October, 2021

• 11 October

  Billionaire Ambani’s Reliance buys REC Solar for $771m

  

  Bloomberg A unit of Reliance Industries Ltd acquired solar panel manufacturer REC Solar Holdings AS in a deal giving the company an enterprise value of $771 million as the Indian oil-to-retail conglomerate seeks to extend its dominance into alternative energy. The purchase of Norway-based REC Solar from China National Bluestar Group Co will help Reliance New Energy Solar expand in ...

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• 11 October

  Will supply-chain snarls force capital spending?

  

  One way to gauge just how transitory the current supply-chain challenges are is to look at the degree to which companies are spending to add more capacity. The third-quarter industrial earnings season kicks off next week with factory-floor distributor Fastenal Co. The theme will undoubtedly be logistical logjams and parts shortages, which have become materially worse since the last time ...

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• 11 October

  Facebook is in trustbusters’ crosshairs

  

  I have met Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg only once and it did not go well. It was at a dinner in July 2017, in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, and controversy was raging about Facebook’s political role. I had the temerity to warn him that he increasingly resembled a cross between John D Rockefeller and William ...

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• 11 October

  And climate change is shocking food chain

  Stuart Woolf, a large almond and tomato producer, recently bulldozed 400 acres of almond orchards in central California — about 50,000 trees that under normal conditions would have produced $2.5 million of nuts every year for another decade. It’s a fraction of the 25,000 acres his family farms, but razing the land was a necessary triage — “Like cutting off ...

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• 11 October

  A Nobel Prize for one Russian compromise

  There’s plenty of symbolism to Russian editor Dmitry Muratov’s (shared) Nobel Peace Prize. The media outlet he edits, Novaya Gazeta, started, in a way, with another Nobel — Mikhail Gorbachev’s: He spent part of his 1990 Peace Prize to buy computers for the Novaya start-up in 1993. The award also comes almost exactly 15 years after Novaya journalist Anna Politkovskaya ...

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• 11 October

  Auchan’s $19b Carrefour discussion stalls on terms

  

  Bloomberg French grocer Auchan made a recent approach to acquire rival Carrefour SA for about $19 billion but talks to create the country’s market leader stalled over the terms, according to people familiar with the matter. Auchan had approached Carrefour about a combination that would have seen Auchan, which is owned by the Mulliez family, hold a majority stake in ...

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• 11 October

  Walmart’s employees opt for Covid vaccine mandate

  

  Bloomberg Walmart Inc said “the overwhelming majority” of employees required to get Covid-19 vaccines have received the shots. A “very small percentage” of the US headquarters and regional staff covered by the company mandate are partially inoculated or haven’t gotten the shots, Walmart said in an email without providing specific numbers. Employees who aren’t fully vaccinated can complete the process ...

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• 11 October

  Southwest Airlines’ pilots seek to block Covid vaccination mandate

  

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co pilots asked a court to temporarily block the company from carrying out federally mandated coronavirus vaccinations until an existing lawsuit over alleged US labour law violations is resolved. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association’s (SWAPA) filing also asked for an immediate hearing on the request before a federal court in Dallas, claiming the carrier has continued to ...

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• 11 October

  Hong Kong airport worker first local Covid case in 2 months

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong said its coronavirus policy will become increasingly tethered to China’s, as the financial hub recorded its first local Covid-19 case since mid-August, raising the specter of an outbreak in one of the world’s densest cities. An airport worker has been infected, officials said at a briefing. His close contacts and some 400 people in his residential neighbourhood ...

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• 11 October

  Number of Manhattan’s empty storefronts surge

  Bloomberg The number of empty storefronts is surging in midtown Manhattan, where an absence of tourists and office workers has hammered the retail industry during the pandemic. Nearly 30% of 311 storefronts were vacant in the retail corridors near Grand Central and Midtown East as of the end of September, roughly double the historical rate, according to a report from ...

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