February, 2023

• 23 February

  Airlines turn market favourites as Covid forces business rejig

  

    Bloomberg Unloved during the pandemic with their business paralysed almost overnight, airlines that cut back to survive the crisis are now blowing through profit forecasts and luring back investors. Virgin Australia, so financially frail when Covid-19 hit in 2020 that it folded in weeks, has undergone a remarkable transformation under new owner Bain Capital and plans to relist in ...

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• 23 February

  Starbucks launches olive-oil coffee beverages in Italy

  

  Bloomberg Starbucks Corp, the world’s biggest coffee-shop operator, has launched a range of olive oil-infused beverages in Italy to boost market share in a country where it’s struggled to gain a foothold. The chain will initially sell its new Oleato coffee line, which includes a drink featuring olive oil steamed with oat milk, in Italy only. It then plans to ...

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• 23 February

  Walmart tops estimates but issues cautious outlook for current fiscal

  

    Bloomberg Walmart Inc turned in another blowout quarter as more shoppers sought out its low prices, but the retailer offered a cautious outlook for the current fiscal year because of rising economic uncertainty. Consumers are getting squeezed as interest rates climb and savings rates fall, Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said. That threatens spending even as the ...

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• 23 February

  Danone sales rise at fastest rate in decade on higher prices

  

    Bloomberg Danone’s revenue grew at the fastest rate in more than a decade, boosted by higher prices on products from Activia yogurt to Evian water. Sales rose 7.8% on a like-for-like basis in 2022, Danone said, beating analysts’ estimates. The stock rose as much as 2.8% in early trading. Chief Executive Antoine de Saint-Affrique is implementing a turnaround plan ...

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• 23 February

  Bed Bath & Beyond says it will make delayed interest payments

    Bloomberg Bed Bath & Beyond Inc said it will pay past-due interest to bondholders on February 28 as the troubled retailer catches up on overdue payments after a last-minute equity deal earlier this month. The company said in a statement that it has prefunded the full amount of interest. The retailer had been in a grace period since it ...

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• 23 February

  Bankrupt Party City needs Halloween costumes

    Bloomberg As Party City Holdco Inc wades through bankruptcy, some of its most important vendors are banding together to negotiate better trade terms for a holiday the company relies on: Halloween. Halloween orders are placed months ahead of time, meaning costume suppliers have to decide soon what they’re willing to ship to the bankrupt party supplier and on what ...

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• 23 February

  Oil extends longest run of losses this year ahead of Fed minutes

  

    Bloomberg Oil extended its longest run of losses this year ahead of the release of Federal Reserve minutes that may provide further clues on the path forward for monetary tightening in the US. West Texas Intermediate traded near $76 a barrel after declining for a fifth session. The prospect of more aggressive interest-rate hikes from the Fed to quell ...

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• 23 February

  Eskom’s $13.9bn debt plan opens up power provision

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s stricken power utility will receive $13.9 billion in debt relief from the government over the next three years, provided it brings in private partners to help operate its plants and electricity transmission network. The package will strengthen the Eskom Holdings’s balance sheet and cover all interest payments over the next three years, budget documents presented by Finance ...

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• 23 February

  Cost to keep UK’s lights on keeps growing

  

  Bloomberg A Czech energy company led by billionaire Daniel Kretinsky was the big winner in a UK auction to secure power capacity, procuring a 15-year government subsidy to build a gas-fired plant. EP UK Investments Ltd.’s planned units at Eggborough, Yorkshire, were awarded provisional contracts along with a grid-scale battery at the site. That will help secure about $1.8 billion ...

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• 23 February

  Bangladesh utilities seek $1 billion for fuel to avert blackouts

  

    Bloomberg Private power producers in Bangladesh have sought $1 billion of foreign currency from the country’s central bank to import heavy fuel oil to avert a looming energy crisis this summer. The companies are seeking the greenback supply to banks to allow opening letters of credit for purchasing the fuel from overseas, the Bangladesh Independent Power Producers’ Association, the ...

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