PARIS / AFP France and Britain have inked a deal to invest more than two billion euros in the development of next generation combat drones, Paris said in a statement. Following a two-year feasibility study begun in 2014, “we hope to proceed to the next phase in 2017 to prepare for the full-fledged development of operational demonstrators of air combat …

Frankfurt / AFP Sports giant Adidas said that it expects revenues and profits this year to rise by 10-12 percent as the current consumer boom in Germany continues. “Group sales are expected to increase at a rate between 10 and 12 percent on a currency-neutral basis in 2016,” the German sportswear and equipment manufacturer said in a statement. “The positive …

NEW YORK / AP Costco is raising entry-level wages for its hourly workers for the first time since 2007 as the warehouse club operator fights to compete in a tighter labour market. The company told investors that it will pay workers $1.50 more per hour in the US and Canada effective this month. Workers will now earn at least $13 or …

Frankfurt / Bloomberg German retail and distribution giant Metro will decide by the end of this year on whether to expand into Myanmar and post-sanctions Iran, its chief executive said in a magazine interview on Thursday. “Myanmar is benefitting from opening up politically and has high growth potential,” CEO Olaf Koch told the weekly WirtschaftsWoche. “We’re also examining what opportunities …

Bloomberg Banks’ options for gauging the risk of incurring losses from events such as fraud, cybercrime and litigation are set to shrink as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision tries to stop firms gaming the rules. The global regulator, whose members include the US Federal Reserve and the People’s Bank of China, proposed scrapping an ‘unduly complex’ internal model-based method …

Bloomberg The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is seeking to force UBS Group AG to turn over records on an account in Singapore held by a US citizen, potentially opening a new front against offshore tax evasion beyond Switzerland. The IRS last month asked a federal judge in Miami to force UBS, the largest Swiss bank, to produce documents on Ching-Ye …

BLOOMBERG Bank of America Corp. (BofA) has generated less revenue from its equity and fixed-income trading businesses so far this year than in the same period of 2015, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The second-largest US lender’s revenue from fixed-income trading, which includes credit, currencies and commodities, dropped about 10 percent from a year earlier, the people …

Bloomberg Barclays Africa Group’s Kenyan unit reported full-year profit that was little changed as bad loans increased on rising credit costs. Net income was 8.4 billion shillings ($83 million) in the 12 months through December, compared with 8.39 billion shillings a year earlier, Barclays Bank of Kenya Ltd. Chief Financial Officer Yusuf Omari told reporters Friday in the capital, Nairobi. …

RIGA / Bloomberg A Latvian lender linked to a string of money-laundering probes was closed by the European Central Bank (ECB). Trasta Komercbanka AS, the Baltic nation’s 13th-biggest lender by assets, had its license revoked after local regulators slapped restrictions on it in January. Latvia’s Financial and Capital Market Commission, which doesn’t deem the bank systemically important, said the move …

SUnaina Rana / EMIRATES BUSINESS As Ralph Nader said — the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers — the same principle is followed by US-based Young Presidents Organisation (YPO). Founded in 1950, YPO today provides 23,000 peers and their families in more than 130 countries with access to unique educational and networking experiences designed to …