International News

Bloomberg The World Trade Organisation (WTO) tempered its pessimism about the outlook for cross-border commerce, saying its worst-case scenario for this year will likely be avoided but warning governments against becoming complacent to lingering economic risks. The Geneva-based organisation estimated that global trade in merchandise dropped 3% in the first quarter and fell 18.5% in the second, according to a ...

Bloomberg Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said his government would likely seek a wider budget gap as he draws up an ambitious reform plan to lobby for European Union (EU) assistance to restart the economy. The government will focus on infrastructure projects including high-speed railways and may approve a value-added tax cut to stem the coronavirus’s impact on the euro-zone’s ...

Bloomberg Wirecard AG was left fighting for survival after acknowledging that 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) that it had reported as assets probably don’t exist, deepening an accounting scandal that has rattled Germany’s financial industry. The payments processor said it’s in discussions with creditors and considering a full-scale restructuring after pulling its financial results for fiscal 2019 and the first ...

Bloomberg Germany is set to underline the need to combine the European Union’s (EU) economic recovery with measures to tackle climate change, ahead of it assuming the bloc’s presidency. EU environment ministers will discuss on Tuesday how the bloc’s Green Deal plan to reach climate neutrality in 2050 can help the economy rebound from the coronavirus crisis. Germany will present its ...

Bloomberg Danish lawmakers have struck a climate agreement to ensure their country can live up to a goal of cutting carbon emissions by 70% from 1990 levels over the coming decade. The deal, after winning broad backing across party lines, means Denmark will commit to cutting carbon emissions by 3.4 million tonnes. Lawmakers also agreed to build the world’s first ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. is considering taking over Neiman Marcus’ retail space at Hudson Yards in Manhattan, Women’s Wear Daily reported, citing a person familiar with the matter it didn’t identify. The operator of high-end department stores filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 7, which would allow it to back out of its 188,000-square-foot store lease free of penalties. If Facebook ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s once battered credit market is finding relief in an unexpected place. As firms and governments try to recover, they’re selling more debt earmarked for ethical and social projects than ever before. That issuance has provided a lifeline to a market that suffered one of the worst crashes in its history just a few months ago. Anna Reuterskiold, a ...

Bloomberg Reliance Industries Ltd, the conglomerate controlled by Asia’s richest man, said it has become free of net debt months ahead of a March 2021 target after raising more than $23 billion from stake sales and a rights issue. Its shares closed at an all-time high. India’s most valuable company said in a statement that it secured 1.16 trillion rupees ...

Bloomberg The Japanese wireless unit of SoftBank Group Corp led a $19.5 million investment in Splyt Group Ltd, a UK-based startup that makes software to simplify ride-hailing abroad. With the latest round, Splyt has raised a total of $35 million, including an earlier investment by Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing giant Grab. SoftBank Corp declined to disclose the exact amount of its ...

Bloomberg KKR & Co expects to at least triple its investments in Vietnam in the next decade as it seeks to capture rising demand from the Southeast Asian nation’s growing middle class. The US buyout firm’s investments in Vietnamese assets crossed $1 billion after a KKR-led consortium bought a stake in Vinhomes JSC, the largest real estate developer in the ...