January, 2021

• 12 January

  Empower records 560,000 electronic deals in 2020

  

  DUBAI / WAM Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, announced that, during 2020, the number of electronic transactions performed by its customers surged noticeably to reach approximately 560,000, with an increase of more than 12 percent compared to the year 2019. This reflects the company’s apparent contributions to the ‘Dubai Paperless Strategy’ that ...

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• 12 January

  Ship orders slump 50% with owners unsure over green fuel

  

  Bloomberg Ship owners facing looming deadlines to use less-polluting fuels have slashed the number of new vessels on order because they don’t know which alternative technology to switch to. Ammonia, hydrogen, biofuels and electrification are some of the many contenders to power the world’s future merchant fleet, but most are only in the trial stage and won’t be scalable for ...

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• 12 January

  Half of South Africa’s oil refining to shut until 2022

  

  Bloomberg South African plants owned by Glencore Plc and Petroliam Nasional Bhd that make up 43% of the nation’s oil-refining capacity are expected to stay shut until at least 2022, according to energy consultant Citac. Astron Energy Ltd, a unit of Glencore, has yet to restart the 100,000 barrel-a-day Cape Town refinery after a deadly explosion and fire in July. ...

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• 12 January

  Is Indonesia’s air safety on a ‘runway to recovery’

  

  In 2020, civil aviation accidents — thanks largely to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic — dropped to zero for the first time. There’s a grim inevitability that the first crash to break that record should happen in Indonesia. The loss of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 shortly after takeoff from Jakarta is just the latest in a miserable toll of ...

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• 12 January

  Can Twitter survive banning Trump?

  

  Twitter Inc has done something that was once thought unimaginable. It shut down one of its biggest attractions — Donald Trump’s account — and in doing so also canceled a sitting US president. The ban and public-safety rationale behind it are part of a wave of crackdowns on the public digital spaces where the president’s most radicalised supporters congregate, and ...

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• 12 January

  UK’s Boris Johnson is embarrassed by Trump

  Some whirlwind romances you regret for many years. Isolated from its former European partners during Brexit, the UK looked for succor from the US. Two Conservative prime ministers in succession — Theresa May and Boris Johnson — tried to woo the White House in search of a revived Atlanticism and a fat trade deal. Did Johnson go too far in ...

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• 12 January

  Rising Treasury yields flash a warning sign

  US government bond yields have registered some notable moves in the first few days of 2021. Should they continue on their current pace, they risk causing headaches for both policy makers and stock investors because of their underlying drivers. In less than two weeks, the Treasury yield curve has experienced a significant increase in yields in longer-dated bonds, or what ...

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• 12 January

  Indonesia pilot had decades of flying experience before crash

  

  Bloomberg The retrieval of the black boxes from the wreckage of Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 will shed light on why the Boeing Co 737-500 jet, a 27-year workhorse of the skies, plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after take off. Until that time, there are questions over what caused the tragedy. Human error, bad weather and equipment malfunction ...

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• 12 January

  Singapore Air mulls debut dollar bonds

  

  Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd is considering its first-ever offering of dollar bonds, as it tries to bolster cash amid the pandemic. The city-state’s flag carrier is holding a series of fixed-income investor calls in Asia and Europe from Monday for the potential debt sale, according to a person familiar with the matter. The pandemic has devastated the global travel industry, ...

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• 12 January

  Signature reaches $4.6b GIP deal, keeps its options open

  

  Bloomberg The pursuit of Signature Aviation Plc turned into a three-way contest, with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) rejoining the battle for the world’s largest operator of private-jet bases after an earlier bid was rejected. Signature Aviation agreed on Monday to a $4.63 billion buyout by GIP, while leaving the door open for higher offers. Investors will receive $5.50 per share ...

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