McDonald’s is planning to extend its fast food empire to Asia by opening additional restaurants in Hong Kong, South Korea and China. It is also seeking strategic partnership in Japan and Taiwan.
Industry
Central Bank expects Brazil's GDP to fall 3.5% in 2016
The central bank of Brazil expects the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) to shrink 3.5% in 2016 and inflation to hit 6.6%. The Central Bank expects Brazil's inflation rate to drop to 4.9% in 2017.
UK's service sector records 2.8% growth in January
The service sector of Britain posted a 2.8% growth in January, accounting for roughly 80% of the nation's economy. The country's GDP increased by 0.6% during the fourth quarter of 2015.
GE Shrinks Finance Business, Appeals For Omitting SIFI Label
GE has slashed down assets of finance arm from $549 billion to $265 billion while cutting ties with rest of the financial system that led to attain the SIFI status. Now the conglomerate appeals for its declassification since it no longer possesses ability to exert risk for the US economy. However, an FSOC spokesman vows to exercise its legislative authority in protecting the country’s economy from potential threats.
Microsoft HoloLens Offers New Perspective to Virtual Reality
Microsoft started to ship the Development Editions kit for HoloLens on Wednesday. With its augmented reality device, the company offered a new perspective in virtual reality realm.
Latest News
Charles River Associates, CRA, the Boston based global consulting firm is specialized in litigation, regulatory, financial and management consulting. The firm is now expanding the finance practice through appointing James Massey as a vice president. Mr. Massey has 30 years’ experience in advising a wide range of companies covering S&P 500, private equity firms, hedge funds and so on.
Apple has launched on Wednesday a new Safari browser version, specially designed for the developers, Safari Technology Preview. It allows developers to experiment their own applications with the browser version with features like ECMAScript 6 and the B3 JavaScript JIT compiler. Apple has requested to share experience feedback to help in further developments of the browser.
Saratoga Investment Corporation increased its dividend by 2.5%. The company on Tuesday declared a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share.
Mashable announced on Thursday to receive a new round of investment. The Series C funding was led by Turner Broadcasting.
ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector lender, has deferred its sale plan on home finance division. ICICI Bank has put its home finance division's valuation at INR 2,400 crore, while potential private equity (PE) buyers have asked for a 20 percent discount on valuation.
Investments from the US surpassed China ever since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India in May 2014. The encouraging economy growth is the prime reason for robust US investments in India.
India's largest private industrial conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has announced that its telecom venture Jio is the world's biggest startup with an estimated investment of INR 150,000 ($23 billion). A soft launch of Reliance Jio is expected in April 2016.
GlaxoSmithKline pledged not to file patents to make drugs more affordable to poor countries. Any GSK drugs that are included in the list of the World Health Organization's important medicines will be included automatically.
MetLife has won a legal battle against US regulators over systemically important' financial institution (SIFI) status. A Washington court has rejected Financial Stability Oversight Counsil's (FSOC) attempt to classify MetLife as SIFI.
