Glencore Plc, the global commodity trader and metals producer run by billionaire Ivan Glasenberg, will start a $1 billion share buyback after first-half profit gained 8 percent on higher production of copper, coal and oil. Adjusted net income rose to $2.01 billion from a restated $1.9 billion a year earlier, Baar, Switzerland-based Glencore said today in a statement. That compares with the $1.93 billion average estimate of 7 analysts compiled by Bloomberg.
Updated 5 Years ago

Watching the meteoric rise of India's stock markets so far this year, one can be forgiven for forgetting that just a year ago, the asset class was a poster child of the emerging market bashing. Both benchmark indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, swooned last year on fears a tapering of asset purchases by the Federal Reserve will trigger an outflow of funds from the market, falling to year-lows in September.
Updated 5 Years ago

Dmitri Dolgov told Reuters that when surrounding vehicles were breaking the speed limit, going more slowly could actually present a danger, and the Google car would accelerate to keep up. Google's driverless prototypes have been widely tested on roads in the US. The UK will allow driverless cars on public roads from 2015.
Updated 5 Years ago

The modified One M8 is being sold at roughly half the price of the same handset running Google's Android. This is the first time the struggling manufacturer has released a Windows smartphone in more than two years.
Updated 5 Years ago

Silex Systems, the company constructing Australia’s biggest solar plant, has suspended its funding following reports the national Renewable Energy Target (RET) could be scaled back or done away with altogether. The 100-megawatt Mildura Solar Concentrator Power Station, a $70 million project in Victoria, was supposed to provide electricity to 40,000 homes. Now Silex Systems has said it is shelving the project.
Updated 5 Years ago

Economic bridges continue to burn in the US-Russia sanctions standoff, with the latest casualty being US firm Applied Materials, which can no longer export IT equipment to Russia’s nanotechnology giant Rusnano. According to Rusnano CEO Anatoly Chubais, Russia has already found an alternative source for the technology (mostly memory MRAM) in China and other markets.
Updated 5 Years ago

In a public letter, Mr Ballmer said he had become "very busy" since he quit the top job and that it would be "impractical to continue". His decision to leave follows his recent purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team.
Updated 5 Years ago

The country's anti-monopoly regulator said the companies were found to have colluded to reduce competition. Japan's Sumitomo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric were among the firms that received the heaviest fines.
Updated 5 Years ago

In addition to its infrastructure upgrade and environmental transformation, the Lagos State government is using its pace-setting home ownership mortgage scheme—the LagosHOMS—to drive urban regeneration that would ultimately dovetail into its dream mega city status. This regeneration which has already seen some footprints in some parts of the state, particularly Ikeja and Lagos Island, involves the demolition of obsolete housing estates and their reconstruction into contemporary lifestyle communities.
Updated 5 Years ago

The Federal Government of Nigeria says it is optimistic that the establishment of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) will scale up mortgage penetration in the country, assuring that everything possible is being done to ensure enhanced provision of mortgage access in support of the delivery of 10,000 homes to new and eligible home seekers. Akon Eyakenyi, the Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, who stated this at the commissioning of 225 housing-unit Metrocity Estate developed by UAC Property Development Company (UPDC) Plc in Abuja recently, was also optimistic that the conclusion of the on-going revision of National Building Code (NBC) would improve housing delivery in line with set standards.
Updated 5 Years ago