Archive for Private Equity
Jack Ma’s Giant Financial Startup Is Shaking the Chinese Banking System
Posted by: | CommentsAnt Financial is transforming how Chinese run their daily finances, drawing flak from big banks and warning shots from the government
It handled more payments last year than Mastercard, controls the world’s largest money-market fund and has made loans to tens of millions of people. Its online payments platform completed more than $8 trillion of transactions last year—the equivalent of more than twice Germany’s gross domestic product.
Ant Financial Services Group, founded by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, has become the world’s biggest financial-technology firm, driving innovations that let people use their phones for buying insurance as easily as groceries,…
Central Banks Meet, China Embraces Dollar, Fiscal Boost: Eco Day
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Mnuchin says U.S. will keep growing at 3%, despite Fed’s view
- Theresa May’s team is terrified that EU talks will fail
- Central bankers in the U.S., Japan, U.K., Brazil and India will meet to set their respective policies this week. President Trump is casting a political shadow over the Fed, while the time seems right for another rate hike in India. The Bank of Japan, sometimes dubbed the Tokyo whale for its market influence, may be about to change its habits
- China once railed against the dollar’s outsize role. But in a marked turnaround, it’s now come to embrace the greenback…
Human Bankers Are Losing to Robots as Nordea Sets a New Standard
Posted by: | CommentsSomething interesting happened in Swedish finance last quarter. The only big bank that managed to cut costs also happens to be behind one of the industry’s boldest plans to replace humans with automation.
Nordea Bank AB, whose Chief Executive Officer Casper von Koskull says his industry might only have half its current human workforce a decade from now, is cutting 6,000 of those jobs. Von Koskull says the adjustment is the only way to stay competitive in the future, with automation and robots taking over from people in everything from asset management to answering calls from retail clients…
Saudi Arabia Pressures Aramco to Take On Debt After IPO Stalls
Posted by: | CommentsThe oil giant is planning to tap banks and global investors so it can buy a stake in a state petrochemical firm, a $70 billion deal engineered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Saudi Arabia is pushing Aramco to raise tens of billions of dollars in debt now that the state oil giant’s initial public offering has stalled, as the kingdom pursues other ways to fund an economic transformation.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s advisers are prodding Saudi Arabian Oil Co., as the oil company is officially known, to raise debt to buy a controlling stake in a petrochemical company from the country’s sovereign-wealth fund, said Saudi officials and executives familiar with the talks…
The World’s Biggest Mining Company Is Selling Out of U.S. Shale
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Oil giant to pay $10.5 billion to add acreage, enter Permian
- World’s top miner to complete exit from shale with second deal
BP Plc agreed to pay $10.5 billion, its biggest acquisition in almost two decades, for most of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s onshore U.S. oil and natural gas assets, including in the prized Permian Basin.
The deal gives the London-based energy giant a key position in the Permian, the world’s fastest-growing major oil region that’s upended global markets, and a possible signal that Big Oil has mostly rebounded from the 2014-2016 price crash. BP will also add positions in the Eagle Ford and Haynesville basins in Texas and Louisiana…
Ex-Mayor of Kazakh Capital Loses Bid to Toss BTA Lawsuit in U.S.
Posted by: | CommentsA U.S. judge denied a request from a former mayor of Kazakhstan’s capital, Almaty, to throw out a lawsuit accusing him of “looting” $300 million from the city and laundering some of the money through investments, including real-estate projects in Manhattan.
The City of Almaty and Kazakh lender BTA Bank JSC sued Viktor Khrapunov in federal court in New York in 2015. BTA’s former chairman, Mukhtar Ablyazov, is also accused of being in on the scheme…
Ex-Mayor of Kazakh Capital Loses Bid to Toss BTA Lawsuit in U.S.
Qualcomm Plans to Abandon NXP Deal Amid U.S.-China Tensions
Posted by: | CommentsCompany failed to get approval of Chinese regulators to buy Dutch chip maker, barring a last-minute reversal
Ivanka Trump’s Clothing Line to Shut Down
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She says Washington is her focus for ‘foreseeable future’
- Some department stores have dropped the brand since 2017
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, is pulling the plug on Ivanka Trump, the purveyor of womens’ fashion.
