March, 2016

• 29 March

  Bank of Korea’s new board favours lower rates for growth

  Bloomberg A changing of the guard on Bank of Korea’s (BOK’s) board will usher in four policy makers with links to the government, increasing speculation that the BOK may cut borrowing costs that are already at a record low. The nominees announced to replace members vacating their positions on April 20 have all worked directly in government or for state-funded ...

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• 29 March

  USA home sales rebound in February, highest since July’15

  

  WASHINGTON \ AP More Americans signed contracts to buy homes in February, with purchases surging in the Midwest ahead of the traditional spring buying season. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index rose 3.5 percent to 109.1, rebounding from a 3 percent decline in January. The index has reached its highest level ...

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• 29 March

  Own this $8.3mn Italian castle and live as a prince

  

  ROME / BLOOMBERG There are plenty of castles for sale across Europe, but few provide the opportunity for prospective owners to play the role of a feudal lord. It’s the difference between living like a prince and living as a prince. Now a castle has come onto the market to let you do the latter. The Umbrian Castle di Sismano, ...

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• 29 March

  Starwood gets higher $14bn offer from Anbang-led group

  

  Bloomberg Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. received a higher $14 billion takeover offer from a group led by China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co., raising the stakes for Marriott International Inc. to counter a second time to salvage a merger that would create the world’s biggest hotel operator. The takeover battle pits a 12-year-old Chinese firm with aggressive ambitions to ...

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• 29 March

  Asian upstarts keen to tap into global aircraft industry

  

  SINGAPORE / Reuters Indonesia is about to roll out its first passenger plane, one of several smaller, homegrown aircraft being studied in Asia, designed especially for short hops across the region’s emerging markets, where air travel is booming. State-owned aerospace firm PT Dirgantara Indonesia’s 19-seat N219, which cost $400 million and took just over five years to make, is scheduled ...

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• 29 March

  Lotte’s founder loses hotel board seat amid family feud

  

  Bloomberg Shin Kyuk Ho, the 93-year-old founder of Korean-Japanese retail giant Lotte Group, has lost his board seat at the family-controlled conglomerate’s lodgings and duty-free sales unit Hotel Lotte Co. amid a leadership struggle between two of his sons. Shin’s term expired on March 28, Lotte Group said in a statement. He had been a board member since 1973, when ...

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• 29 March

  Online tech shopping service Enjoy set to expand

  NEW YORK / AP Enjoy, an online concierge service for gadgets, is expanding beyond San Francisco and New York City nearly a year after it was launched. The startup, founded by former JC Penney CEO and Apple executive Ron Johnson, will be adding certain neighborhoods of Los Angeles this week and then Chicago in May. The service allows customers to ...

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• 29 March

  Virgin America to attract JetBlue, Alaska Air bids

  

  Bloomberg Virgin America Inc. received takeover offers from JetBlue Airways Corp. and Alaska Air Group Inc. after the carrier backed by billionaire Richard Branson put itself up for sale, according to people familiar with the matter. Discussions between Virgin America and the two bidders are ongoing, and a deal could be announced as early as next week, the people said, ...

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• 29 March

  Trash vigilantes wield tech for a clean India

  

  Bloomberg If you were a pile of garbage on the street in India, here’s what might happen to you now: A concerned citizen takes your picture, then sends it by WhatsApp to the smartphone of the garbage police. Khaki-clad cops jump in their vehicles, rush over and order your cleanup. City officials fine the offender and maybe reward the whistle-blower, ...

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• 29 March

  Nothing plain about vanilla

  

  Bloomberg There’s nothing plain about the vanilla market. The price of the bean used to flavour everything from ice cream and chocolate to cola and pastries more than tripled in the past year as output slipped and quality suffered. That should have been a boon for top producer Madagascar, the island nation off Africa’s southeast coast. Instead, the government is ...

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