Bloomberg Kenya Airways will stop selling tickets unless a pilots union calls off a seven-day strike to protest against Chief Executive Officer Mbuvi Ngunze as Africa’s third-largest airline strives to minimize losses from the walkout. “The threatened action is already costing Kenya Airways significant losses as passengers have begun to make cancellations,†the airline part-owned by Air France-KLM said ...
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Australian, NZ carriers ban recalled Note 7
Sydney / AFP Australian and New Zealand airlines barred the recalled Samsung Note 7 from all planes starting Sunday citing its “potential fire risk”, after a similar ban was imposed by US officials. Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, has halted production of its latest flagship mobile device and recalled all Note 7 phones and replacements following reports of ...
Read More »Airlines, tour agents brace for Thai slowdown
Bloomberg Asia’s airlines, tour agents and cruise operators are on alert for a tourism slowdown in Thailand following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The government called on the country to avoid “joyful events” for 30 days and to dress in mourning for a year. Travel companies across the region say they’re now trying to grasp the potential consequences ...
Read More »Construction Bank in $743mn debt plan with Yunnan Tin
Bloomberg China Construction Bank Corp., the nation’s second-largest lender, said it agreed to form an almost 5 billion yuan ($743 million) debt-to-equity pact with Yunnan Tin Group. The agreement is part of a larger 10-billion yuan framework the two companies signed to cut Yunnan Tin’s debt ratio, the Beijing-based lender said in a statement on its website on Sunday. ...
Read More »Serbia keeps key rates unchanged for third month
Bloomberg The Serbian central bank left borrowing costs unchanged for a third month, disregarding an unexpected inflation slowdown and watching out for the dinar’s reaction to the increasing prospects of an interest-rate increase in the U.S. The National Bank of Serbia left the benchmark one-week repurchase rate at 4 percent, according to a statement on its website. Twenty-one of ...
Read More »NCB posts $523mn net profit in Q3
DUBAI / Reuters National Commercial Bank (NCB) missed analysts’ forecasts on Sunday by reporting a 1.6 percent fall in third-quarter net profit, as Saudi Arabia’s largest listed lender provided more evidence that a weaker economy is hurting the banking sector. Banks in the kingdom are feeling the pinch as depressed oil prices slow economic growth to its lowest level ...
Read More »JPMorgan profit sinks 7.6% on tax expense
Reuters JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported a 7.6 percent drop in quarterly profit after recording a tax expense, compared with a rare tax benefit a year earlier. The bank’s net income fell to $6.29 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $6.80 billion in the same quarter of 2015. Earnings per ...
Read More »After ‘tapering’ scare, all eyes on ECB’s stimulus plans
Frankfurt / AFP European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi will be under pressure this week to clarify the bank’s stimulus plans after investors were spooked by talk of an end to its massive bond-buying programme. The ECB governing council is not expected to make any changes to its ultra-loose monetary policy at its regular meeting on Thursday, keeping interest ...
Read More »India’s Modi urges BRICS to double trade, fight terror
Bloomberg The world’s largest emerging markets must double trade between their countries in the next four years and unite to fight terrorist threats that hurt economic prosperity, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. Noting intra-BRICS trade was $250 billion, Modi said: “We should set ourselves a target to double this number to $500 billion by 2020â€. The eighth annual ...
Read More »Japan withholds its annual dues to UNESCO
AP Japan has withheld its annual UNESCO dues, saying it wants to make sure the UN body properly functions to foster trust among member nations. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, asked by a reporter, confirmed that Japan withheld dues of nearly 4 billion yen ($40 million) for this year. He refused to say if that was to protest UNESCO’s listing ...
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