January, 2019

• 30 January

  $1.4bn Telco buyout puts Axiata in a bind

  

  Bloomberg Malaysian wireless giant Axiata Group Bhd. is caught in a bind as it weighs whether to exit its decade-long investment in Singapore operator M1 Ltd. Axiata, M1’s biggest shareholder, has less than three weeks left to decide whether to tender its stock into a takeover offer valuing the target at $1.4 billion. The Malaysian company held a board meeting ...

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• 30 January

  India solar duty fails domestic producers as demand dwindles

  

  Bloomberg India’s bid to protect its solar-equipment makers by imposing a safeguard duty on cheap, Chinese imports has failed, according to domestic manufacturers, who are campaigning for tougher measures. The country last year imposed a 25 percent tariff on solar cells and modules imported from China and Malaysia for two years. That has resulted in developers either stalling projects to ...

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• 30 January

  Germany to auction more offshore wind

  

  Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is set to hold more auctions for offshore wind power, plugging a current gap in tenders for the next three years that the industry has said would harm turbine makers and hamper green targets. Germany will probably add about 5 gigawatts in capacity in the coming years, bringing the total capacity envisaged by the end ...

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• 30 January

  TransCanada taps RBC for gas line stake sale

  Bloomberg TransCanada Corp. hired RBC Capital Markets LLC to sell a stake in the Coastal GasLink project, which would supply a Royal Dutch Shell Plc-led gas-export terminal, as the pipeline faces mounting opposition. If TransCanada moves forward with the sale, joint venture partners in the C$6.2 billion ($4.7 billion) project could end up owning as much as 75 percent of ...

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• 30 January

  Europe economic confidence plunge extends into 2019

  

  Bloomberg Euro-area economic confidence extended its worst losing streak in a decade at the start of 2019 as member states faced a variety of domestic frailties and trade uncertainties. The European Commission’s economic sentiment index dropped more than economists forecast in January, reaching the lowest in more than two years. Pessimism spread in industry, services and retail trade, while the ...

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• 30 January

  Fund managers in UK face new guidelines seeking transparency

  

  Bloomberg An endangered UK regulator is demanding that asset managers change the way they interact with investors under new rules that require funds to provide more information on their business culture. A key difference in the updated stewardship code from the Financial Reporting Council is that asset managers will have to report what they’ve actually done, rather than just their ...

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• 30 January

  UK lending slows as Brexit concerns hangs over outlook

  

  Bloomberg UK lenders approved the fewest home loans in eight months in December and demand for unsecured debt remained subdued, Bank of England figures show. The slowdown reflects fears that Britain risks leaving the European Union without a deal, a scenario that could rock the property market. Consumer credit grew at its slowest annual pace in four years. UK mortgage ...

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• 30 January

  Tech group backs privacy bill that preempts tougher laws

  

  Bloomberg A new privacy bill proposed by Senator Marco Rubio, which would override more restrictive state laws, is winning support from a Washington-based technology trade group that counts Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and eBay Inc. as members. The Florida Republican’s legislation would impose a national privacy standard and supersede tougher data-protection regulations that will take effect in California in ...

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• 30 January

  Where does Trump’s economy rank in US?

  

  Stock and bond markets are flashing warning signs of a US recession just over the horizon, and President Donald Trump is having none of it: Investors may be gloomy about the vanishing gap between short- and long-term US Treasury yields, the dreaded yield-curve inversion that tends to forecast recessions, but the president is focusing on the bright side. The US ...

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• 30 January

  Italy starts handing out free money

  

  Italy’s Five Star Movement has risen to global prominence more for the colorful oddness of its founder, the comedian Beppe Grillo, than for the seriousness of its populist policies. But one of its proposals has attracted genuine interest from across the world: The idea of a “citizens’ income.” This concept could in theory appeal to both the left and the ...

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