Malaysia and Abu Dhabi have reached agreement on a partial debt settlement for embattled government fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the Straits Times reported, citing financial executives it didn’t identify. Under a deal that could be signed as soon as Friday, Malaysia would pay Abu Dhabi $1.2 billion before the end of this year and negotiate on a further $3.5 billion, the Singapore-based paper said. A proposed […]
By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at Market dislocations occur when financial markets, operating under stressful conditions, experience large widespread asset mispricing. Welcome to this week’s edition of “World Out Of Whack” where every Wednesday we take time out of our day to laugh, poke fun at and present to you absurdity in global financial markets in all its glorious insanity. While we enjoy a good laugh, the truth is that the first step to […]
Theranos, the embattled blood-testing start-up, set up a secret company to buy off-the-shelf machines, allowing it to hide the fact that it was generating patient results using commercial equipment rather than its own flawed devices, according to an investor lawsuit. Partner Fund Management, which invested $96.1m in Theranos in 2014, alleges the company created a wholly owned subsidiary, Protegic Procurement, to “secretly” buy the commercially available analysers, […]
DETROIT A federal judge in Detroit on Friday sentenced Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) to three years’ probation and independent oversight for the German automaker’s diesel emissions scandal as part of a $4.3 billion settlement announced in January. The plea agreement called for “organization probation” in which the company would be overseen by an independent monitor. The sentencing was one of the last major hurdles to VW moving past […]
Len Blavatnik, the billionaire investor, has been cleared of fraud claims related to his $19bn buyout of Lyondell Chemical, according to a ruling from a US federal bankruptcy judge issued late on Friday. Mr Blavatnik combined Basell, his chemicals business, with Lyondell in 2007 to create LyondellBasell (LBI), funding the transaction with more than $20bn of debt. The business quickly collapsed from the combination of the financial […]
Three Lines Shipping, a UAE-based transportation and logistics company, is looking for an investor to help boost its regional expansion and grow its brand, CEO Rafeeq KK has said. An investment of between $15-20 million is expected for a majority stake depending on the type of investor, he said in a statement. TLS said it is looking for an investor with good understanding of the business and […]
Two pillars — Trump and China — have supported a bounteous few months for global portfolio investors. But the hope invested in both is starting to fade, casting a bearish tinge over what nevertheless remains a largely optimistic picture. In the case of Donald Trump, expectations that the US president would act swiftly to push though tax reforms, deregulation and bold infrastructure investments are starting to ebb […]
While geopolitical concerns and French election uncertainty are factors, The Wall Street Journal notes that many markets are flashing red on growth as investors begin to return to pre-election bets on the ol ‘new normal’ – a persistently weak economic expansion. There are clear signs that the sugar rush of Donald Trump’s victory and global-growth hopes has faded, raising doubts among some investors about whether stocks can […]
Within the US fixed income market, investors are sending a clear message about the prospect of higher interest rates. In recent weeks, investors have pushed back against a string of leveraged loan transactions, with a handful of deals pulled as money flows into the sector have shrunk. The stumbles underline a diminished appetite for richly valued, floating rate loans, seen as providing investors with some protection from […]
The surge in British pound after Prime Minister Theresa May’s surprise election call has started to impact remittance from UAE’s high net worth individuals (HNWI) and corporates to the UK, a senior UAE Exchange official has said. The sterling hit $1.2876 against the dollar on Tuesday – its highest level since early October 2016. The currency remained steady at the same level on Wednesday. “Since the pound […]
Investor sentiment is leaning towards a market-friendly outcome ahead of Sunday’s first round of voting in the French presidential election. The euro was on course for its best week in three months near $1.07, while a key proxy of election risk, the premium demanded by investors to own French government bonds over German Bunds, has narrowed sharply. “The most likely outcome is for a second round run-off […]
The Federal Reserve appears to believe that the size of its balance sheet matters, but not that bigger is better. The question is, why not? As the Fed pushes ahead with plans to shrink its stock of about $2.5tn of Treasuries and $1.8tn of mortgage-backed securities to “normal”, it is puzzling that officials haven’t provided a compelling case for why the move is either necessary or desirable. […]
