July, 2018

• 28 July

  RBNZ to decide on interest rates in Q2

  

  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) new monetary policy committee with external members could begin deciding on interest rates in the second quarter of next year, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. Legislation to enact the government’s RBNZ reforms should pass into law by April, which could allow the enlarged policy committee to begin deliberations as soon as May, …

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• 28 July

  Blackstone picks banks for $1 billion India REIT

  

  Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, has picked banks for India’s first real estate investment trust (REIT) listing, people with knowledge of the matter said. The US company and local partner Embassy Group selected firms including Bank of America Corp., Morgan Stanley, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., said the people. The REIT …

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• 28 July

  ECB keeps to policy path to end bond purchases

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (EDCB) stuck to its plan to end bond purchases as the European Union and US stepped back from a trade war andthe currency bloc’s economic expansion remained solid. The Frankfurt-based institution reiterated it will continue buying $35 billion of assets a month until the end of September, reduce the pace to 15 billion euros from …

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• 28 July

  AEP kills plan for largest US wind farm after Texas rebuff

  

  Bloomberg American Electric Power’s (AEP) $4.5 billion Wind Catcher project was done in by shaky economics, and may become a teaching moment for other developers planning big clean-energy projects. The company pulled the plug on what would have been the biggest-ever US wind farm. Texas regulators rejected the project because it didn’t offer enough benefits for ratepayers, and Oklahoma came …

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• 28 July

  BP’s $10.5 billion deal scores prized BHP shale assets

  

  Bloomberg BP Plc agreed to pay $10.5 billion, its biggest acquisition in almost two decades, for most of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s onshore US oil and natural gas assets, including in the prized Permian Basin. The deal gives the London-based energy giant a position in the Permian, a swath of west Texas and New Mexico that’s the world’s fastest-growing major oil …

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• 28 July

  Shell starts buybacks even as profit misses expectations

  

  Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc finally gave investors the share buybacks they’ve been demanding, even as profit fell short of expectations despite resurgent crude prices. The Anglo-Dutch energy producer said that it is starting a $25 billion share-repurchase programme, initially buying up $2 billion of stock over three months. That should soothe investors who have grown increasingly anxious about when …

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• 28 July

  Big tech throws money, talent at robots for the home

  

  Bloomberg Science fiction writers and technologists have been predicting the arrival of robot butlers for the better part of a century. So far domestic robots have been relatively pedestrian: robot dogs, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers. Rosie of “The Jetsons” fame? Not so much. That may be about to change. Behind the scenes, big tech companies are funding secret projects to …

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• 28 July

  Company that called demise of CD-ROMs moves away from LCDs

  

  Bloomberg Back in 2004, when selling CD-ROMs was still a lucrative business, BenQ Materials Corp. thought it was time to get out. In the years that followed, the technology became less mainstream, overtaken by everything from flash drives to online downloads. Now, the Taiwanese electronics parts maker is doing it again. This time, it’s cutting back on a different cash …

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• 28 July

  Daimler plans overhaul as new tech upends auto business

  

  Bloomberg Daimler AG will carve itself into three separate units in its biggest overhaul in a decade as the Mercedes-Benz car and truck maker seeks to adapt to the unprecedented shift to self-driving and electric vehicles. The need for change was evident in the German manufacturer’s second-quarter figures that showed another slump in earnings following on from the first three …

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• 28 July

  Inspections reveal more flaws in jet engines linked to fatality

  

  Bloomberg Flaws in jet engine fan blades like one that cracked and broke loose in April, killing a Southwest Airlines Co. passenger, have been discovered on planes operated by several carriers, and the manufacturer is moving to further tighten inspections. General Electric Co., part of a venture that makes the engines, found a cracked blade during post-accident inspections of another …

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