Bamboo Innovator

Million-Dollar Hypercars Lure Elite to Swedish Craftsmanship

Million-Dollar Hypercars Lure Elite to Swedish Craftsmanship

A photo in Christian von Koenigsegg’s office shows one of the 41-year-old Swede’s limited-edition supercars — a 2011 Agera R, in fire-engine red — alongside a sparkly gold abomination that looks like it drove off the set of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” The latter is a recreation of the car von Koenigsegg first saw at age 5 in a stop-motion Norwegian film called “Flaklypa Grand Prix,” which tells the story of a small-town bicycle repairman who builds a race car from scrap parts and — in the face of doubt and ridicule from established automakers — goes on to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Read more of this post

Toyota Calls Hybrids ‘Sturdy Bridge’ to Automotive Future; Chairman Uchiyamada Says No Major Market for All-Electric Cars

eptember 30, 2013, 12:35 p.m. ET

Toyota Calls Hybrids ‘Sturdy Bridge’ to Automotive Future

Chairman Uchiyamada Says No Major Market for All-Electric Cars

MIKE RAMSEY

WASHINGTON—Toyota Motor Corp. 7203.TO +0.80% is committed to hybrid, gasoline-electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to displace the use of gasoline, said Takeshi Uchiyamada, chairman of the world’s largest auto maker. “The reason why Toyota doesn’t introduce any major [all-electric product] is because we do not believe there is a market to accept it,” Mr. Uchiyamada said in an interview following a speech on Monday at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Read more of this post

Some of the world’s biggest bond-fund managers, including Pimco and Blackrock, are bracing for a new phase in the rapid decline of Brazilian businessman Eike Batista’s empire: default.

September 30, 2013, 7:47 p.m. ET

Brazilian Magnate’s Woes May Jolt Bond Funds

Big Holders Include Pimco, BlackRock

EMILY GLAZER AND LUCIANA MAGALHAES

Some of the world’s biggest bond-fund managers, including Pacific Investment Management Co. and BlackRock Inc., BLK -0.12% are bracing for a new phase in the rapid decline of Brazilian businessman Eike Batista‘s empire: default. A group of six firms, including BlackRock and Allianz SE‘s ALV.XE -1.32% Pimco hold roughly half of the $3.6 billion in dollar-denominated debt issued by OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA, OGXP3.BR -25.00% Mr. Batista’s flagship oil company, according to people familiar with the situation. Read more of this post

The toll on coal: Increasing regulation and China’s slowing economy are threatening the fuel’s dominance

September 30, 2013 7:17 pm

Energy: The toll on coal

By Pilita Clark, James Wilson and Lucy Hornby

Increasing regulation and China’s slowing economy are threatening the fuel’s dominance

For the world at large, Wyoming still means Buffalo Bill and cowboy boots. For global energy markets, the sparsely populated US state has a more modern relevance – as the source of some of the largest coal reserves in the world. The Powder River Basin that stretches across much of the state has made Wyoming the US’s biggest coal producer. But coal industry executives received a shock in August when it was time to see which companies had bid for the rights to a new tract, said to contain nearly 150m tons of mineable coal in the federally controlled basin. Read more of this post

Storage Wars Seize Metals Market

September 30, 2013, 5:58 p.m. ET

Storage Wars Seize Metals Market

London Metal Exchange Gears Up to Change Storage Rules

TATYANA SHUMSKY

Controversy over the role of warehouses overshadowed the metals market, and traders and analysts are debating the likely impact of changes to storage rules now in the works. Metal-warehouse owners, which include banks and commodity-trading firms, are under increased scrutiny as the London Metal Exchange gears up to make a decision on metal-storage rules for its warehouse system. This warehouse network stretches from Detroit to Malaysia and is the world’s largest. Read more of this post

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said limits on low-deposit home loans are something buyers have to tolerate if the nation wants to avoid faster interest-rate increases

