August, 2019

• 25 August

  Shell sued over ‘tax avoidance’

  

  Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc has been sued by Australia’s tax authority as the agency pursues multinational companies over tax avoidance, the Guardian reported. The Australian Taxation Office has been battling with Shell’s local subsidiary for six years regarding tax treatment of its stake in Browse gas project off the country’s northwest coast, the newspaper reported. The bill, estimated at ...

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• 25 August

  Itausa offering $850mn for Petrobras ‘gas unit’

  Bloomberg A group led by Brazil’s Itausa Investimentos SA offered about $850 million for Petrobras’s bottled gas distributor. Petrobras said in a filing that Itausa, the holding company for Setubal and Villela families, in a consortium with Copagaz Distribuidora de Gas Ltda and Nacional Gas Butano, offered highest bid for Liquigas Distribuidora SA. The supplier of liquefied petroleum gas for ...

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• 25 August

  German industry hit by perfect storm of trade woes, tech shifts

  

  Bloomberg Deep in Europe’s manufacturing core, a German company is taking radical steps to cope with a perfect storm that has sent traditional economic pillars into a tailspin and put the country on the verge of recession. Huebner GmbH — a 73-year-old supplier of rubber and plastics that employs 3,300 people around the world — is selling its unit that ...

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• 25 August

  Trump, Abe cite pact in principle on US-Japan trade deal

  

  Bloomberg The US and Japan have agreed in principle on a trade deal that will include Japanese purchases of US agriculture products, US President Donald Trump said. Trump and Japan’s Shinzo Abe made the announcement on Sunday in Biarritz, France, at the Group of Seven summit after holding a bilateral meeting earlier in the day. “We’ve agreed in principle,” Trump ...

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• 25 August

  WeWork rival IWG mulls spinoff for US business: Sky

  

  Bloomberg The founder of IWG Plc is planning to spin off the firm’s US business into a separately listed company in New York, Sky News reported. IWG Chief Executive Officer Mark Dixon is in talks with investment banks about creating a standalone business to rival WeWork Cos., London-based broadcaster said on its website. Sky said that IWG’s US operations could ...

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• 25 August

  Powell: US economy faces ‘significant risks’

  

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the US economy is in a favourable place but faces “significant risks,” reinforcing bets for another interest-rate cut next month though the remarks failed to mollify President Donald Trump. “Trade policy uncertainty seems to be playing a role in the global slowdown and in weak manufacturing and capital spending in the United States,” ...

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• 25 August

  Woodford raises $796mn since freezing flagship

  Bloomberg Neil Woodford has raised at least $796 million by selling listed assets held in his frozen flagship fund, as he prepares for a potential line of clients yanking their money when the fund reopens. The embattled stock picker shocked the financial world in early June by halting withdrawals from his LF Woodford Equity Income Fund after a run of ...

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• 25 August

  Dutch closing Europe’s biggest gas field raises concerns for hub

  

  Bloomberg A decision to close Europe’s biggest natural gas field is starting to raise concerns about the impact on the region’s biggest trading hub for the fuel. The Dutch Title Transfer Facility has grown into Europe’s largest gas market in the past few years, surpassing the UK, partly because of the scale of flows converging in the Netherlands. A plan ...

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• 25 August

  Trump says ‘certainly possible’ Putin could be invited to G-7

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump says it’s “certainly possible” he’ll invite Vladimir Putin as a guest to next year’s Group of Seven summit in the US, setting up a flashpoint with fellow nations who ejected the Russian leader over annexation of Crimea. Trump spoke in Biarritz, France, on Sunday as the day’s session of the G-7 was set to get underway. ...

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• 25 August

  Kim guides test fire of new rocket launcher

  

  Bloomberg North Korea’s Kim Jong-un guided a test fire of a newly developed super-large multiple rocket launcher, setting the stage for one of the busiest weekends for missile firings since talks began with US President Donald Trump more than a year ago. The test firing comes after South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the same day North Korea launched two ballistic ...

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