RY - Royal Bank of Canada
| Previous Close | 81.48 |
| Open | 81.65 |
| Bid | 82.14 x 900 |
| Ask | 82.15 x 1800 |
| Day's Range | 81.78 - 82.34 |
| 52 Week Range | 65.76 - 82.34 |
| Volume | 338,613 |
| Avg. Volume | 1,012,560 |
| Market Cap | 118.112B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 1.03 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 13.07 |
| EPS (TTM) | 6.29 |
| Earnings Date | Nov 30, 2016 - Dec 5, 2016 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 3.15 (3.89%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-10-23 |
| 1y Target Est | 88.84 |
- Bloomberg
Deripaska Says Raid of His Ex-Company Was About U.S. Politics
(Bloomberg) -- Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska says that U.S. prosecutors’ efforts to gain access to records seized from a U.K. company associated with him are motivated by American political “infighting.”British authorities raided a storage unit last December owned by Terra Services Ltd., a real estate firm that until last year was controlled by Deripaska, as part of a possible offshoot of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference. The aluminum magnate’s business dealings with convicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort were a subject of Mueller’s inquiry.Terra Services is challenging the lawfulness of the search warrant, which seized at least 25,000 electronic documents, and has asked a London judge to prevent the documents from being handed over to the Americans.“The Terra raid that happened around a year ago and the recent publicity in relation to it is yet another hopeless attempt to drag me into never-ending U.S. political infighting,” Deripaska said in a written statement on Monday. “Washington bureaucrats are desperate to link me to Manafort, who I haven’t dealt with for years as I have repeatedly stated. They are chasing a ghost.”READ: Deripaska-Linked Firm Was Raided for Undisclosed U.S. ProbeU.S. authorities are seeking evidence of “money laundering, tax offenses and fraud offenses” from 18 individuals and companies including Terra Services, Bloomberg News reported last Friday, citing documents filed in a London court.Deripaska handed control of Terra Services in January 2018 to an individual named Pavel Ezubov, whose name matches that of the billionaire’s cousin, Russian media group RBC reported last year. The firm owns several properties in San Tropez and Paris, RBC said. It has just six employees, according to a U.K. corporate registry.To contact the reporters on this story: Yuliya Fedorinova in Moscow at yfedorinova@bloomberg.net;Jonathan Browning in London at jbrowning9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, David S. Joachim, Christopher ElserFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Moody's
Lakeshore Trust Canadian ABCP Program -- Moody's Canadian ABCP activity for the week ended October 18, 2019
Moody's has reviewed the following ABCP programs in conjunction with the proposed amendments. At this time the amendments, in and of themselves, will not result in any rating impact on the respective program's ABCP. Moody's does not believe they will have an adverse effect on the credit quality of the securities such that the Moody's rating is impacted.
- Bloomberg
Oleg Deripaska-Linked Firm Was Raided for Undisclosed U.S. Inquiry
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. prosecutors aren’t done with Oleg Deripaska, the Russian billionaire who figured prominently in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s case against Donald Trump’s campaign chairman.In what could be an offshoot of Mueller’s work, federal authorities are seeking records seized from a U.K. company associated with Deripaska, according to documents filed in a London court this week. As part of the previously undisclosed inquiry, U.S. authorities are seeking evidence of “money laundering, tax offenses and fraud offenses” from 18 individuals and companies including Terra Services Ltd., a real estate firm that until last year was controlled by Deripaska, the filings say.The inquiry is “live and ongoing,” according to a U.K. government filing Thursday. Terra, in another filing, said the search request appears to have been made “in connection with the special counsel investigation being conducted in the U.S.” into Russian election interference.The investigation came to light because Terra is challenging a search warrant that led to the December 2018 seizure of at least 25,000 electronic documents from a British storage unit it owned. Terra asked a London judge to prevent the documents from being handed over to the Americans.Redacted ReportThe presiding U.K. judge who granted the search warrant in December 2018 said that any seized materials could be helpful “in an ongoing U.S. investigation into a number of criminal offenses committed by two U.S. subjects, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates,” according to court documents. But by that time Manafort had been convicted and was awaiting sentencing. Gates had already pleaded guilty and was cooperating with prosecutors.Mueller’s team ended its work earlier this year, referring several matters to other U.S. prosecutors. Many of those haven’t been made public. Parts of Mueller’s report dealing with Manafort and Gates are redacted to avoid interfering with unspecified ongoing investigations.According to Mueller’s report, one-time Trump campaign chairman Manafort had a business dispute with Deripaska that he was looking to resolve, and he offered Deripaska briefings and internal polling data. Manafort was convicted of multiple crimes and is serving a sentence of more than seven years; Deripaska wasn’t accused of wrongdoing.U.S. RequestThe U.S. request named 18 entities including Terra Services and two U.K.