top 10 gainers include six cement firms * Dubai’s Drake & Scull climbs in heavy trade * Kuwait continues rise after central bank stays on hold * Egypt Gas Co soars after profit forecast By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Middle Eastern stock markets edged up in quiet trade on Sunday, with construction and building materials stocks boosting Saudi Arabia ahead of the release of its 2018 state budget this week. Saudi Arabia’s index added 0.3 percent as builder Khodari surged 7.6 percent in its heaviest trade since January. Najran Cement gained 4.5 percent and in addition to Khodari, the 10 best-performing stocks featured six cement producers. The state budget, to be announced on Tuesday, is expected to be modestly expansionary and include a rise in infrastructure spending after two years of austerity. Real estate firm Dar Al Arkan, the most heavily traded stock, fell back 3.6 percent after soaring in the last several weeks. The Dubai index edged up 0.3 percent as construction firm Drake & Scull, which operates in Saudi Arabia, was the most heavily traded stock, rising 1.4 percent. The Kuwait stock index added 0.4 percent after surging 1.5 percent on Thursday. Kuwait Finance House climbed 0.7 percent. Other Gulf Arab central banks, whose currencies are pegged to the U.S. dollar, raised interest rates in the wake of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s hike last Wednesday. But Kuwait, citing a desire to boost economic growth, did not tighten monetary policy; it manages its dinar against a dollar-dominated basket, which gives it more flexibility in policy. In Egypt, the index climbed 0.3 percent as Egypt Gas Co, which handles natural gas engineering and maintenance work, soared 10 percent. The company is expected to benefit from work related to Egypt’s giant Zohr gas field, where pilot production of gas started this month. At the end of last week Egypt Gas forecast 2018 revenues of 2.61 billion Egyptian pounds ($146 million) and net profit of 24.6 million pounds, compared to revenue of 1.10 billion pounds and a net loss of 57 million pounds in the first nine months of this year. Markets in Qatar and Bahrain were closed for national holidays. HIGHLIGHTS * The index added 0.3 percent to 7,093 points. DUBAI * The index rose 0.3 percent to 3,366 points. ABU DHABI * The index gained 0.2 percent to 4,349 points. EGYPT * The index rose 0.3 percent to 14,717 points. KUWAIT * The index climbed 0.4 percent to 6,356 points. OMAN'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-region-edges-up-building-related-shares-boost-saudi-before-budget-idUSL8N1OH0IC'|'2017-12-17T16:27:00.000+02:00'
'5cbec3094369b70be42fbeab64e7aa205e9b4d1d'|'Italian budget commission approves web tax on digital services'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:17 AM / in 8 hours Italian budget commission approves web tax on digital services Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - The budget commission of Italy’s lower house approved on Tuesday a provision obliging companies to pay a 3 percent tax on some internet transactions made in Italy. FILE PHOTO: The new Amazon Fire TV is displayed during a media event introducing new Amazon products in San Francisco, California, U.S. on September 16, 2015. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach/File Photo Italy has long complained that companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google have avoided taxes by maintaining that they do not have a “stable presence” in the county, even though they generate huge revenues here. To get around that problem, the new sales levy will be aimed at firms buying services in Italy. The so-called “web tax” will be introduced in 2019 and is projected to bring in 190 million euros ($224.2 million) a year. The tax does not cover e-commerce, but rather “intangible digital products” such as advertising and sponsored links embedded in webpages. The finance ministry has said it will identify exactly which services are taxable by next April. FILE PHOTO: The YouTube app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Companies will only have to pay up if they make more than 3,000 digital transactions in a year. The measure is included in the 2018 budget bill, which has to be passed into law before the end of the year. The upper house Senate originally proposed a 6 percent tariff, but this was halved in the lower house. Under EU law, corporate taxes are paid where firms have a physical presence, which allows large digital multinationals to book most of their profits in the low-tax countries where they have set up headquarters. France, Germany, Italy and Spain are pushing to change the tax legislation, but are facing resistance from smaller nations like Luxembourg and Malta, which fear reform could hurt their economies. ($1 = 0.8475 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/italy-tax-digital/italian-budget-commission-approves-web-tax-on-digital-services-idINKBN1ED18K'|'2017-12-19T13:14:00.000+02:00'
'b882e23f43280b507b96346e333366a219eba717'|'Dr. Reddy''s resolves U.S. probe over child safety of drug packaging'|'December 19, 2017 / 2:08 AM / Updated 16 hours ago Dr. Reddy''s resolves U.S. probe over child safety of drug packaging Nate Raymond 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd will pay $5 million to resolve U.S. claims that the Indian company sold prescription drugs in the United States in packaging that was not tested for child safety, according to court papers filed on Monday. The settlement was disclosed in documents filed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, over a year after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission voted to refer a case involving the drugmaker to the U.S. Justice Department. Dr. Reddy’s in a statement said that the safety of patients and consumers was of “paramount importance” to the company. It said it disagreed with the allegations but agreed to the settlement to avoid prolonged litigation. “Dr. Reddy’s is not aware of any reports that any child gained access to these products as a result of the packaging or that any of the products caused children harm as a result of the packaging,” the company said. The Justice Department alleged that in 2011, Dr. Reddy’s engineers concluded the packaging for five types of drugs that the company manufactured and imported for sale would not pass tests required in the United States to prove child resistance The Justice Department in a lawsuit said that instead of notifying the CPSC or the public that its products put children at risk, the company quietly began altering its packaging while continuing to sell products in untested packaging. The lawsuit said Dr. Reddy’s violated the Consumer Product Safety Act by distributing drugs that did not comply with a law aimed at protecting children from accidentally ingesting medicines by requiring those drugs to be in special packaging. Dr. Reddy’s said products with the packaging at issue have not been distributed since June 2012. In addition to the $5 million penalty, Dr. Reddy’s under the settlement must maintain a program aimed at ensuring compliance with consumer protection laws and must have a system to ensure information is reported to the CPSC. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dr-reddys-settlement-usa/dr-reddys-resolves-u-s-probe-over-child-safety-of-drug-packaging-idUSKBN1ED06C'|'2017-12-19T03:52:00.000+02:00'
'eb442ab5a18dab9e6bc75508b8af216c94bcc68f'|'CME''s Black Sea wheat, corn futures open for trading'|' 35 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago CME''s Black Sea wheat, corn futures open for trading Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS, Dec 18 (Reuters) - CME Group’s Black Sea wheat futures attracted trade on their debut session on Monday. CME, which owns the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), had said last month it was launching cash-settled Black Sea wheat and corn futures to extend its presence in a booming export region. CME’s August Black Sea wheat futures saw an opening trade at $184.50 per tonne for 40 lots, CME said. CME’s Black Sea wheat contract is based on the Platts Russian Wheat 12.5 percent FOB Black Sea Deep Water daily price assessment. Black Sea corn futures, based on the Platts Ukrainian Corn FOB Black Sea daily price assessment, were still untraded by 1045 GMT. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, editing by David Evans)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cme-blacksea-futures/cmes-black-sea-wheat-corn-futures-open-for-trading-idUSL8N1OI293'|'2017-12-18T13:33:00.000+02:00'
'86bbf8fc373153ffb6424da910cb2edf763aa89a'|'BNP Paribas to boost Lisbon hub with 45 job moves from Paris'|'December 19, 2017 / 4:55 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago BNP Paribas to boost Lisbon hub with 45 job moves from Paris Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) plans to move 45 internal finance jobs from Paris to Lisbon as banks facing growing workloads to deal with changes in regulations and accounting rules try and improve their efficiency. FILE PHOTO - A man walks past a BNP Paribas bank sign on an office building in Nantes, France, July 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe The French lender confirmed the move on Tuesday, which was first announced by the Force Ouvriere (FO) union. “Like all banks, we seek to address growing European regulatory constraints. In this context, the answer results in a readjustment between the Group Finance platforms in Paris and Lisbon”, the bank said in an emailed statement. BNP Paribas already has more than 1,800 employees in Portugal, according to a recent job advert posted on its website through which it was recruiting for its Group Finance Service hub in Lisbon. That unit is responsible for compiling and processing accounting and financial information. The bank said all Paris employees affected by the changes, because they worked in the same area covering finance, accounting and stress-testing, would be placed in equivalent positions in the region. Out of the 45 jobs, BNP will take back control of 13 roles that are currently undertaken externally before moving them to Lisbon, while nine positions would be newly created, FO said. Unions called it a second wave of job transfers after BNP set up a ‘European Finance Operations Centre’ in Lisbon in 2015 employing about 200 people. Hourly labour costs in Portugal were 13.7 euros in 2016, compared with 35.6 euros in France, according to Eurostat data. Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Sarah White, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bnp-paribas-jobs/bnp-paribas-to-boost-lisbon-hub-with-45-job-moves-from-paris-union-idUKKBN1ED29G'|'2017-12-19T21:09:00.000+02:00'
'0de8bfacf0ec53a048fd5ee052266eb72cb8053e'|'Vimto maker Nichols sees 2018 profit growth in low single-digits, shares plummet'|' 20 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Vimto maker Nichols sees 2018 profit growth in low single-digits, shares plummet Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Vimto soft drinks maker Nichols ( NICL.L ) said profit growth in 2018 would be in the low single-digits, as a slowdown in sales in the Middle East would drag performance, sending its shares down nearly 13 percent. The company said sales in the Middle East -- its key international business -- would be hurt by the recent escalation of hostilities in Yemen which resulted in the supply route to its Yemeni customer being blockaded and some reported slowing in the Saudi economy. Shares in the company were down 3.7 percent at 1529p at 0913 GMT. The company, which sells drinks in the still and carbonated categories worth over 100 million pounds a year in over 85 countries, had warned that its home market would remain challenging this year, “with the addition of currency-related input cost inflation to an already price-competitive environment” Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nichols-stocks/vimto-maker-nichols-sees-2018-profit-growth-in-low-single-digits-shares-plummet-idUKKBN1ED0UU'|'2017-12-19T11:20:00.000+02:00'
'9d1be25dd78660e2104700fc4d87b995f28b9d32'|'PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 19'|'December 19, 2017 / 5:39 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST-New York Times business news - Dec 19 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - European regulators are accusing Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of the global furniture retailer Ikea, of pushing the concept of thriftiness beyond the limits of the law by maneuvering to reduce its tax bill in the countries where it operates. nyti.ms/2khj5yB - A driver for Uber Technologies Inc in Lebanon was arrested in connection with the killing of a British diplomat in Beirut over the weekend, and the ride-hailing company said that it was cooperating with the authorities. nyti.ms/2AWYnum - The Trump administration formally accused North Korea on Monday night of creating the WannaCry cyberattack that briefly paralyzed the British health system and placed ransomware on computers in dozens of countries around the world. nyti.ms/2oMXm6D - U.S. President Donald Trump presented a blueprint for the country''s national security that warned of a world in which the United States would face rising threats from Russia and China, as well as from governments, such as North Korea and Iran. nyti.ms/2kId6lQ Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-19-idUSL4N1OJ22N'|'2017-12-19T07:38:00.000+02:00'
'9a3ae098516bb05b8cb9a3a8ed824b457af4f692'|'NY regulator probing unpaid pensions by MetLife'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:08 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago NY regulator probing unpaid pensions by MetLife Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - New York state’s financial regulator is reviewing MetLife Inc’s failure to pay some workers’ pensions, the regulator said on Monday. The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) was aware that MetLife had failed to pay the pensions before the insurer publicly disclosed the matter on Friday and will work to remediate the issue, NYDFS Superintendent Maria Vullo said in a statement. A MetLife spokesman said, “We are committed to making this right for our customers. We found the issue, we self-reported it, and we are committed to doing better.” (Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Nick Zieminski)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/metlife-pensions-probe/ny-regulator-probing-unpaid-pensions-by-metlife-idUSL1N1OI1Y0'|'2017-12-19T00:07:00.000+02:00'
'5602d2188f55d49d8cb2e675e4f6c3a48a424a83'|'Friday afternoon off and free Fitbits: the companies offering unusual perks - People centred business'|'Two company retreats a year, €4,000 to spend on setting up your home office, a free Fitbit and Kindle, a €2,000 holiday budget, and more – the benefits at Maltese technology company Hotjar are extensive for its 50 employees, all of whom work remotely and are spread across 16 countries.“We are trying to build a team people want to come and work for, and we have a very high retention rate,” says CEO David Darmanin about their company perks. “We’re quite a small team and we hire relatively slowly, and only when it’s really painful [because of the amount of work]. When we do find someone who’s a good fit, we invest heavily in them, because we feel it will really pay off.”According to research [pdf] by Investors in People , 59% of staff are considering moving jobs in 2017, an increase of 10% on 2016. A poll of more than 1,000 people revealed growing discontent around poor management and pay. More than half (51%) said they were looking to move jobs because they believed they would be paid more elsewhere. Not feeling valued and no career progression were other top gripes.This preoccupation with pay is perhaps not surprising – the Institute for Fiscal Studies believes Britons are facing the longest sustained squeeze on their earnings for 70 years . In the face of such a squeeze, and pessimistic outlooks for improved earnings, more businesses are getting creative with employee benefits.There''s less of the big money payouts, but much more inventive use of money to incentiviseStephanie McCutcheon, an Investors in People practitioner based near Belfast, says the focus has shifted from just remuneration to benefits that improve the company culture. “Whenever we go into organisations now we see employees place a lot of emphasis not only on the tangible rewards but also the intangible rewards. [There’s] less of the big money payouts, but much more inventive use of money to incentivise.”In a recent analysis, corporate review site Glassdoor found 34% of people report that perks are the most important consideration before accepting a job. Some of the more unusual include: a paid week’s leave for employees to help their new dogs settle in at home, at craft beer company Brewdog; interest-free loans for home improvements or weddings, at property company ZPG; and a wellness allowance programme, with up to £1,200 given to spend on fitness, such as gym membership or yoga classes, at Expedia.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dog’s life: one of the more unusual workplace perks is paid leave to help a new dog settle in at home. Photograph: Agnieszka Olek/Getty Images/Caiaimage Health and wellbeing Improving health and wellbeing for workers is emerging as a key consideration for firms, many of which are rolling out wellbeing strategies at an unprecedented rate. The Reward & Employee Benefits Association found nearly half (45%) of the British businesses surveyed now have a wellbeing strategy, compared with 30% in 2016. The rest have plans – or wish – to implement one in the future.At education recruitment company SmithCorp, incentives for its 140 employees have traditionally been tied to performance. Staff compete for a place on one of three all-expenses-paid holidays a year, are taken out for lunch once a month if they bring £21,000 worth of business into the company, and will receive a Rolex watch when they hit £1m (typically after six or seven years). But the firm has recently invested in a “hub” area, where a free breakfast is available every morning, together with mindfulness sessions and experts offering free financial advice.“That’s a new thing, but it’s part of our evolution,” says chief development officer James Hodkinson. “We’re growing up as a business. Thirty or 40 years ago, employers weren’t doing a lot of these things, but I think there’s an expectation from potential employees that you’re doing a bit more.”Part of this may be the impact of millennials. Investors in People found that more than a third (38%) of younger employees (aged 16-29) said being part of an organisation that values its staff was one of the most important factors when job hunting. McCutcheon says they also place a greater emphasis on work-life balance. “When we ask them what they value most, it’s actually flexibility and time – such as getting an hour off to get home early. That’s more valuable to them than the money.”Cake and massages Recruitment firm Expand Executive Search – an Investors in People platinum-accredited organisation that has just won an Investors in People award for excellence in reward and recognition – has introduced random acts of generosity to make staff feel valued. That could be anything from unexpectedly sending everyone home at 1pm on a Friday to hiring a masseuse to give free massages, or presenting someone with a cake on their first work anniversary. There’s also a praise pot, which is a peer-to-peer incentive. Every quarter, three members of the team are nominated by their fellow employees to share 1% of the company’s profits.“They’re not huge financial bonuses, but they really make people feel good – and the element of surprise, not knowing when they’re coming, really emphasises the positivity around it,” says head of marketing Helen Long. “The boost they give to our team is almost immeasurable.”Darmanin admits there is a cost associated with the benefits provided at Hotjar (although it provides them despite not receiving the same tax breaks as some multinational companies based in Malta ). But the effect it has on the team makes it worthwhile. “It obviously is a cost item on our profit-and-loss report, but we see the benefits,” he says. “As soon as someone joins Hotjar we send them a pack with a high-quality headset and a Kindle and tell them: ‘You have an unlimited budget, buy anything you want.’ Instantly they feel trusted and know the company believes in them. That is really powerful.”Paul Devoy, Investors in People chief executive, says that expectation, honesty and inspiration are fundamental to good people management: “Employing expectation as a leadership tool is the most effective way of motivating your employees to give their best.“Communicating that you see potential, and asking people to consistently deliver at that level, is a way of showing both appreciation for their job function and respect for their talent.”Topics people centred business advertisement features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/people-centred-business/2017/dec/14/friday-afternoon-off-and-free-fitbits-the-companies-offering-unusual-perks'|'2017-12-14T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'a9f8c50dd077019725db494d7bd06602753b0618'|'Aconex receives $1.19 bln takeover offer from Oracle Corp'|'December 17, 2017 / 9:24 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago Aconex receives $1.19 bln takeover offer from Oracle Corp Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - Aconex Ltd said on Monday it had received a A$1.56 billion ($1.19 billion), A$7.80 in cash per share, buyout offer from U.S. software major Oracle Corp . Aconex said in a statement its directors had unanimously recommended the offer. Shareholders of the cloud software provider are scheduled to vote on the offer at a scheme meeting in March next year. $1 = 1.3074 Australian dollars Reporting by Aaron Saldanha in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/aconex-limited-ma-oracle-corp/aconex-receives-1-19-bln-takeover-offer-from-oracle-corp-idUSL4N1OH0EK'|'2017-12-17T23:23:00.000+02:00'
'49f1e4853f0e065636641e659915bc521624c9cb'|'Oil markets little changed on lack of price drivers'|'December 18, 2017 / 1:24 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Oil rises on North Sea pipeline outage, lower U.S. rig count Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday amid an ongoing North Sea pipeline outage and signs that booming U.S. crude output growth may be slowing, although the 2018 outlook points to ample supply despite production cuts led by OPEC. FILE PHOTO: A worker checks the valve of an oil pipe at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq December 21, 2015. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $57.67 a barrel at 0749 GMT, up 37 cents, or 0.65 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.67 a barrel, up 44 cents, or 0.7 percent, from their last close. Traders said the slightly higher prices came on the back of the North Sea Forties pipeline system outage, which provides crude that underpins the Brent benchmark, as well as indicators that U.S. oil production growth may be slowing. North Sea operator Ineos declared force majeure on all oil and gas shipments through its Forties pipeline system last week after cracks were found. “The force majeure ... is acting as a major prop for crude,” said Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta. In the United States, energy companies cut rigs drilling for new production for the first time in six weeks, to 747, in the week ended Dec. 15, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday. Despite this dip in drilling, activity is still well above this time last year, when the rig count was below 500, and actual U.S. production C-OUT-T-EIA has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.8 million barrels per day (bpd). This means U.S. output is fast approaching that of top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, which are pumping 10 million bpd and 11 million bpd respectively. The rising U.S. output also undermines efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is de facto led by Saudi Arabia, and a group of non-OPEC producers including Russia to withhold production to tighten the market and prop up prices. Largely because of rising shale output from the United States, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said global oil markets would show a slight supply surplus of around 200,000 bpd during the first half of 2018. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a similar surplus for that period and still indicates a supply overhang of 167,000 bpd for all of 2018. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Sherry Jacob-Phillips'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-markets-little-changed-on-lack-of-price-drivers-idUKKBN1EC03J'|'2017-12-18T03:28:00.000+02:00'
'0d38379d4a80fc339b21ef4f1a2ec884cf690e89'|'PetroChina trading chief to take on global rivals in major expansion drive: sources'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:01 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago PetroChina trading chief to take on global rivals in major expansion drive: sources Chen Aizhu 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - PetroChina’s oil and gas trading arm aims to buy petrol stations and fuel storage facilities, setting up business in West Africa, Brazil and Pakistan in a major global expansion aimed at taking on international rivals, according to three senior oil industry executives briefed on the plans. FILE PHOTO: PetroChina''s logo is seen at its petrol station in Beijing, China, March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The ambitious drive at one of the world’s top oil merchants is taking shape eight months after Tian Jinghui, a vice president at PetroChina, took over the reins at Chinaoil, PetroChina’s trading vehicle. Tian is a veteran of fuel marketing at PetroChina, a listed unit of state giant CNPC and Asia’s largest oil and gas producer. Tian’s plan would mark a step on from the legacy of former chairwoman Wang Lihua - ‘Madame Wang’ to staff and peers - who led a previous round of expansion characterised by asset-heavy investments that included nearly $4 billion worth of stakes in four refineries stretching from Scotland to Japan. “The pace of execution is accelerating after Tian took over and the strategy fits his expertise,” said one Beijing-based executive with direct knowledge of the matter. He and two other executives briefed on the plans declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the press. The new investments are expected to start as soon as next year, and mimic the moves the world’s top oil merchants Vitol and Trafigura have made recently - spending billions to buy up thousands of petrol stations in Pakistan, Turkey and Africa. They said the aim is to have a foothold in emerging markets and grow market share locally, with fuel supplies from refineries PetroChina operates globally as well as barrels exported from China where demand is slowing in a moderating economy. They didn’t disclose how much PetroChina might invest in the new drive. The expansion also aimed at tapping the transportation fuel market in those regions, where demand is growing faster than the global average, the executives said. In West Africa, it has its sights on Nigeria and Angola, they said. “Supplies to these markets have over the past been done through random tenders or ad-hoc business trips, that do not guarantee the company winning the deals,” said the executive. A spokesman for PetroChina didn’t respond to requests for comment. ENGLISH CLASSES With the sharp drop in global oil prices, major integrated oil companies have been shedding assets, including marginally profitable retail outlets, to cut costs. Chevron is in the process of selling its refinery in Cape Town and more than 1,000 petrol stations in South Africa and Botswana, in a deal that has attracted China’s Sinopec and commodities and miner Glencore competing for the assets. Young staff from PetroChina’s massive domestic marketing team were sent on a three-month English course earlier this year as candidates for potential new overseas postings, said two of the three people with knowledge of the plans. These will be new additions to the 300-strong trading and marketing team PetroChina now has mainly in global trading hubs Singapore, London and Houston, they said. Chinaoil currently procures and trades nearly 7 million barrels of oil a day (bpd), including 4.8 million bpd of crude oil and 2.2 million bpd of oil products. That exceeds Vitol’s 6 million bpd as Chinaoil markets global production from PetroChina. “Tian wants to apply his domestic marketing expertise globally...to upgrade PetroChina’s global fuel marketing from being just a wholesaler sitting at trading hubs to a retailer in consuming regions,” said one of the senior industry executives. Buying storage tanks or petrol stations will be less costly than investing in refineries, but will still be a challenge for a team with mostly domestic experience. “It will be hugely challenging for the new people Tian sends in these new posts, to be familiar with local legal framework and learn to handle public relations,” said a third senior source. Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Josephine Mason and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/petrochina-oil-trading/petrochina-trading-chief-to-take-on-global-rivals-in-major-expansion-drive-sources-idINKBN1EC0ZS'|'2017-12-18T11:55:00.000+02:00'
'd24f7db83e58ad10b7efb813ee1458931ffa9f6f'|'Global Markets: Asian shares rise amid U.S. tax cut hopes; China in focus'|'December 18, 2017 / 4:20 AM / Updated an hour ago Global Markets: U.S. tax cut outlook drives stocks but dents dollar Alasdair Pal 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Global stock markets hit record highs on Monday on expectations that a U.S. tax bill could soon pass, though a more cautious reading of the draft law’s prospects among currency traders put the dollar under pressure. A broker takes order beside her colleague during afternoon trading at a brokerage in Hong Kong April 9, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files Top U.S. Republicans said on Sunday they expected Congress to pass the tax code overhaul this week. Global stock markets have surged this year, in part on expectations of the reform, which is seen boosting corporate profits and triggering share buybacks and higher dividend payouts. The benchmark MSCI World index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, rose 0.41 percent on Monday to hit a record high, putting it on course for its best year since 2009. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.9 percent, less than 2 percent off a two-year high hit at the start of November Germany’s DAX index rose 1.2 percent, with the U.K.’s FTSE 100 up 0.5 percent. With little in the way of major economic data this week, the bill was likely to remain in focus for stock market investors, according to Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets. “Ahead of bill being signed into law, any more updated guidance from U.S. corporates, showing potential earnings improvement from the reform, will be closely watched,” he said. The dollar index fell 0.2 percent against a basket of major currencies, however, with strategists saying forex traders had adopted more of a wait-and-see attitude to the bill. Floor traders work during afternoon trading at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange November 6, 2013. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files PORTUGAL IN FOCUS In fixed income markets, Portuguese bonds were the stand-out performers, with yields hitting their lowest since early 2015 after an unprecedented two-notch sovereign credit upgrade from Fitch. Friday’s shift means the country now holds an investment grade from two of the three major rating agencies and could soon return to major bond indices. Portugal’s ten-year bond traded decisively below its Italian equivalent on Monday. The last time it did so for a sustained period was in early 2010. “There is very much a shift in the architecture in the European government bond market,” said DZ Bank rates strategist Daniel Lenz. In Asia, the Indian rupee fell as much as 1.1 percent before reversing all its losses to trade up 0.07 percent, as it became clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would comfortably win an election in his home state of Gujarat. Futures of soaring cryptocurrency bitcoin received a lukewarm reception at their launch on the CME Group exchange late on Sunday. The front-month contract was down 0.7 percent on Monday, below the $19,500 reference price set by the exchange for the January contract. Oil prices rose amid an ongoing North Sea pipeline outage and as a strike by Nigerian oil workers threatened the country’s crude exports. Reporting by Alasdair Pal, additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Swati Pandey in Sydney; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-asian-shares-rise-amid-u-s-tax-cut-hopes-china-in-focus-idINKBN1EC0BR'|'2017-12-18T06:18:00.000+02:00'
'326f3b461b118b0bdf568bfa9c839b1f0deb5acc'|'U.S. Republicans confident tax bill will become law this week'|'December 17, 2017 / 2:45 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Republicans confident tax bill will become law this week Amanda Becker , Lindsay Dunsmuir 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. Republicans said they expected Congress to pass a tax code overhaul this week, with a Senate vote as early as Tuesday and President Donald Trump aiming to sign the bill by week’s end. U.S. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks to reporters on his way to the Senate floor during debate over the Republican tax reform plan in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan John Cornyn, the No. 2 U.S. Senate Republican, said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he was “confident” the Senate would pass the legislation, “probably on Tuesday.” Republican Representative Kevin Brady said he believed his party had the votes to pass the bill. “I think we are headed - the American people are headed - for a big win on Tuesday,” Brady, the House of Representatives’ top tax writer, said on Fox News’“Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.” “We’ve worked hard to make sure that those strange Senate rules don’t hang this up in any way,” Brady added. “I am confident that’s the case.” If passed, the bill would be the biggest U.S. tax rewrite since 1986 and would provide Republican lawmakers and Trump with their first major legislative victory since they took control of the White House in January, in addition to Congress. Democrats have been unified against the measure, calling it a giveaway to corporations and the rich that would drive up the federal deficit. Chairman of the House Ways and Means Kevin Brady (R-TX) speaks at the start of the House-Senate Conferees conference meeting on the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts The tax bill is expected to add at least $1 trillion to the $20 trillion U.S. national debt over 10 years, even after accounting for the economic growth it might spur, according to independent government analyses. The bill would cut the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent and create a 20-percent income tax deduction for owners of “pass-through” businesses, such as partnerships and sole proprietorships. It would offer a mixed bag for individuals, including middle-class workers, by roughly doubling a standard deduction that does not require itemization, but eliminating or scaling back other popular itemized deductions and exemptions. The bill would maintain seven individual and family income tax brackets but cut rates. Highest-earning Americans would pay 37 percent, down from 39.6 percent. Most individual provisions, including the lower tax rates, are temporary and would expire, while the corporate rate cut and other business provisions would be permanent. Stock markets have been rallying for months in anticipation of sharply lower tax rates for corporations, with Wall Street’s three major equities indexes closing at record highs on Friday. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CBS News’“Face the Nation” on Sunday that Trump expected to realize his goal of signing the tax bill before Christmas. “This is a historic event,” Mnuchin said. “People said we wouldn’t get this done; we’re on the verge of getting this done.” Additional reporting by Sarah Lynch; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax/no-2-u-s-senate-republican-expects-tax-bill-will-pass-eyes-tuesday-idINKBN1EB0K4'|'2017-12-17T19:22:00.000+02:00'
'02530fc63917809b9125442ef9c9ff9853f0b115'|'Niki Lauda says will be ready to bid for Niki airline on December 20 - Handelsblatt'|'December 17, 2017 / 6:48 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Niki Lauda says will be ready to bid for Niki airline on December 20 - Handelsblatt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Former motor racing driver Niki Lauda aims to bid for the Austrian Niki airline, which he founded in 2003, next Wednesday, he said in a newspaper report, formally adding himself to the list of interested parties. FILE PHOTO - F1 - Formula One - British Grand Prix 2017 - Silverstone, Britain - July 14, 2017 Mercedes Formula One team chairman Niki Lauda REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff “We will be able to submit an offer already on Wednesday,” he told the German business daily Handelsblatt in its Monday edition. He said he had talked to the administrator of Niki’s insolvent parent company, Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), Frank Kebekus, on Friday, making him aware he was ready to act quickly. Niki filed for insolvency last Wednesday. On Saturday, German logistics firm Zeitfracht and maintenance group Nayak confirmed they were interested in some Niki assets, including Niki Technik, and crews. Lauda also told Handelsblatt he would engage in the talks initially without British holiday group Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ), also among the interested parties, in order to speed things up. “But logically, I am contact with Thomas Cook and its (German) subsidiary Condor,” he added. Irish low cost carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ) has also expressed an interest in its assets. Niki’s insolvency came after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) scrapped plans to buy the airline due to the European Commission’s competition concerns. The administrators for Air Berlin have since been working to find a new buyer for Niki’s assets - which include valuable take off and landing slots in airports such as Duesseldorf, Munich and Vienna - under considerable time pressure in order to clinch a deal before Niki loses its slots. Reporting by Vera Eckert,; Editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-niki/niki-lauda-says-will-be-ready-to-bid-for-niki-airline-on-december-20-handelsblatt-idUKKBN1EB0Q6'|'2017-12-17T20:47:00.000+02:00'
'531517038ff4c47b532dc2050f0fb12726fa942c'|'UPDATE 2-U.S. labor board overturns Obama-era ''joint employment'' ruling'|'December 14, 2017 / 10:38 PM / Updated an hour ago U.S. labor board overturns Obama-era ''joint employment'' ruling Daniel Wiessner 4 Min Read (Reuters) - A U.S. labor board on Thursday overturned an Obama-era ruling that had made it easier for unions and workers to hold companies accountable for practices of contractors and franchisees, a decision welcomed by business groups that could affect a major case against McDonald’s Corp ( MCD.N ). The 3-2 decision by the National Labor Relations Board reversed the standard it had set in a 2015 case involving Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. It reinstated a previous test that says companies are “joint employers” only when they exercise direct control over workers. President Donald Trump appointed two Republicans to the five-member NLRB earlier this year, giving his party a 3-2 majority for the first time in a decade. Trump’s appointees, who joined the board in August and September, are widely expected to revisit a series of recent NLRB decisions that business groups say unfairly favored unions. Thursday’s decision marked the third time this week the board overruled an Obama era decision. Use of franchising or contract labor allows many companies to avoid the costs and responsibilities of directly employing workers. But a company found to be a joint employer can be required to bargain with unions and may be held liable for labor law violations by contractors, staffing agencies or franchisees. Prior to the 2015 ruling in Browning-Ferris, companies were found to be joint employers of workers hired by another business if they had “direct and immediate” control over working conditions. In the Browning-Ferris decision, the NLRB said joint employment could also exist when companies have only “indirect or unexercised control” over workers. On Thursday, the board said the Democratic majority in Browning-Ferris overstepped its authority by altering the legal definitions of employment. The two Democrats on the board dissented, saying the Browning-Ferris decision was legally sound and the majority failed to provide any “real-world examples or even remotely plausible hypotheticals” that show how the standard harmed businesses. In a separate case, the NLRB has filed complaints against McDonald’s claiming it was the joint employer of franchise workers across the country. A trial began over 2-1/2 years ago, but Thursday’s decision could derail the bulk of the case. The McDonald’s case had been seen as an important test of how Browning-Ferris, which did not mention franchisors, would apply to those companies. “At the very least, this significantly narrows the issues and it should be very comforting to McDonald’s and the franchise community,” said Michael Lotito, a partner at labor law firm Littler Mendelson who represents employers. A lawyer representing McDonald’s in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but two restaurant trade groups hailed the ruling. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and other trade groups also applauded the decision, which came in a case involving two construction companies based in Iowa and Illinois. The board said the companies were joint employers of several workers who were unlawfully fired for going on strike. The International Franchise Association and National Restaurant Association, which represent McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurant operators, have been especially vocal critics of the Browning-Ferris standard, arguing it could doom the franchising industry. The restaurant association said in a statement that Thursday’s decision “restores years of established law and brings back clarity for restaurants and small businesses across the country.” Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Leslie Adler and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-labor-jointemployers/u-s-labor-board-overturns-obama-era-joint-employment-ruling-idUSKBN1E838B'|'2017-12-15T01:20:00.000+02:00'
'1fa52f466cdae27f0142492f289fd2e15978e988'|'Palestinian billionaire Masri detained in Saudi Arabia - sources'|'December 16, 2017 / 10:43 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago Palestinian billionaire Masri detained in Saudi Arabia: sources Suleiman Al-Khalidi 5 Min Read AMMAN (Reuters) - Sabih al-Masri, Jordan’s most influential businessman and the chairman of its largest lender Arab Bank, was detained in Saudi Arabia for questioning after a business trip to Riyadh, family sources and friends said on Saturday. Masri’s arrest, which follows the biggest purge of the Saudi kingdom’s affluent elite in its modern history, has sent shockwaves through business circles in Jordan and the Palestinian territories, where the billionaire has major investments. A Saudi citizen of Palestinian origin, Masri was detained last Tuesday hours before he was planning to leave after he chaired meetings of companies he owns, according to the sources. He is the founder of Saudi Astra Group, which has wide interests in diversified industries ranging from agro-industry to telecommunications, construction and mining across the region. “Masri was heading to the airport and they told him to stay where you are and they picked him up,” said a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be named. He cancelled a dinner in Amman on Wednesday that he had invited board members of Arab Bank and business associates to attend on his return. Masri could not be reached for comment. The Saudi authorities did not respond to requests for comment. Confidants said Masri had been warned not to travel to the Saudi capital after mass arrests of Saudi royals, ministers and businessmen in early November. “He has been answering questions about his business and partners,” said a source familiar with the matter who did not elaborate nor confirm he was held. POLITICAL MOTIVE Reasons for Masri’s detention were not clear but political sources said the Saudis might have used him to put pressure on Jordan’s King Abdullah not to attend a Muslim summit last week to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Jordanian monarch attended the Istanbul summit, however. He is a custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and has been vocal in criticising Trump over his decision on Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia, whose relations with the United States have warmed with Trump taking a harder line against its arch-rival Iran than his predecessor, appears to have taken a softer line on the decision on Jerusalem, according to analysts. Riyadh sent a junior minister to the Istanbul meeting. Masri, who comes from a prominent merchant family from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, amassed a fortune from partnering with influential Saudis in a major catering business to supply troops during the U.S.-led military operation to retake Kuwait from Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Reports of his detention surfaced on Thursday in the local media in Jordan where Masri’s multi-billion dollar investments in hotels and banking are a cornerstone of the economy. He was elected chairman of Arab Bank in 2012 after the resignation of Abdel Hamid Shoman whose family had founded the bank in Jerusalem in 1930. The bank, which has earned a reputation of resilience in the face of political upheaval, played a prominent role in supporting former Palestinian leader, the late Yasser Arafat during past Middle East turmoil. Arab Bank, which operates in 30 countries and five continents, has an extensive network in Palestinian territories where it is the largest bank. It also owns 40 percent of Saudi Arabia’s Arab National Bank ANB. Masri led consortium of Arab and Jordanian investors who bought a 20 percent stake in Arab Bank Group from Lebanon’s Hariri family business empire for $1.12 billion last February. He was also instrumental in agreeing in 2015 to settle litigation brought by hundreds of Americans who accused Arab Bank of providing financial services in the West Bank that facilitated militant attacks in Israel. They had sued Arab Bank under the U.S Anti-Terrorism Act, which permits U.S. citizens to pursue claims arising from international terrorism. Masri is also the leading investor in the Palestinian territories with a large stake in Paltel, a public shareholding company, which is the largest private sector firm in the West Bank. Masri’s family ranks among the wealthiest in the Palestinian territories, with majority holdings in real estate, hotels and telecommunications firms set up after a self-rule agreement with Israel in 1993. Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Clelia Oziel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-corruption-jordan-masri/palestinian-billionaire-masri-detained-in-saudi-arabia-sources-idINKBN1EA09N'|'2017-12-16T13:17:00.000+02:00'
'003496223230862d0270c26b0d06e1b82d7278bc'|'Italy''s CDP, Intesa set for role in ArcelorMittal bid for Ilva: source'|'December 15, 2017 / 10:02 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Italy''s CDP, Intesa set for role in ArcelorMittal bid for Ilva: source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s state holding company CDP [CDP.UL] and Intesa Sanpaolo ( ISP.MI ) have signed a non-binding agreement to join ArcelorMittal’s ( MT.AS ) bid to buy Italian steelmaker Ilva, a source close to the matter said on Friday. The involvement of CDP and Intesa, which the source said would amount to about 100 million euros ($118 million), would replace the share in the consortium currently held by Italian steel processor Marcegaglia. EU antitrust authorities in November upgraded their investigation into whether the proposed purchase of Ilva by the consortium led by ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, would lead to steel price hikes. The exit of Marcegaglia from the deal could make it easier to overcome the antitrust concerns. Earlier Italy’s industry minister, Carlo Calenda, held talks with ArcelorMittal Europe CEO Aditya Mittal. ($1 = 0.8506 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ilva-bid/italys-cdp-intesa-set-for-role-in-arcelormittal-bid-for-ilva-source-idINKBN1E92UP'|'2017-12-16T00:00:00.000+02:00'
'514fd130a77db9a2fdf557b296e4cc218de54ebd'|'Opera Software changes name to Otello Corporation'|' 20 AM / a few seconds ago Opera Software changes name to Otello Corporation Reuters Staff 1 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s Opera Software has changed its name to Otello Corporation, it said in a statement on Monday. The developer of software for advertising, telecoms, games and other online business also plans to change its current OPERA ticker on the Oslo Bourse, although a new trading symbol has not yet been created, it added. The company sold its key internet browser business, known as Opera, in 2016. Reporting by Oslo newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-opera-software-namechange-otello/opera-software-changes-name-to-otello-corporation-idUKKBN1EC11H'|'2017-12-18T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'24fb885b076da705769c8dca4ac47f8422510cd9'|'Thales'' 4.8 billion-euro bid for Gemalto gets thumbs up from investors'|'December 18, 2017 / 9:32 AM / in 2 hours Thales'' 4.8 billion euro bid for Gemalto gets thumbs up from investors Mathieu Rosemain , Cyril Altmeyer 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Shares in French defense electronics maker Thales ( TCFP.PA ) jumped more than 8 percent on Monday after chipmaker Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) accepted its 4.8 billion euro ($5.7 bln) takeover bid to create a leader in digital security. Thales Chief Executive Patrice Caine, who made his move just days after Gemalto had knocked back a 4.3 billion-euro offer from French rival Atos ( ATOS.PA ), said on Sunday that Gemalto had agreed to the takeover. Atos said it would not engage in a bidding war but would be open to further discussions with Gemalto should the Thales deal collapse. Thales shares closed up 8.25 percent at 93.40 euros, while Amsterdam-listed Gemalto’s shares ended 5.6 percent higher at 49.47 euros, just below Thales’ 51 euro per share basic offer. The planned merger highlights the increasingly blurred lines between industrial and software companies which are both vying for a share of the fast-growing digital security market as companies seek more online security. “In terms of DNA, the two companies look much more alike,” said Richard-Maxime Beaudoux, an analyst at Bryan, Garnier & Co. “It’s not a financial deal, which was the case for Atos. They gave it a try; it was opportunistic.” The French state is the largest shareholder in Thales, while state-owned bank Bpifrance is Gemalto’s second-biggest shareholder. A French government source said Thales had told the Gemalto board that it was the better fit. Under the deal, unanimously recommended by the boards of both companies, Thales will merge its digital assets with Gemalto to create a unit headed by Gemalto CEO Philippe Vallee. Slideshow (5 Images) TOUGH YEAR Thales’s proposed takeover ends a difficult year for Gemalto, which has made a series of profit warnings that hurt its shares and overshadowed its attempt to shift away from a slowing market for phone SIM cards toward security services such as data encryption and biometric passports. “Our intention is to keep all of the assets in Gemalto’s portfolio,” Caine told analysts, suggesting that SIM card operations remained core alongside Gemalto’s growing focus on cybersecurity. He said he had been in talks with Gemalto for several months. Thales forecast that Gemalto’s revenues would grow 5 percent annually and said it expected Gemalto’s EBIT margin to exceed its own within two or three years of the merger. Thales and Gemalto said on Sunday that the digital security entity would generate sales of 3.5 billion euros - one fifth of Thales’ total revenues - and pre-tax cost synergies of between 100 million and 150 million euros by 2021. Vallee on Monday said he would stick to a plan to cut 288 jobs in Gemalto’s struggling SIM card business in France. “This plan is maintained,” he told BFM business radio, adding that he would try to redeploy staff internally. Caine later told a news conference that Gemalto’s staff would have the opportunity to get jobs at French military shipyard Naval Group, which is part of Thales. Editing by Richard Lough/Jane Merriman/Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gemalto-m-a-thales/thales-sees-5-percent-revenue-growth-from-gemalto-assets-idUSKBN1EC0XY'|'2017-12-18T13:52:00.000+02:00'
'6a43148b162ae00bff05e7a63bb1434423a3bd87'|'Bumper business Christmas quiz 2017 - Business'|'Which of the following did Sainsbury’s add to its food shelves this year? Mealworm burgers Edible flowers Horse meat What did bagless vacuum cleaner inventor James Dyson pledge to build next?An electric vehicle Hybrid microwave toasters A screenless smartphone Chocolate bars, drink cartons, toilet rolls and tinsel have all been hit by what phenomenon? A consumer boycott over ethical concerns Shrinkflation Shortages in the run-up to Christmas Which speculative bubble has the price surge in bitcoin been likened to?The Icelandic rose bubble The Dutch tulip mania The Danish snowdrop craze How much of the UK’s power came from coal in the first half of 2017? 2% 11% 23% Which major chocolate brand sparked a row in the summer by announcing plans to launch its first UK chocolate bar that is neither organic nor Fairtrade-certified? Lindt Green & Black’s Divine Which tycoon was accused of vomiting into a fireplace after a top management meeting that was ''effectively a pub lock-in'', during a high court case in 2017? James Dyson Sir Philip Green Mike Ashley Which company told managers always to refer to ‘independent suppliers’ instead of ‘staff’ and to always say ‘onboarding’ instead of ‘hiring’? Southern rail Deliveroo Uber What did Poundland name its totally dissimilar tribute to the Toblerone bar?River Deep Mountain High Twin Peaks Rock band Elbow provided the soundtrack to the John Lewis Christmas advert with a cover of The Beatles’ Golden Slumbers. But which Beatles album is the track from? Sgt. Pepper''s Lonely Hearts Club Band Abbey Road A Hard Day''s Night Britain is currently suffering its worst wage squeeze since...The Crimean war The Napoleonic war The Boer war How is Coutts, the bankers to the British royal family, trying to lure younger rich clients? Holding special events for computer gamers Offering free membership to Mahiki Only hiring bankers under the age of 36 United Airlines apologised over the death of a giant rabbit during one of its transatlantic flights. What was the rabbit’s name?Colin Simon Peter Who is the new chairman of the Federal Reserve? James Powell Jerome Powell Jonathan Powell What stranded tens of thousands of British Airways passengers at the start of summer half-term holiday? Hurricane Irma A flock of pigeons in the main aircraft hangar An IT failure caused by someone pulling out a plug at HQ Where in Geneva were €100,000 of shredded €500 notes discovered?In Swiss bank safety deposit boxes Inside cuckoo clocks Flushed down toilets Which company hit the headlines for banning some of its workers for having beards? Gillette JD Wetherspoon Mears M&S’s fabled Percy Pig, who is now married with children, celebrated his birthday this year. How old is the chewy porker?25 50 133 (the same as M&S) What did Sir Howard Davies, chairman of RBS, say about bitcoin? ‘It’s like Dante’s Inferno’ ‘It’s like Frankenstein’s monster’ ‘Bit what?’ What has been tipped as 2017’s key Christmas partywear item? Adult ‘Elf’ pyjamas from Asda It’s still the Christmas jumper, you can’t beat it. Quality lasts! The Christmas suit, the sartorial equivalent of wearing wrapping pape How many times in a year did a gambler lose more than £1,000 on a bookmaker''s fixed-odds betting terminal, according to figures released this year? 233,071 23,071 2,371 Amazon paid $1bn for the rights to which franchise it hopes to turn into the next global blockbuster TV series?Harry Potter Lord of the Rings James Bond What was the most-read Guardian business story of 2017? John Lewis Xmas ad 2017 - meet Moz the monster Cyber attack on Deloitte reveals clients’ secret emails Hard times for Whole Foods: what went wrong? How many electric car charging points are there in the UK now? 1,300 13,000 130,000 ITV named which high-flying executive to become its first-ever female chief? Alex Mahon Carolyn McCall Dawn Airey Which popular eatery started a delivery service to City of London bankers? Greggs Pret a Manger Square Meal in the Square Mile Who tweeted to say they would be spending more time in Frankfurt after Brexit? Michael O’Leary, Ryanair boss Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs Ralf Speth, boss of Jaguar Land Rover What prompted Charlotte Hogg to quit as deputy governor of the Bank of England?The use of animal fat in the new plastic banknotes A lack of diversity at the Bank Her failure to declare a potential conflict of interest Richard Desmond is to sell his Express and Star titles to Trinity Mirror, the owner of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, for £130m. How much has Desmond personally made over the last 17 years as proprietor? More than £500m More than £400m More than £300m A revised way for calculating insurance and medical payouts was revealed in February, provoking uproar among insurers. What is it called? The Sharples rate The Lynch rate The Ogden rate When the Bank of England raised interest rates in November, it was the first increase in the cost of borrowing since when? 2007 2008 2009 In his spring budget, Philip Hammond announced a major overhaul of National Insurance for the self-employed. How many days later did he abandon the changes? Three Five Seven The new £10 note went into circulation in September. The Queen was given the first (AA01 1), while Theresa May got the third. Who was handed the second?HRH Prince Philip The chancellor of the exchequer, Philip Hammond Bank of England governor Mark Carney Marks & Spencer unveiled which of the following to help halt the painful phenomenon known as ‘avocado hand’?Frozen, pre-stoned avocados Freeze-dried avocado powder Stoneless ‘cocktail’ avocados How many of the 10 multimillion-pound flats in the Shard have been sold five years after the building opened its doors?5 10 Nil Which high street food retailer provoked an unholy row over its decision to substitute the baby Jesus with a sausage roll in its 2017 advent calendar? Pret in a Manger Gregg''s Subway How many sides does the new £1 coin have (no peeking in wallets, purses etc)?8 10 12 Which companies have oil and gas firm Ineos bought this year? A boutique milliner and a Swiss cricket club A jacket maker and a Swiss football team A suit-makers and a Swiss tennis club What does the term The Paradise Papers refer to?The name of Vanessa Paradis’s greatest hits album A special investigation into global tax avoidance, conducted by the Guardian, among others The term used to describe left-wing, liberal newspapers with a heavy utopian bias Which of the below correctly names three leading food courier services? Delivenoo, Just Ate, UberEast Just Eaten, OverEats, Deliveree Deliveroo, Just Eat, UberEats What is the main business of the international listed company funkily rebranded as GetLink? Telecommunications Corporate matchmaking A tunnel If you’re looking to buy a ‘Snake Pit’ standing ticket for one of Taylor Swift’s 2018 Wembley Stadium shows, what is the official Ticketmaster price? £185 £385 £585 Which drink, say experts, will follow gin and be the next to surge in popularity?Advocaat Midori Rum How long will it ta'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/18/bumper-business-christmas-quiz-2017'|'2017-12-18T15:10:00.000+02:00'
'e0e61e0f557b24c52478002d137d5b3659c238f5'|'StanChart and China''s Ant Financial sign ''Belt & Road'' partnership'|' 48 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago StanChart and China''s Ant Financial sign ''Belt & Road'' partnership Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London-based bank Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) and Ant Financial, the payment affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) have agreed to collaborate in countries along China’s ‘Belt & Road’ strategic initiative. FILE PHOTO - A man walks past the head office of Standard Chartered bank in the City of London February 27, 2015. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh StanChart said on Monday the two companies will work to increase access to financial services in countries along the route, without giving details on how the partnership will work. China’s Belt and Road initiative aims to recreate the old Silk Road with massive infrastructure projects to connect China to Europe and beyond. Reporting by Lawrence White, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-stanchart-alibaba/stanchart-and-chinas-ant-financial-sign-belt-road-partnership-idUKKBN1EC14P'|'2017-12-18T12:48:00.000+02:00'
'52090f4e0e8442bebb450c6ceaa39d62b682e272'|'UPDATE 1-Ineos sticks with 2-4 week Forties pipeline repair estimate, assessing damage'|'December 18, 2017 / 11:45 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Ineos sticks with 2-4 week Forties pipeline repair estimate, assessing damage Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Updates with details) LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Repairing Britain’s Forties crude oil pipeline in the North Sea is still expected to take two to four weeks, operator Ineos said on Monday, as assessment continues a week after it was closed down. The system, which carries around 450,000 barrels per day of Forties crude to Britain, along with a third of the UK’s total offshore natural gas output, has been closed since last Monday after a routine inspection revealed a crack in an onshore section of the pipe. “We are currently monitoring the pipeline and working through some of the solutions for repair,” spokesman Richard Longden said, adding the crack had not grown in the last week. Ineos on Dec 13 was forced to declare force majeure on deliveries of Forties crude oil, natural gas and condensate, suspending its contractual obligations to customers due to circumstances beyond its control. The privately-owned chemicals company based in Switzerland bought the pipeline system from BP in late October. It has told clients it expects any repair work to take between two and four weeks, an estimate that has not changed in the last week. Forties is the biggest of the five North Sea crudes that underpin Brent, a benchmark for oil trading in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Brent crude oil futures were up around 0.25 percent on the day at $63.39 a barrel by 1132 GMT, having touched $65 following the outage last week, the highest since mid-2015. (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oil-forties-pipeline/update-1-ineos-sticks-with-2-4-week-forties-pipeline-repair-estimate-assessing-damage-idUSL8N1OI2D2'|'2017-12-18T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'6c44a0fe1558494df3ecac76d2477f7cafa9cde4'|'BMW electric cars hit 100,000 sales target'|'December 18, 2017 / 8:06 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago BMW electric cars hit 100,000 sales target Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - BMW ( BMWG.DE ) said on Monday it had hit its target of selling 100,000 electric cars this year around the world, benefiting from strong demand in western Europe and the United States for models such as the i3 and the 2-series plug-in hybrid Active Tourer. FILE PHOTO: The logo of BMW before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, southern Germany, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder/File Photo This is more than 60 percent up from the 62,255 electric cars BMW sold last year. The German luxury carmaker has said it expects 2018 electric-vehicle (EV) sales to grow by a medium two-digit percentages. A pioneer in electric cars, BMW launched the i3 hatchback in 2013 but sales have been relatively low and management has wrestled with whether to go all-out for electrification. But that changed in September when the Munich-based group said it would gear up for mass production of electric cars and aimed to have 12 fully electric models by 2025 with a range of up to 700 kilometres. “Electric mobility is the indicator where I measure our success,” Chief Executive Harald Krueger said. Earlier on Monday, U.S. EV battery company Solid Power said it had partnered with BMW to develop the next-generation solid-state battery technology for use in electric cars. Reporting by Andreas Cremer. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bmw-electric/bmw-electric-cars-hit-100000-sales-target-idINKBN1EC2J8'|'2017-12-18T22:06:00.000+02:00'
'1f29ae6d06d336eae7e1d8974c5732d7d9629a9a'|'Danish central bank head issues stark warning on "deadly" bitcoin'|'December 18, 2017 / 11:31 AM / in an hour Danish central bank head issues stark warning on "deadly" bitcoin Stine Jacobsen 2 Min Read COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Potential investors in bitcoin should steer clear of a dangerous gamble and not complain to financial regulators if things do go wrong, Denmark’s central bank governor warned. “You should stay away (from bitcoin). It is deadly,” central bank head Lars Rohde said in an interview with state broadcaster DR published online on Monday. The comments echoed concerns of a bubble about to burst made by other market participants and central bankers after the price of bitcoin rocketed more than 1,800 percent since the start of the year. Rohde said that if people decide to ignore his warnings, they should realise that they are pretty much on their own. “It is not a regulated market. It is not the responsibility of the authorities. It is the responsibility of the individual,” said Rohde. Emphasising his point, Rohde told investors not to “come and complain to us if it goes wrong”. FILE PHOTO: A coin representing the bitcoin cryptocurrency is seen on computer circuit boards in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo The launch of futures trading in bitcoin has further fuelled debate about the place of the cryptocurrency in the financial system. On Sunday, France’s finance minister said his country would propose that the G20 group of major economies discuss regulation of the bitcoin virtual currency next year. Decentralised digital currencies like bitcoin are still not widely accepted, and critics say that the fact that they are unregulated makes them risky to use. European Union states and legislators last week agreed stricter rules to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing on exchange platforms for bitcoin and other virtual currencies. “I see bitcoin as tulipmania, which is a bubble that is out of control,” Rohde said, referring to a notorious 17th century Dutch boom and bust. Last week, the Danish central bank said that introducing a digital version of the Danish crown currency would pose risks to financial stability without improving payment solutions for Danes. Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen/Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bitcoin-denmark/danish-central-bank-head-issues-stark-warning-on-deadly-bitcoin-idINKBN1EC19R'|'2017-12-18T13:29:00.000+02:00'
'6ab0fdcabc2836f4136439c3255a781a034c2801'|'Bombardier, CRRC JV win $271 million contract to build monorail in China'|' 18 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Bombardier, CRRC JV win $271 million contract to build monorail in China Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A joint venture between Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ) and China’s CRRC Corp Ltd ( 601766.SS )( 1766.HK ) has won a 1.79 billion yuan (£202.8 million) contract to build a monorail line for a Chinese city, the Canadian transport giant said on Monday. FILE PHOTO - The Bombardier logo is seen at the Bombardier factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland September 26, 2017. Picture taken September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Bombardier said in a press release that CRRC Puzhen Bombardier Transportation Systems Limited won the contract to supply Wuhu city in eastern China with its automated Innovia monorail system and 240 cars, the unit’s first monorail contract in China. “We are confident that the monorail will become an icon for Wuhu city and we will see more Bombardier monorail systems in other Chinese cities in the future,” said Bombardier China President Zhang Jianwei in the statement. Bombardier and CRRC own equal shares in the joint venture, which was established in 2014 to focus on the Chinese monorail market. Bombardier’s railway arm has six other joint ventures in China. China has been ramping up investment in inner-city mass transit project to alleviate congestion. However, media has recently reported that subway projects in at least three cities have been halted over debt concerns. Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Robert Birsel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bombardier-crrc-china/bombardier-crrc-jv-win-271-million-contract-to-build-monorail-in-china-idUKKBN1EC11T'|'2017-12-18T12:19:00.000+02:00'
'7e47a02597080df2dc6160edf183951ffa7cb6f5'|'Barclays proposes alternative Seadrill restructuring plan - court filing'|'Reuters TV United States December 18, 2017 / 5:25 PM / a few seconds ago Barclays proposes alternative Seadrill restructuring plan-court filing Reuters Staff 3 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - British bank Barclays Plc ( BARC.L ) has submitted an alternative proposal to restructure Seadrill ( SDRL.OL ), the oil rig company said in a U.S. court filing. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Barclays is seen on the top of one of its branch in Madrid, Spain, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Perez/File Photo Seadrill, which filed for Chapter 11 restructuring in a U.S. court on Sept. 12, has already received two restructuring proposals. The Norwegian company, once the largest drilling rig operator by market value, filed for bankruptcy protection after being hit hard by oil company investment cutbacks following the fall in oil prices. One of the proposals is from its main owner, Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen and a group of hedge funds.[L8N1OD5OL]. The other came from an “Ad-Hoc Group” of unsecured bondholders, including about 40 investors from the United States, Europe and Asia. “Indeed, the debtors (Seadrill) recently received proposals from each of Barclays and the Ad Hoc Group,” Seadrill said in the court documents filed last Friday. Barclays, which also holds Seadrill’s bonds, was not immediately available to comment. The court filing did not give any details of Barclays’ plan. Seadrill said it would continue to engage with both Barclays and the Ad Hoc Group “in hopes of reaching a global resolution.” The company also said the original plan proposed by Fredriksen represented “the highest and otherwise best value-maximizing alternative.” The proposal from Fredriksen and the group of hedge funds’s envisages investing $1.06 billion via new equity and secured debt to restructure Seadrill and its $12.8 billion in debt and other liabilities. This plan offered holders of Seadrill’s $2.3 billion of unsecured bonds 14.3 percent of the stock in the reorganized company, while existing shareholders would be left with just 1.9 percent. The plan requires the approval of unsecured bondholders as their holdings will be impaired in the restructuring. In a court filing on Friday, Seadrill said this plan was backed by about 40 percent of unsecured bondholders and almost all of its bank lenders. Seadrill’s spokesman said in an email on Monday the company had no further comments. A hearing on the official restructuring plan will be held in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas on Jan. 10. Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-seadrill-bankruptcy/barclays-proposes-alternative-seadrill-restructuring-plan-court-filing-idUKKBN1EC28H'|'2017-12-18T19:18:00.000+02:00'
'2bc6a1efdb32c85584b70e8912e936d7699c1def'|'Saudi Aramco hires Citi to lead $2 billion UK-backed loan – sources'|'UK factories enjoy three-decade high for orders Health Tiny stem cell companies close in on major heart disease goals Lebanon murder suspect is Uber driver - source Reuters TV United States December 18, 2017 / 12:50 PM / a few seconds ago Saudi Aramco hires Citi to lead $2 billion UK-backed loan: sources Dasha Afanasieva , Davide Barbuscia 3 Min Read LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] has appointed U.S. investment bank Citi to lead a $2 billion financing backed by Britain, sources familiar with the deal said. Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo The loan mandate will not be particularly lucrative, the sources said, but is seen by some banks as a way of getting closer to securing work on Aramco’s planned initial public share offer, which may value the company at $2 trillion - a sum some prospective investors have said appears unrealistically high. “Banks look at these kinds of operations for relationship purposes,” said a source at a European export credit agency in the Middle East. “This kind of loan is a bit of a test that Aramco makes on the market and given the name, there’s high competition among banks,” he added. The loan financing, announced in November, is guaranteed by UK Export Finance (UKEF), the British export credit agency, and will enable Saudi Aramco to buy British goods and services more easily. “UKEF is engaged in finalizing the operational arrangements regarding a significant finance facility with Saudi Aramco. UKEF’s support will take the form of a $2 billion guarantee on bank lending,” said a UK government spokesperson in an emailed response to a request for comment, adding that Aramco would select the banks involved in the transaction. Aramco and Citi declined to comment. Citi is keen to win a much-coveted role in the IPO, expected to raise $100 billion as soon as late 2018 and a cornerstone policy in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to diversify the Saudi economy away from its over-dependency on oil. One source said proposals were due on Wednesday for the IPO roles but banks without an established lending role did not expect to be successful. “We can’t get on their loans so we don’t expect to get a mandate. It’s really frustrating,” said one banker who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Earlier this year Aramco formally appointed JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and HSBC to advise it on the listing alongside independent advisors Moelis and Evercore. Citi also recently received an investment banking license for Saudi Arabia after more than a decade out of the kingdom. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva in London and Davide Barbuscia in Dubai, with additional reporting by Reem Shamseddine in Khobar; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-aramco-citi-loan/saudi-aramco-hires-citi-to-lead-2-billion-uk-backed-loan-sources-idUKKBN1EC1JO'|'2017-12-18T14:47:00.000+02:00'
'699892ad510d2d3036d4e46324414e9f73666593'|'Smaller cities drive China''s new home prices in November, defying curbs'|' 05 AM / in 40 minutes Smaller cities drive China''s new home prices in November, defying curbs Yawen Chen , Ryan Woo 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Growth in China’s new home prices sustained its momentum in November, with increases seen in provincial centres and smaller cities in a sign policymakers may need to step up curbs to rein in speculation in the property market. A night view of the old houses surrounded by new apartment buildings at Guangfuli neighbourhood in Shanghai, China, April 10, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/Files China’s housing market boom has lasted more than two years, giving the economy a major boost but stirring fears of a property bubble, with the government taking stern measures to curtail speculative buying. Authorities have been particularly focused on curbing lending for speculation in the housing market in a broad effort to defuse financial risks from a rapid build-up in debt. Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 0.3 percent in November from the previous month, in line with October’s price gains, Reuters calculated from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data out on Monday. The majority of the 70 cities surveyed by the NBS still reported a monthly price increase for new homes. Fifty cities reported higher prices in November, unchanged from October, indicating broad strength in markets nationwide. “I think the government would be quite frustrated about today’s data as they wanted to see a bubble squeeze, not a growing bubble,” said Iris Pang, a Hong Kong-based economist at ING. New home prices rose 5.1 percent year-on-year in November, down from October’s 5.4 percent increase as the pace of growth slowed in the face of government efforts to engineer a soft landing in the housing market. Yan Yuejin, an analyst with Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, said the widening gains may have to do with “relaxed tightening policies” at the local government level in November. Central bank data last week showed household loans, mostly mortgages, rose to 620.5 billion yuan ($93.89 billion) in November from 450.1 billion yuan in October, according to Reuters calculations. While monthly price rises peaked in September 2016 at 2.1 percent nationwide, they have softened only slowly, regaining momentum as buyers shrugged off each new measure to curb speculation. Prices for new private homes in top-tier cities fell another 0.1 percent in November, after a 0.1 percent decline in October, the NBS said in a note accompanying the data. In the southern boom town of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, prices fell 0.2 percent after sliding 0.1 percent in October. They fell 3.1 percent from a year earlier. But as mega-cities like Beijing impose increasingly stringent measures, speculators have moved to smaller centres this year where authorities offer cheap credit and impose few restrictions in the hope of clearing a glut of unsold homes. While Pang expects more tightening from the policymakers, she sees the persistent price growth triggering a wider fear of missing out among buyers, prompting market participants to purchase properties in smaller cities, including their hometowns. “If prices keep rising with such a heavy tightening in price, that will create a fear that if they do not buy now, they won’t be able to afford a home later,” she said. Property prices in China’s Tier-2 cities, mostly sizable provincial capitals, recorded the strongest price growth in November. They rose 0.5 percent from a 0.3 percent increase in October, the NBS said. The smaller tier-3 cities rose 0.4 percent from a 0.3 percent gain in October. Urumqi, the Tier-2 capital of China’s restive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, recorded the biggest monthly price gains of 1.8 percent among the 70 major cities surveyed. A Reuters’ investigation this month also found mortgage fraud is rampant in China, as unqualified borrowers use fake documents to secure financing, while loans deceptively obtained for other purposes are funnelled into property. While data released last week showed property investment growth in November easing to its slowest since July 2016, property sales by floor area reached a five-month high and housing starts rebounded sharply. ($1 = 6.6088 Chinese yuan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-homeprices/smaller-cities-drive-chinas-new-home-prices-in-november-defying-curbs-idINKBN1EC0DA'|'2017-12-18T07:19:00.000+02:00'
'6a26c493d3b0d8424ced21fb1e8044883601fc03'|'UK business insolvency risk rises as Brexit approaches - report'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:48 PM / Updated 6 hours ago UK business insolvency risk rises as Brexit approaches - report Reuters Staff 2 Min Read EDINBURGH (Reuters) - The number of British businesses facing the risk of insolvency grew over the course of 2017, insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - A man peers into a closed down shop, next door to another shop holding a closing down sale, in central London February 27, 2013. Britain''s economy contracted by 0.3 percent in the last quarter of 2012 as first thought, keeping alive the danger of a third recession since 2008, although yearly growth was revised up, data showed on Wednesday. REUTERS/Andrew Winning The study, drawn from a database of 3.6 million companies using performance indicators including balance sheets and directors’ track records, showed the highest growth in risk in the technology sector. The figures come as British companies face rising inflation, exchange rate fluctuations and uncertainty, all exacerbated by protracted Brexit negotiations. R3 said a third of all the companies it studied were in its “higher than average risk” band in December, up from a quarter at the beginning of the year. It did not give details how the bands were calculated, or say how many firms were in each. The percentage of IT firms with a higher-than-average risk of insolvency rose to almost 39.8 percent in December from 33.5 in January. Higher levels were also seen in the transport and haulage, professional services and outsourcing sectors. Government data earlier this year showed the number of people registering as insolvent in England and Wales hit a five-year high in the third quarter. Debt charities and the Institute of Chartered Accounts in England and Wales (ICAEW) warned that the latest sharp increase indicated wider problems in Britain’s consumer-led economy. Reporting by Elisabeth O''Leary'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-bankruptcy/uk-business-insolvency-risk-rises-as-brexit-approaches-report-idUKKBN1ED1OD'|'2017-12-19T15:58:00.000+02:00'
'213e4131e9dd1739f4ab9c3aaf9d4dd1359c5ce9'|'French finance minister calls for bitcoin regulation debate at G20'|'December 17, 2017 / 8:49 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago French finance minister calls for bitcoin regulation debate at G20 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France will propose that the G20 group of major economies discuss regulation of the bitcoin virtual currency next year, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire delivers a speech as he attends a working session during the One Planet Summit at the Seine Musicale center in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes “I am going to propose to the next G20 president, Argentina, that at the G20 summit in April we have a discussion all together on the question of bitcoin,” Le Maire told French news channel LCI. “There is evidently a risk of speculation. We need to consider and examine this and see how (...) with all the other G20 members we can regulate bitcoin.” Bitcoin’s prices have risen more than 1,700 percent since the start of the year, triggering worries that the market is a bubble that could burst in spectacular fashion. European Union states and legislators agreed on Friday on stricter rules to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing on exchange platforms for bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Caroline Pailliez, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin-g20/french-finance-minister-calls-for-bitcoin-regulation-debate-at-g20-idUKKBN1EB0SZ'|'2017-12-17T22:48:00.000+02:00'
'154c416fd3b162050735ba5712f555bbed6aaee3'|'Palestinian billionaire Masri released by Saudis, to leave country soon, sources close to family say'|'December 17, 2017 / 7:39 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Palestinian billionaire Masri released by Saudis; says they ''gave him all respect'' Suleiman Al-Khalidi 4 Min Read AMMAN (Reuters) - Sabih al Masri, a Palestinian billionaire and Jordan’s most influential businessman, was released after several days of detention in Saudi Arabia, the latest in a series of events marking the worst crackdown on the rich and powerful in the country’s modern history. Masri, the chairman of Amman-based Arab Bank, the country’s largest lender, was detained last Tuesday hours before he was planning to leave after chairing meetings of companies he owns, sources said. He said on Sunday Saudi authorities had given him “all respect”. The authorities have not commented on his detention, which came after his confidants had warned him against travelling to the Saudi capital following a series of mass arrests in early November, the sources said. Sources familiar with the case said he was questioned about his links to Saudi partners among the royals, ministers and officials who were rounded up in last month’s crackdown. His case carried echoes of that of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation from Riyadh, drawing accusations from Lebanese officials that he had been coerced by the Saudis. Both the Saudis and Hariri denied that, but Hariri later rescinded his resignation. Masri’s detention sent shockwaves through business circles in Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Masri’s multi-billion- dollar investments in hotels and banking in Jordan are a cornerstone of the economy of the kingdom and he is by far the biggest investor in Palestinian territories. Arab Bank shares, which account for almost a quarter of the $24 billion market capitalization of the Amman exchange, ended just 1.44 percent lower at start of weekly trade as investor fears ebbed with news of his release. Officials and businessmen had warned of the reverberations of the crisis on an aid-strapped Jordanian economy already plagued by high debts. Saudi Arabia is a major donor. Masri has since taking the helm at Arab Bank in 2012 helped boost confidence in one of the Arab world’s largest private financial institutions. The bank, which was first established in Jerusalem in 1930, has a balance sheet of over $45 billion and has earned a reputation of resilience in the face of regional political turmoil. Masri said on Sunday that he would be returning to Jordan after finishing business meetings in Riyadh in the next two days. “All is well and am happy (to be released) and I was given all respect by everyone here,”a Saudi citizen of Palestinian origin, told Reuters from his home in Riyadh. A member of a prominent merchant family from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Masri amassed a fortune by partnering with influential Saudis in a catering business to supply troops during the U.S.-led military operation to retake Kuwait from Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Masri is the founder of Saudi Astra Group, which has wide interests in diversified industries ranging from agro-industry to telecommunications, construction and mining across the region. Reasons for Masri’s detention were not clear, but political sources said the Saudis might have used him to put pressure on Jordan’s King Abdullah not to attend a Muslim summit last week to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Jordanian monarch attended the Istanbul summit, however. He is a custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and has been vocal in criticising Trump over his decision on Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia, whose relations with the United States have warmed with Trump taking a harder line against its arch-rival Iran than his predecessor, appears to have taken a softer line on the decision on Jerusalem than in the past, according to analysts. Riyadh sent a junior minister to the Istanbul meeting. Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-corruption-jordan-masri/palestinian-billionaire-masri-released-by-saudis-to-leave-country-soon-sources-close-to-family-say-idINKBN1EB06Q'|'2017-12-17T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'2e04c55eb28938884fbdf278cd15c778f905dfb5'|'European stocks build momentum as investors await U.S. tax bill'|' 36 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago European stocks build momentum as investors await U.S. tax bill Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares followed U.S. and Asian markets higher on Tuesday as investors awaited a long-anticipated U.S. tax reform bill which looks almost certain to pass this week. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 traded 0.2 percent higher at a new five-week high, maintaining Monday''s momentum though gains were more muted, with euro zone stocks and blue-chips .STOXX50E up 0.1 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3 percent, boosted by its weighting towards defensive, high dividend-paying stocks which investors favour when they sense uncertainty. German fashion house Hugo Boss ( BOSSn.DE ) led European gainers, its shares rising 4.8 percent after CEO Mark Langer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that Boss aimed to grow faster than the market in 2018. Shares in Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual ( OML.L ) gained 4.6 percent after saying it would sell its Buxton UK wealth business to TA Associates for $800 million as part of a planned break-up. Intrum Justitia ( INTRUM.ST ) fell 6.3 percent after saying its CFO would leave the company. Telecoms stocks were strong performers, boosted by a note from Morgan Stanley arguing the industry could fare better in 2018 thanks to successful cost cutting, stronger mobile revenue growth and lower cash tax rates. Telcos have been among the worst performing sectors this year, down 2.5 percent from January. With fewer big corporate stories to drive trading on Tuesday, investors will hone in on Germany’s Ifo business survey data, out at 0900 GMT. SocGen analysts expected the business climate indicator to rise further from record highs, indicating a resilient economy with momentum for further gains into 2018. Reporting by Helen Reid; editing by Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-stocks-build-momentum-as-investors-await-u-s-tax-bill-idUKKBN1ED0RF'|'2017-12-19T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'50b69c49097999d2d9ac0d002cf86e7fa4efd160'|'China''s Fosun in exclusive talks to buy Italy top-end lingerie La Perla'|'December 19, 2017 / 4:17 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago China''s Fosun in exclusive talks to buy Italy top-end lingerie La Perla Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - The owner of Italy’s La Perla has agreed one-month exclusive talks with China’s Fosun ( 0656.HK ) over the sale of a majority stake in the luxury lingerie group. FILE PHOTO - The La Perla logo is seen backstage before the La Perla Autumn/Winter 2017 collection during New York Fashion Week in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., February 9, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Italian entrepreneur Silvio Scaglia, the founder of telecoms group Fastweb, bought the ailing group for 69 million euros ($81 million) at a court-led auction in 2013 through family holding Pacific Global Management. Scaglia has invested over 300 million euros in the company founded in the post-war years in the northern town of Bologna, with the aim of pushing the brand abroad, particularly in Asia. The group, which has 30 boutiques, posted sales of 140 million euros this year and is expected to reach break even by the end of 2018, Scaglia said in a recent interview to Forbes. The conclusion of the deal is subject to Fosun’s approval, a joint statement said. Shanghai investment group Fosun, which owns holiday resort company Club Med, will “continue investing in the brand to develop its full potential as a global luxury fashion house...,” the statement said. Reporting by Giulia Segreti, editing by Stephen Jewkes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-laperla-m-a-fosun-intl/chinas-fosun-in-exclusive-talks-to-buy-italy-top-end-lingerie-la-perla-idUKKBN1ED247'|'2017-12-19T18:13:00.000+02:00'
'03f2fdba1f8bd5e6502d291e3fbb5a61cbb59526'|'Oi creditors to vote on restructuring despite shareholder complaints'|'December 19, 2017 / 5:00 AM / Updated an hour ago Oi creditors to vote on restructuring despite shareholder complaints Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Creditors of Oi SA were to gather in downtown Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday to vote on a plan to take the Brazilian telecoms operator out of bankruptcy protection, despite a flurry of legal actions by a key shareholder trying to stop the vote. Oi’s management appeared likely to win over enough support from creditors to restructure some 65.4 billion reais ($19.9 billion) in debt after a year and a half of contentious talks in Latin America’s biggest-ever bankruptcy case. Major bondholders have already expressed support for the plan, which could give them control of the company through a debt-for-equity swap. Others, such as state development bank BNDES, whose support is required for passage, have been more circumspect. To complicate matters, influential shareholder Nelson Tanure, whose investment vehicle Societe Mondiale controls the board through alliances, has been peppering courts and regulators with complaints for days after a judge effectively removed him from negotiations. At stake in the process, which has been plagued by fighting among shareholders, bondholders, and the government, is the sole fixed line carrier in over 2,000 of the country’s 5,000 municipalities and the employer of over 100,000 Brazilians. “The plan guarantees longevity for Oi and the maintenance of high quality services to clients,” Chief Executive Eurico Teles said in a statement on Monday afternoon. Under the restructuring plan, bondholders such as distressed asset specialists Aurelius Capital Management and Goldentree Asset Management can trade their debt for up to 75 percent of the carrier’s capital. Investors will also inject 4 billion reais of fresh capital. In recent days, Societe Mondiale has filed petitions with Brazil’s solicitor general, the national telecoms regulator and Rio courts, among other bodies. Among their allegations is that a late November move by a judge to remove the board from the debt negotiating process was illegal. They also complain that the plan will not sufficiently capitalize Oi. Shareholders had previously proposed plans with cash injections of up to 5.5 billion reais. If the petitions do not result in a delay, creditors will meet at 11 a.m. local time (1300 GMT). The meeting is expected to last for hours and could spill over to Wednesday. $1 = 3.29 reais Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oi-sa-restructuring/oi-creditors-to-vote-on-restructuring-despite-shareholder-complaints-idUSL1N1OI20X'|'2017-12-19T07:00:00.000+02:00'
'b392722fa573c25e5b18992ffd485558756cc2c9'|'Euro zone wage growth pulls back from two-year high'|'December 19, 2017 / 10:10 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Euro zone wage growth pulls back from two-year high Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone wage growth slowed in the third quarter from a two-year high hit in the April-June period, data released on Tuesday showed, offering little comfort for the European Central Bank in its search for a pick-up in inflation. FILE PHOTO: European Union flags flutter outside the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo Hourly labour costs rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the July-September quarter, compared with 1.8 percent in the second quarter, which had been the highest level since the first quarter of 2016. Wages were also 1.6 percent higher year-on-year in the third quarter from a 2.1 percent increase in the second, which had been the highest rate since the first quarter of 2015. Weak consumer price inflation is a particular problem for the ECB as it has undershot its nearly 2 percent inflation target for over four years despite unprecedented stimulus and will not reach its goal before the end of the decade. Inflation was 1.5 percent in November. The ECB increased its forecasts for euro zone growth and nudged up its expectations for inflation next year to 1.4 percent from 1.2 percent and now sees the level at 1.7 percent in 2020. However, despite increased growth and inflation forecasts, the ECB kept interest rates at rock bottom and stuck to its pledge to keep money pouring into the euro zone economy. The ECB is keeping a close eye on wages, hoping that robust economic growth and rapid job creation will finally push earnings higher and give inflation a badly needed boost. Although employment has increased by nearly seven million since its trough in 2013, wage growth has been limited for years, a puzzling development for policymakers that suggests sizable hidden unemployment. It may also signal that globalisation has diminished central banks’ control over inflation as supply, demand and labour markets become international. For full details of Eurostat data click on: ec.europa.eu/eurostat Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-economy-labourcosts/euro-zone-wage-growth-pulls-back-from-two-year-high-idUKKBN1ED0ZL'|'2017-12-19T12:09:00.000+02:00'
'c74e6cf1a3f5af5578fc327111e465e92a8a2722'|'European stocks build momentum as investors await U.S. tax bill'|' 34 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago European stocks build momentum as investors await U.S. tax bill Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - European shares followed U.S. and Asian markets higher on Tuesday as investors awaited a long-anticipated U.S. tax reform bill which looks almost certain to pass this week. The pan-European STOXX 600 traded 0.2 percent higher at a new five-week high, maintaining Monday’s momentum though gains were more muted, with euro zone stocks and blue-chips up 0.1 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3 percent, boosted by its weighting towards defensive, high dividend-paying stocks which investors favour when they sense uncertainty. German fashion house Hugo Boss led European gainers, its shares rising 4.8 percent after CEO Mark Langer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that Boss aimed to grow faster than the market in 2018. Shares in Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual gained 4.6 percent after saying it would sell its Buxton UK wealth business to TA Associates for $800 million as part of a planned break-up. Intrum Justitia fell 6.3 percent after saying its CFO would leave the company. Telecoms stocks were strong performers, boosted by a note from Morgan Stanley arguing the industry could fare better in 2018 thanks to successful cost cutting, stronger mobile revenue growth and lower cash tax rates. Telcos have been among the worst performing sectors this year, down 2.5 percent from January. With fewer big corporate stories to drive trading on Tuesday, investors will hone in on Germany’s Ifo business survey data, out at 0900 GMT. SocGen analysts expected the business climate indicator to rise further from record highs, indicating a resilient economy with momentum for further gains into 2018. (Reporting by Helen Reid; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-stocks-build-momentum-as-investors-await-u-s-tax-bill-idUSL8N1OJ0ZA'|'2017-12-19T10:33:00.000+02:00'
'807e05334ef3d8dc3219c1ca2ed2e0a4489dd12e'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Chilean markets rally as Pinera wins presidency'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:43 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago EMERGING MARKETS-Chilean markets rally as Pinera wins presidency Reuters Staff 5 Min Read (Updates prices) By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Chilean stocks and currency soared on Monday after conservative Sebastian Pinera won the country''s presidential election by a wider-than-forecast margin, fueling expectations of further business-friendly policies. An investor favorite in the $250 billion economy, Pinera''s proposals are seen as pro-mining in the world''s top copper producer. He has pledged support and stable funding for state-run miner Codelco, and has promised to slash red tape that had bogged down projects under outgoing President Michelle Bachelet. Chile''s benchmark IPSA stock index jumped 6.9 percent in Monday trading. "Pinera''s campaign agenda focused on investment and growth, and we believe the administration will articulate policies with that aim, which should help to consolidate the upbeat business and consumer expectations," JPMorgan economists wrote in a report. "That said, Pinera''s administration will need ... political savvy to negotiate laws in a fragmented Congress." The Chilean peso strengthened 2.38 percent against the dollar, its biggest one-day advance in a year and a half, leading gains in the region. Other currencies were range-bound amid doubts whether a proposed U.S. tax cut would have a major impact on economic growth, after the bill moved closer to passing. Uncertainty over whether the tax bill would indeed be pushed through, as well as questions over its pro-growth effects, have cast doubt on the outlook for inflationary pressures in the United States, which has boosted expectations of higher interest rates. Higher U.S. rates could dampen demand for high-yielding assets, such as currencies from emerging markets. Amid global weakness in the dollar, Mexico''s IPC stock index rose 1.25 percent, although analysts noted that investors were cautious given uncertainty about how a U.S. tax overhaul could affect Mexico. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2108 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 1129.53 0.99 29.72 MSCI LatAm 2777.86 2.31 16 Brazil Bovespa 73115.45 0.7 21.40 Mexico IPC 48681.64 1.25 6.66 Chile IPSA 5595.65 6.9 34.79 Chile IGPA 28060.93 6.96 35.34 Argentina MerVal 27137.32 0.43 60.41 Colombia IGBC 11099.57 0.8 9.59 Venezuela IBC 1291.05 -1.47 -95.93 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.2912 0.33 -1.43 Mexico peso 19.0830 0.12 8.71 Chile peso 621.2 2.38 7.97 Colombia peso 2977.2 0.56 0.82 Peru sol 3.28 0.27 4.09 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.5650 -0.28 -9.62 Argentina peso (parallel) 18.2 -0.60 -7.58 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-chilean-markets-rally-as-pinera-wins-presidency-idUSL1N1OI1V1'|'2017-12-19T00:42:00.000+02:00'
'7a110cf14a1d17e5f85ca6a86b2bc024f339bb1e'|'Exclusive: Saudi Aramco has supplied 1 million barrels of crude to Egyptian refineries in November, December - minister'|'December 17, 2017 / 6:39 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Exclusive: Saudi Aramco has supplied 1 million barrels of crude to Egyptian refineries in November, December - minister Reuters Staff 1 Min Read CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, has supplied 1 million barrels of crude oil to Egyptian refineries, Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters on Sunday. Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo Egypt and Saudi Arabia will be studying the economic feasibility of continuing to refine Saudi crude in Egyptian refineries by the start of 2018, El Molla said. Saudi Arabia agreed in April last year to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products a month for five years. Reporting by Abdelrahman Adel; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/egypt-oil/exclusive-saudi-aramco-has-supplied-1-million-barrels-of-crude-to-egyptian-refineries-in-november-december-minister-idINKBN1EB05D'|'2017-12-17T08:38:00.000+02:00'
'f9beaffd68b7251b7e2295480cbb9ac7983d1371'|'Thai Bev''s unit seeks to buy a near $5 billion stake in Sabeco'|'December 17, 2017 / 11:46 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Thai Bev''s unit seeks to buy a near $5 billion stake in Sabeco Mai Nguyen , Anshuman Daga 4 Min Read Ho CHI MINH CITY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Vietnam’s trade ministry said on Sunday that Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd, a unit of Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ), was the only investor seeking to buy all shares of Vietnamese brewer Sabeco SAB.HM on offer worth nearly $5 billion. The keenly anticipated sale of the state-owned maker of Bia Saigon gained momentum in recent months after being hampered for years by political resistance, fickle policy-making and complications over valuations. The government has set a minimum sale price of 320,000 dong or $14.10 per share for Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco), whose shares have nearly trebled to 309,200 dong since its listing a year ago. The trade ministry said in a statement on Sunday that two investors had registered to participate in the Dec. 18 sale auction for a stake in Sabeco, with Thai Bev’s unit Vietnam Beverage wanting to buy all shares on offer worth around 54 percent of Sabeco. The other investor is a Vietnamese individual who registered to buy 20,000 Sabeco shares, or 0.003 percent of Sabeco, the ministry said. The formal bid is scheduled for Monday when the two investors submit their bidding prices. Vietnam’s young population and booming economy should make Sabeco an attractive asset for global brewers hoping to expand in Southeast Asia, but a high minimum bid price and foreign ownership limits appear to have turned off potential buyers. Sabeco’s foreign ownership is capped at 49 percent. With 10 percent already in foreign hands, that leaves only 39 percent on the table for overseas buyers at Monday’s auction. Local bidders can bid for a majority stake of up to 54 percent. Heineken ( HEIN.AS ) holds a 5 percent stake. “DISCONNECT” Reuters previously reported that the auction was drawing the interest of brewing groups such as Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), Kirin Holdings ( 2503.T ), Asahi Group Holdings ( 2502.T ) and San Miguel ( SMC.PS ), but the ministry statement showed that these brewers would not participate in the auction. “There’s a disconnect between what the government wants to achieve and how international brewers view this auction,” said one person familiar with the matter.“In a normal auction, bidders are fully aware of what stake they’ll end up owning and bid for it accordingly,” said the person, who was not authorized to speak to the media.Unlike similar sales in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders need to submit a single offer for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round. The government’s minimum price for the 54 percent stake on offer valued Sabeco at about 36 times core earnings, more than double the trading multiples of around 15 for some global peers, according to Reuters data.Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, was keen to acquire Sabeco as part of a strategy to expand outside its home market, sources told Reuters. There was no immediate response from Thai Bev to a query from Reuters.Vietnam’s trade ministry is expected to announce the bidding result on Monday afternoon. Reporting by Mai Nguyen and Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK; Editing by Stephen Coates and Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-m-a-sale/thai-bevs-unit-seeks-to-buy-a-near-5-billion-stake-in-sabeco-idUSKBN1EB0DM'|'2017-12-17T13:46:00.000+02:00'
'f9689bf2388813e4a1d45fae037868ce2fa8bc0f'|'Ex-divs to take 0.5 point off FTSE 100 on Dec 21'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:52 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Ex-divs to take 0.5 point off FTSE 100 on Dec 21 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The following FTSE 100 companies will go ex-dividend on Thursday, after which investors will no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout. According to Reuters calculations at current market prices, the effect of the resulting adjustment to prices by market-makers would take 0.53 point off the index. COMPANY (RIC) DIVIDEND STOCK OPTION IMPACT (pence) Burberry 11 0.18 United 13.24 0.35 Util Among FTSE 250 companies going ex-dividend are: COMPANY (RIC) DIVIDEND (pence) Countryside 5 Mitie 1.3 NEX Group 3.5 Stobart 4.5 (Reporting by Julien Ponthus, editing by Danilo Masoni)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-exdiv/ex-divs-to-take-0-5-point-off-ftse-100-on-dec-21-idUSL8N1OI0TC'|'2017-12-18T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'43fed7ad64a7d676d2a8cab0ed9dacc9d71ea85d'|'GM offers a sneak peek at new Chevy truck, loaded with profits'|'December 16, 2017 / 9:03 PM / Updated 9 hours ago GM offers a sneak peek at new Chevy truck, loaded with profits Joseph White 3 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co( GM.N ) offered a sneak peek on Saturday of the next generation Chevrolet Silverado pickup, designed to haul big payloads of profits for the automaker when it launches next year. The new 2019 Chevrolet Silverado model truck is shown in this October 20, 2017 photo provided December 16, 2017. Courtesy General Motors/Handout via REUTERS The current Silverado is GM’s best selling vehicle in North America, with sales of more than 500,000 vehicles last year. Analysts and company executives said it was also one of the manufacturer’s highest-profit model lines. GM has disclosed investments of nearly $3 billion (2.3 billion pounds) to upgrade factories in Michigan, Indiana and Mexico that build the Silverado and its GMC brand counterpart, the Sierra. Until now, GM has disclosed few details of the new truck ahead of its official debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. GM said it revealed an off-road version of the Silverado at an event for loyal Chevy truck owners in Texas, a state whose residents buy a lot of large, high-priced pickup trucks. GM, in a statement, said the new Silverado will have a high-strength steel bed floor, and use “mixed materials” to achieve “a significant reduction in total weight.” Lighter weight usually translates to improved fuel economy. Previously, GM executives signalled they did not intend to ape their top rival and build the new Silverado’s body entirely or mostly of aluminium, like Ford Motor Co’s ( F.N ) F-series pickups. Detroit automakers, under pressure to boost fuel efficiency and cut carbon emissions, are slashing the weight of their best-selling large trucks. Yet the companies do not want to compromise the load-hauling capability and luxury features that allow them to command prices that average $46,984 a vehicle, according to Cox Automotive. Ford recently launched a luxury F250 pickup that can have a sticker price as high as $94,455. GM will offer eight versions of the new Silverado and more engine and transmission combinations than the current lineup, GM said. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is expected to unveil the next generation of its big Ram 1500 pickup at the Detroit auto show. Reporting By Joe White; Editing by David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gm-truck/gm-offers-a-sneak-peek-at-new-chevy-truck-loaded-with-profits-idUKKBN1EA0PS'|'2017-12-16T23:04:00.000+02:00'
'60b1172c6a96b873e6d07bc870d8cfbd9c34a5ad'|'Gemalto CEO sticks to plan to cut 288 jobs in France'|'December 18, 2017 / 6:41 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Gemalto CEO sticks to plan to cut 288 jobs in France Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Chipmaker Gemalto, which is being taken over by aerospace and defence group Thales will stick to a plan to cut 288 jobs in the struggling chip card business in France, its chief executive said on Monday. The shadow of an attendee is cast below a logo of Franco-Dutch technology firm Gemalto during a news conference in Paris February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes “This plan is maintained. It reflects the need to trim and optimise staff that we dedicate to the SIM card business,” Philippe Vallee told BFM business radio. He added that the company would aim to redeploy staff internally, whenever possible. Thales on Sunday agreed to buy Gemalto for 4.8 billion euros (4.23 billion pounds), trumping an earlier bid by fellow French firm Atos to expand in the fast-growing digital security market. Union officials at Gemalto had cautioned that the announcement did not refer to the chip card business. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gemalto-jobs/gemalto-ceo-sticks-to-plan-to-cut-288-jobs-in-france-idUKKBN1EC0IT'|'2017-12-18T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'55b2aded2d10b552dd1dd9b8bdff7bc6355f7a54'|'Why UK bank ringfences don’t make everyone safer'|'Why UK bank ringfences don’t make everyone safer Reform designed to protect vital functions from more volatile activities such as trading The ringfecing implementation costs run into billions of pounds © EPA Save to myFT Play audio for this article Pause What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! or Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback In among all the tribulations of Brexit — and the structural gymnastics that banks are going through to prepare for life outside the EU — another looming feat of bank acrobatics has been publicly neglected. By 2019, Britain’s banks must have ringfenced their retail banking operations from their parent companies, in one of the many post-crisis regulatory reforms designed to make the financial system safer and ensure investors rather than taxpayers are on the hook for bank failures. It is a vast project, with implementation costs that run into billions of pounds. At the heart of the ringfencing idea — conceived by the government-appointed Independent Commission on Banking , chaired by John Vickers, in 2011 — is the principle that the vital functions of a bank should be protected from potentially more volatile business activities such as investment bank trading. These should be housed in the “non-ringfenced” part of a group so that if they get into trouble, that entity could be wound down by regulators without having to be unpicked in a hurry from the bits that really matter (current accounts, payment systems and the like). The rules mean that separate company structures must be set up so that ringfenced banks have their own boards, capital backing and profit and loss accounts. Although ringfencing has been implemented broadly as envisaged by the Vickers report, some critics are upset that regulators have not made the capital differential greater Barclays, which is spending £1bn on ringfencing, is further ahead than most in its preparations. Its separate entities will go live next Easter and their performance is already being reported on a standalone basis, exposing the relative strength of the units on each side of the divide. As of the third quarter of 2017, for example, Barclays’ ringfenced bank looks better capitalised — with a tangible equity to risk-weighted asset comparison showing a ratio of 14 per cent, compared with 13 per cent for the non-ringfenced bank. Although ringfencing has been implemented broadly as envisaged by the Vickers report, some critics are upset that regulators have not made the capital differential greater. “The missing part is that there is a much lower systemic risk buffer than expected for the ringfenced banks,” says one person close to the commission. That is one explanation for the rather surprising decision by top credit agencies such as Standard & Poor’s and Fitch to rate the creditworthiness of ringfenced and non-ringfenced banks basically on a par with each other. Compare that with what the Vickers report predicted: “Ringfenced banks would be simpler and less volatile entities,” meaning a potential “downgrade of the credit rating of some non-ringfenced banks by up to 2 notches”. Recommended'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/1d529c3c-e1a6-11e7-a8a4-0a1e63a52f9c'|'2017-12-18T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'fc82bc33e6daecfa47ed11cf85f7a2185c9fad0b'|'Uber ties up with BBM messenger on ride booking'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:05 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Uber ties up with BBM messenger on ride booking Reuters Staff 1 Min Read JAKARTA (Reuters) - Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] said on Monday it has joined forces with BBM Messenger to allow users around the world, including in the application’s biggest market of Indonesia, to book rides via the messenger service. Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The partnership agreement is with Creative Media Works, operating as BBM Messenger, the company said in a statement. ”With this partnership, BBM users can quickly request an Uber ride via BBM despite variations in quality of location, network speed, or device features,” said Chan Park, Uber’s general manager in Southeast Asia. The agreement means that BBM Messenger users, including both Android and iOS users, can book an Uber ride without leaving the BBM app, or being required to have a stand-alone Uber app on their phone, the company said. Creative Media works is a unit of Indonesian media group PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk. The company operates the global BBM consumer messaging and social networking platform under a license from BlackBerry Limited. Reporting by Ed Davies; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-bbm-messenger/uber-ties-up-with-bbm-messenger-on-ride-booking-idUKKBN1EC0K2'|'2017-12-18T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'9e66818572243e20c2d57ba9e03dd4e54834548d'|'BOJ seen keeping on stimulus to support inflation - for now'|'December 18, 2017 / 4:13 AM / Updated an hour ago BOJ seen keeping on stimulus to support inflation - for now Leika Kihara 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan is expected to maintain its massive stimulus programme at a monetary meeting ending on Thursday despite growing signs of improvement in the economy, keeping its money tap wide open to ensure that recovery translates into higher inflation. FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands at the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo, Japan, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda may signal at his post-meeting news conference that the central bank could raise its yield targets or slow down asset purchases - but only when inflation expectations heighten or the cost of stimulus outweighs the benefits. With inflation still distant from its 2 percent target and the selection of Kuroda’s successor looming, the BOJ is in no rush to remove monetary support from an economy only just emerging from two decades of deflation. “Economic and price conditions haven’t changed much in the past few months, so the BOJ probably sees no need to change policy now,” said a source familiar with the bank’s thinking, a view shared by two other sources. At a two-day meeting ending on Thursday, the BOJ is widely expected to keep its short-term interest rate target at minus 0.1 percent and a pledge to guide 10-year bond yields around zero percent. But the board may discuss whether the BOJ should consider raising its yield targets or slow purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETF) next year, analysts say, as some members had recently voiced concern over the demerits of prolonged easing. Calls from newcomer Goushi Kataoka to increase stimulus to speed up meeting the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target has not gained support of other board members who are wary of the rising costs of easy policy. Another newcomer, former banker Hitoshi Suzuki, has recently said the BOJ may need to raise its yield targets or slow ETF buying in the future. “There’s a good chance the BOJ will fine-tune its framework next year,” said Izuru Kato, chief economist at Totan Research. “It can justify the move as helping regional banks continue lending and mitigating the cost of monetary easing.” With near-zero interest rates and a lack of demand for funds pushing more regional banks into the red, the BOJ’s stimulus has been under criticism for possibly destabilising the banking system. Japan’s massive government pension fund has decided to shoulder the fees charged on its deposits under the BOJ’s negative rate policy to ease the strain on financial institutions, the Nikkei reported. BOJ officials have said they do not necessarily need to wait until inflation hits 2 percent to raise the bond yield targets. Still, many central bank policymakers prefer to stand pat until inflation accelerates and convinces the public that prices will continue to rise ahead, the sources say. Kuroda’s term ends in April, discouraging the BOJ from acting because candidates for the job include premier Shinzo Abe’s former aide Etsuro Honda - a vocal advocate of aggressive easing. Japan’s economy grew an annualised 2.5 percent in the July-September period to mark a seventh straight quarter of expansion, supporting the BOJ’s recent signalling that it could edge away from crisis-mode policy earlier than expected. But core consumer inflation remains stuck at 0.8 percent and firms polled by the BOJ expect no major pick-up in price growth in coming years. Most economists polled by Reuters expect the BOJ’s next move to be a withdrawal of stimulus, though they do not expect such step to be taken until late 2018 or beyond. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj/boj-seen-keeping-on-stimulus-to-support-inflation-for-now-idUKKBN1EC0BP'|'2017-12-18T06:13:00.000+02:00'
'e3d1db645b0a51840f99b3284e083b70c06368ff'|'Italy''s Monte dei Paschi names new chairwoman to help steer recovery'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:53 PM / Updated 36 minutes ago Italy''s Monte dei Paschi names new chairwoman to help steer recovery Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SIENA, Italy (Reuters) - Italy’s fourth-biggest bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( BMPS.MI ), rescued from the brink of collapse by a state bailout, has named a new chairwoman and board to help steer a course to recovery. Shareholders on Monday appointed Stefania Bariatti as chairwoman to replace Alessandro Falciai, who decided to leave the bank citing personal reasons. The new board, which will govern the bank to 2019, will comprise 14 members from the current 13. “Today’s shareholder meeting closes a period of uncertainty that has lasted five years,” Falciai said, calling the period the stormiest in the bank’s centuries-old lifetime. Weighed down by mismanagement, a derivatives scandal and bad debts, the world’s oldest bank turned to Rome for help after failing, in late 2016, to find buyers for a 5 billion euro share issue needed to keep it afloat. After pumping in around 5.4 billion euros, the Treasury now holds about 68 percent of the lender. Marco Morelli, former head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Italy appointed CEO at Monte dei Paschi last September, was confirmed in his position. Morelli told shareholders that regaining profitability would take a long time since the bank needed to recoup years of total commercial inactivity. “I won’t play the Pied Piper... ‘don’t worry, everything has been resolved’, is not something you’ll hear me say,” he said. Monte dei Paschi posted a net loss of 3 billion euros in the first nine months of the year, with writedowns on loans totaling about 4.8 billion euros. Earlier this year the bank tabled a five-year restructuring plan that included cutting thousands of jobs and selling assets to get the European Union’s blessing to receive state aid. Reporting by Silvia Ognibene; Writing by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mps-chairman/italys-monte-dei-paschi-names-new-chairwoman-to-help-steer-recovery-idUSKBN1EC2IE'|'2017-12-18T21:51:00.000+02:00'
'bb4684dfc70569230bfd279fac1641ebf8d940f3'|'Equinix to buy Australia''s Metronode data centre group for $791 mln'|'December 17, 2017 / 10:42 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Equinix to buy Australia''s Metronode data center group for $791 million   SYDNEY (Reuters) - U.S. data center group Equinix Inc on Monday said it was buying Australian data center company Metronode from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in an all-cash deal worth A$1.035 billion ($791.15 million). Metronode operates internet and communications infrastructure facilities throughout Australia for some of the country’s largest corporations, government agencies, telecommunications and IT service providers. Metronode generated approximately A$60 million of revenue in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2017, Equinix said in a statement. The deal was expected to close in the first half of 2018, subject to some conditions including regulatory approval. Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-equinix-metronode/equinix-to-buy-australias-metronode-data-center-group-for-791-million-idUSKBN1EB0VJ'|'2017-12-18T00:37:00.000+02:00'
'50d5c37751502b008e126276ea757fe144feb202'|'Fresenius now sees completion of Akorn takeover in early 2018'|' 19 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago REFILE-Fresenius now sees completion of Akorn takeover in early 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Corrects day of week in first paragraph to Tuesday) FRANKFURT, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Fresenius now expects its planned takeover of Akorn, a U.S. maker of liquid generic drugs, to be completed in early 2018 rather than this year, a spokesman for Fresenius said on Tuesday. “While we’ve been focused on a 2017 close, it’s now clear that closing in early 2018 is more likely, and we’re quite comfortable with this timeline,” the spokesman said. The German healthcare group had already warned in November that the deal might not be completed until 2018 as the U.S. antitrust review could take longer than expected. (Reporting by Patricia Weiss; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Victoria Bryan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/akorn-ma-fresenius/fresenius-now-sees-completion-of-akorn-takeover-in-early-2018-idUSF9N1NJ01R'|'2017-12-19T10:19:00.000+02:00'
'111541e490507c81179f9f03a000d28258307c17'|'Central banks, trade and bubbles threaten the 2018 status quo'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:40 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Central banks, trade and bubbles threaten the 2018 status quo Jeremy Gaunt 6 Min Read LONDON(Reuters) - After a year of relatively healthy global economic growth, economists are predicting pretty much the same for 2018 -- a neither too-hot nor too-cold Goldilocks scenario, but with little sight of the three bears. The idea is that all is pretty much on track for growth that will be stronger than in 2017. Part of this may come from the fact that forecasters generally got it wrong last year, underclubbing this year’s economic performance, particularly for the euro zone and Japan. The International Monetary Fund, for example, saw 2017 global growth at 3.4 percent with advanced economies advancing 1.8 percent. It now reckons them at 3.6 percent and 2.2 percent. It had the euro zone and Japan growing 1.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. It now has them at 2.1 percent and 1.5 percent. “Faster growth is reaching roughly two-thirds of the world’s population,” the IMF said in a December blog post. This performance has made some economists optimistic. Nomura is among the more bullish: “Global growth has far more self-reinforcing characteristics at present than at any time over the last 20-30 years.” But Goldilock’s bears do have a habit of showing up. There are huge numbers of potential political and economic risks to the status quo. But as in the fairy tale, let’s go with just three: central banks, trade, and bubbles. In the first case, the danger is that there will be a policy mistake, squeezing debtors. The second relates to renewed U.S. protectionism or anger over Chinese exports triggering tit-for-tat, growth-stifling trade barriers. The third is about sudden market losses that dry up spending and demand. BEAR ONE IN THE WOODS Part of 2017’s global economic success was put down to a combination of extraordinarily loose monetary policy and competent management by central banks of their attempts to wean the world off such largesse. Entering 2018 the U.S. Federal Reserve is lining up for three more hikes, the European Central Bank is slowly cutting back on its asset purchases, and China is increasing rates. All of this is being carefully flagged by the policymakers, but mistakes can happen and any significant shift of gear could cause a sharp retrenchment in consumer and corporate spending. The amount of U.S. corporate debt outstanding, for example, is nearly $8.8 trillion, according to Sifma, the U.S. securities industry group. That is up 35 percent since 2010 and a major driver behind corporate expansion. “Financial stability risks pose a bigger threat to the continuation of the (growth) cycle than price stability risks,” Morgan Stanley co-head of economics Chetan Ahya wrote in a 2018 outlook, saying U.S. corporates were the most exposed to higher interest rates. This implies that central bank tightening to curb overly robust growth or inflation risks creating a credit squeeze -- hence the caution in Washington, Frankfurt, Beijing and Tokyo. FILE PHOTO: China''s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump witness U.S. and Chinese business leaders signing trade deals at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo BEAR TWO IN THE WOODS U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign was peppered with “America First” rhetoric and a dollop of belligerence about other countries. In office, the Trump administration has done a few things in the name of U.S. interests to upset multilateralists. It has, for example, launched an investigation into steel imports, blocked the appointment of judges at the World Trade Organization, and withdrawn the United States from a now 11- member Pacific Rim trade pact. Other measures have not progressed as far, notably the threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the pledge to bring China to heel over its allegedly unfair trade practices. But the U.S. trade deficit increased to $43.5 billion despite growth-driven U.S. exports. The U.S.-China deficit dropped a bit but was still $34.6 billion in Beijing’s favor. FILE PHOTO: Central Bank Governors Janet Yellen of the Federal Reserve, Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mark Carney of the Bank of England and Haruhiko Kuroda of the Bank of Japan (L-R) attend the ECB''s Central Bank Communications Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo “The massive TRADE deficits must go down quickly,” Trump tweeted after a trip to Asia in November. Were rhetoric to turn to practice, the economic climate of 2018 could quickly turn chilly. According to the U.S. Conference board, China’s economic exposure to the United States is nearly five times higher than the U.S. exposure to China. That would suggest that any impositions of trade barriers could hit growth in China that is behind much of the wealth in exporting nations like Germany. It is far from just a U.S.-China matter: the World Bank estimates world trade accounts for 52 percent of world GDP, more than doubling its clout over the past 50 years ago. BEAR THREE IN THE WOODS Bubbles are hard to gauge until they have popped (there is a tendency to say “this time it is different”, until it isn‘t). But if economists have learnt one thing from this century’s financial market crashes it is that they bring the house down with them. The World Bank estimates that the global growth rate fell from around 4.4 percent in 2000 to some 1.9 percent in 2001, when the dot com bubble burst, and that the financial crisis prompted a plunge from a roughly 4.3 percent growth rate in 2007 to a 1.7 percent contraction in 2009. What happens is that sudden losses in financial instruments cause companies and consumers to stop spending, leading to tumbling growth, layoffs, and debt defaults. There are plenty of examples of assets that have soared continually and steeply in the past year: Bitcoin’s staggering rise is but the most obvious. Albert Edwards, a Societe Generale strategist who is always on the lookout for bubble-poppers, reckons that with stock markets in the stratosphere, it won’t take much to reverse things. It may be just some as “boring” as some unexpectedly poor profits, he suggests. Reporting by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy-outlook/central-banks-trade-and-bubbles-threaten-the-2018-status-quo-idUSKBN1ED1BA'|'2017-12-19T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'c9ab75d30629bf9ea3d4593dd91200d90176fa5d'|'EU agency may not be fully prepared to wind down failing banks - auditors'|'Reuters TV United States December 19, 2017 / 10:42 AM / a few seconds ago EU agency may not be fully prepared to wind down failing banks- auditors Francesco Guarascio 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s agency in charge of disposing of failing banks may not be fully prepared to deal with a new banking crisis, EU auditors said on Tuesday, casting doubt on a body facing dozens of lawsuits for its forced sale of Banco Popular. FILE PHOTO - Elke Koenig, Chair of the Single Resolution Board, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Brussels, Belgium, August 10, 2016. Picture taken on August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The Single Resolution Board (SRB) was established after the euro zone banking crisis, which forced governments to use hundreds of billions of euros of taxpayer money to rescue failing banks. The body, chaired since its creation in 2014 by Elke Koenig, Germany’s former financial regulator, is intended to minimize the cost to taxpayers and depositors when failing banks are wound down, forcing the losses on their shareholders and bondholders. To achieve its target, the SRB needs to devise resolution plans for the 142 euro zone banks under its watch, which should detail banks’ critical functions that need to be protected in a rescue. But the SRB has drawn up detailed plans for only some of the banks and those available are “still missing key elements,” the European Court of Auditors said in a report published the day after Koenig’s mandate was renewed for five years. The auditors said the banking agency “was unable to provide an overview of critical functions for every bank under its remit,” raising doubts on how the SRB assesses bank liabilities. The report, which is part of a regular oversight of EU institutions, also said the plans scrutinized by auditors did not show the “potential contagion risk” caused by a bank resolution, warning that this could turn a lender’s rescue into another bank’s problem. The SRB, in replies included in the report, said the auditors’ report was based on last year’s resolution plans and many of the shortcomings were already addressed this year. “We are saying that the resolution planning (..) is inadequate in a number of respects,” Kevin Cardiff, the auditor responsible for the report said in a news conference. “But that is not the same as saying that in a particular case the institution would not perform well,” he added. So far, the SRB has tested its powers to wind down a bank only once, with the forced sale in May of Spain’s ailing Banco Popular to a larger rival, Banco Santander. Popular’s bondholders who lost their investments in the process are suing the SRB. EU regulators called the rescue a “success” because it spared depositors and did no damage the Spanish banking system. The sale of Popular did not reflect the resolution strategy that the SRB had planned for the bank, the agency admitted after the overnight rescue. The most common option is a bail-in, in which a bank continues its operations after its creditors have paid the rescue bill. The auditors said the SRB’s resolution plans did not properly take into account possible “unanticipated, short-term developments”, increasing the chances that in the future the agency will again be forced “to deviate from the plans,” as it occurred with Popular. The SRB’s shortcomings were partly caused by the fact that the agency is “seriously understaffed”, auditors said. The SRB replied that it will reach 306 staff members early next year - still short of its target of 350. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-banks-auditors-srb/eu-agency-may-not-be-fully-prepared-to-wind-down-failing-banks-auditors-idUKKBN1ED12Y'|'2017-12-19T12:32:00.000+02:00'
'c63db2bf6e2878090f7d4a3b2c39686ebc26dc2e'|'US mall operators must buy into e-retail and new use of space'|'The Observer US mall operators must buy into e-retail and new use of space Malls are having to change and adapt to stand any hope of surviving the retreat of traditional retailers and the onslaught of e-commerce Department stores like Macy’s are struggling as big brands reduce their in-store presence. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP The Observer US mall operators must buy into e-retail and new use of space Malls are having to change and adapt to stand any hope of surviving the retreat of traditional retailers and the onslaught of e-commerce Ed Helmore Saturday 16 December 2017 16.00 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close T he death of the American shopping mall has been long predicted but, despite their many problems, malls remains a focus of retail shopping and social interaction for millions of Americans. The process of reorganisation in a digital age, however, has been painful. It has been three years since a major new shopping mall opened in the US, leading some operators to speculate that the last one has already been built . According to Bloomberg, more than 10% of US retail space, or nearly 1bn square feet, may need to be closed, converted to other uses, or renegotiated. Nearly 9,000 stores are estimated to close in 2017, a third more than during the crash of 2008. Big, bold … and broken: is the US shopping mall in a fatal decline? Read more The rapid collapse of bricks-and-mortar retail has left mall owners and retail property owners on main street USA in a Darwinian struggle to think up new ways to fill retail space and keep consumers coming. Malls are confronting erosion on two fronts: retailers are looking for better control of their brands, and to reduce their exposure to bricks-and-mortar retailing. More than 300 retailers have filed for bankruptcy so far this year, up 31% from last year. In addition, brands like Nike, Canada Goose and Michael Kors are fleeing mass-market department stores, typically the anchor tenants of major US malls. In October, Nike chief executive Mark Parker announced that out of Nike’s global universe of more than 30,000 retail partners, the company would now focus on just 40 “strategic wholesale partners”. Mass-market retail spaces, explains the Business of Fashion , “have increasingly become like kryptonite. In a world constantly seeking what’s next, new or special, mass retail has become toxic in its overexposure.” Mall owners have recognised that they had become too dependent on clothing. According to Louis Conforti, the chief executive of mall operator Washington Prime , more than 40% of merchants were selling junior fashion and accessories. Unless four out of 10 of my customers are wearing a midriff T-shirt, this has been a reactive and lazy industry Louise Conforti, chief executive of mall operator Washington Prime “Unless four out of 10 of my customers are wearing a midriff T-shirt, this has been a reactive and lazy industry,” Conforti told the Observer . Mall operators, Conforti says, are now more aggressive in their effort to introduce more food and beverage outlets and more home furnishings and home goods retailers. The drive includes tie-ins and “real-time incentives”, including fashion shows or selling the wares from a local craft brewery, and tie-ins with e-commerce platforms. “We need to create common area installations that benefit existing tenants. We need a lot more eventing. The idea that common areas are relegated to kiosks is over. We could have club chairs [armchairs] and artisanal sandwiches, and it’ll be a different thing if you’re in Sacramento or in Kansas City.” Another part of the drive is to partner with e-commerce, including Amazon . As the e-commerce giant begins developing its own line of physical stores, mall operators are optimistic that the two will ultimately combine, creating a class of “experiential merchants” using bricks-and-mortar and online assets to create a new, more personalised consumer experience. “Whoever doesn’t realise that there is a symbiotic relationship between e-commerce and physical space is moronic, and playing the ostrich does no good for anybody,” says Conforti. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/retail/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/16/us-mall-operators-must-adapt-change-ecommerce-retail-space-use'|'2017-12-16T23:00:00.000+02:00'
'633f5e1763e83934ddd1a619d7087382c5d27ffb'|'Thai Beverage unit wins auction to buy 54 percent stake in Sabeco'|' 17 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Thai Beverage unit wins auction to buy 54 percent stake in Sabeco Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - A unit of Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ) won the auction to buy a $5 billion or 54 percent stake in top brewer Sabeco SAB.HM in the country’s biggest ever privatization process, an official from the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange said on Monday. The anticipated sale of the state-owned maker of Bia Saigon gained momentum in recent months. Thai Beverage emerged as the only buyer for a majority stake as global brewing groups stayed out of the auction. Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-m-a-announcement/thai-beverage-unit-wins-auction-to-buy-54-percent-stake-in-sabeco-idUSKBN1EC0QV'|'2017-12-18T10:17:00.000+02:00'
'22b5c4eb8280a41d6aa7e21d9fb621b082c4fd71'|'CEE MARKETS-Crown softens as market focuses on rate meeting, other currencies firm'|' 23 PM / in 27 minutes CEE MARKETS-Crown softens as market focuses on rate meeting, other currencies firm Reuters Staff 8 Min Read * Czech central bank raises banks'' countercyclical buffer rate * Fails to lift the crown, main rate seen on hold on Thursday * Warsaw/Brussels showdown watched * Dinar bid at 4-week-highs as Fitch and S&P upgrade Serbia (Adds Hungarian government bonds yield decline, Polish wages) By Sandor Peto and Bartosz Chmielewski BUDAPEST/WARSAW, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The crown eased slightly on Monday on rising expectations that the Czech central bank (CNB) will not lift its main interest rates when it meets later this week. The CNB did raise domestic banks'' countercyclical buffer rate to 1.25 percent on Monday, from 1 percent, but the crown did not react. The crown eased a tad to 25.68 against the euro by 1356 GMT, off Friday''s seven-week low of 25.72 set as expectations for a rate hike when the bank meets on Thursday dwindled. Recent tame inflation data from the region and the prospect of dollar gains if U.S. lawmakers pass a tax cut bill later this week, are not supportive for central and eastern European currencies. "(But) the major CEE (central and eastern European) currencies are currently profiting from a solid EM (emerging markets) and risk-taking sentiment," Raiffeisen analyst Gunter Deuber said in a note. The forint got additional support from the closing of short government bond positions, even as the Hungarian central bank is expected to reaffirm its loose policy stance on Tuesday. Primary dealers were informed by the government debt management agency that it would not hold its regular bi-weekly bond tender this week, one Budapest fixed income trader said. AKK confirmed that to Reuters. Hungarian bond yields fell 4-6 basis points from Friday''s fixing along the curve. Interest rates in Poland are likely to stay unchanged by the end of 2019, rate setter Kamil Zubelewicz was quoted as saying by the daily Parkiet. The zloty firmed 0.1 percent. The Romanian leu gained a quarter or a percent. Corporate wages in Poland surged 6.5 percent in November from a year earlier, data showed on Monday, although that was below analysts'' forecast of 7.1 percent. The European Commission on Wednesday may trigger a so-called "Article 7" procedure against Warsaw over Poland''s planned overhaul of its judiciary. That would bring Poland one step closer to losing its voting right in the EU, but any financial consequence remained a remote risk, BZ WBK analysts said in a note. The dinar was briefly bid at 4-week highs at 118.5 against the euro on Monday, after Fitch and Standard & Poor''s upgraded Serbia''s credit rating late on Friday. By late trade, the dinar had retreated to 118.8, down 0.1 percent from Friday. The rating upgrades should nudge Serbia''s central bank towards cutting the region''s highest interest rates further, the bank''s former governor, Dejan Soskic, told the N1 television channel. "Another and perhaps more important factor was payment of VAT by companies which was on Friday and that boosted demand for the dinar," one Belgrade-based dealer said. In equity markets, a 4 percent jump in Polish copper producer KGHM helped Warsaw''s blue-chip index rise by more than one percent. In Budapest, drugmaker Richter gained 2.3 percent after good drug trial results. CEE MARKETS SNAPSH AT 1456 CET OT CURRENCIES Latest Previo Daily Change us bid close change in 2017 Czech crown 25.680 25.675 -0.02% 5.17% 0 5 Hungary 313.57 314.02 +0.15 -1.51% forint 00 50 % Polish zloty 4.2075 4.2110 +0.08 4.67% % Romanian leu 4.6195 4.6308 +0.24 -1.83% % Croatian 7.5435 7.5465 +0.04 0.15% kuna % Serbian 118.80 118.65 -0.13% 3.83% dinar 00 00 Note: daily calculated previo close 1800 change from us at CET STOCKS Latest Previo Daily Change us close change in 2017 Prague 1067.1 1062.0 +0.48 +15.7 6 5 % 9% Budapest 38675. 38657. +0.05 +20.8 40 37 % 5% Warsaw 2438.5 2416.9 +0.89 +25.1 3 5 % 9% Bucharest 7667.3 7603.3 +0.84 +8.22 1 1 % % Ljubljana 792.17 793.01 -0.11% +10.3 9% Zagreb 1845.6 1859.3 -0.74% -7.48% 7 4 Belgrade 746.43 743.52 +0.39 +4.05 % % Sofia 662.74 664.67 -0.29% +13.0 1% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republic 2-year 0.343 -0.002 +104b -3bps ps 5-year 0.722 -0.043 +104b -6bps ps 10-year 1.462 0.037 +116b +4bps ps Poland 2-year 1.676 -0.005 +237b -3bps ps 5-year 2.609 -0.009 +293b -2bps ps 10-year 3.241 -0.002 +294b +0bps ps FORWARD RATE AGREEMENT 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interb ank Czech Rep <PR 1.04 1.24 1.39 0 IBOR=> Hungary <BU 0.03 0.06 0.195 0.03 BOR=> Poland <WI 1.77 1.81 1.92 1.72 BOR=> Note: FRA are for ask quotes prices'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/easteurope-markets/cee-markets-crown-softens-as-market-focuses-on-rate-meeting-other-currencies-firm-idUSL8N1OI3R5'|'2017-12-18T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'f84d1f544bcc67af0fe2b91a0ecf454b7cfb1408'|'Thai Beverage unit wins auction to buy 54 percent stake in Sabeco'|'December 18, 2017 / 9:21 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Thai Beverage unit wins auction to buy 54 percent stake in Sabeco Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - A unit of Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ) won the auction to buy a $5 billion (3.74 billion pounds) or 54 percent stake in top brewer Sabeco SAB.HM in the country’s biggest ever privatisation process, an official from the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange said on Monday. Bottles of Sabeco''s Saigon beer are seen at a restaurant bar in Hanoi, Vietnam December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Kham The anticipated sale of the state-owned maker of Bia Saigon gained momentum in recent months. Thai Beverage emerged as the only buyer for a majority stake as global brewing groups stayed out of the auction. Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sabeco-m-a-announcement/thai-beverage-unit-wins-auction-to-buy-54-percent-stake-in-sabeco-idUKKBN1EC0WN'|'2017-12-18T11:22:00.000+02:00'
'f36f04426afc2c7d096b6cad17097077dbfb7739'|'UK''s Nissan Brexit letter still too sensitive to disclose a year on'|'Reuters TV United States December 19, 2017 / 12:17 PM / Updated 7 hours ago UK''s Nissan Brexit letter still too sensitive to disclose a year on Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A letter sent by the British government to Nissan ( 7201.T ) a year ago offering reassurances about Brexit which helped secure a major investment from the Japanese carmaker in its UK plant is still too sensitive to release, the business ministry told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A man walks under the logo of Nissan Motor Co at the company''s showroom in Yokohama, south of Tokyo February 8, 2013.   Nissan announced in October last year that it would build its next generation Qashqai sports utility vehicle and a new X-Trail model at its north of England facility, in a major Brexit boost to Prime Minister Theresa May. A source told Reuters that in the letter Britain promised Nissan extra support in the event that its departure from the European Union hit the competitiveness of the plant. The letter sparked concerns of secretive deals between government and companies, with business minister Greg Clark promising last December to release the document once it is no longer sensitive. In response to a freedom of information request from Reuters asking when the letter would be made public, the business ministry said information within it remained confidential. “Secretary of State Greg Clark has made it clear that the letter will be released once the particular commercial confidentialities for the company are no longer there, and this remains the position. The commercial confidentialities are ongoing,” an official said. “We remain in touch with the company about these issues. It is important that we do not release information prematurely that would harm Nissan’s competitiveness position.” Nissan did not provide an immediate comment when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday. The automaker said at the time that support and assurances from the authorities enabled it to make the investment decision. Clark had a phone conversation with Nissan in July “to discuss automotive investment”, according to an official government log of ministerial meetings published last week. Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-nissan/uks-nissan-brexit-letter-still-too-sensitive-to-disclose-a-year-on-idUKKBN1ED1EU'|'2017-12-19T14:13:00.000+02:00'
'4e2f4b8e395992196701eec62e780a20871629d6'|'Hedge fund manager Hohn won''t attend LSE vote - source'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:40 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Hedge fund manager Hohn won''t attend LSE vote - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British hedge fund manager Christopher Hohn will not attend a vote on the motion brought by his firm to oust London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) chairman Donald Brydon, a source close to the firm told Reuters. Activist hedge fund manager TCI Fund Management, run by Hohn, is unhappy with Brydon’s handling of the succession of Xavier Rolet, the LSE’s former chief executive. TCI is expected to lose the vote at the general shareholder meeting being held in London at 1200 GMT on Tuesday after a series of heavyweight investors came out in favor of Brydon. Shareholder Standard Life Aberdeen ( SLA.L ) will vote against the motion, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. Standard Life Aberdeen joins large LSE shareholders Qatar Investment Authority, BlackRock and Aviva Investors in saying they will vote against the motion. TCI does not expect to pass the resolution to oust Brydon at the shareholder meeting and will send a representative, the source close to the firm told Reuters. Shareholder advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services have recommended shareholders vote against removing Brydon. But rival advisory firm PIRC has recommended shareholders abstain, describing the LSE board’s handling of the succession as a “major failure of board leadership”. Standard Life Aberdeen is a top-100 investor in the LSE with a 0.07 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon. A majority of votes cast at the meeting would be needed for TCI’s resolution to pass. The LSE has already said Brydon will step down in 2019 after helping to appoint Rolet’s successor. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Maiya Keidan, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lse-chairman-shareholders/hedge-fund-manager-hohn-wont-attend-lse-vote-source-idUSKBN1EC13R'|'2017-12-18T12:39:00.000+02:00'
'cd21b4dcab88d7b2703e621c91db434e74a43807'|'Iran economy''s recovery strengthening but bank reform is urgent, IMF says'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:15 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago Iran economy''s recovery strengthening but bank reform is urgent, IMF says Reuters Staff 4 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s economy is starting to recover more rapidly from years of international sanctions but the country urgently needs to shore up its banks, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Monday. International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen at the IMF headquarters building during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, U.S., October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas Gross domestic product growth soared to 12.5 percent in the year through last March 20, but that was almost entirely due to a leap in oil exports, after most sanctions were removed under a deal with world powers on Tehran’s nuclear programme. Oil exports are no longer growing nearly as fast. But the economic recovery is now beginning to extend to non-oil areas, said Catriona Purfield, head of an IMF team which held annual consultations with the Iranian government this month. “Growth has begun to broaden to the non-oil sector,” Purfield said in a statement, predicting GDP would expand 4.2 percent in the current fiscal year and that growth could rise towards 4.5 percent in subsequent years with financial reforms. Official statistics in Iran are often incomplete and released only slowly, and the policy-making process can be opaque, so Iran’s consultations with the IMF provide one of the clearest glimpses into its economy. The country’s recovery has been slowed by tensions with the United States, where President Donald Trump has raised the possibility that sanctions could be reimposed or new sanctions introduced. This has deterred many banks and other foreign companies from operating in Iran. Purfield said that given such uncertainty and the increasing vulnerability of Iran’s financial system, the government urgently needed to restructure and recapitalise banks and credit institutions. “An asset quality review, related-party lending assessment, and a time-bound action plan to recapitalise banks and address non-performing loans should start immediately,” she said, adding that the cost of recapitalising banks could be covered with long-term government bond issues. Iranian banks were weakened during the sanctions years by a sluggish economy, government interference in lending decisions, lax regulation and excessive competition with unlicensed financial institutions. Authorities are now discussing how to deal with tens of billions of dollars of bad debt, but efforts to address the problem have been slowed by its cost and complexity. The government of President Hassan Rouhani has also submitted to parliament amendments which it says would strengthen legislation against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The IMF urged Tehran to pass the amendments by an end-January 2018 deadline set by the Financial Action Task Force, a global body fighting illicit money flows. This would help Iran re-integrate into the global financial system, the IMF said. Iran’s central bank has been intervening in the foreign exchange market to support the rial currency in the face of the international uncertainty. But the IMF urged the central bank to let exchange rates move more freely and to abolish a dual system of official and market rates, saying this would prevent Iran’s foreign reserves from running down and make the economy more competitive. Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/iran-economy-imf/iran-economys-recovery-strengthening-but-bank-reform-is-urgent-imf-says-idINKBN1EC119'|'2017-12-18T12:12:00.000+02:00'
'eebabe9568a87b4cccaa40b47d41541978ca1844'|'Pfizer announces new $10 bln share buyback, hikes dividend'|'December 18, 2017 / 5:00 PM / in 19 minutes Pfizer announces new $10 bln share buyback, hikes dividend Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said on Monday its board had authorized a new $10 billion share repurchase program and raised its quarterly dividend. The share buyback is in addition to the $6.4 billion remaining under the company’s current authorization, Pfizer said. The drugmaker hiked its first-quarter dividend to 34 cents per share from 32 cents. (Reporting by Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/pfizer-buyback/pfizer-announces-new-10-bln-share-buyback-hikes-dividend-idUSL4N1OI4R2'|'2017-12-18T19:00:00.000+02:00'
'7434df452511adfc6c63277c7822ae0d7f00a903'|'Vietnam to name buyer of up to $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco'|'December 17, 2017 / 6:44 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Thai Bev''s unit seeks to buy a near $5 billion stake in Sabeco Mai Nguyen , Anshuman Daga 4 Min Read Ho CHI MINH CITY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Vietnam’s trade ministry said on Sunday that Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd, a unit of Thai Beverage, was the only investor seeking to buy all shares of Vietnamese brewer Sabeco on offer worth nearly $5 billion. FILE PHOTO: Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 217. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo The keenly anticipated sale of the state-owned maker of Bia Saigon gained momentum in recent months after being hampered for years by political resistance, fickle policy-making and complications over valuations. The government has set a minimum sale price of 320,000 dong or $14.10 per share for Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco), whose shares have nearly trebled to 309,200 dong since its listing a year ago. The trade ministry said in a statement on Sunday that two investors had registered to participate in the Dec. 18 sale auction for a stake in Sabeco, with Thai Bev’s unit Vietnam Beverage wanting to buy all shares on offer worth around 54 percent of Sabeco. The other investor is a Vietnamese individual who registered to buy 20,000 Sabeco shares, or 0.003 percent of Sabeco, the ministry said. The formal bid is scheduled for Monday when the two investors submit their bidding prices. Vietnam’s young population and booming economy should make Sabeco an attractive asset for global brewers hoping to expand in Southeast Asia, but a high minimum bid price and foreign ownership limits appear to have turned off potential buyers. Sabeco’s foreign ownership is capped at 49 percent. With 10 percent already in foreign hands, that leaves only 39 percent on the table for overseas buyers at Monday’s auction. Local bidders can bid for a majority stake of up to 54 percent. Heineken holds a 5 percent stake. “DISCONNECT” Reuters previously reported that the auction was drawing the interest of brewing groups such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kirin Holdings, Asahi Group Holdings and San Miguel, but the ministry statement showed that these brewers would not participate in the auction. “There’s a disconnect between what the government wants to achieve and how international brewers view this auction,” said one person familiar with the matter.“In a normal auction, bidders are fully aware of what stake they’ll end up owning and bid for it accordingly,” said the person, who was not authorised to speak to the media.Unlike similar sales in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders need to submit a single offer for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round. The government’s minimum price for the 54 percent stake on offer valued Sabeco at about 36 times core earnings, more than double the trading multiples of around 15 for some global peers, according to Reuters data.Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, was keen to acquire Sabeco as part of a strategy to expand outside its home market, sources told Reuters. There was no immediate response from Thai Bev to a query from Reuters.Vietnam’s trade ministry is expected to announce the bidding result on Monday afternoon. Reporting by Mai Nguyen and Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK; Editing by Stephen Coates and Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/sabeco-m-a-sale/vietnam-to-name-buyer-of-up-to-5-billion-stake-in-top-brewer-sabeco-idINKBN1EB05H'|'2017-12-17T08:41:00.000+02:00'
'fca2281639a6088b9006e838712bef2df96c479d'|'Bitcoin hits bigger stage as exchange giant CME launches futures'|'December 18, 2017 / 5:25 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Exchange giant CME''s bitcoin futures get tepid take-up in debut Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss , Jemima Kelly , Swati Pandey 6 Min Read NEW YORK/LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Bitcoin futures got a muted reception after their debut on CME Group late on Sunday, with volumes in the tens of millions of dollars in the first 12 hours of trading, as warnings about the risks of bitcoin sounded ever louder. The launch of futures by the world’s biggest derivatives exchange operator, and by its rival Chicago-based exchange Cboe Global Markets a week earlier, had been hailed by many as the moment that bitcoin reached the investment mainstream. That view has helped send bitcoin soaring even higher than before in recent weeks: it is on track for its best monthly performance in more than four years, having almost doubled in price since the start of December, when it was trading at less than $10,000. But trading volumes in the CME and Cboe futures have so far been modest. A total of 751 contracts - each of them for five bitcoins - had been traded on CME’s January futures contract as of 1417 GMT, at $18,970 per contract, just over 13 hours after their introduction, making a total notional value of around $70 million. On its contract’s debut on Dec. 10, the Cboe traded nearly 4,000 contracts - with a contract size of one bitcoin - during the full session. By the same time on Monday, 2,712 of Cboe’s January bitcoin future contracts had been traded, making a total of just over $50 million notionally. That compares with notional daily trading volumes of up to $4 billion on BitMEX, a Hong-Kong-based trading platform specialising in bitcoin futures that offers investors up to 100 times leverage on their positions, and which has an initial margin requirement of just 1 percent. The CME and Cboe futures’ requirements make them unattractive to many cryptocurrency traders. They can only be traded when the exchanges are open, they require initial margins of 35 to 45 percent, and deposits must be made in dollars rather than bitcoins. “As a trader ... the problem you have with these futures exchanges is there’s T+2 (settlement), weekends they are closed, bank holidays they’re closed,” said Alistair Milne, founder and manager of the Altana Digital Currency Fund. “We’re all laughing at it because you have to send slow fiat to a futures exchange to post collateral on an asset that may move on a Sunday and margin-call you. It’s slightly ludicrous.” The CME bitcoin front-month futures contract opened higher at $20,650 but dropped 6 percent within the first half hour of trading. The contract was last at $18,960, some way off the $19,500 reference price set by the exchange for the January contract. The reference price, from which price limits are set, is $19,600 for the February contract, $19,700 for March and $19,900 for June, according to CME. “DEADLY” GAMBLE On Dec. 10, Cboe Global Market saw the price of its bitcoin futures surge nearly 20 percent in its debut. A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Files The week-old bitcoin futures contract at the Cboe was last trading at $18,750. The “spot” price of bitcoin - the price at which is it currently changing hands - climbed to a record high of $19,666 on the Bitstamp exchange on Sunday, before the CME began trading its futures. It was trading around $1,000 below that on Monday at $18,500, down almost 3 percent on the day. The launch of cash-settled bitcoin futures on regulated exchanges considered a major step in the digital currency’s path toward legitimacy, which should encourage the entry of big institutional investors, some say. “This is a brand-new asset class and I think perhaps a lot of investors want to sit back and see how this plays out before dipping their toes in this market,” said Spencer Bogart, a partner at Blockchain Capital LLC, an investment firm that specialises in the space. Some investors believe the CME bitcoin futures could attract more institutional demand because the final settlement price is culled from four exchanges: Bitstamp, itBit, Kraken and GDAX. A man enters the CME Group offices in New York, U.S., October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/Files The Cboe futures contract is based on a closing auction price of bitcoin from the Gemini exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. But the velocity of bitcoin’s moves higher this year, with an almost twentyfold increase since the start of January, has also led to an increasing number of warnings about the dangers of investing in an immature, opaque and largely unregulated market. Denmark’s central bank governor on Monday warned investors to steer clear of bitcoin, saying it was “deadly” and that it was not the responsibility of authorities to regulate the market. On Sunday, France’s finance minister said his country would propose that the G20 group of major economies discuss regulation of bitcoin next year. And UBS Chairman Axel Weber told Swiss newspaper NZZ over the weekend that bitcoin was neither valuable nor sustainable, and that he would welcome regulation. BIGGER THAN FACEBOOK? Dutch bank ING said on Monday that once the current bitcoin hype was over, it would return to being a “niche product” used by “tech nerds”, those who want payments to be anonymous, and those worried about hyperinflation in their own currencies. ING also said the fact that bitcoin’s software was open-source meant it was infinitely replicable, which could in the future see it lose out to other rival cryptocurrencies - of which there are currently more than 1,000. Most of bitcoin’s biggest rivals were up slightly on Monday, adding to hefty gains last week. Its main rival, Ethereum, which surged more than 60 percent to under $750 between last Monday and Thursday, was close to that high at just below $740, according to trade website Coindesk. The total market value of all cryptocurrencies, which only rose past half a trillion dollars for the first time last Wednesday, reached as high as $603 billion on Monday, according to industry website Coinmarketcap. That makes its “market cap” greater than that of either Facebook or Amazon. Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Rodrigo Campos in New York and Swati Pandey in Sydney; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Peter Cooney, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bitcoin-futures/bitcoin-hits-bigger-stage-as-exchange-giant-cme-launches-futures-idINKBN1EC0EJ'|'2017-12-18T07:21:00.000+02:00'
'678d9d25e898a75f80fbdc3e62053208f5aa15a2'|'Serbia''s Smederevo steel mill boosts revenue -statement'|'December 18, 2017 / 11:30 AM / in 8 minutes Serbia''s Smederevo steel mill boosts revenue -statement Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BELGRADE, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Serbian steelmaker Zelezara Smederevo has boosted production and revenue in 2017, the office of the country’s president said on Monday. Hesteel, China’s biggest steelmaker, last year paid 46 million euros to take over the then loss-making plant, pledging to preserve its 5,050 jobs and invest $300 million. In 2017 revenue rose to $750 million from $433 million a year earlier, the statement from the office of President Aleksandar Vucic said, adding that there had been investments of $160 million. Production stood at 1.5 million tonnes of crude steel and that is set to rise to 1.8 million next year, said the statement, which was released after a meeting between Vucic and company chairman Yu Yong. The plant has a maximum capacity of 2.2 million tonnes. Beijing sees Serbia as part of its One Belt, One Road initiative, which is aimed at opening new foreign trade links for Chinese companies. China has invested over $1 billion in the Balkan country - a European Union membership candidate - mostly in soft loans, infrastructure and energy projects. $1 = 0.8481 euros Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/smederevo-outlook/serbias-smederevo-steel-mill-boosts-revenue-statement-idUSL8N1OI237'|'2017-12-18T16:49:00.000+02:00'
'd8897428b8bc3942642b3b754856d1cefb417b8b'|'Brazil regulator unit recommends approving sale of Petrobras cos'|' 09 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Brazil regulator unit recommends approving sale of Petrobras cos Reuters Staff 1 Min Read RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s proposed sale of two units to Mexican petrochemical concern Alpek has received a recommendation for approval from Brazilian antitrust watchdog Cade’s technical staff, the state-controlled oil company said on Monday. Petrobras, as the Brazilian company is known, said the recommendation will be submitted to Cade’s court, which will make the final decision. Regulatory approval for the sale of petrochemical maker Companhia Petroquímica de Pernambuco and textile manufacturer Companhia Integrada Têxtil de Pernambuco will require measures to mitigate competition concerns arising from the transaction, Cade said in a separate statement on Monday. The agency said the deal might hamper competition in the market for purified terephthalic acid, which is used in polyester production. (Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/petrobras-ma-alpek/brazil-regulator-unit-recommends-approving-sale-of-petrobras-cos-idUSL1N1OI0LX'|'2017-12-18T16:08:00.000+02:00'
'6b6cccd214034ac8a7fc020b5a4e8b708f1fa9a6'|'Hershey, Campbell bet nearly $6 billion on healthy snacks makers'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:12 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago Hershey, Campbell bet nearly $6 billion on healthy snacks makers Gayathree Ganesan , Uday Sampath Kumar 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Campbell Soup Co and Hershey Co on Monday unveiled deals totalling nearly $6 billion (£4.47 billion) to buy healthy packaged snacks makers, the latest example of big U.S. food companies trying to cater to an increasing American preference for healthy foods. Hershey''s chocolate bars are shown in this photo illustration in Encinitas, California January 29, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Campbell ( CPB.N ) will buy Cape Cod chips-maker Snyder‘s-Lance Inc ( LNCE.O ) for $4.87 billion in cash to combat sagging soup sales. Snyder‘s-Lance, the No. 5 U.S. healthy savoury snacks maker, also owns brands such as Eatsmart veggie snacks. Hershey ( HSY.N ), meanwhile, will spend about $921 million to acquire Amplify Snack Brands ( BETR.N ), which makes SkinnyPop popcorn and Paqui tortilla chips. Most of the products made by Snyder‘s-Lance and Amplify Snack claim to have no artificial ingredients or transfats and come in dairy-free cheese and naturally sweet flavours that are popular among millennials. Snyder‘s-Lance shares, which have gained in the past few session on reports of a possible deal, rose 6.8 percent to a record high of $50 per share, matching Campbell’s offer. Amplify’s shares rose 71 percent to their highest in just over a year. Shares of Campbell and Hershey were also up in midday trading. U.S. packaged food makers, including General Mills Inc ( GIS.N ) and Kellogg Co ( K.N ), are buying or investing in healthy-food companies to shore up margins that have taken a beating from falling prices and demand for their mass-market brands. Conagra Brands Inc ( CAG.N ) bought Boomchickapop popcorn maker Angie’s Artisan Treats in September, while Kellogg bought RXBar protein bar maker Chicago Bar Co in October to create premium positioning for their wares. The savoury healthy snacks market is estimated to be $8.95 billion in the United States, having gained nearly 15 percent over the past five years, according to data from Euromonitor International. The healthy sweet-snacks market is worth $10.37 billion, rising more than 20 percent in the same period. FILE PHOTO: Cans of Campbell''s Soup are displayed in a supermarket in New York City, U.S. February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo “CRYSTALLINE LOGIC” Campbell completed its $700 million acquisition of organic soup and broth maker Pacific Foods last week, when media reports first surfaced about a possible deal with Snyder‘s-Lance. “We think the Snyder‘s-Lance deal represents crystalline logic,” ConsumerEdge Research analyst Jonathan Feeney said in a note. Melding Campbell and Snyder‘s-Lance’s roughly $2 billion U.S. snack portfolios will radically cut costs and add complementary salty snacks to round out Campbell’s successful Pepperidge brand and Lance’s position as a big national distributor of salty snacks, Feeney said. Meanwhile, the primary benefit to Hershey from Amplify will likely be faster growth, Feeney said. But he cautions that the deal sets Hershey up for competition with PepsiCo Inc’s ( PEP.N ) Frito-Lay and Campbell’s Pepperidge. Hershey, which makes Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses, has acquired brands such as Krave meat jerky and Ripple Brand Collective’s barkTHINS over the past two years. The company, which rejected a $23 billion bid from Oreo cookie owner Mondelez International Inc ( MDLZ.O ) in June last year, said it expects to save $20 million over the next two years through the Amplify deal. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are financial advisers to Hershey, while Jefferies LLC advised Amplify. Credit Suisse acted is Campbell’s lead financial adviser and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP its legal counsel. Goldman Sachs & Co LLC advised Snyder‘s-Lance and Jenner & Block LLP gave legal counsel.   Karina Dsouza in Bengaluru and Martinne Geller in London, Writing by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-amplify-snack-m-a-hershey/hershey-to-buy-skinnypop-parent-amplify-snack-for-1-6-billion-idUKKBN1EC1F0'|'2017-12-18T19:30:00.000+02:00'
'58050d0bb999598a22f48ef7bd716623d0fd7cff'|'Boeing-Bombardier dispute ramps up at U.S. trade hearing'|'December 18, 2017 / 5:59 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Boeing-Bombardier trade dispute heats up at U.S. hearing Alwyn Scott , Alana Wise 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co and Bombardier Inc went head to head on Monday over the U.S. planemaker’s claim that its Canadian rival used billions of dollars in illegal government subsidies to dump its newest jetliner in the United States at below cost. At a contentious hearing of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Boeing accused Bombardier of harming its ability to sell 737s in the U.S. market, in one of the final stages of a bitter trade dispute due to conclude in February. Bombardier argued Boeing’s large 737 order book shows there has been no adverse impact from its CSeries jet. “Boeing is making money hand over fist. And with a backlog of 737 orders years into the future, there are no signs of difficulty on the horizon,” Bombardier representative Peter Lichtenbaum said in opening remarks. If the ITC sides with Boeing, as it has so far, it could effectively keep U.S. airlines from using Bombardier’s CSeries jet by imposing duties of nearly 300 percent, one of the largest ever imposed for a market-based economy, Boeing said. “These investigations have already established beyond question that Bombardier has taken billions of dollars in illegal government subsidies to prop up its C Series program. The C Series would not even exist at this point but for those subsidies,” Boeing said in a statement emailed during Bombardier’s panel remarks. The U.S. Department of Commerce is due to finalize the proposed duties on Monday or Tuesday. If Bombardier wins, Chicago-based Boeing says its smallest 737 model could face unfair competition from the CSeries for decades. Canada’s ambassador to the United States, David MacNaughton, warned that a positive finding of material harm to Boeing by the ITC could present a possible violation of World Trade Organization agreements and prompt a more formal complaint with the global trade group. “Boeing’s assertion that future imports from Canada threaten to cause material injury is necessarily based on just the type of ‘speculation and conjecture’ that is prohibited under both U.S. and international law,” MacNaughton told the panel. Canada earlier this month scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing Super Hornet fighter jets, underlining Ottawa’s anger over the trade challenge. Boeing has said it considered all potential risks before deciding to launch its trade case. The case stems from an April 2016 sale of 75 CSeries jets to Delta Air Lines Inc. Boeing claims Delta paid $20 million per plane, well below an estimated cost of $33 million and what Bombardier charges in Canada. FILE PHOTO - The Boeing Company logo is projected on a wall at the "What''s Next?" conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young “A single large order, like Bombardier’s sale to Delta, takes years of demand out of the market. In this industry, if we lose a sale, it’s gone forever. That’s years of lost production and deliveries for Boeing, years of lost work for our employees, and years of lost work for our U.S. suppliers,” Boeing Executive Vice President Kevin McAllister said. European plane maker Airbus SE, which is buying a controlling stake in the CSeries program and has a competing plane, has said it would add a second CSeries production line to a factory in Alabama, making it a U.S. product for domestic airlines. Boeing says that should not negate the duties because Airbus and Bombardier would import fuselages and wings and merely be assembling in the United States. But Bombardier argues that Boeing’s case is against full imports of airplanes, not parts, so it does not apply to imports of wings, fuselages and other pieces. Bombardier says more than half of the value of CSeries content comes from the United States, including engines by Pratt & Whitney. DEFINING DEAL Boeing says the Delta deal was market defining because other airlines will demand the same low price and the planes will be in service for decades. All jetliners are sold below cost initially because airlines are taking a risk on a new jet model and upfront development costs are high, Bombardier argues. The cost drops over time as the factory produces more planes and gets better at making them. The U.S. planemaker said Bombardier failed to cooperate in a U.S. investigation providing pricing information to the United States. Bombardier said it turned over the Delta sales contract but cannot accurately estimate the cost and price of those planes because they are being built and delivered in coming years. Boeing says the CSeries would not exist without hundreds of millions of dollars in launch aid from the governments of Canada and Britain and a $1 billion equity infusion from the province of Quebec. Those subsidies are not prohibited because they are either market-based investments or repayable loans, Bombardier said. Bombardier also argues that Boeing and Airbus do not compete with the CSeries because their planes are larger and have more range. The CSeries’ more direct competitors are smaller jets made by Embraer Mitsubishi. The CSeries poses no threat to the U.S. aerospace industry because building it at the Airbus factory in Alabama would create U.S. jobs and generate billions of dollars in business for U.S. aerospace companies, Bombardier said. Reporting by Alwyn Scott in New York and Alana Wise in Washington'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-bombardier/boeing-bombardier-dispute-ramps-up-at-u-s-trade-hearing-idUSKBN1EC2B1'|'2017-12-18T19:59:00.000+02:00'
'029fff9fc87f77f6d0313620f8f5be02d2b4289d'|'FTSE lifted by global optimism on U.S. tax bill'|'December 18, 2017 / 9:35 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago Sterling holds back Britain''s FTSE, spreadbetters plunge Julien Ponthus 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - UK shares rose on Monday at a slightly lower pace than European peers as a global wave of optimism over a U.S. tax bill and the prospect of a coalition to rule Germany lifted stocks and led the MSCI all-country world index to new record highs. A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The FTSE 100 .FTSE was up 0.6 percent, restrained by a rising pound, while the pan-European STOXX 600 rose by twice as much, up 1.2 percent. A strong currency typically cuts revenues for the international companies that dominate the FTSE 100 and do much of their business outside the UK. The FTSE 250 .FTMC , made up of smaller constituents and more focused on the UK economy, was up 1.1 percent. “We’ve been running out of company news to talk about for a while now and the big driver has been U.S. tax reform,” said Chris Beauchamp, a market analyst at IG. Financials added the most points to the index - HSBC ( HSBA.L ) rose 0.6 percent, Prudential ( PRU.L ) 2.2 percent and Barclays ( BARC.L ) 1.1 percent. However, shares in London-listed spreadbetters IG Group ( IGG.L ), Plus500 ( PLUSP.L ) and CMC Market ( CMCX.L ) plunged between 9.2 percent and 12.5 percent after the European Union’s securities watchdog said it may curb core parts of their market under sweeping new product powers from January. Unilever ( ULVR.L ) was up 0.3 percent after initial losses after it agreed to sell its margarine and spreads business to U.S. private equity firm KKR ( KKR.N ) for 6.83 billion euros to concentrate on faster growing products. “At last the market has the deal that it wanted, on the market’s desired terms,” Jefferies analysts commented, adding, “The positive takeaway for bulls like us is that Unilever is willing to continue to slay sacred cows, in pursuit of growth and value.” LSE ( LSE.L ) gained 0.3 percent with reports that activist hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI), which has a 5 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange, is unlikely to succeed in its attempt to remove chairman Donald Brydon at a shareholder vote on Tuesday. Lonmin ( LMI.L ) was down about 3 percent as the CEO of the miner told Reuters that plans to cut around 13,000 jobs were likely to be the biggest obstacle for its suitor, Sibanye-Stillwater ( SGLJ.J ), to winning South African regulatory approval for its proposed takeover. Retailers Next ( NXT.L ) fell 0.4 percent and Morrison Supermarkets ( MRW.L ) lost 1 percent. Easyjet ( EZJ.L ), which confirmed the acquisition of Air Berlin assets, fell 2.8 percent while rival Ryanair ( RYA.I ) lost 3.2 percent. The latter’s decision to recognise trade unions has averted the threat of strikes but rattled investors. Editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-lifted-by-global-optimism-on-u-s-tax-bill-idUKKBN1EC0X0'|'2017-12-18T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'fb7068720e9232f28dd79976f86a6e69666c6047'|'Roche, Shire court fight escalates over haemophilia drug'|'December 16, 2017 / 10:09 AM / Updated 11 hours ago Roche, Shire court fight escalates over haemophilia drug John Miller 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Roche’s patent dispute with London-listed Shire over the Swiss drugmaker’s new haemophilia drug Hemlibra has escalated, with Shire filing a new motion in a U.S. court that Roche says aims to stop some patients from getting its medicine. Shire’s motion for a preliminary injunction is part of an ongoing case in which it contends Roche infringed on a key patent to develop Hemlibra, approved in November by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The patent dispute at the U.S. district court of Delaware underscores Hemlibra’s potential to take business from Shire, with some analysts estimating Roche’s roughly $450,000-per-year drug will hit $5 billion in annual sales by muscling in on older drugs for the genetic disease whose sufferers’ blood does not clot properly. In a press release late last week, Shire said it expected a judge to rule next year. “Until the court’s decision on the motion for the preliminary injunction, expected summer 2018, is made there will be no patient impact,” Shire said in a statement. “Shire has proactively proposed a carve-out provision to facilitate access for patients, but the scope of the provision is ultimately a matter for the court to decide.” There are about 20,000 people in the United States with the disease and 400,000 worldwide, according to the National Hemophilia Foundation. FILE PHOTO : Vitamins made by Shire are displayed at a chemist''s in northwest London July 11, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo In the patent dispute, Roche argues Shire’s patent is not valid and that its scientists did not encroach on its rival’s intellectual property. On Saturday, the Swiss company acknowledged that Shire’s latest motion would have no immediate impact on the current situation in which Hemlibra is approved for so-called “inhibitor patients,” or those who have developed resistance to clotting treatments like those made by Shire. “It will have to go through a formal legal process before a decision is made,” Roche said. But it contends Shire’s motion seeks to encroach on decisions best left to doctors and patients. “We believe it is also inappropriate for Shire to dictate which patients should or should not receive Hemlibra,” the company said in a statement. Roche is seeking to expand Hemlibra’s regulatory approvals beyond inhibitor patients to include those who have not yet developed resistance, to boost the medicine’s sales. Shire, whose shares dropped on Nov. 20 after Hemlibra’s approval, contends its latest motion will protect patients by preserving their treatment options. “The filing of the preliminary injunction is not a decision we made lightly, and we carefully considered the impact this filing may have on hemophilia patients,” it said. Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-roche-hldg-shire-patent/roche-shire-court-fight-escalates-over-haemophilia-drug-idUSKBN1EA08T'|'2017-12-16T11:57:00.000+02:00'
'eb81c7c71ed1dc49ea6e535bfcf5ebc10e003c9e'|'This year has been about companies and jobs. Will 2018 be about wages? - Greg Jericho'|'There’s been a big increase in tax revenue, which should lead to a smaller than expected deficit – but so far it’s coming from companies, not individuals Contact author Saturday 16 December 2017 21.00 GMT Last modified on Saturday 16 December 2017 21.03 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close T he year has ended well for the treasurer. The latest job numbers out this week show that employment growth remains strong and Monday’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (Myefo) is likely to show a smaller deficit than was projected in the May budget. But amid that good news is a notable indicator of the problem that has cast a pall over all the economic news this year. The Myefo is essentially the last major economic news for the year. There isn’t any more big data to arrive from the ABS (which, like the rest of the public service, will shut down between Christmas and New Year). And even the Myefo is not expected to be altogether surprising. There have been reports about new cuts to university funding , but the big picture is mostly known, and it is mostly good news for the government. The likelihood is the Myefo will reveal that the 2017-18 budget will come in with a significantly smaller deficit than was predicted in May. The latest monthly figures from the Department of Finance show that in the first four months of this financial year the government received $3.2bn more tax revenue than expected and spent $870m less than predicted in the May budget. So right now the budget for 2017-18 has a $3.5bn smaller deficit than expected. If those revenue figures continue to outperform expectations for the next eight months, then the surplus is going to be rather smaller than the $29.4bn forecast in May. What is driving that extra revenue, however, highlights the fractured nature of the economic growth we have experienced this year. There is no doubting that employment growth has been superb this year. Off the back of major public infrastructure programs and the healthcare and social assistance industry, employment has now been growing for 14 months straight – the best run since the early 1990s. Turnbull declares ''jobs and growth'' a reality as employment surges Read more Even better is that full-time employment is also growing well. At the start of this year the number of people working full-time was actually lower than it was at the start of 2015. Since then, 296,000 more people have begun working full-time – a 3.8% annual increase that is as good as we’ve seen for nearly 30 years. You have to go back to 1989 to find annual full-time employment growth faster than we are currently experiencing. And even if you are churlish and suggest this year is just making up for last year’s horror run, the past two years still had the strongest full-time employment growth since 2011-12. So all good news. And yet, when you look at the government’s financial updates, the big improvement in tax revenue does not come from income tax, even though the May budget predicted employment would only grow by just 1.5%, whereas it is currently running at 3.1%. The amount of individual income tax the government has received this financial year is actually a touch over $800m less than expected. This is because although the government predicted weaker employment growth than is currently occurring, it also predicted stronger wage growth. The May budget hoped that wages would grow in 2017-18 at 2.5%, whereas they are rising by just 2.0%. So what has delivered the bonanza of tax revenue? Companies. Thus far the government has received $3.7bn more company tax revenue than they were hoping – 19% above that predicted in the May budget. So big has been this tax bonanza driven by rising coal and iron ore prices that if it were to hold, the government is looking at an extra $14.7bn in revenue over the course of 2017-18. Now that is very unlikely to happen, but it gives you a sense of just how much of a revenue boom there has been. Penalty rate cuts followed by weakest consumer spending since 2008 Read more So company profits up by more than expected has led to better company tax revenue, but workers, despite more people working than expected, are delivering lower income tax revenue than anticipated. That is an apt result given the biggest economic story of the year was the decision by the Fair Work Commission to cut penalty rates on weekends for retail, pharmacy, fast food and hospitality industries . The drive of economic policy this year has all been towards stronger company profits and the hope of higher wages to come, while at the same time policy levers have been geared towards keeping wages low – whether it be through inaction on penalty rates or move to limit the ability of unions to effectively negotiate for higher wages. It highlights the issue the Governor of the Reserve Bank has noted that “the normal tendency for firms to pay higher wages in tight labour markets appears to be muted”, because “businesses are not bidding up wages in the way they might once have”. At least here there might be some better news ahead. One issue has been that although unemployment has been falling, underemployment had been rising throughout the year. But the November labour force figures showed that the underemployment rate had fallen from 8.6% to 8.4% – a move that should see wages growth improve a touch. That is at least the theory, and it will be watched closely. This year has been all about companies and investment and the recovery in the jobs market. Next year will be all about whether or not this foundation leads to strong wages and household incomes growth. If it does, the prospects for an early election will rise; if it doesn’t, expect industrial relations to be a major political battleground for whenever the government chooses to go to the polls. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2017/dec/17/this-year-has-been-about-companies-and-jobs-will-2018-be-about-wages'|'2017-12-17T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'f0ce790ae523d34c5a772470ac40f7b8a82a5c9d'|'Second prototype of China''s C919 jet conducts test flight - state TV'|'December 17, 2017 / 5:29 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Second prototype of China''s C919 jet conducts test flight - state TV Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - A second prototype of China’s home-built C919 passenger jet took off for a test flight in Shanghai on Sunday, state television reported, another step forward in the country’s ambitions to muscle in to the global jet market. A total of six prototypes will eventually conduct test flights, China Central Television reported, with engine tests to be a particular focus. The aim was to conduct another long-distance test flight in late January, chief engineer Wang Wei was quoted as saying. More than 1,000 tests would be carried out. The narrow-body aircraft, which will compete with Boeing’s 737 and the Airbus A320, is a symbol of China’s ambitions to penetrate the global passenger jet market, estimated to be worth $2 trillion over the next 20 years. The C919 made its maiden flight on May 5 after numerous delays. Analysts have questioned the long periods between previous test flights. It completed its first long-distance flight on Nov. 10, flying for 2 hours and 23 minutes from Shanghai to the central Chinese city of Xi‘an, covering more than 1,300 km (800 miles) and reaching an altitude of 7,800 metres (25,590 feet). Its manufacturer, the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd (COMAC), called the maiden flight a milestone that marked the plane’s move into an airworthiness certification phase. COMAC is aiming to obtain certification for the plane from Chinese regulators as well as Europe’s aviation safety regulator, which agreed in April to start the certification process. The plane has dozens of customers who have placed orders and commitments for 785 jets, COMAC has said. Reporting by Judy Hua and Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Paul Tait'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-aviation-comac/second-prototype-of-chinas-c919-jet-conducts-test-flight-state-tv-idINKBN1EB03Z'|'2017-12-17T07:28:00.000+02:00'
'336ae3c678092c8dfb2939a0c70bf959e165faba'|'Thales agrees 4.8 billion euro Gemalto takeover to trump rival French bid'|'December 17, 2017 / 1:20 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Thales agrees 4.8 billion euro Gemalto takeover, Atos throws in towel Cyril Altmeyer 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Aerospace and defence group Thales ( TCFP.PA ) has agreed to buy chipmaker Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) for 4.8 billion euros (4.23 billion pounds) , trumping an earlier bid by fellow French firm Atos ( ATOS.PA ) to expand in the fast-growing digital security market. The shadow of an attendee is cast below a logo of technology firm Gemalto during a news conference in Paris February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo The bidding race for Gemalto has come after a difficult year for the Franco-Dutch group in which profit warnings have hurt its share price and overshadowed its attempt to shift from a slowing market for phone SIM cards towards security services such as data encryption and biometric passports. “This is a terrific project,” Thales CEO Patrice Caine told reporters on Sunday. “In digital, Gemalto and Thales are like twins.” Caine said his firm’s bid represented a total of 5.6 billion euros , including 800 million of debt in addition to its offer for shares. This showed its basic 51 euro per share offer for Gemalto was worth 4.8 billion euros in comparison with Atos’ 4.3 billion bid based on a 46 euro per share price. Atos, which saw its offer rejected by Gemalto this week, said in a statement later on Sunday that it would not pursue its bid, although it would be open to talks with Gemalto if Thales’ offer fell through. Thales’ all-cash bid has the unanimous backing of the both companies’ boards, Thales and Gemalto said in an earlier statement. The agreement calls for Thales’ digital activities to be merged with Gemalto to create a business with 3.5 billion euros in sales which would be a top-three global player in digital security, they said. “RIGHT DIRECTION” Christophe Castaner, a junior minister in the French government and head of the party of President Emmanuel Macron, told France 3 television the deal was “in the right direction”. The French state is the largest shareholder in Thales, while state-owned bank Bpifrance is Gemalto’s second-biggest shareholder. Bpifrance said this week it was favourable to consolidation between two French companies in the tech sector. Thales will finance the offer through its available cash resources and a 4 billion euro fully committed credit arrangement secured for the Gemalto offer, it said. Thales and Gemalto said their digital security entity would generate pre-tax cost synergies of between 100 million and 150 million euros by 2021, as well as meaningful revenue synergies. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2018, would have a positive effect on earnings per share of 15-20 percent, before synergies, from the first year, they said. Thales did not expect job losses from the takeover and pledged to maintain current job levels at Gemalto’s French operations until at least the end of 2019. However, union officials at Gemalto cautioned that the announcement did not refer to the struggling chip card activity. Brice Barrier, representative for UNSA, the largest union at Gemalto, said he would call on Gemalto to drop a plan to cut 288 jobs in France. Additional reporting and writing by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Gareth Jones and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-thales-gemalt/thales-agrees-4-8-billion-euro-gemalto-takeover-to-trump-rival-french-bid-idUKKBN1EB08O'|'2017-12-17T15:19:00.000+02:00'
'a2c370ef0213877ee718d80e2db8156bb62dc397'|'PetroChina trading chief to take on global rivals in major expansion drive - sources'|'  15 minutes ago PetroChina trading chief to take on global rivals in major expansion drive - sources Chen Aizhu 5 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - PetroChina’s ( 0857.HK ) oil and gas trading arm aims to buy petrol stations and fuel storage facilities, setting up business in West Africa, Brazil and Pakistan in a major global expansion aimed at taking on international rivals, according to three senior oil industry executives briefed on the plans. PetroChina''s logo is seen at its petrol station in Beijing, China, March 21, 2016. Picture taken March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The ambitious drive at one of the world’s top oil merchants is taking shape eight months after Tian Jinghui, a vice president at PetroChina, took over the reins at Chinaoil, PetroChina’s trading vehicle. Tian is a veteran of fuel marketing at PetroChina, a listed unit of state giant CNPC and Asia’s largest oil and gas producer. Tian’s plan would mark a step on from the legacy of former chairwoman Wang Lihua - ‘Madame Wang’ to staff and peers - who led a previous round of expansion characterised by asset-heavy investments that included nearly $4 billion worth of stakes in four refineries stretching from Scotland to Japan. “The pace of execution is accelerating after Tian took over and the strategy fits his expertise,” said one Beijing-based executive with direct knowledge of the matter. He and two other executives briefed on the plans declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the press. The new investments are expected to start as soon as next year, and mimic the moves the world’s top oil merchants Vitol and Trafigura have made recently - spending billions to buy up thousands of petrol stations in Pakistan, Turkey and Africa. They said the aim is to have a foothold in emerging markets and grow market share locally, with fuel supplies from refineries PetroChina operates globally as well as barrels exported from China where demand is slowing in a moderating economy. They didn’t disclose how much PetroChina might invest in the new drive. The expansion also aimed at tapping the transportation fuel market in those regions, where demand is growing faster than the global average, the executives said. In West Africa, it has its sights on Nigeria and Angola, they said. “Supplies to these markets have over the past been done through random tenders or ad-hoc business trips, that do not guarantee the company winning the deals,” said the executive. A spokesman for PetroChina didn’t respond to requests for comment. ENGLISH CLASSES With the sharp drop in global oil prices, major integrated oil companies have been shedding assets, including marginally profitable retail outlets, to cut costs. Chevron CVX.CN is in the process of selling its refinery in Cape Town and more than 1,000 petrol stations in South Africa and Botswana, in a deal that has attracted China’s Sinopec and commodities and miner Glencore ( GLEN.L ) competing for the assets. Young staff from PetroChina’s massive domestic marketing team were sent on a three-month English course earlier this year as candidates for potential new overseas postings, said two of the three people with knowledge of the plans. These will be new additions to the 300-strong trading and marketing team PetroChina now has mainly in global trading hubs Singapore, London and Houston, they said. Chinaoil currently procures and trades nearly 7 million barrels of oil a day (bpd), including 4.8 million bpd of crude oil and 2.2 million bpd of oil products. That exceeds Vitol’s 6 million bpd as Chinaoil markets global production from PetroChina. “Tian wants to apply his domestic marketing expertise globally...to upgrade PetroChina’s global fuel marketing from being just a wholesaler sitting at trading hubs to a retailer in consuming regions,” said one of the senior industry executives. Buying storage tanks or petrol stations will be less costly than investing in refineries, but will still be a challenge for a team with mostly domestic experience. “It will be hugely challenging for the new people Tian sends in these new posts, to be familiar with local legal framework and learn to handle public relations,” said a third senior source. Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Josephine Mason and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-petrochina-oil-trading/petrochina-trading-chief-to-take-on-global-rivals-in-major-expansion-drive-sources-idUKKBN1EC0YA'|'2017-12-18T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'36c47371a2fa964efefcab52619dd4a8f1279639'|'Congress poised to approve biggest tax overhaul in 30 years'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:56 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago U.S. House approves biggest tax overhaul in 30 years, Senate next David Morgan , Amanda Becker 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives approved sweeping, debt-financed tax legislation on Tuesday, sending the bill to the Senate, where lawmakers were due to take up the package later in the evening. The biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax system in more than 30 years could be signed into law by President Donald Trump as soon as Wednesday, if both chambers of Congress approve it. The bill passed the House by a vote of 227-203, overcoming united opposition from Democrats and 12 Republicans who voted against it. Passage was all but certain in the Republican-controlled Senate, as well. The plan includes steep tax cuts for corporations and wealthy taxpayers, as well as temporary tax cuts for some individuals and families. It repeals a section of the Obamacare health system and allows oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, just two of many narrow changes added onto the bill to secure sufficient to win its passage. Middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year, while the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans would see an average cut of $51,000, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington. Republicans insist the package will boost the economy and job growth. They also see the measure as key to retaining their majorities in the House and Senate in elections next November. Democrats say the bill will deepen the income gap between rich and poor Americans, while adding $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years to the mounting $20 trillion U.S. national debt. Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Bill Trott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax/congress-poised-to-approve-biggest-tax-overhaul-in-30-years-idUKKBN1ED1CR'|'2017-12-19T13:55:00.000+02:00'
'1e64ef82ab3ef1c44729983a6ad10da2a4c7204d'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Dec. 19'|' 09 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST- Canada - Dec. 19 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Boeing Co is accusing Bombardier Inc of squeezing the U.S. plane maker''s by dumping jets subsidized with billions of dollars of Canadian and British corporate welfare into the American market. tgam.ca/2D1dioM ** Canada is on pace to lose more than 4,000 people to opioid-related deaths this year, with about one-third of them in British Columbia, according to new figures from the Public Health Agency of Canada. tgam.ca/2oFGCxQ ** U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel to Ottawa on Tuesday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and iron out the details of a major international meeting on North Korea to be held in Vancouver early next year. tgam.ca/2CEqizC NATIONAL POST ** In a boost to Alberta''s energy industry, Inter Pipeline Ltd said it will spend $3.5 billion on Canada''s first-ever propane-to-plastics petrochemical plant. bit.ly/2kfNWvH Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-dec-19-idUSL4N1OJ3G5'|'2017-12-19T13:06:00.000+02:00'
'dcaee4b1cfa73c262c34b597bd1a3b7da4a55e7c'|'Apple names long-time exec as new India sales head - source'|'December 19, 2017 / 6:52 AM / Updated 15 hours ago Apple names long-time exec as new India sales head - source Sankalp Phartiyal 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Apple Inc has appointed Michel Coulomb as its top sales executive in India, replacing Sanjay Kaul, a source familiar with the move said on Tuesday, as the U.S. tech giant pursues a bigger share of the world’s third-largest smartphone market. FILE PHOTO: The Apple logo is pictured inside the newly opened Omotesando Apple store at a shopping district in Tokyo June 26, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo Coulomb has worked with Apple since 2003 and was most recently the managing director for Apple in South Asia, according to his biography on professional network LinkedIn. The Economic Times newspaper had reported earlier on Tuesday that Kaul would be leaving after six years with Apple, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Coulomb and Kaul were not immediately reachable. The Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of the iPhone is keen to widen its reach in India where it currently holds just under 3 percent of the smartphone market. Apple’s sales rose 17 percent to 116.19 billion rupees ($1.81 billion) in the fiscal year to March 2017, much slower than the 50 percent growth in the previous year, regulatory filings show. It is also seeking incentives and tax breaks from the federal government to expand manufacturing in India. On Monday, Apple increased prices for all its phones in India by an average 3.5 percent after the government last week raised taxes on imported phones, except the low-cost SE model that it assembles through its Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron in Bengaluru. India’s price-sensitive market is currently dominated by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and Chinese players including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. Apple’s iPhones remain aspirational for a rising middle class but their price keeps them out of the reach of many. ($1 = 64.1500 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/apple-india/apple-names-long-time-exec-as-new-india-sales-head-source-idINKBN1ED0IH'|'2017-12-19T08:49:00.000+02:00'
'c5ad38e04a41f70a59a37a18785b59280cd67ba5'|'Asia stocks up on U.S. tax-reform optimism, dollar hesitant'|'December 19, 2017 / 12:49 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Stocks bulls carry on, dollar keeps calm Marc Jones 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks steadied on Tuesday after their biggest jump in almost six-months on U.S. tax cut hopes had added to what is already one of the strongest and longest global bull runs on record. FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo South Africa’s rand also took a rest after the ANC leadership win for the market’s preferred candidate triggered its biggest surge since the volatile days of 2008, while the dollar remained a no show despite Wall Street’s latest record highs. Futures markets were pointing to the S&P 500 and Dow Jones both nosing ahead later with U.S. Congress set to vote on long awaited tax cuts and reforms and with the bill likely be signed into law by the end of the week. Traders were still being peppered by upbeat data too. The World Bank raised its China growth forecast overnight, Switzerland pushed up 2018 projections and business confidence remained robust in Germany, albeit with some caution about its struggle to form a coalition government. ECONALLEZ Britain''s FTSE .FTSE and Spain IBEX .IBEX both edged 0.1-0.2 percent higher and though the DAX GDAXI and France''s CAC .FCHI wobbled backwards, the euro EUR= and the pound GBP= both made some ground in the FX market. “The dollar is not excited about tax reform,” said Saxo Bank’s head of FX strategy John Hardy. “It could just be year-end effects but maybe people are just weighing the negatives. Maybe it won’t boost growth that much... and maybe it is going to blow a hole in the fiscal deficit.” For stocks though, the changes would cut U.S. corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent, which investors are betting will boost profits as well as trigger share buybacks and higher dividend payouts. Wall Street''s latest record - there have now been 70 this year on the Dow - had been followed by most of Asia''s main bourse with the notable exception of its biggest - Japan''s Nikkei .N225 - which was dragged back by a stronger yen. Australian shares added 0.55 percent, Hong Kong''s Hang Seng .HSI rose 0.8 percent and Shanghai lifted 0.6 percent .SSEC though to keep the region upbeat. “The rising trend in broader equities led by the U.S. markets looks to continue for a while,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo. The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was down 0.15 percent at 93.557 .DXY after losing 0.25 percent overnight as the questions about the overall economic impact of the tax overhaul remained. Moreover, while Federal Reserve policymakers expect the U.S. economy to get a short-term lift from the moves, they think growth will then ease back to about two percent by 2020 and not rise to three percent as Donald Trump’s administration predicts. Benchmark U.S. government bond yields, which tend to drive global borrowing costs, were hovering around the sticky 2.4 percent level again. There was little sign of Catalonia’s regional election on Thursday meanwhile causing much bother in Europe. RAMAPHOSA RALLY South Africa’s rand retained a bulk of its gains after rallying on South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as the new leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party. The currency soared to a nine-month high of 12.52 rand per dollar overnight on hopes Ramaphosa’s appointment would pave the way for crucial structural reforms in Africa’s most industrialised economy. It last traded back a bit at 12.75 ZAR=D3 but South Africa''s banking index .JBANK, another key barometer of sentiment, jumped over seven percent, its best one-day performance in two years. “Ramaphosa favours orthodox policies that might signal a turnaround to the future economic development of the country following a number of very disappointing years,” Daniel Moreno, head of emerging market debt at Mirabaud Asset Management said. Global volatility gauges were back at ultra-low levels again .VIX though in commodities markets the picture was a little more mixed. Industry-attuned copper and nickel prices fell for the first time in four days, while precious and safe-haven metal gold was up for a third-straight day for the first time since October at just over $1,264 an ounce. Brent and WTI oil prices were modestly higher at $63.65 and $57.50 following a North Sea pipeline outage but had lost some of their momentum after a nationwide oil worker strike was called off in Nigeria. [O/R] Rollercoaster cryptocurrency Bitcoin meanwhile was four percent lower at $18,110 on the Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP having roared to its latest record high over the weekend. A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange said on Tuesday it is shutting down and is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year, highlighting concerns about the security around virtual currencies. The exchange, called Youbit, had been hacked once before in April when nearly 4,000 bitcoins were stolen in a cyber attack that the country’s spy agency linked to North Korea, according to a South Korean newspaper report on Saturday. Additional reporting by Claire Milhench in London and Shinichi Saoshiro in Tokyo, Editing by William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-stocks-up-as-wall-st-gets-tax-hope-boost-dollar-sags-idUKKBN1ED02J'|'2017-12-19T08:26:00.000+02:00'
'165940b408eaf5d4b3a6a79e4942bd3df23d34cc'|'China''s Didi, rival to Uber, looks to break into Taiwan market'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:53 AM / Updated 7 hours ago China''s Didi, rival to Uber, looks to break into Taiwan market Sijia Jiang 2 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s Didi Chuxing on Tuesday said it was looking to bring its ride-hailing service to Taiwan via a local franchise partner, potentially marking its first expansion across waters as it looks to take on U.S. rival Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL]. Didi Chuxing in a statement said it has authorized franchisee operator LEDI Technology Co to conduct market research and explore community partnerships in Taiwan. “Together we hope to bring convenient, efficient and affordable ride services to the local community and create more income opportunities. There is no definitive timeline at this moment,” Didi said. Didi’s investors include Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ), SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ). It was valued at over $50 billion earlier this year, making it the second most-valuable venture-backed private firm behind Uber. Taiwan would be Didi’s first destination outside the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. However it has invested in Uber rivals globally, including U.S.-based Lyft, Brazil’s 99, India’s Ola, Singapore’s Grab, Estonia’s Taxify and the Middle East’s Careem. Reuters earlier this month reported that Didi planned to expand into Mexico next year.. Legal scrutiny and local opposition from drivers have given ride-hailing firms a bumpy ride in markets across Asia. Uber in February halted operations in Taiwan after high fines imposed by the government, before announcing a resumption in April. Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Chris Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-didi-taiwan/chinas-didi-rival-to-uber-looks-to-break-into-taiwan-market-idUSKBN1ED0NR'|'2017-12-19T09:48:00.000+02:00'
'59e0357a18a2b254f830e56d9f60ee0ec64054e7'|'Saudi finance minister says drawdown of foreign assets to slow further'|' 40 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Saudi finance minister says drawdown of foreign assets to slow further Katie Paul , Rania El Gamal 3 Min Read RIYADH (Reuters) - The drawdown of the Saudi Arabian central bank’s net foreign assets is likely to slow next year and in years to come, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said on Tuesday. Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Saudi Minister of Finance, gestures during a news conference announcing the 2018 state budget, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser He was speaking in an interview after releasing a 2018 state budget that includes a rise in spending to a record high, as the government slows its austerity drive in order to boost flagging economic growth. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s net foreign assets have shrunk to $485.9 billion in October this year from $737 billion in August 2014 as the government liquidates them to cover a budget deficit caused by low oil prices. The 2018 budget plan includes only a modest decline in the deficit, to 195 billion riyals ($52 billion) from 230 billion riyals posted this year. But Jadaan said: “I think the steps that have been taken for next year are likely to slow down the drawdown of SAMA reserves, and it is likely to even get slower in the few years to come.” He did not elaborate, but the government may get windfall revenues from privatisation exercises and a crackdown on corruption next year. Also, private analysts calculate that the 2018 budget assumes an average Brent crude price of around $51 to $55 a barrel; Brent is now around $63, suggesting revenues may be larger than projected next year. Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Saudi Minister of Finance, speaks during a news conference announcing the 2018 state budget, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser Jadaan said authorities were positive on oil prices in 2018, adding that oil revenues next year would also be boosted by a second round of domestic energy price reforms. The first phase of the King Abdullah Financial District, the glitzy financial area under construction in Riyadh which has been plagued for years by delays and administrative problems, is set to open in the coming year and will be managed by the government’s Public Investment Fund, Jadaan said. “This has already been agreed and work is underway already. There has been a lot of work within the government to ensure that it is now clean and ready to complete its construction,” he said. “We will see more announcements from PIF on the details - what is the phasing, what are they planning - in weeks, not months and not years.” On the planned sale of a stake in state oil giant Saudi Aramco next year, Jadaan said a listing of the shares in Riyadh only was “definitely an option”, but that other options, including an additional international listing, were still being reviewed. “It’s premature to go into specific details on how the IPO is going to be structured.” Writing by Andrew Torchia'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-budget-finance/saudi-finance-minister-says-drawdown-of-foreign-assets-to-slow-further-idUKKBN1ED2NU'|'2017-12-19T22:39:00.000+02:00'
'6c9b96e163156de0ef056b4bedf7565679254a1a'|'Vietnam to name buyer of up to $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco'|'December 17, 2017 / 6:14 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Vietnam to name buyer of up to $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco Mai Nguyen , Anshuman Daga 4 Min Read Ho CHI MINH CITY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Vietnam is set to auction an up to $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco SAB.HM on Monday, with Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ) the only potential bidder to have expressed interest in a majority stake. Sabeco''s Saigon beers are display for sale in a market in Hanoi, Vietnam April 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo The keenly anticipated sale of the state-owned maker of Bia Saigon gained momentum in recent months after being hampered for years by political resistance, fickle policy-making and complications over valuations. The government has set a minimum sale price of 320,000 dong or $14.10 a share for Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco), whose shares have nearly trebled to 309,200 dong since its listing a year ago. Thai Beverage, through a partly-owned Vietnam unit, is the only company which has expressed interest in owning more than 25 percent of the company, which has roughly 40 percent of the beer-loving Vietnamese market.So far no formal bid had been made. Men drink Sabeco''s Saigon beer on a roadside restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 217. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo Vietnam’s young population and booming economy should make Sabeco an attractive asset for global brewers hoping to expand in Southeast Asia, but a high minimum bid price and foreign ownership limits appear to have turned off potential buyers. Sabeco’s foreign ownership is capped at 49 percent. With 10 percent already in foreign hands, that leaves only 39 percent on the table for overseas buyers at Monday’s auction. Local bidders can bid for a majority stake of up to 54 percent. Heinken ( HEIN.AS ) holds a 5 percent stake. “There’s a disconnect between what the government wants to achieve and how international brewers view this auction,” said one person familiar with the matter.“In a normal auction, bidders are fully aware of what stake they’ll end up owning and bid for it accordingly,” said the person, who was not authorised to speak to the media.Unlike similar sales in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders need to submit a single offer for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round. Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, was keen to acquire Sabeco as part of a strategy to expand outside its home market, sources told Reuters. The company had already lined up bank guarantees to support the bid by its Vietnam unit, sources said. There was no immediate response from Thai Bev to a query from Reuters. Reuters previously reported that the auction was drawing the interest of brewing groups such as Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), Kirin Holdings ( 2503.T ), Asahi Group Holdings ( 2502.T ) and San Miguel ( SMC.PS ), but there is no clear sign of whether they have participated in the auction so far.The government’s minimum price for the 54 percent stake on offer valued Sabeco at about 36 times core earnings, more than double the trading multiples of around 15 for some global peers, according to Reuters data.Vietnam’s trade ministry is expected to announce the bidding result on Monday afternoon. Reporting by Mai Nguyen and Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sabeco-m-a-sale/vietnam-to-name-buyer-of-up-to-5-billion-stake-in-top-brewer-sabeco-idUKKBN1EB04W'|'2017-12-17T08:13:00.000+02:00'
'7731590e6ea9c0dbf4ff57ac0694853b0d89668c'|'China''s Didi, rival to Uber, looks to break into Taiwan market'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:57 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago China''s Didi, rival to Uber, looks to break into Taiwan market Sijia Jiang 2 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s Didi Chuxing on Tuesday said it was looking to bring its ride-hailing service to Taiwan via a local franchise partner, potentially marking its first expansion across waters as it looks to take on U.S. rival Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL]. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing''s booth at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2017 in Beijing, China April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo Didi Chuxing in a statement said it has authorized franchisee operator LEDI Technology Co to conduct market research and explore community partnerships in Taiwan. “Together we hope to bring convenient, efficient and affordable ride services to the local community and create more income opportunities. There is no definitive timeline at this moment,” Didi said. Didi’s investors include Apple Inc, SoftBank Group Corp and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. It was valued at over $50 billion earlier this year, making it the second most-valuable venture-backed private firm behind Uber. Taiwan would be Didi’s first destination outside the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. However it has invested in Uber rivals globally, including U.S.-based Lyft, Brazil’s 99, India’s Ola, Singapore’s Grab, Estonia’s Taxify and the Middle East’s Careem. Reuters earlier this month reported that Didi planned to expand into Mexico next year.. Legal scrutiny and local opposition from drivers have given ride-hailing firms a bumpy ride in markets across Asia. Uber in February halted operations in Taiwan after high fines imposed by the government, before announcing a resumption in April. Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Chris Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-didi-taiwan/chinas-didi-rival-to-uber-looks-to-break-into-taiwan-market-idUKKBN1ED0O9'|'2017-12-19T09:56:00.000+02:00'
'4f94483143014c54c640c834a71d491ed23fd2cd'|'The jobs engine isn’t working any more and we need the economic tools to fix it - Business - The Guardian'|'Piece by piece, Britain’s jobs-creating machine in the years of economic recovery since the financial crisis appears to be coming unstuck.Dating back to early 2012, the number of people in employment has been on an upward curve – to fanfare from the Conservatives, who readily Quote: the 3 million jobs created since they came to power in 2010. But Theresa May should be worried, after figures from the Office for National Statistics last week showed the jobs engine has now chugged into reverse.The number of people in work across Britain fell by 56,000 during the three months to October to stand at just over 32 million – the steepest drop since mid-2015. It also followed a smaller fall of 14,000 in the three months to September.Although the UK still has an employment rate much higher than some of its major European peers, at about 75%, the gradual breakdown of Britain’s jobs machine is worrying as it comes at a time of sluggish wages, slowing economic growth, rising inflation and political uncertainty amid talks with Brussels to leave the EU.Economists have argued a slowing economy and the political maelstrom around Brexit will make firms reluctant to hire workers. Paying to take on more staff just as your business slows – in Europe, as a result of potential trade barriers, and at home, as rising inflation erodes the spending power of consumers – doesn’t add up.But there’s another potential spanner in the works. The economist John Philpott reckons the decline comes as a result of weakness in the supply of employable people, as opposed to an outright drop in demand among firms to take on new staff. That’s borne out by the number of vacancies: 798,000 – the highest level since comparable records began in 2001. One of the main reasons here was the falling numbers of people arriving for work from central and eastern Europe since the EU referendum, he added.That should be worrying for the road ahead – putting greater emphasis on ministers to increase spending on skills and training to boost the domestic workforce . Lobby groups, including the British Chambers of Commerce, are already warning that shortages of skilled workers will damage growth.Despite the fall in employment, the proportion of people out of work has remained at the lowest levels since the mid-1970s. There were 1.43 million people out of work – with the unemployment rate standing at 4.3%.However, this record low for unemployment is failing to boost the pay of workers, despite expectations among economists for greater levels of bargaining power to ask for a pay rise, leading to higher wages . Average weekly earnings increased at a rate of 2.3%, according to the latest figures.That should worry the Bank of England , which kept interest rates on hold on Thursday but said it was still considering raising the cost of borrowing after the first increase in a decade last month. Threadneedle Street has been watching closely for higher wages to justify its actions, although pay growth still appears to be sluggish.Inflation figures last week also show prices are rising at a faster pace than wages – at 3.1%, eating away at household incomes – driven by the weak pound pushing up the cost of imported goods since the referendum. The Resolution Foundation thinktank reckons average annual pay, when taking account of inflation, may not return to its pre-financial crisis peak until at least 2025.There are worrying implications for poverty and inequality. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates 3.7 million people with a job do not earn enough to meet minimum needs , and that low wage growth and rising inflation will make it harder for them to escape poverty. As well as the social and political ramifications, this sounds another alarm over the future health of the economy, as dwindling household incomes make it harder for a family to keep on buying goods and services – one of the key drivers for growth .Britain’s jobs machine needs fixing fast.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Changing his tune: Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Ryanair chief can afford to indulge in Christmas spiritAs Groucho Marx famously said: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them, well, I have others.” After 30 years of deriding unions and occasionally insulting his pilots, Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has made a dramatic volte face.As if visited by some Dickensian nocturnal spectre, just three days after vowing to face down pilots, O’Leary said Ryanair would instead recognise their unions to avert a strike.The abrasive billionaire has form for Damascene conversions – just four years ago, the concept of being “nice” to passengers infiltrated company policy, after decades of punitive charges and pantomimish outbursts against complainers.Had he known how good niceness was for business, O’Leary has remarked since, he would have started years earlier. A shift on unions will similarly stem from business necessity, rather than any late-flowering Corbynism, and reps are right to read the offer with scepticism.Pilots have picked their moment to strike, with Ryanair having ordered an abundance of planes at a time when there’s a shortage of people to fly them. Yet this Ryanair concession, like its changed attitude to customers, is ultimately testament to the airline’s strength, rather than weakness.The kind of practices that ruthlessly kept costs down through its growth as an upstart airline can no longer sustain a market leader in countries across Europe. It is not challenger but incumbent: a profit-spewing giant, whose scale and unit costs are low enough to afford to invest in contented staff, rather than alienated contractors.Having cancelled a wave of flights this winter, Ryanair was already expecting to fork out for significant pay rises to attract and retain pilots. The airline may yet find a discount in respecting their rights, and maintaining separate negotiations across 33 countries’ unions, rather than a pan-European network that was evolving.O’Leary said it was a moment of radical change. If so, it is to be applauded – but the test of principle will be if the same olive branch is extended to its ill-served cabin crew, who have even this month been warned of collective sanctions should any individual join a strike.Persimmon need to rebuild board’s image There is corporate excess and then there is the Persimmon bonus scheme . It is astonishing, nearly a decade on from the nadir of the credit crunch, that a FTSE business is paying out £500m to 150 executives. Top of the pile is chief executive Jeff Fairburn, who between now and New Year’s Eve – when the bonuses start paying out – has the chance to declare that he will donate some of the money to charity. His chair, Nicholas Wrigley, who resigned over the scheme, is said to have put pressure on his chief executive to make a donation to charity. Fairburn needs to do the right thing for himself and the reputation of British business.Topics Economics Business leader UK unemployment and employment statistics Ryanair Foreign policy Persimmon Inflation comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/ryanair/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/17/uk-jobs-engine-not-working-needs-fixing-inflation-price-rises-sluggish-wages'|'2017-12-17T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'4cfaa4a1655f9b3477efed2e82a65a648cdc5a25'|'Sensex recovers as Narendra Modi''s party set to win key state polls'|'December 18, 2017 / 6:41 AM / in 8 hours Sensex ends higher as Modi''s party leads in state polls Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Indian shares reversed earlier losses to end higher on Monday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party appeared to win elections in his home state of Gujarat for a sixth term as counting of votes progressed. A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files The BSE Sensex rose 0.41 percent to 33,601.68, while the broader NSE Nifty ended 0.54 percent higher at 10,388.75. Both indexes were led by gains in financial stocks. The indexes dropped as much as 2.5 percent each in early trading as initial counting showed a close fight between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Congress party. Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-sensex-nifty-stock-markets/sensex-recovers-as-narendra-modis-party-set-to-win-key-state-polls-idINKBN1EC0IJ'|'2017-12-18T08:39:00.000+02:00'
'3a2524eadbebdc13b2c2f972b9faff7ffa457775'|'ExxonMobil, BHP end Australia gas sales joint venture'|'December 18, 2017 / 2:22 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago ExxonMobil, BHP end Australia gas sales joint venture Sonali Paul 3 Min Read (Reuters) - ExxonMobil Corp ( XOM.N ) and BHP Billiton Ltd ( BHP.AX ) have agreed to end a nearly 50-year-old gas marketing joint venture in Australia, bowing to pressure from the nation’s competition watchdog amid concerns about gas supply and soaring prices. Logos of ExxonMobil are seen in its booth at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the companies said on Monday they would start marketing their gas from the Gippsland Basin separately, starting in 2019. “The ACCC was concerned that the joint marketing arrangements were likely to have resulted in a substantial lessening of competition in the market for the supply of gas to buyers in the southern states,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement. The commission raised concern last year about the tight grip the Gippsland Basin joint venture, the biggest producer in the country’s southern states, had on the market. The ACCC flagged it might force the firms to sell their gas separately. It could have taken ExxonMobil and BHP to court had they not agreed to break up the marketing joint venture. But an analyst at energy consultants Wood Mackenzie said separate marketing of the gas was unlikely to soften domestic gas prices much. Gas prices were effectively being determined by the liquefied natural gas export market, not the ExxonMobil-BHP joint venture, analyst Saul Kavonic said. “However the move will add an administrative burden and potentially complicate and delay expansions to gas supply from the (Gippsland Basin) project in the future,” Wood Mackenzie’s Kavonic said. BHP shares rose 1.5 percent on Monday, roughly in line with other big miners. “BHP has cooperated with the ACCC and strongly believes it has complied with the Competition and Consumer Act at all times,” the company said in an emailed statement. The companies had long argued that joint marketing actually saved costs. ExxonMobil had warned in April 2016 that any unwinding of joint marketing “could make it more difficult to invest and bring on new supplies in Gippsland”. “The two companies will cease marketing gas jointly at the end of 2018,” Esso Australia, the local arm of ExxonMobil, said in an emailed statement on Monday. One of the commission’s principal concerns was that big gas buyers, like manufacturing companies, were getting only one or two offers at most from gas suppliers for multi-year deals. Having BHP and ExxonMobil market separately would introduce new offers. Production from the Gippsland Basin venture is forecast to drop to 244 petajoules (PJ) in 2018 from a record 330 PJ this year, as one of its big fields has run out of gas earlier than expected, the commission said in a report last week. Reporting by Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Additional reporting by Rushil Dutta in BENGALURU; Editing by Stephen Coates and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bhp-billiton-ltd-regulator-exxon-mobi/exxonmobil-bhp-end-australia-gas-sales-joint-venture-idUKKBN1EC06K'|'2017-12-18T04:22:00.000+02:00'
'7b2aa4a2d48088957df01b66ba5e39520f0daaa5'|'One large euro zone bank is short of capital: ECB'|'December 18, 2017 / 9:55 AM / in 14 minutes One large euro zone bank is short of capital: ECB Francesco Canepa 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - One euro zone bank is falling short of the European Central Bank’s capital requirements, the ECB said on Monday, meaning it may be asked to curb bonuses, dividends and coupons. FILE PHOTO: European Union flags flutter outside the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo The ECB did not name the bank in its annual review of the 119 lenders on its watch, in which it kept the amount of capital it expects banks to hold against possible losses roughly stable from a year earlier. The review showed the ECB’s three-year push to get banks to hold more capital and clean up their balance sheets was bearing fruit but frailties remained, particularly at firms with high levels on unpaid loans. “Banks are broadly resistant and stable,” Korbinian Ibel, a supervisor at the ECB, said in a presentation. “Remaining risks centre around profitability and non-performing loan issues.” A chart in the presentation showed most banks on the ECB’s watch held significantly more capital than the minimum needed for making payouts to investors and staff. One bank, however, fell short of the mark and another was barely above it. A year earlier, five banks were found to be short of requirements. Two of them, Italy’s Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca, later collapsed. On average, the ECB expects banks on its watch to hold capital worth 10.6 percent of their risk-weighed assets. This includes requirements and additional, elective “guidance” set by the ECB. In addition, the ECB expects to ask four banks to hold additional cash to deal with liquidity risk. The review was based on banks’ results as of the end of June, meaning banks may have already remedied their shortfalls in the intervening time. For example, Italy’s Carige is completing a 500 million euro ($590 million) share issue to comply with the ECB’s capital demands. ($1 = 0.8482 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ecb-banks/one-large-euro-zone-bank-is-short-of-capital-ecb-idINKBN1EC0ZI'|'2017-12-18T11:53:00.000+02:00'
'c3151e21ffb7b83f73c4298f8980575a4863a978'|'Italy''s Monte dei Paschi names new chairwoman to help steer recovery'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:53 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Italy''s Monte dei Paschi names new chairwoman to help steer recovery Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SIENA, Italy (Reuters) - Italy’s fourth-biggest bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( BMPS.MI ), rescued from the brink of collapse by a state bailout, has named a new chairwoman and board to help steer a course to recovery. People stand in front of Monte dei Paschi bank headquarters, downtown Siena, Italy, October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini Shareholders on Monday appointed Stefania Bariatti as chairwoman to replace Alessandro Falciai, who decided to leave the bank citing personal reasons. The new board, which will govern the bank to 2019, will comprise 14 members from the current 13. “Today’s shareholder meeting closes a period of uncertainty that has lasted five years,” Falciai said, calling the period the stormiest in the bank’s centuries-old lifetime. Weighed down by mismanagement, a derivatives scandal and bad debts, the world’s oldest bank turned to Rome for help after failing, in late 2016, to find buyers for a 5 billion euro share issue needed to keep it afloat. After pumping in around 5.4 billion euros, the Treasury now holds about 68 percent of the lender. Marco Morelli, former head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Italy appointed CEO at Monte dei Paschi last September, was confirmed in his position. Morelli told shareholders that regaining profitability would take a long time since the bank needed to recoup years of total commercial inactivity. “I won’t play the Pied Piper... ‘don’t worry, everything has been resolved’, is not something you’ll hear me say,” he said. Monte dei Paschi posted a net loss of 3 billion euros in the first nine months of the year, with writedowns on loans totalling about 4.8 billion euros. Earlier this year the bank tabled a five-year restructuring plan that included cutting thousands of jobs and selling assets to get the European Union’s blessing to receive state aid. Reporting by Silvia Ognibene; Writing by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mps-chairman/italys-monte-dei-paschi-names-new-chairwoman-to-help-steer-recovery-idUKKBN1EC2IG'|'2017-12-18T21:52:00.000+02:00'
'9fab36ace56240b51d3a1d9a3c495c6e15ce6efe'|'Mortgage lender HDFC unveils $2 billion fundraising plan'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:57 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Mortgage lender HDFC unveils $2 billion fundraising plan Devidutta Tripathy , Abhirup Roy 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd said on Tuesday it would raise as much as 130 billion rupees ($2.03 billion) by selling shares or convertible bonds mainly to maintain its stake in HDFC Bank. HDFC, the parent of HDFC Bank and whose main business is home loans for retail customers, will seek to subscribe to a potential preferential share issue by HDFC Bank so that its holding in the bank remains at about 21 percent. HDFC Bank, India’s second largest, is planning a fundraising to support its growth programme via a share sale to institutions or American Depositary Receipts. Its board is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to decide on the bank’s fundraising plan and will also discuss a preferential issue to parent HDFC. HDFC, which secured board approval earlier on Tuesday for its own fund-raising plan, said it would need to buy shares worth up to 85 billion rupees in HDFC Bank to maintain its stake holding in the bank. HDFC also needs capital for potential business segments including health insurance, and acquisition and resolution of stressed assets in the real estate sector, HDFC said in a statement. Part of the capital raised could also be used for investing in affordable housing projects, it said. It also said some of its subsidiaries including HDFC ERGO General Insurance might need growth capital in future. HDFC is also looking at a preferential issue or a share sale to institutions among other options to raise funds. It will seek shareholders’ approval for this fundraising. Ahead of the HDFC announcement, its shares closed 0.6 percent lower in a Mumbai market that was up 0.7 percent. HDFC Bank shares rose 0.3 percent. ($1 = 64.0250 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/hdfc-share-sale/mortgage-lender-hdfc-unveils-2-billion-fundraising-plan-idINKBN1ED1CJ'|'2017-12-19T13:55:00.000+02:00'
'4528a7b4c446635b414052e59dd8368780e9c6ca'|'Innogy''s CEO departs days after profit warning'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:42 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Innogy''s CEO leaves group days after profit warning Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The chief executive of Innogy ( IGY.DE ), Peter Terium, has left the German energy group in an apparent clash over strategy, just days after a profit warning hit its shares and those of its majority owner RWE ( RWEG.DE ). Terium’s sudden departure comes less than a week after Innogy trimmed its operating profit forecast for 2017, citing a persistently difficult market environment for npower, its ailing British electricity and gas supplies business. It also predicted a fall in profits in 2018, mainly due to increased spending on energy supply networks, broadband telecoms and renewable power generation. Since then, its shares have fallen 17 percent while those of RWE are down 18 percent. “The Supervisory Board generally welcomes the corporate and finance strategy pursued by the Board, but sees the necessity for greater emphasis on cost discipline and a more focused growth and investment strategy,” Innogy said in a statement. According to last week’s announcement capital expenditure was expected to rise by more than a quarter to more than 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) next year. Innogy said that Terium’s departure was the result of a “friendly agreement” with the supervisory board. His employment contract was due to have run until the end of March 2021. Innogy was carved out from RWE and listed in 2016 in an attempt to separate its networks, renewables and retail businesses from RWE’s thermal power plant and energy trading activities. RWE retains a 76.8 percent stake in Innogy. Terium, who had served as RWE’s CEO before taking the same job at Innogy in 2016, will be replaced in the interim by Uwe Tigges, chief human resources officer, until the supervisory board decides on a successor, Innogy said. Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-innogy-ceo/innogys-ceo-departs-days-after-profit-warning-idUSKBN1ED2KJ'|'2017-12-19T21:41:00.000+02:00'
'7b9c8ec5269eabf37626c2636178284fcdd9fbd0'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Qatar leaps, Saudi barely changed before state budget'|'December 19, 2017 / 12:49 PM / Updated 6 hours ago CORRECTED-MIDEAST STOCKS-Qatar leaps, Saudi barely changed before state budget Reuters Staff (Corrects Kuwait index in table) * Biggest rise by Qatar index since January 2016 * Index rises above 100-day average, first time since April * Saudi cement shares run out of steam * Index dips after missile attack, then recovers * Drake & Scull stays strong in Dubai By Andrew Torchia DUBAI, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Qatar’s stock market jumped on Tuesday as local retail investors piled back into the bourse, while Saudi Arabia closed barely changed ahead of the release of its 2018 state budget. The Qatari index surged 3.8 percent, its biggest daily gain since January 2016, to its highest level since late September. It rose above its 100-day average for the first time since April. Real estate firm Ezdan Holding jumped 7.9 percent. It plunged 57 percent between end-2016 and mid-November, partly because of a weak Qatari property market. But it has been rebounding strongly since then, supported by news a shareholder has filed suit to block the firm’s plan to go private. Barwa Real Estate climbed 5.6 percent after saying it signed a 27-year contract with the government to lease two plots of land on which it would develop a residential area for foreign workers. Rami Jamal, portfolio manager at Qatari firm Amwal, said that since the government announced a 2018 budget last week with slightly higher spending and emphasis on aiding the private sector, local investors had become more comfortable in re-entering the market, where valuations have been depressed. “To the ‘buy and hold’ investors, the current valuations were last seen in 2011 which offers a sizeable upside when compared to the mean where the Qatari market trades,” he said. “The dividend-seeking investor should be looking at a current dividend yield of 4.6 percent with selected companies offering near double-digit yields.” The Saudi index closed 0.1 percent higher. It briefly dipped into negative territory after an explosion was heard in Riyadh and smoke was seen; Saudi air defences intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards Riyadh, Saudi-owned television al-Arabiya reported, and Yemen’s Houthi movement said it had fired a missile towards the city. The market had risen moderately in early trade in anticipation of the release of the 2018 budget after the close. The budget was expected to feature a moderate increase in spending as Riyadh seeks to lift flagging economic growth. Cement shares, which had surged in recent days on hopes that the budget will boost infrastructure spending, lost steam. But Makkah Construction shot up 10 percent. Dubai’s index fell 0.4 percent in a broad-based decline although builder Drake & Scull, the most heavily traded stock, added 0.9 percent. The company does business in Saudi Arabia. Abu Dhabi dropped 0.7 percent, pulled down by a 4.2 percent decline by Dana Gas. HIGHLIGHTS * The index edged up 0.1 percent to 7,199 points. DUBAI * The index fell 0.4 percent to 3,359 points. ABU DHABI * The index dropped 0.7 percent to 4,367 points. QATAR * The index jumped 3.8 percent to 8,523. EGYPT * The index fell 0.3 percent to 14,678 points. KUWAIT * The index rose 0.8 percent to 6,421 points. BAHRAIN * The index rose 0.3 percent to 1,269 points. OMAN * The index fell 0.3 percent to 5,070 points. (Additional reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Andrew Heavens)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-qatar-leaps-saudi-barely-changed-before-state-budget-idUSL8N1OJ30X'|'2017-12-19T14:49:00.000+02:00'
'b0075e5e9940ef027efe255a98d53d0309d1944a'|'First Quantum buys option for stake in Northern Dynasty project'|' 38 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago First Quantum buys option for stake in Northern Dynasty project Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - Northern Dynasty Minerals , owner of the Pebble copper-gold project in Alaska, said rival First Quantum Minerals acquired the option to buy half of the project for $1.50 billion. Under the agreement, First Quantum can make an option payment of $150 million over four years to buy the right to earn a 50 percent interest in the Pebble Limited Partnership for $1.35 billion. (Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/northern-dynasty-divesture/first-quantum-buys-option-for-stake-in-northern-dynasty-project-idUSL4N1OI3U7'|'2017-12-18T13:34:00.000+02:00'
'c24640df4444515825253624e0853643293c7b30'|'GM urges judge to throw out disputed ignition switch deal'|'December 18, 2017 / 6:41 PM / Updated 2 hours ago GM urges judge to throw out disputed ignition switch deal Tina Bellon 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Lawyers for General Motors ( GM.N ) on Monday urged a federal bankruptcy judge in Manhattan to throw out a settlement that would require the company to pay $1 billion to car owners suing over faulty ignition switches. FILE PHOTO - The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Warren Transmission Operations Plant in Warren, Michigan October 26, 2015. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo The carmaker made its argument on the first day of a scheduled three-day bench trial before Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The trial will determine the validity of a deal the car owners said they reached in August with a trust that holds many GM liabilities from before its 2009 bankruptcy. [nL2N1L31WM] The claims stem from GM’s 2014 recall of 2.6 million vehicles with defective ignition switches, including one linked to 124 deaths. Lawyers for the car owners say the trust agreed to a deal in August but walked away several days later, instead accepting GM’s offer to help pay for its defence against the car owners’ claims. The judge questioned how that came about, noting GM had an interest in dissolving any deal that required it to pay more. “I have trouble saying it passes the smell test,” Glenn said, referring to a two-hour meeting between the trust and GM in August, after which the trust dropped the agreement with the plaintiffs. But attorneys for the carmaker and the trust told Glenn the trust had every right to drop the agreement. “Sometimes people simply get cold feet, even when they get married,” said Susheel Kirpalani, a lawyer for GM, “and the same applies to settlements, your honour.” The carmaker said the deal with the car owners had never been signed, rendering it non-binding. Mitchell Karlan, an attorney for the trust, on Monday also said plaintiff lawyers contradicted each other in their testimony on when the agreement was allegedly reached. But the car owners said the trust acted in bad faith and claimed the agreement was binding even without a signature, pointing to conversations and emails with the trust. The settlement called for the trust to accept $10 billion in claims to resolve about 11.9 million allegations over economic loss and between 400 and 500 personal injury and wrongful death claims. About 2.4 million claims, involving vehicles sold after GM’s bankruptcy, would have remained pending in another court. GM has already paid roughly $2.5 billion to settle ignition switch-related claims, including $900 million to settle a criminal probe by the U.S. Justice Department. Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Anthony Lin and Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gm-ignition/gm-urges-judge-to-throw-out-disputed-ignition-switch-deal-idINKBN1EC2DM'|'2017-12-18T20:39:00.000+02:00'
'c7eb5ad9da5d3c228366f266c12c4adebc3f0b3f'|'Peru opposition wants vice president to govern if president ousted - lawmaker'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:48 AM / Updated an hour ago Peru opposition wants vice president to govern if president ousted: lawmaker Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LIMA (Reuters) - A leading Peruvian opposition lawmaker on Monday called for the country’s Vice President Martin Vizcarra to govern the country if Congress ousts President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski over graft allegations he denies. Enough political parties have committed to backing a motion to oust Kuczynski in a scheduled vote in the opposition-run Congress on Thursday. Kuczynski has repeatedly said there was nothing improper about recently disclosed business ties that he once denied having with Odebrecht [ODBES.UL], a Brazilian builder at the center of Latin America’s biggest corruption scandal. If Kuczynski does depart, Vizcarra would be authorized to carry out the rest of Kuczynski’s scheduled 2016-2021 term. Congresswoman Luz Salgado denied her party, Popular Force, which has a majority in Peru’s single-chamber Congress, would seek to topple Vizcarra as charged by opponents. “If he (Vizcarra) does his job well and assumes the role that history if offering to him, he’ll have our corresponding support,” said Salgado, a key leader in the party. “We’re thinking about what’s best for the country. We’re not trying to find fault in anyone.” Kuczynski and Vizcarra’s offices declined requests for comment. No major policy changes are expected if Kuczynski were replaced by Vizcarra, a former governor of a copper-rich Andean region and Peru’s current ambassador to Canada. But the political crisis has spooked investors in one of Latin America’s most stable economies. “It’s going to have an important impact on the economy. Investments are going to be delayed,” said Carlos Galvez, the chief financial officer of Peruvian miner Buenaventura. A 79-year-old former Wall Street banker, Kuczynski was part of a rightward shift in South American politics when he was elected last year. His fight for survival underscores the risks facing political leaders with long business resumes as graft scandals roil the region. Kuczynski has described Popular Force’s efforts to unseat him as an authoritarian attack on institutions, and criticized the party for not giving him more time to defend himself. “We look like a banana republic. Without a proper procedure, Congress is just usurping the presidency,” Housing Minister Carlos Bruce told journalists on Monday. Popular Force said it only hopes to uproot corruption and was acting within the bounds of the constitution. The party emerged from the right-wing movement started by the country’s former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori, who is now in prison for graft and human rights crimes. It is now led by Kuczynski’s defeated electoral rival Keiko Fujimori. New elections, which would be the worst-case scenario for investors, would only be called if both Vizcarra and Second Vice President Mercedes Araoz leave office before 2021, a scenario Araoz ruled out in an interview with Reuters on Sunday. Reporting By Mitra Taj and Marco Aquino, Additional Reporting By Teresa Cespedes; editing by Clive McKeef'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peru-politics/peru-opposition-wants-vice-president-to-govern-if-president-ousted-lawmaker-idUSKBN1ED053'|'2017-12-19T03:32:00.000+02:00'
'd535effde1503d62fdb5644c3891d103ed44f738'|'Delivery Hero sells foodpanda India to Ola in return for equity stake'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:22 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago Delivery Hero sells foodpanda India to Ola in return for equity stake Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s Delivery Hero said on Tuesday it was selling its foodpanda India business to Ola in return for shares in the Indian ride-hailing firm. FILE PHOTO: An employee speaks over his phone as he sits at the front desk inside the office of Ola cab service in Gurugram, previously known as Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File photo Under the agreement, Ola will also commit to investing $200 million in foodpanda India. “The partnership with Ola will allow us to further consolidate markets where it strategically makes sense to collaborate with leading local players,” Delivery Hero Chief Executive Niklas Ostberg said. Delivery Hero, which floated on the stock exchange in Germany in June, had acquired food delivery firm foodpanda and its Indian subsidiary in December 2016. Reporting by Maria Sheahan, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/delivery-hero-ola/delivery-hero-sells-foodpanda-india-to-ola-in-return-for-equity-stake-idINKBN1ED0L2'|'2017-12-19T09:21:00.000+02:00'
'7359cc91aa9f2f10f2afcef22c6bcbdaef2e1008'|'Growth in global coal demand subdued over next five years - IEA'|'December 18, 2017 / 8:40 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Growth in global coal demand subdued over next five years - IEA Nina Chestney 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Global coal demand will be subdued over the next five years, growing at just 0.5 percent a year, marginally higher than current levels, due to lower consumption in China, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Labourers load coal onto a supply truck on the outskirts of Jammu April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta/File Photo Coal consumption fell last year by 1.9 percent to 5.357 billion tonnes from a year earlier as lower gas prices, a surge in renewables and efficiency improvements dampened demand, the IEA said in its annual coal market report. Global coal demand is expected to rise by an average rate of 0.5 percent a year to 5.534 billion tonnes by 2022, “only marginally higher than current levels and meaning that coal use all but stagnates for around a decade,” the agency said. Coal use will decline in Europe, Canada, the United States and China - the world’s largest coal consumer - but rise in southeast Asia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Over the period to 2022, India’s consumption is seen growing the most at 3.3 percent a year to 605 million tonnes. Having peaked in 2013, China’s consumption is expected to decline by 0.1 percent a year to 2.787 billion tonnes in 2022 as coal use in the industrial and residential sectors falls due to efforts to improve air quality. U.S. coal consumption will increase slightly next year then decline to 469 million tonnes by 2022, while EU consumption is expected to fall to 293 million tonnes by 2022. On the supply side, total global coal supply is expected to increase by 0.8 percent a year to 5.534 billion tonnes in 2020, mainly driven by non-OECD countries. Coal’s share in the global energy mix is forecast to decline to 26 percent in 2022, compared to 27 percent in 2016, the report said. After years of decline, coal prices continued to strengthen this year, driven by a sharp cut in Chinese coal output coupled with strong demand across the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe. European API2 2018 coal futures are currently trading around $90 a tonne due to higher demand in China and supply issues. Despite high prices in 2016-17, coal project development has been slow. Sluggish demand and uncertain prospects for China and India as well as Korea and Japan have put a brake on investment, the IEA said. As not much supply has been added over the past year, that in turn has led to price increases. “Prices will continue to depend largely on China; as a consequence, the structural reform of the Chinese coal industry is key to the evolution in coal prices,” the report said. Editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/coal-iea/growth-in-global-coal-demand-subdued-over-next-five-years-iea-idINKBN1EC0RP'|'2017-12-18T10:40:00.000+02:00'
'51503befc9323b7ca03f417ea4c49849c1d055fe'|'Facebook makes German marketing push as hate speech law bites'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:47 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Facebook makes German marketing push as hate speech law bites Emma Thomasson 7 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Facebook ( FB.O ) is making a big marketing drive in Germany just as the country starts to implement tough regulations designed to clamp down on online hate speech. The U.S. corporation has historically done little advertising of its own but has plastered billboards across Germany with posters featuring ordinary people expressing their concerns about the site, along with explanations of how to use it better. “Germany is not as highly penetrated a market as we’d like it to be. A lot of it has to do with cultural norms,” chief marketing officer Gary Briggs told a tech summit organized by Wells Fargo bank earlier this month. The Facebook campaign comes as Germany prepares to enforce a new law which could impose fines of up to 50 million euros ($59 million) on social media sites that fail to remove hateful messages promptly. Germans have embraced ecommerce - the country is Amazon’s second biggest market after the United States - but they are much more reticent about social media than many other nationalities. Public concern about rising hate speech since the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers in Germany over recent years has added to longer standing anxieties born of the country’s 20th century history. Germans closely guard privacy and personal data, partly due to extensive surveillance by East Germany’s Stasi secret police until the 1989 collapse of communism and, before that, by the Nazi-era Gestapo. Facebook has put a particular focus on privacy in its latest German campaign. One poster pictures a woman with the comment: “I once posted something that I should never, never, never have shared.” Underneath is the image of a trash can and a Facebook-style blue button marked “Delete it and it disappears”. Data protection campaigners question whether users can delete personal information from their social media accounts as easily as the Facebook campaign suggests. Privacy questions have also attracted the attention of Germany’s cartel office. In a preliminary report, the office found on Tuesday that Facebook held a dominant position and questioned its collection of third-party data on its users. Facebook’s head of data protection Yvonne Cunnane disputed the report, calling it inaccurate. She said the firm plans to introduce more controls as well as more education about how Facebook protects data and security in the coming months. The campaign “Make Facebook Your Facebook” started in 2016 and was relaunched in July. It has reached a new intensity in recent weeks, with the ads also featuring in top newspapers and magazines, on television and on Facebook itself. About 41 percent of Germans have active Facebook accounts, well below the 66 percent in the United States, 64 percent in Britain and 56 percent in France, according to a survey by social media agencies Hootsuite and We Are Social. “Germans are in general more reserved and privacy has a bigger value,” said Rolf Schwartmann, professor of media law at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. A Facebook spokeswoman said there was no link between the new law and the marketing campaign, adding that hate speech was just one of several areas of concern it was trying to address. ANTI-IMMIGRANT HATE SPEECH SURGES A giant logo is seen at Facebook''s headquarters in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The legislation has been nicknamed the “Facebook law” even though it also applies to other sites such as Twitter ( TWTR.N ) and Google’s ( GOOGL.O ) YouTube. “Facebook has attracted a lot of attention because the far right scene has used it so much,” said Renate Kuenast, a parliamentarian from the environmentalist Greens. Kuenast has lobbied Facebook to pull offensive posts from her site, but is worried the law goes too far. The law was passed in June after a surge in threatening postings, particularly directed against foreigners and politicians like Kuenast who support refugees. The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose active use of social media helped it enter parliament for the first time in the September election, last week proposed scrapping the new law, saying it limited free speech. While Facebook lobbied against the legislation, it is busy preparing to implement it, developing a new reporting form for users to alert it to possible unlawful content and recruiting a representative as point of contact for German law enforcement. “We are working hard to comply with the law,” said a Facebook spokeswoman, adding it is also making efforts to try to combat hate speech globally. The law will come into full force on Jan. 1, when sites must have processes in place to respond to complaints and quickly remove offensive posts. Facebook said it now has more than 1,200 people based in Germany helping it to check content, part of a global team it has rapidly expanded to around 7,500. TRUST AND TEENAGERS Roland Heintze, head of social media consultancy Faktenkontor, noted that Facebook had invited German media to tour its content moderation offices in what he sees as part of a broader campaign to improve its image, be it over hate speech, privacy or its tax affairs. “In the German market at least, the signals are clear that they urgently need to pay attention to awareness,” Heintze said. “Interaction on Facebook is declining significantly in Germany, and social networks live from interaction.” Only 40 percent of Germans trust commercial content on Facebook, compared with 62 percent for German professional network Xing and 56 percent for Microsoft’s ( MSFT.O ) LinkedIn, a survey commissioned by Faktenkontor showed. In a trend reflected in other countries, German teens are ditching Facebook, according to Guido Modenbach, head of market intelligence at broadcaster ProSiebensat 1( PSMGn.DE ), who says use has fallen 43 percent in the last three years. “It’s hard to find a teenager who is actively using a Facebook account,” he told investors recently, adding that Facebook’s Instagram photo-sharing app which remains popular among teens does not deliver as much data for advertisers. But Facebook’s Briggs said the German advertising campaign is paying off. “We found it to be very effective as a way to overcome the urban legends, if you will, about what Facebook supposedly is and it is working very well to drive engagement and overall metrics for us in Germany,” he said. Additional reporting by David Ingram and Douglas Busvine; editing by David Stamp'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-germany/facebook-makes-german-marketing-push-as-hate-speech-law-bites-idUSKBN1ED1BW'|'2017-12-19T13:47:00.000+02:00'
'db0841309a6b8e2d97101b0a4fb966f12f47cc60'|'EU regulators open investigation into Ikea''s Dutch tax deals'|' 06 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago EU regulators to investigate Ikea''s Dutch tax deals Foo Yun Chee 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU state aid regulators will investigate whether Swedish furniture retailer Ikea’s tax arrangement with Dutch tax authorities helped cut its tax bill, the latest crackdown on unfair tax deals between multinationals and EU countries. FILE PHOTO - The IKEA logo is seen outside IKEA Concept Center, a furniture store and headquarters of the IKEA brand owner Inter IKEA, in Delft, the Netherlands March 16, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman The European Commission said on Monday that it was looking into two tax rulings issued to Inter Ikea, which operates Ikea’s franchise business and collects a franchise fee of 3 percent of turnover from all Ikea shops via its subsidiary Inter Ikea Systems in the Netherlands. “All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax. Member states cannot let selected companies pay less tax by allowing them to artificially shift their profits elsewhere,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said. The Commission said the first tax ruling, which covered 2006 to 2011, resulted in a significant part of Inter Ikea Systems’ franchise profits shifting to a Luxembourg unit where it was not taxed. A 2011 ruling, brought in after the Commission declared the first deal illegal, allowed a substantial part of the company’s franchise profits after 2011 to be transferred to its Liechtenstein parent. Fast food chain McDonald’s ( MCD.N ) and French energy company Engie ( ENGIE.PA ) are also in the EU crosshairs over their Luxembourg tax deals. The Commission has to date ordered Apple ( AAPL.O ) to pay a record amount of back taxes up to 13 billion euros (£11.45 billion) to Ireland, Starbucks ( SBUX.O ) up to 30 million euros to the Netherlands and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) 250 million euros to Luxembourg. Belgium has been told to recover a total of 700 million euros from 35 companies, among them Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), BP ( BP.L ) and BASF ( BASFn.DE ) because of an illegal tax scheme. Last month the Commission launched an investigation into a British tax exemption for multinational companies set up by the then-Conservative-led government in 2013 to attract companies to set up headquarters in Britain. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-ikea-ab-taxavoidance/eu-regulators-open-investigation-into-ikeas-dutch-tax-deals-idUKKBN1EC16R'|'2017-12-18T13:06:00.000+02:00'
'46cceb3b0dfb19b924a1896e8965d5acd094450f'|'UPDATE 1-Strike briefly shuts down Israel over Teva Pharm job cuts'|'December 17, 2017 / 8:18 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Strike over Teva Pharm job cuts briefly shuts down Israel Steven Scheer 4 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s main public-sector labor union staged a half-day strike on Sunday, closing the airport, stock exchange, banks and all government ministries to protest at mass layoffs planned by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ). Debt-ridden Teva ( TEVA.N ), one of Israel’s largest companies and the world’s largest generics drugmaker, said last week it would cut its global workforce by more than a quarter, or 14,000 jobs. Some 1,700 jobs will be cut and a manufacturing site will be closed in Israel. This has angered unions and politicians, who believe Teva’s employees should not pay for the company’s failed investments abroad. Sunday is the beginning of the Israeli work week. Hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike until 12 noon (1000 GMT) and many held solidarity rallies outside Teva facilities. Protesters also blocked major roads across the country, including the entrance of Jerusalem, and burned tires outside many Teva offices. Demonstrators sat in the middle of streets and crosswalks, halting traffic in a number of cities. The Histadrut labor federation said hundreds of Teva workers in its Jerusalem plant were squatting inside and would continue a strike again on Monday, while there will also be strikes at other Teva facilities. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange shortened its trading day, opening at 1 pm and closed as usual at about 4:30 pm. Teva’s shares fell 0.8 percent. Departing flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport between 8 a.m. and at least 12 p.m. were either canceled or delayed. Similarly, no flights were allowed to land until after 12 p.m. PUBLIC TRANSIT KEPT RUNNING FOR SOLDIERS Slideshow (4 Images) Trains and buses were initially supposed to strike as well, but the Histadrut allowed public transit to operate so that soldiers could get back to their bases as usual. “We are fighting on behalf of Teva’s workers to save Israel’s industry ... and to convey the message that layoffs are the last and not the first step in the public and private sectors,” Histadrut chief Avi Nissenkorn said. He called the current crisis the fault of Teva’s management and board, adding: “It is the state’s responsibility to prevent thousands of Israeli families from paying the price for this.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to meet with Kare Schultz, Teva’s chief executive, this week to try and minimize the blow to workers. “We need to do everything possible to prevent the closure of plants in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said at the outset of a cabinet meeting, adding Teva should remain based in Israel. “It employs thousands of workers,” he said. “It started as an Israeli company and we want it to remain as an Israeli company. We will use various means at our disposal to try and achieve these goals.” He did not elaborate. Schultz said Teva would maintain its headquarters in Israel. Saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt since acquiring Allergan’s ( AGN.N ) Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion, Teva made a series of changes after Schultz joined as its new chief executive on Nov. 1. Its two-year restructuring plan is intended to reduce Teva’s cost base by $3 billion by the end of 2019, out of an estimated cost base for 2017 of $16.1 billion. Nissenkorn said he would meet with Israel’s finance and economy ministers, along with the Teva workers union, on Monday. Reporting by Steven Scheer; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-economy-strike/strike-briefly-shuts-down-israel-over-teva-pharm-job-cuts-idUSKBN1EB07V'|'2017-12-17T15:00:00.000+02:00'
'137b2fb1c804d9e073d35e034a47b2809d85a05c'|'Deutsche Telekom, Tele2 join forces to challenge Dutch duopoly'|'December 15, 2017 / 7:28 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Deutsche Telekom, Tele2 join forces to challenge Dutch duopoly Anna Ringstrom , Maria Sheahan 4 Min Read STOCKHOLM/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom will buy the Dutch business of Sweden’s Tele2 and combine it with its T-Mobile Nederland to give it more muscle to challenge rivals KPN and Ziggo. Analysts have said a merger of T-Mobile and Tele2 in the Netherlands might make sense as the two lie a distant third and fourth place in the Dutch market. Their relatively small market positions will also reduce the risk of any regulatory objections to this ‘four-to-three’ consolidation. “We are confident that this deal should be approved,” Tele2 CEO Allison Kirkby told a conference call. “This is going to create proper competition to the duopoly and allow both of us to be stronger together than we were as individual stand-alone companies.” Deutsche Telekom had said last month it was open to merging T-Mobile Nederland with the local business of Tele2, or floating the Dutch mobile operator on the stock market. Tele2 shares rose 6 percent in early European trading, following what brokerage Jefferies called “an elegant exit from a strategically difficult situation.” Deutsche Telekom shares were little changed. “I think it’s completely right, the market is tough and it’s good for all operators,” Inge Heydorn, fund manager at Sentat Asset Management, said. Under the deal, Tele2 will receive 190 million euros (£167.2 million) in cash and a 25 percent stake in the enlarged T-Mobile NL, the two companies said on Friday. The combined business would have revenues of 2 billion euros and 4.3 million mobile post-paid subscribers and expects to generate benefits of 150 million euros within three years of closing, they said in a joint statement. Until now T-Mobile NL has been a pure mobile play, while the merged entity would pursue a so-called fixed-to-mobile convergence strategy that allows for transmission of data, voice and video to devices at home or on the go. The companies said they expected the deal to close in the second half of 2018 subject to regulatory clearance. TOWERING AMBITIONS Deutsche Telekom had put its Dutch business in a division headed by its M&A chief Thorsten Langheim, who has adopted the aggressive marketing stance of T-Mobile US that includes unlimited data plans. “We’ve started our journey to disrupt the Dutch market and we will be creating a viable and strong attacker of the duopoly KPN and VodafoneZiggo,” Langheim said in the statement. KPN, the former state telecom company, has a market share of 43 percent and Ziggo, a joint venture between Vodafone and Liberty Global, has about 30 percent. T-Mobile Nederland has since the start of 2016 captured more than half of net post-paid customer additions, lifting its market share to 21 percent and dwarfing Tele2’s 5 percent. Before the transaction is completed, T-Mobile NL will spin out its mobile tower operation, which will remain under the full control of Deutsche Telekom. The German parent is exploring ways to realise value from its towers, which typically command a higher valuation than mobile telecoms. The towers sector has already been largely consolidated by specialist players in the United States. The enlarged T-Mobile NL is expected to be capitalised with an intercompany loan receivable by Deutsche Telekom of around 1.1 billion euros, the two companies said. Tele2 also said it expected to book an impairment of SEK 1.0-1.5 billion ($118-$178 million) related to its Dutch operations in the fourth quarter, under discontinued operations. Additional reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Olof Swahnberg in STOCKHOLM; Writing by Maria Sheahan and Douglas Busvine. Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tele2-deutsche-telekom-netherlands/deutsche-telekom-to-buy-tele2s-dutch-business-idUKKBN1E90L3'|'2017-12-15T12:40:00.000+02:00'
'b3af593cc8b5c1d473074a84806c249a73e3ae60'|'EDF board approves buying 75.5 pct of Areva NP by end 2017 - sources'|' 28 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago EDF board approves buying 75.5 pct of Areva NP by end 2017 - sources Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The board of French state-owned utility EDF has given final approval for the acquisition of a 75.5 percent stake in Areva NP, the nuclear reactor construction unit of fellow state-owned nuclear group Areva, by year-end, three sources said. One source said that the board had lifted required guarantees on the successful completion of Areva-designed EPR reactors in Flamanville, France and Taishan, China, as these reactors should be starting up in the coming year. The source also said that Areva would not, as it had originally wanted, keep a 15 percent stake in its former reactor unit because of European Commission objections. The companies have said previously that Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will buy a 19.5 percent stake in Areva NP, while French industrial engineering firm Assystem will buy a 5 percent stake. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Benjamin Mallet; Editing by Richard Lough)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/edf-areva/edf-board-approves-buying-75-5-pct-of-areva-np-by-end-2017-sources-idUSL8N1OE6JN'|'2017-12-15T13:26:00.000+02:00'
'f8d5d08cedc07acf6663f821fa18e23e817c0972'|'Unilever to sell spreads business to KKR for £6 billion'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:46 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Unilever to sell spreads business to KKR for £6 billion Greg Roumeliotis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Unilever has agreed to sell its margarine and spreads business to U.S. private equity firm KKR for 6.8 billion euros (£6.03 billion) to concentrate on faster growing products. The company logo for Unilever is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The maker of Knorr soup and Dove soap announced the deal on Friday, hours after Reuters reported that KKR had entered exclusive talks to buy the shrinking business after outbidding rivals. The brands to be sold include Becel, Flora, Country Crock and Blue Band. Unilever put the business up for sale in April, following a review of its assets prompted by February’s unsolicited $143 billion takeover attempt by Kraft Heinz. “The announcement today marks a further step in reshaping and sharpening our portfolio for long-term growth,” said Chief Executive Paul Polman. “The consideration recognises the market leading brands and the improved momentum we have achieved.” The spreads business has been in decline for years as people eat less bread and margarine, but Unilever has taken steps to stem the decline and the unit is very profitable. That made it attractive to private equity firms who were the main bidders in the auction run by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Based in New York, KKR had $153 billion in assets under management as of the end of September. The firm has a long history in the consumer sector and it has investments in India’s Coffee Day Resorts and Chinese white goods maker Qingdao Haier. Earlier this year, KKR bought majority control of vitamin maker Nature’s Bounty. The deal with Unilever is expected to close mid-2018, subject to regulatory approvals and employee consultations. Unilever, whose sales unexpectedly slowed in October, said it plans to return the cash to shareholders, unless more value-creating acquisition options arise. This year Unilever has snapped up small brands including Tazo tea, Sundial Brands and Carver Korea. Unilever said last month it favoured ending its dual Anglo-Dutch structure to become a single entity, but it has delayed a decision whether it would be based in Britain or the Netherlands. Additional reporting by Martinne Geller in London; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unilever-spreads-kkr/unilever-to-sell-margarine-and-spreads-unit-to-kkr-for-6-8-billion-euros-idUKKBN1E927A'|'2017-12-15T20:19:00.000+02:00'
'd24789dc11c914c9580f778aeaa91502d960e70a'|'Bonds, rupee gain after Gujarat exit poll results'|'December 15, 2017 / 4:06 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Bonds, rupee gain after Gujarat exit poll results Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee strengthened while bond yields inched lower on Friday morning after exit polls showed the country’s ruling alliance would win elections in the prime minister’s home state but caution remained ahead of the actual results. FILE PHOTO: An India Rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The benchmark 10-year bond yield was down 1 basis point at 7.12 percent by 0357 GMT, while the partially convertible rupee was at 64.15 per dollar, compared with its previous close of 64.34. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling group will sweep an election in his home state of Gujarat, surveys showed on Thursday, shaking off the most serious challenge yet from a combined opposition. Reporting by Mumbai Desk; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-india/bonds-rupee-gain-after-gujarat-exit-poll-results-idINKBN1E909O'|'2017-12-15T06:05:00.000+02:00'
'179ba95d65bd5fa4133c1987ba317a76400fb42d'|'Wall Street rally sets the stage for big IPO year in 2018'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:27 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Wall Street rally sets the stage for big IPO year in 2018 Sweta Singh , Ankur Banerjee 3 Min Read (Reuters) - A relentless bull-run in U.S. stock indexes this year has set the stage for a strong IPO market in 2018, with several multi-billion dollar firms including Airbnb and Spotify widely expected to grab headlines with their offerings. The S&P 500 .SPX , the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI and the Nasdaq .IXIC are all set to cap the year with their biggest annual gains since 2013. Riding the rally, the U.S. IPO market also recovered in the second half of 2017, after being spooked by a slump in shares of Snapchat owner Snap Inc ( SNAP.N ) and meal-kit delivery company Blue Apron ( APRN.N ) following their debut earlier in the year. “With the market at all-time highs valuations are at the high-end, presenting a favorable backdrop for IPOs,” said Nelson Griggs, president, Nasdaq Stock Exchange. “Interest rates are still around historical lows so there is likely a sense of urgency for companies to take advantage of the window.” (For a graphic on IPO performance against S&P and Dow, click reut.rs/2ogw33Z ) While several “unicorns”, or companies valued at more than $1 billion, are likely to list in 2018, it will be the small- and mid-sized firms and listings by foreign companies that will fuel the market, experts say. Headphones are seen in front of a logo of online music streaming service Spotify in this February 18, 2014 illustration picture. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo According to consultancy firm CB Insights, 14 unicorns went public globally this year, compared with eight in 2016 and 10 in 2015. Most of them made their debut in the United States. (For a graphic on IPO proceeds, click reut.rs/2kw0DSn ) Apart from Airbnb and Spotify, file-sharing service Dropbox and ride-hailing company Lyft are among the notable companies expected to go public in 2018. The chances of a 2018 listing by Uber Technologies remains slim, given the corporate governance challenge it continues to face. An IPO by the ride hailing company, valued at more than $60 billion, has been eagerly awaited by investors for years. “We’ll continue to see unicorns trickle out (in 2018), not a unicorn boom year, but a steady stream,” Ernst & Young Americas IPO Markets Leader Jackie Kelley said. This year is set to end with 159 companies going public and raising about $38 billion. This compares with 277 companies and about $93 billion raised in 2014, the best year since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, according to Reuters data. United States will continue to be an attractive destination for foreign companies looking to tap the public markets next year. About a quarter of listings on U.S. exchanges in 2017 were by overseas firms, led by China. “There is a strong foundation going into the next year and significant amount of interest. The pipeline is pretty robust,” Kelley said. Reporting by Sweta Singh and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ipo/wall-street-rally-sets-the-stage-for-big-ipo-year-in-2018-idUSKBN1E92H1'|'2017-12-15T20:26:00.000+02:00'
'c8cabb9de5f9765ab9b232064ecd18fa6727fffd'|'Vietnam to name buyer of up to $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco'|'December 17, 2017 / 6:11 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Vietnam to name buyer of up to $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco Mai Nguyen , Anshuman Daga 4 Min Read Ho CHI MINH CITY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Vietnam is set to auction an up to $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco SAB.HM on Monday, with Thai Beverage ( TBEV.SI ) the only potential bidder to have expressed interest in a majority stake. The keenly anticipated sale of the state-owned maker of Bia Saigon gained momentum in recent months after being hampered for years by political resistance, fickle policy-making and complications over valuations. The government has set a minimum sale price of 320,000 dong or $14.10 a share for Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco), whose shares have nearly trebled to 309,200 dong since its listing a year ago. [L3N1OA060] Thai Beverage, through a partly-owned Vietnam unit, is the only company which has expressed interest in owning more than 25 percent of the company, which has roughly 40 percent of the beer-loving Vietnamese market.So far no formal bid had been made. [L3N1OB4FA] Vietnam’s young population and booming economy should make Sabeco an attractive asset for global brewers hoping to expand in Southeast Asia, but a high minimum bid price and foreign ownership limits appear to have turned off potential buyers. Sabeco’s foreign ownership is capped at 49 percent. With 10 percent already in foreign hands, that leaves only 39 percent on the table for overseas buyers at Monday’s auction. Local bidders can bid for a majority stake of up to 54 percent. Heinken ( HEIN.AS ) holds a 5 percent stake. “There’s a disconnect between what the government wants to achieve and how international brewers view this auction,” said one person familiar with the matter.“In a normal auction, bidders are fully aware of what stake they’ll end up owning and bid for it accordingly,” said the person, who was not authorized to speak to the media.Unlike similar sales in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders need to submit a single offer for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round. Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, was keen to acquire Sabeco as part of a strategy to expand outside its home market, sources told Reuters. The company had already lined up bank guarantees to support the bid by its Vietnam unit, sources said. There was no immediate response from Thai Bev to a query from Reuters. Reuters previously reported that the auction was drawing the interest of brewing groups such as Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), Kirin Holdings ( 2503.T ), Asahi Group Holdings ( 2502.T ) and San Miguel ( SMC.PS ), but there is no clear sign of whether they have participated in the auction so far.The government’s minimum price for the 54 percent stake on offer valued Sabeco at about 36 times core earnings, more than double the trading multiples of around 15 for some global peers, according to Reuters data.Vietnam’s trade ministry is expected to announce the bidding result on Monday afternoon. Reporting by Mai Nguyen and Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sabeco-m-a-sale/vietnam-to-name-buyer-of-up-to-5-billion-stake-in-top-brewer-sabeco-idUSKBN1EB04Q'|'2017-12-17T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'b530a4cfeccfa10de56a3dd9d3d638b0684b41ec'|'Britian eyes bespoke trade arrangement with EU - UK fin min'|'December 16, 2017 / 6:49 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Britian eyes bespoke trade arrangement with EU - UK fin min Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING, Dec 16 (Reuters) - British finance minister Philip Hammond said it is likely Britain will want to negotiate a bespoke arrangement for future trade deals with the European Union. Speaking at a press conference in Beijing on Saturday, Hammond said he expected that the United Kingdom would develop a trade deal that is not a “Canada model,” referring to a deal similar to the one the EU agreed to last year with Canada. (Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-britain-eu/britian-eyes-bespoke-trade-arrangement-with-eu-uk-fin-min-idUSL4N1OG053'|'2017-12-16T08:48:00.000+02:00'
'68c812d5f014da33a56edd1782c96bb8b4bfa11c'|'Ryanair tells pilots it ''grew too fast'' - Irish Independent'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:50 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Ryanair tells pilots it ''grew too fast'' - Irish Independent Reuters Staff 3 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Senior Ryanair executives told pilots in London last week that the company “grew too fast” and lost the trust of its pilots, but was working hard to restore it, the Irish Independent newspaper reported on Tuesday. A Ryanair commercial passenger jet is seen at Barcelona El-Prat Airport in Barcelona, Spain, October 10, 2017. Picture taken October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard Ryanair shares have fallen over 10 percent since it announced on Friday it would recognise trade unions for the first time, a move that averted the first pilot strike in the company’s history. Pilots have demanded an overhaul of Ryanair’s system of contracts and collective bargaining and some have spoken of a toxic atmosphere at the airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers. The relationship between the airline and pilots became “very inflamed” and “very tense” in recent weeks, Chief Operations Officer Peter Bellew told a meeting of Ryanair pilots at Stansted Airport near London, the Irish Independent reported. “We don’t comment on rumour or speculation,” a Ryanair spokeswoman said, declining to comment on the accuracy of the quotes. A serving Ryanair pilot told Reuters he had heard a recording of the meeting and the quotes were accurate. People at the airline were “really pissed off,” Bellew was quoted as saying, adding his biggest concern now was trying to get pilots to remain at the company after a lot of the airline’s co-pilots handed in their resignations a couple of weeks ago. Ryanair in September cancelled 20,000 flights after it said it had a shortage of standby pilots after its rostering department mismanaged a rule change by the Irish regulator. Resolving the operational problems that caused the cancellations was the top priority of Chief Executive Michael O‘Leary and the company’s board, Bellew said. “We won’t let this happen again,” he added. Bellew, who returned to Ryanair on Dec. 1 after two years at Malaysia Airlines, was quoted as saying staff had been “actively discouraged” from highlighting problems at the airline. “Everywhere I turned, I could see that people were asking for small things to be done and they just weren’t getting done,” Bellew was quoted as saying. “Or, not only were they not getting done, they were getting told: ‘Piss off; I don’t want to know about this’.” Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson was quoted as saying at the same meeting that O‘Leary had admitted mistakes had been made. “He does recognise, and of course the board recognises that, that we did take our eye off the ball ... The reason we’re in the trouble we’re in ... is that we grew too fast,” Wilson was quoted as saying. Ryanair is due to fly 129 million passengers in the year to March 2018, up from 90 million in the year to March 2015. Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Mark Potter and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots/ryanair-tells-pilots-it-grew-too-fast-irish-independent-idUKKBN1ED0S7'|'2017-12-19T10:52:00.000+02:00'
'3c2128015e8e7f79bb2826407a65758300aa236e'|'Car parts firm Autodis sets course for French share listing - sources'|'December 18, 2017 / 4:33 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Car parts firm Autodis sets course for French share listing: sources Andrés González , Pamela Barbaglia 4 Min Read MADRID/LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. private equity owner of French vehicle spare parts distributor Autodis [ATDST.UL] is selecting banks for a share sale next year in a deal that could value the business at more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Bain Capital, which has controlled the aftermarket spare parts distributor for less that 24 months, is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in Paris and has invited banks to pitch for a role in what could be one of the country’s biggest listings next year, they said. A competition to select banks for the IPO took place in early December with Bain hoping to get the business valued at around 2 billion euros, one of the sources said. He added that there was no interest in running an auction process in conjunction with the share sale in what is known as a ‘dual track’ process to maximize the price. “The only focus is on taking the company public and a decision on banks is imminent,” he said. Bain and Autodis declined to comment. Merger activity in the aftermarket auto parts industry is picking up as the average age of vehicles increases in slow-growing economies, such as those in many European countries. But finding an industry buyer for Autodis is a tall order as most sector players including U.S. parts retailer LKQ ( LKQ.O ) have recently clinched major deals and are not yet ready to embark on new acquisitions, two of the sources said. In 2015 LKQ bought Italy’s Rhiag from private equity firm Apax to expand in the European auto spares market, while on Dec. 11 it agreed to buy Germany’s Stahlgruber in a $1.8 billion deal. Stahlgruber was valued at almost 12 times its EBITDA and this could be Autodis’s top line valuation when it goes public, according to another source. Autodis, which specializes in selling spare parts for light vehicles and trucks, has more than 100 million euros of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). Last year it had adjusted EBITDA of 92.4 million euros on revenues of 1.2 billion euros. Based in Arcueil, on the edge of Paris, Autodis has a long history of private equity ownership as buyout funds have repeatedly injected capital for more than a decade. In 2006 Bahrain-based Investcorp acquired the firm, also known as Autodistribution Group, but struggled to make profits as the industry suffered a dramatic fall in demand, with manufacturers, dealers and suppliers all affected. Autodis went through a long restructuring with private equity firm TowerBrook Capital taking a majority stake in 2009 as part of a debt-for-equity swap deal and managing its turnaround until 2015 when it sold it to Bain. As part of its buy-and-build strategy Bain made a number of bolt-on acquisitions to take Autodis into other European markets, including the purchase of three Italian businesses - Ovam, Top Car and Ricauto. Bain was among those vying to secure control of Germany’s Stahlgruber as it was hoping to merge it with Autodis and create a European champion in auto-parts distribution. Having lost out to U.S. rival LKQ, the U.S. investment firm decided to seek a stock market listing instead, the sources said. Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autodis-m-a/car-parts-firm-autodis-sets-course-for-french-share-listing-sources-idUSKBN1EC24G'|'2017-12-18T18:27:00.000+02:00'
'9949cb9ac1d994fbbd46917727c13c07d03f7734'|'Niki Lauda says will be ready to bid for Niki airline on Dec 20: Handelsblatt'|'December 17, 2017 / 6:42 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Niki Lauda says will be ready to bid for Niki airline on Dec 20: Handelsblatt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Former motor racing driver Niki Lauda aims to bid for the Austrian Niki airline, which he founded in 2003, next Wednesday, he said in a newspaper report, formally adding himself to the list of interested parties. “We will be able to submit an offer already on Wednesday,” he told the German business daily Handelsblatt in its Monday edition. He said he had talked to the administrator of Niki’s insolvent parent company, Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), Frank Kebekus, on Friday, making him aware he was ready to act quickly. Niki filed for insolvency last Wednesday. On Saturday, German logistics firm Zeitfracht and maintenance group Nayak confirmed they were interested in some Niki assets, including Niki Technik, and crews. Niki Lauda, President of Niki low cost airline and former World Champion Formula One driver, poses during a press conference for the launch of a daily air link between Nice and Vienna at Nice International airport, southeastern France, March 19, 2010. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard Lauda also told Handelsblatt he would engage in the talks initially without British holiday group Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ), also among the interested parties, in order to speed things up. “But logically, I am contact with Thomas Cook and its (German) subsidiary Condor,” he added. Irish low cost carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ) has also expressed an interest in its assets. Niki’s insolvency came after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) scrapped plans to buy the airline due to the European Commission’s competition concerns. The administrators for Air Berlin have since been working to find a new buyer for Niki’s assets - which include valuable take off and landing slots in airports such as Duesseldorf, Munich and Vienna - under considerable time pressure in order to clinch a deal before Niki loses its slots. Reporting by Vera Eckert,; Editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-m-a-niki/niki-lauda-says-will-be-ready-to-bid-for-niki-airline-on-dec-20-handelsblatt-idUSKBN1EB0PX'|'2017-12-17T20:41:00.000+02:00'
'018dbbddcadaf98230d78d0af850898810991073'|'UK spread better shares sink after EU watchdog proposes market curbs'|'December 18, 2017 / 8:38 AM / Updated 5 hours ago UK spread better shares sink after EU watchdog proposes market curbs Noor Zainab Hussain , Huw Jones 4   Shares in leading British spread-betting firms sank on Monday after the European Union’s securities watchdog said it may curb core parts of their market under sweeping new product powers from January. FILE PHOTO: The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said late on Friday it was considering prohibiting the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail clients, and restrict the marketing, distribution or sale to retail clients of contracts for differences, or CFDs, including rolling spot forex. ( bit.ly/2yGx85b ) It will consult in January on whether to push ahead with such measures. Shares in IG Group ( IGG.L ), CMC Markets ( CMCX.L ) and Plus 500 ( PLUSP.L ) were down between 8 and 13 percent by 1221 GMT. Binary options and CFDs are financial products that give an investor exposure to price movements in securities without actually owning the underlying assets such as a currency, commodity or stock. The ESMA has said it has been concerned about how these inherently high-risk speculative products are offered to retail investors, potentially leading to significant losses. Britain’s markets watchdog said last week it had noticed steady growth in the volume of CFDs linked to digital currencies. The Financial Conduct Authority said it supported ESMA in its consideration of potential EU-wide product intervention. ( bit.ly/2yFVEn9 ) Moves to restrict binary options and CFD markets would represent ESMA’s first use of new product intervention powers that come into force on Jan. 3 under new EU rules known as MiFID II. The rules give ESMA powers to go above the heads of national watchdogs to ban or restrict products, marking a major shift in EU-level financial powers. Shares in spread betters took a beating last year when Britain’s financial watchdog joined other European regulators in a crackdown on financial spread betting, a fast-growing 3.5 billion pound industry where most retail investors lose money. “We expect the FCA to announce the finalisation of its permanent measures in the first quarter of 2018, and for those measures to be similar to ESMA’s in an effort to harmonise regulation across the FCA and ESMA,” Investec Research said in a note to clients. GOING TOO FAR IG Group said in a statement it had stopped offering its Sprint binary product to new retail clients in January, with revenue from binaries traded by clients in the UK and EU accounting for less than 5 percent of its revenue in the first half. IG Chief Executive Peter Hetherington told investors on a call that ESMA’s proposed leverage rules - restrictions on how much customers can borrow to make bets - “goes too far”. “What happens if you’ve got people who just want more leverage and choose to end up dealing with an offshore broker who is unlicensed in the EU, but then offer them more leverage that we are able to,” Hetherington said. He said the proposals would lead to consolidation of the industry over the short to medium term and there will be some clients “who will be looking for a new home”. CMC Markets said it could quickly respond to regulatory change as it did in Germany and Britain. “We remain convinced that CMC is well placed to prosper over the longer term given the strengths of the platform,” broker Peel Hunt said. Binary products generated 2.1 million pounds ($2.80 million)of revenue from the UK and Europe in the first-half, CMC said, adding any prohibition on the marketing of binary options to retail clients will be “immaterial”. Plus500 said it has never offered binary options, adding that it provides protection to its customers across all its products. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Huw Jones in London; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-regulator-cfd/uk-spread-better-shares-sink-after-eu-watchdog-proposes-market-curbs-idUKKBN1EC0SR'|'2017-12-18T10:38:00.000+02:00'
'f07a5ffea28a79394c393300b5a23ec9585b0f15'|'Lockheed Martin wins $961 mln U.S. defense contract -Pentagon'|' 08 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Lockheed Martin wins $961 mln U.S. defense contract -Pentagon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, a unit of Lockheed Martin Corp, has been awarded a $961 million contract for sustainment, modernization and development, the Pentagon said on Monday. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by David Alexander)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/lockheed-pentagon/lockheed-martin-wins-961-mln-u-s-defense-contract-pentagon-idUSW1N1NS013'|'2017-12-19T00:07:00.000+02:00'
'f59cd635b2b057e5084adda01342b3153c016e6c'|'Lloyd''s of London insurers add 3 billion sterling capital in 2017 after big catastrophe losses'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:22 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Lloyd''s of London insurers add three billion pounds capital in 2017 after big catastrophe losses Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Insurers in the specialist Lloyd’s of London have added 3 billion pounds ($4.01 billion) in capital following large natural catastrophe losses in 2017, the market’s senior executives said. The capital has been provided “to restore capital resources to the level prior to the Q3 2017 loss events and to cover changes in capital requirements for 2018 underwriting”, chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown and chief executive Inga Beale said in an annual email to the market. “No syndicate has ceased trading due to the storms,” they added. This year could be the costliest on record for insurance losses due to natural catastrophes, industry specialists say, following three hurricanes in the U.S. and Caribbean, earthquakes in Mexico and wildfires still burning in California. Lloyd‘s, the world’s leading player in specialist commercial insurance, houses more than 80 underwriting syndicates. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, Editing by Lawrence White'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lloyd-s-of-london-capital/lloyds-of-london-insurers-add-three-billion-pounds-capital-in-2017-after-big-catastrophe-losses-idUKKBN1ED1KB'|'2017-12-19T15:17:00.000+02:00'
'430523876bf763de8db173966b573b918bad7646'|'Oil edges up on ongoing North Sea pipeline outage, but rising U.S. output weighs'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:26 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Oil edges up on ongoing North Sea pipeline outage, but rising U.S. output weighs Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil markets edged up on Tuesday as the Forties pipeline outage in the North Sea and voluntary production restraint led by OPEC supported prices, although soaring output in the United States put a cap on gains. FILE PHOTO - An oil well pump jack is seen at an oil field supply yard near Denver, Colorado, U.S., February 2, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $57.33 a barrel at 0526 GMT, up 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. International Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $63.55 a barrel, up 14 cents, or 0.2 percent. There has been little price movement in recent trading, with Brent moving within a $63.00 to $63.91 per barrel range since last Friday. Some upward pressure was taken off after an oil worker strike was called off in Nigeria, traders said. Despite this, crude has been generally supported by the ongoing Forties pipeline system outage in the North Sea, which provides crude underpinning Brent futures. “The Forties pipeline closure will continue to put a floor under Brent crude,” said Jeffrey Halley of futures brokerage Oanda. Further price support has been coming from voluntary supply cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of non-OPEC producers including Russia. The cuts were introduced in January and are currently set cover all of next year, but Russia’s Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) said on Monday they could be extended beyond 2018. As a result of the cuts, oil inventories are falling globally. “OECD industry inventories declined by 40 million barrels in October to 2.92 billion barrels, while global inventories decreased by 61 million barrels to 5,48 billion barrels. This clearly indicates that the market in 4Q17 is in material (1 million barrels per day) supply deficit,” Bernstein Energy said. “Global inventories now stand at less than 56 days (of demand) ... With OPEC’s decision to extend cuts, we expect that OECD inventories will reach the 5-year trailing average (2.83 billion barrels) by 3Q18 and long-term average (2.7 billion barrels) by year-end 2018,” Bernstein added. Threatening to undermine the OPEC-led efforts to tighten markets is U.S. crude production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.8 million bpd, fast approaching that of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, which are currently pumping around 11 and 10 million bpd respectively. U.S. shale production alone is expected to rise by 94,000 bpd in January, marking a 13th consecutive month of increases, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said late on Monday. Overall, the EIA said it expected U.S. production to hit a record 10.02 million bpd in 2018, on par with Saudi Arabia and not far off top producer Russia, which pumps around 11 million bpd. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-range-bound-as-disruptions-offset-by-rising-u-s-output-idUKKBN1ED04J'|'2017-12-19T07:38:00.000+02:00'
'a56aca73966e59cb60f24adb49b7ac7b50981d45'|'EU regulators to investigate Ikea''s Dutch tax deals'|'December 18, 2017 / 11:15 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago EU regulators to investigate Ikea''s Dutch tax deals Foo Yun Chee 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU state aid regulators will investigate whether Swedish furniture retailer Ikea’s [IKEA.UL] tax arrangement with Dutch tax authorities helped cut its tax bill, the latest crackdown on unfair tax deals between multinationals and EU countries. The European Commission said on Monday that it was looking into two tax rulings issued to Inter Ikea, which operates Ikea’s franchise business and collects a franchise fee of 3 percent of turnover from all Ikea shops via its subsidiary Inter Ikea Systems in the Netherlands. “All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax. Member states cannot let selected companies pay less tax by allowing them to artificially shift their profits elsewhere,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said. The Commission said the first tax ruling, which covered 2006 to 2011, resulted in a significant part of Inter Ikea Systems’ franchise profits shifting to a Luxembourg unit where it was not taxed. A 2011 ruling, brought in after the Commission declared the first deal illegal, allowed a substantial part of the company’s franchise profits after 2011 to be transferred to its Liechtenstein parent. Fast food chain McDonald’s ( MCD.N ) and French energy company Engie ( ENGIE.PA ) are also in the EU crosshairs over their Luxembourg tax deals. The Commission has to date ordered Apple ( AAPL.O ) to pay a record amount of back taxes up to 13 billion euros ($15.3 billion) to Ireland, Starbucks ( SBUX.O ) up to 30 million euros to the Netherlands and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) 250 million euros to Luxembourg. Belgium has been told to recover a total of 700 million euros from 35 companies, among them Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), BP ( BP.L ) and BASF ( BASFn.DE ) because of an illegal tax scheme. Last month the Commission launched an investigation into a British tax exemption for multinational companies set up by the then-Conservative-led government in 2013 to attract companies to set up headquarters in Britain. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-ikea-ab-taxavoidance/eu-regulators-open-investigation-into-ikeas-dutch-tax-deals-idUSKBN1EC16Q'|'2017-12-18T13:22:00.000+02:00'
'01b8fdfcbfce59fd1d73fdd07794f84048dda256'|'Lockheed hits 2017 F-35 delivery target despite production hiccups'|'December 18, 2017 / 9:07 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Lockheed hits 2017 F-35 delivery target despite production hiccups Mike Stone 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) said that it hit its 2017 target to deliver 66 F-35 fighter jets to the U.S. and its allies last week, despite production problems as the defense contractor built 40 percent more jets this year. In September and October, the U.S. Defense Department halted shipments of F-35s for 30 days after a production error allowed corrosion to form around fasteners attaching body panels to the airframe. It was the latest of several production issues that have arisen in the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program. The F-35 is key for Lockheed, accounting for about a quarter of its total revenue. During the third quarter, sales at Lockheed’s aeronautics business increased 14 percent to $4.7 billion, pulled higher by F-35 sales. “I definitely see growth opportunities for the F-35 program and expect the program to grow much like the F-16 did, as countries look to recapitalize their fighter fleets,” said Jeff Babione, the head of Lockheed’s F-35 program. The governments of Belgium, Finland, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and others have been eyeing a purchase of the stealthy jet as potential new customers. In Canada, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned in 2015 on a promise not to buy the F-35 fighter, saying it was too expensive. But last week, in a move that could ultimately benefit Lockheed, Trudeau’s government scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing Co ( BA.N ) Super Hornets and made clear the company would not win a contract for 88 jets unless it dropped a trade challenge against Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc ( BBDb.TO ). The U.S. and its allies are negotiating an annual purchase of a batch of 141 planes. As of Friday, they had more than 265 of the jets already flying. In order to meet its planned growth to a fleet of more than 3,000 jets worldwide, the company has hired more than 1,300 of a planned 1,800 workers at its Fort Worth, Texas factory. There are also assembly facilities in Japan run by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries ( 7011.T ) and Italy, run by Leonardo ( LDOF.MI ). The company is scheduled to deliver about 90 jets next year and the Bethesda, Maryland-based weapons maker aims to nearly triple annual production to more than 160 jets in 2023. Lockheed shares hit an all-time high of $323.38 on Friday, capping an almost 250 percent run over the last five years and showing that investors expect steady and strong profit growth from the world’s biggest defense contractor. PRODUCTION DELAYS Despite the consistent growth, the F-35 has been widely criticized for being too expensive, including by U.S. President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials, who have also pointed to numerous production delays and cost overruns. A quarter of the operating F-35 fleet was temporarily grounded this year because of problems with pilots’ oxygen supplies. The U.S. Government Accountability Office also published a report this year detailing a shortage of spare parts that could plague the F-35 program for several years. The supply chain is already working at peak capacity. Lockheed, the prime contractor, and its partners, including Northrop Grumman Corp ( NOC.N ), United Technologies Corp’s ( UTX.N ) Pratt & Whitney and BAE Systems Plc ( BAES.L ), have been working on building a more cost-effective supply chain. Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington, DC, Editing by Rosalba O''Brien'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lockheed-f35/lockheed-hits-2017-f-35-delivery-target-despite-production-hiccups-idUSKBN1EC0VA'|'2017-12-18T11:06:00.000+02:00'
'5240a575822a88f660aff7d5fad58561f95e9816'|'Chilean peso opens up almost 2 pct following Pinera win'|' 33 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Chilean peso opens up almost 2 pct following Pinera win Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SANTIAGO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The Chilean peso strengthened almost 2 percent on Monday following conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera’s resounding victory in Sunday’s presidential election. The peso was bid at 624.2 per dollar. (Reporting by Froilan Romero; Editing by Toby Chopra)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/chile-election-markets/chilean-peso-opens-up-almost-2-pct-following-pinera-win-idUSC0N1MY01A'|'2017-12-18T13:32:00.000+02:00'
'55f2fa0b0c78d77e8c8efd36ef92dc04c59e0c15'|'Belgium''s Greenyard explores acquisition of Dole Food -sources'|'December 18, 2017 / 5:20 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Belgium''s Greenyard explores acquisition of Dole Food: sources Greg Roumeliotis , Harry Brumpton 3   Belgian frozen foods company Greenyard NV ( GREENY.BR ) is exploring an acquisition of Dole Food Co, a U.S. fruit and vegetable producer that could be valued at more than $2.5 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. California-based Dole has also been considering a potential initial public offering, but a deal with Greenyard could provide a quicker avenue for Dole’s 94-year-old chairman David Murdock to cash out on his ownership of Dole. Murdock views Greenyard’s offer as better than that of private equity firms that took an interest in Dole, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential. However, there is no certainty that Greenyard, which has a market capitalization of close to 900 million euros ($1.06 billion), will secure the necessary financing for a deal, or that it will agree to terms with Dole, the sources added. If the two companies fail to clinch a deal, Dole will continue to assess other offers as it proceeds with plans for an IPO, one of the sources added. Greenyard and Dole did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Dole, once the world’s largest producer of fruits and vegetables, was taken private by Murdock in 2013 in a $1.2 billion deal following a four-year run as a publicly listed company. That deal came as Dole struggled to generate profits amid volatile demand and low prices for bananas, its highest-selling product. Before going private, Dole had sold its packaged foods and Asia fresh produce businesses to Japan’s Itochu Corp ( 8001.T ) for $1.7 billion, shrinking itself by a third, to help pay down debt. Since Dole’s sale to Murdock, the fruit producer has cut costs, sold non-core assets, improved its supply chain and diversified its product lines, the company said in its IPO paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Dole, one of the largest producers of bananas and pineapples, has also said it expects to benefit from the increasing demand for fresh produce from health-conscious consumers. The company generated $4.51 billion in revenue last year, but posted a net loss of $23.7 million. That compared with a loss of $144.5 million and revenue of $4.25 billion in 2012, the year before Dole went private. Murdock last year reached a settlement related to a lawsuit that alleged that he short-changed shareholders in 2013 when he took Dole private. Half of Greenyard is owned by Belgian entrepreneur Hein Deprez and his family company, according to Thomson Reuters data. (The story corrects Murdock’s title to chairman instead of CEO, paragraph two) Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Harry Brumpton in New York; Editing by Will Dunham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dolefood-m-a-greenyard/belgiums-greenyard-explores-acquisition-of-dole-food-sources-idUSKBN1EC28S'|'2017-12-18T19:09:00.000+02:00'
'5e4270ec3028b2aa23ba6cb777fbe6e63230fdaf'|'FOREX-Dollar steady after U.S. tax bill moves closer to ratification'|'December 18, 2017 / 1:14 AM / a minute ago Dollar under pressure on U.S. tax reform concerns Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar fell against a basket of major currencies on Monday, as concerns grew on whether a proposed U.S. tax reform program would have a major impact on economic growth, after the bill moved another step closer to passage over the weekend. The U.S. currency had edged higher after Republicans on the House-Senate negotiating committee on Friday put the finishing touches to a sweeping tax overhaul that involves large cuts in levies on corporations. But it slid on Monday on some uncertainty that the bill would indeed be pushed through, and with some doubts creeping in over the pro-growth effect the tax reforms would have. “Traders are taking a more cautious approach...with uncertainty about the real-world impact of the tax package to keep risk appetites suppressed,” said Karl Schamotta, director of global product and market strategy for Cambridge Global Payments in Toronto. But he believes the dollar has further scope to go higher. Economic forecasters expect lower corporate taxes to raise U.S. growth by roughly 0.5 percent over the next year, potentially lifting the pace of interest rate increases from the two currently being priced in by the market to closer to the three hikes consistently estimated projected by Federal Reserve policymakers, Schamotta said. Against a basket of major currencies, the dollar fell 0.4 percent to 93.568 .DXY. The euro benefited from the dollar''s weakness, gaining 0.5 percent to $1.1807 EUR= . Year-end demand for dollars had helped push the greenback up against the euro in recent sessions, said Alvin Tan, a strategist at Societe Generale in London, but that had slowed on Monday, adding to pressure on the dollar. Top Republicans are confident Congress will now pass the tax bill this week, with a Senate vote as early as Tuesday and President Donald Trump aiming to sign the bill by week’s end. The dollar was 0.1 percent lower against the yen at 112.54 yen JPY= following Friday''s rise of 0.2 percent. The greenback also failed to get support from the rise in U.S. Treasury yields on Monday. That said, the long-term Treasury yield has been confined to a narrow 2.34-2.42 percent range over the past week. Bitcoin, meanwhile, was down 1.5 percent at $18,676 BTC=BTSP on the Bitstamp exchange. It rose to a record high of $19,666 on Sunday, ahead of the launch of bitcoin futures from CME Group Inc ( CME.O ). Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly and Tommy Wilkes in London'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-forex/dollar-firm-after-us-tax-bill-moves-closer-to-ratification-idUSKBN1EC02H'|'2017-12-18T05:41:00.000+02:00'
'5d8f0730f24eb8d38ba6730805561c52da23fb0d'|'Odey adds to Sky disquiet following Disney''s deal with Fox'|'December 18, 2017 / 2:03 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Odey adds to Sky disquiet following Disney''s deal with Fox Ben Martin 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey has argued that Sky ( SKYB.L ) should fetch a higher price following Walt Disney Co’s ( DIS.N ) $52 billion deal with Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. ( FOXA.O ), adding to shareholder disquiet about the fate of the European broadcaster. Rupert Murdoch’s Fox agreed last December to buy the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own for 10.75 pounds-a-share but the deal has been delayed by a regulatory review. Fox’s existing 39 percent stake in Sky is now part of a wider package of film, television and international assets being sold to Disney, a deal that Odey believes demonstrates that Sky is being sold too cheaply. If approved by regulators, Fox’s takeover of Sky is expected to close by the end of next June, before the completion of the Disney acquisition. That means Mickey Mouse-owner Disney would acquire all of the UK company following its deal with Fox. “Basically, here is Fox being bought-out on 12 times cashflow,” Odey, whose hedge fund is a 0.9 percent investor Sky company, told Reuters. “If we [Sky shareholders] were being sold on 12 times cashflow we’d be at 12.30 pounds.” Sky shares were up 0.6 percent at 10.24 pounds on Monday. A spokesman for Sky declined to comment. Fox and Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Disney’s deal with Fox, announced on Dec. 14, adds another complication to the 11.7 billion-pound ($15.6 billion) Sky deal, which has already faced fierce criticism from British politicians and is being investigated by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Odey, who had previously criticized the planned Fox deal, joins fellow small shareholder Polygon in questioning the takeover of the FTSE 100 company in the wake of the Disney deal. TWIST IN THE TALE The UK’s Takeover Panel said last week that it had been told by Disney that the U.S. giant did not believe it should be forced to make an offer for Sky if Fox is blocked from buying out the remaining 61 percent by the regulator. Disney would hold a 39 percent stake in Sky if the Fox acquisition of the broadcaster fails. Rule 9.1 of the Takeover Panel’s code stipulates that an investor buying 30 percent or more of a listed company must automatically make an offer for the rest of the shares, although exemptions can be agreed by the watchdog. The Panel’s executive said it was seeking the views of Sky’s independent directors before making a decision on Disney. “In the case of Disney/Fox, if Disney had agreed to buy the 39 percent Sky stake directly from Fox, minority shareholders in Sky would have been entitled to an increase in the 10.75 pounds-per-share price already being offered by Fox to the price being offered by Disney,” Polygon said. Given that Disney is paying about 12 times 2017 and 2018 enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the Fox businesses, the hedge fund said that the price for Sky should be more than 13 pound-a-share. “But the Fox and the Mouse have been more clever than that,” Polygon said. “They have wrapped the Sky stake with a number of other attractive Fox assets and tied it up with a bow and ribbon and told the Takeover Panel that Rule 9.1 does not apply – and therefore that no premium is due to Sky’s minority shareholders.” Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sky-m-a-fox-odey/odey-adds-to-sky-disquiet-following-disneys-deal-with-fox-idUSKBN1EC1QY'|'2017-12-18T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'7afec8fd45536405c195e54050ddcd9547da4b6b'|'Former TV boss Michael Grade invests in British music rights business'|'December 18, 2017 / 11:44 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Former TV boss Michael Grade invests in British music rights business   LONDON (Reuters) - Michael Grade, the British media executive who chaired the BBC and ITV, has invested in One Media IP Group, a music rights holder that he said was set to benefit from the growth in streaming services. FILE PHOTO - Michael Grade, former chairman of the BBC and executive chairman of ITV, arrives to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press at the High Court in London January 31, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer Grade has teamed up with Ivan Dunleavy, former chief executive of Pinewood Studios, which Grade has also chaired, to take a stake in OMIP, spending 375,000 pounds in total for two holdings of 8.715 percent each. He said that the popularity of services like Spotify was helping revitalise an industry that was facing a bleak future only a few years ago. “Streaming is now seen as real growth engine for people who own intellectual property in the music sector whether they be composers, writers or music publishers,” he told Reuters by phone on Monday. “This is a really exciting space to be in, and there are very few companies that enable you to have a pure play in music publishing, because all the big music publishers are owned by massive international conglomerates.” OMIP’s catalogue comprises 250,000 nostalgic music tracks from the last 50 years, including artists such as Ricky Valance, Anita Harris, The Tremeloes, the Troggs and Marv Johnson. Grade said the tracks, some of which are rarely played on radio, could find a new lease of life on streaming services thanks to play lists and algorithms that curate music for users. He said that he and Dunleavy, who both become non-executive directors, would use their industry contracts to gain more rights. Shares in the company rose 29 percent on Monday, valuing the group at about 3.9 million pounds. Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-one-media-ip-investment-grade/former-tv-boss-michael-grade-invests-in-british-music-rights-business-idUKKBN1EC1B6'|'2017-12-18T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'66fc38b5cc8a4b32cdfcb4d85f893ad69f0601b3'|'UPDATE 1-Nigerian oil union begins nationwide strike'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:55 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Nigerian oil union says will suspend nationwide strike Alexis Akwagyiram 3 Min Read LAGOS (Reuters) - A major Nigerian oil union said on Monday it would suspend a nationwide strike after securing worker demands through dispute resolution with the government and an oil firm. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), whose members are mostly managers in the upstream oil industry, began industrial action on Monday over layoffs made by a Nigerian oil and gas company. “The strike has not been suspended for now but we are 100 percent sure it will be suspended,” said Lumumba Okugbawa, the general secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). He said demands had been met through the mediation talks, but did not give details. The strike has threatened to hit the country’s crude production and dent exports, as was the case in December 2016 during industrial action against Exxon Mobil. But there was no immediate sign that output was affected on Monday. Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude exporter and oil sales make up two-thirds of government revenue. Output has fluctuated in the past two years due to militant attacks, pipeline theft and industrial action. Traffic jam is seen along a street in Abuja after Nigerian oil union declared nationwide strike, Nigeria December 18, 2017 REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde PENGASSAN had not said how many workers had been involved in Monday’s industrial action, which was called after domestic oil and gas companies and marginal field operators laid off members of the union. Marginal fields refer to discoveries made by oil majors during exploration of larger acreage but which have been left for others to develop. Slideshow (2 Images) Other oil industry unions were working as normal. Lengthy fuel queues were seen in several parts of the country including in the commercial capital Lagos, in the southwest, the northeastern city of Maiduguri and the city of Jos, situated in the middle of the country. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) issued a statement telling motorists there was no need to stock up. “NNPC wishes to state that relevant government agencies are in consultation with industry unions to arrive at an amicable resolution of issues over which there are threats of industrial action,” said the state oil company in an emailed statement. Additional reporting by Seun Sanni in Lagos, Camillus Eboh and Paul Carsten in Abuja, Kolowale Adewale in Maiduguri and Buhari Bello in Jos; Editing by Adrian Croft and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-oil-strike/nigerian-oil-union-begins-nationwide-strike-idUSKBN1EC0OV'|'2017-12-18T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'50869fbf3f258ee32e46b3f32b0e843bb2f8abd8'|'ESPN President John Skipper resigns'|'December 18, 2017 / 4:36 PM / Updated 2 hours ago ESPN President Skipper resigns to deal with substance addiction Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co’s ( DIS.N ) John Skipper resigned on Monday as president of ESPN, the company’s most important network, due to a problem with addiction. John Skipper, President of ESPN, INC, and co-chairman, Disney Media Networks addresses the media in Digital Center 2. REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin/File Photo "I have struggled for many years with a substance addiction," Skipper, who was also Disney Media Networks co-chairman, said in a statement. "I have decided that the most important thing I can do right now is to take care of my problem." ( es.pn/2kgmnCb ) George Bodenheimer will be the sports network’s acting chairman for the next 90 days, ESPN said in a statement. He had been its president from 1998 to 2011 and executive chairman until May 2014. An ESPN spokeswoman declined to comment on who may be considered as Skipper’s successor. Skipper’s departure comes within a few days after Disney struck a deal to buy film, television and international businesses from Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) for $52.4 billion. Skipper, who became ESPN president in 2012, has led the network to a series of long-term distribution agreements with major rights holders, including the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. But ESPN has also struggled with subscriber losses and ratings declines. Last month, it said it would lay off about 150 employees. Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, who extended his stay at the company through 2021 to oversee integration of Fox’s businesses, lauded Skipper’s candour and backed his decision. Disney shares were down 0.2 percent at $111.09 on Monday afternoon. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru and Sheila Dang in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/walt-disney-espn-john-skipper/espn-president-john-skipper-resigns-idINKBN1EC24X'|'2017-12-18T18:34:00.000+02:00'
'f1321eaa0cff8d99a978d0d5ce7a92a774af130b'|'U.S. home appliance shipments up 3.0 pct yr/yr in Nov-AHAM'|'December 19, 2017 / 6:04 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago U.S. home appliance shipments up 3.0 pct yr/yr in Nov-AHAM Reuters Staff 1 Min Read STOCKHOLM, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Deliveries of the six biggest categories of white goods (AHAM 6) in the United States rose 3.0 percent year-on-year in November, data from industry body Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) showed late on Monday. Shipments in the country, a major market for companies such as Whirlpool and Swedish home appliances maker Electrolux ELUXb.ST, were up 3.0 percent in the year through November. (Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/aham-appliances/u-s-home-appliance-shipments-up-3-0-pct-yr-yr-in-nov-aham-idUSL8N1OJ0GW'|'2017-12-19T08:03:00.000+02:00'
'656b40113a055cfd62d2d2843f1329f4a182364c'|'AerCap to sell 21 aircraft worth $800 mln to Peregrine Aviation'|'December 19, 2017 / 9:31 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago AerCap to sell 21 aircraft worth $800 million to Peregrine Aviation Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Leasing company AerCap Holdings NV said it would sell 21 aircraft worth $800 million to Peregrine Aviation Co Ltd, an investment unit of NCB Capital, the brokerage arm of National Commercial Bank SJSC. The 21-aircraft portfolio consists of a mix of wide-body and narrow-body aircraft, AerCap said in a press release. Under the agreement, AerCap will provide lease management services to Peregrine and will retain an equity interest in the entity, the company said. Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aercap-hldg-nationl-comml-bk/aercap-to-sell-21-aircraft-worth-800-million-to-peregrine-aviation-idUSKBN1ED0VX'|'2017-12-19T11:28:00.000+02:00'
'4f1dd5815d36d0e9d21de401ebdc4ac74e39836a'|'MOVES-BlackRock appoints Deborah Ho as head of Southeast Asia'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:53 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago MOVES-BlackRock appoints Deborah Ho as head of Southeast Asia Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SINGAPORE, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Fund manager BlackRock said on Tuesday it appointed Deborah Ho as the new head of its Southeast Asian business. Ho, who will take up the role in March 2018, joins from Barclays Bank where she was co-head of senior relationship management. (Reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/blackrock-asia-moves/moves-blackrock-appoints-deborah-ho-as-head-of-southeast-asia-idUSL8N1OJ04U'|'2017-12-19T03:53:00.000+02:00'
'31c5e09b093ccb9ccbe6fe7a98bb7640d8a04909'|'Luxottica CEO exits eyewear giant ahead of Essilor merger'|'December 15, 2017 / 6:31 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago Luxottica CEO exits eyewear giant ahead of Essilor merger Valentina Za , Giulia Segreti 4 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Luxottica ( LUX.MI ) has parted ways with its fourth chief executive in three years as Chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio prepares the eyewear group he founded for a planned merger with France’s Essilor ( ESSI.PA ). FILE PHOTO - The Luxottica name is reflected in a pair of sunglasses in this photo illustration taken in Rome February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/Illustration Luxottica, the biggest maker of spectacles, agreed in January to merge with the top lens manufacturer to create a 46 billion euro ($54 billion) group with a global shop network and brands from Ray Ban to Giorgio Armani and Burberry. Luxottica said on Friday Massimo Vian, CEO for product and operations would step down three months before the expiry of the current board’s mandate as it simplified its structure ahead of the merger. Vian’s responsibilities will be handed to both Del Vecchio and his close aide Deputy Chairman Francesco Milleri, who will also take on the position of CEO. “The post-merger integration of Essilor and Luxottica is fast approaching,” EXANE BNP Paribas said in a note. EU regulators are set to clear the merger without asking for concessions, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The deal still needs antitrust approval in the United States, China and Brazil. Del Vecchio, 82, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday that Milleri would replace him at the merged group if anything happened to him. Milleri, 58, started working with Luxottica as an IT consultant and earned the trust of Del Vecchio, becoming over time his right-hand man. Del Vecchio and Essilor CEO Hubert Sagnières are set to share powers at EssilorLuxottica for the first three years as, respectively, executive chairman and executive vice-chairman. Sagnières, 62, told the Financial Times last week the group would look to hire a chief executive at some point. “Sagnières has ruled himself out - as too old - which is a not too subtle indication that Del Vecchio is not in the game either,” EXANE said. “Investors shouldn’t expect a smooth post-merger integration path.” Del Vecchio returned to the helm of Luxottica in 2014, taking on executive powers as chairman. One of Italy’s richest men, Del Vecchio is also known for his top-down management style, taking key decisions without broad consultation. He has presided over an overhaul of the business he founded in 1961, boosting digital investments while also expanding the retail network, centralising distribution in China and fighting online discounts of top brand Ray Ban in the United States. He owns 62.5 percent of Luxottica and will be the single biggest shareholder in the merged group “In the past three years ... I’ve fixed and improved Luxottica to keep up with the times. And I was able to do it thanks to Francesco Milleri ... he shared every important decision,” Del Vecchio told Corriere. Vian had been appointed at the top within a dual-CEO structure put in place in October 2014, after Luxottica lost two bosses in six weeks due to frictions with Del Vecchio. Vian had remained as the only CEO after co-head Adil Mehboob Khan left in January 2016. An engineer who had joined in 2005, Vian will pocket a gross 6.3 million euros in addition to severance pay, Luxottica said. ($1 = 0.8508 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-luxottica-ceo/luxottica-ceo-leaves-group-ahead-of-merger-with-essilor-idUKKBN1E92HP'|'2017-12-16T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'fb68b6c1dbdcff71b73a6355be5becee2fbdbc43'|'Sensex edges higher; NSE auto index hits record'|'December 19, 2017 / 6:52 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Sensex hits record closing high, powered by auto companies Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Indian indexes marked record closing highs on Tuesday, driven by automakers as regional markets gained at the prospect of passage of a major U.S. tax bill, while the victory of Prime Minister Modi’s party in key state elections continue to boost sentiment. A trader reacts to the news on television while trading on his terminal at a stock brokers firm in Mumbai, December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade The BSE Sensex rose 0.7 percent to end at 33,836.74, while the broader NSE Nifty ended 0.72 percent higher at 10,463.20. Both the indexes advanced a fourth straight session. Automakers such as Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd rose as much as 5.9 percent and 2.6 percent respectively to hit all-time highs. Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-sensex-nifty-stock-markets/sensex-edges-higher-nse-auto-index-hits-record-idINKBN1ED0IN'|'2017-12-19T08:48:00.000+02:00'
'b39c8456391db62cc56202acbb117394b2a968f7'|'Subaru vows to bolster training, compliance after inspection scandal'|' 34 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Subaru vows to bolster training, compliance after inspection scandal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) vowed to improve oversight of its final inspections after revealing uncertified staff carried out tests of new cars for the domestic market for decades, the latest in a slew of scandals to rock Japan’s manufacturing industry. The logo of Subaru Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. Picture taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai In October, Subaru revealed that uncertified technicians took part in final inspections at domestic plants for over 30 years. It also said some staff had cheated on tests to certify as technicians for the final inspections. Subaru said last month it was recalling 395,000 vehicles in Japan and forecast 20 billion yen ($177 million) in related costs. In its latest report to the government, Subaru said it would improve training for and monitoring of final inspections, and communicate the importance of compliance to staff. The automaker said a root of the problem was that management and staff did not fully appreciate the importance of the final inspections. “We regret that, despite understanding the social demand for an emphasis on compliance, and the increased influence we have through our social presence, we had problems of compliance, carrying out inappropriate final inspections,” it said. Subaru’s revelation was part of a series of compliance failings by Japanese companies that have surfaced in recent months, hitting the country’s reputation for quality control and prompting calls for better governance. Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) has admitted to similar lapses, while Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) and Toray Industries Inc ( 3402.T ) - all key suppliers of products to global manufacturers - have admitted to product data fabrication in recent months. On Tuesday, Mitsubishi Materials said in an update on its own probe that it had found more cases of products whose data had likely been falsified. Separately, Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ) said it had installed more than 10,000 elevators that did not meet specifications it had submitted to the government, but added there were no safety concerns with the elevators. Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-subaru-scandal/subaru-vows-to-bolster-training-compliance-after-inspection-scandal-idUKKBN1ED0QZ'|'2017-12-19T10:33:00.000+02:00'
'927f331b0b0aec16dd451e7a85139bacea47d783'|'Ineos says Forties oil pipeline repair timeframe unchanged'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:51 AM / a minute ago Ineos awaiting custom parts to fix Forties oil pipeline Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Ineos, the operator of Britain’s Forties crude oil pipeline in the North Sea, was moving forward with a preferred repair option and the timeframe to fix a crack remained unchanged, the company said on Tuesday. The system, which carries around 450,000 barrels per day of Forties crude to Britain, along with a third of the UK’s total offshore natural gas output, has been closed since Dec. 11 after a crack was found. “The timescale stays the same - two to four weeks from the 11th,” Ineos spokesman Richard Longden said, adding that the crack was still stable. Longden said the company had examined three repair options but gave no further details. In a statement issued later on Tuesday, Ineos said that custom made parts for some of these options had been made and would be delivered “over the coming days as we progress the preferred method of repair from today”. The Ineos-operated Grangemouth refinery shut down about half of its 200,000 bpd capacity on Friday owing to the pipeline outage. Reporting by Alex Lawler and Julia Payne; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-forties-oil/ineos-says-forties-oil-pipeline-repair-timeframe-unchanged-idUSKBN1ED0S0'|'2017-12-19T10:39:00.000+02:00'
'a67fa61639199e24570f8eb37951099f37fb2cfe'|'Subaru vows to bolster training, compliance after inspection scandal'|'Reuters TV United States December 19, 2017 / 9:06 AM / a few seconds ago Subaru vows to bolster training, compliance after inspection scandal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) vowed to improve oversight of its final inspections after revealing uncertified staff carried out tests of new cars for the domestic market for decades, the latest in a slew of scandals to rock Japan’s manufacturing industry. Subaru Corp''s President and CEO Yasuyuki Yoshinaga bows his head at a news conference at the company''s Tokyo headquarters in Tokyo, Japan December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon In October, Subaru revealed that uncertified technicians took part in final inspections at domestic plants for over 30 years. It also said some staff had cheated on tests to certify as technicians for the final inspections. Subaru said last month it was recalling 395,000 vehicles in Japan and forecast 20 billion yen ($177 million) in related costs. In its latest report to the government, Subaru said it would improve training for and monitoring of final inspections, and communicate the importance of compliance to staff. The automaker said a root of the problem was that management and staff did not fully appreciate the importance of the final inspections. “We regret that, despite understanding the social demand for an emphasis on compliance, and the increased influence we have through our social presence, we had problems of compliance, carrying out inappropriate final inspections,” it said. Subaru’s revelation was part of a series of compliance failings by Japanese companies that have surfaced in recent months, hitting the country’s reputation for quality control and prompting calls for better governance. Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) has admitted to similar lapses, while Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) and Toray Industries Inc ( 3402.T ) - all key suppliers of products to global manufacturers - have admitted to product data fabrication in recent months. On Tuesday, Mitsubishi Materials said in an update on its own probe that it had found more cases of products whose data had likely been falsified. Separately, Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ) said it had installed more than 10,000 elevators that did not meet specifications it had submitted to the government, but added there were no safety concerns with the elevators. Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-subaru-scandal/subaru-vows-to-bolster-training-compliance-after-inspection-scandal-idUKKBN1ED0SX'|'2017-12-19T10:33:00.000+02:00'
'cc2927f305e810a48522f3a6adae1115f35daefa'|'Niki hangs on to slots for now as potential bidders line up'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:18 PM / in an hour Niki hangs on to slots for now as potential bidders line up Reuters Staff 3 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) unit Niki can keep its valuable runway slots while Austria’s Transport Ministry examines its insolvency filing, the airspace regulator said amid growing interest in the carrier from potential bidders. FILE PHOTO: Airline Niki founder Niki Lauda attends a news conference in Vienna November 8, 2011. REUTERS/Herwig Prammer Niki filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ), which is buying other parts of Air Berlin, scrapped plans to buy Niki, grounding the airline’s fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. Niki’s workers’ council chief said on Dec. 15 the sale had to be agreed within seven days as its runway slots, or take-off and landing rights, would be lost after that point. But a spokesman for airspace regulator Austro Control said no such deadline existed and the slots, among Niki’s most attractive assets, would remain untouched for as long as the ministry was looking into the airline’s insolvency filing. “I cannot say anything about the length of the investigation for which there are no designated deadlines. The investigation at the Transport Ministry has been ongoing since (Niki) filed for insolvency,” the spokesman said. Sources told Reuters that British Airways parent IAG ( ICAG.L ) was once again interested in Niki. Other interested parties include its founder and former Formula One champion Niki Lauda, tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Irish budget carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ), Swiss carrier PrivatAir also voiced interest. “We want to take Niki over in its entirety and save all the jobs, if possible,” CEO Thomas Limberger told Austrian paper Die Presse, saying he was under time pressure get an idea of the carrier and arrange financing. Niki’s administrator said bidders have until Thursday to submit offers. The Transport Ministry had no comment as new minister Norbert Hofer, who was sworn in on Monday, had not yet moved into his office as of Tuesday morning, meaning no spokesperson was available to comment on the investigation. There was no immediate comment from the office of the head of the new government, Sebastian Kurz, when asked if it would continue to look into possible bridge financing for Niki as the previous cabinet had. Lauda’s spokeswoman said he was supposed to meet Transport Minister Norbert Hofer, but declined to give any details. Lauda said he did not expect any decision on Niki’s future to be made before the Christmas holidays. “Several bids will be made by Thursday, and then on Friday they surely won’t say: Mr. Lauda wins,” he told German weekly Die Zeit in an interview. The planes flown by Air Berlin and Niki were leased, and Lufthansa has now taken on many of them from the lessors. However, should another buyer for Niki be found, Lufthansa will have to lease out some of those planes to the buyer, under an existing deal with the European Commission. Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich, Maria Sheahan, Victoria Bryan; Editing by Mark Potter and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/air-berlin-niki-deadline/niki-hangs-on-to-slots-for-now-as-potential-bidders-line-up-idINKBN1ED2MY'|'2017-12-19T22:17:00.000+02:00'
'7300b723a4bff42224b27ef64c3f0acc8c7835bf'|'GoCompare to buy MyVoucherCodes.co.uk for 35 mln stg'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:46 AM / Updated 38 minutes ago GoCompare to buy MyVoucherCodes.co.uk for 35 mln stg Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - Price comparison website operator GoCompare.Com Group Plc said on Tuesday it agreed to buy The Global Voucher Group, which operates MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, and its units for 36.5 million pounds ($48.9 million) in cash. The Global Voucher Group is currently owned by financial technology firm Monitise, which was bought by Fiserv Inc in June. GoCompare said the deal would be financed through existing cash resources and by extending GoCompare’s existing credit facilities. The retail voucher provider is one of the Britain’s largest, with eight million e-mail subscribers and about 45 million annual visitors on its website. GoCompare said MyVoucherCodes’ retail business would be “highly complementary” to its financial services and utilities comparison services, with the combined entity targeting about 100 million website visits every year. The deal is also expected to add to earnings in 2018 on an underlying basis, GoCompare said. GoCompare, which last month rejected a 460 million-pound takeover approach made by rival ZPG, also said it expected full-year revenue to rise about 5 percent to 149 million pounds, with adjusted operating profit at the upper end of current market expectations. Current market expectations for the full-year adjusted operating profit was between 33.9 million pounds to 35.9 million pounds, GoCompare said. ($1 = 0.7472 pounds) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/the-global-voucher-group-ma-gocompare/gocompare-to-buy-myvouchercodes-co-uk-for-35-mln-stg-idUSL4N1OJ2HC'|'2017-12-19T09:46:00.000+02:00'
'65b51958831beba90110aba91d8cf8fef4f2f54d'|'ECB sued over decision to freeze help to Greek banks during crisis'|'December 18, 2017 / 6:46 PM / Updated 2 hours ago ECB sued over decision to freeze help to Greek banks during crisis Francesco Canepa 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and a German parliamentarian are suing the European Central Bank to gain access to a document underpinning the ECB’s decision to freeze vital funding to Greek banks in 2015. Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis answers questions during a panel debate at the Institute of Directors convention in London, Britain, September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville That move left Alexis Tsipras’ government with little choice but to shut down banks and impose capital controls, weakening his negotiating position with the country’s international lenders during bailout negotiations. Eventually, hard-liner Varoufakis resigned and Tsipras made a deal that gave Greece cash in return for austerity measures and reforms. Varoufakis and a German leftist parliamentarian, Fabio De Masi, are asking the European Union’s top court to force the ECB to disclose a legal opinion that informed that decision, which they say might be unlawful. “By restricting liquidity to the Greek banking sector to force cuts in pensions, tax increases and fire-sale privatisations, the ECB overstepped its mandate,” De Masi said. After their request was rejected by the ECB, Varoufakis and De Masi are turning to the General Court of the European Union to obtain the document. An ECB spokesman said the legal opinion preceded the decision to withhold funding by at least two months. The ECB decided not to disclose it to protect its legal advisers and its internal deliberations, he said. The ECB’s Agreement on Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), published earlier this year, prohibits national central banks from providing ELA if it “interferes with the objectives and tasks” of the Eurosystem, such as maintaining price stability and safeguarding payments. “There is an overriding public interest in knowing how far the ECB ... weighed different goals against each other and how they themselves and their legal experts have interpreted the legal framework in this respect,” the complainants’ lawyer, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, said in the appeal. Reporting By Francesco Canepa, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ecb-greece-banks/ecb-sued-over-decision-to-freeze-help-to-greek-banks-during-crisis-idINKBN1EC2DX'|'2017-12-18T20:44:00.000+02:00'
'5e612e5f1ffb74e0e90086bc7f543df3a7c9f1ce'|'Solid Power, BMW partner to develop next-generation EV batteries'|'December 18, 2017 / 11:07 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Solid Power, BMW partner to develop next-generation EV batteries Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. EV battery company Solid Power said on Monday it had partnered with Germany’s BMW AG ( BMWG.DE ) to develop the next-generation solid-state battery technology for use in electric vehicles (EVs). BMW will assist in advancing Solid Power’s technology to achieve performance levels required for high-performance EVs, Louisville, Colorado-based Solid Power said in a statement. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. All solid-state battery technology is a high-capacity energy storage device that improves on today’s lithium-ion batteries, replacing the liquid or gel-form electrolyte with a solid, conductive material. Among other benefits, the new technology offers more capacity and better safety. Carmakers are trying to lower the cost of electric vehicles by investing in the development of affordable but powerful batteries. Established in 2012, Solid Power says its solid-state rechargeable batteries could lower costs because of the potential for eliminating many of the costly safety features associated with lithium-ion systems.   ), which has called the technology a “game changer” for EVs, plans to commercialize solid-state batteries and roll out an electric vehicle in the early 2020s powered by them. German automotive supplier Continental AG ( CONG.DE ) is considering investing in the technology, Chief Executive Elmar Degenhart told trade weekly Automobilwoche in an interview in November. Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bmw-solid-power/solid-power-bmw-partner-to-develop-next-generation-ev-batteries-idUSKBN1EC16V'|'2017-12-18T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'76b87a0a4033f53fcbeb86a9026f01e41f9c5a87'|'Hedge fund manager Hohn won''t attend LSE vote - source'|' 40 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Hedge fund manager Hohn won''t attend LSE vote - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British hedge fund manager Christopher Hohn will not attend a vote on the motion brought by his firm to oust London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) chairman Donald Brydon, a source close to the firm told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians leave and enter the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Activist hedge fund manager TCI Fund Management, run by Hohn, is unhappy with Brydon’s handling of the succession of Xavier Rolet, the LSE’s former chief executive. TCI is expected to lose the vote at the general shareholder meeting being held in London at 1200 GMT on Tuesday after a series of heavyweight investors came out in favour of Brydon. Shareholder Standard Life Aberdeen ( SLA.L ) will vote against the motion, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. Standard Life Aberdeen joins large LSE shareholders Qatar Investment Authority, BlackRock and Aviva Investors in saying they will vote against the motion. TCI does not expect to pass the resolution to oust Brydon at the shareholder meeting and will send a representative, the source close to the firm told Reuters. Shareholder advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services have recommended shareholders vote against removing Brydon. But rival advisory firm PIRC has recommended shareholders abstain, describing the LSE board’s handling of the succession as a “major failure of board leadership”. Standard Life Aberdeen is a top-100 investor in the LSE with a 0.07 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon. A majority of votes cast at the meeting would be needed for TCI’s resolution to pass. The LSE has already said Brydon will step down in 2019 after helping to appoint Rolet’s successor. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Maiya Keidan, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-chairman-shareholders/hedge-fund-manager-hohn-wont-attend-lse-vote-source-idUKKBN1EC13T'|'2017-12-18T12:39:00.000+02:00'
