PARIS/LONDON France’s PSA Group (PEUP.PA) is set to announce a deal to buy Opel from General Motors (GM.N) on Monday after striking an agreement with the U.S. carmaker and winning the blessing of its board for the acquisition. The maker of Peugeot, Citroen and DS cars said on Saturday it would hold an early Monday press conference with GM, at which the transaction is expected to be […]
Jon Corzine, the former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs chief who oversaw the collapse of MF Global, is poised to take the stand next week in a potentially explosive trial over the alleged negligence of the company’s auditor, PwC. The world’s second-biggest professional services firm was the auditor of MF Global, the futures brokerage that collapsed in October 2011 after huge bets on the debt of […]
Via Mac Slavo of SHTFPlan.com, Within hours of the election of Donald Trump the mainstream media, their politico counterparts and social media operatives began spreading the narrative that the President was only elected as a result of the dissemination of fake news. The term itself became a rallying cry for everyone from major search engines to massive social media websites who said they would create fact checking […]
Photo Syrians in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Damascus, last week. Credit Abd Doumany/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The top United Nations diplomat working to resolve the civil war in Syria reported some progress Friday after nearly 10 days of talks, saying both sides finally had agreed on what he described as a “clear agenda” for further negotiations. The diplomat, […]
PARIS An apparent threat by far-right leader Marine le Pen to punish state employees who “persecute” political opponents may have eroded her support, according to a poll which found her first-round lead in France’s presidential election slipping. The poll of voting intentions by research firm BVA found Le Pen garnering 26 percent of the votes in April’s first round, down 1.5 percent from the last BVA poll […]
Deutsche Bank said on Friday night that it was laying the groundwork for a “potential capital raise of approximately €8bn” as well as considering several other strategic adjustments as it aims to revive its fortunes after a torrid 12 months. Alongside the capital increase, Germany’s biggest lender said it could garner further funds by selling a minority stake in its asset management arm. It is also considering […]
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin used his first senior staff meeting last month to tell his new aides he would not tolerate leaks to the news media, three sources familiar with the matter said. Current and former officials said that in a departure from past practice, access to a classified computer system at the White House has been tightened by political appointees to prevent […]
Ismail, a 20-year-old Emirati, has rarely ever stepped into a bank branch. “You won’t believe I haven’t visited my branch for over a year. All my transactions are done online,” he says, as he clicks an app on his phone to make a payment. “I just paid my bill and that’s how it works for me. All the services are at my fingertips and I save immense […]
Evan Spiegel gazed out over the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where onlookers were recording him with his company’s retro-cool, video-enabled sunglasses, then rang the opening bell on Snap’s first day as a public company. Breaking the tech titan’s dress code in his suit and tie, he grinned and, unlike his biggest rival, made no grand proclamations about his company’s world-changing potential. Nearly five years […]
NBCUniversal has ramped up its partnership with Snap, investing $500m in the owner of disappearing messaging app Snapchat’s initial public offering. The Comcast-owned television group bought shares at $17 apiece this week. With shares jumping 44 per cent in their first day of trading on Thursday, and rising a further 14 per cent on Friday, NBCU’s stake is now worth more than $820m. The stake is the […]
The heads of the London Stock Exchange Group and Deutsche Börse went to Brussels at the start of February on the verge of clearing a major obstacle for their historic €29bn merger. Xavier Rolet and Carsten Kengeter thought EU regulators were set to bless the deal they had been working on for more than a year. But midway through the meeting, Mr Kengeter stepped out to take an emergency […]
By Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON With his administration on the defensive over investigations into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s election, U.S. President Donald Trump is no longer tweeting praise for his Kremlin counterpart. Less than five weeks after he took office, the chances of a spring thaw in relations between Washington and Moscow – once buoyed by an apparent “bromance” between Trump and President Vladimir […]
Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) is looking at taking minority stakes in German technology and financial companies, although any deal is unlikely before 2018, the kingdom’s ambassador to Germany said. Such a move would mirror other Gulf state funds from Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait, which have taken minority stakes in German companies including Daimler, Deutsche Bank and Volkswagen, although Ambassador Awwad Al-Awwad […]
President Donald Trump’s new interior secretary withdrew a decree issued in the final hours of the Obama administration that would have phased out lead bullets and fishing tackle on wildlife refuges. Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a document signed Thursday that the order was issued without ”significant communication, consultation or coordination” with stakeholders. “Given these […] (via WSJ)
By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Transportation Department on Thursday proposed awarding 24 slot pairs at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport to Alaska Airlines, JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O), Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N), Volaris and Grupo Viva Aerobus SAB de CV. The tentative Mexico City allocations will result in new or additional low-fare service to 15 U.S. cities, including Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Houston Hobby, Los […]
March 2, 2017 by: Nic Fildes, Telecoms Correspondent Deutsche Telekom has taken a €2.2bn charge on its investment in BT, pushing the German group to a fourth-quarter loss in 2016. Europe’s largest telecoms company blamed the Brexit vote, a decline in the value of sterling and the collapse in BT’s share price for the write-off. It holds a 12 per cent stake in BT which has been […]
Photo King Salman of Saudi Arabia, center, arriving at the presidential palace in Bogor, Indonesia, on Wednesday. Credit Achmad Ibrahim/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images LONDON — You could call it bling diplomacy. As part of a monthlong tour in Asia to promote economic ties, King Salman of Saudi Arabia arrived in Indonesia on Wednesday to great fanfare, accompanied, the news media said, by a retinue with a […]
By Michel Rose and Emmanuel Jarry | PARIS PARIS Presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron said he would root out inequalities in France’s pension system, sell down government stakes in major firms and downsize parliament, as he unveiled a manifesto to set him apart from traditionalists. Standing as an independent centrist, Macron is tipped by opinion polls to defeat far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a run-off vote in […]
By John Ruwitch | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI The fortunes of the richest 100 members of China’s parliament and its advisory body – all dollar billionaires – grew about 64 percent in the four years since Xi Jinping rose to power, according to data from an organisation tracking wealth in China. Xi has overseen a crackdown on corruption and decadence, and made the fight against poverty a top priority […]
After a long wait of 4.5 years, the 29th edition of SANOG came back to Pakistan, this time in the countrys capital, Islamabad. The Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) and the Higher Education commission of Pakistan (HEC) came forward to jointly host the event at the HEC headquarters. SANOG 29 consisted of two days of conference, one day of tutorial alongside the Internet Society’s ION Conference, and the […]
Cheung Kong Infrastructure and Fosun International are among several Asian groups that have submitted bids for Q-Park, one of Europe’s largest parking lot operators, in a deal that could fetch more than $2.4bn. China Oceanwide, a Beijing-based conglomerate owned by a billionaire banking magnate, and Shougang Group, a state-owned Chinese steel company, also joined the first round of bidding on the Netherlands-based parking group, two people familiar […]
T Rowe Price’s flagship small companies fund has revealed annualised returns of nearly 35 per cent from its private investments, rebutting critics who argue that mutual funds should eschew riskier, unlisted companies. With more companies delaying stock exchange listings due to the abundance of venture capital and onerous requirements of being a public company, asset managers have begun to invest more aggressively in private groups such as Uber and […]
WASHINGTON — Russian aircraft mistakenly bombed Syrian fighters who were being trained by the United States, the commander of the American-led operation in Iraq and Syria said on Wednesday. American advisers were about three miles away when the Russian strike occurred. The episode pointed to the risk of unintended clashes among the myriad forces operating on a fluid battlefield in Syria, as the American command looks toward […]
Snap Inc, owner of popular messaging app Snapchat, will price its initial public offering after the U.S. stock market closes on Wednesday in the most eagerly awaited technology IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba went public in 2014. The pricing will be the first test of investor appetite for a social-media app beloved by teenagers and 20-somethings but which has yet to turn a profit. The company’s […]
