April, 2019

• 14 April

  India’s RCom denies France gave waiver on unit’s tax dues

  

  Bloomberg Reliance Communications Ltd denied it received favourable treatment by France in settling a tax dispute at a time when it was negotiating to become Dassault Aviation SA’s partner for a contract to sell fighter jets to India. The Indian company, owned by former billionaire Anil Ambani, issued the denial after Le Monde newspaper reported that four years ago France ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  Arcelor’s $6 billion Essar deal halted by India’s top court

  

  Bloomberg ArcelorMittal’s plan to buy a bankrupt Indian steel company for $6 billion was halted temporarily by the nation’s top court, further delaying tycoon Lakshmi Mittal’s efforts to enter the world’s second-biggest market. The Supreme Court ruled that Essar Steel India Ltd’s current status has to be maintained, pending a review by a bankruptcy tribunal hearing appeals related to the ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  Three Gorges to scale back $10.3b EDP bid

  

  Bloomberg China Three Gorges Corp is planning to scale back its 9.1 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) takeover offer for EDP-Energias de Portugal SA amid concerns about political hurdles and valuation, people familiar with the matter said. The state-owned firm is evaluating smaller alternative transactions that exclude US assets of EDP, which are the most likely to trigger regulatory opposition, the people ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  Mnuchin: US open to face penalties in ‘China deal’

  Bloomberg The US is open to facing “repercussions” if it doesn’t live up to its commitments in a potential trade deal with China, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, in a sign that the two sides are edging closer to an accord. “There are certain commitments that the United States is making in this agreement, and there are certain commitments that ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  India’s weak power demand points to more slowdown pain

  

  Bloomberg India is witnessing a listless growth in electricity demand, possibly signalling more slowdown in Asia’s third-largest economy. Electricity requirement from distribution utilities in February rose 1.3 percent from a year earlier and barely changed from January’s 1.1 percent, the weakest growth in two years, according to the power ministry’s Central Electricity Authority. Data for power generation, a proxy for ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  Publicis to buy Alliance Data’s Epsilon for $4.4 billion in cash

  

  Bloomberg Publicis Groupe SA agreed to buy digital marketing firm Epsilon from Alliance Data Systems Corp. for $4.4 billion in cash, propelling the French advertising group further beyond a weakening conventional ad business in its biggest takeover yet. Epsilon’s services span loyalty programs to email marketing and its Conversant unit collects consumer data including transactions, location and web activity. The ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  Chevron mega-deal highlights revival of American energy

  

  Bloomberg For all the ink spilled over climate change and the global energy transition, the world’s biggest energy companies are focusing on where it all began: American oil. Chevron Corp.’s $33 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.will make the US company the largest producer in the dusty plains of the Permian Basin by giving it control of an oil-rich area ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  Bayer faces investor unrest over CEO’s 28% bonus boost

  

  Bloomberg Investor unrest is increasing after Bayer AG sweetened Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann’s bonus even as court battles over Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller have destroyed billions in the company’s market value. Shareholder and corporate governance expert Christian Strenger, a former CEO of DWS Investment, filed a motion proposing that members of the supervisory board not be discharged of responsibility for ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  Ad giant WPP struggles with founder’s legacy as rivals circle

  

  Bloomberg The year was 1989 and Mark Read, armed with degrees from top-tier academic institutions and an appetite for business, wrote an application to Martin Sorrell, the founder of a little-known advertising outfit snapping at the heels of the titans on Madison Avenue. The letter landed Read his first job at WPP Plc and in the next years, the soft-spoken ...

  Read More »
• 14 April

  Sudan protests challenge military’s grip on power

  

  Bloomberg Sudan’s transitional military council announced an end to a curfew and a commitment to hand power to a civilian government within two years, signalling that pro-democracy protests are weakening the army’s grip in the oil-producing African nation. The moves followed the decision of Defense Minister Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf to stand down as the head of the council less ...

  Read More »