People

HSBC CEO limbo has a thin silver lining

6 Feb 2020

The $150 bln bank may unveil a big strategic overhaul before naming its permanent boss. That’s messy but there’s a crumb of comfort. Interim head Noel Quinn is effectively auditioning for the job and has an incentive to show he can quickly deliver much-needed cost cuts.

Hadas: Who deserves to be a billionaire?

29 Jan 2020

Probably not Isabel dos Santos. The Angolan ex-president’s daughter flourished while the country that produced most of her fortune struggled. But in the modern economy, all billionaires extract far more economic value than they add. Taxes are a better remedy than charity.

Italy’s honeymoon with EU is under threat

22 Jan 2020

Luigi Di Maio looks set to step down as head of the 5-Star Movement, the largest party in the ruling coalition. That will strain the alliance. If a crucial regional election on Sunday produces a victory for eurosceptic Matteo Salvini, it may imperil the fragile pro-EU government.

Lotte scion gets chance to inspire Korea Inc

21 Jan 2020

Shares in South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate rallied after the death of founder Shin Kyuk-ho. His son, already in charge of the group, has promised aggressive restructuring. With diplomatic, legal and family spats winding down, he has space to hurry up.

Africa’s richest woman is Angola’s trickiest issue

20 Jan 2020

The petrostate’s government is scrutinising the $2 bln business empire of Isabel dos Santos. Reports of nepotism clearly hurt the daughter of Angola’s ex-ruler. But proving graft will be hard, and seizing her stakes in local firms might hit the economy.

The gayest Davos in history still isn’t gay enough

20 Jan 2020

Adding an LGBTQ panel to the annual outing and giving an award to a transgender artist beats the “don’t ask, don’t tell” posture of the past. But with 70 countries still persecuting same-sex relations, and many WEF corporate sponsors supportive of equality, more can be done.

Santander CEO fiasco exposes banking’s fault line

16 Jan 2020

It’s a year since chair Ana Botin reversed her decision to make UBS executive Andrea Orcel the Spanish group’s boss. Misgivings about pay and management style were rooted in the gulf between wholesale and retail lenders. A 112 mln euro lawsuit will lay bare the culture clash.

Lazy days are over for buyout barons in China

16 Jan 2020

Dealmakers were gloomy at an annual forum in Hong Kong after a disappointing year. Private equity can no longer rely on minority stakes in a booming economy to juice returns. Tech bets are mostly off. The next batch of funds will work hard on traditional, unloved businesses.

Sultan Qaboos’ legacy of peace looks safe for now

12 Jan 2020

Oman’s iconic leader is dead after a 50-year reign. The risk of upheaval has been eased by the appointment of his cousin, and regional tensions that have subsided in recent days. But the longer-term scope for weak finances to hit Muscat’s role as a key Gulf mediator remains.

Royal couple test House of Windsor revolving door

9 Jan 2020

Harry and Meghan’s plan to step back seems a financial no-brainer: the pair’s commercial opportunities far exceed their small state income. Like ex-politicians in business, though, success derives from close ties to former public life. That means keeping Buckingham Palace sweet.

Gulf’s long-serving ruler is ailing at a bad time

9 Jan 2020

Oman’s Sultan Qaboos is ill. For 50 years the iconic leader has positioned his realm as a neutral Gulf player. If he dies as the Iran crisis rages, an opaque succession process and shaky finances could deprive a fractious region of a key backchannel when it’s most needed.

Carlos Ghosn’s image rehab begins in wrong gear

8 Jan 2020

The ex-Renault boss used his first public statements since fleeing Japan to claim a plot involving Nissan and Tokyo prosecutors. The assertions were light on detail, though. That left too much time for missteps such as likening his arrest to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

UBS goes for growth with wealth management rejig

7 Jan 2020

Fresh from hiring rival executive Iqbal Khan, the bank which oversees $2.5 trln is axing unnecessary layers to serve rich clients better and faster. Only 2% of the unit’s jobs will go, though. UBS needs to boost lending to get its cost structure into line with leaner competitors.

Buyout barons will be next to face pay backlash

6 Jan 2020

Private-equity managers can earn more than company CEOs or bankers, whose remuneration has drawn most scrutiny in recent years. The $4 trln industry is now too big to stay under the radar. A surge in company failures would make well-paid dealmakers easy targets for politicians.

South Africa’s Absa opts for safety-first recovery

6 Jan 2020

The $9 bln group made former central bank deputy Daniel Mminele its new CEO. Like other local lenders, the former Barclays unit needs growth from elsewhere on the continent to offset domestic weakness. Installing a career regulator suggests little appetite for a high-risk charge.

Carlos Ghosn helps the 1% end decade on-brand

2 Jan 2020

Nissan’s ex-boss didn’t like Japan’s justice system, and so arranged an escape to his former home Lebanon. The grotesque use of wealth ties a bow on a lucrative 10-year run for the ultra-rich. Leave it to a man who once partied at Versailles to rally the anti-plutocracy movement.

HR nous will make or break CEOs’ tech ambitions

31 Dec 2019

Bosses from fashion to financial services love talking about big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. They list Alphabet and Amazon as rivals for talent. That makes for an extremely tight tech-job market, bringing creative hiring and retention skills to the fore.

Carlos Ghosn jailbreak is all-purpose face saver

31 Dec 2019

The former car CEO has turned up in Lebanon. How he got out of house arrest in Japan is unclear but it could wind down an uncomfortable diplomatic affair. Nissan and Renault can move on. Japan’s judicial system avoids scrutiny. Ghosn swaps his cultivated martyr image for freedom.

New BoE boss is only partly the safe choice

20 Dec 2019

Andrew Bailey is the next governor of the Bank of England. His CV is more complete than internal rivals, and Brexit arguably means the role needs an unflashy Brit more than a carbon copy of Canadian incumbent Mark Carney. But Bailey will need to prove that his BoE is independent.

Divorce will test Seoul chaebol’s reform stripes

20 Dec 2019

Chey Tae-won’s wife wants nearly half his $3 bln stake in SK Holdings. That would leave him more reliant on outside support for a mooted corporate rejig to get a tighter grip on a $58 bln chip unit. It’s a potential check on how fast Korea Inc is mending its own awkward past.