Bloomberg India’s foot dragging on a China-championed Asia trade pact has increased the risk the deal gets diluted or delayed. A fear of being flooded by Chinese imports and an insistence on global mobility for its IT services workers is behind India reluctance to move forward. While Asia’s third-largest economy may eventually sign on to the Regional Comprehensive Economic ...
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Tax amnesty windfall brightens Indonesia’s S&P upgrade odds
Bloomberg After netting more than $10 billion in revenue from its tax amnesty program, Indonesia may be a step closer to winning a much-coveted investment grade from S&P Global Ratings. The nine-month amnesty drive, which ended on Friday, led citizens to declare 4,866 trillion rupiah ($365 billion) of assets hidden from tax authorities. The success may help Southeast Asia’s ...
Read More »Bankers push Canadian mortgage-bond revival
Bloomberg Banks are marketing what could be one of Canada’s first nonprime residential mortgage-backed securities deals since the global financial crisis. National Bank of Canada has held discussions with investors about a bond backed by a pool of residential mortgages just below prime-credit quality, Derek Norton, MCAP Corp.’s chief executive officer, said. The so-called alt-A mortgages are originated by ...
Read More »Trump closely watching troubled nuclear plants that Obama funded
Reuters As Southern Co. opens a review of its troubled nuclear reactors following a bankruptcy filing by contractor Westinghouse Electric Co., the Trump administration has 8.3 billion reasons to be worried. Southern is financing the reactors with $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees approved under President Barack Obama’s initiative to build the first new nuclear plants in the US ...
Read More »US petroleum exports climb to record as oil output grows
Bloomberg When it comes to petroleum, the US is the land of plenty. The year 2017 started off with a bang for American oil companies as total crude and petroleum products exports rose to a record 5.69 million barrels a day in January, government data show. A surplus of fuels means exports are available all the way down the ...
Read More »Madoff deals locked in safe at center of UK hedge-fund lawsuit
Bloomberg Principal Financial Group Inc. accused the managers of Liongate Capital Management LLP of hiding investments with Bernie Madoff while negotiating to sell half of their London hedge fund to Principal. Founders Randall Dillard and Jeff Holland, and Head of Research Benjamin Funk sold the stake in March 2013 without disclosing secret investments in the largest of several Madoff ...
Read More »Rollback of coal rules electrifies Wyoming workers
Bloomberg This hardscrabble Wyoming city of about 30,000 people proclaims itself the “Energy Capital of the Nation†on the mayor’s blue blazer and even the parking ticket payment boxes. Nearby are some of the world’s largest open-pit mines, where dump trucks the size of houses haul out more than 40 percent of the coal produced in the US. The ...
Read More »Pound set for quarterly gain yet Brexit blurs outlook
Bloomberg The pound headed for its first quarterly gain versus the dollar since mid-2015 as data showed the currency’s Brexit decline delivered a double boost for the UK economy. A bumper contribution from trade saw the nation’s gross domestic product grow an unrevised 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter, its fastest pace in a year, data showed. In the ...
Read More »MoneyGram deal threatened as lawmakers cite China risk
Bloomberg Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s latest US expansion plan is facing rising political obstacles. Two members of the House of Representatives urged the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US to conduct a “full and thorough†investigation of Ant Financial’s proposed acquisition of MoneyGram International Inc., a money-transfer service. “The proposal merits careful evaluation as it would provide Chinese ...
Read More »Rupee caps best Q1 since 1975 amid $12bn inflow
Bloomberg Foreign investors gorging on Indian stocks and bonds propelled the rupee to its best first-quarter performance since 1975. The currency, Asia’s best performer this month, has rallied 4.7 percent since December 31 as a thumping win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in state elections boosted bets for continuation of his government’s reform agenda, luring overseas funds. The ...
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