International News

Bloomberg The European Union (EU), set to become one of the largest issuers of green and sustainable bonds, will sell debt for the first time in 2021 off the back of record-breaking demand last year. The bloc will likely issue 14 billion euros ($17 billion) of seven-year and 30-year social bonds for a job support program in the coming week. ...

Bloomberg Instacart is cutting about 1,900 employees’ jobs, including 10 workers who formed a union, as the company seeks to boost its ranks of contract workers. The grocery delivery company already classifies most of its workers as independent contractors, whose numbers have ballooned to more than 500,000 during the coronavirus pandemic. But starting in 2015, the company hired a small ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG said a robust sales recovery toward the end of the year helped cushion annual results from the effects of the pandemic. Operating profit before one-time items related to VW’s diesel-emissions scandal falls to about 10 billion euros ($12.2 billion) last year, VW said in a statement, from 19.3 billion euros in 2019. Automotive net cash flow shrunk ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) needs to find new ways to recapitalise businesses so that the hole on corporate balance sheets doesn’t derail the recovery, according to a financial-industry group. Companies face an equity shortfall of as much as $724 billion, as existing government programs and private funding won’t suffice to fully cover the roughly 1 trillion euros ($1.21 trillion) ...

Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak can’t afford to wait for the budget on March 3 to provide extra support for hobbled UK firms, according to the UK’s biggest business lobby group. With Britain back in a severe lockdown, urgent action is needed to help companies survive, the Confederation of British Industry said in a letter to the Chancellor ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) risks squandering the potential of its recovery fund unless spending is properly policed, according to the biggest business lobby groups in eight Nordic and Baltic countries. The 27-member bloc agreed on a 750 billion-euro ($907 billion) pandemic relief package in December to help end the worst recession on record. The money is also supposed to ...

Bloomberg European car sales plunged the most on record last year as relatively resilient demand in the second half did only so much to make up for the collapse during the initial outbreak of Covid-19. New-vehicle registrations fall 24%, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Tuesday, the biggest annual drop since records began in 1990. A strong finish to ...

Bloomberg Call it the prop-up effect. As France lived through its worst economic slump since World War II, business failures paradoxically slid to the lowest in 33 years. The number of bankruptcies and firms seeking protection from creditors or entering receivership fall 38% in 2020, as government aid in the face of the coronavirus pandemic kept French companies afloat, according ...

DUBAI / WAM The DED Trader licence, launched by the Business Registration & Licensing (BRL) sector of Dubai Economy (DED) to licence freelancers at their place of residence in Dubai and enable start-ups to conduct business activities online and across social networking accounts, has seen overwhelming response with 9,949 licences issued since its launch in 2017 till end of 2020. ...

Bloomberg Two of India’s richest men have landed in an unlikely controversy over farming laws, becoming targets of protesters who allege the tycoons have benefited from their close links to PM Narendra Modi. For weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside the nation’s capital, demanding the withdrawal of recently passed legislation they say, without evidence, was designed to ...