Bloomberg Indonesia’s ride-hailing and food-delivery giant Gojek has acquired a mobile point-of-sale startup called Moka for about $130 million, according to people familiar with the deal. The transaction, which has been under negotiations since last year, was completed about a month ago, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private. It hasn’t been announced ...
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Luckin collapse adds to Credit Suisse’s losses
Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG was stung by the collapse of Luckin Coffee Inc in China following an accounting scandal, which led to a five-fold increase in Asian loan-loss provisions. The Swiss bank set aside 97 million Swiss francs ($100 million) for soured loans, primarily related to three cases, the largest of which was Luckin Coffee, according to a person ...
Read More »SoFi acquires Hong Kong’s 8 Securities in first global push
Bloomberg Social Finance (SoFi) Inc acquired 8 Securities, a Hong Kong mobile investing startup, marking its first expansion outside of the US. Rebranded as SoFi Hong Kong, the company will be the only brokerage service that delivers fee-free stock trading on more than 15,000 US and Hong Kong stocks, as well as exchange traded funds, the company said. The acquisition ...
Read More »Europe’s lockdown pushes economy into record slump
Bloomberg Europe’s economy suffered a massive blow in April when government restrictions to contain the coronavirus left companies scrambling to stay afloat. An estimate of private-sector activity in the euro area plunged to just 13.5 from 29.7 in March, IHS Markit said on Thursday. The drop was far sharper than economists had anticipated and marks the lowest reading for the ...
Read More »Pimco steps up distressed bet with another $3bn fund
Bloomberg Pacific Investment Management Co. is seeking to raise another $3 billion for a distressed credit fund as the rush to capitalise on dislocations in the fixed-income market grows. Pimco’s latest money pool — Distressed Credit Opportunities Fund III — will invest in public market securities, including corporate credit, according to documents from a Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association meeting ...
Read More »VW restarting electric-car manufacturing amid virus
Bloomberg Volkswagen AG is pressing ahead with the manufacturing of the ID.3 electric car and expects to start European deliveries this summer as planned, despite lingering uncertainty surrounding demand for vehicles amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Efforts to finish the car’s software are “on the home stretch†and the schedule for the rollout at VW’s German factory in Zwickau remains ...
Read More »Merkel urges Germany to support EU stimulus
Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a Europe-wide economic stimulus program to be financed by the European Union’s budget, making a national appeal that helping its partners would be good for Germany. “A European growth program could support an upswing over the next two years and we’ll work for that,†Merkel said in a speech to the lower house ...
Read More »Italy sees 2020 deficit soaring to 10.4% of GDP on lockdown
Bloomberg Italy’s government expects its budget deficit to spiral to 10.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year as the economy paralysed by a nationwide lockdown is seen shrinking by 8%. The government is set to request parliamentary approval for broadening the budget deficit by 55 billion euros ($59.4 billion) to fund a new stimulus package, according to officials, who ...
Read More »Weather is still the wild card in global food supply
Bloomberg The coronavirus pandemic is putting untold pressure on the supply chains that produce and transport the world’s food. Yet there’s one vital factor even harder to control than panic buying — the weather. A period of extreme weather that devastates harvests could force countries to deploy more protectionist food policies, creating a ripple effect through global trade. Concerns over ...
Read More »Zoom daily users surge to 300mn
Bloomberg Zoom Video Communications Inc., the San Jose, California-based company, has been lambasted for its security flaws, but the backlash hasn’t slowed growth. The company reported a 50% surge in use of the online meeting application in the past three weeks. On April 21, more than 300 million people used Zoom’s flagship videoconferencing app, up from about 200 million on ...
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