Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc’s plans for its first-ever flights from Frankfurt sparked a bitter response from Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which vowed to fight back against the surprise incursion at Germany’s biggest hub. While Ryanair will begin Frankfurt services with just two jets and four routes, Europe’s top discount airline sees potential for a bigger operation there, David O’Brien, its ...

  Cairo / AFP Egypt floated the country’s pound on Thursday as part of a raft of reforms, after a dollar crunch and exorbitant black market trade threatened to grind some imports to a halt. The government of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is rolling out an austerity programme and seeking billions in support from abroad in order to meet ...

  Bloomberg BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager, said that India is the biggest opportunity for the firm within Asia as it expands lending where banks fear to tread. The asset manager is pushing into private credit in the region as unprecedented monetary easing by central banks has weighed on bond market rates. Almost $10 trillion of securities from ...

  Zurich/ AFP Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, said on Thursday it defied market expectations by posting a profit amid a vast cost cutting programme. Net earnings came in at 41 million Swiss francs (38 million euros, $42 million), a massive decline of 95 percent from the same quarter last year. But the bank still did better than analysts had ...

  Bloomberg After scaling back Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.’s Asian businesses, Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott is now turning his attention closer to home. The country’s third-biggest bank is exploring “a range” of possible options for its Australian wealth business, it said on Thursday as it announced its its lowest full-year earnings since 2011. That may include ...

  LAGOS / AP The African Development Bank (AfDB) is loaning Nigeria $600 million to help offset a budget deficit of $7 billion, a statement said. The bank said another $400 million would be approved next year if the government implements reforms to economize on government costs, combat corruption and promote diversification and competitiveness in Africa’s biggest economy. Nigeria is ...

  Bloomberg While you wait for the next interest-rate increase in the world’s largest economy, policy has quietly tightened in the second-biggest: China. The People’s Bank of China has allowed a steady increase in money market rates in recent weeks to squeeze leverage in the murky shadow banking realm. A side benefit: higher short-term rates cushion a weakening yuan, which ...

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc. reported a quarter that blew past expectations. But its shares fell after executives suggested they won’t be able to repeat the performance. The stock dropped as much as 7.1 percent on Thursday in premarket trading after two sobering comments on its conference call the night before. First, Chief Financial Officer David Wehner said revenue growth rates ...

  AFP The High Court struck a blow on Thursday to the British government’s plans for leaving the EU, ruling it must seek parliament’s approval before starting exit talks in a landmark judgement that could delay Brexit. Three senior judges said Prime Minister Theresa May’s government does not have the power on its own to trigger Article 50 of the ...

  Ottawa / AFP The Ford Motor Company reached a new labor agreement with the union representing more than 6,400 auto workers at the company’s plants in Canada, averting a strike. The deal includes a commitment from Ford — similar to those offered by General Motors and Fiat Chrysler in earlier talks — to invest more than Can$630 million (US$470 ...