Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, can consistently squeeze more than $10 a barrel in refining margins out of crude. Expect no less from him when it comes to monetizing Reliance Industries Ltd.’s investment in Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the fourth-generation mobile network that’s taken the nation’s digital landscape by storm. What kind of an equity market valuation […]
The mining industry these days resembles that old cartoon about a person torn between prudence and temptation. On one shoulder, a white-clad angel is whispering about the virtues of capital discipline, shareholder value and generous dividends. On the other sits Glencore Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg, clad in red and promising to buy or […]
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda likes to moan about how tough it is to end his country’s deflationary mindset. Residential real estate, however, is one area in which he can claim success for almost five years of monetary experimentation to produce that psychological effect. A weak yen and negative interest rates have made it […]
Bitfinex, one of the world’s biggest bitcoin exchanges, has had its platform restored after hackers sought for the second time this month to prevent users from accessing it via a so-called denial-of-service attack. The hackers created “hundreds of thousands of new accounts,” causing stress on the Bitfinex’s infrastructure, the exchange said in a status update […]
Any week where we’re talking about pipelines is usually not a great week for pipelines. Like the u-bend in your bathroom, pipelines tend to enter society’s consciousness when they suffer a mishap. And Europe just suffered two in as many days. On Tuesday, a possibly fatal explosion at the Baumgarten pipeline hub in Austria disrupted natural […]
Hong Kong’s one-month interbank rate has reached its highest level since the global financial crisis. But don’t expect the city’s real estate prices to halt their spiral anytime soon, whatever the International Monetary Fund may say. Blame banks and property developers. Around 94 percent of mortgages in the world’s least affordable property market are tied to the Hong Kong […]
If you’ve ever wondered what national oil companies are for, one of the bigger ones offers this pithy take on the cover of its annual report: This isn’t strange; national oil companies, or NOCs in industry parlance, are often their country’s biggest corporate entity, employer and source of public revenue. The question is what they offer international […]
A global effort to bolster the number of women on corporate boards is taking longer than it should. But the recent performance of companies that lead their peers on this measure may accelerate change. An MSCI study published this month shows just seven companies in its key global index, comprised of more than 2,500 members, have […]
What do German dentists and architects have in common with Yorkshire council workers? Bizarrely, they’re all part-owners of Airbus A380s. Airbus SE is struggling to sell the A380 and a second-hand market hasn’t become established yet. But Airbus isn’t the only one facing a problem: German retail investors and British pension funds have savings tied […]
Not tech, not interested. That seems to be the mantra of investors in Hong Kong as an instant-noodle spinoff fell as much as 12.4 percent in its debut Monday and Hebei Construction Group Corp. was said to price its IPO at the bottom of the indicative range. The unit of Nissin Foods Co. is just one […]
Miniatures of ComfortDelgro Corp. taxis are popular children’s toys in Singapore. Not for long, though. The ubiquitous blue and yellow Toyota Crown cabs are leaving the realm of kids’ imagination and heading for grownup nostalgia. One day soon, they’ll belong in a museum. The end is nigh for the conventional taxi business, though that’s not […]
Good morning! This is Fly Charts, the daily charts-only newsletter from Gadfly; sign up here. From Lululemon’s flexibility to MLP misery, here are four charts that tell you what you need to know in business today. And don’t miss Tim Culpan on Jack Ma’s bicycle enabling: “You can’t blame Ofo or Mobike for raising and spending money […]
Bugatti Automobiles SAS makes some of the world’s most exclusive cars, yet even owners of the $2.99 million Chiron supercar aren’t immune from the nuisance of an occasional recall. But the French manufacturer does what it can to soften the inconvenience. It recently informed U.S. auto safety regulators that it is recalling some of its […]
Are disciples of Benjamin Graham throwing in the towel in Asia? According to Ronald Chan, founder and chief investment officer of Chartwell Capital Ltd., value investors have become powerless in the face of a tidal wave of liquidity. Since January, mutual funds and ETFs have poured $116 billion into Asian equities, with much of that flowing to […]
You don’t have to look too hard these days for signs trouble is brewing in the athletic apparel business. Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. is cranking up the discounts to lure shoppers back to its struggling stores. Nike Inc. is scrambling to offer more innovative products and reduce its dependence on “mediocre” retailers. The stock prices of […]
Those GE cost cuts had to come from somewhere. General Electric Co. said Thursday it’s cutting 12,000 jobs in its power unit as that business grapples with slumping demand for gas turbines. Faced with a cash crunch and earnings disappointments that can be traced in part back to the struggling power division, GE is targeting that […]
Along with a seemingly endless string of harassment and discrimination scandals, Silicon Valley’s homogeneity has a more trivial side effect: boring holiday parties. A fete meant to retain all your talented engineers is almost certain to wind up with a rather same-y crowd, made up mostly of guys. At this year’s holiday parties, however, there’ll […]
For at least the second time in five months Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. appears to be pouring money into China’s bike rental market. Ofo Bicycles Co. may have raised around $1 billion in its latest funding round, which included Alibaba, Sina reported Thursday. That follows an Alibaba-led $700 million series back in July and takes the […]
Standard Chartered Plc has been treated worse than a doormat by Asia’s carefree tycoons. So it should be a matter of some satisfaction for CEO Bill Winters, who inherited from the previous management a box full of dodgy exposure to the billionaire Ruia family in India and coal magnate Samin Tan in Indonesia, that the […]
Many of the high-flying industrial stocks this year are household names, such as Boeing Co. or Caterpillar Inc.And then there’s Ametek Inc. Despite its $16 billion market value, the Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based maker of cockpit instruments and motion-control systems doesn’t spend much time in the spotlight. Perhaps it should. Shares of the company have been on […]
