September, 2018

• 19 September

  This Indian bank merger must put strategy before size

  

  He may have struggled to mend India’s broken banking system, but at least Prime Minister Narendra Modi is shrinking the number of state-run banks to 19 from 26. Although that’s nowhere close to the original idea of ending up with just six, it’s a good start. The next step will be to nudge most taxpayer-funded banks away from me-too corporate ...

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• 19 September

  Ma warns Alibaba, China to prepare for 20-year trade war

  

  Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma cautioned China’s business and political leaders to prepare for the trade war with the US to last longer and have a bigger impact than most people think. China’s richest man said the dispute could last 20 years and persist beyond the presidency of Donald Trump, as the world’s two strongest economic powers ...

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• 19 September

  Beijing decreases US Treasury holdings as trade war intensifies

  

  Bloomberg China’s holdings of US Treasuries fell to a six-month low in July, just as a trade war between the world’s two largest economies began heating up. China’s ownership of US bonds, bills and notes slipped to $1.17 trillion, the lowest level since January and down from $1.18 trillion in June, according to data released by the Treasury Department. Japan, ...

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• 19 September

  SK Group to acquire $470mn stake in Vietnam’s Masan

  

  Bloomberg SK Holdings Co. is acquiring the largest foreign stake in Masan Group Corp. for about $470 million, in a deal that will value the Vietnamese diversified business group at about $5 billion. The South Korean group, which has businesses ranging from telecommunications to service sectors, will buy Masan Group’s entire 109.9 million treasury shares for $4.29 each, the companies ...

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• 19 September

  Chinese art, antiquities escape Trump tariffs

  

  Bloomberg Chinese art and antiquities have been spared from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. At least so far. Trump ordered his administration to impose 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods next week and to raise the rate to 25 percent in January if Beijing refuses to offer trade concessions. Among items removed from the initial list of goods ...

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• 19 September

  World Bank, China looking at co-financing African projects

  Bloomberg The World Bank and China have held talks on how they can finance projects in Africa together, the lender’s vice president for the continent said. “We think it’s a good thing the continent has different sources of financing,” Hafez Ghanem said in an interview in Abidjan. “In my discussions with the Chinese authorities, we were looking at how we ...

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• 19 September

  China-US trade war will escalate: US ex-negotiator

  

  Bloomberg The trade dispute between the US and China will continue for the foreseeable future and escalate, and is going to be painful for Americans, according to a former US trade negotiator. “For the foreseeable future, we’re going to be in a tariff world and we’ll see escalation,” said Asia Society Vice President Wendy Cutler, formerly a negotiator at the ...

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• 19 September

  ‘No-deal Brexit could cost consumers $7bn in car tariffs’

  

  Bloomberg A so-called Brexit without a trade deal between the UK and the European Union could cost the car industry and consumers at least $6.7 billion a year in vehicle tariffs, according to a report by a British industry group. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said the estimate is based on levies of 10 percent on cars exports ...

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• 19 September

  Morgan Stanley sees $2.5bn equity raise for Tesla in Q4

  

  Bloomberg Tesla Inc. could raise funds as soon as this year as Elon Musk’s company ramps up production and prepares for maturing debt, analysts at Morgan Stanley predict. The company, whose stock has slumped 25 percent in the past six weeks amid a string of controversies, could raise $2.5 billion in equity in the fourth quarter from investors that have ...

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• 19 September

  Starbucks paid 2.8% effective UK tax last year

  

  Bloomberg The European business of coffee chain Starbucks Corp. paid an effective UK tax rate of 2.8 percent last year after a payment from another part of the company boosted profits, the Financial Times reported. The company paid $5.9 million in UK taxes on a profit of $213 million in the year ended October 2017, down from earnings of $219 ...

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