Keyword "INVBNK" - List of latest news (304 results)

15:32 Breakingviews - EU’s Big Tech softball may yet become hardball

There are two ways to look at Ursula von der Leyen’s relatively softball fines for U.S. Big Tech. One is that Wednesday’s 500 million euro and 200 million euro hit for Apple and Meta Platforms respectively means that the European Commission president has buckled amid pressure from her opposite number, Donald Trump. The other is that the penalties for anti-competitive behaviour aren’t hugely differ

00:25 Trading Day: Stocks rebound, no new Powell-bashing or trade tirades from Trump

Making sense of the forces driving global markets

21/04 Trading Day: Trump pummels Powell

TRADING DAY

17/04 Trading Day: ECB acts, Trump attacks

TRADING DAY

17/04 Breakingviews - Barclays’ Brookfield schmuck insurance may flop

Barclays has constructed an elaborate schmuck-insurance policy as part of its plan to possibly hive off its payments business. On Thursday, the 40-billion-pound UK bank announced a deal that could give Brookfield Asset Management 10% of the division in return for the private-capital group's help in growing the unit, as well as the chance to buy 70% more at a yet-to-be-decided valuation in three to

17/04 Trading Day: When the chips are down

TRADING DAY

16/04 Breakingviews - ASML holds up lens to chip sector’s known unknowns

ASML’s lithography machines are renowned for their unmatched precision in manufacturing semiconductors. The $260 billion company’s first-quarter results offer a similarly precise reflection of the deep uncertainty facing the global chip industry as it grapples with U.S. tariffs.

16/04 Trading Day: Another lull, but fireworks are coming

TRADING DAY

15/04 Citigroup profit soars as stock trading jumps 23%

Citigroup's profit surged in the first quarter as its traders reaped a windfall from volatile markets that fueled client activity.

15/04 Bank of America's first-quarter profit rises on trading strength

Bank of America's profit rose in the first quarter, as market volatility boosted its trading fees, lifting the shares of the bank up 1.9% before the open.

14/04 Breakingviews - Breakingviews: Tariff chaos leaves its mark on US debt costs

It’s too soon to tell whether the recent selloff in U.S. government debt reflects an exodus of overseas investors. Yet there are early signs that something is afoot. The sheer scale of possible future moves makes it a scenario that investors – and Uncle Sam – must contemplate.

14/04 Goldman Sachs profit jumps as traders cash in on volatile markets

Goldman Sachs' profit rose 15% in the first quarter, fueled by stock traders who capitalized on volatile markets to bring in record equities revenue, but its CEO warned of a difficult environment ahead.

11/04 Wells Fargo beats profit estimates but CEO warns tariffs could slow growth

Wells Fargo's profit rose 6% in the first quarter as it collected more fees in wealth management and investment banking, but its CEO warned that U.S. tariffs risk slowing economic growth.

11/04 JPMorgan's profit jumps on record stock trading as CEO Dimon sees economic turbulence

JPMorgan Chase topped first-quarter profit estimates on Friday, driven by record equities trading and higher fees from debt underwriting and merger advisory.

10/04 Breakingviews - Breakingviews: Trump’s tariff retreat leaves lasting US scars

Americans have been celebrating their freedom from monarchical rule for nearly 250 years, but Liberation Day will not make it onto the 2026 calendar. President Donald Trump’s economic version of the Declaration of Independence ended on Wednesday afternoon, less than seven days after he unveiled it with great fanfare in the White House Rose Garden. He rolled back most of his reckless tariffs, spark

09/04 Breakingviews - Big Pharma has partial immunity from Trump tariffs

The $1.7 trillion revenue prescription drug industry has a relatively robust immunity to tariffs. Last Wednesday, when U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a raft of duties on countries and industries he held back on hitting pharmaceuticals. He followed up on Tuesday by saying he would soon announce a “major” tariff on pharmaceutical imports. But the industry’s complex supply chains and the risk o

08/04 US 10-year yield won't dance to Bessent's tune: McGeever

Short-term stock price moves are rarely meaningful – especially not when markets are panicking – but the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield's round-trip since President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' last week is extraordinary.

08/04 Breakingviews - Chipmaker crafts tricky recipe for chaos-era M&A

It’s encouraging for dealmakers that a multibillion-dollar transaction can get announced amid a global market meltdown and extreme economic uncertainty. What’s less reassuring is that the enabling factors in this case seem idiosyncratic.

07/04 Trading Day: Trump's tariff wrecking ball still swinging

TRADING DAY

05/04 Trading Day: Trump tariffs wipe $5 trillion off Wall Street

Bears, fears and tears.

04/04 Breakingviews - Shifting world order suits ‘inbetweener’ economies

If there was any remaining doubt, the unipolar U.S. moment is over. On January 30 newly installed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called time on the country’s three-decade-long run as the sole arbiter of global affairs, calling it an “anomaly”. A fortnight later, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth explained clearly the new dynamic when he described China as a “peer competitor” and told other me

03/04 Breakingviews - Markets make a dicey bet on art of the trade deal

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced plans that would take the U.S. trade duties beyond their 1930s levels. Back then, the infamous anti-import Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act deepened a global economic slump and helped send the Dow Jones Industrial Average down over 30% in a year. Yet investors are so far taking a different view this time around, with markets slipping by just a few percentage po

01/04 Trading Day: Nervous calm ahead of 'Liberation Day'

TRADING DAY

01/04 Breakingviews - Trump tariff liberation means endless complication

Donald Trump is calling it Liberation Day. The president claims prospective tariffs on trillions of dollars of U.S. imports, which he is preparing to reveal on Wednesday, will mark the moment that global trading partners stop taking advantage of the United States. In fact, the decision could kick off a series of retaliations and negotiations which will drag on for years. Trump’s devotion to using

28/03 Deutsche Bank extends CEO's mandate and revamps board in crucial year

Deutsche Bank has extended CEO Christian Sewing's contract, while its deputy and another top executive will depart as part of a management revamp, cementing the leadership team of Germany's largest lender for the next phase of its turnaround.

27/03 Trading Day: Investors find auto motive for caution

Making sense of the forces driving global markets.

27/03 Breakingviews - How UBS can soften or swerve $25 bln capital blow

When UBS Chair Colm Kelleher was negotiating the weekend rescue of Credit Suisse in March 2023, the arcane regulatory question known as “equity double leverage” probably could not have been further from his mind. Two years on, it’s effectively the only topic that matters for the future of the $107 billion Zurich-based lender. Swiss lawmakers could tweak the rules to whack UBS by increasing the cap

27/03 Sterling may be vulnerable to foreigners' gilt trip

The overriding message from British finance minister Rachel Reeves on Wednesday was simple: the challenges facing UK policymakers are mushrooming, and their margin for error is rapidly shrinking.

27/03 Jefferies profit misses estimates as bond trading, equity underwriting weaken

Jefferies' first-quarter profit missed Wall Street estimates on Wednesday as bond trading weakened and stock market deals were stalled due to uncertainty sparked by shifting U.S. trade policy and geopolitical turmoil.

26/03 Trading Day: 'Tariff Man' flexes muscles, markets cower

TRADING DAY

26/03 Wall Street job cuts loom as market turmoil stalls deals

U.S. investment banks are poised to cut more jobs if economic uncertainty continues to weigh on dealmaking in the months ahead, according to analysts and recruiters.

22/03 Breakingviews - Big state backlash may pay biggest dividends in UK

Big government is facing a big challenge – and the backlash is going global.

22/03 Trading Day: Consolidating while awaiting tariff clarity

TRADING DAY

19/03 Trading Day: Markets soar as Powell brings back 'transitory'

TRADING DAY

09/03 Breakingviews - Development aid’s future is hiding in plain sight

Donald Trump’s new administration has plunged international development assistance into an existential crisis. Within hours of taking office in January, the president had issued an executive order mandating a 90-day pause on most aid to poorer countries. Last week, the State Department confirmed it was cutting more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s programmes.

09/03 Breakingviews - ‘Merz spurt’ will see Europe CEOs rethink US pivot

Not so long ago, European corporate bosses were worried about missing out on the “Trump bump”. U.S. President Donald Trump’s November victory briefly supercharged the long-running outperformance of the world’s largest economy and stock market, especially compared with sluggish Europe. Barely four months later, CEOs from London to Berlin may be thinking the opposite. Germany’s election winner Fried

24/01 Breakingviews - Bank M&A in the new Italy evokes old Italy’s flaws

Under founder Enrico Cuccia, Mediobanca pulled the strings of Italian post-war finance. Now it is under siege, with former bailout victim Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena on Friday launching a hostile, 13.3 billion euro all-share bid. True to Mediobanca’s heritage, a deal may suit powerful shareholders more than minority investors.

24/01 Crypto's charms leave some investors in Davos cold

Despite watching Bitcoin's scorching run past $100,000 and the inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to be a "crypto president" in the U.S., some of the world's largest investors said this week they still plan to stay on the sidelines.

