October, 2020

• 14 October

  Instacart valuation jumps to $17.7b

  Bloomberg Investors pushed the value of Instacart Inc to $17.7 billion in a new private funding round, more than doubling the valuation of the grocery-delivery startup since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Valiant Peregrine Fund and Daniel Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners, two existing investors in Instacart, led the round, the grocery startup said. Instacart plans to use the $200 …

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• 14 October

  London’s mega-mansion buyers find bargains hard to come by

  

  Bloomberg Wealthy buyers of mansions and penthouse apartments in London are finding that the pandemic isn’t throwing bargains their way. Luxury homes that changed hands for more than $13 million in the second quarter sold at an average 95% of their asking prices, according to latest data from broker Knight Frank. That was the smallest discount since the end of …

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• 14 October

  Stocks, futures surge before earnings; pound pares drop

  

  Bloomberg European stocks rise with US futures as investors prepared for some of the biggest banks to report earnings including Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. The pound pared declines after the UK signalled it will continue efforts to reach an agreement with the European Union on their future relationship beyond Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s October 15 …

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• 14 October

  China’s stock market tops $10 trillion for first time since 2015

  

  Bloomberg Chinese domestic equities are worth more than $10 trillion for the first time since 2015, when a record crash erased half the market’s value in months and saddled millions of investors with losses. The world’s second-largest stock market added $3.3 trillion since a low in March, helped by Beijing’s policies to encourage trading, a flurry of new listings that …

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• 14 October

  Mubadala invests $234m in drug discovery firm Evotec

  

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Mubadala Investment Company on Tuesday announced that it is pumping 200 million euros into Evotec SE, a German pharmaceutical company that specialises in drug discovery solutions. Evotec SE said that it resolved a capital increase from its authorised capital without pre-emptive rights against cash. Evotec will issue a total of 11,478,298 new shares to Mubadala Investment …

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• 14 October

  World economy faces uneven recovery: IMF

  

  Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the world economy still faces an uneven recovery until the coronavirus is tamed even as it offered a less-dire view of this year’s recession following massive stimulus from central banks and governments. The fund now forecasts world gross domestic product (GDP) to shrink 4.4% this year, compared with the 5.2% drop seen …

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• 14 October

  Union Properties posts AED509m profit in Q3 2020

  Dubai / WAM Union Properties announced on Tuesday its financial results for the three-month period ended on September 30, with a net profit of AED509.2 million (approximately 12 fils per share), while the profit for the nine-month period of the current year reached to AED348.8 million (approximately 8 fils per share). With these realised profits, the group has cleared all …

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• 14 October

  Global oil demand to recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2023: IEA

  

  Bloomberg The oil market will suffer a long-lasting blow from the coronavirus, with demand taking years to recover and peaking at a lower level, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. After an unprecedented 8% drop this year, global oil consumption will return to pre-crisis levels in 2023, provided Covid-19 is brought under control next year, the Paris-based agency said on …

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• 13 October

  Scotland’s SSE to sell energy waste plant stakes for $1.3b

  

  Bloomberg SSE Plc rose after it agreed to sell its 50% stakes in two energy from waste ventures as part of its plan to focus on renewable generation. The Scottish utility will sell its holdings in Multifuel Energy Ltd and Multifuel Energy 2 Ltd to the European Diversified Infrastructure Fund III, a fund managed by First Sentier Investors, for a …

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• 13 October

  Amazon’s Prime Day steals rivals’ Black Friday spotlight

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com’s two-day Prime Day sale kicked off on Tuesday, which is expected to give the world’s largest e-commerce company an early advantage over brick-and-mortar rivals still contending with pandemic-spooked consumers wary of battling Black Friday crowds. With Prime Day delayed to October from July this year, Amazon single-handedly could yank the pivotal holiday season forward — a long-predicted “Christmas …

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