After a year and a half of sporadic controversy over potential conflicts of interest, Trump, a White House adviser, said Tuesday that she would wind down the company. She made the decision after some big-name department stores dropped her brand, but said in an emailed statement that she did it as a mercy to her employees…
Ivanka Trump’s Clothing Line to Shut Down
China’s $9 Billion Plan to Boost 5G Undermined By Trade War
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State-owned China Tower wants to raise funds in Hong Kong IPO
- Worries about worsening U.S.-China ties make markets jittery
A company that’s a key part of China’s ambitions to be a leader in cutting-edge wireless technology is preparing to go public to fund its expansion, but President Donald Trump’s trade war threatens to put a damper on what could be the world’s biggest initial public offering in almost four years.
State-controlled China Tower Corp., which operates almost 99 percent of the country’s wireless towers and charges its three carriers leasing fees, is preparing to raise as much as $8.7 billion in a Hong Kong IPO expected to start trading next month. That would be the biggest IPO since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s 2014 offering…
Republicans Pan Trump’s $12 Billion Farm Aid Plan
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GOP lawmakers’ responses range from ambivalent to outraged
- Crop prices rise in anticipation of agricultural aid program
The Trump administration’s decision to deliver $12 billion in aid to farmers hit by a burgeoning trade war was panned Tuesday by Republicans in Congress as not fixing the underlying problem — the White House’s own trade policies.
The planned mix of direct payments to farmers, commodity purchases for food-aid programs, and stepped up promotion of new export markets buoyed markets looking for new sources of demand for U.S. products. The announcement raised futures of soybeans, a crop heavily dependent on trade with China, to their highest price in two weeks, but it didn’t win over skeptics on Capitol Hill, including Republicans from politically important agricultural states…
Global Central Bank Chatter Rattles Bond Market
Posted by: | CommentsGovernment bond prices tumbled Monday after reports that central banks could be close to policy changes
Government bond prices world-wide tumbled Monday, roiled by reports that central banks could be on the verge of taking another step back from the easy-money policies that have characterized the postcrisis period.
News reports that the Bank of Japan might consider changing its interest-rate targets helped push the yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond as high as 0.09% in Monday trading in Tokyo from 0.03% late Friday…
Biggest Private Equity Firms’ Stocks Are Starting to Break Out
Posted by: | CommentsThe three largest U.S. private equity firms by market value are starting to break out after years of languishing stock price returns.
Apollo Global Management LLC’s stock sits about a dollar shy of its all-time high closing price of $36.78. KKR & Co. blasted past its prior high on July 3 following news that it had completed a conversion to a C-Corp. KKR currently trades at $27.45 a share as of 2:38 pm in New York.
Rocket Internet Turns to U.S. With Major New Fund
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Fund will be over $1 billion and may close by December
- Berlin-based Rocket Internet is expanding outside of Europe
Rocket Internet SE, the European public company that creates and invests in tech startups, is working to raise a new billion-dollar fund, a significant amount of which will eventually be invested in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the situation.
The Berlin-based firm will be the lead investor in the fund, but is looking for other licensed partners to join. The fund will be between $1 billion and $2 billion and Rocket could close it as soon as December, the person said, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private…
Bondholders Tire of Losing Out When Funding Failed Acquisitions
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Investors demand better protection when M&A bonds get called
- Bondholder group wants to set limits on how notes get redeemed
The headache U.S. bond investors get from financing failed takeovers is getting worse, and they are calling for change.
Since 2015, at least eight proposed M&A transactions that were funded in the bond market had to be called off, according to the Credit Roundtable, a New York-based organization advocating on behalf of bondholders. All eight allowed the borrower to repay the notes at 101 cents, even if the securities were trading at levels far higher than that…
Houlihan Lokey Enters Booming Market for Risky Loan Deals
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Bank will focus on syndicating borrowings of up to $1 billion
- Alternative lenders have taken market share from biggest banks
Count Houlihan Lokey Inc. into one of the hottest corners of the debt markets.
