Bloomberg General Atlantic LLC, the US private equity firm that already invested more than 1 billion reais ($318 million) in Brazil this year, plans to keep buying stakes in companies that “are not cheap” even amid the country’s worst economic crisis in a century. General Atlantic is among the few international buyout funds daring to buy Brazilian firms amid …

  Melbourne / Bloomberg National Australia Bank (NAB) Ltd.’s third-quarter profit fell 3 percent amid rising expenses for bad debts and provisions for mining and agricultural loans, rounding off the most challenging reporting season for the nation’s lenders in six years. Unaudited cash profit from continuing operations, which excludes one-time items, declined to A$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) in the three …

  Tokyo / Bloomberg The Bank of Japan’s controversial march to the top of shareholder rankings in the world’s third-largest equity market is picking up pace. Already a top-five owner of 81 companies in Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average, the BOJ is on course to become the No. 1 shareholder in 55 of those firms by the end of next …