FRANKFURT, March 22- Commerzbank's chief executive believes a strong and focused investment bank would be a good addition to the lender, according to a person familiar with his thinking on Friday. The person, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed Chief Executive Officer Martin Zielke's thinking as Commerzbank talks about a possible merger with...
March 22- Asset manager BlackRock Inc said on Friday it would buy investment software provider eFront from private equity firm Bridgepoint and eFront's employees for $1.3 billion in cash.
SINGAPORE/ SHANGHAI, March 22- On a cloudy March morning in Shanghai's glitzy financial district of Lujiazui, Ye Lixia was knocking on the doors of potential clients, offering loans to bet on a surging stock market. Ye, in her 30 s and a general director at Bo Ying Asset Management, is one of the thousands of grey market lenders operating in the shadows of China's...
LONDON, March 21- Asset managers and other financial firms from the European Union have only a week to register with UK regulators to continue operating in Britain in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a senior regulator said on Thursday. Nausicaa Delfas, executive director of international at the Financial Conduct Authority, said notifications from EU firms who...
March 20- Deutsche Bank AG's merger talks with Commerzbank AG has put its 10,000 U.S. workers on edge, three employees told Reuters, with some concerned a deal could pressure Deutsche to further shrink or even dispose of its U.S. businesses. In the meantime key employees could decamp to rival Wall Street banks and hedge funds, further weakening a business that has...
March 20- Latin American stocks fell in broad-based declines on Wednesday as investors avoided riskier assets ahead of a U.S. "Conditions are not right for a rate rise today, but they probably will be later this year," said Paul Donovan, Chief Economist at UBS Global Wealth Management in a note. Brazil's real fell 0.1 percent, snapping a three-day gaining streak...
ZURICH, March 20- Swiss bank UBS is cutting an extra $300 million from 2019 costs after investment banking revenues plunged and wealth management remained under pressure in the first quarter, its chief executive told a conference in London on Wednesday. Calling investment banking conditions among the toughest seen in years, especially outside the United...
ZURICH, March 20- UBS expects to cut an extra $300 million from 2019 costs as revenues fall across its flagship wealth management business as well as its investment bank in the first quarter, its CEO said at a conference in London on Wednesday. "We have slowed hiring and some IT projects, but we will not halt our investments into growth-oriented initiatives to...
SHANGHAI/ HONG KONG, March 20- An industry body representing global asset managers in Asia has urged China to lift foreign ownership caps in listed companies, two weeks after the restrictions disrupted overseas buying of a Chinese stock and just as foreign inflows are set to swell. In a policy paper released on Wednesday, financial lobbyist ASIFMA called on...
SHANGHAI/ HONG KONG, March 20- An industry body representing global asset managers in Asia has urged China to lift foreign ownership caps in listed companies, two weeks after the restrictions disrupted overseas buying of a Chinese stock and just as foreign inflows are set to swell. In a policy paper released on Wednesday, financial lobbyist ASIFMA called on...
PARIS, March 19- Franco-German start-up Doctolib, an online booking platform for doctors, has raised 150 million euros from a pool of investors led by U.S. venture capital giant General Atlantic, it said on Tuesday. General Atlantic, which has $31 billion in assets under management, which has notably invested in China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba and...
BERLIN/ FRANKFURT, March 18- German lawmakers have criticised deputy finance minister Joerg Kukies and Goldman Sachs, alleging a conflict of interest in the U.S. investment bank advising state-backed Commerzbank on a possible merger with Deutsche Bank. Kukies, who was formerly co-head of Goldman Sachs in Germany, left the Wall Street firm a year ago to become...
*Germany's Leoni slumps after scrapping 2019 profit target. Europe's banking sector rose more than 1 percent, with Italian lenders Banco BPM and UBI Banca gaining. Also caught in the merger wave was German insurer Allianz, which Bloomberg reported was exploring combining its asset management business with DWS, mostly owned by Deutsche Bank.
San Francisco- based Lyft's planned IPO includes a dual-class stock structure, with one class of shareholders getting 20 votes per share and another getting one vote per share. The letter was signed by investors from Britain's Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, BNP Paribas Asset Management, pension funds representing public employees in New York, Los...
Wellington Management Company LLP's decision last month to speak out against drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's proposed $74 billion acquisition of Celgene Corp, calling what would be the largest-ever pharmaceutical takeover too risky and expensive, sent ripples across the investment world. This is because these tactics have typically been the...
Fossil fuel divestment has gathered pace over the past few years as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and universities have sold oil, gas and coal stocks, especially after the 195- nation global climate agreement signed in Paris set a goal in 2015 of phasing out the use of fossil fuels this century. Norway's $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the worlds...
MILAN, March 14- Italy's top insurer Assicurazioni Generali raised its dividend for 2018 after beating its business plan targets and posting growth in net and operating profits. Europe's No 3 insurer has earmarked up to 4 billion euros for acquisitions and growth as it looks to asset management and high-margin business in Latin America and Asia to fuel...
NEW YORK, March 14- Portfolio manager Michael Kon began buying General Electric Co shares about a year ago and got more last fall after GE Chief Executive Larry Culp outlined plans to reboot the ailing power-plant unit. "I wouldn't say that they've got their arms around it," Kon, who is also research director at investment firm value-oriented Golub Group LLC, said of...
The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index rose 0.2 percent, in line with estimates, and in the 12 months through February, the CPI rose 1.5 percent, the smallest gain since September 2016. "The CPI numbers are suggestive of a patient Fed and ultimately that bodes well for the market," said Ryan Larson, head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management...
JOHANNESBURG, March 12- African Bank, a small South African lender which is trying to rebuild after nearly collapsing under the weight of bad debts, said it has appointed Thabo Dloti, former CEO of insurer Liberty Holdings, as its chairman. Dloti, who is also an ex-CEO of Old Mutual Investment Group and Liberty Holdings' asset management subsidiary Stanlib, will be a...
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