Bloomberg Japan’s regional banks are turning toward private equity, hedge funds and real estate in search of higher returns as regulatory concerns restrict ownership of foreign bonds. Alternative assets was the favoured choice of investment for five lenders, according to a Bloomberg survey of 11 regional banks conducted in August. Foreign bonds was picked by three respondents, while none of ...

Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd. appointed Sim Tshabalala as sole chief executive officer, ending a dual role he shared with Ben Kruger, and making him the first black person to lead Africa’s largest lender independently. Kruger, 58, will step down as joint-CEO immediately and continue as an executive director, reporting to Tshabalala, 49, Johannesburg-based Standard Bank said. The joint leadership ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc.’s splashy takeover of Whole Foods, complete with deep price cuts, did more than bring a surge of publicity to the chain: It boosted customer traffic by 25 percent. That’s the finding of Foursquare Labs Inc., which compiled location information during the first two days after Amazon completed its acquisition of the grocer. The data, culled from shoppers’ ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May asked US President Donald Trump to intervene in a court dispute between Boeing Co. and Canada’s Bombardier Inc. over state aid, her office said. The request, made in a call with the president on September 5, came as her government seeks to protect jobs at a Bombardier plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland. May’s government ...

Bloomberg The crisis afflicting much of the retail industry has spared dollar stores in Canada, where industry leader Dollarama Inc. keeps opening new locations and improving profit margins. Canada’s largest dollar-store chain posted earnings that topped analysts’ estimates last quarter and raised its gross-margin forecast for the year. While the Montreal-based company added 17 net new locations, part of the ...

Bloomberg Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul airline, is holding out for assurances about the future of Airbus SE’s A380 programme before committing to an $8 billion order for more of the double-decker aircraft. While Airbus is pushing for a deal at November’s air show in Dubai, where the carrier is based, concern that the value of used A380s will plummet ...

Bloomberg The cost of generating electricity from offshore wind farms fell sharply in the UK to below the price the next nuclear reactors will charge, making the form of clean energy one of the cheapest ways to supply the grid. In a government auction that handed out power-purchase contracts worth 176 million pounds ($232 million) a year, all of the ...

Bloomberg India’s oil consumption in August shrank 6.1 percent, the most since April 2003, as floods ravaged several parts of the country curbing demand for diesel and gasoline. The world’s fastest growing oil consumer used 15.75 million tons of fuels in August, compared with 16.78 million tons a year ago, according to the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. ...

AGENCIES OPEC on Tuesday forecast higher demand for its oil in 2018 and pointed to signs of a tighter global market, indicating its production-cutting deal with non-member countries is helping to tackle a supply glut that has weighed on prices. In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said the world would need 32.83 million barrels per ...

Bloomberg Oil steadied near $48 a barrel as refiners on the US Gulf Coast continued to recover following two strikes from Hurricane Harvey, while Irma weakened further after moving inland. Futures slipped 0.5 percent in New York after rising 1.2 percent. US refiners closed by Hurricane Harvey more than two weeks ago continue to restart, including the nation’s largest, operated ...