December, 2020

• 15 December

  Investcorp acquires Danish clinical trial company Sanos

  

  BAHRAIN / WAM Bahrain’s Investcorp on Monday announced that it has acquired Sanos Group, a leading provider of specialised clinical trial services to the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Based in Denmark, Sanos is a global Contract Research Organisation (CRO) providing value-added services to pharma, biotech and research organisations to help plan and conduct clinical trials, a critical part in …

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• 15 December

  Shell, Eni settle Kazakh dispute in $1.3b deal

  

  Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Eni SpA and their partners in the Karachaganak oil and gas venture paid $1.3 billion to settle a long-running dispute with Kazakhstan over revenue sharing. The deal unlocks plans to boost output from the Karachaganak field and funnels additional revenue to the Kazakh economy, which is heading for its first annual contraction in more than …

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• 15 December

  Total in talks for 500 job cuts in France:CEO

  Bloomberg Total SE is discussing a plan for 500 voluntary job cuts in France, where the oil company has 35,000 employees, CEO Patrick Pouyanne said. Pouyanne said talks are ongoing. “We’ll see, there’s a negotiation. It could be 300, it could be 700,” he said. He denied that Total has decided on reducing 700 positions, a number given by the …

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• 15 December

  Nordic countries set pace in electric planes after EV push

  

  Bloomberg The Nordic region’s pace-setting push into green transport is set to extend from cars to the air-travel market. Iceland this month signalled plans to move towards carbon-free domestic flights by the end of the decade, while Sweden’s Heart Aerospace aims to deliver an electric plane specifically designed to ply routes linking remote Scandinavian settlements within six years. Coordinating the …

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• 15 December

  British Airways to work with Hydrogen flight firm

  

  Bloomberg British Airways will work with hydrogen plane startup ZeroAvia to speed the switch to hydrogen power for commercial aircraft. The partnership was announced, as the head of parent IAG SA prepared to outline the group’s plan to reach net-zero emissions at a United Nations climate summit. The legacy airline will work with the startup, which has already demonstrated a …

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• 15 December

  Nestle sees sales growing at similar rate as 2019: CEO

  Bloomberg Nestle’s organic sales should grow this year on average at roughly the same pace as last year, according to Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider. The world’s largest food maker generates some 90% of its revenue from in-home consumption, which has benefited from lockdown and social-distancing measures, Schneider said on Swiss television program Bilanz Standpunkte on SRF 1. On the …

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• 15 December

  China fines Alibaba, Tencent unit on anti-monopoly laws

  

  Bloomberg China’s antitrust watchdog fined Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and a Tencent Holdings Ltd unit over a pair of years-old acquisitions and said it’s reviewing an impending Tencent-led merger, signalling Beijing’s intention to tighten oversight of internet sector deals. The State Administration for Market Regulation said it’s reviewing the combination of DouYu International Holdings Ltd with Huya Inc, which could …

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• 14 December

  Lululemon, no longer just for slim, captures new customers

  

  Bloomberg Lululemon Athletica Inc — whose founder once body-shamed women on live television — is finding that offering larger sizes can pay off. Sales of women’s garments rose 22% last quarter, reaching pre-pandemic growth levels, the company said on a call with investors after reporting third-quarter results that beat estimates. Executives didn’t specifically attribute the surge to the more inclusive …

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• 14 December

  Rolls-Royce on hunt for Davis’ successor

  Bloomberg The board of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has begun the process of identifying a successor to Chairman Ian Davis, Sky News reported. The search is at a very early stage and an appointment is unlikely to be announced until well into next year, it said, without revealing where it got the information. Davis joined the British jet-engine maker in 2013. …

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• 14 December

  ‘UK property boom will last another year’

  Bloomberg The surge in UK property prices will persist into next year as housing needs outweigh economic uncertainty, according to Rightmove. It predicts asking prices will climb 4% in 2021 as this year’s unprecedented demand spills into the coming months. Currently there is a logjam of 650,000 properties in the market, with prices up 6.6% compared to this time last …

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