22/01 Third time lucky for 'Year of the Bond' call?

After two years of significant underperformance by bonds, investors may have a hard time swallowing claims that 2025 will be the "year of the bond". But there are compelling reasons to believe this will be a case of third time lucky.

22/01 Breakingviews - UK antitrust ouster signals risk as much as growth

Rachel Reeves is sending a message. The UK finance minister on Monday booted out Marcus Bokkerink from his role chairing the national antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority. It’s squarely in keeping with her push to spur British growth, which in turn echoes what others are doing abroad. But it also sends a risky signal.

21/01 Goldman Sachs promotes several executives to reinforce Wall Street dominance

Goldman Sachs is tapping several executives to lead its prized Wall Street businesses, it said on Tuesday, as part of a management reshuffle less than a week after reporting its biggest quarterly profit in more than three years.

20/01 Breakingviews - Barclays-Santander UK is a matter of when, and how

If Banco Santander’s Ana Botín wants to sell her British retail business, there’s an obvious buyer: Barclays boss C. S. Venkatakrishnan. The biggest questions would be when the 42-billion-pound ($51 billion) UK bank decides to pounce – and whether its relatively new CEO, known as Venkat, can get his buyback-hungry investors on side.

20/01 Breakingviews - Davos becomes world’s most exclusive watch party

The Swiss town of Davos will this week host what amounts to an exclusive watch party for the season premiere of Donald Trump’s second term. The annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF), held in the alpine resort each January, presents itself as a place where the world’s political, business, and financial leaders meet to solve big problems. This year, though, the 2,750 delegates will spen

17/01 Breakingviews - Mega-merger boom threatens a shareholder bloodbath

When a chief executive unveils a big merger, the fretting begins. Concerns about a repeat of disasters like AOL-Time Warner or Bayer-Monsanto immediately spring to mind. It’s a particular concern for 2025 as steadier interest rates and laxer antitrust enforcement augur a resurgence of chunky M&A. When acquisitions reach $10 billion or more, however, the worst fears of shareholders are often confir

17/01 Breakingviews - Glencore’s M&A bind requires bold coal cleanup

Gary Nagle is facing a tricky situation. The Glencore CEO has a mix of copper mines, which everyone wants, and a giant coal business, which his peers have all scrambled to exit in recent years. Dumping the latter won’t be easy, but it’s still Nagle’s best chance to get a seat at the sector’s M&A table.

17/01 Breakingviews - Mega-merger boom threatens a shareholder bloodbath

When a chief executive unveils a big merger, the fretting begins. Concerns about a repeat of disasters like AOL-Time Warner or Bayer-Monsanto immediately spring to mind. It’s a particular concern for 2025 as steadier interest rates and laxer antitrust enforcement augur a resurgence of chunky M&A. When acquisitions reach $10 billion or more, however, the worst fears of shareholders are often confir

16/01 Morgan Stanley's profit more than doubles on boost from dealmaking, stock sales

Morgan Stanley's profit more than doubled in the fourth quarter, fueled by a wave of dealmaking and stock sales that drove its revenue to a full-year record.

15/01 Goldman Sachs beats profit estimates as investment banking, trading fuel bumper quarter

Goldman Sachs posted its best profit since the third quarter of 2021 to beat Wall Street expectations, driven by bankers who brought in more fees from dealmaking, debt sales and strength in trading.

15/01 JPMorgan earns biggest-ever annual profit as investment bankers ride rebound

JPMorgan Chase on Wednesday posted record annual profit as its dealmakers and traders reaped a windfall from rebounding markets in the fourth quarter.

14/01 Breakingviews - Spotify’s share surge arrives at AI crossroads

Daniel Ek is cranking up the volume at Spotify Technology . Two years ago, the U.S.-listed music streamer faced heat from activist investor ValueAct Capital Management and was mired in job cuts and losses. Since then, Spotify’s market value has quadrupled to $92 billion, and generative artificial intelligence could give it a further leg up. Yet AI also explains why the group is at a crossroads.

10/01 Strong economy, safe asset demand boosted US dominance in capital flows, White House says

The strength of the U.S. economic recovery post-COVID and a quest for safe-haven investments helped boost U.S. dominance of global financial flows, while manufacturing incentives led to a surge in foreign direct investment, the White House said on Friday.

08/01 Breakingviews - Meta’s Brussels bark may be worse than its bite

Mark Zuckerberg is, among other things, resetting his relations with Europe. Towards the end of Tuesday’s five-minute video relaxing content moderation rules, the Meta Platforms chief executive criticised European technology regulations and pledged to work with President-elect Donald Trump to “push back on governments going after American companies and pushing to censor more”. That sounds bad for

07/01 Breakingviews - Big Booze speeds towards low-growth tobacco status

Alcohol giants have a hazy future. Late last week, the U.S. surgeon general said beer and spirits cause cancer and should carry health warnings. The wider trend has echoes of the historic backlash against Big Tobacco, and appears to be partly factored into brewers’ depressed valuations. If the trend for less drinking continues, higher-rated spirit makers like $70 billion Diageo and $30 billion Per

06/01 Breakingviews - Risk and resilience are the watchwords for 2025

As the world rings in 2025, try to imagine what it would have looked like in 2019 if a visitor from the future appeared with a warning about what was going to happen next.

02/01 Breakingviews - Trading disruptors will mimic banks and beat them

Sometimes the danger to an incumbent business comes as a bolt from the blue. At other times, it approaches with a familiar face. That’s the case for trading giants like JPMorgan , Morgan Stanley , Bank of America and Deutsche Bank , who in 2025 will notice electronic market-makers acting more like banks. The trend is exemplified by Jane Street’s gargantuan balance sheet, and Citadel Securities’ hi

30/12 Breakingviews - Art of the 2025 deal will be postBidenism

The man credited with writing “The Art of the Deal” is turning out to be more muse than creator. With his return to the White House, Donald Trump will help inspire a fresh wave of corporate mergers already primed by lower borrowing costs, surging stock markets, growing confidence and itchy buyout firms. Strategists at Morgan Stanley are predicting a roughly 50% pickup in M&A activity in 2025, doub

27/12 Breakingviews - Insurance risks will be a proxy carbon tax

A robust global price on carbon is the holy grail of climate change. If emitting activities were artificially made more expensive, proceeds from richer citizens’ carbon usage could help poorer states adapt to already existing signs of global warming. In 2025 a quasi-carbon price will become increasingly apparent – but in a much more regressive way.

27/12 Breakingviews - Buyout barons will find ways to douse fire sale

If necessity is the mother of invention, fans of financial engineering have a treat in store from private equity titans in 2025. The buyout industry has been sitting on portfolio companies for longer than usual. The question is whether KKR , EQT , CVC Capital Partners and the rest can avoid taking markdowns when offloading their giant backlog of assets. Some innovative disposal tricks will help.

26/12 Breakingviews - Credit markets’ calm veneer will crack

Debt investors have been surprisingly relaxed in recent years, despite a rapid run-up in interest rates. In 2025, the period of tranquillity will end. Firms are grappling with heavy borrowings and expensive funding costs. And losses on risky private-credit loans will mount.

19/12 Fed's hawkish cut fires up rate hike debate

The end of the Federal Reserve's interest rate-cutting cycle is suddenly in sight, and a complete U-turn with rate hikes next year can no longer be ruled out.

18/12 Breakingviews - BREAKINGVIEWS-EU joint debt will reappear despite French squalls

“Europe will be forged in crisis, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.” So said European Union founding father Jean Monnet, back in 1967. In 2025, a security flashpoint on the EU’s eastern border coupled with a lack of U.S. action could prompt EU member states to break the glass on a key emergency tool: jointly issued debt. The biggest obstacle may be Monnet’s home countr

17/12 Breakingviews - BHP will try a club deal for Anglo American

Mike Henry will take another crack at buying Anglo American – with a partner. The BHP boss’s previous attempt to buy his smaller rival to become the world’s top copper miner failed in May due in part to his proposal’s complex structure and in part to his unwillingness to pay a big premium. The six-month cooling-off period imposed by UK takeover rules expired at the end of November. But recent deve

17/12 Breakingviews - Green energy will be a smart contrarian trade

On the face of it, 2025 is shaping up to be a stinker for renewable energy. The planet seems ever further from restricting global warming to a manageable 1.5 degrees Celsius level, and the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president means that the world’s biggest economy will visibly retreat from the collective fight against climate change. Yet while the year ahead will be painful for some green po

17/12 Breakingviews - Obesity giants will begin $80 bln M&A face-off

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk will kick off a massive shopping spree in 2025. The two obesity giants will be sitting on cash piles of around $80 billion by 2028, according to LSEG data, thanks to the runaway success of their weight-loss drugs. The challenge will be to put that money to work and avoid overpaying.

16/12 Breakingviews - OpenAI IPO would create the next hot meme stock

Artificial intelligence models require vast amounts of data. The companies that run them, like ChatGPT creator OpenAI, require vast amounts of cash. There’s a logical solution to the $157 billion group’s perpetual fundraising quest: the mother of all meme-stock initial public offerings in 2025.

