Bloomberg Oi SA, the Brazilian phone company struggling under $20 billion in debt, said one of its biggest investors called for a shareholders’ meeting to change the makeup of the board. Magnate Nelson Tanure’s Bridge Administradora de Recursos Ltda., which holds a 6.6 percent stake in Oi, said it would seek to oust directors who represent Pharol SGPS SA, …

  Dursun Peksen SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS The United States and other major actors have long opted for economic sanctions to destabilize North Korea’s authoritarian regime and end its nuclear program. Over the years sanctions have inflicted major economic damage and isolated North Korea from the global economy, but have failed to change the course of the Kim regime’s stability …

  Tomohiko Taniguchi SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Brexit was a bolt out of the blue, one with strategic, economic, and political implications not just for countries across the Atlantic, but also for ones in the Asia-Pacific, particularly Japan. On the strategic front, as Britain begins to determine how to move forward while exiting the European Union, if indeed it will, …

  Ibu Sanjeeb Garg SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS The Indian government recently arrived at a decision to privatize 12 small oilfields in Assam. This, as part of the new policy that will privatize 67 small oil fields in India, has drawn understandably strong reactions from the vocal civil society of Assam. Assam has had a long checkered history with oil, …

  BLOOMBERG Egyptian stocks had the biggest advance in almost four months, leading gains across most Middle Eastern markets, as traders speculated the country may devalue its currency as early as Tuesday. The EGX 30 Index jumped 4.7 percent at the close in Cairo, with trading volumes on the main gauge 157 percent above the average of the past 20 …

  Bloomberg Global food prices climbed the most in almost four years, boosted by a rally in sugar and gains in grains, dairy and meat. The United Nations’ food-price index jumped 4.2 percent in June, the most since July 2012, the group’s Food & Agriculture Organization said on its website. The gauge, which monitors 73 different food prices, advanced for …

  Bloomberg The best is probably over for commodities this year as the Brexit vote adds risks to global growth and oil is set to retreat, according to the Merchant Commodity Fund, which returned 9 percent in the first half. The fund, run by ex-Cargill Inc. employees Doug King and Michael Coleman, has changed its commodities outlook to neutral from …

  AFP Deutsche Bank once epitomised the best of Germany’s financial sector, shining brightly as the European economic powerhouse’s biggest lender. But this week its share price slid to new lows, fuelling concerns about the health of the institution, with some even questioning if it has a long-term future and the IMF moved to see it as a “systemic” risk …

  AP An ex-executive at a New York investment bank has admitted to defrauding investors of more than US$38 million, blaming it on his gambling addiction. Andrew Caspersen pleaded guilty to securities and wire fraud in federal court in Manhattan. Prosecutors say he scammed clients of PJT Partners Inc into investing millions of dollars in sham private equity investments. They …

  AP The president of Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank is resigning less than a week after the federal government passed measures to aid the US territory’s dire finances. Melba Acosta said she’ll step down July 31 to focus on her professional career. She directs a bank that issues loans to government agencies and is responsible for overseeing Puerto Rico’s …