Category: Business

AMSTERDAM A team of executives from U.S. paint maker PPG (PPG.N) left the Netherlands on Friday without meeting their counterparts at Akzo Nobel during a two-day charm offensive to win support for their proposed takeover of their Dutch rival.PPG's public relations blitz followed Akzo's rejection of a March 20 takeover offer, a decision which has raised protests from shareholders who say the U.S. company's bid deserves a fair hearing.Akzo Nobel shares were down 0.1 percent at 77.84 euros on Friday

China-based Zhonghong Zhuoye Group Co Ltd will buy Blackstone Group LP's (BX.N) 21 percent stake in SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (SEAS.N), the embattled U.S.-based marine park operator said on Friday.SeaWorld said Zhonghong Group would buy the stake for $23 per share, a premium of nearly 33 percent to the stock's close on Thursday.Zhonghong Group – a diversified holding company for investments in real estate, leisure and tourism – will pay about $429 million for the stake, according to Reuters calculations.

By Sumeet Chatterjee | HONG KONG HONG KONG HSBC (HSBA.L) plans to add as many as 1,000 new employees to its Chinese retail banking and wealth management arm this year, the business's regional head said, most of them in the Pearl River Delta, the heart of the bank's growth strategy in China.If that target is hit, the new additions will mean

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices edged up on Friday, supported by a fall in Saudi exports to the United States, but overall markets remained under pressure on the back of a world market awash with fuel.Prices for front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil, were at $50.63 per barrel at 0343 GMT, up 7 cents

SEOUL Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) said on Friday it will be difficult to adopt a holding company structure at this time. "We will review various aspects including legal and tax-related issues and report the findings to shareholders," Samsung Chief Executive

By Silke Koltrowitz | BASEL, Switzerland BASEL, Switzerland Swiss watchmakers expect the market to stay challenging this year with the United States, their second-biggest market, showing no signs of recovering, executives told Reuters at an industry fair in Basel.Swiss watchmakers are grappling with declining sales in their biggest markets -- Hong Kong and the United States -- and have been hit

By Lisa Richwine | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) said on Thursday its board extended Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger's term by a year to July 2, 2019 and said he would serve as a consultant to the media giant for three years after that.This is the third time Iger's contract has been extended. Iger first

PARIS Anglo American's (AAL.L) diamond specialist De Beers has bought the 50 percent stake held by French luxury goods group LVMH (LVMH.PA) in De Beers Diamond Jewellers for an undisclosed sum, taking full ownership of the retail operation.Analysts said the joint venture no longer fitted LVMH's strategy, while Anglo American, which has long dominated global rough diamond sales, has been developing its presence on the high-margin diamond retail market.LVMH had no comment. De Beers said in a statement that fully

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices recovered on Thursday from losses chalked up the session before, but the market remained under pressure as bloated U.S. crude inventories and rising output dampen OPEC-led efforts to curb global production.Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were at $50.82 per barrel at 0807 GMT, up 18 cents, or 0.4 percent, from

By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stocks, taking some cues from a steady Wall Street, edged up on Thursday while the path for the dollar, which crawled up from a four-month low, remained clouded by concerns about the prospects for U.S. President Donald Trump's pro-growth agenda.Sterling GBP=D3 was steady at $1.2483 following a decline of as much as 0.4 percent

By Andrea Hopkins | OTTAWA OTTAWA Canada's Liberal government unveiled a stay-the-course budget on Wednesday that targeted export growth and some measure of tax reform but did little to whittle away at deficits even as it backed off from an explicit pledge to improve the debt outlook.Finance Minister Bill Morneau's second budget contained few surprises, in line with expectations that Ottawa

Verizon (VZ.N) has suspended digital advertising outside of spots that show up in searches, citing brand safety concerns, the number one U.S. wireless carrier said on Wednesday.

By Tova Cohen and Steven Scheer | TEL AVIV TEL AVIV Intel's $15.3 billion acquisition of Mobileye has catapulted Israeli hi-tech into the global league, and is likely to stimulate investment in the sector's other late-stage startups, where funds are most needed.Fundraising in late-stage startups - more mature firms that are already selling products rather than just the bright but

By Ankit Ajmera and Nathan Layne Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O), once the largest U.S. retailer, warned on Tuesday about its ability to continue as a going concern after years of losses and declining sales. "Our historical operating results indicate substantial doubt exists related to the company's ability to continue as a going concern," Sears said in the annual

SHANGHAI U.S. short-term rental giant Airbnb Inc will triple its China staff this year as it targets the country's millennial consumers, its chief executive said on Wednesday, even as the Silicon Valley firm faces competition from local rivals.Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said China was a key market for the firm to achieve its global ambitions. He was talking at an event in Shanghai to launch the brand's Chinese name "Aibiying", literally "welcome each other with love"."Chinese millennials, they

By Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo | BEIJING BEIJING Business sentiment at Asia's top companies rose to its highest in almost two years in the first quarter of 2017, buoyed by positive economic signs from the United States and China that underpinned improved global demand, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed.The Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asian Business Sentiment Index .TRIABS RACSI, representing the six-month

Andrew Puzder, who withdrew as nominee for U.S. Labor Secretary in the new Trump administration, is stepping down as chief executive of CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc in April, the parent of the Carl's Jr and Hardee's restaurant chains said on Tuesday."I expressed my desire to have CKE plan for succession approximately a year ago," said Puzder, 66, who has served as chief executive officer since 2000.