13/12 Breakingviews - AstraZeneca lacks good medicine for Chinese limbo

Pascal Soriot is stuck in a Chinese limbo. In recent months, the CEO of $205 billion drug giant AstraZeneca has seen his China boss detained by Beijing and his shares underperform rivals. Yet the value which investors assign to his Middle Kingdom operations complicates a quick fix.

11/12 Breakingviews - Buyout barons’ Europe bargain hunt will intensify

Europeans are accustomed to trailing the United States on just about every financial metric. Private equity returns may be an exception, at least according to figures from industry data provider Preqin. The hitch is that superior buyout profits aren’t necessarily something to crow about, especially if they’re just a reflection of bargain-basement valuations.

05/12 Breakingviews - US market juggernaut poses top risk for 2025

Many large investors are approaching 2025 with a sense of nervous anticipation. That may seem surprising: the world economy has so far avoided a hard landing, while U.S. equities are on track to gain 20% or more for the second year running. President-elect Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House and lingering inflation concerns give money managers reason to fret. The biggest risk, howev

04/12 Breakingviews - UK is now risky lab rat for rich tax-perk reform

Britain is conducting a live experiment in what happens when a government tinkers with the tax perks of the mighty. In late October, finance minister Rachel Reeves scrapped Britain’s notorious “non-dom” rules, which had long given super-wealthy foreigners a sweet fiscal deal. The question is whether a large chunk of them now leave for low-tax hubs like Switzerland, Italy or Dubai – and how much of

03/12 Breakingviews - Why Mexico’s global trade sweet spot may turn sour

The last time Donald Trump was in the White House, Mexico’s economy did surprisingly well. The Spanish-speaking country, and global CEOs who have rebuilt their supply chains around it, will be hoping that the U.S. president-elect’s initial hostility once again amounts to nothing. That looks too optimistic.

03/12 Breakingviews - Masa Son risks overcompensating for his AI misses

“It may sound strange, but I think I was born to realise ASI,” SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son told shareholders in June, referring to his acronym for artificial super intelligence – a future computing technology that he believes will be 10,000 times smarter than humans. It’s not a new theme for the 67-year-old. Son has repeatedly mentioned artificial intelligence in earnings calls going back at

02/12 Breakingviews - Breakingviews: New Stellantis CEO’s first job is a US reset

Carlos Tavares' successor will need to manage increasingly tricky relations with Donald Trump.

02/12 Breakingviews - Why Mexico’s global trade sweet spot may turn sour

The last time Donald Trump was in the White House, Mexico’s economy did surprisingly well. The Spanish-speaking country, and global CEOs who have rebuilt their supply chains around it, will be hoping that the U.S. president-elect’s initial hostility once again amounts to nothing. That looks too optimistic.

28/11 Breakingviews - European pharma’s growth prescription: pivot to US

The biggest threat for European pharmaceutical groups currently comes from the United States. President-elect Donald Trump and his proposed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr amount to a toxic cocktail of “America First” nationalism and anti-drugmaker sentiment, which is doubly bad from the perspective of $480 billion Novo Nordisk , $230 billion Roche and the rest. Ironically, the best way to m

27/11 Exclusive: France is weighing zero-interest loan for 6 nuclear reactors, sources say

French officials are drawing up plans to provide an interest-free loan to state-owned power utility EDF to finance a significant portion of the construction of six new nuclear reactors, two people familiar with the matter said.

26/11 Breakingviews - Italian bank M&A circus risks sidelining investors

Andrea Orcel’s 10-billion-euro offer for Banco BPM on Monday could trigger a wave of possible countermoves from rivals within Italy and beyond. But as a group, the various players have lost market capitalisation since the day before the UniCredit CEO made his approach. It suggests shareholders fear a value-destructive cascade of possible deals, leaving financial considerations on the back burner.

22/11 Breakingviews - There are few good ways out of China’s stock slump

In the 1979 disaster movie “The China Syndrome”, a design flaw at a nuclear power plant threatens a catastrophic meltdown in which the reactor core will burn all the way through to the other side of the earth.

22/11 Breakingviews - There are few good ways out of China’s stock slump

In the 1979 disaster movie “The China Syndrome”, a design flaw at a nuclear power plant threatens a catastrophic meltdown in which the reactor core will burn all the way through to the other side of the earth.

21/11 Breakingviews - Market’s Trump trades at risk from bond vigilantes

Markets have experienced a “Trump bump”. The euphoria among equity investors, cryptocurrency fans and dollar-loving currency traders stems from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s deregulation and tax-cut pledges. But running such a hot economy would also make the deficit and inflation soar, unsettling debt markets. Bond investors could make America small again.

20/11 Breakingviews - Amcor’s cheap packaging deal hides a fragile item

Amcor’s $8.4 billion purchase of U.S. rival Berry Global may test the limits of packaging M&A. The all-share deal revealed on Tuesday involves a paper-thin premium, low valuation and plenty of cost savings. But the Swiss-based acquirer’s investors have showed little enthusiasm for the deal, with its shares declining 3% on the day. The target’s debt and sluggish business may explain why.

18/11 Breakingviews - Trump 2.0 will see more European firms do a Holcim

European corporate bosses may soon be following Jan Jenisch’s lead. In January, Holcim’s then-CEO announced he was splitting his U.S. business off from the rest of the Swiss building materials giant. President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House means that more companies could follow suit.

18/11 Exclusive: Country Garden submits offshore debt restructuring plan to creditors, sources say

Country Garden submitted the preliminary terms of its offshore debt restructuring proposal to some creditors late last month, said five sources familiar with the matter, as the indebted Chinese property developer tries to avoid liquidation.

15/11 Breakingviews - UK mistakes City liberalisation for a growth plan

Rachel Reeves’ speech on Thursday evening must have been music to the ears of the assembled financial grandees at London’s Mansion House dinner. The UK finance minister said that post-2008 reforms had created a regulatory system that “sought to eliminate risk taking”, and pledged to unshackle the sector to boost growth. Yet thus far her reforms look vague – and risk ending up as either marginal or

14/11 Breakingviews - Shein margin wobble takes bite out of IPO value

Shein’s planned stock-market float has always seemed dicey. The Singapore-headquartered fast-fashion group, which has Chinese roots, is exposed to rising Sino-U.S. tensions and environmental scrutiny. But a Donald Trump U.S. presidency and poor first-half results pose more pressing problems. To hit its most recent $66 billion private valuation, the company faces the tricky task of convincing inves

13/11 Breakingviews - Gulf’s AI strategy is built on more than sand

When it comes to major tech investment, Gulf states have a chequered record. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, after all, sank $60 billion into Masayoshi Son’s first Vision Fund, for decidedly slim returns. But with artificial intelligence – where losing stacks of money is a very real risk for investors globally – Abu Dhabi in particular looks to have the makings of a valid strategy.

11/11 Breakingviews - Gulf IPO may be Delivery Hero’s only tasty morsel

Delivery Hero is looking to the Gulf to remove the sour taste of recent years. The $12 billion Frankfurt-listed group has seen its shares slump by over two-thirds since December 2020. Its decision on Monday to commence the sale of 15% of its Middle East and North Africa business, Talabat, should result in a decent enough valuation. Unfortunately for CEO Niklas Östberg, it looks hard to promptly re

09/11 Refuel owner explores $1.5-billion-plus sale of convenience-store operator, sources say

The private-equity owner of Refuel is exploring strategic options including a potential sale that could value the U.S. convenience-store operator at more than $1.5 billion including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

08/11 Breakingviews - Breakingviews: Europe lacks scope for fiery Trump trade riposte

Europe has few easy ways to tame Donald Trump. The return of a self-styled tariff man in the White House makes the prospect of blanket levies on transatlantic trade a real scenario. The European Union’s vast trade surplus with the United States, and its reliance on it for key goods like gas, limit the scope for a tit-for-tat response.

08/11 Breakingviews - George Soros’ 1980s US debt warning echoes today

“The stock market boom has diverted our attention from the fundamental deterioration in the financial position of the United States.” So wrote hedge-fund titan George Soros in late 1986 in his investment classic “The Alchemy of Finance”. His ominous warning of the threat that unsustainable public finances can pose was realised spectacularly the following October, when the U.S. equity market regist

07/11 Breakingviews - HSBC can stand strong in a fragmenting world

When HSBC ,opened its doors in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865, Chinese trade flows were just bubbling up again after the Second Opium War between the ruling Qing dynasty and British and French imperial powers. Tensions between East and West aren’t quite that bad today, but tariff talk and widening geopolitical rifts nonetheless threaten the cross-border banking model epitomised by the UK-based gro

06/11 Bets on 'Trump 2.0' fuel surge in US stocks and dollar, Treasuries slide

Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election unleashed the biggest one-day rally in the dollar in four years, fueled rallies in U.S. stocks and punished bond prices as expectations of tax cuts and tariffs on imports drove optimism about economic growth along with worries about inflation.