'd3eaf71209694de7573fe73152d23f26bc84e92b'|'Global Markets: Asian shares rise on U.S. tax cut hopes; China in focus'|'December 18, 2017 / 1:11 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Asian shares rise on U.S. tax cut hopes; China in focus Swati Pandey 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares edged up on Monday, with sentiment boosted by expectations U.S. lawmakers will pass a long-awaited tax bill this week, while Chinese stocks were soggy on concerns about liquidity and tighter regulations in the world’s second largest economy. FILE PHOTO: People walk past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Meanwhile, the launch of bitcoin futures on the CME exchange bolstered expectations the cryptocurrency’s red-hot rally in the cash market could continue, although their trading debut was tepid. MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS gained 0.4 percent. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 was the best performer in the region, rising 1.6 percent to edge closer to a 25-year peak of 23,382 points set last month. European and U.S. stocks are also expected to have a solid start to the week. The near-month FTSE futures contract FFIc1 and the e-mini S&P futures ESc1 were each up 0.2 percent. Dow futures 1YMc1 rose 0.4 percent. Global stock markets have surged this year, largely led by expectations of a U.S. tax overhaul. The reform is seen boosting corporate profits, triggering share buybacks and higher dividend payouts - a boon for shareholders. Votes on the legislation are expected this week. But the mood was dour in Asia’s biggest economy where the People’s Bank of China increased rates on reverse repurchase agreements, or reverse repos, triggering concerns about tight year-end liquidity. Chinese shares eased, with Shanghai''s SSE Composite index down 0.2 percent after opening higher. The bluechip CSI 300 .CSI300 also came off the day''s high to be largely unchanged. China will be in focus this week as investors look for news from a three day Central Economic Work conference starting Monday where Communist Party leaders will discuss economic policy, including growth targets. “While there are no obvious signs yet, we do expect a modest slowdown in Chinese growth in coming months,” said Steve Waddington, portfolio manager at Insight Investment, which has A$930 billion ($712 billion) in assets under management. China could lower its growth target to 6.0 percent from 6.5 percent, Waddington added, amid tighter financial conditions and stricter regulation aimed at reducing leverage. CURRENCIES Bitcoin futures received a lukewarm reception on its first day of trading on the CME exchange <0#BTC:>, with the near-month contract down 0.3 percent on thin volumes. In the cash market, bitcoin was last down 0.5 percent at $18,851 after hitting a record $19,666 on Sunday on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp Exchange. BTC=BTSP “The introduction (of futures contracts) has added validity, acknowledging bitcoin as a legitimate asset,” said Shane Chanel, a fund manager at ASR Wealth Advisers. “The launch should increase buy-side pressure and potentially be the catalyst that pushes bitcoin above $20,000.” In currencies, the U.S. dollar stayed above a 1-1/2 week trough against the Japanese yen, after slipping 0.8 percent last week. JPY= Trading was generally thin as investors wound up their books ahead of Christmas holidays. The British pound GBP= inched up but was still near 3-week lows as Prime Minister Theresa May prepared for a week of difficult meetings in an effort to unite a divided cabinet over Brexit talks. In commodities, oil prices were slightly firmer with U.S. crude CLc1 up 30 cents at $57.60 while Brent crude LCOc1 rose 28 cents to $63.50. Spot gold XAU= was slightly up at $1,256.55. ($1 = 1.3060 Australian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-shares-rise-amid-us-tax-cut-hopes-pound-struggles-idINKBN1EC02D'|'2017-12-18T08:41:00.000+02:00'
'f6a949678aedfdce84c18ae795e04605de06ee3c'|'Toyota to make over 10 battery EV models globally in early 2020s'|'December 18, 2017 / 5:19 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Toyota to make over 10 battery EV models globally in early 2020s Reuters Staff 1   Toyota Motor Corp will make more than 10 battery electric car models globally in the early 2020s, with sales starting in China, the company said on Monday. A Toyota Motor Corp. logo is seen on a car at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero Toyota will subsequently sell the models in Japan, India, the United States and Europe, it said in a statement. Every Toyota model and luxury-brand Lexus model will either have an electric version or will be a dedicated electric car by 2025, the Japanese automaker said. Global automakers are competing to develop more electric cars to comply with tightening regulations worldwide to reduce vehicle emissions. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Writing by Minami Funakoshi; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-electric-vehicle/toyota-to-make-over-10-battery-ev-models-globally-in-early-2020s-idUKKBN1EC0EB'|'2017-12-18T07:16:00.000+02:00'
'9bbef0749e37d121807177820647ad488b05c998'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 19'|'December 19, 2017 / 5:16 AM / Updated 43 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 19 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - An Amtrak train carrying 77 passengers derailed on Monday on a tight curve south of Seattle, killing three people and injuring dozens. on.wsj.com/2kJtlz2 - ESPN on Monday announced the surprise resignation of network President John Skipper over substance-abuse issues, creating uncertainty at a critical moment for the sports TV juggernaut and its majority-owner, Walt Disney Co. on.wsj.com/2kJQscK - China''s HNA Group Co is looking to offload a large portfolio of commercial properties in New York, London and other major cities, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sharp reversal of its buying spree in recent years. on.wsj.com/2kIzvjb - Swedish furniture retailer IKEA Group could be forced to pay back millions of euros in alleged unpaid taxes to the Netherlands, following an investigation opened Monday by the European Union. on.wsj.com/2kLm563 - Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari warned on Monday that bad things may lie ahead for the economy if his colleagues at the U.S. central bank press forward with interest-rate increases. on.wsj.com/2kILYmJ (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-19-idUSL4N1OJ208'|'2017-12-19T07:15:00.000+02:00'
'8159518121f23573fd17562d40731553aaeced6a'|'Spain agrees 4 percent rise in minimum wage for 2018'|'December 19, 2017 / 6:36 PM / Updated 35 minutes ago Spain agrees 4 percent rise in minimum wage for 2018 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s government has agreed with trade unions a 4 percent rise in the minimum wage to 736 euros ($872) per month next year, Employment Minister Fatima Banez said on Tuesday. Spain’s economy emerged from recession in 2013 and become one of the fastest growing economies in the euro zone. However, many of the jobs created during the recovery have been temporary or part-time, leading to low wages and rising inequality. Unions have long asked for wages to rise to reflect Spain’s strong economic growth. The government’s end-of-year growth forecast is 3.1 percent. On Tuesday, they said they were pleased with the wage increase. “It is a boost to rebuild the salaries of people who lost most in the economic crisis,” said Unai Sordo, leader of the Workers’ Commissions, Spain’s largest union. Spain’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in almost nine years in the third quarter, mostly boosted by jobs growth in the services industry. But at 16.4 percent it is still one of the highest unemployment rates among developed countries. ($1 = 0.8442 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-spain-economy-wages/spain-agrees-4-percent-rise-in-minimum-wage-for-2018-idUKKBN1ED2HP'|'2017-12-19T20:36:00.000+02:00'
'2bd613b9481927f5322641f1d5fbfd999dafc23e'|'BRIEF-Boeing Says Board Adopted Amendment To Decrease Number Of Directors From 14 To 13'|' 38 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago BRIEF-Boeing Says Board Adopted Amendment To Decrease Number Of Directors From 14 To 13 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - Boeing Co: * BOEING - ON DEC 17, BOARD ADOPTED AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE II, SECTION 1 OF CO’S BY-LAWS TO DECREASE NUMBER OF DIRECTORS FROM FOURTEEN TO THIRTEEN Source text: ( bit.ly/2CCsveH )  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-boeing-says-board-adopted-amendmen/brief-boeing-says-board-adopted-amendment-to-decrease-number-of-directors-from-14-to-13-idUSFWN1OI0Q5'|'2017-12-19T00:35:00.000+02:00'
'fd0edaf927f94fb845bb9fe120015cbaf8d43066'|'Spark to announce gene therapy price in January'|'December 19, 2017 / 4:15 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Spark to announce gene therapy price in January Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Spark Therapeutics will announce the price for its gene therapy for inherited blindness, Luxturna, which was approved on Tuesday by U.S. regulators, in early January, a Spark spokeswoman said by email. Luxturna is expected to be available late in the first quarter of 2018, she said. (Reporting by Caroline Humer)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/spark-fda-price/spark-to-announce-gene-therapy-price-in-january-idUSL1N1OJ140'|'2017-12-19T18:15:00.000+02:00'
'70de3ba846a7d5e3f5aaade1b65b8d905485ed78'|'Indivior replaces $484 million in dollar, euro debt facilities'|' 53 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Indivior replaces $484 million in dollar, euro debt facilities Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British drugmaker Indivior ( INDV.L ) said it replaced all of its U.S. dollar and euro denominated outstanding term loans of about $484 million (£362 million). The maker of drugs that treat opioid addiction said it amended and extended a total of $534 million worth of debt facilities on Tuesday. The new term loan facilities reduces Indivior’s interest coupon rate to Libor plus 4.50 percent from Libor plus 6 percent, it said in a statement. Indivior had a net cash position of $131 million at the end of 2016 versus a net debt of $174 million a year earlier. In November, The company posted a third quarter profit compared with a year-earlier loss helped by lower costs. Reporting by Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-indivior-debt/indivior-replaces-484-million-in-dollar-euro-debt-facilities-idUKKBN1ED0O2'|'2017-12-19T09:52:00.000+02:00'
'af81a6900859d72293ac11273f9e74624db10883'|'RPT-Rogers Communications seen having options for Toronto Blue Jays baseball team'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:00 AM / Updated an hour ago RPT-Rogers Communications seen having options for Toronto Blue Jays baseball team Reuters Staff (Repeats with no change in text) By Alastair Sharp TORONTO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Rogers Communications Inc , which has said it will keep ownership of the Toronto Blue Jays, could look to leasing, licensing and other financial tools to generate value from the Major League Baseball club, sports dealmakers told Reuters. Rogers’ new chief executive, Joe Natale, and Chief Financial Officer Tony Staffieri have said in separate conversations with investors since October that the Canadian cable TV and wireless company wants to “surface value” from the franchise. Some people interpreted that to mean they were considering selling the team, which Forbes earlier this year valued at $1.3 billion. In an emailed statement, Rogers spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt said: “As we have said, there are no plans to sell the Jays.” She declined to comment on a range of options for extracting value from the team, but added: “We continue to look for the best way to get credit for our incredible sports portfolio in our overall company valuation.” Two professional sports dealmakers said one option for generating cash could include the sale and leaseback of the team’s nearly 30-year-old stadium in downtown Toronto, known as the Rogers Centre. The team could also sell licensing rights to the facility, which has a retractable roof and was known as SkyDome until Rogers brought it for $25 million in 2005, the sources said. Such deals can be lucrative. Bank of Nova Scotia agreed in August to pay C$800 million ($622 million) in a 20-year naming rights deal for the downtown Toronto arena that houses the National Hockey League’s Maple Leafs and National Basketball Association’s Raptors, which is now known as the Air Canada Centre. CANADA‘S ONLY MLB FRANCHISE Rogers paid about C$160 million for 80 percent of the Blue Jays in 2000, before buying the remaining stake in 2004. Bankers said the $1.2 billion paid for the Miami Marlins baseball club in a deal that closed in September likely pushed up comparative valuations, meaning that the Blue Jays, Canada’s only MLB franchise, would likely garner significantly higher offers than that if put up for sale. Another option would be for family-controlled Rogers to spin off the team, creating a separate company that could tap debt markets to pay athlete salaries, finance stadium improvements and fund other operations, according to three industry dealmakers who declined to be identified because discussions about potential deals are confidential. The current corporate structure at Rogers treats the team as a fully consolidated business unit, meaning that boosting spending to acquire top players would cut into the parent company’s earnings, which are closely watched by investors. Having flexibility to spend more on talent, without worry about missing Wall Street earnings forecasts, could lead to more on-field success, which would boost long-term revenue from ticket sales, merchandising and broadcast rights, the sources said. The Blue Jays, who began play in 1977, won World Series titles in 1992 and 1993 and set attendance records. But the team went into a long decline on the field and at the box office before returning to the playoffs in 2015 and 2016. The team struggled this past season with a 76-86 record. A spinoff could also help improve Rogers’ balance sheet as the company looks to borrow to fund network improvements and buy additional wireless spectrum that is expected to be auctioned by the Canadian government in 2019. A key debt-to-earnings ratio - known as gross debt to earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization - has risen steadily in recent years, to 3.4 last year from 2 in 2011. $1 = 1.2856 Canadian dollars Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Jim Finkle and Peter Cooney'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/rogers-bluejays-deals/rpt-rogers-communications-seen-having-options-for-toronto-blue-jays-baseball-team-idUSL1N1OI1XX'|'2017-12-19T13:00:00.000+02:00'
'5ff5f4ba14d3b736f2bf10b7522362119a232f18'|'BNP Paribas to boost Lisbon hub with 45 job moves from Paris'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:38 PM / Updated an hour ago BNP Paribas to boost Lisbon hub with 45 job moves from Paris Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) plans to move 45 internal finance jobs from Paris to Lisbon as banks facing growing workloads to deal with changes in regulations and accounting rules try and improve their efficiency. FILE PHOTO - A man walks past a BNP Paribas bank sign on an office building in Nantes, France, July 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe The French lender confirmed the move on Tuesday, which was first announced by the Force Ouvriere (FO) union. “Like all banks, we seek to address growing European regulatory constraints. In this context, the answer results in a readjustment between the Group Finance platforms in Paris and Lisbon”, the bank said in an emailed statement. BNP Paribas already has more than 1,800 employees in Portugal, according to a recent job advert posted on its website through which it was recruiting for its Group Finance Service hub in Lisbon. That unit is responsible for compiling and processing accounting and financial information. The bank said all Paris employees affected by the changes, because they worked in the same area covering finance, accounting and stress-testing, would be placed in equivalent positions in the region. Out of the 45 jobs, BNP will take back control of 13 roles that are currently undertaken externally before moving them to Lisbon, while nine positions would be newly created, FO said. Unions called it a second wave of job tranfers after BNP set up a ‘European Finance Operations Centre’ in Lisbon in 2015 employing about 200 people. Hourly labour costs in Portugal were 13.7 euros in 2016, compared with 35.6 euros in France, according to Eurostat data. Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Sarah White, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/bnp-paribas-jobs/bnp-paribas-to-boost-lisbon-hub-with-45-job-moves-from-paris-idINKBN1ED2NK'|'2017-12-19T22:33:00.000+02:00'
'fff4a4dce97b557d481aa62c94560b3c590fb44a'|'U.S. single-family housing starts, permits hit 10-year high'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:43 PM / Updated an hour ago Single-family housing starts, permits hit 10-year high Lucia Mutikani 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. single-family homebuilding and permits surged to more than 10-year highs in November, in a hopeful sign for a housing market that has been hobbled by supply constraints. FILE PHOTO - A worker installs a metal roof on the top of a single story family home being built in San Diego, California, U.S., July 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake Builders have struggled to meet robust demand for housing, which is being fueled by a labor market near full employment. Land and skilled labor have been in short supply, while lumber price increases have accelerated. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that single-family homebuilding, which accounts for the largest share of the housing market, jumped 5.3 percent to a rate of 930,000 units. That was the highest level since September 2007. Pointing to further gains, single-family home permits rose 1.4 percent to a pace of 862,000 units, a level not seen since August 2007. The jump in groundbreaking on single-family housing units suggests housing could contribute to gross domestic product in the fourth quarter. Investment in residential construction has declined for two straight quarters, weighing on economic growth. A survey on Monday showed confidence among homebuilders soaring to near an 18-1/2-year high in December, amid optimism over buyer traffic and sales over the next six months. Prices of U.S. Treasuries remained at session lows after the data while the dollar .DXY pared declines against a basket of currencies. U.S. stock index futures were mixed. Last month, single-family home construction in the densely-populated South shot up 8.4 percent to the highest level since July 2007 as disruptions from recent hurricanes continued to fade and communities in the region replaced houses damaged by flooding. Single-family starts in the West increased 11.4 percent to their highest level since July 2007. They were unchanged in the Northeast and fell 11.1 percent in the Midwest. Overall housing starts increased 3.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.297 million units. While that was the highest level since October 2016, October’s sales pace was revised down to 1.256 million units from the previously reported 1.290 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts decreasing to a pace of 1.250 million units last month. Starts for the volatile multi-family housing segment fell 1.6 percent to a rate of 367,000 units. Overall building permits dropped 1.4 percent to a rate of 1.298 million units in November, pulled down by a 6.4 percent decline in permits for the construction of multi-family homes. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy-housingstarts/u-s-single-family-home-construction-boosts-housing-starts-idINKBN1ED1NQ'|'2017-12-19T16:13:00.000+02:00'
'8f7c10d5a7c59bf63cfe93416949b54502901876'|'London regulator says "one or two issues" about accuracy of Uber’s licence details'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:15 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Union and taxi drivers'' group can participate in Uber''s London appeal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A British trade union and a taxi drivers’ trade body can take part in Uber’s appeal case against the decision by London’s transport regulator to strip the taxi app of its operating licence, a judge ruled on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo The GMB Union and the London Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA), which represents the city’s black cab drivers, had asked to be “interested parties”, meaning they would be given access to documents and could make submissions. However some of their access may be restricted due to commercial sensitivities and the judge at a preliminary hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday said she couldn’t take a final decision on the LTDA’s role just yet. Regulator Transport for London (TfL) refused to grant Uber a new licence in September, citing its approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers. The substance of Uber’s appeal is due to be heard over five days from June 25 with a preliminary hearing due to take place before then in April to discuss further administrative matters.The Silicon Valley firm, which has faced bans, restrictions and protests around the world as it disrupts traditional rivals, can continue to operate until the appeals process is exhausted, which could take several years. At Tuesday’s hearing, TfL also said it had “one or two” issues regarding the accuracy of details provided by Uber.“The decision letter says, well, there are one or two issues about the extent to which the information given to TfL was correct,” TfL lawyer Martin Chamberlain told the court. “That is one of the points that the decision is based on.”After Uber was stripped of its operating licence, the firm’s boss Dara Khosrowshahi met TfL’s Commissioner Mike Brown and promised to make things right in the British city, its most important European market.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain/london-regulator-says-one-or-two-issues-about-accuracy-of-ubers-license-details-idINKBN1ED16J'|'2017-12-19T13:02:00.000+02:00'
'ed5edb277ef719540f165a78670a4563a20d641c'|'Aerie''s glaucoma treatment gets early FDA approval'|'December 18, 2017 / 11:07 PM / Updated 8 hours ago Aerie''s glaucoma treatment gets early FDA approval Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc ( AERI.O ) said on Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its eyedrop, Rhopressa, as a treatment for glaucoma, two months ahead of the expected date. Glaucoma affects about 2.7 million people in the United States and is the second leading cause of blindness in the world. Rhopressa helps lower the pressure due to a build up of fluid in the eye by targeting the trabecular meshwork, the main drain through which fluid flows out of the eye. Aerie’s marketing application for Rhopressa in 2016 was delayed due to issues with the Florida-based facility where it was being manufactured. In October, an advisory panel to the drug regulator had voted 9-1 in favour of Rhopressa’s approval. Rhopressa’s approval followed Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc’s ( VRX.N ) announcement on Monday that it would begin shipping to U.S. wholesalers its Vyzulta, a rival treatment manufactured at the same facility. The drug’s approval is likely to increase Aerie’s appeal as “a prime acquisition target” for larger eyecare players, Serge Belanger, an analyst at Needham & Co, had said in a client note. Aerie’s shares fell 1.7 percent to $56.50 after the bell. Reporting by Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aerie-pharma-fda/aeries-glaucoma-treatment-gets-early-fda-approval-idINKBN1EC2RY'|'2017-12-19T01:02:00.000+02:00'
'cf52dcfe4d21c5419acf64ce54989ab6c374b655'|'Accenture''s digital push boosts earnings, shares hit record'|'December 21, 2017 / 11:39 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Accenture''s digital push boosts earnings, shares hit record Aishwarya Venugopal 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Consulting and outsourcing services firm Accenture Plc’s ( ACN.N ) quarterly earnings and revenue topped Wall Street forecasts, as investments in fast-growing digital and cloud services paid off. FILE PHOTO: Visitors look at devices at Accenture stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 26, 2013. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo Shares of Accenture, which have risen about 30 percent this year, rose 4 percent to a record high of $157.93 (£118.2) in on Thursday morning. The company also lifted its forecast for yearly earnings per share and gave a forecast for current-quarter revenue largely ahead of analysts’ expectations. Revenue from Accenture’s digital, cloud, analytics and security-related services - a group it calls “the New” - made up 55 percent of overall revenue in the first quarter ended Nov. 30. “The primary driver of our growth in the quarter continues to be the New,” Accenture Chief Financial Officer David Rowland said on a call with analysts. Indeed, much of Accenture’s recent growth has been driven by digital and cloud services, which include everything from managing clients’ social media marketing strategies to helping them move operations to the cloud. Another bright spot for Accenture was revenue from the healthcare and public services industry, which rose nearly 9 percent and exceeded growth in prior quarters. The result came despite warnings from the company of weak client spending amid uncertainty around U.S. healthcare law. “Based on the results of last quarter, businesses were feeling more confident and the spending clearly improved since last quarter,” Edward Jones analyst Josh Olson said. Accenture has also grown rapidly by buying smaller companies and has invested some $3.4 billion on about 70 acquisitions over the past three years. About half of that amount was spent in fiscal year 2017 alone as Accenture ramped up digital and cloud investments, helping it gain market share from Cognizant ( CTSH.O ) and IBM Corp ( IBM.N ). The company expects to spend another $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion on acquisitions in fiscal year 2018. The Dublin-based company expects an annual tax rate of 22 to 24 percent, down from a prior expectation of 23 to 25 percent. The forecast does not include the impact of an expected overhaul of the U.S. tax code, which cuts the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Net income attributable to Accenture rose 11.8 percent to $1.12 billion. On a per-share basis, earnings were $1.79, ahead of analysts’ average forecast of $1.67 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net revenue rose nearly 12 percent to $9.52 billion, topping analysts’ expectations of $9.26 billion. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva and Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-accenture-results/accentures-quarterly-revenue-rises-12-percent-idUKKBN1EF1CK'|'2017-12-21T17:15:00.000+02:00'
'6ae866bfa3c90131d03f16acf2eb53017dfe4d0c'|'MOVES-BMO names three deputy heads of global investment banking'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:47 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago MOVES-BMO names three deputy heads of global investment banking John Tilak 2 Min Read TORONTO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Bank of Montreal has named three deputy heads of investment banking to newly created positions under a revised structure to centralize industry coverage in its capital markets division, according to an organizational chart seen by Reuters. The moves come about five months after BMO appointed Dan Barclay and Peter Myers as co-heads of global investment and corporate banking. The three executives - John Armstrong, Ashi Mathur and Michael Neuberger - will report to Barclay and Myers. Since the financial crisis, BMO has invested heavily in the U.S. investment banking market and has a growing presence there. Mathur, head of North American real estate investment banking, will continue to oversee the sector, as well as diversified industries and Canadian sponsors, among others. The changes will help BMO take advantage of increasing cross-border deal activity as Canadian companies and pension funds remain active on acquisitions, Mathur said in an interview. BMO also sees opportunities in debt capital markets, including the issuance of maple bonds by multinationals, Mathur added. BMO was an adviser on Apple Inc’s maple bond offering earlier this year. Armstrong, who was a co-head of global M&A, will oversee sectors including global energy and mining. Lyle Wilpon, also a co-head of global M&A, has become the sole head of global M&A. Neuberger, head of healthcare investment banking, will also oversee sectors including industrials and technology. In a related development, the bank promoted Geoff Barsky to the post of Canadian and international head of M&A. (Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/bmo-moves/moves-bmo-names-three-deputy-heads-of-global-investment-banking-idUSL1N1OL1F5'|'2017-12-21T19:45:00.000+02:00'
'9e17bd9bc374bf3b16cdff76aba1a769b1e53609'|'British coal still burning abroad despite push for global ban'|'December 18, 2017 / 3:25 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago British coal still burning abroad despite push for global ban Susanna Twidale , Barbara Lewis 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain led calls for an end to coal-fired power generation at United Nations climate talks in Bonn last month but at the same time British companies are active in coal projects around the world, often with government help. In Britain, the use of coal in electricity generation has declined sharply since the introduction of a carbon tax in 2013, although the country remains a center of coal-mining expertise. Many in the mining industry see no contradiction. They say coal remains the best option in some countries and it would be hypocritical for the developed world to deny emerging economies the power they need. There is however a clash with the words of the British climate minister, who said the world needed to stop burning coal to meet U.N. targets to slow climate change. For a graphic on coal futures prices, click tmsnrt.rs/2CjBjqH Britain led an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation in the EU and developed countries by 2030 and by 2050 worldwide at U.N. talks in Bonn on implementing the Paris agreement on climate change. It also announced programs worth more than 300 million pounds ($400 million) to help developing countries tackle climate change. At home, Britain plans to phase out coal power plants by 2025, unless they have technology to capture and store emissions. “The biggest thing the world can do is stop burning coal. That is the biggest, number one thing we need to do to try to meet the Paris Agreement targets,” British climate minister Claire Perry said following the Bonn talks. Coal-fired power stations emit around twice as much carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming, as gas generation, while nuclear and renewable energy produce electricity without emissions. Asked if there was any contradiction between calling for a global phase-out and encouraging exports to supply the coal industry abroad, a government spokesman said Britain adhered to a 2015 international deal that bars financial help for exporters of equipment to heavily polluting coal operations. EXPORTING IS GREAT That deal, agreed by members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), does not prevent other forms of support, which is part of the work of the British government’s Department for International Trade (DIT). The DIT gives no direct funding, but takes part in overseas mining events, such as conferences, provides information on projects, builds contacts and administers advice. Its website, Exporting is Great, advertises tenders, which this month include one for 10,000 tonnes of coking coal sought by an Indian company, a feasibility and pilot study and pilot project for expertise in underground coal gasification, also in India, and a firm in Kazakhstan seeking coal processing technology. BRITAIN MINES AT HOME In Britain, where the last deep pit coal mine closed in 2015, surface mining continues. The Banks Group works open cast pits in northern England, supplying Britain and Spain. It hopes to open a new pit at Druridge Bay on the North Sea coast next year. Jeannie Kielty, the firm’s community relations manager, said there was a need for “high-quality jobs that enable many dozens of local people to put food on their families’ tables”. Coal prices are up around 40 percent in Europe this year. Britain’s coal exports rose 15 percent in 2016 to 443,000 tonnes, worth 50 million pounds ($67 million) at current prices. Exports are expected to rise further this year after a 22 percent increase in the first half. NEED FOR POWER Mining companies say coal can be a force for economic good and the alternatives can be worse as remote communities cannot develop without reliable power. “These are places where people have no access to energy and are burning charcoal, which has very damaging primary and secondary health effects,” said Louis Coetzee, CEO of Kibo Mining, which is developing coal and power in Tanzania and Botswana. Britain’s Oracle Power is developing a $1.6 billion coal mine and power plant in Pakistan’s Thar desert. “Eight years ago there was nothing to see at the site but camels and peacocks, now we are bringing power to a region where it is needed and opportunities for jobs,” CEO Shahrukh Khan said, estimating the project would create around 1,000 jobs. It is the biggest private sector investment by a British company in Pakistan, Khan said. He said he had the blessing of the British government, but no financial help. That is provided by China, which is working to reduce pollution at home, but is active in coal abroad. It did not join the November alliance on phasing out coal and is not in the OECD. Chinese investment company SCIG and PowerChina, both state-owned, will arrange finance through Chinese banks. How clean the plant will be remains to be seen. Khan said he wanted it to be toward the upper end of industry standards, but that depended on contractors and Chinese partners. (For a graphic on coal futures prices, click tmsnrt.rs/2BEqVMK ) Editing by Giles Elgood'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-coal/british-coal-still-burning-abroad-despite-push-for-global-ban-idUKKBN1EC1WH'|'2017-12-18T17:05:00.000+02:00'
'65db0dc8b3b0a43cd367a9c48d7724dfa731bda3'|'Oil prices rise, but 2018 outlook points to ample supply'|'December 18, 2017 / 1:26 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Oil edges up, though 2018 outlook cites ample supplies Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil edged up on Monday, lifted by an ongoing North Sea pipeline outage and over signs that booming U.S. crude output growth may be slowing, although the outlook for oil markets cites ample supplies despite ongoing production cuts led by OPEC. FILE PHOTO: A worker checks the valve of an oil pipe at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq December 21, 2015. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $57.39 a barrel at 0447 GMT, up 9 cents or 0.2 percent from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.37 a barrel, up 14 cents or 0.2 percent from their last close. Traders said the slightly higher prices came on the back of the North Sea Forties pipeline system outage, which provides crude that underpins the Brent price benchmark, as well as indicators that U.S. oil production growth may be slowing down. ”The shutdown of the Forties pipeline in the North Sea, combined with inventories hitting a two-year low, helped paint a positive (oil price) picture,” ANZ bank said on Monday. In the United States, energy companies cut rigs drilling for new production for the first time in six weeks, to 747, in the week ended Dec. 15, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday. Despite this dip in drilling, activity is still well above this time last year, when the rig count was below 500, and actual U.S. production C-OUT-T-EIA has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.8 million barrels per day (bpd). This means U.S. output is fast approaching that of top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, which are pumping 10 million bpd and 11 million bpd respectively. The rising U.S. output also undermines efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is de-fecto led by Saudi Arabia, and a group of non-OPEC producers including Russia to withhold production to tighten the market and prop up prices. Largely because of rising shale output from the United States, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said global oil markets would show a slight supply surplus of around 200,000 bpd during the first half of 2018. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a similar surplus for that period and still indicate a supply overhang of 167,000 bpd for all of 2018. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Sherry Jacob-Phillips'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-markets-little-changed-on-lack-of-price-drivers-idINKBN1EC03J'|'2017-12-18T08:40:00.000+02:00'
'f4117d5197165bd3eb2b999486e19d822aa07a3e'|'China''s Tencent, JD.com invest $863 million in online retailer Vipshop'|'December 18, 2017 / 2:54 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago China''s Tencent, JD.com invest $863 million in online retailer Vipshop Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese social media firm Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ) and e-commerce platform JD.com Inc ( JD.O ) on Monday said they will jointly invest $863 million in Chinese discount online retailer Vipshop Holdings Ltd ( VIPS.N ). A sign of Tencent is seen during the fourth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, December 3, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song Tencent will invest $604 million in exchange for a 7 percent stake in Vipshop, while JD.com will invest $259 million for 5.5 percent. The investment amounts represent a 55 percent premium over Vipshop’s closing share price on Friday of $8.44. “We look forward to providing Vipshop with our audiences, marketing solutions, and payment support to help the company provide branded apparel and other product categories to China’s rising middle class,” Tencent President Martin Lau said in a statement. The deal represents a major alliance in China’s e-commerce market, where competition for retail brands between JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) has grown increasingly fierce. A JD.com sign is seen during the fourth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song It also comes as Tencent, which derives most of its profit from gaming and social media, pushes into retail, leveraging its relationship with JD.com and popular app WeChat. Last week it said it would buy five percent of Chinese department store operator Yonghui Superstores Co Ltd ( 601933.SS ). Tencent, Asia’s most valuable company with a market capitalization of $473 billion, is a major stakeholder in JD.com, and the two have recently upped cooperation on data and payments to better compete with Alibaba. JD.com Chief Executive Richard Liu recently said roughly 100 Chinese apparel merchants had left the firm’s platform in the last quarter due to what he called “coercive” tactics by competing platforms. “The strength of Vipshop’s flash sale and apparel businesses, as well as its outstanding management team, create clear and strong synergies with us,” Liu said in the statement. After the Vipshop deal closes, Tencent will allow Vipshop to capture traffic from WeChat, and JD.com will integrate Vipshop features into its own app and assist the firm in reaching sales targets, the companies said. Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tencent-holdings-jd-com-vipshop-hldg/chinas-tencent-jd-com-invest-863-million-in-online-retailer-vipshop-idUKKBN1EC07T'|'2017-12-18T04:50:00.000+02:00'
'c4f5c9d66dccd922dc74fe0d4286d2299272c205'|'Japan exports boom, but inflation not following script in blow to BOJ exit plan'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:56 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Japan exports boom, but inflation not following script in blow to Bank of Japan exit plan Tetsushi Kajimoto 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese exports accelerated sharply in November, yet again pointing to growing momentum in the world’s third-biggest economy. There was just one catch: inflation remained stubbornly low and well off the central bank’s 2 percent target. FILE PHOTO: Newly manufactured cars await export at a port in Yokohama, Japan, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The combination of steady growth and benign consumer prices mean the Bank of Japan will lag other major central banks in exiting crisis-era monetary stimulus, with analysts widely expecting BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda to keep the liquidity tap wide open at a meeting later this week. “Inflation expectation is in a gradual recovery trend, but a gap between firm economic indicators and weak price indexes remains wide open,” said Yuichiro Nagai, economist at Barclays Securities. Indeed, a BOJ survey on Monday showed companies’ inflation expectations heightened only a touch in December from three months ago, despite a tight labor market and business confidence at over a decade high. The persistently low inflation - with core prices running at an annual pace of 0.8 percent - was also hard to square off with the robust performance of Japan Inc., which has benefited from booming exports thanks to upbeat global demand. [nL3N1NZ241 Separate data from the Ministry of Finance showed exports grew 16.2 percent in the year to November, beating a 14.6 percent gain expected by economists in a Reuters poll and accelerating from the prior month’s 14.0 percent increase, led by a stellar sales to China and Asia. Economists expect brisk Asia-bound shipments of electronics and solid capital investment in advanced economies will underpin Japan’s export performance in coming months. “The global economic outlook by IMF and OECD suggests the world economy will remain resilient for the time being, which will provide favourable export conditions,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. That upbeat outlook was highlighted in the BOJ’s tankan survey on business sentiment last week, which showed big manufacturers’ optimism hit an 11-year high. All of this has helped Japan’s economy score its second-longest run of postwar growth. That marked a feather in the cap of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe whose ‘Abenomics’ stimulus policies have put the nation on the cusp of vanquishing nearly two decades of deflation. INFLATION, ANYONE? A pedestrian walks past the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo, May 22, 2013. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo Many economists, however, are skeptical that consumer price gains will keep up with growth in overall economic activity. And earlier this month, Kuroda signaled the BOJ may edge away from its crisis-mode stimulus, saying keeping it for too long could undermine regional banks’ health. “The BOJ will likely be forced into cutting its price projections once again in its quarterly outlook report in January. That will highlight a distance to an exit from the BOJ’s monetary stimulus,” said Barclays’ Nagai. The BOJ quarterly “tankan” survey on corporate inflation expectations survey showed companies expect consumer prices to rise 0.8 percent a year from now, slightly ahead of their projection for a 0.7 percent increase three months ago. The marginal nudge up in expectations underscored why inflation is still well off the BOJ’s target, with firms expecting consumer prices to rise an annual 1.1 percent three years from now and 1.1 percent five years ahead, unchanged from three months ago, the survey showed. On the external front, the news continued to look up for Japan, offering hope that a much-anticipated virtual circle of private sector-led growth will boost consumption and prices. The value of exports to China, Japan’s largest trading partner, rose 25.1 percent year-on-year in November to 1.38 trillion yen ($12.24 billion), the highest monthly amount on record, led by equipment to manufacture liquid crystal displays (LCD). Shipments to Asia, which account for more than half of Japan’s exports, grew 20.4 percent in the year to November to 3.89 trillion yen, the record amount. Exports to the United States rose 13.0 percent in the year to November, led by cars and excavators, following a 7.1 percent gain in the previous month. “The upshot is that net exports should have provided another boost to GDP growth in the current quarter,” said Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics. ($1 = 112.7300 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-trade/japan-export-growth-accelerates-underscores-steady-economic-recovery-idINKBN1EC020'|'2017-12-18T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'1ee31ac55ec5208a59d5a2be597c38bdb4eb95db'|'Saudi Aramco hires Citi to lead $2 billion UK-backed loan: sources'|' 50 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Saudi Aramco hires Citi to lead $2 billion UK-backed loan: sources Dasha Afanasieva , Davide Barbuscia 3 Min Read LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] has appointed U.S. investment bank Citi to lead a $2 billion financing backed by Britain, sources familiar with the deal said. The loan mandate will not be particularly lucrative, the sources said, but is seen by some banks as a way of getting closer to securing work on Aramco’s planned initial public share offer, which may value the company at $2 trillion - a sum some prospective investors have said appears unrealistically high. “Banks look at these kinds of operations for relationship purposes,” said a source at a European export credit agency in the Middle East. “This kind of loan is a bit of a test that Aramco makes on the market and given the name, there’s high competition among banks,” he added. The loan financing, announced in November, is guaranteed by UK Export Finance (UKEF), the British export credit agency, and will enable Saudi Aramco to buy British goods and services more easily. “UKEF is engaged in finalizing the operational arrangements regarding a significant finance facility with Saudi Aramco. UKEF’s support will take the form of a $2 billion guarantee on bank lending,” said a UK government spokesperson in an emailed response to a request for comment, adding that Aramco would select the banks involved in the transaction. Aramco and Citi declined to comment. Citi is keen to win a much-coveted role in the IPO, expected to raise $100 billion as soon as late 2018 and a cornerstone policy in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to diversify the Saudi economy away from its over-dependency on oil. One source said proposals were due on Wednesday for the IPO roles but banks without an established lending role did not expect to be successful. “We can’t get on their loans so we don’t expect to get a mandate. It’s really frustrating,” said one banker who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Earlier this year Aramco formally appointed JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and HSBC to advise it on the listing alongside independent advisors Moelis and Evercore. Citi also recently received an investment banking license for Saudi Arabia after more than a decade out of the kingdom. Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva in London and Davide Barbuscia in Dubai, with additional reporting by Reem Shamseddine in Khobar; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aramco-citi-loan/saudi-aramco-hires-citi-to-lead-2-billion-uk-backed-loan-sources-idUSKBN1EC1JO'|'2017-12-18T14:48:00.000+02:00'
'1c0d2f2f5c2c8fcaf05b0bff1fca42f96a44e107'|'France to consider long-term ADP concession before sale -report'|'December 17, 2017 / 10:24 PM / Updated 2 hours ago France to consider long-term ADP concession before sale: report Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The French government is considering awarding a long-term concession to Paris airport operator ADP ( ADP.PA ) because of land ownership issues, prior to a possible sale of a controlling stake, business daily Les Echos said. The ADP (Groupe Aeroports de Paris) new logo for travelers, "Paris Aeroport", is seen at a new departure gate in Orly airport, near Paris, France, April 14, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier ADP has been tipped to be among the state assets to be sold in a privatization program aimed at generating 10 billion euros to invest in innovation. The government may first grant an operating concession of 50 to 100 years to avoid a complex overhaul of the legal status of ADP, which unlike other airport operators owns its land, Les Echos said in an online version of its Monday edition. The government would in a second stage seek to sell its 50.63 percent stake in ADP, the newspaper said. Regarding lottery operator FDJ, also widely expected to be part of a privatization push, the government is looking at reducing its stake to between 25 percent and 30 percent compared with the current 72 percent, Les Echos said. Privatization terms may be outlined in legislation due to be unveiled in the spring, the paper said, adding it could also allow the state to reduce its holding in utility Engie ( ENGIE.PA ) to below a threshold of one-third of voting rights. No one at France’s economy ministry was immediately available to comment. Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Caroline Pailliez; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-france-privatisations-adp/france-to-consider-long-term-adp-concession-before-sale-report-idUKKBN1EB0V9'|'2017-12-18T00:18:00.000+02:00'
'71ad25f64bbeec72917cb23a05e7f82d718b2ba7'|'WhatsApp faces French fine over Facebook data sharing'|'December 18, 2017 / 5:18 PM / in 43 minutes French privacy watchdog raps WhatsApp over Facebook data sharing Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France’s data privacy watchdog may fine messaging app WhatsApp if it does not comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with parent company Facebook ( FB.O ) into line with French privacy law. The French data protection authority - CNIL - said on Monday it had told WhatsApp to comply with the order within one month, and pay particular attention to obtaining users’ consent. If Whatsapp does not comply it could sanction the company, the watchdog said. The CNIL said WhatsApp did not have the legal basis to share user data with Facebook and had violated its obligation to cooperate with the French authority. WhatsApp, bought by Facebook in 2014, said it would begin sharing some user data with the social media group in 2016, drawing warnings from European privacy watchdogs about getting the appropriate consent. In October, European Union privacy regulators rapped WhatsApp for not resolving their concerns over the messaging service’s sharing of user data with Facebook a year after they first issued a warning. The French regulator said that WhatsApp had not properly obtained users’ consent to begin sharing their phone numbers with Facebook for “business intelligence” purposes. “The only way to refuse the data transfer for “business intelligence” purpose is to uninstall the application,” the CNIL said in a statement. The regulator accepted that the transfer of user data for security purposes seemed to be essential to the functioning of the application. But the watchdog also said the same did not apply for “business intelligence” purposes which aim to improve the apps’ performance. European data protection authorities can only impose small fines at the moment, but a new EU privacy law entering into force next year will increase fines to up to 4 percent of a company’s global turnover. The CNIL said it had repeatedly asked WhatsApp to provide a sample of French users’ data transferred to Facebook but the company had explained it could not do so as it is located in the United States and “it considers that it is only subject to the legislation of this country.” Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Francesco Guarascio and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-whatsapp-privacy-france/whatsapp-faces-french-fine-over-facebook-data-sharing-idUSKBN1EC285'|'2017-12-18T19:02:00.000+02:00'
'19ffdc505215fc4a7f66667df7d12ab2a08f8943'|'Icelandair cancels half its flights due to mechanics strike'|' 35 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Icelandair cancels half its flights due to mechanics strike   COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Half of Icelandair’s ( ICEAIR.IC ) flights were cancelled on Monday, leaving thousands of travellers stranded after members of the Icelandic Aircraft Mechanics Association called a strike over pay. “Normally we have around 10,000 passengers a day and now we are flying around half of our scheduled flights,” a spokesman for Icelandair said, adding that only eight out of a total 30 planes were able to fly. A new meeting with the union has not been scheduled yet to resolve the dispute, the Icelandic carrier said. Reporting by Julie Astrid Thomsen, additional reporting by Elias Thorsson, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-icelandair-group-strike/icelandair-cancels-half-its-flights-due-to-mechanics-strike-idUKKBN1EC1I4'|'2017-12-18T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'962dbc1a0b01b304bada7187871224f6e385d45b'|'Hershey to buy SkinnyPop parent Amplify Snack for $1.6 billion'|'December 18, 2017 / 12:15 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Hershey to buy Amplify Snack in $1.6 billion bet on healthy snacks Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. candy maker Hershey Co ( HSY.N ) said on Monday it would buy SkinnyPop popcorn maker Amplify Snack Brands ( BETR.N ) in a deal valued at $1.6 billion, including debt, to gain a firmer footing in the fast-growing market for healthy snacks. A Hershey''s chocolate bar is shown in this photo illustration in Encinitas, California January 29, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake The maker of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses said it would pay $12 per Amplify share, a 71.4 percent premium to the stock’s close on Friday. Amplify’s shares were at $11.96 in premarket trading, while Hershey fell 1 percent to $113. Big U.S. food companies are snapping up smaller brands as they try to maintain dominance with consumers increasingly moving to smaller, healthier or more artisanal brands. Over the past two years, Hershey has acquired brands such as Krave meat jerky and Ripple Brand Collective’s barkTHINS. Amplify Snack owns brands such as SkinnyPop popcorn and Paqui chips which claim to have no artificial ingredients or transfats and come in dairy-free cheese and naturally sweet flavors that are popular among millennial consumers. “Hershey’s snack mix and meat snacks products, combined with Amplify’s Skinny Pop, Tyrrells, Oatmega, Paqui and other international brands, will allow us to capture more consumer snacking occasions by creating a broader portfolio of brands,” Hershey Chief Executive Michele Buck said in a statement. Hershey, which rejected a $23 billion bid from Oreo cookie owner Mondelez International Inc ( MDLZ.O ) in June last year, said it expects to save $20 million over the next two years through the Amplify deal. It expects to use cash on hand and take on new debt to fund the deal, which is expected to close next quarter. Hershey’s offer values Amplify’s equity at $920.95 million and it will also take on the company’s debt, which was $590.5 million as of Sept. 30. Hershey will also incur a make-whole payment of $76 million related to a tax receivable agreement that Amplify entered into when it went public in 2015. Amplify’s largest stockholder, TA Associates, and key company insiders who collectively represent about 57 percent of outstanding shares have agreed to back the deal, the companies said in a joint statement. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC were financial advisers to Hershey, while Jefferies LLC advised Amplify. Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Martinne Geller in London; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amplify-snack-m-a-hershey/hershey-to-buy-skinnypop-parent-amplify-snack-for-1-6-billion-idUKKBN1EC1F2'|'2017-12-18T14:11:00.000+02:00'
'6cd34aaaca1d7b427fcc134a411e79800ea78cc1'|'Greenyard targets U.S. market with talks to acquire Dole Food'|'December 19, 2017 / 9:30 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Greenyard targets U.S. market with talks to acquire Dole Food Alan Charlish 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Belgian fresh and frozen foods company Greenyard NV ( GREENY.BR ) said on Tuesday it was in advanced negotiations to acquire Dole Food Company [DFCI.UL], the world’s largest fruit and vegetable producer, confirming a Reuters report. FILE PHOTO: A Dole vessel transporting containers with boxes of bananas is anchored at Dole''s Port in Guayaquil, Ecuador, February 23, 2012. REUTERS/Guillermo Granja/File Photo The California-based company, one of the largest producers of bananas and pineapples, could be valued at more than $2.5 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Greenyard has a market capitalisation of 869 million euros (766.33 million pounds) according to Thomson Reuters data. “Greenyard has secured appropriate financing, and is confident in its ability to complete the transaction with a balanced financing approach should a definitive agreement be reached,” the company said in a statement. The deal would create a company with annual revenue of around 8 billion euros. Shares in Brussels-listed Greenyard, half-owned by the family of Belgian entrepreneur Hein Deprez, were up 1.9 percent at 0830 GMT, after a 3.3 percent rise on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Dole brand bananas are seen on display at the Safeway store in Wheaton, Maryland, United States, February 13, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron/File Photo For Dole’s 94-year-old chairman David Murdock a deal with Greenyard would offer a quick way to cash out on his ownership of the California-based company, which has also been considering a potential initial public offering. For Greenyard, an acquisitive company that started out as a mushroom grower in the 1980s, the deal would allow it to branch out into the U.S. market. It could also supply the U.S. businesses of existing customers such as Aldi [ALDIEI.UL], Lidl and Ahold Delhaize ( AD.AS ). “It is a very fragmented fruit and veg distribution market they’re operating in... some of the markets where they’ve talked about being more ambitious are France, the UK and the U.S., and certainly Dole would give them that key into the U.S.,” said Berenberg analyst Fintan Ryan. “From a strategic point of view, the acquisition would make sense creating a large player in both Europe and America,” KBC analysts said in a note, adding that Greenyard would need to raise about 500 million euros to keep its net debt/EBITDA level ratio to below 3.5. Dole Food Company could not immediately be reached for comment. Reporting by Alan Charlish; additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dole-food-m-a-greenyard/greenyard-targets-u-s-market-with-talks-to-acquire-dole-food-idUKKBN1ED0VR'|'2017-12-19T11:30:00.000+02:00'
'4f0ed3ebc0d78b420f5d847f1c647f911bda3e4b'|'Italian budget commission approves web tax on digital services'|'December 19, 2017 / 10:46 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Italian budget commission approves web tax on digital services Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - The budget commission of Italy’s lower house approved on Tuesday a measure obliging companies to pay a 3 percent levy on some internet transactions in a move aimed at bypassing EU tax rules that benefit large tech firms. The European Commission said it understood concerns over existing regulations, but urged member states to wait for Brussels to come up with an EU-wide solution to the problem rather than go it alone with separate legislation. Italy has long complained that companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google have avoided taxes by maintaining they do not have a “stable presence” in the country, even though they generate huge revenues there. To get around that hurdle, the new “web tax” will be aimed at firms buying “intangible digital products” such as advertising and sponsored links embedded in webpages. E-commerce trade will not be targeted. The finance ministry has said it will identify exactly which services are taxable by next April. The sales levy will be introduced in 2019 and is projected to bring in 190 million euros ($224.2 million) a year. Companies will only have to pay up if they make more than 3,000 digital transactions in a year. FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is shown reflected on an adjacent office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo The measure is included in the 2018 budget bill, which has to be passed into law before the end of the year. The upper house Senate originally proposed a 6 percent tariff, but this was halved in the lower house. Under EU law, corporate taxes are paid where firms have a physical presence, which allows large digital multinationals to book most of their profits in the low-tax countries where they have set up headquarters. FILE PHOTO - A woman is reflected in a Apple store logo in San Francisco, California, U.S., August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs Italy, France, Germany and Spain are pushing to change the EU tax legislation, but are facing resistance from smaller nations like Luxembourg and Malta, which fear reform could hurt their economies. France has also proposed its own national, digital levy, but the European Commission urged countries to hang fire. “Member States are understandably frustrated at the revenues they are losing. But a patchwork of national measures could create loopholes, legal clashes and distortions in the Single Market,” said a Commission spokesperson in Brussels. “The European Commission is currently examining all possible policy options so as to propose next Spring new rules for taxing the digital economy.” Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Richard Balmforth'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-tax-digital/italian-budget-commission-approves-web-tax-on-digital-services-idUSKBN1ED14F'|'2017-12-19T12:30:00.000+02:00'
'1d469d1a12fab16ff322954d88e32754bd44c4de'|'U.S. third-quarter economic growth lowered to 3.2 percent'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:44 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago U.S. third quarter economic growth lowered to 3.2 percent Reuters Staff 4 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in more than two years in the third quarter, powered by robust business spending, and is poised for what could be a modest lift next year from sweeping tax cuts passed by Congress this week. Gross domestic product expanded at a 3.2 percent annual rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said in its third GDP estimate on Thursday. While that was slightly down from the 3.3 percent rate reported last month, it was the quickest pace since the first quarter of 2015 and was a pickup from the second quarter’s 3.1 percent rate. It also marked the first time since 2014 that the economy experienced growth of 3 percent or more for two straight quarters. But the growth pace for the July-September period likely overstates the health of the economy. An alternate measure of growth, gross domestic income, rose at a 2.0 percent rate in the third quarter. GDI was previously reported to have increased at a 2.5 percent rate. The average of GDP and GDI, also referred to as gross domestic output and considered a better measure of economic growth, increased at a 2.6 percent rate instead of the previously reported 2.9 percent pace. Republicans in the U.S. Congress this week approved a broad package of tax cuts in what was the largest overhaul of the tax code in 30 years, handing President Donald Trump a major legislative victory. Trump is expected to soon sign the legislation, which has $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. (Full Story) Economists are forecasting a modest economic boost from the tax cuts, which includes slashing the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. The fiscal stimulus will come while the economy is at full employment, which raises the risk of it overheating. Economists had expected that third-quarter GDP growth would be unrevized at a 3.3 percent rate. Growth in the third quarter was also boosted by an accumulation of unsold goods and a rebound in government investment. Growth in business investment in equipment was raised to a 10.8 percent pace, the fastest in three years, from the previously reported 10.4 percent rate. Businesses accumulated inventories at a pace of $38.5 billion in the third quarter, instead of the previously reported rate of $39.0 billion. Inventory investment contributed 0.79 percentage point to third-quarter GDP growth, little changed from the previously reported 0.80 percentage point. Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, was revised down by one-tenth of a percentage point to a 2.2 percent rate in the third quarter. Consumer spending increased at a robust 3.3 percent rate in the second quarter. Data on retail sales suggests consumer spending accelerated in October and November. Spending is being supported by steady wage gains and household savings. The government said after-tax corporate profits surged at a 5.7 percent rate last quarter instead of the previously reported 5.8 percent rate. Profits rose at only a 0.1 percent pace in the second quarter. Undistributed profits jumped at a 13.9 percent rate after declining for two straight quarters, suggesting that companies were anticipating deep tax cuts. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-gdp/u-s-third-quarter-economic-growth-lowered-to-3-2-percent-idUSKBN1EF1PX'|'2017-12-21T15:51:00.000+02:00'
'2b78945367d3e0fa43a20ea289c6dc68a5320882'|'New electric London taxi set to be exported to Norway'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:05 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago New electric London taxi set to be exported to Norway Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London’s black cab-maker said its new electric taxi will be exported to Norway next year, its second foreign market as the Chinese Geely-owned firm pursues a major expansion plan. FILE PHOTO: An electric cab belonging to the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is seen in London, Britain, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File Photo The London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) picked Amsterdam earlier this year as its first overseas destination, where around 225 vehicles will be used as part of a service which transports the elderly and disabled. LEVC is boosting its volumes as part of a plan which will see it sell roughly half of around 10,000 vehicles abroad by the turn of the decade, including a new van. It opened a new factory in central England in March, as part of a turnaround for the company which was saved from bankruptcy nearly five years ago by Geely. Norway has the world’s highest rate of battery-vehicle ownership, thanks to generous tax breaks, with taxi firms seeking to electrify their fleets. The Oslo-based firm Autoindustri will begin receiving deliveries of the model in the first quarter of 2018, LEVC said on Thursday. “There are huge opportunities ahead for the business in Norway and we are looking forward to working with Autoindustri to make them a reality,” said LEVC Chief Executive Chris Gubbey. Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-autos-taxi/new-electric-london-taxi-set-to-be-exported-to-norway-idUKKBN1EF142'|'2017-12-21T12:05:00.000+02:00'
'ec02794709ed67e68a526d37a5d5f6e9f6b331e0'|'Japanese pension fund to shoulder costs of BOJ''s negative rate - Nikkei'|'December 17, 2017 / 10:57 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Japanese pension fund to shoulder costs of BOJ''s negative rate - Nikkei Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the world’s largest pension fund, has decided to shoulder the costs charged on its deposits under the central bank’s negative rate policy, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday. GPIF currently entrusts its deposits to a trust bank arm of Mitsubishi Financial Group, which had been shouldering the cost of a 0.1 percent charge the BOJ imposes on a portion of excess reserves parked with the central bank. With GPIF’s deposits piling up because of its meagre returns on investment, the trust bank arm had been requesting the pension fund pay for the negative rate charge, the Nikkei said. GPIF decided to accept the request and pay the interest on deposits mandated by the BOJ’s policy, partly to ease the burden on the trust bank, the newspaper reported, without citing sources. (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Peter Cooney)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-boj-gpif/japanese-pension-fund-to-shoulder-costs-of-bojs-negative-rate-nikkei-idUSL1N1OH0NK'|'2017-12-18T00:52:00.000+02:00'
'2dc61ce3fef55f5d1bc35279d8e48e8d0eec8889'|'Nestle sells off tea brands in North America'|'Reuters TV United States   16 minutes ago Nestle sells off tea brands in North America   ZURICH (Reuters) - Nestle ( NESN.S ) has sold its sold two of its tea brands in North America as the world’s biggest food maker presses ahead with reshaping its business to focus on new consumer trends and healthcare. The Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters building in Vevey, Switzerland February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy Private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners said on Monday it has linked up with Dunn’s River Brands to buy the Sweet Leaf Tea and Tradewinds businesses from Nestle North America. The deal, which was for an undisclosed sum, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Nestle was not immediately available to comment. Under Chief Executive Mark Schneider, who took over this year, Nestle has embarked upon an overhaul of its brands and strategy as it seeks to overcome sluggish growth in its traditional businesses. Earlier this month the Swiss company announced the purchase of Canadian vitamin maker Atrium Innovations for $2.3 billion, its fourth purchase in recent months. It has bought Sweet Earth vegetarian foods and Blue Bottle coffee in September and Chameleon Cold-Brew coffee in November as it adjusts to a market where customers favor smaller, independent brands. Nestle, the maker of Gerber baby food, Purina pet food and Nescafe coffee came under pressure this year to improve returns from activist shareholder Third Point. It has since announced a share buyback and a margin target. As well going on a shopping spree, Nestle has also been trimming its operations including cutting jobs in its skin health business. Nestle said in June it might sell its U.S. confectionery business, which includes regional mass-market brands such as Butterfinger, Crunch and 100 Grand and could be valued at around $2 billion. Reporting by John Revill, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nestle-tea-sale/nestle-sells-off-tea-brands-in-north-america-idUKKBN1EC0NN'|'2017-12-18T09:43:00.000+02:00'
'f2fecacb393b166e284cffe72198aacbc7d18a66'|'GlaxoSmithKline boosts stake in Saudi Arabia unit'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:15 AM / Updated 3 hours ago GlaxoSmithKline boosts stake in Saudi Arabia unit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK.L ) (GSK) said on Monday it has boosted its stake in its Saudi Arabian unit to 75 percent as it seeks to benefit from the kingdom’s plan to transform the economy and raise local manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) CEO, Emma Walmsley, arrives for a meeting in Downing Street in central London, Britain, October 9, 2017. Picture taken October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville - RC1CC9F805D0 Healthcare is one of several sectors the kingdom wants to reform under its 2030 plan to diversify the economy away from a reliance on oil. Before the acquisition, GSK owned 49 percent of Glaxo Saudi Arabia, a business it formed in 1992 with local partner Banaja KSA Holding Company. In addition to the acquisition, GSK plans to invest more than 900 million riyals (£180 million) in its Saudi operations over the next three years. It plans to expand production at its Jeddah manufacture site by 30 percent. “The acquisition represents a step forward towards the strengthening of our operations in the kingdom,” said Andrew Miles, vice president and general manager of GSK in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. “Today, 80 percent of our portfolio is locally manufactured in Jeddah.” Reporting by Tom Arnold; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gsk-saudi/glaxosmithkline-boosts-stake-in-saudi-arabia-unit-idUKKBN1EC11D'|'2017-12-18T12:15:00.000+02:00'
'11c5dde7617f09d2c840d82a8a2edaa62452764a'|'British games developer Sumo Digital valued at 145 million pounds in IPO'|'December 18, 2017 / 7:06 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago British games developer Sumo Digital valued at 145 million pounds in IPO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - British games developer Sumo Digital said on Monday its initial public offering (IPO) was priced at 100 pence per share for listing on London’s junior market on Wednesday, valuing the company at 145 million pounds. The Sheffield-based developer, which makes games such as Forza Motorsport 7 and HITMAN Episode 5, said the placing of ordinary shares has raised about 38.5 million pounds, while a vendor placing has raised about 39.7 million pounds for selling shareholders. The company’s management and funds managed by private equity Perwyn LLP will retain a 43 percent stake. Sumo Digital, which develops games for Sony ( 6758.T ) and Microsoft ( MSFT.O ), was founded in 2003 and is one the largest independent games developers in the UK. The proceeds of the offering will be used to cut debt and as additional working capital, the company said. Zeus Capital was the sole bookrunner of the offering. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sumo-digital-ipo/british-games-developer-sumo-digital-valued-at-145-million-pounds-in-ipo-idUKKBN1EC0KV'|'2017-12-18T09:05:00.000+02:00'
'f863fc311c45d189daca757ee5c415b51b61f8fd'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX jumps, led by banks, energy stocks, Valeant'|'December 18, 2017 / 2:43 PM / in 8 minutes CANADA STOCKS-TSX jumps, led by banks, energy stocks, Valeant Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index gained in a broad rally in early trade on Monday, led by big banks and energy companies as well as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, which said it was bringing an eye treatment to market. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 124.79 points, or 0.78 percent, at 16,166.77 shortly after the open, with more than 23 advancers for every decliner. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-open/canada-stocks-tsx-jumps-led-by-banks-energy-stocks-valeant-idUSL1N1OI0UF'|'2017-12-18T16:42:00.000+02:00'
'e2296666a2be40ef074849f9604a607b65d65eaf'|'Thales says has room for more acquisitions after Gemalto'|' 35 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Thales says has room for more acquisitions after Gemalto Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Aerospace and defence group Thales ( TCFP.PA ), which has agreed to buy chipmaker Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) for 4.8 billion euros (£4.24 billion), said on Monday it retained the financial leeway to seize other acquisition opportunities. Patrice Caine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aerospace and defence group Thales, attends a news conference with Gemalto in Paris, France, December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer Chief Executive Patrice Caine also told a news conference that Gemalto’s staff will have the opportunity to get jobs at Naval Group, a unit of Thales. Reporting by Cyril Altmeye, writing by Dominique Vidalon; editing by Richard Lough'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gemalto-m-a-thales-acquistions/thales-says-has-room-for-more-acquisitions-after-gemalto-idUKKBN1EC13I'|'2017-12-18T12:34:00.000+02:00'
'fbbeeca872cf47f67f2804477c976f556ae0a925'|'Niki hangs on to slots for now as potential bidders line up'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:05 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Niki hangs on to slots for now as potential bidders line up Reuters Staff 3 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) unit Niki can keep its valuable runway slots while Austria’s Transport Ministry examines its insolvency filing, the airspace regulator said amid growing interest in the carrier from potential bidders. Niki filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ), which is buying other parts of Air Berlin, scrapped plans to buy Niki, grounding the airline’s fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. Niki’s workers’ council chief said on Dec. 15 the sale had to be agreed within seven days as its runway slots, or take-off and landing rights, would be lost after that point. But a spokesman for airspace regulator Austro Control said no such deadline existed and the slots, among Niki’s most attractive assets, would remain untouched for as long as the ministry was looking into the airline’s insolvency filing. “I cannot say anything about the length of the investigation for which there are no designated deadlines. The investigation at the Transport Ministry has been ongoing since (Niki) filed for insolvency,” the spokesman said. Sources told Reuters that British Airways parent IAG ( ICAG.L ) was once again interested in Niki. Other interested parties include its founder and former Formula One champion Niki Lauda, tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Irish budget carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ), Swiss carrier PrivatAir also voiced interest. “We want to take Niki over in its entirety and save all the jobs, if possible,” CEO Thomas Limberger told Austrian paper Die Presse, saying he was under time pressure get an idea of the carrier and arrange financing. FILE PHOTO: Airline Niki founder Niki Lauda attends a news conference in Vienna November 8, 2011. REUTERS/Herwig Prammer Niki’s administrator said bidders have until Thursday to submit offers. The Transport Ministry had no comment as new minister Norbert Hofer, who was sworn in on Monday, had not yet moved into his office as of Tuesday morning, meaning no spokesperson was available to comment on the investigation. There was no immediate comment from the office of the head of the new government, Sebastian Kurz, when asked if it would continue to look into possible bridge financing for Niki as the previous cabinet had. Lauda’s spokeswoman said he was supposed to meet Transport Minister Norbert Hofer, but declined to give any details. Lauda said he did not expect any decision on Niki’s future to be made before the Christmas holidays. “Several bids will be made by Thursday, and then on Friday they surely won’t say: Mr. Lauda wins,” he told German weekly Die Zeit in an interview. The planes flown by Air Berlin and Niki were leased, and Lufthansa has now taken on many of them from the lessors. However, should another buyer for Niki be found, Lufthansa will have to lease out some of those planes to the buyer, under an existing deal with the European Commission. Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich, Maria Sheahan, Victoria Bryan; Editing by Mark Potter and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki-deadline/niki-can-keep-slots-while-austria-examines-insolvency-filing-regulator-idUSKBN1ED179'|'2017-12-19T21:03:00.000+02:00'
'2d3c9ad4c6441bc12961a7d7d468528549a6faad'|'BRIEF-Softbank Group Reports Open Market Purchase Of About 5 Mln Shares Of Sprint From Dec 15 - Dec 18'|'#Market News  24 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago BRIEF-Softbank Group Reports Open Market Purchase Of About 5 Mln Shares Of Sprint From Dec 15 - Dec 18 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - Softbank Group Corp: * SOFTBANK GROUP CORP REPORTS OPEN MARKET PURCHASE OF ABOUT 5 MILLION SHARES OF SPRINT CORP FROM DEC 15 - DEC 18 - SEC FILING Source text: ( reut.rs/2CFJnRT )  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-softbank-group-reports-open-market/brief-softbank-group-reports-open-market-purchase-of-about-5-mln-shares-of-sprint-from-dec-15-dec-18-idUSFWN1OJ0Q1'|'2017-12-19T23:22:00.000+02:00'
'2786b0484dff53eedd96a67136aa778657452eb9'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 19'|'December 19, 2017 / 5:28 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 19 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 5 points higher at 7,542 on Tuesday, according to financial bookmakers. * BHP: Global miner BHP Billiton said on Tuesday it has taken a preliminary decision to quit the World Coal Association citing disagreement over climate change, and might also withdraw from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over mining industry rules. * BARCLAYS: British bank Barclays Plc has submitted an alternative proposal to restructure Seadrill , the oil rig company said in a U.S. court filing. * LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP: London Stock Exchange''s shareholders would meet on Tuesday to decide if its chairman Donald Brydon should be removed, as demanded by activist hedge fund TCI. * MILLENNIUM & COPTHORNE/CITY DEVELOPMENTS: Kwek Leng Beng, the Singaporean billionaire attempting to take over Millennium & Copthorne Hotels , defended his bid on Monday after a group of investors argued it was too low and sought to block the deal. * CENTRICA: Britain''s Centrica is aiming to produce a total of 56 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from its Rough site in 2018, a company spokesman said on Monday. * The UK blue chip index closed up 0.62 percent on Monday, restrained by a rising pound, as a global wave of optimism over a U.S. tax bill and the prospect of a coalition to rule Germany lifted stocks and led the MSCI all-country world index to new record highs. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-19-idUSL4N1OJ20T'|'2017-12-19T07:24:00.000+02:00'
'324d269839779b9ac26fba0778cca902362ce95a'|'Apple names long-time exec as new India sales head - source'|'December 19, 2017 / 6:48 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Apple names long-time exec as new India sales head: source Sankalp Phartiyal 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) has appointed Michel Coulomb as its top sales executive in India, replacing Sanjay Kaul, a source familiar with the move said on Tuesday, as the U.S. tech giant pursues a bigger share of the world’s third-largest smartphone market. Coulomb has worked with Apple since 2003 and was most recently the managing director for Apple in South Asia, according to his biography on professional network LinkedIn. The Economic Times newspaper had reported earlier on Tuesday that Kaul would be leaving after six years with Apple, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Coulomb and Kaul were not immediately reachable. The Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of the iPhone is keen to widen its reach in India where it currently holds just under 3 percent of the smartphone market. Apple’s sales rose 17 percent to 116.19 billion rupees ($1.81 billion) in the fiscal year to March 2017, much slower than the 50 percent growth in the previous year, regulatory filings show. It is also seeking incentives and tax breaks from the federal government to expand manufacturing in India. On Monday, Apple increased prices for all its phones in India by an average 3.5 percent after the government last week raised taxes on imported phones, except the low-cost SE model that it assembles through its Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron ( 3231.TW ) in Bengaluru. India’s price-sensitive market is currently dominated by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ), and Chinese players including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. Apple’s iPhones remain aspirational for a rising middle class but their price keeps them out of the reach of many. ($1 = 64.1500 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-india/apple-names-long-time-exec-as-new-india-sales-head-source-idUSKBN1ED0IF'|'2017-12-19T08:42:00.000+02:00'
'c5934b48409745790cef10573b603e8f62ca8e39'|'Old Mutual sells Buxton UK wealth business for 600 million pounds'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:33 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Old Mutual sells Buxton UK wealth business for 600 million pounds Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual ( OML.L ) is selling its UK wealth business run by veteran fund manager Richard Buxton to private equity firm TA Associates for 600 million pounds, it said on Tuesday. The Cape Town headquarters of Anglo-South African financial services company Old Mutual are shown in this picture taken March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings The sale of the single-strategy asset management business of Old Mutual Wealth is part of a planned break-up of the group. TA Associates is paying 570 million pounds in cash on or before completion, with 30 million payable afterwards, between 2019 and 2021, Old Mutual said in a statement. Old Mutual is planning to list the remaining UK multi-asset business of Old Mutual Wealth next year, as it looks to break itself into four parts by the end of 2018. The single strategy division had assets under management of 25.7 billion pounds at Sept. 30 2017. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-old-mutual-sale-wealth/old-mutual-sells-buxton-uk-wealth-business-for-600-million-pounds-idUKKBN1ED0MF'|'2017-12-19T09:44:00.000+02:00'
'3687cf6d19ab42aa4111edebc393b9279d33be2e'|'Top British firms named and shamed on PM''s fat cat pay list - Business - The Guardian'|'Executive pay and bonuses Top British firms named and shamed on PM''s fat cat pay list Burberry, Sky, Sports Direct, WPP and one in five FTSE 100 firms included on register ordered by Theresa May to list UK firms overpaying bosses WPP made the excessive pay list. Investors voted against the 2016 salary package of £48m for CEO Sir Martin Sorrell, pictured. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters Executive pay and bonuses Top British firms named and shamed on PM''s fat cat pay list Burberry, Sky, Sports Direct, WPP and one in five FTSE 100 firms included on register ordered by Theresa May to list UK firms overpaying bosses Tue 19 Dec ‘17 05.55 GMT Last modified on Tue 19 Dec ‘17 12.09   Several of Britain’s best-known companies, including Burberry , Sky and Sports Direct, are included on a list ordered by the prime minister of firms rewarding bosses with “fat cat pay” and representing the “unacceptable face of capitalism”. More than a fifth of Britain’s FTSE listed-firms are included on the “name and shame” register of companies that Theresa May said risk damaging “the social fabric of our country” by paying bosses too much money. May ordered the creation of the world’s first public register of companies that ignored shareholder concerns and awarded “pay rises to bosses that far outstrip the company’s performance” in August . She said calling out the firms would help tackle the “abuses and excess in the boardroom” and restore public confidence in big business. Hermes delivery driver''s diary shows flipside to Christmas shopping Read more The public register was published on Tuesday by the Investment Association, a trade body of investment firms that manage the pensions of million of Britons. The register lists every company in the FTSE All-Share Index which has suffered at least a 20% shareholder rebellion against proposals for executives pay, re-election of directors or other resolution at their shareholder meetings. Companies on the register include fashion label Burberry, broadcaster Sky, retailer Sports Direct and Sir Martin Sorrell’s advertising company WPP . Others on the list include banking giant HSBC, supermarket Morrisons , BT, estate agent Foxtons, the AA and Mothercare. Chris Cummings, chief executive of the Investment Association, said the register “reveals the true scale of investor concern” and shows how many shareholders are “flexing their muscles by exercising their votes”. Cummings said the fact that 22% of companies in the FTSE All-Share are included on the list shows that “a significant number of companies need to seriously start listening to shareholders views and acting on them”. Greg Clark, the business secretary, said he hoped the public register would increase pressure on the “minority of firms that threaten the world-leading reputation of our business community”. “It is right that we review and refresh our standards to ensure we continue to have the highest reputation,” he said. “This world-first public register, does exactly that, shining a spotlight on how companies respond to shareholders’ concerns over important decisions, including executive pay packages. “This will help to strengthen transparency and corporate accountability and build on our reputation as a world-leading business environment – a key foundation of our industrial strategy.” The public register, which will be continuously updated, also includes companies that withdrew or amended pay packages in the wake of shareholder discontent in the run up to votes. It also includes companies’ statements on how they intend to address investors concerns. When she announced plans for the register, May said: “Too often in recent years, we have also seen another, unacceptable, face of capitalism. A minority of firms are falling short of the high standards we expect of them. Some have deliberately broken rules that are designed to protect their workers. “Others have ignored the concerns of their shareholders by awarding pay rises to bosses that far outstrip the company’s performance. “When big businesses are brought into disrepute, public trust in an open, free-enterprise economy is weakened. It is bad for individual workers and companies, but also damages the social fabric of our country. It emboldens those on the far left who hate to see business succeed.” May originally raised the prospect of a crackdown on executive pay in her Conservative party leadership bid in July 2016 in a speech that included proposals to allow employee and consumer representatives to sit on company boards, and make shareholder votes on executive pay legally binding. However, when a green paper was published in November last year the prime minister faced criticism from unions for backtracking on installing workers’ representatives on boards, while opposition MPs questioned whether enough safeguards were being put in place to avoid a rerun of the debacle at the collapsed department store chain BHS. Companies on the register include: Morrisons A 48% vote against plans – rising to 51% with abstentions – to increase the maximum long-term bonus for chief executive, David Potts, from 240% of his basic salary of £850,000 to up to 300%. Burberry A 32% vote against payouts to Christopher Bailey, who was giving up his role as chief executive to focus on creative work, over a rise in pay from £1.9m to £3.5m and receipt of £10.5m shares. Julie Brown, new chief operating offer, tried to head off a row by handing back £800,000 of shares and a further £1.6m of additional share awards. WPP A 21% vote against £48m for chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell even though the total package was more than 30% lower than the £70.4m he received in 2015. Sports Direct More than 70% of independent shareholders voted against a proposed £11m payout to founder Mike Ashley’s brother, John. The payment was blocked and the company said it now “considers all these matters to be closed”. Sky A 29% vote against £16m pay deal for chief executive Jeremy Darroch, largely because of a payout of nearly £12m under a long-term incentive plan. Only 51.6% of shareholders backed James Murdoch as chairman. • Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here . Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/19/top-british-firms-named-and-shamed-on-pms-fat-cat-pay-list'|'2017-12-19T12:55:00.000+02:00'
'3fa188dd4b97ceb13bfea29db2d6656bcf9ee636'|'BHP says likely to quit global coal lobby group'|'December 19, 2017 / 2:23 AM / Updated 5 hours ago BHP says likely to quit global coal lobby group Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Global miner BHP Billiton ( BHP.AX )( BLT.L ) said on Tuesday it has taken a preliminary decision to quit the World Coal Association citing disagreement over climate change, and might also withdraw from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over mining industry rules. BHP Billiton Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie is silhouetted against a screen projecting the company''s logo at a round table meeting with journalists in Tokyo, Japan June 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon BHP, which has largely quit mining coal for power plants but is the world’s largest exporter of coal for steel-making, said it would seek responses from the World Coal Association over policy differences before making a final decision on whether to quit in March 2018. The miner came under pressure from Australian green groups earlier this year to pull out of any industry groups whose policies did not match the company’s support of the Paris climate accord. Following a review, BHP said on Tuesday it had “reached a preliminary view to exit” the global coal lobby group, as the latter had called for Australia to abandon a clean energy target to boost prospects for high-tech coal-fired power plants. BHP said the association’s policy conflicted with its view that energy markets should be fuel- and technology-neutral and take into account costs and benefits. Likewise, it plans to decide by March whether to withdraw from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, of which BHP has been a member of since 2011. BHP highlighted the chamber’s opposition to a U.S. rule introduced in 2016 requiring resource companies to disclose all their payments to governments, as an area of difference with the company. BHP supported the rule. The company also said it would press the Minerals Council of Australia to review its promotion of coal in Australia’s energy policy and would reconsider its membership in a year’s time if changes weren’t made. Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bhp-coal-climatechange/bhp-says-likely-to-quit-global-coal-lobby-group-idUKKBN1ED06Z'|'2017-12-19T04:23:00.000+02:00'
'34bd034f340d9cac8df449270ec81cb6fa4f0148'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 19'|' 44 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 19 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds company news and futures) Dec 19 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 5 points higher at 7,542 on Tuesday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures up 0.06 percent ahead of the cash market open. * ACACIA MINING: Acacia Mining Plc said on Tuesday it would sell its 2 percent royalty over the Houndé Mine in Burkina Faso for $45 million to Sandstorm Gold Ltd . * OLD MUTUAL: Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual is selling its UK wealth business run by veteran fund manager Richard Buxton to private equity firm TA Associates for 600 million pounds ($803.16 million), it said on Tuesday. * BHP: Global miner BHP Billiton said on Tuesday it has taken a preliminary decision to quit the World Coal Association citing disagreement over climate change, and might also withdraw from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over mining industry rules. * BARCLAYS: British bank Barclays Plc has submitted an alternative proposal to restructure Seadrill , the oil rig company said in a U.S. court filing. * LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP: London Stock Exchange''s shareholders would meet on Tuesday to decide if its chairman Donald Brydon should be removed, as demanded by activist hedge fund TCI. * MILLENNIUM & COPTHORNE/CITY DEVELOPMENTS: Kwek Leng Beng, the Singaporean billionaire attempting to take over Millennium & Copthorne Hotels , defended his bid on Monday after a group of investors argued it was too low and sought to block the deal. * CENTRICA: Britain''s Centrica is aiming to produce a total of 56 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from its Rough site in 2018, a company spokesman said on Monday. * The UK blue chip index closed up 0.62 percent on Monday, restrained by a rising pound, as a global wave of optimism over a U.S. tax bill and the prospect of a coalition to rule Germany lifted stocks and led the MSCI all-country world index to new record highs. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-19-idUSL4N1OJ2I8'|'2017-12-19T09:40:00.000+02:00'
'903bfb3cee0bef2cca6793e948f1902bc70dffef'|'UPDATE 1-Rosneft does not rule out global oil output cuts extended beyond 2018'|' 00 PM / a minute ago Rosneft does not rule out global oil output cuts extended beyond 2018 Olesya Astakhova 2 Min Read SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - A global deal to cut oil production could be extended beyond 2018, Pavel Fedorov, first vice-president of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft said on Monday, presenting the company’s strategy through to 2022. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other large oil producers led by Russia agreed last month to extend the deal to curb output until the end of 2018 with a possibility of reviewing it in June. “On the whole ... this OPEC agreement obviously will affect our short-term targets, all the more so I don’t rule out it could be extended,” Fedorov said. Kremlin-controlled Rosneft accounts for 40 percent of Russia’s total oil production. He said production of liquids - which usually means crude oil and gas condensate - is seen reaching 250 million tonnes by 2022 from slightly below that level in 2019. Rosneft, in which BP owns a 19.75 percent stake, has been actively amassing assets at home and abroad. Last year it bought Russian oil producer Bashneft for 330 billion roubles ($5.6 billion), while earlier this year the company jointly with partners closed their $12.9 billion purchase of Indian refiner Essar Oil. A company official said on Monday that Rosneft will focus on value creation at its existing assets. Igor Sechin, Chief Executive Officer and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Monday the company had started exploration drilling at a Black Sea deposit. Rosneft has plans to jointly develop the Val Shatskogo (Shatsky Ridge) oilfield with Italy’s Eni. Fedorov also said the company’s total investments were seen at 950 billion roubles ($16.2 billion) in 2018 and rising further to over 1 trillion roubles in 2019. Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-rosneft-oil/rosneft-says-global-oil-output-cut-deal-could-be-extended-beyond-2018-idUSKBN1EC26V'|'2017-12-18T19:27:00.000+02:00'
'85c031ac6bda0d4e5e4f46ccf31e4cc787cdaf3e'|'PetroChina trading chief to take on global rivals in major expansion drive -sources'|'December 18, 2017 / 9:30 AM / Updated an hour ago PetroChina trading chief to take on global rivals in major expansion drive: sources Chen Aizhu 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - PetroChina’s oil and gas trading arm aims to buy petrol stations and fuel storage facilities, setting up business in West Africa, Brazil and Pakistan in a major global expansion aimed at taking on international rivals, according to three senior oil industry executives briefed on the plans. The ambitious drive at one of the world’s top oil merchants is taking shape eight months after Tian Jinghui, a vice president at PetroChina, took over the reins at Chinaoil, PetroChina’s trading vehicle. Tian is a veteran of fuel marketing at PetroChina, a listed unit of state giant CNPC and Asia’s largest oil and gas producer. Tian’s plan would mark a step on from the legacy of former chairwoman Wang Lihua - ‘Madame Wang’ to staff and peers - who led a previous round of expansion characterized by asset-heavy investments that included nearly $4 billion worth of stakes in four refineries stretching from Scotland to Japan. “The pace of execution is accelerating after Tian took over and the strategy fits his expertise,” said one Beijing-based executive with direct knowledge of the matter. He and two other executives briefed on the plans declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The new investments are expected to start as soon as next year, and mimic the moves the world’s top oil merchants Vitol and Trafigura have made recently - spending billions to buy up thousands of petrol stations in Pakistan, Turkey and Africa. They said the aim is to have a foothold in emerging markets and grow market share locally, with fuel supplies from refineries PetroChina operates globally as well as barrels exported from China where demand is slowing in a moderating economy. They didn’t disclose how much PetroChina might invest in the new drive. The expansion also aimed at tapping the transportation fuel market in those regions, where demand is growing faster than the global average, the executives said. In West Africa, it has its sights on Nigeria and Angola, they said. “Supplies to these markets have over the past been done through random tenders or ad-hoc business trips, that do not guarantee the company winning the deals,” said the executive. A spokesman for PetroChina didn’t respond to requests for comment. A gas station attendant pumps fuel into a customer''s car at PetroChina''s petrol station in Beijing, China, March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo ENGLISH CLASSES With the sharp drop in global oil prices, major integrated oil companies have been shedding assets, including marginally profitable retail outlets, to cut costs. Chevron is in the process of selling its refinery in Cape Town and more than 1,000 petrol stations in South Africa and Botswana, in a deal that has attracted China’s Sinopec and commodities and miner Glencore competing for the assets. Young staff from PetroChina’s massive domestic marketing team were sent on a three-month English course earlier this year as candidates for potential new overseas postings, said two of the three people with knowledge of the plans. These will be new additions to the 300-strong trading and marketing team PetroChina now has mainly in global trading hubs Singapore, London and Houston, they said. Chinaoil currently procures and trades nearly 7 million barrels of oil a day (bpd), including 4.8 million bpd of crude oil and 2.2 million bpd of oil products. That exceeds Vitol’s 6 million bpd as Chinaoil markets global production from PetroChina. “Tian wants to apply his domestic marketing expertise globally...to upgrade PetroChina’s global fuel marketing from being just a wholesaler sitting at trading hubs to a retailer in consuming regions,” said one of the senior industry executives. Buying storage tanks or petrol stations will be less costly than investing in refineries, but will still be a challenge for a team with mostly domestic experience. “It will be hugely challenging for the new people Tian sends in these new posts, to be familiar with local legal framework and learn to handle public relations,” said a third senior source. Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Josephine Mason and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-petrochina-oil-trading/petrochina-trading-chief-to-take-on-global-rivals-in-major-expansion-drive-sources-idUSKBN1EC0X9'|'2017-12-18T11:25:00.000+02:00'
'eaf5f89ef1e11cd956cfb1d8b6859f98d518a9de'|'Uber''s operating licence in UK city Cambridge extended for five years - report'|'December 18, 2017 / 2:59 PM / Updated an hour ago Uber''s operating licence in UK city Cambridge extended for five years - report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The university city of Cambridge extended Uber’s operating licence for five years, Cambridge News reported on Monday, in a rare boost for the taxi app which is battling to keep its cars on the road in London. FILE PHOTO - A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo The Silicon Valley firm’s operating licence was due to expire on Dec. 20 in Cambridge, southern England. Reporting by Costas Pitas, editing by James Davey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-britain-cambridge/ubers-operating-licence-in-uk-city-cambridge-extended-for-five-years-report-idUKKBN1EC1VG'|'2017-12-18T16:58:00.000+02:00'
'e4d105dfb7d1100930d0bcc293dd5a77e0ccb795'|'China unveils 2017-2021 winter clean heating plan - media'|'December 17, 2017 / 4:14 AM / Updated 6 hours ago China unveils 2017-2021 winter clean heating plan - media Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China announced on Sunday a five-year plan to convert northern Chinese cities to clean heating during the winter through to 2021, state media reported, amid a deepening heating crisis. An unprecedented government campaign to switch millions of households and thousands of businesses from coal to natural gas in northern China this winter has backfired. Severe natural gas shortages have sent prices soaring nationwide, hitting businesses and residents across China’s industrial heartland. The plan was jointly announced by 10 government agencies, including the state planning National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration, the online edition of Securities Times quoted the China Energy News as saying. The plan covers 2017 through to 2021. The government has made “concrete arrangements” regarding geothermal heating, biomass heating, solar heating, gas heating, electric heating, industrial waste heating, and clean coal-fired central heating, the Securities Times said. Half of northern China would have converted to clean heating by 2019, reducing bulk coal burning by 74 million tonnes, it said. It gave no further details. Factories are closing or operating at reduced capacity, businesses are seeing profits shrink as supply chains are disrupted, and residents are struggling to keep warm in sub-zero temperatures without adequate heating at home or in classrooms, according to interviews conducted by Reuters across the region this month. The campaign to convert coal to gas is part of long-running government efforts to clean the region’s toxic air after decades of unbridled economic growth. On Saturday, PetroChina began diverting nearly 7 million cubic metres of natural gas from the southern province of Guangdong to icy northern China to ease gas shortages, state television said on Sunday. Chinese oil and gas major CNOOC had also started supplying some 3 million to 5 million cubic metres of natural gas per day from the South China Sea and its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Zhuhai city to fill the gap in Guangdong, it said. The gas swap was organised by the NDRC. Gas shortages also spread to Changsha city, capital of the southern province of Hunan. Households that have bought 1,500 cubic metres or more this year were limited to buying 15 cubic metres per day from Dec. 15 onwards, state television said. The gas shortage in Changsha could exceed 60 million cubic metres this winter, it said. Reporting by Judy Hua and Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Stephen Coates and Paul Tait'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-energy-heating/china-unveils-2017-2021-winter-clean-heating-plan-media-idINKBN1EB039'|'2017-12-17T06:12:00.000+02:00'
'7146d52bf607956457ebf0f95e85cfe774786710'|'BoE to allow EU banks to operate in UK as normal after Brexit - BBC'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:39 AM / in 17 minutes BoE to allow EU banks to operate in UK as normal after Brexit: BBC Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England will allow European banks to continue selling their services in the United Kingdom without having to create expensive subsidiaries after Brexit, the BBC reported on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The decision, if confirmed, would mean European banks offering wholesale services would not face new hurdles to operating in London, which vies with New York for the title of the world’s financial capital. A BoE spokesman declined to comment on the report. The central bank is due to publish its approach to future supervision of foreign banks at 1300 GMT. The BoE’s proposal would amount to a signal of goodwill by Britain in Brexit talks and an attempt to preserve London’s position as the financial center which hosts more banks than any other. The BBC quoted unidentified government and industry sources as saying they supported the decision. A later version of the BBC story removed a reference to the BoE proposing that EU banks would be allowed to operate as usual even if no divorce deal was struck between London and Brussels. More than 100 banks operating in London are branches of lenders headquartered elsewhere in the EU. Currently, they operate in Britain under EU “passporting” rules which are due to expire when Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019. The BoE had previously said it would let banks know before the end of the year whether these branches must reapply for branch licenses to operate after Brexit, or would need to be turned into subsidiaries, a costlier option for banks. Switching from being a branch to a subsidiary means having to build up buffers of capital and cash locally. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said Britain will leave the EU’s single market, raising questions about how companies in Britain will do business in the bloc after Brexit, and how European companies can operate in Britain. Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by Guy Faulconbridge'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-banks/boe-to-allow-eu-banks-to-operate-in-uk-as-normal-after-brexit-bbc-idINKBN1EE03P'|'2017-12-20T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'94e2b4927d2870cae41f675cd81f0865e00b0113'|'Thyssenkrupp shareholders get impatient for change'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:50 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Thyssenkrupp shareholders get impatient for change Tom Käckenhoff , Christoph Steitz 4 Min Read DUESSELDORF/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Some investors in German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp are becoming impatient with the pace of its restructuring, putting pressure on Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger to fix underperforming units and revive its flagging share price. A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen In the job since 2011, Hiesinger is seeking to transform the sprawling engineering and steel group into a company with a focus on high-tech elevators, the construction of industrial plants, materials trading and its businesses serving car makers, its biggest single customer group. Since he took over nearly seven years ago, shares in Thyssenkrupp are down about a fifth, underperforming an 87-percent rise in the DAX but better than the 55-percent decline of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker. But for some investors that’s not good enough. “There are areas that are lagging expectations and need fixing,” one of Thyssenkrupp’s top 20 shareholders said, declining to be named. The muted performance even caused activist investor Cevian, Thyssenkrupp’s second-largest shareholder with an 18-percent stake, to recently question whether the group’s conglomerate structure was still appropriate. Hiesinger, in a letter to shareholders last month, said it was still Thyssenkrupp’s goal to enable the “optimum development of all business areas so as to strengthen the performance of the group as a whole”. Cevian, in the meantime, has repeatedly suggested a demerger of better-performing units, including Thyssenkrupp’s most profitable elevator business that accounts for almost half of its operating profit, calls which Hiesinger has so far resisted. “The major break-through is still lacking,” said Thomas Hechtfischer, managing director of shareholder advisory group DSW, which usually represents 1 percent of Thyssenkrupp’s voting rights at its annual general meeting. Hiesinger has spent a lot of resources on severing ties to Thyssenkrupp’s steel business, whose roots go back more than 200 years, and in September struck an initial deal to merge its European steel unit with that of Tata Steel. IN FOCUS “Other divisions have perhaps not been in focus that much as a result and that poses a problem now,” said Ingo Speich, fund manager at Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder that owns about 0.3 percent of Thyssenkrupp. “Profitability levels of the individual businesses show that there is still a lot of room for improvement.” Investors and analysts are most concerned about Thyssenkrupp’s Industrial Solutions division, which builds plants, ships and submarines and has been hit by low-margin legacy orders and weak demand for plant in recent years. Thyssenkrupp has already unveiled job cuts and recently announced a five-year high in orders at the division, but at 2 percent its operating margin is still below the 6-7 percent medium-to-long term target. “I think the division is more cyclical than we all thought,” said Bjoern Voss, analyst at Warburg Research. “Now the division needs to be restructured.” Some analysts also expect that Thyssenkrupp will at some point sell Materials Services, its materials distribution and trading division, a move analysts at Credit Suisse say would be a “major catalyst” for the group’s stock price. The division’s operating margin stood at 2.3 percent in the last financial year, compared with a mid-term target of 3-4 percent. Smaller German steel distributor Kloeckner & Co has expressed an interest in some parts of Materials Services, but said last week no talks were currently underway about a possible consolidation. So far, Thyssenkrupp only wants to sell a small part of the division -- Acciai Speciali Terni (AST), its Italian stainless steel unit, which made 1.78 billion euros ($2.11 billion) of sales in 2016/17 and has been labelled non-strategic. The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation, Thyssenkrupp’s largest shareholder with a 21 percent stake, declined to comment. ($1 = 0.8421 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/thyssenkrupp-shareholders/thyssenkrupp-shareholders-get-impatient-for-change-idINKBN1EE2CY'|'2017-12-20T19:46:00.000+02:00'
'fb52e5198677d4a8e52f543b4cd686c41716d801'|'Bitcoin falls more than 10 percent on Bitstamp'|'December 20, 2017 / 1:01 AM / Updated an hour ago Bitcoin falls almost 20 percent from recent peak to 1-week low Hideyuki Sano 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday to a one-week low of $15,800 at cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp BTC=BTSP , losing almost one- fifth of its value from a peak hit just three days ago. A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration/Files The digital currency has been sliding since it reached a record high of $19,666 on Sunday, when the exchange giant CME Group ( CME.O ) launched bitcoin futures, one week after its rival Cboe Global Markets ( CBOE.O ) listed the world’s first bitcoin futures. “The listing of two bitcoin futures makes it easier for institutional players to trade bitcoins. Futures also enable players to go short on bitcoins, which was difficult without liquid futures,” said Makoto Sakuma, researcher at NLI Research Institute in Tokyo. The bitcoin’s monumental gains this year - its price has soared about 19 times - have spurred caution and alarm among some policymakers. Singapore’s central bank on Tuesday issued a warning against investment in cryptocurrencies, saying it considers the recent surge in their prices to be driven by speculation and that the risk of a sharp fall in prices is high. South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service said on Tuesday it does not consider bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be currencies of any kind. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday that bitcoin had not been proven as a credible currency. However, for Japanese retail investors who are estimated to account for 30 to 50 percent of bitcoin trade worldwide, a more worrying warning may have come from a Japanese day trader guru known as Cis. The individual trader, who claims to own 21 billion yen (138.81 million pounds) in assets, tweeted over the last 24 hours that he had sold cryptocurrencies. “Given that he has a lot of followers, his tweets could have had an impact on Japanese traders, which in turn could have moved the market,” Sakuma said. Bitcoin has since pared some of the losses and last traded at $16,939, down 4.3 percent for the day. Its decline since Sunday is hardly a major correction for digital currency. In November, it tumbled almost 30 percent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 percent from $4,979 to $2,972. Many financial professionals have said bitcoin, which now has market capitalisation of about $275 billion, slightly bigger than Visa Inc ( V.N ), is a typical bubble, given how small the actual number of transactions are. The market is highly inefficient, with bitcoin futures BTCH8 XBTc1 trading much above cash bitcoins while the gaps of price quotes between various exchanges are also very large, they say. Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin-decline/bitcoin-falls-more-than-10-percent-on-bitstamp-idUKKBN1EE02T'|'2017-12-20T03:00:00.000+02:00'
'5e1ca91ad062d8dec8ba6c51dc923dcd854a9c05'|'Cyprus appoints seven international banks to develop secondary bond market'|' 06 AM / in 7 minutes Cyprus appoints seven international banks to develop secondary bond market Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NICOSIA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Cyprus has appointed seven international investment banks to develop its secondary sovereign bond market, the country’s finance ministry said on Tuesday. The banks are Barclays Bank, Citi, Goldman Sachs , HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale. “The banks will be asked to take on the role of lead manager in the Republic’s syndications in the international market and will work closely with the (Public Debt Management Office) in order to further develop a well-functioning and efficient secondary market for the sovereign bonds of the Republic of Cyprus,” the ministry said in a statement. (Reporting by Michele Kambas)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/eurozone-cyprus-banks/cyprus-appoints-seven-international-banks-to-develop-secondary-bond-market-idUSA8N1NK00J'|'2017-12-19T13:06:00.000+02:00'
'e6329723b6b91f7cb293f2a805db143c6e3e36f5'|'ECB sued over decision to freeze help to Greek banks during crisis'|'December 18, 2017 / 6:37 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago ECB sued over decision to freeze help to Greek banks during crisis Francesco Canepa 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and a German parliamentarian are suing the European Central Bank to gain access to a document underpinning the ECB’s decision to freeze vital funding to Greek banks in 2015. FILE PHOTO - European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters building is seen in Frankfurt, Germany July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski That move left Alexis Tsipras’ government with little choice but to shut down banks and impose capital controls, weakening his negotiating position with the country’s international lenders during bailout negotiations. Eventually, hard-liner Varoufakis resigned and Tsipras made a deal that gave Greece cash in return for austerity measures and reforms. Varoufakis and a German leftist parliamentarian, Fabio De Masi, are asking the European Union’s top court to force the ECB to disclose a legal opinion that informed that decision, which they say might be unlawful. “By restricting liquidity to the Greek banking sector to force cuts in pensions, tax increases and fire-sale privatisations, the ECB overstepped its mandate,” De Masi said. After their request was rejected by the ECB, Varoufakis and De Masi are turning to the General Court of the European Union to obtain the document. An ECB spokesman said the legal opinion preceded the decision to withhold funding by at least two months. The ECB decided not to disclose it to protect its legal advisers and its internal deliberations, he said. The ECB’s Agreement on Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), published earlier this year, prohibits national central banks from providing ELA if it “interferes with the objectives and tasks” of the Eurosystem, such as maintaining price stability and safeguarding payments. “There is an overriding public interest in knowing how far the ECB ... weighed different goals against each other and how they themselves and their legal experts have interpreted the legal framework in this respect,” the complainants’ lawyer, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, said in the appeal. Reporting By Francesco Canepa, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecb-greece-banks/ecb-sued-over-decision-to-freeze-help-to-greek-banks-during-crisis-idUKKBN1EC2DA'|'2017-12-18T20:36:00.000+02:00'
'4e21421dd15500b629cfb35a5f930013b023acc0'|'Thales'' 4.8 billion euro bid for Gemalto gets thumbs up from investors'|'December 18, 2017 / 9:31 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago Thales'' 4.8 billion euro bid for Gemalto gets thumbs up from investors Mathieu Rosemain , Cyril Altmeyer 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Shares in French defense electronics maker Thales ( TCFP.PA ) jumped more than 8 percent on Monday after chipmaker Gemalto ( GTO.AS ) accepted its 4.8 billion euro ($5.7 bln) takeover bid to create a leader in digital security. Thales Chief Executive Patrice Caine, who made his move just days after Gemalto had knocked back a 4.3 billion-euro offer from French rival Atos ( ATOS.PA ), said on Sunday that Gemalto had agreed to the takeover. Atos said it would not engage in a bidding war but would be open to further discussions with Gemalto should the Thales deal collapse. Thales shares closed up 8.25 percent at 93.40 euros, while Amsterdam-listed Gemalto’s shares ended 5.6 percent higher at 49.47 euros, just below Thales’ 51 euro per share basic offer. The planned merger highlights the increasingly blurred lines between industrial and software companies which are both vying for a share of the fast-growing digital security market as companies seek more online security. “In terms of DNA, the two companies look much more alike,” said Richard-Maxime Beaudoux, an analyst at Bryan, Garnier & Co. “It’s not a financial deal, which was the case for Atos. They gave it a try; it was opportunistic.” The French state is the largest shareholder in Thales, while state-owned bank Bpifrance is Gemalto’s second-biggest shareholder. A French government source said Thales had told the Gemalto board that it was the better fit. Under the deal, unanimously recommended by the boards of both companies, Thales will merge its digital assets with Gemalto to create a unit headed by Gemalto CEO Philippe Vallee. Slideshow (5 Images) TOUGH YEAR Thales’s proposed takeover ends a difficult year for Gemalto, which has made a series of profit warnings that hurt its shares and overshadowed its attempt to shift away from a slowing market for phone SIM cards toward security services such as data encryption and biometric passports. “Our intention is to keep all of the assets in Gemalto’s portfolio,” Caine told analysts, suggesting that SIM card operations remained core alongside Gemalto’s growing focus on cybersecurity. He said he had been in talks with Gemalto for several months. Thales forecast that Gemalto’s revenues would grow 5 percent annually and said it expected Gemalto’s EBIT margin to exceed its own within two or three years of the merger. Thales and Gemalto said on Sunday that the digital security entity would generate sales of 3.5 billion euros - one fifth of Thales’ total revenues - and pre-tax cost synergies of between 100 million and 150 million euros by 2021. Vallee on Monday said he would stick to a plan to cut 288 jobs in Gemalto’s struggling SIM card business in France. “This plan is maintained,” he told BFM business radio, adding that he would try to redeploy staff internally. Caine later told a news conference that Gemalto’s staff would have the opportunity to get jobs at French military shipyard Naval Group, which is part of Thales. Editing by Richard Lough/Jane Merriman/Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-gemalto-m-a-thales/thales-sees-5-percent-revenue-growth-from-gemalto-assets-idINKBN1EC0XY'|'2017-12-18T19:24:00.000+02:00'
'2c277b623b9803e4474897297de3b0eefab92b3e'|'Gold inches lower as dollar holds firm on U.S. tax bill hopes'|'December 18, 2017 / 4:35 AM / Updated an hour ago Gold inches lower as dollar holds firm on U.S. tax bill hopes Apeksha Nair 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Gold prices edged lower on Monday, pressured by firmer equities and a buoyant dollar after a bill to overhaul the tax system in the United States moved a step closer to ratification. Gold bars are seen at the Kazakhstan''s National Bank vault in Almaty, Kazakhstan, September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Mariya Gordeyeva/File Photo Spot gold was down about 0.1 percent at $1,254.40 an ounce at 0346 GMT. U.S. gold futures were little changed at $1,257.70 an ounce. The dollar held modest gains on Monday, having received a lift after top U.S. Republicans said they expected Congress to pass a tax code overhaul this week. A Senate vote could come as early as Tuesday and President Donald Trump aims to sign the bill before the week is out. “I think we have the last bearish news, which is the tax reform, and that is negative for gold so we expect gold to stay pretty depressed,” said Richard Xu, a fund manager at China’s biggest gold exchange-traded fund, HuaAn Gold. The U.S. tax bill, which would cut taxes for businesses and the rich while offering everyday Americans a mixed bag of changes, has helped drive the surge in equity markets this year. Asian shares gained on Monday, pulled higher by Wall Street, which hit record highs on expectations U.S. lawmakers will pass the long-awaited bill. Expectations that tax cuts would spur economic growth and prompt faster interest rate rises in the United States have boosted the dollar and weighed on gold. Spot gold faces a resistance at $1,262 per ounce and may hover below this level or retrace to a support at $1,239, Reuters technicals analyst Wang Tao said. Hedge funds and money managers cut their net long positions in COMEX gold contracts in the week to Dec. 12, while they switched to a net short stance in silver for the first time in five months, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday. In other precious metals, silver and palladium were nearly unchanged at $16.04 per ounce and $1,022.95 per ounce, respectively. Platinum was 0.3 percent lower at $890.50 an ounce, after earlier touching its best since Dec. 8 at $896.80. Reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-inches-lower-as-dollar-holds-firm-on-u-s-tax-bill-hopes-idINKBN1EC0CG'|'2017-12-18T06:35:00.000+02:00'
'3b97063865b6f275c075f431fd072f8faea984e3'|'European Commission warns on bitcoin risks'|' 01 PM / Updated an hour ago European Commission warns on bitcoin risks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission warned on Wednesday of risks for investors and consumers from the virtual currency bitcoin, including the chances of losing their entire investment. FILE PHOTO: Broken representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency, placed on a monitor that displays binary digits, are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said he was concerned about big fluctuations in the value of bitcoin, noting that the digital currency is not guaranteed by any country or issuer. “In recent weeks, bitcoin has our heightened attention. There are clear risks for investors and consumers associated with price volatility, including the risk of complete loss of investment, operational and security failures, market manipulation and liability gaps,” he told a news conference. “Investors should realise that it can drop at any moment. Virtual currencies like bitcoin are not really currencies.” Dombrovskis said he had written to EU banking and markets watchdogs to ask them to update their warnings on the risks of investing in bitcoin. The bitcoin’s monumental gains this year - its price has soared about 19 times - have led to increasing concern over what the fallout could be if the bubble were to suddenly burst. Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-finance-bitcoin/european-commission-warns-on-bitcoin-risks-idUKKBN1EE2OT'|'2017-12-20T23:00:00.000+02:00'
'143cd2373927df8810fa9177967fd1aebfba8b5b'|'Campbell Soup to buy snacks maker Snyder''s-Lance for $4.87 billion'|'UK factories enjoy another three-decade high for orders Health Tiny stem cell companies close in on major heart disease goals Lebanon murder suspect is Uber driver - source Reuters TV United States  45 PM / a few seconds ago Campbell Soup to buy snacks maker Snyder''s-Lance for $4.87 billion   (Reuters) - Campbell Soup Co ( CPB.N ) will buy Pretzels and Cape Cod chips maker Snyder‘s-Lance Inc ( LNCE.O ) for $4.87 billion as it looks to expand its snack business amid sagging soup sales. FILE PHOTO: Cans of Campbell''s Soup are displayed in a supermarket in New York City, U.S. February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Campbell said on Monday it would pay Snyder’s shareholder $50 per share in cash. The offer represents a 27 percent premium to Snyder’s close on Wednesday, a day before CNBC first reported that the company had hired an investment bank to weigh a potential sale following an approach from Campbell. Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-snyders-lance-m-a-campbell-soup/campbell-soup-to-buy-snacks-maker-snyders-lance-for-4-87-billion-idUKKBN1EC1J3'|'2017-12-18T14:41:00.000+02:00'
'c911723f3650c1eaf8e4948282261f12337d431e'|'Oil edges up on ongoing North Sea pipeline outage, but rising U.S. output weighs'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:27 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago Oil rises on UK pipeline outage, U.S. supply caps gains Alex Lawler 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil edged up towards $64 a barrel on Tuesday, helped by a North Sea pipeline outage, OPEC-led supply cuts and expectations that U.S. crude inventories probably fell for a fifth week. FILE PHOTO - An oil well pump jack is seen at an oil field supply yard near Denver, Colorado, U.S., February 2, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo But rising output in the United States has put a lid on gains. Shale production will rise to a record in January, according to a government forecast published on Monday, as higher prices encourage companies to pump more. Brent crude LCOc1, the global benchmark, was up 30 cents to $63.71 a barrel at 1259 GMT. U.S. crude CLc1 gained 37 cents to $57.53. The shutdown of the North Sea’s Forties pipeline since last week has supported Brent in particular, as Forties is the largest of the five crude grades underpinning the benchmark. Brent reached $65.83, its highest since mid-2015, on Dec. 12. “This should ensure buying pressures remain at the fore of the Brent structure until the turn of the year at the very least,” said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. Ineos, the operator of the Forties pipeline, said on Tuesday it was moving forward with a preferred repair option and the timeframe for the fix remained two to four weeks starting from Dec. 11, the date of the shutdown. Oil ticked up after reports that a missile was fired at the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh from Yemen, but Saudi Arabia said it intercepted the missile and no casualties were reported. “The market has not been doing very much and you do have headlines etcetera, but it doesn’t really change anything,” said Olivier Jakob, an analyst at Petromatrix. A deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-member producers including Russia to cut supplies to curb a supply glut that has built up since 2014 has also boosted prices. OPEC and its allies have extended the agreement until the end of 2018 and Russia’s Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) said on Monday it could be maintained beyond next year. As a result of the cuts, oil inventories are falling globally and the latest weekly supply reports are expected to show a further reduction in U.S. crude inventories. The first of these reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is due at 2130 GMT on Tuesday. [EIA/S] Still, rising U.S. production is countering lower supply elsewhere. U.S. shale output in January is forecast to increase by 94,000 barrels per day to 6.41 million bpd, according to the EIA’s monthly drilling productivity report. To view a graphic on Global crude oil supply, demand balance click on this link reut.rs/2CRHqCH Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Edmund Blair and Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-range-bound-as-disruptions-offset-by-rising-u-s-output-idINKBN1ED04J'|'2017-12-19T10:00:00.000+02:00'
'5de379da360cfb347c3f969cb99d52c058cc24b5'|'When will Virgin Trains put the ‘automatic’ back into Delay Repay? - Money - The Guardian'|'When will Virgin Trains put the ‘automatic’ back into Delay Repay? Our trains were cancelled and I’ve been waiting since October for a refund – but still nothing Tue 19 Dec ‘17 07.00 GMT Last modified on Tue 19 Dec ‘17 12.23   On reading your letter about supposed “automatic” refunds from Virgin Trains I share my, as yet unresolved, experience. I was due to travel from London Euston to Llandudno Junction in October, costing £68 for an advance booking. We were told that all trains were cancelled due to a fatality. I did eventually get a train to Chester at which point there was a further delay due to another fatality. Virgin Trains staff told us to make a claim. As I had booked online I understood it was automatic. It is not clear from its website at which point an “automatic” payment does not happen. I emailed customer support which directed me to customer relations. Several emails resulted in a reply in late November saying initially it would take up to 28 days for a response and that it required more information. It later confirmed it had everything and would reply within a week – which has now passed. JPJ, Llandudno, North Wales You were eligible for the automatic refund as you bought an advance ticket online through Virgin Trains website and your journey did not include another company. Virgin Trains is looking at a technical fix for the problem as well as making it clear that if customers do not receive an email within 24 hours of the delay confirming the automatic delay repay, they should get in touch with the company to claim. Virgin Trains on the West Coast route says: “There are a very small number of cases where automatic compensation is not triggered and we are reviewing our guidance for customers in these cases.” We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/19/virgin-trains-delay-repay-automatic-fails'|'2017-12-19T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'fc092536b5737f9077238fe8b0ed9526ae29e2cf'|'With small caps, best to be choosy after U.S. tax overhaul'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:11 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago With small caps, best to be choosy after U.S. tax overhaul Chuck Mikolajczak 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors have seen small-cap stocks as having the most to gain from a tax code overhaul ever since the 2016 U.S. election, but with a bill on the brink of Congress approval, analysts warned not all small names will benefit equally. The Russell 2000 index has had its fortunes rise and fall based on the perceived chances of the tax plan’s success. It surged nearly 14 percent in the seven weeks after the November 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who made a tax code rewrite central to his campaign. Small caps in general are relatively sensitive to proposed tax cuts because more of their revenue is derived domestically compared to larger names with a greater global footprint. “Small caps underperformed for most of the year and are best able to receive the boost from a tax cut,” said Alicia Levine, Director Of Portfolio Strategy at BNY Mellon Investment Management in New York. Despite the post-election bump, small caps have trailed bigger companies in 2017, having felt more pain whenever the tax plan appeared on the brink of failure. The Russell 2000 tested a technical support level at its 50-day moving average on Dec. 14, when the sweeping bill seemed to hit obstacles as more Republican U.S. senators appeared to waver. The index is up 13.6 percent on the year versus a nearly 20 percent climb in the S&P 500 .SPX and a more than 25 percent jump in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. .DJI But as the small-cap index surged nearly 3 percent in the two session leading into the vote on Tuesday, some market participants cautioned a tax cut will not be a security blanket for all smaller names. Some have yet to produce earnings, while some may be vulnerable to rising interest rates after taking on debt in the low rate environment following the 2007-2009 financial crisis. “There’s a misperception that broad based they’ll do well,” said Dan Hughes, vice president and client portfolio manager at Vaughan Nelson Investment Management in Houston, Texas. One concern for small caps is valuation, with the forward price-to-earnings ratio of the Russell 2000 at 26.1, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream, well above the 21.5 median and 21.4 mean. That number rises significantly when companies that do not generate earnings are included. “It’s weird to say this - but earnings matter again,” said Francis Gannon, chief investment officer at Royce Funds in New York. “At a moment in time when people are looking at the index and thinking the index should benefit, the index is getting increasingly risky.” Gannon recommended economically sensitive and cyclical names that have fundamentals, are not heavily leveraged and are poised to benefit from expansion both globally and domestically. He flagged industrial and materials businesses, including steel and chemical companies. Additional reporting by Sinead Carew and Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-smallcap-analysis/with-small-caps-best-to-be-choosy-after-u-s-tax-overhaul-idUSKBN1EE29D'|'2017-12-20T19:09:00.000+02:00'
'249e558b7c12d3a6e908f3cd42eed1bbaad9a9cb'|'Exclusive: Russian oil firm Tatneft ran Crimea fuel station, despite sanctions risk'|' 54 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Exclusive: Russian oil firm Tatneft ran Crimea fuel station, despite sanctions risk Anton Zverev , Gleb Stolyarov 8 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - One of Russia’s biggest oil companies, Tatneft, has been doing business in Crimea despite the risk of being placed on a U.S. sanctions blacklist, according to company documents and a source close to Tatneft. A general view shows a sign with the logo of Tatneft near a fuel station, which is operated by a company controlled by Tatneft units, in Sevastopol, Crimea September 7, 2017. Picture taken September 7, 2017. REUTERS/David Axelrod Most big Russian oil firms pulled out of Crimea after Washington imposed sanctions over Moscow’s annexation of the region from Ukraine in 2014 and threatened to put any company operating on the peninsula on its list of sanctioned entities. But a company called ZAO firma KONTs that operated a fuel station in the Crimean city of Sevastopol until at least September is controlled by units of Tatneft, according to ownership records in the state tax registry and the state statistics service that were collated by the Russian database SPARK. In addition, a document dated Sept. 4 that was seen by Reuters at the Sevastopol fuel station stated the fuel on sale there had been supplied by Tatneft-AZS-Yug, which is listed in the official register of the tax service as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tatneft. By late November, documents issued by the fuel station showed KONTs was no longer the owner, and there was no ownership link between Tatneft and the new owner. Reuters was not able to establish whether a Tatneft subsidiary was still supplying the fuel. Tatneft said in a Sept. 18 statement to Reuters that it has no fuel stations in Crimea and cannot control where fuel products it sells end up. Tatneft “does not supply (its own or anyone else‘s) fuel to Crimea or Sevastopol,” it said. Calls to a telephone number listed for KONTs went unanswered. A Reuters reporter who visited the Moscow address where the firm is registered found no sign of the company. A security guard at the Moscow address said KONTs had never had an office there though a letter, he said, had once arrived addressed to the firm. Tatneft had an office in the same building until a year ago, he added. Tatneft AZS-YUG, which is based in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, did not respond to a request for comment. SANCTIONS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT Tatneft’s presence in Crimea would give the U.S. Treasury Department legal grounds to include it on a list of companies which U.S. entities are forbidden to do business with, according to two Moscow-based lawyers who specialise in sanctions law - one of them with an international law firm and another with a Russian law firm. The U.S. Treasury Department, whose Office of Foreign Assets Control enforces sanctions, declined to comment on Tatneft’s presence in Crimea and any implications for companies that do business with Tatneft. Non-U.S. companies that have assets within U.S. jurisdiction and are deemed by Washington to have helped evade sanctions can themselves be subject to punitive measures, according to several U.S. and Russian lawyers who specialise in sanctions. Those could range from fines to inclusion in the sanctions list. Tatneft has commercial relations with companies including global oil trader Vitol, and Polish firms PKN Orlen and Lotos, according to public documents and oil traders. Reuters has found no evidence that Tatneft has any business with, or plans to do business with, U.S. entities. Tatneft’s case highlights a gap between sanctions and their enforcement, showing that not all firms that do business in Crimea are blacklisted by Washington, either because officials are unaware or because they choose not to act. Vitol, which traders say buys crude oil from Tatneft, said its dealings with clients were confidential but it has policies to ensure it complies with “all relevant regulations and legislation”, including sanctions, wherever it operates. PKN Orlen told Reuters it has a contract to buy oil from a Tatneft unit but considers possible geopolitical risks, and ways to minimise them, when concluding all trade agreements. Lotos buys crude from Tatneft, according to a senior Lotos source and traders. A Lotos spokesman said the company does not comment on its trade relations or speculate on future events. A Lotos source who asked not to be named said the firm was aware of Tatneft’s Crimea operation and potential risks stemming from the sanctions. HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT A view shows a fuel station, which is operated by a company controlled by Tatneft units, in Sevastopol, Crimea September 7, 2017. Picture taken September 7, 2017. REUTERS/David Axelrod The Tatneft logo is on a sign outside a fuel station on Belkin Drive, a street near the centre of Sevastopol. A Reuters reporter who bought fuel at the station on Sept. 8 was issued with a till receipt in the name of KONTs which included the firm’s tax identification number. The records displayed in the SPARK database from the official register of the Russian tax service do not show who currently owns KONTs but lists it as managed by Tatneft-AZS-Zapad. According to the register, Tatneft-AZS-Zapad is 99.9 percent owned by Tatneft. According to other official data collated by SPARK, from the state statistics service, KONTs is 100 percent owned by Fin-Invest, a company controlled by firms listed as Tatneft-Aktiv, Processing Centre and Tatneft-AZS-Tsentr. Tatneft-Aktiv and Tatneft-AZS-Tsentr are 100 percent controlled by Tatneft, while Processing Centre is 99 percent controlled by Tatneft, according to SPARK. The source in Tatneft, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the fuel station that it “officially does not belong to Tatneft, so as not to fall under sanctions, but de facto it’s entirely Tatneft.” The source did not explain the difference between official ownership and de facto ownership. Tatneft’s headquarters are in Russia’s Tatarstan region, which holds a 35.93 percent stake in the company. Slideshow (4 Images) Tatarstan’s president, Rustam Minnikhanov, chairs Tatneft board meetings but the region’s presidential administration said it did not make decisions about Tatneft’s operations. It also said Tatneft did not now, or in the past, own fuel stations in Crimea and that the company had ended its presence in Crimea in 2013. A female member of staff at the Sevastopol fuel station showed the Reuters reporter who visited it a document called a “fuel passport” detailing the origin of the fuel on sale there. The document stated the fuel had been supplied by Tatneft-AZS-Yug, the firm listed by the tax service as a Tatneft unit. SECOND VISIT On a second visit to the Sevastopol fuel station on Nov. 27, after Reuters contacted Tatneft seeking comment for this article, KONTs’ name had been removed from the till receipt and replaced with a company called OOO Resurs-A. The Tatneft branding was still on display at the station. At the address in Sevas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-crimea-tatneft/exclusive-russian-oil-firm-tatneft-ran-crimea-fuel-station-despite-sanctions-risk-idINKBN1EE0WD'|'2017-12-20T10:53:00.000+02:00'
'0e50df21e5b852c653b29419928fdf0d99ba4fec'|'Chipotle restaurant under investigation after illness scare: Report'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:33 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Chipotle restaurant under investigation after illness scare: Report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc fell as much as 3.3 percent after a report that public health officials are investigating a possible illness outbreak in one of the company’s restaurant in Los Angeles. An email from the Los Angeles Health Department’s Acute Communicable Disease Control unit says the agency “is aware of reports of illness and is investigating” according to the Business Insider report. Chipotle said the company is aware of a few online reports, but there is no clinical validation associated with them. The company also said it has not been contacted by customers directly to substantiate these claims. At least three reports from customers on iwaspoisoned.com say they suffered from vomiting and diarrhea after eating at a Chipotle restaurant located at 4550 W. Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles. However none of the customers said they visited a doctor. Reporting by Uday Sampath, Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chipotle-foodsafety/chipotle-restaurant-under-investigation-after-illness-scare-report-idUSKBN1EE2BI'|'2017-12-20T19:31:00.000+02:00'
'5f332cc38ef9594730fbd11159028fcfe9da06a2'|'A vote on “net neutrality” has intensified a battle over the internet’s future - Net wars'|'A DAY before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to rescind “net neutrality” regulations designed to ensure that internet-service providers do nothing to favour some types of online content over others, Ajit Pai, its chairman, tweeted a short video reassuring Americans. “You can still post photos of cute animals,” he says in it, posing with a dog. He also wields a light sabre, which prompted Mark Hamill, the actor who portrays Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” films, to criticise Mr Pai on Twitter for siding with giant corporations. Ted Cruz, a Republican senator, then asserted in Mr Pai’s defence that Darth Vader supported government regulation of the web; further jabs followed.It made for a silly treatment of an arcane subject. But net neutrality is a serious business. The state of New York’s attorney-general said he would lead a multi-state suit against the FCC; in Congress Democrats and Republicans are expected to propose competing bills on the subject in 2018. Broadband and wireless companies such as AT&T responded to fears about their increased power by questioning whether internet firms like Google have too much. Google, Facebook, Amazon and other platform companies in turn put out statements in support of an open internet. So rather than end the struggle over how the internet is regulated in America, the FCC’s vote has intensified it.  It may be years before it becomes clear what is at stake. The FCC’s action, taken on December 14th in a 3-2 vote with Republican members forming the majority, rolls back regulations adopted by the same body in 2015 when Democrats were in charge. The old rules were designed to ensure that all content online would be treated equally by companies such as Comcast and AT&T. These would be prevented from slowing down or “throttling” a service like Netflix and instead giving priority to another competing service.Democratic officials, consumer activists and big internet firms argue that consumers will now experience different internets based on which broadband or wireless provider they use. If a service pays for faster access on a provider, which is called “paid prioritisation”, more consumers may see it; if another service does not pay, consumers may not come across it. Many cite the case of AT&T, which is trying to buy Time Warner, warning that HBO, a premium cable channel, could in future get into a “fast lane”. Some critics go much further, arguing that internet providers will in effect censor content they do not like.Republicans note that if internet providers abuse their power, they will be punished by another regulatory body, the Federal Trade Commission (though its scope for taking action is much narrower than the FCC’s). The telecoms giants also argue that freeing them from regulation will encourage much-needed investment in broadband and wireless infrastructure.In the short run, says Kevin Werbach, a former FCC lawyer who backs net neutrality regulation, firms such as AT&T and Verizon “get that there’s this backlash so the industry is not going to intentionally be so stupid as to realise the worst fears that are out there.” If they are caught throttling rival services, they will rile consumers. If they raise prices on popular ones, they will lose customers (where there is a choice, that is—many broadband providers enjoy regional monopolies; see chart). If they move quickly to build “fast lanes” or “slow lanes”, they will hand ammunition to Democrats in Congress who support tough regulation. For now, then, telecoms giants are likely to concentrate on ensuring that, if Congress does legislate on the issue, softer regulations prevail.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Net wars"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732823-americas-fcc-repeals-obama-era-rules-ensure-all-web-traffic-treated-equally-vote?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-19T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'aad766f0791c62ee671b84dfbce7d9bc003fef9f'|'N.J. committee sends nuclear subsidy bill to state legislature'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:01 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago N.J. committee sends nuclear subsidy bill to state legislature Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - A joint committee in the New Jersey Legislature voted unanimously on Wednesday to support a bill that could cost $300 million to subsidize nuclear power plants in an effort to keep them in service longer in a low natural gas price environment. - The reactors in question include Public Service Enterprise Group Inc’s Salem and Hope Creek plants in New Jersey - PSEG said it might be forced to close the reactors in a couple of years if it does not receive some kind of assistance - New Jersey is one of several states exploring ways to keep reactors in service to preserve carbon-free energy, jobs and taxes as cheap and abundant gas from shale fields keep power prices low, making it less profitable or even unprofitable for generators to keep the units operating - Ohio, Pennsylvania and Connecticut have also considered proposals to protect reactors. In 2016, New York and Illinois adopted rules to subsidize some reactors in danger of closing - The bill would provide a financial credit for nuclear operators capable of demonstrating to state regulators that financial support is needed to keep their plant or plants online - New Jersey regulators would determine which plants are eligible to receive support according to six criteria, including plant operators’ ability to show their facilities contribute to carbon-free power generation, fuel diversity and grid resiliency - “There has been no demonstration that PSEG’s nuclear plants are in financial difficulty other than bald assertion and ultimatums issued by the company,” Stefanie Brand, New Jersey’s ratepayer advocate, told the committee. She urged the legislature to “not simply succumb to the company threats.” - PSEG has said economic studies show the loss of its plants would result in $400 million a year in higher electricity rates, 14 million tons a year of additional air pollution and the loss of 5,800 or more jobs - ClearView Energy Partners, an energy research firm, said in a statement the New Jersey program could provide as much as $300 million per year for at least four years for qualifying nuclear plants, translating to a value of about $10 per megawatt hour - The bill will now go to the full legislature for a vote. ClearView said the legislature could vote on the bill before the end of next week. ClearView also said it thinks Governor Chris Christie would sign the bill into law before he leaves office on Jan. 16. Reporting by Scott DiSavino; editing by Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-jersey-nuclear-subsidies/n-j-committee-sends-nuclear-subsidy-bill-to-state-legislature-idUSKBN1EE2SH'|'2017-12-20T23:53:00.000+02:00'
'1e988b72be05c5350f4232b3e0cf80084e2b2a7d'|'Boeing secures $27-billion order for 175 aircraft from flydubai'|'December 21, 2017 / 7:01 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Boeing secures $27-billion order for 175 aircraft from flydubai Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) confirmed on Thursday an order from Middle East’s discount airline, flydubai, for 175 narrow-body jets in a deal valued at $27 billion at current list prices. The largest single-aisle jet order in Middle East’s history also comes with an option to buy an additional 50 jets, the planemaker said. “This is our largest order in our eight-year history and our third order with Boeing,” flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith Al Ghaith said. Reuters reported in November the airline was close to placing orders with Boeing. Flydubai, an all-Boeing operator owned by the government of Dubai, first ordered 75 single-aisle 737 MAXs in 2013. Boeing has racked up 640 net orders for the narrow-body aircraft in 2017. Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-orders/boeing-secures-27-billion-order-for-175-aircraft-from-flydubai-idUSKBN1EF2KV'|'2017-12-21T20:59:00.000+02:00'
'de4474686849166f2252898e6e122ea71d67cc93'|'Facebook, Universal Music strike multi-year deal'|'December 21, 2017 / 4:36 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Facebook, Universal Music strike multi-year deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Facebook Inc ( FB.O ) and Universal Music Group signed a first of its kind agreement to license Universal Music’s recorded music and to publish catalogues for videos across the social media network as well as Instagram and Oculus. FILE PHOTO: Balloons are seen in front of a logo at Facebook''s headquarters in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The multi-year agreement would allow Facebook users to upload videos that contain licensed music and personalise their music experiences on Facebook, Instagram and Oculus, Universal Music said. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-facebook-universal-music-group/facebook-universal-music-strike-multi-year-deal-idUKKBN1EF298'|'2017-12-21T18:44:00.000+02:00'
'52a5ad88e7073ed47a18755160a67b2726363f37'|'Kobe Steel to announce important personnel change, investigation update'|'December 21, 2017 / 7:06 AM / in an hour Kobe Steel says senior executives knew about data tampering Osamu Tsukimori 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Kobe Steel Ltd, at the centre of a data-falsification scandal that has shaken Japan’s manufacturing industry, admitted for the first time that executives were aware of the cheating, and reassigned three senior officials. Kobe Steel''s logo is seen through a fence at a facility of Kakogawa Works in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files Japan’s No.3 steelmaker, which supplies the manufacturers of cars, planes and trains across the world, has said about 500 customers had received products with falsified specifications, throwing global supply chains into turmoil. Outside investigators appointed by Kobe to look into the malpractice have found that senior officials in the company’s copper and aluminium business knew of some of the cheating. “Based on this information, as of today, we have reassigned these three executives,” the company said, adding it would decide on any punishments after the probe was completed. The three were senior officials in the company’s aluminium and copper business, where most of the cheating occurred. Kobe Steel “takes it very seriously that current executive officers were aware of this,” Executive Vice President Naoto Umehara told reporters at a media briefing. Kobe also said the investigation would be completed by around the end of February, two months later than expected. The 112-year-old company has had Japanese government-sanctioned seals of quality revoked on many of its products and is also the subject of a U.S. Justice Department inquiry. Kobe Steel has been in touch with the U.S. Justice Department multiple times since an initial contact through lawyers, Yoshitsugu Nishimura, a manager of public relations, said at the briefing. He declined to provide further details. No safety issues have so far been identified from the data cheating, which mainly involves falsely certifying the strength and durability of products. CEO Hiroya Kawasaki said in November that his “ultimate management responsibility” will be decided after the outside investigators complete their report on the case. A series of compliance failings by Japanese companies have surfaced in the past few months. Scandals have involved among others, Nissan Motor and key product suppliers to global manufacturers, Mitsubishi Materials Corp and Toray Industries. Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/kobe-steel-scandal-moves/kobe-steel-to-announce-important-personnel-change-investigation-update-idINKBN1EF0LR'|'2017-12-21T09:05:00.000+02:00'
'9515209a2fad1d2dfc2cfbb691b3e3750cc478b4'|'China ride-sharing firm Didi raises $4 billion for global push'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:34 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago China ride-sharing firm Didi raises $4 billion for global push   BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing Technology Co on Thursday said it has raised $4 billion in funds earmarked for expansion overseas and into areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), as it looks to challenge Uber Technologies Inc. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Didi Chuxing is seen at its headquarters in Beijing, China, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The fundraising values Didi at over $50 billion and involved Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Capital, two people familiar with the deal told Reuters. Mubadala did not respond to a request for comment. Existing investor SoftBank Group Corp also participated in the latest funding, a spokesman for the Japanese firm confirmed, declining to specify the size of its investment. “With a substantial cash reserve, Didi plans to scale up investments in AI talent and technologies,” Didi said in a statement. The funds would also help Didi “bring more innovative and diversified transportation services to broader communities around the world.” Didi has expanded overseas rapidly in the past year since sealing its dominance in China with the purchase of Uber’s local business in 2016, ending a cash-burning subsidy war that cost the U.S. firm roughly $2 billion. Earlier this month Reuters reported that Didi was planning to enter Mexico next year, in what would be its first overseas operation not managed through a local partner. On Wednesday, Didi announced it was looking at entering the Taiwanese market, and had authorized a franchisee operator to do research there on its behalf. Didi has also invested in several of Uber’s rivals globally, including U.S.-based Lyft, Brazil’s 99, India’s Ola, Singapore’s Grab, Estonia’s Taxify and Careem in the Middle East. Besides SoftBank, investors in Didi’s previous funding rounds included Apple Inc and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the fundraising had pushed Didi’s cash reserves to $12 billion from $3.5 billion two years prior. Reporting by Cate Cadell; Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Stephen Coates and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-didi-chuxing-funding/chinese-ride-sharing-firm-didi-chuxing-raises-4-billion-sources-idUKKBN1EF07K'|'2017-12-21T06:55:00.000+02:00'
'1d7ac3fb3542c0bfa78db956db671a1883f60cba'|'Second prototype of China''s C919 jet conducts test flight - state TV'|'December 17, 2017 / 5:35 AM / Updated 43 minutes ago Second prototype of China''s C919 jet conducts test flight - state TV Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - A second prototype of China’s home-built C919 passenger jet took off for a test flight in Shanghai on Sunday, state television reported, another step forward in the country’s ambitions to muscle in to the global jet market. A total of six prototypes will eventually conduct test flights, China Central Television reported, with engine tests to be a particular focus. The aim was to conduct another long-distance test flight in late January, chief engineer Wang Wei was quoted as saying. More than 1,000 tests would be carried out. The narrow-body aircraft, which will compete with Boeing’s ( BA.N ) 737 and the Airbus ( AIR.PA ) A320, is a symbol of China’s ambitions to penetrate the global passenger jet market, estimated to be worth $2 trillion over the next 20 years. The C919 made its maiden flight on May 5 after numerous delays. Analysts have questioned the long periods between previous test flights. It completed its first long-distance flight on Nov. 10, flying for 2 hours and 23 minutes from Shanghai to the central Chinese city of Xi‘an, covering more than 1,300 km (800 miles) and reaching an altitude of 7,800 metres (25,590 feet). Its manufacturer, the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd (COMAC) [CMAFC.UL], called the maiden flight a milestone that marked the plane’s move into an airworthiness certification phase. COMAC is aiming to obtain certification for the plane from Chinese regulators as well as Europe’s aviation safety regulator, which agreed in April to start the certification process. The plane has dozens of customers who have placed orders and commitments for 785 jets, COMAC has said. Reporting by Judy Hua and Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Paul Tait'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-aviation-comac/second-prototype-of-chinas-c919-jet-conducts-test-flight-state-tv-idUKKBN1EB041'|'2017-12-17T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'95efd1e0825e134715cff0b3f178e88ebbf5dee7'|'S&P, Dow open higher as tax bill vote draws near'|'December 19, 2017 / 12:43 PM / in 17 minutes Wall Street eases as House approves tax legislation overhaul April Joyner 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks drifted lower on Tuesday as the U.S. House of Representatives approved a long-awaited bill to overhaul the tax system. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Stocks added slightly to losses following the vote, which followed weeks of market gains on optimism that tax cuts would boost U.S. earnings and the economy. “We’ve had a run-up in preparation as people were expecting a tax cut,” said Brian Peery, portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds in Novato, California. “Today, the market is off a little bit, maybe because the bill is not as popular as the GOP hopes it would be in the public opinion.” The Senate was expected to vote on the tax bill this evening. Republicans were confident of the bill being signed into law by the end of the week. The bill, among other things, proposes lowering corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent, which investors are betting will boost profits as well as trigger share buybacks and higher dividend payouts. Earlier in the day, stocks were lower as Treasury yields rose on strong housing data. Domestic home construction hit a 13-month high in November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 29.11 points, or 0.12 percent, to 24,763.09, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 7.72 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,682.44 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 37.79 points, or 0.54 percent, to 6,956.97. On Monday, the Nasdaq briefly topped the 7,000-point mark for the first time on rising hopes for the tax bill to be passed. Apple ( AAPL.O ) fell 1.1 percent after broker Instinet downgraded the stock to “neutral,” saying the supply-demand balance for the iPhone X suggested little space to raise sales estimates for the next quarter. The S&P 500 technology sector .SPLRCT fell 0.6 percent, with tech stocks weighing the most on the major indexes. The gainers were led by the consumer staple index’s .SPLRCS 0.3 percent rise. Altria ( MO.N ) rose 1.9 percent after Berenberg upgraded the stock saying a lower tax rate would boost the tobacco company’s profit and shareholder payouts. Wal-Mart ( WMT.N ) rose 1.8 percent after Citigroup upgraded the stock to “buy” on expectations that the retailer’s shares will rise further in 2018. Zimmer Biomet ( ZBH.N ) jumped 6.1 percent, the S&P’s biggest gainer, after the company appointed a full-time chief executive. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.81-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.48-to-1 ratio favored decliners. Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D''Souza and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/tax-overhaul-hopes-keep-futures-steady-idINKBN1ED1I0'|'2017-12-19T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'456f68cf377da95c3a1a721e1cea83f353c06e27'|'U.S. jobless claims increase more than expected'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:41 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago U.S. jobless claims increase more than expected Reuters Staff 3 Min Read Washington (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased more than expected last week, but the underlying trend remained consistent with a tightening labour market. FILE PHOTO - A department store advertises for workers in Encinitas, California, U.S., September 13, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 245,000 for the week ended Dec. 16, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Data for the prior week was unrevised. Since mid-October, claims have been confined to a range of 223,000 to 252,000. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 231,000 in the latest week. Last week marked the 146th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labour market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labour market was smaller. The labour market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Labour market tightness and a strengthening economy encouraged the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates last week for a third time this year. The U.S. central bank has forecast three rate hikes for 2018. A Labour Department official said claims-taking procedures continued to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria battered the islands. The official said processing of claims in Puerto Rico was still not back to normal. Claims for Maine were estimated last week. Last week, the four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labour market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose only 1,250 to 236,000. The claims data covered the survey period for December’s nonfarm payrolls. The four-week average of claims fell 4,000 between the November and December survey weeks, suggesting another month of strong job growth. The economy added 228,000 jobs in November. It needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid increased 43,000 to 1.93 million in the week ended Dec. 9. The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims rose 4,250 to 1.92 million. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy-unemployment/u-s-jobless-claims-increase-more-than-expected-idUKKBN1EF1PR'|'2017-12-21T15:40:00.000+02:00'
'e89a1eb91cae55a9e03af3e7ca6262b71a27e447'|'U.S. third-quarter economic growth lowered to 3.2 percent'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:56 PM / in 2 minutes U.S. third-quarter economic growth trimmed; jobless claims rise Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in more than two years in the third quarter, powered by robust business spending, and is poised for what could be a modest lift next year from sweeping tax cuts passed by Congress this week. Construction cranes are seen in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/Files Other data on Thursday showed a jump in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week. The underlying trend in jobless claims, however, remained consistent with a tightening labor market. Gross domestic product expanded at a 3.2 percent annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said in its third GDP estimate for the period. While that was slightly down from the 3.3 percent reported last month, it was the quickest pace since the first quarter of 2015 and was a pickup from the second quarter’s 3.1 percent growth rate. It also marked the first time since 2014 that the economy experienced growth of 3 percent or more for two straight quarters. But the expansion in the July-September period likely overstated the health of the economy. An alternate measure of growth, gross domestic income, rose at a 2.0 percent rate in the third quarter. GDI was previously reported to have increased at a 2.5 percent rate. The average of GDP and GDI, also referred to as gross domestic output and considered a better measure of economic growth, increased at a 2.6 percent rate instead of the previously reported 2.9 percent. Republicans in the U.S. Congress this week approved a broad package of tax cuts in what was the largest overhaul of the tax code in 30 years, handing President Donald Trump a major legislative victory. Trump is expected to soon sign the legislation, which has $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. Economists are forecasting a modest economic boost from the overhaul, which includes slashing the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. The fiscal stimulus will come while the economy is at full employment, which raises the risk of it overheating. “Longer run, the tax cuts will add little to the economy but will add significantly to the government’s deficits and debt load,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Prices of U.S. Treasuries mostly held steady at higher levels after the data, while the dollar pared gains against the yen and euro. U.S. stock index futures were trading slightly higher. ROBUST BUSINESS SPENDING Growth in the third quarter was also boosted by an accumulation of unsold goods and a rebound in government investment. Growth in business investment in equipment was raised to a 10.8 percent pace, the fastest in three years, from the previously reported 10.4 percent. Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, was revised down by one-tenth of a percentage point to a 2.2 percent rate in the third quarter. Consumer spending increased at a robust 3.3 percent rate in the second quarter. The government said after-tax corporate profits surged at a 5.7 percent rate last quarter instead of the previously reported 5.8 percent. Profits rose at only a 0.1 percent pace in the second quarter. Undistributed profits jumped at a 13.9 percent rate after declining for two straight quarters, suggesting that companies were anticipating deep tax cuts. In a separate report, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 245,000 for the week ended Dec. 16. Last week marked the 146th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Labor market tightness and a strengthening economy encouraged the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates last week for a third time this year. The U.S. central bank has forecast three rate hikes for 2018. Last week, the four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose only 1,250 to 236,000. The claims data covered the survey period for December’s nonfarm payrolls. The four-week average of claims fell 4,000 between the November and December survey weeks, suggesting another month of strong job growth. The economy added 228,000 jobs in November. It needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy-gdp/u-s-third-quarter-economic-growth-lowered-to-3-2-percent-idINKBN1EF1R5'|'2017-12-21T15:56:00.000+02:00'
'018dfa9cf3b5d54e4315e072960818ba93c22d88'|'Iraq oil ministry says has started to take over operations of Majnoon oil field'|'December 21, 2017 / 7:04 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Iraq oil ministry starts taking over Majnoon oilfield operations Ahmed Rasheed 2 Min Read BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq’s oil ministry said on Thursday it had started to take over operations of Majnoon oilfield from Royal Dutch Shell and planned to lift output in future. The ministry said it had formed a management team to handle production after Shell exits the field by the end of June. “The priority of the new management team is to cut the cost of producing a barrel (of crude) from Majnoon by 30 percent,” Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said in a statement. Iraq plans to increase output from Majnoon to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the “coming years”, the ministry said, without giving a precise timeline. Production is now about 235,000 bpd, oil officials say. A letter signed by the minister, dated Aug. 23 and seen by Reuters, gave approval for the Anglo-Dutch firm to quit Majnoon, a major oilfield near Basra which started production in 2014. Shell said it would focus its efforts on developing and expanding Basra Gas Company in Iraq after handing over operations of Majnoon to the Iraqi government. Basra Gas Company is a joint venture between Shell, South Gas Company and Mitsubishi and the Petrochemical Project NEBRAS. Chevron, Total and PetroChina may form a consortium to develop Iraq’s Majnoon oilfield, the minister said in Vienna in November. Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Joseph Radford and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-oil-shell/iraq-oil-ministry-says-has-started-to-take-over-operations-of-majnoon-oil-field-idUSKBN1EF0LF'|'2017-12-21T09:01:00.000+02:00'
'd62d55a7cec057837f8d4d339976ff0b5d56f73e'|'Boeing in tie-up talks with Brazil''s Embraer'|'December 21, 2017 / 8:31 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Boeing in talks with Embraer; Brazil backs jetliner alliance Brad Haynes , Rodrigo Viga Gaier 4 Min Read SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Planemakers Boeing Co ( BA.N ) and Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ) are discussing a “potential combination,” they said on Thursday, in a move that could consolidate a global passenger jet duopoly provided Brazil’s government gives its blessing. FILE PHOTO - Boeing Co''s logo is seen above the front doors of its largest jetliner factory in Everett, Washington, U.S. January 13, 2017. REUTERS/Alwyn Scott Embraer’s shares soared more than 20 percent in Sao Paulo on the joint statement, which did not give details of how a tie-up might be structured. Boeing shares slipped nearly 1 percent. The Brazilian government, which holds veto power over strategic moves at Embraer, would support a partnership in commercial aviation with Boeing but would block any takeover attempt, a senior government official told Reuters. The news comes just two months after Boeing rival Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) agreed to buy a majority stake in Bombardier Inc’s ( BBDb.TO ) CSeries jetliner program, a direct rival of Embraer’s biggest E-Jets. Reuters reported at the time that the CSeries deal could push Boeing and Embraer closer together. For decades, Canada’s Bombardier and Embraer have faced off in the 70- to 100-seat regional jet segment just below the radar of Airbus and Boeing’s larger commercial jet line-ups, but the CSeries alliance may have tipped that delicate balance. Boeing has approached Embraer about a deal twice before, more than a decade ago, but was rebuffed due to the government’s veto, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Embraer’s market capitalisation at the end of Thursday’s trading was $4.5 billion. Any tie-up involving Embraer requires approval by the Brazilian government, which holds a ‘golden share’ in the planemaker, a formerly state-run company fully privatized in 2006. Brazil’s President Michel Temer took office last year with a market-friendly agenda focussed on privatizing state utilities and reducing political influence in state firms such as oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA ( PETR4.SA ). In September, Brazil’s Finance Ministry asked an audit court to study how the government could exit the golden shares it holds in former state monopolies. Temer’s policies contrast with those of the Workers Party that governed from 2003 until 2016, placing an emphasis on state-led development and ‘national champions’ in strategic industries. Still, foreign control of the planemaker at the apex of Brazilian industry appears to be a stretch even for Temer. “Embraer will never be sold in my government,” he told military aides in a meeting on Thursday, according to a report by Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Folha, which did not say how it obtained the information, said the meeting was called after a report in The Wall Street Journal that Boeing was in talks to take over Embraer. The two already work on projects including runway safety and alternative jet fuels. Their partnership intensified recently to include Boeing’s commitment to joint sales and support of Embraer’s KC-390 military airlifter. “Although Boeing would look like a good fit with Embraer’s Regional Jet business, this is not the case for the company’s Executive Jet and Defence divisions,” said Rob Stallard, aerospace analyst at Vertical Research Partners in a note. Boeing is willing to take steps to protect Embraer’s brand, management and jobs to help entice the government and is also willing to structure a deal to protect the government’s interest in Embraer’s defence business, the WSJ reported. Reporting by Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Ricardo Brito, Anthony Boadle, Arunima Banerjee and Tim Hepher; editing by Daniel Flynn and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/embraer-m-a-boeing/boeing-in-tie-up-talks-with-brazils-embraer-idINKBN1EF2R1'|'2017-12-21T22:27:00.000+02:00'
'9fd61f0b3fde0e6e714e24bdeeed1a75c2c08787'|'Old Mutual sells Buxton UK wealth business for $800 mln'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:39 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Old Mutual sells Buxton UK funds business for $800 million Carolyn Cohn 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Old Mutual ( OML.L ) is selling part of its UK asset management business, run by veteran investor Richard Buxton, to private equity firm TA Associates for 600 million pounds ($803 million), as it heads towards a break-up of the group. The Anglo-South African financial services group said in a statement on Tuesday that Old Mutual Wealth had agreed the sale of its single-strategy asset management business - where each fund focuses on one type of asset rather than a mix. The sale comes ahead of a listing of the rest of Old Mutual Wealth next year. Old Mutual, which started as an insurance company in Cape Town in 1845, has said it is breaking itself up because regulatory change makes the company too complex to run in its current form. In addition to a planned demerger and initial public offering of the rest of Old Mutual Wealth, the break-up involves the sale of U.S. firm Old Mutual Asset Management ( OMAM.N ), the listing of Old Mutual’s emerging markets unit and a reduction of its stake in South Africa’s Nedbank ( NEDJ.J ). TA Associates is paying 570 million pounds in cash for the Buxton unit on or before completion, with 30 million payable afterwards, between 2019 and 2021, Old Mutual said in a statement. The unit had assets under management of 25.7 billion pounds at Sept. 30, and TA Associates was in competition for the business with Australian bank Macquarie ( MQG.AX ), sources told Reuters earlier this month. “This is a good outcome for the single-strategy business which had been clearly agitating to extricate itself from the parent,” Shore Capital analyst Eamonn Flanagan said in a note, reiterating his buy rating on the stock. Old Mutual''s shares were up 3.94 percent at 221.5 pence by 0854 GMT, to the top of Britain''s FTSE-100 index .FTSE . The majority of the single-strategy management team, including Buxton, will move with the business, Old Mutual said. “The management team is delighted to be partnering with TA Associates to buy the single-strategy business,” Buxton said. “This is a good outcome for our customers and our staff.” Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Mark Potter and Susan Fenton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-old-mutual-sale-wealth/old-mutual-sells-buxton-uk-wealth-business-for-800-million-idUSKBN1ED0MK'|'2017-12-19T09:28:00.000+02:00'
'4ea01e084708058ae244183b6b3978ded35686de'|'BRIEF-ASV Holdings Files Preliminary Prospectus For Offering 5.4 Mln Shares - SEC Filing'|' 38 PM / in 10 minutes BRIEF-ASV Holdings Files Preliminary Prospectus For Offering 5.4 Mln Shares - SEC Filing Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - Asv Holdings Inc: * ASV HOLDINGS FILES PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS FOR OFFERING OF 5.4 MILLION SHARES BY SELLING STOCKHOLDERS; CO WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY PROCEEDS FROM SALE - SEC FILING Source text: ( bit.ly/2AVKJYh )  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-asv-holdings-files-preliminary-pro/brief-asv-holdings-files-preliminary-prospectus-for-offering-5-4-mln-shares-sec-filing-idUSFWN1OI0Q6'|'2017-12-19T00:34:00.000+02:00'
'cbf86eabe343b9f746d66d3029be5751243d70be'|'BNP Paribas to boost Lisbon hub with 45 job moves from Paris - union'|'Reuters TV United States December 19, 2017 / 5:02 PM / Updated an hour ago BNP Paribas to boost Lisbon hub with 45 job moves from Paris - union Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas ( BNPP.PA ) plans to move 45 internal finance jobs from Paris to Lisbon, according to France’s Force Ouvriere union, as banks facing growing workloads to deal with changes in regulations and accounting rules try and improve their efficiency. FILE PHOTO - The logo of BNP Paribas bank is pictured on an office building in Nantes, France, July 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe BNP Paribas already has more than 1,800 employees in Portugal, according to a recent job advert posted on its website through which it was recruiting for its Group Finance Service hub in Lisbon. That unit is responsible for compiling and processing accounting and financial information. A source from another union confirmed the statement from Force Ouvriere (FO) and said that some employees in Paris would have to change roles when the 45 finance, accounting and stress- testing jobs move to Lisbon. Out of the 45 positions, BNP will take back control of 13 jobs that are currently undertaken externally before moving them to Lisbon, while nine would be newly created, FO said. The unions called it a second wave of job transfers after BNP set up a ‘European Finance Operations Center’ in Lisbon in 2015 employing about 200 people. Hourly labor costs in Portugal were 13.7 euros in 2016, compared with 35.6 euros in France, according to Eurostat data. No one at BNP was immediately available for comment. Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Sarah White'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bnp-paribas-jobs/bnp-paribas-to-boost-lisbon-hub-with-45-job-moves-from-paris-union-idUKKBN1ED29C'|'2017-12-19T18:55:00.000+02:00'
'5278dd86685e857e5b41cab582fd53a1834a6b7b'|'BRIEF-Distinct Infrastructure Group Appoints Interim Chief Financial Officer'|' 19 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago BRIEF-Distinct Infrastructure Group Appoints Interim Chief Financial Officer Reuters Staff Dec 19 (Reuters) - Distinct Infrastructure Group Inc : * DISTINCT INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP APPOINTS INTERIM CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER * DISTINCT INFRASTRUCTURE - CFO BETTENCOURT WILL BE TAKING A PERSONAL LEAVE OF ABSENCE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY * DISTINCT INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP INC - WILLIAM NURNBERGER WILL SERVE AS INTERIM CFO Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-distinct-infrastructure-group-appo/brief-distinct-infrastructure-group-appoints-interim-chief-financial-officer-idUSASB0BYKU'|'2017-12-20T00:15:00.000+02:00'
'e512eb2d1c75ae556c78852308e1bd40330db788'|'World stocks bulls carry on, dollar keeps calm'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:07 AM / Updated 27 minutes ago World stocks bulls carry on, dollar keeps calm Marc Jones 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks steadied on Tuesday after their biggest jump in almost six-months on U.S. tax cut hopes had added to what is already one of the strongest and longest global bull runs on record. South Africa’s rand also took a rest after the ANC leadership win for the market’s preferred candidate triggered its biggest surge since the volatile days of 2008, while the dollar remained a no show despite Wall Street’s latest rally. The U.S. Congress is set to vote later on long awaited tax cuts and reforms and the bill will likely be signed into law by the end of the week. Traders were still being peppered by upbeat data too. The World Bank raised its China growth forecast for the year, Switzerland pushed up its growth forecast for 2018 and business confidence remained robust in Germany. Britain’s FTSE and Germany’s DAX both edged 0.1-0.2 percent higher and though France’s CAC wobbled, bond yields edged up and the euro and the pound made some ground in the FX market. “The dollar is not excited about tax reform,” said Saxo Bank’s head of FX strategy John Hardy. “It could just year-end effects but maybe people are just weighing the negatives. Maybe it won’t boost growth that much... and maybe it is going to blow a hole in the fiscal deficit.” For stocks though, the changes would cut U.S. corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent, which investors are betting will boost profits as well as trigger share buybacks and higher dividend payouts. Wall Street’s latest climb overnight had been followed by most of Asia’s main bourse with the notable exception of its biggest - Japan’s Nikkei - which was dragged back 0.15 percent by the force of a stronger yen. Australian shares added 0.55 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.8 percent and Shanghai lifted 0.6 percent. “The rising trend in broader equities led by the U.S. markets looks to continue for a while,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo. People walk past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/Files The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was down 0.15 percent at 93.557 after losing 0.25 percent overnight as the questions about the overall economic impact of the tax overhaul remained. Moreover, while Federal Reserve policymakers expect the U.S. economy to get a short-term lift from the moves, they think growth will then ease back to about two percent by 2020 and not rise to three percent as Donald Trump’s administration predicts. RAMAPHOSA RALLY South Africa’s rand retained a bulk of its gains after rallying on South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as the new leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party. The currency soared to a nine-month high of 12.52 rand per dollar overnight on hopes Ramaphosa’s appointment would pave the way for crucial structural reforms. It last traded at 12.75. Global volatility gauges were back at ultra-low levels again though in commodities markets the picture was a little more mixed. Industry-attuned copper and nickel prices fell for the first time in four days, while precious and safe-haven metal gold was up for a third-straight day for the first time since October at $1,264 an ounce. Brent and WTI oil prices were modestly higher at $63.48 and $57.33 following a North Sea pipeline outage but had lost some of their momentum after a nationwide oil worker strike was called off in Nigeria. Cryptocurrency Bitcoin meanwhile was 0.2 percent lower at $18,872 on the Bitstamp exchange having roared to its latest record high over the weekend. A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange said on Tuesday it is shutting down and is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year, highlighting concerns about the security around virtual currencies. The exchange, called Youbit, had been hacked once before in April when nearly 4,000 bitcoins were stolen in a cyber attack that the country’s spy agency linked to North Korea, according to a South Korean newspaper report on Saturday. Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro in Tokyo, Editing by William Maclean'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asia-stocks-up-as-wall-st-gets-tax-hope-boost-dollar-sags-idINKBN1ED03A'|'2017-12-19T11:53:00.000+02:00'
'bde40d2329d44ff59c4c6cfe89d589d870440cb3'|'UK pensions lifeboat votes against Toys R Us UK rescue plan'|'December 19, 2017 / 5:24 PM / Updated an hour ago UK pensions lifeboat votes against Toys R Us UK rescue plan Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s pensions lifeboat said on Tuesday it had voted against Toys R Us UK’s proposed rescue plan, casting doubt on the plan’s progress ahead of a crucial creditors meeting on Thursday. A Toys "R" Us store is seen, in Hayes, Britain December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Earlier this month the British arm of Toys R Us Inc ( IPO-TOYS.N ) of the United States, which filed for bankruptcy in September, said it would seek creditor approval for a restructuring plan involving closing at least 26 of its 105 stores in 2018 and reduced rent on the stores that stay open. The firm said it anticipated 500-800 redundancies among its workforce of 3,200. Toys R Us creditors will vote on the proposed Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) on Thursday. However, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), an industry-funded lifeboat for ailing schemes, said it had submitted its proxy vote on Tuesday. “We have indicated we intend to vote against the proposals,” said Malcolm Weir, the PPF’s director of restructuring and insolvency. He said that since Dec. 4 when Toys R Us UK lodged the CVA proposals it has assessed the current and future financial position of the retailer to ensure the pension scheme, which has a 30 million pound deficit, would not be weakened by the CVA, leading to an even bigger claim on the PPF and its levy payers in the future. “Given the position of the company, we strongly believe seeking assurances for the pension scheme is reasonable given the deficit in the scheme and questions about the overall position of the company,” Weir said. He said the PPF could amend its vote if suitable assurances were provided. Toys R Us UK declined to comment. However, a source close to the retailer said it was committed to its obligations to the pension fund. The source said Toys R Us UK had also given a commitment that once its U.S. parent was out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy it would look to reduce the deficit over time. The CVA requires the support of 75 percent of creditors to be approved. Reporting by James Davey, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toys-r-us-uk-restructuring/uk-pensions-lifeboat-votes-against-toys-r-us-uk-rescue-plan-idUKKBN1ED2BW'|'2017-12-19T19:24:00.000+02:00'
'383e1363ffd89a366f178088159557c53fadfe52'|'FTSE edges up, Old Mutual jumps after unit sale'|'December 19, 2017 / 9:16 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago FTSE edges up; Old Mutual jumps after unit sale Julien Ponthus 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - UK shares edged up slightly on Tuesday with Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual leading the index after it sold its Buxton UK wealth business for $800 million. A worker shelters from the rain under a Union Flag umbrella as he passes the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain, October 1, 2008. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo The FTSE 100 .FTSE ended up 0.1 percent, while the pan-European STOXX 600''s fell 0.4 percent. World markets are waiting for U.S. lawmakers to pass sweeping tax legislation, expectations of which pushed Wall Street to new record closing highs with investors betting on a boost on profits, share buybacks and higher dividend payouts. Old Mutual ( OML.L ) was among the biggest gainers, up as much as 6.1 percent after it sold its UK wealth business, run by veteran fund manager Richard Buxton, to private equity firm TA Associates for 600 million pounds ($803 million). The company, which started as an insurance company in Cape Town in 1845, has decided to break itself up as regulatory constraints make the company complex to run in its current form. The healthcare sector contributed the most to gains of the FTSE. Share in Shire ( SHP.L ) suddenly spiked to end up 3.8 percent, reversing earlier weakness that followed a disappointing trial update for one of its drugs. London-listed spreadbetters IG Group ( IGG.L ) and CMC Market ( CMCX.L ) which plunged during the previous session after regulatory threats to parts of their business, ended up 1.7 percent and 0.2 percent respectively. Acacia Mining ( ACAA.L ) declined 1.2 percent after it said it would sell its 2 percent royalty over the Houndé Mine in Burkina Faso for $45 million to Sandstorm Gold Ltd SSL.TO. British drugmaker Indivior ( INDV.L ), which makes drugs that treat opioid addiction, rose 1.9 percent, after announcing operations to amend and extend debt facilities. In the world of small market capitalisation, price comparison website operator GoCompare.Com ( GOCO.L ) rose 4 percent after it agreed to buy The Global Voucher Group, which operates MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, and its units for 36.5 million pounds in cash. Reporting by Julien Ponthus, additional reporting by Danilo Masoni, Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Toby Davis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-edges-up-old-mutual-jumps-after-unit-sale-idUKKBN1ED0U7'|'2017-12-19T11:15:00.000+02:00'
'160796503c04da3beda98958c519775631635b36'|'BHP says likely to quit global coal lobby group'|'December 19, 2017 / 2:22 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago BHP says likely to quit global coal lobby group Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Global miner BHP Billiton said on Tuesday it has taken a preliminary decision to leave the World Coal Association citing disagreement over climate change, and might also withdraw from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over mining industry rules. BHP Billiton Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie is silhouetted against a screen projecting the company''s logo at a round table meeting with journalists in Tokyo, Japan June 5, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon BHP has largely quit mining coal for power plants but is the world’s largest exporter of coal for steel-making. It will seek responses from the World Coal Association over policy differences before making a final decision on whether to pull out in March 2018, it said. The miner came under pressure from Australian green groups earlier this year to leave any industry associations whose policies did not match the company’s support of the Paris climate accord agreed in 2015. Following a review, BHP said on Tuesday it had “reached a preliminary view to exit” the global coal lobby group, as the latter had called for Australia to abandon a clean energy target to boost prospects for high-tech coal-fired power plants. BHP said the association’s policy conflicted with its view that energy markets should be fuel- and technology-neutral and take into account costs and benefits. WCA Chairman Mick Buffier said the association was disappointed and did not feel the report accurately reflected the organisation’s views. “The WCA has always supported a balanced approach that integrates climate and energy policy,” he said in an emailed statement. “We hope to be able to continue working with BHP on this basis in the future.” The WCA website carries a lead article entitled “A pathway to zero emissions from coal,” which says clean coal technology will be needed as many countries, especially in Asia, rely on coal to drive economic growth. BHP also plans to decide by March whether to withdraw from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, of which BHP has been a member since 2011. BHP highlighted the chamber’s opposition to a U.S. rule introduced in 2016 requiring resource companies to disclose all their payments to governments, as an area of difference with the company. BHP supported the rule. The company also said it would press the Minerals Council of Australia to review its promotion of coal in Australia’s energy policy and would reconsider its membership in a year’s time unless changes were made. Reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne, additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in London; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bhp-coal-climatechange/bhp-says-likely-to-quit-global-coal-lobby-group-idINKBN1ED073'|'2017-12-19T13:08:00.000+02:00'
'6075f46e1c645a19d372d937a45a37866a9ebbc2'|'Niki can keep slots while Austria examines insolvency filing - regulator'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:33 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Niki can keep slots while Austria examines insolvency filing - regulator Reuters Staff 2 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) Austrian unit Niki can keep its valuable runway slots for as long as Austria’s Transport Ministry is examining its insolvency filing, a spokesman for airspace regulator Austro Control said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: Airline Niki founder Niki Lauda attends a news conference in Vienna November 8, 2011. REUTERS/Herwig Prammer Niki’s workers’ council chief said on Dec. 15 the sale of insolvent Austrian airline Niki had to be agreed within seven days as its runway slots, or take-off and landing rights, would be lost after that point. The Austro Control spokesman said, however, that no such deadline existed and the slots, among Niki’s most attractive assets, would remain untouched for as long as the ministry was looking into the airline’s insolvency filing. “I cannot say anything about the length of the investigation for which there are no designated deadlines. The investigation at the Transport Ministry has been ongoing since (Niki) filed for insolvency.” The Transport Ministry had no comment as new minister Norbert Hofer, who was sworn in on Monday, had not yet moved into his office as of Tuesday morning, meaning no spokesperson was available to comment on the investigation. Niki’s administrator said bidders, which include its founder and former Formula One champion Niki Lauda, as well as tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Irish budget carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ), have until Thursday to submit offers. Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Maria Sheahan; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-niki-deadline/niki-can-keep-slots-while-austria-examines-insolvency-filing-regulator-idUKKBN1ED0QR'|'2017-12-19T10:32:00.000+02:00'
'b7566b139a3334f5e4756301ff634a21a4e832d9'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX ekes out gain as rally fades'|'December 19, 2017 / 9:09 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX ekes out gain as rally fades Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index ended barely higher on Tuesday, with a broad rally petering out in afternoon trade as energy and utility stocks weighed while banks and industrials lent support and Great Canadian Gaming Corp surged on a contract win. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index unofficially closed up 1.71 points, or 0.01 percent, at 16,133.35. Seven of its 10 main sectors rose, although decliners slightly outnumbered advancers overall. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by James Dalgleish)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-close/canada-stocks-tsx-ekes-out-gain-as-rally-fades-idUSL1N1OJ1UU'|'2017-12-19T23:08:00.000+02:00'
'a65d3a613a62ea6f30ef3ac0395dfbbaef207358'|'Mitsubishi Materials finds more products with falsified data'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:52 AM / in 2 hours Mitsubishi Materials finds more products with falsified data Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials Corp said it has found more cases of products shipped with possible falsified specifications as it investigates a widening data-fabrication scandal that has affected more than 300 of its customers. A monitor showing the logo of Mitsubishi Materials Corp is seen in Tokyo, Japan, November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The revelation is among the latest in a slew of scandals to rock Japan’s manufacturing industry. Similar lapses have been seen at Kobe Steel and Toray Industries Inc, and incorrect final inspection procedures have been found at automakers Nissan and Subaru. Mitsubishi Materials said on Tuesday that its unit, Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd, shipped magnetic wires with possibly fabricated data to five customers, and that it was checking on the safety and performance of the products. Mitsubishi Materials had said last month that the same unit had inappropriately distorted data for rubber sealing products, used in aircraft and cars. While no safety issues have been identified in the earlier cases, the company has said customers in Japan, the United States, China and Taiwan may have received affected products. Mitsubishi Materials President Akira Takeuchi said the firm in its ongoing investigation into the matter had not found any evidence to suggest senior executives knew of the failings. “I do not think there were instances of infraction of compliance issues based on instructions from headquarters,” Takeuchi said. Mitsubishi Cable Industries President Nobuhiro Takayanagi said it did not currently look like it would be necessary to expand the probe beyond the past year being investigated. “Even if the investigation period had expanded, it’s unlikely we would see much more new additional cases,” Takayanagi said. “That is a guess taking into account that products sold and the customers remain roughly the same.” The company said it would not be able to finish the investigation by year-end, but would aim to issue a report on the causes of the scandal and the measures to prevent the recurrence as soon as possible. Mitsubishi Materials’ general manager, Nobuyuki Suzuki, said the company has not received any calls for replacements from customers or any notice that lawsuits had been filed against it. Earlier in the day, Hitachi Ltd said it had installed more than 10,000 elevators that did not meet specifications it had submitted to the government, but added that there were no safety concerns with the elevators. Also this week, Japanese authorities raided the offices of construction firms for suspected collusion over contracts for an $80 billion high speed train line. Fretting about the impact from the string of falsification and compliance scandals, nearly half of Japan’s firms have taken steps to strengthen internal controls or are planning to do so, a Reuters poll showed earlier this month. Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mitsubishi-ma-scandal/mitsubishi-materials-finds-more-products-with-falsified-data-idINKBN1ED1BY'|'2017-12-19T13:49:00.000+02:00'
'15acae0133aa11c8d275373a071f113b4a62563d'|'European stocks build momentum as investors await U.S. tax bill'|'Reuters TV United States December 19, 2017 / 9:07 AM / a few seconds ago European stocks build momentum as investors await U.S. tax bill Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares followed U.S. and Asian markets higher on Tuesday as investors awaited a long-anticipated U.S. tax reform bill which looks almost certain to pass this week. An aide adjusts a sign prior to a news conference announcing the passage of the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein The pan-European STOXX 600 traded 0.2 percent higher at a new five-week high, maintaining Monday''s momentum though gains were more muted, with euro zone stocks and blue-chips .STOXX50E up 0.1 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3 percent, boosted by its weighting towards defensive, high dividend-paying stocks which investors favor when they sense uncertainty. German fashion house Hugo Boss ( BOSSn.DE ) led European gainers, its shares rising 4.8 percent after CEO Mark Langer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that Boss aimed to grow faster than the market in 2018. Shares in Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual ( OML.L ) gained 4.6 percent after saying it would sell its Buxton UK wealth business to TA Associates for $800 million as part of a planned break-up. [nL8N1OJ0YB] Intrum Justitia ( INTRUM.ST ) fell 6.3 percent after saying its CFO would leave the company. [nFWN1OI0OA] Telecoms stocks were strong performers, boosted by a note from Morgan Stanley arguing the industry could fare better in 2018 thanks to successful cost cutting, stronger mobile revenue growth and lower cash tax rates. Telcos have been among the worst performing sectors this year, down 2.5 percent from January. With fewer big corporate stories to drive trading on Tuesday, investors will hone in on Germany’s Ifo business survey data, out at 0900 GMT. SocGen analysts expected the business climate indicator to rise further from record highs, indicating a resilient economy with momentum for further gains into 2018. Reporting by Helen Reid; editing by Tom Pfeiffer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-stocks-build-momentum-as-investors-await-u-s-tax-bill-idUKKBN1ED0SR'|'2017-12-19T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'f664588a5e9faf853d5ff90df151bf23ef62f7d6'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 20'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:12 AM / Updated an hour ago PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 20 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 20 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Software company Microsoft Corp said that it had eliminated forced arbitration agreements with employees who make sexual harassment claims and was also supporting a proposed federal law that would widely ban such agreements. nyti.ms/2CJ3MWm - The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that has influenced Republican White Houses and shaped conservative policy since the 1970s, named Kay Coles James as president as it moved to steady itself after a year of internal turmoil. nyti.ms/2BDb5iY -Two Republican senators broke with their party on Tuesday to block US President Trump''s nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank, a setback for the White House that reflects deep divisions in the Republican Party. nyti.ms/2oSuRo3 - Senate investigators are scrutinizing links between Jill Stein, the Green Party''s 2016 presidential nominee, and Russia''s campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, searching for evidence of possible conspiracy. nyti.ms/2kqStLL Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-20-idUSL4N1OK27J'|'2017-12-20T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'b9a8d7dad8b88120572cecbfa64b203fb4ddb433'|'INSIGHT - Three months that shook Ryanair: How cancellations sparked a pilot revolt'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:50 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago INSIGHT - Three months that shook Ryanair: How cancellations sparked a pilot revolt Conor Humphries 8 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Within hours of the news on Sept. 15 that thousands of Ryanair flights had been cancelled in Europe, pilots’ WhatsApp groups exploded with pent-up frustration. An empty Ryanair customer services desk is seen at Dublin airport in Dublin, Ireland September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/Files While management explained away the cancellations as a one-off rostering screw-up, pilots believed there was a deeper problem - that disaffected colleagues were leaving in droves. The pilots saw an opportunity to shift the balance of power in a company where they feel they are treated, in the words of one serving captain, “like janitors”. A hectic five days of Facebook and WhatsApp exchanges and meetings later, representatives of 20 of Ryanair’s 87 bases were demanding new contracts. In December, pilots in Italy, Ireland and Portugal called strikes that would have been the first of their kind in the airline’s history. “The discontent has always been there ... but the cancellations triggered everyone to mobilise,” one pilot said. Their manoeuvre worked. On Dec. 15, Chief Executive Michael O‘Leary recognised unions for the first time, crossing what for him had always been a red line. The full implications of union recognition for Ryanair’s pioneering ultra low-cost business model will take months to become clear. The market’s view was immediate: shares fell 9 percent in a single day. In his first interview since the cancellations, O‘Leary told Reuters the decision did not indicate management weakness or pilot strength but the fact that the airline was facing the prospect of compensating 150,000 passengers in Christmas week. “If you need to go on strike just to test our mettle, then go ahead,” O‘Leary said in his Dublin office on Tuesday. “But not in Christmas week. And not one that disrupts all our customers across Europe.” The blunt-speaking CEO, who once crossed a picket line of baggage handlers to help load a plane, also indicated a grudging respect for the pilots: “In fairness, their timing was good.” Analysts have been concerned that rising staff costs could destroy one of the main pillars of the airline’s cost advantage, pushing it into the crowded middle ground occupied by easyJet and restructured legacy carriers such as Air Lingus. O’Leary counters that a “tiny proportion” of its advantage over rivals is due to staff costs. “There will be an uptick in labour costs next year, but will it alter the model? No.” SOMETHING AWRY The first signs that something was awry at Ryanair came in early summer, according to union officials and three pilots who asked not to be named because their contracts forbid them to talk to the media. By May, the rostering department had begun calling pilots to ask them to work during their annual month off, a first. Calls on days off also increased in frequency and on short notice, measures one pilot said were seen as a sign of “desperation.” “From the start of the summer schedule there were very, very clear signs that there issues in crew control,” said the pilot, a captain who works at a base in northwest Europe. O‘Leary acknowledged in the interview that there were “all these little bits of mismanagement”, including training pilots being sent to fly passengers and a backlog of newly hired pilots unable to fly. By mid-summer, punctuality was suffering. In-house statistics show the number of flights arriving on time deteriorated from 91 percent in April to 83 percent in July, its worst level since 2010. In early September, it had collapsed to the mid-60s, causing cascading delays and cancellations. Management put out a call on Sept. 13 offering pilots more money to work extra days, with management “not quite realising how serious it was,” O‘Leary told Reuters. Two days later, Ryanair bowed to the inevitable and announced the cancellations. Management has maintained the problem was triggered by a regulatory change: starting in 2018, Irish airlines will have to calculate pilots’ annual 900-hour flying time limits on the basis of the calendar year, like the rest of the European Union, rather than the customary April to March. The rostering department responded by over-allocating annual leave in the final four months of 2017, which meant almost half of the company’s pilots took a month off between September and December compared to 40 percent in a normal year, O‘Leary said. The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) told Reuters the rostering move was not a direct result of their change because the rules on annual limits were effectively waived. “The airline made a commercial decision and has accepted full responsibility,” the IAA said in a statement. SHORTAGES Many pilots believe the key factor was the high number of pilots leaving, and questioned management’s distinction between a “standby pilot shortage”, which it admitted, and a “pilot shortage”, which it denied. O‘Leary told investors on Sept. 18 that the annual turnover among Ryanair’s 4,400 pilots was less than 5 percent . On Tuesday, however, he admitted turnover had reached “high single digits” for captains and “low teens” for First Officers in 2017, more than double the churn rate of below 4 percent reported by easyJet. The number of pilots leaving has “undoubtedly stepped up this year,” O‘Leary said. “The uptick in First Officer resignations is highly unusual.” After the September cancellations O‘Leary announced an extra 10,000 euros per year to pilots in several bases and “goodies” to pilots at others. If pilots misbehaved, however, “that will be the end of discussion on goodies,” he said. The approach did not have the desired effect and a week later the airline was forced to cancel another 18,000 flights and cut its growth plans, grounding 25 planes in the winter and 10 next summer. While management was suffering setbacks, the pilots were growing in confidence. By the end of September, they had set up an unofficial pan-European body with its own web site and WhatsApp group, allowing information to be shared instantly among a majority of pilots for the first time. In October, the airline made its next move, hiring back its former director of flight operations, Peter Bellew, after just over a year as CEO at Malaysia Airlines to lead a “significant transformation in the way we reward and interact with our pilots.” In a meeting with pilots in London in mid-December, Bellew conceded the airline had lost pilots’ trust, according to a recording of the meeting reported in Irish media on Tuesday and heard by Reuters. The airline’s administrative staff appeared determined to give pilots a hard time, he said. “With the anger there is around the place, if we don’t manage to turn that around, we’re going to lose more people, so we need to change that,” Bellew said. Ryanair and Bellew declined to comment on the recording. TOXIC CULTURE O‘Leary made it Ryanair’s trademark to treat pilots more like bus drivers than what he saw as the pampered rock stars of aviation’s golden a'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ryanair-pilots/insight-three-months-that-shook-ryanair-how-cancellations-sparked-a-pilot-revolt-idINKBN1EE2CS'|'2017-12-20T19:47:00.000+02:00'
'd2803f86c0c1c847140e1b5b9b3c8d1250f2f52c'|'U.S. mortgage activity falls to 10-month low - MBA'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:14 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago U.S. mortgage activity falls to 10-month low - MBA Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - The weekly volume of U.S. mortgage applications decreased to its lowest in February, even as some 30-year home borrowing costs fell to a two-month low, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday. The Washington-based group’s seasonally adjusted weekly index of mortgage activity fell by 4.9 percent to 379.2 in the week ended Dec. 15. This was the weakest reading since 371.5 in the Feb. 17 week. Reporting by Richard Leong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mortgages/u-s-mortgage-activity-falls-to-10-month-low-mba-idUSKBN1EE1XO'|'2017-12-20T17:14:00.000+02:00'
'3c4abf0764109a9307b9230e44fd976247afadba'|'Carillion moves forward CEO Davies'' start date'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:29 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Carillion moves forward CEO Davies'' start date Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Carillion ( CLLN.L ) has moved the start date for new chief executive Andrew Davies forward to Jan. 22 from April 2, the British builder said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A Carillion sign is seen in Manchester, Britain July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Davies, head of family-owned builder Wates Group and formerly with defence company BAE Systems ( BAES.L ), will replace interim CEO Keith Cochrane. “Andrew has the ideal combination of commerciality, operational expertise and relevant sector experience to build on the conclusions of the strategic review and to lead the on-going transformation of the business,” Chairman Philip Green said. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-carillion-ceo/carillion-moves-forward-ceo-davies-start-date-idUKKBN1EE0PZ'|'2017-12-20T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'fe9544a50ae171258c611c83d2de525e32544ac8'|'Miners big and small bank on China''s hunger for high-grade iron ore'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:29 AM / Updated an hour ago Miners big and small bank on China''s hunger for high-grade iron ore James Regan 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - China’s aggressive campaign to clean its skies by clamping down on polluting steel mills has fuelled a need for high-grade iron ore, and a prospector in the Australian outback is hoping that will help fund an ambitious plan to develop a full-scale mine. FILE PHOTO: A man attempts to catch fish at a partially frozen fish farm near an abandoned steel mill of Qingquan Steel Group in Qianying township, Hebei province February 18, 2014. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/File Photo More Chinese mills are opting for high-grade iron ore to boost productivity and limit emissions, opening the door wider for suppliers of better quality ore to the world’s biggest buyer. Carpentaria Resources ( CAP.AX ) needs A$25-A$30 million ($19-$23 million) for a feasibility study on the company’s high-grade Hawsons mine in South Australia, and managing director Quentin Hill said potential financiers are not scarce. “In October, we had multiple parties looking at the project,” Hill told Reuters. “I’ve since returned from China and the Middle East, where there has been a surge in support to assist us with product development,” he said. Hill said the mine would produce pulverised ore containing a higher-than-normal 70 percent iron that could be fed directly into furnaces as pellets, or sphere-shaped high-quality ore that typically fetches a premium over the sandy iron ore fines. The spot price for iron ore pellets .IO65BP-CNO=MB topped $125 a tonne in early November, double the price of benchmark 62-percent iron ore fines .IO62-CNO=MB at that time, according to Metal Bulletin. Hill estimates it will cost A$1.4 billion to get the mine up and running. China is forecast to increase its pellet imports by 70 million tonnes over the next 10 years, CRU consultancy said. The annual global supply of pellets has been cut by 30 million tonnes since the closure of the Samarco mine in Brazil in November 2015 by partners Vale ( VALE3.SA ) and BHP ( BHP.AX ) ( BLT.L ) due to a major dam burst and environmental disaster. FILE PHOTO: Smoke and facilities of a steel mill are seen through a broken window of an abandoned residential building on a hazy day in Fengnan district of Tangshan, Hebei province February 18, 2014. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/File Photo To stem the loss, Vale in October announced plans to restart three pelletising plants in Brazil that have been idled for several years: the 7 million tonnes-per-year Sao Luis plant in mid-2018, and two smaller plants, Tubarao I and II, possibly in early 2018. Also in Brazil, Anglo American ( AAL.L ) is awaiting delayed government approvals to enter the third and final stage of expansion at its Minas Rio mine, which supplies pellet feed. Without the approval the mine will run dry next year. “There is new competition for scarce pellet feed across all markets,” Hill said. The highest-grade producers of up to 65 percent iron ore, Vale and Rio Tinto ( RIO.AX ) ( RIO.L ) have been the main beneficiaries of the price premium, while BHP has seen some of its ore discounted by 8-13 percent and Fortescue Metals Group ( FMG.AX ) by around 30 percent. Fortescue is pushing to ensure majority of the 170 million tonnes it mines annually will have higher grades as it replaces depleting deposits with new ones. “We are looking at pathways to achieve a target of the majority of our product being above 60 percent iron,” Fortescue Chief Executive Nev Power said in a statement emailed to Reuters. Similarly, as old mines run dry, BHP and Rio Tinto are replacing them with higher grade operations. “Even though there has been capacity reduction in China, it’s actually moving that production from inefficient environmentally polluting mills to ones that are more efficient,” said Chris Salisbury, chief executive of Rio Tinto’s iron ore division. “To do that they need to lift output. To lift output they need higher-grade iron ore, and that’s what we’re seeing,” he said. ($1 = 1.3058 Australian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/australia-ironore-china/miners-big-and-small-bank-on-chinas-hunger-for-high-grade-iron-ore-idINKBN1EE017'|'2017-12-20T02:27:00.000+02:00'
'3a3cb407e846f75560626b5d45556344e2d739c3'|'UPDATE 1-ABB revamps engineering business, to take Q4 charges'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:05 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago UPDATE 2-ABB revamps engineering business to cap year of transition Reuters Staff * ABB calls revamp final step in year of transition * EPC operations to be spun off to ventures or wound down * CEO sees economic conditions improving in 2018 (Adds comments from ABB call, market reaction) By Michael Shields ZURICH, Dec 20 (Reuters) - ABB will reshape its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business - including its biggest but least profitable power grids division - by spinning off and winding down some operations, triggering fourth-quarter charges totalling $225 million. Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer called the move ABB’s final step in a year of transition that would lead into a 2018 when it would benefit from a strengthening economy. “We will always run the business in a way that we are responsibly managing capacity in line with market development,” he told reporters on a call, but noted economic conditions were likely to be brighter next year than in 2017. Last month, ABB said it would revamp its global power grids operations as it responds to the division’s sluggish profitability and falling orders. The move came as ABB sought to justify its decision last year to reject calls from Cevian Capital, its second-largest shareholder, to spin off power grids, which has suffered a 9 percent drop in orders in 2017. In the Power Grids division, which also makes electrical substations, ABB will form a joint venture with SNC-Lavalin for electrical substation EPC projects, the Swiss technology group said on Wednesday. Canadian-based SNC-Lavalin will have the controlling interest in the venture, it said. In the Industrial Automation division, ABB’s oil & gas EPC business will be transferred into a previously announced joint venture controlled by Saudi-based Arkad Engineering and Construction Ltd in a deal now expected to close this month. In the Robotics and Motion division, ABB is winding down its turnkey full train retrofit business. “The fourth quarter 2017 results of Power Grids and Robotics and Motion are each expected to be impacted by approximately $75 million on operational EBITA. The transfer of the turnkey oil & gas EPC business into the JV with Arkad is expected to result in a non-operational pre-tax charge to net income of approximately $75 million,” the company said. Spiesshofer said he did not expect negative impact on jobs. ABB is trying to shift its focus to higher-margin services. Its four divisions cover electrification products, robotics, industrial automation and power grids. Power grids accounted for around 30 percent of 2016 sales, electrification products 28 percent, robotics 23 percent and industrial automation 19 percent. ABB shares fell 0.4 percent in early trading, while the Stoxx European industry sector index was little changed. “We believe that the indicated completion of the (EPC) business model change will be supportive for sales growth rates as well as profitability,” Baader Helvea analyst Guenter Hollfelder, who rates the stock “hold”, said in a note. ABB will report these businesses as a non-core operating unit which will manage its backlog of existing business. The new unit will report to finance chief Timo Ihamuotila from the start of next year. (Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath and Keith Weir)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/abb-revamp/update-1-abb-revamps-engineering-business-to-take-q4-charges-idUSL8N1OK0J3'|'2017-12-20T09:03:00.000+02:00'
'd855b219a7379f569082cc574950116541be446a'|'Combustible cigarettes kill millions a year. Can Big Tobacco save them? - The tobacco paradox'|'BESIDE a serene lake in Switzerland sits a modern glass building called the Cube. Wide-leafed tobacco plants grow in the lobby. In one room machines that can “smoke” more than a dozen cigarettes at a time dutifully puff away, measuring the chemicals that consumers would inhale. The research centre is run by Philip Morris International (PMI), which sells Marlboro and other brands around the world. The facility’s purpose is not to assess the risks of smoking, but to determine whether this huge cigarette-maker might get out of selling cigarettes altogether.André Calantzopoulos, PMI’s chief executive, talks about moving to a “smoke-free future”, with the firm’s business comprised entirely of alternatives to cigarettes. “We are crystal clear where we are going as a company: we want to move out of cigarettes as soon as possible,” he says. Mr Calantzopoulos has the boldest goals in this regard, but he is not the only tobacco executive to tout a new direction. Nicandro Durante, chief executive of British American Tobacco (BAT), PMI’s main rival, says that investing in lower-risk products is a win for shareholders, consumers and society.  The idea that large tobacco companies might advance public health seems almost laughable. They still clash frequently with courts and regulators. It was only in November, after more than a decade of resistance, that companies began to comply with a landmark ruling from an American court in 2006 stating that they had worked for decades to deny the risks of smoking. Since November 26th firms have had, for example, to include wording in adverts that they “intentionally” designed smokes in a way that made them more addictive.Yet the firms also make safer alternatives. E-cigarettes have been around for a while; a newer invention are products that heat tobacco without producing all the deadly stuff that comes from burning it. PMI sells one such “heat not burn” (HNB) product, called IQOS, in nearly three dozen countries, including Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Russia and South Africa. Britain’s Committee on Toxicity recently found that people using HNB products are exposed to between 50% and 90% fewer “harmful and potentially harmful” compounds compared with conventional cigarettes. Public Health England, a government agency, says there is a large amount of evidence that shows e-cigarettes, too, are much less harmful than smoking, by at least 95%.Mr Calantzopoulos wants two-fifths of PMI’s revenue to come from IQOS, e-cigarettes and other safer products by 2025—and “hopefully much more”. Much will depend on regulators. In America, the world’s second-largest tobacco market after China, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to begin a regulatory process to get companies to reduce nicotine in cigarettes, rendering them less addictive, while making it easier for the firms to introduce safer products.Scott Gottlieb, the FDA’s commissioner, says that change may be the single most important step he can take to advance public health. Smoking kills more Americans than car crashes, murder and drugs combined. Early in 2018 PMI may get the FDA’s approval to sell IQOS in America. PMI would license the product to Altria, which sells Marlboro in America. A few months later IQOS may also become the first tobacco product the FDA allows to be advertised as less harmful than cigarettes (using a rule from 2009). PMI has submitted more than 2m pages of evidence to that end.Puff addersAll this puts the tobacco industry and those who attack it in an odd position. Companies are developing products that could save millions of lives each year, while still making an addictive product that is known to cause fatal diseases. Next to the Cube stands a PMI factory that can make up to 17bn cigarettes a year. Anti-smoking campaigners, including Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, who leads the implementation of the World Health Organisation’s anti-smoking treaty, are particularly dismayed by firms’ attempts to stymie anti-tobacco measures in poor and middle-income countries.Tobacco-makers have sued countries or threatened litigation over their rules to limit conventional smoking. PMI, for example, argued that Uruguay’s graphic warnings on cigarette packages violated the terms of a trade deal (a judge decided against the firm in 2016). BAT has a case pending in Kenya against its anti-tobacco laws. Even if a country wins in the end, tobacco firms’ resistance means that anti-smoking policies are usually delayed, both in the sued country and in others wary of starting legal battles. Thousands of new smokers might light up in the meantime. Tobacco companies also fight the one measure that really curbs smoking: sudden spikes in tax levied on cigarettes.The business case for conventional cigarettes is clear. They remain wildly profitable. Matthew Grainger, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, estimates that the average profit margin on a premium cigarette can reach about 80%. Nor has the impact of regulation been all bad for the tobacco industry. In countries where advertising is banned, large companies save on marketing costs and young brands find it harder to challenge them. As smoking rates decline in much of the West, firms have been able to raise prices for cigarettes in rich countries while promoting smoking elsewhere.New smoking products also promise to benefit Big Tobacco. The giants were late entrants to the e-cigarette market but caught up quickly by buying up popular brands and launching their own products. They now have around four-fifths of the market. E-cigarette sales doubled between 2014 and 2016, though still make up under 5% of total tobacco revenues. New products are also harder for rivals to replicate than conventional cigarettes. BAT points to $2.5bn of investments in new, lower-risk products since 2011; PMI has invested more than $3bn since 2008. Big companies also have the resources to seek regulatory approval for new products whereas smaller firms may struggle to do so.How regulators around the world actually treat these products varies. The FDA is signalling receptiveness. Indeed, its proposed approach must set tobacco executives’ pulses racing, because the more restrictive part of the FDA’s plan, to reduce nicotine in combustible cigarettes, will take years to implement. That gives them time to continue making money from old products as they build up their less harmful business. The FDA has not finalised its rules, but they will probably include a phased restriction on nicotine: lowering levels too quickly might just boost the black market for cigarettes.Outside America the industry faces a mishmash of conflicting rules. In Britain the Royal College of Physicians has said that e-cigarettes are a sensible, promising way to help smokers quit. Other regulators fear that e-cigarettes and tobacco-heating products will make the habit of puffing at a stick more normal again and serve as a first step for people to become addicted to real cigarettes. In 2016 a group within the World Health Organisation invited those who had signed its anti-tobacco treaty to “prohibit or restrict” e-cigarettes.PMI hopes to influence the debate. In Sep'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732828-new-safer-products-such-heated-tobacco-devices-and-e-cigarettes-mean-tobacco-industry?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-19T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'f64a07b759cc02dbe2d6444c5e9faf8ccb6c503e'|'Humana, private equity firms buy Kindred Healthcare for $810 million'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:43 PM / Updated 9 hours ago Humana, private equity firms buy Kindred Healthcare for $810 million Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. health insurer Humana Inc ( HUM.N ) and two private equity firms agreed to buy home healthcare and long-term care operator Kindred Healthcare Inc ( KND.N ) on Tuesday for about $810 million, the latest expansion by an American health insurer into patient care. Humana, TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe will pay $9 per share in cash. They said that, with debt and other costs, they are paying about $4 billion (3 billion pounds) for the company. The companies, both based in Louisville, Kentucky, plan to split Kindred into two separate companies: a larger one that focuses on home healthcare and the other focused on long-term acute care and rehabilitation. Humana, the fourth largest U.S. health insurer, will pay $800 million in cash for Kindred shares and to cover other costs. That will give it a 40 percent stake in Kindred at Home, which will employ the 40,000 Kindred caregivers who serve about 130,000 patients daily. It will not have a stake in the second Kindred unit. Humana’s insurance business is focused on individuals in the U.S. government’s Medicare program for the elderly and disabled. The acquisition builds on Humana’s focus on using health providers in members’ homes to improve health outcomes and save costs. The deal comes after competitors Aetna Inc. ( AET.N ) and UnitedHealth Group Inc ( UNH.N ) announced deals that will expand the reach of those insurers into healthcare services in locations and sites that charge less than hospitals. Soaring healthcare costs have been a national issue, and the federal government has been restricting its spending for health, putting pressure on insurers. Wall Street analysts said the Kindred deal, which had been reported on Sunday based on unnamed sources, would not end speculation that Humana itself could be a takeover target in the current healthcare consolidation wave. Earlier this month, Aetna announced a $69 billion deal to be bought by CVS Health Corp ( CVS.N ), fueling Wall Street interest in how smaller rivals Humana and Cigna Corp ( CI.N ) will compete. Humana agreed two years ago to be bought by Aetna but that deal was blocked by federal antitrust regulators who said that it would be anticompetitive. A similar deal by Anthem Inc. ( ANTM.N ) to buy Cigna was also blocked at the time. The company has the right to purchase the 60 percent stake in Kindred at Home owned by the private equity firms at the end of the third year. The deal is expected to close in the summer of 2018. Humana said it expects the deal to “slightly” add to earnings per share in 2019 and beyond. Morgan Stanley is the lead adviser to Humana and the private equity firms and JP Morgan is also a lead adviser to the private equity firms. TripleTree and law firm Fried, Frank, Harris Shriver & Jacobson advised Humana. Evercore did a fairness opinion for Humana’s board of directors. Barclays and Guggenheim Securities are financial advisers to Kindred and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP is its legal counsel. Kindred shares were trading at $8.98 per share, down 5 percent, having gained on Monday on Sunday reports of the deal. The $9-per-share price was a 4.7 percent premium over the stock’s Friday close. Humana shares were down 1 percent, or $2.28, at $244.10. Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/humana-kindred-hthcare-m-a/humana-private-equity-firms-buy-kindred-healthcare-for-810-million-idINKBN1ED2XJ'|'2017-12-20T01:39:00.000+02:00'
'f7a7d0e3128f14a7fa327848bbd0bf69d3963311'|'Israel''s Elbit Systems wins U.S. contract worth up to $176 mln'|'December 20, 2017 / 8:01 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago Israel''s Elbit Systems wins U.S. contract worth up to $176 million Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems Ltd ( ESLT.TA ) ( ESLT.O ) said on Wednesday its U.S. subsidiary won a contract from DynCorp International Inc [DETUCC.UL] to provide support services for the U.S. Army’s C-26 and UC-35 aircraft fleet. The award is for a one-year base period of up to $25 million and five additional single-year options. If all options are exercised, the total contract value will be up to $176 million. Elbit Systems of America provides contractor logistics support and engineering, maintenance, repair and overhaul services for aircraft and ground platforms. Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Jeffrey Heller'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-elbit-systems-usa-contract/israels-elbit-systems-wins-u-s-contract-worth-up-to-176-million-idUSKBN1EE0S7'|'2017-12-20T09:55:00.000+02:00'
'62686c855d2947b0044fe0374e50b6ee6cd93a4a'|'BRIEF-Discovery Metals Appoints Andreas L''Abbé As New CFO'|' 35 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago BRIEF-Discovery Metals Appoints Andreas L''Abbé As New CFO Reuters Staff Dec 18 (Reuters) - Discovery Metals Corp: * DISCOVERY METALS ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW CFO AND CHANGE IN FISCAL YEAR-END * DISCOVERY METALS CORP - APPOINTS ANDREAS L‘ABBÉ AS NEW CFO EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY * DISCOVERY METALS - OREST ZAJCEW HAS RESIGNED AS CFO BUT WILL REMAIN AS CORPORATE SECRETARY Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-discovery-metals-appoints-andreas/brief-discovery-metals-appoints-andreas-labb-as-new-cfo-idUSASB0BYDY'|'2017-12-19T00:33:00.000+02:00'
'062e7d6bcb9373327a9b6daf07e837cd1c171dca'|'Ryanair says will meet with cabin crew unions too'|'Reuters TV United States December 19, 2017 / 2:02 PM / a few seconds ago Ryanair says will meet with cabin crew unions too Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ) will move on to meetings with cabin crew unions “in due course,” it said on Tuesday, following its surprise shift to talk with pilot unions and after criticism from a German cabin crew union. FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane prepares to land at Manchester Airport in Manchester northern England, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Ryanair last week said it would recognize trade unions for the first time, a move that averted the first pilot strike in the company’s history, but which sent its share price lower. The carrier has agreed to first meetings with pilot unions from Ireland, Portugal and Germany this week. “It will lead on in the New Year to meetings with other EU pilot unions and cabin crew unions in due course as well,” Ryanair said in an emailed statement. Earlier, German cabin crew union UFO said it had asked Ryanair for negotiations on pay and conditions in October, but the carrier refused. “Workers’ rights should not stop at the cockpit door,” Nicoley Baublies, UFO board member for pay policy said in a statement on Tuesday, adding cabin crew would also consider industrial action if Ryanair did not negotiate with them too. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ryanair-unions/ryanair-says-will-meet-with-cabin-crew-unions-too-idUKKBN1ED1Q6'|'2017-12-19T15:58:00.000+02:00'
'8fe1ca66e10d9b1aaa8df5476a56bc9bd9781194'|'Germany''s Delivery Hero sells foodpanda India to Ola in stock deal'|'December 19, 2017 / 10:17 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Germany''s Delivery Hero sells foodpanda India to Ola in stock deal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Germany’s Delivery Hero ( DHER.DE ), an online food ordering and delivery marketplace, is selling its foodpanda India business to Ola in return for shares in the Indian ride-hailing firm, the companies said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO - The Delivery Hero headquarters is pictured in Berlin, Germany, June 2, 2017. The Berlin-based company Delivery Hero, one of Europe''s largest internet start-ups. Picture taken June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Under the agreement, Ola, owned by ANI Technologies, will also commit to investing $200 million in foodpanda’s India business. The deal marks Ola’s return to the food delivery business, which it exited in 2016, according to local media reports, and will give the company a platform to compete with UberEATS, a similar service launched in May by global ride-hailing rival Uber Technologies. UberEATS delivers in about half a dozen Indian cities while foodpanda is present in more than 100 cities. Other online food delivery services include Sequoia Capital-backed Zomato and Swiggy which is backed by Naspers. “The partnership with Ola will allow us to further consolidate markets where it strategically makes sense to collaborate with leading local players,” Delivery Hero Chief Executive Niklas Ostberg said. Delivery Hero, which floated on the stock exchange in Germany in June, had acquired food delivery firm foodpanda and its Indian subsidiary in December 2016. Foodpanda India reported a 64 percent increase in revenue at 621.6 million rupees ($9.7 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31 and losses narrowed to 448.1 million rupees from 1.43 billion rupees in the year-ago period, according to local media reports. The online food delivery market in India is expected to grow more than six-fold to $750 million this year from about $120 million in 2015, according to a report by consultant RedSeer. Reporting by Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Editing by Louise Heavens and Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-delivery-hero-ola/germanys-delivery-hero-sells-foodpanda-india-to-ola-in-stock-deal-idINKBN1ED0ZN'|'2017-12-19T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'a9da2e3ccb4a7bd15a581100be9b2cad7d1afe49'|'How Facebook uses artificial intelligence to explain photos for the blind - Dec. 21, 2017'|'Inside Facebook''s plan to be more human Facebook''s News Feed is a feast for the eyes, filled with photos, videos and status updates. That''s not great for visually impaired individuals, so Facebook has turned to artificial intelligence to improve their experience. A blind person can now hear an audio message describing a friend''s photo that shows people dancing or riding bikes. To do so, Facebook''s algorithm had to be taught what it was seeing. Artificial intelligence is the secret sauce behind making a project like this possible. It can do everything from translate languages, understand human speech and identify diseases. But AI advances aren''t without flaws. Even as artificial intelligence excels, the human element -- which includes biases and oversights by those who train the system -- surfaces in alarming ways . For example, a Microsoft bot named Tay once sparked outrage when it tweeted attacks against Jews and feminists. Dario Garcia, an artificial intelligence engineer at Facebook, is leading the project to identify what is happening in photos and read them out loud for the blind. "If you get it wrong, the consequences are pretty bad," said Dario Garcia, an artificial intelligence engineer at Facebook. "[Our project is] not a self-driving car, where someone will die if you get it wrong. But you can give a very misleading experience to people that most likely don''t have a clear way of knowing the algorithm is wrong." Garcia''s team gathered a sample of 130,000 public images that featured people. Staffers, called annotators, wrote a single line description of each photo. The images became examples that showed the AI what a photo of a person riding a bike or a horse looked like. The team faced tricky questions. If only part of a person''s body appeared in an image, Garcia and the annotators would need to discuss how that influenced the description. "You become almost obsessed with what the current definition of a person is," Garcia said. The conclusions of the group impacted how billions of photos are understood. Over time, the algorithm learned what was happening in photos and developed its own captions. After caption writing was tested, some images were relabeled to correct mistakes. The AI also learned from those corrections and strengthened its predictions in what Garcia calls a virtuous cycle. When the system launched in April 2016, it only identified objects and humans, but it has since been updated to identify 12 distinct actions in its captions. To use the feature, a blind person needs to access Facebook with a screen-reader -- software that helps a visually impaired reader by using a speech synthesizer or braille display -- and focus on the image. Related: Facebook exec: We need more women in power There''s still room to improve. The National Federation of the Blind recommends Facebook users who want the blind to have access to their photos include a detailed caption due to the limitations of the service. Matt King, a blind engineer at Facebook who contributed to the project, compares today''s AI systems to machines from the 1980s that read books to the unsighted. Those machines were the size of washing machines, couldn''t read fancy typefaces, and the page of the book had to be clean. "Artificial intelligence is creating a path to a world where everyone can communicate in ways they feel are most natural and can do so without leaving anyone feeling excluded," King said. He says he''s optimistic about Facebook''s progress so far. Facebook''s advancements have also been helped along by Yann LeCun, the company''s director of AI Research. LeCun, who joined Facebook in 2013 and is also a professor at New York University, is one the biggest names in the AI field. He''s credited with developing the convolutional neural network, a popular AI technique that has been used for years in banks and ATMs to read the numbers on checks. Despite its advancements, LeCun knows there are still limitations with AI. LeCun''s wife , who is French, cannot use voice recognition apps because they struggle to understand her accent. "There''s not a lot of people speaking English with a French accent," LeCun explained to CNN Tech. "It''s not that [engineers] don''t like French accented people. It''s just that there''s not much data."'|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/21/technology/facebook-ai-training/index.html'|'2017-12-21T17:13:00.000+02:00'
'bb5fa9a5a279d779ab1ac16c8c4ec5e0adc20752'|'Exclusive: Qatari dairy company battling Arab boycott to go public next year - sources'|'December 16, 2017 / 11:08 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Exclusive: Qatari dairy company battling Arab boycott to go public next year - sources Hadeel Al Sayegh 3 Min Read DOHA (Reuters) - Qatari company Baladna, which is creating a dairy industry in the desert to help the country to cope with a boycott by other Arab states, is planning an initial public offer of its shares (IPO) to raise funds and bring in strategic investors, sources familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: Cows are seen at Baladna farm near Al Khor, Qatar, November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon/File photo The privately-owned firm has chosen QNB Capital, the investment banking arm of Qatar National Bank, to arrange the IPO for the first half of 2018, said the sources, who declined to be named because the matter isn’t public. One source said the IPO might value the company, which flew 3,400 cows into Qatar during the initial weeks of the boycott to address a shortage of fresh milk, at about 2 billion riyals ($550 million). However, the sources said the valuation process had not been completed. Baladna and QNB Capital declined to comment. The IPO plan underlines one way in which Qatar is seeking to strengthen its economy in the face of the boycott by building up domestic companies to develop local production of key goods and services. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June. This closed Qatar’s border with Saudi Arabia, across which most of its fresh food had been imported, and disrupted shipping routes through the Gulf. In response, the Qatari government has been giving logistical and other support to companies such as Baladna to foster domestic production. Qatar’s 2018 state budget, released this week, includes a plan to award 29 billion riyals of contracts to support growth in the private sector. Baladna, owned by Qatari businessmen Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, is looking to bring in a mix of strategic, institutional and retail investors with the IPO, one of the sources said. The listed firm would hold assets including Baladna’s farm, the milk production business, and the bottling operation, the source said. Qatar’s stock market was hit hard by the global financial crisis at the end of the last decade, and there have been only three IPOs since 2010. Qatari conglomerate Investment Holding Group was the latest, in August this year. Following its initial airlift of cows, Baladna plans two sea shipments - each of 3,300 animals - into Qatar by February, its chief executive told Reuters last month. Another consignment of 3,000 cows is on the cards but not yet ordered. To cope with the harsh climate in Qatar, where the temperature can approach 50 degrees centigrade in summer, Baladna’s cows are housed in sheds that are cooled by fans and jets of mist. By next June, the company says, it expects to raise production of fresh milk and yoghurt to 500 tonnes a day, enough to meet 100 percent of domestic demand for those products with 100 tonnes left over for export. Editing by Andrew Torchia and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gulf-qatar-ipo/exclusive-qatari-dairy-company-battling-arab-boycott-to-go-public-next-year-sources-idINKBN1EA0AP'|'2017-12-16T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'774fdde3334df120e11df57fc3bad0f30b5e2321'|'UPDATE 1-European stocks build momentum as investors await U.S. tax bill'|'December 19, 2017 / 9:06 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago European stocks hit by bond jitters as US tax boost fades Danilo Masoni , Helen Reid 4 Min Read MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - European shares pulled back on Tuesday in a broadly weaker market as a rally inspired by investor optimism about a tax reform in the United States lost its strength. Expectations that the long-anticipated U.S. tax bill will pass this week lifted the pan-European STOXX 600 benchmark by as much as 0.2 percent in morning trade. But the index turned lower and accelerated losses in afternoon, ending down 0.4 percent. Traders said there was no clear catalyst but that jitters on the bond market, where Germany’s 10-year government bond yield hit a three-week high with its biggest one-day jump in more than three months, had weighed. “Bond yields have flared up and that might have hurt stocks too,” said Giuseppe Sersale, fund manager at Anthilia in Milan. “The moves on the bond market could be linked to expectations of bigger bond issues by the German government as well as technical factors.” Most sectors on the STOXX ended in negative territory with utilities .SX6P leading the decline, down 1 percent. Italian power company Enel ( ENEI.MI ) declined 2.7 percent, hurt by a downgrade to neutral from outperform from Macquarie. Top faller in Europe was Steinhoff ( SNHG.DE ), down 20 percent, after the South African retailer hit by an accounting scandal said it had started to lose credit lines from lenders. Among the gainers was chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor ( DLGS.DE ) which rose more than 8 percent after Tsinghua raised its stake in the company further to 9 percent. Tsinghua Unigroup has been adding to its stake since Dialog shares plunged in November on a report the power management chip maker might lose its biggest client, Apple ( AAPL.O ). Shares in AMS ( AMS.S ), another chipmaker, rose 8 percent, but this wasn’t enough to boost the tech sector, which fell back 0.5 percent. The highly-valued tech sector has weakened in recent weeks as investors shifted into bank stocks. Shares in Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual ( OML.L ) gained 2.7 percent after the company said it would sell its Buxton UK wealth business to TA Associates for $800 million as part of a planned break-up. Intrum Justitia ( INTRUM.ST ) shares fell 7.5 percent after the debt collection firm said its CFO would leave the company. Budget airline Ryanair ( RYA.I ) gained 2.3 percent, bouncing back after six straight sessions of losses caused by investors’ concerns over the firm’s decision to recognize unions. Telecoms stocks outperformed, boosted by a note from Morgan Stanley arguing the industry could fare better in 2018 thanks to successful cost-cutting, stronger mobile revenue growth and lower cash tax rates. Telcos have been among the worst performing sectors this year, down 2.5 percent from January. Overall euro zone equities were drawing to the close of a stellar year of gains, shrugging off a strengthening euro to deliver substantial returns. “If you look at performance in euros, European equities had a very strong year even compared to U.S. companies,” said Valentin Bissat, equity strategist at Mirabaud Asset Management, adding the difference in local currency performance was mainly down to the euro’s strength. “More importantly, it came from earnings growth rather than valuation expansion,” he added. Euro zone stocks outperform in USD terms - reut.rs/2yX6SUq Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-stocks-build-momentum-as-investors-await-u-s-tax-bill-idUSKBN1ED0SR'|'2017-12-19T11:49:00.000+02:00'
'f870b532789e6162e3a4f211e7e6f6b1a435e4dc'|'U.S. Congress poised to approve biggest tax overhaul in 30 years'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:12 AM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. Congress poised to approve biggest tax overhaul in 30 years David Morgan , Amanda Becker 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. Congress will begin voting on Tuesday on the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax system in more than 30 years, with little standing in the way of the party’s first major legislative triumph under President Donald Trump. The House of Representatives, which introduced initial tax legislation barely six weeks ago on Nov. 2, was scheduled to vote on Tuesday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would vote on Tuesday evening. With strict party-line votes expected in both chambers, passage appeared all but certain. “Congress is standing at the doorstep of an historic opportunity,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. Republicans insist the sweeping package of tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals will boost economic and job growth. They also see the measure as key to retaining their majorities in the House and Senate in elections next November. “This is about expanding opportunities for people who are striving to make the most of their lives,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said at a news conference. Democrats say the legislation will deepen the income gap between rich and poor Americans. The end-of-year sprint represents a remarkable recovery of Republican fortunes since the middle of this year, when the party’s drive to dismantle former Democratic President Barack Obama’s Obamacare healthcare law crumbled in the Senate and prospects for a tax overhaul seemed doomed by party infighting. Lingering doubts about fate of the tax bill all but vanished on Monday after two of the last Senate Republican holdouts, Susan Collins and Mike Lee, agreed to support the legislation. FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Congress Capitol Dome (L) building is pictured in Washington, DC, U.S. October 4, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo ‘NEW GILDED AGE’ Democrats, who unanimously oppose the Republican bill, railed against it as a giveaway to corporations and the wealthy that would add $1.5 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade. “There are so many rip-offs in this bill that people are going to say this is some kind of new Gilded Age,” said Senator Ron Wyden, top Democrat on the Senate Tax Committee. Some 52 percent of adults oppose the tax plan, while 27 percent support it, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. The plan includes a steep tax cut for businesses and temporary tax cuts for individuals. Middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year, while the wealthiest 1 percent would see an average cut of $51,000, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Roughly half of all Americans would pay higher taxes than they do now after the tax cuts expire in 2025 but the top 1 percent would still pay less, the Tax Policy Center said. The House, where Republicans hold a 239-193 voting majority, was likely to see a smattering of “no” votes from Republican fiscal hawks and lawmakers from the high-tax states of New York, New Jersey and California who oppose a provision that would scale back a popular deduction for state and local taxes. Vice President Mike Pence took the precaution of rescheduling a trip to Egypt and Israel for January so he would be on hand this week in case his tie-breaking voting power is needed to ensure Senate passage of the bill. Republicans, who control the 100-seat Senate by only a 52-48 margin, can afford to lose support from no more than two party lawmakers. Republican Senator Jeff Flake was still undecided on Tuesday. Senator John McCain, who has brain cancer, was spending time with family in Arizona. The legislation also would repeal a federal fine imposed on Americans under Obamacare for not obtaining health insurance coverage, a change that could undermine the 2010 healthcare law formally known as the Affordable Care Act. Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bill Trott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax/u-s-congress-poised-to-approve-biggest-tax-overhaul-in-30-years-idINKBN1ED16Z'|'2017-12-19T13:08:00.000+02:00'
'728477f58ad694d93afaf0e1ae522304ce3edf6e'|'Central banks, trade and bubbles threaten the 2018 status quo'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:39 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Central banks, trade and bubbles threaten the 2018 status quo Jeremy Gaunt 6 Min Read LONDON(Reuters) - After a year of relatively healthy global economic growth, economists are predicting pretty much the same for 2018 -- a neither too-hot nor too-cold Goldilocks scenario, but with little sight of the three bears. FILE PHOTO: Central Bank Governors Janet Yellen of the Federal Reserve, Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mark Carney of the Bank of England and Haruhiko Kuroda of the Bank of Japan (L-R) attend the ECB''s Central Bank Communications Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo The idea is that all is pretty much on track for growth that will be stronger than in 2017. Part of this may come from the fact that forecasters generally got it wrong last year, underclubbing this year’s economic performance, particularly for the euro zone and Japan. The International Monetary Fund, for example, saw 2017 global growth at 3.4 percent with advanced economies advancing 1.8 percent. It now reckons them at 3.6 percent and 2.2 percent. It had the euro zone and Japan growing 1.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. It now has them at 2.1 percent and 1.5 percent. “Faster growth is reaching roughly two-thirds of the world’s population,” the IMF said in a December blog post. This performance has made some economists optimistic. Nomura is among the more bullish: “Global growth has far more self-reinforcing characteristics at present than at any time over the last 20-30 years.” But Goldilock’s bears do have a habit of showing up. There are huge numbers of potential political and economic risks to the status quo. But as in the fairy tale, let’s go with just three: central banks, trade, and bubbles. In the first case, the danger is that there will be a policy mistake, squeezing debtors. The second relates to renewed U.S. protectionism or anger over Chinese exports triggering tit-for-tat, growth-stifling trade barriers. The third is about sudden market losses that dry up spending and demand. BEAR ONE IN THE WOODS Part of 2017’s global economic success was put down to a combination of extraordinarily loose monetary policy and competent management by central banks of their attempts to wean the world off such largesse. Entering 2018 the U.S. Federal Reserve is lining up for three more hikes, the European Central Bank is slowly cutting back on its asset purchases, and China is increasing rates. All of this is being carefully flagged by the policymakers, but mistakes can happen and any significant shift of gear could cause a sharp retrenchment in consumer and corporate spending. The amount of U.S. corporate debt outstanding, for example, is nearly $8.8 trillion, according to Sifma, the U.S. securities industry group. That is up 35 percent since 2010 and a major driver behind corporate expansion. “Financial stability risks pose a bigger threat to the continuation of the (growth) cycle than price stability risks,” Morgan Stanley co-head of economics Chetan Ahya wrote in a 2018 outlook, saying U.S. corporates were the most exposed to higher interest rates. This implies that central bank tightening to curb overly robust growth or inflation risks creating a credit squeeze -- hence the caution in Washington, Frankfurt, Beijing and Tokyo. BEAR TWO IN THE WOODS FILE PHOTO: China''s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump witness U.S. and Chinese business leaders signing trade deals at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign was peppered with “America First” rhetoric and a dollop of belligerence about other countries. In office, the Trump administration has done a few things in the name of U.S. interests to upset multilateralists. It has, for example, launched an investigation into steel imports, blocked the appointment of judges at the World Trade Organization, and withdrawn the United States from a now 11- member Pacific Rim trade pact. Other measures have not progressed as far, notably the threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the pledge to bring China to heel over its allegedly unfair trade practices. But the U.S. trade deficit increased to $43.5 billion despite growth-driven U.S. exports. The U.S.-China deficit dropped a bit but was still $34.6 billion in Beijing’s favour. “The massive TRADE deficits must go down quickly,” Trump tweeted after a trip to Asia in November. FILE PHOTO: Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port, part of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, in Shanghai, China, February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Were rhetoric to turn to practice, the economic climate of 2018 could quickly turn chilly. According to the U.S. Conference board, China’s economic exposure to the United States is nearly five times higher than the U.S. exposure to China. That would suggest that any impositions of trade barriers could hit growth in China that is behind much of the wealth in exporting nations like Germany. It is far from just a U.S.-China matter: the World Bank estimates world trade accounts for 52 percent of world GDP, more than doubling its clout over the past 50 years ago. BEAR THREE IN THE WOODS Bubbles are hard to gauge until they have popped (there is a tendency to say “this time it is different”, until it isn‘t). But if economists have learnt one thing from this century’s financial market crashes it is that they bring the house down with them. The World Bank estimates that the global growth rate fell from around 4.4 percent in 2000 to some 1.9 percent in 2001, when the dot com bubble burst, and that the financial crisis prompted a plunge from a roughly 4.3 percent growth rate in 2007 to a 1.7 percent contraction in 2009. What happens is that sudden losses in financial instruments cause companies and consumers to stop spending, leading to tumbling growth, layoffs, and debt defaults. There are plenty of examples of assets that have soared continually and steeply in the past year: Bitcoin’s staggering rise is but the most obvious. Albert Edwards, a Societe Generale strategist who is always on the lookout for bubble-poppers, reckons that with stock markets in the stratosphere, it won’t take much to reverse things. It may be just some as “boring” as some unexpectedly poor profits, he suggests. (For a graphic on global growth, reut.rs/2yWFCVO ) Reporting by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-economy-outlook/central-banks-trade-and-bubbles-threaten-the-2018-status-quo-idUKKBN1ED1B6'|'2017-12-19T13:38:00.000+02:00'
'b4deea967c9f16b8afbb1650c0a993ac212bfec8'|'MOVES-Metropolitan Bank names Gerard Perri chief operating officer'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:08 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago MOVES-Metropolitan Bank names Gerard Perri chief operating officer Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 18 (Reuters) - Regional lender Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp on Monday named Gerard Perri to the newly created position of executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective immediately. Perri will report to Chief Executive Mark DeFazio and will be responsible for overall bank operations. Reporting by Roopal Verma in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/metropolitan-bank-holding-corp-moves-ger/moves-metropolitan-bank-names-gerard-perri-chief-operating-officer-idUSL4N1OI5L2'|'2017-12-19T00:05:00.000+02:00'
'7a555e8ea30ef21c441e49b075082f919b7a2994'|'Fiat Chrysler in talks over potential diesel emissions settlement'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:05 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Fiat Chrysler in talks over potential diesel emissions settlement David Shepardson 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Lawyers for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and owners of the automaker’s diesel-powered vehicles are in settlement talks over allegations of excess diesel emissions, a court-appointed adviser said Tuesday. In May, the U.S. Justice Department sued Fiat Chrysler, accusing the company of illegally using software that led to excess emissions in nearly 104,000 U.S. diesel vehicles sold since 2014. Numerous suits have been filed by vehicle owners. Court settlement master Ken Feinberg said at a court hearing in San Francisco Tuesday that “term sheets” or proposed settlement documents have been exchanged between Fiat Chrysler and diesel owner lawyers. Feinberg said the proposals were briefly discussed at a meeting Tuesday with the parties, along with the Justice Department, California Air Resources Board and German auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH [ROBG.UL], which develops diesel vehicle systems, and has also been sued by diesel owners. Feinberg said it was “a very healthy discussion on how we might get to yes.” He added he would hold a day of settlement talks in Washington between the Justice Department and Fiat Chrysler in January, along with another day of talks between the automaker, Bosch and diesel owners. There are parallel talks between the Justice Department and Fiat Chrysler and the company and diesel owners aimed at reaching settlements. “We’re looking for different substantive ways to secure an early comprehensive settlement,” Feinberg said, adding a settlement could occur before testing on vehicles is completed in March. “Everybody in good faith is certainly trying to figure out how we might achieve a comprehensive settlement.” In July, Fiat Chrysler won approval from federal and California regulators to sell 2017 diesel vehicles after it came under scrutiny for alleged excess emissions in older diesel models. Fiat Chrysler lawyer Robert Giuffra said in court the company remains confident it can use updated emissions software in the 2017 vehicles as the basis of a fix to address agencies’ concerns over 2014-2016 diesel vehicles. Justice Department lawyer Leigh Rende declined to comment in court on the settlement talks. She said company testing on the proposed fix began on Dec. 17 and would take about three months. The government will then have 30 days to review the results and expects to make a determination by the end of April. Regulators have said Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles had undisclosed emissions controls that allowed vehicles to emit excess pollution during normal driving. The company has denied wrongdoing, saying there was never an attempt to create software to cheat emissions rules. Fiat Chrysler’s emissions case came after Volkswagen AG’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) diesel emissions scandal prompted increased industry scrutiny. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fiat-chrysler-emissions/fiat-chrysler-in-talks-over-potential-diesel-emissions-settlement-idUKKBN1ED2W6'|'2017-12-20T01:04:00.000+02:00'
'ca69002c592063694a8c3f3ac6ac9b63fc717ef9'|'Tandem''s takeover of Harrods Bank approved by UK regulator'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:19 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Tandem''s takeover of Harrods Bank approved by UK regulator Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s banking regulator has approved Tandem’s takeover of Harrods Bank, the app-based financial services provider said on Wednesday, providing the licence and capital it needs to become a full-blown bank nine months after it lost both. Tandem, which counts the founder of Ebay ( EBAY.O ) as an investor, is a digital-only lender focused on customers in their 20s and 30s and one of several such banks bidding to poach market share from the likes of Barclays ( BARC.L ), Lloyds ( LLOY.L ), HSBC ( HSBA.L ) and Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ). Acquiring Harrods Bank, which offers personalised banking services from London’s luxury Harrods department store, will provide Tandem with around 80 million pounds in capital, 10,000 customers and the bank’s loan and mortgage book, worth 338 million pounds according to accounts as of January 2017. “When the deal is finally done early in the New Year, it will transform Tandem into one of the UK’s leading digital challenger banks,” said Tandem founder and CEO Ricky Knox. The takeover, which was announced earlier this year, was approved by the central bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). It had stripped Tandem of its licence in March after a Chinese conglomerate pulled 29 million pounds in funding it had needed to take deposits and broaden its retail banking offering. Tandem is one of a growing list of digital-only banks hoping to capitalise on upcoming regulation to take market share from bigger rivals. Reporting by Emma Rumney; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-harrods-m-a-tandem/tandems-takeover-of-harrods-bank-approved-by-uk-regulator-idUKKBN1EE1HM'|'2017-12-20T14:20:00.000+02:00'
'f0d7c2d648f5f347a008baadcd9c500bd851d8dd'|'Shanghai starts vetting outbound investment scheme licences, regulator says'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:30 AM / Updated an hour ago Shanghai starts vetting outbound investment scheme licenses, regulator says Samuel Shen , Elias Glenn 3 Min Read BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Shanghai has started vetting license applications for an outbound investment scheme allowing subsidiaries of global asset managers to raise funds for investment overseas, China’s foreign exchange regulator said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - People walk on a bridge near the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai November 21, 2014. REUTERS/Aly Song The city plans to hand out quotas within the existing limits of the Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership (QDLP) scheme, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in response to questions from Reuters. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Shanghai planned to revive the scheme this week. No QDLP quotas have been issued since an unofficial suspension late in 2015, when China tightened capital controls amid turmoil in its stock and currency markets. “Shanghai has recently continued to press ahead with the QDLP pilot scheme and has started vetting QDLP licenses with plans to grant institutions quotas within the existing QDLP limit,” the regulator said in an email. The pilot scheme has boosted options for allocation of overseas assets by domestic residents and will help Shanghai develop into an international financial center, it added. It did not say what the current quota limits were. Between 2013 and 2015, Shanghai handed out three batches of QDLP quotas worth a combined $1.23 billion to 15 asset managers, such as alternative investment manager Oaktree Capital and hedge fund houses Winton, Citadel, OZ Management and Man Group. People with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters the authorities were expected to award each qualified asset manager a quota of $50 million this time round. Domestic media have quoted foreign institutions such as BNP Paribas Asset Management, British asset manager Aberdeen Standard ( SLA.L ), and South Korea’s Mirae Asset as saying they were interested in getting QDLP licenses. The move to reopen the gates for QDLP, at a time of a robust rally in global financial markets, shows Beijing is increasingly confident about pressing ahead with financial deregulation as its fears of capital outflows and yuan depreciation recede. The scheme allows foreign asset managers to raise funds from wealthy Chinese individuals, via subsidiaries in China, up to a set figure, and invest them in a broad range of assets overseas, including hedge funds and distressed debt. But there is no sign of a resumption of the larger Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) scheme, which allows Chinese investors to buy overseas stocks and bonds and which was also unofficially suspended. Reporting by Elias Glenn and Samuel Shen; Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-investment-regulations/shanghai-starts-vetting-outbound-investment-scheme-licenses-regulator-says-idINKBN1EE1AP'|'2017-12-20T13:20:00.000+02:00'
'9876d130b041a3b332def315beac3fe4053abdba'|'Aphria bets C$10 mln on Canada''s recreational marijuana market'|' 14 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago Aphria bets C$10 mln on Canada''s recreational marijuana market Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 21 (Reuters) - Medical marijuana maker Aphria Inc said on Thursday it would invest C$10 million ($7.80 million) in the proposed combination of two recreational marijuana companies to expand its presence in the sector. Recreational marijuana is on track to be legalized in Canada by July 2018, making Canada the first Group of Seven country to allow the drug nationwide and the second in the world after Uruguay. The merger between privately-held TS BrandCo Holdings Inc and British Columbia-based DOJA Cannabis Co Ltd was announced earlier in the day by the two companies. The combined entity, to be called Hiku Brand Co Ltd, will have seven cannabis accessory stores across Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia in Canada. Aphria’s latest investment is in addition to C$1 million that it had invested in TS BrandCo. It has also invested in companies based in Florida and Arizona. Canada’s TMX Group Ltd, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, said in October it might delist stocks of marijuana companies with interests in the United States, where their operations are illegal under federal law. ($1 = 1.2824 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Akshara P in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/aphria-equity/aphria-bets-c10-mln-on-canadas-recreational-marijuana-market-idUSL4N1OL491'|'2017-12-21T15:13:00.000+02:00'
'dc8d068ff752bbc27bca7fff06bf1f2a959143e7'|'Portugal''s Galp offers LNG ship refuelling off islands and mainland'|' 25 PM / a few seconds ago Portugal''s Galp offers LNG ship refueling off islands and mainland Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal’s Galp Energy is expanding its marine fuel offering by supplying low-emission liquefied natural gas for ships and performed the first refueling of a cruise ship on the island of Madeira earlier this week, it said on Thursday. A company spokesman said the refueling involving a ship running on LNG was the first carried out at a Portuguese port, and the first on any Atlantic island. It expects LNG use to become mainstream in ships in the future due to stricter rules on harmful emissions. “Galp now has the capacity to refuel ships with LNG at any port of mainland Portugal and islands and will soon also provide ship-to-ship refueling, with added capacity and flexibility,” Galp said. The 3,300-passenger AIDAprima cruise ship, which Galp refueled this week, is run by Carnival Corp’s AIDA brand and travels weekly to the Madeira islands. LNG powers an auxiliary motor used by the ship while at port, reducing local emissions. According to Galp, Carnival, a pioneer in cruise ship LNG use, will deploy four vessels that only use natural gas until 2020, when more restrictive marine fuels legislation comes into force. Reporting By Andrei Khalip, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-portugal-galp/portugals-galp-offers-lng-ship-refueling-off-islands-and-mainland-idUSKBN1EF1O4'|'2017-12-21T15:17:00.000+02:00'
'c0d97972bd090dcb8d4f0411e9971b831e38ce80'|'UK car output falls in November as domestic demand slumps'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:02 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago UK car output falls in November as domestic demand slumps Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British car production fell 4.6 percent in November due to a nearly 30 percent drop in year-on-year domestic demand, which an industry body blamed on uncertainty over Brexit and diesel taxation. FILE PHOTO: A man works on the production line at the Toyota factory in Derby, central England, March 7, 2011. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo A total of 161,490 vehicles rolled off British production lines last month, with demand at home falling 28.1 percent compared with a 1.3 percent rise in exports, accounting for 85 percent of all production. Year-to-date volumes stand at 1,577,042 units, down 2 percent on the first 11 months of last year, according to data released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders on Thursday. The trade body had once hoped that 2017 would be the year the industry beat the all-time high of 1.92 million cars set in 1972 but has since scaled backed exceptions, now anticipating full-year volumes to be flat at 1.73 million units. Carmakers are worried their vehicles could be hit with tariffs and customs checks after Britain exits the European Union in March 2019, endangering the viability of plants, though the government has promised to safeguard “frictionless” trade. Months of uncertainty over whether the British government would increase taxes on diesel cars has seen demand in the segment collapse, down 16 percent so far this year. “Brexit uncertainty, coupled with confusion over diesel taxation and air quality plans, continues to impact domestic demand for new cars and, with it, production output,” said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes. “Whilst it is good to see exports grow in November, this only reinforces how overseas demand remains the driving force for UK car manufacturing.” The changeover from older to newer models at some British plants has also dented production numbers. Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-autos/uk-car-output-falls-in-november-as-domestic-demand-slumps-idUKKBN1EF008'|'2017-12-21T02:08:00.000+02:00'
'e5518ff2e58a5744ce727dc0aea0777deab69a04'|'Amazon''s Italian warehous workers maintain overtime ban over Christmas'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:02 PM / Updated an hour ago Amazon''s Italian warehouse workers maintain overtime ban over Christmas Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Workers at Amazon’s ( AMZN.O ) main logistics hub in Italy vowed on Thursday to continue with their work to rule in a dispute over pay and shift patterns, refusing to work overtime during the current peak season for making deliveries. On Wednesday workers at the Castel San Giovanni plant, near Piacenza, cut short every shift by two hours as a series of protest meeting were held throughout the day, FILCAMS CGIL union leader Fiorenzo Molinari told Reuters. “For now the protest will continue until Dec. 31 with a ban on overtime ... then we’ll have to discuss with workers how to proceed,” Molinari said. Amazon has long faced pressures in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, such as Germany, over union allegations that its warehouse staff are pushed too hard for too little money. Unions in Italy, where online sales are still half the European average, also say workers should benefit more from rising profits as the country catches up on e-commerce. Last month workers at Castel San Giovanni walked out on ‘Black Friday’, another one of the busiest online shopping days of the year, over demands for bonus payments and to have a bigger say over the way shifts are allocated. Following that strike the Italian labour ministry sent officials to inspect working conditions at the plant. But the industrial action involves only staff with a permanent position and Amazon brings in additional temporary workers at Castel San Giovanni during peak times such as the run-up to Christmas. Amazon has said that pay levels for its logistics workers are among the highest in the industry and it also provides other benefits, including private medical insurance and funding for training programmes. “At Amazon, we are committed to ensuring a fair cooperation with all our employees, granting valuable working conditions and a caring and inclusive environment in all our workplaces,” an Amazon spokeswoman said. Molinari said Amazon’s executives had failed to attend a meeting on Wednesday morning at the offices of the local government representative. But the spokeswoman said the group was never due to attend and met later in the day with the government official without unions being present. (This version of the story refiled to correct typographical error in spelling of ‘warehouse’ in headline.) Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-protests-italy/amazons-italian-warehouse-workers-maintain-overtime-ban-over-christmas-idUSKBN1EF1MU'|'2017-12-21T14:49:00.000+02:00'
'4ccdbf72b321f4596120d0f77888b51d5456f72a'|'BOJ set to hold fire, signal no quick end to crisis-mode stimulus'|'December 20, 2017 / 9:08 PM / Updated an hour ago BOJ set to hold fire, signal no quick end to crisis-mode stimulus Leika Kihara 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan is expected to keep monetary policy steady on Thursday and reassure markets it will only end crisis-mode stimulus when inflation is heading more decisively towards its 2 percent target. FILE PHOTO: People walk past the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo, Japan June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo But BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda may also signal that the central bank’s next policy direction would be to scale back its massive stimulus, highlighting the rising pain that prolonged easing was inflicting on Japan’s banking system. The BOJ is seen keeping its short-term interest rate target at minus 0.1 percent and the 10-year bond yield target around zero percent - wrapping up a year in which the central bank made no change to policy. The nine-member board may debate whether the BOJ should consider raising its yield targets or slow down its purchases of risky assets next year, analysts say, as some members had recently expressed concerns over the demerits of easing. Any such action would come only when inflation exceeds 1 percent long enough to convince the public that prices will keep rising, say sources familiar with the BOJ’s thinking. Hiroshi Ugai, a former BOJ official who is currently chief economist at JPMorgan Securities, expects the central bank to raise its 10-year yield target in September and December. “The BOJ will explain the moves as fine-tuning, not tightening, of monetary policy. It will say it’s adjusting what it sees as excessive easing given higher inflation,” he said. Markets are focusing on Kuroda’s post-meeting briefing for clues as to how quickly the BOJ could follow in the footsteps of U.S. and European peers in dialing back stimulus. After three years of heavy money printing failed to fire up inflation, the BOJ revamped its policy framework last year to target interest rates instead of the rate at which it bought up financial assets. Since then, the BOJ has been quietly tapering its huge asset buying. While it still keeps a loose pledge to increase its bond holdings at 80 trillion yen ($708.40 billion) per year, its bond buying has recently slowed to half that pace. Analysts expect the BOJ’s bond buying to slow further with the central bank already commanding 40 percent of the market, while the government plans to issue less debt next year. Japan’s economy grew an annualised 2.5 percent in July-September to mark a seventh straight quarter of expansion on robust exports and capital expenditure. But core consumer inflation remains stuck at 0.8 percent and firms polled by the BOJ expect no major pick-up in price growth in coming years. Most economists polled by Reuters expect the BOJ’s next move to be a withdrawal of stimulus, though they do not expect such a step to be taken until late 2018 or beyond. ($1 = 112.9300 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj/boj-set-to-hold-fire-signal-no-quick-end-to-crisis-mode-stimulus-idUKKBN1EE2PF'|'2017-12-20T23:07:00.000+02:00'
'e59102434c945a7267a097a17e7cde0e0dd5adc9'|'Asia stocks subdued as U.S. tax cuts batter bonds'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:49 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Asia stocks subdued as U.S. tax cuts batter bonds Wayne Cole 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian markets offered a muted reaction on Thursday to the passage of U.S. tax cuts as benefits to company bottom lines were already baked into stock prices, while bonds were spooked by the blowout in government debt needed to fund the giveaways. FILE PHOTO: People walk past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.1 percent in thin trade, while Australian stocks lost 0.3 percent. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 eased 0.3 percent, though a softening yen should provide some support to exporters. In U.S. President Donald Trump’s first major policy win, Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary relief to middle-class Americans. Having spent more than a year anticipating the bill, its actual passage proved something of an anticlimax for Wall Street. The Dow .DJI fell 0.11 percent, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.08 percent and the Nasdaq .IXIC 0.04 percent. Most of the action was in bond markets where yields on U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR jumped to the highest since March at 2.50 percent, in the process making a bearish break of a key chart level at 2.47 percent. The swing higher in long-term yields, for once, outpaced the move in the short-end and steepened the yield curve a little. Bond investors are concerned that adding fiscal stimulus at a time when the economy is already at full employment would only reinforce the Federal Reserve’s determination to raise interest rates, thus pushing up short term yields. At the same time, many assume the unfunded tax cuts will lead to an explosion in government borrowing, increasing the supply of new bonds and pressuring prices across the curve. The impact is all the greater as the Fed has begun to unwind its massive bond holdings, as have central banks elsewhere. Sweden’s Riksbank on Wednesday took its first baby steps toward reversing ultra-loose policy by ending net new bond purchases. “An appreciation that central banks are going to be buying fewer bonds next year at a time when many governments will be selling more of them, plus profit taking on the curve-flattening theme that has been a winning trade for large parts of 2017, are playing a part,” said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at NAB. One institution that has been committed to aggressive stimulus is the Bank of Japan, but even it may hint at a re-think after its board meeting later Thursday. For now, currency investors are assuming the BOJ will still keep Japanese bond yields super-low for some time to come and have been nudging the yen lower. The euro hit its highest on the yen since late 2015 at 134.76 yen EURJPY=, having overcome major resistance around 134.50. The dollar was up at 113.38 yen JPY= , after rising 0.4 percent on Wednesday. The euro outperformed broadly, reaching $1.1875 EUR= on the dollar after starting the week down at $1.1752. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was flat at 93.309 .DXY. The single currency faces a hurdle later in the day when an election in Catalonia is expected to produce no clear majority for either the separatist or unionist parties, leading to weeks of political wrangling. In commodity markets, gold XAU= was underpinned by the softer dollar to stand at $1,265.10 an ounce. Oil prices steadied after rising on a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories and the continued outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline system. [O/R] U.S. crude futures CLc1 were off 4 cents in early trade at $58.05 a barrel, having rallied 53 cents overnight. Brent crude LCOc1 was yet to trade at $64.50 a barrel. Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-subdued-as-u-s-tax-cuts-batter-bonds-idUKKBN1EF026'|'2017-12-21T02:42:00.000+02:00'
'2109d8598c7160bb61bb78d801ed14510d5ac88f'|'Hotelier IHG sees mid-to-high single-digit percent tax rate cut on U.S. tax reform'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:55 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Hotelier IHG sees mid-to-high single-digit percent tax rate cut on U.S. tax reform Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Hotelier InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) ( IHG.L ) said the new U.S. tax bill is expected to reduce the group’s tax rate by a mid- to high-single-digit percentage point next year from the current rate in the low 30s. FILE PHOTO - The Logo of a Holiday Inn Hotel is pictured in Paris, France, August 8, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen The operator of brands such as Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and InterContinental, in a brief statement, said the measure in the tax bill will result in one-off tax credit in the year it is signed into law. The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years. The bill keeps the existing number of tax brackets but adjusts many of the rates and income levels for each. The top tax rate for high earners is reduced. The United States is the largest market for the hotel group in terms of room numbers and contributed to about 58 percent of company’s revenue in 2016, according to their last annual report. Morgan Stanley, in a client note, said that a 5-9 percent tax rate reduction would be equivalent to a 7-13 percent EPS upgrade, pushing up its target price on the stock to 46 pounds from 42 pounds. Shares in the company, which runs over 5,000 hotels in about 100 countries, were up 1.2 percent at 0941 GMT. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-intercontinental-tax-usa/hotelier-ihg-sees-mid-to-high-single-digit-percent-tax-rate-cut-on-u-s-tax-reform-idUKKBN1EF12F'|'2017-12-21T11:54:00.000+02:00'
'96fca21d68e8ddfebe1dc1b0f91f2fbb2743c9b5'|'Russia’s dysfunctional funeral business gets a makeover - Notes from the undertaker'|'THE calls began shortly after Yulia’s grandmother died. The undertaker offered help arranging the funeral, for 47,000 roubles ($800) in cash. She then travelled to Moscow’s Khovanskoe Cemetery, where she was offered a discount on a gravesite—150,000 roubles off—if she could bring cash within three hours and sign a receipt saying she had paid half that amount. Yulia (whose name has been changed) and her family gave in. “We knew we were paying a bribe, but what else could we do?”To bury a loved one in Russia often means entering an underworld of corruption and red tape. The myriad goods and services needed, from preparing the body for burial to funeral arrangements to carving a headstone, all represent opportunities for extortion in a largely informal market. “Instead of a funeral as a commercial service, the consumer is offered a strange sort of quest,” writes Sergei Mokhov, editor of The Archaeology of Russian Death , an academic journal. Official spending on funeral services reached some 58bn roubles in 2016. But most of the market—another 120bn-150bn roubles—remains in the shadows, according to official estimates.  Change may be afoot. President Vladimir Putin in August directed his government to clean up the industry. The authorities want to bring revenues into the light and under control of state firms, such as GBU Ritual, a large provider in Moscow. “Earlier when there was lots of oil money, no one wanted to bother with foul-smelling funerals,” notes Mr Mokhov, but now the state is looking for resources. An unintended consequence may be to allow more space for entrepreneurs, who see opportunities to disrupt Russia’s most archaic sector. “This is practically the last sphere to go through a market transition,” says Oleg Shelyagov, owner of Ritual.ru, an innovative funeral-services provider in Moscow.Russia’s history has shaped the industry in unusual ways. Under the tsars the church oversaw most funerals and cemeteries. The Bolsheviks nationalised church land and property, abolished traditional rituals, and decreed that all citizens must have identical funerals. In practice, however, the Soviet authorities paid little attention to burial practices.After the Soviet Union’s collapse “absolute bacchanalia” and “absolute banditry” took hold, says Vladimir Panin, director of STIKS-S, one of Moscow’s oldest funeral bureaus. Over time some 20 firms, including Mr Panin’s, became “specialised city services”, or privately owned firms that the city licenses as funeral providers in return for a small stake (no less than 5%). These firms developed a simple business strategy, paying rent to hospitals and morgues for offices on the premises, then waiting for the inevitable appearance of clients. (The city received shares in the firms in exchange for offering access to state infrastructure.)RIP-offTheir main competitors have long been “black” agents—independent operators who buy information on recent deaths from police, medical and morgue employees (the going rate in Moscow for this kind of intelligence is 20,000 roubles). These agents thrust themselves upon relatives of the deceased, often showing up at home offering help with documents, coffins and arrangements. They often price services “by the boots”—estimating from the client’s appearance how much they can pay.Problems mounted for years with little government response. The last notable law on the industry passed in 1996. Oversight has been minimal. But Mr Putin’s order, and a run of scandals, including a brawl over turf that left three dead and dozens wounded at Moscow’s Khovanskoe Cemetery in 2016, gave impetus to talk of reform. Officials speak of raising standards, banning funeral agents from morgues and hospitals, and digitising services.A handful of newer players have emerged, hoping to speed the industry’s transformation. Mr Shelyagov, a former banker, acquired a controlling share in Ritual.ru in 2016 and set out to modernise things. Rather than purchasing death notices or setting up shop in morgues, Ritual.ru aims to attract customers with a competitive product and strong branding. He talks of becoming the “Coca-Cola in this market”, but admits that marketing funeral services is a challenge. “What are you going to do, put an ad up for cheap coffins?”Ritual.ru has developed two in-house apps: one, inspired by Uber, connects its network of funeral agents with incoming orders; a second contains a catalogue where customers can choose coffins, wreaths and other services, with fixed prices and the option to pay by credit card. “Everyone is afraid to call this business a business,” says Mr Shelyagov. “But it’s no different from any other.” Another firm, Chestniy Agent (meaning Honest Agent), employs drones to map cemeteries, most of which have few or no records, to find space; their app links agents with suppliers for coffins and headstones.Entrepreneurs and established companies must nonetheless contend with an expansionist GBU Ritual. In 2015 it went beyond controlling city cemeteries, also taking over spaces in morgues and hospitals to offer funeral arrangements. “Why are there changes? Because someone wants to eat,” laments Mr Panin, gazing at two shark heads perched on the shelves of his opulent office. His company, until recently one of Moscow’s largest funeral agencies, is under strain. “Back in the ’80s and ’90s there were bandits,” he says. “Now there are the state structures.”This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Notes from the undertaker"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732838-shoot-out-cemetery-and-governments-need-revenue-prompt-reform-often-corrupt?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-19T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'3b3ceae74a51323da0f1c9ea090c8bbada8cac4b'|'UK retail sales grow steadily in pre-Christmas period - CBI'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:07 AM / Updated an hour ago UK retail sales grow steadily in pre-Christmas period - CBI Reuters Staff 2 Min Read London (Reuters) - British retail sales enjoyed solid growth in the run-up to Christmas though underlying trading conditions remained tough, a survey by the Confederation of British Industry showed on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Shoppers enjoy last-minute Christmas shopping in the week before Christmas on Oxford Street in London, Britain December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson The CBI distributive trades survey’s retail sales balance fell to +20 in December from +26 in November, in line with the forecast in a Reuters poll and the survey’s long-run average. Britain’s economy has slowed this year, in part because a pick-up in inflation driven by last year’s vote to leave the European Union has eaten into consumers’ disposable income. “Retailers have seen decent growth heading into the vital Christmas trading period, although it was weaker than expected,” CBI economist Alpesh Paleja said. “Notwithstanding the sales growth seen in the last couple of months, underlying trading conditions are tough for retailers. We expect the squeeze on real pay for households to last a while longer, so retailers will still face challenging conditions ahead,” he added. The CBI said sales growth was boosted by supermarket spending. Last week official figures showed that British shoppers pounced on electrical goods and other Black Friday bargains last month, giving an unexpectedly big boost to retail sales. This contrasted with earlier signs of a subdued start to festive spending from November’s CBI and British Retail Consortium surveys. December’s CBI survey covered the period Nov. 23 to Dec. 14. Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Kate Holton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-retail/uk-retail-sales-grow-steadily-in-pre-christmas-period-cbi-idUKKBN1EE18W'|'2017-12-20T13:15:00.000+02:00'
'7485fb349e366032e009dbedd25641fb04add437'|'Swiss hit back after EU limits stock exchange access'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:26 PM / Updated an hour ago Swiss hit back after EU limits stock exchange access Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss President Doris Leuthard accused the European Union of trying to undermine Switzerland as a financial centre by granting its stock exchanges only limited access to the EU single market and said Bern would ready retaliatory measures. FILE PHOTO - Switzerland''s President Doris Leuthard speaks during a news conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili Her harsh comments on Thursday followed warnings that Bern would strike back if the EU did not give Swiss exchanges the same regulatory status as those in other countries, exacerbating a row over the future of bilateral ties. EU member states agreed on Wednesday to grant Swiss exchanges only one year of access, part of a broader deal aimed at defining Bern’s ties with the bloc. “Switzerland fulfils the conditions for recognition of stock market equivalence every bit as much as the other third countries that have been granted indefinite recognition,” Leuthard told reporters. “Switzerland therefore considers this limited recognition to be a clear case of discrimination. Linking this technical dossier with institutional issues is extraneous and unacceptable.” The Swiss finance ministry would propose steps by the end of January that could include halting collection of stamp duty on transactions to make Swiss exchanges more attractive. The government would also review its plan, announced when European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met Leuthard last month, to contribute an extra 1.3 billion Swiss francs (£98.83 million) in development funds for newer EU members. The EU’s recognising share trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange and BX Swiss as equivalent to exchanges based in the EU and vice-versa will avoid disruption after new MiFID II market rules come into force in January. But by allowing Swiss exchanges only temporary access to the single market, Brussels is turning up the pressure on Switzerland to agree on a new treaty that would replace a patchwork of bilateral accords that now govern ties. The project has hit obstacles as conservative parties baulk at giving the European Court of Justice a say in settling disputes over EU laws that neutral Switzerland would have to adopt as the price of enhanced access to the single market. Leuthard noted that the Swiss government had made it an objective to continue negotiations on a treaty in 2018. “It also recognises that significant differences still exist. A prerequisite for overcoming these differences is the willingness of both parties to hold objective discussions in an atmosphere of trust,” she said. Bilateral ties suffered when Swiss voters in 2014 demanded quotas on EU immigration, then thawed after parliament a year ago adopted a system giving people registered as unemployed in Switzerland first crack at open jobs. The row over stock exchanges now threatens to set ties back again. Reporting by Michael Shields'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-swiss-president/swiss-call-eu-move-on-exchange-rules-unacceptable-idUKKBN1EF1IF'|'2017-12-21T15:02:00.000+02:00'
'e12ec9b86a25a7d58edc21418e52c3668d8ad1e0'|'Lodha Developers looking to raise up to $1 billion via IPO - IFR'|'December 21, 2017 / 4:20 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Lodha Developers looking to raise up to $1 billion via IPO - IFR Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s Lodha Developers is looking to raise up to $1 billion through an initial public offering that is likely to be launched next year, two people with knowledge of the plan told IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication. Workers fasten steel rods together atop a residential building under construction in Mumbai, January 31, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files India’s main stock indexes have surged almost 30 percent this year, bolstered by strong foreign inflows, spurring companies to raise a record of more than $11 billion through IPOs so far this year. The company had planned an IPO of 28 billion rupees ($437 million) in 2010, but it was shelved due to a weak stock market. The real estate developer has hired Citic CLSA, Kotak and Morgan Stanley for the IPO, the people said, adding that more banks were likely to join the syndicate, IFR said. Lodha is currently developing an estimated 43 million square feet of real estate and has 28 ongoing projects across London, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore, according to its website. The S&P BSE Realty Index is up 97 percent since the start of the year. Reporting by Anuradha Subramanyan at IFR; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lodha-ipo/lodha-developers-looking-to-raise-up-to-1-billion-via-ipo-ifr-idINKBN1EF0B1'|'2017-12-21T06:18:00.000+02:00'
'48351576b23427cd097ae7342214975b11653c32'|'UK long-run inflation expectations rise to four-year high - Citi/YouGov'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:15 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago UK long-run inflation expectations rise to four-year high - Citi/YouGov Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The British public’s expectations for inflation over the next five to 10 years are their highest in four years, and shorter-run expectations have also risen, a monthly survey by polling company YouGov showed on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Pedestrians walk past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain June 28, 2016. REUTERS/Paul Hackett/File Photo Official data released last week showed that consumer price inflation rose to its highest in nearly six years at 3.1 percent in November, pushed up largely by the fall in the pound since last year’s Brexit vote. Wednesday’s survey, sponsored by U.S. bank Citi, showed that expectations for inflation over the next five to 10 years rose to 3.3 percent in December from 3.2 percent in November, above its long-run average and its highest since December 2013. Inflation expectations for the next 12 months rose to 2.7 percent from November’s 2.6 percent. “The further increase in inflation expectations raises the risk that the high inflation rates at the moment... could trigger second-round effects, which could warrant further policy tightening from the Bank of England,” Citi economist Christian Schulz wrote in a note to clients. YouGov polled 2,037 people on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19. Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-inflation/uk-long-run-inflation-expectations-rise-to-four-year-high-citi-yougov-idUKKBN1EE1GZ'|'2017-12-20T14:14:00.000+02:00'
'aa0079416d0c2fb36a4caf448ebb3d2e1f1f19da'|'UAE''s NMC Healthcare plans $800 mln in investments from 2018'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:09 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago UAE''s NMC Healthcare plans $800 mln in investments from 2018 Tom Arnold 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates-based hospital operator NMC Healthcare ( NMC.L ) has $800 million (597.91 million pounds) available to start investing in 2018 in the Gulf and other markets, its chief executive told Reuters in an interview. The London-listed firm, which is among the beneficiaries from recent growth in the Gulf’s healthcare sector, plans to acquire hospitals and other facilities, as well as smaller investments in In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) facilities in Europe, said Prasanth Manghat. “We have an $800 million war chest available to us and see a lot of assets in the market that make sense for us,” said Manghat. “If you look at healthcare, there’s a shortage of quality of assets and from a usage point of view there’s a lot of assets.” The company’s main business has historically been within the UAE, where it has both built and acquired hospitals, including the acquisition in February of Al Zahra Hospital in Sharjah for $560 million. He said he sees opportunities in 2018 from increased government spending in Abu Dhabi, mandatory health insurance reforms in Dubai and Oman and the privatisation of the healthcare market in Saudi Arabia. The $800 million includes $500 million from cash and funded facilities and $300 million from the company’s balance sheet, he said. It might also consider issuing a bond to help fund any acquisitions, he said. Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nmc-health-m-a/uaes-nmc-healthcare-plans-800-mln-in-investments-from-2018-idUKKBN1ED0P7'|'2017-12-19T10:08:00.000+02:00'
'859d9199079db0aa5374119bba6a756f47040b05'|'Singapore issues more financial bans related to 1MDB scandal'|'Reuters TV United States December 19, 2017 / 3:26 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Singapore issues more financial bans related to 1MDB scandal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore’s central bank on Tuesday said it had permanently barred Yeo Jiawei, a former wealth manager of Swiss bank BSI involved in breaches related to Malaysia’s 1MDB fund, from managing financial services firms and advisory activities. FILE PHOTO - A construction worker talks on the phone in front of a 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) billboard at the Tun Razak Exchange development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo In July, a Singapore court jailed Yeo for 4-1/2 years for money laundering and cheating in a case linked to investigations into the siphoning of billions of dollars from Malaysian sovereign fund 1MDB. The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it has issued a permanent prohibition order against Yeo, effective Monday, and a three-year ban for former chief executive of financial advisory firm NRA Capital, Kevin Scully. “NRA had been appointed to perform the valuation of PetroSaudi Oil Services Limited (PSOSL),” MAS said in a press release. “Mr Scully had failed to ensure that NRA’s valuation of PSOSL was carried out with sufficient care, judgment and objectivity,” the central bank added. MAS has now issued prohibition orders against eight people involved in 1MDB-related breaches, following two bans announced last month. Once a pet project of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who chaired its advisory board, 1MDB is the subject of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. Najib has denied any wrongdoing. Singapore’s central bank had said in May that it had ended its two-year review of banks with 1MDB-linked transactions. Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by John Geddie and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-scandal-singapore/singapore-issues-more-financial-bans-related-to-1mdb-scandal-idUKKBN1ED09Q'|'2017-12-19T05:23:00.000+02:00'
'a3d0ee780f5789acf919f82bcbc8ba9c06901f2d'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'December 19, 2017 / 10:44 AM / in 7 minutes Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 5 Min Read (Adds Air Berlin, ADP, Lufthansa, Ascometal, CEFC, La Perla, Tati; Updates Crown Holdings, Tenet, Humana) Dec 19 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Tuesday: ** Air Berlin’s unit Niki can keep its valuable runway slots while Austria’s Transport Ministry examines its insolvency filing, the airspace regulator said amid growing interest in the carrier from potential bidders. ** British Airways and Iberia parent IAG is again interested in Austrian holiday airline Niki after it filed for insolvency, according to two sources familiar with the matter. ** The French government is yet to decide on whether to privatise Paris airport operator ADP, the head of APE, which groups together the state’s holdings in companies, said. ** Lufthansa is set to secure EU antitrust approval for its acquisition of insolvent Air Berlin’s subsidiary LGW after agreeing to give up some Dusseldorf airport slots and not seek new ones, two people familiar with the matter said. ** Troubled French steelmaker Ascometal has drawn interest from four potential buyers, union officials said, with commodity group Liberty House and Swiss steel firm Schmolz + Bickenbach confirming their interest. ** China’s CEFC group and eastern Europe’s Penta Investments have made a joint bid for Time Warner’s Central European Media Enterprises (CME), while Petr Kellner’s PPF has dropped out of contention, sources said. ** The owner of Italy’s La Perla has agreed one-month exclusive talks with China’s Fosun over the sale of a majority stake in the luxury lingerie group. ** The French competition watchdog cleared the sale of Tati, the country’s iconic cut-price shop, to domestic rival Gifi, on the condition it sold four stores. ** Consumer packaging company Crown Holdings Inc said it would buy Signode Industrial Group Holdings (Bermuda) Ltd, which specializes in transit packaging, from Carlyle Group LP in a deal valued at $3.91 billion. ** U.S. health insurer Humana Inc and two private equity firms agreed to buy home healthcare and long-term care operator Kindred Healthcare Inc for about $810 million, the latest expansion by an American health insurer into patient care. ** Restaurant chain operator Jack in the Box Inc said it would sell its Qdoba Restaurant Corp unit to funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management LLC for about $305 million cash. ** Tenet Healthcare Corp said it would explore a sale of its Conifer unit and cut $100 million more in costs, the latest measures to jolt its business amid mounting pressure from its largest shareholder. ** The Latvian government said it was buying an 18.31 percent stake in Conexus Baltic Grid, a gas transmission and storage operator, from German’s Uniper Ruhrgas International GmbH, a step towards its goal of securing a majority stake in the company. ** Old Mutual is selling part of its UK asset management business, run by veteran investor Richard Buxton, to private equity firm TA Associates for 600 million pounds ($803 million), as it heads towards a break-up of the group. ** Germany’s Delivery Hero, an online food ordering and delivery marketplace, is selling its foodpanda India business to Ola in return for shares in the Indian ride-hailing firm, the companies said. ** Belgian fresh and frozen foods company Greenyard NV said it was in advanced negotiations to acquire Dole Food Company, the world’s largest fruit and vegetable producer, confirming a Reuters report. ** Singapore sovereign fund GIC Pte said it would acquire a 43 percent stake in a 34-storey office building in Tokyo’s central district of Shinjuku for $558 million, in one of the largest property transactions in Japan this year. ** Offshore-focused McDermott International Inc said it would buy onshore-based Chicago Bridge and Iron NV (CB&I) to create an integrated construction and engineering services provider amid a stabilizing global oil market. ** NZME Limited, the owner of New Zealand’s top-selling newspaper, said that the country’s High Court upheld the competition regulator’s decision to block its purchase of Fairfax Media Limited’s New Zealand unit. ** Private equity firms Carlyle and MBK Partners are among the bidders for South Korean pharmaceutical company CJ HealthCare Corp in a deal estimated to be worth about 1 trillion won ($919.62 million), Korea Economic Daily reported. ** China Resources Power Holdings Co Ltd said it would team up with controlling shareholder China Resources National Corp to invest 600 million pounds ($802.56 million) for a minority stake in an offshore wind-farming firm in Britain. (Compiled by Taenaz Shakir and Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL4N1OJ3BP'|'2017-12-19T12:42:00.000+02:00'
'ca88e5580a64a9aacc320f00e1c6fd1de2df75ef'|'China to maintain reasonable credit growth in 2018 - state media'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:24 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago China to maintain reasonable credit growth in 2018 - state media Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China will maintain reasonable expansion of credit in 2018, according to a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency on Wednesday, following an annual economic meeting of China’s top leadership. FILE PHOTO: A China yuan note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo China will take concrete measures to strengthen the regulation of local government debt, Xinhua said. The annual economic conference is keenly watched by investors for clues to policy priorities and economic targets in the year ahead. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-conference/china-to-maintain-reasonable-credit-growth-in-2018-state-media-idINKBN1EE152'|'2017-12-20T12:21:00.000+02:00'
'426e5874544b97ca6014d97bc663a8983d8eddb3'|'Emirates to add third London airport to its network'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:04 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Emirates to add third London airport to its network Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates, the Middle East’s largest airline, said on Wednesday that from June next year it would start flying to London Stansted, an airport largely served by European carriers. FILE PHOTO: An Emirates Airlines Airbus A380-800, with Tail Number A6-EEV, lands at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, April 11, 2015. REUTERS/Louis Nastro/File Photo The Dubai-based airline said it would begin daily flights between its Middle East hub and London’s third busiest airport on June 8, and that it would be the first Middle East airline to fly to Stansted. It will be the third London airport Emirates flies to after London Heathrow and London Gatwick, and its seventh airport in the United Kingdom. Stansted, 35 miles north of London, has traditionally been a base for European airlines flying holiday routes and budget carriers like Ryanair and easyJet, although full-service carrier British Airways started flying there last year. Emirates said it expected some of its demand to come from nearby technology and pharmaceutical hubs in Cambridge and Peterborough. “There is a clear demand for this service from both business and leisure travellers and we anticipate that this news will be warmly received both across our global network, as well as by the business community based in the Stansted catchment area,” Emirates President Tim Clark said in a statement. Emirates said flights would be operated by a three-cabin 354-seat Boeing 777-300 fitted with its new first class that features private, enclosed suites. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emirates-airline-london/emirates-to-add-third-london-airport-to-its-network-idINKBN1EE18L'|'2017-12-20T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'74fc8af65eec860c9dfa772f617a3aa6fb08a8d8'|'Lufthansa''s Eurowings reaches deal on hiring for German unit'|'December 20, 2017 / 8:53 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Lufthansa''s Eurowings reaches deal on hiring for German unit Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) Eurowings has reached a deal with unions on hiring staff for its German unit, the budget carrier said on Wednesday, after a earlier agreement was blocked by pilots’ union VC at the last minute. People line up behind a barrier tape of Lufthansa''s budget airlines Eurowings during a 24-hour strike over pay and working conditions at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay “This means we can grow at short notice in all units of Eurowings,” managing director Joerg Beissel said in a statement. Eurowings’ German unit was under a previous deal restricted to a fleet of 23 planes and Lufthansa had planned to grow mainly via Eurowings’ Austrian unit. However, eyeing the gap left in the market by collapsed Air Berlin, Eurowings was seeking a deal with staff to allow it to take on new staff quickly at the German unit, but a previous deal was blocked last month. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Ludwig Burger'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-eurowings-unions/lufthansas-eurowings-reaches-deal-on-hiring-for-german-unit-idUKKBN1EE0WC'|'2017-12-20T10:53:00.000+02:00'
'6659b7eebdfa5b4afdbcafdb6e980cee0ff0f732'|'Subaru opens investigation into mileage cheating'|'Reuters TV United States December 20, 2017 / 6:48 AM / Updated an hour ago Subaru opens investigation into mileage cheating Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ) on Wednesday said it was investigating whether its inspectors may have falsified data on vehicle mileage readings during final inspections conducted on cars sold in Japan. The logo of Subaru Corp. is displayed at the company''s Tokyo headquarters in Tokyo, Japan October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The Japanese automaker in October revealed that uncertified staff had been carrying out tests on new cars sold on the domestic market for decades, and on Tuesday vowed to improve oversight. On Wednesday it said in a statement that some inspectors had told external investigators that mileage data also had been altered on some models during the final checking process. It added that it had not confirmed that any such fabrications had taken place. Subaru shares fell as much as 8.5 percent on Wednesday and were the most heavily traded stock by turnover on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu, Ran Kim and Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-subaru-scandal/subaru-opens-investigation-into-mileage-cheating-idUKKBN1EE0MF'|'2017-12-20T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'0d4c5cae2b940655c77fde20982384241b37c78c'|'Orange boss, magnate Tapie ordered to stand trial in France - source'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:54 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Orange boss, magnate Tapie ordered to stand trial in France - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French businessman Bernard Tapie and Stephane Richard, the head of telecoms company Orange, are being ordered to stand trial over a disputed financial award the state made to Tapie when Richard held a senior government post, a judicial source said. French telecom operator Orange Chief Executive Stephane Richard arrives at the Justice court in Paris March 19, 2014. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/Files The trial concerns six people in all, the source said. Richard was chief of staff to then finance minister Christine Lagarde at the time the award was granted. Lagarde is now head of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund. Reporting Sophie Louet, Writing by Brian Love; editing by Luke Baker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/france-trial/orange-boss-magnate-tapie-ordered-to-stand-trial-in-france-source-idINKBN1EE17N'|'2017-12-20T12:49:00.000+02:00'
'e70a1755dbed7fcf56743982f88767d9afed107a'|'Australia''s Westpac to sell Hastings'' UK, U.S. business to Northill'|' 25 AM / in 3 minutes Australia''s Westpac to sell Hastings'' UK, U.S. business to Northill Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Westpac Banking Corp ( WBC.AX ) said on Wednesday its unit, Hastings Management Pty, will sell its international businesses managed out of the United Kingdom and United States to London-based asset manager Northill Capital. Westpac said last month it would sell Hastings’ fund management business to Northill without divulging the terms of the deal, in a move by a big Australian bank to offload a capital intensive division amid stiffer bank capital rules. Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-westpac-m-a-northill-capital/australias-westpac-to-sell-hastings-uk-u-s-business-to-northill-idUSKBN1EE0PL'|'2017-12-20T09:18:00.000+02:00'
'dff0121780ac6c173616c92b058d7875939db80a'|'Tokyo Electric says Canada''s Cameco seeks $682 mln in damages'|'December 19, 2017 / 2:03 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Tokyo Electric says Canada''s Cameco seeks $682 mln in damages Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco): * Says Canadian uranium producer Cameco is seeking $681.9 million in damages during an arbitration procedure after Tepco had scrapped its uranium supply contract with the Canadian firm in January * Cameco, which filed for an arbitration in May on the matter, presented the damages amount in a document, Tepco says * Says it sees no impact from the arbitration to its earnings at the moment (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/tep-hldg-cameco/tokyo-electric-says-canadas-cameco-seeks-682-mln-in-damages-idUSL4N1OJ1C5'|'2017-12-19T04:01:00.000+02:00'
'09567e2a9b2f099ea12a6f7565781bb3cbcb0462'|'LSE board accused of ''very sorry affair'' over CEO spat'|'December 19, 2017 / 12:52 PM / Updated 2 hours ago TCI fails in bid to oust London Stock Exchange chairman Huw Jones , Maiya Keidan 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A push by activist hedge fund TCI to oust the chairman of the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) was heavily defeated on Tuesday, but that may not bring an end to the row. FILE PHOTO: A man shelters under an umbrella as he walks past the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 24, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo LSE shareholders voted by 79.07 to 20.93 percent at an extraordinary general meeting, defeating a resolution that aimed to ditch Donald Brydon over the way he handled the departure of former chief executive Xavier Rolet in November. TCI, which has a 5 percent stake in the exchange, was founded by Christopher Hohn, who called for the vote after accusing the board of forcing Rolet out. A source close to TCI said the firm would keep up efforts to ditch Brydon, saying 20 percent backing for its resolution showed significant support among shareholders. “Many of the large shareholders who voted against the resolution have informed us that they had asked the board to commence work on the chairman’s succession plan immediately,” Hohn said in a letter to the LSE after the vote. The LSE said no large shareholder has expressed such a view. “Today’s vote should now lead to an orderly process of succession of the CEO and then the chair of the LSE as set out by the board,” said the Financial Conduct Authority, the watchdog overseeing the stock exchange. The spat has shone a spotlight on the 300-year-old exchange. “This is a very sorry affair, which has brought considerable opprobrium on the company,” Aubrey Franklin, a small shareholder for more than 20 years who backed the bid to remove the chairman, said during the meeting. “This should have been an orderly succession process...however it has ended in a less than satisfactory situation for all concerned,” said one top-30 shareholder who opposed the resolution but declined to be named, adding that the resolution had been “an attempt for a symbolic rejection of the whole board”. A string of institutional shareholders, such as BlackRock ( BLK.N ) and Aviva ( AV.L ), had said they would vote against TCI’s resolution, making its defeat all but certain. “It seems to me the old boys’ network has got together and the establishment is winning out,” Franklin said. Paul Heiden, a senior LSE non-executive director, told the meeting the board unanimously backed Brydon to remain in his post until the annual meeting in 2019, adding that suddenly losing the chairman would destabilize the exchange. David Warren, interim chief executive, said the exchange was positioned to grow under the strategy put in place by Rolet. “The group continues to perform well across all main businesses,” Warren said. Asked why Rolet quit early rather than stay until the end of 2018 as originally planned, Heiden said the former CEO was asked to step down after relations between him and senior management “became fairly strained.” TCI founder Hohn did not attend the shareholder meeting. Brydon told the meeting that board members reached their decision collectively regarding Rolet’s succession. “United, your board will proceed to complete the identification and recruitment of the next chief executive,” he said. Brydon has already interviewed six candidates, with another six in the pipeline, a source close to the exchange said. Rolet is widely credited with turning a lackluster company into a larger and more diversified firm, but the Frenchman’s attempt to merge with the German exchange Deutsche Boerse collapsed in the face of regulatory opposition. Britain’s planned departure from the European Union in 2019 raises questions about the LSE’s strategy at the heart of Europe’s biggest financial center. Deutsche Boerse is trying to take market share in clearing euro denominated derivatives from LSE, with tacit backing from euro zone policymakers. Without a permanent CEO, the LSE may be more vulnerable to a takeover bid, although Brexit uncertainties may protect it for now. Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Huw Jones; additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lse-chairman-vote/lse-board-accused-of-very-sorry-affair-over-ceo-spat-idUKKBN1ED1I6'|'2017-12-19T14:46:00.000+02:00'
'54e2253db1648356922b1d04b5cfa723d7e860e9'|'Mexico''s Vista Oil approves capital increase'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:59 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Mexico''s Vista Oil approves capital increase Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MEXICO CITY, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Shareholders in Mexico’s Vista Oil & Gas approved a capital increase on Monday, the company disclosed to the country’s stock exchange. The energy investment firm will issue 100 million ordinary shares, per the plan approved by shareholders on Monday. Vista, the country’s first publicly traded oil company, did not put a value to the shares. The company completed a $650 million initial public offering on Mexico’s stock exchange in August. Reporting by Sheky Espejo; writing by Julia Love; editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/mexico-vista/mexicos-vista-oil-approves-capital-increase-idUSL1N1OJ03B'|'2017-12-19T03:58:00.000+02:00'
'b4c2bb5c6a8cdce763227dcfe0dcce389fa62cfc'|'Disney backs Fox''s request for more data protection in antitrust trial'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:59 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Disney backs Fox''s request for more data protection in antitrust trial Diane Bartz 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) joined Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) on Wednesday in asking the judge hearing AT&T Inc’s ( T.N ) antitrust case to strengthen an order aimed at keeping its data private if it is used at trial next year. A screen shows the logo and a ticker symbol for The Walt Disney Company on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Disney and Fox have given data to the Justice Department that is being used to build a case against AT&T’s bid to buy Time Warner Inc ( TWX.N ). The companies say they fear that executives with AT&T, which owns satellite TV provider DirecTV, could inadvertently gain access to it during the trial. The government sued last month to block the $85.4 billion acquisition, saying the deal could lead to higher prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video. The trial is set to begin on March 19. “The complex and competitive business relationships between Fox and defendants that make Fox wary of disclosing sensitive information in this lawsuit are nearly identical to those between TWDC (the Walt Disney Co) and defendants,” Disney said in its request. Disney licenses its content to cable television companies and competes with Time Warner in creating content. Judge Richard Leon, who is hearing the case at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, had given access to confidential information to the court, Justice Department lawyers and staff, service providers and AT&T and Time Warner’s outside counsel. Disney said that it was making the same request made previously by Fox. Fox had asked for permission to withhold certain sensitive information if it decided it was not relevant. It also wanted AT&T and Time Warner to tell Fox who will access the information and requested that any lawyer who handles the data be barred from working on matters involving Fox without their consent for two years. Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t-walt-disney/disney-backs-foxs-request-for-more-data-protection-in-antitrust-trial-idUKKBN1EE2Z1'|'2017-12-21T02:48:00.000+02:00'
'6b0e68116a3d5dfc8c28022241b2ac832256d041'|'Exclusive - PDVSA in talks with Trafigura to swap over 10 percent of crude output: documents'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:40 PM / in 29 minutes Exclusive - PDVSA in talks with Trafigura to swap over 10 percent of crude output: documents Alexandra Ulmer , Marianna Parraga 6 Min Read CARACAS/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuela’s PDVSA and international trading company Trafigura are in discussions to swap over 10 percent of the South American country’s crude output for imported fuels for domestic use, according to draft documents viewed by Reuters on Wednesday. The talks come amid PDVSA’s limited access to credit due to U.S. sanctions that have disrupted its oil purchases and bank guarantees for crude deliveries, making the country more dependent on barter deals. Venezuela’s sharp oil output decline and the poor state of its refineries have turned the once fuel self-sufficient country into a growing importer. The OPEC member faces the world’s steepest inflation, a fourth year of economic recession, a severe scarcity of food and medicine, and mounting pressure to restructure $60 billion in debt. If signed, the proposed three-year agreements would mark a major shift at PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], which traditionally avoided long-term supply contracts with trading firms because crude resales could affect the pricing of heavy crudes including many Venezuelan grades. PDVSA did not respond to a request for comment. The deals, which also allows for cash payments, would include PDVSA’s first crude supply contract entirely priced in euros, after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the country would walk away from the U.S. dollar. Deliveries under the proposed deals would begin in January and run through December 2020 unless the contracts are terminated earlier by either party, the documents said. Swiss-based Trafigura [TRAFGF.UL] declined to comment. The firm and other traders increasingly have been purchasing Venezuelan oil on a spot basis, directly from PDVSA, from its joint ventures or business partners. The proposals call for delivery of up to 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Venezuela’s Morichal, Petrozuata Heavy or Merey crudes to be paid by Trafigura either with cash through “open account,” which allows payments after delivery; or by supplying imported refined products to PDVSA. Venezuela can also deliver fuel oil, asphalt and other refined products to meet the monthly supply quota, according to one of the contracts. In terms of imports, PDVSA can request up to 240,000 bpd of products in exchange for the crude. Since U.S. sanctions were imposed in August, PDVSA has struggled to find suppliers for refined products. Cash-strapped PDVSA’s record of payment delays to providers also has contributed to problems to get imports. The swap deal could reduce PDVSA’s need to issue open market tenders for fuel imports in cash. It would also fill the export gap left by Brazil’s Braskem ( BRKM5.SA ) and U.S. PBF Energy ( PBF.N ), which earlier this year suspended or did not renew contracts to buy Venezuelan oil. Opposition politicians say Venezuela’s liquidity problems have pushed PDVSA towards ever more unfavourable contracts in order to keep operations afloat. “PDVSA should first stop the oil production decline and then renegotiate its debt,” said lawmaker Angel Alvarado, adding the company should not sign the contracts with Trafigura. Venezuela’s crude output fell in November to 1.837 million barrels per day (bpd), its lowest level in almost three decades due to lack of investment, payment delays to oil service firms and a brain drain. An extended anti-corruption investigation has also shaken PDVSA, including its top management. It was not immediately clear if the agreements would lead PDVSA to cut exports to other customers. Venezuelan crude shipments to the United States this year are 21 percent below the year-ago level, according to Reuters Trade Flows data. TIED UP PDVSA increasingly is delivering crude that is later resold to its own customers or other buyers since it started repaying loans with barrels of oil and refined products. Most of the deals involve firms that operate refineries, such as China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Russia’s Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ), which prefer to resell the Venezuelan barrels for cash. The contracts with Trafigura would imply a more firm supply commitment. The draft agreements include several clauses protecting the parties against any potential payment delays, contract breaches and quality problems, which have become more frequent at PDVSA. Any dispute would be directed to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the documents say. The contracts allow Trafigura to choose the final destination of the crude it intends to lift at Venezuelan ports, a flexibility other PDVSA contracts do not include. If barrels go to China, however, PDVSA has to approve the company ultimately receiving the cargo. To avoid payment issues, Trafigura and PDVSA agreed to allow for offsetting invoices. But if cash is agreed for a cargo, Trafigura would receive it five days after delivery. Also, if claims for demurrage, quality or freight costs reach $800,000, Trafigura can discount the amount due from invoices to be paid to PDVSA. Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Editing by Gary McWilliams, David Gregorio and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pdvsa-trafigura-contract/exclusive-pdvsa-in-talks-with-trafigura-to-swap-over-10-percent-of-crude-output-documents-idINKBN1EE2V2'|'2017-12-21T00:36:00.000+02:00'
'5c16e3b3a7c53233be32753a75afb7f7f0a3cae5'|'India assures contracts for local solar equipment makers in government projects'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:46 PM / Updated 7 hours ago India assures contracts for local solar equipment makers in government projects Reuters Staff 3 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India plans to support local solar cells and modules makers by assuring contracts for government projects, a note from the renewable energy ministry said, as it looks to scale up manufacturing to cut Chinese imports and avoid legal hassles. Workers carry photovoltaic solar panels for installation at the Gujarat solar park under construction in Charanka village in Patan district of Gujarat, April 14, 2012. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo The United States is due to take India back to the World Trade Organization (WTO) next month to settle a long-standing solar power dispute, alleging that India has failed to comply with last year’s ruling related to giving preference to local solar equipment makers. Orders funnelled through a domestic-content requirement (DCR) policy have all but dried up in India after the WTO in September 2016 upheld an earlier ruling that found the move violated global trade norms and discriminated in favour of domestic firms and against foreign competitors. ( reut.rs/2p0VgQq ) The new proposal to scale up DCR requirements in government projects with a capacity of 12 gigawatts (GW) aims to protect India’s solar equipment makers facing financial collapse. The WTO ruling barred India from enforcing DCR clauses for power projects operated by private developers as they are considered discriminatory against foreign competitors. Under the policy, India will also provide direct financial support of 110 billion rupees ($1.72 billion) to domestic solar cell and module manufacturers, in addition to subsidies, cheap loans and an exemption of goods required for setting up solar equipment making facilities from customs duty. ( bit.ly/2BISPVj ) India’s solar power generation capacity has almost quadrupled in nearly four years to about 15 gigawatt (GW), and prices have hit record lows amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government push to reduce the cost of power and raise solar energy generation to 100 GW by 2022. Chinese companies have gained the most from the increase, accounting for around 85 percent of India’s solar module demand and earning around $2 billion, according to industry data, even as local companies such as Indosolar Ltd and Moser Baer India Ltd are struggling to win contracts. The absence of a complete manufacturing supply chain, higher borrowing rates, obsolete technology and smaller scale have made it difficult for Indian solar equipment makers to compete with their Chinese counterparts. To address such challenges, the government also plans to create a fund to support technological upgrades and cheaper land and electricity. Manufacturing units would also be allowed to set up power plants with twice the capacity of their module units, according to the note. ($1 = 64.0200 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-solar/india-assures-contracts-for-local-solar-equipment-makers-in-government-projects-idINKBN1EF1VT'|'2017-12-21T16:45:00.000+02:00'
'4b1712d4ffc4788ad3efa70dd1421b203f2dc92f'|'UPDATE 1-S.Korea''s Samsung Bioepis says FDA to review Herceptin copy'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:24 AM / in 17 hours South Korea''s Samsung Bioepis says FDA to review Herceptin copy Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s Samsung Bioepis Co Ltd said on Wednesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review its copy of Swiss drugmaker Roche’s blockbuster breast cancer drug Herceptin for potential approval. Samsung Bioepis said in a statement that if approved, its version of Herceptin will be commercialized in the United States by Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada. Samsung Bioepis’ Herceptin copy, called Ontruzant, was the first biosimilar version of the drug to be approved in Europe. Mylan NV’s Herceptin biosimilar was the first biosimilar approved in the United States to treat breast or stomach cancer. Herceptin is one of the world’s most successful antibody drugs, generating global sales of 6.78 billion Swiss francs ($6.7 billion) in 2016 for Roche. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-bioepis-usa/south-koreas-samsung-bioepis-says-fda-to-review-herceptin-copy-idUSKBN1EE00T'|'2017-12-20T02:03:00.000+02:00'
'c1f730a176562e8af1c87e0e944fd891c834a95b'|'BRIEF-Mitcham Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Enter Series Of Agreements'|' Mitcham Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Enter Series Of Agreements Reuters Staff Dec 21 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd: * MITCHAM INDUSTRIES INC - CO, MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES HAVE ENTERED INTO SERIES OF AGREEMENTS * MITCHAM INDUSTRIES INC -AS PER DEAL, MITSUBISHI WILL INVEST $4.0 MILLION IN MITCHAM‘S 9.00% SERIES A CUMULATIVE PREFERRED STOCK * MITCHAM INDUSTRIES-TO USE PROCEEDS FROM DEAL TO BUY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, RELATED ASSETS FROM BANKRUPTCY ESTATE OF HYDROSCIENCE TECHNOLOGY * MITCHAM INDUSTRIES-CO, MITSUBISHI ALSO ENTERED INTO DEAL WHEREBY CO TO PROVIDE SUPPORT,MAINTENANCE SERVICES TO MITSUBISHI RELATED TO MARINE EQUIPMENT  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-mitcham-industries-and-mitsubishi/brief-mitcham-industries-and-mitsubishi-heavy-industries-enter-series-of-agreements-idUSFWN1OL0JP'|'2017-12-21T14:29:00.000+02:00'
'3893cfe7a2bc6ab49c880e181f93963e4a0e7888'|'Facebook modifies the way it alerts users to fake news - Dec. 21, 2017'|'Facebook exec on Russian election meddling: ''We need more ad transparency'' Facebook is changing the way it identifies false and misleading news on the social network. It is ditching the red icon indicating fake news known as the "disputed flag" and will instead show Related Articles next to hoax posts in the News Feed, the company announced on Thursday. Facebook says Related Articles will give people more context about a story, including what information in the story is false. If someone tries to share a fake news story, they will get a popup notifying them of additional reporting from fact checkers. Those articles will also appear next to fake news before someone clicks on the link on Facebook ( FB ) . The social network has long struggled with fake news on its platform. Facebook joined Twitter and Google in front of Congress last month to answer tough questions on how its platform was used to spread misinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It continues to try and combat the spread of false content. Facebook launched disputed flags in December 2016. It began introducing fact-checked stories to Related Articles in August. It recently added new "trust indicators" for publications on Facebook, too. Related: The year tech took a dark turn But disputed flags didn''t work out how Facebook anticipated. In a post on Medium, Facebook product designer Jeff Smith said disputed flags buried important information relevant to debunking the hoax and required at least two fact checkers to dispute the article. That method was time consuming. Related Articles require just one fact checker''s review. Further, Facebook says research shows that displaying a red icon to indicate fake news could actually further entrench someone''s beliefs -- the opposite of what the flag was designed to do. While testing Related Articles on fake news, Facebook found people clicked through to the story the same amount whether they saw a disputed flag or Related Articles. But showing Related Articles led to fewer shares of the false story. Though the design is changing, much of the experience is staying the same. Facebook will still alert people if they''ve shared a fake news story that was disputed by fact-checkers. "Using language that is unbiased and non-judgmental helps us to build products that speak to people with diverse perspectives," Smith wrote.'|'cnn.com'|'http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_technology.rss'|'http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/21/technology/facebook-fake-news-related-articles/index.html'|'2017-12-21T18:08:00.000+02:00'
'822130292fd4fa6df457a4125c283955e2f22d53'|'Shell to supply energy to UK households after takeover of First Utility - Business'|'The Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell will soon be selling electricity and gas direct to householders in the UK for the first time after buying one of the county’s biggest energy suppliers, First Utility.The acquisition of the largest supplier outside of the “big six” compounds a year of upheaval in the UK energy market, which is already being transformed by the proposed merger of Npower and SSE and the imposition of price caps .Shell has bought First Utility outright for an undisclosed sum, and will be supplying 825,000 households if the deal completes as expected at the end of February. Industry figures said the price was likely in the region of £200m-£300m.The move is the latest in a buying spree by Shell, which has acquired two electric car infrastructure firms in recent months as it diversifies beyond oil and gas.Mark Gainsborough, its executive vice-president of new energies, said: “The supply and demand of residential energy is rapidly changing, driven by new technologies that enable householders to better manage their energy use, and the need for a low-carbon energy system.”Experts said the entrance of Shell into UK energy supply would cause a significant shake-up.Robert Buckley, research director at analysts Cornwall Insight, said: “It clearly is a brand that is an order of magnitude bigger than any other brand coming to UK energy retail. It’s one that will make any competition sit up and take note.”Buckley said it would be a good thing for consumers. “One of the issues that has come up consistently is having confidence in the brand you want to switch to, and people will have heard of Shell and have regular interaction with them through a forecourt,” he said.First Utility, which launched in 2008 and has grown into the biggest independent energy supplier in the UK, has recently diversified, branching out into broadband supply earlier this year. The company said the takeover by Shell would enable it to develop new products for customers, including ones relating to electric car charging.Darren Braham, First’s co-founder, said: “First Utility has brought significant disruption and competition to the energy market and this move will help us to capitalise on all the opportunities provided by digitalisation, decarbonisation and the move to battery technology and electric vehicles.”Shell is entering a market which is under intense political scrutiny and faces the biggest change since privatisation with the introduction of a price cap on default tariffs in early 2019. Of the biggest energy suppliers, First Utility will be less affected by the measure because it has the lowest proportion of customers on tariffs that will be capped – 23% compared to market leader British Gas on 67% . Gainsborough said Shell hoped to increase market share. “We are moving in with ambition to grow significantly over time,” he said, adding that the company was undeterred by the threat of price caps. The reality is the UK is, counter to what many think, it’s a very competitive market for household energy.”Gainsborough continued that it was too early to say whether First Utility would rebrand but in terms of the management team it would be “business as usual” initially.Braham said the sector was in flux and Shell’s scale would help it take advantage of that. “I think there’s a big change in the market with price caps coming, and the big six are quite vulnerable.” He added that the company was also looking to expand internationally to other markets.• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Energy industry Royal Dutch Shell Mergers and acquisitions Utilities Energy bills Oil and gas companies news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/21/shell-to-supply-energy-to-uk-households-after-takeover-of-first-utility'|'2017-12-21T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'f916fad5cfd7f839564889be0d2cb8c0bfa80e06'|'Japan Display says report it sought Apple, Huawei funds is ''speculative'''|'December 21, 2017 / 6:55 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Japan Display says report it sought Apple, Huawei funds is ''speculative'' Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Cash-strapped smartphone screen maker Japan Display Inc ( 6740.T ) dismissed a report on Thursday that it was seeking investment from Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] as “speculative” and declined to comment further. FILE PHOTO: Japan Display Inc''s logo is pictured at its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, August 9, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Japanese news agency Kyodo, which reported on Wednesday that Japan Display was discussing an investment of more than 200 billion yen ($1.76 billion) from three Chinese panel makers including BOE Technology Group Co Ltd ( 000725.SZ ), said it was also seeking investment from its two clients. Japan Display and domestic rival Sharp Corp ( 6753.T ) once boasted cutting-edge screen technologies. But they have struggled in recent years to compete with more nimble Asian rivals, and as customers including Apple shifted to newer organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens. The display maker has been losing money for the past three years. It has said it wants to start mass-producing OLED screens to better compete with South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ), and that it needs capital to do so. It has so far declined to disclose details of any negotiations. State-backed fund Innovation Network Corp of Japan owns 36 percent of Japan Display, which was formed in 2002 by combining the ailing display units of Sony Corp ( 6758.T ), Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ) and Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ). Reporting by Yoshiyasu Shida'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-display-fundraising-apple/japan-display-says-report-it-sought-apple-huawei-funds-is-speculative-idUKKBN1EF0KA'|'2017-12-21T08:54:00.000+02:00'
'47ef28fd6421eeb964e62281487cfd924ef08f04'|'U.S. Chamber flags financial reporting delays due to tax overhaul'|'December 21, 2017 / 8:05 PM / Updated 35 minutes ago U.S. Chamber flags financial reporting delays due to tax overhaul Reuters Staff 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. listed companies may struggle to file their annual financial reports on time because the Republican-led overhaul of the country’s tax system may prompt a raft of additional disclosures, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned on Thursday. In a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton, the Chamber highlighted the extensive analysis the bill will require of many companies and asked for guidance on the circumstances in which a filing delay may be acceptable. The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax bill to President Donald Trump for his signature. The bill significantly lowers the income tax rate for U.S. companies, allows them to repatriate cash from overseas, and modifies numerous deductions, among other changes. The bill will significantly affect many companies’ year-end financial statements because listing rules oblige them to flag any potential material risks or changes to their operations and financial outlook to shareholders. Reuters reported on Thursday that refiners and pipeline companies are likely to embark on a capital spending spree due to the bill, while it will hurt debt-laden companies and potentially increase banks’ short-term funding costs. For companies with fiscal years ending Dec. 31, getting the necessary analysis done in time could be tough, the Chamber said. “Companies may encounter difficulties in quantifying the impact of the new law, which could in turn lead to potential delays in filing periodic SEC reports on a timely basis,” Neil Bradley, senior vice president and chief policy officer at the Chamber, wrote. “In this situation, we believe issuers and investors alike would benefit if the Commission or SEC staff provided guidance on the circumstances under which a delay in reporting may be appropriate, and the appropriate process to follow,” he added. A spokesman for Clayton was not available for comment. Reporting by Michelle Price'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-chamber/u-s-chamber-flags-financial-reporting-delays-due-to-tax-overhaul-idUSKBN1EF2PW'|'2017-12-21T22:05:00.000+02:00'
'25b6d189dea7e329f5c6da1b2f6e62ec7490a77f'|'GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks dip lower as U.S. Republicans pass $1.5 trillion tax bill'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:04 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks dip lower as U.S. Republicans pass $1.5 trillion tax bill Reuters Staff * Wall St falls slightly after Congress passes tax bill * U.S. Treasury yields at nine-month highs on tax plan * Weaker dollar pushes gold higher for fourth day * Euro zone bonds resume selloff on U.S. tax reform (Updates to close of U.S. markets) By Laila Kearney NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Major global stock markets fell slightly on Wednesday as investors took profits after record gains, while U.S. Treasury yields reached nine-month highs, as a $1.5 trillion tax bill cleared both chambers of the Republican-led U.S. Congress. The legislation, which would enact the biggest U.S. tax code overhaul in more than three decades, heads to President Donald Trump for signing, although the timing was unclear. The U.S. House of Representatives voted for a second time to pass the sweeping bill Wednesday afternoon, hours after the Senate approved it. The bill will slash the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, which analysts say will boost business earnings and lead to higher dividends and stock buybacks. U.S. stocks rallied in the days ahead of voting on the bill, introduced six weeks ago, but some investors have begun to sell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 28.1 points, or 0.11 percent, to end at 24,726.65, the S&P 500 lost 2.22 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,679.25 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.89 points, or 0.04 percent, to 6,960.96. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.06 percent. European stock markets fell 0.7 percent, with blue-chip indexes in Berlin, Paris and London 0.3 to 1.1 percent lower. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index also lost 0.70 percent. Japanese stocks inched up slightly as strength in financials offset a sustained sell-off in construction shares. The Nikkei share average edged up 0.1 percent to 22,891.72 after trading in the red. Government bond yields, which move inversely to their prices, have jumped in the United States and Europe on expectations tax reform would help boost economic growth and inflation. U.S. Treasury yields rose to nine-month highs as the bill passed. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes were last down 10/32 in price to yield 2.497 percent, from 2.463 percent late Tuesday. The 30-year bond was last down 1-3/32 to yield 2.8767 percent, from 2.823 percent. Euro zone government bonds sold off sharply for a second straight day. The U.S. dollar slid against most currencies except the Japanese yen on expectations the tax bill’s upside impact on the greenback had been factored into the market. Gains in the dollar were limited versus the yen, as the market looked to Thursday’s outcome of the Bank of Japan’s two-day policy meeting for clues to whether it will join the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank in winding back stimulus. The dollar index fell 0.12 percent. That led the euro to rise 0.31 percent to $1.1875. The dollar also fell against sterling and the Canadian and New Zealand dollars. The weaker dollar pushed up gold prices for a fourth straight session to hit a two-week high. Spot gold added 0.3 percent to $1,265.45 an ounce. U.S. gold futures gained 0.37 percent to $1,268.90 an ounce. Crude prices rose, supported by a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories and a continued outage in the North Sea Forties pipeline system. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 50 cents to $58.06 a barrel while Brent crude rose 73 cents at $64.53. Additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in London; Editing by Bernadette Baum and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-stocks-dip-lower-as-u-s-republicans-pass-1-5-trillion-tax-bill-idUSL1N1OK261'|'2017-12-21T00:02:00.000+02:00'
'fd6f657ce5a1ad98d2fd6b90046a41cc96a10b3f'|'British gambling firm GVC nears takeover of Ladbrokes Coral - sources'|'December 21, 2017 / 6:49 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago British gambling firm GVC nears takeover of Ladbrokes Coral - sources Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Online gambling firm GVC ( GVC.L ) is nearing a deal to acquire British bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ) for as much as 3.9 billion pounds ($5.2 billion) and could announce it as soon as Friday, two sources familiar with the matter said. GVC, the owner of the Sportingbet, Bwin and Foxy Bingo brands, and betting shop operator Ladbrokes Coral disclosed on Dec. 7 that they were in “detailed discussions” about a possible cash-and-shares takeover, which would create a gambling giant that is expected to be big enough to enter the UK’s FTSE 100 index. GVC, which is led by Kenny Alexander who would also take charge of the combined group, has until Jan. 4 to either make a firm offer for the bookmaker or walk away from a deal, under rules laid down by Britain’s Takeover Panel. However, the two companies are close to agreeing final terms, the sources said on Thursday, and the pair aim to announce a formal offer on Friday, although the timing could be subject to change. Spokesmen for GVC and Ladbrokes Coral, which are both FTSE 250 companies, declined to comment. The British gambling industry has been transformed by a series of deals in recent years as companies seek to combine forces to contend with tougher regulations and higher taxes. In 2015 alone, 130-year-old Ladbrokes agreed to merge with rival Coral, Paddy Power merged with Betfair and GVC bought Bwin.Party. In October the British government added to the pressures on firms with betting shops by announcing it would slash the maximum stake allowed on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), controversial machines which critics say fuel gambling addictions due to the pace at which significant sums of money can be lost. The government proposed cutting maximum FOBT stakes from 100 pounds to between 50 pounds and 2 pounds and launched a 12-week consultation to review its options. GVC and Ladbrokes Coral said earlier this month that they had devised a deal structure that would allow for the different possible outcomes of the FOBT review. It would see GVC offer Ladbrokes Coral shareholders a so-called contingent value right (CVR), as well as cash and stock. The value of the CVR will vary depending on the outcome of the FOBT consultation, meaning the deal will give Ladbrokes Coral a total equity value of between 3.1 billion pounds and 3.9 billion pounds. The sources said the structure of the deal had not changed from the terms outlined on Dec. 7. ($1 = 0.7477 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ladbrokes-m-a/british-gambling-firm-gvc-nears-takeover-of-ladbrokes-coral-sources-idUKKBN1EF2KR'|'2017-12-21T20:49:00.000+02:00'
