July, 2019

• 23 July

  Cars become place for passengers’ private moments

  

  Volkswagen AG announced that 2019 would be the last model year the Golf SportWagen and Alltrack, the automaker’s station wagons, will be produced for the US. The German company has sold wagons in the US since 1966, starting with the Type 3 “Squareback” model. “Customers are speaking clearly about their preferences — it’s an SUV world now,” the company said ...

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• 23 July

  Money doesn’t deserve the bad rap it’s getting

  

  Money gets a bad rap. In the current environment, amid inequality not seen since the 1920s, too many people find it too easy to disparage wealth and the quest for material goods. There is no doubt that lifestyle creep and the hedonic treadmill are not the paths to true happiness. But what we see today is a backlash caused, in ...

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• 23 July

  UBS’s chief sees hurdles multiplying after rebound

  

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG rebounded from one of the worst environments in recent history, but CEO Sergio Ermotti is still facing no shortage of challenges. Pressure on investment banking revenue, the prospect of fresh rate cuts and the struggle to meet profit targets are all weighing on the bank after it posted the best quarterly net income in almost a decade. ...

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• 23 July

  PBOC: Interest rate level is appropriate

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank governor said the country’s current interest rates are at an appropriate level and the bank will make decisions on interest rates based domestic considerations. China didn’t follow the Federal Reserve in raising interest rates last year, and it’ll continue to “look at its own real situation” when making rate decisions now that the Fed is likely ...

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• 23 July

  Santander ready to fight Orcel over offer reversal

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA is prepared to fight Andrea Orcel in court over its decision to drop an offer to hire the former UBS Group AG investment chief as its chief executive officer. Santander is convinced it made the right decision and is ready to defend its U-turn on Orcel in a dispute over deferred bonuses at UBS, Secretary General ...

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• 23 July

  Lloyds set to pay Standard Life $174m

  

  Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Standard Life Aberdeen Plc are set to settle a dispute over the bank’s decision to pull its 109 billion-pound ($136 billion) contract from the asset manager. Lloyds would pay Standard Life 140 million pounds in cash as compensation and leave 30 billion pounds of the total under their management for three years, according to ...

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• 23 July

  ‘Foreign funds can cure India’s credit crisis’

  

  Bloomberg One of the most senior bankers in India has an antidote for the nation’s yearlong credit crisis that is showing no signs of abating: seek monies from overseas investors. JPMorgan Chase &Co’s chairman for south and south-east Asia, Kalpana Morparia, is advising policy makers to tweak bankruptcy rules to let foreign portfolio managers throw a lifeline to the troubled ...

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• 23 July

  Danske CEO: ‘Email me’ as bank breaks with old norms

  

  Bloomberg The new chief executive officer of Danske Bank A/S says he wants anyone with good ideas about how to run his firm to contact him. About 1 1/2 years after Danske was slammed by its financial regulator for having a culture that discouraged staff from speaking up, the bank is embracing transparency. Chris Vogelzang, a former ABN Amro banker ...

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• 23 July

  Khazanah hires Morgan Stanley for Malaysia Airlines strategy

  

  Bloomberg Khazanah Nasional Bhd has hired Morgan Stanley to explore strategic options for Malaysia Airlines Bhd, the nation’s loss-making flagship carrier, according to people familiar with the matter. The investment bank will be responsible for looking at options for the airline, including a potential stake sale, said the people who asked not to be named as the discussions are private. ...

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• 23 July

  Catalyst offers to buy Hudson’s Bay shares to block takeover bid

  

  Bloomberg Private equity firm Catalyst Capital Group Inc is offering to purchase up to C$150 million ($114 million) worth of shares of Hudson’s Bay Co as it builds a stake in the Canadian retailer in an effort to thwart a proposed takeover of the company. The Toronto-based firm said in a statementit was prepared to pay C$10.11 per share in ...

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