05/11 Breakingviews - Saudi megafund’s success rests on fuzzy local bets

Saudi Arabia’s main mission is to diversify its heavily oil-dependent economy. But that “Vision 2030” project is undergoing a transition of its own. The kingdom’s $950 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF), tasked by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) with delivery, is increasingly focused on a collection of relatively young domestic firms. While this segment’s value now exceeds $250 billion an

04/11 B. Riley plunges after Franchise Group files for bankruptcy protection

B. Riley Financial's shares plunged 15% in premarket trading on Monday, after Franchise Group, a company in which the bank has a substantial investment, filed for bankruptcy protection.

01/11 Breakingviews - Global banks are nearing peak regulation

Sixteen years ago last month, Jamie Dimon was summoned to Washington. There, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson presented the JPMorgan chief executive and the heads of eight other large U.S. banks with a non-negotiable proposal: accept up to $250 billion in capital from the federal government. The move was part of an unprecedented and coordinated attempt to save the global banking system from collaps

01/11 Breakingviews - Saudi’s Davos is no longer such a desert

Saudi Arabia’s big shindig is getting bigger. About 4,000 delegates showed up for the desert kingdom’s first Future Investment Initiative in 2017. This year’s gathering attracted twice that number, suggesting that the country’s Vision 2030 project to shed its historical dependence on oil has gained some traction.

31/10 Breakingviews - Siemens AI deal is baby step to higher share price

Siemens CEO Roland Busch is taking a small step towards a higher share price. The German trains-to-robots group is buying simulation-software maker Altair Engineering for $10 billion, after netting off cash. The rich transaction will take years to pay off. But if Busch can use the deal as a trigger to turn $155 billion Siemens into a much simpler company, he might one day earn a higher valuation.

31/10 Breakingviews - Global banks are nearing peak regulation

Sixteen years ago last month, Jamie Dimon was summoned to Washington. There, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson presented the JPMorgan chief executive and the heads of eight other large U.S. banks with a non-negotiable proposal: accept up to $250 billion in capital from the federal government. The move was part of an unprecedented and coordinated attempt to save the global banking system from collaps

30/10 Breakingviews - UBS can share more M&A savings with investors

Sergio Ermotti’s integration of Credit Suisse is clearly going well. The only real question is why so few of the touted cost savings seem to be benefitting UBS’s reported operating expenses. To get investors firmly onside, the CEO will have to get far more of the cuts to drop down to the bottom line.

25/10 Breakingviews - Why stablecoins will entrench dollar's supremacy

Uncle Sam can rest easy for now. A Russian plan to break the grip of the U.S. dollar through a new international payments network met a cool reception at the BRICS summit in Kazan this week, with the emerging market club’s official declaration failing to mention the “BRICS Bridge” initiative by name. Rather than slipping, in fact, the greenback’s supremacy may be strengthening because of an entire

24/10 Breakingviews - Fintechs’ IPO valuations can look beyond Nubank

Fintech bankers spend a lot of time talking about Nubank . The $70 billion Brazilian financial group has become the go-to valuation benchmark for a host of digital “neobank” players keen to become publicly listed companies. For the likes of Revolut, Chime and Monzo there's just one catch: as listed comparisons go, Nubank leaves something to be desired.

22/10 US, Europe matching rate paths must diverge

U.S. and European interest rates have followed parallel paths this year, even as the regions' economic and inflationary outlooks have veered in different directions. Money markets expect this to continue. Economic logic says they're wrong.

22/10 Breakingviews - New CEO clicks HSBC Rubik’s cube into right place

HSBC , has changed a lot in its almost 160-year history. Yet many of its CEOs have grappled with a familiar question: how to manage a global bank with overlapping management teams for the different regions and business lines? New boss Georges Elhedery has landed on a logical fix. But if it works too well, there is a risk investors will wonder if HSBC really needs to be so sprawling.

22/10 HSBC appoints Pam Kaur as first female CFO; announces restructuring

HSBC Holdings , named insider Pam Kaur as its first female finance chief on Tuesday, replacing Georges Elhedery who became CEO earlier this year, and said it would streamline the bank into four business units.

21/10 Breakingviews - Swiss finish would take shine off UBS’s M&A gift

Was UBS’s Credit Suisse acquisition the “deal of the century”? That phrase, coined by a Swiss lawmaker last year, sums up the widely held view of the wealth giant’s state-arranged rescue of its arch-rival in March 2023. The benefits for the enlarged bank run by Sergio Ermotti are vast. Yet decisions by regulators could lower UBS’s return on the acquisition from interstellar to merely respectable.

11/09 Breakingviews - UK bank tax would fall on shrinking shoulders

Asked why he robbed banks, outlaw Willie Sutton is supposed to have replied, “because that’s where the money is”. British finance ministers have often displayed a similar attitude towards lenders when it comes to tax policy. Yet if Rachel Reeves is eyeing the sector for a raid of her own next month, she’ll find that it’s less flush than it seems.

10/09 Bank of America boosts US minimum hourly wage to $24

Bank of America has raised its minimum hourly wage in the United States to $24, it said on Tuesday.

10/09 Breakingviews - Big Pharma lacks motive to prep for new pandemics

Covid-19 underlined the critical importance of vaccines. The pandemic caused 16 million global deaths, and the current scare surrounding Mpox emphasises how citizens remain fearful of fresh outbreaks. That suggests Big Pharma groups should be ploughing resources into a vaccine arsenal to tackle the next big virus. Yet right now they’re not, and it’s far from clear that they will.

09/09 China Renaissance shares plunge after 17-month suspension, former chairman's detention

Shares of boutique investment bank China Renaissance fell as much as 72% to a record low on Monday when they resumed trading 17 months after being suspended during a probe involving its then-chairman and CEO Bao Fan.

08/09 China plans to allow wholly foreign-owned hospitals in some areas

China on Sunday said it would the allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in nine areas of the country including the capital, as Beijing tries to attract more foreign investment to boost its flagging economy.

06/09 Breakingviews - Buyout barons’ music fest punt is oddly compelling

What do a huge Gen Z gathering in Hungary, the world’s largest heavy metal festival in Germany, the Sonar dance music shindig in Barcelona and a daytime-focused experience in rural Lincolnshire offering music, comedy, workshops and wellness have in common? They’re all part of an 80-strong live experience empire owned by Superstruct Entertainment. And following a 1.3 billion euro ($1.4 billion) dea

06/09 China creates $230 bln brokerage powerhouse as consolidation gathers pace

The merger of two state-backed brokerages in China to create a sector leader with $230 billion in assets is part of Beijing's drive to consolidate the $1.7-trillion industry amid challenging markets, and the move is set to gather pace, analysts said.

05/09 Breakingviews - Nestlé L’Oréal sale would add sugar to sour fix

The new boss of Nestlé may have to embark on a painful turnaround. Last month, the $279 billion food giant replaced its CEO with insider Laurent Freixe, who will probably have to sacrifice profitability to win back market share. But Freixe could offer shareholders a sweetener by selling down part of Nestle's 20% holding in L’Oréal to fund share buybacks.

05/09 Breakingviews - Seven & i deal will test Japan’s financial renewal: Podcast

Couche-Tard’s takeover interest in the 7-Eleven owner is a pivotal moment for the country’s efficiency drive. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain why Tokyo ought to wait to see how the target reacts before opining, and how a deal could easily turn hostile.

03/09 Breakingviews - Telegram’s route to profitability looks dubious

Pavel Durov has some taxing problems. For one thing, the founder of messaging app Telegram is now unable to leave France after domestic prosecutors charged him with allowing his platform to be used for money laundering and child sexual abuse material. In comparison the question of how his enterprise can make money might seem trifling, but it’s arguably just as tricky.

01/09 Breakingviews - Telegram CEO arrest is fuzzy warning to Big Tech

The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov has energised both critics of Big Tech and ardent libertarians, who fear a fresh crackdown on free speech. The latter fears look overdone, given the specific nature of the case. Yet there’s still a warning to rivals like X's owner Elon Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

30/08 Breakingviews - Oasis-style mega-gigs may increasingly slide away

Noel and Liam Gallagher’s long-awaited comeback has supersonic timing. The 400 million pounds in sales and associated revenues the Mancunian brothers stand to generate by reforming iconic 1990s UK band Oasis in 2025 puts them in a similar bracket to Taylor Swift, who last year undertook the first tour to gross over $1 billion. Given industry changes ushered in by music’s streaming era, coining it

30/08 China's interest rate reform will be 'arduous, long' process

China's central bank wants to shift its policy framework to target the cost of credit rather than its size, but liquidity risks and uncooperative markets are making it difficult to transition the economy away from state-directed bank lending.

30/08 Nasdaq Futures to pay $22 million to settle charges over perk program, CFTC says

Nasdaq has agreed to pay $22 million to settle U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charges that its former energy contract market failed to disclose details of perks offered to certain traders.

