June, 2020

• 9 June

  Al Hilal Bank sells Al Hilal Takaful to Siraj Holdings

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM Al Hilal Bank — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) — has completed the sale of Al Hilal Takaful, its Islamic insurance subsidiary, to Siraj Holding LLC. In a statement by the bank on Tuesday, the divestment was driven by Al Hilal Bank’s strategic decision to focus on delivering high-quality retail banking services, ...

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• 9 June

  Emirates adds Kabul to list of passenger destinations

  

  Dubai / WAM Emirates airline has received approvals to carry passengers on flights to Kabul in Afghanistan, starting from June 25, taking to 30 the total number of destinations currently offered to travellers. In addition to Kabul, flights to the following cities can be booked on emirates website or via travel agents: Bahrain, London Heathrow, Manchester, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, ...

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• 9 June

  How fast will economy recover from Covid-19?

  

  Just how fast will the US economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic? The honest answer is that no one knows, but we are now beginning to get some plausible guesses. As you might suspect, the news isn’t good. The latest forecast comes from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and suggests that it may take a decade for the economy to ...

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• 9 June

  Gojek is ready to sprout wings

  

  Gojek and Grab Holdings Inc have been battling it out for years in the brutal business of ride hailing and food delivery. They’ve burned billions of dollars in venture-capital money (thanks, SoftBank!), and created hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout Southeast Asia in the process. Yet talk to executives at either company and they’ll tell you that the real future ...

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• 9 June

  Jobs report complicates the picture for the Fed

  This week has started where last week left off for financial markets and policy makers — that is, trying to assess how much of the surprisingly good US jobs report is real and how much of it could end up being a head fake. Although markets are not waiting for the answer, and understandably so given the deep win-win conditioning ...

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• 9 June

  Will US troop cuts in Germany be a mistake?

  It’s always interesting to see who’s celebrating. In German politics, that’s currently the Left Party, a descendant of East Germany’s former dictatorship that likes to brew anti-Americanism and Russophilia into a toxic populist mix. The party’s bosses are delighted about a rumour, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, that the US may pull out some 9,500 of the 34,500 ...

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• 9 June

  Cathay plans to raise $5 billion from Hong Kong government

  

  Bloomberg Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd became the latest global carrier to seek a lifeline in the aftermath of Covid-19 travel restrictions, outlining a plan to raise HK$39 billion ($5 billion) from the Hong Kong government and shareholders after months of warnings about the frailty of its business. The rights issue proposal, reported by Bloomberg News, is on the basis of ...

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• 9 June

  France earmarks $17b for aerospace industry

  

  Bloomberg The French government unveiled a rescue plan for the struggling aerospace industry that includes billions of euros to support Airbus SE and its suppliers hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The measures, worth 15 billion euros ($17 billion), include export guarantees and credit relief for some new aircraft orders, as well as an extension of part-time work subsidies to ...

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• 9 June

  Lufthansa’s Austrian arm gets $508mn government bailout

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s historic state bailout increased by 450 million euros ($508 million) after Austria agreed to provide support to the German carrier’s division in the country. Austrian Airlines will get 150 million euros in direct aid plus 300 million euros in loans underwritten by the government, helping to sustain the unit as carriers begin to restore flights amid ...

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• 9 June

  Zara owner built post-Covid retailer before virus came along

  

  Bloomberg A few weeks after Spain declared a nationwide lockdown in mid-March to fight the growing coronavirus outbreak, clothing retailer Inditex SA began running low on goods. The world’s largest fashion retailer typically operates a lean warehouse operation, preferring instead to hold the majority of its stock in stores that double as e-commerce fulfillment centres. That way, turnaround is faster, ...

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