January, 2017

• 24 January

  De Beers gets biggest diamond sale in a year

  

    Bloomberg De Beers had its biggest diamond sale in at least a year as the gem industry restocked after the key holiday period. The company, owned by Anglo American Plc, sold $720 million of diamonds in its first sale of the year, compared with $545 million at last year’s January offering, it said in a statement. The world’s biggest ...

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• 24 January

  UK offshore wind cheapest future large-scale energy

    Bloomberg UK offshore wind power is on target to become the cheapest source of large-scale clean energy, surpassing the government-mandated price target four years early. The levelized cost of energy for offshore wind — a benchmark measuring affordability over the lifetime of generation assets — dropped below 100 pounds a megawatt-hour in 2016, according to a report by UK’s ...

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• 24 January

  Uber wants court stamp on arbitration win as hint to drivers

  

  Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. is asking a California judge to grant a stamp of approval on what it says is the first decision by an arbitrator denying a driver’s bid to be treated as an employee instead of an independent contractor. It could be the first of many such rulings after a federal appeals court’s decision last year that most ...

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• 24 January

  United Kingdom’s threat to weaponize tax is no bluff

  

    The UK government is threatening to give its post-Brexit economy a shot in the arm by reducing corporate taxes to become a sort of “Singapore-on-Thames,” a tax haven on the perimeter of the European Union. EU officials are dismissive of the idea; but they may be whistling past a graveyard. At a rate of 20 percent, the UK currently ...

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• 24 January

  Snapchat prepares for its close-up

  

    Snapchat isn’t a public company yet, but it is already making its first smart move to divert the scrutiny of pesky public stockholders. Sure, there’s parent company Snap Inc.’s decision to bring in a new set of stock owners that won’t have even the appearance of a say in how the company operates. A potentially bigger deal is Snapchat’s ...

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• 24 January

  China’s middlemen aren’t dead yet

  

    This could be Li & Fung Ltd.’s (very slim) chance to shine. Donald Trump on Monday officially quashed the Asia-Pacific free trade pact that would have made it cheaper for US companies to import goods from countries such as Vietnam and Japan. He has also threatened to institute a 45 percent tariff on goods imported from China. Conventional wisdom ...

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• 24 January

  China raises medium-term loan rate to tighten policy

  

    Bloomberg China’s central bank increased the interest rates on medium-term loans that it uses to manage liquidity, a move analysts say signals its intent to keep a tight rein on leverage in the financial system. The one year Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) rate was raised to 3.1 percent from 3 percent and the six-month rate to 2.95 percent from ...

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• 24 January

  Beijing urged to tighten monetary policy

    Bloomberg China should tighten monetary policy as signs of overheating emerge amid quickening inflation, according to the top-ranked forecaster for the nation’s economy. With policy makers torn between reining in price gains and stabilizing growth, corporate lending has become too cheap, said Song Yu, chief China economist at Beijing Gao Hua Securities Co. The real interest rate for companies ...

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• 24 January

  Lloyds suffers cyber-attack on bank’s UK systems

  

    Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc was hit by a cyber attack that disrupted online services for customers two weeks ago, a person with knowledge of the matter said, amid mounting concern over the threat hackers pose to major banks. Britain’s largest mortgage lender was targeted by a denial-of-service attack, which aims to cripple an online system by flooding it ...

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• 24 January

  Kenyan banks face new salvo with state-loan proposals

    Bloomberg A new row is brewing between Kenyan banks and parliament after a lawmaker proposed placing restrictions on deposits by state-owned companies, months after the state imposed a cap on lending rates. Kimani Ichungw’a, vice chairman of the Public Investments Committee, drafted a bill seeking to bar state-owned corporations from investing or depositing public funds with lenders in which ...

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