Brexit’s tab as banks leave for Europe: $1.2 trillion and counting
At least 440 banks and financial services firms are partly relocating from London to European cities.
Small businesses are an important part of local economies. As the pandemic ends, people and governments need to sustain their appreciation and support.
There’s one wrinkle when it comes to boosting small business: In general, they aren’t very efficient. At least on some metrics: Small businesses tend to pay their employees less, provide them less generous benefits, and offer fewer opportunities for advancement compared to larger enterprises.
(Bloomberg) -- EG Group, the gas-station operator owned by the Issa brothers, bought British fresh fast-food chain Leon Restaurants in the latest leg of its expansion drive.EG Group said it will invest in the Leon brand and develop its menu, with plans to open around 20 new sites per year from 2022. It also sees potential to market Leon’s products across its convenience retail stores. The deal valued the restaurant chain at 100 million pounds ($138 million) including debt, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the transaction.“EG Group continues to identify innovative partnerships and acquisitions that complement our existing consumer offer and enable us to stay at the forefront of consumer trends, particularly in food service,” Mohsin and Zuber Issa, the company’s co-founders, said in a joint statement. “Our equity investment in Leon is to strengthen our own participation in the fast-growing contemporary food service segment.”The deal adds to the turbocharged expansion by EG Group, which has fueled its growth at breakneck speed in the debt markets since 2017. The Issa brothers also own U.K. supermarket chain Asda Group Ltd.EG Group pursued its first privately placed bond transaction earlier this year to raise funds for an acquisition spree. It acquired around 140 million pounds of loans from Swiss private equity firm Partners Group to finance a purchase of coffee chain Caffe Nero, the Telegraph newspaper reported, without indicating the source of the information.(Corrects ownership of Asda in fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Having rebounded from its worst month since 2019, China’s yuan is facing a new wave of selling pressure as hundreds of companies prepare to exchange the currency to pay dividends.Chinese firms listed in Hong Kong are expected to pay nearly $68 billion in dividends this year, which would be nearly 17% higher than 2020’s amount. That means they’ll step up swapping the yuan for the city’s dollars in coming months.This comes after the yuan rebounded about 0.4% from March’s 1.3% drop, when risk assets were sold off due to a spike in Treasury yields. The payout season, which starts to gather steam this month and is expected to peak in August, will further suppress the currency, in addition to strength in the dollar and a narrowing yield premium over the rest of the world. On top of that, uncertainty over China-U.S. tensions is continuing to hurt sentiment.“Dividend outflows add pressure on the yuan, against the background of brewing U.S.-China tensions.,” said Trang Thuy Le, Asia currency strategist at Macquarie Capital Ltd. in Hong Kong, adding that discussions on the Federal Reserve starting to taper policy could strengthen the greenback in the fourth quarter. “The dollar-yuan rate should largely mirror that path.”More than 400 companies will hand out $65 billion of dividends from April to September alone, with the payment reaching a peak in August at $21 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Firms are paying more to shareholders in part because they have excess idle cash as they refrain from expansion, and also as they hope to retain investors.To be sure, it’s unlikely the dividend season would lead to any dramatic slide in the currency. That’s because not all of the companies need to sell the yuan in the spot market for the Hong Kong dollar, which they may already own and can be used for dividend payments. Also, the People’s Bank of China won’t likely allow any sharp depreciation, as that may hinder its push to attract foreign inflows and promote the yuan’s global usage.Also, the dollar remains the biggest driver of yuan moves nowadays. Even though banks helped clients sell the currency during last year’s payout season, it gained during the summer amid drops in the greenback.A beneficiary of the move, of course, is the Hong Kong dollar. The currency, which this month fell to a one-year low, will see stronger demand in the coming months. It inched higher to 7.77 per dollar Monday while the onshore yuan fell 0.1% to 6.5256.The largest single sum of dividend payment will hit on Aug. 5, when China Construction Bank Corp. hands $12 billion to its shareholders. And on May 20, China Mobile Ltd. will give out $4.6 billion.(Adds Monday prices in 3rd, 9th paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
The direction of the USD/JPY on Monday is likely to be determined by trader reaction to 108.966.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -A global shortage of semiconductors is hitting autos production in China, jeopardising hopes the world's biggest car market might spearhead a recovery in the sector, industry executives warn. Automakers around the world have had to adjust assembly lines due to the shortages, caused by manufacturing delays that some semiconductor makers blame on a faster-than expected recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Volkswagen AG, China's biggest foreign automaker which hopes to sell over four million vehicles in the country, said the situation had not improved in the second quarter.
