Bloomberg In his first two years running Credit Suisse Group AG, Tidjane Thiam has been putting out fires. Today there’s still smoke. The Swiss lender is expected to report a third straight annual loss, mainly due to a 2.3 billion-franc ($2.45 billion) writedown related to a change in US tax policy at the end of last year. Even without that ...
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Demographics pose biggest challenge for Asia’s central banks
Bloomberg Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda says it’s the most significant challenge facing his economy. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol says it’ll be tougher to manage than record levels of household debt or future Federal Reserve interest-rate increases. The issue perplexing Asia’s central bankers: demographics. And making matters worse is the realisation there’s very little they can do ...
Read More »Tycoons team up for $6.7 billion upgrade of aging Manila airport
Bloomberg Seven Philippine conglomerates, including those led by billionaires John Gokongwei and Lucio Tan, submitted a proposal to modernise and expand the capital’s 70-year-old airport in a plan that will potentially triple capacity and help ease congestion. Ventures of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., Ayala Corp., LT Group Inc. along with Alliance Global Group Inc., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings ...
Read More »Greece’s Aegean Air to sign $5.5bn jet deal
Bloomberg Aegean Airlines, the former island-hopper that’s expanded to replace defunct Greek flag-carrier Olympic Air, plans to order at least 50 new single-aisle jetliners in the next three or four weeks. Aegean, which has already doubled its fleet since 2013, will choose between the latest Airbus SE A320neo and Boeing Co. 737 Max narrow-body models, Chief Executive Officer Dimitrios Gerogiannis ...
Read More »Gucci overtakes Hermes on designer Michele’s revamp
Bloomberg Gucci surged past rival Hermes in sales as shoppers snapped up more of designer Alessandro Michele’s crystal- and sequin-coated creations over the holidays. The Italian fashion label closed out the year with another quarter of runaway growth, with comparable sales rising 43 percent, parent Kering SA said in a statement on Tuesday. Its revenue of 6.2 billion euros ($7.6 ...
Read More »Southwest Air’s de-icing stumble was third in 2 months
Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co.’s cancellation of 250 flights at Midway Airport Feb 11 was the third time in two months that a shortage of de-icing fluid has complicated the carrier’s Chicago operations. Heavy snows forced Southwest to use much more than the normal amount of glycol to remove ice and snow from planes that parked at the airport overnight, eating ...
Read More »PepsiCo leans more heavily on snacks as beverages fizzle
Bloomberg PepsiCo Inc.’s snacks are having to pick up more of the slack for its ailing beverages. The company posted sales and earnings that topped analysts’ estimates last quarter, helped by an uptick in volume at its Frito Lay business in North America. The snack growth helped offset continued declines at the Purchase, New York-based company’s drinks business. Still, a ...
Read More »Emaar Malls Q4 profit up 27%
DUBAI / WAM Emaar Malls, the shopping malls and retail business majority-owned by Emaar Properties PJSC, recorded a net profit of AED2.080 billion ($566 million) in 2017, 11 percent higher than the net profit of AED1.874 billion ($510 million) during 2016. Revenue for full-year 2017 was AED3.629 billion ($988 million), a growth of 12 percent over 2016 revenue of AED3.227 ...
Read More »Strong global economy to drive oil demand in 2018
LONDON / Reuters OPEC said on Monday world oil demand would grow faster than expected in 2018 because of a healthy world economy, adding a tailwind to the producer group’s effort to remove a supply glut by cutting output. But the global market will return to balance only towards the end of 2018, no earlier than previously thought, as higher ...
Read More »Adnoc’s unit to produce 40k bpd of oil by 2020
ABU DHABI / WAM The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has announced a significant milestone for one of its youngest operating companies, Al Dhafra Petroleum, with a major capital investment to establish facilities and enable oil production from Haliba field, located along the south-east border of Abu Dhabi. Adnoc’s plans to start production from Haliba with an initial capacity ...
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