December, 2018

• 30 December

  Hitachi to buy Polish auto-leasing operator

  

  Bloomberg Hitachi Ltd. is seeking to buy Polish leasing and vehicle-fleet operator Prime Car Management SA, potentially setting up a bidding war between the country’s largest lender and the Japanese manufacturing conglomerate. A local leasing and fleet-management unit of Hitachi offered to acquire all shares of Gdansk-based Prime Car at 12.09 zloty each, according to a filing. That would value ...

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• 30 December

  Hong Kong land sale offers impact market

  

  Bloomberg One of Hong Kong’s biggest sales of residential land this year added to the picture of a worsening home market. China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. won the site in Kai Tak with a bid of $1,726 per square foot of floor area. That’s 13 percent less than Goldin Group paid last month for a nearby parcel. “The number ...

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• 30 December

  Ghosn’s family say misconduct allegations are Nissan revolt

  

  Bloomberg The daughters of Nissan Motor Co.’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, indicted on suspicion of violating Japan’s financial reporting laws, believe the accusations are part of an internal revolt within the carmaker to prevent a merger with Renault, the New York Times reports. His eldest daughter, Caroline Ghosn, said when she saw Nissan Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa’s televised news ...

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• 30 December

  China bond rally ends 2018 on a high note

  Bloomberg China’s red-hot bond rally is ending the year on a high note. The nation’s 10-year government bond futures surged as much as 0.49 percent in intraday trading, the most since November 14, and the yield on the notes fell in the cash bond market. This came as the PBOC net injected $32 billion into the financial system through open-market ...

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• 30 December

  China asks universities to report on gene-editing work

  

  Bloomberg China’s Ministry of Education has asked universities to inspect all research work on gene editing and submit a report to the government by year end showing that the work doesn’t breach ethical boundaries. The order comes a month after Shenzhen-based researcher He Jiankui shocked the world by claiming he had edited the genes of a pair of twin baby ...

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• 30 December

  Carbon futures set to surge again in Europe next year

  

  Bloomberg The cost of pollution in the European Union’s cap-and-trade system is likely to surge again next year, contributing to rising electricity costs that are already uncomfortable for industry. Carbon futures, reflecting the price factories and utilities pay for their emissions, tripled in 2018, making it the best performing major commodity of the year. Those contracts may surge again in ...

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• 30 December

  UK poised to spend $137 million for no-deal ferry routes

  

  Bloomberg The UK has awarded contracts worth 108 million pounds ($137.2 million) to charter extra ferries for freight shipments between southern England and the rest of Europe in the event that a no-deal Brexit creates bottlenecks at Dover’s port, the BBC said. Department for Transport officials hired Brittany Ferries of France, Danish shipping firm DFDS and UK-based Seaborne Freight for ...

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• 30 December

  US pending home sales drop

  

  Bloomberg Contract signings to purchase previously owned US homes unexpectedly fell for a second month in November, offering yet another sign that the housing market is struggling. The index of pending home sales decreased 0.7 percent, according to data by the National Association of Realtors in Washington. The gauge slumped 7.7 percent from a year earlier on an unadjusted basis, ...

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• 30 December

  No grain in the rain as Vancouver export ships unable to load

  

  Bloomberg As Canadian grain companies spend millions to upgrade and build new export terminals in Vancouver, a new problem is threatening to cause transportation bottlenecks at the nation’s largest port: vessels can’t load grain in the rain. And it rains a lot in Vancouver. In Canada’s wettest major city, the practice of loading ocean-bound vessels with grain in rainy weather ...

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• 30 December

  Kim seeks more summits with Moon to tackle N-issues

  

  Bloomberg Kim Jong-un is intent on resolving the nuclear impasse that has stalled negotiations with the US and wants to hold more meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Moon’s office said. The North Korean leader sent Moon a personal letter of well wishes on Sunday, expressing a willingness to meet often in 2019 to advance peace talks and achieve ...

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