Europe’s Car Makers Spin Their Wheels; Aging Populations, Driving-Habit Shifts Presage Lower Sales

Updated September 30, 2013, 11:00 p.m. ET

Europe’s Car Makers Spin Their Wheels

Aging Populations, Driving-Habit Shifts Presage Lower Sales

VANESSA FUHRMANS

Sergio Felice embodies a woeful present for European auto makers. He may also reflect a dim future. Growing up in Italy, the 41-year-old bank consultant says, “it was always important to have a nice car.” Now living in Barcelona, he had been saving up to buy an Audi TT. Then Europe’s economic distress pushed him to reorganize his financial priorities, and owning a car is no longer one of them. Read more of this post

Egypt’s Startups at Record Confront Economy Paralyzed by Unrest

Egypt’s Startups at Record Confront Economy Paralyzed by Unrest

As clashes between Egyptian soldiers and protesters left dozens dead in October 2011, Ahmed Zahran was betting his savings on converting the water pumps used by farmers from running on diesel to solar energy. The 33-year-old spent 65,000 Egyptian pounds ($9,400) starting KarmSolar with three friends and landed the first client last year in Egypt’s Western Desert as fuel shortages worsened. Almost 9,000 other companies were set up in the 12 months to June this year, the most since Egypt began publishing statistics on startups in 2004. Read more of this post

Groundwork Laid for Stricter Regulation of Asset Managers; U.S. Study Concludes Firms Would be Vulnerable in a Financial Panic

September 30, 2013, 6:01 p.m. ET

Groundwork Laid for Stricter Regulation of Asset Managers

U.S. Study Concludes Firms Would be Vulnerable in a Financial Panic

RYAN TRACY

Asset-management firms such as mutual funds are vulnerable to a financial panic, the Treasury Department said Monday, releasing a study that could lay the groundwork for stricter regulation of such financial players. The finding that the asset-management industry is “vulnerable to shocks” leaves U.S. regulators with a decision about whether to subject large players such as BlackRockInc. BLK -0.12% and Fidelity Investments Inc. to increased oversight. Read more of this post

Judges Outsource Workloads as Cases Get More Complex

September 29, 2013, 5:40 p.m. ET

Judges Outsource Workloads as Cases Get More Complex

Amid Tight Courtroom Budgets, Special Masters Help Keep Litigation on Track

DIONNE SEARCEY

DALLAS—U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade’s court was swamped with dozens of cases from a Mexican drug-cartel bust when he was alerted that a massive product-liability case was heading his way. Thousands of patients from across the U.S. had sued a Johnson & JohnsonJNJ -0.05% unit for allegedly faulty hip-replacement devices. It would fall to Judge Kinkeade to assemble millions of pages of evidence, set guidelines for dozens of depositions from around the world and resolve spats over attorneys’ fees. Read more of this post

Jens Weidmann, president of the Bundesbank, has risked angering Europe’s crisis-hit governments by warning of the dangers posed by high levels of sovereign debt on banks’ balance sheets

September 30, 2013 7:54 pm

Weidmann in sovereign debt warning

By Michael Steen in Frankfurt

Jens Weidmann, president of the Bundesbank, has risked angering Europe’s crisis-hit governments by warning of the dangers posed by high levels of sovereign debt on banks’ balance sheets. Writing in the Financial Times, Mr Weidmann demands that lenders cut their holdings of government bonds and set aside more capital to reflect their riskiness. “The time is ripe to address the regulatory treatment of sovereign exposures,” he writes. Read more of this post

Sugar Industry Highlights Conflicts Over Trade Pacts and Land; For Cambodia and other poor nations, trade agreements that foster exports can also encourage land grabs by wealthy, politically connected families

September 30, 2013

Sugar Industry Highlights Conflicts Over Trade Pacts and Land

By KEITH BRADSHER

OMLIANG COMMUNE, Cambodia — Yim Lon nurses bitter memories of how three years ago the local authorities forced her and her family to dismantle their small home and move it to make way for a sugar plantation. The Phnom Penh Sugar Company paid her a few hundred dollars, less than a tenth of what Ms. Yim, 53, says she believes the family’s small plot of farmland was worth. She dreams of being allowed to move their two-room house, made of wood planks and steel siding, back to the site near a stream where they used to grow rice. She is convinced that the other culprits are the Europeans, who buy sugar from Phnom Penh Sugar. “If Europe continues buying sugar from the company, then we will continue suffering,” she said. Read more of this post