A trio of ether ETFs were approved by Canadian regulators last week.
Gold is 0.6% higher this morning, as it is extending last week’s advance following weakening U.S. dollar .
(Bloomberg) -- China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd.’s expansive pop-up showroom sits at the heart of Shanghai’s National Exhibition and Convention Center. With nine models on display, it’s hard to miss. The electric car upstart has one of the biggest booths at China’s 2021 Auto Show, which starts Monday, opposite storied German automaker BMW AG. Yet its bold presence belies an uncomfortable truth -- Evergrande hasn’t sold a single car under its own brand.China’s largest property developer has an array of investments outside of real estate, from soccer clubs to retirement villages. But it’s the recent entry into electric cars that’s captured investors’ imaginations. Shareholders have pushed Evergrande NEV’s Hong Kong-listed stock up more than 1,000% over the past 12 months, allowing it to raise billions of dollars in fresh capital. It now has a market value of $87 billion, greater than Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.Such exuberance over an automaker that has repeatedly pushed back forecasts for when it will mass produce a car is emblematic of the froth that has been building in EVs over the past year, with investors plowing money into a rally that briefly made Elon Musk the world’s richest person and has some concerned about a bubble. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in China, home to the world’s biggest market for new energy cars, where a mind-boggling 400 EV manufacturers now jostle for consumers’ attention, led by a cabal of startups valued more than established auto players but which have yet to turn a profit.Evergrande NEV was a relatively late entrant to that scene.In March 2019, Hui Ka Yan, Evergrande’s chairman and one of China’s richest men, vowed to take on Musk and become the world’s biggest maker of EVs in three to five years. Tesla Inc.’s Model Y crossover had just had its global debut. In the two years since, Tesla has gained an enviable foothold in China, establishing its first factory outside the U.S. and delivering around 35,500 cars in March. Chinese rival Nio Inc. earlier this month reached a significant milestone when its 100,000th EV rolled off the production line, prompting Musk to tweet his congratulations.Read more: Nio, Xpeng Exude Optimism as EVs Boom: Shanghai Auto ShowDespite his lofty ambitions and Evergrande NEV’s rich valuation, Hui has repeatedly pushed back car-production targets. The tycoon’s coterie of rich friends, among others, have stumped up billions, but making cars -- electric or otherwise -- is hard, and hugely capital intensive. Nio’s gross margins only flipped into positive territory in mid-2020, after years of heavy losses and a lifeline from a municipal government.Speaking on an earnings call in late March after Evergrande NEV’s full-year loss for 2020 widened by a yawning 67%, Hui said the company planned to begin trial production at the end of this year, delayed from an original timeline of last September. Deliveries aren’t expected to start until some time in 2022. Expectations for annual production capacity of 500,000 to 1 million EVs by March 2022 were also pushed back until 2025. Still, the company issued a buoyant new forecast: 5 million cars a year by 2035. For comparison, global giant Volkswagen AG delivered 3.85 million units in China in 2020.It’s not just Evergrande’s delayed production schedule that’s raising eyebrows. A closer look under the company’s hood reveals practices that have industry veterans scratching their heads: from making selling apartments part of car executives’ KPIs, to attempting a model lineup that would be ambitious for even the most established automaker.‘Weird Company’“It’s a weird company,” said Bill Russo, the founder and chief executive officer of advisory firm Automobility Ltd. in Shanghai. “They’ve poured a lot of money in that hasn’t really returned anything, plus they’re entering an industry in which they have very limited understanding. And I’m not sure they’ve got the technological edge of Nio or Xpeng,” he said, referring to the New York-listed Chinese EV makers already deploying intelligent features in their cars, like laser-based navigation.A closer look at Evergrande NEV’s operations reveals the extent of its unorthodox approach. While it’s established three production bases -- in Guangzhou, Tianjin in China’s north, and Shanghai -- the company doesn’t have a general car assembly line up and running. Equipment and machinery is still being adjusted, according to people who have seen inside the factories but don’t want to be identified discussing confidential matters.In a response to questions from Bloomberg, Evergrande NEV said it was preparing machinery for trial production, and would be able to make “one car a minute” once full production is reached.The company is targeting mass production and delivery next year of four models -- the Hengchi 5 and 6; the luxe Hengchi 1 (which will go up against Tesla’s Model S); and the Hengchi 3, according to people familiar with the matter. The company has told investors it aims to deliver 100,000 cars in 2022, one of the people said, roughly the number of units Nio, Xpeng Inc. and Li Auto Inc., the other U.S.