March, 2017

• 26 March

  Sinopec profit rises as pipeline sales top up refining boost

  

    Bloomberg China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. reported its first profit gain in three years as the world’s largest oil refiner got a boost from cheaper crude and took a one-time gain from pipeline sales. Net income in 2016 rose 44 percent to 46.7 billion yuan ($6.8 billion), the company known as Sinopec said in a statement to the Shanghai ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  China’s HNA buys $446mn stake in Old Mutual US unit

  

    Bloomberg Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. agreed to buy a 25 percent stake in Old Mutual Plc’s U.S. asset management unit for about $446 million, adding to a $30 billion spending spree since last year. Old Mutual is selling down its holdings in OM Asset Management to HNA Group in two tranches, according to an emailed statement on Sunday ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  California deepens Trump rift, keeps clean emission rules

  

    Bloomberg California’s environmental regulator broke with the Trump administration by maintaining its cleaner- car standards through 2025 and launching a formal effort to write even tougher rules for the following five years. The California Air Resources Board voted unanimously to maintain the state’s 2025 limits on tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions and begin drafting stricter goals for zero-emission vehicle sales ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  Uber to suspend autonomous tests after Arizona accident

  

    Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. is suspending its self-driving car program after one of its autonomous vehicles was involved in a high-impact crash in Tempe, Arizona, the latest incident for a company reeling from multiple crises. In a photo posted on Twitter, one of Uber’s Volvo self-driving SUVs is pictured on its side next to another car with dents and ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  Barrick Gold chairman’s total compensation boosted in 2016

  

    Bloomberg Barrick Gold Corp. awarded Executive Chairman John Thornton $8.5 million in total compensation last year, more than double what he received in 2015 when he gave up his bonus in the wake of investor criticism of pay packages at the world’s largest gold producer. Thornton received a salary of $2.5 million, long-term incentives of $5.32 million, $307,198 in ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  Drop in herring a mystery in Maine as bait price booms

    ROCKLAND / AP Maine’s booming lobster industry has a big problem involving a little fish. The state’s iconic lobster fishery is healthy, having set records for volume and value in 2016. But the fishery for herring, a small schooling fish that lobsters love to eat, is another story. Herring is suddenly the second-most valuable fishery in the state, and ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  Health firms plan for $8.6bn market opening in Finland

  

    Bloomberg Finland’s need to rein in public spending could be a boon for the nation’s private health-care providers. The parliament this month started a debate on government plans to open up the country’s 8 billion-euro ($8.6 billion) basic health-care and welfare market to private competition by 2019. More freedom for patients to choose their doctor will lead to better ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  Watchmakers confront US ‘consumer blockage’

  

    Bloomberg Just as a four-year slump in Chinese demand for Swiss watches shows signs of ending, sales in the US, the next-largest market, have wilted. Swiss watchmakers have been caught off-guard as demand keeps sinking this year in the US, which is key for Rolex, LVMH’s TAG Heuer and Richemont’s Baume & Mercier. That’s raising concern that consumers there ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  UK tells WhatsApp to open up to intelligence services

  

    Bloomberg UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp messaging system should open its encryption to security services and urged online companies to be more aggressive in shutting down sites exploited by terrorists. After newspapers disclosed that Khalid Masood, who killed four people in London last week, had used WhatsApp shortly before he began his attack, Rudd identified ...

  Read More »
• 26 March

  Food lobby calls for tariff-free post-Brexit trade with EU

    Bloomberg Industry bodies representing the UK food supply chain have called on the government to seek a tariff-free trade agreement with the European Union during coming Brexit negotiations. In a joint statement on Sunday, the British Retail Consortium, the National Farmers Union and the Food and Drink Federation urged Prime Minister Theresa May to also ensure transitional trade agreements ...

  Read More »