July, 2019

• 21 July

  GrandVision soars as Ray-Ban maker begins takeover talks

  

  Bloomberg GrandVision NV surged after Ray-Ban sunglasses owner EssilorLuxottica SA began takeover talks in a deal that would value the smaller Dutch eyewear retailer at about $8 billion. EssilorLuxottica is holding talks with GrandVision’s controlling shareholder, HAL, to buy the firm’s approximately 77 percent stake, HAL said in a statement in response to a Bloomberg report, which was confirmed later ...

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• 21 July

  Australia, NZ ground GA8 Airvan jets

  Bloomberg Australia and New Zealand grounded Gippsland GA8 Airvan planes over safety concerns after a deadly crash in Sweden this month killed nine. Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) halted operations of the planes made by Gippsaero Pty Ltd for 15 days, it said, adding it has sent an airworthiness engineer to Sweden to observe the crash investigation and collect ...

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• 21 July

  Swatch profit rises after crackdown on gray market

  

  Bloomberg Swatch Group AG shares gained after the Swiss watchmaker said it’s cracking down on unauthorised sales in an attempt to fetch higher prices. The owner of Omega and Tissot reported a decline in first-half sales as it took aim against so-called gray-market distributors that have eroded its pricing power. It also suffered from a drop of more than 10 ...

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• 20 July

  Sheikh Mohamed’s China visit to further deepen ties: UAE envoy

  BEIJING / WAM A UAE official has said that the upcoming state visit of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, will deepen ties and build on the foundation of the comprehensive strategic partnership announced in July of last year, during President Xi Jinping’s visit ...

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• 20 July

  UAE-China trade up 16.2% to reach $11.2b in Q1 2019

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM Bilateral trade between China and the UAE reached $11.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019, a 16.21 percent increase compared to the same period in 2018, said a top Chinese diplomat. “China-UAE trade is expected to maintain the mom-entum of rapid growth thro- ughout 2019 and beyond,” Ni Jian, the Chinese Ambassador to the UAE, ...

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• 20 July

  Oil jumps as Iran claims to seize British tanker

  

  Bloomberg Oil jumped in after-market trading following the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp seizing a British oil tanker and a Liberian-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz, raising stakes in the critical oil chokepoint. Brent futures rose as much as 1.4 percent from its settlement, while WTI futures also edged higher after the seizure of the tankers. UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy ...

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• 20 July

  China opens up financial sector to more foreign investment

  

  Bloomberg China opened up its financial sector to more foreign investment as the government said it will take targeted measures to cope with rising risks and challenges facing the industry. Foreign investors can take a stake or control entities including wealth management units of commercial lenders, pension fund managers and currency brokers, the central bank said in a statement on ...

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• 20 July

  RBS’ McEwan named head of National Australia Bank

  

  Bloomberg Ross McEwan, who engineered Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s revival, is now taking on another turnaround job after being appointed chief executive officer of scandal-plagued National Australia Bank (NAB). During his time at RBS, which was nationalised in the wake of the global financial crisis and beset by a multitude of scandals, the bank returned to profit and ...

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• 20 July

  Credit Suisse hires Wiant from Lazard

  

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG has hired investment banker Jerry Wiant from Lazard Ltd, where he had a two-year stint as a managing director focused on banking institutions. Wiant will join Credit Suisse’s global financial institutions later this summer as a managing director and head of Americas banks, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. He joined Lazard in ...

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• 20 July

  Ghana injects fresh capital into banks

  

  Bloomberg Ghana has pumped 800 million cedis ($150 million) into a special purpose vehicle created to bail out banks that don’t have enough capital, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT) will be getting the funds from the finance ministry after dropping a plan to raise the money through a bond sale, said the ...

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