-listed Chinese EV contender, delivered last year, combined.Its workers are also being asked to help sell real estate, the backbone of the Evergrande empire.New hires are required to undergo internal training and attend seminars that drill them on the company’s property history and have nothing to do with car making. In addition, employees from all departments, from production-line workers to back-office staff, are encouraged to promote the sale of apartments, whether through posting ads on social media or bringing relatives and friends along to sale centers to make them appear busy. Managerial-level staff even have their performance bonuses tied to such endeavors, people familiar with the measure said.Meanwhile, the ambitious targets have Evergrande NEV turning to outsourcing and skipping procedures seen as normal practice in the industry, people with knowledge of the situation say.While it’s hiring aggressively and recently scored Daniel Kirchert, a former BMW executive who co-founded EV startup Byton Ltd., the firm has contracted most of the design and R&D of its cars to overseas suppliers, some of the people said. Contracting out the majority of design and engineering work is an unusual approach for a company wanting to achieve such scale.14 Models At OnceOne of those companies is Canada’s Magna International Inc., which is leading the development of the Hengchi 1 and 3, one of the people said. Evergrande NEV has also teamed with Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc. to co-develop a software system for the Hengchi range. It will allow drivers to use a mobile app to instruct the car to drive via autopilot to a certain location and use artificial intelligence to switch on appliances at home while on the road, according to a statement last month.A spokesperson for Evergrande said it was working with international partners including Magna, EDAG Engineering Group AG and Austrian parts maker AVL List GmbH in developing “14 models simultaneously.” Representatives from Magna declined to comment. A Baidu spokesperson said the company had no further details to share, while a representative for Tencent said the software venture is with a related firm called Beijing Tinnove Technology Co. that operates independently. Tinnove didn’t respond to requests for comment.Rather than staggering model releases, Evergrande NEV appears to be rolling out every type of car all at once under its Hengchi brand, which sports a roaring gold lion on the badge and translates loosely to ‘unstoppable gallop.’ The nine models being launched span almost all major passenger vehicle segments from sedans to SUVS and multi-purpose vehicles. Prices will range from about 80,000 yuan ($12,000) to 600,000 yuan, although the final costs could change, a person familiar said.That’s a completely different product development strategy to EV pioneers like Tesla, which only has four models on offer. Nio and Xpeng have also chosen to focus on just a handful of marques, and even then are struggling to break into the black.“The market has proved the effectiveness of the ‘one product in vogue at one time’ strategy,” said Zhang Xiang, an automobile industry researcher at the North China University of Technology. “Evergrande is offering many products and expects a win. There’s a question mark over whether this will work.”Without any long-term carmaking nous, Evergrande has issued uncompromising directives to meet its latest production targets, according to the people. Two models, including the Hengchi 5, a compact SUV that rivals Xpeng’s G3, are targeting mass production in a little over 20 months. To hit that timing, certain industry procedures, like making mule cars, or testbed vehicles equipped with prototype components that require evaluation, may be skipped, people familiar with the situation said. Evergrande told Bloomberg it has entered a “sprint stage toward mass production.”As it is, Bloomberg could only find one instance where the Hengchi 5 has been showcased in public, in photos and grainy footage released by Evergrande in February as the cars drove around a snow-covered field in Inner Mongolia. The company’s shares surged to a record.Glossing over those steps is unusual, said Zhong Shi, a former automotive project manager turned independent analyst.