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  Bloomberg Sberbank PJSC reported record first-quarter profit, better than analyst estimates, as provisions and financing costs declined. Net income rose to 118 billion rubles ($1.8 billion) from 30.6 billion rubles in the first quarter last year, Russia’s biggest lender said in a statement on Wednesday. That was better than the average estimate of 102 billion rubles from six analysts ...

  Bloomberg UniCredit SpA’s decision to replace Chief Executive Officer Federico Ghizzoni after almost six years at the helm paves the way for a strategy review that may include a capital increase and asset sales, according to analysts. Ghizzoni will depart once a successor has been chosen, the Milan-based bank said in a statement. Chairman Giuseppe Vita will lead the ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank is considering loosening lending regulations to help stoke credit growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. One possible measure is to let homeowners take out loans to purchase a second property “off the plan,” or one that is pre-construction, Mirza Adityaswara, senior deputy governor at Bank Indonesia, said in an interview in Jakarta. Another option is raising ...

  Reuters Malaysia’s Bank Muamalat will set up a 1 billion ringgit ($243.4 million) sukuk programme, after the Islamic lender said on Wednesday it would redeem 400 million ringgit worth of subordinated sukuk on June 15. Bank Muamalat’s new sukuk programme has loss-absorption features to meet Basel III criteria, qualifying as Tier 2 capital, rating agency RAM Ratings said in ...

  Bloomberg Nigeria’s central bank is preparing to weaken its naira and abandon a currency peg that has starved Africa’s biggest economy of dollars and slowed foreign investment to a trickle. Naira forward contracts soared to record highs as traders added to bets on a weaker currency. In a retreat for President Muhammadu Buhari, who has resisted calls to let ...

  Bloomberg After World War II, the economic center of gravity in the U.S. began shifting from the cities to the suburbs — and that shift continued for more than a half-century. In the past few years, though, there’s been lots of talk about the trend reversing. What does the evidence show? Well, it can be a little confusing. Here, ...

  Bloomberg City Developments Ltd., Singapore’s second-largest developer, may seek to buy offices this year as rising interest rates makes such assets cheaper worldwide. “We are coming into a very good time for acquisitions,” Grant Kelley, CEO of City Developments, said in an interview in Singapore. “The long-term trend line for assets for the next 12 to 24 months could ...

    Bloomberg In the pre-crash days, sustainable building materials and low-flow toilets became part of the common real estate conversation: Slap “eco” on a home, the thinking went, and it was more valuable, not just to the earth but to the homeowner. The most direct path to an officially green building was through third-party certification—if the building could check ...

  London / Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc chief Steve Rowe’s strategy to reboot the retailer’s moribund clothing business got a cool reception from investors, with the stock falling the most in seven years amid concerns the plan will hurt short-term profits and doesn’t address some key decisions. The company will reduce styles to de-clutter its stores, cut prices ...

  Beijing / AP Chinese tech giant Huawei said on Wednesday it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against South Korean mobile phone rival Samsung in the United States and China, in a case that highlights the rise of Asian competitors as technology creators. Huawei Technologies Ltd. said it wants “reasonable compensation” but gave no financial figure for its claim against Samsung ...