Bloomberg Analysts at Citigroup Inc and Berenberg poured cold water on Edward Bramson’s plans to obtain a seat on Barclays Plc’s board and shift its strategy away from the investment bank. “We believe Mr Bramson will ultimately prove unsuccessful in his objective to obtain a board seat,” said ana- lysts at Citigroup including Andrew Coombs. He “would need a shareholder …

Bloomberg A bank merger in Thailand may finally give Bank of Nova Scotia a path to retreat from the Southeast Asian nation after three years of trying. Thai lenders Thanachart Bank Pcl and TMB Bank Pcl are in talks to merge in a deal supported by Thailand’s government. Such a transaction could give Canada’s Scotiabank — which owns 49 percent …

Bloomberg Pay for female staff at HSBC Holdings Plc’s UK business fell further behind male colleagues’ in the last year, according to new figures from the London-based bank. Women at HSBC earned 61 percent less on average compared with male employees at the lender, a wider gap than the 59 percent difference the firm reported a year ago, already the …

Bloomberg Heathrow airport resumed flights after being partially shut for more than an hour as drone sightings near its runways raised safety concerns, marking the second time in a month that a London hub has had to suspend flights because of dangers from the modern-day gadgets. Departures were halted after the sightings in the vicinity of Europe’s busiest airport after …

Bloomberg Air France-KLM Group’s annual traffic figures show that the company’s Dutch arm again grew faster than its French sister carrier, where flights were disrupted by strikes as pilots pushed for higher pay. KLM boosted revenue passenger kilometres — the number of customers times the distance flown — by 4 percent in 2018, compared with a gain of just 1.9 …

Bloomberg UK bakery chain Greggs Plc provided some relief to the country’s beleaguered shopping districts with a bullish update on sales performance as year-end demand for its festive pastries surged. The shares rose as much as 7.7 percent to a record as the company raised its outlook for full-year adjusted pretax profit to at least 88 million pounds ($112 million), …

Bloomberg J Sainsbury Plc’s Christmas sales fell more than analysts expected as price-conscious UK shoppers turned to discounters for their turkey and stocking stuffers. The supermarket chain became the second of the big four UK grocers to highlight consumer unease over the holiday season, with Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc warning that the political stalemate over Brexit was making shoppers rein …

Bloomberg Stephen Wall’s restaurant chain Pho is the kind of tenant that mall landlords would love to attract. The Vietnamese menu is right on trend, the business is expanding and, even better, it has a track record of success in shopping centres. Yet he thinks that even restaurants like his won’t be the savior of malls suffering from the rise …

ABU DHABi / WAM Suhail Mohamed Faraj Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Industry, has said that Opec and its members “don’t control” oil prices and that the market “dictates” them. “What Opec strives to achieve”, he added, “is a balanced oil market that is fair for both consumers and producers, and encourages the many trillions of dollars of investment …

Bloomberg US-China trade talks in Beijing are progressing and were poised to extend into Wednesday, according to an American negotiator. The discussions during the past two days “went well,” according to Steven Winberg, an Energy Department official who spoke to reporters in Beijing. “I can confirm we’re continuing tomorrow.” The reason for the extension of meetings originally scheduled for two …