Bloomberg The investment firm for one of the world’s biggest retail fortunes is boosting its private equity bets after stepping back from public markets. David Sainsbury, whose great-grandfather founded supermarket chain J Sainsbury Plc, plans to put as much as 253 million pounds ($337 million) into private equity funds through his family office, Innotech Advisers, according to a UK registry …

Bloomberg An unstoppable ascent in the renminbi is signalling Beijing’s growing ease with gradually freeing up one of the world’s most tightly-managed currencies. Since the renminbi hit a six-year high on a trade-weighted basis on November 17, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has set the currency’s daily reference rate at only mildly weaker-than-expected levels. The central bank also has …

Bloomberg A gauge of short-term funding costs in the euro area tumbled to a record low amid a cash glut that has exacerbated the hunt for collateral before the year-end. Three-month Euribor — a benchmark based on the average rate that large banks in the region can theoretically borrow from one another — falls by 1.1 basis points, the most …