Bloomberg Just as Prime Minister Theresa May is closing in on a Brexit deal, the march of companies quitting Britain is getting louder. On one day alone, CME Group Inc. said it’s moving its $240 billion-a-day short-term financing market to Amsterdam from London in another blow for the City, while German ball bearings maker Schaeffler AG announced the closing of ...
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France’s referendum lesson for Brexit Britain
A second referendum on Brexit is portrayed as an attack on democracy by ardent Leavers, and has been outright rejected by the UK government. While a growing chorus of businesses and voters like the idea, some politicians say it would be divisive, unhelpful and akin to telling Brits that they got it wrong first time. Yet over the weekend, a ...
Read More »SBI still cheers after eight misfires
State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Rajnish Kumar wants to assure investors he’s in complete control of the ‘demon’ of soured loans. Not so fast, Aladdin. The bank’s first quarterly profit in 12 months is no doubt an encouraging sign, though net income of $129 million on a $284 billion loan book is hardly worth celebrating. Besides, it’s premature for ...
Read More »Singapore lenders’ good times have come and gone
Very little went wrong for DBS Group Holdings Ltd. last quarter. Singapore’s biggest bank, the last to report earnings, posted a 76 percent jump in net income. Net interest margins widened 13 basis points and credit costs were 71 percent lower than a year earlier. Investment banking wobbled, but trading income surged to compensate. The joys of being a bank ...
Read More »A new direction for China’s Belt and Road
“To get rich, first build a road†is one of those Chinese proverbs that tends to impress foreigners — evoking, as it does, a combination of farsightedness and concern for practicalities. As China is discovering with its globe-spanning Belt and Road project, though, the world doesn’t always play along. The initiative has run into trouble, and its success now depends ...
Read More »A $6 trillion barrier holds electric cars back again
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all drive without dirtying the air we breathe? Alas, not everyone can afford an electric car. The good news is the death of the internal combustion engine is nearing and electric-vehicle sales are on a tear. Countries that together account for more than 10 percent of global auto sales have detailed plans to ...
Read More »Ride-hailing rivalry gears up in Indonesia
A ride-hailing rivalry is gearing up in Southeast Asia. With a fresh $2 billion war chest, Singapore-based GrabTaxi Holdings Pte is doubling down on its expansion into Indonesia. Meanwhile, Go-Jek Indonesia PT is tiptoeing into its main competitor’s home turf, and making a foray into Vietnam’s buzzing cities. Jockeying for success probably comes naturally to the companies’ founders, who were ...
Read More »Apple used to be an inventor. Now it’s a landlord
For years, analysts and journalists watching Apple Inc. have talked up the growing importance of services, as opposed to hardware sales, to the company’s top line. But it’s only now that Apple’s business model truly appears to be shifting towards collecting rent from the company’s ecosystem and increasingly relying on gadget sales to perpetuate this rent rather than drive growth. ...
Read More »Danske chairman forced out amid botched crisis response
Bloomberg The main shareholder in Danske Bank A/S just made clear it won’t stand by and watch the chairman muddle through the lender’s biggest crisis in a century. As Danske finds itself at the center of one of Europe’s worst ever money laundering scandals, A.P. Moller Holding A/S used its roughly 20 percent stake in the bank to force Chairman ...
Read More »China’s central bank raises $2.9bn in bill sale in Hong Kong
Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China sold 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) of bills in its first issuance in Hong Kong on Wednesday, a move that could reduce the offshore yuan’s liquidity and support the Chinese currency. PBOC sold 10 billion yuan of three-month bills at 3.79 percent, according to a statement on the central bank’s website. It issued 10 ...
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