The U.S. investment bank said Monday that it’s forming a unit to arrange and sell leveraged loan deals of as much as $1 billion as the market for the risky debt has surged. It’s following firms such as Credit Suisse Group AG and Royal Bank of Canada in the business as looser regulations make it easier for banks to make these loans, and investors have been piling into the debt…
Goldman Sachs Puts a Grim Number on Solar Slump for This Year
Posted by: | CommentsAnyone following clean energy knew this could be a tough year for solar. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. just put a grim number on how bad.
The pace of global installations will contract by 24 percent in 2018, Goldman analysts led by Brian Lee said in a research note late Wednesday. That’s far more dire than the 3 percent decline forecast by Bloomberg NEF in the bleakest of three scenarios outlined in a report earlier this month. Credit Suisse Group AG is forecasting a 17 percent contraction…
Goldman Sachs Puts a Grim Number on Solar Slump for This Year
A Brief History of the Impact of E.U. Antitrust Fines on Tech Stocks
Posted by: | CommentsThe European Union on Wednesday continued its attempts to rein in Silicon Valley’s tech giants — but history suggests that investors have little to fret.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, hit Google with a record $5.1 billion fine on Wednesday. Antitrust officials argued that the technology company had broken the law by striking deals with smartphone manufacturers that favored Google services, like its Chrome browser, over those offered by rivals. The commission claimed that the arrangement had shut out competition and helped Google remain dominant in the industry…
A Brief History of the Impact of E.U. Antitrust Fines on Tech Stocks
A China Borrower’s $11 Billion Debt Pile Comes Crashing Down
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Wintime Energy’s debt quadrupled in less than five years
- Company’s flop likely to be echoed as deleveraging rolls on
China this month recorded one of its biggest corporate-debt defaults yet, with the downfall of a coal miner that had ridden the country’s wave of credit until policy makers changed the game with their deleveraging campaign.
China Share Buyback Boom Aims to Help Sliding Equity Market
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Shanghai Composite is one of world’s worst performers in 2018
- More than 100 companies plan to or have repurchased shares
More Chinese companies are pledging to buy back their shares as authorities seek to stem a $2 trillion rout in the equity market.
At least 109 firms have announced repurchase plans or bought back shares this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Home appliances maker Midea Group Co. is one of the latest, with plans to spend up to 4 billion yuan ($600 million) buying its shares after they slid 19 percent from January to early July…
Goldman Sachs Names David Solomon C.E.O. as Blankfein Plans Exit
Posted by: | CommentsGoldman Sachs on Tuesday named David M. Solomon as its next chief executive, putting a veteran investment banker in charge of a Wall Street giant that faces mounting challenges.
Mr. Solomon’s appointment will end the tenure of Lloyd C. Blankfein, the 63-year-old former gold salesman who has run the firm since 2006 and steered it through the financial crisis. Mr. Blankfein will hand over the chief executive role on Oct. 1 and remain chairman until the end of the year. Mr. Solomon, 56 and currently the bank’s president, will add the chairman title at the beginning of 2019…
Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150 Billion
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Jeff Bezos holds largest individual fortune since at least ’82
- Gates trails Bezos by $55 billion Bloomberg wealth ranking
Jeff Bezos is the richest person in modern history.
The Amazon.com Inc. founder’s net worth cracked $150 billion in New York on Monday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s about $55 billion more than Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the world’s second-richest person…
Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150 Billion
Elon Musk Just Gave Almost $40,000 to Republican-Allied Group
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Tesla chief says he donates to both parties to keep ‘dialogue’
- Prior donations mostly split between Democrats and Republicans
Self-proclaimed socialist Elon Musk gave $38,900 to a political committee that supports House Republicans.
The contribution is Musk’s second-largest of this election cycle, according to disclosures filed with the U.S. Federal Election Commission, after a $50,000 contribution last year to a different group benefiting House Republicans…
Elon Musk Just Gave Almost $40,000 to Republican-Allied Group
Oil Falls as Saudis Are Said to Offer Extra Crude to Some Buyers
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Top OPEC producer offers Arab Extra Light to 2 Asian customers
- WTI slides as much as 0.8%, after 3.8% decrease last week
Oil retreated below $71 a barrel as Saudi Arabia was said to offer extra crude supplies to some customers following a plan to boost output, while the U.S. considers tapping into its emergency stockpiles to rein in prices.