26/08 Breakingviews - Nestlé’s CEO switch serves up unappetising menu

Swiss consumer-goods giant Nestlé has had a rough few years. The board’s decision to replace CEO Mark Schneider with insider Laurent Freixe, announced on Thursday evening, was abrupt but justifiable. The danger for investors is that the turnaround job will now be more painful than they had expected.

23/08 CVC, DSV submit final bids around $15.6bln for Deutsche Bahn's Schenker, sources say

Deutsche Bahn's logistics unit Schenker has collected final bids from a consortium led by CVC Capital Partners and Danish transport firm DSV that value the business at around 14 billion euros ($15.57 billion), two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

22/08 Breakingviews - Deutsche’s legal seesaw flags investor blind spot

Bank investors spend ages engaged in pointy-headed tasks like modelling net interest income. Yet sometimes the most consequential thing for a lender’s share price is the outcome of decades-old court claims. Deutsche Bank’s legal rollercoaster this year is a case in point.

21/08 Breakingviews - Elon Musk’s best move in EU fight may be an eXit

Elon Musk has no easy way out of his fight with the European Commission, which is investigating whether his social-media site X breached rules designed to limit illegal content and disinformation. The billionaire is facing determined adversaries in the relevant Commissioners Thierry Breton and Margrethe Vestager, who have a new legal tool. Musk may eventually conclude that pulling the plug makes s

20/08 Breakingviews - Saudi fund’s prudence pivot is only half complete

Among the world’s major sovereign wealth vehicles, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has always had an unusually local flavour. That idiosyncrasy is growing. Spending more money in the kingdom makes sense given the PIF’s goal of helping to diversify the country away from oil. But many of the local projects seem speculative.

17/08 Breakingviews - Mpox drugmaker’s shares may provide false comfort

Global public health emergencies are always shrouded in uncertainty. Mpox, which has spread beyond central Africa, is no exception. The market price of a company that makes a vaccine, Denmark’s $3.2 billion Bavarian Nordic , at least offers some clues as to what biotechnology investors are bracing for. The signals so far imply a relatively contained outbreak, but things could get worse.

12/07 Wells Fargo misses interest income estimates as deposit costs bite, shares slump

Wells Fargo's second-quarter profit declined and the lender missed analysts' estimates for interest income on higher deposit costs amid intense competition for customers' money, sending its shares down more than 5% in premarket trading.

12/07 Citi profit beats on surge in investment banking, services strength

Citigroup beat Wall Street expectations for second-quarter profit on Friday, boosted by a 60% jump in investment banking revenue and gains in its services division.

04/07 Breakingviews - UK elections herald return to tarnished stability: podcast

Polls suggest voters will hand Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party a historic defeat. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists discuss how a new government might pick up the pieces amid the legacy of a now-immutable Brexit and political turmoil engulfing global peers.

29/06 Breakingviews - The economics of AI points to value of good data

Nvidia briefly became the most valuable company in the world last week after shares in the leading supplier of chips and networking infrastructure used to train artificial intelligence models nearly tripled since January. Yet the AI revolution has so far proved far from a one-way bet: most of the stocks in a host of AI-focused indices and funds are down this year.

27/06 Big US banks withstand Fed's commercial real estate shock scenario

Big U.S. banks survived a hypothetical 40% drop in commercial real estate values as a part of the U.S. Federal Reserve's annual health test, easing fears about the banking sector as landlords struggle in a higher-for-longer interest rate world.

27/06 US banks suffer steeper losses, but retain large cushions in annual Fed health check

The biggest U.S. banks would have enough capital to withstand severe economic and market turmoil, the Federal Reserve's annual "stress test" exercise showed on Wednesday, but firms faced steeper hypothetical losses this year due to riskier portfolios.

26/06 UK human rights group launches campaign to stop Shein's potential London IPO

UK-based human rights group Stop Uyghur Genocide has launched a legal campaign to block Shein's potential London listing over concerns about its labour practices, a law firm representing the campaign group said on Wednesday.

25/06 Shein's potential IPO to be a 'badge of shame' for LSE, Amnesty International says

Amnesty International UK said on Tuesday Shein's potential London initial public offering would be a "badge of shame" for the London Stock Exchange because of the fast-fashion firm's "questionable" labour and human rights standards.

25/06 Delaware law to allow big investors greater sway over US boards

Delaware is poised to adopt changes to its widely used corporate law that critics argue could weaken U.S. boards of directors in favor of influential investors such as private-equity firms.

24/06 Exclusive: KKR seeks $20 billion for new North America buyout fund

KKR is seeking about $20 billion from investors for its latest flagship North America private equity fund, according to people familiar with the matter, three years after it launched its predecessor fund of similar size.

24/06 Big US banks expected to be cautious on shareholder payouts after stress tests

Big U.S. lenders are expected to show they have ample capital to weather any renewed turmoil during this week's Federal Reserve health checks, but will be conservative on investor payouts amid economic and regulatory uncertainties, analysts said.

21/06 European IPOs fizzle out as political turmoil roils stocks

The European IPO market is unlikely to see any new candidates until after the summer, as political uncertainty has roiled markets, bankers said.

13/06 Breakingviews - Europe’s election eruption threatens paralysis: podcast

Centrist and green parties saw big losses in a vote to elect the European Union’s parliament, sparking a shock snap election in France. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain how ensuing instability could slow the continent’s response to urgent global issues.

10/06 In the Market: How US is daring the world to find a dollar alternative

The United States is merrily chipping away at the pillars that hold up the dollar as the world's reserve currency, with the latest blows coming from some powerful Americans questioning the rule of law following the conviction of Donald Trump.

06/06 Demise of dollar's FX reserve omnipotence greatly exaggerated: McGeever

After two decades of the dollar's share of global foreign exchange reserves gradually eroding to less than 60%, economic, financial and geopolitical stars are aligning to halt that trend in the next few years and possibly even reverse it.

06/06 Private equity deal drought overshadows annual meet up for second year

Advisers and investors congregated at the annual SuperReturn conference in Berlin this week as a still struggling private equity market cast a shadow over the meeting for a second year, although there were flashes of optimism among the attendees.

06/06 Breakingviews - Breakingviews: Five reasons financial disasters are hard to avoid

If we understand the causes of financial crises and how to prevent them, why do they keep happening? That was the provocative question posed to a group of regulators, academics, and investors at the London School of Economics last week. The participants, who had gathered to mark the 10th anniversary of the university’s Systemic Risk Centre, reached a sober conclusion: old problems and new dangers

06/06 IEA expects global clean energy investment to hit $2 trillion in 2024

Global investment in clean energy technology and infrastructure is set to hit $2 trillion this year, twice the amount going into fossil fuels, an International Energy Agency report showed.

02/06 Investors flock to Aramco share sale that could raise $13 billion

Saudi Arabia's sale of shares in oil giant Aramco drew more demand than the stock on offer within hours of kicking off on Sunday, a deal that could raise up to $13.1 billion in a major test of international appetite for the kingdom's assets.

31/05 Saudi Arabia sets new test for international interest with $13.1 billion Aramco sale

Saudi Arabia and its bankers will on Sunday morning start taking orders for as much as $13.1 billion worth of shares in its energy giant Aramco , in a major test of international investor interest in its market.

31/05 Breakingviews - Breakingviews: Trump’s rich backers normalize criminal behavior

Even as a New York jury considered Donald Trump’s fate, his rich backers stood behind him. Major Wall Street donors including Blackstone’s founder Stephen Schwarzman decided to firmly back the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who was convicted on Thursday of 34 criminal charges. It’s one thing to support a candidate who might cut taxes and regulation, and quite another to

21/05 Exclusive: Conservative investor pulls JPMorgan resolution, cites changes addressing 'politicized finance'

A conservative shareholder has withdrawn a resolution filed for a vote at Tuesday's annual meeting of JPMorgan, according to the investor's representative, who said the move reflects changes the Wall Street bank has made to take more account of diverse viewpoints.

17/05 Endeavor's $13 billion deal highlights push to sidestep minority shareholders

Endeavor Group's decision to deny minority shareholders the ability to veto a $13 billion deal to take the entertainment conglomerate private is the latest example of a company's controlling investors risking lawsuits to avoid paying a higher deal price.

14/05 BNP Paribas CEO dampens hopes for European bank M&A revival

The boss of the euro zone's most valuable lender BNP Paribas on Tuesday played down expectations for a revival of M&A activity in European banking, saying the economics of cross-border and even some domestic deals rarely made sense.

22/04 Europe's bank earnings to offer interest rate reality check

Investors should get a clearer picture this week of whether higher interest rates are still boosting European bank profits or if a year-long share price rally will run out of steam.