-based lawyers. The documents available in the London case don’t include the U.S. request for a search, or the corresponding U.K. search warrant, but quote from parts of the warrant. The filings don’t say which U.S. authorities are currently handling the matter.The U.K. National Crime Agency, which carried on the search, and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.Judges have so far denied requests by Terra and others to see the U.S. letter.‘Degree of Confusion’“There is a degree of confusion as to what exactly is being investigated,” Terra’s lawyer, Monica Carss-Frisk, said in court.Deripaska’s office in Moscow referred queries to Terra Services. A lawyer for the U.K. firm declined to comment.Deripaska, who grew rich in Russia’s aluminum business, is one of the highest-profile Russians caught up in waves of U.S. sanctions against the country since its 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Some companies formerly controlled by Deripaska were removed from the blacklist in January, following an administration effort to lift the sanctions that was supported by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.One of Deripaska’s companies subsequently committed funds to a new aluminum plant to be built in McConnell’s home state, Kentucky.The billionaire himself remains under U.S. sanction, which means American citizens and entities are prohibited from dealing with him.The British warrant said that the owners would seek to destroy or conceal evidence if it wasn’t issued, according to filings in the London case.Just days before the warrant was issued, the NCA conducted its own search of the storage unit to “assist a money laundering investigation.” The British search, authorized under legislation that allows for covert surveillance, should have been approved by a judge, Terra said in its filing. It’s unclear if the investigations are related.Cable DealManafort and Deripaska fell out in 2008 over a deal to buy a cable company in Ukraine. Lawsuits filed by Deripaska in 2014 describe how Gates, Manafort’s deputy, failed to respond to requests for information on the investment around the same time. In September 2010, Deripaska asked Gates to account for the $18.9 million he’d invested, but the report was never delivered, according to court documents.Documents unsealed in June 2018 showed that Manafort and his wife acknowledged on a 2010 tax return that they owed $10 million to Deripaska.Deripaska handed control of Terra Services in January 2018 to an individual named Pavel Ezubov, whose name matches that of the billionaire’s cousin, Russian media group RBC reported last year. The firm owns several properties in San Tropez and Paris, RBC said. It has just six employees, according to a U.K. corporate registry.(Releads and updates with Deripaska firm’s commitment to Kentucky aluminum plant.)\--With assistance from David Voreacos and Yuliya Fedorinova.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Browning in London at jbrowning9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, ;Jeffrey D Grocott at jgrocott2@bloomberg.net, David S. JoachimFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- CNW Group
Royal Bank of Canada to redeem subordinated debentures
Royal Bank of Canada to redeem subordinated debentures
- Moody's
Michigan State Housing Development Authority -- Moody's affirms VMIG 1 to Michigan State Housing Dev. Auth. Single Family Mortgage Rev. Bonds 2007 Series E
Rating Action: Moody's affirms VMIG 1 to Michigan State Housing Dev. New York, October 17, 2019 -- Moody's Investors Service has affirmed the existing VMIG 1 rating on the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) Single Family Mortgage Revenue Bonds (the "program"), 2007 Series E (AMT) (Variable Rate) (the "Bonds"). The affirmation is based on the substitution of the existing standby bond purchase with a substitute standby bond purchase agreement (SBPA) provided by the Royal Bank of Canada ("RBC") as well as the long term rating on the Bonds.
- CNW Group
RBC Global Asset Management Inc. announces RBC ETF cash distributions for October 2019
RBC Global Asset Management Inc. announces RBC ETF cash distributions for October 2019
- CNW Group
YouthfulCities welcomes 60 young leaders to Edmonton for first-ever Future of Urban Work Summit
Facilitated with support from national and regional sponsors, including RBC Future Launch and the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC), the summit puts young people at the forefront of insights and ideas around urban work and its future. The Future of Urban Work Summit is an extension of the 2019 YouthfulCities Urban Work Index, launched in February, 2019.