Futures in New York slid as much as 0.8 percent, after falling 3.8 percent last week. Saudi Arabia offered additional cargoes of its Arab Extra Light crude to at least two buyers in Asia for August, people with knowledge of the matter said, after supplying full contractual volumes to customers in the region. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is said to be mulling the release of oil from the nation’s 660-million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve…
Nomura Downgrades Target Price, Goldman Promptly Does The Exact Opposite
Posted by: | CommentsTwitter’s week has been about as smooth as vomit-inducing roller coaster ride for shareholders. On Monday, Twitter announced they scrubbed the site of over 70 million bot accounts, sending the stock lowerthan.. most Twitter user’s self-esteem. On Tuesday, they enjoyed a small rally in the early hours but came into contact with some dreadful news from Nomura on Wednesday morning…
Nomura Downgrades Target Price, Goldman Promptly Does The Exact Opposite
Commerce Secretary Ross to Sell All Stocks After Ethics Office Warning
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Commerce secretary says he will sell remaining equity holdings
- Ethics chief says failure ‘undermined public confidence’
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that he will divest all his remaining equity holdings after the government’s top ethics watchdog said his failure to sell off assets that could pose a conflict of interest “created the potential for a serious criminal violation.”
In his ethics agreement, Ross, a New York businessman, had pledged to divest numerous assets, including all his holdings in Invesco Ltd., within 90 days of his confirmation, and more complex assets within 180 days…
Tax Loophole From 1960s Could Let Wealthy Tap 21% Corporate Rate
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Passive income held offshore may benefit from arcane provision
- Investors save now, but would face hit if they collect in U.S.
An obscure tax provision from the 1960s that was left untouched by President Donald Trump’s overhaul could let wealthy individual investors seize for themselves the largest corporate tax cut in U.S. history.
The measure — signed into law by President John F. Kennedy — was designed to prevent Americans from indefinitely shielding themselves from taxes by keeping investments offshore. It forced them to pay taxes annually on these investments, but gave them the option to have that income taxed at the corporate rate instead of at individual rates…
Oil Tumbles on Libya’s Returning Supply
Posted by: | CommentsPrices fell despite a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories
U.S. crude had its worst day in a year Wednesday despite a larger-than-expected weekly drop in inventories after Libya indicated it would resume export activities at its eastern ports, potentially easing fears of a global supply shortage.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $3.73, or 5%, to $70.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange—its largest one-day percentage drop since June 2017 after it rose in eight of the 10 sessions entering Wednesday. Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped $5.46, or 6.9%, to…
Elon Musk Pledges to Pay for Clean Water to Homes in Flint, Michigan
Posted by: | CommentsBillionaire Elon Musk pledged to pay to secure clean water for homes in Flint, Michigan, the city that fell into economic depression amid the decades-long decline of Detroit’s auto industry and is still recovering from a major public health emergency.
“Please consider this a commitment that I will fund fixing the water in any house in Flint that has water contamination,” the chief executive officer of electric-car maker Tesla Inc. said in a tweet Wednesday. “No kidding.”…
Elon Musk Pledges to Pay for Clean Water to Homes in Flint, Michigan
Broadcom to Buy CA Technologies for $18.9 Billion in Cash
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Deal would give chipmaker a foothold in business software
- CEO Hock Tan returns to M&A following block of Qualcomm bid
Broadcom Inc., a semiconductor maker whose acquisitions have reshaped the chip industry, agreed to acquire CA Technologies for $18.9 billion in cash, branching out into corporate software to diversify its business.
Broadcom will pay $44.50 per share, a 20 percent premium to the CA’s closing price on Wednesday, the companies said in a statement after markets closed for the day. The deal will immediately add to Broadcom’s earnings once completed, which is expected in the fourth quarter…
Average Gas Price Nears $3 a Gallon, Raising Worries for U.S. Economy
Posted by: | CommentsDrivers across the U.S. in May paid as much as $2.96 a gallon on average, the most since 2014
The highest retail gasoline prices in years are the latest development to raise concerns about one of the longest-running U.S. economic expansions on record.
