Bloomberg Japan’s second-largest convenience store operator FamilyMart Co will become a wholly owned subsidiary of top shareholder Itochu Corp after the trading house succeeded in its tender offer for the retailer’s shares. The deal will lift Itochu’s stake in FamilyMart to 65.7% from 50%, allowing the trading company to begin the process of delisting the convenience store operator from the ...

Bloomberg Finland’s national carrier Finnair Oyj plans to eliminate as much as 15% of its workforce and push through deeper cost cuts in an effort to survive one of the worst crises in aviation history. The airline will slash a maximum of 1,000 jobs and lay off “practically all of its personnel in Finland,” it said on Tuesday. Finnair also ...

Bloomberg Women’s activewear retailer Sweaty Betty is preparing to put itself on the block, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The London-based company could fetch about 400 million pounds ($524 million) in a transaction, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Potential suitors could include large retailers or ...

Bloomberg Russia brushed off a call by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a full investigation into the suspected poisoning of Alexey Navalny, saying it’s still not clear yet that the opposition leader was exposed to a toxic substance. “If the substance is identified and it’s shown to be a poisoning, that would be basis for an investigation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry ...

Bloomberg Hurricane Laura is poised to strengthen rapidly and come ashore along the Texas-Louisiana coast as a tree-snapping Category 3 storm, forcing residents to flee their homes despite the threat of Covid-19. Laura’s winds will likely peak at 115 miles (185 kilometres) per hour as it comes ashore early on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said. Laura has disrupted offshore ...

Bloomberg West African leaders have made scant headway in their efforts to ensure Mali swiftly reverts to civilian rule after President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s ouster by a military junta. Talks between the junta’s leaders and envoys from the Economic Community of West African States ended without resolving when the military will arrange elections or release Keita, who’s been in captivity ...

Bloomberg South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has thrown down the gauntlet to detractors in the ruling party who’ve been undermining his efforts to combat graft, as public anger mounts over the misappropriation of funds to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. In an unprecedented seven-page letter circulated to members of the African National Congress (ANC) at the weekend, Ramaphosa warned that the ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s cabinet approved a one-month extension of the state of emergency through September 30 to control the Covid-19 outbreak as the nation seeks to prolong its streak of going three months without a local transmission. The cabinet’s move was in line with the proposal from a panel that handles the nation’s Covid-19 outbreak, according to government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri. ...

Bloomberg China’s mega banks are ramping up their recruitment of fresh graduates as a record number enter the labour market, joining other state-owned firms in boosting employment even as lenders deal with plunging earnings and ballooning bad debt. The four biggest state banks, led by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., (ICBC) this month kicked off their autumn campus ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. needs to pay at least 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) if it proceeds to buy out its counterpart in its Chinese mutual fund business, a pricey premium for the US bank that has ambitions to expand in China’s finance sector. JPMorgan’s business partner Shanghai International Trust Co. said it agreed to sell its 49% stake ...