July, 2018

• 9 July

  If US retreats, China will reshape global norms

  

  Everywhere one looks these days, it seems global norms are und-er assault. From South China Sea to Eastern Europe, longstanding international rules of the road — concepts such as non-aggression, freedom of navigation and self-determination — are being flagrantly flouted or subtly ero- ded. Ideas, like democracy and respect for human rights, that seemed to have become incontestably dominant are ...

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• 9 July

  Utility firms head into a cloudy future

  

  The world’s publicly listed utilities employed 3.7 million people, had a third of a trillion dollars in capital expenditures, and brought in $2.2 trillion in revenue in 2017. Power supply is an enormous industry. It’s also an industry that would still be recognisable to utility executives from a century ago. Delivery of electricity, natural gas and water will remain part ...

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• 9 July

  Keeping a billionaire’s satellite dream spinning

  If you’re a foreign bidder bent on a controversial takeover of a UK company, you can do worse than use the playbook Softbank Group Corp turned to when it acquired chip designer Arm Holdings in 2016. Start with a knock-out offer the target just can’t refuse, and pay in cash rather than your own wobbly shares. With the board on ...

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• 9 July

  Beware China equity bulls promising rich returns

  The next time an analyst tells you that China stocks look cheap, take it with a grain of salt. In Asia’s biggest economy, key accounting metrics such as return on equity are dead. Mainland shares are among the worst in the region, with the CSI 300 Index down 16 percent since January despite its members averaging double-digit revenue growth and ...

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• 9 July

  Brexit brouhaha cannot beat dollar weakness

  

  You’d hardly know there was a UK political crisis going by looking at the pound. Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan was so distasteful to one of her leading cabinet ministers that he quit — surely that is a recipe for the currency to tank. And yet, sterling managed to climb to its highest in almost a month versus the ...

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• 9 July

  Mid-sized asset managers ride into valley of death

  

  Rumours of the demise of medium-sized asset managers have proved to be greatly exaggerated, so far. But a combination of rising costs, a stagnant pool of profit and dwindling revenue in the next five years will hasten a divide in the industry between bigger firms enjoying economies of scale, and smaller specialists that can justify charging higher fees by excelling ...

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• 9 July

  Want faster economic growth? Embrace diversity

  

  During the past four decades, the US has become much more racially and ethnically diverse. The share of non-Hispanic white people residing in the country is now only 62 percent, while Hispanics and Asians together make up 22.5 percent. Since 2014, less than half of the kids born in the US have been born to two non-Hispanic white parents. Some ...

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• 9 July

  7-Eleven lands in Vietnam, aims for 100 stores

  

  Bloomberg For decades, Vietnamese have shopped, snacked and hung out at the country’s traditional markets: colorful, chaotic mazes of open air stalls where vendors hawk everything from fruits and vegetables, to sandwiches and sodas to the odd clucking chicken. Seven-Eleven is pushing a different model. The Japanese-owned chain in August opened its first outlet in the country, an air-conditioned, Wi-Fi ...

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• 9 July

  London Stansted owner sees quick fix for Brexit aviation threat

  

  Bloomberg London Stansted and Manchester airports owner MAG said it sees a relatively easy fix for the potential grounding of flights between the UK and European Union in the event of a so-called hard Brexit. The existing open-skies regime that permits unfettered flying by EU airlines within the bloc could easily be maintained by adopting a structure “mimicking” the status ...

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• 9 July

  Air France-KLM shares jump on June traffic rise, CEO speculation

  

  Bloomberg Air France-KLM shares jumped the most in more than a year after a French newspaper reported that the troubled carrier is getting closer to appointing a new boss, and June traffic figures were better-than-expected. The French government — the airline’s biggest shareholder — is pushing Catherine Guillouard, who heads Paris metro operator RATP, as the future chief executive officer, ...

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