Shares were up slightly in early trading in Amsterdam after Akzo Nobel said it planned to return as much as 1.6 billion euros, or about $1.7 billion, to investors through dividends<br />and increased its financial guidance for 2020 as it outlined a plan to remain a stand-alone company.<br />Investors had a muted response to a strategy update on Wednesday from Akzo Nobel, the maker of Dulux paint, as the paint<br />and chemicals company from the Netherlands sought to stave off an unsolicited takeover bid, worth about $24 billion, from the American rival PPG Industries.<br />BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, continued to reap the benefits of the passive investing revolution in the first quarter of this<br />year as investors stuck to ditching actively managed mutual funds for cheaper exchange-traded funds that track a variety of indexes.