“[The Grohe deal] was really worth the price. It’s like buying Mercedes-Benz or BMW.” Lixil Group CEO Yoshiaki Fujimori says he is eager to build global recognition for Lixil, now that the company has two big international brands under its belt – Germany’s Grohe and American Standard

Updated September 30, 2013, 6:44 a.m. ET

Lixil Seeks Greater Brand Recognition

CEO Fujimori Says M&A Is Essential to Boosting Overseas Revenue

ATSUKO FUKASE

Lixil Group Chief Executive Yoshiaki Fujimori, pictured on Sept. 26 in Tokyo, says he is eager to build global recognition for Lixil, now that the company has two big international brands under its belt.

TOKYO—Largely existing within the confines of Japan’s housing and building materials industry, Lixil Group Corp. 5938.TO -1.61% has been gearing up for a major expansion abroad over the past few years. Now that it has two big international brands under its belt, American Standard and Grohe, Lixil’s chief executive said he hopes to build up recognition of his company’s own brand globally, while maintaining the wide level of awareness that the other brands already possess. “I want Lixil to gain global recognition as a corporate brand,” Yoshiaki Fujimori said in an interview following his company’s deal to buy Germany’s Grohe Group for $4.13 billion. “[The Grohe deal] was really worth the price,” he said. “It’s like buying Mercedes-Benz or BMW.” Read more of this post

Sovereign wealth funds: transparently inadequate; Many SWFs are failing to comply with their own governance standards

September 29, 2013 5:28 pm

Sovereign wealth funds: transparently inadequate

Many SWFs are failing to comply with their own governance standards

Capital markets are in awe of sovereign wealth funds. Many high-profile investments of recent years – the rescue of western banks, buying trophy assets or scooping up natural resources – have involved an SWF as lead investor or chief moneybags. That is helping these institutions to go more mainstream. But as capital markets have changed to adapt to SWFs, it seems that the funds themselves areslower to adapt to the norms of the capital markets. Read more of this post

Small business caught in Hong Kong property trap

September 30, 2013 10:10 am

Small business caught in Hong Kong property trap

By Josh Noble in Hong Kong

Tucked away above the dazzling storefronts of Cartier and Jaeger-LeCoultre, The People’s Recreation Centre seems completely out of place. The cramped little Mao-themed bookshop has so far managed to hold out, despite finding itself wedged among the world’s most expensive retail space. Burberry, a fellow resident on Russell Street in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping district, pays around US$1m a month in rent. Read more of this post

Hedonism Makes Comeback as Monaco Pitches Post-Crisis Yachts

Hedonism Makes Comeback as Monaco Pitches Post-Crisis Yachts

The largest vessel at the Monaco Yacht Show last week was the Quattroelle, an 88-meter boat with marble floors, bronze balustrades, Murano glass chandeliers and a baby grand piano — evidence expensive toys are back. With a charter price of $1 million a week, the super-yacht at the annual trade show that ended Sept. 28 also had a “collectable art” blue and white zigzag painted helicopter perched on one deck and a Porsche 918 Spyder parked on another. Read more of this post

Banks Face Basel Debt Limit Capturing Off-Balance Sheet Risks

Banks Face Basel Debt Limit Capturing Off-Balance Sheet Risks

Banks are set to face a broad international leverage limit that will catch off-balance sheet risks and prevent them from hiding their debt, according to the head of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The Basel group is seeking to put a ceiling on indebtedness that will prove robust no matter how complicated a bank’s business model, Stefan Ingves, its chairman, said in an interview. Read more of this post

Foreigners Stay Away From Malaysia 30-Year Bond

September 30, 2013, 7:32 a.m. ET

Foreigners Stay Away From Malaysia 30-Year Bond

Bankers Say Domestic Pension Funds, Insurers Bought the Inaugural Issue

ANJANI TRIVEDI

With markets jittery over the looming shutdown of the U.S. government, Malaysia’s central bank sold 2.5 billion ringgit of 30-year bonds, the country’s longest-maturity offering ever, but foreign investors stayed away. Malaysia has seen cash flow out of the country as investors became convinced the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee would scale back the Federal Reserve’s monetary easing—also known as quantitative easing or QE—sending the local currency down 9% from its peak. Read more of this post