January, 2019

• 16 January

  Renault laying plan to remove Carlos Ghosn

  

  Bloomberg Carlos Ghosn is on the verge of losing his final fingerhold on power within the world’s biggest car-making alliance, with Renault SA said to be laying plans to remove him as chairman and chief executive officer. Two months after Ghosn’s shock arrest for alleged financial crimes in Tokyo, the French carmaker’s board will probably meet in the coming days ...

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• 16 January

  Rare Singapore hotel site gets record $415mn bid

  

  Bloomberg A rare plot of land that’s zoned for a hotel near Singapore’s central business district has attracted a record bid as developers shift focus after last year’s property cooling measures. Midtown Development Pte, bid S$562.2 million ($415 million) for the site, the highest among eight offers received, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said. The land adjacent to Club Street, an ...

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• 16 January

  China fund sees bonds beating stocks

  

  Bloomberg Du Zhenye outperformed his peers in China last year by selling nearly all his stock holdings and piling into bonds. He’s predicting 2019 will be similar for the market. “Bonds will be a sure bet,” said Du, who plans to buy short-dated debt issued by local government financing vehicles, as well as long-dated government and policy bank notes. Falling ...

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• 16 January

  Another Xiaomi stock sale adds grease to $32bn rout

  

  Bloomberg More Xiaomi Corp shareholders are rushing for the exit. An undisclosed investor sold 231 million Class B shares at HK$9.45 apiece, according to people with knowledge of the matter, a 5.1 percent discount to Tuesday’s close. The placing follows the end of a six-month lockup last week that has allowed early shareholders to sell Xiaomi stock for the first ...

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• 16 January

  Indonesia’s Bukalapak nears closing new fundraising round of $50 million

  

  Bloomberg PT Bukalapak.com, an Indonesian e-commerce marketplace, is preparing to complete a new round of fundraising that includes $50 million from Mirae Asset-Naver Growth Fund, according to people familiar with the matter. The investment may be announced as soon as this week, said the people, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t yet public. They declined to comment ...

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• 16 January

  UK luxury carmakers brace for worst as Brexit looms

  

  Bloomberg Aston Martin and Bentley Motors saw this crash coming — but it’s still going to sting. Speaking onstage at a conference in Detroit before and after the British Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, the chief executive officers of two companies synonymous with UK carmaking had been bracing for disaster. Both have been making arrangements to do ...

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• 16 January

  Trump pushes limits on unpaid workers

  

  Bloomberg The Trump administration has ordered thousands of furloughed federal employees back to work without pay to inspect planes, issue tax refunds, monitor food safety and facilitate the sale of offshore oil drilling rights. The efforts in recent days illustrate how President Donald Trump is trying to limit the impact of the partial government shutdown and shield favoured industries as ...

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• 16 January

  Volkswagen-Ford alliance leaves investors feeling jilted

  

  Bloomberg The much-anticipated alliance announcement by Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co left investors feeling let down as it lacked a big-bucks plan to join forces on electric vehicles and self-driving cars. Wall Street was hoping for a blockbuster deal, such as the billions of dollars General Motors Co. landed for its self-driving unit from Honda and SoftBank Vision Fund ...

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• 16 January

  US home sales dip, price growth hits 6-year low

  

  Bloomberg Home sales in the US slumped in December, while prices inched up slightly, marking the smallest annual increase since the end of the last housing crash in 2012, according to data from brokerage Redfin. The median home price rose to $289,800 in December, a gain of 1.2 percent, the slowest monthly pace since March 2012. Sales dropped by almost ...

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• 16 January

  Germany looks to homegrown support

  

  Bloomberg The German economy will have to lean on homegrown support to put the brakes on a slowdown after its worst performance in five years. Record-low unemployment, stronger wage gains and fiscal stimulus will underpin domestic demand after Europe’s growth engine stuttered in the second half of 2018, even though it avoided a recession. With export prospects deteriorating, those buffers ...

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