Bloomberg Private equity firm Bain Capital is nearing an agreement to acquire a significant stake in e-commerce company Berlin Brands Group, people with knowledge of the matter said. Bain was expected to announce a deal as soon as Wednesday to buy Ardian’s holding of more than 40% in the business, the people said, asking not to be identified because the ...

Bloomberg The Taliban and other Afghan leaders have reached a “consensus” on the formation of a new government and cabinet under the leadership of the group’s top spiritual leader, an official said. Taliban supreme commander Haibatullah Akhundzada will be the top leader of any governing council, Bilal Karimi, a member of the group’s cultural commission said on Wednesday. Mullah Abdul ...

Bloomberg Serbia is becoming less enthusiastic about the process of joining the European Union as the procedure drags on and its citizens don’t see progress, President Aleksandar Vucic said. Vucic, Serbia’s most powerful politician since the nation started accession talks in 2014, has repeatedly complained that EU leaders haven’t given his country and five other Balkan membership aspirants a timetable ...

Bloomberg Malaysia is studying if it’s necessary to give booster Covid-19 vaccine shots, as the country grapples with the fast-spreading delta variant. An expert committee has been set up to assess the need for a third shot and is expected to give its recommendation by month-end, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. The priority now is to focus on people who haven’t ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s finance minister Magdalena Andersson, the favourite to replace outgoing premier Stefan Lofven, has rebuffed a plan to increase spending from the left wing of her party. The faction within the Social Democrats called for a new fiscal policy framework, saying the current rules are “a straitjacket” that hurts the economy by blocking investments. But in an interview with ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) will keep pumping out stimulus regardless of any shift in the nation’s political leadership as a result of upcoming elections or any Federal Reserve tapering moves, according to a former senior executive at the central bank. “You want to keep letting sleeping dogs lie,” said Kazuo Momma in an interview, referring to the monetary ...

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley boosted salaries for the second time in a month, raising the stakes again in a Wall Street bidding war for new talent. The firm bumped base pay for junior bankers to $110,000, a mark that will now also cover first-year staff in the trading division, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified ...

Bloomberg Nigeria’s central bank selected Bitt Inc. as a technical partner to help create its digital currency by the end of the year. The Barbados-registered financial technology company will help the regulator to launch the new currency, named eNaira, Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said in an emailed statement. The company was picked for its “technological competence, efficiency, platform security, ...

Bloomberg The Indian rupee’s outsized gains over the last three sessions is spurring talk that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may have loosened its grip over the currency. The rupee has rallied 1.6% in the previous three sessions to post its biggest gain for the period since March 2 The exchange rate had been moving within a range of ...

Bloomberg Italian public financial institutions may end up purchasing some assets of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA that UniCredit SpA doesn’t want in a takeover of the bankrupt lender. State lender Mediocredito Centrale SpA and state-owned asset manager AMCO SpA were given to access to Monte Paschi’s data room, according to a statement. The Italian Treasury may be ...