“There’s a standard engineering process of product development, validation and verification, which includes several laboratory and road tests” in China and everywhere else, Zhong said. “It’s hard to compress that to shorter than three years.”While there’s no suggestion Evergrande’s approach violates any regulations, its stock-market run could be in for a reality check. After similarly hefty market gains, some EV startups in the U.S. that have yet to prove their viability as revenue-generating, profitable entities have lost their shine over the past few months amid concern about valuations and as established carmakers like VW move faster into EV fray.Read more: The End of Tesla’s Dominance May Be Closer Than It AppearsThe industry’s multi-billion dollar surge also hasn’t escaped Beijing’s attention. Evergrande NEV shares dipped lower last month after an editorial from the state-run Xinhua news agency highlighted concerns about how the EV sector is evolving. Of particular worry are companies that are shirking their responsibility to build quality cars, a blind race by local governments to attract EV projects, and high valuations by companies that have yet to deliver a single mass-produced car, according to the missive, which named Evergrande specifically in that regard. “The huge gap between production capacity and market value shows there is hype in the NEV market,” it said.Still, Evergrande NEV’s stock has gained 18% since then, buoyed by the outlook for China’s electric-car market. EVs currently account for about 5% of China’s annual car sales, BloombergNEF data show, with demand forecast to soar as the market matures and electric-car prices fall. EV sales in China may climb more than 50% this year alone, research firm Canalys said in a February report.With competition also on the rise, some outside Evergrande NEV’s loyal shareholder base remain skeptical.“The market is getting crowded but unless you have a preferred lane, there’s not much chance to win,” Automobility’s Russo said. “Maybe there’s some synergy with the property businesses but right now it’s an EV story, and a pretty expensive one.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
(Reuters) -Harley-Davidson Inc on Monday raised its full-year earnings forecast after smashing analysts' quarterly profit estimates, vindicating Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz's decision to focus on more-profitable touring bikes at the expense of cheaper entry-level models. The company, however, also received a setback in the European Union - its second-biggest market - where all of its products, regardless of origin, will be subjected to a 56% import tariff from June following a new EU ruling. The ruling revokes the credentials that currently allow Harley to ship certain motorcycles to the EU from its international manufacturing facilities at a 6% tariff.
(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to respond to the latest round of U.S. sanctions threats as he has to past ones: by speeding his drive to make Russia’s economy more self-sufficient.In the seven years since Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Putin’s government and central bank have stripped back the country’s exposure to dollars, shifted assets out of the U.S. and sold a smaller share of its debt to foreigners.“The Americans are saying: be careful or we could do more, but Russia is just going to continue down the path toward economic autarky,” said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance in Washington.The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is keeping the threat of sanctions hanging over Russia even after a sweeping round of penalties imposed last week. On Sunday, the U.S. warned of “consequences” if jailed opposition activist Alexey Navalny dies in prison.These four charts show how Putin has responded to past rounds of sanctions by increasing Russia’s economic isolation.The share of gold in Russia’s $581 billion international reserves jumped above dollars for the first time on record last year following a multi-year drive to reduce exposure to U.S. assets. The precious metal made up 24% of the central bank’s stockpile as of the end of September 2020, the latest date for which the breakdown is available. The share of dollar assets was 22%, down from more than 40% in 2018.That trend also shows up in the share of Russia’s international reserves held in the U.S., which plummeted to just under 7% by the end of September, down from about 30% before the Crimea annexation. Most of the shift happened in the second quarter of 2018 just after sanctions on aluminum giant United Co. Rusal revealed how vulnerable Russia was to sanctions.What Our Economists Say...Russia’s resilience to successive waves of sanctions provides a false sense of security. With the U.S. running out of options, the next round could be more disruptive, and the measures already in place are holding back trade and investment.-- Scott Johnson, Bloomberg EconomicsOf course, there’s only so much that Russia can do without cutting itself off entirely from the global economy. But officials in Washington are also restrained by the fact that if they go too far (as they did with the Rusal sanctions that were later revoked), they risk sending tremors through global markets.Acting on a pledge by Putin to “de-dollarize” trade, Russia has been slowly cutting back on use of the greenback in its exports with the European Union, China and India. The euro has almost overtaken the dollar in Russia’s trade with the EU and has already surpassed it in exports to China. About two-thirds of Russia’s exports to India, meanwhile, are paid for in rubles.How Virus-Panicked Markets Showed Dollar’s Still King: QuickTakeLast week’s penalties included a ban on purchases of bonds on the primary market, so the next big targets could be secondary-market debt and Russian banks’ access to the financial messaging system used for most international money transfers. Russia