Key Says N.Z. Loan Limits are Medicine Economy Needs to Swallow

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said limits on low-deposit home loans are something buyers have to tolerate if the nation wants to avoid faster interest-rate increases. “Like all medicines, I don’t necessarily like having to swallow it either,” Key told TV3’s Firstline. “But what is the best thing overall for the economy?” From today, banks face restrictions on the amount of new home loans they can make when the deposit is less than 20 percent of a property’s value. The nation’s central bank, concerned a housing bubble is threatening financial stability, imposed the limit because raising interest rates might boost the currency and hurt the economy. Opponents of the loan limits “are telling you they want you to pay more for your mortgage,” Key said. “I want lower interest rates.” Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said Sept. 12 that the limits lower the bank’s projection for 90-day bank bill yields by 30 basis points, or 0.3 percentage points. Still, he said the central bank will have to start raising rates next year. It expects yields to rise by 100 basis points by the end of 2014.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tracy Withers in Wellington at twithers@bloomberg.net

Student-Loan Defaults Rise in U.S. as Borrowers Struggle

Student-Loan Defaults Rise in U.S. as Borrowers Struggle

About one in seven borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans, showing how former students are buckling under higher-education costs in a weak economy. The default rate, for the first three years that students are required to make payments, was 14.7 percent, up from 13.4 percent the year before, the U.S. Education Department said today. Based on a related measure, defaults are at the highest level since 1995. Read more of this post

Stock Investors See Slimmer Pickings; Stocks at Loftiest Levels in Years Compared With Profits

September 30, 2013, 7:38 p.m. ET

Stock Investors See Slimmer Pickings

Stocks at Loftiest Levels in Years Compared With Profits

TOM LAURICELLA

Some investors warn that the air is getting thinner for U.S. stocks, which head into the fourth quarter up 18% for the year and at their loftiest levels in years compared with corporate profits. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.5% during the third quarter even as economic growth remained uneven. The resiliency of the stock market’s rally prompted several Wall Street strategists to throw in the towel on negative forecasts. Read more of this post

Mergers Market Loses Its Driver

September 30, 2013, 6:33 p.m. ET

Mergers Market Loses Its Driver

Fed Move Lowers Threat of Interest-Rate Increase

SHARON TERLEP

Fear that interest rates could jump further gave Verizon Communications Inc.VZ -0.69% extra motivation to plow ahead with its monster deal in September to buy the part of Verizon Wireless it doesn’t own, after years of talking about such a deal with seller Vodafone Group PLC. VOD.LN -0.55% Without the acquisition of Verizon Wireless, growth in deal activity would have been far more meager. Read more of this post

Lessons Learned in the Exchange-Traded Fund Graveyard

Lessons Learned in the Exchange-Traded Fund Graveyard

There are now 337 exchange-traded funds pushing up the daisies. More than 40 percent of those deaths by Darwin took place in the last 18 months, when ETF inflows have broken records. While ETF closures can be an inconvenience for investors in the short-term, in the long run they are healthy for the industry and investors. While some of the deaths are simply due to bad timing, closures help weed out weaker players and lead to higher-quality products. A recent article on the Index Universe web site said the rapid pace of closures “speaks more about an industry in growth mode than one in retreat.” A stroll through the ETF graveyard shows why some of the funds don’t last. Here’s a look at a few of the more famous defunct ETFs and the lessons we can take from their demise. Read more of this post

Lamborghini Signals Luxury Shift From China to U.S., Japan: Cars

Lamborghini Signals Luxury Shift From China to U.S., Japan: Cars

After years of profiting from China’s appetite for high-priced toys, makers of hyper-luxury cars are shifting their focus back to more traditional markets such as the U.S. and Japan. “The U.S. is really getting back on track and getting more important for us,” Lamborghini SpA Chief Executive Officer Stephan Winkelmann said in an interview in Tokyo. In China, “there is a slowdown in high-end luxury,” he said. Read more of this post

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