Roshni Nadar Malhotra, the daughter of Indian billionaire Shiv Nadar, is stepping out of her father’s shadow to make a foray into health care. She’s using her family’s computer business as a springboard. The 33-year-old plans to spend 10 billion rupees ($168 million) to build a network of health clinics to treat acute and chronic ailments including diabetes, asthma, stomach and skin conditions, she said in an interview. Her venture will start with 50 centers in and around New Delhi before expanding to small towns, the only offspring of the founder of HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCLT) and HCL Infosystems Ltd. (HCLI) said.
Updated 5 Years ago

Sony (SNE) today said it expects to lose ¥50 billion ($490 million) in the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2015. Even though the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant has been struggling for years, today’s announcement comes as a surprise, since a Bloomberg-compiled average of 19 analyst estimates had Sony making a profit of ¥57.1 billion. The last time Sony surprised investors with a downbeat assessment of its prospects was on May 1, when it spoiled the holiday mood by announcing that its loss for the 2013-14 fiscal year would be ¥130 billion, worse than the ¥110 billion loss it had forecast a few months earlier and much worse than the ¥30 billion profit it had forecast a few months before that.
Updated 5 Years ago

Investor appetite for yield has reached such voracious levels that valuations have started to look "strange", bond investors have said, with 10-year Applebonds and 10-year Spanish government bonds now trading at similar levels. In the current super low interest rate environment it is now a struggle to find yield opportunities with reasonable risk, as fewer assets than ever before are offering yields of over 4 percent, fund managers argue.
Updated 5 Years ago

The 100.09 carat Graff Vivid Yellow, the largest yellow cut precious stone in the world, fetched a record $16.3 million at a Sotheby's auction in Geneva. "With its exceptional size and a superb daffodil color, the Graff Vivid Yellow is a truly extraordinary diamond with immense presence," Sotheby Switzerland’s David Bennett said in a statement on Wednesday.
Updated 5 Years ago

The French government has issued a decree allowing it to block any foreign takeovers of French companies in"strategic" industries, throwing up a potential roadblock to General Electric's planned $16.9 billion bid forAlstom's energy assets. The decree published in the official state gazette onThursday, and seen by Reuters, will give the state much-increased powers to block foreign takeovers in the energy, water, transport, telecoms and health sectors.
Updated 5 Years ago

More than 20 people were killed and rioters attacked Vietnam's biggest steel plant overnight as violent anti-China protests spread to the centre of the country a day after arson and looting in the south, a doctor and newspapers said on Thursday. A doctor at a hospital in central Ha Tinh province said five Vietnamese workers and 16 other people described as Chinese were killed in the rioting, one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since the neighbors fought a brief border war in 1979.
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After a fierce battle among stakeholders in the cement industry over the correct standard of the product to be enforced in the country to ensure its safe use for building and construction, THISDAY can authoritatively report that the final approval which makes the new cement standard mandatory has been given by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. Based on this approval which was granted by the Minister, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, all cement manufactured locally or imported must meet the approved standards.
Updated 5 Years ago

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed banks to render payment cards of other banks trapped in their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) ineffective by perforation them before returning same to the issuing bank. The central bank gave the directive in its approved “Guidelines for Card Issuance and Usage in Nigeria,” obtained on its website yesterday. However, THISDAY learnt that some banks have started enforcing the policy since last quarter.
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The Nigerian bourse recorded an increase of 1.02 per cent yesterday even as some market operators and shareholders hailed the announcement of the change in baton in the presidency of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The Chairman of Dangote Group of Companies and President of NSE Alhaji Aliko Dangote announced his decision to step down on Monday, while the First Vice-President and former Group Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede will take over as new president of the Nigerian bourse in July.
Updated 5 Years ago

For the third time, President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday extended emergency rule in the three North-east states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States and asked the National Assembly to expeditiously approve the extension. The president in letters addressed to Senate President David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, said extending the emergency rule was an option to consider because the security situation in the affected states had not improved.
Updated 5 Years ago