December, 2019

• 30 December

  Investors signal big-premium deals over after bad year for energy M&A

  

  Bloomberg After a fairly abysmal 2019 for US energy mergers and acquisitions, investors are signalling to oil executives and investment bankers that the days of big-premium deals are over. Some of the year’s most notable mergers, including Occidental Petroleum Corp’s blockbuster takeover of Anadarko Petroleum Corp, were met with investor criticism and the sustained selling of the acquirer’s stock. Shareholders …

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• 30 December

  Rio Tinto all set to restart its mine in South Africa

  

  Bloomberg Rio Tinto Group is resuming operations at its South African mine that was shuttered earlier this month because of escalating violence in surrounding communities. The Richards Bay Minerals unit should be back at full operations in early January, leading to regular production in early 2020, Rio said in a statement on Monday. The decision was taken after discussions led …

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• 30 December

  US futures drift as dollar drops with Treasuries, euro climbs

  

  Bloomberg US equity futures drifted and stocks mostly slipped in Europe and Asia on the penultimate day of a blockbuster year for markets. The dollar weakened, and Treasuries extended their declines. Contracts on three main US stock indexes were steady, signalling the gauges may open near their record highs in the countdown to the New Year’s Day holiday on Wednesday. …

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• 30 December

  India stocks flat as investors watch for broader rally in 2020

  

  Bloomberg Indian stocks were little changed as investors watched for signs that a record-breaking rally could broaden out beyond a handful of large companies. The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.04% to 41,588 at the close in Mumbai. The NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced 0.1%. While the Sensex has recovered from a mid-year slump to deliver a roughly 15% return in …

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• 30 December

  Africa exchanges lobby group to link seven bourses by 2021

  Bloomberg The African Securities Exchanges Association has started a project that will link seven bourses on the continent by the first quarter of 2021 as part of efforts to increase trading in securities. The move would enable brokers on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières in Abidjan, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the …

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• 30 December

  Grab, Singtel team up to bid for Singapore digital bank license

  

  Bloomberg Grab Holdings Inc is partnering with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd to apply for a full digital banking license, jumping aboard a Singapore government initiative to attract technology firms into its financial sector. A Grab entity will own a 60% stake in the consortium that will apply for the bank license in Singapore, while the telco known as Singtel will hold …

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• 30 December

  ECB president Lagarde is trying to learn German

  

  Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde is attempting an endeavour possibly as daunting as reigniting inflation in the euro area: Learning German. It’s understandable that the region’s new monetary chief, an internationally minded Frenchwoman now based at the ECB’s headquarters in Frankfurt, might want to communicate in the first language of her latest home. Not only is German …

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• 30 December

  Taiwan dollar erases gains, remains off-limits to traders

  

  Bloomberg The Taiwan dollar has erased gains with remarkable regularity in afternoon trading over the past weeks, but the predictable moves remain off-limits to traders. The local currency rose as much as 0.6% on Monday before ending the session up 0.2% at 30.135 versus the greenback. Recent late-session paring had spurred speculation that the central bank is taking a more …

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• 30 December

  Italy’s Monte Paschi cuts bad-loan pile with $2b sale

  

  Bloomberg Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA sold about 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion) of troubled loans, reaching its goal for reducing risk two years early. About 1.6 billion euros of unsecured non-performing loans were sold to Illimity Bank SpA, Monte Paschi said in a statement on Monday. Separately, it sold 0.2 billion euros of unlikely to pay loans, …

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• 30 December

  Probe sought over Korea’s hedge fund

  Bloomberg Lime Asset Management Co, the firm at the centre of a scandal that sparked unprecedented withdrawals from South Korean hedge funds, now faces an investigation into its investment in a troubled US fund. A senior official at the Financial Supervisory Service said South Korea’s top financial watchdog will ask prosecutors to probe Lime’s investment in funds run by International …

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