Consumer goods titans have a branding problem. The likes of $296 billion Nestlé, $41 billion Kraft Heinz, $118 billion Unilever and $42 billion Danone are seeing sales volumes decline for the first time this century. Just as Nestlé has famously shrunk the size of its KitKat chocolate biscuits, so might the valuations of these storied names start to wither ..read more

The European Union’s troubled fiscal pact, once branded as "stupid" by former European Commission President Romano Prodi, has reached its sell-by date. Countries have blithely ignored it for years. And now the 27-nation bloc wants to overhaul it. The proposed revamp is a step forward. But with the climate challenge set to strain public finances, the discussion needs to rapidly shift to more joint EU funds.    ..read more

Dutch voters propelled longtime rabble-rouser Geert Wilders and his anti-immigrant, anti-EU Freedom Party to the top spot in Wednesday’s parliament elections. That gives him a first stab at taking over from outgoing conservative premier Mark Rutte, if he can rally a coalition. The results add to the sense that Europe’s core is starting to rot.   ..read more

The German government is working hard to demonstrate the foolishness of the country’s iron-clad ban on large budget deficits. It now says it will suspend the “debt brake” after the Constitutional Court forced it to cancel some 60 billion euros worth of fiscal spending that it had included in a 210 billion euro climate and transformation fund. But the welcome relief is only temporary, and the harm is done. The budget crisis will cripple the economy for years to come, for three reasons ..read more

Julius Baer has soothed agitated investors’ fears – but only up to a point. The $11 billion Swiss wealth manager said on Monday that 70 million Swiss francs of recently revealed losses stemmed from 606 million Swiss francs of loans to a single corporate client – which Reuters identified as troubled property group Signa. That’s 40% of the bank’s 1.5 billion Swiss francs riskiest credits, an uncomfortably high concentration.   ..read more

Sultan al-Jaber’s latest look at a western fossil fuel asset is one of his least happily timed. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the state-owned Abu Dhabi oil giant he runs, is considering a bid for BASF-owned Wintershall Dea, at a potential $11 billion valuation. Given al-Jaber is also in charge of COP28, the global climate conference set to kick off this week, sniffing around a carbon-belching oil and gas explorer makes for some tricky optics ..read more

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Nikolai Patrushev, a powerful ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Wednesday that the "destructive" policies of the United States and its allies were increasing the risk that nuclear, chemical or biological weapons would be used ..read more

Klarna’s results seem to be heading in the right direction ahead of a possible initial public offering. Yet the Swedish buy-now-pay-later group faces another obstacle if it wants an uplift on its most recent $7 billion price tag: persuading public market investors to value it like a financial technology company, rather than a bank.   ..read more

Rishi Sunak’s latest policy target is his own government’s M&A rules. The UK prime minister is consulting on changes to the framework for assessing when to block takeovers on national security grounds. It’s a step forward, but may not be enough to stem criticism of a law that is less than two years old ..read more

The euro zone is a tale of two interest rates: the official one set by the central bank, and the ones earned by companies and individuals on their investments. The first is at record levels to cool the economy and curb inflation. That’s pushed up the private sector’s interest income, supporting growth. As more debts come due for refinancing next year, though, the economy may fare worse than expected ..read more