is already looking for alternatives to the system, known as SWIFT, to make itself less vulnerable, though attempts so far haven’t led to much.One reason the Finance Ministry wasn’t too concerned about the latest sanctions measure on government debt is that Russia has mostly been selling to local banks at its weekly auctions anyway. Borrowing was ramped up during the pandemic even though foreign demand was weak, which increased the overall size of the market and pushed down the share of foreigners.U.S. banks can still buy new debt on the secondary market after the penalties come into force in mid-June. Russia is “well positioned” for a near term market disruption because it has a high cash buffer and demand from local banks is “robust,” Fitch Ratings said in a research note published late on Friday.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Australian lithium miner Orocobre Ltd is buying smaller domestic peer Galaxy Resources for $1.4 billion to create the world's fifth most valuable producer of the key raw material for electric vehicle batteries. The all-stock deal for A$1.78 billion ($1.38 billion)announced on Monday, which will also establish Australia's most valuable lithium miner with a A$4 billion market capitalisation, comes as demand for the material is booming amid a jump in global sales of electric vehicles. The new entity will have hard rock, brine, and chemicals assets across Australia, Argentina, Canada and Japan, and will be able to accelerate development and sell into global markets.
(Bloomberg) -- A planned $3.1 billion merger of two Australian miners is set to create one of the world’s biggest producers of lithium products key to meeting fast-growing global demand for electric vehicle batteries.The deal between Orocobre Ltd. and Galaxy Resources Ltd. is the biggest mining sector deal of the year so far, according to Bloomberg data, with shares of both companies closing at the highest in three years in Sydney. The merger would create the world’s fifth-biggest producer of lithium chemicals, the refined form of the raw materials that are used to make electric vehicle batteries.Miners to battery makers have rushed to secure lithium supply amid expectations the EV frenzy will create a structural deficit as soon as this year, and prices are already roaring back after a three-year slump. Battery demand is expected to surge tenfold by 2030, according to BloombergNEF, as the global clean-energy transition accelerates.The new company “is going to be a globally relevant player in terms of lithium chemical production,” said Reg Spencer, head of mining research at Canaccord Genuity Australia Ltd. He said that it could grow to be number three producer by 2025 if all growth projects go ahead.The A$4 billion deal values Galaxy at about A$3.53 a share, a 2.2% discount to Friday’s close, and has the backing of both company boards. Orocobre’s Chief Executive Officer Martin Perez de Solay will head the new group.Orocobre will offer 0.569 of its shares for every Galaxy share and will own 54.2% of the merged company, with Galaxy holding 45.8%. Orocobre was advised on the deal by UBS AG, while Galaxy’s adviser was Standard Chartered Plc. The deal is targeted for completion in mid August 2021.Diverse AssetsThe merged group, which has yet to be formally named, will have its headquarters in Buenos Aires, but its primary share listing will remain in Australia.The deal gives the companies a geographically diversified set of assets. Orocobre sells lithium carbonate from its Olaroz operation in Argentina, while Galaxy has a mine in Australia and growth projects in Canada and South America.Lithium raw materials are most commonly extracted at brine operations which pump liquid from underground reservoirs into vast evaporation ponds, or in traditional hard rock mines. China is the biggest player in electric vehicle batteries, with the majority of the world’s production capacity, and has a stranglehold over processing of the required commodities.The growth profile of the combined group’s existing assets put it on track to grab a 10% share of the lithium market over the next five to seven years, Perez de Solay said in an interview, backed by “a strong balance sheet that will enable us not only to deliver those projects but to continue to grow.” Top global lithium producers currently include Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA and Albemarle Corp.Argentina RiskCanaccord’s Spencer said there were risks in having the largest part of an operation in Argentina, given its history of geo-political and financial volatility, although Orocobre’s local management team had so far proven adept at navigating those risks.“From Galaxy’s perspective, we were looking for a partner which had deep in-country Argentinian experience and we’ve got that in Orocobre,” said Simon Hay, Galaxy’s CEO, who will take on the role of president of international business in the new organization. The merger will help to de-risk Galaxy’s Sal de Vida growth project in the South American country, he said.(Updates to add lithium chemicals and processing information in second, ninth paragraphs.