A period of tranquility in Asian central banking appears to be ending, and that’s not a bad thing. India and Indonesia are probably done cutting interest rates. Their next steps are likely to be hikes, with the Philippines following suit. While these nations’ central banks are minnows relative to the Bank of Japan and People’s Bank of China, their rate ...

Facebook Inc. is trouble. It’s in trouble, too, with politicians in multiple countries now sniffing into its lackadaisical approach towards protecting user privacy and investors knocking $95 billion (about 18 percent) off its market capitalization in the past week and a half. But the company also just seems congenitally inclined to push things too far, to treat its users again ...

When the sole dissenter on a stock that has 50 buy recommendations ratchets up his bearish call with a ‘buyer beware’ warning on the whole industry, you sit up. When the stock in question is ICICI Bank Ltd, which had to downsize an initial share sale of its securities business (ICICI Securities Ltd) amid lacklustre demand, you take notice. Among ...

As if the health-care-merger frenzy weren’t wild enough already, it looks as if Walmart Inc. may soon dive into it. The mammoth discount retailer is reportedly in early-stage talks to acquire Humana Inc., a health insurer valued at $41. The potential merger comes on the heels of a December offer from drug-store chain and pharmacy-benefits manager CVS Health Corp. to ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is preparing to reshuffle its supervisory board as the future of Chief Executive Officer John Cryan and Chairman Paul Achleitner is called into question. John Thain, a former CEO of Merrill Lynch, is expected to join the troubled German bank in May, according to a person with knowledge of the lender’s plans. He is one of ...

Bloomberg Volatility may be here to stay — but there’s a lot investors can do to prepare for it. “Hedges against late cycle volatility bursts in credit, dispersion and cross-asset volatility as the equity/bond correlation itself becomes more volatile” are one key theme in Societe Generale SA’s second-quarter outlook from strategists led by Kokou Agbo-Bloua, the firm’s head of flow ...

Bloomberg Unity Bank Plc, a Nigerian lender, denied entering a binding agreement with private-equity firm Milost Global Inc. over a potential $1 billion investment, saying talks were only preliminary and didn’t come with any commitments. New York-based Milost this week said it terminated talks to provide debt and equity funding to Unity, saying it received threats that it will be ...

Bloomberg Bulgaria, which is seeking to cement its path to euro adoption this year, said it has no plans to join Europe’s banking union before switching to the common currency. The Balkan nation wants to join the exchange-rate mechanism — the waiting room for euro adoption — this summer. While becoming a member of the union before entering the euro ...

Bloomberg Bostjan Jazbec, a member of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, will step down as the head of Slovenia’s monetary authority April 30, opening the way for a new government to choose his replacement after elections this summer. Jazbec will become a member of the Single Resolution Board, the European Union body responsible for the orderly winding down of ...

Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is buying full control of the startup Ele.me as it steps up efforts to expand in China’s fast-growing market for local delivery of food and other services. The deal implies an enterprise valuation of $9.5 billion for Ele.me, Alibaba said in a statement, without saying how much it’s paying. Alibaba and affiliate Ant Small and ...