Bloomberg Hennes & Mauritz AB has abandoned a plan to try to get shareholders to reinvest their dividends in new stock. The Swedish fashion retailer said that the project proved too difficult, after the company encountered technical issues and ran up against time constraints. An “investigation†into the plan showed it wasn’t really feasible, H&M said. Shares initially jumped on ...
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Dubai strong on Emaar Malls, Aramex earnings
DUBAI / Reuters Dubai’s stock market rose in early trade on Tuesday after Emaar Malls and Aramex reported strong earnings, but most of the Gulf was quiet, gaining little momentum from the rise of Wall Street and other global markets. The Dubai index added 1.0 percent as Emaar Malls , the emirate’s flagship mall operator, rose 3.1 percent after reporting ...
Read More »Rebound in global equity may lift Gulf markets
DUBAI / Reuters A rebound in global equity markets may lift stock markets in the Gulf on Tuesday. Wall Street’s three main indexes surged well over 1 percent on Monday, and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan is up 1.2 percent on Tuesday morning. Brent oil has not recovered much, however, standing at $62.95 per barrel. In Egypt, ...
Read More »Hong Kong banks seen locking mortgage rates to lure customers
Bloomberg Hong Kong’s biggest banks are increasingly locking mortgage rates to lure customers from upstart rivals in the world’s least affordable housing market, where borrowing costs are soon expected to rise. HSBC Holdings Plc and BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd. are offering fixed rates of 1.68 percent for the first year of a new mortgage, lower than the 2.15 percent ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank sanctioned for misleading buyers on bond sales
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay about $4.5 million to settle a US regulator’s allegations that it misled clients about how much bonds backed by commercial mortgages were worth, earning the lender bigger profits than it should have made. Salespeople in its Deutsche Bank Securities unit induced customers to pay higher prices for bonds by misrepresenting how much the ...
Read More »BOE officials say rate rising soon
Bloomberg Bank of England policy makers are uniting behind the key message of the Inflation Report, telling investors that interest-rate increases will come quicker than officials previously expected. Ian McCafferty, seen as one of the most hawkish members of the rate-setting panel, reiterated that on LBC Radio, saying it’s likely borrowing costs will rise earlier, and to a greater extent, ...
Read More »Credit Suisse ‘posts’ trading losses, lower capital buffer
Bloomberg In his first two years running Credit Suisse Group AG, Tidjane Thiam has been putting out fires. Today there’s still smoke. The Swiss lender is expected to report a third straight annual loss, mainly due to a 2.3 billion-franc ($2.45 billion) writedown related to a change in US tax policy at the end of last year. Even without that ...
Read More »Demographics pose biggest challenge for Asia’s central banks
Bloomberg Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda says it’s the most significant challenge facing his economy. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol says it’ll be tougher to manage than record levels of household debt or future Federal Reserve interest-rate increases. The issue perplexing Asia’s central bankers: demographics. And making matters worse is the realisation there’s very little they can do ...
Read More »Tycoons team up for $6.7 billion upgrade of aging Manila airport
Bloomberg Seven Philippine conglomerates, including those led by billionaires John Gokongwei and Lucio Tan, submitted a proposal to modernise and expand the capital’s 70-year-old airport in a plan that will potentially triple capacity and help ease congestion. Ventures of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., Ayala Corp., LT Group Inc. along with Alliance Global Group Inc., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings ...
Read More »Greece’s Aegean Air to sign $5.5bn jet deal
Bloomberg Aegean Airlines, the former island-hopper that’s expanded to replace defunct Greek flag-carrier Olympic Air, plans to order at least 50 new single-aisle jetliners in the next three or four weeks. Aegean, which has already doubled its fleet since 2013, will choose between the latest Airbus SE A320neo and Boeing Co. 737 Max narrow-body models, Chief Executive Officer Dimitrios Gerogiannis ...
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