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Nvidia Corp. shares fell after the U.K. said it will intervene in the U.S. company’s $40 billion deal for British semiconductor designer Arm Ltd. on national security grounds.The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport ordered the country’s antitrust watchdog to investigate the implications of the deal and make a report by midnight on July 30, according to a statement issued on Monday. Nvidia shares slid 1.8% as the market opened in New York.The proposed acquisition of the U.K.’s most valuable tech company is already under investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority, which will consider whether Arm might raise prices or hurt licensing services to Nvidia’s rivals. Arm is currently owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and Nvidia has said it will keep Arm’s headquarters in Cambridge.“We do not believe that this transaction poses any material national security issues,” a spokesperson for Nvidia said in a statement. “We will continue to work closely with the British authorities, as we have done since the announcement of this deal.”The DCMS noted that semiconductors are fundamental to a wide range of technologies but also underpin the U.K.’s critical national infrastructure and are found in defense and national security related technologies.“We want to support our thriving U.K. tech industry and welcome foreign investment, but it is appropriate that we properly consider the national security implications of a transaction like this,” Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said.Read More: Nvidia’s $40 Billion Deal for Arm Faces U.K. Merger Review Arm’s neutral position as a supplier at the heart of the chipmaking industry has already raised concerns about the deal, because chipmaker Nvidia directly competes with Arm’s customers such as Qualcomm Inc., Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.In the U.S., the deal is under review by the Federal Trade Commission, which has opened an in-depth investigation of the merger and has sent information demands to third parties.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Gold prices slipped on Tuesday after hitting a seven-week high in the previous session, as a rise in U.S. Treasury yields eclipsed support from a weaker dollar. Spot gold was down 0.2% to $1,766.32 per ounce by 0245 GMT, after hitting its highest since Feb. 25 at $1,789.77 on Monday. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose above 1.6% after hitting a five-week low last week, increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
Dogecoin briefly replaced XRP as the fourth-largest coin early Monday.
The company's shares, which were at the heart of a Reddit-driven trading frenzy, jumped 9% in premarket trade on Monday after GameStop said Sherman would resign on or before July 31 and that it had started looking for a successor. Reuters had earlier reported that GameStop's board was working with an executive headhunter on the CEO search and that its directors had spoken to potential candidates from gaming, e-commerce and technology sectors. GameStop also said Sherman had refused to receive compensation for his role as a director, both before and after separation date, and had agreed to cancel his 2020 performance-vested restricted stock award.
The European Commission has said it will consider forcing companies to disclose conflicting interests when they bid for EU-funded contracts, following an inquiry into its appointment of a division of BlackRock to help develop green banking rules. The European Union watchdog rapped the Commission in November for appointing the Financial Markets Advisory (FMA) unit of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to produce a study that would inform EU plans to integrate sustainability into banking prudential rules. European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly did not ask the Commission to cancel the contract, but said it should have better scrutinised BlackRock's motivation in bidding, its pricing strategy and its own measures to prevent conflicts of interest.
(Reuters) -Australian buy-now-pay-later company Afterpay said on Tuesday it is exploring a U.S. listing after North America became its biggest market, offering global investors an easier path to owning a stock that has boomed through the pandemic. Afterpay has tapped Goldman Sachs to advise on the listing, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Goldman declined to comment.
(Reuters) -Harley-Davidson Inc on Monday raised its full-year earnings forecast after smashing analysts' quarterly profit estimates, vindicating Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz's decision to focus on more-profitable touring bikes at the expense of cheaper entry-level models. The company, however, also received a setback in the European Union - its second-biggest market - where all of its products, regardless of origin, will be subjected to a 56% import tariff from June following a new EU ruling. The ruling revokes the credentials that currently allow Harley to ship certain motorcycles to the EU from its international manufacturing facilities at a 6% tariff.
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