TD to build U.S. business brick by brick, after First Horizon setback

by  on  in Business Financial News
  • Focus on U.S. southeast, fast-growing cities
  • Sees growth opportunities in wealth management
  • Plans 18 store openings in U.S. this year, 150 by 2027

TORONTO, May 25 (Reuters) – Canada’s no.2 lender TD Bank Group (TD.TO) will push ahead with its U.S. expansion by focusing on organic growth, after its M&A-led strategy in the world’s biggest banking market suffered a setback this month, a top official told Reuters on Thursday.

TD has made U.S. growth a key priority as it deals with a saturated market at home and had pinned its hopes on $13.4 billion bid for regional lender First Horizon (FHN.N), but that was scrapped after hitting regulatory hurdles.

With about $18 billion in excess capital, it now plans to focus on opening branches and building its wealth business in the U.S., Chief Financial Officer Kelvin Tran said in the first comments since the First Horizon deal was pulled.

“In the U.S., we are still a relatively young bank. We have a lot of white spaces there,” Tran said.

“We continue to make referrals to our wealth business. That’s still a new business in the U.S. … So lots of opportunities still there in the U.S.,” he added.

The bank has not ruled out other acquisitions.

“When we look at deployment of capital, it’s about what we can invest to drive organic growth, we look at whether there are opportunities for M&A … and then also opportunities to return capital to shareholders,” Tran told Reuters.

TD announced plans to buy back 30 million shares along with its quarterly earnings that missed expectations.

The uncertainty of the First Horizon deal has weighed on TD shares, which are down more than 7% so far this year, compared with a 3.6% drop in TSX’s banks sub-index (.GSPTXBA).

Some shareholders are willing to be

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India News: India top destination being explored by MNCs as alternative to China, finds global CEO survey

by  on  in Best Business Newspaper
India is the top destination being explored by multinational corporations as an alternative to China, according to a survey of 100 CEOs who primarily represent foreign B2B-focused firms.

The CEOs also consider Vietnam, Thailand and their own home countries as potential options.

Amid China’s increasing geopolitical assertiveness, questionable trade and business practices, and rising labour costs, 88% of the CEOs who participated in research firm IMA India’s 2023 Global Operations Benchmarking Survey opted for India as their primary alternative to China. The survey was run among companies with a presence in India.

“In the last five years foreign MNCs have increased their onground presence in India, partly as a result of diversification away from China. In particular, the IT & ITES companies are ramping up the share of their global workforce that is based in India,” said Suraj Saigal, Research Director, IMA India.

graph

According to a report based on the survey, nearly 70% of the firms saw substantial changes to their business strategies and onground operations in China in the past three years. The industrial sector shows a more prominent pull-back compared to the services sector. Among those implementing changes 56% have decreased their sourcing from China and 41% reduced investments.

While a minority completely exited, 6% of the surveyed companies have scaled back their market engagement.

The research also examined how businesses are perceiving and capitalising on the opportunities presented by India, taking into account the recent shifts in commercial and geopolitical strategies.

From FY18 to FY23, India’s estimated global share in workforce has increased from 22.4% to 24.9% in mean percentage terms, while revenue share has risen from 14.8% to 15.8%. These figures demonstrate incremental growth for India on the global stage during this period.

As per the study, a larger proportion of manufacturing companies, in comparison to

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Buying Digital Advertising for Your Self-Storage Operation

by  on  in Advertising & Marketing

Let’s say your self-storage operation is well-established within its market. You’ve got competitors, but you’re all doing well. There’s a decent equilibrium, and everyone keeps their facilities at or above that ideal 90% occupancy rate. None of you has needed any more advertising than your signage, maybe the occasional ad in the local paper, and a website. Things are great, and everything is humming along.

Then one day you learn that Bob, who owns a facility up the street, is retiring and selling his property to a real estate investment trust. So is Roberta, another storage owner in your area. Now you go from economic stability to panic mode. But you shouldn’t! Instead, you simply need to expand your marketing efforts.

