RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia has hired HSBC as financial advisor for its plans to privatise construction and management of school buildings, as it seeks to cut state spending in an era of low oil prices, a Saudi executive said on Tuesday. Tatweer Buildings Co, a state-owned firm affiliated with the Ministry of Education, aims to begin offering public-private …

  Bloomberg The appetite for Australian banks to fund in the local bond market shows little sign of abating, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia selling A$2.65 billion ($1.95 billion) of notes less than two weeks into the new year. The deal is the earliest benchmark-sized local transaction from one of the country’s four largest banks since 2009 and follows a …

  Singen / DPA Visit Alexander Fluegler at his house in Germany and you can’t help noticing one thing straight away — family and his Yenish ethnicity are vital to him. The walls of his home office are covered in photographs; Fluegler with his wife, Fluegler with his children, Fluegler with relatives, friends, elderly people, and young people. All beam …