Bloomberg Even though Hong Kong is one of the few places left in the world adhering to a Covid-zero approach, the city’s Chief Executive Officer Carrie Lam believes the Asian financial center can retain its status as an international aviation hub. “Although the global aviation industry, with Hong Kong being no exception, has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, ...

Bloomberg TUI AG will raise 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by selling new stock, making it the latest travel company to tap investors for cash to reduce a giant pandemic debt pile. The share sale, at a discount price of 2.15 euros each in a rights offering, will allow the world’s biggest tour operator to reduce its draw on a ...

Bloomberg Booming e-commerce sales have made a unicorn out of a Utah-based startup that helps companies manage their sales on Amazon.com Inc and other digital marketplaces. Pattern Inc, which started out selling fridge magnets and other trinkets on Amazon’s third-party marketplace, on Wednesday said it raised $225 million in new outside investment at a valuation of about $2 billion. Founded ...

Bloomberg The UK’s auditing watchdog has started an investigation into Mazars’ audit of French Connection Group Plc. The Financial Reporting Council said on Wednesday the probe would focus on the year ending on January 31, 2020 without disclosing further details. The struggling UK fashion retailer has failed to keep pace on price with its high street rivals and has been ...

Bloomberg Mondelez International Inc will require employees at its offices in Chicago, Miami and East Hanover, New Jersey, to be fully vaccinated “as a condition of employment,” according to a statement. The maker of Chips Ahoy! cookies and Halls cough drops said that vaccine adoption “is essential to lowering case counts, preventing Covid hospitalisations and deaths and ending this pandemic,” ...

Bloomberg US President Joe Biden said he and China’s Xi Jinping have reaffirmed their agreement on Taiwan, as top envoys for the two countries were expected to discuss simmering tensions over the democratically ruled island during talks in Zurich. Biden told reporters after returning from a trip to Michigan that he and the Chinese president spoke and agreed to stick ...

Bloomberg Afghanistan’s state power company has appealed to a United Nations-led mission to give $90 million to settle unpaid bills to Central Asian suppliers before electricity gets cut off for the country given that the three-month deadline for payments has passed. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan from mid-August, electricity bills haven’t been paid to neighbouring countries that supply ...

Bloomberg Mali’s foreign ministry has summoned the country’s French ambassador after France’s President Emmanuel Macron questioned the legitimacy of the African nation’s interim leadership. Tensions between France and Mali have been rising since Mali’s Prime Minister, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, accused France of abandoning his country “mid-flight” in the fight against extremists. Radio France International reported that Macron last week rejected ...

Bloomberg The US trade deficit widened to a record in August, reflecting a pickup in the value of imports of consumer goods and industrial supplies. The gap in trade of goods and services increased 4.2% to $73.3 billion, from a revised $70.3 billion in July, according to Commerce Department data. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was ...

Bloomberg Canada’s trade surplus with the rest of the world expanded significantly in August on larger energy exports. The country’s merchandise trade surplus was C$1.94 billion ($1.5 billion) from a revised C$736 million surplus in July, Statistics Canada reported in Ottawa. Economists were expecting a surplus of C$430 million, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. August was ...