September, 2016

• 25 September

  Bank with 20% bad loans poses challenge for Modi

  

    Bloomberg As Indian Overseas Bank tackles the highest ratio of soured loans among lenders in Asia’s third-largest economy, it doesn’t help that there hasn’t been a chief executive officer at the helm for about three months. The state-controlled lender based in the southern city of Chennai has had a leadership vacuum since R. Koteeswaran retired on June 30 after ...

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• 25 September

  NBC wins North American panda bond race

  

    Bloomberg National Bank of Canada (NBC) is set to become the first North American bank to issue panda bonds, joining international lenders including Standard Chartered Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc in issuing yuan-denominated securities in China’s domestic bond market. National Bank, the nation’s sixth-largest lender by assets, was approved to sell up to 5 billion yuan ($750 million) of ...

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• 25 September

  CBA to take mobile-bank service deeper into Africa

  

    Bloomberg A Kenyan lender that transformed from an also-ran into the country’s biggest deposit-taker, mainly through a mobile-phone banking service started four years ago, plans to use the product as a beachhead to expand outside its East African home base. Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., which also has units in Tanzania and Uganda, is seeking to export its M-Shwari ...

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• 25 September

  Indonesia struggles to tap volcano power

  

    Wayang Windu / AFP Columns of steam shoot from the ground at an Indonesian power plant sitting in the shadow of an active volcano, as energy is tapped from the red-hot underbelly of the archipelago. Pipes zig-zag up rugged mountainsides covered in tea plantations, carrying steam from the Earth’s core to power enormous, electricity-generating turbines at the Wayang Windu ...

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• 25 September

  Li seeks new tack in ties with Cuba

  

    Havana / AFP Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said it was time for a new direction in relations with Cuba, during a landmark visit to the Americas’ lone communist-ruled state. During the first visit by a Chinese premier since the two countries established diplomatic relations 56 years ago Li pledged to “inject a new dynamic in (bilateral) relations,” Cuban state ...

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• 25 September

  China starts up world’s largest radio telescope

  

    Beijing / AFP The world’s largest radio telescope began operating in southwestern China on Sunday, a project Beijing says will help humanity search for alien life. The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), nestled between hills in the mountainous region of Guizhou, began working around noon, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Built at a cost of 1.2 billion ...

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• 25 September

  Hawaiian Air mulls role for A380 Superjumbo

  

    Bloomberg Hawaiian Airlines is waiting to see whether six A330neo jetliners ordered from Airbus will enable it to begin service to Europe. The U.S. carrier also is looking at adding more routes to China and the eastern U.S., and examining whether it should consider acquiring the A380 superjumbo, according to its chief executive officer. Flights to London are a ...

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• 25 September

  BHS to reopen UK online brand

    Bloomberg BHS will reopen as a UK online brand this week as new owner Al Mana Group of Qatar seeks to revive the 88-year-old British retailer only months after it failed. Al Mana, which acquired the BHS brand at the time of its collapse in June, will initially sell a range of lighting and home-furnishing products on BHS.com, the ...

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• 25 September

  Southwest sees 10 max jets in fleet before first flights in 2017

  

    Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co. expects to take delivery of 10 of the latest version of Boeing Co.’s 737 before it begins flying the aircraft commercially next year, a consequence of the plane’s smoother-than-expected development. The airline is still discussing a delivery schedule for the Max 8 with Boeing and plans to take the planes by late August or early ...

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• 25 September

  French jet deal highlights obstacles for foreign firms

  

    New Delhi / AFP The less-than-supersonic sale of French Rafale fighter jets to India has highlighted the obstacles facing foreign arms firms seeking to do business with the world’s biggest weapons importer. India has signed a series of key defence deals under Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of a $100 billion upgrade of its Soviet-era military hardware, making ...

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