Bloomberg SunEdison Inc.is burning through its cash. The world’s biggest clean-power developer was expected to have about $1.2 billion at the start of the year, an amount that may drop to $270 million if a pending court case doesn’t go its way, according to an estimate by Patrick Jobin, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. The company spent billions ...
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AIG death-bet impairments climb, energy bond portfolio shrinks
Bloomberg American International Group Inc. suffered losses last year in investment portfolios tied to death-benefits bets and energy bonds. Impairments on so-called life settlements surged to $540 million in 2015 from $201 million a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing. The contracts involve insurance policies that are purchased on the secondary market; AIG pays premiums until the covered person ...
Read More »China removes top securities watchdog amid turmoil
Beijing / Bloomberg The head of China’s securities regulator has been removed from his post after last year’s $5 trillion stock-market bust, an unprecedented government rescue and a renewed crisis as plunging Chinese equities last month reverberated around the world. Xiao Gang, 57, a former head of Bank of China Ltd., had been chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission ...
Read More »6 Chinese ICBC bank officials held in Spain for US$44.5mn fraud
MADRID / AFP Six officials of Chinese megabank ICBC have been placed in detention by Spanish authorities on suspicion of laundering tens of millions of euros, judicial sources said. They were detained overnight and while three of them can be freed if they post bail of 100,000 euros ($111,000) each, the others will remain in custody for the time being, ...
Read More »Yen posts longest winning streak since Sept
New Delhi / AP The yen rose, posting its longest run of weekly gains since September, as investors look past signs of improvement in the US economy and instead channeled their cash into haven assets. Japan’s currency strengthened against all its 16 major peers even after a U.S. report showed inflation rose the most in more than four years last ...
Read More »India to spend $580mn to develop first 20 ‘Smart Cities’
New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s government will provide 40 billion rupees ($580 million) to upgrade the infrastructure of the first 20 cities selected under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s smart cities program, according to a statement from the Ministry of Urban Development on Saturday. Six cities — Jabalpur, Indore and Bhopal in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, and Jaipur and ...
Read More »No plans to call snap poll or delay tax hike: Abe
Tokyo / Bloomberg Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he’s not considering a snap general election this summer to coincide with a scheduled upper house poll, and that he has no intention of delaying a planned increase in the nation’s consumption tax. Speaking in an interview on Nippon Hoso radio, Abe said he would raise the levy to 10 ...
Read More »JLL launches trends report for KSA realty market
RIYADH / Bloomberg JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, has released its inaugural ‘2016 Top Trends for KSA Real Estate’. Modelled on similar JLL reports in other markets, the KSA Top Trends will be an annual report which will assess and forecast the major trends which are likely to impact and shape the KSA real estate ...
Read More »WTC project cost to be at lower end of estimate
NEW YORK / Bloomberg The total cost of the World Trade Center rebuilding project will come in at the lower end of the $14.8 billion to $15.8 billion range projected four years ago, a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official said. The cost estimate was contained in a 2012 report commissioned by the agency’s board as it ...
Read More »China’s MoF cuts taxes on home transactions to help realty prices
London / Bloomberg China’s Ministry of Finance said it will cut taxes on home transactions as it steps up support for the property market, after the central government eased mortgage down payment requirements to the lowest level ever earlier this month. China will set the deed tax at 1.5 percent of the home’s value for first residences bigger than 90 ...
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