February, 2019

• 13 February

  India offers $50bn opportunity in energy storage

  Bloomberg India is presenting a potential investment opportunity of $50 billion in battery storage facilities that could help integrate renewable energy into the grid, replace polluting diesel-fueled power and boost electric mobility, the head of American energy firm AES Corp. said. “We think India is going to be a big market for energy storage,” Chief Executive Officer Andres Gluski said. ...

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• 13 February

  4th day blackouts stalk South Africa

  Bloomberg Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. said will cut 3,000 megawatts of power from the South African grid from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m on Wednesday, marking the fourth consecutive day of such measures. The state-owned power utility, which supplies more than 90 percent of the country’s electricity, is implementing the rolling blackouts due to a shortage of generating capacity, Eskom ...

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• 13 February

  The US can take on a lot more debt within limits

  

  For many years, respected macroeconomists scolded countries that failed to reduce their debt levels. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose job it is to lend money to poor countries in crisis, long demanded fiscal austerity in exchange for aid. In Japan, economists darkly warned of a solvency crisis as that country’s debt climbed. In the US, too, many economists cautioned ...

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• 13 February

  Softbank’s buyback magic may wear thin

  

  Day traders may be rejoicing at SoftBank Group Corp.’s biggest ever buyback, but for loyal believers in Masayoshi Son’s magic wand, it’s another worrisome development. SoftBank unveiled the repurchase program last week, promising to spend as much as $5.5 billion on its own stock over the coming year. That would be enough to buy 71 million shares, or 6.5 percent ...

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• 13 February

  The wheels have come off at JLR for Tata Motors

  When companies book a massive writedown, shareholders often just shrug. That’s because impairments usually happen a long time after the market has formed a fairly accurate opinion of the company’s financial position — and a charge doesn’t impact cash. India’s Tata Motors Ltd hasn’t been so lucky in how its own writedown was received this week. The 3.1 billion pound ...

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• 13 February

  Global tilt towards easing draws more succor in Asia

  India’s interest-rate surprise is looking more like a good one. In what may seem like an odd pairing outside cricket contests, New Zealand may have just validated the subcontinent’s contentious cut. Inflation figures showed an easing in the pace of India’s consumer-price increases in January. That’s what you want to see if you’re going to shock people with a reduction ...

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• 13 February

  No, France and Germany haven’t fallen out at all

  

  France and Germany’s recent cooperation agreement – in which the two nations promised to form join positions on all important European matters – appears to have withstood a difficult early test. The two powers have forged a compromise over the contentious issue of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia. The connection, which will run from Ust-Luga in Russia ...

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• 13 February

  Ryanair offers $112 million for a return flight

  

  By his own admission, the boss of Ryanair Holdings Plc hasn’t done a very good job lately. Over the past 18 months, a scheduling fiasco and labor revolt have forced the budget carrier to cancel thousands of flights, offer better pay and conditions to staff and recognize trade unions. To his credit, Michael O’Leary volunteered not to take a bonus ...

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• 13 February

  China’s 5G riches are a blocked number for investors

  

  How can investors profit from China’s race with the US for 5G supremacy? Finding the answer is as tricky as figuring out the geopolitics. The nation’s sleepy telecom stocks came back to life after Huawei Technologies Co. CFO Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada in early December. While the official charge was that the company had violated US sanctions on ...

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• 13 February

  Deutsche Bank to rebuild in Middle East after cost cutting

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG aims to rebuild in the Middle East after years of cost cutting and has hired executives to help win debt and advisory deals. “We have pivoted from a pure cost-control focus in 2018 to a controlled, disciplined growth phase in 2019,” Jamal Al Kishi, chief executive officer of the Middle East and Africa for the Frankfurt-based ...

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