'f9a965652b627379bfab9c03dc6bf283de8c08bc'|'Lauda bids for Austria carrier Niki, Ryanair steps away'|'December 21, 2017 / 11:25 AM / Updated an hour ago Zeitfracht decides against bidding for Niki   BERLIN (Reuters) - Family-owned German logistics firm Zeitfracht and maintenance group Nayak have decided against making offer for insolvent Austrian airline Niki, a spokesman for Zeitfracht said on Thursday. But the consortium aims to cooperate with whoever ends up buying the unit of collapsed Air Berlin, the spokesman said, without providing details. Niki filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ), which is buying other parts of Air Berlin, scrapped plans to buy Niki, grounding the airline’s fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. Niki’s administrator has said binding offers were due by Thursday. Interested parties include Niki’s founder and former Formula One champion Niki Lauda, tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ), Irish budget carrier Ryanair ( RYA.I ) and Swiss carrier PrivatAir. Sources have told Reuters that British Airways parent IAG ( ICAG.L ) is also interested. Reporting by Klaus Lauer; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Victoria Bryan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki-zeitfracht/zeitfracht-decides-against-bidding-for-niki-idUKKBN1EF1BQ'|'2017-12-21T14:19:00.000+02:00'
'6a6af5a7d04632c5f0a34d96ddb58ceee4c70d47'|'Business confidence among China entrepreneurs rises in fourth quarter vs third quarter - survey'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:47 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Business confidence among China entrepreneurs rises in fourth quarter vs third quarter: survey Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Business confidence among entrepreneurs in China improved in the fourth quarter from the third, a central bank survey showed on Tuesday. A separate survey of bankers showed their business confidence also rose in the fourth quarter, the People’s Bank of China said, while 19.1 pct of bankers believed monetary policy was “relatively tight” in the fourth quarter, down from 22.1 percent in the third quarter. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-businessconfidence-surv/business-confidence-among-china-entrepreneurs-rises-in-fourth-quarter-vs-third-quarter-survey-idINKBN1ED0RG'|'2017-12-19T10:36:00.000+02:00'
'1db0e5ff8a1b7f9e12967b4a493d48865bde2c5e'|'Saudi finance minister says drawdown of foreign assets to slow further'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:52 PM / in 41 minutes Saudi finance minister says drawdown of foreign assets to slow further Reuters Staff 1 Min Read RIYADH, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The drawdown of the Saudi Arabian central bank’s net foreign assets is likely to slow next year and in years to come, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said on Tuesday. He was speaking in an interview after releasing a 2018 state budget that includes a rise in spending to a record high, as the government slows its austerity drive in order to boost flagging economic growth. (Reporting by Katie Paul and Rania El Gamal; Writing by Andrew Torchia)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-budget-finance/saudi-finance-minister-says-drawdown-of-foreign-assets-to-slow-further-idUSL8N1OJ5J3'|'2017-12-19T21:51:00.000+02:00'
'e09bcc61417bd766b627096c2d96dd7283d2e1ae'|'Rising tax revenues could cheer German coalition negotiators'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:00 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago Rising tax revenues could cheer German coalition negotiators Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Germany’s economy should continue its current robust growth trajectory in the coming months before reverting to trend growth level in the medium term, the finance ministry said in a monthly report published on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A container ship is seen at the shipping terminal Eurokai in the Port of Hamburg, Germany November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo Based on data released over the final quarter, the report could prove good news for the parties preparing to start talks on forming a new coalition government in January, suggesting there may be fiscal space to deliver on some of the pricier social policy demands set by the Social Democrats (SPD). “The favourable economic conditions and all the latest monthly indicators suggest that the economic upswing will continue in coming months,” the ministry said. “In the mid-term, it should slacken and return to the potential growth path.” A survey by the Munich-based Ifo institute on Tuesday said economic uncertainty over a record delay in forming a government was beginning to cloud the outlook for businesses as they contemplated making further investments. Although the institute’s business climate index came in below a Reuters consensus forecast, economists said the economic buoyancy was set to continue. The buoyant economy yielded rising tax returns, the finance ministry said, with income tax revenues going up 5.6 percent over the previous year and turnover tax take up 6.3 percent. The positive news came as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives gear up for tricky talks in January on forming a government with the Social Democrats (SPD). Solid government revenues could help the SPD overcome nervousness about risking further voter disenchantment if they enter a renewed “grand coalition” with Merkel. The party’s restive membership hopes to set a distinctive, and potentially expensive, social democratic stamp on any government programme in wide areas of labour, health and education policy. Reporting by Thomas Escritt; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy/rising-tax-revenues-could-cheer-german-coalition-negotiators-idUKKBN1EF02Y'|'2017-12-21T02:59:00.000+02:00'
'8e1d6a30a2c42bed99a0a9c4d3f5a78c7ab711d0'|'EASA orders airlines to replace some Rolls-Royce engines'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:52 AM / Updated 7 hours ago EASA orders airlines to replace some Rolls-Royce engines Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European aviation safety regulator ordered airlines to replace some Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ) Trent 1000 engines on their aircraft as some components are suspected to have corroded. FILE PHOTO - A Rolls-Royce logo is seen at the company aerospace engineering and development site in Bristol in Britain December 17, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville It said airlines must de-pair affected engines, which means that where a plane has two affected engines installed, one of them must be removed, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said in an Emergency Airworthiness Directive published on its website on Thursday. Rolls-Royce told investors in August that 400 to 500 Trent 1000 engines were affected by problems with components wearing out earlier than expected, according to a conference call transcript. The affected engines are primarily installed on Boeing ( BA.N ) 787 aircraft, according to EASA. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Victoria Bryan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rolls-royce-hldg-engines/easa-orders-airlines-to-replace-some-rolls-royce-engines-idUKKBN1EF18C'|'2017-12-21T13:01:00.000+02:00'
'8bb06392dd595ac98a87339b31fcf36d6cb9aace'|'Ships in a bottleneck: China, Australia ports clogged as coal, iron ore demand soars'|' 49 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Ships in a bottleneck: China, Australia ports clogged as coal, iron ore demand soars Keith Wallis 5 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - More than 300 large dry cargo ships are having to wait outside Chinese and Australian ports in a maritime traffic jam that spotlights bottlenecks in China’s huge and global commodity supply chain as demand peaks this winter. Illustration photo of an Eikon ship-tracking screen shows dry bulk ships waiting off Hay Point Australia December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration With some vessels waiting to load coal and iron ore outside Australian ports for over a month, key charter rates have jumped to their highest in more than three years. Placed end-to-end, the total delayed fleet would stretch more than 40 miles, enough to span the English Channel from Dover to Calais and back. As well as choking supplies to the world’s second-biggest economy, the clog is costing extra in a shipping sector operating on tight margins, just as it recovers from its worst downturn in more than three decades. Charterers of capesize ships - the largest bulk dry cargo carriers - face paying an extra $1 million per vessel, assuming a 45-day wait, according to fixture data on the Reuters Eikon terminal. “There are some ports in east Australia that have 80 vessels anchored, which translate into 20-25 days of delay and congestion,” said Ziad Nakhleh, managing director of Greek ship owner Teo Shipping. Shippers and brokers said the delays were typical, especially during the peak demand winter season, as bad weather including fog and strong winds in China and infrastructure issues in Australia exacerbate increased demand for vessels to satisfy China’s soaring minerals appetite. Australian ports affected include Queensland export terminals at Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay, where there are 76 capesize and panamax vessels - named for being the largest size than can navigate the Panama Canal - waiting to load, according shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon. At Dalrymple Bay, the 93,296 deadweight tonne (DWT) panamax ship Piavia arrived to load coal on Nov. 4. But loading only started on Dec. 17. “It must be congestion. I don’t think it’s normal to wait six weeks,” said Nicolaus Bunnemann, joint managing director of the ship’s German owner, Atlantic Lloyd. Delays at Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay were caused by a combination of port maintenance and the ongoing impact and disruption caused by Cyclone Debbie in March, said Ian Macfarlane, chief executive of the Queensland Resources Council. “It’s business as usual off Hay Point but we’re still seeing queues for Dalrymple, however it’s declining steadily and we’re expecting a return to normal sometime in January,” Macfarlane told Reuters. PORTS CLOSED Once finally loaded, most ships will head to China, where some vessels have already waited over two weeks to unload, according to shipping data. “There have been several incidents where ports in China have been closed for two or three days at a time,” one Singapore-based capesize ship broker told Reuters. “Changjiangkou (or CJK, the anchorage outside Zhoushan-Ningbo) and Bayuquan were all closed at one stage, although CJK was the worst affected.” Ship owners with ships stuck in the maritime traffic jam miss out twice around: they are unable to hire out their vessels at the higher rates the congestion has caused. Charter rates for a 180,000 DWT capesize ship from Western Australia to China hit $10 a tonne - equivalent to about $28,000 a day - on Dec. 12, the highest since April 2014. Adding to the congestion is a coal and iron ore buying spree that kicked in after the National Congress of China’s communist party in October. “There has been an abundance of cargo in the market since November after import controls were imposed during the 19th National Congress Meeting,” said Ong Choo-Kiat, president of Taiwan’s dry cargo shipper U-Ming Marine Transport. “Bad weather, substitution of domestic ore with better quality imported ore caused by the anti-pollution policy, and strong steel prices...have all helped to push freight rates up,” Ong said. SHIPPERS FRAGILE China’s December coal imports are set to hit 28 million tonnes, the highest since December 2013, according to Ralph Leszczynski, head of research at ship broker Banchero Costa in Singapore. For all of 2017, China is on course to import 220.2 million tonnes of coal, up 10 percent year-on-year, according to shipping services firm Clarkson. Iron ore imports are set to hit 1.07 billion tonnes, up 6 percent compared with 2016, Clarkson said. The strong demand for iron ore and coal adds to already soaring Chinese consumption of oil and natural gas, most of which is also imported. That’s a boon for a shipping industry that is struggling to recover from on of its worst-ever downturns. Still, shippers say any recovery is fragile, due to an ongoing oversupply in ships. “The return to permanent profitable freight rates is still way off,” said Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at shipping industry lobby group, Bimco. Reporting by Keith Wallis; Editing by Henning Gloystein and Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/shipping-china-jam/ships-in-a-bottleneck-china-australia-ports-clogged-as-coal-iron-ore-demand-soars-idINKBN1EE0VL'|'2017-12-20T10:46:00.000+02:00'
'20737874bf7869557a658cfa454318f7a7447db3'|'Czech Republic - Factors To Watch on Dec 20'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:42 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Czech Republic - Factors To Watch on Dec 20 Reuters Staff 5 Min Read PRAGUE, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Czech financial markets on Wednesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Czech Republic: GMT + 1 hours) ECONOMIC DATA Real-time economic data releases Summary of economic data and forecasts Recently released economic data Previous stories on Czech data **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: here #/2E/events-overview NEWS UNIPETROL: Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol''s largest minority shareholder Paulinino Limited plans to sell its stake to majority owner PKN Orlen when it opens a voluntary tender offer later this month, Paulinino said on Wednesday. Story: Related stories: CME: China''s CEFC group and eastern Europe''s Penta Investments have made a joint bid for Time Warner''s Central European Media Enterprises (CME) , while Petr Kellner''s PPF has dropped out of contention, sources said. Two sources familiar with the matter said CEFC and Czech-Slovak financial group Penta have submitted a joint bid for the central European broadcaster, which could be worth around $2 billion but pricing has not yet been finalised. A third source said the sides were nearing a deal although details were not finalised. Story: Related stories: BUDGET: The Czech parliament gave its final approval on Tuesday to the 2018 central state budget, which envisages a 50 billion-crown deficit ($2.30 billion), sending it to the president to sign into law. Story: Related stories: ECB: European Central Bank policymakers are beginning to think of how to support the euro zone economy after their 2.55 trillion euro quantitative easing (QE) scheme comes to an end and as strong growth reduces the need for aggressive stimulus. "Discussions are more and more shifting from asset purchases to possible future use of interest rates to regulate the economy," Slovakia''s representative on the ECB''s Governing Council, Jozef Makuch, said in Bratislava. Story: Related stories: CENBANK: The Czech National Bank (CNB) will likely hold interest rates unchanged on Thursday and it will deliver another hike in the first quarter of 2018, possibly in February, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. Story: Related stories: DUKOVANY: Czech nuclear watchdog clears Dukovany Units 3 and 4 for further operation. Story: Related stories: POLITICS: The Czech parliament revoked an election of a Communist-era policeman to a police oversight job on Tuesday after some lawmakers claimed the vote was manipulated. Story: Related stories: EU: Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis''s new minority government will not seek observer status at the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, believing the country will be included in debates on the future anyway, officials were quoted as saying on Tuesday. Story: Related stories: CEE MARKETS: Hungary''s 10-year government bond yield dropped to record lows, bucking a trend in Europe and the United States, as the National Bank of Hungary reaffirmed that it would maintain loose policy and stimulus for long-term interest rates to fall. Story: Related stories: MARKET SNAPSHOT Index/Crown Currency Latest Prev Pct change Pct change close on day in 2017 vs Euro 25.679 25.68 0 4.92 vs Dollar 21.698 21.707 0.04 15.4 Czech Equities 1,071.24 1,071.24 0.2 16.24 U.S. Equities 24,754.75 24,792.2 -0.15 25.26 Pvs close or current levels vs prior domestic close at 1600 GMT ***For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX For updates on CEE currencies TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets PRESS DIGEST'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/czech-factors/czech-republic-factors-to-watch-on-dec-20-idUSL8N1OK126'|'2017-12-20T09:41:00.000+02:00'
'f532dab8f90d4ef30625b9988ffcf10db6a17933'|'U.S. House approves biggest tax overhaul in 30 years; Senate next'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:38 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago U.S. House gives final approval to tax bill, delivers victory to Trump David Morgan , Amanda Becker 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax bill to President Donald Trump for his signature. In sealing Trump’s first major legislative victory, Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary tax relief to middle-class Americans. The House approved the measure, 224-201, passing it for the second time in two days after a procedural foul-up forced another vote on Wednesday. The Senate had passed it 51-48 in the early hours of Wednesday. “We are making America great again,” Trump said, echoing his campaign slogan at a White House celebration with Republican lawmakers. “Ultimately what does it mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs.” Trump, who emphasized a tax cut for middle-class Americans during his 2016 campaign, said at an earlier Cabinet meeting that lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent was “probably the biggest factor in this plan.” It was uncertain when the bill would be signed. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said the timing depended on whether automatic spending cuts triggered by the legislation could be waived. If so, the president will sign it before the end of the year, he said. The administration expects the waiver to be included in a spending resolution Congress will pass later this week, a White House official told reporters. BUSINESS FRIENDLY In addition to cutting the U.S. corporate income tax rate to 21 percent, the debt-financed legislation gives other business owners a new 20 percent deduction on business income and reshapes how the government taxes multinational corporations along the lines the country’s largest businesses have recommended for years. Millions of Americans would stop itemizing deductions under the bill, putting tax breaks that incentivize home ownership and charitable donations out of their reach, but also making tax returns somewhat simpler and shorter. The bill keeps the present number of tax brackets but adjusts many of the rates and income levels for each one. The top tax rate for high earners is reduced. The estate tax on inheritances is changed so far fewer people will pay. Once signed, taxpayers likely would see the first changes to their paycheck tax withholdings in February. Most households will not see the full effect of the tax plan on their income until they file their 2018 taxes in early 2019. In two provisions added to secure needed Republican votes, the legislation also allows oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and removes a tax penalty under the Obamacare health law for Americans who do not obtain health insurance. “We have essentially repealed Obamacare and we’ll come up with something that will be much better,” Trump said. President Trump celebrates with Congressional Republican on the South Lawn of the White House. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Democrats were united in opposition to the tax legislation, calling it a giveaway to the wealthy that will widen the income gap between rich and poor, while adding $1.5 trillion over the next decade to the $20 trillion national debt. Trump promised in 2016 he would eliminate the national debt as president. “PILLAGING” “Today the Republicans take their victory lap for successfully pillaging the American middle class to benefit the powerful and the privileged,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. Opinion polls show the tax bill is unpopular with the public and Democrats promised to make Republicans pay for their vote during next year’s congressional elections, when all 435 House seats and 34 of the 100 Senate seats will be up for grabs. Slideshow (17 Images) “Republicans will rue the day they passed this bill,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “We are going to continue hammering away about why this bill is so unpopular.” U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan defended the bill, saying support would grow for after it passes and Americans felt relief. “I think minds are going to change,” Ryan said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” television program. A few Republicans, a party once defined by fiscal hawkishness, have protested the deficit-spending encompassed in the bill. But most voted for it anyway, saying it would help businesses and individuals while boosting an already expanding economy they see as not growing fast enough. In the House, 12 Republicans voted against the tax bill. All but one, Walter Jones of North Carolina, were from the high-tax states of New York, New Jersey and California, which will be hit by the bill’s cap on deductions for state and local taxes. Despite Trump administration promises that the tax overhaul would focus on the middle class and not cut taxes for the rich, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, estimated middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year under the bill, while the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans would see an average cut of $51,000. The House was forced to vote again after the Senate parliamentarian ruled three minor provisions violated arcane Senate rules. To proceed, the Senate deleted the three provisions and then approved the bill. Because the House and Senate must approve the same legislation before Trump can sign it into law, the Senate’s late Tuesday vote sent the bill back to the House. Graphic: Republican tax bill''s tax brackets and rates - tmsnrt.rs/2BJnrIV Graphic: U.S. debt level since 1950 - reut.rs/2B3Yl3C Reporting by David Morgan and Amanda Becker; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Roberta Rampton, Gina Chon and Susan Heavey; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Bill Trott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax/u-s-house-approves-biggest-tax-overhaul-in-30-years-senate-next-idINKBN1ED16V'|'2017-12-19T23:38:00.000+02:00'
'3da82d9a29632185b2e2609c4697c4cf10b4c6e0'|'British public finances strengthen in November as tax revenues rise'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:35 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago British public finances strengthen in November as tax revenues rise Reuters Staff 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s budget deficit edged down last month, official data showed on Thursday, boosted by robust income tax revenue and keeping finance minister Philip Hammond broadly on track to meet his new fiscal targets. Pound coins are seen in the photo illustration taken in Manchester, Britain September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Illustration Britain’s economy has been slowing this year following June 2016’s vote to leave the European Union, but public finances are typically affected only with a significant lag, and higher inflation boosts some types of tax revenue. Public sector net borrowing, excluding state-owned banks, fell to 8.7 billion pounds last month, the Office for National Statistics said, 1.9 percent less than the same month last year and slightly below economists’ forecasts in a Reuters poll for it to rise to 8.9 billion pounds. Borrowing since the start of the financial year in April totalled 48.1 billion pounds, 6.1 percent less than in the same period of 2016 and the lowest for this point in the financial year since 2007. Last month the government’s budget watchdog said it expected borrowing would total 49.9 billion pounds ($66.9 billion) in the 12 months to the end of March 2018. January typically brings a big surplus in the public finances as annual income tax bills fall due. Hammond’s new 2017/18 borrowing target is a lot smaller than the 58.3 billion-pound shortfall the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast in March 2018, as tax revenues had proven more resilient than expected to a slowdown in the economy caused by the last year’s Brexit vote. But the Office for Budget Responsibility was much gloomier about the years to come as Britain heads out of the European Union, downgrading its growth forecasts and pencilling in nearly 30 billion pounds in extra borrowing over the next four years. The OBR forecasts borrowing will rise by 9 percent this year and amount to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product - its first increase on this basis since the financial crisis began to ravage Britain’s public finance in 2008/09 and ultimately pushed borrowing to almost 10 percent of annual economic output. Thursday’s figures showed a sharp drop in public sector net debt to 1.575 trillion pounds or 76.7 percent of annual economic output, down 3 percentage points on the previous month after public housing associations were reclassified as private-sector bodies. Economists had previously said this would not reduce underlying weaknesses in Britain’s public finances which have led ratings agencies to downgrade the country’s credit rating. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund said Hammond needed to rein in public borrowing more in order to create room to increase spending if another crisis hits. Slower economic growth after Brexit also risked wiping out any savings Britain might make on net contributions to the EU’s budget, it added. Hamond aims to balance the budget by some time in the middle of the next decade. IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said Britain’s government had gone almost as far as it could with curbing public spending in an austerity drive that has lasted since 2010. Instead, she said, it should look at raising taxes - for example on goods and services that have reduced rates of sales tax, and ending tax advantages for self-employed workers. Last month Hammond scrapped purchase taxes for most first-time homebuyers as the flagship measure of his annual budget. The IMF suggested Britain should reduce taxes on property purchase further, and instead tax the property values instead. The ONS said revenues from income and capital gains tax were 6.2 percent higher in November than a year earlier, and 3.4 percent higher for the year to date. Sales tax revenues were 4.1 percent higher for the year to date, tracking a broader rise in inflation. Corporation tax revenues were flat. Spending on debt interest jumped by 15.6 percent so far this financial year, reflecting a sharp rise in inflation which has pushed up the cost of index-linked bonds for the government.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-budget/british-public-finances-strengthen-in-november-as-tax-revenues-rise-idUKKBN1EF10G'|'2017-12-21T11:34:00.000+02:00'
'71b57ddf771201b6d19f24750a15a2f89daa6944'|'UK employers downbeat on economy, less confident about hiring - survey'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:06 AM / Updated 8 hours ago UK employers downbeat on economy, less confident about hiring - survey Andy Bruce 3   Fewer British employers plan to hire extra staff next year due to one of the gloomiest economic outlooks since Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, a monthly recruitment industry survey showed on Wednesday. Workers cross the Millennium footbridge at dawn with Tower Bridge seen behind in London, Britain, December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The data from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) chime with official figures showing a falling number of people in work. In London, employers expected to shed jobs, the REC said. REC’s survey of employers showed the net balance of companies planning to add permanent staff in the next 12 months fell to +16 percent in the three months to November, down from +24 the same time last year. None thought Britain’s economy was likely to improve in 2018. “With 2017 coming to an end, it is worrying that so many businesses think mainly of challenges when it comes to next year’s economy,” REC chief executive Kevin Green said. A Confederation of British Industry survey showed nearly two-thirds of companies think Britain is likely to become less attractive for business as it prepares to leave the EU in March 2019. Both surveys were conducted before   secured an agreement from Brussels to move Brexit talks on to a second phase looking at their future trading relations. Separately, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said there were signs that Britain had already hit peak employment. But there was little evidence that a squeeze on pay would end soon, it added. “Most employers can’t afford to or don’t feel the need to make an above-inflation pay rise,” Ian Brinkley, acting chief economist at the CIPD, said. Britain’s economy is expected to grow 1.3 percent next year, slowing from 1.5 percent in 2017, according to the latest Reuters poll of economists. [ECILT/GB] Concerns about Brexit are having knock-on effects on parts of the housing market, especially in central London, where demand is driven by international investors. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors predicted that prices would fall in London and southeast England and be flat in Britain as a whole. A Reuters poll on Tuesday showed that economists on average expect prices in London to fall by 0.3 percent next year and a national rise of 1.3 percent. [GB/HOMES] “A real lack of stock coming onto the market remains one of the biggest challenges, while affordability constraints are increasingly curbing demand in some parts,” RICS economist Tarrant Parsons said. “Given these dynamics, price growth may fade to produce a virtually flat outturn for 2018.” Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by David Milliken and Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy/uk-employers-downbeat-on-economy-less-confident-about-hiring-survey-idUKKBN1EE003'|'2017-12-20T02:04:00.000+02:00'
'c2c27ca7e0af84238a48ab5b5712b652fe78e34c'|'Johnson & Johnson fined 25 million euros by French competition watchdog'|'December 20, 2017 / 9:12 AM / Updated 3 hours ago France fines J&J 25 million euros over painkiller patch Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France’s competition authority fined U.S. healthcare group Johnson & Johnson 25 million euros ($29.6 million) on Wednesday after it ruled the company had deliberately slowed market access to generic copies of its painkiller Durogesic. Durogesic is sold as a skin patch to control ongoing moderate to severe pain and is often prescribed in cancer cases. It contains fentanyl, an opioid which, if misused, can lead to death by overdose. The French Autorite de la Concurrence said J&J’s Janssen had “repeatedly intervened” to block the approval processes in France of Durogesic’s generic copies and disparaged them when in contact with doctors and other healthcare professionals. The company disputed the finding. “We firmly object to the statements contained in the competition authority’s release and to its assessments,” a spokeswoman for J&J said in an emailed statement, adding that the company was studying its options. The case was brought to the watchdog by German firm Ratiopharm, later acquired by Israel’s Teva pharmaceuticals, after Durogesic lost its patent in 2005. In 2013, France’s Sanofi was ordered to pay 40.6 million euros for disparaging generic competition to its Plavix blood thinner. Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-j-j-durogesic/johnson-johnson-fined-25-million-euros-by-french-competition-watchdog-idUSKBN1EE0Y8'|'2017-12-20T11:11:00.000+02:00'
'34793259f6906a72c2a4edfd7ea0c4fe34d27654'|'European banks need $47 billion to meet new capital rules - EBA'|'December 20, 2017 / 4:57 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago European banks need $47 billion to meet new capital rules - EBA Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The European banking system is 39.7 billion euros (£35.19 billion) short of the capital it needs to implement new regulations meant to ensure the world’s banks can withstand financial shocks, the European Banking Authority (EBA) said on Wednesday. The Basel III rules, agreed earlier this month, require banks to hold more capital and cash to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, when taxpayers had to rescue some of the world’s biggest lenders with billion-dollar bailouts. The industry has years to introduce the regime, however. In an assessment of the impact of the reforms on European Union banks, the EBA looked at data from 2015 on 88 banks from 17 EU countries. Of those banks, 36 were internationally active and so have higher capital requirements than the others. The EBA found that EU banks would require another 17.5 billion euros in core capital, such as common stocks and reserves, with the total capital shortfall being 39.7 billion euros. It said the analysis did not take into account some of the changes made in December following opposition to the new rules from the industry and some governments, nor any capital increases within the banks since December 2015. European banks are still unhappy that the compromise deal reached in December puts them at a disadvantage to their U.S. rivals, because it requires them to hold bigger capital buffers against mortgages. Politicians from the continent have argued against significant increases in capital and warned this would make some of the banks’ services more expensive. The increases represent a 12.9 percent increase in core capital across all 88 banks, or 14.1 percent for the large and internationally active banks and 3.9 percent for the rest. The EBA said it would conduct additional impact assessments to scrutinise those changes it did not include in the review, as well as to take advantage of more recent and better quality data provided by the banks. Legislators around the world still need to ratify the agreement reached earlier this month, which could prove to be difficult as lawmakers in countries like the U.S. are pushing to relax financial regulation. Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-european-banks-capital/european-banks-need-47-billion-to-meet-new-capital-rules-eba-idUKKBN1EE28E'|'2017-12-20T18:56:00.000+02:00'
'5143a8be3fe128c186df2b0c0cff1510b49221f4'|'Bank of England says firms expect to offer bigger pay rises in 2018'|'December 20, 2017 / 9:46 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Bank of England says firms expect to offer bigger pay rises in 2018 Reuters Staff 1   businesses expect to offer pay deals averaging around 3 percent next year, up from about 2.5 percent this year, the Bank of England said in a regular report on economic conditions from its regional staff. A statue is silhouetted against the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne “Pay growth had risen slightly,” the regional agents’ report said. “A significant number of contacts expected pay awards to increase towards 2.5-3.5 percent over the next year, from 2–3 percent in 2017. That uplift showed some signs of coming through for the minority making decisions in late 2017.” The central bank also said that businesses reported growing labour shortages and investment plans that were “consistent with modest growth”. Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Kate Holton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-agents/bank-of-england-says-firms-expect-to-offer-bigger-pay-rises-in-2018-idUKKBN1EE127'|'2017-12-20T11:46:00.000+02:00'
'621575de8b65dc874b9045b884a82e5efc1270d4'|'Countries rarely default on their debts - Emerging markets'|'VENEZUELA is an unusual country. It is home to the world’s largest reserves of oil and its highest rate of inflation. It is known for its unusual number of beauty queens and its frightening rate of murders. Its bitterest foe, America, is also its biggest customer, buying a third of its exports.In defaulting on its sovereign bonds last month (it failed to pay interest on two dollar-denominated bonds by the end of a grace period on November 13th), Venezuela is also increasingly unusual. The number of governments in default to private creditors fell last year to its lowest level since 1977, according to the Bank of Canada’s database. Of the 131 sovereigns tracked by S&P Global, a rating agency, Mozambique is the only other country in default, having missed payments on its Eurobond (and failed to make good on guaranteed loans to two state-owned enterprises). Walter Wriston, a former chairman of Citibank, earned ridicule for once declaring that “countries don’t go bust”. But they don’t much anymore.  This dearth of distress is surprising, given the turmoil emerging economies have endured in recent years. The collapse in commodity prices that undid Venezuela was accompanied by a sharp reversal of capital flows to emerging economies that began in 2011 and gathered pace during the “taper tantrum” of 2013. There have been 14 such capital “busts” in the past 200 years, according to Carmen Reinhart of Harvard University, Vincent Reinhart of Standish Mellon Asset Management and Christoph Trebesch of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The most recent bust was the second-biggest of the lot. But it led to less distress than usual. If past patterns had held, such a severe setback would have resulted in 15-20 more defaults than actually transpired, the three scholars calculate.What explains these “missing” defaults? Some may be hidden. China, for example, may have rescheduled or replenished some of its sizeable loans to emerging economies without ever declaring them bad. Indeed, China’s willingness to roll over its loans to Venezuela delayed, even if it did not ultimately prevent, the Bolivarian republic’s default on some of its other debts.Distress also now manifests itself in other ways, points out Gabriel Sterne of Oxford Economics, a consultancy. The governments of emerging economies increasingly borrow in their own currencies. These are no longer tightly pegged to the dollar, as many were in the 1980s and 1990s, or to gold, as in the 19th century. Of 54 emerging markets Mr Sterne has examined, only 11 have foreign-currency bonds worth more than 20% of their GDP (see chart). So defaulting on hard-currency debt is neither as necessary nor as helpful as it was. Even if a sovereign were to forswear a big chunk of its dollar obligations, imposing a steep loss on creditors, it would only save a large percentage of a small amount.The costs of default, on the other hand, are somewhat fixed. Default is, in legal terms, a discrete event. Reneging on debt worth 10% of GDP may be just as damaging to a country’s reputation as reneging on debt worth twice as much. And the costs are not just financial. “You have to negotiate with the creditor committees. You’re going to get all the hedgies (hedge funds) potentially ganging up on you. And that’s a pain in the backside,” notes Mr Sterne. In a growing number of emerging markets, including past offenders like Brazil, Mexico and Peru, default on foreign-currency debt is no longer imaginable, he says.What about the local-currency securities that have grown in importance? Since governments have the power to print the money they owe on these bonds, default is never technically necessary. Currency depreciation and inflation offer a more surreptitious way to erode creditors’ claims: less discrete, more discreet.Ukraine offers one instructive example, argues Mr Sterne. The holders of its foreign-currency debt emerged largely unscathed from its wartime wobbles (generous coupon payments more than offset a 15% cut in the net present value of their claims). On the other hand, those unlucky enough to hold bonds or deposits denominated in Ukrainian hryvnia suffered a 30% loss in dollar terms, by his calculations.Although default on local-currency bonds is never technically necessary, is it nonetheless possible? The rating agencies think so, reserving triple-A ratings for only a small fraction of such bonds. And even the financial markets perceive some danger of default. The yield they demand on this government paper is higher than the implicit “risk-free” rate that can be calculated from currency swaps, point out Wenxin Du of the Federal Reserve and Jesse Schreger of Columbia Business School.In some cases, the two economists argue, a government may prefer default to the alternatives of depreciation and inflation. Suppose, for example, that the country’s companies have borrowed heavily in dollars, even if the government itself has not. In such scenarios, a falling currency may wreak more economic havoc than a formal breach of government obligations.Venezuela again provides a cautionary example. It has so far kept up payments on its local-currency debt, retaining a stronger credit rating on these liabilities than on its dollar paper. Meanwhile the country is going to ruin. Much of the population cannot afford enough food, medicines must be smuggled in from Colombia, and the currency lost 60% of its value last month. The republic may not have defaulted on its local debt. But it has defaulted most violently on its social contract.This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline "Countries rarely go bust anymore"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21732808-venezuela-exception-rule-countries-rarely-default-their-debts?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-19T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'0c5d4c9961255b2d8beb1b1305bde9a2d3215384'|'Goldman Sachs to set up cryptocurrency trading desk: Bloomberg'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:16 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Goldman Sachs to set up cryptocurrency trading desk: Bloomberg Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) is setting up a trading desk to make markets in digital currencies like bitcoin, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street bank aims to get the business running by the end of June, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. ( bloom.bg/2BgDNFb ) “In response to client interest in digital currencies, we are exploring how best to serve them,” Goldman spokesperson Michael DuVally told Reuters, declining to confirm or deny the news report. Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-bitcoin/goldman-sachs-to-set-up-cryptocurrency-trading-desk-bloomberg-idUSKBN1EF2TE'|'2017-12-21T23:15:00.000+02:00'
'67cecd5958a072996aea2684ed5d80aea86b2e90'|'Euro zone consumer confidence rises in December'|'Reuters TV United States December 21, 2017 / 3:10 PM / a few seconds ago Euro zone consumer confidence rises in December Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone consumer confidence rose to 0.5 in December, a flash estimate by the European Commission showed on Thursday. The European Commission said consumer morale in the 19 countries sharing the euro currency increased by 0.5 points in December from a downwardly adjusted 0.0 in November. In the European Union as a whole, consumer sentiment only increased slightly by 0.1 points to -0.6. The Commission gave no details as to why the consumer sentiment increased. Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Manon Jacob'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-economy-consumersentiment/euro-zone-consumer-confidence-rises-in-december-idUKKBN1EF1YR'|'2017-12-21T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'5a1937215bd4f0ca7d86ea8434389710f1451ba5'|'Hong Kong''s underused military land a potential goldmine - but a minefield for government'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:05 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Hong Kong''s underused military land a potential goldmine - but a minefield for government Greg Torode , Venus Wu 7 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - As Hong Kong seeks more land to help ease a worsening housing crisis, some lawmakers and activists are urging officials to take a fresh look at little-used swathes of more than $100 billion worth of real estate controlled by the Chinese military. FILE PHOTO: People''s Liberation Army Navy soldiers take part in a parade with a banner "Wishing Hong Kong a Better Tomorrow", during an open day at a naval base in Hong Kong, China July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo The Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) still occupies some 19 sites across the global financial hub it inherited from the British military when the former colony was handed back to China in 1997. While several sites, such as the high-rise barracks near the Central financial district, are neon-lit and busy, others appear overgrown, rundown and little used, according to Reuters investigations, activists and diplomats monitoring military activity. The parcels range from mansions in the exclusive Peak district and once-luxurious officers’ apartments in Hong Kong and Kowloon, to firing ranges and decades-old Nissen huts across the semi-rural New Territories, near the border with mainland China. With Hong Kong property prices at record highs, Denis Ma, head of research at property consultancy JLL, said a mid-range estimate of the total land value could reach HK$1.06 trillion ($135 billion). Based on the recent sale of a nearby plot, the Central site alone could be worth $29 billion and deliver 4.5 million square feet of floor space if developed into a commercial site. Suitable residential land among the 19 sites could yield 65,000 family-sized apartments, Ma added. Across Hong Kong, the PLA occupies some 2,700 hectares (6,670 acres), according to local government records, nearly half the size of Manhattan. HOUSING PROBLEM A lack of housing is a source of rising social and political tension in Hong Kong, one of the world’s most expensive property markets where owning even a 600-square foot flat is beyond the reach of many families. A recently formed government task force on land supply acknowledged public calls for some military land to be returned for housing, but its chairman has said their development potential “may not be large”. The task force’s initial meetings have instead advocated developing 1,400 hectares of new land through reclamation. The preference for costly reclamation over re-purposing PLA land has led some to believe the Hong Kong government does not want to confront the Beijing leadership over a potentially sensitive issue of national security. Under the laws that enshrine Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy, Beijing is given direct control of defence and foreign affairs. Reuters sent questions to Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, the government’s development bureau and the task force. In reply, a spokesman told Reuters the task force would consider ideas from the community, “their facts as well as their pros and cons”. It would finalise its recommendations by the end of 2018. FILE PHOTO: Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects troops at the People''s Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison as part of events marking the 20th anniversary of the city''s handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo “As far as we understand, all existing military sites in Hong Kong are currently used for defence purposes and none is left idle,” the spokesman said, quoting Hong Kong’s security bureau. Lawmaker Eddie Chu, part of Hong Kong’s democratic opposition, said even though it was common sense to open up some military sites for housing, the local government would likely avoid asking tough questions of Beijing. “The Hong Kong government must know this is a solution, but I expect them to pay lip service to it,” he said. The PLA garrison and China’s Defence Ministry did not respond to faxed questions from Reuters. WELL DEFENDED FILE PHOTO: Troops prepare for the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping (unseen) at the People''s Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison in one of events marking the 20th anniversary of the city''s handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo Security experts say while some PLA presence is a fact of life, the city’s defence needs are easily met by Beijing’s rapidly modernising forces - a vastly different situation to that faced by the British in defending their outpost during the Cold War. “Hong Kong has never been so well defended ... it is a tiny segment of the mainland and is surrounded by the now significant forces of the Southern Theatre Command of the PLA,” said Trevor Hollingsbee, a former Hong Kong security official and naval intelligence analyst with Britain’s Defence Ministry. “Rather than serve a vital strategic interest, the PLA presence in Hong Kong is essentially to show the public who is boss.” After inspecting the garrison as part of 20th handover anniversary celebrations in June, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the troops they were “an important embodiment to national sovereignty”, according to state media. As well as its Central barracks, security experts and diplomats believe a naval base and small airfield are considered key local sites to the PLA, along with a Kowloon barracks that houses light tanks and anti-riot units. Another 10-hectare Kowloon site and residential blocks near Shek Kong appear barely used, according to activists and Reuters’ own checks. Soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets guard the entrance to the Kowloon site, but some buildings appear dilapidated, others rundown and many are unoccupied. At Shek Kong, the residential blocks appear little used, day or night, and security is lax. In camps closer to the border, small deployments of troops drill at dawn outside ageing British-era huts and weed-choked fences. The 122 hectares of the Stanley fort on Hong Kong’s prime southern coast is also underutilised, according to diplomats. About half of the 8,000-10,000 soldiers of the Hong Kong garrison are based in the city at any time, security experts and diplomats believe. Key units are kept in southern China, along with its most advanced weaponry, including jet fighters and air defence weapons. Chinese laws covering the garrison state that any unused land, after central government approval, should be handed back “without compensation” to the local authorities, so any deal would likely have no benefits for the PLA’s coffers. Community organizer Sze Lai-shan, who assists some of the city’s 200,000 people living in wire cages and partitioned homes, said all options for the land should be on the table.“I think using some for temporary housing shouldn’t be a big issue,” Sze said. “We could perhaps use some existing buildings for temporary housing, or even build temporary housing on some sites.” ($1 = 7.8061 Hong Kong dollars) Reporting by Greg Torode and Venus Wu in HONG KONG; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hongkong-property-pla/hong-kongs-underused-military-land-a-potential-goldmine-but-a-minefield-for-government-idUKKBN1EE0IL'|'2017-12-20T08:04:00.000+02:00'
'a2c78bd18ea804397d642f3dcbcb2e6b5b89586d'|'EU seeks to end Brexit transition no later than end-2020'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:14 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Full Brexit in January 2021 as EU sets transition deadline Alastair Macdonald , Robert-Jan Bartunek 4 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union wants a transition period after Brexit to end no later than the last day of 2020, according to the European Commission’s negotiating directives agreed on Wednesday. An EU flag and Union flag are seen flying together during an anti-Brexit protest near the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville That date, coinciding with the end of the EU’s seven-year budget period and 21 months after Britain departs the EU, had long been expected as the target end point of the transition. But this was the first official confirmation that it is the goal of the Union’s negotiators. British Prime Minister Theresa May had sought a transition lasting around two years. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, speaking at a news conference after the EU executive had agreed the terms, said the 2020 deadline was logical and would avoid complications in the next 2021-2027 EU budget period. The four pages of new directives for Barnier were in line with guidelines issued by EU leaders at a summit on Friday and will form the basis of talks on the transition that he hopes to start next month. He has said in the past he hopes a free trade pact could be ready to take effect in January 2021. The directives spell out that Britain will effectively remain in EU institutions, bound by all their rules including new ones, while not having a say in their making. The EU will also offer Britain a non-voting place at some meetings where decisions may affect specific issues and will set up special arrangements for a UK role in setting annual EU fishing quotas. The directives also spell out more clearly that EU treaties with other countries and international organisations will no longer apply to Britain during the transition period. However, the document adds: “Where it is in the interest of the Union, the Union may consider whether and how arrangements can be agreed that would maintain the effects of the agreements as regards the United Kingdom during the transition period.” This has been important to Britain since it could mean that it no longer benefits automatically from free trade agreements which the EU has with, say, Canada or South Korea, while it would still have to apply EU trade policy -- for example collecting EU customs duty at UK ports. Barnier said he understood that Britain was working with other countries to try to retain the advantages of some of the nearly 750 international agreements to which London is currently party as an EU member. FINANCIAL SERVICES Among elements spelled out more in the directives than in the leaders’ guidelines last week was a repetition of a previously agreed EU position that everything applying to Brexit for Britain would also apply to other British territories. Brussels has said the Spanish government must agree any future arrangements with Britain that affect the British territory of Gibraltar on Spain’s southern coast. Asked about his previously expressed view that a future trade deal may offer little automatic access for the City of London’s financial services firms to the EU market, Barnier repeated that free access would be unprecedented as far as he was aware. “I remind you that I‘m not aware of any free-trade deal in the past between the European Union and third countries that would have allowed privileged access for financial services,” he told a news conference. British negotiators have said Britain’s size and proximity give it the leverage to negotiate a more ambitious relationship with the EU than any other state. During the transition, Britain will maintain access to the European single market, Barnier added. “Britain will keep all the benefits, but also all the obligations of the single market, the customs union and the common policies,” he said, ruling out “a la carte” terms. Barnier welcomed agreements made earlier this month on issues such as the Irish border, citizens’ rights and the divorce settlement. “We are not at the end of the road,” he said. “But it is an important stage of this road towards an orderly withdrawal rather than a disorderly one.” Additional reporting by Robin Emmott and Philip Blenkinsop; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-transition-end/eu-seeks-to-end-brexit-transition-no-later-than-end-2020-idUKKBN1EE19M'|'2017-12-20T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'e67ff9c868fe0000f0b5e24524b7dbafc974abad'|'Amazon''s allure may be tough to top this holiday - poll'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:08 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Amazon''s allure may be tough to top this holiday: poll Richa Naidu , Chris Kahn 4 Min Read CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - More U.S. online shoppers plan to give Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) the bulk of their holiday business this year than in previous years, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, despite costly efforts by traditional retailers to attract customers to their websites. FILE PHOTO: An Amazon.com Inc driver stands next to an Amazon delivery truck in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on May 21, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo The online poll of 2,644 adults, released on Wednesday, found that 60 percent of online shoppers planned to do most of their holiday buying on Amazon.com, up from 50 percent during the same period in 2015. Meanwhile, the proportion of shoppers who said they expected to do most of their shopping at Walmart.com, Target.com and Macys.com declined by about 1 percentage point each in that period. Consumers opting increasingly for convenience and speedy delivery have already pushed online sales this holiday season to record highs, making it all the more crucial that retailers get their digital businesses into gear. Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ), Target Corp ( TGT.N ) and Macy’s Inc ( M.N ), like many of their peers, have invested in deeper online discounts and free shipping this holiday season, potentially hurting fourth-quarter profit margins to win back customers who have turned increasingly to Amazon.com. Retailers have also invested heavily in sprucing up their websites and mobile device apps. They are rolling out more fulfillment options such as curbside pickup, click-and-collect and same-day delivery. The holiday shopping season can account for 20 to 40 percent of annual sales for many retailers. Anand Raghuraman, EY’s Americas leader for consumer products and retail strategy, said traditional retailers’ online sales were growing, but not fast enough to win market share. “They’re dealing with an 800-pound gorilla that has different metrics around profitability than they do, which is tough to compete with,” said Raghuraman. Earnest Research, which looks at anonymous card transactions made by millions of U.S. shoppers, said data from the two weeks after Thanksgiving showed Amazon’s market share of U.S. sales had risen 2.6 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile Walmart’s in-store and online market share for the period was down 1.7 percent, while Target had lost 0.6 percent and Macy’s was down 0.5 percent, according to Earnest. Target expects fourth-quarter digital growth to once again be among the best in the industry, spokesman Joshua Thomas said. Macy’s spokeswoman Radina Russell said the department store chain had begun the holiday season well and would continue to offer value online and in stores. Walmart did not immediately provide comment. To be sure, analytics firms and industry groups expect most traditional retailers to report higher holiday sales this year, both online and in stores, driven by discounting, low unemployment, rising consumer confidence and good weather across the country. Sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday also topped prior years and Amazon.com said it broke sales records during that holiday weekend. According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, about one in every four adults plan to shop primarily or entirely online this holiday season, up from one in five in 2012. Convenience, delivery and the ability to compare prices easily were the most common reasons people choose to shop online, the poll showed. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted in English throughout the United States from Nov. 27 to Dec. 7. Because it is an online poll, the respondents may be more experienced with computers and online shopping than the general public. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points. (GRAPHIC - Amazon seen dominating holiday sales: tmsnrt.rs/2kpOyPq ) Reporting by Richa Naidu in Chicago and Chris Kahn in New York; Editing by Anna Driver and Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping-poll/amazons-allure-may-be-tough-to-top-this-holiday-poll-idUKKBN1EE1FR'|'2017-12-20T14:09:00.000+02:00'
'd30370b94d51748a8f915fdc65cdb3b45496c1a2'|'Hong Kong arm of China''s LeEco files for liquidation - media'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:02 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Hong Kong arm of China''s LeEco files for liquidation - media Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Le Corporation Limited, the Hong Kong arm of embattled Chinese tech conglomerate LeEco, has filed a petition to the territory’s high court to wind up the company, media in the Asian financial hub said on Thursday. LeEco’s other Hong Kong affiliate, LeSports HK, said in a statement on its Facebook page that its operations were unaffected and it would continue its NBA and premier league broadcasting business in the city. Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-leeco-hong-kong/hong-kong-arm-of-chinas-leeco-files-for-liquidation-media-idUKKBN1EF13M'|'2017-12-21T12:01:00.000+02:00'
'7dfe3d3411953b2ec25c2d6ba96afd9e8c462b13'|'Asia stocks subdued as U.S. tax cuts belt bonds'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:42 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago Asia stocks subdued as U.S. tax cuts slug bonds Wayne Cole 5 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian markets offered a muted reception on Thursday to the passage of U.S. tax cuts as benefits to company bottom lines were already baked into stock prices, while bonds were spooked by the blowout in government debt needed to fund the giveaways. File Photo - A woman walks in strong wind caused by Typhoon Lan, past an electronic board showing the graphs of the recent movements of Japan''s Nikkei average outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.06 percent in thin trade, while the Nikkei .N225 eased 0.1 percent. South Korea .KS11 was dragged down 1.4 percent by weakness in Samsung ( 005930.KS ), but Indonesia .JKSE rose after Fitch upgraded the country''s credit rating. Spreadbetters suggested European bourses would open a shade firmer while E-minis for the S&P 500 ESc1 were flat. In U.S. President Donald Trump’s first major policy win, Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary relief to middle-class Americans. Having spent more than a year anticipating the bill, its actual passage proved something of an anticlimax for Wall Street. The Dow .DJI fell 0.11 percent, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.08 percent and the Nasdaq .IXIC 0.04 percent. Most of the action was in bond markets where yields on U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR jumped to the highest since March at 2.50 percent, in the process making a bearish break of a key chart level at 2.47 percent. The swing higher in long-term yields, for once, outpaced the move in the short-end and steepened the yield curve a little. Bond investors are concerned that adding fiscal stimulus at a time when the economy is already at full employment would only reinforce the Federal Reserve’s determination to raise interest rates, thus pushing up short term yields. At the same time, many assume the unfunded tax cuts will lead to an explosion in government borrowing, increasing the supply of new bonds and pressuring prices across the curve. The impact is all the greater as the Fed has begun to unwind its massive bond holdings, as have central banks elsewhere. Sweden’s Riksbank on Wednesday took its first baby steps toward reversing ultra-loose policy by ending net new bond purchases. “An appreciation that central banks are going to be buying fewer bonds next year at a time when many governments will be selling more of them, plus profit taking on the curve-flattening theme that has been a winning trade for large parts of 2017, are playing a part,” said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at NAB. BOJ NOT FOR TURNING One institution that has long been committed to aggressive stimulus is the Bank of Japan, and it showed no inclination to re-think the policy at its board meeting on Thursday. Currency investors are assuming the BOJ will keep Japanese bond yields super-low for a long time to come and have been nudging the yen lower in response. That kept the euro up at 134.60 yen after hitting its highest since late 2015 at 134.76 EURJPY=. The dollar stood at 113.39 yen JPY= , after rising 0.4 percent on Wednesday. The euro outperformed broadly, reaching $1.1867 EUR= on the dollar after starting the week down at $1.1752. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was steady at 93.383 .DXY. The common currency faces a hurdle later in the day when an election in Catalonia is expected to produce no clear majority for either the separatist or unionist parties, leading to weeks of political wrangling. In commodity markets, gold XAU= was underpinned by the softer dollar to stand at $1,267.31 an ounce. Oil prices steadied after rising on a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories and the continued outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline system. [O/R] U.S. crude futures CLc1 were off 8 cents at $58.01 a barrel, having rallied 53 cents overnight. Brent crude LCOc1 edged back 16 cents to $64.39 a barrel. Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Sam Holmes and Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-stocks-subdued-as-u-s-tax-cuts-batter-bonds-idUKKBN1EF02A'|'2017-12-21T05:10:00.000+02:00'
'833927da78c24a64e78b319dc85c859774b15399'|'Interview - UBS eyes global roll out of online wealth management service'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:38 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Interview - UBS eyes global roll out of online wealth management service Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi , Angelika Gruber 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS, the world’s biggest private bank, is considering rolling out its online investment platform worldwide after a successful trial in Britain, the head of wealth management at the Swiss bank said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in St. Moritz, Switzerland, February 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo SmartWealth, which launched in Britain this year, provides automated financial advice for customers looking to invest upward of £15,000. “We built a fully automated digital wealth management advisor. Scaling this up will be essential,” the Swiss bank’s chief operating officer for wealth management, Dirk Klee, told Reuters. UBS hopes SmartWealth will help expand its customer base from millionaires and billionaires to the so-called mass affluent, those with assets of 100,000-2 million pounds to invest. SmartWealth could be expanded on the back of the bank’s newly unified IT platform which excludes only the bank’s U.S. private banking business, which is run out of a separate American division. “We are in the process of evaluating if we will roll it out globally through the platform,” Klee said, in the interview this week. IT PLATFORM REAPS BIG SAVINGS UBS last year said it would spend around 1 billion Swiss francs to standardise its IT platform across the wealth management business, helping to lower costs and facilitate the launch of digital features like SmartWealth. FILE PHOTO: Dirk Klee, chief operating officer for wealth management of Swiss bank UBS, gestures during an interview with Reuters in Zurich, Switzerland October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The bank has not provided a specific savings target. The new IT structure, known as One Wealth Management Platform, is now raking in savings for the wealth management business in the markets where it has been launched. “The synergies are immense,” Klee said. “Wherever we implement it, you can see that the operating costs go down in a double-digit percentage amount. Everything we invest in, in the future, will be more efficient and cost less.” The wealth management division, which comes under new management in January after the departure of its current boss, manages more than 1 trillion francs in assets and had 3.9 billion francs in nine-month operating expenses. The project to unify the IT structure began in 2013, with UBS aiming to have it finished by end-2018. The bank has now unified 85 percent of its wealth management business on the platform, with a few countries such as Italy and Taiwan still outstanding, Klee said. Klee said clients’ needs were largely the same globally and the sector needed to take a cue from tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba, which could position themselves as the banks of the future. “Why do we have one iPhone globally?” Klee asked. “You can ask, does it really make sense to have a global infrastructure, a global offering when the world is so diverse? And I can tell you, it does make sense.” Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ubs-group-ag-wealth/interview-ubs-eyes-global-roll-out-of-online-wealth-management-service-idUKKBN1EF1JR'|'2017-12-21T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'5806deef4ae41a69e9fc2f36924bd36b9e19fa9b'|'German union calls strike at Ryanair for Friday'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:40 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago German pilots'' union calls for a strike on Friday at Ryanair Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German pilots at Ryanair ( RYA.I ) are to go on strike for four hours on Friday, their Vereinigung Cockpit union said, following what the union described as an unsatisfactory meeting with management at the Irish low-cost carrier. FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane prepares to land at Manchester Airport in Manchester northern England, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo The first strike by pilots to hit the airline comes less than a week since Ryanair said that it would recognise unions in a bid to avert coordinated strikes across Europe over the Christmas period and entered into talks with unions. The walkout in Germany, described as a “warning strike”, will take place from 0401 GMT to 0759 GMT and will affect flights from all German airports, VC said in a statement. Around 16 Ryanair flights are due to depart from Germany in that time. Despite Ryanair’s offer to talk with unions, VC said Ryanair had refused to accept two members of a delegation that the union nominated to hold talks with management. One of the pilots was a contractor and one a direct employee, but Ryanair has ended both of their contracts, VC said. The union said trade unions in Germany have the right to say who can undertake negotiations and that it would not be dictated to by Ryanair on this point. “This has shown us that nothing has changed with Ryanair’s management style or how it handles workers’ rights,” VC President Ilja Schulz told reporters, sitting behind a table bearing the slogan “No landing clearance for Irish social dumping”. Ryanair has also offered to hold talks on Jan. 5 but Schulz said those talks were subject to the same conditions and so the strike would go ahead. “Ryanair obviously doesn’t believe that VC is in a position to organise a strike or that the Ryanair pilots in Germany have had enough with how they are treated,” he said. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Tom Sims, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots-germany/ryanair-says-agrees-to-new-meeting-with-german-union-vc-idUKKBN1EF1VI'|'2017-12-21T17:08:00.000+02:00'
'cfc224ca9e5b96602a48b6a5a349f8c19ce86d2d'|'UK’s sector-by-sector Brexit assessments released'|'UK’s sector-by-sector Brexit assessments released Documents take pessimistic view of banks’ ability to brass plate operations in EU Read next May has bitter Brexit lesson in art of the fudge Thursday, 21 December, 2017 David Davis had claimed that painstaking research was being carried out on how Brexit would affect 58 different industries © EPA Save to myFT Play audio for this article Pause What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! or Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? I‘ll use it in the future I don‘t think I‘ll use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback Documents drawn up by the UK in its preparation for Brexit have finally been published following months of controversy. After initially refusing to make its “sector by sector” assessments public, the government was forced to release them after a vote in parliament. But the 850 pages that emerged from the Department for Exiting the European Union were not as detailed as initially expected. David Davis , the Brexit secretary, had claimed that his department was carrying out painstaking research on how Britain’s exit from the EU would affect 58 different industries. However, ministers subsequently played down the work, suggesting they never amounted to “impact assessments” and that it would be hard to predict the effects of Brexit when the future relationship with the EU is unclear. Even Mr Davis himself said recently that the usefulness of assessments were “near zero” because of the scale of change likely to be caused by Brexit. On Thursday Hilary Benn said the material published had excluded anything that was commercially, market or negotiation-sensitive. MPs who have already had the opportunity to see the documents behind closed doors described them as thin overviews of information already in the public domain. Eloise Todd, chief executive from campaign group Best for Britain, said the reports were “useless and shoddy” work that a teenager would not be proud of. “It is a masterclass in copy and paste,” she said. In the documents released on Thursday, the government gave little comfort to banks hoping to keep many of their UK operations in place even if there is no trade deal with the EU that includes financial services. It pointed out that the bloc’s rules “make it very difficult to set up a pure ‘brass plate’ operation in an EU member state”. It added that to offer retail and corporate banking services to EU clients, a bank will “need to establish itself substantially in that country; to establish senior personnel with a relationship with the local regulator; and to ringfence capital and liquidity”. While this repeats statements already made by European regulators, it could still make grim reading for some banks that have been hoping to keep much of their UK operations in place, even after a “hard Brexit” scenario. Some banks are considering various structures to achieve this, such as “back-to-back” trades to transfer the economic risk back to London, or a “branch-back” set-up with a lightweight operation in the EU that carries out most of its business in the region through a UK offshoot. Recommended'|'ft.com'|'http://rss.ft.com/rss/companies/banks'|'https://www.ft.com/content/bcebe3f8-e664-11e7-8b99-0191e45377ec'|'2017-12-21T18:28:00.000+02:00'
'c492300d8c1604ddd1682b432247762d2bd26c3f'|'BRIEF-Americas Silver Corp Declares Commercial Production At San Rafael Mine'|' Americas Silver Corp Declares Commercial Production At San Rafael Mine Reuters Staff Dec 21 (Reuters) - Americas Silver Corp: * AMERICAS SILVER CORPORATION DECLARES COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION AT THE SAN RAFAEL MINE * AMERICAS SILVER CORP - SAN RAFAEL MINE IS EXPECTED TO DRIVE SIGNIFICANT EARNINGS AND CASH FLOW AT CURRENT METALS PRICES STARTING IN Q1, 2018  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-americas-silver-corp-declares-comm/brief-americas-silver-corp-declares-commercial-production-at-san-rafael-mine-idUSFWN1OL0JQ'|'2017-12-21T14:28:00.000+02:00'
'50ac0d6ace083fabc5bdff8f73297bcfdc35fd85'|'Strike over Teva Pharm job cuts briefly shuts down Israel'|'December 17, 2017 / 8:20 AM / in 13 hours Strike over Teva Pharm job cuts briefly shuts down Israel Steven Scheer 4 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s main public-sector labor union staged a half-day strike on Sunday, closing the airport, stock exchange, banks and all government ministries to protest at mass layoffs planned by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA.TA ). Worker of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries block a road during a demonstration near the facility in Neot Hovav, southern Israel December 17, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen Debt-ridden Teva ( TEVA.N ), one of Israel’s largest companies and the world’s largest generics drugmaker, said last week it would cut its global workforce by more than a quarter, or 14,000 jobs. Some 1,700 jobs will be cut and a manufacturing site will be closed in Israel. This has angered unions and politicians, who believe Teva’s employees should not pay for the company’s failed investments abroad. Sunday is the beginning of the Israeli work week. Hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike until 12 noon (1000 GMT) and many held solidarity rallies outside Teva facilities. Protesters also blocked major roads across the country, including the entrance of Jerusalem, and burned tires outside many Teva offices. Demonstrators sat in the middle of streets and crosswalks, halting traffic in a number of cities. The Histadrut labor federation said hundreds of Teva workers in its Jerusalem plant were squatting inside and would continue a strike again on Monday, while there will also be strikes at other Teva facilities. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange shortened its trading day, opening at 1 pm and closed as usual at about 4:30 pm. Teva’s shares fell 0.8 percent. Departing flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport between 8 a.m. and at least 12 p.m. were either canceled or delayed. Similarly, no flights were allowed to land until after 12 p.m. PUBLIC TRANSIT KEPT RUNNING FOR SOLDIERS Slideshow (4 Images) Trains and buses were initially supposed to strike as well, but the Histadrut allowed public transit to operate so that soldiers could get back to their bases as usual. “We are fighting on behalf of Teva’s workers to save Israel’s industry ... and to convey the message that layoffs are the last and not the first step in the public and private sectors,” Histadrut chief Avi Nissenkorn said. He called the current crisis the fault of Teva’s management and board, adding: “It is the state’s responsibility to prevent thousands of Israeli families from paying the price for this.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to meet with Kare Schultz, Teva’s chief executive, this week to try and minimize the blow to workers. “We need to do everything possible to prevent the closure of plants in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said at the outset of a cabinet meeting, adding Teva should remain based in Israel. “It employs thousands of workers,” he said. “It started as an Israeli company and we want it to remain as an Israeli company. We will use various means at our disposal to try and achieve these goals.” He did not elaborate. Schultz said Teva would maintain its headquarters in Israel. Saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt since acquiring Allergan’s ( AGN.N ) Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion, Teva made a series of changes after Schultz joined as its new chief executive on Nov. 1. Its two-year restructuring plan is intended to reduce Teva’s cost base by $3 billion by the end of 2019, out of an estimated cost base for 2017 of $16.1 billion. Nissenkorn said he would meet with Israel’s finance and economy ministers, along with the Teva workers union, on Monday. Reporting by Steven Scheer; editing by Mark Heinrich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-israel-economy-strike/strike-briefly-shuts-down-israel-over-teva-pharm-job-cuts-idINKBN1EB07V'|'2017-12-17T18:05:00.000+02:00'
'd2a7577dec6ac22105a782cdcfeaeacb8f2e262c'|'Oil edges up on North Sea pipeline outage, expectation of lower U.S. crude stocks'|'December 20, 2017 / 1:14 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Oil edges up on North Sea pipeline outage, lower U.S. crude stocks Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices inched up on Wednesday, supported by expectations of a fall in U.S. crude inventories and by the ongoing outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline system. A driver looks at the price as he fills the tank of his car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $57.73 a barrel at 0312 GMT, up 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.91 a barrel, up 11 cents, or 0.17 percent. “Oil prices inched higher on expectations of another strong drawdown in U.S. inventories,” ANZ bank said. The American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday that U.S. crude inventories fell by 5.2 million barrels in the week to Dec. 15 to 438.7 million. Official U.S. government data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is due on Wednesday. Oil prices have also been supported by the continuing outage of the Forties pipeline in the North Sea, which delivers crude underpinning Brent futures. Operator Ineos hopes to be able to fix a crack in the pipeline, which can pump around 450,000 barrels per day of crude, within two to four weeks from Dec. 11. Despite the North Sea outage and falling U.S. crude inventories, oil prices have remained some way off their $65.63 and $59.05 per barrel recent highs for Brent and WTI respectively. Traders said rising U.S. crude production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.8 million bpd, was capping prices. Most analysts expect U.S. output to break through 10 million bpd soon, which would be a new record and take it to levels on par with top exporter Saudi Arabia and close to top producer Russia, which pumps around 11 million bpd. Georgi Slavov, head of research at commodity brokerage Marex Spectron, warned of a possible slowdown in oil consumption, which could put downward pressure on oil prices into 2018. “Demand, which was the main reason to see oil at/above $60, has weakened ... But we continue to lean towards a mildly bearish macro environment for the period (Q1 2018) on the back of an anticipated slowdown in credit, persistently bearish energy intensity of key oil consuming economies and a seasonal decline in the manufacturing activity,” Slavov said. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-edges-up-on-north-sea-pipeline-outage-expectation-of-lower-u-s-crude-stocks-idUKKBN1EE03T'|'2017-12-20T03:13:00.000+02:00'
'200c307f90ded0fe7a5243a39d422164ef9bad43'|'LVMH''s Celine creator Phoebe Philo to leave company: source'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:48 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago LVMH''s Celine creator Phoebe Philo to leave company: source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Phoebe Philo, artistic director of LVMH’s ( LVMH.PA ) Celine label since 2008, is leaving the high-end ready-to-wear brand, a source close to the matter said on Friday. The British designer has decided to take a break, believing that she had accomplished her mission to revamp Celine, and will not join another firm in the immediate future, the source said. The source denied rumors she would join Burberry ( BRBY.L ). Reporting by Pascale Denis and Dominique Rodriguez; writing by John Irish, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lvmh-celine-philo/lvmhs-celine-creator-phoebe-philo-to-leave-company-source-idUSKBN1EG24A'|'2017-12-22T20:47:00.000+02:00'
'10d194822dd42b25f73120bcbb4b7e70510cc197'|'Exclusive: Bank of America Merrill Lynch to pay $26 million for allegedly failing to report suspicious transactions'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:52 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Exclusive: Bank of America Merrill Lynch to pay $26 million for allegedly failing to report suspicious transactions Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (TR Regulatory Intelligence) - Wall Street regulators later Thursday or early next week are expected to fine Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) a total of $26 million over alleged failures to report suspicious transactions, two sources familiar with the matter said. The company logo of the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch is displayed at its office in Hong Kong March 8, 2013. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will each fine Bank of America Merrill Lynch $13 million over brokerage account transactions that occurred mainly in 2010 and 2011 and were not properly policed for illicit activity, the sources said. The firm will also enter into a cease-and-desist order. One allegation is that the brokerage firm provided traditional banking services, such as wire transfers to offshore companies and cash deposits via ATMs, yet the transactions were not screened by bank software designed to flag potentially illicit activity, a source familiar with the impending fines said. Spokesmen for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the SEC declined comment. A FINRA spokeswoman did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Brett Wolf, Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-bankamerica-regulation/exclusive-bank-of-america-merrill-lynch-to-pay-26-million-for-allegedly-failing-to-report-suspicious-transactions-idINKBN1EF2W7'|'2017-12-21T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'ccba238df2e5bae03303959ae84d2181d2484bd5'|'Big Boeing, Airbus strategies drive small plane deals'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:54 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Big Boeing, Airbus strategies drive small plane deals Tim Hepher , Brad Haynes 5 Min Read PARIS/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Airbus and Boeing are pairing with smaller regional rivals to add sales at the lower end of their $100 billion-a-year commercial plane duopoly, but the two market leaders are also laying the foundation for a longer-term strategic contest against more powerful threats such as China. Boeing South Carolina Plant is pictured in North Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Randall Hill/File Photo U.S. planemaker Boeing Co ( BA.N ) and Brazil’s Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ) said on Thursday they were discussing a “potential combination” widely assumed to focus on jetliners, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal. News of the talks comes just two months after Boeing’s European archrival Airbus ( AIR.PA ) agreed to buy a majority stake in Bombardier Inc’s ( BBDb.TO ) 110 to 130-seat CSeries jet, the Canadian rival of Embraer’s biggest E-Jets. “This seems initially to be about blunting the offering of the CSeries,” said consultant Jerrold Lundquist, managing director of The Lundquist Group, one of the first industry-watchers to predict the move. “One of the things the CSeries brings to Airbus is the ability to offer a broader product line.” Both Embraer’s E-Jets, which generally range between 70 and 130 seats, and to a greater extent Bombardier’s CSeries, overlap at the margins of the big-airplane portfolios of Airbus and Boeing, but the products are mainly seen as complementary. Boeing and Airbus smaller planes start at around 125 seats. Such commercial tie-ups allow planemakers to offer package deals and expand opportunities for generating revenue and profit, a person familiar with the CSeries deal said. Boeing now appears to be a convert to this approach after initially - at least in public - dismissing the deal between Airbus and Bombardier, several analysts said on Thursday. But the proposed alliances, neither of which is finalised, are not simply about tacking on revenue and cash flow, analysts and industry sources said. First, they could quickly lead to technical overlap. “If Boeing begins to collaborate with Embraer, you could imagine them creating commonality in the Boeing cockpit,” Lundquist said. Others see similar benefits at Airbus. More importantly, they broaden the battlefront for the next round of developments in 2030 and beyond: one in which Western jetmakers will be up against growing competition from China and Russia and could rely on their new partners to spread the risk. PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION Slideshow (2 Images) Boeing and Embraer had already prepared just such a tryst in confidential talks over a decade ago. In October, Reuters reported that the template for a possible Boeing-Embraer response to the Airbus-Bombardier deal already existed in dormant plans for a new generation of single-aisle planes, for which there had been a previously unreported collaboration between Boeing and Brazil. Plans for an all-new plane were put on hold while Boeing and Airbus focussed on engine makeovers for existing models, cashing in on fuel savings that were considered strong enough to hold off Chinese and Russian competitors for another 10 or 15 years. But the blueprint for deeper co-operation between Embraer and Boeing remained in place and by breaking the status quo, Airbus’s Bombardier deal may have brought it back to life. “Embraer gives Boeing access to technology for smaller jets for application on a next-generation narrowbody aircraft,” Morningstar analyst Chris Higgins said in a research note. A source with knowledge of the matter said Boeing had already approached Embraer twice about a potential deal in 2002 and 2006. At the time, the Brazilian government vetoed any deal, saying Embraer was a “strategic” company for the country. Brazilian President Michel Temer, who took office last year, has pushed a more market-friendly agenda than predecessors. Deals with their smaller cousins may give Airbus and Boeing more options when they develop the successors to the best-selling Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, perhaps allowing them to offer a trio of large jets coupled to a pair of smaller ones. For Boeing, however, there may be another gamble at play. The American firm is considering launching a twin-aisle 220 to 260-seat jet in the so-called middle of the market, challenging Airbus in the segment where it began life over 40 years ago. The timing of the talks leaves open the possibility that any core technology Embraer has to offer could be considered for the “new mid-market airplane (NMA),” people familiar with the matter said. To some, that only increases the chances that Boeing will kick-start the project next year, taking pains at the same time to shore up the lower end of its market with an Embraer tie-up. ”Boeing would apparently prefer to do the NMA and taking on two major developments at once may be considered too ambitious,” Lundquist said. Reporting by Tim Hepher in PARIS and Brad Haynes in SAO PAULO; Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in SAO PAULO; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-embraer-m-a-boeing-strategy-analysis/big-boeing-airbus-strategies-drive-small-plane-deals-idUKKBN1EF2Z7'|'2017-12-22T00:55:00.000+02:00'
'16d7a600be42d53c8e0c29b5cab8fd4bee0333b3'|'Qualcomm board rejects Broadcom, Silver Lake director nominees'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:46 PM / Updated 36 minutes ago Qualcomm board rejects Broadcom, Silver Lake director nominees Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) on Friday rejected the 11 director nominees picked by Broadcom Ltd ( AVGO.O ) and private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners, likely setting the stage for a bitter proxy battle between the chipmakers. FILE PHOTO - Qualcomm''s logo is seen during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard Broadcom earlier this month took its first formal step to replace Qualcomm’s board with its slate of nominees. Qualcomm in November rejected Broadcom’s $103 billion (77 billion pounds) cash-and-stock bid, saying it dramatically undervalued the company. The U.S. semiconductor firm’s board is nominating its 11 incumbent directors for re-election at the 2018 annual meeting, Qualcomm said on Friday. Broadcom’s list included a former president of the mobile networks business group of Nokia, and the former director and chairman of the board of Dialog Semiconductor Plc ( DLGS.DE ). Qualcomm had then said, “These nominees are inherently conflicted given Broadcom’s desire to acquire Qualcomm in a manner that dramatically undervalues Qualcomm to Broadcom’s benefit.” After reviewing Broadcom’s nominees, Qualcomm’s governance committee concluded that they are inherently conflicted and would not bring incremental skills or expertise to its board, the chipmaker said on Friday. Reuters previously reported that Silver Lake, an investor in Broadcom, helped Broadcom recruit the nominees. Shares of Qualcomm were up marginally at $64.55, while Broadcom’s shares were slightly lower at $261.50 in light premarket trading. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D''Couto'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-qualcomm-m-a-broadcom/qualcomm-board-rejects-broadcom-silver-lake-director-nominees-idUKKBN1EG1FS'|'2017-12-22T15:18:00.000+02:00'
'a9e89a0132cd50a6fe518f9811ccd754285b7744'|'ABB revamps engineering business, to take Q4 charge'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:15 AM / Updated an hour ago ABB revamps engineering business, to take Q4 charge Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Swiss technology group ABB will revamp its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business by spinning off and winding down some operations, triggering fourth-quarter charges, it said on Wednesday. In the Power Grids division, ABB will form a joint venture with SNC-Lavalin for electrical substation EPC projects in which SNC-Lavalin will have the controlling interest. In the Industrial Automation division, ABB’s oil & gas EPC business will be transferred into a previously announced joint venture controlled by Saudi-based Arkad Engineering and Construction Ltd in a deal now expected to close this month. In the Robotics and Motion division, ABB is winding down its turnkey full train retrofit business. “The fourth quarter 2017 results of Power Grids and Robotics and Motion are each expected to be impacted by approximately $75 million on operational EBITA. The transfer of the turnkey oil & gas EPC business into the JV with Arkad is expected to result in a non-operational pre-tax charge to net income of approximately $75 million,” it said. (Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Silke Koltrowitz)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/abb-revamp/abb-revamps-engineering-business-to-take-q4-charge-idUSFWN1OK008'|'2017-12-20T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'7aebfdfb1db5c8531bc21e86197ab0f4c0dd136e'|'Trump may celebrate his tax giveaway – but it could speed his downfall - Jonathan Freedland - Opinion - The Guardian'|'D onald Trump is set to close this most turbulent year with his first big win. Today, barring a last-minute hitch, both houses of the US Congress will send the president a tax reform bill that he will sign with full ceremony. He’ll lavish praise on himself and say he’s making good on his promise to make America great again. Or as he put it via Twitter : “Biggest Tax Cuts and Reform EVER passed. Enjoy, and create many beautiful JOBS!”The bill he’ll sign today is indeed the most substantial overhaul to the US tax system since Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts of 1986. Still, Trump and his fellow Republicans should pause before they knock back too much pre-Christmas champagne. This could be a victory that comes back to haunt them.Play Video 0:28 US House approves Republican tax legislation – videoFor this bill hands the Democrats just the ammunition they need for their campaign to win back control of Congress in next November’s midterm elections. It’s unpopular – opposed by 55% of US voters , and supported by just 33% of them – and with good reason.For this tax “reform” is, in fact, a massive gift to the rich and super-rich. By 2027, 83% of its benefits will go to the richest 1%. Sure, low-income Americans will see a modest improvement in their finances: the poor will save around $60 a year. But the big bucks go to those who already have the biggest bucks.The mega corporations stand to gain the most, as their taxes fall from 35% to 21%. Republicans are trying to cast this as help for “America’s families and small businesses”, as if the chief beneficiaries will be the Mom and Pop who run the neighbourhood general store. But the reality is that Republicans are paying back the mighty plutocrats who have been bankrolling them for years. Admire the candour of congressman Chris Collins, who last month said of tax cuts , “My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again.’”Senate approves most drastic changes to US tax code in 30 years Read moreThe stink coming off this bill is even more direct. The men who wrote, passed and will sign it will benefit from it personally. There are tax breaks for real estate tycoons in there, which will further enrich the likes of Senator Bob Corker and one Donald J Trump.All Democrats need do next November is set those facts against Trump’s 2016 campaign talk, in which he promised to fight for the little guy even at his own expense. “It’s going to cost me a fortune,” he said of his tax plan back then. But it was all a trick. He took the votes of those left behind, and has used them to make himself and his pals even richer.And they will be the ones to feel the cost. Because you cannot reduce the amount coming into the public coffers by $1.5tn without cutting the amount coming out. There will now be even less money to spend on those who need it. Witness the health programmes for poor children cut for lack of congressional funding on the very day those same Republican congressmen and senators increased to $22m the amount a wealthy couple can leave to their children without paying a cent in inheritance tax.Perhaps that moral shame doesn’t bother most Republicans. But the party did once pride itself on its fiscal conservatism. They can surely never make that boast again, not when they have passed a measure that will balloon the deficit by a trillion or more. They want to keep spending, including hundreds of billions on defence, even as they bring in so much less.The right like to say that cutting taxes actually generates more revenue, because people are incentivised to work harder and earn more. But that is one hypothesis that does not need to be tested yet again. We know from the Reagan years, when the deficit mushroomed, that it’s nonsense. It gives magical thinking a bad name.Trump will brag and crow, but there is a danger here for him too. Passing this tax cut has been the driving mission of the likes of House speaker Paul Ryan for decades. It’s why they’ve tolerated the daily outrages committed by Trump: they were ready to swallow anything for the sake of having someone at that Oval Office desk who would sign their tax bill. Once he’s done it, his usefulness diminishes. Should the Russia probe gather pace, should Trump’s poll numbers go even deeper underwater, then the passing of these tax cuts will lead some Republicans to conclude that he is no longer indispensable.So let Trump and the Republican party have their celebration today. They may have reason to regret it tomorrow.• Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistTopics US economy Opinion Donald Trump US domestic policy US politics US Senate comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/20/trump-tax-bill-giveaway'|'2017-12-20T18:49:00.000+02:00'
'ff5ec849774a24f74c44f1eab1c10964a92b6f34'|'Thyssenkrupp, workers strike deal to pave way for steel merger'|'December 21, 2017 / 7:24 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago Thyssenkrupp, workers strike deal to pave way for Tata Steel merger Matthias Inverardi , Tom Käckenhoff , Christoph Steitz 3 Min Read DUESSELDORF/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Workers on Thursday struck a deal with German industrial company Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) to secure steel plants and jobs, a big step towards a planned merger of the group’s European steel business with that of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ). FILE PHOTO: Thyssenkrupp''s logo is seen close to the elevator test tower in Rottweil, Germany, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo The deal removes a major obstacle to the merger, planned for next year, which will create Europe’s second-largest steel group after ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ) and continue Thyssenkrupp’s efforts to transform itself into a more technology-focused company. The workers’ approval for the deal, first announced in September, is seen as key to getting the deal done and shows Thyssenkrupp’s commitment to seek workers’ consent for far-reaching structural changes. “The outcome achieved today represents a key prerequisite for meeting our strategic objectives and at the same time satisfying the interests of our employees,” Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger said in a statement. The agreement, which still needs to be approved by the members of IG Metall, Germany’s most powerful union, foresees no forced layoffs or major site closures until Sept. 30, 2026, labour representatives and the group said. This comes close to the union’s demands for 10 years, which were made in response to concerns that Thyssenkrupp might be shirking responsibility for its volatile steel unit, whose roots go back more than 200 years, by merging it with a rival. Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel in September reached a preliminary agreement to merge their European steel units to create the continent’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ), with 15 billion euros ($17.81 billion) of sales. They said the deal will help them to tackle overcapacity in Europe’s steel market, which faces cheap imports, subdued construction demand and inefficient legacy plants. The companies have already announced 4,000 job cuts as part of the tie-up. Under Thursday’s labour deal, Thyssenkrupp said it would keep a stake in the joint venture for at least six years. It said a change in the entity’s shareholder structure during that time, possibly as the result of a stock market listing, could not be ruled out. “That means that Thyssenkrupp management will share responsibility for either the success or the failure of a possible joint venture,” Detlef Wetzel, deputy supervisory board chairman of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, told Reuters. Thyssenkrupp, which also said it would invest at least 400 million euros a year at its German steel sites, still needs to get the joint venture deal through its supervisory board before a final contract can be signed in 2018. ($1 = 0.8423 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-unions/workers-strike-deal-with-thyssenkrupp-to-pave-way-for-steel-merger-union-idUKKBN1EF2NG'|'2017-12-21T22:01:00.000+02:00'
'fb0df374ef0bc652e88f123f7e648b7d42c3f5c9'|'Singapore''s November headline CPI seen rising 0.5 percent: Reuters poll'|'December 21, 2017 / 7:06 AM / Updated 43 minutes ago Singapore''s November headline CPI seen rising 0.5 percent: Reuters poll Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore’s headline consumer price index is expected to have risen in November from a year earlier, a Reuters poll showed, with the pace seen edging up slightly, partly due to higher oil prices. Customers shop at a vegetable and fruits wholesale market in Singapore August 22, 2013. REUTERS/Edgar Su/Files According to the median forecast in the Reuters poll of 13 economists, the all-items consumer price index (CPI) likely rose 0.5 percent year-on-year in November, after rising 0.4 percent in October. The poll also showed that the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) core inflation measure probably increased 1.5 percent in November from a year earlier, the same as the pace recorded in October. The central bank’s core inflation measure excludes changes in the prices of cars and accommodation, which are influenced more by government policies. At its latest policy review in October, the MAS kept its exchange-rate based monetary policy steady but changed a reference to maintaining current settings for an extended period, a shift that analysts said created room for a tightening next year. Reporting by Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/singapore-economy-inflation/singapores-november-headline-cpi-seen-rising-0-5-percent-reuters-poll-idINKBN1EF0HT'|'2017-12-21T09:02:00.000+02:00'
'5346c6604763f4ca6379d745b0b13650ca3cfccf'|'Daimler buys majority stake in French car-ride app Chauffeur Prive'|' 11 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Daimler buys majority stake in French car-ride app Chauffeur Prive Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - German carmaker Daimler has agreed to buy a majority stake in Chauffeur Prive, a French rival to the larger Uber car-ride app, in the latest example of traditional companies looking to deal with challenges from technology-driven start-ups. FILE PHOTO - The Mercedes star logo of an E Coupe is pictured before the annual news conference of Daimler AG in Stuttgart, Germany, February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle The deal was announced in a joint statement by both companies. The price of the acquisition, which will be carried out by the German company’s Daimler Mobility Services division, was not disclosed. Chauffeur Prive was founded in 2011. The company says it has more than 1.5 million customers and access to 18,000 drivers, and the service is relatively popular in Paris. Traditional automakers from around the world are examining how best to work on new, disruptive technologies - from electric vehicles to autonomous driving - that require hefty investment and have turned companies such as Google and Tesla into rivals. Daimler has already made forays into the growing industry of car-ride hailing mobile applications. In June, Dubai-based ride hailing firm Careem said it would step up its expansion into new markets after raising $150 million from investors, which included Daimler and Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding. Earlier this month, Daimler’s French rival Renault bought a stake in a glossy magazine publishing group, which it said formed part of its strategy to see how to keep travelers entertained in an era of driverless cars. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Leigh Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-daimler-france/daimler-buys-majority-stake-in-french-car-ride-app-chauffeur-prive-idUKKBN1EF1GU'|'2017-12-21T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'520ab82a249a3ff53587cabc6cf6b669f6607e73'|'Singapore cryptocurrency cafe launches as regulators sound warnings'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:32 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Singapore cryptocurrency cafe launches as regulators sound warnings John Geddie 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Just a street away from Singapore’s central bank, a cryptocurrency firm has set up what it claims is the first cafe in the city-state to be owned and operated by a business promoting its own digital coin. A close-up view of a Bitcoin ATM is pictured at the opening of the Ducatus cafe, a cashless cafe that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, in Singapore December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su The downtown pitstop, which launched on Thursday, sells “hand brew” coffee, sandwiches and eco-friendly beauty products and accepts bitcoin, its own virtual currency called Ducatus and other cashless payments. Its push to promote the use of its own currency through commercial enterprise, rather than speculative investment, comes the same week the Monetary Authority of Singapore urged investors to exercise “extreme caution” toward the cryptocurrency market, which many feel is in a bubble. “We just want to make sure people understand that cryptocurrencies are here to stay,” Ducatus CEO Ronny Tome told Reuters, adding he had plans to open more cafes in other countries and team up with hotels and travel agencies. “The way technology develops and grows right now, there is no doubt about that. Developments are rapid and the governments maybe have a little bit of an issue to follow through.” Tome said he welcomed Singapore’s efforts to educate people about cryptocurrencies, including warnings against speculative behaviour, but did not think it would impact his business. A view of Ducatus cafe, the first cashless cafe that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, on their opening day in Singapore December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su The booming global interest in cryptocurrencies means Singapore - which has positioned itself as a hub for financial technology in Asia - has to walk a fine line between encouraging technological innovation and reducing financial system risk within its borders. While the central bank worries about potential losses for its citizens and money laundering through cryptocurrencies, it is carrying out extensive research into the blockchain distributed ledger technology that underlies bitcoin. Slideshow (8 Images) Anson Zeall, who heads a local association of cryptocurrency firms in Singapore, said that while the country promotes itself as an easy place to do business for fintechs, banks have been shutting down accounts of some cryptocurrency firms and exchanges in recent years. Singapore’s concerns echo those expressed by regulators in other jurisdictions such as Australia and South Korea. Deloitte’s head of financial crime for Asia Pacific, Tim Phillipps, expects policymakers’ warnings will only increase as the virtual currency investment community broadens. “The regulators generally around the world are worried about less sophisticated investors getting drawn in to what is a pretty murky and dark market,” said Phillipps. Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-singapore-cryptocurrency-cafe/singapore-cryptocurrency-cafe-launches-as-regulators-sound-warnings-idUKKBN1EF10C'|'2017-12-21T11:31:00.000+02:00'
'670dfad9488588c9aeaf007e75038307bf9808c7'|'Nokia signs patent licensing deal with Huawei, shares rise'|'December 21, 2017 / 8:38 AM / Updated an hour ago Nokia signs patent licensing deal with Huawei, shares rise Reuters Staff 2 Min Read HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ) said on Thursday it had signed a multi-year smartphone patent licence deal with China’s Huawei [HWT.UL], completing its list of agreements with the world’s largest handset makers. A Nokia logo is seen at the company''s headquarters in Espoo, Finland, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins The companies did not provide financial details of the agreement, but Nokia said it would start booking revenue, including and a one-off catch-up payment, from the fourth quarter. Nokia has recently struck licensing deals with handset makers including Apple ( AAPL.O ), Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ), LG ( 066570.KS ) and Xiaomi. More than 90 percent of Nokia’s revenue comes from telecoms network equipment, but the licensing payments are highly profitable amid an industry-wide slump in the network business. Nokia’s shares rose 2.7 percent by 0858 GMT. “It’s a significant deal because Nokia now has agreements with all the big phonemakers...The network market will remain tough, but the growing patent revenue will compensate for it,” said analyst Mikael Rautanen from research firm Inderes, which holds a “buy” rating on the stock. He said revenue from the Huawei deal would be smaller than from Apple, which he estimated to be around 250 million euros ($297 million) annually. “The (Huawei) ballpark (figure) could be somewhere over 100 million euros annually,” he said. Nokia built up its catalog of patents in the days when the company dominated the mobile handset business. It covers technology that reduces the need for hardware components in a phone, conserves battery life and increases radio reception, among other features. Reporting by Tuomas Forsell and Gwladys Fouche; editing by Jason Neely and Jussi Rosendahl'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nokia-huawei-tech/nokia-signs-multi-year-patent-licence-deal-with-huawei-shares-rise-idUKKBN1EF0UW'|'2017-12-21T11:36:00.000+02:00'
'e3b770272a06c4eb71c277e2ec9a1aba3d500eb7'|'IMF calls on Indian government to reform state-run banking sector'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:06 PM / Updated 7 hours ago IMF calls on Indian government to reform state-run banking sector Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Thursday called on the Indian government to restructure state-run banks and reduce its stakes in them, as part of a series of recommendations issued after conducting a financial system stability assessment. International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen at the IMF headquarters building during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, U.S., October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas India’s banking sector has been reeling under $156 billion of stressed loans that is widely seen as delaying the credit growth needed to revive private investment. Most of the bad debt is held by state-run lenders, which are suffering after years of bad lending decisions. In its report, the IMF welcomed the government’s plan to inject about $32 billion to recapitalise state-run lenders, which was announced in October, as an important step to “support effective resolution of nonperforming assets”. But the organisation said the injection needed to be accompanied by steps to restructure state-run banks, as well as action to improve corporate governance, and a reduction of the government’s stakes in the lenders. The IMF’s financial stability report also recommended India undertake “a cautious reduction” in the minimum amount of investment in government securities that banks are required to hold, in what is known as the statutory liquidity ratio. Undertaking these steps “would boost the system’s capacity to support credit to the economy, while reducing moral hazard and contingent fiscal liabilities”, the IMF said in the report. When announcing its $32 billion recapitalisation plan, the government had pledged to announce a series of reforms of the state-run lenders, though it has yet to disclose details. The IMF also called for greater independence and more supervisory powers by law for the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, to supervise and regulate state-run lenders. Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel has also called on the government to undertake reforms at the state-run lenders, saying doing so was necessary to avoid repeating the bad lending decisions that have led to the current woes in the sector. Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Rafael Nam, Robert Birsel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-imf-report/imf-calls-on-indian-government-to-reform-state-run-banking-sector-idINKBN1EF1S4'|'2017-12-21T16:03:00.000+02:00'
'6f15601c636607f9db304dbd73561886bfbb92bc'|'Ballooning French corporate debt rattles regulators, but not lenders'|' 47 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Ballooning French corporate debt rattles regulators, but not lenders Leigh Thomas 6 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French corporate debt has ballooned to record levels as other euro zone countries have seen their firms cut debt, unsettling the central bank and prompting a cap on bank lending to the most indebted corporate borrowers. FILE PHOTO - Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau attends a press conference after the Franco-German Financial Council meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt Yet, while the surging debt is stressing regulators, senior bankers, ratings agencies and some economists say it is not so much a case of reckless borrowing as of clever financial engineering in which companies by take advantage of low interest rates to cope with high taxes. France’s financial stability council, which includes the finance minister and central bank governor, has taken the unprecedented step of limiting a bank’s exposure to highly indebted firms to five percent of its capital. It was essentially a shot across the lenders’ bows abit over-exposure. French corporate borrowing has grown at more than six percent this year, and closer to eight percent for big companies with easy access to the bond market, Bank of France data shows. That compares with forecasted economic growth of 1.8 percent. In fact, 60 percent of the recent increases in euro zone corporate borrowing came from French firms even though France represents only 20 percent of the bloc’s gross domestic product, also according to the French central bank. That has left French corporate debt at a record 134 percent of GDP, data from the Bank for International Settlements show. Stripping out intra-group loans, the Bank of France pegs the figure at a more manageable but still record 72 percent. “We consider that there is a risk that big companies in particular are going too far,” Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said. The central bank is particularly worried that, thanks to cheap credit, some firms are overpaying for acquisitions and could find themselves nursing painful losses should they have to book big writedowns on takeover values in the future. The council says the lending cap, which will take effect in mid-2018, applies to about 10 firms which it is has not identified. Villeroy said it concerned firms with net debt over 100 percent of equity, which could cover companies like Air France KLM ( AIRF.PA ), Suez ( SEVI.PA ), Airbus ( AIR.PA ), EDF ( EDF.PA ) and Casino ( CASP.PA ), according to Thomson Reuters data. Companies not based in France but with big operations there could also be affected, which could include highly indebted Dutch-registered telecoms group Altice ( ATCA.AS ). The companies either declined to comment or were not immediately in a position do so when contacted by Reuters. While debt levels are manageable now, a return to historic norms for interest rates could cut profits by more than 20 percent, Natixis chief economist Patrick Artus calculates. “The corporate credit situation in France is very highly dependent on what happens to interest rates,” Artus told Reuters. “There’s a real problem with corporate debt in France.” RISKS CONTAINED Villeroy acknowledges there is no imminent danger and the lending cap is for now more bark than bite. “It gives an extremely strong signal that we don’t want certain exposures to be increased,” Villeroy said, adding that it could be tightened if necessary. Economist Marion Amiot of Oxford Economics, meanwhile, says that high levels of debt are not a major cause for concern as the borrowing was put to good use. “Companies have used the money to invest and improve their profitability, even in the face of a high tax burden and rigid labour laws,” she wrote in a research note. Even though French firms’ profit margins are among the weakest in the euro zone, they have maintained above-average investment rates, according to national accounts data. Also, rather than returning cash to shareholders or buy back shares, French firms have retained earnings, keeping balance sheets relatively healthy despite the additional debt. While regulators are uneasy over record debt, investors so far seem content to oblige borrowers. When utility Veolia ( VIE.PA ) tapped the market for a three-year bond last month, not only did it secure a negative interest rate, but investor bids reached four times the amount offered. Moody’s analyst Guillaume Leglise said that credit quality and companies’ ratings were on average stable, even though some firms had leveraged up. “Everything is on track, there isn’t a short-term liquidity risk, most companies are taking advantage of exceptional market conditions to refinance or to finance acquisitions with debt,” Leglise said. Indeed, Moody’s forecasts French corporate bond issuance to rise next year as the economy picks up. Societe Generale co-head of corporate debt origination Felix Orsini said issuers were being cautious, even if the temptation to take on debt was rising after years of low interest rates. “It’s true that after a while management asks, can we take advantage of these financing conditions to make acquisitions or investments, hence the upturn in M&A,” he said. But he added: “corporate finance directors, and especially those in France, are among the most cautious people I know.” For the graphic ''Global corporate debt as pct of GDP'', click here - reut.rs/2z4Lgpd For the graphic ''French corporate debt as pct of GDP'', click here - reut.rs/2z4qXrJ For the graphic ''French corporate profits and investment'', click here - reut.rs/2B6NIwZ Reporting and Graphics by Leigh Thomas; editing by Richard Lough/Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-economy-debt/ballooning-french-corporate-debt-rattles-regulators-but-not-lenders-idUKKBN1EF1W2'|'2017-12-21T16:47:00.000+02:00'
'd90613e15b033d531c743014ba6f5c1616d8fcd0'|'U.S. tax cuts mix pleasure and pain for Europe''s dollar earners'|' 29 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago U.S. tax cuts mix pleasure and pain for Europe''s dollar earners Alasdair Pal 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A slate of U.S. tax reforms could provide a lift for European companies that sell into the country. For others, it may yet turn out to be a threat. FILE PHOTO - U.S. President Donald Trump speaks flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Tim Scott (R) as he celebrates with Congressional Republicans after the U.S. Congress passed sweeping tax overhaul legislation, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Proposals passed by lawmakers on Wednesday will see the corporate tax rate in the United States fall to 21 percent from 35 percent, a dramatic cut that is likely to boost the profits of American corporations. The change is likely to benefit some European companies, too, and investment banks have been quick to point that out: JP Morgan has introduced a basket of 41 European stocks it believes will benefit most for its clients to buy. More than a sixth of companies in the pan-European Stoxx 600 index derive more than a third of their revenues from North America, according to Thomson Reuters data. Thirty-one stocks generate more than half their turnover in the United States. Nineteen of those are UK-domiciled, with construction and defence companies well-represented: Ashtead ( AHT.L ), Cobham ( COB.L ), Ferguson ( FERG.L ), Meggitt ( MGGT.L ) and Melrose ( MRON.L ) are all heavily exposed, according to the data. Equipment rental firm Ashtead, whose U.S. Sunbelt arm made up 86 percent of 2016 revenues, should see a “material impact” from the tax reform, according to analysts at Liberum. The company has told analysts it expects its effective tax rate to fall from 34-35 percent to 23-25 percent -- an uplift of 15 percent to Liberum’s current profit estimates for 2020. Building and plumbing supplier Ferguson, with 78 percent of its revenues from the United States, could also benefit according to analysts at Deutsche Bank, though the company said in its quarterly results in early December the reduction of its tax rate would be less than four percentage points. InterContinental Hotels ( IHG.L ) (58 percent U.S. revenues) said on Thursday its tax rate would reduce by mid-to-high single-digit percentage points, as well as benefiting from an “exceptional” tax credit in the year the bill is signed. Share prices of many U.S.-exposed European companies have seen strong gains as the tax bill edged towards the finish line. But Mike Bell, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, said analysts have been quite slow to factor it into their 2018 company earnings estimates. “It would not be that surprising if we see that with P/E having expanded already, as those earnings upgrades come through that potentially takes (share prices) even a little bit higher,” he said. But not all firms that earn in dollars will gain an advantage. Boeing ( BA )N>, whose main commercial planemaking rival is Europe’s Airbus ( AIR.PA ), said it would now pay tax at rates closer to those of global rivals, helping it compete better. Morgan Stanley said French catering company Sodexo ( EXHO.PA ), which makes 61 percent of operating profit (EBIT) in the United States, could see 6 percent EBIT upside from the reforms, but the investment bank believes British rival Compass already has a lower U.S. tax rate than Sodexo and would see “little benefit”. Daniel Ekstein, an analyst at UBS, said the broker has received a number of questions about whether Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize ( AD.AS ) would benefit. Despite deriving 62 percent of revenues from the United States, the retailer’s tax rate is already low at around 24 percent, meaning its U.S. peers could benefit more and leading to deflation in the retail sector. “If the U.S food retail industry were to benefit from, say, an average 5 percent reduction in tax rate we believe that in the mid-term you’d see shelf-edge prices 5 percent lower, rather than margins 5 percent higher,” he said in a note to clients. Reporting by Alasdair Pal; Additional reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax-markets-europe/u-s-tax-cuts-mix-pleasure-and-pain-for-europes-dollar-earners-idUKKBN1EF16K'|'2017-12-21T12:28:00.000+02:00'
'35838b23dd01dd757520ea01cfc1d74403acd998'|'Shell to buy British retail energy supplier First Utility'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:25 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Shell to buy British retail energy supplier First Utility Nina Chestney 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) has agreed to buy British household energy and broadband provider First Utility, stepping up competition to the “Big Six” suppliers whose dominance of the market is already under pressure. FILE PHOTO: A Shell logo is seen reflected in a car''s side mirror at a petrol station in west London, Britain, January 29, 2015. Picture taken January 29, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Shell did not disclose any financial details of a deal which takes it into a new sector of the retail market. First Utility and Shell’s joint German subsidiary is also included in the agreement. The retail energy market in Britain is still dominated by the “Big Six” -- Centrica’s ( CNA.L ) British Gas, Iberdrola’s ( IBE.MC ) Scottish Power, E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), EDF Energy ( EDF.PA ), SSE ( SSE.L ) and Innogy’s ( IGY.DE ) npower. However, they have been losing market share to smaller suppliers, including First Utility which serves around 825,000 homes in Britain. “The supply and demand of residential energy is rapidly changing, driven by new technologies that enable householders to better manage their energy use, and the need for a low-carbon energy system,” Mark Gainsborough, Shell’s Executive Vice President of New Energies, said in a statement. “This combination will enable Shell to enter a new part of the energy market in the UK and to improve choice for customers by delivering innovative services at competitive prices.” Shell expects the deal to complete early next year, subject to regulatory and other approvals. COMPETITION First Utility said the deal would allow it grow quicker and develop new customer products and services, taking advantage of Shell’s broad range of investments, from renewables to electric vehicle charging. Shell wants 20 percent of sales from its fuel stations worldwide to come from recharging electric vehicles and low-carbon fuels by 2025. Shell Energy Europe Limited, Shell’s European gas and power marketing and trading business, will continue to supply wholesale gas and electricity to energy retailers in the UK and Europe, including First Utility, the firm said. In 2015, Shell Energy Europe and First Utility partnered to launch a new household energy supplier in Germany. The smaller players now control 20 percent of the UK market compared to less than 1 percent a decade ago. First Utility has a 3 percent share of that market. Sweden’s Vattenfall [VATN.UL] and France’s Engie ( ENGIE.PA ) also entered the UK home energy market this year. Many of the big six have lost huge numbers of customers over the past couple of years as consumers switched suppliers. They also face regulatory pressure from the government to curb high energy bills, which have more than doubled over the last decade. Retail margins are already extremely thin and not expected to improve anytime soon. Last month, Innogy and SSE agreed to merge their retail power businesses, paving the way for more industry consolidation as pressures mount on the big suppliers in an increasingly crowded market. However, some of the smaller energy suppliers have fallen foul of the competitive UK energy retail market. Last year, GB Energy went bankrupt after being caught out by rising market prices. Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-first-utility-m-a-shell/shell-to-buy-british-household-energy-provider-first-utility-idUKKBN1EF209'|'2017-12-21T18:28:00.000+02:00'
'444bb47bbe5f86becb4bc0e9766c7e9d7b360f3e'|'EASA orders airlines to replace some Rolls-Royce engines'|'December 21, 2017 / 11:00 AM / a minute ago EASA orders airlines to replace some Rolls-Royce engines Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European aviation safety regulator ordered airlines to replace some Rolls-Royce ( RR.L ) Trent 1000 engines on their aircraft as some components are suspected of having corroded. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said, to reduce the risk of both engines shutting down in flight, a new life cycle limit must be applied to certain engines with specific serial numbers. In cases where a plane has two affected engines installed, airlines must replace one of them, it said in an Emergency Airworthiness Directive published on its website on Thursday. Rolls-Royce told investors in August that 400 to 500 Trent 1000 engines were affected by problems with components wearing out earlier than expected, according to a conference call transcript. The affected engines are primarily installed on Boeing ( BA.N ) 787 aircraft, according to EASA. “This directive mandates action we are taking as part of the continual development of our pro-active engine management programme,” a Rolls-Royce spokesman said. Several airlines including Air New Zealand ( AIR.NZ ), British Airways ( ICAG.L ) and Virgin Atlantic [VA.UL] have previously reported problems with Rolls-Royce Trent engines, leading to extra inspection and maintenance and prompting them to cancel or delay some flights. British Airways said it did not have any of the specific engines referred to in the directive in its fleet. A Boeing spokesman declined immediate comment. The Trent 1000 powered the first 787-8 to enter service in 2011. The latest version of the engine, the Trent 1000 TEN, entered service in November and will power Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft operated by Air New Zealand, Norwegian and Scoot. Reporting by Victoria Bryan, Maria Sheahan, and Kate Holton; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rolls-royce-hldg-engines/easa-orders-airlines-to-replace-some-rolls-royce-engines-idUSKBN1EF18L'|'2017-12-21T12:58:00.000+02:00'
'41353fdbe5739c89cc0bc89b32b3464f90787169'|'U.S. tax cuts mix pleasure and pain for Europe''s dollar earners'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:25 AM / in an hour U.S. tax cuts mix pleasure and pain for Europe''s dollar earners Alasdair Pal 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A slate of U.S. tax reforms could provide a lift for European companies that sell into the country. For others, it may yet turn out to be a threat. Proposals passed by lawmakers on Wednesday will see the corporate tax rate in the United States fall to 21 percent from 35 percent, a dramatic cut that is likely to boost the profits of American corporations. The change is likely to benefit some European companies, too, and investment banks have been quick to point that out: JP Morgan has introduced a basket of 41 European stocks it believes will benefit most for its clients to buy. More than a sixth of companies in the pan-European Stoxx 600 index derive more than a third of their revenues from North America, according to Thomson Reuters data. Thirty-one stocks generate more than half their turnover in the United States. Nineteen of those are UK-domiciled, with construction and defense companies well-represented: Ashtead ( AHT.L ), Cobham ( COB.L ), Ferguson ( FERG.L ), Meggitt ( MGGT.L ) and Melrose ( MRON.L ) are all heavily exposed, according to the data. Equipment rental firm Ashtead, whose U.S. Sunbelt arm made up 86 percent of 2016 revenues, should see a “material impact” from the tax reform, according to analysts at Liberum. The company has told analysts it expects its effective tax rate to fall from 34-35 percent to 23-25 percent -- an uplift of 15 percent to Liberum’s current profit estimates for 2020. Building and plumbing supplier Ferguson, with 78 percent of its revenues from the United States, could also benefit according to analysts at Deutsche Bank, though the company said in its quarterly results in early December the reduction of its tax rate would be less than four percentage points. InterContinental Hotels ( IHG.L ) (58 percent U.S. revenues) said on Thursday its tax rate would reduce by mid-to-high single-digit percentage points, as well as benefiting from an “exceptional” tax credit in the year the bill is signed. Share prices of many U.S.-exposed European companies have seen strong gains as the tax bill edged towards the finish line. But Mike Bell, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, said analysts have been quite slow to factor it into their 2018 company earnings estimates. “It would not be that surprising if we see that with P/E having expanded already, as those earnings upgrades come through that potentially takes (share prices) even a little bit higher,” he said. But not all firms that earn in dollars will gain an advantage. Boeing ( BA )N>, whose main commercial planemaking rival is Europe’s Airbus ( AIR.PA ), said it would now pay tax at rates closer to those of global rivals, helping it compete better. Morgan Stanley said French catering company Sodexo ( EXHO.PA ), which makes 61 percent of operating profit (EBIT) in the United States, could see 6 percent EBIT upside from the reforms, but the investment bank believes British rival Compass already has a lower U.S. tax rate than Sodexo and would see “little benefit”. Daniel Ekstein, an analyst at UBS, said the broker has received a number of questions about whether Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize ( AD.AS ) would benefit. Despite deriving 62 percent of revenues from the United States, the retailer’s tax rate is already low at around 24 percent, meaning its U.S. peers could benefit more and leading to deflation in the retail sector. “If the U.S food retail industry were to benefit from, say, an average 5 percent reduction in tax rate we believe that in the mid-term you’d see shelf-edge prices 5 percent lower, rather than margins 5 percent higher,” he said in a note to clients. Reporting by Alasdair Pal; Additional reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-markets-europe/u-s-tax-cuts-mix-pleasure-and-pain-for-europes-dollar-earners-idUSKBN1EF15W'|'2017-12-21T12:15:00.000+02:00'
'bbe3d1ab6a50ce7e824f871a708e6f14d004448f'|'U.S. tax bill provision likely to spark EU trade dispute - legal experts'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:56 PM / Updated 38 minutes ago U.S. tax bill provision likely to spark EU trade dispute - legal experts Tom Bergin 7 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The sweeping tax bill awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature includes a tax break for U.S. exporters that appears to contravene World Trade Organization rules and is likely to spark a major trade dispute with Europe, legal experts said. FILE PHOTO - President Trump celebrates with Congressional Republicans after the U.S. Congress passed sweeping tax overhaul legislation, on the South Lawn of the White House. REUTERS/Carlos Barria For some U.S. companies, the provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that passed both houses of Congress this week could be twice as generous as the Foreign Sales Corporation scheme, which was abolished around 2006 after causing one of the biggest transatlantic trade disputes of recent decades. The provision taxes earnings from exports of “intangibles” at around a 13 percent rate against a 21 percent corporate tax rate overall. The bill does not define intangible but it is understood in business terms to include patents, trademarks, copy-righted material and know-how. A Reuters analysis of past corporate filings suggests the measure on “foreign-derived intangible income”, or FDII, could save U.S. companies like Microsoft, Walt Disney, Starbucks, Oracle and Bank of America billions of dollars. Legal experts and the European Commission said it appears to amount to an export subsidy, which effectively allows U.S. companies to undercut European competitors on their own turf. “We seem to be facing another, repackaged, version of the Foreign Sales Corporation saga. The United States seems to have not learnt,” said Folkert Graafsma, a WTO expert with law firm VVGB in Brussels. “The newly proposed rule seems prima facie manifestly inconsistent with standing WTO law and practice,” he said. U.S. companies export hundreds of billions of dollars worth of software, technology, patent rights and other intangible goods each year, trade data shows. The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, wrote U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin before the bill was passed to say the measure appeared to be at odds with the WTO treaty, which governs how signatories tax cross-border trade. “... the draft U.S. tax bill as it currently stands contains elements that risk seriously hampering trade and investment flows between our two economies,” said the letter, dated Dec. 12. “We believe it is in our joint interest to avoid this.” A study of the bill released on Monday by a dozen U.S. tax and legal academics said the FDII provision “likely violates WTO obligations”. Four legal experts consulted by Reuters shared their view. “A WTO complaint by the EU seems to be very likely,” Prof. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, a trade law expert with the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, told Reuters. Microsoft, Bank of America, Starbucks and Oracle declined to comment. Disney did not respond to requests for comment. The House Committee on Ways and Means, which helped write up the tax bill, said it was drafted to be “consistent with WTO requirements”. “This bill simply levels the playing field – so American businesses can compete and win anywhere around the world – including here at home,” a committee spokesperson said in answer to Reuters questions. EXAMINING THE IMPLICATIONS Most of the European business groups contacted by Reuters said they were still examining the implications of the measure. Britain’s largest business lobbying group, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said it saw risks. “The risk of retaliatory action from other governments to the proposals in the U.S. is a real one,” said Annie Gascoyne, CBI’s Head of Economic Policy. WTO rules clearly state that lower tax rates on profits from exports constitute an unlawful subsidy, Petersmann said. “If a U.S. sales or income tax is reduced on condition of the exportation of the goods or intangibles concerned, it seems to be a subsidy ‘contingent upon export performance’ as prohibited by Article 3.1(a),” he said. Article 3.1(a) was the rule which led to a WTO judgement against the United States over the Foreign Sales Corporation regime in 2000. The scheme, which ran in various forms from 1984 until around 2006, allowed U.S. companies to structure their earnings in such a way as to benefit from an effective reduction in tax of around 15 percent on the export of physical products as well as intangible goods and services. Big manufacturers like Boeing and General Electric were the best-known beneficiaries of the regime. The exact benefit to U.S. companies of the FDII tax break will depend on what tax planning strategies they already have in place and how much of a company’s export earnings will be classified as “intangible income”. Reuters went through the annual reports and presentations to analysts of more than 100 U.S. companies, randomly picked, going back 20 years, and found 26 firms that noted that they benefited from the Foreign Sales Corporation scheme. Of those 26, half were businesses whose exports were mainly of intangible goods, including drugmaker Merck, coffee chain Starbucks, software group Oracle and technology giant IBM. The 13 companies either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment for this story. But a Reuters analysis of their past corporate filings showed the regime offered big benefits. Walt Disney Co., the vast majority of whose exports are intangibles such as movies and video games, said in annual reports between 2002 and 2005 that the regime allowed it to reduce its overall effective tax rate by around 3 percentage points annually. If the new export tax break generated similar savings as the old one, and Disney remained as focused on exports as it has in the past, it could save the company more than $250 million a year, based on its $9 billion annual earnings. The company could end up even better off than under the Foreign Sales Corporation scheme, however, even without all its exports covered. That’s because paying a 13 percent tax rate rather than 21 percent on foreign-derived intangible income would allow U.S. companies to reduce the tax they pay on qualifying exports by 38 percent – more than twice the 15 percent reduction effectively offered under the older tax break. Jeffrey Korenblatt, a tax attorney with law firm Reed Smith in Washington D.C., said companies will now begin to examine how much of the profit on their exported goods and services can be ascribed to intangibles. Even for manufacturers of heavy equipment, a considerable amount of value can be linked to patents and trademarks, he said. “People will be doing the modelling,” he said. Editing by Sonya Hepinstall'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax-trade-analysis/u-s-tax-bill-provision-likely-to-spark-eu-trade-dispute-legal-experts-idUKKBN1EF25D'|'2017-12-21T17:55:00.000+02:00'
'e890bff5bf7d322937873a10927fb6967fc844d7'|'Another reason not to send Christmas cards - Letters - Money'|'There were a couple of references in the Guardian on Saturday to the demise of Christmas cards ( John Crace’s digested week and an editorial, Seasonal stamp of approval ), seemingly blaming laziness/technology/cost and perhaps culture change for the reduction in the number of Christmas cards sent each year.There is another possibility. Some people, perhaps more than you might think, take the opportunity to donate the money they would have spent on Christmas cards and stamps to their preferred charities. We send even more cards than John Crace (more than 100). But we do it on alternate years, thereby having our Christmas cake and letting someone else eat some of it as well. And no writer’s cramp. Sue Spillman Alfold, Surrey• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/lettersTopics Charitable giving Christmas Charities Voluntary sector Consumer affairs letters'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/18/another-reason-not-to-send-christmas-cards'|'2017-12-18T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'e0daa1821d11b5de43f4767f47ea1c5649335a9d'|'METALS-London copper drifts from near two-month top'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:31 AM / Updated an hour ago METALS-London copper drifts from near two-month top Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Adds comment, detail, updates prices) By Melanie Burton MELBOURNE, Dec 21 (Reuters) - London copper slipped on Thursday from a near two-month high hit the session before on year-end profit-taking, with prices supported by a softer dollar and a sturdy demand outlook from China. Chinese demand growth is expected to be slow but stable into 2018, while the pickup in global activity should support copper demand, National Australia Bank said in a report. "Downside risks remain around China''s property market outlook, where lower population growth, tighter credit conditions and weaker price growth could see real estate investment growth slow," it said. NAB expects a small market deficit in 2018, with prices averaging $6,645 a tonne. FUNDAMENTALS * COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper edged down by 0.1 percent to $7034 a tonne by 0517 GMT, as traders took profits after prices jumped to the highest in nearly two months at $7,070.50 on Wednesday, when prices closed up 1.5 pct. * OPEN INTEREST: Open interest in all major LME contracts has fallen this week, reflecting that traders are closing their positions ahead of year-end and suggesting short-covering has fuelled copper''s gains back above $7,000 this week. MCU-OI-TOT * SHFE COPPER: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper held a 1.1 percent advance at 54,240 yuan ($8,257) a tonne. Open interest also fell. * PREMIUMS: "Shanghai bonded copper premiums remain firm as we head into year end, trading in a $70-$80 range. Traders mentioned some tightness in terms of credit from domestic Chinese banks which could slow down imports," broker Triland said in a report. * U.S. ECONOMY: The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax bill to President Donald Trump for his signature. * STRIKES: Chilean miner Antofagasta Plc said on Wednesday it had reached a new wage agreement with unionized workers at its Centinela mine, defusing the risk of a strike amid a volatile labor landscape in the world''s top copper-producing nation. * CHINA: China will deepen structural reforms and curb risks to the country''s financial system while maintaining steady economic growth in 2018, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, citing leaders at an economic planning meeting. * Coming Up: U.S. consumer confidence flash Dec at 1500 GMT PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0519 GMT Three month LME copper 7034 Most active ShFE copper 54230 Three month LME aluminium 2117 Most active ShFE aluminium 14645 Three month LME zinc 3211.5 Most active ShFE zinc 25395 Three month LME lead 2518 Most active ShFE lead 19075 Three month LME nickel 11985 Most active ShFE nickel 95700 Three month LME tin 19400 Most active ShFE tin 138060 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 346.86 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1494.7 1 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 389.61 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -935.5 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 2369.24 ($1 = 6.5688 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Sunil Nair and Subhranshu Sahu)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-london-copper-drifts-from-near-two-month-top-idUSL4N1OL296'|'2017-12-21T07:30:00.000+02:00'
'94fe0e1041c85a14c0bfa47259bac12e26e634be'|'Oil dips as U.S. production fast approaches 10 million bpd'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:00 AM / Updated an hour ago Oil dips as U.S. production fast approaches 10 million bpd Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Thursday as soaring U.S. output, fast approaching 10 million barrels per day (bpd), outweighed a drop in American crude inventories. A gas station attendant pumps fuel into a customer''s car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $58.02 a barrel at 0540 GMT, down 7 cents from their last settlement. Brent crude futures, international benchmark for oil prices, were at $64.45 a barrel, down 11 cents. Both crude benchmarks gained around 1 percent during their previous sessions, lifted by official data showing a 6.5 million-barrel fall in U.S. crude inventories in the week to Dec. 15 to 436 million barrels, the lowest level since October 2015. Outweighing this on Thursday was another increase in American crude oil production, while a rise in gasoline stocks pointed to a slowdown in demand. The energy minister of Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter and OPEC’s de-facto leader, said it would take more time to rein in a global supply overhang, which was created by strong global production increases in the years up to 2015. “We expect the first few months of 2018 to be either flat or a build (in inventories) as it is typically the case with the seasonality with the oil market,” Khalid al-Falih told Reuters on Wednesday. U.S. oil output is close to breaking through 10 million bpd, undermining efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to tighten the market through withholding supply this year and next. U.S. crude production hit 9.79 million bpd last week, its highest since the early 1970s, the only time American output breached 10 million bpd. This brings U.S. output close to that of top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, which pump around 10 million and 11 million bpd, respectively. Oil traders this week also eyed with interest the passing of a U.S. tax bill, which is seen to weigh on crude prices in the longer term. “The passage of the U.S. tax bill is ... a bearish long-term development for oil and gas markets,” Barclays bank said. “The policies ... are likely to reduce demand for gas and oil and raise supplies ... (as) the tax bill preserves renewable energy tax credits, a tax credit for EVs (electric vehicles), and opens up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-stable-on-lower-us-crude-stocks-but-rising-output-weighs-idINKBN1EF05R'|'2017-12-21T08:15:00.000+02:00'
'21a756deb3a023996f735296b54035b42620110c'|'Kobe Steel says senior executives knew about data tampering'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:37 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Kobe Steel says senior executives knew about data tampering Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), at the center of a data-falsification scandal that has shaken Japan’s manufacturing industry, admitted for the first time that executives were aware of the cheating, and reassigned three senior officials. Kobe Steel Executive Vice President Naoto Umehara attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Japan’s No.3 steelmaker, which supplies the manufacturers of cars, planes and trains across the world, has said about 500 customers had received products with falsified specifications, throwing global supply chains into turmoil. Outside investigators appointed by Kobe to look into the malpractice have found that senior officials in the company’s copper and aluminium business knew of some of the cheating. “Based on this information, as of today, we have reassigned these three executives,” the company said, adding it would decide on any punishments after the probe was completed. Kobe also said the investigation would be completed by around the end of February, two months later than expected. Slideshow (5 Images) The 112-year-old company has had Japanese government-sanctioned seals of quality revoked on many of its products and is also the subject of a U.S. Justice Department inquiry. No safety issues have so far been identified from the data cheating, which mainly involves falsely certifying the strength and durability of products. CEO Hiroya Kawasaki said in November that his “ultimate management responsibility” will be decided after the outside investigators complete their report on the case. A series of compliance failings by Japanese companies have surfaced in the past few months. Scandals have involved Nissan Motor ( 7201.T ) as well as Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) and Toray Industries ( 3402.T ) - key suppliers of products to global manufacturers. Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori and Ritsuko Ando; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kobe-steel-scandal-moves/kobe-steel-says-senior-executives-knew-about-data-tampering-idUKKBN1EF10T'|'2017-12-21T11:38:00.000+02:00'
'1d446b6454ee539a21d63f6a8380d591610a2481'|'Reuters poll - Japan fund managers increase stock exposure in December'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:34 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Reuters poll - Japan fund managers increase stock exposure in December   TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese fund managers increased their overall exposure to stocks in their model portfolios in December while reducing bond holdings, a Reuters poll showed. FILE PHOTO: A Japan Yen note is seen in this illustration photo taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo Respondents on average allocated 49.7 percent of their portfolios to equities in December, compared with 37.7 percent in November. The broader equity market has enjoyed a boon in December, supported by continuing global economic growth, upbeat corporate earnings and likelihood of the Federal Reserve sticking to a gradual pace of interest rate increases. The respondents lifted their North American stock holdings to 35.5 percent in December from 30.5 percent in November. Wall Street indexes reached record highs in December on hopes that U.S. tax cuts would stimulate the economy. They increased their Japanese stock exposure to 48.8 percent in December from 46.3 percent in November. “The equity market looks to remain on a steady footing, with domestic manufacturers leading the way by posting large profits this period,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Insurance. The respondents increased their holdings in Asia excluding Japan equities to 14.2 percent from 6.7 percent while reducing euro zone stock exposure to 0.8 percent from 8.3 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS has gained 5.5 percent so far this quarter, while the pan-European STOXX 600 has risen 2.5 percent, having lost some momentum after peaking at a two-year high early in November. The fund managers reduced their overall bond holdings to 42.9 percent in December from 56.9 percent in November. They cut their North American bond exposure to 19.7 percent in December from 33.0 percent in November. They reduced Japan bonds to 26.6 percent from 36.6 percent and trimmed euro zone bond exposure to 13.8 percent from 22.8 percent. The survey of five Japan-based fund managers was conducted between Dec. 14 and 19. Reporting by the Tokyo markets team; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-funds-poll-japan/reuters-poll-japan-fund-managers-increase-stock-exposure-in-december-idUKKBN1EF09T'|'2017-12-21T05:33:00.000+02:00'
'aa296df06d72eeba58ed84c1c0f03f18c156ecab'|'UniCredit CEO says bank focused on organic growth for now - Handelsblatt'|'December 21, 2017 / 8:36 AM / Updated an hour ago UniCredit CEO says bank focused on organic growth for now - Handelsblatt Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Italy’s biggest bank UniCredit ( CRDI.MI ) will be focussed on organic growth for the next year or two, CEO Jean Pierre Mustier told Germany’s Handelsblatt in an interview when asked about a possible merger with Commerzbank ( CBKG.DE ). Unicredit bank logo is seen in the old city centre of Siena, Italy June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini “Our strategy Transform 2019 is based solely on organic growth and we are fully and totally committed to that,” he told the newspaper in an interview published on Thursday. In September, Reuters reported UniCredit had told Berlin it was interested in eventually merging with state-backed Commerzbank, according to two people familiar with the matter, a combination that would create one of Europe’s biggest banks. A potential tie-up could come once UniCredit’s turnaround over the next two years was complete, they added. Asked why he had already tested the waters with the German government about a possible merger with the partially state-owned German lender, Mustier referred back to the bank’s official strategy. “As I said, we are fully focussed on reaching the goals of our strategy plan, which is based solely on organic growth,” Mustier was quoted as saying. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-unicredit-m-a/unicredit-ceo-says-bank-focused-on-organic-growth-for-now-handelsblatt-idUKKBN1EF0UL'|'2017-12-21T10:36:00.000+02:00'
'64763ae627540bdec168de0dfb60d76465e78b11'|'Wall Street set to rise after GDP data, tax bill passage'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:41 PM / Updated an hour ago Wall Street higher as investors assess tax bill gains Sruthi Shankar 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Thursday as investors were hopeful that lower corporate tax rates would allow companies to spend additional capital on dividends, new projects and wages, which could give a boost to the overall economy. FILE PHOTO - Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The two chambers of the U.S. Congress approved a $1.5-trillion tax bill this week that would slash corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent. A number of companies including AT&T ( T.N ), Wells Fargo ( WFC.N ) and Boeing ( BA.N ) have promised higher pay for workers or more investment in training. Some others have forecast a rise in earnings due to tax cuts. “The impact is still a work-in-progress, tax cuts are believed to add to earnings. But the unknowns are to what extent the company behavior changes in terms of capex policy, buybacks and wage increases,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis. At 12:29 p.m. ET (1729 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 100.33 points, or 0.41 percent, at 24,826.98 - within striking distance of the 25,000 mark. The S&P 500 .SPX was up 9.66 points, or 0.36 percent, at 2,688.91, while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 23.46 points, or 0.34 percent, at 6,984.41. Financial and energy stocks led gains among the 11 major S&P sectors. Wells Fargo ( WFC.N ) jumped 2.44 percent, JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) 1.5 percent and Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) 2.3 percent, lifting the financial index .SPSY 0.9 percent. Adding to the upbeat sentiment, third-quarter GDP data showed the U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in more than two years, powered by robust business spending. A separate report showed a jump in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week, but the underlying trend in jobless claims remained consistent with a tightening labor market. “You’ve got an improving economy that bodes well for loan growth along with a rising interest rate environment, and a modest regulatory relief, which makes financial stocks favorable,” said Sandven. The utilities sector .SPLRCU, among sectors to benefit the least from tax cuts, fell 1.2 percent, its fourth day of decline in a row. Accenture’s ( ACN.N ) shares rose 4.4 percent to hit a record high of $158.40 after the consulting and outsourcing services provider reported strong quarterly profit, driven by digital and cloud services business. Chevron ( CVX.N ) shares jumped more than 3 percent to a record high of $124.69 after broker Cowen & Co raised price target on the stock by nearly a third to $160. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,883 to 960. On the Nasdaq, 1,909 issues rose and 953 fell. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/futures-make-little-progress-even-as-congress-passes-tax-bill-idINKBN1EF1JX'|'2017-12-21T16:09:00.000+02:00'
'4dbbf523d52488571e7da5454b5a82c14b08aa37'|'Kobe Steel to announce personnel decision, investigation update'|'December 21, 2017 / 7:05 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Kobe Steel says senior executives knew about data tampering Osamu Tsukimori 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), at the centre of a data-falsification scandal that has shaken Japan’s manufacturing industry, admitted for the first time that executives were aware of the cheating, and reassigned three senior officials. Japan’s No.3 steelmaker, which supplies the manufacturers of cars, planes and trains across the world, has said about 500 customers had received products with falsified specifications, throwing global supply chains into turmoil. Outside investigators appointed by Kobe to look into the malpractice have found that senior officials in the company’s copper and aluminium business knew of some of the cheating. “Based on this information, as of today, we have reassigned these three executives,” the company said, adding it would decide on any punishments after the probe was completed. The three were senior officials in the company’s aluminium and copper business, where most of the cheating occurred. Kobe Steel “takes it very seriously that current executive officers were aware of this,” Executive Vice President Naoto Umehara told reporters at a media briefing. Slideshow (5 Images) Kobe also said the investigation would be completed by around the end of February, two months later than expected. The 112-year-old company has had Japanese government-sanctioned seals of quality revoked on many of its products and is also the subject of a U.S. Justice Department inquiry. Kobe Steel has been in touch with the U.S. Justice Department multiple times since an initial contact through lawyers, Yoshitsugu Nishimura, a manager of public relations, said at the briefing. He declined to provide further details. No safety issues have so far been identified from the data cheating, which mainly involves falsely certifying the strength and durability of products. CEO Hiroya Kawasaki said in November that his “ultimate management responsibility” will be decided after the outside investigators complete their report on the case. A series of compliance failings by Japanese companies have surfaced in the past few months. Scandals have involved among others, Nissan Motor ( 7201.T ) and key product suppliers to global manufacturers, Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) and Toray Industries ( 3402.T ). Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kobe-steel-scandal-moves/kobe-steel-to-announce-important-personnel-change-investigation-update-idUSKBN1EF0LJ'|'2017-12-21T09:34:00.000+02:00'
'00aeded7fa301e516a5bda6947e68c4ef3ebe25b'|'UK consumer morale sinks to four-year low - GfK'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:05 AM / Updated 10 hours ago UK consumer morale sinks to four-year low - GfK Reuters Staff 3   British consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level in four years this month as inflation-squeezed households took a gloomier view of their personal finances, a long-running survey showed on Thursday. Shoppers walk along Oxford Street in London, Britain, December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi The GfK consumer confidence index slipped to -13, its lowest since December 2013, from -12 in November, bucking expectations in a Reuters poll of economists for it to hold steady and extending a downward trend seen for most of 2017. GfK said Britain’s departure from the European Union and the Bank of England’s first interest rate rise in a decade were weighing on consumers, who felt their personal financial situation had worsened and they were less keen to make big purchases. Inflation also hit its highest in nearly six years at 3.1 percent in November -- easily outstripping lacklustre pay growth -- and a separate survey showed on Wednesday that households’ expectations for future inflation were the highest since 2013. “We need to see several issues move on before the downward trend of the consumer mood changes,” GfK analyst Joe Staton said, citing Brexit and the path of BoE rates in particular. Shoppers walk along Oxford Street in central London, Britain December 3, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi “None of this will be resolved quickly so there’s every likelihood that 2018 will take us lower.” Britain’s economy has slowed this year -- in marked contrast to other major economies -- after initially performing well in the months after June 2016’s Brexit vote. IMF managing director Christine Lagarde told Britons on Wednesday that her warnings about the financial cost of voting for Brexit were being borne out, and said Britain’s economy was only likely to grow by 1.5 percent next year. Retail sales data so far have been mixed in the crucial pre-Christmas season. Official figures for November beat economists’ expectations, and the Confederation of British Industry said spending growth in early December was solid, despite tough underlying trading conditions. The GfK survey, conducted on behalf of the European Commission, polled 1,998 Britons between Dec. 1 and Dec. 15. Reporting by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-consumersentiment/uk-consumer-morale-sinks-to-four-year-low-gfk-idUKKBN1EF00C'|'2017-12-21T02:07:00.000+02:00'
'42850fab56dad8938c53cd301a3e8b11eeeeb392'|'Amazon''s Italian warehouse workers maintain overtime ban over Christmas'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:53 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Amazon''s Italian warehouse workers maintain overtime ban over Christmas Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - Workers at Amazon’s main logistics hub in Italy vowed on Thursday to continue with their work to rule in a dispute over pay and shift patterns, refusing to work overtime during the current peak season for making deliveries. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France on February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo On Wednesday workers at the Castel San Giovanni plant, near Piacenza, cut short every shift by two hours as a series of protest meeting were held throughout the day, FILCAMS CGIL union leader Fiorenzo Molinari told Reuters. “For now the protest will continue until Dec. 31 with a ban on overtime ... then we’ll have to discuss with workers how to proceed,” Molinari said. Amazon has long faced pressures in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, such as Germany, over union allegations that its warehouse staff are pushed too hard for too little money. Unions in Italy, where online sales are still half the European average, also say workers should benefit more from rising profits as the country catches up on e-commerce. Last month workers at Castel San Giovanni walked out on ‘Black Friday’, another one of the busiest online shopping days of the year, over demands for bonus payments and to have a bigger say over the way shifts are allocated. Following that strike the Italian labour ministry sent officials to inspect working conditions at the plant. But the industrial action involves only staff with a permanent position and Amazon brings in additional temporary workers at Castel San Giovanni during peak times such as the run-up to Christmas. Amazon has said that pay levels for its logistics workers are among the highest in the industry and it also provides other benefits, including private medical insurance and funding for training programmes. “At Amazon, we are committed to ensuring a fair cooperation with all our employees, granting valuable working conditions and a caring and inclusive environment in all our workplaces,” an Amazon spokeswoman said. Molinari said Amazon’s executives had failed to attend a meeting on Wednesday morning at the offices of the local government representative. But the spokeswoman said the group was never due to attend and met later in the day with the government official without unions being present. Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-amazon-protests-italy/amazons-italian-warehouse-workers-maintain-overtime-ban-over-christmas-idUKKBN1EF1LM'|'2017-12-21T14:53:00.000+02:00'
'2707f60fa2455144c2a3ca941b2da188618e1c11'|'Turkey''s Pegasus says to exercise purchase option for 25 Airbus aircraft'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:16 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Turkey''s Pegasus says to exercise purchase option for 25 Airbus aircraft Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish airline Pegasus ( PGSUS.IS ) said on Thursday it will exercise its purchase option for 25 additional aircraft under an order placed with Airbus in July 2012 for a total of 100 new planes. FILE PHOTO: Logo of the Turkish budget airline Pegasus is pictured on the wing of an Airbus A320-200 aircraft after it took off from Sabiha Gokcen International airport in Istanbul, Turkey March 5, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer It said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange it had reached an agreement with Airbus for the delivery of an additional five Airbus 321 neo aircraft in 2022 and 10 more Airbus A321 neo aircraft in both 2023 and 2024. Reporting by Can Sezer; Editing by Daren Butler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pegasus-airbus/turkeys-pegasus-says-to-exercise-purchase-option-for-25-airbus-aircraft-idUKKBN1EF0DI'|'2017-12-21T07:16:00.000+02:00'
'58dc70a53de0d37c59bf97c836fd78dfa42faafc'|'U.S. third-quarter economic growth trimmed; jobless claims rise'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:41 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago U.S. third-quarter economic growth trimmed; jobless claims rise Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in more than two years in the third quarter, powered by robust business spending, and is poised for what could be a modest lift next year from sweeping tax cuts passed by Congress this week. FILE PHOTO: Job seekers line up to apply during "Amazon Jobs Day," a job fair being held at 10 fulfillment centers across the United States aimed at filling more than 50,000 jobs, at the Amazon.com Fulfillment Center in Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S., August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo Other data on Thursday showed a jump in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week. The underlying trend in jobless claims, however, remained consistent with a tightening labor market. Gross domestic product expanded at a 3.2 percent annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said in its third GDP estimate for the period. While that was slightly down from the 3.3 percent reported last month, it was the quickest pace since the first quarter of 2015 and was a pickup from the second quarter’s 3.1 percent growth rate. It also marked the first time since 2014 that the economy experienced growth of 3 percent or more for two straight quarters. But the expansion in the July-September period likely overstated the health of the economy. An alternate measure of growth, gross domestic income, rose at a 2.0 percent rate in the third quarter. GDI was previously reported to have increased at a 2.5 percent rate. The average of GDP and GDI, also referred to as gross domestic output and considered a better measure of economic growth, increased at a 2.6 percent rate instead of the previously reported 2.9 percent. Republicans in the U.S. Congress this week approved a broad package of tax cuts in what was the largest overhaul of the tax code in 30 years, handing President Donald Trump a major legislative victory. Trump is expected to soon sign the legislation, which has $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. Economists are forecasting a modest economic boost from the overhaul, which includes slashing the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. The fiscal stimulus will come while the economy is at full employment, which raises the risk of it overheating. “Longer run, the tax cuts will add little to the economy but will add significantly to the government’s deficits and debt load,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Prices of U.S. Treasuries mostly held steady at higher levels after the data, while the dollar pared gains against the yen and euro. U.S. stock index futures were trading slightly higher. FILE PHOTO - Construction cranes are seen in the Los Angeles skyline in downtown Los Angeles, California U.S. November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson ROBUST BUSINESS SPENDING Growth in the third quarter was also boosted by an accumulation of unsold goods and a rebound in government investment. Growth in business investment in equipment was raised to a 10.8 percent pace, the fastest in three years, from the previously reported 10.4 percent. Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, was revised down by one-tenth of a percentage point to a 2.2 percent rate in the third quarter. Consumer spending increased at a robust 3.3 percent rate in the second quarter. FILE PHOTO - A department store advertises for workers in Encinitas, California, U.S., September 13, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake The government said after-tax corporate profits surged at a 5.7 percent rate last quarter instead of the previously reported 5.8 percent. Profits rose at only a 0.1 percent pace in the second quarter. Undistributed profits jumped at a 13.9 percent rate after declining for two straight quarters, suggesting that companies were anticipating deep tax cuts. In a separate report, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 245,000 for the week ended Dec. 16. Last week marked the 146th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Labor market tightness and a strengthening economy encouraged the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates last week for a third time this year. The U.S. central bank has forecast three rate hikes for 2018. Last week, the four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose only 1,250 to 236,000. The claims data covered the survey period for December’s nonfarm payrolls. The four-week average of claims fell 4,000 between the November and December survey weeks, suggesting another month of strong job growth. The economy added 228,000 jobs in November. It needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-jobless-claims-increase-more-than-expected-idINKBN1EF1PI'|'2017-12-21T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'3691ff51f28de017edcd5077ba8d784a31f7cd96'|'Analysis - With small caps, best to be choosy after U.S. tax overhaul'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:15 PM / Updated 43 minutes ago Analysis - With small caps, best to be choosy after U.S. tax overhaul Chuck Mikolajczak 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors have seen small-cap stocks as having the most to gain from a tax code overhaul ever since the 2016 U.S. election, but with a bill on the brink of Congress approval, analysts warned not all small names will benefit equally. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The Russell 2000 index has had its fortunes rise and fall based on the perceived chances of the tax plan’s success. It surged nearly 14 percent in the seven weeks after the November 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who made a tax code rewrite central to his campaign. Small caps in general are relatively sensitive to proposed tax cuts because more of their revenue is derived domestically compared to larger names with a greater global footprint. “Small caps underperformed for most of the year and are best able to receive the boost from a tax cut,” said Alicia Levine, Director Of Portfolio Strategy at BNY Mellon Investment Management in New York. Despite the post-election bump, small caps have trailed bigger companies in 2017, having felt more pain whenever the tax plan appeared on the brink of failure. The Russell 2000 tested a technical support level at its 50-day moving average on Dec. 14, when the sweeping bill seemed to hit obstacles as more Republican U.S. senators appeared to waver. The index is up 13.6 percent on the year versus a nearly 20 percent climb in the S&P 500 and a more than 25 percent jump in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But as the small-cap index surged nearly 3 percent in the two session leading into the vote on Tuesday, some market participants cautioned a tax cut will not be a security blanket for all smaller names. Some have yet to produce earnings, while some may be vulnerable to rising interest rates after taking on debt in the low rate environment following the 2007-2009 financial crisis. “There’s a misperception that broad based they’ll do well,” said Dan Hughes, vice president and client portfolio manager at Vaughan Nelson Investment Management in Houston, Texas. One concern for small caps is valuation, with the forward price-to-earnings ratio of the Russell 2000 at 26.1, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream, well above the 21.5 median and 21.4 mean. That number rises significantly when companies that do not generate earnings are included. “It’s weird to say this - but earnings matter again,” said Francis Gannon, chief investment officer at Royce Funds in New York. “At a moment in time when people are looking at the index and thinking the index should benefit, the index is getting increasingly risky.” Gannon recommended economically sensitive and cyclical names that have fundamentals, are not heavily leveraged and are poised to benefit from expansion both globally and domestically. He flagged industrial and materials businesses, including steel and chemical companies. Additional reporting by Sinead Carew and Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-smallcap/analysis-with-small-caps-best-to-be-choosy-after-u-s-tax-overhaul-idINKBN1EE299'|'2017-12-20T19:11:00.000+02:00'
'1725c3ba5c351c66dccfdefaa3659adca4e27326'|'Lotte chief gets suspended prison sentence; free to run firm'|'Reuters TV United States December 22, 2017 / 7:06 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Lotte chief gets suspended prison sentence; free to run firm Joyce Lee 4 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - A Seoul court on Friday found Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin guilty of breach of trust and embezzlement and sentenced him to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years, leaving him free to try and revive the conglomerate after steep losses in China. FILE PHOTO: Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin attends a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo The Seoul Central District Court cleared the executive of some counts of breach of trust and one embezzlement charge. “I apologize to the public,” Shin said as he left court, without commenting further. Prosecutors had sought a ten-year jail term for Shin on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust after a probe since 2016 into the retail-to-chemicals group. The ruling will come as a relief to Lotte at the end of a tough year during which it became the highest-profile corporate victim of a Beijing-Seoul spat over South Korea’s installation of a U.S. missile defense system. South Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate said, “We respect the court’s decision. Lotte Group executives and employees will further unite to contribute to economic progress and do our best to meet our social responsibility.” The prosecution did not have an immediate comment. Legal experts said the prosecution was likely to appeal. Shin is the subject of another ongoing trial related to a bribery scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye. Prosecutors are seeking a four-year jail term and a fine of 7 billion won ($6.49 million). In the meantime, Friday’s ruling means Lotte, with 110.8 trillion won worth of assets, avoids a leadership vacuum for the time being as it navigates mounting China losses and an uncertain recovery. Shunned in China, its key market, after it was pressed by Seoul to provide land for the THAAD missile defense system, Lotte’s third-quarter China hypermarket sales were nearly wiped out to about $278,000 from around $264 million a year earlier. Nearly all Lotte Mart stores in China have been shut for much of the year with local authorities citing fire safety issues, and the group has now put the business up for sale. But the sale is likely to be delayed past the end-2017 deadline Lotte had sought, Lotte Corp official Choi Min-ho said, without giving a reason. BATTENING DOWN THE HATCHES Lotte’s businesses in South Korea, including its major duty-free operations, that had counted on big-spending Chinese tourists, remain under pressure amid curbs on Chinese tour groups traveling to the country. South Korea’s credit rating agencies have downgraded or cut their outlook for corporate bonds of the group’s flagship retailer Lotte Shopping and Hotel Lotte [HTLOT.UL], citing hurdles in improving their financial stability. Lotte, which shelved plans for an estimated $4.5 billion IPO of Hotel Lotte amid the investigation, is now battening down the hatches as a difficult year draws to an end. Lotte Shopping has frozen wages for its department store business this year for the first time since 2009, three Lotte officials said this week, declining to be identified as the matter was sensitive. While Lotte confirmed wages had been frozen, the retail-to-chemical conglomerate declined further comment. However, one of the officials from the department store business said: “Wages have been frozen due to various factors, but the THAAD issue was one of them.” Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang, Dahee Kim and Haejin Choi; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lottecorp-chief-court/seoul-court-hands-down-suspended-sentence-for-lotte-chairman-idUKKBN1EG0L5'|'2017-12-22T11:25:00.000+02:00'
'a045b7ac190b3a266734de70f1a6cb173d6ed7b4'|'Sonic boom or bust? Dreams of super-fast jet travel revival face headwinds'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:06 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago Sonic boom or bust? Dreams of super-fast jet travel revival face headwinds Jamie Freed 7 Min Read (Reuters) - Supersonic passenger travel, which died out with the Concorde’s demise in 2003, will make a comeback by the mid-2020s if three entrepreneurial U.S.-based companies can make jets quiet and efficient enough to win over buyers and fliers. An artist''s impression shows Boom''s 55-seat supersonic aircraft (below) and Boom''s XB-1 supersonic demonstrator in this undated handout obtained by Reuters December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Boom Supersonic Handout via REUTERS Fifteen years ago, Boeing Co ( BA.N ) canceled plans to build the near-supersonic Sonic Cruiser, the last big attempt by a major manufacturer to speed up commercial travel. Now Japan Airlines Co Ltd ( 9201.T ) and Virgin Group are backing one of the three U.S. supersonic projects, Denver-based Boom Technology Inc, which plans a 55-seat all business class jet. Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) is partnering with Aerion Corp to develop smaller supersonic business jets, with Spike Aerospace Inc also targeting the private jet market given many see the super-rich as the likeliest early adopters of supersonic travel. Concorde was developed in the 1960s, meaning this is hardly a new technology. But the program was government-backed, with only 14 jets ever delivered to then-government owned British Airways ( ICAG.L ) and Air France ( AIRF.PA ). Other airline orders evaporated as the purchase price soared and they were eventually retired as maintenance costs rose and passenger revenue fell. New players are relying on venture capital funding models. “This is more about engines and economics than it is about airframes,” Richard Aboulafia, the vice president of analysis at aerospace research firm Teal Group, said of the challenges of a supersonic revival. To make the project economics stack up the engines need to be far more fuel efficient and less noisy than those used by Concorde or fighter jets. That has proven tough to engineer, especially at higher speeds like the Concorde’s Mach 2, which halved the travel time from London to New York to 3.5 hours. ‘REALISTIC PROJECT’ Engine manufacturers and jet makers have spent decades improving fuel efficiency, expanding range and reducing noise. But to get up to mach speed, a supersonic jet requires an engine core more like those on the commercial jets of the 1970s and 1980s which noisily gobble more air and fuel. “A large fraction of the benefits we have in efficiency and noise reduction we are going to lose as soon as we have to go back to that sort of architecture,” said Daniel Edgington-Mitchell, an aerospace engineering lecturer at Melbourne’s Monash University. Aerion, the most advanced of the proposed supersonic jet projects, is working with GE Aviation ( GE.N ) to develop an engine based on a core used in F-16 fighters and Boeing 737s that was developed in the 1970s, a GE spokesman said. In a sign of the challenges involved using an older engine core rather than spending $1 billion-plus to engineer a new one, Aerion has reduced the jet’s planned speed from Mach 1.6 to 1.4. Slideshow (9 Images) Today’s top business jets fly at around Mach 0.9 and commercial jets at Mach 0.85. Jeff Miller, Aerion’s head of marketing, said the speed had fallen to meet noise standards and due to temperature limits involved with adapting an existing engine core. Aerion, chaired by billionaire businessman Robert Bass, plans for the 12-seat, $120 million jet to make its first test flight in 2023, with entry into service in 2025. “Aerion has researched the problems since 2003 and therefore reached the highest degree of realism,” Leeham Co analyst Bjorn Fehrm said, comparing it to the loftier supersonic ambitions of Boom and Spike. “If one wants to go faster, a suitable core is harder to find.” FASTER IS BETTER Boom wants a $200 million jet capable of Mach 2.2 and Spike aims for a $100 million jet at Mach 1.6, down from an earlier Mach 1.8. Both want their jets to enter service in 2023, two years earlier than Aerion. Several industry sources said those timelines appeared unrealistic because the companies have yet to select engines and will face testing and certification challenges. Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl said the company was examining an adaptation of an existing engine as well as a clean-sheet option, with more to say next year. Spike CEO Vik Kachoria said his company was in talks with two engine suppliers. Both are working on smaller demonstrator aircraft with different engines designed to prove the concept is achievable within their proposed timeframes. Engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC ( RR.L ) said it was interested in supersonic work. United Technologies Corp’s ( UTX.N ) Pratt & Whitney division said it was “not currently” working with Boom and did not respond to a question on Spike, while GE did not provide comment on either project. Scholl said airlines need a speed of at least Mach 2 to make the supersonic business case stake up because that would shave one day off a trans-Atlantic itinerary and two days off trans-Pacific trips. For now, only over-water itineraries are under consideration due to widespread bans on civilian supersonic flights over land. “Faster speeds not only are better for passengers, they are better for airlines, who get to turn the plane around and fly more segments in the same day, possibly even with the same crew,” Scholl said. Japan Airlines and Virgin Group, which declined to comment, have a combined 30 options over Boom jets, with three other as-yet-unnamed customers signed on for another 46. Former British Airways chief Concorde pilot Mike Bannister said the biggest hurdle for Boom was to develop jets at a price that would stack up for airlines, or early orders would evaporate as they had with Concorde. “The technical challenges, whilst great, are surmountable,” said Bannister, who was the captain of the last-ever commercial Concorde flight and has advised Boom’s team. “It is an absolute delight to be able to see on the horizon the prospect of another supersonic airliner, particularly for my family because my daughter who is 24 is a commercial pilot. I would love to see my daughter flying it.” Reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-airplane-supersonic/sonic-boom-or-bust-dreams-of-super-fast-jet-travel-revival-face-headwinds-idUKKBN1EG0GI'|'2017-12-22T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'7b786af261fc53eed6e95e2977ef81fad64000e8'|'America’s Department of Commerce imposes a tariff of 292% on Bombardier’s C-Series jets - Protectionism doesn’t pay'|'A YEAR ago Dennis Muilenburg, the chief executive of Boeing, the American aerospace giant, had a problem. Tweets written by Donald Trump, America’s newly elected president, were hitting Boeing’s share price. Initially buoyed by Mr Trump’s promise of extra spending on defence, the firm''s share price fell in December 2016 when he suggested in a tweet that an order for new presidential planes worth $4bn should be cancelled. After the president elect picked a fight with Lockheed Martin, a rival planemaker, Boeing’s executives were left in fear of being the next target.And so, it seemed, Mr Muilenburg came up with a plan. Boeing would snuggle up to Mr Trump’s “America First” agenda to avoid the flack. Boeing started to stress in its press releases how many American jobs it was creating; it asked the president to unveil the first 787-10 jet produced in February. In April it filed a trade case against Bombardier, alleging that its Canadian rival had received unfair subsidies from Britain and Canada for the development of its new C-Series jetliners.Upgrade your inbox Receive our Daily Dispatch and Editors'' Picks newsletters.Latest updates How “The Nutcracker” danced all over world Prospero an hour ago New research reveals simmering misunderstanding under the tree Business and finance 5 hours ago Supreme Court justices may give away their votes with their voices Democracy in America 5 hours ago Damian Green’s exit gives Theresa May a problem—and an opportunity Bagehot''s notebook 6 21 When it comes to state handouts in the planemaking business no one is a saint, not least Bombardier. But as Gulliver pointed out in September , Boeing''s accusations against Bombardier smacked of hypocrisy, as the American company has itself received billions of dollars of state assistance, from generous military contracts placed by the federal government to $8.7bn in handouts from the Washington state government. And it has not made planes the size of those Bombardier wants to export to America since 2006. Pursuing the case would alienate Boeing’s international customers and would do it more bad than good, Gulliver warned:Canada has also threatened to cancel a likely $5bn order of military jets from Boeing if the American company prevails against Bombardier; Britain could follow its lead. Several airlines, fearing less competition among planemakers, are unhappy with Boeing’s behaviour and privately threaten to shun its jets if it continues to bully its smaller rival. This may be the trade case that ends up costing Boeing much more than it has to gain.That is exactly what has happened. Even though America’s Department of Commerce ruled in Boeing’s favour on December 20th—setting tariffs of 292% on imports of the C-Series from Canada—it is a Pyrrhic victory. In October Bombardier gave away half the C-Series for free to Boeing’s arch-rival Airbus , weakening the American firm’s position in the market for smaller jetliners considerably. Then, in early December Canada announced that it was not going to proceed with an order for 18 Super Hornet fighter jets made by Boeing, costing the firm up to $6bn in revenue. A week later, on December 13th, it received another slap in the face, this time from Delta, America’s second biggest airline, which shunned Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft in favour of buying 200 jets from Airbus, its arch-rival from Europe, worth around $25bn at list prices. Although that decision could have been made simply on price, bosses from other airlines have told Gulliver that they plan to favour Airbus’s jets until Boeing stops “bullying” Bombardier. They suspect Boeing is attacking Bombardier to protect its market power.Airlines and flyers realise that they benefit from more competition in the market for jetliners, as it increases innovation and lowers the cost of buying aircraft. Aviation executives think that Boeing is attempting to destroy the competition with trade cases against both Bombardier and Airbus. But worst of all, in the process of pursuing these, the American firm is hurting its own shareholders and employees by alienating its international customers. Boeing predicts that around 80% of orders for civil jetliners over the next twenty years will be from outside America. But they won’t stick around to buy from Boeing if it continues to follow a nationalist agenda. As Adam Pilarski, the former chief economist of McDonnell-Douglas (now part of Boeing) astutely notes, if the global planemaking giant wants to “act like a little whiny American company”, it will lose out as a result. In an industry as international as aerospace, trading long-term market share abroad in favour of short-term political gain at home may not turn out to be the best strategy.Next Ryanair stops Christmas strikes, but at a cost'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/12/protectionism-doesn-t-pay?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-21T04:35:00.000+02:00'
'6392715332420093117862d338c9af78b4fd801e'|'Shell to buy British retail energy supplier First Utility'|' 01 PM / Updated an hour ago Shell to buy British retail energy supplier First Utility   Royal Dutch Shell will buy British household energy and broadband provider First Utility, expanding its supply business into a new part of the UK retail market, the Anglo-Dutch company said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Shell''s company logo is pictured at a gas station in Zurich April 8, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo The retail energy market in Britain is still dominated by the “Big Six” suppliers - Centrica’s British Gas, Iberdrola’s Scottish Power, E.ON, EDF Energy, SSE and Innogy’s npower. They have been losing market share to smaller suppliers, including First Utility, and the increased presence of Shell is likely to increase the pressure on them. Shell did not disclose any financial details of the deal, which it expects to complete early next year, subject to regulatory and other approvals. First Utility and Shell’s joint German subsidiary is also included in the deal. “The supply and demand of residential energy is rapidly changing, driven by new technologies that enable householders to better manage their energy use, and the need for a low-carbon energy system,” Mark Gainsborough, Shell’s Executive Vice President of New Energies, said in a statement. “This combination will enable Shell to enter a new part of the energy market in the UK and to improve choice for customers by delivering innovative services at competitive prices.” Shell Energy Europe Limited, Shell European gas and power marketing and trading business, will continue to supply wholesale gas and electricity to energy retailers in the UK and Europe, including First Utility, the firm said. In 2015, Shell Energy Europe and First Utility partnered to launch a new household energy supplier in Germany. The smaller rivals to the “Big Six” now control 20 percent of the UK market compared to less than 1 percent a decade ago. First Utility has a 3 percent share of that market. Last month, Innogy and SSE agreed to merge their retail power businesses, paving the way for more industry consolidation as pressures mount on the big suppliers in an increasingly crowded market. Reporting by Nina Chestney in London and Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/first-utility-m-a-shell/shell-to-buy-british-retail-energy-supplier-first-utility-idINKBN1EF246'|'2017-12-21T17:57:00.000+02:00'
'b88c451e7ea353798faa5f3a6c096b9fca5e6896'|'Reliance Infrastructure sells power unit to Adani Transmission'|'December 21, 2017 / 11:31 AM / in 8 hours Reliance Infrastructure sells power unit to Adani Transmission Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s Reliance Infrastructure, part of Reliance Group, said on Thursday it has agreed to sell its Mumbai power generation, transmission and distribution business to a unit of Adani Enterprises for around 188 billion rupees ($2.93 billion). The deal will provide Reliance Group controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani with a 30 billion rupees cash surplus, Reliance Infrastructure said in a statement. Reliance Group has previously announced plans to invest an undisclosed amount in its recently started aerospace defence manufacturing business as well as in its engineering, procurement and construction businesses. Adani Transmission Ltd, the power distribution arm of Adani Enterprises, will pay an initial 132.51 billion rupees for Reliance’s Mumbai power business and 55.50 billion rupees at a later date based on certain approvals, the Reliance statement said. For the quarter which ended in September, Reliance Infrastructure, also known as RInfra, posted a net profit of 5.44 billion rupees and reported total debt of around 140 billion rupees. ($1 = 64.0850 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/reliance-infrast-divestiture-adani-ent/reliance-infrastructure-sells-power-unit-to-adani-transmission-idINKBN1EF1BS'|'2017-12-21T13:28:00.000+02:00'
'd42fbcaaa2f5ab1fcc5fd91714c4891fa77e68d9'|'EU launches anti-subsidy inquiry into Chinese electric bikes'|'December 21, 2017 / 7:16 AM / Updated an hour ago EU targets Chinese subsidies for electric bikes Philip Blenkinsop 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission launched an investigation on Thursday into whether Chinese exporters of electronic bicycles (e-bikes) benefited from excessive state subsidies, increasing trade tensions between Brussels and Beijing. FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a face mask rides an electric bicycle near the financial district of Pudong amid heavy smog in Shanghai, China, December 23, 2015. REUTERS/Aly Song The anti-subsidy case supplements an existing inquiry into alleged dumping by Chinese producers of e-bikes in Europe and is the latest in a string of European Union investigations into and measures on Chinese exports ranging from solar panels to steel. The European Bicycle Manufacturing Association (EBMA) lodged a complaint in November, saying that subsidies came in a wide range of forms, including preferential loans from state-owned banks, grants, export credits, tax breaks and the provision of land and raw materials at excessively low prices. The association says that more than 430,000 Chinese e-bikes were sold in the EU in 2016, up 40 percent on the previous year, and forecasts the figure will rise to 800,0000 in 2017. Europeans buy some 20 million bicycles per year, of which about 10 percent are now e-bikes, with the potential to rise to a quarter within five years. European companies pioneered the pedal-assist technology that e-bikes use and invested 1 billion euros last year, the EBMA said, but risk losing out to Chinese rivals whose share of the EU market has risen to about 33 percent with prices sometimes half those of European makers. Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-china-bicycles/eu-launches-anti-subsidy-inquiry-into-chinese-electric-bikes-idUKKBN1EF0MM'|'2017-12-21T09:15:00.000+02:00'
'4e7bdeaf1ca11fdf8f0a687c61cebd8612809531'|'Chinese ride-sharing firm Didi Chuxing raises $4 billion - sources'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:35 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago China ride-sharing firm Didi raises $4 billion for global push Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing Technology Co on Thursday said it has raised $4 billion in funds earmarked for expansion overseas and into areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), as it looks to challenge Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL]. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Didi Chuxing is seen at its headquarters in Beijing, China, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The fundraising values Didi at over $50 billion and involved Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Capital, two people familiar with the deal told Reuters. Mubadala did not respond to a request for comment. Existing investor SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) also participated in the latest funding, a spokesman for the Japanese firm confirmed, declining to specify the size of its investment. “With a substantial cash reserve, Didi plans to scale up investments in AI talent and technologies,” Didi said in a statement. The funds would also help Didi “bring more innovative and diversified transportation services to broader communities around the world.” Didi has expanded overseas rapidly in the past year since sealing its dominance in China with the purchase of Uber’s local business in 2016, ending a cash-burning subsidy war that cost the U.S. firm roughly $2 billion. Earlier this month Reuters reported that Didi was planning to enter Mexico next year, in what would be its first overseas operation not managed through a local partner. On Wednesday, Didi announced it was looking at entering the Taiwanese market, and had authorized a franchisee operator to do research there on its behalf. Didi has also invested in several of Uber’s rivals globally, including U.S.-based Lyft, Brazil’s 99, India’s Ola, Singapore’s Grab, Estonia’s Taxify and Careem in the Middle East. Besides SoftBank, investors in Didi’s previous funding rounds included Apple Inc APPL.O and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ). The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the fundraising had pushed Didi’s cash reserves to $12 billion from $3.5 billion two years prior. Reporting by Cate Cadell; Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Stephen Coates and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-didi-chuxing-funding/chinese-ride-sharing-firm-didi-chuxing-raises-4-billion-sources-idUKKBN1EF07L'|'2017-12-21T04:45:00.000+02:00'
'1d490641565842abd0d9b3915de46191a9a8a554'|'UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 21'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:41 AM / in 41 minutes UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec 21 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 21 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening up 4 points on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. * BREXIT-FUNDS: Britain''s financial regulator said on Wednesday that asset managers and mutual funds from the European Union would be allowed to continue operating in the UK after Brexit for a period of time even if there is no trade deal with the bloc. * OIL: Oil prices were stable on Thursday after posting strong gains late in the previous session on the back of a drop in U.S. crude inventories. * GOLD: Gold prices edged up to touch a two-week high on Thursday amid firm underlying support and expectations of year-end purchases, with the dollar and stocks little changed in Asian trade. * EX-DIVS: Burberry , United Utilities will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 0.53 point off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations. * The UK blue chip index closed 0.3 percent lower on Wednesday, along with other European bourses before a final vote in the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow Donald Trump to sign massive tax cuts into law. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Justin George Varghese; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-21-idUSL4N1OL2D3'|'2017-12-21T07:40:00.000+02:00'
'64c82d433ce180574119e6d31a349f7da69f1e6c'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 21'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:41 AM / Updated 40 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 21 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 21 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Saudi Arabia is hunting for an energy deal in American shale country, as economic upheaval pushes it to seek its first international oil-and-gas production investments. Saudi Arabian Oil Co IPO-ARMO.SE, known as Aramco, has had initial conversations about taking a stake in Tellurian Inc, a liquefied-natural-gas developer based in Houston. on.wsj.com/2kSJsun - Kuwait said Wednesday it was investigating a military helicopter deal with Airbus SE, adding to the pressure on the European aerospace giant that is facing management turnover and multiple fraud investigations. on.wsj.com/2kRLr26 - China''s ride-sharing platform Didi Chuxing Technology Co has raised $4 billion in its latest round of funding, according to people familiar with the matter. on.wsj.com/2kRLD1k - AT&T Inc said it would make a one-time $1,000 payment to more than 200,000 workers once U.S. President Donald Trump signs the tax-code overhaul bill that Congress has approved. on.wsj.com/2kRuchr - A New Zealand regulator blocked Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co''s planned acquisition of UDC Finance, becoming the latest foreign government authority to flag concerns about the closely held company''s murky ownership structure. on.wsj.com/2kRLE5q Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-21-idUSL4N1OL2CL'|'2017-12-21T07:39:00.000+02:00'
'4b051f9879d8aeac3494ff7c5389cbbae241c33d'|'Canadian cannabis producer MedReleaf halted from trading pending news'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:15 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Canadian cannabis producer MedReleaf halted from trading pending news Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Canadian cannabis producer MedReleaf Corp. is temporarily halted from trading pending an announcement, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada said in a statement. Reporting By Nichola Saminather'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/medreleaf-stocks/canadian-cannabis-producer-medreleaf-halted-from-trading-pending-news-idUSL1N1OL1GT'|'2017-12-21T19:14:00.000+02:00'
'7ff9b6c08319e37af4f739128ae8933a1efc2ede'|'XPO''s US e-commerce volumes jump in four days from Black Friday'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:49 PM / Updated an hour ago XPO''s US e-commerce volumes jump in four days from Black Friday Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - XPO Logistics Inc ( XPO.N ) said on Thursday that its U.S. e-commerce volumes jumped 24 percent from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, as more consumers turned to online retailers for quicker delivery. In October, XPO hired more than 6,000 seasonal workers for the peak holiday season, a 20 percent rise from 2016, in anticipation of a surge in e-commerce deliveries. The third-largest publicly traded U.S. logistics company is a big player in e-commerce deliveries through its contract logistics and “last-mile” services for heavy goods, with a North American supply chain workforce of roughly 26,000 employees across 388 sites. In 2016, retail and e-commerce accounted for the largest portion of XPO’s global revenue at 26 percent, followed by food and beverage at 14 percent. Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping-xpo-logistics/xpos-us-e-commerce-volumes-jump-in-four-days-from-black-friday-idUSKBN1EF1Q8'|'2017-12-21T15:30:00.000+02:00'
'7b1e3fb5ea8dc72079eac8cd1ac327b325cf4153'|'Household energy bills rose by 1.1 percent this year - provisional data'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:39 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Household energy bills rose by 1.1 percent this year - provisional data Reuters Staff 2   Average household energy bills in Britain increased by 1.1 percent this year based on current prices, provisional data from the government showed on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - Electricity pylons are seen in London, Britain August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall The combined average annual domestic bill - both gas and electricity - increased to 1,250 pounds this year from 1,236 pounds last year. In 2016, the combined bill was 4.7 percent lower than 2015’s figure of 1,297 pounds, final government data earlier this year showed. The government has asked market regulator Ofgem to impose a price cap on the retail energy sector after concerns that British households were overpaying due to uncompetitive standard energy tariffs. The move has piled pressure on Britain’s big energy suppliers to offer cheaper deals. Utilities have long said the bigger bills are partly caused by rising government energy policy costs, including renewable energy subsidies. Provisional data published by the government showed average domestic electricity bills increased by 5.7 percent to 619 pounds in 2017 from 586 pounds a year earlier. This compares to a rise of 0.4 percent in 2016 from 583 pounds in 2015. However, the average annual gas bill decreased by 2.9 percent to 631 pounds from 650 pounds a year earlier. This compares to a drop of 8.9 percent in 2016 from 714 pounds. These calculations are based on standard consumptions of 3,800 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year for electricity and 15,000 kWh per year for gas, the government said. Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-energy/household-energy-bills-rose-by-1-1-percent-this-year-provisional-data-idUKKBN1EF17E'|'2017-12-21T12:38:00.000+02:00'
'0e3f033ea6b3dd0ffb1fb584a5c11c406740429e'|'Carmaker PSA makes management changes as part of new strategy overhaul'|'December 21, 2017 / 8:34 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Carmaker PSA makes management changes as part of new strategy overhaul Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot carmaker PSA ( PEUP.PA ) on Thursday made several internal management changes, which it said formed part of its broader, strategic overhaul to improve the company’s performance. FILE PHOTO: The logo of French car maker Peugeot is seen at a dealership in Nice, France, February 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo As of Feb. 1, 2018, Brigitte Courtehoux will join the executive committee and become executive vice-president of PSA’s ‘mobility and connectivity services’ arm, replacing Grégoire Olivier. Courtehoux will also develop PSA’s ‘core mobility strategy’ entailed in the company’s new strategic overhaul, called by PSA as its the “Push to Pass” plan. Grégoire Olivier is appointed general secretary and will succeed to Olivier Bourges, with Bourges becoming PSA’s executive vice president of the “Programs & Strategy” arm. Under the “Push to Pass” strategic plan, PSA is targeting a 10 percent increase in sales by 2018 and a further 15 percent by 2021 versus 2015. Last month, PSA also vowed to move Opel models onto its own technology faster than initially planned to improve their emissions performance and secure promised savings from its acquisition of the loss-making German carmaker. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Mathieu Rosemain'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-peugeot-management/carmaker-psa-makes-management-changes-as-part-of-new-strategy-overhaul-idUKKBN1EF0U6'|'2017-12-21T10:33:00.000+02:00'
'268fed6ffc3731c9245d93f82e8b43d85ba20ceb'|'EU regulators to investigate Ikea''s Dutch tax deals'|'Reuters TV United States December 18, 2017 / 11:25 AM / Updated 44 minutes ago EU regulators to investigate Ikea''s Dutch tax deals Foo Yun Chee 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU competition regulators will investigate whether Swedish furniture retailer Ikea’s [IKEA.UL] tax arrangements with the Netherlands which cut its tax bill in a way which amounted to state aid, as the authorities seek to crack down on unfair tax deals between multinationals and EU countries. The European Commission said on Monday it was looking into two Dutch tax rulings for Inter Ikea, which operates Ikea’s franchising and brand rights and collects a fee of 3 percent of turnover from all Ikea shops via Inter Ikea Systems, a subsidiary in the Netherlands. “All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax. Member states cannot let selected companies pay less tax by allowing them to artificially shift their profits elsewhere,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said. The Commission said the first tax ruling, which covered 2006 to 2011, resulted in a significant part of Inter Ikea Systems’ franchise profits shifting to a Luxembourg unit where it was not taxed. A 2011 ruling, brought in after the Commission declared the first deal illegal, allowed a substantial part of the company’s franchise profits after 2011 to be transferred to its Liechtenstein parent. FILE PHOTO: A family is seen in front of an Ikea shop in a mall in Rome, Italy, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo Inter Ikea said it and Inter Ikea Systems were committed to paying tax in line with the laws of the countries in which they operate and it believed that the way it had been taxed was in accordance with EU rules. The Dutch government said it would cooperate with the EU investigation. Fast food chain McDonald’s ( MCD.N ) and French energy company Engie ( ENGIE.PA ) are also in the EU crosshairs over their Luxembourg tax deals. The Commission has to date ordered Apple ( AAPL.O ) to pay a record amount of back taxes up to 13 billion euros ($15.3 billion) to Ireland, Starbucks ( SBUX.O ) up to 30 million euros to the Netherlands and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) 250 million euros to Luxembourg. Belgium has been told to recover a total of 700 million euros from 35 firms, among them Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ), BP ( BP.L ) and BASF ( BASFn.DE ) because of an illegal tax scheme. Last month the Commission launched an investigation into a British tax exemption for multinational companies set up in 2013 by the then-Conservative-led government to attract companies to set up headquarters in Britain. ($1 = 0.8482 euros) Additional reporting by Olaf Swahnberg in Stockholm and Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; editing by Mark Heinrich, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-ikea-ab-taxavoidance/eu-regulators-to-investigate-ikeas-dutch-tax-deals-idUKKBN1EC16Q'|'2017-12-18T19:54:00.000+02:00'
'df26600cd104f69236431a05340bac24dac11f2b'|'StanChart and China''s Ant Financial sign ''Belt & Road'' partnership'|'December 18, 2017 / 10:50 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago StanChart and China''s Ant Financial sign ''Belt & Road'' partnership Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - London-based bank Standard Chartered ( STAN.L ) and Ant Financial, the payment affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) have agreed to collaborate in countries along China’s ‘Belt & Road’ strategic initiative. StanChart said on Monday the two companies will work to increase access to financial services in countries along the route, without giving details on how the partnership will work. China’s Belt and Road initiative aims to recreate the old Silk Road with massive infrastructure projects to connect China to Europe and beyond. Reporting by Lawrence White, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-stanchart-alibaba/stanchart-and-chinas-ant-financial-sign-belt-road-partnership-idUSKBN1EC14M'|'2017-12-18T12:44:00.000+02:00'
'018c99c9a88d98d1ba6b832cfb363c5398c99f28'|'GAIL renegotiating LNG deals with U.S. companies minister'|'December 18, 2017 / 1:56 PM / in 9 minutes GAIL renegotiating LNG deals with U.S. companies minister Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian gas firm GAIL (India) Ltd is renegotiating its liquefied natural gas purchase deals with U.S.-based Cheniere Energy and Dominion Cove Point, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told lawmakers on Monday. GAIL has signed contracts for sourcing up to 5.8 million tonnes of LNG from the United States. “GAIL has held number of discussions with Cheniere Energy (Sabine Terminal) and Dominion Cove Point LNG LP (DCP Terminal), for re-negotiation of the contracts,” Pradhan said, adding the latest discussions took place in November. India wants to raise the share of natural gas in its energy mix to 15 percent in the next few years from about 6.5 percent now. But price-sensitive customers in the South Asian nation forced renegotiation of the price of two long-term LNG deals. Pricing of U.S. LNG is linked to a formula but other charges including freight to India add an extra $2-$3 per million British thermal units, leading to GAIL scouting for destination, time and volume swap deals. India has in the past renegotiated LNG deals with Qatar’s RasGas and Exxon Mobil Corp as spot prices have declined substantially amid a supply glut. Reuters in June reported that GAIL is looking to renegotiate LNG deals with Cheniere and Dominion Cove. Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-gail-usa/gail-renegotiating-lng-deals-with-u-s-companies-minister-idINKBN1EC1QJ'|'2017-12-18T15:55:00.000+02:00'
'fb493f48320014efd9a29be3daf7262d52d16701'|'ABB revamps engineering business, to take fourth-quarter charges'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:09 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago ABB revamps engineering business to cap year of transition Michael Shields 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - ABB will reshape its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business - including its biggest but least profitable power grids division - by spinning off and winding down some operations, triggering fourth-quarter charges totalling $225 million. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss engineering group ABB is seen at a plant in Zurich, Switzerland October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer called the move ABB’s final step in a year of transition that would lead into a 2018 when it would benefit from a strengthening economy. “We will always run the business in a way that we are responsibly managing capacity in line with market development,” he told reporters on a call, but noted economic conditions were likely to be brighter next year than in 2017. Last month, ABB said it would revamp its global power grids operations as it responds to the division’s sluggish profitability and falling orders. The move came as ABB sought to justify its decision last year to reject calls from Cevian Capital, its second-largest shareholder, to spin off power grids, which has suffered a 9 percent drop in orders in 2017. In the Power Grids division, which also makes electrical substations, ABB will form a joint venture with SNC-Lavalin for electrical substation EPC projects, the Swiss technology group said on Wednesday. Canadian-based SNC-Lavalin will have the controlling interest in the venture, it said. In the Industrial Automation division, ABB’s oil & gas EPC business will be transferred into a previously announced joint venture controlled by Saudi-based Arkad Engineering and Construction Ltd in a deal now expected to close this month. In the Robotics and Motion division, ABB is winding down its turnkey full train retrofit business. “The fourth quarter 2017 results of Power Grids and Robotics and Motion are each expected to be impacted by approximately $75 million on operational EBITA. The transfer of the turnkey oil & gas EPC business into the JV with Arkad is expected to result in a non-operational pre-tax charge to net income of approximately $75 million,” the company said. Spiesshofer said he did not expect negative impact on jobs. ABB is trying to shift its focus to higher-margin services. Its four divisions cover electrification products, robotics, industrial automation and power grids. Power grids accounted for around 30 percent of 2016 sales, electrification products 28 percent, robotics 23 percent and industrial automation 19 percent. ABB shares fell 0.4 percent in early trading, while the Stoxx European industry sector index was little changed. “We believe that the indicated completion of the (EPC) business model change will be supportive for sales growth rates as well as profitability,” Baader Helvea analyst Guenter Hollfelder, who rates the stock “hold”, said in a note. ABB will report these businesses as a non-core operating unit which will manage its backlog of existing business. The new unit will report to finance chief Timo Ihamuotila from the start of next year. Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/abb-revamp/abb-revamps-engineering-business-to-take-fourth-quarter-charges-idINKBN1EE0OA'|'2017-12-20T09:07:00.000+02:00'
'1e1227d4cfdedf8733e9008a936c3e512b57ba9c'|'Toys "R" Us plans new playdate with U.S. shoppers'|'December 21, 2017 / 6:09 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Toys "R" Us plans new playdate with U.S. shoppers Jessica DiNapoli , Melissa Fares 6 Min Read WALLKILL, NEW YORK (Reuters) - Joshua and Amy Hightower drive 40 minutes to a Toys “R” Us Inc store in a blue collar neighborhood in Wallkill, one of the farthest reaches of the New York City suburbs, so their children can try toys at an amusement area dubbed the “play lab.” The "play lab", an amusement area, is seen inside the Toys "R" Us Inc store in Wallkill, New York, U.S. December 5, 2017. Photo taken December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Melissa Fares “We were actually here last night and last week,” said Amy Hightower, a 30-year-old stay-at-home mom as her daughter played house and her two sons raced cars in the play lab, which Toys “R” Us launched in 42 of its stores this year. “It is hard to get them away from this area,” she said. The Hightowers may be ideal Toys “R” Us customers, but so far there has not been enough of them. Many shoppers now make their toy purchases online. Foot traffic at Toys “R” Us, the largest U.S. toy retailer, has declined, as consumers turn to e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), mass discount chains, like Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ), and some small independent toy stores. For a graphic on the changing toy retailer landscape, click tmsnrt.rs/2BuQGMW As Toys “R” Us aims to exit bankruptcy in 2018 after defaulting on its debt last September, its efforts to reinvent its stores with play labs will shape how other retailers look to experiential shopping to tackle e-commerce. The holiday shopping season, when 75 percent of all toy sales are made, is a key test of this strategy. Toys “R” Us has set aside more than $400 million out of its $3.1 billion in bankruptcy loans for sprucing up its approximately 900 stores over the next three years with more experiences and better-paid staff. The company’s creditors are wary of these plans, according to sources close to the situation who requested anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations. Creditors can ask the bankruptcy judge to stop Toys “R” Us from spending on play labs or other experiential aspects, if they view the costs as excessive. In bankruptcy court papers, Toys “R” Us has argued it cannot wait until it emerges from bankruptcy to invest in its stores. The retailer also plans to close unprofitable locations and improve its website and loyalty programs. Dave Brandon, who became Toys “R” Us chief executive in 2015 after spearheading a turnaround at Domino’s Pizza Inc ( DPZ.N ), defended the strategy in an interview, saying that bricks-and-mortar stores and experiential shopping were important to the retailer’s brand. “We think our scale is a huge advantage, because we have a brand that’s nationally and globally known,” Brandon said. Slideshow (2 Images) Toys “R” Us aims to offer shopping experiences like those found at Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc ( DKS.N ), Best Buy Co Inc ( BBY.N ) and Ulta Beauty Inc ( ULTA.O ), Brandon added. To be sure, Toys “R” Us may end up with little to show for its investment, industry experts said. Experiential shopping is expensive to scale up for big box retailers that rely heavily on seasonal hiring, they said. “There is a chance that Toys ”R“ Us could be out of business in the next two years entirely in the United States,” said Stephanie Wissink, a consumer products analyst at investment bank Jefferies LLC. “My fear is that they are not selling goods to a consumer that values that experience.” Other toy retailers offering shopping experiences, such as stuffed animal shop Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc ( BBW.N ) and The Lego Group have also posted sales declines. Sales at Build-A-Bear declined 7 percent to $364 million last year from $392 million two years prior. INDEPENDENT TOY STORES Regional independent toy retailers have also been taking market share away from Toys “R” Us, thanks to merchandise that extends beyond mass-market toys, strong customer service and products that accompany school lessons. Those chains also seek to cater to local tastes in a way Toys “R” Us has not. “Stores in Texas buy cheerleading stuff a lot, there’s a big football community,” said Sharon DiMinico, chief executive of Learning Express Inc, a U.S. toy store franchiser with about 120 independently-owned stores. Steven Aarons, the owner of four-store chain Barstons Child’s Play in the Washington, D.C. area, said he is able to offer entry-level wages of $15 per hour and health insurance to full-time workers because he has cheaper rent and does not have to answer to investors. In Wallkill, Toys “R” Us hired new employees like Nora Hanlon to oversee the store’s Play Lab, which is a cordoned off foam mat, scattered with toys and a picnic table nearby where parents can sit. Boxes marked for layaway surround it. “I get minimum wage, but it’s a really fun job,” said Hanlon, a high school student and part-time Play Lab Coach, sporting a reindeer headpiece. Toys “R” Us also plans to hire more skilled workers. About $72 million of the $400 million the retailer will use for its redevelopment will go toward wage increases. The chain’s efforts to emulate features of independent stores underscores the dramatic reversal of its fortunes. As the chain grew its national footprint, it wiped out mom-and-pop shops decades ago. But its glitzy Fao Schwarz store and flagship Times Square location featuring a Ferris Wheel were too pricey. Earlier efforts with experiential stores called “Geoffrey,” named after its giraffe mascot, failed. Its $6.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005 led to expensive interest payments that ate up cash Toys “R” Us could have used to improve stores. “Can they somehow turn their stores from a warehouse into a play area?” said retail consultant Howard Davidowitz. “That is a big jump.” Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Melissa Fares in Wallkill, New York; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Edward Tobin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/toys-r-us-restructuring/toys-r-us-plans-new-playdate-with-u-s-shoppers-idUKKBN1EF0H3'|'2017-12-21T08:08:00.000+02:00'
'6def81396c1cab5c62ccf44a9394669bf53b3d36'|'UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec. 20'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:31 AM / Updated 26 minutes ago UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec. 20 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds company news and futures) Dec 20 (Reuters) - Britain''s FTSE 100 index is seen opening down 3 points on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures down 0.05 percent ahead of the cash market open. * CARILLION: Carillion has moved the start date for new chief executive Andrew Davies forward to Jan. 22 from April 2, the British builder said on Wednesday. * WILLIAM HILL: British bookmaker William Hill said on Wednesday it named Roger Devlin as its chairman designate, who will take over from Gareth Davis in April. * TESCO: Britain''s competition regulator on Wednesday gave final clearance to Tesco''s 3.7 billion pound ($4.95 billion) takeover of wholesaler Booker , tightening the grip of the country''s largest retailer on its food market. * BT: The U.K government is expected to reject telecoms provider BT''s offer to invest up to 600 million pounds ($803.4 million) to provide faster broadband services to remote parts of the country, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. ( on.ft.com/2z1Te2n ) * OIL: Oil prices inched up on Wednesday, supported by expectations of a fall in U.S. crude inventories and by the ongoing outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline system. * GOLD: Gold prices inched higher in quiet trade on Wednesday as the dollar held steady on expectations the U.S. government would pass the country''s biggest tax overhaul in 30 years. * The UK blue chip index closed 0.1 percent higher on Tuesday, with Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual leading the index after it sold its Buxton UK wealth business for $800 million. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets TODAY''S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com ($1 = 0.7468 pounds) (Reporting by Justin George Varghese)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-stocks-factors/update-1-uk-stocks-factors-to-watch-on-dec-20-idUSL4N1OK2M5'|'2017-12-20T09:30:00.000+02:00'
'e6a74ab72b89312dc114cba68001f0a39241dd74'|'UPDATE 1-Brazilian miner Vale says entering new era of big dividends'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:32 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Brazilian miner Vale says entering new era of big dividends Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Adds detail on dividend comments) SAO PAULO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Vale is entering a period in which it plans to pay out big dividends, Chief Executive Officer Fabio Schvartsman said on Friday at an event commemorating the Brazilian miner’s inclusion in the Sao Paulo stock exchange’s strictest listing market segment. “Now is the era of the Vale dividends. Vale will become a big payer of dividends if everything goes well,” Schvartsman said, reiterating that a new dividend plan would be released in March, without stating an amount. Vale shareholders, he said, supported the company in tough times when metal prices were low and now is “Vale’s time to pay it back.” Inclusion of Vale shares in the so-called Novo Mercado segment of the Sao Paulo stock exchange came after the world’s top iron ore producer converted different classes of stock into a single common one, reducing room for state interference. (Reporting by Marta Nogueira; Editing by Edmund Blair and Phil Berlowitz)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/vale-dividends/update-1-brazilian-miner-vale-says-entering-new-era-of-big-dividends-idUSL1N1OM0OZ'|'2017-12-22T17:29:00.000+02:00'
'19f91242bae9d2adf0b3725fe8a35b38bb19ab53'|'Brazil''s Temer would block Embraer buyout, open to capital injection'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:44 PM / Updated an hour ago Brazil''s Temer would block Embraer buyout, open to capital injection Ricardo Brito 3 Min Read BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Friday that he opposed Boeing Co ( BA.N ) taking control of Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ), although he would welcome an injection of foreign capital into the regional planemaker. Temer told a news conference he would study any decision the companies take on an alliance when it arrives at his desk, emphasizing that his government could use its ‘golden share’ in the company to block foreign control. Brazil’s government holds veto power over strategic moves at the planemaker, a formerly state-run company fully privatised in 2006. Boeing and Embraer said on Thursday they are discussing a “potential combination” in a move that could consolidate a global passenger jet duopoly, provided Brazil’s government gives its blessing. [nL4N1OL4UR] “When a decision arrives, I will examine it,” Temer said. He added: “The purpose of the golden share is for the government to take such a decision.” The Embraer Phenom 300 is displayed during the Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition fair (LABACE) at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil August 15, 2017. Picture taken August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said the government welcomed a commercial alliance with Boeing. “We are in favour of this and other partnerships,” Jungmann said at the same news conference with Temer. But because Embraer plays such a central role in Brazil’s defence industry and sits at the heart of a cluster of domestic technology companies, foreign control of the company was out of the question. “The moment that control of Embraer passes to a company from another country it will control strategic decisions” for Brazil, he said. “No country would give up control of that.” He cited the Gripen fighter jets Embraer will build with Sweden’s Saab AB ( SAABb.ST ) and the KC-390 cargo jet project with which Embraer plans to dominate the military transport market long dominated by the U.S.-made workhorse Hercules C-130. Boeing and Embraer last year signed a deal under which the U.S. planemaker will help market the new military cargo jet but also provide maintenance services once they are sold. Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito; Editing by Christian Plumb and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-embraer-m-a-boeing/brazils-temer-would-block-embraer-buyout-open-to-capital-injection-idUKKBN1EG241'|'2017-12-22T20:43:00.000+02:00'
'8231f573d1c6628548bb5b40acd6a46ba15856d5'|'PRESS DIGEST-Canada-Dec 22'|'December 22, 2017 / 11:03 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST-Canada-Dec 22 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 22 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** A translator who was arrested in Ukraine this week on suspicion of spying for Russia sat in on a meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Ukrainian counterpart during a recent trip to Canada, Trudeau''s office said on Thursday. tgam.ca/2Dtu5B3 ** Opposition parties are calling on Justin Trudeau to pay back taxpayers for his trip to Aga Khan''s private island after the Ethics Commissioner ruled the Prime Minister broke Canada''s ethics law over two all expenses-paid family trips to the Bahamas. tgam.ca/2BNuYEb ** Sobeys Inc, Canada''s second largest grocer, has come out on the counteroffensive, attacking leading food retailer Loblaw Companies Ltd by saying major rivals conspired to fix the price of bread. tgam.ca/2zg2D6t NATIONAL POST ** Edward Gong, a Chinese-Canadian businessman, was charged on Thursday in connection with an alleged fraud and money-laundering case involving hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of investors in China. bit.ly/2zaTewP (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-dec-22-idUSL4N1OM3FH'|'2017-12-22T13:01:00.000+02:00'
'f53179d96ddfe6bc00c38ba16c2d77bbf8822f4d'|'In Silicon Valley, much-feared tax bill pays dividends for workers'|'December 22, 2017 / 2:33 AM / Updated 2 hours ago In Silicon Valley, much-feared tax bill pays dividends for workers Reuters Staff 6 Min Read (This version of December 21’s story refiles to add dropped words ‘for couples’ in paragraph 8.) By Paresh Dave, Heather Somerville and Jeffrey Dastin SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. tax overhaul is a boon to Silicon Valley technology companies like Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ), which will enjoy big tax cuts and the chance to bring back billions of dollars from overseas at a reduced rate. And contrary to the dire warnings of California officials, a large swath of Bay Area workers and their families stand to get a tax break as well, even with new limits on state and local tax deductions. California has the highest state income tax in the nation, and Governor Jerry Brown has called the new tax bill “evil in the extreme.” Nonetheless, many in Silicon Valley stand to benefit. Startup employees, freelancers and venture capital investors are among those who will get new tax benefits or keep those they already have, tax experts said. Even some of the middle- and upper-income professionals who form the core of the technology industry workforce will still get significant tax cuts, while most others will see little change, they said. The new $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions will have a less dramatic effect than feared because such deductions in many cases had already been rendered moot by the alternative minimum tax (AMT), a mechanism for assuring that the well-heeled pay at least 26 percent of their income in taxes. “There is a lot of noise about workers in California, New Jersey, New York and Illinois (facing higher taxes), but 80 percent of our clients there were already paying the alternative minimum tax so they don’t benefit from the state and local deductions,” said Jack Meccia, a tax associate at financial planning firm Vestboard, which works with several hundred individuals in tech. The new law alters the AMT in a way that vastly reduces the number of people who have to pay it, from more than 5 million to an estimated 200,000 next year, according to the Tax Policy Center. The AMT dynamics, combined with reduced overall tax rates and the doubling of the standard deduction to $24,000 for couples should hold most Bay Area tax bills steady, said Bob McGrath, tax director at accounting firm Burr Pilger Mayer. Estimates by three experts, using roughly similar assumptions, show that a home-owning couple earning a combined $250,000 in Silicon Valley would likely see an increase or decrease in their tax bill of a few hundred dollars. A married couple with no children who rent a home and make a combined $150,000 would see a $3,900 tax cut, estimated Annette Nellen, who directs the master’s degree in taxation program at San Jose State University. Low-income workers will see tax cuts too, though the dollar amounts are small. Bob Emmett, a single, 73-year-old security officer who lives in San Jose, criticized the bill as “designed to help the rich.” FILE PHOTO - The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Nellen estimated that Emmett, who rents an apartment, has no children and earns $16 an hour in addition to some social security income, would see a $546 cut in taxes. Critics of the tax bill note that the individual tax cuts will disappear after 2025, and that most of the benefits flow to the corporations and the wealthiest individuals, even if lower-income people get some tax relief. Health insurance premiums for Californians are also likely to rise substantially as a result of the repeal of fines for those who refuse to obtain health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. And even if Bay Area residents mostly enjoy some tax cuts, they gain much less than those in low-tax states. STARTUP WINNERS Employees in Silicon Valley, the world’s startup capital, scored two major victories in the tax bill. First, startup employees can hold off on paying taxes related to stock options they exercised. That can be a big help if a company is still private, since in that situation employees have to pay tax even before they can earn cash from selling shares. Startup employees will also have more opportunity to exercise what are known as “incentive stock options” with less chance of being on the hook for the alternative minimum tax, according to Mark Setzen, a long-time certified public accountant in Silicon Valley. Also coming out ahead are independent contractors, ranging from engineers to marketers to caterers, who stand to benefit from a new 20 percent deduction of business income. Arun Sood, a freelance software engineer in San Francisco who makes about $150,000 annually, said he accrues few deductions because he rents his home, holds no debt and has no children. Now he gets a big new deduction and a lower tax rate. “Looking at this selfishly, it’s going to be a positive impact,” said Sood, who has freelanced for Axios, Cisco and Macy‘s. The tax plan mostly preserves a tax break for venture capitalists that had been in jeopardy. The so-called carried interest provision lets venture capitalists book the 20 percent fee they typically take on a profitable investment as a capital gain, which carries a lower tax rate than ordinary income, even though the venture investors do not put up any of their personal capital. Now the capital gains rate will apply only to investments held at least three years -- a limitation that venture capitalists said would come into play only occasionally. Silicon Valley executives with high salaries will take home extra money, too, because language in the current tax law known as the Pease Limitation had already limited their deductions, said Andrew Mattson, a tax partner serving technology industry clients at accountancy Moss Adams. Executives also may see base pay rise in coming years. The tax bill removes corporate tax breaks for performance bonuses, which is already leading companies to reconsider pay packages for chief-level executives, lawyers said. Reporting by Paresh Dave, Heather Somerville, Jeffrey Dastin and Salvador Rodriguez; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-tech-workers/in-silicon-valley-much-feared-tax-bill-pays-dividends-for-workers-idUSKBN1EG07T'|'2017-12-22T04:34:00.000+02:00'
'd7388310c21956353a4d553e5aee66e2f1e53a88'|'Brazil''s Petrobras says oil, gas auction bids not included in capex plan'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:29 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago Brazil''s Petrobras says oil, gas auction bids not included in capex plan Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SAO PAULO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro said on Friday it had not allocated money to bid in upcoming oil and gas auctions in its five-year capital spending plan, according to a presentation hosted by exploration and production director Solange Guedes. Petrobras, as the company is known, announced a plan to invest $74.5 billion in the 2018-22 period with the lion’s share, about $60.3 billion, to go toward exploration and production. (Reporting by Roberto Samora; writing by Ana Mano, editing by G Crosse)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/petrobras-outlook/brazils-petrobras-says-oil-gas-auction-bids-not-included-in-capex-plan-idUSE6N1ND013'|'2017-12-22T20:28:00.000+02:00'
'1d2aa3852806fc4b4c3edb55350290274d5342ac'|'Let’s move to Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex: it confounds expectations - Money'|'W hat’s going for it? I often (OK, not that often) wonder what Bob Marley made of Bexhill. Legend has it Marley put on his first UK gig here in 1972, at a Bexhill Lions club benefit concert to raise funds for a local swimming pool. That’s Bexhill for you. It confounds expectations. It has a reputation as a gentle resort for retirees. And it is. But underneath stirs a radical heart. It put on Britain’s first car race, in 1902, had a socialist mayor in the 1930s and was a glamorous retreat for aristocrats and stars (Fanny Cradock and Johnnie!). And on the front sits the gleaming 30s De La Warr Pavilion (where Marley played), an avant-garde architectural curveball as unlikely as finding a Picasso in Nuneaton, and still a pioneer of the cutting edge. Bexhill’s latest about-turn, from the fancy look of its latest homes, is to rebrand itself as a kind of South Downs Malibu. Stranger things have happened. Usually in Bexhill.The case against Still mostly a place of model railway shops and secondhand booksellers (ie my kinda town), so, apart from its racier moments, don’t expect Brighton or Gomorrah.Well connected? Trains: to Brighton (about an hour) hourly-ish; Hastings (10 mins); Eastbourne (15-22 mins), Ashford (54 mins); London (just under two hours). Driving: the evil that is the A259 passes through, but it is, alas, your only hope; Hastings 20 mins, Eastbourne 30 mins, Brighton an hour.Schools Primaries: All Saints CofE , Glenleigh Park , St Mary Magdalene Catholic , Chantry Community , King Offa and Little Common are all “good”, says Ofsted, with St Peter & St Paul CofE “outstanding”. Secondaries: Bexhill Academy is “good”, with St Richard’s Catholic “outstanding”.Hang out at… Heartened to see Di Paolo’s ice-cream parlour still going strong. Afternoon tea (or, go on, cocktails) at the Pavilion: hard to beat.Where to buy The seventh Earl De La Warr magicked Bexhill from hilltop village to select resort in the late 19th century, so most of the town is late Victorian, Edwardian to 1930s. The old village has pretty cottages and Georgians. Large detacheds and town houses, £450,000-£2m. Detacheds and smaller town houses, £275,000-£450,000. Semis, £210,000-£400,000. Terraces and cottages, £175,000-£350,000. Flats, £90,000-£425,000. Rentals: a one-bed flat, £550-£700pcm; a three-bed house, £875-£1,200pcm.Bargain of the week Delightful four-bed weather-boarded cottage in the Old Town, £335,000, with freemanforman.co.uk .From the streets Elly Gibson “Warm, friendly people. Lovely two-mile stretch of coastline with a promenade perfect for walking and cycling. Close to Hastings, Rye, Battle and other lovely places.”Michael Brown “Contrary to popular belief, Bexhill is not where old people go to retire. That’s Eastbourne; Bexhill is where their parents live.”• Live in Bexhill? Join the debate below.Do you live in Louth, Lincolnshire? Do you have a favourite haunt or a pet hate? If so, email lets.move@theguardian.com by Monday 8 January.Topics Property Let''s move to ... Homes features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/22/lets-move-to-bexhill-east-sussex'|'2017-12-22T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'671038f9248196348ed8b5ef398d187ce05f471d'|'U.S. takes India back to WTO in solar power dispute'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:34 AM / in 7 hours U.S. takes India back to WTO in solar power dispute Tom Miles 3 Min Read GENEVA (Reuters) - India has failed to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on solar power, the United States will tell the WTO’s dispute settlement body (DSB) next month, triggering a fresh round of litigation, according to an agenda issued on Wednesday. Renewable energy has become a hot area of trade friction as major economies compete to dominate a sector that is expected to thrive as reliance on coal and oil dwindles. India unveiled its national solar program in 2011, seeking to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia’s third-largest economy without creating pollution. But the United States complained to the WTO in 2013, saying the program was discriminatory and U.S. solar exports to India had fallen by 90 percent from 2011. The United States won the case last year, when WTO appeals judges ruled India had broken the trade rules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-made cells and modules. Such “local content” requirements are banned because they discriminate in favor of domestic firms and against foreign competitors. Under an agreement with the United States, India had until Dec. 14 to comply with the ruling and it told the DSB last week that it had done so. “Indian authorities have held extensive internal stakeholder consultations since the adoption of the rulings and recommendations of the DSB to fully comply with them,” India said in its statement to the DSB. “Accordingly, in compliance with the findings and recommendations of the DSB in this dispute, India has ceased to impose any measures as found inconsistent in the DSB’s findings and recommendations.” But an agenda for the DSB’s next meeting on Jan. 12 showed the United States plans to raise the dispute again, citing WTO rules on non-compliance with trade rulings. If India is found not to have complied, Washington could ask the WTO for permission to impose trade sanctions on India. But the WTO dispute system is struggling to process a large number of highly complex disputes, so the legal process is likely to continue for a year or more. Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-india-wto/u-s-takes-india-back-to-wto-in-solar-power-dispute-idINKBN1EE1BK'|'2017-12-20T13:29:00.000+02:00'
'e4ff8b44e965e0becdbdcec7c8785e6472d8027b'|'An experiment with in-home deliveries is under way - Home runs'|'AFTER staying at home one afternoon for a delivery of discounted toilet disinfectant that never came, Valentin Romanov, a Stockholm IT manager, installed a special lock on his flat’s entrance. When no one is in, deliverymen unlock the door and slip packages inside. Four months on, Mr Romanov has doubled his spending online and says he cannot imagine life without in-home deliveries. These are sweet words for delivery firms and online retailers, Amazon included, that are setting up partnerships with lock manufacturers to overcome a big hurdle for e-commerce.Conventional deliveries fail so often that a parcel is driven to a home an average of 1.5 times in the Nordic region, says Kenneth Verlage, head of business development at PostNord, a logistics giant operating in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It is an expensive inefficiency made worse, he says, by the fact that recipients have still often had to wait for a failed delivery. Some couriers leave packages on doorsteps, but this invites theft. Of 1,000 Americans surveyed this year by Shorr, a packaging firm, nearly a third had been victims of “porch piracy”, as this is known. Two-fifths avoid certain online purchases for fear of it.  A number of firms now sell wirelessly connected locks which a courier’s delivery staff can open using a passcode or smartphone app after the resident has issued a temporary authorisation, before leaving home or remotely. Deliveries are filmed with an indoor security camera paired with the lock. The short videos are sent to parcel addressees and typically end, comically in Mr Romanov’s view, with a jiggle of the door handle from outside to show that the departing delivery person has locked up.Amazon began offering in-home deliveries in 37 American cities in November. Shoppers who have had a special lock and camera installed (costing $199) can select in-home delivery at checkout. Like most firms offering the service, Amazon is tightlipped about user numbers. The boss of August Home, a San Francisco maker of in-home delivery locks, says that already hundreds of thousands of delivery drivers, dog-walkers, cleaners and Airbnb guests use its app keylessly to enter others’ homes.Offerings are multiplying. In 2018 August Home will go to Australia and Britain, and PostNord will launch in-home delivery in four Nordic countries. Walmart and Sears have tried it; Sears even tested unattended appliance repairs. Five logistics firms and two Swedish supermarket chains are trying or using locks from Glue, a firm based in Stockholm, for in-home deliveries.Sceptics reckon these efforts will not amount to much. Plenty of consumers will be fearful about theft. Rhino Security Labs, a Seattle computer-security firm, claims it hacked into and shut off the video in one Amazon lock-and-camera system. In-home deliveries are incompatible with burglar alarms. And what if an improperly fenced-off dog or cat slips outside? Or an heirloom on display gets knocked over? These are tricky questions. But e-commerce firms have unlocked harder ones.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Home runs"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732829-amazon-and-other-firms-want-people-trade-little-privacy-and-security-return-online?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-19T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'447edf63cf0443af02728fe3dd6e288d0bbb6f5b'|'India sugar mills to double ethanol supply as output jumps'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:54 AM / Updated 38 minutes ago India sugar mills to double ethanol supply as output jumps Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian sugar mills are set to more than double the supply of ethanol to fuel retailers for blending with gasoline in 2017/18, expecting a sharp rise in the local output of the sweetener, an industry body said on Wednesday. Ethanol manufactures and oil marketing companies finalised supply contracts for a record 1.4 billion litres for the current year, compared with 665 million litres a year ago, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said in a statement. The government last month raised ethanol prices by 5 percent to 40.85 rupees ($0.6375) per litre before tax for the year that began Dec. 1. India has been aiming to boost the use of ethanol, which is a cleaner fuel option compared to gasoline as far as carbon emissions go. The government has been targeting 10 percent ethanol blending in gasoline. Oil companies, however, find it hard to locally procure the sugar byproduct at the government-fixed rates as state governments have imposed heavy taxes on ethanol, widely used in the liquor industry. Sugar mills also prefer to sell ethanol to spirit distilleries, where they get a better price and quicker deals. Unlike Brazil, where sugar firms produce ethanol directly from cane juice, Indian millers use molasses, a by-product of sugar-making, to produce the chemical. India’s ethanol production is set to rise in 2017/18 as sugar output is expected to go up nearly a quarter from a year ago, increasing supply of raw material for ethanol manufacturing, the ISMA said. ($1 = 64.0800 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-sugar-ethanol/india-sugar-mills-to-double-ethanol-supply-as-output-jumps-idINKBN1EE1E8'|'2017-12-20T13:50:00.000+02:00'
'703e86da74f3dd47c2484cd2b3dc0acf43994cd8'|'Analysis: Offshore oil searches are coming back to fashion - just not in Asia'|'GRAPHIC: reut.rs/2BI1bil In one of the most promising regions, Australia, the main problem is cost, in part due to a requirement for rigs to pay for Australian crew once in Australian waters. “Once any foreign-flagged vessel is in Australian waters, the ship operator has to pick up Australian workers... They work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 weeks, then get 4 weeks off,” said Christy Cain of the Maritime Union of Australia. When oil prices were high, this was not a big problem, drillers said. But in times of cheaper oil and low profit margins, the added cost deters explorers, several said. In another promising area, the South China Sea, conflicting territorial claims, especially between China and Vietnam, have hindered E&P activity. Slideshow (15 Images) Meanwhile, in Asia’s most established offshore oil and gas production basins of Malaysia and Indonesia, recoverable reserves are depleting. Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas, Southeast Asia’s biggest oil producer, is increasingly focusing on downstream projects like the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in the southern state of Johor. From 2019, PIC will refine crude oil into fuel and petrochemical products. Significant amounts of its crude will come from Saudi Arabia. With little E&P activity, Asia’s oil import bill - which has already more than doubled since 2000 to over $420 billion a year - will rise further, likely above $500 billion in 2017, leaving other regions to cash in on Asia’s oil thirst. COUNTING HELICOPTERS Gauging the health of the secretive offshore industry is difficult. But dozens of mothballed rigs and support vessels sit idle in southern Malaysia’s Johor river delta, waiting to be used or scrapped. Yet cautious optimism is emerging. “Activity to support new development projects may increase slightly (between 2018 and 2020), but is unlikely to approach historical high levels (2013/14),” Petronas said in an outlook this month. Douglas Westwood, which monitors helicopter activity to and from offshore vessels, has a similar view. “The offshore helicopter market has finally started to recover following three years of decline,” Westwood said, although it added that average annual growth between 2018 and 2022 will still only be 1 percent. “Global utilization will average 59 percent over the forecast,” it said, up from a paltry 54 percent in 2017. At the root of the industry malaise lies rampant overproduction in the years running up to 2014, which crashed crude prices LCOc1 from over $100 per barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016. E&P companies were among the first to feel the bite of aggressive industry cost slashing. Firms in the seismic oil surveillance sector, including Polarcus ( PLCS.OL ), PGS, and Electromagnetic Geoservices ( EMGS.OL ) have seen their share prices crash since 2015, in some cases by over 90 percent. Only a production cut led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has stabilized Brent above $50 a barrel since mid-2017. With oil demand healthy, the offshore industry hopes companies will start spending on future output again. “We’re hoping that it’s going to pick up next year,” said Cain of the Maritime Union of Australia. In a sign that even in Asia-Pacific there may be some more activity, the geothermal surveillance ship Polarcus Naila left Singapore in early December for a seismic mission in the Bonaparte Basin, off Australia’s northwest coast. Speaking to Reuters during a visit to Singapore by the ship, one of the Naila’s senior crew members said he hoped things would go from “worst to bad.” Reporting by Henning Gloystein and Gavin Maguire; Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in SINGAPORE, and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Writing by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-offshore-drilling-asia-analysis/offshore-oil-searches-are-coming-back-to-fashion-just-not-in-asia-idINKBN1EE0IQ'|'2017-12-20T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'75d2d301ba1d2ccec80898cd315d8aa83c30f2a9'|'U.S. aims to keep steep duties on Bombardier jets after Boeing complaint'|'December 20, 2017 / 8:35 PM / in 7 minutes U.S. aims to keep steep duties on Bombardier jets after Boeing complaint Alana Wise 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday finalised steep anti-subsidy duties on Bombardier Inc’s CSeries jets, setting up the next round of a fierce international trade dispute between the United States and Canada. The move announced by the department to impose duties of nearly 300 percent stems from a complaint by rival Boeing Co ( BA.N ) that Bombardier ( BBDb.TO ) had been unfairly and illegally subsidized by the Canadian government, allowing the planemaker to dump its newest jetliner in the U.S. market below cost. Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ), the second largest U.S. carrier by passenger traffic, has an order for 75 of the 100-to-150 seat CSeries jets. The aircraft starts at $79.5 million, according to list prices, or some $5.9 billion for the total order, but carriers typically receive steep discounts. If imposed, the duties would more than triple the cost of a CSeries aircraft sold in the United States, based on Boeing’s assertion that Delta received the planes for $20 million each, well below an estimated cost of $33 million and what Bombardier charges in Canada. The Commerce Department’s penalty against Bombardier will only take effect if the lesser-known U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) rules in Boeing’s favour, as it so far has, in its final decision expected in early 2018. The decision follows Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ pledge to aggressively police unfairly traded imports to help shrink U.S. trade deficits. The move comes as the United States, Canada and Mexico are involved in a three-way negotiation to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The rift between the two plane makers could, however, move to a larger stage as Canada weighs a complaint to the World Trade Organization or through NAFTA regarding the dispute. At a contentious Monday hearing of the ITC, Canada warned that a positive finding of material harm to Boeing by the group could represent a possible violation of international trade agreements and prompt a formal objection. Canada earlier this month scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing Super Hornet fighter jets, underlining Ottawa’s anger over the trade challenge. Boeing has said it considered all potential risks before deciding to launch its trade case. [nL1N1O520N] U.S.-Canadian trade relations have also chilled recently over disputes over Canadian softwood lumber and U.S. milk protein products. Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Susan Thomas and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/boeing-bombardier/u-s-aims-to-keep-steep-duties-on-bombardier-jets-after-boeing-complaint-idINKBN1EE2LA'|'2017-12-20T22:33:00.000+02:00'
'b2bc786f520caddd7cf47f510d562abe6a01a4d4'|'Intangible assets are changing investment - Buttonwood'|'WHEN you work as an equity analyst at an investment bank, your task is clear. It is to comb all the statements made by corporate executives, to scour the industry trends and arrive at an accurate forecast of the company’s profits. Achieve this and your clients will be happy and your bonus cheque will have many digits.But is all this effort worthwhile? Not as much as it used to be, according to Feng Gu and Baruch Lev, writing in a recent issue of Financial Analysts Journal *. The authors imagined that investors could perfectly forecast the next quarter’s earnings for all companies. They then assumed that investors bought all the stocks that they expected to meet or beat the consensus of analysts’ forecasts; and that investors could short (ie, bet on a declining price) the stocks of those that were predicted not to reach their estimates. They made their investment two months before the end of a quarterly reporting period and got out of their positions one month after the quarter ended (by which time the earnings have been reported).  In the late 1980s and 1990s, this would have been a highly successful strategy, achieving excess returns (over those achieved by stocks of similar size) of 4% or more every quarter. But these abnormal returns have dropped: in recent years they have been only 2% a quarter. A similar effect appeared when examining the returns that would have been achieved by perfectly predicting those companies that achieved annual earnings growth.Although an excess return of 2% a quarter would still be highly attractive, it would require a perfect forecasting record. That suggests the number-crunching performed by fallible analysts and investors produces much lower returns.The intriguing question is why those returns have been falling. The authors argue that the decline is because of the rising importance of intangible investments in recent decades (in areas such as software or trademark development). Such investment may be a big driver of value growth.Accountants have struggled to adapt. If a company buys an intangible asset, such as a patent, from another business, it is classed as an asset on the balance-sheet. But if they develop an intangible within the business, that is classed as an expense, and thus deducted from profits. As the authors note: “A company pursuing an innovation strategy based on acquisitions will appear more profitable and asset-rich than a similar enterprise developing its innovations internally.”As a result, the authors argue, reported earnings are no longer such a good measure of a company’s profits, and thus may not be a useful guide to future share performance. To test this proposition, they divided companies into five quintiles based on their intangible investment. Sure enough, the more companies spent on intangibles, the lower the excess return available to those who correctly forecast the earnings.The paper’s message echoes the themes of a new book** by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, which explores the impact of the growing importance of intangible assets in modern economies. The book finds a link between the poor productivity record of many leading economies since the crisis of 2008, and the sluggish rate of investment in intangible assets since then.The problem is that intangibles have spillovers. A company may undertake expensive research and development, but the gains may be realised by other businesses. Only a few companies (the likes of Google) can achieve the scale needed to take reliable advantage of their intangible investments. Unlike machines and equipment, intangibles may have limited resale value. So the risks of failure may put businesses off intangible investment.This is both good news and bad news for investors. On the one hand, it may explain why profits have remained high relative to GDP. In theory, high returns should have attracted a lot more investment and the resulting competition should have driven down profits. But the difficulty in exploiting intangibles may have prevented that. On the other hand, the reluctance of many businesses to invest in intangibles may restrict their scope for growth in future. Investors looking for growth stocks will face a restricted choice and such companies will be so apparent to everyone that they will command a very high valuation. Not so much the “nifty fifty” stocks that were fashionable in the early 1970s, as the nifty five or six.* “Time to Change Your Investment Model”, Financial Analysts Journal , Vol 73, number 4** “Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy”, published by Princeton University PressThis article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline "Out of touch"'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21732806-forecasting-profits-not-helpful-it-used-be-intangible-assets-are?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-19T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'a73dee913e53bded3932dd2085a6c33efd63e027'|'Wall Street set for strong open as tax bill nears passage'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:35 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Wall Street set for strong open as tax bill nears passage Sruthi Shankar 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes were set for strong gains on Wednesday after the U.S. Senate approved a sweeping $1.5-trillion tax bill that is expected to boost corporate earnings and lead to higher dividends and stock buybacks for investors. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The bill was approved on a 51-48 vote, but the Senate had to send it back to the House of Representatives for a re-vote due to a procedural snag. The final approval is expected later in the day, before the bill is sent to President Donald Trump to be signed into law. The proposed changes in the bill include cutting the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent from Jan. 1, which many strategists estimate could boost earnings by between roughly 7 percent to 10 percent next year. The much-anticipated tax cuts have powered a record-setting rally in U.S. stocks. The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX has risen nearly 20 percent so far this year, its best since 2013. “I believe this bull market has quite a bit more to run, certainly the next six months there’s lot of possibility for upside,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas. At 8:25 a.m. ET (1325 GMT), S&P 500 e-minis ESc2 were up 9.25 points, or 0.34 percent, with 189 contracts changing hands. Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc2 were up 25.25 points, or 0.39 percent, in volume of 47 contracts. Dow e-minis 1YMc2 were up 95 points, or 0.38 percent, with 9 contracts changing hands. But Frederick, like other market experts, says the market has already priced in the tax cuts and a slight retreat would not be out of place. “We might see a small pullback once the bill is signed into law, not more than 1 or 2 percent,” he said. Indeed, Wall Street fell on Tuesday as excitement over the tax revamp was offset by concern over its effect on years of monetary policy stimulus and the future of interest rates. FedEx Corp ( FDX.N ), which reported results on Tuesday, gave an upbeat earnings forecast for 2018 as it hopes to benefit from the tax overhaul. Its shares were up about 2 percent premarket. Chipmaker Micron ( MU.O ) jumped 7 percent after its strong results and forecast, allaying concerns that a boom in chip demand had peaked. Intel ( INTC.O ) rose 1.5 percent, while chip equipment makers Applied Materials ( AMAT.O ) and LAM Research ( LRCX.O ) jumped 2.2 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively. But not all tech stock were higher. Linux distributor Red Hat ( RHT.N ), up 85 percent this year, fell 2.3 percent after its quarterly report. Biogen ( BIIB.O ) rose 1.2 percent after Credit Suisse raised its rating to “outperform”, saying Wall Street is underestimating the sales potential for key drug, Spinraza, outside the United States in 2018. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/futures-rise-as-tax-overhaul-bill-nears-passage-idINKBN1EE1JA'|'2017-12-20T16:08:00.000+02:00'
'b0961b7059cc02d09e9ee37ff4eb355d53d435f4'|'Bitcoin falls almost 20 percent from recent peak to one-week low'|'December 20, 2017 / 1:00 AM / Updated 39 minutes ago Bitcoin falls almost 20 percent from recent peak to one-week low Hideyuki Sano 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday to a one-week low of $15,800 at cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp BTC=BTSP , losing almost one- fifth of its value from a peak hit just three days ago. The digital currency has been sliding since it reached a record high of $19,666 on Sunday, when the exchange giant CME Group ( CME.O ) launched bitcoin futures, one week after its rival Cboe Global Markets ( CBOE.O ) listed the world’s first bitcoin futures. “The listing of two bitcoin futures makes it easier for institutional players to trade bitcoins. Futures also enable players to go short on bitcoins, which was difficult without liquid futures,” said Makoto Sakuma, researcher at NLI Research Institute in Tokyo. The bitcoin’s monumental gains this year - its price has soared about 19 times - have spurred caution and alarm among some policymakers. Singapore’s central bank on Tuesday issued a warning against investment in cryptocurrencies, saying it considers the recent surge in their prices to be driven by speculation and that the risk of a sharp fall in prices is high. South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service said on Tuesday it does not consider bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be currencies of any kind. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday that bitcoin had not been proven as a credible currency. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo However, for Japanese retail investors who are estimated to account for 30 to 50 percent of bitcoin trade worldwide, a more worrying warning may have come from a Japanese day trader guru known as Cis. The individual trader, who claims to own 21 billion yen ($186 million) in assets, tweeted over the last 24 hours that he had sold cryptocurrencies. “Given that he has a lot of followers, his tweets could have had an impact on Japanese traders, which in turn could have moved the market,” Sakuma said. Bitcoin has since pared some of the losses and last traded at $16,939, down 4.3 percent for the day. Its decline since Sunday is hardly a major correction for digital currency. In November, it tumbled almost 30 percent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 percent from $4,979 to $2,972. Many financial professionals have said bitcoin, which now has market capitalisation of about $275 billion, slightly bigger than Visa Inc ( V.N ), is a typical bubble, given how small the actual number of transactions are. The market is highly inefficient, with bitcoin futures BTCH8 XBTc1 trading much above cash bitcoins while the gaps of price quotes between various exchanges are also very large, they say. Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-decline/bitcoin-falls-more-than-10-percent-on-bitstamp-idUSKBN1EE02J'|'2017-12-20T06:05:00.000+02:00'
'c325e6a793414f972f32ae1d9b2254ae012775ea'|'Asian shares inch up as investors await U.S. tax reforms, dollar steadies'|'December 20, 2017 / 1:18 AM / Updated 40 minutes ago World shares off record highs as U.S. tax bill passes Senate Dhara Ranasinghe 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - World stock markets wavered just below recent record highs while U.S. Treasury yields held near multi-month peaks on Thursday as the final procedural throes of long-awaited U.S. tax reform played out in Washington. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The Republican-led U.S. Senate approved the sweeping $1.5-trillion tax bill in the early hours of Wednesday. A re-vote by the House of Representatives was scheduled for later in the day, with approval expected, and the bill will then go to President Donald Trump to sign into law. European stock markets nudged lower , with blue-chip indexes in Germany .GDAXI , France .FCHI and Britain .FTSE flat to a touch weaker on the day. In Asia, MSCI''s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS bobbed lower in a choppy session, while Japan''s Nikkei index .N225 finished up 0.1 percent. MSCI’s world equity index .MIWD PUS, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was little changed and holding just below record highs hit on Monday. U.S. Treasury yields, which notched up their biggest one-day jump in almost three months on Tuesday as the tax bill moved toward passage, steadied at around 2.46 percent US10YT=RR -- holding near the previous day’s highs. “Last week the reaction of bond markets was one of ambivalence about the likelihood of these measures getting passed,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in London. “However, U.S. yields have jumped sharply higher in the last two days as the prospect of higher inflation and growth prompted some positioning adjustments in anticipation that the measures, if passed, could prompt conditions that might see rates have to rise faster than expected next year.” Republicans, who control both lawmaking chambers, said their tax plan would boost consumer spending and business investments, while independent government estimates showed the proposed tax cuts would end up adding at least $1 trillion to the $20 trillion national debt in 10 years. Europe’s bond markets were also nursing losses after a heavy selloff on Tuesday that saw Germany’s long-dated yields DE30YT=TWEB rise to three-week highs after the euro zone’s benchmark bond issuer announced plans to issue more longer-dated debt next year. The euro got a lift from higher euro zone rates, gaining 0.5 percent on Tuesday, when central bank governors of Estonia, Slovakia and Germany all discussed the need to shift the debate from bond purchases to other tools such as interest rates. “That’s re-igniting the debate about ECB tightening, so despite the outlook for the U.S. tax bill passage, euro-dollar is strong right now,” Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist for Mizuho Securities in Tokyo. Against a basket of six rival currencies, the dollar was a touch lower on the day at 93.418 .DXY. The greenback edged down 0.2 percent to 113.11 yen JPY= , while the euro was a touch firmer at $1.1850 EUR= . Bitcoin was almost 4 percent lower on the Bitstamp exchange at $17,007 BTC=BTSP , after earlier losing almost one-fifth of its value from a peak hit just three days ago. Sweden’s crown briefly surged as much as 1 percent EURSEK=D3 after the central bank kept rates unchanged but said it would reinvest coupons and cash from maturing bonds, including bringing forward some reinvestments into 2018. Elsewhere, U.S. crude oil futures extended gains, helped by a North Sea pipeline outage, OPEC-led supply cuts and expectations that U.S. crude inventories had fallen for a fifth week. [O/R] U.S. crude CLc1 was up 0.3 percent, or 15 cents, at $57.71 a barrel, while Brent crude LCOc1 was 0.2 percent higher. For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; additional reporting by Lisa Twaronite in TOKYO; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asian-shares-slip-as-investors-await-us-tax-reforms-dollar-steadies-idUKKBN1EE03Z'|'2017-12-20T07:09:00.000+02:00'
'54b3a45b5b0d85ffa4adde9aa575b006cac4f37c'|'Exclusive - Engie, Mubadala, Macquarie groups bid for Petrobras pipelines: sources'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:08 AM / Updated an hour ago Exclusive - Engie, Mubadala, Macquarie groups bid for Petrobras pipelines: sources Tatiana Bautzer 4 Min Read SAO PAULO (Reuters) - At least three consortia, led by France’s Engie SA ( ENGIE.PA ), Australia’s Macquarie Group Ltd ( MQG.AX ) and the United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Development Co, delivered proposals for a Brazilian gas pipeline network owned by state oil company Petrobras, three people with knowledge of the matter said. FILE PHOTO: Brazil''s state-run Petrobras oil company headquarters is pictured in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 14 2017. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes/File photo Friday was the final day for the delivery of proposals, in the first phase of the process to acquire a 90 percent stake in Transportadora Associada de Gás SA, the Petrobras unit known as TAG, which owns 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) of pipelines in northeast Brazil. The sale of TAG is part of a plan by Petrobras, as Petróleo Brasileiro SA ( PETR4.SA ) is known, to raise $21 billion from asset sales this year and next in order to reduce its $95 billion debt load - the largest among oil majors. TAG’s sale is expected to be one of the largest Petrobras divestitures in the program. Reuters disclosed in October that 20 groups, which formed consortia because of the size of the deal, were interested in bidding. The deal is expected to attract bids ranging from $5 billion to up to $7 billion, according to two of the sources. Petrobras declined to comment on Tuesday on the bidders. Engie, asked to confirm that it had delivered a bid, only said in an emailed reply that it is “interested in investments in assets in the gas sector and considers good opportunities in Brazil.” Macquarie declined to comment while Mubadala did not immediately comment. Macquarie, the world’s largest manager of infrastructure funds, has partnered with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, known as CPPIB, and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, according to one of the sources. CPPIB also declined to comment, while GIC did not immediately comment. Mubadala has partnered with EIG Global Energy Partners LLC, according to one of the sources. EIG also did not immediately comment. Brazilian investment firm Pátria Investimentos Ltda, which has a partnership with U.S. buyout firm Blackstone Group LP ( BX.N ), did not deliver a proposal, according to the people, who requested anonymity because the process is private. Brazilian firms Cambuhy Investimentos Ltda, which manages investments of the billionaire family Moreira Salles, and Itaúsa Investimentos Itaú SA ( ITSA4.SA ), a holding company with business interests spanning the banking, consumer goods and chemical industries in Brazil, also joined Macquarie’s group, according to the source. The sources did not elaborate on the partners chosen by Engie. Patria, Blackstone, Itaúsa and Cambuhy all declined to comment. TWO-YEAR PLAN Petrobras sold another gas pipeline network in southeast Brazil last year, known as Nova Transportadora do Sudeste, to a group led by Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, for $5.2 billion. That left TAG with a network in the northeast known as Nova Transportadora do Nordeste, which is responsible for a smaller share of the country’s natural gas consumption. Although it is now selling a smaller network, Petrobras expects a higher price due to better perspectives for economic growth after Brazil’s harshest recession in decades, according to two of the sources. Petrobras raised $1.5 billion last week by selling about 29 percent of its fuel distribution unit, Petrobras Distribuidora SA ( BRDT3.SA ), in an initial public offering. This week, Petrobras announced the sale of a 25 percent stake in the offshore Roncador field to Norway’s Statoil for $2.9 billion. Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-petrobras-divestiture-tag/exclusive-engie-mubadala-macquarie-groups-bid-for-petrobras-pipelines-sources-idUKKBN1EE0F0'|'2017-12-20T07:08:00.000+02:00'
'fc6b764a657ce35c2a2fc8ccbeec32b30cbbb16f'|'BoE''s Carney thanked for ending LSE''s ''Kafka-esque'' CEO spat'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:25 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago BoE''s Carney thanked for ending LSE''s ''Kafka-esque'' CEO spat Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he was thanked by former London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) Chief Executive Xavier Rolet for helping to end a “Kafka-esque” situation around his departure from the exchange. FILE PHOTO - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney attends a working session during the One Planet Summit at the Seine Musicale center in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Rolet stepped down in November, a year earlier than planned, and an attempt on Tuesday by hedge fund shareholder TCI to fire LSE Chairman Donald Brydon over his handling of the departure was thrown out in a shareholder vote. Carney told parliament’s Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday that he and Financial Conduct Authority CEO Andrew Bailey had multiple conversations with Rolet before his departure. “It was a slightly Kafka-esque situation where there was a shareholder who wanted the CEO to continue, and the CEO had no intention to continue under any circumstances,” Carney said. “It wasn’t going to happen.” FILE PHOTO: Former Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet speaks at the annual CBI conference in central London, November 4, 2013. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo Rolet left on the day after Carney told a news conference that he was “mystified” by the row over the Frenchman’s original plan to depart by the end of 2018 once a new CEO was found. Carney received a “thank you” from Rolet for helping to clear up the situation, he said on Wednesday. Carney also warned that any attempts by the European Union to force a shift in the clearing of euro-denominated transactions from London to the EU after Brexit would backfire on the bloc. The LSE’s LCH clearing house unit is regulated by the BoE and dominates euro clearing. The clearing of transactions between two EU counterparties at LCH is only a small percentage of the total volume handled by LCH. Inefficiencies in splitting up the market would increase costs for EU firms by 20 to 60 billion euros a year, Carney said. “It is in the end a cost that would be borne by European pension funds and industrials, ultimately European households,” Carney said. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-carney/boes-carney-thanked-for-ending-lses-kafka-esque-ceo-spat-idUKKBN1EE2B2'|'2017-12-20T19:24:00.000+02:00'
'3b618b33490312b50401ac310173c685a5c1ade2'|'Penske Media buys majority stake in Rolling Stone magazine'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:08 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Penske Media buys majority stake in Rolling Stone magazine Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Penske Media Corp said late Wednesday it is buying a majority stake in the Rolling Stone magazine from its New York-based publisher, Wenner Media. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in a statement from the companies. The deal values Rolling Stone at more than $110 million, the Financial Times reported earlier, citing people briefed on the transaction. on.ft.com/2BrvPxd Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner will assume the role of Editorial Director of the magazine after the completion of the deal, according to the statement. Wenner Media Chief Operating Officer Gus Wenner will become a part of Penske’s advisory board, in addition to keeping his current role. Wenner Media in September said it was exploring strategic options for its majority interest in the Rolling Stone magazine, continuing its shift from print media business amid falling ad revenues. As part of the agreement, Singapore-based music start-up BandLab Technologies, which currently has a 49 percent stake in Rolling Stone will continue as Wenner Media’s partner in the magazine, the companies added. Reporting by Gaurika Juneja in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wenner-media-rolling-stone-penske-med/penske-media-buys-majority-stake-in-rolling-stone-magazine-idUSKBN1EF064'|'2017-12-21T04:06:00.000+02:00'
'e3f109920a03b2aa8d3555ca70191f5b306f4c9d'|'U.S. Congress to push stop-gap funding bill to avert shutdown'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:11 PM / in 14 minutes U.S. Congress to push stop-gap funding bill to avert shutdown Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. Congress plan to move forward with a plan that will keep the federal government operating past Friday when funding expires and also directs some funds toward defense and health, according to a copy of the bill released on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Capitol building is lit at dusk ahead of planned votes on tax reform in Washington, U.S., December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo The House of Representatives was aiming to pass a bill before Friday’s midnight deadline that would keep federal agencies humming along at current funding levels through Jan. 19, averting a shutdown that would have created political havoc. The measure, released online by the U.S. House Rules Committee, calls for Department of Defense funding for missile defense and ship repair. It includes $2.85 billion to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program through March 2018, and more funding for community health centers and the Indian Health Service. Additionally, the plan includes a 30-day extension of the National Security Agency’s expiring internet surveillance program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Other provisions address funding for veterans and the U.S Coast Guard, according to the measure. A U.S. House aide also said the plan would address flood insurance. Republican U.S. Representative Mark Meadows, head of the U.S. House Republican’s Freedom Caucus, told CNN in an interview that a vote had not yet been scheduled but was expected later on Thursday or by Friday morning at the latest. Reporting by Richard Cowan and Susan Heavey; Editing by Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-congress-shutdown/u-s-congress-to-push-stop-gap-funding-bill-to-avert-shutdown-idINKBN1EF1N4'|'2017-12-21T15:07:00.000+02:00'
'50b56237bac5434e8dbd97732b5ef1b8c5a1d051'|'Liberty Global in talks to sell Austrian unit to Deutsche Telekom - FT'|'  6:40 PM / a few seconds ago Liberty Global in talks to sell Austrian unit to Deutsche Telekom: FT Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - International cable company Liberty Global ( LBTYA.O ) is in advanced talks to sell its Austrian unit UPC Austria to Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) in a deal worth about $2 billion, the Financial Times said on Thursday. Deutsche Telekom logo is seen during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer A deal could be reached in the coming days, the paper said. UPC Austria generates sales of $342 million, the paper said, adding the deal would be part of a broader restructuring effort ahead of a possible new round of merger talks with Britain’s Vodafone ( VOD.L ). A spokesman at Deutsche Telekom declined to comment on the report, while no one at Liberty Global was immediately available for comment. Liberty Global and Vodafone have held talks in the past about combining forces as telecoms networks and services converge but have so far only announced a joint venture in the Netherlands. Reporting by Christoph Steitz;   Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-liberty-global-m-a-deutsche-telekom/liberty-global-in-talks-to-sell-austrian-unit-to-deutsche-telekom-ft-idUKKBN1EF2K2'|'2017-12-21T20:31:00.000+02:00'
'60408b588fdc22938e516b7c8443cea26a26ef42'|'Hammond gets early Christmas gift as public sector borrowing falls - Business'|'Philip Hammond has been handed an early Christmas present after government borrowing dipped in November, beating City expectations that the UK’s slowing economic growth would send the public finances deeper into the red.Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show public sector net borrowing, excluding state-owned banks, fell to £8.7bn in November, down £200m on the same month last year. The consensus of City economists had been for a rise to £9bn in response to sluggish wage growth, which has restricted income tax receipts and pushed up borrowing in October by £500m to £8bn.The deficit for the current financial year – April to November – hit its lowest level in a decade, dropping by £3.1bn to £48.1bn over the period. A jump in tobacco tax receipts gave the chancellor a boost while the Treasury’s strict welfare spending limits kept tax credit and housing benefit costs in check.But the gradual improvement in the public finances is expected to be cut short in the new year, with lower self-assessment income than seen in the last financial year.Tax changes last year brought forward tax payments by those with self-employment income, which the Treasury’s economic forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), has said was unlikely to be repeated this year.Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “The trend will deteriorate primarily because self-assessment tax receipts in January and February 2017 were boosted temporarily by about £4bn, due to prior tax changes.”The OBR cut its expectations for government borrowing this year to £49.9bn in the autumn Budget but warned of a worsening picture for 2019 and beyond following downward revisions to productivity that will continue to restrict wage growth.Updating on its forecasts last month, the OBR called into question the chancellor’s target for balancing the books by 2022, saying the government may not eradicate the deficit before 2031. Tombs said a series of one-off costs would also restrict any further improvements in the public finances, including payments to the EU, which would be about £1bn higher in December than in the same month in 2016, when the UK received a net repayment of funds. He said central government investment would also need to grow strongly in the remaining months of this financial year in order to meet the government’s spending commitments.“All told, borrowing is on track to meet, but not significantly undershoot, the OBR’s November forecast,” he said.“The chancellor can go on his Christmas vacation content that the public finances have weathered the economy’s slowdown well this year. But with slow growth likely to persist next year and little margin for error now left to meet fiscal rules, it’s unlikely that the chancellor will be able to soften his fiscal plans materially further again,” he added.The UK’s total public sector net debt, excluding state-owned banks, increased to £1,734.8bn in November, equivalent to 84.6% of gross domestic product (GDP).A Treasury spokesman said: “This is the best year-to-date borrowing in a decade, but there is still further to go to repair the public finances. “We continue to build an economy fit for the future by taking a balanced approach, getting debt falling while investing in our vital public services and keeping taxes low.”• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Government borrowing Budget deficit Philip Hammond Office for National Statistics Office for Budget Responsibility Economic policy news'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/21/hammond-early-christmas-gift-public-sector-borrowing-falls'|'2017-12-21T16:24:00.000+02:00'
'b77bc195c22b35804ed083452634eb3591795a67'|'SEC charges Florida-based fund owner over $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:53 PM / Updated 2 hours ago SEC charges bankrupt Woodbridge Group over $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Woodbridge Group of Companies and its owner, luxury real estate developer Robert Shapiro, for allegedly operating a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme that targeted thousands of investors, the agency said on Thursday. Shapiro, who made headlines last year after buying the Los Angeles Owlwood estate previously owned by stars such as Tony Curtis and Cher for $90 million, resigned as Woodbridge’s chief executive officer on Dec. 1, days before the property and investment company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to the SEC’s complaint, Shapiro ran a “sham” business model that allegedly defrauded more than 8,400 investors, including many seniors, in unregistered Woodbridge funds by promising them 5 to 10 percent annual interest on money he said would be used for loans to commercial property owners paying 11 to 15 percent interest rates. The SEC alleged that the vast majority of the borrowers were Shapiro-owned companies that had no income and never made interest payments on the loans. “The only way Woodbridge was able to pay investors their dividends and interest payments was through the constant infusion of new investor money,” Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said in a statement. The SEC also alleged that Shapiro used a web of layered companies to conceal his ownership interest in the purported third-party borrowers and “line his pockets with millions of investor dollars.” Shapiro diverted at least $21 million for his own benefit, including to charter planes, pay country club fees, and buy luxury vehicles and jewelry, according to the SEC. Judge Marcia Cooke of the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida ordered an asset freeze against Shapiro and his companies and ordered them to provide an accounting of all money received from investors, the SEC said. The SEC started investigating Woodbridge, formerly headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2016 for possible fraudulent sales of securities. Woodbridge’s bankruptcy filing came a month after the SEC issued on Nov. 1 a second subpoena for documents. Woodbridge aims to use Chapter 11 to restructure some $750 million in debt. It is seeking a $100 million bankruptcy loan backed by the Owlwood property, which it has said in court is back on the market for $180 million. Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Writing by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-woodbridge-sec-charges/sec-charges-florida-based-fund-owner-over-1-2-billion-ponzi-scheme-idUSKBN1EF2GP'|'2017-12-21T19:51:00.000+02:00'
'7ddea89b81ff676ed0b0bfa4a5b25fd3dc610f8a'|'UK court rejects operator challenge over spectrum auction rules'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:45 AM / Updated 6 hours ago UK court rejects operator challenge over spectrum auction rules Paul Sandle 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain saw off legal challenges on Wednesday from the biggest and smallest mobile networks that threatened to delay an auction of airwaves needed to meet fast-growing demand for mobile data. FILE PHOTO - A man talks on his mobile telephone as he walks past a BT logo in London, February 5, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett In a bid to maintain competition, regulator Ofcom has set caps on how much spectrum individual operators can buy in an auction that will increase by almost a third the airwaves available to support mobile devices. But BT ( BT.L ), which owns Britain’s biggest operator EE, and Three, the country’s smallest player, both objected, with BT saying the restrictions went too far, and Three arguing they did not go far enough. The auction is key for the country’s operators, which also include Vodafone ( VOD.L ) and Telefonica’s O2 ( TEF.MC ), because the airwaves they control largely determine the quality of the service they can provide as customers demand faster connections. One chunk of airwaves will be available to increase capacity immediately while the other is earmarked for the next generation of 5G mobile services. “We are disappointed by the initial ruling of the court as a fairer distribution of spectrum is vital for UK consumers and the digital economy,” a spokesman for Three said. “We are seeking permission to appeal.” Under the Ofcom plan, no mobile operator would be allowed to own more than 37 percent of all the mobile spectrum expected to be usable in 2020, a cap that bars BT from bidding for the first chunk of airwaves in the 2.3GHz band and limiting the amount it could bid for the second 3.4 GHz band. Three, which is owned by Hutchison Telecommunications ( 0215.HK ), had wanted the cap set at 30 percent. Judge Nicholas Green said Three must submit its notice to appeal by midday on Thursday, with a hearing set for January. BT said that while it did not believe caps were appropriate for the auction it would accept the ruling. Vodafone would be restricted to winning no more than 160MHz across both bands. BT currently owns 42 percent of immediately usable spectrum, while Vodafone owns 29 percent, O2 has 14 percent and Three owns 15 percent. Ofcom welcomed the judgment and said it was disappointed that Three was seeking permission to appeal. “We believe the High Court judgment is clear and Three’s actions may further delay the auction, which is not in the interests of the UK,” a spokesman said. O2 said Three had its day in court and had lost, so it was frustrated to hear it may seek to appeal the judgment. “Further delays are not in the interests of consumers, businesses and UK plc,” a spokesman said. Britain’s mobile industry has routinely turned to the courts to settle disputes over resources, delaying previous auctions and frustrating the government which wants to improve communications to drive economic growth. Ofcom had planned to auction the new spectrum by the end of the year when it set out the rules in July. Reporting by Paul Sandle, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-mobile-auction/uk-court-rejects-operator-challenge-over-spectrum-auction-rules-idUKKBN1EE16V'|'2017-12-20T16:02:00.000+02:00'
'd58aa2dcd4f01f6b53fa3a53543e465babf4c4a4'|'Russia''s Rosneft says reaches amicable agreement with Sistema'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:17 PM / in 8 minutes Russia''s Rosneft reaches $1.7 billion settlement with Sistema Denis Pinchuk 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft said on Friday it has reached an amicable agreement with the Sistema conglomerate, which will pay out 100 billion roubles ($1.7 billion) to resolve a dispute over the Bashneft oil company. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Russian state oil firm Rosneft is seen at its office in Moscow, October 18, 2012. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo Shares in Sistema, which groups the assets of Russian businessman Vladimir Yevtushenkov and includes the country’s largest mobile operator MTS, were up 17.73 percent in Moscow and 18.2 percent in London after Rosneft said the sides have agreed to drop all legal proceedings. Sistema declined comment on the agreement which requires approval from the Russian regional court. Rosneft said Sistema must pay the damages no later than March 30, 2018. The dispute centres on mid-sized oil company Bashneft and has pitted powerful Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, against Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who some media reports suggest is close to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The way the battle was fought - via lawsuits and counter lawsuits - and the high value of the assets involved, rekindled concerns about Russia’s investment climate and raised questions about the Kremlin’s oversight of business. Russia’s largest lender Sberbank, along with the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), will assist with raising funds for Sistema to compensate Rosneft for losses, Rosneft said. The logo of Russian conglomerate Sistema is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Sberbank declined to comment. The compromise achieved with RDIF’s assistance “meets both sides’ interests, sends a positive signal to the market and improves the investment climate in Russia”, RDIF said in statement. The Russian government seized Sistema’s stake in Bashneft in 2014, saying its privatisation had been illegal. Rosneft later bought a controlling stake in Bashneft and in May filed its first lawsuit, alleging Sistema had removed assets from the company - something Sistema denies. In a second claim, Rosneft was also seeking the return of dividends paid out by Bashneft between 2009 and 2014, when Sistema was its controlling shareholder. The legal claims made against Sistema by Russia’s top oil producer totalled $4.5 billion, prompting Sistema to retaliate against Rosneft by filing a $5.6 billion lawsuit. A possible amicable agreement in a row between Rosneft and Sistema was a topic of Putin’s informal meeting with businessmen on Thursday. “Putin has repeatedly said that he would support an amicable settlement between Rosneft and AFK Sistema,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters on Friday. Reporting by Denis Pinchuk, Anastasia Teterevleva and Tatiana Voronova; writing by Denis Pinchuk and Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-rosneft-sistema/russias-rosneft-says-reaches-amicable-agreement-with-sistema-idINKBN1EG1VY'|'2017-12-22T18:15:00.000+02:00'
'6aa0f000a9ef2d7f91a25057c7893072d32d3edb'|'BRIEF-Time Warner Enters Into $2 bln Senior Unsecured Delayed Draw Term Loan Facility'|' 25 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago BRIEF-Time Warner Enters Into $2 bln Senior Unsecured Delayed Draw Term Loan Facility Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 22 (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc: * ON DEC 4, CO ENTERED INTO NEW $2.0 BILLION SENIOR UNSECURED DELAYED DRAW TERM LOAN FACILITY - SEC FILING * BORROWED $2.0 BILLION UNDER ITS TERM FACILITY TO FUND PURCHASE OF DEBENTURES UNDER SOME OFFERS * BORROWINGS UNDER TERM FACILITY OF UP TO $2.0 BILLION MAY BE MADE DURING AVAILABILITY PERIOD THAT WILL TERMINATE ON DEC 29 Source text: ( bit.ly/2BmVWkK )  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-time-warner-enters-into-2-bln-seni/brief-time-warner-enters-into-2-bln-senior-unsecured-delayed-draw-term-loan-facility-idUSFWN1OM0KO'|'2017-12-22T19:24:00.000+02:00'
'f8ec5b76ca2a7d7c835cd866760153f08569c21f'|'Exclusive: Russian oil firm Tatneft ran Crimea fuel station, despite sanctions risk'|' 25 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Exclusive: Russian oil firm Tatneft ran Crimea fuel station, despite sanctions risk Anton Zverev , Gleb Stolyarov 8 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - One of Russia’s biggest oil companies, Tatneft, has been doing business in Crimea despite the risk of being placed on a U.S. sanctions blacklist, according to company documents and a source close to Tatneft. A general view shows a fuel station, which is operated by a company controlled by Tatneft units, in Sevastopol, Crimea September 7, 2017. Picture taken September 7, 2017. REUTERS/David Axelrod Most big Russian oil firms pulled out of Crimea after Washington imposed sanctions over Moscow’s annexation of the region from Ukraine in 2014 and threatened to put any company operating on the peninsula on its list of sanctioned entities. But a company called ZAO firma KONTs that operated a fuel station in the Crimean city of Sevastopol until at least September is controlled by units of Tatneft, according to ownership records in the state tax registry and the state statistics service that were collated by the Russian database SPARK. In addition, a document dated Sept. 4 that was seen by Reuters at the Sevastopol fuel station stated the fuel on sale there had been supplied by Tatneft-AZS-Yug, which is listed in the official register of the tax service as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tatneft. By late November, documents issued by the fuel station showed KONTs was no longer the owner, and there was no ownership link between Tatneft and the new owner. Reuters was not able to establish whether a Tatneft subsidiary was still supplying the fuel. Tatneft said in a Sept. 18 statement to Reuters that it has no fuel stations in Crimea and cannot control where fuel products it sells end up. Tatneft “does not supply (its own or anyone else‘s) fuel to Crimea or Sevastopol,” it said. Calls to a telephone number listed for KONTs went unanswered. A Reuters reporter who visited the Moscow address where the firm is registered found no sign of the company. A security guard at the Moscow address said KONTs had never had an office there though a letter, he said, had once arrived addressed to the firm. Tatneft had an office in the same building until a year ago, he added. Tatneft AZS-YUG, which is based in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, did not respond to a request for comment. SANCTIONS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT Tatneft’s presence in Crimea would give the U.S. Treasury Department legal grounds to include it on a list of companies which U.S. entities are forbidden to do business with, according to two Moscow-based lawyers who specialise in sanctions law - one of them with an international law firm and another with a Russian law firm. The U.S. Treasury Department, whose Office of Foreign Assets Control enforces sanctions, declined to comment on Tatneft’s presence in Crimea and any implications for companies that do business with Tatneft. Non-U.S. companies that have assets within U.S. jurisdiction and are deemed by Washington to have helped evade sanctions can themselves be subject to punitive measures, according to several U.S. and Russian lawyers who specialise in sanctions. Those could range from fines to inclusion in the sanctions list. Tatneft has commercial relations with companies including global oil trader Vitol, and Polish firms PKN Orlen and Lotos, according to public documents and oil traders. Reuters has found no evidence that Tatneft has any business with, or plans to do business with, U.S. entities. Tatneft’s case highlights a gap between sanctions and their enforcement, showing that not all firms that do business in Crimea are blacklisted by Washington, either because officials are unaware or because they choose not to act. Vitol, which traders say buys crude oil from Tatneft, said its dealings with clients were confidential but it has policies to ensure it complies with “all relevant regulations and legislation”, including sanctions, wherever it operates. PKN Orlen told Reuters it has a contract to buy oil from a Tatneft unit but considers possible geopolitical risks, and ways to minimise them, when concluding all trade agreements. Lotos buys crude from Tatneft, according to a senior Lotos source and traders. A Lotos spokesman said the company does not comment on its trade relations or speculate on future events. A Lotos source who asked not to be named said the firm was aware of Tatneft’s Crimea operation and potential risks stemming from the sanctions. HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT A general view shows a sign with the logo of Tatneft near a fuel station, which is operated by a company controlled by Tatneft units, in Sevastopol, Crimea September 7, 2017. Picture taken September 7, 2017. REUTERS/David Axelrod The Tatneft logo is on a sign outside a fuel station on Belkin Drive, a street near the centre of Sevastopol. A Reuters reporter who bought fuel at the station on Sept. 8 was issued with a till receipt in the name of KONTs which included the firm’s tax identification number. The records displayed in the SPARK database from the official register of the Russian tax service do not show who currently owns KONTs but lists it as managed by Tatneft-AZS-Zapad. According to the register, Tatneft-AZS-Zapad is 99.9 percent owned by Tatneft. According to other official data collated by SPARK, from the state statistics service, KONTs is 100 percent owned by Fin-Invest, a company controlled by firms listed as Tatneft-Aktiv, Processing Centre and Tatneft-AZS-Tsentr. Tatneft-Aktiv and Tatneft-AZS-Tsentr are 100 percent controlled by Tatneft, while Processing Centre is 99 percent controlled by Tatneft, according to SPARK. The source in Tatneft, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the fuel station that it “officially does not belong to Tatneft, so as not to fall under sanctions, but de facto it’s entirely Tatneft.” The source did not explain the difference between official ownership and de facto ownership. Slideshow (3 Images) Tatneft’s headquarters are in Russia’s Tatarstan region, which holds a 35.93 percent stake in the company. Tatarstan’s president, Rustam Minnikhanov, chairs Tatneft board meetings but the region’s presidential administration said it did not make decisions about Tatneft’s operations. It also said Tatneft did not now, or in the past, own fuel stations in Crimea and that the company had ended its presence in Crimea in 2013. A female member of staff at the Sevastopol fuel station showed the Reuters reporter who visited it a document called a “fuel passport” detailing the origin of the fuel on sale there. The document stated the fuel had been supplied by Tatneft-AZS-Yug, the firm listed by the tax service as a Tatneft unit. SECOND VISIT On a second visit to the Sevastopol fuel station on Nov. 27, after Reuters contacted Tatneft seeking comment for this article, KONTs’ name had been removed from the till receipt and replaced with a company called OOO Resurs-A. The Tatneft branding was still on display at the station. At the address in Sevas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ukraine-crisis-crimea-tatneft-exclusi/exclusive-russian-oil-firm-tatneft-ran-crimea-fuel-station-despite-sanctions-risk-idUKKBN1EE1YI'|'2017-12-20T17:24:00.000+02:00'
'a2292560db8f672f32090c367591fdda45803be2'|'Roche to buy US cancer drugmaker Ignyta for $1.7 billion'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:26 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Roche to buy U.S. cancer drugmaker Ignyta for $1.7 billion Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche ( ROG.S ) will buy U.S. cancer drug specialist Ignyta Inc ( RXDX.O ) for $1.7 billion in an agreed deal to broaden its oncology portfolio, the firms said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is seen outside their headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, January 30, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo Roche would pay $27 per share for Ignyta, representing a premium of about 74 percent to the stock’s closing price on Thursday, they said. Reuters had reported on Thursday that Ignyta was in advanced talks to sell itself, just three years after going public with a focus on precision drugs and diagnostics. Ignyta will continue its operations in San Diego and will be responsible for the ongoing pivotal study of entrectinib, its most advanced drug. The U.S. company has a suite of drugs in early stage development that use gene therapy to kill off the underlying diseases that drive cancer tumor growth. “Cancer is a highly complex disease and many patients suffer from mutations which are difficult to detect and treat. The agreement with Ignyta builds on Roche’s strategy of fitting treatments to patients and will allow Roche to broaden and strengthen its oncology portfolio globally,” said the company’s pharmaceuticals head, Daniel O‘Day. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2018, the companies said. Roche stock eased 0.3 percent by mid-morning, in line with the European sector average .SXDP. Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Michael Nawrath said the deal reflected Roche’s strategy of making bolt-on acquisitions, adding it was not overpaying for the new assets. “The data speak for themselves. We expect approval in the first half of 2019 and this could become a blockbuster given the wide field of use,” he wrote in a research note, keeping his “market weight” rating. Bank Vontobel analysts said the deal was set to boost Roche’s efforts to address cancers with specific mutations by precision medicines that work hand in hand with diagnostics. Citi advised Roche on the deal, while BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC advised Ignyta. Sidley Austin LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP were legal counsel to Roche and Ignyta, respectively. Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru and Michael Shields in Zurich; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ignyta-m-a-roche/roche-to-buy-u-s-cancer-drugmaker-ignyta-for-1-7-billion-idUKKBN1EG0HH'|'2017-12-22T08:20:00.000+02:00'
'fc95102992deb128d7b3d6ad4075a5c4933f04d4'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX gains as energy, bank stocks gain, BlackBerry pulls back'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:47 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX gains as energy, bank stocks gain, BlackBerry pulls back Reuters Staff (Adds details on specific stocks, updates prices to close) * TSX ends down 22.96 points, or 0.14 percent, to 16,182.63 * Half of the TSX’s 10 main groups move higher By Alastair Sharp TORONTO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index ended slightly higher on Thursday, boosted by energy companies as well as gains among big banks and some miners, while BlackBerry Ltd pulled back after a sharp jump. * The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 22.96 points, or 0.14 percent, to 16,182.63. * Half of its 10 main groups rose, with advancers barely outnumbering decliners overall. * The energy group climbed 1.4 percent, with Encana Corp up 3.4 percent at C$15.98 and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd adding 1.2 percent to C$44.41. * Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd rose 3.6 percent to C$2.30 after saying it will apply for federal and state permits on Friday for its Pebble mine in Alaska. * The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.1 percent. * BlackBerry Ltd fell 3.6 percent to C$15.03 a day after surging on the back of its quarterly earnings. * The heavyweight financials group gained 0.2 percent, as bonds yields rose after strong inflation and retail sales data. Toronto-Dominion bank gained 0.5 percent to C$72.85 and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce added 1 percent to C$123.48. * Cogeco Communications Inc rose 2.2 percent to C$88.97 and Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust declined 4.2 percent to C$21.55 after TD Securities upgraded Cogeco and downgraded Dream Office. * Cable and telecom company Quebecor Inc rose 1.0 percent to C$23.72 after Desjardins raised it to a “buy”. * Paramount Resources Ltd rose 7 percent to C$19.37 after announcing a share buyback plan. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by David Gregorio and Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-gains-as-energy-bank-stocks-gain-blackberry-pulls-back-idUSL1N1OL281'|'2017-12-21T23:47:00.000+02:00'
'38505e2bb19eaa69972fbed8e7116538cb5c4e80'|'Nokia signs multi-year patent licence deal with Huawei, shares rise'|'December 21, 2017 / 8:40 AM / Updated an hour ago Nokia signs multi-year patent license deal with Huawei, shares rise Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia and China’s Huawei have signed a multi-year patent license agreement, the Finnish company said on Thursday. A Nokia sign is seen at the company''s headquarters in Espoo, Finland, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins Nokia did not say what the license agreement was for, saying that the details were confidential. It expected that revenue stemming from the agreement would begin to be recognized in the fourth quarter. Nokia’s shares rose on the news and were up 3.2 percent at 0819 GMT. Reporting by Helsinki newsroom, writing by Gwladys Fouche; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nokia-huawei-tech/nokia-signs-multi-year-patent-license-deal-with-huawei-shares-rise-idUKKBN1EF0UT'|'2017-12-21T10:38:00.000+02:00'
'39b8d09d219fbe675cce2b8d72ffb396d69e2e2c'|'Nike''s quarterly revenue rises 5 percent'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:30 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Nike''s quarterly revenue rises 5 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Nike Inc ( NKE.N ) reported a nearly 5 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Thursday as sales growth in international markets offset weakness in North America. Net income fell to $767 million, or 46 cents per share, in the second quarter ended Nov. 30, from $842 million, or 50 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $8.55 billion from $8.18 billion a year earlier. Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nike-results/nikes-quarterly-revenue-rises-5-percent-idUSKBN1EF2UE'|'2017-12-21T23:28:00.000+02:00'
'124f154ba482b242c3160b6a59369110081fb67b'|'UPDATE 4-Oil falls as UK North Sea oil pipeline moves closer to restart'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:59 AM / Updated an hour ago Oil little changed despite planned restart of UK North Sea pipe Scott DiSavino 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices were little changed on Thursday, erasing earlier losses after the operator of Britain’s Forties pipeline in the North Sea said it was expected to restart in early January after repairs over Christmas. Forties is the largest of the five North Sea crudes that underpin Brent, a benchmark for oil trading in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. “Main feature in today’s trade thus far appears to be the ability of the complex to absorb in orderly fashion reports that the North Sea Forties pipeline system will be restarted,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Chicago-based energy advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a report. Brent futures were up 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $64.76 a barrel by 12:32 p.m. EST (1732 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 24 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $58.33 per barrel. Despite the small increases on Thursday, both benchmarks were trading at their highest since Dec. 12 after rising most days since the start of the Forties shutdown. “Based on current estimates the company expects to bring the pipeline progressively back to normal rates early in the new year,” Ineos, the privately held Swiss chemical company that operates the Forties pipe, said in a statement Thursday. The system, which carries around 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude to Britain, along with a third of the UK’s total offshore natural gas output, was closed after a routine inspection revealed a crack in an onshore section. Oil prices were supported in part by falling crude inventories in the United States but capped by output that is fast approaching 10 million bpd, a level only surpassed by Saudi Arabia and Russia. Both crudes gained around 1 percent during their previous sessions, lifted by official data showing a 6.5 million-barrel fall in U.S. crude inventories in the week to Dec. 15 to 436 million barrels, the lowest since October 2015. Countering this was another increase in U.S. crude oil production, while a rise in gasoline stocks pointed to a slowdown in demand. “The rally which has defined H2 looks to have run out of steam as the year draws to a close, and we might be hard pressed to say where further upside can come from at this point, barring some unforeseen supply outage,” JBC Energy said in a note. The energy minister of Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter and OPEC’s de-facto leader, said it would take more time to rein in global oversupply, which was created by strong global production increases in the years up to 2015. “We expect the first few months of 2018 to be either flat or a build (in inventories), as it is typically the case with the seasonality in the oil market,” Khalid al-Falih told Reuters on Wednesday. Additional reporting by Dmitri Zhdannikov in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Evans and Chris Reese'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-stable-on-lower-us-crude-stocks-but-rising-output-weighs-idUSKBN1EF05R'|'2017-12-21T12:11:00.000+02:00'
'd268a48474ae7d39736ae5148527b1532ec6e62a'|'Boeing in tie-up talks with Brazil''s Embraer'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:13 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Boeing in tie-up talks with Brazil''s Embraer Brad Haynes , Anthony Boadle 3 Min Read SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Planemakers Boeing Co and Embraer SA are discussing a “potential combination of their businesses,” the companies said on Thursday, in a move that could consolidate a global passenger jet duopoly. FILE PHOTO - Boeing Co''s logo is seen above the front doors of its largest jetliner factory in Everett, Washington, U.S. January 13, 2017. REUTERS/Alwyn Scott Embraer’s shares soared around 30 percent in Sao Paulo on the joint statement released in Brazil, which did not give details of how a potential tie-up would be structured. Boeing shares were down 0.7 percent. The news, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, comes just two months after Boeing rival Airbus SE agreed to buy a majority stake in Bombardier Inc’s CSeries jetliner program, a direct rival of Embraer’s biggest E-Jets. Reuters reported then that the CSeries deal could push Boeing and Embraer closer together. For decades, Canada’s Bombardier and Embraer have faced off in the 70- to 100-seat regional jet segment below the radar of Airbus and Boeing’s larger commercial jet line-ups, but the Airbus-Bombardier alliance may have tipped that delicate balance. Any tie-up involving Embraer would require approval by the Brazilian government, which holds a ‘golden share’ in Embraer, a formerly state-run company fully privatised in 2006. Asked about a potential takeover, a senior official in Brasilia said the government had not been involved in the reported talks. Part of Brazilian President Michel Temer’s market-friendly agenda has focused on privatising state utilities and reducing the government’s role in national champions such as oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA. In September, Brazil’s Finance Ministry asked an audit court to study how the government could exit the golden shares it holds in former state monopolies that have been partially or fully privatised in recent years. A closer partnership between Boeing and Embraer has long been contemplated in private, according to industry sources. The two already work on projects including runway safety and alternative jet fuels. Their partnership intensified in recent years to include Boeing’s commitment to joint sales and support of Embraer’s KC-390 military airlifter. “Although Boeing would look like a good fit with Embraer’s Regional Jet business, this is not the case for the company’s Executive Jet and Defense divisions,” said Rob Stallard, aerospace analyst at Vertical Research Partners in a note. The WSJ reported that talks were on hold as the companies waited to see if Brazil’s government would approve the deal. Boeing is willing to take steps to protect Embraer’s brand, management and jobs to help entice the government and is also willing to structure a deal to protect the government’s interest in Embraer’s defense business, the WSJ reported. Reporting by Brad Haynes in Brazil and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; additional reporting by Arunima Banerjee and Tim Hepher; editing by Daniel Flynn and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-embraer-m-a-boeing/boeing-held-takeover-talks-with-embraer-wsj-idUKKBN1EF2CH'|'2017-12-21T21:52:00.000+02:00'
'dc7ca50030f9638c0011078badfb334e92da3944'|'Gold hovers below 2-week high, but eyes second weekly gain'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:27 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Gold prices hover below 2-week high, set for second weekly gain Apeksha Nair 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Gold prices held steady below a two-week high in thin pre-holiday trade on Friday amid firmer equities and a sturdy dollar, remaining on track to log a second consecutive week of gains. An employee sorts gold bars in the Austrian Gold and Silver Separating Plant ''Oegussa'' in Vienna, Austria, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/Files Spot gold was steady at $1,267.08 an ounce at 0703 GMT, after hitting its highest since Dec. 6 at $1,268.91 in the previous session. It was up 0.95 percent for the week. U.S. gold futures were unchanged at $1,270.40 an ounce. “(We are seeing) normal market activity ahead of the holiday weekend. Expect some profit-taking to be seen from bargain-hunters who bought at the start of the week at the $1,254 level,” said Mun Chun Loh, director of private wealth at GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd in Singapore. The dollar edged up on Friday though it remained on track for weekly losses, while the euro slumped after Catalan vote results indicated a victory for separatists in a blow to Madrid. “The market’s a bit flat due to the holidays and there seems to be some kind of uncertainty around,” said Ronald Leung, chief dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong. The U.S. Congress on Thursday averted a government shutdown just one day before federal funding was due to expire, sending Trump a bill to provide just enough money to keep agencies operating through Jan. 19. The greenback was also supported as Congress had approved the biggest overhaul of the country’s tax code in 30 years, which was expected to give at least a short-term lift to economic growth. Asian stocks edged up on Friday as upbeat data pointed to steady growth in the U.S. economy. “Under the tax reform, people are waiting to see if it’s good for the U.S economy in the coming months ... people don’t want to do anything about it for the time being,” Leung said. “Next week as well, unless there’s an exciting event, I think we’ll be quiet,” he said, adding support for the yellow metal comes in around $1,260 an ounce and resistance near $1,270. The Moscow Exchange will launch deliverable futures for gold in 2018 in a move to further prop up bullion market liquidity, bourse chief executive Alexander Afanasiev said on Thursday. In other precious metals, Palladium was up 0.2 percent at $1,039.50 an ounce, trading at its highest level since February, 2001. Silver rose 0.5 percent to $16.17 an ounce, and platinum was 0.4-percent lower at $911.50 an ounce. All three of those precious metals were on track to gain for a second week in a row. Reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Joseph Radford'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-hovers-below-2-week-high-but-eyes-second-weekly-gain-idINKBN1EG04V'|'2017-12-22T03:23:00.000+02:00'
'312303f36080723c048ccda5944e59ff31030bd4'|'U.S. home sales hit 11-year high, supply still tight'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:38 PM / Updated an hour ago U.S. home sales hit 11-year high, supply still tight Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home sales increased more than expected in November, hitting their highest level in nearly 11 years, the latest indication that housing was regaining momentum after almost stalling this year. The report on Wednesday from the National Association of Realtors also added to data ranging from the labor market to retail sales that have suggested the economy was ending 2017 on a strong note. “The greater home sales will stoke the fires for stronger economic growth next year as consumers spend more to furnish their new homes with new appliances and furniture and all the decorations and trimmings,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist MUFG in New York. Existing home sales surged 5.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.81 million units last month amid continued recovery in areas in the South ravaged by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and solid gains in other parts of the country. That was the highest level since December 2006 and marked the third straight monthly rise. Economists had forecast home sales rising only 0.9 percent to a 5.52 million-unit rate in November. Existing home sales make up about 90 percent of U.S. home sales. They rose 3.8 percent on a year-on-year basis in November. Sales in the South, which accounts for almost half of the existing homes sales market, increased 8.3 percent last month. Sales rose 6.7 percent in the Northeast and jumped 8.4 percent in the Midwest. They, however, fell 2.3 percent in the West, which has seen an acceleration in house price increases. While the housing market is expected to continue growing next year, there are concerns that a Republican overhaul of the U.S. tax code could hurt sales at the high end of the market. The biggest overhaul of the tax system in more than 30 years, which could be signed into law by President Donald Trump soon, will cap the deduction for mortgage interest at $750,000 in home loan value for residences bought from Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2025. The cap would revert to $1 million in loan value after Dec. 31, 2025. “We expect further increases in sales in 2018, although tax reform is likely to modestly reduce demand at the high end as well as to lower prices for high-priced homes,” said David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide in Columbus Ohio. The report came on the heels of data this week showing homebuilder confidence vaulting to a near 18-1/2-year high in December and single-family homebuilding and permits rising in November to levels last seen in the third quarter of 2007. Housing is expected to contribute to economic growth in the fourth quarter after being a drag for two straight quarters. The PHLX housing index was trading higher, outperforming a broadly flat stock market. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies. Prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. SUPPLY SQUEEZE Despite the recent gains, home resales remain constrained by a chronic shortage of houses at the lower end of the market, which is keeping prices elevated and sidelining some first-time buyers, who accounted for 29 percent of transactions last month. Economists and realtors say a 40 percent share of first-time buyers is needed for a robust housing market. The number of previously owned homes on the market dropped 9.7 percent to 1.67 million units in November from a year ago, the second lowest reading since 1999. Housing inventory has dropped for 30 straight months on a year-on-year basis. At November’s sales pace, it would take a record low 3.4 months to exhaust the current inventory, down from 3.9 months in October. A six-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand. With supply tightening, the median house price increased 5.8 percent from a year ago to $248,000 in November. That was the 69th consecutive month of year-on-year price gains. In contrast, annual wage growth has struggled to break above 2.9 percent since the 2007/09 recession ended. The government reported on Tuesday that groundbreaking on single-family homes, which account for the largest share of the housing market, jumped 5.3 percent in November to the highest level since September 2007. Housing completions continued to lag at a rate of 1.116 million units. Realtors estimate that the housing starts and completions rates need to be in a range of 1.5 million to 1.6 million units per month to plug the inventory gap. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-home-sales-hit-11-year-high-supply-still-tight-idUSKBN1EE20H'|'2017-12-20T17:55:00.000+02:00'
'899f09ac9f274888c7df953d7f1cb5c958c46022'|'Orange boss, magnate Tapie ordered to stand trial in France - source'|'Reuters TV United States December 20, 2017 / 10:58 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Orange boss and tycoon Tapie sent to trial in France: source Sophie Louet 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French tycoon Bernard Tapie and Stephane Richard, head of telecoms company Orange ( ORAN.PA ), have been ordered to stand trial over a disputed state payment to Tapie a decade ago when Richard held a senior government post, a judicial source said. FILE PHOTO - French telecom operator Orange Chief Executive Stephane Richard arrives at the Justice court in Paris March 19, 2014. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes At the heart of the complex affair are payments that Tapie, a larger-than-life figure in French business and politics, received in 2008 from the government over a dispute concerning the sale of sports company Adidas, once owned by Tapie. Back in 2008, the French government approved a payout to Tapie in a rare out-of-court settlement which cost the French taxpayer roughly 400 million euros ($474 million). Orange’s Richard was chief of staff to then finance minister Christine Lagarde at the time the award was granted. Lagarde is now head of the International Monetary Fund. The trial concerns six people in all, said the source, who is an official in the judiciary who declined to be identified by name, which is standard practice in France on confirmation of judicial matters. The source said Tapie and Richard faced charges of embezzlement and misuse of public funds. FILE PHOTO - French businessman Bernard Tapie attends the French channel France 2 news evening broadcast in Paris July 1, 2013. REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool Tapie’s defense lawyer Herve Temime told Reuters: “I’ve been eager to fight this one out ... now all the cards will be on the table and we will be able to establish the truth. Not only was there no fraud but we will also see who was robbed and who did the robbing.” A spokesman at Orange said lawyers had received notice of the trial order and declined to comment further. The case dates back to when Tapie sued the state for compensation after selling his stake in Adidas to then state-owned Credit Lyonnais in 1993. He accused the bank of defrauding him after it resold its stake for a much higher price. With the case stuck in the courts, the two sides agreed to a private settlement and a 403 million euro payout to Tapie. Lagarde approved the settlement. Tapie, now seriously ill, has fought one court battle after another but has already been ordered to pay back everything he was awarded. Those rulings had prompted Tapie, the flamboyant owner of a Parisian mansion and a large yacht, to say recently that he was “utterly ruined”. IMF chief Lagarde escaped punishment in the same affair and kept her job, despite being convicted of negligence regarding the payout. Reporting Sophie Louet; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Luke Baker and Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-france-trial/orange-boss-magnate-tapie-ordered-to-stand-trial-in-france-source-idUKKBN1EE175'|'2017-12-20T12:46:00.000+02:00'
'9db74a078a70036d4f1a15e8e500c3c78f73775d'|'Exclusive - Russian oil firm Tatneft ran Crimea fuel station, despite sanctions risk'|'December 20, 2017 / 8:09 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago Exclusive: Russian oil firm Tatneft ran Crimea fuel station, despite sanctions risk Anton Zverev , Gleb Stolyarov 8 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - One of Russia’s biggest oil companies, Tatneft, has been doing business in Crimea despite the risk of being placed on a U.S. sanctions blacklist, according to company documents and a source close to Tatneft. A view shows a fuel station, which is operated by a company controlled by Tatneft units, in Sevastopol, Crimea September 7, 2017. Picture taken September 7, 2017. REUTERS/David Axelrod Most big Russian oil firms pulled out of Crimea after Washington imposed sanctions over Moscow’s annexation of the region from Ukraine in 2014 and threatened to put any company operating on the peninsula on its list of sanctioned entities. But a company called ZAO firma KONTs that operated a fuel station in the Crimean city of Sevastopol until at least September is controlled by units of Tatneft, according to ownership records in the state tax registry and the state statistics service that were collated by the Russian database SPARK. In addition, a document dated Sept. 4 that was seen by Reuters at the Sevastopol fuel station stated the fuel on sale there had been supplied by Tatneft-AZS-Yug, which is listed in the official register of the tax service as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tatneft. By late November, documents issued by the fuel station showed KONTs was no longer the owner, and there was no ownership link between Tatneft and the new owner. Reuters was not able to establish whether a Tatneft subsidiary was still supplying the fuel. Tatneft said in a Sept. 18 statement to Reuters that it has no fuel stations in Crimea and cannot control where fuel products it sells end up. Tatneft “does not supply (its own or anyone else‘s) fuel to Crimea or Sevastopol,” it said. Calls to a telephone number listed for KONTs went unanswered. A Reuters reporter who visited the Moscow address where the firm is registered found no sign of the company. A security guard at the Moscow address said KONTs had never had an office there though a letter, he said, had once arrived addressed to the firm. Tatneft had an office in the same building until a year ago, he added. Tatneft AZS-YUG, which is based in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, did not respond to a request for comment. SANCTIONS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT Tatneft’s presence in Crimea would give the U.S. Treasury Department legal grounds to include it on a list of companies which U.S. entities are forbidden to do business with, according to two Moscow-based lawyers who specialize in sanctions law - one of them with an international law firm and another with a Russian law firm. The U.S. Treasury Department, whose Office of Foreign Assets Control enforces sanctions, declined to comment on Tatneft’s presence in Crimea and any implications for companies that do business with Tatneft. Non-U.S. companies that have assets within U.S. jurisdiction and are deemed by Washington to have helped evade sanctions can themselves be subject to punitive measures, according to several U.S. and Russian lawyers who specialize in sanctions. Those could range from fines to inclusion in the sanctions list. Tatneft has commercial relations with companies including global oil trader Vitol, and Polish firms PKN Orlen and Lotos, according to public documents and oil traders. Reuters has found no evidence that Tatneft has any business with, or plans to do business with, U.S. entities. Tatneft’s case highlights a gap between sanctions and their enforcement, showing that not all firms that do business in Crimea are blacklisted by Washington, either because officials are unaware or because they choose not to act. Vitol, which traders say buys crude oil from Tatneft, said its dealings with clients were confidential but it has policies to ensure it complies with “all relevant regulations and legislation”, including sanctions, wherever it operates. PKN Orlen told Reuters it has a contract to buy oil from a Tatneft unit but considers possible geopolitical risks, and ways to minimize them, when concluding all trade agreements. Lotos buys crude from Tatneft, according to a senior Lotos source and traders. A Lotos spokesman said the company does not comment on its trade relations or speculate on future events. A Lotos source who asked not to be named said the firm was aware of Tatneft’s Crimea operation and potential risks stemming from the sanctions. HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT A general view shows a fuel station, which is operated by a company controlled by Tatneft units, in Sevastopol, Crimea September 7, 2017. Picture taken September 7, 2017. REUTERS/David Axelrod F The Tatneft logo is on a sign outside a fuel station on Belkin Drive, a street near the center of Sevastopol. A Reuters reporter who bought fuel at the station on Sept. 8 was issued with a till receipt in the name of KONTs which included the firm’s tax identification number. The records displayed in the SPARK database from the official register of the Russian tax service do not show who currently owns KONTs but lists it as managed by Tatneft-AZS-Zapad. According to the register, Tatneft-AZS-Zapad is 99.9 percent owned by Tatneft. According to other official data collated by SPARK, from the state statistics service, KONTs is 100 percent owned by Fin-Invest, a company controlled by firms listed as Tatneft-Aktiv, Processing Centre and Tatneft-AZS-Tsentr. Tatneft-Aktiv and Tatneft-AZS-Tsentr are 100 percent controlled by Tatneft, while Processing Centre is 99 percent controlled by Tatneft, according to SPARK. The source in Tatneft, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the fuel station that it “officially does not belong to Tatneft, so as not to fall under sanctions, but de facto it’s entirely Tatneft.” The source did not explain the difference between official ownership and de facto ownership. Tatneft’s headquarters are in Russia’s Tatarstan region, which holds a 35.93 percent stake in the company. Slideshow (4 Images) Tatarstan’s president, Rustam Minnikhanov, chairs Tatneft board meetings but the region’s presidential administration said it did not make decisions about Tatneft’s operations. It also said Tatneft did not now, or in the past, own fuel stations in Crimea and that the company had ended its presence in Crimea in 2013. A female member of staff at the Sevastopol fuel station showed the Reuters reporter who visited it a document called a “fuel passport” detailing the origin of the fuel on sale there. The document stated the fuel had been supplied by Tatneft-AZS-Yug, the firm listed by the tax service as a Tatneft unit. SECOND VISIT On a second visit to the Sevastopol fuel station on Nov. 27, after Reuters contacted Tatneft seeking comment for this article, KONTs’ name had been removed from the till receipt and replaced with a company called OOO Resurs-A. The Tatneft branding was still on display at the station. At the address in Sevas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-crimea-tatneft-exclusi/exclusive-russian-oil-firm-tatneft-ran-crimea-fuel-station-despite-sanctions-risk-idUKKBN1EE0SK'|'2017-12-20T10:10:00.000+02:00'
'1ed8fd249c44eeeb29b12ef7d392f5765f997b11'|'China''s Fosun takes stake in Tsingtao Brewery as Asahi exits'|'December 20, 2017 / 2:33 PM / in 8 minutes China''s Fosun takes stake in Tsingtao Brewery as Asahi exits Malcolm Foster , Julie Zhu 5 Min Read TOKYO/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate Fosun International ( 0656.HK ) is taking a large chunk of Tsingtao Brewery Co ( 600600.SS ) ( 0168.HK ) after Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings ( 2502.T ) said on Wednesday it would sell its entire 19.9 percent stake for a total of 106 billion yen ($937 million). Asahi said in October it was considering selling its stake in Tsingtao, China’s second largest brewer which was founded in 1903 by German and British merchants. Asahi is drawing back from China to focus more on Europe and other Asian markets. China is the world’s largest beer market by sales, but profits have been harder to come by amid fierce competition between local brewers and global beer giants AB InBev ( ABI.BR ), Heineken NV ( HEIN.AS ) and Carlsberg ( CARLb.CO ). Asahi has agreed to sell most of its stake -- about 243 million shares, equivalent to a 17.99 percent stake -- to Fosun and its subsidiaries for HK$6.6 billion ($844 million), Asahi and Fosun said in separate statements. The remainder, around 27 million shares, will be sold to state-owned Tsingtao Brewery Group for HK$735 million, Asahi said. The sale price of HK$27.22 per share was at a 32 percent discount to Tsingtao’s last closing price of HK$40 in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, Fosun said. “Fosun has been able to pick up the shares at a fairly significant discount,” said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal at China Market Research Group, adding there was room to grow both at home and overseas if Fosun could help Tsingtao move up-market. “China’s beer market is going through a reinvention right now as younger consumers shift towards more niche brands. Tsingdao is kind of an outlier because it has mass scale and volume but is also looked upon as being more premium than other domestic beer brands.” CLOSER TO HOME Asahi’s decision to divest its stake in Tsingtao, which it acquired in 2009 for around $666 million, follows its announcement in June of the sale of its 20 percent stake in China’s Tingyi-Asahi Beverages Holding Co Ltd for $612 million. The maker of Japan’s best-selling beer, Asahi Super Dry, has been increasingly focusing on Europe, and bought a group of eastern European beer brands from Anheuser-Busch InBev ( ABI.BR ) last year for 7.3 billion euros ($8.7 bln). Its exit from Tsingtao will make Fosun the second largest shareholder in Tsingtao after Tsingtao Brewery Group. Slideshow (2 Images) It comes as a handful of Chinese conglomerates including Fosun have turned their sights back on the domestic market amid a crackdown by Beijing on eye-catching overseas ventures. Cavender said the deal would likely go down well with Chinese regulators because it was “an example of Fosun coming home and investing in a Chinese asset” rather than overseas. “Tsingtao is both a leading brewery in China, and a leading Chinese brand that has successfully penetrated the international markets,” Fosun Chairman Guo Guangchang said in the company’s statement. Fosun’s business model and global reach would help grow Tsingtao’s brand and tap into Chinese demand for more premium beers, he added. Fosun, one of China’s most prolific deal-makers headed by billionaire Guo, is best known outside the country for its portfolio of businesses including French resort chain Club Med, margarine maker St Hubert and Portugal’s largest listed bank Millennium bcp. The firm is also in exclusive talks to take a majority stake in luxury Italian lingerie group La Perla. Like other Chinese conglomerates such as Dalian Wanda and HNA Group, Fosun has dialled back on some ambitions abroad as Beijing has stepped up scrutiny of outbound deal-making, notably in sectors such as property, hotels and entertainment. Fosun has since pared back its foreign real estate portfolio. It sold off a Sydney office tower for A$142.5 million ($109 million) this week and is also selling Lloyds Chambers in London. ($1 = 113.1500 yen) ($1 = 7.8234 Hong Kong dollars) ($1 = 0.8441 euros) ($1 = 1.3038 Australian dollars) Reporting by Malcolm Foster in TOKYO and Julie Zhu in HONG KONG;   Lee Chyen Yee in SINGAPORE and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Editing by Susan Fenton/Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asahi-group-tsingtao-brewery/chinas-fosun-takes-stake-in-tsingtao-brewery-as-asahi-exits-idUSKBN1EE1SN'|'2017-12-20T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'f4b08a3a622d2bdaf9aeb99d5211710e9d835eb9'|'Brazil charges Swiss bank manager with laundering bribe money'|'December 20, 2017 / 4:19 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Brazil charges Swiss bank manager with laundering bribe money Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRASILIA (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Spanish-Swiss banker with laundering $21.7 million in graft money for Brazilian clients involved in the country’s largest corruption scandal, including jailed former lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha. David Muino Suarez, a relationship manager of Zurich-based BSI bank, was arrested at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport as he got off a flight from Switzerland on Nov. 27 and is being held in Curitiba, the centre of the so-called Car Wash investigation. The federal prosecutors’ office in Curitiba said in a statement that Suarez, who has dual Swiss-Spanish nationality, knew the money came from bribes paid to Cunha and Pedro Bastos, a former executive at state-run oil company Petrobras, from an oil field acquisition in the African nation of Benin in 2011. They said Suarez concealed the illegal financial operation with false information given to the bank’s compliance office. It was not immediately known how the banker responded to the charges as his representatives could not be reached for comment. Prosecutor Diogo Castor de Mattos said the almost four-year Car Wash probe had uncovered several cases of managers of international banks who helped Brazilian politicians, financial intermediaries and former Petrobras executives hide illegal money in offshore accounts. Cunha is the highest profile politician convicted of graft and sentenced to 15 years in jail for his role in the corruption scheme, in which engineering companies paid billions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from contracts with Petrobras and other state-run companies. Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Clarence Fernandez'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-corruption-swiss/brazil-charges-swiss-bank-manager-with-laundering-bribe-money-idUSKBN1EE0D4'|'2017-12-20T06:18:00.000+02:00'
'2f47475ec9edbf40a7991f5c741f0ad4485f0d8f'|'Russia''s Aksakov: law on cryptocurrencies to limit investments in ICOs - RIA'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:05 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Russia''s Aksakov: law on cryptocurrencies to limit investments in ICOs - RIA Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s draft law on regulating cryptocurrencies envisages limits on investments in initial coin offerings (ICOs), RIA news agency cited the head of the Russian regional banking association, Anatoly Aksakov, as saying on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A token of the virtual currency Bitcoin is seen placed on a monitor that displays binary digits in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Russian authorities had initially said all cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoins, were illegal. Later they decided to regulate the cryptocurrency market, promising to set out how this regulation will work by the end of the year. Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-bitcoin-law-draft/russias-aksakov-law-on-cryptocurrencies-to-limit-investments-in-icos-ria-idUKKBN1EF0WE'|'2017-12-21T11:14:00.000+02:00'
'abc6536d2a533eb4cf5fdb622bc9369a05b5f1fa'|'BNY Mellon freezes $22 billion in Kazakhstan assets: source'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:47 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago BNY Mellon freezes $22.6 billion in Kazakh oil fund assets Mariya Gordeyeva , Olzhas Auyezov 3 Min Read ALMATY/LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of New York Mellon ( BK.N ) has frozen $22.6 billion in assets held by Kazakhstan’s National Fund in a rare move that escalates a legal battle between the government and a Moldovan investor. Moldova’s Anatolie Stati and his companies earlier won damages against the Kazakh government and his pursuit of payment has lead to some 40 percent of the oil revenue-supported fund being frozen. Details of the asset freeze, which took place in October, were reported by Reuters on Thursday and were subsequently disclosed at a court hearing in Britain. “It’s pretty unprecedented,” said Simon Quijano-Evans, an investment strategist at Legal & General Investment Management in London. “If 40 percent of a sovereign fund is frozen and you don’t have access to it, that should be an alarm bell for policymakers.” Kazakhstan''s dollar bonds fell after the news while its tenge KZT= currency strengthened by 0.6 percent. “Theoretically (the fund) is a national institution so it should cause a rethink for central banks and sovereign wealth funds as it’s been assumed so far that these assets were relatively immune,” said Quijano-Evans. ENERGY INVESTMENTS At the heart of the case is a years-long legal row between businessman Stati, his son Gabriel, two family-controlled companies and the Kazakh government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. They invested in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industry and have asserted that they were subjected to significant harassment from the state aimed at forcing them to sell their investments cheaply. Kazakhstan denies the allegations, but Anatolie and Gabriel Stati and two of their companies – Ascom Group S.A. and Terra Raf Trans Traiding Ltd., won an international arbitration award of around $500 million against the government. It has refused to pay, however, and in October Kazakhstan filed a civil racketeering lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against the Statis and their two firms. The central bank, the National Bank, also filed a lawsuit against BNY Mellon challenging the asset freeze. However, the claim was dismissed by a judge in London on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the Bank of New York Mellon declined to comment. Kazakhstan’s justice ministry could not be reached for comment. The freezing of the assets comes weeks after President Nazarbayev threatened to sack his cabinet if they failed to make large state companies bring back cash held abroad. Nazarbayev, who wields sweeping powers in the oil-rich nation, poured scorn on private sector executives who, he suggested, were enjoying lavish lifestyles while keeping funds in foreign accounts. Additional reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva and Olzhas Ayuezov in Almaty and Sujata Rao-Coverly and Ben Martin in London; writing by Olzhas Ayuezov, Dmitry Solovyov and John O''Donnell; editing by Katya Golubkova, Jason Neely, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kazakhstan-bny-mellon-lawsuit/bny-mellon-freezes-22-billion-of-kazakhstan-assets-source-idUSKBN1EF0F2'|'2017-12-21T11:24:00.000+02:00'
'9e9a11f189b8b9bad1632e814354633f2911d35c'|'Asia stocks subdued as U.S. tax cuts batter bonds'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:50 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Global Markets: Asia stocks subdued as U.S. tax cuts slug bonds Wayne Cole 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian markets offered a muted reception on Thursday to the passage of U.S. tax cuts as benefits to company bottom lines were already baked into stock prices, while bonds were spooked by the blowout in government debt needed to fund the giveaways. A foreign exchange broker rests his thumb on his lips as he is pictured near Japanese and American flags at a trading room in Tokyo October 26, 2011. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/Files MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.06 percent in thin trade, while the Nikkei eased 0.1 percent. South Korea was dragged down 1.4 percent by weakness in Samsung, but Indonesia rose after Fitch upgraded the country’s credit rating. Spreadbetters suggested European bourses would open a shade firmer while E-minis for the S&P 500 were flat. In U.S. President Donald Trump’s first major policy win, Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary relief to middle-class Americans. Having spent more than a year anticipating the bill, its actual passage proved something of an anticlimax for Wall Street. The Dow fell 0.11 percent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.08 percent and the Nasdaq 0.04 percent. Most of the action was in bond markets where yields on U.S. 10-year notes jumped to the highest since March at 2.50 percent, in the process making a bearish break of a key chart level at 2.47 percent. The swing higher in long-term yields, for once, outpaced the move in the short-end and steepened the yield curve a little. Bond investors are concerned that adding fiscal stimulus at a time when the economy is already at full employment would only reinforce the Federal Reserve’s determination to raise interest rates, thus pushing up short term yields. At the same time, many assume the unfunded tax cuts will lead to an explosion in government borrowing, increasing the supply of new bonds and pressuring prices across the curve. The impact is all the greater as the Fed has begun to unwind its massive bond holdings, as have central banks elsewhere. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Tim Scott (R) as he celebrates with Congressional Republicans after the U.S. Congress passed sweeping tax overhaul legislation, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Sweden’s Riksbank on Wednesday took its first baby steps toward reversing ultra-loose policy by ending net new bond purchases. “An appreciation that central banks are going to be buying fewer bonds next year at a time when many governments will be selling more of them, plus profit taking on the curve-flattening theme that has been a winning trade for large parts of 2017, are playing a part,” said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at NAB. BOJ NOT FOR TURNING One institution that has long been committed to aggressive stimulus is the Bank of Japan, and it showed no inclination to re-think the policy at its board meeting on Thursday. Currency investors are assuming the BOJ will keep Japanese bond yields super-low for a long time to come and have been nudging the yen lower in response. That kept the euro up at 134.60 yen after hitting its highest since late 2015 at 134.76. The dollar stood at 113.39 yen, after rising 0.4 percent on Wednesday. The euro outperformed broadly, reaching $1.1867 on the dollar after starting the week down at $1.1752. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was steady at 93.383. The common currency faces a hurdle later in the day when an election in Catalonia is expected to produce no clear majority for either the separatist or unionist parties, leading to weeks of political wrangling. In commodity markets, gold was underpinned by the softer dollar to stand at $1,267.31 an ounce. Oil prices steadied after rising on a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories and the continued outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline system. U.S. crude futures were off 8 cents at $58.01 a barrel, having rallied 53 cents overnight. Brent crude edged back 16 cents to $64.39 a barrel. Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Sam Holmes and Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asia-stocks-subdued-as-u-s-tax-cuts-batter-bonds-idINKBN1EF02K'|'2017-12-21T02:49:00.000+02:00'
'5eb2c450b491980b48d3a0aa13c0495f03480107'|'Accenture''s quarterly revenue rises 12 pct'|'December 21, 2017 / 11:44 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Accenture''s digital push boosts earnings, shares hit record Aishwarya Venugopal   Consulting   firm Accenture Plc’s ( ACN.N ) quarterly earnings and revenue topped Wall Street forecasts, as investments in fast-growing digital and cloud services paid off. Shares of Accenture, which have risen about 30 percent this year, rose 4 percent to a record high of $157.93 in on Thursday morning. The company also lifted its forecast for yearly earnings per share and gave a forecast for current-quarter revenue largely ahead of analysts’ expectations. Revenue from Accenture’s digital, cloud, analytics and security-related services - a group it calls “the New” - made up 55 percent of overall revenue in the first quarter ended Nov. 30. “The primary driver of our growth in the quarter continues to be the New,” Accenture Chief Financial Officer David Rowland said on a call with analysts. Indeed, much of Accenture’s recent growth has been   services, which include everything from managing clients’ social media marketing strategies to helping them move operations to the cloud. Another bright spot for Accenture was revenue from the healthcare and public services industry, which rose nearly 9 percent and exceeded growth in prior quarters. The result came despite warnings from the company of weak client spending amid uncertainty around U.S. healthcare law. “Based on the results of last quarter, businesses were feeling more confident and the spending clearly improved since last quarter,” Edward Jones analyst Josh Olson said. Accenture has also grown rapidly by buying smaller companies and has invested some $3.4 billion on about 70 acquisitions over the past three years. About half of that amount was spent in fiscal year 2017 alone as Accenture ramped up digital and cloud investments, helping it gain market share from Cognizant ( CTSH.O ) and IBM Corp ( IBM.N ). The company expects to spend another $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion on acquisitions in fiscal year 2018. The Dublin-based company expects an annual tax rate of 22 to 24 percent, down from a prior expectation of 23 to 25 percent. The forecast does not include the impact of an expected overhaul of the U.S. tax code, which cuts the   Net income attributable to Accenture rose 11.8 percent to $1.12 billion. On a per-share basis, earnings were $1.79, ahead of analysts’ average forecast of $1.67 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net revenue rose nearly 12 percent to $9.52 billion, topping analysts’ expectations of $9.26 billion. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal   Anil D''Silva and Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-accenture-results/accentures-quarterly-revenue-rises-12-percent-idUSKBN1EF1CV'|'2017-12-21T13:34:00.000+02:00'
