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British nightmare for utilities goes from bad to worse

Bloomberg With or without Brexit, Britain is surely the toughest market for European utilities to make money in right now. After years and years of surging bills, disgruntled homeowners are abandoning the nation’s biggest energy suppliers at an alarming rate. In strikingly somber tones, utilities from Innogy SE to Centrica Plc have dished out bearish outlooks detailing their woes in ...

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Boeing 737 Max disasters clue came from space

Bloomberg The first concrete evidence of a possible link between two deadly Boeing 737 Max crashes came from space. A new satellite network capable of tracking planes in high fidelity across the globe captured the flight path of the Boeing Co. 737 Max that crashed March 10. The data was critical in persuading the US to join the rest of ...

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Mechanics to buy Rabobank’s US retail unit for $2.1 billion

Bloomberg Mechanics Bank agreed to buy much of Dutch lender Rabobank Group’s US operations for about $2.1 billion, bringing together two California lenders and extending the combined company’s reach throughout much of the state. Mechanics, based in Walnut Creek, California, is gaining Rabobank’s US retail, business-banking, commercial real estate, mortgage and wealth- management businesses, the companies said in a statement. ...

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Deutsche Bank rejects pressure to sweeten retention bonuses

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is rebuffing pressure from top performers to restructure retention bonuses after the awards tumbled in value last year and opened the way for more defections, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank told key staff in recent weeks it won’t make any changes to the program, which began in 2017, the people said, asking ...

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Swedbank laundering case grows as $10bn found in review

Bloomberg Sweden’s oldest bank may have handled considerably more in suspicious transactions tied to an Estonian money laundering scandal than first reported. Swedbank AB, which dominates financial markets in the Baltic region, allegedly let about 95 billion kronor ($10.2 billion) in questionable flows move through its accounts between 2007 and 2015, according to Sweden’s main television broadcaster, SVT, which cited ...

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Draghi’s salvo may avert policy u-turn

Bloomberg Mario Draghi’s latest stimulus salvo means his successor as European Central Bank chief may not be forced into the kind of monetary policy U-turn he once faced. The president, who began his eight-year term reversing course on a recent interest-rate increase by his predecessor, has set in place the conditions to keep the euro zone in easing mode until ...

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Credit Suisse targets $2bn wealth management profit

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is targeting 2 billion francs ($2 billion) in pretax profit for 2019 in its key wealth-manage-ment unit, seeking a fourth consecutive year of profit growth for the division, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Iqbal Khan, head of international wealth management, told staff at an internal company event last week that he’s aiming ...

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Steinhoff to dig deeper into $7.4 billion of dodgy deals

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV plans to dig deeper into the accounting misdeeds that brought the retailing giant to its knees as it seeks to get to the bottom of some $7.4 billion in fictitious or improper deals. A forensic probe by PwC found that a small group of former executives — with the help of others outside the company ...

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Debenhams warms to billionaire Ashley after he steps up bid

Bloomberg Debenhams Plc cracked open the door to billionaire Mike Ashley for the first time, saying it’s considering his bid to increase control over the UK retailer and install himself as chief executive officer. The billionaire’s Sports Direct International Plc offered a loan of 150 million pounds ($199 million) to the troubled department-store chain in a deal that would boost ...

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