AIG has announced in January planning for spinning off its mortgage insurer unit United Guaranty, following pressure from the shareholders. Following the announcement, Standard & Poor’s, a credit rating agency has downgraded its rating with specific reasoning. The mortgage insurer of AIG has disclosed through a regulatory filing that it intends to go for an initial public offering.
Firm Management
Qatar-owned Italian Fashion House Valentino Offers 500 Million Euros to Acquire France’s Balmain
Valentino has made an offer to acquire French fashion house Balmain for 500 million euros. Balmain’s heirs has decided to find a new owner after the fashion house’s former chairman and majority owner, Alain Hivelin, passed away in 2014.
Top Wall Street Lawyer Scott Barshay Leaves Cravath Law Firm to Join Paul, Weiss as Head of M&A
Top M&A lawyer, Scott Barshay, leaves Cravath to be a global head of mergers and acquisitions for rival law firm Paul, Weiss. Mr. Barshay has been representing big and high-profile clients, including Honeywell, Starwood, and 3G investment firm.
Biggest Documents Leak in History Ties Vladimir Putin to $2 Billion Offshore Money Trail
The history’s biggest confidential documents leak revealed Russian elites, mostly Mr Putin’s inner circles, as clients of an offshore law firm in Panama. The offshore money trail connected to Mr Putin’s allies is worth $2 billion.
Volkswagen to Recall 91,000 Vehicles With TDI Engines Over Fire Risks
Volkswagen will start recalling 91,000 of its Passat 2012-2014 models in the U.S. over problems with the vehicle’s connector that could cause overheating and electrical short. The automaker is lately being clouded by scandals regarding emission and its vehicles.
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KG Subramanian has been promoted as the Managing Director for the Finance and Operations unit of Nexus Venture Partners. The chartered accountant has been serving NVP for the last fourteen years. The promotion appears to be recognition of his contribution which has been echoed from Naren Gupta, co-founder and managing director of Nexus Venture Partners.
Synova Capital has sold its UK fashion accessories brand TLG Brands to Hong Kong’s Global Brands Group. Under Synova’s ownership, TLG Brands has been seeing strong growth and more presence in international as well as online markets.
Qatari media network Al Jazeera is announcing its plan to cut 50 jobs as a part of an optimization initiative. As a partly state-funded company, Al Jazeera is impacted by the slump in oil prices, which is the country’s main sector.
Nissin has made its takeover approach to Premier Foods by buying 17.3 percent stake in the company. The deal made Nissin Premier Foods’ largest stakeholder, but the company must agree to not make a takeover bid to Premier Foods in at least six months.
Volkswagen and Porsche identified a potential problem in their Cayenne and Touareg model from 2011 to 2016 and are calling back 800,000 SUVs to undergo a service to address the issue. The companies said this is a precautionary move, as a U.S. judge demanded that the companies come up with a plan immediately.
France’s data protection authority CNIL fined U.S. tech giant Google for failing to comply with the European top court’s ruling for the “right to be forgotten”. Google has implemented the ruling in Europe, however, the authority demanded that the ruling applied worldwide.
PetroChina has announced its earnings, forecasts and future planning for cutting down production on Wednesday in Hong Kong. Around 67% decrease in net profit and 12-year low oil price has apparently prompted the oil and gas company to reduce output by 2.7%.
Markets of iron ore and gas have been hit hard due to over supply and decreasing demand and Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. also follow trait. The Japanese trading house is going to embrace loss for the first time since its establishment in current form in 1947.
CEO Robert Goldfarb is about to retire on March 31st and will be replaced by David Poppe. Sequoia shares plunged because of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. stake.
