Bloomberg Sweden’s biggest grocery chain, ICA Gruppen, plans to go private at a $12.5 billion valuation, the latest in a wave of dealmaking to sweep through the European supermarket industry. ICA’s majority owner, comprising an association of 1,500 retailers, is looking to acquire all the shares it doesn’t already own, according to a statement. The group sees leaving the stock …

Bloomberg Cebu Air Inc resumed hiring cabin crew, anticipating a recovery in air-travel demand as the Philippines eases its coronavirus curbs. “The airline has reached out and encouraged former CEB cabin crew to apply as the airline gets ready for growth,” the Philippines’ largest budget carrier said in a statement. The airline unit of conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc has …

Bloomberg Discount clothing chain Primark is sticking to its guns as a bricks-and-mortar retailer with plans to increase the store count by about a third, largely in the US, while most rivals focus on e-commerce. Parent company Associated British Foods Plc said it aims to raise the store total to 530 worldwide over the next five years, from 398 currently. …

Bloomberg Traders are betting the Bank of England (BOE) will rapidly raise borrowing costs before reversing course almost as quickly. Again. With inflation looking increasingly sticky, the BOE is expected to raise its key interest rate by 115 basis points over the next 18 months, according to money market pricing. Policy makers are likely to then be forced to unwind …

Bloomberg Commerzbank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Manfred Knof is cutting management positions at Germany’s second-biggest listed bank by about 30% as part of his turnaround plans. The target is linked to an agreement with the company’s works council on how to implement deep job cuts which were first announced in February, the lender said in a statement. It didn’t say …

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) could stop buying bonds as early as next September if inflation looks to have sustainably returned to the official target, Governing Council member Robert Holzmann said. Introduced in 2015, the bank’s asset purchase program, or APP, was designed to get consumer-price growth back to 2%, according to Holzmann, who heads Austria’s central bank and …

Bloomberg ABN Amro Bank NV reported third-quarter profit that beat estimates as the Dutch lender released money it had stashed for doubtful loans and said it’s in talks with its regulator about buying back stock. The bank, based in Amsterdam, saw net income jump 14% from a year earlier to 343 million euros ($397 million). That was higher than the …

Bloomberg Mexico’s central bank upcoming monetary policy decisions will be data driven and depend on any additional price shocks, Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said, signalling that policy makers aren’t committed to an established path for interest rates. “We’re not pointing in any direction nor ruling out any direction,” Diaz de Leon said in a telephone interview. “We’re signalling that …

Bloomberg Nigeria’s currency rebounded in the illegal market as the central bank boosted sales of dollars to commercial banks, according to traders. The currency strengthened to an average 540 to a dollar from about 570 a week ago in unauthorised markets in Lagos and other cities where foreign currency is freely traded, according to Abubakar Mohammed, chief executive officer for …

Bloomberg Peru’s central bank tightened monetary policy for a fourth straight month after inflation accelerated to its fastest pace in more than 12 years. Policy makers, led by bank President Julio Velarde, raised their key interest rate by a half-point to 2%, as forecast by six of eight economists surveyed by Bloomberg. One analyst expected an increase of 75 basis …