January, 2021

• 10 January

  Indian bank plans IPO to tap demand for homes

  

  Bloomberg India’s Home First Finance Co. is seeking to raise as much as 2.5 billion rupees ($34 million) from an initial public offering (IPO) in the next few weeks as the mortgage provider backed by Warburg Pincus LLC taps rising demand for housing. The country’s first non-bank mortgage lender to sell shares in over two years will offload about a 25% ...

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• 10 January

  OCBC’s Wong to succeed Tsien as first female Singapore bank CEO

  

  Bloomberg Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC) named Helen Wong as Singapore’s first female bank chief executive officer (CEO), putting her in charge of leading the island state’s second-largest lender through a severe economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Wong, 59, is replacing Samuel Tsien who will retire in April after running OCBC since 2012, the bank said in a ...

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• 10 January

  South Africa rand catches Citigroup out

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s volatile currency caught Citigroup Inc. in a wrong-way bet within a day. The New York-based lender recommended a short-dollar position versus the rand, betting the South African currency would strengthen along with emerging-market peers as uncertainty around fiscal stimulus in the US weighed on the dollar. Instead, the rand plunged more than 2% as traders fretted about ...

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• 10 January

  Morgan Stanley unit boosts its stake in MicroStrategy

  

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley’s investment management arm boosted a stake in Bitcoin vehicle MicroStrategy Inc. to more than 10% late last year. The bank unit held 792,627 shares of MicroStrategy by the end of December, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The 10.9% stake had a value of roughly $420 million based on the day’s closing ...

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• 10 January

  Credit Suisse cuts ties with some Venezuelan clients

  

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG has cut relationships with a number of Venezuela’s wealthy as it weighs the risk of doing business with politically-exposed clients in the sanctions-hit country. Switzerland’s second-largest lender has cut assets it manages for the nation’s wealthy by more than half over the past few years, to about $2 billion, according to people familiar with the ...

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• 10 January

  UK set to lift ban on trading in Swiss shares following Brexit

  

  Bloomberg The United Kingdom is set to reverse a ban on trading in Swiss shares following its exit from the European Union (EU). The Treasury plans to put legislation to lawmakers in the coming days that will take effect three weeks later if approved, according to a spokesman. The story was first reported by the Financial Times. “Once in force, ...

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• 10 January

  Mideast stocks rise, track global peers

  

  Bloomberg The Middle East’s benchmark equity indexes all advanced on Sunday, tracking a global stock rally on optimism that a Democratic sweep in the US will boost fiscal spending in the world’s largest economy. Egypt’s EGX 30 Index climbed for a third day to lead regional gains as the government reported declining inflation. Meantime, Saudi shares increased, hovering at their ...

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• 10 January

  Hydrogen firm’s market value skyrockets to $25b

  

  Bloomberg Plug Power Inc., a fuel-cell company that’s struggled to turn a profit, surged in value to nearly $25 billion after striking a deal with a South Korean conglomerate to promote hydrogen technology in Asia. Shares in the Latham, New York, company jumped more than 50%, when SK Group agreed to pay $1.5 billion for a 10% stake in it. ...

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• 10 January

  UAE provides urgent aid to flood-hit people in Malaysia

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM The United Arab Emirates has provided urgent humanitarian aid to those affected by the floods that swept the state of Pahang, Malaysia. The move is in implementation of the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and the follow-up ...

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• 10 January

  Oil posts best week in four months on Saudi output cut

  

  Bloomberg Oil posted the biggest weekly gain since late September as Saudi Arabia’s plan to slice output spurred a surge in physical crude buying. Futures in New York advanced $3.72 this week and Brent oil topped $55 a barrel for the first time since February. Saudi Arabia’s pledge earlier this week to cut production by 1 million barrels a day ...

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