A low-cost, high-reward way to reset the playing field is paid digital advertising, which involves purchasing space on various online channels to promote your products and services. Let’s explore the options for boosting your self-storage business.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

The most common type of digital advertising is PPC, a powerful tool that helps businesses to increase their online visibility and drive sales. It offers a range of ad types for targeting your self-storage audience including search, display, social media and video. Search ads appear on search engine results pages, while display ads are shown on third-party websites in the form of banners. Social media ads appear on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, and video ads are displayed on platforms like YouTube.

PPC provides several benefits:

  • It offers precise targeting, enabling you to reach your audience based on demographics, interests and behaviors.
  • You have control over your ad spend, allowing you to allocate your budget to the most effective channels.
  • You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, making it cost-effective.
  • It’s measurable, with tools like Google
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Tokio Marine Holdings outlines financial results

by  on  in Business Financial News


Tokio Marine Holdings outlines financial results | Insurance Business America















All business segments post lower net income

Tokio Marine Holdings outlines financial results

Insurance News

By
Terry Gangcuangco

Tokio Marine Holdings has published its financial results for the year ended March 31, 2023 (fiscal year 2022).







Metric

FY22

FY21

Ordinary income

¥6.6 trillion

¥5.9 trillion

Ordinary profit

¥503.9 billion

¥567.4 billion

Net income attributable to owners of the parent

¥376.4 billion

¥420.5 billion

 

Highlighting the company’s efforts to expand its domestic and overseas operations, Tokio Marine reported an underwriting income of ¥5.6 trillion and investment income of ¥875.4 billion.

Across the board, however, all three segments – domestic non-life, domestic life, and international insurance – posted decreases in ordinary profit and net income attributable to owners of the parent.

Moving forward, Tokio Marine is expecting an improved set of numbers.

“The company’s consolidated business forecasts for the fiscal year 2023 are ¥750 billion for ordinary profit and ¥530 billion yen for net income attributable to owners of the parent,” Tokio Marine said. The forecasts are based on the following assumptions:

“Net premiums written and life insurance premiums are projected to be ¥4.6 trillion and ¥1 trillion, respectively. Net incurred losses related to natural catastrophes occurring during the period are projected to be ¥76 billion in Japan and ¥68 billion yen outside Japan.”

The insurance group is also not expecting significant changes in interest rates, stock market conditions, and exchange rates in FY23.

What do you think about Tokio Marine’s

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Upexi Initiates Development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine to Optimize Future Advertising, Marketing and Logistics Decisions

by  on  in Advertising & Marketing

CLEARWATER, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 24, 2023 / Upexi Inc. (NASDAQ:UPXI) (the “Company” or “Upexi”), a multi-faceted Amazon and Direct-to-Consumer brand owner and innovator in aggregation, today announced its development of an artificial intelligence (AI) engine that will analyze current purchasing, advertising, customer buying habits, times, demographics and other data collected by the Company in partnership with SME Solutions Group, Inc. (“SME”). The data analyzed by the AI engine will be used to create real-time solutions for Upexi’s advertising and marketing spends, allowing the Company to further maximize return on these expenses.

The AI engine will analyze company data and data from various sources such as social media platforms, online shopping websites, and other sources to provide valuable insights into customer behavior patterns and preferences. This information will help Upexi make informed real-time decisions about its advertising and marketing strategies and spends.

“We are excited about this partnership with SME Solutions Group,” said Upexi CEO Allan Marshall. “We believe that this AI engine will revolutionize the way Upexi approaches advertising and marketing. By providing real-time insights into customer behavior patterns and preferences, our team will be able to make informed decisions in real-time about their advertising and marketing strategies. The impact of this advanced technology is game changing and Upexi will make the necessary investment to lead and realize all possible benefits for the future.”

“This comprehensive approach will enable Upexi to extract invaluable insights about their customers, paving the way for targeted, personalized marketing strategies,” said SME CEO Chris Moyer. “Our mission at SME is to empower companies, like Upexi, to stay ahead of the curve and make data-driven decisions that drive real results. Our team of experts is excited to work with Upexi management, ensuring a seamless integration and user adoption of the AI engine.”

