Swathes of shuttered stores. Customers slamming their wallets shut. Amazon.com Inc lurking in the background. It doesn’t look like the ideal time for a retailer to go public. But that’s what TheWorks.co.uk Plc is planning to do. It’s a brave decision given the crisis engulfing bricks-and-mortar retailers, but TheWorks is right to press ahead. That’s because the company, which was ...

Xiaomi Corp has caught a lot of breaks from Hong Kong and its stock exchange. China isn’t playing ball. Yet. The Hong Kong-Xiaomi relationship is crucial, and symbiotic. For one, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd ended a ban on dual-class listings that allowed founder Lei Jun to keep control of the smartphone maker and have his IPO too. It ...

That was the high point? We’ve probably seen the best of global growth for this cycle, but the peak wasn’t marked by the traditional catalysts for a slowdown like higher interest rates or a financial blowup. Instead it’s a different scene in each of the biggest economies — with the US powering ahead, Europe and Japan drifting after a stellar ...

You have to give one thing to Facebook Inc: Confronted by a torrent of accusations of misbehaviour over the past 12 months, the world’s largest social network has at least made the effort to be conciliatory. The same cannot be said about Alphabet Inc’s Google. The European Commission will reveal the punishment for the search giant’s practice of forcing smartphone-makers ...

Slowing car sales and tightening credit look like a toxic combination for China’s auto-financing industry, which has exploded in past few years. Concerns the sector is heading for a subprime-like meltdown may be overblown, though. Sales in the world’s largest car market rose 2.3 percent in June from a year earlier, data showed last week. While faster than several analysts ...

The French state has, at times, been as close to a nanny state as it gets. But that doesn’t mean France lacks a thriving charity and non-governmental sector. On the contrary, France’s charity sector is massive, with some 1.3 million estimated non-profit groups. They spend close to 3.4 percent of French GDP, and employ close to 2 million people, with ...

Bloomberg The biggest Nordic banks expect to launch a new piece of financial infrastructure next year, promising to dramatically speed up international transfers in one of the world’s most technologically advanced regions. The aim is to make it possible to clear payments and settle accounts within seconds, regardless of currency. The P27 project — so-called for the 27 million people ...

Bloomberg After US moves on global trade policy that have shredded decades of trust, watch out for deals to be struck before the midterm elections in November, Citigroup Inc. said, flagging a potential rebound in commodity prices towards the year-end that’s aided by still-robust fundamentals. “US trade actions have been brutal and unilateral and have punctured the trust built up ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG surprised investors with second-quarter earnings that were higher than analysts had expected, driving one of Europe’s worst-performing bank stocks up the most in more than a year. The Frankfurt-based bank sees net income of about 400 million euros ($468 million) and income before income taxes of about 700 million euros, “considerably” above estimates. The preliminary results ...

Bloomberg BlackRock Inc. and Schroders Plc are the frontrunners to oversee about 109 billion pounds ($144 billion) for Lloyds Banking Group Plc, one of the biggest mandates of its kind, people with the knowledge of the process said. A decision by the London-based bank is expected in the third quarter, said the people who asked not to be identified because ...