“Where does an 800-pound gorilla sit?” goes the riddle. “Wherever it likes,” is the answer. Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund risks throwing its weight around in ways that exceed its authority, interfering in the sovereignty of other nations. This year, the fund has voted against remuneration proposals at more of the companies it holds stakes in, its global head of ...

It’s taken decades but finally, Japan’s doors are swinging open for private equity. The country’s corporate giants have long been a coveted target for buyout firms seeking to put large pools of capital to work. Money, though, hasn’t been enough to overcome the traditional Japanese hostility to takeovers. Until recently, that is. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s exhortations for improved corporate ...

California’s energy future is visible in the underground garage of a luxury condominium that rises behind the façade of a former San Francisco muffler shop. The parking spaces come equipped with charging stations for electric cars — an amenity that, as of next year, the city will require. The city law, which mandates that at least 10 percent of parking ...

Tencent Holdings Ltd’s rise into a $500 billion company was fuelled by a culture of internal competition, where teams raced against each other to make ideas work. To become an advertising powerhouse like Facebook Inc., the internal barriers are starting to come down. The seven main business units of China’s largest company are working to synchronize data and study a ...

Since the recession ended in mid-2009, the US economy has averaged annualized growth of just 2.2 percent, and the Bloomberg consensus forecast does not expect it to grow much faster in the year ahead. Estimates of real growth are just 2.4 percent in 2018. Some forecasters assume a stronger expansion as a result of the Trump administration tax legislation. Our ...

It’s getting tougher and tougher to keep track of all the different versions of bitcoin. New iterations of the cryptocurrency are multiplying as disagreements over bitcoin’s design persist and opportunities for making a quick buck prove hard to pass up. The biggest offshoot, called bitcoin cash, appeared in August after it split from the bitcoin blockchain in a so-called hard ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England may increase a key financial safety measure for a third time because it’s worried that a combination of a disorderly Brexit and a global recession could be enough to put the brakes on lending. The central bank is going ahead with a planned increase in the countercyclical capital buffer to 1 percent from 0.5 percent, ...

Bloomberg Paytm Payments Bank is targeting to become the world’s largest digital bank with 500 million bank accounts and aims to turn into an integrated financial services company that offers everything from wealth management to share trading. “We are unveiling our money market fund, launching our debit card and we’ll have the capabilities to allow enterprises to open business accounts,” ...

Bloomberg Bank of Nova Scotia is proving to be no pushover on its home turf. Canada’s third-largest lender had record annual profit of C$4.06 billion ($3.17 billion) from domestic banking, aided by 12 percent growth in the final quarter, according to a statement on Tuesday. It’s the third time this year that the Scotiabank unit, which also includes wealth management, ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Canada is optimistic higher interest rates and regulatory efforts to rein in risky borrowing will make the country’s financial system more resilient, though the process could take time to unfold and the outcome remains uncertain. In its semi-annual financial stability report, Canada’s central bank painted a picture of a housing market where key steps have been ...