'6e77640a958654496f18687b4cd72c20af03378d'|'U.S. holiday shopping season surging towards a strong finish'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:27 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago U.S. holiday shopping season surging towards a strong finish Nandita Bose 5 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - A jump in consumer spending in the final stretch of December should build on a strong start to the U.S. holiday season and help the embattled retail industry beat sales forecasts, industry research groups said. The spending boost in December comes ahead of Super Saturday - the last Saturday before Christmas, which often sets the annual record for retail sales and is one of the busiest shopping days of the year along with Black Friday. In recent years, shopping in the final weeks has determined the success of the season. “Across the board, the whole season is up pretty significantly this year versus last year,” said Glenn Fodor, senior vice-president and head of information and analytics at payment processor First Data. First Data Corp ( FDC.N ), which collected data from point-of-sale systems of 1.3 million physical and online retailers, said strong demand for categories like electronics, appliances, building materials, furniture and home furnishings boosted overall retail spending. During Oct. 28 to Dec. 15 retail spending grew 5.4 percent from last year’s 2 percent. During the five-day period between Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday this year it grew 8 percent from 5.8 percent last year, according to First Data. Brett Lambi, who works at an insurance brokerage and was Christmas shopping for a hand blender for his mother at Macy’s on Chicago’s State Street, said he felt better about spending this year than last year because of an improving job market. “My budget is slightly more than last year but I feel more confident about making a purchase this year,” he said. Earlier this month, the Commerce Department reported better-than-expected U.S. retail sales for November and revised its October figures upward, pointing to a jump in household spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Low unemployment levels, a strong job market, stock market gains and rising home values have contributed to the growing optimism and spending.In its mid-season holiday spending report, Mastercard Inc’s ( MA.N ) SpendingPulse report said 2017 is projected to show the strongest holiday season sales growth rate since 2010, with the overall potential to surpass 5 percent year-over-year growth. “This is a consumer saying I have got a job, gotten a raise, even expecting a bonus ... the economy is really humming,” said Sarah Quinlan, senior vice president & group head, Market Insights. Mastercard tracks spending by combining sales activity in MasterCard’s payments network with estimates of cash and other payment forms. Quinlan also said e-commerce saw the largest share of holiday retail sales ever this year at more than 11 percent. Online shopping rose sharply this year, with Cyber Monday becoming the largest online sales day in history in the U.S. at $6.6 billion. The jump in spending prompted a retail consultant to raise his holiday sales forecast. Craig Johnson, president of consultancy Customer Growth Partners, told Reuters that he now estimates sales growth of 5.6 percent in November and December, up from his initial estimate of 4.3 percent. Johnson said he expects this year to be the strongest since before the great recession began in 2007, and sales momentum is likely to remain strong until the New Year. Despite the optimism, some analysts expressed caution over deepening discounts in December.“Given the important holiday shopping days remaining this year and in the context of deepening promotions since the Thanksgiving weekend ... we believe it is still premature to declare the holiday season a success,” Barclays said in a note to clients. Apparel sales showed modest improvement over last year but still remained weak. That will pressure department stores like Macy’s Inc ( M.N ), Kohl’s Corp ( KSS.N ), and JC Penney ( JCP.N ), analysts and consultants said.The biggest beneficiary of the holiday season continued to be Amazon.com ( AMZN.O ), which outperformed its rivals again this year, they added. Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago; Editing by Phil Berlowitz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping/u-s-holiday-shopping-season-surging-towards-a-strong-finish-idUSKBN1EF2DX'|'2017-12-21T19:22:00.000+02:00'
'ce77dda10f2ac692067ef3b157eddbd762fe2893'|'Irish strike threat recedes after Ryanair puts union pledge in writing - union'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:00 PM / Updated an hour ago Irish strike threat recedes after Ryanair puts union pledge in writing - union Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish union representing Ryanair pilots on Thursday said the threat of industrial action had receded after the company confirmed in writing that it would recognise the union for collective bargaining purposes. FILE PHOTO: A pilot disembarks a Ryanair flight at Stansted airport in London, Britain September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne - RC13831BF000/File Photo The IMPACT union called off planned strike action after Ryanair last week announced that it would recognise trade unions for the first time in its 32 year history, but it said it would reverse the decision unless written confirmation was supplied. “IMPACT said the company’s confirmation that it recognised the union... and would conclude a comprehensive agreement, meant the danger of industrial action had receded for the present,” the union said in a statement. Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots-ireland/irish-strike-threat-recedes-after-ryanair-puts-union-pledge-in-writing-union-idUKKBN1EF1MP'|'2017-12-21T14:59:00.000+02:00'
'00095c5472f9782c95567f79a747686678f9298c'|'BASF CEO Bock to be replaced by his deputy Brudermueller'|' 27 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago BASF CEO Bock to be replaced by his deputy Brudermueller Ludwig Burger 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BASF ( BASFn.DE ), one of the world’s largest chemical groups, will replace Chief Executive Kurt Bock with his deputy Martin Brudermueller in May as it prepares to carve out its oil and gas division and spends billions of euros on farm seed assets. FILE PHOTO - Kurt Bock, outgoing CEO of German chemical company BASF, speaks during an event marking the company''s 150th anniversary in Ludwigshafen, April 23, 2015. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski Bock is set to become supervisory board chairman in 2020 after a two-year cooling-off period, the German chemicals maker said in a statement on Thursday. “The change next year is part of the long-term succession planning for the Supervisory Board and the Board of Executive Directors of BASF,” said Juergen Hambrecht, the group’s current chairman. Brudermueller was appointed deputy CEO in 2011 after losing out to Bock -- finance chief at the time -- in the race for the CEO role. He is also chief technology officer after a previous stint as head of Asia. Brudermueller, with a business strategy background, is seen as more charismatic, and sometimes more impulsive, of the two. BASF’s consensus-based corporate culture has prevented rivalries and differences from breaking out into the open. Bock has long been criticised by investors for being too passive as rivals pushed for big mergers and acquisitions, especially in crop chemicals. But BASF, whose products include catalytic converters, vitamins, engineering plastics and foam chemicals, has embarked on a series of medium-sized deals under his leadership during the past two years. It paid 5.9 billion euros (£5.23 billion) in October to buy seed and herbicide businesses from Bayer ( BAYGn.DE ). It also bought Solvay’s ( SOLB.BR ) nylon business for 1.6 billion euros. In 2016, it bought Albemarle Corp’s surface-treatment unit Chemetall for $3.2 billion. BASF is also in the process of finishing a deal to combine its oil and gas unit Wintershall with DEA, the energy group owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman. A 67 percent stake in the new entity for BASF is already agreed, as well as a possible initial public offering in the second half of 2018. Hans-Ulrich Engel, in addition to being BASF’s chief financial officer, will take on the role as deputy CEO - or Vice Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, as the official title goes. The number of executive board seats will shrink to seven from eight. Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-basf-ceo/basf-ceo-bock-to-be-replaced-by-his-deputy-brudermueller-idUKKBN1EF16E'|'2017-12-21T12:36:00.000+02:00'
'fa3b18c3e1ded2e2a501b6aea31d328ad3d5676e'|'Special court acquits all accused in 2G telecoms case'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:30 AM / Updated 11 hours ago Special court acquits all accused in 2G telecoms case Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A special court on Thursday acquitted former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja, politicians and business executives of graft and money laundering charges in the grant of telecoms licences due to lack of evidence in one of the country’s biggest corruption scandals. India''s former telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja''s supporters celebrate after a hearing outside a court in New Delhi, India, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi The case relates to alleged below-market-price sale of lucrative telecoms permits bundled with airwaves in 2008, which a federal auditor said may have cost the government as much as $28 billion in lost revenue. A special court convened by the Central Bureau of Investigation was called to give its verdict on the accused, including former telecoms minister Raja. “The prosecution has miserably failed to prove its charge,” defence lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told reporters, citing the judge’s ruling. Kanimozhi (C), a lawmaker, is escorted by her husband Aravindan (in yellow) outside a court after a hearing in New Delhi, India, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi Shares of companies affected by the case rose after the verdict, with Reliance Communications Ltd gaining as much as 13.3 percent, DB Realty jumping nearly 20 percent and SUN TV Networks Ltd rising as much as 6.8 percent. The scandal dented the fortunes of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government, which oversaw the sale of the licences at below-market prices, and triggered street protests. Slideshow (5 Images) It was one of the several scandals that emerged during Singh’s second term, hobbling policymaking and diverting the government’s attention away from pushing forward crucial economic reforms. The uncertainty hurt business sentiment in Asia’s third-biggest economy, and led to questions about the government’s efforts to crack down on corruption. In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered 122 licences held by eight operators to be revoked, declaring the licences illegal and the process “wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest”. Reporting by Suchitra Mohanty; additional reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Malini Menon and Nick Macfie'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-court-telecoms/special-court-acquits-all-accused-in-2g-telecoms-case-idINKBN1EF0E2'|'2017-12-21T07:36:00.000+02:00'
'31e2aa3fd85c18c9cfc3249547939099a1a240f5'|'Japan Display says report it sought Apple, Huawei funds is ''speculative'''|'December 21, 2017 / 6:35 AM / Updated 14 hours ago Japan Display says report it sought Apple, Huawei funds is ''speculative'' Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Cash-strapped smartphone screen maker Japan Display Inc ( 6740.T ) dismissed a report on Thursday that it was seeking investment from Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] as “speculative” and declined to comment further. Japanese news agency Kyodo, which reported on Wednesday that Japan Display was discussing an investment of more than 200 billion yen ($1.76 billion) from three Chinese panel makers including BOE Technology Group Co Ltd ( 000725.SZ ), said it was also seeking investment from its two clients. Japan Display and domestic rival Sharp Corp ( 6753.T ) once boasted cutting-edge screen technologies. But they have struggled in recent years to compete with more nimble Asian rivals, and as customers including Apple shifted to newer organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens. The display maker has been losing money for the past three years. It has said it wants to start mass-producing OLED screens to better compete with South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ), and that it needs capital to do so. It has so far declined to disclose details of any negotiations. State-backed fund Innovation Network Corp of Japan owns 36 percent of Japan Display, which was formed in 2002 by combining the ailing display units of Sony Corp ( 6758.T ), Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ) and Toshiba Corp ( 6502.T ). Reporting by Yoshiyasu Shida'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-display-fundraising-apple/japan-display-says-report-it-sought-apple-huawei-funds-is-speculative-idUSKBN1EF0IU'|'2017-12-21T08:34:00.000+02:00'
'7a18e3190dbcfb00ca90d7daab9c165b4f839e88'|'Facebook ads that let employers target younger workers focus of U.S. lawsuit'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:16 AM / Updated an hour ago Facebook ads that let employers target younger workers focus of U.S. lawsuit Sharon Bernstein 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Several U.S. employers engaged in age discrimination by placing recruitment ads on Facebook targeting younger workers, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday by a communications industry labour union. FILE PHOTO: Balloons are seen in front of a logo at Facebook''s headquarters in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Companies including T-Mobile US Inc ( TMUS.O ), Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) and Cox Communications Inc [COXC.UL] imposed age limits on who could see recruitment ads, limiting some only to people younger than 38, according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco by the Communications Workers of America. “This pattern or practice of discrimination denies job opportunities to individuals who are searching for and interested in jobs, reduces the number of older workers who apply for jobs with the offending employers and employment agencies, and depresses the number of older workers who are hired,” the complaint reads. The lawsuit is the latest example of criticism levelled at Facebook for so-called micro-targeting, a process that has allowed advertisers to choose who sees their ads based on age, interests, race and even such characteristics as whether they dislike people based on race or religion. Last month, the company said it was temporarily disabling the ability of advertisers to exclude racial groups from the intended audience of ads, and promised to “do better” at policing discriminatory practices. Facebook, which is not named as a defendant but is accused in the lawsuit of engaging in the practice in its own recruitment efforts, said in a statement on its website that it does not engage in age discrimination. T-Mobile and Cox said they do not comment on litigation. Amazon said it has corrected some ads. “We recently audited our recruiting ads on Facebook and discovered some had targeting that was inconsistent with our approach of searching for any candidate over the age of 18,” Amazon said. The complaint included images of employment recruitment ads that when clicked upon by a user, bring up a screen specifying the age group to which the ad was targeted. “You’re seeing this ad because Amazon Fulfillment Jobs wants to reach people ages 18 to 54 who live or were recently near Silver Spring Maryland,” one reads. Another lists T-Mobile’s desire to reach people who are interested in customer service, adding, “There may be other reasons you’re seeing this ad, including that T-Mobile Careers wants to reach people ages 18 to 38.” Peter Romer-Friedman, a lead attorney on the case, said companies rely heavily on social media for job recruitment, so the targeting harms older job-seekers. Lawyers will seek class action status for the case and plan to add defendants, he said. Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-facebook-lawsuit-discrimination/facebook-ads-that-let-employers-target-younger-workers-focus-of-u-s-lawsuit-idUKKBN1EF099'|'2017-12-21T10:35:00.000+02:00'
'88790c4534cdb61241ce2e1e1d858a14e90e8e3e'|'Twitter seeks business ad dollars with live news, CEO tweets'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:14 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Twitter seeks business ad dollars with live news, CEO tweets Sheila Dang , Jessica Toonkel 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Twitter Inc is turning its spotlight onto a new demographic in its bid to lure more advertising dollars to its social media platform: deep-pocketed business users. The Twitter logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo - S1AEUJLJHTAA The microblogging service has 330 million monthly active users but has struggled to turn its popularity into profit, losing out to rival Facebook Inc for ad dollars. Now it is going after a more niche business audience, taking on LinkedIn, Microsoft Corp’s professional online network. For several years, Twitter has had an employee whose job is to teach and encourage CEOs like Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s Lloyd Blankfein and Walt Disney Co’s Bob Iger to tweet. They both do, sparingly. Twitter launched a round-the-clock streaming news network with Bloomberg Media this week, which is designed to appeal to business people. The 24/7 news service, called “TicToc by Bloomberg,” live-streamed coverage of British Prime Minister Theresa May discussing Brexit negotiations on Wednesday, its third day of operation, attracting about 4,000 viewers. Hourly global news updates had total views in the hundreds of thousands. Twitter and Bloomberg have not publicized financial arrangements over TicToc, but such projects usually work on a share of ad or sponsorship revenue. Neither commented on Wednesday. TicToc has seven initial sponsors including wireless carrier AT&T Inc and derivatives marketplace firm CME Group Inc. Bloomberg has said it will eventually open up to additional sponsors. Twitter’s shares rose slightly on Wednesday. They are up 45 percent over the last 12 months, outpacing the red-hot technology sector, even though ad revenue was down 8 percent in the third quarter from the previous year, the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines. The stock is still less than half its value in late 2013 after its initial public offering, when investors had high hopes Twitter would cash in on its fast-growing user base. TWITTER V LINKEDIN TicToc launched on Twitter just a few months after LinkedIn introduced video ads on its service. The professional networking platform is a top choice for business-to-business advertisers and presents tough competition for Twitter, media buyers told Reuters. LinkedIn’s video ads are attractive to advertisers because the service has job titles and resume data that advertisers can use to target their messaging, said Aaron Shapiro, chief executive at Huge, a digital agency that counts American Express Co and TD Bank as clients. “Twitter is more about broadcasting, so if I want to get my name out, that’s good,” he said. “LinkedIn is much more targeted.” Twitter has the potential to be a great platform for advertisers that want to reach business executives and investors, because so many are on Twitter, said one executive at a Fortune 500 company who asked for anonymity because he is not permitted to speak to the media. “If you are a packaged goods company, you probably care more about the middle of the country, so Facebook is the better channel,” he said. “But for us, we are excited to see Twitter partner with Bloomberg.” Competing with LinkedIn will be difficult for Twitter because LinkedIn is better at providing measurements and results to advertisers, the executive said. Because of its detailed user data, LinkedIn’s strength is showing advertisers where in the sales process it contributed to converting a customer, said Craig Atkinson, chief investment officer at PHD, a unit of Omnicom Media Group. Reporting by Sheila Dang and Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Anna Driver and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-business/twitter-seeks-business-ad-dollars-with-live-news-ceo-tweets-idUKKBN1EE2T5'|'2017-12-21T00:10:00.000+02:00'
'76950dc2eeb8ebceb9b244fe30ae7265ab07f88c'|'Twitter seeks business ad dollars with live news, CEO tweets'|'December 21, 2017 / 4:35 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Twitter seeks business ad dollars with live news, CEO tweets Sheila Dang , Jessica Toonkel 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Twitter Inc is turning its spotlight onto a new demographic in its bid to lure more advertising dollars to its social media platform: deep-pocketed business users. FILE PHOTO: People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw September 27, 2013. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo The microblogging service has 330 million monthly active users but has struggled to turn its popularity into profit, losing out to rival Facebook Inc for ad dollars. Now it is going after a more niche business audience, taking on LinkedIn, Microsoft Corp’s professional online network. For several years, Twitter has had an employee whose job is to teach and encourage CEOs like Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s Lloyd Blankfein and Walt Disney Co’s Bob Iger to tweet. They both do, sparingly. Twitter launched a round-the-clock streaming news network with Bloomberg Media this week, which is designed to appeal to business people as well as a general audience. The 24/7 news service, called “TicToc by Bloomberg,” live-streamed coverage of British Prime Minister Theresa May discussing Brexit negotiations on Wednesday, its third day of operation, attracting about 4,000 viewers. It also racked up 55,000 concurrent views on the U.S. House of Representatives vote on the tax bill on Wednesday. Global news updates had total views in the hundreds of thousands. Twitter and Bloomberg have not publicized financial arrangements over TicToc, but such projects usually work on a share of ad or sponsorship revenue. Neither commented on Wednesday. TicToc has seven initial sponsors including wireless carrier AT&T Inc and derivatives marketplace firm CME Group Inc. Bloomberg has said it will eventually open up to additional sponsors. Twitter’s shares rose slightly on Wednesday. They are up 45 percent over the last 12 months, outpacing the red-hot technology sector, even though ad revenue was down 8 percent in the third quarter from the previous year, the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines. The stock is still less than half its value in late 2013 after its initial public offering, when investors had high hopes Twitter would cash in on its fast-growing user base. TWITTER V LINKEDIN TicToc launched on Twitter just a few months after LinkedIn introduced video ads on its service. The professional networking platform is a top choice for business-to-business advertisers and presents tough competition for Twitter, media buyers told Reuters. LinkedIn’s video ads are attractive to advertisers because the service has job titles and resume data that advertisers can use to target their messaging, said Aaron Shapiro, chief executive at Huge, a digital agency that counts American Express Co and TD Bank as clients. “Twitter is more about broadcasting, so if I want to get my name out, that’s good,” he said. “LinkedIn is much more targeted.” Twitter has the potential to be a great platform for advertisers that want to reach business executives and investors, because so many are on Twitter, said one executive at a Fortune 500 company who asked for anonymity because he is not permitted to speak to the media. “If you are a packaged goods company, you probably care more about the middle of the country, so Facebook is the better channel,” he said. “But for us, we are excited to see Twitter partner with Bloomberg.” Competing with LinkedIn will be difficult for Twitter because LinkedIn is better at providing measurements and results to advertisers, the executive said. Because of its detailed user data, LinkedIn’s strength is showing advertisers where in the sales process it contributed to converting a customer, said Craig Atkinson, chief investment officer at PHD, a unit of Omnicom Media Group. Reporting by Sheila Dang and Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Anna Driver and Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/twitter-business/twitter-seeks-business-ad-dollars-with-live-news-ceo-tweets-idINKBN1EF0B7'|'2017-12-21T06:32:00.000+02:00'
'4563131ad583a6e113b656df1aa341893142985e'|'Shell, Eni ordered to stand trial on alleged Nigeria corruption'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:01 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Shell, Eni ordered to stand trial on alleged Nigeria corruption Emilio Parodi 2 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian judge has ordered Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) and Eni ( ENI.MI ) to stand trial over alleged corruption in Nigeria with the CEO of Eni among past and present managers involved, legal sources said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - A passenger plane flies over a Shell logo at a petrol station in west London, in this January 29, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Files The case involves the 2011 purchase by Eni and Shell of Nigeria’s OPL-245 offshore oilfield - one of Africa’s most valuable oil blocks - for about $1.3 billion (£97 million). Besides the two companies, 13 people including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi and former chairman of the Shell Foundation Malcolm Brinded were put on trial, the sources said. Under Italian law a company can be held responsible if it is deemed to have failed to prevent, or attempt to prevent, a crime by an employee that benefited the company. Shell said it was disappointed by the outcome of the hearing but added it believed the judges would conclude there was no case against the group or its former employees. “There is no place for bribery or corruption in our company,” it said. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Italian energy company Eni is seen at an Agip gas station in Lugano, Switzerland June 3, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Eni reiterated that the company and its CEO had not been involved in any wrongdoing. It said the board had full confidence in Descalzi who at the time of the deal was head of exploration and production. The OPL-245 licence was initially awarded in 1998 by former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete to Malabu Oil and Gas, a company in which he held shares. It was then sold to Eni and Shell. Campaign group Global Witness and others say much of the $1.3 billion in payments for the block did not go to the state but instead went to Etete, who was convicted of money laundering in a 2007 French case related to his time in the Nigerian government. Shell has previously said it was aware that some of the payments it made to Nigeria for rights to the oilfield would go to Malabu but said the transaction was fully legal. The trial is due to start on March 5, the sources said. Additional reporting and writing by Stephen Jewkes; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eni-shell-nigeria-corruption/shell-eni-ordered-to-stand-trial-on-alleged-nigeria-corruption-idUKKBN1EE1F6'|'2017-12-20T14:01:00.000+02:00'
'6ab040be85691aa656863e4c12b8304535737600'|'Audi recalls 330,000 cars in Germany on possible electrical problem'|' 29 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago Audi recalls 330,000 cars in Germany on possible electrical problem Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MUNICH (Reuters) - German premium carmaker Audi ( NSUG.DE ) said on Wednesday it was recalling 330,000 cars in Germany due to possible problems with electrical connections for the auxiliary heater that could cause fires. FILE PHOTO - The logo of German car manufacturer Audi is seen at a building of a car dealer in Duebendorf, Switzerland November 22, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann A spokesman for Audi, a unit of Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), said the recall affected models A4, A5, A5 Cabriolet and Q5 built between April 2011 and May 2015. He said a few customers had reported a smell of burning in their cars but there had been no fires or other damage. German online trade publication Kfz-Rueckrufe.de first reported the recall. Reporting by Irene Preisinger; Writing by Maria Sheahan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-audi-recall/audi-recalls-330000-cars-in-germany-on-possible-electrical-problem-idUKKBN1EE1ZE'|'2017-12-20T17:28:00.000+02:00'
'c4ccdf398c515a18fa9868330e27fad43ddc907a'|'IMF''s Lagarde says pre-Brexit warnings vindicated by slower UK growth'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:51 AM / Updated 28 minutes ago IMF''s Lagarde says pre-Brexit warnings vindicated by slower UK growth Andy Bruce , David Milliken 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s economy is already suffering from last year’s vote to leave the European Union - fulfilling previous warnings that Brexit supporters had dismissed as too gloomy, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde attends a seminar to mark 20th anniversary of the launch of IMF''s Asia-Pacific Office, in Tokyo, Japan November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato Before the June 2016 referendum, Lagarde had said Brexit would have “pretty bad to very, very bad” consequences for Britain, angering Brexit backers who viewed the body as exceeding the limits of its expertise. Speaking in London as she presented the IMF’s first full assessment of Britain’s economic performance since the Brexit vote, Lagarde said British growth was “a bit of a disappointment” compared to strength elsewhere in the world. “The UK economy is already losing out as a result of this decision,” she said at a news conference alongside finance minister Philip Hammond. “That narrative we identified as a potential risk in May 2016 is actually being rolled out as we speak. It’s not experts talking - it is the economy demonstrating that,” Lagarde said. Firms were delaying investment until they had more clarity about future trade rules, and she urged Britain and the EU to reach a deal soon on transitional arrangements for March 2019. The IMF said Britain’s economy was set to grow by around 1.5 percent in 2018, in line with its previous forecast, after growth of 1.6 percent in 2017, slower than in many other advanced economies. The forecast for 2018 was based on the assumption that Brexit negotiations continue to make progress. In its report on Britain’s economy, the IMF said Britain may need to raise more money from taxes to bring down its budget deficit after relying heavily on squeezing public spending. “Deficit reduction since the financial crisis has relied mostly on spending measures,” the IMF said. “While the government should continue to seek the best value for money in public spending, a more balanced approach to deficit reduction may be called for in future,” it said. The impact of Brexit on the economy and Britain’s low productivity growth could hit tax revenues, while demands on public spending would increase as the country’s population grows older. “Under these circumstances, greater reliance on revenue measures for consolidation (of the budget) than in recent years may be warranted,” the report said. Finance minister Hammond said he shared the IMF’s concerns about Britain’s high levels of public debt. The report also welcomed recent progress in the Brexit talks with Brussels but said the timeframe for negotiating a new trade deal was ambitious. Additional reporting by William Schomberg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-britain-eu/imfs-lagarde-sees-brexit-weighing-on-uk-economy-idUKKBN1EE17K'|'2017-12-20T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'612b52ac6f0e8e1b2760cba6a174b277fee09b98'|'Saudi energy minister: Premature to discuss changes in OPEC-led pact'|' 30 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Saudi energy minister: Premature to discuss changes in OPEC-led pact Rania El Gamal , Katie Paul 4 Min Read RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said it is premature to discuss any changes to the OPEC-led supply cut pact as market rebalancing is unlikely to happen until the second half of 2018 even with the current outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline. FILE PHOTO: Saudi Arabia''s Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih addresses a news conference after an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Any potential exit from current cuts would be done gradually once the market returns to balance but drawing down inventories will still take more time, Khalid al-Falih told Reuters on Wednesday. “We haven’t seen any major declines in inventories that we didn’t expect. As we said last month, we still have approximately 150 million barrels of overhang, and it is going to take the second half 2018 to draw that down,” Falih said. “We expect the first few months of 2018 to be either flat or a build (in inventories) as it is typically the case with the seasonality with the oil market especially on the demand side,” he said in an interview in Riyadh. “So I think it is premature to discuss any potential changes in our course, and the earliest opportunity to assess where the market is in a major way would be in June.” OPEC and 10 other producers led by Russia last month extended an agreement to cut oil production by 1.8 million bpd until the end of next year. The alliance is targeting the elimination of an oil glut to bring global oil inventories back to the industry’s five-year average. Crude prices LCOc1 firmed on Wednesday, supported by a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories and the continued outage of Britain’s North Sea Forties pipeline system. Falih, who holds the OPEC presidency this year, said he does not expect the shutdown of the key North Sea pipeline to affect supply significantly. EXIT STRATEGY Russia, which this year reduced production significantly with OPEC for the first time, has been pushing for a clear message on how to exit the cuts so the market doesn’t flip into a deficit too soon, prices don’t rally too fast and rival U.S. shale firms don’t boost output further. Falih said he is in continuous discussions with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak and that “Russia sees the benefit of continuing to cooperate.” “All producers – whether companies and countries – have benefited significantly from the course of action that we have taken and therefore they would benefit from continuing the course but not beyond reaching balance,” Falih said. “I think once we reach balance we will need a gradual, deliberate, measured and thoughtful way of exiting and making sure that supply is always there for the rise in demand.” He said that global growth in demand is expected to remain healthy next year in Asian markets like China and India as well as in the United States and Europe. Oil traders say that rising U.S. crude production, which has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.8 million bpd, was capping prices. Most analysts expect U.S. output to break through 10 million bpd soon, which would be a new record and take it to levels on a par with the world’s largest producers Saudi Arabia and Russia. Falih said that even with the extra supply coming from the United States that will not slow “the momentum of rebalancing” on the back of healthy demand growth projections in 2018. “I don’t expect that balancing to be achieved in the next few months, certainly not in the first half, and I think we will have plenty of time to monitor and discuss by the time we get together in June.” Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Katie Paul; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-saudi-minister/saudi-energy-minister-premature-to-discuss-changes-in-opec-led-pact-idINKBN1EE2JB'|'2017-12-20T21:29:00.000+02:00'
'9871b16f9671f09a447603482c71de7c206eac39'|'Defiant O''Leary says union recognition sets stage for Ryanair expansion'|'December 19, 2017 / 3:59 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Defiant O''Leary says union recognition sets stage for Ryanair expansion Conor Humphries 5 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O‘Leary broke months of media silence on Tuesday to defend his decision to recognise unions for the first time in 32 years, saying it would allow his airline to expand and help to keep staff costs down. Ryanair CEO Michael O''Leary arrives at the Ryanair AGM in Dublin, Ireland September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo In his first interview since Friday’s surprise decision to accept unionisation to stave off a string of Christmas strikes, O‘Leary said the move was his idea and that he would not step down. His action knocked more than 10 percent off the company’s shares. But he also warned unions that he would not be a soft-touch and if they put forward unreasonable demands he would simply shift planes and jobs to other jurisdictions. “This is not a ruse. This is serious,” O‘Leary said of the decision, which he said was “in many respects my idea” and which he ran past the company’s board of directors on Thursday night. “But if someone is being unreasonable and we are being completely messed around by a union, we will still move aircraft away from that base or country,” he said in the interview in his Dublin office, flanked by his chief operations officer Peter Bellew and chief people officer Eddie Wilson, who are leading talks with unions. He rejected media speculation that he may step aside to make way for Bellew, who left his position as chief executive of Malaysia Airlines last month and has been the face of the company in recent days. “Am I going to leave? No. I am going to stay,” said O‘Leary, in his first media interview since a Sept. 21 annual general meeting when he infuriated pilots by saying they did not have a difficult job. O‘Leary said union recognition would open new opportunities for Ryanair, allowing it to work in heavily unionised countries like France and Denmark. The airline could move 50 planes to France - one eighth of its current 400-plane fleet - he said, although he said the speed of such a deployment would depend on the availability of planes and deals with airports. Ryanair will still meet its target of flying 200 million passengers per year by 2024, up from just under 130 million this year, he said. O‘Leary said the decision to recognise unions would not impact on the company’s annual profit forecast and that he did not expect staff costs to increase beyond the extra 100 million euros announced following the cancellation of 20,000 flights in September. FILE PHOTO - Ryanair commercial passenger jet lands in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau “We have already admitted there will be an uptick in labour costs next year. But will it alter our model? No,” he said. “We will still have much lower aircraft costs, much lower financing costs, much lower airport deals. That will all remain unchanged.” In the longer term, the rate of growth of staff costs could actually decrease as he said pilots prefer to work in unionised airlines, he said. O‘Leary said the decision to recognise unions was not a result of management weakness or pilot strength but the fact that the airline was facing the prospect of compensating 150,000 passengers in Christmas week and possibly more after that. “If you need to go on strike just to test our mettle, then go ahead,” O‘Leary said. “But not in Christmas week. And not one that disrupts all our customers across Europe.” “Union recognition was always going to happen when we moved into France. We have just moved that forward,” he said. Bellew and Wilson are due to meet with the Irish pilots union for the first time on Tuesday evening. O‘Leary declined to comment on what Ryanair would concede. Ryanair, he said, would go in with a “can do” attitude. Ryanair shares closed up 2.3 percent on Tuesday at 14.95 euros, but well below the Friday opening of 17.6 euros as investors have fretted that union recognition could potentially damage the carrier’s low-cost business model. Rory Powe, fund manager at Man GLG, a top 20 shareholder in Ryanair, said some investors agreed with O‘Leary’s reading of the situation. “I don’t see Ryanair’s cost advantage being eroded by anything more than an immaterial amount,” he said. “He has adapted and will continue to stay.” ($1 = 0.8466 euros) Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan and Maiya Keidan; Editing by Mark Potter, Susan Fenton and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots-unions/ryanair-says-serious-on-union-recognition-but-threat-to-move-planes-remains-idUKKBN1ED22Y'|'2017-12-19T20:39:00.000+02:00'
'caf720901dcfd4220904d56750e70e9b3d75e9b3'|'Greek parliament approves 2018 budget'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:34 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Greek lawmakers approve 2018 budget, government says last under bailout Lefteris Papadimas 3 Min Read ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek lawmakers on Tuesday approved by majority the country’s 2018 budget, which the government said would be the last under bailout terms which have held the country in a stranglehold of austerity for eight years. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses lawmakers during a parliamentary session before a budget vote in Athens, Greece December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Costas Baltas “We leave behind a period that no one wants to remember,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told lawmakers at the end of a two-day debate in which his governing coalition were lambasted by opposition lawmakers for a tax blitz on the populace. “For the first time, we know with certainty that this is the last bailout budget,” he added. Greece has relied on financial handouts from European Union creditors and the International Monetary fund since 2010. Its third bailout expires in August 2018, by which time it will be expected to finance itself from the markets. Its economy lost about a third of output over a seven-year period but is gradually returning to growth. The budget forecasts an expansion in output of 2.5 percent in 2018, compared to a projected 1.6 percent this year. It is expected to generate a primary surplus, which excludes debt servicing, of 3.82 percent of gross domestic output, higher than that set by lenders. Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos addresses lawmakers during a parliamentary session before a budget vote in Athens, Greece, December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Costas Baltas Greece’s fiscal goals have been approved by European Union lenders and the International Monetary Fund. Under its latest bailout review, the government has agreed to cut spending further, reduce pensions, complete an evaluation of public sector staff skills and qualifications and sell coal-fired power stations. It will tighten the rules for unions to call a strike. Slideshow (8 Images) “Greece is the only European country under a bailout and has the lowest growth in the eurozone ... people wish that this budget will be the last one of your government,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the opposition New Democracy party. As part of measures to offset the impact of austerity, the finance ministry said on Tuesday that value added tax would not be increased on five islands which have received thousands of asylum seekers since Europe’s migrant crisis erupted in 2015. Tsipras won power in 2015 on promises to end austerity but later signed up to a new 86 billion-euro bailout that ends in August. His term ends in 2019 and his Syriza party is trailing in opinion polls. A poll by the University of Macedonia for Skai TV aired on Dec. 18 showed New Democracy’s popularity at 30 percent, 12 points ahead of Syriza. Another, conducted by Kapa Research for left-leaning newspaper Ethnos, showed New Democracy leading by 4.8 points. Editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-budget/greek-parliament-approves-2018-budget-idUKKBN1ED2NM'|'2017-12-19T22:34:00.000+02:00'
'68b566305d65d3dfe8e4d2f8025afd336ea480ae'|'Greenyard in advanced talks to acquire Dole Food Company'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:26 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Greenyard targets U.S. market with talks to acquire Dole Food Alan Charlish 3   Belgian fresh and frozen foods company Greenyard NV said on Tuesday it was in advanced negotiations to acquire Dole Food Company [DFCI.UL], the world’s largest fruit and vegetable producer, confirming a Reuters report. The California-based company, one of the largest producers of bananas and pineapples, could be valued at more than $2.5 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Greenyard has a market capitalization of 869 million euros ($1.03 billion) according to Thomson Reuters data. “Greenyard has secured appropriate financing, and is confident in its ability to complete the transaction with a balanced financing approach should a definitive agreement be reached,” the company said in a statement. The deal would create a company with annual revenue of around 8 billion euros. Shares in Brussels-listed Greenyard, half-owned by the family of Belgian entrepreneur Hein Deprez, were up 1.9 percent at 0830 GMT, after a 3.3 percent rise on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Dole brand bananas are seen on display at the Safeway store in Wheaton, Maryland, United States, February 13, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron/File Photo For Dole’s 94-year-old chairman David Murdock a deal with Greenyard would offer a quick way to cash out on his ownership of the California-based company, which has also been considering a potential initial public offering. For Greenyard, an acquisitive company that started out as a mushroom grower in the 1980s, the deal would allow it to branch out into the U.S. market. It could also supply the U.S. businesses of existing customers such as Aldi [ALDIEI.UL], Lidl and Ahold Delhaize. “It is a very fragmented fruit and veg distribution market they’re operating in... some of the markets where they’ve talked about being more ambitious are France, the UK and the U.S., and certainly Dole would give them that key into the U.S.,” said Berenberg analyst Fintan Ryan. “From a strategic point of view, the acquisition would make sense creating a large player in both Europe and America,” KBC analysts said in a note, adding that Greenyard would need to raise about 500 million euros to keep its net debt/EBITDA level ratio to below 3.5. Dole Food Company could not immediately be reached for comment. ($1 = 0.8471 euros)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greenyard-dole/greenyard-in-advanced-talks-to-acquire-dole-food-company-idUSKBN1ED0LQ'|'2017-12-19T09:22:00.000+02:00'
'a34a54f63182492c9d854aea1a6fe810243b2ab6'|'BRIEF-Covea launches 90 mln euro catastrophe bond for French windstorm risk'|' 06 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago BRIEF-Covea launches 90 mln euro catastrophe bond for French windstorm risk Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - * COVEA MUTUAL INSURANCE LAUNCHES 90 MILLION EURO “HEXAGON REINSURANCE” CATASTROPHE BOND FOR FRENCH WINDSTORM RISK -ARRANGER * WILLIS TOWERS WATSON SECURITIES SAYS STRUCTURED AND PLACED THE BOND (Reporting By Carolyn Cohn)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-covea-launches-90-mln-euro-catastr/brief-covea-launches-90-mln-euro-catastrophe-bond-for-french-windstorm-risk-idUSL8N1OJ2AX'|'2017-12-19T13:05:00.000+02:00'
'0d063a3ff94f4a39d7d870e88020fbd6c4ee4fa3'|'EU markets hold their breath ahead of ''MiFID'' Day'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:21 PM / Updated an hour ago EU markets hold their breath ahead of ''MiFID'' Day Huw Jones 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A sweeping reform of European Union financial markets will come in with the New Year on January 3, a year late due to its complexity and after eleventh-hour handholding by regulators keen to avoid any trading snarls. FILE PHOTO: A market maker works on the trading floor at IG Index in London, Britain January 14, 2016. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo The new rules shine a spotlight on the innards of stock, bond, commodity and derivatives markets by forcing banks, asset managers and traders to report detailed information on trillions of euros in transactions. Banks and trading firms have spent millions of euros getting ready for the big day. A report from Expand, part of the Boston Consulting Group and IHS Markit, has estimated that top global banks and asset managers will have spent $2.1 billion this year to comply with the new regime. The aim is to apply lessons from the 2007-09 global financial crisis by increasing transparency in trading and bolstering investor protection. It will mean that stock, bond, derivatives, commodity and other trades must be reported to a repository, a trove of data that supervisors can use to track trades and spot risks. Regulators, already complaining they have too few resources, will sift through the data to try to spot bubbles early after failing to see the last crisis coming. In run up to the launch, bankers will work through the night to check that high-speed reporting connections with customers and trading platforms work from day one. Fund managers and others must for the first time fill in a transaction report with up to 65 bits of data within 15 minutes of a trade - or risk being fined. Originally due to come in at the start of 2017, the EU was forced to give banks and regulators another year to get ready for the rules, known as MiFID II or Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II. They represent a major overhaul of the 2007 MiFID law to improve transparency and investor protection and broaden its scope to take in more financial products. MiFID II will be a journey and not a one off event in January, is how one national regulator responded to questions about how trading will unfold on January 3. The bloc’s European Securities and Markets Authority is overseeing the rollout and published a flurry of statements this week to tackle some remaining roadbumps and calm nerves. “ESMA, in close cooperation with the national regulatory authorities across the EU, has carried out a broad range of work, even within the last few days, to ensure that the framework is in place to ensure a smooth transition from MiFID I to MiFID II,” ESMA Chairman Steven Maijoor told Reuters. Even with the extra year, only 11 of the bloc’s 28 member states have written MiFID II fully into national law, prompting ESMA to say that all firms can carry on even if their home state is among those countries that have not completed the legislative process. It also said that a requirement for each party to a stock, bond or derivative trade to have a unique identifier for reporting transactions would put be on hold for six months. Germany, France and Britain, home to the EU’s top financial centres, are among the 11 EU states whose national laws are up to speed and big banks are likely to be ready. Royal Bank of Scotland’s ( RBS.L ) NatWest Markets has conducted a “soft launch”. From January 2 to January 4, some of its staff will work through the night. “Day One will hopefully go smoothly and we are as ready as we can be,” Giovanni Mazzocchi, head of macro distribution in Europe for Barclays ( BARC.L ), said. “There are a few overnighters going on to make sure everything will work on the day.” There are concerns over smaller players who cannot afford teams of extra staff to get ready in time. But industry officials predict light trading volumes initially rather than paralysis. “It’s in nobody’s interest that the markets will freeze up. Markets will be just fine, even if there is some nervousness as they adapt to the significant changes,” Christian Voigt, senior regulatory adviser at Fidessa, a provider of trading software, said. “As long as regulators give time to adjust, then all will be well.” Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority has said it will initially take a “proportionate” approach to enforcement but laggards must show they are making an effort. DISRUPTIVE ESMA will use the data provided by markets to set curbs on the maximum size of commodity positions, and cap trading of shares in “dark pools” or off an exchange. MiFID II gives investors more information about which trading platforms offer the best deals, and asset managers will have show investors who is paying for stock research. ESMA has already begun flexing its new MiFID II muscles to curb or ban financial products. Shares in British spread-betters tumbled on Monday after ESMA outlined possible restrictions on the sale of complex products to consumers. A fundamental aim of the original MiFID was to increase competition in share trading by allowing new platforms to take on centuries-old rivals like the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ). Upstarts like Chi-X went on to become among the biggest pan-European share trading platforms and regulators want MiFID II to bring “disruption” to trading in other assets, forcing companies to become more agile and serve customers better. “There will be interesting times over the next few years with new players entering the market and both clients and banks making full use of the new available data to shape their activities in the market,” Mazzocchi said. Voigt said MiFID II was not a revolution in share trading, but would have a big impact on bonds, commodities and derivatives, where electronic trading will increase. “For fixed income and off-exchange derivatives, the whole mindset needs to change as a lot of trades are still done over the phone,” Voigt said. Karel Lannoo, chief executive of Brussels think tank CEPS which tracks financial services, said it will take six to 12 months for markets to fully implement the new rules. Additional reporting by Emma Rumney, editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-markets-mifid/eu-markets-hold-their-breath-ahead-of-mifid-day-idUKKBN1EG1CQ'|'2017-12-22T14:23:00.000+02:00'
'e4c997b6dabb1d767446ab6043d59fe8a50f083c'|'Papa John''s founder Schnatter to step down as CEO'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:59 PM / Updated 11 hours ago Papa John''s founder Schnatter to step down as CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Papa John’s International ( PZZA.O ) founder John Schnatter will step down as chief executive by the year-end, the pizza chain operator said on Thursday, weeks after his comments on the NFL leadership drew criticism. The company said Chief Operating Officer Steve Ritchie will succeed Schnatter, who is also the chairman of the board. Schnatter, 56, who founded the company in 1984, came under fire in November after he criticized the National Football League’s leadership over national anthem protests by players. “The NFL has hurt us. And more importantly, by not resolving the current debacle to the player and owners’ satisfaction, NFL leadership has hurt Papa John’s shareholders,” Schnatter had said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 1. The comments generated huge backlash on social media, prompting the company to tweet an apology for Schnatter’s comments. Papa John’s has been the official pizza provider of the NFL since 2010. Ritchie, 43, started with Papa John’s 21 years ago as a customer service representative. He was made COO in 2014 and president in 2015. Shares of the Louisville, Kentucky- based pizza chain are down over 30 percent this year. Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-papa-john-s-ceo/papa-johns-founder-schnatter-to-step-down-as-ceo-idUSKBN1EF2ZR'|'2017-12-22T00:57:00.000+02:00'
'ea2e4873e4235aa8d666d6dab6608e8d1f288346'|'BRIEF-Lily O’Brien’s To Be Acquired By Colian Holdings SA'|' 04 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago BRIEF-Lily O’Brien’s To Be Acquired By Colian Holdings SA Reuters Staff Dec 22 (Reuters) - Carlyle Group LP: * LILY O’BRIEN’S TO BE ACQUIRED BY COLIAN HOLDINGS SA FOR €40 MILLION * LILY O’BRIEN’S WILL CONTINUE TO BE RUN BY ITS EXISTING IRISH MANAGEMENT TEAM LED BY CEO, EOIN DONNELLY Source text : ( bit.ly/2kHKGcv )  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-lily-obriens-to-be-acquired-by-col/brief-lily-obriens-to-be-acquired-by-colian-holdings-sa-idUSFWN1OM0KX'|'2017-12-22T20:03:00.000+02:00'
'5a786e2ddeccbd874bccdf873b0fa8774c20240b'|'Bitcoin slips below $14,000, down 30 percent from record peak'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:21 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Bitcoin plunges below $12,000, heads for worst week since 2013 Jemima Kelly , Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 5 Min Read NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged by a quarter to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency in manic trading after its blistering ascent to a peak close to $20,000 prompted warnings by experts of a bubble. It capped a brutal week that had been touted as a new era of mainstream trading for the volatile digital currency when bitcoin futures debuted on CME Group Inc ( CME.O ), the world’s largest derivatives market on Sunday. Friday’s steep fall bled into the U.S. stock market, where shares of companies that have recently lashed their fortunes to bitcoin or blockchain - its underlying technology - took a hard knock in early trading. The biggest and best-known cryptocurrency had seen a staggering twentyfold increase since the start of the year, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,666 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP on Sunday and to over $20,000 on other exchanges. Bitcoin has fallen each day since, with losses accelerating on Friday. In the futures market, bitcoin one-month futures <0#XBT:> on Cboe Global Markets were halted due to the steep price drop, while those trading on the CME BTCF8 hit the limit down threshold. In the spot market, bitcoin fell to as low as $11,159, down more than 25 percent on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP , its largest one-day drop in nearly three years. For the week, it was down around a third - its worst performance since April 2013. “After its parabolic-like rally, a crash was imminent and so it has proved,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com in London. “Investors may have also been put off buying bitcoin at those elevated levels amid repeated warnings from experts about the way it had climbed near $20,000.” “A manic upward swing led by the herd will be followed by a downturn as the emotional sentiment changes,” said Charles Hayter, founder and chief executive of industry website Cryptocompare in London. “A lot of traders have been waiting for this large correction.” “With the end of the year in sight a lot of investors will be taking profits and saying thank you very much and closing their books for the holiday period,” he added. Warnings about the risks of investing in the unregulated market have increased - Denmark’s central bank governor called it a “deadly” gamble - and there have been worries about the security of exchanges on which cryptocurrencies are bought and sold. FILE PHOTO: A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration/File Photo South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit said on Tuesday it is shutting down and is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year. Coinbase, a U.S. company that runs one of the biggest exchanges and provides digital “wallets” for storing bitcoins, said on Wednesday it would investigate accusations of insider trading, following a sharp increase in the price of a bitcoin spin-off hours before it announced support for it. CRYPTO-RIVALS As rival cryptocurrencies slid along with bitcoin, the total estimated value of the crypto market fell to as low as $440 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, having neared $650 billion just a day earlier. But other cryptocurrencies surged this week, with investors moving into cheaper digital coins, rather than cashing out of the sector. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market size, soared to almost $900 earlier in the week, from around $500 a week earlier. Ripple, the third-biggest, has more than quadrupled in price since Monday. Stephen Innes, head of trading in Asia-Pacific for retail FX broker Oanda in Singapore, said that there have also been moves out of bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash, a clone of the original cryptocurrency. Oanda does not handle trading in bitcoin. “Most of it is unsophisticated retail traders getting burned badly,” Innes said on bitcoin’s recent retreat. While some say the launch by CME and its rival Cboe Global Markets of bitcoin futures over the last two weeks has given the digital currency some perceived legitimacy, many policymakers remain sceptical. Bitcoin is known to go through wild swings. In November, it tumbled almost 30 percent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 percent from $4,979 to $2,972. To view a graphic on Bitcoin moves this year click on this link reut.rs/2BVVXQd Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Jemima Kelly in London; Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro in Tokyo; Editing by Keith Weir and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-bitcoin/bitcoin-extends-losses-slips-below-14000-on-bitstamp-exchange-idUKKBN1EG0AA'|'2017-12-22T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'd133a803499febbccee86f811e781d3e6a010b13'|'Goldman Sachs to set up cryptocurrency trading desk - Bloomberg'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:47 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Goldman Sachs to set up cryptocurrency trading desk - Bloomberg Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc is setting up a trading desk to make markets in digital currencies like bitcoin, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: A sign is displayed in the reception of the Sydney offices of Goldman Sachs in Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The Wall Street bank aims to get the business running by the end of June, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. ( bloom.bg/2BgDNFb ) “In response to client interest in digital currencies, we are exploring how best to serve them,” Goldman spokesperson Michael DuVally told Reuters, declining to confirm or deny the news report. Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/goldman-sachs-bitcoin/goldman-sachs-to-set-up-cryptocurrency-trading-desk-bloomberg-idINKBN1EG0CR'|'2017-12-22T06:44:00.000+02:00'
'aa5688a4ec0be94f04f7c2f240df9d761b48b350'|'Steelworkers face huge pension cuts as Tata completes merger - Business'|'The retirement plans of tens of thousands of steel workers have been thrown into disarray after their pensions were pushed into the Pension Protection Fund, the government lifeboat for failed schemes. The 122,000 members of the British Steel pension scheme (BSPS) have until Friday to decide whether to stay with the scheme, join a new one with reduced benefits set up by Tata Steel, or transfer to a personal plan. Tata was forced to offload the £15bn BSPS, to pave the way for a 50-50 merger of its European operations with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp to create the second biggest steel producer in Europe after ArcelorMittal. British Steel pension scheme members ‘preyed on’ by financial firms Read more It is thought more than 20,000 members had still not indicated a decision to leave by the deadline. As a result, they will default into the PPF – a move that is likely to see their retirement savings dramatically slashed.The PPF steps in to save schemes when they face collapse, meaning savers do not lose everything. Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP for Aberavon where Tata’s Port Talbot steelworks is situated, said: “It’s deeply worrying that we have a huge number that have not responded.“Why was the PPF the default? Why on earth wasn’t BSPS 2 the default? I have written to [the work and pensions secretary] David Gauke a few weeks ago about this and he still hasn’t responded. It is still possible for the government to step in and sort this out.”Allan Johnston, the chairman of the BSPS trustees, said the situation was a concern, because for around 99% of pensioners the new scheme, set up by Tata, still represents the best option.Alan Rubenstein, the chief executive of the PPF, disagreed, saying “most, but not all, BSPS pensioners would be financially no worse off or marginally better off in the new scheme”.The BSPS said the deadline could not be extended because it would cost the pension scheme an additional £200m if the transfers were not completed by the end of January.Scheme trustees, union leaders and the Financial Conduct Authority, the country’s main financial regulator, have all faced criticism for not providing sufficient advice and protection to members. BSPS trustees have held 40 events at 11 locations over the last five weeks in an attempt to reach out to members with advice on what to do with their pension pots, many worth as much as £300,000.The 4,500-strong British Steel Pension Members Group made a plea to staff in retirement and care homes in North Lincolnshire, close to British Steel’s former Scunthorpe works, to see if residents were aware of the deadline.The pension transfer process descended into chaos as unscrupulous financial advisers, charging large fees, flooded into the steel heartlands of south Wales and the north of England in a bid to persuade workers to transfer their retirement pots .Frank Field, the chairman of the work and pensions committee, said the practice had become a “feeding frenzy” and a “honey pot for scammers”. “Transferring out of a gold-plated final salary pension is generally a terrible idea, except in very particular circumstances,” he said.The regulator is investigating 17 such firms, but MPs said the efforts to protect steelworkers was inadequate, and that the FCA should have acted sooner. “The FCA has been asleep at the wheel,” Kinnock said.The aim of the joint venture with ThyssenKrupp is to create a leading European provider of flat steel, and position it as a leader in quality and technology. The new company will have annual sales of roughly €15bn and employ around 48,000 people.A source close to Tata said: “The pension is not an issue. It is a done deal. But ThyssenKrupp has got its own problems in Germany with the unions.”Workers at ThyssenKrupp initially opposed the deal, fuelled by concern that more steel jobs would be lost on top of the 2,000 already announced. IG Metall, the powerful German union, demanded 10-year guarantees for jobs, plants and investments.A deal was struck on Friday between the union and management removing the final obstacle to the planned merger.'|'theguardian.com'|'http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/business/uk-edition/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/22/steelworkers-face-huge-pension-cuts-as-tata-completes-merger'|'2017-12-22T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'8bc4ebd5070d7cbfa399ca5e433819565c18901a'|'EU markets hold their breath ahead of ''MiFID'' Day'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:42 PM / Updated an hour ago EU markets hold their breath ahead of ''MiFID'' Day Huw Jones 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A sweeping reform of European Union financial markets will come in with the New Year on January 3, a year late due to its complexity and after eleventh-hour handholding by regulators keen to avoid any trading snarls. FILE PHOTO: A market maker works on the trading floor at IG Index in London, Britain January 14, 2016. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo The new rules shine a spotlight on the innards of stock, bond, commodity and derivatives markets by forcing banks, asset managers and traders to report detailed information on trillions of euros in transactions. Banks and trading firms have spent millions of euros getting ready for the big day. A report from Expand, part of the Boston Consulting Group and IHS Markit, has estimated that top global banks and asset managers will have spent $2.1 billion this year to comply with the new regime. The aim is to apply lessons from the 2007-09 global financial crisis by increasing transparency in trading and bolstering investor protection. It will mean that stock, bond, derivatives, commodity and other trades must be reported to a repository, a trove of data that supervisors can use to track trades and spot risks. Regulators, already complaining they have too few resources, will sift through the data to try to spot bubbles early after failing to see the last crisis coming. In run up to the launch, bankers will work through the night to check that high-speed reporting connections with customers and trading platforms work from day one. Fund managers and others must for the first time fill in a transaction report with up to 65 bits of data within 15 minutes of a trade - or risk being fined. Originally due to come in at the start of 2017, the EU was forced to give banks and regulators another year to get ready for the rules, known as MiFID II or Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II. They represent a major overhaul of the 2007 MiFID law to improve transparency and investor protection and broaden its scope to take in more financial products. MiFID II will be a journey and not a one off event in January, is how one national regulator responded to questions about how trading will unfold on January 3. The bloc’s European Securities and Markets Authority is overseeing the rollout and published a flurry of statements this week to tackle some remaining roadbumps and calm nerves. “ESMA, in close cooperation with the national regulatory authorities across the EU, has carried out a broad range of work, even within the last few days, to ensure that the framework is in place to ensure a smooth transition from MiFID I to MiFID II,” ESMA Chairman Steven Maijoor told Reuters. Even with the extra year, only 11 of the bloc’s 28 member states have written MiFID II fully into national law, prompting ESMA to say that all firms can carry on even if their home state is among those countries that have not completed the legislative process. It also said that a requirement for each party to a stock, bond or derivative trade to have a unique identifier for reporting transactions would put be on hold for six months. Germany, France and Britain, home to the EU’s top financial centres, are among the 11 EU states whose national laws are up to speed and big banks are likely to be ready. Royal Bank of Scotland’s NatWest Markets has conducted a “soft launch”. From January 2 to January 4, some of its staff will work through the night. “Day One will hopefully go smoothly and we are as ready as we can be,” Giovanni Mazzocchi, head of macro distribution in Europe for Barclays, said. “There are a few overnighters going on to make sure everything will work on the day.” There are concerns over smaller players who cannot afford teams of extra staff to get ready in time. But industry officials predict light trading volumes initially rather than paralysis. “It’s in nobody’s interest that the markets will freeze up. Markets will be just fine, even if there is some nervousness as they adapt to the significant changes,” Christian Voigt, senior regulatory adviser at Fidessa, a provider of trading software, said. “As long as regulators give time to adjust, then all will be well.” Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority has said it will initially take a “proportionate” approach to enforcement but laggards must show they are making an effort. DISRUPTIVE ESMA will use the data provided by markets to set curbs on the maximum size of commodity positions, and cap trading of shares in “dark pools” or off an exchange. MiFID II gives investors more information about which trading platforms offer the best deals, and asset managers will have show investors who is paying for stock research. ESMA has already begun flexing its new MiFID II muscles to curb or ban financial products. Shares in British spread-betters tumbled on Monday after ESMA outlined possible restrictions on the sale of complex products to consumers. A fundamental aim of the original MiFID was to increase competition in share trading by allowing new platforms to take on centuries-old rivals like the London Stock Exchange. Upstarts like Chi-X went on to become among the biggest pan-European share trading platforms and regulators want MiFID II to bring “disruption” to trading in other assets, forcing companies to become more agile and serve customers better. “There will be interesting times over the next few years with new players entering the market and both clients and banks making full use of the new available data to shape their activities in the market,” Mazzocchi said. Voigt said MiFID II was not a revolution in share trading, but would have a big impact on bonds, commodities and derivatives, where electronic trading will increase. “For fixed income and off-exchange derivatives, the whole mindset needs to change as a lot of trades are still done over the phone,” Voigt said. Karel Lannoo, chief executive of Brussels think tank CEPS which tracks financial services, said it will take six to 12 months for markets to fully implement the new rules. Additional reporting by Emma Rumney, editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eu-markets-mifid/eu-markets-hold-their-breath-ahead-of-mifid-day-idINKBN1EG1EM'|'2017-12-22T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'5f5eea1dee39df60064ed6ffed257334c9c376d1'|'IAG among bidders chosen for Austrian airline Niki: sources'|'December 22, 2017 / 2:43 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago IAG among bidders chosen for Austrian airline Niki: sources Klaus Lauer 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - IAG, the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling, is one of the four bidders selected for the final stages of talks over the assets of insolvent Austrian airline Niki, three people familiar said. Empty Niki check-in counters are seen at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader IAG had made an offer for Niki as a whole and was the frontrunner in talks for the carrier, the three sources told Reuters. If no deal is struck with IAG, it is possible that Niki will be carved up among several buyers. British tour operator Thomas Cook and Niki’s founder, former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda, are also among the four, Lauda told German daily Handelsblatt. The administrators running the process aim to agree a deal by the end of next week, one of the administrators said on Friday. They did not confirm the identity of the bidders. Lauda, who set up the airline in 2003, said he had been told a decision was to be made on Dec. 28. Niki was part of collapsed Air Berlin. It filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa backed out of a deal to buy its assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its takeoff and landing slots, its most attractive asset. Six parties submitted offers by a Thursday deadline, five of which were binding, Niki administrator Lucas Floether said in a statement on Friday, without providing details. “The bidders are very interested, and I am confident that it will be possible to save large parts of the business and many jobs in Austria and Germany,” he said. A German newspaper had also named Tuifly, the airline of tour operator TUI, as one of the bidders for Niki, and Swiss carrier PrivatAir had expressed interest. Niki parent Air Berlin, IAG, Thomas Cook and Tuifly declined to comment. PrivatAir was not available for immediate comment. All of the bidders picked for further talks have indicated that they are prepared to provide Niki with funding to keep it going as soon as a deal is agreed, Floether said. The head of Niki’s works council, Stefan Tankovits, said that December salaries would be paid to the airline’s staff. If Niki’s administrators fail to seal a deal for Niki’s assets by the end of December, the carrier may lose its operating licence and its runway slots, but Floether said on Friday that Austrian regulators may give the parties a few extra days if an agreement is struck by the end of next week. Additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle in Vienna, Paul Sandle in London and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/air-berlin-niki/four-final-bidders-chosen-for-austrian-airline-niki-idINKBN1EG1NT'|'2017-12-22T18:04:00.000+02:00'
'a7af17397bcb55a0001784bedd33a55200dc92ad'|'UK car production hit by plunge in domestic demand - business live - Business'|'Nissan’s car manufacturing plant in Sunderland. The number of cars made in UK factories and destined for the UK market slumped 28% in November Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Angela MonaghanThu 21 Dec ‘17 15.16 GMT First published on Thu 21 Dec ‘17 08.02 GMTShare on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email View more sharing options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Close Key events Show 3.14pm GMT 15:14 Thousand of UK Toys R Us jobs are saved 1.46pm GMT 13:46 US jobless claims rise 1.40pm GMT 13:40 US growth downgraded for Q3 1.22pm GMT 13:22 FTSE outperforms in afternoon trading 12.07pm GMT 12:07 Labour''s McDonnell: public finance figures are ''bad news'' 12.45pm GMT 12:45 Candy brothers win high court battle 10.41am GMT 10:41 Plunging car figures show UK is in the ''slow lane'', union says Live feed Show 3.16pm GMT 15:16That’s all for today. Thank you for following the blog and for all your comments. Please join us again tomorrow morning. AMFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 3.14pm GMT 15:14Thousand of UK Toys R Us jobs are savedBefore closing up for the day, some good news from Toys R Us where about 2,000 jobs are expected to be saved.The news follows an eleventh hour solution after the ailing retailer agreed to pump more than £9m into its pension plan over the next two years in a last-minute deal with the state-backed pensions lifeboat. Without the deal, the retailer would probably have gone into administration.The Pension Protection Fund joined landlords and other creditors in backing Toys R Us’s voluntary insolvency (CVA) plan, which involves the closure of at least 26 loss-making stores from next spring as well as reducing the size of others. Consultations with affected employees will commence in the new year.While up to 800 people could still lose their job as a result of the restructure, more than 2,000 jobs will be saved as Toys R Us tries to turn its remaining UK business around.Read the full story here:Thousands of UK Toys R Us jobs saved after deal with pensions body Read more Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 2.17pm GMT 14:17Balraj Sroya , trader at Foenix Partner s, gives his take on US GDP for the third quarter, which was revised down to an annual rate of 3.2%.US GDP is still on track for Trump to keep to his campaign promise of 3% GDP for 2017 even as Q3 missed forecast projections. The GDP print came out lower than consensus at 3.2%, with the blame placed on weaker consumer spending.With the GOP tax bill being passed earlier in the week, Republicans are expecting the changes in tax code will see wages increasing and the average consumer having more disposable income.Once the fourth quarter growth figure is released, investors will be keen to see if Trump actually delivered on his pledge and whether the effects of the biggest tax reform in 30 years is beneficial for growth.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.46pm GMT 13:46US jobless claims rise There were 245,000 new US jobless claims in the latest week, more than the previous week and more than the 231,000 predicted by economists.BetterTrader.co (@BetterTraderPro) [Insights] #USD – Initial Jobless Claims – 1st negative surprise for the last 4 weeks #InitialJoblessClaimsDecember 21, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.40pm GMT 13:40US growth downgraded for Q3 The US economy grew by an annual rate of 3.2% in the third quarter, slightly slower than the 3.3% estimated previously.Despite the downgrade, it was the quickest pace of growth since the first quarter of 2015 and an improvement on the 3.1% growth in the second quarter.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.22pm GMT 13:22FTSE outperforms in afternoon trading The FTSE 100 is up 35 points and outperforming its major European peers this afternoon, as investors remain fairly subdued.The latest scores:FTSE 100: +0.5% at 7,560 Germany’s DAX: -0.1% at 13,057 France’s CAC: flat at 5,352 Italy’s FTSE MIB: flat at 22,113 Spain’s IBEX: -0.1% at 10,197 Europe’s STOXX 600: +0.1% at 389 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 12.45pm GMT 12:45Candy brothers win high court battleNick (left) and Christian CandyBillionaire property developers the Candy brothers have won a bruising high court battle after a judge dismissed all claims brought against them by a former friend for extortion, blackmail, intimidation and breach of the data protection act.Read our full story here:Candy brothers win high court battle Read more Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 12.07pm GMT 12:07Labour''s McDonnell: public finance figures are ''bad news''John McDonnellJohn McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has given his take on this morning’s public finances figures, which showed borrowing fell in November .He says they are another reminder of broken Tory promises:These figures are further bad news just before Christmas following on from the IMF’s gloomy outlook issued yesterday . They only remind us yet again of the broken Tory promises to eliminate the deficit by 2015. The national debt continues to grow despite the tricks the Chancellor attempted in his Budget last month with Housing Association debt to hide his failure on the economy. This continued failure by the Tory Government over these past seven years is simply unacceptable.These figures today reaffirm why we need an urgent change of course next year, halting the growing emergency in our public services and ending the failed Tory austerity cuts.The next Labour government will set out a serious plan for the public finances with strategic investment underpinned by our fiscal credibility rule, to help build a high-wage, high-skill economy for the many not the few.Gloomy Brexit forecasts for UK are coming true, says IMF Read more Updated at 12.49pm GMTFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 11.21am GMT 11:21John Hawksworth, chief economist at the accountancy firm PwC, takes a look at some of the detail in the November public finances data:Public borrowing in November was broadly unchanged from last year, but for the financial year to date the budget deficit is running around £3 billion less than in the same period last year. This reflects central government receipts growing at around 4%, while central government spending has only been rising at around 3%. VAT, income tax, national insurance and stamp duty revenues have all been growing at a reasonable rate so far this year.As the OBR has indicated, however, self-assessment receipts in early 2018 may be less strong than in early 2017, so today’s figures still leave public borrowing on track to come in at around £50 billion in 2017/18 as a whole.Further progress on reducing the budget deficit may be slow over the next couple of years as Brexit-related uncertainty drags on UK growth, which we expect to lag some way behind both the US and the Eurozone in 2018 and 2019.However, the deficit is no longer at the dangerous levels reached immediately after the financial crisis, so the Chancellor can afford to take his time in making further pr'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/dec/21/uk-car-production-hit-by-plunge-in-domestic-demand-business-live'|'2017-12-21T15:20:00.000+02:00'
'4dcbb6d3bfe0884030fb538e25a125feb4aaa62f'|'Judge in AT&T, Time Warner merger trial to deny data protection order'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:32 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Judge in AT&T, Time Warner merger trial to deny data protection order Diane Bartz 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The judge overseeing the Justice Department’s bid to stop AT&T ( T.N ) from buying Time Warner ( TWX.N ) said Thursday that he would deny a request to tighten protections on confidential data. Walt Disney Co ( DIS.N ) and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( FOXA.O ) had requested that a protective order on sensitive information be strengthened for fear that their data would be inadvertently exposed in a trial next year. “I‘m going to deny the order,” said Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Disney and Fox have given data to the Justice Department, which is using it to build a case against AT&T’s bid to buy Time Warner. The companies say they fear that executives with AT&T, which owns satellite TV provider DirecTV, could inadvertently gain access to it during the trial. Leon had given access to confidential information to the court, Justice Department lawyers and staff, service providers and AT&T and Time Warner’s outside counsel. The Justice Department sued in November to stop AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. wireless company, from buying Time Warner for $85 billion because of concerns that it could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers and hamper the development of online video. A trial to decide the matter is set to begin on March 19, and run about 15 days, according to a court filing. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Cynthia Osterman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t/judge-in-att-time-warner-merger-trial-to-deny-data-protection-order-idUSKBN1EF2UI'|'2017-12-21T23:30:00.000+02:00'
'42c15c93c3052de00b50540d7b2e2d3bab4a3345'|'Oil market capped as U.S. output fast approaches 10 million bpd'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:53 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Oil market capped as U.S. output fast approaches 10 million bpd Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices were stable on Thursday, supported by falling crude inventories in the United States but capped by output that is fast approaching 10 million barrels per day, a level only surpassed by Saudi Arabia and Russia. An oil pump is seen operating in the Permian Basin near Midland, Texas, U.S. on May 3, 2017. Picture taken May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $58.12 a barrel at 0701 GMT, little changed from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1, international benchmark for oil prices, were unchanged at $64.56 a barrel. Both crude benchmarks gained around 1 percent during their previous sessions, lifted by official data showing a 6.5 million-barrel fall in U.S. crude inventories C-STK-T-EIA in the week to Dec. 15 to 436 million barrels, the lowest level since October 2015. Countering this on Thursday was another increase in American crude oil production, while a rise in gasoline stocks pointed to a slowdown in demand. The energy minister of Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter and OPEC’s de-facto leader, said it would take more time to rein in a global supply overhang, which was created by strong global production increases in the years up to 2015. “We expect the first few months of 2018 to be either flat or a build (in inventories) as it is typically the case with the seasonality with the oil market,” Khalid al-Falih told Reuters on Wednesday. U.S. oil output is close to breaking through 10 million bpd, undermining efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to tighten the market through withholding supply this year and next. U.S. crude production C-OUT-T-EIA hit 9.79 million bpd last week, its highest since the early 1970s, the only time American output breached 10 million bpd. This brings U.S. output close to that of top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, which pump around 10 million and 11 million bpd, respectively. Oil traders this week also eyed with interest the passing of a U.S. tax bill, which is seen to weigh on crude prices in the longer term. “The passage of the U.S. tax bill is ... a bearish long-term development for oil and gas markets,” Barclays bank said. “The policies ... are likely to reduce demand for gas and oil and raise supplies ... (as) the tax bill preserves renewable energy tax credits, a tax credit for EVs (electric vehicles), and opens up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-stable-on-lower-u-s-crude-stocks-but-rising-output-weighs-idUKKBN1EF05L'|'2017-12-21T09:06:00.000+02:00'
'a3b13ce6f0d48b8719e952a72cb5cb71df85090e'|'Balfour sells 12.5 percent stake in M25 operator'|'December 21, 2017 / 7:37 AM / Updated 44 minutes ago Britain''s Balfour sees profits up on sale of stake in M25 operator Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Balfour Beatty ( BALF.L ) has agreed to sell a 12.5 percent stake in London M25 motorway operator Connect Plus for 103 million pounds ($137.6 million), boosting its profit forecast and sending its shares to a seven-month high. FILE PHOTO - A sign of Balfour Beatty is seen at a construction site in London, Britain October 30, 2015. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause/Files The sale of the stake to British infrastructure-focused fund management company Dalmore Capital Limited was subject to Highways England consent and was expected to be completed before the end of the year, Balfour said on Thursday. Shares in the company rose as much as 3.3 percent, making them one of the top performers on FTSE 250 index .FTMC . Balfour’s positive outlook contrasts with its closest peer Carillion ( CLLN.L ) -- which is fighting for its survival after costly contract delays and a downturn in new business. London-headquartered Balfour said the board had nudged up its expectations for 2017 pretax profit and year-end net cash as a result of windfall from the disposal, upgrading forecasts in a Dec. 12 trading update. Balfour said it expected the profit from the disposal to be 53 million pounds -- 37 million pounds higher than the market consensus figure for that part of the business. The company also said it expected year-end net cash to be 103 million pounds higher than the previous forecast. It had been forecasting net cash at around 40 million pounds. Balfour retains a 27.5 percent stake in Connect Plus. It has however made a series of conditional arrangements with funds managed by Equitix Investment Management Limited and Dalmore under which up to an additional 12.5 percent may be sold at an equivalent price by May 13, 2018. “Together with management actions to date this (disposal) puts Balfour Beatty in prime position in the UK and U.S. to exploit strong market outlooks,” Numis said in a client note keeping a “buy” rating. Balfour has spent two years overhauling operations after losses at its British construction division led to multiple profit warnings. It scrapped its 2015 dividend, cancelled a share buyback and reorganised pension payments. The company returned to annual profit in 2016 on the back of strong growth in its U.S. construction division and an improved performance from its British business. ($1 = 0.7486 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-balfour-beatty-disposal/balfour-sells-12-5-percent-stake-in-m25-operator-idUKKBN1EF0P2'|'2017-12-21T09:41:00.000+02:00'
'8a3d2c85a8e3b25c9ef5c6693624a70ebbeeb4e8'|'Have yourself a dismal Christmas - Free exchange'|'ONLY an economist would think to ask whether Christmas is efficient. In 1993 Joel Waldfogel, then a professor at Yale University, turned a lunchtime conversation with colleagues into a paper entitled “The deadweight loss of Christmas”, which argued that, no, it is not. That gift-giving might actually be bad is the kind of opinion which breeds a deep mistrust of economists—loathing is perhaps too strong—among those not schooled in the dismal science. It is also just the sort of analytical insight on which economists pride themselves: counterintuitive, irreverent and interesting. But they should perhaps be less pleased with themselves. The way they think about the most festive time of the year reveals something important about the shortcomings of the field’s approach to human behaviour.Mr Waldfogel’s notion was a clever one. Massive amounts of money are spent on holiday presents; it makes sense to ask whether such spending leaves the world better off. In buying gifts, people do their best to find something the recipient will appreciate. But, economists assume, people know their own preferences better than others do. The best a gift-giver can hope to do, in terms of making another person better off, is to give the person what they would themselves choose to buy with the money to be spent. Because the giver inevitably understands the receiver’s preferences imperfectly, recipients usually value gifts by less than their purchase price, generating a substantial “deadweight loss” to the economy. Ho ho ho.  5   Somewhere between a tenth and a third of the value of the gifts given at Christmas is destroyed, Mr Waldfogel estimated, based on experiments conducted with his students at Yale. Because holiday spending accounts for a meaningful chunk of GDP, the loss from Christmas is about a tenth of that created by income taxation, he concluded. Not all gifts are equally poorly chosen. Close friends and family are likely to understand their loved ones better and therefore to give more efficiently. In general, however, people would be better off if they simply gave each other cash. This was an unusual and interesting way to think about Christmas (and indeed, about holidays in general). Practical, too: those considering giving gifts at holiday time should proceed if they know the tastes of their receiver well, and if they are prepared to think hard about what to get. Otherwise, it’s best to go with cash (or perhaps gift cards, which are less efficient than cash but which may be more acceptably gift-like).It is not mere sentimentality to find something amiss in this analysis, however, as some economists have recognised. Gift-giving is not a meaningless transaction. The act of giving itself creates value. In response to Mr Waldfogel, John List, of the University of Chicago, and Jason Shogren, of the University of Wyoming, conducted their own experiment, using auctions rather than surveys to tease out the value people placed on gifts they had been given. They concluded that those receiving the gifts on average valued them by 21-35% more than the cost to the giver. Their experimental design, they noted, was based on the novel principle that “material value + sentimental value = total value”.Similarly, a panel of economists convened by the University of Chicago and regularly polled on economic questions disagreed, when asked about the subject in 2013, that giving presents is inefficient. Gift-giving generates value by signalling to the recipient that the giver cares about the relationship, some noted; the signal is especially strong if the gift demonstrates the giver’s familiarity with the receiver’s tastes and preferences. Others reckoned that the pleasure the giver takes in giving ought also to be taken into consideration. “This is the sort of narrow view that rightly gives economics a bad name,” said Angus Deaton, a Nobel-prizewinning economist, of the efficiency question.But it is the way that the question is posed, rather than the way economists choose to answer it, that is the real problem. Gift-giving does not occur in a vacuum; people do not randomly set out to raise the welfare of their loved ones with festively wrapped gifts. Rather, it occurs within a very specific social context: the holiday season. Why do people do Christmassy things at Christmas? Why do they place tinsel-strewn trees in their homes and let their children sit on the laps of men dressed as Santa? They do so because they are participating in a long-practised mass social ritual. Assessing gift-giving without taking account of this social context is a near-useless exercise.How might that context be taken into account? Christmas is what in other circumstances an economist might refer to as an institution. Institutions are rules and norms that are developed to solve social problems; concepts of private property, for instance, help a society to manage a tendency to overuse common property. Some research assesses holidays in this way. A paper published in 2001 by Vijayendra Rao, of the World Bank, reckons that festivals in India provide an opportunity to cement family bonds, deepening social capital in ways that yield returns at other times of the year. Indians who spend more during festivals enjoy higher social status, which translates into tangible benefits, like getting better deals from shopkeepers on food purchases.You’d better watch outEven this is too bloodless an analysis. Many holidays are rooted in ancient religious or cultural practices. Whether and how you celebrate are matters of personal and group identity. As many clerics are keen to point out, Christmas is about more than presents. The exchange of gifts is an inseparable part of a communal time of celebration and goodwill. Economists would be more useful if they could recognise when and why maximising efficiency takes a back seat. They would also be more fun to have around at Christmas.'|'economist.com'|'http://www.economist.com/sections/business-finance/rss.xml'|'https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21732814-flaws-economists-grinchy-approach-holidays-have-yourself-dismal?fsrc=rss'|'2017-12-19T23:50:00.000+02:00'
'b7d6da47d13dd4d3046e000c6da4bb387c3af742'|'BRIEF-TJX Recommends Shareholders Reject Mini-Tender Offer By TRC Capital'|' 36 PM / in 15 minutes BRIEF-TJX Recommends Shareholders Reject Mini-Tender Offer By TRC Capital   TJX Companies Inc: * THE TJX COMPANIES INC RECOMMENDS SHAREHOLDERS REJECT MINI-TENDER OFFER BY TRC CAPITAL CORPORATION * RECEIVED NOTICE OF UNSOLICITED “MINI-TENDER” OFFER BY TRC CAPITAL TO BUY UPTO 2 MILLION SHARES OF CO’S COMMON STOCK AT $70.95 PER SHARE IN CASH Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-tjx-recommends-shareholders-reject/brief-tjx-recommends-shareholders-reject-mini-tender-offer-by-trc-capital-idUSFWN1OK0NQ'|'2017-12-20T20:35:00.000+02:00'
'a3997bd8d4c6176b5a65d0b6aff238d16c405c19'|'Exclusive: KPMG partners face court contempt over China audit'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:57 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Exclusive: KPMG partners face court contempt over China audit Matthew Miller 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Several current and former KPMG partners are facing contempt proceedings in a Hong Kong court, as liquidators for a failed U.S.-listed Chinese company step up their action against the auditor over its refusal to produce Chinese working papers. The KPMG logo is seen at the company''s head offices in Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa, September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko The contempt summons, seen by Reuters, names 91 individuals and was issued on Nov. 22. It is the latest move in a battle surrounding the 2012 collapse of China Medical Technologies, whose founders are being prosecuted in the United States for allegedly defrauding investors out of more than $400 million. The writ highlights a long-running tussle between China, which is reluctant to hand over mainland documents, and overseas regulators that demand such papers - leaving auditors trapped between upsetting Beijing or facing offshore penalties when dealing with foreign-listed Chinese firms. KPMG was ordered by Hong Kong’s High Court in 2016 to give audit papers, correspondence and records on China Medical to Borrelli Walsh, liquidators for the one-time NASDAQ-listed firm. But KPMG has refused to do so without written direction of the relevant Chinese authority, arguing that its mainland-based affiliate KPMG Huazhen, which carried out the China Medical audit field work, would be in violation of national security laws if the materials held state secrets or sensitive information, court documents and the writ show. KPMG and Borrelli Walsh both declined to comment. Those named in the writ were partners in KPMG China - the partnership covering China, Hong Kong and Macau - in 2015, which is when the court dispute over the audit papers began. Petitions to wind up China Medical were filed in the Cayman Islands, New York and finally in Hong Kong in 2012, and the company was placed into liquidation. The liquidators are asking each of the 91 defendants be held in contempt of court, which could result in criminal penalties, or impose weekly fines for failure to comply with the High Court order. China Medical is the most high-profile international contest over Chinese audit papers since 2014, when EY, KPMG’s fellow Big Four accounting firm, handed over certain documents to Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission after a court battle. EY had argued that Chinese officials would not let it produce documents related to its work on an unfinished audit of Standard Water Ltd - a Chinese municipal water services provider that scrapped plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong. A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE Hong Kong and U.S. regulators have been at loggerheads with Chinese firms and their auditors over the production of audit work papers since the start of the decade - a battle that at one point threatened to leave U.S.-listed Chinese groups unaudited and in danger of delisting. While U.S. and Chinese regulators came to a non-binding agreement in 2013 over exchanging documents, mainland officials have objected to inspections and are still in practice often reluctant to let papers leave China. “The problem for accounting firms is that they’re still between a rock and a hard place,” said Paul Gillis, professor of practice at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. “They need to comply with the laws in all of the locations where they are doing business.” In July, the U.S. audit regulator revoked the registration of the Hong Kong affiliate of Crowe Horwarth International because it failed to comply with demands to produce documents, including Chinese audit work papers. Earlier in the year, the U.S. Department of Justice charged China Medical Chairman Wu Xiaodong and CFO Samson Tsang Tak Yung with securities fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, alleging they stole much of the $426 million they raised in two convertible bond offerings in 2008 and 2010. KPMG issued written audit reports for China Medical from 2003 to 2008, and was replaced by PwC Zhong Tian in August 2009. Contempt proceedings will be held at Hong Kong High Court. Reporting By Matthew Miller; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-audit-papers/exclusive-kpmg-partners-face-court-contempt-over-china-audit-idUKKBN1EE0HU'|'2017-12-20T07:57:00.000+02:00'
'318ced865648aa9c112bda20c2e96162854b2f89'|'Special Report: Scientists describe problems in Philip Morris e-cigarette experiments'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:25 PM / in 9 hours Special Report - Scientists describe problems in Philip Morris e-cigarette experiments 20 Min Read By Tom Lasseter, Paritosh Bansal, Thomas Wilson, Ami Miyazaki Duff Wilson and Aditya Kalra A man poses for a photograph while using a Philip Morris iQOS smoking device, in Bogota, Colombia November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga TOKYO/NEUCHATEL, Switzerland (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to approve a potentially path-breaking smoking device by Philip Morris International Inc ( PM.N ). With a decision expected next year, former employees and contractors have described to Reuters a number of irregularities involving clinical trials that underpin the tobacco giant’s application to the agency. By heating tobacco instead of burning it, the company says the device, known as iQOS, avoids subjecting smokers to the same levels of carcinogens and other toxic substances found in a regular cigarette. The company has spent more than $3 billion developing new smoking platforms like iQOS. As part of that initiative, Philip Morris has published extensive scientific findings, based in part on clinical studies. Tamara Koval, who worked at the company from 2012 to 2014 and helped coordinate clinical trials for the device, questioned the quality of some of the researchers and sites contracted to carry out those experiments. Koval was a co-author of the company’s protocol used to run the studies globally. When she highlighted an irregularity in one of the studies, Koval said, Philip Morris excluded her from meetings. Reuters also found irregularities during interviews with some of the principal investigators contracted to conduct the trials for the company. One principal investigator said he knew nothing about tobacco. Philip Morris had to jettison the experiment that investigator performed after it emerged he hadn’t followed a basic procedure for obtaining informed consent from participants during clinical trials. A second investigator submitted urine samples that exceeded what a human being is capable of, according to two former company employees, and then initially refused to acknowledge there was a problem. A third said he doesn’t hold such company-sponsored clinical trials in high regard, describing them as “dirty” because their purpose is more commercial than scientific. After reviewing Reuters’ findings, Philip Morris said in a statement that “all studies were conducted by suitably qualified and trained Principal Investigators.” The company said it understands that “FDA inspectors have already audited some facilities” involved in the trials. Philip Morris also said it had taken steps to address “any reported irregularity in our studies.” “Our policies encourage speaking up about suspected violations of law or our policies and we do not tolerate retaliation against those who speak up,” the company said. In addition to former Philip Morris employees involved with the iQOS programme, Reuters interviewed six of the 11 principal investigators who were responsible for five of eight clinical trials the company submitted to the FDA. Reuters also reviewed hundreds of pages of publicly available Philip Morris study reports and FDA filings. That reporting identified shortcomings in the training and professionalism of some of the lead investigators, as well as their knowledge of the study results. A group of tobacco research and policy experts reviewed detailed summaries of Reuters’ reporting and Philip Morris’ response. The experts, including a former head of the FDA and two former scientific advisers for the agency, said those findings raise concerns about Philip Morris’ clinical trial programme. “Taken as a whole, it’s clear they do not have the sophistication to carry out adequate and well-controlled clinical trials,” said David Kessler, the FDA’s commissioner from 1990 to 1997, referring to the company. “I am not inferring any malicious intent here, just that they lack sophistication, because this is not their bread and butter.” If the FDA has already audited some of the trial sites used by Philip Morris, the agency “should carefully review its audits and possibly expand them,” said Kessler, a former dean of the medical school at Yale University. ‘THE FDA SHOULD AUDIT’ Tom Eissenberg, who served on the FDA’s tobacco products scientific advisory committee until earlier this year, said: “The FDA should audit.” Reuters did not find any evidence that the outcome of the experiments presented by the company to the FDA was manipulated or falsified. The new insights into the company’s clinical trial programme for iQOS come at a crucial time for Philip Morris. The world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company by market value and maker of Marlboro cigarettes has applied to the U.S. FDA to be able to sell iQOS in America, and also for permission to market it as a modified-risk tobacco product. That designation could mean that Philip Morris is allowed to market iQOS as presenting less harm or risk of disease to users than traditional tobacco. For now, the FDA is evaluating the company’s studies. Reuters outlined its findings about the iQOS trials to the agency. The FDA said it cannot comment on a pending application. Philip Morris says the device, which heats small tobacco inserts, is meant for smokers who would not otherwise quit. Its chief executive officer, Andre Calantzopoulos, has told investors and media alike that he intends to one day replace cigarettes with products like iQOS. So far, iQOS makes up a fraction of the company’s $75 billion revenues and Philip Morris continues to market conventional cigarettes across the globe. Internal Philip Morris documents reviewed by Reuters show the significance of iQOS goes beyond its profit potential. The device is now sold in more than two dozen nations after it was first launched in Japan and Italy during late 2014. The company has a 10-year plan for what it calls “normalization” of the tobacco industry, according to a 2014 strategy document. The industry has been shunned over the past two decades for producing and marketing products that kill people and previously lying about it. Under a section on “strategies and actions” to achieve that goal, the document lists, among other things, new smoking devices such as iQOS and the scientific research involved in developing them. Told about that document, Philip Morris said: “The suggestion that the purpose of our development of IQOS and our scientific research programme is to ‘normalise’ the tobacco industry is false.” That previously undisclosed document and others can be found in a searchable repository published by Reuters, The Philip Morris Files. ( reut.rs/2sT51xF ) ‘I JUST DON‘T READ THEM’ As part of its submission to the U.S. FDA, the company said the results of its research showed the device significantly reduced the level of certain harmful substances that users were exposed to compared with cigarettes, and satisfied their nicotine cravings. “In fact the level of reduction is so considerable, it approaches 95% of the levels measured in smokers who quit altogether,” the company said in a statement to Reuters. Taken along with the company’s laboratory studies, Philip Morris said, the research programme “in its entirety demonstrates that IQOS is likely to reduce the risk of smoking related diseases.” Philip Morris is respons'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-tobacco-iqos-science-specialreport/special-report-scientists-describe-problems-in-philip-morris-e-cigarette-experiments-idINKBN1EE1G8'|'2017-12-20T14:23:00.000+02:00'
'b2c4856059407dceab52faba437e9ca7d0c5079b'|'Global funds end boom year by raising stocks to 3-1/2-year high'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:05 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Global funds end boom year by raising stocks to 3-1/2-year high Claire Milhench 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - After a bumper year in which world stock markets have repeatedly smashed records, global investors have raised their equity exposure even further, according to Reuters’ latest survey, which showed stocks jumping to 3-1/2-year highs. The monthly asset allocation poll of 51 wealth managers and chief investment officers in Europe, the United States, Britain and Japan also showed funds slashing their bond allocation to the lowest in over two years, anticipating rising interest rates amid a steady inflation uptick. The poll was conducted from Dec. 14 to 21, a period in which global equities .MIWD PUS hit another record high. Stocks have rallied around 21 percent this year helped by improving global growth, whilst a U.S. tax bill - finally passed in the dying days of 2017 - is expected to boost U.S. corporate profitability. [nL1N1OK0BB] The poll showed overall equity exposure rising 3.2 percentage points to 51.3 percent, the highest since July 2014, and up 5.5 percentage points since the start of 2016. But investors cut their bond holdings by 3.4 percentage points to 36.6 percent, the lowest level since October 2015. “Growth is steady and inflation is low; this makes stocks look attractive despite rising valuations,” said Trevor Greetham, head of multi-asset at Royal London Asset Management (RLAM). “Bonds remain an underweight, given the low level of yields and the likelihood of gradually rising interest rates.” INFLATION SPURT Some 64 percent of poll participants who answered a question on the U.S. Federal Reserve expect three interest rate rises in 2018, in line with the Fed’s own forecasts. [nW1N1MT00C] But some fret that the Fed could be behind the curve and might find itself surprised by a sudden spurt in inflation. That could force it to tighten faster than the market expects. Currently two rate hikes are priced in for 2018. Mouhammed Choukeir, chief investment officer at Kleinwort Hambros, noted U.S. core consumer inflation was at 1.8 percent [nL1N1OC23J] and unemployment at 4.1 percent, indicating a “razor thin” output gap. “Markets may well be missing the woods for the trees,” Choukeir said. “The ‘mystery’ of low inflation may prove not to be an enduring one,” he added, warning that incoming Fed chair Jerome Powell might overcompensate with “a roaring monetary correction”. [nL1N1OE26P] Just under half of poll participants who answered a question on the European Central Bank (ECB) thought it would end its asset purchase programme by end-2018. “We expect the ECB to be surprised by higher-than-expected inflation in an environment of growth strongly above potential,” said Martin Wolburg, senior economist at Generali Investments. At its December meeting, the ECB stuck to its pledge to continue asset purchases for as long as necessary, despite better growth and inflation forecasts. [nL8N1OE185] But many thought it would not be able to maintain this stance much longer, especially with splits opening in the governing council. [nL8N1NT38G] “The expansion in the European economy looks self-sustaining, barring a major external shock, and the hawks on the ECB will increasingly warn about future inflation risks, as well as the side effects of sustained quantitative easing on financial markets,” said Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Aberdeen Standard Investments. Within their global equity portfolios, investors raised their U.S. exposure by 2.5 percentage points to 40.8 percent, and their Japanese holdings to 18.9 percent, the highest since April 2016. Japanese stocks .TOPX are up 20 percent this year, thanks to faster economic growth and company earnings, while the cabinet has just endorsed a record $860 billion budget for 2018. [nL4N1OM1H8] POLITICAL RISK British stocks remained out of favour however, with Brexit uncertainties prompting funds to cut holdings by 2.5 percentage points in December to 8 percent, the lowest in at least five years. [nL8N1OM1QV] Euro zone equities too were cut by 1.8 percentage points to 17.8 percent, the lowest since April. European stocks have risen 8 percent this year after election-related political risks failed to materialise. But nearly 60 percent of poll participants who answered a special question, expected political risk to be higher in Europe next year than in the United States. Several respondents cited the upcoming Italian election, where eurosceptic parties are polling strongly. [nL8N1OI4XS] “That said, I do not think that those political risks are signficant. Contrary to 2017, political risks will no longer be at the forefront in 2018,” said Jan Bopp, an asset allocation strategist at J Safra Sarasin. Nearly a third opted for the United States, given the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia [nL1N1OK29T], the November mid-term elections. “A desire to set the agenda could also see a more forceful White House on the international stage, raising the risk of military confrontation with North Korea,” said RLAM’s Greetham. Reporting by Claire Milhench and Maria Pia Quaglia; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-funds-poll-global/global-funds-end-boom-year-by-raising-stocks-to-3-1-2-year-high-idUKKBN1EG1BB'|'2017-12-22T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'e1e62f988b7deeb41f1e5ee251e6f31f306b877f'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips, but heading for biggest weekly gain in months'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:23 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips, but heading for biggest weekly gain in months Reuters Staff (Adds details on specific stocks, updates prices) * TSX down 28.87 points, or 0.18 percent, at 16,153.76 * Eight of the TSX’s 10 main groups move lower TORONTO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index slipped on Friday but was on track for its sharpest weekly gain in almost three months. * At 10:15 a.m. EST (1515 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 28.87 points, or 0.18 percent, at 16,153.76. It remains on track for a 0.7 percent rise for the week, its sharpest weekly gain since late September. * Eight of the index’s 10 main sectors moved lower, with the energy group climbing 0.2 percent, while decliners outnumbered advancers by a 1.3-to-1 ratio. * Among the most influential decliners on the index was First Majestic Silver Corp, which fell 8.9 percent to C$8.86 after Bank of Montreal analysts cut the stock to “underperform” and lowered its price target. * First Quantum Minerals Ltd declined 2 percent to C$17.27, while the overall materials group, which includes precious and base metal miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.3 percent. * Teck Resources rose 1.1 percent to C$32.50 after the miner reached a wage deal with one union at its Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile, ending an eight-day strike. * The Canadian economy paused in October, reinforcing expectations that growth cooled in the second half of the year and taking some steam out of bets that the central bank could raise interest rates as soon as January. * U.S. crude oil prices were down 0.6 percent at $58.03 a barrel, while Brent lost 0.4 percent to $64.67. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-slips-but-heading-for-biggest-weekly-gain-in-months-idUSL1N1OM0YW'|'2017-12-22T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'32fea9bb49b2a09eb91a049f444a211b2c3a3bcc'|'Oil dips away from 2015 highs as rising U.S. output weighs on outlook'|'December 22, 2017 / 2:06 AM / Updated an hour ago Oil dips from highs, but OPEC''s cuts still support market Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices on Friday dipped away from some of their highest levels since 2015, weighed down by rising U.S. output and the expected January re-opening of the Forties pipeline in the North Sea. File photo of workers look at a drilling rig at a well pad of the Rosneft-owned Prirazlomnoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Despite this, markets remained well supported by ongoing supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. Market liquidity was drying up on Friday as traders closed positions ahead of the upcoming Christmas and New Year breaks. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $58.16 a barrel at 0755 GMT, down 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $64.81 a barrel, down 19 cents, or 0.1 percent. Brent on Thursday ended at $64.90 a barrel, its highest close since June 2015. WTI has also been touching values not seen since mid-2015 over the past two months. The dip on Friday was due to an outlook for rising supplies that triggered those holding long positions to sell-out ahead of the year-end holidays, traders said. Also weighing on the market was the expected return of the 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) Forties pipeline system in the North Sea in January. The pipeline, which delivers crude underpinning Brent futures, was shut earlier this month due to a crack. Operator Ineos said on Thursday it expected to complete repairs around Christmas and to gradually restart the system in early January. Longer term, analysts said crude production in the United States C-OUT-T-EIA that is fast approaching 10 million bpd would also drag on oil prices, and undermine OPEC’s effort to tighten the market and prop up prices. “Supply is expected to grow further, paving the way to an oversupplied market, which can again exercise downward pressure on oil prices,” consultancy Rystad Energy said in a note. Not all analysts expect a return of oversupply, though. The OPEC-led pact to withhold supplies started in January this year, and the producer group and its allies decided in November to extend the cuts to cover all of 2018, instead of letting them expire next March, as had been planned. The supply restraint has resulted in significant reductions of oil inventories and helped push up Brent prices by more than 45 percent since June this year. “OPEC’s extension of its production cuts through the end of 2018 is a necessary condition for continued inventory drawdown,” U.S. investment bank Jefferies said. Jefferies said it has raised its 2018 Brent forecast to $63 a barrel from $57, and its WTI forecast to $59 per barrel from $54, on expectations that the market will remain tight. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-dips-away-from-2015-highs-as-rising-u-s-output-weighs-on-outlook-idUKKBN1EG06G'|'2017-12-22T04:05:00.000+02:00'
'17e20897e04ce0c9d68fed863c71659459b3634f'|'Australia''s BlueScope Steel raises half-year earnings forecast'|'December 20, 2017 / 9:56 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Australia''s BlueScope Steel raises half-year earnings forecast Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 21 (Reuters) - Australia’s BlueScope Steel Ltd raised its earnings forecast on Thursday for the half year ending Dec. 31 by 9.5 percent, helped by higher steel prices and volumes in Australia. The steel maker said it expects higher earnings before interest and tax at A$460 million ($352.45 million), compared with earlier guidance of A$420 million. ($1 = 1.3051 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Aaron Saldanha in Bengaluru, editin by Larry King)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/bluescope-steel-outlook/australias-bluescope-steel-raises-half-year-earnings-forecast-idUSL4N1OK596'|'2017-12-20T23:53:00.000+02:00'
'7857a2576c24e440ad36a9cd5b148f6edf879c07'|'South Korean watchdog to force Samsung unit to sell $483 million stake'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:19 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago South Korean watchdog to force Samsung unit to sell $483 million stake Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Group affiliate Samsung SDI will be forced to sell Samsung C&T shares worth about 522 billion won ($483 million) after South Korea’s antitrust agency said on Thursday it would tighten rules on cross-shareholdings. In order to comply with the stricter guidelines, Samsung SDI must sell about four million shares in Samsung C&T, a Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) official said. The rules apply to cross-shareholding ties created by the merger of two companies in a conglomerate, such as the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates which created Samsung C&T. Shares in Samsung SDI fell 3.8 percent on Thursday before the announcement, while shares in Samsung C&T fell 1.2 percent. Samsung would have six months to comply with the new guidelines once they were finalised, the commission said. A Samsung spokesman declined to comment. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-antitrust-samsung/south-korean-watchdog-to-force-samsung-unit-to-sell-483-million-stake-idUKKBN1EF097'|'2017-12-21T05:02:00.000+02:00'
'e7c0415d580176eee77435761ad59f6927542fef'|'Uber appoints Barney Harford as chief operating officer'|'December 20, 2017 / 4:37 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Uber appoints Barney Harford as chief operating officer Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc said said on Wednesday that the ride-hailing firm has appointed Barney Harford as chief operating officer, as the company looks to fill positions left vacant after key staff quit in recent months. FILE PHOTO: Uber''s logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Harford, a former chief executive officer of online travel website Orbitz, will join Uber on Jan.2, Uber said in a statement. ubr.to/2Bmc6Pv Uber is facing a host of problems, including allegations of sexual harassment, data privacy violations, and a criminal investigation over alleged trade-secrets theft. New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick in August, has been critical of past practices and vowed a new era of compliance. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-coo/uber-appoints-barney-harford-as-chief-operating-officer-idUKKBN1EE26N'|'2017-12-20T18:35:00.000+02:00'
'f58dedeca1c9fdb82fb4cc46f9fd89c914a14e3f'|'UPDATE 3-North Sea pipeline outage, lower U.S. crude stocks support oil prices'|'December 20, 2017 / 1:12 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Fall in U.S. crude stocks, North Sea outage supports prices David Gaffen 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude prices firmed on Wednesday, supported by a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories and the continued outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline system. U.S. crude stocks fell by 6.5 million barrels, more than expected, in the week to Dec. 15, while gasoline stocks rose 1.2 million barrels, less than anticipated, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 38 cents at $57.95 a barrel as of 12:47 p.m. EST (1747 GMT), while Brent crude was up 41 cents at $64.22 a barrel. Crude stocks, excluding the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, are at 436.5 million barrels, the lowest since October 2015. “That bodes well to support crude oil prices into 2018 as I expect inventories to continue to decline with robust crude exports being supplied by increases in production,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. Inventories have been steadily declining in the United States due to strong export demand and efforts by major oil producers to restrict supply. OPEC and 10 other producers led by Russia last month extended an agreement to cut oil production by 1.8 million bpd until the end of next year. The alliance is targeting the elimination of an oil glut to bring inventories in the developed world back to the five-year moving average. Some producers, including Russia, had raised concerns over whether the deal should continue through the end of 2018. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabian energy minister Khalid al-Falih said it would be premature to discuss changes to OPEC’s policy. He said the drawdown of inventories would likely take through the second half of 2018. On Wednesday, Kuwait’s oil minister Bakhit al-Rashidi said compliance among both OPEC and non-OPEC members currently stands at 122 percent, the highest since the deal was implemented in January. Traders said rising U.S. crude production, which has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.8 million bpd, was capping prices. The all-time U.S. production record of more than 10 million bpd was set in the early 1970s and is based on monthly EIA figures. Most analysts expect U.S. output to break through 10 million bpd soon, which would be a new record and take it to levels on a par with top exporter Saudi Arabia and close to top producer Russia, which pumps around 11 million bpd. Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday that it expects global oil inventories will have rebalanced by mid-2018, “leading to a gradual exit from the cuts and increases in OPEC and Russia production through second half 2018”. The bank added that a ramp-up in OPEC production and rising non-OPEC output “will leave risks skewed to lower prices” in the second half of next year. Prices have been supported by the continuing outage of Britain’s Forties pipeline in the North Sea, which delivers crude underpinning Brent futures. Operator Ineos said repairs were under way on Wednesday after a crack was found that closed the pipeline on Dec. 11. Repairs are expected to take two to four weeks. Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore, Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-edges-up-on-north-sea-pipeline-outage-expectation-of-lower-us-crude-stocks-idUSKBN1EE03H'|'2017-12-20T13:11:00.000+02:00'
'e89cf6347bf8695100eabb338b2859102b97032e'|'LVMH''s Celine creator Phoebe Philo to leave company - source'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:25 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago LVMH''s Celine creator Phoebe Philo to leave company - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Phoebe Philo, artistic director of LVMH’s ( LVMH.PA ) Celine label since 2008, is leaving the high-end ready-to-wear brand, a source close to the matter said on Friday. FILE PHOTO - Former honoree and creative director of CELINE, Phoebe Philo, arrives at the Time 100 gala celebrating the magazine''s naming of the 100 most influential people in the world for the past year in New York April 29, 2014. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The British designer has decided to take a break, believing that she had accomplished her mission to revamp Celine, and will not join another firm in the immediate future, the source said. The source denied rumours she would join Burberry ( BRBY.L ). Reporting by Pascale Denis and Dominique Rodriguez; writing by John Irish, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lvmh-celine-philo/lvmhs-celine-creator-phoebe-philo-to-leave-company-source-idUKKBN1EG1SW'|'2017-12-22T17:24:00.000+02:00'
'9851bb28ecf6a210eb0921db3e58f670eb411cdf'|'Bharti Airtel says purchase of Tanzania unit stake had government approval'|'December 21, 2017 / 4:36 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Bharti Airtel says purchase of Tanzania unit stake had government approval Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NAIROBI (Reuters) - Indian telecoms carrier Bharti Airtel said on Thursday that there were no irregularities in deals that made it the majority shareholder in a Tanzanian unit, a day after the country’s president claimed the company belonged to the state. A Bharti Airtel office building is pictured in Gurugram, previously known as Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/Files President John Magufuli said on Wednesday he had received a report that the state-run Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) owned the local subsidiary of Bharti Airtel outright but had been cheated out of shares. Magufuli made the comments in a speech broadcast on television. He did not give further details, but ordered the finance minister to investigate. The Tanzanian government owns a 40 percent stake in Airtel Tanzania, with the remaining 60 percent owned by Bharti Airtel. Bharti Airtel said it had not received any notice or communication from the government, but would work closely with the government to resolve doubts to the satisfaction of all shareholders. “Our acquisition of the said 60 percent shareholding in June 2010 was in full compliance with and following all approvals from the Govt. of Tanzania,” the company said in a statement. Magufuli’s state ownership claim on Bharti Airtel’s local business will likely further unnerve foreign investors in the country after his government launched a crackdown on mining firms in the country this year. [L4N1M04BD] Last year, Magufuli ordered telecoms companies to list at least a quarter of their units on the local stock exchange to increase domestic ownership. Like other African countries, mobile phone use has surged in Tanzania over the past decade on the back of cheaper smartphones, recording a 0.9 percent annual increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers in 2016 to 40.17 million. Mobile phone operators in Tanzania include Vodacom Tanzania, part of South Africa’s Vodacom, Tigo Tanzania, which is part of Sweden’s Millicom, Bharti Airtel Tanzania, and Halotel, owned by Vietnam-based telecoms operator Viettel. Reporting By Maggie Fick and Fumbuka Ng''wanakilala in Dar es Salaam; Editing by Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tanzania-bharti-airtel/bharti-airtel-says-purchase-of-tanzania-unit-stake-had-government-approval-idINKBN1EF29E'|'2017-12-21T18:36:00.000+02:00'
'22ed23417b16781308c5d89f1256ef93f78821c5'|'Statoil to extend Snorre oilfield output under $2.3 billion plan'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:14 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago Statoil to extend Snorre oilfield output under $2.3 billion plan Reuters Staff 2 Min Read OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s Statoil ( STL.OL ) will extend output from its Snorre oilfield in the North Sea by some 25 years under a 19 billion Norwegian crown (1.69 billion pounds) investment plan announced on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Norwegian oil company''s Statoil logo is seen at their headquarters in Fornebu, Norway, June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo The work should increase recovery from the field by almost 200 million barrels and production will start in 2021, Statoil said in a statement. Statoil also awarded contracts worth some 9 billion crowns to subcontractors, including TechnipFMC ( FTI.N )( FTI.PA ), Subsea 7 ( SUBC.OL ), Aibel ( RATOb.ST ) and Transocean ( RIGN.S ). The plan includes drilling 24 wells, 12 for production and 12 for injection, and building six subsea templates tied to the Snorre A platform. The field produced 80,000 barrels of oil per day during the first 10 months of 2017, data from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate shows. Statoil’s partners in the license are Petoro, Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ), Idemitsu ( 5019.T ), DEA and Point Resources. The project had been postponed so that Statoil could cut costs and improve profitability. It is still subject to formal approval by Norwegian authorities. Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Terje Solsvik and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-statoil-oil/statoil-to-extend-snorre-oilfield-output-under-2-3-billion-plan-idUKKBN1EF0Y2'|'2017-12-21T11:14:00.000+02:00'
'8c7a3f6efd41b0accaa5f35ee76320c01efcfe70'|'Apple slows some older iPhones because of flagging batteries'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:45 AM / Updated 17 hours ago Apple slows some older iPhones because of flagging batteries Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) has addressed claims from an app company that says the maker of iPhones slows down the performance of older phones. A logo of Apple is seen in this September 23, 2014 illustration photo in Sarajevo. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic On Monday, the blog Primate Labs, a company that makes an app for measuring the speed of an iPhone’s processor, published data that appeared to show slower performance in the Apple’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 models as they aged. Apple on Wednesday acknowledged that the company does take some measures to reduce power demands - which can have the effect of slowing the processor - when a phone’s battery is having trouble supplying the peak current that the processor demands. The problem stems from the fact that all lithium-ion batteries, not just those found in Apple products, degrade and have problems supplying the big bursts as they age and accumulate charging cycles, Apple said in a statement. The problems with peak current draws can also occur when batteries are cold or low on charge. ”Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions,“ Apple said in an emailed statement to Reuters. ”We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.” When an iPhone’s processor makes a big current draw from a flagging battery, the battery can deliver the current in spikes that can potentially damage the phone’s electronics. As a result, iPhones would suddenly shut down to protect the pricey processor from being damaged by the power spikes. The sudden shutdown problem became widespread among iPhones in late 2016, forcing Apple to issue a software fix that had the net result of slowing the phone somewhat with an old, cold or low-charged battery, the company said. The problem can be remedied by replacing the phone’s battery. Apple charges $79 to replace batteries not covered under the phone’s warranty. The company has long faced criticism from repair advocates for making its batteries difficult for users to replace on their own. Reporting by Stephen Nellis; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/apple-batteries/apple-slows-some-older-iphones-because-of-flagging-batteries-idINKBN1EF028'|'2017-12-21T02:41:00.000+02:00'
'f6651a6c041b4cfea0c18436c11d349792ddffd8'|'Exclusive: KPMG partners face court contempt over China audit'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:59 AM / Updated 41 minutes ago Exclusive: KPMG partners face court contempt over China audit Matthew Miller 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Several current and former KPMG partners are facing contempt proceedings in a Hong Kong court, as liquidators for a failed U.S.-listed Chinese company step up their action against the auditor over its refusal to produce Chinese working papers. The contempt summons, seen by Reuters, names 91 individuals and was issued on Nov. 22. It is the latest move in a battle surrounding the 2012 collapse of China Medical Technologies, whose founders are being prosecuted in the United States for allegedly defrauding investors out of more than $400 million. The writ highlights a long-running tussle between China, which is reluctant to hand over mainland documents, and overseas regulators that demand such papers - leaving auditors trapped between upsetting Beijing or facing offshore penalties when dealing with foreign-listed Chinese firms. KPMG was ordered by Hong Kong’s High Court in 2016 to give audit papers, correspondence and records on China Medical to Borrelli Walsh, liquidators for the one-time NASDAQ-listed firm. But KPMG has refused to do so without written direction of the relevant Chinese authority, arguing that its mainland-based affiliate KPMG Huazhen, which carried out the China Medical audit field work, would be in violation of national security laws if the materials held state secrets or sensitive information, court documents and the writ show. KPMG and Borrelli Walsh both declined to comment. Those named in the writ were partners in KPMG China - the partnership covering China, Hong Kong and Macau - in 2015, which is when the court dispute over the audit papers began. Petitions to wind up China Medical were filed in the Cayman Islands, New York and finally in Hong Kong in 2012, and the company was placed into liquidation. The liquidators are asking each of the 91 defendants be held in contempt of court, which could result in criminal penalties, or impose weekly fines for failure to comply with the High Court order. China Medical is the most high-profile international contest over Chinese audit papers since 2014, when EY, KPMG’s fellow Big Four accounting firm, handed over certain documents to Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission after a court battle. EY had argued that Chinese officials would not let it produce documents related to its work on an unfinished audit of Standard Water Ltd - a Chinese municipal water services provider that scrapped plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong. A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE Hong Kong and U.S. regulators have been at loggerheads with Chinese firms and their auditors over the production of audit work papers since the start of the decade - a battle that at one point threatened to leave U.S.-listed Chinese groups unaudited and in danger of delisting. While U.S. and Chinese regulators came to a non-binding agreement in 2013 over exchanging documents, mainland officials have objected to inspections and are still in practice often reluctant to let papers leave China. “The problem for accounting firms is that they’re still between a rock and a hard place,” said Paul Gillis, professor of practice at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. “They need to comply with the laws in all of the locations where they are doing business.” In July, the U.S. audit regulator revoked the registration of the Hong Kong affiliate of Crowe Horwarth International because it failed to comply with demands to produce documents, including Chinese audit work papers. Earlier in the year, the U.S. Department of Justice charged China Medical Chairman Wu Xiaodong and CFO Samson Tsang Tak Yung with securities fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, alleging they stole much of the $426 million they raised in two convertible bond offerings in 2008 and 2010. KPMG issued written audit reports for China Medical from 2003 to 2008, and was replaced by PwC Zhong Tian in August 2009. Contempt proceedings will be held at Hong Kong High Court. Reporting By Matthew Miller; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-audit-papers/exclusive-kpmg-partners-face-court-contempt-over-china-audit-idINKBN1EE185'|'2017-12-20T12:56:00.000+02:00'
'2413213430ec59c04b0d7a775fe5175e84a6ed52'|'Brazil lower house approves open skies deal with U.S.'|'December 19, 2017 / 9:47 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Brazil lower house approves open skies deal with U.S. Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The lower house of Brazil’s Congress on Tuesday approved an open skies agreement with the United States that clears the way for a partnership between American Airlines Group Inc and LATAM Airlines Group SA, Latin America’s largest carrier. The treaty, which needs Senate approval for final ratification, was signed in 2011 but faced opposition from lawmakers lobbied by local airline interests in Brazil fearing competition from American carriers. The accord removes limits on the number of flights between the two countries and is a requirement for the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve a joint business agreement (JBA) between American Airlines and LATAM Airlines that would expand their traffic in the region. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Eduardo Simoes; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Brad Haynes)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-aviation-usa/brazil-lower-house-approves-open-skies-deal-with-u-s-idUSS0N1M0044'|'2017-12-19T23:46:00.000+02:00'
'f8128776ac492c20085f9063d9321ea6fa11a3b3'|'Nikkei inches up as financials cushion slide in construction stocks'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:35 AM / Updated 37 minutes ago Nikkei inches up as financials cushion slide in construction stocks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks eked out modest gains on Wednesday in choppy trade as strength in financials offset a sustained sell-off in construction shares amid a suspected bid-rigging scandal. The Nikkei share average edged up 0.1 percent to 22,891.72 after trading in the red. Financial firms took heart from higher U.S. yields as they invest in high-yielding products such as foreign bonds. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group advanced 2.1 percent and Dai-ichi Life Holdings rose 2.5 percent. The construction sector slipped 0.7 percent and was the second worst sectoral performer, with Taisei Corp sliding 2.7 percent after the Nikkei business daily reported that the construction firm had asked rival Obayashi Corp to refrain from bidding on a project for magnetic levitation (maglev) trains. Meanwhile, Japan Display Inc jumped 3.1 percent after Kyodo reported that it is discussing an investment of more than 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) from three Chinese panel makers including BOE Technology Group Co. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-inches-up-as-financials-cushion-slide-in-construction-stocks-idUSL4N1OK2BJ'|'2017-12-20T08:35:00.000+02:00'
'235bc0a3ad61e01f314c5bf49726d3d1435317e1'|'Ryanair to face select committee investigation over working conditions - Business - The Guardian'|'Ryanair will be investigated by two parliamentary committees after allegations about employee working conditions, including that the airline has been “trying to wriggle out” of paying its staff the national minimum wage.Frank Field, who chairs the work and pensions committee, and Rachel Reeves , who chairs the business select committee, on Wednesday wrote to the airline’s boss, Michael O’Leary, to demand answers to a string of allegations raised by Ryanair’s staff.The damaging claims come after Ryanair finally agreed to recognise pilot and cabin crew unions in order to avert a pre-Christmas strike. First pilots, now cabin crew – Ryanair to recognise other unions Read more “Sadly, it will not surprise me if the sorry picture painted here is true: a company that turned in £1.15bn profit last year squeezing its workers,” Field said. “People who work long, hard hours and have an important role in passenger safety, and yet apparently cannot count on receiving the national minimum wage – or even close to it.“Ryanair once tried to make its passengers pay to use the loo – now they even make their workers pay to quit. As well as foisting a host of other miserly – and potentially unlawful – requirements on them.”The letter to O’Leary sets out detailed allegations, including staff having to pay £25 a month for their uniform in the first year of employment and having a £175 “administration cost” taken from their salaries if they leave the company in the first 15 months of employment. Reeves said: “These allegations of hours of unpaid work, of charges for uniforms, of fees being incurred to leave, suggest a company falling well short of its duty to the staff who help their planes get off the ground and who spend the flight attending to and serving its paying customers.“Ryanair now need to provide answers on the fees and charges faced by cabin staff and set out how they ensure these staff are receiving the national minimum wage.”Ryanair has recognised unions. Hell must have frozen over - Stefan Stern Read more Ryanair, which made a record £1.1bn of profit in the year to the end of March, said: “We will respond to the subcommittee in early January as requested, however the claims about cabin crew pay and working conditions are false. “Ryanair cabin crew earn between €24,000 [£21,300] to €40,000, which is more than double the UK national minimum wage.”The allegations come soon after crews were warned of disciplinary proceedings for missing sales targets on scratchcards, and staff at Italian bases were threatened with collective sanctions if any member joined a strike called last week.Earlier this week the airline said it would recognise cabin crew and pilots unions for this first time in its 32-year history in an attempt to prevent damaging strikes across Europe over the next few days. Not recognising unions was at the heart of O’Leary’s low-cost business model that helped transform a small Irish regional airline into Europe’s largest carrier by passenger numbers. O’Leary has frequently dismissed pilots’ complaints and insisted on pay negotiations being conducted through company-controlled representative committees at individual bases. He was once quoted as saying he would rather cut off his own hand than recognise unions. However, a shortage of pilots led the airline to cancel thousands of flights earlier this year, shifting more power to staff.“Recognising unions will be a significant change for Ryanair, but we have delivered radical change before,” O’Leary said in a statement. “We hope and expect that these structures can and will be agreed with our pilots early in the new year.” The first meeting between company executives and a pilots union took place in Dublin on Tuesday. Ryanair announced on Tuesday that it would also recognise cabin crew unions and meet them for the first time in the new year.'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/ryanair/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/20/ryanair-working-conditions-investigation-michael-o-leary'|'2017-12-20T19:31:00.000+02:00'
'e968c0c2d7326b155c4d3629ec63caa41e50eed9'|'Bitcoin extends losses, slips below $14,000 on Bitstamp exchange'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:22 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Bitcoin plunges below $12,000, heads for worst week since 2013 Jemima Kelly , Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 5 Min Read NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged by a quarter to below $12,000 (£8,976) on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency in manic trading after its blistering ascent to a peak close to $20,000 prompted warnings by experts of a bubble. It capped a brutal week that had been touted as a new era of mainstream trading for the volatile digital currency when bitcoin futures debuted on CME Group Inc, the world’s largest derivatives market on Sunday. Friday’s steep fall bled into the U.S. stock market, where shares of companies that have recently lashed their fortunes to bitcoin or blockchain - its underlying technology - took a hard knock in early trading. The biggest and best-known cryptocurrency had seen a staggering twentyfold increase since the start of the year, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,666 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Sunday and to over $20,000 on other exchanges. Bitcoin has fallen each day since, with losses accelerating on Friday. In the futures market, bitcoin one-month futures <0#XBT:> on Cboe Global Markets were halted due to the steep price drop, while those trading on the CME hit the limit down threshold. In the spot market, bitcoin fell to as low as $11,159, down more than 25 percent on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, its largest one-day drop in nearly three years. For the week, it was down around a third - its worst performance since April 2013. “After its parabolic-like rally, a crash was imminent and so it has proved,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com in London. “Investors may have also been put off buying bitcoin at those elevated levels amid repeated warnings from experts about the way it had climbed near $20,000.” “A manic upward swing led by the herd will be followed by a downturn as the emotional sentiment changes,” said Charles Hayter, founder and chief executive of industry website Cryptocompare in London. “A lot of traders have been waiting for this large correction.” “With the end of the year in sight a lot of investors will be taking profits and saying thank you very much and closing their books for the holiday period,” he added. Warnings about the risks of investing in the unregulated market have increased - Denmark’s central bank governor called it a “deadly” gamble - and there have been worries about the security of exchanges on which cryptocurrencies are bought and sold. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit said on Tuesday it is shutting down and is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year. Coinbase, a U.S. company that runs one of the biggest exchanges and provides digital “wallets” for storing bitcoins, said on Wednesday it would investigate accusations of insider trading, following a sharp increase in the price of a bitcoin spin-off hours before it announced support for it. CRYPTO-RIVALS As rival cryptocurrencies slid along with bitcoin, the total estimated value of the crypto market fell to as low as $440 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, having neared $650 billion just a day earlier. But other cryptocurrencies surged this week, with investors moving into cheaper digital coins, rather than cashing out of the sector. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market size, soared to almost $900 earlier in the week, from around $500 a week earlier. Ripple, the third-biggest, has more than quadrupled in price since Monday. Stephen Innes, head of trading in Asia-Pacific for retail FX broker Oanda in Singapore, said that there have also been moves out of bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash, a clone of the original cryptocurrency. Oanda does not handle trading in bitcoin. “Most of it is unsophisticated retail traders getting burnt badly,” Innes said on bitcoin’s recent retreat. While some say the launch by CME and its rival Cboe Global Markets of bitcoin futures over the last two weeks has given the digital currency some perceived legitimacy, many policymakers remain sceptical. Bitcoin is known to go through wild swings. In November, it tumbled almost 30 percent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 percent from $4,979 to $2,972. For a graphic on Bitcoin moves this year, click - reut.rs/2BVVXQd Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Jemima Kelly in London; Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro in Tokyo; Editing by Keith Weir and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-bitcoin/bitcoin-extends-losses-slips-below-14000-on-bitstamp-exchange-idUKKBN1EG0A8'|'2017-12-22T05:22:00.000+02:00'
'fbe7b962139918d30b14cbb1f923f3b00d6a0a18'|'Ryanair hit with first ever pilots strike'|'December 22, 2017 / 8:18 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago Ryanair hit with first ever pilots strike Myria Mildenberger , Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair’s efforts to avert its first ever pilots strike collapsed on Friday as pilots in Germany held a four-hour walkout although airports said there had been little impact on flights. FILE PHOTO: A pilot disembarks a Ryanair flight at Stansted airport in London, Britain September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne /File Photo The Irish budget carrier had sought to avert a series of threatened strikes across Europe over Christmas last week by giving up its long-held opposition to recognising unions. However, Germany’s Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union said it would stage a brief walkout as it did not believe Ryanair was serious about recognising unions or sincere in talks. “This was a warning shot and we started small. However, there is potential for much more,” union spokesman Markus Wahl said, ruling out further strikes until after Dec 26. The strike ran from 0401 GMT to 0759 GMT when only 16 flights were scheduled. “All in all there are no significant effects,” a spokesman for Berlin airports said, noting that five of seven flights had departed, with one delayed. Cologne/Bonn airport said two of three scheduled flights had taken off and the third was delayed. Frankfurt airport said four of six scheduled flights had taken off. Ryanair was not available for immediate comment. Management had urged pilots to work to get passengers home for Christmas. But the VC union said after a first meeting that it did not believe Ryanair genuinely wanted to recognise unions and said it wanted to send a message that their pilots were serious about industrial action. VC said Ryanair had refused to accept two members of a delegation that the union nominated to hold talks with management. One of the pilots was a contractor and one a direct employee, but Ryanair has ended both of their contracts, VC said. “This has shown us that nothing has changed with Ryanair’s management style or how it handles workers’ rights,” VC President Ilja Schulz told reporters on Thursday. Ryanair pilots mobilised in September after the carrier announced the cancellation of around 20,000 flights, which it blamed on a rostering problem sparked by a change in Irish regulations. Writing by Ludwig Burger; editing by Edmund Blair and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots/ryanair-hit-with-first-ever-pilots-strike-idUKKBN1EG0R2'|'2017-12-22T10:17:00.000+02:00'
'f8c7123056533a2f1b3729e137e3ec87f35c0828'|'Blackstone buys Taliesin Property Fund in 260 million euro deal'|'December 20, 2017 / 8:28 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Blackstone buys Taliesin Property Fund in 260 million euro deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. investment firm Blackstone ( BX.N ) said on Wednesday it had clinched an all cash deal to buy real estate specialist Taliesin Property Fund ( TPF.L ) in its latest push into European real estate. The ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group is displayed at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The transaction values Taliesin, which was formed in 2006 to invest in residential property in Berlin, at about 260 million euros (229.82 million pounds), representing a 10 percent premium to the closing price of 46.31 euros per Taliesin share on December 19. The deal was carried out by two newly formed investment vehicles, Wren Bidco and Canary Bidco, which are controlled by Blackstone. The offer price has been agreed by the boards of directors of Taliesin and the bidcos on the basis that no final dividend for the financial year to December 31 will be paid by Taliesin to its shareholders. Taliesin was advised by Rothschild while Blackstone used investment bank Lazard. Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-taliesin-m-a-blackstone-group/blackstone-buys-taliesin-property-fund-in-260-million-euro-deal-idUKKBN1EE0U5'|'2017-12-20T10:27:00.000+02:00'
'61efd96c5b352e9ec7b3ee89c50bb252593e5461'|'China to deepen reform, keep growth steady in 2018'|'December 20, 2017 / 12:54 PM / Updated 9 hours ago China to deepen reform, keep growth steady in 2018 Reuters Staff 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China will deepen structural reforms and curb risks to the country’s financial system while maintaining steady economic growth in 2018, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, citing leaders at an economic planning meeting. FILE PHOTO: Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port, part of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, in Shanghai, China, February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo China has seen better-than-expected economic growth this year even as it stepped up a campaign to cut debt, though there are growing concerns that the tighter policy environment could weigh on growth in the world’s second-largest economy next year. The annual economic conference is attended by China’s top leaders and is keenly watched by investors for clues to policy priorities and economic targets in the year ahead. The government will push forward with structural supply-side reform and maintain prudent, neutral monetary policy next year as it looks to improve the quality of growth, the news agency said citing a statement following the meeting. “China’s economic development has entered a new era. The basic feature is that our economy has shifted from the high-speed growth stage to a stage of high-quality development,” the statement said. “Pushing forward high-quality growth is a requirement for maintaining healthy development of the economy.” The statement echoes President Xi Jinping’s comment at a key party congress in October that China would strive for higher quality, more efficient and fair growth. At a Politburo meeting earlier this month, top leaders pledged to deepen structural reforms and curb systemic risks from the country’s growing debt pile while maintaining steady economic growth in 2018. In the first nine months of this year, the economy grew 6.9 percent from a year earlier. Growth was underpinned by stronger exports and sustained state spending, positioning China to exceed the government’s growth target of around 6.5 percent this year. China will maintain economic growth in a reasonable range next year and also keep credit growth reasonable, Xinhua said. Sources have told Reuters that Chinese leaders are likely to stick with that growth target for 2018, even as they ratchet up efforts to prevent a destabilising build-up of debt. Beijing has made progress this year controlling the level of debt in the economy as a portion of GDP, with corporate debt ratios declining slightly this year, according to data from the Bank of International Settlements. While the statement following this year’s economic conference made no mention of the need to lower corporate leverage - in contrast to last year’s readout - that does not mean China is de-emphasising the deleveraging drive, said Yang Zhao, Nomura’s chief China economist. “(Deleveraging) might not be intensified with new policies, but for policies already rolled out, they will materialise and be implemented next year,” said Zhao, who added that deleveraging is a component of China’s supply-side reform strategy. “The deleveraging, I think, will remain in place.” The leadership said the fight to control risks was primarily focused on dealing with financial risks, Xinhua said. That aligns with a campaign this year to defuse points of risk in China’s financial markets, including reining in the massive shadow banking sector and rolling out new rules for micro-lenders. China will also take concrete measures to strengthen the regulation of local government debt, promote private investment, and will deepen reform of state-owned firms in 2018, Xinhua added. In the property sector, which saw a rapid run-up in prices in recent years though gains have slowed, China will maintain the stability and continuity of property tightening measures, Xinhua said. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Writing by Elias Glenn; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-conference/china-to-deepen-reform-keep-growth-steady-in-2018-idINKBN1EE1L6'|'2017-12-20T14:54:00.000+02:00'
'76e87c165e6f2ae436d8eda2244a22e72595daec'|'Asia stocks subdued as U.S. tax cuts batter bonds'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:45 AM / Updated 2 minutes ago World stocks climb on U.S. data, tax plan optimism Laila Kearney 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Leading global stock markets drifted higher on Thursday in the wake of solid U.S. economic growth data and amid investor optimism following the recent passage of a $1.5 trillion tax cut plan in Washington. The U.S. economy grew at its fastest rate in more than two years in the third quarter, the U.S. Commerce Department reported, and was poised for a slight boost next year from the tax bill passed by the Republican-led Congress. Investors were hopeful the tax plan, which slashes corporate income tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent, would allow companies to deploy additional capital on dividends, new projects and wages. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 102.78 points, or 0.42 percent, to 24,829.43, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 11.54 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,690.79 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 26.02 points, or 0.37 percent, to 6,986.98. MSCI''s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.39 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.66 percent. “The impact is still a work in progress. Tax cuts are believed to add to earnings, but the unknowns are to what extent the company behavior changes in terms of capex policy, buybacks and wage increases,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis. U.S. Treasury yields held at lower levels, with 10-year yields scaling back from a nine-month peak, providing a respite from a sharp three-day bond market selloff tied to the tax plan, as investors began bargain hunting. Slideshow (2 Images) In Europe, the premium investors demand for holding Spanish bonds over top-rated German peers fell to its lowest in almost three months as Catalonia held an independence election. Euro zone bond yields held near multi-week highs mostly on the U.S. tax code overhaul vote and passage. The U.S. dollar was little changed after two days of losses in light trading on strong economic data and the tax plan, which could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at a faster-than-expected pace. The dollar index .DXY, tracking the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was flat, with the euro EUR= down 0.03 percent to $1.1866. Gold XAU= held near an earlier two-week high on the steady dollar. Oil prices were little changed after the operator of Britain’s Forties pipeline in the North Sea said it expected to restart in early January after repairs over Christmas. [O/R] Oil prices had risen since the pipeline was shut on Dec 11. U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 0.36 percent to $58.30 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $64.84, up 0.43 percent Additional reporting Marc Jones in London; Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru.; Editing by Daniel Bases and Bernadette Baum'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-stocks-subdued-as-u-s-tax-cuts-batter-bonds-idUSKBN1EF026'|'2017-12-21T02:44:00.000+02:00'
'f7f3aac43861a50ee240a6225cd305fba6016718'|'BMW aims to have sold 500,000 hybrid, electric cars by end-2019'|'December 21, 2017 / 8:30 AM / Updated an hour ago BMW aims to have sold 500,000 hybrid, electric cars by end-2019 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German carmaker BMW aims to more than double the number of electric and hybrid vehicles it has sold to 500,000 by the end of 2019, Chief Executive Harald Krueger told German weekly WirtschaftsWoche. FILE PHOTO: The logo of BMW before the company''s annual news conference in Munich, southern Germany, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder/File Photo In 2018 alone, deliveries of electrified vehicles are to rise by a “medium double-digit percentage”, he said. A pioneer in electric cars, BMW launched the i3 hatchback in 2013 but sales have been relatively low and management has wrestled with whether to go all-out for electrification. But that changed in September when the Munich-based group said it would gear up for mass production of electric cars and aimed to have 12 fully electric models by 2025 with a range of up to 700 km. The group said on Monday it had hit its target of selling 100,000 fully electric cars this year around the world, benefiting from strong demand in western Europe and the United States for models such as the i3 and the 2-series plug-in hybrid Active Tourer. He said the carmaker would nonetheless keep making and selling cars with combustion engines to help finance a gradual shift to electrified cars. Unlike his peer Matthias Mueller, the CEO of Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ), he rejected the idea of doing away with tax subsidies for diesel. “Bearing customers in mind who bought diesels, that is unjustifiable,” Krueger said. Mueller earlier this month called for subsidies for diesel vehicles to be shifted gradually to incentives for green cars, such as electric vehicles. Acting Transport Minister Christian Schmidt had shot down the idea, though, saying that diesel was still needed during the transition to greener vehicles and there was therefore no reason to change tax rules. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bmw-electric/bmw-aims-to-have-sold-500000-hybrid-electric-cars-by-end-2019-idUKKBN1EF0TY'|'2017-12-21T10:25:00.000+02:00'
'e77b55efd1540af20d3ced9abb256bf19d6f9f9b'|'Lufthansa''s Eurowings drops close to 300 flights due to ''anti-trust concerns'''|'December 21, 2017 / 4:41 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Lufthansa''s Eurowings drops close to 300 flights due to ''anti-trust concerns'' Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) budget carrier Eurowings said on Thursday it has cancelled nearly 300 flights from the rest of its winter schedule due to what a spokesman for Eurowings described as “anti-trust concerns”. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Lufthansa''s low-cost brand Eurowings is seen at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany, November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo He declined to comment on the concerns. But Lufthansa last week abandoned plans to buy failed rival Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) Austrian airline Niki due to competition concerns. And earlier on Thursday the European Commission approved Lufthansa’s purchase of LGW, another Air Berlin subsidiary, after it agreed to give up some runway slots. Most of the flights being cancelled, which amount to less than 1 percent of the winter schedule, are on domestic German routes, the Eurowings spokesman said, adding that the changes were not set in stone and some routes could be added back at a later point in time. German weekly Focus earlier cited company sources as saying Eurowings had notified customers of the cancellations by e-mail and said it was trying to provide alternative flights on Lufthansa. Eurowings had expected to increase its fleet to 210 aircraft from 160 had Lufthansa acquired both LGW and Niki from Air Berlin. Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Klaus Lauer; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-eurowings-cancellations/lufthansas-eurowings-drops-close-to-300-flights-due-to-anti-trust-concerns-idUKKBN1EF29M'|'2017-12-21T18:40:00.000+02:00'
'477cb4961c66d6cd0994f58d8004f075043c8239'|'Toys ''R'' Us plans new playdate with U.S. shoppers'|'December 21, 2017 / 6:04 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Toys ''R'' Us plans new playdate with U.S. shoppers Jessica DiNapoli , Melissa Fares 6 Min Read WALLKILL, NEW YORK (Reuters) - Joshua and Amy Hightower drive 40 minutes to a Toys ‘R’ Us Inc store in a blue collar neighborhood in Wallkill, one of the farthest reaches of the New York City suburbs, so their children can try toys at an amusement area dubbed the “play lab.” “We were actually here last night and last week,” said Amy Hightower, a 30-year-old stay-at-home mom as her daughter played house and her two sons raced cars in the play lab, which Toys ‘R’ Us launched in 42 of its stores this year. “It is hard to get them away from this area,” she said. The Hightowers may be ideal Toys ‘R’ Us customers, but so far there has not been enough of them. Many shoppers now make their toy purchases online. Foot traffic at Toys ‘R’ Us, the largest U.S. toy retailer, has declined, as consumers turn to e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), mass discount chains, like Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( WMT.N ), and some small independent toy stores. For a graphic on the changing toy retailer landscape, click tmsnrt.rs/2BuQGMW As Toys ‘R’ Us aims to exit bankruptcy in 2018 after defaulting on its debt last September, its efforts to reinvent its stores with play labs will shape how other retailers look to experiential shopping to tackle e-commerce. The holiday shopping season, when 75 percent of all toy sales are made, is a key test of this strategy. Toys ‘R’ Us has set aside more than $400 million out of its $3.1 billion in bankruptcy loans for sprucing up its approximately 900 stores over the next three years with more experiences and better-paid staff. The company’s creditors are wary of these plans, according to sources close to the situation who requested anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations. Creditors can ask the bankruptcy judge to stop Toys ‘R’ Us from spending on play labs or other experiential aspects, if they view the costs as excessive. In bankruptcy court papers, Toys ‘R’ Us has argued it cannot wait until it emerges from bankruptcy to invest in its stores. The retailer also plans to close unprofitable locations and improve its website and loyalty programs. Dave Brandon, who became Toys ‘R’ Us chief executive in 2015 after spearheading a turnaround at Domino’s Pizza Inc ( DPZ.N ), defended the strategy in an interview, saying that bricks-and-mortar stores and experiential shopping were important to the retailer’s brand. “We think our scale is a huge advantage, because we have a brand that’s nationally and globally known,” Brandon said. Toys ‘R’ Us aims to offer shopping experiences like those found at Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc ( DKS.N ), Best Buy Co Inc ( BBY.N ) and Ulta Beauty Inc ( ULTA.O ), Brandon added. Slideshow (3 Images) To be sure, Toys ‘R’ Us may end up with little to show for its investment, industry experts said. Experiential shopping is expensive to scale up for big box retailers that rely heavily on seasonal hiring, they said. “There is a chance that Toys ‘R’ Us could be out of business in the next two years entirely in the United States,” said Stephanie Wissink, a consumer products analyst at investment bank Jefferies LLC. “My fear is that they are not selling goods to a consumer that values that experience.” Other toy retailers offering shopping experiences, such as stuffed animal shop Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc ( BBW.N ) and The Lego Group have also posted sales declines. Sales at Build-A-Bear declined 7 percent to $364 million last year from $392 million two years prior. INDEPENDENT TOY STORES Regional independent toy retailers have also been taking market share away from Toys ‘R’ Us, thanks to merchandise that extends beyond mass-market toys, strong customer service and products that accompany school lessons. Those chains also seek to cater to local tastes in a way Toys ‘R’ Us has not. “Stores in Texas buy cheerleading stuff a lot, there’s a big football community,” said Sharon DiMinico, chief executive of Learning Express Inc, a U.S. toy store franchiser with about 120 independently-owned stores. Steven Aarons, the owner of four-store chain Barstons Child’s Play in the Washington, D.C. area, said he is able to offer entry-level wages of $15 per hour and health insurance to full-time workers because he has cheaper rent and does not have to answer to investors. In Wallkill, Toys ‘R’ Us hired new employees like Nora Hanlon to oversee the store’s Play Lab, which is a cordoned off foam mat, scattered with toys and a picnic table nearby where parents can sit. Boxes marked for layaway surround it. “I get minimum wage, but it’s a really fun job,” said Hanlon, a high school student and part-time Play Lab Coach, sporting a reindeer headpiece. Toys ‘R’ Us also plans to hire more skilled workers. About $72 million of the $400 million the retailer will use for its redevelopment will go toward wage increases. The chain’s efforts to emulate features of independent stores underscores the dramatic reversal of its fortunes. As the chain grew its national footprint, it wiped out mom-and-pop shops decades ago. But its glitzy Fao Schwarz store and flagship Times Square location featuring a Ferris Wheel were too pricey. Earlier efforts with experiential stores called “Geoffrey,” named after its giraffe mascot, failed. Its $6.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005 led to expensive interest payments that ate up cash Toys ‘R’ Us could have used to improve stores. “Can they somehow turn their stores from a warehouse into a play area?” said retail consultant Howard Davidowitz. “That is a big jump.” Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Melissa Fares in Wallkill, New York; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Edward Tobin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toys-r-us-restructuring/toys-r-us-plans-new-playdate-with-u-s-shoppers-idUSKBN1EF0GD'|'2017-12-21T08:06:00.000+02:00'
'3891a2db843038961eff197042383c802dbf1309'|'Cabot Oil and Gas to sell Eagle Ford assets amid cost-cut push'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:06 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago REFILE-Cabot Oil and Gas to sell Eagle Ford assets amid cost-cut push Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Refiles to remove extraneous word “said” in fourth paragraph) Dec 20 (Reuters) - Cabot Oil & Gas Corp said on Wednesday it would sell its Eagle Ford Shale assets to a unit of Venado Oil & Gas LLC for $765 million as the oil and gas producer tries to cut down costs. The asset sale includes 74,500 net acres of shale field, which had produced 15,656 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter, the company said. U.S. shale producers have been selling off assets in Eagle Ford and North Dakota’s Bakken basins to develop projects in the liquids-rich Permian basin, which has lower break-even costs. “In a higher oil price environment, the Eagle Ford Shale assets were a nice complement to our Marcellus Shale position and provided capital allocation optionality,” said Chief Executive Dan Dingus, explaining the rationale of the sale. Oil and gas producers are also looking to spend within their means as crude prices remain between $60 and $70 per barrel, more than 43 percent lower than the 2014 price. Cabot said it would record a one-time charge of $270 million to $280 million on the Eagle Ford sale in the fourth quarter. Separately, the company also announced the sale of its remaining East Texas assets to an undisclosed buyer. The Eagle Ford sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018. Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/cabot-oil-gas-divestiture/cabot-oil-and-gas-to-sell-eagle-ford-assets-amid-cost-cut-push-idUSL4N1OK56W'|'2017-12-21T00:02:00.000+02:00'
'e73b36e9a42f10585c87a250249d02264fe51cc8'|'Boeing held takeover talks with Embraer - WSJ'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:00 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Boeing held takeover talks with Embraer: WSJ Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) has held takeover talks with Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ), the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO - The Boeing Company logo is projected on a wall at the "What''s Next?" conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young Boeing and Embraer have been discussing a deal that would involve a relatively large premium to the Brazilian company’s market capitalization of $3.71 billion, the WSJ reported. Embraer’s shares were up 2.6 percent in Sao Paulo, while its U.S.-listed shares were up about 30 percent. The talks are on hold as the companies are waiting for the Brazilian government’s response on whether it would approve the deal, according to the report. Boeing is willing to take steps to protect Embraer’s brand, management and jobs to help entice the government and is also willing to structure a deal that would protect the government’s interest in Embraer’s defense business, the Journal said. Embraer and Boeing were not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Arunima Banerjee; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-embraer-m-a-boeing/boeing-held-takeover-talks-with-embraer-wsj-idUKKBN1EF2BA'|'2017-12-21T19:12:00.000+02:00'
'20f5c69159f6bf41bd0006d30004be1cd73a18d5'|'Uber names ex-Orbitz executive as COO'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:40 PM / in 2 hours Uber names ex-Orbitz executive as COO Heather Somerville , Jim Finkle 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc on Wednesday named the former chief executive of Orbitz to be its chief operating officer, second-in-command to new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who has been revamping the leadership team in hopes of turning around the ride provider and preparing for an IPO. Barney Harford, the newly named chief operating officer (COO) of Uber is seen in this undated photo released by Uber on December 20, 2017. Trevor Knight/Courtesy Uber Technologies Inc/Handout via REUTERS Barney Harford, who was CEO of online travel service Orbitz Worldwide Inc, will join Uber on Jan. 2 and will be tasked with overseeing global ride-hailing operations, marketing, customer support and the food delivery business. A familiar face at Uber, he been an adviser since October, Khosrowshahi said in an email to employees. With Khosrowshahi flying to Europe and South America to address regulatory issues, Harford will have an important role in Uber’s day-to-day business. He must also help figure out how to turn a profit at Uber, where the loss widened to $1.46 billion in the third quarter from $1.06 billion the previous quarter. Harford is Uber’s first COO and Khosrowshahi’s second significant hire after General Counsel Tony West joined in October from PepsiCo. Khosrowshahi is under pressure to establish a leadership team capable of changing the toxic and rule-flouting corporate culture that developed under co-founder and former-CEO Travis Kalanick. Khosrowshahi, who replaced Kalanick in August, has vowed to usher in a new era at Uber after a string of scandals led to the departure of many executives. These included allegations of sexual harassment, data privacy violations, a lawsuit alleging trade-secrets theft that is headed for trial in February, and criminal probes involving possible bribes paid overseas and a scheme to evade regulators. Uber’s board of directors has agreed to take the company public in 2019 and the company is searching for a chief financial officer who can help take the company public. The CFO position has been vacant since 2015. Uber also needs a head of engineering and has vacancies for a number of managers for regional operations. Five key members of its security team also recently departed. Harford, who sits on the board of airline company United Continental Holdings Inc, was a one-time competitor to Khosrowshahi. Harford ran Orbitz from 2009 to 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile, while Khosrowshahi was CEO of online travel company Expedia Inc. In February 2015, Expedia announced it would acquire Orbitz for $1.3 billion in cash, part of a spate of acquisitions under Khosrowshahi. Harford also worked for Expedia, and briefly under Khosrowshahi, running the company’s Asia Pacific division, according to LinkedIn. In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Harford said he looked forward to helping broaden transportation options in cities and said Uber “clearly wants to turn a corner.” In March, the company announced its plan to hire its first COO. Then, Kalanick was still CEO and under fire for his leadership abilities. The search was delayed while the board searched for a replacement for Kalanick. Additional reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-coo/uber-names-ex-orbitz-executive-as-coo-idINKBN1EE2BG'|'2017-12-21T06:44:00.000+02:00'
'f268298d9401e4b500e045b286b66aef6e70aad0'|'French telecoms group Iliad to buy 31.6 percent stake in Irish peer eir'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:41 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago France''s Iliad, founder Niel to buy majority stake in Ireland''s eir Sudip Kar-Gupta , Conor Humphries 3 Min Read PARIS/DUBLIN (Reuters) - French telecoms company Iliad ( ILD.PA ) and its founder Xavier Niel have agreed to buy a majority stake in eir, Ireland’s largest telecoms provider said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: French broadband Internet provider Iliad logo is seen in Paris, France, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo Niel will own 32.9 percent of eir through his NJJ investment vehicle while Iliad, which is 52 percent owned by Niel, will own 31.6 percent, eir said in a statement. The deal will see “substantial investment” in eir, Ireland’s principal fixed-line provider and its third largest mobile company, eir, NJJ and Iliad said in a joint statement. The company is currently building Ireland’s largest fibre broadband network with the aim of reaching 1.9 million homes and businesses by the end of 2018. “We are a long-term investor in the telecoms sector and bring global knowhow to eir,” Niel said in a statement. “We want to invest for the future of Ireland.” Richard Moat, eir’s chief executive, announced his intention to step down upon completion of the transaction. The parties did not disclose what was paid for the stakes but said the deal put eir’s enterprise value at around 3.5 billion euros. A spokesman for NJJ decline to comment on an Irish Times report which said that the combined stake was bought for around 1 billion euros. The company had earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of 520 million euros on revenue of 1.3 billion in the year to June 30. Iliad has also been granted a call option by NJJ, exercisable in 2024, that would allow it to acquire 80 percent of NJJ’s stake, or 26.3 percent of eir’s capital, the statement said. The deal is due to complete in first half of 2018, subject to EU Commission Competition clearance. It follows a string of ownership changes for the Dublin-based company which pulled out of an initial public offering in 2014. Before the deal the firm’s largest stakeholders were U.S. hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group with 42 percent, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC with 20.6 percent and U.S. investment firm Davidson Kempner with 14 percent. Anchorage and Davidson Kempner will retain stakes of 26.6 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. Writing by Conor Humphries; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-telecoms-iliad/french-telecoms-group-iliad-to-buy-31-6-percent-stake-in-irish-peer-eir-idUKKBN1EE0QR'|'2017-12-20T09:41:00.000+02:00'
'b5e455f48de12fadf3a3098ab9b2ac6b33dff116'|'Uber dealt blow by EU court ruling that it is transport service'|'December 20, 2017 / 8:51 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Uber dealt blow after EU court classifies it as transport service Julia Fioretti 5 Min Read LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Uber should be classified as a transport service and regulated like other taxi operators, the European Union’s top court said in a landmark ruling on Wednesday that could impact other online businesses in Europe. Uber, which allows passengers to summon a ride through an app on their smartphones, has transformed the taxi industry since its launch in 2011 and now operates in more than 600 cities globally. In the latest of a series of legal battles, Uber had argued it was simply a digital app that acted as an intermediary between drivers and customers looking for a ride and so should fall under lighter EU rules for online services. “The service provided by Uber connecting individuals with non-professional drivers is covered by services in the field of transport,” the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said. “Member states can, therefore, regulate the conditions for providing that service,” it said. The case follows a complaint from a professional taxi drivers’ association in Barcelona that Uber’s activities in Spain amounted to misleading practices and unfair competition from Uber’s use of non-professional drivers - a service Uber calls UberPOP and which has since been suspended in Spain and other countries. GIG ECONOMY Uber has taken the fight to regulators and established taxi and cab companies, expanding from a Silicon Valley start-up to a business with a valuation of $68 billion. Following changes at the top and legal battles, it recently adopted a more conciliatory approach under its new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi. The European case had been widely watched as an indicator of how the burgeoning gig economy, which also features the likes of food-delivery company Deliveroo, would be regulated in Europe. The ECJ said Uber “exercises decisive influence over the conditions under which the drivers provide their service” and that without the Uber mobile app “persons who wish to make an urban journey would not use the services provided by those drivers.” The decision is unlikely to have an immediate impact on Uber’s operations in Europe, where it has cut back its use of unlicensed services such as UberPOP and adheres to local transportation laws. “This ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law,” an Uber spokeswoman said in a statement. FILE PHOTO - A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo “As our new CEO has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe. This is the approach we’ll take to ensure everyone can get a reliable ride at the tap of a button.” Uber is in the middle of a legal battle over its right to operate in London, its most important European market. Bernardine Adkins, Head of EU, Trade and Competition Law at Gowling WLG said the ruling provided “vital clarity to its (Uber‘s) position within the marketplace.” “Uber’s control over its drivers, its ability to set prices and the fact its electronic service is inseparable from its ultimate consumer experience means it is more than simply a platform connecting drivers to passengers.” TAXI LOBBY CHEERS IRU, the world road transport organisation, which includes taxi associations, cheered the ruling as finally offering a level playing field for providers of the same service. “In the area of mobility, the taxi and for-hire sector was one of the first to embrace innovation and new technologies,” said Oleg Kamberski, Head of Passenger Transport at IRU. “Finding a solution that allows both traditional and new transport service providers to compete in a fair way while meeting the service quality standards became necessary.” EU law protects online services from undue restrictions and national governments must notify the European Commission of any measures regulating them so it can ensure they are not discriminatory or disproportionate. Transport, however, is excluded from this. The tech industry said the ruling would impact the next generation of start-ups more than Uber itself. “We regret the judgment effectively threatens the application of harmonized EU rules to online intermediaries,” said Jakob Kucharczyk, Vice President, Competition & EU Regulatory Policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association. “The purpose of those rules is to make sure online innovators can achieve greater scalability and competitiveness in the EU, unfettered from undue national restrictions,” he added. “This is a blow to the EU’s ambition of building an integrated digital single market.” Reporting by Julia Fioretti; editing by Keith Weir and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-court/uber-dealt-blow-by-eu-court-ruling-that-it-is-transport-service-idUKKBN1EE0W7'|'2017-12-20T10:51:00.000+02:00'
'aa5071277e83e55c2a451f46a11df10ee1dd3339'|'Third of Uber''s UK drivers logged into app for more than 40 hours a week'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:44 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Third of Uber''s UK drivers logged into app for more than 40 hours a week Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly a third of Uber’s 50,000 drivers in Britain are logged into the app for more than 40 hours a week, whilst just under 8 percent are online for more than 60 hours, the company said in a letter to parliamentarians published on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain, November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo The app has been attacked by trade unions and lawmakers who say that some of its drivers are working excessively, one of many criticisms it has faced about its business model. A total of 2.6 percent of drivers are logged in for more than 70 hours a week and 0.8 percent for longer than 80 hours, according to the firm. But Uber’s Head of Public Policy in Britain and Ireland Andrew Byrne said being logged on was not the same as the number of driving hours. “Individuals are able to turn the app on and off at any time as well as decide when to take requests - this means that an hour logged into the Uber app is not the same as an hour of work,” he said in a letter responding to questions from parliament’s business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee. “Drivers often do not confirm trips that are sent to them,” he wrote. Uber has faced setbacks in Britain this year, losing a case on workers’ rights, being stripped of its London license and hunting to find a replacement for its boss. Byrne said the app was planning to introduce a tool which will limit driving hours in January and would write again to lawmakers. The committee chairwoman said she wanted Uber to provide details of the plans early next year. “Uber’s own stats indicate they have drivers who are logged in for more than 70 and 80 hours a week, a fact which would be a matter of concern for anyone potentially booking one of these Uber drivers,” said Rachel Reeves. “We expect Uber to update the BEIS Committee in the New Year with the specific details on how the driver hour limits will work in practice.” Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-britain-hours/third-of-ubers-uk-drivers-logged-into-app-for-more-than-40-hours-a-week-idUKKBN1EE219'|'2017-12-20T17:41:00.000+02:00'
'2ec6196bad8e5b81fd7d6f38dc7f7da4435cc239'|'Japan''s Kansai Electric used possibly falsified Mitsubishi Materials products at reactors'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:15 AM / Updated 23 minutes ago Japan''s Kansai Electric used possibly falsified Mitsubishi Materials products at reactors Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co ( 9503.T ) said on Wednesday it has used products in important safety equipment at two of its nuclear plants that were supplied by a unit of Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) with possibly falsified data. The utility has found it is using rubber seals from Mitsubishi Cable Industries with possible falsified specifications in dozens of locations at its Takahama and Ohi nuclear plants, a spokesman said, confirming Japanese media reports. The discovery comes after Kansai Electric delayed the restart of one of the nuclear power stations because it needs to make checks on parts supplied by Japan’s Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), which, like Mitsubishi Materials, is embroiled in a scandal over product specifications. The utility has told Japan’s nuclear regulator that it has not found any immediate safety issues, the spokesman said. Mitsubishi Materials said last month it had discovered that products with falsified specifications had been sent to more than 300 of its customers. That was latest in a slew of scandals to rock Japan’s manufacturing industry. Apart from Kobe Steel, similar lapses on specifications have been found at Toray Industries Inc ( 3402.T ) and incorrect final inspection procedures were discovered by automakers Nissan Motor Co ( 7201.T ) and Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ). Kansai Electric’s delays and checks on Ohi reactors are further hitches to the protracted reboot of Japan’s nuclear sector, shut down in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Kansai Electric does not plan to close down the Takahama station for checks, or expect any additional delays on the restart of Ohi, the spokesman said. Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mitsubishi-ma-scandal-nuclear/japans-kansai-electric-used-possibly-falsified-mitsubishi-materials-products-at-reactors-idUSKBN1EE0J9'|'2017-12-20T08:15:00.000+02:00'
'b20a208f937ce61415c89a723e63abaea6211d7c'|'The only job I got from Nationwide Placements is tackling spam emails - Money'|'The only job I got from Nationwide Placements is tackling spam emails I’d already shared personal details, so how can I protect myself from identity fraud? Wed 20 Dec ‘17 07.00 GMT Last modified on Wed 20 Dec ‘17 07.02 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close I recently sent my CV to an online recruiter called Nationwide Placements. I’ve since realised it is a fake company selling on personal details. As a result, I am receiving multiple spam emails. What can I do to protect myself from identity fraud or other issues, now that I’ve shared my personal details in this way? KQ, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire You found Nationwide Placements on the job-search platform Indeed where reviews tell a similar story. Instead of receiving details of suitable vacancies, applicants report being bombarded with phishing calls and emails. The website strives to imply it’s pukka, with the Palace of Westminster spread across its home page and links to jobs with well-known brands. Clearly, though, it prefers to harvest information than give it. An answer machine stated that no one was available to take calls. Soon afterwards, the number was removed from the website, leaving only a web form as a contact. There’s no address and my message vanished into the ether. Indeed says it has removed the company’s ad and reported it to SAFERjobs, which supports jobseekers and agency staff who are victims of fraud. The company appears to be based in Bracknell and Trading Standards says it is aware of it but can’t comment “due to ongoing inquiries”. You should flag up your concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office which enforces data protection and investigates whether individuals’ personal information has been misused. Meanwhile, ensure you have changed all your online passwords so your accounts can’t be accessed and run a check on your credit reports, which will be among the first indicators as to whether you have fallen victim to ID fraud. If you need help email Anna Tims at or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/20/nationwide-placements-indeed-fake-spam-emails'|'2017-12-20T09:00:00.000+02:00'
'6ad7d6375bdacc3d6c0cc86abeb645197a9f6f02'|'Niki administrators pick two bidders for final-stage talks'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:16 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Four final bidders chosen for Austrian airline Niki Klaus Lauer , Maria Sheahan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - IAG ( ICAG.L ), the owner of British Airways, is one of the four bidders chosen for final stage talks over the assets of insolvent Austrian airline Niki, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO - People stand in front of an empty Niki customer care desk at Palma de Mallorca airport, Spain, December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Clara Margais The administrators running the process aim to agree a deal with one of the four parties by the end of next week, one of the administrators said on Friday. They did not confirm the identity of the bidders. Niki, founded by former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda in 2003, was part of collapsed Air Berlin. Lauda said on Thursday that he had offered to buy Niki. A spokeswoman for the Austrian said on Friday she could not say whether he was among the four remaining bidders. Niki filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) backed out of a deal to buy its assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its takeoff and landing slots, its most attractive asset. Six parties submitted offers by a Thursday deadline, five of which were binding, Niki administrator Lucas Floether said in a statement on Friday, without providing details. “The bidders are very interested, and I am confident that it will be possible to save large parts of the business and many jobs in Austria and Germany,” he said. Both of the bidders picked for further talks have indicated that they are prepared to provide Niki with funding to keep its doors open as soon as a deal is agreed, he said. A German newspaper had also named tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Tuifly, the airline of tour operator TUI ( TUIT.L ), among the remaining bidders. Other interested parties include Swiss carrier PrivatAir. IAG and Thomas Cook declined to comment. TUI and PrivatAir were not available for immediate comment. If Niki’s administrators fail to agree a deal for Niki’s assets by the end of December, the carrier may lose its operating licence and its runway slots, but Floether said on Friday that Austrian regulators may give the parties a few extra days if an agreement is struck by the end of next week. Additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle in Vienna, Paul Sandle in London and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; Editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki/niki-administrators-pick-two-bidders-for-final-stage-talks-idUKKBN1EG1C7'|'2017-12-22T14:09:00.000+02:00'
'786f90dc5bf1c74e51436be1cf2d8fe670273734'|'Alphabet''s Eric Schmidt to step down as executive chairman'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:43 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Alphabet''s Eric Schmidt to step down as executive chairman Salvador Rodriguez , Sonam Rai 4 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ) said on Thursday its Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will step down in January, ending a 17-year-run in which he played a central role in building a promising startup called Google into a global technology powerhouse. He will continue to serve on the Alphabet''s board of directors and act as an adviser on focused on technical and science issues, the company said. ( bit.ly/2BXJzz6 ) “The time is right in Alphabet’s evolution for this transition,” Schmidt said in a statement. “I‘m incredibly excited about the progress our companies are making and about the strong leaders who are driving that innovation,” said Chief Executive Larry Page in a statement. Schmidt, who was recruited to the company by Google co-founders Page and Sergey Brin, served as chief executive from 2001 through 2011, acting as what the three jokingly referred to as the “adult supervision.” Schmidt then became executive chairman, often traveling the world touting the company’s accomplishments, negotiating with governments on regulatory matters and speaking about the state of the tech industry. “He helped them mature into the powerhouse business it is today without throwing away the uniqueness that was Google during those early days,” said Joe Beda, chief technology officer of Seattle startup Heptio and a Google employee from 2004 through 2014. Among Schmidt’s accomplishments were taking the company public in 2004, shepherding critical product initiatives like the Android mobile operating system, and overseeing a massive 2015 corporate restructuring in which Google became a business unit of the holding company Alphabet. Slideshow (2 Images) Bismarck Lepe, CEO of San Francisco startup Wizeline and a Google employee from 2003 until 2007, said Page and Brin focused on the company’s technology and the product strategies, while Schmidt focused on how to scale every product to a global level. Schmidt “was incredibly smart and incredibly technical, which made him a perfect fit,” Lepe added. Schmidt’s tenure was not without its problems. Google, Apple and several other tech companies were hit with a class action lawsuit in 2011 alleging that executives including Schmidt and the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs conspired to keep wages down by not hiring one anothers’ employees. The suit was settled for $415 million in 2015. The company has also been hit with lawsuits alleging that it pays women less than men. It also faces a series of antitrust actions in Europe, though Schmidt was instrumental in convincing the U.S. Federal Trade Commission not to pursue antitrust actions in the United States. Schmidt spent more than a decade at Sun Microsystems and ran the now-defunct networking company Novell before joining Google in 2001. The 2004 initial public offering came at time when the industry was still reeling from the dot-com bust, but it helped lay the groundwork for the current boom. Shuman Ghosemajumder, chief technology officer of Mountain View, California, startup Shape Security and a Google employee from 2003 until 2010, recalled that shortly after the IPO, Schmidt spoke at an all-hands meetings and said that he, Page and Brin had the ambition of making Google a $100 billion company. “Did you mean a $100 billion market cap or $100 billion in revenue?” one employee asked. “And Eric said ‘You pick,''” recalled Ghosemajumder. “That was definitely inspiring to me.” Alphabet now carries a market cap of $741 billion, and this year, it is projected to surpass $100 billion in annual revenue, according to analyst estimates. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Weber and Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-ericschmidt/alphabets-eric-schmidt-to-step-down-as-executive-chairman-idUSKBN1EF2Z1'|'2017-12-22T00:42:00.000+02:00'
'549f4c93352e7aa635bc32e49d0d3dc5bf0da98c'|'Oil drops from 2-1/2-year highs as rising U.S. output drags on market'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:57 AM / Updated an hour ago Oil drops from two-and-a-half year highs as rising U.S. output drags on market Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices on Friday dipped away from some of its highest levels since 2015, weighed down by rising U.S. output and the expected January re-opening of the Forties pipeline in the North Sea. FILE PHOTO: A pump jack operates at a well site leased by Devon Energy Production Company near Guthrie, Oklahoma, U.S., September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo The drop, though, came as crude future volumes declined rapidly as traders closed positions ahead of the upcoming Christmas and New Year breaks. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $58.18 a barrel at 0544 GMT, down 18 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $64.75 a barrel, down 15 cents, or 0.2 percent. Brent on Thursday ended at $64.90 a barrel, its highest close since June 2015. WTI has also been touching values not seen since mid-2015 over the past two months. The dip on Friday was due to an outlook for rising supplies that triggered those holding long positions to sell-out ahead of the year-end holidays, traders said. Also weighing on the market was the expected return of the 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) Forties pipeline system in the North Sea in January. The pipeline, which delivers crude underpinning Brent futures, was shut earlier this month due to a crack. Operator Ineos said on Thursday it expected to complete repairs around Christmas and to gradually restart the system in early January. Longer term, analysts said crude production in the United States that is fast approaching 10 million bpd would also drag on oil prices, and undermine efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to tighten the market. “Supply is expected to grow further, paving the way to an oversupplied market, which can again exercise downward pressure on oil prices,” consultancy Rystad Energy said in a note. Not all analysts expect a return of oversupply, though. The OPEC-led pact to withhold supplies started in January this year, and the producer group and its allies decided in November to extend the cuts to cover all of 2018, instead of letting them expire next March, as had been planned. The supply restraint has resulted in significant reductions of oil inventories and helped push up Brent prices by more than 45 percent since June this year. “OPEC’s extension of its production cuts through the end of 2018 is a necessary condition for continued inventory drawdown,” U.S. investment bank Jefferies said. Jefferies said it has raised its 2018 Brent forecast to $63 a barrel from $57, and its WTI forecast to $59 per barrel from $54, on expectations that the market will remain tight. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-dips-away-from-2015-highs-as-rising-u-s-output-weighs-on-outlook-idUKKBN1EG05V'|'2017-12-22T07:51:00.000+02:00'
'772c9783d12c07c05365c8aaffc4e6a527a40b5e'|'Exclusive - IPO hopeful Xiaomi set to blow past 2017 revenue target: sources'|'December 21, 2017 / 11:15 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Exclusive - IPO hopeful Xiaomi set to blow past 2017 revenue target Fiona Lau , Julie Zhu 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has told bankers it would top its annual revenue target by as much as 18%, sources with knowledge of the matter said, marking a comeback from a sales slump in recent years that triggered a business overhaul. FILE PHOTO: Men try out Xiaomi smartphones at the company''s store in central Kiev, Ukraine May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo Xiaomi, which has been hearing bank pitches for what could be the world’s biggest tech float next year, will rake in a net profit of at least US$1bn in 2017, banker projections based on the company’s revenue estimate of US$17bn-$18bn show. Profits are estimated to reach about US$2bn in 2018. The calculations also take into account data on operating costs provided by the company, said the sources with knowledge of the discussions. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not public. Bankers and analysts expect Xiaomi’s profits to continue growing sharply into 2019, which one source said would make a US$100bn IPO price tag look “reasonable”. A spokeswoman for Xiaomi - that is likely to soon mandate its leading banks for an IPO - confirmed the company had topped the annual revenue goal, of about US$15bn, but declined to comment on IPO-related matters or its financials. FILE PHOTO: A journalist takes picture of Xiaomi''s new mobile phone Mi Max at its launch in Beijing, May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo “We have never externally disclosed any expected net profit and growth data and we do not respond to irresponsible speculation and rumours,” she said. Xiaomi was valued at US$46bn in a 2014 funding round, the world’s most valuable startup for a brief period. It sales stagnated over the next two years as the firm overextended itself launching in new markets while being hammered at home by rivals including Huawei Technologies, Vivo and Oppo. FILE PHOTO: Customers hold mobile phones during a presentation of the China''s mobile company Xiaomi to celebrate the entry of the company into the Mexican market, in Mexico City, Mexico, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo The maker of budget smartphones has since branched out into selling accessories and home appliances. In the third quarter of this year, Xiaomi overtook Apple to become China’s No.4 smartphone vendor, according to International Data Corp (IDC). “This is a good time for them (Xiaomi) to list because right now they are on a roll,” said IDC’s senior research manager for client devices, Kiranjeer Kaur. “If they get a good valuation, they will get it now,” Kaur said. She, however, cautioned that the company needed to focus on retaining customers. “Xiaomi will need to make sure that users upgrade to higher-end Xiaomi from lower-end Xiaomi instead of ditching it for other brands,” she added. Reporting by Fiona Lau and Julie Zhu; writing and additional reporting by Kane Wu and Sijia Jiang; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-xiaomi-profits/exclusive-ipo-hopeful-xiaomi-set-to-blow-past-2017-revenue-target-sources-idUKKBN1EF30Q'|'2017-12-22T01:15:00.000+02:00'
'915f59a5b9fcc5ea6540a9e62963349983f2c5e9'|'Workers to vote on Thyssenkrupp steel jobs deal from mid-January'|'December 22, 2017 / 10:11 AM / Updated 34 minutes ago Workers to vote on Thyssenkrupp steel jobs deal from mid-January Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - Steel workers will vote on a deal to protect steel jobs and sites at German industrial group Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) between Jan. 13 and Feb. 2, trade union IG Metall said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Thyssenkrupp''s logo is seen close to the elevator test tower in Rottweil, Germany, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo The result of the vote will be published on Feb. 5, the union added. Workers late on Thursday struck a deal with Thyssenkrupp to secure steel plants and jobs, a big step towards a planned merger of the group’s European steel business with that of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ). Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-unions-vote/workers-to-vote-on-thyssenkrupp-steel-jobs-deal-from-mid-january-idUKKBN1EG0Z4'|'2017-12-22T12:08:00.000+02:00'
'07fc7585d8b3f0bfb53129ba4e35abf1e85683ca'|'Pinched UK consumers raise spending at weakest pace since 2012'|'December 22, 2017 / 9:39 AM / Updated 5 hours ago Pinched UK consumers raise spending at weakest pace since 2012 William Schomberg , Kate Holton 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British households turned increasingly cautious in the three months to September as they raised their spending at the slowest annual pace since 2012, according to official data published on Friday. In figures which underscore the headwinds facing the world’s sixth-biggest economy as Brexit approaches, the Office for National Statistics confirmed that gross domestic product grew by 0.4 percent on the quarter. That was in line with the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Annual growth was unexpectedly revised up to 1.7 percent from 1.5 percent, but the increase mostly reflected changes to data going back to the start of last year and it was the weakest increase since early 2013, the ONS said. Households, under pressure from rising inflation and weak wage growth, saw almost no growth in their overall incomes, forcing them to dip into their savings. Britain has grown more slowly than other big European economies this year as the rise in inflation, caused largely by the fall in the value of the pound after the 2016 referendum decision to leave the European Union, caught up with consumers. “The figures confirm the pressure on households,” Philip Shaw, an economist with Investec, said. An expected fall in inflation next year and forecasts for a long-awaited rise in wage growth should ease some of the squeeze. “But we will have to wait to see what actually happens,” Shaw said. He noted that in contrast to the strain on consumers, British factories were growing strongly with manufacturing output up by 3.3 percent in annual terms, helped by the recovering global economy and the weaker pound. Manufacturing accounts for only about 10 percent of Britain’s economy, compared with 80 percent from the services sector which grew by an annual 1.4 percent, reflecting the weak domestic economy. Sterling and British government bonds were little changed by the data. INCOMES ALMOST FLAT, SAVINGS DOWN The Bank of England raised interest rates last month for the first time in more than 10 years, in part because it expects wage growth to gain more speed. It is expected to raise them twice more over the coming three years. FLE PHOTO - Shoppers cross the street at Oxford Circus in London, Britain, November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi The BoE said last week that the economy appeared to be slowing slightly in late 2017, and Brexit remained a big uncertainty going forward. Friday’s data showed household disposable incomes, adjusted for inflation, grew by 0.2 percent, down from growth of 2.3 percent in the second quarter although better than a fall in the first three months of the year. The household saving ratio fell to 5.2 percent from 5.6 percent in the second quarter but was higher than a low of 3.7 percent in the January-March period. Household spending rose by an annual 1.0 percent, its weakest increase since early 2012. The ONS said households were net borrowers - meaning their outlays were bigger than their incomes - for four successive quarters for the first time since records began in 1987. Like consumers, many businesses have also turned cautious due to uncertainty about what leaving the European Union means for their exports and their ability to hire skilled workers. Business investment rose by 0.5 percent in the quarter and was up 1.7 percent from a year earlier. That represented slightly stronger growth than the previous reading for the third quarter but remained weaker than in recent years. In a sign of how the economy started the fourth quarter the ONS said Britain’s dominant services sector grew by a monthly 0.2 percent in October after zero growth in September. Comparing the three months to October with the same period a year ago, growth was its weakest in four years at 1.3 percent. Britain’s current account deficit, which hit an annual record high of 5.8 percent of GDP last year, stood at 4.5 percent of GDP in the third quarter, down from 5.1 percent in the second quarter. In cash terms, the deficit was 22.8 billion pounds, above the median forecast of 21.2 billion pounds in the Reuters poll. Economists mostly expect the deficit to narrow as the fall in the value of the pound boosts exports and reduces the imbalance between the returns on foreign investment held in Britain and on British investment held abroad. Nonetheless, Britain’s budget forecasters said last month they expected the deficit to remain high. BoE Governor Mark Carney has said the shortfall means Britain remains dependent on “the kindness of strangers” to fund itself. Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy/pinched-uk-consumers-raise-spending-at-weakest-pace-since-2012-idUKKBN1EG0WN'|'2017-12-22T11:38:00.000+02:00'
'fe8aa640bf5cf60e7b5307c6818416ecab9c26cf'|'Wall St. higher as investors assess tax bill gains'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:11 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Wall St. higher as investors assess tax bill gains Sruthi Shankar 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Thursday as investors were hopeful that lower corporate tax rates would allow companies to spend additional capital on dividends, new projects and wages, which could give a boost to the overall economy. The two chambers of the U.S. Congress approved a $1.5-trillion tax bill this week that would slash corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent. A number of companies including AT&T ( T.N ), Wells Fargo ( WFC.N ) and Boeing ( BA.N ) have promised higher pay for workers or more investment in training. Some others have forecast a rise in earnings due to tax cuts. “The impact is still a work-in-progress, tax cuts are believed to add to earnings. But the unknowns are to what extent the company behaviour changes in terms of capex policy, buybacks and wage increases,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis. At 12:29 p.m. ET (1729 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 100.33 points, or 0.41 percent, at 24,826.98 - within striking distance of the 25,000 mark. The S&P 500 .SPX was up 9.66 points, or 0.36 percent, at 2,688.91, while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 23.46 points, or 0.34 percent, at 6,984.41. Financial and energy stocks led gains among the 11 major S&P sectors. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Wells Fargo ( WFC.N ) jumped 2.44 percent, JPMorgan ( JPM.N ) 1.5 percent and Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) 2.3 percent, lifting the financial index .SPSY 0.9 percent. Adding to the upbeat sentiment, third-quarter GDP data showed the U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in more than two years, powered by robust business spending. A separate report showed a jump in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week, but the underlying trend in jobless claims remained consistent with a tightening labour market. “You’ve got an improving economy that bodes well for loan growth along with a rising interest rate environment, and a modest regulatory relief, which makes financial stocks favourable,” said Sandven. The utilities sector .SPLRCU, among sectors to benefit the least from tax cuts, fell 1.2 percent, its fourth day of decline in a row. Accenture’s ( ACN.N ) shares rose 4.4 percent to hit a record high of $158.40 after the consulting and outsourcing services provider reported strong quarterly profit, driven by digital and cloud services business. Chevron ( CVX.N ) shares jumped more than 3 percent to a record high of $124.69 after broker Cowen & Co raised price target on the stock by nearly a third to $160. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,883 to 960. On the Nasdaq, 1,909 issues rose and 953 fell. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-to-rise-after-gdp-data-tax-bill-passage-idINKBN1EF1SR'|'2017-12-22T00:32:00.000+02:00'
'20689948b45a24ba9b55e3c7e228afc3b1fd19be'|'Subaru opens investigation into mileage cheating'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:47 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Subaru investigates possible mileage cheating, shares drop Naomi Tajitsu 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ), already smarting from a vehicle inspection scandal at home, said it was now investigating whether mileage readings may have also been falsified during final checks, driving its shares down as much as 8 percent. Mileage readings, an indicator of fuel efficiency, do not fall under safety requirements. However, any proof of what would be a second instance of misconduct in as many months would taint the image of not only Subaru but also Japan’s manufacturing industry that has been rocked by a slew of scandals recently. Just last year, Mitsubishi Motors Corp ( 7211.T ) saw around 40 percent of its market value, or $3.2 billion, wiped out in three days after it admitted it had overstated the fuel economy of its minivehicles. Subaru on Wednesday said it was checking to see if any possible fabrication could have impacted its official mileage readings and if any exported models may have been affected. “At the moment we are trying to confirm whether data was indeed fabricated, and if so, how this happened and which models are affected,” Subaru spokeswoman Miyuki Yasuda said. She added that any evidence of falsified mileage figures, which show the number of kilometers a vehicle can travel on a liter of petrol, was unlikely to result in a recall as it would not constitute a violation of safety requirements. The mileage probe follows Subaru’s revelation in October that uncertified staff had been for decades carrying out final checks on new cars sold in the domestic market. The company this week vowed to improve oversight, but it did not mention any probe into mileage readings at the time. Slideshow (2 Images) Subaru said reports of falsified mileage readings emerged as external investigators looked into the inspection scandal. Some inspectors told investigators that mileage data had been altered on some sample vehicle models tested during final checks. Subaru said it had not confirmed that any such fabrications had taken place. “Coming on the heels of the certified inspection issue, this could be a sign of a bigger problem of how Subaru manages its manufacturing operations,” said Janet Lewis, head of Asia transportation research at Macquarie Securities. Subaru shares fell as much as 8.5 percent to their lowest since July 2016, before ending down 7 percent. The stock has given up almost 10 percent over the past two months amid the inspection scandal. A series of compliance failings by Japanese companies have surfaced in recent months, hitting the country’s reputation for quality control and prompting calls for better governance. Nissan Motor ( 7201.T ) has admitted to incorrect final inspection procedures. In just the latter half of the year, Kobe Steel ( 5406.T ), Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) and Torbay Industries ( 3402.T ) - all key suppliers of products to global manufacturers - have admitted to product data fabrication. Fretting about the impact of the string of scandals, nearly half of Japanese firms have either taken steps to strengthen internal controls or are planning to do so, a Reuters poll showed earlier this month. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu Ran Kim and Ayai Tomisawa; Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-subaru-scandal/subaru-opens-investigation-into-mileage-cheating-idUSKBN1EE0MF'|'2017-12-20T08:46:00.000+02:00'
'ca28151f0b357c6f76d1c3edf67af4770bfac0b8'|'Asia firms'' sentiment rises to highest in almost seven years: Thomson Reuters/INSEAD'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:07 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Asia firms'' sentiment rises to highest in almost seven years: Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Stanley White 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Business confidence among Asian companies rose in October-December to the highest in almost seven years due to robust consumption and global trade, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed. The Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asian Business Sentiment Index .TRIABS RACSI, representing the six-month outlook of 94 firms, rose to 78 for the December quarter from 69 three months before. The index reached its highest since January-March 2011. A reading above 50 indicates a positive outlook. Improvement in sentiment in Australia, China and South Korea drove gains in the overall index. Sentiment in Indonesia and Thailand was also strong, showing that many countries in Asia continue to benefit from accelerating global growth. “The index shows that the slow strengthening that we have seen in the world economy has lifted business sentiment in Asia,” said Antonio Fatas, a Singapore-based economics professor at global business school INSEAD. PDF of survey: tmsnrt.rs/2AW2mYa GRAPHIC - Business sentiment index: tmsnrt.rs/2mnCKQD GRAPHIC - Biggest perceived risks: tmsnrt.rs/2gU9mL9 “Asia is a reflection of what is happening in the world,” he said. The index measuring sentiment in Australia rose to a record high of 92 in October-December from 69 in the previous quarter. The country’s ruling coalition has recovered from a dual-citizenship crisis that threatened to throw policy-making into turmoil. Signs of a rebound in consumer spending, Chinese demand for Australian metals, and growing capital expenditure in other sectors has also underpinned sentiment. China, upon which much of Asia depends for trade, saw its subindex rise to 83 to reach the highest since the third quarter of last year. The market reforms that Chinese President Xi Jinping laid out at the Communist Party Congress in October has fueled optimism that the world’s second-largest economy can manage a surge in house prices and credit growth. South Korea’s subindex rose to 83 from 50 in the previous quarter to reach the highest since the second quarter of 2011, as international pressure has so far slowed the pace of North Korea’s missile tests for its nuclear weapons program. Slideshow (2 Images) The subindex for Indonesia slipped to 92 in the fourth quarter from 100 in the previous quarter but remained at a high level. Sentiment in Thailand and India improved, while sentiment in Taiwan fell to the lowest level in more than a year. ASSET PRICES AND POLITICS The International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have raised their global growth forecasts for this year due to strong trade, consumer spending, and investment in many major economies. However, the outlook is not without risk. Respondents to the survey, which was conducted Dec. 1-15, showed companies’ biggest concern was a sudden correction in asset prices. U.S. stocks have repeatedly set record highs this year and stock markets in most other countries have rallied strongly due to expectations for faster growth. Some analysts have expressed concerns that stock prices may be overheating. Companies from the transportation, healthcare, energy and finance sectors also expressed concern about a correction in asset prices, the Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed. Industries subject to frequent mergers and acquisitions, such as technology, metals, natural resources and healthcare, identified increased regulatory scrutiny of cross-border transactions as a risk, the survey showed. Many companies have concerns about protectionism, which can hurt not only exports but also become a barrier to making acquisitions overseas. Of companies surveyed, nine respondents identified political instability and geopolitical risks as their biggest concerns, because events on one side of the globe, such as Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union, can have consequences elsewhere. “The impact of ‘Brexit’ affected British demand for tourism aboard,” said Supitcha Fooanant, senior investor relations manager at Minor International PCL ( MINT.BK ), Thailand’s leading hotel and restaurant operator. “We saw a decline in British tourists in our hotel portfolio. Fortunately, our successful diversification strategy enables us to maintain resiliency and consistently achieve robust results.” On the downside, the sub-index for Taiwan fell to 50 in October-December from 75 in the previous quarter, but the decline may have been exaggerated by a smaller sample size. The index for Malaysia weakened to 64 from 75 as respondents expressed concern about consumer sentiment. Business sentiment for the Philippines fell to 70 from 83 previously, while in Japan sentiment eased to 70 in October-December from 75 in the previous quarter. In Singapore, the sentiment subindex rose to 79 from 64. Note: Companies surveyed can change from quarter to quarter. Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-businesssentiment/asia-firms-sentiment-rises-to-highest-in-almost-seven-years-thomson-reuters-insead-idUSKBN1EE09A'|'2017-12-20T05:45:00.000+02:00'
'67c15d989e5ee80036c9522ca1ccad60a988deb6'|'Saved by sensors, Sony aims to expand their use in robotics, self-driving cars'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:27 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Saved by sensors, Sony aims to expand their use in robotics, self-driving cars Makiko Yamazaki , Yoshiyasu Shida 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp is poised to report its highest-ever profit this year on strong sales of image sensors after years of losing ground in consumer electronics and hopes to develop the technology for use in robotics and self-driving cars as competition heats up. Sony''s image sensors are pictured at the company''s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The results will mark a significant turnaround for the conglomerate, once famed for leading the world in consumer gadgets such as its Walkman music player, but now finding a new focus on image sensors and gaming. Sony ( 6758.T ) forecasts that operating profit in the year through March will more than double to 630 billion yen ($5.6 billion) compared with the year earlier and expects the chips division, most of which is made up of the image sensors business, to be the conglomerate’s biggest growth driver. Executives say a technological breakthrough in image sensors and seachange in the company’s thinking are behind the success. The breakthrough, creating a sensor that captures more light to produce sharper images, coincided with soaring consumer demand for better smartphone cameras for sharing photos on social media. The breakthrough, which involved reconfiguring the sensor layout and known as backside illumination, allowed Sony to grab nearly half of the market for image sensors. “We knew we wouldn’t be able to win if we did what our rivals were doing,” said Teruo Hirayama, technology chief of Sony’s chip business, recalling initial scepticism around the technology that is now used widely. Japanese names such as Hitachi Ltd ( 6501.T ), NEC Corp ( 6701.T ) and Fujitsu Ltd ( 6702.T ), which dominated mainstream chips through the late 1980s, have lost business to Asian rivals such as Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ). Sony’s success “is really a function of having decided a long time ago to focus on that niche within semiconductors,” says Andrew Daniels, a Tokyo-based managing director at Indus Capital, an investment management firm. He declined to say whether his fund owns Sony shares. “The process technology is very much that kind of ‘takumi-no-waza’,” he said, using a Japanese phrase for the pursuit of manufacturing perfection. OUTSIDER The sensor business was also helped by being an “outsider” within the company. By selling to companies outside Sony, it was insulated from declining sales of the company’s own smartphones and other consumer electronics. Slideshow (6 Images) The sensors, for example, were first sold to All Nippon Airways ( 9202.T ), which used them to broadcast views from the cockpit to passengers. “Sony used to be obsessed with the idea that its technologies should be kept within the group for use only in its own products,” said Atsushi Osanai, professor at Waseda University’s business school. “Selling components outside the firm was out of line with Sony’s traditional business model.” The sensor business also got a boost from a shake-up initiated by Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai, who called for each division to be more independent and profitable on its own. “It was a great help for us to be told that we should operate independently,” Terushi Shimizu, the chief of Sony’s chip division, said, “rather than just belong to Sony.” REINVENTION But the company is already bracing for intensifying competition in sensors as rivals, such as Samsung and OmniVision Technologies, step up their game, and is developing new sensor technologies for use in robotics and self-driving cars. Investors say Sony still has a technological advantage that will take time for others to replicate. “Sony has been trying to be ahead, but could face a turning point in a year or two,” said Kun Soo Lee, senior principal analyst with IHS Markit in Tokyo. It is developing sensor technologies that can quickly measure distances or detect invisible light that are expected to be used in autonomous driving, factory automation and robotics, they said. “Time-of-flight” sensors, for example, calculate distances by measuring the time it takes for light to reflect from an object and could be used in drones or robotics for gesture and object recognition. “It’s clear that we are currently dependent on the smartphone market,” Shimizu, the chip business chief said. “The market’s shift to dual-lens cameras from single-lens is good for us, but how long is this going to last as the market is only growing 1 or 2 percent?” Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Yoshiyasu Shida; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Neil Fullick'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sony-strategy/saved-by-sensors-sony-aims-to-expand-their-use-in-robotics-self-driving-cars-idUKKBN1EE0PN'|'2017-12-20T09:26:00.000+02:00'
'00c6e902f3ed5888267b7baad2820a7024ed6f42'|'Most Asian FX muted, ringgit up after inflation data'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:29 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Most Asian FX muted, ringgit up after inflation data Chandini Monnappa 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Most Asian currencies were tepid on Wednesday with the baht staying under pressure ahead of the Bank of Thailand’s policy review where it is expected to keep rates near record lows. FILE PHOTO: A Malaysia Ringgit note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo The South Korean won, the Taiwan dollar and the Philippine peso rose in the range of 0.3 percent to 0.1 percent, as the dollar steadied ahead of a vote in Congress to pass the widely anticipated U.S. tax reform bill. The U.S. House of Representatives initially passed the tax legislation, but the bill included provisions that did not comply with Senate rules. The Senate is expected to vote on a revised version of the bill, with the offending provisions removed. If the Senate approves the bill as expected, the House will vote again on Wednesday. A spike in U.S. Treasury yields helped the U.S. dollar firm overnight. [MKTS/GLOB] The surge in Treasury yields was driven in part by expectations of tax reforms raising U.S. bond issuance, but many analysts said the immediate trigger was a jump in European bond yields on Tuesday after Germany unveiled a plan to issue more 30-year debt next year.[FRX/] The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was up 0.01 percent at 93.437 by 0500 GMT “Going forward markets are re-assessing whether or not tax reforms will bolster the economy, but at this junction they are reserved,” said Chang Wei Liang, an FX strategist with Mizuho Bank. Investors will also be looking to Taiwan’s export orders in November due later on Wednesday. A Reuters poll showed that November orders likely rose for a 16th straight month but at a slower pace than the previous month, a positive sign for the island’s technology manufacturers. The yuan edged up against the dollar, rising as much as 0.2 percent to its highest in three weeks. China’s central economic work conference which opened on Monday, where top Chinese leaders will review the country’s economic performance in 2017 and make plans for 2018 concludes later in the day. Meanwhile, the Thai baht was the worst performer in the region, having fallen for the past three days. It slipped as much as 0.6 percent on Wednesday, ahead of the Bank of Thailand’s rate decision expected after 0700 GMT. All 14 economists a Reuters poll forecast the central bank’s one-day repurchase rate will be kept at 1.50 percent as economic growth picks up, inflation remains tame and high household debt remains a worry. MALAYSIAN RINGGIT The Malaysian ringgit edged up 0.2 percent as the country’s consumer price index in November rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier, in line with expectations and within the central bank’s projected range. While the index eased for the second month in a row, a build-up in inflationary pressures from strong economic growth has raised expectations of an interest rate hike at the central bank’s next policy meeting in January. Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-forex-emerging/most-asian-fx-muted-ringgit-up-after-inflation-data-idINKBN1EE0L0'|'2017-12-20T08:29:00.000+02:00'
'09b30a7bed1b01a749cddab8ddc94399a99f6a50'|'Uber names ex-Orbitz executive as COO'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:09 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Uber names ex-Orbitz executive as COO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] on Wednesday named a former Orbitz executive to be chief operating officer as the ride-sharing service looks to fill key positions to help take the company public. Barney Harford. Courtesy Uber/Trevor Knight It is Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi’s second significant hire after general counsel Tony West. Khosrowshahi, who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick in August, has been critical of past practices and vowed to usher in a new era for the firm. Key posts that are still vacant include chief financial officer and head of engineering. Barney Harford, who was CEO of travel website Orbitz Worldwide Inc, will join Uber on Jan. 2. Uber needs to beef up its management team as it struggles to confront allegations of sexual harassment, data privacy violations and a criminal investigation over alleged trade-secrets theft. It also needs to bolster its security team after five managers left over the company’s handling of a massive 2016 data breach. Reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Jim Finkle and Jeffrey Benkoe'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-coo/uber-names-ex-orbitz-executive-as-coo-idUKKBN1EE28Z'|'2017-12-20T19:04:00.000+02:00'
'7e34aba6d79ce500ae0c68616d5b01998ca58136'|'Singapore issues more financial bans related to 1MDB scandal'|'December 19, 2017 / 3:25 AM / in 3 hours Singapore issues more financial bans related to 1MDB scandal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore’s central bank on Tuesday said it had permanently barred Yeo Jiawei, a former wealth manager of Swiss bank BSI involved in breaches related to Malaysia’s 1MDB fund, from managing financial services firms and advisory activities. In July, a Singapore court jailed Yeo for 4-1/2 years for money laundering and cheating in a case linked to investigations into the siphoning of billions of dollars from Malaysian sovereign fund 1MDB. The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it has issued a permanent prohibition order against Yeo, effective Monday, and a three-year ban for former chief executive of financial advisory firm NRA Capital, Kevin Scully. “NRA had been appointed to perform the valuation of PetroSaudi Oil Services Limited (PSOSL),” MAS said in a press release. “Mr Scully had failed to ensure that NRA’s valuation of PSOSL was carried out with sufficient care, judgment and objectivity,” the central bank added. MAS has now issued prohibition orders against eight people involved in 1MDB-related breaches, following two bans announced last month. Once a pet project of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who chaired its advisory board, 1MDB is the subject of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. Najib has denied any wrongdoing. Singapore’s central bank had said in May that it had ended its two-year review of banks with 1MDB-linked transactions. Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by John Geddie and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-scandal-singapore/singapore-issues-more-financial-bans-related-to-1mdb-scandal-idUSKBN1ED09Q'|'2017-12-19T05:25:00.000+02:00'
'cc05fc63fb5f589adbd51d4a40b880578a9a14a0'|'Oil rises towards $64 on UK pipeline outage, U.S. supply weighs'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:23 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Oil rises towards $64 on UK pipeline outage, U.S. supply weighs Alex Lawler 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil edged up towards $64 (£47.9) a barrel on Tuesday, supported by the Forties pipeline outage in the North Sea, OPEC-led supply cuts and expectations that U.S. crude inventories fell for a fifth week. FILE PHOTO - An oil well pump jack is seen at an oil field supply yard near Denver, Colorado, U.S., February 2, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo Rising output in the United States put a lid on gains, however. Shale production will rise to a record in January, according to a government forecast published on Monday, as higher prices encourage companies to pump more. Brent crude LCOc1, the global benchmark, was up 16 cents to $63.57 a barrel at 0943 GMT. U.S. crude CLc1 gained 31 cents to $57.47. The unplanned shutdown of Forties since last week has supported Brent in particular, as Forties is the largest of the North Sea crude grades that underpin the benchmark. Brent reached $65.83, its highest since mid-2015, on Dec. 12. “This should ensure buying pressures remain at the fore of the Brent structure until the turn of the year at the very least,” said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. Ineos, operator of the Forties pipeline, said on Tuesday the timeframe for repairs remains two to four weeks starting from Dec. 11, the date of the shutdown. A deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-member producers including Russia to cut supplies in an attempt to get rid of a supply glut that has built up since 2014 has also boosted prices. OPEC and its allies have extended the agreement until the end of 2018 and Russia’s Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) said on Monday it could be maintained beyond next year. As a result of the cuts, oil inventories are falling globally and the latest weekly supply reports are expected to show a further reduction in U.S. crude inventories. The first of these reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is due at 2130 GMT on Tuesday. Still, rising U.S. production is countering OPEC’s cuts and other supply losses. U.S. shale output in January is forecast to increase by 94,000 barrels per day to 6.41 million bpd, according to the EIA’s monthly drilling productivity report. “The U.S. shale oil report issued late yesterday is on the bearish side as it confirms an acceleration in U.S. production,” said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix. That forecast follows an EIA prediction last week that total oil production, including non-shale, will grow by 780,000 bpd to a record 10.02 million bpd in 2018. (For a graphic on global crude oil supply, demand balance, click - reut.rs/2CRHqCH ) Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-range-bound-as-disruptions-offset-by-rising-u-s-output-idUKKBN1ED04F'|'2017-12-19T12:18:00.000+02:00'
'967c0a6e7f91bab33ae42575e0754ec9379976a6'|'U.S. bank regulators say four bank ''living wills'' have shortcomings'|' 30 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago U.S. bank regulators say four bank ''living wills'' have shortcomings Pete Schroeder 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - U.S. banking regulators said Tuesday that ‘living wills’ submitted by eight large U.S. banks are satisfactory, but half of those plans have “shortcomings” that should be addressed. The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation found shortcomings in plans from Bank of America , Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, which the regulators want to see addressed in the future. Regulators found no problems with plans submitted by Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase , or State Street. Reporting by Pete Schroeder; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-banks-livingwills/u-s-bank-regulators-say-four-bank-living-wills-have-shortcomings-idUSL1N1OJ1VJ'|'2017-12-19T23:30:00.000+02:00'
'a30cd6b607aa0f57caa0084a11a96c900c2ac8d9'|'Nikkei falls as Maglev contract scandal takes toll on construction stocks'|'December 19, 2017 / 6:34 AM / Updated 40 minutes ago Nikkei falls as Maglev contract scandal takes toll on construction stocks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks eased on Tuesday in choppy trade as construction shares extended a punishing sell-off as some of the firms were embroiled in a bid-rigging scandal. The Nikkei ended 0.2 percent lower at 22,868.00 after opening up 0.3 percent. The construction sector slipped 1.7 percent and was the worst performer on the board, after Tokyo prosecutors raided Japanese construction companies on suspicion of antitrust breaches related to $80 billion worth of magnetic levitation (maglev) train line projects. Taisei Corp, one of the so-called “big four” group of Japanese construction firms involved in the maglev project, was the latest to be raided. Its shares tumbled 6.3 percent. Peers Shimizu Corp and Kajima Corp were raided on Monday also on suspicion of antitrust breaches related to the projects. Obayashi Corp is already under investigation for suspected bid-rigging over maglev-related contracts. Shimizu dropped 2.8 percent, Kajima shed 5.2 percent, while Obayashi declined 1.3 percent. While the scope of the probe has broadened the scale of the suspected wrongdoing remained unknown and prosecutors declined to comment. Brokerage stocks outperformed, with Nomura Holdings gaining 1.0 percent and Daiwa Securities rising 1.5 percent. The broader Topix shed 0.2 percent to 1,815.18. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-falls-as-maglev-contract-scandal-takes-toll-on-construction-stocks-idUSL4N1OJ296'|'2017-12-19T08:31:00.000+02:00'
'74389fe3c90425aea237435650e5564c87d95d92'|'GoCompare to buy MyVoucherCodes.co.uk for 35 million pounds'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:01 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago GoCompare to buy MyVoucherCodes.co.uk for 35 million pounds Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Price comparison website operator GoCompare.Com Group Plc said on Tuesday it agreed to buy The Global Voucher Group, which operates MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, and its units for 36.5 million pounds in cash. The Global Voucher Group is currently owned by financial technology firm Monitise, which was bought by Fiserv Inc in June. GoCompare said the deal would be financed through existing cash resources and by extending GoCompare’s existing credit facilities. The retail voucher provider is one of the Britain’s largest, with eight million e-mail subscribers and about 45 million annual visitors on its website. GoCompare said MyVoucherCodes’ retail business would be “highly complementary” to its financial services and utilities comparison services, with the combined entity targeting about 100 million website visits every year. The deal is also expected to add to earnings in 2018 on an underlying basis, GoCompare said. GoCompare, which last month rejected a 460 million-pound takeover approach made by rival ZPG, also said it expected full-year revenue to rise about 5 percent to 149 million pounds, with adjusted operating profit at the upper end of current market expectations. Current market expectations for the full-year adjusted operating profit was between 33.9 million pounds to 35.9 million pounds, GoCompare said. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-the-global-voucher-group-m-a-gocompar/gocompare-to-buy-myvouchercodes-co-uk-for-35-million-pound-idUKKBN1ED0OL'|'2017-12-19T10:08:00.000+02:00'
'b7cb6c0ae66290b3acf314984643995f52e5325b'|'BRIEF-U.S. business borrowing for equipment rises 17 pct in Nov. - ELFA'|'December 19, 2017 / 8:11 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago BRIEF-U.S. business borrowing for equipment rises 17 pct in Nov. - ELFA Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA): * U.S. BUSINESS BORROWING FOR NEW EQUIPMENT FOR NOV WAS $7.5 BILLION, UP 17 PERCENT FROM LAST YEAR; NOV VOLUME WAS DOWN 11 PERCENT FROM $8.4 BILLION IN OCT - ELFA'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-us-business-borrowing-for-equipmen/brief-u-s-business-borrowing-for-equipment-rises-17-pct-in-nov-elfa-idUSB8N1KT00C'|'2017-12-19T22:10:00.000+02:00'
'bdbec08710b22a2a87e49c2086753feaef4c3d10'|'U.S. House approves biggest tax overhaul in 30 years, Senate next'|'December 19, 2017 / 7:43 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago House approves biggest tax overhaul in 30 years; Senate next David Morgan , Amanda Becker 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives approved sweeping, debt-financed tax legislation on Tuesday, sending the bill to the Senate, where lawmakers were due to take up the package later in the evening. The biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax system in more than 30 years could be signed into law by President Donald Trump as soon as Wednesday, if both chambers of Congress approve it. With Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin watching from the gallery, the House passed the bill by a vote of 227-203, overcoming united opposition from Democrats and 12 Republicans who voted against it. Passage was all but certain in the Republican-controlled Senate, as well. The plan includes steep tax cuts for corporations and wealthy taxpayers, as well as temporary tax cuts for some individuals and families. It repeals a section of the Obamacare health system and allows oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, just two of many narrow changes added to the bill to secure sufficient to win its passage. Middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year, while the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans would see an average cut of $51,000, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington. Republicans insist the package will boost the economy and job growth. They also see the measure as key to retaining their majorities in the House and Senate in elections next November. “Today, we give the people of this country their money back. This is their money, after all,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said shortly before the vote. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence walks outside the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts Ryan was interrupted twice by protesters. “You’re lying!” one woman shouted. Democrats say the bill will widen the income gap between rich and poor Americans, while adding $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years to the mounting $20 trillion U.S. national debt. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the bill a “Frankenstein monster” riddled with carve-outs and loopholes that falls far short of the Republican promise of simplifying the tax code. Slideshow (5 Images) “This monster will come back to haunt them,” she said on the House floor. The plan includes a steep tax cut for businesses and temporary tax cuts for individuals. Middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year, while the wealthiest 1 percent would see an average cut of $51,000, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Some 52 percent of adults oppose the tax plan, while 27 percent support it, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. The end-of-year sprint represents a remarkable recovery of Republican fortunes since the middle of this year, when the party’s drive to dismantle former Democratic President Barack Obama’s Obamacare healthcare law crumbled in the Senate and prospects for a tax overhaul seemed doomed by party infighting. Republicans control the 100-seat Senate by only a 52-48 margin and can afford to lose support from no more than two party lawmakers. Republican Senator Jeff Flake was still undecided on Tuesday. Senator John McCain, who has brain cancer, was spending time with family in Arizona. Vice President Mike Pence took the precaution of rescheduling a trip to Egypt and Israel for January so he would be on hand this week in case his tie-breaking voting power is needed to ensure Senate passage of the bill. Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Bill Trott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax/house-approves-biggest-tax-overhaul-in-30-years-senate-next-idUKKBN1ED16V'|'2017-12-19T21:40:00.000+02:00'
'33c0f096d08ec2cdb44087926120c64df2431875'|'Over 20 percent of UK companies faced shareholder revolt - pay study'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:32 AM / Updated an hour ago Over 20 percent of UK companies faced shareholder revolt - pay study Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - More than a fifth of Britain’s biggest companies have been named on a register ordered by Prime Minister Theresa May to highlight shareholder concern at “fat cat” pay, including WPP ( WPP.L ), Sky ( SKYB.L ), Burberry ( BRBY.L ) and AstraZeneca ( AZN.L ). FILE PHOTO - The Sky News logo is seen on the outside of offices and studios in west London, Britain June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The list, compiled by the Investment Association, is part of a package of corporate governance reforms set out in August that May said would tackle the “unacceptable face of capitalism”, such as pay rises for bosses that far outstripped company performance. The data published on Tuesday shows that 22 percent of companies listed on the FTSE All Share index had at least one resolution that received more than 20 percent opposition at shareholder meetings, or was withdrawn, the Association said. Association CEO Chris Cummings said the register revealed the true scale of investor concern and showed shareholders flexing their muscles by exercising their votes. “With over one-fifth of the FTSE All-Share having faced large shareholder opposition in 2017, a significant number of companies need to seriously start listening to shareholder views and acting on them,” he said. Sky, Burberry, Morrisons ( MRW.L ), WPP and AstraZeneca were among the firms that saw more than 20 percent shareholders oppose their remuneration reports this year - with revolts ranging from 21 percent at ad group WPP to 48 percent at supermarket Morrisons. Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-pay/over-20-percent-of-uk-companies-faced-shareholder-revolt-pay-study-idUKKBN1ED18M'|'2017-12-19T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'6c25729ef135e162cb1a45e304a2a108a183757b'|'ArcelorMittal to sell Piombino steel mill to Arvedi to help clear Ilva deal'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:32 PM / Updated 4 hours ago ArcelorMittal to sell Piombino steel mill to Arvedi to help clear Ilva deal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal ( MT.AS ) has reached a preliminary agreement to sell its steel mill in Piombino, Italy to Italian steelmaker Arvedi to help get clearance from EU authorities for its purchase of Ilva, Europe’s largest steel plant. FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen on the roof of the ArcelorMittal steelworks headquarters in Ostrava, Czech Republic, April 1, 2016. REUTERS/David W Cerny/File Photo ArcelorMittal, the world’s top steelmaker, reached a 1.8-billion-euro ($2.1 billion) deal to buy Ilva, in southern Italy, in June but the purchase has since stalled thanks to legal challenges and an EU anti-trust investigation. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the deal was struck this week, and that ArcelorMittal was moved to dispose of Piombino due to EU concerns over market concentration in the galvanized steel sector. The sources did not provide any other details. ArcelorMittal and Arvedi declined to comment. Galvanized steel is used in the autos, white goods and construction sectors. The Piombino mills make 800,000 tonnes per year of the product. EU antitrust authorities in November upgraded their investigation into ArcelorMittal’s proposed takeover of Ilva, fearing it will lead to steel price hikes. European steel prices ST-MBEDSHRC-MB are up some 85 percent since Jan. 1 2016. A few weeks after the anti-trust filing, the Puglia and Taranto regions of Italy filed an appeal against the Italian government’s approval of ArcelorMittal’s environmental plan for Ilva. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni wrote to the governor of Puglia and mayor of Taranto on Friday, urging them to drop a lawsuit that could scupper the deal and sink the planned clean-up operation for Ilva. “I ask you to withdraw your suit from the regional courts and not imperil the environmental clean-up,” Gentiloni said. The Puglia governor, Michele Emiliano, said he would be happy to meet the prime minister but declined to drop the lawsuit. ArcelorMittal’s proposed takeover of Ilva comes as steel majors Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ) and Thyssenkrupp TK.AG are looking to combine their European assets, meaning anti-trust authorities are on high alert. To allay their concerns, Italy’s state holding company CDP CDP.UL and Intesa Sanpaolo ( ISP.MI ) have signed a non-binding agreement to join ArcelorMittal’s bid for Ilva, replacing former bid partner Marcegaglia, an Italian steel processing firm. The Ilva plant has been dogged by charges of corruption and environmental crime for years. In 2012, Italian authorities ruled emissions from the plant had caused deaths, tumors and respiratory diseases. About half the plant’s annual 11 million tonne capacity was eventually mothballed. Reporting by Massimiliano di Giorgio, additional reporting by Steve Scherer and Crispian Balmer. Writing by Maytaal Angel, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-arcelormittal-italy-ilva/arcelormittal-to-sell-piombino-steel-mill-to-arvedi-to-help-clear-ilva-deal-idUKKBN1EG1WM'|'2017-12-22T18:29:00.000+02:00'
'2134c5df0ac50617f180b740572117e5709041bb'|'U.S. tax curbs on debt deduction to sting buyout barons'|' 56 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago U.S. tax curbs on debt deduction to sting buyout barons Joshua Franklin 6 Min Read (Reuters) - As corporate America celebrates one of the biggest-ever cuts to its tax bill, one corner of Wall Street is fretting over the impact the reforms will have on its ability to profitably invest in companies. Vice President Mike Pence applauds U.S. President Donald Trump as they celebrate passage of sweeping tax overhaul legislation on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Private equity firms that buy companies only to sell them a few years later at a profit face restrictions on their ability to deduct the interest these companies pay on their debt from their taxes, according to legislation approved on Wednesday by U.S. lawmakers and set to be signed into law by President Donald Trump. The changes are a blow to the industry’s business model of larding companies with debt to juice returns. They could make it more difficult and less profitable for buyout firms to outbid competitors for companies, industry executives said. “It’s a deviation from what has been allowed in the last 50 years,” said David Fann, chief executive of TorreyCove Capital Partners LLC, a private equity advisory firm. “This is a radical change. In fact, the buyout business would have never evolved without the benefits of leverage.” The rules also show the limits of the industry’s influence in Washington, despite efforts by executives such as Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman to cultivate Trump and his Republican party. Companies that were previously unrestricted in the amount of interest they could deduct now face a cap for the next four years of 30 percent of their 12-month earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). After 2021, the cap becomes even more constrictive by switching to 30 percent of 12-month earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). HEAVILY INDEBTED COMPANIES TO TAKE A HIT S&P Global Ratings estimates that nearly 70 percent of companies whose debt amounts to more five times EBITDA would be negatively impacted by the interest deductibility cap. This casts a wide net, given that private equity firms, on average, saddle companies with more debt than that, according to Cambridge Associates. Around a third of all leveraged buyouts are expected to be worse off under the new tax system, according to Moody’s Investors Service Inc. Using excessive borrowing as a yardstick, health publisher WebMD, software provider LANDESK and auto accessory seller Truck Hero are among those that could take a hit from the interest expense deductibility cap. All these companies are indebted at well above five times EBITDA, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data. WebMD owner KKR & Co LP, and Truck Hero owner CCMP declined to comment on the impact of the cap on their companies and whether other aspects of the tax code overhaul could offset it. A representative for LANDESK owner Clearlake Capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While the tax rates of private equity-owned companies will decrease alongside all other U.S. companies, the changes could hasten the demise of those struggling with their debt piles, Moody’s said last week. This means that bankruptcies of heavily indebted private equity-owned companies, such as that of U.S. retailer Toys “R” Us in September, could come more quickly and become more difficult to escape. “Defaults for lower-rated (credit) issuers could increase in a downturn,” Moody’s analysts wrote in a note. That could discourage private equity firms from overburdening companies with debt, but also erode returns by pushing them to stump up more of their cash as equity to fund acquisitions. Given publicly traded companies that are not as indebted will have more cash under the new tax system to make rival offers for assets, the changes could make leveraged buyouts harder to complete on attractive terms, investment bankers said. “The valuation challenge that private equity firms are facing in considering new investments may become exacerbated in 2018,” said Gary Posternack, global head of M&A at Barclays Plc. “Companies with the same P/E ratio but with lower tax rates may see EBITDA multiples go up, making the economics more challenging for private equity firms,” Posternack added. FLEXIBILITY To be sure, the new rules offer some flexibility. They allow companies to deduct interest payments above the 30 percent cap to the extent they did not reach that limit in the previous years. And the benefits from a tax rate cut to 21 percent from 35 percent and full upfront capital expenditure deductibility outweigh the cost of the curbs on interest deductibility for the majority of private equity-owned companies. Given that private equity fund managers have also largely been spared a much-feared tax hike on their performance fees, known as carried interest, the American Investment Council (AIC), the industry’s lobby group, has put on a brave face. “On balance, the tax bill represents a net positive for private equity and will enable the industry to continue to make long-term investments that will grow the economy,” AIC President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement. The impact of the new tax system will also vary across sectors. Those with high leverage and significant leveraged buyout activity, such as technology, healthcare and aerospace and defence, have the highest percentage of companies worse off, according to Moody‘s. “As cash flow scenarios and interest rates fluctuate, those (interest expense deductibility) caps could start to make leveraged deals harder,” said Larry Grafstein, UBS’s co-head of M&A in the Americas. See graphic tmsnrt.rs/2AZlrZf Reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York; Additional reporting by Andrew Berlin in New York; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Meredith Mazzilli'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-privateequity/u-s-tax-curbs-on-debt-deduction-to-sting-buyout-barons-idINKBN1EF1WT'|'2017-12-21T16:55:00.000+02:00'
'5ea3ca254276cadc41360e67be1e64acd637b765'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. regulators confirm plans to fine Sinclair $13 million over ads'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:37 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago UPDATE 1-U.S. regulators confirm plans to fine Sinclair $13 million over ads Reuters Staff (Adds Sinclair reaction, comments from FCC commissioners, background) By David Shepardson WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday confirmed that it plans to fine Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc $13.38 million after it failed to properly disclose that paid programming that aired on local TV stations was sponsored by a cancer institute. The proposed fine - first reported by Reuters on Dec. 15, covers about 1,700 spots, including commercials that looked like news stories that aired during newscasts for the Utah-based Huntsman Cancer Institute over a six-month period in 2016 - could bolster critics of Sinclair’s proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co. This is the largest-ever fine the FCC has proposed for violating sponsorship rules, but significantly less than the statutory maximum of $82 million. Sinclair said in a statement the mistakes were the result of “simple human error.” The Hunt Valley, Maryland-based company said the fine is “unreasonable, given the circumstances of our case and the absence of any viewer harm. We disagree with the FCC’s action and intend to contest this unwarranted fine.” Sinclair, which owns more than 170 U.S. television stations and is the largest U.S. operator, announced plans in May to acquire Chicago-based Tribune’s 42 TV stations in 33 markets as well as cable network WGN America and digital multicast network Antenna TV, extending its reach to 72 percent of American households. The FCC and Justice Department are reviewing Sinclair’s proposed acquisition of Tribune, taking antitrust and public interest considerations into account. The commission voted 3-2 to approve the fine, with the two Democrats on the Republican-majority panel dissenting. One of the Democratic commissioners, Jessica Rosenworcel said the fine should have been higher for “a company with a history of flouting statutory requirements. ... Instead of doing so, we offer unreasonable and suspicious favor to a company with a clear record of difficulty complying with the law.” The other Democrat on the FCC, Mignon Clyburn, said the “punishment does not fit the crime against a company that grossed more than $2.7 billion in revenue last year.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, said Democratic commissioners’ demands for higher fines “deviates so wildly from our precedent that it will no doubt strike reasonable people as suspicious.” Democrats have previously questioned whether Pai is biased in favor of Sinclair. In November, Democratic Representatives Frank Pallone and Elijah Cummings asked the FCC inspector general to investigate, citing FCC decisions that benefited Sinclair and a news report last year that the election campaign of President Donald Trump struck a deal with Sinclair for favorable coverage. Pai has denied the allegations. Advocacy group Free Press said in an FCC filing in August that Sinclair forces its stations to “air pro-Trump propaganda and then seeks favors from the Trump administration.” (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/sinclair-fcc/update-1-u-s-regulators-confirm-plans-to-fine-sinclair-13-million-over-ads-idUSL1N1OL1G4'|'2017-12-21T19:37:00.000+02:00'
'53495b17803ac113009d19664b904aa31a85af9d'|'Nestle expects to sell U.S. confectionery business in first quarter'|'Reuters TV United States  55 PM / a few seconds ago Nestle expects to sell U.S. confectionery business in first quarter Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Nestle ( NESN.S ) expects to sell its U.S. confectionery business in the first quarter of 2018, following a review launched earlier this year. FILE PHOTO - The Nestle logo is pictured on the company headquarters entrance building in Vevey, Switzerland February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy Nestle said in June it was exploring strategic options for the business, which includes Butterfinger and BabyRuth. The review was limited to the United States, where Nestle is No. 4 behind Mars, Hershey ( HSY.N ) and Mondelez International ( MDLZ.O ). “Our strategic review has led to us deciding to divest the business and a robust sale process is currently underway which we expect to conclude in Q1 2018,” a spokeswoman said on Thursday. Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nestle-m-a-confectionery/nestle-expects-to-sell-u-s-confectionery-business-in-first-quarter-idUKKBN1EF1WH'|'2017-12-21T16:50:00.000+02:00'
'84dbcce37db58aba34be8645463893dfeab500ad'|'German union calls for first-ever pilot strike at Ryanair'|'  2:45 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago German union calls for first-ever pilot strike at Ryanair Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German pilots at Ryanair ( RYA.I ) have called for a four-hour strike on Friday that is set to be the first by pilots in the company’s history after the Vereinigung Cockpit union said it was unhappy with the Irish airline’s approach to talks. FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane prepares to land at Manchester Airport in Manchester northern England, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo The strike comes less than a week after Ryanair shocked investors by saying it would recognize unions for the first time in its 32-year history in a bid to avert coordinated strikes across Europe over the Christmas period. The walkout in Germany, described as a “warning strike”, will take place from 0401 GMT to 0759 GMT and will affect flights from all German airports, VC said in a statement. Around 16 Ryanair flights are due to depart from Germany in that time. Ryanair said it had written to pilots to ask them to work as normal. “We advise all customers in Germany to turn up as normal tomorrow, as we plan to operate all scheduled flights,” Ryanair spokesman Robin Kiely said in a statement. “We will be doing our utmost to minimize any disruptions to the Christmas travel plans of our German customers.” MANAGEMENT STYLE Despite Ryanair’s offer to talk with unions, VC said Ryanair had refused to accept two members of a delegation that the union nominated to hold talks with management. One of the pilots was a contractor and one a direct employee, but Ryanair has ended both of their contracts, VC said. The union said trade unions in Germany have the right to say who can undertake negotiations and that it would not be dictated to by Ryanair on this point. “This has shown us that nothing has changed with Ryanair’s management style or how it handles workers’ rights,” VC President Ilja Schulz told reporters, sitting behind a table bearing the slogan “No landing clearance for Irish social dumping”. Ryanair said it was happy to negotiate with German pilots and VC officials, but not with non-Ryanair pilots or one who is in litigation with the company. Ryanair has also offered to hold talks on Jan. 5 but Schulz said those talks were subject to the same conditions and so the strike would go ahead. “Ryanair obviously doesn’t believe that VC is in a position to organize a strike or that the Ryanair pilots in Germany have had enough with how they are treated,” he said. Ryanair said it would continue to engage with the VC union and its German pilots to try and reach a collective labor agreement in early January. Analysts at Bernstein said the strike demonstrated the volatility of the situation at Ryanair and that it showed a long and protracted process may be ahead. “We see the breakdown of talks before they had even started as further evidence that Ryanair needs to build the organizational infrastructure, capability and mindset to deal with union negotiations that cannot be broken by ultimatums,” they wrote in a note. Reporting by Victoria Bryan;   Conor Humphries in Dublin and Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt;   and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ryaniar-pilots-germany/ryanair-says-agrees-to-new-meeting-with-german-union-vc-idUKKBN1EF1VN'|'2017-12-21T20:18:00.000+02:00'
'cc857a0c6c170097e72e791a919ec7d538dce189'|'Indian authorities weighing how to regulate cryptocurrencies: SEBI chief'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:14 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Indian authorities weighing how to regulate cryptocurrencies: SEBI chief Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s capital market regulator is talking with the government and central bank about how to regulate cryptocurrencies, its chairman said on Wednesday. The logo of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is pictured on the premises of its headquarters in Mumbai, India March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), plus officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), are on a panel tasked with determining the legal oversight for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Chairman Ajay Tyagi said. “There has to be a process or law, only then can you take action,” Tyagi told reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry conference in Mumbai. India currently has no regulation for cryptocurrencies, and like other global policymakers, it is seeking to understand how to supervise a market that many feel is a speculative bubble. Earlier this month, the RBI said it was concerned about bitcoin. India’s central tax authority is also surveying bitcoin exchanges to find out whether it can tax any transactions. Reporting by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-cryptocurrencies/indian-authorities-weighing-how-to-regulate-cryptocurrencies-sebi-chief-idINKBN1EE149'|'2017-12-20T12:13:00.000+02:00'
'f76c28915062cd9089ecf203dc91fb7b64da3b14'|'From wine to watches, sharing sites offer slice of luxury'|'December 20, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago From wine to watches, sharing sites offer slice of luxury Sarah White , Silke Koltrowitz 4 Min Read PARIS/ZURICH (Reuters) - Online platforms offering rentals or shares in everything from glitzy watches to sports cars are making inroads in the luxury goods market, as a shift in consumer habits begins to head up market. Playing off the sharing economy model popularized by the likes of Airbnb, such companies invite people to enjoy luxury brands without spending a fortune. For example, a fixed monthly fee gives a consumer use of a Rolex watch for a few weeks which they then send back to exchange for another luxury brand. Businesses say the market for renting or co-investing in everything from jewelery to fine art is taking off with moderately well-off clients aspiring to a taste of the high life, and potentially the seriously wealthy. “The modern generation leads a very different life, people want to keep their options open,” said Marco Abele, who formerly worked in digital banking at Credit Suisse and is now developing sharing platform TEND, set to launch in Switzerland in March. The platform offers people ways of buying tradable stakes in a Porsche or a vineyard, for a return on their investment and a chance to go for occasional spins in the car or get customized bottles. While aiming to “democratize” luxury, its target customers are not quite every man or woman: their net worth would be around 100,000 to 1 million Swiss francs ($1 million), Abele said. While still small, the sharing economy is predicted to grow from around $15 billion in 2016 to $335 billion by 2025, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Luxury is only a small part of that but has potential. “It’s not a significant market, but it’s getting under way, it will become more significant,” said Olivier Abtan, a luxury specialist at Boston Consulting Group. “There are a lot of start-ups and especially young people piling into this.” Eleven James, a U.S.-based watch rental site launched in 2014, is considering moving into jewelery and artworks and may expand overseas, Chief Executive Olivier Reza said. FILE PHOTO: A staff member displays a1938 18k Patek Philippe gold chronograph wristwatch with two-tone champagne sector dial during an auction preview at Christie''s in Geneva November 13, 2009. REUTERS/Valentin Flauraud/File Photo The company - whose monthly fees range from $150 to $500, depending on the value of the watches - used to rent out its own stock. But in November it opened up to collectors wanting to lease their timepieces. “This mainly came about because of consumer demand,” Reza said. “People have more watches, they can’t wear them all at once, they tire of them.” TEST BEFORE BUYING For some luxury manufacturers, this budding market may be an unwelcome development. They had only just started to make peace with e-commerce, having long been afraid that online sales might dilute their brands, and are still fighting to control distribution, resisting moving onto mainstream sites such as Amazon ( AMZN.O ). Now they run the risk of missing out on sales as people rent a piece of the luxury they offer, making items more accessible - and ubiquitous - undermining their exclusivity. Still, rentals of evening dresses or designer items by Chanel or Louis Vuitton have long existed, as have co-investments in assets including private jets and yachts. Online platforms offer a means of rapidly expanding such services. For watch enthusiast Chi Chan, 43, a New York-based IT developer who has consigned four watches to Eleven James, the rental site is an easy way of testing before buying. “It is very intimidating sometimes to go to a boutique with the salespeople judging you,” said Chan, suggesting online leasing was less pressured. Editing by Luke Baker and Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-luxury-internet/from-wine-to-watches-sharing-sites-offer-slice-of-luxury-idUSKBN1EE1QG'|'2017-12-20T16:01:00.000+02:00'
'9f76d3a613676987b44aebf5f306da546bc58215'|'Asian shares slip as investors await U.S. tax reforms, dollar steadies'|'December 20, 2017 / 1:16 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Global stocks little changed as U.S. Republicans pass major tax overhaul Laila Kearney 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major global stock markets were little changed on Wednesday as investors pared gains after record highs, while U.S. Treasury yields held near multi-month peaks, as a $1.5 trillion U.S. tax bill cleared both chambers of the Republican-led Congress. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The legislation, which would enact the biggest U.S. tax code overhaul in more than three decades, will head to President Donald Trump to be signed in to law. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the sweeping bill on Wednesday afternoon, hours after the Senate gave its approval. The bill will slash the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Analysts say the cuts will boost business earnings and lead to higher dividends and stock buybacks for investors. U.S. stocks rallied ahead of voting on the bill, introduced six weeks ago, but some investors have begun to sell. “We rallied a lot on sort of a non-event and there is a little bit of head scratching about what’s really new that we should be rallying on,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 20.63 points, or 0.08 percent, to 24,775.38, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.95 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,684.42 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 7.23 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,971.08. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS shed 0.06 percent. European stock markets fell 0.7 percent, with blue-chip indexes in Berlin .GDAXI , Paris .FCHI and London .FTSE 0.3 to 1.1 percent lower. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 also lost 0.7 percent. The tax plan has boosted U.S. Treasury yields, which were at nine-month highs on optimism the plan will boost growth. “U.S. yields have jumped sharply higher in the last two days as the prospect of higher inflation and growth prompted some positioning adjustments in anticipation that the measures ... could prompt conditions that might see rates have to rise faster than expected next year,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in London. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes US10YT=RR were last down 7/32 in price to yield 2.4862 percent, from 2.463 percent late Tuesday. The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last fell 30/32 in price to yield 2.8704 percent, from 2.823 percent. The U.S. dollar slid against most currencies except the Japanese yen JPY= , on expectations the tax bill''s upside impact on the greenback has been factored into the market. The dollar index .DXY fell 0.2 percent That led the euro EUR= to rise 0.39 percent to $1.1884. The dollar also fell against sterling GBP= and the Canadian CAD= and New Zealand dollars NZD= . The weaker dollar pushed up gold prices for a fourth day. Spot gold XAU= added 0.4 percent to $1,266.54 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 gained 0.47 percent to $1,270.20 an ounce. Copper CMCU3 rose 1.4 percent to hit a two-month high on the dollar’s downturn as investors remained optimistic about global growth prospects from the U.S. tax plan and China’s steady economy. Crude prices firmed modestly, supported by a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories and a continued outage in the North Sea Forties pipeline system. [O/R] U.S. crude futures CLcv1 rose 0.75 percent to $57.99 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $64.36, up 0.88 percent.   Dhara Ranasinghe in London; Editing by Bernadette Baum and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-shares-slip-as-investors-await-u-s-tax-reforms-dollar-steadies-idUKKBN1EE03X'|'2017-12-20T03:23:00.000+02:00'
'6a67610a029f5809cc501bac1daa6a79b44abb7e'|'Micron revenue beats estimates on memory chip boom'|'December 19, 2017 / 11:28 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago Micron revenue beats estimates on memory chip boom Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc’s ( MU.O ) quarterly revenue beat analysts’ estimates on Tuesday, as the chipmaker benefited from a chip boom fuelled by demand from personal computer, server and smartphone makers. FILE PHOTO: The logo of U.S. memory chip maker MicronTechnology is pictured at their booth at an industrial fair in Frankfurt, Germany, July 14, 2015. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The company’s shares, which have nearly doubled this year, were up about 4 percent at $45.30 in after-hours trading. Micron’s results have been buoyed by a so-called memory chip “super-cycle” of higher prices due to rising demand for storage from servers and smartphones. Net income attributable to the chipmaker rose to $2.68 billion, or $2.19 per share, in the first quarter ended Nov. 30, from $180 million, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier. Net sales rose 71.4 percent to $6.80 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $6.41 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Excluding items, the company earned $2.45 per share. Boise, Idaho-based Micron said it expected adjusted revenue of $6.80 billion to $7.20 billion and an adjusted profit of $2.51 per share to $2.65 per share for the current quarter. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $6.19 billion and an adjusted profit of $2.03 per share. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/micron-tech-results/micron-revenue-beats-estimates-on-memory-chip-boom-idINKBN1ED2X0'|'2017-12-20T01:26:00.000+02:00'
'a824aff9eed5ef64c93200da339eb48214c13111'|'Niki Lauda submitted offer for insolvent airline Niki'|' 00 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Niki Lauda submitted offer for insolvent airline Niki Reuters Staff 1 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Former motor racing driver Niki Lauda has submitted an offer for the insolvent Austrian airline Niki, which he founded in 2003, a spokeswoman for Lauda said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - Britain Formula One - F1 - British Grand Prix 2016 - Silverstone, England - 9/7/16 . Mercedes'' non executive chairman Niki Lauda during practice Reuters / Andrew Boyers Niki filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ), which is buying other parts of Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), scrapped plans to buy Niki, grounding the airline’s fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. “I can confirm that Niki Lauda handed in an offer (for Niki),” she said. “I can’t say how much he offered.” Asked whether he made the bid alone or whether he teamed up with another interested party, she said she did not know. Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; editing by Francois Murphy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki-offer/niki-lauda-submitted-offer-for-insolvent-airline-niki-idUKKBN1EF1F4'|'2017-12-21T13:58:00.000+02:00'
'39bebc3d45ec52fd73c3955a44a34653622456cd'|'Britain''s digital banks - profitable or just popular?'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:02 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Britain''s digital banks - profitable or just popular? Emma Rumney 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British app-based bank Monzo and others like it want to make money by allowing other firms access to their customers rather than lending to them, but this is an untested path to profitability. Monzo’s user numbers soared by 300 percent to 450,000 in nine months this year, which has attracted investors and more than doubled its valuation to $336 million. The bank’s distinctive coral-coloured card has become commonplace in the wallets of the young and tech savvy. But this growth has come at a cost: until recently every customer meant a loss of 50 pounds ($67) as Monzo offered services such as overseas cash withdrawals for free. “The more you grow, the more you lose and you have to turn that corner at some point,” CEO Tom Blomfield told Reuters, referring to the moment when each customer is no longer a loss to the bank. However he has no target for overall profitability at Monzo. Monzo and competitors like Starling Bank still largely steer clear of the loans and hefty fees for overdrafts or foreign exchange that have been so lucrative for existing banks, but which the newcomers see as ripping off consumers. Absorbing such costs has been expensive for some of the upstarts, but they think they can make money from a new model based on using customers’ data to push them towards other financial services, taking a commission whenever it works. If successful, they could eat into the retail banking profits of the big banks just as new rules are being introduced to reduce their dominance, and returns are being shredded by tougher regulation and growing competition. They see the big banks’ approach, built around lending out customers’ deposits at higher rates of interest, as costly. Capital requirements are high, which would affect the way investors looked at the newcomers if they took that route. “Your business tends to get valued like a bank and not like Google,” said Blomfield. THE ‘MARKETPLACE’ The digital-only banks boast slick apps, which can analyse spending in real time, send budgeting nudges and allow users to freeze and unfreeze their card at the click of a button. Aurelie Gonnage, a 25-year-old advertising producer, uses her Monzo account to budget, pay friends easily and spend abroad without large fees. “I love the instantaneity of it,” she said, although she wouldn’t use it as her main bank because it pays no interest on deposits and has no branches to visit in an emergency. But for the new banks, becoming central to users’ lives is the key to accessing the wealth of data needed to nudge them towards the right products, and making money in the process. “The important place in people’s financial lives is where the data is,” said Starling Bank CEO Anne Boden. Partner firms plug into the apps, creating a “marketplace” of services ranging from loans and investments to insurance and energy, and paying the banks a fee whenever a customer signs up to their offering. The banks will rely on this for income to varying degrees. Boden said it will account for around a third of revenues at Starling, while Monzo’s Blomfield expects it to be the bank’s main source of income in the long term. “The difficulty is you need massive scale and access to data to really make it work,” he said. Achieving that could be difficult as others pursue similar strategies, said John Cronin, head of UK banks research at analyst firm Goodbody. Virgin Money also has plans for a marketplace, and HSBC is piloting a money management app. Other big players are expected to follow suit in response to new regulations forcing them to share their customer data with potential competitors. GROWING PAINS The new banks’ branchless, digital proposition means they benefit from far lower costs. Nevertheless, digital player Revolut, with a 300 million pound valuation and 1.2 million users, believes it couldn’t achieve the scale it wants with marketplace money alone. Subscriptions for premium and business accounts resulted in 2.36 million pounds of turnover in 2016 and Revolut plans to offer overdrafts and loans too. It expects to break even by the end of 2018. Starling plans to hit the same milestone one year later. Interest from overdrafts will provide a third of its income, said Boden, with more funds coming from a business-facing payments service and upcoming business accounts. Monzo is also currently rolling out overdrafts and exploring one lending product. Edward Firth, managing director, UK banks at analysts KBW, said big banks make such a good return on retail banking that the digital upstarts can halve it and still make enough profit. He has more confidence in models where the marketplace supplements such income, rather than the other way around. “It’s still untested,” he said. Eileen Burbidge, partner at venture capital firm Passion Capital, which backs Monzo, said the bank’s rapid growth validates her confidence in its ethos and model. “That kind of engagement or interest from consumers is really unheard of in financial services,” she said. Still, the firm wants Monzo to prove that each customer can drive more revenue than they drive cost within a year or so. Monzo has already halved the cost per user, although that has meant cutting back on some key offers: previously unlimited overseas ATM withdrawals cost it 16 pounds per customer. Now it will start adding revenues. Blomfield sees the marketplace playing an increasingly important role. Although he added: “Until it plays out it’s hard to know for sure.” Reporting by Emma Rumney; editing by Giles Elgood'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fintech-profits/britains-digital-banks-profitable-or-just-popular-idUKKBN1EF1XX'|'2017-12-21T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'e775e83d86a320ffd5e97b709fae67477e4889dc'|'UK pensions lifeboat to back Toys R Us UK restructuring'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:16 PM / Updated 5 hours ago UK pensions lifeboat to back Toys ''R'' Us UK restructuring Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s pensions lifeboat said it would vote in favour of Toys ‘R’ Us UK’s restructuring plan at a creditors meeting on Thursday after securing additional payments to the retailer’s pension fund. A Toys "R" Us store is seen, in Hayes, Britain December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The move by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) means the creditors’ vote on Toys ‘R’ Us UK’s Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) is likely to be passed, enabling the retailer to stave off administration. The PPF said Toys ‘R’ Us UK had agreed to pay 9.8 million pounds into the pension plan. Earlier this week the PPF said it would vote against the plan but changed its position after talks. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toys-r-us-uk-restructuring/uk-pensions-lifeboat-to-back-toys-r-us-uk-restructuring-idUKKBN1EF1T8'|'2017-12-21T16:22:00.000+02:00'
'1abc42244dfce84a46c55638637c0357de2efea2'|'South Korea plans to buy 20 additional F-35 aircraft: report'|' 33 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago South Korea plans to buy 20 additional F-35 aircraft: report   SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to buy an additional 20 F-35A stealth fighter aircraft from the United States, a South Korean newspaper reported on Thursday, less than two months after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Seoul would be purchasing billions of dollars in new military equipment. South Korea’s Defence Acquisition Program Administration has established a process for procuring the 20 additional aircraft, the Joongang Ilbo newspaper reported, citing multiple government sources. In 2014 South Korea formally announced a plan to buy 40 F-35As from American defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Michael Perry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-usa-airforce/south-korea-plans-to-buy-20-additional-f-35-aircraft-report-idUSKBN1EF051'|'2017-12-21T03:27:00.000+02:00'
'306c49b889548344870de68c4dc6deb3ae470591'|'Facebook ads that let employers target younger workers focus of U.S. lawsuit'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:19 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Facebook ads that let employers target younger workers focus of U.S. lawsuit Sharon Bernstein 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Several U.S. employers engaged in age discrimination by placing recruitment ads on Facebook targeting younger workers, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday by a communications industry labor union. A giant logo is seen at Facebook''s headquarters in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Companies including T-Mobile US Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Cox Communications Inc [COXC.UL] imposed age limits on who could see recruitment ads, limiting some only to people younger than 38, according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco by the Communications Workers of America. “This pattern or practice of discrimination denies job opportunities to individuals who are searching for and interested in jobs, reduces the number of older workers who apply for jobs with the offending employers and employment agencies, and depresses the number of older workers who are hired,” the complaint reads. The lawsuit is the latest example of criticism leveled at Facebook for so-called micro-targeting, a process that has allowed advertisers to choose who sees their ads based on age, interests, race and even such characteristics as whether they dislike people based on race or religion. Last month, the company said it was temporarily disabling the ability of advertisers to exclude racial groups from the intended audience of ads, and promised to “do better” at policing discriminatory practices. Facebook, which is not named as a defendant but is accused in the lawsuit of engaging in the practice in its own recruitment efforts, said in a statement on its website that it does not engage in age discrimination. T-Mobile and Cox said they do not comment on litigation. Amazon said it has corrected some ads. “We recently audited our recruiting ads on Facebook and discovered some had targeting that was inconsistent with our approach of searching for any candidate over the age of 18,” Amazon said. The complaint included images of employment recruitment ads that when clicked upon by a user, bring up a screen specifying the age group to which the ad was targeted. “You’re seeing this ad because Amazon Fulfillment Jobs wants to reach people ages 18 to 54 who live or were recently near Silver Spring Maryland,” one reads. Another lists T-Mobile’s desire to reach people who are interested in customer service, adding, “There may be other reasons you’re seeing this ad, including that T-Mobile Careers wants to reach people ages 18 to 38.” Peter Romer-Friedman, a lead attorney on the case, said companies rely heavily on social media for job recruitment, so the targeting harms older job-seekers. Lawyers will seek class action status for the case and plan to add defendants, he said. Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-lawsuit-discrimination/facebook-ads-that-let-employers-target-younger-workers-focus-of-u-s-lawsuit-idUKKBN1EF09B'|'2017-12-21T05:16:00.000+02:00'
'f78d689c1f252d2754ef6f1c28e3f3d93e5fa402'|'Oil prices stable on lower U.S. crude stocks, but rising output weighs'|'December 21, 2017 / 2:00 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago Oil dips as U.S. production fast approaches 10 million bpd Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Thursday as soaring U.S. output, fast approaching 10 million barrels per day (bpd), outweighed a drop in American crude inventories. A gas station attendant pumps fuel into a customer''s car at a gas station in Shanghai, China November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $58.02 a barrel at 0540 GMT, down 7 cents from their last settlement. Brent crude futures, international benchmark for oil prices, were at $64.45 a barrel, down 11 cents. Both crude benchmarks gained around 1 percent during their previous sessions, lifted by official data showing a 6.5 million-barrel fall in U.S. crude inventories in the week to Dec. 15 to 436 million barrels, the lowest level since October 2015. Outweighing this on Thursday was another increase in American crude oil production, while a rise in gasoline stocks pointed to a slowdown in demand. The energy minister of Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter and OPEC’s de-facto leader, said it would take more time to rein in a global supply overhang, which was created by strong global production increases in the years up to 2015. “We expect the first few months of 2018 to be either flat or a build (in inventories) as it is typically the case with the seasonality with the oil market,” Khalid al-Falih told Reuters on Wednesday. U.S. oil output is close to breaking through 10 million bpd, undermining efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to tighten the market through withholding supply this year and next. U.S. crude production hit 9.79 million bpd last week, its highest since the early 1970s, the only time American output breached 10 million bpd. This brings U.S. output close to that of top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, which pump around 10 million and 11 million bpd, respectively. Oil traders this week also eyed with interest the passing of a U.S. tax bill, which is seen to weigh on crude prices in the longer term. “The passage of the U.S. tax bill is ... a bearish long-term development for oil and gas markets,” Barclays bank said. “The policies ... are likely to reduce demand for gas and oil and raise supplies ... (as) the tax bill preserves renewable energy tax credits, a tax credit for EVs (electric vehicles), and opens up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-stable-on-lower-us-crude-stocks-but-rising-output-weighs-idUKKBN1EF05R'|'2017-12-21T03:52:00.000+02:00'
'00a034546375117051933069c4d8ff84b278d89e'|'Britain''s digital banks - profitable or just popular?'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:10 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Britain''s digital banks: profitable or just popular? Emma Rumney 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British app-based bank Monzo and others like it want to make money by allowing other firms access to their customers rather than lending to them, but this is an untested path to profitability. A Monzo card in an undated photo. Courtesy Monzo/via Reuters Monzo’s user numbers soared by 300 percent to 450,000 in nine months this year, which has attracted investors and more than doubled its valuation to $336 million. The bank’s distinctive coral-colored card has become commonplace in the wallets of the young and tech savvy. But this growth has come at a cost: until recently every customer meant a loss of 50 pounds ($67) as Monzo offered services such as overseas cash withdrawals for free. “The more you grow, the more you lose and you have to turn that corner at some point,” CEO Tom Blomfield told Reuters, referring to the moment when each customer is no longer a loss to the bank. However he has no target for overall profitability at Monzo. Monzo and competitors like Starling Bank still largely steer clear of the loans and hefty fees for overdrafts or foreign exchange that have been so lucrative for existing banks, but which the newcomers see as ripping off consumers. Absorbing such costs has been expensive for some of the upstarts, but they think they can make money from a new model based on using customers’ data to push them toward other financial services, taking a commission whenever it works. If successful, they could eat into the retail banking profits of the big banks just as new rules are being introduced to reduce their dominance, and returns are being shredded by tougher regulation and growing competition. They see the big banks’ approach, built around lending out customers’ deposits at higher rates of interest, as costly. Capital requirements are high, which would affect the way investors looked at the newcomers if they took that route. “Your business tends to get valued like a bank and not like Google,” said Blomfield. THE ‘MARKETPLACE’ The digital-only banks boast slick apps, which can analyze spending in real time, send budgeting nudges and allow users to freeze and unfreeze their card at the click of a button. Aurelie Gonnage, a 25-year-old advertising producer, uses her Monzo account to budget, pay friends easily and spend abroad without large fees. “I love the instantaneity of it,” she said, although she wouldn’t use it as her main bank because it pays no interest on deposits and has no branches to visit in an emergency. But for the new banks, becoming central to users’ lives is the key to accessing the wealth of data needed to nudge them toward the right products, and making money in the process. “The important place in people’s financial lives is where the data is,” said Starling Bank CEO Anne Boden. Partner firms plug into the apps, creating a “marketplace” of services ranging from loans and investments to insurance and energy, and paying the banks a fee whenever a customer signs up to their offering. The banks will rely on this for income to varying degrees. Boden said it will account for around a third of revenues at Starling, while Monzo’s Blomfield expects it to be the bank’s main source of income in the long term. “The difficulty is you need massive scale and access to data to really make it work,” he said. Achieving that could be difficult as others pursue similar strategies, said John Cronin, head of UK banks research at analyst firm Goodbody. Virgin Money ( VM.L ) also has plans for a marketplace, and HSBC is piloting a money management app. Other big players are expected to follow suit in response to new regulations forcing them to share their customer data with potential competitors. GROWING PAINS The new banks’ branchless, digital proposition means they benefit from far lower costs. Nevertheless, digital player Revolut, with a 300 million pound valuation and 1.2 million users, believes it couldn’t achieve the scale it wants with marketplace money alone. Subscriptions for premium and business accounts resulted in 2.36 million pounds of turnover in 2016 and Revolut plans to offer overdrafts and loans too. It expects to break even by the end of 2018. Starling plans to hit the same milestone one year later. Interest from overdrafts will provide a third of its income, said Boden, with more funds coming from a business-facing payments service and upcoming business accounts. Monzo is also currently rolling out overdrafts and exploring one lending product. Edward Firth, managing director, UK banks at analysts KBW, said big banks make such a good return on retail banking that the digital upstarts can halve it and still make enough profit. He has more confidence in models where the marketplace supplements such income, rather than the other way around. “It’s still untested,” he said. Eileen Burbidge, partner at venture capital firm Passion Capital, which backs Monzo, said the bank’s rapid growth validates her confidence in its ethos and model. “That kind of engagement or interest from consumers is really unheard of in financial services,” she said. Still, the firm wants Monzo to prove that each customer can drive more revenue than they drive cost within a year or so. Monzo has already halved the cost per user, although that has meant cutting back on some key offers: previously unlimited overseas ATM withdrawals cost it 16 pounds per customer. Now it will start adding revenues. Blomfield sees the marketplace playing an increasingly important role, although he added: “Until it plays out it’s hard to know for sure.” For a graphic on digital banks'' rise, click tmsnrt.rs/2Dnj1oS. Reporting by Emma Rumney; editing by Giles Elgood'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-fintech-profits/britains-digital-banks-profitable-or-just-popular-idUKKBN1EF1YD'|'2017-12-21T18:26:00.000+02:00'
'5b32ace1065f71d0fc598f51269b75410ba7ae47'|'Accenture''s quarterly revenue rises 12 percent'|'December 21, 2017 / 11:41 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Accenture''s digital push boosts earnings, shares hit record Aishwarya Venugopal 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Consulting and outsourcing services firm Accenture Plc’s quarterly earnings and revenue topped Wall Street forecasts, as investments in fast-growing digital and cloud services paid off. FILE PHOTO: Visitors look at devices at Accenture stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 26, 2013. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo Shares of Accenture, which have risen about 30 percent this year, rose 4 percent to a record high of $157.93 in on Thursday morning. The company also lifted its forecast for yearly earnings per share and gave a forecast for current-quarter revenue largely ahead of analysts’ expectations. Revenue from Accenture’s digital, cloud, analytics and security-related services - a group it calls “the New” - made up 55 percent of overall revenue in the first quarter ended Nov. 30. “The primary driver of our growth in the quarter continues to be the New,” Accenture Chief Financial Officer David Rowland said on a call with analysts. Indeed, much of Accenture’s recent growth has been driven by digital and cloud services, which include everything from managing clients’ social media marketing strategies to helping them move operations to the cloud. Another bright spot for Accenture was revenue from the healthcare and public services industry, which rose nearly 9 percent and exceeded growth in prior quarters. The result came despite warnings from the company of weak client spending amid uncertainty around U.S. healthcare law. “Based on the results of last quarter, businesses were feeling more confident and the spending clearly improved since last quarter,” Edward Jones analyst Josh Olson said. Accenture has also grown rapidly by buying smaller companies and has invested some $3.4 billion on about 70 acquisitions over the past three years. About half of that amount was spent in fiscal year 2017 alone as Accenture ramped up digital and cloud investments, helping it gain market share from Cognizant and IBM Corp. The company expects to spend another $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion on acquisitions in fiscal year 2018. The Dublin-based company expects an annual tax rate of 22 to 24 percent, down from a prior expectation of 23 to 25 percent. The forecast does not include the impact of an expected overhaul of the U.S. tax code, which cuts the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Net income attributable to Accenture rose 11.8 percent to $1.12 billion. On a per-share basis, earnings were $1.79, ahead of analysts’ average forecast of $1.67 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net revenue rose nearly 12 percent to $9.52 billion, topping analysts’ expectations of $9.26 billion. Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva and Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/accenture-results/accentures-quarterly-revenue-rises-12-percent-idINKBN1EF1CO'|'2017-12-21T13:39:00.000+02:00'
'ac734073db83c73b2b2a63ca9d3153505f2938f1'|'Sonic boom or bust? Dreams of super-fast jet travel revival face headwinds'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:06 AM / in 8 hours Sonic boom or bust? Dreams of super-fast jet travel revival face headwinds Jamie Freed 7 Min Read (Reuters) - Supersonic passenger travel, which died out with the Concorde’s demise in 2003, will make a comeback by the mid-2020s if three entrepreneurial U.S.-based companies can make jets quiet and efficient enough to win over buyers and fliers. Fifteen years ago, Boeing Co ( BA.N ) canceled plans to build the near-supersonic Sonic Cruiser, the last big attempt by a major manufacturer to speed up commercial travel. Now Japan Airlines Co Ltd ( 9201.T ) and Virgin Group are backing one of the three U.S. supersonic projects, Denver-based Boom Technology Inc, which plans a 55-seat all business class jet. Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) is partnering with Aerion Corp to develop smaller supersonic business jets, with Spike Aerospace Inc also targeting the private jet market given many see the super-rich as the likeliest early adopters of supersonic travel. Concorde was developed in the 1960s, meaning this is hardly a new technology. But the program was government-backed, with only 14 jets ever delivered to then-government owned British Airways ( ICAG.L ) and Air France ( AIRF.PA ). Other airline orders evaporated as the purchase price soared and they were eventually retired as maintenance costs rose and passenger revenue fell. New players are relying on venture capital funding models. “This is more about engines and economics than it is about airframes,” Richard Aboulafia, the vice president of analysis at aerospace research firm Teal Group, said of the challenges of a supersonic revival. To make the project economics stack up the engines need to be far more fuel efficient and less noisy than those used by Concorde or fighter jets. That has proven tough to engineer, especially at higher speeds like the Concorde’s Mach 2, which halved the travel time from London to New York to 3.5 hours. ‘REALISTIC PROJECT’ Engine manufacturers and jet makers have spent decades improving fuel efficiency, expanding range and reducing noise. But to get up to mach speed, a supersonic jet requires an engine core more like those on the commercial jets of the 1970s and 1980s which noisily gobble more air and fuel. “A large fraction of the benefits we have in efficiency and noise reduction we are going to lose as soon as we have to go back to that sort of architecture,” said Daniel Edgington-Mitchell, an aerospace engineering lecturer at Melbourne’s Monash University. Aerion, the most advanced of the proposed supersonic jet projects, is working with GE Aviation ( GE.N ) to develop an engine based on a core used in F-16 fighters and Boeing 737s that was developed in the 1970s, a GE spokesman said. In a sign of the challenges involved using an older engine core rather than spending $1 billion-plus to engineer a new one, Aerion has reduced the jet’s planned speed from Mach 1.6 to 1.4. Slideshow (9 Images) Today’s top business jets fly at around Mach 0.9 and commercial jets at Mach 0.85. Jeff Miller, Aerion’s head of marketing, said the speed had fallen to meet noise standards and due to temperature limits involved with adapting an existing engine core. Aerion, chaired by billionaire businessman Robert Bass, plans for the 12-seat, $120 million jet to make its first test flight in 2023, with entry into service in 2025. “Aerion has researched the problems since 2003 and therefore reached the highest degree of realism,” Leeham Co analyst Bjorn Fehrm said, comparing it to the loftier supersonic ambitions of Boom and Spike. “If one wants to go faster, a suitable core is harder to find.” FASTER IS BETTER Boom wants a $200 million jet capable of Mach 2.2 and Spike aims for a $100 million jet at Mach 1.6, down from an earlier Mach 1.8. Both want their jets to enter service in 2023, two years earlier than Aerion. Several industry sources said those timelines appeared unrealistic because the companies have yet to select engines and will face testing and certification challenges. Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl said the company was examining an adaptation of an existing engine as well as a clean-sheet option, with more to say next year. Spike CEO Vik Kachoria said his company was in talks with two engine suppliers. Both are working on smaller demonstrator aircraft with different engines designed to prove the concept is achievable within their proposed timeframes. Engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC ( RR.L ) said it was interested in supersonic work. United Technologies Corp’s ( UTX.N ) Pratt & Whitney division said it was “not currently” working with Boom and did not respond to a question on Spike, while GE did not provide comment on either project. Scholl said airlines need a speed of at least Mach 2 to make the supersonic business case stake up because that would shave one day off a trans-Atlantic itinerary and two days off trans-Pacific trips. For now, only over-water itineraries are under consideration due to widespread bans on civilian supersonic flights over land. “Faster speeds not only are better for passengers, they are better for airlines, who get to turn the plane around and fly more segments in the same day, possibly even with the same crew,” Scholl said. Japan Airlines and Virgin Group, which declined to comment, have a combined 30 options over Boom jets, with three other as-yet-unnamed customers signed on for another 46. Former British Airways chief Concorde pilot Mike Bannister said the biggest hurdle for Boom was to develop jets at a price that would stack up for airlines, or early orders would evaporate as they had with Concorde. “The technical challenges, whilst great, are surmountable,” said Bannister, who was the captain of the last-ever commercial Concorde flight and has advised Boom’s team. “It is an absolute delight to be able to see on the horizon the prospect of another supersonic airliner, particularly for my family because my daughter who is 24 is a commercial pilot. I would love to see my daughter flying it.” Reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airplane-supersonic/sonic-boom-or-bust-dreams-of-super-fast-jet-travel-revival-face-headwinds-idUSKBN1EG0GI'|'2017-12-22T08:06:00.000+02:00'
'542450dd4f3002d63295fe4c7b255243aada87a3'|'BRIEF-Golden Bull Ltd Files For U.S. IPO'|'December 22, 2017 / 9:44 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago BRIEF-Golden Bull Ltd Files For U.S. IPO Reuters Staff Dec 22 (Reuters) - Golden Bull Ltd: * GOLDEN BULL LIMITED FILES FOR U.S. IPO * SEES U.S. IPO OF 2 MILLION SHARES PRICED BETWEEN $4.00 - $4.50 PER SHARE * SAYS IT INTENDS TO APPLY TO HAVE ITS ORDINARY SHARES LISTED ON NASDAQ UNDER THE SYMBOL “DNJR” * SAYS PROPOSED IPO PRICE IS AN ESTIMATE SOLELY FOR CALCULATING SEC REGISTRATION FEE Source text - ( bit.ly/2BYGY8b )'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-golden-bull-ltd-files-for-us-ipo/brief-golden-bull-ltd-files-for-u-s-ipo-idUSEMN3O941T'|'2017-12-22T23:40:00.000+02:00'
'2e045801c51a92541cf4e51f66d2785304f2481c'|'South Korean cryptocurrency exchange to file for bankruptcy after hacking'|' 46 AM / a few seconds ago South Korean cryptocurrency exchange to file for bankruptcy after hacking Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange said on Tuesday it is shutting down and is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year, highlighting concerns about security as trade in bitcoin and other virtual currencies boom. Broken representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency, placed on a monitor that displays binary digits, are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Picture taken December 8. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The exchange, called Youbit, had been hacked once before in April when nearly 4,000 bitcoins were stolen in a cyber attack that the country’s spy agency linked to North Korea, according to a South Korean newspaper report on Saturday. Youbit announced on its website that it had been hacked at 4:35am local time on Tuesday, causing a loss worth 17 percent of its total assets. It did not elaborate on the amount, but said all customers’ cryptocurrency assets will be marked down to 75 percent of its value, adding it has stopped trading and will work to minimize customer losses. Youbit is a smaller player in South Korea’s cryptocurrency market, with the world’s busiest cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb accounting for about 70 percent of the country’s market share. An official at Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), the state agency that responds to cyberattacks, said the police and KISA officials were starting an investigation into the hacking. Bitcoin exchanges and wallets have a history of being targeted, and security experts say they become more vulnerable to cyber-crime as valuations rise. Bitcoin traded near record high at $18,759.67 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange as of 0703 GMT. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-exchange-southkorea/south-korean-cryptocurrency-exchange-to-file-for-bankruptcy-after-hacking-idUKKBN1ED0NJ'|'2017-12-19T09:29:00.000+02:00'
'4196363310fa31d19d18dd344943b08a48c9e78e'|'Amtrak safety record under scrutiny even before deadly derailment'|'December 19, 2017 / 6:04 AM / in a minute Amtrak safety record already under scrutiny before fatal derailment David Shepardson , Daniel Trotta 5 Min Read (Reuters) - The deadly derailment of an Amtrak train south of Seattle is likely to intensify scrutiny of the national passenger railroad company’s safety record, which was already under the microscope following a series of fatal incidents. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said late on Monday the train was traveling at 80 miles (130 km) per hour in a 30-mph (48 kph) zone when it jumped the tracks that morning. The NTSB said it was too soon to say whether excessive speed contributed to the crash, which killed at least three people. Another 100 were taken to hospitals, 10 with serious injuries, officials said. Amtrak’s co-chief executive, Richard Anderson, told reporters earlier on Monday he would not speculate on the cause of the derailment and said safety was the company’s top priority. However, Anderson acknowledged that a working Positive Train Control (PTC), a system that automatically slows trains if they are going too fast, had not been installed on that stretch of track. PTC also prevents train-on-train collisions and stops a train from passing through misaligned tracks. Moreover, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt just last month issued a scathing critique of Amtrak’s culture, saying a future breakdown was likely. “Amtrak’s safety culture is failing and is primed to fail again, until and unless Amtrak changes the way it practices safety management,” Sumwalt said on Nov. 14. Congress had mandated the implementation of PTC nationwide by the end of 2015, then extended that deadline until the end of 2018 after finding installation was harder than anticipated. “Every year we wait in implementing PTC to its full extent, more people are going to be killed,” Bella Dinh-Zarr, an NTSB member helping oversee the derailment investigation, told CNN on Tuesday. In 2015, the NTSB calculated PTC would have prevented 145 train accidents, saved 300 lives and avoided 6,700 injuries had it been in place since 1969. Investigators have said speeding was to blame, at least in part, for a number of recent crashes, including one in 2015 in Philadelphia that killed eight people. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said on Tuesday that PTC was “needed now.” “Why was Amtrak train traveling at nearly TRIPLE the speed limit before fatal derailment?” Blumenthal asked in a Twitter post. “Positive Train Control might have prevented this disaster and saved lives.” FILE PHOTO: The scene where an Amtrak passenger train derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5 in DuPont, Washington, U.S., December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola/File Photo Less than half Amtrak’s 459 locomotives had PTC as of the second quarter of 2017, the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Two-thirds of Amtrak’s track segments and route miles had PTC in operation. In Germany, Britain and France there has been some form of automatic train control since the 1930s, the FRA said. Japan has run its bullet trains since 1964 with zero passenger fatalities. Amtrak did not respond to a Reuters query on whether the locomotive in Monday’s crash had PTC. But even if it did, the tracks at the accident site, owned by the Transit Sound commuter rail, did not. To be effective, PTC must be operating both in the engine and on the tracks, with radio towers installed and staff trained in its use. Slideshow (2 Images) Keith Millhouse, a former chairman of the board of directors for Southern California’s Metrolink commuter rail system, said the NTSB’s previous criticism suggested Amtrak might be “distracted” from its safety mission. He also questioned why Amtrak had yet to install PTC nationwide. Even though it has another year to complete the measures, the project was mandated by the U.S. Congress nine years ago. “Amtrak is supposed to be the national rail,” Millhouse said. “Why aren’t they taking the lead?” Other railroad advocates are more forgiving, pointing to the difficulties of installing new technology on largely 20th-century infrastructure, as well as chronic underfunding. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Monday the accident showed why his soon-to-be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Earlier this year the Trump administration proposed ending subsidies for Amtrak to operate long-distance train service, cutting $630 million of the $1.4 billion in annual government support for passenger rail service. Those cuts were rejected by Congress. “There is a money issue because while Congress mandated the implementation of PTC on the railroads, they didn’t give any money for it, so it is self-funded,” said Allan Zarembski, director of the Railroad Engineering and Safety Program at the University of Delaware. He added the caveat that U.S. funding for Amtrak covers its capital programs. “For commuter agencies, it falls on the local governments to fund them,” he said. Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said PTC equipment had been installed where the crash happened, but that the system was not yet operational or certified for use. Full implementation on that segment was expected by the second quarter of 2018, he said. Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Daniel Trotta in New York; Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California and Keith Coffman in Denver, Colorado; Editing by John Stonestreet and Jonathan Oatis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-washington-train-amtrak/amtrak-safety-record-under-scrutiny-even-before-deadly-derailment-idUSKBN1ED0FM'|'2017-12-19T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'9f3285936351cafdf2f47e344fd364bd7c9444f7'|'Japan to expand ballistic missile defence with ground-based Aegis batteries'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:44 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Japan to expand ballistic missile defense with ground-based Aegis batteries Reuters Staff 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan formally decided on Tuesday it would expand its ballistic missile defense system with U.S.-made ground-based Aegis radar stations and interceptors in response to a growing threat from North Korean rockets. A proposal to build two Aegis Ashore batteries was approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet. The sites without the missiles will likely cost at least $2 billion and are not likely to be operational until 2023 at the earliest, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters earlier. “North Korea’s nuclear missile development poses a new level of threat to Japan and as we have done in the past we will ensure that we are able to defend ourselves with a drastic improvement in ballistic missile defense,” Japanese Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The decision to acquire the ground version of the Aegis missile-defense system, which is already deployed on Japanese warships, was widely expected. North Korea on Nov. 29 tested a new, more powerful ballistic missile that it says can hit major U.S. cities including Washington, and fly over Japan’s current defense shield. That rocket reached an altitude of more than 4,000 km (2,485 miles), well above the range of interceptor missiles on Japanese ships operating in the Sea of Japan. North Korea says its weapons programs are necessary to counter U.S. aggression. The new Aegis stations may not, however, come with a powerful radar, dubbed Spy-6, which is being developed by the United States. Without it, Japan will not be able to fully utilize the extended range of a new interceptor missile, the SM-3 Block IIA, which cost about $30 million each. A later upgrade, once the U.S. military has deployed Spy-6 on its ships around 2022, could prove a costly proposition for Japan as outlays on new equipment squeeze its military budget. Initial funding will be ring-fenced in the next defense budget beginning in April, but no decision has been made on the radar, or the overall cost, or schedule, of the deployment, a Ministry of Defence official said at a press briefing. Japan’s military planners also evaluated the U.S.-built THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system before deciding on Aegis Ashore. Separately, Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera said this month Japan would acquire medium-range cruise missiles it can launch from its F-15 and F-35 fighters at sites in North Korea, in a bid to deter any attack. The purchase of what will become the longest-range munitions in Japan’s military arsenal is controversial because it renounced the right to wage war against other nations in its post-World War Two constitution. Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Robert Birsel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-japan-aegis/japan-to-expand-ballistic-missile-defense-with-ground-based-aegis-batteries-idUSKBN1ED051'|'2017-12-19T03:31:00.000+02:00'
'9990fec8deb8ecb57361907cd94bdb2952255e71'|'UPDATE 2-Oil edges up on ongoing N.Sea pipeline outage, but rising US output weighs'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:26 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Oil crawls up as UK pipeline still out; U.S. supply limits gains Julia Simon 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil edged up towards $64 a barrel on Tuesday, helped by a North Sea pipeline outage, OPEC-led supply cuts and expectations that U.S. crude inventories had fallen for a fifth week. But rising U.S. output has put a lid on gains. Shale production will rise to a record in January, according to a government forecast published on Monday, as higher prices encourage increased drilling. Brent crude LCOc1, the global benchmark, was up 13 cents or 0.2 percent to $63.54 a barrel at 11:45 a.m. (1645 GMT) U.S. crude CLc1 gained 25 cents or 0.4 percent to $57.41. The shutdown of the North Sea’s Forties pipeline since last week has supported Brent, as Forties is the largest of the five crude grades underpinning the benchmark. On Dec. 12, Brent reached $65.83, its highest since mid-2015. “You’ve had a little surge because the pipeline is still plaguing the North Sea,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, “It’s enough to sway some market sentiment but a lot of it is already priced in.” Ineos, the operator of the Forties pipeline, said on Tuesday it was moving forward with a preferred repair option and the timeframe for the fix remained two to four weeks starting from Dec. 11, the date of the shutdown. Oil ticked up after reports that a missile was fired at the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh from Yemen, but Saudi Arabia said it intercepted the missile and no casualties were reported. Prices have also drawn support from a deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-member producers including Russia to cut crude output to curb a global glut. OPEC and its allies have extended the agreement until the end of 2018 and Russia’s Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) said on Monday it could be maintained beyond next year. The cuts have trimmed global oil inventories, and the latest weekly supply reports are expected to show a further reduction. U.S. crude oil inventories were forecast to have fallen for a fifth straight week along with a probable fall in distillate stocks last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday. The first of these reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is due at 4:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday. [EIA/S] Still, rising U.S. production is countering lower supply elsewhere. U.S. shale output in January is forecast to increase by 94,000 barrels per day to 6.41 million bpd, according to the EIA’s monthly drilling productivity report published Monday. To view a graphic on Global crude oil supply, demand balance click on this link reut.rs/2CRHqCH Additional reporting by Alex Lawler and Henning Gloystein; Editing by Edmund Blair, Louise Heavens and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-range-bound-as-disruptions-offset-by-rising-u-s-output-idUSKBN1ED04J'|'2017-12-19T07:38:00.000+02:00'
'2d567cb8f3fe334055e34ddc366d01ff752c10bc'|'CEFC, Penta make joint bid for Time Warner''s Central European Media at around $2 bln -sources'|' 14 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago CEFC, Penta make joint bid for Time Warner''s Central European Media at around $2 bln -sources Jan Lopatka , Robert Muller , Jessica Toonkel 3 Min Read PRAGUE/NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - China’s CEFC group and eastern Europe’s Penta Investments have made a joint bid for Time Warner’s Central European Media Enterprises (CME) , while Petr Kellner’s PPF has dropped out of contention, sources said. Two sources familiar with the matter said CEFC and Czech-Slovak financial group Penta have submitted a joint bid for the central European broadcaster, which could be worth around $2 billion but pricing has not yet been finalised. A third source said the sides were nearing a deal although details were not finalised. PPF, a financial group owned by Kellner, the Czech Republic’s richest person, is no longer in the bidding for CME , according to two of the sources, making CEFC/Penta the last remaining bidder. Penta and PPF declined to comment while a spokesman for CEFC in China did not respond to a request for comment. CEFC’s Prague spokesman declined to comment when asked about a bid. A spokesman for Time Warner declined to comment. CME, listed on the Nasdaq and in Prague, operates in six central and eastern European markets, with the Czech Republic and Romania its biggest profit drivers. CME holds a heavy debt load of around $1 billion. Its market capitalisation was $637.8 million at Monday’s market close. Time Warner has a 42.4 percent stake in CME but on a fully diluted basis the U.S. group has a 75 percent interest, based on warrants exercisable until May 2018 and preferred shares it holds. When factoring in that dilution, CME’s market capitalisation stands at $1.65 billion. A potential sale has come into prospect since AT&T agreed to buy Time Warner for $85 billion in October last year. The U.S. Justice Department, though, has sued to stop AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner on concerns it could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers and hamper the development of online video. Settlement talks have failed, according to a court filing last Friday. CME reported a 30 percent rise in its core operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) in the third quarter, and expects full-year core profit to increase by up to 17 percent to $165 million. It, too, has been hit by regulatory hurdles. Croatian regulators blocked the sale of CME’s Croatian business, which is among assets it wanted to sell this year to help pay down debt. CEFC, a rapidly growing oil and finance conglomerate with assets across the world, may also face a challenge to get a deal done following Beijing’s recent clampdown on capital outflows in sectors such as media. The Chinese group previously bought a Prague office building from Penta and has a range of other Czech investments. It briefly held a stake in another Czech publisher and TV broadcaster, Empresa Media. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Robert Muller in Prague, Jessica Toonkel in New York and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Editing by Susan Fenton)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/central-euro-ma/cefc-penta-make-joint-bid-for-time-warners-central-european-media-at-around-2-bln-sources-idUSL8N1OJ1GO'|'2017-12-19T18:13:00.000+02:00'
'ca2379b850e3eaa798af35f2db8d66d95ac9c52e'|'BRIEF-PNC Says Will Raise Minimum Pay Rate To $15 An Hour By End Of 2018'|' 29 PM / Updated 10 minutes ago BRIEF-PNC Says Will Raise Minimum Pay Rate To $15 An Hour By End Of 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 22 (Reuters) - PNC Financial Services Group Inc: * WILL PROVIDE FOR EMPLOYEES IN DEFINED BENEFIT PENSION PLAN AN ADDITIONAL $1,500 TO THEIR EXISTING PENSION ACCOUNTS * RAISE MINIMUM PAY RATE TO $15 AN HOUR BY END OF 2018 * PNC TO PROVIDE A $1,000 CASH PAYMENT TO ABOUT 47,500 EMPLOYEES IN Q1 OF 2018 Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-pnc-says-will-raise-minimum-pay-ra/brief-pnc-says-will-raise-minimum-pay-rate-to-15-an-hour-by-end-of-2018-idUSFWN1OM0N7'|'2017-12-22T19:28:00.000+02:00'
'2e328c586b01270b38728d101343208a6d45097d'|'Emirates to add third London airport to its network'|'Reuters TV United States December 20, 2017 / 10:58 AM / a few seconds ago Emirates to add third London airport to its network Reuters Staff 2 Min Read DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates, the Middle East’s largest airline, said on Wednesday that from June next year it would start flying to London Stansted, an airport largely served by European carriers. FILE PHOTO - An Emirates Airlines ticket desk stands empty at JFK International Airport in New York, U.S., March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The Dubai-based airline said it would begin daily flights between its Middle East hub and London’s third busiest airport on June 8, and that it would be the first Middle East airline to fly to Stansted. It will be the third London airport Emirates flies to after London Heathrow and London Gatwick, and its seventh airport in the United Kingdom. Stansted, 35 miles north of London, has traditionally been a base for European airlines flying holiday routes and budget carriers like Ryanair ( RYA.I ) and easyJet ( EZJ.L ), although full-service carrier British Airways ( ICAG.L ) started flying there last year. Emirates said it expected some of its demand to come from nearby technology and pharmaceutical hubs in Cambridge and Peterborough. “There is a clear demand for this service from both business and leisure travelers and we anticipate that this news will be warmly received both across our global network, as well as by the business community based in the Stansted catchment area,” Emirates President Tim Clark said in a statement. Emirates said flights would be operated by a three-cabin 354-seat Boeing 777-300 fitted with its new first class that features private, enclosed suites. Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-airline-london/emirates-to-add-third-london-airport-to-its-network-idUKKBN1EE17H'|'2017-12-20T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'ea6ea4eeb518ce2ca62fc23f8a1ddf58397cac44'|'Benin withdraws telecoms licence for Globacom unit in renewal dispute'|'December 19, 2017 / 9:48 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago Benin withdraws telecoms licence for Globacom unit in renewal dispute Reuters Staff 1 Min Read COTONOU (Reuters) - Benin’s telecommunications regulator has withdrawn the operating licence of Nigerian mobile telecoms company Globacom’s local unit in a dispute over new terms, according to a document seen on Tuesday. The regulator, ARCEP-Benin, said that it took the decision after negotiations with Glo Mobile Benin to renew its licence broke down earlier this month after the company refused new conditions imposed by the government. Officials with the parent company, which is owned by Nigerian billionaire Mike Adenuga, were not immediately available for comment. The ARCEP document did not say what the government’s new conditions were, but a source close to the regulator, who asked not to be named, said they included an increase in the cost of the licence. Glo Mobile Benin said it had over 1.6 million subscribers in 2015, according to the most recent statistics available on ARCEP’s website. Globacom also operates mobile networks in Nigeria and Ghana. Reporting by Allegresse Sasse; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/benin-telecoms/benin-withdraws-telecoms-licence-for-globacom-unit-in-renewal-dispute-idINKBN1ED2SF'|'2017-12-19T23:47:00.000+02:00'
'd69c7ef32b66642f301aa85fdfbb1eba4d98e4a3'|'Hedge fund Knight Vinke takes stake in M&A target Uniper'|'December 20, 2017 / 9:30 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Hedge fund Knight Vinke lifts stake in M&A target Uniper Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Hedge Fund firm Knight Vinke has increased its holding in Germany’s Uniper ( UN01.DE ) to 5.02 percent, adding it would not tender that stake to Finland’s Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ) as part of a 8.05 billion euro ($9.5 billion) takeover offer. Knight Vinke’s increased investment comes a day after Elliott Management said it had raised its holding in Uniper to 7.38 percent. Elliott has not said how it will respond to the takeover offer. Knight Vinke, which has been a shareholder since September 2016, said it was not acting in concert with any other shareholder. A source close to the firm said Knight Vinke was not under any legal obligation to state that it was acting on its own, but did so for clarification to the market. “They’ve got their agenda, Elliott have their own agenda,” the person said. A spokeswoman for Elliott declined to comment. The news comes ahead of plans by E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), Uniper’s former parent, to tender its remaining 46.65 percent stake in Uniper to Fortum for a fixed price of 22 euros per share by Jan. 11, 2018, which is below its current share price. The offer extends to all Uniper shareholders under German takeover rules and runs until Jan. 16. Uniper shares were down 1 percent at 26.065 euros by 1157 GMT. Reporting by Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt and Maiya Keidan in London; Editing by Ludwig Burger/Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a-knightvinke/hedge-fund-knight-vinke-takes-stake-in-ma-target-uniper-idUSKBN1EE107'|'2017-12-20T11:29:00.000+02:00'
'cf3f2bb0007862d57760a085a2f1d177f973bd8c'|'UK to avoid sudden break for EU asset managers after Brexit'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:49 PM / Updated an hour ago UK to avoid sudden break for EU asset managers after Brexit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s financial regulator said on Wednesday that asset managers and mutual funds from the European Union would be allowed to continue operating in the UK after Brexit for a period of time even if there is no trade deal with the bloc. FILE PHOTO - Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, speaks at his office in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde The aim is to avoid a destabilising rupture in customer links if there is a “hard” Brexit, whereby no trade deal or transition period has been agreed between Britain and the EU by the time the UK leaves the EU in March 2019. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the finance would, if necessary, legislate for a “temporary permissions” regime to roll over existing permissions at firms from elsewhere in the EU so they can continue operating in the UK from March 2019. “This regime will enable relevant firms and funds to undertake new business within the scope of their permission, enable them to continue performing their contractual rights and obligations, manage existing business and mitigate risks associated with a sudden loss of permission,” the FCA said in a statement. FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey has said a system of interim permissions is needed as the watchdog won’t have enough time before March 2019 to issue new authorisations for some 8,000 firms from elsewhere in the EU that sell funds, insurance and other investments in Britain. The watchdog said more details would be made public in the new year. FCA said the government has also decided that the watchdog will also become the regulator for UK-based trade repositories and credit rating agencies, two sectors that are currently regulated at EU level. Separately on Wednesday, the Bank of England said branches of EU banks in London won’t have to become subsidiaries after Brexit, a costly exercise, as long as there remains close supervisory cooperation between UK and EU regulators. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-funds/uk-to-avoid-sudden-break-for-eu-asset-managers-after-brexit-idUKKBN1EE21T'|'2017-12-20T17:49:00.000+02:00'
'fbbaf0ad4af34900e9d102216397268415ba98ca'|'BoE to allow EU banks to operate in UK as normal post-Brexit - BBC'|'December 20, 2017 / 1:13 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Bank of England to spare EU banks from costly rules, if Brexit goes well Huw Jones , William Schomberg 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England, seeking to protect the City of London’s status as a global financial hub, said it would spare European banks costly capital rules after Brexit but warned of “consequences” if negotiations with Brussels turned sour. FILE PHOTO: A statue is silhouetted against the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo Ahead of a tussle with Brussels, the BoE said on Wednesday keeping Britain open to foreign banks was key for economic growth at home and in the region. BoE Governor Mark Carney said European banks operating in Britain would face little change after Brexit, as long as their supervisors in the European Union cooperated with London. “But we retain all our options and if that is not forthcoming there will be consequences for those institutions,” he told lawmakers shortly after the BoE plan was published. Deputy Governor Sam Woods said cooperation had worked well to date. “However Brexit is throwing up a point of tension which I think will probably build rather than subside.” The BoE’s announcement was a first salvo in an expected struggle with the EU over banking rules that will decide the long-term fate of London’s lucrative financial center. Prime Minister Theresa May has said Brexit will mean leaving the EU’s single market, raising questions about how British firms will do business in the bloc and European ones in Britain. A bitter British divorce from the EU would make cross-border supervisory cooperation harder and potentially hurt banks with a big London presence. It could also hurt public finances, as Britain collects over 70 billion pounds a year in tax from the financial services sector. UPBEAT CARNEY In a welcome development for firms such as Germany’s Deutsche Bank, the BoE said it would allow larger banks - for example, with assets of more than 15 billion pounds ($20 billion) in Britain - to operate as branches in the UK. But if their home supervisors did not cooperate more closely with the BoE, the firms would be classed as subsidiaries, which would require them to park costly extra capital in Britain. There are 77 branches of banks from the European Economic Area in Britain - 23 of which have assets of around or above 15 billion pounds - plus 80 branches of insurers. Management consultancy Boston Consulting Group has estimated that EU banks would have to find up to 40 billion euros if all their branches in Britain were turned into subsidiaries. Deutsche Bank has 9,000 staff in London. France’s BNP Paribas and Societe Generale have 6,500 and 4,000. The BoE’s proposal indicated a softer British position than that of the EU which on Wednesday stiffened its rules for non-EU investment banks which operate inside the bloc. Many of those banks, such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, have their main European operations in London, though they are making plans to move some operations to EU centers. The EU has insisted that London-based banks will lose their free access to the EU if Britain sticks to its plan for new controls on migration, which is popular with British voters but would breach a condition for membership of the single market. The BoE’s Carney sounded upbeat about prospects of a deal, saying the financial services sectors on both sides of the English Channel had a lot in common already. “I don’t accept the argument that just because it hasn’t been done in the past it can’t be done in the future,” he said. LONDON‘S STATUS IN QUESTION London vies with New York as the world’s financial capital. It dominates the $5.1-trillion-a-day global foreign exchange market and hosts more banks than any other center. But other EU capitals see Brexit as an opportunity to grab new business. The EU has already proposed that clearing of euro-denominated derivatives, done mainly in London, could move to the euro zone without a comprehensive Brexit deal. The BoE’s conditions on whether branches should become subsidiaries will be seen as a riposte the euro clearing plans in Brussels, which also emphasizes the need for strong supervisory cooperation to avoid forced relocation. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), grouping European banks, said the BoE’s announcement would allow banks to get on with their planning for Brexit. The BoE plans to start reauthorizing the branches of up to 200 EEA financial firms in Britain in early 2018. It hopes Britain will secure a Brexit transition deal to start after Brexit in March 2019 to give regulators more time. The new policy will not affect banks from outside the EU. The central bank said retail-focused branches of EU insurers currently operating in Britain will need to become subsidiaries, in line with an existing rule for foreign retail banks. The BoE will also get powers to “recognize” and supervise clearing houses from the EU after Brexit. ($1 = 0.7458 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-banks/boe-to-allow-eu-banks-to-operate-in-uk-as-normal-post-brexit-bbc-idUKKBN1EE03P'|'2017-12-20T03:11:00.000+02:00'
'1704442f1f6cdf6bb6ad338f92f44294e5bd27cb'|'UPDATE 1-Corporate America expects tax overhaul to lift spending, earnings'|'December 22, 2017 / 5:12 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Corporate America expects tax overhaul to lift spending, earnings Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Adds statement from Kansas City Southern) Dec 22 (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, a sweeping $1.5 trillion bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday. The tax plan is designed to kick-start economic growth in part by offering new incentives for capital investment, which would allow businesses to lower their tax bills by writing off the cost of new machinery, among others, more quickly. The overhaul includes cuts to corporate tax rates and a cap on business deductions for debt interest payments. The following are among the U.S. companies that have talked about the impact of tax code revamp: RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd: The reinsurer said on Friday it expects to write down a portion of its deferred tax asset and currently estimates that this anticipated write-down will reduce its net income by about $40 million in the period in which the tax bill is in force. Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc: The U.S. broadcaster said on Friday it would pay a special bonus of $1,000 to almost 9,000 full-time and part-time employees at all of its stations and subsidiaries, excluding senior level executives, as a result of the tax overhaul. Mallinckrodt Plc: The drugmaker on Friday said in a filing that the Tax Cut and Jobs Act in its current form would result in a neutral to slightly positive impact on its adjusted tax expense. The company also said the reform would result in a deferred tax benefit of $450 million to $500 million. NuVasive Inc: The medical device maker said on Thursday savings from the overhaul would boost adjusted earnings by more than 10 percent in the beginning of 2018. Accenture Plc: The consulting and outsourcing firm said on Thursday that it expects to record a noncash expense of up to $500 million in fiscal 2018 to reflect lower tax rates on the company’s U.S. deferred tax assets. Kansas City Southern: The fourth-largest U.S. railroad said on Thursday it would pay some employees in the United States and Mexico a one-time bonus of $1,000 by the end of 2017 following the tax code revamp. Wells Fargo: The third-largest U.S. bank by assets said on Wednesday it would raise the minimum hourly pay rate to $15 for employees, from the current minimum hourly rate of $13.50. Fifth Third Bancorp: The Ohio-based regional bank said on Wednesday it would raise the hourly wage for nearly 3,000 of its employees to $15 and give a one-time bonus of $1,000 to more than 13,500 employees. Comcast Corp The cable provider said on Wednesday it would give $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 employees and invest $50 billion over the next five years in its infrastructure. AT&T Inc: The No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier said on Wednesday it plans to invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 of its U.S. employees. Boeing Co: The aircraft maker’s chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, said on Wednesday the company would invest $300 million in employee facilities and programs as a result of the new law. FedEx Corp: The package delivery company’s chief financial officer, Alan Graf, said on Tuesday its earnings could increase by $4.40 to $5.50 per share for fiscal 2018, before mark-to-market year-end pension accounting adjustments, mainly due to revaluation of net deferred tax liabilities. This range also includes an estimated 85 cents to $1 per share as a result of a lower tax rate on earnings in 2018. Compiled by Bengaluru Newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-companies/update-1-corporate-america-expects-tax-overhaul-to-lift-spending-earnings-idUSL4N1OM47Y'|'2017-12-22T19:10:00.000+02:00'
'f9fb0b3c9b9f66f89002120fe82fe0fe4f59b044'|'Upbeat U.S. data lifts stocks, euro slips on Catalan vote'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:21 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Nike weighs on Wall St; Catalan vote hits euro, Spanish stocks Laila Kearney 4   Major global stock indexes slipped slightly on Friday as a drop in shares of Nike and UnitedHealth helped offset any gains, while Spanish bond yields rose and European stocks briefly stumbled after separatists prevailed in a Catalan election. Nike ( NKE.N ) shares dropped more than 4 percent after it forecast muted current-quarter revenue growth, highlighting its struggles to regain market share in North America from Adidas. UnitedHealth ( UNH.N ) slid 0.7 percent after the health insurer agreed to buy Chilean healthcare company Banmedica SA BAN.SN for $2.8 billion. Despite the dip, Wall Street was poised to end the week higher after rallying sharply ahead of a $1.5 trillion tax cut bill that passed in Washington on Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump signed the tax overhaul into law on Friday. Stock markets around the world shot higher as the law, seen as boosting corporations and leading to economic growth, advanced through both chambers of the Republican-dominated Congress. “We’re in a bullish phase and investors have things to feel good about,” said Andres Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey. Investors were also winding down ahead of the Christmas holiday on Monday. “Volumes in the stock market are down 28 percent,”   director, institutional sales trading at Robert   The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 48.91 points, or 0.2 percent, to 24,733.38, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.78 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,681.79 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 8.01 points, or 0.11 percent, to 6,957.35. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD PUS gained 0.02 percent. Slideshow (2 Images) In Europe, the premium investors demand for holding Spanish bonds over top-rated German peers fell to its lowest in almost three months as Catalonia held an independence election. The euro dipped to $1.1817 EUR= early in the day, before trimming its losses to trade at $1.1835. Spanish stocks were among the biggest losers, confirming analyst expectations that any shake-out from the Catalonia vote would be mostly confined to Spain. Europe’s common currency, though, was still up nearly 13 percent so far this year, on track for its best yearly performance in 14 years. U.S. Treasury yields, which reached a nine-month peak after the American tax vote, pushed slightly higher as investors hung up their hats before Christmas. The yield curve, while mildly flatter on the day, was on track for its largest weekly steepening since July following the bill’s passage, which was seen as hastening the pace of interest rate increases. Investors appeared to brush off U.S. data on durable goods orders, personal spending, new home sales and consumer sentiment. Next week, investors will watch for the release of December U.S. consumer confidence survey data. Economists polled by Reuters expect it to decline from its strongest levels since late 2000. In commodities, oil prices dipped in light trading but remained near their highest levels since 2015 on pledges from OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC producer Russia that any exit from crude output cuts would be gradual. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin once again became the most eye-catching mover, this time because of losses. Bitcoin plunged as much as 25 percent on the day at one point to below $12,000, having lost a third of its value since Sunday BTC=BTSP . Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho in London, Henning Gloystein and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/upbeat-u-s-data-lifts-stocks-euro-slips-on-catalan-vote-idUKKBN1EG045'|'2017-12-22T03:11:00.000+02:00'
'17e4796f031ea74b1c883ee1f6d3a79fdc46284b'|'Republican tax plan to dent U.S. home sales next year'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:50 PM / Updated an hour ago Republican tax plan to dent U.S. home sales next year Arunima Banerjee 4 Min Read (Reuters) - U.S. home sales will likely take a hit next year as middle-class Americans receive fewer perks under an overhaul of U.S. taxes and face rising home prices and interest rates, industry experts said. Sales of new single-family homes are projected to rise 5 percent in 2018 — only about half the growth estimated for 2017 and the slowest pace since 2014, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The Republican tax bill, approved by Congress on Wednesday, slashes the amount of mortgage interest that home buyers can deduct to $750,000 from $1 million, potentially hurting buyers in California and other costly markets. The tax plan will also cap the deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000, effectively leaving homeowners in higher-tax states with a bigger tax bill. “In major metropolitan areas where property values are high and taxes tend to be high as well, the middle-class family is going to get hit by that,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors, a Pennsylvania-based consultancy. The new rules should spur people to buy cheaper homes next year, a trend that has already become popular in recent years among thrifty millennials who are shunning expensive living. Indeed, big homebuilders including Lennar Corp ( LEN.N ) and PulteGroup Inc ( PHM.N ) have suggested they will invest more in entry-level homes. D.R. Horton Inc ( DHI.N ), the largest U.S. homebuilder by number of homes sold, expects its cheaper brand called “Express Homes” to grow at least 10 to 15 percent over the next three years. The business, aimed at first-time buyers, made up 37 percent of the number of homes sold by D.R. Horton in the latest quarter. Neither Lennar nor Pulte responded to emails seeking comment. A prolonged shift toward entry-level homes should drive much of the growth in new home sales next year, JPMorgan analyst Michael Rehaut said. Sales of multifamily homes or apartments and condos, largely rental properties, are expected to stay relatively flat next year, NAHB’s Chief Economist Robert Dietz said. ‘NOTHING GOOD’ The Mortgage Bankers Association expects the median price of new homes to rise 4.5 percent next year, up from an expected 2.8 percent increase this year. Still, some analysts expect demand for new homes will remain robust, supported by further increases in jobs and wages that are expected from the tax reform. Appetite for new homes was strong this year but homebuilders could not properly benefit from the demand due to tight labor supply and as lumber prices LBc1 jumped some 39 percent. Analysts expect these challenges to persist in 2018. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve, which has already hiked interest rates three times this year, is expected to do so another three times in 2018 and 2019, making borrowing dearer. “Tax changes, price increases, interest rate increases — there’s nothing good on the horizon for the residential housing market,” Naroff said. To view a graphic on US home sales growth click on this link reut.rs/2BVpaLp Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-housing/republican-tax-plan-to-dent-u-s-home-sales-next-year-idUSKBN1EG1UY'|'2017-12-22T17:48:00.000+02:00'
'04c71974170e42fa5a72bd3bd3980d1bd8ebf0dd'|'Veiled threats and boardroom battles - the bitter close of a Brazilian bankruptcy'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:49 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Veiled threats and boardroom battles - the bitter close of a Brazilian bankruptcy Gram Slattery 7 Min Read RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - In mid-November, the former chief executive of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA ( OIBR4.SA ) told the debt-laden company’s board that he was receiving ominous phone calls, according to two people present at the meeting. A man talks on a payphone with the logo of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA outside the company''s office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes The anonymous messages came to Marco Schroeder’s cellphone and his home phone. Often, the caller seemed to know his exact location, such as a Sao Paulo airport. At least once, according to a person close to the executive, the calls threatened severe physical harm. Confidants of Schroeder believed the calls were coming from people associated with Societe Mondiale, a fund owned by distressed-debt tycoon Nelson Tanure that controlled the company’s board but had fallen out with its management over how to best manoeuvre the company out of bankruptcy protection. A Societe Mondiale representative called any connection between Tanure and such calls “unreasonable and irresponsible.” Schroeder declined to comment. Societe Mondiale has declined multiple requests to make Tanure available for interviews regarding Oi. In any case, the fact such suspicions arose in the final months of Oi’s recently completed debt restructuring shows just how bitterly the process divided Brazil’s largest fixed-line carrier, which employs over 100,000 people. This account of the backdrop to the restructuring was pieced together based on interviews with over a dozen bondholders, lawyers and executives. On Wednesday, Oi’s creditors finally approved a plan to restructure Oi’s 65 billion reais (14.95 billion pounds) of debt, putting an end to Latin America’s largest ever in-court reorganization. Oi’s management has said the company is now effectively for sale with a number of potential buyers circling the telecom provider. Yet Oi’s two largest original shareholders, Societe Mondiale and Pharol SGPS SA ( PHRA.LS ), formerly Portugal Telecom, have filed or threatened to file motions to overturn the decision. Oi, in response, has said the plan is legally airtight. ROCKY FROM THE BEGINNING As a “national champion” in the parlance of Brazilian business, or a company expected to promote national interests as well as make a profit, Oi had been required by the government to expand into far-flung regions in recent decades and provide services, such as 650,000 little-used payphones, that offered meagre returns. By the time the company collapsed under its massive debt load and filed for bankruptcy in June 2016, a global who’s who of distressed-debt investors had bought in and frictions between shareholders and bondholders were coming into sharp relief. Among the latter were veterans of sovereign debt fights Aurelius Capital Management and Goldentree Asset Management. Among the former was Tanure’s Societe Mondiale, which had scooped up a chunk of the company’s shares and struck alliances giving him majority control of Oi’s board. That put the board on a collision course with major bondholders, who were pushing to severely dilute the value of equity stakes. Throughout 2017, Tanure’s son, Nelson Jr., attempted to recruit New York and London hedge funds to support a shareholder-friendly plan, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That campaign was initially backed by Oi’s management. But as the fourth quarter approached and Oi entered its second year in bankruptcy protection, the company’s executives began to doubt the plan could win over enough creditors. In mid-October, the Schroeder-led management team shifted its negotiating focus to the company’s major bondholder groups, including Aurelius and Goldentree, without the board’s blessing, according to the people. “The management from the beginning negotiated with all the creditors, shareholders, and the government,” Schroeder told Reuters. BOARD VS MANAGEMENT That move incensed the board, the people said, and in early November, it appointed two new executives in a bid to gain more influence over the management. Later in November, Schroeder reported receiving the anonymous phone messages, according to the people. Soon after, he abruptly resigned, citing disagreements with the board, and the management quickly chose current CEO Eurico Teles, a lawyer, to replace him. Not wanting to add a tussle over management to the bondholder fight, the board accepted his nomination, one person said. But tensions continued to simmer. As a court-imposed December deadline for a final restructuring plan approached, Tanure-backed board member Demian Fiocca dashed off an email to Oi Chief Financial Officer Carlos Brandao, accusing him and other managers of undermining a shareholder friendly proposal. “Are you taking power away from the board and the company? Is that what you’re doing?” asked Fiocca in the email, seen by Reuters. “If that’s true, it’s absurd.” Oi declined to comment on the episode. A representative for Fiocca said he had exchanged hundreds of emails with Brandao, with only one adopting a “harder” tone. THE ENDGAME In the end, Fiocca’s protests were in vain. Late that evening, on Nov. 29, the judge overseeing Oi’s restructuring gave Teles sole powers to negotiate a restructuring plan, sidelining the board, citing the slow pace of negotiations 17 months after the company filed for bankruptcy protection. As the deadline for a deal approached, at a late night teleconference in mid-December, Teles reached an understanding in principal on a plan handing its major bondholders, including Aurelius and Goldentree, up to 75 percent of the company’s stock. The board was livid at the equity dilution, which was three times what they had proposed, as well as terms they viewed as giving Teles too much say over the board’s composition, according to two sources. Toward the end of a board meeting later that week, Luis Palha, the chairman of shareholder Pharol, asked advisors to leave the room and told Teles he felt severely betrayed, the sources said. Oi declined to comment on the episode. A Pharol spokesman did not comment on the incident, referring Reuters to a statement saying that it will analyse the restructuring plan and evaluate all legal options. At the creditors meeting, which began this Tuesday and took place in the same venue that hosted boxing matches in the 2016 Olympics, all major bondholders voted for the plan. In the hours before, Societe Mondiale unleashed a flurry of legal filings. “Oi with this plan is another company,” an exhausted Eurico Teles told journalists after the 13-hour meeting ended just after 2 a.m. “I think this was an emotional day.” Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Christian Plumb and Frances Kerry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oi-sa-restructuring-fight-insight/veiled-threats-and-boardroom-battles-the-bitter-close-of-a-brazilian-bankruptcy-idUKKBN1EG1XL'|'2017-12-22T19:39:00.000+02:00'