- Zacks
BSMX vs. RY: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?
BSMX vs. RY: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?
CNW GroupTeam RBC welcomes 55 elite Canadian athletes to RBC Olympians program
Team RBC welcomes 55 elite Canadian athletes to RBC Olympians program
- CNW Group
New survey from RBC Global Asset Management uncovers diverging views on responsible investing among institutional investors
TORONTO , Oct. 16, 2019 /CNW/ - Institutional investors in Canada , the United States and the United Kingdom who apply environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles are committing more of their assets to this approach than ever before, according to the 2019 RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) Responsible Investing Survey.
- MarketWatch
More large-scale investors are skittish about an ESG strategy at the expense of returns: survey
Some institutional investors remain increasingly unconvinced that responsible investing will boost their returns.
- Bloomberg
Eight Corporate Jets: What Is This, the '80s?
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The activist investors are on the tarmac at Emerson Electric Co.D.E. Shaw Group on Tuesday released a letter calling for the $42 billion industrial company to spin off its climate division and make productivity and corporate-governance improvements, including culling its fleet of eight corporate jets and a helicopter. The public pressure follows reports late last month that D.E. Shaw was seeking a breakup of the company and Emerson’s subsequent announcement that it would review its operations.In its letter, D.E. Shaw takes issue with the lack of tangible commitments and deadlines for Emerson’s strategic review and stresses that some of its recommendations – such as making all board directors subject to annual elections – shouldn’t require that much deliberation in this day and age.D.E. Shaw is justified in its wariness of Emerson kicking the can down the road. CEO David Farr has been in his role for 19 years and, according to analysts, he’s signaled he will retire in fiscal 2021 or 2022 and would prefer to leave any decision on a breakup to his successor. RBC analyst Deane Dray speculated earlier this month that a preliminary update on the outcome of Emerson’s strategic review may not come until the company’s annual analyst meeting in February. Emerson is 129 years old and on track to generate $18.5 billion in revenue this year; change doesn’t happen quickly at companies like that. But in a way, that reinforces the activist investor’s argument.Emerson needs to reckon with its remaining vestiges of crusty corporate habits and old-school sprawl. Examples include the high personal usage by the CEO of that corporate jet fleet (which is managed by 40-plus employees and an intern, apparently), guaranteed three-year and staggered terms for board directors, and a jaw-dropping 18 separate office and factory buildings in the Houston area. Let's hope none of those corporate jets fly empty behind Farr’s plane, in the vein of the reported practices of former General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt.Calling attention to those practices is a smart tactic that will resonate with fellow shareholders irked by Emerson’s lackluster returns, and should ramp up pressure on management to make changes more quickly. I would add to D.E. Shaw’s list of grievances a bias toward less transparency: Emerson is the only major industrial company I cover that declines to routinely webcast its presentations at major conferences.The biggest change advocated by D.E. Shaw is a breakup of Emerson. It’s an idea that’s long been bandied about because the Emerson division that sells air-conditioner controls and food-disposal systems has little to do with the unit purveying automation equipment. The company has slimmed down already, divesting about $6 billion of revenue, including the network power business it cobbled together through billions of dollars worth of disappointing acquisitions. Analysts aren’t convinced that a bigger split would pay off in the stock price.Emerson should be valued at about $73 a share based on the sum of its parts, according to the average of three analysts’ estimates. That’s just 3% higher than where Wall Street on average expected Emerson’s stock to rise over the next year before reports of D.E. Shaw’s involvement. The hedge fund, for its part, estimates Emerson could be valued at $77 if its parts were valued comparably to the average of its peers, a meaningful improvement but not a knock-your-socks-off game-changer. The real value comes through the combination of a breakup with the cost-cutting initiatives. In that scenario, D.E. Shaw sees the potential for Emerson’s valuation to rise to $101 a share. Analysts have long recognized that typical sum-of-the-parts estimates tend to underestimate the efficiency gains that come from more focused management teams, so there may be something to this kind of analysis. The prospect of a deepening downturn in the industrial sector should add to the sense of