Drivers across the U.S. in May paid as much as $2.96 a gallon on average, the most since 2014. Prices have climbed to $3.63 in California and $3.39 in Washington, states where prices tend to be higher because of factors such as higher taxes, environmental regulations and a lack of pipelines that transport oil west. As of Monday, the national average was $2.86 a gallon….
Martin Sorrell Beats WPP in Bidding War for Dutch Marketing Firm
Posted by: | CommentsMartin Sorrell, the former chief executive of the advertising giant WPP who is now trying to build a new ad company, beat out his former employer for the purchase of a Dutch marketing firm on Tuesday, a move that WPP claimed could endanger millions of dollars in his stock awards.
Mr. Sorrell’s new firm, S4 Capital, said in a statement that it had bought MediaMonks, which has 11 offices and more than 750 employees. The marketing firm brings in about 110 million euros ($129 million) of annual revenue, and buying it is S4 Capital’s first move in creating “a new era, new media solution embracing data, content and technology,” the statement said…
Supply Crunch Lifts Oil to 3½-Year High
Posted by: | CommentsStrikes by oil-and-gas workers in Norway and Gabon compound outages in Libya and Canada
Oil prices climbed toward a 3½ -year high Tuesday, supported by supply issues across several major producing countries.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose 0.4% to $74.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, near its highest close since November 2014. Brent, the global benchmark, rose 1% to $78.86…
Supply Crunch Lifts Oil to 3½-Year High
Goldman Leans on Dealmakers for Wealth-Management Ambitions
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Bank seeks $5 billion in new revenue over the next three years
- The firm now has a mere 2% of the ultra-high net worth market
The best time to get hired to manage a billionaire’s money is while your firm is helping to create that fortune.
That’s the thinking behind Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s push to have its dealmakers help the bank’s wealth managers land new clients. The aim is to leverage the company’s dominance advising on acquisitions and equity offerings to narrow the gap with larger rivals in catering to the world’s richest…
Blackstone to Seek More Than $20 Billion for Buyout Fund
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Firm plans to start marketing buyout pool later this year
- Private equity firms hold record $1 trillion in dry powder
Blackstone Group LP plans to start raising its next global private equity fund three years after gathering about $18 billion from investors for its last pool.
The firm is expected to seek more than $20 billion when it starts marketing its eighth buyout fund later this year, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named. New York-based Blackstone’s prior vehicle wasn’t even a third invested as of March 31, according to a regulatory filing…
May Fights to Contain Brexit Crisis After Key Ministers Quit
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Foreign secretary follows Davis resignation over Brexit plans
- May proposing U.K. maintains close ties to EU after divorce
Prime Minister Theresa May battled to stave off a full-blown crisis after three ministers quit within 24 hours to protest her Brexit plan…
May Fights to Contain Brexit Crisis After Key Ministers Quit
China Factory Inflation Accelerates as Commodity Prices Edge Up
Posted by: | CommentsChina’s factory inflation accelerated in June as the price of commodities held up.
The producer price index rose 4.7 percent from a year earlier, compared with a projected 4.5 percent increase in a Bloomberg survey of economists and a 4.1 percent gain in May. The consumer price index climbed 1.9 percent in June, the statistics bureau said Tuesday, matching the forecast…
China Factory Inflation Accelerates as Commodity Prices Edge Up
A Taste of Lime: Uber Invests in an Electric Scooter Company
Posted by: | CommentsSAN FRANCISCO — Uber wants to become a destination for all things transportation, no matter what you ride.
The ride-hailing company has made investments to prepare for the future of flying taxis. It acquired Jump, an electric bicycle company, for around $200 million this year. And on Monday, Uber said it had cut another check to invest in Lime, a company best known for offering rides on motorized scooters…
A Taste of Lime: Uber Invests in an Electric Scooter Company
Review: ‘The Billionaire Raj’ Offers Reasons for Optimism in India’s Gilded Age
Posted by: | CommentsFor close to a century leading up to its independence in 1947, India operated under a system of British governance known as the Raj, taken from a Sanskrit word meaning “kingdom” or “rule.” Then, more or less until the introduction of economic liberalization in 1991, the country stagnated under a planned economy whose overwhelming regulatory demands were described as the License Raj.
