July, 2018

• 8 July

  ‘Green’ retailers gain competitive edge

  

  DUBAI / Emirates Business Going green has now become a key business strategy and retailers that adopt sustainable practices in their operations will continue to harness value and gain competitive advantage, industry reports reveal. Consumers across all demographics are increasingly becoming more eco-conscious as reflected in the Nielsen Global Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility, which found that 55% of global …

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• 8 July

  Good week for S&P 500 held bad news for active funds

  

  Bloomberg A week of tumult on the trade front was also the best week in a month for S&P 500 bulls. Active stock managers weren’t celebrating. They’ve watched in shock as the best-laid efforts to beat benchmarks are squeezed as the contour of the rally shifts. Funds are being betrayed by the companies they love, including tech megacaps and banks, …

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• 8 July

  Swiss plan first end-to-end exchange to trade digital assets

  

  Bloomberg SIX, the owner of Switzerland’s securities exchange in Zurich, is creating platform for trading digital assets, boosting a nascent industry that some countries are trying to suffocate. The new platform will offer a “fully integrated, end-to-end trading, settlement and custody service,” the world’s first to do so, the bourse said. The parent exchange, regulated by Finma and the Swiss …

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• 8 July

  World’s largest crypto exchange eyes $1bn profit amid rout

  Bloomberg This year’s cryptocurrency crash has saddled bulls with billions of dollars in losses, but the world’s largest virtual currency exchange is still making money hand over fist. Binance expects a net profit of $500 million to $1 billion in 2018, according to its chief executive officer. First half revenue was about $300 million, Changpeng Zhao said. Average daily turnover …

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• 8 July

  ‘Sticky’ money investors return to oil sector they once shunned

  

  Bloomberg Energy companies long-spu-rned by institutional investors are crawling back into favour. After declining for most of the past decade, energy made up just 6.4 percent of institutional investors’ holdings at the end of the first quarter, Royal Bank of Canada analysts wrote in a May note, citing company filings. That’s beginning to turn around with US benchmark crude up …

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• 8 July

  China’ CNPC bails out Petrobras’s $14 billion refinery misadventure

  

  Bloomberg China National Petroleum Corp plans to help complete a refinery in Rio de Janeiro that already cost Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras $14 billion before it was halted amid a widespread graft investigation. CNPC, as the Chinese producer is known, signed a letter of intent adding the Comperj refinery to a partnership the two companies signed last year. The …

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• 8 July

  Saudi fund plans boosting stake in ArcelorMittal joint venture

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is considering a plan to inject up to $300 million into a troubled steel pipe factory co-owned by ArcelorMittal, according to people familiar with the matter. The Public Investment Fund is looking at doubling its stake in ArcelorMittal Tubular Products Jubail to 40 percent by buying new shares and converting debt to equity, the …

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• 8 July

  BP is front-runner to buy BHP’s US shale unit

  Bloomberg BP Plc has emerged as the front-runner to buy BHP Billiton Ltd.’s onshore oil and gas operations in the US, acco- rding to a person familiar with the matter. The London-based oil major has made the highest offer for the assets, which BHP prefers selling in a single package, said the person, who asked to not be identified because …

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• 8 July

  Thai minister says no need for central bank to hike rate

  

  Bloomberg Thailand’s finance minister said the nation can refrain from raising its policy interest rate as the currency has weakened at a slower pace than peers and capital outflows are unlikely to pose a major risk. The baht’s recent drop will help boost incomes for the 30 million Thais in the farm sector, Apisak Tantivorawong said in an interview. The …

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• 8 July

  VBS paid 5 million rand to officials for quick funding

  

  Bloomberg South African lender VBS Mutual Bank, which collapsed in March, paid senior officials at the Public Investment Corp. (PIC) to fast-track funding for the lender, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times said, citing an affidavit by the bank’s former head of treasury Phophi Mukhodobwane. The bank’s former treasurer was instructed to deliver a suitcase filled with 5 million rand to a …

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