Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), which wagered more than $300 billion last year on things like yen rates and bond spreads, just laid down a bet that guys like Nelson “Johnny” Aguilar can stay out of jail. Aguilar was at a Dunkin’ Donuts near Boston on a Sunday night in March when a shooting outside left a 21-year-old man with a bullet wound to the gut, police said. They arrested Aguilar, a 19-year-old gang member with a criminal record and a tattoo that says “Life’s a Gamble.”
Updated 5 Years ago

Oil explorers like Exxon Mobil Corp. and OAO Rosneft risk wasting $1.1 trillion of investors’ cash through 2025 on expensive, uneconomic projects from the Arctic and deep seas to tar sands, according to a study. That’s the sum the industry may spend on developments that need market prices of at least $95 a barrel to break even, the Carbon Tracker Initiative said. The money risks being wasted as the total amount of oil the world can afford to burn without warming the planet to unsafe levels is available from less costly deposits that are economical at $75 a barrel, according to its report.
Updated 5 Years ago

Japan's Toshiba Corp forecast operating profit to climb 14 percent to a record this business year, as buoyant sales of power grid equipment and robust income from flash memory chips offset weakness in its nuclear reactor business.
Updated 5 Years ago

Global markets shifted higher on Thursday amid hopes that Russia was angling for a peaceful solution to the ongoing Ukraine crisis. Calls for peace talks from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday marked a softening in Russia's approach towards Ukraine. He also called for a controversial vote on independence to be postponed and said Russian troops were being withdrawn from Ukraine's border.
Updated 5 Years ago

The world’s biggest coffee maker, which derives about a fifth of its $100 billion in sales from java, faces a new number two after Mondelez International Inc. (MDLZ) agreed to combine its coffee unit with its D.E Master Blenders 1753 BV. The new company, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, is the latest step by Master Blenders owner JAB Holding Co. to create a caffeine-fueled global powerhouse in one of the few vibrant areas of the $1 trillion food and beverage sector. That creates headaches for Vevey, Switzerland-based Nestle, whose coffee business has slowed of late after driving revenue and margin expansion for much of the past decade. Sales growth at the unit that includes most of the coffee portfolio has halved, while the single-serve Nespresso division has lost market share to copycats in Europe and failed to make a dent in the U.S.
Updated 5 Years ago

NATIONAL Pension Commission, PenCoM, has dismissed reports that accumulated Pension fund of over N4trillion is under threat because of alleged pull out of Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, by the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, saying such report is not only unfounded, but also a factual error capable of misleading the general public.
Updated 5 Years ago

Union Bank of Nigeria plc has notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that the Bank has appointed financial advisers for the purpose of obtaining guidance and direction on the best option for complying with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulation for all banks to divest from their non-banking subsidiaries and focus on their core areas of expertise.
Updated 5 Years ago

It made a net profit of 1.82 trillion yen ($17.8bn; £10.5bn) in the year to 31 March, up from 962bn yen a year ago. But that was lower than its February forecast of 1.9tn yen profit. Japan's firms, especially those relying on exports, have benefited from the weakness in the yen which helps lift their profits when they repatriate their overseas earnings back home. The Japanese yen has weakened by nearly 18% against the US dollar since the start of 2013 amid aggressive policy measures by the government.
Updated 5 Years ago

In order to further boost the trade relationship between Nigeria and Britain, Adeyemi Adefulu, president of the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), is leading business executives on a-five-day trade mission to the UK betweenJune 9 and 13, 2014.
Updated 5 Years ago

Insurance giant Prudential reported 29 percent growth in new business profit in the first quarter of 2014 on Thursday, driven by continuing strength in Asia and the U.S. New business profit hit £529 million ($897.3 million) up from £410 million the same time last year, with Asia posting a 20 percent rise and the U.S. growing 67 percent. The U.K. showed stellar growth for Prudential with a 90 percent rise in new business profit.
Updated 5 Years ago