18/04 Breakingviews - Breakingviews: UAE is timely reminder of climate plan B urgency

Dubai International Airport is the busiest global air hub, in a country that prides itself as a stable destination for foreign investment and visitors. So it’s quite something to see large parts of one of the United Arab Emirates’ prized assets underwater amid unusually intense rainfall, and tourists left stranded. That said, a robust response by the UAE government may have some spillover benefits

16/04 Breakingviews - Microsoft’s G42 deal puts UAE in America’s AI tent

The United Arab Emirates likes to think of itself as a sort of Switzerland of the Gulf. Microsoft’s $1.5 billion stake in Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company G42, announced on Tuesday, shows the limits of remaining a neutral counterparty of the United States and China, especially when it comes to AI. While nominally a private sector deal, the main upshot is to shove the UAE firmly into the U

16/04 Morgan Stanley's profit beats as investment banking rebounds

Morgan Stanley's first-quarter profit beat estimates on Tuesday, fueled by a resurgence in investment banking led by equity underwriting where revenue more than doubled, sending its shares up 2.7% before the bell.

15/04 Breakingviews - Prysmian finds sparky US fix for dim cable outlook

Cable maker Prysmian is once again in expansion mode. Six years after swooping on General Cable, the acquisitive $15 billion manufacturer of electric wires and fiber connections has agreed to buy smaller U.S. rival Encore Wire for about $4.2 billion. The deal does not come cheap. Yet a stronger presence in the larger and more attractive North American market should provide a sparky antidote to the

12/04 Breakingviews - BP takeover is both appealing and daunting

For any ambitious M&A adviser, there’s obvious appeal in pitching clients on a potential takeover of BP . The $110 billion energy group is cheap relative to rivals, and its new CEO is still learning the ropes. It also has assets that may appeal to cash-rich buyers like Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which recently pondered a swoop on the British company, Reuters reported on Thursday citin

12/04 JPMorgan profit rises 6% even as interest income forecast falls short of predictions

JPMorgan Chase's profit rose 6% in the first quarter, although its shares dropped after the bank's forecast for its income from interest payments came in below analysts' expectations.

12/04 Citi profit drops as costs rise for employee severance, deposit insurance

Citigroup's profit fell in the first quarter as it spent more on severance payments for laid-off employees and set aside money to refill a government deposit insurance fund.

11/04 Breakingviews - How Patrick Drahi can clamber out of his debt hole

People who know Patrick Drahi characterise him as a ruthless and meticulous strategist. Yet creditors fighting the telecom tycoon in France seem to think the Moroccan-born entrepreneur is unprepared for battle. Which side is right could ultimately determine who controls a key part of the transatlantic Altice empire, currently straining under $60 billion of debt. The odds favour Drahi.

09/04 Breakingviews - How new stock rules are boosting Europe’s startups: podcast

Young companies in the European Union have traditionally lagged US rivals in both value and numbers. But in this Exchange podcast, Index Ventures Partner Hannah Seal explains how friendlier regulations on employee share ownership are helping EU-based entrepreneurs fill that gap.

09/04 Breakingviews - Airbus obsessives have a shaky grasp of history

Suddenly, everyone wants to be like Airbus . In recent months, Renault CEO Luca de Meo has called for an “Airbus of autos” to face down the threat to European carmakers from Chinese electric vehicles. In March, the boss of German utility E.ON was fielding questions about the merits of a pan-European mega-utility that could be the “Airbus of energy”. Military specialists antsy about Europe’s highly

31/03 Breakingviews - Sergio Ermotti has a path to Wall Street-style pay

Sergio Ermotti is well rewarded or underpaid, depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on. UBS on Thursday revealed it had handed its chief executive 14.4 million Swiss francs ($15.9 million) for the nine months since he returned to lead the Swiss lender in April last year, making him Europe’s best-paid bank chief. While his Wall Street peers routinely get double that, there’s a way to narro

15/03 Breakingviews - Credit Suisse carcass feeds many hungry mouths

The beasts of the investment banking jungle have feasted on Credit Suisse’s carcass. In the year since the Swiss lender collapsed, competitors have carved off its employees, clients, and assets. Arch-rival UBS grabbed most of the spoils, but other banks have also benefited from the feeding frenzy. Less clear is whether the survivors will be more responsible than Credit Suisse was when activity pic

14/03 Exclusive: Citigroup probes senior IPO banker over bullying claims

Citigroup is investigating workplace harassment allegations made by at least one employee against a senior U.S. banker who works on initial public offerings, four people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

14/03 Breakingviews - UK monarchy suffers an impairment to its goodwill

Britain’s royal family has little in common with large publicly listed companies. Yet the brouhaha surrounding the health of the Princess of Wales suggests that poor communication can have a damaging impact on goodwill – accounting or otherwise.

14/03 Breakingviews - Japan’s rate shift will hit zombie firms hardest: podcast

The central bank could end an era of negative borrowing costs as early as next week. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists argue that large companies are ready for the tightening, but many struggling small businesses could hit the wall even if policymakers go slow.

06/03 Breakingviews - Bayer’s inertia will make mounting problems worse

Is Bill Anderson displaying appropriate caution, or mindless inertia? Bayer’s CEO on Tuesday backed away from a plan to break up the business, denying shareholders a speedy fix for the 27 billion euro ($30 billion) group’s debt pile and its spiralling U.S. litigation costs. On balance, he’s taking the riskier option.

27/02 Breakingviews - Europe defence push requires clearing M&A barriers

Does Europe need to spend more money on defence? The question was central at the annual Munich Security Conference earlier this month after U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump suggested he would not protect NATO members that do not spend enough on their military. Yet Europe is currently squandering investment on incompatible weapons and systems. Clearing M&A defences and creating regional champ

23/02 Breakingviews - Strategic clarity fuels US oil giants’ M&A spree

U.S. and European oil giants sell the same product in the same global market. But they are on diverging paths. While American groups like Exxon Mobil and Chevron are buying up smaller drillers, their European rivals such as Shell , BP and TotalEnergies are largely sitting on their hands. Part of the explanation is a transatlantic disagreement about the long-term outlook for oil.

22/02 Breakingviews - Mining pain may be just getting started: podcast

Falling prices for nickel, lithium and copper have hit earnings at Glencore and Anglo American. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain why competition and dwindling demand for electric vehicles will keep key battery commodities under pressure.

22/02 Breakingviews - Anglo American can mine Vale for revamp ideas

Duncan Wanblad ought to look to his predecessor for ideas. The CEO of $30 billion Anglo American has seen the miner’s share price more than halve since taking over in April 2022, with another 21% off since December after the miner disappointed on production volumes. Former Anglo boss Mark Cutifani’s latest job at Brazilian miner Vale may offer some inspiration for how to stop the rot.

22/02 Breakingviews - The rocky road to an ‘eBay for carbon credits’: podcast

Markets that trade the right to emit greenhouse gases have a ropey history. Still, in this Exchange podcast Harvard University Fellow Ely Sandler argues that companies and countries may increasingly pay carbon taxes via emission permits – and unlock cash for the green transition.

16/02 Breakingviews - Banks win hollow victory over would-be disrupters

Tesco planned its attack on British banking with precision. In mid-2008, as the global financial industry was grappling with its worst crisis in 80 years, the supermarket giant took control of its UK financial services joint venture with the promise to offer a full range of retail banking products. “Given the loss of confidence in the banking sector, our very conservative, straightforward approach

15/02 Breakingviews - Deal famine is driving private equity evolution: podcast

M&A activity fell 30% in 2023 and this year is off to a relatively slow start. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists discuss how a dearth of deals is spotlighting a shift of focus among traditional buyout houses like KKR and Carlyle into areas like private credit.

14/02 Breakingviews - Heineken dilutes beer’s merrier future

Debra Crew reckons beer is becoming the tipple of choice for cash-strapped consumers. If so, the Diageo CEO’s theory sounds like a major boon for global brewers like $20 billion Carlsberg and $54 billion Heineken . Still, judging by their contrasting fortunes in 2023 and their outlooks, investors can’t quite tell whether she’s right.

14/02 Exclusive: NEC spurned private equity offers before selling discounted stake in iPhone supplier, sources say

Japan's NEC received multiple buyout offers from global private equity funds for iPhone supplier Japan Aviation Electronics Industry before agreeing to sell back much of its 51% stake to the Japanese company at a discount, five people said.

08/02 One year on, a star Chinese dealmaker's absence casts pall over his bank

Bao Fan was taken away by Chinese authorities and hasn't been seen by colleagues since.

30/01 Exclusive: BDT & MSD Partners explores $5 bln sale of Alliance Laundry-sources

Merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners, the owner of Alliance Laundry Systems, is exploring a sale of the U.S. laundry equipment manufacturer that could value it at nearly $5 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

27/01 Hometown Food Company, maker of Pillsbury baking products, up for sale-sources

The private equity firm that owns Hometown Food Company is exploring a sale of the maker of Pillsbury's shelf-stable baking products and Birch Benders, according to people familiar with the matter.

25/01 China widens commercial property loan uses to ease liquidity

China on Wednesday said it is widening the uses for commercial property lending by banks in its latest effort to ease a liquidity crunch facing troubled real estate firms.

18/01 US bank profits shrink on higher deposit costs, one-time charges

Several U.S. banks reported a plunge in fourth-quarter profits on Thursday, hurt by a drop in interest income and charges tied to replenishing a deposit insurance fund.

