Bloomberg US solar panel maker SunPower Corp. is planning to ask for an exemption to the 30 percent tariff on imported solar panels that President Donald Trump approved. The company that manufactures most of its panels at factories in Asia and Mexico could hire more workers at its headquarters in San Jose, California, and invest in a “pilot†factory in ...
Read More »Landowners, frackers in tense faceoff in wake of Colorado blast
Bloomberg The fracking frenzy in Colorado is spurring a tense faceoff between shale drillers in the region and residents seeking a better handle on the dangers in their own backyards after a killer pipeline explosion last year. Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered a review of oil and natural gas operations after the April blast, which destroyed a home, killed two men ...
Read More »Japan crypto exchange’s $400mn NEM token loss spooks investors
Bloomberg The disclosure that one of Japan’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges lost about $400 million in NEM tokens is spooking investors in a country still wary of such venues four years after the collapse of Mt. Gox. After hours of speculation, Coincheck Inc. said the coins were sent “illicitly†outside the venue. Co-founder Yusuke Otsuka said the company didn’t know how ...
Read More »Permira to buy Australia’s I-Med for $1.1 billion
Bloomberg Permira has agreed to buy Australia’s I-Med Radiology Network from EQT Partners and other investors, the Swedish buyout firm said in a statement. Permira, the London-based private equity firm, will pay about $1.1 billion for I-Med, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. The transaction, Permira’s first ...
Read More »Khosrowshahi to make first Asia visit as Uber CEO in Feb
Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc.’s Dara Khosrowshahi has scheduled his first visit to Asia since taking over as chief executive officer amid questions about the ride-hailing giant’s future in the region. Khosrowshahi will visit Japan and India during the week of February 19 to meet business and government leaders, said Chris Brummitt, a spokesman for Uber. The CEO will discuss ways ...
Read More »China economy starts 2018 on solid trajectory
Bloomberg As the latest China data showed some softening at the end of an upbeat year, reports for this month are looking likely to show the economy keeping pace despite slowing industrial profits. The earliest indicators for January show momentum remains intact, with sales managers the most upbeat since July, financial experts more optimistic, and satellite imagery signalling manufacturing conditions ...
Read More »TPG consortium bids for Tata’s fiber arm
Bloomberg A management consortium backed by TPG Capital has bid for a fiber telecommunications network controlled by India’s Tata Group, people with knowledge of the matter said. The suitors offered $1 billion for fiber assets and related businesses owned by the Indian conglomerate’s Tata Teleservices Ltd. unit, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information ...
Read More »Some policy dentistry could combat truth decay
It cannot be a sign of social health that the number of tweets per day worldwide exploded from 5,000 in 2007 to 500 million six years later. And this might be related, by a few degrees of separation, to the fact that whereas in the 1992 presidential election more than one-third of America’s 3,113 counties or their equivalents had a ...
Read More »Are China’s banks getting safer?
Among the most important questions facing China’s economy is this: How stable are the banks? The big picture is pretty well known, and ugly. Debt stands at nearly 300 percent of gross domestic product. Some analysts think the non-performing loan ratio —officially at 1.74% —may actually be as high as 25%. Even state media is promising a ‘war on financial ...
Read More »Defy Amazon by saying no to technology
Think you have to be online to succeed in UK retail these days? Think again. Some of the winners over the crucial holiday period don’t even sell via the internet. Although Associated British Foods Plc’s Primark suffered from the warm October —as did its rivals —its domestic sales were miles ahead. It was a similar picture at the UK arms ...
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