February, 2021

• 17 February

  Gucci sales slide as pandemic ends its years of expansion

  

  Bloomberg Gucci sales fell for a fourth quarter, ending years of expansion as the luxury brand and growth motor of Kering struggled amid renewed lockdowns in Europe. Revenue at the Italian luxury brand dropped 10% on a comparable basis to 2.28 billion euros ($2.76 billion) in the three months through December, Kering said on Wednesday. Analysts had expected a 7.2% ...

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• 17 February

  EBay’s $9.2b unit sale hits UK hurdle

  Bloomberg EBay Inc’s sale of its online classifieds business to Adevinta ASA has hit a hurdle, as UK regulators voice concerns over the potential threat to competition that the tie-up poses. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) told the companies to propose remedies that address antitrust concerns for the deal, which was valued at $9.2 billion when it was ...

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• 17 February

  Biden says US has opportunity for ‘change’ in race disparities

  

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden said the racial strife that’s gripped the US since George Floyd’s death is an opportunity to make significant strides toward addressing inequity, likening the era to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “We have a chance now, a chance now, to make significant change in racial disparities,” Biden said at a CNN town hall event ...

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• 17 February

  Myanmar’s Suu Kyi appears before court

  

  Bloomberg The first court hearing of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi since the February 1 coup began earlier than scheduled and without her lawyer present, further signalling the military’s intention to end her political career. Speaking by phone on Wednesday, her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said that Suu Kyi appeared in front of the court via video link ...

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• 17 February

  Taiwan says China may have blocked vaccine purchase

  

  Bloomberg Taiwan’s attempts to purchase five million doses of BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine fell apart at the last minute, Taiwan’s health minister said on Wednesday, voicing concern that political pressure from Beijing may have scuppered the deal. Taiwan’s government was making final preparations to sign a deal with Germany-based BioNTech in January but then “things changed,” minister Chen Shih-chung said ...

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• 17 February

  Gunmen abduct students, staff from Nigerian school

  Bloomberg Gunmen kidnapped students and staff from a school in Nigeria, the second attack of its kind in recent months, a presidential spokesman said. The criminals abducted a “yet to be ascertained” number of people from a boys’ school in Kagara in Nigeria’s central Niger state, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, said in an emailed statement. Hundreds of students ...

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• 17 February

  Kim’s wife reappears after one-year absence

  

  Bloomberg The wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made her first public appearance in a year, ending an unusual absence that stoked speculation about her condition. Ri Sol Ju joined her husband at a musical performance for the anniversary of the birth of former leader Kim Jong Il, which is known as the Day of the Shining Star ...

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• 17 February

  WTO chief calls on nations to end Covid export curbs

  

  Bloomberg World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged the European Union and all other WTO members to end export restrictions on vaccines and other medical goods needed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. “This is the only way we can get a freer flow of goods and get them to countries that don’t have access,” Okonjo-Iweala told Bloomberg in a ...

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• 17 February

  BofA clients with $614b hike risk-taking to new records

  

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) clients with $614 billion combined are in the throes of an unprecedented frenzy of risk-taking, as more Wall Street banks sound the alarm on greed across markets. After a week which recorded the strongest-ever inflow into stocks, a record net 25% of investors surveyed by the investment bank this month are taking higher-than-normal risks. ...

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• 17 February

  Billionaire Hindujas pay 61% premium to boost IndusInd stake

  

  Bloomberg The billionaire Hinduja family paid a premium to boost its stake in IndusInd Bank Ltd., a sign of confidence in the Indian private-sector lender as concerns over its asset quality ease. IndusInd International Holdings Ltd., which represents the bank’s founding Hinduja clan, completed a rights issue to fund the conversion of warrants to shares in the Mumbai-based bank, it ...

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