September, 2016

• 13 September

  Ikea targets China, India expansion to meet sales growth aim

    Bloomberg Ikea Group laid out plans to accelerate its expansion in China and open its first store in India as the world’s largest furniture retailer seeks to boost sales by almost 50 percent over the next four years. In China, where the company opened its first store almost two decades ago, sustained growth will enable an accelerated pace of ...

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• 13 September

  Billionaire Kuok to seek $500 million cinema unit sale

  

    Bloomberg Billionaire Robert Kuok is seeking a buyer for Golden Screen Cinemas Sdn., Malaysia’s largest movie theater chain, in a deal that could fetch as much as $500 million, people with knowledge of the matter said. PPB Group Bhd., a Kuala Lumpur-listed company controlled by the Malaysian tycoon, has received first-round bids for the cinema business, according to one ...

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• 13 September

  China to be first trillion-dollar air market: Boeing

  

    Beijing / AFP China will become the world’s first trillion-dollar aviation market as its expanding middle class takes to the skies in ever greater numbers, US manufacturer Boeing predicted on Tuesday. The world’s most populous country is expected to add more than 6,800 new aircraft to its commercial fleet worth $1.03 trillion by 2035, Boeing said in its annual ...

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• 13 September

  China’s infrastructure binge may be doing more harm than good

  Bloomberg  For all the roads, bridges and railways that China builds every year in an effort to keep the economy humming, the massive splurge may not be having the desired effect. That’s because more than half of China’s infrastructure investment has destroyed economic value instead of generating it, according to a study from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. ...

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• 13 September

  Cheap money crushes pessimism in Singapore offices

  

    Bloomberg  Everything that could go wrong for Singapore’s commercial property market already has. The city-state’s export-driven economy is slowing, banks are shrinking, industrial production is sputtering, home prices are falling, and consumers are the glummest in seven years. To make matters worse, tourism and hospitality businesses are being threatened by the Zika virus, which has infected more than 300 ...

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• 13 September

  UK appointee to EU executive vows freedom from London

  

    Bloomberg The new U.K. appointee to the European Union’s executive arm pledged to act independently of the British government as the rest of the EU waits for Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger Brexit negotiations. Julian King, a career British diplomat designated to become counter-terrorism chief at the European Commission, told a confirmation hearing that he has the international ...

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• 13 September

  Brexit fails to boost support for Scots independence

    Bloomberg Britain’s decision to leave the European Union has failed to boost support for Scottish independence, with more voters still opposed to a split with the rest of the U.K., according to the latest poll. The survey by Kantar TNS found 47 percent of people in favor of sticking with Britain and 41 percent backing independence. After excluding the ...

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• 13 September

  Italy industry output exceeds outlook, prompting growth hope

    Bloomberg Italian industrial output rose more than economists estimated in July, led by pharmaceuticals and vehicle production, prompting hopes for a renewed recovery after growth stalled in the second quarter. Production increased 0.4 percent compared with June when it decreased a revised 0.3 percent, statistics agency Istat said Tuesday in Rome. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of ...

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• 13 September

  German ZEW investor confidence unchanged as Brexit risks persist

    Bloomberg German investor confidence was unchanged in September after recent data signaled economic momentum cooled. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim said its index of investor and analyst expectations, which aims to predict economic developments six months ahead, held at 0.5. Economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted an increase to 2.5. While Germany is benefiting from ...

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• 13 September

  World tax dodger havens watch Brazil try to sell deadbeats’ debt

  

    Bloomberg Brazilian President Michel Temer is turning to an unlikely source to help solve his country’s fiscal crisis — deadbeat taxpayers. Temer, 75, who was sworn in after President Dilma Rousseff’s Aug. 31 impeachment, wants to turn a chunk of uncollected taxes into securities and sell them to investors, an idea that only a few governments have ever tried. ...

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