The title of the new book by James Crabtree, “The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age,” suggests that India has now come under the grip of a new but no less troublesome regime. In a nation no longer at the mercy of imperial administrators and maharajahs or petty bureaucrats, “a new system has grown up,” and the emerging superrich are firmly in charge…
Chinese Property Buys in Australia Plummet on Capital Controls
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Commercial property investment from China sank 81% on year
- Levels of Chinese investment lowest since 2012, CBRE says
Chinese investment in Australia’s commercial property has plummeted to the lowest level in six years as mainland capital controls bite.
Direct investment fell 81 percent to A$250 million ($187 million) in the first half from a year earlier, property brokerage CBRE Group Inc. said in a report on Monday…
Chinese Property Buys in Australia Plummet on Capital Controls
How Private Equity Keeps States Invested in Medical Billing Practices They’ve Banned
Posted by: | CommentsThe link between private equity and pension funds means states are inadvertently cashing in on practices they’ve set out to stop.
Several states have barred medical providers from shocking patients with surprise bills for thousands of dollars, but pensions in those same states are poised to profit from the practice.
Public-employee retirement funds in California, New York, Oregon and other states have heavily invested with a private-equity firm, KKR & Co., that’s been buying up companies known for demanding steep payouts for emergency medical treatment and hospital stays that may not have been entirely covered by a person’s health plan…
Beware China Equity Bulls
Posted by: | CommentsReturn on equity is a dead metric.
The next time an analyst tells you that China stocks look cheap, take it with a grain of salt.
In Asia’s biggest economy, key accounting metrics such as return on equity are dead…
JPMorgan Warns a Trade War May Trigger China Corporate Defaults
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Escalation would weaken wider economy, hurt credit quality
- Smaller banks most vulnerable to any trade war, Ulrich say
An escalation of trade tensions could add to defaults in China’s financial system, which is already in the midst of a deleveraging campaign, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
If U.S. President Donald Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports later this week, there will be spinoff effects on the country’s financial sector, according to Jing Ulrich, JPMorgan’s vice chairman for Asia Pacific. Consumer demand and the wider economy are likely to weaken and that “may translate into worse credit quality down the road,” Ulrich said in a Friday interview in Hong Kong…
China Turmoil Leaves Hong Kong Equity Bulls With Taste of Regret
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Hang Seng Index just posted its first quarterly loss in six
- Yuan weakness and Federal Reserve hikes impact financial hub
Valuations have cratered, earnings estimates are down and forecasters are slashing their targets on Hong Kong’s stock market, which has gone from darling to pariah in under half a year.
While investors the world over worry about a tumbling yuan and the Federal Reserve’s plans to lift borrowing costs, the brunt of the impact is increasingly felt in a city that is entwined with both. The Hang Seng Index lost 1.4 percent when markets reopened Tuesday following a long weekend, as another sign that China’s economy may be slowing faster than expected added fuel to the selloff and took multiples back to two-year lows. The benchmark was little changed Wednesday morning…
Qatari Cash in NYC Meets Hong Kong Money to Back Wealth Firm
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Family office said to invest for Gulf royalty gets LJ stake
- Expanding LJ Partnership also backed by Hong Kong’s Peterson
LJ Partnership, a London-based wealth manager armed with money from the Persian Gulf, is targeting global expansion, as rich families and sovereign funds increasingly team up to invest outside of the public markets.
Dilmun, a family office in New York that originated in the Gulf region, this week acquired a 40 percent stake in LJ Partnership, which advises on $15 billion from about 250 clients, including individuals, families and foundations. The deal unites Dilmun with a Hong Kong real estate family that’s expanded into China and the U.K…
Our Guide to What the World’s Top Central Banks Will Do Next
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Bloomberg Economics’ look at 22 interest-rate setting bodies
- What they’ve done so far and what might be happening in future
Slowly, but surely, central banks around the world are unwinding the easy money they spent a decade injecting into the global economy to fight the fallout from financial crises and recession.
Already this year, the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate twice and the European Central Bank declared it would cease buying assets in December. Stung by investors, emerging market central banks such as Turkey and Argentina have tightened monetary policy even more aggressively…
FANG Insiders Are on Track to Sell More Than $5 Billion of Stock
Posted by: | CommentsInsiders at tech heavyweights led by Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg are selling stock at the fastest pace in six years, cashing in on buoyant equity markets.