Despite a resurging stock market and stabilized bond risk premia (cough Draghi cough), EurActiv reports the proportion of children living below the poverty line in Spain has increased by 9 percentage points between 2008 and 2014, to reach almost 40%. Spain has the EU’s third highest rate of child poverty, after Romania and Greece. EURACTIV Spain reports. While child poverty in general rose significantly, the sharpest increase (56%) […]
SYDNEY U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is expected to discuss trade and regional security when he meets Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Saturday, Australian officials said. Pence arrives in Australia late on Friday for the last stop on his 10-day tour of U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region that has included a series of roundtables with leading business executives in South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. His […]
FRANKFURT German police arrested a man on Friday who is suspected of planting explosives targeting the bus of soccer team Borussia Dortmund last week, the office of the German federal chief prosecutor said. The 28-year old man, a dual German and Russian national identified as Sergei V., had bought options on Borussia Dortmund’s stock before the attack, hoping to make a profit, it said in a statement. […]
Foreigners will no longer be allowed to work in Saudi Arabia’s numerous shopping malls, the labour ministry announced Thursday, in the latest measure to boost employment of Saudis. The kingdom has intensified efforts to develop more jobs for its citizens under a wide-ranging drive that began last year to diversify the oil-dependent economy. Known as Vision 2030, the plan calls for development of non-oil industries, small and […]
The narrative of shiny Silicon Valley topping decrepit Detroit in the race to develop self-driving cars has become a recurring theme in recent years. Just as tech companies have reinvented (dare we say, disrupted?) everything from telephones to how we consume music, the thinking goes, so too will they leave traditional automakers in the dust when it comes to autonomous cars. While it’s true that […]
The pound was last worth $1.30 on September 30, a day when lawyers were lining up to derail Brexit in the courts, a resilient consumer was challenging economists’ dire post-referendum predictions and carmaker Nissan was demanding compensation for staying in the UK. Investors have become familiar with such Brexit unpredictability. Yet few of them could have guessed how sterling, tweeted by Nordea analyst Martin Enlund as “the […]
By Maiya Keidan and Jemima Kelly | LONDON LONDON Hedge funds lost out on Tuesday after British Prime Minister Theresa May shocked markets by calling a snap election, but those led by humans outsmarted those led by machines, in a reversal of fortunes from the Brexit referendum. While computer-driven hedge funds garnered plaudits for their outperformance in the wake of Britain’s shock vote to leave the European […]
By Chad Bray A federal judge said he needs more time to consider a $602 million settlement by hedge-fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LP to resolve allegations related to what federal authorities have called the most lucrative insider-trading scheme ever. The civil settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission is one of two such agreements reached earlier this month by SAC, one of the nation’s most successful […]
Underwriting profitability for listed insurers in the UAE has returned in 2016 but is still borderline, according to S&P Global Ratings. The average combined ratio improved to 99 percent in 2016, from its peak of 105 percent in 2015, which marks the return of technical profitability for the market. “While the overall market results look profitable, 15 out of 29 listed insurers still posted combined ratios above […]
By Roberta Rampton | JAKARTA JAKARTA U.S. Vice President Mike Pence toured Southeast Asia’s largest mosque on Thursday during a visit to Indonesia, calling the Muslim-majority nation’s tradition of following a moderate form of Islam “an inspiration to the world”. Pence, an evangelical Christian, has sought to use his trip to soften some of the harsher edges of rhetoric about the Muslim world used by U.S. President […]
The foundation stone has been laid for Silicon Mall, the new 2.3 million square feet shopping mall by the LuLu Group International being built in Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), the integrated free zone technology park. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), the regulatory body for Dubai Silicon Oasis, unveiled the commemorative plaque and laid the foundation stone. The total investment […]
BEIJING China has issued stricter regulations requiring officials to report personal information, including assets, to the ruling Communist Party, state media said, in the country’s latest effort to tackle corruption. China’s President Xi Jinping sees extravagance and corruption as an existential threat to the party, whose authority is in part predicated on its ability to spread the gains of China’s growth fairly among the Chinese people. His […]
