February, 2017

• 1 February

  Etihad, Lufthansa deepen relations with catering, maintenance pacts

  

    Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Aviation Group and Lufthansa German Airlines, part of Europe’s largest aviation group, on Wednesday unveiled details of a new commercial partnership. The two airline groups have concluded a US$100 million global catering agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate in aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul. Addressing a press conference today in ...

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• 1 February

  H&M bucks apparel retailers’ gloom as profit beats estimates

    Bloomberg Hennes & Mauritz AB provided some much-needed good news for Europe’s struggling clothing retail market, reporting profit that topped estimates and setting a new annual growth target. After missing estimates for five of the previous six quarters, H&M said fourth-quarter pretax earnings rose to 7.41 billion kronor ($839 million), exceeding the 7.04 billion-kronor average estimate. A previous target ...

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• 1 February

  Wal-Mart scraps its Amazon Prime rival

    Bloomberg Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is scrapping its ShippingPass program, which struggled to compete with Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime, opting instead for a two-day shipping model that doesn’t have annual membership fees. Subscribers of ShippingPass, which had offered two-day delivery for a $49 membership, will receive refunds as the service is eliminated, Wal-Mart said in a statement. The new approach — ...

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• 1 February

  US regulations for drone flights over people face delay

  

    Bloomberg A long-awaited framework for allowing drone flights over people — a key step in the growth of the industry — has been put on hold because of security concerns, prompting fears that the standards will get caught up in the Trump administration’s anti-regulatory push. The dreams of companies such as Amazon.com Inc. to deliver packages via drone or ...

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• 1 February

  Obamacare’s uncertainty puts USA health insurers in limbo

  

    Bloomberg Obamacare looks like it’s going away. Until that happens, big health insurers aren’t sure what to do with it. Republicans and President Donald Trump haven’t given details on how they’ll repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Uncertainty about the law, which covers millions of Americans, has left companies trying to figure out if they’re better off stuck ...

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• 1 February

  Copper tops $6000 as Chile mine strike vote escalates risks

  

    Bloomberg Workers at BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Escondida copper mine in Chile have voted against the company’s latest wage offer, opening the door for a strike and potentially heralding a wave of stoppages at global suppliers after a rally. Prices rose above $6,000 a metric ton in London. Some 99 percent of members voted in favor of a strike, which ...

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• 1 February

  VW to pay $1.2 billion or more to US owners of big diesels

  

    Bloomberg Volkswagen has agreed to pay at least $1.2 billion in buybacks and compensation to settle claims from US owners of cars with larger diesel engines that the company rigged to cheat on emissions tests. And the German automaker could pay even more — as much as $4 billion — if it can’t repair many of the cars in ...

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• 1 February

  Apple woos new iPhone fans as current owners await upgrade

  

    Bloomberg Apple Inc. attracted a swathe of new iPhone customers over the holiday period, auguring well for a more significant upgrade to its flagship product this year — and the services revenue that these devices are increasingly generating. Existing iPhone users upgraded to the latest iPhone 7 models at about the same rate as the iPhone 6S a year ...

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• 1 February

  Nintendo hits five-month low ahead of switch debut

  

    Bloomberg Nintendo Co. shares slipped to a five-month low after a cut in the company’s operating profit forecast indicated sales of its upcoming Switch console may not make up for weak demand for mobile games and the 3DS gaming device. The stock declined 2.1 percent to close at 22,625 yen, the lowest since Aug. 30. The Kyoto-based company cut ...

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• 1 February

  Austrian hotel ditches key cards to fight hackers

  

    PARIS / AP An Austrian luxury hotel is ditching electronic room cards for old-fashioned locks and keys after having its systems frozen by blackmail-hungry hackers. The management of Romantik Seehotel Jaegerwirt, in the Austrian Alps, said that they’ve been repeatedly targeted by cybercriminals. One recent infection with ransom software on December 6 resulted in a complete shutdown of hotel ...

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