Could Amazon.com Inc.’s anticipated meteorite-hit to Australia’s beleaguered retail industry have burned up on entry? That was certainly the popular reaction to its arrival. Within hours of the e-commerce giant’s online store finally going live in the country on Tuesday, shoppers were close to despair. The store was “ripping off Australian consumers with high prices,” “so underwhelming” […]
China has begun a great rental giveaway, offering cheap land and subsidized loans in an effort to kick-start development of home leasing markets in major cities across the nation. Anyone expecting a rental housing boom to match the growth of the private purchase market may be disappointed, though: China’s real estate industry is likely to […]
Hong Kong has seen its fair share of illiquid stocks that soared amid suspicions of manipulation only to collapse, with Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd. perhaps the most notorious recent example. China is anxious to avoid such explosions on its own exchanges. That’s the motivation behind the plan to assign unique identifiers to each investor or firm trading […]
It’s the rare public intellectual who admits to making big mistakes. Usually, the rule is to defend everything you’ve ever said, in an attempt to maintain a reputation for wisdom. Richard Florida, the noted urbanist and professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, is among the select few to go […]
Red, yellow, violet— fire hydrants come in many different colors. But it’s not for decoration. These colors have an important meaning that could just save your life one day. Following is a transcript of the video. What do fire hydrant colors mean? Certain colors are meant for different types of fires. Each color represents a […]
Corporate America may soon be more mindful of director pay. That’s good news for shareholders. To date, it’s a topic that’s been the subject of a handful of lawsuits and one that’s occasionally zeroed in on by activists. But beginning Feb. 1, proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services is introducing a policy that will draw attention to […]
Banks are falling over themselves to help Real Madrid president Florentino Perez amass 18.6 billion euros ($22 billion) to elbow aside the Benetton family and buy Spanish toll-road group Abertis Infraestructuras SA. It’s good that Perez knows how to make friends — he’s going to need many more. To recap, the bid is being spearheaded by […]
In the race to bring electric cars to the world’s largest auto market, the winner might not be the one on which investors are betting. Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. shares have surged 270 percent this year, outperforming every stock on the Hang Seng Index including tech darling Tencent Holdings Ltd., as the Chinese firm speeds along […]
China’s bad-debt managers have found a new lazy way to make money: property speculation. China Great Wall Asset Management Co. is part of a consortium that paid HK$23 billion ($2.9 billion) for a portfolio of shopping malls from Hong Kong’s Link Real Estate Investment Trust. Great Wall Asset was established in 1999 to take soured […]
Even as the Donald Trump administration tries to think up ways to keep talented foreigners out of the U.S., Japan is trying to lure them in. But it’s having trouble getting them to come. A lot of people think of Japan as an insular country, but that isn’t actually true. The number of foreigners living […]
The I.C.E. memo focused on the drones used by companies and institutions, not the drones flown by hobbyists in the United States and elsewhere. D.J.I. dominates the overall drone market, with a nearly two-thirds share in the United States and Canada, according to Skylogic Research, a drone research firm. To grow beyond hobbyists, the company […]
Good morning! This is Fly Charts, the daily charts-only newsletter from Gadfly; sign up here. From Apple’s valuation roller coaster to Uber’s big discount, here are four charts that tell you what you need to know in business today. And don’t miss Chris Hughes on Shell’s efforts at atonement: “If the oil price sinks, it’s capital […]
Emerson Electric Co. CEO Dave Farr avoided a potential financial fiasco by calling off his pricey pursuit of Rockwell Automation Inc., but the reputational damage has already been done. The maker of food-waste disposers and automation tools on Tuesday saidit’s withdrawing a proposal to acquire Rockwell for $225 a share in cash and stock. The […]
Just Eat Plc is having its curry and eating it. The U.K.-based takeout app is poised to enter the FTSE 100 index this week after a 40 percent run-up in its shares over a year. The company has confounded its early skeptics (including Gadfly, in fairness) by lifting sales and, most importantly, profit in the near […]
Another week, another Japanese corporate scandal. After two months in which Kobe Steel Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. have admitted falsifying quality data for metal products, Nissan Motor Co. and Subaru Corp. confessed to allowing unauthorized workers to sign off on vehicle inspections, and airbag-maker Takata Corp.’s bankruptcy ground on, another shoe has dropped. Toray […]
Is Toyota Motor Corp. betting on the Betamax of cars? The videotape recorder that lost out to VHS in the format wars of the 1980s remains a reminder to all executives about the perils of holding tight to one technology when the rest of your industry is pursuing another. Toyota insists on throwing money at cars […]
Pakistan has failed to stop terrorists crossing its borders into Afghanistan, even as it has made progress against those who attack inside the country, the top U.S. general in the region said. “The Pakistanis have been engaged in a very tough fight against extremism inside their own country,” Army General John Nicholson, the U.S. commander […]
The most valuable unicorn in the world, Uber Technologies Inc., is hammering out investment terms with the biggest technology investor, SoftBank Group Corp.’s Saudi-backed Vision fund. These are two rare beasts that need each other, but only one can really walk away. This deal is a microcosm of the complex economics of privately-held Silicon Valley […]
Power generated this year by onshore and offshore wind in Germany exceeded the amount of electricity coming from hard coal and nuclear plants for the first time, the Fraunhofer ISE institute said on its website. German coal plant operators choked generation from hard coal plants in favor of cheaper-to-run lignite units this year and nuclear […]
Hong Kong has been a breeding ground for hot IPOs this year but here’s one that probably won’t set the market on fire. Shandong International Trust Co. plans to raise as much as $450 million in the city, according to a term sheet seen by Bloomberg News. Investors leery of buying into China’s shadow banking industry needn’t worry: The […]