16/01 Morgan Stanley revenue beats on dealmaking rebound, takes $535 million in charges

Morgan Stanley's revenue beat fourth-quarter expectations on Tuesday, helped by a rebound in dealmaking activity, sending the shares of the investment bank up 1% in premarket trading.

15/01 Breakingviews - Breakingviews: The spectre of Donald Trump hangs over Davos

The most talked-about person in Davos next week will be nowhere near the Swiss mountain resort. As politicians, financiers and chief executives converge for this year’s World Economic Forum, Donald Trump will be 7,500 kilometres away in Iowa, starting his quest to win the U.S. Republican Party’s presidential nomination for the third time. Even so, his possible return to the White House will pervad

12/01 Citigroup swings to $1.8 billion loss on slew of charges

Citigroup on Friday reported a $1.8 billion loss for the fourth quarter as it recorded charges to refill a government deposit insurance fund and carry out a sweeping internal reorganization.

12/01 German M&A outlook clouded by growing economic challenges

A backlog of incomplete deals and an uncertain economic outlook mean German dealmakers are predicting a quiet first quarter and a relative fee famine until 2025 in Europe's biggest economy.

12/01 Wells Fargo posts upbeat fourth quarter, warns of lower interest income in 2024

Wells Fargo's fourth-quarter profit jumped as the lender benefited from cost cuts, but it warned that 2024 net interest income could be 7% to 9% lower than a year earlier.

03/01 ‘Polluter pays’ doctrine will take on new meaning

Companies will learn the hard way that polluting the world has a cost. Ten years after the deadly Rana Plaza factory-building collapse that killed more than 1,000 underpaid textile workers in Bangladesh, cheap polyester clothes from Shein, Boohoo or Primark continue to fill our wardrobes before hitting the landfill. Meanwhile, more than 350 million metric tons of Coca-Cola bottles, Mars wrappers a

02/01 Rival narratives will battle for supremacy in 2024

It has been more than six decades since Thomas Kuhn first coined the term “paradigm shift”. Yet the process the American historian described, where accumulating contradictions in and violations of old theories lead to them being painfully overthrown, remains relevant today. As 2024 gets underway, the consequences of an inflationary overshoot, heightening trade conflict and war pose a challenge to

01/12 Focus: Heathrow stake sale opens the door for a resurgence in airport deals

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a rebound in travel and rising interest rates is leading some airport owners and operators to sell up after a dearth of dealmaking in the sector.

28/11 West's de-risking starts to bite China's prospects

U.S. furniture company head Jordan England thinks his firm's Chinese suppliers are among the best in the game, but geopolitics and a slowing economy have pushed him to source more products from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Mexico.

25/11 Breakingviews - Listen Now: OpenAI’s boardroom drama is far from over

In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain how the saga of Sam Altman has raised concerns about governance, the future of artificial intelligence and the cult of the CEO.

10/11 Loans linked to ESG face overhaul by under-pressure banks

Corporate loans whose costs are linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals are being redesigned by banks in response to rising regulatory pressure and to inject more credibility into a market they hope to grow.

27/10 US investment banks see early signs of revival in dealmaking

Major Wall Street firms said a dismal year of dealmaking appears to have hit a trough, and now some companies are looking to merge, offering hope that investment banking revenues could pick up after a disappointing third quarter.

20/10 Breakingviews - China’s graphite curbs send green warning shot

China is hitting the West where it really hurts, or at least showing that it can. The People’s Republic announced on Friday it will impose export licence requirements on some graphite products that go into electric vehicle batteries. It's a tit for tat, following fresh U.S. curbs on chip exports. With nearly all the global processing capacity of the iron black stuff in Chinese hands, global carmak

18/10 Breakingviews - Banks’ wealth-management heyday may have passed

Wealth management was a rare bright spot for banks in the otherwise uninspiring decade and a half that followed the last financial crisis. Between 2008 and 2022, the net assets owned by households worldwide more than doubled to $454 trillion, according to research by UBS – one of the major lenders that decided to focus on the business of looking after well-heeled clients’ fortunes.

18/10 Morgan Stanley profit shrinks as deal slump lingers

Morgan Stanley's profit fell about 9% in the third quarter, dragged down by lethargic dealmaking that sent the lender's shares down nearly 3% in premarket trading.

17/10 BofA profit beats estimates on interest income, gains in investment banking, trading

Bank of America beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Tuesday as it joined rivals in earning more from interest payments, while benefiting from a better-than-expected performance of its investment banking and trading divisions.

17/10 Goldman Sachs profit plunges on impact from fintech sale, real estate bets

Goldman Sachs' profit fell in the third quarter, weighed down by an $864 million writedown on its GreenSky fintech business and its investments in real estate.

17/10 Country Garden: What happens next?

Country Garden's entire offshore debt will be deemed to be in default if China's largest private property developer fails to make a $15 million coupon payment on Tuesday, the end of a 30-day grace period.

13/10 Citigroup profit holds steady as investment banking fees jump

Citigroup's profit was broadly steady in the third quarter as it benefited from rising interest payments and surging investment banking fees, sending its shares up 3% in premarket trading on Friday.

13/10 Wells Fargo raises interest income forecast as third-quarter profit beats estimates

Wells Fargo on Friday beat analysts' estimates for third-quarter profit as it benefited from customers paying more interest and raised its annual forecast for future income from interest payments.

12/10 Wall St bonuses may drop 16% as higher rates threaten businesses - NY Comptroller

Wall Street bonuses could fall 16% this year as interest rates possibly staying higher for longer threatens the performance of financial companies, according to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

12/10 Exclusive: Mainland Chinese banned from opening new offshore trading accounts with local brokers

China has for the first time issued a notice prohibiting domestic brokerages and their overseas units from taking on new mainland clients for offshore trading, according to an official document seen by Reuters and confirmed by four sources.

09/10 Insight: Abu Dhabi's oil champion ADNOC bets on global expansion

The United Arab Emirates is refashioning state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the image of an international oil major by stepping up its global expansion and finding new revenue streams to maximise earnings for the Gulf state.

05/10 Japan M&A blazes trail as global deals decline

Japan's M&A market is standing out against a worldwide decline this year, thanks to surging domestic deals as rising costs, stricter governance rules and shareholder pressure force companies to explore strategic options.

05/10 Birkenstock the latest shoe IPO to drop in a tough market

Sandal company Birkenstock needs to sell more clogs and boots and boost sales from its own website and boutiques to attract new shoppers amid a cost of living crisis, investors and analysts said before it lists on the New York Stock Exchange next week.

03/10 Banks behind 70% jump in greenwashing incidents in 2023 -report

The number of instances of greenwashing by banks and financial services companies around the world rose 70% in the past 12 months from the previous 12 months, a report on Tuesday showed.

29/09 Dealmakers see rebound after US activity buoys global M&A volumes

Mergers and acquisitions activity globally showed few signs of improvement but a rebound in volumes in the United States - the world's biggest investment banking market - gave dealmakers hope of a sustained recovery in the near term.

27/09 China Evergrande's billionaire boss goes from power circles to police surveillance

Mingling with power brokers at celebrations to mark the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, 2021, a beaming Hui Ka Yan showed no signs that his company, China Evergrande Group, was facing mounting pressure paying its debts.

25/09 China bans Nomura senior investment banker from leaving mainland -sources

Authorities in China have ordered a senior Nomura Holdings banker overseeing the firm's investment banking operations there not to leave the mainland, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

21/09 Breakingviews - Anti-obesity drugs can shrink more than patients

Starry-eyed venture capitalists love to talk about how promising startups might capture a chunk of a giant total addressable market (TAM). This concept can also work in reverse, though. New anti-obesity drugs have the potential to transform public health, while obliterating demand for products and services from the medical, food and fitness industries. Think of them as total unaddressable markets

19/09 Business group standards aim to help firms account for nature-related risks

An international working group of 40 business and finance executives on Monday presented companies with guidelines on explaining to investors their dependence on ecosystems in a bid to better manage nature-related risks.

18/09 Breakingviews - Prosus CEO exit leaves Tencent elephant in room

Bob van Dijk is passing an unsolved problem to his successor. The chief executive of Prosus , Tencent’s biggest investor, said on Monday he was stepping down. Interim CEO Ervin Tu can suggest more asset sales to boost shareholder returns. But without a plan for his company’s 25% stake in the $380 billion Chinese e-commerce behemoth, Prosus shares’ discount to the value of their underlying assets w

14/09 World needs $2.7 trillion annually for net zero emissions by 2050-Wood Mackenzie

Global investment of $2.7 trillion a year is needed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and avoid temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius this century, a report by consultancy Wood Mackenzie said on Thursday.

14/09 How SoftBank played it safe in pricing Arm's IPO

SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son was in San Francisco on Wednesday when he joined a call with his bankers in New York to make a final decision about his company's most valuable asset: chip designer Arm Holdings .

