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BUSINESSSaturday 4 March 2017
AP Sources: PSA expected to announce Opel purchase on Monday
TOM KRISHER ute snags but is likely to be be included because nu- 1999, and since then has and unions that are worried
ANGELA CHARLTON made in France, said one merous GM vehicles are at lost billions battling high la- about job cuts.
Associated Press of the people. Both peo- least partly engineered in bor costs and an intensely “Opel has been making
DETROIT (AP) — French car- ple requested anonymity Germany. competitive auto sales red ink for 10 years, and
maker PSA Group is expect- because the deal hasn’t A PSA spokeswoman on market. The company has burning approximately 1
ed to announce Monday been formally announced. Friday would say only that said it hopes to break even billion in cash every year,”
that it has purchased Gen- The purchase price and ex- “no communication on there next year. Tavares said. “We believe
eral Motors’ money-losing act terms of how the Opel Opel is expected until Mon- PSA Chairman Carlos Tava- we can help.”
European car business, and Vauxhall brands would day.” Both companies con- res said in February that he The move would give PSA
according to two people be transferred to PSA were firmed last month that they hopes to create a “Europe- access to technology and
briefed on the matter. not available Friday after- were in talks about a sale. an car champion” with the a larger scale to spread
The announcement could noon. But a research-shar- GM has not turned a full- combination and pledged out engineering and other
still be delayed by last-min- ing agreement is likely to year profit in Europe since to work with governments costs.q
Investing costs fall again: Fidelity, Schwab cut commissions
STAN CHOE commission to $4.95, which He pointed to younger in- them every penny counts,” chunk of trading.
AP Business Writer matches Fidelity’s cost. vestors, who typically have Subramaniam said. Besides trading commis-
NEW YORK (AP) — It keeps “We feel that this is going less to invest. That means Active traders, who make sions, the financial industry
getting cheaper to invest. to put more money in the trading costs can be a 120 trades a year or more, has also been cutting the
Fidelity this week became fees they charge for invest-
the latest company to cut This photo shows a sign outside of a Fidelity Investments office in the Century City section of Los ments in mutual funds and
its fees in an ongoing in- Angeles. Fidelity became the latest company to cut its fees this week in an ongoing industry battle exchange-traded funds.
dustry battle that’s helped that’s helped mom-and-pop investors keep more of their own dollars. A rival matched the price Last Friday, for example,
mom-and-pop investors cut in only a matter of hours. Vanguard cut expense ra-
keep more of their own dol- tios for 68 mutual fund and
lars. Rival Charles Schwab (AP Photo/Richard Vogel) ETF shares, which it says
matched the price cut in a should save clients more
matter of hours. pockets of retail investors,” bigger burden on them, make up less than 10 per- than $105 million overall.
Fidelity said it will cut its said Ram Subramaniam, proportional to their invest- cent of Fidelity’s total Schwab is cutting the ex-
commission for retail bro- president of Fidelity’s retail ment. “They’re in their first customer base, but they penses for its index fund
kerage investors trading brokerage business. job, second job, and for account for a significant that tracks the Standard
U.S. stocks and exchange- & Poor’s 500 index, so that
traded funds online by fees will eat up $3 of every
more than a third to $4.95 $10,000 invested annually,
from $7.95, among oth- down from $9. Other rivals
er fee cuts. Fidelity is the have made similar moves
country’s largest online in recent months.
brokerage firm with 17.9 The financial industry is
million accounts and $1.7 making these big moves
trillion in client assets. because that’s what cus-
It was only earlier this tomers are demanding.
month that Schwab cut its Investors have overwhelm-
base commission for on- ingly put their dollars in
line stock and ETF trades to mutual funds and ETFs that
$6.95 from $8.95, a move charge low fees. In 2015, 74
that many investors an- cents of every $1 in funds
ticipated would lead to were concentrated in
a pricing war. Just hours ones that were among the
after Fidelity made its an- cheapest 25 percent, ac-
nouncement, Schwab said cording to the Investment
on Tuesday it will drop the Company Institute.q
Silicon Valley high school makes $24 million from Snap IPO
KRISTIN J. BENDER Francis High School by con- ners, the venture capital accountancy and informa- The stock soared to about
Associated Press vincing the school’s board firm that invested in Snap- tion systems at the Villa- $27 as of Friday, making the
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — It’s to take a risk on Snap Inc., chat when its founder was nova School of Business in remaining 600,000 shares
an only in Silicon Valley kind which had a blockbuster still a student at Stanford Pennsylvania. that the school owns worth
of story: A well-to-do private initial public stock offering University. “The only way to do this about $16 million.
Catholic high school makes Thursday He had a child attending is through a personal re- “I think everyone under-
a $15,000 investment five Snap launched which St. Francis in 2012, when the lationship,” he said. “The stands it’s a pretty trans-
years ago in the company launched the Shapchat board of the high school in probability of success is formational event for our
developing the Snapchat app that teens and young Mountain View agreed to quite low.” school,” school president
app, holds onto it for years adults love to use to send invest the seed money in Snap’s shares sold for $17 Simon Chiu said in an inter-
and ends up with a windfall photos and videos that dis- Snap. each in in its initial public view.
of $24 million. appear a few seconds af- Few, if any other schools, offering and St. Francis sold Chiu acknowledged the
One well-connected par- ter recipients see them. have that sort of advan- 1.4 million shares at that good fortune of being in
ent, Barry Eggers, made it Barry Eggers, is a partner at tage, said Stephen Andri- price ,generating a gain of the right place at the right
happen for the Catholic St. Lightspeed Venture part- ole, a professor of business, about $24 million. time.q
