Manufacturing

Tata’s Cyrus Mistry changed too little, too late

24 Oct 2016

India's $110 bln conglomerate has sacked its chairman of four years. Mistry was slow to tackle problems at Tata Motors and Tata Steel; growth has also ground to a halt at cash cow Tata Consultancy. Fresh blood could put the nation's most prominent group back on a positive track.

Caterpillar CEO exit looks like preemptive strike

17 Oct 2016

Doug Oberhelman will retire as boss of the $51 bln earth-moving equipment maker next year. Cat will also split the CEO and chairman jobs. It looks like a calculated attempt to get in front of would-be activist investors after bad deals and poor performance damaged credibility.

Viewsroom: Samsung’s fiery future

13 Oct 2016

Cancelling production of its self-combusting Note 7 smartphone puts the company's reputation as well as $17 bln or more at risk. Cities, businesses and investors are putting Trump and Clinton to shame on climate change. Plus: Brexit politics get shaken up by the pound's decline.

Apollo finds a line yield-seekers won’t cross

10 Oct 2016

Leon Black's buyout shop yanked a 500 mln euro debt issue for French bottle maker Verallia after investors balked. They disliked that they might be paid in more debt while Apollo returned itself some cash. Brexit, Trump and ECB fears finally are rousing bond buyers to push back.

Danaher returns to dealmaking with $4 bln dud

6 Sep 2016

Fresh from splitting off its industrial arm, the healthcare giant is buying molecular tester Cepheid. Cost cuts cover barely half the 54 pct premium and investors aren't buying promises of extra revenue. CEO Tom Joyce's claims of greater efficiency and growth are falling flat.

VW jolt not enough to end Icahn trucking nightmare

6 Sep 2016

The investor's 20 pct stake in Navistar got a boost from the troubled U.S. manufacturer's partnership with the German giant. Five years agitating for change has yielded nothing for Icahn or fellow activist owners. The stock needs to rise by half again just for him to break even.

Peugeot well positioned for yesterday’s car market

27 Jul 2016

Bumper half-year operating profit shows the French carmaker is cutting costs neatly. Yet a radical shakeup in the car industry means getting up to speed with fuzzier stuff like self-driving cars, electric vehicles and new mobility services. That's a big ask for smallish Peugeot.

Daimler’s European answer to Uber gains momentum

26 Jul 2016

The German carmaker is merging its ride-hailing app Mytaxi with UK-based rival Hailo. The all-share deal creates Europe’s strongest competitor to Uber while avoiding paying the sector’s frothy multiples. For now, Daimler’s digital first-mover advantage is paying off.

Water woes are a drain on Make in India

26 Jul 2016

India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources. Chronic mismanagement of water in the country is already a strain on factories. Now the worry is that it will hold back Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s big plan to create jobs and turn India into a manufacturing hub.

Britain can’t have its chips and eat them too

18 Jul 2016

A takeover of microchip-designer ARM Holdings by Japan's SoftBank shows Britain is open for business. There is little choice. The UK may need dozens of new trade deals on leaving the European Union. However rare ARM's charms, and whoever the buyer, protectionism isn't an option.

China’s factories gain from march of the sew-bots

11 Jul 2016

Millions of jobs across Southeast Asia are at risk from wider use of automation, a new report has warned. The surprising beneficiary might be China. Robots could add to its shrinking workforce, while its network of suppliers and ports are a strength the rest of Asia can’t match.

Japan’s carmakers are passengers in wild FX ride

5 Jul 2016

Shares in Toyota, Nissan, Honda and others have crashed since Britain voted to quit the EU. All will be hit by an economic slowdown, and some would suffer from new tariffs on UK-made vehicles. But the selloff mostly reflects how exposed the firms are to currency-market swings.