'd8b29657fcb6a063408988ca534b30e8b6fb7e4f'|'Ford CEO apologises, voices zero tolerance for harassment'|'Reuters TV United States December 22, 2017 / 3:47 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Ford CEO apologizes, voices zero tolerance for harassment Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) chief executive Jim Hackett has apologized to employees for accusations detailed in a New York Times report that management at two Chicago plants did not respond adequately to complaints of sexual harassment. FILE PHOTO: Newly named Ford Motor Company president and CEO James Hackett answers questions from the media during a press conference at Ford Motor World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook In an open letter on Thursday, Hackett described as “gut wrenching” his experience this week reading women’s accounts of incidents that took place over many years. Several prominent men in U.S. politics, entertainment and the media have been felled by allegations of sexual misconduct in recent months. “I want to take this opportunity to say that I am sorry for any instance where a colleague was subjected to harassment or discriminatory conduct,” Hackett wrote in the letter. Reuters has not independently confirmed the New York Times report. Hackett, who took over the top job at Ford in May, said there was zero tolerance for harassment and promised no retaliation against anyone who speaks up. Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Howard Goller'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-harassment/ford-ceo-apologizes-voices-zero-tolerance-for-harassment-idUKKBN1EG1US'|'2017-12-22T17:47:00.000+02:00'
'404d46880b9b839d1841e5feec730746300cd56c'|'Goldman bearish on U.S. Treasuries market in 2018'|'December 22, 2017 / 2:02 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Goldman bearish on U.S. Treasuries market in 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs analysts said on Friday they are bearish on the $14.2 trillion U.S. government bond market in 2018, prompted by their expectations that the Federal Reserve would raise U.S. interest rates above what the market has priced in. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Goldman Sachs (GS) is seen on the clothing of a trader working at the Goldman Sachs stall on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, United States April 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The analysts wrote in a research note that the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes would reach 3 percent by the end of next year. This compared with 2.483 percent early Friday, which was slightly below a nine-month peak of 2.504 percent set on Thursday, Reuters data showed. Reporting by Richard LeongEditing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-bonds-goldmansachs/goldman-bearish-on-u-s-treasuries-market-in-2018-idINKBN1EG1LO'|'2017-12-22T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'a337f6c18fe1e5cf6226ec4e1121f27a4bd4a775'|'Boeing in talks with Embraer; Brazil backs jetliner alliance'|'December 21, 2017 / 5:01 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Boeing in talks with Embraer; Brazil backs jetliner alliance Brad Haynes , Rodrigo Viga Gaier 4 Min Read SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Planemakers Boeing Co ( BA.N ) and Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ) are discussing a “potential combination,” they said on Thursday, in a move that could consolidate a global passenger jet duopoly provided Brazil’s government gives its blessing. FILE PHOTO - The Boeing Company logo is projected on a wall at the "What''s Next?" conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young Embraer’s shares soared more than 20 percent in Sao Paulo on the joint statement, which did not give details of how a tie-up might be structured. Boeing shares slipped nearly 1 percent. The Brazilian government, which holds veto power over strategic moves at Embraer, would support a partnership in commercial aviation with Boeing but would block any takeover attempt, a senior government official told Reuters. The news comes just two months after Boeing rival Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) agreed to buy a majority stake in Bombardier Inc’s ( BBDb.TO ) CSeries jetliner program, a direct rival of Embraer’s biggest E-Jets. Reuters reported at the time that the CSeries deal could push Boeing and Embraer closer together. For decades, Canada’s Bombardier and Embraer have faced off in the 70- to 100-seat regional jet segment just below the radar of Airbus and Boeing’s larger commercial jet line-ups, but the CSeries alliance may have tipped that delicate balance. Boeing has approached Embraer about a deal twice before, more than a decade ago, but was rebuffed due to the government’s veto, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Embraer’s market capitalization at the end of Thursday’s trading was $4.5 billion. Any tie-up involving Embraer requires approval by the Brazilian government, which holds a ‘golden share’ in the planemaker, a formerly state-run company fully privatized in 2006. Brazil’s President Michel Temer took office last year with a market-friendly agenda focused on privatizing state utilities and reducing political influence in state firms such as oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA ( PETR4.SA ). In September, Brazil’s Finance Ministry asked an audit court to study how the government could exit the golden shares it holds in former state monopolies. Temer’s policies contrast with those of the Workers Party that governed from 2003 until 2016, placing an emphasis on state-led development and ‘national champions’ in strategic industries. Still, foreign control of the planemaker at the apex of Brazilian industry appears to be a stretch even for Temer. “Embraer will never be sold in my government,” he told military aides in a meeting on Thursday, according to a report by Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Folha, which did not say how it obtained the information, said the meeting was called after a report in The Wall Street Journal that Boeing was in talks to take over Embraer. The two already work on projects including runway safety and alternative jet fuels. Their partnership intensified recently to include Boeing’s commitment to joint sales and support of Embraer’s KC-390 military airlifter. “Although Boeing would look like a good fit with Embraer’s Regional Jet business, this is not the case for the company’s Executive Jet and Defense divisions,” said Rob Stallard, aerospace analyst at Vertical Research Partners in a note. Boeing is willing to take steps to protect Embraer’s brand, management and jobs to help entice the government and is also willing to structure a deal to protect the government’s interest in Embraer’s defense business, the WSJ reported. Reporting by Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Ricardo Brito, Anthony Boadle, Arunima Banerjee and Tim Hepher; editing by Daniel Flynn and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-embraer-m-a-boeing/boeing-held-takeover-talks-with-embraer-wsj-idINKBN1EF2BA'|'2017-12-21T23:36:00.000+02:00'
'e65a1ab3ad849e7cfab0b91da601ecae09530a7f'|'EU seeks to improve conditions for casual workers'|' 58 PM / Updated 29 minutes ago EU seeks to improve conditions for casual workers Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed new rules on training, overtime and probation on Thursday to improve conditions for an estimated 4 to 6 million casual workers who face low job security, poor social protection and little access to training. FILE PHOTO - European Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility Commissioner Marianne Thyssen addresses a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Work conditions for casual labourers are a politically sensitive topic in Europe, in part because of new internet companies such as Uber. Some working conditions raised concerns among non-traditional types of labour, such as temporary work and delivery or driving jobs assigned via digital apps, the Commission said. Workers should be able to see a written contract on their first day, rather than within two months as at present, the executive said. This should spell out training possibilities and overtime pay. Probationary periods should be limited to six months, working hours should be more predictable and non-competition clauses limiting other job opportunities should be eliminated. “An employer cannot prevent a worker from taking up another job in parallel,” Commissioner Marianne Thyssen told a news conference. “A cycle courier working irregular hours with a dispatching service can find a job for a couple of days a week with another employer.” The Commission said these rules would, apart from benefiting workers, also bring legal certainty to employers. The proposals still need to be discussed with the 28 members states and the European Parliament before becoming law. Industry lobby group BusinessEurope said it supported proposals to inform workers about their conditions, but said that including minimum rights for workers was unacceptable for businesses. Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-labour/eu-seeks-to-improve-conditions-for-casual-workers-idUKKBN1EF1XC'|'2017-12-21T16:58:00.000+02:00'
'147abdff5bfa039fcc52cc25f1ba293e74cb6c41'|'Honda, Nissan developing solid-state batteries for EVs - report'|'December 21, 2017 / 6:00 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Honda, Nissan developing solid-state batteries for EVs - report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Honda Motor Co ( 7267.T ) and Nissan Motor Co ( 7201.T ) are developing all solid-state batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), Kyodo News reported on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A man walks under the logo of Nissan Motor Co at the company''s showroom in Yokohama, south of Tokyo February 8, 2013. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo It was not clear from the report whether the two companies were expected to work together. Tighter global emissions regulations are forcing automakers worldwide to shift to EVs, and some are tying up to share the high costs of developing batteries for them. In Japan, Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) has teamed up with Panasonic ( 6752.T ) to research developing EV batteries. Honda told Reuters it was looking at the possibility of developing all solid-state batteries but would not elaborate, while Nissan was not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-honda-nissan/honda-nissan-developing-solid-state-batteries-for-evs-report-idUKKBN1EF0G3'|'2017-12-21T07:59:00.000+02:00'
'b74205a26f71da5badbe925c34ef4a38d69983a2'|'German pilots'' union calls for a strike on Friday at Ryanair'|'Reuters TV United States December 21, 2017 / 4:16 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago German pilots'' union calls for a strike on Friday at Ryanair Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German pilots at Ryanair ( RYA.I ) are to go on strike for four hours on Friday, their Vereinigung Cockpit union said, following what the union described as an unsatisfactory meeting with management at the Irish low-cost carrier. FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair plane prepares to land at Manchester Airport in Manchester northern England, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo The first strike by pilots to hit the airline comes less than a week since Ryanair said that it would recognize unions in a bid to avert coordinated strikes across Europe over the Christmas period and entered into talks with unions. The walkout in Germany, described as a “warning strike”, will take place from 0401 GMT to 0759 GMT and will affect flights from all German airports, VC said in a statement. Around 16 Ryanair flights are due to depart from Germany in that time. Despite Ryanair’s offer to talk with unions, VC said Ryanair had refused to accept two members of a delegation that the union nominated to hold talks with management. One of the pilots was a contractor and one a direct employee, but Ryanair has ended both of their contracts, VC said. The union said trade unions in Germany have the right to say who can undertake negotiations and that it would not be dictated to by Ryanair on this point. “This has shown us that nothing has changed with Ryanair’s management style or how it handles workers’ rights,” VC President Ilja Schulz told reporters, sitting behind a table bearing the slogan “No landing clearance for Irish social dumping”. Ryanair has also offered to hold talks on Jan. 5 but Schulz said those talks were subject to the same conditions and so the strike would go ahead. “Ryanair obviously doesn’t believe that VC is in a position to organize a strike or that the Ryanair pilots in Germany have had enough with how they are treated,” he said. Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Tom Sims, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ryanair-pilots-germany/german-pilots-union-calls-for-a-strike-on-friday-at-ryanair-idUKKBN1EF27I'|'2017-12-21T18:10:00.000+02:00'
'b0bc4a48e0c3cd10b90526819c9385feb70ca21b'|'Offshore oil searches are coming back to fashion - just not in Asia'|'GRAPHIC: reut.rs/2BI1bil In one of the most promising regions, Australia, the main problem is cost, in part due to a requirement for rigs to pay for Australian crew once in Australian waters. “Once any foreign-flagged vessel is in Australian waters, the ship operator has to pick up Australian workers... They work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 weeks, then get 4 weeks off,” said Christy Cain of the Maritime Union of Australia. When oil prices were high, this was not a big problem, drillers said. But in times of cheaper oil and low profit margins, the added cost deters explorers, several said. In another promising area, the South China Sea, conflicting territorial claims, especially between China and Vietnam, have hindered E&P activity. Oil service support ships are seen in Singapore December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein Meanwhile, in Asia’s most established offshore oil and gas production basins of Malaysia and Indonesia, recoverable reserves are depleting. Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas, Southeast Asia’s biggest oil producer, is increasingly focusing on downstream projects like the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in the southern state of Johor. From 2019, PIC will refine crude oil into fuel and petrochemical products. Significant amounts of its crude will come from Saudi Arabia. With little E&P activity, Asia’s oil import bill - which has already more than doubled since 2000 to over $420 billion a year - will rise further, likely above $500 billion in 2017, leaving other regions to cash in on Asia’s oil thirst. COUNTING HELICOPTERS Gauging the health of the secretive offshore industry is difficult. But dozens of mothballed rigs and support vessels sit idle in southern Malaysia’s Johor river delta, waiting to be used or scrapped. Slideshow (14 Images) Yet cautious optimism is emerging. “Activity to support new development projects may increase slightly (between 2018 and 2020), but is unlikely to approach historical high levels (2013/14),” Petronas said in an outlook this month. Douglas Westwood, which monitors helicopter activity to and from offshore vessels, has a similar view. “The offshore helicopter market has finally started to recover following three years of decline,” Westwood said, although it added that average annual growth between 2018 and 2022 will still only be 1 percent. “Global utilization will average 59 percent over the forecast,” it said, up from a paltry 54 percent in 2017. At the root of the industry malaise lies rampant overproduction in the years running up to 2014, which crashed crude prices from over $100 per barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016. E&P companies were among the first to feel the bite of aggressive industry cost slashing. Firms in the seismic oil surveillance sector, including Polarcus, PGS, and Electromagnetic Geoservices have seen their share prices crash since 2015, in some cases by over 90 percent. Only a production cut led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has stabilized Brent above $50 a barrel since mid-2017. With oil demand healthy, the offshore industry hopes companies will start spending on future output again. “We’re hoping that it’s going to pick up next year,” said Cain of the Maritime Union of Australia. In a sign that even in Asia-Pacific there may be some more activity, the geothermal surveillance ship Polarcus Naila left Singapore in early December for a seismic mission in the Bonaparte Basin, off Australia’s northwest coast. Speaking to Reuters during a visit to Singapore by the ship, one of the Naila’s senior crew members said he hoped things would go from “worst to bad.” Reporting by Henning Gloystein and Gavin Maguire; Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in SINGAPORE, and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Writing by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-offshore-drilling-asia-analysis/offshore-oil-searches-are-coming-back-to-fashion-just-not-in-asia-idUKKBN1EE0IQ'|'2017-12-20T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'1d3d7d02f53e52d51a86ef6d3855b4061709169a'|'Bond spreads match three-year low, Indian stocks soar'|'December 20, 2017 / 10:24 AM / Updated 14 minutes ago Bond spreads match three-year low, Indian stocks soar Marc Jones 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The premium investors get for buying emerging market government debt rather than U.S. Treasuries equalled a more a 3-year low on Wednesday, as a spurt up by U.S. yields added to the recent cheer around faster-growing developing economies. A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, India, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files The gap between the average JP Morgan emerging market bond index (EMBI) yield versus 10-year U.S. government debt narrowed to 278 basis points, to leave it equal with a low struck in late October after which it goes back to September 2014. It came as a combination of U.S. tax cut optimism and talk of a formal end date for the European Central Bank’s 2.5 trillion euro stimulus programme put the U.S. yield curve on course for its biggest weekly steepening since early July. The dollar though has remained unusually unresponsive, which is seen as positive for emerging markets who as a group are now borrowing record amounts of debt in dollars. Indian shares hit record highs as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s electoral victories in key states continued to lend support, though with trading already winding down for the year, MSCI’s 24-country EM index was flat overall. “The U.S. bond market has been the million dollar question for the whole year and it has ended pretty much where it started,” said fund manager GAM’s EM equities investment director Tim Love. Following the more than 30 percent surge in EM stocks this year and some even bigger gains in China and technology shares, Love added: “I think it is time for people to stick to their knitting rather than chase the fat.” Among currencies, China’s yuan strengthened through the day too, reaching its highest level in three months against the dollar, helped by a firmer fixing from the country’s central bank and year-end dollar sales. The proportion - or weighting - of China-linked stocks on MSCI’s share index in now 26.5 percent compared to 15 percent 4 years ago. Next year it will rise further to roughly 32 percent. South Africa’s rand meanwhile gave back around 0.25 percent of the 9 percent it has made over the last week as the market’s preferred candidate, Cyril Ramaphosa, has been elected the new leader of the ruling ANC party. That left it worth 12.75 to the dollar, though Chile and Argentina’s currencies were also drawing interest. A sixth day of gains for Chile’s peso took its rise since Conservative Sebastian Pinera won the country’s presidential election by a wide margin on Sunday past 6 percent. Argentina’s peso has been almost the opposite, falling for four days running and over 2.5 percent in total. The Thai baht had been Asia’s worst performer, slipping as much as 0.6 percent until the central bank there raised its growth forecasts at an end of year meeting where it kept its main interest rate at 1.5 percent. Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets/bond-spreads-match-three-year-low-indian-stocks-soar-idINKBN1EE14P'|'2017-12-20T12:19:00.000+02:00'
'ea92f8e05f5d4a1ced12185cda4f22d63a1e0abc'|'U.S. home sales hit 11-year high, supply still tight'|' 37 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago U.S. home sales hit 11-year high, supply still tight Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home sales increased more than expected in November, hitting their highest level in nearly 11 years, the latest indication that housing was regaining momentum after almost stalling this year. FILE PHOTO - A real estate sign advertising a new home for sale is pictured in Vienna, Virginia, U.S. October 20, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday that existing home sales surged 5.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.81 million units last month amid continued recovery in areas in the South ravaged by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. That was the highest level since December 2006 and followed an upwardly revised 5.50 million-unit pace in October. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home sales rising 0.9 percent to a 5.52 million-unit rate in November from a previously reported 5.48 million-unit pace in October. Existing home sales make up about 90 percent of U.S. home sales. They rose 3.8 percent on a year-on-year basis in November. The NAR said sales in the South, which accounts for almost half of the existing homes sales market, increased 8.3 percent last month. Sales rose 6.7 percent in the Northeast and jumped 8.4 percent in the Midwest. They, however, fell 2.3 percent in the West, which has seen a strong increase in house prices. Despite the recent gains, existing home sales remain constrained by a chronic shortage of houses at the lower end of the market, which is keeping prices elevated and sidelining some first-time buyers, who accounted for 29 percent of transactions last month. Economists and realtors say a 40 percent share of first-time buyers is needed for a robust housing market. The number of previously owned homes on the market dropped 7.2 percent to 1.67 million units in November. That was the second lowest reading since 1999. Housing inventory has dropped for 30 straight months on a year-on-year basis. At November’s sales pace, it would take a record low 3.4 months to exhaust the current inventory, down from 3.9 months in October. A six-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand. With supply still tight, the median house price increased 5.8 percent from a year ago to $248,000 (£185,001) in November. That was the 69th consecutive month of year-on-year price gains. In contrast, annual wage growth has struggled to break above 2.9 percent since the 2007/09 recession ended. The report came on the heels of data this week showing homebuilder confidence vaulting to a near 18-1/2-year high in December and single-family homebuilding and permits rising in November to levels last seen in the third quarter of 2007. TAX REVAMP WILL HURT HOUSE PRICES The NAR said it anticipated a slightly negative impact on the housing market from the Republican overhaul of the U.S. tax code. The biggest overhaul of the tax system in more than 30 years, which could be signed into law by President Donald Trump soon, will cap the deduction for mortgage interest at $750,000 in home loan value for residences bought from Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2025. After Dec. 31, 2025, the cap would revert to $1 million in loan value. It suspends the deduction for interest on home equity loans from Jan. 1, 2018 until 2026. The NAR said about 94 percent of homeowners would fall under the $750,000 cap. Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi has warned that the tax revamp would weigh on house prices, with the Northeast corridor, South Florida, big Midwestern cities, and the West Coast suffering the biggest price declines. “The hit to national house prices is estimated to be near 4 percent at the peak of their impact in summer 2019,” said Zandi. “That is, national house prices will be approximately 4 percent lower than they would have been if there was no tax legislation.” The PHLX housing index .HGX was trading higher in line with a broadly firmer stock market. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies. Prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. The government reported on Tuesday that single-family homebuilding, which accounts for the largest share of the housing market, jumped 5.3 percent in November to the highest level since September 2007. Permits for the future construction of these housing units rose 1.4 percent to a level not seen since August 2007. Housing completions continued to lag at a rate of 1.116 million units. Realtors estimate that the housing starts and completions rates need to be in a range of 1.5 million to 1.6 million units per month to plug the inventory gap. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy/u-s-home-sales-hit-11-year-high-supply-still-tight-idUKKBN1EE20L'|'2017-12-20T17:48:00.000+02:00'
'36bef1b2dfcc446233bdc7aa8708c2eeba0d0dfb'|'Strong package volume, global economy boost FedEx profit'|' 24 AM / Updated 44 minutes ago Strong package volume, global economy boost FedEx profit Eric M. Johnson 3 Min Read (Reuters) - FedEx Corp ( FDX.N ) on Tuesday reported a better-than-expected quarterly net profit due to strong global demand and increased package volumes during the peak holiday shipping season, but its results were hit by lingering effects from a cyber attack on its Dutch unit. A package of the FedEx courier delivery services company is pictured in this June 8, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/Illustration The Memphis-based company, which is often considered a bellwether for the U.S. economy, said the June cyber attack on TNT Express ( TNTEF.PK ) cut $100 million from fiscal second-quarter profit. FedEx raised its projected costs of integrating TNT Express through fiscal 2020 to about $1.4 billion from a previous estimate of $800 million. It acquired the Dutch company last year for $4.8 billion. Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith said FedEx was “on track for another record holiday-shipping season,” referring to late November through the New Year. Edward Jones analyst Logan Purk said FedEx “clearly exceeded expectations on the earnings front,” but “there might be some push-back in regards to the increased integration costs with TNT and the overall flat profitability in its ground (small-package delivery services) segment.” FedEx and rival United Parcel Service Inc ( UPS.N ) have spent billions to upgrade their networks to handle rapidly rising e-commerce package volumes, particularly in the weeks leading up to Christmas. FedEx has been grappling with lower margins on its e-commerce business, as deliveries to individual homes are typically more expensive than deliveries to businesses that often receive several packages at once. FedEx has also faced increased competition from Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ), which has expanded into the delivery business. FedEx’s quarterly net income rose to $775 million, or $2.84 per share, from $700 million, or $2.59 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted for one-time items, FedEx reported earnings per share of $3.18, beating analysts’ expectations of $2.89. Results also reflect a roughly $80 million tax benefit from foreign tax credits associated with a dividend from overseas operations, and a favourable net impact from fuel, the company said. FedEx said it expects full-year fiscal 2018 earnings per share in a range of $12.70 to $13.30, excluding items. Analysts had forecast earnings of $12.45 per share for the full fiscal year. Its full-year estimate would be improved by changes the company has said it hopes to see under a sweeping tax overhaul that appeared headed for congressional approval soon. The bill cuts the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, beginning on Jan. 1. FedEx forecasts an effective 2018 tax rate of about 33 percent, it said. Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by G Crosse and Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fedex-results/strong-package-volume-global-economy-boost-fedex-profit-idUKKBN1EE04M'|'2017-12-20T03:23:00.000+02:00'
'b0fb988888ee4914e57185bab5ca00906e52798c'|'India''s record share sales bring banks little cheer in the way of fees'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:23 PM / Updated 7 hours ago India''s record share sales bring banks little cheer in the way of fees Devidutta Tripathy , Umesh Desai 5 Min Read MUMBAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Funds raised in India through share sales reached the most in a decade this year thanks to booming stock markets, but the rush to raise capital while investor sentiment remained bullish pushed dealmakers’ fee ratio to multi-year lows. People walk past the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India, December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade India’s main stock indexes surged almost 30 percent in 2017 as investors bet on economic reform and corporate earnings recovery. That spurred almost $30 billion worth of share sales including a record $11.5 billion in initial public offerings (IPO). But for banks which arrange the sales, fees earned as a percentage of funds raised hit the lowest in four years, Thomson Reuters data showed. That made arranging work in Asia’s third-largest economy the worst paid out of 11 Asian markets. To be sure, the structure of Indian deal-making means fees are often comparatively small. But this year was particularly low because a high proportion of deals involved state-run firms which typically pay paltry fees. Competition was also higher with dealmakers such as IDFC Bank Ltd and IIFL Holdings Ltd gaining market share, while entrants such as China’s Haitong Securities Co Ltd made headway, industry participants said. “In a buoyant market there is no cause for anxiety for issuers, so low fees are no surprise. In a weak market, issuers may be willing to pay higher fees but the number of issues are fewer,” said Prithvi Haldea, chairman of data provider Prime Database. “That said, India has been a low-paying market for years and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon,” he said. UNATTRACTIVE Bankers are optimistic about 2018’s deal pipeline which they expect to include IPOs, real estate investment trusts and state-backed share sales. But some fear a continued market boom will keep fees low. Fees this year averaged 0.8 percent of deal proceeds, from 1.3 percent last year, Thomson Reuters data showed. The average was 2 percent in Hong Kong, 2.6 percent in Shanghai and Shenzhen and 2.8 percent in Tokyo. New York averaged 3.2 percent. “While fees in India (usually) are attractive in the Indian context, they are not probably as attractive in an Asian or a global context,” said V. Jayasankar, head of equity capital markets (ECM) at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd’s investment banking arm, which Thomson Reuters data showed arranged the most deals this year by total value. Kotak and four other banks split a 0.1 percent fee for arranging the $1.7 billion IPO of state-run General Insurance Corp of India, the year’s biggest IPO. Brokers trade at their computer terminals at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, India, February 17, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files Six banks arranging a $2.3 billion follow-on share offering by State Bank of India - 2017’s largest ECM deal - received a token fee of 1 rupee ($0.016), according to bankers. It is not uncommon for dealmakers to agree to such terms for the opportunity to take part in blockbuster deals. UNDERWRITING The low fees can be partially attributed to the structure of deal-making in India where, unlike elsewhere, banks do not risk underwriting share sales. “We don’t see a material change in the fees paid, and we are at least five to 10 years away from an underwriting fee model,” said Jibi Jacob, head of ECM at Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd, 2017’s sixth-ranked IPO arranger in India this year, Thomson Reuters data showed. An increasing number of banks involved in each deal also means fees are being split between more dealmakers, said the ECM head at a multinational bank, who was not authorised to publicly comment on fees and so declined to be identified. There is also a “new cycle of people willing to go down the fee curve,” the banker said. UNDERSTAFFED Looking at 2018, bankers including Citigroup Inc’s India ECM head Arvind Vashistha said they expected average IPO sizes to be larger, with fundraising picking up in sectors such as infrastructure, real estate, metals and mining. “The big risk continues to be that of the global geopolitical environment and of valuations which in some cases have run up significantly. But the fundamental appetite for India paper in 2018 should continue to be very robust,” said Vashistha at Citi, ranked second among share sale arrangers. But low fees mean regardless of higher deal volumes, many banks - especially foreign banks with high cost structures - are not aggressively expanding ECM teams, bankers said. “When you have limited resources and deal volumes pick up, I think the only thing we can do is be disciplined about which clients, what transactions, rather than trying to do everything,” said a senior banker at a foreign bank’s India arm. ($1 = 64.1300 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-ecm/indias-record-share-sales-bring-banks-little-cheer-in-the-way-of-fees-idINKBN1EG1IC'|'2017-12-22T05:33:00.000+02:00'
'edf7d42250afcb1ee3641fe5c50ec8d320bd684f'|'Russia''s Novak: No detailed oil deal exit talks until market in balance'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:27 PM / Updated an hour ago Russia''s Novak: No detailed oil deal exit talks until market in balance Olesya Astakhova 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said there is a consensus on how to handle an exit from the global oil output cuts deal, but detailed exit talks should only begin when markets approach a balance, he told Reuters. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak addresses a news conference after an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other large oil producers led by Russia agreed last month to extend their deal to cut a combined 1.8 million barrels per day of oil production to the end of 2018 in order to remove excessive inventories and support oil prices. Novak also said there was an option of extending the deal beyond its expiration date of the end of 2018, while he sees markets balancing in third quarter 2018 or the end of next year. “Our task, above all, is the balance of the market and sustainable demand and supply balance. We are aiming at reaching this result, this could be achieved, if the things are going well ... during 2018,” Novak said in an interview. Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Katya Golubkova and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-oil-opec/russias-novak-no-detailed-oil-deal-exit-talks-until-market-in-balance-idUKKBN1EF2UC'|'2017-12-21T23:26:00.000+02:00'
'3c18b1f2a7ca14cef4c7c26e5db06b37979389af'|'Japan approves record defence spending that favours U.S.-made equipment'|'December 22, 2017 / 2:31 AM / Updated an hour ago Japan approves record defence spending that favours U.S.-made equipment Tim Kelly , Nobuhiro Kubo 4 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Japan’s government approved a record military budget on Friday but did not earmark enough extra money to stop a splurge on U.S.-made ballistic missile defence kit from putting a squeeze on funding for an ambitious domestic jet fighter project. Japan’s defence outlays for the year starting April 1 will rise for a sixth straight year, increasing by 1.3 percent to 5.19 trillion yen ($45.76 billion), according to a budget breakdown published by the government. The biggest ticket item is 137 billion yen to reinforce defences against a possible North Korean ballistic missile attack. That includes purchases of a new longer range interceptor, the SM-3 Block IIA, designed to strike ballistic missiles in space, upgrades for the Patriot missile batteries that are the last line of defence against incoming warheads and preparations for the construction of two ground-based Aegis radar stations. Japan will also spend 2.2 billion yen to begin acquiring medium-range air-launched cruise missiles able to strike sites in North Korea in a bid to deter any potential attack by Pyongyang, which continues to test ballistic missiles. The latest rocket launched by the North on Nov. 29 reached an altitude of more than 4,000 km (2,485 miles) before plunging into the Sea of Japan. A spending spree on mostly U.S.-made equipment means Japan’s defence planners are being forced to curtail domestic programmes that would help local defence contractors such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries maintain their military industrial base. That may force Japan to curtail its long-held ambition to build an advanced stealth fighter, dubbed the F-3. In November, U.S. President Donald Trump called on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to buy more U.S.-made weapons as his administration pushes Washington’s allies to contribute more to their joint defence. Japan plans to allocate 279 billion yen of its next budget to buy defence equipment through the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales system, 15 percent more than the current budget and more than double the amount spent in year that ended March 31, 2015. People who spoke to Reuters in November said Japan will delay a decision to develop the F-3, which is meant to counter military technology advances by China, putting on hold a project estimated to be worth more than $40 billion. The latest defence spending plans provide the first concrete public indication that pause is underway. A budget request submitted in August earmarked 7.4 billion yen for a new large jet engine test facility that Japan’s defence ministry will need to test a prototype F-3 engine. That item was not included in the budget approved on Friday. A proposed 2.4 billion for other F-3 research was also trimmed to 1.6 billion yen. “Money is being spent in other areas and this is a sign that the government sees the F-3 as a low priority,” a Japanese defence ministry official said. He asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media. ($1 = 113.4200 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-defence/japan-approves-record-defence-spending-that-favours-u-s-made-equipment-idUSL4N1OM033'|'2017-12-22T04:30:00.000+02:00'
'd1e066b71673ce360ad9e0de34dd755c1636e89d'|'Ford CEO apologizes, voices zero tolerance for harassment'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:47 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Ford CEO apologizes, voices zero tolerance for harassment Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co chief executive Jim Hackett has apologized to employees for accusations detailed in a New York Times report that management at two Chicago plants did not respond adequately to complaints of sexual harassment. FILE PHOTO: The Ford Motor Company logo is pictured at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo In an open letter on Thursday, Hackett described as "gut wrenching" his experience this week reading women''s accounts of incidents that took place over many years. ( bit.ly/2CYWded ) Several prominent men in U.S. politics, entertainment and the media have been felled by allegations of sexual misconduct in recent months. “I want to take this opportunity to say that I am sorry for any instance where a colleague was subjected to harassment or discriminatory conduct,” Hackett wrote in the letter. Reuters has not independently confirmed the New York Times report. Hackett, who took over the top job at Ford in May, said there was zero tolerance for harassment and promised no retaliation against anyone who speaks up. Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Howard Goller'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ford-motor-harassment/ford-ceo-apologizes-voices-zero-tolerance-for-harassment-idINKBN1EG1UQ'|'2017-12-22T17:44:00.000+02:00'
'6ca86513eb927079510544bfa6b4978440f1d0d8'|'Boeing seen eyeing broad Embraer deal, but no firm proposal made'|'December 23, 2017 / 12:19 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Boeing seen eyeing broad Embraer deal, but no firm proposal made Tim Hepher 5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing Co is eyeing a broad partnership with Embraer reaching beyond commercial aircraft to defence and global services, but its shape hinges on talks with the Brazilian government. The Embraer Phenom 300 is displayed during the Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition fair (LABACE) at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo The U.S. aerospace group has yet to make a formal offer and its final structure would be driven by talks that are expected to resume in coming weeks - but sources say the aim is to go well beyond traditional joint ventures or an equity infusion. “A broader combination would be preferred but Boeing is sensitive to concerns the government may have about issues like defence. If those can be addressed ... this deal can get done,” a person with direct knowledge of the discussions said. Political obstacles to a deal have eased since a U.S. spying scandal helped derail a Boeing fighter sale to Brazil in 2013. Brazilian President Michel Temer, who took office last year, has pushed a market-friendly agenda aimed at privatising utilities and reducing the government’s role in state-run firms. But Temer has been wrestling with single-digit poll ratings and officials have warned they would veto any full bid. “The companies are now working through the regulatory issues with the government of Brazil. The defence portfolio would be handled in accordance with the government of Brazil and the golden share and discussions are ongoing,” the person said. A tie-up would round out Boeing’s commercial portfolio at the lower end where sales have been slow, and echo a venture between Airbus and Canada’s Bombardier on the CSeries jet. Analysts say October’s deal for Airbus to control the new Canadian project left Embraer looking exposed with its smaller E-Jet, and keenly aware that China may be on the prowl again after seeing its own efforts to buy the CSeries thwarted. Though most sources say that deal rang alarms at Embraer, people involved in the Boeing talks insist they are independent. “It is a longstanding relationship that has evolved over time. These discussions have been going on for the better part of a year and came into greater focus in the last few months, but well before the Airbus and Bombardier announcement. It is not a reactive play,” the person with direct knowledge said. ‘GROWTH PLAY’ Boeing and Embraer have long pondered commercial links and sources say they were close to a deal last decade for the Brazilian company to work on the next Boeing single-aisle jet. In 2012 they agreed to work on safety and alternative fuel. Their partnership expanded to include Boeing’s joint sales and support for Embraer’s KC-390 military transporter. But Boeing is now wooing the privatised firm with a broad offer including access to a global supply chain and new markets for the KC-390 and Brazil’s Super Tucano light attack plane. Analysts say Embraer would value access to the U.S. defence market while Boeing hopes to steady a defence portfolio weakened by slow fighter sales and the end of C-17 transport production, although there are many hurdles to full military co-operation. “It gives Embraer access to Boeing’s balance sheet, greater access to U.S. defence and international markets and alignment of a global supply chain and services,” the person said. “It’s a growth play that would result in more planes being built in Brazil due to more sales volume from a stronger combined portfolio and with broader benefits to the customer.” Observers say the two managements are culturally close and broadly in step on issues like trade, where they are waging parallel battles against alleged Bombardier subsidies. A tie-up is also not expected to strain Boeing financially. But with pride at stake and Brazil still limping out of severe recession, any deal is expected to depend on cast-iron assurances over autonomy and jobs. “It would not be Boeing plus Embraer with a small ‘e’. Embraer would keep its brand identity, management and jobs footprint,” the person said. Boeing said on Friday it respected the need to safeguard the company’s defence and other state links. Reporting By Tim Hepher; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/embraer-m-a-boeing-structure/boeing-seen-eyeing-broad-embraer-deal-but-no-firm-proposal-made-idINKBN1EH0CX'|'2017-12-23T14:14:00.000+02:00'
'd91206bcf94883a5a5e9d519d5ee0899e5a1481c'|'BoE''s Carney sees problems with central-bank issued cryptocurrencies'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:32 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago BoE''s Carney sees problems with central-bank issued cryptocurrencies Andy Bruce 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney sees “fundamental problems” with the idea of a digital currency issued by a central bank that could be used by the general public. FILE PHOTO: A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration/File Photo The emergence of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has led some economists to predict the technology could be used one day across entire economies, with digital currencies created by central banks. Carney told British lawmakers in Parliament on Wednesday that the blockchain technology used in cryptocurrencies conceivably could improve the way transactions are conducted between financial institutions. But there could be financial stability risks if such an approach were rolled out across the whole economy through a cryptocurrency intended for the general public, he said. Central banks already use electronic money - only a small proportion of their assets are now backed by gold - but this is exchanged in a centralised fashion, across accounts at the central bank. Cryptocurrencies allow parties to transact payments directly without a central intermediary, by means of blockchain technology that uses a shared ledger that verifies, records and settles transactions in a matter of minutes. With no need for a central intermediary to facilitate and track transactions, consumers holding central bank-issued cryptocurrency could open accounts at any bank, including the central bank. “You (could) create a situation where you can have an instantaneous (bank) run. So as soon as there were any concern, people can switch in their account at the Bank of England,” Carney said. That could also cause the BoE to accumulate huge volumes of deposits that it would need to invest into different assets. “There are many talents of the Bank of England, but I think credit allocation across the entire economy would not be a good idea,” he said. “So there are some fundamental problems if you push the retail design all the way down, unless you restrict the amount that people have.” In September, the Bank for International Settlements said it was too soon to determine whether central banks should issue their own cryptocurrencies. It concluded that the peer-to-peer nature of the technology meant that a cryptocurrency for consumers could enable the anonymity that cash currently provides. But if that were not considered important, it said, it was unclear what further benefits it could provide. BoE chief economist Andy Haldane in 2015 floated the idea of abolishing physical cash and introducing a state-run digital currency as a way to give more muscle to central banks that cut interest rates below zero to boost their economies. BITCOIN? NO BIGGIE Carney on Wednesday repeated the BoE’s view that sharp moves in the value of bitcoin did not present a threat to global financial stability. Earlier on Wednesday, bitcoin fell more than 10 percent to a one-week low of $15,800 at cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp, losing almost a fifth of its value from a peak reached just three days ago. “At present, we don’t view it as a financial stability issue,” Carney said, adding that the combined value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies was around half the market capitalisation of Apple Inc. “So it’s significant ... but it’s more like an equity-type risk that’s spread fairly widely around the world.”   David Milliken; Editing by Catherine Evans, Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-boe-carney-bitcoin/bank-of-englands-carney-bitcoin-is-not-a-financial-stability-problem-idUKKBN1EE1ZO'|'2017-12-20T21:12:00.000+02:00'
'd3d7dfca85b5c971c590e996e6810a699158ba92'|'Blackstone buys Taliesin Property Fund in 260 million euro deal'|'December 20, 2017 / 8:27 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Blackstone buys Taliesin Property Fund in 260 million euro deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. investment firm Blackstone ( BX.N ) said on Wednesday it had clinched an all cash deal to buy real estate specialist Taliesin Property Fund ( TPF.L ) in its latest push into European real estate. The transaction values Taliesin, which was formed in 2006 to invest in residential property in Berlin, at about 260 million euros ($307.66 million), representing a 10 percent premium to the closing price of 46.31 euros per Taliesin share on December 19. The deal was carried out by two newly formed investment vehicles, Wren Bidco and Canary Bidco, which are controlled by Blackstone. The offer price has been agreed by the boards of directors of Taliesin and the bidcos on the basis that no final dividend for the financial year to December 31 will be paid by Taliesin to its shareholders. Taliesin was advised by Rothschild while Blackstone used investment bank Lazard. Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taliesin-m-a-blackstone-group/blackstone-buys-taliesin-property-fund-in-260-million-euro-deal-idUSKBN1EE0U3'|'2017-12-20T10:27:00.000+02:00'
'da60e85808508b22a8b75781fcffb12a98ab68fd'|'BRIEF-Spirit Aerosystems Builts Fuselage For Bell V-280 Lifted Off For First Time in Texas'|' 19 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago BRIEF-Spirit Aerosystems Builts Fuselage For Bell V-280 Lifted Off For First Time in Texas Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 19 (Reuters) - Spirit Aerosystems Holdings Inc: * SPIRIT AEROSYSTEMS HOLDINGS - BUILT FUSELAGE FOR BELL V-280 LIFTED OFF FOR FIRST TIME AT BELL‘SAMARILLO, TEXAS, FACILITY DEC. 18 Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-spirit-aerosystems-builts-fuselage/brief-spirit-aerosystems-builts-fuselage-for-bell-v-280-lifted-off-for-first-time-in-texas-idUSFWN1OJ0RW'|'2017-12-20T00:15:00.000+02:00'
'60a8ea86490e29bbda89abd62a128ba2d886e41c'|'TCI fails in bid to oust London Stock Exchange chairman'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:54 AM / Updated 10 minutes ago TCI fails in bid to oust London Stock Exchange chairman Huw Jones , Maiya Keidan 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - A push by activist hedge fund TCI to oust the chairman of the London Stock Exchange was heavily defeated on Tuesday, but that may not bring an end to the row. FILE PHOTO: A man shelters under an umbrella as he walks past the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 24, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo LSE shareholders voted by 79.07 to 20.93 percent at an extraordinary general meeting, defeating a resolution that aimed to ditch Donald Brydon over the way he handled the departure of former chief executive Xavier Rolet in November. TCI, which has a 5 percent stake in the exchange, was founded by Christopher Hohn, who called for the vote after accusing the board of forcing Rolet out. A source close to TCI said the firm would keep up efforts to ditch Brydon, saying 20 percent backing for its resolution showed significant support among shareholders. “Many of the large shareholders who voted against the resolution have informed us that they had asked the board to commence work on the chairman’s succession plan immediately,” Hohn said in a letter to the LSE after the vote. The LSE said no large shareholder has expressed such a view. “Today’s vote should now lead to an orderly process of succession of the CEO and then the chair of the LSE as set out by the board,” said the Financial Conduct Authority, the watchdog overseeing the stock exchange. The spat has shone a spotlight on the 300-year-old exchange. “This is a very sorry affair, which has brought considerable opprobrium on the company,” Aubrey Franklin, a small shareholder for more than 20 years who backed the bid to remove the chairman, said during the meeting. “This should have been an orderly succession process...however it has ended in a less than satisfactory situation for all concerned,” said one top-30 shareholder who opposed the resolution but declined to be named, adding that the resolution had been “an attempt for a symbolic rejection of the whole board”. A string of institutional shareholders, such as BlackRock and Aviva, had said they would vote against TCI’s resolution, making its defeat all but certain. “It seems to me the old boys’ network has got together and the establishment is winning out,” Franklin said. Paul Heiden, a senior LSE non-executive director, told the meeting the board unanimously backed Brydon to remain in his post until the annual meeting in 2019, adding that suddenly losing the chairman would destabilise the exchange. David Warren, interim chief executive, said the exchange was positioned to grow under the strategy put in place by Rolet. “The group continues to perform well across all main businesses,” Warren said. Asked why Rolet quit early rather than stay until the end of 2018 as originally planned, Heiden said the former CEO was asked to step down after relations between him and senior management “became fairly strained.” TCI founder Hohn did not attend the shareholder meeting. Brydon told the meeting that board members reached their decision collectively regarding Rolet’s succession. “United, your board will proceed to complete the identification and recruitment of the next chief executive,” he said. Brydon has already interviewed six candidates, with another six in the pipeline, a source close to the exchange said. Rolet is widely credited with turning a lacklustre company into a larger and more diversified firm, but the Frenchman’s attempt to merge with the German exchange Deutsche Boerse collapsed in the face of regulatory opposition. Britain’s planned departure from the European Union in 2019 raises questions about the LSE’s strategy at the heart of Europe’s biggest financial centre. Deutsche Boerse is trying to take market share in clearing euro denominated derivatives from LSE, with tacit backing from euro zone policymakers. Without a permanent CEO, the LSE may be more vulnerable to a takeover bid, although Brexit uncertainties may protect it for now. Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Huw Jones; additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/lse-chairman-vote/tci-fails-in-bid-to-oust-london-stock-exchange-chairman-idINKBN1EE0HB'|'2017-12-20T07:49:00.000+02:00'
'4d2eee733e05658705f631caa30955cd8ed5ad55'|'BP and Kosmos partner on five new Ivory Coast blocks -govt spokesman'|'December 20, 2017 / 5:25 PM / Updated an hour ago BP and Kosmos partner on five new Ivory Coast blocks -govt spokesman Reuters Staff 1 Min Read YAMOUSSOUKRO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast has awarded partners BP and Kosmos Energy five new oil blocks under an agreement with state oil company Petroci, government spokesman Bruno Kone said on Wednesday. Petroci will maintain a 10 percent stake in blocks CI-526, CI-602, CI-603, CI-707 and CI-708. Kone did not give a breakdown of Kosmos and BP’s stakes. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Susan Fenton)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oil-ivorycoast/bp-and-kosmos-partner-on-five-new-ivory-coast-blocks-govt-spokesman-idUSL8N1OK4Y7'|'2017-12-20T19:24:00.000+02:00'
'd4eede4221518c429f2cb486ad098e322d716507'|'U.S. home sales hit 11-year high, supply still tight'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:40 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago U.S. home sales hit 11-year high, supply still tight Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home sales increased more than expected in November, hitting their highest level in nearly 11 years, the latest indication that housing was regaining momentum after almost stalling this year. Workers install roof trusses onto a new house in Arvada, Colorado July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/Files The report on Wednesday from the National Association of Realtors also added to data ranging from the labour market to retail sales that have suggested the economy was ending 2017 on a strong note. “The greater home sales will stoke the fires for stronger economic growth next year as consumers spend more to furnish their new homes with new appliances and furniture and all the decorations and trimmings,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist MUFG in New York. Existing home sales surged 5.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.81 million units last month amid continued recovery in areas in the South ravaged by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and solid gains in other parts of the country. That was the highest level since December 2006 and marked the third straight monthly rise. Economists had forecast home sales rising only 0.9 percent to a 5.52 million-unit rate in November. Existing home sales make up about 90 percent of U.S. home sales. They rose 3.8 percent on a year-on-year basis in November. Sales in the South, which accounts for almost half of the existing homes sales market, increased 8.3 percent last month. Sales rose 6.7 percent in the Northeast and jumped 8.4 percent in the Midwest. They, however, fell 2.3 percent in the West, which has seen an acceleration in house price increases. While the housing market is expected to continue growing next year, there are concerns that a Republican overhaul of the U.S. tax code could hurt sales at the high end of the market. The biggest overhaul of the tax system in more than 30 years, which could be signed into law by President Donald Trump soon, will cap the deduction for mortgage interest at $750,000 in home loan value for residences bought from Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2025. The cap would revert to $1 million in loan value after Dec. 31, 2025. “We expect further increases in sales in 2018, although tax reform is likely to modestly reduce demand at the high end as well as to lower prices for high-priced homes,” said David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide in Columbus Ohio. The report came on the heels of data this week showing homebuilder confidence vaulting to a near 18-1/2-year high in December and single-family homebuilding and permits rising in November to levels last seen in the third quarter of 2007. Housing is expected to contribute to economic growth in the fourth quarter after being a drag for two straight quarters. The PHLX housing index was trading higher, outperforming a broadly flat stock market. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies. Prices for U.S. Treasuries fell. SUPPLY SQUEEZE Despite the recent gains, home resales remain constrained by a chronic shortage of houses at the lower end of the market, which is keeping prices elevated and sidelining some first-time buyers, who accounted for 29 percent of transactions last month. Economists and realtors say a 40 percent share of first-time buyers is needed for a robust housing market. The number of previously owned homes on the market dropped 9.7 percent to 1.67 million units in November from a year ago, the second lowest reading since 1999. Housing inventory has dropped for 30 straight months on a year-on-year basis. At November’s sales pace, it would take a record low 3.4 months to exhaust the current inventory, down from 3.9 months in October. A six-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand. With supply tightening, the median house price increased 5.8 percent from a year ago to $248,000 in November. That was the 69th consecutive month of year-on-year price gains. In contrast, annual wage growth has struggled to break above 2.9 percent since the 2007/09 recession ended. The government reported on Tuesday that groundbreaking on single-family homes, which account for the largest share of the housing market, jumped 5.3 percent in November to the highest level since September 2007. Housing completions continued to lag at a rate of 1.116 million units. Realtors estimate that the housing starts and completions rates need to be in a range of 1.5 million to 1.6 million units per month to plug the inventory gap. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy/u-s-home-sales-hit-11-year-high-supply-still-tight-idINKBN1EE20A'|'2017-12-20T20:31:00.000+02:00'
'50f5eac46b7228fc80f1181761af3bd1a8ef7110'|'Britain will keep EU market access during transition - Barnier'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:14 AM / Updated 40 minutes ago Britain will keep EU market access during transition - Barnier Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain will maintain access to the European single market as it transitions out of full EU membership, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - European Union''s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier leaves a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir “Britain will keep all the benefits, but also all the obligations of the single market, the customs union and the common policies during the transition period,” Barnier told a news conference, adding there would be no “a la carte” transition for the country. Barnier welcomed the agreements made on issues such as the Irish border, citizens’ rights and the divorce settlement but said more work still remained to be done. “We are not at the end of the road but it is an important stage of this road towards an orderly withdrawal rather than a disorderly one,” Barnier added. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-barnier-access/britain-will-keep-eu-market-access-during-transition-barnier-idUKKBN1EE19X'|'2017-12-20T13:43:00.000+02:00'
'e7f32ca6f9fc1e61be7179bc441b5ccaf10905f1'|'Poland - Factors to Watch Dec 20'|' 21 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Poland - Factors to Watch Dec 20 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland’s financial markets on Wednesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour): EUROPEAN COMMISSION The European Union’s executive may trigger a process on Wednesday to begin to strip Poland of its voting rights in the bloc, officials say, as months of tensions between Brussels and Warsaw come to a head. ENEA Poland’s utility Enea on Tuesday officially started power production at its new 1,075 MW unit in the Kozienice power plant after a few weeks of tests. SYNTHOS Michal Solowow, Polish businessman and biggest shareholder in Polish chemical producer Synthos, has increased its stake in the company to 90 percent as a result of the tender offer he announced in October, Puls Biznesu daily said quoting unnamed sources. WARSAW STOCK EXCHANGE Twenty companies have decided to delist from the Warsaw bourse this year, the highest annual number ever, while only 11 firms have debuted, Puls Biznesu daily said. ALIBABA The number of Poles shopping via the Alibaba’s AliExpress.com has increased to 5 million, Rzeczpospolita daily said quoting industry data. ****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.**** For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX (Reporting by Warsaw Bureau)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/poland-factors/poland-factors-to-watch-dec-20-idUSL8N1OJ4UW'|'2017-12-20T09:20:00.000+02:00'
'd4899a4789a13f61ff309c509e705cc9744dd1ab'|'CSX Corp names James Foote CEO'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:19 PM / Updated 28 minutes ago CSX Corp names James Foote CEO Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 22 (Reuters) - Railroad operator CSX Corp on Friday named James Foote as its chief executive, effective immediately, succeeding Hunter Harrison who died last week shortly after going on medical leave. Foote was named acting CEO, after Harrison went on leave. (Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/csx-ceo/csx-corp-names-james-foote-ceo-idUSL4N1OM4CS'|'2017-12-22T20:18:00.000+02:00'
'f254de990f942b01755bab3d87b81bdc072a1584'|'UPDATE 1-Norway''s Supreme Court to hear Gassled pipeline case'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:24 PM / Updated an hour ago UPDATE 2-Norway''s Supreme Court to hear Gassled pipeline case Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds Njord Gas comment) OSLO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The Norwegian Supreme Court will hear an appeal from the owners of Gassled, Norway’s gas infrastructure network, in a case involving the government’s decision to cut pipeline tariffs, Njord Gas Infrastructure said on Friday. In June 2017, a Norwegian appeals court ruled against the owners in a lawsuit that argued the cut in tariffs was unlawful and would cost them a combined 15 billion Norwegian crowns ($1.80 billion) in lost earnings through 2028. The case against the government is pursued by four investment companies, Njord Gas Infrastructure, Solveig Gas, Silex Gas and Infragas, which hold a combined 43.9 percent in Gassled. “We are absolutely delighted to go on Christmas break with this news,” Njord Gas Chief Executive Birte Norheim told Reuters. “It’s an acknowledgement that the case has merit,” she said. While the Supreme Court has not yet set a date for the case, Njord believes it could be resolved by mid-to-late 2018, Norheim added. The four firms were originally owned by Allianz, UBS, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and France’s Caisse des Depots. In October 2017, UBS and Caisse des Depots announced they were selling their stakes, but will still remain in line for any potential proceeds from a decision in favour of the Gassled partners, and will help pay the cost of litigation. Some of the companies involved have said Norway’s unexpected decision to lower gas transportation tariffs would hurt the image of Norway as a country to invest in. The government cut tariffs shortly after the four investors bought their stakes in Gassled in 2011 and 2012 from ExxonMobil , Total, Statoil and Royal Dutch Shell for a total of 32 billion crowns. A spokesman for Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The Supreme Court was not immediately available for comment. ($1 = 8.3287 Norwegian crowns) (Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Lefteris Karagiannopoulos, editing by Elaine Hardcastle)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/norway-lawsuit-gas/update-1-norways-supreme-court-to-hear-gassled-pipeline-case-idUSL8N1OM3ZR'|'2017-12-22T18:23:00.000+02:00'
'036a51ea0b00ce01c9cd051b74cf870bb2e4e75e'|'BRIEF-Liberty One Lithium Plans To Examine Short-List Of Prospective Lithium Properties In LATAM, Continental U.S. In Q1 2018'|'#Market News  34 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago BRIEF-Liberty One Lithium Plans To Examine Short-List Of Prospective Lithium Properties In LATAM, Continental U.S. In Q1 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 22 (Reuters) - Liberty One Lithium Corp: * LIBERTY ONE LITHIUM SAYS PLANS UNDERWAY TO EXAMINE SHORT-LIST OF PROSPECTIVE LITHIUM PROPERTIES IN LATIN AMERICA, CONTINENTAL USA IN Q1 2018 Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-liberty-one-lithium-plans-to-exami/brief-liberty-one-lithium-plans-to-examine-short-list-of-prospective-lithium-properties-in-latam-continental-u-s-in-q1-2018-idUSFWN1OM0KG'|'2017-12-22T19:32:00.000+02:00'
'3aec9c4871fec07567296340e62ce5125b8aedaa'|'European funds still hungry for euro zone assets, eye inflation risk'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:06 PM / Updated an hour ago European funds still hungry for euro zone assets, eye inflation risk Claire Milhench 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European fund managers raised their euro zone equity exposure to three-month highs in December, cheered by growth even if many fear that an ongoing inflation pick-up could lead to more hawkish central bank policy next year. A Reuters monthly asset allocation poll of 19 European fund managers showed that euro zone equity holdings rose to 30.4 percent, the highest level since September. Overall, investors slightly increased their equity holdings to 45.3 percent of global balanced portfolios, while cutting cash to 5.7 percent, the lowest level since at least January 2013. Cedric Baron, head of multi-asset management at Generali Investments, said he had a “long bias” to euro zone equities, based on improving economic fundamentals. “Capex has clearly been the major missing element to support economic growth, but thanks to a much more positive sentiment from corporates, it’s picking up significantly and should support the labour market and, in turn, growth,” he said. The euro zone economy likely expanded by 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter, according to IHS Markit. That would be the strongest official quarterly growth rate since early 2015. Meanwhile, consumer inflation in the bloc rose to 1.5 percent in November. Poll participants also raised their allocations to European bonds by almost 4 percentage points to 56.2 percent on average, a four-month high. This was possibly a reflection of the fact that the survey was conducted from Dec. 14 to 20, just after the European Central Bank’s (ECB) meeting. The ECB stuck to its pledge to continue asset purchases for as long as necessary, despite better growth and inflation forecasts. However, two-thirds of poll participants who answered a question on the ECB expect it to have finished buying by the end of 2018. Raphael Gallardo, a strategist at Natixis Asset Management, highlighted the shortage of purchasable German bonds, and a growing perception among the ECB’s governing council members that the benefits of quantitative easing were diminishing while the costs are rising. “The significant reduction in output gaps across the euro zone likely paves the way for the emergence of self-sustaining inflation dynamics by the end of 2018,” added Peter van der Welle, a strategist at Robeco. INFLATION RISK But it was the risk of a sharp rise in inflation that troubled investors the most. In December, the Fed raised interest rates for the third time this year but left unchanged its forecast for three more rate increases each in 2018 and 2019. Not surprisingly then, an overwhelming 85 percent of poll participants who answered a question on the Fed expected it to raise rates three times in 2018 - although some noted that the market seemed to be questioning the Fed’s resolve. “A full hike is not priced until June 2018, and a second hike by December is priced with a 70 percent probability only,” said Jan Bopp, an asset allocation strategist at J Safra Sarasin. Generali’s Baron also noted this mismatch, highlighting it as one of the risks for 2018. “While we forecast three hikes for next year, we think the Fed could surprise investors with a further hike should growth remain solid and inflation accelerate more than expected,” he said. Investors cut holdings of U.S. bonds to 17.4 percent of their debt portfolios, the lowest level since February 2015. Within their global equity portfolios, managers slightly trimmed U.S. exposure to 37.4 percent and cut emerging equities to 15.9 percent from 16.5 percent. Both have had strong runs, with U.S. stocks .SPX making record highs, up almost 20 percent year-to-date, whilst emerging equities .MSCIEF have returned just over 31 percent. Reporting by Claire Milhench and Maria Pia Quaglia; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-funds-poll-europe/european-funds-still-hungry-for-euro-zone-assets-eye-inflation-risk-idUKKBN1EG1BG'|'2017-12-22T14:11:00.000+02:00'
'973566ec9ee10c087a6cf176bb5cc2aeb6bea95a'|'Shell to buy British household energy provider First Utility'|' 24 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago Shell to buy British retail energy supplier First Utility Reuters Staff 3 Min   Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSa.L ) will buy British household energy and broadband provider First Utility, expanding its supply business into a new part of the UK retail market, the Anglo-Dutch company said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - A passenger plane flies over a Shell logo at a petrol station in west London, in this January 29, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Files The retail energy market in Britain is still dominated by the “Big Six” suppliers - Centrica’s ( CNA.L ) British Gas, Iberdrola’s ( IBE.MC ) Scottish Power, E.ON ( EONGn.DE ), EDF Energy ( EDF.PA ), SSE ( SSE.L ) and Innogy’s ( IGY.DE ) npower. They have been losing market share to smaller suppliers, including First Utility, and the increased presence of Shell is likely to increase the pressure on them. Shell did not disclose any financial details of the deal, which it expects to complete early next year, subject to regulatory and other approvals. First Utility and Shell’s joint German subsidiary is also included in the deal. “The supply and demand of residential energy is rapidly changing, driven by new technologies that enable householders to better manage their energy use, and the need for a low-carbon energy system,” Mark Gainsborough, Shell’s Executive Vice President of New Energies, said in a statement. “This combination will enable Shell to enter a new part of the energy market in the UK and to improve choice for customers by delivering innovative services at competitive prices.” Shell Energy Europe Limited, Shell European gas and power marketing and trading business, will continue to supply wholesale gas and electricity to energy retailers in the UK and Europe, including First Utility, the firm said. In 2015, Shell Energy Europe and First Utility partnered to launch a new household energy supplier in Germany. The smaller rivals to the “Big Six” now control 20 percent of the UK market compared to less than 1 percent a decade ago. First Utility has a 3 percent share of that market. Last month, Innogy and SSE agreed to merge their retail power businesses, paving the way for more industry consolidation as pressures mount on the big suppliers in an increasingly crowded market. Reporting by Nina Chestney in London and Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-first-utility-m-a-shell/shell-to-buy-british-household-energy-provider-first-utility-idUKKBN1EF20D'|'2017-12-21T17:23:00.000+02:00'
'cce36d643f53ecac603979d797ca9203f0b81c33'|'Conagra''s 2nd-qtr profit doubles'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:49 PM / Updated an hour ago Conagra quarterly sales, profit beat on hurricane-fueled demand Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Conagra Brands Inc ( CAG.N ), the maker of Reddi-Wip whipped cream and Chef Boyardee pasta, reported better-than-expected second-quarter revenue and profit on Thursday, as consumers stocked up on food items because of hurricanes. Conagra’s shares were up 4 percent in premarket trading, even as the company warned that higher-than-anticipated inflation, hurricane-related costs and increased investments to expand distribution were pressuring near-term margins. Conagra has been revamping its business that has struggled with customers moving away from packaged foods. It has also been refreshing brands such as Banquet’s frozen meals to meet customers’ preference for more protein-rich products with fewer artificial ingredients. Net income almost doubled to $223.5 million, or 54 cents per share, in the second quarter ended Nov. 26 from $122.1 million, from 28 cents per share, a year earlier. Selling and general expenses fell 26.5 percent. The company’s year-earlier quarter included a $43.9 million pre-tax charge related to goodwill impairment in its Mexican business. Excluding items, the company earned 55 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 52 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose 4 percent to $2.17 billion, coming in above analysts’ average estimate of $2.07 billion. The company also said it would buy Sandwich Bros of Wisconsin, which makes frozen breakfast and sandwiches from antibiotic-free chicken and Angus beef, for an undisclosed amount. Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Bernard Orr'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-conagra-brands-results/conagras-second-quarter-profit-doubles-idUSKBN1EF1LI'|'2017-12-21T14:41:00.000+02:00'
'f99780725a030d70b2ea1a4aaa15a28a4be67443'|'Ryanair hit with first ever pilots strike'|'December 22, 2017 / 8:31 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago Ryanair hit with first ever pilots strike Myria Mildenberger , Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair’s efforts to avert its first ever pilots strike collapsed on Friday as pilots in Germany held a four-hour walkout although airports said there had been little impact on flights. The Irish budget carrier had sought to avert a series of threatened strikes across Europe over Christmas last week by giving up its long-held opposition to recognizing unions. However, Germany’s Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union said it would stage a brief walkout as it did not believe Ryanair was serious about recognizing unions or sincere in talks. “This was a warning shot and we started small. However, there is potential for much more,” union spokesman Markus Wahl said, ruling out further strikes until after Dec 26. The strike ran from 0401 GMT to 0759 GMT when only 16 flights were scheduled. “All in all there are no significant effects,” a spokesman for Berlin airports said, noting that five of seven flights had departed, with one delayed. Cologne/Bonn airport said two of three scheduled flights had taken off and the third was delayed. Frankfurt airport said four of six scheduled flights had taken off. Ryanair was not available for immediate comment. Management had urged pilots to work to get passengers home for Christmas. But the VC union said after a first meeting that it did not believe Ryanair genuinely wanted to recognize unions and said it wanted to send a message that their pilots were serious about industrial action. VC said Ryanair had refused to accept two members of a delegation that the union nominated to hold talks with management. One of the pilots was a contractor and one a direct employee, but Ryanair has ended both of their contracts, VC said. “This has shown us that nothing has changed with Ryanair’s management style or how it handles workers’ rights,” VC President Ilja Schulz told reporters on Thursday. Ryanair pilots mobilized in September after the carrier announced the cancellation of around 20,000 flights, which it blamed on a rostering problem sparked by a change in Irish regulations. Writing by Ludwig Burger; editing by Edmund Blair and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ryanair-pilots/ryanair-hit-with-first-ever-pilots-strike-idUSKBN1EG0RV'|'2017-12-22T10:30:00.000+02:00'
'c20e14e613a848736cac6675d3dafd7e9ff7b520'|'Lufthansa''s Eurowings drops close to 300 flights due to ''anti-trust concerns'''|'Reuters TV United States December 21, 2017 / 4:40 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Lufthansa''s Eurowings drops nearly 300 flights from winter schedule Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) budget carrier Eurowings said on Thursday it has canceled nearly 300 flights from the rest of its winter schedule. FILE PHOTO - People line up behind a barrier tape of Lufthansa''s budget airlines Eurowings during a 24-hour strike over pay and working conditions at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay A spokesman for Eurowings said it had slightly less capacity available than it initially planned for, and that the reduced capacity amounted to less than 1 percent of that originally provided for until the end of March. Lufthansa last week abandoned plans to buy failed rival Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) Austrian airline Niki due to competition concerns. And earlier on Thursday the European Commission approved Lufthansa’s purchase of LGW, another Air Berlin subsidiary, after it agreed to give up some runway slots. Most of the flights being canceled, which amount to less than 1 percent of the winter schedule until March, are on domestic German routes, the Eurowings spokesman said, adding that the changes were not set in stone and some routes could be added back at a later point in time. German weekly Focus earlier cited company sources as saying Eurowings had notified customers of the cancellations by e-mail and said it was trying to provide alternative flights on Lufthansa. Eurowings had expected to increase its fleet to 210 aircraft from 160 had Lufthansa acquired both LGW and Niki from Air Berlin. (This version of the story corrects headline, lead and second paragraph to correct reason for flight cancellations, due to a misunderstanding of spokesman’s comment.) Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Klaus Lauer; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lufthansa-eurowings-cancellations/lufthansas-eurowings-drops-close-to-300-flights-due-to-anti-trust-concerns-idUKKBN1EF29K'|'2017-12-21T18:40:00.000+02:00'
'e7e35ad45f2f848fe1f86571d89a022c20468a3c'|'Apple wins big with U.S. tax bill but faces snag on foreign patents'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:45 AM / in 2 hours Apple wins big with U.S. tax bill but faces snag on foreign patents Stephen Nellis 5 Min Read (Reuters) - The U.S. Republican tax overhaul passed by Congress this week will allow Apple Inc to bring back its $252.3 billion foreign cash pile without a major tax hit - a long-standing company goal. The Apple logo is pictured inside the newly opened Omotesando Apple store at a shopping district in Tokyo June 26, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/Files Other provisions of the bill, namely the cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, are also a big boon for Apple. But not everything went the company’s way. A critical difference between the Senate version of the bill and the final version could actually raise the amount of cash taxes that Apple pays on profits from patents held abroad, tax experts said. The treatment of foreign patent profits is important to Apple because shifting those profits overseas was a cornerstone of its tax practices for decades. In effect, the company attributes a large portion of the value of its products to patents and other intellectual property such as trademarks. Apple then assigns some of that IP, proportional to overseas sales, to subsidiaries in countries with low tax rates and assesses substantial patent royalties on sales. Those royalties then flow back to those low-tax locations, like Ireland. The bill has a pair of provisions designed to make that maneuver less alluring. One creates a minimum tax on foreign patent income that is expected to come to about 13 percent, said Gavin Ekins, a research economist with the Tax Foundation. At the same time, a tax break for patents held in the United States will lower the tax on licensing income from the standard corporate rate of 21 percent to 13.1 percent - about the same as if the patents were held abroad. Congressional Republicans “don’t want the tax rate to be a consideration in where you put your intellectual property,” Ekins said. “The whole intention (of the measures) is to bring back that intellectual property to the United States.” Parts of the scheme are similar “patent boxes” employed in countries like the United Kingdom to encourage firms to generate and keep their innovations at home. But the final bill omits any explicit way for patents held overseas to be returned to the United States without being taxed. Congress “screwed it up,” said Ed Kleinbard, a tax professor at the University of California and former chief of staff of the U.S. Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation. “It’s kind of weird that they created the patent box, but didn’t give a pass to bring things back.” Apple iPhone X samples are displayed during a product launch event in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/Files For those patents that remain overseas, the minimum tax on foreign patent profits means Apple might actually face higher cash taxes abroad. “I‘m willing to bet a dollar that 13.1 percent is higher than Apple’s actual non-U.S. tax rate,” said Kleinbard. “It’s entirely possible their cash tax bill going forward would go up based on this alone.” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has said the company intends to bring some overseas cash home, but the company declined to comment on precisely how much or how it would use the funds. An iPhone X is seen on a large video screen in the new Apple Visitor Center in Cupertino, California, U.S., November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/Files Gary Hufbauer, a fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the tax cut is not likely to spur Apple to start building iPhones in the United States. However, Apple’s U.S. suppliers, which the company said it spent $50 billion with in 2016, will also see lower taxes. If those suppliers pass their tax savings along in the form of lower prices offered to Apple, it could make them more competitive against foreign rivals and entice Apple to spend more with them, Hufbauer said. QUESTIONS ON USE OF CASH The repatriation rules will change the way Apple manages its cash, analysts said. Companies now have to pay a one-time 15.5 percent tax on their overseas cash to bring it back. After that, companies will pay 21 percent tax on U.S. profits and a minimum 10.5 percent tax on foreign profits, but they will be able to deduct foreign taxes already paid on those profits, so in many cases the foreign profits can be brought home with no additional U.S. taxes paid. At 15.5 percent, Apple would owe about $39.1 billion on its $252.3 billion in overseas cash. Unlike many other large companies, Apple has already set aside $36.3 billion for that purpose. With the remaining cash, Apple could attack its $97 billion in long-term debt, much of which it has used to fund its dividend and share buy-back program. “The (foreign cash) overhang for Apple is just an enormous issue,” Kleinbard said. “Even Apple has finite borrowing capacity. This removes the issue.” Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tax-apple/apple-wins-big-with-u-s-tax-bill-but-faces-snag-on-foreign-patents-idINKBN1EF0A1'|'2017-12-21T05:45:00.000+02:00'
'1929d2c64ef37cdb7feabc30312b9612e1b11a81'|'UK''s McCarthy & Stone seeks exemption to any leasehold changes, shares drop'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:04 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago UK''s McCarthy & Stone seeks exemption to any leasehold changes, shares drop Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest builder of homes for retirees McCarthy & Stone ( MCS.L ) said on Thursday it had requested an exemption from the government’s proposal to set ground rents to zero, but would work on strategies to maintain profits if that effort failed. The company’s shares fell as much as 14 percent, hitting its lowest in over three months. By 0948 GMT, the stock was more than 9 percent lower. The British government proposed in July that builders be banned from selling leasehold homes in England and ground rents on flats could be cut to zero, responding to public criticism about price hikes facing leaseholders. “This potential change to the structure of ground rents will be immediately reflected in the cost of land secured for development by McCarthy & Stone with a margin-neutral impact for shareholders in the medium term,” McCarthy & Stone said. The company said it had made a “strong case” for the exemption of retirement housing providers from such action, and said it would request further details on possible exemptions. The firm said it would work to mitigate any “disruption” to its profitability if it failed to secure an exemption. “The proposal to set all ground rents to zero will result in a disruption of housing supply and contradicts the Government’s stated objective of seeking new sources of housing,” it said. Others housebuilders were also down, including Barratt Developments Plc ( BDEV.L ), Taylor Wimpey Plc ( TW.L ), Berkeley Group ( BKGH.L ) and Persimmon Plc ( PSN.L ). Reporting By Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mccarthy-stone-outlook/uks-mccarthy-stone-seeks-exemption-to-any-leasehold-changes-shares-drop-idUKKBN1EF13W'|'2017-12-21T12:03:00.000+02:00'
'57c775e0247539f5a64ca0526c4381dd21ee9db4'|'Turntables are golden as UK retailers report bumper Christmas sales - Business'|'It’s been decades since families gathered round record players to listen to the new pile of records stacked among the torn wrapping paper on Christmas morning.However, LPs will be crackling and popping in living rooms all over the country this year as Britons give new turntables a spin after the gadget became one of the must-have gifts of 2017.Retailers including HMV and Richer Sounds have reported bumper turntable sales this year, while John Lewis has sold out of eight of the 20 models it stocked, as millennials and fortysomethings catch the vinyl bug .Phil Jubb, purchasing director at hi-fi and TV specialist Richer Sounds, said turntable sales had increased by 70% in recent years: “This has been across the board at all prices. It goes to show that a great record player is part of any good sound system.”Last Christmas we lost George Michael. Now he’s an unlikely beacon of hope - Simon Hattenstone Read moreThe vinyl scene used to be dominated by male baby boomers reliving their youth through record collections skewed towards heritage rock acts such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Oasis and Radiohead. But recent research by the BPI, the UK music industry’s trade body, found a broadening demographic with under 35s making nearly a quarter of all vinyl purchases and one in four records bought by women.With record players costing anything from £25 to over £20,000, the appetite for vinyl among teenagers and students has encouraged manufacturers to produce cheaper models, including retro suitcase style players and brightly coloured ones costing less than £100.HMV’s Simon Winter said the retailer would sell close to 60,000 turntables this year, compared with 50,000 in 2016. A turntable will be the top selling product in its technology department this Christmas, ahead of both headphones and speaker docks, he added.John Lewis said its shoppers were increasingly interested in sound quality with slightly more expensive models, like those made by Japan’s Audio-Technica, in demand this year. “Sales of turntables have been steadily rising over the past few years,” said Will Jones, head of communications technology buying at John Lewis. “But we’ve seen a 20% increase in sales of higher end turntables this year.”In recent years vinyl sales have rocketed as the shift to consuming music via streaming services hits sales of CDs and downloads.The BPI predicts more than 4m records will be sold in the UK this year, the highest since it began collecting data in the early 1990s. Sales at this level would represent a 30% increase on 2016 and a remarkable comeback for a format that looked doomed in 2007 when just 205,000 records were sold.With CD sales now in sharp decline manufacturers are expanding their turntable ranges to cater for the different types of vinyl buyer.The Entertainer won''t let a tough year ruin the toy chain''s Christmas Read moreLast year saw the return of DJ favourite, the Technics SL-1200 , which had been discontinued in 2010. The design classic is aimed at consumers who used to mix records in their bedrooms but have grown up and got more money to spend on their music set up.Mike Burn, store manager of London based hi-fi specialist Infidelity, said the company never stopped selling record players albeit only to an audiophile market where enthusiasts are willing to spend several thousand pounds on a speaker cable.“You can get into spending thousands of pounds because you can custom build them like a Rolls-Royce,” he said. “We’ve been selling record players non-stop for the last 25 years. There’s a ritualistic thing about it. It’s a bit more special than picking up an iPad to open a different app.”The vinyl resurgence led to the reinstatement of official weekly charts dedicated to the format in 2015. This year’s top selling albums will be Ed Sheeran’s Divide, as well as the solo output of both Liam and Noel Gallagher, formerly of Oasis. Retailers are reporting growth across all genres as Britons use streaming services like Spotify to discover and then buy new music.However, with just over a quarter of all vinyl purchases made in December and well over 250,000 bought this week alone, the last vinyl chart before Christmas gives a sense of what tunes may be spinning while the turkey is cooking.Noel Gallagher’s Who Built the Moon looks to have secured the coveted number one slot but the top 20 is nothing if not eclectic, as Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours hangs on at number three after 125 weeks on the chart, while Eminem and Pink are also battling the might of the crowd-pleasing compilation Now That’s What I Call Christmas.Topics Retail industry Christmas news'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/22/turntables-are-golden-as-uk-retailers-report-bumper-christmas-sales'|'2017-12-22T15:02:00.000+02:00'
'9bd318af956d106ffd5244714ee1f98841d62a1a'|'Ryanair hit with first ever pilots strike'|'Reuters TV United States December 22, 2017 / 8:31 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Ryanair hit with first ever pilots strike Myria Mildenberger , Victoria Bryan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair failed to avert its first ever pilots strike on Friday as pilots in Germany held a four-hour walkout although airports and the Irish budget carrier said there had been little impact on flights. Ryanair had sought to avert a series of threatened strikes across Europe over Christmas by giving up its long-held opposition to recognizing unions. That convinced pilots in Ireland, Italy and Portugal to call off planned strikes. However, Germany’s Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union staged a brief walkout saying it did not believe Ryanair was serious about negotiating with unions. “This was a warning shot and we started small. However, there is potential for much more,” union spokesman Markus Wahl said, ruling out further strikes until after Dec 26. The strike ran from 0401 GMT to 0759 GMT when only 16 flights were scheduled. Ryanair, which had urged pilots to work to get passengers home for Christmas, said 9 of its 36 early flights from Germany were delayed. There were no cancellations and it expected to operate all scheduled flights on Friday. Ryanair shares were down 0.6 percent at 0941 GMT. FILE PHOTO: A pilot disembarks a Ryanair flight at Stansted airport in London, Britain September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne “We are grateful to all of our Ryanair pilots for putting our customers first and largely ignoring this VC strike,” the airline said in a statement. A spokesman for Berlin airports said there were no significant effects, noting that five of seven early flights had departed, with one delayed. Cologne/Bonn airport said two of three scheduled flights had taken off and the third was delayed. Frankfurt airport said four of six scheduled flights had taken off. The VC union said after a first meeting that it did not believe Ryanair genuinely wanted to recognize unions and said it wanted to send a message that their pilots were serious about industrial action. VC said Ryanair had refused to accept two members of a delegation that the union nominated to hold talks with management. One of the pilots was a contractor and one a direct employee, but Ryanair has ended both of their contracts, VC said. “This has shown us that nothing has changed with Ryanair’s management style or how it handles workers’ rights,” VC President Ilja Schulz told reporters on Thursday. Ryanair pilots mobilized in September after the carrier announced the cancellation of around 20,000 flights, which it blamed on a rostering problem sparked by a change in Irish regulations. Chief Executive Michael O‘Leary told Reuters this week that his offer of union recognition was genuine but that employees must understand it will remain a low cost airline. Negotiations with unions will continue in the new year. Additional reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin, writing by Ludwig Burger; editing by Edmund Blair and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ryanair-pilots/ryanair-hit-with-first-ever-pilots-strike-idUKKBN1EG0RV'|'2017-12-22T10:17:00.000+02:00'
'7be72327a48eb943ed5dcd9051be35c55d96f51b'|'British gambling firm GVC seals deal to take over Ladbrokes'|'December 22, 2017 / 7:20 AM / Updated 7 minutes ago British gambling firm GVC seals Ladbrokes takeover Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British online gambling firm GVC ( GVC.L ) said on Friday it had agreed to buy bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral ( LCL.L ) for up to 4 billion pounds. FILE PHOTO: A branch of Ladbrokes is seen in central London, Britain, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville /File Photo The owner of the Sportingbet, Bwin and Foxy Bingo brands said it would pay 32.7 pence in cash and 0.141 new GVC shares for each Ladbrokes share. The final price GVC pays depends on the outcome of a review into fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which are moneyspinners for companies such as Ladbrokes but have come under fire for leaving gamblers with heavy losses. Following a review, the government said in October that the maximum stake allowed on FOBTs could be slashed over concerns they fuel addiction. It started a 12-week consultation to consider cutting the stake to between 50 pounds and 2 pounds, from 100 pounds currently. GVC’s offer values Ladbrokes Coral at 164.4 pence per share, equating to a total equity value of around 3.2 billion pounds, plus a contingent fee of up to 42.8 pence a share, meaning the bookmaker could be valued at about 4 billion pounds. GVC announced this month it was in talks with betting shop operator Ladbrokes about a possible cash-and-shares takeover. The merged company is expected to be big enough to enter the UK’s FTSE 100 index. The deal is expected to close late in the first or early in the second quarter of 2018, GVC said. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; editing by Edmund Blair and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ladbrokes-coral-m-a-gvc-holdings/british-gambling-firm-gvc-seals-deal-to-take-over-ladbrokes-idUKKBN1EG0MT'|'2017-12-22T09:19:00.000+02:00'
'e2db0f7f4c63c45dc5f3c52e196ca93d4ee416a6'|'Factbox: Companies change names, businesses to ride the crypto wave'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:28 PM / in 19 minutes Factbox: Companies change names, businesses to ride the crypto wave Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Many obscure companies are pivoting operations or changing their names to cash-in on the cryptocurrency wave, in a trend reminiscent of the dotcom boom. FILE PHOTO: A bitcoin ATM is seen in Zurich, Switzerland December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Beverage maker Long Island Iced Tea Corp on Thursday became the latest to jump on the bandwagon, changing its name to Long Blockchain Corp, helping its shares increase nearly four times. In the last few weeks, a barrage of companies have seen their shares sky-rocket, largely on words such as “crypto” or “blockchain” in their names. Following is a list of companies that have moved into crypto or blockchain businesses, or changed their names. The list also captures the surge in market value since the close on Oct. 11, a day before bitcoin crossed the $5,000 mark. The cryptocurrency, meanwhile, has more than tripled in price during the same period. Riot Blockchain Inc: Formerly known as Bioptix Inc, the biotech company has changed its name and strategy to become an investor in blockchain technology, with a focus on bitcoin and ethereum. Market cap as of Oct. 11: $68.6 mln Market cap as of Dec. 21: $266.6 mln Digital Power Corp: The power system solutions provider has launched cryptocurrency mining operation. Market cap as of Oct. 11: $10.98 mln Market cap as of Dec. 21: $97.2 mln Crypto Co: The U.S. SEC on Tuesday halted trading in shares of the company, which began as women’s apparel maker, after they rose more than 2,700 percent this month. The regulator highlighted concerns about accuracy of information regarding the company. The company’s market value had surpassed $11 billion, almost equaling that of home appliances maker Whirlpool Corp or railroad Kansas City Southern. Future FinTech Group Inc: Formerly SkyPeople Fruit Juice Inc, a juice maker, the company changed its name in May this year, “to reflect commitment to e-commerce and agricultural commodities trading”. Market cap as of Oct. 11: $10.3 mln Market cap as of Dec. 21: $16.8 mln Xunlei Ltd: The cloud computing company, which has most of it operations in China, has soared along with the surge in cryptocurrencies. Market cap as of Oct. 11: $288.1 mln Market cap as of Dec. 21: $891 mln Marathon Patent Group Inc: Shares in the intellectual property licensing and management company have zoomed after announcing a deal to buy cryptocurrencies miner Global Bit Ventures Inc. Market cap as of Oct. 11: $17.8 mln Market cap as of Dec. 21: $54.5 mln Social Reality Inc: The internet advertising firm in October said it planned an Initial Coin Offering of Blockchain Identification Graph tokens (BIGtokens). Most recently, the firm said it would offer a cryptocurrency dividend. Market cap as of Oct. 11: $28.4 mln Market cap as of Dec. 21: $52.2 mln Net Element Inc: The online payment processor launched a blockchain-focused unit on Wednesday, in partnership with Bunker Capital. Market cap as of Dec. 19: $12.8 mln Market cap as of Dec. 21: $46.0 mln Nova LifeStyle Inc: The furniture maker launched a blockchain-enabled unit, called “I Design Blockchain Technology Inc” on Wednesday and said it planned to accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the platform. Market cap as of Dec. 19: $60.8 mln Market cap as of Dec. 21: $78.6 mln Intercontinental Technology Inc: Formerly Rich Cigars Inc, the company changed its name in December to pursue cryptocurrency mining. Nodechain Inc: Formerly Vapetek Inc, an e-cigarette maker, the company filed an 8K on Wednesday to reflect the name-change and transform into a cryptocurrency miner. Compiled by Pushkala Aripaka, Pranav Kiran and Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cryptocurrency-companies/factbox-companies-change-names-businesses-to-ride-the-crypto-wave-idINKBN1EG1W2'|'2017-12-22T18:23:00.000+02:00'
'458e1f9a0b870312d5eecd6771619a00f20955c9'|'UPDATE 1-U.S.-based equity funds post $22 bln of outflows, largest withdrawals in 2017'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:58 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago UPDATE 1-U.S.-based equity funds post $22 bln of outflows, largest withdrawals in 2017 Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds quotes from senior research analyst) By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - U.S.-based equity funds posted $22.2 billion of outflows in the week ended Dec. 20, the largest cash withdrawals for 2017, according to Lipper data on Thursday. U.S.-based equity mutual funds posted $12.2 billion of outflows in the week ended Wednesday, extending weekly cash withdrawals for most of 2017. And U.S.-based stock ETFs posted $10 billion of outflows in the week ended Dec. 20, the largest cash withdrawals in 2017, Lipper said. Investors'' risk aversion spread to bonds. U.S.-based high-yield "junk" bond funds posted $1.1 billion of outflows in the week ended Dec. 20, the group''s second consecutive week of cash withdrawals, according to Lipper. "Money leaving high-yield bonds and equity funds - as well as going to investment-grade corporates - are risk-off strategies," said Pat Keon, Thomson Reuters Lipper''s senior research analyst. "Also, both groups have struggled all year – equity mutual funds net outflows of negative $141 billion, high-yield bond funds at negative $22.1 billion." U.S.-based investment-grade corporate bond funds attracted $1.14 billion of inflows in the week ended Dec. 20, extending the group''s weekly inflow streak since late September, Lipper said. Equity ETFs stole the spotlight, however. Equity will have record net inflows of $265 billion this year and "this current week''s net outflow broke a streak of 10 straight inflows," Keon said. "While it is a high number, unless a multiple-week trend takes hold, I would not find it too concerning," Keon said. "Despite the run-up in the Dow and the good economic numbers we’re seeing lately, we don’t always see it reflected in net inflows for funds. We speculate that fund investors appear to be overly cautious waiting for a market correction and/or a geopolitical or internal political crisis to worsen." U.S.-based money market funds posted $21.2 billion of outflows in the week ended Dec. 20, following six weeks of inflows, Lipper data showed. The following is a breakdown of the flows for the week, including mutual funds and ETFs: Sector Flow Chg Pct of Assets Count ($ blns) Assets ($ blns) All Equity Funds -22.221 -0.35 6,452.399 12,076 Domestic Equities -18.597 -0.43 4,347.903 8,601 Non-Domestic Equities -3.624 -0.17 2,104.496 3,475 All Taxable Bond -3.250 -0.12 2,608.002 6,031 Funds All Money Market -21.209 -0.79 2,653.279 1,039 Funds All Municipal Bond 0.251 0.06 399.695 1,471 Funds (Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by James Dalgleish)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/investment-mutualfunds-lipper/update-1-u-s-based-equity-funds-post-22-bln-of-outflows-largest-withdrawals-in-2017-idUSL1N1OL2F4'|'2017-12-22T00:57:00.000+02:00'
'dade1cf6c2b406d447137e119e8d2553b7defacf'|'Daimler buys majority stake in French car-ride app Chauffeur Prive'|'December 21, 2017 / 12:04 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Daimler buys majority stake in French car-ride app Chauffeur Prive   PARIS (Reuters) - German carmaker Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) has agreed to buy a majority stake in Chauffeur Prive, a French rival to the larger Uber car-ride app, in the latest example of traditional companies looking to deal with challenges from technology-driven start-ups. FILE PHOTO - The Mercedes star logo of an E Coupe is pictured before the annual news conference of Daimler AG in Stuttgart, Germany, February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle The deal was announced in a joint statement by both companies. The price of the acquisition, which will be carried out by the German company’s Daimler Mobility Services division, was not disclosed. Chauffeur Prive was founded in 2011. The company says it has more than 1.5 million customers and access to 18,000 drivers, and the service is relatively popular in Paris. Traditional automakers from around the world are examining how best to work on new, disruptive technologies - from electric vehicles to autonomous driving - that require hefty investment and have turned companies such as Google ( GOOGL.O ) and Tesla ( TSLA.O ) into rivals. Daimler has already made forays into the growing industry of car-ride hailing mobile applications. In June, Dubai-based ride hailing firm Careem said it would step up its expansion into new markets after raising $150 million from investors, which included Daimler and Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding 4280.SE. Earlier this month, Daimler’s French rival Renault ( RENA.PA ) bought a stake in a glossy magazine publishing group, which it said formed part of its strategy to see how to keep travellers entertained in an era of driverless cars. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Leigh Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-daimler-france/daimler-buys-majority-stake-in-french-car-ride-app-chauffeur-prive-idUKKBN1EF1FP'|'2017-12-21T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'efbd51d4e252c3aac881fcec195d0a21aded94b3'|'EU Commission clears Lufthansa''s acquisition of Air Berlin assets'|'December 21, 2017 / 1:33 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago EU Commission clears Lufthansa''s acquisition of Air Berlin assets Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission cleared Lufthansa’s ( LHAG.DE ) acquisition of insolvent Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) subsidiary LGW, subject to conditions, the EU’s executive said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - A logo of German airline Lufthansa is seen before the company''s annual news conference at the airport in Munich, Germany, March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle Lufthansa agreed to forego a number of slots at Duesseldorf airport to ease the Commission’s competition concerns. “Lufthansa has put forward improved remedies that make sure the effects of its LGW acquisition on competition are limited,” Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. Earlier, Lufthansa scrapped plans also to buy Austrian leisure airline Niki, founded by former Formula 1 champion and aviation entrepreneur Niki Lauda, after the Commission had indicated it would veto such a deal. The European airline industry has this year witnessed the demise of Monarch and Air Berlin, while Italian flag carrier Alitalia has filed for insolvency protection. Reuters reported earlier this week that the Commission would clear the purchase of LGW. Related Coverage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-lufthansa-eu/eu-commission-clears-lufthansas-acquisition-of-air-berlin-assets-idUKKBN1EF1OK'|'2017-12-21T15:32:00.000+02:00'
'3180f23265cbbe83d5331c8b160b9b999f15bde9'|'UK''s Forties North Sea oil pipeline due to restart in early Jan - Ineos'|' 34 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago UK''s Forties North Sea oil pipeline due to restart in early Jan - Ineos Dmitry Zhdannikov 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Forties oil and gas pipeline, one of the biggest in the North Sea, should restart in early January after repairs to a crack over Christmas, operator Ineos said on Thursday. Oil prices have risen since the pipeline was shut on Dec 11. Brent oil prices LCOc1 fell after the announcement to trade 25 cents down at $64.31 (£48.06) per barrel at 0925 GMT. Forties is the biggest of the five North Sea crudes that underpin Brent, a benchmark for oil trading in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. “Work on the pipeline is progressing well and based on current estimates Ineos is planning to complete the repair around Christmas,” it said in a statement. ”Initially a small number of customers will send oil and gas through the pipeline at low rates as part of a coordinated plan that allows Ineos to carefully control the flow into the system. “Based on current estimates the company expects to bring the pipeline progressively back to normal rates early in the new year,” Ineos said. The system, which carries about 450,000 barrels per day of crude to Britain, along with a third of the Britain’s total offshore natural gas output, has been closed since Dec. 11 after a routine inspection revealed a crack in an onshore section. Ineos on Dec 13 was declared force majeure on deliveries of Forties crude oil, natural gas and condensate, suspending its contractual obligations to customers by citing circumstances beyond its control. The privately-owned chemicals company based in Switzerland bought the pipeline system from BP ( BP.L ) in late October. Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Jason Neely and Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-forties-oil/uks-forties-north-sea-oil-pipeline-due-to-restart-in-early-jan-ineos-idUKKBN1EF16Q'|'2017-12-21T12:33:00.000+02:00'
'df3e6ec7593cf211de1468df2bf9d8b3a891c993'|'BRIEF-Conagra Brands To Acquire Sandwich Bros. Of Wisconsin Business'|' Conagra Brands To Acquire Sandwich Bros. Of Wisconsin Business Reuters Staff Dec 21 (Reuters) - Conagra Brands Inc: * CONAGRA BRANDS ENTERS INTO AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE SANDWICH BROS. OF WISCONSIN® BUSINESS * CONAGRA BRANDS INC - ENTERED INTO A DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE SANDWICH BROS. OF WISCONSIN BUSINESS  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-conagra-brands-to-acquire-sandwich/brief-conagra-brands-to-acquire-sandwich-bros-of-wisconsin-business-idUSASB0BYT7'|'2017-12-21T14:30:00.000+02:00'
'5e5fdc241f793522d7258b745765ee96c5c0bf02'|'Brexit helped push down living standards in 2018 – experts debate the data - Business'|'David Blanchflower Professor of economics at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee from June 2006 to May 2009 The UK labour market is starting to show signs of slowing. The number of people in work fell by 56,000 during the three months to October to stand at just over 32 million – the steepest drop since mid-2015. It also followed a smaller fall of 14,000 in the three months to September. A “Brexodus” appears to be getting under way as net migration fell by 106,000 to 230,000 in the 12 months to June. In part this is because of the fall in the pound which lowers take-home earnings. Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Blanchflower Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images The flow of migrants into the UK, who grease the wheels of the labour market, is now at its lowest level since records began. By that I mean they make the UK economy more flexible and able to respond more quickly to changes in demand. They are free to move about the country.Declines in the inflow of these skilled migrants will lower GDP as it will reduce mobility in the UK economy and cause skill shortages. Not unrelated to that there are already signs of the housing market also slowing. Migrants need houses. According to the latest monthly snapshot from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, house prices in London and the south-east are falling already.Special focus needs to be put on real wage growth, which is a measure of wage growth adjusted for changes in inflation. For the seventh month in a row, real wages have fallen. Brexit economy: a turbulent year ends on steadier ground Read more Real wages are now below what they were in May 2010 when the Tory-Lib Dem coalition took office and have not changed at all over the last 16 months. They are still 7% below what they were at the start of the Great Recession in 2008. There is no sign that is going to change any time soon, as inflation is falling only slowly and there is no sign that there is going to be a pick-up in nominal wage growth, despite what the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee and the Office for Budget Responsibility have claimed for the last seven or eight years. Pay experts XpertHR reported this week that the pay norm of 2% continues. “Despite unemployment falling and inflation rising through the year, employers have refused to budge from the muted pay increases they have favoured for a large part of the past five years,” they said.Wages rising at 2% with prices rising at 3% is not good. Living standards will continue to fall for the foreseeable future.Andrew Sentance Senior economic adviser at the PwC consultancy and member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee from October 2006 to May 2011 The latest economic data has been mixed, but there has been some positive news on consumer spending and on the global economy to offset continued evidence of a jobs slowdown. Investment uncertainty is still likely to remain a drag on the UK economy next year.A key issue driving the slowdown of the UK economy this year has been weakening consumer spending. The key short-term indicator of consumers’ expenditure – the volume of retail sales – has fallen back from an annual growth rate of over 5% a year ago to just 1%, according to the latest figures for the autumn. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andrew Sentance. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian However, a lot of this weakness reflects the squeeze from rising inflation and heightened political uncertainty in the early months of this year. More recently, retail spending has returned to a growth trend. Growth over the past eight months has been equivalent to around 4% per annum. The key issue for retailers will be whether we see this type of growth rate sustained into the crucial Christmas and New Year sales period.The world economy continues to perform well, with all the three main regions of the global economy – North America, Europe and Asia – growing at reasonably healthy rates.A good barometer of global economic growth is the growth of airline traffic – both passenger numbers and cargo volumes. This year the trade body for airlines, IATA, estimates global passenger numbers will be 7.5% up on 2016, the strongest growth for a decade with the exception of 2010 when there was a strong bounce back from the traumas of the global financial crisis. Air cargo volumes are projected to be up by 9-10% this year.How has the Brexit vote affected the economy? December verdict Read more Alongside this better news on consumer spending and the global economy, however, we have seen a significant slowdown in employment growth and the unemployment rate is no longer falling. It would not be surprising if unemployment started to edge up next year in the UK. Investment uncertainty continues to be a major dampener on the growth of the UK economy. 2016 and 2017 are likely to turn out to be the weakest years for UK business investment growth since the global financial crisis.2018, therefore, looks set to be a relatively sluggish year for UK economic growth - with GDP rising by just 1.4% according to the latest PwC forecast. The UK will continue to languish at or close to the bottom of the global growth league next year.• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/economics'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/21/brexit-helped-push-down-living-standards-in-2018-experts-debate-the-data'|'2017-12-21T16:05:00.000+02:00'
'7468d62989cb13945c64a87d9525ef73f9f48acd'|'Vulcan must divest 17 Aggregates USA properties -U.S. statement'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:31 PM / in 18 minutes Vulcan must divest 17 Aggregates USA properties: U.S. statement Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vulcan Materials Co ( VMC.N ) must divest 17 crushed stone aggregate facilities in Tennessee and Virginia in order to acquire Aggregates USA, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement on Friday. Under the terms of the proposed settlement Birmingham, Alabama-based Vulcan would divest Aggregate’s 13 rock quarries and yards and four inactive quarries in the two states to Blue Water Industries or another U.S.-approved acquirer, the department said in a statement. Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Phil Berlowitz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aggregates-m-a-vulcan-matls/vulcan-must-divest-17-aggregates-usa-properties-u-s-statement-idUSKBN1EG23D'|'2017-12-22T20:25:00.000+02:00'
'39f6bfea551fb3a31cdfdaadd81b0c21796e6ecf'|'Workers to vote on Thyssenkrupp steel jobs deal from mid-January'|'Reuters TV United States December 22, 2017 / 10:11 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Workers to vote on Thyssenkrupp steel jobs deal from mid-January Reuters Staff 1 Min Read DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - Steel workers will vote on a deal to protect steel jobs and sites at German industrial group Thyssenkrupp ( TKAG.DE ) between Jan. 13 and Feb. 2, trade union IG Metall said on Friday. FILE PHOTO - A logo of ThyssenKrupp AG is pictured outside the ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen The result of the vote will be published on Feb. 5, the union added. Workers late on Thursday struck a deal with Thyssenkrupp to secure steel plants and jobs, a big step towards a planned merger of the group’s European steel business with that of India’s Tata Steel ( TISC.NS ). Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-thyssenkrupp-tata-steel-unions-vote/workers-to-vote-on-thyssenkrupp-steel-jobs-deal-from-mid-january-idUKKBN1EG0ZB'|'2017-12-22T12:08:00.000+02:00'
'7e98d95d40dda4fb20dee9a0d000a817b32fd823'|'UPDATE 1-Louis Dreyfus agrees to sell metals business to Chinese fund'|' 16 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Louis Dreyfus agrees to sell metals business to Chinese fund Reuters Staff (Adds detail) PARIS, Dec 22 (Reuters) - * Commodity trader Louis Dreyfus Company agrees to sell global metals business to NCCL Natural Resources Investment Fund * Louis Dreyfus says NCCL is managed by New China Capital Legend as general partner, with two limited partners AXAM Asset Management and China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. * Financial terms were not disclosed * The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018 * Louis Dreyfus had been looking to a sell a stake in its metals business to focus on core activities. * The business is one of the top copper, zinc and lead concentrates merchandisers globally, according to statement * The metals business had a book value of $314 million in 2016. It attracted interest from several parties including Anglo American , sources said last month * China Molybdenum is one of China’s largest producers of molybdenum, a mineral used in metal alloys. The firm last month announced plans to set up a natural resources investment fund worth $1 billion with New China Capital Legend * China Molybdenum last year took a controlling interest in the Tenke copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo * AXAM is a Chinese domestic asset management firm (Reporting by Gus Trompiz; editing by John Irish and Elaine Hardcastle)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/louisdreyfus-metals-sale/update-1-louis-dreyfus-agrees-to-sell-metals-business-to-chinese-fund-idUSL8N1OM44A'|'2017-12-22T19:15:00.000+02:00'
'e4ed83ff4b15501eddc22e662fdeaa83fb11bd39'|'Peru''s currency and stocks surge after president thwarts ouster'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:23 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Peru''s currency and stocks surge after president thwarts ouster Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LIMA, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Peru’s sol currency and stock index surged on Friday after Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski unexpectedly thwarted a bid in Congress to force him from office over his past business ties with a company at the center of a graft scandal. The sol appreciated 0.9 percent to trade 3.237/3.239 against the dollar in morning trade, having recovered nearly all of its losses after Kuczynski’s links to Brazilian builder Odebrecht were revealed last week. Lima’s select stock index rose 0.9 percent, led by mining companies Minsur and Volcan and a local construction group Grana y Montero , whose shares surged more than 5 percent. (Reporting by Teresa Cespedes, Writing By Mitra Taj Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/peru-currency/perus-currency-and-stocks-surge-after-president-thwarts-ouster-idUSL1N1OM0TR'|'2017-12-22T17:20:00.000+02:00'
'48573221d573055646d8e12c53f42595309b229a'|'Bracing for EV shift, NGK Spark Plug ignites all solid-state battery quest'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:21 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Bracing for EV shift, NGK Spark Plug ignites all solid-state battery quest Naomi Tajitsu 6 Min Read NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) - Facing the eventual demise of gasoline engines, the world’s biggest maker of spark plugs is turning its focus to a component it believes will be just as vital in the coming era of electric vehicles - next-generation all solid state batteries. Hideaki Hikosaka, a member of NGK Spark Plug''s solid-state battery R&D team, shows a prototype of its all solid-state battery under development during an interview with Reuters in Nagoya, Japan December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Naomi Tajitsu Japan’s NGK Spark Plug Co has for years leveraged its expertise in ceramics technology used in spark plugs to expand into sensors, semiconductors and other products mainly for automobiles. Now, it sees a future in all solid-state batteries, which experts believe will be safer and more powerful than the lithium-ion batteries currently used in battery electric vehicles (EVs). After dominating transport for 150 years, the internal combustion engine is facing the end of the road in the coming decades as tightening global emissions regulations force automakers to develop more electric cars. “We realised that it was inevitable that the industry would at some point shift from the internal combustion engine to battery EVs, and that ultimately this could make our spark plug and oxygen sensor businesses obsolete,” Takio Kojima, senior general manager of engineering and R&D at NGK Spark Plug told Reuters in an interview. “Our expertise is in advanced ceramics, and so we have decided to pursue all solid-state batteries.” Established in 1936 and based in Japan’s automaking heartland of Nagoya, NGK Spark Plug’s realisation that its main business faced obsolescence came around 2010, Kojima said. That was the year Nissan Motor Co rolled out the Leaf, the first mass-production all battery EV, and just after Tesla Inc came out with the Roadster, its first production car. Other global parts suppliers are also scrambling to overhaul their product portfolios. In Japan, Denso Corp has teamed up with Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp to develop battery EVs while transmission maker Aisin Seiki Co is developing hybrid transmission systems and EV-specific, four-wheel-drive units. In the United States, powertrain products maker Borg Warner has expanded into hybrid and electric car parts, including transmissions and drive modules for electric cars. Industry experts anticipate plug-in hybrid petrol-electric vehicles and all-battery EVs will account for as much as 26 percent of global car sales by 2030, versus just over 1 percent last year, data from the International Energy Agency shows. GOING BIG The rise in EV use will require a steep increase in manufacturing capacity for longer-life batteries which are more powerful, lighter and can charge quicker than conventional lithium-ion batteries. NGK Spark Plug joins Toyota and other companies developing all solid-state car batteries, which offer more capacity and better safety than conventional lithium-ion batteries by replacing their liquid or gel-like electrolyte with a solid, conductive material. Hideaki Hikosaka, a member of NGK Spark Plug''s solid-state battery R&D team, shows a prototype of its all solid-state battery under development during an interview with Reuters in Nagoya, Japan December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Naomi Tajitsu Toyota is developing batteries with sulfide-based solid electrolytes, which offer high conductivity and are relatively flexible but can release toxic hydrogen sulfide when exposed to moisture. NGK is betting on a different technology with an oxide-based chemistry using ceramics which is highly stable at extreme temperatures, but has less conductivity. In addition, brittle ceramics can be difficult to process. Japan’s TDK Corp has developed small, ceramic, all solid-state batteries for use mainly in wearable devices like personal fitness monitors, while Murata Manufacturing Co is developing similar products. But NGK Spark Plug has bigger plans, developing a larger format necessary for cars. “It’s relatively easy to work in smaller sizes, but when you get to larger sizes it gets very difficult to assemble each layer because it’s difficult to make each layer the same thickness,” said Hideaki Hikosaka, a member of NGK Spark Plug’s solid state battery R&D team. The company has spent the past five years developing a solid, oxide-based electrolyte which incorporates an additional material to make it resemble a sulfide-based one. This makes the electrolyte easier to process into larger, thin layers which are compressed, making them easier to stack with anodes and cathodes. “It’s because of the addition of that material that we’re able to process layers using compression (rather than sintering) to make a bigger, oxide-based battery cell. At the same time, it doesn’t release any gases like sulfides do,” Hikosaka said. As a result, the company has developed a 10 cm by 10 cm battery pouch cell, much bigger than 4.5 mm by 3.2 mm cells developed by TDK. NGK Spark Plug declined to comment on the material used in its oxide compound and the capabilities of its battery. Hikosaka said his team was working to raise the battery’s energy density to enable it to match the performance of lithium ion batteries by around 2020, and to develop more powerful, lighter and competitively priced batteries “in the 2020s”. Battery experts believe producing affordable, all solid-state batteries in the 2020s, a target also shared by Toyota, is ambitious given the challenges of achieving a fine balance between numerous performance characteristics. Once they do come to market, some experts believe competition between batteries based on oxides, sulfides, and other chemistries would likely heat up, as producers vie to deliver batteries with diverse specifications. “If these chemistries can compete and win against lithium-ion and we see a shift to all solid-state, we might see a diversification in the materials used in them, as in lithium-ion batteries,” said Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science in Illinois. “Some automakers and battery makers might be more interested in conductivity than oxidative stability, for example ... Batteries are all about compromise. You’re not going to hit every metric.” Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Maki Shiraki; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ngk-spark-plug-batteries/bracing-for-ev-shift-ngk-spark-plug-ignites-all-solid-state-battery-quest-idUKKBN1EG0H0'|'2017-12-22T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'24c1f5993f7640cce8a0ee5a1abe26022dfc516a'|'RBS to pay $125 million to settle California mortgage bond claims'|'December 23, 2017 / 3:44 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago RBS to pay $125 million to settle California mortgage bond claims Nate Raymond 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will pay $125 million to resolve claims that it made misrepresentations while selling mortgage-backed securities to two large California pension funds, the state’s attorney general has announced. Royal Bank of Scotland signs are seen at a branch of the bank, in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The settlement announced on Friday by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was the latest by RBS aimed at resolving claims stemming from its sale of mortgage-backed securities, which were at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis. Becerra’s office said those securities were typically backed by thousands of mortgage loans of varying quality in which the buyer relied on the assurance that those mortgages were carefully screened and were not overly risky. Becerra’s office also said its investigations found that RBS failed to accurately disclose to investors the true traits of many of the thousands of mortgages underlying the securities. The probe also found that those misrepresentations led to millions of dollars in losses to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Becerra’s office said. “RBS decided to mislead California’s pension funds in order to line its own pockets - plain and simple,” Becerra said in a statement. RBS Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan in a statement on Saturday said the bank was pleased to have reached the settlement, which related to issues with mortgage-backed securities in 2004 to 2008. “We have been very clear that putting our remaining legacy issues behind us is a key part of our strategy,” he said. The settlement comes as RBS continues to seek to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into its sales of mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis. In July, RBS agreed to pay $5.5 billion to resolve a lawsuit by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, claiming that it misled the U.S. mortgage giants into buying mortgage-backed securities. In September 2016, the U.S. National Credit Union Administration announced that RBS had agreed to pay $1.1 billion to resolve claims over mortgage-backed securities it sold to credit unions that later failed. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sam Holmes and Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rbs-settlement/rbs-to-pay-125-million-to-settle-california-mortgage-bond-claims-idINKBN1EH0HH'|'2017-12-23T17:40:00.000+02:00'
'555ac95be0d19729456f49cbe7358964971e716c'|'Russia''s standards agency says Nissan to recall 127,738 cars'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:51 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Russia''s standards agency says Nissan to recall 127,738 cars Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) will recall 127,738 Nissan cars in Russia, Russia’s technical safety watchdog Rosstandart said on Monday. Rosstandart said the recall would affect Nissan Note and Nissan Tiida cars produced between Aug. 30, 2008 and Aug. 1, 2014, due to possible issues with the airbag safety device. Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Denis Pinchuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nissan-recall/russias-standards-agency-says-nissan-to-recall-127738-cars-idUSKBN1EJ0KL'|'2017-12-25T13:49:00.000+02:00'
'53d953b6be4e319eaa0916e814e54f015d7309c6'|'Spanish stock market tumbles after Catalan election – business live - Business'|'Shoppers on Oxford street in London. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA Graeme WeardenFri 22 Dec ‘17 13.25 GMT First published on Fri 22 Dec ‘17 07.56 GMTShare on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email View more sharing options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Close Key events Show 12.52pm GMT 12:52 Santa rally splutters out 12.37pm GMT 12:37 Bitcoin price takes a tumble 11.26am GMT 11:26 Why the rise in household borrowing matters 10.23am GMT 10:23 UK GDP: What the experts say 10.07am GMT 10:07 Household spending growth slows to five-year low 9.41am GMT 09:41 UK annual growth revised up 8.57am GMT 08:57 FTSE 100 hits fresh record high Live feed Show 1.33pm GMT 13:33One Canada Square Tower is seen through a glassed domed roof in Canary Wharf financial district in London. Photograph: Russell Boyce/ReutersWith the London stock market closed, City traders are scrambling to sort their last-minute Christmas shopping, or heading home for a break.So it’s time to wrap up this blog. I’lll be back next week, for the final sprint to the new year.We hope you have a lovely Christmas. Thanks for reading and commenting. GWFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.33pm GMT 13:33The bitcoin selloff is gathering pace. It’s now down around $3,000 today at $12,900 -- a bitter blow to anyone who bought at almost $20,000 this week.The selloff comes as Warren Buffett’s top lieutenant, Charlie Munger, adds his voice to the chorus of warnings against digital currencies.CNBC has the details:Munger, 93, was asked for his views on cryptocurrencies during a University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business event.“I think it is perfectly asinine to even pause to think about them,” Munger said. “It’s bad people, crazy bubble, bad idea, luring people into the concept of easy wealth without much insight or work. That’s the last thing on earth you should think about … There’s just a whole lot of things that aren’t going to work for you. Figure out what they are and avoid them like the plague. And one of them is bitcoin. … It is total insanity.”The interview was published Wednesday on the business school’s YouTube channel. It is not clear when exactly the event was held, but the video has largely gone unnoticed with roughly 7,000 views as of Friday morning.CNBC (@CNBC) Buffett partner Charlie Munger says bitcoin is ‘total insanity,’ avoid it ‘like the plague’ https://t.co/F1AyIAbBrbDecember 22, 2017 Carlo Alberto De Casa, Chief Analyst at ActivTrades , says the bitcoin price action resembles Las Vegas:After a record high on Sunday where bitcoin fell just short of $20,000, it has now fallen by $3000 in just a few hours and today it’s roughly valued at $13,500. It’s the type of volatility we are getting used to seeing from the Cryptocurrency and it wouldn’t surprise anyone, if it was to recover even by the end of the dayThe people selling the coin believe they are getting a good deal, and then those buying it believe they are getting it at a good price. It’s continuing to fuel the unpredictability of the market and more and more people are getting involved. It’s like red or black in the casino.Updated at 1.34pm GMTFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.25pm GMT 13:25Here’s our economics editor, Larry Elliott, on today’s UK GDP figures:Spending by UK households slowed to its lowest level in almost six years during 2017 as the impact of higher inflation hit living standards.The Office for National Statistics said spending in the third quarter was up by 1% on the same period in 2016 – the weakest annual growth since the first three months of 2012.In its latest update on the state of the economy, the ONS reported growth of 0.4% in the third quarter – unchanged on its previous estimates but slightly higher than the 0.3% recorded in each of the first two quarters.Revisions to previous data meant, however, that annual growth in the year to the third quarter has been adjusted up from 1.5% to 1.7%.Photograph: ONS/GuardianHousehold spending increased 0.5% between the second and third quarters but was boosted by consumers running down their savings during a period when real incomes were squeezed by price rises running ahead of pay .Paul Hollingsworth, a UK analyst at Capital Economics , said the ONS figures revealed a more balanced growth picture, with household spending revised down but business investment revised up from 0.2% to 0.5%.“The economy looks to have maintained this pace in Q4,” Hollingsworth added. “This should mean that GDP growth for 2017 as a whole should come in at about 1.8%.”...UK household spending slows to lowest level in almost six years Read more Updated at 1.45pm GMTFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 1.06pm GMT 13:06Santa isn’t paying an early visit to Europe’s stock markets today.All the major European bourses are as red as Rudolph’s nose, with Spain leading the fallers as pro-independence parties celebrate the Catalan election .But the Spanish IBEX is still only down around 1.2% - so hardly a crash.European stock markets at 1pm GMT Photograph: Thomson ReutersDespite today’s selloff, the German, French and Italian stock markets are up over 10% this year, and Spain isn’t far behind (up 8.9%).Mike van Dulken of Accendo Markets says :Catalonian regional elections may have delivered another awkward pro-independence message for PM Rajoy in Madrid, but as has been the case for the last year, if not longer, investors are happy to keep looking past geopolitical risk.Think of all we’ve seen and heard. And look at where we are. A roller coaster it may have been, but we’re thicker skinned for it and nursing handsome gains. Might 2018 deliver more of the same?Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 12.52pm GMT 12:52Santa rally splutters out Hopes that Britain’s stock market might hit a new record high in the final session before Christmas have been dashed.The FTSE 100 has just closed down 11 points, or -0.15%, at 7592, in a rather quiet trading session.Next, the retailer, was the top risers -- suggesting traders think it may be enjoying a good festive season.The best and worst performing major shares in London today Photograph: Thomson ReutersDavid Madden of CMC Markets says that consumer stocks were in “high demand”, despite this morning’s concerns that households are going deeper into debtFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 12.37pm GMT 12:37Bitcoin price takes a tumble Bitcoin investors may be feeling blue today.The cryptocurrency has suffered a heavy selloff, shedding up to $2,000 to around $13,400 in a bout of volatile trading.This means bitcoin has lost a quarter of its value since the start of the week, amid growing signs that regulators and governments might be cracking down on digital currencies.The bitcoin price this week. Photograph: BloombergSo why the sudden selloff?Kerim Derhalli, founder and CEO of finance app Invstr , has a theory:“Bitcoin’s meteoric price rise is mostly due to the highly illiquid nature of the current market. There are very fe'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/dec/22/spanish-stock-market-catalan-election-uk-gdp-bitcoin-business-live'|'2017-12-22T16:15:00.000+02:00'
'c76fa82ebf1d0e27ef4feb4df2615fbeaba4be10'|'U.S. consumer spending rises more than expected; savings lowest since 2008'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:36 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Strong U.S. consumer, business spending bolster growth picture Lucia Mutikani 6 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending accelerated in November and shipments of key capital goods orders increased for the 10th straight month, data showed on Friday, the latest signs of strong momentum in the economy as the year winds down. But the bullish growth picture was dimmed somewhat as the figures also showed household savings dropped last month to the lowest level in more than nine years. Low savings could hurt consumer spending, though economists are optimistic wage growth will pick up in the new year. Economists see a modest lift to consumer spending from a $1.5 trillion tax cut package approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress this week, in the largest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years. “Consumers are still out there spending, but their purchases are being supplemented by low energy costs, credit and a reduction in savings rather than organic income growth,” said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel Fixed Income in Chicago. “Without sustained improvement in wages, consumers will struggle to maintain even today’s moderate pace of consumption.” The Commerce Department said consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.6 percent last month after gaining 0.2 percent in October. Spending last month was buoyed by an increase in demand for motor vehicles, recreational goods and utilities. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending increased 0.4 percent in November from unchanged in the prior month. Personal income rose 0.3 percent last month, with wages increasing 0.4 percent. As a result, households dipped into their savings, which fell to $426.2 billion - the lowest level since August 2008 and down from $466.9 billion in October. The saving rate dropped to a 10-year low of 2.9 percent from 3.2 percent in October. In addition to savings, consumer spending is being driven by record household wealth, thanks to a booming stock market and rising home prices. With the U.S. economy near full employment, economists argue that the tax cuts will only provide a modest boost to growth. President Donald Trump signed the tax legislation into law on Friday. It slashes the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent and offers tax cuts for individuals. The Trump administration argues that the tax cuts will boost both business and consumer spending. But the individual income tax cuts are skewed toward higher-income households, which economists say have a low propensity to consume. Economists also believe companies will use much of the windfall on stock buybacks and debt reduction. The dollar was trading slightly higher against a basket of currencies while U.S. Treasury yields rose modestly. Stocks on Wall Street slipped. [MKTS/GLOB] INFLATION TAME Despite the increase in spending, monthly inflation remained benign in November. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.1 percent in November after gaining 0.2 percent in October. The so-called core PCE price index increased 1.5 percent in the 12 months through November, picking up from 1.4 percent in October. It has undershot the Fed’s 2 percent target since mid-2012 and its progress could determine the pace at which the U.S. central bank raises interest rates next year. The Fed increased borrowing costs three times this year and has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. “There is little doubt that structural shifts, including increased global competition, the growth in online retailing and new technologies that enable consumers to find the best price instantly and at little cost, are playing a role in holding down prices,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. In a second report on Friday, the Commerce Department said shipments of non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft - a closely watched proxy for business spending - rose 0.3 percent after surging 1.3 percent in October. Core capital goods shipments are used to calculate equipment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measurement. They have risen every month since February, the longest stretch since the series started in 1992. The increase in core capital goods shipments over the last two months suggested a strong pace of increase in business spending on equipment in the fourth quarter. Business investment in equipment rose at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter, but the momentum could be slowing. Core capital goods orders slipped 0.1 percent last month after rising 0.8 percent in October. “Real equipment spending has been on a very strong run in recent quarters, but the recent cooling in the orders data signals that there could be some softening to come,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. In a third report, the Commerce Department said new home sales jumped 17.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 733,000 units last month. That was the highest level since July 2007. New home sales surged 26.6 percent from a year ago. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; editing by Andrea Ricci, Chizu Nomiyama and G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-consumer-spending-rises-more-than-expected-savings-lowest-since-2008-idUSKBN1EG1J2'|'2017-12-22T15:39:00.000+02:00'
'2ed425c16476fe893969881963eb0bfdfb3bd92a'|'Nike''s profit tops estimates but margins dip on weak North America demand'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:02 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Nike''s profit tops estimates but margins dip on weak North America demand Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Nike Inc’s ( NKE.N ) growth in international markets helped the company’s quarterly profit and sales beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday, but a drop in gross margins indicated severe price competition in North America, its largest market. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Nike (NKE) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Shares of the world’s largest footwear maker were marginally down at $64.36 in after-market trading. Nike’s second-quarter gross margins fell 1.2 percentage points to 43 percent due to stronger dollar and higher production costs, the company said. The company’s selling and administrative expenses for the quarter rose 10 percent as it spent more on advertising to create demand in the muted North American market. Fall in demand for its footwear and sports equipment in North America led to a 5 percent decline in revenue from the market but it was more than offset by increased demand from Greater China and European regions. Quarterly revenue from Greater China rose 16 percent and European region 19 percent. Net income fell to $767 million, or 46 cents per share, in the quarter ended Nov. 30, from $842 million, or 50 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, the Beaverton, Oregon-based company earned 46 cents per share on revenue of $8.55 billion. Analysts on average had expected adjusted earnings of 40 cents per share and revenue of $8.39 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nike-results/nikes-profit-tops-estimates-but-margins-dip-on-weak-north-america-demand-idUKKBN1EF2WP'|'2017-12-22T00:01:00.000+02:00'
'7bfc6a1aa01af6104ecca39b74f1988d71ae5c32'|'Two final bidders chosen for Austrian airline Niki'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:10 PM / Updated 4 hours ago IAG among bidders chosen for Austrian airline Niki - sources Klaus Lauer 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - IAG ( ICAG.L ), the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling, is one of the four bidders selected for the final stages of talks over the assets of insolvent Austrian airline Niki, three people familiar said. FILE PHOTO - A Niki logo is seen at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader IAG had made an offer for Niki as a whole and was the frontrunner in talks for the carrier, the three sources told Reuters. If no deal is struck with IAG, it is possible that Niki will be carved up among several buyers. British tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Niki’s founder, former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda, are also among the four, Lauda told German daily Handelsblatt. The administrators running the process aim to agree a deal by the end of next week, one of the administrators said on Friday. They did not confirm the identity of the bidders. Lauda, who set up the airline in 2003, said he had been told a decision was to be made on Dec. 28. Niki was part of collapsed Air Berlin. It filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) backed out of a deal to buy its assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its takeoff and landing slots, its most attractive asset. FILE PHOTO - Former trustee of insolvent German airline Air Berlin Lucas Floether holds a news conference in Berlin, Germany September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos Six parties submitted offers by a Thursday deadline, five of which were binding, Niki administrator Lucas Floether said in a statement on Friday, without providing details. “The bidders are very interested, and I am confident that it will be possible to save large parts of the business and many jobs in Austria and Germany,” he said. A German newspaper had also named Tuifly, the airline of tour operator TUI ( TUIT.L ), as one of the bidders for Niki, and Swiss carrier PrivatAir had expressed interest. Niki parent Air Berlin, IAG, Thomas Cook and Tuifly declined to comment. PrivatAir was not available for immediate comment. All of the bidders picked for further talks have indicated that they are prepared to provide Niki with funding to keep it going as soon as a deal is agreed, Floether said. The head of Niki’s works council, Stefan Tankovits, said that December salaries would be paid to the airline’s staff. If Niki’s administrators fail to seal a deal for Niki’s assets by the end of December, the carrier may lose its operating licence and its runway slots, but Floether said on Friday that Austrian regulators may give the parties a few extra days if an agreement is struck by the end of next week. Additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle in Vienna, Paul Sandle in London and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-niki/niki-administrators-pick-two-bidders-for-final-stage-talks-idUKKBN1EG1BM'|'2017-12-22T15:42:00.000+02:00'
'2f0e314560c3d60323d974d793ce624675425b47'|'Some U.S. automakers go slow on automatic emergency braking systems'|'December 22, 2017 / 2:27 AM / Updated 12 hours ago Some U.S. automakers go slow on automatic emergency braking systems David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. automakers installed automatic emergency braking technology that experts said could prevent thousands of deaths and injuries in just 19 percent of new vehicles sold in the 2017 model year, regulators and safety advocates said on Thursday. Last year, 20 automakers struck a voluntary agreement with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to make collision-avoiding braking systems standard equipment on nearly all light vehicles by September 2022, representing 99 percent of all U.S. vehicle sales. The push comes as U.S. traffic deaths jumped 5.6 percent in 2016 to a decade-high 37,461, and pedestrian deaths rose 9 percent to 5,987, the highest number since 1990. By 2025, standard automatic braking systems could prevent 28,000 crashes and 12,000 injuries, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimated. Automatic braking systems, which activate brakes when the technology senses objects ahead and the driver does not slow down, require more sensors and software than conventional brakes and add to vehicle costs. Automakers say they need time to engineer the systems that use radar or cameras into vehicles as part of more comprehensive makeovers. Luxury automakers have been quick to install the systems, while others have lagged. Tesla Inc and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit have installed the technology on virtually all vehicles sold, according to figures released by NHTSA. Slideshow (3 Images) Toyota Motor Corp has the largest number of 2017 model vehicles with automatic emergency braking, equipping 56 percent of its fleet, or 1.4 million vehicles. Volkswagen AG’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) VW brand has it in 36 percent of vehicles, while its Audi unit has it in 73 percent of vehicles. Its Porsche unit did not install the technology on any 2017 vehicles. Subaru Corp has the technology in nearly all vehicles sold. General Motors Co installed the technology on 20 percent of vehicles sold, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has it in 6 percent and Ford Motor Co just 2 percent - the lowest of any major automaker. Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India’s Tata Motors did not install the technology on any 2017 vehicles. GM said it continues to expand availability of automatic emergency braking, and about two thirds of its U.S. models offer the system. Ford spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said the automaker offers automatic emergency braking on a number of vehicles and has “a plan to standardize over time.” Fiat Chrysler backs the 2022 commitment, and a spokesman said it is offering automatic emergency braking on a growing number of vehicles. Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said automakers are “playing roulette with the lives of consumers who cannot afford safety as a luxury.” He said NHTSA must write mandatory regulations, not rely on a voluntary agreement. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Susan Thomas and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-autos-safety/some-u-s-automakers-go-slow-on-automatic-emergency-braking-systems-idUSKBN1EG07H'|'2017-12-22T04:35:00.000+02:00'
'0e0cbe131e72c5254226b9bcdda955934839aabe'|'AT&T, Time Warner extend merger deadline until June'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:22 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago AT&T, Time Warner extend merger deadline until June Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - AT&T Inc and media and entertainment group Time Warner Inc, which are seeking to merge despite U.S. Justice Department opposition, extended the termination date for their deal to June 21, AT&T said in a filing on Friday. The Justice Department sued in November to stop the $85 billion deal, and a trial is to begin on March 19. Judge Richard Leon said during a hearing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in early December that he would likely not have a decision by the deadline in the companies’ merger agreement, but would rule in late April or May. Under a previous agreement, either company could terminate the deal if it was not completed as of April 22. (Reporting by Diane Bartz)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/time-warner-ma-att/brief-att-time-warner-each-waived-right-to-terminate-merger-agreement-until-june-21-2018-idUSFWN1OM0EJ'|'2017-12-22T17:19:00.000+02:00'
'0c8309d08cbca1eb949f324708984f9b6eb050bf'|'Air Berlin collapse added to Lufthansa''s fourth-quarter revenues - CEO'|'December 22, 2017 / 11:13 PM / in 16 hours Air Berlin collapse added to Lufthansa''s fourth-quarter revenues - CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) expects the collapse of smaller peer Air Berlin to have helped add around 150 million euros to its fourth-quarter revenues, Chief Executive Carsten Spohr told a German newspaper. FILE PHOTO - Planes of German air carrier Lufthansa AG are seen on the tarmac at Frankfurt airport in Frankfurt, Germany, June 7, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo But he also said the added sales were offset by considerable additional costs, which he did not quantify, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Lufthansa added capacity after Air Berlin ceased flying in late October, for instance by using a 747 jumbo jet for the short flight between Frankfurt and Berlin to meet additional demand on that popular route. The German flagship carrier had planned to buy large parts of Air Berlin’s business when it was carved up, but it last week abandoned plans to buy Austrian unit Niki, which subsequently also filed for insolvency. According to Frankfurter Allgemeine, Lufthansa had already provided around 70 million euros in funding to Niki to keep its planes flying when antitrust concerns forced it to back out of the purchase. It stands a slim chance of recovering that money due to Niki’s insolvency. The administrators of Niki are currently in talks with possible buyers for the Austrian unit and aim to strike a deal by the end of next week. Reporting by Maria Sheahan, editing by G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/air-berlin-lufthansa/air-berlin-collapse-added-to-lufthansas-fourth-quarter-revenues-ceo-idINKBN1EG2DP'|'2017-12-23T01:10:00.000+02:00'
'5cf9654272bfe9d8a4edfdca43bc04fa2e3e6007'|'Green shoots at BlackBerry? Fallen phone giant turns its hand to software - Technology'|'The Observer Green shoots at BlackBerry? Fallen phone giant turns its hand to software Chief executive John Chen has yet to reverse the company’s slide – but a positive response from investors is pushing up its shares BlackBerry has been transformed from one-time smartphone giant into small software company. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images The Observer Green shoots at BlackBerry? Fallen phone giant turns its hand to software Chief executive John Chen has yet to reverse the company’s slide – but a positive response from investors is pushing up its shares Sat 23 Dec ‘17 16.00   Share on Messenger Close R emember BlackBerry? The one-time giant of smartphones has gone through tumultuous times over the past six years, and become a much smaller software company. Its results last week showed just how small: third-quarter revenues were $226m (£169m), its lowest three-monthly total since 2004, with an operating loss of $258m. The Canadian company’s chief executive, John Chen , is a turnaround specialist who believes that the future is in self-driving cars, where automakers and software firms alike see huge promise. It is investing hope in QNX, which it bought in 2010: a maker of software that underpins car entertainment and data systems. That is a long way from the early 2000s, when BlackBerry was one of the world’s biggest smartphone makers and Apple had yet to launch the all-conquering iPhone. A failure to adapt to trends like keyboard-less devices was its undoing as iPhones and Android phones took off. Then came a calamitous multi-billion bet on a new phone operating system, BB10, in 2013. It abandoned handsets altogether last year and the road ahead remains rocky – not least due to the state of its finances. Nonetheless, analysts see potential in the ashes. The stock jumped from $11 to over $12 last week, as investors liked what they found in the figures: for instance, a new record for revenue from software and services, at $199m. BlackBerry stock is now back at levels it hasn’t seen since mid-2013. “It’s pretty impressive, beating on both the top and bottom lines,” Ali Mogharabi, an analyst at research firm Morningstar, told Reuters . “The growth specifically in enterprise software is good to see.” Chen was quietly famous in the business world for having saved Sybase, which had looked in 1998 as if it might wither away. Chen saw that the would-be database company had lost out badly to Oracle, and decided to focus on the “unwired enterprise” – mobile services. That decision allowed Sybase to regain its primacy in new markets; it was sold to the enterprise software giant SAP for $5.8bn in 2010, compared to its market capitalisation when Chen took over of $362m – a 16-fold growth in value in 12 years. The auto sector is our best chance at revenue growth John Chen, BlackBerry But can he do it again at BlackBerry? In many ways Chen is repeating the formula that saved Sybase: look for new opportunities while letting what remains of the customer base cover other costs. Thus he has focused on the software side, where operating margins often beat 50%, unlike hardware, which often struggles to get into double digits. Speaking after the results, Chen pointed to new contracts with the US and Dutch governments, and with Nato. BlackBerry’s purchase in September 2015 of Good Technology, which writes software for remote management of smartphones, means it no longer relies on selling its own handsets but can administer everyone else’s. He also suggested that patent licensing could bring in $100m over the financial year – essentially free money, as the patents were often acquired years ago. But the biggest move may be on “embedded” software, where QNX is a crucial part of a much bigger trend of making cars and other vehicles that run almost entirely on software. BlackBerry has signed deals with Ford and automotive parts makers such as Denso, Delphi, Bosch and Scion. Talking to the Wall Street Journal , Chen said: “The auto sector is our best chance at revenue growth.” QNX is able to handle real-time events and multiple demands in a way that software used on smartphones or PCs cannot; more than 60 million vehicles were using QNX by the end of 2015 . John Chen, BlackBerry’s chief executive. Photograph: Aaron Harris/Reuters But most of them were using it for entertainment systems; Chen wants more. “Infotainment is a handful of dollars apiece,” he said. “We’re trying to enhance that with higher ASP [average selling prices] by getting into different components … All the design [contract] wins, whether with Denso or Delphi, they’re in these areas that’s beyond just traditional infotainment systems. This is why I feel bullish about the overall business on a longer term in terms of growth.” However, that’s in the future. Chen hasn’t pulled the company out of its revenue dive yet. Despite the focus on more profitable software, profit remains elusive. Since its slide started in the summer of 2011, BlackBerry has made a net loss of $7.3bn, and though $4bn of that was a huge writedown on unsold handsets in autumn 2013, the situation has not improved much since. In the previous financial year, it made a net loss of $1.2bn. For the three quarters of this fiscal year, net profit is $415m – but that includes an whopping $815m payment related to a dispute with chipmaker Qualcomm over handset and chip royalties, and a $137m payment to Nokia over a patent row. Overall, BlackBerry is $678m better off from those disputes: but that shows how far the rest of the business is from profit. Even so, the positive sentiment from analysts and investors is pushing up the stock, and some think that if Chen can push it into profit and get the shares up to the $16 level, the business might even be attractive to a buyer – with Samsung and Oracle having expressed interest in recent years. So far, the price hasn’t been right. But with Chen in charge, having weathered the past few years, there could be a surprise in store in 2018. Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/news/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/23/blackberry-green-shoots-phone-giant-turns-hand-to-software'|'2017-12-23T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'bf163b2ed61a1ba9706e85d84226f00b8f0b3e0e'|'China will guarantee safety, liquidity and value of FX reserves'|'December 22, 2017 / 7:47 AM / Updated 6 hours ago China will guarantee safety, liquidity and value of FX reserves Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s foreign exchange regulator said on Friday it will strengthen forex reserves management and guarantee safety, liquidity and the value of the country’s forex reserves. FILE PHOTO: A China yuan note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo China will also steadily push forward capital account convertibility while fending off cross-border capital flow risks, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said on its website. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-forex-reserves/china-will-guarantee-safety-liquidity-and-value-of-fx-reserves-idINKBN1EG0P4'|'2017-12-22T09:46:00.000+02:00'
'34a3dbcb81fa83c72b8e3dcb6fd121d584b8b063'|'BRIEF-CSX Names James M. Foote President and Ceo'|' 09 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago BRIEF-CSX Names James M. Foote President and Ceo Reuters Staff Dec 22 (Reuters) - CSX Corp: * CSX BOARD OF DIRECTORS NAMES INDUSTRY VETERAN JAMES M. FOOTE PRESIDENT AND CEO * FOOTE WAS NAMED ACTING CEO ON DEC. 14 AFTER E. HUNTER HARRISON WAS PLACED ON MEDICAL LEAVE * FOOTE WILL ALSO JOIN COMPANY‘S BOARD OF DIRECTORS * EXECUTION OF PRECISION SCHEDULED RAILROADING IS “WELL UNDERWAY” Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-csx-names-james-m-foote-president/brief-csx-names-james-m-foote-president-and-ceo-idUSASB0BZ1G'|'2017-12-22T20:08:00.000+02:00'
'7d1ef5b9db3fedde95df39417e62094a61e26e91'|'German pleads not guilty to U.S. charges in Siemens'' Argentine bribe case'|'December 22, 2017 / 10:17 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago German pleads not guilty to U.S. charges in Siemens'' Argentine bribe case Brendan Pierson 3 Min Read NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) - A former Siemens AG employee pleaded not guilty on Thursday to U.S. charges he took part in a $100 million scheme to bribe Argentine officials to win a contract to produce national identity cards, according to prosecutors. Eberhard Reichert, a 78-year-old German national, was released on a $500,000 bond following a hearing before U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, the U.S. Justice Department said. Cote scheduled a trial for July 16. Reichert was arrested in Croatia in September, nearly six years after the U.S. first charged him, and agreed to be extradited to New York, said James Margolin, a spokesman for Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim. Reichert’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. Siemens also could not be reached. Reichert was one of eight Siemens employees indicted on U.S. corruption charges in 2011. According to the indictment, Reichert worked for Siemens from about 1964 to 2001, and was a manager within the company’s Siemens Business Services subsidiary. One other defendant, Andres Truppel, has appeared in U.S. court. Truppel, a former chief financial officer of Siemens Argentina, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in September 2015. Truppel admitted that he participated in a scheme to secure a $1 billion contract with the Argentine government to produce national identity cards by paying tens of millions of dollars. Under a plea deal, Truppel, a citizen of both Germany and Argentina, agreed to cooperate with authorities. Siemens in 2008 agreed to pay over $1.3 billion to resolve wide-ranging bribery investigations in the United States and Germany involving the German engineering group. As part of that deal, Siemens and its subsidiary in Argentina pleaded guilty in the United States to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars companies from bribing foreign officials, and paid $449 million in fines. That plea related to the same $1 billion Argentine contract that became the subject of the indictment against the eight Siemens executives. Siemens won the contract in 1998. Throughout the project, the Siemens executives committed to paying nearly $100 million in bribes to members of the Argentine government and opposition party as well as candidates for office, prosecutors said. Those executives included Uriel Sharef, who had been a member of Siemens’ managing board and became the first ex-board member of a Fortune Global 50 company to be indicted under the FCPA. (Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/siemens-corruption/german-pleads-not-guilty-to-u-s-charges-in-siemens-argentine-bribe-case-idUSL1N1OM1VE'|'2017-12-23T00:16:00.000+02:00'
'ba006c362ee4eca55414d5ec28007ef8276eb022'|'RBS to pay $125 million to settle California mortgage bond claims'|'December 23, 2017 / 4:42 AM / Updated 8 hours ago RBS to pay £94 million to settle California mortgage bond claims Nate Raymond 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc ( RBS.L ) will pay $125 million (£93.6 million pounds) to resolve claims that it made misrepresentations while selling mortgage-backed securities to two large California pension funds, the state’s attorney general said on Friday. People walk past a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The settlement announced by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was the latest by RBS aimed at resolving claims stemming from its sale of mortgage-backed securities, which were at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis. Becerra’s office said those securities were typically backed by thousands of mortgage loans of varying quality in which the buyer relied on the assurance that those mortgages were carefully screened and were not overly risky. RBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Becerra’s office also said its investigations found that RBS failed to accurately disclose to investors the true traits of many of the thousands of mortgages underlying the securities. The probe also found that those misrepresentations led to millions of dollars in losses to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Becerra’s office said. “RBS decided to mislead California’s pension funds in order to line its own pockets -- plain and simple,” Becerra said in a statement. The settlement comes as RBS continues to seek to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into its sales of mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis. In July, RBS agreed to pay $5.5 billion to resolve a lawsuit by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, claiming that it misled the U.S. mortgage giants into buying mortgage-backed securities. In September 2016, the U.S. National Credit Union Administration announced that RBS had agreed to pay $1.1 billion to resolve claims over mortgage-backed securities it sold to credit unions that later failed. (This version of the story corrects repeated reference to CalPERS in sixth paragraph to CalSTRS) Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rbs-settlement/rbs-to-pay-125-million-to-settle-california-mortgage-bond-claims-idUKKBN1EH053'|'2017-12-23T06:41:00.000+02:00'
'2e8ed30c36875ef44b261854c6d13576f22becad'|'Deutsche Bank to cut up to 1,000 jobs in Postbank integration'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:24 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Deutsche Bank to cut up to 1,000 jobs in Postbank integration Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank aims to cut up to 1,000 jobs as part of the planned integration of retail arm Postbank, a spokeswoman for the lender said, confirming an earlier story in German business daily Handelsblatt. The head quarters of Germany''s largest business bank, Deutsche Bank, is photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Up to 250 jobs could be affected at Deutsche Bank and up to 750 at the Postbank unit, the paper said, adding the bank hoped about two-thirds of the reductions could be achieved via early retirement and the rest through severance pay. Employees have until October 2018 to decide, the paper said. Postbank is currently being integrated into Deutsche Bank after Germany’s biggest lender unsuccessfully tried to sell the business. Reporting by Andreas Framke; Writing by Christoph Steitz, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-bank-layoffs/deutsche-bank-to-cut-up-to-1000-jobs-in-postbank-integration-idUKKBN1EE2FH'|'2017-12-20T20:18:00.000+02:00'
'0c2504482f9632b362648cfc3127758d0af93277'|'EU singles out China as distorted state-run economy'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:30 PM / Updated 2 hours ago EU singles out China as distorted state-run economy Philip Blenkinsop 3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union introduced new rules on Wednesday to guard against excessively cheap imports and singled out China for special attention in a report spelling out how its economy is distorted by the state. A worker walks past a steel factory in Beijing April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files In a 465-page report, the European Commission concluded that Beijing exerts a decisive influence over the allocation of resources, such as land or capital, and influences prices of various factors of production “in a very significant manner”. The report is significant because the EU has changed the way it handles anti-dumping cases. After two years of debate on the subject, the EU has agreed that dumping means selling for export at below domestic prices for all World Trade Organization (WTO) members, of which China is one. However, it will take a different approach for cases of “significant market distortions”, an exception expected to cover many Chinese firms, some already subject to import duties. In such cases, it will use international benchmarks to calculate a fair price for a product. The European Commission, which oversees trade policy in the 28-member EU, said reports it produces on industries or sectors are designed to guide EU producers who want to lodge complaints. At the launch of the new rules on Wednesday, it had produced just one report - on China. However, it also said Russia could be next. China last year launched a complaint at the WTO against Europe and the United States over their trade defence practices.. It has also demanded that they recognise its right to be considered a normal “market economy” at the end of 2016, some 15 years after it joined the WTO. However, the Commission report released on Wednesday said China’s “socialist market economy” was something different. It said the Chinese Communist Party sets and controls all aspects of the economic agenda, with banks as instruments to carry it out in a “rigid and distorted” financial system and preferential treatment of domestic companies enshrined. Chinese businesses in targeted sectors receive land at very low prices or even for free, cheap energy, preferential access to capital, artificially low borrowing costs, with highly controlled raw material prices and limited workers’ rights. Separate sections in the report on the steel, aluminium, chemicals and ceramic sectors detail state intervention, leading to overcapacity. While China may have committed to curtailing overcapacity, the report says its industrial policy had led to the opposite, often with state-owned companies leading the charge. The word “distortion” and “intervention” feature respectively 92 and 95 times in the report. Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eu-china-trade/eu-singles-out-china-as-distorted-state-run-economy-idINKBN1EE1YW'|'2017-12-20T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'c4024395fdb68a27ea9ec45b051b0eacb950dc9e'|'French telecoms tycoon Niel to take over Ireland''s eir in $770 million deal'|'December 20, 2017 / 3:24 PM / a few seconds ago French telecoms tycoon Niel to take over Ireland''s eir in $770 million deal Mathieu Rosemain , Gwénaëlle Barzic , Conor Humphries 4 Min Read PARIS/DUBLIN (Reuters) - French telecoms entrepreneur Xavier Niel is to buy a majority stake in eir, Ireland’s former state telecoms monopoly, in a 650 million-euro ($770 million) deal that takes his listed company Iliad ( ILD.PA ) into its second foreign market. FILE PHOTO - Xavier Niel, Founder of French broadband Internet provider Iliad, attends a meeting about very high-speed network services during a visit in Laval, France, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe The complicated structure of the deal involves both Iliad and Niel’s private holding company NJJ buying stakes from a group of investment funds, which analysts said reconciles his expansionary ambitions with a need to keep Iliad’s debt down in readiness for further consolidation in the French market. It also comes as Iliad, which disrupted the French mobile telecoms market five years ago with the launch of its Free service, prepares to launch a service next year in Italy, where it is building a new network. “Clearly we want to keep our balance sheet flexibility for our network rollout and for Italy which is a very interesting geographical diversification,” Chief Financial Officer Thomas Reynaud said during a call with analysts on Wednesday. Under the terms of the transaction, which values eir at about 3.5 billion euros including debt, Iliad will buy a 31.6 percent stake for 320 million euros ($379 million), while NJJ will buy 32.9 percent. In addition Iliad has an option to buy 80 percent of NJJ’s stake in eir in 2024, giving it a further 26.3 percent of the Irish company, according to a statement. Until then, NJJ will have control over eir’s management and Iliad’s involvement will be limited to eir’s board of directors, Niel said. Richard Moat, eir’s chief executive, announced his intention to step down upon completion of the transaction. FINANCIAL FLEXIBILITY A full acquisition of eir by Iliad alone would have compelled the telecoms operator to consolidate eir’s net debt of 2.1 billion euros into the French company’s accounts, thus limiting its capacity to make a larger acquisition, Niel said. FILE PHOTO: French broadband Internet provider Iliad logo is seen in Paris, France, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo The prospect of a potential new round of talks to cut the number of operators in the fiercely competitive French market weighed in that decision. “The surprise is to see Iliad involved in the deal structure,” said Nicolas Didio, an analyst Berenberg. “Ultimately, we believe Iliad will take full control of this asset, but the launch in Italy and the high level of capital expenditure in France mean a full consolidation would tie down too much of Iliad’s balance sheet,” he added. For eir, the deal represents the seventh change of ownership since 1999, a turbulent period during which it got listed and delisted twice and reached the brink of bankruptcy. The company, originally known as Telecom Eireann, is currently building Ireland’s largest fiber broadband network with the aim of reaching 1.9 million homes and businesses by the end of 2018. It had earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization of 520 million euros on revenue of 1.3 billion in the year to June 30. The deal is due to complete in first half of 2018, subject to EU Commission Competition clearance. Before the deal the firm’s largest stakeholders were U.S. hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group with 42 percent, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC with 20.6 percent and U.S. investment firm Davidson Kempner with 14 percent. Anchorage and Davidson Kempner will retain stakes of 26.6 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. ($1 = 0.8442 euros) Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris and Conor Humphries in Dublin; editing by Jason Neely, Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eir-m-a-iliad/french-telecoms-tycoon-niel-to-take-over-irelands-eir-in-770-million-deal-idUKKBN1EE1Y8'|'2017-12-20T17:14:00.000+02:00'
'1b020c96f8888e51406eabb6b2402613f0054a2a'|'Fiat Chrysler in talks over potential diesel emissions settlement'|'December 19, 2017 / 10:31 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Fiat Chrysler in talks over potential diesel emissions settlement David Shepardson 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Lawyers for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and owners of the automaker’s diesel-powered vehicles are in settlement talks over allegations of excess diesel emissions, a court-appointed adviser said Tuesday. In May, the U.S. Justice Department sued Fiat Chrysler, accusing the company of illegally using software that led to excess emissions in nearly 104,000 U.S. diesel vehicles sold since 2014. Numerous suits have been filed by vehicle owners. Court settlement master Ken Feinberg said at a court hearing in San Francisco Tuesday that “term sheets” or proposed settlement documents have been exchanged between Fiat Chrysler and diesel owner lawyers. Feinberg said the proposals were briefly discussed at a meeting Tuesday with the parties, along with the Justice Department, California Air Resources Board and German auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH [ROBG.UL], which develops diesel vehicle systems, and has also been sued by diesel owners. Feinberg said it was “a very healthy discussion on how we might get to yes.” He added he would hold a day of settlement talks in Washington between the Justice Department and Fiat Chrysler in January, along with another day of talks between the automaker, Bosch and diesel owners. There are parallel talks between the Justice Department and Fiat Chrysler and the company and diesel owners aimed at reaching settlements. “We’re looking for different substantive ways to secure an early comprehensive settlement,” Feinberg said, adding a settlement could occur before testing on vehicles is completed in March. “Everybody in good faith is certainly trying to figure out how we might achieve a comprehensive settlement.” In July, Fiat Chrysler won approval from federal and California regulators to sell 2017 diesel vehicles after it came under scrutiny for alleged excess emissions in older diesel models. Fiat Chrysler lawyer Robert Giuffra said in court the company remains confident it can use updated emissions software in the 2017 vehicles as the basis of a fix to address agencies’ concerns over 2014-2016 diesel vehicles. Justice Department lawyer Leigh Rende declined to comment in court on the settlement talks. She said company testing on the proposed fix began on Dec. 17 and would take about three months. The government will then have 30 days to review the results and expects to make a determination by the end of April. Regulators have said Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles had undisclosed emissions controls that allowed vehicles to emit excess pollution during normal driving. The company has denied wrongdoing, saying there was never an attempt to create software to cheat emissions rules. Fiat Chrysler’s emissions case came after Volkswagen AG’s ( VOWG_p.DE ) diesel emissions scandal prompted increased industry scrutiny. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fiat-chrysler-emissions/fiat-chrysler-in-talks-over-potential-diesel-emissions-settlement-idUSKBN1ED2UC'|'2017-12-20T00:29:00.000+02:00'
'f3f3ac81d01c0231f53b797b07fb1f437a5ba506'|'Wall Street takes a breather as tax bill nears passage'|'December 20, 2017 / 2:09 PM / in 27 minutes Wall St. rally stalls as tax bill clears Congress Sruthi Shankar 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes were flat on Wednesday, taking a breather after a month-long rally and as U.S. Treasury yields rose as a bill to cut $1.5 trillion in taxes progressed toward the finish line. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval to a sweeping tax bill which will be the largest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years. The Senate has already voted in favour of the bill. The proposed changes include cutting the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent from Jan. 1, which could boost company earnings and pave the way for higher dividends and stock buybacks. The S&P 500 has climbed about 4.7 percent since mid-November when the House passed the bill, led by a rally in sectors such as transport, banks and others that are expected to benefit the most from lower taxes. Some market analysts say the market has already priced in the approval of the tax bill. “We rallied a lot on sort of a non-event and there is a little bit of head scratching about what’s really new that we should be rallying on,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. “There is no news to take us higher in terms of stocks, part of it could be rotation out of bonds and maybe some nibbling at stocks that perhaps people think will perform well in 2018.” At 12:27 p.m. ET (1727 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13.27 points, or 0.05 percent, at 24,768.02 and the S&P 500 was up 0.64 points, or 0.02 percent, at 2,682.11. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1.84 points, or 0.03 percent, at 6,962.01. Treasury yields hit nine-month highs on optimism the tax overhaul will boost economic growth and as home construction data supported the view of strong fourth-quarter growth. [US/] Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1.2 percent rise in telecoms, considered by some analysts to be the biggest beneficiary of lower taxes. AT&T gained 1.9 percent and Verizon 0.5 percent. Energy stocks also rose 0.8 percent as oil prices rose half a percent, supported by a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories. [O/R] The Dow Jones Transport Index jumped about 1 percent crossing 10,600 points for the first time ever, helped by a surge in FedEx. FedEx jumped nearly 4 percent to a record after its strong results and forecast, saying the tax overhaul would benefit earnings further. Technology stocks, expected to benefit the least from lower taxes, were down 0.17 percent on the S&P 500. Chipmaker Micron was up 4.5 percent after its strong results and forecast. Consumer staples index fell 0.64 percent, weighed down by a 2.1 percent slide in Philip Morris. Reuters reported former Philip Morris employees detailed irregularities in the clinical trials for the company’s e-cigarette, due to be voted on by the U.S. FDA next year. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,618 to 1,200. On the Nasdaq, 1,563 issues rose and 1,277 fell. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Savio D''Souza'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-for-strong-open-as-tax-bill-nears-passage-idINKBN1EE1QY'|'2017-12-20T17:19:00.000+02:00'
'88566ebdb61a944780881260c1af6a1ad591bdfa'|'U.S. aims to keep steep duties on Bombardier jets after Boeing complaint'|'December 20, 2017 / 7:30 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago U.S. aims to keep steep duties on Bombardier jets after Boeing complaint Alana Wise 4 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday finalized steep anti-subsidy duties on Bombardier Inc’s CSeries jets, setting up the next round of a fierce international trade dispute between the United States and Canada. The move announced by the department to impose duties of nearly 300 percent stems from a complaint by rival Boeing Co ( BA.N ) that Bombardier ( BBDb.TO ) had been unfairly and illegally subsidized by the Canadian government, allowing the planemaker to dump its newest jetliner in the U.S. market below cost. “Today’s decision validates Boeing’s complaints regarding Bombardier’s pricing in the United States, pricing that has harmed our workforce and U.S. industry,” Boeing said in a statement after the department decision. Delta Air Lines ( DAL.N ), the second largest U.S. carrier by passenger traffic, has an order for 75 of the 100-to-150 seat CSeries jets. The aircraft starts at $79.5 million, according to list prices, or some $5.9 billion for the total order, but carriers typically receive steep discounts. If imposed, the duties would more than triple the cost of a CSeries aircraft sold in the United States, based on Boeing’s assertion that Delta received the planes for $20 million each, well below an estimated cost of $33 million and what Bombardier charges in Canada. The Commerce Department’s penalty against Bombardier will only take effect if the lesser-known U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) rules in Boeing’s favor, as it so far has, in its final decision expected in early 2018. In its two-part complaint, Boeing called for countervailing duties of 79.41 percent to offset what it described as harmful Canadian subsidies to Bombardier. It also identified a “dumping margin” of 80.5 percent, based on the unpublished prices at which it claims Bombardier sold the CSeries planes to Delta. The department decision follows Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ pledge to aggressively police unfairly traded imports to help shrink U.S. trade deficits. The move comes as the United States, Canada and Mexico are involved in a three-way negotiation to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The rift between the two plane makers could, however, move to a larger stage as Canada weighs a complaint to the World Trade Organization or through NAFTA regarding the dispute. At a contentious Monday hearing of the ITC, Canada warned that a positive finding of material harm to Boeing by the group could represent a possible violation of international trade agreements and prompt a formal objection. Canada earlier this month scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing Super Hornet fighter jets, underlining Ottawa’s anger over the trade challenge. Boeing has said it considered all potential risks before deciding to launch its trade case. U.S.-Canadian trade relations have also chilled recently over disputes over Canadian softwood lumber and U.S. milk protein products.   Tim Ahmann and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Susan Thomas and Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-bombardier/u-s-aims-to-keep-steep-duties-on-bombardier-jets-after-boeing-complaint-idUSKBN1EE2J4'|'2017-12-20T21:28:00.000+02:00'
'9ab3f2734f2cb8bff020dee8662cefc32a6e12ac'|'Scandal-hit Steinhoff''s lenders start cutting credit, shares tumble'|' 25 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Scandal-hit Steinhoff''s lenders start cutting credit, shares tumble Tiisetso Motsoeneng , Arno Schuetze 5 Min Read JOHANNESBURG/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Steinhoff ( SNHG.DE ) ( SNHJ.J ) said on Tuesday it had started to lose credit lines from lenders and was still unable to determine the scale of accounting irregularities which have wiped more than $10 billion off its market value over the past two weeks. A sign is seen in a Poundland store in London, Britain November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo - D1BETPHTDJAA The embattled South African furniture retailer, which once vied with Swedish giant IKEA for global market share, called for support from creditors at a meeting in London as it grapples to contain the worst crisis in its five-decade history. In a presentation prepared for the meeting, it said some credit facilities were being suspended or withdrawn and insurers were cancelling or reducing credit insurance. It said support from its creditors, which include Germany’s Commerzbank AG ( CBKG.DE ) would be needed to maintain stability. Uncertainty about Steinhoff’s finances has hammered its shares, listed in Frankfurt and Johannesburg, since it first disclosed what it described as “accounting irregularities” two weeks ago. The stock tumbled 20 percent further on Tuesday as it became clear the scale of the problem remained unknown. “Given the ongoing forensic review, it is not possible to provide further detail regarding ... whether any additional years financial statements may require restatement,” it said in the presentation, which it published on its website. Steinhoff, which owns Mattress Firm in the United States, Conforama in France and Poundland in Britain, said in a statement on Dec. 7 there was a 2 billion euro ($2.36 billion) hole in its balance sheet. It is sitting on 10.7 billion euros in outstanding debt, according to the presentation, with about 690 million euros notional facilities rolled over to date. It also has three convertible bonds worth 2.7 billion euros. Creditors have started hiring advisors to consider their next moves, according to people familiar with the situation. Several holders of convertible bonds have hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey ( HLI.N ) and law firm Kirkland & Ellis to help them deal with the matter, according to two people close to the matter. Representatives for Houlihan Lokey and Kirkland & Ellis were not immediately available for comment. Holders of 800 million euros in bonds issued by Steinhoff Europe and of other smaller private placements in Germany were considering joint action, a third person said. UNCERTAINTY The lack of clarity has rattled investors. “Today’s message was mainly: we’re working on it. We don’t know anything yet but will come back with more as soon as possible,” a person who listened to Steinhoff’s presentation said. Ryan Woods, a trader at Independent Securities, said of the company’s presentation to lenders. “It points to uncertainty and markets hate it ... More importantly, are banks going to allow them to have their lines of credit?” In its efforts to steady the company, Steinhoff named Chief Operating Officer Danie van der Merwe, a company veteran of two decades, as acting chief executive, the second person to hold the executive role since CEO Markus Jooste quit on Dec. 5. Steinhoff’s top shareholder Christo Wiese initially stepped into the executive post, but abruptly resigned as chairman and de facto CEO last week. Van der Merwe, with acting chairperson Heather Sonn, now has the task of steering the recovery of a firm that grew from a modest distributor of furniture in communist eastern Europe to a global retail empire spanning food, furniture and clothing. Steinhoff had been a “must have” for investors, who were won over by its reinvention and ambition, even though it faced investigation for suspected accounting fraud in Germany since 2015. The company’s primary listing is in Frankfurt. Four current and former managers are under suspicion of overstating revenues at subsidiaries, prosecutors have said. The company has previously said the investigation related to whether revenues were booked properly, and whether taxable profits were correctly declared. Additional reporting by Tanisha; Editing by Edmund Blair and Jane Merriman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-steinhoff-intlnl-results/scandal-hit-steinhoffs-lenders-start-cutting-credit-shares-tumble-idUKKBN1EE012'|'2017-12-20T02:24:00.000+02:00'
'f550958bf4ff3289ff411627518c3d087807c5b9'|'Edelweiss Group unit buys Religare''s securities business'|'December 20, 2017 / 4:49 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Edelweiss Group unit buys Religare''s securities business Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - The wealth management unit of India’s Edelweiss Group has acquired the securities business of domestic financial firm Religare Enterprises Ltd for an undisclosed sum, the two companies said in a statement on Wednesday. The acquisition by Edelweiss Wealth Management will include Religare''s securities and commodities broking services, as well as the depository participant services, according to the statement. bit.ly/2BO1JDx Shares of Religare rose as much as nearly 5 percent to 73.1 rupees in early trade. Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/edelweisswealth-religare-entp-deals/edelweiss-group-unit-buys-religares-securities-business-idINKBN1EE0E6'|'2017-12-20T06:48:00.000+02:00'
'5043977b3c49380a9df83ee62279602767f0f0d0'|'Not aware of free trade deal with access for financial services - EU''s Barnier'|'December 20, 2017 / 11:15 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Not aware of free trade deal with access for financial services - EU''s Barnier Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said he was not aware of any free-trade deal the EU had concluded which included unfettered access for financial services. European Union''s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier speaks during a news conference with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in Sofia, Bulgaria, December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov “I remind you that I‘m not aware of any free-trade deal in the past between the European Union and third countries that would have allowed privileged access for financial services,” Barnier told a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday. Several large London-based financial institutions have already set up subsidiaries in the European Union to preempt the moment Britain leaves the bloc. Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Robin Emmott'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-barnier-finance/not-aware-of-free-trade-deal-with-access-for-financial-services-eus-barnier-idINKBN1EE1A5'|'2017-12-20T13:14:00.000+02:00'
'e72927678d94ea92e8f6e5886a20e36ffaa1dc9f'|'U.S. new home sales race to more than 10-year high in November'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:06 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago U.S. new home sales race to more than 10-year high in November Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Sales of new U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly rose in November, hitting their highest level in more than 10 years, driven by robust demand across the country. The Commerce Department said on Friday new home sales jumped 17.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 733,000 units last month. That was the highest level since July 2007 and followed October’s downwardly revised sales pace of 624,000 units. New home sales surged 26.6 percent from a year ago. That together with last month’s surge in single-family homebuilding and sales of previously owned homes suggests the housing market is regaining momentum after stalling this year. Housing has been constrained by shortages of homes for sale, skilled labor and suitable land for building. Activity was also temporarily restrained by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. October’s new homes sales pace was previously reported at 685,000 units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales falling 4.7 percent to a pace of 654,000 units last month. New home sales, which are drawn from permits, are volatile on a month-to-month basis. They rose in all four regions. In November, the inventory of new homes on the market was unchanged at 283,000 units. At November’s sales pace it would take 4.6 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, the fewest since July 2016 and down from 5.4 months in October. A six-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-homes/u-s-new-home-sales-race-to-more-than-10-year-high-in-november-idUSKBN1EG1RJ'|'2017-12-22T17:06:00.000+02:00'
'231f98fa6b9622b4ac4756e4c32db41bc6eff773'|'Bitcoin slips below $14,000, down 30 percent from record peak'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:22 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago Bitcoin plunges below $12,000, heads for worst week since 2013 Jemima Kelly , Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 5 Min Read NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged by a quarter to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency in manic trading after its blistering ascent to a peak close to $20,000 prompted warnings by experts of a bubble. It capped a brutal week that had been touted as a new era of mainstream trading for the volatile digital currency when bitcoin futures debuted on CME Group Inc, the world’s largest derivatives market on Sunday. Friday’s steep fall bled into the U.S. stock market, where shares of companies that have recently lashed their fortunes to bitcoin or blockchain - its underlying technology - took a hard knock in early trading. The biggest and best-known cryptocurrency had seen a staggering twentyfold increase since the start of the year, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,666 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Sunday and to over $20,000 on other exchanges. Bitcoin has fallen each day since, with losses accelerating on Friday. In the futures market, bitcoin one-month futures on Cboe Global Markets were halted due to the steep price drop, while those trading on the CME hit the limit down threshold. In the spot market, bitcoin fell to as low as $11,159, down more than 25 percent on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, its largest one-day drop in nearly three years. For the week, it was down around a third - its worst performance since April 2013. “After its parabolic-like rally, a crash was imminent and so it has proved,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com in London. “Investors may have also been put off buying bitcoin at those elevated levels amid repeated warnings from experts about the way it had climbed near $20,000.” “A manic upward swing led by the herd will be followed by a downturn as the emotional sentiment changes,” said Charles Hayter, founder and chief executive of industry website Cryptocompare in London. “A lot of traders have been waiting for this large correction.” “With the end of the year in sight a lot of investors will be taking profits and saying thank you very much and closing their books for the holiday period,” he added. FILE PHOTO: A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration/File Photo Warnings about the risks of investing in the unregulated market have increased - Denmark’s central bank governor called it a “deadly” gamble - and there have been worries about the security of exchanges on which cryptocurrencies are bought and sold. South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit said on Tuesday it is shutting down and is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year. Coinbase, a U.S. company that runs one of the biggest exchanges and provides digital “wallets” for storing bitcoins, said on Wednesday it would investigate accusations of insider trading, following a sharp increase in the price of a bitcoin spin-off hours before it announced support for it. CRYPTO-RIVALS A view of Ducatus cafe, the first cashless cafe that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, on their opening day in Singapore December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su As rival cryptocurrencies slid along with bitcoin, the total estimated value of the crypto market fell to as low as $440 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, having neared $650 billion just a day earlier. But other cryptocurrencies surged this week, with investors moving into cheaper digital coins, rather than cashing out of the sector. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market size, soared to almost $900 earlier in the week, from around $500 a week earlier. Ripple, the third-biggest, has more than quadrupled in price since Monday. Stephen Innes, head of trading in Asia-Pacific for retail FX broker Oanda in Singapore, said that there have also been moves out of bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash, a clone of the original cryptocurrency. Oanda does not handle trading in bitcoin. “Most of it is unsophisticated retail traders getting burned badly,” Innes said on bitcoin’s recent retreat. While some say the launch by CME and its rival Cboe Global Markets of bitcoin futures over the last two weeks has given the digital currency some perceived legitimacy, many policymakers remain sceptical. Bitcoin is known to go through wild swings. In November, it tumbled almost 30 percent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 percent from $4,979 to $2,972. Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Jemima Kelly in London; Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro in Tokyo; Editing by Keith Weir and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-bitcoin/bitcoin-extends-losses-slips-below-14000-on-bitstamp-exchange-idINKBN1EG0A9'|'2017-12-22T07:34:00.000+02:00'
'07520d32ebdeb85a86e08f01b10a6f8a12887d0c'|'U.S. consumer spending rises more than expected; savings lowest since 2008'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:52 PM / Updated an hour ago Strong U.S. consumer, business spending bolster Q4 growth picture Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending accelerated in November and shipments of key capital goods orders increased for the 10th straight month, the latest signs of strong momentum in the economy as the year winds down. FILE PHOTO: People shop in Macy''s Herald Square in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo But the bullish growth picture was dimmed somewhat as the reports on Friday also showed household savings dropped last month to their lowest level in more than nine years. Low savings could hurt consumer spending, though economists are optimistic wage growth will pick up next year. They also see a modest lift from a $1.5 trillion tax cut package approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress this week, in the largest overhaul of the tax code in 30 years. The reports came on the heels of bullish data on the labor market, manufacturing and housing. Growth estimates for the October-December quarter are currently as high as a 3.3 percent annualized pace. The economy grew at a 3.2 percent rate in the third quarter. “The economy is firing on both engines, consumer spending and business equipment purchases, as we head into the end of the year. Growth looks well balanced with consumers and businesses likely to carry the expansion into the record books in 2018,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York . The Commerce Department said consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.6 percent last month after gaining 0.2 percent in October. Spending last month was buoyed by an increase in demand for motor vehicles, recreational goods and utilities. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending increased 0.4 percent in November after being unchanged the prior month. Personal income rose 0.3 percent last month, with wages increasing 0.4 percent. With spending outpacing income, households dipped into their savings, which fell to $426.2 billion. That was the lowest level since August 2008 and was down from $466.9 billion in October. The saving rate dropped to a 10-year low of 2.9 percent from 3.2 percent in October. In addition to savings, consumer spending is being driven by record household wealth, thanks to a booming stock market and rising home prices. The stimulus package, which slashes the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent and offers tax cuts for individuals, is a major legislative victory for President Donald Trump. The Trump administration argues that the tax cut will boost both business and consumer spending though many economists only forecast a marginal gains. The individual income tax cuts are skewed toward higher-income households, which economists say have a low propensity to consume. Economists also believe companies will use much of the windfall on share buy-backs and debt reduction. The dollar was trading slightly higher against a basket of currencies. Prices for U.S. Treasuries were lower. INFLATION TAME Despite the increase in spending, monthly inflation remained benign in November. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, rose 0.1 percent in November after gaining 0.2 percent in October. The so-called core PCE increased 1.5 percent in the 12 months through November, picking up from 1.4 percent in October. The core PCE has undershot the Fed’s 2 percent target since mid-2012. Economists expect a tightening labor market to push up inflation next year. Inflation could determine the pace at which the Fed raises interest rates next year. The U.S. central bank increased borrowing costs three times this year and has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. In a second report on Friday, the Commerce Department said shipments of non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending, rose 0.3 percent after surging 1.3 percent in October. Core capital goods shipments are used to calculate equipment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measurement. They have risen every month since February, the longest stretch since the series started in 1992. The increase in core capital goods shipments over the last two months suggested a strong pace of increase in business spending on equipment in the fourth quarter. Business investment in equipment rose at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter. But the momentum in business spending on equipment could be slowing. Core capital goods orders slipped 0.1 percent last month after rising 0.8 percent in October. “Real equipment spending has been on a very strong run in recent quarters, but the recent cooling in the orders data signals that there could be some softening to come,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. In a third report, the Commerce Department said on Friday new home sales jumped 17.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 733,000 units last month. That was the highest level since July 2007. New home sales surged 26.6 percent from a year ago. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy/u-s-consumer-spending-rises-more-than-expected-savings-lowest-since-2008-idINKBN1EG1KM'|'2017-12-22T15:48:00.000+02:00'
'2a9572de528d0823bca1790220b597109168782f'|'Iraqi oil minister says expects oil market to be in balance in first quarter'|'December 25, 2017 / 10:27 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Iraqi oil minister says expects oil market to be in balance in first quarter Ahmed Rasheed 3 Min Read BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Monday he was optimistic there would be a balance between supply and demand by the first quarter of 2018, leading to a boost in oil prices. FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi attends the opening ceremony for a new gas plant at Badra oilfield in Kut province, Iraq December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani Global oil inventories have decreased to an acceptable level and there were positive signs that oil market prices would improve significantly in 2018, Luaibi told journalists. “I am optimistic, and during the first quarter of next year there will be more balance between supply and demand, which will reflect positively on improving global oil prices,” he said. A slight rise in oil production in the United States in December might have some effect on prices, he added. Luaibi was speaking at a signing ceremony with China’s state-run Zhenhua Oil. Iraq reached an agreement with Zhenhua to develop the southern portion of the East Baghdad oilfield. The oil ministry expects the costs needed to develop the oilfield could reach $3 billion, said Abdul Mahdi al-Ameedi, who heads the oil ministry’s licensing and contracts office. Iraq has made significant changes to the new service contract with the Chinese company that links global oil prices and the cost of development, he said. Abdul Mahdi al-Ameedi, who heads the Oil Ministry''s licensing and contracts office, speaks to the media in Baghdad, Iraq December 25, 2017. REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily “It’s a new contract with new amendments which we made to overcome the chokes and lapses in our previous service contracts,” Luaibi told journalists. The new contact will allow Zhenhua to receive a $3.5 fee for each barrel of crude produced from the oilfield, Ameedi said, and will serve as a model for all upcoming contracts with international companies. “The East Baghdad contract was drafted in a way to significantly minimise the cost of oilfield developments. This contract will be a model for the following oil deals,” he said. Iraq plans to utilise 20 million cubic feet of gas produced as a by-product of oil production from the East Baghdad oilfield to supply a nearby power station, Ameedi said. He said he expects the signing of the East Baghdad final deal to take place in March. The head of the state-run Midland Oil Company, Jalal Ahmed, told reporters that the increase of crude output from East Baghdad oilfield, which he said was now producing 10,000 barrels per day, will be used to feed a nearby major electricity station near Baghdad. Jalal also said his company has plans to upgrade production from the Neft Khana oilfield near the Iranian border to 8,000 barrels per day from the current 2,000. Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iraq-oil/iraqi-oil-minister-says-expects-oil-market-to-be-in-balance-in-first-quarter-idUKKBN1EJ0H5'|'2017-12-25T13:58:00.000+02:00'
'c992afd2d5e5aca927ce24793a8982fc29a27a95'|'Amgen estimates its U.S. tax bill at over $6 billion as it repatriates cash'|'December 22, 2017 / 10:11 PM / Updated 17 hours ago Amgen estimates its U.S. tax bill at over $6 billion as it repatriates cash Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amgen Inc ( AMGN.O ) said it expects to incur tax expenses of $6 billion to $6.5 billion over time as it repatriates cash it has accumulated around the world because of the new U.S. tax law signed by President Donald Trump on Friday. Some of the expense is also due to the revaluation of its tax liabilities, the drugmaker said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Amgen did not say how much of its $38.9 billion in cash and other holdings it plans to move back to the United States. To encourage U.S. companies to bring home the more than $2.6 trillion now held overseas, the law sets a one-time tax repatriation rate of 15.5 percent for cash and cash-equivalents and 8 percent for illiquid assets. Amgen said its future U.S. income generally will be taxed at the 21 percent U.S. corporate income tax rate, while its income elsewhere will generally be taxed in the United States at 10.5 percent, reduced by foreign tax credits. It said the tax expenses from moving its cash back to the United States will affect its current generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) earnings forecast, but will not affect its non-GAAP forecast. Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-amgen/amgen-estimates-its-u-s-tax-bill-at-over-6-billion-as-it-repatriates-cash-idUSKBN1EG2CF'|'2017-12-23T00:10:00.000+02:00'
'4bdc9a1e3c218fefeac321653a1d254930e50991'|'Japan stocks inch down; financial slip, real estate shares gain'|'December 25, 2017 / 1:48 AM / Updated 12 hours ago Japan stocks inch down; financial slip, real estate shares gain Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average inched lower on Monday, weighed by losses on Wall Street at the end of last week, although movement was confined to a narrow range with many other major markets shut for Christmas. The Nikkei was 0.08 percent lower at 22,884.60. Of Tokyo’s 33 subsectors, 16 were in the red, led by securities and banking after their U.S. financial peers lost steam on Friday following their recent strong performance. The gaining subsectors were led by real estate, which saw U.S. peers among the top gainers on S&P on Friday. Denim clothing store operator Jeans Mate soared 14.3 percent after reporting that its December existing store sales increased 13.2 percent year-on-year. Furniture and interior goods seller Nitori Holdings sank 6.6 percent after the company saw its operating profit for the nine months through to Nov. 20 rise a modest 0.3 percent to 70.4 billion yen ($621.58 million). Nitori’s sales for the same period increased 11.5 percent but costs of opening stores and renovations to existing ones were seen to have curbed profits. Cryptocurrency related shares slipped following recent wild swings in bitcoin. Internet provider GMO Internet Inc, which is engaged in the “mining” of bitcoin, fell 4.9 percent. Remixpoint Inc, an operator of virtual currency trading post services, dropped 3 percent. The broader Topix was 0.1 percent lower at 1,826.93. ($1 = 113.2600 yen) (Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/japan-stocks-inch-down-financial-slip-real-estate-shares-gain-idUSL4N1OP12E'|'2017-12-25T03:47:00.000+02:00'
'13f5182a517f83f83d54e3b37acf8e601fef4a3d'|'Russian finance ministry to increase foreign currency buying in 2018'|'December 26, 2017 / 11:13 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Russian finance ministry to increase foreign currency buying in 2018 Darya Korsunskaya 4 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian finance ministry plans to increase purchases of foreign currency for its reserves next year, reducing ruble volatility in a presidential election year, the Finance Minister said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin After two years of recession and a draining of reserves amid a sharp drop in the price of oil, Russia’s key export, the finance ministry has decided to replenish coffers and insulate the ruble by setting a budget rule. According to the rule, the finance ministry will buy dollars and other foreign currency when Russia’s crude blend Urals URL-E trades above $40 per barrel, the level factored into the budget. The higher the oil price, the bigger the forex purchases would be. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the finance ministry could spend around 2 trillion rubles ($35 billion) on foreign currency next year if Urals prices are at $54-55 per barrel. Urals crude last traded at $64.35 per barrel. “This would more than offset the envisaged reserves spending next year,” Siluanov said, adding that his ministry would increase foreign exchange purchases next year to level of up to 70 percent of non-oil and gas budget revenues from around 30-40 percent at present. Speaking to reporters, Siluanov said the increased foreign currency purchases would reduce the ruble’s vulnerability to volatility on capital markets in 2018. President Vladimir Putin, who will seek re-election for another six years in March, said this year the ruble’s stability was more important than its actual exchange rate. If oil prices average $60 per barrel, the finance ministry would buy around 2.8 trillion rubles, Siluanov said. Analysts at ING had predicted the finance ministry would increase its foreign currency purchases to more than $27 billion in 2018 from around $15 billion in 2017. The central bank carries out these purchases for the finance ministry but does not consider them as interventions aimed at bringing the ruble to a certain level as the rouble has had a free-floating status since 2015. Siluanov said he expected the ruble, trading in a range between 57 and 59 versus the dollar for a few weeks, to stay at these levels in 2018 if oil prices hover near $55 per barrel. The ruble forecast is valid if “there are no new additional sanctions and nuisances due to external restrictions,” Siluanov said. Russian authorities largely dismiss risks of new U.S. sanctions, which could be imposed in 2018 and could ban purchases of Russian debt, but are still bracing themselves for possible shocks in 2018. BUDGET DEFICIT Russia is likely to run a smaller-than-expected budget deficit this year as some of the planned spending has been postponed until next year, Siluanov said. The 2017 deficit is now seen at 1.5 trillion rubles, which accounts for 1.6 percent of gross domestic product, Siluanov said. The earlier approved budget plan envisaged a budget deficit of 2.1 percent of GDP. The budget deficit target for 2018 stands at 1.3 percent of GDP. Part of the budget shortfall next year will be covered by Russia’s No.1 state-owned lender Sberbank ( SBER.MM ) that is expected to channel around 130 billion rubles worth of dividends to the budget, Siluanov said. Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-finmin/russian-finance-ministry-to-increase-foreign-currency-buying-in-2018-idUKKBN1EK0ON'|'2017-12-26T13:09:00.000+02:00'
'de8280b3380cc71c7b38c7b023435921239d4f09'|'Ukraine and Russia both claim victory in gas dispute'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:07 PM / Updated an hour ago Ukraine and Russia both claim victory in gas dispute Pavel Polityuk 3 Min Read KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom both claimed victory on Friday in a long-running gas dispute, each saying a Stockholm court had ruled in its favour over a gas contract. The logo of Russian gas giant Gazprom is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin The dispute is a by-product of the worsening relations between Kiev and Moscow since Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the eruption of Russian-backed separatist violence in Ukraine’s Donbass region, which has killed more than 10,000 people. In June 2014, Gazprom and Naftogaz lodged multi-billion-dollar claims against each other with a Stockholm arbitration court, which resolves commercial disputes. In line with its policy, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce declined to comment or even to confirm it is handling the case, so it was not possible to obtain an impartial account of what is the final ruling in this case. Gazprom appealed a May ruling by the court over a ‘take-or-pay’ clause in a 2009-2019 contract between the two countries. Naftogaz on Friday said the court had again rejected Gazprom’s $56 billion claim on this issue and other points. “Naftogaz won the gas sales arbitration case against Gazprom on all issues in dispute,” Naftogaz said in an emailed statement. It said the ruling was worth around $75 billion to Naftogaz in the long term, but did not give a breakdown on how it reached the estimate. A man walks past the headquarters of the Ukrainian national joint stock company NaftoGaz in central Kiev, Ukraine, March 15, 2016. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko With its claim, Naftogaz had sought a lower price for Russian gas and disputed the take-or-pay clause requiring buyers to pay for gas whether they take physical delivery or not. Gazprom, however, said the court had backed most of its claims and ruled that the main terms of the contract between Naftogaz and Gazprom were valid. Gazprom’s shares were up by 0.2 percent, in line with broader Moscow stock exchange. Gazprom said the Stockholm court had ordered Naftogaz to pay more than $2 billion to Gazprom for gas supply arrears and that it had also ordered Naftogaz to buy 5 bcm of gas from Gazprom annually from 2018. “The main thing is that Naftogaz managed to avoid tens of billions of dollars worth of claims on take-or-pay clauses, it could have been an unbearable burden both for Naftogaz and the state,” Fitch Ratings analyst Dmitry Marinchenko said. Pricing disputes in the past led to Russian gas supplies disruptions to Europe via Ukraine, including in 2009 and 2006. Since then Russia has been pushing for new pipeline projects via the Baltic and Black seas to bypass Ukraine. In a separate claim still pending before the Stockholm court, Naftogaz is seeking up to $16 billion from Gazprom in relation to a transit contract. A decision is expected in February 2018. The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce says on its web site that it offers arbitration and mediation services to Swedish and international parties who wish to have their disputes resolved outside the public courtroom. Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Vladimir Soldatkin and Oksana Kobzeva in Moscow, Simon Johnson in Stockholm; writing by Alessandra Prentice and Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Matthias Williams and Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-russia-gazprom/ukraine-and-russia-both-claim-victory-in-gas-dispute-idINKBN1EG1R8'|'2017-12-22T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'0f535d36cc6558d01eb1e3fa06375ed670d4d8f3'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX barely gains; Great Canadian Gaming jumps'|' 29 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX barely gains; Great Canadian Gaming jumps Reuters Staff (Adds details, updates prices to close) * TSX ends up 1.71 points, or 0.01 percent, at 16,133.35 * Seven of the TSX’s 10 main groups move higher * Decliners just outnumber advancers overall By Alastair Sharp TORONTO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index made a small gain on Tuesday, boosted by a surge in Great Canadian Gaming Corp after it won a gaming contract and helped by rises among some miners, major banks and other financial stocks. * The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index finished up just 1.71 points, or 0.01 percent, at 16,133.35, losing steam in afternoon trade after a broad rally had pushed it close to the all-time high hit the prior session. * Seven of its 10 main groups ended higher, although there were slightly more decliners than advancers overall. * Great Canadian Gaming jumped 15.0 percent to C$34.37 after it and Clairvest Group Inc said they had won a contract to operate gaming venues in the Toronto area. * Both the materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, and the energy group added 0.2 percent, while financials group gained 0.1 percent. Those three sector combine to account for almost two-thirds of the index’s weight. * Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce rose 1 percent to C$121.65, while insurer Manulife Financial Corp added 0.5 percent to C$26.82. * Sandstorm Gold Ltd rose 0.8 percent to C$6 after agreeing to buy a royalty stake in a mine in Burkina Faso. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Alistair Bell and James Dalgleish)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-barely-gains-great-canadian-gaming-jumps-idUSL1N1OJ1WX'|'2017-12-19T23:27:00.000+02:00'
'df12ca84ba9365abd2b8d6790c72f9e4f6a4540e'|'ArcelorMittal to sell Piombino steel mill to Arvedi to help clear Ilva deal'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:33 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago ArcelorMittal to sell Piombino steel mill to Arvedi to help clear Ilva deal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MILAN (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal has reached a preliminary agreement to sell its steel mill in Piombino, Italy to Italian steelmaker Arvedi to help get clearance from EU authorities for its purchase of Ilva, Europe’s largest steel plant. FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen on the roof of the ArcelorMittal steelworks headquarters in Ostrava, Czech Republic, April 1, 2016. REUTERS/David W Cerny/File Photo ArcelorMittal, the world’s top steelmaker, reached a 1.8-billion-euro ($2.1 billion) deal to buy Ilva, in southern Italy, in June but the purchase has since stalled thanks to legal challenges and an EU anti-trust investigation. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the deal was struck this week, and that ArcelorMittal was moved to dispose of Piombino due to EU concerns over market concentration in the galvanised steel sector. The sources did not provide any other details. ArcelorMittal and Arvedi declined to comment. Galvanised steel is used in the autos, white goods and construction sectors. The Piombino mills make 800,000 tonnes per year of the product. EU antitrust authorities in November upgraded their investigation into ArcelorMittal’s proposed takeover of Ilva, fearing it will lead to steel price hikes. European steel prices are up some 85 percent since Jan. 1 2016. A few weeks after the anti-trust filing, the Puglia and Taranto regions of Italy filed an appeal against the Italian government’s approval of ArcelorMittal’s environmental plan for Ilva. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni wrote to the governor of Puglia and mayor of Taranto on Friday, urging them to drop a lawsuit that could scupper the deal and sink the planned clean-up operation for Ilva. “I ask you to withdraw your suit from the regional courts and not imperil the environmental clean-up,” Gentiloni said. The Puglia governor, Michele Emiliano, said he would be happy to meet the prime minister but declined to drop the lawsuit. ArcelorMittal’s proposed takeover of Ilva comes as steel majors Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp are looking to combine their European assets, meaning anti-trust authorities are on high alert. To allay their concerns, Italy’s state holding company CDP and Intesa Sanpaolo have signed a non-binding agreement to join ArcelorMittal’s bid for Ilva, replacing former bid partner Marcegaglia, an Italian steel processing firm. The Ilva plant has been dogged by charges of corruption and environmental crime for years. In 2012, Italian authorities ruled emissions from the plant had caused deaths, tumours and respiratory diseases. About half the plant’s annual 11 million tonne capacity was eventually mothballed. Reporting by Massimiliano di Giorgio, additional reporting by Steve Scherer and Crispian Balmer. Writing by Maytaal Angel, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/arcelormittal-italy-ilva/arcelormittal-to-sell-piombino-steel-mill-to-arvedi-to-help-clear-ilva-deal-idINKBN1EG1WT'|'2017-12-22T18:31:00.000+02:00'
'4bb5afcc18ae88cfcdf1edc1a84a1b633953d2d9'|'UK business confidence rises to five-month high in Dec. - Lloyds'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:04 AM / Updated 10 hours ago UK business confidence rises to five-month high in December - Lloyds David Milliken 3   Confidence among British businesses has picked up to its highest level since July as firms expect a busier 2018, though optimism remains well below its level before last year’s Brexit vote, a survey by Lloyds Bank showed on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Lloyds’ business barometer rose to +28 in December from +24 in November, compared with a pre-referendum average of +44. Official data due at 0930 GMT is expected to confirm that British annual economic growth held at 1.5 percent in the three months to September, compared with an average of more than 2 percent before the referendum to leave the European Union. “The results point to the economy continuing to expand in the fourth quarter at a similar pace to recent quarters,” Lloyds economist Hann-Ju Ho said. “However, larger companies reported the weakest business prospects as well as the biggest concerns about the impact of Brexit,” he said. Britain is due to leave the EU in March 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May this month secured agreement from other EU countries to move talks on to trade and transitional arrangements, after progress on other issues. But the EU is likely to restrict British access to its markets after any transition, unless May reverses her decision to put limits on migration from the bloc. Reducing migration was a key reason why many Britons voted to leave the EU. Earlier this week IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said British economic growth was likely to slow further next year as businesses held off from investment in the run-up to Brexit and consumers suffered from high inflation. A separate survey by market research firm YouGov and economics consultancy Cebr showed a partial recovery in consumer sentiment after it sank in November to its lowest since just after the Brexit vote. December’s monthly gain was the biggest since the start of the year and was driven by home-owners’ greater optimism about house prices - a view at odds with most economists and property valuers, who see prices broadly flat next year. Consumers’ assessment of their personal financial situation was still the bleakest since January 2014. The YouGov/Cebr survey was based on responses from 6,000 people over the past month. The Lloyds data came from 300 firms with annual sales of more than 1 million pounds ($1.34 million) questioned between Nov. 27 and Dec. 11. Britain’s deal to advance to a second phase of divorce talks was clinched on Dec. 8. YouGov linked the progress in the negotiations to the improvement in its consumer confidence index. ($1 = 0.7491 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy/uk-business-confidence-rises-to-five-month-high-in-dec-lloyds-idUKKBN1EG007'|'2017-12-22T02:03:00.000+02:00'
'56d0987eb81e59a0ff32b3e2422a7ea2b5364407'|'Niki administrators pick two bidders for final-stage talks'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:15 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago IAG among bidders chosen for Austrian airline Niki: sources Klaus Lauer 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - IAG ( ICAG.L ), the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling, is one of the four bidders selected for the final stages of talks over the assets of insolvent Austrian airline Niki, three people familiar said. IAG had made an offer for Niki as a whole and was the frontrunner in talks for the carrier, the three sources told Reuters. If no deal is struck with IAG, it is possible that Niki will be carved up among several buyers. British tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Niki’s founder, former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda, are also among the four, Lauda told German daily Handelsblatt. The administrators running the process aim to agree a deal by the end of next week, one of the administrators said on Friday. They did not confirm the identity of the bidders. Lauda, who set up the airline in 2003, said he had been told a decision was to be made on Dec. 28. Niki was part of collapsed Air Berlin. It filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) backed out of a deal to buy its assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its takeoff and landing slots, its most attractive asset. Six parties submitted offers by a Thursday deadline, five of which were binding, Niki administrator Lucas Floether said in a statement on Friday, without providing details. “The bidders are very interested, and I am confident that it will be possible to save large parts of the business and many jobs in Austria and Germany,” he said. A German newspaper had also named Tuifly, the airline of tour operator TUI ( TUIT.L ), as one of the bidders for Niki, and Swiss carrier PrivatAir had expressed interest. Niki parent Air Berlin, IAG, Thomas Cook and Tuifly declined to comment. PrivatAir was not available for immediate comment. All of the bidders picked for further talks have indicated that they are prepared to provide Niki with funding to keep it going as soon as a deal is agreed, Floether said. The head of Niki’s works council, Stefan Tankovits, said that December salaries would be paid to the airline’s staff. If Niki’s administrators fail to seal a deal for Niki’s assets by the end of December, the carrier may lose its operating licence and its runway slots, but Floether said on Friday that Austrian regulators may give the parties a few extra days if an agreement is struck by the end of next week. Additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle in Vienna, Paul Sandle in London and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki/niki-administrators-pick-two-bidders-for-final-stage-talks-idUSKBN1EG1C7'|'2017-12-22T14:14:00.000+02:00'
'52ea8d68c5c1d4f18c70883ff616364b30023ebb'|'Fiat Chrysler to recall 1.8 million trucks to fix shifter issue'|'December 22, 2017 / 7:52 PM / Updated 42 minutes ago Fiat Chrysler to recall 1.8 million trucks to fix shifter issue Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s U.S. unit said on Friday it would recall about 1.8 million trucks in the United States, Canada, Mexico and some other markets to fix a part if not operating could allow the driver to shift out of park without depressing the brake pedal. The automaker said it was aware of seven potentially related injuries and a “small number” of potentially related accidents. The recall is limited to vehicles equipped with shifters mounted on their steering columns. Those with rotary-dial shifters or floor-mounted shifters are unaffected, FCA US LLC said. All model-year 2017 trucks built after Dec. 31 are excluded, the company said. The brake transmission shift interlock (BTSI) may not function properly if subjected to specific high-temperature conditions for prolonged periods, the company said, adding that if it becomes disabled it could also allow the driver to shift out of park without the key in the ignition. Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fiat-chrysler-recall/fiat-chrysler-to-recall-1-8-million-trucks-to-fix-shifter-issue-idUSKBN1EG26T'|'2017-12-22T21:52:00.000+02:00'
'f6513ba1de7dd2c13c033ed64f30a04435ca7291'|'CNN to end daily Snapchat show "The Update" from 2018'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:38 PM / Updated an hour ago CNN to end daily Snapchat show ''The Update'' from 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc’s CNN will stop producing its daily show on Snap Inc’s Snapchat app, called the “The Update”, from 2018, the two companies said on Friday. CNN began streaming the daily show on Snapchat in August, featuring at least five news stories in each episode from around the world in efforts to attract younger viewers. CNN was an original content partner for Discover, a Snapchat feature introduced in early 2015 that allows users to watch stories from publishers. “We plan to keep working together and mutually decided to hit pause as we explore the best opportunities for doing that,” a joint statement said. Shares of Snap were down 1.5 percent at $15.13 in morning trading. Known for its messages that disappear seconds after they are read, Snapchat is wildly popular among millennials, but faces stiff competition from Facebook Inc and its photo-sharing app Instagram. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cnn-snapchat-show/cnn-to-end-daily-snapchat-show-the-update-from-2018-idUSKBN1EG1WB'|'2017-12-22T18:19:00.000+02:00'
'f903381ac4c270c71cde82cead5fd1024af16066'|'Carillion says refinancing talks ''progressing well'''|'December 22, 2017 / 7:51 AM / Updated 24 minutes ago Carillion says lenders OK deferral of covenants until April Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Carillion ( CLLN.L ) said on Friday it had received all necessary consents from lenders to defer two financial covenants to April 30 from the end of this year, sending shares in the British builder up more than 5 percent. FILE PHOTO: A Carillion sign is seen in Manchester, Britain July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Hurt by a downturn in new business and costly contract delays, analysts estimate the company is grappling with debt including provisions, pensions and accounts payable of about 1.5 billion pounds ($2.01 billion). Its market capitalisation stands at less than 75 million pounds, Reuters Eikon data shows, reflecting a fall of more than 90 percent in the wake of three profit warnings in the span of five months. On Friday it said discussions with stakeholders regarding its options to cut debt and avoid a breach of debt covenants are “progressing well”. In November, the company issued a third profit warning and said it need some form of recapitalisation as it was at risk of potentially breaching debt covenants. Shares in the company, which helps to maintain British railways and roads, were up 4.3 percent at 0917 GMT. The company this week moved forward the start date for new CEO Andrew Davies to Jan. 22 from April 2. Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-carillion-debt/carillion-says-refinancing-talks-progressing-well-idUKKBN1EG0PC'|'2017-12-22T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'dba0cb9d668afb9eefd2c48f87f98e8bfcd9fa5c'|'UPDATE 1-Celgene''s follicular lymphoma regimen fails clinical trial'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:52 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Celgene''s follicular lymphoma regimen fails clinical trial Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds details of trial) Dec 21 (Reuters) - Celgene Corp said on Thursday it failed to show that combining its cancer drug Revlimid with the cancer drug rituximab was more effective in treating follicular lymphoma than the standard combination of rituximab and chemotherapy. The clinical trial was the first to study a chemotherapy-free regimen in patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma, a slow-growing form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Chemotherapy typically has harsher side effects than more targeted biologic treatments such as Revlimid and rituximab, which is sold by Roche Holding AG under the brand name Rituxan. Results of the late-stage study showed that patients in the Revlimid cohort did not have a greater period of progression-free survival than the chemotherapy group, nor were there more patients who experienced a complete response to the treatment. Michael Yee, an analyst at Jefferies, said the result “is not that big of a surprise, given that previous commentary from the company was somewhat mixed.” Celgene shares fell 5.8 percent to $102.10 in extended trading. (Reporting by Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Jonathan Oatis)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/celgene-study/update-1-celgenes-follicular-lymphoma-regimen-fails-clinical-trial-idUSL4N1OL5VA'|'2017-12-22T00:52:00.000+02:00'
'36375a64f783aed4375006e13710e7dfb2db7831'|'As energy markets evolve, blockchain powers up'|'December 22, 2017 / 9:26 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago As energy markets evolve, blockchain powers up Jeremy Wagstaff 7 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Energy startups have been using blockchain to power electricity sharing in microgrid trials from Texas to Tasmania for a year or so. An Electrify SG engineer shows a powerport that will be installed to record data of photovoltaic solar panels on a rooftop in Singapore, December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su But now companies are moving beyond trials to commercial projects, leveraging the distributed ledger technology for payments and trading on a city-wide and even national scale. “What the internet did for communications, blockchain will do for trusted transactions, and the energy and utilities industry is no exception,” said Stephen Callahan, Vice President, Energy, Environment & Utilities, Global Strategy, at IBM. The trend illustrates how blockchain is swiftly moving beyond financial services and cryptocurrencies, and offers a glimpse of a growing challenge to the $2 trillion energy market. Blockchain is a database of transactions distributed among multiple computers. It solves two key problems in the online world: transacting without the need of a trusted intermediary, and making sure those transactions can’t later be altered, removed or reversed. This appeals to the energy industry in several ways. As the market liberalizes and renewable energy grows, blockchain offers a way to better handle the increasingly complex and decentralized transactions between users, large- and small-scale producers, retailers and even traders and utilities. Blockchain’s use of tokens also offers a way to reward users for saving energy, and for small-scale transactions between individual users with solar panels who are both producers and consumers - known as “prosumers”. Being able to add “smart contracts” onto a blockchain would also make it possible for actions to generate automatic transactions down to the smallest level, where meters and computers could autonomously reconcile supply and demand. “The prospect of being able to track particular electrons via a blockchain as they move onto or off the energy grid has captured the imagination of many companies,” said Daniel Sieck of U.S. law firm Pepper Hamilton. All of this would save money and could transform the way we produce, store and consume electricity, what DHL Energy president Steve Harley calls the “internet of electricity.” ROOM TO GROW The World Energy Council predicts that such decentralized or distributed energy will grow from 5 percent of the market today to 25 percent in 2025. The past few years have seen proofs of concept and trials, from small microgrids to projects by big players such as Shell ( RDSa.L ), BP ( BP.L ) and IBM ( IBM.N ). Few energy companies, however are making significant investments into blockchain technology, says Shane Randolph, managing director at Opportune LLP, an energy consulting firm based in Houston. “The ones that are engaging in the conversation are largely doing ‘blockchain tourism’ without developing applications.” That leaves opportunities for newcomers. Power Ledger, an Australian startup which raised A$34 million ($26 million) in an initial coin offering, or ICO, in October, is building platforms to enable commercial operation ofmicrogrids in Thailand and India and two commercial buildings in West Australia. Slideshow (2 Images) It also recently launched a 200-customer trial microgrid with power retailer Origin Energy ( ORG.AX ) in Sydney. Energi Mine, a UK-based startup, has created a blockchain-based platform to reward energy-saving users with tokens they can use to pay their energy bills or charge their electric vehicles. It says it is already making money, albeit from the artificial intelligence side of its business. A Singapore company called Electrify has been running a price comparison marketplace as the country liberalizes its electricity market. Electrify plans to launch a blockchain-based exchange for all consumers and producers next year, and is talking to one of Japan’s biggest utilities <words deleted>about doing something similar there. Grid+, a U.S. startup, will launch its first retail device next year in Texas, using the Ethereum blockchain to allow users, whether they’re traditional consumers or owners of solar panels and batteries, to buy and sell electricity at wholesale prices. More projects are on the way. Energy startups will have raised about $200 million from initial coin offerings this year alone, with a dozen more planned next year, according to data collected by Reuters. OBSTACLES LINGER But obstacles remain. They include the entrenched nature of the incumbents, and questions about blockchain itself, which is less than a decade old. Martha Bennett, an IT industry analyst at Forrester, points to a “misunderstanding just how immature the technology is.” Then there’s the regulatory landscape. “Because the energy sector is a regulated industry,” said Pepper Hamilton’s Sieck, “widespread adoption of many possible blockchain use cases will require regulator buy-in.” There are signs of that. Singapore’s Energy Market Authority launched a sandbox for energy innovations in October, while U.S. states including Vermont have passed legislation designed to help apply blockchain technology. Skeptics say blockchain may help incumbents rather than disrupt them. However many individuals choose to capture, store and sell power, there will still be a lot of users who won’t bother, says Hugh Halford-Thompson, of BTL Group, which has this year completed gas trading pilots on its internet blockchain with BP, Eni ( ENI.MI ) and Wien Energie. “As a result we are going to see a lot of the larger firms adopting blockchain and absorbing it.” Others disagree, arguing blockchain will empower individuals by automating much of the drudgery of switching between sending power to the grid and receiving it. Omar Rahim, CEO and co-founder of Energi Mine, says blockchain will change user behavior and utilities will only be used when prosumers’ demand and supply don’t match. Most likely, says Tony Masella, an energy consultant at Accenture, it will be more of an evolution. Like the network protocols in the early days of the internet, blockchain “will drive dramatic transformation of the energy industry and unlock value” for everyone involved. “But it will not do so overnight.” Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-energy/as-energy-markets-evolve-blockchain-powers-up-idUKKBN1EG0V1'|'2017-12-22T11:14:00.000+02:00'
'5f047d261b9bf2f19ae1d790cbe27062bb361b05'|'Cathay pilots favour raising funds as buffer amid anger over bonuses'|'December 22, 2017 / 8:20 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago Angry Cathay pilots vote to raise funds as buffer for potential management action Jamie Freed 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Pilots at Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd ( 0293.HK ) voted in favour of raising funds as a buffer against any actions the Hong Kong airline may take against them, such as unilateral benefit changes or job losses, their union said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: A view of the cockpit of a new Cathay Pacific Airways Airbus A350 after being received by the airline at Hong Kong Airport May 30, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo The move underscores persistent pilot discontent at Cathay, where anger and distrust has deepened after it decided not to pay any year-end bonuses to Hong Kong-based captains, five pilots told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Eager to cut costs, the loss-making airline had also sought to cut payment of housing allowances but this month extended the stipend ahead of a busy holiday travel period and amid poaching attempts by its rivals. More than 82 percent of union members voted in favour of resolutions including raising funds to prepare for any industrial escalation. Chris Beebe, general secretary of the union, said however that there no plans to take any action unless the airline moved to cut benefits first. Cathay said this month it capped year-end bonuses to junior and mid-level employees at HK$35,000 ($4,475) in Hong Kong, or less than the usual payment of an extra month’s salary due to the “difficult financial environment”. Captains, as senior-level employees, did not get any bonus. FILE PHOTO: Pilots look out from the cockpit of a Cathay Pacific Airways Airbus A350 as the airlines hold a ceremony to mark the first of their 48 Airbus A350 arriving at Hong Kong Airport, Hong Kong, China May 30, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the union vote on Friday. Cathay’s director of flight operations, Anna Thompson, said in memo to pilots that the airline could have communicated its decision better and noted that more than 400 pilots had expressed “how they are currently feeling as employees” to managers after the bonus decision on an internal online forum. The airline has around 3,300 pilots globally, two-thirds of whom are union members. One of the pilots who spoke to Reuters said: “This obviously keeps all office and ground staff happy, but docks all pilots, and deducts a whole month’s salary from captains.” Cathay in August posted its worst half-year loss in at least 20 years, due to poor fuel hedging and stiff competition from expanding mainland Chinese and Gulf airlines. The airline is undertaking a strategic transformation programme aiming for HK$4 billion of cost savings over three years and has also warned pilots about potential cuts to their retirement benefits. Reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore; Additional reporting by Anne-Marie Roantree in Hong Kong; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cathay-pacific-pilots/cathay-pilots-favour-raising-funds-as-buffer-amid-anger-over-bonuses-idUKKBN1EG0QX'|'2017-12-22T10:19:00.000+02:00'
'0b5e1e97f1924c2ca89088f3f036d20806444c1d'|'Some U.S. automakers go slow on automatic emergency braking systems'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:53 PM / in 8 minutes Some U.S. automakers go slow on automatic emergency braking systems David Shepardson 3 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - U.S. automakers installed automatic emergency braking technology that experts said could prevent thousands of deaths and injuries in just 19 percent of new vehicles sold in the 2017 model year, regulators and safety advocates said on Thursday. Last year, 20 automakers struck a voluntary agreement with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to make collision-avoiding braking systems standard equipment on nearly all light vehicles by September 2022. The push comes as U.S. traffic deaths jumped 5.6 percent in 2016 to a decade-high 37,461, and pedestrian deaths rose 9 percent to 5,987, the highest number since 1990. By 2025, standard automatic braking systems could prevent 28,000 crashes and 12,000 injuries, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimated. Automatic braking systems, which activate brakes when the technology senses objects ahead and the driver does not slow down, require more sensors and software than conventional brakes and add to vehicle costs. Automakers say they need time to engineer the systems into vehicles as part of more comprehensive makeovers. Luxury automakers have been quick to install the systems, while others have lagged. Tesla Inc and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit have installed it on virtually all vehicles sold, according to figures released by NHTSA. Toyota Motor Corp has the largest number of 2017 model vehicles with automatic emergency braking, equipping 56 percent of its fleet, or 1.4 million vehicles. Volkswagen AG’s VW brand has it in 36 percent of vehicles, while its Audi unit has it in 73 percent of vehicles. Subaru Corp has the technology in nearly all vehicles sold. General Motors Co installed the technology on 20 percent of vehicles sold, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has it in 6 percent and Ford Motor Co just 2 percent -- the lowest of any major automaker. GM said it continues to expand availability of automatic emergency braking, and about two thirds of its U.S. models offer the system. Ford spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said the automaker offers automatic emergency braking on a number of vehicles and has “a plan to standardize over time.” Fiat Chrysler backs the 2022 commitment and a spokesman said it offers forward collision warning systems, which alert drivers to objects or vehicles in front of them but do no activate the brakes, on a number of vehicles. Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said automakers are “playing roulette with the lives of consumers who cannot afford safety as a luxury.” He said NHTSA must write mandatory regulations, not rely on a voluntary agreement. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-autos-safety/some-u-s-automakers-go-slow-on-automatic-emergency-braking-systems-idUSL1N1OL1ZH'|'2017-12-22T00:52:00.000+02:00'
'a0ed85d2a8108742e2bbf76a40420e986ae23432'|'BRIEF-ADT Inc Files For IPO Of Up To $100 Mln'|' 07 PM / Updated 6 minutes ago BRIEF-ADT Inc Files For IPO Of Up To $100 Mln Reuters Staff Dec 21 (Reuters) - ADT Inc: * ADT INC FILES FOR IPO OF UP TO $100 MILLION – SEC FILING * ADT INC SAYS IT INTENDS TO APPLY TO HAVE ITS COMMON STOCK LISTED ON NYSE UNDER THE SYMBOL “ADT” * ADT INC SAYS MORGAN STANLEY, GOLDMAN SACHS & CO. LLC, BARCLAYS ARE AMONG UNDERWRITERS TO IPO * ADT INC SAYS DEUTSCHE BANK SECURITIES, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, CITIGROUP ARE AMONG UNDERWRITERS TO IPO * ADT INC SAYS PROPOSED IPO PRICE IS AN ESTIMATE SOLELY FOR CALCULATING SEC REGISTRATION FEE Source text - ( bit.ly/2BY2aLB )'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-adt-inc-files-for-ipo-of-up-to-100/brief-adt-inc-files-for-ipo-of-up-to-100-mln-idUSEMN3IBAY7'|'2017-12-22T00:07:00.000+02:00'
'4a6e39b972669d55db97e6f1e18d828c00cc2433'|'U.S. tax break could push startups to share the wealth'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:04 PM / in 2 hours U.S. tax break could push startups to share the wealth Heather Somerville 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Startup companies came away with a significant victory in the U.S. tax overhaul -- a chance to defer the often-onerous tax bill that is attached to company stock options. To get the tax break, companies must provide stock options to at least 80 percent of their workforce, a requirement that could prompt startups to spread the option wealth more widely. Employees with options are commonly required to exercise them within 10 years, or within three months of leaving a startup. The gains on those shares is taxed as income, and the tax bill can easily climb to hundreds of thousands of dollars for early employees at a successful startup, say tax experts. The value of a stock option package can be worth about 10 times an employee’s salary, said Mary Russell, an attorney who counsels individuals on their startup equity offers. But employees face a big challenge when the startup is not yet public and they cannot sell the shares for cash to pay the taxes. Now, private-company employees will be able to defer those taxes for up to five years. Certain top executives and high earners will not qualify. “I feel a sense of relief that I have more time to figure things out,” said Jamil Poonja, head of public policy and communications at San Francisco startup Stride Health, who has part of his compensation in options. But the provision’s fairly restrictive rules mandate that companies must provide stock options to at least 80 percent of their employees to be eligible for the new tax deferral. “That might change the way people allocate equity,” said Kate Mitchell, co-founder of Scale Venture Partners. “But there is value in distributing it across the company.” Startups vary in how they grant stock options to employees. The common practice among venture-backed companies is to carve out 20 percent of their total equity to distribute to employees, said Anand Sanwal, CEO of data firm CB Insights, which tracks startups. The new tax provision responds to a problem created by the shifting investment dynamics in Silicon Valley. In the dot-com era, companies went public after an average of four years. Today, the average age is 11. That means employees have much of their wealth tied up in options that cannot be sold on the public stock markets for more than a decade. Many resort to taking out loans or, in more extreme cases, abandoning their shares, said attorneys and founders. “Sometimes people don’t or can’t or won’t write that big of a check,” said Jason van den Brand, co-founder of home refinance startup Lenda. “They’re like ‘This is going to cost me $50,000, where am I going to get that?''” Reporting by Heather Somerville. Editing by Jonathan Weber and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-startups/u-s-tax-break-could-push-startups-to-share-the-wealth-idUSKBN1EG1B4'|'2017-12-22T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'ee1c3aeb469a4da0a65ab30ace13d4b59146d612'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'December 22, 2017 / 11:03 AM / a minute ago Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Adds XPO Logistics, Boeing, Vulcan Materials, ArcelorMittal, IAG) Dec 22 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Friday: ** Home Depot Inc has held internal discussions in recent months to buy XPO Logistics Inc, news website Recode reported, citing a person familiar with the home improvement retailer’s thinking. ** Brazilian President Michel Temer said that he opposed Boeing Co taking control of Embraer SA, although he would welcome an injection of foreign capital into the regional planemaker. ** Vulcan Materials Co must divest 17 crushed stone aggregate facilities in Tennessee and Virginia in order to acquire Aggregates USA, the U.S. Justice Department said. ** ArcelorMittal has reached a preliminary agreement to sell its steel mill in Piombino, Italy to Italian steelmaker Arvedi to help get clearance from EU authorities for its purchase of Ilva, Europe’s largest steel plant. ** IAG, the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling, is one of the four bidders selected for the final stages of talks over the assets of insolvent Austrian airline Niki, three people familiar said. ** AT&T Inc and media and entertainment group Time Warner Inc, which are seeking to merge despite U.S. Justice Department opposition, extended the termination date for their deal to June 21, AT&T said in a filing. ** Online gambling group GVC has agreed to buy bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral for up to 4 billion pounds ($5.35 billion) to create a company that would rank among Britain’s largest businesses. ** Argentina’s communications regulator has authorized a merger between Telecom Argentina SA and cable TV provider Cablevision SA, the government’s official gazette said. ** UnitedHealth Group Inc said it signed a definitive agreement to buy Chilean healthcare company Banmedica SA for $2.8 billion, expanding the health insurer’s footprint in South America. ** Thyssenkrupp could halve its stake in a planned European steel joint venture with Tata Steel if they list it on the stock market by end-2024, a board member of the German industrial group said. ** Deutsche Telekom is buying Austrian cable provider UPC from Liberty Global for 1.9 billion euros ($2.25 billion) including debt as it adds broadband services to countries where it only offers mobile operations. ** Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc said it would sell a 30 percent stake in a Chinese pharmaceutical wholesaling joint venture to partner Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings Co Ltd. ** Swiss drugmaker Roche will buy U.S. cancer drug specialist Ignyta Inc for $1.7 billion in an agreed deal to broaden its oncology portfolio, the firms said. ** HNA Group’s plan to take a majority stake in Vienna-based C-Quadrat Investment AG has gained approval from Austrian regulators, a rare recent win for the acquisitive Chinese conglomerate amid rising global pushback on its deals. ** Allianz, Germany’s biggest insurer, said it was seeking to become the sole owner of Euler Hermes and planned to offer 122 euros ($145) for each share in the French credit insurance firm that it did not already own. ** Wesfarmers Ltd said it would sell its Curragh coal mine in Queensland to Texas-based Coronado Coal Group for A$700 million ($539 million). ** German energy group Innogy said it had signed an agreement to buy onshore wind power projects worth more than 2 gigawatts in the United States, in what marks the firm’s first acquisition in the world’s second-largest wind market. (Compiled by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL4N1OM3CK'|'2017-12-22T13:02:00.000+02:00'
'a04dbc88c800984ad3762f219967a75f7afe16e5'|'Portugal, once in EU bailout, sees budget deficit almost disappear'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:42 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Portugal, once in EU bailout, sees budget deficit almost disappear Andrei Khalip 3 Min Read LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal’s budget deficit was just 0.1 percent of gross domestic product in the 12 months ending in September, putting the country on course to beat its full-year target and reduce its debt burden. FILE PHOTO: People walk past a shop decorated with Portugal''s national flags in downtown Lisbon, Portugal, August 5, 2011. REUTERS/Jose Manuel Ribeiro/File Photo The third quarter year-on-year figure compared with 1.3 percent three months earlier and indicated a July-September surplus of 2.6 percent. The National Statistics Institute said on Friday that in the first nine months of the year the deficit fell to 0.3 percent of GDP from 2.8 percent in the same period of 2016. Portugal exited an international bailout program in 2014 with many European officials holding the country up as a success story in reforming its economy. The official full-year deficit target is 1.4 percent - which would make it a new record low in over four decades of the country’s democratic history, but Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Thursday the budget gap should narrow even more from last year’s 2 percent and end the year below 1.3 percent. The European Union demands deficits at or below 3 percent. Finance Minister Mario Centeno told reporters the deficit reduction “shows that the sustainability of public accounts is now a reality” in Portugal and will allow for the biggest cut in the debt-to-GDP ratio in 19 years - to around 126 percent in 2017 from last year’s around 130 percent. This is still a huge debt; the EU wants it at or heading down towards 60 percent. The latest deficit estimate does not include any impact from the recapitalization of state-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depositos by the state, worth around 4 billion euros, or 2.1 percent of GDP. The government has said it expects Brussels to disregard the recapitalization in this year’s deficit and INE is involved in a dialogue with Eurostat regarding the impact of this complex operation on national accounts. The INE said that in the 12 months to September, revenues rose 2.7 percent while spending edged 0.1 percent lower from June levels. “In the setting of higher growth than initially projected we see revenues following the same trend as the economy,” Centeno said. The Socialist government expects economic growth to accelerate to 2.6 percent this year after 1.5 percent in 2016. Its initial forecast in the 2017 budget had put this year’s expansion at just 1.5 percent. Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-portugal-budget-deficit/portugal-once-in-eu-bailout-sees-budget-deficit-almost-disappear-idUKKBN1EG1JX'|'2017-12-22T15:38:00.000+02:00'
'96acb232c42dbbdf7a0a7774e5d19e9ff89b6871'|'UK investors stick with stocks at end of bumper year'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:03 PM / Updated 8 hours ago UK investors stick with stocks at end of bumper year Sujata Rao 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Having enjoyed stellar equity returns in 2017, UK investors lifted their stock allocations even further in December, a Reuters poll showed, though some cited political risk as a reason to cut exposure to European and British markets. The Reuters monthly survey of UK-based investors showed equity allocations in global portfolios at 53 percent, the highest in three months and 7.5 percentage points above levels at the end of 2016. Funds particularly favoured U.S. stocks, raising allocations to almost 30 percent of equity portfolios, citing among other reasons President Donald Trump’s tax cut package passed this week. Wall Street hit successive record highs ahead of the bill’s passage, delivering returns of around 20 percent in 2017. “Our base case remains that the first half of 2018 will see a continuation of the current low growth and low inflation backdrop which should be supportive of equities,” said Jonathan Webster-Smith, head of the multi-asset team at Brooks Macdonald. European equities too did well this year, with gains of over 11 percent , thanks to a steady economic recovery and eurosceptic parties’ failure to make headway in national elections throughout 2017. Italian elections in early 2018 are not expected to disrupt this, but some were cautious. Most saw Britain’s economic weakness amid the Brexit process as a bigger risk, cutting UK equity holdings to the lowest level since August 2015 at 21.7 percent. Larry Hatheway, group head of investment solutions at GAM, said he was looking to add to UK Gilts, betting on the British economy to underperform peers. Others such as John Husselbee, head of multi-asset at Liontrust, noted that fears of political turmoil stemming from Europe’s hectic 2017 election cycle had proved to be misplaced. That caution had seen euro zone allocations cut at the end of 2016 to 13.4 percent of equity portfolios, a two-year low. They now stand at 16.7 percent, slipping half a point from November levels. Europe was the obvious candidate for near-term volatility due to looming Italian elections, Husselbee said. But he added: “As 2017 has proved, does it really matter? The bad news on both political and geopolitical this year hasn’t stalled the bull market.” Inflation meanwhile continues to prey on investors’ minds even though policymakers’ predictions on price growth have consistently been proved wrong, dampening bond yields and keeping equity markets rallying. Currently, the European Central Bank (ECB) predicts inflation in the bloc at 1.7 percent in 2020 - close to its target - and the Fed expects to hit its 2 percent target in 2019. Only a third of those replying to a question on when the ECB would halt asset purchases expect this to happen in 2018; some said it would not happen until late in 2019 or even beyond. In response to a question on U.S. interest rates, only a fifth who answered predicted three or more hikes in 2018, while the majority agreed with market expectations of two moves. Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Aberdeen Standard Investments, was in the hawkish camp. Three Fed rate rises is his base case for 2018 but he sees four moves as a possibility. “The effects of the U.S. tax cuts, both directly on the economy and indirectly via the currency, and the ability of U.S companies to keep wage costs contained via productivity improvements, will be key swing factors,” he said. Additional reporting by Claire Milhench; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-funds-poll-britain/uk-investors-stick-with-stocks-at-end-of-bumper-year-idUKKBN1EG1B6'|'2017-12-22T14:02:00.000+02:00'
'a9032a365e114893e3aad336990fa3879284a661'|'Bracing for EV shift, NGK Spark Plug ignites all solid-state battery quest'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:18 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Bracing for EV shift, NGK Spark Plug ignites all solid-state battery quest Naomi Tajitsu 6 Min Read NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) - Facing the eventual demise of gasoline engines, the world’s biggest maker of spark plugs is turning its focus to a component it believes will be just as vital in the coming era of electric vehicles - next-generation all solid state batteries. Japan’s NGK Spark Plug Co has for years leveraged its expertise in ceramics technology used in spark plugs to expand into sensors, semiconductors and other products mainly for automobiles. Now, it sees a future in all solid-state batteries, which experts believe will be safer and more powerful than the lithium-ion batteries currently used in battery electric vehicles (EVs). After dominating transport for 150 years, the internal combustion engine is facing the end of the road in the coming decades as tightening global emissions regulations force automakers to develop more electric cars. “We realized that it was inevitable that the industry would at some point shift from the internal combustion engine to battery EVs, and that ultimately this could make our spark plug and oxygen sensor businesses obsolete,” Takio Kojima, senior general manager of engineering and R&D at NGK Spark Plug told Reuters in an interview. “Our expertise is in advanced ceramics, and so we have decided to pursue all solid-state batteries.” Established in 1936 and based in Japan’s automaking heartland of Nagoya, NGK Spark Plug’s realization that its main business faced obsolescence came around 2010, Kojima said. That was the year Nissan Motor Co rolled out the Leaf, the first mass-production all battery EV, and just after Tesla Inc came out with the Roadster, its first production car. Other global parts suppliers are also scrambling to overhaul their product portfolios. In Japan, Denso Corp has teamed up with Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp to develop battery EVs while transmission maker Aisin Seiki Co is developing hybrid transmission systems and EV-specific, four-wheel-drive units. In the United States, powertrain products maker Borg Warner has expanded into hybrid and electric car parts, including transmissions and drive modules for electric cars. Industry experts anticipate plug-in hybrid petrol-electric vehicles and all-battery EVs will account for as much as 26 percent of global car sales by 2030, versus just over 1 percent last year, data from the International Energy Agency shows. GOING BIG The rise in EV use will require a steep increase in manufacturing capacity for longer-life batteries which are more powerful, lighter and can charge quicker than conventional lithium-ion batteries. NGK Spark Plug joins Toyota and other companies developing all solid-state car batteries, which offer more capacity and better safety than conventional lithium-ion batteries by replacing their liquid or gel-like electrolyte with a solid, conductive material. Hideaki Hikosaka, a member of NGK Spark Plug''s solid-state battery R&D team, shows a prototype of its all solid-state battery under development during an interview with Reuters in Nagoya, Japan December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Naomi Tajitsu Toyota is developing batteries with sulfide-based solid electrolytes, which offer high conductivity and are relatively flexible but can release toxic hydrogen sulfide when exposed to moisture. NGK Spark Plug is betting on a different technology with an oxide-based chemistry using ceramics which is highly stable at extreme temperatures, but has less conductivity. In addition, brittle ceramics can be difficult to process. Japan’s TDK Corp has developed small, ceramic, all solid-state batteries for use mainly in wearable devices like personal fitness monitors, while Murata Manufacturing Co is developing similar products. But NGK Spark Plug has bigger plans, developing a larger format necessary for cars. “It’s relatively easy to work in smaller sizes, but when you get to larger sizes it gets very difficult to assemble each layer because it’s difficult to make each layer the same thickness,” said Hideaki Hikosaka, a member of NGK Spark Plug’s solid state battery R&D team. The company has spent the past five years developing a solid, oxide-based electrolyte which incorporates an additional material to make it resemble a sulfide-based one. This makes the electrolyte easier to process into larger, thin layers which are compressed, making them easier to stack with anodes and cathodes. “It’s because of the addition of that material that we’re able to process layers using compression (rather than sintering) to make a bigger, oxide-based battery cell. At the same time, it doesn’t release any gases like sulfides do,” Hikosaka said. As a result, the company has developed a 10 cm by 10 cm battery pouch cell, much bigger than 4.5 mm by 3.2 mm cells developed by TDK. NGK Spark Plug declined to comment on the material used in its oxide compound and the capabilities of its battery. Hikosaka said his team was working to raise the battery’s energy density to enable it to match the performance of lithium ion batteries by around 2020, and to develop more powerful, lighter and competitively priced batteries “in the 2020s”. Battery experts believe producing affordable, all solid-state batteries in the 2020s, a target also shared by Toyota, is ambitious given the challenges of achieving a fine balance between numerous performance characteristics. Once they do come to market, some experts believe competition between batteries based on oxides, sulfides, and other chemistries would likely heat up, as producers vie to deliver batteries with diverse specifications. “If these chemistries can compete and win against lithium-ion and we see a shift to all solid-state, we might see a diversification in the materials used in them, as in lithium-ion batteries,” said Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science in Illinois. “Some automakers and battery makers might be more interested in conductivity than oxidative stability, for example ... Batteries are all about compromise. You’re not going to hit every metric.” (This story has been refiled to add dropped words in paragraph 16) Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Maki Shiraki; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ngk-spark-plug-batteries/bracing-for-ev-shift-ngk-spark-plug-ignites-all-solid-state-battery-quest-idUSKBN1EG0H0'|'2017-12-22T08:17:00.000+02:00'
'87ae944b5fb809acffd5c88e52edc964a813d1f1'|'Becton, Dickinson agrees to divest two product lines for C R Bard buy -FTC'|'December 22, 2017 / 7:49 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Becton, Dickinson agrees to divest two product lines for C R Bard buy: FTC Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. medical equipment supplier Becton Dickinson and C R Bard have agreed to divest two product lines to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges that Becton, Dickinson’s proposed $24 billion acquisition of Bard would negatively impact competition in those markets, the FTC said on Friday. The FTC said in a statement the merger as initially proposed would have likely harmed competition by combining the top two suppliers in the U.S. markets for tunneled home drainage catheter systems and soft tissue core needle biopsy devices. Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Richard Chang'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cr-bard-m-a-bd-usa/becton-dickinson-agrees-to-divest-two-product-lines-for-c-r-bard-buy-ftc-idUSKBN1EG26L'|'2017-12-22T21:38:00.000+02:00'
'a216e3d537efe1228fd521daf3e34df7712b5ed1'|'Ineos starts testing UK''s Forties North Sea oil pipeline after repairs'|'December 25, 2017 / 9:56 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Ineos starts testing UK''s Forties North Sea oil pipeline after repairs Dmitry Zhdannikov 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Forties oil and gas pipeline, one of the biggest in the North Sea, is being tested following repairs and full flows should resume in early January, its operator Ineos said on Monday. The closure of the pipeline since Dec. 11 has pushed oil prices above $65 a barrel in recent weeks, their highest level since mid-2015. Forties plays an important role in the global market as it is the biggest of the five North Sea crude streams underpinning Brent, a benchmark for oil trading in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. “The repair of the pipeline ... is now mechanically complete and pressure testing is well under way,” Ineos said in a statement. “A small number of customers are now sending oil and gas through the pipeline at low rates as part of a coordinated plan that allows Ineos to carefully control the flow and pressure in the system”. The system, which carries about 450,000 barrels per day of crude to Britain, along with a third of the country’s total offshore natural gas output, was shut down after a crack was found. Ineos said the oil and gas processing facility Kinneil should restart in the next 24 hours. “Based on current estimates the company expects to bring the pipeline and Kinneil progressively back to normal rates early in the new year,” Ineos said. Ineos was forced to declare force majeure on deliveries of Forties crude oil, natural gas and condensate, suspending its contractual obligations to customers by citing circumstances beyond its control. This is believed to be the first force majeure on a major North Sea production stream in decades. Ineos didn’t say when it expected to lift the force majeure. Ineos, a privately-owned chemicals company based in Switzerland, bought the pipeline system from BP ( BP.L ) in late October. Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-forties-oil/ineos-starts-testing-uks-forties-north-sea-oil-pipeline-after-repairs-idUKKBN1EJ0GC'|'2017-12-25T11:56:00.000+02:00'
'c1821053d0f8c9995332e69394288d4c33d8a3c6'|'Exclusive: U.S. cancer drugmaker Ignyta in advanced sale talks - sources'|' 32 AM / in 4 minutes Exclusive: U.S. cancer drugmaker Ignyta in advanced sale talks - sources Carl O''Donnell 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Ignyta Inc ( RXDX.O ) is in advanced talks to sell itself, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, just three years after the U.S. cancer drugmaker became a public company focussed on precision drugs and diagnostics. The deal would come as large pharmaceutical companies are locked in a race to acquire or license advanced cancer treatments, as more studies show that a broad-based combination of treatments has a high success rate in treating the disease. Ignyta could make a decision about whether to sell itself as early as this month after negotiating with potential suitors, the two sources said, cautioning there was no certainty that a sale of the company would occur. The sources asked not to be identified because the sale process is confidential. Ignyta did not immediately respond to requests for comment. San Diego-based Ignyta has a suite of drugs in early stage development in its pipeline that use gene therapy to kill off the underlying diseases that drive cancer tumour growth. It has a market capitalisation of $1 billion. Ignyta’s rival, Loxo Oncology Inc ( LOXO.O ), licensed its cancer drug, larotrectinib, to German drugmaker Bayer AG ( BAYGn.DE ) last month for more than $1 billion, including milestones. Both Ignyta and Loxo focus on targeting gene mutations that drive cancer, rather than targeting a particular type of tumour. Ignyta originated as a molecular diagnostics company, and uses its diagnostics technology to identify patients who can benefit most from its gene-based treatments. In October, Ignyta reported that its drug entrectinib, which focuses on a type of gene that causes a small portion of lung cancer tumours, has a 69 percent overall response rate for lung cancer in early stage trials. This, along with other positive clinical data, contributed to Ignyta’s stock nearly tripling over the past year. Entrectinib is Ignyta’s most advanced drug, and is beginning phase 2 trials. Ignyta has three other drugs in its pipeline undergoing early stage studies. Earlier this year, cancer drugmaker Tesaro Inc ( TSRO.O ) explored a sale, but ultimately decided against a transaction because of disagreements over valuation. In February, Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd ( 4502.T ) completed an acquisition of Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc for $5.2 billion. Reporting by Carl O''Donnell in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ignyta-m-a/exclusive-u-s-cancer-drugmaker-ignyta-in-advanced-sale-talks-sources-idINKBN1EG051'|'2017-12-22T03:28:00.000+02:00'
'e4176d0dee5cb90f39a31ab6149cea8d44f2da78'|'Belarus adopts crypto-currency law to woo foreign investors'|'December 22, 2017 / 10:01 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Belarus adopts crypto-currency law to woo foreign investors Andrei Makhovsky 4 Min Read MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus has legalized transactions in crypto-currencies, part of a drive to foster private sector growth and attract foreign investment by liberalizing parts of its Soviet-style economy. Employees work at Kino-mo R&D Centre in Minsk, Belarus, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree on the move on Thursday, his press service said. Bitcoin, the world''s most popular crypto-currency, has lost   BTC=BTSP since hitting a record high of close to $20,000 on Sunday, but its supporters dismiss warnings over volatility and say it is the start of a new monetary system not dependent on central banks. “All smart and intelligent people know what stability and order are,” state news agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying earlier this month. “They’re all trying to reach that shore. We’re prepared to arrange a dock and even a harbor.” The former Soviet republic, squeezed between Russia and the European Union, is still dominated by the state, weighed down by bureaucracy and inefficient state-owned enterprises, and dependent on Russian money and subsidies. But Lukashenko, a former collective farm manager who once called the internet “garbage”, has introduced some reforms to improve the business climate and shore up the economy after recession in 2015 and 2016. Belarus has developed some globally recognized IT brands, belying an image of a country stuck in a Soviet time warp. The decree is designed to attract digital coin entrepreneurs, who are moving businesses to locations more welcoming to crypto-currencies as they face intensifying scrutiny from regulators over digital currency fund-raising, known as initial coin offerings. “The decree is a breakthrough for Belarus,” Anton Myakishev, the head of Microsoft’s ( MSFT.O ) Belarus office, told Reuters. “It gives the industry the possibility to make a leap forward in its development and allows foreign capital the possibility to come to Belarus and work in comfortable conditions.” Slideshow (5 Images) AVOIDING RED TAPE The decree legalizes initial coin offerings and transactions in crypto-currencies, including their exchange for traditional currencies on Belarussian exchanges, while all trades will be tax-free for the next five years. It also allows local IT companies to operate in part under English law - a boon to potential foreign investors, who can struggle to navigate the Belarussian legal system. “We regularly faced legal problems. When a Western company buys a Belarussian company they try to structure the deal outside Belarus,” said Denis Aleinikov, senior partner in a private law firm Aleinikov and Partners in Minsk and the main author of the decree. “Investors don’t want to deal with Belarussian legislation,” he told Reuters. Viktor Prokopenya, a prominent investor in the Belarussian IT sector, said Reuters the legislation and other measures showed the government fully supported the industry. The Belarussian IT sector has flourished despite the country’s wider economic slump, attracting foreign workers, expatriate Belarussians and locals to jobs that pay about five times the average wage. Dozens of software companies operate in Minsk’s high-tech IT park, including U.S.-based EPAM Systems ( EPAM.N ), founded by two Belarussians in 1993. Belarussian software engineers are also behind the Japanese-controlled Viber messenger and the popular video game World of Tanks. The bright outlook for the IT industry is not matched in other sectors of the Belarussian economy, which remains hamstrung by loss-making state-owned companies that have seen little or no reform since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The economy is expected to return to growth of 1.7 percent this year, but the International Monetary Fund in November said growth will remain around 2 percent annually over the next few years if state-run heavy industries don’t modernize. Writing by Alessandra Prentice, editing by Matthias Williams and Timothy Heritage'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-cryptocurrency/belarus-adopts-crypto-currency-law-to-woo-foreign-investors-idUKKBN1EG0XO'|'2017-12-22T11:58:00.000+02:00'
'8ec06127a6f5730e090dd678bf2edf1409128244'|'EU watchdog tells insurers to prepare in case of hard Brexit'|'December 21, 2017 / 3:21 PM / Updated an hour ago EU watchdog tells insurers to prepare in case of hard Brexit Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Insurers in the European Union must take speedy steps to ensure policies won’t be disrupted if Britain leaves the EU without a trade deal in March 2019, the bloc’s insurance regulator said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The Union Flag and a European Union flag fly near the Elizabeth Tower, housing the Big Ben bell in Parliament Square in central London, Britain September 9, 2017. REUTERS/Tolga Akmen The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) said insurers should make “sufficient and timely” preparation to ensure continuity of service after Brexit. Contingency plans should be realistic and consider all eventualities, including no political agreement between Britain and the EU over their future relations, EIOPA said in a statement. “I call on all insurance undertakings and national supervisors to plan effectively and take the necessary steps in good time to ensure that policyholders and beneficiaries are not exposed to unnecessary uncertainty regarding the status of their contracts,” EIOPA Chairman Gabriel Bernardino said. “To facilitate cooperation and the exchange of information EIOPA established a high-level cooperation platform for supervisory authorities on Brexit-related topics.” Without taking action before Brexit, insurers may not be able to pay out on policies. The Bank of England said last month that British and EU legislation would be needed to preserve continuity of existing cross-border insurance contracts, otherwise six million British and 30 million European Economic Area policyholders could be affected. Britain’s finance ministry said on Wednesday the British government will legislate, if necessary, to ensure that contractual obligations, such as insurance contracts, can continue to be met after Brexit. EIOPA said steps could include transferring contracts from Britain to EU hubs. Many insurers that use London as a base to serve the EU market have announced plans to open hubs inside the bloc. Aviva ( AV.L ) is converting its Irish branch into a regulated subsidiary, and Lloyd’s of London insurance market has chosen Brussels for its EU base. Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-insurance-regulator/eu-watchdog-tells-insurers-to-prepare-in-case-of-hard-brexit-idUKKBN1EF1ZS'|'2017-12-21T17:22:00.000+02:00'
'68ebc05c13668d995d909905737d5d352ecb987e'|'Cheers! Cider, craft beer makers get U.S. tax cut in new year'|'December 23, 2017 / 1:08 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Cheers! Cider, craft beer makers get U.S. tax cut in new year Damon Darlin 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Makers of craft beer, artisanal spirits, hard cider and mead may lift their glasses a bit higher next year as the result of a little noticed provision in the sweeping tax overhaul the U.S. Congress passed this week. FILE PHOTO: Goose Island beer taps are seen amongst other craft beers at a bar in New York January 21, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Tucked away in Part IX, sections 13801 through 13808, are sharply lowered excise taxes on a liquor cabinet full of alcoholic beverages made by small producers. One provision also set up the first statutory definition of mead, an alcoholic beverage made of fermented honey, probably more familiar to scholars of the Dark Ages epic poem “Beowulf” than most American imbibers. Small craft producers are a rapidly growing category of the alcoholic beverage industry in the United States and the industry is gaining political clout. Sales of craft beer alone were $4.8 billion in the 12 months ended in January, according to data from Nielsen Holdings. “I’ve been working on the issue since 1993,” said Arthur DeCelle, a McDermott Will & Emery lobbyist working for the brewing industry. “I never thought it was going to happen.” The 3,658 words were originally part of a bill introduced in January by Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and 53 other Senators and 303 House members titled “The Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act.” For tax purposes, it defines alcoholic ciders as wine and widens the flavours that cideries can use. The lowered tax gives the small producers a little more profit that can help them expand, experiment, market or even lower prices. For example, for hard ciders made with any kind of fruit besides apple or pear, the new law substantially lowers the tax to 7 cents a gallon from $1 for small producers. Cider had been taxed depending on what kind of fruit was used. For a 12-ounce can of cider, the tax falls to less than a penny per can compared with about 10 cents a can. Small wine producers also get a tax break as did makers of sparkling wines. Small producers of distilled spirits, like gin, vodka or bourbon, will pay $2.70 a gallon in tax on the first 100,000 gallons made compared with $13.34 a gallon levied above that level. Craft beermakers will pay tax of only $3.50 a barrel on the first 60,000 barrels brewed. Big producers of more than 6 million barrels will pay $18 a barrel, the current level for beer. A beer barrel is set at 31 gallons (117 liters). Craft beer sales grew about 6.2 percent in 2016 while overall beer sales were flat. It makes up about 12.3 percent of the beer market. There are more than 6,000 craft breweries and brew pubs, according to the Brewers Association. Bob Pease, chief executive officer of the association, said the beer excise tax is a relic of the Civil War, when the federal government looked for additional ways to raise money. It is an extra tax alcoholic beverage makers pay, in addition to income taxes. He has been trying for 10 years to reduce it for small makers. “This is historic,” he said. He expects it will help to expand the business of small makers--and employment. “Not many industries are bringing back manufacturing to Main Street like small independent craft breweries,” he said. He did not expect it will result in lower prices. “We’re not looking for cheaper beer.” Reporting by Damon Darlin in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax-mead/cheers-cider-craft-beer-makers-get-u-s-tax-cut-in-new-year-idUKKBN1EH0E3'|'2017-12-23T15:07:00.000+02:00'
'66d990d147fb21800f5d7993cf78dc35c2e88d98'|'Novelion unit asks U.S. judge to approve plea deal, cites money woes'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:10 PM / Updated 27 minutes ago Novelion unit asks U.S. judge to approve plea deal, cites money woes Nate Raymond 3 Min Read BOSTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc has asked a U.S. judge to quickly approve a new plea agreement aimed at resolving probes into its promotion of a cholesterol drug, saying its parent company has been blocked from capital markets due to the case’s uncertainty. The Novelion Therapeutics Inc unit asked U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston on Thursday to schedule a hearing so it can plead guilty to any new deal aimed at overcoming his objections to an earlier one. Young, who had rejected an earlier agreement, on Friday scheduled a hearing for Jan. 30. The initial deal in September called for Aegerion to plead guilty to two misdemeanor drug violations involving misbranding under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and pay $40.1 million to resolve U.S. investigations. Young rejected the deal in November, say it “unduly hobbles” his judicial duties and restricted his ability to impose a sentence, unlike a more usual case with individuals whose sentences are at a judge’s discretion. Aegerion said the quick schedule was necessary as Novelion has been blocked from getting access to capital markets due to the uncertainty surrounding the criminal case, which has also stalled its efforts to recruit a new chief executive. Vancouver-based Novelion announced on Nov. 9 that Mary Szela had resigned as CEO. “An expedited schedule is necessary due to Aegerion’s continued financial deterioration, which could jeopardize its ability to continue in operation and pay any criminal fine if this matter is not resolved in very short order,” Aegerion said. Novelion said on Friday that the new potential plea deal, unlike the old one, would not bind Young to a particular sentence and would allow him to impose his own. The initial plea deal was part of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Aegerion’s agreement to resolve probes by the Justice Department and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission centered on its Juxtapid cholesterol drug. Prosecutors said that after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012 approved Juxtapid for treating high cholesterol in people with a rare genetic disease, Aegerion promoted it for patients who did not have the condition. Beyond the plea deal, Aegerion will also pay $36 million to resolve criminal and civil claims by the Justice Department, enter into a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a separate federal charge and pay the SEC $4.1 million. The case is U.S. v. Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, No. 17-cr-10288. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/novelion-therape-settlement-aegerion/novelion-unit-asks-u-s-judge-to-approve-plea-deal-cites-money-woes-idUSL1N1OM0WY'|'2017-12-22T18:09:00.000+02:00'
'dc1a5cdd25099b17e4a918a12fb61de8f398ad0e'|'Succession doubts cloud Apotex future after billionaire owner''s death'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:32 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Succession doubts cloud Apotex future after billionaire owner''s death Matt Scuffham 3 Min Read TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian pharmaceuticals billionaire Barry Sherman failed to implement a succession plan at his Apotex business before his death last week, two business associates told Reuters, potentially leaving it vulnerable to takeover approaches. The bodies of Sherman, 75, and his wife Honey, 70, were found in their Toronto mansion last week and their deaths are under investigation by Toronto’s homicide squad. A memorial service was held on Thursday. Sherman had always resisted approaches from trade buyers and never wanted to take the generic drugmaker public, the associates said, preferring to keep control and not involve outside shareholders. Despite stepping down as chief executive in 2012, the self-confessed workaholic continued to work seven-day weeks and twelve-hour days. None of Sherman’s four children were interested in running the business and only one had worked at the company, the associates said. Sherman’s son Jonathan, who has a degree in industrial engineering from Columbia University, took at job at the firm after graduating but quit after less than a year. Sherman founded Apotex in 1974 and grew it through a strategy of launching hundreds of lawsuits against competitors to overturn patent protection for their drugs. Apotex would then manufacture cheaper identical products that did not carry a brand name. The company now employs more than 10,000 worldwide with annual sales exceeding C$2 billion ($1.6 billion). The associates said no formal sales process is underway. Any approach would come as the world’s biggest generic drug companies are grappling with declining drug prices and intensifying competition. Any potential buyer would also require an appetite for litigation, the associates said, since Apotex is regularly involved in legal actions over patents. And Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries ( TEVA.TA ) ( TEVA.N ), the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs, is currently in a legal dispute with Apotex over allegations a former Teva executive shared trade secrets with Apotex CEO Jeremy Desai. Teva is also weighed by $35 billion in debt it took on to acquire Allergan’s ( AGN.N ) Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion last year. Last week it said it would axe 14,000 jobs. A Teva spokeswoman in Israel had no immediate comment when asked about any takeover plans or the status of its legal case against Apotex. ($1 = 1.2728 Canadian dollars)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-death-apotex-future/succession-doubts-cloud-apotex-future-after-billionaire-owners-death-idINKBN1EF2YE'|'2017-12-22T00:29:00.000+02:00'
'a35df1e4ce1c05d198b02206ccd414804d75a23c'|'As energy markets evolve, blockchain powers up'|'December 22, 2017 / 9:23 AM / in 6 hours As energy markets evolve, blockchain powers up Jeremy Wagstaff 7 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Energy startups have been using blockchain to power electricity sharing in microgrid trials from Texas to Tasmania for a year or so. But now companies are moving beyond trials to commercial projects, leveraging the distributed ledger technology for payments and trading on a city-wide and even national scale. “What the internet did for communications, blockchain will do for trusted transactions, and the energy and utilities industry is no exception,” said Stephen Callahan, Vice President, Energy, Environment & Utilities, Global Strategy, at IBM. The trend illustrates how blockchain is swiftly moving beyond financial services and cryptocurrencies, and offers a glimpse of a growing challenge to the $2 trillion energy market. Blockchain is a database of transactions distributed among multiple computers. It solves two key problems in the online world: transacting without the need of a trusted intermediary, and making sure those transactions can’t later be altered, removed or reversed. This appeals to the energy industry in several ways. As the market liberalizes and renewable energy grows, blockchain offers a way to better handle the increasingly complex and decentralized transactions between users, large- and small-scale producers, retailers and even traders and utilities. Blockchain’s use of tokens also offers a way to reward users for saving energy, and for small-scale transactions between individual users with solar panels who are both producers and consumers - known as “prosumers”. Being able to add “smart contracts” onto a blockchain would also make it possible for actions to generate automatic transactions down to the smallest level, where meters and computers could autonomously reconcile supply and demand. “The prospect of being able to track particular electrons via a blockchain as they move onto or off the energy grid has captured the imagination of many companies,” said Daniel Sieck of U.S. law firm Pepper Hamilton. All of this would save money and could transform the way we produce, store and consume electricity, what DHL Energy president Steve Harley calls the “internet of electricity.” ROOM TO GROW The World Energy Council predicts that such decentralized or distributed energy will grow from 5 percent of the market today to 25 percent in 2025. The past few years have seen proofs of concept and trials, from small microgrids to projects by big players such as Shell ( RDSa.L ), BP ( BP.L ) and IBM ( IBM.N ). Few energy companies, however are making significant investments into blockchain technology, says Shane Randolph, managing director at Opportune LLP, an energy consulting firm based in Houston. “The ones that are engaging in the conversation are largely doing ‘blockchain tourism’ without developing applications.” That leaves opportunities for newcomers. Power Ledger, an Australian startup which raised A$34 million ($26 million) in an initial coin offering, or ICO, in October, is building platforms to enable commercial operation ofmicrogrids in Thailand and India and two commercial buildings in West Australia. Slideshow (2 Images) It also recently launched a 200-customer trial microgrid with power retailer Origin Energy ( ORG.AX ) in Sydney. Energi Mine, a UK-based startup, has created a blockchain-based platform to reward energy-saving users with tokens they can use to pay their energy bills or charge their electric vehicles. It says it is already making money, albeit from the artificial intelligence side of its business. A Singapore company called Electrify has been running a price comparison marketplace as the country liberalizes its electricity market. Electrify plans to launch a blockchain-based exchange for all consumers and producers next year, and is talking to one of Japan’s biggest utilities <words deleted>about doing something similar there. Grid+, a U.S. startup, will launch its first retail device next year in Texas, using the Ethereum blockchain to allow users, whether they’re traditional consumers or owners of solar panels and batteries, to buy and sell electricity at wholesale prices. More projects are on the way. Energy startups will have raised about $200 million from initial coin offerings this year alone, with a dozen more planned next year, according to data collected by Reuters. OBSTACLES LINGER But obstacles remain. They include the entrenched nature of the incumbents, and questions about blockchain itself, which is less than a decade old. Martha Bennett, an IT industry analyst at Forrester, points to a “misunderstanding just how immature the technology is.” Then there’s the regulatory landscape. “Because the energy sector is a regulated industry,” said Pepper Hamilton’s Sieck, “widespread adoption of many possible blockchain use cases will require regulator buy-in.” There are signs of that. Singapore’s Energy Market Authority launched a sandbox for energy innovations in October, while U.S. states including Vermont have passed legislation designed to help apply blockchain technology. Skeptics say blockchain may help incumbents rather than disrupt them. However many individuals choose to capture, store and sell power, there will still be a lot of users who won’t bother, says Hugh Halford-Thompson, of BTL Group, which has this year completed gas trading pilots on its internet blockchain with BP, Eni ( ENI.MI ) and Wien Energie. “As a result we are going to see a lot of the larger firms adopting blockchain and absorbing it.” Others disagree, arguing blockchain will empower individuals by automating much of the drudgery of switching between sending power to the grid and receiving it. Omar Rahim, CEO and co-founder of Energi Mine, says blockchain will change user behavior and utilities will only be used when prosumers’ demand and supply don’t match. Most likely, says Tony Masella, an energy consultant at Accenture, it will be more of an evolution. Like the network protocols in the early days of the internet, blockchain “will drive dramatic transformation of the energy industry and unlock value” for everyone involved. “But it will not do so overnight.” Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Lincoln Feast'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-energy/as-energy-markets-evolve-blockchain-powers-up-idUSKBN1EG0V1'|'2017-12-22T11:24:00.000+02:00'
'8de6b38540b5c03c427f1eb51edd138d6375ebf2'|'Iraq has not reached agreement with Exxon on southern oilfields -oil minister'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:13 AM / in 3 hours Iraq has not reached agreement with Exxon on southern oilfields -oil minister Ahmed Rasheed 1 Min Read BAGHDAD, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Iraq has not yet reached an agreement with Exxon Mobil on a multibillion-dollar project to boost output from several southern oilfields, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Monday. If no agreement is reached by February, Luaibi told journalists at a signing ceremony for a separate deal, the project would be offered to other companies. Luaibi had said in October that Iraq was in final talks with Exxon Mobil on developing the project, which consists of building oil pipelines, storage facilities and a seawater supply project to inject water from the Gulf into reservoirs to improve production. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Hugh Lawson)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/iraq-oil-exxon-mobil/iraq-has-not-reached-agreement-with-exxon-on-southern-oilfields-oil-minister-idUSL8N1OP0DK'|'2017-12-25T13:11:00.000+02:00'
'5d0ffd5d158d4aace57393b503697d4de9b9e7d2'|'China expects 2018 industrial output to grow around six percent'|'December 25, 2017 / 4:53 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago China expects 2018 industrial output to grow around six percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s industrial output is likely to grow around 6 percent next year, the country’s industry ministry said on Monday. A worker packs pipelines onto a truck at a local plastic pipe factory in Donghegang village on the outskirts of Xiongxian county, one part of the new special economic zone Xiong''an New Area, Hebei province, China, April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee The nation’s industrial output is also expected to rise about 6.5 percent this year, which would be the first gain in the growth rate since 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on its microblog. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-output/china-expects-2018-industrial-output-to-grow-around-six-percent-idUKKBN1EJ07B'|'2017-12-25T06:52:00.000+02:00'
'c6723a455ffeeea3b47acaf18c0b620ae6c711ca'|'In Silicon Valley, much-feared tax bill pays dividends for workers'|'December 22, 2017 / 2:36 AM / Updated an hour ago In Silicon Valley, much-feared tax bill pays dividends for workers Paresh Dave , Heather Somerville , Jeffrey Dastin 6 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. tax overhaul is a boon to Silicon Valley technology companies like Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ), which will enjoy big tax cuts and the chance to bring back billions of dollars from overseas at a reduced rate. FILE PHOTO: An Apple logo is seen in a store in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson And contrary to the dire warnings of California officials, a large swath of Bay Area workers and their families stand to get a tax break as well, even with new limits on state and local tax deductions. California has the highest state income tax in the nation, and Governor Jerry Brown has called the new tax bill “evil in the extreme.” Nonetheless, many in Silicon Valley stand to benefit. Startup employees, freelancers and venture capital investors are among those who will get new tax benefits or keep those they already have, tax experts said. Even some of the middle- and upper-income professionals who form the core of the technology industry workforce will still get significant tax cuts, while most others will see little change, they said. The new $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions will have a less dramatic effect than feared because such deductions in many cases had already been rendered moot by the alternative minimum tax (AMT), a mechanism for assuring that the well-heeled pay at least 26 percent of their income in taxes. “There is a lot of noise about workers in California, New Jersey, New York and Illinois (facing higher taxes), but 80 percent of our clients there were already paying the alternative minimum tax so they don’t benefit from the state and local deductions,” said Jack Meccia, a tax associate at financial planning firm Vestboard, which works with several hundred individuals in tech. The new law alters the AMT in a way that vastly reduces the number of people who have to pay it, from more than 5 million to an estimated 200,000 next year, according to the Tax Policy Center. The AMT dynamics, combined with reduced overall tax rates and the doubling of the standard deduction to $24,000 should hold most Bay Area tax bills steady, said Bob McGrath, tax director at accounting firm Burr Pilger Mayer. Estimates by three experts, using roughly similar assumptions, show that a home-owning couple earning a combined $250,000 in Silicon Valley would likely see an increase or decrease in their tax bill of a few hundred dollars. A married couple with no children who rent a home and make a combined $150,000 would see a $3,900 tax cut, estimated Annette Nellen, who directs the master’s degree in taxation program at San Jose State University. Low-income workers will see tax cuts too, though the dollar amounts are small. Bob Emmett, a single, 73-year-old security officer who lives in San Jose, criticized the bill as “designed to help the rich.” Nellen estimated that Emmett, who rents an apartment, has no children and earns $16 an hour in addition to some social security income, would see a $546 cut in taxes. FILE PHOTO - The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Critics of the tax bill note that the individual tax cuts will disappear after 2025, and that most of the benefits flow to the corporations and the wealthiest individuals, even if lower-income people get some tax relief. Health insurance premiums for Californians are also likely to rise substantially as a result of the repeal of fines for those who refuse to obtain health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. And even if Bay Area residents mostly enjoy some tax cuts, they gain much less than those in low-tax states. STARTUP WINNERS Employees in Silicon Valley, the world’s startup capital, scored two major victories in the tax bill. First, startup employees can hold off on paying taxes related to stock options they exercised. That can be a big help if a company is still private, since in that situation employees have to pay tax even before they can earn cash from selling shares. Startup employees will also have more opportunity to exercise what are known as “incentive stock options” with less chance of being on the hook for the alternative minimum tax, according to Mark Setzen, a long-time certified public accountant in Silicon Valley. Also coming out ahead are independent contractors, ranging from engineers to marketers to caterers, who stand to benefit from a new 20 percent deduction of business income. Arun Sood, a freelance software engineer in San Francisco who makes about $150,000 annually, said he accrues few deductions because he rents his home, holds no debt and has no children. Now he gets a big new deduction and a lower tax rate. “Looking at this selfishly, it’s going to be a positive impact,” said Sood, who has freelanced for Axios, Cisco and Macy‘s. The tax plan mostly preserves a tax break for venture capitalists that had been in jeopardy. The so-called carried interest provision lets venture capitalists book the 20 percent fee they typically take on a profitable investment as a capital gain, which carries a lower tax rate than ordinary income, even though the venture investors do not put up any of their personal capital. Now the capital gains rate will apply only to investments held at least three years -- a limitation that venture capitalists said would come into play only occasionally. Silicon Valley executives with high salaries will take home extra money, too, because language in the current tax law known as the Pease Limitation had already limited their deductions, said Andrew Mattson, a tax partner serving technology industry clients at accountancy Moss Adams. Executives also may see base pay rise in coming years. The tax bill removes corporate tax breaks for performance bonuses, which is already leading companies to reconsider pay packages for chief-level executives, lawyers said. Reporting by Paresh Dave, Heather Somerville, Jeffrey Dastin and Salvador Rodriguez; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-tech-workers/in-silicon-valley-much-feared-tax-bill-pays-dividends-for-workers-idUKKBN1EG07T'|'2017-12-22T04:34:00.000+02:00'
'b55a31ab4acccfe94f73befe9d08472adf47ae58'|'An investor''s best friend: China''s booming pet market sparks deals'|'December 24, 2017 / 12:05 AM / Updated 13 hours ago An investor''s best friend: China''s booming pet market sparks deals Anita Li , Adam Jourdan 7 Min Read PINGYANG, China/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Li Mingjie is a pet industry investor’s dream. The 23-year-old e-commerce worker spares little expense to make his pooch happy. “I’ll happily splash out on my dog,” Li told Reuters as he walked his brown poodle Coco in Pingyang, a town on China’s east coast. “She is like a child to me.” He is far from alone in China these days. The growth in the middle class, a massive move to urbanization and other demographic changes - such as growing numbers of elderly, and people getting married and having children later than before - have been turning this into not just a pet-owning society but also one that is prepared to lavish money on them. Chinese shoppers are set to spend 46.3 billion yuan ($7 billion) on their pets by 2022, up from 17.5 billion yuan this year as the market grows at around an annual 20 percent, according to estimates from Euromonitor. The U.S. market may be much bigger with an estimated $44.4 billion in sales this year but it is only growing around 2 percent a year. The surge in Chinese demand is not only great news for global pet food behemoths such as Mars Inc and Nestle SA ( NESN.S ), but also rapidly growing Chinese pet food and product companies, as well as entrepreneurs setting up everything from dog salons for grooming to fancy pet hotels. It is an amazing shift in a country where owning pets was once banned for being too much of a bourgeois pursuit under revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, and where - despite protests - there is still an annual dog-meat festival in the southern Chinese town of Yulin. “There is huge growth potential in the Chinese market,” said Liu Yonghao, the chairman of Chinese company New Hope Group [NWHOP.UL] at a recent event in Beijing, noting that younger people especially were developing closer bonds with their pets. “They are willing to spend lots of money on the pets because they have become like part of the family,” he said. New Hope joined a consortium, including Singapore’s state-owned fund Temasek and private equity firm Hosen Capital that just closed a $1 billion deal to acquire Australian pet food maker Real Pet Food Co, with the aim of bringing the firm’s brands to China. The growing popularity of pets is turning China into a magnet for local and global firms. Thomas Kwan, chief investment officer of Hong Kong-based fund manager Harvest Global, said China’s pet market would be one of his personal picks for 2018 as consumers looked to shift up to premium products. The questions pet owners are asking now: “Can you buy them healthy foods? Can you give them a good lifestyle?” he said. BONE-SHAPED CENTER Pingyang, where Li lives with his poodle, has big ambitions in China’s pet economy. The county, which is near the wealthy city of Wenzhou and has a population of almost one million, is among a slew of places responding to Beijing’s call to create 1,000 “specialty towns” by 2020 in industries from cloud computing to chocolate. In Pingyang’s case the theme is pets. Slideshow (16 Images) It has a dog bone-shaped visitor center and pet factories, while locals said there were plans for pet-themed hotels and a retail hub. On a recent visit, though, it was clear the concept has a way to go. The visitor center was shut and locals admitted the ‘pet town’ had yet to fully catch on. Nationally though, there is no doubt that the pet economy is thriving – helped by demographic shifts. “Chinese society is aging, we’re experiencing declining birth rates, we have empty nesters and the youngsters from those empty nests,” said Zhang Tianli, co-founder of Hosen Capital, adding pets were helping people find “spiritual sustenance”. The pet products boom has stoked imports and boosted local business. Among the Chinese companies that are now challenging the global giants, in China at least, are Shanghai Bridge Petcare, Sunsun Group and Navarch. Yantai China Pet Foods ( 002891.SZ ) has seen its stock climb close to 60 percent since it listed in Shenzhen in August. Smaller entrepreneurs abound too. They include DogWhere.com, which offers pet holidays and runs a boutique pet hotel in Beijing with all sorts of amenities for the pets - including a swimming pool, pet-sized bedrooms and a cinema. Owners can spend thousands of dollars per stay. “We once looked after a dog in our hotel for 47 nights, at a total costs of 17,000 yuan ($2,585),” said the platform’s marketing manager Wang Chao. Xiao Xudong in Beijing runs a popular grooming service for “Westies” - West Highland White Terriers - and says his increasingly youthful clientele fly in from regions as remote as far-western Xinjiang and the southwestern Yunnan province. ”Young people hold a different consumption view to the older generations,“ said Xiao, 45. ”They think a lot about how their pets are groomed and are willing to splash out on them.” PET BATHING Despite the growth, Chinese pet ownership is still just getting started. Some pets are mistreated and there is a lack of know-how about vaccinations and sterilization. Strict rules about pet food imports also stoke a gray market trade. Earlier this month, police arrested gang members who were selling poisoned darts used to kill dogs that were then sold to restaurants, the official Xinhua news reported, opening the debate once more about the practice of eating dog meat. Back in Pingyang’s state-sanctioned pet town, the owner of one pet shop said the shift towards pet ownership was nonetheless stark. “Ten years ago this place was basically farmland and people were eating dogs, now they don’t eat them as much and have started to see them as pets,” he said. In the shop, Wang Jing, 26, was getting her two dogs - Can Can and Niu Niu - their regular bath. She said she spent around 2,000 yuan a month on them, mostly on food, but that it was all worth it when she arrived home each day. “Otherwise when you come back there’s nobody there,” she said. “But if you have a dog then it jumps on you happily as soon as you open the door.” Reporting by Anita Li in PINGYANG, Hallie Gu in BEIJING and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Additional reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom, Lusha Zhang and Shu Zhang in BEIJING; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Edited by Martin Howell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-pets-analysis/an-investors-best-friend-chinas-booming-pet-market-sparks-deals-idUSKBN1EI001'|'2017-12-24T02:04:00.000+02:00'
'6c8f1008419193b1d310ffddff58d67d5721d196'|'China expects 2018 industrial output to grow around six percent'|'December 25, 2017 / 5:36 AM / Updated 14 hours ago China expects 2018 industrial output to grow around 6 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s industrial output is likely to grow around 6 percent next year, the country’s industry ministry said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: A worker jokes and beckons at her colleague as she rolls away carts of unused tools between rows of spinning machine at a factory owned by Hong Kong''s Novetex Textiles Limited in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Venus Wu/File Photo The nation’s industrial output is also expected to rise about 6.5 percent this year, which would be the first gain in the growth rate since 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on its microblog. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-output/china-expects-2018-industrial-output-to-grow-around-6-percent-idUKKBN1EJ07D'|'2017-12-25T06:52:00.000+02:00'
'd090d0b6b9e61fe15dc29927493682862b68b7cf'|'Israel central bank mulls issuing digital currency for faster payments'|'December 24, 2017 / 2:08 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Israel central bank mulls issuing digital currency for faster payments Steven Scheer 3 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Bank of Israel is examining issuing digital currency as a means of creating a faster payments system as well as reducing the amount of cash in the economy, a central bank source said on Sunday, though he stressed no decision had yet been made. FILE PHOTO: An Israeli flag flutters outside the Bank of Israel building in Jerusalem August 7, 2013. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said the government was ready to legislate or include the issue in its 2019 budget and economic package if the central bank gave the green light. The emergence of bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies has led some economists to predict the technology could be used one day across entire economies, with digital currencies created by central banks. But the Israeli source said any digital currency introduced by the country’s central bank would be centralised, safe and abide by money laundering rules - in contrast to bitcoin and its peers, which are decentralised and whose value has often oscillated wildly. “Central banks around the world are examining (the use of digital currencies) so we should as well,” the Israeli source told Reuters. The Bank of Israel declined to comment on the issue. Cryptocurrencies allow parties to transact payments directly without a central intermediary, by means of blockchain technology that uses a shared ledger that verifies, records and settles transactions in a matter of minutes. The Israeli government has been seeking to limit the amount of cash in the economy for a few years since the black economy is estimated at some 22 percent of national output. Last month, the Bank of Israel published a public consultation asking for proposals for the creation of at least one infrastructure that would support immediate payments in Israel, similar to that used in Britain and Sweden. In such a system, the initiator of the payment is debited immediately and the beneficiary is credited within a very short period of time, the central bank said, adding payments can be made 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A fast payments system is one option, while “a central bank- issued digital currency is another form of an advanced payments system which currently does not exist,” the source said. Last week, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he saw “fundamental problems” with the idea of a digital currency issued by a central bank that could be used by the general public. Editing by Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-israel-cenbank-currency/israel-central-bank-mulls-issuing-digital-currency-for-faster-payments-idUKKBN1EI0D7'|'2017-12-24T16:07:00.000+02:00'
'0c484a0bccf1d7d6bb9bf7d7804c25d651d5fbd1'|'Big Boeing, Airbus strategies drive small plane deals'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:56 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Big Boeing, Airbus strategies drive small plane deals Tim Hepher , Brad Haynes 5 Min Read PARIS/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Airbus and Boeing are pairing with smaller regional rivals to add sales at the lower end of their $100 billion-a-year commercial plane duopoly, but the two market leaders are also laying the foundation for a longer-term strategic contest against more powerful threats such as China. U.S. planemaker Boeing Co ( BA.N ) and Brazil’s Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ) said on Thursday they were discussing a “potential combination” widely assumed to focus on jetliners, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal. News of the talks comes just two months after Boeing’s European archrival Airbus ( AIR.PA ) agreed to buy a majority stake in Bombardier Inc’s ( BBDb.TO ) 110 to 130-seat CSeries jet, the Canadian rival of Embraer’s biggest E-Jets. “This seems initially to be about blunting the offering of the CSeries,” said consultant Jerrold Lundquist, managing director of The Lundquist Group, one of the first industry-watchers to predict the move. “One of the things the CSeries brings to Airbus is the ability to offer a broader product line.” Both Embraer’s E-Jets, which generally range between 70 and 130 seats, and to a greater extent Bombardier’s CSeries, overlap at the margins of the big-airplane portfolios of Airbus and Boeing, but the products are mainly seen as complementary. Boeing and Airbus smaller planes start at around 125 seats. Such commercial tie-ups allow planemakers to offer package deals and expand opportunities for generating revenue and profit, a person familiar with the CSeries deal said. Boeing now appears to be a convert to this approach after initially - at least in public - dismissing the deal between Airbus and Bombardier, several analysts said on Thursday. But the proposed alliances, neither of which is finalised, are not simply about tacking on revenue and cash flow, analysts and industry sources said. First, they could quickly lead to technical overlap. “If Boeing begins to collaborate with Embraer, you could imagine them creating commonality in the Boeing cockpit,” Lundquist said. Others see similar benefits at Airbus. More importantly, they broaden the battlefront for the next round of developments in 2030 and beyond: one in which Western jetmakers will be up against growing competition from China and Russia and could rely on their new partners to spread the risk. PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION Slideshow (2 Images) Boeing and Embraer had already prepared just such a tryst in confidential talks over a decade ago. In October, Reuters reported that the template for a possible Boeing-Embraer response to the Airbus-Bombardier deal already existed in dormant plans for a new generation of single-aisle planes, for which there had been a previously unreported collaboration between Boeing and Brazil. Plans for an all-new plane were put on hold while Boeing and Airbus focused on engine makeovers for existing models, cashing in on fuel savings that were considered strong enough to hold off Chinese and Russian competitors for another 10 or 15 years. But the blueprint for deeper co-operation between Embraer and Boeing remained in place and by breaking the status quo, Airbus’s Bombardier deal may have brought it back to life. “Embraer gives Boeing access to technology for smaller jets for application on a next-generation narrowbody aircraft,” Morningstar analyst Chris Higgins said in a research note. A source with knowledge of the matter said Boeing had already approached Embraer twice about a potential deal in 2002 and 2006. At the time, the Brazilian government vetoed any deal, saying Embraer was a “strategic” company for the country. Brazilian President Michel Temer, who took office last year, has pushed a more market-friendly agenda than predecessors. Deals with their smaller cousins may give Airbus and Boeing more options when they develop the successors to the best-selling Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, perhaps allowing them to offer a trio of large jets coupled to a pair of smaller ones. For Boeing, however, there may be another gamble at play. The American firm is considering launching a twin-aisle 220 to 260-seat jet in the so-called middle of the market, challenging Airbus in the segment where it began life over 40 years ago. The timing of the talks leaves open the possibility that any core technology Embraer has to offer could be considered for the “new mid-market airplane (NMA),” people familiar with the matter said. To some, that only increases the chances that Boeing will kick-start the project next year, taking pains at the same time to shore up the lower end of its market with an Embraer tie-up. ”Boeing would apparently prefer to do the NMA and taking on two major developments at once may be considered too ambitious,” Lundquist said. Reporting by Tim Hepher in PARIS and Brad Haynes in SAO PAULO; Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in SAO PAULO; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-embraer-m-a-boeing-strategy-analysis/big-boeing-airbus-strategies-drive-small-plane-deals-idUSKBN1EF2ZD'|'2017-12-22T00:54:00.000+02:00'
'919b4bab1431b39397b5775c3774638ab9f305c6'|'Crystallex pursues Citgo as Venezuela misses settlement payment'|'December 21, 2017 / 11:02 PM / in 6 minutes Crystallex pursues Citgo as Venezuela misses settlement payment Tom Hals 3 Min Read WILMINGTON, Del., Dec 21 (Reuters) - Mining company Crystallex International Corp said on Thursday Venezuela failed to honor a settlement and urged a federal judge to allow it to seize control of U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp, which is owned by the country’s state oil company. Canada-based Crystallex won a 2016 international arbitration award of $1.2 billion against Venezuela, which has refused to pay. The company had been trying to collect by seizing shares of Citgo’s U.S. parent company, which is owned by Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. Last month Crystallex said it settled with cash-strapped Venezuela, but the company’s lawyer said that deal fell through. “They said they’d make a payment to us and didn‘t,” Robert Weigel, a lawyer for Crystallex, told the court Thursday. Crystallex’s lawyers told U.S. Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington, Delaware, they had an “avalanche of evidence” that proved PDVSA and Venezuela were one and the same, including official PDVSA tweets with the hashtag #PDVSAesVenezuela, Spanish for “PDVSA is Venezuela.” As a result, they were seeking to attach, or seize, PDVSA’s shares in PDV Holding Inc, Citgo’s Delaware-incorporated parent. If Crystallex succeeds, the case could open the way for more than a dozen companies to pursue Citgo to collect on arbitration claims over assets that were nationalized under Venezuela’s late socialist leader Hugo Chavez. PDVSA’s lawyer argued on Thursday that Crystallex could not pursue the state oil company’s assets because PDVSA was not a party to the arbitration. Stark seemed concerned that Venezuela or PDVSA could try to sell the PDV Holding stock before he ruled. He also wondered if a ruling for Crystallex would put PDVSA on the hook for all Venezuelan debts and whether discovery was needed to determine Caracas’ day-to-day control of the company. Stark did not say when he might rule. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said in November he wanted to restructure all foreign debt, which includes some $60 billion in outstanding sovereign and PDVSA bonds. Legal experts said Houston-based Citgo might be pursued by creditors if the country broadly defaults on its debts, but seizing it could prove difficult. Venezuela agreed last month to pay Crystallex $25 million by Nov. 30, according to documents on the website of the Canadian monitor for Crystallex’s Ontario insolvency proceeding. Venezuela agreed to pay another $15 million by Dec. 31 and about $400 million by the end of 2020, according to the monitor’s documents. Venezuela agreed to additional payments that were not disclosed. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-crystallex/crystallex-pursues-citgo-as-venezuela-misses-settlement-payment-idUSL1N1OL2BG'|'2017-12-22T01:01:00.000+02:00'
'6827a206ae3f967c6b4a354c8828f459cc7b8cd9'|'U.S. department store stocks jump on holiday spending record'|'December 26, 2017 / 7:52 PM / in an hour U.S. department store stocks jump on holiday spending record Richa Naidu 3 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. department stores jumped on Tuesday as Mastercard Inc said shoppers spent over $800 billion during the season, more than ever before, boosted by growing consumer confidence, rising employment and early discounts. Sarah Quinlan, head of market insights for Mastercard Advisors, disclosed the figure after the payments processor’s analytics arm published its SpendingPulse retail report. The report said holiday sales in stores and online between Nov 1 and Dec 24 rose 4.9 percent, the fastest year-on-year pace of increase since 2011. Mastercard, which tracks spending by combining sales activity in its payments network with estimates of cash and other payment forms, excluded automobile sales from its figures. Most U.S. retail stocks have tumbled this year as they continued to lose sales to online stores, mainly Amazon.com Inc. Traditional players have also been hurt by heavy investments in technology and discounting, made to keep up with online and off-price competition. Shares in J.C. Penney Co Inc rose 7.6 percent on Tuesday, while Kohl’s Corp shares were up 5.8 percent, Macy’s Inc rose 5.1 percent and Nordstrom Inc increased 2.8 percent. SpendingPulse said the moderate sales increases seen in apparel and department stores were particularly impressive given this year’s slew of store closures. Online sales rose 18.1 percent during the holiday season, thanks to a late rally in sales, according to Mastercard. “But that’s probably only 11 or 12 percent of total retail sales ... the bulk of sales still is very much in stores,” said Quinlan. “There’s growth, don’t get me wrong, but we still love that experience of being in store.” The biggest winner of the holiday season was likely to be Amazon.com once again, however, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted this month. Amazon.com said on Tuesday that it had topped its worldwide holiday sales record this year, with more than 4 million people opting to trial Amazon Prime in one week during the period. Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-holidayshopping/u-s-department-store-stocks-jump-on-holiday-spending-record-idUSKBN1EK1BG'|'2017-12-26T21:51:00.000+02:00'
'723af751c43c53a08c66a457b98723d4d38e9b5c'|'Bitcoin rises 10 percent, recovers from last week''s brutal selloff'|'December 26, 2017 / 5:34 AM / Updated 44 minutes ago Bitcoin recovers some losses after its worst week since 2013 Vidya Ranganathan , Lisa Twaronite , Richard Leong 3 Min Read SINGAPORE/TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin rose 15 percent on Tuesday, recouping about half of the losses it sustained last week, its worst since 2013, as investors who had missed out on earlier rallies bought the world’s biggest and best-known digital currency. While bitcoin investors and analysts believe last week’s decline in its value was a natural correction after a heady run-up in prices, there have been further warnings from market regulators and central banks. Bitcoin fell nearly 30 percent at one stage on Friday to $11,159.93. At 3:09 p.m. (2009 GMT) on Tuesday, bitcoin BTC=BTSP was up 15 percent at $16,030 in light trading on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. “The latest price move shows bitcoin is still a speculative investment. There is enormous amount of volatility there,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist with Invesco in New York. The digital currency had risen around twentyfold since the start of the year, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,666 on Dec. 17 on Bitstamp and to over $20,000 on other exchanges. “There is no right current price which would reflect the right current valuation,” said Andrei Popescu, Singapore-based co-founder of COSS, which describes itself as a platform that encompasses all features of a digital economy based on cryptocurrency. Sparks glow from broken Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Files “Taking profit is right, while buying into a long term projection is also right. You don’t have to be right in this market, just less wrong than the rest,” Popescu said. Critics have pointed to bitcoin’s design flaws and hacks of digital “wallets” in which bitcoins are kept as an alternative to traditional currencies. “We therefore think that bitcoin is a product that is unable to fulfil the basic functions it is meant to fulfil. We therefore think it is likely a bubble, that will eventually fade, as other cryptocurrencies will take over,” Citi analysts wrote in a research published on Friday. Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority, was the latest among regulators to voice his concerns. He said on Monday he will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Singapore’s central bank last week issued a warning against investment in cryptocurrencies, saying it considers the recent surge in prices to be driven by speculation and that the risk of a sharp fall in prices is high. Prices of other cryptocurrencies, which slid along with bitcoin last week, have also recovered, with Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market size, quoted around $771, up from Sunday’s low of $689 but still far from highs around $900 hit last week. Editing by Susan Thomas and Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-bitcoin/bitcoin-rises-10-percent-recovers-from-last-weeks-brutal-selloff-idINKBN1EK0AN'|'2017-12-26T07:30:00.000+02:00'
'ea8a326f6562eb54e0c4811860eefe4fb319be03'|'Japan November jobless rate falls to 2.7 percent'|' 39 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago Japan November jobless rate falls to 2.7 percent Reuters Staff 1   jobless rate fell to 2.7 percent in November, while the availability of jobs hit the highest level in nearly 44 years,   Tuesday. Office workers are reflected in a glass railing as they cross a street during lunch hour in Tokyo June 1, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 2.8 percent in October, data from the Internal Affairs ministry showed. Economists’ median forecast was for the jobless rate to stand at 2.8 percent. The jobs-to-applicants ratio rose to 1.56 in November - the highest since January 1974 - and matched the median forecast. The ratio was 1.55 in October. A full table can be seen on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications at: (Note: The jobs-to-applicants ratio and new job offers can be seen in Japanese on the labour ministry’s website.) Reporting by Sumio Ito; Editing by Minami Funakoshi and Chang-Ran Kim'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-jobs/japan-november-jobless-rate-falls-to-2-7-percent-idUKKBN1EJ0WZ'|'2017-12-26T01:38:00.000+02:00'
'5a6447ea81b5dbbce3bcfe0a51bc21f74f8518fa'|'BOJ Kuroda - Must watch for excessive risk-taking in markets'|'December 26, 2017 / 4:57 AM / Updated 11 minutes ago BOJ Kuroda - Must watch for excessive risk-taking in markets Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday it was important to scrutinise whether economic expansion was leading to excessive risk-taking in financial markets. FILE PHOTO - Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato “In the current recovery phase, there are no signs of excessively bullish expectations in asset markets and financial institutions’ behaviour. But financial developments warrant close attention,” he said in a speech delivered at a meeting of business lobby Keidanren. Kuroda also said the BOJ would maintain its “powerful” monetary support for the economy with inflation still distant from its 2 percent target. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj-kuroda/boj-kuroda-must-watch-for-excessive-risk-taking-in-markets-idUKKBN1EK09G'|'2017-12-26T06:56:00.000+02:00'
'bc4c8e888bc731d095929c3caaaed78f150905cf'|'Miss America CEO resigns after report of derogatory emails'|'December 23, 2017 / 11:36 PM / Updated an hour ago Miss America CEO resigns after report of derogatory emails Alex Dobuzinskis 3 Min Read Dec 23 (Reuters) - The head of the organization that stages the Miss America beauty pageant   The resignation of Sam Haskell, executive chairman and chief executive of the Miss America Organization, came one day after he was suspended following the Huffington Post’s report on Thursday   A representative for Haskell did not return emails on Saturday seeking comment. Weidner     “Those who know my heart know that this is not indicative of my character, nor is it indicative of my business acumen,” Haskell said in the statement.   he added. Reuters has not obtained the emails cited by the Huffington Post. Haskell has been with the organization for a dozen years, after a career as an executive with talent management company the William Morris Agency. In   (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Mary Milliken)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-missamerica/miss-america-ceo-resigns-after-report-of-derogatory-emails-idUSL1N1ON0I5'|'2017-12-24T01:33:00.000+02:00'
'd0abde2d87cdd6589b3b6b4fe74de41c88e1d4ce'|'VW may post excellent 2017 results, CEO tells Welt am Sonntag'|'December 24, 2017 / 12:19 PM / Updated 2 hours ago VW may post excellent 2017 results, CEO tells Welt am Sonntag Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) will report excellent group results this year, its chief executive said, helped by expected record vehicle sales and by spending cuts. The carmaker’s popularity with motorists appears to have weathered the storm following the emissions scandal of September 2015, which has cost Volkswagen (VW) billions of euros in fines and penalties. “It will certainly be quite outstanding in operational terms,” VW group CEO Matthias Mueller told Germany’s weekly Welt am Sonntag when asked to sum up the 2017 business year. VW is due to publish detailed 2017 results on March 13. Last month, the CEO predicted that group deliveries would exceed the 2016 record of 10.3 million vehicles. Cost cuts at the core passenger-cars division have caused the world’s largest automaker to raise its profit target for the year, and it has since also upgraded its mid-term profit and sales guidance. On the other hand, Mueller said proposals by the European Commission for progressive cuts in carmakers’ average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2025 and 2030 will “cause us real pain.” Wolfsburg-based VW more than two years ago admitted to cheating in diesel emissions tests in the United States. It has set aside about 25 billion euros ($30 billion) to cover related fines and vehicle repairs and faces thousands of lawsuits worldwide. Mueller also criticized the prolonged political deadlock in Germany, which has no new government as Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to search for a coalition partner three months after federal elections. “This is taking too long,” the CEO said in the interview published on Sunday. “We must become capable of acting again, for this purpose sometimes also unpopular decisions are necessary.” Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-results/vw-may-post-excellent-2017-results-ceo-tells-welt-am-sonntag-idUSKBN1EI0BF'|'2017-12-24T14:18:00.000+02:00'
'265a65f7d671f73883295e5fd4d1c46fbed94144'|'Vice Media co-founders apologise for ''boy''s club'' environment at firm'|'Reuters TV United States December 23, 2017 / 11:29 PM / a few seconds ago Vice Media co-founders apologize for ''boy''s club'' environment at firm Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Vice Media co-founders issued an apology on Saturday, saying the Millennial-focused media company had allowed a “boy’s club” atmosphere that included sexual harassment to flourish. Co-Founders of VICE Shane Smith (L) and Suroosh Alvi (R) pose as they arrive for the 20th Annual Webby Awards in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar Vice Chief Executive Officer Shane Smith and co-founder Suroosh Alvi released a statement after the New York Times published a story outlining four settlements by the company involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees. The newspaper also reported that more than two dozen women had experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct at the company. In the emailed statement sent to Reuters addressing Vice staff, Smith and Alvi said three employees had been fired for “unacceptable behavior.” Smith and Alvi also laid out steps the company is taking to improve the work atmosphere for women, including hiring a new human resources chief and committing to equal pay for men and women by the end of 2018. “From the top down, we have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive,” they said. In apologizing for allowing the “inappropriate behavior” to permeate the company, Smith and Alvi said past dysfunction and mismanagement were allowed to “flourish unchecked.” They added that they wanted to express “extreme regret for our role in perpetuating sexism in the media industry and society in general.” Neither Smith nor Alvi were accused of misconduct in the New York Times story. A spokesman for Vice did not respond to a request for further comment on the story. Vice, which started as a Montreal punk magazine in 1994, attracted top investors in recent years as the multimedia company evolved into a news and entertainment platform that catered to Millennials. The Walt Disney Co owns an 18 percent stake. Private equity firm TPG in June invested $450 million in Vice, valuing Vice at about $5.7 billion. Representatives for both Disney and TPG could not immediately be reached for comment about Vice’s apology. Other changes outlined Saturday by Vice include the formation of a diversity board that includes feminist icon Gloria Steinem, clarified sexual harassment policies, and expanded maternity and paternity leaves. Reporting by Ben Klayman; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-vice-media-apology/vice-media-co-founders-apologize-for-boys-club-environment-at-firm-idUKKBN1EH0Q7'|'2017-12-24T01:21:00.000+02:00'
'd7198d194c1ee066e4a9e980f53449206168e664'|'REFILE-Succession doubts cloud Apotex future after billionaire owner''s death'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:20 PM / Updated 14 minutes ago REFILE-Succession doubts cloud Apotex future after billionaire owner''s death Reuters Staff * Sherman had no succession plan in place before death -sources * Billionaire’s children not involved in business * Death could leave business vulnerable to takeover approach * Apotex involved in ongoing litigation with Teva (In Dec 21 item, corrects spelling of Jonathon Sherman’s first name) By Matt Scuffham TORONTO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Canadian pharmaceuticals billionaire Barry Sherman failed to implement a succession plan at his Apotex business before his death last week, two business associates told Reuters, potentially leaving it vulnerable to takeover approaches. The bodies of Sherman, 75, and his wife Honey, 70, were found in their Toronto mansion last week and their deaths are under investigation by Toronto’s homicide squad. A memorial service was held on Thursday. Sherman had always resisted approaches from trade buyers and never wanted to take the generic drugmaker public, the associates said, preferring to keep control and not involve outside shareholders. Despite stepping down as chief executive in 2012, the self-confessed workaholic continued to work seven-day weeks and twelve-hour days. None of Sherman’s four children were interested in running the business and only one had worked at the company, the associates said. Sherman’s son Jonathon, who has a degree in industrial engineering from Columbia University, took at job at the firm after graduating but quit after less than a year. Sherman founded Apotex in 1974 and grew it through a strategy of launching hundreds of lawsuits against competitors to overturn patent protection for their drugs. Apotex would then manufacture cheaper identical products that did not carry a brand name. The company now employs more than 10,000 worldwide with annual sales exceeding C$2 billion ($1.6 billion). The associates said no formal sales process is underway. Any approach would come as the world’s biggest generic drug companies are grappling with declining drug prices and intensifying competition. Any potential buyer would also require an appetite for litigation, the associates said, since Apotex is regularly involved in legal actions over patents. And Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries , the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs, is currently in a legal dispute with Apotex over allegations a former Teva executive shared trade secrets with Apotex CEO Jeremy Desai. Teva is also weighed by $35 billion in debt it took on to acquire Allergan’s Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion last year. Last week it said it would axe 14,000 jobs. A Teva spokeswoman in Israel had no immediate comment when asked about any takeover plans or the status of its legal case against Apotex. $1 = 1.2728 Canadian dollars Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Editing by Meredith Mazzili'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-death-apotex-future/succession-doubts-cloud-apotex-future-after-billionaire-owners-death-idUSL1N1OL1K3'|'2017-12-22T18:22:00.000+02:00'
'da3334086565701d9c23ba8b9527f33834fe3f91'|'Wall Street little changed as Nike weighs'|'December 22, 2017 / 2:12 PM / in 14 minutes Wall Street slips in holiday wind-down April Joyner 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street’s major indexes slipped on Friday as thin pre-holiday trading amplified losses in several blue-chip stocks, including Nike. FILE PHOTO: A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. December 28, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo Nike Inc ( NKE.N ) shares fell 2.5 percent after the company forecast muted growth in current-quarter revenue, reflecting its struggles in the North American market. UnitedHealth Group Inc ( UNH.N ) was down 0.7 percent after the health insurer agreed to buy Chilean healthcare company Banmedica SA BAN.SN for $2.8 billion. Investors are winding down ahead of the Christmas holiday on Monday, when the market will be closed. “It’s been a strong week,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. “Whether the market is up a little bit or down a little bit is not indicative of larger trends...It’s easy to push things around when not many people are trading.” Indeed, major Wall Street indexes were on track to end the week higher, buoyed by a historic overhaul of the U.S. tax code. President Donald Trump signed Republicans’ massive $1.5 trillion tax overhaul into law on Friday and also approved a short-term spending bill that averts a possible government shutdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 36.02 points, or 0.15 percent, to 24,746.27, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.9 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,682.67 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 6.03 points, or 0.09 percent, to 6,959.33. Wildly volatile bitcoin BTC=BTSP plunged below $12,000, losing around a third of its market value in five days. It since has stabilized above $13,000. Companies that have been riding the bitcoin wave were hit hard by the cryptocurrency''s slump. Long Blockchain Corp ( LTEA.O ), Overstock.com Inc ( OSTK.O ), Riot Blockchain Inc ( RIOT.O ) and Marathon Patent Group Inc ( MARA.O ) tumbled between 2 percent and 15 percent. Data on Friday showed U.S. consumer spending went up in November and shipments of key capital goods orders increased for the 10th straight month, confirming strong economic momentum. “The data is relatively mixed but biased to the upside, and consumer sentiment continues to be strong and that bodes well for economic strength in 2018,” said Matthew Miskin, market strategist at John Hancock Investments in Boston, Massachusetts. The benchmark S&P has climbed about 20 percent this year and is on track for its best performance since 2013 on solid corporate earnings, strong economic fundamentals, upcoming cuts to corporate tax rates and hopes of looser regulations. Real estate .SPLRCR led the S&P 500 in gains, with a 0.7 percent rise. Health .SPXHC was the biggest decliner, falling 0.4 percent. Celgene Corp ( CELG.O ) shares fell 1.9 percent after the company’s follicular lymphoma regimen failed in a clinical trial. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.15-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.27-to-1 ratio favored decliners. Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva and Lisa Shumaker'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-to-open-flat-as-holiday-lull-sets-in-idINKBN1EG1MD'|'2017-12-22T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'01fb839430481df334cdf3086a9291f0cd290223'|'Three months that shook Ryanair - How cancellations sparked a pilot revolt'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:10 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Three months that shook Ryanair - How cancellations sparked a pilot revolt Conor Humphries 8 Min Read DUBLIN (Reuters) - Within hours of the news on Sept. 15 that thousands of Ryanair flights had been cancelled in Europe, pilots’ WhatsApp groups exploded with pent-up frustration. FILE PHOTO: A pilot disembarks a Ryanair flight at Stansted airport in London, Britain September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne While management explained away the cancellations as a one-off rostering screw-up, pilots believed there was a deeper problem - that disaffected colleagues were leaving in droves. The pilots saw an opportunity to shift the balance of power in a company where they feel they are treated, in the words of one serving captain, “like janitors”. A hectic five days of Facebook and WhatsApp exchanges and meetings later, representatives of 20 of Ryanair’s 87 bases were demanding new contracts. In December, pilots in Italy, Ireland and Portugal called strikes that would have been the first of their kind in the airline’s history. “The discontent has always been there ... but the cancellations triggered everyone to mobilise,” one pilot said. Their manoeuvre worked. On Dec. 15, Chief Executive Michael O‘Leary recognised unions for the first time, crossing what for him had always been a red line. The full implications of union recognition for Ryanair’s pioneering ultra low-cost business model will take months to become clear. The market’s view was immediate: shares fell 9 percent in a single day. In his first interview since the cancellations, O‘Leary told Reuters the decision did not indicate management weakness or pilot strength but the fact that the airline was facing the prospect of compensating 150,000 passengers in Christmas week. “If you need to go on strike just to test our mettle, then go ahead,” O‘Leary said in his Dublin office on Tuesday. “But not in Christmas week. And not one that disrupts all our customers across Europe.” The blunt-speaking CEO, who once crossed a picket line of baggage handlers to help load a plane, also indicated a grudging respect for the pilots: “In fairness, their timing was good.” Analysts have been concerned that rising staff costs could destroy one of the main pillars of the airline’s cost advantage, pushing it into the crowded middle ground occupied by easyJet ( EZJ.L ) and restructured legacy carriers such as Air Lingus. O’Leary counters that a “tiny proportion” of its advantage over rivals is due to staff costs. “There will be an uptick in labour costs next year, but will it alter the model? No.” SOMETHING AWRY The first signs that something was awry at Ryanair came in early summer, according to union officials and three pilots who asked not to be named because their contracts forbid them to talk to the media. By May, the rostering department had begun calling pilots to ask them to work during their annual month off, a first. Calls on days off also increased in frequency and on short notice, measures one pilot said were seen as a sign of “desperation.” “From the start of the summer schedule there were very, very clear signs that there issues in crew control,” said the pilot, a captain who works at a base in northwest Europe. O‘Leary acknowledged in the interview that there were “all these little bits of mismanagement”, including training pilots being sent to fly passengers and a backlog of newly hired pilots unable to fly. By mid-summer, punctuality was suffering. In-house statistics show the number of flights arriving on time deteriorated from 91 percent in April to 83 percent in July, its worst level since 2010. In early September, it had collapsed to the mid-60s, causing cascading delays and cancellations. Management put out a call on Sept. 13 offering pilots more money to work extra days, with management “not quite realising how serious it was,” O‘Leary told Reuters. Two days later, Ryanair bowed to the inevitable and announced the cancellations. Management has maintained the problem was triggered by a regulatory change: starting in 2018, Irish airlines will have to calculate pilots’ annual 900-hour flying time limits on the basis of the calendar year, like the rest of the European Union, rather than the customary April to March. The rostering department responded by over-allocating annual leave in the final four months of 2017, which meant almost half of the company’s pilots took a month off between September and December compared to 40 percent in a normal year, O‘Leary said. FILE PHOTO: Ryanair CEO Michael O''Leary arrives at the Ryanair AGM in Dublin, Ireland September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) told Reuters the rostering move was not a direct result of their change because the rules on annual limits were effectively waived. “The airline made a commercial decision and has accepted full responsibility,” the IAA said in a statement. SHORTAGES Many pilots believe the key factor was the high number of pilots leaving, and questioned management’s distinction between a “standby pilot shortage”, which it admitted, and a “pilot shortage”, which it denied. O‘Leary told investors on Sept. 18 that the annual turnover among Ryanair’s 4,400 pilots was less than 5 percent . On Tuesday, however, he admitted turnover had reached “high single digits” for captains and “low teens” for First Officers in 2017, more than double the churn rate of below 4 percent reported by easyJet. The number of pilots leaving has “undoubtedly stepped up this year,” O‘Leary said. “The uptick in First Officer resignations is highly unusual.” After the September cancellations O‘Leary announced an extra 10,000 euros per year to pilots in several bases and “goodies” to pilots at others. If pilots misbehaved, however, “that will be the end of discussion on goodies,” he said. The approach did not have the desired effect and a week later the airline was forced to cancel another 18,000 flights and cut its growth plans, grounding 25 planes in the winter and 10 next summer. While management was suffering setbacks, the pilots were growing in confidence. By the end of September, they had set up an unofficial pan-European body with its own web site and WhatsApp group, allowing information to be shared instantly among a majority of pilots for the first time. In October, the airline made its next move, hiring back its former director of flight operations, Peter Bellew, after just over a year as CEO at Malaysia Airlines to lead a “significant transformation in the way we reward and interact with our pilots.” In a meeting with pilots in London in mid-December, Bellew conceded the airline had lost pilots’ trust, according to a recording of the meeting reported in Irish media on Tuesday and heard by Reuters. The airline’s administrative staff appeared determined to give pilots a hard time, he said. “With the anger there is around the place, if we don’t manage to turn that around, we’re going to lose more people, so we need to change that,” Bellew said. Ryanair and Bellew declined to comment on the recording. TOXIC CULTURE O‘Leary made it Ryanair’s trademark to treat pilots more like bus drivers than what he saw as the pampered rock stars of aviation’s golden a'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ryanair-pilots-insight/three-months-that-shook-ryanair-how-cancellations-sparked-a-pilot-revolt-idUKKBN1EE2D3'|'2017-12-20T20:09:00.000+02:00'
