August, 2018

• 25 August

  Managers at UK TSB arm to step down

  

  Bloomberg Three senior executives at Banco de Sabadell SA’s British unit will step down in an overhaul that the bank said is unrelated to the meltdown of its IT system earlier this year. The UK arm, known as TSB Banking Group, will see Treasurer Ian Firth, Chief Marketing Officer Nigel Gilbert and Human Resources Director Rachel Lock retire in the ...

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• 25 August

  Mizuho chases riskier clients overseas, trying to revive profit

  

  Bloomberg Mizuho Financial Group Inc. is becoming more aggressive in chasing riskier clients outside Japan as it seeks to reverse the recent decline in its full-year profit, according to Chief Executive Officer Tatsufumi Sakai. The Tokyo-based lender may have been a “little conservative” in adjusting its asset profile towards non-investment grade assets overseas and away from lower-margin clients, Sakai said. ...

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• 25 August

  Unilever, Suzuki find pricing power as India’s growth soars

  

  Bloomberg From Mercedes-Benz AG to Unilever, companies in India are finding power to pass on higher costs to consumers, a sign that demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy is well-entrenched. After the twin shocks of a cash ban in 2016 and the chaotic introduction of a consumption tax last year, India’s economic recovery is gaining momentum. Businesses are taking ...

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• 25 August

  GSK heads for record ahead of consumer business sale in India

  

  Bloomberg GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd. is headed for a record high after parent GlaxoSmithKline Plc was said to have requested bids by mid-September for its Indian consumer-health unit. Shares of the Indian unit rose as much as 8.3 percent, the biggest intraday advance since February 14, and were set for a record close in Mumbai. Glaxo has sent out an ...

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• 25 August

  Australia bans China’s Huawei, ZTE from 5G network projects

  

  Bloomberg Australia banned China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. from supplying next-generation wireless equipment to the nation’s telecom operators, the latest blow in an escalating global battle over network security. The government gave carriers new security guidance for fifth-generation mobile technology and warned that using government-linked suppliers would risk breaching their obligations. The nature of 5G technology means security ...

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• 25 August

  Hurricane Lane pummels Hawaii with rain

  Bloomberg A weakening Hurricane Lane has brought record rainfall to Hawaii, where flooding threatens $8 billion worth of homes. In 12 hours, 16.48 inches of rain fell on the Big Island of Hawaii, and daily records were set at Hilo International Airport on Wednesday and on Thursday, the National Weather Service said. Roads on the Big Island have been washed ...

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• 25 August

  Walmart asks beauty suppliers to look beyond China for sourcing

  

  Bloomberg Walmart Inc. has asked its cosmetics suppliers to consider sourcing their goods in countries outside of China, one of the first signs that the world’s largest retailer hopes to dilute the impact of the Trump administration’s looming tariffs. A “large amount” of items in the cosmetics category fall under the most-recent proposed levies on Chinese goods, according to an ...

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• 25 August

  Inflation is back. Will it kill the US economy?

  

  Inflation is back. What do we do about it? For starters: Don’t ignore it. The latest consumer price index (CPI) — the government’s best-known inflation indicator — reported a 2.9 percent increase from July 2017. The last time the year-over-year gain was higher was in December 2011. Though hardly a cause for panic, it suggests intensifying price and wage pressures ...

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• 25 August

  Trade war won’t affect Chinese GDP

  

  Analysts are trying urgently to evaluate the potential impact of a full-fledged trade war on the Chinese economy. This typically involves estimating how much various tariff scenarios will reduce China’s GDP growth, with current estimates ranging from the minimal, 0.1 or 0.2 percentage points, to the substantial — 2 percentage points. This is probably the right way to evaluate the ...

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• 25 August

  This $86 billion gases deal is springing a leak

  Getting two management teams to agree on a deal to create the world’s largest industrial gases group was hard enough. Finalising the combination of Praxair Inc and Linde AG is proving harder still. The former, in particular, should be asking if the benefits really are worth it. The possibility of a transaction surfaced in August 2016. An agreement to create ...

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