February, 2019

• 25 February

  Arizona utility makes biggest US bet yet on energy storage

  

  Bloomberg Arizona’s Pinnacle West Capital Corp. is kicking off the most ambitious deployment of energy storage ever announced by a US utility. Pinnacle West’s Arizona Public Service plans to add 850 megawatts of battery storage and at least 100 megawatts of new solar power by 2025, according to a statement. The company did not say how much initiative would cost. ...

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• 25 February

  China deleveraging is dead as $34trn debt boom returns

  

  Bloomberg For almost two years, the question has lingered over China’s market-roiling crackdown on financial leverage: How much pain can the country’s policy makers stomach? Evidence is mounting that their limit has been reached. From bank loans to trust-product issuance to margin-trading accounts at stock brokerages, leverage in China is rising nearly everywhere you look. While seasonal effects explain some ...

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• 25 February

  Indonesia to ease trading rule to lure retail investors

  

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s stock exchange plans to cut the minimum trading price for shares and shrink the lot size in its drive to attract more retail investors and boost volumes. The bourse will revise the decade-old requirement for stocks to maintain a floor price of 50 rupiah and lower the minimum order size from 100, Laksono Widodo, director of trading and ...

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• 25 February

  Realty cash crunch is risk for India’s shadow lenders

  

  Bloomberg India’s property developers are finding it hard to borrow money, raising the prospect of a wave of debt defaults from the sector hitting shadow lenders that are trying to survive a funding crunch of their own. Developers have to repay about 1.29 trillion rupees a year on outstanding debt but generate less than half the amount in income that ...

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• 25 February

  Huawei unveils foldable 5G phone

  

  Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Co. announced a smartphone that unfolds into a small tablet computer, potentially rendering the need to carry two separate devices obsolete. The Mate X supports next-generation 5G networks and will cost $2,606 when released in the summer. It’s the second folding phone announced by a major manufacturer within a week. “We’ve been working on this folding screen ...

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• 25 February

  Ghosn’s downfall spooks foreign executives about Japan

  

  Bloomberg The stunning arrest, indictments and long incarceration of former Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn have given pause to foreign executives considering taking on senior jobs at Japanese companies. As Ghosn enters his fourth month in jail and awaits a trial still several months away, the imprisonment of the Japanese business world’s most high-profile foreigner may stymie ...

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• 25 February

  Roche to buy Spark for $4.8bn

  

  Bloomberg Roche Holding AG will buy Spark Therapeutics Inc. for $4.8 billion, a deal that will transform the Swiss drugmaker from a laggard to a leader in the emerging field of gene therapy. Along with French biopharmaceutical company Ipsen SA’s agreement on Monday to acquire Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc. for as much as $1.3 billion, the Roche deal shows how drug ...

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• 25 February

  Barrick amasses stake in Newmont, weighs takeover

  

  Bloomberg Barrick Gold Corp, the Canadian mining giant, has amassed a small stake in US rival Newmont Mining Corp. and warned the company that it plans to propose changes to its bylaws, as it continues to weigh a hostile takeover attempt, according to people familiar with the matter. A letter was delivered to Newmont’s Greenwood Village, Colorado, headquarters informing the ...

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• 25 February

  Unilever, L’Oreal, Danone deemed most prepared for effects of climate change

  

  Bloomberg Among the world’s biggest consumer companies, Europe’s Unilever NV, L’Oreal SA and Danone are best prepared for the effects of climate change relative to their peers, according to a report from the nonprofit CDP. Formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP took a double-barreled approach in ranking the 16 largest consumer companies on measures including exposure to emissions, ...

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• 25 February

  German service sector keeps economy afloat

  

  Bloomberg Germany’s services providers bolstered economic momentum in February, with a slump in manufacturing deepening on the back of global trade tensions and weakness in the auto industry. IHS Markit’s composite Purchasing Managers’ Index rose in February to a four-month high of 52.7. Owing exclusively to more optimism in services, business confidence was the best since September. Manufacturing suffered from ...

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