urgency for the cost-cutting opportunities D.E. Shaw has identified. Emerson in August warned that $350 million of projects planned for 2019 had been pushed to next year, while $450 million of 2020 projects had been delayed to 2021. Analysts are bracing for those numbers to get worse when the company reports its fiscal-fourth-quarter results in November, and for its 2021 earnings goals to slip out of reach. D.E. Shaw estimates Emerson can cut more than $1 billion of costs by streamlining corporate functions and improving margins in its automation division. In response to the activist investor’s letter, Farr pointed out that Emerson was “one of the first industrial companies to address the concerning trends in the macroeconomic environment.” That’s true to an extent, but its own plan calls for $100 million in restructuring spending this year, less drastic than what D.E. Shaw is proposing.I remain concerned that the industrial breakup craze is going too far and we don’t properly understand the longer-term implications of it. But the corporate-governance and cost-management shortcomings highlighted by D.E. Shaw will make it harder for Emerson’s management team to resist it.To contact the author of this story: Brooke Sutherland at bsutherland7@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Beth Williams at bewilliams@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Deripaska’s Ex-Wife and Family Seek Buyers for En+ Stake
(Bloomberg) -- Family members of sanctioned Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska are seeking to sell their stake in En+ Group International PJSC, according to people familiar with the matter.Deripaska’s ex-wife Polina Yumasheva and former father-in-law Valentin Yumashev are looking for buyers of their stakes, as well as holdings owned by Deripaska’s children, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.They said discussions have been preliminary and informal to sound out potential acquirers, and there’s no work being done on a deal. No one has expressed interest in purchasing the stakes and it’s possible a buyer won’t be found, the people said.Yumashev declined to comment. Polina didn’t respond to questions sent to her Facebook account or representatives of Forward Media Group, a publishing house that she owns. An En+ spokeswoman declined to comment.In an interview with Russian media outlet RBC, Polina said she hasn’t held any negotiations yet on selling the stake.En+ owns a majority stake in United Co. Rusal, one of the world’s biggest aluminum producers, and runs hydropower plants in Russia. Finding a buyer could face hurdles given the chief owner is still Deripaska, who remains under U.S. sanctions.En+ was sanctioned last year by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in response to Russia’s “worldwide malign activities,” which included annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.Treasury officials agreed to lift the penalties on Deripaska’s companies in January as part of an agreement that he would step back from running the businesses. The billionaire still owns about 45% of En+ shares. Under the agreement with OFAC, he’s allowed to vote 35% of the shares and the rest are done by independent trustees.Polina and her father own 6.75% of the company. Her two teenage children have 3.42%. The voting of their shares is also via trustees.En+ global depositary receipts are listed in London and Moscow, but infrequently traded so a market valuation is difficult to determine. Based on the London share price, the company is worth $5.3 billion.The Financial Times reported last month that VTB Group, which is also a large En+ shareholder, held talks with Chinese companies over a potential investment. The newspaper cited people familiar with the matter saying VTB had been approached by two Chinese state-related industrial groups about a share sale.(Adds comment from Polina Yumasheva in fifth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Yuliya Fedorinova in Moscow at yfedorinova@bloomberg.net;Irina Reznik in Moscow at ireznik@bloomberg.net;Andrey Biryukov in Moscow at abiryukov5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Iranian Oil Tanker Attacked as Middle East Tensions Remain High
(Bloomberg) -- Iran said missiles struck one of its tankers in the Red Sea, the latest in a series of attacks on oil infrastructure in the region that have roiled energy markets.The Islamic Republic’s tanker company initially said the attacks probably came from Saudi Arabia, but later withdrew the claim. The incident, which caused a spill and a jump of as much as 2.6% in crude prices, comes weeks after a devastating attack on major Saudi oil facilities that Riyadh blamed on Tehran.Tensions have been rising steadily in the region since U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from an international nuclear deal with Iran and imposed harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Although so far all sides have said they want to avoid war, there’s a growing risk to supplies from the world’s most important oil-producing region.