EU companies write off €76bn of goodwill
European companies were much more bearish about the value of their past acquisitions last year, reporting out their biggest goodwill impairments since the financial crisis. Members of the Stoxx Europe…
US growth doubts add to pressure on oil
Commodities prices were hit by worries about US growth and the return of eurozone angst, as investors sold off holdings in crude oil, industrial metals and grain, as well as…
Metso scraps €75m payout after pressure
Metso, the Finnish forestry company, has bowed to intense pressure from politicians and workers and scrapped a €75m extraordinary dividend. The partially state-owned company provoked outrage when it announced up…
Question of trust in the organic food wars
As a city boy, I have learnt to tread carefully through the organic farming debate, watching for what might stick to my boots. Big conventional food companies require scrutiny. But…
Aluminium bears hold sway despite rally
©Bloomberg Aluminium is a paradox. Demand for the world’s most widely used metal after steel is growing faster than for almost any other commodity. Consumers are paying record premiums to…
Chinese groups feel pain of cash squeeze
As the Chinese corporate earnings season went on through late August, analysts at CICC, the mainland investment bank, noticed a startling new trend – net profit numbers were coming in…
Glencore setback jeopardises mega-deals
The possible collapse of a plan to combine trading house Glencore with miner Xstrata would lift the value of failed mergers in the natural resources sector to nearly $1tn in…
Mining shares hit by iron ore slump
Iron ore prices on Thursday hit a fresh three-year low, down more than 50 per cent from the record high set in early 2011, dragging down sharply the shares of…
Vedanta besieged by protesters at meeting
Vedanta’s annual shareholder meeting was again besieged by angry protesters, as institutional investors and campaign groups peppered the London-listed Indian miner’s board with questions regarding its patchy record on community…
Bumi Resources rolls over $248m investment
Bumi Resources, the heavily indebted Indonesian coal miner, has rolled over a controversial $248m investment in a linked Indonesian company for another year after failing to secure early repayment. “We…
Rusal to cut annual output by 4%
United Company Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium producer by volume, is expecting large cuts to global capacity this year as the industry struggles against a collapse in prices that has…
ThyssenKrupp seeks €7bn on steel plant sales
ThyssenKrupp wants to recoup the €7bn book value of its US and Brazilian steel plants that it put up for sale this year after the businesses saddled the German conglomerate…
Australia approves GVK’s coal project
Australia’s government has granted final environmental clearance to a large-scale coal project owned by GVK Power & Infrastructure, boosting the Indian group’s plans to export fuel to fast-growing Asian markets.…
Memorial service held for Lonmin victims
Workers at Lonmin’s South African platinum mine gathered to mourn their slain colleagues on Thursday but the tensions underlying violence that has claimed 44 lives showed little signs of abating.…
Chinese steel and iron ore prices plunge
Prices of Chinese steel and its main ingredient iron ore have tumbled to their lowest since 2009, highlighting the depth of the slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy. Hot rolled…