Bloomberg UniCredit SpA’s Jean Pierre Mustier pulled out of the race to become chief executive officer of HSBC Holdings Plc, a rejection that adds to uncertainty at the top of Europe’s largest lender and extends the search for a new boss into its seventh month. Mustier, who led a turnaround at the Milan-based bank over the last four years, plans ...

Bloomberg China’s banking regulator is considering setting up new regional bad-debt managers to help clean up risks after the failure of thousands of peer-to-peer lending platforms, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Companies in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Shenzhen have submitted applications to set up local asset managers dealing with bad loans, especially those from online lending platforms, said ...

Bloomberg China’s overall credit growth surged in January, before the extended Lunar New Year holiday due to the coronavirus outbreak curtailed economic activity across much of the country. Aggregate financing increased 5.07 trillion yuan ($723 billion) last month, the highest since the current data series started in 2017. The median estimate was 4.2 trillion yuan. The stock of outstanding aggregate ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co engineers discovered in 2017 that a software glitch had rendered a warning light on the newly introduced 737 Max inoperable on 80% of the planes. But the company chose not to fix it or to inform US regulators. The next year, a Lion Air jet suffered the malfunction the alert was designed to detect and crashed in ...

Bloomberg An interim report into the deadly Boeing Co 737 Max crash in Ethiopia that led to the grounding of the US company’s top-selling model is set to be released in time for the first anniversary of the tragedy. The report will be published by March 10, Ethiopian Transport Ministry spokesman Musie Yehyies told Bloomberg. The decision not to release ...

Bloomberg The airline industry expects the first annual decline in global passenger demand in 11 years, after tallying up the initial impact of the thousands of flights cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak in China. The estimate shaves about 4.7 percentage points off of a passenger-traffic forecast issued just two months ago, with almost all of the impact in the ...

Bloomberg PepsiCo Inc plans to buy online snacks company Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co — known as Be & Cheery — for $705 million from Haoxiangni Health Food Co as the maker of Doritos and Lay’s potato chips expands in China. Be & Cheery’s products includes nuts, dried fruits, meat snacks, baked goods and confectionery items that are sold mainly online ...

Bloomberg The owner of the Primark budget fashion chain warned that any prolonged manufacturing delays at its factories in China due to the coronavirus could cause supply shortages on certain lines later this year. Associated British Foods Plc has built up inventories and is “well stocked for cover for several months,” according to a statement, which said the virus could ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE’s overall real gross domestic product (GDP), is estimated to have grown by 2.9 percent in 2019, the central bank of the UAE revealed. According to the central bank’s quarterly review report’ for Q4 of 2019, this rise in GDP was driven by the growth in the non-hydrocarbon sector, estimated at 1.1 percent, as well ...

DUBAI / WAM The United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia strengthen their economic partnership to enhance the trade, diversify and create opportunities for the businesses and people in both the countries. Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI), the UAE Federal export credit company has partnered with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), for financing and providing credit insurance to ...