About Upexi,

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Business Cents Episode 9: How To Interpret Financial News & Why It’s Important

by  on  in Business Financial News

Welcome to Business Cents, the student focused show that focuses on money, issues related to money and how money works in our lives, hosted by MSU Denver professors Laurel Lane and Jessica Mace. Although discussions and lessons will be important to people studying Business, they will involve building blocks that can be applied to a wide range of fields and jobs.

This episode we expand on what we talked about last week regarding banks and explore some recent real life events that have happened in the news pertaining to them. Today, we talk about the recent collapse of SVB and Signature banks, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the housing crisis of 2008, the recent moves in inflation and interest rates, and what that means if the economy goes into recession. 

Show Notes:

Things we learned about Interpreting Financial news:

  1. ​Financial news stories can have a lot of relevance to everyday our lives even if we a) don’t use the financial institution in question or b) believe we partake in the affected industry (eg “venture capital” for a large portion of SVB’s client base)​
  2. Even if financial news stories sound intimidating, sometimes it’s just a matter of vocabulary to help us understand a situation and use that knowledge to make informed decisions​
  3. Some specifics regarding the three situations we covered:​
    • FDIC insurance: bank accounts are insured against bank failures up to $250,000​
    • Mortgages (and other lending): if it sounds too good to be true, it might be​
    • Inflation: drives up the cost of goods, check with your employer to make sure your “cost of living increase” matches the increase in the cost of living​
    • Interest rates: understand historical context of where rates are to make borrowing decisions (see link
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Most popular newspapers in the UK: Latest print ABC circulations

by  on  in Best Business Newspaper

Man reads UK national newspaper Daily Mirror

A man sits on a park bench reading the Daily Mirror newspaper. Picture: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images

Print circulation decline continued across the board at the UK’s national newspapers in April.

The biggest drop among paid-for nationals was at the Sunday People, down 22% to 69,990. London’s free Evening Standard, however, saw a greater fall of 31% to 311,216.

The smallest decline was at the FT, which dropped 2% year-on-year to an average monthly circulation of 109,637. It is the only ABC-audited newspaper to distribute a significant number of bulk free copies at locations such as airports and hotels as part of its circulation, but these fell by 9% so the smaller decline cannot be attributed to that portion of its circulation.

The only newspapers to grow by 1% between March and April were the Daily Mirror and the free City AM. The biggest month-on-month drop was of 3% at the Sunday People.

Scroll down or click here for new graphs charting the most popular newspapers in the UK and the ups and downs of the national press in the past 20 years.

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National newspaper circulations in April 2023 (ABC) with monthly and yearly changes – this page will be updated monthly:

The column for bulks refers to copies which are circulated for free at venues such as airports and hotels.

Content from our partners

The above figures do not include the Sun, Times and Telegraph titles which have all chosen to keep their ABC circulations private since the start of 2020. The Guardian and Observer joined them in September 2021.

The last ABC figures we have for these titles are as follows:

  • The Sun: 1,210,915 (March 2020)
  • The Sun on Sunday: 1,013,777 (March 2020)
  • The Sunday Times: 647,622 (March 2020)
  • The Times: 365,880 (March
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‘We need an ad exchange for identity’: Overheard at the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit

by  on  in Advertising & Marketing

The third-party cookie is going away (eventually, probably), but cookieless identifiers remain somewhat half-baked. First-party data has become increasingly important, but privacy concerns and privacy regulations have also increased. Personalization is a priority for many advertisers, but it comes with added costs. Ad tech firms are becoming much more capable, but this is making the programmatic supply chain a bit more complicated.

These were among the top topics discussed by brand and agency executives during a pair of closed-door sessions at the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, which kicked off on May 22 in Palm Springs, California. The conversations were held under the Chatham House Rule, so Digiday could share was said while maintaining the executives’ anonymity. Here is a sampling of the conversations.

Identity crisis

“I need one scalable, proven method that’s not Google. I need it 100% scalable, ubiquitous.”

