Bloomberg Group of Seven finance ministers will hold a teleconference this week to coordinate their response to the coronavirus outbreak, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday. Finance ministers need to ensure that their responses are “as coordinated as possible†in order to be effective, Le Maire said on France 2 television. “There will be concerted action,†Le ...
Read More »Rajeev Suri to step down as Nokia CEO
Bloomberg Nokia Oyj will replace Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Suri after the Finnish maker of telecommunications gear lost ground to rivals including Huawei Technologies Co in the race for 5G networks. Pekka Lundmark, the CEO of Fortum Oyj, will take over from Suri at the start of September. Nokia is also set to elect Sari Baldauf as its new chairman ...
Read More »BMW to livestream debut of i4 battery-car concept
Bloomberg With the annual Geneva car show cancelled for the first time since the World War II era, automakers are going virtual in a bid to wow the hordes who would otherwise descend on the Swiss city to inspect the latest models up close. BMW AG will livestream the debut of its i4 battery-car concept on Tuesday, while Mercedes-Benz’s popular ...
Read More »Dorsey absent as Twitter’s activist talks on CEO’s future
Bloomberg When Twitter Inc executives met their activist investor agitators from Elliott Management Corp for the first time last week, the man with the most to lose was absent. Jack Dorsey, the Twitter chief executive officer whose role is in the crosshairs, didn’t attend the summit in San Francisco where his future was the main topic of conversation, according to ...
Read More »The coronavirus gores Trump’s bull market
We all knew that the stock market boom would one day come to an end, but who imagined that the instrument of its demise would be a runaway global virus? The market had been setting new highs as late as February 12 and appeared little concerned with the coronavirus, whose effects seemed mainly confined to China. Since then, it’s been ...
Read More »China’s NIO needs a new strategy
Will a provincial government be able to save China’s Tesla wannabe? Investors seem to think so. The reality may be different. New York-listed NIO Inc., a self-described pioneer in China’s premium electric vehicle market and rival to Elon Musk’s company, said that it has made a tentative agreement with the municipal government of Hefei in Anhui province for funding support. ...
Read More »Warren Buffett eats profits ahead of virus
Warren Buffett is credited with that old saying about receding tides and embarrassed skinny-dippers. In Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s case, the lack of swimwear is one problem, but so is the anchor tied around its ankle. Part of that anchor is the old sage himself. Oxy, as it is known reported results for its first full quarter since acquiring Anadarko Petroleum ...
Read More »A global rout is a great time for a command economy
In times of distress, a centralised financial system can go a long way. Global investors, bruised by an ugly week of asset selloffs, can perhaps consider buying the dip — but only in China. In the past, if the US sneezed, emerging markets would soon be in the emergency room. Not this time. While the S&P 500 Index is heading ...
Read More »Germany should scrap its balanced-budget law
It’s not often these days that Germany’s Social Democrats have good economic ideas. But a forthcoming initiative by one of them makes eminent sense, and deserves more support than it’s likely to get. Olaf Scholz, the finance minister, wants to suspend the country’s so-called “debt brake,†a constitutional limit on public deficits and borrowing. But the SPD’s senior partners in ...
Read More »Markets are off so it must be time for a jumbo LBO
With impeccable timing, the private equity industry has agreed a jumbo leveraged buyout (LBO) just as markets have turned dramatically. It’s a bad look, and Advent International and Cinven will have to strain every sinew to make their 17 billion-euro ($19 billion) deal for Thyssenkrupp AG’s elevator business pay off. Germany’s Thyssenkrupp is a distressed seller but the industrial conglomerate ...
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