AFP Russia’s largest lender Sberbank on Thursday announced it almost tripled its profits in the second quarter and predicted further stabilisation of the economy this year despite credit growth slowing. The majority state-controlled bank made a net profit of 145.4 billion rubles ($2.23 billion, 1.98 billion euros) in the second quarter, up 166.3 percent on the same period last …

  Sydney / AFP Australian supermarket giant Woolworths on Thursday reported a large annual net loss of Aus$1.23 billion (US$940 million), its first since listing more than two decades ago, following a failed push into hardware and a slump in food sales. Woolworths, Australia’s largest retailer and one of the two dominant supermarket chains in the country, recorded the sharp …

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG flight attendants approved a three-year contract to end one of the airline’s long-running disputes over pay and pensions that have led to strikes. The accord with the cabin-crew union UFO will lead to savings in the mid-double-digit millions of euros in labor costs and reduce pension commitments by a high triple-digit million-euro amount, Lufthansa said …