By Robert Iafolla | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed support on Tuesday for Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) bid to fend off class action claims by Xbox 360 owners who say the videogame console gouges discs because of a design defect.Microsoft told the court in oral arguments that the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 2015 ruling allowing console

All the three major U.S. indexes opened higher on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite hitting yet another record high, lifted by Apple.Apple (AAPL.O) rose 0.66 percent to an all-time high of $142.40 after the company unveiled a new version of its iPad tablet. The stock was the biggest boost to all the three major indexes.The gains were broad, with all the 11 major S&P sectors higher, led by technology .SPLRCT and healthcare stocks .SPXHC.Investor optimism was also boosted by French

STUTTGART, Germany Porsche SE (PSHG_p.DE), Volkswagen's majority shareholder, said it has no information about former VW chairman Ferdinand Piech's talks with the carmaker's controlling families about a possible sale of his stake."We are only informed about the fact that talks are happening," Porsche SE chief executive Hans Dieter Poetsch said on Tuesday at the company's earnings press conference."We cannot even say whether there will be a result."

TOKYO Asian shares hit 21-month highs on Tuesday while the dollar and U.S. bond yields were on the backfoot on the prospect of a less hawkish than previously expected Federal Reserve policy trajectory.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.3 percent in its eighth consecutive day of gains with tech-heavy Seoul and Taipei shares .KS11 .TWII hitting two-year highs while Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI scaled 1-1/2-year highs.European shares are expected to open slightly higher, with spread-betters

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices rose early on Tuesday on expectations that an OPEC-led production cut to prop up the market could be extended, and as strong demand was seen to slowly erode a global fuel supply overhang.Prices for front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were at $51.76 per barrel at 0043 GMT, up 14

By Sarah N. Lynch | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Shareholder activists are pushing back against a major business trade group's request that the White House use its influence on the U.S. securities regulator to make it harder to get governance, political or environmental issues onto corporate ballots, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Monday.Company boards and CEOs have increasingly faced requests

By Julia Fioretti | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS The European Commission wants to scrap restrictions placed on EU airlines leasing planes and crew from U.S. carriers, to resolve a long-standing dispute between the two sides.The leasing of crewed planes from another airline - known as wet-leasing - is a common practice in the industry and the 10-year-old EU-U.S. Open Skies aviation services agreement

U.S. stocks reversed course to trade slightly higher in late morning trading on Monday, helped by a rise in technology stocks including Apple.Apple (AAPL.O) rose nearly 1 percent, hitting a new record-high of $141.34, lifting the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index to yet another intraday high.The iPhone-maker's stock could rise another 10 percent in six months, Barron's wrote in an article posted Saturday.The U.S. stock market has been on record-setting spree since the election of Donald Trump as president, but the

ZURICH UBS (UBSG.S) and its French subsidiary face a trial in France after authorities laid out charges against the Swiss bank, marking an escalation of a long-running probe into allegations they helped wealthy clients avoid taxes."We will now have the possibility to respond in detail in a court of law," UBS said in an emailed statement on Monday. "UBS has made clear that the bank disagrees with the allegations, assumptions and legal interpretations being made."A spokesman for UBS said the

By Heather Somerville | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Ride services company Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] has been thrust deeper into turmoil with the departure of company president Jeff Jones, a marketing expert hired to help soften its often abrasive image.Jones quit less than seven months after joining the San Francisco company, an Uber spokesman said on Sunday.In a statement to Reuters,

By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stocks were mixed on Monday in thin trade, following Wall Street's declines and the G20's decision to drop a pledge to avoid trade protectionism, while the Federal Reserve's less hawkish-than-expected comments continued to drag the dollar lower.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS added 0.1 percent. Chinese shares .SSEC added 0.2 percent,

By Lawrence Delevingne | NEW YORK NEW YORK Grocery business Albertsons Cos held preliminary talks to merge with Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (SFM.O), Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the situation.Bloomberg said the early stage discussions took place in recent weeks and involved a plan to take Sprouts private. Doing so would add the natural and organic foods-focused business

By Mike Stone | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to build dozens of new warships in one of the biggest peace-time expansions of the U.S. Navy. But interviews with ship-builders, unions and a review of public and internal documents show major obstacles to that plan.The initiative could cost nearly $700 billion in government funding, take 30 years

FRANKFURT A large Porsche SE (PSHG_p.DE) stake owned by former Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) chairman Ferdinand Piech may be bought by other members of the Porsche and Piech clans before May 30, German weekly Bild am Sonntag said. Porsche SE said on Friday that Piech wanted to sell his 14.7 percent stake in the family-controlled holding company, which is worth at least 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion). It said that although the Porsche and Piech families were in talks to buy much

By Michael Nienaber | BADEN-BADEN BADEN-BADEN The failure of the world's financial leaders to agree on resisting protectionism and support free trade marks a setback in the G20 process and poses a risk for growth of export-driven economies such as host Germany, economists said on Sunday.Acquiescing to an increasingly protectionist United States after a two-day meeting in the German town of

By Tracy Rucinski | CHICAGO CHICAGO A U.S. judge formally approved Peabody Energy Corp's (BTUUQ.PK) plan to emerge from bankruptcy late Friday after the coal producer struck a settlement with the U.S. government over legacy environmental claims at a gold and metal mining subsidiary.Under a last-minute deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, Peabody agreed to create a $43 million trust

FRANKFURT Munich prosecutors searched the offices of Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) Chief Executive Matthias Mueller as part of an investigation into diesel emission test cheating at Audi, German weekly Bild am Sonntag said. Some 100 officials searched Audi's headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, and its Neckarsulm plant last week, as well as the Wolfsburg base of Audi's parent Volkswagen.