A Turkish group’s acquisition of British Steel depends on lowering the cost of contracts the U.K.’s No. 2 steelmaker holds with its suppliers, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Oyak Group, which manages military pensions, entered exclusive talks in August to buy British Steel, the first step in a rescue that could save about 5,000 jobs in the U.K.’s manufacturing heartland.
Deutsche Bank AG is considering substantial cuts to the unit that trades interest-rate securities, a division that survived a large-scale pullback as part of the lender’s sweeping revamp in July, Bloomberg News reported. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing has concluded that it’s possible to reduce enough of the associated technology costs to outweigh the loss in revenue, according to people briefed on the matter.
UK-based jeweler Links of London’s fall into administration has led to loss of 38 jobs at its head office in London, administrator Deloitte said on Friday, adding that there have been no job losses in any stores, Reuters reported. The luxury jewelry retailer, owned by Greek Folli Follie, has around 28 standalone stores across the UK and Ireland along with seven kiosks and employed 350 people when it appointed administrators earlier this month.
Danske Bank’s headquarters in Copenhagen, reminiscent of a Greek temple, speaks of an illustrious past, The Economist reported. But Denmark’s biggest bank has “no vanity left”, says a spokesman. Since 2008 it has been embroiled in a disaster every five years. After one during the financial crisis, it was again in crisis mode in 2013 when the board sacked Eivind Kolding after 18 catastrophic months at its helm. Last year Thomas Borgen, Mr Kolding’s successor, resigned amid revelations about Danske’s role in a vast money-laundering scandal.
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s most important economies gave their backing to international efforts to find a new way of taxing the profits of multinational companies, the Financial Times reported. Meeting in Washington, the G20 welcomed the recent progress and the announcement last week of an OECD initiative to find a compromise way of taxing profits, particularly of tech giants.
Sterling and European markets are likely to succumb to another wave of volatility this week as the odds of a no-deal Brexit have tightened after UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s bid to pass his European Union withdrawal agreement in parliament on Saturday was scuppered, according to traders and analysts, The Irish Times reported. “Markets are likely to remain nervous over the next few days,” said Ronan Dunphy, an economist with Investec Ireland, even though he still sees the prospect of the UK crashing out of the EU at the end of October as “remote”.
More than two-thirds of global corporate bond fund managers expect default rates to climb over the next 12 months, according to a new report from the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers, Bloomberg News reported. In a September survey of over 100 member institutions in more than 20 countries, 68% of respondents said they expect defaults to rise, up from 58% three months ago. In the survey, 74% said North American default rates will climb, while 75% expect European default rates to increase, up from 52% in June.
The German government has revised down its forecast for economic growth next year from 1.5 per cent to 1 per cent, in a further sign of the slowdown that is clouding the prospects for the eurozone’s largest economy, the Financial Times reported. The economics ministry did not change its projection of 0.5 per cent growth in gross domestic product in 2019. Germany’s economy has been roiled by global trade tensions, Brexit-related uncertainty and upheaval in the auto industry.
United Group, a private equity-owned cable company, is in exclusive talks to buy Vivacom, Bulgaria’s largest telecoms group, according to people familiar with the situation, the Financial Times reported. The company, owned by BC Partners, is nearing a deal for Vivacom, which went up for sale in July, the people said. Buyout firm KKR also owns a minority stake in United Group. Vivacom was expected to be valued at about €1.2bn based on recent deals in the region for telecom assets, people involved in the sale said.
U.K. retail sales held up better than expected in September in the face of the intensifying Brexit crisis, Bloomberg News reported. The quantity of goods sold rose 0.2% from August when auto fuel is excluded, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. Sales including fuel were unchanged. Both measures were forecast to decline for a second month. A buoyant labor market has supported consumer spending through the turmoil since the 2016 referendum. While heightened uncertainty ahead of the Oct.
