Bloomberg Barclays Plc has agreed to buy Kensington Mortgage Company Ltd, expanding the reach of its offering in Britain’s housing market. The lender’s UK unit will pay about £2.3 billion ($2.8 billion) for the specialist mortgage lender that is owned by Blackstone Inc. and Sixth Street, according to a statement. Kensington, which is based in Maidenhead, England, and has ...
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Goldman says signs are here of belt-tightening impact to profits
Bloomberg The first hints that consumer belt-tightening is passing through to corporate earnings are coming in, posing a bigger risk to US equities than stock-selling by American households, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. High inflation and declining asset prices have started to strain household finances, Goldman strategists led by David Kostin wrote. They cited the 0.3% drop in ...
Read More »Payments firm SumUp reaches $8.4b valuation
Bloomberg SumUp has achieved an 8 billion euro ($8.4 billion) valuation in its latest funding round, raising 590 million euros in a deal split between debt and equity in a bid to develop new products and gain clients. Bloomberg News first reported in January that SumUp was considering raising a fresh round of funding. People with knowledge of the ...
Read More »Credit Suisse may replace top lawyer
Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group is considering replacing its top lawyer Romeo Cerutti, as the troubled lender struggles to resolve legacy legal issues and focus on looming court battles, people familiar with the matter said. The Zurich-based lender is considering hiring former UBS Group AG general counsel Markus Diethelm, the people said. Diethelm is fresh from exiting as chief legal ...
Read More »Zimbabwe fines 12 banks
Bloomberg Zimbabwe penalised 12 banks for “financial indiscipline†that fueled inflation and undermined the currency, the Herald newspaper cited President Emmerson Mnangagwa as saying. The unidentified institutions have received unspecified “hefty penalties,†Mnangagwa told supporters of the ruling party after opening a gold-processing facility, according to the Harare-based paper. The central bank probed a total of 16 lenders suspected ...
Read More »TikTok turns on the money machine
Bloomberg Alyssa McKay used to work part-time at a frozen yogurt store in Portland, Oregon, making minimum wage to cover her college tuition. Now the 22-year-old earns more than $100,000 a year on the short-video platform TikTok. Brands like Coach, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video pay up to reach her 9 million followers, mostly teenage and pre-teen girls who ...
Read More »Instagram to test AI on faces to verify users are over 18
Bloomberg Instagram, under fire from safety advocates to keep children off the app and prevent teens from seeing harmful content, is testing new ways to verify users’ age. Among them: running users’ video selfies through an artificial intelligence (AI) that can determine if they are adults. The Meta Platforms Inc-owned app recently started requiring users to submit their birthdate ...
Read More »VW sticks to iconic Porsche IPO plan
Bloomberg Volkswagen AG is sticking to a plan to list its iconic Porsche sports-car maker later this year as Europe’s biggest carmaker looks to finance a costly shift toward electric vehicles. VW is going ahead with the initial public offering in the fourth quarter because the unit has proven resilient over the years to market disruptions including the recent ...
Read More »GM’s Cruise plots expansion after debuting robotaxi fares
Bloomberg General Motors Co’s Cruise LLC plans to expand its robotaxi business to all of San Francisco this year and move into other cities beginning in 2023, a growth push that comes on the heels of its first self-driving vehicle rides to carry paying customers. The company started charging fares for rides covering one-third of the city between 10 ...
Read More »Oil rallies after a reading on inflation expectations eased
Bloomberg Oil jumped after a reading on US consumer inflation expectations was revised lower, adding optimism to crude’s demand outlook. West Texas Intermediate traded above $108 a barrel, erasing much of this week’s loss. Friday’s rally comes as the University of Michigan’s final June reading of longer-term consumer inflation expectations settled back from an initially reported 14-year high, potentially reducing ...
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