'e9f2ad04ca414ff09da1a1aef2f0cc5f6110a885'|'Forget Bitcoin bubble - will Fevertree go pop?'|'December 19, 2017 / 10:12 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Forget Bitcoin bubble - will Fevertree go pop? 5   A carbonated drinks manufacturer is always in bubble territory. FILE PHOTO: Products from the drinks company Fever Tree are displayed in London, Britain May 11, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo But after a 1,450 percent share price rise since a late-2014 market debut, arguably none is looking as frothy as upmarket tonic water and mixers maker Fevertree Drinks ( FEVR.L ). Its shares have started to deflate, but only against a backdrop of general angst over asset valuations, with global equities and bonds at or close to record peaks and cryptocurrency Bitcoin up almost 20-fold this year alone. A move by Schweppes to compete in the premium drinks segment is behind some of the recent weakness, but fund managers do not expect this to have any sizeable impact on Fevertree’s growth. Nor do they see any let-up in what has become the Fevertree standard - beating analysts’ earnings forecasts. Richard Watts, who runs the 3.2 billion pound Old Mutual UK Mid Cap Fund and is the biggest institutional shareholder of Fevertree, topped up his holdings in the company in the last 4-5 weeks. “We think there are significant amounts of upside left in the shares,” he said. He said Fevertree’s sales momentum is exceptionally strong as its mixers are stocked in more UK locations in the on-trade (e.g. bars, restaurants) and off-trade (e.g. supermarkets, shops), and gain more shelf space at retailers. Britain is Fevertree’s largest market. RBC Capital Markets put its contribution to the company’s organic revenue growth at more than 50 percent since 2015, accelerating to more than 60 percent since the second half of 2016. This performance, helped by a premium gin boom, shows no sign of abating. UK sales increased more than 100 percent in the first half of 2017 - and against a robust prior year level. Watts said the international business is growing at a very healthy clip, too. Fevertree is beefing up its overseas presence. It recently opened a U.S. office and appointed a CEO for its business there. The brand name Fever-Tree is the colloquial name for the cinchona tree, the bark of which produces quinine - a key ingredient in tonic water. Even after such a stellar run, Fevertree gets consistent forecast upgrades from the analysts that cover the stock. Fevertree’s most recent trading update predicted 2017 results materially ahead of market expectations, prompting house broker Investec to lift its revenue forecast by 6 percent. Investec started 2016 and 2017 with earnings per share (EPS) forecasts about 70 percent below what they ultimately became, assuming no further changes for the 2017 estimate. COKE FIGHTS BACK Forecasts might be unchallenging, but early-stage companies like Fevertree are inherently riskier investments than more established companies with a longer earnings history. Fevertree is listed on the FTSE AIM index .FTAI , the London Stock Exchange''s market for growing companies, which has less stringent regulations than the main market. “This company (Fevertree) is growing quickly and there’s always uncertainty when that happens - and things can go wrong. I think it’s right for the analysts to be prudent in their forecasts,” said Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Harry Nimmo. “But I don’t think it needs much stretch of the imagination to predict that the forecasts should be beaten,” he said. Fevertree is held across a wide range of funds at Aberdeen Standard Investments, where Nimmo is head of smaller companies. With a market capitalisation of 2.3 billion pounds, Fevertree is hardly a small company any more, said Nimmo. As such, some of ASI’s large/midcap funds have been buying more of its shares, while portfolios of smaller stocks have sold some. Coca-Cola’s ( KO.N ) relaunch of Schweppes in the UK has been a cause for concern among Fevertree investors, particularly given it comprises premium mixer range, Schweppes 1783, and has a big marketing spend behind it. Fevertree’s shares have fallen about 7 percent since early October, when the announcement was made. Both Nimmo or Watts are relatively unfazed. Watts said if anything, the impact will be temporary. Reporting by Tricia Wright; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-fevertree-stocks/forget-bitcoin-bubble-will-fevertree-go-pop-idUKKBN1ED0ZZ'|'2017-12-19T12:18:00.000+02:00'
'4b8f7cd8657d600203a401e10d7af49dfd6d9129'|'Cuba boosts trade ties with Cold War ally Russia as U.S. disengages'|' 27 AM / in 31 minutes Cuba boosts trade ties with Cold War ally Russia as U.S. disengages Sarah Marsh , Nelson Acosta 8 Min Read HAVANA (Reuters) - Boxy Russian-built Lada automobiles still rattle around Cuba, growing more decrepit by the year, a reminder of vanished Soviet patronage for the Communist-led island. A Russian-made new Lada car is seen on display at the 35th Havana International Fair in Havana, Cuba, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini But next month, more than 300 shiny new Ladas are slated to roll onto Havana’s potholed streets, the first in more than a decade. Their manufacturer Avtovaz, Russia’s biggest carmaker, says it hopes to ramp up exports, thanks to financing from Russian government development bank VEB. Flush with state funding, Avtovaz and other Russian companies are once again increasing sales to the Caribbean isle. It is part of a broader move by Moscow to renew commercial, military and political ties just as the U.S. government is retreating from Cuba under Republican President Donald Trump. Russian exports to Cuba jumped 81 percent on the year to $225 million in the January-September period, official Russian data shows. That is just a quarter of the exports of Cuba’s chief merchandise trading partner, China, but growing fast. Russian state oil major Rosneft in May resumed fuel shipments to Cuba for the first time this century. The company’s head met with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on Saturday, the latest sign the two countries are readying a major energy agreement. The nations in the past have discussed increased deliveries of Russian oil to the island and development of Cuba’s offshore oil fields. That would be a major assist for Cuba amid slumping shipments of cheap fuel from its troubled socialist ally Venezuela. Last month, private Russian company Sinara delivered the first of 75 locomotives worth $190 million ordered by Cuba in 2016. Russia’s largest truck maker KAMAZ has also stepped up exports to Cuba. Negotiations for rail lines and other infrastructure are in the works. “We can call this period a renaissance,” Aleksandr Bogatyr, Russia’s trade representative in Cuba, said in an interview. He forecast bilateral trade could grow to $350 million to $400 million this year, one of its highest levels in nearly two decades, up from $248 million in 2016. Russia’s Cuba offensive comes as Trump has halted efforts by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama to normalize U.S.-Cuba ties and ease the decades-old U.S. trade embargo. In June, Trump ordered tighter travel and commercial restrictions again, disappointing U.S. businesses that had hoped to capitalize on the detente. In September, his administration slashed U.S. embassy staffing in Cuba. Moscow is seizing on that rollback as a way to undermine U.S. influence in its own backyard, some foreign policy experts say. “Russia sees it as a moment to further its own relationship with Cuba,” said Jason Marczak, Director at the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. “The more the Russian footprint increase in Cuba, the more that will reinforce hardened anti-U.S. attitudes and shut out U.S. businesses from eventually doing greater business in Cuba.” MONEY SPEAKS Throughout the Cold War, Moscow propped up Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government, providing it with billions of dollars worth of cheap grain, machinery and other goods. Those subsidies disappeared with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Trade plunged. Under Russian President Vladimir Putin, who longs to return his nation to superpower status, Moscow over the past decade has sought to revive relations with Latin America, particularly with countries wary of U.S. influence. The turnaround with Cuba got a boost in 2014 when Russia forgave 90 percent of Cuba’s $35 billion Soviet-era debt. It also started providing export financing to Russian companies looking to sell to the cash-strapped island. The help has been cheered in Cuba, where Raul Castro is due to step down next year, marking the departure of the generation that led the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca (L) poses beside a new Russian-made Lada car at the 35th Havana International Fair in Havana, Cuba, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini Russia may lie half a world away from Cuba, but traces of its historic ties with the Caribbean’s largest island are everywhere. Older generations learned Russian and studied in the Soviet Union. At a recent trade fair in the capital, Cubans spontaneously sung along to the folk music played at the opening of Russia’s pavilion. Moskvich and Lada cars, Ural motor-bikes and Kamaz trucks chug along the streets. Most Cuban farm equipment is from the former Soviet Union. That legacy alone has sustained some Russian trade. “We sell spare parts for ground transport, some planes, agriculture, construction,” said Russian businessman Igor Leonov. He set up his import company, Ces Co. Ltd, in Cuba nearly thirty years ago and says there is plenty of demand. The decades-old U.S. trade embargo has also forced Cuba to remain loyal to some Russian manufacturers. The island upgraded its Soviet-era fleet in the 2000s with Russian-built Tupolev, Antonov and Ilyushin planes. Nadezhda Lesova, an executive at the Russian Export Center in Moscow, said her organization regarded Cuba as a “strategic region.” She said the center is providing support for exports to Cuba, including insurance, loans and subsidies, worth around 430 million euros ($508.60 million). HIGH SPEED TRAIN Some major deals are under discussion. Slideshow (7 Images) State-owned monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) is negotiating to upgrade more than 1000 km of Cuban railroads and install a high-speed link between Havana and the beach resort of Varadero, in what would be Cuba’s biggest infrastructure project in decades. “It is expected the deal will be worth 1.9 billion euros ($2.26 billion) and will be signed by the end of the year,” Oleg Nikolaev, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the RZD subsidiary RZD International, told Reuters. In October, oil firm Rosneft said it was looking at modernizing the island’s Cienfuegos oil refinery. But the optimistic talk could be overblown. Venezuela and China have announced investments in Cuba that came to naught, largely due to the complications of doing business in Cuba. Some Russian companies are already smarting from Cuba’s cash crunch. Ces Co. Ltd, the parts importer, said Cuba was behind on $9 million in payments. And it is unclear how long Russia will continue to finance exports, with its own economy struggling amid low oil prices and Western sanctions. Russia’s economic constraints are one reason analysts are dubious that Moscow will make good on recent proposals to re-open a former base in Cuba. Shuttered in 2001, the so-called Lourdes base was used for electronic surveillance of the United States. Still, U.S. military experts are concerned that Russia could leverage increased economic influence in Cuba to step up its military and espionage activities on the island. Sixteen high-ranking '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cuba-russia/cuba-boosts-trade-ties-with-cold-war-ally-russia-as-u-s-disengages-idINKBN1ED0FS'|'2017-12-19T08:26:00.000+02:00'
'c7c5f79e712a0769de9f3b982ee78e62f6b63ae5'|'Chocolate makers innovate to entice health-conscious consumers'|'December 19, 2017 / 1:57 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago Chocolate makers innovate to entice health-conscious consumers Ana Ionova 8 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Raw chocolate KitKats, Dark Milk, vegan bars with quinoa and now “ruby” chocolate: the world’s biggest chocolate makers are looking for ways to keep increasingly health-conscious consumers coming back for more. Chocolatier Louise Anderson prepares chocolate at Rabot 1745, in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Sales of mainstream milk chocolate bars have stagnated as consumers worried about obesity and heart disease turn to snacks with less sugar and fat, or hold out for the occasional indulgent splurge on expensive, high-end chocolate. The shift in attitudes is forcing global firms from Mars Inc. to Mondelez International to Nestle to rebrand or reformulate their mass-market chocolates to create a healthier image, or sell a more expensive premium experience. Smoother dark chocolate bars, protein bars with chocolate, sugar-free chocolate and single-origin chocolate are an answer to consumer demand for healthier and higher-quality bars, the companies say. Critics of the confectionery industry say the new products are gimmicks to boost sales by giving a premium feel or a “healthy halo” to snacks still high in sugar and fat. The companies want to find growth somewhere. The volume of confectionery products sold worldwide rose just 0.5 percent in 2016-17 after falling for two years, according to research company Euromonitor International. “It’s going to be very difficult to persuade consumers to buy more chocolate,” said Wiebke Schoon, food analyst at Euromonitor. “But they are open to being convinced to have better chocolate, to spend more money on it.” While the volume of chocolate sales has been largely static, the value of sales rose 3.6 percent in 2016-17, according to Euromonitor, suggesting consumers may be prepared to pay more for chocolate they believe is healthier or better quality. “Natural, locally-sourced ingredients are and will continue to be at the heart of what people are looking for,” said Sandra Martinez, Nestle’s global head of chocolate and confectionery. “Combined with that artisan flair.” The Swiss food giant, which sells $8.8 billion (£6.59 billion) of confectionery a year, has turned to so-called chocolatories to try to turn its mass-market KitKat bar into a luxury, personalized product - with a premium price. At boutiques in Japan, chefs conjure up creative recipes and customers can buy KitKats in more than 10 flavors including matcha, strawberry maple and Japanese citrus. They can also buy KitKats made from premium dark, milk and raw - less processed - chocolate, or print a message on white chocolate bars and wrap them in custom packaging. “It’s cool to have your name on confectionery,” said Shiho Sudo, 20, in a KitKat boutique in Tokyo, holding a trio of white chocolate wafers with her name and birthday printed in gold-colored letters. “This is a special gift for myself.” To print a message on three KitKat wafers costs nearly 2,600 yen ($23) while a regular KitKat costs 100 yen ($0.89). ARTISANAL FLAIR Nestle says the boutiques have been successful in taking KitKat upmarket. It is rolling out similar shops across Asia and has trialed pop-up versions in Europe with a view to making them permanent. Rival Mondelez, which owns well-known brands such as Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cote d‘Or, Milka and Toblerone, is also looking to make mainstream products appeal to more demanding consumers. Mondelez is trying to widen the appeal of its premium dark chocolate brand Green & Black’s by expanding in the United States and launching a Velvet edition in Britain that offers consumers a smoother, less bitter taste. “It brings dark chocolate a little bit more to the mainstream,” said Mary Barnard, president of Mondelez International’s chocolate business in Europe. While there is doubt over whether dark chocolate has health benefits, the perception it is healthier than milk chocolate has prompted a 31 percent rise in dark chocolate product launches in the past four years, according to market research firm Mintel. In countries such as Australia and Russia, Mondelez has begun marketing high-cocoa versions of its mainstream bars such as Cadbury and Milka under the label Dark Milk. Hotel Chocolat CEO Angus Thirlwell poses for a photograph at Rabot 1745, in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Mars - the chocolate retail market leader according to Euromonitor - launched Dove Peanut Butter & Dark Chocolate Promises as well as Twix Dark in North America this year. HEALTHY TREATS? Large confectionery companies are also venturing into snack and cereal bars including chocolate, seeking to take advantage of growing global demand for healthier snacks. According to Euromonitor, the volume of snack bar sales has risen an average 2.6 percent a year for the past five years and is expected to grow 2.4 percent a year going forward. While these snacks are often smaller than traditional chocolate bars, they typically earn companies a bigger margin. This year, Mars unveiled its goodnessKNOWS snack bars in Britain, its biggest product launch in the country in two decades. The bar, split into three bite-sized pieces, is made of nuts, dried fruit and dark chocolate. Mars, which makes M&Ms and Snickers bars, has also taken a stake in KIND, the third-biggest maker of snack bars worldwide. Slideshow (12 Images) Other chocolate makers have turned to creating recipes with ingredients geared toward health-conscious consumers. Germany’s Ritter Sport, for example, has launched vegan chocolate with grains such as quinoa and amaranth and is working on a vegan “milk” chocolate bar, using a dairy substitute. Emma Calvert, food policy officer at the European Consumer Organisation lobby group, is skeptical, however, about the health drive by major chocolate makers. “For us, this is a marketing tool rather than any strategy to actually help improve the health of consumers,” she said. “They might be using coconut oil for fat or agave syrup instead of sugar,” said Calvert. “But it’s still a type of sugar and would contribute to your excess calories. It’s a way to give a healthy halo to products that really shouldn’t have it.” RUBY CHOCOLATE Some niche chocolate makers are focusing on a combination of luxury and health. At Rabot 1745 in London, a cafe, restaurant and shop owned by Hotel Chocolat, bars with cocoa beans from a defined part of the company’s Saint Lucia plantation are sold alongside sugar-free 65 percent chocolate made with buffalo milk. Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and CEO of Hotel Chocolat, a British company with more than 70 outlets across the country, hopes different kinds of cocoa beans will attract the same premium value attached to certain coffee beans or grapes. “The wine world has achieved a much better balance between growing grapes and the added value of the final product,” he said. “Chocolate has lost its way but is finding it again.” While companies such as Hotel Chocolat source specialty cocoa wi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cocoa-demand-innovation/chocolate-makers-innovate-to-entice-health-conscious-consumers-idUKKBN1ED1PZ'|'2017-12-19T15:41:00.000+02:00'
'7217a682b4baf9f6c75be99e96c9b2009f503803'|'Nike''s North America weakness to weigh on current-quarter revenue'|'Reuters TV United States December 21, 2017 / 9:30 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Nike''s North America weakness to weigh on current-quarter revenue Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Nike Inc ( NKE.N ) forecast on Thursday muted current-quarter revenue growth, highlighting the world’s largest footmaker’s struggles to regain market share in North America from a resurgent Adidas ( ADSGn.DE ). The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Nike (NKE) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo The company also said it expects gross margins in the current quarter to shrink by 125 to 175 basis points due to stronger dollar and higher costs related to new launches. “In third quarter in particular, we expect reported revenue growth at or slightly below the rate of reported revenue growth that we delivered in the second quarter,” Elliott Hill, President of Geographies and Sales said in a post-earnings call. The dismal forecast comes despite the company’s all-out effort to sell its shoes at higher prices in North America where it is facing tough competition. Shares of the company, a Dow component, were marginally down at $63.74 in after-hours trading. They have surged about 25 percent from their year-low in October. In the reported quarter, Nike’s North America revenue fell 5 percent - its second-straight quarter of declines - hurt by its decision to sell more sneakers at full price and severe competition from a resurgent Adidas ( ADSGn.DE ). “They are still working through a restructure of their business in North America and we probably won’t see positives in the next quarter,” Jessica Ramirez, retail research analyst at Jane Hali & Associates said in an email. Weakening wholesale distribution channels due to bankruptcies of sports chains Sports Authority and Sports Chalet earlier this year also hurt the company’s revenue. In response, Nike has been focusing on sales through its stores and website and its pilot program with Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) to sell a limited product assortment. Online sales rose 29 percent in the second quarter. The company has set a target to increase share of digital sales to total revenue to about 30 percent from 15 percent over the next five years. Nike’s international market, however, has been a bright spot, helping the company offset declining sales in North America. Quarterly revenue from Greater China rose 16 percent and European region 19 percent in the second quarter. The sportswear giant has said it expected about 50 percent of its future sales growth to come from new categories and about 75 percent growth from outside the United States. Nike has also been stepping up its advertising to regain market share from Adidas’ retro Superstar and Ultraboost shoes. Finish Line ( FINL.O ) said earlier on Thursday that Nike’s VaporMax and retro styles such as Huarache and Huarache ULTRA sold well in the sporting goods retailer’s third quarter. Excluding one-time items, the Beaverton, Oregon-based company earned 46 cents per share on revenue of $8.55 billion. Nike said the effective tax during the quarter nearly halved to 12.7 percent during the quarter. Analysts on average had expected adjusted earnings of 40 cents per share and revenue of $8.39 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Arun Koyyur'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nike-results/nikes-quarterly-revenue-rises-5-percent-idUKKBN1EF2UE'|'2017-12-22T02:36:00.000+02:00'
'ccf22d916e6bb268358d2a78dec1b0fd4ffedcd7'|'Russia''s standards agency says Nissan to recall 127,738 cars'|'Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Reuters TV United States December 25, 2017 / 11:51 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Russia''s standards agency says Nissan to recall 127,738 cars Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) will recall 127,738 Nissan cars in Russia, Russia’s technical safety watchdog Rosstandart said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: A Nissan logo is seen at a car dealership in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez Rosstandart said the recall would affect Nissan Note and Nissan Tiida cars produced between Aug. 30, 2008 and Aug. 1, 2014, due to possible issues with the airbag safety device. Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Denis Pinchuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nissan-recall/russias-standards-agency-says-nissan-to-recall-127738-cars-idUKKBN1EJ0KL'|'2017-12-25T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'0e4e2699cfef95f3a5d1873010f193ad0a1d2902'|'Thai monetary policy can remain accommodative despite higher U.S. rates - central bank chief'|'December 23, 2017 / 5:54 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Thai monetary policy can remain accommodative despite higher U.S. rates: central bank chief Reuters Staff 2 Min Read CHIANG MAI, Thailand (Reuters) - Thailand’s central bank can continue its accommodative monetary policy to aid the country’s economic recovery, although the U.S. Federal Reserve keeps raising its interest rates, the central bank governor said on Saturday. FILE PHOTO: Thailand''s Central Bank Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob speaks during an interview with Reuters at the Bank of Thailand in Bangkok, Thailand, January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Matthew Tostevin “Thailand’s monetary policy still needs to be conducive to the economic recovery,” Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob told reporters. Growth has yet to be sustained and broad-based while there is no concern about inflationary pressure, he added. The central bank is not worried about capital outflows in the wake of higher U.S. interest rates as Thailand’s external position remains strong with high foreign reserves. However, the BOT will still have to monitor the pace of inflation and rate increases in major countries, Veerathai said. The central bank forecast headline inflation of 0.7 percent this year and 1.1 percent next year, compared with its target range of 1-4 percent. The BOT has left its policy interest rate THCBIR=ECI unchanged at 1.50 percent, near the record low, since April 2015. It next reviews policy on Feb. 14. Most analysts expect no policy change in 2018, while some forecast a hike in the second half of the year. On Dec. 20, the BOT raised its economic growth forecast for this year for the fourth time, to 3.9 percent from 3.8 percent. It also lifted its 2018 projection to 3.9 percent, from 3.8 percent. Last year’s growth was 3.2 percent, still lagging regional peers. Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Andrew Bolton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-economy-rates/thai-monetary-policy-can-remain-accommodative-despite-higher-u-s-rates-central-bank-chief-idUKKBN1EH0L5'|'2017-12-23T19:52:00.000+02:00'
'871a56a9e9b59f8547af632b69e52b8a4500dc86'|'South Korea approves LG Display''s plan to build OLED factory in China'|' 12 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago South Korea approves LG Display''s plan to build OLED factory in China   SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s trade ministry said on Tuesday that a committee had approved LG Display Co Ltd’s ( 034220.KS ) plan to build a new organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel production facility in China. FILE PHOTO - A customer browses LG Electronics'' television sets, which are made with LG Display flat screens, at its store in Seoul, South Korea, July 23, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji The approval comes five months after LG Display announced it would invest in large-size OLED production in Guangzhou, China, to respond to fast-growing demand for the screens in TVs in overseas markets. The ministry said in a statement that the approval was conditional on LG Display boosting the use of local materials and equipment, subsequent investment in South Korea and strengthening processes such as security checks. An LG Display spokeswoman did not have an immediate comment. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lg-display-china/south-korea-approves-lg-displays-plan-to-build-oled-factory-in-china-idUKKBN1EK09V'|'2017-12-26T07:12:00.000+02:00'
'4c4aaebfc898f81ea665e3fd4ab1128b42f1e3d1'|'Cathay pilots favor raising funds as buffer amid anger over bonuses'|'December 22, 2017 / 8:18 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Angry Cathay pilots vote to raise funds as buffer for potential management action Jamie Freed 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Pilots at Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd ( 0293.HK ) voted in favor of raising funds as a buffer against any actions the Hong Kong airline may take against them, such as unilateral benefit changes or job losses, their union said on Friday. The move underscores persistent pilot discontent at Cathay, where anger and distrust has deepened after it decided not to pay any year-end bonuses to Hong Kong-based captains, five pilots told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Eager to cut costs, the loss-making airline had also sought to cut payment of housing allowances but this month extended the stipend ahead of a busy holiday travel period and amid poaching attempts by its rivals. More than 82 percent of union members voted in favor of resolutions including raising funds to prepare for any industrial escalation. Chris Beebe, general secretary of the union, said however that there no plans to take any action unless the airline moved to cut benefits first. Cathay said this month it capped year-end bonuses to junior and mid-level employees at HK$35,000 ($4,475) in Hong Kong, or less than the usual payment of an extra month’s salary due to the “difficult financial environment”. Captains, as senior-level employees, did not get any bonus. FILE PHOTO: Pilots look out from the cockpit of a Cathay Pacific Airways Airbus A350 as the airlines hold a ceremony to mark the first of their 48 Airbus A350 arriving at Hong Kong Airport, Hong Kong, China May 30, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the union vote on Friday. Cathay’s director of flight operations, Anna Thompson, said in memo to pilots that the airline could have communicated its decision better and noted that more than 400 pilots had expressed “how they are currently feeling as employees” to managers after the bonus decision on an internal online forum. The airline has around 3,300 pilots globally, two-thirds of whom are union members. One of the pilots who spoke to Reuters said: “This obviously keeps all office and ground staff happy, but docks all pilots, and deducts a whole month’s salary from captains.” Cathay in August posted its worst half-year loss in at least 20 years, due to poor fuel hedging and stiff competition from expanding mainland Chinese and Gulf airlines. The airline is undertaking a strategic transformation program aiming for HK$4 billion of cost savings over three years and has also warned pilots about potential cuts to their retirement benefits. Reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore; Additional reporting by Anne-Marie Roantree in Hong Kong; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cathay-pacific-pilots/cathay-pilots-favor-raising-funds-as-buffer-amid-anger-over-bonuses-idUSKBN1EG0QZ'|'2017-12-22T10:18:00.000+02:00'
'e25ec52465d9de75f4500d0dd22306cf5e71b7ad'|'Strong U.S. consumer, business spending bolster Q4 growth picture'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:33 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Strong U.S. consumer, business spending bolster fourth quarter growth picture Lucia Mutikani 5 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending accelerated in November and shipments of key capital goods orders increased for the 10th straight month, the latest signs of strong momentum in the economy as the year winds down. FILE PHOTO: A woman shops inside a store at Roosevelt Field shopping mall in Garden City, New York, U.S., November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton But the bullish growth picture was dimmed somewhat as the reports on Friday also showed household savings dropped last month to their lowest level in more than nine years. Low savings could hurt consumer spending, though economists are optimistic wage growth will pick up next year. They also see a modest lift from a $1.5 trillion tax cut package approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress this week, in the largest overhaul of the tax code in 30 years. The reports came on the heels of bullish data on the labor market, manufacturing and housing. Growth estimates for the October-December quarter are currently as high as a 3.3 percent annualized pace. The economy grew at a 3.2 percent rate in the third quarter. “The economy is firing on both engines, consumer spending and business equipment purchases, as we head into the end of the year. Growth looks well balanced with consumers and businesses likely to carry the expansion into the record books in 2018,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York . The Commerce Department said consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.6 percent last month after gaining 0.2 percent in October. Spending last month was buoyed by an increase in demand for motor vehicles, recreational goods and utilities. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending increased 0.4 percent in November after being unchanged the prior month. Personal income rose 0.3 percent last month, with wages increasing 0.4 percent. With spending outpacing income, households dipped into their savings, which fell to $426.2 billion. That was the lowest level since August 2008 and was down from $466.9 billion in October. The saving rate dropped to a 10-year low of 2.9 percent from 3.2 percent in October. In addition to savings, consumer spending is being driven by record household wealth, thanks to a booming stock market and rising home prices. The stimulus package, which slashes the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent and offers tax cuts for individuals, is a major legislative victory for President Donald Trump. The Trump administration argues that the tax cut will boost both business and consumer spending though many economists only forecast a marginal gains. The individual income tax cuts are skewed toward higher-income households, which economists say have a low propensity to consume. Economists also believe companies will use much of the windfall on share buy-backs and debt reduction. The dollar was trading slightly higher against a basket of currencies. Prices for U.S. Treasuries were lower. INFLATION TAME Despite the increase in spending, monthly inflation remained benign in November. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, rose 0.1 percent in November after gaining 0.2 percent in October. The so-called core PCE increased 1.5 percent in the 12 months through November, picking up from 1.4 percent in October. The core PCE has undershot the Fed’s 2 percent target since mid-2012. Economists expect a tightening labor market to push up inflation next year. Inflation could determine the pace at which the Fed raises interest rates next year. The U.S. central bank increased borrowing costs three times this year and has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. In a second report on Friday, the Commerce Department said shipments of non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending, rose 0.3 percent after surging 1.3 percent in October. Core capital goods shipments are used to calculate equipment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measurement. They have risen every month since February, the longest stretch since the series started in 1992. The increase in core capital goods shipments over the last two months suggested a strong pace of increase in business spending on equipment in the fourth quarter. Business investment in equipment rose at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter. But the momentum in business spending on equipment could be slowing. Core capital goods orders slipped 0.1 percent last month after rising 0.8 percent in October. “Real equipment spending has been on a very strong run in recent quarters, but the recent cooling in the orders data signals that there could be some softening to come,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. In a third report, the Commerce Department said on Friday new home sales jumped 17.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 733,000 units last month. That was the highest level since July 2007. New home sales surged 26.6 percent from a year ago. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-consumer-spending-rises-more-than-expected-savings-lowest-since-2008-idINKBN1EG1J2'|'2017-12-22T16:44:00.000+02:00'
'c403cce19bcb9fa8b521e599662e1bb1ef5bab11'|'Cuba tightens regulations on nascent private sector'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:32 AM / Updated an hour ago Cuba tightens regulations on nascent private sector Reuters Staff 3 Min Read HAVANA (Reuters) - A government official announced tighter regulations for Cuba’s private sector on Thursday as part of a review of market reforms stemming from complaints about excess accumulation of wealth, tax evasion and other practices. A man waits for clients inside a private vegetable market, next to an image of Cuba''s late President Fidel Castro, in Havana, Cuba December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer The number of self-employed Cubans has more than tripled to around 580,000, about 12 percent of the total workforce, since President Raul Castro in 2010 launched his plan to expand private enterprise. In August, however, Cuba suspended issuing new licenses for cooperatives and certain private-sector activities from bed-and-breakfasts to restaurants until it had implemented new measures to curb wrongdoing such as tax dodging. Private cooperatives will now be limited to the province where they were located and levels of income capped for their leaders at no more than three times the average wage of members, state-run media quoted Marino Murillo, head of the Cuban Communist Party’s reform commission, as saying on Thursday. Business licenses will be limited to a single activity per entrepreneur, he said. Currently some restaurant owners also run bed-and-breakfasts or cafeterias and cooperatives often operate in more than one province. This would no longer be possible. In Cuba, only certain types of small businesses and private activities are allowed. Murillo, speaking to a closed-door session of the National Assembly, was quoted as stating those activities would be reduced and in some cases consolidated, for example manicurist would now fall under a general expanded beauty salon license. Small business tax policy was also under review, he said. The measures come even as Cubans say their businesses are already suffering from travel restrictions and warnings issued by the Trump administration. The government earlier had also definitively stopped issuing licenses for wholesale and retail sellers of agricultural goods, vendors of CDs or DVDs, and operators of recreation equipment. The backtracking on the private sector hints at unease among some in the ruling Cuban Communist Party that free market reforms may have gone too far, amid a broader debate about rising inequality on the island. The average state monthly wage is $30, the same sum a B&B owner can charge visitors for a night’s stay. Castro, speaking to the National Assembly in July, said the government had detected wrongdoings in the sector, from tax evasion to the use of goods of illicit provenance, that it needed to curb. “We are not renouncing the development of the self-employed sector,” said Castro. “However, it is necessary to ... resolutely confront the illegalities and other deviations from the established policy.” Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/cuba-economy/cuba-tightens-regulations-on-nascent-private-sector-idINKBN1EG024'|'2017-12-22T02:31:00.000+02:00'
'0497cf38377ce4d4151d6d19b5ecf72164b33660'|'EDF completes 75.5 percent acquisition of Areva NP - statement'|'December 22, 2017 / 11:59 PM / Updated 7 hours ago EDF completes 75.5 percent acquisition of Areva NP - statement Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French state-owned utility EDF ( EDF.PA ) has completed the acquisition of a 75.5 percent stake in Areva NP, the nuclear reactor construction unit of fellow state-owned nuclear group Areva, it said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of France''s state-owned electricity company EDF is seen on the company tower at La Defense business and financial district in Courbevoie near Paris, France, March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen/File Photo “These agreements foresee the acquisition by EDF of 75.5 percent of New NP’s capital on the basis of an adjusted valuation of 2.47 billion euros,” EDF said in a statement. Under a November, 2016 agreement, EDF agreed to buy between 51 and 75 percent of Areva NP based on a value of 2.5 billion euros for 100 percent of its capital.. Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) ( 7011.T ) will at the same time buy a 19.5 percent stake in Areva NP, while French industrial engineering firm Assystem will buy a 5 percent stake, the statement said. EDF’s acquisition of Areva NP is part of a state-led financial rescue operation for Areva which was decided by the previous government in June 2015, when current French President Emmanuel Macron was economy minister. Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-edf-areva/edf-completes-75-5-percent-acquisition-of-areva-np-statement-idUKKBN1EG2E9'|'2017-12-23T01:58:00.000+02:00'
'f0acb0c9f7dd001f701c972b4e498b746e1a3fb2'|'Exclusive: Bank of America Merrill Lynch to pay $26 million for allegedly failing to report suspicious transactions'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:52 PM / Updated an hour ago Exclusive: Bank of America Merrill Lynch to pay $26 million for allegedly failing to report suspicious transactions Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (TR Regulatory Intelligence) - Wall Street regulators later Thursday or early next week are expected to fine Bank of America Merrill Lynch ( BAC.N ) a total of $26 million over alleged failures to report suspicious transactions, two sources familiar with the matter said. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will each fine Bank of America Merrill Lynch $13 million over brokerage account transactions that occurred mainly in 2010 and 2011 and were not properly policed for illicit activity, the sources said. The firm will also enter into a cease-and-desist order. One allegation is that the brokerage firm provided traditional banking services, such as wire transfers to offshore companies and cash deposits via ATMs, yet the transactions were not screened by bank software designed to flag potentially illicit activity, a source familiar with the impending fines said. Spokesmen for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the SEC declined comment. A FINRA spokeswoman did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Brett Wolf, Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bankamerica-regulation-exclusive/exclusive-bank-of-america-merrill-lynch-to-pay-26-million-for-allegedly-failing-to-report-suspicious-transactions-idUSKBN1EF2VR'|'2017-12-21T23:51:00.000+02:00'
'29860948a95fdea9fe86a0b39293dc51bf37da07'|'BRIEF-Kure Technologies Disposes of Shares in ONEnergy Inc'|' 32 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago BRIEF-Kure Technologies Disposes of Shares in ONEnergy Inc Reuters Staff Dec 22 (Reuters) - Kure Technologies Inc: * KURE TECHNOLOGIES - HAS DISPOSED OF AGGREGATE 26,500 COMMON SHARES OF CAPITAL OF ONENERGY INC * KURE TECHNOLOGIES - SHARES WERE DISPOSED FOR TOTAL CONSIDERATION OF $5,367.58 AT AVERAGE PRICE PER SHARE OF $.20255 Source text for Eikon:  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-kure-technologies-disposes-of-shar/brief-kure-technologies-disposes-of-shares-in-onenergy-inc-idUSFWN1OM0KN'|'2017-12-22T19:30:00.000+02:00'
'88badf84be14b8d559de96298952943b4c424cee'|'Volkswagen cuts works council pay as prosecutors probe overpayment'|'December 22, 2017 / 11:58 AM   Volkswagen cuts works council pay as prosecutors probe overpayment Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) has cut the salaries and suspended the bonuses of 14 members of its works council, including the council’s head Bernd Osterloh, as public prosecutors investigate alleged earlier overpayment. FILE PHOTO - A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero Osterloh, who once earned 750,000 euros (£664,537) in a single year and up to 250,000 in other years, said he would now receive about 8,000 euros a month, according to an interview on the website IG Metall bei Volkswagen. The website is aimed at union members working for the carmaker. It was disclosed in May that German prosecutors were investigating current and former executives at VW on suspicion that they paid Osterloh an excessive salary. In Germany, wasting corporate funds is legally a breach of fiduciary duty. Volkswagen and the works council have said that payments were in line with legal guidelines, a stance they reiterated on Friday. VW chief Matthias Mueller said that the cuts in pay were an effort to play it safe until the case was clarified. “We thank the works council for taking this step,” Mueller said. In November, prosecutors and tax investigators raided the offices of senior VW officials. The raid by prosecutors and tax officers was related to suspected overpayment and related tax evasion, a person familiar with the matter said, referring to the potential for overpayment to result in higher operating expenses and the payment of too little tax. Reporting by Andreas Framke; Writing by Tom Sims; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-pay-works-council/volkswagen-cuts-works-council-pay-as-prosecutors-probe-overpayment-idUKKBN1EG1AW'|'2017-12-22T14:08:00.000+02:00'
'96560940ba9cd2ea1f1c618eba5333c96110d8a8'|'Cryptocurrency stocks holding gains despite bitcoin pullback'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:57 PM / Updated an hour ago Cryptocurrency stocks holding gains despite bitcoin pullback Chuck Mikolajczak 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks that surged in recent weeks because of the cryptocurrency mania have managed to hold onto most of their gains despite the recent retreat in the price of bitcoin and scepticism from market participants. A Reuters analysis of 17 stocks of companies that have made blockchain or cryptocurrency announcements showed an average gain of 224 percent through Thursday’s close from they released those statements. For example, shares of Long Island Iced Tea Corp jumped nearly 300 percent on Thursday after the beverage maker said it would rename itself Long Blockchain Corp to reflect a new focus on blockchain technology. The moves are reminiscent of the tech boom, when the market value of companies such as Zapata and Books-A-Million rose sharply after they announced an internet business or an updated website. After the dot-com bubble burst, many of the companies went out of business or became much less valuable. “There’s been a continued surge of crypto headlines,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee. “It’s gotten more worrisome as more companies have changed their names. It’s the kind of stuff you saw back in the dot-com era.” Many of the crypto stocks came under pressure on Friday, as the price of bitcoin tumbled below $12,000 to put it on track for its worst week since 2013. Riot Blockchain dropped 15.3 percent to $23.36, and Overstock.com, which announced in August that it would accept major alt-coins as payment, was down 6.5 percent at $63.05. Even with the declines on Friday, bitcoin itself is still more than double from its price at the start of November while the stocks are still well above their prices before the companies made cryptocurrency announcements. While the stocks are susceptible to price moves in bitcoin itself, analysts caution investors should make sure the company has a credible business model. “It is a buyer beware time,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. “Long term it may hurt these companies because if bitcoin does settle down to being a product that trades like most products and doesn’t have crazy moves every day, it is going to make people look at these companies and ask what is really going on here.” Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-stocks-cryptocurrency-analysis/cryptocurrency-stocks-holding-gains-despite-bitcoin-pullback-idUSKBN1EG24P'|'2017-12-22T21:09:00.000+02:00'
'31c092f5117db2394fbac759c3cba9fca479b026'|'Brazil''s Temer would block Embraer buyout, open to capital injection'|'December 22, 2017 / 6:44 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Brazil''s Temer would block Embraer buyout, open to capital injection Ricardo Brito 4 Min Read BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Friday that he opposed Boeing Co ( BA.N ) taking control of Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ), although he would welcome an injection of foreign capital into the regional planemaker. Temer told a news conference he would study any decision the companies take on an alliance when it arrives at his desk, emphasizing that his government could use its ‘golden share’ in the company to block foreign control. Brazil’s government holds veto power over strategic moves at the planemaker, a formerly state-run company fully privatized in 2006. Boeing and Embraer said on Thursday they are discussing a “potential combination” in a move that could consolidate a global passenger jet duopoly, provided Brazil’s government gives its blessing. “When a decision arrives, I will examine it,” Temer said. He added: “The purpose of the golden share is for the government to take such a decision.” Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said the government welcomed a commercial alliance with Boeing. “We are in favor of this and other partnerships,” Jungmann said at the same news conference with Temer. But because Embraer plays such a central role in Brazil’s defense industry and sits at the heart of a cluster of domestic technology companies, foreign control of the company was out of the question. “The moment that control of Embraer passes to a company from another country, it will control strategic decisions” for Brazil, he said. “No country would give up control of that.” He cited the Gripen fighter jets Embraer will build with Sweden’s Saab AB ( SAABb.ST ) and the KC-390 cargo jet project with which Embraer plans to dominate the military transport market long dominated by the U.S.-made workhorse Hercules C-130. Slideshow (3 Images) Boeing and Embraer last year signed a deal under which the U.S. planemaker will help market the new military cargo jet but also provide maintenance services once they are sold. The government’s opposition to a full sale does not preclude a more targeted deal, according to a source familiar with the matter. “The deal is strategically important for Boeing because it will fill out its commercial line with regional jets.” Some kind of commercial jet joint venture between the two jet makers would “make a lot of sense,” Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia said. “Even some kind of military joint venture such as military transports would make sense - but an acquisition of Embraer makes no sense.” Embraer shares, which soared 20 percent on Thursday, were up another 2.7 percent on Friday. Boeing shares dipped 0.24 percent. It would be harder to quantify the gains to shareholders from a more limited joint-venture deal than with an outright acquisition, said Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr. “I honestly think Boeing knew all along that it would be a joint venture or partnership,” he said. “But just like with Airbus-Bombardier, you can still set up something along those lines that’s clearly a win-win.” The Boeing-Embraer talks come just two months after Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) struck a deal to buy a majority stake in Bombardier Inc’s ( BBDb.TO ) CSeries jetliner program. Potential gains for Embraer would include Boeing’s greater sales clout with major airlines, as well as with servicing existing jets and potential savings with suppliers, he said. Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito; Additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis, Tim Hepher and Christian Plumb; Editing by Nick Zieminski'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-embraer-m-a-boeing/brazils-temer-would-block-embraer-buyout-open-to-capital-injection-idUSKBN1EG243'|'2017-12-22T20:49:00.000+02:00'
'71d30d9a95a53aedc1ce3daaede0d33332bbc06c'|'Alphabet''s Eric Schmidt to step down as executive chairman'|'December 21, 2017 / 10:45 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Alphabet''s Eric Schmidt to step down as executive chairman Salvador Rodriguez , Sonam Rai 4 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL.O ) said on Thursday its Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will step down in January, ending a 17-year-run in which he played a central role in building a promising startup called Google into a global technology powerhouse. He will continue to serve on the Alphabet''s board of directors and act as an adviser on focused on technical and science issues, the company said. ( bit.ly/2BXJzz6 ) “The time is right in Alphabet’s evolution for this transition,” Schmidt said in a statement. “I‘m incredibly excited about the progress our companies are making and about the strong leaders who are driving that innovation,” said Chief Executive Larry Page in a statement. Schmidt, who was recruited to the company by Google co-founders Page and Sergey Brin, served as chief executive from 2001 through 2011, acting as what the three jokingly referred to as the “adult supervision.” Schmidt then became executive chairman, often traveling the world touting the company’s accomplishments, negotiating with governments on regulatory matters and speaking about the state of the tech industry. “He helped them mature into the powerhouse business it is today without throwing away the uniqueness that was Google during those early days,” said Joe Beda, chief technology officer of Seattle startup Heptio and a Google employee from 2004 through 2014. Among Schmidt’s accomplishments were taking the company public in 2004, shepherding critical product initiatives like the Android mobile operating system, and overseeing a massive 2015 corporate restructuring in which Google became a business unit of the holding company Alphabet. Slideshow (2 Images) Bismarck Lepe, CEO of San Francisco startup Wizeline and a Google employee from 2003 until 2007, said Page and Brin focused on the company’s technology and the product strategies, while Schmidt focused on how to scale every product to a global level. Schmidt “was incredibly smart and incredibly technical, which made him a perfect fit,” Lepe added. Schmidt’s tenure was not without its problems. Google, Apple and several other tech companies were hit with a class action lawsuit in 2011 alleging that executives including Schmidt and the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs conspired to keep wages down by not hiring one anothers’ employees. The suit was settled for $415 million in 2015. The company has also been hit with lawsuits alleging that it pays women less than men. It also faces a series of antitrust actions in Europe, though Schmidt was instrumental in convincing the U.S. Federal Trade Commission not to pursue antitrust actions in the United States. Schmidt spent more than a decade at Sun Microsystems and ran the now-defunct networking company Novell before joining Google in 2001. The 2004 initial public offering came at time when the industry was still reeling from the dot-com bust, but it helped lay the groundwork for the current boom. Shuman Ghosemajumder, chief technology officer of Mountain View, California, startup Shape Security and a Google employee from 2003 until 2010, recalled that shortly after the IPO, Schmidt spoke at an all-hands meetings and said that he, Page and Brin had the ambition of making Google a $100 billion company. “Did you mean a $100 billion market cap or $100 billion in revenue?” one employee asked. “And Eric said ‘You pick,''” recalled Ghosemajumder. “That was definitely inspiring to me.” Alphabet now carries a market cap of $741 billion, and this year, it is projected to surpass $100 billion in annual revenue, according to analyst estimates. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Weber and Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-ericschmidt/alphabets-eric-schmidt-to-step-down-as-executive-chairman-idUKKBN1EF2Z1'|'2017-12-22T00:41:00.000+02:00'
'eef463e30b259c5950a7d5a7576e725e46bb0c87'|'Four final bidders chosen for Austrian airline Niki'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:18 PM / Updated 44 minutes ago Four final bidders chosen for Austrian airline Niki Klaus Lauer , Maria Sheahan 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - IAG ( ICAG.L ), the owner of British Airways, is one of the four bidders chosen for final stage talks over the assets of insolvent Austrian airline Niki, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. FILE PHOTO - People stand in front of an empty Niki customer care desk at Palma de Mallorca airport, Spain, December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Clara Margais The administrators running the process aim to agree a deal with one of the four parties by the end of next week, one of the administrators said on Friday. They did not confirm the identity of the bidders. Niki, founded by former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda in 2003, was part of collapsed Air Berlin. Lauda said on Thursday that he had offered to buy Niki. A spokeswoman for the Austrian said on Friday she could not say whether he was among the four remaining bidders. Niki filed for insolvency last week after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) backed out of a deal to buy its assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its takeoff and landing slots, its most attractive asset. Six parties submitted offers by a Thursday deadline, five of which were binding, Niki administrator Lucas Floether said in a statement on Friday, without providing details. “The bidders are very interested, and I am confident that it will be possible to save large parts of the business and many jobs in Austria and Germany,” he said. Both of the bidders picked for further talks have indicated that they are prepared to provide Niki with funding to keep its doors open as soon as a deal is agreed, he said. A German newspaper had also named tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Tuifly, the airline of tour operator TUI ( TUIT.L ), among the remaining bidders. Other interested parties include Swiss carrier PrivatAir. IAG and Thomas Cook declined to comment. TUI and PrivatAir were not available for immediate comment. If Niki’s administrators fail to agree a deal for Niki’s assets by the end of December, the carrier may lose its operating licence and its runway slots, but Floether said on Friday that Austrian regulators may give the parties a few extra days if an agreement is struck by the end of next week. Additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle in Vienna, Paul Sandle in London and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; Editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki/niki-administrators-pick-two-bidders-for-final-stage-talks-idINKBN1EG1C7'|'2017-12-22T16:38:00.000+02:00'
'0849dd672bb5564cfde86c565b7ca7a936153429'|'Ford CEO apologizes, voices zero tolerance for harassment'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:48 PM / Updated an hour ago Ford CEO apologizes, voices zero tolerance for harassment Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) chief executive Jim Hackett has apologized to employees for accusations detailed in a New York Times report that management at two Chicago plants did not respond adequately to complaints of sexual harassment. In an open letter on Thursday, Hackett described as “gut wrenching” his experience this week reading women’s accounts of incidents that took place over many years. Several prominent men in U.S. politics, entertainment and the media have been felled by allegations of sexual misconduct in recent months. “I want to take this opportunity to say that I am sorry for any instance where a colleague was subjected to harassment or discriminatory conduct,” Hackett wrote in the letter. Reuters has not independently confirmed the New York Times report. Hackett, who took over the top job at Ford in May, said there was zero tolerance for harassment and promised no retaliation against anyone who speaks up. Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Howard Goller'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-harassment/ford-ceo-apologizes-voices-zero-tolerance-for-harassment-idUSKBN1EG1US'|'2017-12-22T17:47:00.000+02:00'
'6680541d9c27978a698883823cca01d70dbf61e4'|'PRECIOUS-Shortages help power palladium to 17-year pinnacle'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:03 PM / Updated 40 minutes ago PRECIOUS-Strong demand powers palladium to 17-year pinnacle, gold firms Reuters Staff 4 Min Read * Gold at 2-1/2-week high, climbs for 6th straight session * Palladium on track for strongest annual performance since 2010 * Palladium substitution unlikely to be imminent (Rewrites throughout with updated prices, comment; adds second byline, NEW YORK dateline) By Marcy Nicholson and Pratima Desai NEW YORK/LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Palladium prices jumped to 17-year highs on Friday as strong demand from autocatalyst makers reinforced the prospect of market shortages, while gold rose for the sixth straight session to reach a 2-1/2-week high on weak U.S. economic data. Spot palladium turned down 0.06 percent to $1,037.15 per ounce by 1:50 p.m. EST (1850 GMT), after rising to $1,042.50, its highest since February 2001, though slowing car sales are expected to challenge further gains. It was on track to close 2017 up more than 50 percent, its strongest annual performance since 2010. Analysts think about 80 percent of global palladium demand will come from autocatalysts for gasoline powered cars, which many now prefer over diesel fueled vehicles. "Diesel''s share of the European auto market is falling and the flip side of that is gasoline''s share is rising," said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke. "Chinese car sales supported palladium, but there will a reality check as tax incentives are removed. In Europe and the United States car sales look to be peaking." GFMS analysts said in a recent research note that next year is set to be the seventh successive year of large deficits in the palladium market. Shortages have in recent years been partly offset by investors selling their holdings in physically backed exchange-traded funds . Spot gold was up 0.55 percent at $1,273.61 an ounce, after rising to $1.275.98, the highest since Dec. 5. Bullion was on track to see its strongest weekly performance since mid-October. U.S. gold futures settled up 0.7 percent at $1,278.80. The futures market will be closed for the Christmas holiday on Monday. U.S. growth prospects dimmed on Friday as data showed spending outpaced income in November and the Federal Reserve''s preferred inflation measure -- the personal consumption expenditures price index that excludes food and energy -- rose by just 0.1 percent in November. "At the end of the day, if you don''t have the incomes you''re really not going to continue to aggressively go spending," said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities in Toronto. "In that environment, it''s very unlikely ... that the Fed is going to get overly aggressive anytime soon when the inflation metric is well below target." Platinum , used in autocatalysts for diesel cars, fell 0.4 percent to $911.50 an ounce. The ratio of platinum to palladium prices has gone below 1 from above 5, leading to talk of platinum substituting palladium. Silver added 1.5 percent to $16.35 an ounce. (Editing by Hugh Lawson and Tom Brown)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/global-precious/precious-shortages-help-power-palladium-to-17-year-pinnacle-idUSL8N1OM3LN'|'2017-12-22T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'8f85568d422f1988f34da89cd332b98ee4b63d7e'|'Upbeat U.S. data lifts stocks, euro slips on Catalan vote'|'December 22, 2017 / 1:22 AM / Updated an hour ago Upbeat U.S. data lifts stocks, euro slips on Catalan vote Shinichi Saoshiro 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks edged up on Friday on new data pointing to steady growth in the U.S. economy, while the euro slipped after a vote in Catalonia favored separatists wanting to break away from Spain. FILE PHOTO: People walk past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was 0.25 percent higher. The region’s equities took cues from Wall Street, after all three major indexes posted gains overnight on strength in bank and energy stocks and news the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter at its fastest pace in more than two years. [.N] Supporting U.S. stocks this week, and by extension global equities, was the passage of $1.5 trillion tax-cutting bill through Congress. Australian stocks advanced 0.4 percent, South Korea''s KOSPI .KS11 gained 0.15 percent and Japan''s Nikkei .N225 stood little changed. In currencies, the euro was down 0.25 percent to $1.1842 EUR= as preliminary results from regional votes on Thursday showed pro-independence parties in Catalonia keeping an absolute majority. “Some speculators appeared to have sold the euro in thin trading,” said Yukio Ishizuki, senior currency strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo. “The overall impact of the Catalan vote on the euro and the wider global markets is likely to be limited, however. Catalonia cannot become a sovereign state if no other country recognizes its independence. It won’t even be able to have its own currency under such conditions.” The dollar was steady at 113.350 yen JPY= . The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was 0.15 percent higher at 93.425 .DXY. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR was at 2.482 percent, having pulled back slightly from a nine-month peak above 2.500 percent scaled the previous day. Treasury yields climbed earlier this week after Congress approved a U.S. tax code overhaul that was expected to lift economic growth and add at least $1 trillion to the national debt in 10 years. U.S. crude futures CLc1 slipped 0.35 percent to $58.16 per barrel. The contracts had reached a nine-day peak of $58.38 overnight as OPEC started working on plans for an exit strategy from its deal to cut crude supplies, fuelling hopes it would not end supply cuts abruptly. [O/R] Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/upbeat-u-s-data-lifts-stocks-euro-slips-on-catalan-vote-idINKBN1EG045'|'2017-12-22T03:17:00.000+02:00'
'b0f9caf8f9109292ad22a7459cf8179ca2f637b6'|'Chicago police say Facebook ''secret groups'' used to sell guns, drugs'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:52 PM / Updated 15 hours ago Chicago police say Facebook ''secret groups'' traffic in guns and drugs Bernie Woodall 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Police in Chicago said on Thursday they have arrested 50 people suspected of using “secret groups” on Facebook to deal in guns and drugs, and have teamed up with the world’s largest social media network to crack down on criminal trafficking online. Announcing the arrests at a news conference, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson initially criticized Facebook as being unhelpful during a 10-month investigation by his department. “Quite frankly, they haven’t been very friendly to law enforcement to prevent these things,” he told reporters. However, police later said the department and the California-based company agreed to work collaboratively “to target any illegal activity on the platform.” Police did not detail charges facing the 50 men and women arrested through Thursday, but said there were “dozens and dozens” of private Facebook groups being used for illegal drug and weapons transactions. Arrest warrants for 18 more suspects have been signed, and most have prior criminal histories, police said. Among the illicit sites monitored by police was one offering a “Thanksgiving special” on cocaine baggies discounted to $40 from a normal street price of $60. FILE PHOTO: Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson speaks about the latest police districts to start wearing body cameras, during a news conference at the 20th District Chicago Police Department in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo In an emailed statement on Thursday, Facebook Inc, which boasts 2 billion users worldwide, said it had only just been alerted to the arrests in Chicago. “We do not allow the sale of guns or drugs on our platform. We routinely work with law enforcement and outline how officials may submit a request on our site,” Facebook added. Among those arrested was an elementary school teacher taken into custody at his Chicago school in possession of scales often used for weighing drugs, according to Anthony Riccio, chief of the police department’s organized crime unit. Since a confidential informant alerted investigators about alleged criminal trade on Facebook in February, police detectives working undercover arranged for the purchase of 17 different types of drugs and 18 different illegal firearms, Riccio said. Riccio said investigators created covert identities on Facebook and were invited into private groups, which are closed unless the user-administrator allows someone to join. Police then monitored messages and contacted those in the group via Facebook to make buys. Chicago has been singled out by President Donald Trump as one of the most violent U.S. cities. In 2016, the number of murders there exceeded 760. Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chicago-facebook/chicago-police-say-facebook-secret-groups-used-to-sell-guns-drugs-idUSKBN1EF2W2'|'2017-12-21T23:46:00.000+02:00'
'dad1ba66a07e8dd358e024f13f44ccf5a193a5d9'|'VW may post excellent 2017 results, CEO tells Welt am Sonntag'|'Reuters TV United States December 24, 2017 / 12:20 PM / a few seconds ago VW may post excellent 2017 results, CEO tells Welt am Sonntag Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) will report excellent group results this year, its chief executive said, helped by expected record vehicle sales and by spending cuts. Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller attends the opening of the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The carmaker’s popularity with motorists appears to have weathered the storm following the emissions scandal of September 2015, which has cost Volkswagen (VW) billions of euros in fines and penalties. “It will certainly be quite outstanding in operational terms,” VW group CEO Matthias Mueller told Germany’s weekly Welt am Sonntag when asked to sum up the 2017 business year. VW is due to publish detailed 2017 results on March 13. Last month, the CEO predicted that group deliveries would exceed the 2016 record of 10.3 million vehicles. Cost cuts at the core passenger-cars division have caused the world’s largest automaker to raise its profit target for the year, and it has since also upgraded its mid-term profit and sales guidance. On the other hand, Mueller said proposals by the European Commission for progressive cuts in carmakers’ average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2025 and 2030 will “cause us real pain.” Wolfsburg-based VW more than two years ago admitted to cheating in diesel emissions tests in the United States. It has set aside about 25 billion euros ($30 billion) to cover related fines and vehicle repairs and faces thousands of lawsuits worldwide. Mueller also criticized the prolonged political deadlock in Germany, which has no new government as Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to search for a coalition partner three months after federal elections. “This is taking too long,” the CEO said in the interview published on Sunday. “We must become capable of acting again, for this purpose sometimes also unpopular decisions are necessary.” Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-results/vw-may-post-excellent-2017-results-ceo-tells-welt-am-sonntag-idUKKBN1EI0BF'|'2017-12-24T14:14:00.000+02:00'
'97b99e3aeb3aa964c40691547951383a266b209b'|'Japan''s household spending jumps but BOJ seen keeping stimulus'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:39 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Japan''s households open their wallets, BOJ seen keeping stimulus Leika Kihara 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s households spent more than expected in November while consumer inflation ticked up and the jobless rate hit a fresh 24-year low, offering the central bank some hope an economic recovery will drive up inflation to its 2 percent target. A clerk talks to a customer at a flower shop selling new year''s decorations at a shopping mall in Tokyo, Japan December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon But the increase in prices was due mostly to a boost from rising fuel costs that is seen fading in 2018, keeping the Bank of Japan under pressure to maintain its huge monetary support even as other central banks seek an end to crisis-mode policies. Minutes of the BOJ’s October rate review showed that while most central bank policymakers saw no need to ramp up stimulus, they agreed on the need to sustain “powerful” easing for the time being. “There’s a chance inflation may gradually accelerate toward the fiscal year beginning in April,” as a tightening job market pressures companies to raise wages, said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. “But inflation remains distant from the BOJ’s 2 percent target, so the central bank will probably maintain its current policy framework.” Spending was driven by broadbased gains, with households loosening the purse strings for items such as refrigerators, washing machines, and sporting goods and services such as eating-out and travel. Behind the improvement is a slow but steady rise in household income. Wage earners’ disposable income rose 1.8 percent in November from a year earlier, suggesting that higher incomes have encouraged consumers to open their wallets. A stock market boom is also giving households more purchasing power. Japan’s top 4 department stores all saw sales increase in November from a year earlier on brisk demand for luxury items. The nationwide core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil goods but excludes volatile fresh food prices, rose 0.9 percent in November from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday, marking the 11th straight month of gains. The pace of price growth was just ahead of October’s 0.8 percent and a median market forecast of the same rate. Despite the increase seen in wages, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has urged companies to raise wages by 3 percent or more next year, keeping pressure on firms to spend their huge cash pile to broaden the benefits of his stimulus policies. A woman holds shopping bags as she stands in front of a railway station in Tokyo, Japan December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon A Reuters poll published earlier this month found two-thirds of Japanese firms think the government’s push to raise wages by 3 percent is a tall order, with some dismissing it out of hand. JOB MARKET TIGHTENS FURTHER Separate data released on Tuesday showed prospects for a sustained recovery were picking up. The unemployment rate hit a fresh 24-year low of 2.7 percent in November and job availability rose to a nearly 44-year high. Slideshow (4 Images) Household spending rose 1.7 percent in November from a year earlier, far exceeding forecasts for a 0.5 percent increase. The slew of upbeat data may offer relief to BOJ policymakers, who are increasingly worried about the demerits of ultra-easy policy but wary of choking off a budding economic recovery by dialing back stimulus too quickly. At the October rate review, several BOJ policymakers voiced concern of taking “extreme steps” just to hit their price goal, countering calls by board newcomer Goushi Kataoka that additional easing measures were necessary. Most members felt that maintaining current policy was sufficient, though conceding it may take some time before firms more actively raise prices and wages, the minutes showed. “It seems so difficult for many firms to take the first step to raise their prices, that they wait and see what other firms are doing,” BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday. Japan’s economy grew an annualized 2.5 percent in July-September to mark a seventh straight quarter of growth thanks to robust exports and capital expenditure. But the inflation rate remains distant from the BOJ’s target, as firms remain wary of scaring away cost-sensitive consumers with price hikes. The BOJ kept monetary policy steady in October and a subsequent meeting in December, reassuring markets it will lag well behind overseas peers in ending its ultra-loose monetary settings. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-cpi/japan-november-core-cpi-rises-0-9-percent-year-on-year-idINKBN1EJ0WU'|'2017-12-26T05:06:00.000+02:00'
'68e10a3c29038b992ae4e0b2637dc4ab7e7cb5be'|'Oil near June 2015 high as production cuts tighten market'|'December 26, 2017 / 1:54 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Oil hits 2-1/2 year highs on Libyan pipeline blast Devika Krishna Kumar 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices touched two-and-a-half year highs in light volume on Tuesday, boosted by an explosion on a crude pipeline in Libya and voluntary OPEC-led supply cuts. FILE PHOTO: A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo Libya has lost around 90,000 bpd of crude oil from a blast on a pipeline feeding Es Sider port, a Libyan oil source said, adding that NOC was still assessing the damage. A Libyan military source said earlier that armed men had planted explosives at the pipeline. The country’s output had been recovering in recent months after being held down for years by conflict and unrest. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose $1.51, or 2.31 percent, to $66.76 a barrel by 11:40 a.m. (1640 GMT.) Prices hit a session high of $66.83 a barrel, the highest since late May 2015. U.S. crude climbed $1.29, or 2.21 percent, to $59.76 a barrel after touching a session high of $59.86, the highest since late June 2015. The impending restart of a key North Sea pipeline, Forties, limited the rally. The pipeline is being tested after repairs and full flows should resume in early January, its operator said on Monday. “Keep in mind that the field and pipeline are old and it may have issues and it’s probably why the market isn’t selling off,” said Scott Shelton, broker at ICAP in Durham, North Carolina. Trading activity was thin because of the Christmas holiday in many countries. Just 50,000 contracts of front-month Brent crude futures changed hands on Tuesday, well below the typical daily average of more than 250,000 contracts. Brent has risen 17 percent while U.S. crude has rallied about 11 percent in 2017. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and other non-members, have been withholding some output since Jan. 1 to get rid of a glut. The producers have extended the supply cut agreement to cover all of 2018. Iraq’s oil minister said on Monday there would be a balance between supply and demand by the first quarter, leading to a boost in prices. Global oil inventories have decreased to an acceptable level, he added. That is earlier than predicted in OPEC’s latest official forecast, which calls for a balanced market by late 2018. [OPEC/M] U.S. shipments to China, one of the biggest oil consumers in the world, have benefited from the OPEC-led output cuts. Russia, however, was China’s largest crude oil supplier for the ninth month in a row in November, also topping Saudi Arabia for the year so far, Chinese customs data showed on Tuesday. While the OPEC action has lent support to prices all year, the unplanned shutdown of the Forties pipeline on Dec. 11 pushed Brent to its 2-1/2 year high. Forties is the biggest of the five North Sea crude streams underpinning Brent, the benchmark for oil trading in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Still, rising production in the United States is offsetting some of the OPEC-led cuts. The U.S. rig count, an early indicator of future output, held at 747 in the week to Dec. 22, according to the latest weekly report by Baker Hughes. For a graphic on U.S. oil production and rig drilling, click - reut.rs/2C9dOTU Additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Henning Gloystein; Editing by John Stonestreet and Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-near-june-2015-high-as-production-cuts-tighten-market-idUKKBN1EK032'|'2017-12-26T03:53:00.000+02:00'
'e056931c1c3f8405c1e6f31abad2e130cda503f2'|'Apple suppliers drop on report of weak iPhone X demand; analysts'' views mixed'|'December 26, 2017 / 10:35 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Apple suppliers drop on report of weak iPhone X demand; analysts'' views mixed Cate Cadell 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Shares in several of Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) Asian suppliers fell for a second straight day on Tuesday, hurt by a report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily and some analysts saying that iPhone X demand could come in below expectations in the first quarter. Apple will slash its sales forecast for the iPhone X in the quarter to 30 million units, the Taiwanese newspaper said on Monday, citing unidentified sources - down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units. Apple has not publicly disclosed quarterly sales targets for the iPhone X, which went on sale in November. Some analysts have also flagged disappointing demand. U.S.-based JL Warren Capital is predicting shipments of just 25 million units as consumers baulk at the “high price point and a lack of interesting innovations”. Chinese broker Sinolink Securities said it expects the model’s price would dampen consumer enthusiasm for the product, adding that slow production rates could also hinder sales. But others were more bullish. “Our work continues to suggest the March and June quarters will have a significant amount of iPhone X make-up shipments,” Chicago-based Loop Capital said in a note last week, forecasting shipments of 40-45 million units in the first quarter of 2018, up from an estimated 30-35 million units in the current quarter. Analysts at Jefferies have also forecast around 40 million iPhone X sales for the first quarter. FILE PHOTO: An attendee uses a new iPhone X during a presentation for the media in Beijing, China October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo An Apple spokeswoman said the company does not comment on market rumours. During a trip to China this month Apple CEO Tim Cook said he “couldn’t be happier” with the demand for the iPhone X in the country. Apple suppliers that were most hit included Genius Electronic Optical Co Ltd ( 3406.TW ) which dropped 2.4 percent on Tuesday to take its losses this week to 11.4 percent. Pegatron Corp ( 4938.TW ) also fell on both days, losing 3.2 percent this week. But falls for Foxconn, one of Apple’s main suppliers formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd ( 2317.TW ), were milder and it has lost only 1.8 percent over the two days. A Reuters analysis of Chinese social media shows that interest in the iPhone X - which spiked around its launch - has not kept pace with the highly popular iPhone 6 released in 2014, which helped then drive massive sales for Apple in China. There were only 4.97 million Weibo posts mentioning the iPhone X so far in December compared to over 11 million for the iPhone 6 in the equivalent period in 2014, the analysis showed. Apple’s stock has risen over 50 percent in 2017 and is currently valued at just under $900 billion (£673.4 billion). For a graphic on China''s iPhone X demand, click - reut.rs/2zx1BDk Reporting by Cate Cadell; Additional reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-iphone/apple-suppliers-drop-on-report-of-weak-iphone-x-demand-analysts-views-mixed-idUKKBN1EK0MJ'|'2017-12-26T12:35:00.000+02:00'
'9a3567386afed01f63a49a23466c7805bcc22c82'|'Russian court approves amicable agreement between Rosneft and Sistema'|'December 26, 2017 / 11:03 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Russian court approves amicable agreement between Rosneft and Sistema Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court has approved the agreement reached on Friday between the Sistema ( AFKS.MM ) conglomerate and Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft ROSNN.MM to end their dispute over the Bashneft oil company, RIA news agency said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Russian conglomerate Sistema is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin The dispute rattled Russia’s business community and further undermined confidence in the country’s investment climate. Sistema will be obliged to pay Bashneft ( BANE.MM ) 100 billion roubles ($1.73 billion) by March 30, 2018, according to the terms of the settlement, which required approval from a Russian regional court. The judge’s decision requires Sistema to make the payments in three installments of 20 billion, 40 billion and a further 40 billion roubles, with the first payment due on Dec. 29, Interfax news agency cited the judge as saying. The freeze on Sistema’s assets, put in place by the courts as part of the dispute, will be removed gradually in tandem with the payments, the Interfax report said. The next payment will be due on Feb. 28, and the final sum on March 30. The arbitration court in Russia’s federal republic of Bashkorostan, which was handling the case, will receive notice within five working days requiring it to unfreeze 31.76 percent of shares in MTS, Russia’s largest mobile operator and one of Sistema’s main assets. Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-sistema/russian-court-approves-amicable-agreement-between-rosneft-bashneft-and-sistema-ria-idUKKBN1EK0O1'|'2017-12-26T14:03:00.000+02:00'
'117f0000205c1b3eec1bb525bcdcf0aa7a2bf86a'|'Israel regulator seeks to ban bitcoin firms from stock exchange'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:17 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Israel regulator seeks to ban bitcoin firms from stock exchange Steven Scheer 4 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s markets regulator will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, he said on Monday. A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), told the Calcalist business conference he will bring the proposal to the ISA board next week. If approved, it would be subject to a public hearing and then the stock exchange bylaws would need to be amended. “If we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we would not allow it. If already listed, its trading will be suspended,” Hauser said, adding the ISA must find the appropriate regulation for such companies. Hauser did not identify any companies that would be affected by his ban, but at least two firms listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) now describe digital currencies or the technology behind them as essential to their business: Blockchain Mining and Fantasy Network. Shares of Blockchain, which on Sunday changed its name from Natural Resources, have soared some 5,000 percent in the past few months since it announced it would shift its focus from mining for gold and iron to mining cryptocurrencies. It was down 4.2 percent in afternoon trading on Monday. Blockchain was not immediately available for comment. Fantasy Networks, a former gaming firm, said this month it was studying the possibility of operating in the blockchain field -- the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies. Its share price quadrupled before losing 50 percent in the past two weeks. Earlier this month, Hauser said bitcoin-based companies would not be included in stock exchange indexes. In a Dec. 19 statement to TASE, Fantasy Networks acknowledged those remarks, saying: “These restrictions ... could harm investment in the company and even exclude it from trade on the stock exchange.” Bitcoin is a publicly available ledger of a finite number of digital “coins”, which backers say can be used as a currency without the support of any country’s central bank. It is “mined” by computers, which are awarded new coins for working out complex mathematical formulas. Several other cryptocurrencies have also been launched that work on similar principles. The value of a bitcoin plunged by 30 percent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to nearly $20,000. It recouped some losses to trade above $14,000 on the Bitstamp platform, down 9 percent on the day. “We feel that the prices of bitcoin behave like bubbles and we don’t want investors to be subject to that volatility and uncertainty,” Hauser said. “There is an importance to signal to the market where things are... Investors should know where we stand.” The proposal to block digital currency firms from the stock exchange will probably be the last move for Hauser, who will step down next month after 6-1/2 years as ISA chief. “But once it’s on its way it will continue to be pursued,” said Hauser, who will be replaced by Anat Guetta. He said he hopes she will promote easing capital gains taxes and focus on regulatory enforcement. Editing by Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/markets-bitcoin-israel/israel-regulator-seeks-to-ban-bitcoin-firms-from-stock-exchange-idINKBN1EJ0J8'|'2017-12-25T13:16:00.000+02:00'
'0a8f2da2d978fac35bbeb4cd464b0f4bab9505d8'|'Special Report: Ex-banker cheerleads his way to cryptocurrency riches'|'Ex-banker cheerleads his way to cryptocurrency riches China China''s booming pet market sparks deals Bollywood Reuters TV United States December 23, 2017 / 5:30 PM / Updated 12 hours ago Special Report: Ex-banker cheerleads his way to cryptocurrency riches Anna Irrera , Steve Stecklow 16 Min Read HONG KONG/NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Seventeen months ago, a former Wall Street investment banker who specialized in distressed assets took to Twitter to announce he had bought a cryptocurrency for 50 cents per coin. “At $0.50, risk/return felt right,” tweeted Barry Silbert, founder and chief executive of a private New York-based company called Digital Currency Group, or DCG. FILE PHOTO: Bitcoin investor Barry Silbert speaks at a New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) virtual currency hearing in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., January 28, 2014. To match Special Report BITCOIN-BOOSTER/ REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo It has turned out to be a great bet. The digital coin – ethereum classic – was trading this week at as much as $47 – more than 90 times higher – before falling back. That''s an even bigger rise than that of bitcoin, a far better known cryptocurrency, over the same period. (Graphic: Ethereumclassic''s rapid rise - tmsnrt.rs/2BmQKBG ) Silbert continues to be a big backer. In April, a DCG subsidiary launched a private investment fund that tracks ethereum classic''s price and donates part of its fees to developing the technology behind the currency. He still posts bullish comments about the digital coin on social media, including a "pro tip" last month advising an investor to "close out" his short position before an "Ethereum Classic Summit" organized by DCG was held in Hong Kong. (Read the Crypto Casino series - here ) On Dec. 12, Silbert tweeted that three cryptocurrency funds the DCG subsidiary offers now had more than $3 billion of assets under management – up from $164 million at the start of the year. Silbert’s cheerleading for ethereum classic and other digital coins he or his company own has led some critics on Twitter to nickname him “Barry Shillbert.” Silbert declined to comment on that barb. The story of Silbert and his role in ethereum classic’s rise illustrates the current hype over cryptocurrencies - strings of computer code that aren’t backed by governments, face little regulation and have become magnets for speculators. Social media platforms are now filled with predictions by cryptocurrency enthusiasts about the price of bitcoin and other digital coins, many of which have soared in value this year. But two securities lawyers told Reuters they believed that some of Silbert’s social media postings about the price of ethereum classic could draw the attention of U.S. regulators. Although the digital coins are not considered securities, Silbert is chief executive of Grayscale, a DCG subsidiary that offers an ethereum-classic investment fund whose shares are securities, according to Grayscale’s website. The attorneys said his postings on price and the “pro tip” he gave to one investor could raise red flags with regulators who enforce federal securities and commodities laws and rules that prohibit price manipulation. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment on Silbert. In an interview with Reuters last month, Silbert said he was “highly, highly sensitive” to the rules that govern financial markets and that he and his company are “subject to anti-fraud provisions and insider trading and … all those types of things.” “I would never make a recommendation,” he said. “I’ve never given price predictions.” Silbert later told Reuters that DCG, its subsidiaries and employees “take pride in our strict compliance policies and adherence to all applicable regulations, including company-wide rules and restrictions concerning the trading of digital assets.” Regulators are grappling with how to deal with a new category of investment that this year has spurred billions of dollars worth of daily trades and seized Wall Street’s imagination. This month, two major derivatives exchanges began offering bitcoin futures contracts. But the mania for cryptocurrencies is outpacing regulators’ ability to keep up. “SO FAR, SO GOOD” Outside cryptocurrency circles, the boyish-looking Silbert, 41, is hardly a household name. He aims to change that. He told Reuters he aspires to build DCG into a publicly traded conglomerate like Berkshire Hathaway Inc, run by legendary investor Warren Buffett. After beginning his financial career at an investment bank, Silbert set up a marketplace for difficult-to-trade assets called SecondMarket, which he sold to a subsidiary of Nasdaq in 2015 for an undisclosed sum. He launched DCG that same year, devoting it to bitcoin and its underlying technology known as blockchain - a shared public database maintained by a network of computers. The company is backed by large corporations, including MasterCard, Western Union and Bain Capital Ventures. Silbert was an early buyer of bitcoin. He said he made his first purchase in 2012, and bought about $175,000 worth, paying about $11 for each digital coin. He said he was initially a skeptic but came to believe it could provide a better way to transmit funds around the world. “I started buying bitcoin, you know, at probably around seven bucks and my average price of bitcoin was $11. So when it went from 11 to 13, I thought I was a genius. When it fell to 8, I thought I was not,” he said. “But so far, so good.” At one point this week, a single bitcoin was trading for more than $19,600. Silbert said he contributed most of his bitcoin holdings to DCG, which still holds “a significant amount” of his original digital coins. He said DCG now has investments in more than 100 companies in 30 countries, including 20 cryptocurrency trading exchanges. Besides the asset-management business Grayscale, DCG’s subsidiaries include a cryptocurrency broker-dealer and CoinDesk, a leading cryptocurrency news website that reports on the industry and holds conferences. “GREAT TIP” Silbert decided to invest in ethereum classic, he said, in part because he believed it was undervalued. On July 25, 2016, he announced on Twitter that he had bought the virtual currency. He has been enthusing about it ever since. Reuters reviewed more than 200 of Silbert’s tweets and retweets about the virtual coin in the past 17 months that were captured by ExportTweet, a Twitter analytics service. On the same day Silbert announced on Twitter that he had bought ethereum classic, he made a prediction: there was a “25% chance” ethereum classic’s value would increase fivefold “in next six months.” In April, Silbert’s involvement with ethereum classic expanded into the more tangible world of securities. That month, his company launched the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust, which Silbert told Reuters was seeded by $10 million from him, DCG and a DCG board member. Grayscale’s website says the fund’s “shares are the first securities solely invested in and deriving value from the price of” ethereum classic. It says the private investment vehicle isn’t registered with the SEC, in accordance with a regulatory exemption. The SEC has allowed the sale of such offerings, whi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-booster-specialreport/special-report-ex-banker-cheerleads-his-way-to-cryptocurrency-riches-idINKBN1EH0K7'|'2017-12-23T19:35:00.000+02:00'
'6d783300761182ee14c3249e81ce6951187db08a'|'Kazakhstan says it may appeal ruling over $22.6 billion frozen assets'|'December 23, 2017 / 8:44 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Kazakhstan says it may appeal ruling over $22.6 billion frozen assets Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan’s government and central bank may appeal a judgment by a British court in an effort to regain access to $22.6 billion (16.91 billion pounds) in National Fund assets frozen by Bank of New York Mellon ( BK.N ), the Kazakh Justice Ministry said on Saturday. The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. building at 1 Wall St. is seen in New York''s financial district March 11, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS) In a rare move related to a long-standing legal dispute between Kazakhstan and a Moldovan businessman, BNY Mellon froze the assets in October. Kazakhstan hoped that a court in London would force the bank to lift the freeze, but the court dismissed the claim on Thursday. “Both the National (central) Bank and the Republic of Kazakhstan are now considering appealing this court judgment,” the ministry said in a statement. Moldovan businessman Anatolie Stati, his son Gabriel and their companies are investors in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industry. They say they have been subjected to harassment from the state aimed at forcing them to sell their investments cheaply. Kazakhstan denies the allegations, but Anatolie and Gabriel Stati and two of their companies – Ascom Group S.A. and Terra Raf Trans Traiding Ltd., have won an international arbitration award of around $500 million against the government. Kazakhstan has refused to pay, accusing Stati of using fraudulent means to secure a favorable arbitration ruling and filing lawsuits against him. The Justice Ministry said BNY Mellon, which acts as one of the custodians of the National Fund, initially refused to freeze its assets in response to rulings by Dutch and Belgian courts. But on Oct. 30 “BNY Mellon suddenly changed its position” and agreed to freeze the assets, the ministry said, adding that it would seek from Stati compensation of all losses including those related to the freeze. “In any case, the risks to the Republic of Kazakhstan are limited by the arbitration award - $497,658,101 plus interest ... and half of Stati’s legal fees,” it said. Kazakhstan’s rainy-day National Fund, worth $57 billion, is replenished by revenue from the oil and gas industry, and used to partly finance the budget deficit. While the former Soviet republic is unlikely to find itself in urgent need of the frozen money soon, the freeze may limit its ability to manage a large part of the fund’s portfolio, which is mostly invested in high-grade bonds. Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-kazakhstan-bny-mellon/kazakhstan-says-it-may-appeal-ruling-over-22-6-billion-frozen-assets-idUKKBN1EH0OW'|'2017-12-23T22:39:00.000+02:00'
'44dcd7c54a6e1f00c88e3285932bca3d1ae46848'|'Russia''s Finance Minister - crypto FX should only be traded by professionals'|'December 25, 2017 / 12:21 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Russia''s FinMin: crypto FX should only be traded by professionals Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday that cryptocurrencies should be traded only by professional investors, not in the mainstream. FILE PHOTO: Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia September 12, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev “Professional market participants should work with crypto-currencies, not ordinary people,” Siluanov said in an interview with Rossiya 24, a Russian state TV channel. Russian authorities agreed in October to regulate the cryptocurrency market and pledged to set out how this regulation would work by the end of the year. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP , a well-known virtual currency which emerged in mid-2010, is increasingly popular worldwide as it promises substantial profits. One bitcoin last traded at around $14,200 BTC=BTSP , up from its initial price of less than $1. Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Denis Pinchuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-bitcoin-regulations/russias-finmin-crypto-fx-should-only-be-traded-by-professionals-idUKKBN1EJ0LC'|'2017-12-25T14:16:00.000+02:00'
'b0c829d8284f8d1cf56f9cef6089e34f9c3c7658'|'Exclusive - ArcelorMittal tells Ilva it wants to change buying contract'|'December 23, 2017 / 2:43 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Exclusive: ArcelorMittal tells Ilva it wants to change buying contract Massimiliano Di Giorgio , Gavin Jones 3 Min Read ROME (Reuters) - Steelmaker ArcelorMittal has told commissioners running Italy’s Ilva plant that it wants changes made to the contract in which it agreed to buy the company in order to protect it from legal challenges in Italy. FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen on the roof of the ArcelorMittal steelworks headquarters in Ostrava, Czech Republic, April 1, 2016. REUTERS/David W Cerny/File Photo ArcelorMittal, the world’s top steelmaker, reached a 1.8-billion-euro ($2.1 billion) deal to buy Ilva in June but the purchase has since stalled due to legal challenges and an EU anti-trust investigation. In the latest twist, the commissioners in charge of Ilva have written to Italy’s industry ministry saying ArcelorMittal has told them it now wants the purchase contract changed to safeguard it in case the legal challenges are successful. ArcelorMittal has asked for “modifications and additions” allowing for the deal to be suspended or dissolved if a court in southern Italy upholds the challenges, according to the commissioners’ letter, dated Dec. 21, which Reuters has seen. “We are assessing, with our consultants, whether these requests are compatible with the rules in force,” the letter says, adding that in any case the commissioners will take no steps without first informing the government. ArcelorMittal declined to comment to Reuters. EU antitrust authorities in November upgraded their own investigation into the company’s proposed takeover of Ilva, fearing it will lead to steel price hikes. European steel prices are up some 85 percent since Jan. 1, 2016. A few weeks after the anti-trust filing, the Puglia and Taranto local authorities filed an appeal against the Italian government’s approval of ArcelorMittal’s environmental plan for Ilva. They said the plan did not do enough to safeguard the environment and public health. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni wrote to the governor of Puglia and mayor of Taranto on Friday, urging them to drop the lawsuits. Similar appeals had previously been made by Industry Minister Carlo Calendar, warning the challenges could scupper the deal with ArcelorMittal. Puglia’s governor Michele Emilio has so far refused to budge. Ilva, based in the city of Taranto in Italy’s southern heel, is Europe’s largest steel plant. It has been dogged by charges of corruption and environmental crime for years. In 2012, Italian authorities ruled emissions from the plant had caused deaths, tumors and respiratory diseases. About half the plant’s annual 11 million-tonne capacity was eventually mothballed. Editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-arcelormittal-italy-ilva-exclusive/exclusive-arcelormittal-tells-ilva-it-wants-to-change-buying-contract-idUKKBN1EH0GJ'|'2017-12-23T16:56:00.000+02:00'
'9291062031a5db5c66389afecfb2f063ffbc43e2'|'Oshkosh Corp wins $687 million U.S. defense contract -Pentagon'|'December 22, 2017 / 10:14 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Oshkosh Corp wins $687 million U.S. defense contract -Pentagon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Oshkosh Airport Products LLC, a unit of Oshkosh Corp, has been awarded a $687 million U.S. defense contract for commercial fire and emergency vehicles, the Pentagon said on Friday. (Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Eric Beech)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/oshkosh-pentagon/oshkosh-corp-wins-687-million-u-s-defense-contract-pentagon-idUSW1N1NS01Y'|'2017-12-23T00:13:00.000+02:00'
'24ad6dfc6f33925ba67b8f3fb20db8551adb2941'|'Bundesbank says no euro zone cryptocurrency in sight'|'December 23, 2017 / 1:54 PM / Updated an hour ago Bundesbank says no euro zone cryptocurrency in sight Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele has ruled out the introduction of official digital money for the euro zone and warned of losses from investments in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, according to a German newspaper. Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins are seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, May 27, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo “Digital central bank money analogous to cash is currently not in sight,” Thiele told weekly Euro am Sonntag in an interview published on Saturday. Digital currencies allow users to make online transactions across borders instantaneously and have surged in popularity this year because of their eye-watering price rises. Bitcoin, the best-known, has increased in price around twentyfold since the start of the year. But the cryptocurrency plunged by 30 percent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped it after its sharp rise to a peak close to $20,000 prompted warnings by experts of a bubble. “We are seeing a rapid increase in value, which brings the risk of rapid losses,” Thiele said. Decentralised digital currencies like bitcoin are still not widely accepted. Critics say they can easily be used for money laundering and the fact that they are unregulated makes them risky to use -- hence the idea of an “e-” version of a physical currency that still has a central controlling authority. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in September it was too soon to determine whether central banks should issue their own cryptocurrencies, as the risks could not yet be fully assessed and the technology underpinning them was still unproven. Christoph Schmidt, head of Germany’s panel of economic advisers - known as the wise men - warned that private investors’ losses from bitcoin investments could have a ripple effect on financial markets if they were financed with debt. “If their losses affect others because they were financed with loans, then that would increase the risk of distortions on financial markets,” he told the German daily Rheinische Post. Some high profile individuals such as Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz have said the cryptocurrency should be outlawed. Schmidt said he did not favour making crytocurrencies illegal but that potential investors must have detailed information on the risks of investments in bitcoin. German financial watchdog BaFin president, Felix Hufeld, said that regulators must “stay on the ball” when it comes to cryptocurrencies but that they still had much to learn on the subject. “We are all working on understanding the topic and building our know-how,” he told the German daily Bild. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Andrew Bolton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-bitcoin-eurozone-germany/bundesbank-says-no-euro-zone-cryptocurrency-in-sight-idINKBN1EH0F7'|'2017-12-23T15:52:00.000+02:00'
'8c2813cd5e7cc10433433b0a5aeabd3a3a682aed'|'China needs to continue reducing financial leverage - central bank deputy governor'|'December 23, 2017 / 9:42 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago China needs to continue reducing financial leverage - central bank deputy governor Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China must proactively but gradually reduce debt in the economy to prevent the buildup of financial risks, state news agency Xinhua quoted China’s central bank’s deputy governor as saying on Saturday. FILE PHOTO - Yi Gang, deputy central bank governor of the People''s Bank of China, attends a news conference during the ongoing National People''s Congress (NPC), China''s parliament, in Beijing China March 10, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee Yi Gang made the comments at a meeting about China’s economy in Beijing, Xinhua said. “We have to resolutely fight the battle to prevent risks and first have to control overall leverage by proactively, safely and steadily deleveraging,” he said. China’s state planner in September said that the growth of China’s overall leverage ratio has clearly been slowing and is now stabilising. However, ratings agency S&P Global Ratings has said that China’s attempts to reduce debt risks so far this year were not working as quickly as expected. A statement issued on Wednesday after China’s annual economic conference, which is attended by China’s top leaders and keenly watched by investors for clues on policy priorities, made no mention of the need to lower corporate leverage, in contrast to last year’s readout. The country has launched policies aimed at reducing debt and leverage amid fears that such problems could derail the world’s second-largest economy if not handled properly. The state planner said in August that such efforts had elicited some results but that excessively high leverage ratios of Chinese firms had still not been reversed, with non-financial Chinese firms’ leverage ratios still the highest among the world’s top economies. Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-leverage/china-needs-to-continue-reducing-financial-leverage-central-bank-deputy-governor-idUKKBN1EH09D'|'2017-12-23T11:41:00.000+02:00'
'1e863ded95d999f83921aa10b4448461526af553'|'RBS to pay $125 million to settle California mortgage bond claims'|'Reuters TV United States December 23, 2017 / 4:37 AM / Updated an hour ago RBS to pay $125 million to settle California mortgage bond claims Nate Raymond 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will pay $125 million to resolve claims that it made misrepresentations while selling mortgage-backed securities to two large California pension funds, the state’s attorney general has announced. People walk past a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls The settlement announced on Friday by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was the latest by RBS aimed at resolving claims stemming from its sale of mortgage-backed securities, which were at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis. Becerra’s office said those securities were typically backed by thousands of mortgage loans of varying quality in which the buyer relied on the assurance that those mortgages were carefully screened and were not overly risky. Becerra’s office also said its investigations found that RBS failed to accurately disclose to investors the true traits of many of the thousands of mortgages underlying the securities. The probe also found that those misrepresentations led to millions of dollars in losses to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Becerra’s office said. “RBS decided to mislead California’s pension funds in order to line its own pockets - plain and simple,” Becerra said in a statement. RBS Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan in a statement on Saturday said the bank was pleased to have reached the settlement, which related to issues with mortgage-backed securities in 2004 to 2008. “We have been very clear that putting our remaining legacy issues behind us is a key part of our strategy,” he said. The settlement comes as RBS continues to seek to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into its sales of mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis. In July, RBS agreed to pay $5.5 billion to resolve a lawsuit by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, claiming that it misled the U.S. mortgage giants into buying mortgage-backed securities. In September 2016, the U.S. National Credit Union Administration announced that RBS had agreed to pay $1.1 billion to resolve claims over mortgage-backed securities it sold to credit unions that later failed. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sam Holmes and Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-rbs-settlement/rbs-to-pay-125-million-to-settle-california-mortgage-bond-claims-idUKKBN1EH050'|'2017-12-23T17:18:00.000+02:00'
'e936821c1e829fe81db39f81d1b22bbe6947c497'|'Kazakhstan says it may appeal ruling over $22.6 bln frozen assets'|'December 23, 2017 / 4:49 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Kazakhstan says it may appeal ruling over $22.6 bln frozen assets Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan’s government and central bank may appeal a judgment by a British court in an effort to regain access to $22.6 billion in National Fund assets frozen by Bank of New York Mellon, the Kazakh Justice Ministry said on Saturday. The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. building at 1 Wall St. is seen in New York''s financial district March 11, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS) In a rare move related to a long-standing legal dispute between Kazakhstan and a Moldovan businessman, BNY Mellon froze the assets in October. Kazakhstan hoped that a court in London would force the bank to lift the freeze, but the court dismissed the claim on Thursday. “Both the National (central) Bank and the Republic of Kazakhstan are now considering appealing this court judgment,” the ministry said in a statement. Moldovan businessman Anatolie Stati, his son Gabriel and their companies are investors in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industry. They say they have been subjected to harassment from the state aimed at forcing them to sell their investments cheaply. Kazakhstan denies the allegations, but Anatolie and Gabriel Stati and two of their companies – Ascom Group S.A. and Terra Raf Trans Traiding Ltd., have won an international arbitration award of around $500 million against the government. Kazakhstan has refused to pay, accusing Stati of using fraudulent means to secure a favourable arbitration ruling and filing lawsuits against him. The Justice Ministry said BNY Mellon, which acts as one of the custodians of the National Fund, initially refused to freeze its assets in response to rulings by Dutch and Belgian courts. But on Oct. 30 “BNY Mellon suddenly changed its position” and agreed to freeze the assets, the ministry said, adding that it would seek from Stati compensation of all losses including those related to the freeze. “In any case, the risks to the Republic of Kazakhstan are limited by the arbitration award - $497,658,101 plus interest ... and half of Stati’s legal fees,” it said. Kazakhstan’s rainy-day National Fund, worth $57 billion, is replenished by revenue from the oil and gas industry, and used to partly finance the budget deficit. While the former Soviet republic is unlikely to find itself in urgent need of the frozen money soon, the freeze may limit its ability to manage a large part of the fund’s portfolio, which is mostly invested in high-grade bonds. Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/kazakhstan-bny-mellon/kazakhstan-says-it-may-appeal-ruling-over-22-6-bln-frozen-assets-idINKBN1EH0J5'|'2017-12-23T18:48:00.000+02:00'
'962eb9b3838c51d23e3055b2c5e7cd59e65307e5'|'Wall Street opens lower as Apple weighs'|'December 26, 2017 / 12:40 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Wall Street lower as iPhone X concerns hit Apple shares Sruthi Shankar 4 Min Read (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes came under pressure on Tuesday following a 2.5 percent drop in Apple’s shares on a report of weak iPhone X demand. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Apple ( AAPL.O ) will slash its sales forecast for its flagship phone in the current quarter to 30 million units, down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units, Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported, citing unidentified sources. That, along with a few bearish brokerage calls on iPhone X demand, put its shares on track for their worst single-day percentage fall since Aug. 10. Shares of companies that supply parts to Apple, including Broadcom ( AVGO.O ), Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS.O ), Finisar ( FNSR.O ) and Lumentum Holdings ( LITE.O ), fell between 2.2 percent and 4.3 percent. The S&P technology index .SPLRCT fell 0.84 percent, the biggest loser among the major S&P 500 sectors. The tech heavy Nasdaq .IXIC fell 0.4 percent to 6,932.08 as high-flying stocks, including Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Netflix, declined. “It looks to me that technology sector, already paying the lowest in taxes of around 24 percent, will not get as much of an impact as the financial sector, which pays the highest,” said Sandy Villere, portfolio manager of the Villere Balanced Fund “Maybe that rotation has begun and the FANGS may see some profit-taking into next year.” A long-promised Republican bill to cut corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent was ratified last week. At 10:49 a.m. ET (1549 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.05 percent to 24,765.7, while the S&P 500 .SPX fell 0.05 percent to 2,681.84. Energy sector .SPNY rose 0.73 percent as oil jumped, supported by an explosion on a crude pipeline in Libya and voluntary OPEC-led supply cuts. [O/R] Shares of department stores Kohl’s ( KSS.N ), JC Penney ( JCP.N ) and Macy’s ( M.N ) were up between 4.7 percent and 8 percent after a report that retail sales in the holiday period rose at their best pace since 2011. Sucampo Pharma ( SCMP.O ) surged 6 percent after Mallinckrodt ( MNK.N ) said it would acquire the drugmaker for $1.2 billion. Mallinckrodt shares rose 4.3 percent. Most markets around the world, including parts of Europe and Asia, were shut on Tuesday. Trading volumes are also expected to be light in the holiday week. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP traded up more than 13 percent at $15,780, recovering from last week''s selloff which saw the cryptocurrency plunge about 30 percent. Shares of related stocks such as Riot Blockchain ( RIOT.O ) and Longfin Corp ( LFIN.O ) jumped more than 13 percent. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,641 to 1,088. On the Nasdaq, 1,404 issues fell and 1,316 advanced. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/futures-lower-as-apple-chipmakers-weigh-idINKBN1EK0VB'|'2017-12-26T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'2be29d83c2b44a6e8c7a806542d41c75bd818202'|'China needs Detroit-style bankruptcy as debt problems remain - central bank official'|'December 25, 2017 / 6:32 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago China needs Detroit-style bankruptcy as debt problems remain - central bank official Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China needs to let local governments take responsibility for their finances, including allowing bankruptcies, as part of an effort to defuse their debt risks, a central bank official wrote on Monday. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, June 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo Central government control of the scale of local government bonds should be eliminated, while responsibility to issue and repay bonds should be held by the city or county that will actually use the funds, Xu Zhong, head of the People’s Bank of China’s research bureau, wrote in a an editorial on the financial news website Yicai. “Eliminate central government control on the scale of local government bond issues, expand the scale of local government debt issues,” Xu wrote. “Whether (bonds) can be issued, and at what price, must be examined and screened by the financial markets. There does not need to be worry about local governments chaotically issuing debt.” China’s top leadership decided at a meeting this week to take concrete measures to strengthen the regulation of local government debt next year as policymakers look to rein in a massive debt pile and reduce financial risks facing the economy. The government needs to clarify responsibility as it explores a bankruptcy system for local governments, Xu wrote, as there is still an expectation that the central government will bail out those that run into fiscal problems. “China must have an example like the bankruptcy in Detroit. Only if we allow local state-owned firms and governments to go bankrupt will investors believe the central government will break the implicit guarantee,” Xu wrote, adding that social services should be maintained. The United States city of Detroit filed the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in July 2013, with $18 billion of debt. Xu also said that China should dismantle the hukou system of internal migration control, as free movement of people promoted equal access to public services and helped resolve imbalances in finances. In a report published on Saturday, China’s National Audit Office said China should dispel the “illusion” that the central government will pick up the bill for local government debt. But China should also increase the limit for local government debt as general government debt is primarily used for poverty relief spending, while also controlling spending on new projects. “Financial institutions must not provide financing to projects without a source of stable operating cash flow or that do not have compliant collateral,” the office said. Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Robert Birsel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-debt/china-needs-detroit-style-bankruptcy-as-debt-problems-remain-central-bank-official-idINKBN1EJ06D'|'2017-12-25T08:28:00.000+02:00'
'79ecb4f2a41911b1c508a9c4af8d7c8589445f4c'|'China needs Detroit-style bankruptcy as debt problems remain - central bank official'|'December 25, 2017 / 3:56 AM / Updated 11 hours ago China needs Detroit-style bankruptcy as debt problems remain: central bank official Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China needs to let local governments take responsibility for their finances, including allowing bankruptcies, as part of an effort to defuse their debt risks, a central bank official wrote on Monday. A Chinese flag flutters at Xinhuamen Gate of Zhongnanhai leadership compound in central Beijing, China December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee Central government control of the scale of local government bonds should be eliminated, while responsibility to issue and repay bonds should be held by the city or county that will actually use the funds, Xu Zhong, head of the People’s Bank of China’s research bureau, wrote in a an editorial on the financial news website Yicai. “Eliminate central government control on the scale of local government bond issues, expand the scale of local government debt issues,” Xu wrote. “Whether (bonds) can be issued, and at what price, must be examined and screened by the financial markets. There does not need to be worry about local governments chaotically issuing debt.” China’s top leadership decided at a meeting this week to take concrete measures to strengthen the regulation of local government debt next year as policymakers look to rein in a massive debt pile and reduce financial risks facing the economy. The government needs to clarify responsibility as it explores a bankruptcy system for local governments, Xu wrote, as there is still an expectation that the central government will bail out those that run into fiscal problems. “China must have an example like the bankruptcy in Detroit. Only if we allow local state-owned firms and governments to go bankrupt will investors believe the central government will break the implicit guarantee,” Xu wrote, adding that social services should be maintained. The United States city of Detroit filed the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in July 2013, with $18 billion of debt. Xu also said that China should dismantle the hukou system of internal migration control, as free movement of people promoted equal access to public services and helped resolve imbalances in finances. In a report published on Saturday, China’s National Audit Office said China should dispel the “illusion” that the central government will pick up the bill for local government debt. But China should also increase the limit for local government debt as general government debt is primarily used for poverty relief spending, while also controlling spending on new projects. “Financial institutions must not provide financing to projects without a source of stable operating cash flow or that do not have compliant collateral,” the office said. Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Robert Birsel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-debt/china-needs-detroit-style-bankruptcy-as-debt-problems-remain-central-bank-official-idUKKBN1EJ065'|'2017-12-25T06:02:00.000+02:00'
'556bc3e5353b08db512631a135db7f0c713cc3c7'|'China expects 2018 industrial output to grow around 6 percent'|'December 25, 2017 / 6:32 AM / Updated 8 hours ago China expects 2018 industrial output to grow around 6 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s industrial output is likely to grow around 6 percent next year, the country’s industry ministry said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Workers check steel bars at a factory of Dongbei Special Steel Group Co., Ltd. in Dalian, Liaoning province, China November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo The nation’s industrial output is also expected to rise about 6.5 percent this year, which would be the first gain in the growth rate since 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on its microblog. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-economy-output/china-expects-2018-industrial-output-to-grow-around-6-percent-idINKBN1EJ07A'|'2017-12-25T08:32:00.000+02:00'
'b7564d696b1f38c5a860edf62e26192ab99df8f9'|'Israel regulator seeks to ban bitcoin firms from stock exchange'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:14 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Israel regulator seeks to ban bitcoin firms from stock exchange Steven Scheer 4 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s markets regulator will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, he said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: A man enters the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, in Tel Aviv, Israel January 29, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), told the Calcalist business conference he will bring the proposal to the ISA board next week. If approved, it would be subject to a public hearing and then the stock exchange bylaws would need to be amended. “If we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we would not allow it. If already listed, its trading will be suspended,” Hauser said, adding the ISA must find the appropriate regulation for such companies. Hauser did not identify any companies that would be affected by his ban, but at least two firms listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) now describe digital currencies or the technology behind them as essential to their business: Blockchain Mining ( BLCM.TA ) and Fantasy Network ( FNTS.TA ). Shares of Blockchain, which on Sunday changed its name from Natural Resources, have soared some 5,000 percent in the past few months since it announced it would shift its focus from mining for gold and iron to mining cryptocurrencies. It was down 4.2 percent in afternoon trading on Monday. Blockchain was not immediately available for comment. Fantasy Networks ( FNTS.TA ), a former gaming firm, said this month it was studying the possibility of operating in the blockchain field -- the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies. Its share price quadrupled before losing 50 percent in the past two weeks. FILE PHOTO: Tokens of the virtual currency Bitcoin are seen placed on a monitor that displays binary digits in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Earlier this month, Hauser said bitcoin-based companies would not be included in stock exchange indexes. In a Dec. 19 statement to TASE, Fantasy Networks acknowledged those remarks, saying: “These restrictions ... could harm investment in the company and even exclude it from trade on the stock exchange.” Bitcoin is a publicly available ledger of a finite number of digital “coins”, which backers say can be used as a currency without the support of any country’s central bank. It is “mined” by computers, which are awarded new coins for working out complex mathematical formulas. Several other cryptocurrencies have also been launched that work on similar principles. The value of a bitcoin plunged by 30 percent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to nearly $20,000. It recouped some losses to trade above $14,000 BTC=BTSP on the Bitstamp platform, down 9 percent on the day. “We feel that the prices of bitcoin behave like bubbles and we don’t want investors to be subject to that volatility and uncertainty,” Hauser said. “There is an importance to signal to the market where things are... Investors should know where we stand.” The proposal to block digital currency firms from the stock exchange will probably be the last move for Hauser, who will step down next month after 6-1/2 years as ISA chief. “But once it’s on its way it will continue to be pursued,” said Hauser, who will be replaced by Anat Guetta. He said he hopes she will promote easing capital gains taxes and focus on regulatory enforcement. Editing by Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin-israel/israel-regulator-seeks-to-ban-bitcoin-firms-from-stock-exchange-idUKKBN1EJ0J2'|'2017-12-25T16:50:00.000+02:00'
'dfbcbd45d3c879e127c0ecb549bf51743dabb20e'|'Japan''s November consumer prices rise for 11th straight month, spending jumps'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:44 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago Japan''s households open their wallets, BOJ seen keeping stimulus Leika Kihara 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s households spent more than expected in November while consumer inflation ticked up and the jobless rate hit a fresh 24-year low, offering the central bank some hope an economic recovery will drive up inflation to its 2 percent target. FILE PHOTO: A mannequin is displayed in a shop window of a department store at a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo But the increase in prices was due mostly to a boost from rising fuel costs that is seen fading in 2018, keeping the Bank of Japan under pressure to maintain its huge monetary support even as other central banks seek an end to crisis-mode policies. Minutes of the BOJ’s October rate review showed that while most central bank policymakers saw no need to ramp up stimulus, they agreed on the need to sustain “powerful” easing for the time being. “There’s a chance inflation may gradually accelerate towards the fiscal year beginning in April,” as a tightening job market pressures companies to raise wages, said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. “But inflation remains distant from the BOJ’s 2 percent target, so the central bank will probably maintain its current policy framework.” Spending was driven by broadbased gains, with households loosening the purse strings for items such as refrigerators, washing machines, and sporting goods and services such as eating-out and travel. Behind the improvement is a slow but steady rise in household income. Wage earners’ disposable income rose 1.8 percent in November from a year earlier, suggesting that higher incomes have encouraged consumers to open their wallets. A stock market boom is also giving households more purchasing power. Japan’s top 4 department stores all saw sales increase in November from a year earlier on brisk demand for luxury items. The nationwide core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil goods but excludes volatile fresh food prices, rose 0.9 percent in November from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday, marking the 11th straight month of gains. The pace of price growth was just ahead of October’s 0.8 percent and a median market forecast of the same rate. Despite the increase seen in wages, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has urged companies to raise wages by 3 percent or more next year, keeping pressure on firms to spend their huge cash pile to broaden the benefits of his stimulus policies. FILE PHOTO: Women in traditional costume ''Kimono'' make their way at a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo A Reuters poll published earlier this month found two-thirds of Japanese firms think the government’s push to raise wages by 3 percent is a tall order, with some dismissing it out of hand. JOB MARKET TIGHTENS FURTHER Separate data released on Tuesday showed prospects for a sustained recovery were picking up. The unemployment rate hit a fresh 24-year low of 2.7 percent in November and job availability rose to a nearly 44-year high. A man looks at an item outside a discount drug store at a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, August 27, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo Household spending rose 1.7 percent in November from a year earlier, far exceeding forecasts for a 0.5 percent increase. The slew of upbeat data may offer relief to BOJ policymakers, who are increasingly worried about the demerits of ultra-easy policy but wary of choking off a budding economic recovery by dialing back stimulus too quickly. At the October rate review, several BOJ policymakers voiced concern of taking “extreme steps” just to hit their price goal, countering calls by board newcomer Goushi Kataoka that additional easing measures were necessary. Most members felt that maintaining current policy was sufficient, though conceding it may take some time before firms more actively raise prices and wages, the minutes showed. “It seems so difficult for many firms to take the first step to raise their prices, that they wait and see what other firms are doing,” BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday. Japan’s economy grew an annualised 2.5 percent in July-September to mark a seventh straight quarter of growth thanks to robust exports and capital expenditure. But the inflation rate remains distant from the BOJ’s target, as firms remain wary of scaring away cost-sensitive consumers with price hikes. The BOJ kept monetary policy steady in October and a subsequent meeting in December, reassuring markets it will lag well behind overseas peers in ending its ultra-loose monetary settings. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-cpi/japan-november-core-cpi-rises-0-9-percent-year-on-year-idUKKBN1EJ0X7'|'2017-12-26T01:50:00.000+02:00'
'e3cb07b910bd47fc26e17b058ca8ba4d11c9a8ad'|'Google looking to launch stores in India to boost Pixel sales: report'|'December 26, 2017 / 11:37 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Google looking to launch stores in India to boost Pixel sales: report Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google ( GOOGL.O ) is looking to launch brick-and-mortar stores in India to boost sales of its Pixel smartphones, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. Google is exploring the idea of physical stores after finding an encouraging response to more than a dozen pop-up stores opened in malls across the country to showcase the second generation Pixel phones, the newspaper reported. Google responded to a Reuters query saying that it does not comment on rumors or speculations. India is the world’s second biggest wireless market with 1.2 billion mobile subscribers, which is currently dominated by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( 005930.KS ), and Chinese players including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. Reporting Bby Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-india/google-looking-to-launch-stores-in-india-to-boost-pixel-sales-report-idUSKBN1EK0PQ'|'2017-12-26T13:37:00.000+02:00'
'5a75e4635aee8b36fb28403ae2e0c74ec2e6ffe8'|'China needs Detroit-style bankruptcy as debt problems remain - central bank official'|'December 25, 2017 / 3:59 AM / Updated an hour ago China needs Detroit-style bankruptcy as debt problems remain - central bank official Reuters Staff 3   China needs to let local governments take responsibility for their finances, including allowing bankruptcies, as part of an effort to defuse their debt risks, a central bank official wrote on Monday. The sun sets behind the Central Business District with the CITIC Tower at it''s centre in Beijing, China, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Central government control of the scale of local government bonds should be eliminated, while responsibility to issue and repay bonds should be held by the city or county that will actually use the funds, Xu Zhong, head of the People’s Bank of China’s research bureau, wrote in a an editorial on the financial news website Yicai. “Eliminate central government control on the scale of local government bond issues, expand the scale of local government debt issues,” Xu wrote. “Whether (bonds) can be issued, and at what price, must be examined and screened by the financial markets. There does not need to be worry about local governments chaotically issuing debt.” China’s top leadership decided at a meeting this week to take concrete measures to strengthen the regulation of local government debt next year as policymakers look to rein in a massive debt pile and reduce financial risks facing the economy. The government needs to clarify responsibility as it explores a bankruptcy system for local governments, Xu wrote, as there is still an expectation that the central government will bail out those that run into fiscal problems. “China must have an example like the bankruptcy in Detroit. Only if we allow local state-owned firms and governments to go bankrupt will investors believe the central government will break the implicit guarantee,” Xu wrote, adding that social services should be maintained. The United States city of Detroit filed the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in July 2013, with $18 billion of debt. Xu also said that China should dismantle the hukou system of internal migration control, as free movement of people promoted equal access to public services and helped resolve imbalances in finances. In a report published on Saturday, China’s National Audit Office said China should dispel the “illusion” that the central government will pick up the bill for local government debt. But China should also increase the limit for local government debt as general government debt is primarily used for poverty relief spending, while also controlling spending on new projects. “Financial institutions must not provide financing to projects without a source of stable operating cash flow or that do not have compliant collateral,” the office said. Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Robert Birsel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-debt/china-needs-detroit-style-bankruptcy-as-debt-problems-remain-central-bank-official-idUKKBN1EJ067'|'2017-12-25T06:02:00.000+02:00'
'1e5cf45eec24771bb2d21e0d00e381729be00ea3'|'Russia''s FinMin: crypto FX should only be traded by professionals'|'December 25, 2017 / 12:18 PM / in 7 hours Russia''s FinMin: crypto FX should only be traded by professionals Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday that cryptocurrencies should be traded only by professional investors, not in the mainstream. “Professional market participants should work with crypto-currencies, not ordinary people,” Siluanov said in an interview with Rossiya 24, a Russian state TV channel. Russian authorities agreed in October to regulate the cryptocurrency market and pledged to set out how this regulation would work by the end of the year. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP , a well-known virtual currency which emerged in mid-2010, is increasingly popular worldwide as it promises substantial profits. One bitcoin last traded at around $14,200 BTC=BTSP , up from its initial price of less than $1. Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Denis Pinchuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-bitcoin-regulations/russias-finmin-crypto-fx-should-only-be-traded-by-professionals-idUSKBN1EJ0LC'|'2017-12-25T14:18:00.000+02:00'
'65213cd91632b25a0ffa4cacd26c08111f1c7994'|'Tesla to make pickup truck after Model Y crossover'|'December 26, 2017 / 7:02 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Tesla to make pickup truck after Model Y crossover Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Tesla Inc will build a pickup truck soon after producing electric crossover vehicle Model Y, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday. "I promise that we will make a pickup truck right after Model Y. Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years. Am dying to build it," Musk wrote in a Twitter post. bit.ly/2l1A1JJ The Model Y, to be built on the same platform as the Model 3 sedan, was tentatively scheduled to begin production in mid-2019, Reuters reported in June. The electric vehicle maker first announced plans for a pickup truck last July, alongside a “master plan” to develop a commercial truck, a public transport bus and a compact sport utility vehicle. Musk had said in April that the pickup truck would be unveiled within 18 to 24 months. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-truck/tesla-to-make-pickup-truck-after-model-y-crossover-idUSKBN1EK1A5'|'2017-12-26T21:01:00.000+02:00'
'f21165e3299eff8f0ae722f63ffd49560727de87'|'Israel regulator seeks to ban bitcoin firms from stock exchange'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:16 AM / Updated an hour ago Israel regulator seeks to ban bitcoin firms from stock exchange Steven Scheer 2 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s markets regulator said on Monday he will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). FILE PHOTO: Tokens of the virtual currency Bitcoin are seen placed on a monitor that displays binary digits in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), told the Calcalist business conference he will bring the proposal to the ISA board next week. If approved, it would be subject to a public hearing and then the TASE bylaws would need to be amended. “If we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we would not allow it. If already listed, its trading will be suspended,” Hauser said, adding the ISA must find the appropriate regulation for such companies. Bitcoin plunged by 30 percent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to nearly $20,000. It recouped some losses to trade above $14,000 on the Bitstamp platform, down 9 percent on the day. “We feel that the prices of bitcoin behave like bubbles and we don’t want investors to be subject to that volatility and uncertainty,” Hauser said. “There is an importance to signal to the market where things are... Investors should know where we stand.” Earlier this month, Hauser had said bitcoin-based companies would not be included in TASE indexes and that there was a need for a suitable regulatory framework for such instruments given that the global market value of all digital currencies grew in 2017 to $300 billion from $18 billion. The proposal will likely be the last for Hauser, who will step down next month after 6-1/2 years as ISA chief. “But once it’s on its way it will continue to be pursued,” said Hauser, who will be replaced by Anat Guetta. He said he hopes she will promote easing capital gains taxes and focus on regulatory enforcement. Editing by Peter Graff'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-israel/israel-regulator-seeks-to-ban-bitcoin-firms-from-stock-exchange-idUKKBN1EJ0J6'|'2017-12-25T13:14:00.000+02:00'
'034d390fa4c92e209cb98ae60cbd61bcf736db16'|'UPDATE 1-Brazil defense ministry opposes giving up Embraer control to Boeing'|'(Recasts, adds minister’s Quote: , background)Dec 28 (Reuters) - Brazil’s defense minister voiced opposition on Thursday to selling control in Embraer SA to Boeing Co, saying the defense operations of the Brazilian planemaker cannot be separated from the commercial business.Boeing and Embraer said last week they were discussing a “potential combination”, in a move that would consolidate a global passenger jet duopoly provided Brazil’s government gives its blessing. The companies have given no further details.Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said on Thursday the ministry was concerned that the negotiations between the aerospace companies had advanced without its knowledge.“No country in the world would release its grasp on control of a company like (Embraer). It has a nucleus of defense that is inalienable,” Jungmann told reporters in Brasilia.He said the ministry viewed favorably any deal that maintained local control of the company and would direct its representative on the Embraer board to seek further information. The Brazilian government holds veto power over strategic moves at Embraer.President Michel Temer has also said he opposes Boeing taking control of Embraer and that the government could use its golden share in the company to block foreign control. He added he would welcome an injection of foreign capital into Embraer.Reporting by Ricardo Brito, writing by Jake Spring; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/embraer-ma-boeing/update-1-brazil-defense-ministry-opposes-giving-up-embraer-control-to-boeing-idINL1N1OS0QO'|'2017-12-28T13:13:00.000+02:00'
'7665ef0dbb666f338ed1e54198b47f5c74c7c263'|'Russian Finance Minister sees economy growing 1.8-2 percent in 2017 - Ifax'|'December 24, 2017 / 7:36 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Russian finmin sees economy growing 1.8-2 pct in 2017: Ifax Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s economy is expected to grow between 1.8 and 2 percent this year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Russia’s gross domestic product contracted by 0.2 percent in 2016. Authorities had said growth could reach 2 percent this year, later adding it could top 2 percent. Reporting by Katya Golubkova'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-economy-siluanov/russian-finmin-sees-economy-growing-1-8-2-pct-in-2017-ifax-idUKKBN1EI0IP'|'2017-12-24T21:23:00.000+02:00'
'0f3f1319ed54d9a467442d35456c7b11774f4d9f'|'BOJ says low rates hurting banks but woes won''t ease post-stimulus'|'December 25, 2017 / 7:37 AM / Updated 12 hours ago BOJ says low rates hurting banks but woes won''t ease post-stimulus Leika Kihara , Sumio Ito 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Prolonged ultra-easy monetary policy is weighing heavily on Japanese bank profits but financial institutions should not expect business conditions to brighten dramatically even after the central bank raises interest rates, a senior Bank of Japan official said. Atsushi Miyanoya, Bank of Japan (BOJ) Executive Director, speaks during an interview with Reuters at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato Many regional banks could suffer losses in the long run as intensifying competition forces them to cut lending rates to attract borrowers in a shrinking domestic market, said BOJ Executive Director Atsushi Miyanoya. “The BOJ’s monetary policy, including negative interest rates, undoubtedly has a significant impact on bank profits,” said Miyanoya, who oversees a division in charge of monitoring Japan’s banking system. “Even when monetary policy is eventually normalized, banks shouldn’t expect profits to return to levels before ultra-easy policy was put in place,” he told Reuters on Dec. 22. After three years of heavy asset buying failed to fire up inflation, the BOJ last year adopted negative interest rates and a pledge to guide 10-year bond yields around zero percent. Miyanoya said the BOJ’s policy has not excessively hurt bank profits yet, countering criticism from the financial sector that the costs of monetary stimulus were exceeding the benefits. But he warned that banks may see profitability fall further if monetary policy remains ultra-loose, and called on regional banks to seek new revenue sources instead of meeting intensifying competition just by cutting lending rates. Atsushi Miyanoya, Bank of Japan (BOJ) Executive Director, speaks during an interview with Reuters at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato “In the medium- to long-term, there’s a risk many financial institutions may record net losses simultaneously. We can’t deny the risk financial intermediation may not function properly at the same time,” Miyanoya said. “With the economy in good shape and banks having sufficient capital, now is the time to act,” he said. “Mergers and consolidation are among options to improve profitability and efficiency.” Years of crisis-mode stimulus have squeezed bank margins in many advanced nations. The problem is more acute in Japan, where more than 100 regional banks compete in an overcrowded market that is shrinking amid an aging population. Atsushi Miyanoya, Bank of Japan (BOJ) Executive Director, speaks during an interview with Reuters at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato An industry watchdog said in October that more than half of Japan’s regional banks lost money on their core business in the year ended March 2017. Regional banks’ plight has piled pressure on the BOJ to focus on the demerits of its policy, though Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he saw no need to dial back stimulus now. Even when the BOJ withdraws stimulus, banks may not see margins improve sharply due to severe competition, Miyanoya said. “It’s true our monetary policy is exerting downward pressure on banks’ profits, but that’s not the whole story,” Miyanoya said. “Monetary policy will be normalized at some point. But structural factors won’t change. Japan’s population will continue to decline and the number of companies will keep falling.” Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj/boj-says-low-rates-hurting-banks-but-woes-wont-ease-post-stimulus-idUKKBN1EJ0BL'|'2017-12-25T09:35:00.000+02:00'
'd2eee4ffa7dc5c57815a363ed53fc82785f145c6'|'Israel''s Super-Pharm in talks to buy Teva Pharm plant: media'|'December 24, 2017 / 10:56 AM / Updated 6 minutes ago Israel''s Super-Pharm in talks to buy Teva Pharm plant: source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel’s largest pharmacy chain Super-Pharm (Israel) Ltd is in talks to acquire Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ plant in the coastal city of Ashdod, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday, confirming media reports. A tourist poses for a photo with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries employees protesting outside Jerusalem''s Old City December 24, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen Super-Pharm would pay 60-80 million shekels ($17-23 million) and is prepared to commit to continue employing the factory’s 70 workers, said the source, who asked not to be named. Super-Pharm is interested in the pharmaceutical preparation activities that have an estimated 100 million shekels in annual sales, the Globes financial news site said. Teva said this month it would cut its workforce by more than a quarter and give up many of its manufacturing plants including the one in Ashdod in a much-anticipated overhaul to help pay off its nearly $35 billion debt. Most of the Ashdod plant’s operations involve preparing liquid medications for treatments in hospitals and homes, such as antibiotics and chemotherapy as well as food for premature babies. Super-Pharm, which already operates laboratories providing custom-made treatments, did not confirm the talks but said it would be interested in a deal. “Super-Pharm would be happy to acquire Teva Medical and integrate its workforce. The chain hopes to continue operations in this vital factory, which is responsible among other things for feeding premature babies in hospitals around the country,” Super-Pharm said. A spokeswoman for Teva, the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs, declined to comment. Teva workers have been protesting the planned layoffs at various Teva facilities across the country. Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Steven Scheer/Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-teva-pharm-ind-superpharm-plant/israels-super-pharm-in-talks-to-buy-teva-pharm-plant-media-idINKBN1EI09J'|'2017-12-24T12:49:00.000+02:00'
'05272940c2dd34a13763565e9b2592e99226c7c2'|'Venezuelans scramble to survive as merchants demand dollars'|'December 26, 2017 / 1:14 PM / in 2 hours Venezuelans scramble to survive as merchants demand dollars Eyanir Chinea , Maria Ramirez 5 Min Read CARACAS/CIUDAD GUAYANA, Venezuela (Reuters) - There was no way Jose Ramon Garcia, a food transporter in Venezuela, could afford new tires for his van at $350 each. Arepas stuffed with cheese are seen at a restaurant in Caracas, Venezuela December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello Whether he opted to pay in U.S. currency or in the devalued local bolivar currency at the equivalent black market price, Garcia would have had to save up for years. Though used to expensive repairs, this one was too much and put him out of business. “Repairs cost an arm and a leg in Venezuela,” said the now-unemployed 42-year-old Garcia, who has a wife and two children to support in the southern city of Guayana. “There’s no point keeping bolivars.” For a decade and a half, strict exchange controls have severely limited access to dollars. A black market in hard currency has spread in response, and as once-sky-high oil revenue runs dry, Venezuela’s economy is in free-fall. The practice adopted by gourmet and design stores in Caracas over the last couple of years to charge in dollars to a select group of expatriates or Venezuelans with access to greenbacks is fast spreading. Food sellers, dental and medical clinics, and others are starting to charge in dollars or their black market equivalent - putting many basic goods and services out of reach for a large number of Venezuelans. According to the opposition-led National Assembly, November’s rise in prices topped academics’ traditional benchmark for hyperinflation of more than 50 percent a month - and could end the year at 2,000 percent. The government has not published inflation data for more than a year. “I can’t think in bolivars anymore, because you have to give a different price every hour,” said Yoselin Aguirre, 27, who makes and sells jewelry in the Paraguana peninsula and has recently pegged prices to the dollar. “To survive, you have to dollarize.” The socialist government of the late president Hugo Chavez in 2003 brought in the strict controls in order to curb capital flight, as the wealthy sought to move money out of Venezuela after a coup attempt and major oil strike the previous year. Oil revenue was initially able to bolster artificial exchange rates, though the black market grew and now is becoming unmanageable for the government. TRIM THE TREE WITH BOLIVARS A worker counts Venezuelan bolivar notes at a gas station of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in Caracas, Venezuela December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello President Nicolas Maduro has maintained his predecessor’s policies on capital controls. Yet, the spread between the strongest official rate, of some 10 bolivars per dollar, and the black market rate, of around 110,000 per dollar, is now huge. While sellers see a shift to hard currency as necessary, buyers sometimes blame them for speculating. Rafael Vetencourt, 55, a steel worker in Ciudad Guayana, needed a prostate operation priced at $250. “We don’t earn in dollars. It’s abusive to charge in dollars!” said Vetencourt, who had to decimate his savings to pay for the surgery. Slideshow (4 Images) In just one year, Venezuela’s currency has weakened 97.5 per cent against the greenback, meaning $1,000 of local currency purchased then would be worth just $25 now. Maduro blames black market rate-publishing websites such as DolarToday for inflating the numbers, part of an “economic war” he says is designed by the opposition and Washington to topple him. On Venezuela’s borders with Brazil and Colombia, the prices of imported oil, eggs and wheat flour vary daily in line with the black market price for bolivars. In an upscale Caracas market, cheese-filled arepas, the traditional breakfast made with corn flour, increased 65 percent in price in just two weeks, according to tracking by Reuters reporters. In the same period, a kilogram of ham jumped a whopping 171 percent. The runaway prices have dampened Christmas celebrations, which this season were characterized by shortages of pine trees and toys, as well as meat, chicken and cornmeal for the preparation of typical dishes. In one grim festive joke, a Christmas tree in Maracaibo, the country’s oil capital and second city, was decorated with virtually worthless low-denomination bolivar bills. Most Venezuelans, earning just $5 a month at the black market rate, are nowhere near being able to save hard currency. “How do I do it? I earn in bolivars and have no way to buy foreign currency,” said Cristina Centeno, a 31-year-old teacher who, like many, was seeking remote work online before Christmas in order to bring in some hard currency. Additional reporting by Andreina Aponte and Leon Wietfeld in Caracas, Mircely Guanipa in Maracay, Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal, Lenin Danieri in Maracaibo; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-economy/venezuelans-scramble-to-survive-as-merchants-demand-dollars-idINKBN1EK0YE'|'2017-12-26T15:13:00.000+02:00'
'7bab43ef4040c4718645eb184b583df32abbe0ee'|'Kremlin hopes Rosneft/Sistema settlement to be smoothly implemented'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:07 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Kremlin hopes Rosneft/Sistema settlement to be smoothly implemented Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday it hoped an out-of-court settlement reached between Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) and the Sistema ( AFKS.MM ) conglomerate would be implemented smoothly. In a phone call with reporters, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin hoped the settlement, under which Rosneft will receive 100 billion roubles ($1.72 billion) from businessman Yevtushenkov’s Sistema, will not run into any problems. Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Andrew Osborn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-sistema-kremlin/kremlin-hopes-rosneft-sistema-settlement-to-be-smoothly-implemented-idUSKBN1EJ0II'|'2017-12-25T13:06:00.000+02:00'
'3c7b9261423de27a568949bf866fc525276729ea'|'China exceeds target for household gas projects, but some left freezing'|'December 25, 2017 / 10:28 AM / Updated 5 hours ago China exceeds target for household gas projects, but some left freezing Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Ministry for Environmental Protection (MEP) said it had completed coal-to-gas and coal-to-electricity projects for 3.9 million households or 25,220 villages, exceeding a target of 3.1 million houses for 2017 in northern Chinese regions. The project has left some rural villages in the cold, however, the MEP said late on Sunday, as local officials were unable to finish projects before the winter heating period began on Nov. 15. As many as 3,704 villages had not completed switching residents from coal stoves to either burning natural gas or to electricity as of Dec. 24. That accounts for 16 percent of the total amount of the project, the MEP data showed. As a result, these villages need to keep burning coal, the MEP said. China began an ambitious program earlier this year under which millions of households and some industrial users are switching away from coal for heating, as Beijing tries to clean the tainted air in northern China after decades of galloping growth. But the program has led to widespread shortages of natural gas, sent LNG prices soaring and left some residents freezing in their homes and factories shuttered. The statement from the MEP was the first acknowledgement from the central government of the consequences of the move. China’s LNG imports hit a monthly record of 4.06 million tonnes in November, customs data showed on Sunday. Reporting by Meng Meng and Aizhu Chen; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-pollution-gas/china-exceeds-target-for-household-gas-projects-but-some-left-freezing-idINKBN1EJ0GX'|'2017-12-25T12:16:00.000+02:00'
'cfb5d34c3858561cc982c7cce52e7a59edd88f21'|'Boeing wins $6.2 bln contract for F-15 aircraft for Qatar -Pentagon'|'December 22, 2017 / 10:23 PM / Updated 17 hours ago Boeing wins $6.2 billion contract for F-15 aircraft for Qatar: Pentagon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) has been awarded a $6.2 billion contract for 36 F-15 aircraft for Qatar’s air force, the Pentagon said in a statement on Friday. Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-pentagon/boeing-wins-6-2-billion-contract-for-f-15-aircraft-for-qatar-pentagon-idUSKBN1EG2CR'|'2017-12-23T00:13:00.000+02:00'
'087b2fb587320a0b2124f7359b516af59c16c740'|'Keppel unit to pay $422 million to resolve Petrobras bribery probes'|'December 23, 2017 / 12:08 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago Keppel unit to pay $422 million to resolve Petrobras bribery probes Nate Raymond 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Keppel Corporation Ltd’s ( KPLM.SI ) offshore rig building business will pay more than $422 million to resolve charges it bribed Brazilian officials, including some at state-run oil company Petrobras ( PETR4.SA ), U.S. authorities said on Friday. Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd agreed to pay the combined penalty to resolve investigations by authorities in the United States, Brazil and its home country of Singapore, the U.S. Justice Department said. The company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement while a U.S. subsidiary, Keppel Offshore & Marine USA Inc, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Justice Department also revealed that a former member of the company’s legal department secretly pleaded guilty in August in connection with the ongoing investigation. That person’s identity could not be immediately determined. Keppel Corporation Chairman Lee Boon Yang said the Singapore-based company regretted the actions that took place in Brazil. “Integrity is one of Keppel’s core values,” he said in a statement. “We do not and will not tolerate any illegal activity in the conduct of our business.” Petroleo Brasileiro SA, also known as Petrobras, has been at the centre of Brazil’s largest ever corruption scandal amid investigations into political kickback schemes involving contractors. The Justice Department said that from 2001 to 2014, Keppel Offshore & Marine engaged in a scheme to pay $55 million in bribes to officials at Petrobras and the then-governing political party in Brazil, the Workers Party of Brazil. The bribes were paid to win 13 contracts with Petrobras and Sete Brasil Participacoes SA, a privately-held Brazilian company that commissioned a large fleet of rigs for Petrobras’ use, according to charging documents. Keppel concealed the bribes by making payments to a consultant, who in turn facilitated the bribes by transferring money to bank accounts controlled by or for the benefit of the Brazilian officials, the charging papers said. In total, the company earned $351.8 million through the bribery scheme, according to court papers. The Justice Department said Keppel Offshore & Marine had agreed to pay about $422.2 million, of which the United States would receive almost $105.6 million. The Justice Department said Brazil will receive more than $211 million and Singapore will receive up to $105.6 million. Keppel said Keppel Offshore & Marine has accepted a conditional warning from Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and that a subsidiary reached a leniency agreement with Brazilian prosecutors. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/keppel-corp-settlement/keppel-unit-to-pay-422-million-to-resolve-petrobras-bribery-probes-idINKBN1EH005'|'2017-12-23T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'ca9b41802c8bb489e7b8e6c984fa8142b1072db2'|'Kazakhstan says it may appeal ruling over $22.6 billion frozen assets'|'December 23, 2017 / 4:01 PM / Updated 12 minutes ago Kazakhstan says it may appeal ruling over $22.6 billion frozen assets Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan’s government and central bank may appeal a judgment by a British court in an effort to regain access to $22.6 billion (16.91 billion pounds) in National Fund assets frozen by Bank of New York Mellon ( BK.N ), the Kazakh Justice Ministry said on Saturday. In a rare move related to a long-standing legal dispute between Kazakhstan and a Moldovan businessman, BNY Mellon froze the assets in October. Kazakhstan hoped that a court in London would force the bank to lift the freeze, but the court dismissed the claim on Thursday. “Both the National (central) Bank and the Republic of Kazakhstan are now considering appealing this court judgment,” the ministry said in a statement. Moldovan businessman Anatolie Stati, his son Gabriel and their companies are investors in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industry. They say they have been subjected to harassment from the state aimed at forcing them to sell their investments cheaply. Kazakhstan denies the allegations, but Anatolie and Gabriel Stati and two of their companies – Ascom Group S.A. and Terra Raf Trans Traiding Ltd., have won an international arbitration award of around $500 million against the government. Kazakhstan has refused to pay, accusing Stati of using fraudulent means to secure a favourable arbitration ruling and filing lawsuits against him. The Justice Ministry said BNY Mellon, which acts as one of the custodians of the National Fund, initially refused to freeze its assets in response to rulings by Dutch and Belgian courts. But on Oct. 30 “BNY Mellon suddenly changed its position” and agreed to freeze the assets, the ministry said, adding that it would seek from Stati compensation of all losses including those related to the freeze. “In any case, the risks to the Republic of Kazakhstan are limited by the arbitration award - $497,658,101 plus interest ... and half of Stati’s legal fees,” it said. Kazakhstan’s rainy-day National Fund, worth $57 billion, is replenished by revenue from the oil and gas industry, and used to partly finance the budget deficit. While the former Soviet republic is unlikely to find itself in urgent need of the frozen money soon, the freeze may limit its ability to manage a large part of the fund’s portfolio, which is mostly invested in high-grade bonds. Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Andrew Roche'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kazakhstan-bny-mellon/kazakhstan-says-it-may-appeal-ruling-over-22-6-billion-frozen-assets-idUKKBN1EH0HV'|'2017-12-23T18:00:00.000+02:00'
'e076566ea33653dfe99638c3d4c2876689d8733c'|'Sensex hits record; auto stocks rise'|'December 20, 2017 / 6:29 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Sensex falls from record highs ahead of RBI minutes Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Indian shares fell for the first time in five sessions on Wednesday after hitting record highs earlier, as caution set in ahead of the release of the minutes from the Reserve Bank of India’s policy meeting earlier this month. FILE PHOTO: A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, India, November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo The BSE Sensex fell 0.18 percent to end at 33,777.38, after earlier touching an all-time high of 33,956.31. The broader NSE Nifty fell 0.18 percent to end at 10,444.20. It earlier hit a record high of 10,494.45. Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-stocks/sensex-hits-record-auto-stocks-rise-idINKBN1EE0KM'|'2017-12-20T08:26:00.000+02:00'
'01611fc74c07eaacf176d71dd05a14143eb91dda'|'Keppel unit to pay $422 million to resolve Petrobras bribery probes'|'December 23, 2017 / 3:14 AM / in 3 hours Keppel unit to pay $422 million to resolve Petrobras bribery probes Nate Raymond 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Keppel Corporation Ltd’s ( KPLM.SI ) offshore rig building business will pay more than $422 million to resolve charges it bribed Brazilian officials, including some at state-run oil company Petrobras ( PETR4.SA ), U.S. authorities said on Friday. A Keppel Corporation logo in the central business district of Singapore February 22, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd agreed to pay the combined penalty to resolve investigations by authorities in the United States, Brazil and its home country of Singapore, the U.S. Justice Department said. The company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement while a U.S. subsidiary, Keppel Offshore & Marine USA Inc, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Justice Department also revealed that a former member of the company’s legal department secretly pleaded guilty in August in connection with the ongoing investigation. That person’s identity could not be immediately determined. Keppel Corporation Chairman Lee Boon Yang said the Singapore-based company regretted the actions that took place in Brazil. “Integrity is one of Keppel’s core values,” he said in a statement. “We do not and will not tolerate any illegal activity in the conduct of our business.” Petroleo Brasileiro SA, also known as Petrobras, has been at the center of Brazil’s largest ever corruption scandal amid investigations into political kickback schemes involving contractors. The Justice Department said that from 2001 to 2014, Keppel Offshore & Marine engaged in a scheme to pay $55 million in bribes to officials at Petrobras and the then-governing political party in Brazil, the Workers Party of Brazil. The bribes were paid to win 13 contracts with Petrobras and Sete Brasil Participacoes SA, a privately-held Brazilian company that commissioned a large fleet of rigs for Petrobras’ use, according to charging documents. Keppel concealed the bribes by making payments to a consultant, who in turn facilitated the bribes by transferring money to bank accounts controlled by or for the benefit of the Brazilian officials, the charging papers said. In total, the company earned $351.8 million through the bribery scheme, according to court papers. The Justice Department said Keppel Offshore & Marine had agreed to pay about $422.2 million, of which the United States would receive almost $105.6 million. The Justice Department said Brazil will receive more than $211 million and Singapore will receive up to $105.6 million. Keppel said Keppel Offshore & Marine has accepted a conditional warning from Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and that a subsidiary reached a leniency agreement with Brazilian prosecutors. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Tom Brown'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-keppel-corp-settlement/keppel-unit-to-pay-422-million-to-resolve-petrobras-bribery-probes-idINKBN1EH035'|'2017-12-23T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'1bae6bd01fbc4f443b018969780967eecde4505c'|'UnitedHealth to buy Chile''s Banmedica for $2.8 billion'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:27 PM / Updated 19 minutes ago UnitedHealth to buy Chile''s Banmedica for $2.8 billion Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - UnitedHealth Group Inc said on Friday it signed a definitive agreement to buy Chilean healthcare company Banmedica SA for $2.8 billion, expanding the health insurer’s footprint in South America. FILE PHOTO -- The logo of Down Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company UnitedHealthcare is shown in Cypress, California April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Banmedica operates health insurance, clinics and other services. UnitedHealth will offer 2,150 pesos per share and the two controlling shareholders of Banmedica will tender their combined 57 percent ownership, the U.S. company said in a regulatory filing. bit.ly/2Bm24tw The companies had signed a non-binding agreement in September. “We view international as a selective supplement to UNH’s growth, while the primary growth driver and M&A focus will be building out the vertical integration strategy with Optum (UnitedHealth’s unit) in the U.S.,” Evercore ISI analysts said in a note. Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/banmedica-m-a-unitedhealth/unitedhealth-to-buy-chiles-banmedica-for-2-8-billion-idINKBN1EG1T5'|'2017-12-22T17:23:00.000+02:00'
'2cde992fca6e220147fb5488cfe89103446f0a86'|'Global funds end boom year by raising stocks to 3-1/2-year high'|'December 22, 2017 / 12:12 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Global funds end boom year by raising stocks to three and a half year high Claire Milhench 6 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - After a bumper year in which world stock markets have repeatedly smashed records, global investors have raised their equity exposure even further, according to Reuters’ latest survey, which showed stocks jumping to 3-1/2-year highs. The monthly asset allocation poll of 51 wealth managers and chief investment officers in Europe, the United States, Britain and Japan also showed funds slashing their bond allocation to the lowest in over two years, anticipating rising interest rates amid a steady inflation uptick. The poll was conducted from Dec. 14 to 21, a period in which global equities .MIWD PUS hit another record high. Stocks have rallied around 21 percent this year helped by improving global growth, whilst a U.S. tax bill - finally passed in the dying days of 2017 - is expected to boost U.S. corporate profitability. The poll showed overall equity exposure rising 3.2 percentage points to 51.3 percent, the highest since July 2014, and up 5.5 percentage points since the start of 2016. But investors cut their bond holdings by 3.4 percentage points to 36.6 percent, the lowest level since October 2015. “Growth is steady and inflation is low; this makes stocks look attractive despite rising valuations,” said Trevor Greetham, head of multi-asset at Royal London Asset Management (RLAM). “Bonds remain an underweight, given the low level of yields and the likelihood of gradually rising interest rates.” INFLATION SPURT Some 64 percent of poll participants who answered a question on the U.S. Federal Reserve expect three interest rate rises in 2018, in line with the Fed’s own forecasts. But some fret that the Fed could be behind the curve and might find itself surprised by a sudden spurt in inflation. That could force it to tighten faster than the market expects. Currently two rate hikes are priced in for 2018. Mouhammed Choukeir, chief investment officer at Kleinwort Hambros, noted U.S. core consumer inflation was at 1.8 percent and unemployment at 4.1 percent, indicating a “razor thin” output gap. “Markets may well be missing the woods for the trees,” Choukeir said. “The ‘mystery’ of low inflation may prove not to be an enduring one,” he added, warning that incoming Fed chair Jerome Powell might overcompensate with “a roaring monetary correction”. Just under half of poll participants who answered a question on the European Central Bank (ECB) thought it would end its asset purchase programme by end-2018. “We expect the ECB to be surprised by higher-than-expected inflation in an environment of growth strongly above potential,” said Martin Wolburg, senior economist at Generali Investments. At its December meeting, the ECB stuck to its pledge to continue asset purchases for as long as necessary, despite better growth and inflation forecasts. But many thought it would not be able to maintain this stance much longer, especially with splits opening in the governing council. “The expansion in the European economy looks self-sustaining, barring a major external shock, and the hawks on the ECB will increasingly warn about future inflation risks, as well as the side effects of sustained quantitative easing on financial markets,” said Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Aberdeen Standard Investments. Within their global equity portfolios, investors raised their U.S. exposure by 2.5 percentage points to 40.8 percent, and their Japanese holdings to 18.9 percent, the highest since April 2016. Japanese stocks .TOPX are up 20 percent this year, thanks to faster economic growth and company earnings, while the cabinet has just endorsed a record $860 billion budget for 2018. POLITICAL RISK British stocks remained out of favour however, with Brexit uncertainties prompting funds to cut holdings by 2.5 percentage points in December to 8 percent, the lowest in at least five years. Euro zone equities too were cut by 1.8 percentage points to 17.8 percent, the lowest since April. European stocks have risen 8 percent this year after election-related political risks failed to materialise. But nearly 60 percent of poll participants who answered a special question, expected political risk to be higher in Europe next year than in the United States. Several respondents cited the upcoming Italian election, where eurosceptic parties are polling strongly. “That said, I do not think that those political risks are signficant. Contrary to 2017, political risks will no longer be at the forefront in 2018,” said Jan Bopp, an asset allocation strategist at J Safra Sarasin. Nearly a third opted for the United States, given the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, the November mid-term elections. “A desire to set the agenda could also see a more forceful White House on the international stage, raising the risk of military confrontation with North Korea,” said RLAM’s Greetham. (This version of the story refiles to remove alerts from text field.) Reporting by Claire Milhench and Maria Pia Quaglia; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-funds-poll-global/global-funds-end-boom-year-by-raising-stocks-to-3-1-2-year-high-idUKKBN1EG1C1'|'2017-12-22T14:04:00.000+02:00'
'82cf7a9ff7625d42e09091ce3a2647277df727e2'|'HNA''s gains Austrian nod for C-Quadrat takeover in respite from setbacks'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:00 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago HNA''s gains Austrian nod for C-Quadrat takeover in respite from setbacks Adam Jourdan 3 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - HNA Group’s plan to take a majority stake in Vienna-based C-Quadrat Investment AG ( C8I.VI ) has gained approval from Austrian regulators, a rare recent win for the acquisitive Chinese conglomerate amid rising global pushback on its deals. FILE PHOTO: Illustration photo of the HNA logo December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo HNA [HNAIRC.UL], which has announced acquisitions worth more than $50 billion in the past two years, has faced growing questions about its governance and ownership structure. Just this week, New Zealand blocked HNA’s $460 million purchase of a finance unit. C-Quadrat, worth some 226.9 million euros ($270 million) by market value, is the company through which HNA holds its near 10 percent stake in Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG ( DBKGn.DE ). The investment manager said in a filing late on Thursday that it had been informed that Austria’s Financial Market Authority had “no objections” to the deal. The deal, which still needs approval from the Central Bank of Armenia, would see HNA own 74.8 percent of a third company Cubic, which in turn will hold more than 98 percent of C-Quadrat, the Austrian firm said. HNA currently owns a smaller minority stake in C-Quadrat. HNA said in an emailed statement to Reuters that it had fully cooperated with the Austrian regulator in its review was very pleased by its decision to approve the deal. In New Zealand, the Overseas Investment Office cited lack of clarity over HNA’s ownership structure for the rejection of its plan to buy a vehicle finance firm owned by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group ( ANZ.AX ). In other setbacks, Swiss regulators last month found the group had failed to disclose that company executives held controlling stakes in the conglomerate in submissions relating to HNA’s $1.5 billion takeover in 2016 of Gategroup, the airline catering group. Earlier this month HNA was sued by Ness Technologies who accused it of failing to adequately answer questions in a U.S. review, thereby causing a $325 million deal between the two to fail. HNA said the lawsuit was “baseless”. HNA has also been facing questions over its finances. Last week, China Citic Bank Corp ( 601998.SS ) ( 0998.HK ) said HNA was “experiencing temporary liquidity difficulties”, including difficulty repaying a commercial acceptance bill pledged by Hainan Airlines Holding Co ( 600221.SS ), the conglomerate’s flagship carrier. HNA said in its response its cooperation with Citic Bank was “fully normal” and denied the group was facing any temporary liquidity difficulties or that there were any repayment delays. Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Additional reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-c-quadrat-m-a-hna/hnas-gains-austrian-nod-for-c-quadrat-takeover-in-respite-from-setbacks-idUKKBN1EG0BP'|'2017-12-22T06:00:00.000+02:00'
'1715e19a7dbb38194f139ba07c3797addbf95359'|'China needs to continue reducing financial leverage - central bank deputy governor'|'December 23, 2017 / 9:38 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago China needs to continue reducing financial leverage: central bank deputy governor Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China must proactively but gradually reduce debt in the economy to prevent the buildup of financial risks, state news agency Xinhua quoted China’s central bank’s deputy governor as saying on Saturday. FILE PHOTO: Yi Gang, deputy central bank governor of the People''s Bank of China, attends a news conference during the ongoing National People''s Congress (NPC), China''s parliament, in Beijing China March 10, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee Yi Gang made the comments at a meeting about China’s economy in Beijing, Xinhua said. “We have to resolutely fight the battle to prevent risks and first have to control overall leverage by proactively, safely and steadily deleveraging,” he said. China’s state planner in September said that the growth of China’s overall leverage ratio has clearly been slowing and is now stabilizing. However, ratings agency S&P Global Ratings has said that China’s attempts to reduce debt risks so far this year were not working as quickly as expected. A separate report on Saturday by Xinhua on how the country’s 2016 central government budget was spent illustrates the scale of the issue Beijing faces. Hu Zejun, head of the National Audit Office, said in the report a government-organized team had terminated or amended 25.35 billion yuan ($3.86 billion) worth of illegal local authority debts and was working on a program to resolve a further 28.37 billion yuan worth of debts. The country has launched policies aimed at reducing debt and leverage amid fears that such problems could derail the world’s second-largest economy if not handled properly. A statement issued on Wednesday after China’s annual economic conference, which is attended by China’s top leaders and keenly watched by investors for clues on policy priorities, however, made no mention of the need to lower corporate leverage, in contrast to last year’s readout. The state planner said in August that such efforts had elicited some results but that excessively high leverage ratios of Chinese firms had still not been reversed, with non-financial Chinese firms’ leverage ratios still the highest among the world’s top economies. Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-leverage/china-needs-to-continue-reducing-financial-leverage-central-bank-deputy-governor-idUKKBN1EH099'|'2017-12-23T12:06:00.000+02:00'
'8b3188a945674bc9e25e1849ec7e7a4f68ee964e'|'China closes more than 13,000 websites in past three years'|'December 24, 2017 / 6:31 AM / in 14 hours China closes more than 13,000 websites in past three years Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING, Dec 24 (Reuters) - China has closed more than 13,000 websites since the beginning of 2015 for breaking the law or other rules and the vast majority of people support government efforts to clean up cyberspace, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday. The government has stepped up already tight controls over the internet since President Xi Jinping took power five years ago, in what critics say is an effort to restrict freedom of speech and prevent criticism of the ruling Communist Party. The government says all countries regulate the internet, and its rules are aimed at ensuring national security and social stability and preventing the spread of pornography and violent content. A report to the on-going session of the standing committee of China’s largely rubber stamp parliament said the authorities had targeted pornography and violence in their sweeps of websites, blogs and social media accounts, Xinhua said. As well as the 13,000 websites shut down, almost 10 million accounts had also been closed by websites, it added. It did not give details but the accounts were likely on social media platforms. “Internet security concerns the party’s long-term hold on power, the country’s long-term peace and stability, socio-economic development and the people’s personal interests,” Xinhua said. More than 90 percent of people surveyed supported government efforts to manage the internet, with 63.5 percent of them believing that in recent years there has been an obvious reduction in harmful online content, it added. “These moves have a powerful deterrent effect,” Wang Shengjun, vice chairman of parliament’s standing committee, told legislators, according to Xinhua. Authorities including the Cyberspace Administration of China have called more than 2,200 websites operators for talks during the same period, he said. In addition, operators have closed nearly 10 million internet accounts for violating service protocol, while information on terrorism and pornography has been removed. China ushered in a tough cyber security law in June, following years of fierce debate around the controversial legislation that many foreign business groups fear will hit their ability to operate in the country. China maintains a strict censorship regime, banning access to many foreign news outlets, search engines and social media including Google and Facebook. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/china-internet/china-closes-more-than-13000-websites-in-past-three-years-idUSL4N1OO03A'|'2017-12-24T08:31:00.000+02:00'
'f2d8dddcc83131a173d6c2a848e953523f4f9b4b'|'Lockheed Martin wins $553 mln U.S. defense contract -pentagon'|'December 22, 2017 / 10:24 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago Lockheed Martin wins $553 mln U.S. defense contract -pentagon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp is being awarded a $553 million modification to a contract for Missile Defense Agency Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors and one-shot devices, the Pentagon said in a statement on Friday. (Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Eric Beech)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/lockheed-pentagon/lockheed-martin-wins-553-mln-u-s-defense-contract-pentagon-idUSW1N1NS01X'|'2017-12-23T00:19:00.000+02:00'
'70fe9433c1bf94cd890ea91bd713d9d8be2e9997'|'EasyJet says other airlines interested in feeder flights from Tegel'|'December 23, 2017 / 4:23 AM / Updated 10 hours ago EasyJet says other airlines interested in feeder flights from Tegel Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - EasyJet ( EZJ.L ) has been approached to provide feeder flights from Berlin’s Tegel airport for other airlines’ long-haul routes, the British budget carrier’s Europe managing director told a German newspaper. FILE PHOTO - EasyJet passengers line up at Nice Cote d''Azur airport as most of the flights are cancelled due to a storm in Nice, France, December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard EasyJet is taking over some of failed German airline Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel, covering leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft. It already operates at Berlin’s other airport, Schoenefeld. “We have already had very many enquiries from other airlines that want to use our flights as feeders,” daily Berliner Morgenpost quoted Thomas Haagensen as saying on Saturday. He did not provide details. FILE PHOTO - An Easy Jet plane prepares to land at Manchester Airport in Manchester northern England, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble Both easyJet and Ryanair ( RYA.I ) have been looking at so-called feeder flights to attract more customers, and have often said traditional carriers should use low-cost rivals to bring passengers to their hubs. EasyJet in September launched a new booking platform allowing customers to connect more easily onto long-haul flights by Norwegian Air Shuttle ( NWC.OL ) and WestJet ( WJA.TO ) at London Gatwick. Haagensen said easyJet had so far brought on board around 100 of the 1,000 Air Berlin crew it plans to recruit. Around 500 former Air Berlin staff are in the recruitment process and 300 of those are poised to sign contracts, he said. EasyJet in November agreed a deal with German trade union Verdi over job terms for former pilots and cabin crew of Air Berlin. Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Robin Pomeroy'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-m-a-easyjet/easyjet-says-other-airlines-interested-in-feeder-flights-from-tegel-idUKKBN1EH04W'|'2017-12-23T06:23:00.000+02:00'
'12b1b4c6ddecf1db83cee2230dd2855f98670ce0'|'Boeing wins $6.2 billion contract for F-15 aircraft for Qatar - Pentagon'|'December 22, 2017 / 10:18 PM / in 17 hours Boeing wins $6.2 billion contract for F-15 aircraft for Qatar - Pentagon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) has been awarded a $6.2 billion contract for 36 F-15 aircraft for Qatar’s air force, the Pentagon said in a statement on Friday. Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/boeing-pentagon/boeing-wins-6-2-billion-contract-for-f-15-aircraft-for-qatar-pentagon-idINKBN1EG2CO'|'2017-12-23T00:17:00.000+02:00'
'8576c65ea54b7b96993c086f27513c5469a2ce2d'|'Oil producers to discuss exit plans from cuts once market near balance: Russia'|'December 23, 2017 / 11:34 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Oil producers to discuss exit plans from cuts once market near balance: Russia Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Oil producers will discuss exit strategy for their deal on cutting output once the market moves closer towards being balanced, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in remarks published on Saturday. A general view shows the Taneco refinery complex, which is part of Russia''s oil producer Tatneft group of companies, in Nizhnekamsk, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, July 26, 2017. Picture taken July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin “We will talk about it as we get closer to the market rebalancing,” Novak was quoted as saying by Russia’s Interfax news agency. RIA news agency carried similar comments. Novak had said in an interview with Reuters this week that detailed talks on an exit strategy would only start when the markets approached balance. Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/russia-oil/oil-producers-to-discuss-exit-plans-from-cuts-once-market-near-balance-russia-idINKBN1EH0BB'|'2017-12-23T13:30:00.000+02:00'
'd23911adbe36703ddbdf2993d60382ee32c678b3'|'Mallinckrodt to buy Sucampo Pharmaceuticals for about $1.2 billion'|'December 26, 2017 / 12:11 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Mallinckrodt to buy Sucampo for about $840 million Tamara Mathias , Akankshita Mukhopadhyay 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Mallinckrodt Plc ( MNK.N ) said on Tuesday it would buy Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc ( SCMP.O ) for about $840 million (£628.8 million) to snap up constipation drug Amitiza and a clutch of experimental rare disease treatments, as it battles declining sales of its biggest drug, Acthar. Acthar, a treatment for infantile spasms and multiple sclerosis, contributes 42 percent to Mallinckrodt’s overall revenue. But the drug’s third-quarter sales of $308.7 million missed analysts’ estimates by $17.9 million, according to brokerage Stifel, and the company said it expected a further decline in the fourth quarter. Previously, Mallinckrodt came under fire for its exorbitant pricing of the drug, which had a price tag of over $34,000 in January. Mallinckrodt said on Tuesday it offered $18 per Sucampo share held, representing a premium of about 6 percent to the stock’s Friday close. The stock has gained about 14 percent since Dec. 6, a day before Bloomberg reported that Sucampo was considering selling itself after receiving takeover interest. Sucampo’s shares rose 5 percent in early trading, while Mallinckrodt was up 6 percent. “I‘m a little surprised that Mallinckrodt is the buyer,” Jason Kolbert, an analyst at Maxim Group, told Reuters, adding the deal value is disappointing to long-term investors in Sucampo, who were banking on the success of its pipeline. Sucampo is developing drugs for two rare genetic diseases, likely to command a high price if successful, as alternative treatments are sparse. However, analysts believe Mallinkrodt’s valuation of Sucampo seems to be principally based on the value of Amitiza. Sucampo’s management is “just grabbing a quick exit strategy” with the deal, Kolbert said. The equity value of the deal is based on 46.64 million outstanding Sucampo shares as per Thomson Reuters data. Including debt, the deal is valued at about $1.2 billion, the companies said. Mallinckrodt said it expects to fund the deal through borrowings under an existing revolving credit facility, a new secured term loan facility and cash on hand. Assuming a first-quarter 2018 close, Mallinckrodt said it expects the deal to add at least 30 cents per share to its 2018 adjusted earnings and at least double that amount in 2019. Deutsche Bank was Mallinckrodt’s financial adviser and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz its legal adviser. Jefferies LLC served as Sucampo’s financial adviser, while Cooley LLP was its legal adviser. Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-sucampo-m-a-malinckrodt/mallinckrodt-to-buy-sucampo-pharmaceuticals-for-about-1-2-billion-idUKKBN1EK0TS'|'2017-12-26T14:11:00.000+02:00'
'8970eef367c26007803093378f77426ba6c42588'|'RCom''s shares surge for second day on debt-reduction plan'|'December 27, 2017 / 6:51 AM / in 8 hours RCom''s shares jump again on debt plan but unclear if all creditors on board Promit Mukherjee , Tanvi Mehta 4 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Reliance Communications Ltd’s shares soared for a second straight day on Wednesday after the Indian wireless carrier detailed a plan to cut its hefty debt load but it was not immediately clear if all key creditors were on board. A logo of Reliance Group is seen at Reliance Center in Mumbai, December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui RCom, as the company is known, announced on Tuesday a plan to slash its debt by 390 billion rupees ($6.08 billion) underpinned by the sale of some of its spectrum, tower, fibre and real estate assets for which the company said it has already received some non-binding offers. Building on an earlier plan announced in October, RCom, which is backed by billionaire businessman Anil Ambani, said the new scheme would involve no write-offs by lenders or bondholders, nor conversion of debt to equity. The announcement triggered a 32 percent rally in its shares on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the shares soared a further 35 percent. RCom’s bond gains, though, were muted with the 6.5 percent bonds due 2020 up only slightly on Wednesday at 38.5/39.5 cents on the dollar from the previous day. RCom had a net debt of 450 billion rupees at the end of October, putting it among India’s most indebted companies. Rising competition, including the entry of start-up Jio - backed by Anil Ambani’s brother Mukesh - has trimmed margins in India’s telecom sector to wafer-thin levels. RCom had unveiled plans earlier this year to reduce debt but they came undone as asset sales failed to materialize. Pressure on the firm rose after it missed debt payments and some creditors such as China Development Bank (CDB) initiated insolvency proceedings. Whether the new plan succeeds will depend on creditors and bondholders signing off on it. Foreign lenders have supported the plan, Ambani said on Tuesday, though he did not say whether CDB had backed the plan. Anil Ambani, Chairman of India’s Reliance Communication, addresses a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Mumbai, December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui CDB did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. China’s ICBC and Exim Bank, both of whom are lenders to RCom, declined to comment on whether they are on board with the new RCom plan. Sources had told Reuters this month the two lenders were planning to support CDB in its insolvency petition. Major domestic creditors of RCom were not immediately reachable for comment. The Indian unit of Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson, which has filed an insolvency case to recover dues totalling 11.55 billion rupees ($180 million) from RCom and two of its units, has not been approached by RCom about its latest plan, a source close to the company said, adding it would not withdraw its case. “RCom has not approached us. Unless we have something concrete on the table from RCom, we will not withdraw the petition,” said the source, who did not want to be named as they are directly related to the matter and not authorised to speak to the media. The case is up for hearing on January 5. An email sent to Ericsson on Tuesday did not elicit a response. RCom is in the process of approaching its creditors and will do so in due course, an RCom spokesman said. ($1 = 64.1500 Indian rupees) Reporting by Promit Mukherjee in Mumbai and Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ma Rong in Beijing; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rcom-debt-stocks/rcoms-shares-surge-for-second-day-on-debt-reduction-plan-idINKBN1EL0BM'|'2017-12-27T08:50:00.000+02:00'
'1a87d2ff5a58d44e6665f1e137faf3a9440335c6'|'Aston Martin to recall over 5,000 vehicles in U.S. - safety agency'|'Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Reuters TV United States December 25, 2017 / 7:41 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Aston Martin to recall over 5,000 vehicles in U.S.: safety agency Karen Brettell 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British sportscar maker Aston Martin is recalling around 5,500 vehicles in the United States due to problems with powertrains and battery cables, according to documents posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) website. FILE PHOTO: The Aston Martin logo on the front of a car at a dealership in Singapore June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo The recalls are expected to begin on Feb. 1, 2018, and come as the owners of the carmaker made famous by fictional spy James Bond prepare for a stock market listing or sale of the company. The documents on the NHTSA website say Aston Martin is recalling 3,493 DB9, DBS, Rapide, Virage and Vanquish models that were made between 2009 and 2016 due to problems that can cause the transmission park pawl to not engage, which could make the vehicle roll and increase the risk of a crash. The Gaydon, England-based company is also recalling 1,953 DB9 and DBS vehicles manufactured between 2005 and 2009 because their battery supply cables can be damaged when the driver seat is in the full rearward location, which could ultimately increase the risk of a fire, the documents said. A spokesperson for the carmaker was not immediately available for comment. Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-astonmartin-recalls/aston-martin-to-recall-over-5000-vehicles-in-u-s-safety-agency-idUKKBN1EJ0UE'|'2017-12-25T21:38:00.000+02:00'
'2b26fbf060606dbbfc0a90af77f298363ee3269e'|'Air Berlin collapse added to Lufthansa''s Q4 revenues -CEO'|'December 22, 2017 / 11:05 PM / Updated 15 hours ago Air Berlin collapse added to Lufthansa''s fourth-quarter revenues - CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) expects the collapse of smaller peer Air Berlin to have helped add around 150 million euros to its fourth-quarter revenues, Chief Executive Carsten Spohr told a German newspaper. FILE PHOTO - Planes of German air carrier Lufthansa AG are seen on the tarmac at Frankfurt airport in Frankfurt, Germany, June 7, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo But he also said the added sales were offset by considerable additional costs, which he did not quantify, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Lufthansa added capacity after Air Berlin ceased flying in late October, for instance by using a 747 jumbo jet for the short flight between Frankfurt and Berlin to meet additional demand on that popular route. The German flagship carrier had planned to buy large parts of Air Berlin’s business when it was carved up, but it last week abandoned plans to buy Austrian unit Niki, which subsequently also filed for insolvency. According to Frankfurter Allgemeine, Lufthansa had already provided around 70 million euros in funding to Niki to keep its planes flying when antitrust concerns forced it to back out of the purchase. It stands a slim chance of recovering that money due to Niki’s insolvency. The administrators of Niki are currently in talks with possible buyers for the Austrian unit and aim to strike a deal by the end of next week. Reporting by Maria Sheahan, editing by G Crosse'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-lufthansa/air-berlin-collapse-added-to-lufthansas-q4-revenues-ceo-idUKKBN1EG2DK'|'2017-12-23T01:05:00.000+02:00'
'3fcc5cc387a71f3b37816e3dc9b37e88c15faf49'|'South Korea''s Hyundai Motor union rejects tentative wage deal'|' 20 AM / in 19 hours South Korea''s Hyundai Motor union rejects tentative wage deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co’s ( 005380.KS ) labor union said on Tuesday its members have rejected the tentative wage deal its leadership had agreed with management last week. The union in a statement said 50.2 percent of 45,008 voters rejected the deal as they deemed wage levels were inadequate compared with previous years’ agreements, whereas 48.2 percent accepted the terms. The remaining votes were invalid. The voting took place on Friday with a turnout of 88 percent, with the result tabulated early on Saturday. The union said it will do its best to reach a new tentative wage deal within the year. Hyundai Motor said it will continue to engage in discussions with the union and hopes for an amicable agreement at the earliest time. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-motor-pay/south-koreas-hyundai-motor-union-rejects-tentative-wage-deal-idUSKBN1EK00V'|'2017-12-26T02:19:00.000+02:00'
'706374ea6f26e2af894ae35b7febfeb61dde79db'|'The pots of gold at the east edge of London - Business - The Guardian'|'O n occasion, chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and high-end Mercedes can be seen navigating the roundabouts of an east London industrial estate squeezed between Europe’s largest sewage treatment plant and the remains of what were once the world’s largest gasworks.While the fancy cars are an incongruous sight in this Beckton industrial estate, the drivers have not lost their way. They pull up outside a nondescript blue and grey warehouse opposite a FedEx parcel collection hangar. The warehouse looks like all others on the estate, but on closer inspection it bristles with CCTV cameras, and the doors are surrounded by 12ft metal security barriers capable of stopping a truck.They come in here, they inspect them [gold bars] and caress themLorena Baird The rich are driven here to inspect their gold. “They come in here, they inspect [their gold bars] and caress them,” says Lorena Baird, executive director of Baird & Co, the UK’s only gold refinery, which has been operating quietly in east London for half a century. “Each customer has an individual box and we bring it to them here so they can see and feel their gold.”Baird, 50, says it is not just the super-rich who are turning to gold as a safe haven investment in this increasingly turbulent world. “Our customers can be anyone from a grandmother to a billionaire,” says Baird, who took the helm following the death of her husband, Tony Baird, who founded the company in 1967. “Whatever happens in the world, there’s one thing you can be certain about – people will still want to buy gold.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lorena Baird, executive director of the UK’s only gold refinery. Photograph: Jill Mead for the GuardianEvery time there’s a major global event, the price of gold sparks and the phones in Baird’s warehouse ring. The last time the price rose significantly was last month when the US president, Donald Trump, warned North Korea not to “try us” .“North Korea, Brexit, whenever something big happens, it is reflected in the [gold] price,” Baird says. “Gold is a hedge against inflation; gold is the safe haven.”There is gold everywhere in the Baird warehouse, where pawned jewellery is melted down and refined into fresh gold bars. As well as producing gold bars, the company also makes gold sovereigns, 50,000 rings a year and collectables on demand. In 2013, Cadbury commissioned Baird to make 18-carat gold replicas of its most popular chocolate bars , which were given away to customers à la Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pawned gold is bought in and purified. Photograph: Jill Mead for the GuardianAs well as producing gold, platinum and rhodium (a silvery white metal in the platinum family which is rare and more expensive than gold), the company holds the nation’s biggest private gold vault. Baird says she is unable to state how much gold is on the premises for security reasons, but it is hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth.Most of the gold is formed into 1,000-gram bars stamped with Baird’s seal and kept in the vault. A gold bar is much smaller than you might expect – thinner and shorter than an iPhone 6, but much, much heavier. A very satisfying weight.Baird’s bars, she says, are actually slightly heavier than the 1,000-gram standard as the company prides itself on the quality of its bars and can’t risk a customer bringing their own scales and catching the firm out. How much, heavier? Like a gram? Baird bursts out laughing. “No!” Each gram of 24-carat gold is worth £27.93 at the time of writing, and none of it is wasted.“Don’t sneeze,” Baird warns at one point as she shows the Guardian the full process of how trays of broken, discarded pawnbroker jewellery of varying quality are transformed into a new bar of ultra-fine gold. It is impossible to achieve 100% purity and 99.99% is the closest refiners can get. The purity needed for 24-carat designation is 99.95%.The bucket of brown sand she is holding contains 6kg of gold (worth about £160,000). It is the product of Baird’s “Willy Wonka” refining process, which converts jewellery that arrives with an average gold content of 37% to the 99.9% purity product.It’s a multi-stage process involving heating the gold up to 1,200C or more and mixing it with a lot of acid. Parts of the process, carried out by Baird’s 62 employees dressed in blue overalls, have changed little since the ancient Egyptians invented it.Facebook Twitter PinterestDespite the intense industrial processes, Baird says waste water leaving the factory is cleaner than the drinking water coming out of its taps. Any incoming gold that contains cadmium, mercury or other toxic metal is rejected. The firm employs a chemist to analyse the molecular makeup of all gold shipments coming in and all waste leaving.Under almost every machine is what looks like a cat litter tray. But there are no factory cats (the Guardian’s photographer inquired just to make sure). The trays are there to absorb any waste water leaking out of the machine, because the water is likely to contain enough gold to be worth keeping. “There is gold everywhere. It is in the air,” Baird says.To keep as much gold in the building as possible, workers are asked to take off their overalls at the in-house laundry before they go home. The laundry is equipped with regular looking washing machines, but the waste water is pumped through filters to capture any gold particles. There are also filters attached to all the ventilation shafts.“At the end of the year all of the filters are collected together and burned,” Baird says. “Everything is ‘deep cleaned’ and burned, all of the filters and all of the doormats both inside the refinery and throughout the office.” Last year the company retrieved £15,000 worth of gold from the deep clean.• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Gold Commodities features'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/26/the-pots-of-gold-at-the-east-edge-of-london'|'2017-12-26T18:23:00.000+02:00'
'8d24887b50c5974c73d9aa5818f3e914007f8c5d'|'China regulator summons founder of debt-laden LeEco back to China'|'December 26, 2017 / 3:37 AM / Updated 9 hours ago China regulator summons founder of debt-laden LeEco back to China Reuters Staff 3 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s securities regulator has formally ordered the founder of indebted tech conglomerate LeEco to return to China and sort out a mounting debt pile linked to his firms, ramping up pressure on the head of the embattled entertainment-to-autos group. FILE PHOTO: Jia Yueting, co-founder and head of Le Holdings Co Ltd, also known as LeEco and formerly as LeTV, poses for a photo in front of a logo of his company after a Reuters interview at LeEco headquarters in Beijing, China April 22, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo The Beijing branch of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a notice late on Monday that LeEco Chief Executive Jia Yueting must return to China before Dec. 31 to “fulfil his obligation” and protect investors’ rights. LeEco, an entertainment, electronics and electric vehicles group founded by Jia, has struggled to pay its debts after rapid expansion into multiple sectors sparked a cash crunch, a plunge in the shares of a listed unit and led to multiple defaults. The watchdog said it had previously asked Jia to return to China in September, but since then had not seen any action taken by the LeEco founder to comply. It did not specify where Jia was, although he has business interests in the United States. “Firms you control owe huge amounts to listed companies, which has not yet been returned,” the CSRC said. “This behaviour seriously harms the legal rights of listed firms and the personal interests of a wide range of investors.” A spokeswoman for LeEco’s main listed unit Leshi ( 300104.SZ ) said Jia’s personal behaviour would not have a major impact on the listed company’s overall operations and his ties with the firm were no longer that close. Jia stepped down as CEO of Leshi in May, but remains the head of parent LeEco. Reuters could not immediately reach Jia for comment. Earlier this month, Jia was placed on an official blacklist of debt defaulters, a move taken by Chinese courts to put pressure on people and entities to repay debts. The recent troubles underscore an abrupt fall from grace of one of China’s most prominent entrepreneurs, who created a tech empire ranging from a Netflix-like online content platform to a smart-car unit looking to rival Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ). Jia expanded his business from its video-streaming roots 13 years ago to include telephones, televisions and cars, and had even looked to push into the United States. At its peak, LeEco owed creditors 10 billion yuan ($1.53 billion). Last week, Hong Kong media reported that a local unit of LeEco, LE Corporation Limited, had filed a petition to the territory’s high court to wind up the company. Reporting by Adam Jourdan and SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-leeco-debt/china-regulator-summons-founder-of-debt-laden-leeco-back-to-china-idUKKBN1EK07A'|'2017-12-26T05:36:00.000+02:00'
'9ecb30970b7071b7f189029fcaed734c6163d013'|'Uber working on deal to sell Xchange Leasing to Fair - source'|'December 26, 2017 / 11:45 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Uber working on deal to sell Xchange Leasing to Fair - source Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Ride-hailing company Uber is working on a deal to sell its U.S. auto-leasing business Xchange Leasing to startup digital car marketplace Fair, according to a person familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO: A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain, November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said in September it was shutting down the auto-leasing business, which had heavy losses. Over the last few months Xchange Leasing has started to unwind the business, which was started to lease new cars to Uber drivers, selling cars at auction. The net book value of Xchange Leasing’s more than 30,000 vehicles was roughly $400 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal with Fair on Tuesday. The newspaper in August said that Uber was losing roughly $9,000 a car, 18 times more than previously believed. As of August, Xchange Leasing had about 14 showrooms in the United States, Reuters previously reported. Fair and Uber both declined to comment on Tuesday. Uber launched Xchange Leasing in 2015 in a bid to attract new drivers who could not otherwise afford a car because of spotty or poor credit. Xchange Leasing offered more flexible return and mileage limit policies than traditional car leases. However, many Uber drivers complained of Xchange Leasing’s predatory practices, saying that exorbitant rates forced them to drive full time just to cover the cost of the car, with little or no profit left over. The Wall Street Journal reported that Fair will offer jobs to about 150 of the 500 or so employees at Xchange Leasing. Fair, based in Southern California, founded in 2016, matches customers with cars based on what they are able to pay each month. Customers get approved and pay for their car through Fair, which owns the vehicle, and pick up the car at a dealership. They can keep the car as long as they want. As part of the deal, expected to close early next year, Uber will offer potential drivers in the United States access to Fair to lease a car, the Journal reported. Uber is eyeing an initial public offering in 2019, and is looking to pare its losses under the leadership of Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who took the job in August, and chief operating officer Barney Harford, who starts next month. Uber lost $1.46 billion in the third quarter this year, up from $1.06 billion in the previous quarter. Reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-leasing/uber-to-sell-u-s-auto-leasing-business-to-fair-com-wsj-idUKKBN1EK0R0'|'2017-12-26T22:31:00.000+02:00'
'707c3d6fbeeb36631e35372bc92e403ac65129d3'|'Oil near June 2015 high as production cuts tighten market'|'December 26, 2017 / 7:04 AM / Updated 4 hours ago Oil hits 2-1/2 year highs on Libyan pipeline blast Devika Krishna Kumar 4 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices touched two-and-a-half year highs in light volume on Tuesday, boosted by an explosion on a crude pipeline in Libya and voluntary OPEC-led supply cuts. Libya has lost around 90,000 bpd of crude oil from a blast on a pipeline feeding Es Sider port, a Libyan oil source said, adding that NOC was still assessing the damage. A Libyan military source said earlier that armed men had planted explosives at the pipeline. The country’s output had been recovering in recent months after being held down for years by conflict and unrest. Brent crude LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose $1.51, or 2.31 percent, to $66.76 a barrel by 11:40 a.m. (1640 GMT.) Prices hit a session high of $66.83 a barrel, the highest since late May 2015. U.S. crude CLc1 climbed $1.29, or 2.21 percent, to $59.76 a barrel after touching a session high of $59.86, the highest since late June 2015. The impending restart of a key North Sea pipeline, Forties, limited the rally. The pipeline is being tested after repairs and full flows should resume in early January, its operator said on Monday. “Keep in mind that the field and pipeline are old and it may have issues and it’s probably why the market isn’t selling off,” said Scott Shelton, broker at ICAP in Durham, North Carolina. Trading activity was thin because of the Christmas holiday in many countries. Just 50,000 contracts of front-month Brent crude futures changed hands on Tuesday, well below the typical daily average of more than 250,000 contracts. Brent has risen 17 percent while U.S. crude has rallied about 11 percent in 2017. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and other non-members, have been withholding some output since Jan. 1 to get rid of a glut. The producers have extended the supply cut agreement to cover all of 2018. Iraq’s oil minister said on Monday there would be a balance between supply and demand by the first quarter, leading to a boost in prices. Global oil inventories have decreased to an acceptable level, he added. That is earlier than predicted in OPEC’s latest official forecast, which calls for a balanced market by late 2018. [OPEC/M] U.S. shipments to China, one of the biggest oil consumers in the world, have benefited from the OPEC-led output cuts. Russia, however, was China’s largest crude oil supplier for the ninth month in a row in November, also topping Saudi Arabia for the year so far, Chinese customs data showed on Tuesday. While the OPEC action has lent support to prices all year, the unplanned shutdown of the Forties pipeline on Dec. 11 pushed Brent to its 2-1/2 year high. Forties is the biggest of the five North Sea crude streams underpinning Brent, the benchmark for oil trading in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Still, rising production in the United States is offsetting some of the OPEC-led cuts. The U.S. rig count RIG-OL-USA-BHI, an early indicator of future output, held at 747 in the week to Dec. 22, according to the latest weekly report by Baker Hughes. To view a graphic on U.S. oil production and rig drilling click on this link reut.rs/2C9dOTU Additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Henning Gloystein; Editing by John Stonestreet and Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-near-june-2015-high-as-production-cuts-tighten-market-idUSKBN1EK0DW'|'2017-12-26T09:03:00.000+02:00'
'8d86323253bfcdc0cb9a4ca426d52fdf31d71554'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX climbs on rally in energy, metal mining shares'|'December 27, 2017 / 2:57 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX climbs on rally in energy, metal mining shares Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TORONTO, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index edged higher on Wednesday as a recent rally in commodity prices helped boost the shares of energy and metal mining companies. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 22.96 points, or 0.14 percent, to 16,188.23, shortly after the open. Five of the index’s 10 main groups were higher. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Bernadette Baum)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-open/canada-stocks-tsx-climbs-on-rally-in-energy-metal-mining-shares-idUSL1N1OR0I9'|'2017-12-27T16:53:00.000+02:00'
'be4deead0cd79c066ce9db372b7fe5ddadaed5b2'|'Airlines can''t blame computer models for higher fares, German cartel chief says'|'December 28, 2017 / 7:50 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago Airlines can''t blame computer models for higher fares, German cartel chief says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Airlines shouldn’t be allowed to hide behind computer-based models when justifying higher fares, the head of the German cartel office said in an interview published on Thursday, as authorities review allegations of a recent spike in prices. FILE PHOTO - A Lufthansa airliner parks next to the Air Berlin aircraft at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke In November, the cartel office asked national airline Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) for information on prices after receiving complaints about rising fares following the collapse of Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), Germany’s second largest carrier. Lufthansa said at the time it was cooperating fully with the cartel office and had not changed its pricing structures, which comprise up to 26 different fares per flight and were automatically determined by software. “Such algorithms aren’t written by god in the heavens,” Andreas Mundt told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. “Companies can’t hide behind algorithms.” A Lufthansa spokesman said on Thursday the airline hadn’t increased fares on domestic flights or flights within in Europe in more than a year. He added the insolvency of Air Berlin had eliminated 100 planes and 60,000 seats a day. “As a result, available flights are booked more quickly,” he said. “It can be the case that with booking at short notice on some routes that only relatively more expensive booking classes are available.” Lufthansa’s chief executive, Carsten Spohr, addressed the cartel office investigation in a recent interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, saying the airline would be absolved of any wrongdoing. “It is good because in the process of the investigation it will be determined that we aren’t taking advantage of any short-term dominant market position,” Spohr was quoted as saying. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-airlines-pricing/airlines-shouldnt-justify-fare-hikes-with-algorithms-german-cartel-chief-says-idUKKBN1EM0KX'|'2017-12-28T11:26:00.000+02:00'
'f19c07df5259789273eccc2c9720af10585d3202'|'U.S. apartment vacancy rate up slightly in fourth quarter: Reis'|'(Reuters) - The U.S. apartment vacancy rate increased marginally in the fourth quarter from the third as supply exceeded demand, according to a report from Reis Inc.The national apartment vacancy rate rose to 4.5 percent from 4.4 percent, the real estate research firm said.Vacancy rates increased in 50 of 79 metros, with New York City and Washington, DC hitting their highest-ever rates of 5.1 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively, the report said.Reis said it expects vacancies to rise in 2018 before tapering off in 2019 as projects slated for completion will continue at least over the next 12 months.Construction fell to 43,769 units in the fourth quarter from 60,890 units in the preceding quarter, with net absorption falling to 31,554 units from 48,545 units, the report said.Asking rents edged 0.4 percent higher and effective rent grew 0.3 percent, the Reis report said.They increased 3.9 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, year-over-year, according to the report.Reporting by Pranav Kiran in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/property-usa-apartment/u-s-apartment-vacancy-rate-up-slightly-in-fourth-quarter-reis-idINKBN1EM0D8'|'2017-12-28T08:11:00.000+02:00'
'589680690cbebcd7e3069b448cd8e8ad5682d87c'|'RPT-Brexit spurs near doubling of UK domestic deal-making'|'(Repeats story without change to text)* Volume of UK domestic M&A jumps to $68 billion in 2017* Inbound and outbound UK deal volumes slip* Companies bulking up to counter uncertaintyBy Ben MartinLONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Companies seeking to “bulk up” to offset the uncertainty caused by Britain’s looming EU exit helped to spur a near doubling of domestic mergers and acquisition activity this year, according to Thomson Reuters data.The volume of UK domestic deals surged to $68 billion from $34.3 billion in 2016 as the number of deals between British groups jumped from 1,480 to 1,681, the highest level since 2008, the data show.They included online gambling company GVC’s purchase of bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral for as much as 3.9 billion pounds ($5.24 billion) and Hammerson’s 3.4 billion pound acquisition of rival shopping centre operator Intu Properties.It comes against a backdrop of often fractious Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels this year, talks that are yet to provide businesses with clarity about Britain’s future relationship with Europe.Bosses at British companies have also been eyeing new U.S. President Donald Trump, whose decisions have repercussions for businesses around the world.“At the beginning of 2017 there were a lot of questions about what was going to happen to the M&A market, given the global uncertainty caused by Brexit and the new U.S. president,” said Nick Cline, a London-based M&A partner at law firm Latham & Watkins, who said the uncertain environment had acted as a driver for some deals rather than stifling activity.“There are a lot of corporates out there in the UK and Europe who are seeing the changing landscape and as a result are even more focused on what they’re going to do to be tomorrow’s leaders.”The jump in domestic deal-making contrasted with falls in both inbound and outbound UK M&A volumes, the data show, with the former slipping 12.9 percent to $115.1 billion and the latter down 9.4 percent to $112.5 billion.That meant overall M&A volumes with any UK involvement dipped 0.7 percent to $375 billon, a softer decline than the 1.4 percent slide in global deal volumes to $3.5 trillion, according to the data.DEARTH OF BLOCKBUSTER DEALS Philip Noblet, HSBC’s co-head of global banking in the UK, said that “a lot of the obvious sector consolidation deals that people expected to happen” were struck this year and were “driven by the Brexit climate which is prompting companies to bulk up”.However, a dearth of blockbuster deals meant that overall M&A volumes involving any British companies remained much lower than in 2015, when they totalled $605.5 billion, swelled by Anheuser-Busch Inbev’s $110 billion acquisition of FTSE 100 brewer SABMiller and Royal Dutch Shell’s $53 billion tie-up with BG Group.“It’s hard to see how any more of the really big deals are going to happen going forward without there being quite significant competition issues,” said Noblet.Kraft Heinz’s $143 billion attempt to buy consumer goods giant Unilever in February, which would have been one such megadeal, failed within days when the U.S. food company walked away after the FTSE 100 business rejected its offer.Potential British government scrutiny of the deal was a concern raised during talks between the two companies, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time.Since Theresa May became prime minister in July 2016, Britain has taken a more cautious approach towards foreign acquisitions of British assets.In October, the government proposed new rules to give it more say over deals in the defence and technology sectors, although Cline said the government’s change of tack had not represented “a step-change this year in the way the UK looks at deals”.He said: ”Occasionally a transaction comes up where there’s a question about UK government intervention.”Cline forecasts that British M&A activity will remain strong in 2018, while Jan Skarbek, managing director of UK banking and broking at Citigroup, also thinks there will be an increase.“Organic growth is very difficult in this environment and staying still is not an option for many companies,” he said. “So I think there will be more deals next year, despite the geopolitical uncertainty.” ($1 = 0.7446 pounds) (Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-ma/rpt-brexit-spurs-near-doubling-of-uk-domestic-deal-making-idINL8N1OS1TY'|'2017-12-29T05:04:00.000+02:00'
'61e402b108d785dc63ba7f2b4bf053db2b336b74'|'Brexit spurs near doubling of UK domestic deal-making'|'* Volume of UK domestic M&A jumps to $68 billion in 2017* Inbound and outbound UK deal volumes slip* Companies bulking up to counter uncertaintyBy Ben MartinLONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Companies seeking to “bulk up” to offset the uncertainty caused by Britain’s looming EU exit helped to spur a near doubling of domestic mergers and acquisition activity this year, according to Thomson Reuters data.The volume of UK domestic deals surged to $68 billion from $34.3 billion in 2016 as the number of deals between British groups jumped from 1,480 to 1,681, the highest level since 2008, the data show.They included online gambling company GVC’s purchase of bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral for as much as 3.9 billion pounds ($5.24 billion) and Hammerson’s 3.4 billion pound acquisition of rival shopping centre operator Intu Properties.It comes against a backdrop of often fractious Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels this year, talks that are yet to provide businesses with clarity about Britain’s future relationship with Europe.Bosses at British companies have also been eyeing new U.S. President Donald Trump, whose decisions have repercussions for businesses around the world.“At the beginning of 2017 there were a lot of questions about what was going to happen to the M&A market, given the global uncertainty caused by Brexit and the new U.S. president,” said Nick Cline, a London-based M&A partner at law firm Latham & Watkins, who said the uncertain environment had acted as a driver for some deals rather than stifling activity.“There are a lot of corporates out there in the UK and Europe who are seeing the changing landscape and as a result are even more focused on what they’re going to do to be tomorrow’s leaders.”The jump in domestic deal-making contrasted with falls in both inbound and outbound UK M&A volumes, the data show, with the former slipping 12.9 percent to $115.1 billion and the latter down 9.4 percent to $112.5 billion.That meant overall M&A volumes with any UK involvement dipped 0.7 percent to $375 billon, a softer decline than the 1.4 percent slide in global deal volumes to $3.5 trillion, according to the data.DEARTH OF BLOCKBUSTER DEALS Philip Noblet, HSBC’s co-head of global banking in the UK, said that “a lot of the obvious sector consolidation deals that people expected to happen” were struck this year and were “driven by the Brexit climate which is prompting companies to bulk up”.However, a dearth of blockbuster deals meant that overall M&A volumes involving any British companies remained much lower than in 2015, when they totalled $605.5 billion, swelled by Anheuser-Busch Inbev’s $110 billion acquisition of FTSE 100 brewer SABMiller and Royal Dutch Shell’s $53 billion tie-up with BG Group.“It’s hard to see how any more of the really big deals are going to happen going forward without there being quite significant competition issues,” said Noblet.Kraft Heinz’s $143 billion attempt to buy consumer goods giant Unilever in February, which would have been one such megadeal, failed within days when the U.S. food company walked away after the FTSE 100 business rejected its offer.Potential British government scrutiny of the deal was a concern raised during talks between the two companies, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time.Since Theresa May became prime minister in July 2016, Britain has taken a more cautious approach towards foreign acquisitions of British assets.In October, the government proposed new rules to give it more say over deals in the defence and technology sectors, although Cline said the government’s change of tack had not represented “a step-change this year in the way the UK looks at deals”.He said: ”Occasionally a transaction comes up where there’s a question about UK government intervention.”Cline forecasts that British M&A activity will remain strong in 2018, while Jan Skarbek, managing director of UK banking and broking at Citigroup, also thinks there will be an increase.“Organic growth is very difficult in this environment and staying still is not an option for many companies,” he said. “So I think there will be more deals next year, despite the geopolitical uncertainty.” ($1 = 0.7446 pounds) (Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-ma/brexit-spurs-near-doubling-of-uk-domestic-deal-making-idINL8N1OS1FV'|'2017-12-28T21:03:00.000+02:00'
'8cfedfbb27a7a60b6472aab8c750760edf58923f'|'TREASURIES-Bonds steady before New Year, busy data week ahead'|'* Busy week of data expected in the new year * Five-year yields have largest annual increase since 2013 * Bond market to close early before New Year''s Day holiday By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Most U.S. Treasuries were little changed on Friday with many investors and traders out ahead of Monday’s New Year''s Day holiday, before a heavy week of data due in the new year. Trading volumes have been light this week, with the market focused mostly on $88 billion in new short and intermediate-dated supply, which was sold to mostly below average demand. The economic calendar was light this week, though data next week will include numerous manufacturing and service sector releases in addition to the employment report for December. The data and any news around efforts by the Trump administration to boost growth will be evaluated for their outlook for the economy and how many rate increases are likely during the year. “Next week will be very busy,” analysts at NatWest Markets wrote in a note on Friday. “There is a ton of top tier data out as well as the potential for political news if Trump kicks the year off with a strong drive for infrastructure spending.” Short- and intermediate-dated notes, which are highly sensitive to interest rate increases, have underperformed this year as investors priced in expectations of improving economic momentum. Five-year note yields are on track for their largest annual increase since 2013 with a 16 percent rise to 2.23 percent. Two-year note yields have risen 58 percent during the year, their largest increase since 2014, to 1.90 percent. The yield curve between two-year and 10-year notes fell to 50 basis points on Wednesday, the flattest level since Oct. 2007. The Federal Reserve has indicated that an additional three increases are likely next year, though interest rate futures traders are pricing in only two. The U.S. central bank will release minutes from its December meeting, when it raised rates for the third time this year, on Wednesday. An uptick in Treasury supply, which is expected to initially be concentrated in bills and shorter-dated notes, is also a key focus for investors as the U.S. Treasury makes up for declining bond purchases by the Fed. The bond market will close early on Friday at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) and will be closed on Monday for the New Year''s Day holiday. (Reporting by Karen Brettell; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) ) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-bonds/treasuries-bonds-steady-before-new-year-busy-data-week-ahead-idINL1N1OT0JE'|'2017-12-29T11:09:00.000+02:00'
'7cc75b23e0bf3256b54966dbe9d32c180f06310a'|'Bitcoin rises 10 percent, recovers from last week''s brutal selloff'|'December 26, 2017 / 5:29 AM / in 35 minutes Bitcoin recovers some losses after its worst week since 2013 Vidya Ranganathan , Lisa Twaronite , Richard Leong 3 Min Read SINGAPORE/TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin rose 15 percent on Tuesday, recouping about half of the losses it sustained last week, its worst since 2013, as investors who had missed out on earlier rallies bought the world’s biggest and best-known digital currency. While bitcoin investors and analysts believe last week’s decline in its value was a natural correction after a heady run-up in prices, there have been further warnings from market regulators and central banks. Bitcoin fell nearly 30 percent at one stage on Friday to $11,159.93. At 3:09 p.m. (2009 GMT) on Tuesday, bitcoin BTC=BTSP was up 15 percent at $16,030 in light trading on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. “The latest price move shows bitcoin is still a speculative investment. There is enormous amount of volatility there,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist with Invesco in New York. The digital currency had risen around twentyfold since the start of the year, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,666 on Dec. 17 on Bitstamp and to over $20,000 on other exchanges. “There is no right current price which would reflect the right current valuation,” said Andrei Popescu, Singapore-based co-founder of COSS, which describes itself as a platform that encompasses all features of a digital economy based on cryptocurrency. FILE PHOTO: Broken representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency, placed on a monitor that displays binary digits, are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo “Taking profit is right, while buying into a long term projection is also right. You don’t have to be right in this market, just less wrong than the rest,” Popescu said. Critics have pointed to bitcoin’s design flaws and hacks of digital “wallets” in which bitcoins are kept as an alternative to traditional currencies. “We therefore think that bitcoin is a product that is unable to fulfil the basic functions it is meant to fulfil. We therefore think it is likely a bubble, that will eventually fade, as other cryptocurrencies will take over,” Citi analysts wrote in a research published on Friday. Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority, was the latest among regulators to voice his concerns. He said on Monday he will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Singapore’s central bank last week issued a warning against investment in cryptocurrencies, saying it considers the recent surge in prices to be driven by speculation and that the risk of a sharp fall in prices is high. Prices of other cryptocurrencies, which slid along with bitcoin last week, have also recovered, with Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market size, quoted around $771, up from Sunday’s low of $689 but still far from highs around $900 hit last week. Editing by Susan Thomas and Sandra Maler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-bitcoin/bitcoin-rises-10-percent-recovers-from-last-weeks-brutal-selloff-idUSKBN1EK0AJ'|'2017-12-26T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'b20a7e92765651e10ec5b35ef6d810424278e84a'|'Real estate mogul Saidoff offers to buy Israel''s Eurocom - source'|'December 25, 2017 / 10:22 AM / in 4 hours Real estate mogul Saidoff offers to buy Israel''s Eurocom - source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S.-Israeli businessman Naty Saidoff has offered to buy holding group Eurocom, which controls Bezeq Israel Telecom, a source said on Monday, confirming media reports, though any deal would need approval of banks owed money by Eurocom. Eurocom’s chairman, Shaul Elovitch, who is being investigated by Israeli authorities for possible fraud and financial reporting offences, is under pressure to sell Eurocom, which is laden with nearly 1 billion shekels ($290 million) in debt. Elovitch has denied any wrongdoing. Eurocom’s holdings include a controlling 26 percent stake in Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecoms group, and satellite operator Spacecom. Saidoff, a real estate mogul who founded California-based Capital Foresight, has put in a bid to take over Eurocom, according a source familiar with the matter, who gave no further details. Officials at Eurocom were not available for immediate comment. Multiple Israeli financial news outlets reported that the offer includes Saidoff injecting 350-400 million shekels into Eurocom and the banks agreeing to forgive 400 million shekels of debt. Bank Hapoalim and Israel Discount which are among those owed money by Eurocom declined to comment on the report. Bezeq said on Sunday a court has allowed it to join the group of banks that are petitioning to break up and liquidate Eurocom in the hopes of recovering 119 million shekels. The court is due to discuss the case later in the day. ($1 = 3.4811 shekels)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurocom-m-a/real-estate-mogul-saidoff-offers-to-buy-israels-eurocom-source-idINKBN1EJ0GU'|'2017-12-25T12:17:00.000+02:00'
'1f681decfa1ca12a41d88693bd5fb0565672ce8b'|'New York''s vanishing shops and storefronts: ''It''s not Amazon, it''s rent'' - Business - The Guardian'|'Business New York''s vanishing shops and storefronts: ''It''s not Amazon, it''s rent'' Vacant storefronts are becoming more noticeable in the capital of consumption, as small retailers are being pushed out by wealthy investors Vacant retail space in the New York neighborhood of Chelsea. Thousands of small retailers have been replaced by national chains. Photograph: Richard Levine/Corbis via Getty Images Business New York''s vanishing shops and storefronts: ''It''s not Amazon, it''s rent'' Vacant storefronts are becoming more noticeable in the capital of consumption, as small retailers are being pushed out by wealthy investors Edward Helmore in New York Sun 24 Dec ‘17 09.00 GMT Last modified on Sun 24 Dec ‘17 09.01   W alk down almost any major New York street – say Fifth Avenue near Trump Tower, or Madison Avenue from midtown to the Upper East Side. Perhaps venture down Canal Street, or into the West Village around Bleecker, and some of the most expensive retail areas in the world are blitzed with vacant storefronts. The famed Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on the Upper West Side announced earlier this week that it is closing next month. A blow to the city’s cinephiles, certainly, but also a sign of the effects that rapid gentrification, coupled with technological innovation, are having on the city. Over the past several years, thousands of small retailers have closed, replaced by national chains. When they, too, fail, the stores lie vacant, and landlords, often institutional investors, are unwilling to drop rents. ''For too long, they have generated harm'': the fight to remove offensive monuments in New York Read more A recent survey by New York councilmember Helen Rosenthal found 12% of stores on one stretch of the Upper West Side is unoccupied and ‘for lease’. The picture is repeated nationally. In October, the US surpassed the previous record for store closings, set after the 2008 financial crisis. The common refrain is that the devastation is the product of a profound shift in consumption to online, with Amazon frequently identified as the leading culprit. But this is maybe an over-simplification. “It’s not Amazon, it’s rent,” says Jeremiah Moss, author of the website and book Vanishing New York . “Over the decades, small businesses weathered the New York of the 70s with it near-bankruptcy and high crime. Businesses could survive the internet, but they need a reasonable rent to do that.” Part of the problem is the changing make-up of New York landlords. Many are no longer mom-and-pop operations, but institutional investors and hedge funds that are unwilling to drop rents to match retail conditions. “They are running small businesses out of the city and replacing them with chain stores and temporary luxury businesses,” says Moss. In addition, he says, banks will devalue a property if it’s occupied by a small business, and increase it for a chain store. “There’s benefit to waiting for chain stores. If you are a hedge fund manager running a portfolio you leave it empty and take a write-off.” New York is famously a city of what author EB White called “tiny neighborhood units” is his classic 1949 essay Here is New York. White observed “that many a New Yorker spends a lifetime within the confines of an area smaller than a country village”. In Vanishing New York, Moss writes of the toll the evisceration of distinct neighborhoods through real estate over-pricing has on the city. “It’s homogenizing and changing the character of the city,” he says. Even where landlords are offering competitive leases, they are often for two or five years, not the customary 10. “We’re seeing more stores front emptying, and we’re seeing a lot of turnover where you see spaces fill temporarily and then empty. And it’s continuing to get worse,” he says. Shoppers in the financial district in New York. Photograph: Kevin Clogstoun/Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images In business terms, the crisis in commercial real estate has led to a wave of consolidations. Earlier this month, France’s Unibail-Rodamco and Australia’s Westfield agreed to merge in a deal worth $24.7bn to form the world’s second-biggest owner of shopping malls, including Manhattan’s Brookfield Place. Vacant real estate is not the only effect of an over-priced market; the boom in WeWork, a work-space company valued at around $20bn, and store pop-ups could also be responsible. But some believe the market could have reached a turning point. “It’s like Hunger Games,” says New York retail property agent Robin Zendell. “If you’re smart and innovative you can survive this market. Landlords and retailers are having to listen to a new generation of shoppers.” Like Moss, Zendell believes it’s too simplistic to blame Amazon. The same signals of over-pricing are seen in every area of real estate, including housing. “When you see [that] every corner has a bank or a pharmacy, and there is a gym on the second floor, there’s a simple reason for that: people can’t afford the rent. Hard times for Whole Foods: ''People say it''s for pretentious people. I can see why'' Read more “Why did restaurants go to Brooklyn? Because it’s cool? No, because it was cheap, and [because] restaurateurs were sick of giving investors’ money away so they could pay thir rent.” In some areas, notably Bleecker Street, once lined with fashion boutiques including Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs, too many vacancies create their own problems. “Rents have fallen but now there are so many empty stores there, nobody wants to be alone. So they’ve created more of a crisis.” But there are glimmers of turn-around. Zendell has observed five deals in SoHo in the past month, indicating that landlords are becoming too nervous to sit around. “They helped to create the bubble, but now it’s our market.” Renters insist landlords have an investment in the game, either through taking a performance-based interest in the tenant or some other mechanism. Retailers that signed 10-year leases at a high number per sq ft and then had to pay to get out of that lease are insisting on some participation. “Any new deal is going to have a pre-nup, the location has to be right, and the landlord has to have some skin in the game,” says Zendell. Zendell also believes some retailers are beginning to find their way. She cites Everlane as an example of upcoming brand that is managing to harness the power of the internet to bricks-and-mortar retail. Online, she points out, is good for things you need, but less so for things you want. “You still need people and interaction, but you need a different approach: the modern customer is very smart. Brick and mortar used to be only about sales, now it’s about marketing, driving people to the internet and for helping people to understand your product.” Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/retail/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/24/new-york-retail-shops-amazon-rent'|'2017-12-24T16:00:00.000+02:00'
'776f33e9046ad5ed82aed21429154e1957728271'|'Aston Martin to recall over 5,000 vehicles in U.S.: safety agency'|'December 25, 2017 / 7:40 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Aston Martin to recall over 5,000 vehicles in U.S.: safety agency Karen Brettell 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British sportscar maker Aston Martin is recalling around 5,500 vehicles in the United States due to problems with powertrains and battery cables, according to documents posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) website. The recalls are expected to begin on Feb. 1, 2018, and come as the owners of the carmaker made famous by fictional spy James Bond prepare for a stock market listing or sale of the company. The documents on the NHTSA website say Aston Martin is recalling 3,493 DB9, DBS, Rapide, Virage and Vanquish models that were made between 2009 and 2016 due to problems that can cause the transmission park pawl to not engage, which could make the vehicle roll and increase the risk of a crash. The Gaydon, England-based company is also recalling 1,953 DB9 and DBS vehicles manufactured between 2005 and 2009 because their battery supply cables can be damaged when the driver seat is in the full rearward location, which could ultimately increase the risk of a fire, the documents said. A spokesperson for the carmaker was not immediately available for comment. Editing by Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-astonmartin-recalls/aston-martin-to-recall-over-5000-vehicles-in-u-s-safety-agency-idUSKBN1EJ0UE'|'2017-12-25T21:39:00.000+02:00'
'40274526c8004348cde9d0f3ecb62b74d89a1b0a'|'China urges state firms to guard against overseas corruption risks'|'December 25, 2017 / 1:35 AM / Updated 2 hours ago China urges state firms to guard against overseas corruption risks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s corruption watchdog on Monday urged its state-owned enterprises (SOE) to guard against the risk of corruption in their overseas entities, saying it was a key task of every company’s Communist Party cell. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said it had published guidance instructing state firms to deal with such risks that could arise from their overseas personnel and decision-making. “Party committees and discipline inspection groups at every state enterprise must stick to the highest standard of Communist Party discipline and deeply understand the importance urgency of controlling overseas risks,” it said in a statement on its website. The aim was to “ensure the safety of China’s assets, make our state enterprises strong and excellent, and cultivate world-class enterprises that are globally competitive”, it said. China’s wide-ranging crackdown on corruption has largely focussed on the domestic operations of its state-owned enterprises, rather than their overseas activities. In 2015, the government said it would audit the overseas assets of its SOEs after the state news agency Xinhua disclosed that the government does not audit the 4 trillion yuan (£476.6 billion) of assets such firms hold overseas. Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Robert Birsel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-corruption-overseas/china-urges-state-firms-to-guard-against-overseas-corruption-risks-idUKKBN1EJ01L'|'2017-12-25T03:34:00.000+02:00'
'3f27bf15aa4e8064d598e6698df2e6c0bf624579'|'US STOCKS-Wall St slips as tech sector weighs'|'December 26, 2017 / 7:35 PM / Updated 2 hours ago US STOCKS-Wall St slips as tech sector weighs Reuters Staff * Apple down on report of tepid iPhone X demand * Oil jumps after Libyan pipeline blast, lifts energy shares * Dow down 0.14 pct, S&P 500 down 0.16 pct, Nasdaq down 0.35 pct (Updates to mid-afternoon, changes byline) By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK, Dec 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dipped on Tuesday as Apple and shares of its parts suppliers weakened on a report of soft iPhone X demand, which pulled technology shares lower. Apple will slash its sales forecast for its flagship phone in the current quarter to 30 million units, down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units, Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported, citing unidentified sources. The report, along with some recent brokerage calls on tepid iPhone X demand, put Apple shares on pace for their worst single-day percentage fall since Aug. 10. Shares of companies that supply parts to Apple, including Broadcom, Skyworks Solutions, Finisar and Lumentum Holdings, all moved lower. The PHLX semiconductor index lost 1.03 percent. The S&P technology index fell 0.76 percent, the worst performer among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors. The index has come under pressure in recent days and was on track for its fifth straight decline as market participants see tech names getting a smaller boost from the U.S. tax overhaul. “The higher tax rate companies, basically get a profit break and the lower tax rate companies don’t necessarily suddenly pay more in taxes, it is just on a relative basis, they are not in as advantageous a position as they used to be,” said Jason Pride, director of investment strategy at Glenmede in Philadelphia. A long-promised Republican bill to cut corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent was ratified last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 35.59 points, or 0.14 percent, to 24,718.47, the S&P 500 lost 4.21 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,679.13 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 24.58 points, or 0.35 percent, to 6,935.38. Most markets around the world, including parts of Europe and Asia, were shut on Tuesday. Trading volumes are also expected to be light in the holiday week. Losses were curbed by a boost in energy stocks as oil prices jumped more than 2 percent, helped by an explosion on a crude pipeline in Libya and voluntary OPEC-led supply cuts. Chevron rose 0.8 percent and EOG Resources gained 1.9 percent to lead the S&P energy sector 0.68 percent higher. Shares of department store operators Kohl‘s, JC Penney and Macy’s got a boost after a report that retail sales in the holiday period rose at their best pace since 2011. The S&P retail index advanced 0.49 percent. Sucampo Pharma surged 6.2 percent after Mallinckrodt said it would acquire the drugmaker for $1.2 billion. Mallinckrodt shares rose 1.0 percent. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.32-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.01-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 39 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 79 new highs and 24 new lows. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-wall-st-slips-as-tech-sector-weighs-idUSL1N1OQ0TO'|'2017-12-26T21:33:00.000+02:00'
'e40f22e27de2197c2b3257a66013eb0aa2b09482'|'UAW head does not see more charges in U.S. training centre probe'|' 40 PM / Updated 44 minutes ago UAW head does not see more charges in U.S. training centre probe Nick Carey 3 Min Read DETROIT (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers is cooperating with a Justice Department probe into alleged misspending by union officials at training centres funded by U.S. automakers, the union’s president said on Friday, saying that he did not expect any more charges stemming from the probe. “I don’t see no reason to have no cloud over anybody at this point,” UAW President Dennis Williams told reporters at the union’s Detroit headquarters. “We have spent the last several months under a magnifying glass, and rightly so.” In July federal prosecutors accused a former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV vice president of making $1.2 million in improper payments to a former union vice president and his wife. Four people have been charged in the Fiat Chrysler probe. In November, General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co said they were cooperating with the Justice Department probe. Williams said the union is conducting its own investigation, led by outside attorneys and UAW general counsel Niraj Ganatra. The UAW is readying for a leadership election next June to replace Williams. Top union officials have nominated Gary Jones, a UAW regional director, as president. Williams said he did not expect a backlash from rank-and-file members. “I feel very comfortable that our standing with the membership is the same,” he said. He expressed dissatisfaction with Ford over a recent decision to shift production of a future battery electric vehicle to Mexico to make room for self-driving vehicles at the company’s Flat Rock, Michigan, plant. “I‘m not happy with Ford, with their decision,” he said. “I think that we’re missing a huge opportunity in this country.” The UAW has struggled to organise automakers and suppliers this year. Workers at a Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co Ltd plant in southwestern Ohio voted heavily against union representation last month. The UAW also lost a bitterly contested vote at a Nissan Motor Co Ltd plant in Mississippi in August. Last week the National Labor Relations Board voted to make it harder to organise so-called micro unions made up of small groups of a company’s employees, posing a fresh challenge. [L1N1OG0A6] The UAW is engaged in a lengthy battle with Volkswagen AG over the NLRB’s recognition of a vote by roughly 160 skilled workers at the automakers Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant for UAW representation. If the NLRB moved against the VW micro union, “this is about not having the unions,” Williams said. ”That rises to a different level of how we feel about the NLRB,“ he said. ”Because we may have to go back to striking to get recognition if that’s how they’re gonna act. “We’ll shut down these companies we’re organising,” he added. Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-autos-uaw/uaw-head-does-not-see-more-charges-in-u-s-training-centre-probe-idINKBN1EE2IO'|'2017-12-20T21:38:00.000+02:00'
'2c1a62942b83a8cf7d8f7133f69910604fffa311'|'2017: the sequel … seven lessons for Hollywood after summer’s disasters - Film'|'A string of critical and commercial duds failed to light up the US box office as Hollywood endured its worst summer in 25 years . But it was a good year overall for the global film market, with the box-office total set to edge ahead of 2016 with sales of more than $39bn (£29bn). Here are some lessons that the film business will have learned from some of the year’s most prominent releases.1. KING ARTHUR Take $149m; budget $175m A bad summer does not make a bad year for Hollywood As the summer movie season drew to a close in late August, Hollywood film bosses were in a state of panic . The US box office, the biggest in the world, had had its worst performance in more than two decades. Takings were down 50% to $3.8bn, the lowest since 2006, and cinema attendance hit a low not seen since 1992. Summer hits such as Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming failed to offset a string of flops including Baywatch , Tom Cruise’s remake of The Mummy , and King Arthur , which received a particularly scathing reaction from critics and audiences. “The box office suffered because of underperforming sequels and remakes, audiences tired of the same old retreads and reboots,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at the research firm comScore.However, a change in attitude by studios towards the traditional summer blockbuster season means big box-office hits are starting to be sprinkled throughout the year. Traditional summer films Beauty and the Beast and The Fate of The Furious appeared in March and April, and the now annual stocking-filler of a Star Wars hit at Christmas means the US box office is set to recover to be nearly flat at $11.1bn – while the international market has grown.“It used to be that summer set the tone for the entire year in regards to box office, but that’s just not the case anymore,” says Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, a research firm. “Spring has bloomed into a box office bounty for studios, and often times, they save the best for last, like Star Wars . And Stephen King’s It proved you could even debut a massive movie in September, which is often a wasteland of poor programming and abandoned films.”2. WOLF WARRIOR 2 Take $870m, 98% from China China is still booming China has grown rapidly to become the second largest film market in the world, and success there can be transformative. Take the phenomenon of the Chinese action sequel Wolf Warrior 2 . It took $870m globally, the vast majority from the domestic box office – the second biggest take by a film in a single market, passing Avatar ’s US performance and only behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the US. Disney-owned Pixar’s animation Coco has just passed the milestone of being the studio’s first film to bring in more in China than in North America. “China has been a saviour for Hollywood,” says Bock. “Studios go so far as to rewrite and add elements to satisfy the Chinese marketplace. No one else in the world gets that kind of treatment.”The latest outing of the ageing Transformers franchise was saved by its popularity in China, which was also instrumental in driving The Fate of the Furious over the $1bn mark globally. “Films that are considered disappointments in North America can become revenue earning superstars when China is factored in,” says Dergarabedian.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Justice League flopped but Wonder Woman did well on her own. Photograph: Warner Brox/Rex/Shutterstock 3. JUSTICE LEAGUE Take $636m; budget $300m We are nearing peak superhero Hollywood has become addicted to the box-office powers of superhero films. The success of Wonder Woman , the second instalment of Guardians of the Galaxy and the latest Spider-Man film accounted for almost a third of the total US summer box-office take. But then there was Justice League – Warner Bros bringing Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman together in an ensemble film – which flopped in the US, albeit with salvation coming globally. “The superhero problem is that Disney’s [home of Guardians and the Avengers] do fine, non-Disney mostly don’t,” says Dergarabedian. “But then there was [Warner Bros’s] Wonder Woman ”. By 2019, it has been estimated that there will be at least 25 characters appearing in individual and ensemble films, raising the question of whether Hollywood is about to hit peak superhero. “There is some evidence that while box-office returns from superhero films have increased massively, this has been down to the sheer volume of films, and that the amount made per film is beginning to decline,” says Richard Cooper, analyst at research firm Ampere.4. BRIGHT Take: N/A Streaming goes from strength to strength thanks to Netflix The launch of the fantasy adventure Bright , starring A-listers Will Smith and Joel Edgerton under the direction of Suicide Squad ’s David Ayer, marks Netflix’s biggest film launch to date and the latest statement of its intent to challenge the Hollywood movie model. “Is streaming killing the box office? Yes, it most certainly is,” says Bock at Exhibitor Relations. “It is eroding it at a pace more fast and furious than expected.”And it will get worse next year. Netflix , which has more than 100 million subscribers worldwide, has raised its budget for buying and making TV and films to $8bn next year and is doubling the number of original films it intends to release to 80 – more than the big five Hollywood studios combined. Bock says that what is really hurting the industry is that big-name TV series – such as Netflix’s Stranger Things and the £100m co-production The Crown – have usurped Hollywood films as cultural talking points.“The question these days isn’t what movie have you seen, it is what series have you been bingeing on recently,” Bock says.5. THE LAST JEDI Take $600m-plus; budget $200m Disney is still king, despite what fanboys say Some diehard Star Wars fans may have been critical of the latest film in the mega-franchise, but its force remains strong at the global box office . The Last Jedi has already passed the $600m mark – having notched up the second largest opening weekend in history behind 2015’s The Force Awakens – and is on course to hit $1bn by the end of the year. Disney, which owns Star Wars maker Lucasfilm, is set to top the global box office again in 2017. This year’s clutch of hits also include Beauty and the Beast , the biggest global film of the year so far, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor: Ragnarok .Disney is realising the success of a shrewd acquisition strategy over the past decade, becoming the dominant force in genres from superheroes to animated children’s films. In 2006, the company paid $7.4bn for Apple founder Steve Jobs’s Pixar studio, the hit factory behind Finding Nemo and Toy Story , to revive its once proud family film division.In 2009 came the surprise $4bn Marvel purchase, bringing in 5,000 edgier characters including Iron Man, Captain America and the Avengers. This was followed with $4bn for Lucasfilm, which also owns the Indiana Jones franchise, in 2012. Then this month, Disney announced it would be buying $66bn of assets from Rupert Murdoch , including the 20th Century Fox film studio. The company can now add franchises including Avatar – the highest grossing film of all time which is set for a series of sequels over the next few years – as well as X-Men , Deadpool and the Fantastic Four reuniting with the rest of the Marvel family.Facebook Twitter Pi'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/news/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/23/2017-the-sequel-hard-lessons-for-hollywood-summer-disasters-film'|'2017-12-23T02:00:00.000+02:00'
'0ef0778031b80201949324af6b080f59d1cf39f5'|'Russia''s Rosneft reaches $1.7 billion settlement with Sistema'|'December 22, 2017 / 4:16 PM / Updated 12 hours ago Russia''s Rosneft reaches $1.7 billion settlement with Sistema Denis Pinchuk , Anastasia Teterevleva 4 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Sistema ( AFKS.MM ) conglomerate will pay 100 billion roubles (1.2 billion pounds) to resolve a dispute with Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ) over Bashneft oil company under a settlement announced by both companies on Friday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Russia''s Rosneft oil company is pictured at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo Shares in Sistema, which groups the assets of Russian businessman Vladimir Yevtushenkov and includes the country’s largest mobile operator MTS, were up 17.73 percent in Moscow and 18.2 percent in London after Rosneft said both sides have agreed to drop all legal proceedings. Sistema confirmed that, under the agreement, “all sides will recall all their lawsuits and abandon all claims against each other.” “Sistema will be obliged to pay (Rosneft-controlled) Bashneft 100 billion roubles by 30 March, 2018,” it said in a statement, adding that Sistema would make the payment using its own as well as borrowed funds. The agreement requires approval from the Russian regional court. The dispute centres on mid-sized oil company Bashneft and pitted powerful Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, against Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who some media reports suggest is close to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The way the battle was fought - via lawsuits and counter lawsuits - and the high value of the assets involved, rekindled concerns about Russia’s investment climate and raised questions about the Kremlin’s oversight of business. To comply with the agreement, Sistema may need to raise around 85 billion roubles through bank loans or asset sales, according to estimates by Alexander Vengranovich, an analyst with Otkritie Capital. FROZEN ASSETS Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said the agreement allows Sistema assets frozen by the courts as part of the dispute to be released before March 30 or even earlier. That would give Sistema more options for raising the funds it needs. The courts have frozen a variety of Sistema’s assets at the request of the oil giant. Russia’s largest lender Sberbank, along with the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), will assist with raising funds for Sistema to compensate Rosneft for losses, Rosneft said. The settlement has been reached with the “active contribution” of RDIF and Sberbank, Sistema said. Sberbank declined to comment. The compromise achieved with RDIF’s assistance “meets both sides’ interests, sends a positive signal to the market and improves the investment climate in Russia”, RDIF said in statement. The Russian government seized Sistema’s stake in Bashneft in 2014, saying its privatisation had been illegal. Rosneft later bought a controlling stake in Bashneft and in May filed its first lawsuit, alleging Sistema had removed assets from the company - something Sistema denies. In a second claim, Rosneft was also seeking the return of dividends paid out by Bashneft between 2009 and 2014, when Sistema was its controlling shareholder. The legal claims made against Sistema by Russia’s top oil producer totalled $4.5 billion, prompting Sistema to retaliate against Rosneft by filing a $5.6 billion lawsuit. A possible amicable agreement in a row between Rosneft and Sistema was a topic of Putin’s informal meeting with businessmen on Thursday. “Putin has repeatedly said that he would support an amicable settlement between Rosneft and AFK Sistema,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters on Friday. Reporting by Denis Pinchuk, Anastasia Teterevleva, Olesya Astakhova and Tatiana Voronova; writing by Denis Pinchuk and Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-rosneft-sistema/russias-rosneft-says-reaches-amicable-agreement-with-sistema-idUKKBN1EG1W4'|'2017-12-23T02:52:00.000+02:00'
'72ddad674e4cec0b3ec9921074372a9538a16c2c'|'Solid growth seen for South Korea December exports, aided by memory chips: Reuters poll'|'December 26, 2017 / 7:24 AM / Updated an hour ago Solid growth seen for South Korea December exports, aided by memory chips: Reuters poll Dahee Kim , Cynthia Kim 2 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea exports likely rose for a 14th straight month in December, wrapping up the year with an upbeat tone as global demand for memory chips and petroleum goods from Asia’s third biggest exporter continued. Shipping containers are seen at the Hanjin Shipping container terminal at Incheon New Port in Incheon, South Korea, September 7, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Files In a Reuters poll, 10 economists saw exports expanding 10.3 percent from a year earlier, picking up some pace after November’s 9.5 percent gain. “Overseas sales will continue to speed up this month on strong global demand on memory chips, petroleum goods and ships,” said Kim Doo-un, an economist at Hana Financial Investment. He said exports “are likely to maintain current robust growth in 2018, though some downside risks remain” such as possible revision of Seoul’s free trade pact with the United States and appreciation of South Korean won. South Korea’s exports from Dec. 1 to Dec. 20 soared 16.4 percent from a year earlier, while imports jumped 19.5 percent over the same period, preliminary data from the government showed. The poll’s median forecast for imports was a rise of 12.1 percent in December, a shade less than the annual increase of 12.7 percent rise a month earlier. Tuesday’s poll also showed economists expect South Korea’s industrial production rose 1.2 percent in November from a month earlier, rebounding sharply from October’s decline of 1.1 percent. “October’s weak industrial production was mainly due to fewer number of working days as the nation celebrated Chuseok holiday, which means November’s reading will definitely show a rebound,” said Kwon Ah-min, an economist at Dongbu Securities. In the poll, the annual inflation rate for December was seen at 1.5 percent, slightly up from 1.3 percent the previous month. Industrial output is due on Thursday and inflation data on Friday, while December trade data will be released on Jan. 1. Reporting by Dahee Kim, Cynthia Kim; Heekyong Yang, Yuna Park and Haejin Choi; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/southkorea-economy-data/solid-growth-seen-for-south-korea-december-exports-aided-by-memory-chips-reuters-poll-idINKBN1EK0F1'|'2017-12-26T09:20:00.000+02:00'
'37f38194d764a6444981ee05a5c3189cd48d05b7'|'Most BOJ policymakers saw need to sustain ''powerful'' easing - October meeting minutes'|'December 26, 2017 / 12:23 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Most BOJ policymakers saw need to sustain ''powerful'' easing: October meeting minutes Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Most Bank of Japan policymakers agreed that the central bank must persistently pursue powerful monetary easing, but that additional stimulus measures were unnecessary for now, minutes of the BOJ’s October rate review showed on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands at the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo, Japan, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo “A few members said taking extreme monetary easing steps only to achieve the price goal ... could prevent monetary accommodation from producing intended policy effects,” the minutes showed. One board member said the effects and drawbacks of the BOJ’s purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETF) “should be examined from every angle” even if the move had yet to distort market functions at this point. The BOJ kept policy steady at the two-day meeting that ended on Oct. 31. But board newcomer Goushi Kataoka dissented to the decision on the view that more easing was needed, complicating future efforts by the bank to withdraw stimulus. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Minami Funakoshi'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj-minutes/most-boj-policymakers-saw-need-to-sustain-powerful-easing-october-meeting-minutes-idUKKBN1EK014'|'2017-12-26T02:21:00.000+02:00'
'6226989cef21a7cb965e786d91ca8216109c53d5'|'BOJ says low rates hurting banks but woes won''t ease post-stimulus'|'December 25, 2017 / 7:52 AM / Updated 7 hours ago BOJ says low rates hurting banks but woes won''t ease post-stimulus Leika Kihara , Sumio Ito 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Prolonged ultra-easy monetary policy is weighing heavily on Japanese bank profits but financial institutions should not expect business conditions to brighten dramatically even after the central bank raises interest rates, a senior Bank of Japan official said. FILE PHOTO: A Japanese flag flutters atop the Bank of Japan building under construction in Tokyo, Japan, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Many regional banks could suffer losses in the long run as intensifying competition forces them to cut lending rates to attract borrowers in a shrinking domestic market, said BOJ Executive Director Atsushi Miyanoya. “The BOJ’s monetary policy, including negative interest rates, undoubtedly has a significant impact on bank profits,” said Miyanoya, who oversees a division in charge of monitoring Japan’s banking system. “Even when monetary policy is eventually normalised, banks shouldn’t expect profits to return to levels before ultra-easy policy was put in place,” he told Reuters on Dec. 22. After three years of heavy asset buying failed to fire up inflation, the BOJ last year adopted negative interest rates and a pledge to guide 10-year bond yields around zero percent. Miyanoya said the BOJ’s policy has not excessively hurt bank profits yet, countering criticism from the financial sector that the costs of monetary stimulus were exceeding the benefits. But he warned that banks may see profitability fall further if monetary policy remains ultra-loose, and called on regional banks to seek new revenue sources instead of meeting intensifying competition just by cutting lending rates. “In the medium- to long-term, there’s a risk many financial institutions may record net losses simultaneously. We can’t deny the risk financial intermediation may not function properly at the same time,” Miyanoya said. “With the economy in good shape and banks having sufficient capital, now is the time to act,” he said. “Mergers and consolidation are among options to improve profitability and efficiency.” Years of crisis-mode stimulus have squeezed bank margins in many advanced nations. The problem is more acute in Japan, where more than 100 regional banks compete in an overcrowded market that is shrinking amid an ageing population. An industry watchdog said in October that more than half of Japan’s regional banks lost money on their core business in the year ended March 2017. Regional banks’ plight has piled pressure on the BOJ to focus on the demerits of its policy, though Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he saw no need to dial back stimulus now. [nL4N1OL1A3] Even when the BOJ withdraws stimulus, banks may not see margins improve sharply due to severe competition, Miyanoya said. “It’s true our monetary policy is exerting downward pressure on banks’ profits, but that’s not the whole story,” Miyanoya said. “Monetary policy will be normalised at some point. But structural factors won’t change. Japan’s population will continue to decline and the number of companies will keep falling.” Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-boj/boj-says-low-rates-hurting-banks-but-woes-wont-ease-post-stimulus-idINKBN1EJ0BI'|'2017-12-25T09:51:00.000+02:00'
'5cdc6b6059768007ed1086adc8a47824b9065ecd'|'Nikkei edges up, helped by hopes for central bank purchases of ETFs'|'December 25, 2017 / 6:27 AM / in 9 hours Nikkei edges up, helped by hopes for central bank purchases of ETFs Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average erased early losses and scraped out gains on Monday as expectations that the Bank of Japan would buy more exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offset drops by financial stocks. People walk past an electronic board showing Japan''s Nikkei average outside a brokerage at a business district in Tokyo, Japan August 9, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The central bank periodically buys ETFs as part of its easy monetary policy. Movements in Japanese equities were confined to a narrow range with foreign investor presence lacking due to Monday’s closure of other major markets for Christmas. The Nikkei finished 0.16 percent higher at 22,939.18. Of Tokyo’s 33 subsectors, 10 were in the red, led by securities and banking after their U.S. financial peers lost steam on Friday following their recent strong performance. Denim clothing store operator Jeans Mate soared 20.2 percent after reporting that December existing store sales increased 13.2 percent from a year earlier. Furniture and interior goods seller Nitori Holdings sank 6.4 percent after the company saw its operating profit for the nine months through to Nov. 20 rise a modest 0.3 percent to 70.4 billion yen ($621.58 million). Nitori’s sales for the same period increased 11.5 percent but costs of opening stores and renovations to existing ones were seen to have reduced profits. Cryptocurrency related shares slipped following recent wild swings in bitcoin. Internet provider GMO Internet Inc, which is engaged in the “mining” of bitcoin, fell 4.8 percent. Remixpoint Inc, an operator of virtual currency trading post services, dropped 4 percent. The broader Topix was 0.16 percent higher at 1,831.93. ($1 = 113.2600 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-edges-up-helped-by-hopes-for-central-bank-purchases-of-etfs-idINKBN1EJ0A0'|'2017-12-25T08:26:00.000+02:00'
'13af4aee4ad7acfc0c806eadaad1e80515bd18ef'|'Japan''s household spending jumps but BOJ seen keeping stimulus'|'December 26, 2017 / 3:09 AM / in 19 minutes Japan''s households open their wallets, BOJ seen keeping stimulus Leika Kihara 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s households spent more than expected in November while consumer inflation ticked up and the jobless rate hit a fresh 24-year low, offering the central bank some hope an economic recovery will drive up inflation to its 2 percent target. A woman looks at creations displayed on mannequins at Tokyo Fantashion 2015 at a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, August 16, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/Files But the increase in prices was due mostly to a boost from rising fuel costs that is seen fading in 2018, keeping the Bank of Japan under pressure to maintain its huge monetary support even as other central banks seek an end to crisis-mode policies. Minutes of the BOJ’s October rate review showed that while most central bank policymakers saw no need to ramp up stimulus, they agreed on the need to sustain “powerful” easing for the time being. “There’s a chance inflation may gradually accelerate toward the fiscal year beginning in April,” as a tightening job market pressures companies to raise wages, said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. “But inflation remains distant from the BOJ’s 2 percent target, so the central bank will probably maintain its current policy framework.” Spending was driven by broadbased gains, with households loosening the purse strings for items such as refrigerators, washing machines, and sporting goods and services such as eating-out and travel. Behind the improvement is a slow but steady rise in household income. Wage earners’ disposable income rose 1.8 percent in November from a year earlier, suggesting that higher incomes have encouraged consumers to open their wallets. A stock market boom is also giving households more purchasing power. Japan’s top 4 department stores all saw sales increase in November from a year earlier on brisk demand for luxury items. The nationwide core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil goods but excludes volatile fresh food prices, rose 0.9 percent in November from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday, marking the 11th straight month of gains. The pace of price growth was just ahead of October’s 0.8 percent and a median market forecast of the same rate. Despite the increase seen in wages, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has urged companies to raise wages by 3 percent or more next year, keeping pressure on firms to spend their huge cash pile to broaden the benefits of his stimulus policies. A shopper looks at items outside a discount drug store at a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, July 29, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/Files A Reuters poll published earlier this month found two-thirds of Japanese firms think the government’s push to raise wages by 3 percent is a tall order, with some dismissing it out of hand. JOB MARKET TIGHTENS FURTHER Separate data released on Tuesday showed prospects for a sustained recovery were picking up. The unemployment rate hit a fresh 24-year low of 2.7 percent in November and job availability rose to a nearly 44-year high. Household spending rose 1.7 percent in November from a year earlier, far exceeding forecasts for a 0.5 percent increase. The slew of upbeat data may offer relief to BOJ policymakers, who are increasingly worried about the demerits of ultra-easy policy but wary of choking off a budding economic recovery by dialing back stimulus too quickly. At the October rate review, several BOJ policymakers voiced concern of taking “extreme steps” just to hit their price goal, countering calls by board newcomer Goushi Kataoka that additional easing measures were necessary. Most members felt that maintaining current policy was sufficient, though conceding it may take some time before firms more actively raise prices and wages, the minutes showed. “It seems so difficult for many firms to take the first step to raise their prices, that they wait and see what other firms are doing,” BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday. Japan’s economy grew an annualised 2.5 percent in July-September to mark a seventh straight quarter of growth thanks to robust exports and capital expenditure. But the inflation rate remains distant from the BOJ’s target, as firms remain wary of scaring away cost-sensitive consumers with price hikes. The BOJ kept monetary policy steady in October and a subsequent meeting in December, reassuring markets it will lag well behind overseas peers in ending its ultra-loose monetary settings. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy/japans-household-spending-jumps-but-boj-seen-keeping-stimulus-idINKBN1EK05O'|'2017-12-26T05:06:00.000+02:00'
'cfdc246f1875ccb9feaa86fc83501586ac61d52b'|'US STOCKS-Apple drags Wall Street lower'|'December 26, 2017 / 3:15 PM / Updated 2 hours ago US STOCKS-Apple drags Wall Street lower Reuters Staff * Apple down on report of tepid iPhone X demand, suppliers fall * Bitcoin rises 10 pct, recovers from last week’s brutal selloff * Indexes down: Dow 0.03 pct, S&P 0.09 pct, Nasdaq 0.42 pct (Updates to open) By Sruthi Shankar Dec 26 (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes came under pressure on Tuesday following a 2.8 percent drop in Apple’s shares on a report of weak iPhone X demand. Apple will slash its sales forecast for its flagship phone in the current quarter to 30 million units, down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units, Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported, citing unidentified sources. That, along with some bearish brokerage calls on iPhone X demand, put its shares on track for their worst single-day percentage fall since Aug. 10. Shares of companies that supply parts to Apple, including Broadcom, Skyworks Solutions, Finisar and Lumentum Holdings, fell between 1.8 percent and 3.5 percent. The S&P technology index fell 0.9 percent, the only loser among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors. Most markets around the world, including parts of Europe and Asia, were shut on Tuesday. Trading volumes are also expected to be light in the holiday week. “It’s going to be slow trading for most of the week. A market that’s going to stay within a trading range, we could have a plus or a negative day, but nothing exciting,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York. At 9:34 a.m. ET (1434 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 8.32 points, or 0.03 percent, at 24,745.74 and the S&P 500 was down 2.4 points, or 0.09 percent, at 2,680.94. The Nasdaq Composite was down 29.11 points, or 0.42 percent, at 6,930.86. Sucampo Pharma surged 6 percent after Mallinckrodt said it would acquire the drugmaker for $1.2 billion, to gain access to its constipation drug Amitiza. Mallinckrodt shares rose 4.3 percent. Bitcoin traded up more than 12 percent at $15,715 recovering from last week’s selloff, which saw the cryptocurrency fall below $12,000. Shares of Riot Blockchain, Longfin Corp and Overstock.com rose between 3 percent and 17 percent. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,369 to 1,125. On the Nasdaq, 1,267 issues fell and 1,036 advanced. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-apple-drags-wall-street-lower-idUSL4N1OQ2YH'|'2017-12-26T17:13:00.000+02:00'
'14fe663c2181c6618c1b78ed64b3953c4d7f762c'|'Oil prices near 2015 highs on tight market'|'December 28, 2017 / 1:52 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Oil near mid-2015 highs on strong China data, tighter outlook Henning Gloystein , Dmitry Zhdannikov 3 Min Read SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices stood near their highest in two and a half years, supported by strong data from top importer China amid thin trading activity ahead of the New Year weekend. FILE PHOTO - A general view of the Amuay refinery complex, which belongs to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, in Punto Fijo, Venezuela November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo Heading into 2018, traders said market conditions were relatively tight because of supply cuts led by the Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 8 cents at $59.72 (£44.44) a barrel by 1100 GMT. WTI this week broke through $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015. WTI was supported by a report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showing a 6 million barrel drop in crude oil inventories to 432.8 million. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $66.50 a barrel, up 6 cents. Brent this week broke through $67 for the first time since May 2015. Support also came from China’s release of strong import quotas for 2018, which could lead to another record for purchases by the world’s biggest importer. China’s oil thirst has also led to a 3 percent monthly drawdown in its crude inventories in November, to a seven-year low of 26.15 million tonnes, Xinhua data showed on Thursday. Oil markets have also been tightened by a year of OPEC and Russia-led production cuts that started last January and are scheduled to continue throughout 2018. A Reuters monthly poll showed on Thursday that analysts expect Brent crude to stay close to $60 a barrel in 2018. Pipeline outages in Libya and the North Sea have also supported prices. “Given the much stronger price response to supply disruptions in the wake of OPEC supply cuts, the market is poised to make further gains,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia/Pacific at futures brokerage Oanda. About 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Libyan oil supplies were disrupted by an attack on a pipeline this week. In the North Sea, the 450,000 bpd capacity Forties pipeline system was shut this month after a crack was found. Both pipelines are expected to return to normal operations over the new year or in early January, with Forties already in the start-up process. Countering efforts by OPEC and Russia to prop up prices is U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA that has soared more than 16 percent since mid-2016 and is fast approaching 10 million bpd. Only OPEC king-pin Saudi Arabia and Russia produce more. The latest official U.S. production figures are due to be published on Thursday. For a graphic on global oil supply and demand, click - reut.rs/2C9rqyC For a graphic on crude oil trading, click - reut.rs/2BJPSTL Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/oil-prices-near-2015-highs-on-tight-market-idUKKBN1EM04T'|'2017-12-28T03:54:00.000+02:00'
'704dd4d772d4b61632f2c524cf6a64f47b392ef8'|'Shanghai cautions on products from scandal-hit Kobe Steel, tightens checks'|'December 29, 2017 / 3:55 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Shanghai cautions on products from scandal-hit Kobe Steel, tightens checks Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Shanghai has issued a warning on the safety of metal products manufactured by scandal-hit Japanese firm Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ) and strengthened scrutiny measures, state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the city’s inspection body. Japan’s No.3 steelmaker, which supplies the makers of cars, planes and trains across the world, said in October that about 500 of its customers had received products with falsified specifications. The producer’s quality certifications at some domestic plants have already been suspended. According to the Xinhua report, Kobe shipped in 451,000 tonnes of metal products to China through its Shanghai units over September 2016 to August 2017. Of that, data on 1,420 tonnes of aluminum sheet and 116 tonnes of copper sheet had been tampered, it added, citing the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. While Kobe’s Shanghai units have been in touch with their customers to check on safety of the products, the inspection bureau has said it will continue supervising the units to protect interests of Chinese consumers, Xinhua reported. The bureau will conduct checks on all products made in Japan by Kobe Steel and set up a special technical investigation team to check its products that are involved with data falsification and release results on a routine basis, the report added. The bureau will also conduct regular checks on Japan-made metal products imported through the Shanghai port and has already made a full retrospective investigation on related operations by Kobe Steel’s units in the city. Kobe Shanghai could not immediately comment on the report. Reporting by Ruby Lian in SHANGHAI and Ryan Woo in BEIJING; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kobe-steel-scandal/shanghai-cautions-on-products-from-scandal-hit-kobe-steel-tightens-checks-idUSKBN1EN07Z'|'2017-12-29T05:53:00.000+02:00'
'4d30502da4280546c6f254ffac54a4ef4e729045'|'FDA approves Mylan''s copy of Allergan''s vaginal cream'|'December 29, 2017 / 5:35 PM / in 21 minutes FDA approves Mylan''s copy of Allergan''s vaginal cream Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Mylan NV said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted it the approval for a generic version of Allergan’s Estrace cream for vaginal atrophy. The approval comes amid the FDA’s efforts to speed to market generic versions of complex drugs such as Mylan’s own EpiPen, an emergency allergy shot. Complex drugs include medicines like metered-dose inhalers to treat asthma that have at least one feature difficult to copy under existing rules. Allergan’s Estrace raked in annual sales of $379.4 million in 2016. “Topicals like Estradiol Vaginal Cream are a great example of Mylan’s ability to bring to market complex products,” Mylan President Rajiv Malik said in a statement. Vaginal atrophy, which usually occurs after menopause, results in thinning and inflammation of the vaginal walls due to less estrogen. Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mylan-nl-fda/fda-approves-mylans-copy-of-allergans-vaginal-cream-idUSKBN1EN1HY'|'2017-12-29T19:22:00.000+02:00'
'622b20cecebcb01b1013d53918186de179dca70f'|'Chad reshuffles finance, other key ministries - decree'|'December 24, 2017 / 8:46 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Chad reshuffles finance, other key ministries - decree   N‘DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad’s President Idriss Deby on Sunday appointed Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul as minister of finance and also named new economy, foreign affairs, security and justice ministers, a presidential decree showed. Chad''s President Idriss Deby Itno sits in an armchair at the presidential palace prior to a meeting in N''Djamena, Chad, December 29, 2016. REUTERS/Alain Jocard/Pool Fadoul has served as interim finance minister since Deby sacked his predecessor, Christian Georges Diguimbaye, last month. The appointment comes amid stalled negotiations with Glencore over more than $1 billion in oil-backed loans Chad owes the commodities trader. Glencore lent the West African country’s state oil firm SHT about $1.45 billion (£1.1 billion) in 2014 to be repaid with crude oil. The loan was subsequently syndicated with several banks. It was restructured in 2015 following the crash in global oil prices but Chad is again struggling to repay the debt. Funds from the International Monetary Fund depend on reaching new terms. In October, Chad decided to redirect crude previously allocated to Glencore in a marketing agreement to Exxon Mobil instead starting from January, which has made negotiations fraught. Djimet Arabi, an adviser to Deby, was named the new justice minister in the reshuffle while Ahmadaye Abdelkerim Bokit takes over the security ministry. The new foreign minister is Mahamat Zene Cherif, Chad’s former permanent representative to the United Nations. Reporting by Madjiasra Nako; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Dale Hudson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-chad-finance/chad-reshuffles-finance-other-key-ministries-decree-idUKKBN1EI0J8'|'2017-12-24T22:53:00.000+02:00'
'6b270764a981de8efc1745d2706bf13197747911'|'AT&T, Time Warner extend merger deadline until June'|'December 22, 2017 / 3:32 PM / Updated 42 minutes ago AT&T, Time Warner extend merger deadline until June Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc and media and entertainment group Time Warner Inc, which are seeking to merge despite U.S. Justice Department opposition, extended the termination date for their deal to June 21, AT&T said in a filing on Friday. FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is seen at a AT&T building in New York City, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo The Justice Department sued in November to stop the $85 billion deal, and a trial is to begin on March 19. Judge Richard Leon said during a hearing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in early December that he would likely not have a decision by the deadline in the companies’ merger agreement, but would rule in late April or May. Under a previous agreement, either company could terminate the deal if it was not completed as of April 22. Reporting by Diane Bartz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/time-warner-m-a-at-t/att-time-warner-extend-merger-deadline-until-june-idINKBN1EG1TX'|'2017-12-22T17:31:00.000+02:00'
'4baf3bacff3b421519b700fc597bee4e633b1444'|'Britain''s champagne import crown slips as Brexit hits'|'Reuters TV United States December 22, 2017 / 2:27 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago Britain''s champagne import crown slips as Brexit hits Pascale Denis 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Britain is set to lose its ranking as the world’s biggest importer of champagne, a French industry lobby said, citing the impact of a weaker pound since the UK voted to leave the European Union. FILE PHOTO - Bottles of champagne are displayed December 21, 2016 at a Nicolas French wine specialist store in Paris, France. Picture taken December 21, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau Sales to Britain are expected to fall by 10 percent this year, the boss of the Union of Champagne Houses (UMC) said. There was a 9 percent drop in volume in 2016 to 31.2 million bottles, according to the CIVC industry association. “With a slowing economy in Britain, people are less inclined to spend on luxury products,” UMC Chairman Jean-Marie Barillere said in an interview this week. The United States is likely to take top spot in volume and already ranks number one by value, he said. The British pound has lost 14 percent of its value against the euro and 10 percent against the U.S. dollar since Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016. UMC represents champagne brands including Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Ruinart, owned by the world’s biggest luxury group, LVMH ( LVMH.PA ). Reporting by Pascale Denis; writing by Mathieu Rosemain; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-champagne-sales/britains-champagne-import-crown-slips-as-brexit-hits-idUKKBN1EG1NG'|'2017-12-22T16:22:00.000+02:00'
'ef6fcf3bc6d4953b28c6dd21ddf2971f3b8288b1'|'China liquor maker Moutai flags strong 2017 sales, sees slower growth next year'|'December 28, 2017 / 6:32 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago China liquor maker Moutai flags strong 2017 sales, sees slower growth next year Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese liquor maker Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd said on Thursday it expects revenue to have jumped 50 percent this year but added that sales growth would moderate sharply in 2018, with the firm aiming for a rise of at least 10 percent. FILE PHOTO: A bottle of Moutai Liquor is seen on display in a showroom at Moutai Liquor Culture center in Renhuai, Guizhou province, China June 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT. This year’s robust demand for its high-end bottles of fiery spirit baijiu comes after several sluggish years when lavish spending was hit by a government crackdown on corruption. The rebound has in turn propelled its share price higher with Moutai now boasting a market value of about $128 billion - the biggest of any alcohol firm in the world and 43 percent higher than nearest rival Diageo. Moutai said it expected 2017 revenue would top 60 billion yuan ($9.2 billion), with the 50 percent growth rate marking its strongest rise since 2011. Profits would grow around 58 percent, the firm said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, without specifying what type of profit. In the third quarter Moutai, whose bottles can sell for over $300 a pop, saw its revenues and profits more than double - the sharpest quarterly rises in over half a decade. Moutai also said it would increase product prices by an average of 18 percent next year. The firm’s shares, which have more than doubled this year, were up around 3.5 percent in trading on Thursday morning. The stock retreated from record highs in November after it cautioned investors about its fast share price rise. Moutai, a household name in China, was once hailed as helping its Red Army survive the tortuous Long March in the 1930s. The pungent, colourless spirit baijiu, usually made from sorghum, outsells vodka worldwide. ($1 = 6.5560 Chinese yuan)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/moutai-outlook/china-liquor-maker-moutai-flags-strong-2017-sales-sees-slower-growth-next-year-idINKBN1EM0EP'|'2017-12-28T08:27:00.000+02:00'
'e843cae5a0351cc4497d45744e3b60ac55d9bf04'|'Asia''s monthly Iran oil imports skid to lowest in Nov since April 2016'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Imports of Iranian crude oil by major buyers in Asia tumbled 29 percent in November from the same month a year ago to the lowest volumes since April 2016, government and ship-tracking data showed.FILE PHOTO: A gas flare on an oil production platform in the Soroush oil fields is seen alongside an Iranian flag in the Gulf July 25, 2005. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi/File Photo In total, China, India, Japan and South Korea imported 1.36 million barrels per day (bpd) last month from Iran, the data showed. The drop comes after imports hit highs earlier this year and last when Tehran ramped up exports after the lifting of sanctions that had targeted its disputed nuclear programme.The slowdown had been expected, as oil loadings bound for Asia fell below 1.5 million bpd in October, a person with knowledge of Iran’s tanker schedules had told Reuters.Tehran is pushing to retain its prized Asian customers, hoping price reductions will boost the appeal of its crude compared with other Middle Eastern grades even as the potential threat of a renewal of U.S. sanctions looms.China, the biggest buyer, purchased 8.8 percent less oil from Iran year-on-year, taking around 557,900 bpd.Meanwhile India’s refiners cut Iranian oil imports by more than half in November, ship tracking data showed, squeezing them to a 21-month low in protest at Tehran’s decision to award a giant gas field to a Russian company.Imports to Japan were down 19 percent from a year earlier to 193,141 barrels per day, data released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed on Thursday.The tables below outline Iran crude imports in bpd by Asia’s biggest buyers for last month and year-to-date.Nation Nov-17 Nov-16 yr/yr pctChina 557,876 611,338 -8.8India 265,700 588,700 -54.9Japan 193,141 237,653 -18.7Korea 345,700 472,067 -26.8Total 1,362,417 1,909,758 -28.7Nation Jan-Nov 2017 Jan-Nov 2016 yr/yr pctChina 627,862 618,202 1.6India 466,600 466,100 0.1Japan 167,897 225,374 -25.5Korea 416,650 296,182 40.7Total 1,679,009 1,605,858 4.6Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-iran-crude/asias-monthly-iran-oil-imports-skid-to-lowest-in-nov-since-april-2016-idINKBN1EM0FO'|'2017-12-28T08:45:00.000+02:00'
'3ec6c438089db23f75179878a082c2243b4c90cb'|'Goldman Sachs picks Dublin for asset management unit post-Brexit - source'|'December 28, 2017 / 11:28 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Goldman Sachs picks Dublin for asset management unit post-Brexit - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs has picked Dublin as a centre for administrative staff in its asset management business following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, a source familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Asset Management will employ around 20 people, the source added. Britain is currently home to most of the Wall Street bank’s European operations, where it has around 6,000 employees. Banks, insurers and asset managers have announced subsidiaries in the European Union in recent months, in case they no longer have access to the single market after Brexit. Goldman Sachs has also agreed to lease office space at a new building in Frankfurt, giving it space for up to 1,000 staff. Dublin and Luxembourg are favoured locations for asset management businesses. Legal & General Investment Management has also picked Dublin as an EU centre after Brexit, while Prudential unit M&G has chosen Luxembourg. The Financial Times reported the Goldman Sachs news earlier. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Ben Martin; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-goldman-sachs-brexit/goldman-sachs-picks-dublin-for-asset-management-unit-post-brexit-source-idUKKBN1EM10N'|'2017-12-28T13:27:00.000+02:00'
'3710f6688e339e74fabd7445463f0d400434898b'|'Tesla to make pickup truck after Model Y crossover'|'December 27, 2017 / 12:38 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago Tesla to make pickup truck after Model Y crossover Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) will build a pickup truck soon after producing electric crossover vehicle Model Y, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday. The Tesla logo is seen at the entrance to Tesla Motors'' new showroom in Manhattan''s Meatpacking District in New York City, U.S., December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid "I promise that we will make a pickup truck right after Model Y. Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years. Am dying to build it," Musk wrote in a Twitter post. bit.ly/2l1A1JJ The Model Y, to be built on the same platform as the Model 3 sedan, was tentatively scheduled to begin production in mid-2019, Reuters reported in June. The electric vehicle maker first announced plans for a pickup truck last July, alongside a “master plan” to develop a commercial truck, a public transport bus and a compact sport utility vehicle. Musk had said in April that the pickup truck would be unveiled within 18 to 24 months. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tesla-truck/tesla-to-make-pickup-truck-after-model-y-crossover-idUKKBN1EL00X'|'2017-12-27T02:37:00.000+02:00'
'39d3c1f7a3074fe60325796475c90bb05970629f'|'Canadian regulators ask CanniMed to abandon rights plan against Aurora bid'|'December 27, 2017 / 3:36 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Canadian regulators ask CanniMed to abandon rights plan against Aurora bid Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Medical marijuana maker CanniMed Therapeutics Inc ( CMED.TO ) should withdraw a shareholder rights plan adopted to fend off a hostile bid from larger rival Aurora Cannibis Inc ABC.TO, two Canadian regulators have ruled. The Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan and the Ontario Securities Commission also denied Aurora’s request to shorten the deposit period for the offer to 35 days from 105 days. Alberta-based Aurora offered to buy CanniMed for C$24 per share in Nov. 24, but within days CanniMed adopted a shareholder rights plan, or a “poison pill”, viewing the offer as “coercive”. Earlier this month, CanniMed approached the regulators to declare Aurora’s decision to take the buyout offer directly to CanniMed shareholders as an insider bid. The regulators also rejected CanniMed’s request to consider the offer as an insider bid. An insider bid is a takeover offer made by a company insider or their affiliates within a year before the bid. Canadian securities laws demand disclosure, review and approval processes in the event of such a bid to protect minority shareholders. CanniMed’s shares were up 5 pct at C$20.93 in early morning trade, while those of Aurora rose 7 pct to C$7.72. Reporting by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cmed-m-a-aurora-cannabis/canadian-regulators-ask-cannimed-to-abandon-rights-plan-against-aurora-bid-idUSKBN1EL18I'|'2017-12-27T17:33:00.000+02:00'
'9212134698a4dac851aa2a72f9c3809c872e5e5b'|'South Korean prosecutors seek 12-year jail term for Samsung heir Lee'|'December 27, 2017 / 8:00 AM / Updated 2 hours ago South Korean prosecutors seek 12-year jail term for Samsung heir Lee Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday sought a 12-year jail term for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee on appeal after a lower court sentenced him to five years in August for bribery in a case that rocked the country. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman, Jay Y. Lee, arrives at a court in Seoul, South Korea, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Files The Seoul High Court is expected to rule on the case in late January. Lee, the 49-year-old heir to one of the world’s biggest corporate empires, has been detained since February on charges of corruption. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Nick Macfie'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/samsung-lee-prosecution/south-korean-prosecutors-seek-12-year-jail-term-for-samsung-heir-lee-idINKBN1EL0FJ'|'2017-12-27T09:59:00.000+02:00'
'ebd413a66178a9c996c2388302291293117e30d8'|'U.S. 7-year notes sold at highest yield in 4 years'|'NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sold $28 billion of seven-year government notes at a yield of 2.370 percent, the highest yield at a seven-year auction since December 2013, Treasury data showed.The ratio of bids to the amount of seven-year Treasuries offered was 2.55, the strongest reading since September. This gauge of overall auction demand was 2.36 at the previous seven-year note sale held in November. (Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Andrew Hay) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-auction-7year/u-s-7-year-notes-sold-at-highest-yield-in-4-years-idINL1N1OS12O'|'2017-12-28T15:13:00.000+02:00'
'2bca493db19a9b7d9b7bf1b7521a46b69343b544'|'China commerce ministry says disappointed at European probe into e-bike exporters'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s commerce ministry said it is disappointed at the European Commission’s decision to launch a probe into Chinese exporters of electronic bicycles, adding that Europe misunderstands the Chinese market.The European Commission launched an investigation on Dec. 21 into whether Chinese exporters of e-bikes benefited from excessive state subsidies, the latest in a string of European probes into Chinese exports ranging from solar panels to steel.China’s e-bike market is fully market-based, said ministry spokesman Gao Feng at a regular briefing in Beijing on Thursday.The European Bicycle Manufacturing Association wants the European Commission to impose duties on Chinese e-bikes.“China hopes the European Union will respect World Trade Organization rules,” Gao said.Europeans buy some 20 million bicycles per year, of which about 10 percent are now e-bikes, with the potential to rise to a quarter of sales within five years.Chinese producers, including Battle-Fushida, Aima and Tianjin Golden Wheel, sold e-bikes worth some 307 million euros in the EU in the year to Sept. 30.Reporting by Elias Glenn; Writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Editing by Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eu-china-bicycles/china-commerce-ministry-says-disappointed-at-european-probe-into-e-bike-exporters-idINKBN1EM0D2'|'2017-12-28T08:16:00.000+02:00'
'237e9c66cbaed3e37a4ba79d0dde3dde72b5f515'|'Supply discipline and demand to prop up oil prices in 2018'|'December 28, 2017 / 11:06 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Supply discipline and demand to prop up oil prices in 2018 - Reuters poll Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - OPEC and Russia’s efforts to curb oil output, combined with forecasts for strong global demand growth, are expected to keep crude prices close to $60 a barrel in 2018, a Reuters poll of analysts showed on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A pump jack operates at a well site leased by Devon Energy Production Company near Guthrie, Oklahoma, U.S., September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo The survey of 32 economists and analysts forecast Brent crude LCOc1 would average $59.88 a barrel in 2018, up from the $58.84 forecast in the previous monthly poll. Oil prices, which hit 2-1/2 year highs this week, have rallied by more than 30 percent since the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers agreed to limit production from January 2017. The producers last month extended the deal to curb output throughout 2018. “Oil demand will be high in 2018, with solid economic growth worldwide ... Supply will be relatively tight because of high OPEC commitment,” said Frank Schallenberger, head of commodity research at LBBW. Large supplies of crude will head to Asia to satisfy strong demand from the region, analysts said. U.S. exports to Asia have already increased with higher Middle East oil prices because of the OPEC-led output cuts and a wide WTI-Brent spread. Total crude oil imports to China, one of the world’s biggest oil consumers, rebounded to the second-highest level on record in November at 9.01 million barrels per day (bpd). U.S. light crude CLc1 was expected to average $55.78 a barrel next year, up from last month’s forecast of $54.78. Strong OPEC compliance with the supply pact should lend support to prices, analysts said. However, price rise will be capped by booming shale output in the United States, which is not participating in the global deal to curb production. U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has risen more than 16 percent since mid-2016, is expected to surpass 10 million bpd next year, some analysts said. “We see U.S. supply continuing to grow next year but are less concerned about a sudden supply glut re-emerging as rising D&C (drilling and completion) costs will likely slow production growth,” said Ashley Petersen of Stratas Advisors. Production disruptions in Libya and Nigeria and a possible renewal of U.S. sanctions on Iran are also likely to support prices in 2018, analysts said. Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-oil-poll/supply-discipline-and-demand-to-prop-up-oil-prices-in-2018-idUKKBN1EM0YU'|'2017-12-28T13:06:00.000+02:00'
'6ebbbddc1be2acc7a7d1b5b0e4d45534d108495c'|'Gold breaks above $1,300/oz on way to best year since 2010'|'NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Gold extended its rally to a three-month high on Friday, leaping toward its biggest one-year rise in seven years as a wilting U.S. dollar, political tensions and receding concerns over the impact of U.S. interest rate hikes fed into its rally. Gold’s gains coincide with the greenback, in which gold is priced, sliding toward its worst year since 2003, damaged by tensions over North Korea, the Russian scandal surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign, and persistently low U.S. inflation. [FRX/] The dollar index .DXY touched three-month lows on Friday, lifting bullion to its highest level since late September at $1,307.60 an ounce before paring gains. Strong charts, the weaker dollar and expectations of bullish fundamental factors ahead have bolstered gold prices in year-end trade, said David Meger, director of metals trading for High Ridge Futures in Chicago. Spot gold prices XAU= were up 0.67 percent at $1,303.37 per ounce by 2:05 p.m. EST (1905 GMT), poised to finish 2017 up 13 percent. Benchmark U.S. gold futures GCv1 settled up $12.1, or 0.93 percent, at $1,309.30 per ounce, finishing the year 12 percent higher. “Going back to the last Fed meeting with its slightly more dovish tone, commodities markets have gotten a bit of a green light,” Meger said, referring to indications this month that the U.S. central bank will keep its rate outlook unchanged in the coming year. “This recent bout of weakness in the dollar certainly is fostering a commodities rally and we’ve seen a light downturn in equities as well.” The metal will be vulnerable next year to a rebound in the currency, as well as any gains in yields, ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said. The opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing bullion increases when yields rise elsewhere. Gold’s chart signals look positive after it broke above its 100-day moving average this week at $1,295 an ounce, ScotiaMocatta’s technical team said in a note, pointing to a target of October’s high at $1,306. Among precious metals, palladium posted the strongest rise this year, climbing 57 percent as concerns grew over availability after years of deficit. Palladium XPD= eased 0.31 percent to $1,062.05 an ounce, having hit its highest level since February 2001 at $1,072 in the previous session. It has held in a historically unusual premium to platinum this quarter. Silver XAG= was up 0.51 percent at $16.926, paring gains from a one-month high of $17.111. Platinum XPT= was up 0.11 percent at $924 after touching a four-week high of $936.20. This year, the two metals have risen by 6 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely and Matthew Lewis '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-precious/gold-breaks-above-1300-oz-on-way-to-best-year-since-2010-idUSKBN1EN1AH'|'2017-12-29T16:57:00.000+02:00'
'f344832dc26041ca50586f952958bd4507939119'|'UPDATE 1-U.S. stock funds attract most cash since 2014 -Lipper'|'(Adds analyst Quote: , details on funds, table, byline) By Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Investors poured $24.1 billion into U.S.-based stock funds in the week to Dec. 27, Lipper said on Thursday, sending a gift to equity markets already on pace to record a year of double-digit percentage gains. This marks the largest week of inflows for mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) collectively since December 2014, according to the Thomson Reuters research service, and comes after U.S. lawmakers finalized a massive corporate tax cut that markets admired. Cash is also shuffling around during a typically active period for funds, despite holidays, as investors plan for taxes and report end-of-year performance statistics. Equity fund outflows totaled $22.2 billion the week prior. The flow result counters the dominant trend in U.S.-based funds this year - a reticence to buy stocks at home despite an S&P 500 index poised to deliver a 2017 return of more than 20 percent. Domestic stock funds posted an estimated $23.4 billion in outflows for the year, according to Lipper, compared to $165 billion inflows for their counterparts invested abroad and $283 billion inflows for funds for taxable bonds. "You see people attracted to equities, but they''re not backing up the truck to buy equities at 20-times earnings," said David Lafferty, chief market strategist at Natixis Investment Managers, referring to the seemingly rich price-to-earnings ratio of the S&P 500. "I don''t see any euphoria." This week, though, domestic equity funds pulled in nearly $18 billion, compared to $6.4 billion to their internationally oriented peers, according to Lipper. Healthcare stock funds, however, posted their seventh straight week of outflows. The U.S. tax bill repealed a requirement that most Americans have insurance or face penalties. Taxable bond funds were hit with a rare week of withdrawals. High-yield bonds, invested in more speculative corporate debt, recorded $240 million in outflows during the week, Lipper said, while lower-risk Treasury funds pulled in $567 million. Money-market funds, where investors park cash, took in $19.3 billion. Funds based in the United States but focused on Chinese stocks took in $408 million during the week, the largest inflows since June 2015, during a week in which strong demand for copper seemed to presage growth in the emerging market and around the world. The following is a breakdown of the flows for the week, including mutual funds and ETFs: Sector Flow Chg % Assets Assets Count ($blns) ($blns) All Equity Funds 24.059 0.37 6,489.336 12,135 Domestic Equities 17.690 0.41 4,365.124 8,657 Non-Domestic Equities 6.369 0.30 2,124.212 3,478 All Taxable Bond Funds -0.342 -0.01 2,620.941 6,047 All Money Market Funds 19.264 0.72 2,691.238 1,032 All Municipal Bond Funds -0.180 -0.05 401.165 1,472 (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Richard Chang and James Dalgleish) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/investment-mutualfunds-lipper/update-1-u-s-stock-funds-attract-most-cash-since-2014-lipper-idINL1N1OS1L4'|'2017-12-28T20:23:00.000+02:00'
'c8ad48fc420c7ac2df28159cff5e93eef9072e7c'|'CORRECTED-US STOCKS-Wall Street set to end the year on dour note'|'December 29, 2017 / 5:55 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago CORRECTED-US STOCKS-Wall Street set to end the year on dour note Reuters Staff (Corrects headline to remove reference to hefty gains) * U.S. stocks on track for best performance since 2013 * Trump targets Amazon in call for postal service to hike prices * Goldman warns of profit hit due to new tax law * Indexes down: Dow 0.06 pct, S&P 0.06 pct, Nasdaq 0.16 pct By Sruthi Shankar Dec 29 (Reuters) - Losses in technology and financial stocks weighed on Wall Street on the last trading day of 2017, in what has been a banner year for U.S. shares. Major indexes hit a series of record highs in 2017, riding on strong economic growth, solid corporate earnings and low interest rates. The benchmark S&P 500 has surged 20 percent this year, the blue-chip Dow more than 25 percent and tech-heavy Nasdaq about 29 percent, setting them up for their best performances since 2013. The market has also shown surprising strength despite tensions in North Korea and political upheavals in Washington. The S&P has closed below 1 percent only four times this year. “By all accounts 2017 has been a great year for the market,” said Arian Vojdani, investment strategist at MV Financial in Bethesda, Maryland. “It is rich (in valuation) as of now and if prices and earnings continue to converge, I wouldn’t be concerned.” Among sectors, the technology index has been the best performer, rising about 37 percent and outpacing gains in the broader S&P index. Telecom services and energy are the only two sectors to end the year in the red. The rally is widely expected to extend into 2018, boosted by gains from a new law that lowers the tax burden on U.S. corporations. At 12:19 p.m. ET (1719 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 14.16 points, or 0.06 percent, at 24,823.35 and the S&P 500 was down 1.79 points, or 0.06 percent, at 2,685.75. The Nasdaq Composite was down 10.92 points, or 0.16 percent, at 6,939.24. Apple declined 0.52 percent after issuing a rare apology for slowing older iPhones with flagging batteries. Goldman Sachs lost 0.5 percent after saying its fourth-quarter profit would take a $5 billion hit related to the new tax law. Trading volumes remained light in the holiday week ahead of New Year. The consumer staples index was the only major gainer, with a 0.5 percent rise. Altria, Coca-Cola and Philip Morris, gained between 0.9 percent and 1.5 percent. Amazon slipped 0.6 percent after President Donald Trump targeted the online retailer in a call for the country’s postal service to raise prices of shipments in order to recoup costs. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,479 to 1,325. On the Nasdaq, 1,510 issues fell and 1,360 advanced. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D‘Silva)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-wall-st-set-to-end-the-year-with-hefty-gains-idUSL4N1OT3S0'|'2017-12-29T19:59:00.000+02:00'
'21d86d49315fb724f1a3d2db163b5382c16f1709'|'Glencore sells parts of oil storage to China''s HNA, awaits U.S. clearance'|'December 29, 2017 / 10:03 AM / Updated an hour ago Glencore sells parts of oil storage to China''s HNA, awaits U.S. clearance Kane Wu 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Swiss-based trading and mining giant Glencore Plc has partly completed the sale of a 51 percent stake in its storage and logistics businesses to a unit of China’s HNA Group, although transfer of some assets is pending U.S. clearance. FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Glencore in March agreed to sell the stake in HG Storage International Ltd, a vehicle that carries its petroleum products storage and logistics portfolio, to HNA Innovation Finance Group Co for $775 million. The commodities trader said on Friday that $579 million of the deal had closed. It added that three assets located in the United States would be transferred to HNA in 2018 upon receiving clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. firms or operations. In a two-year acquisition spree, privately owned HNA has signed $50 billion worth of deals, buying stakes in logistics firms, hotels such as Hilton and even Deutsche Bank. This has prompted U.S. and European authorities to closely examine the Chinese firm’s ownership. CIFUS has not yet given its approval to a number of other major deals by HNA. HNA said, in a separate statement, that the companies had completed the deal and would operate HG Storage International Ltd’s portfolio in Europe, Africa and the Americas as a joint venture. It did not mention any pending U.S. approval for the transfer of three U.S. assets. A spokeswoman for HNA did not have an immediate comment on CFIUS approval. Glencore declined to comment further. CFIUS declined to comment. HNA has come under pressure to provide greater clarity about who owns the conglomerate. The CIFUS process has held up the completion of HNA’s majority stake purchase in Skybridge Capital, owned by former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. This month, U.S. software firm Ness Technologies S.A.R.L. said it was suing HNA for failing to adequately answer CIFUS’ questions about its ownership, accusations that HNA has dismissed as baseless. Glencore had been looking to sell a bundle of its global oil storage stakes, following similar moves by rivals as a boom period for storage showed signs of ending. Demand for storage exploded following the oil price plunge in 2014 because the abundance of crude for immediate delivery meant traders could make millions by buying oil cheaply and storing it to resell later at higher prices. But the appeal of storing oil for Western trading houses decreased when the market balance changed as a result of OPEC-led oil output cuts. HNA has moved increasingly into commodities and logistics in the past year. In September, it announced shareholder approval to buy Singapore’s CWT for $1 billion. CWT’s businesses include logistics services, commodity marketing, financial services and engineering services. Reporting by Kane Wu, additional reporting by Jennifer Hughes in Hong Kong, Clara Denina and Julia Payne in London; editing by Himani Sarkar and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-hna-m-a/glencore-partly-completes-stake-sale-in-oil-storage-assets-to-chinas-hna-idUKKBN1EN0RT'|'2017-12-29T15:03:00.000+02:00'
'0179b1927873c969c40173a7a6810a88001a534b'|'Cryptocurrency stocks holding gains despite bitcoin pullback'|'December 22, 2017 / 7:08 PM / Updated an hour ago Cryptocurrency stocks holding gains despite bitcoin pullback Chuck Mikolajczak 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks that surged in recent weeks because of the cryptocurrency mania have managed to hold onto most of their gains despite the recent retreat in the price of bitcoin and skepticism from market participants. FILE PHOTO: A Bitcoin logo is displayed at the Bitcoin Center New York City in New York''s financial district in NY, U.S. on July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo A Reuters analysis of 17 stocks of companies that have made blockchain or cryptocurrency announcements showed an average gain of 224 percent through Thursday’s close from they released those statements. For example, shares of Long Island Iced Tea Corp ( LTEA.O ) jumped nearly 300 percent on Thursday after the beverage maker said it would rename itself Long Blockchain Corp to reflect a new focus on blockchain technology. The moves are reminiscent of the tech boom, when the market value of companies such as Zapata and Books-A-Million rose sharply after they announced an internet business or an updated website. After the dot-com bubble burst, many of the companies went out of business or became much less valuable. “There’s been a continued surge of crypto headlines,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee. “It’s gotten more worrisome as more companies have changed their names. It’s the kind of stuff you saw back in the dot-com era.” Many of the crypto stocks came under pressure on Friday, as the price of bitcoin BTC=BTSP tumbled below $12,000 to put it on track for its worst week since 2013. Riot Blockchain ( RIOT.O ) dropped 15.3 percent to $23.36, and Overstock.com ( OSTK.O ), which announced in August that it would accept major alt-coins as payment, was down 6.5 percent at $63.05. Even with the declines on Friday, bitcoin itself is still more than double from its price at the start of November while the stocks are still well above their prices before the companies made cryptocurrency announcements. While the stocks are susceptible to price moves in bitcoin itself, analysts caution investors should make sure the company has a credible business model. “It is a buyer beware time,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. “Long term it may hurt these companies because if bitcoin does settle down to being a product that trades like most products and doesn’t have crazy moves every day, it is going to make people look at these companies and ask what is really going on here.” Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-stocks-cryptocurrency-analysis/cryptocurrency-stocks-holding-gains-despite-bitcoin-pullback-idINKBN1EG24Z'|'2017-12-22T21:02:00.000+02:00'
'183ae570093a57fd815dba25e6899d9b95e11d38'|'South Korea''s Hyundai Motor union rejects tentative wage deal'|'Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Reuters TV United States  22 AM / a minute ago South Korea''s Hyundai Motor union rejects tentative wage deal Reuters Staff 1 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co’s ( 005380.KS ) labor union said on Tuesday its members have rejected the tentative wage deal its leadership had agreed with management last week. FILE PHOTO - A worker works at an assembly line of Hyundai Motor''s plant in Asan, South Korea, January 27, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo The union in a statement said 50.2 percent of 45,008 voters rejected the deal as they deemed wage levels were inadequate compared with previous years’ agreements, whereas 48.2 percent accepted the terms. The remaining votes were invalid. The voting took place on Friday with a turnout of 88 percent, with the result tabulated early on Saturday. The union said it will do its best to reach a new tentative wage deal within the year. Hyundai Motor said it will continue to engage in discussions with the union and hopes for an amicable agreement at the earliest time. Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-motor-pay/south-koreas-hyundai-motor-union-rejects-tentative-wage-deal-idUKKBN1EK00V'|'2017-12-26T02:16:00.000+02:00'
'951bb7197e82fc8911571cd0c1e259a14bccaab4'|'Japan''s household spending jumps but BOJ seen keeping stimulus'|'December 25, 2017 / 11:38 PM / Updated 10 hours ago Japan''s households open their wallets, BOJ seen keeping stimulus Leika Kihara 5 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s households spent more than expected in November while consumer inflation ticked up and the jobless rate hit a fresh 24-year low, offering the central bank some hope an economic recovery will drive up inflation to its 2 percent target. A clerk talks to a customer at a flower shop selling new year''s decorations at a shopping mall in Tokyo, Japan December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon But the increase in prices was due mostly to a boost from rising fuel costs that is seen fading in 2018, keeping the Bank of Japan under pressure to maintain its huge monetary support even as other central banks seek an end to crisis-mode policies. Minutes of the BOJ’s October rate review showed that while most central bank policymakers saw no need to ramp up stimulus, they agreed on the need to sustain “powerful” easing for the time being. “There’s a chance inflation may gradually accelerate toward the fiscal year beginning in April,” as a tightening job market pressures companies to raise wages, said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. “But inflation remains distant from the BOJ’s 2 percent target, so the central bank will probably maintain its current policy framework.” Spending was driven by broadbased gains, with households loosening the purse strings for items such as refrigerators, washing machines, and sporting goods and services such as eating-out and travel. Behind the improvement is a slow but steady rise in household income. Wage earners’ disposable income rose 1.8 percent in November from a year earlier, suggesting that higher incomes have encouraged consumers to open their wallets. A stock market boom is also giving households more purchasing power. Japan’s top 4 department stores all saw sales increase in November from a year earlier on brisk demand for luxury items. The nationwide core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil goods but excludes volatile fresh food prices, rose 0.9 percent in November from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday, marking the 11th straight month of gains. The pace of price growth was just ahead of October’s 0.8 percent and a median market forecast of the same rate. Despite the increase seen in wages, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has urged companies to raise wages by 3 percent or more next year, keeping pressure on firms to spend their huge cash pile to broaden the benefits of his stimulus policies. A woman holds shopping bags as she stands in front of a railway station in Tokyo, Japan December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon A Reuters poll published earlier this month found two-thirds of Japanese firms think the government’s push to raise wages by 3 percent is a tall order, with some dismissing it out of hand. JOB MARKET TIGHTENS FURTHER Separate data released on Tuesday showed prospects for a sustained recovery were picking up. The unemployment rate hit a fresh 24-year low of 2.7 percent in November and job availability rose to a nearly 44-year high. Slideshow (4 Images) Household spending rose 1.7 percent in November from a year earlier, far exceeding forecasts for a 0.5 percent increase. The slew of upbeat data may offer relief to BOJ policymakers, who are increasingly worried about the demerits of ultra-easy policy but wary of choking off a budding economic recovery by dialing back stimulus too quickly. At the October rate review, several BOJ policymakers voiced concern of taking “extreme steps” just to hit their price goal, countering calls by board newcomer Goushi Kataoka that additional easing measures were necessary. Most members felt that maintaining current policy was sufficient, though conceding it may take some time before firms more actively raise prices and wages, the minutes showed. “It seems so difficult for many firms to take the first step to raise their prices, that they wait and see what other firms are doing,” BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday. Japan’s economy grew an annualized 2.5 percent in July-September to mark a seventh straight quarter of growth thanks to robust exports and capital expenditure. But the inflation rate remains distant from the BOJ’s target, as firms remain wary of scaring away cost-sensitive consumers with price hikes. The BOJ kept monetary policy steady in October and a subsequent meeting in December, reassuring markets it will lag well behind overseas peers in ending its ultra-loose monetary settings. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-cpi/japan-november-core-cpi-rises-0-9-percent-year-on-year-idUKKBN1EJ0WU'|'2017-12-26T04:55:00.000+02:00'
'8bc95b31e575dafd1c8e8c76a944921f355d400b'|'SEBI tightens shareholding norms for rating agencies, mutual funds'|'December 28, 2017 / 3:47 PM / in 4 hours SEBI tightens shareholding norms for rating agencies, mutual funds Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) unveiled a number of measures on Thursday to boost governance and resolve issues around conflicts of interest for credit rating agencies (CRAs) and asset management companies (AMCs). The logo of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is pictured on the premises of its headquarters in Mumbai, India March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files No CRA will be allowed to hold a stake of more than 10 percent, directly or indirectly, in any other CRA or have a position on the board, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said. ( bit.ly/2BOMbwa ) Shareholders with a stake of 10 percent or more in a CRA will not be permitted to hold 10 percent or more of the shares in any other CRA, except for pension funds, insurance schemes and mutual fund schemes, the regulator said. The regulator similarly curbed cross-holdings in asset management companies on Thursday after the conclusion of its quarterly board meeting. SEBI raised the minimum net worth requirement of a CRA to 250 million rupees from 50 million rupees. The regulator has been tightening norms for credit rating agencies, including increasing disclosure requirements, in a bid to boost transparency and accountability. SEBI also relaxed conditions for foreign portfolio investors to enter Indian markets as part of efforts to curb the use ofparticipatory notes -- products created by banks to track Indianshares, debt and derivatives.A government-appointed panel warned in 2015 that P-notes could lead to “misuse”, including money laundering or the channelling into domestic markets of unaccounted wealth held by Indians abroad. Reporting by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-sebi-board/sebi-tightens-shareholding-norms-for-rating-agencies-mutual-funds-idINKBN1EM1G7'|'2017-12-28T17:44:00.000+02:00'
'1a510cd7d7f45ff04dd3e965e909f3b4224a1091'|'BRIEF-Bombardier To Provide 40 TRAXX Locomotives And Long-Term Fleet Maintenance To TX Logistik'|' 23 PM / in 14 minutes BRIEF-Bombardier To Provide 40 TRAXX Locomotives And Long-Term Fleet Maintenance To TX Logistik   Bombardier Inc: * BOMBARDIER TO PROVIDE 40 TRAXX LOCOMOTIVES AND LONG-TERM FLEET MAINTENANCE TO TX LOGISTIK * BOMBARDIER TRANSPORTATION - CONTRACT FOR 40 LOCOMOTIVES AND 15 YEARS FLEET MAINTENANCE IS VALUED AT EURO 250 MILLION * BOMBARDIER TRANSPORTATION - CONTRACT ALSO INCLUDES OPTION FOR UP TO 25 ADDITIONAL LOCOMOTIVES & DELIVERIES PLANNED TO START IN SUMMER 2019  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-bombardier-to-provide-40-traxx-loc/brief-bombardier-to-provide-40-traxx-locomotives-and-long-term-fleet-maintenance-to-tx-logistik-idUSFWN1OS036'|'2017-12-28T14:21:00.000+02:00'
'110cd0ab8d5b5b1872fc1db427e52fb5e2190e8e'|'Trump targets Amazon in call for postal service to hike prices'|'WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) - President Donald Trump called on the U.S. Postal Service on Friday to charge “much more” to ship packages for Amazon Amazon, picking another fight with the online retail giant he has criticized in the past.“Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!” Trump wrote on Twitter.The president’s tweet drew fresh attention to the fragile finances of the postal service at a time when tens of millions of parcels have been shipped all over the country for the holiday season.The U.S. Postal Service, which runs at a big loss, is an independent agency within the federal government and does not receive tax dollars for operating expenses, according to its website.The U.S. president does not determine postal rates. They are set by the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent government agency with commissioners selected by the president from both political parties. That panel raised prices on packages by almost 2 percent in November.Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos, who remains the chief executive officer of the retail company and is the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg. Bezos also owns The Washington Post, a newspaper that Trump has repeatedly railed against in his criticisms of the news media.In tweets over the past year, Trump has said the “Amazon Washington Post” fabricated stories. He has said Amazon does not pay sales tax, which is not true, and so hurts other retailers, part of a pattern by the former businessman and reality television host of periodically turning his ire on big American companies since he took office in January.Daniel Ives, a research analyst at GBH Insights, said Trump’s comment could be taken as a warning to the retail giant. However, he said he was not concerned for Amazon.“We do not see any price hikes in the future. However, that is a risk that Amazon is clearly aware of and (it) is building out its distribution (system) aggressively,” he said.Amazon has shown interest in the past in shifting into its own delivery service. In 2015, the company spent $11.5 billion on shipping, 46 percent of its total operating expenses that year.Amazon shares were down 0.86 percent to $1,175.90 by early afternoon. Overall, U.S. stock prices were down slightly on Friday.MILLIONS OF PARCELS FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in Manhattan, New York, U.S., January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo Satish Jindel, president of ShipMatrix Inc., which analyses shipping data, disputed the idea that the Postal Service charges less than United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp, the other biggest players in the parcel delivery business in the United States.Many customers get lower rates from UPS and FedEx than they would get from the post office for comparable services, he said.The Postal Service delivers about 62 percent of Amazon packages, for about 3.5 to 4 million a day during the current peak year-end holiday shipping season, Jindel said. The Seattle-based company and the post office have an agreement in which mail carriers take Amazon packages on the last leg of their journeys, from post offices to customers’ doorsteps.Amazon’s No. 2 carrier is UPS, at 21 percent, and FedEx is third, with 8 percent or so, according to Jindel.Representatives for Amazon, the White House, the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS declined comment or were not immediately available for comment on Trump’s tweet.According to its annual report, the Postal Service lost $2.74 billion this year, and its deficit has ballooned to $61.86 billion.While the postal service’s revenue for first class mail, marketing mail and periodicals is flat or declining, revenue from package delivery is up 44 percent since 2014 to $19.5 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2017.But it also lost about $2 billion in revenue when a temporary surcharge expired in April 2016.According to a General Accounting Office report in February, the service is facing growing personnel expenses, particularly $73.4 billion in unfunded pension and benefits liabilities. The postal service has not announced any plans to cut costs.By law, the postal service has to set prices for package delivery to cover the costs attributable to that service. But the postal allocates only 5.5 percent of its total costs to its business of shipping packages even though that line of business is 28 percent of its total revenue.Graphic - U.S. Postal Service Revenues from 2014 to 2017: reut.rs/2BUqKcSAdditional reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru, India; Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Damon Darlin and Frances Kerry '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-amazon-com/trump-targets-amazon-in-call-for-postal-service-to-hike-prices-idINKBN1EN15P'|'2017-12-29T20:07:00.000+02:00'
'a4406608e9699b4b33a61426c66182dbfa5cdca4'|'Sensex, Nifty little changed after clocking record highs'|'December 26, 2017 / 6:29 AM / Updated 10 hours ago Sensex, Nifty end at record highs Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Indian shares ended at all-time highs on Tuesday, fuelled by gains in telecom stocks after Reliance Communications Ltd revealed a new debt-reduction plan with no write-offs. A broker monitors share prices at a brokerage firm in Mumbai August 8, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer/Files The benchmark BSE Sensex breached the 34,000-mark for the first time and ended 0.21 percent higher at 34,010.61. The broader NSE Nifty rose 0.37 percent to close at an all-time high of 10,531.50. Shares of Reliance Communications ended 31.9 percent higher after the company said it would reduce its debt by about 250 billion rupees through the sale of some of its spectrum, tower and real-estate assets. Bharti Airtel Ltd rose as much as 3.3 percent and was the top percentage gainer on the Nifty. Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-stocks/sensex-nifty-little-changed-after-clocking-record-highs-idINKBN1EK0C3'|'2017-12-26T08:25:00.000+02:00'
'3d90a275e7bb4ac6d5c44d29bfb1d97ce054e352'|'Apple suppliers drop on report of weak iPhone X demand; analysts'' views mixed'|'December 26, 2017 / 10:42 AM / in 2 hours Apple suppliers drop on report of weak iPhone X demand; analysts'' views mixed Cate Cadell 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Shares in several of Apple Inc’s Asian suppliers fell for a second straight day on Tuesday, hurt by a report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily and some analysts saying that iPhone X demand could come in below expectations in the first quarter. FILE PHOTO: An attendee uses a new iPhone X during a presentation for the media in Beijing, China October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo Apple will slash its sales forecast for the iPhone X in the quarter to 30 million units, the Taiwanese newspaper said on Monday, citing unidentified sources - down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units. Apple has not publicly disclosed quarterly sales targets for the iPhone X, which went on sale in November. Some analysts have also flagged disappointing demand. U.S.-based JL Warren Capital is predicting shipments of just 25 million units as consumers baulk at the “high price point and a lack of interesting innovations”. Chinese broker Sinolink Securities said it expects the model’s price would dampen consumer enthusiasm for the product, adding that slow production rates could also hinder sales. But others were more bullish. “Our work continues to suggest the March and June quarters will have a significant amount of iPhone X make-up shipments,” Chicago-based Loop Capital said in a note last week, forecasting shipments of 40-45 million units in the first quarter of 2018, up from an estimated 30-35 million units in the current quarter. Analysts at Jefferies have also forecast around 40 million iPhone X sales for the first quarter. An Apple spokeswoman said the company does not comment on market rumors. During a trip to China this month Apple CEO Tim Cook said he “couldn’t be happier” with the demand for the iPhone X in the country. Apple suppliers that were most hit included Genius Electronic Optical Co Ltd which dropped 2.4 percent on Tuesday to take its losses this week to 11.4 percent. Pegatron Corp also fell on both days, losing 3.2 percent this week. But falls for Foxconn, one of Apple’s main suppliers formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, were milder and it has lost only 1.8 percent over the two days. A Reuters analysis of Chinese social media shows that interest in the iPhone X - which spiked around its launch - has not kept pace with the highly popular iPhone 6 released in 2014, which helped then drive massive sales for Apple in China. There were only 4.97 million Weibo posts mentioning the iPhone X so far in December compared to over 11 million for the iPhone 6 in the equivalent period in 2014, the analysis showed. Apple’s stock has risen over 50 percent in 2017 and is currently valued at just under $900 billion. Reporting by Cate Cadell; Additional reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-apple-iphone/apple-suppliers-drop-on-report-of-weak-iphone-x-demand-analysts-views-mixed-idINKBN1EK0MH'|'2017-12-26T12:47:00.000+02:00'
'92bcce45a4649d6e615d0693c4f2c54f01eddded'|'China imports no iron ore, coal, lead from North Korea in November - customs'|'December 26, 2017 / 7:28 AM / Updated 6 hours ago China halts oil product exports to North Korea in November as sanctions bite Ryan Woo , Muyu Xu 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China exported no oil products to North Korea in November, Chinese customs data showed, apparently going above and beyond sanctions imposed earlier this year by the United Nations in a bid to limit petroleum shipments to the isolated country. FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past oil pipes at a refinery in Wuhan, Hubei province March 23, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Tensions have flared anew over North Korea’s ongoing nuclear and missile programmes, pursued in defiance of years of U.N. resolutions. Last week, the U.N. Security Council imposed new caps on trade with North Korea, including limiting oil product shipments to just 500,000 barrels a year. Beijing also imported no iron ore, coal or lead from North Korea in November, the second full month of the latest trade sanctions imposed by U.N. China, the main source of North Korea’s fuel, did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil to its isolated neighbour last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday. November was the second straight month China exported no diesel or gasoline to North Korea. The last time China’s jet fuel shipments to Pyongyang were at zero was in February 2015. “This is a natural outcome of the tightening of the various sanctions against North Korea,” said Cai Jian, an expert on North Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai. The tightening “reflects China’s stance”, he said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she didn’t know any details about the oil products export situation. “As a principle, China has consistently fully, correctly, conscientiously and strictly enforced relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea. We have already established a set of effective operating mechanisms and methods,” she said at a regular briefing on Tuesday, without elaborating. Since June, state-run China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) [CNPET.UL] has suspended sales of gasoline and diesel to North Korea, concerned that it would not get paid for its goods, Reuters previously reported. Beijing’s move to turn off the taps completely is rare. A North Korean iron ore mine, near the North Korean town of Musan is seen in this general view taken May 11, 2013. REUTERS/John Ruwitch In March 2003, China suspended oil supplies to North Korea for three days after Pyongyang fired a missile into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. It is unknown if China still sells crude oil to Pyongyang. Beijing has not disclosed its crude exports to North Korea for several years. Industry sources say China still supplies about 520,000 tonnes, or 3.8 million barrels, of crude a year to North Korea via an aging pipeline. That is a little more than 10,000 barrels a day, and worth about $200 million a year at current prices. North Korea also sources some of its oil from Russia. TOTAL TRADE LESS THAN $400 MILLION Chinese exports of corn to North Korean in November also slumped, down 82 percent from a year earlier to 100 tonnes, the lowest since January. Exports of rice plunged 64 percent to 672 tonnes, the lowest since March. Trade between North Korea and China has slowed through the year, particularly after China banned coal purchases in February. In November, China’s trade with North Korea totalled $388 million, one of the lowest monthly volumes this year. China has renewed its call on all countries to make constructive efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, urging the use of peaceful means to resolve issues. But tensions flared again after North Korea on Nov. 29 said it had tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons. Meanwhile Chinese exports of liquefied petroleum gas to North Korea, used for cooking, rose 58 percent in November from a year earlier to 99 tonnes. Exports of ethanol, which can be turned into a biofuel, gained 82 percent to 3,428 cubic metres. To view a graphic on China''s trade with North Korea click on this link tmsnrt.rs/2BDYD1F Reporting by Muyu Xu and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Meng Meng, Hallie Gu, Christian Shepherd and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-trade-northkorea/china-imports-no-iron-ore-coal-lead-from-north-korea-in-november-customs-idUKKBN1EK0FB'|'2017-12-26T09:07:00.000+02:00'
'c86988527cabc2fe7adcdf96691ebf520cc5d018'|'RBS to pay $125 million to settle California mortgage bond claims'|'December 23, 2017 / 4:38 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago RBS to pay $125 million to settle California mortgage bond claims Nate Raymond 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will pay $125 million to resolve claims that it made misrepresentations while selling mortgage-backed securities to two large California pension funds, the state’s attorney general has announced. The settlement announced on Friday by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was the latest by RBS aimed at resolving claims stemming from its sale of mortgage-backed securities, which were at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis. Becerra’s office said those securities were typically backed by thousands of mortgage loans of varying quality in which the buyer relied on the assurance that those mortgages were carefully screened and were not overly risky. Becerra’s office also said its investigations found that RBS failed to accurately disclose to investors the true traits of many of the thousands of mortgages underlying the securities. The probe also found that those misrepresentations led to millions of dollars in losses to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Becerra’s office said. “RBS decided to mislead California’s pension funds in order to line its own pockets - plain and simple,” Becerra said in a statement. RBS Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan in a statement on Saturday said the bank was pleased to have reached the settlement, which related to issues with mortgage-backed securities in 2004 to 2008. “We have been very clear that putting our remaining legacy issues behind us is a key part of our strategy,” he said. The settlement comes as RBS continues to seek to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into its sales of mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis. In July, RBS agreed to pay $5.5 billion to resolve a lawsuit by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, claiming that it misled the U.S. mortgage giants into buying mortgage-backed securities. In September 2016, the U.S. National Credit Union Administration announced that RBS had agreed to pay $1.1 billion to resolve claims over mortgage-backed securities it sold to credit unions that later failed. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sam Holmes and Andrea Ricci'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rbs-settlement/rbs-to-pay-125-million-to-settle-california-mortgage-bond-claims-idUSKBN1EH050'|'2017-12-23T06:33:00.000+02:00'
'aa7f3860eb4fb37f180bb6e893987c4c7e29bd71'|'Boeing seen eyeing broad Embraer deal, but no firm proposal made'|'Reuters TV United States December 23, 2017 / 11:48 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Boeing seen eyeing broad Embraer deal, but no firm proposal made Tim Hepher 5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing Co ( BA.N ) is eyeing a broad partnership with Embraer ( EMBR3.SA ) reaching beyond commercial aircraft to defense and global services, but its shape hinges on talks with the Brazilian government. The Embraer Phenom 300 is displayed during the Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition fair (LABACE) at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker The U.S. aerospace group has yet to make a formal offer and its final structure would be driven by talks that are expected to resume in coming weeks - but sources say the aim is to go well beyond traditional joint ventures or an equity infusion. “A broader combination would be preferred but Boeing is sensitive to concerns the government may have about issues like defense. If those can be addressed ... this deal can get done,” a person with direct knowledge of the discussions said. Political obstacles to a deal have eased since a U.S. spying scandal helped derail a Boeing fighter sale to Brazil in 2013. Brazilian President Michel Temer, who took office last year, has pushed a market-friendly agenda aimed at privatizing utilities and reducing the government’s role in state-run firms. But Temer has been wrestling with single-digit poll ratings and officials have warned they would veto any full bid. “The companies are now working through the regulatory issues with the government of Brazil. The defense portfolio would be handled in accordance with the government of Brazil and the golden share and discussions are ongoing,” the person said. A tie-up would round out Boeing’s commercial portfolio at the lower end where sales have been slow, and echo a venture between Airbus and Canada’s Bombardier on the CSeries jet. Analysts say October’s deal for Airbus to control the new Canadian project left Embraer looking exposed with its smaller E-Jet, and keenly aware that China may be on the prowl again after seeing its own efforts to buy the CSeries thwarted. Though most sources say that deal rang alarms at Embraer, people involved in the Boeing talks insist they are independent. “It is a longstanding relationship that has evolved over time. These discussions have been going on for the better part of a year and came into greater focus in the last few months, but well before the Airbus and Bombardier announcement. It is not a reactive play,” the person with direct knowledge said. ‘GROWTH PLAY’ FILE PHOTO: Boeing''s logo is seen during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo Boeing and Embraer have long pondered commercial links and sources say they were close to a deal last decade for the Brazilian company to work on the next Boeing single-aisle jet. In 2012 they agreed to work on safety and alternative fuel. Their partnership expanded to include Boeing’s joint sales and support for Embraer’s KC-390 military transporter. But Boeing is now wooing the privatized firm with a broad offer including access to a global supply chain and new markets for the KC-390 and Brazil’s Super Tucano light attack plane. Analysts say Embraer would value access to the U.S. defense market while Boeing hopes to steady a defense portfolio weakened by slow fighter sales and the end of C-17 transport production, although there are many hurdles to full military co-operation. “It gives Embraer access to Boeing’s balance sheet, greater access to U.S. defense and international markets and alignment of a global supply chain and services,” the person said. “It’s a growth play that would result in more planes being built in Brazil due to more sales volume from a stronger combined portfolio and with broader benefits to the customer.” Observers say the two managements are culturally close and broadly in step on issues like trade, where they are waging parallel battles against alleged Bombardier subsidies. A tie-up is also not expected to strain Boeing financially. But with pride at stake and Brazil still limping out of severe recession, any deal is expected to depend on cast-iron assurances over autonomy and jobs. “It would not be Boeing plus Embraer with a small ‘e’. Embraer would keep its brand identity, management and jobs footprint,” the person said. Boeing said on Friday it respected the need to safeguard the company’s defense and other state links. Reporting By Tim Hepher; Editing by Edmund Blair'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-embraer-m-a-boeing-structure/boeing-seen-eyeing-broad-embraer-deal-but-no-firm-proposal-made-idUKKBN1EH0C7'|'2017-12-23T13:36:00.000+02:00'
'83bb161d3d2930dbe7efa8cbc716667582ffa4bf'|'Australia''s Wesfarmers to sell Curragh coal mine for $539 mln'|'December 21, 2017 / 9:47 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Australia''s Wesfarmers to sell Curragh coal mine for $539 mln Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 22 (Reuters) - Wesfarmers Ltd said on Friday it would sell its Curragh coal mine in Queensland to Texas-based Coronado Coal Group for A$700 million ($539 million). Wesfarmers expected to report a post-tax profit of about A$100 million on the sale, the Australian retail-to-mining conglomerate said in a statement. ($1 = 1.2985 Australian dollars) (Reporting By Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/wesfarmers-divestiture-curragh/australias-wesfarmers-to-sell-curragh-coal-mine-for-539-mln-idUSL4N1OL5MW'|'2017-12-21T23:46:00.000+02:00'
