August, 2018

• 8 August

  Centrica ‘gas unit’ hits millions of UK energy users with price hike

  

  Bloomberg Centrica Plc raised its price for power and gas for a second time this year, citing soaring costs of buying energy on the wholesale market. The utility’s British Gas unit, the nation’s biggest supplier to homes, will increase its standard variable tariff in October, hiking the average bill for the 3.5 million customers on the plan by 3.8 percent ...

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• 8 August

  Virgin buys damaged Caribbean solar farm

  Bloomberg A clean-power company owned by billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has taken over a Caribbean solar farm that was damaged last year by Hurricane Maria. Virgin’s BMR Energy unit, which develops, owns and operates clean-energy projects in the Caribbean and Latin America, plans to restore the 4-megawatt farm in St. Croix, the US Virgin Islands, and take over a ...

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• 8 August

  Oil price jump sends Saudi quarterly revenue up 67%

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s second-quarter budget revenue increased 67 percent from the year-earlier period as higher oil prices helped boost income, the country’s Finance Ministry said in a statement. Revenue climbed to 273.6 billion riyals ($73 billion), boosted by an 82 percent increase in oil revenue, the ministry said on Wednesday. Non-oil revenue rose 42 percent to 89.4 billion riyals, while ...

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• 8 August

  Energy deals decline in Canada as oil rally heals

  

  Bloomberg Investors have been pushing Canadian energy companies to merge so they can cut costs and combine resources. That isn’t going so well this year. The value of deals involving Canadian oil, natural gas and pipeline companies slumped 29 percent to $45.5 billion in the first seven months of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Exclude $22.3 billion ...

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• 8 August

  Snap’s revenue gains signal more stability as Saudi’s Alwaleed invests

  Bloomberg Snap Inc. shares fell the most in about two months after the company reported its first-ever drop in daily active users. But revenue gains in the second quarter proved that the company is making headway in the mobile-advertising market dominated by Facebook Inc. and Google. The declining user numbers at Snapchat, attributed to an unpopular app redesign, worried analysts ...

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• 8 August

  ABN to raise payout after pruning investment bank

  

  Bloomberg Dutch state-controlled bank ABN Amro Group NV is edging towards raising its payout to shareholders after a strong second quarter and cuts to its underperforming investment bank. “Yes, we feel more confident there after this quarter,” Chief Executive Officer Kees van Dijkhuizen said at a press conference when asked about a dividend increase. The higher payout could take the ...

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• 8 August

  Commonwealth Bank’s record-profit run ends on series of scandal costs

  

  Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s record-profit run is over after the nation’s biggest lender paid the price for a series of scandals and missteps. Cash profit from continuing operations fell 4.8 percent to A$9.23 billion ($6.85 billion) in the 12 months ended on June 30, the Sydney-based lender said in a statement. That was the first drop in annual profit ...

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• 8 August

  HSBC eyes new bond plan in Uruguay

  

  Bloomberg The Uruguayan subsidiary of HSBC may seek regulatory approval as soon as next year for a second covered bond programme of about $100 million as the bank aims to take 15 percent of the home loan market in two years, according to senior executives. “I wouldn’t rule out pitching a new programme to the central bank if the origination ...

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• 8 August

  Deutsche’s SE Asia top official quits

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s Southeast Asia vice chairman Philip Lee is leaving the German lender, capping a string of senior departures in the region. Lee, also the chief country officer for Singapore, is departing to pursue other interests, after building out the bank’s Southeast Asia client franchise over the past five years, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. ...

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• 8 August

  Tesla engages Chinese banks to fund its Shanghai factory

  

  Bloomberg Elon Musk’s shock $82 billion offer to buy out the loss-making Tesla Inc. has the market wondering just how he will find the cash. But when it comes to his grand plans to build electric cars in China, he already has the answer: the nation’s state-owned banks. With a factory just outside of Shanghai key to Musk’s vision of ...

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