October, 2019

• 2 October

  Thousands of workers to protest Indonesia’s labour, wage regulations

  

  Bloomberg Thousands of workers plan to carry out protests against Indonesia’s labour, wage and health insurance regulations, which they say are discriminatory, raising fresh risks for the stability of Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Around 50,000 workers will join the protest in front of the parliament building in Jakarta, according to Said Iqbal, president of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  Coal India output sinks to record low amid floods

  Bloomberg Coal India’s monthly production dropped to a record low as heaviest rains in 25 years flooded mines and hindered shipments. The Kolkata-based state miner produced 30.77 million tons of coal in September, down 24 percent from a year earlier and the lowest in data back to 2013, according to a stock exchange filing. Shipments dropped 20 percent to 35.18 ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  WeWork names new head of Japan operations after management purge

  

  Bloomberg WeWork named a new head of its Japanese operations, replacing a company veteran with close ties to former Chief Executive Officer Adam Neumann. Kazuyuki Sasaki, the former managing director of WeWork Japan, has been named its new CEO, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Sasaki replaces Chris Hill, who has headed Japan operations since their start in ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  Great onion crisis in India is back to Narendra Modi’s dismay

  

  Bloomberg Onions in India are once more at the epicenter of a major controversy, pitting government officials who want lower prices against farmers that need extra income. Prices of the vegetable, as ubiquitous as spices in Indian cooking, surged more than 200 percent in September from previous months after flooding from heavy monsoon rains damaged crops and reduced supplies. That’s ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  Singapore’s REIT IPO gains in 6 years

  Bloomberg Lendlease Global Commercial REIT’s stellar IPO debut is yet another testament to the hunger for yield among Asian investors. The real estate investment trust, part of Australia’s Lendlease Group, started trading on the Singapore bourse on Wednesday, surging 6.3 percent at the open from its offer price. This is the biggest jump among the city-state’s REITs in the past ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  BP CEO to step down

  

  Bloomberg BP Plc boss Bob Dudley is planning to step down, and the energy giant’s board is yet to decide on the timing. “I said a long time ago that around the age of 65 I would” step down, Dudley told reporters on the sidelines of the Russia Energy Week conference in Moscow. Dudley took over as chief executive officer ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  Dissent culture at the Fed

  

  The battle to control the Federal Reserve is being waged on many fronts. There’s President Trump’s relentless tirades against Fed Chairman Jerome Powell — and Powell’s low-key rejoinders. There’s the clamour from investors (aka Wall Street) for easy credit to prop up stock prices. Some economists favour cheap credit to sustain low unemployment (3.7%). What’s been missing is a cogent ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  Worried about climate? Skip that cruise

  

  Cruise ships are big business for port cities around the world. But starting next year, Cannes, one of the world’s most famous ports-of-call, will no longer welcome them unless they comply with strict pollution controls. Passengers who choose to sail on dirty vessels will have to disembark elsewhere. So far, the industry doesn’t seem worried. It should be. Increasingly, consumers ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  AT&T should learn from Singer’s Italian experience

  To understand Elliott Management Corp.’s plans for AT&T Inc., it’s worth examining how it tackled a relative telecommunications minnow in Europe. The activist investor’s 2018 fight for control of Telecom Italia SpA may have provided something of a dry run. Last year, after revealing its stake in the Italian carrier, the fund run by combative billionaire Paul Singer started with ...

  Read More »
• 2 October

  An industrial crisis is brewing in Germany

  In the darkest days of the 2009 recession, Germany’s industrial output was collapsing at an annual rate of more than 20%. An unfathomable implosion but one that thankfully ended almost as quickly as it started. Some 10 years on, a crisis is brewing once again in the country’s industrial heartlands. The pain could prove more enduring this time. So far ...

  Read More »