Bloomberg Boeing Co. landed a deal to sell a dozen 787 Dreamliners to China Southern Airlines Co., bolstering support for its marquee carbon-fiber jetliner in an otherwise tough market for twin-aisle aircraft. The order by Asia’s biggest carrier by passenger volume is valued at $3.2 billion according to list prices, although carriers typically negotiate discounts. It comes less than ...
Read More »Unilever warns of British price hikes as pound falls
Bloomberg Dutch food giant Unilever, reportedly caught up in a pricing war with a British supermarket chain, warned Thursday the falling pound will likely hike its prices in Britain. Releasing stagnant third-quarter figures, the huge multinational, which supplies popular brand names like Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, Knorr soups and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, acknowledged it was a “tough market” globally. There ...
Read More »Saudi Arabia to ease rules for foreign bank operations
Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is exploring the possibility of granting more licenses to foreign banks and easing restrictions on their operations to boost growth in the private sector, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, or SAMA as the central bank is known, is weighing proposals that would allow foreign banks to open more branches ...
Read More »Wells Fargo CEO steps down amid sales scam
NEW YORK / AP Wells Fargo’s embattled CEO John Stumpf is stepping down as the nation’s second-largest bank is roiled by a scandal over its sales practices. The San Francisco bank said Stumpf is retiring effective immediately and also relinquishing his title as chairman. He won’t be receiving severance pay and the bank announced earlier that he will forfeit ...
Read More »UniCredit raises €552mn with asset sale
Milan / AFP UniCredit said on Thursday it had raised over half a billion euros as part of its latest asset sale, part of Italy’s largest bank’s effort to boost its funds without raising capital from shareholders. The 552 million euros ($609 million) from the sale of 20 percent of its online banking subsidiary Fineco will be used to ...
Read More »Bank of Russia sees bigger challenge than rates for lenders
Bloomberg Preoccupied by ultra-low interest rates in much of the industrialized world, the financial industry risks being blindsided by an even bigger challenge, according to Russian central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. “Banks could fall into a trap,†Nabiullina said at a conference in Kazan, capital of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan. “What do they mostly complain about now? Low interest ...
Read More »â€˜Brexit doom misplaced as opportunities knock’
Bloomberg Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said predictions of “doom†for the British economy following the decision to leave the European Union are misplaced and “will continue to be proved wrong†as the U.K. negotiates its departure from the bloc. Britain will get a good deal from the remaining member states because it is in the interests of those ...
Read More »Marmite taken off UK shelves as Brexit bites
London / AFP British staple Marmite was taken off the virtual shelves at supermarket Tesco on Thursday, following a reported row with supplier Unilever over pricing after the pound plummeted on fears over the UK’s Brexit plans. Jars of Marmite were “currently not available” in the online store of Tesco — the world’s third biggest supermarket chain — after ...
Read More »Maduro bypasses Venezuelan legislature on country’s budget
Caracas / AFP Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro can pass his 2017 budget without the approval of the opposition-majority legislature, the Supreme Court ruled, triggering an outcry from the leftist leader’s opponents. Maduro and the National Assembly have been at each other’s throats since the center-right opposition took control of the legislature in January, ending the left’s 17-year monopoly on ...
Read More »German court gives govt green light for Canada-EU trade deal
Berlin / AFP Germany’s top court on Thursday gave the government the go-ahead to approve a planned EU-Canada free trade deal, in a setback for activists who had sought to block the agreement. The Constitutional Court did set certain conditions however, stipulating that Germany may only commit to the so-called CETA deal if it wins assurances that it can ...
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