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With the crisis deepening at Steinhoff International Holdings NV, a January sale of its assets looks increasingly likely. But this is not the time to be offloading retail businesses. The company was putting a brave face on its operating performance at a presentation to creditors on Tuesday. That does not alter the fact that for some of its large assets, ...

Italy’s Five Star Movement, which is on track to win the most votes in next year’s election, likes to portray itself as the party of transparency and honesty, in contrast with the opportunism of the mainstream political forces. When it comes to Italy’s membership of the euro, however, Five Star are showing the same kind of reckless expediency they attack ...

Running a money-management firm provides a window into the psyches of all kinds of people: long-term investors, real estate speculators, institutional traders, tech entrepreneurs and everyone in between. During any given week, I speak with all sorts of people who have capital at risk in markets. Most understand what they are investing in and why. Then there are the folks ...

Boeing Co.’s latest salvo in the escalating battle with its planemaking rivals could wind up piercing its own foot. The $175 billion company, it was revealed, is in talks to acquire Brazilian regional-jet maker Embraer SA. The deal would give Boeing products that compete with the Bombardier Inc. C-Series planes in which its rival Airbus SE just agreed to acquire ...

It is protected by Washington state’s lopsidedly Democratic political class, which knows who butters its bread. It has been provided with bespoke law, tailored for its comfort. Nevertheless, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been so avaricious in its objectives and so thuggish in its methods that it has been bested by the Freedom Foundation. This small conservative outfit, ...

Bloomberg The day after the European Union’s chief negotiator warned that there could be no special deal for Britain’s finance sector, the UK sent a message back: You need our banks as much as they need you. “The City of London is actually the banker for Europe,” Prime Minister Theresa May told a parliamentary committee. “It’s a significant provider of ...

Bloomberg The Czech Republic is set to leave further interest-rate increases until next year as a slowdown in inflation sidelines calls from some within the central bank to raise borrowing costs more aggressively. After raising its benchmark rate in August and November to cool price growth in one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies, the central bank will hold it at 0.5 ...

Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund lauded Egypt’s economic reform efforts but urged the central bank to be ready to take action if slowing inflation heats up. The fund sounded its note of caution as its executive board signed off on the latest review of Egypt’s reform program. The seal of approval opened the door to another $2 billion tranche of ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s financial regulator says giving national supervisors additional powers over bank branches — even systemically important ones like Nordea Bank AB — is bad policy. According to Martin Noreus, deputy director general of the Financial Supervisory Authority in Stockholm, national regulators risk missing the big picture. “It is sub-optimal and risky when different supervisors act too much in silos,” ...

Bloomberg A lawyer for UBS Group AG urged a New York jury to reject the tale of a former senior bond strategist who claims he was fired for refusing to let the Swiss bank’s traders influence his research reports. Trevor Murray, a onetime UBS strategist for commercial mortgage-backed securities, alleges he was dismissed in 2012 for blowing the whistle on ...