Bloomberg BE Group, an investment firm fronted by former bankers, has made a fresh attempt at a takeover of Belgium’s biggest insurer Ageas, people familiar with the matter said. The consortium recently approached Ageas and has been trying to secure financing for a potential deal, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Shares in Ageas ...

  Bloomberg Google parent Alphabet Inc. said it will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce, becoming the latest tech giant to retrench after years of abundant growth and hiring. The cuts will affect jobs globally and across the entire company, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told employees in an email on Friday, writing that he ...

Bloomberg Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said his government hasn’t made a decision yet on supplying its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine but that it could move quickly if an agreement can be reached with Nato allies. Speaking to reporters after talks at the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, Friday, Pistorius said that defense ministers and military officials had ...

  Bloomberg France will increase its defense budget over six years as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to adjust the nation’s military to new threats posed by the war in Ukraine and technological attacks. In a speech Friday, Macron said he expects the state to spend 400 billion euros ($433 billion) between 2024 and 2030, an increase from the 295 billion ...

  Bloomberg The US signaled growing impatience with Turkey over its resistance to ratifying Nato’s expansion to Sweden and Finland. “The United States urges remaining allies to quickly ratify their accession,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in an account of a call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. He used similar language in ...

  Bloomberg Over the past few years, Vietnamese Communist Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong has won praise from investors for removing corrupt officials. Now as some big names fall, it’s becoming clear his campaign serves another purpose: strengthening his hand in choosing a successor. This week Nguyen Xuan Phuc was ousted as president after assuming “political responsibility” for the “violations ...

  Bloomberg Europe mustn’t get embroiled in a standoff between China and the US, and should instead forge its own path in strengthening economic relations, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. There is a “slight gap” between how Europe and the US deal with China, he told Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua at the World Economic Forum in Davos. It’s ...

  Bloomberg The best start to a year for bond returns is helping fuel an unprecedented debt-sale bonanza by governments and companies around the world of more than half a trillion dollars. From European banks to Asian corporates and developing-nation sovereigns, virtually every corner of the new issue market is booming, thanks in part to a rally that’s seen global ...

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG is recommending investors to buy European credit over US debt amid signs of distress in the US loan markets, cracks emerging in private credit and a potentially severe downside risk in US high-yield debt. “We acknowledge US high yield is better positioned — mainly on the shift in credit quality,” UBS analysts led by Matthew ...

  Bloomberg Two Southeast Asian central banks diverged in their policy settings on Thursday, with Malaysia unexpectedly standing pat and Indonesia delivering a widely expected interest-rate increase that brings it closer to the end of its tightening cycle. Bank Indonesia raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 5.75%, while Bank Negara Malaysia stood pat as predicted by Euben ...