Bloomberg With just a month left to go, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz has all but clinched another year of luxury dominance in the US market. Mercedes eked out a 1.6 percent monthly sales gain in November on strong demand for its GLC sport utility vehicle. BMW AG, which boosted deliveries 7.1 percent last month on the strength of its X5 SUV ...
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Car dealers dodge retail doomsday as Black Friday buoys sales
Bloomberg There’s an exception to the rule that Black Friday deals don’t drive traffic to brick-and-mortar stores anymore: car dealerships. Honda Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. reported bigger US sales gains than expected for in November as big rebates and cut-rate financing offers lured buyers into showrooms. While total deliveries dropped for General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles ...
Read More »SoftBank to seek Uber Tech stock at $48 billion valuation
Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. and a group of investors are trying to buy a stake in Uber Technologies Inc. at a sizable discount to the company’s $69 billion valuation, seeking to clinch what would be one of the largest purchases of stock in a private company. SoftBank and partners including investment firms Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic are offering ...
Read More »Gaw, Goldman to buy HK malls for $3.2bn
Bloomberg Gaw Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are part of a consortium buying a portfolio of shopping malls in Hong Kong from Link Real Estate Investment Trust for HK$20 billion to HK$25 billion ($2.6 billion to $3.2 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. Gaw will be the largest investor in the deal, while Goldman Sachs will ...
Read More »$23bn fund sees more gains in costly Indian developers
Bloomberg Property developers’ shares have beaten every industry group in India this year, drawing criticism from some analysts who say the gains are overdone. V. Srivatsa, a fund manager at the $23 billion UTI Asset Management Co., sees it differently. There’s more juice left in real-estate stocks as steps taken by the government to aid the industry that was one ...
Read More »Singapore loses home advantage to Hong Kong
Bloomberg Hong Kong is eroding Singapore’s home advantage. Fourteen companies based in the Southeast Asian city have chosen to list on their home stock market this year, compared with 13 on the bourse operated by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the biggest Singapore contingent in the North Asian city in at least ...
Read More »Brexit delays Unilever’s HQ  decision on UK or Netherlands
Bloomberg Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods giant Unilever wants to consolidate its headquarters in the UK or the Netherlands, but Brexit is making it harder to choose. The maker of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Dove soap said in a statement that a review of the dual structure is “progressing well,†after CEO Paul Polman told the Financial Times he would advocate ...
Read More »French online doctor startup raises $42 million
Bloomberg Doctor-appointment booking startup Doctolib SAS has raised 35 million euros ($42 million) in new funding as it seeks to become the biggest provider of scheduling software to health-care professionals in Europe. Doctolib, which raised 26 million euros in January, is now valued over $200 million, according to a person close to the fund raising. Eurazeo SA, an investment firm ...
Read More »Mercedes plans more drone deliveries
Bloomberg Mercedes-Benz, conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items like ground coffee and cellphones, said the mini aircraft completed 100 drop-offs to strategically placed vans in Zurich with a perfect safety record and more deliveries are planned for next year. About 50 individual customers placed orders with Swiss online shopping platform Siroop, choosing “airmail deals†from selected ...
Read More »Fiat Chrysler rejects French diesel test-manipulation claims
Bloomberg Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV denied a report that the carmaker could be fined for manipulating French diesel-emissions tests, saying the allegations have no basis and that its vehicles comply with the law. The Italian company hasn’t been charged with any offense and is cooperating with French authorities, Fiat Chrysler said in an emailed statement. French newspaper Le Monde reported ...
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