Bloomberg Tata Motors Ltd., the owner of luxury car brands Jaguar Land Rover, is building a war chest that will allow it to expand its business and acquire rivals. Cash and equivalents at the Indian maker of the Tiago and Hexa cars surged 87 percent to 397.6 billion rupees ($6.2 billion) as of June 30 from a year earlier, according ...
Read More »China’s slipping export crown could be saved by technology lift
Bloomberg After decades of relentless gains, China’s share of global exports is now edging down. Whether that continues hinges a lot on how fast it can shift into higher-technology shipments. China’s portion of the global export pie has shrunk from a high of almost 17 percent reached in December 2015, International Monetary Fund data show. The pullback is driven mainly ...
Read More »New iPhone disappointment hammers suppliers in Taiwan
Bloomberg Apple Inc.’s latest products are getting a thumbs down, at least by investors in the company’s Asian suppliers. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which assembles the iPhone and other Apple devices, has fallen 10 percent in Taipei since Apple unveiled its collection of new gadgets for the holidays this month. Other suppliers across the region, including Taiwan’s Pegatron Corp. ...
Read More »ABB plans makeover of GE’s ‘unloved child’ in $2.6bn deal
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBloomberg Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd. agreed to buy General Electric Co.’s industrial solutions business for $2.6 billion to strengthen its foothold in the US, the world’s biggest market for electrification products like circuit breakers and switchgears. ABB will incur costs of $400 million over five years to integrate GE’s industrial solutions unit, Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Spiesshofer told journalists ...
Read More »Facebook fail a blow for Silicon Valley ‘founder control cult’
Bloomberg Silicon Valley spent more than a decade finding ways to give company founders more control. When Facebook Inc. tried to follow suit, shareholders pushed back. Google started it with a 2004 initial public offering that gave co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin voting rights well beyond their economic stakes in the search giant. Groupon Inc., Zynga Inc. and Facebook ...
Read More »Nestle chief’s strategy shrouded by death at L’Oreal
Bloomberg As new Nestle SA Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider prepares to lay out his strategic vision for the Swiss food giant, his plans will be overshadowed by a changing of the guard at another European consumer-goods giant—L’Oreal SA of France. Nestle owns 23 percent of the French cosmetics maker, and the death of heiress Liliane Bettencourt raises questions about ...
Read More »Funding Tesla ticks off automakers’ need for electric car credits
Bloomberg Tesla Inc. has generated nearly $1 billion in revenue the last five years from an unlikely source: Rival automakers. Needless to say, the other companies aren’t happy. California requires that automakers sell electric and other non-polluting vehicles in proportion to their market share. If the manufacturers don’t sell enough of them, they have to purchase credits from competitors to ...
Read More »Storm watches issued for North Carolina as Maria churns north
Bloomberg Storm watches have been issued for North Carolina as the US is threatened by a hurricane for the fourth time in a month. Tropical storm watches, meaning winds of at least 63 kilometres per hour could reach the coast of North Carolina as early as Tuesday, have been posted from Surf City to the Virginia border, the US National ...
Read More »America’s engine is being slowed by complacency
It was an epoch-defining decision to place in Westminster Abbey, among statues of monarchs, priests and poets, a large one of James Watt, inventor of the separate-condenser steam engine. The statue’s inscription says Watt ranks among the world’s benefactors because he “increased the power of man.” The economist and historian Deirdre McCloskey believes this honor, conferred in 1834, signified society’s ...
Read More »That glitter in India may not be gold
The Indian stock market seems unstoppable. Its major indices have risen over 20 percent this year, making it one of Asia’s best performers. Indian investors have piled into more than $7.2 billion worth of stock in 2017 and foreigners have bought almost $7 billion. Yet corporate earnings have hardly recovered enough to justify such exuberance. The quarter between April and ...
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