Bloomberg Houston restaurateur Tilman Fertitta is buying the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion, according to people familiar with the deal. The price would be a new high for the National Basketball Association, breaking the $2 billion Steve Ballmer paid for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014. Rockets owner Les Alexander announced in July that he was selling the franchise, which ...

Bloomberg Falling research prices under MiFID II are leaving asset managers with a problem: the risk of being accused of taking inducements for cheap analysis. The European Union’s regulatory overhaul will force buyside firms to justify the price they pay for analysis once its cost is unbundled from other services such as trading commissions. With banks in the midst of ...

Bloomberg With a blanket ban on initial coin offerings, China has sidestepped an issue plaguing regulators worldwide: are such tokens securities? A cross between crowdfunding and an initial public offering, ICOs—which have raised at least $1.25 billion globally so far —are the sale of tokens based on the blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin. While they at least ostensibly promise the ...

Bloomberg A record rally in the offshore yuan is rekindling hope for the Dim Sum bond market. With China’s currency defying North Korea tensions to be Asia’s top performer over the past month, that bodes well for yuan-denominated debt sold in Hong Kong, according to BOC International Holdings Ltd. The Dim Sum market has been under pressure since 2015, when ...

Bloomberg The outlook for Oman’s banking sector was cut to negative by Moody’s Investors Service to reflect a reduction in the government’s ability to support the country’s banks, weaker economic growth and tightening liquidity. “We expect a softening in Oman’s operating environment, with fiscal consolidation amid prolonged oil price weakness weighing on economic growth,” Moody’s analyst Mik Kabeya said. “This ...

Bloomberg Nobody doubts America will make good on its debts. Yet if Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling in time, what’s known as a “technical” default— one that merely delays interest and principal payments— would be on deck for the $14.1 trillion Treasury market, presenting a potentially dizzying array of complications. Bond-market industry groups aren’t waiting to see how ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co. won a round in a long-running US trade dispute with the European Union over government backing for the planemaker and competitor Airbus SE. The World Trade Organisation’s appellate body overruled a lower-level finding that $8.7 billion in tax incentives awarded by Washington state to Chicago-based Boeing for the development of the 777X jetliner constituted the most serious ...

Bloomberg Shoprite Holdings Ltd. shareholders voted in favor of the purchase of about 1.75 billion rand ($135 million) of shares from former Chief Executive Officer Whitey Basson, enabling Africa’s largest food retailer to buy at a discount to the current share price. The decision enables the Cape Town-based company to buy 8.68 million shares from Basson at 201.01 rand a ...

Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP may cash out from the Maldives, the tropical island chain known for its white-sand beaches and turquoise seascapes. The buyout firm is exploring options for seaplane operator Trans Maldivian Airways Pvt, including a possible sale, after receiving takeover interest in the company, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Blackstone is working with a financial ...

Bloomberg US airline investors, already absorbing the worst monthly stock performance in a year, are bracing for more disappointment. A Standard & Poor’s index of the five biggest US airlines plunged 7.5 percent in August, wiping out about $10 billion in market value. Shares fell as a price war that started between United Continental Holdings Inc. and heavy discounters spread ...