Bloomberg Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd., the airline part-owned by HNA Group Co., ditched the idea of a privatisation to end years of speculation that major shareholders would attempt a buyout. After discussions with the airline’s largest investors, Virgin Australia’s board said it had decided against a privatisation. The carrier, which has a market value of A$2.2 billion ($1.7 billion), raised ...

Bloomberg HNA Group Co. is planning to cut 100,000 jobs, or about a quarter of its global workforce, this year amid a liquidity squeeze, Risk Event-Driven and Distressed Intelligence reported. The Chinese group plans to eliminate jobs in areas such as human resources, business operations and asset restructuring, REDD reported, citing the people. Job cuts will also target units that ...

Bloomberg Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz sees a blessing in all the empty storefronts across the US. Facing a crush of vacancies—and the rise of e-commerce—retail landlords are beginning to cut rents, the executive said. That stands to benefit the world’s largest coffee chain, which has more than 14,000 US locations. “Over the last few weeks, I have been in ...

Bloomberg FedEx Corp. is maintaining discounts for members of the National Rifle Association, even as calls for a boycott mount on social media after a deadly school shooting in Florida. The courier said it “has never set or changed rates for any of our millions of customers around the world in response to their politics, beliefs or positions on issues.” ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) on Tuesday reported net profit for 2017 of AED3.3 billion ($900 million), a 59 percent increase on 2016. EGA’s revenue increased to AED20.5 billion in 2017 compared to AED17.1 billion in 2016. Adjusted EBITDA stood at AED6.7 billion, an increase of 31 percent from AED5.1 billion in 2016. EGA’s adjusted EBITDA margin ...

DUBAI / WAM Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, has announced that it has paid AED400 million as dividends to its shareholders, from the profit of the company for the year ended on December 31, 2017. The company has earlier declared a net profit of AED 772mn in 2017, an increase of 20% ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The ninth edition of the Global Financial Markets Forum (GFMF) was launched at Emirates Palace under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. The event is being hosted by First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) in cooperation with the ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Abu Dhabi Airports announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with San Bernardino International Airport Authority (SBIAA) linking Al Bateen Executive Airport with San Bernardino International Airport in San Bernardino, California. The MoU was signed by Abdul Majeed Al Khoori, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Abu Dhabi Airports and Michael Burrows, Executive Director ...

DUBAI / WAM DP World, the Suez Canal Authority and the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) signed an agreement to implement the first phase of development of an integrated industrial and residential zone in Sokhna, Egypt. The agreement, which establishes a clear timetable of actions required to execute the first phase of the project spanning 30 square kilometres, was signed ...

Abu DHABI / Reuters A final decision on a new system of setting Emirates Interbank Offered Rates (EIBOR), which will be more efficient and more closely based on real data from the market, is expected to be taken this year, the UAE central bank governor said on Tuesday. “It’s ongoing and we’re having final discussions with the banks,” Mubarak Rashid ...