Senior executives and directors of Facebook, Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. have disposed of $4.58 billion of stock this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They’re on track to exceed $5 billion for the first six months of 2018, the highest since Facebook went public in 2012 and pushed first-half insider sales to $14.3 billion…
FANG Insiders Are on Track to Sell More Than $5 Billion of Stock
Quartz, Atlantic Media’s Business News Start-Up, Is Sold to Japanese Firm
Posted by: | CommentsAtlantic Media’s business news site built for the digital age has turned into a good bit of business itself.
The site, Quartz, which Atlantic Media created in 2012, will be sold to the Japanese financial intelligence company Uzabase for a price between $75 million and $110 million, depending on its performance, according to a statement released on Monday.
The acquisition is the second major international media takeover by a Japanese company in recent years. In 2015, the Japanese media group Nikkei bought The Financial Times, the British business newspaper of salmon-colored pages, for $1.3 billion…
Quartz, Atlantic Media’s Business News Start-Up, Is Sold to Japanese Firm
Ex-Apollo Partner’s Fund Returns 30% in First Year
Posted by: | CommentsSachin Khajuria, who left his role as Apollo Global Management LLC partner last year to create his own fund, picked a good time to go it alone.
Khajuria’s Achilles Management LP posted a return of 30 percent in its first year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private fund performance. Khajuria, who leftApollo after seven years at the private-equity firm, is considering seeking outside capital given the fund’s performance, said the person…
Tests produce winners and losers. The one that the government imposed on the nation’s biggest banks this week was no exception.
The Federal Reserve on Thursday released results of the second round of its annual stress tests, which assess whether large banks have enough capital to make it through an economic crisis, and whether they have the systems and plans in place to deal with the related upheaval. When banks fail the tests, the Fed may limit how much money they can pay out to shareholders or, in the case of the American operations of foreign banks, how much they can pay to their parent companies…
Higher Oil Prices Will Cost the Average American Family $440 This Year
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Gasoline hikes will cause consumers pain, but not the economy
- Tax cut “compensates” upper-income earners for high gas prices
The average American household will have $440 less to spend this year due to rising pump prices, putting at risk one-third of the windfall they got from tax cuts.
Strong oil prices drove the cost of U.S. gasoline to the highest level in more than three years last month, according to AAA, and pump prices are now 27 percent higher than they were a year ago…
Higher Oil Prices Will Cost the Average American Family $440 This Year
Carlyle’s Rubenstein Says He’s Cautious on Investment Climate
Posted by: | CommentsCarlyle Group LP co-founder David Rubenstein sees a cautious investment climate, but no clear signs of an impending recession.
With increasing competition for deals and high valuations, investors are willing to take smaller gains, Rubenstein said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Private equity is still more attractive than other asset classes, he said. The industry is on a hot fundraising streak, with 2017 bringing in a record $453 billion, according to Preqin…
Carlyle’s Rubenstein Says He’s Cautious on Investment Climate
If You Steal It, the Art Vigilante Will Find You
Posted by: | CommentsUsing a secret database of tens of thousands of photos, Christos Tsirogiannis is fighting to prevent auction houses from selling looted art.
For days, Christos Tsirogiannis had been hitting refresh on his laptop, waiting for a chance to snatch ancient artifacts from one of the world’s biggest auctioneers. At the dining room table of his tidy house on a quiet street in Cambridge, England, the 45-year-old archaeologist was stalking Christie’s website, where the catalog for an upcoming antiquities auction in New York would soon be posted. It was important to his vigilante mission that he see the lots quickly. Tsirogiannis had work to do to repeat previous exploits in which he’d cost Christie’s and rivals Sotheby’s and Bonhams millions of dollars in sales—and the sale was in less than a month…
Here Are the Assets That May Move on Election Night in Mexico
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State race results will start from 7 p.m. in New York
- The Mexican peso will be among key ways to monitor reaction
Investors seeking to wager on the fallout from Mexico’s Sunday night presidential election won’t have to wait for local markets to open.