“The market has been entirely too complacent given that we are one security incident away from a war,” said Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets.The Sabiti, a tanker capable of carrying 1 million barrels a of crude, was damaged on Friday near the Saudi port of Jeddah after being hit by suspected missiles, Iranian state media said. The explosions on the tanker occurred between 5:00 and 5:20 a.m. local time damaging two of its main oil tanks, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.A spokesman for the National Iranian Tanker Company, initially said in a call with Iran’s Press TV that the missiles probably came from the direction of Saudi Arabia. NITC later withdrew that claim in a statement.The ship was hit twice within a 30-minute interval from the east of the Red Sea near its crossing route, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Telegram. The Iranian authorities presented no further evidence of the nature or origin of the attack.The Saudi Ports Authority confirmed that an incident involving a tanker had occurred near the port of Jeddah overnight, but was unable to verify if the vessel was Iranian, according to a press officer.After initially saying the spill from the tanker had been halted and the damage minimized, the Iranian oil ministry’s Shana news service said crude was again flowing into the Red Sea. No one has provided any assistance to the damaged ship, Al-Alam news channel reported, citing Nasrollah Sardashti, head of NITC.Oil AttacksThe Sabiti was fully laden with crude and heading toward the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, according to Florian Thaler, chief executive of data analytics firm OilX. On its previous voyages it has carried Iranian crude to the East Mediterranean he said.According to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, the vessel was under way using its engine and heading south at a speed of 9.6 knots as of 8:45 a.m. London time. Its destination was listed as Larak, an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz.Oil prices jumped above $60 a barrel in London after the attack. Despite the growing risk to Middle Eastern supplies, crude prices have been depressed by fears of an economic slowdown due to the U.S.-China trade dispute. Brent is still lower than it was before the Sept. 14 drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities last month that briefly cut global supplies by 5%, the worst sudden disruption in history.In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” last month, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman warned that conflict between his country and Iran would lead to a “total collapse of the global economy” and should be avoided. The Foreign Ministry of China, which gets a significant proportion of its oil imports from the Persian Gulf, urged restraint on Friday in order to safeguard peace and stability in the area.The attack on the Sabiti came a day before Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is scheduled to visit Tehran for talks on how to reduce tensions with Saudi Arabia, Iranian lawmaker and member of the parliamentary commission for national security, Heshmattolah Falahatpisheh, said in an interview with the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency. Khan was one of several leaders who unsuccessfully tried to broker dialogue between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly last month.The Pentagon said on Friday that it’s sending more U.S. forces to the Middle East to “assure and enhance the defense of Saudi Arabia” against Iran. Overall about 3,000 personnel are being deployed or having their missions extended in the region, including a previously promised delivery of additional Patriot and Thaad missile defense systems.(A previous version of this story corrected the job title and company name of Florian Thaler.)\--With assistance from Dan Murtaugh, Dandan Li, Golnar Motevalli, Verity Ratcliffe, Dana Khraiche, Julian Lee, Chloe Whiteaker and Adrian Leung.To contact the reporters on this story: Golnar Motevalli in Tehran at gmotevalli@bloomberg.net;Arsalan Shahla in Dubai at ashahla@bloomberg.net;Yasna Haghdoost in Beirut at yhaghdoost@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net, James Herron, Christopher SellFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Hugo Boss Can't Compete When Luxury Is All About Handbags
