China hopes that last week's interest rate cut will increase lending into the economy to shore up flagging growth, but measuring any rise will be impeded by a number of tricks the country's bankers use to manipulate the figures.
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Staff fear the chop in Samsung Electronics annual reshuffle
Insiders say staff at Samsung Electronics have never been so anxious ahead of the annual reshuffle, as a weak smartphone performance and its worst earnings in three years are expected to cost many jobs.
Germany backs Blackberry's purchase of Secusmart
Germany has approved Canadian smartphone maker Blackberry's (BB.TO) planned acquisition of Secusmart, the encryption technology of which is used to protect the mobile devices of top politicians including Chancellor Angela Merkel.
E.ON sells majority in U.S. wind farms to Enbridge
German utility E.ON (EONGn.DE) agreed to sell an 80 percent stake in two wind farms in the United States to Canada's Enbridge (ENB.TO), as the group continues to rake in much-needed cash by building and selling pricey renewable assets.
Songbird Estates says worth $4.4 billion, more than takeover offer
Songbird Estates (SBDE.L), the majority owner of London's Canary Wharf, said an upturn in property markets means it is now worth 2.82 billion pounds ($4.42 billion), more than the takeover offer from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Brookfield Property Partners (BPY.N).
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Saudi Arabia blocked calls on Thursday from poorer members of the OPEC oil exporter group for production cuts to arrest a slide in global prices, sending benchmark crude plunging to a fresh four-year low.
Failure to reform and shield weaker members threatens to divide the euro zone, the head of the European Central Bank warned on Thursday, amid fresh signs the currency bloc's economy is losing speed.
Airbus Group and Dassault Aviation aim to oversee the complete sale of Airbus's 4.8 billion-euro stake in the French planemaker by the end of next year, two people familiar with the matter said.
France's competition watchdog said on Thursday it had given its go-ahead to Numericable's purchase of Virgin Mobile France. Numericable, which is also in the process of buying number 2 mobile operator SFR, agreed in June to buy Virgin Mobile France from owners Britain's Carphone Warehouse and entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group for an enterprise value of 325 million euros.
Britain's biggest drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, fired an executive from its South African unit for refusing to appear for a performance review, which was called a week after he complained of racial discrimination in the workplace, Bloomberg reported, citing company documents.
Stock-picking fund managers are testing their investors’ patience with some of the worst investment returns in decades. With bad bets on financial shares, missed opportunities in technology stocks and too much cash on the sidelines, roughly 85 percent of active large-cap stock funds have lagged their benchmark indexes through Nov. 25 this year, according to an analysis by Lipper, a Thomson Reuters research unit. It is likely their worst comparative showing in 30 years, Lipper said.
Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it would recall 57,000 vehicles globally to replace potentially deadly air bags made by Takata Corp, as a safety crisis around the Japanese auto parts maker looks far from being contained.
Subdued food price inflation in Europe is unlikely to pick up any time soon, adding to the pressure on mainstream grocers as they struggle with changing shopping habits and competition from discounters.
The World Trade Organization adopted the first worldwide trade reform in its history on Thursday, after years of stalemate, months of deadlock and a final day's delay following an eleventh-hour objection.
