December, 2021

• 5 December

  Kazakh airline Air Astana considers IPO next year

  

  Bloomberg State-owned Kazakh airline Air Astana is considering an initial public offering, according to four people familiar with the talks, who asked not to be identified as the information is not public. The company has approached banks, although talks are still at an early stage for a share sale, the people said. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that’s hit air travel ...

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• 5 December

  Cathay Pacific Air plans to hire hundreds of pilots as morale falls

  

  Bloomberg Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd plans to hire hundreds of pilots next year, amid reports of a rising number of resignations as Hong Kong’s Covid policies severely constrain manpower and weigh on morale at the airline. “We plan to employ several hundred pilots in the coming year, many of whom have already expressed an interest in being part of the ...

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• 5 December

  Avianca exiting bankruptcy with low-cost flexibility, says CEO

  

  Bloomberg Avianca Group International Ltd is emerging from bankruptcy with plans to compete with low-cost carriers on price while keeping parts of the business that made it Latin America’s second-largest airline before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Chief Executive Officer Adrian Neuhauser said the company was able to slash debt and build up liquidity during an 18-month Chapter 11 reorganisation that ...

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• 5 December

  US accuses Whole Foods of banning ‘Black Lives’ masks

  Bloomberg Amazon.com’s Whole Foods Market illegally banned employees from wearing “Black Lives Matter” masks and punished workers who did, US labour board prosecutors alleged. The grocery store chain maintained appearance rules at US locations to prohibit staff from displaying Black Lives Matter messages on their apparel, the National Labor Relations Board’s San Francisco regional director said. The filing also accuses ...

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• 4 December

  Hermes all set to join Euro Stoxx 50

  Bloomberg Hermes International is set to join one of Europe’s main equity benchmarks, an inclusion that will further bolster the French luxury company’s visibility among investors. Hermes, the maker of Kelly and Birkin handbags will replace Universal Music Group NV in the Euro Stoxx 50, index operator Qontigo said in a statement. The change will be effective as of December ...

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• 4 December

  Biden predicts ‘long discussion’ with Putin over Ukraine border

  

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden said he anticipated a “long discussion” with Vladimir Putin over the threat of an invasion of Ukraine, and dismissed the Russian leader’s warning that deployment of Western weapons or troops represented a “red line.” “We’ve been aware of Russia’s actions for a long time and my expectation is we’re going to have a long discussion with ...

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• 4 December

  Senior China official says Biden democracy summit will be ‘joke’

  

  Bloomberg US President Joe Biden’s planned democracy summit next week will be a “joke” and the American political system doesn’t represent a real democracy, senior Chinese officials said. “Under the American democratic system, US politicians are the agents of interest groups, and don’t represent interests of majority voters nor national interest,” Tian Peiyan, deputy director of the Policy Research Office ...

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• 4 December

  Scholz rallies party behind measures to fight Covid

  

  Bloomberg Olaf Scholz called on his party to make the fight against the coronavirus the new German government’s foremost task as his party approved the coalition agreement that moves him a step closer to replacing Angela Merkel as chancellor. “It is clear that our first and most important task is to protect the health of the citizens and to fight ...

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• 4 December

  Venezuelan vote marred by government intrusion

  Bloomberg Venezuela’s recent elections were marked by unfairness and political repression, but in a positive change from recent years, they did allow greater participation for the opposition, Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center wrote in a report. While the opposition got more votes, the ruling party won most of the available positions amid low turnout and voter apathy following years of economic ...

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• 4 December

  Westpac to pay $80.6mn for charging dead people

  

  Bloomberg Westpac Banking Corp agreed to pay A$113 million ($80.6 million) in penalties after the Australian regulator alleged the lender had widespread compliance failures that included charging dead people. The case includes a claim that Westpac charged more than A$10 million ($7.01 million) in fees for financial advice to over 11,000 deceased customers over a 10-year period, according to a ...

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