Cable & Wireless to relocate from London
©Bloomberg Cable & Wireless Communications, the telecoms group that traces its history back to the early days of the British empire, is to leave the UK after more than 140…
Embraer in $8bn SkyWest aircraft supply deal
Embraer is to sell up to 200 aircraft to SkyWest, the world’s largest regional airline group, in a deal valued at up to $8bn that is set to revive the…
Argentine soyabean farmers return to market
Argentina’s soyabeans have started to flow. Comment by email Sign up here to receive The Commodities Note direct to your email inbox daily After hanging on to their crop as…
Shine is coming off Brazil for investors
The exit of a senior bureaucrat little known outside his country would not normally worry international investors. But Nelson Barbosa’s resignation as Brazilian finance secretary for “personal reasons” last week…
Yahoo spared $2.7bn Mexican damages
Yahoo has been spared a potential $2.7bn payout in legal damages after a Mexican court overturned an earlier ruling against the US web portal in a contract dispute. In November…
Growth shows signs of fatigue in Mexico
Over the past few years, officials at Mexico’s national statistics agency have become used to publishing the glowing quarterly economic growth figures that have plotted the country’s recovery since the…
Ethanol: Logic of circular biofuel trade comes into question
©AFP Cane crop: market skewed Despite having the world’s biggest ethanol industry, the US imported 9.6m barrels of the biofuel from Brazil last year. Brazil, the ethanol pioneer, imported 2m…
Deal making: Lucrative business transactions help cash flow in both directions
The day he announced his $28bn deal to buy Heinz, the US food group, Warren Buffett, known as the “Sage of Omaha”, waxed lyrical on US television network CNBC about…
Citi sells Brazil units to Itaú-Unibanco
Citigroup has sold its Brazilian consumer finance units to local bank Itaú-Unibanco for R$2.77bn, as the US lender looks to withdraw from part of the country’s fiercely competitive retail banking…
Brazil oil licences raise record R$2.8bn
Brazil raised a record R$2.8bn in its first auction of licences for oil exploration blocks in five years, with oil majors including ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP winning blocks, as well…
Petrobras: betting the tranch
Petrobras should send Ben Bernanke and other central bankers aquele abraço (a hug). Brazil’s national oil company has huge funding needs – a $237bn multiyear investment programme – for its…
Argentina: Would-be partners worry about the risk of shale
No one doubts the attractiveness of Argentina’s shale oil and gas prospects, particularly its vast Vaca Muerta (Dead Cow) formation, but unlike Eagle Ford in the US, which has rocketed…
Petrobras bond sale sets record
Brazil’s state-controlled Petrobras sold $11bn worth of bonds on Monday, the largest corporate debt sale from an emerging market on record, underscoring the immense appetite for higher-yielding assets. The Petrobras…
Brazil’s Itaú BBA wins backing for green push
Germany’s Commerzbank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have agreed to extend a $200m credit line to Brazil’s biggest bank to help finance a growing number of green energy projects…
Office Depot eyes sale of Mexican stake
Office Depot said it was willing to resume talks about selling its stake in its Mexican joint-venture to Grupo Gigante SAB, restarting a process that was sidetracked when Office Depot…