“When you’re working with different DSPs, can they work with this [cookieless identifer]? There’s this ‘yes and no’ and then ‘I can work with this, but I can’t work with that.’ So you’ve got to find a workaround, and the workaround is this pain in the ass.”

“We work a lot with LiveRamp. It’s a big headache in terms of standardizing how we’re pushing our data and getting it back. There’s always a lot of friction in terms of match rate, how many cookies we’re putting in and getting back.”

“All these different solutions and — some of them could work — but because there’s so many competing interests right now, one or two of them could work but they’re trying to do the same thing or competing so we have to test them and they don’t go anywhere.”

“They’re just too new.”

“To use an analogy, who here has been to The Cheesecake Factory? Who here hasn’t been able

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UK businesses in China call for regulatory clarity

by  on  in Business Financial News

Beijing needs to provide greater regulatory certainty on data security and other issues to help restore foreign investor confidence, the British Chamber of Commerce in China has warned.

A survey last month found sentiment among the chamber’s members had recovered from the depths of last December, with 8 per cent describing themselves as “pessimistic”, down from a record 42 per cent.

But six months after China abandoned draconian Covid-19 restrictions, 70 per cent of the chamber’s members were still adopting a wait-and-see attitude on new investments while they sought regulatory clarity, the business group said.

“There is some nervousness; it’s not just in individual sectors but across the board,” said Julian MacCormac, chair of the chamber, which on Tuesday released its 2023 position paper on British business in China.

The outgoing president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, Jörg Wuttke, warned that foreign investors were cautious and uncertainty over data security and changes to espionage laws were dogging businesses.

China is seeking to encourage private businesses to begin investing again to stoke a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy, which grew at its slowest pace in decades last year because of rigid Covid controls.

But foreign businesses have complained of mixed signals from Beijing, which has cracked down on consultancies in recent weeks over allegations some of their work touched on issues of national security.

Geopolitical and trade tensions between the US and its allies and China have worsened the outlook. China this week announced it was blocking chips made by US company Micron from use in important information technology networks.

In its position paper, the British chamber provided a range of recommendations for improving the business environment, saying navigating data security and IT regulations in China ranked among the top challenges facing UK companies in the country.

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Best Business Instagram Accounts for Entrepreneurs

by  on  in Best Business Newspaper
  • Instagram is an excellent entrepreneurial resource, providing business inspiration, marketing ideas and networking opportunities. 
  • You can create an Instagram Business account to engage with customers, boost sales, and acquire insightful analytics about marketing and customer behavior. 
  • Best practices for Instagram Business include consistent posting, proper hashtag use and clear calls to action.
  • This article is for entrepreneurs seeking business inspiration while improving their social content and learning Instagram Business best practices. 

Instagram is an excellent social destination for entrepreneurs and small business owners, full of inspiring marketing ideas, collaboration opportunities and motivational advice, among other useful content. 

Finding the right accounts to follow on Instagram can be challenging because of the overwhelming amount of posts on the platform. To save you time, we’ve chosen 10 Instagram Business accounts that bring valuable resources to entrepreneurs. We’ll also thoughtfully and strategically review using your Instagram Business account to get the most from this social media marketing platform.

Traits of successful entrepreneurs include perseverance, strong networking skills, and a trade-off between managerial and industry-specific experience.

Best business Instagram accounts to follow

The best business Instagram accounts offer a mix of enjoyable content, personal insights and actionable takeaways. Here are 10 accounts on Instagram to check out.

Daymond John (@thesharkdaymond)

John is one of the most recognizable faces on Shark Tank because of his charismatic personality. He’s also a businessman, author, motivational speaker. According to digital marketer Jakub Kliszczak, he “provides great motivation for those who need it on a daily basis – entrepreneurs.”

Investment tips to help you “swim with the sharks” include keeping your business equity, controlling your risk, researching the competition and gaining product traction before approaching investors.

Jasmine Star (@jasminestar)

Star is a business strategist and photographer with an Instagram feed full of social media education

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