Bloomberg Ivory Coast is close to completing a deal with the local unit of France’s Eranove SA for the construction of a thermal-power plant that could expand the country’s generation capacity by almost a fifth, according to two people familiar with the matter. The 300 billion CFA franc ($530 million) gas-fired facility will be owned by Cie Ivoirienne de Production …

Bloomberg Riskier US mortgages are creeping back into the bond market again. The loans in question are nowhere near the toxic mortgages that brought down the financial system last decade. But they’re being made to people with lower credit scores and with more debt relative to their income. And in separate transactions tied to rental homes, Wall Street banks are …

Bloomberg Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd.’s record HK$25.2 billion ($3.2 billion) purchase of a coveted plot near Hong Kong’s former airport signals that the city’s developers are brushing off concern that expected rate increases will damp the red-hot housing market. Sun Hung Kai beat out bidders including units from CK Asset Holdings Ltd. and Henderson Land Development Co., paying almost …

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is set to reaffirm its position in Saudi Arabia with the takeover of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s local venture as lenders bet on the kingdom’s ambitious plans to transform its economy. In the country’s first bank merger in almost 20 years, HSBC affiliate Saudi British Bank offered to take over RBS-backed Alawwal Bank in …

Bloomberg A stronger dollar, rising US yields and geopolitical tensions have sent plenty of investors bolting from emerging markets. Then there’s Aberdeen Standard Investments and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Aberdeen Standard Investments, which oversees about $770 billion, took advantage of the recent selloff to increase its holding in the Russian ruble, South African rand and Indonesian rupiah. Goldman Sachs Group …

Bloomberg Poland’s lack of urgency to raise interest rates is becoming less out of step with global central banks as plans to tighten monetary policy get sidetracked around the world. Maintaining the rate differential with major economies won’t be a challenge any time soon for Governor Adam Glapinski as he looks to extend Poland’s longest-ever policy pause at least through …

Bloomberg A Swedish interest rate increase as early as October is in line with the policy path laid out by the central bank, Riksbank Deputy Governor Cecilia Skingsley said. Policy makers last month again pushed back a plan to raise rates for the first time in seven years, saying they didn’t see a tightening until towards the end of the …

Bloomberg Thailand’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged near a record low, and said it doesn’t feel pressure to join a global wave of tightening that’s swept along some peers in Southeast Asia. Monetary policy committee members voted unanimously to hold the one-day bond repurchase rate at 1.5 percent, where it’s been since 2015, according to a Bank …

Bloomberg UBS Group AG’s head of mergers and acquisitions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Severin Brizay, is planning to leave to join Bank of America Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. Brizay will become head of consumer and retail investment banking for EMEA at the US lender, the people said, asking not to be identified as …

Bloomberg The US threatened to impose sanctions against the European Union after the World Trade Organization ruled that Airbus SE received illegal government funding to develop jetliners, costing Boeing Co. sales. The final decision affirmed a 2016 finding that the EU had failed to eliminate unfair subsidies for two Airbus twin-aisle models, ending a long-running trade case. The international court …