1. LLOYD: Lloyd’s of London wants the commercial insurance market to recruit a third of its workforce from ethnic minorities, it said on Friday, as it attempts to improve diversity.

Nearly 50,000 staff are employed in Lloyd’s underwriting and broking firms, which arrange specialist risks from oil rigs to footballers’ legs.

Currently, only 8% of the market comes from an ethnic minority, according to Lloyd’s data. At the Corporation of Lloyd’s, which oversees the market, the figure is 22%.

Lloyd’s said in a statement that its “ambition” was that a third of all new hires should come from ethnic minority backgrounds, at all levels including leadership.

“Almost certainly, quite a lot of ethnic minorities aren’t that interested in insurance and not particularly interested in exploring insurance as a career,” Lloyd’s chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown told Reuters.

“Even those that are might not think that they’d be welcome. We need to work in a different way to make ourselves more accessible and more interesting.”

Lloyd’s also said it would mandate the collection of ethnicity data across the market. Only 74% of firms currently provide that data.

Lloyd’s has been seeking to improve its reputation on diversity and inclusion in recent years, after admitting the market had problems with sexual harassment and daytime drinking.

2. FORD:-When Ford Motor  Co built its first factory in India in the mid-1990s, U.S. carmakers believed they were buying into a boom – the next China.

The economy had been liberalised in 1991, the government was welcoming investors, and the middle class was expected to fuel a consumption frenzy. Rising disposable income would help foreign carmakers to a market share of as much as 10%, forecasters said.

It never happened.

Last week, Ford took a $2 billion hit  to stop making cars in India, following compatriots General Motors  and Harley-Davidson Inc  in closing factories in the country.

Among foreigners that remain, Japan’s Nissan  Motor Co Ltd and even Germany’s Volkswagen AG  the world’s biggest automaker by sales – each hold less than 1% of a car market once forecast to be the third-largest by 2020, after China and the United States, with annual sales of 5 million.

Instead, sales have stagnated at about 3 million cars. The growth rate has slowed to 3.6% in the last decade versus 12% a decade earlier.

Ford’s retreat marks the end of an Indian dream for U.S. carmakers. It also follows its exit from Brazil announced in January https://reut.rs/39fUnrq, reflecting an industry pivot from emerging markets to what is now widely seen as make-or-break investment in electric vehicles.

Analysts and executives said foreigners badly misjudged India’s potential and underestimated the complexities of operating in a vast country that rewards domestic procurement.

Many failed to adapt to a preference for small, cheap, fuel-efficient cars that could bump over uneven roads without needing expensive repairs. In India, 95% of cars are priced below $20,000.

3. SOFT BANK-SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund sold 57 million shares in South Korean e-retailer Coupang Inc for about $1.69 billion, according to a U.S. regulatory filing.

Vision Fund sold 57 million Coupang shares at $29.685 each, and holds 568.2 million shares of the e-commerce firm following the sale, the filing showed Coupang declined to comment.

In August, Vision Fund posted a first-quarter profit of 236 billion yen ($2.15 billion).

4. RENAULT: French carmaker Renault  said on Thursday it would cut up to 2,000 engineering and support jobs in France as it shifts into electric cars and hires in different positions.

The loss-making group, which has already announced around 4,600 job cuts in the country as part of a broad restructuring, said in a statement it was opening talks with unions about the latest plans.

Overall it will create 500 net new jobs, it said, after hiring 2,500 people in other functions, and Renault said it aimed to build nine new car models in France.

Like rivals, Renault is trying to bulk up its electric car offering, and it said the new hires would be in areas such as data sciences or chemistry specialists, as it looks to build its expertise in batteries for example.

Renault plans 2,000 job cuts in France as it moves to electric cars

5. CITI GROUP  :Citigroup Inc  is hiring Steve Milovanovic to head its investment banking unit which focuses on mergers and acquisitions by financial institutions in the Americas, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Milovanovic will join Goldman Sachs Group , where he was co-head of M&A for the financial institutions group (FIG) in the Americas, said the memo, the contents of which were confirmed by a Citigroup spokesperson.

“Steve’s experience, judgment and client relationships will further strengthen Citi’s strategic advisory capabilities,” the memo said, noting that Milovanovic will be based in New York.