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AVIATION group Boeing would be the biggest loser among American industrial giants from a move by congressional Republicans to close the US Export-Import Bank, according to a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) report.
MEXICO CITY: America Movil SAB plans to break up its Mexican business, bending to new antitrust rules that threatened profit-crushing restrictions if billionaire Carlos Slim’s communications giant remained dominant.
NEW YORK: Citigroup Inc is close to paying about US$7 billion (RM22 billion) to resolve a United States probe into whether it defrauded investors on billions of dollars worth of mortgage securities in the run-up to the financial crisis, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
SHANGHAI: Skoda Auto AS, the Czech mass-market brand owned by Volkswagen AG, is counting on new models and dealership facelifts to turn around sales in China this year and help its parent company become the world’s biggest carmaker.
LONDON: Aviva plc chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Wilson pledged to continue cost cuts and attract funds to its investment unit. The CEO plans to cut the operating expense ratio to less than 50 per cent from 54 per cent in 2013 and double the holding company’s annual excess cash flow to £800 million (RM4.3 billion) by end- 2016, the insurer said in a statement. It also aims to report positive fund flows from external clients at its Aviva Investors unit by next year. Bloomberg
LONDON: British retailers saw the biggest annual decline in prices since at least 2006 in June, with cheaper furniture, electricals and clothes as well as a supermarket price war all contributing, an industry group said yesterday. The British Retail Consortium reported that prices in shops fell 1.8 per cent last month compared with a year earlier. The decline was the biggest annual drop since the survey began in December 2006. Food prices were 0.6 per cent higher — the smallest gain on record — while non-food prices were 3.4 per cent lower, another record fall. Reuters
COPENHAGEN: A.P. Moller-Maersk moved to shrink its Brazilian petroleum operations on Tuesday, selling its stake in its only producing Brazilian oilfield and saying it will write off US$1.7 billion (RM5.4 billion) of investments in the country. The write-off affects two exploration areas, Itaipu and Wahoo, which failed to deliver on oil volume expectations, and the Polvo field, both in the Campos Basin, Maersk said. Maersk bought the assets from SK Energy Co Ltd for US$2.4 billion in 2011. On Tuesday, Brazil’s HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA said it bought Maersk’s 40 percent Polvo stake for an undisclosed sum. Reuters
THE manager of the world’s biggest bond fund forecasts sales of dollar-denominated notes from Asia will climb to a record US$150 billion (RM475 billion) this year as yield premiums shrink to a six-year low.
KUALA LUMPUR: Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd, which has revised upwards its FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FMB KLCI) target by 30 points to 1,960, believes that the domestic equity market is supported by ample underlying financial liquidity.
BEIJING: China told the nation’s three state- owned wireless carriers to cut marketing expenses because they overspent on subsidies and advertising for devices such as Apple Inc’s iPhone, sources said.
SINGAPORE: Temasek Holdings Pte is increasing investments in consumer, technology and healthcare companies as Singapore’s state-investment firm becomes less reliant on financial assets.
TOKYO: M&G Real Estate, the property investment unit of Prudential plc, plans to almost double its Asia-Pacific fund’s size in response to growing investor demand.
KUALA LUMPUR: The government expects growth of 0.3 per cent in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 0.5 per cent in exports with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) next year.
BANGKOK: London has overtaken Bangkok as the top destination for international travelers on the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index, as political unrest in the Southeast Asian city kept visitors away. Bangkok may draw 16.4 million international overnight visitors this year, an 11 per cent decline from 2013, the index showed. London retook the top spot with an eight per cent rise in travellers to 18.7 million. Four other Asian cities — Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Seoul — also ranked among the top 10 destinations. Bloomberg
MELBOURNE: Australia’s Telstra Corp (TLS) has closed its first syndicated loan in five years with a A$1.5 billion ($1.4 billion) revolving credit as the country’s largest phone company diversifies its funding sources. The three-year multicurrency facility attracted a total of 21 banks, according to a statement from Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, one of the arrangers. Bank of China Ltd., Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank Ltd and Westpac Banking Corp were the other arrangers, according to BTMU. Bloomberg