France’s biggest listed bank BNP Paribas took fewer bad debt provisions than expected in the fourth quarter, helping it beat profit forecasts, and said these charges would be lower again in 2010. BNP struck a relatively confident note despite the economic uncertainty clouding the banking industry. Its profit was up on the previous quarter and…
The spoken word started civilisation, the printed word started industrialisation, and the internet started the information age. Today, the world is open for businesses, as the internet has fundamentally reshaped international markets and brought the vision of a global economy to fruition. The internet has brought us closer for we no longer live estranged and…
Buying a self-storage facility is a lot harder than you think – particularly if you want to make money. There are some basic traits that separate winning facilities from losers, and that genetic code is hard to break.There are many people who will tell you all about how to buy a self-storage facility, in order…
Japan’s finance minister said he would like to see price growth of one percent and urged the Bank of Japan to cooperate in beating deflation, putting fresh pressure on the central bank for more action to support a fragile economy. BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the central bank was willing to cooperate, but he offered…
The Indian government’s first full-year budget since its resounding re-election may signal that increasing populism and ruling coalition infighting will triumph over policies to liberalise the economy and cut record borrowing. This could be the year for India. The world is looking for motors of growth in Asia, the $1.2trn Indian economy is recovering faster…
Europe’s post-recession recovery has hit a roadblock as German economic growth unexpectedly ground to a halt in the final quarter of 2009, though France made up for some of the damage. The news comes at a hard time for Europe’s single currency bloc as governments struggle to sort out Greece’s debt difficulties and contain financial…
The term non-correlated asset class covers a whole range of potential investments, including venture capital, real estate, private equity and commodities, as well as other alternative investment strategies. In today’s economy of crashing public equity markets, defaulting hedge funds and non-existent real estate plays, one company believes investing in film slates, including theatrical distribution, offers…
US mortgage foreclosure filings dropped in January but the decline may prove only temporary as housing-rescue efforts fall short of addressing current drivers, a report released on Thursday showed. Foreclosures are by far one of the biggest threats to the US housing market, which remains highly vulnerable to setbacks and heavily reliant on government intervention….
A nine-month interim agreement went into force provisionally at the start of February but deputies from the assembly’s Liberal, Socialist and Green groups opposed it on the grounds it failed to protect the privacy of EU citizens. Washington will now have to seek other ways to access information on money transfers in Europe until it…
The firm, which has about eight percent of the global market and capacity some three times greater than nearest rival Nippon Steel, said it expected core profit or EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of between $1.8 and $2.2bn in the first quarter. The figure compared with an average forecast in a Reuters…
