Bloomberg LVMH has offered $14.5 billion for jeweller Tiffany & Co in a bid that could result in Chairman Bernard Arnault’s biggest ever takeover and expand the Louis Vuitton owner’s reach into the US. Tiffany said it received an unsolicited $120-a-share proposal from the luxury giant, after the French company confirmed a Bloomberg report that it was considering a bid. ...

It’s heretical to say so, but Russia has earned its current success in the Middle East. It’s using the same mix of military and diplomatic tools that made the United States dominant in the region for so many decades. America didn’t lose this battle for influence; it surrendered. President Trump’s efforts to dress up his retreat from Syria as a ...

In March 2017, as the UK prepared to notify the European Union of its intention to leave, the French newspaper Liberation splashed a picture of a traditional British Queen’s Guard on its front page with the headline: “Brexit: We already miss you!” Just below was the qualifier: “Or not.” That pretty much sums up France’s attitude towards Brexit Britain. It’s ...

Bernard Arnault knows you don’t get trophy assets at bargain prices. His luxury goods company LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE will probably have to pay top dollar to win over shareholders in Tiffany & Co. after making a $14.5 billion proposal to buy the US jeweleler. If a deal happens, LVMH investors will need to put faith in Arnault’s ...

HSBC Holdings Plc will need more than a nip and a tuck if it’s to ease Chairman Mark Tucker’s envy of his JPMorgan Chase & Co. counterpart Jamie Dimon. Tucker told managers recently that more than 30% of HSBC’s capital was generating returns of less than 1% and singled out the American bank as a template to emulate. At roughly ...

Heading into the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision this week, the consensus is that the central bank will cut its lending benchmark for the third time in as many meetings. But, unlike the past two, there’s belief that Chair Jerome Powell will strongly suggest a timeout on monetary easing this time around. Perhaps the strongest case for this conviction is the ...

SoftBank Group Corp.’s $9.5 billion bailout has rescued WeWork from the threat of bankruptcy. But make no mistake: The unicorn’s free-spending days are over. Its saviour is far from a bottomless pit of money. While WeWork had an eye-watering $22bn of debt at the end of June plus $47bn of looming lease-payment obligations, its rescuer, Softbank, isn’t in such great ...

The world’s most important gold market isn’t what it used to be. Just a decade ago, India’s hunger for gold jewellery and bullion meant it accounted for about a quarter of global demand. Consumption has since fallen by about 24%. Carat and Stick Part of this is a reaction to short-term pricing factors. Buyers tend to stay away when the ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co’s new Manhattan headquarters is meant to be an ode to the both company and the city — a monumental glass-and-steel tower that says the nation’s largest bank grew up here. But New York may be losing its luster. Despite more than two centuries of history in a city synonymous with the global financial industry, JPMorgan ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc embarked on its biggest overhaul in years after profit missed estimates, warning that it will pare back underperforming operations in the face of slowing economic growth and geopolitical uncertainty. The bank, which makes almost 90% of its profit in Asia and employs 240,000 people, walked away from a key profitability target and said write-offs are likely ...