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  Bloomberg Coach Inc. agreed to buy handbag maker Kate Spade & Co. for $2.4 billion following months of talks, helping the luxury brand cope with an industry racked by deep discounting and sluggish demand. The $18.50-a-share transaction represents a premium to Kate Spade’s price when deal speculation first surfaced in December, but it’s well below the amount investors were ...

  Bloomberg FrontFour Capital Group is seeking board representation at Granite Real Estate Investment Trust arguing that the company is underperforming peers after failing to use its balance sheet efficiently to make acquisitions, a document obtained by Bloomberg shows. The Connecticut-based activist investor said Granite has the capacity to spend as much as C$1 billion on new purchases, according to ...

  Bloomberg German factory orders expanded for a second month as Europe’s largest economy picked up speed. Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, rose 1 percent in March, after expanding an upwardly revised 3.5 percent in February, data from the Economy Ministry in Berlin showed on Monday. The typically volatile reading compares with a median estimate for a 0.7 ...

  Bloomberg Liberty Global Plc lowered its growth target for Europe this year as billionaire John Malone’s cable carrier reported a weaker-than-expected start in the UK. Liberty now forecasts operating cash flow growth of 5 percent for 2017, down from February’s outlook of 6 percent to 7 percent, the London-based company said. The operator lost more customers than expected in ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Shares of builder Drake & Scull (DSI) rose in the final hour of trade on Monday as retail investors reacted to some potentially positive news from the company, while the region recovered some of the previous session’s losses. DSI, which fell by a little more than 5 percent earlier in the session, closed 0.8 percent higher ...

  Bloomberg Europe’s common currency weakened and equities dropped following a convincing defeat of populism in France’s presidential election that investors had already priced in. Crude fluctuated even as Saudi Arabia and Russia signaled output cuts will be extended. The euro fell after climbing for five of the past six days in the buildup to the election of Emmanuel Macron ...

  Bloomberg Turkish banks’ funding costs are rising, says the chairman of the nation’s largest-listed lender by assets, threatening government efforts to engineer a credit boom. “Capital erosion is the most important issue in the Turkish banking industry, because capital has become the most important limited resource,” Ersin Ozince of Turkiye Is Bankasi AS said in an interview with Bloomberg ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will soon be able to adopt a more optimistic tone on the euro-area economy — a possible first step in winding down stimulus — according to Executive Board member Yves Mersch. “The recovery in the euro area is gaining more and more traction,” Mersch said in a speech in Tokyo on Monday. “The ...

  Bloomberg Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco’s biggest lender, is planning to complete expansions in East and West Africa this year as it focuses on consolidating its new acquisitions to spur growth. The Casablanca-based bank aims to finalize a deal to buy Rwanda’s Cie Generale de Banque, known as Cogebanque, start commercial banking operations in Chad and apply for a banking license ...

  Riyadh / Emirates Business Alawwal bank was named the ‘Best Retail Bank’ in Saudi Arabia 2017 at the Asian Bankers, International Finance Excellence Awards held at the Ritz Carlton in Dubai on 20 April. The award recognises Alawwal bank’s customer centric approach and focus on innovation in products, services and its digital channels. “We are delighted and honoured to ...