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Just 24 hours after LVMH reported knockout sales growth, Hugo Boss AG has provided a sober reminder that the luxury sector’s spoils will not be spread evenly.The maker of smart suits on Thursday issued a warning on full-year sales and profits, the second time it’s pared its outlook in two months, blaming the problems in Hong Kong and ongoing weakness in the U.S. The shares fell as much as 14% to the lowest level in nine years.Chief Executive Officer Mark Langer made a mistake by being too optimistic about the outlook. What’s far less clear now is whether his plan of boosting online sales, focusing on a slimmed-down portfolio of brands and embracing faster fashion is enough to weather the shocks on the horizon on top of the enduring shift toward casual office attire.Hugo Boss gets just 2-3% of its sales from Hong Kong, compared with about 6-7% in China, so it should have been more cushioned. But it struggled to offset a 50% plunge in third-quarter sales in Hong Kong, which remains a popular shopping destination for mainland Chinese. By contrast, LVMH said its Hong Kong sales fell 40% in August and September, but much of that was recouped elsewhere.Workwear, unlike handbags, isn’t the sort of thing you naturally buy on your holidays, so lost sales of suits, say because stores are closed, are less likely to be transferred to another shopping location.That highlights one of Boss’s two big weaknesses: It generates 90% of its sales from clothing. These are proving more vulnerable than leather goods, which remain highly desirable, particularly for middle class and younger Chinese consumers.The other is that Boss also operates in the upper premium segment of the market, rather than super-luxury part. The very wealthy tend to be more resilient spenders than the merely comfortably off who have greater cause to fear political and economic uncertainty. Hugo Boss’s professional customers are more likely to fret about instability, which seems to be popping up everywhere, as well as the possibility of a U.S downturn next year.Boss blamed its last downgrade to forecasts, in early August, on problems in the U.S. It generates about 15% of its sales in that market, where it has been hurt by heavy discounting by rivals and fewer tourists, given the strength of the dollar. With U.S. consumer confidence posting the biggest drop since the start of the year in September, that doesn’t bode well for a quick recovery in this crucial market.All this raises serious questions about the ambitious targets that Langer set less than a year ago. Expanding sales growth from 4% in 2018 to 5-7% by 2022 always looked ambitious. Now the trajectory looks even more challenging, given that the company’s new forecast is for sales growth in the low single digits in 2019. Lifting the margin to 15% of earnings before interest and tax looks equally unrealistic. Analysts at RBC estimate the EBIT margin at 11.7% in 2019.The shares have fallen 37% over the past year, and trade on a forward price-earnings ratio of just 10 times, about half the other clothing-focused luxury groups, indicating that investors have little faith in the group meeting its medium-term goals.Langer’s strategy of moving to just two brands – Boss, catering to core customers, and Hugo for the younger crowd – looks sensible. Bolstering online sales, getting the latest looks into stores more quickly and increasing personalization are logical moves, too. But all of this is increasingly being undermined by weak markets and consumers continuing to turn off clothing.Like an ill-fitting suit, Langer’s aspirations need some careful alterations.To contact the author of this story: Andrea Felsted at afelsted@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay at mpozsgay@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She previously worked at the Financial Times.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Insider Monkey
Hedge Funds Are Selling Royal Bank of Canada (RY)
Most investors tend to think that hedge funds and other asset managers are worthless, as they cannot beat even simple index fund portfolios. In fact, most people expect hedge funds to compete with and outperform the bull market that we have witnessed in recent years. However, hedge funds are generally partially hedged and aim at […]
- Moody's
RBC Capital Markets, LLC -- Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of RBC Capital Markets, LLC and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future.
- CNW Group
RBC and Riipen launch national experiential learning partnership for Canadian youth
TORONTO , Oct. 9, 2019 /CNW/ - To help young Canadians prepare for the future of work, RBC Future Launch and Riipen have partnered to provide students with the opportunity to develop the skills and gain the work experience they need for the jobs of tomorrow. The Riipen platform will be made available through the support of the RBC Foundation to students at thirteen post-secondary institutions from across Canada .
- MarketWatch
Restricted stock units can be a building block for retirement savings
In a bygone era, employees followed a fairly standard path to retirement using a combination of Social Security benefits and company pension plans. Today, a type of equity compensation called restricted stock units (RSUs) offers a new building block toward retirement, while also opening doors for investments, experiences and major purchases throughout the course of your life. In addition to possibly providing valuable assets for a retirement portfolio, RSUs can also play a role in how you manage your cash flow and credit liabilities, and even help in hitting financial milestones that you might have thought would be out of reach until much later.
