November, 2018

• 14 November

  Alibaba-backed Babytree seeks $282mn in HK IPO

  Bloomberg Babytree Group, a Chinese parenting website backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Fosun International Ltd., is seeking as much as $282 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering. The Beijing-based company is offering 250.3 million shares at HK$6.80 to HK$8.80 apiece, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg. The deal, which is expected to price ...

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• 14 November

  SoftBank commits another $3 billion to WeWork

  

  Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. is continuing to push money into one of its biggest investments: WeWork Cos. The New York-based co-working company signed a $3 billion warrant with SoftBank, WeWork said in a discussion of its third-quarter earnings. SoftBank agreed to pay $3 billion to WeWork for the opportunity to buy shares before September 2019 at a price of $110 ...

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• 14 November

  US set to hold off on imposing tariffs on automobile imports

  

  Bloomberg The Trump administration will hold off for now on imposing new tariffs on automobile imports as top officials weigh revisions to a report on the national security implications, accordi-ng to two people familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump met with his top trade advisers at the White House to discuss a draft report on a Commerce Department investigation ...

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• 14 November

  German economy shrinks for first time since 2015

  

  Bloomberg The German economy shrank for the first time since early 2015 after the auto industry took a hit. The 0.2 percent contraction in the third quarter was worse than expected and the biggest in more than five years. While the hope is that the setback is related largely to new emissions tests that temporarily disrupted car production, the data ...

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• 14 November

  GE eyes $4bn from Baker Hughes stake sale

  

  Bloomberg General Electric Co jumped as Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp accelerated plans to pare the company’s stake in Baker Hughes with a deal that wo- uld raise about $4 billion at current prices. GE will sell as many as 166.2 million shares in the oilfield-services provider through a secondary offering and a stock repurchase by Baker Hughes, the companies ...

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• 14 November

  PG&E investors may not get California’s help soon

  Bloomberg As prices of stocks and bonds issued by PG&E Corp touch record lows, investors probably won’t get any certainty soon from the incoming California governor on how he would deal with the utility’s liabilities from the fatal fires ravaging the state. In a brief news conference with Governor Jerry Brown, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, who will succeed him in ...

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• 14 November

  Johnson Controls seals $13.2bn battery unit deal

  

  Bloomberg Johnson Controls International Plc’s $13.2 billion sale of its car-battery business completes the company’s dramatic makeover from an automotive supplier to a provider of systems for homes and buildings, setting the stage for growth through acquisitions. Chief Executive Officer George Oliver is betting on continued growth of “smart buildings” as companies seek to boost efficiency of working spaces with ...

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• 14 November

  UK inflation stays at 2.4% in October

  Bloomberg An anticipated pickup in UK inflation failed to materialise last month as food, clothing and transport prices declined. Annual consumer-price growth stayed at 2.4 percent in October, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. The figure is below the 2.5 percent predicted by both the Bank of England and economists in a Bloomberg survey. Food and non-alcoholic drink ...

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• 14 November

  Xi Jinping, not Trump, is the true cold warrior

  

  The US-China trade war is looking more and more like a cold war. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, crackdown on alleged Chinese theft of American technology, and rhetoric have overturned decades of US foreign policy that had prioritised cooperation. Meanwhile, his counterpart Xi Jinping hasn’t budged on any concessions. China experts worry that relations between the world’s two most important countries ...

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• 14 November

  Italy’s money problems are starting

  

  Italy has managed to scrape by with its 5.5 billion euros ($6.2 billion) monthly auction of three, seven and 20-year government bonds on Tuesday. It has now completed nearly 95 percent of its annual funding target, but that’s where the good news ends. It is still visibly struggling to place longer-dated paper. Benchmark 10-year yields stayed high, even after the ...

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