MADRID / AP A union representing bank workers says Spain’s biggest bank is planning to lay off 1,200 workers as part of a restructuring plan that will also shutter more than 400 branches. The UGT union says Banco Santander SA’s plan calls for half of the employees to take early retirement and receive 70 percent of their annual pay. UGT ...

BLOOMBERG Chase Bank Kenya Ltd. shareholders are committed to recapitalising the lender placed under receivership to re-open the institution “as quickly as possible,” the central bank Governor Patrick Njoroge said. The closely held East African lender went into statutory management on Thursday to protect it from its creditors a day after two executives stepped down following the restatements of its ...

Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd. raised its stake in Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. a week after future ownership of the A$1.3 billion ($987 million) airline was put in doubt. The Singapore carrier increased the shareholding to 23.11 percent from 22.91 percent, it said in a statement. The airline said it paid A$3.18 million to settle a series of equity swaps, or ...

MONTREAL / Reuters Global airline passenger traffic grew 6.8 percent in 2015, with the Middle East region growing the fastest, preliminary data released on Wednesday by the United Nations’ civil aviation agency showed. US carriers were ranked the top three in the world by revenue passenger kilometer, American Airlines Group taking the top position, the International Civil Aviation Organisation said ...

Bloomberg Air France will invest 140 million euros ($159 million) extending a cabin refurbishment to its Airbus Group SE A330 fleet that will include lie-flat business-class seats from Zodiac Aerospace, the embattled supplier that has struggled to fulfill orders. The upgrade will begin late next year and finish in 2018, the airline said in a statement. Each of the twin-aisle ...

LONDON / Reuters British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) on Thursday reported another fall in quarterly underlying sales in its clothing division, illustrating the extent of the challenge facing its new boss. Steve Rowe, an M&S veteran of 26 years, succeeded Marc Bolland as chief executive of the clothing and food stores group on Saturday, stepping-up from the role he ...

BEIJING / REUTERS Chinese aircraft lessor Bohai Capital, known for its September purchase of Irish peer Avolon Holdings Ltd, aims to nearly double its fleet in coming years to take advantage of a boom in Chinese travel demand, a top executive said. Bohai Capital and other state-backed firms are expanding in the aircraft financing and leasing business as customer airlines ...

San Francisco / AFP Amazon chief executive and founder Jeff Bezos defended his company’s workplace culture and costly growth strategy in a letter to shareholders made public this week. The work atmosphere at Seattle-based Amazon became a hot topic last year after a New York Times article portrayed it as a “hurtful,” Darwinian setting in which employees were pitted against ...

New York / AP They might not be old enough to swipe a credit card or take out a loan, but you still need to keep an eye on your little one’s credit. Kids can be victims of identity theft, too, and it often goes unnoticed by parents for years. Typically, a youngster doesn’t find out something is wrong with ...

London / AFP Windsor Castle, a home of Queen Elizabeth II and one of Britain’s most popular tourist attractions, is to get an extensive facelift to improve facilities for visitors. Tourist areas at the medieval castle west of London will be redeveloped at an expected cost of £27 million ($38 million, 33 million euros), said the Royal Collection, which looks ...