Embraer lands $1bn NetJets order
The US economy may be in the doldrums, but its executives still need to jet around, and can give one of Brazil’s more famous companies a much-needed boost. Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets gave Embraer’s new flagship executive jet the green light with a $1bn deal for 125 aircraft.
The deal should be a small victory for the company, which was hit harder than most in Brazil by the financial crisis and last month forecast profits of $5.25bn for 2010. Continue reading »
Americas markets wrap: Stocks rise on upbeat earnings
Latin American markets were mostly up on Monday as better-than-expected corporate earnings outweighed a drop in US industrial production and an earlier rally in the dollar. Indices rose in Mexico and Chile while Brazil’s Bovespa pared earlier losses to close little changed. Continue reading »
South Africa abandons arms deal bribery probe
South Africa’s decision to spend $4.8bn on weaponry in 1999 surprised those who thought the money could be better spent on tackling poverty, or improving the country’s schools and hospitals. Later, some thought they saw an explanation for the outlay when rumours emerged that South African officials had been bribed by companies including BAE Systems and Thales, the French defence company. Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: stocks up; Sberbank at two-year high
Stocks in central and eastern Europe gained on Monday, as upbeat earnings lifted global sentiment. On the currencies market, the Hungarian forint led losses, with investors increasingly nervous about the government’s plans to reduce the fiscal deficit. Continue reading »
Questions for China after Africa mine shooting
For those dragon slayers in constant search of evidence that China’s involvement in Africa is nothing less than a latter day attempt to re-colonize the continent, news from Zambia may be of interest.
Police have charged two Chinese mine managers there with attempted murder after live rounds were used last week to quell protests over pay and conditions at a coal mine south of the capital, Lusaka. Eleven miners were wounded in the incident, two of them are apparently in very bad shape.
The incident looks certain to raise new questions, at least in Zambia, about safety and conditions at mines run by the Chinese, who have become the biggest investors in the country’s copper industry. But will there be repercussions beyond the immediate court case? Continue reading »
Dangote: $14bn of Nigerian dominance
Next week Nigeria’s stock exchange will celebrate the start of share trading in Dangote Cement, a giant company valued at roughly $14bn that will give investors a new direct line into the economy of Africa’s most populous country.
The boosters will say the listing is a sign that Nigeria is “open for business”. Well, not exactly. Aliko Dangote (pictured), the tycoon behind it, says his success came precisely because operating in Nigeria is so grindingly hard. Continue reading »
Qatar: Brazil bank buy is just the start
Qatar may be a fresh-faced entrant at the top of the world’s richest nations table, but its gas-fuelled wealth has already led to the coining of a new phrase among some Middle East-based financiers: “Where Qatar’s emir goes, money follows.”
So it proved in Brazil. Qatar Holding’s $2.7bn purchase of a 5 per cent stake in Banco Santander Brazil comes eight months after the country’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani (pictured above), visited Latin America’s economic giant. Continue reading »
Time for Xi? China’s heir apparent
The appointment of Xi Jinping to the commission that runs the Chinese military is a crucial step in ensuring that he enjoys a smooth ascension to power as China’s next leader.
Xi, 57, now has three main sources of political power in China – he is the country’s vice-president, he is one of the nine members of the standing committee of the Communist party’s Politburo and now he is a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). Within three years, he may have the top job. Continue reading »
Brazil beckons. The lure of Latin America’s biggest economy is nothing new, but Chile’s Cencosud has become the latest group to put its money where its mouth is. Its $800m purchase of the Bretas supermarket chain now consolidates its position as the region’s biggest retailer by sales and confirms Brazil as a growing destination for Chilean investors. Continue reading »
On the first day of Coal India’s much awaited $3.5bn share sale, which is set to be the country’s biggest IPO ever, the state-owned miner attracted $1.2bn of bids on Monday: a decent start for an offer that will close on Wednesday for institutional investors, and a day later for retail buyers.
In India most bids tend to come in on the final day. That’s why the optimistic bankers working on the deal predict it will be ten times over-subscribed. Investors, it seems, are expecting the shares to perform strongly on the back of growing demand for energy globally. Continue reading »
Internet in EM: better quality but fewer connections
Several developing countries are making rapid improvements to their broadband infrastructure, so that their cities enjoy faster download speeds than those in some developed nations, according to a new academic study published today.
The study highlights how developing countries – notably in eastern Europe – have invested heavily to bring high speed internet access to their main cities. Some of these countries can now boast better quality connections than countries like the US, UK and Germany. Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: stocks slip; possible Windows Phone delay drags on HTC
Asian stocks edged down on Monday, on caution over the pace of recent gains and scarce liquidity ahead of upcoming IPOs. However, India’s Sensex did edge up, amid solid earnings announcements. Smartphone-maker HTC saw its Taiwan shares fall almost 7 per cent, after reports that deliveries of the Windows Phone 7 will be delayed. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* China VP Xi promoted to key military commission
* Russia’s TNK-BP to pay $1.8 billion for BP assets
* Luxury goods boom set to slow in 2011
* Indian diamond bourse opens
* AIA to close IPO institutional books early Continue reading »
India: you can’t buy love, but you can insure the wedding
Some weddings are made in heaven, and even those that aren’t tend to see the sky as the limit when it comes to spending. The big, fat Indian wedding season is approaching, and the country’s moneyed classes will soon lavish huge sums on helicopter hire, crystal cutlery, handmade favour boxes and the like.
But such extravagance means enormous losses if a ceremony doesn’t go to plan. So wedding insurance seems to be the next big thing. Continue reading »
Deal of the Day: Fridman wins again
Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman has never been one to let a chance go begging. So when BP, his partner in the TNK-BP oil company, this summer announced asset sale plans after its Gulf of Mexico disaster, he was among the first to see an opportunity in somebody else’s troubles.
To nobody’s surprise, TNK-BP announced on Monday that it was buying for $1.8bn BP’s production and pipeline assets in Vietnam and Venezuela. The deal fits perfectly with Fridman’s long-standing plans for TNK-BP to expand out of Russia. For BP it is a quick way to raise cash in two countries where some other potential bidders might have been put off by the politics. Continue reading »
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