When results from state races start rolling in at about 7 p.m. New York time, to be followed two hours later by early presidential results, the peso will already be trading during Asia’s morning. It may be the most important asset to watch given its robust liquidity…
A 13% Loss Greets Funds Buying Chinese Stocks for First Time
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Shanghai shares have fallen 13% in June in dollar terms
- MSCI added Chinese equities to benchmark gauges this month
Global passive funds are buying China’s domestically traded shares for the first time and it’s not going well.
Stocks in Shanghai have tumbled 13 percent in dollar terms since MSCI Inc. added so-called A shares at the start of the month. Only equities in Argentina and Namibia have performed worse. Worries about a slowing economy, tightening liquidity and possible trade war are plaguing the world’s second-largest stock market, while a suddenly tumbling currency is only adding to foreign investor losses…
Australia’s $26 Billion Warship Deal Goes to Britain’s BAE
Posted by: | CommentsContract to build nine anti-submarine frigates goes to BAE, beating out Italy’s Fincantieri and Spain’s Navantia
CANBERRA, Australia—BAE Systems has won a $26 billion contest to build nine anti-submarine frigates for Australia’s navy, as the U.S. ally seeks to bolster its navy against an Asian arms race and more assertive China.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will announce Friday that a variation of the British arms maker’s Type 26 frigate has been chosen over competitors from Italy’s Fincantieri and Spain’s Navantia SA. The frigates will be built in Australia by local state-owned ASC Shipbuilding, which will become a BAE…
New York Catches Up to Some of Phantom Debt Vigilante’s Targets
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Attorney general, FTC sue two companies over phony debt
- ‘They need to put people in jail because it’s so lucrative’
After a debt collector threatened his wife, Rhode Island salesman Andrew Therrien spent years hunting for payback. Now regulators may give him some satisfaction.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued debt broker Hylan Asset Management LLC and collection agency Worldwide Processing Group LLC, alleging they were involved in a phantom debt scheme in which people across the country were harassed into making payments on made-up loans…
New York Catches Up to Some of Phantom Debt Vigilante’s Targets
Why Have Bank Stocks Had Such a Bad Two Weeks? A Flattening Yield Curve
Posted by: | CommentsNow is supposed to be a good time to be a bank.
The largest lenders in the United States are enjoying ballooning profits. The Trump administration has removed rules on banks, and more deregulation is likely to come. The economy is in one of its strongest patches since the financial crisis, and the Federal Reserve is raising rates.
But it would be hard to tell all that by looking at their share prices over the last two weeks…
Why Have Bank Stocks Had Such a Bad Two Weeks? A Flattening Yield Curve
Private Equity Is Pouring Money Into a Dental Empire
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Heartland has built dental empire of more than 800 practices
- CEO Richard Workman attracted wrath for transforming industry
One of the richest dentists in the U.S. hasn’t seen a patient for more than two decades.
Richard Workman, 63, stopped practicing in 1996 to build his company, Heartland Dental, into a kind of Walgreens for the dentistry business. He scooped up one dentist office after another, and today Heartland has more than 800 in 36 states, making it the largest dental management company in the country…
RBNZ Keeps Benchmark Interest Rate at Record Low `For Now’
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Governor says bank well placed to manage rate move up or down
- ASB sees growing risk that next rate move ‘may be a cut’
New Zealand’s central bank held interest rates at a record low but signaled it is prepared to cut them if needed as economic growth slows and inflation remains below target.
“The official cash rate will remain at 1.75 percent for now,” Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr said in a statement Thursday in Wellington. “However, we are well positioned to manage change in either direction — up or down — as necessary.”…
REIT Industry Hits Diversity Record With Female Board Appointees
Posted by: | CommentsOf the 94 REIT directors newly elected during the spring proxy season, 49—or 52%—are women
The real-estate investment trust sector has named a record number of women to board positions in 2018, a sign that this mostly male-dominated industry is reacting to pressure on American corporations to diversify.
Of the 94 REIT directors newly elected during the spring proxy season, 49—or 52%—are women, according to a study by Ferguson Partners, a professional services firm specializing in executive and board recruitment. It was the first time men comprised less than the majority of the new directors, Ferguson Partners said…