October, 2016

• 25 October

  Troubled Italian bank to cut 2,600 jobs, close branches

  

    MILAN / AP Troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena unveiled on Tuesday a restructuring plan that will include new management, thousands of job cuts, hundreds of branch closings and the disposal of soured loans in a bid to entice investors to inject up to 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in new capital. CEO Marco Morelli said the ...

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• 25 October

  BOE optimism wilts in long-term debt as Brexit sparks rout

  

    Bloomberg Long-term sterling bonds suggest investors are quickly losing confidence in the Bank of England’s (BOE) ability to support debt markets through the UK’s departure from the European Union. Holders have lost about 10 percent in as little as seven weeks on long-dated notes issued by Vodafone Group Plc, British American Tobacco Plc and WPP Plc. The bond sales ...

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• 25 October

  Investcorp to acquire 3i’s $271mn debt mgmt arm

    Bloomberg Bahrain-based alternative investor Investcorp Bank BSC agreed to buy the debt management arm of 3i Group Plc, more than doubling its assets under management. Investcorp has agreed to pay $271 million for the business, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The 3i unit will add $12 billion to the firm’s assets under management, bringing Investcorp’s total ...

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• 25 October

  Egypt raids sugar sellers as prices shoot up

  

    Bloomberg Egypt has been facing a shortage of sugar for weeks as a currency crunch and rising global prices curbed imports. Authorities have accused traders of hoarding, and seized stocks from companies including Edita Food Industries — one of Egypt’s largest producers. With inflation at a seven-year high, the sugar crisis is making it harder for the government to ...

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• 25 October

  Crude climbs up as OPEC chief seeks to resolve output plan

  

    Reuters Oil climbed with OPEC’s secretary-general set to visit Baghdad on Tuesday for talks aimed at resolving a deal on output after Iraq said it should be exempt from planned cuts. Futures rose as much as 0.8 percent in New York after falling 0.7 percent Monday. Mohammed Barkindo will meet with Iraq’s prime minister and oil minister, according to ...

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• 25 October

  ‘OPEC cut may hasten oil market rebalance’

    Singapore / AFP Under current conditions, the IEA expects global output to exceed demand until the second half of 2017, Fatih Birol told journalists on the sidelines of an energy conference in Singapore. “But we know that the producers are thinking of intervening in the markets. The OPEC and non-OPEC producers, if they intervene in the markets, this rebalance ...

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• 25 October

  Record green power installations beat fossil fuel

  

    Bloomberg Renewable energy reached an important turning point last year with record new installations of emissions-free power surpassing sources that burn fossil fuel, according the International Energy Agency. New installations of renewable energy overtook conventional power for the first time in 2015, the Paris-based agency said on Tuesday in its Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report. Global green power rose ...

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• 25 October

  China’s steel juggernaut gathers speed in Asia

  

    Bloomberg China’s steel juggernaut is picking up speed closer to home. As governments in Europe and the U.S. limited supplies of Chinese metal they said was dumped on the market, the world’s largest producer is expanding exports to its neighbors in Southeast Asia. A third of all Chinese shipments now end up in countries like Vietnam, Thailand and the ...

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• 25 October

  Property boom boosts Korea’s economy

    Bloomberg South Korea’s economy grew slightly more than forecast in the three months through Sept. 30, supported by a property market boom, while exports and consumption were disappointing. Gross domestic product expanded 0.7 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, when it gained 0.8 percent; Estimate was for a 0.6 percent increase. The economy expanded 2.7 ...

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• 25 October

  Xiaomi goes upmarket to arrest sales slide

    Bloomberg Xiaomi Corp., once the biggest smartphone vendor in China, unveiled its most expensive handsets as it seeks to recapture sales with a push into high-end devices. The Mi Note 2, sporting a curved screen similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Edge, sells for as much as 3,499 yuan ($516), co-founder Lei Jun said in Beijing Tuesday. It also showed off ...

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