May, 2016

• 23 May

  Bayer offers $62bn in cash to buy Monsanto

  

    Bloomberg Bayer AG made an unsolicited $62 billion all-cash offer to acquire Monsanto Co. and create the world’s biggest supplier of farm chemicals and genetically modified seeds, disclosing the terms of its bid amid investors’ growing concern that it might overpay. Bayer offered $122 per share in an all-cash bid in its May 10 written proposal, the Leverkusen-based company ...

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• 23 May

  French services lead pickup in private sector growth

    BLOOMBERG Growth in France’s private-sector economy accelerated more than analysts anticipated in May, despite a continued contraction in manufacturing, as services expanded at the fastest rate in seven months. A Purchasing Managers Index for both industries rose to 51.1 from 50.2 in April, London-based Markit Economics said on Monday. That compares with a median forecast of 50.4 in a ...

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• 23 May

  Brexit would cause yearlong recession, says UK Treasury

  

    Bloomberg The U.K. faces a yearlong recession if it leaves the European Union, according to a Treasury forecast issued as the government tries to persuade undecided voters that the risks of a so-called Brexit are too great. The Treasury’s assessment of the short-term impacts of a vote to quit the bloc, to be published Monday morning, offers two possibilities. ...

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• 23 May

  Sanders faces-off with White House on Puerto Rican aid

  

    Los Angeles / AP Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is breaking with the Obama administration and House lawmakers over a plan to restructure Puerto Rico’s $70 billion in debt, saying the legislation would make “a terrible situation even worse.” The Vermont senator writes in a letter released on Monday said that the deal reached last week between the White House ...

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• 23 May

  Obama confident TPP deal can be ratified in US

  

    Hanoi, Vietnam / AFP President Barack Obama said on Monday he remained confident the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal would be ratified in the United States despite strong political opposition in Washington. “The reason I remain confident is it’s the right thing to do,” he told reporters in Vietnam where he is currently on a three-day visit. “I have not ...

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• 23 May

  Telefonica’s Argentine revival starts with 192% price increase

  

      Bloomberg This month, Telefonica SA was able to raise the price of landline phone service in Argentina for the first time since 2000 — by a whopping 192 percent. The increase in the line-rental fee to about 38 pesos ($2.70) a month from 13 pesos in the carrier’s second-largest Latin American market comes after 16 years of government-frozen ...

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• 23 May

  Oil extends drop as Canada seeks to resume production

  

    Bloomberg Oil dropped for a fourth day as producers in Canada worked to resume operations after wildfires curbed output and Iran continued to raise exports amid a global surplus. July futures slid as much as 1.5 percent in New York. Cooler weather is helping to control a blaze in the heart of Canada’s oil-sands region and allowing Suncor Energy ...

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• 23 May

  Brazil economists bet big on Goldfajn

  BLOOMBERG Brazil economists forecast lower interest rates this year on the expectation incoming central bank president Ilan Goldfajn will ease monetary policy to stimulate growth. Economists reduced their 2016 Selic forecast to 12.75 percent from 13 percent the prior week, according to the weekly Focus survey conducted May 20. They also raised their IPCA inflation forecast to 7.04 percent, from ...

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• 23 May

  Vietnam’s new environmental politics

  

    The cross-country demonstrations currently taking place in Vietnam to protest massive fish die-offs along the central Vietnamese coast are truly remarkable. Not only were demonstrations at this scale unheard of even five years ago, but they beg the question of why thousands of demonstrators as far off as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are subjecting themselves to the ...

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• 23 May

  Why Beijing should work with Tsai Ing-wen

  

    Dalton Lin SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Taiwan’s new president, Tsai Ing-wen, finally delivered her keenly anticipated and closely watched inaugural speech on May 20. China had made it clear ever since Tsai’s election that if she hoped for the peaceful and cooperative cross-strait relations over the past eight years to continue, she needed to come to terms with the ...

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