13/09 US oil and gas producer CrownRock to explore $10 bln-plus sale -sources

CrownRock LP is preparing to explore a sale that could value it at well over $10 billion including debt, people familiar with the matter said, in what could be the largest deal for a U.S. oil and gas producer going back at least three years.

09/09 Breakingviews - American economic power is potent but unstable

For the past 15 years, the iPhone has been a totem of U.S. economic power. The global popularity of Apple’s ubiquitous smartphone serves as a worldwide reminder of Silicon Valley’s ingenuity and technological expertise. Yet in some eyes it now appears to have become a threat. China recently told staff at central government agencies to stop using the devices at work, Reuters reported on Thursday, a

07/09 Exclusive: Stroeer considers options for 2024 sale of data business Statista, sources say

German advertising group Stroeer is considering possible options for the sale of Statista in 2024, in a process which could value the data gathering business at up to 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion), four sources familiar with the matter said.

01/09 Exclusive: Indian billionaire Ambani's Reliance Retail in talks to raise $2.5 bln -sources

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail Ventures is in advanced talks with global investors to raise around $2.5 billion by the end of September, ahead of a potential stock market listing, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

29/08 UBS, Swiss finance blog settle Credit Suisse legacy lawsuit

UBS and Inside Paradeplatz have settled a lawsuit initially brought against the popular Zurich based finance blog by Credit Suisse, the publication said on Tuesday.

28/08 US-Sino tensions help spawn China card game craze

China's bankers and business executives have become increasingly reliant on domestic capital in recent years as foreign funding has dried up, but a popular way to unlock that cash may very well involve "throwing eggs".

18/08 Exclusive: Dalian Wanda weighs sale of Olympics media rights manager Infront -sources

Dalian Wanda Group, owned by China's once-richest man Wang Jianlin, is seeking to sell its sports marketing unit Infront as financial pressure mounts on the property developer to shore up its finances, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

16/08 One year on, Biden still needs to explain his signature clean energy legislation

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday marks the first anniversary of signing his signature clean energy legislation called the Inflation Reduction Act by leading a campaign to better explain to Americans what, exactly, it does.

05/08 Exclusive: UBS nears major investment bank restructuring -sources

UBS Group AG is poised to make sweeping changes to the senior ranks of its investment banking division globally as soon as Monday, marking a new milestone in the process of integrating Credit Suisse, people familiar with the matter said.

02/08 UBS lays off Credit Suisse investment bank staff, closes Houston office -source

UBS Group is laying off employees from Credit Suisse's investment bank this week in New York, a source familiar with the situation said.

30/07 Exclusive: Banks vote to limit accounting of emissions in bond and stock sales

The decision could pit banks against environmental advocates who say banks should assume full responsibility for emissions generated by activities financed through bond and stock sales.

27/07 US bond investors brace for shift in market as rate peak elusive

U.S. bond investors were gauging how to navigate a prolonged period of higher interest rates that some expect to weigh on U.S. growth, after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday left open the possibility of more rate increases and excluded easing financial conditions anytime soon.

26/07 Exclusive: Santander plans to hire about 150 bankers to grow investment banking, sources say

Spain's Santander is planning to hire around 150 bankers primarily in the United States as part of its plans to accelerate growth in its investment banking business, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

26/07 Breakingviews - Government’s NatWest meddling crosses risky line

Successive UK governments have generally tried to refrain from publicly interfering in NatWest’s business – aside from a few bonus rows here and there. Now that the 39% state shareholder has effectively forced Chief Executive Alison Rose out against the board’s wishes, the pretence of an arm’s-length relationship is gone. Meddling ministers crossed a line, and may struggle to retreat back onto the

25/07 Breakingviews - Saudi Mbappé bid even less rational than it looks

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to be taken seriously as a soccer force. Hence state-backed club Al Hilal’s approach for French star Kylian Mbappé. Yet a possible outlay of 1 billion euros, including compensation, takes the country’s sporting tactics to surreal new heights.

19/07 Goldman profit slides to three-year low on consumer losses

Goldman Sachs Group reported a bigger-than-expected drop in second-quarter profit as a retreat from consumer businesses and declining investment values took a toll on the Wall Street giant.

18/07 Bank of America profit beats on boost from interest income, investment banking

Bank of America beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit on Tuesday as it earned more from customers' loan payments, while its investment banking business fared better than expected.

28/06 UBS looks to axe 30% of staff and keep Credit Suisse's domestic business - source

UBS is weighing cutting tens of thousands of jobs following its emergency takeover of Credit Suisse, as the Swiss bank leans towards keeping the domestic operations of its fallen rival, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

20/06 Wall St falls as Fed worries weigh; Tesla climbs

Wall Street's main indexes fell on Tuesday as better-than-expected housing data fueled worries of more interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve, while Tesla climbed after Rivian agreed to adopt its charging standard.

19/06 Analysis: China bankers told to shun flashy clothes, 5-star hotels in austerity drive

Financial professionals are among the highest-paid workers in China, and their wealth has drawn public criticism on social media as the economy slows, drawing Beijing's ire as well.

18/06 SVB agrees to sell its investment banking division

SVB Financial Group said on Sunday it has entered into an agreement to sell its investment banking division, SVB Securities, to a group led by Jeff Leerink and backed by funds managed by The Baupost Group.

15/06 Investors on guard for market stress as Fed signals more hikes ahead

A hawkish message from the Federal Reserve amid a robust stock market rally is presenting investors with a conundrum: how to maintain exposure to rising equities while also guarding against the possible upheavals tighter monetary policy can bring.

12/06 Breakingviews - Berlusconi invented the entrepreneur as politician

Flamboyant tycoon-turned-Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has bowed out, aged 86. The self-made billionaire pioneered the use of wealth and media to achieve political power. Though his Forza Italia party and business empire are already weakened and unlikely to regain much prominence after his death, his unorthodox political methods spawned imitators across the West.

08/06 Analysis: Kim Kardashian seeks secret of private equity success as rising rates bite

Reality star Kim Kardashian's arrival at a gathering of the globe's top deal brokers in Berlin failed to dispel their dark mood as the rising cost of money puts the brakes on the private equity industry.

02/06 Exclusive: Barclays CEO in bid to stem US talent flight

Barclays Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan held a virtual town hall this week to address management changes that have led to about two dozen U.S. investment bankers fleeing in the last few weeks, people familiar with the matter said.

01/06 Goldman Sachs to cut more jobs, eyes sharp fall in markets revenue

Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans more workforce reductions as the difficult economic environment weighs on dealmaking and warned trading revenue could fall 25% this quarter, the bank's president said on Thursday.

28/05 Breakingviews - How risky bank debt makes customers safer

Forcing more U.S. banks to fund more of their loans and investments with long-term debt and less with deposits, could offer more protection for customers, columnist Liam Proud writes.

06/05 Bank buyers expect sweeteners as US government sets new bar

The government-brokered purchases of First Republic, Signature and Silicon Valley banks have created a vicious cycle in which troubled lenders need to fail -- and get government assistance -- before buyers will step up, industry sources say.

04/05 Exclusive: UBS weighs options for sale of Credit Suisse's Swiss unit

UBS is reviewing options for Credit Suisse's Swiss bank, including potentially keeping the unit's investment banking operations while selling the rest, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

04/05 Goldman Sachs in talks to settle gender discrimination lawsuit -source

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is in talks to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged widespread gender bias against women in pay and promotions, said a source familiar with the matter.

03/05 UBS wary of buying Credit Suisse in February, wanted more analysis - SEC filing

UBS in February had concluded that buying its stricken competitor Credit Suisse was not desirable, but that further analysis was needed, an SEC filing showed on Wednesday.

28/04 U.S. officials lead urgent rescue talks for First Republic - sources

U.S. officials are coordinating urgent talks to rescue First Republic Bank as private-sector efforts led by the bank's advisers have yet to reach a deal, according to three sources familiar with the situation.

24/04 Factbox: Global offshore wind tenders including floating technology

Floating wind is viewed as the final frontier for offshore wind as turbines can be installed in deeper waters than fixed-bottom foundations, harnessing stronger and more continuous wind to generate more power.

24/04 Floating wind power gains traction but can it set sail?

After a bumper year for floating offshore wind farm tenders, the nascent industry is poised for explosive growth in the coming decade as countries strive to cut their carbon emissions.

19/04 Morgan Stanley first-quarter profit falls as mega deals dry up

Morgan Stanley's first-quarter profit fell as its mainstay investment banking business remained under pressure due to a prolonged slump in dealmaking.

18/04 Goldman Sachs profit falls in first quarter as dealmaking sputters

Goldman Sachs Group Inc's first-quarter profit dropped as the worst three months for dealmaking in more than a decade eroded the Wall Street giant's fees from investment banking, while its consumer unit continued to weigh on the results.

18/04 Bank of America profit rises as it cashes in on higher interest rates

Bank of America Corp's profit rose in the first quarter as it earned more from customers' interest payments while the Federal Reserve raised borrowing costs.