Breakingviews

HSBC still aiming at its moving targets

By Peter Thal Larsen

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Stuart Gulliver is sticking to his targets. That makes him stick out. While many bank chiefs have scaled back their financial ambitions, HSBC’s chief executive is persisting with the goals he set for the lender 18 months ago. But if one-off charges for UK mis-selling and U.S. money-laundering keep repeating, HSBC may yet need to lower its sights.

Japan risks consumer electronics death spiral

By Peter Thal Larsen

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

“We are among the losers in consumer electronics.” That frank assessment by Panasonic president Kazuhiro Tsuga sums up the state of Japan’s once world-beating electronics industry. The economy is partly to blame for slumping demand for Japanese gadgets, but so are rivals like Apple and Samsung. The worry is that the financial squeeze undermines product development, leaving Japan ever further behind.

Apple means (almost) never having to say sorry

By Reynolds Holding
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Being Apple means (almost) never having to say you’re sorry. The tech giant apologized to customers for releasing a flawed maps application. But it bristled at a UK court order that the company publicly admit as false its accusation that Samsung Electronics had infringed on the iPad. Now the British judges are demanding strict compliance.

Barclays needs a decisive UBS-style strategy shift

By George Hay and Dominic Elliott

The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

Barclays needs a decisive, UBS-style change of direction. While rivals like Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse saw revenue in fixed income, currencies and commodities spike in the third quarter, Barclays’ normally strong FICC business underperformed. Worse, the results also included two fresh regulatory probes. It shows why new chief executive Antony Jenkins should consider changes as radical in tone as UBS’s root-and-branch restructuring.

Disney puts faith and $4 bln in power of the Force

By Antony Currie and Rob Cox
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions epxressed are their own.

Bob Iger and George Lucas are either flaunting their California roots, or they’ve got something to hide. The Walt Disney boss unveiled a $4 billion purchase of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones creator’s homegrown studio, Lucasfilm, on a day when Wall Street and stock markets were shut down by Hurricane Sandy. It’s just as well: Iger is asking his shareholders to put lots of faith in the power of the Force.

Apple infighting may be sign of golden age waning

By Robert Cyran
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Executive infighting at Apple may be a sign of a golden age on the wane. The company’s genius has always been the smooth integration of art and engineering. Steve Jobs’ force of will kept an uneasy peace between these two camps. With mobile software chief Scott Forstall out, design guru Jony Ive will have a say over hardware and software. That is a big ask, as Apple needs mastery of both.

UBS euphoria overdone

By Dominic Elliott

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Investors are taking a rosy view of UBS’s ability to execute a radical strategy to hack back its investment bank. The Swiss wealth manager’s market capitalisation is up 4.4 billion Swiss francs ($5 billion) since the plan emerged. While UBS deserves applause, it may be getting too much credit up front.

Three reasons China’s banks deserve their derating

By John Foley

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

China’s banks enjoy valuations most Western rivals would kill for. But compared with the earnings they are throwing off, their share prices look miserly. The country’s seven biggest banks trade at an average of 1.2 times their most recently reported book value, according to Reuters Eikon, despite aggregate returns on equity above 20 percent. Five years ago, lesser returns allowed them to command multiples above 4.5 times book. Though the derating is harsh, it’s justified.

UBS rethinks the impossible

By Dominic Elliott

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

UBS is going where no bank has yet dared to tread. The Swiss wealth manager and investment bank is poised to reveal a radical strategy that could see it pull out of fixed-income trading. Such a plan would be expensive and slow to execute – that’s why rivals typically think such moves are impossible. But the decision could prove an industry game-changer.

Pandit putsch is setback for U.S. board governance

By Rob Cox
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Separating the roles of chairmen and chief executives is good governance, as a rule. That’s why the practice is standard in the UK and has been gaining ground in the United States. But the logic is undermined by recent events at Citigroup. Chairman Mike O’Neill’s ouster of Vikram Pandit as chief executive last week is looking increasingly like a power-grab rather than a service to shareholders.