March, 2019

• 17 March

  Zurich, Aena bid high to win Brazil airport auction

  Bloomberg Flughafen Zurich AG and Aena SME won concessions to operate airports in Brazil in an auction. The tender was seen as a test of investors’ appetite towards President Jair Bolsonaro’s market-friendly agenda that includes a massive privatisation plan. Bids for the three regional blocks came in well above the initial ask, and the government will collect fees of some …

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• 17 March

  Carrefour lures West Africans from markets to malls

  

  Bloomberg Battered minibus taxis snake the perimeter of Ivory Coast’s latest shopping hotspot, a brand new mall in a sprawling Abidjan suburb that shows how grocers like France’s Carrefour SA are turning their attention to lower-income African customers. The parking lot reserved for car owners lies empty, contrasting with the throng of shoppers inside the crowded $30 million Cosmos Mall, …

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• 17 March

  Amazon to close 87 US pop-up electronics stores

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. is ending its experiment with electronics-focussed pop-up stores, shuttering 87 kiosks located inside shopping malls, Whole Foods Market locations and Kohl’s stores around the US. “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program,” an Amazon spokeswoman said. The closings are expected to be completed by the end of April, the Wall …

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• 16 March

  UAE start-ups account for 88% regional deal value

  

  DUBAI / Emirates Business UAE start-ups secured $31.36 million in investments which account for 88 percent of the whole deal value of the region. Local services, e-commerce & financial services are the top three industries accounting for 44 percent of the entire deal count. In addition, logistics (9.3 percent), software (7.1 percent), media (4.6 percent), education (4.6 percent) and transportation …

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• 16 March

  Oil nears 4-month high on Opec commitment to cuts

  

  Bloomberg Oil gained for a second straight week as Opec assured traders it’s committed to culling supplies ahead of a key meeting with allies in Azerbaijan this weekend. Futures advanced 4.4 percent in New York and settled just pennies off a four-month high. Opec self discipline and a surprise reduction in US crude inventories signalled tightening supplies, but concern that …

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• 16 March

  Boeing 737 Max disasters clue came from space

  

  Bloomberg The first concrete evidence of a possible link between two deadly Boeing 737 Max crashes came from space. A new satellite network capable of tracking planes in high fidelity across the globe captured the flight path of the Boeing Co. 737 Max that crashed March 10. The data was critical in persuading the US to join the rest of …

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• 16 March

  Mechanics to buy Rabobank’s US retail unit for $2.1 billion

  

  Bloomberg Mechanics Bank agreed to buy much of Dutch lender Rabobank Group’s US operations for about $2.1 billion, bringing together two California lenders and extending the combined company’s reach throughout much of the state. Mechanics, based in Walnut Creek, California, is gaining Rabobank’s US retail, business-banking, commercial real estate, mortgage and wealth- management businesses, the companies said in a statement. …

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• 16 March

  Deutsche Bank rejects pressure to sweeten retention bonuses

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is rebuffing pressure from top performers to restructure retention bonuses after the awards tumbled in value last year and opened the way for more defections, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank told key staff in recent weeks it won’t make any changes to the program, which began in 2017, the people said, asking …

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• 16 March

  Swedbank laundering case grows as $10bn found in review

  

  Bloomberg Sweden’s oldest bank may have handled considerably more in suspicious transactions tied to an Estonian money laundering scandal than first reported. Swedbank AB, which dominates financial markets in the Baltic region, allegedly let about 95 billion kronor ($10.2 billion) in questionable flows move through its accounts between 2007 and 2015, according to Sweden’s main television broadcaster, SVT, which cited …

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• 16 March

  Draghi’s salvo may avert policy u-turn

  

  Bloomberg Mario Draghi’s latest stimulus salvo means his successor as European Central Bank chief may not be forced into the kind of monetary policy U-turn he once faced. The president, who began his eight-year term reversing course on a recent interest-rate increase by his predecessor, has set in place the conditions to keep the euro zone in easing mode until …

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