Bloomberg South Africa expects to conclude the sale of a majority stake in its state-owned airline to private investors early next year, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said. The sale of 51% of South African Airways (SAA) to the Takatso consortium is “certainly moving in the right direction,” Gordhan, who oversees state-owned companies, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. …

Bloomberg Ikea opened its biggest store in the world in the Philippines, with the new 730,000 square foot facility in Manila a cornerstone of the home-furnishings giant’s expansion plans in Asia. The opening was feted with an event held at the store’s cafeteria attended by Philippine trade secretary Ramon Lopez and foreign minister Teodoro Locsin, where Ikea’s cult-favourite Swedish meatballs …

Bloomberg Airline shares tumbled the most since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, as an emerging virus variant prompted travel restrictions and fears of crimped demand for flights. The UK has halted arrivals from South Africa and several neighbouring countries for two days and limit access mainly to its own nationals from November 28 onward, with a mandatory 10-day …

Bloomberg Gap Inc lowered its projection for 2021 sales and profit as supply-chain bottlenecks led to lost sales and higher expenses. The shares fell in late trading. Gap now sees revenue growing about 20% for the full year — down from its previous projection of a 30% gain. Analysts had projected revenue to be 28% higher this year, according to …

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley is offering to reimburse its Hong Kong employees as much as HK$40,000 ($5,100) to compensate for quarantine costs brought on by the financial hub’s zero-Covid strategy. The one-time reimbursement will be available to all Hong Kong permanent employees when they return from a personal trip to visit immediate family members, including spouses, domestic partners, children, parents and …

Bloomberg US banks, which have been combining at levels not seen since before the global financial crisis, are now facing the near-term hurdles of stalled approvals and the mounting opposition from Democrats in Washington. All of that is unlikely to keep the string of deals from ultimately continuing, according to analysts. Regional lenders “may tap the brakes” in their merger-and-acquisition …

Bloomberg The Czech central bank expects only a limited economic fallout from the worsening pandemic and remains prepared for more interest-rate increases to curb surging inflation, according to one of its vice governors. The country “has learned to live with Covid” and potential lockdown measures are unlikely to significantly hurt consumption and investments, Marek Mora said in a video posted …

Bloomberg Singapore’s central bank said it will consider supervisory actions after DBS Group Holdings Ltd. suffered one of the worst digital disruptions for Southeast Asia’s biggest lender in the past decade. “This is a serious disruption and MAS expects DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the root causes and implement the necessary remedial measures,” Marcus Lim, assistant managing …

Bloomberg The Riksbank expects to start hiking interest rates in 2024, the first sign from the Swedish central bank that it sees an end in sight to its ultra-loose monetary policy. While policy makers kept their benchmark unchanged, they also signalled for the first time that they see a case to move higher within three years. Previously they said the …

Bloomberg Zambia’s central bank in a surprise move raised its benchmark interest rate for the second time this year to try contain inflation that’s still nearly triple the targeted rate. The monetary policy committee lifted the gauge to 9% from 8.5%, Governor Denny Kalyalya told reporters. It was Kalyalya’s first rate decision since being reappointed to the post in September. …