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Bloomberg Denmark’s central bank drastically cut its forecast for gross domestic product, and now sees a painful recession this year, after the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic brought the economy to a near standstill. GDP will contract somewhere between 3% and 10%, the Copenhagen-based bank said on Wednesday. The bank “has listed three scenarios, illustrating how severely the Danish ...

Bloomberg Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc said it may need to tap into high-interest notes it was trying to avoid drawing down, even after a 536 million-pound ($663 million) capital infusion from a group led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll. The UK luxury carmaker doesn’t have sufficient working capital based on European Securities and Markets Authority rules, because the coronavirus ...

Bloomberg Russia spent more than $40 billion building a war chest of bullion over the past five years. Now, it’s calling it quits. The central bank announced that it would stop buying gold starting April 1, but didn’t explain the move. Analysts say Russia already has a lot of gold stashed in reserves and likely doesn’t need more. Plus, with ...

Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson (J&J) surged after the company said it would begin a $1-billion-plus effort with the US government to develop and manufacture a vaccine against the new coronavirus. J&J will work with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) an arm of US Department of Health and Human Services, to further develop a vaccine the company said it’s ...

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co. is speeding up plans to produce ventilators in cooperation with General Electric Co. by selecting a simpler design of the medical devices and will aim to churn out 50,000 units in the next 100 days. The automaker will convert an auto-parts plant in Michigan to make breathing machines designed by Airon Corp. and licensed by GE ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he’s concerned oil prices have fallen too far and called Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss Russia’s oil-price war with Saudi Arabia. The leaders, who also talked about the spread of the coronavirus, agreed to discussions on oil between energy officials in the two countries, according to the Kremlin. Both leaders “agreed on the importance ...

DUBAI / WAM The Board of Directors of UAE Banks Federation (UBF) held its first meeting of the year via videoconferencing to discuss the latest developments in the UAE banking sector as well as progress of key concerns. During the meeting, the Board of Directors discussed UBF’s current priorities, which in light of the worldwide outbreak of Covid-19 include ensuring ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The National Takaful Company (Watania) announced positive financial results for 2019, as the company’s net profit increased to AED13.1 million, compared to AED9.4 million in 2018. While announcing financial results of company, Dr Ali Saeed bin Harmal Al Dhaheri, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Takaful Company, declared that the company has launched ...

SHARJAH / WAM Dana Gas, a regional private sector natural gas company, on Tuesday announced its intention to pursue a feasibility study studying a potential demerger of its upstream business into a new company, which, as part of the demerger, will also be listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX). Currently, the Sharjah-based company owns upstream oil and gas ...

SHARJAH / WAM The Expo Centre Sharjah recently held a virtual meeting to ensure the smooth functioning of the various departments and services, as part of the precautionary measures taken by the centre to maintain the health and safety of employees and customers and cope with the government’s preventive measures amid the Covid-19 outbreak. Headed by Saif Mohammed Al Midfa, ...