March, 2022

• 21 March

  Italy to hit energy firms with 10% levy to fund support plan

  

  Bloomberg Italy will impose a windfall profit tax of 10% on some energy companies to finance a 4.4 billion-euro ($4.9 billion) package of measures to protect consumers and businesses from soaring prices. The levy will be calculated on the increase in profit that energy companies reported between October 2021 and March 2022, compared with the same period the previous year. …

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• 21 March

  Mexico City’s newest airport set to open with few flights

  

    Bloomberg Mexico City’s newest airport, opening on March 21, is meant to relieve traffic at the mega-city’s main hub. The eight daily flights it will start with won’t achieve this — but that’s beside the point for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The Felipe Angeles airport, located about 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Mexico City’s centre, is a …

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• 21 March

  Judge dismisses Amazon antitrust lawsuit in DC

  

  Bloomberg A Superior Court judge dismissed Washington’s lawsuit accusing Amazon.com Inc of anticompetitive behaviour, saying there wasn’t evidence supporting the claim that the e-commerce giant inflated prices for consumers. Attorney General Karl Racine sued Amazon last year, alleging it encourages higher-than-necessary consumer prices through policies that guarantee the tech giant a minimum profit on each item sold, while discouraging the …

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• 21 March

  US cites Abramovich’s jet in Russian export breach

  Bloomberg The Biden administration identified billionaire Roman Abramovich’s Gulfstream business jet among 100 for apparent violations of the nation’s export controls imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions apply to commercial and private aircraft destined for Russia and Belarus in recent weeks, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a statement. Other planes were listed as …

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• 21 March

  Swiss banks hold $200bn in stashed Russian cash

  

    Bloomberg Swiss banks may hold more than $200 billion of Russian wealth, the country’s banking lobby estimates, as sanctions shine a spotlight on the extent of Russian wealth stored in overseas vaults. Banks probably hold between 150 billion ($160 billion) and 200 billion Swiss francs of Russian client money in offshore accounts, according to the Swiss Bankers Association. Credit …

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• 21 March

  Goldman Sachs gives first-year legal chief $17.5 million

  

    Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group‘s legal chief Kathryn Ruemmler received roughly $17.5 million in total compensation after being appointed its top lawyer a year ago, the firm disclosed in a proxy. Goldman paid Ruemmler $7.9 million in cash last year, including $1.5 million in base salary and a $6.4 million bonus, the proxy showed. Goldman gave her a stock bonus …

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• 21 March

  Unicredit exit from Russia Alfa Bank in limbo amid sanctions

  

    Bloomberg UniCredit SpA is facing a delay in the long-planned sale of a stake in the owner of a Russian bank, in a sign of the complications in store for Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel as he considers a wholesale retreat from the country. UniCredit in November exercised an option to sell its 10% in ABH Holdings, the owner …

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• 21 March

  Bank of France sees uncertainty as growth slows

  

    Bloomberg France’s central bank said the war in Ukraine is already affecting the economy and creating high uncertainty that makes it tricky to forecast how much inflation will accelerate or the extent to which the recovery from the Covid pandemic will slow. Instead of publishing its regular economic projections, the Bank of France took the unprecedented step of presenting …

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• 21 March

  Slim’s bank to extend market-beating rally

    Bloomberg Mexico’s best performing stock this year, Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB, is set to go even higher as the bank prepares to spin off its private equity business and could even make a bid for Citigroup Inc’s local assets, according to a Barclays analyst. Gilberto Garcia raised his price target for Inbursa, which belongs to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, …

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• 21 March

  Slow out of the driveway, fast on the road

  

  Bloomberg It took people 15 minutes to get out of the driveway with the 2022 McLaren 765LT Spider. And that was after the ear-splitting chaos of setting off the car alarm opening one of its winged doors because we had left the key inside the garage. The driveway meets the road with a subtle divot that belies its precarious nature. …

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