January, 2018

• 29 January

  Tax cuts help Trump win fans at conservative Koch donor network

  

  Bloomberg There’s nothing like $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to help make friends at a gathering of conservative political donors. Donald Trump is gaining ground with members to the Koch political network, after the president’s name was hardly mentioned when the deep-pocketed individuals last assembled seven months ago. At that time, the group was skeptical of the former New York ...

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• 29 January

  Davos elite eyes M&A across Europe’s banking industry

  

  Bloomberg The rationale for merging some of Europe’s biggest lenders is compelling. That’s the view of many financial executives who met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week. A decade after the financial crisis, some of the region’s biggest lenders are facing declining revenue as interest rates linger near record lows, while legal bills and capital demands ...

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• 29 January

  Bahrain’s Ithmaar Bank plans aggressive expansion in Pakistan

  

  DUBAI / Reuters Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank plans to add more than 100 branches in Pakistan this year through its subsidiary Faysal Bank, to capitalise on the country’s low penetration rate of banking services, a senior executive said. Ithmaar Bank owns 66 percent of Faysal Bank, whose contribution to the Islamic retail bank’s overall balance sheet would likely grow to more ...

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• 29 January

  ECB’s Knot says QE program must end soon

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank has to end its quantitative easing as soon as possible, according to ECB Governing Council member Klaas Knot, who said there’s not a single reason anymore to continue with the program. “The program has done what could realistically be expected of it,” Knot, who also heads the Dutch Central Bank, said in an interview on ...

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• 29 January

  Saudi foreign reserves rise for third straight month

  DUBAI / Reuters The Saudi Arabian central bank’s foreign reserves rose in December for a third consecutive month, a sign that higher oil prices may be easing pressure on the government’s finances, official data showed. The bank’s net foreign assets grew $2.0 billion from November to $488.9 billion last month, after increasing $1.0 billion in November and $8.3 billion in ...

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• 29 January

  Deutsche Bank could find silver lining despite Basel capital hit

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s big hit from stricter global capital standards may be softened by the small print. New rules give supervisors the option to exclude banks’ litigation payouts when calculating their so-called operational risk. If that happens, it would be a boon for Deutsche Bank and potentially improve returns for shareholders. The bank declined to comment specifically on the ...

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• 29 January

  United head’s plan may spur lower airfares

  

  Bloomberg Scott Kirby has a very specific view about how the three US hub-and-spoke airlines work best, having managed two of them. In his current job as president of United Airlines, Kirby’s role is to oversee a major overhaul of how the carrier operates, beginning with a broad restructuring of its three domestic-focussed hubs in Chicago, Denver and Houston. By ...

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• 29 January

  Singapore Air taps workers for ideas to boost efficiency

  

  Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd., the premium carrier that’s undergoing a business revamp to fend off competition from Gulf airlines and budget operators, is turning to its employees for ideas. Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier is setting up a lab and encouraging workers across its group—including SilkAir and Scoot—to submit proposals that would help boost efficiency in its operations, Chief Executive Officer ...

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• 29 January

  Immediate liquidity needs addressed: Steinhoff

  Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV said it has secured enough money to keep its businesses running in the immediate term and can now start talks with a broader group of creditors. The troubled South African retail group has arranged new credit lines for units in the UK, US and France as well as agreeing a restructuring of its Austrian division, ...

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• 29 January

  JD enlists Tencent as it preps to take on Amazon in US

  

  Bloomberg JD.com Inc. is preparing to make its US debut with a beachhead in Los Angeles, seeking to best arch-rival Alibaba and challenge Amazon.com Inc. on its home turf. The $68 billion company, which said in December 2017 it’ll start online sales in the US by the second half of 2018, is now seeking funds to bankroll a logistics build-up ...

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