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The Morning Risk Report: SEC to Set New Disclosure Requirements for Chinese Company IPOs
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SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who introduced new restrictions on Chinese listings, spoke during a House committee hearing in May. PHOTO: U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES
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Good morning. The Securities and Exchange Commission will increase scrutiny of Chinese companies that aim to sell shares in the U.S. following new restrictions from China’s government on companies that raise capital offshore.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said Friday he has asked agency staff to seek specific disclosures from Chinese firms before signing off on regulatory filings that precede an initial public offering. He also called for additional reviews of filings for companies with significant China-based operations.
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The SEC’s plans mark the latest sign that economic relations between the U.S. and China are continuing to cool under the Biden administration, which in some cases has expanded on the Trump administration’s pressure on Beijing. For decades, financial and trade ties between the two countries had grown closer, with U.S. investors particularly hungry to gain exposure to fast-growing Chinese companies.
Mr. Gensler linked Friday’s announcement to the Chinese government’s recent tightening of restrictions on local firms’ ability to raise money abroad. Earlier in July, Chinese regulators launched a cybersecurity probe into ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc. shortly after it went public in the U.S. Major Chinese tech companies, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. , lost hundreds of billions of dollars in combined market value in July as investor concern mounted over a barrage of regulatory pressure from Beijing.
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Amazon disclosed the fine, which was issued two weeks ago, in a securities filing. PHOTO: PIERRE TEYSSOT/ZUMA PRESS
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Amazon.com Inc. has been fined 746 million euros, equivalent to $887 million, by a European Union privacy regulator for violations related to its advertising, by far the largest-ever fine under the EU’s data-protection law.
The fine, which Amazon disclosed Friday in a securities filing, was issued two weeks ago by Luxembourg’s privacy regulator, the CNPD, and accompanied by an order to revise certain business practices that Amazon didn’t specify.
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CEO Changpeng Zhao said earlier this week that Binance was trying to improve communication with regulators. PHOTO: DARRIN ZAMMIT LUPI/REUTERS
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Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, will cease offering futures and derivatives products to investors in some European countries amid a growing crackdown by regulators.
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UniCredit SpA is in talks with Rome to take over long troubled rival Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, whose history stretches back to the Italian Renaissance.
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President Biden is set to tap an expert in artificial intelligence and investment management as the State Department’s next head of economic and business affairs, a White House official said.
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American investors are asking whether China Inc. is still worth the risk following a widening series of regulatory crackdowns that have wiped some $400 billion off the value of U.S.-listed Chinese companies.
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The Europlaza tower in Paris, home of the European Banking Authority. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHE MORIN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Europe’s largest banks are overall strong enough to withstand another severe economic shock even after the challenging conditions of the pandemic, results of a stress test show. The results pave the way for many banks to restart distributing dividends.
The European Banking Authority’s stress test measures the ability of banks to maintain strong capital levels and keep lending to businesses and households in a severe recession. EBA said Friday that even under one adverse scenario, the EU banking sector would keep its capital ratios at around 10% in 2023, which is considered a strong result and in line with those from U.S. peers.
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Yankee Candle is one of Newell’s biggest brands. PHOTO: KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Soon after Ravi Saligram took charge of the company that makes Sharpie markers and Graco strollers, he offered his new workforce a blunt message: “no assholes,” read a slide shown to about 30,000 employees around the world. It was 2019, and Newell Brands Inc. was debt-laden, losing sales and struggling through yet another restructuring.
In a town-hall style meeting at the company’s Atlanta headquarters, he laid out his management philosophy. It was typical fare until Mr. Saligram, the former CEO of OfficeMax and Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc., flipped to a bullet-point list of his key tenets—starting with his PG-13 edict.
Mr. Saligram, 65 years old, says the mandate is as serious as slashing debt and boosting sales, which have improved dramatically during his tenure. The company’s share price is up about 33% since he became CEO, more than other consumer-products companies over the same period.
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Deutsche Bank AG’s asset management arm, DWS Group, tells investors that environmental, social and governance concerns are at the heart of everything it does and that its ESG standards are above the industry average. But behind closed doors, it has struggled to define and implement an ESG strategy, at times painting a rosier-than-reality picture to investors, according to its former sustainability chief and internal emails and presentations seen by The Wall Street Journal.
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Scholastic Corp. CEO Richard Robinson, who died in June, stunned his family by bequeathing his controlling stake to Iole Lucchese, Scholastic’s chief strategy officer, setting off a succession drama at the publisher.
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Should senior executives be allowed to work as long as they want, no matter how old they are? As the U.S. population ages and medical advances allow people to stay healthier longer, that is a question Americans may increasingly ponder.
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When Chipotle Mexican Grill lifted the pay of hourly front-line workers to an average $15 an hour, it offered similar increases to managers. PHOTO: BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES
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Companies across the U.S. economy are raising pay to recruit workers in a tight labor market, increases that are rippling through firms and prompting employers to rethink pay for existing staffers.
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Walmart Inc. and Walt Disney Co. are requiring thousands of their U.S. workers to get vaccinated for Covid-19 amid a shift in federal health guidelines and rising U.S. cases in recent weeks.
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The Ever Given, the 1,300-foot container ship that became an internet meme after getting stuck in the Suez Canal, is now facing a new type of celebrity: tourist destination.
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Elon Musk’s trip through hell: inside the 2018 scramble to avoid the collapse of Tesla Inc. The auto maker’s CEO had promised a quarterly profit with the Model 3, but getting the cars to customers in time wasn’t easy.
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