'448f182de1a76297649168844c43d62b4ad8fd90'|'Vice Media co-founders apologise for ''boy''s club'' environment at firm'|'December 23, 2017 / 11:22 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Vice Media co-founders apologise for ''boy''s club'' environment at firm Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Vice Media co-founders issued an apology on Saturday, saying the Millennial-focused media company had allowed a “boy’s club” atmosphere that included sexual harassment to flourish. Co-Founders of VICE Shane Smith (L) and Suroosh Alvi (R) pose as they arrive for the 20th Annual Webby Awards in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar Vice Chief Executive Officer Shane Smith and co-founder Suroosh Alvi released a statement after the New York Times published a story outlining four settlements by the company involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees. The newspaper also reported that more than two dozen women had experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct at the company. In the emailed statement sent to Reuters addressing Vice staff, Smith and Alvi said three employees had been fired for “unacceptable behaviour.” Smith and Alvi also laid out steps the company is taking to improve the work atmosphere for women, including hiring a new human resources chief and committing to equal pay for men and women by the end of 2018. “From the top down, we have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive,” they said. In apologising for allowing the “inappropriate behaviour” to permeate the company, Smith and Alvi said past dysfunction and mismanagement were allowed to “flourish unchecked.” They added that they wanted to express “extreme regret for our role in perpetuating sexism in the media industry and society in general.” Neither Smith nor Alvi were accused of misconduct in the New York Times story. A spokesman for Vice did not respond to a request for further comment on the story. Vice, which started as a Montreal punk magazine in 1994, attracted top investors in recent years as the multimedia company evolved into a news and entertainment platform that catered to Millennials. The Walt Disney Co owns an 18 percent stake. Private equity firm TPG in June invested $450 million (£336.8 million) in Vice, valuing Vice at about $5.7 billion. Representatives for both Disney and TPG could not immediately be reached for comment about Vice’s apology. Other changes outlined Saturday by Vice include the formation of a diversity board that includes feminist icon Gloria Steinem, clarified sexual harassment policies, and expanded maternity and paternity leaves. Reporting by Ben Klayman; editing by Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-vice-media-apology/vice-media-co-founders-apologise-for-boys-club-environment-at-firm-idUKKBN1EH0Q3'|'2017-12-24T12:06:00.000+02:00'
'8e3b6c6f3ef7ac43b9e02dd861c1e0117284a43c'|'U.S. department store stocks jump on holiday spending record'|'December 26, 2017 / 8:05 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago U.S. department store stocks jump on holiday spending record Richa Naidu 3 Min Read CHICAGO (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. department stores jumped on Tuesday as Mastercard Inc ( MA.N ) said shoppers spent over $800 billion during the season, more than ever before, boosted by growing consumer confidence, rising employment and early discounts. FILE PHOTO: A woman shops inside a store at Roosevelt Field shopping mall in Garden City, New York, U.S., November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Sarah Quinlan, head of market insights for Mastercard Advisors, disclosed the figure after the payments processor’s analytics arm published its SpendingPulse retail report. The report said holiday sales in stores and online between Nov 1 and Dec 24 rose 4.9 percent, the fastest year-on-year pace of increase since 2011. Mastercard, which tracks spending by combining sales activity in its payments network with estimates of cash and other payment forms, excluded automobile sales from its figures. Most U.S. retail stocks have tumbled this year as they continued to lose sales to online stores, mainly Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ). Traditional players have also been hurt by heavy investments in technology and discounting, made to keep up with online and off-price competition. Shares in J.C. Penney Co Inc ( JCP.N ) rose 7.6 percent on Tuesday, while Kohl’s Corp ( KSS.N ) shares were up 5.8 percent, Macy’s Inc ( M.N ) rose 5.1 percent and Nordstrom Inc ( JWN.N ) increased 2.8 percent. SpendingPulse said the moderate sales increases seen in apparel and department stores were particularly impressive given this year’s slew of store closures. Online sales rose 18.1 percent during the holiday season, thanks to a late rally in sales, according to Mastercard. “But that’s probably only 11 or 12 percent of total retail sales ... the bulk of sales still is very much in stores,” said Quinlan. “There’s growth, don’t get me wrong, but we still love that experience of being in store.” The biggest winner of the holiday season was likely to be Amazon.com once again, however, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted this month. Amazon.com said on Tuesday that it had topped its worldwide holiday sales record this year, with more than 4 million people opting to trial Amazon Prime in one week during the period. Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-holidayshopping/u-s-department-store-stocks-jump-on-holiday-spending-record-idINKBN1EK1BS'|'2017-12-26T22:03:00.000+02:00'
'08e9b854fb929ddc21b4a009f9c0f25afd68ffe3'|'Uber to sell U.S. auto-leasing business to Fair.com - WSJ'|'December 26, 2017 / 11:48 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago Uber to sell U.S. auto-leasing business to Fair.com: WSJ Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its U.S. auto-leasing business Xchange Leasing to startup car marketplace Fair.com, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO - The Uber logo is seen on a screen in Singapore August 4, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Picture The net book value of Xchange Leasing''s more than 30,000 vehicles was about $400 million, WSJ reported, citing a company document that was compiled for prospective buyers. ( on.wsj.com/2BB3YXv ) Uber said in September it was shutting down its U.S. auto-leasing business and moving toward a less capital-intensive approach. The Xchange Leasing business, which has about 40,000 vehicles and 14 showrooms in the United States, had attracted interest from buyers who were considering buying it outright, according to a Reuters report in August. Uber and Fair.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours. Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-leasing/uber-to-sell-u-s-auto-leasing-business-to-fair-com-wsj-idUKKBN1EK0R2'|'2017-12-26T13:44:00.000+02:00'
'fcb9ad165d7f6a86d60f25d525171f9c4f87e778'|'China imports no iron ore, coal, lead from North Korea in November: customs'|'December 26, 2017 / 7:29 AM / Updated 8 hours ago China halts oil product exports to North Korea in November as sanctions bite Ryan Woo , Muyu Xu 4 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China exported no oil products to North Korea in November, Chinese customs data showed, apparently going above and beyond sanctions imposed earlier this year by the United Nations in a bid to limit petroleum shipments to the isolated country. FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past oil pipes at a refinery in Wuhan, Hubei province March 23, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Tensions have flared anew over North Korea’s ongoing nuclear and missile programmes, pursued in defiance of years of U.N. resolutions. Last week, the U.N. Security Council imposed new caps on trade with North Korea, including limiting oil product shipments to just 500,000 barrels a year. Beijing also imported no iron ore, coal or lead from North Korea in November, the second full month of the latest trade sanctions imposed by U.N. China, the main source of North Korea’s fuel, did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil to its isolated neighbour last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday. November was the second straight month China exported no diesel or gasoline to North Korea. The last time China’s jet fuel shipments to Pyongyang were at zero was in February 2015. “This is a natural outcome of the tightening of the various sanctions against North Korea,” said Cai Jian, an expert on North Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai. The tightening “reflects China’s stance”, he said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she didn’t know any details about the oil products export situation. “As a principle, China has consistently fully, correctly, conscientiously and strictly enforced relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea. We have already established a set of effective operating mechanisms and methods,” she said at a regular briefing on Tuesday, without elaborating. Since June, state-run China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) [CNPET.UL] has suspended sales of gasoline and diesel to North Korea, concerned that it would not get paid for its goods, Reuters previously reported. Beijing’s move to turn off the taps completely is rare. A North Korean iron ore mine, near the North Korean town of Musan is seen in this general view taken May 11, 2013. REUTERS/John Ruwitch In March 2003, China suspended oil supplies to North Korea for three days after Pyongyang fired a missile into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. It is unknown if China still sells crude oil to Pyongyang. Beijing has not disclosed its crude exports to North Korea for several years. Industry sources say China still supplies about 520,000 tonnes, or 3.8 million barrels, of crude a year to North Korea via an aging pipeline. That is a little more than 10,000 barrels a day, and worth about $200 million a year at current prices. North Korea also sources some of its oil from Russia. TOTAL TRADE LESS THAN $400 MILLION Chinese exports of corn to North Korean in November also slumped, down 82 percent from a year earlier to 100 tonnes, the lowest since January. Exports of rice plunged 64 percent to 672 tonnes, the lowest since March. Trade between North Korea and China has slowed through the year, particularly after China banned coal purchases in February. In November, China’s trade with North Korea totalled $388 million, one of the lowest monthly volumes this year. China has renewed its call on all countries to make constructive efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, urging the use of peaceful means to resolve issues. But tensions flared again after North Korea on Nov. 29 said it had tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons. Meanwhile Chinese exports of liquefied petroleum gas to North Korea, used for cooking, rose 58 percent in November from a year earlier to 99 tonnes. Exports of ethanol, which can be turned into a biofuel, gained 82 percent to 3,428 cubic metres. To view a graphic on China''s trade with North Korea click on this link tmsnrt.rs/2BDYD1F Reporting by Muyu Xu and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Meng Meng, Hallie Gu, Christian Shepherd and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Tom Hogue'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-trade-northkorea/china-imports-no-iron-ore-coal-lead-from-north-korea-in-november-customs-idINKBN1EK0FB'|'2017-12-26T09:19:00.000+02:00'
'cc38c66e95d178e24bff7a78edb3daae29487f4f'|'IAG is remaining bidder for insolvent airline Niki - source'|'December 28, 2017 / 1:47 PM / Updated 34 minutes ago IAG is remaining bidder for insolvent airline Niki - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - British Airways owner IAG ( ICAG.L ) is negotiating exclusively with Niki’s insolvency administrator to take over the collapsed Austrian airline, a source close to the process said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - A man walks past an empty Niki customer care desk at Palma de Mallorca airport, Spain, December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Clara Margais “IAG is the last remaining bidder and is still negotiating now,” the person said, adding that the company had put in the highest offer - a double-digit million-euro amount. Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-niki-iag/iag-is-remaining-bidder-for-insolvent-airline-niki-source-idUKKBN1EM18L'|'2017-12-28T15:46:00.000+02:00'
'a9fa79a6fc5f0c68abd9d5899cf8eba01f1ee031'|'Oil prices near 2015 highs on tight market'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Thursday but stayed close to their highest in 2-1/2 years, as data showed strong demand for crude imports in China and on increased refining activity in the United States that drew more crude from inventories.FILE PHOTO: An oil rig off the coast of Johor, Malaysia November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Henning Gloystein/File Photo Trading was typically thin at year end, with many traders on vacation.The U.S. Energy Department said crude stocks fell 4.6 million barrels in the latest week. Inventories excluding the nation’s strategic reserve have declined more than 11 percent in the last year.U.S. refining runs increased, pushing overall capacity use among the nation’s refiners to 95.7 percent, highest in December dating to 1998, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Refiners have profited in recent months as the spread widened between U.S. crude and Brent futures prices.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped 13 cents to $59.51 a barrel as of 11:35 a.m. EST (1635 GMT), a day after briefly touching $60 a barrel. Brent crude futures fell 11 cents to $66.33 a barrel.This week, WTI broke through $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015, while Brent breached $67 for the first time since May 2015. A Reuters monthly poll showed analysts expect Brent crude to stay close to $60 in 2018.Oil markets have tightened after a year of production cuts led by Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. OPEC cuts kicked off last January and are scheduled to continue throughout 2018.Countering those cutbacks, U.S. oil production has soared more than 16 percent since mid-2016 and is approaching 10 million bpd, trailing only OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and Russia.In the most recent week, U.S. production dipped modestly to 9.75 million bpd from 9.79 mln bpd the previous week.In early trade, prices were supported by China’s release of strong import quotas for 2018. China’s crude inventories in November hit a seven-year low of 26.15 million tonnes, Xinhua data showed.Pipeline outages in Libya and the North Sea have also supported prices. Libyan oil supplies were disrupted by an attack on a pipeline this week and flows towards the port of Es Sider were reduced by about 70,000 bpd on Thursday.In the North Sea, the 450,000 bpd capacity Forties pipeline system was shut this month after a crack was found.Both pipelines are expected to return to normal operations over the new year or in early January.Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Goodman and David Gregorio '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-oil/oil-prices-near-2015-highs-on-tight-market-idINKBN1EM0A7'|'2017-12-28T06:06:00.000+02:00'
'0fd66911335ea41df41249585596b134cec720ec'|'Carmaker PSA eyes collective bargaining over future job cuts - union'|'December 28, 2017 / 8:27 AM / Updated an hour ago Carmaker PSA eyes collective bargaining over future job cuts - union Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French carmaker PSA ( PEUP.PA ) is considering adopting a collective bargaining process with its workforce over future job cuts, said a trade union official on Thursday, with some unions warning the move could make it easier for PSA to shed staff. Officials at PSA could not be immediately reached to comment on the matter, first reported by newspaper Le Parisien. CFTC trade union representative Franck Don said the collective bargaining option would be on the agenda at a Jan 9 works council meeting, while CGT trade union official Jean-Pierre Mercier said such a move could make it easier for PSA to sack workers. PSA is looking to cut costs in order to boost its overall financial performance. The French company has given its Opel arm until 2020 to return to profit as part of a recovery plan aimed at shifting the brand’s model lineup onto PSA’s architecture, with PSA pursuing 1.7 billion euros (1.5 billion pounds) in savings from its purchase of Opel. Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-psa-jobs/carmaker-psa-eyes-collective-bargaining-over-future-job-cuts-union-idUKKBN1EM0MS'|'2017-12-28T10:26:00.000+02:00'
'5015d17953211e1682871be75c09b45809998745'|'Oil, metals rally supports Asian stocks, dollar steady'|'December 27, 2017 / 1:04 AM / Updated 21 minutes ago Asia stocks up as metals rally signals solid growth outlook Swati Pandey 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Wednesday with oil and copper prices rocketing to multi-year highs in an uplifting sign for global growth and inflation, while major currencies were becalmed in a holiday-shortened week. People walk past an electronic board showing Japan''s Nikkei average (L), the Dow Jones average (C), and the exchange rates between the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.3 percent to near a recent one-month top. For the year so far, the index has surged about 32 percent thanks to stellar corporate earnings in a strengthening global economy. A gauge of world shares hovered near record highs, after gaining in every single month this year. Pointing to a positive start for European and U.S. shares, FTSE futures inched up 0.2 percent while S&P e-mini futures and Dow minis were also a touch firmer. The gains in Asia came as copper - widely regarded as a barometer of global growth - jumped for a ninth straight session to a 3-1/2 year peak on expectations of strong demand from China. Oil was equally robust, but it was supply fears that kept it near its highest since mid-2015. Chinese customs data released on Tuesday showed that the country’s refined copper imports leapt 19 percent in November from a year earlier. “My sense is that the rally in copper supports expectations that 2018 is going to be a strong year for synchronized global growth,” said Greg McKenna, chief strategist at AxiTrader. “We see there are small bets being placed for further price growth in the New Year.” The commodities rally boosted shares in resource-dependent Australia, sending the country’s benchmark index to decade highs. Mining giant BHP Billiton, Woodside Petroleum and gold miner Newcrest were among the top gainers. In addition, Asian suppliers of iPhone enjoyed a stellar rebound after sliding earlier this week on a report suggesting weaker demand for iPhoneX. Taiwan’s Pegatron Corp and Hon Hai climbed more than 1 percent, while Apple Inc’s rival Samsung Electronics rose more 2 percent. COMMODITY PRICE PRESSURES In forex markets, trading was thin with most major currencies muted. The euro was up 0.2 percent to $1.18780 and the dollar was barely changed at 113.19 yen. The Australian dollar hit a two-month high, becoming one of the best performing major currencies this year along with the euro and the British pound. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against other major currencies, is seen ending about 9 percent lower in 2017 as the reflation trade seen at the start of the year faded. It is down about 3 percent on the yen. In commodities, Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, gave back its gains on Wednesday to trade at $66.69 a barrel. U.S. crude was off 23 cents at $59.74 after climbing as far as $60.01. Spot gold stayed within a striking distance of a 4-week peak at 1,282 an ounce. “I do think the commodity trade is one we need to watch,” said Chris Weston, Melbourne-based chief strategist at IG. “This is an asset class that is hot at the moment and could really dictate inflationary trends in 2018, where inflation, volatility and the U.S. dollar hold the key to the capital markets.” Several economists have predicted the return of inflationary pressures in 2018, which would help global central banks wind down years of super-easy policies and hike interest rates. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates three times this year and is set to deliver further hikes in 2018. The European Central Bank is expected to finally begin clawing back its monetary stimulus and tighten policy after keeping the deposit rate below zero since 2014. Editing by Sam Holmes & Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/oil-metals-rally-supports-asian-stocks-dollar-steady-idUKKBN1EL01N'|'2017-12-27T03:00:00.000+02:00'
'3c590a2d98fb1ff84a7b649e44ca7401be821c71'|'South Korea prosecutors seek 12 years jail for Samsung heir Lee in corruption case'|'December 27, 2017 / 5:15 AM / in 9 hours South Korea prosecutors seek 12 years jail for Samsung heir Lee in corruption case Joyce Lee 4 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors sought a 12-year jail term on Wednesday for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, in a corruption case that led to the ouster of the nation’s president earlier this year. Jay Y. Lee, Samsung Electronics'' vice chairman and the only son of Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee, makes a public apology over the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) at Samsung Medical Center, at the company''s headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, June 23, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Files They made their demand in the Seoul High Court which is hearing an appeal by Lee against a five-year jail term handed out to him in August by a lower court in the case that has gripped the country. The 49-year-old billionaire heir to South Korea’s Samsung Group was convicted by the lower court of bribing the country’s former president Park Geun-hye. Besides Lee, who has been in detention since February, four former Samsung executives were also charged in the case. The lower court had ruled the bribe helped Lee strengthen his control of Samsung Electronics, the crown jewel in the country’s biggest conglomerate and one of the world’s top technology firms. “The defendants say they are concerned about the future of Samsung Group. However, what they are really concerned about is Lee’s loss of control and subsequent economic losses,” special prosecutor Park Young-soo told a packed court of about 150 people. Lee, in a dark suit and white shirt without a tie at the appeals hearing, earlier on Wednesday denied the bribery charge and also denied recent allegations by prosecutors that he had met Park one-on-one four times, instead of the previously disclosed three times. The Seoul High Court is expected to rule on the appeal in late January. Whichever side loses could take the case to the Supreme Court, the final court of appeal in South Korea. The lower court had ruled in August that while Lee never asked for Park’s help directly, the fact that a 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates did help cement Lee’s control over Samsung Electronics implied he was asking for the president’s help to strengthen his control of the firm. The logo of Samsung Electronic is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Files His lawyers have strongly challenged this logic since appeals hearings began in October. “The defendants have not once tried to solve issues by colluding with political power and gaining its help. The special prosecution has severely distorted the truth, and that distortion is reflected in the jail term they sought,” said Lee In-jae, Lee’s lawyer, responding to the 12-year jail term demand. FALLOUT The scandal played a big part in the downfall of former president Park, who was dismissed in March after being impeached, and the case cast a critical eye over the ties between South Korea’s chaebols - big family-owned corporate groups - and its political leaders. Faced with investor worries of a leadership vacuum as Lee remains detained, Samsung Electronics appointed a new generation of top managers at its three main businesses including semiconductors in October. Lee has been widely expected to follow in his father, Lee Kun-hee‘s, footsteps in the future. Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of the group, has been hospitalised since 2014. Answering a prosecutor’s question about his future as Samsung heir, Lee said: “I had been privately thinking that Chairman Lee Kun-hee will be the final person to have the title of Samsung Group chairman.” “I have often said that I want to be a businessman who is recognised for capability, not just for being someone’s son, or for having a lot of shares.” Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/samsung-lee/samsung-scion-denies-corruption-charges-as-legal-appeal-nears-end-idINKBN1EL08F'|'2017-12-27T11:56:00.000+02:00'
'e7addfc95b2c697a8c324c809b31152b1a2770dd'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'Dec 29 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1030 GMT on Friday:** Oil and gas producer SandRidge Energy backed out from its plan to buy smaller rival Bonanza Creek Energy , giving in to pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn and other shareholders.** Swiss-based trading and mining giant Glencore Plc has partly completed the sale of a 51 percent stake in its storage and logistics businesses to a unit of China’s HNA Group, although transfer of some assets is pending U.S. clearance.** Britain’s Balfour Beatty said it has agreed to sell a further 7.5 percent stake in Connect Plus, the operator of London’s M25 orbital motorway for 62 million pounds ($83.5 million) in cash, a week after it announced the sale of a 12.5 percent stake.** Debt-laden Reliance Communications has signed a deal to sell its wireless assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm , for a total value of nearly 240 billion rupees ($3.75 billion), two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.** Australian casino operator Crown Resorts said it has agreed to sell its 62 percent stake in online betting firm CrownBet to a consortium including the unit’s chief executive for A$150 million ($117 million).** Specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals manufacturer Aarti Industries Ltd signed a supply contract with a U.S. affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) worth 100 billion rupees ($1.56 billion). (Compiled by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idINL4N1OT31I'|'2017-12-29T07:59:00.000+02:00'
'488af2029e6eefa62fd1d2d232109b8a2ffac0ff'|'China Aircraft Leasing buys 50 Airbus A320neo series for $5.4 billion'|'December 29, 2017 / 1:37 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago China Aircraft Leasing buys 50 Airbus A320neo series for $5.4 billion Reuters Staff 1 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd ( 1848.HK ) said it will buy 50 Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) A320neo aircraft for an aggregate list price of $5.42 billion (4 billion pounds), as it expands its fleet to strengthen its position as a full-value chain aircraft solutions provider. The new Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility in Mobile, Alabama September 13, 2015. REUTERS/Michael Spooneybarger A subsidiary has agreed to the purchase in a deal to be settled using internal resources, loans and other borrowings, China Aircraft Leasing said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday. China Aircraft Leasing, which currently owns and manages 107 aircraft, said the actual purchase price would be lower than the list price as Airbus is likely to grant price concessions as per industry practice. The aircraft will be delivered in stages through 2023. The company said its total order book would rise to 252 aircraft, comprising 202 from Airbus and 50 from Boeing Co ( BA.N ). Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cnaircraft-lease-airbus/china-aircraft-leasing-buys-50-airbus-a320neo-series-for-5-4-billion-idUKKBN1EN03K'|'2017-12-29T03:36:00.000+02:00'
'46526b33156041c6825bb55cfee87cb56be9c930'|'Airbus, Indigo Partners finalise deal for 430 A320neo planes'|'December 28, 2017 / 8:40 PM / Updated 41 minutes ago Airbus, Indigo Partners finalise deal for 430 A320neo planes Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Aerospace group Airbus ( AIR.PA ) said on Thursday it has finalised orders for 430 A320neo aircrafts with U.S. private equity fund Indigo Partners, confirming the company’s largest single order, valued at nearly $50 billion (37 billion pounds). File Photo - An Airbus A320neo aircraft is pictured during a news conference to announce a partnership between Airbus and Bombardier on the C Series aircraft programme, in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The deal includes 274 A320neos and 156 A321neos aircrafts for Indigo Partners’ four ultra-low-cost airlines -- Frontier Airlines in the United States, JetSMART in Chile, Mexico’s Volaris, and Wizz Air in Hungary. A memorandum of understanding for the deal was signed during the Dubai Air Show in November. “The A320neo Family offers the lowest operating costs, longest range and most spacious cabin in the single-aisle aircraft market, making the ‘NEO’ a great choice for these low-cost airlines in the Americas and Europe,” John Leahy, Airbus’ Chief Operating Officer, Customers, said in a statement. Bill Franke of Indigo Partners said in the statement that engine selections for the aircraft will be made at a later date. Reporting by Alan Charlish and Bate Felix; Editing by Catherine Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-indigo/airbus-indigo-partners-finalise-deal-for-430-a320neo-planes-idUKKBN1EM1U0'|'2017-12-28T22:40:00.000+02:00'
'32343a056605ba6eea1f9b3cea367e4c1d4f05c3'|'Goldman Sachs picks Dublin for asset management unit post-Brexit: source'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) has picked Dublin as a center for administrative staff in its asset management business following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, a source familiar with the matter said.The subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Asset Management will employ around 20 people, the source added.Britain is currently home to most of the Wall Street bank’s European operations, where it has around 6,000 employees.Banks, insurers and asset managers have announced subsidiaries in the European Union in recent months, in case they no longer have access to the single market after Brexit.Goldman Sachs has also agreed to lease office space at a new building in Frankfurt, giving it space for up to 1,000 staff.Dublin and Luxembourg are favored locations for asset management businesses. Legal & General Investment Management has also picked Dublin as an EU center after Brexit, while Prudential unit M&G has chosen Luxembourg.The Financial Times reported the Goldman Sachs news earlier.Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Ben Martin; Editing by Elaine HardcastleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldmansachs-dublin/goldman-sachs-picks-dublin-for-asset-management-unit-post-brexit-source-idUSKBN1EM10L'|'2017-12-28T13:31:00.000+02:00'
'401d3a26fc018c82d1cfa954f87dd272546f60a5'|'U.S. natgas futures climb as storage withdrawals meet expectations'|'(Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures surged on Thursday after federal data showed a storage withdrawal in line with market expectations.Front-month gas futures NGc1 for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 16.1 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $2.893 per million British thermal units at 10:39 a.m. EST (1539 GMT).U.S. utilities pulled 112 billion cubic feet of gas from storage during the week ended on Dec. 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday.That was in line with the 113 bcf draw analysts estimated in a Reuters poll and compares with a year-earlier decline of 233 bcf and a five-year average decrease of 111 bcf for that period. [EIA/GAS]Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernadette Baum '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-natgas-nymex/u-s-natgas-futures-climb-as-storage-withdrawals-meet-expectations-idUSKBN1EM1GP'|'2017-12-28T17:55:00.000+02:00'
'5dee653007e03f64c51f821a8f39f2328a0ad58e'|'Founding family ups stake in Japan''s Idemitsu to 28.5 percent'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - The founding family of Japanese petroleum company, Idemitsu Kosan ( 5019.T ), locked in a battle with the firm’s management over a proposed integration with a smaller rival, said it had further increased its stake in the Japanese refiner by about half a percentage point to about 28.5 percent.The descendants of founder Sazo Idemitsu remain opposed to a takeover of Showa Shell Sekiyu ( 5002.T ), and the family had been buying more shares in Idemitsu after having its holding diluted when the company sold new stock in July.The family could take a legal action seeking to halt the partial integration of businesses that the two companies have been planning, the secretariat addedThe family had increased its stake to 28.0003 percent from 26.093 percent immediately after the new share sale, the secretariat had said last week.Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-idemitsu-kosan-founder/founding-family-ups-stake-in-japans-idemitsu-to-28-5-percent-idUSKBN1EL1SN'|'2017-12-28T07:44:00.000+02:00'
'ef7f968fefdd3282048cbab2543bca2f50dd229a'|'Shanghai cautions on products from scandal-hit Kobe Steel, tightens checks'|'December 29, 2017 / 3:54 AM / Updated an hour ago Shanghai cautions on products from scandal-hit Kobe Steel, tightens checks   Shanghai has issued a warning on the safety of metal products manufactured by scandal-hit Japanese firm Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ) and strengthened scrutiny measures, state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the city’s inspection body. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Kobe Steel (Kobelco) is seen at the company headquarters in Kobe, western Japan October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo Japan’s No.3 steelmaker, which supplies the makers of cars, planes and trains across the world, said in October that about 500 of its customers had received products with falsified specifications. The producer’s quality certifications at some domestic plants have already been suspended. According to the Xinhua report, Kobe shipped in 451,000 tonnes of metal products to China through its Shanghai units over September 2016 to August 2017. Of that, data on 1,420 tonnes of aluminium sheet and 116 tonnes of copper sheet had been tampered, it added, citing the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. While Kobe’s Shanghai units have been in touch with their customers to check on safety of the products, the inspection bureau has said it will continue supervising the units to protect interests of Chinese consumers, Xinhua reported. The bureau will conduct checks on all products made in Japan by Kobe Steel and set up a special technical investigation team to check its products that are involved with data falsification and release results on a routine basis, the report added. The bureau will also conduct regular checks on Japan-made metal products imported through the Shanghai port and has already made a full retrospective investigation on related operations by Kobe Steel’s units in the city. Kobe Shanghai could not immediately comment on the report. Reporting by Ruby Lian in SHANGHAI and Ryan Woo in BEIJING; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kobe-steel-scandal/shanghai-cautions-on-products-from-scandal-hit-kobe-steel-tightens-checks-idUKKBN1EN083'|'2017-12-29T05:53:00.000+02:00'
'1014c7b301b2ecd41695ca4cc4139a444d5eb019'|'Russia''s RDIF to loan $696 million to Sistema to settle Rosneft dispute'|'December 27, 2017 / 9:59 AM / a few seconds ago Russia''s RDIF to loan $696 million to Sistema to settle Rosneft dispute Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) will provide a 40 billion ruble ($696 million) loan to the Sistema conglomerate to help settle a dispute with oil producer Rosneft, the fund’s head Kirill Dmitriev said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Russia''s oil producer Rosneft is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Dmitriev told reporters that Sistema-owned retailer Detsky Mir and Bashkirian Power Grid Company will be put up as a collateral for the six-month loan. Sistema will pay 100 billion rubles to resolve a dispute with Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft over the Bashneft oil company, under a settlement announced by both companies on Friday. Sistema will make payments in three instalments. First, 20 billion rubles, then 40 billion rubles and a final 40 billion rubles, due on Dec. 29, Feb. 28, and March 30, respectively. The dispute centered on the Bashneft oil company and pitted powerful Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, against Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who some media reports suggest is close to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rdif-sistema/russias-rdif-to-loan-696-million-to-sistema-to-settle-rosneft-dispute-idUKKBN1EL0MO'|'2017-12-27T11:53:00.000+02:00'
'bc8d23cae6b21e8a98e1eb07cccc2a34c1fcce7e'|'Algeria''s shale gas plans will take time, require tough reforms'|'ALGIERS/LONDON (Reuters) - Algeria needs to exploit its shale gas resources to offset a surge in local energy consumption that is eating into vital exports, but developing the industry will take time and require far-reaching reforms at the state energy firm.The North African country is a key gas supplier to Europe, but exports have suffered from delays to several gas projects and a steep rise in the use of subsidized gas at home as the population has grown.Algeria’s gas exports are expected to fall to 54 billion cubic meters in 2017 from 57 billion in 2016, the state energy firm Sonatrach has said. In the decade to 2014, domestic gas consumption has more than tripled.To reverse the fall in exports, Sonatrach has started talks with France’s Total and Italy’s ENI, Sonatrach officials say. The aim is to exploit shale resources estimated at 22 trillion cubic meters, the world’s third largest.The foreign firms have not confirmed this, although Total’s CEO said in December his company was open to greater cooperation after Sonatrach said it would work with Total on shale gas.The talks are part of changes pursued by Sonatrach’s new chief, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, a U.S.-trained engineer who took office in March aiming to overhaul a sprawling group hit by inefficiency, delays and corruption scandals. Sonatrach declined to comment for this article.But new shale gas projects will not happen overnight as only limited geological survey data exists and Algeria needs to change legislation to offer more attractive terms to foreign firms, which are selective about investments at a time of low energy prices, industry sources say.Key Western firms are anxious about gas supplies as Algeria’s exports drop. They are also keen to break the link between what they pay for Algerian gas and the oil price, which can result in losses if crude prices are high.But the bigger challenge for Ould Kaddour will be to shake up Sonatrach, no easy task in a country where senior figures wary of foreign influence can resist reforms.“Algeria should have launched shale exploitation years ago but lacked consistent and coordinated leadership,” said Geoff Porter, head of North Africa Risk Consulting and an Algeria energy expert.“What Ould Kaddour is trying to do is risky, but necessary. He wants to wake Sonatrach up from its slumber,” he said. “But the changes ... may cause some pain. They will mean loss of prestige for some Sonatrach stakeholders and it will mean longer hours for some Sonatrach employees.”Algeria also needs to invest in oil projects to keep its crude output at one million barrels a day. Pumping has become more difficult as surface reservoirs have been exploited at some fields.PRESSURE Algeria shied away from change in its energy industry until European gas buyers started wondering whether to renew contracts as they fear Sonatrach might struggle to meet its obligations. Domestic gas demand is expected to rise further due to Algeria’s growing population, industry sources say.Algeria, which sells mainly to Italy, Spain and Portugal, is the third most important gas supplier to the European Union after Russia and Norway.Any reduction in supplies from Algeria could increase European reliance on Russia, which has used gas to further its foreign policy aims.Algeria’s oil and gas exports make up 56 percent of GDP but have more than halved since 2014. Keeping local gas prices cheap is important for the government, which wants to preserve its welfare model to discourage any popular discontent.“Algeria needs the export revenue to support the state budget but the lack of investment and declining production trends are very worrying,” a source at one of Algeria’s main gas buyers in Spain said.FILE PHOTO: Sonatrach''s CEO Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour talks to employees during a visit to a gas site in Hassi R''mel, Algeria July 27, 2017. Picture taken July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Lamine Chikhi/File Photo A source at a French importer of gas from Algeria said declining production threatened its ability to maintain flows.“We are looking at this closely and have been for some time,” he said.Algerian oil and gas output has stagnated due to delays in projects and lack of foreign investment. The Touat and Timimoun gas projects were due in 2016, but both will not come online until 2018, Ould Kaddour has said. The Reggane gas field is the only project to do so in the past three years.Even with new fields planned to open by 2020, Algeria will only maintain gas output at the current 94 billion cubic meters a year unless it can make big strides in shale exploitation, Sonatrach sources say.As cheap reserves get tapped out, Algeria risks becoming less competitive, especially if it sells gas on an oil-linked basis, industry sources say.Such deals are unpopular with buyers because they tie the price of gas to that of crude oil. When oil is high and gas prices on freely traded European markets are low, buyers of oil-linked gas incur big losses.The trend now is for long-term gas contracts to reflect gas prices at European trade hubs. Norway and Russia are moving to this model but Algeria has been slower to make the shift.In November, Francesco Starace, chief executive of Italian utility Enel, said his company’s long-term gas contracts with Sonatrach had begun to expire and it wanted to switch to deals not linked to the oil price. [nI6N1NJ01I]In a sign that it sees need for change, Sonatrach is willing to offer more flexible short-term contracts in future instead of long-term deals, company sources say.CHANGES Ould Kaddour has made tough statements, warning that Sonatrach might fail to meet some client obligations and calling production delays unacceptable -- unusual talk in a country where officials rarely express criticism in public.The comments might push some Sonatrach staff to work harder but will not translate quickly into the additional 30 billion cubic meters a year it hopes to extract from shale resources.For a start, only limited geological survey information on gas reserves is available.“First of all we need to make sure our statistics on the potential are correct, we must go beyond the U.S. Geological Survey,” said a former energy minister, asking not to be named.Then the challenge is to convince oil majors to invest when low oil and gas prices are forcing companies to pick only the most profitable regions.Ould Kaddour has said Algeria will get a new law with better terms in 2018, but no draft has emerged despite years of work. The issue is pressing because only a quarter of the last three gas concession rounds attracted bidders.The Ahnet field could be the first be developed for shale resources, Sonatrach engineers say, but they see challenges ahead because Algeria lacks expertise.“It (shale) only works efficiently in the U.S for now, when they need seven days to have a well come online, we would need 70 days minimum,” one engineer told Reuters.Porter also said Algeria needed to win over southern communities who staged sit-ins in 2014 to prevent shale exploration, fearing their water supply would become polluted.Editing by Ulf Laessing and Giles Elgood '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-algeria-gas/algerias-shale-gas-plans-will-take-time-require-tough-reforms-idUSKBN1EM1M2'|'2017-12-28T19:37:00.000+02:00'
'60d0403be4d87a8ee9d00b778aca1ed6bdd7e277'|'Airbus seals $5.4 billion AerCap order for 50 A320neo planes'|'December 28, 2017 / 1:52 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Airbus seals $5.4 billion AerCap order for 50 A320neo planes Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus ( AIR.PA ) sealed on Thursday a formal order from AerCap ( AER.N ) for 50 Airbus A320neo planes, in a deal worth an estimated $5.4 billion (4.02 billion pounds) at list prices. FILE PHOTO - An Airbus logo is pictured during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The companies said in joint statements that AerCap had exercised an option to buy the 50 planes, with deliveries starting from 2022. Airbus and Boeing ( BA.N ) are pairing with smaller regional rivals to add sales at the lower end of their $100 billion-a-year commercial plane duopoly, but the two market leaders are also laying the foundation for a longer-term strategic contest against more powerful threats such as China. Deals with their smaller cousins may give Airbus and Boeing more options when they develop the successors to the best-selling Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, perhaps allowing them to offer a trio of large jets coupled to a pair of smaller ones. Sources also told Reuters this week that Airbus was drawing up contingency plans to phase out production of the world’s largest jetliner, the A380 superjumbo, if it fails to win a key order from Dubai’s Emirates. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Cyril Altemeyer; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-aercap/airbus-seals-5-4-billion-aercap-order-for-50-a320neo-planes-idUKKBN1EM191'|'2017-12-28T15:51:00.000+02:00'
'e5f1427eec0a5f9039eb22d892d5661f72d835e7'|'India''s Reliance Jio to buy all wireless assets of RCom'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - Anil Ambani’s debt-laden Reliance Communications Ltd ( RLCM.NS ) has signed an agreement to sell its wireless assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd [RELIB.UL], the telecoms arm of elder brother and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s oil conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd ( RELI.NS ), both the companies said in separate statements on Thursday.The sale comprises of all spectrum, tower, fiber optic and other telecom infrastructure assets of Reliance Communications and is subject to government and other regulatory approvals, the statements said.The sale marks the return of the telecom company back to the fold of Reliance Industries, which forayed into telecoms in 2002, spearheaded by elder Ambani, under the name of Reliance Infocomm Ltd.A feud between the two brothers in 2005 led to the split of Reliance Industries when Mukesh Ambani kept the cash cow oil and gas business and Anil Ambani walked away with telecoms and power.However, with the launch of Reliance Jio, Mukesh Ambani’s reentry into the telecom space in September 2016 coupled with cut-price data and free voice service rattled the telecom industry, pushing RCom, as it is commonly called, into a debt spiral.On Tuesday, Anil Ambani announced the company had received non-binding offers from 15 firms for the sale of its wireless assets. The sale would slash its debt pile by 390 billion rupees ($6.09 billion) without any haircut by the banks.“These assets are strategic in nature and are expected to contribute significantly to the large scale roll-out of wireless and Fiber to Home and Enterprise services by RJIL (Reliance Jio),” Reliance Jio said in its statement.Reliance Jio is India’s fastest growing telecoms company with a subscriber base of close to 140 million. Through the deal, Reliance gets access to four bands of spectrum and 43,000 telecom towers and a countrywide fiber optic network.Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rcom-sale-jio/indias-reliance-jio-to-buy-all-wireless-assets-of-rcom-idUSKBN1EM182'|'2017-12-28T21:43:00.000+02:00'
'bd801acf82242d3ff8b88f7efe755a3f0ed49775'|'VW to try to block emissions audit in constitutional court'|'December 28, 2017 / 8:40 PM / in 32 minutes VW to try to block emissions audit in constitutional court Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) said on Thursday it would petition Germany’s constitutional court in an effort to overturn the appointment of a special auditor to investigate the actions of management in the “Dieselgate” emissions scandal. A lower court appointed the auditor in November, in a victory for shareholder groups that want to establish whether VW bosses withheld market-moving information about the manipulation of vehicle-emissions tests. The court in the town of Celle ruled that VW could not appeal, which the auto maker views as a violation of its fundamental rights, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said in a report released in advance of publication on Friday. The car maker will try to get the work of the auditor suspended before the constitutional court hearing, said the newspaper, which researched the report together with public TV channels NDR and WDR. A company spokesman confirmed that VW would go to the constitutional court but did not elaborate. It was not immediately clear whether or when the constitutional court would take up the case. Shortly after the Dieselgate scandal broke in September 2015, VW hired U.S. law firm Jones Day and advisory firm Deloitte to investigate the circumstances of its wrongdoing and who was responsible. Although VW had pledged to improve transparency, it never published the findings that were used as the basis for a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. News of the settlement caused the company’s shares to fall. Investor groups seeking billions in damages from VW are trying to establish when VW’s executive management board first became aware of cheating in the emissions tests and whether it disclosed possible financial damage to investors promptly. German securities law requires companies to publish any market sensitive news in a timely fashion. The matter is also being investigated by German prosecutors. VW has said it believes its management complied with obligations under German disclosure rules. Reporting by Douglas Busvine, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-court/vw-to-try-to-block-emissions-audit-in-constitutional-court-idUSKBN1EM1U7'|'2017-12-28T22:39:00.000+02:00'
'd5f901e08c8a154dd3bf712825dd9089738bb37a'|'Nikkei ends slightly lower, but climbs nearly 20 pct in 2017'|'December 29, 2017 / 6:19 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Nikkei ends slightly lower, but climbs nearly 20 pct in 2017 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average erased early modest gains and ended slightly lower on its final trading day of the year on Friday, but the index still gained nearly 20 percent in 2017. The Nikkei ended the day down 0.08 percent at 22,764.94 points, while the broader Topix was also down 0.08 percent at 1,817.56. Advancers outnumbered decliners 332 to 266, with 64 issues ending unchanged. The stronger global economy, as well as domestic political stability and the Bank of Japan’s ultra-easy monetary policy helped lift Japanese corporate earnings in 2017, which in turn helped push the Nikkei up 19.1 percent and the Topix up 19.7 percent. For the week, the Nikkei edged down 0.6 percent as investors took profits ahead of year-end. But it was up 0.2 percent for December. On Friday, the banking subindex was 0.7 percent higher, recouping some of its 1.4 percent fall in the previous session. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group gained 1.2 percent. SoftBank Group Corp gave up earlier gains and finished 0.1 percent lower after news on Thursday that a SoftBank-led consortium will buy a large number of shares of Uber Technologies Inc in a deal that values the ride-services firm at $48 billion. Asahi Glass Co shares rose 2 percent after the Nikkei business daily reported that the company is expected to post an operating profit of around 125 billion yen for its fiscal year through Dec. 31. Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-ends-slightly-lower-but-climbs-nearly-20-pct-in-2017-idUSL4N1OT21I'|'2017-12-29T08:15:00.000+02:00'
'7e51d7ef8b865174d19f159731fd47a8a74aef23'|'South Korea students dive into virtual coins, evens as regulators crack down'|'December 29, 2017 / 6:05 AM / Updated 3 hours ago South Korea students dive into virtual coins, even as regulators crack down Dahee Kim 6 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - Hackers have stolen millions, lawmakers are pushing for new taxes and regulations, and a leading financial official has called them a “Ponzi scheme”. But that hasn’t cooled a frenzy for bitcoin and other virtual currencies that is gripping young investors in South Korea. On a recent weeknight at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, more than a dozen students crammed into a classroom to share tips on investing in so-called cryptocurrencies, which have driven tales of fantastic returns for savvy investors. The group sat in rapt silence – broken only by a sudden shout of “there was just a big jump!” from someone monitoring his virtual currencies - as one student gave a presentation on how to read financial data and predict future trends. “I no longer want to become a math teacher,” said 23-year-old Eoh Kyong-hoon, who founded the club, Cryptofactor. “I’ve studied this industry for more than 10 hours a day over months, and I became pretty sure that this is my future.” Driven in part by a dismal economic outlook – including an unemployment rate almost three times the national average - young South Koreans are flocking to virtual currencies despite the risks and warnings from officials, analysts say. It’s a trend that has caught the eye of South Korean leaders and regulators, who announced new measures this week to regulate speculation in cryptocurrency trading within the country. Concerns about security and thefts of cryptocurrencies by hackers have also been rising. A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange recently shut down and filed for bankruptcy after being hacked for the second time this year. “Young people and students are rushing into virtual currency trading to earn huge profits in just a short period of time,” Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon said in November. “It is time for the government to take action as it could lead to serious pathological phenomena if left unchecked.” UNCHECKED ENTHUSIASM Eoh said the talk of more regulation had not dented his plans, especially after making what he said was a 20-fold gain on his investments over the past six months. He said that many students were bringing laptops to class to track the movements of their investments and participate in actual trading. “Even when professors are giving lectures right in front of them,” he said. Younger investors have especially gravitated toward so-called “altcoins”, or virtual currencies other than bitcoin, which often trade at much lower values, analysts say. “Since young people are more mobile-friendly, they can actually make more out of altcoin investments as long as they are able to discriminate gems from pebbles,” said Kim Jin-hwa, one of the leaders of the Korea Blockchain Industry Association, an association of 14 virtual currency exchanges. Iota, one of the fast-gaining altcoins, was traded at $0.82 in late November, but now stands at $3.89, a gain of 374.4 percent, according to Coinmarketcap.com. Energo (TSL), another type of altcoin, gained 400 percent during the same period. Eoh Kyung-hoon, leader of a club studying cryptocurrencies, checks a chart after a meeting at a university in Seoul, South Korea, December 20, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji Some young investors say they don’t sleep until after 2 a.m., when there is a lull in the cryptocurrency markets as investors in places like South Korea and Japan log off. Members of the club say they call each other to make important decisions together, and see information sharing as key to navigating the volatile cryptocurrency markets. “I literally knew nothing about cryptocurrencies or the economy,” said Lee Ji-woo, a 22-year-old sports industry major. “Everyone here has taught me a lot.” It’s now emboldened her to dream of a different future. “I can have two jobs maybe, one as an athlete and another as an investor,” she said. Slideshow (5 Images) ECONOMIC DRIVERS Intense competition for jobs in South Korea is likely helping to drive interest in virtual currencies among young South Koreans, especially as they see others reaping big gains, said Shin Dong-hwa, head of the Korea Blockchain Exchange. “Whenever they go onto social network services, they are easily exposed to so many examples of young people around their age earning huge money,” he said. But some in South Korea’s financial establishment say those hopes may be unfounded. Kim Yong-beom, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said Monday that the only reason prices were going up was because each investor expected the next buyer down the line to pay a higher price. “That really is a Ponzi scheme,” he said. Others say students seem more focussed on ways to get rich quick rather than on the underlying financial or technological values of digital currency. “There’s no way to measure their true value yet but students are just going for them, believing that they can earn a big fortune in just a snap,” said Yun Chang-hyun, economics professor at the University of Seoul. Members of Cryptofactor, however, say they founded the club because of a lack of dedicated cryptocurrency classes on campus and see their efforts as a way to move beyond speculation to informed investing. “I realised that I was actually speculating rather than investing before I came to this club,” said Kim Myung-jae, a 19-year-old fine arts student, adding that she was especially attracted to altcoins. “Now that I fully discuss which one to invest in with the members, I‘m actually looking at the true value.” Additional reporting by Yuna Park, Cynthia Kim; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin-southkorea-club/south-korea-students-dive-into-virtual-coins-evens-as-regulators-crack-down-idUKKBN1EN0D9'|'2017-12-29T08:09:00.000+02:00'
'f5f0830504e8588dfba9e63a4e0ba591a9328652'|'SandRidge Energy terminates Bonanza Creek deal'|'(Reuters) - Oil and gas producer SandRidge Energy ( SD.N ) on Thursday gave in to investor pressure and said it would not go ahead with its proposed deal to buy Bonanza Creek Energy Inc ( BCEI.N ), announced in November.An electronic display identifies the post that trades SandRidge Energy stock on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, January 11, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid As part of the mutual termination agreement, Bonanza will receive up to $3.7 million for transaction related expenses, SandRidge said.Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-bonanz-creek-egy-m-a-sandridge/sandridge-energy-terminates-bonanza-creek-deal-idINKBN1EM1YT'|'2017-12-28T19:28:00.000+02:00'
'93320f1f0613e03a3f422acf3a60d50721a4b337'|'U.S. stock funds attract most cash since 2014 -Lipper'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors poured $24.1 billion into U.S.-based stock funds in the week to Dec. 27, Lipper said on Thursday, sending a gift to equity markets already on pace to record a year of double-digit percentage gains.This marks the largest week of inflows for mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) collectively since December 2014, according to the Thomson Reuters research service, and comes after U.S. lawmakers finalized a massive corporate tax cut that markets admired.Cash is also shuffling around during a typically active period for funds, despite holidays, as investors plan for taxes and report end-of-year performance statistics. Equity fund outflows totaled $22.2 billion the week prior.The flow result counters the dominant trend in U.S.-based funds this year - a reticence to buy stocks at home despite an S&P 500 index poised to deliver a 2017 return of more than 20 percent.Domestic stock funds posted an estimated $23.4 billion in outflows for the year, according to Lipper, compared to $165 billion inflows for their counterparts invested abroad and $283 billion inflows for funds for taxable bonds.“You see people attracted to equities, but they’re not backing up the truck to buy equities at 20-times earnings,” said David Lafferty, chief market strategist at Natixis Investment Managers, referring to the seemingly rich price-to-earnings ratio of the S&P 500. “I don’t see any euphoria.”This week, though, domestic equity funds pulled in nearly $18 billion, compared to $6.4 billion to their internationally oriented peers, according to Lipper.Healthcare stock funds, however, posted their seventh straight week of outflows. The U.S. tax bill repealed a requirement that most Americans have insurance or face penalties.Taxable bond funds were hit with a rare week of withdrawals. High-yield bonds, invested in more speculative corporate debt, recorded $240 million in outflows during the week, Lipper said, while lower-risk Treasury funds pulled in $567 million. Money-market funds, where investors park cash, took in $19.3 billion.Funds based in the United States but focused on Chinese stocks took in $408 million during the week, the largest inflows since June 2015, during a week in which strong demand for copper seemed to presage growth in the emerging market and around the world. [MKTS/GLOB]Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Richard Chang and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-investment-mutualfunds-lipper/u-s-stock-funds-attract-most-cash-since-2014-lipper-idUSKBN1EM1ZD'|'2017-12-29T00:31:00.000+02:00'
'ebd54cd01739f5071ef9c72ea3aad520cb9bf688'|'Apple apologises after outcry over slowed iPhones'|'December 28, 2017 / 11:08 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Apple apologises after outcry over slowed iPhones Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Facing lawsuits and consumer outrage after it said it slowed older iPhones with flagging batteries, Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) is slashing prices for battery replacements and will change its software to show users whether their phone battery is good. In a posting on its website Thursday, Apple apologised over its handling of the battery issue and said it would make a number of changes for customers “to recognise their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple’s intentions.” Apple made the move to address concerns about the quality and durability of its products at a time when it is charging $999 for its newest flagship model, the iPhone X. The company said it would cut the price of an out-of-warranty battery replacement from $79 to $29 for an iPhone 6 or later, starting next month. The company also will update its iOS operating system to let users see whether their battery is in poor health and is affecting the phone’s performance. Slideshow (2 Images) “We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down,” Apple said in its posting. “We apologize.” On Dec. 20, Apple acknowledged that iPhone software has the effect of slowing down some phones with battery problems. Apple said the problem was that ageing lithium batteries delivered power unevenly, which could cause iPhones to shutdown unexpectedly to protect the delicate circuits inside. That disclosure played on a common belief among consumers that Apple purposely slows down older phones to encourage customers to buy newer iPhone models. While no credible evidence has ever emerged that Apple engaged in such conduct, the battery disclosure struck a nerve on social media and elsewhere. Apple on Thursday denied that it has ever done anything to intentionally shorten the life of a product. At least eight lawsuits have been filed in California, New York and Illinois alleging that the company defrauded users by slowing devices down without warning them. The company also faces a legal complaint in France, where so-called “planned obsolesce” is against the law. Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-batteries/apple-apologises-after-outcry-over-slowed-iphones-idUKKBN1EM20V'|'2017-12-29T01:10:00.000+02:00'
'88e1ea745747a9db77e611f80c5c3d3d4e4d6c9a'|'Huawei''s China smartphone sales chief detained for suspected bribe-taking'|'December 27, 2017 / 12:49 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Huawei''s China smartphone sales chief detained for suspected bribe-taking Sijia Jiang 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies HWT.UL, the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, said on Wednesday that Chinese police are conducting an investigation, after the China sales head of its smartphone unit was detained on suspicion of accepting bribes. Huawei, which in recent years has overtaken Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and others to take the top share of China’s smartphone market but is now under pressure from fast-growing domestic rivals, declined to disclose details of the case. “The authorities are investigating the matter, and we defer to their discretion as to what can be disclosed,” the company said in e-mailed comments to Reuters when asked about the case. “We take our business ethics extremely seriously, and have zero tolerance for corrupt behavior.” It gave no further comment. In an internal memo to staff, however, Huawei said Teng Hongfei, the Greater China sales head for its consumer business division, had been detained for “the suspected crime of accepting bribes as a non-state functionary”. Reuters was unable to immediately reach Teng or a representative for comment. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked at Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ) and Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ) before joining Huawei in June 2014. Since then, Huawei has moved past Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi ( IPO-XMGP.HK ) and Lenovo Group ( 0992.HK ) to become China’s largest smartphone seller. But its top spot in the world’s biggest smartphone market has come under threat over the past year from competitors such as OPPO and Vivo, and its profits have suffered as a result. Huawei has a 22.3 percent share of China’s smartphone market, followed by OPPO at 21.6 percent, according to third-quarter data from industry tracker IDC. Founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former People’s Liberation Army officer, Huawei has more than 180,000 employees and has taken a number of high-profile actions in recent years to counter corruption. In January, Ren held a vow-taking ceremony with senior managers who swore not to engage in corruption, and in 2014 an internal inspection found 116 employees in violation of its anti-corruption policies. Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Edmund Klamann'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-corruption/huaweis-china-smartphone-sales-chief-detained-for-suspected-bribe-taking-idUSKBN1EL0YY'|'2017-12-27T14:48:00.000+02:00'
'9ac4c4a42baab3a2ef47c277f67a667f97e3be36'|'Indian regulator says Axis results leaked, orders lender to investigate'|'December 27, 2017 / 7:09 PM / Updated 4 minutes ago Indian regulator says Axis results leaked, orders lender to investigate Reuters Staff 2 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s market regulator ordered Axis Bank ( AXBK.NS ) on Wednesday to conduct an internal investigation into a suspected leak of financial information and to strengthen its handling of such data, as part of a probe into messages about company results being circulated on private WhatsApp groups. Axis Bank''s logo is seen next to ATM machines at its corporate headquarters in Mumbai, India July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) order comes after Reuters reported last month that Axis Bank was among 12 companies where messages about quarterly results or other key financial details had circulated through private WhatsApp chatrooms before their official release. The information on Axis Bank, which included key metrics on bad loans and net interest margins, “were either identical or matched closely with the figures” except for one metric, the regulator said in the order, published on SEBI’s web site. It concluded that this “could not have been possible without leakage of information from the persons who were privy to the information relating to financials prior to its official announcement.” Axis, India’s third-largest private lender by assets, was ordered to submit a report to SEBI on steps it had taken within three months. Axis Bank said it would work with SEBI to investigate the matter and take action as needed. “The bank adheres to the highest norms of governance and reiterates its commitment to adequacy of processes, systems and controls, particularly to prevent unauthorised access to unpublished price sensitive information,” the lender said in a statement. The Reuters report has sparked a broad SEBI investigation since last month, including raids on brokers’ homes last week that resulted in the confiscation of laptops and mobile phones. Reporting by Rafael Nam; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-india-axis-sebi/indian-regulator-says-axis-results-leaked-orders-lender-to-investigate-idUKKBN1EL1JF'|'2017-12-27T21:09:00.000+02:00'
'f6967571298a380cafa1396e60b3d8142e66afc1'|'Bolivia seeks investors to power up lagging lithium output'|'December 27, 2017 / 9:03 PM / Updated 44 minutes ago Bolivia seeks investors to power up lagging lithium output Alexandra Alper 7 Min Read UYUNI, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia hopes surging global lithium demand can lure foreign investors to the country where nearly a decade of state-led development has left output far short of goals for the metal, coveted by makers of batteries for devices from laptops to electric cars. Deposits of lithium brine are seen at the lithium pilot plant of Llipi at the Uyuni salt lake in the Potosi Department, Bolivia, November 29, 2017. Picture taken in November 29, 2017. REUTERS/David Mercado The poor South American nation boasts nearly a quarter of the world’s known resources of the world’s lightest metal. Still, production lags far behind neighbouring Chile and Argentina. Bolivia hopes to sign a deal with at least one foreign partner to invest up to $750 million in factories to meet rising demand from China and other countries for lithium-ion batteries. The country is eager to cash in on tightening supplies of lithium. Experts say spot prices have more than doubled to around $25,000 per tonne from below $10,000 in 2015. Rain and other natural challenges, along with execution hiccups, have hampered state-run operations. Foreign companies with more expertise may be spooked by the left-leaning government of President Evo Morales, whose interventionist policies in other sectors have riled some big corporations and made others hesitant to invest, analysts said. Bolivia had hoped its project at Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat, would produce 40 tonnes per month of lithium carbonate by 2011. Nine years and $450 million into the project, it is producing just 10 tonnes per month. Elsewhere in South America’s Lithium Triangle, Chile produces 70,000 tonnes a year and Argentina 30,000. Total global production is about 230,000 tonnes. Bolivia has sold exports at far below market prices; an employee of state-run lithium company YLB said it was trying to secure market share. YLB CEO Juan Carlos Montenegro dismissed concerns about slow production. “That criticism does not hurt us or interest us,” he said. “The important thing for us is ... the results we are going to see in 2018 and 2019.” He said Bolivia was talking with potential partners it hopes will invest up to $750 million. He declined to name them but said a deal could be awarded this month for a 49 percent stake in a major expansion that could include up to seven new plants for cathodes, batteries and more. Next month, bids are due to build an industrial lithium carbonate facility designed by Germany’s K-UTEC. That plant, which was slated to produce 30,000 tonnes per year in 2017, is now expected to produce half that in 2019. However, critics doubt whether foreign industry heavyweights such as Albemarle Corp and Chile’s SQM will risk their capital in Bolivia. Morales has expropriated a series of foreign holdings since taking office in 2006. Last year, Swiss-based mining and trading firm Glencore Plc said it would begin arbitration against Bolivia over nationalisation of some assets. ( reut.rs/2CezVbK ) Foreign companies with the right expertise, including one from Korea, have turned down the opportunity to operate in Bolivia, said Robert Baylis, managing director at Roskill Information Services Ltd, a consultancy. “They felt either the risk that they would be nationalized or they would face a lot of problems,” he said, adding that no one has yet completed a study that shows Bolivian resources could be extracted economically. A worker walks at the lithium pilot plant of Llipi at the Uyuni salt lake in Potosi Department, Bolivia, November 29, 2017. Picture taken in November 29, 2017. REUTERS/David Mercado JIGSAW PUZZLE The lithium market is ripe for new entrants. The niche market for electric vehicles is gearing up for substantial growth as regulators globally tighten limits on greenhouse gas emissions. China, the world’s largest auto market, has pledged to make electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles a fifth of auto sales by 2025. Britain and France have pledged to ban sales of combustion engine cars starting in 2040. Suppliers like Japan’s Panasonic Corp and Korea’s LG Chem, and U.S. electric car maker Tesla Inc , which makes its own batteries, are eager to secure long-term lithium supplies. At Bolivia’s Uyuni project, lithium-infused brine lies beneath 10,000 square kilometres of shining white salt, the remains of a vast prehistoric lake on a high Andean plateau that draws thousands of tourists each year. Slideshow (13 Images) In a corner of the salt flat, turquoise-colored brine slowly evaporates in rows of vast square pools, leaving behind lithium crystals. These are transferred to a pilot plant and turned into lithium carbonate. Over a hundred miles east, nestled in the arid mountains that ring the historic silver-mining town of Potosi, another pilot plant in an abandoned Russian tin facility turns the lithium carbonate into cathodes. A third plant next door makes these into simple batteries. The project was designed to show the Bolivian state could exploit its own lithium, unlike top producers Australia, Chile and Argentina where private firms extract the lion’s share of the metal. Rains often flood the salt flats, lengthening the extraction process. Evaporation, Bolivia’s chosen technique, leaves around half the lithium in the brine. Also, the ratio of magnesium to lithium at Uyuni is four times greater than in Chile’s Atacama desert, making extraction harder. Marcelo Castro, leader of the Uyuni efforts from 2007 to 2016, said workers went weeks without washing their hair to conserve water in the project’s early days, before water and electricity supplies were set up in the inhospitable landscape. He recalled watching evaporation pools near the salt flat fail, contaminated by dirt carried on the wind. Castro said he had not planned to spend a decade at the Uyuni project, “but when the needs are urgent you stay.” The project aimed to create an integrated supply chain, helping free Bolivia from overreliance on the whims of volatile commodity markets. Yet the battery plant was built in 2013, four years before the cathode plant. Chinese companies still supply the battery plant with cathodes from abroad. None of the nearly 3,000 batteries sitting in storage has been sold, according to the plant production manager. Bolivia plans to use at least some of these for rural electrification. Few outside analysts see a clear path for Bolivia to become a major player in the booming industry. “It is a puzzle with so many missing pieces. Who can put it together?” said Juan Carlos Zuleta, a Bolivian lithium analyst, who called the project “disastrous.”“It’s a bad use of our scarce resources.” Additional Reporting by Daniel Ramos in Bolivia, Jake Spring in Brasilia and Luc Cohen in Buenos Aires; Editing by Dan Flynn and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bolivia-lithium-analysis/bolivia-seeks-investors-to-power-up-lagging-lithium-output-idUKKBN1EL1J9'|'2017-12-27T23:03:00.000+02:00'
'ae953e97dab03cac811a4481111dc79cc5b5de2b'|'China targets trust industry next year in fight against shadow banking - sources'|'December 29, 2017 / 4:57 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago China targets trust industry next year in fight against shadow banking - sources   China’s banking regulator will further tighten the screws on the trust industry next year, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, as Beijing steps up a campaign to clampdown on the country’s shadow banking sector. FILE PHOTO - A man walks in front of the (L-R) Bank of China Tower, Cheung Kong Center, HSBC bank and Standard Chartered bank at the financial central district in Hong Kong, China June 24, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Trusts have been a key part of China’s shadow banking sector, which helps channel deposits into risky investments via products often designed to dodge capital or investment regulations. The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) recently told trust firms in Beijing that next year the regulator will take forceful measures to stem the rapid growth of the trust industry, the sources told Reuters. Trust companies that are reckless and irresponsible will receive maximum punishment if any violations are found, the sources said. The CBRC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The banking regulator last week banned lenders from using trust firms to skirt regulations and cover up risks. Outstanding trust assets were at 24.41 trillion yuan (£2.8 trillion) at the end of September, up 34.33 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the China Trustee Association. Reporting by Li Zheng and Shanghai Newsroom; Writing by Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-banks-trust/china-targets-trust-industry-next-year-in-fight-against-shadow-banking-sources-idUKKBN1EN0AI'|'2017-12-29T06:58:00.000+02:00'
'd9d6d27d575287d20f3a1091d0cb049e501c3e57'|'China Aircraft Leasing buys 50 Airbus A320neo series for $5.4 billion'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd ( 1848.HK ) said it will buy 50 Airbus SE ( AIR.PA ) A320neo aircraft for an aggregate list price of $5.42 billion, as it expands its fleet to strengthen its position as a full-value chain aircraft solutions provider.A subsidiary has agreed to the purchase in a deal to be settled using internal resources, loans and other borrowings, China Aircraft Leasing said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.China Aircraft Leasing, which currently owns and manages 107 aircraft, said the actual purchase price would be lower than the list price as Airbus is likely to grant price concessions as per industry practice.The aircraft will be delivered in stages through 2023.The company said its total order book would rise to 252 aircraft, comprising 202 from Airbus and 50 from Boeing Co ( BA.N ).Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cnaircraft-lease-airbus/china-aircraft-leasing-buys-50-airbus-a320neo-series-for-5-4-billion-idUSKBN1EN02S'|'2017-12-29T03:02:00.000+02:00'
'e2d60a95c639d9a93afe084a2d5a126b30710b8c'|'VW may post excellent 2017 results, CEO tells Welt am Sonntag'|'December 24, 2017 / 12:14 PM / Updated an hour ago VW may post excellent 2017 results, CEO tells Welt am Sonntag Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) will report excellent group results this year, its chief executive said, helped by expected record vehicle sales and by spending cuts. FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller attends the opening of the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach The carmaker’s popularity with motorists appears to have weathered the storm following the emissions scandal of September 2015, which has cost Volkswagen (VW) billions of euros in fines and penalties. “It will certainly be quite outstanding in operational terms,” VW group CEO Matthias Mueller told Germany’s weekly Welt am Sonntag when asked to sum up the 2017 business year. VW is due to publish detailed 2017 results on March 13. Last month, the CEO predicted that group deliveries would exceed the 2016 record of 10.3 million vehicles. FILE PHOTO: A Volkswagen logo is pictured at Volkswagen''s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, April 22, 2016. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo Cost cuts at the core passenger-cars division have caused the world’s largest automaker to raise its profit target for the year, and it has since also upgraded its mid-term profit and sales guidance. On the other hand, Mueller said proposals by the European Commission for progressive cuts in carmakers’ average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2025 and 2030 will “cause us real pain.” Wolfsburg-based VW more than two years ago admitted to cheating in diesel emissions tests in the United States. It has set aside about 25 billion euros (22.45 billion pounds) to cover related fines and vehicle repairs and faces thousands of lawsuits worldwide. Mueller also criticized the prolonged political deadlock in Germany, which has no new government as Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to search for a coalition partner three months after federal elections. “This is taking too long,” the CEO said in the interview published on Sunday. “We must become capable of acting again, for this purpose sometimes also unpopular decisions are necessary.” Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Hugh Lawson'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-results/vw-may-post-excellent-2017-results-ceo-tells-welt-am-sonntag-idUKKBN1EI0BA'|'2017-12-24T21:29:00.000+02:00'
'7f6a3d67f49fddd04f0b774e60d2cd20bd688c41'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada-Dec 27'|' 16 AM / in 5 minutes PRESS DIGEST- Canada-Dec 27 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 27 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** A deadly derailment on the west coast of the United States this month underlines the need to have voice and video recorders in trains to improve safety on Canada''s rail lines, the Canada''s Transport Minister Marc Garneau has said. tgam.ca/2DXNb2i ** Some Vancouver residents are contributing funds to help pay for legal action against the city over the approval of a temporary modular-housing development for the homeless on Vancouver''s south side. tgam.ca/2BXxECq ** Brookfield Infrastructure on Tuesday announced the sale of its 27.8-per-cent stake in Chile''s main electricity provider to China Southern Power Grid International for $1.6-billion. tgam.ca/2DkNbIR NATIONAL POST ** U.S. trade policy and the timing of Donald Trump''s long-awaited tax reforms are helping to form a hazy outlook for Canada, but the domestic economy and, in turn, the loonie should be better equipped to deal with any negative developments in 2018 after putting a solid year of growth under their belt. bit.ly/2l4OViL Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-dec-27-idUSL4N1OR2XQ'|'2017-12-27T13:15:00.000+02:00'
'607f609cfd8d8bf71ce06607a7084488b0d0bc61'|'China fourth-quarter economic trends point to slowdown in 2018 - Beige Book survey'|'December 26, 2017 / 11:14 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago China fourth quarter economic trends point to slowdown in 2018: Beige Book survey Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese industrial firms continued to ramp up production in the fourth quarter, a private survey on Wednesday showed, but growth in wages and hiring slowed in a further sign of cooling momentum in the world’s second-biggest economy. A China yuan note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration The quarterly survey of thousands of Chinese firms by China Beige Book International (CBB) showed “old economy” firms in the commodities sector sustained an increase in net capacity and production. Overall, wages and hiring ebbed in the December quarter, with the retail sector suffering the biggest blow on weak revenue, a hiring slowdown and worsening cash flow. The results reinforce views that China’s economy will slacken in 2018 after posting better-than-expected 6.9 percent growth through the first-three quarters of this year in the run-up to a key meeting of the ruling Communist Party. For much of this year activity was supported by robust exports and a construction boom, thanks to a government-led infrastructure spending spree. But a relentless crackdown on debt risks has started to weigh on the economy. “If you expect a noticeable slowdown in 2018, the first post-Congress returns support those expectations,” CBB said of its fourth quarter findings. Performance in the retail sector lagged that of other industries, the survey showed, despite Beijing’s efforts to restructure growth towards domestic consumption from years of overreliance on exports and credit-intensive investment. Authorities are in the second year of an extended campaign to foster sustainable growth by reducing high levels of debt across the economy, particularly targeting speculative lending in the financial sector and the housing market. While fourth quarter corporate borrowing fell from the third, and banks sold fewer ‘shadow banking’ investment products, average lending rates fell for a second quarter in a row, CBB said, underscoring the mixed results from the deleveraging process. CBB highlighted weakness in the auto retail segment, where growth is slowing from a high base, while apparel and luxury goods saw rapid inventory growth, which could point to future weakness. The fourth quarter survey again showed little evidence of supply-side reform, with industrial commodity firms adding net capacity and ramping up production, as well as boosting their payrolls. Beijing said last week that it will push forward structural supply-side reform that saw outdated capacity taken offline, including surpassing a target for cutting 50 million tonnes of steel capacity this year. Commodity firms added net capacity for the last seven quarters, according to the CBB survey, in line with official data showing rising output in many sectors. CBB also said that China will not export inflation into the global economy as sales prices are slowing and commodities prices are unlikely to extend their current upward trajectory. Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-beigebook/china-fourth-quarter-economic-trends-point-to-slowdown-in-2018-beige-book-survey-idUKKBN1EK1HN'|'2017-12-27T01:03:00.000+02:00'
'dfb212fafa5f96ea889466bc783408c1c90aa008'|'INSIGHT-In Pakistan, questions raised over GE''s flagship power turbines'|'December 27, 2017 / 12:09 PM / in 8 hours In Pakistan, questions raised over GE''s flagship power turbines Drazen Jorgic , Henning Gloystein 9 Min Read ISLAMABAD/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - General Electric’s flagship gas turbines ran into problems in Pakistan earlier this year, leading to delays and lengthy outages at three newly built power stations, according to several senior Pakistani officials and power executives. GE has said they were teething problems. But the questions over one of its most important products suggest another setback for the company in a year in which its shares have plunged and third-quarter results were called “horrible” by new Chief Executive John Flannery. GE is now undergoing major restructuring. There is no evidence that GE’s 9HA-Class turbines have fundamental design flaws. But so far the Pakistani plants, which began running this year, are producing power at levels well below their capacity and the problem was acute in the crucial summer months, when temperatures in the country frequently exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104°F). Data from Pakistan’s Central Power Purchasing Agency, seen by Reuters, showed the Bhikki, Haveli and Balloki plants jointly generated only a half of their current maximum capacity in August. A month later all three plants showed improved output but remained well below capacity. Reuters was unable to review more recent data. “It had terrible consequences because we lost a lot of power which would have come to the grid during the peak summer,” Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, the top civil servant in the Energy Ministry’s power division, told Reuters. “It is now up to General Electric to rise to the challenge and to take care of these issues... before next summer starts,” he said. In a statement sent to Reuters, GE said “every commercial HA site today is demonstrating exceptional performance levels for both output and efficiency”. On the issues in Pakistan, GE said: “We’ve encountered and communicated openly about launch challenges and readily resolved issues during this time. It’s important to note that challenges are common with power plants of this size and complexity during the commissioning and early operations phase.” GE also said in a separate statement that the three plants are expected to deliver enough power to supply the equivalent of 7.3 million Pakistani homes over their 30-plus-year life cycle, and that will make a “meaningful difference in the everyday lives of the people of Pakistan.” The 9HA-class gas turbines, the GE power division’s newest and most prestigious product, entered the Guinness World Records last year for efficiency, based on the amount of electricity generated from natural gas at the power plant in Bouchain, France, where it was first put into commercial operation in June last year. Both the 9HA and the 7HA turbines - the A stands for air-cooled - are in tough competition with similar products made by Germany’s Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ), Japan’s Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems - a joint venture between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries ( 7011.T ) and Hitachi ( 6501.T ) - and Italy’s state-controlled Ansaldo Energia. Flannery said in a GE investor presentation in November that “resolving initial launch issues” with HA class gas turbines would be a future priority. TOUGH YEAR GE’s shares have fallen more than 40 percent this year, and the 125-year-old company announced this month it was cutting 12,000 jobs in its power division, about a fifth of the workforce, to cut costs. Operating profit of the power division, once the strongest part of GE’s operations, fell 51 percent in the third quarter against the year-ago period. Flannery said the division, which brought in 28 percent of GE’s revenue last year, was “challenged” but could be turned around in one or two years. Pakistan, desperate for additional electricity to avoid crippling blackouts, teamed up with GE to build the power stations at Bhikki, Haveli and Balloki, all in the most populous province Punjab, at breakneck speed. GE won the contracts to supply Pakistan with six turbines for the three power plants in 2015, based on the lowest priced deal per megawatt of capacity. The first problem was the deliveries were delayed by up to three months and missed some of the summer months this year, several Pakistani officials said. They said they were told the delays happened because a part of the turbine needed further testing. The plan was to fire up the turbines in simple cycle mode - delivering around 800 MW per power plant - in the spring of 2017 and then to upgrade to 1,200 MW combined cycle output after the summer. The delays infuriated Islamabad, because getting additional power during the summer was a crucial factor ahead of 2018 parliamentary elections. One of the two turbines at the Bhikki power plant was delayed by about a month. At the Balloki and Haveli plants, the turbines were delayed by about three months, two senior Pakistani officials aware of the situation said. Then, in early May, a combustion seal leak was detected at one of the turbines at the Bhikki plant. To fix this, and to apply the same remedy to the five other turbines, GE airlifted all the units to France for repairs. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif listens as experts explain a process of the Haveli Bahadur Shah LNG power plant during the inauguration in Jhang, Pakistan July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Drazen Jorgic Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who was then the petroleum minister, told Reuters in July that GE spared no expense to fix the problems. “They found the problem, they took out the part, they went back to the vendor, they re-machined them, they came back – all on dedicated transport flights,” Abbasi said. TURBINE DAMAGE But that meant one Bhikki turbine was offline for about 40 days and the other for about 50 days. The other two plants had not begun operations at the time, but came online in July and August. In a third setback, one of the turbines at the Haveli plant was badly damaged during a power outage three weeks after it was inaugurated in July, the Pakistani officials said. At such times, batteries and a generator act as back-ups to ensure a pump continues to push lube oil into the turbine. “Both didn’t work,” said one of the Pakistani officials, adding the diesel generator had no fuel. The turbine crashed, with damage estimated at $33 million, and although it was refitted with a new rotor by GE, it is still to resume operations. The power station is being built by China’s SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Corporation. SEPCOIII did not return queries for comment. “GE and SEPCOIII are working together to determine the cause behind the loss of functionality of the planned backup power system,” GE said in a statement. A senior Pakistani official in Islamabad said the delays and outages had cast GE in a bad light. “Frankly speaking, they have lost a lot of credibility here in the government because of these plants,” the official said. In September, Pakistan awarded its most recent power contract to Siemens, after bidding by several companies, including GE. Stephen Tusa, an analyst at JPMorgan in New York, wrote in a recent note that although GE has assured investors that the Pakistan problems have been resolved, they could re-emerge in other plants around the world. “The risk is that if these issues are not remedied, GE has already ‘sold’ another around 30 units (around 1'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-generalelectric-pakistan-insight/in-pakistan-questions-raised-over-ges-flagship-power-turbines-idUSKBN1EL0VN'|'2017-12-27T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'4d35eb3896a7a400273c32c20aaa98fb6f162d0a'|'Barclays expects $1.3 billion write-down from U.S. tax reform'|'December 27, 2017 / 9:29 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Barclays expects 1 billion pound writedown from U.S. tax reform Ben Martin 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays expects to take a writedown of about 1 billion pounds on its annual post-tax profit as a result of the U.S. tax overhaul, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Barclays bank is seen on glass lamps outside of a branch of the bank in the City of London financial district in London September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The reform to the tax system signed into law by President Donald Trump on Dec. 22 will force the British lender to reduce the value of its deferred tax assets, prompting it to take a one-off charge in its results for the 12 months to the end of December. It will also lead to the bank’s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of its financial strength, falling by about 20 basis points, the lender said. Since taking the helm at Barclays in December 2015, Chief Executive Jes Staley has streamlined the bank into a transatlantic lender focused on the United States and Britain. The restructuring has led it to exit a raft of non-core operations, such as its business in Africa and units in Asia, in a bid to simplify its structure and boost returns to shareholders. Barclays already slumped to a 628 million pound attributable loss in the nine months to the end of September following write-offs in the wake of its exit from Africa. The 1 billion pound charge to account for the U.S. tax changes is expected to push it further into the red. The $1.5 trillion tax overhaul is the biggest reform of the U.S. tax system since the 1980s and will see that corporate tax rate slashed to 21 percent from 35 percent. While Barclays said the reduction in the tax rate is expected to “positively impact” its future post-tax earnings in the United States, it also cautioned that the Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT), which was included in the legislation and designed to prevent multinational firms from abusing the tax code, could significantly offset that benefit. “Due to the uncertain practical and technical application of many of these provisions, it is currently not possible to reliably estimate whether BEAT will apply and if so, how it would impact Barclays,” the lender added. Reporting by Ben Martin, editing by David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-barclays-tax/barclays-expects-1-3-billion-write-down-from-u-s-tax-reform-idUKKBN1EL0L1'|'2017-12-27T11:29:00.000+02:00'
'd4ec99f01b7a9ecca23421da300e8fc43ce190d8'|'Cryptocurrency stocks holding gains despite bitcoin pullback'|'December 22, 2017 / 7:03 PM / Updated 14 hours ago Cryptocurrency stocks holding gains despite bitcoin pullback Chuck Mikolajczak 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks that surged in recent weeks because of the cryptocurrency mania have managed to hold onto most of their gains despite the recent retreat in the price of bitcoin and scepticism from market participants. FILE PHOTO: Sparks glow from broken Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo A Reuters analysis of 17 stocks of companies that have made blockchain or cryptocurrency announcements showed an average gain of 224 percent through Thursday’s close from they released those statements. For example, shares of Long Island Iced Tea Corp jumped nearly 300 percent on Thursday after the beverage maker said it would rename itself Long Blockchain Corp to reflect a new focus on blockchain technology. The moves are reminiscent of the tech boom, when the market value of companies such as Zapata and Books-A-Million rose sharply after they announced an internet business or an updated website. After the dot-com bubble burst, many of the companies went out of business or became much less valuable. “There’s been a continued surge of crypto headlines,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee. “It’s gotten more worrisome as more companies have changed their names. It’s the kind of stuff you saw back in the dot-com era.” Many of the crypto stocks came under pressure on Friday, as the price of bitcoin tumbled below $12,000 to put it on track for its worst week since 2013. Riot Blockchain dropped 15.3 percent to $23.36, and Overstock.com, which announced in August that it would accept major alt-coins as payment, was down 6.5 percent at $63.05. Even with the declines on Friday, bitcoin itself is still more than double from its price at the start of November while the stocks are still well above their prices before the companies made cryptocurrency announcements. While the stocks are susceptible to price moves in bitcoin itself, analysts caution investors should make sure the company has a credible business model. “It is a buyer beware time,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. “Long term it may hurt these companies because if bitcoin does settle down to being a product that trades like most products and doesn’t have crazy moves every day, it is going to make people look at these companies and ask what is really going on here.” Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/stocks-cryptocurrency-analysis/cryptocurrency-stocks-holding-gains-despite-bitcoin-pullback-idINKBN1EG24R'|'2017-12-23T05:44:00.000+02:00'
'22a43c75e8ab3717f4824ceb5465fa5daf18c35a'|'UPDATE 2-Investors pile into Italian debt in final auction of 2017'|'* Over 9 bln euros of demand for 5 and 10yr Italian debt* Italian parliament expected to be dissolved before end of week* Most euro zone yields up 2-3 bps on the day* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr (Updates to reflect shift in yields)By Fanny Potkin and Abhinav RamnarayanLONDON, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Investors hoovered up Italy’s government bonds at an auction on Thursday as demand for the country’s debt picked up again at higher yields after a recent sell-off prompted by concerns over an upcoming election.On a day when most euro zone government yields rose, the Italian debt agency sold 4.9 billion euros of five and 10-year bonds, or BTPs, generating over 9 billion euros of demand in the process.“I think the auction went quite well, especially for the current holiday period,” said DZ Bank analyst Sebastian Fellechner.“I think yesterday we saw some spread-widening that has made Italian bonds more attractive, that is why maybe investors are taking advantage,” he said.Italy’s 10-year borrowing costs actually dropped around the time of the auction, but were set to end the day 4 basis points higher at 1.95 percent on the back of some political headlines.Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni met President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday in the first formal step ahead of the dissolution of parliament which is necessary before an election can be called, a government source told Reuters.However, the move in Italian yields was not out of step with the rest of the market. Most euro zone bond yields were 4-5 bps higher on the day, and going into a new year when the European Central Bank is set to halve its bond purchase programme.The gap between Italian and German 10-year borrowing costs narrowed 2.5 basis points to just below 151 bps at one stage.The yield on Germany’s 10-year government bond, the benchmark for the region, was up 5 bps to 0.43 percent, only a shade below a five-week high hit last week.Italian government bond yields have risen in the last couple of weeks after reports emerged that a parliamentary election was set to take place in March.Some investors sold Italian government bonds - which have been a stellar performer overall this year - on concerns that the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement is performing strongly in the polls.Reporting by Fanny Potkin and Abhinav Ramnarayan; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/eurozone-bonds/update-1-investors-pile-into-italian-debt-in-final-auction-of-2017-idINL8N1OS0XL'|'2017-12-28T10:02:00.000+02:00'
'12a677a21717710d1e657b669d12111b6ca57283'|'GM wins ruling that could narrow ignition switch litigation'|'December 28, 2017 / 7:41 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago GM wins ruling that could narrow ignition switch litigation Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Co on Thursday won a court ruling that could reduce the private litigation it faces over flawed vehicle ignition switches, which have been linked to 124 deaths and triggered a big recall. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said the plaintiffs in two bellwether cases, involving accidents where airbags had deployed, could not introduce expert testimony to show how defective ignition switches might have played a role in the crashes. The plaintiffs said their GM ignition switches might have rotated from “run” at the moment of impact to “accessory” or “off,” causing the accidents or making them worse, and then back to “run” before the airbags deployed. But Furman, who oversees multi-district litigation (“MDL”) over the ignition switches, including 213 cases where airbags deployed, called the expert testimony “unreliable” because there was no evidence that “double switch rotation” occurred anywhere. “The court recognizes that these conclusions may have a significant impact on a swath of cases now pending in the MDL and, thus, does not reach them lightly,” the judge wrote. Furman said his role is “to ensure the reliability and relevancy of expert testimony,” and the opinions of the plaintiffs’ experts “do not pass muster.” Bob Hilliard and Tamar Lusztig, two lawyers for the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. David Caldwell, a spokesman for Detroit-based GM, said the decision “reinforces our approach to contest cases that lack merit, while being open to fair resolution of cases that have more merit according to the facts and the law.” GM has paid more than $2.6 billion in penalties and settlements, including $900 million to settle a U.S. Department of Justice criminal case, over ignition switches that could cause engines to stall and prevent airbags from deploying. The largest U.S. automaker has recalled more than 2.6 million vehicles over the defect since February 2014. As of Nov. 30, there were 1,723 unresolved personal injury and wrongful death claims in the multi-district litigation, including the 213 where airbags deployed, a court filing shows. GM has also settled claims related to more than 1,700 claimants. Thursday’s decision dismissed claims by Vivian Garza, who was 19 when her Chevrolet Cobalt crashed on an icy highway in Alice, Texas, in February 2011. It also dismissed claims by the son of Ruby Greenroad over the January 2013 crash of her 2007 Cobalt in the Houston area. Greenroad died at age 90 the following year. The case is In re: General Motors LLC Ignition Switch Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-md-02543. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gm-ignition/gm-wins-ruling-that-could-narrow-ignition-switch-litigation-idUSKBN1EM1RV'|'2017-12-28T21:41:00.000+02:00'
'c5559d5f23882424047263fae07965028c6370c3'|'Aegon to sell stake in U.S. unit to French reinsurer Scor'|'December 28, 2017 / 9:12 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago Aegon to sell stake in U.S. unit to French reinsurer Scor Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Dutch insurer Aegon NV ( AEGN.AS ) on Thursday said it would sell part of the remaining stake it holds in U.S. life insurance unit to France-based property and life reinsurer Scor SE ( SCOR.PA ). FILE PHOTO - The logo of reinsurance company Scor is seen at its Paris headquarters, in Paris, France, February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau The deal covers about half of the life reinsurance business that Transamerica retained after an earlier stake sale to Scor in 2011. Transamerica life subsidiaries would reinsure approximately $750 million of liabilities to Scor under the terms of the deal, the Netherlands-based insurer added. The transaction is expected to result in a pre-tax loss of about $125 million and will be reported in other charges in the fourth quarter 2017 results, Aegon said. Reporting by Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-aegon-scor-life-insurance/aegon-to-sell-stake-in-u-s-unit-to-french-reinsurer-scor-idUKKBN1EM0QB'|'2017-12-28T11:11:00.000+02:00'
'509ffa402ff54b6375cf37de16953c59f0a9f42b'|'Axel Springer in talks to buy Israel''s Zap - source'|'December 27, 2017 / 10:14 AM / Updated an hour ago Axel Springer in talks to buy Israel''s Zap: source Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Private equity firm Apax Partners is in talks to sell Israeli shopping comparison website Zap to German publishing firm Axel Springer ( SPRGn.DE ) for up to 500 million shekels ($144 million), a source close to the matter said, confirming media reports. FILE PHOTO: The logo of German publisher Axel Springer is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Berlin July 25, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo Apax and Axel Springer declined to comment on Wednesday. The source said Apax put Zap up for sale two weeks ago and asked for bids of between 450 million and 500 million shekels and that Apax was reviewing offers from buyers. In addition to Axel Springer, the KKR ( KKR.N ) private equity fund, Bain Capital, Blackstone and ABRI Partners are also interested in buying Zap, which Apax bought in 2015 for 150 million shekels, the source said. Israeli news websites said the Zap Group operates 22 websites, encompassing 450,000 businesses. Each month there are 16 million visits to Zap’s website with users seeking information for their purchasing decisions, according to the Globes financial news website. Axel Springer in 2014 bought Israeli classified ads website Yad2 for 806 million shekels. Reporting by Steven Scheer; Additional reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apax-axel-sprngr-zap/axel-springer-in-talks-to-buy-israels-zap-source-idUKKBN1EL0NV'|'2017-12-27T12:09:00.000+02:00'
'8223fabe02ba381b006151220d472c982cde942d'|'Shell''s operations seen boosted by U.S. tax reform legislation'|'December 27, 2017 / 7:26 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Shell''s operations seen boosted by U.S. tax overhaul Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it expects recently enacted U.S. tax reform legislation to have a “favourable” impact on its operations. FILE PHOTO - Filled oil drums are seen at Royal Dutch Shell Plc''s lubricants blending plant in the town of Torzhok, north-west of Tver, November 7, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo The change in U.S. tax legislation, which is a reduction to 21 percent from 35 percent, will affect Shell’s fourth-quarter 2017 results but added the “analysis of the actual impact is not yet complete.” The Anglo-Dutch company said it expects to provide details of the impact of the tax reform, which is effective from Jan. 1, in its fourth-quarter 2017 results. However, Shell said it would have incurred a charge to earnings of $2.0 to 2.5 billion, on the basis of its third-quarter statements. On Dec. 22, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul into law, cutting tax rates for businesses and offering some temporary cuts for some individuals and families. Reporting by Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-shell-usa-tax/shells-operations-seen-boosted-by-u-s-tax-reform-legislation-idUKKBN1EL0DI'|'2017-12-27T09:25:00.000+02:00'
'10fac0b418617fa853072a8ef86b073f9c02e280'|'TREASURIES-Prices dip before seven-year auction'|'* U.S. to sell $28 bln seven-year notes * Month-end extension buying ebbs By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury prices dipped on Thursday, giving back some of Wednesday’s strong month-end extension rally, as investors prepared for the Treasury Department’s $28 billion sale of seven-year notes. Benchmark 10-year note yields fell as low as 2.407 percent on Wednesday, from 2.479 percent, as investors sought to extend the duration of their bond portfolios before year-end. “A lot of this month-end buying is getting done before the actual month-end,” said Tom di Galoma, a managing director at Seaport Global Holdings in New York. “There is so much duration that needs to be bought at month-end and markets are very thin.” The 10-year yields rose back to 2.427 percent on Thursday with no major news or economic catalysts to drive market direction. The Treasury will auction $28 billion in seven-year notes on Thursday, the final sale of $88 billion in coupon-bearing supply this week. The United States saw below average demand for a $26 billion sale of two-year notes on Tuesday and a $34 billion sale of five-year notes on Wednesday. Short- and intermediate-dated debt is highly sensitive to interest rate hikes and the notes have also been under pressure since October on expectations that the Treasury will increase supply next year as the Federal Reserve reduces its bond purchases. The Treasury is expected to initially concentrate supply increases in Treasury bills and shorter-dated notes. The Fed has indicated that an additional three increases are likely next year, though interest rate futures traders are pricing in only two. (Editing by Susan Thomas) ) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-bonds/treasuries-prices-dip-before-seven-year-auction-idINL1N1OS0M8'|'2017-12-28T11:22:00.000+02:00'
'848b7dd020fbe77fff011f56937d79dae62d4ff4'|'US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Wall St opens higher in muted holiday trading'|'December 28, 2017 / 2:33 PM / in 3 hours US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Wall St opens higher in muted holiday trading Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 28 (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher in thin holiday trading on Thursday, helped by a rally in commodities and a weaker dollar. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 46.86 points, or 0.19 percent, to 24,821.16. The S&P 500 gained 3.57 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,686.19. The Nasdaq Composite added 14.14 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,953.48. Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/us-stocks-snapshot-wall-st-opens-higher-in-muted-holiday-trading-idUSL4N1OS3LL'|'2017-12-28T16:33:00.000+02:00'
'53e06875a2035394ab613c4ebb7984cea6db9eab'|'MTN assigns $231 million shareholder loan to African phone tower group'|' 52 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago MTN assigns $231 million shareholder loan to African phone tower group Reuters Staff 2 Min Read JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - MTN Group, Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator, said on Thursday it had assigned a $231 million shareholder loan to phone tower group, IHS Holding Ltd, impacting its 2017 profits. FILE PHOTO: Bystanders walk past an outlet of South Africa''s MTN Group in downtown Cape Town, November 10, 2015. Picture taken November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo MTN, which returned to profit in the first half of its financial year in the absence of one-off charges related to a $1.1 billion Nigerian fine, said the assignment of the loan to IHS will lead to a loss of 2.8 billion rand ($228 million) on transfer of the carrying value of the loan. The loss on transfer will impact headline earnings per share (HEPS) for 2017, the main profit measure in South Africa that strips out certain one-off items, but not earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), the firm said. MTN said the loan, which is due in 2024/2025, will allow its Nigerian unit to continue to invest in its network and simplify MTN’s interests in IHS. “The agreement will enable MTN and IHS to mutually benefit from continued investment and commitment to the rollout of broadband and data services in Nigeria,” MTN said in a statement. MTN formed a joint venture partnership with specialist tower company IHS in 2014 to own and operate MTN’s transmitter towers in Nigeria. IHS has operations in Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d‘Ivoire, Rwanda and Zambia. ($1 = 12.2576 rand)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mtngroup-nigeria-ihs/mtn-assigns-231-million-shareholder-loan-to-african-phone-tower-group-idINKBN1EM0KF'|'2017-12-28T09:47:00.000+02:00'
'8150ee9356420c70100595b0058703dcc7ae2e70'|'Israel Aerospace Industries CEO Weiss to step down'|'December 28, 2017 / 9:57 AM / in 9 hours Israel Aerospace Industries CEO Weiss to step down Reuters Staff 1 Min Read TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) said on Thursday its chief executive officer, Joseph Weiss, will step down after six years in the job as he approaches retirement age. The logo of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the country''s biggest defence contractor, is seen at their offices next to Ben Gurion International airport, near Or Yehuda, Israel February 27, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner Weiss will leave after a replacement is chosen and at the end of a suitable transition period, the state-owned defence firm said. A committee will be formed to choose a new CEO. Weiss joined IAI in 1998 following 27 years of service in the Israeli navy and previously managed the group’s largest division - Systems, Missiles & Space. Under his leadership IAI, which helped pioneer the development of military drones and also produces satellites, missiles and radar systems, grew its backlog of orders to a record $11 billion. In April, IAI struck a deal worth almost $2 billion to supply India’s army and navy with missile defence systems. A month later it won an additional $630 million contract to supply air and defence missile systems for four Indian navy ships. Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/il-aerospace-ind-ceo/israel-aerospace-industries-ceo-weiss-to-step-down-idINKBN1EM0UN'|'2017-12-28T11:54:00.000+02:00'
'2753bed8ee58c4b8fa2abaf907043cf84cc655d3'|'Activist hedge fund TCI set to end year up 29 percent - letter'|'December 27, 2017 / 1:30 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Activist hedge fund TCI set to end year up 29 percent: letter Maiya Keidan 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British activist TCI Fund Management’s main hedge fund is set to end the year up 29 percent despite a very public battle with the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ), a letter to investors, shared with Reuters, showed. Christopher Hohn’s $17.5 billion hedge fund, which owns 5 percent of LSE shares, was up 28.6 percent in the year to Dec. 15, according to the most recent communication to investors. LSE shares rose 1.9 percent between November, when TCI launched a campaign calling for CEO Xavier Rolet to stay on until 2021 and for chairman Donald Brydon to resign, and Dec. 15. TCI lost a vote on a resolution to ditch Brydon over the handling of Rolet’s departure on Dec. 19. Shares have since fallen slightly by 1.4 percent. Hohn’s hedge fund also invests in German carmaker Porsche ( PSHG_p.DE ), Airbus Group ( AIR.PA ) and aero engine maker Safran ( SAF.PA ), all of whose shares rose significantly this year, said a source close to the firm. TCI had this year pushed for Safran to significantly cut its price to buy Zodiac Aerospace ( ZODC.PA ). Zodiac accepted a 15 percent lower bid in May. The hedge fund firm was founded by Hohn in 2003. Reporting by Maiya Keidan; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hedgefunds-funds/activist-hedge-fund-tci-set-to-end-year-up-29-percent-letter-idUKKBN1EL117'|'2017-12-27T15:26:00.000+02:00'
'997920f5ec99b3a49b2b513a5f557777b6f1d8ee'|'Chinese regulator paying attention to chip price surge - China Daily'|'December 27, 2017 / 12:43 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Chinese regulator paying attention to chip price surge: China Daily Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s economic regulator is paying close attention to a recent surge in the price of mobile phone storage chips and could look into possible price fixing by companies, state newspaper China Daily reported on Wednesday. The newspaper, citing an official with the National Development and Reform Commission’s Pricing Supervision Department, said the NDRC was alerted to the situation after a sharp rise in the price of chips over the last 18 months. “We have noticed the price surge and will pay more attention to future problems that may be caused by ‘price fixing’ in the sector,” the official Xu Xinyu was quoted as saying. The newspaper added that the official referred to possible coordinated action taken by a number of firms to gain maximum profits by pushing the price of the product as high as possible. A “super-cycle” of tight supply and soaring demand for memory chips, which power servers and smartphones, has been driving up prices and profits at chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and SK Hynix Inc. The NDRC has spoken to Samsung, the China Daily reported, citing Wang Yanhui, the secretary-general of the Mobile China Alliance, who the paper said had knowledge of the matter. Mobile China Alliance is an industry association that has more than 30 mobile phone companies as members. Wang said it was too early to predict what further measures could be taken but that the government could look at penalties issued by other countries if Samsung was found to be engaging in such any price fixing. Samsung did not have an immediate comment on the report when contacted by Reuters. Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional Reporting by Joyce Lee in SEOUL; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-chips/chinese-regulator-paying-attention-to-chip-price-surge-china-daily-idUKKBN1EL017'|'2017-12-27T03:16:00.000+02:00'
'34e35c53462fc4fe00206b69f772a88ab79fb7ad'|'China''s November industrial profit growth slowest since April on weaker price gains'|'December 27, 2017 / 2:10 AM / in 4 hours China Inc braces for testing 2018 as profit growth slows to seven-month low Reuters Staff 5 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Earnings at China’s industrial firms grew at their slowest pace in seven months in November, as demand and producer price gains eased in further confirmation of ebbing growth in the world’s second-largest economy. FILE PHOTO: A worker jokes and beckons at her colleague as she rolls away carts of unused tools between rows of spinning machine at a factory owned by Hong Kong''s Novetex Textiles Limited in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Venus Wu/File Photo The lower income underscores a delicate balancing act for authorities as they extend a campaign to reduce China’s reliance on credit-intensive investment without imperiling the economy. Profits in November rose 14.9 percent to 785.8 billion yuan ($120.05 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website on Wednesday. It marked the slowest monthly growth rate since April’s 14.0 percent. Earnings were pressured in November by a slower pace of price rises compared to previous months, He Ping of the statistics bureau said in a statement along with the data release. He noted that November’s decline in producer price inflation to 5.8 percent from 6.9 percent in October was one of the biggest of the year. “Previous price increases were concentrated in upstream industries like coal and steel. Inflation in those areas is slowing, and the transmission of higher prices to downstream industries hasn’t been very strong, which hurts profit margins,” said Ye Bingnan, an economist at BOC International in Beijing. More than half of the increase in profits in Jan-Nov came from coal mining and washing, iron and steel smelting and processing, chemicals, and oil and natural gas extraction, the statistic bureau’s He said. While the industrial sector has enjoyed a year-long construction boom that has fueled demand and prices for building materials in a boost to growth, a government-led battle to clean toxic air and a crackdown on financial risks have started to drag on China’s economy. Chinese steel makers in 28 cities have been ordered to curb output between mid-November and mid-March. A campaign to promote clean energy by converting coal to natural gas has also hampered manufacturing activity in northern cities due to insufficient supply and high prices. Chinese iron ore and coke futures stretched losses on Tuesday as steel prices fell further, weighed down by seasonal weakness in demand in the world’s top producer during winter. For the first eleven months of the year, profits reached 6.875 trillion yuan, up 21.9 percent from the same period and lower than the 23.3 percent annual growth in the January-October period. LOWER PROFITS IN 2018 Research firm China Beige Book said in a survey out earlier on Wednesday that with demand strong and prices holding up, Chinese firms continued to ramp up new capacity and production in the fourth quarter. However, it also showed a slowdown in hiring and wages growth in a further sign of slackening economic activity. China has defied market expectations with 6.9 percent growth in the first nine months of the year amid the construction boom and solid exports. A slowdown has started to take hold in the last few months as the property sector cools and credit growth ebbs, with Beijing focused on controlling corporate leverage and defusing financial risks. At the end of November, industrial firms’ liabilities were 6.3 percent higher then a year earlier, compared with a 6.7 percent increase at the end of October. But the ratio of liabilities to assets at industrial firms ticked up to 55.8 percent at the end of November, compared to 55.7 percent in October, indicating that deleveraging outside the financial sector has been limited. Mining industry profits rose 286.8 percent from a year earlier in January-November while manufacturing profits were up 18.9 percent, both slowing from January-October. Profits earned by China’s state-owned firms increased 46.2 percent to 1.576 trillion yuan in the first eleven months, cooling from a 48.7 percent surge in January-October. Ye at BOC International said industrial profit growth will likely slow next year. “We think next year investment growth will slow, specifically real estate and infrastructure investment,” Ye said. “So price, sales, and profit gains may slow in industries that are sensitive to investment, while firms related to consumer and industrial upgrades should see better performance.” Reporting by Zhang Min and Elias Glenn; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-industrial-profits/chinas-november-industrial-profit-growth-slowest-since-april-on-weaker-price-gains-idINKBN1EL03T'|'2017-12-27T05:02:00.000+02:00'
'7d1b6ef73e94f3369975df8de03668478903109b'|'Russia''s standards agency says Nissan to recall 106,340 cars'|'December 27, 2017 / 10:59 AM / in 2 hours Russia''s standards agency says Nissan to recall 106,340 cars Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) will recall 106,340 Nissan cars in Russia, Russia’s technical safety watchdog Rosstandart said on Wednesday. Rosstandart said the recall would affect Nissan Almera, Nissan Teana, Nissan Pickup, Nissan Tino, Nissan Patrol, Nissan Terrano II and Nissan X-Trall models produced between Feb. 19, 2001 and Nov. 28, 2012. The recall is to address a problem with parts of the airbag safety device. Earlier this week, Rosstandart said Nissan would recall 127,738 Nissan cars in Russia. Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nissan-recall/russias-standards-agency-says-nissan-to-recall-106340-cars-idUSKBN1EL0RO'|'2017-12-27T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'6649ad286df47a11f39ad12038143a6db25715e0'|'Kentucky state workers sue investment firms over pension shortfall'|'December 28, 2017 / 12:17 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago Kentucky state workers sue investment firms over pension shortfall Chris Kenning 3 Min Read Dec 27 (Reuters) - A group of Kentucky state workers filed a lawsuit against state retirement system officials and three asset management firms on Wednesday, saying they breached fiduciary duties by embracing high-risk, high-fee investments that yielded lackluster returns. Kentucky has one of the nation’s most underfunded public pension funds, with nearly $16 billion in assets and a shortfall the suit estimates to be at least $27 billion. The retirement and health benefits of 360,000 state workers, from police officers to janitors, depend on Kentucky’s pension fund. The lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court seeks damages from KKR Prisma, Blackstone Group and PAAMCO for losses on investments they recommended. It also names several former or current Kentucky Retirement Systems officials as defendants. Blackstone and KKR on Wednesday said the claims were baseless. “The Blackstone fund referenced in the complaint delivered to the Kentucky Employees Retirement System positive returns outperforming relevant benchmarks,” the group said in a statement. “We take our fiduciary duty very seriously and believe that the allegations about our firm are meritless, misplaced and misleading,” said a separate statement issued by KKR. PAAMCO did not immediately comment on the lawsuit and Kentucky Retirement System officials could not be reached for comment. Ann Oldfather, one of the attorneys representing the workers, said in an interview that the system suffered major losses in the 2000s. Desperate to bridge shortfalls, she said retirement officials were drawn into investing $1.2 billion in 2011 in high-risk hedge funds that carried high fees and were complex and difficult to monitor. Lower-risk, simpler index fund investments would have been more suited for a pension fund, she said. Retirement officials also used faulty assumptions for returns and did not sufficiently communicate the extent of the shortfalls, Oldfather said. That contributed to insufficient funding from the state legislature, the lawsuit seen by Reuters argues, citing comments from state lawmakers. Kentucky’s pension fund in 2001 was fully funded with a $2 billion surplus, the suit says, but is now in danger of failing with the largest of the plans having 13.6 percent of the money it needs. Republican Governor Matt Bevin is pushing state lawmakers to overhaul the retirement system when they convene next month. (Reporting by Chris Kenning; Editing by Tom Brown)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/kentucky-pension-lawsuit/kentucky-state-workers-sue-investment-firms-over-pension-shortfall-idUSL1N1OR184'|'2017-12-28T02:17:00.000+02:00'
'e4474781217feacebde183ad7cd3a27e3777e6c0'|'Goldman Sachs picks Dublin for asset management unit post-Brexit - source'|'UK firms report fourth-quarter pickup, expect slowdown in 2018 Exclusive Apple and Amazon in talks to set up in Saudi Arabia World stocks in year-end rally as dollar retreats Reuters TV United States  36 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Goldman Sachs picks Dublin for asset management unit post-Brexit: source   LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ) has picked Dublin as a center for administrative staff in its asset management business following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, a source familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Goldman Sachs is displayed in their office located in Sydney, Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo The subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Asset Management will employ around 20 people, the source added. Britain is currently home to most of the Wall Street bank’s European operations, where it has around 6,000 employees. Banks, insurers and asset managers have announced subsidiaries in the European Union in recent months, in case they no longer have access to the single market after Brexit. Goldman Sachs has also agreed to lease office space at a new building in Frankfurt, giving it space for up to 1,000 staff. Dublin and Luxembourg are favored locations for asset management businesses. Legal & General Investment Management has also picked Dublin as an EU center after Brexit, while Prudential unit M&G has chosen Luxembourg. The Financial Times reported the Goldman Sachs news earlier. Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Ben Martin; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-goldmansachs-dublin/goldman-sachs-picks-dublin-for-asset-management-unit-post-brexit-source-idUKKBN1EM10L'|'2017-12-28T13:27:00.000+02:00'
'f538c72ea04fc8fd7df11d8573e029e7242b850c'|'GM wins ruling that could narrow ignition switch litigation'|'December 28, 2017 / 7:42 PM / Updated 26 minutes ago GM wins ruling that could narrow ignition switch litigation Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Co ( GM.N ) on Thursday won a court ruling that could reduce the private litigation it faces over flawed vehicle ignition switches, which have been linked to 124 deaths and triggered a big recall. FILE PHOTO - The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Warren Transmission Operations Plant in Warren, Michigan October 26, 2015. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said the plaintiffs in two bellwether cases, involving accidents where airbags had deployed, could not introduce expert testimony to show how defective ignition switches might have played a role in the crashes. The plaintiffs alleged that their GM ignition switches might have rotated from “run” at the moment of impact to “accessory” or “off,” causing the accidents or making them worse, and then back to “run” before the airbags deployed. But Furman, who oversees multi-district litigation (“MDL”) over the ignition switches, including 213 cases where airbags deployed, called the testimony “unreliable” because there was no evidence that “double switch rotation” has occurred anywhere. “The court recognises that these conclusions may have a significant impact on a swath of cases now pending in the MDL and, thus, does not reach them lightly,” Furman wrote. But the judge said his role is “to ensure the reliability and relevancy of expert testimony,” and the opinions of the plaintiffs’ experts “do not pass muster.” Bob Hilliard and Tamar Lusztig, two of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. David Caldwell, a GM spokesman, had no immediate comment. GM has already paid more than $2.6 billion in penalties and settlements, including $900 million to settle a U.S. Department of Justice criminal case, over ignition switches that could cause engines to stall and prevent airbags from deploying. The largest U.S. automaker has recalled more than 2.6 million vehicles over the defect since February 2014. As of Nov. 30, there were 1,723 unresolved personal injury and wrongful death claims in the multi-district litigation, including the 213 where airbags deployed, a court filing shows. GM, based in Detroit, previously settled claims related to more than 1,700 claimants. Thursday’s decision dismissed claims by Vivian Garza, who was 19 when her Chevrolet Cobalt crashed on an icy highway in Alice, Texas, in February 2011. It also dismissed claims by the son of Ruby Greenroad over the January 2013 crash of her 2007 Cobalt in the Houston area, court records show. Greenroad died at age 90 the following year. The case is In re: General Motors LLC Ignition Switch Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-md-02543. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-gm-ignition/gm-wins-ruling-that-could-narrow-ignition-switch-litigation-idUKKBN1EM1RT'|'2017-12-28T21:41:00.000+02:00'
'4e2285c2da6b0bf33f22760610ee08f5fbf67c93'|'Asian shares at one-month highs, copper at four-year peak'|'December 28, 2017 / 12:55 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Asian shares at one-month highs, copper stays near four-year peak Swati Pandey 4 Min Read SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares rose to a one-month high on Thursday and were on track for their best annual performance since 2009, while commodity-driven currencies were buoyed by a strong copper, which held near a four-year peak. A pedestrian looks an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Yuya Shino MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.5 percent at 565.92 points, a level last visited in late November. It has rocketed more than 32 percent in 2017. Every single market in Asia was in the black on Thursday, a rare occurrence. South Korea''s KOSPI .KS11 and China''s CSI 300 index .CSI300 were both up 0.7 percent, while Hong Kong''s Hang Seng index .HSI rose 0.6 percent. Japan''s Nikkei .N225 climbed 0.2 percent. MSCI world equity index .MIWD PUS, which tracks shares in 47 countries, also held near record highs. It has surged 21.5 percent this year. Trade was light across the board with many market participants on holiday. Elsewhere, currencies of commodity exporting countries got a boost from strength in metals overnight. Copper CMCU3 eased after nine straight sessions of gains but stayed near its highest level since early 2014. Prices of the metal, considered a barometer for global growth and used widely in power and construction, are up 30 percent in 2017. Gold prices climbed to a one-month top XAU= while oil was not far from this week’s 2-1/2 year peak. All that pushed the commodity-driven currencies of Australia AUD=D4 , New Zealand NZD=D4 and Canada CAD=D3 to multi-week highs. Graphic - Asset returns in 2017: reut.rs/2C21UME The greenback slipped against the yen JPY while the dollar index .DXY sagged to more than three-week lows as U.S. Treasury yields came off recent highs. [US/] Treasury 2/10s yield curve slipped below 52 basis points, from almost 64 basis points last week. US2YT=TWEB “The dollar bears are getting their last licks in for 2017, perhaps foreshadowing of things to come in 2018,” said Stephen Innes, head of Asia-Pacific trading at OANDA. The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against other major currencies, is seen ending about 9 percent lower in 2017 as the reflation trade seen at the start of the year faded. For the year, the dollar is down more than 3 percent on the yen. JPY= In commodities, spot gold XAU= rose 0.2 percent to $1,289.5 an ounce, a level last seen in late November. Brent crude LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose 16 cents to $66.60 a barrel. U.S. crude CLc1 added 11 cents to $59.75 after climbing to a 2-1/2 year high of $60.01 on Tuesday. Editing by Sam Holmes and Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-shares-at-one-month-highs-copper-at-four-year-peak-idUKKBN1EM02P'|'2017-12-28T02:54:00.000+02:00'
'906429778c6b387286cdddeba773305edcf56c4b'|'Japan manufacturing scandals haven''t hurt image but have been powerful lessons - ministry official'|'December 27, 2017 / 12:40 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Japan manufacturing scandals haven''t hurt image but have been powerful lessons - ministry official Malcolm Foster , Kentaro Hamada 4 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - A string of data-tampering scandals at Japanese manufacturers has not tarnished Japan’s image, though it has been a powerful reminder to avoid sacrificing quality when under cost or delivery pressure, a senior economic official said on Wednesday. Japan''s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry''s Director-General of Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Akihiro Tada gestures as he attends an interview at his office in Tokyo, Japan, December 27, 2017. REUTERS/Malcolm Foster Since October, Japan has seen revelations of data tampering and compliance failures at Kobe Steel Ltd ( 5406.T ), Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ), Toray Industries Inc ( 3402.T ), Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) and Subaru Corp ( 7270.T ). The scandals have hit stocks of those companies and come at a time when Japanese manufacturers, long known for high-quality products, are facing intensifying competition from Asian rivals. But the problems do not reflect systemic flaws in Japanese manufacturing, said Akihiro Tada, director-general of the manufacturing industries bureau at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Rather, they were separate problems at individual companies. And while the problems were clearly “unfortunate,” he said in an interview with Reuters, “if you look at it objectively, this only happened at a few companies.” “This has impacted individual companies’ reputations, but I don’t think that Japanese manufacturers’ overall brand image has been hurt,” he said. While the share prices of those companies have fallen, “it’s not like the entire Japanese stock market has declined,” he said. “I haven’t seen any news that lots of orders from Japanese manufacturers have been cancelled.” Kobe Steel, Mitsubishi Materials and Toray - all suppliers to global manufacturers - have admitted to product data fabrication. Nissan and Subaru have admitted to inappropriate final inspection procedures for domestic-market vehicles. FILE PHOTO: Kobe Steel President and CEO Hiroya Kawasaki (2nd R) bows as he meets with Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry''s Director-General of Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Akihiro Tada (L) at the ministry in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Most of these companies have used third-party investigators to compile reports on the extent and causes of the malfeasance, as well as measures to improve governance. They have blamed a focus on profit, lax quality controls and staffing shortages, though most said product safety was never compromised. Tada also pointed to cost and delivery pressures as possible factors. “Quality cannot be sacrificed to delivery and cost. That’s the top priority among those three elements. So that’s been a good lesson for all of corporate Japan.” These companies “have realized to a painful degree that these kind of problems will affect their competitiveness,” he said. Last week, the ministry announced a series of steps aimed at preventing falsification, including a proposal to raise fines for breaking the Industrial Standards Law and encouraging manufacturers to use information technology to ensure quality control. On Wednesday, Toray, which in November said materials-making subsidiary Toray Hybrid Cord Inc (THC) falsified quality data for eight years, in a report said, “it was perceived within THC that so long as product safety was ensured, slight deviations from the quality standards agreed to in contracts with customers were not problematic.” To prevent recurrence, the company said it would tweak its organisational structure and bolster its quality assurance section, appointing a general manager to oversee the division. “Winning trust takes a long time, but it can be lost in an instant,” Tada said. “That’s a big lesson from this.” Reporting by Malcolm Foster and Kentaro Hamada; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-scandals/japan-manufacturing-scandals-havent-hurt-image-but-have-been-powerful-lessons-ministry-official-idUKKBN1EL0TN'|'2017-12-27T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'09f6104513dfec26a0b222d881319e28b63e0ee7'|'South Korea to impose additional regulatory curbs on cryptocurrency trading'|'December 28, 2017 / 2:10 AM / Updated 4 hours ago South Korea to impose new curbs on cryptocurrency trading Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s government said on Thursday it will impose additional measures to regulate speculation in cryptocurrency trading within the country. “The government had warned several times that virtual coins cannot play a role as actual currency and could result in high losses due to excessive volatility,” the government said in a statement. It noted that trading prices of most virtual currencies were much higher on South Korean exchanges than they were on exchanges in other countries, although it did not provide specific examples. The steps will include a ban on opening anonymous cryptocurrency accounts and new legislation to allow regulators to close virtual coin exchanges if needed, a measure recommended by the justice ministry, the statement said. South Korea had previously announced its plan to tax capital gains from cryptocurrency trading to tackle what it sees as the risk of excessive speculation. Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, has gained more than 19-fold this year. In South Korea, bitcoin has been extremely popular, drawing wide participation from housewives and students. As of 0304 GMT, it stood at $14,384 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. Reporting by Dahee Kim; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-southkorea-bitcoin/south-korea-to-impose-additional-regulatory-curbs-on-cryptocurrency-trading-idUKKBN1EM05K'|'2017-12-28T04:09:00.000+02:00'
'0d684352ce150dceffed087d7254bc54877a7f28'|'UPDATE 1-GM wins ruling that could narrow ignition switch litigation'|'(Adds GM statement, paragraph 8)By Jonathan StempelNEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - General Motors Co on Thursday won a court ruling that could reduce the private litigation it faces over flawed vehicle ignition switches, which have been linked to 124 deaths and triggered a big recall.U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said the plaintiffs in two bellwether cases, involving accidents where airbags had deployed, could not introduce expert testimony to show how defective ignition switches might have played a role in the crashes.The plaintiffs said their GM ignition switches might have rotated from “run” at the moment of impact to “accessory” or “off,” causing the accidents or making them worse, and then back to “run” before the airbags deployed.But Furman, who oversees multi-district litigation (“MDL”) over the ignition switches, including 213 cases where airbags deployed, called the expert testimony “unreliable” because there was no evidence that “double switch rotation” occurred anywhere.“The court recognizes that these conclusions may have a significant impact on a swath of cases now pending in the MDL and, thus, does not reach them lightly,” the judge wrote.Furman said his role is “to ensure the reliability and relevancy of expert testimony,” and the opinions of the plaintiffs’ experts “do not pass muster.”Bob Hilliard and Tamar Lusztig, two lawyers for the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.David Caldwell, a spokesman for Detroit-based GM, said the decision “reinforces our approach to contest cases that lack merit, while being open to fair resolution of cases that have more merit according to the facts and the law.”GM has paid more than $2.6 billion in penalties and settlements, including $900 million to settle a U.S. Department of Justice criminal case, over ignition switches that could cause engines to stall and prevent airbags from deploying.The largest U.S. automaker has recalled more than 2.6 million vehicles over the defect since February 2014.As of Nov. 30, there were 1,723 unresolved personal injury and wrongful death claims in the multi-district litigation, including the 213 where airbags deployed, a court filing shows. GM has also settled claims related to more than 1,700 claimants.Thursday’s decision dismissed claims by Vivian Garza, who was 19 when her Chevrolet Cobalt crashed on an icy highway in Alice, Texas, in February 2011.It also dismissed claims by the son of Ruby Greenroad over the January 2013 crash of her 2007 Cobalt in the Houston area. Greenroad died at age 90 the following year.The case is In re: General Motors LLC Ignition Switch Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-md-02543. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Grant McCool) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/gm-ignition/update-1-gm-wins-ruling-that-could-narrow-ignition-switch-litigation-idINL1N1OS1BV'|'2017-12-28T18:03:00.000+02:00'
'fb8fbe0c628bbd1557b92505e9f2db944413511c'|'U.S. holiday sales set to break records in surprise boon to retail'|'December 28, 2017 / 12:19 AM / Updated 34 minutes ago U.S. holiday sales set to break records in surprise boon to retail Eric M. Johnson , Richa Naidu 4 Min Read SEATTLE/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. holiday shopping season is on track to break sales records on the back of surging consumer confidence and increased use of mobile devices, presenting an unexpected boon for retailers and the delivery companies they rely on. The holiday shopping season, a crucial period for retailers that can account for up to 40 percent of annual sales, brought record-breaking online and in-store spending this year of more than $800 billion, according to Mastercard Inc’s ( MA.N ) analytics arm. Stakes are particularly high this year for traditional retailers that have invested heavily in technology and free delivery and returns, determined to stay relevant in a market increasingly dominated by Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ). “It has been an extremely positive holiday season in terms of sales both for brick-and-mortar and for online businesses,” said Shelley Kohan, a Retail Fellow at analytics firm RetailNext. Preliminary numbers show total holiday sales will exceed RetailNext’s initial forecast of a 3.8 percent increase from last year. “All the economic indicators were very strong, and so I think consumers were more willing to open up their wallets and purses and spend more,” Kohan added. RetailNext and most other analytics firms and industry groups - including Adobe Analytics and the National Retail Federation - are due to publish holiday sales data in January. Mastercard Inc ( MA.N ) said on Tuesday that a late-season rally had driven an 18.1 percent rise in online sales. Department store chain Macy’s Inc ( M.N ) and Target Corp ( TGT.N ) both noted increased activity during that time. Target spokesman Joshua Thomas told Reuters that during the week before Christmas the company had seen a marked increase in shoppers picking up online orders in stores, while Macy’s spokeswoman Blair Rosenberg said last-minute shoppers boosted fragrance sales during that period. The S&P retail index .SPXRT was flat on Wednesday. Slideshow (12 Images) SANTA‘S LITTLE HELPERS Package delivery companies that handle returns for retailers have benefited from booming delivery volumes in recent years, but also have had to invest billions of dollars to upgrade and expand their networks to cope as e-commerce purchases surge to new heights. Delivering individual packages to shoppers - and picking up returns - is a lower margin business for delivery companies, which make more when they deliver in bulk to businesses. United Parcel Service Inc ( UPS.N ), the world’s largest package delivery company, said on Wednesday it was on track to return a record number of packages this holiday, having handled more than 1 million returns to retailers daily in December. That pace is expected to continue into early January, UPS said, and would likely peak at 1.4 million on Jan. 3, which would be a fifth consecutive annual record, up 8 percent from this year. Rival FedEx Corp ( FDX.N ) said it experienced another record-breaking peak shipping season, but declined to provide specifics. The company’s Chief Marketing Officer Rajesh Subramaniam told analysts last week about 15 percent of all goods purchased online are returned, with apparel running at about 30 percent. UPS has worked for years to increase its ability to forecast customer shipping demands to handle major package volume spikes ahead of the holidays. It has also raised shipping rates and added 2018 peak-season surcharges. The returns delivered in 2017 are part of the 750 million packages UPS said it expects to deliver globally during the peak shipping season from the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday through New Year’s Eve. That is an increase of nearly 40 million over the previous year. UPS and FedEx shares both ended up slightly on Wednesday. Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Additional reporting by Richa Naidu in Chicago; Editing by Bill Rigby'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-holidayshopping/u-s-holiday-sales-set-to-break-records-in-surprise-boon-to-retail-idUKKBN1EM00V'|'2017-12-28T02:17:00.000+02:00'
'dcf760a9af165e154e60f04bd5c4e7866f03b5af'|'Wall Street set to rise in muted holiday trading'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed in light trading on Thursday, as technology stocks continued to tread water and offset gains in financial stocks.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Tech stocks .SPLRCT slipped 0.04 percent and were on track for their sixth loss in seven sessions. The index has struggled somewhat to close out the year but remains the best-performing sector in 2017, up more than 37 percent.“Tech had such a great year, it is more likely to be just rebalancing rather than the beginning of any major trend,” said Ed Keon, managing director and portfolio manager at QMA, a multi-asset manager in Newark, New Jersey.“Tech is probably still going to be a good place to be in 2018.”Apple ( AAPL.O ) shares were flat after relinquishing earlier gains and Amazon ( AMZN.O ) edged up 0.3 percent after Reuters reported the companies are in licensing discussions with Riyadh on investing in Saudi Arabia.Volumes remained thin due to the holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The prior two sessions showed the lowest full-day trading volumes of the year.A gain in copper prices CMCU3 helped lift the materials sector .SPLRCM 0.2 percent, led by a 2.5 percent gain in Freeport-McMoRan ( FCX.N ).The benchmark S&P 500 has climbed nearly 20 percent this year, on track to record its biggest annual gains since 2013, boosted by robust economic growth and solid corporate earnings.The rally is widely expected to extend into 2018, fuelled by gains from a new U.S. tax law that lowers the tax burden on corporations.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 43.21 points, or 0.17 percent, to 24,817.51, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 1.8 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,684.42 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 2.63 points, or 0.04 percent, to 6,941.96.The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week at 245,000, slightly above the 240,000 forecast, but the underlying trend remained consistent with a tightening labour market.Financials were also higher with JPMorgan ( JPM.N ), Wells Fargo ( WFC.N ) and Berkshire Hathaway ( BRKa.N ) advancing to help the financial index .SPSY rise 0.3 percent.J.B. Hunt Transport ( JBHT.O ) lost 0.8 percent to $114.52 after the logistic services provider forecast current-quarter profit below estimates.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.54-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.30-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 64 new highs and 18 new lows.Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D''Silva and James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-to-rise-in-muted-holiday-trading-idINKBN1EM197'|'2017-12-28T15:57:00.000+02:00'
'bb1ba557d8e613454b9009b79a463fc2b73e716a'|'Founding family ups stake in Japan''s Idemitsu to 28.5 percent'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - The founding family of Japanese petroleum company, Idemitsu Kosan ( 5019.T ), locked in a battle with the firm’s management over a proposed integration with a smaller rival, said it had further increased its stake in the Japanese refiner by about half a percentage point to about 28.5 percent.A signboard of Idemitsu Kosan Co. is seen at its gas station in Tokyo, Japan, October 2, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The descendants of founder Sazo Idemitsu remain opposed to a takeover of Showa Shell Sekiyu ( 5002.T ), and the family had been buying more shares in Idemitsu after having its holding diluted when the company sold new stock in July.The family could take a legal action seeking to halt the partial integration of businesses that the two companies have been planning, the secretariat addedThe family had increased its stake to 28.0003 percent from 26.093 percent immediately after the new share sale, the secretariat had said last week.Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-idemitsu-kosan-founder/founding-family-ups-stake-in-japans-idemitsu-to-28-5-percent-idINKBN1EL1SN'|'2017-12-27T20:47:00.000+02:00'
'35fdfdb3f59b092ee8b24ca1b88b60a96be58d68'|'TREASURIES-Prices dip, moderate demand at seven-year auction'|'(Adds auction results, Quote: s; Updates prices) * U.S. sells $28 bln seven-year notes * Month-end extension buying ebbs * Bond market to close early on Friday By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury prices dipped on Thursday, giving back some of Wednesday’s strong month-end extension rally, after the Treasury Department sold $28 billion of seven-year notes to moderate demand. Benchmark 10-year note yields fell as low as 2.407 percent on Wednesday, from 2.479 percent, as investors sought to extend the duration of their bond portfolios before year-end. “A lot of this month-end buying is getting done before the actual month-end,” said Tom di Galoma, a managing director at Seaport Global Holdings in New York. “There is so much duration that needs to be bought at month-end and markets are very thin.” The 10-year yields rose back to 2.436 percent on Thursday with no major news or economic catalysts to drive market direction. The Treasury saw lukewarm demand for $28 billion in seven-year notes on Thursday, the final sale of $88 billion in coupon-bearing supply this week. The notes sold at a yield of 2.370 percent, the highest yield at a seven-year auction since December 2013. The ratio of bids to the amount of seven-year Treasuries offered was 2.55, the strongest reading since September. The United States saw below average demand for a $26 billion sale of two-year notes on Tuesday and a $34 billion sale of five-year notes on Wednesday. The yield curve between two-year and 10-year notes edged higher to 53 basis points, after falling to 50 basis points on Wednesday, the flattest level since Oct. 2007. Many investors expect the yield curve to flatten further next year as short-and intermediate-dated debt underperforms on expectations of further rate increases, and as the Treasury increases supply to make up for the Federal Reserve’s declining bond purchases. “It still has room to flatten given the Fed expectations, given growth in the economy, and given where the issuance is going to come from the Treasury,” said Justin Lederer, an interest rate strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York. The Fed has indicated that an additional three increases are likely next year, though interest rate futures traders are pricing in only two. The Treasury is expected to initially concentrate supply increases in Treasury bills and shorter-dated notes. Trading volumes have been thin this week with many traders and investors away after Monday''s Christmas holiday and before next Monday''s New Year''s Day holiday. The bond market will close early on Friday at 2 p.m EST (1900 GMT). (Editing by Susan Thomas Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) ) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-bonds/treasuries-prices-dip-moderate-demand-at-seven-year-auction-idINL1N1OS15X'|'2017-12-28T16:13:00.000+02:00'
'dcd7d132947eb5e59decdfac424e4189b0f8f6cb'|'Citigroup to pay $11.5 million fines, compensation over errant stock ratings'|'December 28, 2017 / 5:21 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago Citigroup to pay $11.5 million fines, compensation over errant stock ratings Jonathan Stempel 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc ( C.N ) will pay at least $11.5 million in fines and restitution to settle charges it displayed the wrong research ratings on more than 1,800 stocks, causing many customers to own shares they never would have bought, a U.S. regulator said on Thursday. File Photo: The Citigroup Inc (Citi) logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Citigroup $5.5 million and ordered it to pay at least $6 million to retail customers over errors that occurred between February 2011 and December 2015, and involved more than 38 percent of the equity securities that the New York-based bank covered. Citigroup did not admit or deny wrongdoing, but the sanctions reflected its cooperation, including its decisions to report the rating issues and compensate customers, FINRA said. The regulator said Citigroup would sometimes display to customers, brokers and supervisors the wrong ratings, such as “buy” instead of “sell,” while in other cases it would display ratings for companies it did not cover, or no ratings at all. As a result, brokers solicited thousands of transactions and negligently made inaccurate statements premised on wrong ratings, and many customers ended up owning stocks with “sell” ratings despite a prohibition on such ownership, FINRA said. FINRA said the errors stemmed from problems with an electronic data feed, and Citigroup failed to timely fix the wrongly displayed ratings despite “numerous” red flags. The bank’s actual research reports and ratings were not affected. “The display and use of incomplete and inaccurate research ratings can have widespread, adverse consequences to customers,” FINRA enforcement chief Susan Schroeder said in a statement. “Firms should react quickly to address those errors.” Citigroup spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos said the bank was pleased to resolve the matter. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-citigroup-finra/citigroup-to-pay-11-5-million-fines-compensation-over-errant-stock-ratings-idUKKBN1EM1L3'|'2017-12-28T19:21:00.000+02:00'
'29cb67e3bedf393f3164b3d7f3f7db4f53f2db31'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX steadies below record high; energy shares rise'|'TORONTO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index was little changed on Thursday, hovering near a record high, as energy and marijuana company shares added to Wednesday’s gains, offsetting losses for the industrial group.The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index fell 1.38 points, or 0.01 percent, to 16,201.75, shortly after the open. Four of the index’s 10 main groups were lower. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Bernadette Baum) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-open/canada-stocks-tsx-steadies-below-record-high-energy-shares-rise-idINL1N1OS0P1'|'2017-12-28T11:52:00.000+02:00'
'920df2bca85873fbde2e7b903e57c767cecb85bd'|'Apple, Epson face French legal complaints over allegedly shortening life of products'|'December 28, 2017 / 4:56 PM / in 4 hours Apple, Epson face French legal complaints over allegedly shortening life of products Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Smartphone maker Apple ( AAPL.O ) and Japanese printer company Epson ( 6724.T ) are facing legal complaints in France over allegedly speeding up the aging process of their products to stimulate demand. A French consumer association called “HOP” -- standing for “Stop Planned Obsolescence” -- filed preliminary, legal complaints in court against the two groups over the charges. HOP said it filed its complaint against Apple in Paris on Wednesday. A prosecutor opened an investigation into Epson last month, a judicial source said on Thursday, following a complaint filed in September by HOP in a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Laetitia Vasseur, co-founder of HOP, told Reuters the aim of both complaints was to apply the French consumer law, which was modified in 2015 to include the notion of planned obsolescence. Apple is already facing lawsuits in the United States over accusations of having defrauded iPhone users by slowing down devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance. FILE PHOTO - Epson logo is seen during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer These lawsuits came after Apple said last week that operating system updates released since “last year” for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 included a feature “to smooth out” power supply from batteries that are cold, old or low on charge. Phones without the adjustment would shut down abruptly because of a precaution designed to prevent components from getting fried, Apple said. Under French law, companies risk fines of up to 5 percent of their annual sales for deliberately shortening the life of their products to spur demand to replace them. A spokeswoman for Epson France said Epson denied the charges made against it by the HOP association. She added that Epson was working with authorities on the matter and that the quality of its products was of the utmost importance for the company. Officials for Apple France could not be immediately reached for comment. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Emmanuel Jarry and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Mathieu Rosemain and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-batteries-france/apple-epson-face-french-legal-complaints-over-allegedly-shortening-life-of-products-idUSKBN1EM1JX'|'2017-12-28T18:59:00.000+02:00'
'a583b0215391a31eba33dd3e17ac50174af6e8ef'|'One bidder still interested in buying airline Niki, Lauda pulls out'|'FRANKFURT/VIENNA (Reuters) - British IAG ( ICAG.L ) is in exclusive talks to buy Niki, Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) insolvent Austrian airline, a source close to the process said on Thursday, after Niki’s administrator said that one bidder out of four remained.Besides IAG, the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling, bidders for holiday airline Niki included tour operators TUI ( TUIT.L ), Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda.“IAG is the last remaining bidder and is still negotiating now,” the person said, adding that the company had put in the highest offer - a double-digit million-euro amount. German newspaper Bild put the figure at around 40 million euros ($48 million).Niki Lauda, Niki’s founder, was Quote: d as saying on the website of newspaper Die Presse that he was out of the running. A source said Thomas Cook was also out of the race.Die Presse also reported, without citing sources, that IAG was likely to be the last bidder. IAG and Thomas Cook’s Condor subsidiary declined to comment on Thursday. TUI was not immediately available to comment.Slideshow (2 Images) “The provisional creditors’ committee for Niki (...) today decided to continue sales negotiations for the business operations of the company exclusively with one bidder for now. (The committee) tasked the provisional administrator Floether to conclusively negotiate the purchase contract over the coming days,” Floether’s spokesman said in the statement.He declined to give further details.The new owner will have to pay Niki’s running costs, including salaries for its roughly 1,000 employees in Austria and Germany, from the beginning of January, the administrator said on Wednesday.Niki was part of collapsed Air Berlin. It filed for insolvency after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) dropped a plan to buy Niki’s assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers.The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its take-off and landing slots, its most attractive assets.Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Ilona Wissenbach and Georgina Prodhan, additional reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki-lauda/one-bidder-still-interested-in-buying-airline-niki-lauda-pulls-out-idUSKBN1EM14B'|'2017-12-28T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'da4e736f4a5357404f025d567746de96e1935d76'|'Wall Street set to open higher on final trading day of 2017'|'NEW YORK (Reuters) - There were no fireworks on Wall Street for the last trading day of the year, as U.S. stocks closed out their best year since 2013 on a down note, with losses in technology and financial stocks keeping equities in negative territory for the session.A trader works on the floor in "2018" glasses on the final day of trading for the year at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Major indexes hit a series of record highs in 2017, lifted by a combination of strong economic growth, solid corporate earnings, low interest rates and hopes for a tax cut from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.The benchmark S&P 500 surged 19.5 percent this year, the blue-chip Dow 25.2 percent and Nasdaq 28.2 percent, as each of the major Wall Street indexes scored the best yearly performance since 2013.The market has also remained resilient in the face of tensions in North Korea and political turmoil in Washington. The S&P 500 only saw four sessions all year with a decline of more than 1 percent while the CBOE Volatility index topped out at 15.96 on a closing basis, well below its long-term average of 20.“The real question is what happens as we head into 2018,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.“There is an awful lot of optimism built into share prices right now that could set us up for disappointment.”Among sectors, the technology index has been the best performer, up 37 percent and led by a gain of 87.6 percent in Micron Technology .Telecom services, down 5.7 percent, and energy, down 3.7 percent, were the only two sectors to end the year in the red.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The rally is widely expected to extend into 2018, boosted by gains from a new law that lowers the tax burden on U.S. corporations.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 118.29 points, or 0.48 percent, on Friday to close at 24,719.22, the S&P 500 lost 13.93 points, or 0.52 percent, to 2,673.61 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 46.77 points, or 0.67 percent, to 6,903.39.For the week, the Dow lost 0.13 percent, the S&P 500 shed 0.36 percent and the Nasdaq lost 0.81 percent.Apple declined 1.08 percent after issuing a rare apology for slowing older iPhones with flagging batteries.Goldman Sachs lost 0.68 percent after saying its fourth-quarter profit would take a $5 billion hit related to the new tax law.Amazon fell 1.4 percent after Trump targeted the online retailer in a call for the country’s postal service to raise prices of shipments in order to recoup costs.Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.46-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.91-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.The S&P 500 posted 36 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 81 new highs and 20 new lows.Volume on U.S. exchanges was 4.94 billion shares, compared to the 6.4 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by James Dalgleish '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/wall-street-set-to-open-higher-on-final-trading-day-of-2017-idINKBN1EN147'|'2017-12-29T14:54:00.000+02:00'
'c623a288649ccc165c1fb5ecb4f4ce9b462b320f'|'Uber working on deal to sell Xchange Leasing to Fair - source'|'December 26, 2017 / 11:52 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Uber working on deal to sell Xchange Leasing to Fair: source Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Ride-hailing company Uber is working on a deal to sell its U.S. auto-leasing business Xchange Leasing to startup digital car marketplace Fair, according to a person familiar with the matter. FILE PHOTO - The Uber logo is seen on a screen in Singapore August 4, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Picture Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said in September it was shutting down the auto-leasing business, which had heavy losses. Over the last few months Xchange Leasing has started to unwind the business, which was started to lease new cars to Uber drivers, selling cars at auction. The net book value of Xchange Leasing’s more than 30,000 vehicles was roughly $400 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal with Fair on Tuesday. The newspaper in August said that Uber was losing roughly $9,000 a car, 18 times more than previously believed. As of August, Xchange Leasing had about 14 showrooms in the United States, Reuters previously reported. Fair and Uber both declined to comment on Tuesday. Uber launched Xchange Leasing in 2015 in a bid to attract new drivers who could not otherwise afford a car because of spotty or poor credit. Xchange Leasing offered more flexible return and mileage limit policies than traditional car leases. However, many Uber drivers complained of Xchange Leasing’s predatory practices, saying that exorbitant rates forced them to drive full time just to cover the cost of the car, with little or no profit left over. The Wall Street Journal reported that Fair will offer jobs to about 150 of the 500 or so employees at Xchange Leasing. Fair, based in Southern California, founded in 2016, matches customers with cars based on what they are able to pay each month. Customers get approved and pay for their car through Fair, which owns the vehicle, and pick up the car at a dealership. They can keep the car as long as they want. As part of the deal, expected to close early next year, Uber will offer potential drivers in the United States access to Fair to lease a car, the Journal reported. Uber is eyeing an initial public offering in 2019, and is looking to pare its losses under the leadership of Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who took the job in August, and chief operating officer Barney Harford, who starts next month. Uber lost $1.46 billion in the third quarter this year, up from $1.06 billion in the previous quarter. Reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uber-leasing/uber-to-sell-u-s-auto-leasing-business-to-fair-com-wsj-idINKBN1EK0R2'|'2017-12-26T22:44:00.000+02:00'
'507a6c048e6ff75b465e6329023f6c4f47ea3cf6'|'GE to keep Rochester plant open'|'December 27, 2017 / 3:20 PM / Updated 6 hours ago GE to keep Rochester plant open Reuters Staff 2   U.S. industrial conglomerate General Electric Co said on Wednesday it would keep its plant running in Rochester, New York, retaining all employees at the facility for now. Boston-based GE in August was reportedly planning to close the plant by June 2018, and move the work to China. The plant, part of GE’s troubled power business, assembles electronic boards and employs about 100 people. As part of an “exhaustive review” of GE Power’s operations “we have determined that, at this time, we are best able to serve our customers by keeping manufacturing and assembly operations for our industrial communications product line in Rochester,” GE said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. GE added that it was not offered any incentives by the state government to stay in Rochester. Earlier this month, GE said it would axe 12,000 jobs at its power business, which sells electrical generation equipment. GE launched the cuts to save $1 billion in 2018 at the power unit, as it expects dwindling demand for fossil-fuel power plants to continue. Reporting by Rachit Vats and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ge-rochester/ge-to-keep-rochester-plant-open-idUSKBN1EL17M'|'2017-12-27T17:20:00.000+02:00'
'f2489d1b1ebad54ea8e23f742cac2a0b38e49f50'|'Disneyland in California faces power outage'|'December 27, 2017 / 9:31 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Disneyland in California faces power outage Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Disneyland in California was affected by a power outage on Wednesday, it said on Twitter. “We have experienced a power outage near Toontown and Fantasyland. We are working diligently to restore power to the affected areas as soon as possible,” Disneyland said in a tweet. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-disneyland-outage/disneyland-in-california-faces-power-outage-idUSKBN1EL1OX'|'2017-12-27T23:23:00.000+02:00'
'cd199d1b872e16cd9c572080550cd60c9f2296f4'|'Gold breaks above $1,300/oz on way to best year since 2010'|'December 29, 2017 / 2:58 PM / Updated 23 minutes ago Gold breaks above $1,300/oz on way to best year since 2010 Jan Harvey 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Gold hit its highest in 2-1/2 months on Friday and remained on track for its biggest annual rise since 2010 as a wilting dollar, political tensions and receding concerns over the impact of U.S. interest rate hikes fed into its rally. FILE PHOTO - Gold bars are seen in the Austrian Gold and Silver Separating Plant ''Oegussa'' in Vienna, Austria, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The dollar, in which gold is priced, is sliding towards its worst year since 2003, damaged by tensions over North Korea, the Russian scandal surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign, and persistently low U.S. inflation. The dollar’s drop to three-month lows versus a basket of currencies on Friday lifted gold to its highest since mid October at $1,303.90 an ounce. At 1430 GMT spot gold XAU= was at $1,302.72 an ounce, up 0.2 percent, while U.S. gold futures GCv1 for February delivery were up $7.80 an ounce at $1,305.00. “In the last couple of weeks, trade has been relatively thin, yields have been under pressure and the dollar as well, so gold has profited from that,” ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said. “If you look over the year, dollar weakness has been the main theme.” Gold will be vulnerable next year to a rebound in the currency, as well as any gains in yields, she said. The opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing bullion increases when yields rise elsewhere. The impact of three U.S. interest rate hikes this year was offset by the dollar’s weakness, Boele said. “The dollar is the most important driver, and then real yields. The Fed is increasing rates, but the dollar’s not profiting.” Gold, which is also on course for its best month since August, has also benefited of late from technically driven momentum, analysts said. ScotiaMocatta’s technical team said in a note that chart signals for the metal look positive after it broke above its 100-day moving average this week at $1,295 an ounce. “Momentum indicators are bullish as gold appears poised to target the October high (of) $1,306,” it said. Among precious metals, palladium has seen the strongest rise this year, climbing 56 percent as concerns grew over availability after years of market deficit. Spot palladium XPD= was down 0.5 percent at $1,059.65 an ounce, having hit its highest since February 2001 at $1,072 in the previous session. It has held in a historically unusual premium to platinum through the fourth quarter. Spot silver XAG= was up 0.7 percent at $16.97, while platinum XPT= was 1.2 percent higher at $933.90. This year the two metals have risen by 6.5 percent and 3.8 percent respectively. Additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by Mark Heinrich and Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-precious/gold-breaks-above-1300-oz-on-way-to-best-year-since-2010-idUKKBN1EN1AP'|'2017-12-29T16:57:00.000+02:00'
'3dd20ef441601fc554de6579c9029bd197566312'|'BRIEF-Committee Of Aegean Marine Shareholders Says Believe Aegean Marine Shares Are "Undervalued"'|' 43 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago BRIEF-Committee Of Aegean Marine Shareholders Says Believe Aegean Marine Shares Are "Undervalued" Reuters Staff Dec 28 (Reuters) - Committee Of Aegean Marine Shareholders: * COMMITTEE OF AEGEAN MARINE SHAREHOLDERS SAYS BELIEVE AEGEAN MARINE SHARES ARE “UNDERVALUED” - SEC FILING * COMMITTEE OF AEGEAN MARINE SHAREHOLDERS REPORTS 11.7 PERCENT STAKE IN AEGEAN MARINE PETROLEUM AS OF DEC. 20 - SEC FILING Source text: ( bit.ly/2E5dIuF )'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-committee-of-aegean-marine-shareho/brief-committee-of-aegean-marine-shareholders-says-believe-aegean-marine-shares-are-undervalued-idUSFWN1OS0C9'|'2017-12-29T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'a80def7db8d3f92fe03bddefd8fc4680f2cac268'|'China c.bank pledges cash support for banks before Lunar New Year'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s central bank said it will let some commercial banks temporarily keep fewer required reserves to help them cope with the heavy demand for cash ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, a step that analysts say does not signal any policy shift.FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, June 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo In recent years, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has provided some form of liquidity support for banks to deal with greater demand for cash from households and firms before the big holiday that starts between mid-January and mid-February.In 2018, the first day of Lunar New Year is Feb. 16.The mechanism the PBOC announced on Friday is the first that lets some national commercial banks trim the amount of reserves they need to keep with the PBOC.The move will help “promote smooth money market operations and support financial institutions’ financial services before and after the Spring Festival”, the central bank said.According to the PBOC statement, some banks will be allowed to lower their reserve requirement ratios (RRR) by up to 200 basis points, for 30 days.For major banks, the current RRR rate is 17 percent of their deposits.The PBOC statement did not specify when the arrangement to make more cash available will begin.BASIC TONE UNCHANGED Li Qilin, an analyst at Lianxun Securities, said the arrangement would be more effective in smoothing out liquidity volatility, and he expects it to release up to 1.8 trillion yuan ($276.65 billion) of liquidity.“But the basic tone of monetary policy to fend off risks has not changed,” Li said. “And before any changes made to the monetary policy, the central bank’s determination to keep (liquidity) with a tightening bias and control leverage would be unchanged.”In early 2017, the central bank unveiled a “Temporary Liquidity Facility”, with a tenor of 28 days, to help some major banks.Wen Bin, economist at Minsheng Bank in Beijing, said this year’s use of official required reserves “will lower the qualified banks’ funding cost and increase their willingness to finance the market.”“It will also create positive effect to keep the current liquidity level steady and prevent the market rates from rising too fast.”Analysts expect the PBOC to keep policy slightly tight next year under the banner of a “prudent and neutral” stance, as part of a broader deleveraging drive to contain risks in the economy, even as that has sent market rates to multiple-year highs.The volume-weighted average rate of the benchmark seven-day repo traded in the interbank market, considered the best indicator of general liquidity in China, was trading on Friday afternoon at 3.0566 percent, around 46 basis points higher than the previous year’s closing average rate of 2.5948 percent.($1 = 6.5065 Chinese yuan)Reporting by Winni Zhou and Kevin Yao; Editing by Richard Borsuk '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-money/china-c-bank-pledges-cash-support-for-banks-before-lunar-new-year-idINKBN1EN0B0'|'2017-12-29T07:11:00.000+02:00'
'8b933bc2c4f6ec090ee1a84230191b7cbbb7c215'|'Apple, Epson face French legal complaints over allegedly shortening life of products'|'PARIS, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Smartphone maker Apple and Japanese printer company Epson are facing legal complaints in France over allegedly speeding up the ageing process of their products to stimulate demand.A French consumer association called “HOP” -- standing for “Stop Planned Obsolescence” -- filed preliminary, legal complaints in court against the two groups over the charges.HOP said it filed its complaint against Apple in Paris on Wednesday. A prosecutor opened an investigation into Epson last month, a judicial source said on Thursday, following a complaint filed in September by HOP in a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.Laetitia Vasseur, co-founder of HOP, told Reuters the aim of both complaints was to apply the French consumer law, which was modified in 2015 to include the notion of planned obsolescence.Apple is already facing lawsuits in the United States over accusations of having defrauded iPhone users by slowing down devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance.These lawsuits came after Apple said last week that operating system updates released since “last year” for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 included a feature “to smooth out” power supply from batteries that are cold, old or low on charge.Phones without the adjustment would shut down abruptly because of a precaution designed to prevent components from getting fried, Apple said.Under French law, companies risk fines of up to 5 percent of their annual sales for deliberately shortening the life of their products to spur demand to replace them.A spokeswoman for Epson France said Epson denied the charges made against it by the HOP association. She added that Epson was working with authorities on the matter and that the quality of its products was of the utmost importance for the company.Officials for Apple France could not be immediately reached for comment.Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Emmanuel Jarry and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Mathieu Rosemain and David Evans '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/apple-batteries-france/apple-epson-face-french-legal-complaints-over-allegedly-shortening-life-of-products-idINL8N1OS1W6'|'2017-12-28T13:52:00.000+02:00'
'748a43de811ab9dcea6d306537e0d783a84cdfae'|'Airbus seals $5.4 billion AerCap order for 50 A320neo planes'|'PARIS (Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus ( AIR.PA ) sealed on Thursday a formal order from AerCap ( AER.N ) for 50 Airbus A320neo planes, in a deal worth an estimated $5.4 billion at list prices.FILE PHOTO: An Airbus logo is pictured during the delivery of the new Airbus A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines at the French headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau The companies said in joint statements that AerCap had exercised an option to buy the 50 planes, with deliveries starting from 2022.Airbus and Boeing ( BA.N ) are pairing with smaller regional rivals to add sales at the lower end of their $100 billion-a-year commercial plane duopoly, but the two market leaders are also laying the foundation for a longer-term strategic contest against more powerful threats such as China.Deals with their smaller cousins may give Airbus and Boeing more options when they develop the successors to the best-selling Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, perhaps allowing them to offer a trio of large jets coupled to a pair of smaller ones.Sources also told Reuters this week that Airbus was drawing up contingency plans to phase out production of the world’s largest jetliner, the A380 superjumbo, if it fails to win a key order from Dubai’s Emirates.Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Cyril Altemeyer; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-aercap/airbus-seals-5-4-billion-aercap-order-for-50-a320neo-planes-idINKBN1EM18X'|'2017-12-28T10:52:00.000+02:00'
'efd5d7e023848a8d536815cac6162cd26ec9f94b'|'Airlines shouldn''t justify fare hikes with algorithms, German cartel chief says'|'December 28, 2017 / 7:51 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago Airlines shouldn''t justify fare hikes with algorithms, German cartel chief says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Airlines shouldn’t be allowed to hide behind computer-based price increases when justifying higher fares, the head of the German cartel office said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday, as authorities review a recent spike in ticket prices. FILE PHOTO: People queue to check in at Munich airport, Germany August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle In November, the German cartel office asked national airline Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) for information on ticket prices after receiving complaints over rising fares following the collapse of Air Berlin ( AB1.DE ), Germany’s second largest carrier. Lufthansa said at the time it was cooperating fully with the cartel office and had not changed its pricing structures, which comprise up to 26 different fares per flight and were automatically determined by software. “Such algorithms aren’t written by god in the heavens,” Andreas Mundt told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Lufthansa has said that the insolvency of Air Berlin has led to a capacity bottleneck and therefore the cheapest tickets are being sold sooner. A Lufthansa spokeswoman on Thursday declined to comment. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-airlines-pricing/airlines-shouldnt-justify-fare-hikes-with-algorithms-german-cartel-chief-says-idUKKBN1EM0KL'|'2017-12-28T09:50:00.000+02:00'
'b66858e71462ee48d147ffc147da9b804811da05'|'US STOCKS-Futures edge higher in quiet holiday trading'|'December 27, 2017 / 12:31 PM / in 18 minutes Wall Street edges up as tech snaps skid Chuck Mikolajczak 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks eked out a slight gain on Wednesday, as advances in some major technology stocks offset losses in energy and helped keep major indexes just above the unchanged mark. The S&P technology index was up 0.2 percent and managed to snap a five-session losing streak, its longest since April. The sector was buoyed by gains in Facebook, up 0.9 percent, and Microsoft, up 0.4 percent. “Tech is very elevated,” said Stephen Massocca, Senior Vice President at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco. “Tech has been down a little bit but if you look at the heart of the beast, the juicy stuff, it hasn’t really gotten hurt.” Trading volumes remained muted in the holiday-shortened week between Christmas and New Year. Volume on Tuesday was the thinnest of the year for a full session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 28.09 points, or 0.11 percent, to 24,774.3, the S&P 500 gained 2.12 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,682.62 and the Nasdaq Composite added 3.09 points, or 0.04 percent, to 6,939.34. Oil prices dipped after hitting a near two-and-a-half-year high in the previous session, pushing down the S&P energy index by 0.3 percent. ConocoPhillips, off 1.1 percent, and Chevron down 0.3 percent, were the biggest drags on the index. Housing stocks edged up 0.1 percent after data showed contracts to buy previously owned homes edged higher in November, the latest signal the housing market may have regained some momentum. Tesla shares fell 1.8 percent after brokerage KeyBanc lowered its estimate for Model 3 deliveries to roughly 5,000 units from 15,000 units for the fourth quarter. Shares of wireless-charging technology developer Energous Corp surged 168.1 percent to $23.70 after it got certification for its wireless charging transmitter. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.23-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.04-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 86 new highs and 18 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 4.36 billion shares, compared to the 6.79 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/stock-futures-edge-higher-in-quiet-holiday-trading-idUSKBN1EL0XL'|'2017-12-27T14:27:00.000+02:00'
'84d8804b569d1e5aafe67f540b95669fa4157582'|'China extends tax rebate for electric cars, hybrids'|'December 27, 2017 / 8:33 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago China extends tax rebate for electric cars, hybrids Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China will extend a tax rebate on purchases of so-called new-energy vehicles (NEV) until the end of 2020, a boost for hybrid and electric car makers amid a shift by policy-makers away from the traditional internal combustion engine. FILE PHOTO: An Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station is seen at a factory of Beijing Electric Vehicle, funded by the BAIC Group, in Beijing, China January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo The finance ministry said in a statement on Wednesday the tax exemption, which was set to expire at the end of this year, will run from Jan. 1, 2018 until Dec. 31, 2020 for electric, plug-in petrol-electric hybrid and fuel-cell powered vehicles. The extension comes as automakers in China brace to meet strict NEV quotas starting in 2019 that are sparking a flurry of electric car deals and new launches of electric and hybrid models. Amid the shift, some global automakers have called on China to maintain financial support for the market, citing concerns consumer demand alone will not be sufficient to drive sales without state-backed incentive schemes to lure buyers. The Ministry of Finance said the extension would help “increase support for innovation and development in new energy vehicles”, an area where China is hoping it can catch up - and even overtake - more established global automaker rivals. Local firms like NEV specialist BYD Co Ltd ( 002594.SZ ) are now jostling with global names such as Ford Motor Co ( F.N ) and Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) in the race to develop successful “green” vehicles for the Chinese market. China’s auto market, the world’s largest, has slowed sharply this year, but new-energy vehicles has been a bright spot. NEV sales in January-November jumped 51.4 percent and are on track to hit a target of 700,000 NEV sales this year. Reporting by Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI and Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-autos-tax/china-extends-tax-rebate-for-electric-cars-hybrids-idUKKBN1EL0I1'|'2017-12-27T10:47:00.000+02:00'
'0a3fcbd254e659a9da2cf508663645c62d849774'|'FedEx says it experienced another record-breaking holiday shipping season'|'December 27, 2017 / 6:22 PM / Updated 38 minutes ago FedEx says it experienced another record-breaking holiday shipping season Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - Package delivery company FedEx Corp said on Wednesday it experienced another record-breaking holiday shipping season, but declined to provide specifics or data. FedEx Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith said last week the company was on track for another record holiday shipping season, the crucial peak period that begins after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and lasts through New Year’s Eve. Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Chris Reese'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fedex-holidayshopping/fedex-says-it-experienced-another-record-breaking-holiday-shipping-season-idUSKBN1EL1GK'|'2017-12-27T20:20:00.000+02:00'
'05767b75c250afb2e112b331fa0217b673593a01'|'World stocks rise as metals surge mitigates iPhone X woes'|' 05 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago World stocks rise as metals surge mitigates iPhone X woes Abhinav Ramnarayan 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks edged higher on Wednesday as a strong rally in commodities buoyed expectations for a strong year for the global economy in 2018 and helped mitigate concerns over the technology sector triggered by reports of soft iPhone X demand. FILE PHOTO: The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote Oil and copper prices rocketed to multi-year highs, pushing the MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, 0.1 percent higher. While oil prices were strengthened largely because of an attack on a crude pipeline in Libya, the surge in copper was particularly eye-catching as the metal is seen as a proxy for global growth. “The rally in copper supports expectations that 2018 is going to be a strong year for synchronised global growth,” said Greg McKenna, chief strategist at AxiTrader. London copper rose to its highest in nearly three-and-a-half years on expectations of stronger demand from top consumer China in 2018. Asian shares climbed 0.3 percent to near a recent one-month high, though it was more of a mixed picture in European stock markets. While mining and oil stocks strengthened, the pan-European STOXX 600 slipped 0.1 percent as European tech stocks tumbled on reports that demand for Apple’s iPhone X may be weaker than expected. According to Taiwan’s Economic Daily, citing unidentified sources, Apple will slash its sales forecast for its flagship phone in the current quarter to 30 million units, down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units. People walk past an electronic board showing Japan''s Nikkei average (L), the Dow Jones average (C), and the exchange rates between the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The report, along with some recent brokerage calls on tepid iPhone X demand, made Apple shares sink 2.5 percent, their worst single-day percentage fall since Aug. 10. Meanwhile, rising oil prices -- U.S. crude hit $60 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015 -- boosted currencies that trade in line with commodities prices. The   and fell against the euro on Wednesday in thin holiday trading, while a rally in commodity prices helped push the Canadian and Australian dollars to their highest levels in two months. SAFE-HAVEN FLOWS Though world stocks were up on the day, there was still an undercurrent of nervousness in the market which saw some safe haven flows into high-rated euro zone government bonds, pushing their yields a touch lower. “Geo-political risks have notched a little higher, supporting rates markets,” said Mizuho’s head of rates Peter Chatwell, referring in particular to a renewal in tensions around North Korea. The United   program on Tuesday after the U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea last week. “The North Korean statement that U.N. sanctions are an act of war is, as tends to be the case, an exaggeration, but nevertheless the market has no choice but to price it. Some safe haven positioning is a natural reaction,” said Chatwell. Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan, Additional reporting by Swati Pandey; editing by Ralph Boulton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/oil-metals-rally-supports-asian-stocks-dollar-steady-idINKBN1EL01N'|'2017-12-27T12:15:00.000+02:00'
'b977ca3f17bc7dfb3158c3d60fd71d9ac0798ebd'|'Oil prices slip away from 2015 highs, but market remains tight'|'December 27, 2017 / 2:19 AM / Updated 20 minutes ago Oil falls from 2015 highs as rally runs out of steam Henning Gloystein , Dmitry Zhdannikov 3 Min Read SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday after hitting a near two-and-a-half year high in the previous session as analysts said the rally was gradually running out of steam despite supply outages in Libya and the North Sea. A storage tank is pictured on the site of Canadian group Vermilion Energy in Parentis-en-Born, France, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau Brent crude futures dropped to $66.26 a barrel, down 1.15 percent, or 76 cents, at 1047 GMT after breaking through $67 for the first time since May 2015 the previous day. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $59.57 a barrel, down 40 cents from their last settlement. WTI broke through $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015 in the previous session. “This could now be the fourth year in a row when the period around the turn of the year offers a good opportunity to start fading the market,” JBC Energy said in a note. JBC said it believed the market will gradually realise it had overshot: “We would have to argue that sometime over the course of January we will see a major turnaround.” It said prices could fall below $60 a barrel sometime in February and could even test $55 a barrel. On Tuesday, Libya lost around 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil supplies from a blast on a pipeline feeding Es Sider port. That added to supply disruptions of recent weeks, which also included the closure of Britain’s largest Forties pipeline. On Tuesday, its operator said it expected full flows along the Forties link to resume in early January. The Forties and Libyan outages, which together amount to around 500,000 bpd, are relatively small in a global context of both production and demand approaching 100 million bpd. “The net global impact of the (Libyan) pipeline explosion is relatively small and we will not blow out of proportion the impact of the incident on the supply and demand picture,” said Olivier Jakob from Swiss-based Petromatrix. He said the market could be supported by a U.S. cold spell and expectations of greater heating oil consumption. Oil markets have tightened significantly over the past year thanks to voluntary supply restraint led the Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC Russia. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that following rampant oversupply in 2015, global oil markets gradually came into balance by 2016 and started to show a slight supply deficit this year. EIA data implies a slight supply shortfall of 180,000 bpd for the first quarter of 2018. A major factor countering efforts by OPEC and Russia efforts to prop up prices is U.S. oil production, which has soared more than 16 percent since mid-2016 and is fast approaching 10 million bpd. Only OPEC king-pin Saudi Arabia and Russia produce more. The latest U.S. production figures are due to be published by the EIA on Thursday. For a graphic on global oil supply and demand, click: link reut.rs/2C9rqyC Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-slip-away-from-2015-highs-but-market-remains-tight-idUKKBN1EL045'|'2017-12-27T04:16:00.000+02:00'
'2438c9ebbf23e6da55cc0da67968070ff611ab56'|'Bitcoin bounces back over $16,000 despite latest bubble warning - business live'|'Close Skip to main content switch to the International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home become asupporter subscribe find a job jobs sign in Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out my account search news opinion sport arts lifestyle All sections Close news world news UK news science cities global development football tech business environment obituaries opinion the guardian view columnists cartoons opinion videos letters sport football rugby union cricket tennis cycling F1 golf US sports arts books music tv & radio art & design film games classical stage lifestyle fashion food recipes love & sex health & fitness home & garden women family travel money What term do you want to search? Search with google become a supporter subscribe Sign in/up my account Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition jobs dating holidays the guardian app video podcasts pictures newsletters today''s paper the observer digital archive crosswords Facebook Twitter jobs dating holidays business economics banking money markets project syndicate b2b more sign in Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: dating find a job change edition: switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the AU edition International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition The Guardian - Back to home home › business › markets project syndicate economics banking retail home UK world sport football opinion culture business selected lifestyle fashion environment tech travel browse all sections close Stock markets Business live London stock market hits record high but bitcoin wobbles - as it happenedAll the day’s economic and financial news, as shares in London close at a new peakLatest: FTSE 100 closes at new high Wealthiest 500 people became 23% richer this yearFTSE 250 hits new peak Earlier:Bitcoin rebounds from pre-Christmas wobbleIsrael plans clampdown over ‘bubble’ fearsAnalyst: How do you value bitcoin? UpdatedA small toy figure is seen on representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency. Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters Graeme WeardenWed 27 Dec ‘17 18.26 GMT First published on Wed 27 Dec ‘17 08.11 GMTShare on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email View more sharing options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Close Key events Show 6.26pm GMT 18:26 Closing summary 5.04pm GMT 17:04 FTSE 100 hits record closing high 3.10pm GMT 15:10 US consumer confidence dips 2.08pm GMT 14:08 FTSE 100 hits record high 12.58pm GMT 12:58 Greeks fear end of bailout programme 12.41pm GMT 12:41 FTSE 250 hits new record high 10.55am GMT 10:55 World''s richest people gained $1 trillion in 2017 Live feed Show 6.26pm GMT 18:26Closing summary Right, time for a quick recap.Britain’s stock market has closed at a new peak tonight, on the first trading day since Christmas.The FTSE 100 hit a record closing high, propelled by mining companies as optimism for the world economy in 2018 boosted commodity prices.The smaller FTSE 250 also finished at its highest ever level, partly due to a takeover bid for office manager IWG (which closed 27% higher).The rally came as new data showed that the world’s 500 richest people had collectively gained $1tn in 2017.World''s richest 500 see their wealth increase by $1tn this year Read moreBut it was a volatile day for bitcoin. After surging 13% yesterday, the digital currency has fallen back this afternoon.It’s currently down 4% at $15,094 - having been valued at almost $20,000 10 days ago.This latest fluctuation came after Israel’s stock market regulator suggested it could ban cryptocurrency firms from listing on the Tel Aviv exchange.Thomas Biesheuvel (@tbiesheuvel) Bitcoin drops back below $15,000 https://t.co/orhdKeJqJB pic.twitter.com/ShNei58BUnDecember 27, 2017 That’s all for tonight. Thanks for reading and commenting. GWFacebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 6.10pm GMT 18:10The jump in commodity prices today helped to push the FTSE 100 to its record high, thanks to the various mining giants that are included in the index.Sky News explains:The rally was supported by an upturn in copper and other commodity prices, which helped to lift global mining giants including Fresnillo, Antofagasta and Glencore.Demand for commodities implies optimism about the outlook for rapidly advancing world economies such as China.Greg McKenna, chief strategist at AxiTrader, said: “The rally in copper supports expectations that 2018 is going to be a strong year for synchronised global growth.”Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 6.08pm GMT 18:08Of course, the FTSE 100’s run of record highs is less impressive once you remember the tumble in sterling 18 months ago.The pound is still worth around 10% less than before the EU referendum; that made UK companies more affordable to overseas investors, and pumped up the value of their foreign earnings.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 5.12pm GMT 17:12Peer and pollster Lord Ashcroft tweets:Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) Both Remainers and Leavers should be heartened by the FTSE 100 at the Stock Exchange having closed at a record high of 7620...December 27, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 5.06pm GMT 17:06The smaller, more domestically focused FTSE 250 has also hit a new record high tonight:LondonStockExchange (@LSEplc) #FTSE 250 closes at 20,640.04, up 0.78% https://t.co/bE3ySiNxLpDecember 27, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 5.04pm GMT 17:04FTSE 100 hits record closing high Newsflash: the FTSE 100 index has closed at a new all time high of 7,620 points.Mining companies and supermarkets helped the index rise on the first trading day since Christmas.Almanacist (@UKAlmanac) For the 29th year in the last 34, the #FTSE100 closes up on the first trading day after Christmas https://t.co/2SnQ5e4gde pic.twitter.com/B2XgqVjsamDecember 27, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 3.10pm GMT 15:10US consumer confidence dips Newsflash: US consumer confidence has fallen back from its recent highs.The Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence, just released, dropped to 122.1 in December, down from November’s 129.5 - which was the highest in 17 years.Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board, says:“The decline in confidence was fueled by a somewhat less optimistic outlook for business and job prospects in the coming months,”Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 3.07pm GMT 15:07'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/dec/27/bitcoin-price-bubble-digital-currencies-uk-mortgages-retail-business-live'|'2017-12-27T10:11:00.000+02:00'
'8f508193c7f2d2024eb28a55d2c86397a701a931'|'GE to increase stake in Sweden''s Arcam to more than 90 percent'|'Reuters TV United States December 27, 2017 / 10:04 AM / a few seconds ago GE to increase stake in Sweden''s Arcam to more than 90 percent Reuters Staff 1 Min Read (Reuters) - General Electric Co ( GE.N ) said on Wednesday it will increase its stake in Swedish 3D printer maker Arcam AB ( ARCM.ST ) to more than 90 percent from 77 percent. FILE PHOTO: The General Electric logo is pictured on the General Electric offshore wind turbine plant in Montoir-de-Bretagne, near Saint-Nazaire, western France, November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo GE said it will buy Arcam’s outstanding shares that are owned by Elliott Management and Polygon Investment Group for 345 Swedish crowns ($41.44) per share. GE, which bought a controlling stake in Arcam in late 2016, said on Wednesday it plans to request Arcam to delist its shares on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange. Reporting by Philip George in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge-3dprinting-sweden/ge-to-increase-stake-in-swedens-arcam-to-more-than-90-percent-idUKKBN1EL0NC'|'2017-12-27T12:02:00.000+02:00'
'27db1c7dc3e4c193387fb956ad53a9ea685036dc'|'China investigating head of online finance platform that handled $7.6 bILLION'|'SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of a Chinese online financing platform that handled over 50 billion yuan ($7.65 billion)in transactions is under investigation after surrendering himself to authorities, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday.Police in the eastern city of Nanjing said on their official Twitter-like Weibo account on Wednesday that the legal representative for platform Qbao.com had surrendered himself at a police station on Dec. 26.State news agency Xinhua, which reported the investigation on Thursday, said Qbao.com was a platform that allowed members to make investments that advertised returns of over 40 percent and earn money from watching advertisements.Also on the platform were retailers who could get goods from Qbao and from whom members could make purchases, Xinhua saidIt added that as of September, more than 50 billion yuan had flowed through the five-year-old Qbao.com platform, which required its roughly 200 million members to make deposits.Nanjing police and Xinhua identified the person under investigation as Zhang Xiaolei.A message posted on Qianbao’s website, which has been shut down, said Zhang was “suspected of committing crimes”. Reuters was unable to reach him for comment.China has pledged to intensify a crackdown on financial crime to safeguard national security and fend off financial risks after amid a rise in pyramid schemes, frauds and illegal fundraising.In September, a Beijing court sentenced the architect of the $9 billion Ezubao online financial scam to life imprisonment, and handed down jail time to 26 others, marking the close to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in modern Chinese history.($1 = 6.5320 Chinese yuan)Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom and Brenda Goh; Editing by Richard Borsuk '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-finance-internet/china-investigating-head-of-online-finance-platform-that-handled-7-6-billion-idINKBN1EM106'|'2017-12-28T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'4a222a2bccd7e4f4a7407667ec742340427efc17'|'IAG in exclusive takeover talks for Niki: source close to process'|'FRANKFURT/VIENNA (Reuters) - British IAG ( ICAG.L ) is in exclusive talks to buy Niki, Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) insolvent Austrian airline, a source close to the process said on Thursday, after Niki’s administrator said that one bidder out of four remained.FILE PHOTO: Empty Niki check-in counters are seen at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Besides IAG, the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling, bidders for holiday airline Niki included tour operators TUI ( TUIT.L ), Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda.“IAG is the last remaining bidder and is still negotiating now,” the person said, adding that the company had put in the highest offer - a double-digit million-euro amount. German newspaper Bild put the figure at around 40 million euros ($48 million).Niki Lauda, Niki’s founder, was Quote: d as saying on the website of newspaper Die Presse that he was out of the running. A source said Thomas Cook was also out of the race.Die Presse also reported, without citing sources, that IAG was likely to be the last bidder. IAG and Thomas Cook’s Condor subsidiary declined to comment on Thursday. TUI was not immediately available to comment.FILE PHOTO: Britain Formula One - F1 - British Grand Prix 2016 - Silverstone, England - 9/7/16 Mercedes'' non executive chairman Niki Lauda during practice Reuters / Andrew Boyers “The provisional creditors’ committee for Niki (...) today decided to continue sales negotiations for the business operations of the company exclusively with one bidder for now. (The committee) tasked the provisional administrator Floether to conclusively negotiate the purchase contract over the coming days,” Floether’s spokesman said in the statement.He declined to give further details.The new owner will have to pay Niki’s running costs, including salaries for its roughly 1,000 employees in Austria and Germany, from the beginning of January, the administrator said on Wednesday.Niki was part of collapsed Air Berlin. It filed for insolvency after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) dropped a plan to buy Niki’s assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers.The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its take-off and landing slots, its most attractive assets.Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Ilona Wissenbach and Georgina Prodhan, additional reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki-lauda/one-bidder-still-interested-in-buying-airline-niki-lauda-pulls-out-idINKBN1EM14B'|'2017-12-28T09:37:00.000+02:00'
'e5137e671f76db51276008eba1ec237344d8d994'|'Apple, Epson face French legal complaints over allegedly shortening life of products'|'December 28, 2017 / 4:56 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Apple, Epson face French legal complaints over allegedly shortening life of products Reuters Staff 2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Smartphone maker Apple ( AAPL.O ) and Japanese printer company Epson ( 6724.T ) are facing legal complaints in France over allegedly speeding up the aging process of their products to stimulate demand. An Apple logo is seen in a store in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson A French consumer association called “HOP” -- standing for “Stop Planned Obsolescence” -- filed preliminary, legal complaints in court against the two groups over the charges. HOP said it filed its complaint against Apple in Paris on Wednesday. A prosecutor opened an investigation into Epson last month, a judicial source said on Thursday, following a complaint filed in September by HOP in a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Laetitia Vasseur, co-founder of HOP, told Reuters the aim of both complaints was to apply the French consumer law, which was modified in 2015 to include the notion of planned obsolescence. Apple is already facing lawsuits in the United States over accusations of having defrauded iPhone users by slowing down devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance. FILE PHOTO - Epson logo is seen during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer These lawsuits came after Apple said last week that operating system updates released since “last year” for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 included a feature “to smooth out” power supply from batteries that are cold, old or low on charge. Phones without the adjustment would shut down abruptly because of a precaution designed to prevent components from getting fried, Apple said. Under French law, companies risk fines of up to 5 percent of their annual sales for deliberately shortening the life of their products to spur demand to replace them. A spokeswoman for Epson France said Epson denied the charges made against it by the HOP association. She added that Epson was working with authorities on the matter and that the quality of its products was of the utmost importance for the company. Officials for Apple France could not be immediately reached for comment. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Emmanuel Jarry and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Mathieu Rosemain and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-batteries-france/apple-epson-face-french-legal-complaints-over-allegedly-shortening-life-of-products-idUKKBN1EM1JX'|'2017-12-28T18:56:00.000+02:00'
'f873a73c90986f37840b81c13358de2e1e036779'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'December 27, 2017 / 10:52 AM / Updated an hour ago Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds Petropavlovsk, Asia Aviation, General Electric, Barrick Gold, ESN Group) Dec 27 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1545 GMT on Wednesday: ** Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova Group has sold its stake in Russian gold producer Petropavlovsk, Renova spokesman Andrey Shtorkh told Reuters. ** Thailand’s King Power Group, the nation’s largest duty free retailer, sold a 36.3 percent stake in Asia Aviation Plc (AAV) for 8.28 billion baht ($252.7 million) back to the company’s chief executive officer. ** General Electric Co said it will raise its stake in Swedish 3D printer maker Arcam AB to around 95 percent from 77 percent after buying shares from hedge funds Elliott and Polygon. ** Barrick Gold Corp is actively reviewing acquisitions and in the past 18 months considered at least one transformational deal, as it seeks to boost looming production declines and drive growth, four people familiar with the company’s thinking told Reuters. ** Russia’s ESN Group, controlled by businessman Grigory Berezkin, has completed the acquisition of a 100 percent stake in the Delovoy Peterburg media outlet, it said. ** Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said it was cautiously optimistic of winning approval to take control of PT Bank Danamon Indonesia - in what could become the biggest acquisition of an Indonesian firm on record. ** China’s Geely Holding, which already owns the Volvo Car Group, is buying an 8.2 percent stake in Swedish truck maker AB Volvo from activist investor Cevian Capital for around $3.3 billion. ** Debt-laden Indian company Reliance Communications Ltd detailed a plan to cut debt through the sale of some assets. ** British serviced office provider IWG Plc has received a bid approach from Canadian private equity firm Onex and Brookfield Asset Management, it said. Compiled by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL4N1OR2SM'|'2017-12-27T12:51:00.000+02:00'
'4ada104829c6bd86f238f3e289c9e410a28aee42'|'VW to try to block emissions audit in constitutional court'|'December 28, 2017 / 8:42 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago VW to try to block emissions audit in constitutional court Reuters Staff 3 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) said on Thursday it would petition Germany’s constitutional court in an effort to overturn the appointment of a special auditor to investigate the actions of management in the “Dieselgate” emissions scandal. FILE PHOTO - A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero A lower court appointed the auditor in November, in a victory for shareholder groups that want to establish whether VW bosses withheld market-moving information about the manipulation of vehicle-emissions tests. The court in the town of Celle ruled that VW could not appeal, which the auto maker views as a violation of its fundamental rights, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said in a report released in advance of publication on Friday. The car maker will try to get the work of the auditor suspended before the constitutional court hearing, said the newspaper, which researched the report together with public TV channels NDR and WDR. A company spokesman confirmed that VW would go to the constitutional court but did not elaborate. It was not immediately clear whether or when the constitutional court would take up the case. Shortly after the Dieselgate scandal broke in September 2015, VW hired U.S. law firm Jones Day and advisory firm Deloitte to investigate the circumstances of its wrongdoing and who was responsible. Although VW had pledged to improve transparency, it never published the findings that were used as the basis for a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. News of the settlement caused the company’s shares to fall. Investor groups seeking billions in damages from VW are trying to establish when VW’s executive management board first became aware of cheating in the emissions tests and whether it disclosed possible financial damage to investors promptly. German securities law requires companies to publish any market sensitive news in a timely fashion. The matter is also being investigated by German prosecutors. VW has said it believes its management complied with obligations under German disclosure rules. Reporting by Douglas Busvine, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-emissions-court/vw-to-try-to-block-emissions-audit-in-constitutional-court-idUKKBN1EM1UD'|'2017-12-28T22:43:00.000+02:00'
'3bf5e1139366c9f28cd9f486ea29bec238a20fe4'|'One bidder still interested in buying airline Niki, Lauda pulls out'|'December 28, 2017 / 12:36 PM / Updated 5 hours ago IAG in exclusive takeover talks for Niki: source close to process Ilona Wissenbach , Shadia Nasralla 3 Min Read FRANKFURT/VIENNA (Reuters) - British IAG ( ICAG.L ) is in exclusive talks to buy Niki, Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) insolvent Austrian airline, a source close to the process said on Thursday, after Niki’s administrator said that one bidder out of four remained. Besides IAG, the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling, bidders for holiday airline Niki included tour operators TUI ( TUIT.L ), Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda. “IAG is the last remaining bidder and is still negotiating now,” the person said, adding that the company had put in the highest offer - a double-digit million-euro amount. German newspaper Bild put the figure at around 40 million euros ($48 million). Niki Lauda, Niki’s founder, was quoted as saying on the website of newspaper Die Presse that he was out of the running. A source said Thomas Cook was also out of the race. Die Presse also reported, without citing sources, that IAG was likely to be the last bidder. IAG and Thomas Cook’s Condor subsidiary declined to comment on Thursday. TUI was not immediately available to comment. Slideshow (2 Images) “The provisional creditors’ committee for Niki (...) today decided to continue sales negotiations for the business operations of the company exclusively with one bidder for now. (The committee) tasked the provisional administrator Floether to conclusively negotiate the purchase contract over the coming days,” Floether’s spokesman said in the statement. He declined to give further details. The new owner will have to pay Niki’s running costs, including salaries for its roughly 1,000 employees in Austria and Germany, from the beginning of January, the administrator said on Wednesday. Niki was part of collapsed Air Berlin. It filed for insolvency after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) dropped a plan to buy Niki’s assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its take-off and landing slots, its most attractive assets. Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Ilona Wissenbach and Georgina Prodhan, additional reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki-lauda/one-bidder-still-interested-in-buying-airline-niki-lauda-pulls-out-idUKKBN1EM14B'|'2017-12-28T14:35:00.000+02:00'
'05581b3fad7dde79fb4a44ab11400222423903a7'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX posts record high as energy, marijuana company shares climb'|'December 27, 2017 / 9:52 PM / in 8 minutes CANADA STOCKS-TSX posts record high as energy, marijuana company shares climb Reuters Staff (Adds details throughout and updates prices to close) * TSX ends up 37.86 points, or 0.23 percent, at 16,203.13 * Index posts record closing high * Energy climbs 1.6 percent * Canopy Growth Co surges 20.1 percent TORONTO, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index rose on Wednesday to a record high as a recent rally in commodity prices boosted the energy and materials sectors, while healthcare gained more than 6 percent as shares of marijuana companies jumped. * The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 37.86 points, or 0.23 percent, at 16,203.13, a record closing high. * Energy shares climbed 1.6 percent, with Suncor Energy Inc up 2.5 percent at C$45.82. * The price of U.S. crude oil settled 0.6 percent lower at $59.64 a barrel. But it had touched a 2-1/2-year high in the previous session when the TSX was closed for the Boxing Day holiday. * The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.9 percent. * Teck Resources Ltd, which exports steelmaking coal and mines metals, including copper, gained 3.1 percent to C$33.33. * Copper prices advanced 1.3 percent to $7,219 a tonne. * Five of the TSX’s 10 main groups ended higher. * Shares of marijuana companies rose after Canadian regulators rejected Aurora Cannabis Inc’s request to shorten the minimum deposit period to 35 days from 105 days for the hostile takeover of CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. * Aurora Cannabis gained 11.1 percent and CanniMed Therapeutics rose nearly 4 percent, while Canopy Growth Co was the largest percentage gainer on the TSX. It surged 20.1 percent to C$27.77. * The largest decliner on the index was Centerra Gold , which plunged 10.3 percent to C$6.50 after the company said mill processing operations at the Mount Milligan Mine in British Columbia have been temporarily suspended due to lack of sufficient water resources. * The heavyweight financials group fell 0.3 percent and technology shares declined 0.6 percent. * Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the TSX by 143 to 96, for a 1.49-to-1 ratio on the upside. * The index was posting nine new 52-week highs and one new low. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Bill Trott and Meredith Mazzilli)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-posts-record-high-as-energy-marijuana-company-shares-climb-idUSL1N1OR169'|'2017-12-27T23:48:00.000+02:00'
'608c9d761d751ad9ebcf174382e68a28ef20c043'|'Brazil car rental firm Locamerica shares rise on Unidas deal'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Shares in Brazilian rental car firm Cia de Locação das Américas ( LCAM3.SA ) rose 10 percent on Thursday after the company announced a tie-up with rival Unidas SA to create Brazil’s second-largest car rental company.Shares in Locamerica, as the company is known, traded at 18.85 reais, extending this year’s gains to 225 percent, compared to a 27 percent rise for the benchmark Ibovespa index.In a conference call with analysts, Locamerica executives said the cash and stock deal valued Unidas at 2 billion reais ($605 million), including debt. The combined company will have an enterprise value of 4.3 billion reais, Locamerica said.Unidas is a franchisee of Enterprise Holdings Inc [ERACR.UL], the U.S.-based company that owns the largest U.S. car rental fleet via brands such as Alamo, Enterprise and National.After the deal concludes, the new Locamerica-Unidas will have a fleet of more than 100,000 vehicles and 234 rental car stores in Latin America’s largest economy.The deal, which is subject to antitrust approval, may help Locamerica face competition in a segment dominated by larger rivals Localiza Rent a Car SA ( RENT3.SA ) and Movida Participações SA ( MOVI3.SA ).Under the terms of the agreement, Locamerica will acquire a 40.3 percent stake in Unidas for 398.6 million reais ($120.7 million) from buyout funds Vinci Partners Investimentos Ltda, Kinea Private Equity Investimentos SA ( KNIP11.SA ) and Gavea Investimentos Ltda, which are cashing out on their investment.Investor Fitpart Capital Partners Ltd will acquire 9.4 percent of Unidas for 92.9 million reais.The remaining 51.3 percent of Unidas shares will be converted into new shares equivalent to 29.9 percent of Locamerica’s capital, the filing said. Each remaining Unidas share will be swapped for 1.059096 Locamerica share.Unidas shareholders Principal Gestão de Activos e Consultoria Administrativa e Financeira SA and Enterprise Holdings Brazil LLC will join the controlling bloc of the resulting company.Unidas had attempted to hold an initial public offering earlier this year but called off the transaction due to weak investor demand.Reporting by Bruno Federowski and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Rosalba O''Brien '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-unidas-m-a-locamerica/locamerica-and-unidas-tie-up-to-create-brazils-no-2-car-rental-firm-idINKBN1EM14O'|'2017-12-28T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'd1cf505ab1c51399f49cb167ef5e2d715b0cad6a'|'With lineup widening, Apple depends less on iPhone X'|'December 28, 2017 / 8:30 PM / Updated 42 minutes ago With lineup widening, Apple depends less on iPhone X Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In years past, demand for Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) latest flagship phone was critical to the company’s results over the holiday shopping quarter. That dynamic might be changing, however, as Apple’s widening lineup of devices and services more than makes up for any tepidness in demand this quarter for its lead product, the $999 iPhone X. On Tuesday, Apple’s stock fell 2.5 percent to $170.57 after Taiwan’s Economic Daily and several analysts suggested iPhone X sales in the fiscal first quarter would be 30 million units, 20 million fewer than initially planned by the company. The cut in the forecast was not confirmed, and the stock regained ground on Thursday, hitting $171.82 by midday. The mean revenue estimate for the holiday quarter among 30 analysts remains at $86.2 billion, near the high end of Apple’s forecast of $84 billion to $87 billion. Apple declined to comment. Part of the support for Apple may reflect a change in its business strategy. Releasing two new models and keeping older ones have made Apple less dependent on its flagship product. Apple shareholder Ross Gerber, chief executive of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management in Santa Monica, California, said the higher price and better margins on the iPhone X will reduce fears of a sales decline. “We know that Apple’s strategy was different this quarter by releasing two phones, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X, and I think combined sales will be in line with what people expect,” Gerber said. Apple also has fattened its portfolio of accessories and other devices, from its AirPods wireless headphones to a new Apple Watch with cellular data features. While none is a runaway hit, collectively they are an important contributor, with Apple’s “other products” segment growing 16 percent to $12.8 billion last year. Customers who buy those add-ons are also likely to buy services from the App Store and Apple Music, part of Apple’s services segment, which grew 23 percent to $29.9 billion last year. “Ultimately, it will be this multi-device ownership” that will generate further revenue, said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Creative Strategies. IPhone X sales still matter. Each unit generates nearly twice the revenue of an iPhone 7 and contains technologies like facial recognition that burnish Apple’s brand. Bob O‘Donnell of TECHnalysis Research, said “hit products” still represent “an enormous amount of the company’s overall value.” “Will it take hold in the mainstream? That’s the question that still remains,” he said. Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Peter Henderson and Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-iphone/with-lineup-widening-apple-depends-less-on-iphone-x-idUSKBN1EM1TF'|'2017-12-28T22:29:00.000+02:00'
'26fbaa231bbad17223db96496535fecf8806f970'|'Russia''s Transneft reaches out of court deal with Sberbank'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft ( TRNF_p.MM ) has reached an out of court deal with Sberbank over a dispute relating to financial derivatives, Transneft said on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: A general view of oil tanks in the Transneft – Kozmino Port near the far eastern town of Nakhodka, Russia November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Maltsev The dispute was over deals on derivatives concluded in 2013 that resulted in losses for Transneft due to a sharp depreciation in the ruble.Transneft did not give details of the agreement.Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-russia-transneft-sberbank/russias-transneft-reaches-out-of-court-deal-with-sberbank-idINKBN1EM1GT'|'2017-12-28T13:03:00.000+02:00'
'b20b8795001f0b32ba4851ef01853d1f62dd12c8'|'Nikkei inches up, crude rally lifts oil-related shares'|'December 27, 2017 / 6:34 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago Nikkei inches up, crude rally lifts oil-related shares Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average inched up on Wednesday, with a rally in crude prices supporting oil-related shares. The Nikkei ended 0.08 percent higher at 22,911.21. With crude prices reaching 2-1/2-year highs, Inpex Corp , an oil and natural gas producer, added 2.3 percent. Offshore oil drilling company Japan Drilling Co rose 2.1 percent and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co advanced 3.3 percent. Oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co gained 2.6 percent. Ship builder Kawasaki Heavy Industries advanced 7.9 percent after announcing that it would post an extraordinary loss of 13 billion yen ($114.75 million) from the termination of an offshore construction agreement with a Norwegian company. While the termination would incur losses, the announcement was greeted positively as the offshore construction project was seen to have been burdening Kawasaki Heavy with extra costs. Cryptocurrency-related shares gained after a sharp rebound by bitcoin. Internet provider GMO Internet Inc, which is engaged in the “mining” of bitcoin, rose 3.1 percent. Remixpoint Inc, an operator of virtual currency trading post services, gained 5 percent. Of Tokyo’s 33 subindexes, 26 were in positive territory, led by mining and oil and coal products. Trade is slowing as the year draws to a close with the volume of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s first section at 981 million shares versus the daily average of 1.62 billion over the past 30 days. The broader Topix was 0.15 percent higher at 1,829.79. ($1 = 113.2900 yen) (Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Eric Meijer)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkei-inches-up-crude-rally-lifts-oil-related-shares-idUSL4N1OR1VP'|'2017-12-27T08:32:00.000+02:00'
'4970abbb96f59939294cae640f139a17c52fae08'|'MUFG hopeful of regulatory approval for Danamon deal; Danamon shares soar'|'December 27, 2017 / 5:34 AM / Updated an hour ago MUFG hopeful of regulatory approval for Danamon deal; Danamon shares soar Cindy Silviana , Fransiska Nangoy 2 Min Read JAKARTA (Reuters) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) ( 8306.T ) said it was cautiously optimistic of gaining regulatory approval for its plans to take majority control of PT Bank Danamon Indonesia ( BDMN.JK ) - a deal that sent shares in the Southeast Asian lender surging. The Danamon Bank logo is seen at its Tebet branch office in Jakarta, Indonesia, December 27, 2017. REUTERS/Beawiharta Japan’s biggest lender, eager to expand its presence in Indonesia, has agreed with Temasek [TEM.UL], Singapore’s state investment arm, to buy 73.8 percent of the bank in three stages. The first part of the acquisition - a purchase of a 19.9 percent stake worth $1.2 billion - is due to be completed within days. Eventually it aims to buy all the shares in the country’s fifth-largest bank. Any purchase of a stake of 40 percent or more will, however, exceed the maximum allowed by Indonesia’s financial services regulator OJK, although the watchdog has the power to grant exceptions. Takayoshi Futae, MUFG’s chief executive for Asia and Oceania, told a news conference that the Japanese bank was in continuous discussions with OJK and was “cautiously optimistic” it would gain approval to take more than 40 percent. He did not elaborate further. Danamon’s shares jumped 15 percent in Wednesday trade to 6,900 rupiah per share. At one point they climbed as high as 7,000 rupiah - their highest level in more than 17 years - although that was still below the 8,323 rupiah per share agreed with Temasek. The second phase of the acquisition - a purchase of 20.1 percent stake - is expected to be completed in the second or third quarter of 2018, MUFG said. OJK has previously granted an exception to the 40 percent rule as part of its efforts to promote consolidation in the sector, allowing China Construction Bank Corp (CCB) to buying a controlling stake in PT Bank Windu Kentjana International in 2015 which then merged with another small domestic bank. Reporting by Cindy Silviana and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mufg-m-a-bank-danamon/mufg-hopeful-of-regulatory-approval-for-danamon-deal-danamon-shares-soar-idUKKBN1EL08Z'|'2017-12-27T07:33:00.000+02:00'
'e6131ee7013f0d35ad39d097336dbf653bc50006'|'Abu Dhabi''s IPIC says Malaysian fund 1MDB has paid settlement amount in full'|'Reuters TV United States December 27, 2017 / 8:20 AM / Updated an hour ago Abu Dhabi''s IPIC says Malaysian fund 1MDB has paid settlement amount in full Reuters Staff 2 Min Read KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi’s government-owned International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) on Wednesday said Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has made all required payments as part of a settlement agreement between the two. FILE PHOTO: A construction worker talks on the phone in front of a 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) billboard at the Tun Razak Exchange development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo 1MDB was required to pay IPIC about $600 million by Dec. 31, as part of a settlement agreement reached in April after 1MDB defaulted on its bonds, causing the Abu Dhabi company to ask a London court to arbitrate over a claim totaling some $6.5 billion. 1MDB had originally agreed to pay $1.2 billion in two instalments to IPIC, with the first of about $600 million due by July 31. 1MDB however missed the deadline due to the need to get “regulatory approvals” and made the payment in August instead. “IPIC has now received all the funds required to be paid to IPIC by Dec. 31 under the Settlement with the Minister of Finance (Inc) Malaysia and 1Malaysia Development Berhad and the Consent Award made on 9 May 2017,” IPIC said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday. 1MDB later on Wednesday said it has remitted in full to IPIC all funds required to be paid by Dec. 31. “All funds were paid from proceeds of the on-going rationalization program,” 1MDB said in a statement. 1MDB is the subject of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. In civil lawsuits, the U.S. Justice Department has alleged that about $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB. The Malaysian fund has denied any wrongdoing and Prime Minister Najib Razak, who founded 1MDB, has denied all allegations of corruption against him. Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Christopher Cushing'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-scandal-ipic-gmtn/abu-dhabis-ipic-says-malaysian-fund-1mdb-has-paid-settlement-amount-in-full-idUKKBN1EL0H4'|'2017-12-27T10:58:00.000+02:00'
'2c20303cd179dca317f52f48fe2dd2fcc6ca0cc4'|'Apple apologizes after outcry over slowed iPhones'|'December 28, 2017 / 11:05 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago Apple apologizes after outcry over slowed iPhones Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Facing lawsuits and consumer outrage after it said it slowed older iPhones with flagging batteries, Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) is slashing prices for battery replacements and will change its software to show users whether their phone battery is good. In a posting on its website Thursday, Apple apologized over its handling of the battery issue and said it would make a number of changes for customers “to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple’s intentions.” Apple made the move to address concerns about the quality and durability of its products at a time when it is charging $999 for its newest flagship model, the iPhone X. The company said it would cut the price of an out-of-warranty battery replacement from $79 to $29 for an iPhone 6 or later, starting next month. The company also will update its iOS operating system to let users see whether their battery is in poor health and is affecting the phone’s performance. Slideshow (3 Images) “We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down,” Apple said in its posting. “We apologize.” On Dec. 20, Apple acknowledged that iPhone software has the effect of slowing down some phones with battery problems. Apple said the problem was that aging lithium batteries delivered power unevenly, which could cause iPhones to shutdown unexpectedly to protect the delicate circuits inside. That disclosure played on a common belief among consumers that Apple purposely slows down older phones to encourage customers to buy newer iPhone models. While no credible evidence has ever emerged that Apple engaged in such conduct, the battery disclosure struck a nerve on social media and elsewhere. Apple on Thursday denied that it has ever done anything to intentionally shorten the life of a product. At least eight lawsuits have been filed in California, New York and Illinois alleging that the company defrauded users by slowing devices down without warning them. The company also faces a legal complaint in France, where so-called “planned obsolesce” is against the law. Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-apple-batteries/apple-apologizes-after-outcry-over-slowed-iphones-idINKBN1EM20N'|'2017-12-29T01:12:00.000+02:00'
'9ecfae80d18e06c161e81e20bdcdca06353cc15a'|'Brexit spurs near doubling of UK domestic deal-making'|'December 29, 2017 / 12:07 AM / Updated 13 hours ago Brexit spurs near doubling of UK domestic deal-making Ben Martin 5 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Companies seeking to “bulk up” to offset the uncertainty caused by Britain’s looming EU exit helped to spur a near doubling of domestic mergers and acquisition activity this year, according to Thomson Reuters data. An Anti-Brexit protestor waves EU and Union flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson The volume of UK domestic deals surged to $68 billion (51 billion pounds) from $34.3 billion in 2016 as the number of deals between British groups jumped from 1,480 to 1,681, the highest level since 2008, the data show. They included online gambling company GVC’s purchase of bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral for as much as 3.9 billion pounds and Hammerson’s 3.4 billion pound acquisition of rival shopping centre operator Intu Properties. It comes against a backdrop of often fractious Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels this year, talks that are yet to provide businesses with clarity about Britain’s future relationship with Europe. Bosses at British companies have also been eyeing new U.S. President Donald Trump, whose decisions have repercussions for businesses around the world. “At the beginning of 2017 there were a lot of questions about what was going to happen to the M&A market, given the global uncertainty caused by Brexit and the new U.S. president,” said Nick Cline, a London-based M&A partner at law firm Latham & Watkins, who said the uncertain environment had acted as a driver for some deals rather than stifling activity. “There are a lot of corporates out there in the UK and Europe who are seeing the changing landscape and as a result are even more focused on what they’re going to do to be tomorrow’s leaders.” The jump in domestic deal-making contrasted with falls in both inbound and outbound UK M&A volumes, the data show, with the former slipping 12.9 percent to $115.1 billion and the latter down 9.4 percent to $112.5 billion. That meant overall M&A volumes with any UK involvement dipped 0.7 percent to $375 billon, a softer decline than the 1.4 percent slide in global deal volumes to $3.5 trillion, according to the data. DEARTH OF BLOCKBUSTER DEALS Philip Noblet, HSBC’s co-head of global banking in the UK, said that “a lot of the obvious sector consolidation deals that people expected to happen” were struck this year and were “driven by the Brexit climate which is prompting companies to bulk up”. However, a dearth of blockbuster deals meant that overall M&A volumes involving any British companies remained much lower than in 2015, when they totalled $605.5 billion, swelled by Anheuser-Busch Inbev’s $110 billion acquisition of FTSE 100 brewer SABMiller and Royal Dutch Shell’s $53 billion tie-up with BG Group. “It’s hard to see how any more of the really big deals are going to happen going forward without there being quite significant competition issues,” said Noblet. Kraft Heinz’s $143 billion attempt to buy consumer goods giant Unilever in February, which would have been one such megadeal, failed within days when the U.S. food company walked away after the FTSE 100 business rejected its offer. Potential British government scrutiny of the deal was a concern raised during talks between the two companies, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time. Since Theresa May became prime minister in July 2016, Britain has taken a more cautious approach towards foreign acquisitions of British assets. In October, the government proposed new rules to give it more say over deals in the defence and technology sectors, although Cline said the government’s change of tack had not represented “a step-change this year in the way the UK looks at deals”. He said: ”Occasionally a transaction comes up where there’s a question about UK government intervention.” Cline forecasts that British M&A activity will remain strong in 2018, while Jan Skarbek, managing director of UK banking and broking at Citigroup, also thinks there will be an increase. “Organic growth is very difficult in this environment and staying still is not an option for many companies,” he said. “So I think there will be more deals next year, despite the geopolitical uncertainty.” Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-m-a/brexit-spurs-near-doubling-of-uk-domestic-deal-making-idUKKBN1EN005'|'2017-12-29T02:06:00.000+02:00'
'd37a0c27d2a7769452a5065dd0e779dadb99ebb1'|'Tesla''s Model 3 deliveries point to slower ramp up - brokerage'|'December 27, 2017 / 2:33 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Tesla''s Model 3 deliveries point to slower ramp up - brokerage Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) is likely to deliver about 5,000 Model 3s in the fourth quarter, KeyBanc Capital Markets analysts said on Wednesday, far below the brokerage’s estimate of 15,000. FILE PHOTO - A Tesla Model 3 sedan, its first car aimed at the mass market, is displayed during its launch in Hawthorne, California, March 31, 2016. Picture taken March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Joe White The numbers indicate that the electric carmaker may still not be out of its self-described “manufacturing hell” for the production of the $35,000 Model 3 sedan. KeyBanc analysts based their projections after conversations last week with sales people at 18 stores in the United States. “We talked to stores in California doing as many as a dozen per week with around 10 being the average, and we estimate stores outside of California were doing something closer to half a dozen per week,” the analysts wrote. Tesla’s shares fell 0.5 percent to $315.74 in premarket trading on Wednesday. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla made just 260 Model 3 sedans in the third quarter against its own target to build more than 1,500 due to what it called “production bottlenecks.” The company said in November it expects to build 5,000 Model 3s per week late in the first quarter of 2018 from its original target date of December. A further delay in Model 3 production could lead to postponed sales and exacerbate Tesla’s cash burn. Over 500,000 customers have put down a refundable deposit for the car. Tesla could not immediately be reached for comment. However, KeyBanc maintained its “sector weight” rating on the stock. Bullish investors in particular remain more focused on that the car is being produced with minimal defects and that consumer reviews and response are favourable, the brokerage said. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tesla-model3/teslas-model-3-deliveries-point-to-slower-ramp-up-brokerage-idUKKBN1EL15N'|'2017-12-27T16:32:00.000+02:00'
'75f72451230dbf6b5ff139f39f47c9638b2b0171'|'U.S. pending home sales edge higher in November'|'December 27, 2017 / 3:16 PM / in 6 hours Pending home sales edge higher in November Reuters Staff 2 Min Read WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contracts to buy previously owned homes edged higher in November, boosted by job growth across a strengthening economy. The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday its pending home sales index rose to a reading of 109.5, up 0.2 percent from October. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast pending home sales falling 0.4 percent last month. Pending home contracts are seen as a forward-looking indicator of the health of the housing market because they become sales one to two months later. The housing sector has regained some momentum recently after treading water for much of the year because of a lack of inventory which has driven up prices, and both labor and land shortages. The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in more than two years in the third quarter, powered by robust business spending, while the jobless rate in November held at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Pending sales rose 0.8 percent in November from the same month of 2016, the first 12-month gain since June. Contracts rose 2.5 percent in the South from a year earlier. Sales also increased in the Northeast and Midwest while they fell 2.3 percent in the West. Reporting by Jason LangeEditing by Chizu Nomiyama'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-pending-home-sales-edge-higher-in-november-idUSKBN1EL17O'|'2017-12-27T17:14:00.000+02:00'
'e1c2e8cdc79d6003789e431f9d6c39fd70e2a116'|'Oil prices slip away from 2015 highs, but market remains tight'|'December 27, 2017 / 2:18 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Oil falls from 2015 highs as rally runs out of steam Dmitry Zhdannikov 4 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday after hitting a near two-and-a-half year high in the previous session as analysts said the rally was gradually running out of steam despite supply outages in Libya and the North Sea. Brent crude futures dropped to $66.27 a barrel, down 1.15 percent, or 75 cents, at 1321 GMT after breaking through $67 for the first time since May 2015 the previous day. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $59.53 a barrel, down 44 cents from their last settlement. WTI broke through $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015 in the previous session. “This could now be the fourth year in a row when the period around the turn of the year offers a good opportunity to start fading the market,” JBC Energy said in a note. JBC said it believed the market will gradually realize it had overshot: “We would have to argue that sometime over the course of January we will see a major turnaround.” It said prices could fall below $60 a barrel sometime in February and could even test $55 a barrel. On Tuesday, Libya lost around 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil supplies from a blast on a pipeline feeding Es Sider port. Repair of the pipeline could take about one week but will not have a major impact on exports, the head of Libyan state oil firm NOC told Reuters on Wednesday. The Libyan outage added to supply disruptions of recent weeks, which also included the closure of Britain’s largest Forties pipeline. On Wednesday, Forties was pumping at half its normal capacity and its operator was pledging to resume full flows in early January. The Forties and Libyan outages, which together amount to around 500,000 bpd, are relatively small in a global context of both production and demand approaching 100 million bpd. “The net global impact of the (Libyan) pipeline explosion is relatively small and we will not blow out of proportion the impact of the incident on the supply and demand picture,” said Olivier Jakob from Swiss-based Petromatrix. He said the market could be supported by a U.S. cold spell and expectations of greater heating oil consumption. Oil markets have tightened significantly over the past year thanks to voluntary supply restraint led the Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC Russia. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that following rampant oversupply in 2015, global oil markets gradually came into balance by 2016 and started to show a slight supply deficit this year. EIA data implies a slight supply shortfall of 180,000 bpd for the first quarter of 2018. A major factor countering efforts by OPEC and Russia efforts to prop up prices is U.S. oil production, which has soared more than 16 percent since mid-2016 and is fast approaching 10 million bpd. Only OPEC king-pin Saudi Arabia and Russia produce more. The latest U.S. production figures are due to be published by the EIA on Thursday. For a graphic on global oil supply and demand, click: link reut.rs/2C9rqyC Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and David Evans'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-slip-away-from-2015-highs-but-market-remains-tight-idUSKBN1EL045'|'2017-12-27T04:17:00.000+02:00'
'3eb55a34377a6359cb50eefcde1c7abea8e83544'|'Huawei''s China smartphone sales chief detained for suspected bribe-taking'|' 49 PM / Updated 33 minutes ago Huawei''s China smartphone sales chief detained for suspected bribe-taking Sijia Jiang 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies HWT.UL, the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, said on Wednesday that Chinese police are conducting an investigation, after the China sales head of its smartphone unit was detained on suspicion of accepting bribes. FILE PHOTO: Journalists attend the presentation of the Huawei''s new smartphone in Paris, France May 7, 2014. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo Huawei, which in recent years has overtaken Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and others to take the top share of China’s smartphone market but is now under pressure from fast-growing domestic rivals, declined to disclose details of the case. “The authorities are investigating the matter, and we defer to their discretion as to what can be disclosed,” the company said in e-mailed comments to Reuters when asked about the case. “We take our business ethics extremely seriously, and have zero tolerance for corrupt behavior.” It gave no further comment. In an internal memo to staff, however, Huawei said Teng Hongfei, the Greater China sales head for its consumer business division, had been detained for “the suspected crime of accepting bribes as a non-state functionary”. Reuters was unable to immediately reach Teng or a representative for comment. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked at Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ) and Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ) before joining Huawei in June 2014. Since then, Huawei has moved past Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi ( IPO-XMGP.HK ) and Lenovo Group ( 0992.HK ) to become China’s largest smartphone seller. But its top spot in the world’s biggest smartphone market has come under threat over the past year from competitors such as OPPO and Vivo, and its profits have suffered as a result. Huawei has a 22.3 percent share of China’s smartphone market, followed by OPPO at 21.6 percent, according to third-quarter data from industry tracker IDC. Founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former People’s Liberation Army officer, Huawei has more than 180,000 employees and has taken a number of high-profile actions in recent years to counter corruption. In January, Ren held a vow-taking ceremony with senior managers who swore not to engage in corruption, and in 2014 an internal inspection found 116 employees in violation of its anti-corruption policies. Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Edmund Klamann'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-corruption/huaweis-china-smartphone-sales-chief-detained-for-suspected-bribe-taking-idUKKBN1EL0YY'|'2017-12-27T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'01d75f94a6ef8a602e49080de12fb04a8f507756'|'China''s Geely takes 8.2 percent stake in Swedish truck maker Volvo'|'December 27, 2017 / 7:53 AM / Updated 22 minutes ago China''s Geely takes $3.3 billion stake in Swedish truck maker Volvo Johannes Hellstrom 3 Min Read STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - China’s Geely Holding ( 0175.HK ), which already owns the Volvo Car Group, is buying an 8.2 percent stake in Swedish truck maker AB Volvo ( VOLVb.ST ) from activist investor Cevian Capital for around $3.3 billion (£2.46 billion). FILE PHOTO - A security personnel on duty stands in front of the headquarters of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province August 2, 2010. REUTERS/Steven Shi Volvo Car Group was split from AB Volvo almost 20 years ago and Geely said it was not its current intention to try to reunite the two businesses. “Given our experience with Volvo Car Group, we recognise and value the proud Scandinavian history and culture, leading market positions, breakthrough technologies and environmental capabilities of AB Volvo,” Geely Chairman Li Shufu said in a statement on Wednesday. Geely’s expertise in the Chinese market and skills in developing electric and autonomous vehicles should help the truckmaker to expand, he added. AB Volvo owns 45 percent of Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles, one of China’s largest truck makers, and also has a significant construction equipment business in China. The value of the investment amounted to around 27.2 billion Swedish crowns ($3.26 billion), a Reuters calculation showed, although Geely and Cevian did not disclose the exact value of the transaction in their statement on Wednesday. The deal makes Geely the biggest individual shareholder in AB Volvo and second ranked in terms of voting rights behind Swedish investment firm Industrivarden ( INDUa.ST ). SHARES RISE Volvo’s B shares traded 0.8 percent higher for the day at 0935 GMT, while Industrivarden’s shares were flat. Volvo shares have gained more than 50 percent this year as it and rivals in the truck industry such as Germany’s Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) and Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) hit a sweet spot thanks to robust demand in major markets. Cevian, which has held shares in Volvo since 2006, this year called for a break-up, suggesting the smaller Volvo Construction Equipment and engine and technology firm Volvo Penta should be separated from the main truck making business. As well as Volvo cars which it acquired in 2010, Geely also owns the company that makes London’s black cabs and sports carmaker Lotus. In a sign of its ambitions, the Chinese company last month offered to take a stake of up to 5 percent in Daimler via a discounted share placement but was rebuffed, according to sources with knowledge of the talks. In the latest deal, Geely will acquire 88.5 million A shares and 78.8 million B shares to give it 15.6 percent of Volvo voting rights. Industrivarden owns mostly A shares and controls 22.8 percent of the votes. Nomura International Plc and Barclays Capital Securities Limited have agreed to acquire Cevian Capital’s shares, and will sell them to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group when the necessary regulatory approvals have been obtained, the companies said. Writing by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volvo-geely/chinas-geely-takes-8-2-percent-stake-in-swedish-truck-maker-volvo-idUKKBN1EL0F2'|'2017-12-27T09:53:00.000+02:00'
'e6ac4e19eee95fc224dbb397a6a600314a108d0b'|'Ex-lawyer for pharma exec Shkreli convicted of aiding fraud scheme'|'December 27, 2017 / 8:24 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago Ex-lawyer for pharma exec Shkreli convicted of aiding fraud scheme Jan Wolfe , Nate Raymond 2 Min Read (Reuters) - A New York corporate lawyer who once advised Martin Shkreli was convicted on Wednesday of charges he helped the former pharmaceutical executive steal millions of dollars from a drug company to pay back investors in two failed hedge funds. Evan Greebel, who was outside counsel to Shkreli’s former company Retrophin Inc ( RTRX.O ), was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn of charges that he conspired to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, the U.S. government said. “We are shocked by the verdict,” said Reed Brodsky, a lawyer for Greebel. “We will continue to fight for justice for Evan Greebel and his family.” Greebel, 44, was a partner at the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman when he was working for Retrophin. He later joined the firm Kaye Scholer, but resigned after his arrest in December 2015. Shkreli, 34, became notorious in 2015 when he raised the price of anti-parasitic drug Daraprim to $750 a pill, from $13.50, as chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals. The price hike is not related to the criminal case. The charges he and Greebel faced related to Shkreli’s management of his previous drug company, Retrophin, and of two hedge funds, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare, from 2009 to 2014. A jury in August found Shkreli guilty of defrauding MSMB investors, but not guilty of conspiring with Greebel to steal from Retrophin. In September, following his conviction, Shkreli was jailed after he placed a $5,000 bounty on former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s hair, prompting U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to revoke his bail. According to prosecutors, Greebel faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the wire fraud count. Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Nate Raymond; Editing by Frances Kerry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-crime-shkreli-greebel/ex-lawyer-for-pharma-exec-shkreli-convicted-of-aiding-fraud-scheme-idUKKBN1EL1ME'|'2017-12-27T22:24:00.000+02:00'
'f3fc5ec56142ab9b02e07e5724741a95b0ac31df'|'Samsung scion denies corruption charges as legal appeal nears end'|' 23 AM / Updated an hour ago Samsung scion denies corruption charges as legal appeal nears end Joyce Lee 3 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - The heir to South Korea’s Samsung Group, convicted of bribing the country’s former president, on Wednesday denied allegations of wrongdoing as the appeals trial of his five-year jail term for corruption neared its end. FILE PHOTO: Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman, Jay Y. Lee, arrives at a court in Seoul, South Korea, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji Jay Y. Lee, the 49-year-old heir to one   corporate empires, has been detained since February and was convicted by a lower court in August of bribing Park Geun-hye, who was dismissed as South Korea’s president in March. The court decided the bribe helped Lee strengthen his control of Samsung Electronics, the crown jewel in the conglomerate and one of the world’s top technology firms. Lee, looking relaxed in a dark suit and white shirt without tie at the ongoing appeals hearing, denied this charge and also denied recent allegations that he had met Park one-on-one four times, instead of the previously disclosed three times. The Seoul High Court is expected to rule on the appeal in late January. Whichever side loses could take the case to the Supreme Court, the final court of appeal in South Korea. The lower court in August had ruled that while Lee never asked for Park’s help directly, the fact that a 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates did help cement Lee’s control over Samsung Electronics “implied” he was asking for the president’s help to strengthen his control of the firm. His lawyers have strongly challenged this logic since appeals hearings began in October. Faced with investor worries of a leadership vacuum as Lee remains detained, Samsung appointed a new generation of top managers at its three main businesses including semiconductors in October. Lee has been widely expected to follow in his father, Lee Kun-hee‘s, footsteps in the future. Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of the group, has been hospitalized since 2014. Answering a prosecutor’s question about his future as Samsung heir, Lee said: “I had been privately thinking that Chairman Lee Kun-hee will be the final person to have the title of Samsung Group chairman.” “I have often said that I want to be a businessman who is recognized for capability, not just for being someone’s son, or for having a lot of shares.” Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-lee/samsung-scion-denies-corruption-charges-as-legal-appeal-nears-end-idINKBN1EL08H'|'2017-12-27T07:12:00.000+02:00'
'7ec38561f306244316b2bae2e576e4a4c98066b1'|'Barclays expects $1.3 billion write-down from U.S. tax reform'|'Reuters TV United States December 27, 2017 / 9:34 AM / Updated 16 minutes ago Barclays expects $1.3 billion write-down from U.S. tax reform Ben Martin 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays expects to take a write-down of about 1 billion pounds ($1.34 billion) on its annual post-tax profit as a result of the U.S. tax overhaul, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Barclays bank is seen on glass lamps outside of a branch of the bank in the City of London financial district in London September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville /File Photo The British lender will also see its common equity Tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of its financial strength, fall by about 20 basis points as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax reform, it said. The impact of the tax legislation will be accounted for in its results for the year to the end of December 2017. Reporting by Ben Martin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-barclays-tax/barclays-expects-1-3-billion-write-down-from-u-s-tax-reform-idUKKBN1EL0L5'|'2017-12-27T11:29:00.000+02:00'
'6ef13efe6b58bcaaaf3d13bb15f3233098b9e183'|'Russia''s Rosneft, in U-turn, plans to bid for Alrosa''s gas assets'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft said it had asked the country’s competition watchdog for permission to bid for gas fields put up for sale by diamond miner Alrosa, a day after saying it was unlikely to take part in the auction.File Photo: The logo of Russia''s oil producer Rosneft is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin “Rosneft has filed a request to FAS (the Federal Anti-Monopoly service) for the purchase of Alrosa’s gas assets,” Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said on Friday.The move represents a U-turn for Rosneft, which said on Thursday it was unlikely to participate. The company had said the conditions were not transparent enough and did not give potential buyers enough time to prepare their bids.The company did not explain the reason for the change of heart. Leontyev told Reuters the company still does not agree with the auction’s conditions.Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, plans to sell its gas assets in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets region in an auction on Feb. 19 with a starting price of 30 billion rubles ($519 million).Any potential deal at the auction is subject to the Anti-Monopoly Service’s approval. The Anti-Monopoly Service said it had yet to receive any requests from Rosneft.Russia will mark New Year holidays from Jan. 1 to 8. Under the terms of the auction, a 21-billion-ruble deposit must be paid by Jan. 10.Rosneft has said that the number of remaining working days did not leave enough time to make a decision and submit the deposit.Russia’s top non-state gas producer Novatek has said it is interested in buying Alrosa’s gas fields. The Finance Ministry has said that seven bidders were expected to take part in the auction.Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Andrey Kuzmin; writing by Polina Devitt; editing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-russia-alrosa-rosneft-oil-assets/russias-rosneft-to-bid-for-alrosas-gas-fields-idINKBN1EN16E'|'2017-12-29T11:09:00.000+02:00'
'23299f134a20eafc74585e8b58c06c2d7b21e8e6'|'Bitcoin rises 10 percent, recovers from last week''s brutal selloff'|'Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Pope calls for two-state solution in Israel conflict Reuters TV United States  32 AM / a few seconds ago Bitcoin rises 10 percent, recovers from last week''s brutal selloff   SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Bitcoin extended its recovery in holiday-thinned trading on Tuesday, rising 10 percent to be up more than a third from last week’s lows below $12,000. FILE PHOTO: Broken representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency, placed on a monitor that displays binary digits, are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Bitcoin, the world''s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, fell nearly 30 percent at one stage on Friday to $11,159.93 BTC=BTSP and, despite a late recovery, had its worst week since 2013. At 0445 GMT, it was quoted around $15,049 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. The biggest and best-known cryptocurrency has risen around twentyfold since the start of the year, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,666 on Dec. 17 on Bitstamp and to over $20,000 on other exchanges. While bitcoin investors and analysts believe the decline in its value was a natural correction after a heady run-up in prices, there have been further warnings from market regulators and central banks. Reporting by Lisa Twaronite and Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-bitcoin/bitcoin-rises-10-percent-recovers-from-last-weeks-brutal-selloff-idUKKBN1EK0AJ'|'2017-12-26T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'2970fa0595eb2d1adc9d209deb80d1115ac8b6dd'|'HNA is long-term investor in Deutsche Bank, HNA representative says'|'December 27, 2017 / 8:28 AM / Updated 34 minutes ago HNA is long-term investor in Deutsche Bank, HNA representative says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - HNA Group is a long-term investor in Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ), the Chinese conglomerate’s representative on the bank’s board told a German newspaper. The head quarters of Germany''s largest business bank, Deutsche Bank, is photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach “Deutsche Bank is a core, high-prestige investment for HNA,” Alexander Schuetz, said in an interview published in Wednesday’s Handelsblatt. Schuetz sought to dismiss any lingering speculation that HNA would sell its stake in the German lender, which is just under 10 percent and valued at around 3.3 billion euros (2.91 billion pounds). “We want to show that this is totally wrong,” he was quoted as saying. HNA’s $50 billion worth of deal-making over the past two years has sparked intense scrutiny of its opaque ownership and use of leverage. In the interview, Schuetz pointed to a new financing structure with derivatives -- with a three-year maturity - that insure against a drop in the bank’s share price. “This shows that HNA is focussed on the long-term and has no interest in a sale,” Schuetz said. Pressure on HNA’s finances has risen after the Chinese government told major banks in June to review their credit exposure to HNA and a handful of other non-state companies. However, an HNA executive told Reuters this month that the group was not facing a liquidity crisis and characterised high profile investments in Deutsche and hotels group Hilton ( HLT.N ) as successful. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-bank-hna/hna-is-long-term-investor-in-deutsche-bank-hna-representative-says-idUKKBN1EL0HM'|'2017-12-27T10:28:00.000+02:00'
'b5528d3edb48b34c9883140387b06a8ce634f33f'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 27'|'December 27, 2017 / 5:33 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 27 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 27 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc said it planned to take a majority stake in a midsize Indonesian bank in a deal likely to top $4 billion. on.wsj.com/2l18g4f - Elon Musk teased details for a pickup truck in comments posted Tuesday on Twitter saying the truck would come after the electric-car maker Tesla Inc releases a new compact sport-utility vehicle, which could hit the road as soon as 2019. on.wsj.com/2l194Gj - Three U.S. cities filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to force the Pentagon to properly report dishonorable discharges to a federal gun background-check system after a court-martialed Air Force veteran killed 26 people in a Texas church last month. on.wsj.com/2l4PgSg (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-27-idUSL4N1OR1QX'|'2017-12-27T07:32:00.000+02:00'
'03eb89d08caf20fb3a1b5f08d58ec4179c2a26e7'|'SoftBank tender for Uber stake succeeds - WSJ'|'December 28, 2017 / 6:11 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago SoftBank tender for Uber stake succeeds at discounted price: WSJ Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Reuters) - A consortium led by SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) will buy a more than 15 percent stake in Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] after existing investors in the ride services company agreed to sell shares at a price that values the startup at $48 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - The Uber logo is seen on a screen in Singapore August 4, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Picture The price is at a 30 percent discount to the most recent valuation of $68 billion, but changes the way the board oversees the company, which is dealing with sexual harassment allegations, federal criminal probes and other issues. Uber and SoftBank declined to comment on results of the tender, which expired at noon (2000 GMT) on Thursday. The companies said they would issue a statement on the outcome of the tender offer later on Thursday. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the tender was expected to be successful. SoftBank’s investment is a sign of support from an influential investor for new Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi. It will trigger governance changes including expanding Uber’s board from 11 to 17 members, limiting some early shareholders’ voting power and cutting the control wielded by former chief executive Travis Kalanick. The SoftBank consortium had agreed to buy at least an additional $1 billion of new stock at the older, higher valuation if it went ahead with the tender, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters in November. Uber investors and employees tendered shares equal to about 20 percent of the company, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. SoftBank probably will limit its purchase in the tender offer to 15 percent of Uber, and other members of its group are likely to buy additional shares. Rajeev Misra, chief executive of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, a tech investment vehicle, will be nominated to the Uber board, the Journal reported. A second member of SoftBank is expected to join the board as part of the terms of the deal. “The stockholders did the smart thing. The price is less important than locking in the governance changes and securing the support of the world’s most powerful technology investor,” said Erik Gordon an entrepreneurship expert at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “If the stockholders hadn’t taken the price, the value of the company would have been battered by a return to stockholder infighting and the possibility of Kalanick’s return,” he said. Uber’s legal tangles include a lawsuit by Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) self-driving car unit Waymo that alleges trade-secrets theft and federal investigations that span possible bribery of foreign officials in Asian countries and the use of software to evade regulators. A former employee’s charges of endemic sexual harassment led to an internal review, London has said it is stripping Uber of its license and recently Uber announced it had covered up a major hack. In June, Kalanick was forced to step down, although he remains on the board and maintains one of the largest stakes. Reporting by Heather Somerville and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco. Additional reporting by by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru. Writing by Peter Henderson; Editing by Anil D''Silva, Richard Chang and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uber-softbank-tender/softbank-succeeds-in-tender-offer-for-large-stake-in-uber-wsj-idUKKBN1EM1NB'|'2017-12-28T20:37:00.000+02:00'
'a7c2450bde636896f2f29fddb91b90a17891e7ec'|'U.S. jobless claims steady in latest week'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week and the underlying trend remained consistent with a tightening labor market.U.S. workers filed 245,000 initial claims for state unemployment benefits during the week that ended Dec. 23, according to seasonally adjusted figures published by the Labor Department on Thursday. Data for the prior week was unrevized.Since mid-October, claims have been confined to a range of 223,000 to 252,000.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims edging down to 240,000 in the latest week. Last week marked the 147th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller.The labor market is widely seen as near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Labor market tightness and a strengthening economy encouraged the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates earlier this month for a third time this year. The U.S. central bank has forecast three rate hikes for 2018.The economy added 228,000 jobs in November, well above the roughly 100,000 jobs per month needed to keep up with growth in the working-age population.The Labor Department said claims-taking procedures continued to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria battered the islands. The processing of claims in Puerto Rico was still not back to normal.Last week, the four-week moving average of initial claims, which is seen as a measure of labor market trends because it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 1,750 to 237,750.The claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid increased 7,000 to 1.94 million in the week ended Dec. 16. The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims fell 4,250 to 1.92 million.Reporting by Jason LangeEditing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-jobless-claims-steady-in-latest-week-idUSKBN1EM17W'|'2017-12-28T15:33:00.000+02:00'
'6704361216962f76be5951f683adf738102ece58'|'Moody''s downgrades Steinhoff deeper into junk on default fears'|'JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Ratings agency Moody’s on Thursday downgraded Steinhoff’s debt deeper into “junk” territory and warned further downgrades could follow due to mounting cash flow problems at the South African retail group.A Moody''s sign on the 7 World Trade Center tower is photographed in New York August 2, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Files The company, majority owned by tycoon Christo Wiese, is fighting for survival following its disclosure of accounting irregularities that has wiped more than $12 billion off its market value.The owner of European and U.S. brands such as Mattress Firm, Conforama and Poundland told investors this month it was losing credit lines from lenders over the scandal that has seen veteran CEO Markus Jooste quit and the company come under scrutiny from local and overseas regulators.Moody‘s, which had already downgraded Steinhoff’s credit rating earlier this month, said in a statement the new rating reflected a “substantial risk” of default.The agency cut its rating for Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. to Caa1, seven notches into junk.“Steinhoff’s CFR (Corporate Family Ratings) and Moody’s review of its CFR for further downgrade reflect the increasing pressure on the company’s liquidity profile,” Moody’s said.“The situation has been compounded by its operating companies placing an additional liquidity burden on Steinhoff’s centralized treasury function to fund their working capital needs.”Steinhoff has $2 billion of term loans maturing between 2018 and 2020, and the interest rate payable on the loans is expected to soar to around 250 to 280 basis points above the benchmark lending rate of European banks following the downgrades.Steinhoff has been on shopping spree since 2011 when it took over French furniture retailer Conforama. Last year’s string of acquisitions included Mattress Firm and Poundland, thrusting it firmly on to investors’ radar screens.The company has yet to explain in full what the “accounting irregularities” entail, but has said it is considering raising around 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) from the sale of non-core assets and the proceeds of debt repayments from African unit Steinhoff Africa Retail.($1 = 0.8383 euros)Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/steinhoff-intlnl-moody-s/moodys-downgrades-steinhoff-deeper-into-junk-on-default-fears-idINKBN1EM14L'|'2017-12-28T14:42:00.000+02:00'
'b3643844f77f23ddd316266c8ab17282a4b3e936'|'Swiss court - Czechs can seek return of funds in MUS coal mine privatisation'|'December 29, 2017 / 4:05 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Swiss court - Czechs can seek return of funds in MUS coal mine privatisation John Miller 4 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - The Czech Republic can seek hundreds of millions in funds seized by Swiss authorities from bank accounts linked to the disputed privatisation of one of the nation’s coal mines two decades ago, Switzerland’s highest court said on Friday. FILE PHOTO - A lignite mine owned by major Czech miner Czech Coal, formerly known as Mostecka Uhelna Spolecnost (MUS), is seen near the city of Most, 100km (62 miles) north-west of Prague, May 13, 2013. REUTERS/Petr Josek The sale of lignite miner Mostecka Uhelna Spolecnost (MUS) became one of the biggest Czech post-communist privatisation scandals, among a string of murky disposals of state-owned companies. Five executives convicted of money laundering and fraud in the case had been accused of using a web of Swiss bank accounts to launder cash linked to the deal. Prosecutors said they used the mining company’s own money to buy its stock before buying the remaining stake cheaply from the Czech government. Swiss authorities seized more than 660 million Swiss francs (£500.5 million), giving them jurisdiction over the case that delivered its verdicts in 2013. The Czech Republic had originally been excluded by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court from intervening as a private party after missing judicial filing deadlines relating to the case, despite saying it had been damaged by the MUS deal. The Swiss Federal Tribunal on Friday directed the Swiss criminal court to now take up the Czech claims. “The Czech Republic should have been allowed to intervene because it had made a claim as a damaged party that it was entitled to be reimbursed money that had been seized,” the tribunal’s judges wrote. On Friday, Prague said it would review the Swiss judgement to evaluate its next steps. “The Czech Republic succeeded at the Swiss Supreme Court with its complaint and will be admitted ... as a damaged party,” the Czech Finance Ministry said in a statement. “The Czech Republic will therefore claim damages in the dispute.” The tribunal, in Lausanne, also said its judges had rejected most of the appeals lodged by the five former MUS managers seeking to challenge their convictions four years ago in which they received prison sentences of 36 months to 52 months and financial penalties. It did direct the lower Federal Criminal Court to reconsider its fraud conviction of a former International Monetary Fund official, Jacques de Groote, a Belgian financier. He was accused of being enlisted by the managers to convince the Czech Republic that their stake in MUS belonged to a foreign investor, in order to convince the country to sell them the rest of the company. De Groote, now 90, was originally found guilty of helping the five Czech managers of MUS illegally gain control of the state-controlled company between 1997 and 2003. He was fined. The defendants said they had done nothing illegal. On Friday, the tribunal said the lower criminal court must reconsider if de Groote, who served at the IMF from the 1970s to 1990s, had acted intentionally in the privatisation scheme. De Groote could not immediately be reached for comment on the ruling through his lawyer on Friday. MUS now has different owners, with its name changed to Czech Coal and Severni Energeticka. Reporting by John Miller in Zurich, Jason Hovet in Prague and Julia Fioretti in Brussels; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss-czech-coal-mine-damages/swiss-court-czechs-can-seek-return-of-funds-in-mus-coal-mine-privatisation-idUKKBN1EN1DN'|'2017-12-29T18:04:00.000+02:00'
'775300290e60dee2fe5d5fcfca88f1aeab25252c'|'Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions'|'December 29, 2017 / 10:58 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Adds Rosneft, Alrosa; Updates Glencore) Dec 29 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1430 GMT on Friday: ** Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft has filed a request to Russia’s Anti-Monopoly Service for permission to take part in a gas field auction organised by Russian diamond producer Alrosa, Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said. ** Swiss-based trading and mining giant Glencore Plc has partly completed the sale of a 51 percent stake in its storage and logistics businesses to a unit of China’s HNA Group, although transfer of some assets is pending U.S. clearance. ** Oil and gas producer SandRidge Energy backed out from its plan to buy smaller rival Bonanza Creek Energy , giving in to pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn and other shareholders. ** Britain’s Balfour Beatty said it has agreed to sell a further 7.5 percent stake in Connect Plus, the operator of London’s M25 orbital motorway for 62 million pounds ($83.5 million) in cash, a week after it announced the sale of a 12.5 percent stake. ** Debt-laden Reliance Communications has signed a deal to sell its wireless assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm for a total value of nearly 240 billion rupees ($3.75 billion), two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. ** Australian casino operator Crown Resorts said it has agreed to sell its 62 percent stake in online betting firm CrownBet to a consortium including the unit’s chief executive for A$150 million ($117 million). ** Specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals manufacturer Aarti Industries Ltd signed a supply contract with a U.S. affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) worth 100 billion rupees ($1.56 billion). (Compiled by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/deals-day/deals-of-the-day-mergers-and-acquisitions-idUSL4N1OT31I'|'2017-12-29T16:34:00.000+02:00'
'533edb1dc693df198f0dbca27ec00f53e71693f6'|'U.S. oil prices hit highest since mid-2015 on surprise output drop'|'December 29, 2017 / 2:17 AM / Updated 2 hours ago U.S. oil prices hit highest since mid-2015 on surprise output drop Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices hit their highest levels since mid-2015 on the final trading day of the year as an unexpected fall in American production and a fall in commercial crude inventories stoked buying. FILE PHOTO: A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo In international markets, Brent crude oil futures also rose, supported by ongoing supply cuts by top producers OPEC and Russia as well as strong demand from China. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $60.30 a barrel at 0504 GMT, up 46 cents or 0.8 percent from their last close, the highest since June 2015. Brent crude futures - the international benchmark - were also up, rising 45 cents or 0.7 percent to $66.61 a barrel. Brent broke through $67 earlier this week for the first time since May 2015. Since the start of the year, Brent and WTI have risen by 17 and 12 percent, respectively, although the price rises from mid-2017 are much stronger, at nearly 50 percent. Friday’s WTI price rises were driven by a surprise drop in U.S. oil production, which last week dipped to 9.754 million barrels per day (bpd), down from 9.789 million bpd the previous week, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released late on Thursday. U.S. output is still up by almost 16 percent since mid-2016, but most analysts had expected production to break through 10 million bpd by the end of this year - a level only surpassed by top exporter Saudi Arabia and top producer Russia. WTI prices were further boosted by a fall in U.S. commercial crude storage levels, which dropped by 4.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 22 to 431.9 million barrels, according to the EIA. Inventories are now down by almost 20 percent from their historic highs last March, and well below this time last year or in 2015. A YEAR OF CUTS In international markets, China has issued crude oil import quotas totaling 121.32 million tonnes for 44 companies in its first batch of allowances for 2018. Based on total expected quotas, China’s imports - which at around 8.5 million bpd are already the world’s biggest - are expected to hit another record in 2018 as new refining capacity is brought online and Beijing allows more independent refiners to import crude. On the supply side, Brent prices have been supported by a year of production cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. The cuts started last January and are scheduled to cover all of 2018. Pipeline outages in Libya and the North Sea have also been supporting oil prices, although both these disruptions are expected to be resolved by early January. Consultancy JBC Energy said the Libyan pipeline outages had “no major impact on exports”. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-climb-to-highest-since-mid-2015-on-surprise-output-drop-idUKKBN1EN05I'|'2017-12-29T07:27:00.000+02:00'
'e3dd497802887117b9ee69512f30797871c860d6'|'With lineup widening, Apple depends less on iPhone X'|'December 28, 2017 / 8:35 PM / Updated 44 minutes ago With lineup widening, Apple depends less on iPhone X Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In years past, demand for Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) latest flagship phone was critical to the company’s results over the holiday shopping quarter. File Photo - The new iPhone X is pictured at the Apple Store Marche Saint-Germain in Paris, France, November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Files That dynamic might be changing, however, as Apple’s widening lineup of devices and services more than makes up for any tepidness in demand this quarter for its lead product, the $999 iPhone X. On Tuesday, Apple’s stock fell 2.5 percent to $170.57 after Taiwan’s Economic Daily and several analysts suggested iPhone X sales in the fiscal first quarter would be 30 million units, 20 million fewer than initially planned by the company. The cut in the forecast was not confirmed, and the stock regained ground on Thursday, hitting $171.82 by midday. The mean revenue estimate for the holiday quarter among 30 analysts remains at $86.2 billion, near the high end of Apple’s forecast of $84 billion to $87 billion. Apple declined to comment. Part of the support for Apple may reflect a change in its business strategy. Releasing two new models and keeping older ones have made Apple less dependent on its flagship product. Apple shareholder Ross Gerber, chief executive of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management in Santa Monica, California, said the higher price and better margins on the iPhone X will reduce fears of a sales decline. FILE PHOTO - A woman is reflected in a Apple store logo in San Francisco, California, U.S., August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs “We know that Apple’s strategy was different this quarter by releasing two phones, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X, and I think combined sales will be in line with what people expect,” Gerber said. Apple also has fattened its portfolio of accessories and other devices, from its AirPods wireless headphones to a new Apple Watch with cellular data features. While none is a runaway hit, collectively they are an important contributor, with Apple’s “other products” segment growing 16 percent to $12.8 billion last year. Customers who buy those add-ons are also likely to buy services from the App Store and Apple Music, part of Apple’s services segment, which grew 23 percent to $29.9 billion last year. “Ultimately, it will be this multi-device ownership” that will generate further revenue, said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Creative Strategies. IPhone X sales still matter. Each unit generates nearly twice the revenue of an iPhone 7 and contains technologies like facial recognition that burnish Apple’s brand. Bob O‘Donnell of TECHnalysis Research, said “hit products” still represent “an enormous amount of the company’s overall value.” “Will it take hold in the mainstream? That’s the question that still remains,” he said. Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Peter Henderson and Steve Orlofsky'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-iphone/with-lineup-widening-apple-depends-less-on-iphone-x-idUKKBN1EM1TV'|'2017-12-28T22:34:00.000+02:00'
'8b6816834ed8e7d674a0a883df96a45eaf66e8d1'|'IAG is remaining bidder for insolvent airline Niki: source'|'December 28, 2017 / 1:45 PM / Updated 7 hours ago IAG is remaining bidder for insolvent airline Niki: source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - British Airways owner IAG ( ICAG.L ) is negotiating exclusively with Niki’s insolvency administrator to take over the collapsed Austrian airline, a source close to the process said on Thursday. “IAG is the last remaining bidder and is still negotiating now,” the person said, adding that the company had put in the highest offer - a double-digit million-euro amount. Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Tom Sims'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-niki-iag/iag-is-remaining-bidder-for-insolvent-airline-niki-source-idUSKBN1EM18H'|'2017-12-28T15:44:00.000+02:00'
'aa1091741d08ce442e34790b2b8606feb8341d7e'|'SoftBank succeeds in tender offer for large stake in Uber: WSJ'|'December 28, 2017 / 6:11 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago SoftBank tender for Uber stake succeeds at discounted price: WSJ Reuters Staff 4 Min Read (Reuters) - A consortium led by SoftBank Group Corp ( 9984.T ) will buy a more than 15 percent stake in Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] after existing investors in the ride services company agreed to sell shares at a price that values the startup at $48 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The price is at a 30 percent discount to the most recent valuation of $68 billion, but changes the way the board oversees the company, which is dealing with sexual harassment allegations, federal criminal probes and other issues. Uber and SoftBank declined to comment on results of the tender, which expired at noon (2000 GMT) on Thursday. The companies said they would issue a statement on the outcome of the tender offer later on Thursday. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the tender was expected to be successful. SoftBank’s investment is a sign of support from an influential investor for new Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi. It will trigger governance changes including expanding Uber’s board from 11 to 17 members, limiting some early shareholders’ voting power and cutting the control wielded by former chief executive Travis Kalanick. The SoftBank consortium had agreed to buy at least an additional $1 billion of new stock at the older, higher valuation if it went ahead with the tender, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters in November. Uber investors and employees tendered shares equal to about 20 percent of the company, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. SoftBank probably will limit its purchase in the tender offer to 15 percent of Uber, and other members of its group are likely to buy additional shares. Rajeev Misra, chief executive of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, a tech investment vehicle, will be nominated to the Uber board, the Journal reported. A second member of SoftBank is expected to join the board as part of the terms of the deal. “The stockholders did the smart thing. The price is less important than locking in the governance changes and securing the support of the world’s most powerful technology investor,” said Erik Gordon an entrepreneurship expert at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “If the stockholders hadn’t taken the price, the value of the company would have been battered by a return to stockholder infighting and the possibility of Kalanick’s return,” he said. Uber’s legal tangles include a lawsuit by Alphabet Inc’s ( GOOGL.O ) self-driving car unit Waymo that alleges trade-secrets theft and federal investigations that span possible bribery of foreign officials in Asian countries and the use of software to evade regulators. A former employee’s charges of endemic sexual harassment led to an internal review, London has said it is stripping Uber of its license and recently Uber announced it had covered up a major hack. In June, Kalanick was forced to step down, although he remains on the board and maintains one of the largest stakes. Reporting by Heather Somerville and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco. Additional reporting by by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru. Writing by Peter Henderson; Editing by Anil D''Silva, Richard Chang and Susan Thomas'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-softbank-tender/softbank-succeeds-in-tender-offer-for-large-stake-in-uber-wsj-idUSKBN1EM1NB'|'2017-12-28T20:10:00.000+02:00'
'16c6f42fc2486b8381def573a341695ccfb465e0'|'Raytheon wins $634 mln U.S. defense contract -Pentagon'|'December 28, 2017 / 10:18 PM / in 20 minutes Raytheon wins $634 mln U.S. defense contract -Pentagon Reuters Staff 1 Min Read WASHINGTON, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Raytheon Co has been awarded a $634 million contract for Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, the Pentagon said on Thursday. It said the contract involves sales to Japan, South Korea, Morocco, Poland, Indonesia, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Bahrain and Qatar. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/raytheon-pentagon/raytheon-wins-634-mln-u-s-defense-contract-pentagon-idUSW1N1NS029'|'2017-12-29T00:14:00.000+02:00'
'46e652c88dfeb8cd5d41f5c76c23aedc3a9bbf83'|'SandRidge Energy terminates Bonanza Creek deal'|'(Reuters) - Oil and gas producer SandRidge Energy ( SD.N ) on Thursday backed out from its plan to buy smaller rival Bonanza Creek Energy ( BCEI.N ), giving in to pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn and other shareholders.Oklahoma-based SandRidge, which emerged from bankruptcy last year, had said in November that it would pay $746 million for Bonanza Creek to expand its presence in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado.Icahn, who is the single largest shareholder with a 13.5 percent stake, had called the offer “value-destroying” and said it provides “no obvious synergies nor economies of scale”.Private investment firm Fir Tree Partners, which owns about 8.3 percent, had said the purchase would drain all of the oil and gas producer’s cash.After talking to its top shareholders, SandRidge board on Thursday concluded that it would not receive approval for the transaction.As part of the mutual termination agreement, Bonanza will receive up to $3.7 million for transaction related expenses, SandRidge said.Shares of SandRidge were up 1.9 percent, while Bonanza Creek were down 1.8 percent in after market trading.Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bonanz-creek-egy-m-a-sandridge/sandridge-energy-terminates-bonanza-creek-deal-idUSKBN1EM1YT'|'2017-12-29T00:12:00.000+02:00'
'3b5907a49356cf846fdc18d9ad58353f07d5f33c'|'Mitsubishi Materials says push for market share led to data falsification'|'December 28, 2017 / 4:15 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Mitsubishi Materials says push for market share led to data falsification Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Materials Corp ( 5711.T ) said on Thursday that a push to expand market share had driven a subsidiary to fake product specification, one of several compliance scandals that have come to light this year in a blow to the reputation of Japan Inc. Mitsubishi Materials Corp. President Akira Takeuchi bows with Executive Vice President Naoki Ono , Mitsubishi Shindoh Co. President Kazumasa Hori and Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd. President Nobuhiro Takayanagi during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Mitsubishi Materials said in November that its subsidiaries falsified data about products, including parts for aircraft and automobiles. Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co ( 9503.T ) said earlier this month that two of its nuclear plants used parts with possibly falsified data supplied by Mitsubishi Cable Industries, one of the units. Mitsubishi Materials said a committee looking into the case had found that Mitsubishi Shindoh, which was late to enter the market for metal products used in device connectors for cars, had taken orders even when they could not meet customers’ product specification. It also cited an urge to approve products to prevent losses, and a lack of awareness about compliance and quality assurance among its staff. Other companies that have admitted to product data falsification including Kobe Steel ( 5406.T ) and Toray Industries ( 3402.T ) have also blamed a focus on profit, lax quality controls and staffing shortages. Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mitsubishi-ma-scandal/mitsubishi-materials-says-push-for-market-share-led-to-data-falsification-idUKKBN1EM0AO'|'2017-12-28T06:14:00.000+02:00'
'fee6000263250049179738816cae8c776bc028ee'|'Dubai-based private equity business launches $250 million healthcare fund'|'DUBAI (Reuters) - TVM Capital Healthcare Partners, a Dubai-based private equity business, has launched a $250 million fund to invest in areas ranging from cancer to pharmaceuticals in markets including the Gulf, Turkey, Egypt, India and Singapore, a senior executive told Reuters.The company plans to make the investments over the next two years, with the first deal scheduled to close in the second half of 2018, said Charles Floe, operating partner.TVM Capital Healthcare has targeted markets it thinks offer accelerated growth in healthcare development and spending, underpinned by some of the fastest growing economies.“We think this is a fantastic time to invest as over the next four to six years we see the macro environment for healthcare in our chosen target markets as very positive and with relative stability in regulations and geopolitics, the opportunities we see in the healthcare industry will play themselves out,” he said.TVM Capital Healthcare has to date led investments close to $150 million, mainly in the Gulf, in areas including long-term care, rehabilitation, home care, fertility treatment and medical devices.The new fund will aim to deploy the capital, which it plans to raise from global and regional investors, through 10 to 12 investments in areas including cancer, mental health, metabolic diseases, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and laboratories, said Floe.Reporting By Tom Arnold; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/privateequity-healthcare/dubai-based-private-equity-business-launches-250-million-healthcare-fund-idINKBN1EM0J4'|'2017-12-28T09:42:00.000+02:00'
'dfbfc5d5c0436b456a1f04cbb889a87e8e20ec01'|'Commodities boost European stocks while chipmakers tumble on iPhone demand scare'|'December 27, 2017 / 8:35 AM / Updated 29 minutes ago Commodities boost European stocks while chipmakers tumble on iPhone demand scare Reuters Staff 3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Strength in commodities boosted European benchmarks though tech stocks fell on Wednesday as the region emerged from a two-day trading holiday and investors reacted to reports demand for Apple’s new iPhone X was weaker than expected. FILE PHOTO - The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.2 percent, buoyed by strong mining and oil stocks as metals and crude prices rallied. Euro zone blue-chips .STOXX50E traded 0.4 percent higher but the index was still slightly down on the month, set for its second straight month of losses. Commodities helped cement gains across the major benchmarks. Mining stocks rose after metals prices hit 3 1/2 year highs thanks to a strong outlook for growth from China. Oil majors also contributed to gains as crude prices stayed strong. But a tumble in chipmakers capped benchmark gains. Austria Microsystems ( AMS.S ), the best-performing European tech stock this year, sank 12 percent while Dialog Semiconductor ( DLGS.DE ) dropped 3.5 percent, the biggest falls on the STOXX. Tech was Europe’s worst-performing sector as the market followed a downturn in Asian iPhone suppliers after reports that demand for the new iPhone X has so far been weaker than expected. nL4N1OQ37C] Chipmakers Infineon ( IFXGn.DE ) and STMicro ( STM.PA ) fell 1 and 1.5 percent to the bottom of the German and French benchmarks. Silicon wafer maker Siltronic ( WAFGn.DE ) also features among top European fallers. German carmakers BMW ( BMWG.DE ) and Daimler ( DAIGn.DE ) gained 0.7 to 0.9 percent, rising to the top of Germany’s DAX. Both firms said late on Friday that the U.S. tax reform would boost 2017 profits to the tune of 1.55 billion and 1.7 billion euros respectively. Merger activity continued to spur big stock moves with British workspace company IWG ( IWG.L ) rocketing up 24 percent after it confirmed a bid approach from Canadian private equity firm Onex and Brookfield Asset Management. Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/commodities-boost-european-stocks-while-chipmakers-tumble-on-iphone-demand-scare-idUKKBN1EL0I9'|'2017-12-27T10:34:00.000+02:00'
'91021acea33b441080a6bc2527bfb26fe2109e7b'|'Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal - sources'|'December 27, 2017 / 1:36 PM / Updated 7 hours ago Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal - sources Tim Hepher 4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus ( AIR.PA ) is drawing up contingency plans to phase out production of the world’s largest jetliner, the A380 superjumbo, if it fails to win a key order from Dubai’s Emirates, three people familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates'' chairman and CEO (R), Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus (L), and Tim Clark President of Emirates Airlines, descend the steps of Airbus A380 during a delivery ceremony of Emirates'' 100th Airbus A380 at the German headquarters of aircraft company Airbus in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, November 3, 2017. Picture taken November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo The moment of truth for the slow-selling airliner looms after just 10 years in service and leaves one of Europe’s most visible international symbols hanging by a thread, despite a major airline investment in new cabins unveiled this month. “If there is no Emirates deal, Airbus will start the process of ending A380 production,” a person briefed on the plans said. A supplier added such a move was logical due to weak demand. Airbus and Emirates declined to comment. Airbus also declined to say how many people work on the project. Any shutdown is expected to be gradual, allowing Airbus to produce orders it has in hand, mainly from Emirates. It has enough orders to last until early next decade at current production rates, according to a Reuters analysis. The A380 was developed at a cost of 11 billion euros (£9.74 billion) to carry some 500 people and challenge the reign of the Boeing 747. But demand for these four-engined goliaths has fallen as airlines choose smaller twin-engined models, which are easier to fill and cheaper to maintain. Emirates, however, has been a strong believer in the A380 and is easily the largest customer with total orders of 142 aircraft, of which it has taken just over 100. Talks between Airbus and Emirates over a new order for 36 superjumbos worth $16 billion broke down at the Dubai Airshow last month. Negotiations are said to have resumed, but there are no visible signs that a deal is imminent. Although airlines such as British Airways have expressed interest in the A380, Airbus is reluctant to keep factories open without the certainty that a bulk Emirates order would provide. Emirates, for its part, wants a guarantee that Airbus will keep production going for a decade to protect its investment. Slideshow (5 Images) A decision to cancel would mark a rupture between Airbus and one of its largest customers and tie Emirates’ future growth to recent Boeing orders. European sources say that reflects growing American influence in the Gulf under President Donald Trump, but U.S. and UAE industry sources deny politics are involved. There are also potential hurdles to a deal over engine choices and after-sales support. SAFETY NET Yet if talks succeed, European sources say there is a glimmer of hope for the double-deck jet, which Airbus says will become more popular with airlines due to congestion. Singapore Airlines, which first introduced the A380 to passengers in 2007, showcased an $850 million cabin re-design this month and expressed confidence in the model’s future. Airbus hopes to use an Emirates order to stabilise output and establish a safety net from which to attract A380 sales to other carriers, but has ruled out trying to do this the other way round, industry sources said. As of the end of November, Airbus had won orders for 317 A380s and delivered 221, leaving 96 unfilled orders. But based on airlines’ intentions or finances, 47 of those are unlikely to be delivered, according to industry sources, which halves the number of jets in play. Airbus needs to sell at least another 30 to keep lines open for 10 years and possibly more to justify the price concessions likely to be demanded by any new buyers. To bridge the gap, Airbus plans to cut output to six a year beyond 2019, from 12 in 2018 and 8 in 2019, even if it means producing at a loss, Reuters recently reported. Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier confirmed this month Airbus was looking at cutting output to 6-7 a year. If Airbus does decide to wind down production, some believe Emirates will ask Airbus to deliver the remaining 41 it has on order and then keep most A380s in service as long as possible. Even so, some A380s are likely to be heading for scrap. Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-a380/airbus-ready-to-axe-a380-if-fails-to-win-emirates-deal-sources-idUKKBN1EL11G'|'2017-12-27T15:52:00.000+02:00'
'6c8737340ea7efa8e1a119c641d38af41d9c025b'|'Huawei''s China smartphone sales chief detained for suspected bribe-taking'|'December 27, 2017 / 12:53 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Huawei''s China smartphone sales chief detained for suspected bribe-taking Sijia Jiang 3 Min Read HONG KONG (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies HWT.UL, the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, said on Wednesday that Chinese police are conducting an investigation, after the China sales head of its smartphone unit was detained on suspicion of accepting bribes. FILE PHOTO: Journalists attend the presentation of the Huawei''s new smartphone in Paris, France May 7, 2014. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo Huawei, which in recent years has overtaken Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) and others to take the top share of China’s smartphone market but is now under pressure from fast-growing domestic rivals, declined to disclose details of the case. “The authorities are investigating the matter, and we defer to their discretion as to what can be disclosed,” the company said in e-mailed comments to Reuters when asked about the case. “We take our business ethics extremely seriously, and have zero tolerance for corrupt behavior.” It gave no further comment. In an internal memo to staff, however, Huawei said Teng Hongfei, the Greater China sales head for its consumer business division, had been detained for “the suspected crime of accepting bribes as a non-state functionary”. Reuters was unable to immediately reach Teng or a representative for comment. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked at Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ) and Nokia ( NOKIA.HE ) before joining Huawei in June 2014. Since then, Huawei has moved past Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi ( IPO-XMGP.HK ) and Lenovo Group ( 0992.HK ) to become China’s largest smartphone seller. But its top spot in the world’s biggest smartphone market has come under threat over the past year from competitors such as OPPO and Vivo, and its profits have suffered as a result. Huawei has a 22.3 percent share of China’s smartphone market, followed by OPPO at 21.6 percent, according to third-quarter data from industry tracker IDC. Founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former People’s Liberation Army officer, Huawei has more than 180,000 employees and has taken a number of high-profile actions in recent years to counter corruption. In January, Ren held a vow-taking ceremony with senior managers who swore not to engage in corruption, and in 2014 an internal inspection found 116 employees in violation of its anti-corruption policies. Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Edmund Klamann'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-corruption/huaweis-china-smartphone-sales-chief-detained-for-suspected-bribe-taking-idINKBN1EL0YY'|'2017-12-27T14:49:00.000+02:00'
'41d2132a533b8c0f1efc9b29a1bdca89c2bfad7f'|'PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 27'|'December 27, 2017 / 6:01 AM / in 13 minutes PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Dec 27 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 27 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - In the last months of his life, Steve Jobs authorized an Apple research team to develop a noninvasive glucose reader with technology that could potentially be incorporated into a wristwatch. nyti.ms/2l3lPQG - After employees at online media company Vox Media announced plans to form a union last month, German Lopez, a senior reporter at the company''s general news website Vox.com, posted a thread on Twitter that inspired a heated debate more than 1,000 comments in length. nyti.ms/2l3m126 Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-nyt/press-digest-new-york-times-business-news-dec-27-idUSL4N1OR1RV'|'2017-12-27T08:00:00.000+02:00'
'd5e95de285087d723b939ca997dd538b19ecb8ad'|'GRAPHIC-India challenges China as world''s biggest LPG importer'|'December 27, 2017 / 5:31 AM / in 8 minutes GRAPHIC-India challenges China as world''s biggest LPG importer Reuters Staff * India’s Dec. LPG imports top China’s for first time * China still biggest LPG importer over all of 2017 * U.S. grows LPG sales to India from small base By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE, Dec 27 (Reuters) - India is set to surpass China as the biggest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) this month as a drive to replace wood and animal dung fires for cooking boosts consumption. Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows LPG shipments to India will reach 2.4 million tonnes in December, pushing it ahead of top importer China, on 2.3 million tonnes, for the first time. India’s LPG purchases have surged from just 1 million tonnes a month in early 2015 on the back of a government programme to bring energy to millions of poor households relying on open fires. “The growth in India is amazing. The fact that they have grown from 140 million subsidized household connections in 2015 to 181 million now is very impressive,” Ted Young, chief financial officer at Dorian LPG told Reuters. With a fleet of 22 tankers, U.S.-based Dorian is one of the world’s biggest LPG shippers. LPG, a mixture of propane and butane, is used for cooking and transport, as well as in the petrochemical industry. The global market is similar in size to liquefied natural gas (LNG), at around 300 million tonnes traded a year, although both are dwarfed by the market for crude oil, which stands at well over 4 billion tonnes a year. India’s average monthly imports in 2017 of about 1.7 million tonnes are well still behind China’s 2.2 million tonnes, but it has jumped ahead of third-placed Japan on about 1 million tonnes. Dorian LPG expects “plenty of upside for Indian LPG” imports due to rising use in cars following an Indian tax on gasoline, the company said in a presentation this month. China, India and Japan together make up about 45 percent of global LPG purchases. NEW SUPPLIER: USA India’s biggest supplier by a large margin is the Middle East, which has so far enjoyed a virtual supply monopoly. However, a surge in U.S. shale drilling, which yields LPG as a byproduct of crude oil and natural gas output, means American LPG exports have started to appear in India. Eikon data shows the first regular U.S. LPG shipments to India began at the start of 2017 at around 50,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes a month, rising to more than 200,000 tonnes in December. While that is just a tenth of Middle Eastern shipments, U.S. LPG is becoming increasingly price competitive. Propane at the Texan Mont Belvieu hub PRO-USG costs $99 cents per gallon ($516 per tonne), excluding freight. The current Saudi contract price is $590 a tonne, excluding shipping. U.S. suppliers have already made big inroads in Japan, currently meeting half of all demand. Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Richard Pullin'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/india-lpg/graphic-india-challenges-china-as-worlds-biggest-lpg-importer-idUSL8N1OQ04Z'|'2017-12-27T07:28:00.000+02:00'
'ee13cda7d06f82ca46390b3e780d6522c1f5ccc7'|'Russian court approves settlement of Rosneft, Sistema dispute'|'December 26, 2017 / 10:59 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Russian court approves settlement of Rosneft, Sistema dispute Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court approved a settlement between the Sistema ( AFKS.MM ) conglomerate and Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft ROSNN.MM on Tuesday, ending their dispute over the Bashneft oil company, RIA news agency said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Russian conglomerate Sistema is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin The legal nod was the last step needed to seal the deal and draw a line under a confrontation that rattled investors. Under the pact announced by the companies on Friday, Sistema agreed to pay Bashneft ( BANE.MM ) 100 billion rubles ($1.7 billion) by March 30, 2018. Sistema, which groups the assets of Russian businessman Vladimir Yevtushenkov, was also allowed to access assets frozen during the dispute. The group said on Tuesday bailiffs had lifted restrictions on its access to dividends from its 31.76-percent-stake in MTS ( MTSS.MM ), Russia’s largest mobile operator. Blocks on other assets would be released gradually as Sistema made the payment in three instalments, Interfax news agency said. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Russia''s oil producer Rosneft is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin The payments of 20 billion, 40 billion and 40 billion rubles were due on Dec. 29, Feb. 28, and March 30, Interfax news agency cited the judge as saying. The dispute centered on mid-sized oil company Bashneft and pitted powerful Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, against Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who some media reports suggest is close to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian government seized Sistema’s stake in Bashneft in 2014, saying its privatization had been illegal. Rosneft later bought a controlling stake in Bashneft and in May filed its first lawsuit, alleging Sistema had removed assets from the company - something Sistema denies. In a second claim, Rosneft had also sought the return of dividends paid out by Bashneft between 2009 and 2014, when Sistema was its controlling shareholder. The legal claims made against Sistema by Russia’s top oil producer totaled $4.5 billion, prompting Sistema to retaliate against Rosneft by filing a $5.6 billion lawsuit. Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-sistema/russian-court-approves-amicable-agreement-between-rosneft-bashneft-and-sistema-ria-idINKBN1EK0O1'|'2017-12-26T18:20:00.000+02:00'
'3cc66a8b15535e538dff3d25e1c3a9ff90e98003'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips on last day of year; gains 6 pct in 2017'|'(Adds details, updates prices to close)* TSX ends down 12.82 points, or 0.08 percent, at 16,209.13* Eight of the TSX’s 10 main groups fall* Index rises 6 pct in 2017, boosted by financials, minersBy Alastair SharpTORONTO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index slipped on the last trading day of 2017 as some energy and mining stocks pulled back, but the index notched a 6 percent gain for the year, underperforming the three main U.S. indexes as its large energy component dragged.* The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended down 12.82 points, or 0.08 percent, at 16,209.13 on Friday. Eight of the 10 main sectors were in negative territory, while advancers outnumbered decliners by 1.3-to-1 overall.* The index’s slip was offset by gains for banks and gold miners, while base metal miners and energy names weighed.* The index’s 6 percent rise in 2017 compared with gains of between 19 and 28 percent for Wall Street’s S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite.* The energy group lost almost 13 percent this year, even as U.S. crude oil prices rose 12 percent, while materials were up 6 percent and financials added 9 percent. The three groups account for almost two-thirds of the index’s weight.* Marijuana producer Aphria Inc gained 3.9 percent on the day to C$18.70. Aphria and other cannabis stocks have made sharp gains this year as Canada heads toward legalization of recreational marijuana use in 2018.* The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 0.2 percent.* B2Gold Corp advanced 2.7 percent to C$3.88 and Detour Gold Corp rose 2.3 percent to C$14.78 as gold prices hit their highest level in 2-1/2 months.* Hudbay Minerals Inc fell 1.9 percent to C$11.13, First Quantum Minerals Ltd was down 1.7 percent to C$17.61, and Teck Resources lost 1.7 percent to C$32.87 .* The energy group retreated 0.2 percent, while financials were flat overall and bank gains were offset by insurer losses. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Leslie Adler) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-slips-on-last-day-of-year-gains-6-pct-in-2017-idINL1N1OT1AY'|'2017-12-29T18:50:00.000+02:00'
'fe473a710b93727c31e78e5d6c0b97a1483e5e5e'|'VW to try to block emissions audit in constitutional court'|'(Corrects to delete erroneous reference to share reaction to U.S. settlement in 6th paragraph)FILE PHOTO - A Volkswagen logo is pictured at the International Auto Show in Mexico City, Mexico November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) said on Thursday it would petition Germany’s constitutional court in an effort to overturn the appointment of a special auditor to investigate the actions of management in the “Dieselgate” emissions scandal.A lower court appointed the auditor in November, in a victory for shareholder groups that want to establish whether VW bosses withheld market-moving information about the manipulation of vehicle-emissions tests.The court in the town of Celle ruled that VW could not appeal, which the auto maker views as a violation of its fundamental rights, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said in a report released in advance of publication on Friday.The car maker will try to get the work of the auditor suspended before the constitutional court hearing, said the newspaper, which researched the report together with public TV channels NDR and WDR.A company spokesman confirmed that VW would go to the constitutional court but did not elaborate. It was not immediately clear whether or when the constitutional court would take up the case.Shortly after the Dieselgate scandal broke in September 2015, VW hired U.S. law firm Jones Day and advisory firm Deloitte to investigate the circumstances of its wrongdoing and who was responsible.Although VW had pledged to improve transparency, it never published the findings that were used as the basis for a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department.Investor groups seeking billions in damages from VW are trying to establish when VW’s executive management board first became aware of cheating in the emissions tests and whether it disclosed possible financial damage to investors promptly.German securities law requires companies to publish any market sensitive news in a timely fashion. The matter is also being investigated by German prosecutors.VW has said it believes its management complied with obligations under German disclosure rules.Reporting by Douglas Busvine, editing by Larry King '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-emissions-court/vw-to-try-to-block-emissions-audit-in-constitutional-court-idINKBN1EM1WP'|'2017-12-28T23:38:00.000+02:00'
'fba565ba47030924d3dffffc8c9ac4077dfe56d9'|'BA owner IAG to buy insolvent Austrian holiday airline Niki'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - British Airways’ owner IAG ( ICAG.L ) said on Friday it would buy Niki, Air Berlin’s ( AB1.DE ) insolvent Austrian holiday airline, for 20 million euros ($24.01 million) and provide additional liquidity to the company of up to 16.5 million euros.Empty Niki check-in counters are seen at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader The sale to IAG, which had been in exclusive talks for the airline, is the final chapter in the demise of Air Berlin, the No. 2 German air carrier that previously owned Niki and filed for insolvency earlier this year.Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Gareth Jones '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-iag-niki/ba-owner-iag-to-buy-insolvent-austrian-holiday-airline-niki-idINKBN1EN1NF'|'2017-12-29T17:25:00.000+02:00'
'1387180aafd496b5fc39bf4244b90dd3f20e94d8'|'Ramen price-fixing class action headed for U.S. trial'|'Dec 29 (Reuters) - A federal judge in San Francisco has refused to dismiss antitrust class action litigation accusing two big South Korean ramen producers of conspiring to fix prices in the United States, clearing the way for a trial.U.S. District Judge William Orrick on Thursday rejected efforts by market leader Nongshim Co and Ottogi Corp to dismiss claims brought by food retailers and distributors, and by consumers in 23 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.Lawyers in the United States for Nongshim and Ottogi did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for comment.The plaintiffs accused ramen makers of coordinating six price increases from 2001 to 2008, in a scheme hatched at a meeting at the Renaissance Seoul Hotel, causing them to overpay for their noodles from early 2003 through January 2010.In a 59-page decision, Orrick said there was “ample (although hotly disputed) evidence” that the defendants conspired to fix ramen prices in South Korea.Though calling it was a “much closer question,” Orrick found sufficient evidence that this alleged conspiracy affected ramen prices in the United States, including ramen made there.“That there may have been minor differences (according to plaintiffs) between the products destined for the U.S. market and destined elsewhere does not, on this record, make the products so fundamentally different that the differences undermine plaintiffs’ ability to sue,” Orrick wrote.A trial is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2018. The litigation began in 2013.Ramen noodles are typically sold in packages, cups or bowls, with seasoning and dehydrated vegetables, to which consumers add boiling water.In court papers, Nongshim and Ottogi have said they acted independently when setting prices.They also accused the plaintiffs of improperly piggybacking off since-abandoned findings by the Korea Fair Trade Commission of a price-fixing conspiracy in South Korea.Another Korean ramen maker, Samyang Foods Co, reached $1.5 million of settlements with the plaintiffs in 2016.“We are pleased to have cleared the last hurdle before trial, and our clients look forward to presenting their case to a jury,” Christopher Lebsock, a lawyer for the retailers and distributors, said in an email.Lawyers for the consumers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The case is In re: Korean Ramen Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 13-04115. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/ramen-lawsuit/ramen-price-fixing-class-action-headed-for-u-s-trial-idINL1N1OT0OX'|'2017-12-29T13:54:00.000+02:00'
'a203939093672fba41083161c59dc91b4a1edb4c'|'US STOCKS-Futures point to positive session on Wall St'|'December 28, 2017 / 12:47 PM / Updated 17 minutes ago Wall Street rises as financials, tech advance Chuck Mikolajczak 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher in light trading on Thursday, buoyed by gains in financial stocks and as technology stocks continued to slowly recover from a losing skid. Tech stocks added 0.1 percent and notched their second straight gain on the heels of a five-session losing skid. The index has struggled somewhat to close out the year but remains the best-performing sector in 2017, up more than 37 percent. “This needs to and has been an earnings-driven market and that is where you’ve seen a tremendous amount of the earnings momentum and visibility, we would expect that to continue into next year,” said Bill Northey, senior vice president, U.S. Bank Wealth Management, in Helena, Montana. Apple shares closed 0.3 percent higher after relinquishing earlier gains and Amazon edged up 0.3 percent after Reuters reported the companies are in licensing discussions with Riyadh on investing in Saudi Arabia. Volumes remained thin due to the holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The prior two sessions showed the lowest full-day trading volumes of the year. “Clearly light volume, low volatility has been the flavor of the week, post holiday, and don’t expect that to change going into the close tomorrow,” Northey said. A 0.6 percent gain in copper prices helped lift the materials sector 0.4 percent, led by a 3.1 percent gain in Freeport-McMoRan. Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly The benchmark S&P 500 has climbed nearly 20 percent this year, on track to record its biggest annual gains since 2013, boosted by robust economic growth and solid corporate earnings. The rally is widely expected to extend into 2018, boosted by gains from a new law that lowers the tax burden on U.S. corporations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 63.21 points, or 0.26 percent, to 24,837.51, the S&P 500 gained 4.92 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,687.54 and the Nasdaq Composite added 10.82 points, or 0.16 percent, to 6,950.16. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week at 245,000, slightly above the 240,000 forecast, but the underlying trend remained consistent with a tightening labor market. J.B. Hunt Transport lost 0.2 to $115.24 after the logistics services provider forecast current-quarter profit below estimates. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.92-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.51-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 71 new highs and 21 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 4.26 billion shares, compared to the 6.6 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by James Dalgleish'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/stock-futures-point-to-positive-session-on-wall-street-idUSKBN1EM14Z'|'2017-12-28T14:43:00.000+02:00'
'2839134065be112f45378e90c435c6534b510e8d'|'Japan November industrial output, retail sales up on strong demand'|'December 28, 2017 / 12:26 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago Japan Nov industrial output, retail sales up on strong demand Stanley White 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s industrial output rose more than expected in November and companies forecast a further increase in December as robust overseas demand continues to support factory activity and broader economic growth. FILE PHOTO: A worker cycles near a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, Japan, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The positive impulse was also seen in retail sales, which topped expectations last month as shoppers spent more on fuel, electronics, and cars in an encouraging sign for domestic demand. The data support growing optimism among government officials and Bank of Japan policymakers that the economy can carry its recent run of strong growth into next year. The 0.6 percent increase in industrial output in November was more than the median market projection for a 0.5 percent rise and followed a 0.5 percent gain in October. Industrial output rose in November due to increased production of memory chips, equipment used to make semiconductors, and heavy machinery used in construction, trade ministry data showed on Thursday. Manufacturers surveyed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry expect output to rise 3.4 percent in December but fall 4.5 percent in January. The government raised its assessment of industrial output, saying it is recovering. Previously the government said output was only showing signs of a recovery. Japanese retail sales rose 2.2 percent in November from a year earlier, more than the median forecast for a 1.2 percent increase, government data showed on Thursday. A tight labor market and slowly rising wages are starting to lead to higher consumption, economists say. Japan’s economy has recorded seven straight quarters of expansion, the best uninterrupted run of growth since 1994. There are growing signs that this growth spurt will continue into next year, economists say. Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Shri Navaratnam'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-output/japan-nov-industrial-output-retail-sales-up-on-strong-demand-idUKKBN1EM010'|'2017-12-28T02:24:00.000+02:00'
'141f5ed094a8d522e7f723b365ea037bc6353073'|'China''s Huawei says expects 2017 revenue up 15 percent to $92 billion'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd expects 2017 revenue to rise 15 percent to 600 billion yuan ($92.08 billion), its rotating chief executive, Ken Hu, said in a New Year’s message to staff posted on its official WeChat account on Friday.FILE PHOTO: Visitors are seen at a Huawei stand during the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, China June 28, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo That would make it the slowest revenue growth in four years for Huawei, the world’s third-largest smartphone maker after Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc.Hu also said Huawei’s smartphone shipments in 2017 totalled 153 million units and its global market share surpassed 10 percent.Huawei vowed to focus on profit after posting near-flat annual profit growth in March, weighed down by its fast-growing but thin-margin smartphone business and heavy marketing spending.Its leading position in the world’s biggest smartphone market came under threat from local rivals over the past year and a half.Huawei’s China market share was 22.3 percent in the third quarter, followed by OPPO at 21.6 percent, showed latest data from IDC. The industry tracker forecasts China’s total smartphone shipments in 2017 to shrink slightly compared with a year earlier.In his message, Hu said Huawei’s enterprise business needs to “maintain mid-to-high growth speed and become a pillar business for the company in five years”.He also asked for its consumer business to continue to improve profitability, its new public cloud business to increase in scale, and its core carrier business to beat the industry.($1 = 6.5159 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/huawei-revenue/chinas-huawei-says-expects-2017-revenue-up-15-percent-to-92-billion-idINKBN1EN07E'|'2017-12-29T05:52:00.000+02:00'
'f6eadb76fc71b715693dcf2bae98ccaa59a6a2df'|'IWG gets bid approach from Canada''s Onex, Brookfield'|'December 27, 2017 / 7:34 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago UK office firm IWG gets bid approach from Canada''s Onex, Brookfield Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - British serviced office provider IWG Plc ( IWG.L ) has received a bid approach from Canadian private equity firm Onex and Brookfield Asset Management ( BAMa.TO ), it said on Wednesday. IWG, the company behind the Regus brand that runs offices in about 3,000 locations in over 1,000 cities, did not disclose any further details about the possible cash offer. The business had a market capitalisation of about 1.8 billion pounds on Friday after stock market trading finished. IWG said there was no certainty any offer would be made by Onex and Canadian property firm Brookfield. The approach comes after IWG warned on full-year profit in October, citing a weaker London market and disruption due to natural disasters in the United States. That warning sent its shares tumbling. The UK property market was one of the most prominent casualties of Britain’s June 2016 vote to leave the European Union, as investors worried financial firms would move jobs to Europe, hurting demand for office property in the capital. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iwg-m-a-brookfield-assetonex-corp/british-office-provider-iwg-confirms-bid-approach-from-canadas-onex-brookfield-idUKKBN1EL0DS'|'2017-12-27T10:09:00.000+02:00'
'42f772f948eb2374a5df0d363afa7a4789cf9186'|'Asia Pacific loans continue slide to five-year low'|'December 29, 2017 / 7:42 AM / in 2 hours REFILE-Asia Pacific loans continue slide to five-year low Reuters Staff (Refiles to fix formatting) By Prakash Chakravarti Hong Kong, Dec 29 (TRLPC) - Syndicated lending in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, hit a five-year low of US$445.31bn in 2017 and was 4.81% lower than US$467.8bn in 2016 as mergers and acquisitions activity slowed and record G3 bond issuance in dollars, euros, and yen curbed loan volume. Asia Pacific lending has fallen for the third consecutive year and volume is the lowest since 2012 when the region raised US$306.65bn. In 2017, 1,245 loans were completed, which showed a 3.56% decrease from 1,291 transactions a year earlier. Fewer acquisitions saw regional M&A lending sink 34% to US$55.74bn, compared to 2016 as Asian borrowers focussed on locking in long-term fixed-rate funding ahead of a widely-flagged rise in US interest rates. “2017 has been another difficult and challenging year for the loan market in the region. The drop in volumes is the new normal .... as deal flow diverted to bilateral loans and the bond markets,” said Amit Lakhwani, head of loan syndicate & distribution Asia at Standard Chartered. G3 Asian bond issuance (excluding Japan) hit an all-time record of US$407.93bn in 2017, soaring 38% over the US$295.53bn raised in 2016, as Chinese issuers dominated the flow. Despite a muted year, the Asian loan market saw some variety, with sizeable borrowings for frontier market sovereigns such as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. CHINA, HONG KONG DOMINANCE China and Hong Kong dominated regional borrowing and accounted for 49% of Asian lending, excluding Japan. Chinese companies borrowed US$101bn in 2017, which was 25% lower than US$135bn a year earlier. Despite the Chinese government’s introduction of measures in the second half of 2016 to control capital outflows and slow down overseas acquisitions, outbound M&A event-driven financings for mainland Chinese companies surged 28.5% higher to US$18.37bn in 2017 compared with US$14.3bn in 2016. This was largely due to a jumbo €6.8bn (US$7.9bn) loan in July for state-owned China Investment Corp, which backed its acquisition of European warehouse firm Logicor. It marked the sovereign wealth fund’s debut in the syndicated loan market and was the largest M&A loan from Asia in 2017. Hong Kong loan volume rose to a record US$111.5bn, showing a 5% increase on US$106bn in 2016, boosted by big-ticket loans for Chinese companies, including technology sector bellwethers such as Alibaba Group and its unit Ant Financial Services Group, Tencent Holdings Ltd and e-commerce company JD.com. Leveraged buyouts also boosted Hong Kong’s tally with lenders flocking to the deals in pursuit of higher yields, as non-standard loans appealed to Asia’s increasingly diversified buy-side. “New sources of liquidity have emerged in APAC loan markets with institutional investors stepping up,” said Ashish Sharma, head of loan syndications, Asia Pacific, at Credit Suisse. A HK$28bn (US$3.6bn) term loan for the privatisation of then Hong Kong-listed shoe retailer Belle International Holdings Ltd stood out in July for a sole underwrite and smooth distribution from bookrunner Bank of America Merrill Lynch that attracted 10 other lenders. Singapore contributed a significant boost to leveraged loans with the last-minute closing of a jumbo US$4.11bn LBO financing backing the acquisition of Global Logistic Properties Ltd , Asia’s biggest warehouse operator. The borrowing bagged the distinction of the largest LBO loan from Asia. Australia and Japan also supplied a strong flow of buyout loans, although most of the Japanese deals were club transactions, such as three LBO financings totalling US$5.82bn-equivalent for PE giant KKR’s acquisitions of auto parts maker Calsonic Kansei Corp, electronic equipment firm Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc and power tools manufacturer Hitachi Koki Co Ltd. NEW LIQUIDITY POCKETS In Australia as well as in Hong Kong, the leveraged finance market took small steps forward with transactions structured with unitranches and mezzanine financings, tapping into the growing pool of institutional liquidity that is seeking to invest in loans. In August, US alternative investment firm Highbridge Capital wrapped up a A$650m (US$512m) six-year unitranche financing to back private equity firms Carlyle Group and Pacific Equity Partners’ US$930m-equivalent acquisition of iNova Pharmaceuticals (Australia) Pty Ltd and two more unitranche loans closed in Australia shortly afterwards backing private equity LBOs. Mezzanine financings also started to appear in other parts of Asia with the LBO of business, corporate and investor services provider Tricor Holdings Ltd in January in Hong Kong carrying a subordinated facility of up to US$75m from PE firm Partners Group. In July Huatai Financial Holdings, the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Chinese brokerage Huatai Securities, committed a HK$4.5bn mezzanine loan that represented 90% of the price for the privatisation of Chinese property developer Future Land Development Holdings from the Hong Kong bourse. The facility was on track to be the biggest mezzanine loan from Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), but the public-to-private sale was shelved in October. Huatai’s big-ticket commitment highlighted the emergence of new liquidity providers, as traditional lenders also target exposure outside their core focus areas. “Among the traditional bank investor base, lenders from some countries such as India and South Korea have expanded their focus and are increasingly participating in loans outside their home markets. This is quite encouraging as it adds additional pockets of liquidity for borrowers in Asia Pacific,” said Credit Suisse’s Sharma. Indonesian borrowers in particular took advantage of this new liquidity and South-East Asia’s largest economy was the only major loan market apart from Australia to record double-digit growth in Asia (excluding Japan) with a 22% jump toUS$15.6bn, compared to US$12.81bn in 2016. PROMISING PIPELINE After three years of declining volume, lenders are looking forward to a more promising pipeline that is already starting to take shape. China National Chemical Corp, which acquired Swiss seeds and pesticides maker Syngenta AG for SFr43bn (US$43bn), is currently in the market with a US$5.5bn refinancing of one of the multi-billion dollar bridge loans it raised for the acquisition. The property sector in Hong Kong, one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets, is already buzzing with a couple of jumbo loans relating to the acquisitions of some of the retail assets of Link REIT and The Center, a commercial building in the heart of the territory’s business district. “We will have a more promising start to 2018 because of a well-spread pipeline across Australia, China and other major markets. The difference between a good and a bad year is event-driven financing. Corporate M&A, project financing and refinancing will drive activity in 2018,” said John Corrin, global head of loan syndications at ANZ. Bankers also expect loans to benefit from the expected rise in interest rates that could impact demand and access to bond market funding. China’s massive Belt & Road initiat'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/asiapac-loans/asia-pacific-loans-continue-slide-to-five-year-low-idUSL4N1OT1VW'|'2017-12-29T09:41:00.000+02:00'
'37506956461758f9f32c0c7c85cfd3dea14dee33'|'Pakistan''s new finance chief targets tax reforms, touts rupee flexibility'|'December 29, 2017 / 11:59 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Pakistan''s new finance chief targets tax reforms, touts rupee flexibility Drazen Jorgic 4 Min Read ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan’s new finance ministry chief Miftah Ismail said he plans significant tax reforms in the five months before the government’s term ends ahead of a 2018 election, and touted a policy of greater currency flexibility. Pakistan''s new finance ministry chief Miftah Ismail speaks with a Reuters correspondent during an interview in Islamabad, Pakistan December 28, 2017. Picture taken December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood Pakistan’s government has in recent months devalued the rupee, imposed tariffs on imported goods and sought to boost exports to reduce growing balance of payments pressures fuelling concern about health of the nearly $300 billion economy. Pakistan this month borrowed $2.5 billion from international markets via a Sukuk and eurobond offers that were vastly oversubscribed and fetched lower-than-expected rates. Ismail, a wealthy businessman and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economist, was on Wednesday appointed as finance adviser to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in a role that makes him de facto finance minister. Ismail told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday he plans tax reforms to focus on widening the tax base, simplifying tax structures, and slashing personal tax rates to encourage more people to file returns. “We have to reduce rates and the prime minister is very eager to especially reduce rates on individuals,” Ismail said at his home in Islamabad, referring to his close ally Abbasi. Tax rates on individuals vary in Pakistan, but can be as high as 30 percent for salaried individuals and 35 percent for non-salaried individuals. “(Abbasi) wants to bring it to 15 percent or so,” Ismail said. Pakistan has a very narrow tax base. Pakistan''s new finance ministry chief Miftah Ismail speaks with a Reuters correspondent during an interview in Islamabad, Pakistan December 28, 2017. Picture taken December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood Successive governments have promised to rein in tax evaders and boost revenues but have faced fierce resistance to change, including from the many politicians and businessmen believed to be among those dodging their taxes. Pakistan’s central bank devalued the currency by about 5 percent this month, and the market expects further weakening of the rupee before the polls in mid-2018 to ease balance of payments pressure stemming from a widening trade deficit and growing fiscal deficit. The devaluation followed the departure of Ishaq Dar, the previous finance minister who was staunchly opposed to a weaker rupee and had admonished the central bank for an attempt to weaken the currency in July. Ismail said the government has altered its policy of the past few years, under which it had essentially pegged the rupee to the dollar and defended its value. “We’ve decided to not do that,” Ismail added. Analysts say Pakistan’s central bank effectively sets the currency rate as it is the biggest player in the thinly traded rupee market and controls what is widely understood to be a managed float system. When asked if he would be opposed to the rupee weakening another 5 percent, as the market expects, Ismail said there was a policy of greater flexibility for the currency and he would not be hostile to it either weakening or firming. “I‘m a big believer in the free market,” he said. “We are largely letting the rupee be.” Ismail also said Pakistan may return to international markets for a fresh bond offering but that this was unlikely before late 2018. “We will probably not go back to the international markets to issue a new bond until the end of next calendar year so it will not be in this fiscal year any more,” he said. Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Robert Birsel'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pakistan-economy-finmin/pakistans-new-finance-chief-targets-tax-reforms-touts-rupee-flexibility-idINKBN1EN0X6'|'2017-12-29T13:54:00.000+02:00'
'2b2a46feea8c1b556ec9b4fbc6568d1bf9ebfff2'|'South Korea students dive into virtual coins, evens as regulators crack down'|'SEOUL (Reuters) - Hackers have stolen millions, lawmakers are pushing for new taxes and regulations, and a leading financial official has called them a “Ponzi scheme”.But that hasn’t cooled a frenzy for bitcoin and other virtual currencies that is gripping young investors in South Korea.On a recent weeknight at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, more than a dozen students crammed into a classroom to share tips on investing in so-called cryptocurrencies, which have driven tales of fantastic returns for savvy investors.The group sat in rapt silence – broken only by a sudden shout of “there was just a big jump!” from someone monitoring his virtual currencies - as one student gave a presentation on how to read financial data and predict future trends.“I no longer want to become a math teacher,” said 23-year-old Eoh Kyong-hoon, who founded the club, Cryptofactor. “I’ve studied this industry for more than 10 hours a day over months, and I became pretty sure that this is my future.”Driven in part by a dismal economic outlook – including an unemployment rate almost three times the national average - young South Koreans are flocking to virtual currencies despite the risks and warnings from officials, analysts say.It’s a trend that has caught the eye of South Korean leaders and regulators, who announced new measures this week to regulate speculation in cryptocurrency trading within the country.Concerns about security and thefts of cryptocurrencies by hackers have also been rising. A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange recently shut down and filed for bankruptcy after being hacked for the second time this year.“Young people and students are rushing into virtual currency trading to earn huge profits in just a short period of time,” Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon said in November. “It is time for the government to take action as it could lead to serious pathological phenomena if left unchecked.”UNCHECKED ENTHUSIASM Eoh said the talk of more regulation had not dented his plans, especially after making what he said was a 20-fold gain on his investments over the past six months.He said that many students were bringing laptops to class to track the movements of their investments and participate in actual trading. “Even when professors are giving lectures right in front of them,” he said.Younger investors have especially gravitated toward so-called “altcoins”, or virtual currencies other than bitcoin, which often trade at much lower values, analysts say.“Since young people are more mobile-friendly, they can actually make more out of altcoin investments as long as they are able to discriminate gems from pebbles,” said Kim Jin-hwa, one of the leaders of the Korea Blockchain Industry Association, an association of 14 virtual currency exchanges.Iota, one of the fast-gaining altcoins, was traded at $0.82 in late November, but now stands at $3.89, a gain of 374.4 percent, according to Coinmarketcap.com. Energo (TSL), another type of altcoin, gained 400 percent during the same period.A university student, a member of a club studying cryptocurrencies, attends a meeting at a university in Seoul, South Korea, December 20, 2017. Picture taken on December 20, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji Some young investors say they don’t sleep until after 2 a.m., when there is a lull in the cryptocurrency markets as investors in places like South Korea and Japan log off.Members of the club say they call each other to make important decisions together, and see information sharing as key to navigating the volatile cryptocurrency markets.“I literally knew nothing about cryptocurrencies or the economy,” said Lee Ji-woo, a 22-year-old sports industry major. “Everyone here has taught me a lot.”It’s now emboldened her to dream of a different future.“I can have two jobs maybe, one as an athlete and another as an investor,” she said.Slideshow (5 Images) ECONOMIC DRIVERS Intense competition for jobs in South Korea is likely helping to drive interest in virtual currencies among young South Koreans, especially as they see others reaping big gains, said Shin Dong-hwa, head of the Korea Blockchain Exchange.“Whenever they go onto social network services, they are easily exposed to so many examples of young people around their age earning huge money,” he said.But some in South Korea’s financial establishment say those hopes may be unfounded.Kim Yong-beom, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said Monday that the only reason prices were going up was because each investor expected the next buyer down the line to pay a higher price. “That really is a Ponzi scheme,” he said.Others say students seem more focused on ways to get rich quick rather than on the underlying financial or technological values of digital currency.“There’s no way to measure their true value yet but students are just going for them, believing that they can earn a big fortune in just a snap,” said Yun Chang-hyun, economics professor at the University of Seoul.Members of Cryptofactor, however, say they founded the club because of a lack of dedicated cryptocurrency classes on campus and see their efforts as a way to move beyond speculation to informed investing.“I realised that I was actually speculating rather than investing before I came to this club,” said Kim Myung-jae, a 19-year-old fine arts student, adding that she was especially attracted to altcoins.“Now that I fully discuss which one to invest in with the members, I‘m actually looking at the true value.”Additional reporting by Yuna Park, Cynthia Kim; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Philip McClellan '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-southkorea-club/south-korea-students-dive-into-virtual-coins-evens-as-regulators-crack-down-idUSKBN1EN0D5'|'2017-12-29T08:05:00.000+02:00'
'd066ee4067b131a295ce3b0603f2abffb6c03653'|'China central bank says will maintain ''prudent and neutral'' monetary policy'|' 28 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago China central bank says will maintain ''prudent and neutral'' monetary policy   BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s central bank on Friday said it will maintain “prudent and neutral” monetary policy and use multiple policy tools to keep liquidity reasonably stable. FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the headquarters of the People''s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, June 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo The People’s Bank of China will seek reasonable growth in credit and social financing while effectively controlling macro leverage ratio, the bank said in comments on its website following a quarterly meeting of its monetary policy committee. The central bank will also continue with interest rate and exchange rate reform, according to the statement. Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Sam Holmes'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-pboc/china-central-bank-says-will-maintain-prudent-and-neutral-monetary-policy-idUKKBN1EN0PZ'|'2017-12-29T11:27:00.000+02:00'
'02cc2f6d92278b00ffa8ac03dece4201f7cfc867'|'BRIEF-Solid Biosciences Files For IPO Of Up To $100 Mln'|'Dec 29 (Reuters) - Solid Biosciences:* SOLID BIOSCIENCES FILES FOR IPO OF UP TO $100 MILLION – SEC FILING* SAYS IT INTENDS TO APPLY TO HAVE ITS COMMON STOCK LISTED ON NASDAQ GLOBAL MARKET UNDER THE SYMBOL “SLDB”* SAYS J.P. MORGAN, GOLDMAN SACHS & CO. LLC, LEERINK PARTNERS ARE AMONG UNDERWRITERS TO IPO* SAYS PROPOSED IPO PRICE IS AN ESTIMATE SOLELY FOR CALCULATING SEC REGISTRATION FEE Source text - ( bit.ly/2EfseQE ) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-solid-biosciences-files-for-ipo-of/brief-solid-biosciences-files-for-ipo-of-up-to-100-mln-idINEMN4TVDE9'|'2017-12-29T17:45:00.000+02:00'
'bc4d429dfba6ea7f5456c714df87593e3c0550eb'|'European shares set for best year since 2013 on tech and mining surge'|'December 29, 2017 / 8:37 AM / in 4 hours European shares set for best year since 2013 on tech and mining surge Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - European stocks steadied in early deals on Friday, the final trading day of the year, and were set to record their strongest year of gains since 2013 thanks to a surge among tech stocks and a robust resources sector. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat in percentage terms on the day, while euro zone blue chips declined 0.1 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 hit a new record and was 0.1 percent higher, while Italian equities declined just 0.2 percent after the president dissolved parliament on Thursday and an election day was scheduled for March 4. Overall 2017 has been a positive year for European stocks, fuelled by strong company earnings, a supportive economic backdrop and no major political upsets. The STOXX is set to end 2017 with a gain of around 8 percent, its strongest year since 2013. Germany and Italy’s benchmarks have been standout performers, rising 13 percent and 14.7 percent respectively this year. Periphery markets have also had a strong year, with Greece’s benchmark up more than 24 percent while Portugal has gained 14.5 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 has lagged slightly, rising 6.9 percent in 2017, as has Spain’s IBEX, which is up 7.8 percent. Brexit uncertainty has dented sentiment towards UK equities, while a recovering pound has also put pressure on the blue chips’ large proportion of overseas earners. Among sectors, this year has been dominated by a near-20 percent rise among Europe’s tech stocks, closely followed by basic resources. Chipmaker AMS has been the top-gaining firm on the STOXX, surging 206 percent in 2017. Telecoms, retail and media have brought up the rear, with year-to-date losses ranging between 2.2 to 3.7 percent. Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-shares-set-for-best-year-since-2013-on-tech-and-mining-surge-idUSL8N1OT0ME'|'2017-12-29T10:34:00.000+02:00'
'147b7f9548975bb9748c7286ba6d4fbfa0a6f8e3'|'China Development Bank says talks with indebted RCom underway'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China Development Bank, a creditor of Reliance Communications Ltd, said it is in talks with the Indian wireless carrier, following a plan by the Anil Ambani-backed firm to reduce its debts.A man opens the shutter of a shop painted with an advertisement of Reliance Communications in Mumbai, India, November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo Any progress will be disclosed in the near future, the Chinese bank told Reuters late Thursday in response to a request for comment on the Indian carrier’s debt-reduction plan.RCom, as the Indian carrier is known, announced on Tuesday a plan to slash its debt by 390 billion rupees ($6.1 billion) underpinned by the sale of some of its spectrum, tower, fibre and real estate assets for which the company said it has already received some non-binding offers.It was not immediately clear if all key creditors were on board.Last month, China Development Bank initiated insolvency proceedings at India’s National Company Law Tribunal, adding that a large amount of principal and interest from RCom was overdue.RCom had a net debt of 450 billion rupees at the end of October, putting it among India’s most indebted companies.($1 = 64.0700 Indian rupees)Reporting by Coco Li and Ryan Woo; Editing by Christopher Cushing '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rcom-debt-cdb/china-development-bank-says-talks-with-indebted-rcom-underway-idINKBN1EN075'|'2017-12-29T05:26:00.000+02:00'
'7dba1c64c37fd41777febb1779c60ae9ed738eee'|'BRIEF-Aarti Industries Signs Deal With Sabic Innovative Plastics US LLC - Reuters'|'Dec 29 (Reuters) - Aarti Industries Ltd:* SAYS CO SIGNS 100 BILLION RUPEES MULTI-YEAR DEAL WITH SABIC INNOVATIVE PLASTICS US LLC* AARTI INDUSTRIES - CONTRACT FOR OVER PERIOD OF 20 YEARS * SAYS CO TO INVEST $35 MILLION - $40 MILLION TO SETUP LARGE SCALE MANUFACTURING FACILITY* AARTI INDUSTRIES - SUPPLIES EXPECTED TO COMMENCE FROM 2020 AND ESTIMATED REVENUE GENERATION AT 100 BILLION RUPEES OVER CONTRACT PERIOD Source text - bit.ly/2E8bRFx '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/brief-aarti-industries-signs-deal-with-s/brief-aarti-industries-signs-deal-with-sabic-innovative-plastics-us-llc-idINFWN1OS0DH'|'2017-12-29T02:38:00.000+02:00'
