April, 2018

• 22 April

  India’s defense ambitions boost metal maker after tepid listing

  Bloomberg India’s ambition to build up its defense industry through a $250 billion program has sent shares of a state-owned metalmaker rocketing just days after a lukewarm trading debut. Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd., which makes specialty steel and is the country’s only producer of titanium alloys used in aerospace, has seen its market value surge 88 percent to 32 billion ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  Ping An Good Doctor aims $1.1bn HK IPO

  

  Bloomberg Chinese online healthcare platform Ping An Good Doctor, a unit of the country’s biggest insurer by market value, will start taking investors’ orders for a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise as much as HK$8.8 billion ($1.1 billion). The Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. subsidiary is offering about 160 million shares at HK$50.80 to HK$54.80 apiece, according ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  China firms have never been this reliant on foreign revenue

  

  Bloomberg When China released its key economic indicators, the statistics agency was quick to highlight how the country’s domestic consumption had propelled growth in the first quarter, offsetting external risks as trade tensions escalate. Yet for the country’s publicly listed companies, foreign business has never been so important. The percentage of sales that mainland-listed companies get outside their home country ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  EU reiterates demand for waiver from US tariffs as clock ticks down

  

  Bloomberg A top European Union official reiterated the bloc’s demand for a permanent exemption from the US’s steel and aluminum tariffs, as a temporary reprieve is set to expire on May 1 and fears mount that escalating trade tensions could threaten the global economy. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU is in close contact with US authorities ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  European car sales weakest in 5 years on Brexit-Britain drag

  

  Bloomberg European car sales turned in their weakest performance in the first quarter since an industrywide contraction five years ago, as UK consumers’ apprehension over Brexit continued to erode demand in the region’s second-largest market. First-quarter registrations edged up 0.6 percent, according to figures released by the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA. The gain was the slowest since ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  Netflix surges as users shrug off higher prices

  

  Bloomberg Netflix Inc. used to worry it would alienate customers by raising prices for its streaming service. Not anymore. The company posted its strongest first quarter since going public 16 years ago, despite raising prices for most of its customers over the past several months. Los Gatos, California-based Netflix added 7.41 million users in the period, accord-ing to a statement, ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  UK set for more ‘uninspiring’ growth after weak start to ’18

  

  Bloomberg The UK economy shows little sign of breaking out of its “pattern of uninspiring growth,” and the first quarter may have been weaker than expected. The first three months of the year may have seen gross domestic product gain as little as 0.2 percent as severe weather cramped growth, a report by the EY Item Club will probably say ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  Icahn, Deason step up Xerox battle with new investor letter

  

  Bloomberg The acrimonious fight over the future of Xerox Corp looks set to worsen after two of its largest shareholders, activist investor Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, released a report alleging widespread corporate governance failures in the way the company negotiated its $6.1 billion sale to Fujifilm Holdings Corp. In a letter to Xerox shareholders, Icahn and Deason accused Xerox’s ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  A global boom or bust?

  

  The global economy is on the mend — but will the recovery be quashed by too much worldwide debt? Just last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its forecast for world economic growth to 3.9 percent for both 2018 and 2019. Most advanced societies — the United States, Japan, Europe — grew faster in 2017 than expected, and the ...

  Read More »
• 22 April

  Asia couldn’t quit FB even if it wanted to

  

  Indonesia, home to roughly 6 percent of Facebook Inc.’s users, isn’t happy with the social-media giant. Officials there are even threatening to shut the service down after its latest egregious privacy scandal. That sounds like an ominous threat — but it’s empty. In Indonesia, as across the developing world, Facebook is no longer just a platform for sharing photos and ...

  Read More »