March, 2017

• 18 March

  M&S drops WPP’s Finsbury PR in cost-cutting push

    Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc (M&S) is severing ties to financial public-relations adviser Finsbury at the end of March as the London-based retailer seeks to cut costs. M&S’s internal press-relations team will take over responsibility for the work Finsbury has been carrying out since the WPP Plc-owned agency was hired by former Chief Executive Officer Marc Bolland in ...

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• 18 March

  JC Penney plans to shutter 138 stores

    NEW YORK / AP JC Penney listed for the first time the 138 locations it will shutter in the coming months as the retailer seeks to cut costs and improve its profitability. Like other department stores, JC Penney Co. is hurting as more people shop online instead of heading to the mall. The closures are part of the company’s ...

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• 18 March

  China’s homemade jet poised for first flight by April end

  

    Bloomberg A single-aisle passenger jet that is being built by the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China is set for its first test flight by the end of next month, according to Philippe Petitcolin, chief executive officer of Safran SA, an aircraft engine maker. Any problems with taxi trials may alter the schedule, Petitcolin said in an interview in Paris. ...

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• 18 March

  Russian bank raised millions in Irish shadow banking

  

    Bloomberg With the management and shareholders of one of Russia’s biggest regional lenders deep in unsuccessful talks with the central bank about how to save it from collapse last November, an obscure company in Dublin sold $60 million of bonds on its behalf. The amount wasn’t nearly enough to cover the estimated 97 billion ruble ($1.6 billion) hole in ...

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• 18 March

  ‘Fixing fake accounts will take more time’

  

    NEW YORK / AP Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said the company could need several more months to resolve customer damage tied to its massive sales practices scandal, such as figuring out if people had trouble getting approved for other loans because of the fake accounts bank employees opened. Sloan reiterated what he has said since becoming CEO in ...

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• 18 March

  Goldman Sachs cuts Lloyd’s pay to $22mn for 2016

  

    Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reduced chief executive officer Lloyd Blankfein’s annual compensation 27%, awarding him $22 million for 2016 after eliminating a long-term incentive award. Blankfein, 62, received $16 million in performance shares and a $4 million cash bonus, in addition to his $2 million salary, the New York-based firm said Friday in its annual proxy filing. Unlike ...

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• 18 March

  Ex-Barclays boss buys Panmure in investment banking return

  

    LONDON / Reuters Former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond marked a return to investment banking in Britain with a Qatari-backed takeover of stockbroker Panmure Gordon, one of the oldest names in the City of London. Diamond, who left Barclays in 2012 during the Libor interest rate-rigging scandal, is making the move through his private equity firm Atlas Merchant Capital, ...

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• 18 March

  BofA’s banks says S&P 500 may hit 2,600

    Bloomberg The S&P 500 Index could reach 2,600 as the global economy improves and corporate earnings climb, said Keith Banks, president of Bank of America Corp.’s (BofA) US Trust unit. “It’s natural to get nervous when you’ve seen the run that we’ve seen, but what I would bring things back to are underlying fundamentals,” Banks said in an interview ...

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• 18 March

  Qatar central bank raises policy rates

  

    DOHA / Reuters Qatar’s central bank said that it raised its overnight lending rate by 25 basis points to 5.0 percent after the U.S. Federal Reserve tightened policy by a similar margin. The central bank also increased its overnight deposit rate by 25 bps to 1.25 percent. However, the central bank reduced banks’ reserve requirement — the amount of ...

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• 18 March

  Google to revamp ad policies after UK, big brands boycott

  

    Bloomberg Google, the primary revenue driver for Alphabet Inc., announced changes to its advertising policies after major brands pulled ads from the platform because they appeared alongside offensive content, such as videos promoting terrorism or anti-Semitism. The US company said in a blog post it would give clients more control over where their ads appear on both YouTube, the ...

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