'250a890e261ac4d835cad0e36b35f6fedfa32c2b'|'Small RBS investors renew push to set up shareholder committee'|'December 29, 2017 / 12:10 AM / Updated 13 hours ago Small RBS investors renew push to set up shareholder committee Ben Martin 3 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Small investors in Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS.L ) are launching a second attempt to force the state-backed lender to set up a shareholder committee to improve corporate governance after a first bid failed earlier this year. People walk past a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Britain December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls ShareSoc and the UK Shareholders’ Association (UKSA) said they had organised more than 100 investors to put forward a proposal for consideration at RBS’ annual general meeting (AGM) next year calling for the creation of a committee that includes shareholder representatives. The aim of the committee is to improve investor engagement at the lender, the two investor groups said, criticising what they described as “the informal nature” of the bank’s current deliberations with shareholders. It comes after ShareSoc and UKSA, which both represent individual investors, failed to have a similar plan included at the lender’s last AGM in May after RBS concluded that it was “inconsistent with the law and the company’s constitution”. The RBS board will now have to decide whether to include the new proposal at the next meeting, where it would then be voted on by shareholders. ShareSoc said it was “confident that RBS will be obliged to put the resolution to the AGM”. The British government would need to back the resolution for it to be passed in a shareholder vote because it still holds more than 70 percent of RBS. The government became the biggest shareholder in RBS following the bank’s 45.5 billion-pound ($61 billion) bailout at the height of the financial crisis. That rescue inflicted heavy losses on some RBS investors. Since then, the lender has become embroiled in other controversies, including resolving claims in the United States that it mis-sold mortgage-backed securities that were at the heart of the crisis. Dealing with various litigation and misconduct issues has cost it billions of pounds. “Shareholders, including individuals, deserve a new approach; one with greater involvement and more effective input from them as ultimate owner,” said Mark Northway, the chairman of ShareSoc. “RBS, given its incredibly poor track record and consequent taxpayer support, should now be leading from the front in governance matters.” In 2016 the lender, led by Chief Executive Ross McEwan, suffered its ninth straight annual loss, bringing its total losses since 2008 to more than 58 billion pounds. An RBS spokesman said: “Whilst it is of course the role of the company directors to represent shareholders, we will review any proposal that is submitted and make our response clear in due course.” ($1 = 0.7439 pounds)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-royal-bank-scot-shareholders/small-rbs-investors-renew-push-to-set-up-shareholder-committee-idUKKBN1EN00B'|'2017-12-29T02:10:00.000+02:00'
'b46b62bd16efd0ea2a9e5c879f1c6c57a27e3723'|'PRESS DIGEST- Canada- Dec 29'|'Dec 29 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.THE GLOBE AND MAIL ** Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) has revamped the timeline to deliver its findings, and now plans to issue a full report in the early months of the new year. tgam.ca/2CkvOs9** Transport Minister Marc Garneau has formally asked Air Canada to retrofit about 100 Airbus passenger planes to eliminate a loud whistling noise under the wings that has led to noise complaints from residents near Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver airports. tgam.ca/2ChXIHF** Shell Canada Ltd. says market conditions will dictate when it will make a final investment decision on a $40-billion joint venture to export liquefied natural gas from British Columbia. tgam.ca/2EcxswA** Investors Roland Keiper and Brian Chapman have sued Home Capital Group Inc and three of its former executives for C$2 million, alleging negligent behaviour, untimely disclosures and public misrepresentations. tgam.ca/2CiuKY5Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/press-digest-canada/press-digest-canada-dec-29-idINL4N1OT39U'|'2017-12-29T08:44:00.000+02:00'
'abe24c370ca0a17ba454f75f1cc61bbefa777110'|'Global Markets: Bumper year for stocks and commodities, downer for the dollar'|'(Reuters) - Markets bid 2017 goodbye on a modestly defensive note on Friday, but the year will be best remembered for leaving global investors wealthier.Trader Peter Tuchman reacts as the final day of trading for the year draws to a close at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly A pick-up in global growth boosted corporate profits and commodities during the year, while tame inflation kept central banks from snatching away the punch bowl of easy monetary policy.MSCI’s world equity index shed 0.12 percent on Friday, leaving it short of an all-time intraday high reached earlier in the session but nonetheless enough to give the index an unparalleled record of gains each month this year.The large and mid-size companies in the index of 47 countries added more than $8 trillion to their market value during the year.“By all accounts 2017 has been a great year for the market,” said Arian Vojdani, investment strategist at MV Financial in Bethesda, Maryland.Craig James, chief economist at fund manager CommSec, said of the 73 bourses the firm tracks globally, all but nine recorded gains in local currency terms this year. Major indexes from Japan to the United States and emerging markets are up double-digit percentages for the year, with the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index up 7 percent.CAUTION SIGNS U.S. markets offered caution signs for the new year in the year’s final hours of trading on Friday. Wall Street stocks and the U.S. dollar drooped, helping safe-haven bonds and gold, and a reminder that after a run-up with so few obstacles there may be little room for error.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 118.29 points, or 0.48 percent, to 24,719.22, the S&P 500 lost 13.93 points, or 0.52 percent, to 2,673.61, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 46.77 points, or 0.67 percent, to 6,903.39. [.N]“The key issue is whether the low growth rates of prices and wages will continue, thus prompting central banks to remain on the monetary policy sidelines,” said CommSec’s James.“Globalisation and technological change have been influential in keeping inflation low. In short, consumers can buy goods whenever they want and wherever they are,” he said.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Dollar banknotes are seen in a box at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo One of the early issues for 2018 will be the March 4 Italian election. As things currently stand the vote is expected to produce a hung parliament that could ultimately catapult four-times premier Silvio Berlusconi back to centre stage.Ten-year Italian government bond yields rose to two-month highs on Friday at just over 2 percent. Bond prices fall as their yields rise.The dollar is suffering, too, despite the widely held assumption at the start of the year that, with the U.S. Federal Reserve set to raise interest rates and lawmakers poised to cut taxes, the only way for greenback was up.Three rate hikes and a tax bill later, the dollar hit a losing streak in which its value sank by 9.7 percent, in the dollar’s biggest annual decline since 2003.Slideshow (2 Images) The dollar’s loss has been a gain for emerging markets and the euro, which charged ahead 14 percent for the year.[FRX/]The wilting dollar has also lifted commodities priced in the currency, which have also benefited from a synchronized pick-up in global trade and surprisingly strong demand from China.Everything from coal to iron ore has reaped gains. Copper has been a stand-out performer in part due to expectations of rising demand for the mass production of electric vehicles.The industrial metal is turning in its largest annual gains since the global financial crisis ebbed in 2009, but it slipped off its four-year highs on Friday. Copper futures lost 0.51 percent to $7,251.50 a tonne on Friday. [MET/L]Gold turned in a banner year, too, despite not being needed for its role as a guard against inflation, which has been tame. At $1,303.22 an ounce, the shiny metal saw its biggest annual gain since 2010. [GOL/]Oil ended the year around its highest prices in 2-1/2 years after data showed strong demand for crude imports in China and a surprise fall in U.S. production. [O/R]U.S. crude rose 0.47 percent to $60.12 per barrel and Brent was at $66.62, up 0.7 percent on the day.Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes last rose 8/32 in price to yield 2.405 percent, down a bit from the 2.439 opening figure for the year despite the Fed’s rate hikes as weak inflation and strong demand for bonds kept rates in check and financial conditions easy. [US/N]Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar, Marc Jones and Wayne Cole; Editing by Susan Thomas and Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/bumper-year-for-stocks-and-commodities-downer-for-the-dollar-idINKBN1EN029'|'2017-12-29T05:03:00.000+02:00'
'b8acf0d63661c19c3abbecf7aece869109d48b8d'|'Ex-Kit Digital CEO, associate convicted in U.S. of fraud schemes'|'December 26, 2017 / 10:48 PM / Updated 30 minutes ago Ex-Kit Digital CEO, associate convicted in U.S. of fraud schemes Nate Raymond 3 Min Read (Reuters) - The former head of Kit Digital Inc and a business associate were convicted on Tuesday on charges related to what prosecutors said were wide-ranging fraud schemes involving the bankrupt video technology company. Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, a former Goldman Sachs analyst who achieved brief fame as an internet entrepreneur before becoming Kit Digital’s chief executive, was found guilty by a federal jury in Manhattan of charges including that he conspired to commit securities fraud, prosecutors said. Omar Amanat, an investor in media, finance and technology companies including at one time the studio behind the “Twilight” movie franchise, was convicted of charges that included conspiring to commit wire fraud and securities fraud. Tuzman’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Amanat’s lawyer declined to comment. Tuzman was arrested in 2015 in Colombia and extradited last year after spending time in jail conditions his lawyers said led him to fear for his life. The rise and fall of Govworks.com, the company he started with a friend, was the subject of the 2001 documentary “Startup.com.” Prosecutors accused Tuzman, 45, and others at Kit Digital of engaging in a scheme to deceive investors and regulators about the company’s financial health by among other things booking revenue on sham software license agreements. Prosecutors said that Tuzman, Amanat and a hedge fund manager, Stephen Maiden, also conspired to manipulate the market in Kit Digital shares from 2008 to 2011. The video technology company filed for bankruptcy in 2013. Amanat, 44, also engaged in a scheme to defraud investors in Maiden Capital, Maiden’s hedge fund, prosecutors said. Maiden became a cooperating witness for the prosecution while serving a seven-year prison sentence for running a Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors said that in 2008, Tuzman at Amanat’s request arranged for Kit Digital to invest $6.5 million in a fund affiliated with Amanat, Enable Invest Ltd. To encourage the investment, Amanat told Tuzman he would raise money for a Tuzman-controlled investment vehicle, leading to him arranging for Maiden’s Maiden Capital Opportunity Fund to invest $1 million into it, the indictment said. The indictment said Tuzman without permission redirected funds from Maiden Capital’s $1 million investment and used the money as part of Kit Digital’s $6.5 million investment in Enable. Prosecutors said that when Enable suffered losses later in 2008, Amanat helped Maiden conceal them from Maiden Capital’s investors, including by providing loans to repay investors, prosecutors said. The case is U.S. v. Amanat, U.S. District Court, District of New York, No. 15-cr-536. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Andrew Hay'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fraud-kitdigital/ex-kit-digital-ceo-associate-convicted-in-u-s-of-fraud-schemes-idUKKBN1EK1GU'|'2017-12-27T00:48:00.000+02:00'
'def6f22278a6b6b6b50e9042872a9a7282e77b04'|'European shares drift into year-end as resources stocks glitter'|'December 28, 2017 / 8:30 AM / Updated an hour ago European shares drift into year-end as resources stocks glitter Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - European shares drifted lower in early deals on Thursday with company news and macro events scarce in holiday-thinned trading, while Britain’s FTSE 100 hovered just under a record high. The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent, while blue chips .STOXX50E slipped 0.2 percent. A rally in commodity prices continued to support the resources-heavy FTSE 100 .FTSE index, which gained 0.1 percent. Europe''s basic resources index .SXPP was the best-performing sector, up 0.5 percent. Tech stocks .SX8P extended the previous session’s losses, when chipmakers were hit by concerns over demand for Apple’s iPhone X. The tech sector was down 0.3 percent on the day, but has gained more than 20 percent so far this year, the standout performer in Europe. More broadly, volumes have been muted and liquidity in short supply over the festive season in Europe, with little by way of company news to spur significant moves among single stocks. Shares in BT ( BT.L ) were among the biggest fallers, down 1.7 percent after the telecoms stock traded ex-dividend, while volatile Steinhoff ( SNHG.DE ) was the top gainer, up 4 percent. Nearing the year-end, European stocks have enjoyed a positive year, with the STOXX 600 up around 8 percent in 2017 as buoyant company earnings and a brighter economic backdrop have fuelled the region’s equities. Germany''s DAX .GDAXI and Italy''s benchmark .FTMIB are among this year''s winners, up 13.8 percent and 15.4 percent respectively, while Britain''s FTSE has managed to gain 6.7 percent. Graphic - Major European Indexes YTD Price Performance: reut.rs/2BPYR5X Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Kevin Liffey'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-stocks/european-shares-drift-into-year-end-as-resources-stocks-glitter-idUKKBN1EM0O3'|'2017-12-28T10:29:00.000+02:00'
'068f99f6b65d60ca5bd43edd754d1e1831d5e72e'|'U.S. oil rig count ends 2017 40 percent above year-ago levels - Baker Hughes'|'(Reuters) - The U.S. oil rig count rose by about 42 percent by end-2017 compared to the corresponding period last year, as energy companies boosted spending amid a recovery in crude prices.Drillers held the number of oil rigs steady for a second straight week at 747 in the week to Dec. 29. That was 222 more than the 525 rigs at the end of 2016, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes Inc energy services firm said on Friday.The oil rig count, an early indicator of future output, remained unchanged in December after rising by 10 in November. It declined by 3 in the fourth quarter after falling by 6 in the third quarter.U.S. oil prices closed above $60 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015 on the final trading day of the year, ending 2017 with a 12 percent gain spurred by strong demand and declining global inventories. [O/R]Oil prices had been boosted by signs the global crude glut that has dogged the market since 2014 is shrinking, as a year of production cuts led by Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia helped tighten the market.OPEC cuts kicked off last January and are scheduled to continue throughout 2018.In 2017, U.S. crude futures have averaged about $51 a barrel, easily topping last year’s $43.47 average.Looking ahead, futures were trading at about $59 for the balance of 2018 and $56 for calendar 2019.In anticipation of higher prices in coming years, U.S. financial services firm Cowen & Co said 21 of the roughly 65 E&Ps they track have already provided capital expenditure guidance for 2018 indicating a 13 percent increase in planned spending over 2017.Cowen, which has its own U.S. rig count, said it expects a gradual decline in the count in 2018.There were 929 oil and natural gas rigs active on Dec. 29, up 41 percent from the 658 at the end of 2016.The average number of rigs in service in 2017 was 876. That compares with 509 in 2016 and 978 in 2015. Most rigs produce both oil and gas.U.S. crude oil production in October hit the highest in more than 46 years, rising by 167,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.64 million bpd, U.S. Energy Information Administration’s monthly production report on Friday.If the figure is not revised next month, it would be the highest monthly level since May 1971.Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-rigs-bakerhughes/u-s-oil-rig-count-ends-2017-40-percent-above-year-ago-levels-baker-hughes-idINKBN1EN1KA'|'2017-12-29T20:29:00.000+02:00'
'2f7aef9cb02d5737f37ed9b31e631b76dbe1687a'|'Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'December 29, 2017 / 2:48 PM / Updated 18 minutes ago Take Five: World markets themes for the week ahead Marc Jones 7 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. FILE PHOTO: The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote 1/FIVE MONTHS OF ITALIAN POLITICAL NOISE When investors return to their desks next week they will have to deal with the fact that Italy’s long countdown to a new national election has officially started. The vote is due on March 4 but it is expected to produce a hung parliament. A new government is therefore unlikely to be formed before May at the earliest meaning there will be five months of political noise in the euro zone’s third-largest economy. Unsurprisingly Italian yields have risen. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement currently leads opinion polls but other parties are reluctant to join forces so analysts sense that the result could be a center-right alliance around 81-year-old and four-times premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party. He cannot become prime minister, however, due to a tax fraud conviction. So it could all put pressure on Italian assets as 2018 starts, scaring some investors away but creating opportunities for others hunting for stock bargains as the economy improves. The Italian stock exchange is set to end 2017 as the best performer among major European markets but under certain metrics it remains undervalued. The MSCI Italy index is trading below its 20-year average on price/earnings basis, while the pan-European STOXX 600 is trading above. Italy to vote on March 4, with hung parliament feared Italian bond yields hit 2-mth high, stocks slide as election confirmed To view a graphic on Italian stocks price earnings ratio, click on this link: reut.rs/2C4iUl7 2/T-TIME The European Central Bank is going to take a big step towards the withdrawal of stimulus in January, halving its bond buying scheme from 60 billion euros a month to 30 billion. Yet the market up to now has barely flickered in the run up to this; German 10-year bond yields, for example, are only 3 basis points or so higher than when the announcement was made. There could be many explanations and rationalizations for this - among them that the ECB is going to keep the program going for longer than expected - but the reality may simply be that euro zone bond markets are no longer scared of the dreaded T-word, tapering. There was a bit of a sell-off though relative to U.S. Treasuries at the start of 2017 when purchases went down from 80 billion to 60 billion euros a month so maybe investors might be watching out for another January sale. Euro zone bond yields may be in for New Year shock as ECB cuts buying To view a graphic on Ides of January?, Click on this link: reut.rs/2Cki5RJ 3/COMMODITY ODDITIES A sharp fall in Aussie dollar long positions speaks to the ongoing debate about how this and other hot-running commodity currencies will fare in 2018. The Aussie AUD= , Chile''s peso CLP= and South Africa''s rand ZAR= have all notched up gains of 8-11 percent versus the U.S. dollar in 2017 helped by a belief that improving global growth will boost demand for their main resources - copper, iron ore and other metals. Yet the ‘yield’ pick-up that the Aussie for example is famed for is close to disappearing -- the premium offered by Australian two-year bonds over their U.S. counterpart is already down to almost nothing and looks set to turn negative for the first time since 2000. Emerging market dollar-debt spreads are also at their slimmest since 2014. FILE PHOTO: Traders react at the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo So so far it looks like the commodity upswing, which has more legs according to analysts, might be the driver of these currencies even if the declining yield spreads begins to apply the brakes to their gains. Australian dollar set to seal best year since 2010, NZ$ lags - nL4N1OT10X Copper hits 4-year high as 2018 deficit looms - nL8N1OS0ZP To view a graphic on Commodity currencies vs yield, click on this link: reut.rs/2CiCj16 CRYPTOCRASH? Bitcoin is on track for its worst fortnight in almost four years from a record high of almost $20,000 all the way down to $14,000 where at least it seems to have stabilized for now. One of the worries is that moves to regulate the opaque, high-risk market are gaining momentum. South Korea said on Thursday it will impose additional measures while Israel’s top markets watchdog has said he wants to ban companies based on Bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Some leading cryptocurrency exchanges have also been struggling with frequent outages and online attacks that have crippled their services and left investors worried including hedge fund star Mike Novogratz who has shelved his plans to launch a crypto-fund. So after an eye-watering 14,000 percent price surge in 2017, is this the beginning of the end for Bitcoin whose crypto-rivals also now number more than 1,000, or is this just a consolidation period before the next price surge? Bitcoin recovers some losses after its worst week since 2013 S.Korea to impose new curbs on cryptocurrency trading India likens cryptocurrencies to Ponzi scheme, cautions investors To view a graphic on Bitcoin''s Banner 2017, click on this link reut.rs/2BTOphP 5/SPIKING THE PUNCH? With a new U.S. tax reduction plan signed and sealed and permanent tax cuts in place for corporations, the question now is whether managers will use the extra cash to hire more workers and fulfil the campaign promises of President Donald Trump to create jobs. The U.S. economy is already chugging along at a healthy clip with an unemployment rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The December read on U.S. unemployment may be too soon for jobs data to show any tax-cut inspired hiring but it will be closely watched for a broader health check nevertheless. The latest Reuters poll, for the report due on Jan. 5, has the rate holding steady at 4.1 percent. The ‘U-6’ rate, which measures both discouraged workers who stopped looking for a job and part-time workers looking for permanent employment, is hovering at its lowest point in 11 years. Strong U.S. job growth in November bolsters economy’s outlook To view a graphic on U.S. unemployment rate at 17-year low, click on this link reut.rs/2zNC09q Additional reporting by Dan Bases, Danilo Masoni, Jemima Kelly, Abhinav Ramnarayan and Vidya Ranganathan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-global-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUKKBN1EN19Y'|'2017-12-29T16:46:00.000+02:00'
'438698fa37ddd718f9cf6f20e7baf185ff7f91e5'|'Bank of Japan board members press for debate on rates, ETF purchases'|'December 28, 2017 / 2:33 AM / Updated 8 minutes ago Bank of Japan board members press for debate on rates, ETF purchases Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Some Bank of Japan board members have called for a debate about raising interest rates or lowering purchases of exchange-traded funds in response to the improving outlook, a summary of opinions expressed at last week’s policy meeting showed. FILE PHOTO - A Japanese flag flutters atop the Bank of Japan building under construction in Tokyo, Japan, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai If the outlook for prices and the economy is expected to improve the BOJ will need to consider whether “adjustments in the level of interest rates will be necessary,” one board member said. Another board member said the BOJ should examine the policy effects and the possible side effects of ETF purchases from “every angle” because of rising stock prices and earnings. Japan’s growth this year has exceeded some economists’ expectations, and its stock markets have rallied due to rising corporate earnings, causing some traders to question whether the BOJ should rein in its aggressive monetary easing. “Consumer spending is doing well, supported by rising stock markets. The BOJ’s policy focus is on interest rates, so it is only natural to question its purchases of risk assets,” said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. The summary of opinions does not identify individual speakers, and it is unclear whether a majority of the BOJ’s nine-person board shares these views. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda also said clearly last week that as long as consumer prices remain distant from the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target he does not want to raise rates. The BOJ board’s comments were published against a background of solid economic growth and robust industrial production. Japan’s industrial output rose a more-than-expected 0.6 percent in November, and retail sales rose 2.2 percent in November from a year earlier, more than the median forecast for a 1.2 percent increase, government data showed on Thursday. Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj/bank-of-japan-board-members-press-for-debate-on-rates-etf-purchases-idUKKBN1EM06M'|'2017-12-28T04:33:00.000+02:00'
'b65d95b6ac3fb417d4bd3d26486ae7043ea81e9b'|'India to leapfrog UK and France in 2018, Cebr predicts'|'December 26, 2017 / 12:10 AM / Updated 7 hours ago India to leapfrog UK and France in 2018, Cebr predicts Andy Bruce 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - India looks set to leapfrog Britain and France next year to become the world’s fifth-largest economy in dollar terms, a report showed on Tuesday. A general view of Mumbai''s central financial district, India June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) consultancy’s 2018 World Economic League Table painted an upbeat view of the global economy, boosted by cheap energy and technology prices. India’s ascent is part of a trend that will see Asian economies increasingly dominate the top 10 largest economies over the next 15 years. “Despite temporary setbacks ... India’s economy has still caught up with that of France and the UK and in 2018 will have overtaken them both to become the world’s fifth largest economy in dollar terms,” said Douglas McWilliams, Cebr deputy chairman. McWilliams said India’s growth had been slowed by restrictions on high-value banknotes and a new sales tax, a view shared by economists polled by Reuters. China is likely to overtake the United States as the world’s No.1 economy in 2032, Cebr said. “Because the impact of President Trump on trade has been less severe than expected, the USA will retain its global crown a year longer than we anticipated in the last report,” the report said. While Britain looks set to lag behind France over the next couple of years, Cebr predicted that Brexit’s effects on Britain’s economy will be less than feared, allowing it to overtake France again in 2020. Russia was vulnerable to low oil prices and too reliant on the energy sector, and looked likely to fall to 17th place among the world’s largest economies by 2032, from 11th now. A Reuters poll of economists in late October suggested global economic growth in 2018 looks likely to quicken slightly to 3.6 percent from 3.5 percent this year - with risks to that forecast lying on the upside. Editing by David Milliken'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-economy-league/india-to-leapfrog-uk-and-france-in-2018-cebr-predicts-idUKKBN1EK00F'|'2017-12-26T02:09:00.000+02:00'
'2c5373bbdb7dc4c6f3cf20af82a51bf0b70a1bfe'|'Russian court approves amicable agreement between Rosneft, Bashneft and Sistema - RIA'|'December 26, 2017 / 11:02 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Russian court approves settlement of Rosneft, Sistema dispute Reuters Staff 3 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court approved a settlement between the Sistema ( AFKS.MM ) conglomerate and Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft ROSNN.MM on Tuesday, ending their dispute over the Bashneft oil company, RIA news agency said. FILE PHOTO - The logo of Sistema JSFC is seen on its headquarters building in Moscow, September 17, 2014. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov The legal nod was the last step needed to seal the deal and draw a line under a confrontation that rattled investors. Under the pact announced by the companies on Friday, Sistema agreed to pay Bashneft ( BANE.MM ) 100 billion roubles (£1.29 billion) by March 30, 2018. Sistema, which groups the assets of Russian businessman Vladimir Yevtushenkov, was also allowed to access assets frozen during the dispute. The group said on Tuesday bailiffs had lifted restrictions on its access to dividends from its 31.76-percent-stake in MTS ( MTSS.MM ), Russia’s largest mobile operator. Blocks on other assets would be released gradually as Sistema made the payment in three instalments, Interfax news agency said. Slideshow (2 Images) The payments of 20 billion, 40 billion and 40 billion roubles were due on Dec. 29, Feb. 28, and March 30, Interfax news agency cited the judge as saying. The dispute centred on mid-sized oil company Bashneft and pitted powerful Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, against Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who some media reports suggest is close to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian government seized Sistema’s stake in Bashneft in 2014, saying its privatisation had been illegal. Rosneft later bought a controlling stake in Bashneft and in May filed its first lawsuit, alleging Sistema had removed assets from the company - something Sistema denies. In a second claim, Rosneft had also sought the return of dividends paid out by Bashneft between 2009 and 2014, when Sistema was its controlling shareholder. The legal claims made against Sistema by Russia’s top oil producer totalled $4.5 billion, prompting Sistema to retaliate against Rosneft by filing a $5.6 billion lawsuit. Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Andrew Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-rosneft-sistema/russian-court-approves-amicable-agreement-between-rosneft-bashneft-and-sistema-ria-idUKKBN1EK0O5'|'2017-12-26T13:02:00.000+02:00'
'05b6f6513ac1d0857480b886bdbe74b131289346'|'Homebase boss opts for three-month time-out back home in Australia'|'The UK boss of Bunnings is taking a surprise three-month break as the new Australian owner of Homebase struggles to crack Britain’s DIY market.Peter “PJ” Davis will start his extended period of leave in mid-January, a decision that will raise eyebrows in the City.The 59-year-old company veteran defended his decision to take time out. He said: “I’ve been away from my family in Australia for three years and I want to take a break and I’m going to take a break.Power tools and sausage sizzles: meet the new Aussie face of Homebase Read more“We have brought in a number of new senior executives so now seems like a good time. Then I’ll come back fresh as a daisy and get on with it.”Asked about the performance of Homebase, Davis said: “The business is tough.”Wesfarmers, the Australian conglomerate, took a gamble with its £340m purchase of the struggling Homebase chain in 2016. It intends to give the 250-store chain a facelift , spending £500m to turn it into a British version of the successful Australian DIY chain Bunnings , which is famous for low prices and customer service.But at last count Homebase’s figures made grim reading, with sales tumbling nearly 14% in the three months to September, a disastrous performance blamed on clearing discontinued stock. The chain lost £54m in the first full year of Wesfarmers’ ownership and that figure is expected to increase in the current financial year, which runs until June.Bunnings beware: the Homebase revolution is failing to shape up Read moreDamian McGloughlin, who joined from the rival DIY chain B&Q this year, would be stepping up as acting managing director, the company confirmed.Bunnings has also drafted in David Haydon from sister chain Officeworks to run Homebase. Haydon, who has worked for Wickes and B&Q, will be acting chief operating officer in Davis’s absence.With years of hard work and a lot of cash required to reinvent Homebase, there are questions mark over whether new Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott, who according to Australian press reports recently visited the UK, will be as committed to the expensive project as his predecessor Richard Goyder. John Gillam, who as boss of Bunnings was a keen supporter of the deal, has also left the group.Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bunnings on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAPAt Wesfarmers’ quarterly update in October, Bunnings’ managing director, Michael Schneider, said: “While the performance of Homebase is disappointing, we continue to be encouraged by the performance of the Bunnings pilots. We will patiently trial a range of formats, locations, and competitive environments to achieve proof of concept.”There are 15 Bunnings stores in the UK, with the most recent Homebase conversion in Bicester, Oxfordshire. At just 36,700 sq ft, the Bicester branch is half the size of its big box format Bunnings Warehouse and its success will provide a template for smaller stores in the chain.• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Corporate governance Business (Australia) DIY news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/29/homebase-boss-opts-three-month-break-back-home-australia-bunnings'|'2017-12-29T15:33:00.000+02:00'
'ae046793a6d3a6b5d216e79748a896f5f462a644'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Mexico peso slips on central bank inflation concern'|'(Rewrites with Mexican central bank comment on Mexican peso) By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO/MEXICO CITY, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Mexico''s peso weakened on Thursday after the central bank expressed concern the inflation outlook has deteriorated, adding the currency could depreciate if talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement are unfavorable. The minutes of the Mexican central bank''s Dec. 14 meeting reinforced a more hawkish tone under its new boss, with a majority of the four-person board saying that reaching the 3 percent inflation target will take longer than anticipated. The Mexican peso slipped 0.24 percent. Brazil''s currency was virtually flat and the Chilean peso was up 0.22 percent after data showed a widening U.S. trade gap offset figures demonstrating a continuingly firm labor market. Traders closely track U.S. economic data in search of clues to the pace of U.S. interest rate increases in coming months. Though employment has shown signs of consistent strength, mixed reports on economic activity have fueled bets that the Federal Reserve will be slow in tightening policy, supporting demand for high-yielding emerging market currencies. Traders mostly kept quiet, with little news on the horizon ahead of the New Year''s holiday. Brazil''s benchmark Bovespa stock index rose 0.4 percent, led by shares of loyalty program Smiles Fidelidade SA after it announced it will cut prices of tickets sold by airline Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes SA. Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2100 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1153.31 0.78 32.72 MSCI LatAm 2816.31 0.62 19.58 Brazil Bovespa 76402.08 0.43 26.86 Mexico IPC 48852.87 0.41 7.03 Chile IPSA 5550.93 0.99 33.71 Chile IGPA 27910.38 0.9 34.61 Argentina MerVal 30024.24 2.85 77.47 Colombia IGBC 11436.52 0.58 12.92 Venezuela IBC 1262.80 0 -96.02 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.3141 -0.02 -1.96 Mexico peso 19.7300 -0.24 5.14 Chile peso 614.53 0.22 9.14 Colombia peso 2981.8 -0.25 0.66 Peru sol 3.24 0.00 5.37 Argentina peso 19.2100 -3.98 -17.36 (interbank) Argentina peso 19.22 -0.88 -12.49 (parallel) (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Grant McCool) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-mexico-peso-slips-on-central-bank-inflation-concern-idINL1N1OT01J'|'2017-12-28T22:53:00.000+02:00'
'289a076b17aca2e926af38ba4dda2de778ff7797'|'Dilemma for ECB as German inflation hits five-year high'|'BERLIN (Reuters) - German inflation hit its highest level in five years in 2017, initial data showed on Friday, sowing the seeds of more discord among rate setters at the European Central Bank, where some policymakers want to stop pouring money into the euro zone.FILE PHOTO: European Union flags flutter outside the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo Consumer prices harmonised to make them compatible with inflation data in other European Union countries rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year in December, compared to the 1.4 percent forecast by analysts polled by Reuters.“This is the correction to the inflation course desired by the ECB,” said Alexander Krueger of Bankhaus Lampe. “And it is sustainable.”On the month, prices in Europe’s largest economy rose by 0.8 percent compared to November, faster than the 0.6 percent increase expected by analysts.German inflation figures are closely watched because of their influence on the ECB’s monetary policy.The central bank earlier this month stuck to its pledge to keep injecting funds into the euro zone despite opposition from rate setters who point to increased growth and inflation forecasts for the single currency as reasons to change course.German prices rose an average 1.7 percent over the year in harmonised terms, the largest increase since 2012, when inflation hit 2.1 percent.High food costs made the largest contribution to the headline price increases, data released by the Federal Statistics Office showed, followed by increased rents.OVERHEATING The ECB’s governing council holds a monetary policy meeting on Jan. 25.The German data will give hawkish members like Dutch central bank governor Klaas Knot more arguments in favour of unwinding the ECB’s 2.55 trillion euro ($3.06 trillion) bond-buying programme.The German economy is firing on all cylinders with both consumption and exports providing impulses this year, unfazed by political uncertainty created by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failure to form a government after an election in September.Some economists say the ECB’s low interest rate environment risks causing the German economy to overheat. The ECB says its policy is tailored for all 19 member states that use the euro.Merkel’s conservatives, who in January will launch talks with the centre-left Social Democrats on renewing a coalition that has ruled Germany since 2013, have promised to cut taxes.The Ifo economic institute warned on Friday that tax cuts would raise the risk of overheating as consumers will have more money to spend, providing even more fuel to the German economic engine.“Tax cuts would at this point in time have a pro-cyclical effect,” Ifo economist Timo Wollmerschaeuser told Spiegel magazine. “This will fuel the boom even further.”He said the next government should raise taxes to dampen consumption and provide some cooling for the economy, which would have a similar effect to an ECB rate hike that is unlikely to come any time soon.The German government has lifted its growth forecasts, projecting the economy to grow by 2 percent this year and 1.9 percent in 2018. The Bundesbank expects growth of 2.5 percent next year.($1 = 0.8338 euros)Additional reporting by Rene Wagner and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Toby Chopra '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/germany-economy-inflation/dilemma-for-ecb-as-german-inflation-hits-five-year-high-idINKBN1EN1GK'|'2017-12-29T19:18:00.000+02:00'
'3245a52d821583f94dbe475149a0c2d77454a4d9'|'Renova sells its stake in Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova Group has sold its stake in Russian gold producer Petropavlovsk, Renova spokesman Andrey Shtorkh told Reuters on Wednesday.“The deal is closed, we are not disclosing the details,” Shtorkh said. He declined to disclose the price of the deal and the buyer of the stake.Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Andrew Osborn '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-petropavlovsk-renova/renova-sells-its-stake-in-russian-gold-miner-petropavlovsk-idUSKBN1EL188'|'2017-12-27T23:34:00.000+02:00'
'20f52e4f50886804d63ef6d38ad7dd8431b81152'|'Media Markt founder and Ceconomy shareholder Kellerhals dies'|' 48 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Media Markt founder and Ceconomy shareholder Kellerhals dies Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German billionaire Erich Kellerhals, co-founder of electronics retail giant Media Markt and a major shareholder in its current owner Ceconomy CECG.DE>, has died at the age of 78, a spokesman for his holding company Convergenta said on Thursday. Kellerhals founded Media Markt with two business partners in 1979. Media-Saturn now has more than 1,000 stores in 15 European countries and is majority-owned by consumer electronics group Ceconomy, which split from Metro ( B4B.DE ) this year. “He was a remarkable entrepreneurial figure to whom we all owe much gratitude,” Media-Saturn’s management said. Kellerhals, who held a stake of just over 21 percent in Media-Saturn, had for years been at odds with Ceconomy over the management of the business, most notably its move into the fast-growing online market as well as the split from Metro. German magazine Der Spiegel reported this month that representatives of Kellerhals’s holding company Convergenta had refused to approve Media-Saturn’s annual accounts. Ceconomy shares rose almost 4 percent to a record high in early Thursday trading. A Frankfurt-based trader said this reflected hopes that Kellerhals’s heirs would be able to reach an agreement with the company’s management. Ceconomy said in a statement: “We send our sympathy and condolences to his family.” Kellerhals died on Dec. 25 surrounded by family, the Convergenta spokesman said. He leaves behind his wife and business partner of over 50 years, Helga, and a son. According to Forbes, Kellerhals was worth about $2 billion (£1.48 billion). Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, Anneli Palmen and Hakan Ersen; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ceconomy-kellerhals-death/media-markt-founder-and-ceconomy-shareholder-kellerhals-dies-idUKKBN1EM0UE'|'2017-12-28T11:47:00.000+02:00'
'c4ff772c47f6e632ec64e35ff02e7dca4b52890e'|'Dilemma for ECB as German inflation hits five-year high'|'December 29, 2017 / 2:23 PM / Updated an hour ago Dilemma for ECB as German inflation hits five-year high Joseph Nasr 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German inflation hit its highest level in five years in 2017, initial data showed on Friday, sowing the seeds of more discord among rate setters at the European Central Bank, where some policymakers want to stop pouring money into the euro zone. FILE PHOTO: European Union flags flutter outside the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo Consumer prices harmonized to make them compatible with inflation data in other European Union countries rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year in December, compared to the 1.4 percent forecast by analysts polled by Reuters. “This is the correction to the inflation course desired by the ECB,” said Alexander Krueger of Bankhaus Lampe. “And it is sustainable.” On the month, prices in Europe’s largest economy rose by 0.8 percent compared to November, faster than the 0.6 percent increase expected by analysts. German inflation figures are closely watched because of their influence on the ECB’s monetary policy. The central bank earlier this month stuck to its pledge to keep injecting funds into the euro zone despite opposition from rate setters who point to increased growth and inflation forecasts for the single currency as reasons to change course. German prices rose an average 1.7 percent over the year in harmonized terms, the largest increase since 2012, when inflation hit 2.1 percent. High food costs made the largest contribution to the headline price increases, data released by the Federal Statistics Office showed, followed by increased rents. OVERHEATING The ECB’s governing council holds a monetary policy meeting on Jan. 25. The German data will give hawkish members like Dutch central bank governor Klaas Knot more arguments in favor of unwinding the ECB’s 2.55 trillion euro ($3.06 trillion) bond-buying program. The German economy is firing on all cylinders with both consumption and exports providing impulses this year, unfazed by political uncertainty created by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failure to form a government after an election in September. Some economists say the ECB’s low interest rate environment risks causing the German economy to overheat. The ECB says its policy is tailored for all 19 member states that use the euro. The German government has lifted its growth forecasts, projected the economy to grow by 2 percent this year and 1.9 percent in 2018. The Bundesbank expects growth of 2.5 percent next year. Additional reporting by Rene Wagner and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Toby Chopra'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-inflation/dilemma-for-ecb-as-german-inflation-hits-five-year-high-idUKKBN1EN18H'|'2017-12-29T16:19:00.000+02:00'
'9702068d91421d4734244ac951eb56b588262599'|'UPDATE 1-Russia''s Mechel says has enough creditor support for restructure of $1 bln loan'|'December 29, 2017 / 5:58 PM / Updated 7 minutes ago UPDATE 1-Russia''s Mechel says has enough creditor support for restructure of $1 bln loan Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Adds details, quotes, context) MOSCOW, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Russian coal and steel producer Mechel said on Friday that talks with banks on restructuring a $1 billion syndicated loan had concluded successfully. Mechel, which is controlled by businessman Igor Zyuzin and came close to bankruptcy last year, had circulated the final draft of a restructuring proposal among its creditors last week. It needed the support of at least 75 percent of the loan holders - a pre-export facility (PXF) - for the deal to go ahead. “Mechel has obtained the agreement of over 75 percent by value and the majority in number of the PXF facilities’ participants to implement the restructuring of such facilities,” the company said in a statement. The restructuring would include extending the loan’s final maturity to the first quarter of 2022 and reducing the interest rate to the level of LIBOR + 3.5 percent annual interest with the possibility of bringing it down further to LIBOR + 3 percent annual interest. In November, Mechel said a number of international holders of its $1 billion syndicated pre-export finance loan had sold their stakes and that the company was in negotiations with new creditors about a restructuring deal. It is the final stage in a series of painful restructuring deals the company has had to negotiate in recent years. Mechel and its creditors plan to sign the restructuring documents in the first quarter of 2018. “We are deeply grateful to the syndicate of international banks that a mutually acceptable decision on restructuring this loan was found after several years of intensive negotiations,” Mechel Chief Executive Oleg Korzhov said in the statement. “This level of support — over 75 percent — is sufficient for the legal restructuring procedure. However, we will continue our talks in the hope that soon the restructuring plan will win the approval of all creditors.” Mechel recovered from the brink of bankruptcy last year with the support of Russia’s three largest state-controlled banks Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank. Chief Financial Officer Sergey Rezontov, who was involved throughout the restructuring process, has decided to step down for personal reasons, Mechel said in a separate statement on Friday. Higher coal and steel prices have supported Mechel’s revenues this year, boosting its standing in the negotiations. Its net debt, excluding fines and penalties on overdue amounts, totalled 463.8 billion roubles ($7.9 billion) at the end of September, broadly unchanged from the start of 2017. ($1 = 57.7825 roubles) (Reporting by Polina Devitt; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh, Polina Devitt and Polina Ivanova; Editing by Susan Fenton)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-mechel-loans/update-1-russias-mechel-says-has-enough-creditor-support-for-restructure-of-1-bln-loan-idUSL8N1OT2RM'|'2017-12-29T19:57:00.000+02:00'
'a427bc922dd674991f862fcd59611476f61b2cb2'|'Asian shares at 1-month highs, copper at 4-year peak'|'(Reuters) - World stocks trotted higher in light, holiday trading on Thursday, moving to record levels as rising industrial metals prices gestured to a strong finish to the year for risk assets.Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly MSCI’s world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, has returned more than 24 percent this year including dividends, and looks set for a record 14th month of gains. The index added 0.15 percent on Thursday.U.S. stocks opened higher, too, despite a weakening dollar.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 34.9 points, or 0.14 percent, to 24,809.2, the S&P 500 gained 1.12 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,683.74 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.58 points, or 0.09 percent, to 6,945.91.Equity markets have fed off a recovery this year in global economic growth, which has in turn lifted company earnings and commodity prices.Copper futures were at new four-year highs for an annual gain topping 30 percent, and the metal gained 0.87 percent to $7,303 a tonne on Thursday.“Commodities are driving trade in the final days of 2017,” analysts at London Capital Group said in a note.“Dr Copper is telling us we could be in for a strong 2018,” they added, referring to the perception of the industrial metal as a key barometer of economic growth.But the U.S. dollar appeared to ignore signs that the new year could bring higher rates and stronger growth in the United States, the world’s largest economy.The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major world currencies, fell 0.42 percent and was at four-week lows.The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, December 20, 2017. REUTERS/Staff/Remote “The dollar bears are getting their last licks in for 2017, perhaps a foreshadowing of things to come in 2018,” said Stephen Innes, head of Asia-Pacific trading at OANDA.COMMODITY-LINKED CURRENCIES RISE With the dollar on the backfoot and commodities flying, currencies of commodity-exporting countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa hit multi-week highs.Dollar weakness also helped give another boost to emerging markets, where stocks are up 34 percent this year and on pace for their best performance since 2009.MSCI’s emerging market stock index surged 0.81 percent. And the financial data company’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.86 percent higher.Another tailwind for world stocks is the fact that U.S. tax cuts, which will lead to significantly higher borrowing in coming years, have not so far translated into higher borrowing costs.In fact, U.S. 10-year Treasury yields have retreated after briefly breaking above the key 2.50 percent level last week. Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 4/32 in price to yield 2.4269 percent, from 2.412 percent late on Wednesday.Nonetheless, there was some downbeat economic news. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits was a bit higher than consensus estimates, according to seasonally adjusted figures published by the Labor Department on Thursday.JPMorgan Chase & Co economist Daniel Silver said in a note that the number “could be a signal that conditions in the labor market have deteriorated.”U.S. consumer confidence data released on Wednesday also came in below consensus estimates.Oil prices, meanwhile, are near 2-1/2-year highs and gold climbed to a near-one-month top.Additional reporting by Sujata Rao, Swati Pandey, Abhinav Ramnarayan and Kit Rees; Editing by Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-markets/asian-shares-at-1-month-highs-copper-at-4-year-peak-idINKBN1EM02N'|'2017-12-28T02:51:00.000+02:00'
'f73e808642b8679232850307b71e40b0373c963f'|'PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Dec 28'|'December 28, 2017 / 1:22 AM / Updated 19 minutes ago PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Dec 28 Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Dec 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. Headlines Rogue landlords face 30,000 stg fines in fresh crackdown on.ft.com/2zEcjrt Government urged to act over automation inequality on.ft.com/2zD7gaS Ascential buys Clavis to help extend reach into data analytics on.ft.com/2zE6lXO Overview The UK government is to press ahead with new measures intended to crack down on rogue landlords, including banning people with certain criminal convictions from renting out property, as it tries to win over younger voters in rented accommodation. The government should oversee a “managed acceleration” of automation to boost economic productivity and ensure robotics and artificial intelligence do not exacerbate wealth inequalities, the Institute for Public Policy Research said in a new report published on Thursday. Festival and exhibition group Ascential Plc agreed to buy ecommerce analytics provider Clavis Insight on Wednesday in a deal valued at at least $119 million. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Sandra Maler)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-press-ft/press-digest-financial-times-dec-28-idUSL4N1OS15W'|'2017-12-28T03:22:00.000+02:00'
'ce68ec13e96bbf5270df2dba5c333ad38c7b01b1'|'British office provider IWG confirms bid approach from Canada''s Onex, Brookfield'|' 39 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago British office provider IWG confirms bid approach from Canada''s Onex, Brookfield   British serviced office provider IWG Plc ( IWG.L ) said it has received a bid approach from Canadian private equity firm Onex and Brookfield Asset Management ( BAMa.TO ). FILE PHOTO: Gerald Schwartz Chairman and CEO of Onex Corporation addresses shareholders at the company''s annual general meeting in Toronto May 8, 2008. REUTERS/Fred Thornhill IWG, the company behind the Regus brand, did not disclose any further details about the possible cash offer. The business has a market capitalization of about 1.8 billion pounds ($2.4 billion). Reporting by Rahul B  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-iwg-m-a-brookfield-assetonex-corp/british-office-provider-iwg-confirms-bid-approach-from-canadas-onex-brookfield-idUKKBN1EL0DQ'|'2017-12-27T09:33:00.000+02:00'
'30519dc54b0d4882301fd39c4c7545f7e33a234d'|'German firms optimistic for 2018, worker shortage main brake'|'December 27, 2017 / 12:31 PM / Updated 8 hours ago German firms optimistic for 2018, worker shortage main brake Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - More than half of Germany’s industry associations have shrugged off worries about U.S. protectionist policies and Brexit, and are more positive about their situation than they were a year ago, a survey showed on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO - Workers are silhouetted on amongst scaffold at Potsdamer Platz square in Berlin, Germany, October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch The main factor holding firms back in Europe’s biggest economy is a shortage of skilled labour, the IW economic institute in Cologne said. Its poll showed that 26 of 48 industry associations were more upbeat than they were at the end of 2016 and more than two- thirds expected firms in their sector to produce more next year than this. “Despite the protectionist policies of U.S. President Donald Trump and prospect of Brexit, investment in Germany rose this year and will strengthen further in 2018,” said IW in a statement. Only two sectors were pessimistic - the food industry, which is worried about tougher competition and higher costs, and sections of the cooperative banking sector which are suffering from low interest rates and margins. The IW said 24 of the 47 industry associations which gave investment estimates, expect higher spending levels from their member companies. The main factor holding back firms is a shortage of skilled labour, a long-standing concern in Germany. “The production prospects in the German economy could be better if more skilled workers were available,” said IW Director Michael Huether. Most economists expect the German economy to grow for the ninth consecutive year in 2018. Earlier this month, the Ifo institute forecast 2.6 percent growth for next year, following an expected expansion of 2.3 percent for this year. A separate survey of 820 mostly family-owned businesses, showed that 69 percent expected improvements in their operating business next year, up from 59 percent a year ago. Reporting by Rene Wagner; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Andrew Bolton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy/german-firms-optimistic-for-2018-worker-shortage-main-brake-idUKKBN1EL0XN'|'2017-12-27T14:37:00.000+02:00'
'b2da89e42d608afdee4e995b46a93fb435529bc6'|'China''s Chongqing gas exchange aims to be Asia price benchmark'|'* Chongqing to launch trade of pipeline gas, LNG in H1 2018* Chongqing exchange rivals Shanghai hub, Japan Korean Marker* Govt price regulation, lack of infrastructures are barriersBy Chen Aizhu and Henning GloysteinCHONGQING, China/SINGAPORE, Dec 29 (Reuters) - China plans to launch a natural gas exchange in Chongqing in early 2018, aiming to create an Asian price benchmark as the nation’s use of the fuel surges amid its shift away from coal.China is the world’s third-biggest consumer of natural gas behind the United States and Russia. An exchange in its fast-growing market would be a strong contender for an Asian gas marker off which other supplies in the region could be priced.The Chongqing Oil and Gas Exchange - supported by state energy majors, and private and local government-backed gas distributors - would provide a trading platform for domestic output, pipeline imports from Central Asia and Myanmar, and imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).Chongqing is China’s second attempt to develop a traded gas market, having set up a similar exchange in 2015 in Shanghai.An Asian gas price benchmark to stand next to those of the United States and Europe is seen as a key missing piece in establishing a truly global market for natural gas.“The exchange is a product of the government’s reform push - to hand the pricing power to the market,” Exchange Chairman Zhang Bowen told Reuters.“The long-term goal is to build the exchange into a benchmark for Asia and to win China its deserved pricing power,” said Zhang, who was previously president of PetroChina Kunlun Energy.The exchange, led by a board of nine directors including a former PetroChina executive and an ex-senior state planning official, expects to launch electronically-based spot trading of pipeline gas and LNG imports in the first half of next year.Registered in Chongqing municipality in July with 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in capital, the exchange has a team of 30, including former market developers at state-owned energy giants CNOOC and Sinopec.“A China gas hub certainly looks attractive from a supply/demand and infrastructure perspective,” said Jeff Brown, president of consultancy Facts Global Energy (FGE).Chongqing exchange is appraising around 200 potential members, mostly from the consuming hub of eastern China, and will be open to foreign participation in the longer run, said exchange executives.PRICING CONTROLS A BARRIER Still, there are several challenges to overcome, for Chongqing or any other exchanges hoping to establish an active gas trading platform.“The biggest would be that the government is still heavily involved in ‘guiding’ prices. Access to pipelines and import terminals can also be difficult,” said Brown.China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) currently sets wholesale or city-gate gas prices by linking them to alternative fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel oil.Investors fear China could be as heavy-handed with gas as it has been with coal. Authorities have repeatedly intervened whenever coal prices have risen sharply, contributing to the virtual death of coal futures in Asia.China is also struggling to build the infrastructure needed to freely distribute gas supplies. An inadequate pipeline grid and insufficient storage helped to trigger a supply crunch this winter after millions of households were switched from using coal to gas for heating.“Pipelines need to be more connected and greater access allowed for third parties to the grid and terminals. More investments are needed to boost gas storage,” Song Dacai, chairman of the Chongqing exchange’s supervision committee and formerly a pricing official with the NDRC.The exchange, though, is confident rising demand and slowly expanding gas infrastructure will help it succeed.Chongqing, with its population of more than 30 million and proximity to Sichuan province’s large gas basin, already has a relatively well-developed gas grid, and distributors there are keen to participate on the exchange.“As an investor, we are keen to become a market maker, provided that suppliers are ready to post meaningful volumes for us to trade,” said Luo Jing, deputy head of gas development at China Gas Holdings, a piped gas distributor.State majors are expected to nominate available volumes on the exchange annually or bi-annually, said Zhang, the exchange chairman.BUT THERE ARE COMPETITORS Others that are trying to develop regional gas exchanges as the basis for an Asian benchmark include Shanghai Petroleum and Gas Exchange and the Japan Korea Marker (JKM) by S&P Global Platts.The Shanghai exchange, launched in 2015, has so far failed to attract much trading interest. China’s financial hub, though, is seen as a potential oil and gas trading centre and likely home of China’s long delayed crude oil derivatives contract.In many way, the JKM, an LNG price assessment, is seen as the strongest contender to become a regional gas benchmark.“JKM seems to be gaining steam as an Asian gas price ... Since LNG is the most commoditised gas in Asia, it seems best placed to emerge as the Asia price marker,” FGE’s Brown said.($1 = 6.5420 Chinese yuan)Reporting by Chen Aizhu in CHONGQING and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Tom Hogue '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/china-gas-exchange/chinas-chongqing-gas-exchange-aims-to-be-asia-price-benchmark-idINL4N1OK1ZJ'|'2017-12-29T04:19:00.000+02:00'
'bebd46a8048e14a6926cf9e9866a03badf7b5f4d'|'U.S. oil prices climb to highest since mid-2015 on surprise output drop'|'December 29, 2017 / 2:19 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Oil up at year end, U.S. crude hits highest since mid-2015 Nia Williams 4 Min Read CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices rose above $60 a barrel on the final trading day of the year, touching their highest since mid-2015, as an unexpected fall in American output and a decline in commercial crude inventories stoked buying in generally thin trading. International benchmark Brent crude futures also rose, supported by ongoing supply cuts by top producers OPEC and Russia as well as strong demand from China. Oil prices are set to close 2017 with strong gains on signs the global glut that has dogged the market since 2014 is shrinking. Brent is up 17 percent since the beginning of the year and U.S. West Texas Intermediate is 12 percent higher. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures hit $60.32, the highest since June 2015. At 1641 GMT, they were up 32 cents at $60.16 a barrel. Brent crude futures rose 41 cents to $66.57 a barrel. Brent broke through $67 this week for the first time since May 2015. WTI prices were supported by data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration late on Thursday showing domestic oil production declined last week to 9.75 million barrels per day (bpd) from 9.79 million bpd the previous week. Earlier this year, oil prices slumped on concerns that rising crude production from Nigeria, Libya and elsewhere would undermine output cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. Prices have rallied nearly 50 percent since the middle of the year on robust demand and strong compliance with the production limits. “That trend is likely to continue into 2018 and worldwide oil inventories will continue their decline,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. Lipow said he expected U.S. crude prices to creep up to around $63 a barrel by the end of next year, while Brent would remain around $67 a barrel as U.S. oil exports rise to record levels. U.S. output is up almost 16 percent since mid-2016, but still shy of the 10 million bpd most analysts had expected by year end, which would trail only top exporter Saudi Arabia and top producer Russia. Analysts expect U.S. production to top 10 million bpd in the next few weeks and to keep growing, limiting efforts by other producers to cap global supplies. “The U.S. shale impact is now encroaching on uncharted territory,” analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote this month, saying it had “redrawn the global crude flow map.” WTI prices were further boosted by an EIA report of a 4.6 million barrel weekly drop in U.S. commercial crude storage levels. Inventories are down by almost 20 percent from historic highs last March, and well below this time last year or in 2015. A YEAR OF CUTS In international markets, China has issued crude oil import quotas totaling 121.32 million tonnes for 44 companies in its first batch of allowances for 2018. China’s imports at around 8.5 million bpd, already the world’s biggest, are expected to hit another record in 2018 as new refining capacity is brought online and Beijing allows more independent refiners to import crude. Pipeline outages in Libya and the North Sea have supported oil prices, although both disruptions are expected to be resolved by early January. The Forties pipeline was already pumping close to normal levels, trading sources said. To view a graphic on Global oil supply and demand, click: reut.rs/2C9rqyC To view a graphic on U.S. oil production and storage levels, click: reut.rs/2BS5Efp Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore, Dmitry Zhdannikov in London and David Gaffen in New York; Editing by David Evans and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-climb-to-highest-since-mid-2015-on-surprise-output-drop-idUSKBN1EN05I'|'2017-12-29T04:17:00.000+02:00'
'e3f7c5d576c7a19a71a045fce9c20260d05a6eed'|'UK to sink to the bottom of OECD wage growth index in 2018 - Money - The Guardian'|'Britain is set to have the worst wage growth of any wealthy nation next year, ranking behind Italy, Greece and Hungary, according to analysis by the TUC .The UK is forecast to come bottom from 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development wealthy nations for wage performance in 2018, according to the study of OECD figures by the unions’ umbrella group.British workers are expected to see their earnings decrease by 0.7% in 2018 when taking account of inflation, which has surged in the past year as a result of the pound’s weakness since the EU referendum, pushing up the cost of importing food and fuel.Only two other OECD nations – Spain and Italy – are expected to record negative wage growth, although both still outperform the UK.In contrast, Hungary is expected to come top for real wage growth next year, with pay set to accelerate by 4.9%. The eurozone is forecast to see growth in earnings of 0.6%.In her new year message for 2018, ahead of the TUC’s 150th anniversary in June, general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Real wages are still lower than they were when the financial crisis hit in 2008. And 2018 is set to be bleaker still.”The analysis comes after the Resolution Foundation said this week it expects real wages in Britain to stagnate throughout 2018. The thinktank forecast growth in earnings to be zero over the course of the year, meaning the pressure on living standards is set to continue.Average weekly earnings have lagged behind inflation for eight months straight this year, despite a recent slight pick-up in wage growth. The annual increase in the three months to October was 2.3%, while the most recent rate of inflation in the year to November was 3.1%.Taken over the past decade since the financial crisis, pay has failed to grow above inflation and has not yet returned to the average levels seen in the years before the credit crunch. O’Grady said that on current projections, average wages will not recover until 2025 – a full 17 years after the pay squeeze began.Meanwhile, business trade body the CBI warned the government it must move at speed to secure a transitional deal with Brussels to smooth the exit from the EU.The head of the CBI, Carolyn Fairbairn, said failure to reach a deal by the end of March would jeopardise jobs and investment. She said companies had put their plans on hold amid political uncertainty, while firms in other nations had moved ahead with major infrastructure projects and adapting to digital technology.Writing in her end of year letter to more than 190,000 members, she appeared to criticise cabinet infighting over Brexit . “From our politicians we need unity, clarity and certainty, not a different opinion every day,” she said.• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk , or sign up to the daily Business Today email here .Topics Pay OECD Economics TUC Trade unions Inflation news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/29/uk-to-sink-to-the-bottom-of-oecd-wage-growth-index-in-2018'|'2017-12-29T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'c0b0310faac07099165dcc1e3defcc1944948b2d'|'JGBs dip on stronger equities, benchmark yield little changed on the year'|'TOKYO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Japanese government bond prices dipped on Friday, weighed by stronger Tokyo equities and weaker U.S. Treasuries.Caution ahead of a 10-year JGB auction scheduled early in January also pressured the longer-dated maturities.The 10-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point to 0.055 percent. The benchmark yield was poised to end the year almost unchanged, having been stuck in a narrow range under the Bank of Japan’s yield curve control scheme.Japan’s Nikkei share average rose on its final trading day of the year on Friday as banking shares rebounded, putting the index on track to gain nearly 20 percent in 2017.U.S. Treasury prices dipped on Thursday, giving back some of Wednesday’s strong month-end extension rally, after the Treasury Department sold $28 billion of seven-year notes to moderate demand. (Reporting by the Tokyo markets team; Editing by Eric Meijer) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-bonds/jgbs-dip-on-stronger-equities-benchmark-yield-little-changed-on-the-year-idINL4N1OT1S0'|'2017-12-29T01:48:00.000+02:00'
'cc9f40de5c0d4755701e3e318d2712c6fdfba27c'|'Siemens to gauge interest of state funds in Healthineers IPO - CEO'|'December 31, 2017 / 12:26 PM / Updated 2 hours ago Siemens to gauge interest of state funds in Healthineers IPO: CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens will test the appetite of sovereign wealth funds ahead of the planned listing of its healthcare unit Healthineers next year, its chief executive told a German weekly, possibly to secure anchor investors for the flotation. Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser attends the company''s annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder - RC12652D94E0 The listing of a minority of the unit, which makes X-ray and MRI machines, is set to take place in the first half of 2018 and is expected to value Healthineers as a whole at around 40 billion euros ($48 billion). Siemens is expected to sell 15-25 percent of Healthineers, sources have said, implying stock worth 6-10 billion euros could be sold - Germany’s biggest share offering since Deutsche Telekom in 1996. “Internal preparations are going well and we are still planning the listing in the first half of 2018, if markets play along,” Joe Kaeser told Frankfurt Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview published on Sunday. “In any case, we are planning to test the interest of relevant anchor shareholders, including sovereign wealth funds.” Asked whether this included Norway and China, home to the world’s largest and third-largest state funds, respectively, Kaeser said: “We will probably cover the range of the most important state funds, yes. The advantage would be that we would gain anchor investors. The disadvantage: the free float of shares is not as high.” The move is designed to enable the unit to raise its own funds for takeovers and investments in the healthcare sector as well as crystallizing its standalone value, removing some of the “conglomerate discount” that weighs on Siemens’ valuation. In 2016, utility RWE won BlackRock as an anchor investor in the initial public offering of its Innogy unit. RWE ended up selling a 23.2 percent stake in the networks, renewables and retail unit. Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-healthcare-ipo/siemens-to-gauge-interest-of-state-funds-in-healthineers-ipo-ceo-idUKKBN1EP0BO'|'2017-12-31T14:26:00.000+02:00'
'239a23b62099ffae05fbe460573ccffabbee9be4'|'Goldman to take one-time $5 billion hit to profit from new tax law'|'December 29, 2017 / 3:11 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago Goldman to take one-time $5 billion hit to profit from new tax law Reuters Staff 3 Min Read (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ) said on Friday it expects fourth-quarter earnings to decrease by about $5 billion (£3.70 billion), as the bank looks to take advantage of a new tax law that makes it cheaper for U.S. companies to repatriate profits. A Goldman Sachs sign is displayed inside the company''s post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Around two-thirds of the $5 billion decrease is due to repatriation tax, the cost of moving money from foreign countries to the U.S., Goldman said in a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ( bit.ly/2C8j4br ) However, the impact of the tax legislation may differ from the estimate, according to the bank. Congress’ U.S. tax overhaul bill, which President Donald Trump signed into law last week, significantly cuts the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. According to the new law, profits brought back to the United States would not be taxed at the full 35-percent corporate tax rate that would normally be due. Instead, those profits would be taxed at only 15.5 percent for cash assets and 8 percent for illiquid assets. Apple Inc ( AAPL.O ) is likely to be a big beneficiary of the overhaul since it allows the company bring back its $252.3 billion foreign cash pile without a major tax hit. Drugmaker Amgen Inc ( AMGN.O ) last week said it expects to incur tax expenses of $6 billion to $6.5 billion over time as it repatriates cash. Several other companies have also warned of a one-time loss due to the tax overhaul, Delta Airlines ( DAL.N ) said it may take a hit of around $200 million to tax expense. Big European banks such as Barclays ( BARC.L ), UBS Group ( UBSG.S ) and Credit Suisse Group ( CSGN.S ) said the new tax rules will cost each between $1.3 billion to $3 billion. JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ), Wells Fargo ( WFC.N ) and Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) did not immediately respond to requests for comments. Bank of America ( BAC.N ) said in a public filing last week it expects net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2017 to reduce by about $3 billion, mainly due to lower valuation of some deferred tax assets. ( bit.ly/2C9kqCu ) Goldman Sachs shares were down marginally down in early trading. Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tax-goldman-sachs/goldman-to-take-one-time-5-billion-hit-to-profit-from-new-tax-law-idUKKBN1EN1BJ'|'2017-12-29T17:10:00.000+02:00'
'1f5b9f7e4df57d65499abb79ba6db5d247b5882b'|'London Stock Exchange''s company floats hit 3-year high at 15 billion pounds'|'LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) raised 15 billion pounds ($20.28 billion) from 106 initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2017, a 63 percent increase compared to last year and the highest level for three years.Money raised from the exchange’s listings was up 164 percent compared to 5.7 billion pounds in 2016, the LSE said in a statement on Friday.It added that 20 North American companies chose London for their listing, including Dallas-based oil and gas company Kosmos Energy ( KOS.L ).London has seen a pick-up in listings this year after uncertainty around Britain’s future outside of the EU single market in 2016 dampened investor confidence and caused a number of initial public offerings (IPO) to be postponed or canceled.“Despite the debates about Brexit, London’s highly global, deep and liquid capital markets continue to be the ideal partner for funding the world’s growth,” Chief Executive Officer Nikhil Rathi said.“It is particularly significant that the number of international listings in London is up, with North American listings up nearly seven-fold on last year,” Rathi said.The listing of 35 investment companies drove total IPOs value higher, with 5 billion pounds raised from vehicles including real estate investment trusts or special purpose acquisition firms, compared to just 644 million pounds in 2016.However, the average share performance of newly listed companies in 2017 was down 34 percent year on year, the LSE said.Raising $1.5 billion, the largest single London float in 2017 was Russia’s En+ Group ( ENPLq.L ), which manages tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum and hydropower businesses.Broadcasting masts company Arqiva abandoned plans to raise 1.5 billion pounds and business services firm TMF scrapped a planned float of up to 1.3 billion pounds in favor of an outright sale to a private equity firm.Reporting by Clara Denina; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lse-ipo-performance/london-stock-exchanges-company-floats-hit-3-year-high-at-15-billion-pounds-idUSKBN1EN1BW'|'2017-12-29T17:32:00.000+02:00'
'89e279d9b4a03c83f6fccbd21658ba16d7bbd6c9'|'Oil prices stay near high on strong U.S. refinery runs, China data'|'December 28, 2017 / 1:50 AM / Updated 25 minutes ago Oil prices stay near high on strong U.S. refinery runs, China data David Gaffen 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Thursday but stayed close to their highest in 2-1/2 years, as data showed strong demand for crude imports in China and on increased refining activity in the United States that drew more crude from inventories. FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Amuay refinery complex which belongs to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in Punto Fijo, Venezuela November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo Trading was typically thin at year end, with many traders on vacation. The U.S. Energy Department said crude stocks fell 4.6 million barrels in the latest week. Inventories excluding the nation’s strategic reserve have declined more than 11 percent in the last year. U.S. refining runs increased, pushing overall capacity use among the nation’s refiners to 95.7 percent, highest in December dating to 1998, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Refiners have profited in recent months as the spread widened between U.S. crude and Brent futures prices. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 slipped 13 cents to $59.51 a barrel as of 11:35 a.m. EST (1635 GMT), a day after briefly touching $60 a barrel. Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell 11 cents to $66.33 a barrel. This week, WTI broke through $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015, while Brent breached $67 for the first time since May 2015. A Reuters monthly poll showed analysts expect Brent crude to stay close to $60 in 2018. [O/POLL] Oil markets have tightened after a year of production cuts led by Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. OPEC cuts kicked off last January and are scheduled to continue throughout 2018. Countering those cutbacks, U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has soared more than 16 percent since mid-2016 and is approaching 10 million bpd, trailing only OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and Russia. In the most recent week, U.S. production dipped modestly to 9.75 million bpd from 9.79 mln bpd the previous week. In early trade, prices were supported by China’s release of strong import quotas for 2018. China’s crude inventories in November hit a seven-year low of 26.15 million tonnes, Xinhua data showed. Pipeline outages in Libya and the North Sea have also supported prices. Libyan oil supplies were disrupted by an attack on a pipeline this week and flows towards the port of Es Sider were reduced by about 70,000 bpd on Thursday. In the North Sea, the 450,000 bpd capacity Forties pipeline system was shut this month after a crack was found. Both pipelines are expected to return to normal operations over the new year or in early January. For a graphic on Global oil supply and demand, click: reut.rs/2C9rqyC For a graphic on Crude oil trading, click: reut.rs/2BJPSTL Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Goodman and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/oil-prices-near-2015-highs-on-tight-market-idUKKBN1EM04P'|'2017-12-28T19:17:00.000+02:00'
'83a76a4cc33c74c775c9007795c448740cb291b3'|'UK economy boosted by wage growth and rising output, two surveys say'|'The British economy has received a double boost from reports showing signs of modest wage growth and accelerating output from businesses.According to a study by the jobs search engine Adzuna , the average salary for vacancies advertised online in November was 1.2% higher than the same month a year before – the first annual increase recorded by the website since June 2015. Meanwhile, a survey by the business group the CBI found firms reporting a rise in economic output.The studies are likely to reassure the Bank of England that the UK can cope with last month’s rise in interest rates – the first in a decade – when the central bank increased the cost of borrowing from 0.25% to 0.5% .The evidence of pay growth could also help it to raise rates again next year because higher wages could lead to firms hiking the cost of their goods and services to accommodate paying staff more money.World''s richest 500 see their wealth increase by $1tn this year Read moreThe CBI survey – based on 642 responses across the distribution, manufacturing and service sectors – showed the balance of firms reporting a rise in economic output at +19% in the three months to December, compared with a balance of +6% in the three months to November. Growth was broad-based, with all sectors reporting robust volume growth at a pace above their long-run averages.However, the lobby group, which represents 190,000 businesses, warned that growth will probably slip to a more moribund pace over the coming months, stalling in the service sector and slowing elsewhere.Anna Leach, the CBI’s head of economic intelligence, said: “Private-sector firms are enjoying healthy activity levels as we approach the year end, but mediocre expectations for growth underline the ongoing challenges facing companies.”Adzuna said the average advertised annual salary in November was £32,598 across the UK. It said salaries had increased at a rate of 2.2% from a year before in London to stand at £39,457, while there was a decrease of 12.2% for graduates. Average pay for graduates was £21,814.UK''s Christmas workers earning less than 10 years ago, study shows Read moreHowever, the growth in wages still trails the consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation, which rose at an annual rate of 3.1% last month. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said this week that earnings growth when accounting for inflation is expected to be zero over the course of 2018 as a whole, meaning the pressure on living standards is set to continue.So far, prices have been rising almost entirely as a consequence of the pound’s weakness since the EU referendum in June 2016, due to the higher cost of importing food and fuel to Britain.While the Bank’s first rate hike last month will help curb further price growth, it still expects the CPI to be above its target rate of 2% over the next three years.The Bank also believes the growth potential of the economy before prices begin to spiral has been lowered since the Brexit vote, meaning signals of accelerating economic growth could also push up the CPI.Topics Economics Pay Productivity Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Economic growth (GDP) Work & careers news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/28/uk-economy-boosted-wage-growth-rising-output-adzuna-cbi-surveys'|'2017-12-28T07:01:00.000+02:00'
'35c6e04bd85886af515b354aa58e0a27c1047a44'|'Airlines can''t blame computer models for higher fares, German cartel chief says'|'December 28, 2017 / 9:52 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Airlines can''t blame computer models for higher fares, German cartel chief says Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Airlines shouldn’t be allowed to hide behind computer-based models when justifying higher fares, the head of the German cartel office said in an interview published on Thursday, as authorities review allegations of a recent spike in prices. Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet is seen at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt In November, the cartel office asked national airline Lufthansa for information on prices after receiving complaints about rising fares following the collapse of Air Berlin, Germany’s second largest carrier. Lufthansa said at the time it was cooperating fully with the cartel office and had not changed its pricing structures, which comprise up to 26 different fares per flight and were automatically determined by software. “Such algorithms aren’t written by god in the heavens,” Andreas Mundt told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. “Companies can’t hide behind algorithms.” A Lufthansa spokesman said on Thursday the airline hadn’t increased fares on domestic flights or flights within in Europe in more than a year. He added the insolvency of Air Berlin had eliminated 100 planes and 60,000 seats a day. “As a result, available flights are booked more quickly,” he said. “It can be the case that with booking at short notice on some routes that only relatively more expensive booking classes are available.” Lufthansa’s chief executive, Carsten Spohr, addressed the cartel office investigation in a recent interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, saying the airline would be absolved of any wrongdoing. “It is good because in the process of the investigation it will be determined that we aren’t taking advantage of any short-term dominant market position,” Spohr was quoted as saying. Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/germany-airlines-pricing/airlines-cant-blame-computer-models-for-higher-fares-german-cartel-chief-says-idINKBN1EM0SB'|'2017-12-28T11:50:00.000+02:00'
'882f945938d2b5d4940448ebeea641690d2c069f'|'China commerce ministry says disappointed at European probe into e-bike exporters'|'December 28, 2017 / 3:05 AM / Updated 6 hours ago China commerce ministry says disappointed at European probe into e-bike exporters Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s commerce ministry said it is disappointed at the European Commission’s decision to launch a probe into Chinese exporters of electronic bicycles, adding that Europe misunderstands the Chinese market. The European Commission launched an investigation on Dec. 21 into whether Chinese exporters of e-bikes benefited from excessive state subsidies, the latest in a string of European probes into Chinese exports ranging from solar panels to steel. China’s e-bike market is fully market-based, said ministry spokesman Gao Feng at a regular briefing in Beijing on Thursday. The European Bicycle Manufacturing Association wants the European Commission to impose duties on Chinese e-bikes. “China hopes the European Union will respect World Trade Organization rules,” Gao said. Europeans buy some 20 million bicycles per year, of which about 10 percent are now e-bikes, with the potential to rise to a quarter of sales within five years. Chinese producers, including Battle-Fushida, Aima and Tianjin Golden Wheel, sold e-bikes worth some 307 million euros in the EU in the year to Sept. 30. Reporting by Elias Glenn; Writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Editing by Michael Perry'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-china-bicycles/china-commerce-ministry-says-disappointed-at-european-probe-into-e-bike-exporters-idUKKBN1EM07K'|'2017-12-28T04:59:00.000+02:00'
'2efe235f9bf5ee24a037b1efdef627f3950aa3c9'|'U.S. jobless claims steady in latest week'|'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week and the underlying trend remained consistent with a tightening labor market.FILE PHOTO - A man listens to a job interviewer during a screening session for seasonal jobs at Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York March 4, 2014. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/Files U.S. workers filed 245,000 initial claims for state unemployment benefits during the week that ended Dec. 23, according to seasonally adjusted figures published by the Labor Department on Thursday. Data for the prior week was unrevised.Since mid-October, claims have been confined to a range of 223,000 to 252,000.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims edging down to 240,000 in the latest week. Last week marked the 147th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller.The labor market is widely seen as near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Labor market tightness and a strengthening economy encouraged the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates earlier this month for a third time this year. The U.S. central bank has forecast three rate hikes for 2018.The economy added 228,000 jobs in November, well above the roughly 100,000 jobs per month needed to keep up with growth in the working-age population.The Labor Department said claims-taking procedures continued to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria battered the islands. The processing of claims in Puerto Rico was still not back to normal.Last week, the four-week moving average of initial claims, which is seen as a measure of labor market trends because it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 1,750 to 237,750.The claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid increased 7,000 to 1.94 million in the week ended Dec. 16. The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims fell 4,250 to 1.92 million.Reporting by Jason LangeEditing by Chizu Nomiyama '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy-jobs/u-s-jobless-claims-steady-in-latest-week-idINKBN1EM17Y'|'2017-12-28T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'6ad0e79a08cff7690fdaac3e031271806829adb6'|'Nikkei''s gains unravel as yen rises, banks extend losses'|'TOKYO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average erased its earlier gains on Thursday, as the yen gained and banking shares extended their losses.The Nikkei finished down 0.6 percent at 22,783.98, while the broader Topix slipped 0.6 percent to 1,819.03.Friday is the last trading day of 2017, with the Nikkei on track to gain more than 19 percent.The banking subindex slumped 1.4 percent, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group down 2.2 percent.The dollar skidded 0.5 percent against the yen to a more than one-week low of 112.80.Idemitsu Kosan Co shares dropped 2.6 percent. The oil company’s founding family, locked in a battle with the firm’s management over a proposed integration with smaller rival Showa Shell Sekiyu, said it had further increased its stake in Idemitsu by about half a percentage point to about 28.5 percent. Showa Shell’s shares fell 1.7 percent.Nippon Sheet Glass Co fell 3.5 percent, a day after it cut its fiscal year net profit forecast.The few gaining sectors included iron and steel, up 0.1 percent, non-ferrous metals, up 0.6 percent, and electric & gas shares, up 0.3 percent.Underpinning market sentiment in the morning session, data released early on Thursday showed Japan’s industrial output rose more than expected in November and companies forecast a further increase in December as robust overseas demand continues to support factory activity and broader economic growth.As the economic outlook improves, some Bank of Japan board members have called for a debate about raising interest rates or lowering purchases of exchange-traded funds, a summary of opinions expressed at last week’s policy meeting showed.Separate capital flows data showed foreign investors turned net buyers of Japanese stocks for the week ending on Dec. 23.Reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by Sam Holmes & Shri Navaratnam '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-close/nikkeis-gains-unravel-as-yen-rises-banks-extend-losses-idUSL4N1OS25K'|'2017-12-28T08:26:00.000+02:00'
'534f440f0d7f8d457cb44649fd19883d0daf4b39'|'Venezuela oil-backed cryptocurrency to launch in days -government'|'December 28, 2017 / 10:51 PM / Updated 22 minutes ago Venezuela oil-backed cryptocurrency to launch in days -government Deisy Buitrago , Girish Gupta 3 Min Read CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s cryptocurrency will launch within days and be backed by 5.3 billion barrels of oil worth $267 billion, in a bid to offset a deep financial crisis, the socialist government said on Thursday. File Photo - Venezuela''s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during the celebrations of the 13rd anniversary of the creation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples'' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) and Act of Solidarity with Venezuela, in Havana, Cuba, December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer President Nicolas Maduro surprised many earlier this month when he announced the “petro” cryptocurrency, to be backed by OPEC member Venezuela’s oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves. Despite the scepticism of cryptocurrency experts who do not think Venezuela has the wherewithal to pull it off, communications minister Jorge Rodriguez said the first petro offering would come within days. “Camp one of the Ayacucho block will form the initial backing of this cryptocurrency,” Rodriguez told reporters, referring to part of Venezuela’s southern Orinoco Belt. “It contains 5.342 billion certified barrels of oil. We’re talking about backing of $267 billion,” said Rodriguez, adding that that differentiated the petro from other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Miners were already lined up, he said, without giving more details. Cryptocurrencies are obtained by users setting up computers to do complex mathematical calculations in a process known as mining. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized and their success relies on transparency, clear rules and equal treatment of all involved. Venezuela gave no technical details about the petro. The government appears to be hoping the petro will offset a collapse in Venezuela’s currency - 97 percent in one year against the U.S. dollar on the black market - and isolate the country from the U.S. dollar and Washington. Rodriguez also hopes to use the petro as part of a mechanism to pay international providers, many of whom have stopped supplying to Venezuela given its inability to pay its debts. With Venezuela’s 30 million people suffering shortages, runaway prices and a fourth year of recession, Maduro has long blamed the U.S. government for an “economic war” against it. Critics say incompetent policies are to blame for Venezuela’s economic mess. Earlier on Thursday, Maduro blamed U.S. pressure on Portugal for blocking imports of pork leading to a shortage over Christmas in Venezuela. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed various political and financial sanctions on Maduro’s government, accusing senior officials of rights abuses and corruption. “It will be materially impossible for the dictatorial financial centres of the world to intervene against this initiative,” said Rodriguez, citing the Portugal case. “It will allow us to overcome any financial blockade.” Cryptocurrencies have grabbed global attention partly because of the remarkable rise in the price of Bitcoin, making millionaires of many early investors, including some in Venezuela who used Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to shield themselves from strict foreign exchange controls which economists blame for the crisis. Additional reporting by Corina Pons.; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-venezuela-economy-cryptocurrency/venezuela-oil-backed-cryptocurrency-to-launch-in-days-government-idUKKBN1EM1ZZ'|'2017-12-29T00:50:00.000+02:00'
'84d13222c50204dac0153a01b099f5f197c271ae'|'RPT-Brexit spurs near doubling of UK domestic deal-making'|'December 29, 2017 / 8:00 AM / Updated 2 hours ago RPT-Brexit spurs near doubling of UK domestic deal-making Reuters Staff (Repeats story without change to text) * Volume of UK domestic M&A jumps to $68 billion in 2017 * Inbound and outbound UK deal volumes slip * Companies bulking up to counter uncertainty By Ben Martin LONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Companies seeking to “bulk up” to offset the uncertainty caused by Britain’s looming EU exit helped to spur a near doubling of domestic mergers and acquisition activity this year, according to Thomson Reuters data. The volume of UK domestic deals surged to $68 billion from $34.3 billion in 2016 as the number of deals between British groups jumped from 1,480 to 1,681, the highest level since 2008, the data show. They included online gambling company GVC’s purchase of bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral for as much as 3.9 billion pounds ($5.24 billion) and Hammerson’s 3.4 billion pound acquisition of rival shopping centre operator Intu Properties. It comes against a backdrop of often fractious Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels this year, talks that are yet to provide businesses with clarity about Britain’s future relationship with Europe. Bosses at British companies have also been eyeing new U.S. President Donald Trump, whose decisions have repercussions for businesses around the world. “At the beginning of 2017 there were a lot of questions about what was going to happen to the M&A market, given the global uncertainty caused by Brexit and the new U.S. president,” said Nick Cline, a London-based M&A partner at law firm Latham & Watkins, who said the uncertain environment had acted as a driver for some deals rather than stifling activity. “There are a lot of corporates out there in the UK and Europe who are seeing the changing landscape and as a result are even more focused on what they’re going to do to be tomorrow’s leaders.” The jump in domestic deal-making contrasted with falls in both inbound and outbound UK M&A volumes, the data show, with the former slipping 12.9 percent to $115.1 billion and the latter down 9.4 percent to $112.5 billion. That meant overall M&A volumes with any UK involvement dipped 0.7 percent to $375 billon, a softer decline than the 1.4 percent slide in global deal volumes to $3.5 trillion, according to the data. DEARTH OF BLOCKBUSTER DEALS Philip Noblet, HSBC’s co-head of global banking in the UK, said that “a lot of the obvious sector consolidation deals that people expected to happen” were struck this year and were “driven by the Brexit climate which is prompting companies to bulk up”. However, a dearth of blockbuster deals meant that overall M&A volumes involving any British companies remained much lower than in 2015, when they totalled $605.5 billion, swelled by Anheuser-Busch Inbev’s $110 billion acquisition of FTSE 100 brewer SABMiller and Royal Dutch Shell’s $53 billion tie-up with BG Group. “It’s hard to see how any more of the really big deals are going to happen going forward without there being quite significant competition issues,” said Noblet. Kraft Heinz’s $143 billion attempt to buy consumer goods giant Unilever in February, which would have been one such megadeal, failed within days when the U.S. food company walked away after the FTSE 100 business rejected its offer. Potential British government scrutiny of the deal was a concern raised during talks between the two companies, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time. Since Theresa May became prime minister in July 2016, Britain has taken a more cautious approach towards foreign acquisitions of British assets. In October, the government proposed new rules to give it more say over deals in the defence and technology sectors, although Cline said the government’s change of tack had not represented “a step-change this year in the way the UK looks at deals”. He said: ”Occasionally a transaction comes up where there’s a question about UK government intervention.” Cline forecasts that British M&A activity will remain strong in 2018, while Jan Skarbek, managing director of UK banking and broking at Citigroup, also thinks there will be an increase. “Organic growth is very difficult in this environment and staying still is not an option for many companies,” he said. “So I think there will be more deals next year, despite the geopolitical uncertainty.” ($1 = 0.7446 pounds) (Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-ma/rpt-brexit-spurs-near-doubling-of-uk-domestic-deal-making-idUSL8N1OS1TY'|'2017-12-29T10:00:00.000+02:00'
'a9678da921b343629a0a5adac69af9b2707b37a9'|'Season ticket sales slide as passengers rebel against cost of rail travel - Money'|'Season ticket sales slide as passengers rebel against cost of rail travel Latest figures suggest fed-up commuters are abandoning the train as fares are set to rise again Sat 30 Dec ‘17 20.14 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close The number of rail journeys made using season tickets has fallen to a seven-year low, as passenger groups warn that fare rises are forcing commuters to abandon the train. Figures slipped out by the Department for Transport before Christmas reveal a 9.4% drop in season ticket sales between July and September 2017 compared with the same quarter the previous year. There was a double-digit drop the previous quarter. The Office of Rail and Road quarterly figures note that the number of journeys between July and September 2017 made using season tickets fell to its “lowest since 2010-11 Q2, with 15 million fewer journeys made compared to this time last year”. Rail passengers lost 3.6m hours in delays in 2016-17, says Which? Read more Some of the fall can be attributed to strike action. But as commuters prepare to return to work on Tuesday – when fares will rise by up to 3.6% – the Campaign for Better Transport said it was becoming evident that rail passengers have had enough. “Rail commuters are fed up with being used as cash cows for government coffers,” said Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport. “This year’s rise is the highest for five years, at a time when wages aren’t increasing, and there’ll be real anger on the trains about this. But also there are signs that commuters are just voting with their feet and simply changing their work or homes to avoid the ever more expensive daily commute.” Many season ticket prices will rise by the full 3.6%. A year’s travel between Cheltenham Spa and London will increase from £12,784 to £13,244, Peterborough to London from £7,592 to £7,864 and Leeds to Birmingham from £7,700 to £7,976. By contrast, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics confirm that average weekly earnings fell by 0.2% in the autumn compared with the previous quarter, once inflation was factored in. Labour said regulated fares – such as season tickets and standard returns, which comprise almost half of all fares – have now risen by 32% since 2010, more than twice the level at which median wages have increased in the same period. Regulated rail fare increases are set by the government. Since 2014 these have been capped at the previous July’s retail price index, which, unlike the consumer price index, includes mortgage interest costs and council tax. As a result, RPI inflation has consistently outpaced CPI, something passenger rights groups say is unfair on UK rail users, who pay more for train travel than their European counterparts: figures buried in the latest annual report for the DfT reveal the department’s net income from passenger ticket sales totalled almost £1.3bn last year. Eight things that will (probably) happen to your money in 2018 Read more Aware of mounting anger over prices, the government pledged to run pilots exploring different pricing tariffs. They were supposed to start last May but the government admitted just before the festive break that none has yet commenced. “Ministers keep promising fares reform but even pilot [schemes] have been delayed and users are seeing very little change on the ground,” Joseph said. “We need simpler, fairer and cheaper rail fares, a freeze on any further rises and flexible season tickets to help the growing army of part-time workers.” Passenger groups are set to protest at stations across the country this Tuesday. Labour’s transport spokesman, Andy McDonald who will join Keir Starmer, the MP for Holborn and St Pancras, at a protest at King’s Cross, called the latest increases “staggering”. “Passengers are at the end of their tether. It is more evidence that the rail system is too fragmented and complex and run for the profit of private enterprises, not in the [public’s] interest.” A DfT spokesman said fare prices were kept under constant review and that 97p out of every £1 paid by rail passengers went back into the railways. “We are investing in the biggest modernisation since Victorian times to improve services, providing faster and better, more comfortable trains with extra seats. This includes the first trains running though London on the Crossrail project, an entirely new Thameslink service and continuing work on the transformative Great North Rail project.” A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, who represent train operators, said it disputed some of the claims by the campaign group. “Total commuting and business trips on rail increased by 18.1% between 2010 and 2016 according to National Travel Survey data. The National Rail Passenger Survey also shows that less than half of commuters travel on season tickets which is because of more use of contactless and oyster card payments,” he said. Topics'|'theguardian.com'|'https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/30/rail-season-tickets-sales-slide-passengers-shun-rising-travel-costs'|'2017-12-30T22:14:00.000+02:00'
'50f53a15f1a06b93f613a09d404f007749a7f3f9'|'Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead'|'December 29, 2017 / 2:46 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead Marc Jones 7 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. FILE PHOTO: Broken representation of the Bitcoin virtual currency, placed on a monitor that displays stock graph and binary codes, are seen in this illustration picture, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo 1/FIVE MONTHS OF ITALIAN POLITICAL NOISE When investors return to their desks next week they will have to deal with the fact that Italy’s long countdown to a new national election has officially started. The vote is due on March 4 but it is expected to produce a hung parliament. A new government is therefore unlikely to be formed before May at the earliest meaning there will be five months of political noise in the euro zone’s third-largest economy. Unsurprisingly Italian yields have risen. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement currently leads opinion polls but other parties are reluctant to join forces so analysts sense that the result could be a centre-right alliance around 81-year-old and four-times premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party. He cannot become prime minister, however, due to a tax fraud conviction. So it could all put pressure on Italian assets as 2018 starts, scaring some investors away but creating opportunities for others hunting for stock bargains as the economy improves. The Italian stock exchange is set to end 2017 as the best performer among major European markets but under certain metrics it remains undervalued. The MSCI Italy index is trading below its 20-year average on price/earnings basis, while the pan-European STOXX 600 is trading above. Italy to vote on March 4, with hung parliament feared Italian bond yields hit 2-mth high, stocks slide as election confirmed 2/T-TIME The European Central Bank is going to take a big step towards the withdrawal of stimulus in January, halving its bond buying scheme from 60 billion euros a month to 30 billion. Yet the market up to now has barely flickered in the run up to this; German 10-year bond yields, for example, are only 3 basis points or so higher than when the announcement was made. There could be many explanations and rationalizations for this - among them that the ECB is going to keep the programme going for longer than expected - but the reality may simply be that euro zone bond markets are no longer scared of the dreaded T-word, tapering. There was a bit of a sell-off though relative to U.S. Treasuries at the start of 2017 when purchases went down from 80 billion to 60 billion euros a month so maybe investors might be watching out for another January sale. Euro zone bond yields may be in for New Year shock as ECB cuts buying 3/COMMODITY ODDITIES A sharp fall in Aussie dollar long positions speaks to the ongoing debate about how this and other hot-running commodity currencies will fare in 2018. The Aussie AUD= , Chile''s peso CLP= and South Africa''s rand ZAR= have all notched up gains of 8-11 percent versus the U.S. dollar in 2017 helped by a belief that improving global growth will boost demand for their main resources - copper, iron ore and other metals. Yet the ‘yield’ pick-up that the Aussie for example is famed for is close to disappearing -- the premium offered by Australian two-year bonds over their U.S. counterpart is already down to almost nothing and looks set to turn negative for the first time since 2000. Emerging market dollar-debt spreads are also at their slimmest since 2014. So far it looks like the commodity upswing, which has more legs according to analysts, might be the driver of these currencies even if the declining yield spreads begins to apply the brakes to their gains. Australian dollar set to seal best year since 2010, NZ$ lags - nL4N1OT10X Copper hits 4-year high as 2018 deficit looms - nL8N1OS0ZP CRYPTOCRASH? Bitcoin is on track for its worst fortnight in almost four years from a record high of almost $20,000 all the way down to $14,000 where at least it seems to have stabilised for now. One of the worries is that moves to regulate the opaque, high-risk market are gaining momentum. South Korea said on Thursday it will impose additional measures while Israel’s top markets watchdog has said he wants to ban companies based on Bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Some leading cryptocurrency exchanges have also been struggling with frequent outages and online attacks that have crippled their services and left investors worried including hedge fund star Mike Novogratz who has shelved his plans to launch a crypto-fund. So after an eye-watering 14,000 percent price surge in 2017, is this the beginning of the end for Bitcoin whose crypto-rivals also now number more than 1,000, or is this just a consolidation period before the next price surge? Bitcoin recovers some losses after its worst week since 2013 S.Korea to impose new curbs on cryptocurrency trading India likens cryptocurrencies to Ponzi scheme, cautions investors 5/SPIKING THE PUNCH? With a new U.S. tax reduction plan signed and sealed and permanent tax cuts in place for corporations, the question now is whether managers will use the extra cash to hire more workers and fulfil the campaign promises of President Donald Trump to create jobs. The U.S. economy is already chugging along at a healthy clip with an unemployment rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The December read on U.S. unemployment may be too soon for jobs data to show any tax-cut inspired hirings but it will be closely watched for a broader health check nevertheless. The latest Reuters poll, for the report due on Jan. 5, has the rate holding steady at 4.1 percent. The ‘U-6’ rate, which measures both discouraged workers who stopped looking for a job and part-time workers looking for permanent employment, is hovering at its lowest point in 11 years. Strong U.S. job growth in November bolsters economy’s outlook For the graphic ''Italian stocks price earnings ratio'', click - reut.rs/2C4iUl7 For the graphic ''Ides of January?'', click - reut.rs/2Cki5RJ For the graphic ''Commodity currencies vs yield'', click - reut.rs/2CiCj16 For the graphic ''Bitcoin''s Banner 2017'', click - reut.rs/2BTOphP For the graphic ''U.S. unemployment rate at 17-year low'', click - reut.rs/2zNC09q Additional reporting by Dan Bases, Danilo Masoni, Jemima Kelly, Abhinav Ramnarayan and Vidya Ranganathan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-global-themes/take-five-world-markets-themes-for-the-week-ahead-idUKKBN1EN19T'|'2017-12-29T18:42:00.000+02:00'
'a3b4e53eda1bec634552325fb50fc457ba696139'|'Citigroup follows Morgan Stanley, UBS, quits recruiting pact -bank'|'December 29, 2017 / 10:03 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago Citigroup follows Morgan Stanley, UBS, quits recruiting pact -bank Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc became the latest firm on Friday to say it would quit a 14-year-old agreement reached among Wall Street’s biggest securities brokerages to not sue each other when a broker switches firms. Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG’s Wealth Management Americas discontinued the agreement, called the “broker protocol,” earlier this year. “Similar to others in the industry, Citi has decided to exit the protocol” starting on Jan. 8, said Citi spokesman Drew Benson. Benson said the decision was reached because it “allows us to continue to invest in our growing team of award-winning financial advisors.” Citi has around 1,000 advisers and relationship managers, according to Bloomberg, which reported the news earlier Friday. The broker protocol was created in 2004 to bring an end to costly legal battles in which firms would seek court orders to prevent ex-brokers from contacting and recruiting their former clients. Firms that signed the protocol agreed to let ex-brokers to take basic information with them to contact clients and inform them after they moved to a new employer. But as firms face growing regulatory expenses and greater competition from independent firms and robo-advisers, they are looking for new ways to keep wealthy clients and their assets. Nearly 1,700 firms are still party to the agreement, including two of the industry’s largest wealth management firms, Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Advisors (Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts; editing by Grant McCool)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/citigroup-wealth-protocol/citigroup-follows-morgan-stanley-ubs-quits-recruiting-pact-bank-idUSL1N1OT1B5'|'2017-12-30T00:03:00.000+02:00'
'a9ed3c7ae1a4cda92fc44ad4b78faedc5f7a53ae'|'Austrian finance minister wants to save 2.5 billion euros in 2018'|'December 30, 2017 / 11:42 AM / Updated 33 minutes ago Austrian finance minister wants to save 2.5 billion euros in 2018 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Newly appointed Austrian Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger said he wants to present a combined budget for the years 2018 and 2019, with savings of around 2.5 billion euros (2.22 billion pounds) next year. FILE PHOTO: Austrian Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger arrives for a cabinet meeting in Vienna, Austria, December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger “The structural deficit will be at around 0.5 percent next year,” Loeger, a former insurance industry executive, was quoted as saying in an interview with Austrian newspaper Der Standard. He said that in order to reach a balanced budget “at the earliest within the next two to three years”, Austria would have to save around 2.5 billion euros next year. Earlier this month, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz formed a new government which included the anti-immigration Freedom Party. Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz; Editing by Alison Williams'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-austria-finances/austrian-finance-minister-wants-to-save-2-5-billion-euros-in-2018-idUKKBN1EO09S'|'2017-12-30T13:42:00.000+02:00'
'd3e934a38c8a45d483abee03a627c61bc02c48ad'|'Suds and spuds: inside the giant German factory turning potatoes into Pritt Stick - Innovative sustainability'|'For more than a century, the Ruhr Valley and the Rhineland have been the heartland of German industry. Sprawling cities and soaring smokestacks combine with surprisingly large swathes of forest to create a distinctive, and not unattractive, landscape. It is one that has seen more than its fair share of challenges, from the Great Depression of the 1930s through to wartime bombing and post-war reconstruction. But now comes perhaps its greatest challenge: how to transform that smokestack economy into industry that is sustainable.Henkel lies at the core of the Rhineland, its headquarters straddling the Düsseldorf suburbs. Over its century-long history it has shared every one of those challenges. A global industrial and consumer chemicals company, Henkel may not be a household name in the UK, but its products, such as Pritt Stick and Schwarzkopf shampoos, are familiar.The site bears witness to its long history, its buildings hugely varying in age and construction methods – many of them designed at a time when modern notions of sustainability simply didn’t apply. That hasn’t stopped the company from setting itself some ambitious targets, including reducing the overall carbon footprint of their production by 75% per tonne by 2030 . To do this, they need to address everything from how efficiently their buildings and processes are run, to greening their energy sources.At the heart of the site is Henkel’s own power plant, which produces both heat for all industrial processes, and electricity. The good news is that because the energy is generated right next door, transmission losses are relatively minor, and, as it’s a combined heat and power plant (CHP), it’s also highly efficient – running at around 85% efficiency on average, according to Michael Roling, head of mechanical workshops and infrastructure technology at Henkel. Surplus electricity is also sold directly into the mains grid.The majority of the power is currently generated by gas, but 40% still comes from coal, says Roling. But site manager Daniel Kleine says they’re shifting the balance of fuels from coal to gas, and have set a target of ensuring that, by 2030, the equivalent of 100% of their own electricity consumption will be generated from renewable sources. (This would, incidentally, meet the requirements of the Climate Group’s respected RE100 initiative .)Kleine hopes they can do more onsite, although it’s not proving easy. “We’re looking at installing more green electricity. But even though there are solar panels already incorporated in the office facade, for many other locations shade from surrounding buildings is an issue. We’ve explored putting up wind turbines, but we’re surrounded by houses and the residents wouldn’t be happy if we implemented the project.” So explorations continue. In the longer term using biogas rather than the fossil-fuel variety may well prove viable for both power and heat, Kleine adds.Meanwhile, Henkel is making use of its own electricity to build up a fleet of electric vehicles (EVs), with the aim of making all its onsite transport electric in the near future. Staff can charge their own EVs in the company car parks for free. Transport offsite is a somewhat different story: as much as Henkel would like to use rail rather than road, the needs of their main customers dictate that most of the products still travel by truck – although they’re exploring a pilot rail scheme with one customer group. Meanwhile, they have taken up to 60 trucks a day off the roads by using rail transport to move materials for the Schwarzkopf range from Düsseldorf to-and-from the production site, over 500km away. Streamlining production processes is a key part of cutting energy use. The Pritt production line, for example, uses super-efficient heating and cooling systems (both of which are essential when manufacturing glue) and curbs waste by re-melting any raw material left over (what they call “Prittmass”) which is then sent back into the line. Oh, and if you’ve ever wondered, Pritt Stick gets its glue power primarily from natural sources – 93% of it is made from raw materials such as potato starch. “You could even eat it if you wanted to,” explains production manager Axel Saft, “but we don’t advise it.”Why?“There’s nothing alarming in it - just doesn’t taste too nice.”Several of the site’s main office buildings date from the 60s and 70s, when efficiency standards were far lower than today. You could deal with it by knocking them down and starting from scratch but, apart from the cost and disruption, this would also be a waste of all the “embedded energy” in the existing building. So Henkel is embarking on a series of renovations, such as introducing motion-sensitive LEDs and natural ventilation systems. These features, along with special glass that cuts out heat and glare, and letting in natural light via sun pipes and atriums, will curb energy consumption, while making it a more comfortable space to work in.Some of the sites have living roofs covered in vegetation that absorb rainfall, act as insulation, and provide a wildlife habitat too.The office space has been redesigned to meet the expectations of the upcoming millennial workforce, says buildings manager Roman Quarten. “They want breakout spaces, sofas, pods and so on.”A touch of the Googles, I suggest.“Yes,” he replies, but adds that some rules still apply – like the one that allocates window desks to more senior staff. “We’re still German,” he smiles.New builds offer even more opportunities, of course. So when Henkel extended its detergent warehouse – a vast steel cathedral of a place, with an all-pervasive smell of fresh laundry – it took the opportunity to introduce a fully automated system, using low-energy conveyers to shift goods, along with LED lighting and high-spec insulation. This earned it certification under the demanding specifications of the LEED standard , a green building ratings system.Sustainability isn’t just about technology: it’s also about people, and what goes inside them. Henkel’s in-house subsidised cafeterias make a feature of local fresh produce, with a big emphasis on fruit and veg grown by nearby farmers, about 15% of which is organic, it says.Each day, one in four of the Düsseldorf workforce choose to eat a vegetarian or vegan meal, says Ursula Kammelter-Reihs, director of infrastructure services. There’s a healthy interest in where their lunch comes from, adds chef Christian Groß. Not all the local specialities are popular though – swede, for example. “Young people just don’t like it. Don’t ask me why.”Food waste, of course, is unavoidable. But it’s collected by a local firm for use in an anaerobic digester plant, producing biogas, which is then used to generate electricity.Sustainability means looking out for the next generation, too – and that’s the focus of the Forscherwelt (“researchers’ world”) lab. Another example of a green refurb, the education lab hosts schoolchildren for immersive science learning – kids delve into what makes detergents, shampoo and glu'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/innovative-sustainability/2017/dec/15/inside-giant-german-factory-turning-potatoes-into-pritt-stick-persil-henkel'|'2017-12-16T00:19:00.000+02:00'
'da2ec7413935c350a99e955a743809c184643725'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips on last day of year; gains 6 pct in 2017'|'December 29, 2017 / 9:50 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips on last day of year; gains 6 pct in 2017 Reuters Staff (Adds details, updates prices to close) * TSX ends down 12.82 points, or 0.08 percent, at 16,209.13 * Eight of the TSX’s 10 main groups fall * Index rises 6 pct in 2017, boosted by financials, miners By Alastair Sharp TORONTO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index slipped on the last trading day of 2017 as some energy and mining stocks pulled back, but the index notched a 6 percent gain for the year, underperforming the three main U.S. indexes as its large energy component dragged. * The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended down 12.82 points, or 0.08 percent, at 16,209.13 on Friday. Eight of the 10 main sectors were in negative territory, while advancers outnumbered decliners by 1.3-to-1 overall. * The index’s slip was offset by gains for banks and gold miners, while base metal miners and energy names weighed. * The index’s 6 percent rise in 2017 compared with gains of between 19 and 28 percent for Wall Street’s S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite. * The energy group lost almost 13 percent this year, even as U.S. crude oil prices rose 12 percent, while materials were up 6 percent and financials added 9 percent. The three groups account for almost two-thirds of the index’s weight. * Marijuana producer Aphria Inc gained 3.9 percent on the day to C$18.70. Aphria and other cannabis stocks have made sharp gains this year as Canada heads toward legalization of recreational marijuana use in 2018. * The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 0.2 percent. * B2Gold Corp advanced 2.7 percent to C$3.88 and Detour Gold Corp rose 2.3 percent to C$14.78 as gold prices hit their highest level in 2-1/2 months. * Hudbay Minerals Inc fell 1.9 percent to C$11.13, First Quantum Minerals Ltd was down 1.7 percent to C$17.61, and Teck Resources lost 1.7 percent to C$32.87 . * The energy group retreated 0.2 percent, while financials were flat overall and bank gains were offset by insurer losses. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Leslie Adler)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-slips-on-last-day-of-year-gains-6-pct-in-2017-idUSL1N1OT1AY'|'2017-12-29T23:47:00.000+02:00'
'5e97f14ed841bcb4e1fb1e0e4c21ee885dabb9cd'|'Glencore says oil storage stake sale to China''s HNA partly done'|'HONG KONG (Reuters) - Swiss-based trading and mining giant Glencore Plc has partly completed the sale of a 51 percent stake in its storage and logistics businesses to a unit of China’s HNA Group, although transfer of some assets is pending U.S. clearance.FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company''s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Glencore in March agreed to sell the stake in HG Storage International Ltd, a vehicle that carries its petroleum products storage and logistics portfolio, to HNA Innovation Finance Group Co for $775 million.The commodities trader said on Friday that $579 million of the deal had closed. It added that three assets located in the United States would be transferred to HNA in 2018 upon receiving clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. firms or operations.In a two-year acquisition spree, privately owned HNA hassigned $50 billion worth of deals, buying stakes in logisticsfirms, hotels such as Hilton and even Deutsche Bank. This has prompted U.S. and European authorities to closely examine theChinese firm’s ownership.CIFUS has not yet given its approval to a number of othermajor deals by HNA.HNA said, in a separate statement, that the companies had completed the deal and would operate HG Storage International Ltd’s portfolio in Europe, Africa and the Americas as a joint venture. It did not mention any pending U.S. approval for the transfer of three U.S. assets.A spokeswoman for HNA did not have an immediate comment on CFIUS approval. Glencore declined to comment further. CFIUS declined to comment.HNA has come under pressure to provide greater clarity aboutwho owns the conglomerate.The CIFUS process has held up the completion ofHNA’s majority stake purchase in Skybridge Capital, owned byformer White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.This month, U.S. software firm Ness Technologies S.A.R.L.said it was suing HNA for failing to adequately answer CIFUS’questions about its ownership, accusations that HNA has dismissed as baseless.Glencore had been looking to sell a bundle of its global oil storage stakes, following similar moves by rivals as a boom period for storage showed signs of ending.Demand for storage exploded following the oil price plunge in 2014 because the abundance of crude for immediate delivery meant traders could make millions by buying oil cheaply and storing it to resell later at higher prices.But the appeal of storing oil for Western trading houses decreased when the market balance changed as a result of OPEC-led oil output cuts.HNA has moved increasingly into commodities and logistics in the past year. In September, it announced shareholder approval to buy Singapore’s CWT for $1 billion. CWT’s businesses include logistics services, commodity marketing, financial services and engineering services.Reporting by Kane Wu, additional reporting by Jennifer Hughes in Hong Kong, Clara Denina and Julia Payne in London; editing by Himani Sarkar and Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-hna-m-a/glencore-partly-completes-stake-sale-in-oil-storage-assets-to-chinas-hna-idINKBN1EN0RT'|'2017-12-29T06:59:00.000+02:00'
'71f4883070ce77e2e58bf6d8b976330f3a9ba2c6'|'London Stock Exchange''s company floats hit three-year high at 15 billion pounds'|'Reuters TV United States December 29, 2017 / 3:33 PM / a minute ago London Stock Exchange''s company floats hit 3-year high at 15 billion pounds Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) raised 15 billion pounds ($20.28 billion) from 106 initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2017, a 63 percent increase compared to last year and the highest level for three years. FILE PHOTO: A sign displays the crest and name of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall Money raised from the exchange’s listings was up 164 percent compared to 5.7 billion pounds in 2016, the LSE said in a statement on Friday. It added that 20 North American companies chose London for their listing, including Dallas-based oil and gas company Kosmos Energy ( KOS.L ). London has seen a pick-up in listings this year after uncertainty around Britain’s future outside of the EU single market in 2016 dampened investor confidence and caused a number of initial public offerings (IPO) to be postponed or canceled. “Despite the debates about Brexit, London’s highly global, deep and liquid capital markets continue to be the ideal partner for funding the world’s growth,” Chief Executive Officer Nikhil Rathi said. “It is particularly significant that the number of international listings in London is up, with North American listings up nearly seven-fold on last year,” Rathi said. The listing of 35 investment companies drove total IPOs value higher, with 5 billion pounds raised from vehicles including real estate investment trusts or special purpose acquisition firms, compared to just 644 million pounds in 2016. However, the average share performance of newly listed companies in 2017 was down 34 percent year on year, the LSE said. Raising $1.5 billion, the largest single London float in 2017 was Russia’s En+ Group ( ENPLq.L ), which manages tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum and hydropower businesses. Broadcasting masts company Arqiva abandoned plans to raise 1.5 billion pounds and business services firm TMF scrapped a planned float of up to 1.3 billion pounds in favor of an outright sale to a private equity firm. Reporting by Clara Denina; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-lse-ipo-performance/london-stock-exchanges-company-floats-hit-3-year-high-at-15-billion-pounds-idUKKBN1EN1BW'|'2017-12-29T17:19:00.000+02:00'
'eb4eaaeefed5a590d74a9b379ca779a5007ab6e9'|'PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 29'|'Dec 29 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Uber Technologies Inc investors and employees tendered shares equal to about 20 percent of the company in an offer by a SoftBank Group Corp led consortium that values Uber at $48 billion, a roughly 30 pct discount to its most recent valuation of about $68 billion. on.wsj.com/2lrfLku- Apple Inc issued a rare apology for its handling of concerns about performance issues in iPhones with older batteries in the wake of a wave of consumer complaints. on.wsj.com/2lowcxC- At least 12 people were killed and four others were critically injured on Thursday in a Bronx blaze that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the worst such tragedy in years. on.wsj.com/2loWrnF- Netflix Inc said that it planned to increase the annual salary for a number of its top executives in 2018, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. on.wsj.com/2lr3dcu- Aerospace group Airbus SE said on Thursday that it had finalised orders for 430 A320neo aircrafts with U.S. private equity fund Indigo Partners, confirming the company''s largest single order, valued at nearly $50 billion. on.wsj.com/2loWcce (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/press-digest-wsj/press-digest-wall-street-journal-dec-29-idUSL4N1OT1X9'|'2017-12-29T07:36:00.000+02:00'
'f9d16a318cb21ec0b67ef3ec2f45b15c068be7e0'|'Former Baha Mar owner sues Chinese contractor over ''massive fraud'''|'December 26, 2017 / 10:45 PM / Updated 3 hours ago Former Baha Mar owner sues Chinese contractor over ''massive fraud'' Tracy Rucinski 3 Min Read (Reuters) - The original owner of the Baha Mar Resort, BML Properties Ltd, has filed a $2.25 billion lawsuit alleging a “massive fraud” by the Chinese contractor of the luxury hotel and casino project in Nassau, the Bahamas, that opened its doors in April after years of delays. The 259-page complaint, filed in state court in Manhattan on Tuesday, accuses Chinese state-backed contractor China Construction America (CCA) of running a self-enrichment scheme that led to the failure of the $3.5 billion mega-resort project in 2015. CCA, a subsidiary of Shanghai-listed China State Construction Engineering Corp Ltd ( 601668.SS ), did not return requests for comment. The largest-ever Caribbean resort project, meant to be an economic driver for the island, struggled under a series of construction delays and funding squabbles that led to finger-pointing between the local developer Baja Mar Ltd, CCA and China’s export finance bank - the main lender on the project - as to who was to blame for the delays. Baja Mar Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of BML Properties, declared bankruptcy in 2015 and the resort was acquired by Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises in 2016. According to the complaint, CCA submitted hundreds of millions of dollars in sham bills to BML while understaffing the project and using it to train inexperienced workers for other construction projects in the region. “The scheme was based on CCA’s efforts to falsely create the appearance that it was working toward an on time and on budget opening in December 2014 while knowingly and fraudulently concealing its real intent not to construct the Project on time and on budget and in the process extort more money than it earned and was due,” the lawsuit said. As a result, it said BML Properties lost its entire $845 million equity investment in the project, as well as its right to the future benefits of running a world-class resort. BML Properties is led by Bahamas businessman Sarkis Izmirlian, son of Armenian billionaire Dikran Izmirlian. Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bahamar-cscec-lawsuit/former-baha-mar-owner-sues-chinese-contractor-over-massive-fraud-idUSKBN1EK1GS'|'2017-12-27T00:43:00.000+02:00'
'c262521bbf7bfc7bad494ccf2a9298a7eaefd1ed'|'Airbus seals $5.4 billion AerCap order for 50 A320neo planes'|'PARIS (Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus ( AIR.PA ) sealed on Thursday a formal order from AerCap ( AER.N ) for 50 Airbus A320neo planes, in a deal worth an estimated $5.4 billion at list prices.The companies said in joint statements that AerCap had exercised an option to buy the 50 planes, with deliveries starting from 2022.Airbus and Boeing ( BA.N ) are pairing with smaller regional rivals to add sales at the lower end of their $100 billion-a-year commercial plane duopoly, but the two market leaders are also laying the foundation for a longer-term strategic contest against more powerful threats such as China.Deals with their smaller cousins may give Airbus and Boeing more options when they develop the successors to the best-selling Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, perhaps allowing them to offer a trio of large jets coupled to a pair of smaller ones.Sources also told Reuters this week that Airbus was drawing up contingency plans to phase out production of the world’s largest jetliner, the A380 superjumbo, if it fails to win a key order from Dubai’s Emirates.Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Cyril Altemeyer; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbus-aercap/airbus-seals-5-4-billion-aercap-order-for-50-a320neo-planes-idUSKBN1EM18X'|'2017-12-28T15:49:00.000+02:00'
'98284d5633e9bd04207f1ec5a79dc6a13f13e66d'|'Japan''s factories, retailers rev up, central bankers flag stimulus reduction'|' 26 AM / Updated 4 minutes ago Japan''s factories, retailers rev up, central bankers flag stimulus reduction Stanley White 5 Min   Japan’s factories and retailers posted better-than-expected growth in activity in November, while minutes from the central bank’s last policy meeting showed board members raising the prospect of reducing stimulus. FILE PHOTO: Workers walk at a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, Japan February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo The firm data and suggestions of a shift away from the Bank of Japan’s crisis-era policies on Thursday come as the outlook for the world’s third-largest economy goes from strength to strength. Data showed Japanese companies forecast a further increase in industrial production in December as robust overseas demand continues to support factory activity and broader economic growth. Some BOJ board members are encouraging debate about raising rates or lowering purchases of exchange-traded funds in response to the improving outlook, a summary of opinions expressed at last week’s policy meeting showed. If the outlook for prices and the economy is expected to improve the BOJ will need to consider whether “adjustments in the level of interest rates will be necessary,” one board member said. Another board member said the BOJ should examine the policy effects and the possible side effects of ETF purchases from “every angle” because of rising stock prices and earnings. Japan’s growth this year has exceeded some economists’ expectations, and its stock markets have rallied due to rising corporate earnings, causing some traders to question whether the BOJ should rein in its aggressive monetary easing. “Consumer spending is doing well, supported by rising stock markets. The BOJ’s policy focus is on interest rates, so it is only natural to question its purchases of risk assets.” said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. The summary of opinions does not identify individual speakers, and it is unclear whether a majority of the BOJ’s nine-person board shares these views. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said clearly last week that as long as consumer prices remain distant from the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target he does not want to raise rates. FILE PHOTO: A worker cycles near a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, Japan, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo The BOJ buys long-term government debt to keep 10-year yields around zero and also buys ETFs, which are traded on the stock market, increasing its holdings by around 6 trillion yen ($53 billion) a year. When the BOJ first launched ETF purchases in 2013, its argument was buying unconventional assets would lower risk premiums and help the economy overcome deflation. Since then, Japanese stock prices have gained momentum and rallied around 20 percent this year. Some traders argue that the BOJ’s ETF purchases artificially push up the prices of underlying shares, and that strong stock market gains this year mean these purchases are no longer warranted. Japan’s industrial output rose more than expected in November and companies forecast a further increase in December as robust overseas demand continues to support factory activity and broader economic growth, trade ministry data showed on Thursday. The 0.6 percent increase in industrial output in November was more than the median market projection for a 0.5 percent rise and followed a 0.5 percent gain in October. The government raised its assessment of industrial output, saying it is recovering. Previously the government said output was only showing signs of a recovery. Manufacturers surveyed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry expect output to rise 3.4 percent in December but fall 4.5 percent in January. Japanese retail sales rose 2.2 percent in November from a year earlier, more than the median forecast for a 1.2 percent increase, government data showed on Thursday. Japan’s economy recorded seven straight quarters of expansion in the third quarter, the best uninterrupted run of growth since 1994.“We estimate that GDP growth will come to an annualized 0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q4,” economists at Barclays said in a research briefing. “We note, however, that foreign demand could be higher than we are predicting given the results of recent indicators. We believe growth could reach a strong annualized pace of around 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter, depending on economic data for December.” Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Eric Meijer'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy/japans-factories-retailers-rev-up-central-bankers-flag-stimulus-reduction-idUKKBN1EM0AS'|'2017-12-28T06:25:00.000+02:00'
'8160e96ab0e13062d0dfddf63edf03027d8460d9'|'UK firms see fourth-quarter pickup, expect slowdown in early 2018 - Confederation of British Industry'|'LONDON (Reuters) - British businesses reported a pickup in growth in the three months to December but they expect a slowdown in early 2018 as high inflation takes its toll on households, the Confederation of British Industry said on Thursday.London buses cross Waterloo Bridge, with the City of London financial district seen behind in London, Britain, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville The CBI’s monthly growth indicator - based on surveys of how companies’ output has changed over the previous three months - jumped to +19 in December from +6 in November, which was the joint lowest level in more than a year.Growth was broad-based across sectors, the CBI said.By contrast, the forward-looking component of the CBI growth survey fell to +4, its lowest level since immediately after the Brexit vote in June 2016, from +6 in November.“Persistent cost pressures will ensure inflation remains at a high level, perpetuating the squeeze on household spending, particularly impacting consumer-facing firms and retailers,” Anna Leach, the CBI’s head of economic intelligence, said.British inflation hit its highest level in nearly six years in November when it rose to 3.1 percent, pushed up in large part by the fall in the value of the pound after voters decided to take the country out of the European Union.Wages have been growing more slowly than prices and official data released last week showed households increased their spending at the slowest pace since 2012 in the July-September period.The pinch on consumer spending and uncertainty for many companies about what Brexit means for them has weighed on Britain’s overall economy which has grown more slowly than its peers in Europe this year.Many forecasters expect growth will remain sluggish in 2018.The CBI growth indicator is based on a combination of its surveys of manufacturers, retail and distribution companies and business and professional services firms, which it says covers about three quarters of the private-sector economy.Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Andrew Heavens '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-economy-cbi/uk-firms-see-fourth-quarter-pickup-expect-slowdown-in-early-2018-confederation-of-british-industry-idINKBN1EM013'|'2017-12-27T21:26:00.000+02:00'
'eabcfa9af504b8b4a580df46ca124565d0519b77'|'Gold holds steady as dollar remains subdued'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Gold hit a one-month high on Thursday, rallying for a ninth straight session as a retreat in the dollar on the back of lower U.S. bond yields drove gains in commodities priced in the currency.Gold bars are seen in the Austrian Gold and Silver Separating Plant ''Oegussa'' in Vienna, Austria, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger The metal is also benefiting from technically driven momentum after closing above its 100-day moving average on Wednesday for the first time since late November, analysts said.Spot gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,293.73 an ounce at 1450 GMT, having earlier touched its highest since Nov. 29 at $1,294.95 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for February delivery were up $4.80 an ounce at $1,296.20.“The weakness in the dollar is playing its part,” Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkMarkets, said. “We do think that this trend will continue into 2018. We expect the gold price to finish the year above $1,300 mark, and that would send a strong buy signal for traders.”The dollar held near a one-month low versus a currency basket on Thursday as the latest jobless claims data suggesting a firm labour market was offset by advance trade balance figures that pointed to a widening trade gap in November.That helped drive gains across commodities, with benchmark Brent crude oil futures near their highest since mid 2015, and copper at a four-year peak.The dollar index is down more than 9 percent so far this year, and is on course for its biggest annual loss since 2003.A weakening dollar has helped lift gold nearly 5 percent from the near five-month low of $1,235.92 it hit in mid-December. Its rise has picked up further momentum in the last week from positive technical factors, analysts said.“(The rally) has seen gold march up and close at the 100-day moving average in yet another positive technical development,” currency broker OANDA said in a note.“With the Relative Strength Index (RSI) still at neutral levels, the technical picture suggests there is still potential topside in this rally.”Elsewhere, net gold imports to major consumer China via main conduit Hong Kong fell 23.6 percent in November from the previous month, data showed on Thursday.Among other precious metals, silver was 0.7 percent higher at $16.80 an ounce after earlier hitting its highest since late November at $16.82. Holdings of silver exchange-traded funds tracked by Reuters ticked up to their highest since early September, with Thursday’s data showing a 62-tonne inflow.Platinum was up 0.9 percent at $925 an ounce. Palladium was down 0.1 percent at $1,059.74 an ounce, having touched its highest since February 2001 at $1,069.50 on Wednesday.Additional reporting by Apeksha Nair and Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by David Evans and Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-holds-steady-as-dollar-remains-subdued-idINKBN1EM033'|'2017-12-28T03:14:00.000+02:00'
'c18d59aba30d53a30085455a219939a36598a925'|'Venezuela probes ex-oil czar Ramirez over alleged graft scheme'|'CARACAS/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuela is investigating Rafael Ramirez, a once powerful oil minister and former head of state oil company PDVSA, in connection with an alleged $4.8 billion Vienna-based corruption scheme, the state prosecutor’s office announced on Friday.Prosecutor Tarek Saab said Ramirez and at least four other oil executives from the South American OPEC nation sold crude oil at below market prices in exchange for bribes.Ramirez, who led PDVSA for a decade, told Reuters the allegation was a “blatant lie.”Venezuelan authorities had warned earlier this month that they planned to launch of the former oil czar, in an escalation of a corruption purge that has resulted in the arrest of dozens of senior oil executives.”(Ramirez) appears as the main intellectual author of what happened,” said Saab, inviting Ramirez to Venezuela to defend himself.Venezuela ordered the removal of Ramirez from his post as representative to the United Nations in New York last month.“What the prosecutor says is not only false but demonstrates a deep ignorance,” said Ramirez.He added that the Vienna office of PDVSA was not in charge of selling oil but rather monitoring prices of Venezuelan crude exports.“It’s a blatant lie ... intended to persecute not only me but my team.”In his announcement on Friday, Saab also reported the arrest of Nelida Izarra, a former boss at a Vienna-based subsidiary of PDVSA, for alleged links to irregular purchases and sales of crude oil.Saab also said he had ordered the arrest of two other PDVA officials who worked in Austria: Bernard Mommer and Irama Quiroz, as well as lawyer Mariana Zerpa. It is not immediately clear where Izarra was arrested or where the others currently reside.Mommer was a pillar of oil strategy under former President Hugo Chavez, with oil sales serving as the cash cow for the country’s socialist revolution. He was key in planning the nationalization of swaths of Venezuela’s oil fields a decade ago and once served as the country’s representative to OPEC.“The executives involved in the case were complicit in thesemodifications that caused serious damage to the Venezuelan State, allegedly in exchange for commissions in foreign currency,” said a statement from the state prosecutor’s office.Critics say the ongoing oil graft purge has as much to do with score settling among old political rivals as it does with any real attempt to root out endemic corruption.Ramirez, 54, has been an increasingly vocal critic of leftist President Nicolas Maduro in recent months. He was seen by some as angling to run in the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election, in which Maduro is expected to seek another term.The alleged crimes being investigated occurred between 2009 and 2015. Saab did not explain how authorities had reached the conclusion that they yielded $4.8 billion in illicit profits.The prosecution reported that 69 oil managers have been arrested over the last few months for corruption in PDVSA, including former oil minister Eulogio Del Pino, former PDVSA president Nelson Martinez and the board of directors of Citgo, a PDVSA subsidiary in Houston.Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-pdvsa-corruption/venezuela-probes-ex-oil-czar-ramirez-over-alleged-graft-scheme-idUSKBN1EN1QU'|'2017-12-29T23:45:00.000+02:00'
'4e7a39692a8e8159b8d7f6b06c16cb944b059d96'|'REFILE-Asia Pacific loans continue slide to five-year low'|'(Refiles to fix formatting)By Prakash ChakravartiHong Kong, Dec 29 (TRLPC) - Syndicated lending in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, hit a five-year low of US$445.31bn in 2017 and was 4.81% lower than US$467.8bn in 2016 as mergers and acquisitions activity slowed and record G3 bond issuance in dollars, euros, and yen curbed loan volume.Asia Pacific lending has fallen for the third consecutive year and volume is the lowest since 2012 when the region raised US$306.65bn. In 2017, 1,245 loans were completed, which showed a 3.56% decrease from 1,291 transactions a year earlier.Fewer acquisitions saw regional M&A lending sink 34% to US$55.74bn, compared to 2016 as Asian borrowers focussed on locking in long-term fixed-rate funding ahead of a widely-flagged rise in US interest rates.“2017 has been another difficult and challenging year for the loan market in the region. The drop in volumes is the new normal .... as deal flow diverted to bilateral loans and the bond markets,” said Amit Lakhwani, head of loan syndicate & distribution Asia at Standard Chartered.G3 Asian bond issuance (excluding Japan) hit an all-time record of US$407.93bn in 2017, soaring 38% over the US$295.53bn raised in 2016, as Chinese issuers dominated the flow.Despite a muted year, the Asian loan market saw some variety, with sizeable borrowings for frontier market sovereigns such as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. CHINA, HONG KONG DOMINANCE China and Hong Kong dominated regional borrowing and accounted for 49% of Asian lending, excluding Japan. Chinese companies borrowed US$101bn in 2017, which was 25% lower than US$135bn a year earlier.Despite the Chinese government’s introduction of measures in the second half of 2016 to control capital outflows and slow down overseas acquisitions, outbound M&A event-driven financings for mainland Chinese companies surged 28.5% higher to US$18.37bn in 2017 compared with US$14.3bn in 2016.This was largely due to a jumbo €6.8bn (US$7.9bn) loan in July for state-owned China Investment Corp, which backed its acquisition of European warehouse firm Logicor. It marked the sovereign wealth fund’s debut in the syndicated loan market and was the largest M&A loan from Asia in 2017.Hong Kong loan volume rose to a record US$111.5bn, showing a 5% increase on US$106bn in 2016, boosted by big-ticket loans for Chinese companies, including technology sector bellwethers such as Alibaba Group and its unit Ant Financial Services Group, Tencent Holdings Ltd and e-commerce company JD.com.Leveraged buyouts also boosted Hong Kong’s tally with lenders flocking to the deals in pursuit of higher yields, as non-standard loans appealed to Asia’s increasingly diversified buy-side.“New sources of liquidity have emerged in APAC loan markets with institutional investors stepping up,” said Ashish Sharma, head of loan syndications, Asia Pacific, at Credit Suisse.A HK$28bn (US$3.6bn) term loan for the privatisation of then Hong Kong-listed shoe retailer Belle International Holdings Ltd stood out in July for a sole underwrite and smooth distribution from bookrunner Bank of America Merrill Lynch that attracted 10 other lenders.Singapore contributed a significant boost to leveraged loans with the last-minute closing of a jumbo US$4.11bn LBO financing backing the acquisition of Global Logistic Properties Ltd , Asia’s biggest warehouse operator. The borrowing bagged the distinction of the largest LBO loan from Asia.Australia and Japan also supplied a strong flow of buyout loans, although most of the Japanese deals were club transactions, such as three LBO financings totalling US$5.82bn-equivalent for PE giant KKR’s acquisitions of auto parts maker Calsonic Kansei Corp, electronic equipment firm Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc and power tools manufacturer Hitachi Koki Co Ltd.NEW LIQUIDITY POCKETS In Australia as well as in Hong Kong, the leveraged finance market took small steps forward with transactions structured with unitranches and mezzanine financings, tapping into the growing pool of institutional liquidity that is seeking to invest in loans.In August, US alternative investment firm Highbridge Capital wrapped up a A$650m (US$512m) six-year unitranche financing to back private equity firms Carlyle Group and Pacific Equity Partners’ US$930m-equivalent acquisition of iNova Pharmaceuticals (Australia) Pty Ltd and two more unitranche loans closed in Australia shortly afterwards backing private equity LBOs.Mezzanine financings also started to appear in other parts of Asia with the LBO of business, corporate and investor services provider Tricor Holdings Ltd in January in Hong Kong carrying a subordinated facility of up to US$75m from PE firm Partners Group.In July Huatai Financial Holdings, the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Chinese brokerage Huatai Securities, committed a HK$4.5bn mezzanine loan that represented 90% of the price for the privatisation of Chinese property developer Future Land Development Holdings from the Hong Kong bourse.The facility was on track to be the biggest mezzanine loan from Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), but the public-to-private sale was shelved in October. Huatai’s big-ticket commitment highlighted the emergence of new liquidity providers, as traditional lenders also target exposure outside their core focus areas.“Among the traditional bank investor base, lenders from some countries such as India and South Korea have expanded their focus and are increasingly participating in loans outside their home markets. This is quite encouraging as it adds additional pockets of liquidity for borrowers in Asia Pacific,” said Credit Suisse’s Sharma.Indonesian borrowers in particular took advantage of this new liquidity and South-East Asia’s largest economy was the only major loan market apart from Australia to record double-digit growth in Asia (excluding Japan) with a 22% jump toUS$15.6bn, compared to US$12.81bn in 2016.PROMISING PIPELINE After three years of declining volume, lenders are looking forward to a more promising pipeline that is already starting to take shape. China National Chemical Corp, which acquired Swiss seeds and pesticides maker Syngenta AG for SFr43bn (US$43bn), is currently in the market with a US$5.5bn refinancing of one of the multi-billion dollar bridge loans it raised for the acquisition.The property sector in Hong Kong, one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets, is already buzzing with a couple of jumbo loans relating to the acquisitions of some of the retail assets of Link REIT and The Center, a commercial building in the heart of the territory’s business district.“We will have a more promising start to 2018 because of a well-spread pipeline across Australia, China and other major markets. The difference between a good and a bad year is event-driven financing. Corporate M&A, project financing and refinancing will drive activity in 2018,” said John Corrin, global head of loan syndications at ANZ.Bankers also expect loans to benefit from the expected rise in interest rates that could impact demand and access to bond market funding. China’s massive Belt & Road initiati'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/asiapac-loans/asia-pacific-loans-continue-slide-to-five-year-low-idINL4N1OT1VW'|'2017-12-29T04:44:00.000+02:00'
'301a6935918fc42250a65e7e4c0cef61e86c8dce'|'Balfour Beatty sells additional stake in operator of UK''s M25 motorway'|'December 29, 2017 / 7:37 AM / Updated 6 hours ago Balfour Beatty sells additional stake in operator of UK''s M25 motorway Reuters Staff 2 Min Read (Reuters) - Britain’s Balfour Beatty ( BALF.L ) said on Friday it has agreed to sell a further 7.5 percent stake in Connect Plus, the operator of London’s M25 orbital motorway for 62 million pounds in cash, a week after it announced the sale of a 12.5 percent stake. FILE PHOTO - A sign of Balfour Beatty is seen at a construction site in London, Britain October 30, 2015. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause/Files The profit on the sale to fund management company Dalmore Capital is expected to be 32 million pounds with the proceeds to be used to pay down debt, the company said. Last week Balfour agreed to sell a 12.5 percent stake in Connect to Dalmore for 103 million pounds with a view to reducing its debt. As a result of that sale Balfour had nudged up its expectations for its pretax profit in 2017 and its year-end net cash position. However, the company on Friday maintained its year-end net cash position as the proceeds from the latest sale of the 7.5 percent tranche will not be received until 2018. Balfour said it has an option to sell a further 5 percentage points of its remaining 20 percent stake in Connect to funds managed by Equitix and Dalmore before May 13. Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Greg Mahlich'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-balfour-beatty-disposal/balfour-beatty-sells-additional-stake-in-operator-of-uks-m25-motorway-idUKKBN1EN0J8'|'2017-12-29T09:37:00.000+02:00'
'71a4b9a36cc738ced1041128c8234d4dc76fc628'|'Apple apologizes after outcry over slowed iPhones'|' 58 PM / Updated 2 minutes ago Apple apologizes after outcry over slowed iPhones Stephen Nellis 3 Min Read Dec 28 (Reuters) - Facing lawsuits and consumer outrage after it said it slowed older iPhones with flagging batteries, Apple Inc is slashing prices for battery replacements and will change its software to show users whether their phone battery is good. In a posting on its website Thursday, Apple apologized over its handling of the battery issue and said it would make a number of changes for customers “to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple’s intentions.” Apple made the move to address concerns about the quality and durability of its products at a time when it is charging $999 for its newest flagship model, the iPhone X. The company said it would cut the price of an out-of-warranty battery replacement from $79 to $29 for an iPhone 6 or later, starting next month. The company also will update its iOS operating system to let users see whether their battery is in poor health and is affecting the phone’s performance. “We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down,” Apple said in its posting. “We apologize.” On Dec. 20, Apple acknowledged that iPhone software has the effect of slowing down some phones with battery problems. Apple said the problem was that aging lithium batteries delivered power unevenly, which could cause iPhones to shutdown unexpectedly to protect the delicate circuits inside. That disclosure played on a common belief among consumers that Apple purposely slows down older phones to encourage customers to buy newer iPhone models. While no credible evidence has ever emerged that Apple engaged in such conduct, the battery disclosure struck a nerve on social media and elsewhere. Apple on Thursday denied that it has ever done anything to intentionally shorten the life of a product. At least eight lawsuits have been filed in California, New York and Illinois alleging that the company defrauded users by slowing devices down without warning them. The company also faces a legal complaint in France, where so-called “planned obsolesce” is against the law. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Andrew Hay)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/apple-batteries/apple-apologizes-after-outcry-over-slowed-iphones-idUSL1N1OS1JM'|'2017-12-29T00:57:00.000+02:00'
'e9ba9181a8d71f3928b3ae1b5330961f2f4f0749'|'Russia''s Sistema says has transferred 20 billion rubles to Bashneft'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian conglomerate Sistema ( AFKS.MM ) has transferred 20 billion rubles ($348 million) to oil producer Bashneft ( BANE.MM ) as part of an agreement with Bashneft’s owner Rosneft ( ROSN.MM ), a spokesman for Sistema said on Thursday.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Russian conglomerate Sistema is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 (SPIEF 2017) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Sistema has to pay 100 billion rubles in total before the end of March to Russian oil major Rosneft as part of out of court deal.Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Mark Potter '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-russia-sistema-bashneft/russias-sistema-says-has-transferred-20-billion-rubles-to-bashneft-idINKBN1EM1G1'|'2017-12-28T12:48:00.000+02:00'
'7333674c6b42d7c9c36b0ed7e65b35ece93743e1'|'Customer service: what were the best and worst firms in 2017?'|'T his was the year in which Parking Eye became the UK’s most hated company (at least judged by our mailbag). British Airways managed to go into near-complete meltdown, and hotel, car hire and other travel-related problems dominated the Consumer Champions column.In our annual roundup of the issues faced by Guardian Money readers over the past 12 months, we sadly have to report that 2017 saw us receive more letters of complaint than ever before.The past year has seen the continuation of a trend from previous years, with fewer complaints proportionally about traditional financial firms such as banks, building societies and insurers. But the complaints we did receive were, in many cases, worse than ever and the sums involved larger.Online banking, email and text scams continue to be a massive problem, and we would once again remind readers to never send money to someone based on information received via a text, by email or on the phone, however plausible it seems.Lastly, if you wrote to us this year and we failed to take up your cause, we apologise. It was not because your problem did not have merit – we can only take up a fraction of the issues sent to us.Worst company of the yearFacebook Twitter Pinterest ParkingEye ... ensuring customers never return to Aldi stores. Photograph: AlamyNo two weeks went past without us receiving a complaint about ParkingEye, which manages all Aldi parking as well as that in many other stores, hospitals and car parks around the country. An apparent problem with the technology meant that customers who visited Aldi stores twice in the same day were issued with £70 tickets by the Capita-owned firm. In other cases, disabled drivers stuck in traffic trying to leave have been issued tickets for overstaying the three-hour limit by as little as 12 minutes.Quite why Aldi – a firm that promises big savings but in effect fines its customers – has got into bed with this company is beyond us. Many correspondents told us they would never return to an Aldi store while ParkingEye ran the car parks. The internet is awash with complaints about this firm.Perhaps the best fightback story of the year came when barrister Nicholas Bowen took on the firm and won £1,550 in costs. The company had issued him a ticket after he slept from midnight to 2.20am in an empty car park at Membury services on the M4. His appeal was turned down and the firm planned to sue Bowen through the county court to recover its claim for the unpaid ticket, a further penalty for non-payment and costs. At this stage he decided that if he didn’t stand up to it “who would?”. When the claim came to court ParkingEye did not attend and the judge ordered the company to pay Bowen’s costs as the case had by then been struck out.Travel traumaFacebook Twitter Pinterest Grounded ... as British Airways suffered an IT meltdown in May. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PAThe nation’s “favourite” airline, British Airways, was our most complained-about airline, not helped by its IT meltdown when a contractor pulled out a cable, causing all its Gatwick and Heathrow flights to be cancelled over the May bank holiday weekend. The company pledged to sort out its customer services next year, which our postbag suggests is long overdue. Too many readers complained they were simply ignored by the firm.Readers reported similar issues getting easyJet to respond to them, particularly after they had made a compensation claim.Booking.com came in for a lot of criticism this year from readers – many of whom had booked refundable rooms that turned out to be anything but.It is also noticeable that Airbnb’s customer service operation is simply not up to the task of dealing efficiently with problems when they arise.Car hire continues to be a nightmare for too many and is an area that needs more regulatory intervention. We would never hire cars from Goldcar or Green Motion, based on what we have seen. Closer to home, domestic train companies continue to deny compensation claims. Great Western and Virgin Trains were the most problematic from readers’ point of view in 2017.Phone and broadband miseryFacebook Twitter Pinterest Virgin Media ... disconnected from customer service as it continues to dominate complaints. Photograph: AlamyFive years ago, complaints about energy and telecoms firms dominated our postbag, and while there has been a noticeable drop, a few companies continue to cause the most headaches. BT was still top of our list – which will partly reflect the fact that it is the biggest – but also because its customer services in too many cases still don’t deal with matters as they should.Virgin Media continues to be overrepresented in complaints, although it is finally facing sanction from the regulator Ofcom over its most-hated policy of holding customers to contracts when they move out of a Virgin-connected area.TalkTalk has seen the biggest reduction in issues this year, while Vodafone is by far our most complained-about mobile phone firm. Tesco Mobile was the least complained-about.PayPal and eBay scamsFacebook Twitter Pinterest Fretting ... as one reader’s Fender Stratocaster sold via eBay went astray. Photograph: AlamyWhen we featured JM from Manchester’s tale we were inundated with letters saying “me too”. He had his £1,165 Fender Stratocaster electric guitar stolen after he sold it on eBay – the buyer claimed it wasn’t delivered and got a refund via PayPal, which we find almost automatically sides with the buyer in a dispute. PayPal later refunded him but, according to your letters, this keeps happening. Our advice is never sell an expensive item on eBay without demanding the buyer pays cash, in person. The risks are too great of doing otherwise. Laptop and mobile sellers are particularly prone to this problem and courier firms are rarely much help after what is a theft occurs.Who improved and who didn’tFacebook Twitter Pinterest Barclays ... on top for complaints regarding fraud among readers. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPAJohn Lewis featured much less in 2017 than in previous years, although its wedding service continues to be the subject of letters. Scottish Power appears to have sorted out its billing nightmares of the past. But fellow supplier npower continues to suffer complaints – albeit fewer than in previous years.The warranty provider Domestic & General didn’t have a great year and we would urge readers to consider whether they should ditch these policies. Too many readers claimed that when their washing machine failed they faced problems and delays in getting it fixed. Ikea kitchens continue to feature in your letters, as do installations from Bathstore.Too many of the complaints you sent, particularly those involving fraud, appeared to involve one particular bank – Barclays. We worry there has been a noticeable hardening of attitude towards victims of fraud this year, and banks seem to prefer to pass the buck to the Financial Ombudsman Service rather than refunding customers.For this reason it is time for FOS to penalise banks it later finds against and to make it in their best interests to deal with customers fairly. Currently, fraud victims can wait up to year for their case to be heard.Whirlpool has continued to struggle to deal with the fallout from the tumble drier bursting-into-flames debacle. The fact that there has been no formal product recall or official redress programme is a scandal.And the best ...Facebook Twitter Pintere'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/30/worst-firms-customer-service-reader-complaints'|'2017-12-30T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'9253f7a35ffd7d3e1f23a5fe04857c63a415f980'|'Gold set for best year since 2010'|'LONDON (Reuters) - Gold hit its highest in 2-1/2 months on Friday and remained on track for its biggest annual rise since 2010 as a wilting dollar, political tensions and receding concerns over the impact of U.S. interest rate hikes fed into its rally.A machine engraves information on an ingot of 99.99 percent pure gold at the Krastsvetmet non-ferrous metals plant, one of the world''s largest producers in the precious metals industry, in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin/File Photo The dollar, in which gold is priced, is sliding towards its worst year since 2003, damaged by tensions over North Korea, the Russian scandal surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign, and persistently low U.S. inflation. [FRX/]The dollar’s drop to three-month lows versus a basket of currencies on Friday lifted gold to its highest since mid October at $1,303.90 an ounce.At 1430 GMT spot gold was at $1,302.72 an ounce, up 0.2 percent, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were up $7.80 an ounce at $1,305.00.“In the last couple of weeks, trade has been relatively thin, yields have been under pressure and the dollar as well, so gold has profited from that,” ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said. “If you look over the year, dollar weakness has been the main theme.”Gold will be vulnerable next year to a rebound in the currency, as well as any gains in yields, she said. The opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing bullion increases when yields rise elsewhere.The impact of three U.S. interest rate hikes this year was offset by the dollar’s weakness, Boele said. “The dollar is the most important driver, and then real yields. The Fed is increasing rates, but the dollar’s not profiting.”Gold, which is also on course for its best month since August, has also benefited of late from technically driven momentum, analysts said.ScotiaMocatta’s technical team said in a note that chart signals for the metal look positive after it broke above its 100-day moving average this week at $1,295 an ounce. “Momentum indicators are bullish as gold appears poised to target the October high (of) $1,306,” it said.Among precious metals, palladium has seen the strongest rise this year, climbing 56 percent as concerns grew over availability after years of market deficit.Spot palladium was down 0.5 percent at $1,059.65 an ounce, having hit its highest since February 2001 at $1,072 in the previous session. It has held in a historically unusual premium to platinum through the fourth quarter.Spot silver was up 0.7 percent at $16.97, while platinum was 1.2 percent higher at $933.90. This year the two metals have risen by 6.5 percent and 3.8 percent respectively.Additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by Mark Heinrich and Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/global-precious/gold-set-for-best-year-since-2010-idINKBN1EN03Y'|'2017-12-29T03:25:00.000+02:00'
'b4c5069cd3a008e2a49f41fe340a177e0801ce80'|'Germany''s top court rejects VW''s bid to suspend emissions audit'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s highest court has rejected a bid by Volkswagen AG to suspend the work of a special auditor appointed to investigate management’s actions in the “Dieselgate” emissions scandal.General view of a Volkswagen logo in Wolfsburg, Germany September 22, 2015. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo A three-judge panel did not give an opinion on the merits of the case, in which VW argues that the naming of the auditor by a lower court violated its fundamental rights, but did dismiss the firm’s request for an injunction.“The constitutional complaint that has been filed is neither a priori inadmissible nor is it obviously ungrounded,” the Constitutional Court panel said in the five-page ruling, dated Dec. 20, that was seen by Reuters.It added, however, that VW had not “convincingly made the case for an immediate decision”.A regional court appointed the auditor in November, in a victory for shareholder groups that want to establish whether VW bosses withheld market-moving information about the manipulation of vehicle-emissions tests.The court in the town of Celle ruled that VW could not appeal against its decision. The auto maker views the appointment of the auditor as a violation of its fundamental rights, a company spokesman said on Friday.VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software in hundreds of thousands of U.S. diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner than they were on the road, and that as many as 11 million vehicles could have similar software installed worldwide.Shortly after the Dieselgate scandal broke, VW hired U.S. law firm Jones Day and advisory firm Deloitte to investigate the circumstances of its wrongdoing and who was responsible.Although VW had pledged to improve transparency, it never published the findings that were used as the basis for a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department.Investor groups seeking billions in damages from VW are trying to establish when VW’s executive management board first became aware of cheating in the emissions tests and whether it disclosed possible financial damage to investors promptly.German securities law requires companies to publish any market sensitive news in a timely fashion. The matter is also being investigated by German prosecutors.VW has said it believes its management complied with obligations under German disclosure rules. The spokesman referred to the Jones Day investigation, as well as a statement of facts published by the U.S. authorities in which VW admitted manipulating the emissions tests.Reporting by Hans Seidenstuecker; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-emissions-court/germanys-top-court-rejects-vws-bid-to-suspend-emissions-audit-idINKBN1EN1C1'|'2017-12-29T17:24:00.000+02:00'
'7e557b9abe56eef27af17f43e11846de595c3e9a'|'Weatherford scraps joint venture, sells a business to Schlumberger'|'HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford International Plc ( WFT.N ) on Friday sold a U.S. oil-well business to rival Schlumberger NV for $430 million, abandoning a planned joint venture.Weatherford has struggled with losses and has been looking to sell units and raise cash to reduce about $7.9 billion in debt. It suffered a $875 million loss on $4.21 billion in revenue for the first nine months of this year.In March, the company agreed to put its North American pressure pumping and well completions operations into a venture with Schlumberger in exchange for $535 million in cash and a 30 percent stake in the resulting business, called OneStim. The effort was designed to better compete against market leader Halliburton and fast-growing companies such as Keane Group.On Friday, the joint venture was abruptly called off as Weatherford sold its U.S. pressure pumping assets used to hydraulically fracture shale rock to release trapped oil and gas, and transferred about 100 employees to Schlumberger.The new deal “delivers cash proceeds that enable our company to begin the deleveraging process,” Weatherford Chief Executive Mark McCollum said in a statement. Keeping the U.S. and Canadian well-completions operation “allows for significant upside potential,” he added.Pressure pumping specialists have been expanding rapidly with strong demand from shale producers taking advantage of higher crude prices. This month, Keane Group Inc ( FRAC.N ) said it would spend $115 million to expand its fleet, citing higher demand and improved economics.RBC Capital Markets analyst Kurt Hallead in a research note said the deal doubles Schlumberger’s hydraulic fracturing fleet and allows it to avoid a potential payout to acquire the rest of OneStim. Weatherford gets most of the cash it would have received under the original agreement, but gives up recurring income from the joint venture, he wrote.Representatives of Weatherford and Schlumberger did not reply to requests for comment.Weatherford shares closed up 13 cents to $4.17 on Friday. They are off about 36 percent since March, when the joint venture was first proposed. Schlumberger was off 7 cents at $67.39.Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-weatherford-schlumberger-deal/weatherford-scraps-joint-venture-sells-a-business-to-schlumberger-idINKBN1EO00Q'|'2017-12-29T22:10:00.000+02:00'
'60247f7807b6193549405ecdf2e6e52e314890ec'|'UK mortgage approvals hit 15-month low in November - UK Finance'|'December 28, 2017 / 9:43 AM / Updated 10 hours ago UK mortgage approvals hit 15-month low in November - UK Finance Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - British banks approved the fewest mortgages in 15 months in November, when the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in more than a decade, industry figures showed on Thursday. FILE PHOTO - A row of houses are seen in London, Britain June 3, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett Banks approved 39,507 mortgages for house purchase last month, down from 40,417 in October and 5 percent fewer than in November 2016, trade association UK Finance said. At the start of the month, the Bank of England raised interest rates from a record low 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent. “Housing market activity remains under pressure from squeezed consumer finances and fragile confidence, and it may well have taken a further dent in November from the Bank of England lifting interest rates,” Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club consultancy, said. A Reuters poll of economists last week suggested British house prices will rise little more than 1 percent next year, with those in London set to fall for the first in eight years. Last month, finance minister Philip Hammond sought to offer voters some relief with spending plans that focused on housing, including scrapping a property purchase tax for most first-time home-buyers. “Even if successful, (Hammond‘s) measures to boost house building in November’s budget will take time to have a significant effect so are unlikely to markedly influence house prices in the near term at least,” Archer said. More comprehensive lending figures from the Bank of England are due next Thursday. Reporting by Andy Bruce; editing by John Stonestreet'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-lending/uk-mortgage-approvals-hit-15-month-low-in-november-uk-finance-idUKKBN1EM0TZ'|'2017-12-28T11:45:00.000+02:00'
'2447248ff613d8ceb31f330f6bacef8eb07ccc54'|'Citigroup follows Morgan Stanley, UBS, quits recruiting pact - bank'|'December 29, 2017 / 10:05 PM / Updated 8 minutes ago Citigroup follows Morgan Stanley, UBS, quits recruiting pact - bank Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc ( C.N ) became the latest firm on Friday to say it would quit a 14-year-old agreement reached among Wall Street’s biggest securities brokerages to not sue each other when a broker switches firms. File Photo: The Citigroup Inc (Citi) logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and UBS Group AG’s Wealth Management Americas discontinued the agreement, called the “broker protocol,” earlier this year. “Similar to others in the industry, Citi has decided to exit the protocol” starting on Jan. 8, said Citi spokesman Drew Benson. Benson said the decision was reached because it “allows us to continue to invest in our growing team of award-winning financial advisors.” Citi has around 1,000 advisers and relationship managers, according to Bloomberg, which reported the news earlier Friday. The broker protocol was created in 2004 to bring an end to costly legal battles in which firms would seek court orders to prevent ex-brokers from contacting and recruiting their former clients. Firms that signed the protocol agreed to let ex-brokers to take basic information with them to contact clients and inform them after they moved to a new employer. But as firms face growing regulatory expenses and greater competition from independent firms and robo-advisers, they are looking for new ways to keep wealthy clients and their assets. Nearly 1,700 firms are still party to the agreement, including two of the industry’s largest wealth management firms, Bank of America’s ( BAC.N ) Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Advisors ( WFC.N ) Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts; editing by Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-citigroup-wealth-protocol/citigroup-follows-morgan-stanley-ubs-quits-recruiting-pact-bank-idUKKBN1EN1RI'|'2017-12-30T00:04:00.000+02:00'
'3f4d86fae1a62d1d4345072ab167e3888f30cb09'|'Japan''s Nippon Life eyeing M&A for foreign boutique bond and alternative funds'|'December 31, 2017 / 3:19 PM / Updated 5 hours ago Japan''s Nippon Life eyeing M&A for foreign boutique bond and alternative funds Taiga Uranaka 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance Co [NPNLI.UL], which recently struck a deal to buy about a quarter of U.S. investment firm TCW Group, is scouting for opportunities to buy boutique managers of bonds and alternative assets, its president said. “Asset management is a business that can generate synergy with life insurance and it needs to be operated globally. We have been looking widely for potential partners,” Yoshinobu Tsutsui told Reuters in an interview. The bulking up of asset management overseas by Japan’s largest private-sector life insurer comes as the nation’s insurers are increasingly shifting money away from Japanese government bonds (JGBs), their main investment, into riskier but higher-yielding ones such as foreign corporate bonds to diversify their returns. Insurers in Japan have been hurt by diminishing investment returns after the Bank of Japan launched aggressive monetary easing in April 2013. In December, Nippon Life announced a deal to acquire 24.75 percent of TCW from private equity firm Carlyle Group LP ( CG.O ). Nippon Life has about 74 trillion yen ($653.25 billion) in assets. Tsutsui said potential targets are likely to be asset management companies with bond investment expertise, as the insurer’s portfolio has been traditionally made up of fixed-income products. He also said the company is looking for specialists in alternative investments, whose real estate and other portfolios offer diversification from conventional bond and stock investments. Nippon Life Insurance Co''s President Yoshinobu Tsutsui speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan, December 27, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai “As we have to diversify investment assets globally, alternative is a very important field,” he said. “The United States has a very big and deep market for asset management. There are huge companies but there are also small but unique boutiques. We would like to keep looking there,” he said. Tsutsui said while his company will curb fresh investment in JGBs further, U.S. interest rate rises pose a challenge to its effort to increase foreign bond holdings. “Hedging costs will rise with U.S. rate increases, that will diminish returns (from U.S. Treasuries),” he said. Japanese insurers usually hedge against currency swings when they buy foreign assets to protect their yen-denominated value. “There is an issue of how to build foreign bond portfolios and French government bonds are in the spotlight now,” said Tsutsui, 63, who took over the helm of the company in 2011. Sources with the direct knowledge have said Nippon Life is in talks to buy a majority stake in the Japanese unit of U.S.-based MassMutual Financial Group in an attempt to boost its bancassurance sales. Tsutsui declined to confirm the MassMutual talks but said his company has been searching for ways to build up domestic sales channels in addition to traditional door-to-door sales representatives. “For bank branch sales channel, we are thinking about mergers and acquisitions,” he said. ($1 = 113.2800 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nippon-life-ins-strategy/japans-nippon-life-eyeing-ma-for-foreign-boutique-bond-and-alternative-funds-idUSKBN1EP0G5'|'2017-12-31T17:18:00.000+02:00'
'8be953a4680ed146556cacbd3f7bc638e8f3c742'|'Mitsubishi says on track to deliver long-delayed jets by 2020'|'Reuters TV United States December 31, 2017 / 3:16 PM / Updated 16 minutes ago Mitsubishi says on track to deliver long-delayed jets by 2020 Maki Shiraki 2 Min Read NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd ( 7011.T ) is on track to deliver its repeatedly delayed commercial jet by mid-2020, the head of its aircraft unit said, despite a risk of an order cancellation. A visitor is seen at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries'' booth during the Maritime Air Systems and Technologies Asia (MAST) show in Chiba, Japan June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai The Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) aircraft has been delayed five times from an original delivery target of 2013, leading to spiraling costs. News this month that an order for the aircraft from Eastern Air Lines was “likely to be lost” has spurred more questions about the outlook of the project. “We are proceeding pretty much in line with plans,” said Hisakazu Mizutani, president of Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp, referring to the mid-2020 deadline. “We can just about make it.” He was speaking to reporters in Nagoya on Dec. 8, on the condition that his comments not be published until Jan 1. Mizutani said the planemaker was at risk of losing Eastern Air Lines’ order for 20 MRJ aircraft with an option for 20 more, but that it was “continuing conversations” with the airline. Mitsubishi Aircraft said the order has not yet been canceled. Overall, the Mitsubishi unit has orders for 233 of the 90-seat aircraft, the company has said previously, and aims to sell more than 1,000 of the planes over two decades. Buyers such as ANA Holdings ( 9202.T ) have said they have no plans to cancel orders despite the delays. Mitsubishi Aircraft is majority owned by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, with Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) and Mitsubishi Corp ( 8058.T ) also holding stakes. Reporting by Maki Shiraki; Editing by Ritsuko Ando and Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-mhi-orders/mitsubishi-says-on-track-to-deliver-long-delayed-jets-by-2020-idUKKBN1EP0G7'|'2017-12-31T17:05:00.000+02:00'
'24c1933a6ed775bea7cb1a83c0c77113a4e77926'|'Saudi Aramco shipyard joint venture appoints CEO'|'DUBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco and its partners have appointed Fathi K. Al-Saleem as chief executive of a joint venture to build a shipyard on the kingdom’s east coast, part of the Saudi Arabian government’s drive to diversify the economy beyond oil.The state-owned oil giant said in a statement on Friday that International Maritime Industries (IMI) had been officially launched in partnership with National Shipping Co of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), engineering firm Lamprell Plc, and South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.Saleem has more than 23 years of experience at Aramco and led the feasibility and commercial development stages of IMI, the statement said. Other senior executives were also appointed but not named.Aramco, which signed the joint venture agreement in May, has previously said the project will cost more than 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion).The nearly 12 million square-metre facility is planned to have an annual capacity to manufacture four offshore rigs, over 40 vessels including three Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), and service over 260 maritime products. ($1 = 3.7500 riyals) (Reporting by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Alison Williams) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/aramco-shipbuilding/saudi-aramco-shipyard-joint-venture-appoints-ceo-idINL8N1OU03G'|'2017-12-30T05:30:00.000+02:00'
'b9fedf6498d7bc2d2b6d983d7c23afb2305baf2e'|'Japan''s top government spokesman says too early for BOJ to end stimulus - Nikkei'|'December 30, 2017 / 2:24 AM / Updated 7 hours ago Japan''s top government spokesman says too early for BOJ to end stimulus - Nikkei Reuters Staff 2 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s top government spokesman said it was too early for the country’s central bank to exit from ultra-loose monetary policy, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday. FILE PHOTO - Japan''s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga attends a news conference after the launch of a North Korean missile at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe''s official residence in Tokyo, Japan May 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai “The Bank of Japan has just started (its easy monetary policy), so it’s too early” to debate an exit from its massive stimulus programme, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told the paper in a recent interview. Suga said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gives high marks to BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s policies, the Nikkei said, a sign the government could reappoint him when his current five-year term ends in April next year. Regardless of who the next BOJ governor would be, the central bank should stick to its pledge to achieve its 2 percent inflation target, Suga said. On whether the government could declare an end to deflation next year, Suga said this was a possibility though the government has not made a decision yet. “We won’t look good if the economy reverts back (to deflation) after we declare an end to it. So we’ll think about this cautiously,” he was quoted as saying. Japan’s economy expanded for the seventh straight quarter in July-September thanks to robust exports and capital expenditure. But years of heavy money printing by the BOJ have failed to drive up inflation, which remains distant from the central bank’s target as companies remain wary of raising wages. Some BOJ policymakers have recently expressed concerns over the perceived demerits of monetary easing, suggesting the central bank may have to consider raising its yield targets or slow purchases of risky assets next year. Kuroda has dismissed the chance of withdrawing stimulus any time soon, signalling that the BOJ will lag well behind its U.S. and European counterparts in ending crisis-mode policies. The government is expected to select Kuroda’s successor early next year, which needs parliament approval. Many analysts see a good chance Kuroda will be reappointed for another term. Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-economy-boj/japans-top-government-spokesman-says-too-early-for-boj-to-end-stimulus-nikkei-idUKKBN1EO01T'|'2017-12-30T04:23:00.000+02:00'
'aeb6ec85fe796323e5a01c59604d17b062007183'|'Why Bob Stoops likes the College Football Playoff but not overtime rules - Reuters'|'Former University of Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops discusses why he likes the College Football Playoff system and doesn’t want it to expand. Plus, he recommends a change to the overtime rules that he thinks would speed up games. Also, a look at some of the top sports business stories of 2017. (Rick Horrow is the CEO of Horrow Sports. As an attorney and consultant, he has been the architect of 100+ deals worth more than $20 billion in sports, performing arts, and other urban infrastructure projects. Horrow pioneered the public/private partnership and infrastructure branding concepts that, to date, have enticed more than $4 billion in corporate funding to cities and development projects. The opinions expressed here and in videos and podcasts hosted by Rick are his alone and do not represent the views of Reuters.) '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-keepingscore-ncaa/why-bob-stoops-likes-the-college-football-playoff-but-not-overtime-rules-idUSKBN1EN1E9'|'2017-12-30T00:12:00.000+02:00'
'e95072823de5a7bf7b95558c22b5c3cac860c432'|'We need more inheritance tax, not less - Patrick Collinson'|'T here is nothing more natural, we’re told, than a parent’s desire to leave money to their kids to ensure their security. And there’s nothing that provokes more fury among the middle classes than the prospect of an average home, particularly in the south of England, being grabbed off them at death by the evil taxman. Except that it’s a complete load of codswallop.A report on Saturday from the Resolution Foundation lifts the lid on what’s really happening with inheritances . Firstly, let’s call a halt to the nonsense that the money goes to kids, or to young adults needing a hand up the property ladder. The average age at which someone receives an inheritance is 61. These people are certainly not “kids” – indeed, many of the recipients of unearned inheritances (largely created by property inflation, not personal endeavour) will be grandparents themselves.Now let’s look at who receives the money. The report reveals how it doesn’t really go to those who need a leg-up – it goes to those who already have assets. Resolution looked at the millennial generation – generally those seen as reaching their late teens and early 20s after 2000 – and found that the ones who haven’t got on the property ladder are likely to be those whose parents also never made it. In contrast, 83% of millennials who have bought their homes have parents who also bought their own homes.You can see where inheritance is going. What it does is simply entrench inequality and make the divide between the housing haves and have-nots wider.Make no mistake about the flood of inheritance money on its way, with the amount of money passed on set to more than double over the next two decades and peak in 2035, as high-wealth baby boomers progress through old age. But this money won’t be a silver bullet for younger adults priced out of the property market. As the Resolution Foundation says, “inheritances will be distributed unequally and arrive far too late in life”.Social mobility risks grinding to a near halt, making it much more difficult to become wealthy from one’s own endeavours. Society will, more than ever, be run for the benefit of a trustafarian gerontocracy of the 60-plus who inherited property, not a society where entrepreneurial vigour counts.Of course, the rightwing papers tell you all the money is being gobbled up by evil inheritance taxes – a typical Express headline this year was “Shock poll reveals pensioners’ despair at not leaving more to children”. The headline would not work so well if we replaced the word “children” with “61-year olds”.The tax haul from IHT is indeed up – it will be £5.3bn in this tax year, up from £4.7bn in 2016/17. But that amounts to just 0.08% of the UK’s £6tn in property wealth. And the vast majority of people won’t pay a penny in tax: the current tax-free allowance is £325,000, but that rises to £425,000 if the money is going to children or grandchildren. What’s more, the surviving partner from a married couple is allowed to use both tax-free allowances. So parents can already pass on as much as £850,000 without paying a penny in tax. Given that the average property price in the UK is £210,000, and many elderly people will have to pay large care home bills, the reality is that tiny numbers are caught in the net. Every cut in inheritance tax, such as Trump’s immoral estates plan that allows couples to pass down up to $22m tax free, is designed to benefit the 1%, not the many.The problem with inheritance is that we don’t tax it more. We live in a country where social care for the elderly is in crisis; we could solve it by abandoning the toxic phrase “inheritance tax” and renaming it something like “pensioner care contribution”, then raise the rate to 50% and drop the threshold back to the average property price. But the wealthy won’t let this happen; as billionaire Leona Helmsley said, “We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.”Topics Inheritance tax On reflection Tax comment'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2017/dec/30/inheritance-tax'|'2017-12-30T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'0b1dce4c0ae7840cbfaad7c720f8c5ae7755b899'|'Lufthansa''s Brussels Airlines set to cut costs by 10-15 percent'|'December 30, 2017 / 11:58 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago Lufthansa''s Brussels Airlines set to cut costs by 10-15 percent Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brussels Airlines, a unit of Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ), plans to cut its costs by between 10 and 15 percent in the coming years in order to remain competitive with low-cost rivals, its chief executive told Belgian daily De Tijd. FILE PHOTO: Brussels Airlines aircraft are seen on the tarmac at Zaventem international airport near Brussels, in this file picture taken November 19, 2013. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/Files The Belgian carrier, which Lufthansa took full control of in December 2016, has already reduced costs by 15 percent in the past three years through savings on staff and more efficient baggage and catering operations. Bernard Gustin told De Tijd in an interview published on Saturday that cost-cutting had to continue. Passengers would pay a little more to travel with Brussels Airlines compared with a low-cost carrier, but that premium had to be kept to a minimum. “We need to bring our costs down by at least 10-15 percent. This year already they have fallen by 5 percent,” he said. Brussels Airlines expects to carry a record 9 million passengers in 2017 and Gustin said he was targeting an increase to 10 million in 2018. Lufthansa has said it wants to integrate Brussels Airlines into budget platform Eurowings, although the Belgian carrier also serves business routes to Africa. Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Andrew Bolton'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lufthansa-brusselsairlines/lufthansas-brussels-airlines-set-to-cut-costs-by-10-15-percent-idUKKBN1EO0A9'|'2017-12-30T13:57:00.000+02:00'
'ce4b17bf4fe2587aa69ef58d4de170056c3b7415'|'Uniper CEO criticises suitor Fortum for lack of clarity'|'December 30, 2017 / 12:19 PM / Updated 32 minutes ago Uniper CEO criticizes suitor Fortum for lack of clarity Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The chief executive of German energy producer Uniper ( UN01.DE ) has criticized Finnish suitor Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ) for a lack of clarity about its intentions in a planned 8 billion euro ($9.6 billion) takeover of the company. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Uniper SE is seen in its booth at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Fortum has agreed to buy 47 percent of Uniper from Uniper’s parent E.ON ( EONGn.DE ) and offered the same price to the other shareholders, but it faces pressure to raise its offer from hedge funds Elliott and Knight Vinke, who have built up stakes. Meanwhile, the Finnish utility is dragging its feet over job guarantee negotiations, Uniper Chief Executive Klaus Schaefer told the Rheinische Post newspaper in an interview published on Saturday. “Talks are not going as speedily as we would like,” he said. “Fortum is still failing to provide clarity about its goals.” Just 0.17 percent of outstanding Uniper shares had been tendered to Fortum by Dec. 27, at the offer price of 22 euros per share. The shares closed at 26 euros on Dec. 29. The offer closes on Jan. 16. Knight Vinke has 5 percent of Uniper and has said it will not tender its stake. Elliott, which has not said how it will respond, has 7.4 percent. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a-fortum-oyj/uniper-ceo-criticizes-suitor-fortum-for-lack-of-clarity-idUKKBN1EO0AR'|'2017-12-30T14:16:00.000+02:00'
'823cbf9376585c429e7507e9c221fad1a3a25b4e'|'UK North Sea Forties oil pipeline pumps at half capacity - source'|' 34 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago UK North Sea Forties oil pipeline pumps at half capacity - source Reuters Staff 1 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest and most important oil pipeline, Forties, was ramping up throughput after repairs and was currently pumping at around half its normal rates, a trading source familiar with the operations said on Wednesday. Forties normally pumps about 450,000 barrels per day. The pipeline’s operator Ineos restarted the pipeline earlier in the week and has pledged to resume full flows in early January. On Wednesday, Ineos could not immediately comment on the current flow rates. Reporting by Alex Lawler, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Louise Heavens'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-forties-oil/uk-north-sea-forties-oil-pipeline-pumps-at-half-capacity-source-idUKKBN1EL0XU'|'2017-12-27T14:33:00.000+02:00'
'5f0cbbe178925b8d5e17fac686c24fe79ec4afa5'|'China investigating head of online finance platform that handled $7.6 billion'|'December 28, 2017 / 11:20 AM / Updated 30 minutes ago China investigating head of online finance platform that handled $7.6 billion Reuters Staff 2 Min Read SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of a Chinese online financing platform that handled over 50 billion yuan (£5.7 billion) in transactions is under investigation after surrendering himself to authorities, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday. Police in the eastern city of Nanjing said on their official Twitter-like Weibo account on Wednesday that the legal representative for platform Qbao.com had surrendered himself at a police station on Dec. 26. State news agency Xinhua, which reported the investigation on Thursday, said Qbao.com was a platform that allowed members to make investments that advertised returns of over 40 percent and earn money from watching advertisements. Also on the platform were retailers who could get goods from Qbao and from whom members could make purchases, Xinhua said It added that as of September, more than 50 billion yuan had flowed through the five-year-old Qbao.com platform, which required its roughly 200 million members to make deposits. Nanjing police and Xinhua identified the person under investigation as Zhang Xiaolei. A message posted on Qianbao’s website, which has been shut down, said Zhang was “suspected of committing crimes”. Reuters was unable to reach him for comment. China has pledged to intensify a crackdown on financial crime to safeguard national security and fend off financial risks after amid a rise in pyramid schemes, frauds and illegal fundraising. In September, a Beijing court sentenced the architect of the $9 billion Ezubao online financial scam to life imprisonment, and handed down jail time to 26 others, marking the close to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in modern Chinese history. Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom and Brenda Goh; Editing by Richard Borsuk'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-finance-internet/china-investigating-head-of-online-finance-platform-that-handled-7-6-billion-idUKKBN1EM0ZW'|'2017-12-28T13:19:00.000+02:00'
'282080f9f684f40704d7dbeac107473f3f78b963'|'Poll - Supply discipline and demand to prop up oil prices in 2018'|'OPEC and Russia’s efforts to curb oil output, combined with forecasts for strong global demand growth, are expected to keep crude prices close to $60 a barrel in 2018, a Reuters poll of analysts showed on Thursday.A flag with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is seen before a news conference at OPEC''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, December 10, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/Files The survey of 32 economists and analysts forecast Brent crude LCOc1 would average $59.88 a barrel in 2018, up from the $58.84 forecast in the previous monthly poll.Oil prices, which hit 2-1/2 year highs this week, have rallied by more than 30 percent since the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers agreed to limit production from January 2017.The producers last month extended the deal to curb output throughout 2018.“Oil demand will be high in 2018, with solid economic growth worldwide ... Supply will be relatively tight because of high OPEC commitment,” said Frank Schallenberger, head of commodity research at LBBW.Large supplies of crude will head to Asia to satisfy strong demand from the region, analysts said.U.S. exports to Asia have already increased with higher Middle East oil prices because of the OPEC-led output cuts and a wide WTI-Brent spread.Total crude oil imports to China, one of the world’s biggest oil consumers, rebounded to the second-highest level on record in November at 9.01 million barrels per day (bpd).U.S. light crude CLc1 was expected to average $55.78 a barrel next year, up from last month’s forecast of $54.78.Strong OPEC compliance with the supply pact should lend support to prices, analysts said. However, price rise will be capped by booming shale output in the United States, which is not participating in the global deal to curb production.U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has risen more than 16 percent since mid-2016, is expected to surpass 10 million bpd next year, some analysts said.“We see U.S. supply continuing to grow next year but are less concerned about a sudden supply glut re-emerging as rising D&C (drilling and completion) costs will likely slow production growth,” said Ashley Petersen of Stratas Advisors.Production disruptions in Libya and Nigeria and a possible renewal of U.S. sanctions on Iran are also likely to support prices in 2018, analysts said.Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/oil-prices-poll/poll-supply-discipline-and-demand-to-prop-up-oil-prices-in-2018-idINKBN1EM14T'|'2017-12-28T14:40:00.000+02:00'
'f8578a2a05b966ac587439dc749c19517d45152a'|'Indian bond yields jump after govt announces additional borrowing'|'MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s benchmark 10-year bond slumped to a nearly 18-month low on Thursday, sending its yield up as much as 17 basis points, after the government flagged additional borrowing for the year ending in March that far exceed market expectations.FILE PHOTO - An India rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo It’s no surprise there would be extra borrowing in the last three months of the fiscal year, as tax collection plunged after the launch of the national Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July.But India’s announcement it would borrow an additional 500 billion rupees ($7.79 billion) was well above the 250-300 billion rupees most traders expected.The government now faces a steep challenge as it tries to offset the sharp shortfall in tax revenue at a time when it is seeking to bolster an economy that’s only just started to recover after a five-quarter slide.The government will need to determine how much to widen the deficit, currently set at 3.2 percent of gross domestic product, with traders having pencilled in 3.5 percent.Anything wider than that could further spook investors as they worry the inflationary impulse from additional fiscal impulse could prompt the central bank to raise interest rates.“The market is nervous. No one was expecting an additional 500 billion rupees worth of borrowing,” said Harish Agarwal, a fixed income trader in Mumbai for First Rand Bank.The benchmark 10-year bond yield was up 15 basis points at 7.37 percent by 0752 GMT, after rising to 7.39 percent, its highest level since early July 2016.However, Indian shares and the rupee were broadly flat.GROWTH VS INFLATION Although India’s GDP grew 6.3 percent in July-September, its fastest pace in three quarters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is hoping for stronger growth as it vies for re-election in 2019, raising concerns of increased spending.However, Modi’s government also wants to maintain its standing with investors and burnish its fiscal credentials, having just a few weeks ago earned a sovereign ratings upgrade from Moody’s Investors Service.Policy makers would also be mindful of an acceleration in annual inflation, which spiked to a 15-month high of 4.88 percent in November, due to higher food and commodity prices.The Reserve Bank of India took advantage of a period of extraordinary low inflation to cut rates by 200 bps between January 2015 and August 2017.But the 10-year bond yield has risen more than 90 bps since that last cut in early August, as investors have started pricing in the prospect of rate hikes.Early this month, the RBI kept its policy rate steady at 6.00 percent, and for now, analysts said they still expect the central bank to hold rates again at its next meeting in early February.Much of what happens next will hinge on how the government manages its fiscal deficit, with a key test looming as it prepares to unveil the annual budget for the next year around the same time.“Going ahead, we continue to believe that India rates look set to remain on the upside in fiscal year 2018/19. The floor will be set with the end of RBI’s rate-cut cycle and expectations of a possible start to a rate-hike cycle,” Kotak wrote in a note.Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Rafael Nam & Shri NavaratnamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-bonds/indian-bond-yields-jump-after-govt-announces-additional-borrowing-idINKBN1EM0A1'|'2017-12-28T06:00:00.000+02:00'
'805da8c9611112b14afe02fa8802948473659246'|'Steinhoff''s Asia Pacific unit seeks to distance itself from crisis of parent'|'December 28, 2017 / 5:21 AM / Updated 2 hours ago Steinhoff''s Asia Pacific unit seeks to distance itself from crisis of parent Reuters Staff 2   Steinhoff International’s Asia Pacific unit stressed its business was sound and sought to distance itself from its troubled parent on Thursday, even as the furniture firm appointed local lawyers and financial advisers as a prudent measure. South African-headquartered Steinhoff International ( SNHJ.J ) ( SNHG.DE ) has lost more than $12 billion in market value in recent weeks, hit by an accounting scandal that caused its banks to cut credit lines and forced the exit of its chief executive. With 10,000 employees in Australia and New Zealand, the unit operates well known local furniture retailers, including Freedom and Fantastic Furniture. Michael Ford, chief executive of Steinhoff Asia Pacific, said the move to hire law firm Minter Ellison and strategic adviser Ferrier Hodgson was a “prudent step” in response to the “significant uncertainty” facing its parent company. “For all our brands in the Steinhoff Asia Pacific group,... it is business as usual,” Ford said in an emailed statement. “Steinhoff Asia Pacific is not party to any of the banking facilities of its parent.” Ford said total system sales, including franchisee sales, were up 3.1 percent for the 12 months ended Nov. 20, compared to a year ago. Sales for the month of December so far were up 12.4 percent, he added. ”We are now in our peak trading period and have had some exceptionally strong trading across our retail brands,“ Ford said. ”These are healthy sales figures for a business group that is clearly performing well.’ Reporting by Paulina Duran; Editing by Jane Wardell and Edwina Gibbs'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-steinhoff-intlnl-australia/steinhoffs-asia-pacific-unit-seeks-to-distance-itself-from-crisis-of-parent-idUKKBN1EM0CF'|'2017-12-28T07:19:00.000+02:00'
'd14f64b7f00ea3c73505215d1cec0a6e13b9b19e'|'London Stock Exchange''s company floats hit three-year high at 15 billion pounds'|'December 29, 2017 / 3:19 PM / Updated 7 hours ago London Stock Exchange''s company floats hit three-year high at 15 billion pounds Reuters Staff 2 Min Read LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ) raised 15 billion pounds from 106 initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2017, a 63 percent increase compared to last year and the highest level for three years. People walk past the London Stock Exchange Group offices in the City of London, Britain, December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville Money raised from the exchange’s listings was up 164 percent compared to 5.7 billion pounds in 2016, the LSE said in a statement on Friday. It added that 20 North American companies chose London for their listing, including Dallas-based oil and gas company Kosmos Energy ( KOS.L ). London has seen a pick-up in listings this year after uncertainty around Britain’s future outside of the EU single market in 2016 dampened investor confidence and caused a number of initial public offerings (IPO) to be postponed or cancelled. “Despite the debates about Brexit, London’s highly global, deep and liquid capital markets continue to be the ideal partner for funding the world’s growth,” Chief Executive Officer Nikhil Rathi said. “It is particularly significant that the number of international listings in London is up, with North American listings up nearly seven-fold on last year,” Rathi said. The listing of 35 investment companies drove total IPOs value higher, with 5 billion pounds raised from vehicles including real estate investment trusts or special purpose acquisition firms, compared to just 644 million pounds in 2016. However, the average share performance of newly listed companies in 2017 was down 34 percent year on year, the LSE said. Raising $1.5 billion, the largest single London float in 2017 was Russia’s En+ Group ( ENPLq.L ), which manages tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum and hydropower businesses. Broadcasting masts company Arqiva abandoned plans to raise 1.5 billion pounds and business services firm TMF scrapped a planned float of up to 1.3 billion pounds in favour of an outright sale to a private equity firm. Reporting by Clara Denina; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lse-ipo-performance/london-stock-exchanges-company-floats-hit-three-year-high-at-15-billion-pounds-idUKKBN1EN1BR'|'2017-12-29T18:40:00.000+02:00'
'87eab35dbe100babe3e7cc0f1a80b473eaba14ed'|'Terry Smith – the man who beat the market in 2017'|'Terry Smith has emerged as Britain’s top investment performer once again after another year of stellar returns – while Neil Woodford languishes at the bottom of the tables after his worst year on the stock market for two decades.When Smith launched Fundsmith Equity in November 2010 he boldly promised it would be “the best fund ever”, and would give the “fat and complacent” fund management industry a bloody nose. It sounded like bluster and bravado, but he was true to his word. In 2017, Fundsmith Equity gave its investors a gain of just over 22% – easily outstripping the 10% investors would pick up from an index-tracking fund in the UK, or 12% from US trackers, where most of Fundsmith Equity’s money is invested.Budget focus on skills and technology aims to bolster UK productivity Read moreSomeone who put £1,000 in Fundsmith Equity at launch in 2010 has enjoyed a remarkable total gain of 264%.Around 60% of Fundsmith Equity is in US shares, and the pound’s fall against the dollar has helped turbo-charge returns. But its biggest holding is Madrid-based Amadeus, which provides booking and pricing for airlines, and its shares have soared from €43 (£38) to €61 over the last year. Smith’s second largest holding, PayPal, has performed even better, rising from $40 (£29.90) a share in January to $74 in the last few days.A look at the UK’s biggest funds that are popular with small investors shows Fundsmith Equity, now managing £13.3bn, topped the table in 2017, followed by Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders, with a gain of 12.3%. But a disappointing picture of underperformance emerged with many other of the big funds, with most failing to beat or even match the FTSE or the S&P 500. The two biggest laggards are Standard Life’s Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS), and Woodford Equity Income.Many thousands of small investors have been put into GARS by financial advisers, with the promise that it would earn a relatively secure 5% a year returns over a rolling three-year period. But this year it only managed to return 1.6%, and last year actually lost 2.7%. Not surprisingly, many investors have been baling out.Top UK fund manager divests from fossil fuels Read moreNeil Woodford has gathered more than £8bn from his devoted army of small investors – but 2017 was a terrible year for Britain’s best-known fund manager. His portfolio of shares was down just over 1% in 2017 and is ranked a rock-bottom 84th out of 84 funds in the UK equity income sector over one year. He was stung by a crash in the value of Provident Financial, the doorstep lender where he was a big investor. Its shares are down from £29 to less than £9. His tobacco share holdings, which have proved huge moneyspinners in the past, went rather yellow and tar-stained during 2017. Imperial Tobacco, his second-largest holding, was down from £35 a share to £31 a share. Woodford believes a lot of markets are in bubble territory, with bitcoin mania symptomatic of speculative fever.China turned out to be the best place to put your money in 2017, although the surprise third best place – given the gloom forecasts by some over Brexit – was UK smaller companies.The average China-invested fund gave a return of 34% in 2017, according to data from FE Trustnet, while Japanese smaller companies earned 25.3% and UK smaller companies 25.1%. Anyone in bonds and gilts saw returns in the zero to 2% range, reflecting historically low interest rates around the world. But what’s surprising is that there was no sector which had negative returns – nearly everything was up in 2017.Should that make investors wary about 2018? Will it be the year that the long bull-run in equities goes into reverse?Adrian Lowcock, investment director of Architas, says 2017 “has been a strong year for equity markets. The global economy has been in fairly good health, and we have seen a period of synchronised global growth. However, markets are expensive. In 2018 we expect the phase of synchronised global growth to continue and corporate earnings to continue to grow. However, equity markets are unlikely to have a repeat of 2017.”At Jupiter, vice-chairman Edward Bonham Carter adds: “It’s all getting a bit pricey … On a forward price-to-earnings ratio, a key measure used to work out whether a share is good value or not, many of the biggest indices, including the FTSE All-Share, the S&P 500 and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, are all trading close to their historic highs.”Schroders chief executive Peter Harrison is more sanguine, saying that while share prices in the US are “stretched”, in both Japan and Europe, stock markets should benefit from rising profit margins.“Overall, we carry a spirit of cautious optimism into 2018, albeit that caution may start to overwhelm optimism as the year wears on,” he says.The best sectors of 2017 Sector Annual return (%)China/Greater China 33.8%Japanese Smaller Companies 25.3%UK Smaller Companies 25.1%Technology & Telecoms 24.9%European Smaller Companies 23.9%Asia Pacific Excluding Japan 23.8%Global Emerging Markets 22.8%Japan 18.3%Europe Excluding UK 17.5%UK All Companies 12.5%North America 11.1%UK Equity Income 10.1%Property 6.6%Sterling Corporate Bond 4.6%UK Gilts 0.9%Source: FE Trustnet, bid-to-bid prices, 1 January 2017 to 21 December 2017The best funds of 2017 Fund Annual return (%)NB China Equity 52.3%Baillie Gifford Greater China 49.5%Invesco PRC Equity 47.4%Old Mutual UK Smaller Companies Focus 46.8%Polar Capital UK Absolute Equity 46.7%Barclays Global Access Pacific Rim 45.4%Matthews Asia China 44.3%JPM Greater China 42.1%JPM Asia Growth 41.8%Janus Henderson China Opportunities 41.8%Source: FE Trustnet, 31 December 2016 to 26 December 2017. Total return in pounds sterlingTopics Investment funds Investments Financial sector news'|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/30/terry-smith-fundsmith-beat-market-2017'|'2017-12-30T13:59:00.000+02:00'
'9c30302ec0f14db565a8efadef4613c82280a797'|'Deutsche Bank to resume normal bonuses, some to get raises: CEO'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) will resume the payment of normal bonuses for 2017, the bank’s chief told a German newspaper, and some employees will get raises.CEO John Cryan, in an interview with the Boersen-Zeitung newspaper published on Saturday, also welcomed plans by Britain to spare European banks costly capital rules after Brexit. But staff were still analyzing any potential costs of U.S. tax reform, he said.Bonus payments at Deutsche Bank fell to 546 million euros in 2016 from 2.4 billion euros a year earlier after a multi-billion dollar legal fine for the sale of toxic debt.“We always said that we would return to our normal system of variable compensation in 2017,” Cryan told the newspaper. “And we will also raise salaries in some areas,” he said, without providing more detail.The still fragile state of Germany’s biggest bank was underlined when it reported a drop of almost 25 percent in third quarter investment bank revenue and a drop of more than a third in its bond trading division.The head quarters of Germany''s largest business bank, Deutsche Bank, is photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach In addition to weak earnings, the bank has been grappling with the uncertainty of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.This month, the Bank of England said that it was planning to allow large foreign banks after Brexit to operate as branches in Britain rather than as subsidiaries that would require significant capital.The decision “gives us more planning certainty”, Cryan said. Deutsche Bank has 9,000 staff in London.The newspaper asked Cryan whether the bank also expects to take a tax write-down like Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) following changes to the U.S. tax system.Credit Suisse said last week that it expected a write-down of 2.3 billion Swiss francs ($2.3 billion) during its 2017 fourth quarter.“We will also be affected,” Cryan said. He declined to offer a concrete prognosis, saying that the bank was still analyzing the effects of the tax code.Reporting by Tom Sims; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-deutsche-bank-bonuses/deutsche-bank-to-resume-normal-bonuses-some-to-get-raises-ceo-idUSKBN1EO05H'|'2017-12-30T10:41:00.000+02:00'
'e1273dc2ff6a335ceebc4b6767664e40d147a5f1'|'Around 6,000 Swiss VW owners seek damages in emissions scandal'|' 14 AM / Updated 36 minutes ago Around 6,000 Swiss VW owners seek damages in emissions scandal Reuters Staff 2 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss consumer protection organization SKS has filed a claim with the Zurich commercial court on behalf of some 6,000 car owners seeking damages from Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) and Swiss car dealer AMAG related to the “Dieselgate” emissions scandal. FILE PHOTO: A man uses phone under a Volkswagen logo at the Shanghai Auto Show, in Shanghai, China April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo SKS said it was assuming damages amounted on average to 15 percent of the initial retail price of the vehicles concerned and that, together with insurance companies supporting the legal action, it wanted to give Swiss-based car owners the possibility to enforce their rights without disproportionate financial risk. “The cars sold as environmentally friendly were overpriced from the beginning. Due to the manipulation of the exhaust system, they then lost even more of their value on the secondary market,” SKS (Stiftung fuer Konsumentenschutz) said in a statement on Friday. AMAG, which imports the cars into Switzerland, said in a statement on its website it did not understand why SKS filed the claim because prices on the secondary market for VW diesel cars were at least on the same level or even higher than those of competing models. It also said it had not acted with the intention of wilfully deceiving customers. Volkswagen could not immediately be reached for comment. VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software in hundreds of thousands of U.S. diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner than they were on the road, and that as many as 11 million vehicles could have similar software installed worldwide. Earlier this month, Germany’s highest court rejected a bid by Volkswagen to suspend the work of a special auditor appointed to investigate management actions in the emissions scandal. Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-swiss/around-6000-swiss-vw-owners-seek-damages-in-emissions-scandal-idUKKBN1EO090'|'2017-12-30T13:04:00.000+02:00'
'904bea94a80ee951821e39ca1656d5a3625e7300'|'China to suspend some car production over fuel consumption standards'|'December 31, 2017 / 6:31 AM / Updated 9 hours ago China to suspend some car production over fuel consumption standards Reuters Staff 2 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - China will suspend the production of 553 passenger vehicle models that have failed to meet the government’s fuel consumption standards, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday. A vehicle is displayed at booth of Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. at Shanghai Auto Show during its media day, in Shanghai, China April 19, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song The suspension will take effect from Jan. 1, Xinhua said, citing the China Vehicle Technology Service Centre. The models include products from several major domestic producers and joint ventures such as FAW-Volkswagen, Beijing Benz Automotive, Chery and Dongfeng Motor Corporation. “With the war on pollution in full swing, China has been pushing for green transportation by toughening emission limits and encouraging the use of new energy vehicles,” the report added. China will extend a tax rebate on purchases of new-energy vehicles until the end of 2020, the government said last week, a boost for hybrid and electric car makers amid a shift by policy-makers away from the traditional internal combustion engine. Pollution is a hot button issue in China, with large swathes of the country regularly engulfed in smog, though the government has vowed to tackle the problem and the country may already have begun the turn the corner. Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos-environment/china-to-suspend-some-car-production-over-fuel-consumption-standards-idUKKBN1EP040'|'2017-12-31T08:18:00.000+02:00'
'044b38c6cd43f9eb177fc64ebdb980fcacb0a0f9'|'Switching energy supplier: here''s what you can save'|'I t’s the easiest way to save money, and it takes just a few minutes. So why do so few of us regularly switch gas and electricity supplier – especially as our figures show that some households will save in excess of £400 a year?In the run-up to Christmas, the energy regulator Ofgem revealed that 57% of standard households reside on their energy suppliers’ standard variable tariffs – and are typically overpaying by £300 a year.More than 70% of SSE customers are on its most expensive standard tariff, while at British Gas the figure is 67%.Switching supplier has to be your New Year resolution. A £200-£400 plus saving for five minutes’ work? Why wouldn’t you?Experts claim that one of the reasons that householders don’t switch suppliers is because they don’t believe the promised savings will materialise.With this in mind, Money asked the switching website Energyhelpline.com to crunch the numbers to show what real households on actual tariffs can save if they switch right now. We put together different types of households to reflect the reality of modern lives. The size of the possible savings surprised even us. It also reveals how being on a tariff that supplies 100% green electricity can be the cheapest – and greenest – option.One thing to note. Many of the cheapest suppliers are firms you will probably not have heard of, but this needn’t put you off. Customer service standards can vary enormously at small suppliers, but there is no other downside to signing up with a small supplier. If it goes bust you are protected by Ofgem’s rules. If you prefer a “name” supplier, we have shown those too.Mark Todd, who runs Energyhelpline, says customers switching supplier saved £217 on average this year. “A really nice New Year’s present to give yourself is a cheaper energy tariff. You can stay warmer and pay less right through 2018. If you care about the environment, you can do your bit to stop global warming, and save at the same time. What’s not to like?” he says.The energy-conscious family from NottinghamFacebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration: Jim StotenThis couple have two young children, and they live in an energy efficient home with solar panels on the roof. Their electricity bills are just £200 a year by virtue of the solar panels and the gas bills are £450 a year – £650 in total. They are currently on Scottish Power’s standard online tariff.They receive feed-in-tariff payments meaning they can’t move to many of the smaller suppliers as they won’t administer these. They will pay just £410 per year – saving £240 – if they switch to Solarplicity ’s Fair Market Price Variable tariff. The better-known First:utility’s Smart First January 2019 Online costs total of £456 per year, and is the cheapest “bigger name” supplier – saving them £194 a year.The high-usage family in SurreyFacebook Twitter PinterestWith four children who like long showers and a large five-bedroom house to keep warm, this family are currently spending £2,900 a year – £1,900 on gas annually and £1,000 on electricity. They were on a British Gas deal “a while ago” but think it’s probably expired, meaning they are on British Gas’s default tariff – the standard variable deal – one of the UK’s most expensive tariffs.The family can cut their bill to £2,092 – and save £808 – if they move to the very cheapest supplier for their usage – the “Pioneer” tariff by Igloo Energy . If they prefer a company they have heard of, npower will supply them for £2,309 a year (a £591 saving) which is fixed until 31 March 2019. And if they wanted to go for a renewables tariff they can cut their bill to £2,098 – just a shade more than the cheapest deal – by switching to 100% green by Pure Planet.Younger couple in their late 20s who live in CardiffThey bought their first flat a year ago, but their bills are low as they both work long hours during the week and are often away at weekends. Last year’s gas bill was just £420, while their electricity bill was a creditable £290 – a total of £710. They are currently with Ovo’s Simpler Energy tariff, but are free to switch supplier.Their low bills mean they need a supplier with either a low or no standing charge. Again they will save £214 a year if they move to Solarplicity ’s Fair Market Price Variable tariff – paying just for the energy they use as it has no standing charges. This tariff offers electricity that’s 100% renewable.Professional couple who drive an electric car and live in EdinburghFacebook Twitter PinterestOur couple are recent converts to an electric car, and have not cottoned on to the fact that they could bring down their car recharging costs by switching to night charging using Economy 7. They currently are projected to spend £760 on electricity this year and £580 on gas, or a total annual bill of £1,340. They are with local supplier SSE Scottish Hydro – standard paper billing.If they simply switch their current spending to the cheapest supplier – Our Power ’s “Our Best” tariff – they can get their annual bill down to £995 a year – a saving of £345. If they prefer a big-name provider, Sainsbury’s Energy’s Price PromiseDecember 2018 (powered by British Gas) will save them £243 a year. However, by shifting 60% of their electricity bill to a tariff that offers discounted Economy 7 – cheaper night-time recharging – they can save a further £79 (an annual bill of £890) by switching to Bulb’s Vari-Fair tariff (100% renewable electricity tariff). They could save a fantastic £424 a year.Single pensioner who lives in SouthamptonHe has a small modern flat that features night storage heaters and electrically heated hot water that uses cheap night-time Economy 7 electricity. His total electricity bill is £950 a year – with 45% being Economy 7. He is on EDF’s Online Saver Jan19v2 tariff. No gas is used.The fact that he has a second Economy 7 meter limits his number of potential suppliers. Currently the cheapest electricity only supplier in his area is Powershop . He will save about £276 a year if he moves to the Easy Saver tariff. The cheapest well-known supplier tariff is Scottish Power’s Online Fixed Saver January 2019 at £738 (only available through price comparison websites) – still giving a substantial saving of £212.Unemployed couple, one child, living in LondonFacebook Twitter PinterestThey rely on pre-payment meters paying about £600 a year for gas and £450 for electricity – a total spend of £1,050 a year. Their rented flat came with the pre-payment meters supplied by Eon.Savings in the pre-payment market are much harder to come by. The cheapest pre-payment supplier in their area is E . If they can move to E’s Reward April 2017 tariff they will save £66, a fraction of what they could save if they could persuade a supplier to give them a credit meter.Retired couple from Bristol who want to switch to 100% renewable energyFacebook Twitter PinterestThey currently are on npower’s standard tariff, having come off a fixed-price deal in late 2017, and done nothing about switching since. They want to switch to green energy, and will pay a price premium if need be. They currently spend £480 a year on electricity and £820 on gas – a combined bill of £1,300 a year.The cheapest 100% widely available renewables '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/30/switching-energy-supplier-heres-what-you-can-save'|'2017-12-30T14:00:00.000+02:00'
'f12ba0b52996edfc89bbe288c83b441c130e0da6'|'Venezuela probes ex-oil czar Ramirez over alleged graft scheme'|'CARACAS/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuela is investigating Rafael Ramirez, a once powerful oil minister and former head of state oil company PDVSA, in connection with an alleged $4.8 billion Vienna-based corruption scheme, the state prosecutor’s office announced on Friday.Venezuela''s representative to the United Nations Rafael Ramirez is seen as he attends a meeting in Caracas, Venezuela August 12, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins Prosecutor Tarek Saab said Ramirez and at least four other oil executives from the South American OPEC nation sold crude oil at below market prices in exchange for bribes.Ramirez, who led PDVSA for a decade, told Reuters the allegation was a “blatant lie.”Venezuelan authorities had warned earlier this month that they planned to launch a criminal investigation of the former oil czar, in an escalation of a corruption purge that has resulted in the arrest of dozens of senior oil executives.”(Ramirez) appears as the main intellectual author of what happened,” said Saab, inviting Ramirez to Venezuela to defend himself.Venezuela ordered the removal of Ramirez from his post as representative to the United Nations in New York last month.“What the prosecutor says is not only false but demonstrates a deep ignorance,” said Ramirez.He added that the Vienna office of PDVSA was not in charge of selling oil but rather monitoring prices of Venezuelan crude exports.“It’s a blatant lie ... intended to persecute not only me but my team.”In his announcement on Friday, Saab also reported the arrest of Nelida Izarra, a former boss at a Vienna-based subsidiary of PDVSA, for alleged links to irregular purchases and sales of crude oil.Saab also said he had ordered the arrest of two other PDVA officials who worked in Austria: Bernard Mommer and Irama Quiroz, as well as lawyer Mariana Zerpa. It is not immediately clear where Izarra was arrested or where the others currently reside.Mommer was a pillar of oil strategy under former President Hugo Chavez, with oil sales serving as the cash cow for the country’s socialist revolution. He was key in planning the nationalisation of swaths of Venezuela’s oil fields a decade ago and once served as the country’s representative to OPEC.“The executives involved in the case were complicit in these modifications that caused serious damage to the Venezuelan State, allegedly in exchange for commissions in foreign currency,” said a statement from the state prosecutor’s office.Critics say the ongoing oil graft purge has as much to do with score settling among old political rivals as it does with any real attempt to root out endemic corruption.Ramirez, 54, has been an increasingly vocal critic of leftist President Nicolas Maduro in recent months. He was seen by some as angling to run in the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election, in which Maduro is expected to seek another term.The alleged crimes being investigated occurred between 2009 and 2015. Saab did not explain how authorities had reached the conclusion that they yielded $4.8 billion in illicit profits.The prosecution reported that 69 oil managers have been arrested over the last few months for corruption in PDVSA, including former oil minister Eulogio Del Pino, former PDVSA president Nelson Martinez and the board of directors of Citgo, a PDVSA subsidiary in Houston.Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Tom Brown '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-pdvsa-corruption/venezuela-probes-ex-oil-czar-ramirez-over-alleged-graft-scheme-idINKBN1EN1QR'|'2017-12-29T23:54:00.000+02:00'
'e4b2cd9a5556b9b95721909532e599490f244c1e'|'Infineon not vulnerable to takeover - CEO in Boersen-Zeitung'|'December 30, 2017 / 1:23 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago Infineon not vulnerable to takeover - CEO in Boersen-Zeitung Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German chipmaker Infineon ( IFXGn.DE ) does not see itself as vulnerable to a takeover despite mega-mergers in the sector led by Broadcom’s AVGO.GO $103 billion (76.27 billion pounds) offer for Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ), its chief executive told Germany’s Boersen-Zeitung. FILE PHOTO: Reinhard Ploss, CEO of Infineon arrives for the annual news conference in Neubiberg near Munich, Germany, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder “Infineon is not a primary takeover target,” Reinhard Ploss told the markets daily in an interview published on Saturday. “We communicate externally very clearly that we can and want to stand on our own two feet.” “My impression is that this is very well understood in the market, also by Chinese investors, who do not normally have a hostile takeover strategy with high-tech companies,” he said. Ploss said shareholders should be happy with Infineon’s price-earnings ratio of around 27, giving it a market value of 26 billion euros ($31 billion) that a potential new owner would find hard to increase significantly. He added that Infineon’s strong position in security technology in Germany and engagement in the United States could present regulatory difficulties for a suitor. Ploss said Infineon had learnt from its failed attempt to buy U.S. chipmaker Wolfspeed, which foundered on U.S. security concerns, and would be expanding its political network in the United States. Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Stephen Powell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-infineon-technol-m-a/infineon-not-vulnerable-to-takeover-ceo-in-boersen-zeitung-idUKKBN1EO0BZ'|'2017-12-30T15:22:00.000+02:00'
'3616cdf3ad2fd7e89559c19269ef56369e3a158b'|'UPDATE 1-GRAPHIC-India challenges China as world''s biggest LPG importer'|'December 27, 2017 / 5:34 AM / Updated 31 minutes ago India challenges China as world''s biggest LPG importer Henning Gloystein 3 Min Read SINGAPORE (Reuters) - India is set to surpass China as the biggest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) this month as a drive to replace wood and animal dung fires for cooking boosts consumption. Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows LPG shipments to India will reach 2.4 million tonnes in December, pushing it ahead of top importer China, on 2.3 million tonnes, for the first time. India’s LPG purchases have surged from just 1 million tonnes a month in early 2015 on the back of a government program to bring energy to millions of poor households relying on open fires. “The growth in India is amazing. The fact that they have grown from 140 million subsidized household connections in 2015 to 181 million now is very impressive,” Ted Young, chief financial officer at Dorian LPG told Reuters. With a fleet of 22 tankers, U.S.-based Dorian is one of the world’s biggest LPG shippers. LPG, a mixture of propane and butane, is used for cooking and transport, as well as in the petrochemical industry. The global market is similar in size to liquefied natural gas (LNG), at around 300 million tonnes traded a year, although both are dwarfed by the market for crude oil, which stands at well over 4 billion tonnes a year. India’s average monthly imports in 2017 of about 1.7 million tonnes are well still behind China’s 2.2 million tonnes, but it has jumped ahead of third-placed Japan on about 1 million tonnes. Dorian LPG expects “plenty of upside for Indian LPG” imports due to rising use in cars following an Indian tax on gasoline, the company said in a presentation this month. China, India and Japan together make up about 45 percent of global LPG purchases. NEW SUPPLIER: USA India’s biggest supplier by a large margin is the Middle East, which has so far enjoyed a virtual supply monopoly. However, a surge in U.S. shale drilling, which yields LPG as a byproduct of crude oil and natural gas output, means American LPG exports have started to appear in India. Eikon data shows the first regular U.S. LPG shipments to India began at the start of 2017 at around 50,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes a month, rising to more than 200,000 tonnes in December. While that is just a tenth of Middle Eastern shipments, U.S. LPG is becoming increasingly price competitive. Propane at the Texan Mont Belvieu hub costs $99 cents per gallon ($516 per ton), excluding freight. The current Saudi contract price is $590 a ton, excluding shipping. U.S. suppliers have already made big inroads in Japan, currently meeting half of all demand.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-lpg/india-challenges-china-as-worlds-biggest-lpg-importer-idUSKBN1EL096'|'2017-12-27T07:37:00.000+02:00'
'0107d5cac49eb74aae7a85f476ccf2399d10789d'|'Sensex, Nifty hit record highs for third straight session'|'December 27, 2017 / 6:46 AM / Updated 8 hours ago Sensex, Nifty retreat from record highs Reuters Staff 1 Min Read REUTERS - The Sensex and the Nifty fell on Wednesday, retreating from record highs hit earlier in the session, after business news channel ET Now said the government could borrow more than what it has currently budgeted for the remainder of the fiscal year ending March. A broker laughs while speaking to a colleague, as they trade on their computer terminals at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, March 4, 2015. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files The Sensex dropped 0.29 percent to close at 33,911.81 after earlier rising as much as 0.37 percent to a record high of 34,137.97. The Nifty ended 0.39 percent lower at 10,490.75 after earlier climbing as much as 0.20 percent to an all-time high of 10,552.40. Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/india-stocks/sensex-nifty-hit-record-highs-for-third-straight-session-idINKBN1EL0B6'|'2017-12-27T08:52:00.000+02:00'
'47bcaa0ffbcc2e7d547fea9068df1f67bbf78b2b'|'Russia''s standards agency says Nissan to recall 106,340 cars'|'December 27, 2017 / 10:58 AM / Updated 9 minutes ago Russia''s standards agency says Nissan to recall 106,340 cars Reuters Staff 1 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co Ltd ( 7201.T ) will recall 106,340 Nissan cars in Russia, Russia’s technical safety watchdog Rosstandart said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A man walks under the logo of Nissan Motor Co at the company''s showroom in Yokohama, south of Tokyo February 8, 2013. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Rosstandart said the recall would affect Nissan Almera, Nissan Teana, Nissan Pickup, Nissan Tino, Nissan Patrol, Nissan Terrano II and Nissan X-Trall models produced between Feb. 19, 2001 and Nov. 28, 2012. The recall is to address a problem with parts of the airbag safety device. Earlier this week, Rosstandart said Nissan would recall 127,738 Nissan cars in Russia. Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Editing by Mark Potter'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-nissan-recall/russias-standards-agency-says-nissan-to-recall-106340-cars-idUKKBN1EL0RS'|'2017-12-27T12:57:00.000+02:00'
'77ae5b707e6f71661f24844f577f506806634d37'|'Insolvent Niki''s Austrian workers to get monthly wages'|'December 27, 2017 / 2:40 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Insolvent Niki''s Austrian workers to get monthly wages Reuters Staff 2 Min Read VIENNA (Reuters) - Around 790 staff working for insolvent airline Niki ( AB1.DE ) in Austria will be paid monthly wages for December, administrator Lucas Floether said on Wednesday, adding he was confident of striking a deal with a new investor in the next few days. FILE PHOTO - A Niki logo is seen at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader The new owner would be expected to take on Niki’s running costs, including salaries, from the beginning of January. Among the four bidders selected for the final stages of talks to buy all or parts of Niki is IAG ( ICAG.L ), the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling, three people familiar with the situation have said. British tour operator Thomas Cook ( TCG.L ) and Niki’s founder, former Formula One world champion Niki Lauda, are also among the bidders. A German newspaper had also named Tuifly, the airline of tour operator TUI ( TUIT.L ), as a bidder. A spokesman for Floether said the talks were “going at full speed”, but declined to reveal further details. Lauda, who set up the airline in 2003, said he had been told a decision was to be made on Dec. 28. The Niki staff in Austria should probably Austria get their wages by the end of the month, Floether said. The airline also employs around 200 people in Germany. “Our aim remains to preserve as many jobs as possible in Austria and Germany. This task is one of the central questions in the ongoing ... process,” Floether said in a statement. Niki was part of collapsed Air Berlin. It filed for insolvency after Germany’s Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) backed out of a deal to buy its assets on competition concerns, grounding the fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. The administrators have been racing to find an alternative buyer for its assets before it loses its takeoff and landing slots, its most attractive asset. Reporting By Shadia Nasralla, Ilona Wissenbach; Editing by Keith Weir'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-berlin-niki-salaries/insolvent-nikis-austrian-workers-to-get-monthly-wages-idUKKBN1EL16B'|'2017-12-27T16:39:00.000+02:00'
'684c1483e6a75c838236284a6886848ed5673b15'|'Norway says made ''good progress'' in China trade talks'|' 18 AM / Updated 35 minutes ago Norway says made ''good progress'' in China trade talks   OSLO (Reuters) - Norway and China made “good progress” in a recent round of negotiations over a planned free trade agreement in Beijing, the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries said in a statement on Friday. The talks will resume in Norway in the spring of 2018, it added. Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Ole Petter Skonnord'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-norway-trade/norway-says-made-good-progress-in-china-trade-talks-idUKKBN1EN0P4'|'2017-12-29T11:17:00.000+02:00'
'efcdb41c66a5b9e07400cf47cf074fea4a6f1d2d'|'Activist hedge fund TCI set to end year up 29 percent - letter'|'LONDON (Reuters) - British activist TCI Fund Management’s main hedge fund is set to end the year up 29 percent despite a very public battle with the London Stock Exchange ( LSE.L ), a letter to investors, shared with Reuters, showed.Christopher Hohn’s $17.5 billion hedge fund, which owns 5 percent of LSE shares, was up 28.6 percent in the year to Dec. 15, according to the most recent communication to investors.LSE shares rose 1.9 percent between November, when TCI launched a campaign calling for CEO Xavier Rolet to stay on until 2021 and for chairman Donald Brydon to resign, and Dec. 15.TCI lost a vote on a resolution to ditch Brydon over the handling of Rolet’s departure on Dec. 19. Shares have since fallen slightly by 1.4 percent.Hohn’s hedge fund also invests in German carmaker Porsche ( PSHG_p.DE ), Airbus Group ( AIR.PA ) and aero engine maker Safran ( SAF.PA ), all of whose shares rose significantly this year, said a source close to the firm.TCI had this year pushed for Safran to significantly cut its price to buy Zodiac Aerospace ( ZODC.PA ). Zodiac accepted a 15 percent lower bid in May.The hedge fund firm was founded by Hohn in 2003.Reporting by Maiya Keidan; Editing by Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/uk-hedgefunds-funds/activist-hedge-fund-tci-set-to-end-year-up-29-percent-letter-idINKBN1EL110'|'2017-12-28T07:12:00.000+02:00'
'bcc727f8ad0531106cfec6ff9a02ccf307169b72'|'World stocks climb as copper rally points to strong economy'|'December 27, 2017 / 1:00 AM / Updated 12 minutes ago World stocks climb as copper rally points to strong economy Trevor Hunnicutt 5 Min Read (Reuters) - Global stocks edged higher on Wednesday, shrugging off faltering oil prices and reports of soft iPhone X demand, as a rally in copper buoyed expectations for a strong year for the global economy in 2018. Copper prices rocketed to multi-year highs, pushing the MSCI world equity index .MIWD PUS, which tracks shares in 47 countries, up 0.22 percent. The metal, used in construction and machinery, is seen as a proxy for global growth. “The rally in copper supports expectations that 2018 is going to be a strong year for synchronized global growth,” said Greg McKenna, chief strategist at AxiTrader. Copper CMCU3 rose 1.32 percent to $7,219 a tonne, its highest in nearly four years, on expectations of robust demand from top consumer China in 2018. The metal could also be getting a boost from expectations that U.S. lawmakers will turn their attention to infrastructure spending after signing a massive tax overhaul into law last week, said Tom Stringfellow, chief investment officer at Frost Investment Advisors. Shares in Asia, Europe and the United States managed to advance slightly, adding to a strong calendar year of gains despite reports of lacklustre demand for Apple Inc’s ( AAPL.O ) iPhone X, mixed U.S. economic data and a stalled recovery in oil prices. Trading during the holiday-shortened week was thin, with many traders and investors away ahead of New Year’s Day. MSCI''s index of Asia-Pacific shares .MIAP PUS closed 0.24 percent higher. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 ended the day up 0.03 percent. Emerging market stocks rose 0.51 percent. Apple ultimately rose 0.02 percent, one day after shares posted their worst single-day percentage fall since Aug. 10. The drop came after Taiwan’s Economic Daily cited unidentified sources as saying Apple would slash its sales forecast for its flagship phone in the current quarter. Also weighing on stocks, oil failed to sustain a rally that sent it to multi-year highs a day earlier on supply concerns. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.6 percent to $59.61 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $65.86, down 0.9 percent on the day. [O/R] FILE PHOTO: U.S. Dollar banknotes are seen in a box at the Money Service Austria company''s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo U.S. economic news sent mixed signals. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index registered at levels below consensus for December, while the National Association of Realtors reported pending home sales higher than economists had forecast for November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 28.09 points, or 0.11 percent, to 24,774.3, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.12 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,682.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 3.09 points, or 0.04 percent, to 6,939.34. DOLLAR DIPS, BONDS RALLY The dollar .DXY fell 0.23 percent against a basket of major currencies as commodity-linked currencies gained and as traders bet improved global growth would spur major central banks to begin reducing monetary stimulus in 2018. Though stocks inched up, there was an undercurrent of nervousness in the market that pushed some investors into government bonds, pushing their yields lower. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 15/32 in price to yield nearly 2.413 percent, from 2.467 percent late on Tuesday. “The buying has been strong since the early morning,” said Thomas Simons, a money market economist at Jefferies in New York, as investors rebuilt positions in bonds after they under-performed earlier this month. “Geo-political risks have notched a little higher, supporting rates markets,” said Mizuho’s head of rates Peter Chatwell, referring in particular to a renewal in tensions around North Korea. The United States announced sanctions on two North Korean officials behind their country’s ballistic missile programme on Tuesday after the U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea last week. “The North Korean statement that U.N. sanctions are an act of war is, as tends to be the case, an exaggeration, but nevertheless, the market has no choice but to price it. Some safe-haven positioning is a natural reaction,” said Chatwell. Additional reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Swati Pandey; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Diane Craft'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/oil-metals-rally-supports-asian-stocks-dollar-steady-idUKKBN1EL01L'|'2017-12-28T00:07:00.000+02:00'
'38a208dbf9594a0d4db8dfb94688acd7433af00e'|'Bank of Japan board members press for debate on rates, ETF purchases'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Some Bank of Japan board members have called for a debate about raising interest rates or lowering purchases of exchange-traded funds in response to the improving outlook, a summary of opinions expressed at last week’s policy meeting showed.Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato If the outlook for prices and the economy is expected to improve the BOJ will need to consider whether “adjustments in the level of interest rates will be necessary,” one board member said.Another board member said the BOJ should examine the policy effects and the possible side effects of ETF purchases from “every angle” because of rising stock prices and earnings.Japan’s growth this year has exceeded some economists’ expectations, and its stock markets have rallied due to rising corporate earnings, causing some traders to question whether the BOJ should rein in its aggressive monetary easing.“Consumer spending is doing well, supported by rising stock markets. The BOJ’s policy focus is on interest rates, so it is only natural to question its purchases of risk assets,” said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.The summary of opinions does not identify individual speakers, and it is unclear whether a majority of the BOJ’s nine-person board shares these views.Governor Haruhiko Kuroda also said clearly last week that as long as consumer prices remain distant from the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target he does not want to raise rates.The BOJ board’s comments were published against a background of solid economic growth and robust industrial production.Japan’s industrial output rose a more-than-expected 0.6 percent in November, and retail sales rose 2.2 percent in November from a year earlier, more than the median forecast for a 1.2 percent increase, government data showed on Thursday.Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Eric Meijer '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-boj/bank-of-japan-board-members-press-for-debate-on-rates-etf-purchases-idINKBN1EM097'|'2017-12-28T06:38:00.000+02:00'
'53aed8b1e77c0737b7afb3795bfd7fd730a56ec6'|'Mitsubishi says on track to deliver long-delayed jets by 2020'|'December 31, 2017 / 3:17 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Mitsubishi says on track to deliver long-delayed jets by 2020 Maki Shiraki 2 Min Read NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd ( 7011.T ) is on track to deliver its repeatedly delayed commercial jet by mid-2020, the head of its aircraft unit said, despite a risk of an order cancellation. The Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) aircraft has been delayed five times from an original delivery target of 2013, leading to spiraling costs. News this month that an order for the aircraft from Eastern Air Lines was “likely to be lost” has spurred more questions about the outlook of the project. “We are proceeding pretty much in line with plans,” said Hisakazu Mizutani, president of Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp, referring to the mid-2020 deadline. “We can just about make it.” He was speaking to reporters in Nagoya on Dec. 8, on the condition that his comments not be published until Jan 1. Mizutani said the planemaker was at risk of losing Eastern Air Lines’ order for 20 MRJ aircraft with an option for 20 more, but that it was “continuing conversations” with the airline. Mitsubishi Aircraft said the order has not yet been canceled. Overall, the Mitsubishi unit has orders for 233 of the 90-seat aircraft, the company has said previously, and aims to sell more than 1,000 of the planes over two decades. Buyers such as ANA Holdings ( 9202.T ) have said they have no plans to cancel orders despite the delays. Mitsubishi Aircraft is majority owned by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, with Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) and Mitsubishi Corp ( 8058.T ) also holding stakes. Reporting by Maki Shiraki; Editing by Ritsuko Ando and Himani Sarkar'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mhi-orders/mitsubishi-says-on-track-to-deliver-long-delayed-jets-by-2020-idUSKBN1EP0G7'|'2017-12-31T17:16:00.000+02:00'
'a8f8cf99071b8968e0cc0d79b50096831408157f'|'Citigroup follows Morgan Stanley, UBS, quits recruiting pact - bank'|'December 29, 2017 / 11:00 PM / in 10 hours Citigroup follows Morgan Stanley, UBS, quits recruiting pact - bank Reuters Staff 2 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc became the latest firm on Friday to say it would quit a 14-year-old agreement reached among Wall Street’s biggest securities brokerages to not sue each other when a broker switches firms. The Citigroup Inc (Citi) logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. Picture taken October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG’s Wealth Management Americas discontinued the agreement, called the “broker protocol,” earlier this year. “Similar to others in the industry, Citi has decided to exit the protocol” starting on Jan. 8, said Citi spokesman Drew Benson. Benson said the decision was reached because it “allows us to continue to invest in our growing team of award-winning financial advisors.” Citi has around 1,000 advisers and relationship managers, according to Bloomberg, which reported the news earlier Friday. The broker protocol was created in 2004 to bring an end to costly legal battles in which firms would seek court orders to prevent ex-brokers from contacting and recruiting their former clients. Firms that signed the protocol agreed to let ex-brokers to take basic information with them to contact clients and inform them after they moved to a new employer. But as firms face growing regulatory expenses and greater competition from independent firms and robo-advisers, they are looking for new ways to keep wealthy clients and their assets. Nearly 1,700 firms are still party to the agreement, including two of the industry’s largest wealth management firms, Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Advisors Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts; editing by Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/citigroup-wealth-protocol/citigroup-follows-morgan-stanley-ubs-quits-recruiting-pact-bank-idINKBN1EN1SR'|'2017-12-30T00:54:00.000+02:00'
'9bec4dce88dce1788dc778bd5c53b85826b74a9b'|'Financier Tilton defeats lawsuit by Zohar funds she founded'|'December 29, 2017 / 10:50 PM / Updated 11 hours ago Financier Tilton defeats lawsuit by Zohar funds she founded Jonathan Stempel 3 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lynn Tilton, the colourful New York financier recently cleared of wrongdoing in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission fraud case, won another legal victory on Friday as a federal judge dismissed a racketeering lawsuit by the Zohar investment funds she once managed. FILE PHOTO: New York financier Lynn Tilton arrives for an appeal hearing at the U.S. District courthouse in New York, U.S. on September 16, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan said the alleged misconduct by Tilton and her firm Patriarch Partners “runs headlong” into a Congressional ban on civil racketeering claims predicated on the purchase or sale of securities. The three Zohar funds had accused Tilton and Patriarch of “pilfering” more than $1 billion of cash and other assets through a “toxic mix of fraud, theft, and mismanagement,” leaving the funds unable to meet obligations to their investors. In his 36-page decision, Pauley said much of the alleged looting scheme appeared “at least superficially” not to involve securities. But he said an “integral” component of that scheme “included pillaging portfolio companies of their equity, re-directing Zohar’s equity interests for defendants’ benefit, and diverting the equity distributions into defendants’ coffers--all actions coinciding with the purchase or sale of securities.” Pauley also refused to assert jurisdiction over 11 other Zohar claims, noting that the funds had filed a similar lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court. Lawyers for the Zohar funds did not immediately respond to requests for comment. FILE PHOTO: New York financier Lynn Tilton, founder of private equity firm Patriarch Partners, exits the U.S. District courthouse with her lawyer Randy Mastro in New York City, U.S., November 1, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo A spokesman for Patriarch said the firm is “extremely pleased” with the dismissal. “This suit -- which was filed for no other purpose than to harass and publicly defame Ms. Tilton -- had absolutely no basis in fact or law,” the spokesman said in a statement. Known for her flamboyant clothing, Tilton is a private equity veteran dubbed “The Diva of Distressed” for turning around troubled companies, and was briefly the subject of a reality TV show with that title. Her distressed debt empire grew to $2.5 billion before fraud and mismanagement allegations began to mount. Tilton had created the first Zohar fund in 2003, and gave up management of all three funds in March 2016. On Sept. 27, an SEC administrative law judge said the regulator failed to prove that Tilton bilked investors out of more than $200 million of management fees by hiding the poor performance of assets underlying the Zohar funds. In November, Tilton and Patriarch filed a countersuit against the funds and separate claims against other defendants. Pauley directed the funds to respond by Jan. 12, 2018. The case is Zohar CDO 2003-1 Ltd et al v Patriarch Partners LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 17-00307. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/tilton-zohar/financier-tilton-defeats-lawsuit-by-zohar-funds-she-founded-idINKBN1EN1SN'|'2017-12-30T00:49:00.000+02:00'
'b75e02a81b4888e6285aaaa65e06f8a6f57c2a33'|'ECB''s Coeure sees ''reasonable chance'' bond buys will not be extended'|' 20 AM / Updated 15 minutes ago ECB''s Coeure sees ''reasonable chance'' bond buys will not be extended Reuters Staff 1 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The man in charge of carrying out the European Central Bank’s bond purchases sees “a reasonable chance” the 2.55 trillion euros stimulus program will not be extended again when it expires in September, he told a Chinese financial magazine. Benoit Coeure, board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), is photographed during an interview with Reuters journalists at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Benoit Coeure, the ECB board member in charge of its market operations, was once a key supporter of President Mario Draghi’s ultra-easy policy but has been opening the door to an eventual withdrawal of stimulus in recent months. “Given what we see in the economy, I believe that there is a reasonable chance that the extension of our asset purchase program decided in October can be the last,” Coeure told Caixin Global. He said the ECB could keep the program in place if needed but also had “plenty of instruments with which to react” if inflation in the euro zone, currently seen below 2 percent for years to come, turned out higher than expected. Reporting by Francesco Canepa;  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy-coeure/ecbs-coeure-sees-reasonable-chance-bond-buys-will-not-be-extended-idUKKBN1EO08U'|'2017-12-30T13:10:00.000+02:00'
'182c14a09499109c7d0114ca5c2719e73f90cb70'|'RPT-Wall St Week Ahead-Wall Street eyes 2018 gains with a side of caution'|'Dec 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks are expected to keep rising in 2018 because a massive drop in the corporate tax rate is seen boosting the economy and corporate profits, but strategists say sizable gains could either be short-lived or elusive.The bull market is on track to mark its ninth birthday in March, with the S&P 500 climbing 20 percent for 2017 - its biggest increase since 2013. The drop in the corporate tax rate in 2018, to 21 percent from 35 percent, is seen by many as the biggest factor for the stock market next year.Yet 2018 share gains are expected to be smaller than 2017 with the S&P 500’s price/earnings ratio - a measure of stock prices against expected profits - is around its highest level since June 2002. Many on Wall Street cite potential pitfalls even though they see no signs of a recession.“We’ve had six years in a row where stocks have (outperformed) earnings, and I think we break that streak with stocks going up but not as much as earnings,” said Robert Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management in Princeton, New Jersey.Some say the tax bill’s benefit will be short lived. David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management described the bill as “more carbs and less protein,” because the tax overhaul will improve spending but does nothing to boost productivity.“It’ll be a one-year wonder,” said Kelly. “People should enjoy the party while it lasts but just make sure you know where your coat is.”Several strategists cite the risk that faster economic growth could cause inflation to increase at a pace that would lead the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates faster than expected.Wall Street’s rosy forecasts seem “well supported by the tremendous string of good news which the economy has delivered,” according to Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist with Leuthold Group in Minneapolis.But he said, the news is too good: “The problem with getting good news is that at some point you can’t be positively surprised any more.”Paulsen does not expect a recession. But when the economic surprise index - which compares economic data to consensus expectations - is at high levels, equity performance tends to be weaker, according to Paulsen.The Citi Economic Surprise index was at 77 on Thursday, not far from its almost six-year high of 84.5 reached on Dec. 22.“We’re going to have a 10-15 percent correction at some time in 2018. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re down for the year,” Paulsen said. “If we get a correction and people get scared I’ll probably be buying again.”Investors will keep a close watch on the on U.S. mid-term elections in 2018 because a Republican loss of control of the Senate or the House of Representatives could stall the party’s agenda. In 10 of the last 17 U.S. mid-term election years, equity price moves for the full year followed January’s direction, according to Jeff Hirsch, editor of the Stock Trader’s Almanac.Investor moods in January may depend on whether the U.S. Congress reaches an agreement to raise the country’s debt ceiling. Investors will also be hoping Congress can reach a 2018 budget pact by Jan. 19. These are just some of the worries traders are contending with.But the market has history against it. The S&P 500 rises on average 1.3 percent in the so-called Santa Clause rally - the period between Dec. 22 and Jan. 3 - according to Hirsch. This year, five days in, the S&P has risen just 0.1 percent.“The failure of stocks to rally during this time tends to precede bear markets or times when stocks could be purchased at lower prices later in the year,” Hirsch wrote in a blog post.Reporting by Sinead Carew; Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks-weekahead/rpt-wall-st-week-ahead-wall-street-eyes-2018-gains-with-a-side-of-caution-idINL1N1OS1KB'|'2017-12-31T03:02:00.000+02:00'
'801486346edd71bcb7dc247b6db30a5810741fcc'|'Uniper CEO criticizes suitor Fortum for lack of clarity'|'FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The chief executive of German energy producer Uniper ( UN01.DE ) has criticized Finnish suitor Fortum ( FORTUM.HE ) for a lack of clarity about its intentions in a planned 8 billion euro ($9.6 billion) takeover of the company.FILE PHOTO: The logo of Uniper SE is seen in its booth at Gastech, the world''s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Fortum has agreed to buy 47 percent of Uniper from Uniper’s parent E.ON ( EONGn.DE ) and offered the same price to the other shareholders, but it faces pressure to raise its offer from hedge funds Elliott and Knight Vinke, who have built up stakes.Meanwhile, the Finnish utility is dragging its feet over job guarantee negotiations, Uniper Chief Executive Klaus Schaefer told the Rheinische Post newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.“Talks are not going as speedily as we would like,” he said. “Fortum is still failing to provide clarity about its goals.”Just 0.17 percent of outstanding Uniper shares had been tendered to Fortum by Dec. 27, at the offer price of 22 euros per share. The shares closed at 26 euros on Dec. 29. The offer closes on Jan. 16.Knight Vinke has 5 percent of Uniper and has said it will not tender its stake. Elliott, which has not said how it will respond, has 7.4 percent.Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by Jason Neely '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-uniper-m-a-fortum-oyj/uniper-ceo-criticizes-suitor-fortum-for-lack-of-clarity-idINKBN1EO0AR'|'2017-12-30T09:21:00.000+02:00'
'3905ec72827acfffd235ba4d598e6b1204af7576'|'China''s central bank to raise reserve funds ratio of third-party payment firms to 50 percent'|'BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s central bank said it will gradually raise the reserve funds ratio of third-party payment firms to 50 percent by April 2018 from a current rate of 20 percent, as it continues to ramp up regulation of the industry.The bank will increase the rate by 10 percentage points a month from February to April, it said in a statement released on its website on Friday evening.The central bank said earlier this year that it will eventually ban non-bank payment firms from making any private investments with money deposited by users, which would see the reserve rate at some point increased to 100 percent.China’s third party payment platforms have grown rapidly in recent years, including those backed by tech giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( BABA.N ) payment affiliate Ant Financial and Tencent Holdings Ltd ( 0700.HK ).Tencent and Ant Financial did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday morning.The central bank said the increases in 2018 will initially reduce seasonal risks around Chinese New Year in February, when cash flows on third-party apps increase.Both Ant Financial’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat pay have over 500 million users each, and make up the lion’s share of China’s mobile payment market.The two firms compete heavily over the Chinese New Year period to target the market of ‘red envelopes’, which are traditional monetary gifts shared around the holidays.Central bank figures show that roughly 460 billion yuan ($71 billion) in funds were reserved by third-party payment platforms in the third quarter of 2016.The central bank requires the current 20 percent reserve to be placed in a state-approved commercial bank.Reporting by Cate Cadell; editing by Richard PullinOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-pboc/chinas-central-bank-to-raise-reserve-funds-ratio-of-third-party-payment-firms-to-50-percent-idUSKBN1EO02K'|'2017-12-30T11:23:00.000+02:00'
'0c5e67e7d7cbcd1415e2273bc18bdd06abc9a6a2'|'Deutsche Bank to resume normal bonuses, some to get raises - CEO'|' 42   Deutsche Bank to resume normal bonuses, some to get raises - CEO Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank ( DBKGn.DE ) will resume the payment of normal bonuses for 2017, the bank’s chief told a German newspaper, and some employees will get raises. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Germany''s Deutsche Bank is seen early evening in Frankfurt, Germany, January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo CEO John Cryan, in an interview with the Boersen-Zeitung newspaper published on Saturday, also welcomed plans by Britain to spare European banks costly capital rules after Brexit. But staff were still analysing any potential costs of U.S. tax reform, he said. Bonus payments at Deutsche Bank fell to 546 million euros in 2016 from 2.4 billion euros a year earlier after a multi-billion dollar legal fine for the sale of toxic debt. “We always said that we would return to our normal system of variable compensation in 2017,” Cryan told the newspaper. “And we will also raise salaries in some areas,” he said, without providing more detail. The still fragile state of Germany’s biggest bank was underlined when it reported a drop of almost 25 percent in third quarter investment bank revenue and a drop of more than a third in its bond trading division. In addition to weak earnings, the bank has been grappling with the uncertainty of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. This month, the Bank of England said that it was planning to allow large foreign banks after Brexit to operate as branches in Britain rather than as subsidiaries that would require significant capital. The decision “gives us more planning certainty”, Cryan said. Deutsche Bank has 9,000 staff in London. The newspaper asked Cryan whether the bank also expects to take a tax write-down like Credit Suisse ( CSGN.S ) following changes to the U.S. tax system. Credit Suisse said last week that it expected a write-down of 2.3 billion Swiss francs (£1.8 billion) during its 2017 fourth quarter. “We will also be affected,” Cryan said. He declined to offer a concrete prognosis, saying that the bank was still analysing the effects of the tax code. Reporting by Tom Sims; editing by Jason Neely'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-deutsche-bank-bonuses/deutsche-bank-to-resume-normal-bonuses-some-to-get-raises-ceo-idUKKBN1EO05F'|'2017-12-30T10:42:00.000+02:00'
'cd20eb815a71350de5c70368f3bf90a21d158f00'|'Current, former Singapore transit employees charged in $7.3 mln cheating scheme'|'SINGAPORE, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Current and former employees of Singapore’s SMRT were charged in court on Friday of duping the transit operator into awarding millions of dollars of contracts to companies in which they had a financial interest.The charges come after a string of mishaps on the transit system - including a collision last month that injured several people - that has led to public anger in a city-state long known for its efficient public services.A current line manager at SMRT Trains Ltd, two former employees and a director of a Singapore construction company were charged with “cheating offences” that allegedly took place during 2007 to 2012 and involved contracts amounting to nearly S$9.8 million ($7.3 million), Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a statement.Under Singapore law, cheating is punishable with up to 10 years in jail and fines.One of the accused absconded to Malaysia in 2013 and was brought back to face charges in Singapore with the help of Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission, CPIB said.SMRT Trains Ltd is a fully owned subsidiary of SMRT Corp Ltd. SMRT Corp is fully controlled by state investor Temasek Holdings (Pte) Ltd.SMRT Corp did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ($1 = 1.3362 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by John Geddie and Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Christopher Cushing) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/singapore-railway/current-former-singapore-transit-employees-charged-in-7-3-mln-cheating-scheme-idINL8N1OT0BW'|'2017-12-29T03:29:00.000+02:00'
'd3e4efb215c796f3e4c9bbde572f37bb61e387bf'|'Venezuela oil-backed cryptocurrency to launch in days -government'|'December 28, 2017 / 10:53 PM / in 10 hours Venezuela oil-backed cryptocurrency to launch in days - government Deisy Buitrago , Girish Gupta 3 Min Read CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s cryptocurrency will launch within days and be backed by 5.3 billion barrels of oil worth $267 billion, in a bid to offset a deep financial crisis, the socialist government said on Thursday. Venezuela''s President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he arrives for the swearing in ceremony of the newly elected governor of Zuila state Omar Prieto (not pictured), in Maracaibo, Venezuela December 16, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS President Nicolas Maduro surprised many earlier this month when he announced the “petro” cryptocurrency, to be backed by OPEC member Venezuela’s oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves. Despite the scepticism of cryptocurrency experts who do not think Venezuela has the wherewithal to pull it off, communications minister Jorge Rodriguez said the first petro offering would come within days. “Camp one of the Ayacucho block will form the initial backing of this cryptocurrency,” Rodriguez told reporters, referring to part of Venezuela’s southern Orinoco Belt. “It contains 5.342 billion certified barrels of oil. We’re talking about backing of $267 billion,” said Rodriguez, adding that differentiated the petro from other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Miners were already lined up, he said, without giving more details. Cryptocurrencies are obtained by users setting up computers to do complex mathematical calculations in a process known as mining. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized and their success relies on transparency, clear rules and equal treatment of all involved. Venezuela gave no technical details about the petro. The government appears to be hoping the petro will offset a collapse in Venezuela’s currency - 97 percent in one year against the U.S. dollar on the black market - and isolate the country from the U.S. dollar and Washington. Rodriguez also hopes to use the petro as part of a mechanism to pay international providers, many of whom have stopped supplying to Venezuela given its inability to pay its debts. With Venezuela’s 30 million people suffering shortages, runaway prices and a fourth year of recession, Maduro has long blamed the U.S. government for an “economic war” against it. Critics say incompetent policies are to blame for Venezuela’s economic mess. Earlier on Thursday, Maduro blamed U.S. pressure on Portugal for blocking imports of pork leading to a shortage over Christmas in Venezuela. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed various political and financial sanctions on Maduro’s government, accusing senior officials of rights abuses and corruption. “It will be materially impossible for the dictatorial financial centres of the world to intervene against this initiative,” said Rodriguez, citing the Portugal case. “It will allow us to overcome any financial blockade.” Cryptocurrencies have grabbed global attention partly because of the remarkable rise in the price of Bitcoin, making millionaires of many early investors, including some in Venezuela who used Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to shield themselves from strict foreign exchange controls which economists blame for the crisis. Additional reporting by Corina Pons.; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Grant McCool'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/economy'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-economy-cryptocurrency/venezuela-oil-backed-cryptocurrency-to-launch-in-days-government-idINKBN1EM201'|'2017-12-28T19:53:00.000+02:00'
'5ee07ea633ddfc47e4e9f11f1e163508a6f1bd0c'|'UK may use taxes to get tech giants to do more to fight extremism, minister says - Reuters'|'LONDON, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Britain may impose new taxes on tech giants like Google and Facebook unless they do more to combat online extremism by taking down material aimed at radicalising people or helping them to prepare attacks, the country’s security minister said.Ben Wallace accused tech firms of being happy to sell people’s data but not to give it to the government which was being forced to spend vast sums on de-radicalisation programmes, surveillance and other counter-terrorism measures.“If they continue to be less than co-operative, we should look at things like tax as a way of incentivis­ing them or compen­sating for their inaction,” Wallace told the Sunday Times newspaper in an interview.He accused the tech giants of putting private profit before public safety.“We should stop pretending that because they sit on beanbags in T-shirts they are not ruthless profiteers,” he said. “They will ruthlessly sell our details to loans and soft-porn companies but not give it to our democratically elected government.”Britain suffered a series of attacks by Islamic extremists between March and June this year that killed a total of 36 people.Two involved vehicles ramming people on bridges in London, followed by attackers stabbing people. The deadliest, a bombing at a concert in the northern city of Manchester, killed 22 people.Following the second bridge attack, Prime Minister Theresa May proposed beefing up regulations on cyberspace, and weeks later interior minister Amber Rudd travelled to California to ask Silicon Valley to step up efforts against extremism.The Sunday Times Quote: d Wallace as saying that reliance on the internet made Britain vulnerable to terrorists and rogue states.“That’s what keeps me awake at night. We are more vulnerable than at any point in the last 100 years,” he said.Tech companies have made life too easy for attackers by refusing to take down extremist material and bomb-making guides, the minister said. Encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp were also a major problem, he said.“I have to have more human surveillance. It’s costing hundreds of millions of pounds,” Wallace said.“Because content is not being taken down as quickly as they could do, we’re having to de-radicalise people who have been radicalised. That’s costing millions. They can’t get away with that and we should look at all the options, including tax.”Wallace’s Quote: s did not give further details on tax plans. The Sunday Times reported that any demand would take the form of a windfall tax similar to that imposed on privatised utilities by former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government in 1997. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Larry King)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.'|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/britain-security-tech/uk-may-use-taxes-to-get-tech-giants-to-do-more-to-fight-extremism-minister-says-idINL8N1OV06G'|'2017-12-31T07:27:00.000+02:00'
'a060b5d5b704f657d7988c9c04ef15ac9c512af4'|'Factbox - U.S. stock market performance in 2017'|'(Reuters) - The rally that started in 2009 continued for U.S. stocks in 2017, currently the second-longest bull market in history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all notched their best annual performance since 2013, buoyed by an improving global economy and strong corporate profits.The Dow Jones Industrial Average is seen setting a record high close for a trading year as the final day of trading for the year draws to a close at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Leslie Adler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks-performance-factbox/factbox-u-s-stock-market-performance-in-2017-idINKBN1EN1RK'|'2017-12-30T00:08:00.000+02:00'
'50eabe48bcdbd47d85e42b2d419cc4c715d2b839'|'China December official services PMI edges up to 55'|'December 31, 2017 / 1:26 AM / Updated 6 hours ago China December official services PMI edges up to 55 Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Growth in China’s services industry picked up in December, an official survey showed on Sunday, as the sector continued to show solid expansion. A waiter walks past a notice promoting WeChat Pay inside a restaurant in Guangzhou, China May 9, 2017. Picture taken May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 55 from 54.8 in November. China’s leaders are counting on growth in services and consumption to rebalance their economic growth model from its heavy reliance on investment and exports. The services sector accounts for over half of China’s economy, with rising wages giving Chinese consumers more spending power. Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-pmi-services-official/china-december-official-services-pmi-edges-up-to-55-idUKKBN1EP005'|'2017-12-31T03:26:00.000+02:00'
'4be2ad55e286300c7b09f7e64e053e69ba0618be'|'Brazil defense ministry opposes giving up Embraer control to Boeing'|'(Reuters) - Brazil’s defense minister voiced opposition on Thursday to selling control in Embraer SA ( EMBR3.SA ) to Boeing Co ( BA.N ), saying the defense operations of the Brazilian planemaker cannot be separated from the commercial business.Boeing and Embraer said last week they were discussing a “potential combination”, in a move that would consolidate a global passenger jet duopoly provided Brazil’s government gives its blessing. The companies have given no further details.Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said on Thursday the ministry was concerned that the negotiations between the aerospace companies had advanced without its knowledge.“No country in the world would release its grasp on control of a company like (Embraer). It has a nucleus of defense that is inalienable,” Jungmann told reporters in Brasilia.He said the ministry viewed favorably any deal that maintained local control of the company and would direct its representative on the Embraer board to seek further information. The Brazilian government holds veto power over strategic moves at Embraer.President Michel Temer has also said he opposes Boeing taking control of Embraer and that the government could use its golden share in the company to block foreign control. He added he would welcome an injection of foreign capital into Embraer.Reporting by Ricardo Brito, writing by Jake Spring; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Susan Thomas '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews?format=xml'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-embraer-m-a-boeing/brazil-defense-ministry-opposes-giving-up-embraer-control-to-boeing-idUSKBN1EM1ET'|'2017-12-28T17:30:00.000+02:00'
'f29b2a13ba9e004240ff8e11c91baa32e7d730c9'|'BRIEF-AerCap Exercises Options To Purchase 50 Airbus A320neo Family Aircraft'|' 26 PM / in 11 minutes BRIEF-AerCap Exercises Options To Purchase 50 Airbus A320neo Family Aircraft   Aercap Holdings Nv: * AERCAP EXERCISES OPTIONS TO PURCHASE 50 AIRBUS A320NEO FAMILY AIRCRAFT * AERCAP HOLDINGS NV - EXERCISED OPTIONS TO PURCHASE 50 A320NEO FAMILY AIRCRAFT FROM AIRBUS, WITH DELIVERIES STARTING FROM 2022  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-aercap-exercises-options-to-purcha/brief-aercap-exercises-options-to-purchase-50-airbus-a320neo-family-aircraft-idUSFWN1OS033'|'2017-12-28T14:25:00.000+02:00'
'20017cafaf08bfd9032c0a0fd74cfdb8ba70b9c4'|'Brazilian regulator recommends conditional approval of Itaú-XP deal'|'SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A unit of Brazil’s antitrust watchdog has recommended the conditional approval of Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco Holding SA’s ( ITUB4.SA ) purchase of a stake in financial services firm XP Investimentos SA, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.According to the statement, the superintendent of competition regulator Cade has recommended that the watchdog approve the deal given that the parties comply with terms that they have negotiated with authorities.As part of that accord, Itaú’s influence on XP’s commercial decisions will be limited and the parties are theoretically barred from abusing their market position with counterparties, among other measures.“Thus, not only were accords negotiated that limit the influence of Itaú over XP’s commercial decisions, but the parties are committing to adopting practices in relation to their commercial partners ... that facilitate the access of competitors,” the superintendent said.Itaú, Brazil’s largest bank by assets, agreed in May to pay 5.7 billion reais ($1.72 billion) for a 49.9 percent stake in XP to grow in the retail brokerage and money management segments, where competition for new clientele is growing.However, in October, the Cade superintendent deemed the deal “complex” due to what it described as “horizontal overlapping” in securities brokerage, asset management, and product distribution markets.In the Wednesday statement, the regulator also said the deal could be considered a situation in which a market incumbent tries to pacify a “disruptor,” which it described as a potential concern from a competition perspective.Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Sandra Maler '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-xp-investimentos-m-a-itau-unibco-hldg/brazilian-regulator-recommends-conditional-approval-of-ita-xp-deal-idUSKBN1EL1Q8'|'2017-12-27T23:58:00.000+02:00'
'09229dac380914eadcaf7b5e465e8047bdfe591c'|'Russia''s Rosneft, in U-turn, plans to bid for Alrosa''s gas assets'|'MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft said it had asked the country’s competition watchdog for permission to bid for gas fields put up for sale by diamond miner Alrosa, a day after saying it was unlikely to take part in the auction.“Rosneft has filed a request to FAS (the Federal Anti-Monopoly service) for the purchase of Alrosa’s gas assets,” Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said on Friday.The move represents a U-turn for Rosneft, which said on Thursday it was unlikely to participate. The company had said the conditions were not transparent enough and did not give potential buyers enough time to prepare their bids.The company did not explain the reason for the change of heart. Leontyev told Reuters the company still does not agree with the auction’s conditions.Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, plans to sell its gas assets in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets region in an auction on Feb. 19 with a starting price of 30 billion rubles ($519 million).Any potential deal at the auction is subject to the Anti-Monopoly Service’s approval. The Anti-Monopoly Service said it had yet to receive any requests from Rosneft.Russia will mark New Year holidays from Jan. 1 to 8. Under the terms of the auction, a 21-billion-ruble deposit must be paid by Jan. 10.Rosneft has said that the number of remaining working days did not leave enough time to make a decision and submit the deposit.Russia’s top non-state gas producer Novatek has said it is interested in buying Alrosa’s gas fields. The Finance Ministry has said that seven bidders were expected to take part in the auction.Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Andrey Kuzmin; writing by Polina Devitt; editing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Adrian Croft '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-alrosa-rosneft-oil-assets/russias-rosneft-to-bid-for-alrosas-gas-fields-idUSKBN1EN16E'|'2017-12-29T22:07:00.000+02:00'
'9a4d7533fe2391ebe67da4645929a4c998a5dda7'|'EMERGING MARKETS-Mexican shares end 2017 with best performance in 5 years'|'By Anthony Esposito MEXICO CITY, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Mexican shares posted their biggest gains in five years in 2017 as concerns about potential damage from U.S. Donald Trump''s policies waned, while Chilean stocks had their best performance since 2010 following the election of a pro-business president. Mexico''s S&P/BMV IPC rose 1.01 percent on Friday, as strong corporate earnings helped the index increase 8.1 percent overall in 2017 despite concerns surrounding the ongoing talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a backbone of Mexico''s economy. Trading volume was low in the run-up to the New Years holiday. The Mexican peso closed marginally higher on Friday, capping off its first year of gains since 2012. The peso pulled off the feat even after sinking 5.7 percent in December, its worst month since Trump was elected in November 2016. For its part, Chile''s benchmark IPSA stock index gained 0.25 percent on the last trading day of the year. It rose 34 percent for the year, boosted by the bigger-than-forecast electoral win of conservative Sebastian Pinera to the nation''s highest office. Improved prices for Chile''s top export copper also underpinned share prices. Argentina''s peso currency posted its sharpest single-day gain since August on Friday, after a loosening of government inflation targets the prior day sent it tumbling to historic lows against the U.S. dollar. The peso closed up 3.2 percent at 18.65 per dollar, recovering most of the losses it suffered on Thursday after the government raised prospects of an interest rate cut by raising its 2018 inflation target to 15 percent, up from 10 percent previously. Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2050 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1159.40 0.5 33.78 MSCI LatAm 2826.99 0.29 20.43 Brazil Bovespa 76402.08 0.43 26.86 Mexico IPC 49355.81 1.01 8.13 Chile IPSA 5564.60 0.25 34.04 Chile IGPA 27980.78 0.25 34.95 Argentina MerVal 30073.56 0.33 77.76 Colombia IGBC 11478.10 0.95 13.33 Venezuela IBC 1263.14 0.03 -96.02 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.3141 -0.02 -1.96 Mexico peso 19.6590 0.22 5.52 Chile peso 614.65 -0.02 9.12 Colombia peso 2981.79 -0.03 0.66 Peru sol 3.237 0.09 5.47 Argentina peso (interbank) 18.6000 3.49 -14.65 Argentina peso (parallel) 19.23 0.21 -12.53 (Reporting by Anthony Esposito; editing by Diane Craft) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/emerging-markets-latam/emerging-markets-mexican-shares-end-2017-with-best-performance-in-5-years-idINL1N1OT1CQ'|'2017-12-29T22:10:00.000+02:00'
'0dcd5c1829534c0f2129be06e3f270d92e388f1f'|'Amazon ordered not to pull in customers who can''t spell `Birkenstock'''|'December 29, 2017 / 7:08 PM / Updated 31 minutes ago Amazon ordered not to pull in customers who can''t spell ''Birkenstock'' Reuters Staff 2 Min Read FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Did you mean Birkenstock? FILE PHOTO - The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France on February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo A German court has ordered Amazon not to lure internet shoppers to its online marketplace when they mistakenly search for “Brikenstock”, “Birkenstok”, “Bierkenstock” and other variations in Google. The ruling is a victory for the German sandal maker, whose relationship with Amazon has grown increasingly antagonistic. It convinced a district court in Duesseldorf that Amazon booked variations of “Birkenstock” as keywords through Google AdWords. Any of those variations would produce search results for Birkenstock shoes sold on Amazon.com, the court said in a ruling dated Dec. 20. Birkenstock sought the injunction because it feared unsuspecting shoppers might buy low-quality counterfeits through Amazon that would erode its reputation. Earlier this month, Birkenstock said that it would end the sale of its products over Amazon in Europe after Amazon “failed to proactively prevent” the sale of counterfeit Birkenstock goods. A year ago, Birkenstock ended its relationship with Amazon in the United States. The injunction was first reported by the German magazine Der Spiegel on Friday. “For us, Amazon is complicit,” Birkenstock’s chief Oliver Reichert told Der Spiegel. A spokesman for Amazon declined to comment on the court proceedings but said: “Amazon prohibits the sale of fraudulent products.” “We work diligently with vendors, sellers and rights owners to detect and prevent fraudulent products reaching our marketplace,” he added. A spokesman for the court declined to comment. Reporting by Tom Sims, Georgina Prodhan and Sabine Wollrab, editing by Larry King and Gareth Jones'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-birkenstock/amazon-ordered-not-to-pull-in-customers-who-cant-spell-birkenstock-idUKKBN1EN1L8'|'2017-12-29T23:32:00.000+02:00'
'2f58be30208258c6504875069135f50e49f6b322'|'BRIEF-Trico Bancshares Says Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Will Have Estimated Q4 Earnings Impact Of Loss Of About $0.33 Per Share'|'#Market News  07 PM / Updated 11 minutes ago BRIEF-Trico Bancshares Says Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Will Have Estimated Q4 Earnings Impact Of Loss Of About $0.33 Per Share Reuters Staff 1 Min Read Dec 29 (Reuters) - Trico Bancshares: * TRICO BANCSHARES SAYS TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT WILL HAVE ESTIMATED Q4 EARNINGS IMPACT OF LOSS OF ABOUT $0.33 PER SHARE - SEC FILING Source text: ( bit.ly/2Dxt9Lj )  '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-trico-bancshares-says-tax-cuts-and/brief-trico-bancshares-says-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-will-have-estimated-q4-earnings-impact-of-loss-of-about-0-33-per-share-idUSFWN1OT08E'|'2017-12-30T00:07:00.000+02:00'
'3bfe7fccde86ea8f5d8346bbe184f1ffcabb9aeb'|'Pershing Square and Valeant reach agreement on settlement split'|'(Reuters) - Activist investor William Ackman’s Pershing Square said on Friday it had reached an agreement with Valeant Pharmaceuticals to split settlement costs of a lawsuit related to Allergan Plc.The headquarters of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc is seen in Laval, Quebec in this file picture taken November 9, 2015. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photo Pershing Square said Valeant will now pay around 33 percent, or $96.25 million, of the settlement costs. Valeant had previously agreed to pay 60 percent of the costs.Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel '|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/pershing-sq-hldg-valeant-pharm-in/pershing-square-and-valeant-reach-agreement-on-settlement-split-idINKBN1EN1JU'|'2017-12-29T20:26:00.000+02:00'
'71ee78ccf4c275a75267a4dfa31dc8ee398a566e'|'U.S. oil prices climb to highest since mid-2015 on surprise output drop'|'December 29, 2017 / 2:19 AM / Updated 32 minutes ago Oil up at year end, U.S. crude hits highest since mid-2015 Dmitry Zhdannikov , David Gaffen 4 Min Read LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices rose above $60 a barrel on the final trading day of the year and hit their highest since mid-2015, as an unexpected fall in American output and a decline in commercial crude inventories stoked buying in generally thin trading. FILE PHOTO - An oil pump jack of Canadian group Vermilion Energy is pictured in Parentis-en-Born, France, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau International benchmark Brent crude futures also rose, supported by ongoing supply cuts by top producers OPEC and Russia as well as strong demand from China. Oil prices are set to close out the year with strong gains. Brent is up 17 percent since the beginning of the year and U.S. West Texas Intermediate is up 12 percent. Prices are up nearly 50 percent since the middle of the year, after a springtime slump. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 hit a June 2015 high of $60.32 and were at $60.12 a barrel at 8:55 a.m. EST (1355 GMT). Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 27 cents to $66.41 a barrel. Brent broke through $67 this week for the first time since May 2015. WTI prices were supported by data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration late on Thursday showing a modest drop last week in domestic oil production C-OUT-T-EIA to 9.75 million barrels per day (bpd) from 9.79 million bpd the previous week. Rising Brent prices have been supported by a year of production cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. U.S. output remains up almost 16 percent since mid-2016, but most analysts had expected production to break through 10 million bpd by year end, behind only top exporter Saudi Arabia and top producer Russia. Analysts expect U.S. production to top 10 million bpd in the next few weeks and to keep growing, limiting efforts by other producers to cap global supplies. “The U.S. shale impact is now encroaching on uncharted territory,” analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote this month, saying it had “redrawn the global crude flow map.” WTI prices were further boosted by an EIA report of a 4.6 million barrel weekly drop in U.S. commercial crude storage levels. Inventories are down by almost 20 percent from historic highs last March, and well below this time last year or in 2015. A YEAR OF CUTS In international markets, China has issued crude oil import quotas totalling 121.32 million tonnes for 44 companies in its first batch of allowances for 2018. China’s imports at around 8.5 million bpd, already the world’s biggest, are expected to hit another record in 2018 as new refining capacity is brought online and Beijing allows more independent refiners to import crude. Pipeline outages in Libya and the North Sea have supported oil prices, although both disruptions are expected to be resolved by early January. The Forties pipeline was already pumping close to normal levels, trading sources said. For the graphic ''Global oil supply and demand'', click - reut.rs/2C9rqyC For the graphic ''U.S. oil production and storage levels'', click - reut.rs/2BS5Efp Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by David Evans and David Gregorio'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-oil/u-s-oil-prices-climb-to-highest-since-mid-2015-on-surprise-output-drop-idUKKBN1EN05K'|'2017-12-29T04:18:00.000+02:00'
'f3e6955cb40cc849e2571dfdba85e9d0dafc89ef'|'German inflation rises more than expected in December'|'December 29, 2017 / 1:05 PM / Updated 24 minutes ago German inflation rises more than expected in December Reuters Staff 1 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German inflation accelerated ahead of expectations in December, the Federal Statistics Office said on Friday, with consumer prices rising 1.6 percent year-on-year, compared to the 1.4 percent forecast by analysts polled by Reuters. The preliminary numbers, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries, also showed that prices had risen 0.8 percent compared to November, faster than the 0.6 percent increase analysts expected. High food costs made the largest contribution to the headline price increases, the agency said, followed by increased rents. Inflation figures from Europe’s largest economy are closely watched because of their influence on the European Central Bank’s monetary policy. Reporting by Joseph Nasr, editing by Thomas Escritt'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-economy-inflation/german-inflation-rises-more-than-expected-in-december-idUKKBN1EN14R'|'2017-12-29T15:37:00.000+02:00'
'4b0f4f76cb914320b0e62dad9eae3386123184d0'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX climbs to fresh record high, led by energy'|'December 28, 2017 / 10:23 PM / in 9 minutes CANADA STOCKS-TSX climbs to fresh record high, led by energy Reuters Staff (Updates prices and market activity) * TSX rises 0.12 percent to add to previous session’s record high * Six of 10 main groups end higher * Energy gains 0.9 percent By Fergal Smith TORONTO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index extended gains on Thursday from the previous session’s record high as the rise in shares of energy, technology and marijuana companies offset losses for industrials and gold miners. * The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 18.82 points, or 0.12 percent, at 16,221.95, eclipsing Wednesday’s all-time closing high. * Energy shares rose 0.9 percent, with Cenovus Energy Inc gaining 2.1 percent to C$11.58, as oil prices rose. * U.S. crude futures settled 0.3 percent higher at $59.84 after data showed strong demand for crude imports in China and on increased U.S. refining activity that drew more crude from inventories. * The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Canopy Growth Co, which rose 9.5 percent to C$30.41. Gains this week for the shares of marijuana companies come ahead of the legalization of recreational marijuana in California on Jan. 1. * Open Text Corp, rose 6.9 percent to C$44.66 after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced after the bell on Wednesday that the stock of the business software maker will be added to the S&P/TSX 60, 60 Capped and 60 Equal Weight Indices to replace Agrium Inc. * Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc and Agrium have received final regulatory clearance to merge, forming a new company to be known as Nutrien, the two firms said on Wednesday. * The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, dipped 0.3 percent as gold mining shares fell. * Sandstorm Gold Ltd fell 3.8 percent to C$6.28. * The industrials group fell 0.9 percent, including losses for railroad stocks. * One of the biggest drags on the index was Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP, which fell 2.0 percent to C$56.69 after rallying on Wednesday. Earlier in the week the company announced an agreement to sell its Chilean regulated transmission business for $1.3 billion. * Six of the TSX’s 10 main groups ended higher. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks/canada-stocks-tsx-climbs-to-fresh-record-high-led-by-energy-idUSL1N1OS1IR'|'2017-12-29T00:21:00.000+02:00'
'f81f0b5a7b261e44d93c8283fde03802afb9bb13'|'Indian regulators face legal challenge in probe over prescient messages'|' 52   Indian regulators face legal challenge in probe over prescient messages Abhirup Roy , Rafael Nam 5 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - A series of raids by India’s market regulator, investigating whether corporate announcements were prematurely leaked by market participants in social media chatrooms, were the largest it has conducted. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is pictured on the premises of its headquarters in Mumbai, India March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo But despite the scale of the action, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will likely face several tough legal challenges in any prosecutions, according to four lawyers, including two former officials of the regulator. Dozens of SEBI officials raided offices and homes of brokers on Dec 22, seizing mobile phones and laptops, one regulatory source told Reuters. As many as 30 brokers were targeted in the action, according to local media. SEBI has broad search-and-seizure powers that enable it to seize “books, registers, other documents” and records of anyone associated with securities markets, according to the regulations laid out in the official act that governs the regulator’s activity. Those powers would likely allow the regulator to withstand in court any challenge to the seizure of electronic gadgets, the lawyers interviewed by Reuters said. But whether SEBI has legal rights to get into individual social media accounts does not appear to have been established, the lawyers said. They said they were not aware of any explicit law that gives SEBI power to access social media accounts or compel users to provide passwords. That would mean that the regulator would have to make a case that such accounts should be considered “books, registers, other documents” and records, they said. SEBI did not respond to emailed requests for comment. A senior official at SEBI expressed confidence that the regulator would be able to successfully prosecute any cases that came out of the investigation. “We have enough powers to proceed,” the official, who requested anonymity because he was not allowed to speak with media, told Reuters. SEBI was “testing if the powers given to us can stand the scrutiny of law. If not, we will again ask for amendment to the regulations and laws. We will strengthen it.” SEBI’s chairman, Ajay Tyagi, at a press conference on Thursday said that pursuing suspected illegal activity taking place on social media was new territory for the regulator. “Precedence, of course, there isn‘t,” he said. But market participants “cannot hide behind technology”, he said. The lawyers interviewed by Reuters said defendants would likely counter efforts by SEBI to access their social media accounts on privacy grounds. Reuters was unable to reach lawyers representing brokers targeted in the raids. “An individual who is involved could challenge the access to his or her social media as a constitutional breach of privacy,” said Sandeep Parekh, a partner with Finsec Law Advisors, and former head of enforcement at SEBI. In a landmark judgment, India’s top court unanimously ruled in August that individual privacy is a fundamental right, which lawyers said would have broad legal implications for Indians. “Violation of privacy rights is definitely one of the potential challenges SEBI faces,” said Vaneesa Agrawal, a former SEBI official who is now a partner at Suvan Law Advisors. “A number of aspects can be challenged, like the procedure of how the device was accessed, or the power of the court to issue a warrant.” Parekh said the challenge for SEBI was that any case on privacy issues would “take its time” to wend its way through India’s cumbersome legal system. The SEBI investigation was triggered last month after Reuters reported at least 12 instances of messages that predicted results and other financial metrics about companies had circulated in private WhatsApp groups. On Wednesday, SEBI ordered Axis Bank (AXBK.NS), which was among the 12 companies mentioned in the Reuters story, to conduct an internal investigation into a suspected leak of financial information and to strengthen its handling of such data, as part of the investigation. Under India’s insider trading laws, it is illegal to circulate “unpublished price sensitive information”, which is defined as “any information” that is not “generally available” and that could have a market impact. The lawyers said that SEBI would need to conclusively prove that any messages posted by those under investigation qualified as constituting “unpublished price sensitive information.” Individuals could make the case that information was “generally available” if they had merely taken it from other WhatsApp groups, for example, and posted it elsewhere, or cite it as general market speculation, they said. Reporting by Abhirup Roy and Rafael Nam; Editing by Philip McClellan'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-india-whatsapp-sebi/indian-regulators-face-legal-challenge-in-probe-over-prescient-messages-idUKKBN1EO05W'|'2017-12-30T10:51:00.000+02:00'
'c44869981ea98ccedbe8536dae9bed1fa3cbc63c'|'Around 6,000 Swiss VW owners seek damages in emissions scandal'|'December 30, 2017 / 11:11 AM / in 8 hours Around 6,000 Swiss VW owners seek damages in emissions scandal Reuters Staff 3 Min Read ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss consumer protection organization SKS has filed a claim on behalf of some 6,000 car owners seeking damages from Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) and Swiss car dealer AMAG related to the “Dieselgate” emissions scandal. The claim has been lodged with the Zurich commercial court. SKS said it was assuming damages amounted on average to 15 percent of the initial retail price of the vehicles concerned and that, together with insurance companies supporting the legal action, it wanted to give Swiss-based car owners the possibility to enforce their rights without disproportionate financial risk. “The cars sold as environmentally friendly were overpriced from the beginning. Due to the manipulation of the exhaust system, they then lost even more of their value on the secondary market,” SKS (Stiftung fuer Konsumentenschutz) said in a statement on Friday. Volkswagen said it would examine the details of the claim once it had them but said it saw no fundamental case as industry experts had not been able to establish any significant loss of value for VW diesel vehicles on the Swiss market. “The trust and satisfaction of our customers are extremely important to us. However, we are of the opinion that there are no legal grounds for claims connected with the diesel issue,” it said in a statement. Volkswagen said 98 percent of the 173,000 affected vehicles in Switzerland had already been refitted at no cost to owners. AMAG, which imports the cars into Switzerland, said in a statement on its website it did not understand why SKS filed the claim because prices on the secondary market for VW diesel cars were at least on the same level or even higher than those of competing models. It also said it had not acted with the intention of wilfully deceiving customers. VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software in hundreds of thousands of U.S. diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner than they were on the road, and that as many as 11 million vehicles could have similar software installed worldwide. Earlier this month, Germany’s highest court rejected a bid by Volkswagen to suspend the work of a special auditor appointed to investigate management actions in the emissions scandal. Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz; Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Alison Williams and Stephen Powell'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-swiss/around-6000-swiss-vw-owners-seek-damages-in-emissions-scandal-idUSKBN1EO090'|'2017-12-30T13:14:00.000+02:00'
'10cc7fa63bbcde495801052aae0cdc8f6601c83c'|'Japan''s Nippon Life eyeing M&A for foreign boutique bond and alternative funds'|'December 31, 2017 / 3:03 PM / Updated 5 minutes ago Japan''s Nippon Life eyeing M&A for foreign boutique bond and alternative funds Taiga Uranaka 3 Min Read TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance Co [NPNLI.UL], which recently struck a deal to buy about a quarter of U.S. investment firm TCW Group, is scouting for opportunities to buy boutique managers of bonds and alternative assets, its president said. FILE PHOTO: Nippon Life President Yoshinobu Tsutsui speaks during an interview at the insurance company''s headquarters in Tokyo April 10, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter “Asset management is a business that can generate synergy with life insurance and it needs to be operated globally. We have been looking widely for potential partners,” Yoshinobu Tsutsui told Reuters in an interview. The bulking up of asset management overseas by Japan’s largest private-sector life insurer comes as the nation’s insurers are increasingly shifting money away from Japanese government bonds (JGBs), their main investment, into riskier but higher-yielding ones such as foreign corporate bonds to diversify their returns. Insurers in Japan have been hurt by diminishing investment returns after the Bank of Japan launched aggressive monetary easing in April 2013. In December, Nippon Life announced a deal to acquire 24.75 percent of TCW from private equity firm Carlyle Group LP. Nippon Life has about 74 trillion yen (483.72 billion pounds) in assets. Tsutsui said potential targets are likely to be asset management companies with bond investment expertise, as the insurer’s portfolio has been traditionally made up of fixed-income products. He also said the company is looking for specialists in alternative investments, whose real estate and other portfolios offer diversification from conventional bond and stock investments. “As we have to diversify investment assets globally, alternative is a very important field,” he said. “The United States has a very big and deep market for asset management. There are huge companies but there are also small but unique boutiques. We would like to keep looking there,” he said. Tsutsui said while his company will curb fresh investment in JGBs further, U.S. interest rate rises pose a challenge to its effort to increase foreign bond holdings. “Hedging costs will rise with U.S. rate increases, that will diminish returns (from U.S. Treasuries),” he said. Japanese insurers usually hedge against currency swings when they buy foreign assets to protect their yen-denominated value. “There is an issue of how to build foreign bond portfolios and French government bonds are in the spotlight now,” said Tsutsui, 63, who took over the helm of the company in 2011. Sources with the direct knowledge have said Nippon Life is in talks to buy a majority stake in the Japanese unit of U.S.-based MassMutual Financial Group in an attempt to boost its bancassurance sales. Tsutsui declined to confirm the MassMutual talks but said his company has been searching for ways to build up domestic sales channels in addition to traditional door-to-door sales representatives. “For bank branch sales channel, we are thinking about mergers and acquisitions,” he said. ($1 = 113.2800 yen)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nippon-life-ins-strategy/japans-nippon-life-eyeing-ma-for-foreign-boutique-bond-and-alternative-funds-idUKKBN1EP0FN'|'2017-12-31T17:03:00.000+02:00'
'2da5be267c4e32008bc462ca95c2cab601caba07'|'Japan''s Nippon Life eyeing M&A for foreign boutique bond and alternative funds'|'TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance Co [NPNLI.UL], which recently struck a deal to buy about a quarter of U.S. investment firm TCW Group, is scouting for opportunities to buy boutique managers of bonds and alternative assets, its president said.FILE PHOTO - A man is reflected on a window of a branch of Japanese life insurer Nippon Life Insurance Company, also known as Nissay, in Tokyo July 20, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo “Asset management is a business that can generate synergy with life insurance and it needs to be operated globally. We have been looking widely for potential partners,” Yoshinobu Tsutsui told Reuters in an interview.The bulking up of asset management overseas by Japan’s largest private-sector life insurer comes as the nation’s insurers are increasingly shifting money away from Japanese government bonds (JGBs), their main investment, into riskier but higher-yielding ones such as foreign corporate bonds to diversify their returns.Insurers in Japan have been hurt by diminishing investment returns after the Bank of Japan launched aggressive monetary easing in April 2013.In December, Nippon Life announced a deal to acquire 24.75 percent of TCW from private equity firm Carlyle Group LP ( CG.O ). Nippon Life has about 74 trillion yen ($653.25 billion) in assets.Tsutsui said potential targets are likely to be asset management companies with bond investment expertise, as the insurer’s portfolio has been traditionally made up of fixed-income products.He also said the company is looking for specialists in alternative investments, whose real estate and other portfolios offer diversification from conventional bond and stock investments.“As we have to diversify investment assets globally, alternative is a very important field,” he said. “The United States has a very big and deep market for asset management. There are huge companies but there are also small but unique boutiques. We would like to keep looking there,” he said.Tsutsui said while his company will curb fresh investment in JGBs further, U.S. interest rate rises pose a challenge to its effort to increase foreign bond holdings.“Hedging costs will rise with U.S. rate increases, that will diminish returns (from U.S. Treasuries),” he said. Japanese insurers usually hedge against currency swings when they buy foreign assets to protect their yen-denominated value.“There is an issue of how to build foreign bond portfolios and French government bonds are in the spotlight now,” said Tsutsui, 63, who took over the helm of the company in 2011.Sources with the direct knowledge have said Nippon Life is in talks to buy a majority stake in the Japanese unit of U.S.-based MassMutual Financial Group in an attempt to boost its bancassurance sales.Tsutsui declined to confirm the MassMutual talks but said his company has been searching for ways to build up domestic sales channels in addition to traditional door-to-door sales representatives.“For bank branch sales channel, we are thinking about mergers and acquisitions,” he said.($1 = 113.2800 yen)Reporting by Taiga Uranaka and Taro Fuse; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/us-nippon-life-ins-strategy/japans-nippon-life-eyeing-ma-for-foreign-boutique-bond-and-alternative-funds-idINKBN1EP0G5'|'2017-12-31T12:23:00.000+02:00'
'0266ba64c5d85c4dabc8399794083f5d105fd420'|'China December factory growth eases as tough pollution measures bite'|'December 31, 2017 / 1:00 AM / Updated 11 hours ago China December factory growth eases as tough pollution measures bite Ben Blanchard , Elias Glenn 5 Min Read BEIJING (Reuters) - Growth in China’s manufacturing sector slowed slightly in December as a punishing crackdown on air pollution and a cooling property market start to weigh on the world’s second-largest economy. FILE PHOTO: A worker disentangles wool yarn at a spinning machine at a factory owned by Hong Kong''s Novetex Textiles Limited in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Venus Wu/File Photo The data support the view that the economy is beginning to gradually lose steam after growing by a forecast-beating 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, but the findings did not appear to suggest a risk of sharper slowdown at this point. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released on Sunday dipped to 51.6 in December, down from 51.8 in November and in line with forecasts from economists in a Reuters poll. But the overall reading still appeared relatively solid, and marked the 18th straight month that the sector has expanded. The 50-point level divides growth from contraction on a monthly basis. The figures showed that China’s full-year 2017 economic growth would be at about 6.9 percent and around 6.5 percent for 2018, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, which compiles the data. Both predictions would be slightly stronger than those in a Reuters poll. “Overall, 2017’s economic performance continues to be steady and good, establishing a generally good foundation for 2018,” the federation said. “Recent PMI surveys show companies are confident for economic development in the new year, with production and operating activity expectation indices showing significant improvement.” ON A ROLL Boosted by hefty government infrastructure spending, a resilient property market and unexpected strength in exports, China’s manufacturing and industrial firms have been a major driver behind solid economic growth this year, with their strong appetite for raw materials boosting global commodity prices. However, a slowdown has started to take hold in the last few months due to a wide-ranging combination of government measures, from a crackdown on smog in heavily industrialized northern provinces to continued curbs on the housing market which are weighing on property investment. Chinese steelmakers in 28 cities have been ordered to curb output between mid-November and mid-March, while a campaign to promote cleaner energy by converting coal to natural gas has also hampered manufacturing activity in some cities, leading to shortages and sending prices spiking. Still, there are signs that steel mills, smelters and plants in parts of the country with fewer restrictions have ramped up production to win more market share, largely offsetting the “rustbelt” declines on a nation-wide basis. A PMI sub-reading for production fell to 54 from 54.3 in November, but was bang in line with the average over the last six months. Total new orders also dipped in December, to 53.4 from 53.6, but export orders grew at the fastest pace in six months, pointing to sustained strength in global demand heading into the new year and helping boost business optimism to the highest since September. Chinese manufacturers continued to face stiff pressure from rising costs, however. A sub-index for input prices rose to 62.2 from 59.8 in November, while output price gains also picked up, which could pressure profit margins on companies further down the supply chain. TAPPING THE BRAKES Slowly rising borrowing costs due to a government crackdown on riskier lending practices are also expected to drag more prominently on economic activity in 2018. The central bank nudged up interbank rates earlier this month for the fourth time this year, though policymakers are keen not to tap the brakes too sharply and risk a sharper economic slowdown. Sources have told Reuters that Chinese leaders are likely to stick with a growth target of around 6.5 percent for 2018, the same as in 2017, even as they continue efforts to defuse the risks from a rapid build-up of debt. In a further sign of resilience, growth in China’s services sector, which was already robust, kicked up another notch in December, a sister survey showed. The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to a three-month high of 55 from 54.8 in November. And a reading on the construction sector rose to 63.9 from 61.4 in November, which was surprising given slowing property investment and the seasonal decline in building activity usually seen in colder months. The services sector accounts for over half of China’s economy, with rising wages giving Chinese consumers more spending power. China’s leaders are counting on growth in services and consumption to rebalance their economic growth model from its heavy reliance on investment and exports. Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Elias Glenn; Editing by Kim Coghill'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/UKBusinessNews/'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-pmi-factory-official/china-dec-official-factory-pmi-dips-to-51-6-hits-forecasts-idUKKBN1EP009'|'2017-12-31T05:00:00.000+02:00'
'ed4d3e35f1b3bff6f59b1d9f34ec5cea111222e8'|'Opec extends oil production cuts; bitcoin plunges below $10,000 – as it happened - Business'|'Close Skip to main content switch to the International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home become a supporter subscribe find a job jobs sign in Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out my account search news opinion sport arts lifestyle All sections Close news world news UK news science cities global development football tech business environment obituaries opinion the guardian view columnists cartoons opinion videos letters sport football rugby union cricket tennis cycling F1 golf US sports arts books music tv & radio art & design film games classical stage lifestyle fashion food recipes love & sex health & fitness home & garden women family travel money What term do you want to search? Search with google become a supporter subscribe Sign in/up my account Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition jobs dating holidays the guardian app video podcasts pictures newsletters today''s paper the observer digital archive crosswords Facebook Twitter jobs dating holidays business economics banking money markets project syndicate b2b more sign in Comment activity Edit profile Email preferences Change password Sign out become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: dating find a job change edition: switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the AU edition International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition The Guardian - Back to home home › business › markets project syndicate economics banking retail home UK world sport football opinion culture business selected lifestyle fashion environment tech travel browse all sections close Business Business live Opec extends oil production cuts; bitcoin plunges below $10,000 – as it happened Opec and non-Opec energy ministers extend their output curbs to the end of 2018, after they met in Vienna todayBitcoin: Back over under $10,000 Opec president: We must stick together Saudi Arabia wants nine-month extension Current deal cuts 1.8m barrels per day from output Introduction: Opec is meeting in Vienna Updated OPEC Conference President Khaled al-Falih at the start of the 173rd OPEC Conference in Vienna. Photograph: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images Graeme Wearden (until 2.55pm) and Nick Fletcher Thu 30 Nov ‘17 18.15 GMT First published on Thu 30 Nov ‘17 08.16 GMT Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email View more sharing options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Close Key events Show 6.15pm GMT 18:15 Oil deal unanimous - Saudi energy minister 6.04pm GMT 18:04 Brent higher as oil producers agree to extend output deal 5.06pm GMT 17:06 European markets edge lower 3.10pm GMT 15:10 Dow hits 24,000 11.12am GMT 11:12 Bitcoin falls back through $10,000 2.14pm GMT 14:14 Sign up to our email 12.17pm GMT 12:17 Reports: Opec to extend cuts to end of 2018 Live feed Show 6.15pm GMT 18:15 Oil deal unanimous - Saudi energy minister Breaking news: Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih has confirmed that the agreement on curbing output will be extended. He said, the decision has been unanimous, a solid decision to extend deal through December 2018. It is basically a one year agreement, he said, tweaking the language to strengthen agreement.He said inventories were expected to decline to the desired targets in the second half of 2018.We don’t expect supply surprises in 2018 as we saw in 2017, he says. But supply from other regions remains unknown, he says, especially shale producers from the US. We will be agile and respond as events unfold.The issue of Libya and Nigeria surprised market in 2017. There was constructive consultation with their leaders, they have an interest in market stability. We wish them the best. Both countries have told us their 2018 levels will not exceed what they achieved in 2017. So to the market we say there are no surprises expected from them.The six observing countries have also endorsed the agreement.We are very conscious the state of the global economy is impacted by volatility in oil prices. I feel extremely optimistic about short and long term outlook for oil. If I have a concern, it is that investment should flow back into the industry sooner rather than later.On that note, it’s time to close for the day. Thanks for all your comments and we’ll be back tomorrow. Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 6.04pm GMT 18:04 Brent higher as oil producers agree to extend output deal Brent crude is currently up 0.4% at $63.37 a barrel, as Opec and non-Opec producers (Russia being the key member of the latter) agreed to extend their output curbs until the end of 2018.But West Texas Intermediate - the US benchmark - has slipped 0.5% to $57 a barrel.Preparing for the Opec group photo Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 5.42pm GMT 17:42 Reuters is also reporting that a delegate has said that Opec and non-Opec members have agreed the extension at the afternoon meeting.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 5.38pm GMT 17:38 Jack Farchy (@jfarchy) Venezuela tweets confirmation of Opec/non-Opec cuts deal extension by 9 months #oott https://t.co/nvpetFyGYF November 30, 2017 Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 5.06pm GMT 17:06 European markets edge lower Contrasting fortunes for US and European markets. Hopes that the Republican tax plan will be passed, along with a rebound in technology shares, has helped lift Wall Street to new peaks. But European shares slipped back as the euro held up, and the FTSE 100 similarly fell back on sterling strength against the dollar. The final scores showed:The FTSE 100 finished down 0.9% or 66.89 at 7326.67 Germany’s Dax dipped 0.29% to 13,023.98 France’s Cac closed down 0.47% at 5372.79 Spain’s Ibex ended down 0.55% at 10,211.0 But Italy’s FTSE MIB edged up 0.19% 22,368.29 In Greece, the Athens market added 0.26% to 740.20 On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is currently up 208 points or 0.88%.Meanwhile bitcoin, having hit 11,395 late on Wednesday, is now down 5.75% at 9259.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 4.05pm GMT 16:05 Now there will be a group photo and then the meeting will continue in private.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 4.04pm GMT 16:04 The positive trend in the market is driven by good fundamental metrics, says Novak.We are continuing to see inventory draws, a significant decline in volatily and investment returning. We are also seeing....good demand growth.However, to reach our goals, to rebalance the market, we must continue to act jointly and take us further into 2018 and have a co-ordinated approach to that.Both consumers and producers are waiting to see what we will announce today.I am hopeful we will arrive at a joint conclusion.Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/oil/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/nov/30/opec-meeting-oil-cuts-bitcoin-volatile-sterling-brexit-business-live'|'2017-12-01T01:15:00.000+02:00'
'd9864e20a23badc65f25965fe8dcb9ca35e7109b'|'MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf underperforms in 2017, has reason to expect better 2018'|'* Geopolitics, slumping economic growth weighed on Gulf bourses* Saudi index edged up just 0.2 pct in year, Dubai fell 4.6 pct* Valuations, higher state spending should help markets in 2018* Saudi’s National Commercial Bank surges on bonus share issue* Dar Al Arkan pulls back after news of unit’s IPO planBy Andrew TorchiaDUBAI, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Middle Eastern stock markets far underperformed the rest of the world in 2017 but as the year ended, beaten-down valuations for shares and plans for higher government spending gave investors reason to expect a better 2018.Egypt’s stock index surged 21.7 percent in 2017 as economic reforms bore fruit, but the picture in the Gulf was little short of disastrous because of geopolitical tensions, sluggish economic growth and sagging real estate prices.Saudi Arabia’s index edged up just 0.2 percent during the year compared to a 34 percent leap for MSCI’s emerging markets index. Among other major Gulf markets, Dubai fell 4.6 percent and Qatar, hit by a boycott imposed by other Arab states, lost 18.3 percent.The new year looks unlikely to be as poor in the Gulf, however, partly because many share valuations have been beaten down to stand in line with, or even below, other emerging markets.Also, a rise of oil prices in the last few months has let Gulf Cooperation Council governments slow austerity drives that have slashed economic growth and damaged corporate earnings. Growth is widely projected to pick up moderately in 2018.“With this backdrop and underpinned by undemanding valuations, we are generally optimistic on the GCC for the year 2018, with the outlook ranging from slightly negative to moderately bullish across the board,” said Bader al-Ghanim, head of GCC asset management at Kuwait’s Global Investment House.A Reuters poll of 13 leading Middle Eastern asset managers, released on Sunday, found 54 percent expect to raise allocations to regional equities over the next three months and none to cut them, the most positive balance since August.Saudi Arabia’s index edged down 0.1 percent on Sunday as real estate developer Dar Al Arkan, the most heavily traded stock, sank 5.0 percent despite saying it would offer 30 percent of Dar Al Arkan Properties, a property management firm with assets of 2.68 billion riyals ($715 million), to the public. It did not specify a date.The stock had more than doubled in the past three months, partly in anticipation of the IPO.National Commercial Bank, the biggest bank, climbed 2.7 percent in active trade. Its board proposed increasing the bank’s capital by 10 billion riyals to 30 billion riyals by issuing bonus shares funded from retained earnings.Qatar’s index edged down 0.03 percent on Sunday as the biggest lender, Qatar National Bank, slipped 0.8 per cent.The year’s final day of trade for markets in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait was Thursday.HIGHLIGHTS SAUDI ARABIA * The index edged down 0.1 percent to 7,226 points.QATAR * The index edged down 0.03 percent to 8,523 points.EGYPT * The index edged up 0.01 percent to 15,019 points.BAHRAIN * The index surged 2.0 percent to 1,332 points.OMAN * The index added 1.0 percent to 5,099 points. (Editing by Larry King) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-stocks/mideast-stocks-gulf-underperforms-in-2017-has-reason-to-expect-better-2018-idINL8N1OV05V'|'2017-12-31T09:57:00.000+02:00'
'030c8b8ae67716bbff04b41264f2abbdc8f3582f'|'UPDATE 1-Rail traffic halted at Berlin station due to smoke, cause unknown -'|'(Adds details from fire officials, rail operator)BERLIN, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Railway traffic was halted at Berlin’s Zoo train station on Sunday due to a large amount of smoke, with at least one person injured, German police and fire officials said on Twitter.The cause of the smoke was not immediately clear.German media showed smoke billowing from the large station, which is just steps from the site of the December 2016 Christmas market attack.The entire station, which is also home to multiple shops, fast food restaurants and public transportation lines, had been evacuated, a spokeswoman for railway operator Deutsche Bahn told Reuters.The Berlin fire department said on Twitter that 15 people had been rescued from a smoke-filled platform and one person had been injured.German federal police said one incoming tram with 250 people on board had been moved back to the previous Tiergarten station.Police and fire officials were on site, police said. (Reporting by Christian Ruettger and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Alison Williams) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/germany-railway/update-1-rail-traffic-halted-at-berlin-station-due-to-smoke-cause-unknown-idINL8N1OV0BN'|'2017-12-31T10:57:00.000+02:00'
'de3cfe00964ee712627e539d44ef91d33e0cc994'|'German lawmaker blasts EU for opposing Niki sale to Lufthansa'|'December 31, 2017 / 1:38 PM / Updated 21 minutes ago German lawmaker blasts EU for opposing Niki sale to Lufthansa Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government will probably lose a 150 million-euro (£133.2 million) government-backed loan to insolvent Air Berlin because the European Union opposed Lufthansa’s purchase of Air Berlin’s Austrian unit, Niki, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: Empty Niki check-in counters are seen at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader British Airways owner IAG ( ICAG.L ) said on Friday that it would buy Niki for 20 million euros and provide additional liquidity to the company of up to 16.5 million euros, closing the final chapter in the demise of Air Berlin . Air Berlin filed for insolvency earlier this year. “The damages will be borne by creditors and German taxpayers, who will see nothing of the Air Berlin bridging loan in the amount of 150 million euros,” said Hans Michelbach, deputy leader of the Bavarian CSU party in parliament and financial spokesman for the conservative bloc. The situation would have been different if Lufthansa had been allowed to buy the airline for nearly 200 million euros, Michelbach said. Lufthansa ( LHAG.DE ) backed out of an agreement to buy Niki after the European Commission indicated it would block the sale . The German government had also criticised the Commission’s position earlier this month, forecasting that only part of the bridging loan from the KfW bank would be repaid. The Bavarian lawmaker called for a detailed investigation of the Air Berlin and Niki insolvencies and the actions of the European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. He said details that had emerged appeared to show that the EU had carried out secret negotiations and provoked Lufthansa’s withdrawal of its takeover offer for Niki in order to “make possible the takeover by a certain investor at a bargain price.” “By doing so, the Commission violated its neutrality obligation in the worst sense and acted against the interests of creditors,” he said. No further details were provided. No comment was immediately available from the Commission. In December, it said Lufthansa’s purchase of Niki would have posed serious risks for European consumers. Michelbach also called for a detailed examination of whether Niki’s landing rights in Germany could legally be sold to IAG. IAG plans to make Niki part of its low-cost carrier Vueling, employing 740 of Niki’s 1,000 former employees. Assets include 15 A320 aircraft and slots at airports including Vienna, Dusseldorf, Munich, Palma and Zurich. Niki filed for insolvency earlier this month after Lufthansa backed out of the deal to buy its assets. Reporting by Andrea Shalal, editing by Larry King'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?format=xml'|'https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iag-niki-politics/german-lawmaker-blasts-eu-for-opposing-niki-sale-to-lufthansa-idUKKBN1EP0D8'|'2017-12-31T15:38:00.000+02:00'
'5873be46158798eec7086e38bac75da5348acb3e'|'Reliance Jio to buy RCom''s wireless assets in $3.75 billion deal - sources'|'December 29, 2017 / 5:03 AM / Updated 3 hours ago Reliance Jio to buy RCom''s wireless assets in $3.75 billion deal: sources Devidutta Tripathy , Promit Mukherjee 4 Min Read MUMBAI (Reuters) - Debt-laden Reliance Communications has signed a deal to sell its wireless assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm for nearly 240 billion rupees ($3.75 billion), two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Anil Ambani (R), chairman of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, talks to his brother Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, during the launch of "Digital India Week" in New Delhi, India, July 1, 2015. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo The two companies had announced late on Thursday that Reliance Communications, backed by businessman Anil Ambani, would sell all its spectrum, tower, fibre optic and other telecom infrastructure assets to Jio, which is owned by Reliance Industries and is controlled by Anil Ambani’s elder brother Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest person. They firms did not give the value of the deal. Jio and Reliance Communications, or RCom as the company is known as, did not respond to messages seeking comment on the value of the deal. The sale, if finalised, would mark a big step in RCom’s quest to cut down debt, which had sent its shares to record lows earlier this year and led creditors such as China Development Bank (CDB) to start insolvency proceedings over missed payments. RCom had a net debt of 450 billion rupees at the end of October, putting it among India’s most indebted companies. CDB told Reuters late on Thursday it is in talks with RCom. RCom shares rose as much as 29.9 percent on Friday while Reliance Industries rose as much as 0.9 percent. The sale would also mark the return of the telecom operations back into the fold of Reliance Industries, which forayed into telecoms in 2002, spearheaded by the elder Ambani, under the name of Reliance Infocomm Ltd. A feud between the two brothers in 2005 led to the split of Reliance Industries, with Mukesh Ambani keeping the cash cow oil and gas business and Anil Ambani walking away with telecoms and power. But Mukesh Ambani has re-entered the telecoms space with the launch of Jio in September 2016, upending the sector with cut-price data and free voice service and pushing RCom into a debt spiral. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Reliance Group is seen at Reliance Center in Mumbai, India, December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo Analysts said the deal would serve both brothers, allowing Jio to expand its footprint in India’s cutthroat telecom sector, while allowing RCom to pare debt. On Tuesday, Anil Ambani had said the wireless provider was seeking to slash debt by 390 billion rupees, including through the sale of assets, sparking a rally in RCom shares which have more than doubled since the plan was unveiled. Morgan Stanley analysts said the deal would allow Jio to further expand into India’s telecom space, though it would also add to its debt. Slideshow (2 Images) “Acquisition of RCom’s telecom infrastructure should bring synergies and lower costs while raising clarity on growth capex. The deal could potentially raise balance sheet leverage by 10-12 percent near term,” Morgan Stanley wrote in a note on Friday. Jio’s entry has hurt profits at competitors such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s largest phone carrier, and the India unit of Vodafone Plc and sparked a wave of consolidation in the sector. Reliance Jio is India’s fastest growing telecoms company with a subscriber base of close to 140 million. Through the deal, Jio gets access to four bands of spectrum and 43,000 telecom towers and a countrywide fibre optic network. For RCom, the deal could mark a big step in its months-long effort to reduce debt as it retreats from the consumer telecom space to focus on its enterprise business. Under the plan unveiled on Tuesday, RCom has said it was aiming to raise about 250 billion rupees through the sale of some of its assets, as well as shift 100 billion rupees of debt into a special purpose vehicle. It also hopes to receive investments from private equity players. ($1 = 64.0700 Indian rupees)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/INbusinessNews'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/rcom-debt-jio/reliance-jio-to-buy-rcoms-wireless-assets-in-3-75-billion-deal-sources-idINKBN1EN0AY'|'2017-12-29T07:02:00.000+02:00'
'8164cd00fd0163a0618ef52d492da5183e9ab91c'|'Australia''s Crown Resorts to sell CrownBet stake for $117 million'|'(Reuters) - Australian casino operator Crown Resorts said on Friday it has agreed to sell its 62 percent stake in online betting firm CrownBet to a consortium including the unit’s chief executive for A$150 million ($117 million).The deal, part of a series of divestments planned by Australia’s biggest casino company to cut debt, also includes loans extended by Crown to CrownBet.Both Dublin-based Paddy Power Betfair and British bookmaker William Hill had previously expressed an interest in the stake.The buyer of the stake is an entity associated with other shareholders in CrownBet, including the CrownBet management team led by CEO Matthew Tripp, Crown said in a statement.Australia’s gambling industry has seen much change this year with the country’s biggest bookmaker Tabcorp Holding buying lottery owner Tatts Group for $4.7 billion this month to create a gambling powerhouse.Shares of Crown Resorts were down 0.3 percent.Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs '|'reuters.com'|'https://www.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crown-resorts-divestiture/australias-crown-resorts-to-sell-crownbet-stake-for-117-million-idUSKBN1EN0A4'|'2017-12-29T12:41:00.000+02:00'
'0261ab50499d0d599584313f6faccdc968a58647'|'CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips as bank, resource stocks weigh'|'TORONTO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index turned lower in early trade on Friday, with financial stocks, miners and energy companies slipping.The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 24.27 points, or 0.15 percent, to 16,197.68 shortly after the open. It is on track for a 0.3 percent gain on the week and to finish 2017 up 6 percent. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by David Gregorio) '|'reuters.com'|'https://in.reuters.com/finance/deals'|'https://in.reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-open/canada-stocks-tsx-slips-as-bank-resource-stocks-weigh-idINL1N1OT0MB'|'2017-12-29T11:39:00.000+02:00'
'7716b12eb72c539bc9f70c5717f27bfc35b47ab3'|'UK may use taxes to get tech giants to do more to fight extremism, minister says'|'December 31, 2017 / 10:26 AM / in 10 hours UK may use taxes to get tech giants to do more to fight extremism, minister says Reuters Staff 3 Min Read LONDON, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Britain may impose new taxes on tech giants like Google and Facebook unless they do more to combat online extremism by taking down material aimed at radicalising people or helping them to prepare attacks, the country’s security minister said. Ben Wallace accused tech firms of being happy to sell people’s data but not to give it to the government which was being forced to spend vast sums on de-radicalisation programmes, surveillance and other counter-terrorism measures. “If they continue to be less than co-operative, we should look at things like tax as a way of incentivis­ing them or compen­sating for their inaction,” Wallace told the Sunday Times newspaper in an interview. He accused the tech giants of putting private profit before public safety. “We should stop pretending that because they sit on beanbags in T-shirts they are not ruthless profiteers,” he said. “They will ruthlessly sell our details to loans and soft-porn companies but not give it to our democratically elected government.” Britain suffered a series of attacks by Islamic extremists between March and June this year that killed a total of 36 people. Two involved vehicles ramming people on bridges in London, followed by attackers stabbing people. The deadliest, a bombing at a concert in the northern city of Manchester, killed 22 people. Following the second bridge attack, Prime Minister Theresa May proposed beefing up regulations on cyberspace, and weeks later interior minister Amber Rudd travelled to California to ask Silicon Valley to step up efforts against extremism. The Sunday Times quoted Wallace as saying that reliance on the internet made Britain vulnerable to terrorists and rogue states. “That’s what keeps me awake at night. We are more vulnerable than at any point in the last 100 years,” he said. Tech companies have made life too easy for attackers by refusing to take down extremist material and bomb-making guides, the minister said. Encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp were also a major problem, he said. “I have to have more human surveillance. It’s costing hundreds of millions of pounds,” Wallace said. “Because content is not being taken down as quickly as they could do, we’re having to de-radicalise people who have been radicalised. That’s costing millions. They can’t get away with that and we should look at all the options, including tax.” Wallace’s quotes did not give further details on tax plans. The Sunday Times reported that any demand would take the form of a windfall tax similar to that imposed on privatised utilities by former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government in 1997. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Larry King)'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-security-tech/uk-may-use-taxes-to-get-tech-giants-to-do-more-to-fight-extremism-minister-says-idUSL8N1OV06G'|'2017-12-31T18:26:00.000+02:00'
'8bcc638db9d49482acfcf1c732a7a6e5eb5f191c'|'This week in 1973 - From the Observer archive - News'|'From the Observer archive: this week in 1973 The oil crisis threatens to end the postwar boom Sun 31 Dec ‘17 00.05 GMT View more sharing options Share on Messenger Close Britain’s first New Year Resolution will clearly have to be to tighten its belt. Whatever financial arrangements the world’s oil consumers make with the Arab world – one of the first priorities for diplomats, bankers and international money-men in the New Year – there is no question that we shall see a halt in the almost automatic rise in real incomes that we have got used to enjoying in the years since the war. So hooked have we become on our increasing supplies of consumer goods that this is bound to produce painful withdrawal symptoms for our political and industrial institutions. The struggle between the miners and the engine-drivers on the one hand and the Government, acting on behalf of the rest of us, on the other, is a good example of how, in the future, we must not go on. There will be no room next year for deliberate attempts to grab a larger slice of our diminishing cake or for the continuation of policies that are, or are felt to be, demonstrably unfair… Given the right leadership, whether under Churchill or Cripps, the British people have always relished the chance to show their ability to rise to the occasion. Will the necessary leadership now be forthcoming? Talking point The Prime Minister said last night that the end of the three-day week, due to start tomorrow, depended solely on the miners calling off their overtime ban and the restoration of ‘an adequate supply of coal to power stations.’ Mr Heath was responding to a challenge from the Opposition, who asked him earlier in the day to justify the need for a three-day working week by answering six key questions on fuel supplies. “Three-day week till pit ban ends, says Premier” Key quote “The morale of millions of women is at stake.” Andrew Bowden, MP, on the closure of women’s hairdressers on New Year’s Eve. Topics '|'theguardian.com'|'http://www.theguardian.com/business/oil/rss'|'https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/31/from-the-observer-archive-this-week-in-1973'|'2017-12-31T07:05:00.000+02:00'
'fb634c59fc5c768d20e32a80a949662c6018d435'|'RPT-Wall St Week Ahead-Wall Street eyes 2018 gains with a side of caution'|'December 31, 2017 / 6:02 AM / Updated 14 hours ago RPT-Wall St Week Ahead-Wall Street eyes 2018 gains with a side of caution Sinead Carew 4 Min Read Dec 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks are expected to keep rising in 2018 because a massive drop in the corporate tax rate is seen boosting the economy and corporate profits, but strategists say sizable gains could either be short-lived or elusive. The bull market is on track to mark its ninth birthday in March, with the S&P 500 climbing 20 percent for 2017 - its biggest increase since 2013. The drop in the corporate tax rate in 2018, to 21 percent from 35 percent, is seen by many as the biggest factor for the stock market next year. Yet 2018 share gains are expected to be smaller than 2017 with the S&P 500’s price/earnings ratio - a measure of stock prices against expected profits - is around its highest level since June 2002. Many on Wall Street cite potential pitfalls even though they see no signs of a recession. “We’ve had six years in a row where stocks have (outperformed) earnings, and I think we break that streak with stocks going up but not as much as earnings,” said Robert Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management in Princeton, New Jersey. Some say the tax bill’s benefit will be short lived. David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management described the bill as “more carbs and less protein,” because the tax overhaul will improve spending but does nothing to boost productivity. “It’ll be a one-year wonder,” said Kelly. “People should enjoy the party while it lasts but just make sure you know where your coat is.” Several strategists cite the risk that faster economic growth could cause inflation to increase at a pace that would lead the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates faster than expected. Wall Street’s rosy forecasts seem “well supported by the tremendous string of good news which the economy has delivered,” according to Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist with Leuthold Group in Minneapolis. But he said, the news is too good: “The problem with getting good news is that at some point you can’t be positively surprised any more.” Paulsen does not expect a recession. But when the economic surprise index - which compares economic data to consensus expectations - is at high levels, equity performance tends to be weaker, according to Paulsen. The Citi Economic Surprise index was at 77 on Thursday, not far from its almost six-year high of 84.5 reached on Dec. 22. “We’re going to have a 10-15 percent correction at some time in 2018. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re down for the year,” Paulsen said. “If we get a correction and people get scared I’ll probably be buying again.” Investors will keep a close watch on the on U.S. mid-term elections in 2018 because a Republican loss of control of the Senate or the House of Representatives could stall the party’s agenda. In 10 of the last 17 U.S. mid-term election years, equity price moves for the full year followed January’s direction, according to Jeff Hirsch, editor of the Stock Trader’s Almanac. Investor moods in January may depend on whether the U.S. Congress reaches an agreement to raise the country’s debt ceiling. Investors will also be hoping Congress can reach a 2018 budget pact by Jan. 19. These are just some of the worries traders are contending with. But the market has history against it. The S&P 500 rises on average 1.3 percent in the so-called Santa Clause rally - the period between Dec. 22 and Jan. 3 - according to Hirsch. This year, five days in, the S&P has risen just 0.1 percent. “The failure of stocks to rally during this time tends to precede bear markets or times when stocks could be purchased at lower prices later in the year,” Hirsch wrote in a blog post. Reporting by Sinead Carew; Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Leslie Adler'|'reuters.com'|'http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/companyNews'|'https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-stocks-weekahead/rpt-wall-st-week-ahead-wall-street-eyes-2018-gains-with-a-side-of-caution-idUSL1N1OS1KB'|'2017-12-31T14:02:00.000+02:00'