November, 2019

• 17 November

  Unilever chairman leaves $162bn role to run $85mn fund

  

  And then there were none. Almost exactly a year after Unilever NV announced the departure of chief executive officer Paul Polman, the consumer goods giant’s chairman Marijn Dekkers is stepping down with immediate effect. Nils Andersen, a non-executive director since 2015, will replace him. In one sense it’s a natural time for a change. Dekkers has overseen the CEO succession, ...

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• 17 November

  Wall Street is wrong about negative interest rates

  

  The titans of finance have a new foe, and it’s not Jeremy Corbyn or Elizabeth Warren. Wall Street’s elite is attacking Europe’s central banks over their reliance on negative interest rates, saying they’re hurting the economy. Monetary authorities do need to be mindful of the side effects of unconventional measures. But there’s little evidence that negative rates are proving harmful. ...

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• 17 November

  Bruising year for stocks is ending in unheard of calm

  

  Bloomberg An investor probably would’ve panicked if you told her at the start of 2019 that the trade war wouldn’t go away. Or that earnings would fall flat and that a bid to kick out the president would erupt. Fast forward 11 months and nobody seems to care. Volatility in the equity market is flirting with a two-year low, with ...

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• 17 November

  ‘Bitcoin should hit $150,000 before an ETF can work’

  

  Bloomberg The $200 billion cryptocurrency market is far too small for an exchange-traded fund to work, according to Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC’s Tom Lee. Numerous attempts to get approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for crypto-related ETFs have been stymied, and Lee doesn’t think it’s a bad thing. Big fund launches in the US can have around ...

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• 17 November

  New face of Boeing jets tries to win back 737 Max buyers

  

  Bloomberg Days after Stanley Deal took the helm of Boeing Co’s jetliner business last month, he was winging across the globe to meet with the airline bosses most shaken by the deadly crashes that have plunged the manufacturer into crisis. Deal spent the October 29 anniversary of the first of two 737 Max crashes with Rusdi Kirana, founder of Indonesia’s ...

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• 17 November

  S African Airways faces scrutiny over sale plan

  

  Bloomberg South African Airways (SAA) officials will be summoned to a meeting with regulators next month to disclose details about talks with potential equity partners and give assurances that any deal won’t violate foreign-ownership laws. Under the Air Services Licensing Act of 1990, airlines must be at least three-quarters owned by South Africans to operate a domestic service. That would ...

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• 17 November

  JC Penney soars on profit forecast, turnaround plan

  Bloomberg JC Penney Co shares surged after the company raised its profit forecast, even amid another quarterly sales decline, as the battered department-store chain’s turnaround plan gains more time to play out. Excluding some items, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation will exceed $475 million this year, up from a previous forecast of between $440 million and $475 million. ...

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• 17 November

  Newark, LaGuardia ranked most expensive US airports

  

  Bloomberg If you’ve got a flight from LaGuardia, Newark or JFK, there’s a chance you’ve paid more for the ride to the airport than you did on the plane ticket. That’s according to a new ranking by the website Points Guy, which used the cost of airfare, a cab, parking, baggage carts and a cup of coffee to declare all ...

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• 17 November

  Airbus says zero-carbon regional jet may arrive by 2030s

  

  Bloomberg Airbus SE could potentially build an emission-free, 100-seat regional aircraft by the early 2030s, as the aviation industry speeds its response to mounting concern over air travel’s carbon footprint, according to the head of the planemaker’s new-product development arm. The European manufacturer is working on multiple methods to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, Sandra Bour Schaeffer, chief executive officer of Airbus ...

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• 16 November

  UAE, Unesco announce launch of ‘Global Tolerance’ initiative

  

  PARIS / WAM The UAE and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) announced the UAE-Unesco Global Tolerance Leadership Programme, designed to nurture inclusive societies by developing the capacities of young leaders to foster tolerance, inclusion and intercultural dialogue. Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, and Chair of UAE National Commission for Education, Culture ...

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