Bloomberg China’s latest attempts at reforming the country’s extensive pipeline network are aimed at lowering prices for end users and boosting gas demand, analysts said Wednesday after the country released draft guidelines. The National Development and Reform Commission proposed setting gas transmission fees for companies rather than for individual pipelines, the country’s top economic planner said in the policy ...

  AFP Philippine food giant Universal Robina Corp said Wednesday it would buy Snack Brands Australia for US$460 million, the latest big deal in a global shopping spree by Filipino firms reflecting the nation’s economic rise. URC said it had sealed an agreement to buy the Australian company — maker of popular local brands including Kettles, Thins, CC’s and Cheezels ...

  Bloomberg ABN Amro Group NV jumped the most in almost six months after second-quarter profit beat estimates and Chief Executive Officer Gerrit Zalm announced plans to cut costs by about 200 million euros ($225 million). Underlying net income climbed 10 percent to 662 million euros from a year earlier, the Amsterdam-based bank said in a statement on Wednesday. That ...

  BLoomberg Citigroup Inc. hired Gavin Michael from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to oversee technology for its consumer bank. Michael replaces Mark Torkos, who retired in July, New York-based Citigroup said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. He starts Nov. 14 and will report to Stephen Bird, chief executive officer of the global consumer bank, according to the statement. Michael, who ...

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. hired Ryota Sakagami from SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. as its chief Japan equity strategist, filling a position left vacant since Jesper Koll left the U.S. bank last year. Sakagami joined JPMorgan in Tokyo on Wednesday, the brokerage said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. He was ranked first among strategists in the country from ...

  Bloomberg David Findlay, chief executive officer of Nomura Holdings Inc.’s Americas business, received his full compensation for last year as investment bankers took deep cuts, causing frustration and anger across the struggling unit, people familiar with the matter said. Findlay, who has run the New York-based business since 2012, got a guaranteed $5 million package, while dealmakers and advisers ...

  AFP Customers at Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest, will not be charged negative interest rates on their savings, a senior executive said on Wednesday. “That won’t happen with us,” private banking chief Christian Sewing told Bild daily. Banks across Europe are feeling the pinch of a -0.4 percent rate on their deposits with the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB ...

  Bloomberg Mizuho Financial Group Inc. formed an alliance with Malayan Banking Bhd. on stock research and trading in Southeast Asia, as the Japanese lender complements an equities hiring push with partnerships. Maybank Kim Eng, the investment-banking arm of Malaysia’s largest bank, will provide Japanese institutional clients of Mizuho Securities Co. with research on companies in Southeast Asia as well ...

  Bloomberg Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. reported first-half profit that missed analysts’ estimates as losses from jet-fuel hedges mounted and competition with Chinese carriers cut passenger yields. The shares dropped the most in a year. Net income in the six months through June fell 82 percent to HK$353 million ($45.5 million), Asia’s biggest international airline said on Wednesday. That fell ...

  Bloomberg European grocery sales rose the least on record in the second quarter amid a U.K. price war and sluggish consumption in Germany and France, a study showed. The amount spent on household goods increased by 0.8 percent from a year earlier, researcher Nielsen said in a report on Wednesday. That’s about half the growth achieved in the first ...