- Bloomberg
Bond-Trading Bots on Verge of Becoming Masters of the Universe
(Bloomberg) -- They were the “golden crumbs,” those bits of money that fall off as bonds get traded around the world.Those crumbs were enough to make bond traders the Masters of the Universe in Tom Wolfe’s 1987 novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” But those days are long gone.AllianceBernstein Holding LP has introduced a robot to execute corporate-bond trades directly with bots at dealer counterparties. The $587 billion asset manager used the system in August to complete three trades with similar digital assistants at Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada.“We’ve taken a traditional human-to-human interaction and augmented it to allow a machine to meet another machine,” said Maryanne Richter, global head of credit electronic trading strategy at Morgan Stanley in New York.While computers have already transformed equities trading, the corporate bond market has been one of the last holdouts in finance’s digital revolution. Firms are slowly stepping up their use of artificial intelligence and crunching reams of data to get ahead as electronic bond trading becomes more prevalent.Automation is making inroads on trading desks, such as at UBS Group AG and HSBC Holdings Plc, where robots are making bond sales more efficient. More than 40% of capital market participants that took part in a Greenwich Associates survey earlier this year said that their firms are using AI for trading. Another 17% said they will introduce it within the next two years.Still, this is the first time that bots have traded with other bots in corporate bonds, according to AllianceBernstein.The robot is an extension of the asset manager’s virtual assistant, named Abbie, which pores through data and identifies for traders the best bonds to buy or sell. AllianceBernstein gathers about 4 million data points a day to work out the best ways to trade including bid and offer prices from dealers and electronic trading venues.“Right now they aren’t replacing traders, they’re really just helping us trade”Executing trades involves a number of manual steps. Currently it can take traders up to 20 minutes to negotiate the size, price and precise maturity of a trade with a counterparty on the other end of the phone or instant message. With bots that could become almost instantaneous.“Machines are helping us to make smarter decisions and be more efficient,” said James Switzer, global head of fixed-income trading at AllianceBerstein. “I guess we could look out 5 or 10 years and start anticipating what would happen, but right now they aren’t replacing traders, they’re really just helping us trade.”The robot is designed to save traders time and beat competitors, a meaningful edge in a secondary market starved of liquidity. It could also be developed using AI to remember the best counterparties for certain trades and target them first in future, a system known as smart order routing, according to Switzer.In the test cases, AllianceBernstein made three separate trades in investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds with each of the three banks and the firm expects to expand that to more dealers in the coming months. The bots agreed to the transactions on the signal of a human trader.“The master is telling the dog to fetch and bring the stick back,” said Switzer.In the future, AllianceBernstein expects the bot to spot the best prices within parameters previously set by a trader and execute automatically. That would mean it would no longer need a human to give the execute command, although to be sure, the firm will still have human checks and balances including compliance.Citi and Morgan Stanley both expect their trading algorithms to be able to directly handle requests to trade and execute without human command, depending on the nature of the transaction. A spokesman for RBC Capital Markets declined to comment on the trade with AllianceBernstein.“We’re automating parts of a very manual process,” said Kevin Foley, head of markets electronification at Citi in New York. “Phase two is fully-automated straight-through processing.”It’s surely a world Bonfire’s bond trader Sherman McCoy would have no place in as the crumbs disintegrate.“Just imagine that a bond is a slice of cake, and you didn’t bake the cake, but every time you hand somebody a slice of the cake a tiny little bit comes off, like a little crumb, and you can keep that,” Wolfe wrote in his novel.(Updates with reference to electronic trading in fifth paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected assets under management for AllianceBernstein in third paragraph.)To contact the author of this story: Katie Linsell in London at klinsell@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, James HertlingFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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- Bloomberg
U.S. Tech Giants Turn to India for New Apps Before World Release
(Bloomberg) -- India is emerging as the testing and acquisition playground for global consumer technology companies, especially the so-called FAANGs, according to a veteran internet analyst.RBC Capital Markets’ Mark Mahaney, who calls himself Wall Street’s “oldest internet analyst” after covering the sector for more than two decades, said India is now more popular than markets like China because it has the same growth dynamics but with fewer regulations.As one of the largest economies and most populous countries in the world, India has turned into a testing ground for companies such as Facebook Inc., which has used it to beta-test a payments feature for WhatsApp. Netflix Inc. rolled out a mobile plan in India at 199 rupees ($2.80), much cheaper than what it charges for a basic plan elsewhere, and has created original content to capture more market share.“India does have regulations but it doesn’t seem to be as protectionist as China,” said the 53-year-old analyst. India has been considering a new law that would require personal data to be stored locally, which could impair the operations of the Internet giants but Mahaney remains confident they can still penetrate the market.Besides organic growth, acquisitions are another strategy for these companies in India, especially since they are facing more scrutiny back home and in western Europe. “There’s an opportunity to build growth” in Asia, particularly in India, Mahaney said.Amazon.com Inc. has already tried its hand at deals in the South Asian nation by attempting to acquire Indian e-commerce pioneer Flipkart Online Services Pvt., before it was snapped up by Walmart Inc. last year.Facebook, Netflix, Amazon and Alphabet Inc. can all win big in India, said Mahaney, who has a buy rating on the stocks. “India is less than 5% of the Amazon’s total revenues but it has the potential” to get to that level within five years, Mahaney said.To contact the reporters on this story: Ishika Mookerjee in Singapore at imookerjee@bloomberg.net;Abhishek Vishnoi in Singapore at avishnoi4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lianting Tu at ltu4@bloomberg.net, Teo Chian Wei, Naoto HosodaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
